Hypocrisy Daily

John Pilger on Honduras, Iran, Gaza, the Corporate Media, Obama's Wars and Resisting the American Empire

"This Is America. I Can Ask You Whatever I Want." : CJR

Zelaya Vows to Return to Honduras Despite Threats of Arrest by Coup Leaders

Up in Smoke: How the Tobacco Industry Shaped the New Smoking Bill

John Pilger Calls UK National Health Service a Treasure, Blasts US Lawmakers for Being "in Bed with Powerful Interests" and Neglecting "Their Own People's Basic Human Rights"

FiveThirtyEight: Politics Done Right: Sex scandals, le style Français

clipped from politicalwire.com Gregg Voted to Abolish Commerce Department CQ Politics: Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH) -- apparently President Obama's choice to be Commerce secretary -- voted in favor of abolishing the agency as a member of the Budget Committee and on the Senate floor in 1995. Said one Republican Senate aide: "I guess if you can't destroy it, go be in charge of it."

clipped from politicalwire.com We have this thing called impeachment and it's bleeping golden and we've used it the right way." -- Illinois state Sen. James Meeks (D), quoted by the AP, mocking former Gov. Rod Blagojevich's expletive-laden words as captured by the FBI on a wiretap.

clipped from politicalwire.com Just four days before leaving office, Newsweek reports that President Bush "instructed former White House aide Karl Rove to refuse to cooperate with future congressional inquiries into alleged misconduct during his administration." A letter to Rove's lawyer said that Rove "should not appear before Congress" or turn over any documents relating to his time in the White House because Bush "was continuing to assert executive privilege over any testimony by Rove -- even after he leaves office." The letter sets the stage "for what is likely to be a highly contentious legal and political battle over an unresolved issue: whether a former president can assert 'executive privilege' -- and therefore prevent his aides from testifying before Congress -- even after his term has expired."

clipped from www.wsws.org A report issued Thursday by the Senate Armed Services Committee has provided official and bipartisan confirmation that the infamous acts of torture carried out by US personnel at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo were planned, ordered and orchestrated by the highest-ranking officials in the US government. Based on the Senate's own conclusions, those named in the document, including President George W. Bush, former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, are guilty of war crimes.

clipped from www.nytimes.com Old Ways of Life Are Fading as the Arctic Thaws For the four million people who live in the Arctic, in remote outposts and the improbable industrial centers built by Soviet decree, a changing climate presents new opportunities. But it also threatens their environment, their homes and, for those whose traditions rely on the ice-bound wilderness, the preservation of their culture.

clipped from www.nytimes.com Scientists have concluded that the momentum behind human-caused warming, combined with the region's tendency to amplify change, has put the familiar Arctic past the point of no return.

clipped from www.nytimes.com Jdimytai Damour, 34 was crushed to death when a mob of shoppers would apparently rather kill a man than miss out on a holiday bargain.

clipped from www.nytimes.com The Labor Department is racing to complete a new rule, strenuously opposed by President-elect Barack Obama, that would make it much harder for the government to regulate toxic substances and hazardous chemicals to which workers are exposed on the job. The rule, which has strong support from business groups, says that in assessing the risk from a particular substance, federal agencies should gather and analyze “industry-by-industry evidence” of employees’ exposure to it during their working lives. The proposal would, in many cases, add a step to the lengthy process of developing standards to protect workers’ health. Public health officials and labor unions said the rule would delay needed protections for workers, resulting in additional deaths and illnesses.

clipped from realestate.yahoo.com The S&P Case-Shiller Home Price national index recorded a 16.6% decline in the third quarter compared with the same period a year ago. That eclipsed the previous record of 15.1% set during the second quarter.

clipped from dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com The New York attorney general has expanded his investigation of bonus payments to Wall Street executives whose banking companies are receiving $125 billion in support from the federal government.

clipped from www.foxbusiness.com

clipped from www.commondreams.org The point is, however, there are more cost-effective ways to help out workers in failing businesses than to have the government simply subsidize the continued operation of enterprises that have been destroyed by management. In truth, all the talk in congress and in the Obama camp about rescuing jobs is just a cover for bailouts that are really aimed at rescuing managers and investors, not workers.

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This is the kind of talk I was saying needed to be heard from Kerry during the 2004 campaign.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060912/ap_on_re_mi_ea/syria_embassy_attack_4

The following is an article written by Nathan Mantua and found in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer entitled, "We need to get out of the clouds on issue of warming." This article is presented in its entirety. You can also click here to go directly to the article.


Life in the Northwest is shaped by the rhythms of climate. The evidence is all around us. The wet and mossy evergreen forests that tower west of the Cascade Range and the sage-steppe, orchards and rolling wheat fields of the dry and sunny area east of the mountains illustrate our region's amazing contrast in landscapes, flora and fauna.

Each year we see a hefty winter snowpack build in our mountains and witness the spring melt sending water surging into our largest rivers. The ongoing cycle brings the spring blooms of Skagit Valley tulips, the summer cherries of the Yakima Valley, the fall apple crops of Wenatchee and the fall and winter return of tens of thousands of coho and chum salmon to the streams of Puget Sound.

Just like the natural systems that make the region unique, human-built systems have evolved in ways that work with the climate of this place. We have built an extensive infrastructure to tap into our renewable resources. In particular, hydropower dams and storage reservoirs were designed to take advantage of the mountain snowpack and the resulting abundance of spring and summer runoff. These provide inexpensive and abundant electricity for people and industry and water for irrigators, industry and urban centers.

Those who built the dams, reservoirs and irrigation canals may not have realized it at the time, but they were basing some of their decisions on long-range climate forecasts. Did they consult The Old Farmer's Almanac?

Perhaps, but a more typical story is that those politicians, planners and engineers assumed the climate of the future for which they were building would look like the climate of the past. To their credit, most planners sifted the historical climate record to identify the most challenging conditions their systems might face, whether an extreme winter flood or a prolonged drought.

Plans were (and still are) written so that water and hydropower systems will work if the historic worst-case climate scenario happens again.

Recent climate extremes produced tangible reminders that many facets of Northwest life remain sensitive to the push and pull of climate change. In the winter of 1998-99, the region experienced one of the wettest periods in memory. Mount Baker, near Bellingham, set a record for the greatest annual snowfall ever recorded anywhere, with a remarkable total just shy of 100 feet. The spring and summer of 1999 saw a wide abundance of runoff and hydropower production in the region.

The winds and ocean currents of 1998-99 also brought significant cooling to the coastal ocean environment, with upper ocean temperatures dropping up to 8 degrees Fahrenheit from the exceptionally warm winter of 1997-98. That cooling marked the beginning of a four-year run of much more productive ocean conditions for many stocks of Northwest coho and chinook salmon that had been severely depleted in the mid-'90s.

But just two years later, our climate swung to the other extreme. The winter of 2000-01 brought the region one of the driest "wet" seasons in a century.

Late-season snowpack in the Cascades and the snowmelt runoff in the Columbia Basin were only about 60 percent of the long-term average. Irrigation flows for some farmers were severely restricted, and stream-flow targets aimed at protecting migrating salmon were frequently missed.

To make matters worse, the California energy markets were spinning wildly out of control, ultimately spiking the price of electricity all along the West Coast -- a convergence of climatic and socioeconomic events that will affect electrical ratepayers for years to come.

El Niño and La Niña get a lot of media attention around here, even though those labels apply to changes in winds, ocean temperatures and rainfall patterns in the tropical Pacific Ocean. Yet those two phenomena deserve our attention because they shift tropical rainfall patterns in ways that disturb wind and weather patterns over the northern Pacific and North America.

El Niño typically favors a relatively warm and dry Northwest winter and a yearlong warming of our coastal ocean. Those who ski or fish for salmon ought to be fans of La Niña, because that typically favors a cool and wet Northwest winter and a salmon-friendly, yearlong cooling of our coastal ocean. Natural tropical swings between El Niño and La Niña typically get started in our summer, then develop through the fall and winter months before fading away the next spring. An extensive network of buoys, ships and satellites provides us with an accurate picture of the status of El Niño or La Niña several months before our winter begins.

When we look back at our region's climate in the 20th century, we also find 20- to 30-year eras of climate conditions that strayed from the long-term average.

Mostly cool-and-wet years were the rule from 1946 through 1976, while warm-and-dry periods prevailed from 1925 through 1945 and again from 1977 through 1998. Part of this longer-term climate variability has been associated with a long-lived El Niñolike climate pattern called the Pacific Decadal Oscillation.

After 1976, that phenomenon brought an increase of a degree or two in the cold half of the year and about a 10 percent decline in average annual precipitation. Because of the warmer and drier conditions, spring snowpack at Paradise ranger station on Mount Rainer was typically 20 percent (about 44 inches) lower than it was during the cool periods of the '50s through early '70s.

Moisture in our forests, which varies with temperature, precipitation and snowpack, is thought to be a key climate link to past changes in forest regeneration and the frequency and intensity of large Northwest forest fires.

Low snowpack in the '80s and '90s allowed subalpine fir trees to invade wildflower meadows on the east side on Mount Rainier. The history of large forest fires in the Northwest also parallels the changes in the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, with large fire years concentrated in the warm-and-dry periods of the '30s, '80s and '90s, and relatively quiet fire eras in the late '40s through mid-'70s.

Climate effects on ecosystems can be seen in the ocean as well as on land. When the Pacific Decadal Oscillation shifted from cool to warm conditions in the late '70s, ocean temperatures warmed by 1 to 2 degrees, and there were major shifts in coastal ocean food webs. The abundance of cold-water forage fish and plankton dropped, but numbers of warm-water fish such as mackerel, hake and sardines increased. Ocean survival rates for many Northwest chinook and coho salmon populations reached historic lows in the warm-ocean years of the early to late '90s, and the persistently low return rates contributed to large population declines for already depleted stocks.

Century-long trends account for another important part of the long-term changes in 20th-century climate. The warming observed globally during the past century, which averaged about 1 degree, was mirrored by Northwest warming of about 1.5 degrees. Precipitation increased by 10 percent to 30 percent across much of the region. Since the 1950s, the warming climate has eroded our annual snowpack, especially at elevations below 6,000 feet.

Because of human-caused increases in atmospheric greenhouse gases caused by burning fossil fuels and converting forests to agricultural lands, an overwhelming majority of scientists expect 21st-century climate to be substantially warmer than that of the recent past. Climate models are providing some clues about what will happen because of the accumulation of greenhouse gases. State-of-the-art climate models suggest additional year-round increases in regional temperatures of 2.5 to 4 degrees for the 2020s, and 3 to 6 degrees for the 2040s. Most climate models also project modest increases in winter precipitation (typically around 10 percent).

Some of the consequences of a warmer and wetter Northwest climate are clear.

Rising snow lines, a declining snowpack, stream-flow increases in winter and declines in summer are always observed during an unusually warm Northwest winter and spring. Our present climatic course promises to transform the "unusual" of our experience to the "normal" of our future.

Warming-induced changes in the region's snowpack and stream flow will bring new challenges to our water and power systems, and even more problems to wild salmon that inhabit already degraded streams. Reduced snowpack likely will allow west-side forests to expand to higher altitudes, yet warmer temperatures may increase drought stress in low-elevation forests in ways that increase fire, disease and pest outbreaks.

Whether you farm or garden, work or play in the mountains, forests, streams, lakes, estuaries or ocean, your experience always will be shaped by climate. A climatic warming of a few degrees will change life as we know it in the Northwest; residents and regional planners can take that forecast to the bank.

The following is an AP article found on Yahoo News and entitled, "W. Va. Sen. on Iraq: 'My Vote Was Wrong' ." This article is presented in its entirety. You can also click here to go directly to the article (the link usually expires after a few days).


U.S. Sen. Jay Rockefeller regrets his vote to authorize a war against Iraq.

"If I had known then what I know now, I would have voted against it," Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said Friday. "I have admitted that my vote was wrong."

The Democratic-led Senate approved the war resolution 77-23 on Oct. 11, 2002, one day after the U.S. House approved a similar resolution.

"The decision got made before there was a whole bunch of intelligence," said Rockefeller, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee. "I think the intelligence was shaped. And I think the interpretation of the intelligence was shaped.

"We had this feeling we could be welcomed as liberators. Americans don't know history, geography, ethnicity. The administration had no idea of what they were getting into in Iraq. We are not internationalists. We border on being isolationists. We don't know anything about the Middle East."

Rockefeller also said he is disturbed at the failure to involve the United Nations in creating a new government and finding peace in Iraq.

Many of the senator's feelings were strengthened last week during a weeklong trip with four other Democratic senators to Iraq and four other Middle Eastern nations.

In Iraq, the senators visited a team of researchers investigating the presence of weapons of mass destruction.

"They have three million pieces of paper," Rockefeller said. "But it is a sham. There is nothing to point to any weapons of any kind."

Rockefeller said the influence of terrorist groups, such as al-Qaida, is growing in Iraq. He estimated that only about 5 percent of insurgents in Iraq are recent arrivals, with the rest "homegrown."

The following is an AP article found on Yahoo News and entitled, "Rove, Small Circle Lead Bush Campaign." This article is presented in its entirety. You can also click here to go directly to the article (the link usually expires after a few days).

President Bush entrusts adviser Karl Rove to oversee his bare-knuckle bid for a second term. Yet Rove is but one of a small group of counselors helping to guide the most expensive, and possibly the most corporate-like, presidential campaign in history.

Aides emphasize Bush's hands-on role in the $170 million campaign. For instance, it was his decision to mount an early attack on his presumptive Democratic rival, John Kerry, and to air television commercials naming Kerry. The president also keeps close tabs on fund raising.

Bush and Rove talk daily about the campaign and stay in close touch with those running the Bush-Cheney effort from a nondescript office building across the Potomac River in Arlington, Va. There, Bush seeks political advice from campaign chairman Marc Racicot, a former Montana governor who served as Republican National Committee chairman, and campaign manager Ken Mehlman, Bush's former White House political director.

Mehlman is a Rove protege, and the two came to the White House with Bush from Texas. It was Rove who masterminded Bush's 1996 gubernatorial race in Texas and his 2000 presidential campaign, and Rove's stamp is clearly on the daily operations of both the White House and the campaign.

Among other members of Bush's brain trust are Vice President Dick Cheney; a brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush; longtime adviser Karen Hughes; and Ohio Rep. Rob Portman, a longtime Bush family friend.

Hughes left her job as White House counselor in 2002 to spend more time with her family in Austin, Texas, but remains one of Bush's most trusted advisers. She has become more active on the campaign trail in recent weeks, giving speeches and making campaign appearances.

Portman, the only alumnus of the first Bush administration serving in Congress, is actively involved in Bush's strategy in industrial battleground states like his own.

"We've never had such a comprehensive grass-roots operation," Portman said in an interview. "It's all about getting the vote out."

Bush's inner circle includes some of his biggest fund-raisers.

Topping the list is Mercer Reynolds, an Ohio financier who was a partner with Bush in the Texas Rangers baseball team. Reynolds gave up a prized job as ambassador to Switzerland last year to become national finance chairman of the Bush-Cheney campaign. He has been involved in every Republican presidential campaign since Ronald Reagan (news - web sites)'s in 1980.

Bush also is close to Bradford Freeman, a Los Angeles banker who is his California finance chairman and a longtime friend.

Still, it is Rove who will likely be toasted if Republicans win in November — and blamed if they don't. Little escapes his attention on either the president's domestic or international agenda.

Rove won plaudits after Bush led his party to victory in the midterm congressional elections in 2002. But his political skills came under question among some restive Republicans as Democratic candidates pounded Bush for three months while the president tried to remain above the fray.

Now, with Bush aggressively striking back at Kerry, Republicans are resting easier — and back on the same page of the Rove playbook.

Rove has boasted to conservative activists of the campaign's rapid response once it learned that Kerry was to give a speech in West Virginia, a battleground state. The Bush team rolled out a broadcast ad within 24 hours, dispatched volunteers to hand out pro-Bush material in the state, and made GOP officials available to local media outlets.

Other key players in Bush's re-election effort are:

Mark Wallace, deputy campaign manager. A former legal adviser in the Department of Homeland Security, he worked on Bush's 2000 campaign and on Jeb Bush's three gubernatorial campaigns.

Terry Nelson, political director. He's a former RNC official, former political director of the National Republican Congressional Committee and former campaign manager for Rep. Jim Nussle, R-Iowa.

Matthew Dowd, chief political strategist. He was Bush's pollster in the 2000 campaign. He worked for two Democrats — Lloyd Bentsen and the late Texas Lt. Gov. Bob Bullock — before joining Bush's team.

Jack Oliver, deputy national finance chairman. He's was deputy chairman of the RNC and was finance director of Bush's 2000 campaign.

Mark McKinnon, Bush's ad maker. The one-time, singer-songwriter and former Democrat is based in Austin, Texas, and did the ads for Bush's 2000 campaign.

Dan Bartlett, the White House communications director, and Nicolle Devenish, his counterpart at the campaign.

Other advisers deeply involved in certain aspects of the campaign include Mary Matalin, a former top aide to Cheney, and Cheney family members, Devenish said.

More info on Dubya's inner circle can be found at:

Bush's Inner Circle

Next time you hear all the glee that erupts in the economic world because of "new housing starts" you will probably cringe when you learn that much of the wood used to provide Americans this piece of the "American dream" comes from "Indonesia’s virgin rainforests and is turning Borneo into a barren wasteland," according to a press release from the Rainforest Action Network.

American companies, like Weyerhaeuser, are directly involved in this destruction. Rainforest Action Network states that 80% of old-growth forests worldwide are already gone forever and less than 5% remain in the United States. The press release notes an October 27, 2003 BusinessWeek editorial titled “Indonesia’s Chainsaw Massacre,” which states that: "the country’s rainforests are disappearing at a rate equivalent to the area of 300 soccer fields every hour to offer Western consumers cheap lumber.”

Rainforest Action Network’s 2003 report, “Importing Destruction,” documents the connections of U.S. companies to the international market for Indonesia tropical plywood.


This is the full press release:

Rainforest Action Network
PRESS RELEASE

US Wood Importers Pillage Virgin Indonesian Rainforests
For Immediate Release: March 19, 2004
RAN Calls For US Moratorium To Help End Indonesian Massacre
Yale Research Confirms Environmental Impact of Crime and Corruption

San Francisco – Rainforest Action Network sent letters to 163 U.S. tropical wood importers and members of the International Wood Products Association calling for an immediate corporate embargo on forest-based products from Indonesia’s ravaged rainforests. The letter follows Science magazine’s publication of new research from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies confirming ‘expansive and accelerating deforestation’ of the country’s ‘protected areas’ and calling for ‘immediate transnational management’ to end the massacre.

In the March 18, 2004 letter, Rainforest Action Network executive director Michael Brune reiterated Indonesian President Megawati Soekarnoputri’s plea for an international moratorium to help stop illegal logging. It affirmed widespread acknowledgement that reduced-impact logging and stump-to-store bar coding schemes have failed, quoting the Indonesian Minister of Forests’ admission that “it has become clear that Indonesia will not overcome illegal logging without stemming the foreign demand for Indonesian logs and forestry products.” Mr. Brune challenges U.S. companies to join Centex Homes, International Paper and Lanoga Corporation and suspend purchasing from the region until legal supplies are verifiable. A copy of the letter is available at www.ran.org/indonesiamoratorium.

The February 13, 2004 issue of Science magazine exposes the environmental destruction caused by decades of corruption and crime. Satellite and field-based analyses conclusively show that since 1985 over 50 percent of protected lowland forests have been destroyed. Despite a declining resource base caused by decimated forests, Indonesian loggers and mills have maintained excessive production capacities. Over the past two decades, the volume of timber exports from Borneo has exceeded all wood exports from tropical Africa and South America combined. Most legal Indonesian concessions have been depleted of their harvestable timber and abandoned by loggers who have illegally expanded their uncontrolled clearcuts into protected areas. Except for the remote Betung Kerihun National Park–also currently being logged–large, intact protected lowlands no longer exist in Kalimantan. The team of international scientists concluded that “stemming the flow of illegal wood from Borneo requires international efforts” and that a failure to institute solutions will lead to “irreversible ecological degradation.”

“Indonesia is ground zero for illegal logging,” said Michael Brune, executive director of Rainforest Action Network. “Corrupt logging companies are pillaging Indonesia’s virgin rainforests and turning Borneo into a barren wasteland. American corporations that are trading in illegal Indonesian timber are as guilty as the criminals who supply them.”

According to an October 27, 2003 BusinessWeek editorial titled “Indonesia’s Chainsaw Massacre,” the country’s rainforests are “disappearing at a rate equivalent to the area of 300 soccer fields every hour” to offer “Western consumers cheap lumber.” Rainforest Action Network’s 2003 report, “Importing Destruction,” documents the connections of U.S. companies to the international market for Indonesia tropical plywood.

Rainforest Action Network works to protect the Earth’s rainforests and support the rights of their inhabitants through education, grassroots organizing, and non-violent direct action. Additional information may be found at: www.ran.org.

US Wood Importers Pillage Virgin Indonesian Rainforests

Although I am glad you are speaking out against Bush and Blair's decision to go to war now Mr. Blix, this is information that would have been very useful to the public before the unjustified babrabaric invasion of Iraq.

Headlines from Democracy Now

- UN Threatens to Pull Out of Afghanistan
- Supreme Court To Rule On Cheney Documents
- Sen. Thurmond Had Baby w/ Black Maid 80 Years Ago
- NYC Unions Blast Halliburton For Working In Iran
- Panel Urges Bush To Set Up Civil Liberties Board
- Comcast Hires Ex-Pentagon PR Head Victoria Clarke


UN Threatens to Pull Out of Afghanistan

The Observer of London is reporting that the United Nations is threatening to pull out of Afghanistan if the U.S. and foreign troops can not provide more security for aid workers. According to the Observer, 15 aid workers have now been killed in Afghanistan.

Baker Heads To France As Presidential Envoy

Presidential envoy James Baker is in Paris today to meet with president Jacques Chirac in an attempt to persuade France to forgive billions of dollars in debt to Iraq. Ahead of the meeting, France announced it would forgive about $3 billion in debt. The former Secretary of State will continue on his five-day trip with stops in Germany and Russia. This marks Baker's first official trip since he joined the Bush administration two weeks ago. Baker remains a senior partner in the law firm of Baker Botts, which is deeply involved in the fight for the oil and gas of the Caspian Sea. Among the clients of Baker Botts is the Saudi government in the suit filed by family members who lost relatives on 9/11. Baker is also a senior counselor to the powerful investment firm the Carlyle Group.

Supreme Court To Rule On Cheney Energy Task Force

The Supreme Court agreed Monday to decide whether the Bush administration must publicly release the names of the members who comprised Vice President Dick Cheney's national energy policy task force. Cheney has refused to disclose what members of the oil, gas, coal and nuclear industries helped to rewrite the nation’s energy policy. Judicial Watch and the Sierra Club have sued for the list of advisors.

Strom Thurmond Fathered Girl With Black Maid 80 Years Ago

The family of the late South Carolina Republican Senator Strom Thurmond acknowledged on Monday that Thurmond, who died in June at the age of 100, secretly had a child with his 16-year-old black maid almost 80 years ago. The family admitted this after a 78-year-old school teacher in Los Angeles came forward to say that Thurmond, who was a longtime supporter of segregation, was her father. The woman, Mae Washington Williams, said the Senator remained close to her and provided her financial support but they agreed to never disclose their relationship. The Rev. Jessie Jackson compared Thurmond to Thomas Jefferson who is said to have children with one of his slaves named Sally Hemings. Jackson said "By day they are bullies. By night they manipulate race to their advantage." During the 1950s Thurmond ran for president on a pro-segregationist ticket.

NYC Unions Blast Halliburton For Working In Iran

Halliburton is coming under criticism from the office of the New York City Comptroller for doing business in Iran. This according to a report in Crains New York. Acting on behalf of the Police and Fire Department pension funds, city comptroller William Thompson said Halliburton has reneged on an agreement to release a full report detailing the company’s oil-related businesses in Iran. Iran is on the State Department’s list of states that sponsor terrorism. Halliburton originally agreed to file the report after the pension fund threatened to pull its money out of Halliburton. The city made similar requests to General Electric and ConocoPhillips.

Pentagon Awards Halliburton $222 Million More In Iraq

In other Halliburton news, Reuters is reporting that the Pentagon allocated $222 million in new Iraq contracts last week to the company at the same time that a Pentagon audit had found Halliburton may have overbilled the U.S. government by $60 million. To date Halliburton has received $2.25 billion in no-bid contracts in Iraq.

Ex Inmate Tries to Go From Death Row to the State House

In Illinois former death row inmate Aaron Patterson has announced he is running for office in the Illinois State House. Patterson served 17 years on death row before being pardoned in January. He received over $160,000 settlement from the state for his faulty murder conviction.

Powell Has Surgery, Armitage Temporarily in Charge of State

On Monday Secretary of State Colin Powell had surgery for prostate cancer and is expected to be recovering for the next month during which time Deputy Secretary Richard Armitage will be in charge of the State Department.

Gov't Panel Urges Bush To Set Up Civil Liberties Board

A federal commission examining Washington’s so-called war on terror yesterday called on the Bush administration to form an independent board to ensure that new anti-terror efforts do not infringe on the civil liberties of Americas. Former Virginia governor and Republic Party chairman James Gilmore headed the commission. Gilmore said, "We are expressing concern and a simple warning that this must be constantly thought about. We should not fall into the pattern of suggesting that the freedoms of the American people should be traded off for their security."

Italian President Vetoes New Media Ownership Bill

Italy's president refuses to sign pro-Berlusconi media bill In Italy, the country’s president Carlo Azeglio Ciampi has vetoed a new media bill that would have further consolidated the nation’s media into the hands of Silvio Berlusconi, Italy’s prime minister and main media mogul. While the bill goes back to Parliament for further debate, Berlusconi will be forced to sell off one of his three free network channels.

Comcast Hires Ex-Pentagon PR Specialist Victoria Clarke

Cable giant Comcast has hired former Pentagon public relations specialist Victoria Clarke to be a top lobbyist in Washington. Since leaving the Pentagon after the invasion, Clarke has also worked as an on-air analyst for CNN. According to the Washington Post, Clarke’s new job at Comcast will allow her to keep working for CNN and what the paper described as volunteering for the Pentagon.

Sen. Breaux (D-LA) to Resign in 2004

Democratic Senator John Breaux of Louisiana has announced he will not seek re-election next year becoming the fifth Southern Democrat Senator who will be retiring next year.

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In depth reporting from Democracy Now


Who Will Judge Saddam? Former British MP Tony Benn Discusses the Prosecution of Iraq's Former Leader

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British Intelligence Leaker Facing Prison Time For Exposing U.S.-UN Surveillance Scandal

Former British intelligence employee Katharine Gun is facing up to two years in prison for violating the Official Secrets Act when she disclosed a top-secret NSA memo in March outlining a U.S. surveillance operation directed at UN Security Council members ahead of the vote on Iraq.

In the build-up to the invasion of Iraq, the British newspaper The Observer exposed a highly secret and aggressive surveillance operation directed at United Nations Security Council members by the U.S. ahead of the vote on Iraq.

The Observer obtained a top-secret NSA memorandum that outlined a surveillance operation involves intercepting home and office telephone calls and emails of UN delegates focusing “the whole gamut of information that could give U.S. policymakers an edge in obtaining results favorable to U.S. goals or to head off surprises."

The target of the surveillance were the so-called 'Middle Six' delegations, including Angola, Cameroon, Chile, Mexico, Guinea and Pakistan, who could swing a Security Council vote on Iraq.

In a story that has received almost no media coverage in the U.S., the former British intelligence employee who leaked the memo, Katharine Gun, is now facing up to two years in prison for violating the Official Secrets Act.

We speak with Norman Solomon of the Institute for Public Accuracy about the case of Katharine Gun. His article “For Telling the Truth” published in the Baltimore Sun is one of the few U.S. accounts of the story.

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Former Jordanian Ambassador Discusses Saddam's Capture, WMDs and the U.S. Occupation of Iraq

We go to Amman to speak with former Jordanian Ambassador to the United Nations Hassan Abunimah. He recently returned from Cairo, Egypt where he met with Arab officials from across the Middle East.

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Wesley Clark Testifies Against Milosevic in War Crimes Trial That Could Serve As Model For Saddam’s Prosecution

Democratic presidential candidate and former NATO commander Wesley Clark testified in the war crimes trial of Slobodan Milosevic. Clark said authorities should consider a similar court to prosecute former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein. We go to The Hague to speak with Serbian columnist Ljiljana Smajlovic.

Democratic presidential candidate Wesley Clark ended his first day of testimony in the war crimes trial of Slobodan Milosevic yesterday. Clarke is the former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO and the man who led the 78-day bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999.

Milosevic is officially charged with genocide and crimes against humanity in a number of indictments spanning from the wars in Croatia and Bosnia to the fighting in Kosovo. He is a candidate for the Socialist Party in Serbia's parliamentary elections on 28 December.

In an unprecedented agreement between the court and the United States, Washington will be allowed to review Clark's testimony before it is made public. The U.S. will have two days to apply for parts of the testimony to be removed from the public record if it considers them harmful to US national interests. An edited recording is due to be made public on Friday.

Clark said before testifying that he expected to give information on more than 100 hours of meetings over four years with Milosevic during the 1990s.

Speaking outside the court afterwards, Clark told reporters that authorities should consider a similar court to prosecute former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein: "It's the rule of law, it's closure. It's a very important precedent for what may be happening later with another dictator from another part of the world,"

Regarding an eventual punishment for Hussein, Clark later told an audience in a speech: "I don't believe that any form of punishment should be off the table . . . including the death penalty."

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Headlines from Democracy Now

Musharraf Escapes Assassination Attempt

Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf narrowly escaped an assassination attempt Sunday. He was returning home near the capital Islamabad when a bomb went off seconds after his convoy drove over a bridge. No one was hurt in the blast. President Musharraf said he was certain he was the target. No group has said they carried out the attack and a high-level investigation has been launched. It is the second serious attempt on the Pakistani president's life since he ordered a crackdown on Islamic militants nearly two years ago.

Bush Signs Syria Sanctions Bill

President Bush signed a bill late Friday approving economic and diplomatic sanctions against Syria over its alleged terrorist links and purported efforts to obtain nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.

The Syria Accountability Act was passed in October by large majorities in both chambers of Congress and calls for the administration to choose sanctions from a list of six proposed penalties, including flight restrictions on Syrian planes and the limitation of diplomatic contact between the two countries. The bill gives Bush the option of waiving penalties.

It also calls for Syria and Lebanon to “enter into serious unconditional bilateral negotiations” with Israel in order to secure “a full and permanent peace.” A Syrian minister told Al-Arabiya TV channel the law was passed because Damascus opposed Israeli occupation of Arab land and supported the Palestinian Intifada.

Bush on Halliburton: “We Expect That Money Be Repaid"

President Bush attempted to calm a political firestorm Friday over reports that a Halliburton subsidiary overcharged the U.S. government by 61 million dollars for fuel deliveries to Iraq. Bush told reporters the Pentagon was investigating the overcharge and that "If there's an overcharge, like we think there is, we expect that money be repaid."

Hours earlier, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld downplayed the allegations saying, "there was no overpayment to any company." Rumsfeld said it may simply be a disagreement between Halliburton and the Defense Department -- or between Halliburtion and the subsidiary, over what should be charged.

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Iraqi Americans Rejoice Capture of Hussein But Speak Out Against Occupation

U.S. forces say they have captured the former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein after members of his extended family tipped off interrogators as to his whereabouts.

Hussein was found hiding in a tomb-like snakehole near a rural farmhouse near Tikrit. He was alone. He looked disheveled. He had grown a long gray beard. He had with $750,000 in cash and at least two AK-47s but U.S. forces say he did not put up a fight.

Hussein was captured at about 8:30 Saturday night Iraq time. But news didn’t break in the United States until Sunday morning. The head of the U.S. occupation in Iraq, Paul Bremer, held an early morning press conference. His first words were “Ladies and Gentlemen, we got him. The tyrant is a prisoner.”

Soon, pictures of the captured Saddam Hussein appeared around the world. A video released by the Pentagon showed an American medical officer checking Saddam’s head for lice and giving him a brief medical exam. The Pentagon later released a photo of Hussein after his beard was shaven off leaving just his trademark moustache.

Time Magazine reports that Saddam agreed to talk to U.S. interrogators.

When officials asked Saddam if Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. He replied “No, of course not. The U.S. dreamed them up itself to have a reason to go to war with us.”

Hussein was also brought to meet with several members of the Iraqi Governing Council, including Ahmed Chalabi, the head of the U.S.-backed Iraqi National Congress. The council members questioned him about his past war crimes. They said he remained defiant.

Council member Adel Abdul Mahdi said “When we asked him about the mass graves, he said the people in them were Iranian agents and thieves.”

Chalabi said Hussein “would not apologize to the Iraqi people. He did not deny any of the crimes he was confronted with having done. He tried to justify them.”

During a four-minute address to the nation Bush vowed that Saddam Hussein “will face the justice he denied to millions.”

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Robert Fisk Reports From Near Tikrit After Visiting the Hole Where Hussein Was Found

In his latest article, London Independent’s chief Middle East correspondent Robert Fisk writes:

"So they got Saddam at last. Unkempt, his tired eyes betraying defeat; even the $750,000 in cash found in his hole in the ground demeaned him.

“Saddam in chains; maybe not literally, but he looked in that extraordinary videotape yesterday like a prisoner of ancient Rome, the barbarian at last cornered, the hand caressing the scraggy beard. All those ghosts - of gassed Iranians and Kurds, of Shias gunned into the mass graves of Karbala, of the prisoners dying under excruciating torture in the villas of Saddam's secret police - must surely have witnessed something of this. "Ladies and gentlemen - we got him," crowed Paul Bremer, the American proconsul in Iraq. "This is a great day in Iraq's history. For decades, hundreds of thousands of you suffered at the hands of this cruel man. For decades, this cruel man divided you against each other. For decades, he threatened to attack your neighbours. These days are gone for ever ... the tyrant is a prisoner," he said.

“Tony Blair said: "Saddam has gone from power, he won't be coming back. That the Iraqi people now know, and it is they who will decide his fate." It took just 600 American soldiers to capture the man who was for 12 years one of the West's best friends in the Middle East and for 12 more years the West's greatest enemy in the Middle East. In a miserable 8ft hole in the mud of a Tigris farm near the village of Ad-Dawr, the president of the Iraqi Arab Republic, leader of the Arab Socialist Baath party, ex-guerrilla fighter, invader of two nations, friend of Jacques Chirac and a man once courted by President Ronald Reagan, was found hiding, almost certainly betrayed by his own comrades and now destined - if the Americans mean what they say - to a trial for war crimes on a Nuremberg scale.”

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Dilip Hiro Predicts Resistance Against U.S. Occupation Will Now Increase

The capture of Saddam comes nearly 20 years to the date after now Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld met for the first time with Saddam Hussein in Baghdad.

Rumsfeld traveled to Iraq as Ronald Reagan's special presidential envoy. The date was December 20, 1983.

The impact of Saddam’s capture of the resistance movement in Iraq remains to be seen.

At a noon-time address to the nation, President Bush admitted “The capture of Saddam Hussein does not mean the end of violence in Iraq.”

On the website Counterpunch, British journalist Patrick Cockburn recounts what the Foreign Minister of the interim Iraqi government recently told him. "Saddam is very isolated. That is the only way he can avoid being captured. He is not able to organize the resistance. He dare not communicate with other people because he is frightened they will betray him."

Toby Dodge, an analyst at The International Institute for Strategic Studies at Warwick University, estimates there are between 15 and 30 resistance groups in Iraq that have no direct contact with Saddam Hussein.

On Sunday morning – 12 hours after Hussein was captured – a car bomb exploded outside an Iraqi police station in the town of Khaldiya. At least 17 people died. 33 more were wounded. Today eight Iraqi policemen were killed in an attack north of Baghdad.

On the campaign front, Senator Joseph Lieberman used the capture to go after the Democratic frontrunner, Howard Dean. Lieberman said on Meet the Press “If Howard Dean had his way, Saddam Hussein would be in power today, not in prison.”

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Should the Former Iraqi Dictator Be Tried Before An Iraqi or an International Court?

The New York Times is reporting that U.S. and Iraqi officials want Hussein to be tried before a new Iraqi tribunal that was formed last week to try crimes of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Unlike most international tribunes, the Iraqi model allows for the judges to hand down a death sentence.
The Times reports the Bush administration does not want any direct United Nations roles in the trial process.

One Iraqi Governing Council member said Hussein could be tried "in the next few weeks.”

But several human rights groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, warned against rushing ahead with an Iraqi tribunal and called for an international trial.

The government of Iran today called for Hussein to be tried in an international court for crimes committed during the Iran-Iraq war that lasted from 1980 to 1988. An estimated 300,000 Iranians died during the war.

The head of Human Rights Watch Kenneth Roth said “Iraq has no experience with trials lasting more than a few days. International expertise in prosecuting genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity case must be utilized to ensure a fair and effective trial.”

Former British Labor Minister Tony Benn predicted that the U.S. would attempt to tightly control any judicial proceeding in order to prevent Saddam from discussing his close ties to Washington.

Benn told Reuters "Saddam might call on Donald Rumsfeld and say I met him in 1983 and he sold me chemical weapons to use against the Kurds.” Benn continued “of course the Americans don't want that. I think they may be very embarrassed."

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The people in past and present U.S. administrations who were responsible for aiding and abetting Saddam Hussein's reign of terror over the Iraqi people need to also be brought to justice.

Congress strips profiteering penalties from $87.5 billion Iraqi occupation bill

Mother of US soldier: “Bush killed my son”

Despite Bush administration claims that things are improving in Iraq; the reality proves otherwise.

Guerrilla war in Iraq spreading

Headlines from Democracy Now:

Free Speech Radio News Headlines by Randi Zimmerman
Hirosima Survivors Petition Smithsonian

Today the Japan Confederation of A and H Bomb Sufferers Organization handed in petitions to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum over a new display they say covers the real consequences of the atomic bomb the United States dropped on Hiroshima. Keiko Ogura is the Director of Hiroshima Interpreters for Peace. She was eight years old and living in Hiroshima when Enola Gay dropped the bomb.
The director of the air and space museum has refused to meet with the group. The U.S. government just approved funding for the next generation nuclear weapons.

KBR Overcharges US Taxpayer in Iraq

A Pentagon audit finds the Halliburton subsidiary working for the U.S. military in Iraq is over-billing taxpayers for their work. From KPFT in Houston, Renee Feltz reports.

CA Strike Over Licenses

Latinos and Latinas in California are being urged to strike, boycott shops, and keep their children out of school today protesting a repeal of the short-lived law allowing undocumented immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses. Kellia Ramares has more.

Bio-tracking at the Border

A top U.S. official confirms that the government is working on developing a new technology that will keep track of foreign nationals while in the United States. Shannon Young reports from Miami Beach.

Protests in Haiti

Today the United States embassy in Haiti’s capital was reportedly closed a portion of the day until officials there could confirm calm in the city. Police fired tear gas and warning shots yesterday out side the Presidential Palace in Port au Prince at thousands of students calling for President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to step down.

Other Haitian nationals charge the protestors are funded by the U.S. government and represent the elite class who protest Aristides’ more populist policies. President Aristide has formally condemned the violence on both sides.

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In depth reporting from Free Speech Radio News:


Military Contracts to Universities?

Human Rights Watch said today that scores of Iraqi civilians were killed or injured needlessly, because Britain failed in its duty as an occupying power in its use of cluster bombs and by not securing Iraqi munitions dumps. This as the Bush administration has delayed the bidding process for the 18.6 billion dollars in reconstruction money for Iraq. It is unclear however, whether the delay is due to the international outrage that only corporations from countries that supported the invasion were eligible for primary
contracts. Yet even with the US there is outrage over the contracts, with residents of New Mexico wondering why the University of New Mexico, a self-described research university, is receiving money from military contracts. KUNM's Leslie Clark reports.

Peace Accords Update

A week after his meeting with the authors of the Geneva accord, US Secretary of State Colin Powell met yesterday with Palestinian intellectual Sarri Nusseibah, the co-author of the popular Campaign for Peace and Democracy, a peace petition that calls for a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders and asks the Palestinians to give up the refugees right to return. Yesterday also marked the 55th anniversary of the passing of UN resolution 194 which affirmed the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes inside Israel. Mohammed Ghalayini has more from Gaza.

Peace at Last in South Asia?

It appears that grand overtures towards peace are being made in South Asia as this week the Pakistani Prime Minister assured Indian Prime Minister Vajpayee of a grand welcome when he lands in Islamabad on January 4 to attend a meeting of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). The friendly overtures between the nation’s leaders has also trickled down to the business elite, according to a Pakistani media report, entrepreneurs are buying land around an entry point between India and Pakistan which is expected to become part of a trading zone. This is seen as a clear sign that the normalization process between the two traditional enemies is leading towards durable peace in the region. Masror Hussain reports from Islamabad.

World Bank Development Lottery in DC

Hundreds of people from 27 countries arrived last week at World Bank headquarters, located in Washington, DC, to compete for funding of their development projects at the World Bank's Development Marketplace. Only 47 projects were picked to share more than 6 million dollars in grant money. EllieWalton reports from Washington DC.

Mumia on Nathanial Jones

22 years ago this week Mumia Abu-Jamal was arrested for the fatal shooting of police officer Daniel Faulkner. Mumia remains on death row in Pennsylvania despite the fact that another man, Arnold Beverly, has confessed to the killing of officer Faulkner and has passed two lie detector tests regarding his testimony. The courts refuse to hear his testimony and will not arrest him. This weekend there will be mobilizations around the country calling for justice for Mumia Abu Jamal, and from his death row cell, Mumia calls for justice for Nathanial Jones who was beaten to death by police in Cincinnati.

Click here to listen.

Headlines from Democracy Now:

- Bush: "International Law? I Better Call My Lawyer"
- Many Civilian Deaths In Iraq Were Preventable
- Iraq Suicide Bomber Infiltrates U.S. Base, Kills 1
- U.S. Predicts More Assassinations In Iraq
- Iraqis Oust Appointed Governor, Demand Election
- El Baradei to Israel: Give Up Nuclear Weapons

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Halliburton and Private Military Contractors Strike it Rich in Iraq

A Pentagon investigation has found evidence that a subsidiary of Halliburton Company overcharged the U.S. government by as much as 61 million dollars for gasoline delivered to Iraq. Halliburton subsidiary, Kellogg, Brown and Root, delivers fuel to Iraq under huge no-bid reconstruction contracts that have a potential value of $15.6 billion. Separately, Pentagon officials said they rejected a proposal submitted by KBR for cafeteria services that was inflated by 67 million dollars.

The allegations of overcharging are not the first against the company, which has billed the Army for questionable expenses in the past. Halliburton did not appear to have profited from the overcharging, but had instead paid a subcontractor too much for the gasoline in the first place. The company denied overcharging and called the inquiry a "routine audit."

Halliburton's former CEO is Vice President Dick Cheney. He still receives about $150,000 in annual deferred payments from the company.

Rep. Henry Waxman, a California Democrat who has been a leading Congressional critic of the contract, said, "Halliburton has been gouging taxpayers and the White House has been letting them get away with it."

Separately, the weekly newsletter Inside the Pentagon is reporting that Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfwoitz has placed highly restrictive rules on a newly formed inspector general's office at the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq. The office was created to watch out for all manner of waste, fraud, abuse and price gouging by the CPA.

The Halliburton audit came as President Bush worked to justify his decision to bar non-coalition countries from competing for primary reconstruction contracts in Iraq.

Bush said, "It's very simple. Our people risk their lives. Coalition, friendly coalition folks risk their lives, and, therefore, the contracting is going to reflect that." The president added that he might issue exemptions for those countries that write off Iraq's debt.

When told Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's said that "international law must apply here," Bush responded, "International law? I better call my lawyer. I don't know what you're talking about, about international law."

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Kucinich & Braun Blast ABC For Reducing Campaign Coverage

ABC News announced it will stop having producers travel full time with the presidential campaigns of Carol Moseley Braun, Dennis Kucinich and Al Sharpton a day after ABC News’ Ted Koppel hosted the democratic presidential debate in New Hampshire.

The network says it's a routine coverage decision, but the move has angered Braun and Kucinich -- particularly after the Ohio congressman had a testy exchange with Koppel during Tuesday's debate. Kucinich criticized Koppel for beginning with a question about Al Gore's endorsement of Howard Dean. Later, he was angered when Koppel asked whether he, Braun or Sharpton are "in this as sort of a vanity candidacy."

We speak with Kucinich and Moseley-Braun and we hear from ABC News.

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Headlines from Democracy Now:

- Supreme Court Upholds Campaign Finance Law
- CIA Plans to Train Iraqi Intelligence Unit
- 10,000 Private Military Contractors Now In Iraq
- Report: U.S. Dropped 11,000 Cluster Bombs on Iraq
- Nobel Peace Prize Winner Condemns War on Terror
- ABC Drops Coverage of Kucinch, Sharpton, Braun

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In depth reporting from Democracy Now:

"My Son Stepped on an American Cluster Bomb" – Father of U.S. Soldier Killed in Iraq Speaks Out

A USA Today study has found that the U.S. dropped or fired nearly 11,000 cluster bombs or cluster weapons on Iraq during the invasion and Britain dropped 2,000 more. It is unknown how many Iraqis died from cluster bombs. One estimate puts the total at 370. And the attacks left behind thousands of unexploded bomblets. At least eight U.S. soldiers and an unknown number of Iraqis have been killed by unexploded bomblets.

USA Today reports that one of the soldiers killed may have been Lance Cpl. Jesus Suarez del Solar. He died March 27 after stepping on some type of unexploded ordnance while on reconnaissance patrol outside Baghdad. He was 20 years old. A Marine investigation concluded that the "origin of the ordnance is unknown and really impossible to determine."

But the dead Marine's father, Fernando Suarez del Solar has a different account. He says he was contacted by one of his son's friends, who said the Army dropped cluster weapons on March 26 and not all of the submunitions exploded. He is now seeking an official explanation for his son's death.

Fernando Suarez del Solar joins in the studio today. He recently returned from Iraq where he joined eight other Americans, including veterans, activists and other parents of servicemen on a trip organized by Global Exchange and the International Occupation Watch Center. They spent a week traveling in Baghdad, Fallujah and Tikrit and talking with Iraqi civilians and American soldiers on patrol. They met with the U.S. administrator for Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, and with military officials.

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Success Without Victory: Lost Legal Battles and The Long Road to Justice in America

Jules Lobel of the Center for Constitutional Rights and author of the new book Success Without Victory joins us in our studio to discuss prominent cases in American legal history - from Susan B. Anthony’s trial for voting illegally to his own challenges to U.S. foreign policy during the 1980s and 1990s.

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Will He Run? Ralph Nader Discusses His Plans for 2004

The New York Times is reporting today that President Bush's political advisers are now all but certain that Howard Dean will be the Democratic presidential nominee and are planning a campaign that takes account of what they see as Dean's strengths and weaknesses.

This comes a day after the nine democratic presidential candidates debated each other in New Hampshire where the first primary takes place on Jan. 27. Also yesterday, Democrat Gavin Newsom narrowly beat Green Party candidate Matt Gonzalez in San Francisco’s mayoral race. If Gonzalez had won he would have become the nation's highest-ranking Green Party member.

Today we are joined on the phone by 2000 Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader. Last week he authorized the formation of a new presidential exploratory committee which could mark his first step in another bid for the presidency. Debate has already begun among Greens and Democrats over what role - if any - Nader should take in 2004.

Before we speak with him we turn to Ralph Nader speaking at the National Conference on Media Reform in Madison, Wisconsinn this past November. After Nader gave a major address on media issues, a member of the audience stood up and asked Nader not to run for president again. We hear Nader’s response.

Click here to watch, listen or read.

Headlines from Democracy Now:

- U.S. Bars Opponents of War From Iraq Contracts
- Six More Afghan Children Die In U.S. Raid
- Green Narrowly Loses SF Mayor Race
- Bush Strongly Warns Taiwan Over Referendum
- Iraqi Council Oks War Crimes Tribunal
- Bush Reduces AIDS Request By $2.5 Billion

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In depth reporting from Democracy Now:

Democratic Presidential Candidates Debate in New Hampshire on Iraq, Domestic Policy Issues and Gore's Endorsement of Dean

The final democratic presidential debate of the year drew all nine candidates in New Hampshire last night where the first primary takes place on Jan. 27, 2004.

The debate got underway just hours after former vice president Al Gore announced his endorsement of former Vermont governor Howard Dean for president in a move that surprised many campaign observers. Gore, who ran for president in 2000 and won the popular vote, made his announcement in Harlem alongside Dean who is already seen as the frontrunner in the campaign. For Dean, the endorsement gives him the backing of one of the best-known establishment Democrats.

The debate, broadcast live on C-SPAN, turned immediately to Gore's move. Noting that Dean had had an "extraordinary day," moderator Ted Koppel of ABC News asked the nine candidates to raise a hand if they thought Dean could beat President Bush.

Dean was the only one to raise his hand.

Koppel began the debate by asking the other eight candidates why they did not raise their hands and went on to discuss U.S. policy in Iraq as well as domestic policy issues. We hear extended excerpts of the debate and speak with former Green Party California gubernatorial candidate Peter Camejo and journalist John Nichols of The Nation. Read transcript of the debate.

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Headlines from Democracy Now:

- U.S. Launches Major Offensive In Afghanistan
- House OKs Overtime Cuts & Media Reg Laws
- Report: Wolfowitz May Soon Step Down
- 41 U.S. Troops Injured Iraq Car Bomb Blast
- UN Votes For Int'l Court Ruling On Israeli Wall
- NRA Seeks to Start "News" Outlet

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In depth reporting from Democracy Now:

Manhunt in Iraq: Israel Trains U.S. Assassination Squads

In his latest article in the New Yorker, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Seymour Hersh writes:
“The Bush Administration has authorized a major escalation of the Special Forces covert war in Iraq. In interviews over the past month, American officials and former officials said that the main target was a hard-core group of Baathists who are believed to be behind much of the underground insurgency against the soldiers of the United States and its allies. A new Special Forces group, designated Task Force 121, has been assembled from Army Delta Force members, Navy seals, and C.I.A. paramilitary operatives, with many additional personnel ordered to report by January. Its highest priority is the neutralization of the Baathist insurgents, by capture or assassination.

“The revitalized Special Forces mission is a policy victory for Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who has struggled for two years to get the military leadership to accept the strategy of what he calls ‘Manhunts’ — a phrase that he has used both publicly and in internal Pentagon communications. Rumsfeld has had to change much of the Pentagon’s leadership to get his way. “Knocking off two regimes allows us to do extraordinary things,” a Pentagon adviser told me, referring to Afghanistan and Iraq.

“One step the Pentagon took was to seek active and secret help in the war against the Iraqi insurgency from Israel, America’s closest ally in the Middle East. According to American and Israeli military and intelligence officials, Israeli commandos and intelligence units have been working closely with their American counterparts at the Special Forces training base at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and in Israel to help them prepare for operations in Iraq.”

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A Look At Wesley Clark and the Media's "Shameful" Coverage of Bush's Trip to Iraq

Former Vice President Al Gore is announcing today he is endorsing Howard Dean for president in a move that surprised many campaign observers. The Washington Post says that Gore's move gives "the insurgent candidate the establishment backing his campaign has been lacking."

Gore's decision is being viewed as a major blow to Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman, who ran as Gore's running mate in 2000. Earlier, Lieberman appearing on the Today show said of Gore's announcement, "I was caught completely off guard."

Lieberman went on to say, "What really bothers me is that Al is supporting a candidate who is so fundamentally opposed to the basic transform that Bill Clinton brought to the party in 1992."

Tonight, Dean will join most of the democratic candidates for a debate in New Hampshire where the first primary takes place January 27.

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Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs Accused of Using Honduras Sweatshops for Sean John Line

Workers rights activists have accused hip-hop mogul Sean "P. Diddy" Combs (formerly known as Puff Daddy) of using sweatshops in Honduras to produce his clothing line, which sells under the name Sean Jean.

In a press conference held in October, Lydda Elie Gonzalez, a former employee, said workers have to get passes before they could go to the toilet, are subjected to daily body searches and were forced to work overtime without pay: "We are totally slaves. We live inhumane lives."

Activists say Honduran workers receive 15 cents for the production of each Sean John long-sleeve shirt, which retails for about $40.

Gonzalez was brought to the U.S. last month by the National Labor Committee, a US labor rights group, to highlight what its director Charles Kernaghan calls the shocking conditions in the five central American countries now negotiating a free-trade agreement with the U.S.

The regional deal will be the first since the still-controversial North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico to open the US market fully to goods from much poorer countries.

Negotiators from the US and the five central American countries will meet in Washington next week to finalize details of the free-trade pact, known as CAFTA.

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22nd Anniversary of Mumia Abu-Jamal’s Arrest for Fatal Shooting of Officer Danny Faulkner

22 years ago today Mumia Abu-Jamal was arrested for the fatal shooting of police officer Daniel Faulkner. Abu-Jamal was also gravely wounded. We speak with activist Pam Africa about Pennsylvania's most famous death row inmate.

Click here to watch, listen or read.

Headlines from Democracy Now:

- Copying Israeli Tactics, U.S. Tightens Grip in Iraq
- Citing Safety 60 S. Korean Engineers Leave Iraq
- Memo Reveals INC Fed Cheney Iraq Intel
- Congress Prepares to Give Iranian Dissidents $1.5M
- GOP Bribes Congressman Over Medicare Vote
- Queen Visits Mock Nigerian Village

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In depth reporting from Democracy Now:


Saving President Bush: Send in James Baker

Last week, President Bush appointed former Secretary of State James Baker as his envoy for restructuring Iraq’s more than $120 billion in foreign debt. Baker will be dispatched in his own U.S. government plane as a special presidential envoy to deal with heads of state in Asia, Europe and the Persian Gulf. He will report directly to President Bush.

Baker is a lawyer-politician who is a former White House Chief of Staff, Treasury Secretary, Secretary of State and various other things. He is a trusted friend of the Bush family and has been called up before in times of political need. He ran Bush Senior’s presidential campaigns and was President George W Bush’s man in Florida during the recount in 2000.

Baker is now a senior partner in the law firm of Baker Botts, which is deeply involved in the fight for the oil and gas of the Caspian Sea and is senior counselor to the powerful investment firm the Carlyle Group. On the morning of September 11th, 2001, Baker was reportedly at a Carlyle investor conference with members of the bin Laden family in the Ritz Carlton in Washington D.C. And his law firm Baker Botts is defending the Saudi government in a lawsuit filed by the families of the victims of the 9/11 attacks.

This past July, Baker was sent out to Georgia to lecture its President, Eduard Shevardnadze, about the need to ensure that the upcoming parliamentary elections were "free and fair." Fast forward four months and Shevardnadze has been overthrown in a so-called “Velvet Revolution.”

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U.S. Air Strike Kills 9 Children in Afghanistan

Nine children were killed in southern Afghanistan when two U.S. warplanes fired rockets and bullets into a group of villagers sitting under a tree. The military claimed they were trying to assassinate a member of the Taliban. Local residents told the BBC, the man [Mullar Wazir] had left the area 10 days before. The UN said the incident was "profoundly distressing" and announced plans for an investigation. The BBC described their target as a low-ranking member of the Taliban who was suspected of overseeing the murders of two foreign contractors.

Last week Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld traveled to Afghanistan where he met with rival warlords, Abdul Rashid Dostum and Atta Mohammed, and later held talks with President Hamid Karzai at his presidential palace.

Rumsfeld said the warlords whose forces collaborated with American ground troops to help topple the Taliban regime two years ago, are making progress toward disarmament.

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"It Really Is Unclear Where The Air Force Begins And Boeing Ends"

The Financial Times is reporting today that defense contractor Boeing had developed ties with at least six members of an influential civilian Pentagon advisory board as it attempted to win support for an $18 billion contact with the Air Force. Boeing gave millions to separate investment funds run by former assistant secretary of defense Richard Perle and former CIA head James Woolsey. Perle is also coming under criticism for writing an editorial in the Wall Street Journal in support of the Boeing deal without disclosing his ties to the project.

The ties between Boeing and the Defense Policy Board mark the latest in an ongoing series of potential conflicts of interest that have emerged between Capitol Hill and the arms manufacturer.

In late November Boeing fired Darleen Druyun. She was allegedly recruited by Boeing while working for the Air Force as one of the chief architects of the Boeing contract. Along with Druyan, Boeing has fired its chief financial officer Mike Sears.

Boeing CEO’s Phil Condit resigned last week.

On Saturday, The New York Times revealed that Marvin Sambur, an Air Force acquisitions officer, shared inside Pentagon information with Boeing during negotiations. He also continued to urge the Pentagon to sign the Boeing deal even after Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had expressed concern over the project.

And U.S. News and World Report is reporting today that the Sen. John McCain plans to call for a congressional investigation to examine the large number of governmental officials who have left Washington to work for Boeing.

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Headlines from Democracy Now:

- Transcript: Kissinger OK'd Argentina Dirty War
- Israel "Full Partner" with U.S. & UK Over Iraq Intel
- Richard Perle's Ties To Boeing Revealed
- Bush Critic Max Cleland To Leave 9/11 Panel
- Private Contractors Unveil New Ammunition in Iraq
- Paper: 1,700 U.S. Soldiers Have Deserted in Iraq

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In depth reporting from Democracy Now:


The Geneva Peace Accords: A Debate Between Rabbi Michael Lerner, AIPAC and Palestinian professor Naseer Aruri

The United Nations and the European Union endorse it. Some Israelis and Palestinians oppose it. And U.S. officials say they are still considering it.

The prototype peace plan known as the Geneva accord is creating a stir in the Middle East.

The peace plan was agreed to by unofficial Israeli and Palestinian negotiators in Geneva Monday. The main points of the accord include a division of Jerusalem along religious and cultural lines, a mutual recognition of statehood and for Israel to dismantle a majority of the settlements and return to its 1967 borders. Palestinians are to renounce their right to return to properties left in 1948.

Secretary of State Colin Powell and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfwitz have announced they will meet the architects of the accord - former justice minister Yossi Beilin and former Palestinian cabinet minister Yasser Abed Rabbo. The decision was met with a quick rebuke from Israel who strongly opposes the plan.

Prime minister Ariel Sharon’s spokesman Raanan Gissin called the accord a “Swiss golden calf," and an assembly of rabbis said the authors should be "cast out from human society and brought to trial."

Meanwhile, the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades denounced the Palestinian authors as collaborators and someone opened fire on Palestinian negotiator Abed Rabbo's home.

Separately in Cairo, Hamas representatives attending a summit meeting of Palestinian factions are resisting a comprehensive truce with Israel and are agreeing only to halt attacks only inside pre-1967 Israeli borders.

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Despite Increased Post-9/11 Need, Military Fires 37 Arabic Translators For Being Gay

A recent post in the Washington Post began:

Kathleen Glover was cleaning the pool at the Sri Lankan ambassador's residence recently when she heard the sound of Arabic drifting through the trees. Glover earned $11 an hour working for a pool-maintenance company, skimming leaves and testing chlorine levels in the backyards of Washington. No one knew about her past. But sometimes the past found her.
Glover recognized the sound instantly. It was the afternoon call to prayer coming from a mosque on Massachusetts Avenue. She held still, picking out familiar words and translating them in her head.

She learned Arabic at the Defense Language Institute (DLI), the military's premier language school, in Monterey, Calif. Her timing as a soldier was fortuitous: Around her graduation last year, a Government Accounting Office study reported that the Army faced a critical shortage of linguists needed to translate intercepts and interrogate suspects in the war on terrorism.

"I was what the country needed," Glover said.

She was, and she wasn't. Glover is gay. She mastered Arabic but couldn't handle living a double life under the military policy known as "don't ask, don't tell." After two years in the Army, Glover, 26, voluntarily wrote a statement acknowledging her homosexuality.

Confronted with a shortage of Arabic interpreters and its policy banning openly gay service members, the Pentagon had a choice to make.

Which is how former Spec. Glover came to be cleaning pools instead of sitting in the desert, translating Arabic for the U.S. government.

In the past two years, the Department of Defense has discharged 37 linguists from the Defense Language Institute for being gay. Like Glover, many studied Arabic. At a time of heightened need for intelligence specialists, 37 linguists were rendered useless because of their homosexuality.

To discuss this, we are joined by Nathaniel Frank, senior research fellow at the Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Click here to watch, listen or read.


New Study Faults Electronic Voting Machines in Ohio

A new report from the state of Ohio has found that electronic voting machines from the four biggest companies in the field have serious security flaws. The companies say the problems can be addressed but experts have raised questions if that is true.

Click here to watch, read or listen.


U.S. Uncovers Weapons of Mass Destruction... In Texas

This is a story of weapons of mass destruction. Chemical weapons. Domestic Terrorism. Forged Identifications. And media double standards.

In the Texan town of Tyler law enforcement officials found what hundreds of investigators in Iraq have been looking for months.

A Tyler man named William Krar with ties to white supramacists had built a sodium cynanide bomb. In the words of the Justice Department, the man had developed his own chemical weapons. In addition he had a well-stocked arsenal reportedly with 500,000 rounds of ammunition. He and his wife plead guilty two weeks ago to a series of weapons charges.

According to the Texas TV station CBS 11, this case lead federal officials to launch one of its most extensive investigations of domestic terrorism since the Oklahoma City bombing. Hundreds of subpoenas have been reportedly sent out. Documents seized indicated there may be other co-conspirators across the country. And the threat was deemed great enough to appear in the President’s daily briefing.

But strangely the story is mostly unknown to almost anyone outside of Texas because the national media has all but ignored the story.

Click here to watch, listen or read.

Headlines from Democracy Now:

- Rwandan Journalists Sentenced For Role in Genocide
- U.S. Rejects Iraqi Plan to Conduct Census
- U.S. To Create Iraqi Paramilitary Force
- 70% of U.S. Says Iraq War Didn't Reduce Threat
- Coroner: Cincinnati Man’s Death Caused by Police
- GOP Congressman Sued For Anti-Islam Remarks

Click here to watch, or listen.


In depth reporting from Democracy Now:


As Sentencing in the Lackawanna 6 Case Begins, A U.S. Court Rejects Law That Criminalizes Unknowingly Supporting a Terrorist Organization

A federal judge yesterday sentenced a Yemeni American to 10 years in prison for supporting a terrorist organization. Mukhtar al-Bakri is the first of the so-called "Lackawanna Six" members to be sentenced after pleading guilty earlier this year to providing material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization – a charge carrying a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and $250,000 fine.

All six have admitted to the FBI and intelligence officials that in 2001 they traveled to Afghanistan, received training at a camp run by the Al Qaeda terrorist network and heard speeches by Al Qaeda's leader, Osama bin Laden.

A lawyer for one of the men said they pleaded guilty only after prosecutors had dropped heavy hints that they would be declared 'enemy combatants' if they didn't. “It was a factor my client took into account. He was worried about it,” he said. Enemy combatant status places a detainee outside of the civilian justice system where access to legal counsel can be waived.

The other five defendants in the case are scheduled to be sentenced this month.

The prosecution has been hailed as a triumph for law enforcement by President Bush, Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller, but critics call it an example of America putting people in jail for "thought crimes" and "guilt by association." None of the six have been accused of planning or engaging in any act of terrorism.

This comes as the San Francisco-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit rules part of the law the men are being charged under unconstitutional.

Click here to watch, read or listen.


Tariq Ali vs. Christopher Hitchens on the Occupation of Iraq: Postponed Liberation or Recolonisation?

It has been 8 months since the U.S. began its invasion of Iraq. In this time, U.S. forces have failed to produce any weapons of mass destruction in the country˜the stated reason for going to war against Baghdad.

According to the Pentagon's own figures, some 440 U.S. troops have died in Iraq. Thousands have been wounded. There are no solid estimates of the number of Iraqis who have been killed since the start of the invasion. November was the bloodiest month for U.S. forces in Iraq 79 soldiers died, 39 of them were killed in the downing of 4 military helicopters. Saddam Hussein remains at-large and the occupation forces face regular attacks throughout the country.

Today, we take a look at the U.S. occupation of Iraq with two renowned authors: Tariq Ali, author of Bush in Babylon: The Recolonization of Iraq and Christopher Hitchens, jounalist and author of A Long Short War: The Postponed Liberation of Iraq.

Click here to watch, read or listen.

Headlines from Democracy Now:

- Pentagon To Start Paying Troop Travel Costs
- U.S. Fires Guantanamo Lawyers After Criticism
- Nader Sets up 2004 Exploratory Committee
- Nobel Prize Winner Criticizes U.S. Over Iraq
- Italians Protest New Media Ownership Laws
- Rumsfeld’s a Winner: Worst Mangler of English Language

Click here to watch or listen.


In depth reporting from Democracy Now:

Did the U.S Lie About What Happened in Samarra?

Widely differing accounts are emerging over a battle Sunday between U.S. troops and Iraqi resistance fighters in the northern Iraqi town of Samarra.

The U.S. Army said that either 46 or 54 guerillas were killed in the clashes and another 16 wounded in what it described as the bloodiest fire-fight since the official end of the war. Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt later admitted that the U.S. figures are only estimates and that U.S. forces had not recovered a single body from the scene.

Iraqi accounts differ sharply. The director of the local hospitals says they received the bodies of only eight civilians, including those of a woman and child as well as 60 others wounded. U.S. military officials denied their forces had overreacted and fired indiscriminately, as charged by senior police, hospital and municipal officials in the Samarra.

Click here to watch, read or listen.


“We Have More Than One Guantanamo In Iraq” – British Anti-War Lawyer Representing Tariq Aziz Arrested After Charging Blair With War Crimes

A human rights lawyer representing Saddam Hussein’s former Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz was arrested in London last week. Abdul Haq Al-Ani was arrested by Britain’s Customs and Excise and charged under Section 3C of the Iraq and Kuwait (United Nations Sanctions) Order 1990 which states that "no person shall do any act calculated to promote the supply or delivery of any goods to any person in Iraq or Kuwait or for the purpose of any business carried on in Iraq".

He was released on bond and ordered to return for further questioning in eight weeks. He is the first person in Britain to be arrested in connection with the Iraq sanctions. But international lawyers rights organizations say the arrest of Abdul Haq Al-Ani, who is a British barrister, is political. He has been an active opponent of the invasion and occupation of Iraq and was a vigorous campaigner against the more than decade of economic sanctions against Iraq. Shortly after the occupation began, Al-Ani traveled to Iraq to investigate US and British war crimes. Two weeks ago, shortly before his arrest, Al-Ani along with a number of other British lawyers had recently handed a petition to Scotland Yard asking the police to investigate war crimes allegedly committed by Prime Minister Tony Blair and members of the cabinet.

Click here to watch, listen or read.


75 U.S. Soldiers Shout “Kill! Kill! Kill!” Outside Anti-War Priest’s House

In a recent article on CommonDreams.org, Father John Dear writes:

“I live in a tiny, remote, impoverished, three block long town in the desert of northeastern New Mexico. Everyone in town--and the whole state--knows that I am against the occupation of Iraq, that I have called for the closing of Los Alamos, and that as a priest, I have been preaching, like the Pope, against the bombing of Baghdad….Suddenly, at 7 a.m., the [soldiers’] shouting got dramatically louder. I looked out the front window of the house where I live, next door to the church, and there they were--all 75 of them, standing yards away from my front door, in the street right in front of my house and our church, shouting and screaming to the top of their lungs, “Kill! Kill! Kill!” Their commanders had planted them there and were egging them on.”

Click here to watch, read or listen.


Irish Peace Accord In Jeopardy With Elevation of Hard-Line Unionist Ian Paisley

In Northern Ireland, the future of the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement is in jeopardy following last week's elections. One of the hard-line Protestant parties that opposed the agreement, the Democratic Unionist Party, won the most seats in the power-sharing assembly in Belfast.

The party's head Ian Paisley has called for the renegotiation of the peace treaty. His son Ian Paisley Jr. said the peace agreement was “dead in the water.”

The impact of the elections remains unclear in part because Britain suspended home rule a year ago temporarily stripping the Belfast body of most of its power.

Ian Paisley has also ruled out working with Sinn Fein, the political party led by Gerry Adams which secured the most seats among the Catholic political parties. After the election Paisley told the BBC, “I don't accept the principle that we must sit down with armed terrorists who have enough weapons in their possession to blow up the whole of Northern Ireland.”

On Tuesday, British Prime Minister Tony Blair spoke publicly about the election results for the first time. He described it as a "a difficult situation." Six months ago Blair predicted that if Paisley’s DUP came to power they would destroy the Good Friday Agreement.

Click here to watch, listen, or read.

Headlines from Democracy Now:

- Israelis & Palestinians Launch Unofficial Peace Plan
- U.S. Ends Immigrant Registration Program
- Cincinnati Police Beat to Death African-American Man
- Colorado Court Rules Redistricting By GOP Illegal
- Diebold Drops Cases Against Internet Sites
- School Punishes Boy For Saying “Gay”

Click here to watch or listen.


In depth reporting from Democracy Now:

A Debate on One of the Most Frequently Cited Justifications for the 1991 Persian Gulf War: Did PR Firm Hill & Knowlton Invent the Story of Iraqi Soldiers Pulling Kuwaiti Babies From Incubators?

We spend the hour with Lauri Fitz-Pegado, the woman who ran the PR campaign for Hill and Knowlton, and John Stauber, co-author of "Weapons Of Mass Deception."

On December 19, 1990, Amnesty International published an 84-page report on human rights violations in occupied Kuwait. The report stated that, “300 premature babies were reported to have died after Iraqi soldiers removed them from incubators, which were then looted.”

This allegation, which was widely reported by the global media, became one of the most often cited justifications for the 1991 Gulf War. On January 9 1991, President George HW Bush cited Amnesty’s report in a letter sent to campus newspapers across the country. In the Senate, six senators specifically cited the story in their speeches supporting the resolution to give Bush authorization to use American forces in Kuwait. That vote ultimately passed by a mere half-dozen votes.

But the most dramatic moment in this story came on October 10, 1990, when a 15 year old Kuwaiti girl, identified simply as Nayirah testified in front of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus that she had personally witnessed 15 infants taken from incubators by Iraqi forces who she said, “left the babies on the coal floor to die.” California Democrat Tom Lantos explained that her identity would be kept secret to protect her family.

What was not said at the time is that Nayirah was the daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador to the US, Saud Nasir al-Sabah. By March of 1991, Amnesty International took the unprecedented move of retracting its report, saying it had become clear that the allegations were baseless. [Includes transcript]

On October 17, Democracy Now! spoke with author and PR Watch co-founder John Stauber as well as retired Air Force Colonel Sam Gardiner about the U.S. government’s use of psy-ops, propaganda and information warfare in the build up to the Iraq invasion.

Within that conversation John Stauber spoke about his findings that a new Jessica Lynch-related book is: “being promoted by … [the] Livingston Group’s Lauri Fitz-Pegado. She is infamous for her work at Hill & Knowlton PR in 1990 coaching the Kuwaiti girl called "Nayirah" in her shocking but phony testimony on Congressional hill that she'd seen Iraqi soldiers murdering Kuwaiti babies. That stunt helped propel the U.S. to war against Iraq in 1991. Fitz-Pegado's client was the ruling family of Kuwait and the baby-killing claims were later shown to be false.”

Click here to watch, read, and/or listen.

Headlines from Democracy Now:

- U.S. Kills 54 Iraqis In Bloodiest Battle Since April
- N. Irish Peace Accord In Jeopardy With Elevation of Ian Paisley
- Report: U.S. To Release 140 From Guantanamo
- Patriot Act Author Concerned Over Jose Padilla Detention
- Annan: Israel Wall Threatens Peace

Click here to watch and/or listen.


In depth reporting from Democracy Now:

World AIDS Day: Mandela Calls For More Help to Fight Disease; UN Plan to Provide AIDS Drugs to 3 Million

UNAIDS and the World Health Organization are announcing a program to provide life-saving, anti-retroviral drugs to about 3 million people infected with HIV/AIDS in poor countries by 2005.
The WHO called on countries to train and organize 100,000 health care and nonprofessional workers to carry out the plan.

The program is part of a larger 5 and a half billion-dollar emergency strategy aimed at preventing the disease from killing about 8,000 people in the world every day.

To mark World AIDS day, former South African President Nelson Mandela was joined by pop stars Bono, Beyonce Knowles and Bob Geldof at a Cape Town concert over the weekend in South Africa to call for more help to fight AIDS.

Click here to watch, read and/or listen.


U.S. Kills 54 Iraqis in Occupation's Bloodiest Weekend; Non-U.S. Coalition Forces Suffer 14 Deaths

U.S. forces killed up to 54 Iraqis Sunday in Samarra in one of the bloodiest battles since the fall of Baghdad. Pentagon officials claimed all of the Iraqis killed were fighters but Agence France Press reports that local medics said at least eight of the Iraqis were civilians including an Iraqi woman and child. The Los Angeles Times also reported that local residents said some of the victims worked at a pharmaceutical factory which was hit accidentally by U.S. tanks.

The U.S. said the killings came in response to Iraqi attacks on three U.S. convoys near Samarra.

It came at the end of a weekend that saw coalition forces suffer 14 deaths including seven Spanish intelligence agents, two Korean contractors, two Japanese diplomats, two US soldiers and a Colombian contractor. A total of 111 coalition forces died in November marking the deadliest month since the U.S. invaded Iraq.

In Spain, calls for the return of all Spanish troops increased. Polls show 85 percent of the country believe the war in Iraq was a mistake. The newspaper El Mundo editorialized "Nobody who saw the glee with which passersby trampled the corpses of our countrymen can still maintain that the majority of Iraqis consider coalition troops to be their liberators."

Click here to watch, read and/or listen.


“The White House Press Corps Has Turned Into a Full Time Press Agency For The President” – Harpers’ Rick MacArthur on Bush’s Secretive Thanksgiving Trip to Iraq

President Bush returned to the U.S. from Iraq early Friday morning, after spending Thanksgiving dinner with hundreds of soldiers in Baghdad in what is being described as one of the most secretive presidential trips in American history.

The trip was a tightly held secret among only a few aides until the very end. The administration did not announce it until Bush had left Baghdad and even Bush’s parents did not know about his trip beforehand. The president left his ranch in an unmarked car, not the usual presidential limousine and tried to disguise his appearance.

A total of 13 journalists accompanied Bush on the trip. They were instructed not to tell their families or editor where they were going. On the way, White House communications chief Dan Bartlett told reporters that if news of the trip leaked out before Air Force One landed in Iraq, the plane would turn around.

Air traffic controllers in Baghdad did not know the plane heading for the runway was Air Force One. It landed without its lights under cover of darkness.

Bush spent only two and a half hours in the secure area around Baghdad airport where he spent Thanksgiving dinner with some 600 soldiers. He also met with members of the Iraqi Governing Council, including Ahmad Chalabi, the exile leader who is close to senior officials at the Pentagon.

Click here to watch, read, and/or listen.


The Strange Case of James Yousef Yee: From Army Muslim Chaplain to Suspected Spy to A Free Man Facing Porn Charges. Is Yee the New Wen Ho Lee?

Three months ago, news broke around the country that a Muslim chaplain who graduated from West Point had been charged with espionage and possibly treason.

The Washington Times broke the story on Sept. 20 in a front page exclusive. Unnamed military sources said the chaplain, James Yousef Yee had been detained on Sept. 10 and charged with espionage, aiding the enemy and spying.

The New York Daily News soon speculated that the New Jersey-born Yee could become the first West Point graduate to be charged with treason.

Yee would go on to be held for 76 days much of it in a maximum-security Naval brig in South Carolina. He was held among the most high profile suspects in the so-called war on terror including enemy combatant Jose Padilla, an alleged member of Al Qaeda.

Now it looks like the military’s case has fallen apart.

The Washington Times had prematurely reported that Yee had been charged. In fact at the time he had been detained as part of an investigation.

When charges were finally filed in October the charges had little to do with national security. The most serious was taking classified material to his home and wrongfully transporting classified material without the proper security containers or covers.

Meanwhile on Saturday U.S. Army Col. Jackie Duane Farr was charged with the same crime as Yee -- "wrongfully transporting classified material without the appropriate locking container" as well as making a false statement during the course of the investigation. But according to the Los Angeles Times the military handled Farr’s case quite differently: he was charged with the crime but was not arrested or detained though he has agreed to remain at Guantanamo Bay where he works.

Last week Yee was released from detention. At the same time the military added two new charges that had nothing to do with espionage: downloading pornography on to a governmental computer and for committing adultery.

The New York Times reports that Yee has resumed working as a prison chaplain at Fort Benning in Georgia.

His case is now being compared to that of Wen Ho Lee, the nuclear scientist who was wrongfully accused of spying for the Chinese.

Click here to watch, read and/or listen.

In depth from Democracy Now:

Activist Kathy Kelly 'Hogtied" & Abused By Army At SOA Protests

Over ten thousand people gathered this weekend outside the gates of Fort Benning, Georgia to protest the US Army School of the Americas, a combat-training school for Latin American soldiers. It was recently renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (SOA/WHISC).

The protests culminated with a "funeral" procession to symbolize the thousands of people killed by soldiers trained at the school. More than 30 people were arrested after entering the base in an act of nonviolent civil disobedience. They took this action knowing they could face 3-6 months in federal prison. In years past, the arrests at the SOA protests have been coordinated with the police. Those wanting to be arrested simply crossed a yellow line and were then escorted to police buses. But this year it was different.

Click here to watch, read, and/or listen.


Journalist Bill Moyers: "Our Democracy Is In Danger of Being Paralyzed"

Journalist Bill Moyers recently gave the keynote address before 2,000 people at the first ever National Conference on Media Reform. He warned, "What we’re talking about is nothing less than rescuing a democracy that is so polarized it is in danger of being paralyzed and pulverized. Alarming words, I know. But the realities we face should trigger alarms. Free and responsible government by popular consent just can’t exist without an informed public."

Click here to watch, read, and/or listen.

In depth from Democracy Now:

An Hour With Vandana Shiva, Indian Scientist and Leading Critic of Corporate Globalization

From Bolivia to Cancun to Miami, this fall has seen major protests against corporate globalization across the hemisphere. Today we spend the hour listening to the words of Vandana Shiva.

Click here to watch, read, and/or listen.

Headlines from Democracy Now:

- Senate Approves Medicare Bill
- Garner Admits Major Mistakes Made in Iraq
- White House Rescinds $300M Loan to Israel
- HIV Kills Record 3 Million This Year
- Pinochet Claims He Is An "Angel"

Click here to watch and/or listen.


In depth reporting from Democracy Now:

The Radical Mind of Dick Cheney: An In-Depth Look at the Vice President

We take an in-depth look at the historical role Vice President Dick Cheney has played in U.S. foreign policy, his treatment of the intelligence community and his hawkish influence on President George W. Bush. We speak with The New Republic’s Spencer Ackerman who co-wrote this week’s cover story on Cheney.

Click here to watch, listen, or read.


Bush Lifts Ban on Mini Nukes

President Bush signed a $401 billion defense authorization bill Monday saying, “America's military is standing between our country and grave danger.�

Tucked away within the bill is $15 million for continued research into new H-bombs, including low-yield, so-called "mini-nukes." The bill lifts a decade-old ban on research into low-yield nuclear weapons.

Japanese officials expressed concern yesterday about the plan saying it could have a “negative impact on nuclear nonproliferation." The U.S. is the only country in history to have dropped an atomic bomb. In 1945 it dropped one on the city of Hiroshima and one on Nagasaki in Japan. Over 340,000 died as a result.

Click here to read, watch and/or listen.


Unions Call For Timoney to Be Fired & Congressional Investigation After Bloody Miami FTAA Protests

The United Steelworkers of America is calling for the firing of Miami police John Timoney following last week's protests against the Free Trade Area of the Americas and the dropping of all charges against peaceful protesters. The mostly peaceful protests were marred by scores of reports of police brutality. Police shot rubber bullets and tear gas at protesters and beat demonstrators with batons.
Over 200 people were arrested and jailed. At least one protester remains hospitalized from injuries he said he sustained at the hands of the police The AFL-CIO and the American Civil Liberties Union are considering suing the city.

And the president of the steelworkers union, [Leo Gerard] called for a congressional investigation into why $8.5 million from the Iraq reconstruction bill was used to pay for security at the protests. He said the money went towards "homeland repression."

The Alliance for Retired Americans also held a rally Tuesday in Miami to protest how the police handled senior citizens who attended the FTAA demonstrations. One 71-year-old man, Bentley Killmon, told the Associated Press he was arrested while he was looking for his organization's bus. But then he encountered police dressed in riot gear. They pushed him to the ground, arrested him, handcuffed him for 12 hours and denied him water or a chance to make a phone call. Killmon said, "The way I was treated, you would expect it in a third world country, not in this country."

The Miami police continue to defend their actions. A spokesman told the Associated Press: "The object of the show of force was twofold: one to let the peaceful demonstrators know they could protest safely and two to let the troublemakers know that we would not tolerate anarchy. It was successful."

Click here to watch, read and/or listen.


"There's an Incredible Mismatch Between Military Doctrine And The Situation That Actually Exists There Right Now" – A Conversation With Two Fathers of Soldiers Deployed in Iraq

The Washington Post is reporting that for just the third time, President Bush met Monday with families of soldiers who died in Iraq. He has yet to attend any funerals of the 431 troops who have died in Iraq although at least 40 of the funerals took place just at Arlington National Cemetery, four miles from the White House. In addition to those killed, up to 9,000 soldiers have been wounded since the beginning of the invasion. A senior Army officer has told the New York Times that the Army is planning to keep about 100,000 U.S. troops in Iraq until at least 2006.

Click here to watch, read and/or listen.

Headlines from Democracy Now:

- Iraqi Council Shuts Down Arab TV Network
- Pentagon Retracts GI Torture Story
- W.Post Ombudsman Blasts Paper's Jessica Lynch Coverage
- Bush Makes Rare Visit With Families of Dead Troops
- Turkey Detains 12 in Connection to Bombings
- UK Royal Gardens Destroyed by Bush Visit

Click here to watch and/or listen.


In depth reporting from Democracy Now:

Privatizing Medicare? A Debate on the Controversial Medicare Drug Bill

A controversial Medicare bill made it past two attempted Democratic blocks in the Senate yesterday and is expected to win final passage in the biggest changes to the program since its creation in 1965.

The Senate broke a filibuster against the Medicare bill led by Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy. Then, on a close vote, the Senate defeated a budget challenge to the measure. The House approved the Medicare bill on Saturday, by a vote of 220 to 215, after an all-night session that ended with a record three-hour roll call. House Democrats accused the Republican leadership of abusing the rules of Congress by refusing to close the vote.

The massive Medicare $400 billion overhaul provides limited drug coverage and also includes plans for making generic drugs more readily available, making seniors who earn more than $80,000 pay more for doctors visits and introduces competition with private plans. Critics say the bill would privatize Medicare – the federal health insurance program for 40 million people. The Washington Post notes that the $400 billion figure underestimates the long-term costs of the measure which could be as high as $2 trillion.

The bill bans federal officials from using the purchasing power of the Medicare program to negotiate lower drug prices. It also omits plans to make it easy for American consumers to reimport U.S.-manufactured drugs from Canada and other Western countries where the medicines are less expensive.

Click here to watch, listen and/or read.


TV Ownership Cap Raised After Congress Backs Down

On Monday, Congress backed down on its strong opposition to the new media ownership regulations of the Federal Communications Commission by agreeing to a compromise with the White House. The compromise lifts what is known as the TV ownership cap from 35 to 39 percent. This will allow ABC and NBC to be able buy more television stations. CBS and Fox will not be able to because they were already over the existing cap. If Congress had enforced the 35 percent cap, CBS and Fox would have been forced to sell off stations.

Gene Kimmelman of the Consumers Union said "This is a backroom deal to let the two largest networks keep all of their stations."

Click here to watch, listen and/or read.


Bush Backers to Reap Energy, Medicare Bill Tax Benefits

The White House and Republican leaders yesterday abandoned attempts to vote on a massive energy bill this year and will resume the effort after Congress reconvenes in January. The measure would represent the largest overhaul of US energy policy in a decade. The $31 billion bill collapsed after Republican leaders refused to drop a provision shielding oil companies from some lawsuits.

The Washington Post reports both the Medicare and energy bills would give billions in tax benefits to companies run by executives who helped raise millions for President Bush's campaigns. The energy bill would give billions in tax subsidies to companies run by 22 executives who helped raised at least $100,000 each for Bush's presidential campaigns. Another 24 people who were major Bush campaign backers work as executives or lobbyists at firms that stand to benefit if the Medicare bill is passed.

Click here to watch, listen and/or read.


Will Anti Spam Bill Erode First Amendment Rights?

Congress is on the verge if approving a new bill that aims to limit the sending of unsolicited email known as spam. On Saturday the House vote 392 to 5 for the "Can Spam Act of 2003." The Senate approved a similar measure last month.

The response to the legislation has been mixed in the tech world. America Online and Microsoft have praised the legislation. Anti-spam groups charge it may encourage more spam. And other critics say it could change the future of all email, not just spam.

Click here to watch, listen and/or read.


Alexander Cockburn Speaks Out On Rupert Murdoch the Israel-Palestine Conflict and the Politics of Anti-Semitism

We are joined in our studio by Counterpunch editor and columnist for the Nation magazine, Alexander Cockburn recently back from London.

His latest piece begins This city is now recovering from the November visit of a global tyrant, on whose rampages the sun never sets. His name is not George Bush but Rupert Murdoch."

Cockburn writes further on: "... as an international operator, Murdoch offers his target governments a privatized version of a state propaganda service, manipulated without scruple and with no regard for truth. His price takes the form of vast government favors such as tax breaks, regulatory relief, monopoly markets and so forth."

Click here to watch, listen and/or read.

Expanded Patriot Act Reach Would Hit The Net, Too

BBC Chief Accuses U.S. News Media of 'Banging Drum on Iraq'

Victims Pile Up in Violent Iraqi Capital

General Garner: U.S. Made Major Mistakes in Iraq

Ashcroft's Cointelpro: Neutralizing Dissent in America

Boeing Fires Execs on Ethics Charges

FBI Publicly Denies Spying on Antiwar Protesters

Taliban: 'We'll Strike in Kabul Again

US War Tactics Slammed by Rights Groups

Reservists Reflect on Anxious Call to Duty

Brain Injuries High Among U.S. Wounded in Iraq

American Unilateralism Alienates Allies, Isolates Us

Patriot Act Stifles Dissent on Campus

Guantánamo's Limbo is Too Convenient

AARP Leaders Betray Their Members by Lobbying for Medicare Drug Bill

Conservative Revolution? No -- Just Dazzlingly Effective PR

Five U.S. Soldiers Killed in Afghan Helicopter Crash

Taliban Leader Omar Urges Afghans to Fight U.S. as Security Threat Worsens

Military Gets Break from Environmental Rules

Attack on Iraq Pipeline Disrupts Oil Output

The Other Conflict (Afghanistan) Continues to Take a G.I. Toll

Bush Signs Record-Breaking $401 Billion Pentagon Bill

Dixie Chicks Singer Sounds Off on War

Iraq Council Shuts Down, Raids Dubai-Based TV Station

U.S. Wages Media War as Iraq Insurgency Deepens

Iraqi Families Want Retribution for Deaths

Big Fish Set to Swallow Most Spoils of Iraq War

Army Probes Rising Troop Suicides in Iraq

Detention of Iraqis Creates Hostility, Resistance

6 GIs Die in Iraq: 2 Have Throats Cut, Bomb Kills 1, Accidents Kill 3

Coalition Corruption Charge Deals Fresh Blow to Iraq Handover

8,000 Protesters at Georgia Terror School Hit 'Patriotic' Music

Guerrilla War With No End in Sight

Iraq War Providing a Boost to al-Qaeda

DHL Cargo Aircraft Hit in First Iraqi Missile Strike on Plane

Bremer Fires 28,000 Teachers for Former Ba'ath Membership

Iraq War Providing a Boost to al-Qaida,
Terror network is using clash as propaganda tool in holy war against West

Back to the Days of Hoover? F.B.I. Scrutinizes Antiwar Rallies

A War That Can Never Be Won, Terrorism is a Technique, Not an Enemy State That Can Be Defeated

Why the Bush "War on Terror" is Fated to Fail

The Voting Game

Original FTAA Draft Scrapped: People Pour into Miami to Protest FTAA

First Energy, it has now been determined, played the major role in causing the power failure that affected 50 million people in the worst blackout in U.S. history

Here is an excerpt from author Greg Palast's article "Welcome To The Dark Ages":

The power outage began in First Energy's Ohio operation. This company was the model for the film China Syndrome. Really. Then First Energy's Pennsylvania unit fumbled the power ball. These are the very same Homer Simpsons who melted Three Mile Island.

In 1992, just prior to his departure from the White House, President Bush Senior gave the power industry one long deep-through-the-teeth kiss goodbye: federal deregulation of electricity. It was a legacy he wanted to leave for his son, the gratitude of power companies which ponied up $16 million for the Republican campaign of 2000, seven times the sum they gave Democrats

Excerpt from Yahoo News article "Report Blames FirstEnergy for Blackout":

The report found four violations of industry reliability standards by FirstEnergy and another violation by the Midwestern Independent System Operator. The industry is largely self regulating and such violations in themselves would carry no fines.

The FirstEnergy violations included not reacting to a power line failure within 30 minutes as required by the North American Electricity Reliability Council, not notifying nearby systems of the problems, failing to analyze what was going on and inadequate operator training.

Oil Drilling Gives Cancer Risk to N.Sea Fish -Study

Going Backwards, Patriot Act Expansion Moves Through Congress

Energy Bill Blocked in Senate on Close Vote

Barking up the Wrong Bush, Instead of Focusing on Al Qaeda and the Carnage in Places like Turkey, US Resources are Being Swallowed up by Iraq

The Vanishing Case for War

Dean's New Southern Strategy, Blacks and Whites Together--Focused on Education and Healthcare

AARP Gone Astray

TrueMajority states:

The cliches about dysfunctional government are converging as President Bush tries to force Congress to pass flawed Energy and Medicare legislation: back-room deal-making, secret meetings with industry chiefs, exclusion of the opposition and payoffs for special interests. p>

Some of our friends in the Senate are working to do the right thing and protect good policy by filibustering both the Energy and Medicare bills. This would spare Americans from paying billions of our tax dollars to support the oil, gas, and nuclear industries. It would also stop the pharmaceutical industry-backed Medicare bill, which is a first step toward eliminating any possibility for universal health coverage for the elderly, while offering paltry prescription drug benefits to seniors. And, as with the Energy bill, the Medicare bill dedicates big tax breaks and unreasonable profits to the special interests which coordinated the bill.

Click Here to Fight Energy and Medicare Bills

U.S. Soldier Killed, Two Wounded in Roadside Bombing

Iraq Car Bombs Kill 6, Wound 50

9/11 Commission Orders New York to Hand Over Documents

Bush says U.S. Troop Levels in Iraq May Rise

200,000 March Against Bush in London

U.S. Resumes Night Strikes in Iraq

Iraqi Lawyers Protest Arrests in Mosul

Shells Fired at Polish Military Hospital in Iraq

Grim Iraq Forecast Challenges Bush

Grieving Mother Wants Bush to Bring the Boys Home from Iraq

German Spy Chief: Official Warns Anti-U.S. Mood is Growing

Two Children Killed, Two Wounded in Karbala Classroom Explosion

U.S. Official Refuses Comment on Taliban-Pakistan Links

Laughter and Lies in London:
Smashing Sledgehammers in Iraq

Under US Control, Press Freedom Falls Short in Iraq

Linking the Occupation of Iraq With the "War on Terrorism"

Crimes Against Nature

The Founders Confront Judge Moore

We Need Sustainable Development Policies, Not 'NAFTA on Steroids'

Recipe for Terror

Only a True End to Occupation will Bring Peace

Kucinich: Regain 'Essential American Optimism'

Environmental Defense states:

After years of stalemate, Congress and the oil industry continue their push to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil drilling. Right now, Congress is trying to iron out differences between competing energy bills already passed by the U.S. House of Representatives (which includes Arctic oil drilling) and the U.S. Senate (which does not include Arctic oil drilling). If the oil industry gets its way, it will force Arctic oil drilling provisions into the compromise energy bill, despite widespread public opposition to this environmentally damaging plan. Let Congress know, once and for all, that Americans oppose oil drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Click here to Stop Oil Drilling from Occurring in the Arctic Refuge

American Rivers states:

Targeted Alert: Tennessee Activists Only

Tell Senators Frist and Alexander that you join the vast majority of Tennesseans who care about clean water. Send a message today urging Senators Frist and Alexander to oppose efforts to weaken the Clean Water Act, efforts that could make it easier for polluters to do their dirty work.

The Clean Water Act is designed to make all waters fishable and swimmable by keeping pollution out of our lakes, rivers, and wetlands. Last January, the Bush administration directed federal agencies to cease enforcing clean water protections on millions of acres of aquatic habitat. And the administration is now considering limiting clean water protections even further.

These actions fly in the face of the views of most Tennesseans. In a recent poll conducted by the University of Tennessee, 70% of Tennesseeans surveyed said that they are “very concerned” about water pollution and 81% said that “all of Tennessee’s lakes, rivers, and streams should be protected by the Clean Water Act.”

Act today. Let Senators Frist and Alexander know that you expect them to stand up to polluters and protect clean water in Tennessee and nationwide.

Click here to Protect Tennessee’s Rivers

American Rivers states:

Urge your Representative to support the Klamath River Basin Restoration and Emergency Assistance Act!

The federal Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) is irresponsibly maximizing irrigation in the Klamath River basin, depleting river flows and wreaking havoc on imperiled wildlife and imposing tremendous hardships on Native American and fishing communities. Unless Congress and the Bush administration bring water commitments back into balance with what nature can sustain, the nation can expect more tragedies like the staggering die-off of more than 33,000 salmon that occurred last September.

Tell your Representative in Congress to support Rep. Mike Thompson’s Klamath River Basin Restoration and Emergency Assistance Act – which was introduced on April 10th. This bill would authorize funds for water conservation and habitat restoration projects and provide compensation for communities affected by the salmon kill of September 2002. The bill also would establish a Klamath Basin Restoration Task Force of conservationists, fishermen, Tribal representatives, and farmers to oversee water conservation and restoration activities.

Conservation Partners: Earthjustice, Klamath Forest Alliance, Northcoast Environmental Center, Oregon Natural Resources Council, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, Riverhawks, WaterWatch of Oregon, The Wilderness Society, Yurok Tribe

Click here to save the Klamath River, America's #2 Most Endangered River

American Rivers states:

*Targeted Alert: South Carolina, Arkansas, Louisiana, Georgia, Nebraska, Ohio, Rhode Island, Minnesota, Maine, Illinois, New Hampshire, Arizona, Pennsylvania and Virginia Activists Only*

The energy bill is in its final stages. Select members of the House and Senate are meeting in conference to work out the differences between their two versions of the bill. Unfortunately, the effort to date has been a very partisan, top-down affair, with Republican leadership writing legislation and expecting their colleagues to adopt their draft. The current version of the bill reduces environmental protections and limits public participation in decisions about how hydropower dams are operated on our rivers.

The best way to fix the hydropower title of the energy bill is to leverage the Senate leadership. Your Senator, a moderate and influential voice in Congress, can make a difference!

At a time when our leaders should be focused on meaningful energy reform, the hydropower language in the energy bill is little more than an industry giveaway. The bill would give the industry priority above all other stakeholders – including states, Indian tribes, landowners and the public – and roll back environmental protections that have been in place for more than 80 years.

Click here for Last Chance to Fix the Energy Bill for Rivers

American Rivers states:

Your voice is needed to help protect California’s wild rivers and lands! Please contact your representative today and urge them to support the California Wild Heritage Act of 2003.

Senator Barbara Boxer (CA) has reintroduced the California Wild Heritage Act of 2003 (S. 1555), landmark legislation that includes the most diverse, accessible and inclusive array of wild places ever to be protected in a single piece of legislation. Representatives Hilda Solis (CA) and Mike Thompson (CA) are expected to introduce companion legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives this month. The California Wild Heritage Act of 2003 would designate 22 California rivers and creeks in the National Wild and Scenic River System and 2.7 million acres of land in the National Wilderness Preservation System.

This designation will help protect and preserve rivers vital to local tourism-based economies and to outdoor enthusiasts who raft, kayak, canoe, and fish their waters. These wild rivers also act as sources of clean drinking water and provide habitat for threatened and endangered species. California’s wild rivers and lands are part of our natural heritage, and should be protected for future generations to enjoy and explore.

The California Wild Heritage Act of 2003 will not only protect treasured California rivers, it will also breathe new life into our nation’s unique system for protecting our river heritage and inspire similar community-based efforts nationwide.

Here are just a few examples of wild rivers and places that could be protected with this bill:

- Northern California: The King Range offers the longest stretch of roadless coastline in the contiguous United States. Further south, Black Butte River provides important habitat for Chinook salmon and winter steelhead.

- Western Sierra: Duncan Canyon is a rare and spectacular ancient forest haven in the Sierra. Both the Kern River and Kings River provide excellent whitewater conditions.

- Central Sierra: The Clavey River is one of the longest undammed rivers in the Sierra Nevada and is considered by scientists to be one of the healthiest watersheds in the Sierra Nevada.

- Eastern Sierra: The White Mountains are home to the oldest living trees in the world - the bristlecone pines. And on the east side, the East Fork Carson River is a state designated Wild Trout Stream.

- Central Coast: The proposed San Rafael Wilderness Additions are home to the endangered California condor. Upper Sespe Creek has exceptional fishing opportunities.

- Southern California: The Upper San Diego River is one of the most remote areas in Southern California, and is key to protecting water quality for San Diego.

All of these areas and more add up to 520 miles of potential wild and scenic rivers and 2,725,235 acres of unprotected wilderness! But these majestic places need your help to get the protection they deserve.

Click here to Protect California's Wild Rivers

American Rivers states:

Take action today and speak up for clean water and healthy salmon in Hells Canyon on the Snake River, the deepest canyon in North America! Comments are due by December 22.

One of the wildest remaining sections of the Snake River runs through Hells Canyon, on the border of Oregon and Idaho. This spectacular canyon is home to wild salmon, bull trout and white sturgeon and also to Idaho Power Company’s three-dam Hells Canyon Hydropower Complex – one of the largest hydropower projects in the country. Idaho Power is currently applying for a new license from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) that will specify how Idaho Power will operate the dams for the next 30 to 50 years.

Click here to Restore Clean Water in Hells Canyon

American Rivers states:

Please tell EPA not to weaken environmental protections for the devastating practice of mountaintop mining! Comments are due by January 6th, 2004.

Mountaintop mining is a form of strip mining in which coal companies literally blast hundreds of feet off the tops of mountain peaks to reach thin seams of coal, then push millions of tons of the resulting rubble into surrounding valleys and streams. This practice has destroyed more than 700 miles of streams in the Appalachian region since 1985.

Click here to Save Streams from Mountaintop Mining

FBI Sting Nets 48 Arrests on Wall Street

peopleVashcroft.org

French to Bush: 'We Were right' on Iraq: Nation Feels Vindicated Over War, But May Not be Ready to Help

What Iraq Will Get Isn't Self-Rule

American Gulag: No American president should have the absolute power to imprison people at will, even when the nation is at war

Don’t Reward Liars and Thieves: Why the American People Should Demand Immediate Withdrawal from Iraq

In California's Capital, Treetops and Grassroots Politics

FTAA: Trading Away Democracy

How We Know Bush Will "Cut and Run" from Iraq

Death of Community Spirit: Whether It's the School-Run Mum or the Conniving Business Boss, Putting Self Before Society Harms Us All

"Robert Redford gets heated up about the Bush environmental agenda, global warming, clean energy and worms.
Yes, worms."

Still the Sundance Kid


"The CEO economy is perking up, but the kitchen table economy -- the things that parents worry about at night around the kitchen table -- is still in trouble."

Economics For Real People


"Past and present 'associates' offer a candid and often disturbing look at life behind the big yellow Wal-Mart happy face."

Dispatches from Wal-Mart's Front Lines


"The Tiger Force atrocity in Vietnam was the third major war crimes revelation in the last few years to encounter apathy in the media and indifference from Washington."

The Scalping Party

Two U.S. Soldiers Killed in Attacks North of Baghdad

Time Mag: Insurgents a 'Potent, Increasingly Structured Force'

Bush: US in Iraq for the Long Haul

U.S. Army Prepares for Iraqi Stay Until at Least 2006

EU Chief: U.S. Has Agreed to International Control of its Troops in Iraq

Frustrated U.S. Troops Put on Show of Force in Tikrit

Italian Coalition Official Quits in Protest of U.S. Policies
Bush Pulls Out of Speech to Parliament

Two Black hawks Down in Mosul, at least 17 killed

U.S. casualties from Iraq war top 9,000

US Death Toll in Iraq Tops 400 (now 418)
Washington's New Sound and Fury Hide Fear and Worry

This according to an article on the Environmental News Network (ENN), in the same article he also says, "We are now suffering through an administration that has, in a very calculating way, set out to undermine and destroy 30 years of hard work."

Robert Redford and activists from the National Resource Defense Council (NRDC) have constructed one of the "greenest" buildings in America.

The original 1917 building was stripped down (to its wooden skeleton) then eco-friendly redesigned. It now contains:

• Toilets that flush themselves with rainwater, except for the urinals which use a special cartridge to funnel away wastewater
  
  
• Floors are made of bamboo because it is a fast-growing wood substitute
  
  
• The structure uses about 60 percent less water than most buildings because it captures rainwater from the roof, showers, and sinks and uses it to water the plants and flush the low-flow toilets
  
  
• The carpets are hemp
  
  
• It is completely free of formaldehyde and vinyl, and office machines that can emit fumes are confined to a room that vents to the outside
  
  
• The building's exterior appears to be wood, but is actually made of a fiber and cement material
  
  
• Much of the interior is lit with skylights and solar cells that provide about a fifth of its energy
  
  
• Cool sea breezes augment the air conditioning, and special towers draw off heat
  
  

If only Robert Redford's environmental achievements would get as much attention from the media as does the Sundance Film Festival, which he founded.


ENN article:

California rain flushes toilets in Robert Redford building


Redford and the NRDC's new environmentally sustainable office building:

Greener by Design: NRDC's Santa Monica Office

"Sneering, jeering, bad manners, hideous diplomacy, threats, demands, lies, arrogance, bluster, tax cuts for the rich. And you wonder why we think he's a lousy president?"

Call Me a Bush-Hater


"Here's what happens to your hard-earned money when it enters the giant money-skimming machine we call the stock market."

An Object Lesson in Investing


"New York Times columnist Paul Krugman tells how he found his voice, why Bush makes him miss Nixon, and why he insults Fox News whenever he can."

The Professor Takes the Gloves Off


"Everyone wants Medicare to cover prescription drugs, right? Not so fast."

Killer Cure

From Seattle to Miami

Stop the FTAA

Three U.S. Soldiers, One American Civilian Killed in Iraq

Severely Wounded Numbers Soar: Hidden Cost of Iraq War

The Crumbling 'Coalition of the Willing'

U.S. War Dead in Iraq Exceed Early Vietnam Years

"Old Europe" Feels Vindicated on Iraq

U.S. Moves to Speed Up Iraqi Vote and Shift of Power

U.S. to Seek Iraqi Elections in Mid-2004

American Hypocrisy on Democracy

'We Could Lose This Situation'
CIA Says Insurgents Now 50,000 Strong

The Bush Administration's Palpable Sense of Panic

Iraqi Teenagers Cheer as American Blood Flows

Anti-Iraq War Veterans Pulled from Parade

More Iraqis Supporting Resistance, CIA Report Says

CIA warns of defeat in Iraq

Death Toll Up to 31 in Italy Base Attack

Brave Face Belies Administration's Panic

Charles Glass: There are so many echoes of Vietnam in Iraq

Uncovered: The Whole Truth About the Iraq War   is an hour long film that has just started circulating. The film details the web of lies and deceit perpetrated on the American people and the whole world with the intent to fabricate a an Iraqi threat that never existed in order to justify the Bush administration's preordained decision to invade and occupy Iraq.

Article in the Independent   with analysis and excerpts from the film:

Case for war confected, say top US officials

I couldn't agree more.

Bush, and the architects of the Iraqi war in his administration, need to be held "personally responsible" for the 394 Americans killed in Iraq since the war started.

Poland's Iraq Doubts Grow After Soldier's Death

Turkey withdraws offer to send troops to Iraq

Poland's Iraq Doubts Grow After Soldier's Death

Pentagon preparing biggest troop rotation since World War II

U.S. Plans for Marines to Return to Iraq

Some veterans of Vietnam see Iraq parallel

He may have satisfied his right-wing wacko base, but he has also mobilized the opposition in a big way.

Read more here:

Abortion Bill May Trigger Election Fight

Intelligent viewers looking for an informed discussion on the most pressing issues this nation currently faces were sorely disappointed by Tuesday's MTV/CNN combo Rock the Vote town hall pseudo "debate."

I knew there was trouble when the first question from a guy in the mostly college student crowd was about what Kerry would do if he was managing the Red Sox in the World Series. War, environmental destruction on a mammoth scale, erosion of civil rights, some of the worst corporate corruption in American history and some fool asks a question about baseball!

The tone had been set.

Speaking of baseball, most of the questions were softballs that were lobbed at the candidates by a crowd that causes many of the more informed among us, in the 18 to 30's demographic the debate was targeting, to cringe and say "I'm not with them."

You can imagine the questions, but I'll give you some:

A young woman asked the candidates who out of the people on the stage would you most like to "party" with...

Sharpton said Kerry's wife (isn't Sharpton adorable!) and Lieberman said, in what must have been a moment of regret for the young questioner for asking the question, the girl who asked the question!

In a lame excuse for this generation's attempt at scoring a one liner akin to 1992's lame one liner to then candidate Bill Clinton of "boxers or briefs," One of Rock the Vote 1992's supposedly "edgy" moments, someone who probably felt very witty asking, asked "PC or Mac." The candidates seemed to be looking around for their staffers.

Its a travesty that there was not one question about the lies that led us into war in Iraq and whether any of the candidates would support impeachment of Bush and others in his administration for those lies.

A much "cooler" question would have been, "Why did Bill Clinton get impeached for lying about getting oral sex, but Bush gets a free pass from most of you for killing and maiming thousands of people in one of the most blatant acts of Imperialist aggression in American history."

Or how about this one, laden with more symbolism, and more graphic, "Why did Bill Clinton get impeached for a stain on a dress while Dubya is getting a pat on the back for unloading the largest stain yet on what is quickly becoming a quilt of death and shame woven in the name of fighting terrorism."

I don't want to give any more legitimacy to CNN and MTV's pathetic excuse for public discourse than I have to; so here is my analysis of the candidates performance in this "debate" in one word:

Carol Moseley Braun: Sweet

Wesley Clark: Cool

Howard Dean: Winner

John Edwards: Panderer

John Kerry: Mediocre

Dennis Kucinich: Heartfelt

Joseph Lieberman: Uncomfortable

Al Sharpton: Opportunistic

Maybe MTV should stick to playing videos. Oh, right, they suck at doing that too.

I call your attention to an interesting article published in the Jan/Feb 2003 issue of the journal Foreign Policy that I think is a worthy read. It calls war with Iraq unnecessary. I present the article's final paragraph:

If the United States is, or soon will be, at war with Iraq, Americans should understand that a compelling strategic rationale is absent. This war would be one the Bush administration chose to fight but did not have to fight. Even if such a war goes well and has positive long-range consequences, it will still have been unnecessary. And if it goes badly—whether in the form of high U.S. casualties, significant civilian deaths, a heightened risk of terrorism, or increased hatred of the United States in the Arab and Islamic world—then its architects will have even more to answer for.

We all know the latter case is the reality.

The Bush administration has to answer for thousands of dead and maimed human beings.

Full article:

An Unnecessary War

• U.S. Timberland, a logging company based in New York with offices in Yakima, WA, is logging the forests of Washington state, much of it old-growth, to the tune of 75 million feet of lumber per year; this represents about half of what the entire industry cut in 2000 on all 24 million acres of federal land in the Northwest
  
  
• Logging in the National Forests of the United States must stop immediately!
  
  
• 47,400 acres of prized northwest forest is in the hands of U.S. Timberland; we need to get every inch of that land back from them now!
  
  
• The forests, all but being completely clearcut by U.S. Timberland and other logging companies, not only provide an indispensable aesthetic component to the land which has taken centuries to develop, but they also are the habitat of the well known and famed spotted owl which is protected in federal law under the U.S Endangered Species Act
  
  
• U.S. Timberland has torn down, or filed a permit to tear down, most of the Douglass fir and ponderosa pine from more than a third of the forest which they bought from Boise Cascade (one of the most destructive logging companies in operation today, Boise Cascade destroys old-growth forests all over the world)
  
  
• The land U.S. Timberland is logging is thick with owl habitat and is being irreparably destroyed so that the Northern Spotted Owls are on their way to complete eradication from this area; 60% of the owls here have already disappeared just since the early 1990's
  
  
• The Washington state Department of Natural Resources pays lip service to protecting the owls by claiming that "there is alot of science and effort being put into this issue," but doing nothing for years to protect the forests and the owl from the chainsaws of companies like U.S. Timberland
  
  
• The environment group Washington Forest Law Center has filed a 60-day notice of intent to sue the state of Washington under provisions of the Endangered Species Act over the activities of US Timberlands
  
  
• Washington state agencies, including the Forest Practices Board, have let the the Teanaway Valley, the corridor near Cle Elum in Kittitas County, WA which connects the north ans south Cascade mountains, get "hammered" by companies like U.S. Timberland says lawyer Peter Goldman, the law center's director, "It is a smoking-gun example of how the Washington forest-practice rules, with full knowledge of those who write and administer those rules, routinely allow industrial logging that harms the northern spotted owl in violation of the Endangered Species Act."
  
  

Read the full article in the Seattle Times:

New dispute arises in owl country

A second Bush term? Simply unfathomable

... I couldn't agree more.

What is it with the Republicans? These guys are the most egregious finger pointers in the world.

They loved blaming Bill Clinton for all their failures (and still do), and now they are trying to blame Saddam for the "mother of all screw ups" they themselves (along with the pathetic Democrats who voted for the war) caused in planning and executing an illegal, unpopular, unnecessary and incredibly stupid invasion and occupation of a sovereign nation.

What's the evidence Saddam is responsible for the attacks you ask?

"Palpable fear" on the part of Iraqis that he might come back, says Senator Pat Roberts, chairman of the powerful Senate Intelligence Committee (AlJazeera article 11/2/03).

Wow, there's proof for ya!

To be fair, it must be said the Republicans and the Bush administration see the world (and the fate of their political careers) through fear colored lenses, so to speak. They are banking on the perpetuation of fear as their ticket to reelection. In fact, that is what Karl Rove is using to get Bush reelected in 2004. Trying to scare the crap out of everyone with fears of terrorist threats and "evildoers." Fear is their grand strategy, their 2004 Republican party platform, and the doofy Democrats follow in lock step!

Well not convinced yet? This piece of proof offered up by our old favorite Rummy Rummy Rumsfeld is sure to convince:

"We do not have hard evidence that he is coordinating this (attacks on American troops),"

To quote Jon Stewart of Comedy Central's "Daily Show"... Whaaa?!

... well Rumsfeld did quickly add:

"The fact that he's not been captured or killed is important ... He's not coming back, but until he's dead or captured, there is that concern," (AlJazeera article 11/2/03)

I guess evidence of guilt is kind of like Iraq's WMD, very elusive, but don't worry the Bushies have the proof, the rest of us just don't need to see it.

Just like when they told the UN inspection team in Iraq, Oh yeah, Iraq has WMDs and we know where they are, but we aren't going to tell you because we don't want Saddam to know.

But team Bush only has the best of intentions, what proof? Well they told us so of course!

Ugly Turn in Fund Scandal

Iraqi child crushed by US tank

Saudi Arabia is most likely behind the suicide attacks in Iraq, but U.S. refuses to hold them accountable or even name them as possibilities, but they are more than happy to point their fingers at Iran and Syria. (News World International 10/28/03)


Saudi fighters 'join resistance' in Iraq

• Two American civilians and another American soldier were also killed today in other attacks
  
  
• There are 30 attacks every day on Americans in Iraq
  
  
• For every soldier killed, another 7 are wounded
  
  

• Greenpeace had said the original proposal wasn't strong enough and then that proposal even got watered down
  
  
• Original cost to industry was to be $15 billion, now its just $7 billion and the industry is still complaining
  
  

Five Israelis were seen filming as jet liners ploughed into the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001 ...

Old-growth battle blooms in Alaska's coral gardens

Call, write, and visit your Congressional representative's offices and tell them to keep loggers away from our national forests!

The legislation passed in Congress under the absurdly misnamed and ironic title of a "healthy forests" initiative threatens to destroy the beauty and splendor of our beautiful wilderness areas.

The only thing it will be "healthy" for is the profits of the logging companies, like Boise Cascade, who give millions of dollars mainly to Republican Presidential and Congressional candidates (Democrats get a much smaller amount) so that they can pillage and destroy public property.

Individuals who log our national forests should be thrown in jail and their company immediately dissolved.

Stop these criminals from destroying our pristine wilderness!


Between 1879 and 1912, 85 percent of West Virginia's virgin forest was destroyed... by 1920, nearly all of the state's virgin forest's were gone

Save America's Forests

Global Trees Campaign

Interactive map of what deforestation has done to the world's original wilderness

Amazon Watch

Forest Conservation Portal

Using Fires to Blow Political Smoke

Bush administration policies are devastating our National Parks

Bush administration seeks to lift most rules protecting America's national forests

Greenpeace Delivers Old-Growth Slab to Interior Dept. to Protest Bush Forest Policies

Bush and Congess give green light for loggers to destroy America's old growth forests to make them more "healthy"

J. K. Rowling Backs Forest-Friendly Books

The Paper Campaign

woodconsumption.org

OFFICE DEPOT: STOP SELLING ENDANGERED FORESTS!

The Republican controlled Congress overturned the will of the majority in the United States Senate by voting to turn the $18.4 billion being sent to Iraq into a grant instead of a loan.

In a conference committee set up by the Republican leaders of the Congress (to reconcile differences between passed House and Senate legislation), it was decided to jettison the vote of the majority in the Senate who favored making the money a loan (the more largely Republican House previously voted to make it a grant)

I am quite certain that many cash strapped, jobless American taxpayers (whose money it is in the first place) would like the government to give them a "grant" for their expenses.

Medical bills, health insurance, rent, groceries, college tuition etc. are ever increasing, while people lose their jobs and incomes. Meager social safety net programs like welfare were ripped to shreds by Congress in the so called "boom years" of the late 1990's with the money instead going to the rich in the form of corporate welfare, tax cuts and offshore tax shelters.

No one in Congress fights for hard working and struggling Americans as vehemently as they did for the Iraq grant, which will only benefit the Haliburtons, Bechtels and Brown and Roots of the world while doing little or nothing for the Iraqi people or for establishing a stable terrorist free Iraq as was promised by the Bush administration and its allies in Congress.

The best way to secure a stable Iraq is for us to get out of it. No UN either, because the Iraqis will rightly just see that as an arm of the United States.

I suspect the same members of Congress who called for the money to be a grant would tell citizens struggling to pay their bills that they should get another job, and to use the resources at their disposal or they will have to simply go without.

The same isn't said about Iraq which sits on the second largest oil reserves on the planet.

These "play by the rules" American citizens most likely would not be given a Congressional backed loan to pay their expenses and they definitely would not get a grant, essentially "free money," for their needs.

Maybe these Americans should get into the oil business and put Dick Cheney on the payroll.


Senators Overturn Vote on Aid to Iraq

Reps: U.S. Overpaying Halliburton for Gas

U.S. Contractors Reap the Windfalls of Post-War Reconstruction

Lots of info about how Haliburton is having an (oil) field day in Iraq

Report Links Iraq Deals to Bush Donations

Group Says Iraq Contractors Donated Significantly to Bush's Campaign

Info on the "deals for donation" policy of the Bush administration

The amendment (sponsored by Democratic Senator Byron Dorgan of North Dakota), to a bill, would have urged President Bush to release information regarding sources of foreign support for the 9-11 hijackers. It suffered defeat at the hands of the Republican controlled Senate.

It wasn't all Republicans that voted in the negative; some Democratic Senators voted to defeat it also. They are:

Evan Bayh (D-IN)
Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)
Daniel Inouye (D-HI)
Zell Miller (D-GA)

Edwards, Kerry and Lieberman (all presidential candidates) were non-voting.

9/11 Investigator: Bush Not Releasing Docs Because of 2004 Election (scroll down to article)

Administration Faces Supoenas From 9/11 Panel

White House Accused of Stalling 9-11 Panel

The Loss of Liberty – Why Did the U.S. Allow Israel To Attack Its Largest Spyship Killing 34 Americans and Wounding Over 170 Others? (you can listen to or watch the broadcast at this link)

Cover-Up Alleged in Probe of USS Liberty

Ironic, since the U.S. dramatically escalated its involvement in the war in Vietnam by passing the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution in 1964 when the North Vietnamese mistakenly "attacked" the USS Maddox, a ship on spy patrol off North Vietnam's coast, thinking it was a South Vietnamese vessel. Five days later, the North Vietnamese supposedly launched another attack on the Maddox and another ship. The only damage the USS Maddox sustained (in the first incident) was superficial, due to a single machine gun bullet, and the alleged second attack five days later was determined by a Captain to be nothing more than an "overeager sonarman" who "was hearing (his) ship's own propeller beat" (see Vietnam War on Wikepedia).

The U.S. also started the Spanish-American war when they blamed an explosion on the USS Maine in Havana harbor in 1898 on the Spanish. The cause of the explosion is still unknown but it is universally accepted that it was not the Spanish since they had no interest in provoking war (see Spanish-American War on Wikepedia).

Tens of thousands protest against Bush's Iraq policies in Washington

Dissent on the home front: families of US soldiers in Iraq lead anti-war protests

Confusing Occupation With Liberation

Battle looms over whether Iraq threat was oversold

Deadly PCBs in Farmed Salmon

Debate grows over fish farms

Monterey Bay Aquarium: Seafood Watch

Lawsuits seek labeling of artificially colored salmon

EcoFish: Environmentally Responsible Seafood

Congressman Jim McDermott puts it on the record

McDermott still blasting out his message: Bush lied

Violence getting worse in Afghanistan

The BBC says the situation in Afghanistan is worsening. With attacks on human rights and aid workers increasing in many parts of the country.

Bush's Afghanistan predicament

Click the following links then "Segment," to listen, "Watch 128k stream" or "Watch 256k stream" to watch or "Read Transcript" to read:

Gore Vidal

Gore Vidal on the "United States of Amnesia," 9/11, the 2000 Election and the War in Iraq


Dr. Helen Caldicott

As the White House Moves to Develop a New Generation of Nuclear Weapons, Dr. Helen Caldicott Speaks on Nuclear Proliferation and the Invasion of Iraq


Robert Fisk

As Attacks on US Soldiers Continue in Iraq We Talk to Robert Fisk who Just Returned from Fallujah

Robert Fisk on Wesley Clark & Iraq: "What is Happening Is An Absolute Slaughter Every Night of Iraqi People"


Edward Said

Edward Said on Israel, Palestine and the Most Recent Middle East Peace Plan


Howard Zinn

People's Historian Howard Zinn on Occupied Iraq, the Role of Resistance Movements, Government Lies and the Media


Michael Moore

Dude, Where's My Country? -Democracy Now! Interviews Documentary Filmmaker, Television Producer and Author Michael Moore


Tariq Ali

Bush in Babylon: The Recolonization of Iraq

"Without a Strong American Opposition We Are Doomed" - Renowned Author and Middle East Expert Tariq Ali Speaks Out on Iraq


William Rivers Pitt

"This Administration Is A Smash And Grab Robbery Writ Large" - Author and Political Analyst William Rivers Pitt Speaks Out On The Bush Administration and Iraq


Noam Chomsky

Noam Chomsky on Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest For Global Dominance


Arundhati Roy

Instant-Mix Imperial Democracy, Buy One Get One Free – An Hour With Arundhati Roy


Powell Aid Says WMD Intelligence was Hyped Up (third story in the broadcast)

Colin Powell gave the green light for allowing Hussein to use poison gas in the 1980's


PBS Frontline: Truth, War and Consequences
Click the following link, then choose your bandwidth (high or low), to watch the full 90 minute program

Truth, War and Consequences

The Bush administration orders the Pentagon to prevent images of soldiers flag draped coffins from being seen by the American people for fear such images will expose the lies and failures of the invasion and occupation

Curtains Ordered for Media Coverage of Returning Coffins

White House bans news coverage of coffins returning from Iraq

A rare media exposure of Bush administration lies about Iraq - Television review: PBS’s Frontline, “Truth, War and Consequences”

Sen. Kennedy Says Case for Iraq War Was Fraud (great quote following article on similarity of Bush administration tactics to that of the Nazis)

Republicans want to tear up America's coastlines drilling for oil and gas

GOP Proposal May End Coastal Drilling Ban

Former Iran-Contra criminals used as intelligence sources by the Bush administration

Iran-Contra Figure Emerges in WMD Probe

Religious wacko general defended by the Pentagon

Pentagon Defends Gen. Who Chided Muslims

Protesters to Bush: How Dare You?

Bye Bye Rove... You're going down

Update: Rove interviewed by the FBI in the investigation into the White House leaking of a CIA operative.

Rove, McClellan Interviewed in CIA Probe

Karl Rove, Bush's chief political strategist, is a man whose name most Americans don't know, but should. Rove, the man responsible for Dubya's whole career in politics, is the architect of Bush's right wing agenda of war, environmental destruction, and attacks on civil rights.

He, along with Bush, should be in jail for that alone; however, he did something else that even the Republicans would have to admit is a crime: he was involved in blowing a CIA agents cover, which is a felony. The agent happened to be the wife of the former U.S. ambassador to Iraq. The same U.S. ambassador who blew the lid off the lies, which Rove helped orchestrate, regarding the now universally debunked claim of Iraq's supposed attempt to get uranium yellowcake from Niger.

On its face the Niger claim was ludicrous simply because: 1. Every ounce of uranium in Niger is strictly monitored by the International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA) and the French and 2. Iraq already had a whole bunch of yellowcake that they hadn't turned into weapons.

Bush, Rove, Rumsfeld, Rice, Ashcroft, Wolfowitz and many others in the current administration are criminals and need to be thrown out and incarcerated.

More links:

White House Denies Leaking CIA Identity

Does A Felon Rove The White House?

Niger president challenges Blair government over uranium allegations

Rove's Way

The crooks in Congress send hard working taxpayer dollars to Iraq

Sleaze like Achmed Chalabi (convicted embezzler), Haliburton (Cheney's alma mater and current cash cow) and Bechtel (read article entitled "Bechtel Wins Iraq War Contracts" here) are getting almost $20 billion dollars for reconstruction. A reconstruction that was supposed to cost U.S. taxpayers nothing, according to Rumsfeld and many others at the top in the Bush administration.

House Passes $87B Iraq, Afghanistan Bill

The U.S. government supports and aids Turkey who is guilty of killing more Kurds than Saddam ever did (read more on the Turks treatment of the Kurds here)

U.S sold out the Kurds to the Turks

• The U.S. government, through its supply of weapons and money to Turkey, is responsible for killing more Kurds than Saddam Hussein
  
  
• Estimates of the number of Turkish Kurds that have been killed, by the U.S. backed Turkish army, range as high as 50,000 and as many as a million of them have been displaced from their homes and villages by the Turkish military(Saddam's mass graves are being used to justify the invasion of Iraq; wouldn't an invasion of Turkey then be warranted because of their mass graves)
  
  
• 75% of the weapons used in this murder were made in the U.S. (providing $15 billion to the U.S. defense industry)
  
  
• The war in Turkey (on the Kurds) represents the single largest use of U.S. weapons anywhere in the world by non-U.S. forces, according to Bill Hartung of the World Policy Institute
  
  
• Turkeys war on the Kurds got little coverage in the U.S. media, only Iraqi Kurds get coverage (presumably this was done to further demonize Saddam)
  
  
• The U.S. and Turkey created "good Turks" (Kurds in Iraq fighting Saddam) vs. "bad Turks" (Kurds in Turkey fighting a U.S. ally)
  
  

Facts on Turkey's U.S. supported war against their Kurdish population

• Human rights groups say that since 1991 more than 4,000 Kurds, including journalists, politicians, and citizen activists have been killed by (Turkish government backed) death squads
  
  
• Large numbers of civilian Kurds are in Turkish prisons where organizations like Amnesty International say torture is commonplace; there are no POW's despite 15 years of war because Turkey says it captures most dead already
  
  
• During the 1990's the Turkish army leveled, burned and forcibly evacuated 3,000 Kurdish villages, representing almost three quarters of settlements destroyed in Iraq in the 1980's under Saddam
  
  
• Human Rights Watch says the U.S. armed Turkish army was "responsible for the majority of forced evacuation and destruction" of the Kurds and their villages
  
  

Let's fight the Arabs? Nothing new there

Europe, Turkey, and the Kurds

The United States vs. Iraq-- A Study in Hypocrisy

The Middle East and the United States: An Unpleasant Tale of Irony, Hypocrisy , and Misunderstanding

US policy toward the Kurds--a mass of contradictions

Human Rights Violations Against the Kurdish Minority in Turkey

Kurds distrust U.S. motives for the Iraqi war: "In 15 years 50,000 people died. We know war and we don't want it."

In south east Turkey about one million Turkish Kurds were driven from their homes and over 40,000 have been killed

Dozens of Kurds, Iraqis Slaughtered by U.S, Turkish Planes

Jay Leno is Schwarzenegger's "poodle"

People called Tony Blair George Bush's poodle; I maintain he is sly like a fox (see my post of 10/7/03). Jay Leno, however, is Schwarzenegger's poodle.

The Recall Show With Jay Leno


Leno Got Schwarzenegger, Letterman Gets Davis

I just ask that people be consistent

I watched, a few days ago, as a woman who was interviewed on CNN's Crossfire, said, after just voting for Schwarzenegger, that Schwarzenegger was targeted with the supporting Hitler allegation because he is an Austrian (actually he implicated himself when he made favorable comments about Hitler during the filming of his career making film "Pumping Iron"; he refuses to release the "Pumping Iron" outtakes he bought up to keep concealed). This same woman said she wasn't really concerned about the groping allegations.

Other women who expressed support for Schwarzenegger held signs that said "Arnold, you can grope me," and "Gray Davis groped me, when he reached for my wallet." If that is the way these people feel, that groping is no big deal, and racist comments are O.K., then I call on all those people to not complain next time their co-workers, or anyone else gropes them or ethnically slurs them, to say its no "big deal." To most of these people, though, it probably will be a big deal. That is hypocrisy, and should not be tolerated.

Why were there trials, after World War II, for the Nazis, guilty in the murder of millions , but not for Uday and Qusay Hussein?

The world, led by the United States, had a trial at Nuremberg for the Nazis, who were responsible for genocide and some of the worst crimes humanity has ever witnessed, but no trial for Uday and Qusay?

The American media ghoulishly relished in delight at the presentation of the corpses of Uday And Qusay all over the media. This grotesque display of Saddam's sons did nothing but repulse most Americans.

Yes, for certain, these were terrible men who were despised rightfully by most people. They were truly brutal murders who delighted in bringing death and destruction to whomever they felt like at the moment. They embodied all the worst characteristics of their father, many Iraqis, in fact, hated his sons more than Saddam himself, but none of this justifies an execution of these men, and the little reported killing of one of their 14 year old sons, by U.S. forces.

A full criminal investigation of their crimes in a trial monitored by the international community, but conducted by the Iraqi people, would have done much more to heal the pain the Iraqis suffered under the tyrannical murderous regime of Saddam and his two sons than having Uday and Qusay meeting their demise at the hands of the U.S. occupying forces.

The extrajudicial murder of these two men was never questioned by the media. There really wasn't a satisfactory explanation put forth as to why they could not have been apprehended alive. The media never questioned the line of the U.S. military that there was "no choice" but to blow the hell out of the building housing the brothers and a teenage boy.

Maybe the Americans were trying to increase their support in the Iraqi population (which was never anywhere near as high as the U.S. maintained it was); reasoning that murdering these hated men would somehow endear the people to the illegal occupation of their country by the U.S.? The Iraqi public, at the time, began to become increasingly more angry and violent towards the U.S. occupation of their country. If that was the U.S. strategy it failed because the desire of the Iraqis to get the Americans out of their country only grew with attacks on U.S. forces actually escalating after the Hussein brothers death.

Could it be that the Americans wanted to try and break the resistance that they believed was being headed up by the Hussein bothers? Well that didn't work either because the attacks increased, growing even more fierce and frequent after Uday and Qusay were killed. Murdering Saddam's sons didn't really accomplish anything, but bolster the already prevailing view, especially in the eyes of the world's people, which sees the U.S. government as trigger happy cowboys who do what we want, whenever, and however we please. The world's impression of the U.S. has never been worse. Bush and the other warmongers in his administration, and their allies in the media and Congress, have squandered the good nature and support the world had for the U.S. after 9-11.

Or possibly is it because the U.S. didn't want to hear what they had to say? Namely, that their was no weapons of mass destruction program or that the one Saddam did have was ended right after or slightly before the end of the first Gulf War, as former chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix has suggested recently.

The policies of the Bush administration have ruined the lives of countless thousands of innocent American, Iraqi and Afghans by either killing or maiming in brutal attacks, or making them suffer the loss of loved ones due to our illegal acts of aggression in Afghanistan and Iraq.


The killing of Hussein's sons: the Nuremberg precedent and the criminalization of the US ruling elite

We need a third party in this country now!

The majority of Democrats in Congress intend on voting for Bush's $87 billion dollar request for Iraq!

They are caving in; just like they did with the Iraq war vote. The decision to support Bush's disastrous policies by these cowards in Congress flies in the face of the majority of Americans who in the most recent poll are against sending the $87 billion dollars of their money to Iraq by a margin of 57% against sending it to 41% in favor.

Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz and Ari Fleischer all said that Iraqi oil revenue, frozen assets etc. would provide plenty of money for reconstruction; they said Iraq is a "rich country." Rumsfeld even said it wasn't the "responsibility of the U.S. to pay for Iraq's reconstruction." They are all filthy lying murderers who need to be impeached now!

We already wasted $78.5 billion in April; now these lying bastards in the Bush administration and their allies in Congress want another $87 billion. We would be foolish to think that this will be the end of the administration's money requests; Iraq is a money pit with the cash going right into the pockets of Haliburton and Bechtel as well as the rest of Bush and Cheney's oil buddies in Texas and elsewhere. This is a complete waste of money for a completely unnecessary and illegal war against a country that was not a threat to the United States in any way.

Bush is a lying criminal who, along with most of his administration, needs to be impeached now!

I propose that the $87 billion come out of the pockets of Bush and all the SOB's that supported this violation of international law and world peace.

We need a new political party; one that will stand up and fight for the will of the majority of Americans, and not for Bush's buddies like Haliburton and Bechtel!

Call your representatives in Congress. Find your House representative here and your Senate representative here and tell them to vote NO on the $87 billion.

Use recycled paper products!

New Leaf Paper: Environmentally Responsible, Economically Sound

The Rainforests - Actions You Can Take

The United States backed a coup attempt in Venezuela last year and may now be trying to kill its highly popular leader

This according to an article entitled, Is the US plotting to murder Venezuela's president? posted on the World Socialist Website (WSWS).

The Venezuelan president's name is Hugo Chavez. Chavez is one of the most popular leaders in Venezuelan history. He has immense support in his country, mainly with the poor who have given him two consecutive popular electoral wins by the largest margins in Venezuelan history.

This situation sounds eerily similar to the U.S. role in overturning the highly popular and democratically elected Chilean president Salvador Allende in the first "9-11" back in 1973 (see my post of 9/13/2003 for more on the U.S. involvement in overthrowing Allende).

I highly encourage all to read the WSWS's complete article, but I will give some of its main points here:

• Venezuelan intelligence uncovered an alleged U.S. CIA backed plot to sabotage Chavez's plane en route to the UN; Chavez then cancelled the trip; the little coverage the U.S. media gave to this story described Chavez as just being "paranoid" (not so think back on White House spokesman Ari Fleischer "one bullet" idea to get rid of a political enemy, that quote was aimed at Saddam Hussein and was used against his sons in a gross display of barbarism)
  
  
• Chavez, hardly paranoid, was rightly concerned since in April 2002 a coup by a military-business alliance held power briefly (the Bush administration immediately voiced public support for the coup then recanted when popular revolt ousted the new rulers from power 2 days later) and forced Chavez to escape the presidential palace
  
  
• The coup plotters were financed with U.S. taxpayer dollars and advised by no other than CIA veterans of the "contra" war in Nicaragua (elevated to positions of power in the State Department and the Pentagon by Bush) and right wing anti-Castro supporters operating in the U.S.
  
  
• According to a Wall Street Journal article, Anti-Chavez troops from Venezuela, including one of the first officers to storm the presidential palace in the 2002 coup, are training with anti-Castro terrorist groups (who have already committed terror attacks in Cuba) in Florida (Florida newspapers also reported on the existence of the terrorist training camps)
  
  
• The U.S., blaming Chavez for Venzuela's economic problems, supported last years 64 day shutdown of the oil industry (in a post-coup attempt to bring down the Chavez government) by the failed coup plotters and their supporters
  
  
• The U.S., intent on destabilizing Venezuela and ousting Chavez, cut off all credit to Venezuela from the US Export-Import Bank in July
  
  
• Charles Shapiro, the U.S. Ambassador to Venezuela, went to that country in person to support a recall petition drive to oust Chavez that was instigated by the opposition and, if successful, could occur this February; Shapiro, it should be noted, is a former official involved in heading up U.S. support, including equipment, training and intelligence (i.e. lists of names of army officers the US wanted removed), for El Salvador's brutal military dictatorship and death squads which kidnapped and disappeared 30,000 people and massacred thousands of peasants, including old people, women and children, in that countries' civil war (El Salvador was also the U.S. base of operations for U.S. support of the illegal "contra" war in Nicaragua against the democratically elected Sandista government whose leftist policies brought the ire of the U.S. government)
  
  
• Chavez correctly pointed out the hypocrisy of the U.S. government in allowing terrorists, intent on overthrowing a democratically elected government in Venezuela, to train in Florida while maintaining it is waging a war on terror; Ambassador Shapiro actually said that the training of terrorists on U.S. soil "is not necessarily a crime."
  
  
• The US is actually trying to brand Venezuela's Muslim community as terrorists with no evidence at all; it certainly is no coincidence that these alleged "terrorists" come from the world's fifth largest oil exporter
  
  
• Chavez is a marked man in the eyes of the Bush administration because of his opposition to the U.S. war on Iraq, and Chavez's objection to seating a delegation from the US puppet Iraqi governing council at an OPEC meeting
  
  

Must reads:

The United States is a Leading Terrorist State

Why do they hate US?

US role in Salvador's brutal war

U.S. backs military rulers of El Salvador; 70,000 Salvadorans and four American nuns killed

Forgotten History: U.S. involvement in the slaughter of countless thousands of civilians from around the world by CIA trained and armed death squads and U.S. installed dictators (many countries profiled on this website)

The politics of fear

The chairman of the California Republican party said yesterday on CNN that the Democrats are the "party of fear," but it is the Republicans and the Bush administration whose goal it is to keep people in fear (exploiting 9-11 by using terror alerts, supposed Iraqi imminent threats, and axis of evil comments, all used to keep people in fear) so that Bush's poll ratings would stay at the high levels it hit after the 9-11 attacks. The Republicans and the Bush administration use fear as a smokescreen to blur the reality of their failed policies.

Tom DeLay, U.S. House Majority Leader: Enemy of the people

If one man can be the embodiment of all that I despise in someone; he would be Tom DeLay. He has been called "one of the most reviled thugs to hold public office in American history."

Its a well deserved moniker. This excuse for a human being actually had the nerve to call the Democrats "hypocritical" (Inside Politics, CNN 10/2/03) for calling for the appointment of a special prosecutor to determine who in the White House committed a felony by releasing the name of a CIA intelligence officer who just happens to be the wife of the man who blew the lid off of the now universally debunked claim that Saddam Hussein tried to get uranium from Niger.

DeLay led the charge for the impeachment of former president Bill Clinton (he was the first one to call for his impeachment) claiming along with other Republican's, that an independent counsel, and not Janet Reno, was needed to investigate former president Bill Clinton to prevent a conflict of interest.

Tom DeLay is a rich right wing fanatic

• He is a millionaire former owner of a pest control company
  
  
• He is the religious rights favorite son
  
  
• He wants creationism taught in schools
  
  
• He is ideologically to the right of former House Majority Leader Dick Armey and even former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, the architect of the notorious "contract with America"
  
  

Tom DeLay is the environment's number one enemy in Congress

• He wants to dismantle the EPA, which he calls the "gestapo of government," and repeal environmental laws, like the Clean Air Act
  
  
• He consistently lets lobbyists craft legislation exempting industries from environmental laws (the congressional district in Texas he represents is home to some of the worst industrial polluters in the nation and the state of Texas itself contributes a quarter of the nation's total toxic waste)
  
  
• He says that the cancer causing insecticide DDT is perfectly safe
  
  
• He says the bald eagle never approached extinction
  
  
• In regard to acid rain, he says throwing some lime in a few lakes will solve that problem
  
  
• He says global warming is a myth and a fraud
  
  
• He has voted against bills to reduce airborne toxic emissions and to give assistance to communities with contaminated groundwater
  
  
• He has even tried to stifle "right to know" provisions that enable citizens to find out what dangerous chemicals are being released by local industries
  
  
• DeLay was the top House recipient of PAC money (in 1995) from interests seeking to avoid liability for toxic cleanups
  
  

Tom DeLay is vehemently against campaign finance reform

• He fights relentlessly against any and all efforts to take money out of the political system
  
  
• He says "money is the lifeblood of politics"
  
  

Tom Delay is the biggest hypocrite in Congress

• He complains about the democrat's politicizing the outing of a CIA intelligence officer; however, he is one of the most politically motivated politicians on the hill, earning the knickname the "hammer" (for his ruthless fundraising tactics) and being the first one to call for Clinton's impeachment (for his affair with Monica Lewinsky)in the most politicized attack on a sitting American president in U.S. history
  
  
• His hypocrisy knows no bounds; he actually demanded that the FBI investigate the journalists at Salon magazine who exposed House Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde's adulterous affair even while calling for impeachment of Clinton for the same thing!
  
  
• He even accused the White House of hiring a private investigator to investigate Hyde and then giving it to reporters; I wonder if he would say that Robert Novak (journalist who published the White House leak outing a CIA intelligence officer) was in collusion with the White House in enacting vengeance on former U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Joe Wilson for Wilson's revealing that the Iraq-Niger uranium story was completely false
  
  
• DeLay would issue talking points to Republicans in congress during Clinton's impeachment trial; he says it was "not partisanship", but just presentation of the "facts"
  
  
• DeLay lied in a sworn deposition (the same thing he wanted Clinton impeached for) in 1994 arising from a dispute with a former business partner
  
  

More info:

Tom DeLay, Defender of Sweatshops

DeLay, Incorporated

Articles on Tom DeLay

Tom DeLay's brother, Randy, gets rich following him around Congress

The Wrath of DeLay

Prime Minister Tony Blair: Not necessarily a "poodle," but definitely sly like a fox

The sting in the poodle's tail

I stand by war in Iraq, says Blair

Blair 'Knew Iraq Had No WMD'

Those hypocritical bastards... The Bush administration actually wants more time to look for WMDs!

This represents the epitome of hypocrisy, and a perfect example of why I named my blog Hypocrisy Daily.

David Kay, the head of the CIA-led Iraq Survey Group which is leading the U.S. search for alleged Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs), wants six to nine months more to continue searching, arguing he needs more time to complete his work.

Why that sounds familiar, that is exactly what the UN inspectors wanted: more time; however, the U.S. and Britain wouldn't allow them to keep looking. Rather they launched an unjustified and murderous invasion that: killed and wounded countless thousands of innocent people (Iraqi and American), destroying lives and families, shattered post-WWII alliances in NATO, seriously damaged international relations at the UN, and cost U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars.

The only people who benefited were crooks like current Iraqi governing council head Achmed Chalabi (who stole millions of dollars from poor Jordanians bankrupting thousands many of whom committed suicide), Haliburton, Brown and Root, Bechtel, and all of the Bush administrations other cronies, the war profiteers, who lined up and were granted contracts outright (no bidding) to feast, as vultures do, on death and destruction.

These profiteering scum and their defense industry brethren (the U.S. bombmakers: the real manufacturers of the world's WMDs) are only concerned about their profit margins. The Bush administration is more than happy to do their bidding and that of the psycho warmongers (Wolfowitz, Perle, Cheney, Rumsfeld etc.) in the government who concocted this horrendous policy on Iraq.

More info:

1,200 Weapons Inspectors Spent 90 Days in Iraq. The Exercise Cost $300m. And the Number of Weapons Found? 0

Democrats Warn of 'Profiteering' in Reconstruction Contracts

Questions are Raised on Awarding of Contracts in Iraq

4,000 U.S. Non-Combat Evacuations in Iraq

Iraq: A Land Ruled by Chaos

U.S. foreign policy is the real cause of 9-11...

Here is but one example:

Bush refuses to criticize Israel's attack on Syria

Bring the troops home now! Let's not allow another soldier to be killed or wounded because of the Bush administration's completely unwarranted and illegal invasion of Iraq

3 U.S. Soldiers Killed in 2 Attacks Near Baghdad

Fight the recall of Governor Gray Davis: California's democratically elected Governor

I urge all citizens of California to vote no on the recall. The recall campaign is not about the people of California or fixing California's economy; it is simply an attempt by the Republican right wing to steal the governorship. The recall was bought and paid for by an extremely conservative multimillionaire congressman from San Diego (Darrell Issa) who wants to overturn the will of the people as expressed in the election of Davis.

The Republicans, realizing the people of California are not interested in having them run the state, have resorted to using an obscure California law and patently undemocratic means to overturn a fair and just election merely because they didn't like the result (the election of Davis).

This is an affront to the democratic process. It must be resisted by all people who believe in democracy and the right of the majority to decide who they want to lead them, as was accomplished in the election of Davis just a few months ago.

Three years ago the Supreme Court helped a candidate steal the highest office in our nation; however, this time the people of California, at least, have the opportunity to defend democracy and the right of ones vote to count in an election, an opportunity that millions of Americans wished they had in 2000.

The majority has spoken clearly in electing Gray Davis; it is now up to the people of California to defend America's great system of democracy and the will of its people.

The Supreme Court was complicit in bringing injustice and shame to our electoral process, but the people of California have a chance to bring back some of its honor. I sincerely hope they do not just for California's sake, but for the sake of all Americans.

VOTE NO ON THE RECALL!

Some anti-recall slogans I came up with for the people of California:

Groping women, Adolph Hitler: Hey Arnold, get a clue, this is California; we do things different here...
VOTE NO ON THE RECALL!


Hey California... Do we really want to be another notch on Arnold's belt...
VOTE NO ON THE RECALL!


Arnold apologized for groping women; what will he say after he rapes California...
VOTE NO ON THE RECALL!

Hundreds of billions for Iraq, but barely a billion to keep our nations passenger rail system running


Murray's efforts key in keeping Amtrak on track

Farmers committing a "a crime against all humanity" as they relentlessly chop and burn one of the world's few remaining biologically diverse and important forests


A steady onslaught of clearing in North America's largest rain forest likely will lead to its demise

British politician says Iraq invasion was a "political disaster" in which Blair's "cabinet was complicit"

War was a political disaster for Labour and Cabinet was complicit, says Cook

Orangutan's are going extinct: a coming catastrophe that must be stopped

Orangutans Could Go Extinct in 20 Years

Fear and extremism threaten women's rights and freedoms in U.S. occupied Iraq

Iraqi Women No Better Off, U.N. Official Says

Bush wasn't elected; Davis was

My girlfriend made a good point regarding the ludicrous claim that Californian's are stuck with current governor Gray Davis. She rightly points out that Californian's are not stuck with Davis because he was elected once and then just reelected a few months ago. As opposed to Bush, who we have truly all been stuck with, since he was never elected at all; he stole the presidency.

Compare Bush administration's quotes before war on Iraq and al-Qaeda to those after:

Before invasion of Iraq:

Bush lies trying to link al Qaeda to Saddam Hussein


After invasion:

Bush: No evidence Saddam was involved in 9/11 attacks


Wolfowitz Lets Slip that Iraq Was Not Involved in 9/11; No Ties to Al-Qaeda

The evidence is clear; Bush and the other crooks in the White House, and the Pentagon knowingly lied to the American people. He and his adminstration brought disgrace upon the United States of America and they need to be removed from power now!

Hero grandmother from British Columbia held in contempt of court

A grandmother in Canada is being criminalized for doing what I consider to be absolutely legitimate and highly commendable: she is trying to protect old growth trees in British Columbia. This woman is not a criminal, but a hero whose behavior we should all emulate.

Elderly protester found guilty

Fight the Recall of California governor Gray Davis!

Read an article entitled "The dirt on Schwarzenegger" here.

More info:

The Top Ten Conservative Idiots

Arnold's True Colors

More of Bush's buddies profiting from the war in Iraq

Washington Insiders' New Firm Consults on Contracts in Iraq

No one should have their voting rights taken away, that goes for former and current prisoners

This is especially true since the justice system is often anything but just, disproportionately imprisoning minorities and the poor while white collar criminals who rob millions of dollars from Americans remain free.

In addition many people are in prison for non-violent drug related crimes. No one and I mean no one should be in jail because of marijuana or because they are addicted to drugs.

Study: States End Ex-Felons Voting Bans

Update: Schwarzenegger even refuses a one-on-one debate with Davis on Larry King

Todd Harris, a spokesman for the Schwarzenegger campaign, used twisted logic in saying the Davis camp desire for a debate takes a page from the "desperate candidate's handbook."

Hardly, the more rational among us would conclude that a candidate who does everything possible to avoid participating in debate, an indispensable exercise of the democratic process, for fear of being outted as incompetent and wholly unelectable, is on page one of the desperate candidates handbook.

Schwarzenegger Declines Debate Invite

Comic debate was best anti-recall ad Gray Davis could have imagined


Schwarzenegger afraid to debate Davis

Its obvious that Arnold likes picking on women much more than facing a challenge by the incumbent governor Gray Davis. His campaign released a statement refusing to take Davis up on his challenge to a debate "right here, right now."

He is a tough guy when given the questions and spurting out silly one liners and platitudes that truly reveal his ignorance and utter lack of qualification for the highest office in the state of California; however, when given the chance to confront the stitting democratically elected governor of a state which has the sixth largest economy in the world, and the largest population in America, he retreats from the challenge.

This is because Davis would destroy him in a debate. The Schwarzenegger camp knows this. His handlers figure if he can keep his mouth shut for just awhile longer and stick to the prepackaged script they have given him full of trite one liners (the nonsense he built his career on) he can squeek out a win in a society where the dumbest actors get elected and the smartest ones get ignored.

Schwarzenegger is constantly attacking Davis, when Davis isn't right in front of his face; however, in a forum of direct confrontation, like a debate, Schwarzenegger's banal, stupid and baseless attacks would be volleyed right back leaving Scwarzenegger looking like what he is: an untalented actor and one of the worst choices for governor ever presented to the voters of California.


Schwarzenegger Declines Debate Challenge

Barbarian at the Gate

U.S. Atrocities and War Crimes: Revisiting the "Highway of Death" where tens of thousands of withdrawing Iraqi soldiers were massacred by U.S. forces following the 1991 Gulf War

The Massacre of Withdrawing Soldiers on "The Highway of Death"

On Antiwar.com today:

Parents Tell Bush: 'You Lied and Our Sons Died'

CIA wants probe of White House

Republicans question Iraq price tag

The world says no to the U.S. occupation of Iraq

Protests erupted today around the world in a call to end the criminal occupation of the nation of Iraq by the United States and its allies.

London drew the biggest protests, estimated at 20,000 people, with all attending voicing vehement opposition to the occupation. The occupation wasn't the only target as the crowd voiced disgust with the policies of Prime Minister Tony Blair. New polls just released, indicate that fifty percent of the British population want Blair to resign immediately for his involvement in the invasion of Iraq and the events leading to the suicide of David Kelly.

Calling him a war criminal and carrying signs that read "Bliar," it is clear that Blair's political career has been severely, probably irreparably, damaged by his insistence on going to war with Iraq even though the majority of Britons were extremely against any invasion.

Marchers Worldwide Call for Iraq Pullout

Huffington terminates the Terminator!

One of my favorite jibes in the California recall gubernatorial debate last night came from independent candidate Arianna Huffington, she said, "Republicans always talk about sexual morality, but not business morality."

I could not agree more with that statement. In fact, it is a premise for many of my arguments and posts right here on this blog. Moreover, I have actually been working on a blog dedicated entirely to that very point.

Of course, in the United States of America, the land of Enron, TYCO, Global Crossing and countless other lying, and stealing bastards, who put profit above all else, people won't get to hear Huffington's or similar points of view very often in the mainstream media; however, the BBC quoted Huffington's jab at the Republicans right at the beginning of their article on the debate. That is because, by no means perfect, the business climate in Europe isn't as wrought with corruption and recklessness as the U.S. economic system.

The corporate media won't give you so called "progressive" points of view, even those that would seem to be a given (that businesses should act in the public interest or at least not act against it), because such awareness might cause people to question the profit system itself, and the its fragile power structure, ultimately proving a threat to its actual existence.

The idea of actually putting morality into the process of business decision making is something that American corporations would never tolerate. The very suggestion that such an ideal should dictate how business is conducted galvanizes the most threatened members of the oligarchy (corporations and their political and media allies) to employ every effort to suppress it.

Don't believe me? I challenge readers to submit to me any article from the U.S. mainstream press (national, state, city or local) that covered the debate and quoted the candidates, but didn't leave out Huffington's contention that Republicans only care about sexual, and not business morality. If you find any I'll post them.

Quote mentioned:

BBC
LA Times


Not mentioned:

Washington Post
Seattle Post Intelligencer
Seattle Times
New York Times
The San Francisco Examiner
The Boston Globe
USA Today
San Francisco Chronicle
The Chicago Tribune
The Miami Herald
The Minneapolis Star Tribune


Transcript of gubernatorial recall debate

Kennedy says Iraq war was a "fraud" that was "made up in Texas"


In Senate, Kennedy Fuels Sharp Debate

News World International (NWI) reports that Iraq has turned into a "vortex of violence"

A story on NWI, the Canadian twenty-four news organization, today says that the U.S. and its slim coalition are fighting a "guerilla war against mix and match enemies."

In fact, Bush himself has said the violence that the U.S. confronts daily is at least in part due "terrorists who have come to Iraq." I stated this fact in my first post ever on this blog (scroll down to bottom to read it).

The report states that it has been predominantly Saudis that have been coming in in the last few months. That is highly ironic due to the fact that we supposedly fought the war to prevent future terrorism (a boldface lie), but the war actually has greatly increased the likelihood of more terrorism from Arabs (who constituted the majority of the 9-11 hijackers no matter how much the Bush administration tried to imply otherwise) who have specifically gone to Iraq because Saddam's regime has fallen and utter chaos exists there now.

The myth propagated by the Bush administration and its cronies in the government and media establishment that the world is safer now that Saddam is gone, is a boldface lie. A power vacuum now exists in Iraq and Islamic terrorists from all around are filling it.

The violence also comes from guerilla cells formed from Saddam's 400,000 man army (who are now humiliated and unemployed, a deadly mix). These former soldiers are working separately from the Islamic militants.

Two radical Islamic groups, Hezbollah and Ansar al Islam, are also arriving there says Michael Eisenstat of the D.C. Institute for Near East Policy.

The report maintains that the reality is that the longer the fighting goes on in Iraq the more organized the resistance will get. It also points out that collapsed states, like Iraq, often have warring factions that fight themselves; we see this going on in Iraq right now. Such a situation would represent a worst case scenario where interfactional violence could spread like wildfire.

A legitimate Iraqi government (where the Iraqi people elect their leaders) must be created that, says the report, is one of the only ways to keep peace.

The news story says in closing that "if you believe in democracy this needs to happen."

Let the raping of the of the Iraqi economy begin; just don't touch the oil that's for us only

Iraq is open for business! Paul Bremer, unelected ruler, oops I mean civilian administrator of Iraq, has just announced that foreign investment will now be permitted in Iraq.

What this means, essentially, is that huge multinational corporations (most of which will probably be U.S. firms) will be given the opportunity to invest in any part of the economy except for oil.

On its face, it would seem that this would bring help to rebuild Iraq (destroyed because of 2 wars and twelve years of sanctions that have killed hundreds of thousands and wrecked the whole country); however, its really about enriching corporations with money from American taxpayers.

National Public Radio (NPR) reported, on Sept. 22, that:

• the problem in Iraq is not lack of foreign investment, but lack of security
  
  
• attempts in short order to privatize would bring terrible corruption and no help for the Iraqi people
  
  
• privatization should be accomplished over years not months (reverse of wht should happen with political control)
  
  

More info:

America Puts Iraq Up for Sale

Washing Away the Truth: Hurricanes and what gets lost in the whirlwind of the mainstream media

The mainstream media reported diligently on every minutiae of Hurricane Isabel, but they seem utterly unconcerned with the daily attacks on our societies' poor, sick, struggling and homeless or on the destruction of our forests, wetlands, air, and water. Such attacks are much more threatening to people and the environment than the rare visit of a swirling weather system; however, the corporate media is unwilling to address these issues, rather they opt for the all too convenient sound bite.

To be sure, there is often tragic loss of life in these storms; however, many more lives are lost from the lack of health care, housing, and sufficient income or from the toxic pollutants we drink, eat, and breath every day. If they wrote and broadcast stories on those issues, they would expose most of their advertisers and the media's own corporate owners as the real threat to us all.

The media uses hyperbole in most of their reporting, exaggerating the threat posed by events that are rare and uncommon (natural disasters, school shootings, violent crime, terrorist attacks, etc.) and minimizing or totally ignoring actual threats, like those to our health and the environment.

As Michael Moore puts forth in his movie, Bowling for Columbine, the result of this media fascination with violence and danger that doesn't match the real life statistics, is to create a climate of fear.

In a scene from his movie, a news crew shows up on a corner in Los Angeles to film something merely because a police chopper was hovering over the area. The problem, Moore finds out, is that they don't know what exactly is going on (they say some guy may have had a gun or there was a "near" drowning). Apparently, the drama of a chopper on the scene is all the news director needed for a story.

Michael Moore asks the news crews cameraman why they don't do a story on "how... you can't see the Hollywood hills because of the pollution." The cameraman agrees, laughing as if to say its a good idea, but the network won't go for it; indeed they probably won't.

Moore then finds a cop and he asks him basically the same question. This time asking if there is anyone that the cop can arrest because the Hollywood sign can't be seen due to the pollution. The cop responds tersely, "absolutely not," Moore then asks "why not... why is that" the officer says nothing as he starts to walk away.

It is clear that addressing the pollution issue would take true grit; the kind that the officer evidently doesn't have. The officer's reluctance to even respond to Moore's point, that serious crimes are being perpetrated on us all as the police spend time on low or non-existent threats, is telling, since, for the officer, acknowledging that polluters are killing us, albeit, more slowly than a gunshot, but deadly nonetheless, would require the officer to question what in fact his duties are and whether he is willing to do what it really takes to defend the public.

He, like most of his law enforcement peers, might no longer be able to rely on the stereotypical crime profiles and unfair treatment they give to the poor and minority communities. They might ultimately have to face the realization that most threatening and dangerous crimes actually don't occur in these communities, but rather in the boardrooms of major corporations. So the officer walks away, just as many others do, looking for the criminals that the media, the wealthy, and the powerful tell us should be locked up.

Fear keeps us: buying guns, spending billions to build bombs, stocking up on supplies for natural disasters, supporting U.S. Imperialism disguised as a "war on terror, " and most importantly for the media and its advertisers; it keeps us watching the news.

While the rest of us suffer the ramifications of a deteriorating economy (job loss, bankruptcies), the total net worth of the 400 richest Americans grew 10% to $955 billion

This is an injustice that must be corrected. There is absolutely no reason why any 400 human beings should have this amount of money.

Their combined net worth is more than the GNP of most entire countries where millions of people live and work.

This fact is a travesty of justice and one of the main reasons why we have terrorism in the world. We are an easy target with our excessive wealth and imperialistic foreign policy which usually supports despots and dictators around the world who brutalize and oppress millions of people.

We are seen as the biggest kid on the block, with a military and economy to prove it. So we are an easy target to the oppressed and destitute of the planet. Jean Chretien, Prime Minister of Canada, caught flak for making a similar argument a couple of years ago after 9-11, probably because it was too close to the truth for many of those in power.

It doesn't help that we also unconditionally support Israel. We rarely, if ever, chide Israel for any of their brutalizing policies against the Palestinians (targeted assassinations, and bulldozing their houses) which we never refer to as terrorism, but is.

Just a couple of days ago at the UN, the United States vetoed a resolution calling on Israel to neither kill nor expel Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. It would have passed, but for the U.S. veto.

Article: Net Worth of America's Richest Increases

Everyone, and I mean everyone, needs to read the report by Robert Fisk of London's Independent on the current conditions in Iraq.

Its titled, "What is Happening Is An Absolute Slaughter Every Night of Iraqi People," and you can read it here.

Blix basically says Iraq war was a fraud.

I wish we saw this kind of candor at the UN security council when Powell made that embarrassing and pathetic attempt to say Saddam had nukes and the like.

Full article:

Blix Attacks 'Spin and Hype' of Iraq Weapon Claims

The facts on the 9th Federal District Circuit Court

The 9th Circuit Court has more actual cases overturned because they hear more cases (11,000 in fact, the largest number of cases in the federal system). Only a tiny amount of the 9th Circuits cases are reviewed by the US Supreme Court; of those 75% are overturned, which is the same rate that the US Supreme Court overturns all the other federal circuit court rulings in the country.

As far as claims that the 9th Circuit is ultra-liberal, it should be known that the pledge of allegiance decision, so lambasted by the right, which said having the phrase "under God" in the pledge was unconstitutional, was actually written by a Republican appointee.

CNN's Robert Novak: hypocrite of the day

While I was just watching CNN's Crossfire, I witnessed Robert Novak just call co-host Paul Begala anti-troops because Begala was commenting on a new report that says the Iraqi people no longer see US forces so much as the people who removed Saddam Hussein, but rather as the soldiers bursting into the homes of their wives and daughters.

Compare that statement to what Mr. Novak said a number of weeks ago when soldiers voiced understandable anger and distress with the attacks and deaths that they were experiencing daily. A situation they were put in by Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz (Deputy Secretary of Defense) and Rice (National Security Advisor). Novak said at the time that American troops should stop complaining and "shut-up" and "do their job." If that's not anti-troops, I don't know what is.

CNN wastes no time trying to destroy Wesley Clark

They dug up all kinds of dirt and gossip and lobbed it right at General Clark almost immediately after his formal announcement that he would run for president. Did they do this to Bush when he announced his run? They certainly didn't use rumors and hearsay from his detractors no less to disparage Bush right out of the gate.

There was plenty to throw at Bush at the time of his announcement, much more damaging than anything they claim to have on Clark who is a decorated Vietnam War veteran and retired four star general, for example: his dubious record as governor of Texas, his many failed business endeavors, his dereliction of duty and undistinguised record as a member of the Texas Air National Guard, a sweetheart deal set up by his cronies giving him ownership of the Texas Rangers and a huge financial windfall, his drug and alcohol abuse, and his utter lack of intellect.

Blix says intelligence agencies were wrong and that Iraq destroyed all their weapons 10 years ago

No kidding Blix, this is what you should have said in the run up to the war instead of being bullied by the Bush Administration into saying what they wanted.

Click here to read article.

Bank of America certainly does not have "higher standards"

Their slogan "Bank of America: higher standards" is inconsistent with their past policies. Unless they consider involvement in efforts to subvert democratically elected governments and bankrolling ruthless dictators responsible for the death and torture of thousands as acting with 'high standards.' Read "U.S. Responsibility for the Coup in Chile"paragraphs 5-7 by Daniel Brandt to learn of Bank of America's and other major American banks role in events surrounding the coup.

Ford Motor Co. helped Argentina's military dictatorship torture and murder opponents of the regime

Ford supplied the cars used in the death squads which rounded up thousands of people for torture and execution. An article in the New York Times explains how Ford and its senior executives "managed, participated in or covered up the illegal detention."

Ford apparently was involved in the kidnapping of their own workers many of whom were union leaders who the Argentinian government wanted and who Ford wanted out of their way because unionized workers was seen as bad for Ford's profits.

A little Hussein budding in Herat, Afghanistan

Torture, repression, intimidation, and beatings in a closed society where dissent is not tolerated and the leader enriches himself and his cronies to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. Oh, and by the way, the US brought him to power. No, I am not talking about Saddam Hussein, this man's name is Ismail Khan, warlord of Herat, Afghanistan.

Human rights watch reports Khan has a "disastrous" human rights record and that he is continuing the work of the Taliban in destroying much of Herat's "open culture" known for "literature and learning."

Despite this dismal human rights record, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld called Khan "an appealing person." (images of Rumsfelds handshake with Saddam Hussein in the early 1980's come to mind)What he meant by that though I cannot imagine.

Much of Afghanistan is in the hands of warlords supported, and armed by the US and who are every bit as bad as the Taliban. Khan is exceptional though in his wealth and strangehold on power. He brings in over a hundred million of dollars a year from proceeds derived from controlling trade with Iran, which Herat borders.

Human Rights Watch says the US put this tyrant "where he is today" and we have the "responsibility to make him clean up his act." I agree before 20 yrs from now a 90 something year old Rumsfeld, back in the White House somehow, wants to blow the crap out of Afghanistan because our current friend the "warlord" no longer wants to play nice with us. We definately need to stop watering this one and the like in Afghanistan now before its too late.

Alan Greenspan... part of the problem

Why does anyone still have faith in (Federal Reserve Chairman) Alan Greenspan? The guy kept raising interest rates while the bottom was falling out of the economy. Later he played catch-up lowering rates trying to fix a problem that he contributed to and was well on its way already. He also supports making Bush's tax cuts permanent. This guy really has zero credibility at this point.

Lets "recall" Bush

If the people of California can remove a governor who had little to nothing to do with that states economic problems then the rest of us should be able to remove Bush for being directly responsible for:

• an ever growing federal deficit currently at over half a trillion dollars
  
  
• hundreds killed, thousands wounded in a senseless war in Iraq
  
  
• millions of jobs lost
  
  
• terrorist threat growing
  
  
• ruined the image of the United States around the world
  
  
• gutting environmental protections
  
  

Too bad we can't recall Bush; we can, its called impeachment.

The United States Government, Corporations and Foreign Dictators: an alliance of terror
A series of articles on the overthrow of democratically elected governments
US government involvement in Chile's murderous military coup

I believe it was the year 2000, although I can't recall exactly, when I first learned about the coup in Chile that ocurred on September 11, 1973. The coup violently removed Salvador Allende, Chile's democratically elected socialist president, from power and installed a military dictator named Augusto Pinochet. The coup caused the death of at least three thousand people almost immediately, although many Chileans say it is many more, and would lead to the torture and murder of tens of thousands more over the next seventeen years at the hands of Pinochet and his tyrannical regime. All the while Pinochet acted with the full knowledge and support (military and financial) of the United States. It would not be an overstatement of fact to say that without the help of the United States the coup most likely would have never taken place and the killing and torture of countless human beings would have never ocurred. I remember vividly the revulsion and intense anger I felt at the fact that the overthrow of Allende was planned and orchestrated by the US government.

The reasons for the US support of the coup, and its brutal, tyrannical leader Augusto Pinochet, are many. Henry Kissinger, former national security advisor an international war criminal guilty of crimes involving murder and torture in Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Indonesia to name a few, said, "I don't see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist because of the irresponsibility of its own people."

The people of Chile had elected Allende in a fair and just election which we just happened to not like (parallels can currently be made to president Hugo Chavez of Venezuela who the US tried to overthrow in a failed coup last year). In this context, it is easy to question what the real motives of US foreign policy are when the US government maintains that all we want is democracy for people in Iraq and Afghanistan so they have the freedom to choose their own leaders and live in peace.

The deadly logic employed by the US government was that socialism equals communism (or stalinism as it would be more aptly named since its manifestation on the political landscape resembled nothing like what Karl Marx had envisioned). The US government sought to overturn fair and democratic elections in many places around the world (I will go into detail on these countries in future posts) in order, so they said, to prevent a sort of communist contagion.

I argue that what they were really afraid of was socialism itself, the kind Allende's government in Chile was attempting to implement. Except for a few underinformed and misguided reactionaries of the time,
Soviet style communism taking hold around the world, the so called "domino effect" theory was not considered a reality. To be sure, it may have dictated foreign policy decisions to some effect, but it was mainly US corporations desire to exploit land and resources that fueled the imperialistic drive for economic and military control of nations around the world, and especially in this hemisphere.

Allende's government had nationalized the steel, coal and the highly important copper industry. The three U.S. copper giants of the time: Kennecott, Anaconda and the Cerro Corp. were nationalized. These companies had controlled 80 percent of the total Chilean copper production and had been taking profits out of the country in the sum of $80 million a year (Workers World, Population was mobilizing, para. 4) . Copper mining was big business for these and other US comapanies. In fact, in an article by Daniel Brandt entitled, "U.S. Responsibility for the Coup in Chile," Brandt points out that "over a 42 year period the [US] copper companies earned $420 billion on original investments totalling $35 million."

Copper companies weren't the only ones who robbed the Chilean people of their resources and supported their maiming and killing at the hands of the butcher Pinochet. International Telephone and Telegraph (ITT) had the largest holding of any single corporation (Brandt, Part 1, para 1). ITT (which had a former director of the CIA on its board) , with the help of the CIA, gave $700,000 help elect Allende's opponent. The president of ITT actually gave the CIA $1 million dollars to help defeat Allende (Brandt, Part 1, para 2).

Many of the biggest US banks, including commercial banks like Chase Manhattan, Chemical, First National City, Manufacturers Hanover, and Morgan Guaranty, all cancelled credits to Chile after Allende's election in 1970 (Brandt, Part 1, para 4). After the coup though, these same banks and others (like Bank of America), opened the flow of money back into Chile, and right into the hands of Pinochet (Brandt, Part 1, para 5).

Other US corporations fell over themselves to invest in Chile now that they felt their interests would be protected. It was of no concern to them that the regime they were dealing with was responsible for the horrific torture and killing of everyone from peasants and union leaders to students and intellectuals.

As was shown, the corporations weren't acting alone. They worked with the US intelligence (CIA) community in destroying the economy and fomenting the coup, but they also had access to the highest levels of the Nixon administration, namely Henry Kissinger. Massive pressure from ITT on Kissinger helped shift policy decisions on Chile from the State Department to the US Treasury Department where many former bank executives (including future Federal Reserve Chairman Paul A. Volcker) from the aforementioned firms (Chase, Bank of America etc.) were now working (Brandt, Part 1, para 6-7).

The Diplomatic community was also involved in the runup to the coup with the US Ambassador in Chile and the Secretary of Inter-American Affairs (William Rogers at the time) both having connections to ITT. In closed meetings which included representatives from ITT, Ford, Anaconda, Ralston Purina, First National City bank, and Bank of America (Brandt, Part 1, para 7) policy on Chile was decided (similar to closed meetings our current Vice-President Richard Cheney had with energy companies which directly helped shape US energy policy).

International Institutions like the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Agency for International Development (AID), and the Export-Import Bank all cancelled credits to Chile after Allende's election (no doubt due to pressure from the US government and its banking cronies). All credits were restored to Pinochet in 1975 (Brandt, Part 1, para 8).

By 1972, it became very difficult for Chile to purchase food, medicine, equipment and parts. This led to a trucker strike which caused more chaos (Brandt, Part 1, para 9). This was just what the US wanted. Nixon himself "wanted a plan for action that would include a military coup and a broad-based destabilization effort that would 'make the economy scream'" (Brandt, Part 2, para 7).

There was no boycott in US military aid (money and weapons), or training (Pinochet and others all spent time in US probably at the School of the Americas in Georgia) by the US (Brandt, Part 1, para 10). The economic boycott only affected items needed by the Chilean people (much like the sanctions in Iraq that killed up to a million people).

Note: I will be adding this post periodically

Further reading:

Allende's Leftist Regime

Kissinger Encouraged Chile's Brutal Repression, New Documents Show

Lessons of the Chile coup

U.S. Responsibility for the Coup in Chile

An answer to Pinochet's defenders

Bush guts environmental rules in place since Nixon

Corporations are sitting pretty nowadays, getting everthing they could ever want and more from the Bush administration. To be sure, its not just my view, but also that of Bill Kovacs, the vice president for environmental issues of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (an organization lobbying for pro-business policies), who states, "We certainly had a number of victories this week; I don't think anyone can deny that." By the way, the week he was referring to was the last week in August before Labor Day. "The virtual dead of political and press night... you can't find a week when people are less likely to pay attention than the end of August," says Phil Clapp, the president of the National Environmental Trust. Its during these times, when most are unaware, that Bush announces most of his environmental policies (of destruction).

What are these rule changes you ask? Here are some:

• Drastically weakening of rules designed to limit pollution from coal-fired power plants
  
  
• Carbon dioxide, proven chief cause of global warming, no longer a pollutant that can be regulated by the EPA
  
  
• EPA now no longer to prohibit ballast (water in ships containing invasive species) from introduction into American waters where they cause major damage to native species
  
  
• Eradication of 25-yr-old rule preventing sale of PCB tainted land
  
  
• An order making it easier to drill for oil and gas on pristine federal lands
  
  
• Rule change resulting in dramatic slowdown in ability to implement regulations protecting the environment
  
  

The changes by the junior Bush administration even has those from the senior Bush White House up in arms. Dan Esty, EPA's deputy chief of staff in the first Bush administration, now heading Yale University's Center for Environmental Law and Policy, called the rule revisions "... not very environmentally sound."

"Breathtaking," is how Chuck Davis, a Colorado State University political scientist who specializes in environmental policy, described the changes in environmental protection taking place.

The way this works is that the preferred route to enacting changes in these laws is through Congress. There is no way though that even the Bush bullies could get rules weakening environmental protection through Congress, so they do it through administrative rule changes. "They leave the laws in place, but undermine the regulations below them, undermine the rules and undermine the agencies," says political science professor Stephen Meyer, the director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Project on Environmental Politics. He goes on to say, "The details get lost because the average person doesn't have the details or the time to follow it." The ignorance of the masses helps rogue leaders like Bush Inc. We need people paying less attention to sports scores and celebrity and TV nonsense and more time getting educated about their government. A truly worse case scenario for the Bush administration and others bent on destroying our lives and environment is an aware citizenry armed with the knowledge to beat back the bullies who will otherwise stop at nothing.

Read full article here.

Blix says the US overinterpreted its own intelligence

Well, its much worse than that Hans; they lied and made a fool out of you in the process! Former Chief UN Weapons inspector Hans Blix said the US and Britain, "... hoped and would have been happy... if a smoking gun [was] found... when we didn't do that... they were disappointed. And then they overinterpreted their own intelligence." He went on to say the White House was "anxious" and "too willing" to jump to conclusions on showing existence of Iraqi weapons in order to justify an invasion. Blix, " I said in the Security Council that if something is unaccounted for, it doesn't necessarily mean that [it] exist[s]." No kidding Blix, you should have opened up your mouth about this in the run up to the war instead of cowering from those wretches in the White House and on Downing street.

Article:

Blix Says Iraq's Weapons Declaration May Have Been True

Update (to Aug 22 post): Killing of 33,000 salmon by Bush and his political advisor, Karl Rove, to be investigated by Interior Department

Rove, according to an AP article, seeking to bolster Republican support among farmers, briefed dozens of political appointees at the Interior Department over a year and a half ago on diverting water from the Klamath River in Oregon to satisfy the greedy, selfish farmers who wanted it for their crops. The salmon were killed last year in the Northern California portion of the Klamath River. This tragic destruction of precious salmon was due to fatal gill rot disease caused by low river flows resulting from the diversion of the water for the farmers' crop irrigation.

Democratic senator and presidential candidate John Kerry, concerned the White House used the Interior Department as "a division of the Republican National Committee" and may have intimidated the staff appointees, reportedly asked the Inspector General (IG) at the Interior Department to investigate Bush's Klamath water policy after the revelation of Rove's meeting with the political appointees. The IG will be examining whether political interference or suppression of data by Bush and Rove was responsible for the disaster. If found, any such evidence will be immediately sent to the Department of Justice and the Office of Public Integrity since the Interior Department IG has no authority over the White House.

To the 69% of Americans who think Saddam was involved in 9-11, You are making the rest of us look bad

It becomes painfully clearer every day to see why the rest of the world thinks we Americans are stupid. Two years after 9-11, people still think Saddam Hussein was involved in the terrorist attacks. To be sure, its true that the president and other liers at the White House and Defense Department insinuated from the start that Hussein was involved, but people you must certainly be aware by now that they only did that to try and justify the already predetermined (before 9-11 attacks) decision to invade Iraq. Lets be serious, Dubya is strikingly similar to the dumbest kid in the class we all remember from school. No one took anything that kid or his loser friends said seriously, Bush and the other lying bullies he surrounds himself with should have their opinions similarly dismissed as nonsense.

Its not just the present warmongers occupying our government that have repeatedly and successfully demonized Hussein, turning him in the minds of millions of Americans into an immediate and deadly threat. Its been going on since the Gulf War. Politicians and the media have turned Saddam into the worst monster since Hitler! Of course Saddam is a terrible guy, but he was not involved in any way with the 9-11 attacks, period. Repeated attempts by the White House to link him to the attacks and al-Qaeda have all failed.

I'd like to point out that the murderous dictator Hussein was supported by the United States right up until the invasion of Kuwait. A little known fact, the US signaled Iraq that it would not interfere with Iraq's longstanding issues over Kuwait. What occurred is that in late July 1991, before the invasion of Kuwait, US State Department Spokesperson Margaret Tutweiler stated that "We do not have any defense treaties with Kuwait, and there are no special defense or security commitments to Kuwait." Further indicating our intent to stay out of what was seen as an internal dispute, US ambassador April Gillespie met with Saddam the next day to explain Tutweiler's statements. She told Saddam, "We have no opinion on the Arab-Arab conflicts, like your border disagreement with Kuwait," continuing she said, "(Secretary of State) James Baker has directed our official spokesmen to emphasize this instruction." This has been widely interpreted as giving Saddam a green light to invade Kuwait.

Few Americans know that the Iraqis had always believed Kuwait was part of their country. Although Kuwait as a state (created in 1899) predated Iraq (created in 1920), Iraqi leaders from the Ottoman empire (when Kuwait was part of the province of Basra then controlled by the Ottomans) to General Abdelkarim Qasim (1961) and Saddam Hussein (1990) have laid claimed to Kuwait. In fact, the British, who controlled Kuwait, put 6,000 troops there to prevent an expected Iraqi attack after Kuwaiti independence in 1961. The attack never occurred and Iraq respected Kuwait's boundaries until the 1990 invasion. Despite this long historical border dispute, it seems that US officials, knowing how their words would be interpreted by Hussein, were willing to allow Saddam to move into Kuwait. To be sure, the US may have expected Saddam to seize only some oil wells that were in dispute on the border (the Kuwaitis were using slant drilling equipment to pump billions of dollars of oil from under Iraqi land); however, they were most likely at least aware of the risk of a full scale invasion. Why did we do this? Why had we been appeasing this murdering thug all along? We knew he was using chemical weapons against his own people and against the Iranian soldiers. We gave him the satellite intelligence to make it easier to gas human beings to death. American firms and subsidiaries were involved in selling the chemicals needed to make the weapons of mass destruction we so often speak about. The irony is he hasn't had any in years, but when he did have them we did nothing to stop him from using them. It can even be said that we encouraged his war with Iran. The Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran was public enemy number one in those days for the US. Our efforts in supplying Iraq with weapons and intelligence for their aggression against Iran were in part due to protecting Kuwait from the ayatollah's of Iran. It was the US that through its actions helped bring to power brutal dictators and murderous regimes like the Shahs and the ayatollahs who ruthlessly ruled Iran. Kuwait had even agreed to pay part of the cost of its defence to Iraq. When the war was over the Kuwaitis reneged on payment to an Iraq now near bankruptcy. Adding insult to injury, they instead opted to steal Iraqi oil!

We feign concern for the Iraqi people now. I was just listening to Bush's speech talking about freedom for the Iraqi people from Saddam's torture and repression, but he neglected to mention our role in those crimes right up until and after Kuwait. Cheney's Haliburton had, through its subsidiaries, been rebuilding Iraq's oil wells (the same ones destroyed while Cheney was Secretary of Defense in Gulf War 1); meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis were dying because of US imposed sanctions that did nothing to weaken Saddam's control on the country; on the contrary, these sanctions allowed him to consolidate his power.

Bush, Cheney and the neo-cons accomplished the ultimate power grab in Iraq. They had their fake causus belli linking Hussein to the 9-11 attacks (no link existed) and claiming he had weapons of mass destruction (never found despite US claims they existed); after all, everybody hates Hussein and Americans were revolted by the terrorist attacks. All Bush and his oil cronies had to do was connect the dots somehow and Iraq was theirs. The truth wasn't important. Nor does it seem were the lives of US soldiers and countless Iraqis. They couldn't find Osama, so they fell back on Saddam and blamed him for whatever they could. This way the Bush administration finally had something they could try and sell to the American people to try and justify their pre-9-11 planned conquest of Iraq. Nothing would stand in the way of this administration's thirst for the profits and power that would ultimately flow from the imperialistic conquest and control of the second largest oil reserve in the world. The US and Britain have been doing this kind of stuff in the Middle East for years (see my post of August 26th). Toppling democratically elected governments, then installing dictators then ousting the dictator. Its all part of the game that the world powers play at the expense of the people caught in the crossfire. When the US looks at the Middle East it doesn't see human beings, but rather oil with people on top of it. They don't care how they get it; just that they do. As former assistant US Defense Secretary Lawrence Korb said referring to the invasion of Kuwait and the first Gulf War, "If Kuwait grew carrots we wouldn't give a damn... Oil is worth going to war for." So to the 69% that think Saddam Hussein was involved in the 9-11 attacks, lets get it right once and for all; Saddam Hussein didn't grow carrots and we were well aware of that all along.


More Info:

Bush justifies Iraq occupation with lies on “terror”

Worthy reads:

Blix Felt U.S. Intimidating Him Before Iraq War

Bush to Seek $60 Billion or More for Iraq

Employers Slashed Jobs in August

EPA Exempts Plants From Clean-Air Rule

Funding Woes Plague Superfund Clean Up

Halliburton's Deals Greater Than Thought

IMF Warns U.S. Over Budget Deficit

Number of Wounded in Action on Rise

Poll: European Support for U.S. Fading

Poll: Iraq war makes U.S. less safe

California’s Governor Davis denounces “right-wing power grab”

A Look at U.S. Daily Casualties in Iraq

Sickening fact:

30,000 Americans a year killed by pollution from old industrial plants

More Info:

People Pressure for Clean Air, click for audio

I like Clinton much better when he is lying about getting blow jobs

When Bill Clinton, the man who was impeached because he lied about something as unimpeachable as getting head, was asked about Bush's lies on Iraq all he had to say was that intelligence can often be difficult to interpret. He is going easy on the Bush administration because he wants Bush to win in 2004. Why? you may ask. Because he wants Hillary to win in 2008. I am convinced that is why both he and Hillary have their heads so far up Bush's ass they can choke on his pretzels. Both Clinton's are convinced that Hillary will be the first woman president when she runs in 2008. They are banking on the country (whatever would be left of it after another 4 years of Bush) wanting a change by then. Certainly, even the moderate to right of center Clinton's could attack the Bush administration right now on just about anything and everything: the economy (millions of jobs lost, half a trillion in debt this year), civil rights (right wing judges, one word: Ashcroft), the environment (the Bush administration actually thought Christie Whitman was an environmental radical!), 9-11 (stonewalling investigating committee, forced EPA to lie about dust hazards, no Osama yet), Iraq (uranium from Niger: lie, chemical and biological weapons: lie, Saddam involved in 9-11: lie), and the list goes on and on. Hillary (actively trying to shed her 'liberal' image) is basically a Republican now, much like Joe Lieberman, and a candidate of that ilk is the last thing we need at this point.

The US did the terrorists a "favor" in Iraq

I was just listening to NPR. They report that Isalmic militants are "flocking" to Iraq because it still has no legitimate government and the terrorists are ecstatic with the idea of ridding the country of its non-Muslim occupiers. A militant interviewed said the US did his cause a favor by removing Saddam Hussein because Islamic fighters can now slip in and out of Iraq with impunity to hide or plan future attacks, much like the safe haven Afghanistan provided under the Taliban. Before the US attacked Iraq, the terrorists had to trek all the way to Afghanistan or northwest Pakistan to plot and train for attacks. Now they just cross the thousand mile, mostly unprotected, border from Saudi Arabia (where fifteen of the nineteen 9-11 hijackers came from) into Iraq (Iraq, virtually no terrorists before US invasion, now probably thousands) where our troops are like sitting ducks. Afghanistan is in chaos, due to rival faction infighting and the return of the Taliban to parts of that country, and Iraq is fast becoming more chaotic and dangerous every day, in other words an Afghanistan in the making, but worse. All this for a mere five billion a month! With this kind of success who needs failure.

The United States Government, Corporations and Foreign Dictators: an alliance of terror
A series of articles on the overthrow of democratically elected governments
First in the series: The CIA backed coup in Iran

In 1953 the CIA and their British counterparts planned and accomplished a coup in then non-fundamentalist governed Iran, overthrowing the government of democratically elected Mohammad Mossadegh. This action was directly responsible for bringing the Shah to power and a reign of murder and terror to the Iranian people ultimately leading to the Iranian Islamic revolution and the totalitarian state of affairs that exists in Iran today.

I am going to summarize some points from the discussion on the radio program Democracy Now! However, I do encourage all to also go to their website and read the full transcript of yesterday's program on the issue. Host Amy Goodman spoke with Stephen Kinzer author of All the Shah's Men: An American Coup And The Roots of Middle East Terror .

Some historical background is necessary. The early twentieth century saw the discovery, in Iran, of the largest oil well ever found. It was discovered by the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company which had set up shop in Iran. Hundreds of millions of dollars of oil was pumped from Iranian soil with the British holding the monopoly and thus most of the profits. Holding a monopoly on the oil allowed Britain to only have to give 16 percent of the profits to Iran. Keeping this flow unimpeded was of principal importance to the British government and its corporations. Meanwhile nationalism of the post-World War II era had spread to Iran where people began to rightfully expect to keep the profits from their countries' resources. A charismatic politician named Mohammad Mossadegh sought to give the people of Iran control of their resources by nationalizing companies like Anglo-Iranian (the British empire's largest company) Oil who were robbing the country. The astonished British government vowed not to let the people have their oil. The British plan to go to the United Nations to get back the company failed when Mossadegh himself went to the UN to argue his case. The UN body was so impressed by presence and argument that they refused to have him give up the company to the Brits. The coup idea, always on the table, was now front and center. Mossadegh found out and closed the British embassy sending all the secret agents planning the coup from the embassy back to England.

Enter the United States on the scene. The British turned to President Truman for help. He said no way. Claiming that the CIA had never overthrown a government, and never should as far as he was concerned. The British were tapped out. There was nothing they could do. That was the situation until 1952 when President Dwight Eisenhower came into power. Reversing the Truman policy of not (apparently not, anyway) overthrowing governments, the Eisenhower administration dispatched Kermit Roosevelt, Teddy Roosevelt's grandson, to Iran to carry out the coup.

Stephen Kinzer, author of All the Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror, in describing how Kermit Roosevelt, Near East director for the CIA, slipped into Iran at the end of July 1953 and started a series of events leading to the coup 3 weeks later he became aware of "how easy it is for a rich, powerful country to throw a poor, weak country into chaos" (also see US action in Iraq, Chile etc. further supporting this assertion). With the goal of tossing the whole of Iran into chaos , Roosevelt bribed politicians, newspaper editors, reporters, and religious leaders to begin an attack campaign of lies against Mossadegh to cause his downfall. He bribed street thugs and military officers to come in to beat, torture and murder all those opposing the coup. Some pretending to be communist pro-Mossadegh rioters and others, whose job it was to attack the first mob, as pro-Shah. All this by the way was accomplished with US taxpayer dollars but without these same taxpayers knowledge and consent. .

In comes Norman Schwarzkopf, not Gulf War Schwarzkopf, but his Dad. The elder Norman Schwarzkopf (I wish these guys would stop having kids) spent many years in Iran and was a great influence on the Shah. Kinzer goes on to explain that Schwarzkopf's purpose, in the first coup attempt, was to force the timid Shah (the US creates these guys and inevitably suffers the blowback) into to signing some document, rigged by the US of course, ordering the removal of Mossadegh from power. The coup initially failed , but Roosevelt against the advice of the CIA, stayed and tried again

Apparently, this document was never signed. However, Iran was thrown into chaos and the coup was successful anyway. On August 19, 1953, after a hundred people were killed at Mossadegh's house, he was arrested. The Shah who had fled after the failed first coup attempt came back and thus began 25 years of a brutal and repressive government.

Discussing the real reasons for the US entry into this disgraceful episode, Ervand Abrahamian, Middle East and Iran expert at Baruch College, explains that the US government and its business community were as concerned about oil, and who controls it, as the Brits were. The US did not want the people who own the oil (i.e. Iran and Venezuela) to control it. Abrahamian claims that Iran, by nationalizing the British oil industry, "would have set an example...seen as a threat to U.S. oil interests throughout the world, because other countries would do the same." To borrow the term, you might say a sort of fear of the ludicrous and debunked "domino theory of states falling to communism", but in this instance applying to states nationalizing oil production, was the fear of US imperialist interests. If that happened the US government and its corporations could no longer, steal it, lets call it what it is folks, from these nations. Thus, nationalization was completely abhorent to US interests and they were intent on doing anything to prevent it.

Truman, Ike and the British all wanted to keep the oil in their hands and most importantly in their control. As Abrahamian says, the difference was only in tactics. Truman thinking he could get Mossadegh to give up on nationalization through having Parliament or the Shah get rid of the enormously popular leader (as tried). Point being that Truman had no moral repugnancy to the idea of overturning a democratic election and robbing a nation of its resources. The coup was being worked on by the British and the US before Ike, but only put into action after the realization that Mossadegh had too much popularity to be removed by politics alone. They decided on violence and murder, ultimately, and as so aften happens when forcing brutal anti-democratic regime change bent on imperialism, bringing to power a regime of the same.

As Kinzer so succinctly puts it, the US "sent a message, not only to Iran, but throughout the entire Middle East... that the United States does not support democratic governments (but)... prefers strong-man rule that will guarantee us access to oil." Thus, today we hypocritically call for democracy in the Middle East when all we ever really wanted was dictators that allowed us to exploit their resources. Human rights, freedom and democracy was not a factor then and is not one now. Don't let good ole' Bush and his lying warmongers try to tell you Iraq was about saving the Iraqi people or anyone else for that matter from a brutal dictatorship bent on murder and torture. Everyone should know those same dictators we now demonize were made by the USA with our tax dollars. We claimed ignorance to their crimes while the getting was good for us. Once the gravy train stopped; they had to go to save the people. The same people we never gave a crap about before and don't now either.

More info:

1953: U.S. overthrows Prime Minister Mossadeq of Iran and installs Shah as dictator

Three US corporations agree to stay out of Alaskan forest

KB Home, Hayward Lumber and Staples, Inc. oppose a proposal by the Bush administration, supported by most Republicans in Congress, to lift a ban Clinton put in effect preventing road building and development in Alaska's Tongass and Chugach National Forests. These are old growth forests with diverse wildlife and beauty. The fact that that moron in the White House and his co-conspirators in Congress would ever think of touching these forests when so many forests have already been destroyed is an impeachable offense in and of itself! Logging has already destroyed ALL of the old growth forests on the east coast and 97% of those on the west coast. What has happened to our forests and wildlands is a national disgrace. I propose that any fool in elected office that proposes causing any more damage to whats left of the beauty that preceded our arrival in this country should be thrown out of office immediately.


Three Companies Oppose Forest Proposal

Hey Mr. President, say hello to your new neighbors!

Guess who has moved into the president's little hideaway in Crawford, Texas. Peace Activists! Dallas peace activist, John Wolf, paid $54,000, raised by selling $1 dollar peace buttons at rallies, for a house near Bush's ranch. In fact, it is not far from a gas station where the president picked up coffee last week. People who help care for the house say its a place peace activists can go and feel comfortable when visiting Crawford. Sounds good to me. Now all we got to do is get Bush out of the White House and back to Crawford to stay.

Protest in Seattle day after Bush's visit

On Saturday, hundreds of protesters, myself included, marched along the Seattle waterfront to show our dissatisfaction, thats putting it mildly, with the right-wing, anti-democratic policies of the Bush administration. This, following an anti-Bush rally at Seattle's historic Pike Place Market on Friday, the day of his visit. I was also at that rally. It too had a sizable turnout and a great vibe. Other Friday protests occurred across the lake on Seattle's eastside and in Tacoma. All rallies were peaceful, as most anti-war and anti-Bush rallies are. The mainstream media often likes to inflate minor skirmishes with police that sometimes do occur into the principle story of the protest, missing the actual tone and message of the event entirely.


Info on Saturday protest:

Hundreds protest Bush a day after visit

GDP drenched in blood

The murderous and unprovoked attack on the people of Iraq seems to be responsible for an uptick in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The US buildup of its own "weapons of mass destruction" accounted for 1.7% of the 2.4% GDP annual rate for the second quarter, topping estimates of 1.5% growth. This highly disturbing fact buttresses the idea that the US government and American corporations support war and aggression because its good for business. The military industrial complex (corporations, US armed forces, and the federal government joined in a conspiracy for money and power) salivates over the thought of the billions in taxpayer dollars that go into the buildup of a mammouth and deadly US weapons arsenal. In fact, defense spending has risen 44.1%, the highest rate since the third quarter of 1951!

For more on the Military Industrial Complex:

CorpWatch: Military Industrial Complex

The real story behind the problems in Liberia

Great article on the roots of the violence and chaos in Liberia. Guess who is behind it all, thats right, US corporations! Imperialist corporations in the United States are largely responsible for the present disaster and destruction in Liberia.

Worthy Reads:


Civil Rights

Free Speech

Free speech activist defeats computer industry


Drug policy

Vancouver to take new approach with legal injection site for addicts


Environment

Save the Redwoods Boycott the Gap!

Environmentalists Warn of Roads, Dams in Amazon



Human Rights

Argentina Repeals Amnesty Laws Protecting Ex-Military From Prosecution


Iraq and Afghanistan

U.S. Troops Provoke Anger, Fear in Afghan Villages

Coalition forces in Iraq begin to be deserted by their allies

Iraqi exiles ready to walk out on US

Afghan resistance takes shape

War casualties overflow Walter Reed hospital

US general condemns Iraq failures

A Price Too High

Civilian deaths stoke Iraqis' resentment

US Debates Bid to Kill Hussein and Avoid Trial

Soaring costs of 'rescuing' Iraq

Iraqi civilians gunned down in US military raids


US Politics

Texas Republicans impose heavy fines on boycotting Democratic legislators

Bush Approval Slips - Fix Economy, Say Voters

The Case for Impeachment


Workers Rights

Child labor laws fail boys killed on job

White House got EPA to lie about safety of air after WTC collapse

AP article says the EPA, at orders from the White House, and without doing adequate testing, put out statements after the WTC collapse that sought to assure the public that the air was safe to breathe. Thus, people may have been needlessly exposed to contaminants such as PCBs, soot and dioxin. In fact, the air had not returned to pre-Sept. 11th levels until June 2002 which was well after hundreds of workers who came in contact with the dust began to suffer respiratory ailments and other problems. The EPAs internal inquiry also brought to light a previously unknown "collaboration process" between the National Security Council or NSC (Bush's forum for discussing national security and foreign policy matters with his aids and cabinet), the White House Council on Environmental Quality (never heard of it) and the EPA. The NSC had to clear any information the EPA sought to report. This resulted in public safety policy decisions being based on politics instead of science. Further damning, is the revelation that the Bush administration actually forced the EPA to leave out directions for workers on how to deal with airborne dust and indoor spaces polluted with asbestos, lead, glass fibers and concrete. It is clear that the Bush administration and its allies' hunger for power and self-preservation trumps the safety and well being of the citizens of the United States or anywhere else.


NY Times Editorial on issue:

Dust and Deception

Just back from anti-Bush rally

Bush came into Washington state today to grab a quick 1-2 million dollars from douche bags who paid $2,000 each to hear him speak (funny, I'd pay to stop him from speaking) at the disgustingly large and obnoxius estate of cell phone billionaire Craig McCaw. According to an article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, US taxpayers are getting part of the bill for what is essentially a fund raising trip to the west coast for his 2004 campaign. You see, as long as he mixes his cash grab with "public events" like talking about salmon restoration (ironic since his water policy in Oregon recently killed thousands of salmon in the Klamath River, but more on that later) taxpayers get to foot the exorbitant costs associated with shuttling this fool and his entourage around the country. Thus, we, the taxpayers, get to pay for half the hotel, car and other expenses the millionaire in the White House runs up. We get to pay the full amount, get ready for this, of the $57,000-an-hour it costs to operate Air Force One!

Bush politics kill salmon

Now back to my earlier point, this chief hypocrite actually had the balls to come to Washington state and claim that he supports salmon runs. This is the same president who, according to an article on the website Common Dreams, had Karl Rove, his political strategist, intervene on the side of greedy, water sucking Oregon farmers over endangered salmon in a dispute involving water flows in the Klamath River. Conservationists and Native-American tribes want the water for threatened fish species which include downriver salmon. The farmers want it for irrigation. With the help of Karl Rove, the farmers have been getting their way. In March 2002, the federal government ordered water set aside for the dwindling salmon population to be released to the farmers. This disastrous policy decision made by a political operative solely for political purposes (to bolster support among northwest farmers), resulted in in the killing of 33,000 precious salmon in one of the largest fish kills in US history. Bush and Rove are directly responsible for this tragic event. In fact, a federal judge has ruled the Bush water plan was based on "flawed science." The truth is that Bush's policies are based on lies. Lies on the environment, the economy, the war with Iraq, the war on terror and just about everything else. The lies are meant to conceal a right-wing fascistic agenda narrowly crafted to benefit only religious zealots, corporations, and warmongers. Unfortunately few in the mainstream media, the spineless Congress or the unquestioning public like to point this out.

Seattle anti-Bush rally information:

StopBushSeattle.com

Sound Nonviolent Opponents of War

Majority Visibility Project

Bush To Visit Northwest Next Month

"Sweet Home Alabama," the US military is burning their chemical weapons down by you!

Free Speech Radio News (FSRN) reports that the US government is planning on going ahead with its plans to incinerate chemical weapons; yes I said incinerate chemical weapons in Anniston, Alabama. We have all heard of chemical weapons. Those are the weapons we were told Saddam Hussein had. Well, he doesn't have any, but we have lots. So we are incinerating some. Don't worry though because we'll make more, deadlier ones! The people are protesting, but, (borrowing another line from Skynyrd) in Anniston anyway, they don't all "love the governor." Thats because the Republican governor of Alabama stopped protesting the incineration. I wonder who got to him? Certainly no one in the Bush administration or their henchmen! One thing though governor, does your conscience bother you? Tell the truth.

Welfare rolls go down, but number in poverty goes up

Free Speech Radio News (FSRN) reports that so called "welfare reform" passed by Congress and signed by Bill Clinton in 1996 is currently responsible for thrusting more people into poverty. The meager safety net welfare used to provide is no longer available to the millions who cannot find work.

The US miltary: free to loot and pollute

Free Speech Radio News (FSRN) reports that the desire to consolidate the 96 bases the US has in South Korea will force the eviction of 350 farms that will have to be removed to accomodate the movement of soldiers into fewer but larger bases. Evictions by the US army of people off their own land is nothing new for the Korean people. It has been going on since the Korean War. In fact, the US already has 2 of its largest bases in the world in South Korea. Equally as shocking is the fact that under the US Status of Forces Agreement the US military is exempt from most environmental laws ! Thus, the United States miliitary releases untreated oil runoff from its bases into irrigation canals used by South Korean farmers. FSRN spoke to the farmers who say the river "turns black" and "turns really really black" when it does not rain for awhile. They also say the "fish are black... and smell like oil," but before they were "delicious." Adding insult to injury is the fact that the South Korean farmers themselves have to clean the oil out of the rivers causing them to seemingly get some kind of rash on their legs because farmers say their legs "turn red." Thus, the United States, the big bully of the world, forces others to clean up the mess it itself makes.

Cameras are not rocket propelled grenades

American soldiers shot and killed an award winning camerman filming a US run Iraqi prison. Reuters reports that Mazen Dana, a Palestinian, who worked for Reuters was filming the prison with the express knowledge and permission of US armed forces in the area. Further perplexing is that the incident ocurred in the afternoon daylight. They were about to leave after filming the prison when a tank leading a convoy pulled up. Dana got out of his car to film and was "noted and seen clearly" by the US troops according to Dana's soundman who was traveling with him. It was then that he was shot. He died at the scene. According to a statement by the US military, the US soldiers thought his camera was a rocket propelled grenade.

War on Afghanistan and Iraq puts US at higher risk of terrorist attack

More evidence that George W. Bush's "war on terror" is helping no one but, the US military industrial complex, corporate criminals intent on exploiting foreign resources (i.e. Haliburton), and the terrorists, comes from a world market research study out of London. The report says another 9-11 style terrorist attack here is "highly likely." This due to the fact that, "U.S.-led military action in Afghanistan and Iraq has exacerbated anti-U.S. sentiment." In fact, the study puts the US at fourth. Making it barely safer than Columbia, Israel, and Pakistan, but more at risk than, get ready for this, Afghanistan, Indonesia, Iraq and India!

Hempfest Seattle

Just returned from hempfest here in Seattle. Actions that will send you to prison in the United States include: growing or selling marijuana, robbing to feed or care for your family, and exercising your constitutional right to freedom of speech in peaceful nonviolent protest. Actions that will not send you to prison in the United States include: murdering thousands of human beings in preemptive imperialistic wars, robbing other people of their life savings making yourself rich in the process, producing and poisoning air, land, water and food with deadly chemicals, chopping down ancient pristine forests, and developing weapons of mass destruction by and for the US military. The reality that those who grow and enjoy a harmless plant are persecuted while destroyers of life, environment and well being are left unscathed, in fact rewarded, for their actions is disgusting and represents one of the greatest injustices we face as a society.

95% of Americas old growth forests have been destroyed

If that isn't heartbreaking enough, The real criminals in our society, like Boise Cascade, want to tear down what remains. Most of which are inside the national forests.

More information:

Rain Forest Action Network: Boise briefing paper

Another post in the "US to world on Iraq: This land is our land" series
Note to US military: Tearing down Islamic banners won't win you friends in Iraq

Even the Shiites want us out. According to an article by the AP, US soldiers have 24 hours to get out of a neighborhood east of Baghdad "otherwise we are not responsible for whatever reactions the U.S. soldiers might face if they entered the city", says the Shiite group Al-Sadr. This after US troops in a Black Hawk helicopter were trying to rip down an Islamic banner atop a communications tower. Someone in the crowd of protesters then fired a rocket propelled grenade. In response US soldiers fired back killing one and injuring four others.

Update: AP reports US apologizes to the people of the neighborhood for the incident. Military now says it is possible the banner may have been taken down intentionally by US soldiers. This is a retreat from their earlier posture of maintaining that the banner was blown down by "rotor wash" from the Black Hawk. Implying that the incident was an accident. Although the area seemed calmer after the apology, A new banner on a building near the incident read: "The Americans should not be allowed to enter the city again because of the blood shed in their aggression yesterday." Best way to prevent these types of events from occurring in the future is for the US to end the occupation of Iraq now. Its time to get out of Iraq, especially since we had no right to be there in the first place.

French government sits and watches as heat kills thousands

French suffer through worst heat wave since 1947. Read on for more.

Robin Hood in reverse

Millions in tax cuts going to the filthy, disgusting rich while the poor lose savings and homes due to job loss and past welfare "reform". Read on for more.

As Bush takes month long vacation, families say send Bush to Iraq and troops to his ranch

An article in the AP reports the disgust and anger that the military and their familes feel on news that the troops currently in Iraq are to spend at least another year on active duty where they have been suffering daily attacks. A poster who goes by the name "Bette" on the web site of Military Families Speak Out says, in discussing her son-in-law's companies' two-day vacation versus the presidents month long safe and relaxing vacation on his sprawling ranch, that we should "send all of the troops to President Bush's ranch and send the President to Iraq". Military families and the soldiers themselves have had enough. They want the soldiers home. The increasing outcry from the ranks and their families clearly shows the crisis this administration faces in the quagmire that is the Iraqi occupation. The soldiers and their families know the president, his administration, and their warmonger allies in Congress lied to them to justify a war that was unjustifiable.

Further reading:

Military Families Speak Out

Bring Them Home Now

Support Network for an Armed Forces Union

32 yrs later Agent Orange still poisoning the Vietnamese

Agent Orange, a "weapon of mass destruction" that the United States likes to try and forget it used on the Vietnamese people and American soldiers from 1962 to 1971, still brings pain and suffering decades later. Agent Orange is a defoliant that was used to destroy the forests of Vietnam with the goal of exposing and starving the Vietnamese soldiers. In a study published in the August issue of The Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, it was revealed that 95% of Vietnamese in an area 20 miles north of the former Saigon, now Ho Chi Minh city, were found to have elevated levels of the most toxic of the dioxins present in Agent Orange. Agent orange, unexploded cluster bombs, and depleted uranium weaponry all leave a lasting legacy of death and disease to the peoples of the world we claim to "liberate".

For more information on Agent Orange, cluster bombs and depleted uranium go to:

Agent Orange Website

Cluster Bombs (Viewer Discretion due to Graphic Images)

Campaign Against Depleted Uranium

Depleted Uranium Education Project

Have the salmon, but hold the PCBs

Salmon farmers are serving up the known cancer causing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) to consumers who consume the farmed fish. This according to a study commisioned by the Environmental Working Group. There is no risk
from wild and canned Alaskan salmon says the article.

Iraqi family massacred by "trigger happy" US soldiers

As that moron in Crawford hosts a BBQ for fund raisers, American troops are gunning down children in Iraq. In an atrocious action, worthy of universal disdain and condemnation, US troops opened fire on a family at a checkpoint. The Independent reports that a father and his 3 children, one as young as 8 years old, were murdered in a hail of gunfire. These people were guilty of absolutely nothing except trying to get to their home. This as the lying hypocrite Bush says in his Saturday radio address "Life is returning to normal for the Iraqi people ... All Americans can be proud of what our military and provisional authorities have achieved in Iraq".

Blood and gore ok, T and A not

Why is it that that the people who pull the strings in this society believe that the atrocious display of dead mutilated corpses to millions of people in the US and around the world is acceptable behavior. These same people would be absolutely livid if male and female genitalia were shown on the airwaves. The live breathing human body is apparently disgusting to these people, but dead battered bodies are presumably not. I have had it with the tolerance and outright encouragement of violent behavior and images in society while anything involving sexuality and nudity is offlimits.

Haliburton's bloody profits

Haliburton's quest for profits kills not only Iraqi's, but also their own workers.

"War on terrorism", protecting us from 71-year-old nuns?

Were you an anti-war protester? I was. I guess I better get ready for an anal cavity search. Well actually I am probably safe for now, but I have my doubts. It seems the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has a list of anti-war activists, left-wing constitutional lawyers, and outspoken nuns singled out for special questioning and strip searches, according to an article in the Independent. Apparently, enjoying your civil rights in this country is a crime now. What was it the U.S. administration said we were supposed to be fighting to protect again?

Nuclear material for sale on the streets of Iraq

We did a great job of protecting the oil wells in Iraq, but that was about it. Everyting else was pretty much looted and destroyed. Now there are reports that there may be "400 potentially lethal radioactive sources" being sold by black marketers in Basra according to a story in the The Sunday Herald.

Foolish Democrats

The Democrats cannot take the moral high ground on the Iraq issue. When the Democrats attack the Republicans on the war, the Republicans correctly point out many of the Democrats voted for the war. We need a new party. One that does not supprot war, capitalism and the destruction of human rights and the environment.

Maybe they should have tried priceline?

CNN Crossfire's Paul Begala tells co-host Tucker Carlson Bush wasted 1 trillion dollars on a tax cut for the rich while only 28 billion is allotted to the Department of Homeland Security. Thus, 6,000 airport screeners are being cut. Kudos Mr. Bush, I feel safer already! But thats not all. The stupidity continues. I would like to add a fact that Begala did not mention. Get ready for this one. Air marshalls will be cut from flights because there is no money to pay for their overnight stays at hotels! 5 billion a month wasted on Iraq and Afghanistan to no avail while stopping a sure fire way the terrorists used to attack us is not a concern of the Bush administration and its allies in Congress.

CNN..... get it straight

CNN, Cable News Network, or as I like to call it, Cowardly News Network, once again never ceases to pay homage to the Bush administration in their reporting. They continually maintain that Bush has "very high" poll numbers on national security while neglecting to point out that his poll numbers have dropped 10 points in a little over 3 months

US to world on Iraq: This land is our land

WMDs, Al-Queda, if you answered those as reasons the US went to war in Iraq, you would be wrong. What the US really is concerned about is mobile phone networks! With plenty of time to spare since giving up looking for WMDs, what the US military does now with its spare time is threaten to confiscate equipment of foreign phone companies! According to an article in the Independent, the US wants to get its hands on regional mobile phone licenses. The article states these are "almost certain to be one of the most lucrative contracts in post-Saddam Iraq". Now, to be sure, its not just phone licenses that acted as a casus belli for war, lest we forget about that rogue elixir now seeping through the walls of the White House and running through the veins of Bush and his junta. No, not alcohol, Bush kicked that long ago, this one he and his cadre of liers love to much to quit. Come on, you all know the word! Lets say it together now oiiiiiillllll.

I hate Bush...seriously

Article in the Independent on how the fool wants to run a gas pipeline through pristine rainforests in the Peruvian Amazon and enrich his Texas cronies. No, I am not making this up. I wish I was though, believe me.

What does the White house have to hide?

Could it be Papa Bush's connections to the corrupt, brutal regime of Saudi Arabia. Ill give you a link so you can decide for yourself.

Where have all the consumers gone?

Consumer's, whose spending fuels two-thirds of the US economy, sentiment is in the toilet. Contrary to what the crooks in the White House and their minions in Congress maintain consumers are not and will not benefit from Bush's tax cut, not now or ever. Wow! surprise there. You mean giving tax cuts to the rich does not produce "growth and jobs" benefiting the middle class and poor as the administration likes to ludicrously claim, and not so subliminily stick behind Bush's melon, every time Bush makes a speech on anything?! You must be kidding! Pretty soon you will be saying Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction!

Under Dumaya, safety is an illusion

If anybody believes the Bush administration, with its bloodthirsty "war against terror", is making us safer from terrorism, then read this.

There is only one kind of hummer for me, and its not the car

Great site for all those who oppose that obscene, disgusting, ridiculous, a**hole mobile, aka the Hummer.

The only thing Bush supports are the pocketbooks of his cronies

Bush and the Republicans like to maintain that they "Support our troops!". The truth is that they don't. Here is just but one example.

Another example of Bush's version of supporting our troops!

Iraq, not a terrorist threat before war, but is now!

Its Official! The United States has turned Iraq into a haven for terrorists. We have succeeded in turning iraq into an early Afghanistan (think Osama and the anti-soviet mujahadeen). So where there was no Al-Queda in Iraq before the war, we can now except it to become a petri dish for fresh, bloodthirsty new killers emboldened by the daily killing of US soldiers in a war that had no justifiable purpose.