All kangaroo trials at Guantanamo have now been halted, per President Obama's executive order.
[ The Guardian (London, UK) ]
A ship reportedly carrying 60 tons of "medical supplies, food, books and toys" to Gaza has been intercepted, boarded, and diverted to Israel. According to a reporter who was aboard, the crew was beaten and interrogated. Ten people who were abord the ship have been released -- without their ship, and without the other eight crewpeople and passengers.
[ al-Jazeera ]
Iran is providing millions of dollars in aid to Bolivia. Considered alongside the genuine leftism of Bolivian President Evo Morales, this is seen as an affront by those who want America to continue its "Monroe Doctrine" of effectively controlling South America. Among the worried is US Secretary of Defense
“When an individual is protesting society's refusal to acknowledge his dignity as a human being, his very act of protest confers dignity on him.”
Bayard Rustin
Robert Gates, who says, "I'm concerned about the level of, frankly, subversive activity that the Iranians are carrying on in a number of places in Latin America, particularly South America and Central America. They're opening a lot of offices and a lot of fronts, behind which they interfere in what is going on in some of these countries." Opening offices? The horror. Operating behind fronts? How very CIA. Again I fail to see anything worrisome here, and it's hard to take Gates seriously when his very job title is a lie -- he's the Secretary of War, not the Secretary of Defense. But if there's some sane reason (or even if there isn't) for America to be deeply concerned about Iran's millions in aid for Bolivia, why not match it or top it?
[ McClatchy Newspapers ]
Iran says it put a satellite into orbit on Tuesday, and the powers that be are wringing their hands with worry. I'd just say: Congratulations to Iran. Well done. Iran is definitely George Bush's enemy and Dick Cheney's enemy, and probably Barack Obama's enemy, but Iran is not my enemy, and not your enemy either.
[ Informed Consent ]
As President Obama prepares to increase the American military presence in occupied Afghanistan, the resistance blows up a bridge that was key to the already choking supply routes for US military forces there. Meanwhile, the nation of Kyrgyzstan, a key staging area for troops coming to and going from Afghanistan, has announced that it wants the US to close its military base there. Obama better get to work on policy matters concerning foreign affairs instead of trying to woo Republicans. --Wig
[ McClatchy Newspapers ]
President Obama seems to seriously want a nuclear arms reduction agreement with the Russians. If he's as serious as he seems, it's a win-win situation, because just derailing some of the Bush-Cheney administration's nuclear build-up could save billions and billions. And I think the Russians love their billions too.
[ London Times ]
The Obama White House has an Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, and so far it's continuing Bush-era policies allowing religious-based charities to receive federal funds, even if they bar employment on the basis of religious affiliation. I agree with Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State: "I would rather there be no 'faith-based' office,' but if it exists, it must comply with long-established protections guaranteeing civil rights and civil liberties."
[ McClatchy Newspapers ]
Republicans are adamantly opposed to all the pork and padding in the stimulus bill, and I'm sure there's plenty of waste in the small print, but it's easy to debunk the things the Republicans are complaining loudest about.
[ OSI Gazette ]
The House of Representatives is considering a bill that would help the many thousands of people on the Kafkaesque "terror watch list" for no good reason finally get off the list.
[ Raw Story ]
Democrats in the Senate say they don't have enough votes to pass Obama's stimulus bill, and that's a lie. Democrats don't have 60 votes, because there are 41 Republicans standing opposed, but it doesn't take 60 votes to pass a bill in the Senate and it never has. It takes 51, and the Democrats have that, easily. It's pretend politics, where Republicans whisper the word "filibuster' -- but never actually filibuster -- and Democrats pretend it's a filibuster. There's no adequate insult for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who's been encouraging this charade for several years now. With Reid in charge, 58 votes out of 99 isn't a majority.
[ Washington Post ]
Senator Judd Gregg (R-New Hampshire) has said he'll recuse himself from voting on Obama's stimulus bill while his nomination to be Secretary of Commerce is pending. The proper response to this is, what the f*ck? Seriously, what the f*ck is the point in nominating an arch-rightwing Republican for a cabinet position, with a Blagojevich-style deal to make sure another Republican replaces him in the Senate, when the guy getting the appointment is unwilling to even support Obama with one vote in the Senate before he goes? And Obama's people have already gone out of their way to make sure Gregg won't be able to subvert the 2010 census, which sure looks like a vote of no confidence to me. We've got some readers who are plenty smarter than I am, so can someone out there explain to me why this isn't the flat-out dumbest nomination Obama has made? And I would still like to know why this deal rigging an appointment to the Senate is legal, when we're told that it's criminal for Rod Blagojevich to even talk about making such a deal?
[ Huffington Post, distilled by Democratic Underground ]
And there's no hint that it extends up to Gregg himself, but Gregg's former aide, Kevin Koonce, apparently took bribes in exchange for favors.
[ Associated Press ]
On Attorney Geberal Eric Holder's first day on the job, he was greeted with a thunderous ovation similar to what Hillary Clinton got at the State Department last week. I'll withhold my applause until we see whether Holder gives a damn about the high crimes committed in his very office over the past eight years.
[ CBS News ]
The Obama-Holder Justice Department is off to a good start, though. They've re-hired Leslie Hagen, a former DoJ executive who was illegally fired during the Bush-Cheney administration because of rumors that she's a lesbian.
[ National Public Radio ]
Obama has appointed another lawyer who worked for RIAA to join the Department of Justice. I know this worries a lot of people, but I don't really understand why.
[ CNet News ]
Two senior judges in England have accused the Bush-Cheney White House of threatening the United Kingdom with retaliation -- withholding intelligence reports -- if the Brits publicly release details of how an English citizen was tortured at Guantanamo. So the information won't be released. But -- isn't the Bush administration gone? The prisoner, Binyam Mohamed, went on hunger strikes after mental and physical torture, and he's now described as "just skin and bones". And every day that this insane inhumanity goes on We as a whole are war criminals. --Wig
[ New York Times ]
Under the Obama administration, the Drug Enforcement Agency is apparently continuing its starkly inhuman policy of raiding medical marijuana clinics in California. Pot as medicine is legal under California law, and while running for President Obama stated that the use of marijuana as medicine is "appropriate". But these are President Obama's jackbooted thugs now -- call his office at (202) 456-1111 and tell him to stop this crap.
[ Los Angeles Times ]
In Houston, school officials are bragging that they're treating teachers the same as they'd treat students -- having them prosecuted for drugs and prescription meds found in random searches of vehicles in school parking lots.
[ Houston Chronicle ]
Banks that didn't take bailout bucks are using that in their ad campaigns. "Did your bank take a bailout? We didn't," says one ad. "Just say no to bailout banks. Bank responsibly." Here's hoping this is an effective ad campaign. If I had enough money to have a bank account, I'd put it in a bank that didn't take the bailout bucks. Well, on second thought I'd put it in a credit union, but still ...
[ McClatchy Newspapers ]
"If there is any bright spot in the latest job-cut data, it is the fact that financial firms announced only 1,458 job cuts in January. That is the lowest one-month total for that industry since 2005 ..." So far the TARP stimulus is helping the financial industry ride out the storm pretty well. --JR Mooneyham
[ Cable News Network ]
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has cancelled the Bush-Cheney sale of oil and gas rights in undeveloped areas of Utah. You probably remember Tim DeChristopher, the environmental activist who bid at the auction and won 13 leases, though he lacked any way to pay. It's still unclear whether DeChristopher will be prosecuted, but it a certainty that millions of people only heard about the Bureau of Land Management's auction because of what DeChristopher did.
[ Grand Junction Sentinel ]
Rupert Murdoch's News Corp has reported a $6.4-billion loss in the second quarter of its fiscal year. The economy is in the toilet and the toilet is overflowing onto the floor and a lot of good people work at News Corp and it's probably terrible to say this but I'll say it -- a lot of bastards work there too, and there's a little schadenfreude in seeing Murdoch lose money.
[ Variety ]
Jim Hightower says Washington shouldn't reward Wall Street's culture of excess. Instead, it should insist that those who wrecked the economy be fired. Sorry, Mr Hightower, but I'd consider your recommendation as way too easy on them; I want massive investigations, prosecutions, lengthy prison terms, and seizure of their ill-gotten fortunes-- and if necessary, changes to the law to make it possible to do all that. --JR Mooneyham
[ AlterNet ]
It's hard to comprehend it, but 19,000,000 American homes were vacant at the end of December. That's an all-time high. That's a lot.
[ Bloomberg News Service ]
A US Circuit Court judge has ruled the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional, and two judges have agreed that same-sex spouses of federal employees must get the same health benefits as married couples. In the article's last paragraph we're told that the ruling does not create precedent, but still, that's better than the opposite ruling would have been.
[ ABA Journal ]
The switch from old-fashioned TV you could watch with rabbit ears to newfangled digital TV has been delayed until June. Of course, you can watch digital TV with rabbit ears too, if you live close to a big city and if you don't mind reception that goes garbly every time the wind blows or raindrops fall. The delay is a response to the incompetent management of the coupon program that offers discounts for converter boxes, and since stations are allowed to do the switch earlier, a lot of stations will probably stay on schedule and switch on February 17. A bigger problem, rarely even mentioned in passing in
It made me stop and think
"How will we cope with our decline? Will we cling to the absurd dreams of a superpower and a glorious tomorrow or will we responsibly face our stark new limitations? Will we heed those who are sober and rational, those who speak of a new simplicity and humility, or will we follow the demagogues and charlatans who rise up out of the slime in moments of crisis to offer fantastic visions? Will we radically transform our system to one that protects the ordinary citizen and fosters the common good, that defies the corporate state, or will we employ the brutality and technology of our internal security and surveillance apparatus to crush all dissent? We won't have to wait long to find out."
[ Chris Hedges ]
"The Republican playbook is about standing in opposition, knowing full well that the Democratic Congress is going to pass a stimulus package. Their next step is to go home and sell to what's left of their constituencies the notion that if we had listened to them, things would be far rosier. As a minority, a control group is unlikely to emerge that can disprove false numbers based on false rhetoric. They can go back and campaign in two years whether or not Obama's plan creates anywhere close to the number he hopes and tell the world, and claim that their plan would have provided double the number."
[ Doug Kreeger ]
media accounts, is that the new technology is just plain crap unless you're paying for cable or satellite television. It's going to be a boon for those businesses, but if you're accustomed to watching TV for free with an antenna in your living room, it's likely you're going to be somewhere between frustrated and completely screwed.
[ Reuters News Agency ]
A federal appeals court that heard arguments in secret (is your mental alarm sounding?) has ruled that members of Congress have exquisite protections against law enforcement investigations of their alleged corruption. The ruling hasn't been released or explained, so it's hard to know what to make of this, beyond that it sucks. The immediate beneficiary of the ruling is former Congressman Tom Feeney (R-Florida), who spent his time in Congress in Jack Abramoff's pants.
[ Washington Post ]
The raids were supposed to target "dangerous" illegal immigrants, criminals and terrorists. But once the program was underway, Immigration and Customs Enforcement just went after ordinary, everyday immigrants.
[ New York Times ]
Despite the headline "Ethics panel to clear Rangel?" I'm optimistic that Congressman Charles Rangel (D-New York), one of the longest-lasting sleazemen in the House of Representatives, will face at least some consequences for his decades of false filings of disclosure forms.
[ The Sunlight Foundation ]
The Vatican is playing PR games to quell the bad publicity that came with the Pope's un-excommunication of a holocaust denier. What's the problem, your gracious Popehood? It's not like you're infallible. Just admit you made a mistake and re-excommunicate him.
[ At Largely ]
Former Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) has access to much better lawyers than your average American, and they keep finding ways to complain about the government's prosecution of Stevens. I'm not lawyer and I can't tell where the bluster and lies end and genuine prosecutorial misconduct begins, but the unavoidable suspicion is that the Bush-era Justice Department -- intentionally? -- gave Stevens a way to have his conviction tossed.
[ McClatchy Newspapers ]
A twenty-year-old kid asks Justice Antonin Scalia, Why are cameras prohibited in the Supreme Court. Scalia won't answer, but says "That's a nasty, impolite question." Further evidence, as if it's needed, that Scalia is bonkers and should be removed from the bench.
[ South Florida Sun-Sentinel ]
Associated Press wants graphic artist Shepard Fairey to pay, because his iconic Obama "hope" poster was based on an AP photo of the candidate. I can see both perspectives.
[ Associated Press ]
A mid-level Republican sends a racially offensive email and it's leaked to the media. This seems to happen every month or so, and I don't think anyone who's reasonably cognizant can be surprised that lots of Republicans are racists, and many, like the fake apologizing official here, seem completely clueless about their racism. I'm more amused by the response of Jim Greer, the Florida Republican Chair, who says he's "currently considering all options, including my authority to remove her from the office of state committeewoman." The facts of the matter aren't going to change, so the only thing he's weighing in his mind, obviously, is whether the public reaction will force him to do the right thing.
[ St. Petersburg Times ]
Rachel Maddow has quit her radio show at Air America, but the show is effectively going on without her. It's now nothing but an audio-only rerun of her previous day's TV show. This is an understandable change, and it's been increasingly obvious that Maddow has been giving her hour on the tube a lot more effort than her hour on the radio, so it isn't much of a loss. She's still the best thing on commercial radio even if she's not really there, and there's not much of a visual component to her TV show so it loses little on the radio.
[ New York Daily News ]
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has undergone cancer surgery, and remains hospitalized. She opposed the treasonous Bush v Gore decision in 2000, so we wish her a speedy recovery.
[ MSNBC News ]
Canada has deported Cliff Cornell, a US Army war resister who defied orders and fled north four years ago. I do wish Canada hadn't done that -- we need a nation we can look up to, and for me that's often been Canada. Cornell is supposed to report to Fort Stewart in Georgia to face charges, but to my surprise (if I'm understanding this article correctly) he's not being taken there by military police.
[ Bellingham (WA) Herald ]
A poll of likely voters reveals that Rush Limbaugh is startlingly unpopular. He is apparently despised by even more Americans than hate Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayers, or any political figures mentioned in the poll.
[ The Daily Beast ]
The Tampa Tribune included 56,500 paperback Bibles as an insert with last Saturday's newspaper. Are Bibles hard to come by in Florida? Are they unavailable in bookstores, hotels, churches? As a former Christian who still has fond feelings for the faith, I'm a little saddened with the certainty that at least 50,000 Bibles were dumped in the trash in Tampa last weekend.
[ St. Petersburg Times ]
Please send your news tips, comments, and criticisms to <unknownnews at inbox.com>. If that address ever fails, check our contact page for our alternate email addresses.
It is interesting that the "big bang" described below
does zero for the economic "lower class" -- the people who
do not own homes -- especially because the "stimulus" plan
also does almost nothing for them, relatively speaking ... in
fact, the Senate just voted to give a $15,000 tax credit to
home buyers. OTOH, Obama just signed an expansion of SCHIP
giving health insurance to 4 million poor children. For
those who are perennially excluded and ignored as Uncle Sam
awards megabucks, always sliced out of the pie, the
bitterness and anger will grow and grow, I believe ...
AND on top of that, did Obama accidentally pick at random
four people who are tax cheaters, or, is tax cheating
habitual among the political class? And if so, will
Americans decide to start turning in garbage 1040's
because they decide to just not pay into a corrupt
system anymore? 2nd following article discusses that.
Excerpt:
... Now it is 2009 and what appears to be looming, according to one authoritative press report this weekend, is a massive pre-emptive devaluation of the US dollar as Team Obama readies itself to announce the "Big Bang" -- a gigantic bailout of the frozen US economy involving trillions of dollars. So far, Washington has allocated US$750 billion for banking rescues and another US$825 billion for job creation projects. But that's nothing.
Here comes the wall of woe The venerable Financial Times of London described this "Big Bang". My guess is that it was part-speculation and part-trial ballooning by an embattled White House. Here's what the FT said the "Big Bang" could involve:
• New rules for banks and TARP (the bank bailout fund) which will impose new discipline and rules by disallowing bonuses, large compensation and other perquisites. In essence, the American government will be converting its busted banking and brokerage sectors from a money pit for greedy players into the regulated, moderate salaries handed out by publicly-owned utilities.
• A series of "Bad" banks will be created in virtually all countries, led by the US and Germany, to mop up and hold all the bad debts now held by financial institutions. These assets may never amount to much, but taking them off the bankers' books should eliminate their fears about meeting capital ratios as their debts devalue and their customers go under. This is designed to unfreeze credit again.
• Washington is going to bail out all homeowners in the United States. The US government will guarantee all residential mortgages involving owner-occupants, including mortgages which are dramatically higher than the value of the underlying property.
• In return for removing mortgage loan credit risk, Washington will require banks to stretch out principal repayments to owner-occupants so that they do not exceed, on a monthly basis, more than 38% of family or owner incomes. When values or incomes go up, presumably, adjustments will be made. This will provide a floor to property values, a form of welfare to the unemployed and another unfreezing of bank credit.
Preventing the revolution in the streets Those are the highlights of what can only be described as a Nuevo Financial System and a currency debasement which will involve the printing of trillions of dollars, Euros and all the others. Canadian government officials will end up having to do the same: the "bad" bank to bail out the banks which are caught in the contagion of the global meltdown plus job creation stimulus and a broadening of the social safety net. ...
Excerpt:
This is FOUR people who you've appointed that can't pay their damn taxes, including your Treasury Secretary? ... CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN?
I'll tell you what would be change. Since it appears that a huge percentage of the current and former Congressional delegation has cheated on its taxes -- after all, what are the odds you only picked the tax cheats, if you want me to believe in your idea of CHANGE you will immediately order all member of Congress in both Houses to undergo full IRS audits all the way back to the Statute of Limitations (three years), along with all of their staff.
You and I know it won't happen, but I'll tell you what -- I keep hearing people say they're going to file absolute crap this year. Utter garbage. "The Dog ate my Schedule C."
If The American People do this, Mr. President, government funding will collapse. The IRS can't possibly audit everyone and we all know it.
Your administration is dangerously close to creating a full-on tax revolt among Americans. You would not believe how often I have heard this among people both online and off in the last couple of weeks. The anger, especially when the people who are cheating are folks like Daschle and Geithner, is VISCERAL -- these are the people who both wrote the tax code and were involved in the bailouts and handouts which you expect we the people -- ordinary Americans -- to pay for.
Mahdi Abdul Finkelstein
#2/7/2009:
Mahdi Abdul Finkelstein writes: "Your administration is dangerously close to creating a full-on tax revolt among Americans."
Now as much as I would LOVE to see this happen-as I would gleefully participate-the only thing that would happen is that those without a ton of money for lawyers would get their whole lives stripped away from them and end up in jail. Believe me, this government will put someone in jail in a heartbeat over a tax issue if they can. Especially if it's an average Joe.
There's a slick video spiel here. Good enough to be very tantalizing for anyone who already is a Facebook or MySpace user to switch -- and bring their friends with them. I'd love to see this site succeed, and suck the life out of MySpace/Facebook, while at the same time putting some money in user pockets.
== == ==
Charter is charging us more AND capping our bandwidth! Bastards! They raised their monthly charge for their minimal bandwidth about $20, only last month! And now this!
"Yesterday we cited an anonymous insider at Charter who informed us that the company would very soon be implementing new caps. Today, Charter's Eric Ketzer confirmed the plans, and informed us that Charter's new, $140 60Mbps tier will not have any limitations. Speeds of 15Mbps or slower will have a 100GB monthly cap, while 15-25Mbps speeds will have a 250GB monthly cap. "In order to continue providing the best possible experience for our Internet customers, later this month we will be updating our Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) to establish monthly residential bandwidth consumption thresholds," Ketzer confirms. "More than 99% of our customers will not be affected by our updated policy, as they consume far less bandwidth than the threshold allows," he says."
Charter is our internet service provider too. We abhor them, of course, but I gotta say, if the limits are as described and only hitting less than one percent of their customers, it looks like they're capping only those users whose internet experience is all about swapping especially huge quantities of especially huge audio or video files, yes? This isn't striking me as unreasonable.
Or is this a case of "First they came for the high-volume file-swappers, and I said nothing because I'm not a high-volume file swapper ... "?
Is this going to affect you?
Helen & Harry Highwater
100 GB per month works out to a little over 3 GB a day. I can easily imagine
a single short video clip consuming 1 GB. For such stuff sure takes up that
much space on disk when you film it yourself!
The considerably higher monthly charge is already impacting us for a couple
months now. Oh yeah, they also took away several cable TV channels a few
months back too, like G4 TV, which I did like to watch on occasion.
What worries me about the cap is I have no good way to measure usage, and I
believe charter will charge people more when they go over, and customers
won't know it until the bill hits, sort of like a bunch of unexpected
texting or long distance phone bills.
I personally surf a tremendous amount for my compilations and news
gathering, plus self-help shopping and medical research, and almost every
web site has big photos or bandwidth-sucking animation or video now. WebFLUX
Central also has a LAN with at least six computers capable of accessing the
internet. Plus an extra loose connection or two visiting gamers sometimes
plug X-boxes into to download updates. Just the occasional Mac and XP
operating system updates alone are usually pretty big.
Normally of course I'm by far the main presence online here. But it's not
unusual for lots of kids ages 4-22 to show up and stay for days at a time,
surfing the net, watching videos, etc. Their parents sometimes surf too. The
kids love online videos and games. I also have childless relatives who
sometimes surf here.
So I expect it's going to be messy, stressful, and costly for all this to be
dumped on us.
These are definitely reasonable concerns. I'm especially convinced by the impossibility of customers knowing when they're approaching or exceeding whatever limits are applied. It doesn't seem like it should be a daunting challenge for Charter Communications to develop an on-line meter-reader program, allowing users to visit Charter's website and see their month-to-date usage. I know I'd feel more comfortable being able to know where I stand.
Our webhost always lets us know if our month-to-date bandwidth is tracking ahead of our monthly limits. Such competence is something I've rarely seen from Charter, but it would be a pleasant surprise and it ought to be required by law.
Excerpt: Units hit all the targets within a concentrated period just before the vote
in order to cause maximum disruption to any violence enemy fighters had
planned for election day, he said.
Could this have been the reason only 50% turnout of eligible
voters occurred?
Excerpt: Hammond would not disclose how many people were arrested. He also would not
speculate about the impact of the raids or go into any details about whether
any specific attacks had been planned.
Excerpt: While Obama is expected to soften the Bush administration's line against
talking to Iran, the aides said, he also may seek to toughen sanctions. Iran's
announcement Tuesday that it had launched its first satellite into orbit -- a
matter that Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, described as being
of "acute concern to this administration" -- may reinforce the impulse to get
tough. ... the Obama administration "will use all elements of our national
power to deal with Iran and to help it be a responsible member of the
international community."
What makes the Israeli actions in this instance (and its other similar action) any different than piracy? The ship is fired upon, boarded, the crew is assaulted, and the ship is seized and taken to Israel and its cargo confiscated and the crew incarcerated.
The report says the crew and passengers will be released. But it looks like a blockade, which I've always been told is an act of war. I'm sure Israeli officials would say the ship carried weapons, not just "aid, including medical supplies, food and children's toys", but it hardly matters, since I no longer have any expectation of truth in anything Israeli officials say.
H&HH
Excerpt: The decision by Susan Crawford, the top legal authority for military trials at Guantánamo, brings all cases into compliance with Barack Obama's executive order to halt terror court proceedings at the base.
Age of Reason returns?
Wig
#
hi.. I just happened on to your website, in search of the names of American contractors
providing security in Afghanistan.
my fiancé is working for [deleted by editor] at [deleted by editor] ... recently he's told me
their internet is being heavily monitored and censored and he's now on a very dangerous
assignment, providing security at a combat operations base that is being constructed in a
remote area.
i haven't heard from him in seven days and naturally getting worried. because we are not
married, I'm not so sure I would be notified if something happened to him.
do you know of a site that lists the casualties for American contractors in Afghanistan?
any leads would be welcomed.
[name withheld by editor]
I'm sorry, but everything we know about the subject is on our casualties page, and I don't know of
anyplace that publicly lists casualties by name among the contractors. Wish I could be of
more help, and I do hope and pray your fiancé comes home healthy ... and soon.
Like the URL says, this website is about "unknown news". It's a thrice-weekly round-up of reports we think merit more attention, from mainstream, professional journalists, or (rarely) other sources we trust entirely.
We assume our readers are well- informed before they click here, so we focus on news that's generally unknown or under-reported. We don't usually mention the murders, kidnappings, house fires, auto wrecks, celebrity crap, wacky fluff, and other nonsense that's pushed real news right out of the newscasts.
We're not at all interested in Area 51, the Bilderberger Group, the Council on Foreign Relations, eyeballs inside pyramids, flying saucers, FreeMasons, Paris Hilton, "Holocaust revisionism," the Illuminati, JFK's assassination, Vince Foster's suicide, the North American Union or its alleged Amero, Planet X, Protocols of the Elders, the Rockefellers, Rosicrucians, Rothchilds, Skull & Bones, space aliens, technologies supposedly suppressed, the Trilateral Commission, or theories you don't really understand about the collapse of the World Trade Center.
We'll never link to 'news' from unreliable sources such as americanfreepress.net, Art Bell, cloakanddagger.ca, Tom Flocco, David Icke, Lyndon LaRouche, Wayne Madsen, Henry Makow, Al Martin, Prison Planet, Sherman Skolnick, Edgar Steele, Webster Tarpley, or your brother-in-law.
We try to avoid linking to sites that require registration, so if you click any links here that ask for registration or a password, please let us know and we'll try to find a not-so-nosey link to similar coverage elsewhere.
We believe in liberty and justice for all, so of course, we oppose many US government policies. This doesn't mean we're anti-American, redneck scum, pinko commies, militia members, or terrorist-sympathizers. It means we believe in freedom, as more than merely a cliché.
We believe you have the right to live your own life as you choose, and others have the equal right to live their lives as they choose. It's not complicated.
We believe freedom leads to peace, progress, and prosperity, while its opposite -- oppression -- leads to war, terrorism, poverty, and misery.
We believe it's preposterously stupid to hate people because of their appearance, their race or nationality, their religion or lack of religion, how they have sex with other consenting adults, etc. There are far more apropos reasons to hate most people.
We believe in questioning ourselves, our assumptions, each other -- and we especially believe in questioning authority (the more authority, the more questions). We believe obedience is a fine quality in dogs and young children, but not in adults.
Like America's right-wingers, we believe in
individual responsibility,
hard work to get ahead,
and stern punishment for serious crimes.
We believe big government should not be blindly trusted.
But unlike most right-wing leaders, we mean it.
Like America's left-wingers, we believe in
equal treatment under law,
war as a last (not first) resort,
and sensible stewardship of natural resources.
We believe big business should not be blindly trusted.
But unlike most left-wing leaders, we mean it.
Like libertarians, we believe it's wrong and reprehensible to arrest people for what they think, believe, look like, wear, eat, smoke, drink, inhale, inject, or otherwise do to themselves.
But unlike many libertarians, we're not obsessed with the gold standard, we don't believe incorporation is humanity's highest achievement, and we don't believe everything in life comes down to dollars and cents. We've read and enjoyed Ayn Rand's novels, but we understand that they're works of fiction.
We're skeptical, and we're sick of so-called 'journalists' who aren't skeptical at all.
A reader asks, what are our solutions? We propose no solutions except common sense, which is never common. We like the principles of democracy, and the ideals broadly described as 'American'. The US Constitution is a fine and workable framework for solutions, when it's actually read and thoughtfully understood by intelligent statesmen and women. So, no manifestos from us. We don't dream that big, and if there's one thing the world doesn't need it's yet another manifesto.
Our suggestion is: think. A fact-based instead of faith-based approach leads to solutions for most of the recurring issues of our time, from abortion to global climate change, pollution to universal health care, careful but real regulation of industry and economy, hunger, war, terror, human rights for humans not for corporations, science not religious doctrine in public schools, equal protection and prosecution under law, etc. Approach problems without glorifying stupidity, without demonizing intelligence, and answers usually come into focus.
These pages are published by Harry and Helen Highwater, happily married low-income nom de plumes and rabble-rousers from Madison, Wisconsin (with a few friends scattered around the world helping out).
We try to spotlight news that hasn't gotten enough (or appropriate) attention in American media, along with our opinions and yours.
We bang our keyboards against the wall, because it doesn't hurt as much as banging our heads.
No, Robert Reich has never said "white males should be excluded from any taxpayer funded construction projects". He's never said anything remotely like that. Reich is just about the only major political voice who seriously gives a damn about working people, so it's very much to the right-wing bastards' advantage to smear him, and that's what they've done. He's denied it, but it was a pretty obvious lie even before the denial.
No, Democrats aren't plotting the return of the Fairness Doctrine. Claiming that Obama would bring back the Fairness Doctrine was one of the minor lies of Republicans during the 2008 campaign, and after the election it became a cornerstone right-wing lie, repeated everywhere. It's our opinion that the Fairness Doctrine should be restored with teeth -- with sharpened titanium fangs in place of the dentures it had decades ago -- but our opinion matters little in the real world, where there's simply no groundswell for restoring the Fairness Doctrine. It's simply not on the agenda. There's no serious discussion of the idea among any Democratic office-holders, no legislation has been drafted or introduced, and nobody who's anywhere near the reins of power is talking about this (except right-wing liars).
No, Democratic leaders in the US House are not discussing the confiscation of 401(k)s and IRAs.
Reports like this one, claiming that Democrats are plotting such seizures, are hysterical over-reactions that amount to a flat-out lie. The proposal comes from exactly one economist you've never heard of, Teresa Ghilarducci of Notre Dame (not New College, as the article falsely reports). She's one among dozens of economists who briefly testified in low-level Congressional hearings in early October, and she's the only one who made this proposal, and there's been not a peep of interest in the idea from any member of Congress.
No, Pepsi hasn't prepared an ad making light of rape. Please stop sending the link to this blog post, or this one, or this one. The images aren't ads, they're art from this graphic design blog. And next time, try a little common sense: Why would Pepsi run ads that would alienate at least half their customers?
There's no evidence that Sarah Palin's son entered the military as punishment for drug dealing. Three of our readers have sent us this link, but the author's remark is based not on fact but on a long-simmering rumor that Track Palin was prosecuted for vandalism and/or drug dealing, and offered a choice by the judge -- join the Army, or face a jail stint. Problem is, it's just another rumor. The record is sealed because Track Palin was a minor, so there's no knowing whether it's true.
No,there's no Florida cash machine dispensing Ameros. What customers of what bank in Florida are going to accept Ameros, the fictional currency of the fictional North American Union? At what business can Floridians spend these Ameros? It's a canard.
No,Sarah Palin probably didn't use racial slurs to describe Obama and Eskimos. It wouldn't surprise me at all to learn that Palin is a racist -- she's a Republican in a position of power, so I'd be a little surprised if she wasn't a racist. But before we can put it in the news section on our website, we'd need to hear about her racism from a more reliable source than "Dick & Sharon's LA Progressive" quoting "a waitress" and "an insurance agent" and "Juneau observers" -- a bunch of anonymous Alaskans who may or may not exist.
No,Karl Rove is not the spawn of Nazis, or the grandspawn of Nazis. His grandfather was not Carl Röver, Karl Rovener, or Karl Roverer, and was not the Gauleiter of Oldenburg, a high-ranking Nazi Party official, or the senior engineer in the Roverer Sud-Deutche Ingenieurburo A. G. Engineering, the firm built the Birkenau death camp. That's an internet legend, and it's not true.
Congress of the United States begun and held at the City of New York, on Wednesday the fourth of March, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine. The Conventions of a number of the States, having at the time of their adopting the Constitution expressed a desire in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added: And as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government will best ensure the beneficent ends of its institution.
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, two thirds of both Houses concurring that the following Articles be proposed to the Legislatures of the several states as Amendments to the Constitution of the United States, all or any of which articles, when ratified by three fourths of the said Legislatures to be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the said Constitution. viz: Articles in addition to, and Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, proposed by Congress and Ratified by the Legislatures of the several States, pursuant to the fifth Article of the original Constitution.
Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
Amendment II
A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.
Amendment III
No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.
Amendment IV
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Amendment V
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
Amendment VI
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.
Amendment VII
In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexamined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.
Amendment VIII
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
Amendment IX
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
Amendment X
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.
Of course not. Nobody will know the answers until there's an open and honest investigation.
But anyone courageous enough to think can see that the pertinent questions for any serious "investigation" were never asked, let alone answered, by the official investigators.
Hey, we now offer an RSS feed of Unknown News headlines, updated whenever we update the site. Click the orange button for more information, or just get the feed at http://unknownnews.org/
"A mind-blowing mix of fact and fantasy, hard science and well-grounded speculation, with
concrete how-to info to top it all off -- resulting in some of the best and strangest stuff
on Earth..."
With Mozilla Firefox and a few free add- ons, you can block animated ads, pop-ups, pop-unders, and other annoyances, add some conveniences you've only dreamed of, and actually enjoy your on-line time.
Our front page is free from nudity and profanity, but interior pages and external links may not be safe for work, and you may be shocked, offended, or in trouble with your boss. A link doesn't imply that we agree with every sentence and every sentiment on every site we link to. We use our noggins, and suggest you use yours.
Anything sent to Unknown News may be published. If you don't want it published, say so plainly. Of course, we publish all incoming hate mail.
Unknown News is more fun and more informative with your participation, so please don't be shy. Consider yourself invited to speak your mind.
We always welcome dialogue for publication, and we're especially interested in hearing and considering different perspectives. All we ask is that you conduct yourself sanely and civilly. For the most productive dialogue, it helps if you'll cite the specific article or concept we've gotten wrong.
But please, don't email us unless you're really and truly, honestly, actually trying to send a communication you're not sending to anyone or everyone else.
When we publish incoming emails, we usually edit out the sender's last name, email address, or anything else that would tend to uniquely identify the author (if we slip up, please let us know). But if your email is unambiguously intended only to annoy, insult, or threaten us, we'll publish all the details, and leave it on-line forever.
You can help
We try not to whine too much or too loudly, but we are poor and this site eats a lot of time
and especially money. Just a buck or two can make all the difference and help keep Unknown News alive.
