If I can't dance, it isn't my revolution!

Harvey Wasserman: People died---and are still dying---at Three Mile Island

2009-03-25T11:46:00.000-07:00

A Columbus Freepress Article

Harvey Wasserman

People died at Three Mile Island
March 24, 2009

People died---and are still dying---at Three Mile Island.

As the thirtieth anniversary of America's most infamous industrial accident approaches, we mourn the deaths that accompanied the biggest string of lies ever told in US industrial history.

As news of the accident poured into the global media, the public was assured there were no radiation releases.

That quickly proved to be false.

The public was then told the releases were controlled and done purposely to alleviate pressure on the core.

Both those assertions were false.

The public was told the releases were "insignificant."

But stack monitors were saturated and unusable, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission later told Congress it did not know---and STILL does not know---how much radiation was released at Three Mile Island, or where it went.

Using unsubstantiated estimates of how much radiation was released, the government issued average doses allegedly received by people in the region, which it assured the public were safe. But the estimates were utterly meaningless, among other things ignoring the likelihood that high doses of concentrated fallout could come down heavily on specific areas.

Official estimates said a uniform dose to all persons in the region was equivalent to a single chest x-ray. But pregnant women are no longer x-rayed because it has long been known a single dose can do catastrophic damage to an embryo or fetus in utero.

The public was told there was no melting of fuel inside the core.

But robotic cameras later showed a very substantial portion of the fuel did melt.

The public was told there was no danger of an explosion.

But there was, as there had been at Michigan's Fermi reactor in 1966. In 1986, Chernobyl Unit Four did explode.

The public was told there was no need to evacuate anyone from the area.

But Pennsylvania Governor Richard Thornburgh then evacuated pregnant women and small children. Unfortunately, many were sent to nearby Hershey, which was showered with fallout.

In fact, the entire region should have been immediately evacuated. It is standard wisdom in the health physics community that---due in part to the extreme vulnerability of human embryos, fetuses and small children, as well as the weaknesses of old age---there is no safe dose of radiation, and none will ever be found.

The public was assured the government would follow up with meticulous studies of the health impacts of the accident.

In fact, the state of Pennsylvania hid the health impacts, including deletion of cancers from the public record, abolition of the state's tumor registry, misrepresentation of the impacts it could not hide (including an apparent tripling of the infant death rate in nearby Harrisburg) and much more.

The federal government did nothing to track the health histories of the region's residents.

In fact, the most reliable studies were conducted by local residents like Jane Lee and Mary Osborne, who went door-to-door in neighborhoods where the fallout was thought to be worst. Their surveys showed very substantial plagues of cancer, leukemia, birth defects, respiratory problems, hair loss, rashes, lesions and much more.

A study by Columbia University claimed there were no significant health impacts, but its data by some interpretations points in the opposite direction. Investigations by epidemiologist Dr. Stephen Wing of the University of North Carolina, and others, led Wing to warn that the official studies on the health impacts of the accident suffered from “logical and methodological problems.” Studies by Wing and by Arnie Gundersen, a former nuclear industry official, being announced this week at Harrisburg, significantly challenge official pronouncements on both radiation releases and health impacts.

Gundersen, a leading technical expert on nuclear engineering, says: “When I correctly interpreted the containment pressure spike and the doses measured in the environment after the TMI accident, I proved that TMI's releases were about one hundred times higher than the industry and the NRC claim, in part because the containment leaked. This new data supports the epidemiology of Dr. Steve Wing and proves that there really were injuries from the accident. New reactor designs are also effected, as the NRC is using its low assumed release rates to justify decreases in emergency planning and containment design."

Data unearthed by radiologist Dr. Ernest Sternglass of the University of Pittsburgh, and statisticians Jay Gould (now deceased) and Joe Mangano of New York have led to strong assertions of major public health impacts. On-going work by Sternglass and Mangano clearly indicates that "normal" reactor radiation releases of far less magnitude that those at TMI continue to have catastrophic impacts on local populations.

Anecdotal evidence among the local human population has been devastating. Large numbers of central Pennsylvanians suffered skin sores and lesions that erupted while they were out of doors as the fallout rained down on them. Many quickly developed large, visible tumors, breathing problems, and a metallic taste in their mouths that matched that experienced by some of the men who dropped the bomb on Hiroshima, and who were exposed to nuclear tests in the south Pacific and Nevada.

A series of interviews conducted by Robbie Leppzer and compiled in a “a two-hour public radio documentary VOICES FROM THREE MILE ISLAND ( www.turningtide.com ) give some indication of the horrors experienced by the people of central Pennsylvania.

They are further underscored by harrowing broadcasts from then-CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-c1PrCLaRw) warning that “the world has never known a day quite like today. It faced the considerable uncertainties and dangers of the worst nuclear power plant accident of the atomic age. And the horror tonight is that it could get much worse.”

In March of 1980, I went into the region and compiled a range of interviews clearly indicating widespread health damage done by radiation from the accident. The survey led to the book KILLING OUR OWN, co-authored with Norman Solomon, Robert Alvarez and Eleanor Walters ( www.ratical.org/radiation/KillingOurOwn/KOO.pdf ) which correlated the damage done at TMI with that suffered during nuclear bomb tests, atomic weapons production, mis-use of medical x-rays, the painting of radium watch dials, uranium mining and milling, radioactive fuel production, failed attempts at waste disposal, and more.

My research at TMI also uncovered a plague of death and disease among the area's wild animals and farm livestock. Entire bee hives expired immediately after the accident, along with a disappearance of birds, many of whom were found scattered dead on the ground. A rash of malformed pets were born and stillborn, including kittens that could not walk and a dog with no eyes. Reproductive rates among the region's cows and horses plummeted.

Much of this was documented by a three-person investigative team from the Baltimore News-American, which made it clear that the problems could only have been caused by radiation. Statistics from Pennsylvania's Department of Agriculture confirmed the plague, but the state denied its existence, and said that if it did exist, it could not have been caused by TMI.

In the mid-1980s the citizens of the three counties surrounding Three Mile Island voted by a margin of 3:1 to permanently retired TMI Unit One, which had been shut when Unit Two melted. The Reagan Administration trashed the vote and re-opened the reactor, which still operates. Its owners now seek a license renewal.

Some 2400 area residents have long-since filed a class action lawsuit demanding compensation for the plague of death and disease visited upon their families. In the past quarter-century they have been denied access to the federal court system, which claims there was not enough radiation released to do such harm. TMI’s owners did quietly pay out millions in damages to area residents whose children were born with genetic damage, among other things. The payments came in exchange for silence among those receiving them.

But for all the global attention focused on the accident and its health effects, there has never been a binding public trial to test the assertion by thousands of conservative central Pennsylvanians that radiation from TMI destroyed their lives.

So while the nuclear power industry continues to assert that "no one died at Three Mile Island," it refuses to allow an open judicial hearing on the hundreds of cases still pending.

As the pushers of the "nuclear renaissance" demand massive tax- and rate-payer subsidies to build yet another generation of reactors, they cynically stonewall the obvious death toll that continues to mount at the site of an accident that happened thirty years ago. The "see no evil" mantra continues to define all official approaches to the victims of this horrific disaster.

Ironically, like Chernobyl, Three Mile Island Unit Two was a state-of-the-art reactor. Its official opening came on December 28, 1978, and it melted exactly three months later. Had it operated longer, the accumulated radiation spewing from its core almost certainly would have been far greater.

Every reactor now operating in the US is much older---nearly all fully three decades older---than TMI-2 when it melted. Their potential fallout that could dwarf what came down in 1979.

But the Big Lie remains officially in tact. Expect to hear all week that TMI was "a success story" because "no one was killed."

But in mere moments that brand new reactor morphed from a $900 million asset to a multi-billion-dollar liability. It could happen to any atomic power plant, now, tomorrow and into the future.

Meanwhile, the death toll from America's worst industrial catastrophe continues to rise. More than ever, it is shrouded in official lies and desecrated by a reactor-pushing “renaissance” hell-bent on repeating the nightmare on an even larger scale.

--
Harvey Wasserman has been writing about atomic energy and the green alternatives since 1973. His 1982 assertion to Bryant Gumbel on NBC's TODAY Show that people were killed at TMI sparked a national mailing from the reactor industry demanding a retraction. NBC was later bought by Westinghouse, still a major force pushing atomic power. This article originally appeared at http://freepress.org.

The Proposed Iranian Oil Bourse

2008-10-06T13:03:00.000-07:00

http://www.energybulletin.net/node/12125

I encountered this article in March of 2007 and sent to to everyone I knew. It clarifies the relationship between American capital, financial policy, and oil interests as well as I have ever seen it explained.
~ Deborah

The Proposed Iranian Oil Bourse
by Krassimir Petrov
I. Economics of Empires

A nation-state taxes its own citizens, while an empire taxes other nation-states. The history of empires, from Greek and Roman, to Ottoman and British, teaches that the economic foundation of every single empire is the taxation of other nations. The imperial ability to tax has always rested on a better and stronger economy, and as a consequence, a better and stronger military. One part of the subject taxes went to improve the living standards of the empire; the other part went to strengthen the military dominance necessary to enforce the collection of those taxes.

Historically, taxing the subject state has been in various forms—usually gold and silver, where those were considered money, but also slaves, soldiers, crops, cattle, or other agricultural and natural resources, whatever economic goods the empire demanded and the subject-state could deliver. Historically, imperial taxation has always been direct: the subject state handed over the economic goods directly to the empire.

For the first time in history, in the twentieth century, America was able to tax the world indirectly, through inflation. It did not enforce the direct payment of taxes like all of its predecessor empires did, but distributed instead its own fiat currency, the U.S. Dollar, to other nations in exchange for goods with the intended consequence of inflating and devaluing those dollars and paying back later each dollar with less economic goods—the difference capturing the U.S. imperial tax. Here is how this happened.

Early in the 20th century, the U.S. economy began to dominate the world economy. The U.S. dollar was tied to gold, so that the value of the dollar neither increased, nor decreased, but remained the same amount of gold. The Great Depression, with its preceding inflation from 1921 to 1929 and its subsequent ballooning government deficits, had substantially increased the amount of currency in circulation, and thus rendered the backing of U.S. dollars by gold impossible. This led Roosevelt to decouple the dollar from gold in 1932. Up to this point, the U.S. may have well dominated the world economy, but from an economic point of view, it was not an empire. The fixed value of the dollar did not allow the Americans to extract economic benefits from other countries by supplying them with dollars convertible to gold.

Economically, the American Empire was born with Bretton Woods in 1945. The U.S. dollar was not fully convertible to gold, but was made convertible to gold only to foreign governments. This established the dollar as the reserve currency of the world. It was possible, because during WWII, the United States had supplied its allies with provisions, demanding gold as payment, thus accumulating significant portion of the world’s gold. An Empire would not have been possible if, following the Bretton Woods arrangement, the dollar supply was kept limited and within the availability of gold, so as to fully exchange back dollars for gold. However, the guns-and-butter policy of the 1960’s was an imperial one: the dollar supply was relentlessly increased to finance Vietnam and LBJ’s Great Society. Most of those dollars were handed over to foreigners in exchange for economic goods, without the prospect of buying them back at the same value. The increase in dollar holdings of foreigners via persistent U.S. trade deficits was tantamount to a tax—the classical inflation tax that a country imposes on its own citizens, this time around an inflation tax that U.S. imposed on rest of the world.

When in 1970-1971 foreigners demanded payment for their dollars in gold, The U.S. Government defaulted on its payment on August 15, 1971. While the popular spin told the story of “severing the link between the dollar and gold”, in reality the denial to pay back in gold was an act of bankruptcy by the U.S. Government. Essentially, the U.S. declared itself an Empire. It had extracted an enormous amount of economic goods from the rest of the world, with no intention or ability to return those goods, and the world was powerless to respond— the world was taxed and it could not do anything about it.

From that point on, to sustain the American Empire and to continue to tax the rest of the world, the United States had to force the world to continue to accept ever-depreciating dollars in exchange for economic goods and to have the world hold more and more of those depreciating dollars. It had to give the world an economic reason to hold them, and that reason was oil.

In 1971, as it became clearer and clearer that the U.S Government would not be able to buy back its dollars in gold, it made in 1972-73 an iron-clad arrangement with Saudi Arabia to support the power of the House of Saud in exchange for accepting only U.S. dollars for its oil. The rest of OPEC was to follow suit and also accept only dollars. Because the world had to buy oil from the Arab oil countries, it had the reason to hold dollars as payment for oil. Because the world needed ever increasing quantities of oil at ever increasing oil prices, the world’s demand for dollars could only increase. Even though dollars could no longer be exchanged for gold, they were now exchangeable for oil.

The economic essence of this arrangement was that the dollar was now backed by oil. As long as that was the case, the world had to accumulate increasing amounts of dollars, because they needed those dollars to buy oil. As long as the dollar was the only acceptable payment for oil, its dominance in the world was assured, and the American Empire could continue to tax the rest of the world. If, for any reason, the dollar lost its oil backing, the American Empire would cease to exist. Thus, Imperial survival dictated that oil be sold only for dollars. It also dictated that oil reserves were spread around various sovereign states that weren’t strong enough, politically or militarily, to demand payment for oil in something else. If someone demanded a different payment, he had to be convinced, either by political pressure or military means, to change his mind.

The man that actually did demand Euro for his oil was Saddam Hussein in 2000. At first, his demand was met with ridicule, later with neglect, but as it became clearer that he meant business, political pressure was exerted to change his mind. When other countries, like Iran, wanted payment in other currencies, most notably Euro and Yen, the danger to the dollar was clear and present, and a punitive action was in order. Bush’s Shock-and-Awe in Iraq was not about Saddam’s nuclear capabilities, about defending human rights, about spreading democracy, or even about seizing oil fields; it was about defending the dollar, ergo the American Empire. It was about setting an example that anyone who demanded payment in currencies other than U.S. Dollars would be likewise punished.

Many have criticized Bush for staging the war in Iraq in order to seize Iraqi oil fields. However, those critics can’t explain why Bush would want to seize those fields—he could simply print dollars for nothing and use them to get all the oil in the world that he needs. He must have had some other reason to invade Iraq.

History teaches that an empire should go to war for one of two reasons: (1) to defend itself or (2) benefit from war; if not, as Paul Kennedy illustrates in his magisterial The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers, a military overstretch will drain its economic resources and precipitate its collapse. Economically speaking, in order for an empire to initiate and conduct a war, its benefits must outweigh its military and social costs. Benefits from Iraqi oil fields are hardly worth the long-term, multi-year military cost. Instead, Bush must have went into Iraq to defend his Empire. Indeed, this is the case: two months after the United States invaded Iraq, the Oil for Food Program was terminated, the Iraqi Euro accounts were switched back to dollars, and oil was sold once again only for U.S. dollars. No longer could the world buy oil from Iraq with Euro. Global dollar supremacy was once again restored. Bush descended victoriously from a fighter jet and declared the mission accomplished—he had successfully defended the U.S. dollar, and thus the American Empire.

II. Iranian Oil Bourse

The Iranian government has finally developed the ultimate “nuclear” weapon that can swiftly destroy the financial system underpinning the American Empire. That weapon is the Iranian Oil Bourse slated to open in March 2006. It will be based on a euro-oil-trading mechanism that naturally implies payment for oil in Euro. In economic terms, this represents a much greater threat to the hegemony of the dollar than Saddam’s, because it will allow anyone willing either to buy or to sell oil for Euro to transact on the exchange, thus circumventing the U.S. dollar altogether. If so, then it is likely that almost everyone will eagerly adopt this euro oil system:

· The Europeans will not have to buy and hold dollars in order to secure their payment for oil, but would instead pay with their own currencies. The adoption of the euro for oil transactions will provide the European currency with a reserve status that will benefit the European at the expense of the Americans.

· The Chinese and the Japanese will be especially eager to adopt the new exchange, because it will allow them to drastically lower their enormous dollar reserves and diversify with Euros, thus protecting themselves against the depreciation of the dollar. One portion of their dollars they will still want to hold onto; a second portion of their dollar holdings they may decide to dump outright; a third portion of their dollars they will decide to use up for future payments without replenishing those dollar holdings, but building up instead their euro reserves.

· The Russians have inherent economic interest in adopting the Euro – the bulk of their trade is with European countries, with oil-exporting countries, with China, and with Japan. Adoption of the Euro will immediately take care of the first two blocs, and will over time facilitate trade with China and Japan. Also, the Russians seemingly detest holding depreciating dollars, for they have recently found a new religion with gold. Russians have also revived their nationalism, and if embracing the Euro will stab the Americans, they will gladly do it and smugly watch the Americans bleed.

· The Arab oil-exporting countries will eagerly adopt the Euro as a means of diversifying against rising mountains of depreciating dollars. Just like the Russians, their trade is mostly with European countries, and therefore will prefer the European currency both for its stability and for avoiding currency risk, not to mention their jihad against the Infidel Enemy.

Only the British will find themselves between a rock and a hard place. They have had a strategic partnership with the U.S. forever, but have also had their natural pull from Europe. So far, they have had many reasons to stick with the winner. However, when they see their century-old partner falling, will they firmly stand behind him or will they deliver the coup de grace? Still, we should not forget that currently the two leading oil exchanges are the New York’s NYMEX and the London’s International Petroleum Exchange (IPE), even though both of them are effectively owned by the Americans. It seems more likely that the British will have to go down with the sinking ship, for otherwise they will be shooting themselves in the foot by hurting their own London IPE interests. It is here noteworthy that for all the rhetoric about the reasons for the surviving British Pound, the British most likely did not adopt the Euro namely because the Americans must have pressured them not to: otherwise the London IPE would have had to switch to Euros, thus mortally wounding the dollar and their strategic partner.

At any rate, no matter what the British decide, should the Iranian Oil Bourse accelerate, the interests that matter—those of Europeans, Chinese, Japanese, Russians, and Arabs—will eagerly adopt the Euro, thus sealing the fate of the dollar. Americans cannot allow this to happen, and if necessary, will use a vast array of strategies to halt or hobble the operation’s exchange:

· Sabotaging the Exchange—this could be a computer virus, network, communications, or server attack, various server security breaches, or a 9-11-type attack on main and backup facilities.

· Coup d’état—this is by far the best long-term strategy available to the Americans.

· Negotiating Acceptable Terms & Limitations—this is another excellent solution to the Americans. Of course, a government coup is clearly the preferred strategy, for it will ensure that the exchange does not operate at all and does not threaten American interests. However, if an attempted sabotage or coup d’etat fails, then negotiation is clearly the second-best available option.

· Joint U.N. War Resolution—this will be, no doubt, hard to secure given the interests of all other member-states of the Security Council. Feverish rhetoric about Iranians developing nuclear weapons undoubtedly serves to prepare this course of action.

· Unilateral Nuclear Strike—this is a terrible strategic choice for all the reasons associated with the next strategy, the Unilateral Total War. The Americans will likely use Israel to do their dirty nuclear job.

· Unilateral Total War—this is obviously the worst strategic choice. First, the U.S. military resources have been already depleted with two wars. Secondly, the Americans will further alienate other powerful nations. Third, major dollar-holding countries may decide to quietly retaliate by dumping their own mountains of dollars, thus preventing the U.S. from further financing its militant ambitions. Finally, Iran has strategic alliances with other powerful nations that may trigger their involvement in war; Iran reputedly has such alliance with China, India, and Russia, known as the Shanghai Cooperative Group, a.k.a. Shanghai Coop and a separate pact with Syria.

Whatever the strategic choice, from a purely economic point of view, should the Iranian Oil Bourse gain momentum, it will be eagerly embraced by major economic powers and will precipitate the demise of the dollar. The collapsing dollar will dramatically accelerate U.S. inflation and will pressure upward U.S. long-term interest rates. At this point, the Fed will find itself between Scylla and Charybdis—between deflation and hyperinflation—it will be forced fast either to take its “classical medicine” by deflating, whereby it raises interest rates, thus inducing a major economic depression, a collapse in real estate, and an implosion in bond, stock, and derivative markets, with a total financial collapse, or alternatively, to take the Weimar way out by inflating, whereby it pegs the long-bond yield, raises the Helicopters and drowns the financial system in liquidity, bailing out numerous LTCMs and hyperinflating the economy.

The Austrian theory of money, credit, and business cycles teaches us that there is no in-between Scylla and Charybdis. Sooner or later, the monetary system must swing one way or the other, forcing the Fed to make its choice. No doubt, Commander-in-Chief Ben Bernanke, a renowned scholar of the Great Depression and an adept Black Hawk pilot, will choose inflation. Helicopter Ben, oblivious to Rothbard’s America’s Great Depression, has nonetheless mastered the lessons of the Great Depression and the annihilating power of deflations. The Maestro has taught him the panacea of every single financial problem—to inflate, come hell or high water. He has even taught the Japanese his own ingenious unconventional ways to battle the deflationary liquidity trap. Like his mentor, he has dreamed of battling a Kondratieff Winter. To avoid deflation, he will resort to the printing presses; he will recall all helicopters from the 800 overseas U.S. military bases; and, if necessary, he will monetize everything in sight. His ultimate accomplishment will be the hyperinflationary destruction of the American currency and from its ashes will rise the next reserve currency of the world—that barbarous relic called gold.

--

Recommended Reading
William Clark “The Real Reasons for the Upcoming War in Iraq”
William Clark “The Real Reasons Why Iran is the Next Target”

About the Author
Krassimir Petrov (Krassimir_Petrov@hotmail.com) has received his Ph. D. in economics from the Ohio State University and currently teaches Macroeconomics, International Finance, and Econometrics at the American University in Bulgaria. He is looking for a career in Dubai or the U. A. E.

Also by this author
“China’s Great Depression”
“Masters of Austrian Investment Analysis”
“Austrian Analysis of U.S. Inflation”
“Oil Performance in a Worldwide Depression”
See: www.financialsense.com/editorials/petrov/main.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Editorial Notes ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
An excellent and thought provoking article by Krassimir Petrov!

However, I think perhaps it's not entirely correct to state that "critics can’t explain why Bush would want to seize those fields." The Bush regime are probably aiming to set themselves up as policeman of the Middle East oil fields, 'protecting' oil supply to Asia and Europe in return for various advantages at any future negotiation tables. Meanwhile billions of dollars of unaccountable no-bid contracts have been handed to corporations with ties to Bush administration, and the Iraqi oil industry is set to be privatised. So the reasons for the war are rich and varied. However Petrov has given us one of the clearest explanations yet of one of the most important, and certainly least understood, motivations for the war.

-AF

Republican Convention Has Fewest Black Delegates in 40 Years

2008-09-05T01:02:00.000-07:00

http://www.npr.org/blogs/newsandviews/2008/09/rnc_has_fewest_black_delegates.html

It appears that the number of Black Republicans (a phenomenon I never understood, because Republicans are against equal rights for everyone except white men) has decreased somewhat.

I always thought that Black Republicans were some of the saddest people on earth, until I learned about the Log Cabin Republicans, gays and lesbians who supported a party whose platform specifically denies them equal rights.

Sigh...

So, I am cheered by this news, and the fact that Sarah Palin will soon shoot herself in her redneck foot, and retire from the limelight.

Cahooting in Denver!

2008-09-04T21:54:00.000-07:00

Thursday night at the dnc, by the MSNBC media booth.

Me staring at fascist redneck babe nominated for VP by the Republicans.

Eh

2008-02-22T01:23:00.001-08:00

I am to sit for the California Bar 5 days from now.

I won the battle against the resident fleas a few months ago!

But, I had to spend 14 hours ridding my residence of new foreign fleas. That will help *a lot* in reaching my goal of never having to sit for it again. Meps.

I went to my mother's house. It is now overcome with fleas since her illness began. My sister does not believe me, because she thinks I am crazy. Rather, I am a HOST for fleas. They will stay with me for months, even with treatment.

I am tired of having to live in a toxic environment because other people are not as sensitive to fleas as me. I have to eventually break down and use a pesticide so that I can have some *peace.* Flea bites are quite painful, and they bite me constantly.

Every time a flea bites its host, it is able to lay flea eggs. How would YOU feel if you were a flea host? Disgusted? In pain? Unable to sleep? Red blotches on skin? Itching all over? After spending all day long in pesticide-laden clothing?

I am not feeling so hot...

The Mod (erate) Squad (pic) (lol)

2008-02-20T00:37:00.000-08:00

Go, Gauchos, Go!!!

2008-02-19T08:11:00.000-08:00

I am SOOOOO PROUD of my alma mater!

UCSB Students Against War Disrupts Collaborative Biotechnology Military Research Conference
Submitted by davidswanson on Mon, 2008-02-18 18:55. Nonviolent Resistance
From IndyBay

Today more than five hundred UCSB Students Against War disrupted the military Institute of Collaborative Biotechnology conference to demand an end to UC complicity in illegal weapons research designed to kill Iraqis in an illegal war.

Students and supporters of peace and demilitarization marched directly into the Corwin Center Pavilion where the ICB conference attendees were having lunch between their Army-sponsored research sessions.

Speakers for the march made it clear that students support scientific research but when research is done for military paymasters it makes campus scientists into war accomplices at a time when the U.S. is occupying foreign lands in internationally condemned wars of aggression.

For example, A UCSB researcher worked on technology for a new type of bomb which was dropped on an Afghan wedding, killing 40 Afghanis gathered to celebrate the love between two people and their families. U.S. officials denied responsibility for the bombing until camera footage made it impossible to deny. To the researcher's horror, his teammates working on the bomb expressed no remorse for the innocents killed by their invention. Instead, they celebrated the news because the bomb worked as they intended it to.

Protesters reminded ICB attendees that scientists have moral responsibility for the consequences of their actions and when they work for the military, the consequence is that people die, many of them innocent civilians. One speaker gave numbers on just how much money is being funneled into military research:

"UCSB rakes in 50 million dollars a year for following the Army's orders. We came here to get an education and make valuable contributions to the world, not to help conquer it. This is not a military base, it is a university. It's time to demand an end to UCSB's participation in the war machine."

There was a heavy police presence but protesters were not intimidated and conducted their non-violent direct action against UCSB war profiteering with courage and determination. Police arrested three protesters. Eyewitnesses said there was no justification for the arrests and hundreds of people chanted "Let them go! Let them go!" and laid their bodies on the pavement around police cars as a human shield demanding that the peaceful protesters be released. The arrested protesters urged everyone to return to the ICB conference to finish what they came to do and protesters returned to the Corwin Pavilion peacefully to continue disrupting the ICB.

Students Against War Santa Barbara declared victory as the ICB conference was disrupted, military scientists were informed about the consequences of their actions and a message was sent to UCSB officials that students will not rest until UC complicity in war ends.

UPDATE: The ICB conference was shut down and did not continue its second day sessions. This constitutes a major victory for UCSB students in the campaign to demilitarize UCSB and the whole UC system.

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/31135

OBAMA ROBBED IN NY

2008-02-18T13:59:00.000-08:00

Why isn't this in the corporate media? Here, it's just the New York Post... Normally, I pay no attention to the Post, being as it is a Rupert rag. However, this article appears to be straightforward reporting.

I have not been an Obama supporter, but I am even less of a Hillary supporter, and it appears that her negatives have caught up with her. Witness the Obama roll.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/02162008/news/regionalnews/obama_robbed_in_ny_97932.htm Read more at this link, if interested.

By GINGER ADAMS OTIS

February 16, 2008 -- Barack Obama's primary-night results were strikingly under recorded in several congressional districts around the city - in some cases leaving him with zero votes when, in fact, he had pulled in hundreds, the Board of Elections said today

Unofficial primary results gave Obama no votes in nearly 80 districts, including Harlem's 94th and other historically black areas - but many of those initial tallies proved to be wildly off the mark, the Board of Elections confirmed.

Truth is, in some districts getting a recount, the senator from Illinois is even close to defeating Hillary Clinton.

Initial results in the 94th District, for example, showed a 141-0 sweep for the New York senator, but Board of Elections spokeswoman Valerie Vazquez said today that the ongoing recount had changed the tally to 261-136.

Ohio Election Theft Kills

2007-11-25T17:10:00.000-08:00

This is an important video, titled "More Dead Cause of Ohio" that ties in the theft of the Ohio Election with the many soldiers now dead... because of what has happened in Ohio. The ripples in this dark pond water are rolling around the world, and the dead are buried.

This Video is based on a Neil Young song, and it includes scenes from the new David Earnhardt movie "UNCOUNTED". David is a supporter of The Ohio Election Justice Campaign, and we recommend the movie.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSdvsJKzmN0

Determination

2007-09-29T00:59:00.000-07:00

Being EXTREMELY bored, I visited the Paltalk chatroom Liberal Destruction of America tonight.

I had just finished explaining that the President of Iran did not say that Iran had no homosexuals, to some poor victim of corporate media. I posted the sentence and the link in the chatroom Liberal Destruction of America. What he really said was: our homosexuals are quiet and yours are loud! Or: Our homosexuals are in the closet and yours aren't!

Lost in Translation

I then received a PM from "D"

Talk about your accidental organizing!

Conversation follows. It's sort of backwards because we are typing to one another rather than talking. Have fun!

(12:36 AM) D: HI
(12:36 AM) D: OK
thephoenix_: hi
(12:38 AM) D: HI
D just sent you a nudge!
thephoenix_: hi D
thephoenix_: how may I help you?
(12:39 AM) D: WHO ARE YOU
thephoenix_: I am thephoenix_, silly
(12:39 AM) D: YOU HELP
(12:39 AM) D: ME NOT
thephoenix_: I help?
(12:39 AM) D: OK SOLIDER
thephoenix_: Cool!
thephoenix_: I am a left wing libertarian
(12:40 AM) D: I FREE OK
(12:40 AM) D: WAR
(12:41 AM) D: AMD LIFE NOT
thephoenix_: I am afraid I don't understand
thephoenix_: oic
(12:41 AM) D: BUT IM WOMN
thephoenix_: war should always be the last resort
thephoenix_: and it was not in Iraq
(12:41 AM) D: wont yall stop
thephoenix_: war is the most toxic human activity
thephoenix_: I do everything I can to get us to stop, but America is owned by corporations
(12:42 AM) D: it is ets and young men
(12:42 AM) D: woman
thephoenix_: I am a woman too
thephoenix_: and most of the politicians are owned by corporations
(12:43 AM) D: why wont men stop the fightighting
thephoenix_: Bill and Hillary Clinton, sponsored by Walmart!
thephoenix_: because men are crazy
(12:43 AM) D: lols
thephoenix_: about 75% of them are out of their minds
(12:43 AM) D: and
(12:44 AM) D: my
(12:44 AM) D: not
thephoenix_: and it makes a LOT of MONEY for rich people to fight wars
(12:44 AM) D: ill say know more
thephoenix_: Iraq has transferred more money into fewer pockets than any war in history
(12:44 AM) D: yes
(12:44 AM) D: my bf
(12:44 AM) D: marine
thephoenix_: oh dear
thephoenix_: I am very sorry to hear that
thephoenix_: he could become a conscientious objector, you know
(12:45 AM) D: my kids his kids
(12:45 AM) D: our gov
thephoenix_: do you want to do something?
thephoenix_: it's perfectly legal
(12:46 AM) D: my god
thephoenix_: write your congressmen and senators
thephoenix_: and get your friends to do it too
(12:46 AM) D: i ok
thephoenix_: and ask them to get their friends to do it
(12:46 AM) D: it hurts
(12:46 AM) D: ok
thephoenix_: they count on you NOT writing!
thephoenix_: If we DROWN them in letters, they will pay attention to us
(12:47 AM) D: yes
(12:47 AM) D: our people
(12:47 AM) D: running for gov
(12:48 AM) D: re
(12:48 AM) D: cant say nne of them
(12:48 AM) D: say they
(12:48 AM) D: can bring our troops home 1 yr
thephoenix_: They are all owned by corporations, except Edwards and Kucinich
thephoenix_: They could start bringing them home tomorrow...unless they sent the people who went to New Orleans to help
(12:49 AM) D: and
(12:50 AM) D: contact me who
(12:50 AM) D: i STAND AND FIGHT
(12:50 AM) D: ok
thephoenix_: got to www.congress.org
thephoenix_: and I think there's a place where you can type in your zip code
(12:50 AM) D: thanks
thephoenix_: It will tell you who your congress and senator is
(12:51 AM) D: thank YOU LADIE
thephoenix_: you pay their salary!
thephoenix_: with the taxes you pay
thephoenix_: you are their boss!
(12:52 AM) D: THANK U
(12:52 AM) D: OK
thephoenix_: always remember that!
(12:53 AM) D: WE LOVE OUR COUNTRY
thephoenix_: I do too
(12:53 AM) D: WE STAND GOT TO FIGHT
thephoenix_: I want it to be great and wonderful again, not like it is now
thephoenix_: we got to fight for sure
thephoenix_: I fight all the time
thephoenix_: that's why I come to chat
(12:55 AM) D: THANKS
(12:55 AM) D: TO YOU
thephoenix_: to help people find out who to talk to!
thephoenix_: write your mayor, too!
thephoenix_: You could have a letter writing party, and all write the letter together, you and your friends
thephoenix_: it would be fun!
(12:56 AM) D: I WILL
(12:56 AM) D: WHAT GOOD WILL IT DO
thephoenix_: you could ask other people for help too
thephoenix_: if enough of us write letters, they will fear for their jobs
thephoenix_: we have to work together as Americans to stop this
(12:57 AM) D: YES
(12:57 AM) D: YES
thephoenix_: I will be back in a minute
(12:57 AM) D: IT WONT HELP
thephoenix_: people never get anywhere with the government unless they work together
thephoenix_: if enough people are mad, they pay attention!
thephoenix_: I show them that I am mad!
(12:58 AM) D: JUST LIKE
(12:58 AM) D: OK
(12:58 AM) D: ILL FIGHT
(12:58 AM) D: OK
thephoenix_: brb
thephoenix_: back
thephoenix_: Bush is immoral!
thephoenix_: He kills innocent people!
(1:02 AM) D: MY\ COUNTRY
thephoenix_: Soldiers are innocent people too.
(1:02 AM) D: IS TRUE
thephoenix_: They did not do anything to start this war!
(1:02 AM) D: OK
thephoenix_: They think they are helping their country, but they are just helping Bush's rich friends
(1:03 AM) D: WE LOSSE OK
(1:03 AM) D: PEOPLE
(1:03 AM) D: OK
(1:03 AM) D: why
thephoenix_: look at the price of oil now. It was like $40 a barrell when Bush invaded Iraq
thephoenix_: now it's $80
(1:04 AM) D: our ok ll say no more
thephoenix_: and the oil companies are making record profits
thephoenix_: and we are paying twice what we paid in 2000
thephoenix_: that's inflation
(1:05 AM) D: I bow my hea agian and PRAY
(1:05 AM) D: HEAD
(1:05 AM) D: AND PRAY
thephoenix_: Indeed, we must pray for America and write letters to congress
thephoenix_: so they know that we are mad
(1:06 AM) D: GOD please no no more
thephoenix_: no more innocents should die
thephoenix_: My granddaughter died last year from cancer
thephoenix_: she was only 12
(1:07 AM) D: troops WE AS GODS CHILD SAY NO MORE
thephoenix_: she never hurt anyone
thephoenix_: she made everyone around her happy
thephoenix_: except her father
(1:08 AM) D: HER
(1:08 AM) D: FATHER WAS GOD
(1:08 AM) D: SHES SORRY
(1:08 AM) D: OUR GOD
thephoenix_: no, her father was a crazy mean man
(1:08 AM) D: TOOK
(1:09 AM) D: HER
thephoenix_: she needed to be here
thephoenix_: she had work to do
(1:09 AM) D: AND YOU WAS YOUR BEST
(1:09 AM) D: AS A MOM
(1:09 AM) D: YES
(1:10 AM) D: I SAY YOUR OK
(1:10 AM) D: I HURT FOR YOU
(1:10 AM) D: BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE STRONG
thephoenix_: thank you

Where Is The Revolucion?!?!?!

2007-08-30T21:32:00.000-07:00

Apparently yahoo was on hiatus trying to get its new security system online and then it happenned. I went back there and found that you had to sign a security code to get into a chat room. This is now standard procedure to prevent bots all over the Internet. It is called human intervention. Something a bot can't do, read some funky picture with screwed up text. Well I can barely read it as well.

As to the paltlak chat room, International Avante Guarde Unite, I try to open it as a haven for the refugees of neocon panic attacks (not the room but the actual disease, there is a room named that mind you) received during the various incursions of the recent flight from yahoo into paltalk.

Will the bulk of the cons return to Yahoo? How can we plan to deal with them?

My sincere suggestion is to catch them at making blanket derogatory remarks against humanity and warn them not to proceed. If they persist then boot them. We do not have to tolerate this uncivilized assault on our better judgment and humanity.

PEACE

The criminal cover-up of Ohio's stolen 2004 election sinks to the fraudulent, the absurd, the pathetic

2007-08-02T21:16:00.000-07:00

by Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman
August 2, 2007

The illegal destruction of federally protected 2004 election materials by 56 of 88 Ohio counties has become a fraudulent "dog ate my homework" farce of absurd justifications and criminal coverups.

The mass elimination of the critical evidence that could definitively prove or disprove the presumption that the 2004 election was stolen has all the markings of a Rovian crime perpetrated to hide another one. Indeed, under Ohio law, that's precisely what must be presumed here.

But what makes the situation downright pathetic is that Ohio's new Democratic Secretary of State, Jennifer Brunner, has publicly stated she sees "no evidence" of intentional destruction in the disappearance in more than 60% of the state's counties of the ballots from the 2004 presidential election.

So once again, as did Al Gore in 2000 and John Kerry in 2004, the Democrats seem poised to cave to the on-going GOP coup that has redefined America, and that now involves the criminal destruction of contested evidence in one of the most controversial vote counts in US history.

Ironically, in Florida, under Jeb Bush, the ballot records from the 2000 election in all but one of the state's counties were successfully preserved. They are now stored in a state repository in Tallahassee. An unofficial recount conducted by the national media concluded that Al Gore rightfully carried Florida, and thus the presidency, in 2000.

A parallel preservation was ordained by federal and state law for the election records from Ohio 2004, where a similar examination has been viewed as inevitable.

But a series of excuses that range from the lame to the pathetic to the obviously criminal have left us shocked---shocked!---to learn that despite the protection of established federal law, a federal court order, long-standing Ohio laws, two directives from the Ohio Secretary of State's office, and legal notification letters from plaintiff's attorneys to hold the evidence, a precise recount of Ohio's stolen 2004 election may no longer be possible.

In short, Brunner has informed us that 56 of Ohio's 88 counties have mostly "inadvertently" destroyed all or some of their records from the 2004 presidential election.

Are we surprised?

Wait 'til you hear how these mostly Republican directors say it happened!

The materials were under legal protection "from birth" on November 4, 2004, shielded by national law, acknowledged by Brunner, by Ohio Revised Coded 3505.31, then by a federal court decision in the now-legendary King-Lincoln-Bronzeville lawsuit (in which we are attorney and plaintiff).

The Ohio Revised Code specifically states that in presidential elections "the board shall carefully preserve all ballots prepared and provided by it for use in that election, whether used or unused, for twenty-two months after the day of the election." In this case, that would have been through September 2, 2006.

These records were also essential to reconstructing a credible recount that was most pointedly stifled by then-Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell. Brunner blamed the destruction of documents on Blackwell, "…for not giving counties clear instructions and for not notifying them quickly enough about U.S. District Judge Algenon L. Marbley's September 7, 2006 order," according to the conservative Columbus Dispatch.

But many of the ballots were destroyed soon after the election in a series of events whose descriptions grow stranger and more implausible by the day.

In October 25, 2004, just prior to the election, Blackwell issued directive 2004-43, reminding all county election officials of the federal 22-month holding period for presidential ballots. That meant all election-related materials would be under federal protection until September 2, 2006.

On August 23, 2006, plaintiff's attorneys in the King-Lincoln-Bronzeville case hand-delivered a letter to the Secretary of State's office and faxed notices to all 88 county Board of Elections offices that the ballots were to be evidence in the forthcoming civil rights suit against Blackwell.

On August 31, 2006 that suit was filed in Marbley's federal court in Columbus. The AP reported that same day that Blackwell "has signaled his willingness to keep ballots from the contentious 2004 election beyond their scheduled September 3 destruction date in response to activists who plan to sue him in federal court today."

Ohio laws also require that noticed---for election-related materials and other public records---be offered to the Ohio Historical Society and other public repositories before they are destroyed. Public record forms must be filed and Ohio law requires a Certificate of Destruction. Nonetheless, Blackwell erroneously told the Dispatch the next day that he was "willing to ask the boards not to destroy ballots, but the decision ultimately is a local one."

But under applicable law, the decision was definitely not "a local one." Indeed, Judge Marbley ordered all of Ohio's 88 counties to "…preserve all ballots from the 2004 presidential election on paper or in any other format, including electronic data, unless and until such time otherwise instructed by this court." Thus anyone destroying such records, from Election Day until the time you read this, may have broken various federal or state laws, and be in contempt of a federal court order.

King-Lincoln alleges a wide range of civil rights violations perpetrated by Blackwell and many of Ohio's 88 county boards of elections based on race, economic status, political inclination, wrongful denial of absentee ballots (as in Harvey's case) and more.

Here are some of the stories the counties are telling about the destruction of their ballots: (View the original state documents in a 19.5MB PDF)

Hancock County says it "received verbal directions" from Secretary of State Blackwell's office that unused and soiled ballots "did not have to be retained and these items were destroyed."

But any election audit requires a complete set of used and unused ballots to ensure that the unused ballots weren't stuffed illegally into the ballot box. The law refers specifically to "all" ballots.

Putnam County apparently understood this all too clearly. That's why they informed Brunner that "all unused ballots were destroyed for security purposes."

In Warren County, on Election Day, the board of elections declared a Level 10 Homeland Security alert for which neither the Homeland Security Agency nor the FBI has any documentation or explanation. The alert served as cover for moving the vote count to an isolated warehouse, away from the media. Bush emerged from Warren County with a huge majority, far in excess of what he received in 2000.

Some twenty-two thousand officially unused ballots from Warren County are now mysteriously missing.

Warren County Board of Elections Director Michael E. Moore has written Brunner, stating that, in complete defiance of the law, "They were not accidentally destroyed. They were destroyed pursuant to standard practices that had been used by the Board of Elections for many years in Warren County regarding unused punch card ballots." Moore notes that "The unused ballots were destroyed 60 days after the 2004 election."

Warren, along with neighboring Clermont and Butler counties, provided Bush with more than his entire 118,775 winning margin in Ohio 2004. Thus these three counties were singled out for allegations of fraud in the election contest case Moss v. Bush (though only after surviving the first-ever Congressional challenge to a state's entire Electoral College delegation). The allegations of fraud on a level that could have decided the presidency were thus never tested in court…and now the evidence has been destroyed.

Clermont County "could not locate" the unused ballots, according to Mike Keeley, Board of Elections Director.

Butler County cannot provide the "2004 General Election Ballot Pages." Director Betty McGary says that "at no time was anyone specifically instructed to discard these items. Our staff unintentionally discarded boxes containing Ballot Pages as requested in Directive 2007-07 due to unclear and misinterpreted instructions." For complex reasons having to do with Ohio's precinct ballot rotation law, the ballots from Butler County cannot be recounted with the "Ballot Pages" missing. The pages match the punches to the candidates.

Holmes County BOE Director Lisa Welch wrote Brunner that "a shelving unit collapsed in the Board of Elections storeroom on the morning of Friday, April 7, 2006. That shelving unit held the voted ballots, stubs, soiled and defaced ballot envelopes, and ballot accounting charts from the 2004 General Election. The shelves and stored items collapsed onto a side table holding a working coffee maker. The carafe on the coffee maker was full at the time of the incident. Many of the stored items had to be destroyed due to the broken glass and hot coffee. The ballot pages and unused ballots were stored on a neighboring shelf and were not damaged."

Holmes County was rendered infamous by Karl Rove's legendary spin claiming there was an unprecedented massive turnout of homophobic old order Amish voted for Bush and against gay marriage. (It is well-known that the Amish as a community rarely vote).

Allen County "labeled all voted ballots and placed [them] in our vault for the required 22 months of storage," according to Keith Cunningham, Director. Cunningham distinguished himself as a pro-Bush and Rove mouthpiece when he testified at then-Congressman (now-felon) Bob Ney's cursory March 2005 hearing into the 2004 Ohio election.

Cunningham told the Secretary of State that in the "…latter part of 2004 and into 2005… [we] began to experience problems with storm water migrating and subsequently penetrating our primary storage areas including our vault." He told Free Press reporter Paddy Shaffer that the vault had been flooding for "six years," and he had to put the 2004 presidential ballots on the floor because he needed the shelf space.

Cunningham added that: "As a result of these events, much of what was stored in our vault, including the 2004 general election ballots, were compromised by water damage and subsequently destroyed on or about August 20, 2006. Pursuant to the recommendations of the Allen County Health Department the boxes displaying mold or mildew were set aside to be discarded. Unfortunately, the contractor hired to remove the damaged boxes also accidentally removed the undamaged boxes as well," stated Cunningham, who did manage to save 498 write-in ballots.

The Health Department records recommended destruction or isolation as a solution.

Guernsey County's ballots suffered a similar twisted fate. According to BOE Director Jacqueline Newhart, "The unused ballots as well as the punch card ballot pages were destroyed in error" because "the county maintenance worker, when collecting trash, picked up the boxes" that contained them.

In allegedly mobbed up Mahoning County, the board of elections has blamed environmentalists for inadvertently destroying the ballots. Apparently the "Mahoning County Green Team picked up all recyclables in the storage room for disposal pursuant to the retention schedule," according to Director Thomas McCabe. As a result, some 115, 936 ballots "were accidentally disposed of on Friday, March 23 of 2007."

Down in Hamilton County (Cincinnati), home of the Taft family dynasty, the unvoted and soiled ballots were "inadvertently shredded between January 19th and 26th of '06."

Perhaps the most egregious case of ballot destruction, and easiest to criminally prosecute, is Director Steve Harsman's in Montgomery County. Researcher Richard Hayes Phillips reported in the Free Press that, "…the Board was eager to destroy them [the ballots]. The employees who handled the ballots for me brought up the subject themselves."

Harsman conceded that the "Ohio Revised Code" required a 22-month "retention schedule." Yet, he argues that since the "Certificate of Destruction" had already been "prepared" prior to his receiving the order from Judge Marbley that he had the right to destroy the ballots.

"We literally ran out of space to prepare, stage, and retain material for these elections. It was imperative that we process the 2004 materials for destruction under the guidelines of the 22-month retention. Therefore, all materials were properly destroyed in a timely manner and we were unable to comply due to these circumstances. We did not receive formal notice from the courts prior to preparing the certification of destruction," Harman wrote.

Thus Harman admits to openly defying a federal court order and destroying evidence because he wasn't notified "prior to preparing the certification of destruction."

But Judge Marbley pointed out in his opinion and order of September 11, 2006 in support of his order of September 7, that the Ohio Revised Code 3501.16 makes it a fourth degree felony for, among other things, willfully or negligently violating election laws as a director of a board of elections.

The original story of the ballots being saved for litigation and history made the pages of the New York Times. But the blatant and bizarre destruction of Ohio's 2004 ballots has been relegated to the back page of the Columbus Dispatch Metro & State section. The brief article by Mark Niquette ran below the fold and the weather map, and above an ad for Window World and the Ohio State Medical Center.

Matt Damschroder, the Franklin County (Columbus) Board of Election Director and former Chair of the Republican Party, assured the Dispatch that the "counties did nothing intentionally wrong." Damschroder is the President of the Ohio Association of Election Officials and was suspended without pay for a month after he accepted a $10,000 check from a Diebold representative in his office, made out to the GOP on the day the bidding for e-voting machines opened.

His job was in jeopardy until Board of Elections President Bill Anthony, Chair of the Franklin County Democratic Party, intervened to save Damschroder from firing.

King-Lincoln-Bronzeville Attorney Cliff Arnebeck stated that "The nature and scope of the cover-up can tell a lot about the nature and scope of the crime. Destruction of relevant documents can create a presumption that such evidence would have helped the other side in litigation."

Arnebeck also said White House advisor Karl Rove "has had the keys to the US Justice Department for some time. No wonder FBI investigations requested by US Rep. John Conyers of the House Judiciary Committee went nowhere. He also used those keys to scuttle two years of work by the IRS and FBI of financial corruption at the Ohio Statehouse."

Overall this blatant destruction of evidence only reinforces the widespread belief that the 2004 election was stolen. The loss of ballot materials in a few isolated counties might be an understandable random event. But for more than 60% of the state's BOEs to have destroyed ballots or ballot materials amidst a series of bizarre, absurd explanations is a joke.

America has been robbed of its history here. The public has a right to know the true outcome of the 2004 election, and to have its laws about preservation of critical records honored.

Under evidence laws, the destruction of material that serves as evidence in a lawsuit is presumed to be fraudulent action by the destroyer.

But the Bush-Rove-Blackwell regime is about nothing if not contempt for the law. And its assault on the documents that could show what really happened in Ohio's contested 2004 election seems yet another obvious confirmation that it was, in fact, stolen.

--
Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman's HOW THE GOP STOLE AMERICA'S 2004 ELECTION & IS RIGGING 2008, available at freepress.org (where this article first appeared) along with the FITRAKIS FILES. HARVEY WASSERMAN'S HISTORY OF THE US is at www.solartopia.org.

Did U.S. intelligence assets kill Antioch College?

2007-07-16T21:47:00.000-07:00

"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist." President Dwight Eisenhower

By Bob Fitrakis

At the time of its announced closure, Antioch College, perhaps America’s most progressive and well-known peace college, had a few visible capitalist hawks on its Board of Trustees.

Bruce P. Bedford, one of only three Trustees not a former alum, had been appointed to the board of Arlington, Virginia company GlobeSecNine in 2005. The company is described by a representative of investment corporation Bear Sterns as having “a unique set of experiences in special forces, classified operations, transportation security and military operations.” One can only speculate why the nation’s longest-standing anti-imperialist education institution would appoint a trustee with extensive ties to the military and security industrial complexes.

Business Wire on May 4, 2005 described GlobeSecNine as follows: “GlobeSecNine invests in companies providing U.S. defense, security, global trade management and supply chain solutions to the public and private sectors, and has a strategic alliance with The Scowcroft Group, a business advisory firm headed by former National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft.”

Bedford served on the GlobeSecNine board of advisors with Scowcroft and co-founder of the CIA Counter-Terrorism Center Fred Turco. Others affiliated with the company are tied directly to the prison industrial complex and the anti-liberal “war on drugs,” for example Jack Lawn, former Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration, who serves on the board of directors.

On July 3, 2007, Michael Alexander’s name was removed from the list of Antioch trustees. Two days earlier, he had been sworn in as president of Lasell College in Newton Massachusetts. There has been speculation that Antioch’s campus would make a great retirement community, much like the one at Lasell, known as Lasell Village, “a state-of-the-art eldercare community with the first-of-its-kind built in educational component.”

In 1998 Alexander founded AverStar, where he served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and did business primarily with NASA and the Defense Department. In 2000, Alexander’s AverStar defense company merged with the Titan corporation.

In March 2005, Titan pled guilty and paid the largest penalty under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in history for bribery and filing false tax returns.

L-3 Communications acquired the Titan Corporation on July 29, 2005. As their corporate website described the company, it “is a leading provider of Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) systems, secure communications systems, aircraft modernization, training and government services. The company is a leading merchant supplier of a broad array of high technology products, including guidance and navigation, sensors, scanners, fuzes, data links, propulsion systems, simulators, avionics, electro optics, satellite communications, electrical power equipment, encryption, signal intelligence, antennas and microwave components. L-3 also supports a variety of Homeland Security initiatives with products and services. Its customers include the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, selected U.S. Government intelligence agencies and aerospace prime contractors.”

The L-3 Communications Titan Group brags that 8000 of its 10,000 employees have “security clearances” and that they are a leading provider of C4ISR, Command, Control, Communications, Computer, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance – “developing and supporting the systems of today and tomorrow for the United States and Allied Militaries and defense-related agencies in order for them to carry out their assigned missions,” according to their website.

While Anitoch board members Bedford and Alexander cozied up with U.S. intelligence and Homeland Security, students at the university sponsored a national teach-in to expose the atrocities of Guantanamo Bay on October 5, 2006.

How a college targeted by the FBI and its notorious COINTELPRO operation during the Cold War as a “vanguard of the New Left” managed to place two “spook”-connected trustees on their board is a mystery worth exploring.

Antioch resides in the shadow of the Wright Patterson Air Force Base and its legendary Foreign Technologies Division that reverse engineers weapons systems from other nations. Its larger neighbor to the west, Ohio State University, has long been tied up with the CIA’s favorite nonprofit institution, Battelle, and was one of the 30 or so universities involved in the MK Ultra mind control LSD experiments in the 1960s.

The Dayton Daily News is reporting that a $5 million accounting error caused the radical college to close. Others have pointed to the long-standing rumors of intelligence ties to the Antioch Europe in Transition study program.

If the CIA or U.S. intelligence services were involved in the subversion of America’s most imperialist and pro-peace college, it wouldn’t be the first time that the progressive college campuses have been infiltrated. The CIA subverted the National Student Association in the late 50s and early 60s. The agency also has been accused of subverting everything from fraternities to Fullbright scholars to Peace Corps workers.

The role of these trustees must be heavily scrutinized. Antioch alumni should be ashamed to allow their college to die until they get to the bottom of this spooky mystery.

Bob Fitrakis is the author of The Fitrakis Files: Spooks, Nukes, and Nazis, on the role of the CIA in Ohio politics.

get the low down on all the candidates at oppodepot.com

2007-07-02T23:06:00.000-07:00

http://www.oppodepot.com/

Progressive Radio

2007-07-01T13:34:00.000-07:00

http://www.progressive.org/radioabout

"The Progressive Radio Show" is a weekly half-hour radio show hosted by Matthew Rothschild, Editor of The Progressive magazine and former host of "Second Opinion." Recent guests include Al Franken, Robert Fisk, Grace Paley, Jim Hightower, Sam Hamill, Lois Gibbs, and Alix Olson. Archives.

"The Progressive Point of View" is Matt Rothschild's brief daily commentary. Archives.

Impeaching the Opus Dei 5

2007-07-01T13:21:00.000-07:00

We now have five conservative Catholics sitting on the highest court in the USA. I have nothing against Catholics. I was raised Catholic and I know many powerful progressives who were raised Catholic. But these men have an extreme right wing viewpoint and it is showing in their rulings. They are so far out of the mainstream of American life, they can't even see it. Scalia, Thomas, Alito, Roberts, and Kennedy are all right wing Catholics.

When the Democrats are in control after the next election, the first order of business should be impeaching Scalia and Thomas, for starters. They should have recused themselves due to conflict of interest during Bush v. Gore. Both had family members working for Bush and the Heritage Foundation.

Here are some articles regarding this serious problem.

None Dare Call It Treason: Vincent Bugliosi

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20010205/bugliosi

The Politicization of the Supreme Court: American Progress

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2007/06/supreme_court.html

Gerald Ford's article on the legal methods of impeachment of Supreme Court Justices

http://www.ford.utexas.edu/library/speeches/700415e.htm

The Three Coequal Branches of US Government

2007-06-25T23:06:00.000-07:00

http://bensguide.gpo.gov/3-5/government/branches.html

It's even got pictures for the trolls! Perfect.

Beach Impeach 1-Run to the Rock

2007-06-23T23:06:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3iozK8Ew7g

1200 of us spelled out the word IMPEACH ! across Ocean Beach in San Francisco. It was a positive yet sober crowd that gathered that day. We had a need to move the national debate past the private two-party decisionmaking system.

Please watch with open eyes and heart.

International Progressives Unite!

2007-06-23T12:12:00.000-07:00

The room name is more than a catchphrase. It's time for progressives to start moving on from debates with right wingers and start crafting our own future.

Please take some time to browse these websites and make suggestions of your own. I see these ideas as providing some hope for survival of our grandchildren, and their children. I look forward to discussing these ideas in the room!

The Simultaneous Policy
www.simpol.org

Steady State Economics
http://www.steadystate.org/

The Apollo Alliance
http://www.apolloalliance.org/

Participatory Economics
http://www.zmag.org/parecon/indexnew.htm

President Fred Thompson and The First Lady

2007-06-21T19:54:00.000-07:00

http://www.nationalledger.com/artman/publish/article_272613846.shtml

Please come to Denver...

2007-06-21T19:13:00.001-07:00

Progressives of all stripes, the Democratic Convention Summer of 2008, is shaping up to be a very interesting moment in history. The City of Denver has already determined that it will not even discuss honoring the First Amendment rights of citizens.

"The Denver City Council decided it would not hear argument for a proclamation that assures that protesters’ First Amendment rights would be protected for the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver."

http://www.workers.org/2007/us/denver-0621/

To learn more about the Convention, and the planned First Amendment political activities, go to these two sites:

http://www.08dnc.com/index.cfm An unofficial convention guide.

http://www.recreate68.org/

August 25 –28, 2008

Characteristics of Fascism

2007-06-16T10:05:00.000-07:00

http://www.omnicenter.org/warpeacecollection/facism.htm

The 14 Defining Characteristics Of Fascism
Free Inquiry: http://www.secularhumanism.org/fi/
Spring 2003; 5-11-03
Dr. Lawrence Britt has examined the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia) and several Latin American regimes. Britt found 14 defining characteristics common to each:

The Constitution of Venezuela

2007-06-13T00:09:00.000-07:00

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Constitution_of_Venezuela

Here is the Preamble:

The people of Venezuela, exercising their powers of creation and invoking the protection of God, the historic example of our Liberator Simon Bolivar and the heroism and sacrifice of our aboriginal ancestors and the forerunners and founders of a free and sovereign nation; to the supreme end of reshaping the Republic to establish a democratic, participatory and self-reliant, multiethnic and multicultural society in a just, federal and decentralized State that embodies the values of freedom, independence, peace, solidarity, the common good, the nation's territorial integrity, comity and the rule of law for this and future generations; guarantees the right to life, work, learning, education, social justice and equality, without discrimination or subordination of any kind; promotes peaceful cooperation among nations and furthers and strengthens Latin American integration in accordance with the principle of nonintervention and national self-determination of the people, the universal and indivisible guarantee of human rights, the democratization of imitational society, nuclear disarmament, ecological balance and environmental resources as the common and inalienable heritage of humanity; exercising their innate power through their representatives comprising the National Constituent Assembly, by their freely cast vote and in a democratic Referendum, hereby ordain the following:

read more...

Psychotics 4 Bush!

2007-06-09T13:18:00.000-07:00

Study finds the more psychotic the voter, the more likely they were to vote for Bush.

To be filed under duh:

[Christopher Lohse], a social work master’s student at Southern Connecticut State University, says he has proven what many progressives have probably suspected for years: a direct link between mental illness and support for President Bush.

…Lohse's study, backed by SCSU Psychology professor Jaak Rakfeldt and statistician Misty Ginacola, found a correlation between the severity of a person's psychosis and their preferences for president: The more psychotic the voter, the more likely they were to vote for Bush.

The study began in part as an advocacy project "designed to register mentally ill voters and encourage them" to vote, while assessing "knowledge of current issues, government and politics." The Bush trend emerged in the course of the study, according to Lohse, who describes himself as a "Reagan revolution fanatic" who nonetheless finds Bush "beyond the pale." During the course of the study, it emerged that "Bush supporters has significantly less knowledge about current issues, government and politics than those who supported Kerry," and that greater levels of psychosis predicted Bush support.

"Our study shows that psychotic patients prefer an authoritative leader," Lohse says. "If your world is very mixed up, there's something very comforting about someone telling you, 'This is how it's going to be'."

Read More...

The Corporate Welfare State: How the Government Subsidizes U.S. Corporations

2007-05-28T14:01:00.000-07:00

This analysis is from the Cato Institute. The Cato Institute is a right-wing libertarian group that occasionally provides worthwhile articles that highlight the ills of the current political system. Corporate welfare costs Americans much more than individual welfare, just as corporate crime costs Americans much more than street crime.

I used to be a right wing libertarian. Now I am a left-wing libertarian, since I learned that the "ideal" of free market capitalism will never happen and at best mandates that there always be losers despite individual merit and hard work. If you don't know where you sit in that spectrum, there's a fun little quiz at www.politicalcompass.org you can take.

http://tinyurl.com/2s4qp7

The federal government spent $92 billion in direct and indirect subsidies to businesses and private- sector corporate entities — expenditures commonly referred to as "corporate welfare" — in fiscal year 2006. The definition of business subsidies used in this report is broader than that used by the Department of Commerce's Bureau of Economic Analysis, which recently put the costs of direct business subsidies at $57 billion in 2005. For the purposes of this study, "corporate welfare" is defined as any federal spending program that provides payments or unique benefits and advantages to specific companies or industries.

Supporters of corporate welfare programs often justify them as remedying some sort of market failure. Often the market failures on which the programs are predicated are either overblown or don't exist. Yet the federal government continues to subsidize some of the biggest companies in America. Boeing, Xerox, IBM, Motorola, Dow Chemical, General Electric, and others have received millions in taxpayer-funded benefits through programs like the Advanced Technology Program and the Export-Import Bank. In addition, the federal crop subsidy programs continue to fund the wealthiest farmers.

Because the corporate welfare state transcends any specific agency — and therefore any specific congressional committee — one way to reform or terminate those programs would be through a corporate welfare reform commission (CWRC). That commission could function like the successful military base closure commission. The CWRC would compose a list of corporate welfare programs to eliminate and then present that list to Congress, which would be required to hold an up-or-down vote on the commission's proposal.

Go to the Original to get the full text of the policy analysis.

Illuminati Design and Symbolism in the Israeli Supreme Court Building

2007-05-21T08:36:00.000-07:00

Skip the video and read the article :)

http://www.planetquo.com/Illuminati-Design-And-Symbolism-In-The-Israeli-Supreme-Court-Building

US Assistance to Israel 1947-2006

2007-05-20T10:17:00.000-07:00

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/U.S._Assistance_to_Israel1.html

Over 1 Trillion of our 9 Trillion National Debt has gone to Israel.

The Landlord

2007-05-20T10:15:00.000-07:00

http://sjl.funnyordie.com/v1/view_video.php?viewkey=3efbc24c7d2583be6925

This is one of the funniest videos ever!

Animals Have Problems Too

2007-05-20T10:13:00.001-07:00

http://www.animalshaveproblemstoo.com/

The Constitution of Venezuela

2007-05-20T10:11:00.000-07:00

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Constitution_of_Venezuela

Here's the Preamble. You may read the rest at the Link above.

PREAMBLE
The people of Venezuela, exercising their powers of creation and invoking the protection of God, the historic example of our Liberator Simon Bolivar and the heroism and sacrifice of our aboriginal ancestors and the forerunners and founders of a free and sovereign nation; to the supreme end of reshaping the Republic to establish a democratic, participatory and self-reliant, multiethnic and multicultural society in a just, federal and decentralized State that embodies the values of freedom, independence, peace, solidarity, the common good, the nation's territorial integrity, comity and the rule of law for this and future generations; guarantees the right to life, work, learning, education, social justice and equality, without discrimination or subordination of any kind; promotes peaceful cooperation among nations and furthers and strengthens Latin American integration in accordance with the principle of nonintervention and national self-determination of the people, the universal and indivisible guarantee of human rights, the democratization of imitational society, nuclear disarmament, ecological balance and environmental resources as the common and inalienable heritage of humanity; exercising their innate power through their representatives comprising the National Constituent Assembly, by their freely cast vote and in a democratic Referendum, hereby ordain the following:

Politics Lobby 10 Poll

2007-05-20T10:09:00.000-07:00

http://pl10.blogspot.com/

This is a poll from the Yahoo room. It's lots of fun.

The Biggest Threat to Democracy in History

2007-05-18T07:41:00.000-07:00

Go here to sign a petition to your National representatives and read reasoning behind it

http://www.usalone.com/cgi-bin/petition.cgi?pnum=638

Synopsis

WARNING: a bipartisan Congress will, in the next few days, attempt to violate your #1 Inalienable Right. Having talked to many folks, I’ve not yet found an American who says this warning is not well taken. Although each person I’ve talked to understands they’re being cheated by this; they just tend to think that other Americans won’t listen, or think Americans too busy to preserve their own most basic rights.

WARNING: With computerized voting, your inalienable right to kick the bums out, or your inalienable right to alter or abolish your government through elections, doesn’t exist. It is not secured for you by your government. They are not guaranteeing this right for you. In fact any corrupt election insider could, for money, partisanship, pressure, threat or in the belief of doing a great justice to the whole Nation, alter the election results undetectably, erasing the steps along the way. As long as the total number of votes match up roughly, and one doesn’t cheat more than say 20 percentage points, a whole industry of political pundits will chalk up the surprise victory to the last minute attack ad, or great get out the vote campaign, or a problem with the “loser’s” platform, the weather, or any of dozens of other colorable excuses.

An August 2006 Zogby poll I paid for with help from Nancy Tobi of New Hampshire and Michael Collins of electionfraudnews.com established that an incredible 92% of Americans supported a vote counting system where vote counting is observable by the public and the public can obtain information about vote counting. http://www.zogby.com/News/ReadNews.dbm?ID=1163 This is one of the highest political values ever measured in polls, yet the 90% secret vote counting that is taking place in America shows how incredibly out of touch our government, of both parties, is with every demographic group in America.

Politics Lobby 10: On The Move (From Yahoo)

2007-05-10T20:50:00.000-07:00

As I pen this missive, Ann_Coulter2 is in the new Paltalk Room, Politics Lobby 10, talking in her inimitable fascist style. Is it Ann? I don't know. It seems, she too, is leaning left these days (maybe, we could only hope).

Thanks to thephoenix (sic) there is a more civil place to run this liberal think tank from. This is an administered room where bots from ovrbearing chatters cannot and will not rule the day.

Paltalk is not Yahoo. I has its advantages and is not tweakable (much yet) like Yahelite, Yazak is to yahoo, though there are alternative program add-ons.

This is room is an exodus from politics lobby 10 in yahoo. And a migration to a new vision of a just, honest, and progressive reality.

We all keep each other informed there and try to take the weight of the world off each others shoulders.

The world is watching, we are watching, and trying to make constructive sense of some progressive action that will benefit all.

Bush's Cyber Election Hit Squad

2007-04-30T19:13:00.000-07:00

Read this along with the next article, Behind the Firewall.

The GOP’s Cyber Election Hit Squad
by Steven Rosenfeld and Bob Fitrakis
April 22, 2007

Did the most powerful Republicans in America have the computer capacity, software skills and electronic infrastructure in place on Election Night 2004 to tamper with the Ohio results to ensure George W. Bush’s re-election?

The answer appears to be yes. There is more than ample documentation to show that on Election Night 2004, Ohio’s “official” Secretary of State website – which gave the world the presidential election results – was redirected from an Ohio government server to a group of servers that contain scores of Republican web sites, including the secret White House e-mail accounts that have emerged in the scandal surrounding Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’s firing of eight federal prosecutors.

Recent revelations have documented that the Republican National Committee (RNC) ran a secret White House e-mail system for Karl Rove and dozens of White House staffers. This high-tech system used to count and report the 2004 presidential vote– from server-hosting contracts, to software-writing services, to remote-access capability, to the actual server usage logs themselves – must be added to the growing congressional investigations.

Numerous tech-savvy bloggers, starting with the online investigative consortium epluribusmedia.org and their November 2006 article cross-posted by contributor luaptifer to Dailykos, and Joseph Cannon’s blog at Cannonfire.blogspot.com, outed the RNC tech network. That web-hosting firm is SMARTech Corp. of Chattanooga, TN, operating out of the basement in the old Pioneer Bank building. The firm hosts scores of Republican websites, including georgewbush.com, gop.com and rnc.org.

The software created for the Ohio secretary of state’s Election Night 2004 website was created by GovTech Solutions, a firm co-founded by longtime GOP computing guru Mike Connell. He also redesigned the Bush campaign’s website in 2000 and told “Inside Business” magazine in 1999, “I wouldn’t be where I am today without the Bush campaign and the Bush family because the Bushes truly are about family and I’m loyal to my network.”

Read more...

Also read: http://fraudbusterbob.com/blog/2007/04/26/are-roves-missing-e-mails-the-smoking-guns-of-the-stolen-2004-election

Who is Michael L. Connell? Part II: Behind the firewall.

2007-04-30T19:11:00.000-07:00

The Missing Link

In Part I: The Atwater School of Politics, we detailed the first half of Michael L. Connell's GOP career arc, from college-aged Bush 41 computer prodigy to seasoned smashmouth campaign planner.

In the latter half of the 90s, Connell's return to hi-tech was a no-brainer, as the Internet explosion unearthed new pathways and paradigms for soliciting votes. With the creation of his company New Media Communications, Connell began to blaze a nascent "super-highway" and to begin the task of re-branding the Bush family legacy from "wimp" to "winner." And by the end of the decade, New Media's GeorgeWBush.com and GOP.com gilded Connell's status as "a trusted partisan."

So why was this Internet guru for the Republican Party -- once fired for "unethical" campaign tactics - selected as the first private vendor to set up behind the firewall at the U.S. House of Representatives? And how did GovTech Solutions, the company he co-founded with scandal-ridden lobbyist Thomas J. Synhorst, get security clearance to re-design and install the Intelligence committee's web site on the House intranet?

This article, "Part II: Behind the firewall," picks up the Connell thread in 1996, when after a year of preparations, his company New Media Communications and the GOP start laying the foundation for the 2000 presidential election.

Read More...

Stephen Colbert (whatta man!) at the White House Correspondents' Dinner

2007-04-30T19:09:00.000-07:00

See it on You Tube!

The Establishment Rethinks Globalization

2007-04-22T19:07:00.000-07:00

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070430/greider

The church of global free trade, which rules American politics with infallible pretensions, may have finally met its Martin Luther. An unlikely dissenter has come forward with a revised understanding of globalization that argues for thorough reformation. This man knows the global trading system from the inside because he is a respected veteran of multinational business. His ideas contain an explosive message: that what established authorities teach Americans about global trade is simply wrong--disastrously wrong for the United States.

Martin Luther was a rebellious priest challenging the dictates of a corrupt church hierarchy. Ralph Gomory, on the other hand, is a gentle-spoken technologist, trained as a mathematician and largely apolitical. He does not set out to overthrow the establishment but to correct its deeper fallacies. For many years Gomory was a senior vice president at IBM. He helped manage IBM's expanding global presence as jobs and high-tech production were being dispersed around the world.

The experience still haunts him. He decided, in retirement, that he would dig deeper into the contradictions. Now president of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, he knew something was missing in the "pure trade theory" taught by economists. If free trade is a win-win proposition, Gomory asked himself, then why did America keep losing?

Read more...

Important Political Films and Videos

2007-04-21T16:39:00.000-07:00

When Democracy Failed: Thom Hartmann

The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear

Fritz Lang’s Metropolis
State of the Union
The Corporation Watch it.
Orwell Rolls in His Grave
My Man Godfrey
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Silkwood
An Inconvenient Truth
Norma Rae
The Battle of Algiers
The Bicycle Thief
The Grapes of Wrath
Why We Fight
All Quiet on the Western Front
The Great Dictator
Confessions of an Economic Hitman
Salud
From Freedom to Fascism
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. An eyeopening film about the US backed coup against Hugo Chavez of Venezuela
Walmart-The High Cost of Low Prices

Many of these films, as well as other excellent documentaries, may be found at ALLUC.ORG

Got a suggestion? Add it to Comments and I will add it to the list!

Lee Iacocca, Mad as Hell!

2007-04-14T17:32:00.000-07:00

http://www.bordersstores.com/features/feature.jsp?file=wherehavealltheleadersgone

I
Had Enough?

Am I the only guy in this country who's fed up with what's happening? Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder. We've got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we've got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can't even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, "Stay the course."

Stay the course? You've got to be kidding. This is America, not the damned Titanic. I'll give you a sound bite: Throw the bums out!

You might think I'm getting senile, that I've gone off my rocker, and maybe I have. But someone has to speak up. I hardly recognize this country anymore. The President of the United States is given a free pass to ignore the Constitution, tap our phones, and lead us to war on a pack of lies. Congress responds to record deficits by passing a huge tax cut for the wealthy (thanks, but I don't need it). The most famous business leaders are not the innovators but the guys in handcuffs. While we're fiddling in Iraq, the Middle East is burning and nobody seems to know what to do. And the press is waving pom-poms instead of asking hard questions. That's not the promise of America my parents and yours traveled across the ocean for. I've had enough. How about you?

I'll go a step further. You can't call yourself a patriot if you're not outraged. This is a fight I'm ready and willing to have.

My friends tell me to calm down. They say, "Lee, you're eighty-two years old. Leave the rage to the young people." I'd love to—as soon as I can pry them away from their iPods for five seconds and get them to pay attention. I'm going to speak up because it's my patriotic duty. I think people will listen to me. They say I have a reputation as a straight shooter. So I'll tell you how I see it, and it's not pretty, but at least it's real. I'm hoping to strike a nerve in those young folks who say they don't vote because they don't trust politicians to represent their interests. Hey, America, wake up. These guys work for us.

Read More!

Eeking Out Reality And Gonzales Denies Us Habeas Corpus

2007-04-08T08:35:00.000-07:00

First a quote from a friend that rings so true in the "dis-information age":

Our universe is governed by fictions of all kinds: mass consumption, publicity, politics considered and managed like a branch of publicity, instantaneous translation of science and techniques into a popular imagery, confusion and telescopage of identities in the realm of consumer goods, right of pre-emption exercised by the television screen over every personal reaction to reality. We live at the interior of an enormous novel. It becomes less and less necessary for the writer to give fictional content to his works. The fiction is already there. The work of the novelist is to invent reality.
-J.G. Ballard, from the introduction of the French edition of Crash

From Amnesty International Email;

"The Constitution doesn't say every individual in the United States or every citizen is granted or assured the right to habeas [corpus]. It doesn't say that."

If you guessed Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, you're correct. In fact, the Constitution states that habeas corpus rights cannot be suspended except in times of rebellion or invasion. For centuries, this has meant that a person could challenge his or her detention in an independent court of law - unless those exceptional circumstances existed.

Gonzales's declaration should strike fear in all of us. His dangerous comments before the Senate Judiciary Committee betrayed the Constitutional rights he was sworn to protect as our nation's top law enforcement official...and defied common sense, too. Watch the video!

A Boy Named Bush

2007-04-07T17:45:00.000-07:00

http://www.amiright.com/parody/misc/themesong7.shtml

"The Beverly Hillbillies" Based on the performance by Theme Song
"A Boy Named Bush" Parody by Sharon Krebs
Come and listen to my story 'bout a boy name Bush.
His IQ was zero and his head was up his tush.
He drank like a fish while he drove all about.
But that didn't matter 'cuz his daddy bailed him out.
DUI, that is. Criminal record. Cover-up.

Well, the first thing you know little Georgie goes to Yale.
He can't spell his name but they never let him fail.
He spends all his time hangin' out with student folk.
And that's when he learns how to snort a line of coke.
Blow, that is. White gold. Nose candy.

The next thing you know there's a war in Vietnam.
Kin folks say, "George, stay at home with Mom."
Let the common people get maimed and scarred.
We'll buy you a spot in the Texas Air Guard.
Cushy, that is. Country clubs. Nose candy.

Twenty years later George gets a little bored.
He trades in the booze, says that Jesus is his Lord.
He said, "Now the White House is the place I wanna be."
So he called his daddy's friends and they called the GOP.
Gun owners, that is. Falwell. Jesse Helms.

Come November 7, the election ran late.
Kin folks said "Jeb, give the boy your state!"
"Don't let those colored folks get into the polls."
So they put up barricades so they couldn't punch their holes.
Chads, that is. Duval County. Miami-Dade.

Before the votes were counted five Supremes stepped in.
Told all the voters "Hey, we want George to win."
"Stop counting votes!" was their solemn invocation.
And that's how George finally got his coronation.
Rigged, that is. Illegitimate. No moral authority.
Y'all come vote now. Ya hear?

Discovery the Hidden History Behind the Bush Dynasty

2007-04-07T14:21:00.000-07:00

http://www.secrecyandprivilege.com/

Discover the Hidden History
Behind the Bush Dynasty

Secrecy & Privilege
by Robert Parry
390 pages (paperback)
$22.95

Tracing investigative leads back through three decades, Secrecy & Privilege explores the mystery of how the two George Bushes rose to the pinnacle of American political power – and what the rise of their dynasty has meant to the nation’s democratic principles.

Purchase 'Secrecy & Privilege' along with Parry's 1999 book 'Lost History' for only $32, a 30% discount!

Two ‘must-read’ books, Lost History and Secrecy & Privilege fill in missing chapters of modern U.S. history – from the truth about the Reagan administration’s complicity in drug trafficking of the 1980s to the real story of how the Bush Family’s rise to power transformed American democracy.

When you order now, $10 from the purchase will be donated to Consortiumnews.com.

Palestinians live in an Imprisoned Society

2007-04-06T21:06:00.000-07:00

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/181D9639-1F51-46E5-839E-292BBEFDE726.htm

Israel accused of 'apartheid'

Dugard said Gaza was an imprisoned society, with things little better in the West Bank [GALLO/GETTY]

A UN human rights envoy has likened Israel's treatment of Palestinians in occupied territory to "apartheid", and said that failure to tackle the situation will make it hard to solve abuses elsewhere.

John Dugard, a UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, made his remarks to the UN Human Rights Council on Thursday.

Dugard, a South African lawyer, said restrictions on movement and separate residential areas gave a sense of "deja vu" to anyone with experience of apartheid, noting that apartheid was "contrary to international law".

He said: "Of course there are similarities between the OPT [Occupied Palestinian Territory] and apartheid South Africa."

He also told the council that the situation "places in danger the whole international human rights enterprise".

Read More...

Death and Contractors

2007-04-03T21:43:00.000-07:00

http://www.laweekly.com/news/news/made-in-the-usa-part-iii-us-company-listings-a-m/2888/

Made In the USA, Part III: US Company Listings A-M

By Jim Crogan
Thursday, April 24, 2003 - 12:00 am

AT&T

(New York City, New York)

2000 — Contracted with Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. to "optimize" Huawei’s products. Between 2000 and 2001, Huawei outfitted Iraq’s air-defense system with fiber-optic equipment, in violation of a U.N. trade embargo.

(return to company index)

AL HADDAD ENTERPRISES, INC.

(Formerly based in Nashville, Tennessee — defunct)

1984 to 1985 — Company sold 60 tons of DMMP, a material used to make sarin gas, to Iraq. Also provided chemical-production equipment to Iraq. In 1984, customs officials at Kennedy International Airport seized another Al Haddad shipment of 1,100 pounds of potassium fluoride, a chemical used in nerve-gas production. Al Haddad was not charged in this attempted transfer of chemicals, which were destined for Iraq’s Ministry of Pesticides. This firm also received letters of credit from BNL (an Italian bank) totaling $134,988 to sell knives and rubber blankets to Technical Corp. for Special Projects, an Iraqi front company. (Note: See Banca Nazionale del Lavoro entry for information about BNL’s Iraqi loans and letters of credit.)

The firm was owned by Sahib Abd al-Amir al-Haddad, an Iraqi-born, naturalized American citizen. According to corporate records from Tennessee’s Department of State, Al Haddad operated a number of registered firms, which are all inactive, dissolved or merged out. These firms included Al Haddad Enterprises, Inc.; A. Saleh & S. Al-Haddad, Inc.; and Al-Haddad Bros. Enterprises, Inc. Recent stories in The New York Times and The Tennessean reported that al-Haddad was arrested in Bulgaria in November 2002 while trying to arrange an arms sale to Iraq. At last report, Al-Haddad, 59, was awaiting extradition to Germany, where he is charged with conspiring in the late 1990s to purchase equipment for the manufacture of a giant Iraqi cannon.

(return to company index)

ALCOLAC INTERNATIONAL, INC

(Formerly located in Baltimore, Maryland. Company was restructured as Alcolac, Inc., and it’s currently listed as an active Georgia corporation. Company’s assets now owned by French-based firm Rhodia, Inc., with U.S. operations based in Cranberry, New Jersey.)

1988 — Allegedly sold more than 300 tons of thiodiglycol (precursor material used to make mustard gas) via Nu Kraft Mercantile Corporation, which, according to congressional testimony and media reports, shipped the material to Jordan and then on to Iraq, through Iraq’s Industrial Procurement Company. In the same period, Alcolac also shipped thiodiglycol to Iran and pleaded guilty in 1988 to one count of export violations for its Iranian shipments. Alcolac is currently one of the corporate defendants in a Texas civil suit filed on behalf of some 3,500 Gulf War vets allegedly suffering from Gulf War syndrome. The suit initially named 64 American and international companies that allegedly provided Iraq with materials used to develop chemical and biological weapons. However, a number of those companies will likely be sued in European courts, and the current number of defendants is in flux. Ronald Welsh, the attorney representing Alcolac in that suit, denied any company wrongdoing in connection with Iraq and added that he had no "personal knowledge" of any Alcolac shipments of thiodiglycol to Saddam Hussein’s regime. But U.N. weapons-inspector reports, included in a 1992 Senate Banking Committee hearing on U.S. export policy toward Iraq, identified shipments of thiodiglycol that were sent to Iraq by Alcolac.

A spokesman for the company that now owns Alcolac emphasized that the "alleged illegal infractions" occurred before Alcolac was obtained by the current ownership.

(return to company index)

AMERICAN TYPE CULTURE COLLECTION

(Manassas, Virginia)

1985 to 1989 — ATCC is a nonprofit that provides biological products, technical services and educational programs to private industry, government and academia. It sent to Iraq some 70 shipments of deadly germs, which included anthrax bacteria, E. coli bacteria, salmonella bacteria, bacillus megaterium (which causes meningitis), bacillus subtilus and bacillus cereus (which are strains of anthrax), brucella abortus (which causes influenza), brucella melitensis (a bacteria that attacks major organs), clostridum botulinum (a source of botulism), clostridium perfringens (which causes lung failure), clostridium tetani (which causes muscle rigidity), and Francisella tularensis (which causes tularemia).

Was Carol Lam Targeting The White House Prior To Her Firing?

2007-03-31T23:27:00.000-07:00

Poster's note:
Really no coverage on this in MSM (main stream media)

Oringinal Article at:
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/03/19/carol-lam-white-house/

Referring to the Bush administration’s purge of former San Diego-based U.S. attorney Carol Lam, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) questioned recently on the Senate floor whether she was let go because she was “about to investigate other people who were politically powerful.”

The media reports this morning that among Lam’s politically powerful targets were former CIA official Kyle “Dusty” Foggo and then-House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis (R-CA). But there is evidence to believe that the White House may also have been on Lam’s target list. Here are the connections:

– Washington D.C. defense contractor Mitchell Wade pled guilty last February to paying then-California Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham more than $1 million in bribes.

– Wade’s company MZM Inc. received its first federal contract from the White House. The contract, which ran from July 15 to August 15, 2002, stipulated that Wade be paid $140,000 to “provide office furniture and computers for Vice President Dick Cheney.”

– Two weeks later, on August 30, 2002, Wade purchased a yacht for $140,000 for Duke Cunningham. The boat’s name was later changed to the “Duke-Stir.” Said one party to the sale: “I knew then that somebody was going to go to jail for that…Duke looked at the boat, and Wade bought it — all in one day. Then they got on the boat and floated away.”

– According to Cunningham’s sentencing memorandum, the purchase price of the boat had been negotiated through a third-party earlier that summer, around the same time the White House contract was signed.

To recap, the White House awarded a one-month, $140,000 contract to an individual who never held a federal contract. Two weeks after he got paid, that same contractor used a cashier’s check for exactly that amount to buy a boat for a now-imprisoned congressman at a price that the congressman had pre-negotiated.

That should raise questions about the White House’s involvement.

UPDATE: Perhaps this was the “real problem” Sampson was referring to:

Filed under: Ethics
Posted by Faiz March 19, 2007 1:52 pm

Permalink | Comment (217)

Have you ever read the Bible?

2007-03-22T21:04:00.000-07:00

Here are some parts they may have skipped in your Sunday School, eh.

http://nobeliefs.com/DarkBible/DarkBibleContents.htm

PASSING WIND: "Wherefore my bowels shall sound like a harp for Moab, and mine inward parts for Kirharesh." (Isaiah 16:11)

WARNING! RATED X!

"Yet she multiplied her whoredoms, and lusted after her paramours there, whose members were like those of donkeys, and whose emission was like that of stallions." (Ezekiel 23: 21]

(FROM PATACT84)

Biotech could manipulate human behavior and life processes

2007-03-22T19:05:00.000-07:00

http://research.lifeboat.com/mit2.htm

The Knowledge
Biotechnology's advance could give malefactors the ability to manipulate life processes--and even affect human behavior.

By Mark Williams

Editor's note: Conscious of the controversial nature of this article, Technology Review asked Allison Macfarlane, a research associate in the Science, Technology, and Global Security Working Group in MIT's Program in Science, Technology, and Society, to rebut its argument: see "Assessing the Threat." We were also careful to elide any recipes for developing a biological weapon. Such details as do appear have been published before, mainly in scientific journals.

Last year, a likable and accomplished scientist named Serguei Popov, who for nearly two decades developed genetically engineered biological weapons for the Soviet Union, crossed the Potomac River to speak at a conference on bioterrorism in Washington, DC.

Popov, now a professor at the National Center for Biodefense and Infectious Diseases at George Mason University, is tallish, with peaked eyebrows and Slavic cheekbones, and, at 55, has hair somewhere between sandy and faded ginger. He has an open, lucid gaze, and he is courteously soft-spoken. His career has been unusual by any standards. As a student in his native city of Novosibirsk, Siberia's capital, preparing his thesis on DNA synthesis, he read the latest English-language publications on the new molecular biology. After submitting his doctorate in 1976, he joined Biopreparat, the Soviet pharmaceutical agency that secretly developed biological weapons. There, he rose to become a department head in a comprehensive program to genetically engineer biological weapons. When the program was founded in the 1970s, its goal was to enhance classical agents of biological warfare for heightened pathogenicity and resistance to antibiotics; by the 1980s, it was creating new species of designer pathogens that would induce entirely novel symptoms in their victims.

Read on...

The Proposed Iranian Oil Bourse

2007-03-18T20:55:00.000-07:00

http://www.energybulletin.net/12125.html

This article ties it all together! Mandatory reading for everyone who wants to save America from the greedy rich bastards running it into the ground.

Published on 17 Jan 2006 by Energy Bulletin. Archived on 17 Jan 2006.

The Proposed Iranian Oil Bourse
by Krassimir Petrov

I. Economics of Empires

A nation-state taxes its own citizens, while an empire taxes other nation-states. The history of empires, from Greek and Roman, to Ottoman and British, teaches that the economic foundation of every single empire is the taxation of other nations. The imperial ability to tax has always rested on a better and stronger economy, and as a consequence, a better and stronger military. One part of the subject taxes went to improve the living standards of the empire; the other part went to strengthen the military dominance necessary to enforce the collection of those taxes.

Historically, taxing the subject state has been in various forms—usually gold and silver, where those were considered money, but also slaves, soldiers, crops, cattle, or other agricultural and natural resources, whatever economic goods the empire demanded and the subject-state could deliver. Historically, imperial taxation has always been direct: the subject state handed over the economic goods directly to the empire.

For the first time in history, in the twentieth century, America was able to tax the world indirectly, through inflation. It did not enforce the direct payment of taxes like all of its predecessor empires did, but distributed instead its own fiat currency, the U.S. Dollar, to other nations in exchange for goods with the intended consequence of inflating and devaluing those dollars and paying back later each dollar with less economic goods—the difference capturing the U.S. imperial tax. Here is how this happened.

Early in the 20th century, the U.S. economy began to dominate the world economy. The U.S. dollar was tied to gold, so that the value of the dollar neither increased, nor decreased, but remained the same amount of gold. The Great Depression, with its preceding inflation from 1921 to 1929 and its subsequent ballooning government deficits, had substantially increased the amount of currency in circulation, and thus rendered the backing of U.S. dollars by gold impossible. This led Roosevelt to decouple the dollar from gold in 1932. Up to this point, the U.S. may have well dominated the world economy, but from an economic point of view, it was not an empire. The fixed value of the dollar did not allow the Americans to extract economic benefits from other countries by supplying them with dollars convertible to gold.

Economically, the American Empire was born with Bretton Woods in 1945. The U.S. dollar was not fully convertible to gold, but was made convertible to gold only to foreign governments. This established the dollar as the reserve currency of the world. It was possible, because during WWII, the United States had supplied its allies with provisions, demanding gold as payment, thus accumulating significant portion of the world’s gold. An Empire would not have been possible if, following the Bretton Woods arrangement, the dollar supply was kept limited and within the availability of gold, so as to fully exchange back dollars for gold. However, the guns-and-butter policy of the 1960’s was an imperial one: the dollar supply was relentlessly increased to finance Vietnam and LBJ’s Great Society. Most of those dollars were handed over to foreigners in exchange for economic goods, without the prospect of buying them back at the same value. The increase in dollar holdings of foreigners via persistent U.S. trade deficits was tantamount to a tax—the classical inflation tax that a country imposes on its own citizens, this time around an inflation tax that U.S. imposed on rest of the world.

When in 1970-1971 foreigners demanded payment for their dollars in gold, The U.S. Government defaulted on its payment on August 15, 1971. While the popular spin told the story of “severing the link between the dollar and gold”, in reality the denial to pay back in gold was an act of bankruptcy by the U.S. Government. Essentially, the U.S. declared itself an Empire. It had extracted an enormous amount of economic goods from the rest of the world, with no intention or ability to return those goods, and the world was powerless to respond— the world was taxed and it could not do anything about it.

From that point on, to sustain the American Empire and to continue to tax the rest of the world, the United States had to force the world to continue to accept ever-depreciating dollars in exchange for economic goods and to have the world hold more and more of those depreciating dollars. It had to give the world an economic reason to hold them, and that reason was oil.

In 1971, as it became clearer and clearer that the U.S Government would not be able to buy back its dollars in gold, it made in 1972-73 an iron-clad arrangement with Saudi Arabia to support the power of the House of Saud in exchange for accepting only U.S. dollars for its oil. The rest of OPEC was to follow suit and also accept only dollars. Because the world had to buy oil from the Arab oil countries, it had the reason to hold dollars as payment for oil. Because the world needed ever increasing quantities of oil at ever increasing oil prices, the world’s demand for dollars could only increase. Even though dollars could no longer be exchanged for gold, they were now exchangeable for oil.

The economic essence of this arrangement was that the dollar was now backed by oil. As long as that was the case, the world had to accumulate increasing amounts of dollars, because they needed those dollars to buy oil. As long as the dollar was the only acceptable payment for oil, its dominance in the world was assured, and the American Empire could continue to tax the rest of the world. If, for any reason, the dollar lost its oil backing, the American Empire would cease to exist. Thus, Imperial survival dictated that oil be sold only for dollars. It also dictated that oil reserves were spread around various sovereign states that weren’t strong enough, politically or militarily, to demand payment for oil in something else. If someone demanded a different payment, he had to be convinced, either by political pressure or military means, to change his mind.

The man that actually did demand Euro for his oil was Saddam Hussein in 2000. At first, his demand was met with ridicule, later with neglect, but as it became clearer that he meant business, political pressure was exerted to change his mind. When other countries, like Iran, wanted payment in other currencies, most notably Euro and Yen, the danger to the dollar was clear and present, and a punitive action was in order. Bush’s Shock-and-Awe in Iraq was not about Saddam’s nuclear capabilities, about defending human rights, about spreading democracy, or even about seizing oil fields; it was about defending the dollar, ergo the American Empire. It was about setting an example that anyone who demanded payment in currencies other than U.S. Dollars would be likewise punished.

Many have criticized Bush for staging the war in Iraq in order to seize Iraqi oil fields. However, those critics can’t explain why Bush would want to seize those fields—he could simply print dollars for nothing and use them to get all the oil in the world that he needs. He must have had some other reason to invade Iraq.

History teaches that an empire should go to war for one of two reasons: (1) to defend itself or (2) benefit from war; if not, as Paul Kennedy illustrates in his magisterial The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers, a military overstretch will drain its economic resources and precipitate its collapse. Economically speaking, in order for an empire to initiate and conduct a war, its benefits must outweigh its military and social costs. Benefits from Iraqi oil fields are hardly worth the long-term, multi-year military cost. Instead, Bush must have went into Iraq to defend his Empire. Indeed, this is the case: two months after the United States invaded Iraq, the Oil for Food Program was terminated, the Iraqi Euro accounts were switched back to dollars, and oil was sold once again only for U.S. dollars. No longer could the world buy oil from Iraq with Euro. Global dollar supremacy was once again restored. Bush descended victoriously from a fighter jet and declared the mission accomplished—he had successfully defended the U.S. dollar, and thus the American Empire.

II. Iranian Oil Bourse

The Iranian government has finally developed the ultimate “nuclear” weapon that can swiftly destroy the financial system underpinning the American Empire. That weapon is the Iranian Oil Bourse slated to open in March 2006. It will be based on a euro-oil-trading mechanism that naturally implies payment for oil in Euro. In economic terms, this represents a much greater threat to the hegemony of the dollar than Saddam’s, because it will allow anyone willing either to buy or to sell oil for Euro to transact on the exchange, thus circumventing the U.S. dollar altogether. If so, then it is likely that almost everyone will eagerly adopt this euro oil system:

· The Europeans will not have to buy and hold dollars in order to secure their payment for oil, but would instead pay with their own currencies. The adoption of the euro for oil transactions will provide the European currency with a reserve status that will benefit the European at the expense of the Americans.

· The Chinese and the Japanese will be especially eager to adopt the new exchange, because it will allow them to drastically lower their enormous dollar reserves and diversify with Euros, thus protecting themselves against the depreciation of the dollar. One portion of their dollars they will still want to hold onto; a second portion of their dollar holdings they may decide to dump outright; a third portion of their dollars they will decide to use up for future payments without replenishing those dollar holdings, but building up instead their euro reserves.

· The Russians have inherent economic interest in adopting the Euro – the bulk of their trade is with European countries, with oil-exporting countries, with China, and with Japan. Adoption of the Euro will immediately take care of the first two blocs, and will over time facilitate trade with China and Japan. Also, the Russians seemingly detest holding depreciating dollars, for they have recently found a new religion with gold. Russians have also revived their nationalism, and if embracing the Euro will stab the Americans, they will gladly do it and smugly watch the Americans bleed.

· The Arab oil-exporting countries will eagerly adopt the Euro as a means of diversifying against rising mountains of depreciating dollars. Just like the Russians, their trade is mostly with European countries, and therefore will prefer the European currency both for its stability and for avoiding currency risk, not to mention their jihad against the Infidel Enemy.

Only the British will find themselves between a rock and a hard place. They have had a strategic partnership with the U.S. forever, but have also had their natural pull from Europe. So far, they have had many reasons to stick with the winner. However, when they see their century-old partner falling, will they firmly stand behind him or will they deliver the coup de grace? Still, we should not forget that currently the two leading oil exchanges are the New York’s NYMEX and the London’s International Petroleum Exchange (IPE), even though both of them are effectively owned by the Americans. It seems more likely that the British will have to go down with the sinking ship, for otherwise they will be shooting themselves in the foot by hurting their own London IPE interests. It is here noteworthy that for all the rhetoric about the reasons for the surviving British Pound, the British most likely did not adopt the Euro namely because the Americans must have pressured them not to: otherwise the London IPE would have had to switch to Euros, thus mortally wounding the dollar and their strategic partner.

At any rate, no matter what the British decide, should the Iranian Oil Bourse accelerate, the interests that matter—those of Europeans, Chinese, Japanese, Russians, and Arabs—will eagerly adopt the Euro, thus sealing the fate of the dollar. Americans cannot allow this to happen, and if necessary, will use a vast array of strategies to halt or hobble the operation’s exchange:

· Sabotaging the Exchange—this could be a computer virus, network, communications, or server attack, various server security breaches, or a 9-11-type attack on main and backup facilities.

· Coup d’état—this is by far the best long-term strategy available to the Americans.

· Negotiating Acceptable Terms & Limitations—this is another excellent solution to the Americans. Of course, a government coup is clearly the preferred strategy, for it will ensure that the exchange does not operate at all and does not threaten American interests. However, if an attempted sabotage or coup d’etat fails, then negotiation is clearly the second-best available option.

· Joint U.N. War Resolution—this will be, no doubt, hard to secure given the interests of all other member-states of the Security Council. Feverish rhetoric about Iranians developing nuclear weapons undoubtedly serves to prepare this course of action.

· Unilateral Nuclear Strike—this is a terrible strategic choice for all the reasons associated with the next strategy, the Unilateral Total War. The Americans will likely use Israel to do their dirty nuclear job.

· Unilateral Total War—this is obviously the worst strategic choice. First, the U.S. military resources have been already depleted with two wars. Secondly, the Americans will further alienate other powerful nations. Third, major dollar-holding countries may decide to quietly retaliate by dumping their own mountains of dollars, thus preventing the U.S. from further financing its militant ambitions. Finally, Iran has strategic alliances with other powerful nations that may trigger their involvement in war; Iran reputedly has such alliance with China, India, and Russia, known as the Shanghai Cooperative Group, a.k.a. Shanghai Coop and a separate pact with Syria.

Whatever the strategic choice, from a purely economic point of view, should the Iranian Oil Bourse gain momentum, it will be eagerly embraced by major economic powers and will precipitate the demise of the dollar. The collapsing dollar will dramatically accelerate U.S. inflation and will pressure upward U.S. long-term interest rates. At this point, the Fed will find itself between Scylla and Charybdis—between deflation and hyperinflation—it will be forced fast either to take its “classical medicine” by deflating, whereby it raises interest rates, thus inducing a major economic depression, a collapse in real estate, and an implosion in bond, stock, and derivative markets, with a total financial collapse, or alternatively, to take the Weimar way out by inflating, whereby it pegs the long-bond yield, raises the Helicopters and drowns the financial system in liquidity, bailing out numerous LTCMs and hyperinflating the economy.

The Austrian theory of money, credit, and business cycles teaches us that there is no in-between Scylla and Charybdis. Sooner or later, the monetary system must swing one way or the other, forcing the Fed to make its choice. No doubt, Commander-in-Chief Ben Bernanke, a renowned scholar of the Great Depression and an adept Black Hawk pilot, will choose inflation. Helicopter Ben, oblivious to Rothbard’s America’s Great Depression, has nonetheless mastered the lessons of the Great Depression and the annihilating power of deflations. The Maestro has taught him the panacea of every single financial problem—to inflate, come hell or high water. He has even taught the Japanese his own ingenious unconventional ways to battle the deflationary liquidity trap. Like his mentor, he has dreamed of battling a Kondratieff Winter. To avoid deflation, he will resort to the printing presses; he will recall all helicopters from the 800 overseas U.S. military bases; and, if necessary, he will monetize everything in sight. His ultimate accomplishment will be the hyperinflationary destruction of the American currency and from its ashes will rise the next reserve currency of the world—that barbarous relic called gold.

--

Recommended Reading
William Clark “The Real Reasons for the Upcoming War in Iraq”
William Clark “The Real Reasons Why Iran is the Next Target”

About the Author
Krassimir Petrov (Krassimir_Petrov@hotmail.com) has received his Ph. D. in economics from the Ohio State University and currently teaches Macroeconomics, International Finance, and Econometrics at the American University in Bulgaria.

March 18 March for Peace in SF

2007-03-18T16:32:00.000-07:00

A nice size, peaceful, and determined group of Americans showed up in San Francisco today for the march. Ours was a day later than the rest of the planet because of the St. Patrick's Day parade yesterday the 17. I think there are more of the lovely Irish in SF than in Ireland :)

Draft dodgers and warmongers: Dick Cheney’s early years

2007-03-14T23:15:00.000-07:00

http://www.haleakalatimes.com/news/story2435.aspx

“I look at this White House and I ask myself, how did they get so many draft dodgers in one place? The President; Dick Cheney, five deferments; John Ashcroft, six deferments. Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Tom DeLay, Dennis Hassert, Rush Limbaugh – well, you know, there are a lot of people who dodged the draft during the Vietnam War. Most of them did it because they had moral qualms about that war. But not these people. These people loved the war; they just wanted somebody else to fight it.”
– Robert Kennedy Jr.

A native of Lincoln, Nebraska, Richard Bruce “Dick” Cheney, the 46th Vice President of the United States, played football as a youth and was senior class president at his Natrona County High School in Casper, Wyoming. His sweetheart and future wife, however, was more popular – she was a state-champion baton twirler and was voted Mustang Queen her senior year. When Lynne Vincent performed her famous flaming baton twirl at public gatherings, it was quiet Dick who put the fire out backstage while she basked in the applause of center stage.

Cheney earned a scholarship to Yale University and went East for the first time, but he was asked to leave after one year because of “poor academic performance,” the university’s polite way of saying that he flunked out. He re-enrolled two more times before dropping out for good, according to Yale’s enrollment records. Jacob Plotkin, a retired MSU mathematics professor, was Cheney’s college roommate during his freshman year.

Click on the link to read the whole article.

Halliburton moving to Dubai! Congress must stop them!

2007-03-11T21:24:00.000-07:00

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/business/business-halliburton-mideast-listing.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

The criminal organization known as Halliburton is moving its headquarters to Dubai. Halliburton, its entities, and subsidiary companies have been looting American taxpayers blind with no bid contracts for the last six years and longer.

First, Halliburton gets most of its income in the form of government contracts. Halliburton already avoids most taxes by laundering its money through offshore tax havens. Why is Halliburton moving its operations away from the USA? Is it in order to drain the last dollar from American citizens? Halliburon is a like a vortex, consuming everything in its path.

Second, Halliburton is moving to Dubai, a Muslim country. That does not bother me, but it is sure going to bother Bush's brainwashed minions, who have been trained to fear all Muslims/Arabs/anyone from the Middle East who doesn't look Jewish. If Halliburton was concerned about terrorism, they are moving into what the right wing thinks is the seventh circle of Hell.
In the article, someone claimed that Halliburton was not moving its headquarters away for tax purposes. It may be that they have already moved all of their profits offshore already.

The Democratic Party has to reach way down and drum up some pluck and gumption. Congress must take action to freeze Halliburton's assets and stop paying on those no-bid contracts.

A Halliburton subsidiary, IAP, got the contract from the Bush administration to start running Walter Reed Hospital in January of 2006. IAP ran Walter Reed further into the ground than it always was due to Bush administration cuts. Halliburton itself is responsible for $2.7 Billion in missing funds so far in Iraq.

Stop Halliburton now.

Bird Rima's flock

2007-03-11T20:28:00.000-07:00

I now have two darling parakeets, Chick (for Chick Corea) and Rima. Here they are for you to coo over too.

The Grassroots of the "Moral" Party

2007-03-10T22:04:00.000-08:00

A well-documented and horrifying website, Armchair Subversive, catalogues the extensive list of sexual predators in the Republican Party. No similar list exists for members of the Democratic Party.

The proud and perverted found at Armchair Subversive include Republicans at all levels of the party.

My question is: why are these people put into positions of power over others in the Republican Party? What mentality drives that kind of self-delusion?

This week, we were subjected to another confession of immorality by the former Republican Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich. Newt Gingrich, while at the head of the pack regarding Clinton's impeachment, was himself having an extramarital affair while holding an office two heartbeats from the Presidency.

Newt is on his third marriage, by the way. He is a serial adulterer.

Phases of the Moon

2007-03-10T21:12:00.000-08:00

It seems that, on a somewhat regular basis, the people in Pol 10 seem to go bananas. We often speculate whether this is related to the presence of a full moon.

Now, we can check without even to have to use the Googles.

Moon Phases

Goofy Southern Politician Names

2007-03-09T22:39:00.000-08:00

Why make this list? Because I could do it.

Now do these sound like good old fashioned American names?

Trent Lott, Senator (R) Mississippi

Saxby Chambliss, Senator (r) Georgia

John Boozman, Representative, Arkansas

Lamar Alexander, (R) Representative, Tennessee

Lindsey Graham, (R), Senator, South Carolina

Gresham Barrett, (R) Representative, South Carolina

Heath Shuler (R) Representative, North Carolina

Of course, there's always Newt Gingrich!

Lauch Faircloth is out of office now. Can we still count him?

The List

2007-02-21T21:43:00.000-08:00

Someone with too much time on his hands has made a list of chat IDs he didn't like. The result is an 11,000 long list of chatnicks. See if you and your friends are on it!

http://0rg.tripod.com/uhyw/index.blog?entry_id=1026590

Pol 10 took a spin down the list. Some of the roomies didn't make the list and boy were they mad! They are writing and asking to be included. We also found some very old troll names. It was a nice break, all in all, from making policy and battling trolls.

Republican Dirty Tricks #1

2007-02-21T10:40:00.000-08:00

The College Republicans, working to make hate fashionable every day, are at it again! At NYU, they are playing a game called "Find the Illegal Immigrant".

The College Republicans and Young Republicans represent the Brown Shirts, the shock troops, of the fascist takeover of America. I wish I were kidding. Take a look at an article I wrote two years ago (under a pseudonym...I ain't that dumb!), during John Roberts' confirmation process.

How the Federalists and College Republicans Operate

Have Fun Not Shopping!

2007-02-20T20:54:00.000-08:00

Your first stop is Reverend Billy's "Church of Stop Shopping". The Rev. is a fine satirist. Meet him for the first time here!

Plan game evenings at home with your family. Go to the park instead of the mall. Think of it as a patriotic national holiday! Have a weenie roast! Have a block party!

Send other suggestions!

National Boycott to Impeach for Peace and Justice

2007-02-19T18:58:00.000-08:00

Hot damn! http://www.wearenotbuyingit.org/

National Boycott To Impeach
for Peace and Justice
Tax Day (April 15) 'til Earth Day (April 22)

January 1, 2007 - A national coalition of citizens, including war veterans, distinguished academics, students, journalists, artists, and elected officials have joined with us to call for a nationwide boycott of all consumer activity, for one week in April..

Consumers are asked to withhold
their spending for seven days,
beginning on Sunday April 15
and lasting until Sunday April 22, 2007.

Do NOT shop corporate outlets
Minimize use of oil and gas.
Carpool: bus, bike or walk.
If you buy, BUY LOCALLY.
Plan Ahead and Stock Up

Now Here's a Guy who has it all figured out!

2007-02-19T14:08:00.000-08:00

Cenk Uygur, in the Genius of Strength at the Huffington Post, explains the continuing horror of the Bush administration, and the continuing weakness of the Democratic Party response.

"In the 2006 election the American people made it clear that they wanted out of Iraq. They replaced 36 Republicans with Democrats in the House and the Senate, and they didn't remove a single Democrat. Yes, there were other factors, but overall, the message was a resounding 36-0 drubbing. The Democrats are right, let's get out of Iraq.

"It's not working.

"So, what did President Bush do? He decided to put more troops in. Genius. I'll tell you why.

"Because we're no longer discussing withdrawal, instead we're debating escalation. The Bush people changed the playing field by coming over the top of the Democrats. They moved the discussion from one where they were playing defense to one where they are playing offense.

"So, now the Democrats have introduced legislation to discuss, debate and challenge the escalation - and have done absolutely nothing about withdrawal."

The entire article is awesome. Please send it to your Congresscritter!

Economists Agree: the Benefits of Corporate Moderated Trade must be more broadly spread!

2007-02-19T13:57:00.000-08:00

The Christian Science Monitor posted an article highlighting Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's testimony to Congress. Bernanke seems to be seeing things the way that the Anti-WTO protesters did in Seattle in November 1999. We have to spread the wealth around. Now that's what I call a smart conservative!

Capitalism ruled by monopolies will cause global revolution unless the benefits of "free trade" are spread around. Corporations allowed to cherry pick the resources and labor of any country they desire is what they mean by "free trade." The US military now has over 700 military bases in 135 countries. Those bases are not there to protect me in the safety of my home. They are there to protect corporate monopoly assets in their host countries. That is what they mean by "American interests."

Here's a link to the complete testimony:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/content/article/2007/02/14/bernanke_021507.html

This link was posted by a roomie! Yay roomies!

Stop Bush's "Final Solution"

2007-02-15T08:18:00.000-08:00

From John Edwards:

President Bush's disastrous plan to escalate the war is no longer just a plan: it's a reality.

While the Senate was tied up in knots, President Bush extended tours of duty for thousands of our troops, transferred new brigades into the Middle East and ordered more soldiers into Baghdad: The surge has begun.

Bush has escalated the war - now we must escalate our efforts to stop it. Congress must force a change of course by capping funding to stop the surge and mandate a phased troop withdrawal within 12-18 months. We don't need endless debate; we don't need non-binding resolutions; we need to end this war. Only Congress has the power to do it, and only you can make Congress act.

Please take a minute today to call your senators and representatives. Ask them to take real, binding action to block the escalation and bring our troops home. Please call the capital switchboard right now at:

(202) 224-3121

Definitions of Common Terms

2007-02-15T08:01:00.000-08:00

Using the precise definition of words makes conversation possible. Click here to link to definitions of words often used in Pol 10.

The most important definition is the difference between FACT and OPINION.

Fact v. Opinion

fact ( P ) Pronunciation Key (fkt)
n.
Knowledge or information based on real occurrences: an account based on fact; a blur of fact and fancy.

Something demonstrated to exist or known to have existed: Genetic engineering is now a fact. That Chaucer was a real person is an undisputed fact.
A real occurrence; an event: had to prove the facts of the case.
Something believed to be true or real: a document laced with mistaken facts.
A thing that has been done, especially a crime: an accessory before the fact.
Law. The aspect of a case at law comprising events determined by evidence: The jury made a finding of fact.
Opinion

o·pin·ion ( P ) Pronunciation Key (-pnyn)
n.

A belief or conclusion held with confidence but not substantiated by positive knowledge or proof: “The world is not run by thought, nor by imagination, but by opinion” (Elizabeth Drew).
A judgment based on special knowledge and given by an expert: a medical opinion.
A judgment or estimation of the merit of a person or thing: has a low opinion of braggarts.
The prevailing view: public opinion.
Law. A formal statement by a court or other adjudicative body of the legal reasons and principles for the conclusions of the court.

If you have definitions you would like to add, or if you would like to discuss any definition, please comment.

A Few Words About Trolls

2007-02-15T07:25:00.000-08:00

Political Lobby 10 has high standards. Trolls will not be tolerated or encouraged. Their only goal is to disrupt a decent conversation and make trouble among other chatters.

We feel that it is a public service to warn visitors about trolls. They try to mine personal data and often seek to make it public. Many regular room visitors have had this happen to them. Don't let it be you next!

Most trolls in Room 10 have extreme right wing politics. Some pretend to be liberal, progressive, or left wing for a while, but it soon becomes apparent what their real aims are when they start making assertions they cannot back up with facts. You will find that they are free with personal attacks (ad hominem). This seems to pass for debate in that crowd.

Trolls never met a logical fallacy that they didn't like. They also never understand word definitions. Trolls will often make you feel as though you need to look up a definition and post it for them.

Don't fall for the trap! Don't feed the trolls!

They can't even think up their own material. An intrepid chatter ventured into their real world, and got a copy of their "Chat Rules" . I scanned the original and posted the text for all to see. Typos and grammatical errors are unedited. If you are one of those who can stomach listening to Rush Limbaugh or Bill O'Reilly, you will find that their comments seem to follow those of their pundits.

The Chat Rules indicate that they get paid for humiliating themselves. How sad to be reduced to lying to make pocket change.

If I can't dance, it isn't my revolution!

Harvey Wasserman: People died---and are still dying---at Three Mile Island

The Proposed Iranian Oil Bourse

Republican Convention Has Fewest Black Delegates in 40 Years

Cahooting in Denver!

Eh

The Mod (erate) Squad (pic) (lol)

Go, Gauchos, Go!!!

OBAMA ROBBED IN NY

Ohio Election Theft Kills

Determination

Where Is The Revolucion?!?!?!

The criminal cover-up of Ohio's stolen 2004 election sinks to the fraudulent, the absurd, the pathetic

Did U.S. intelligence assets kill Antioch College?

get the low down on all the candidates at oppodepot.com

Progressive Radio

Impeaching the Opus Dei 5

The Three Coequal Branches of US Government

Beach Impeach 1-Run to the Rock

International Progressives Unite!

President Fred Thompson and The First Lady

Please come to Denver...

Characteristics of Fascism

The Constitution of Venezuela

Psychotics 4 Bush!

The Corporate Welfare State: How the Government Subsidizes U.S. Corporations

Illuminati Design and Symbolism in the Israeli Supreme Court Building

US Assistance to Israel 1947-2006

The Landlord

Animals Have Problems Too

The Constitution of Venezuela

Politics Lobby 10 Poll

The Biggest Threat to Democracy in History

Politics Lobby 10: On The Move (From Yahoo)

Bush's Cyber Election Hit Squad

Who is Michael L. Connell? Part II: Behind the firewall.

Stephen Colbert (whatta man!) at the White House Correspondents' Dinner

The Establishment Rethinks Globalization

Important Political Films and Videos

Lee Iacocca, Mad as Hell!

Eeking Out Reality And Gonzales Denies Us Habeas Corpus

A Boy Named Bush

Discovery the Hidden History Behind the Bush Dynasty

Palestinians live in an Imprisoned Society

Death and Contractors

Was Carol Lam Targeting The White House Prior To Her Firing?

Top Eleven Articles

Have you ever read the Bible?

Biotech could manipulate human behavior and life processes

The Proposed Iranian Oil Bourse

March 18 March for Peace in SF

Draft dodgers and warmongers: Dick Cheney’s early years

Halliburton moving to Dubai! Congress must stop them!

Bird Rima's flock

The Grassroots of the "Moral" Party

Phases of the Moon

Goofy Southern Politician Names

The List

Republican Dirty Tricks #1

Have Fun Not Shopping!

National Boycott to Impeach for Peace and Justice

Now Here's a Guy who has it all figured out!

Economists Agree: the Benefits of Corporate Moderated Trade must be more broadly spread!

Stop Bush's "Final Solution"

Definitions of Common Terms

A Few Words About Trolls