Wednesday March 31st 2010

Attention Deficit Democracy
A quote...."By Ralph Nader - March 31, 2010 "Information Clearing House" -- A society not alert to signs of its own decay, because its ideology is a continuing myth of progress, separates itself from reality and envelops illusion. -- One yardstick by which to measure the decay in our country’s political, economic, and cultural life, is the answer to this question: Do the forces of power, which have demonstrably failed, become stronger after their widely perceived damage is common knowledge?"

Blogs: Crucial or a Waste of Time? -- Crucial for Spreading Accurate Information
Charts - A quote...."We've all seen it. - A story that bloggers have bird-dogged for many months, gaining so much traction that the mainstream media is finally forced to cover it. - David Steele - former 20-year Marine Corps infantry and intelligence officer, the second-ranking civilian in U.S. Marine Corps Intelligence, and former CIA clandestine services case officer - says that blogging is crucial for saving our country. - Dan Rather points out that “roughly 80 percent” of the media is controlled by no more than six, and possibly as few as four, corporations. As I wrote in July: - This fact has been documented for years, as shown by the following must-see charts...."

Webster Tarpley Covers Globalized Terrorism to usher in a Total Police State on Alex Jones
Videos - From the TheAlexJonesChannel -- WT&AJ(1/4) - WT&AJ(2/4) - WT&AJ(3/4) - WT&AJ(4/4) - (AJYuTb - 10m - March 31, 2010) -- A quote...."(March 30) – Alex talks with historian, journalist, author and regular guest Webster Tarpley. Mr. Tarpley is the author of numerous books...." - Related articles.....

Twelve killed by twin bombings in Russia's Dagestan
Single terrorist group may be behind Moscow, Dagestan bombings - Putin - multiple articles
11, including 9 police killed, 28 injured in Kizlyar blasts
Georgia accused over Moscow Metro bombing
Chechen rebel leader claims responsibility for Moscow subway attacks
New attacks in Russia as bomb wave hits Dagestan police in wake of Moscow metro terror - video

Bin Laden Inc. to Release Their 2010 Appearance Schedule
Must Read Satire - Washington--Rita Katz of SITE today released the 2010 schedule for the remaining appearances by Bin Laden Inc. Ms. Katz said she found the document while surfing the web and has been invited to the Senate to give testimony and details about Bin Laden's 2010 itinerary. - Ms. Katz says that the fact her father was caught in Iraq spying for Israel and executed by Saddam Hussein has no bearing on her activities. Nor should anyone infer anything from the fact that she has been on the FBI's payroll. - Nor should anyone think that since her team is made up of RAND spooks and Israeli Jews that they would have ulterior motives." -- For more on Rita Katz see....Judeo-Christian C/C & US - Rita Katz

Bin Laden threatens US over purported 9/11 perp - posted at OnlineJournal
Related Article - A quote...."It’s another one of those wonderful chestnuts from the grave of Osama bin Laden, this time via the March 25 Washington Post, which can so easily slip by into fantasy land. - This Osama is sporting a freshly-died brown beard (what happened to the silver and gray ones?) and is warning us not to mess with homeboy Khalid Sheik Mohammed or else he {Bin Laden) will ice any Americans Al-Qaeda captures." - For more on this issue see....US Fake Intel / Propaganda - Osama bin long gone Laden

Federal Judge Finds N.S.A. Wiretaps Were Illegal - WOW!!  A judge that wasn't bought, or intimidated....yet.
A quote...."WASHINGTON — A federal judge ruled Wednesday that the National Security Agency’s program of surveillance without warrants was illegal, rejecting the Obama administration’s effort to keep shrouded in secrecy one of the most disputed counterterrorism policies of former President George W. Bush. " - bold by website editor - Is ANYBODY going to go to jail for this? - mpg

CCR Asks Supreme Court to Rule Government Cannot Keep Secret Whether It Spied on Guantánamo Attorneys
A quote...."March 31, 2010, New York, NY – Last night, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) asked the Supreme Court to take up its warrantless surveillance case, Wilner v. National Security Agency (NSA). CCR and co-counsel argue that the Executive Branch must disclose whether or not it has records related to the wiretapping of privileged attorney-client conversations without a warrant. Lawyers for the Guantánamo detainees fit the officially acknowledged profile of those subject to surveillance under the former administration’s program, and the Executive Branch has argued in the past that it has a right to target them."

Special U.S. prisons unconstitutional: lawsuit
A quote...."(Reuters) - U.S. prison units specially designed to muzzle communications by inmates considered extremist are unconstitutional and discriminate against Muslims, according to a lawsuit filed on Tuesday by the Center for Constitutional Rights."
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"ElBaradei: Western policy in Mideast a total failure --Former IAEA chief slams Western support for tyrants 31 Mar 2010 Western policy in the Middle East has been a 'total failure' and risks creating a new generation of Islamic radicals, Mohammed ElBaradei says. "Western policy towards this part of the world has been a total failure, in my view," the former International Atomic Energy Agency chief told The Guardian in his first English-language interview since leaving the UN post. "It has not been based on dialogue, understanding, supporting civil society and empowering people, but rather it's been based on supporting authoritarian systems as long as the oil keeps pumping." - Paragraph quoted from CLG -- And the drugs, don't forget the drugs.  And the money, don't forget that either. See articles shown below. - mpg

U.S. War Zone Commanders Spend Billion Dollars a Year in Cash - On who? - mpg
A quote...."Lawmakers in Congress are beginning to grow concerned over the amount of cash being distributed by American military commanders in war zones. Provided so the military can make friends with local citizens and help struggling economies, the amount of appropriated for the Commander’s Emergency Response Program (CERP) is now more than $1 billion a year."

Afghanistan now world's top cannabis source: U.N.
Just remember folks, the Taliban had eliminated opium production in Afghanistan and no one had even heard of pot!!  What's next, cocaine!?!?  Gary Webb was right, the US-NRE/MIC/CIA Axis is one of the world's biggest drug dealers. - mpg - A quote...."(Reuters) - Long the world's largest producer of opium, the raw ingredient of heroin, Afghanistan has now become the top supplier of cannabis, with large-scale cultivation in half of its provinces, the United Nations said on Wednesday."

The alienation of Hamid Karzai
A quote...."It must have been the first time in the history of the United States that an incumbent president had to undertake a 26-hour plane journey abroad with repeated mid-air refueling to meet a foreign leader - all for a 30-minute pow-wow. - The staggering message that came out of US President Barack Obama's hurried mission to the presidential palace in Kabul to meet Afghan President Hamid Karzai last Sunday afternoon is that his own AfPak diplomats have let him down badly."

Aafia Siddiqui: Victimized by American Depravity
Special Note - A quote...."In March 2003, after visiting her family in Karachi, Pakistan, government Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agents, in collaboration with Washington, abducted Siddiqui and her three children en route to the airport for a flight to Rawalpindi, handed them over to US authorities who took them secretly to Bagram prison, Afghanistan for more than five years of brutal torture and unspeakable abuse, including vicious beatings and repeated raping. -- Bogusly charged and convicted, Siddiqui was guilty only of being Muslim in America at the wrong time. A Pakistani national, she was deeply religious, very small, thoughtful, studious, quiet, polite, shy, soft-spoken, barely noticeable in a gathering, not extremist or fundamentalist, and, of course, no terrorist." - also posted at TANSG

Iraq’s Post-Election Mess Could Take Months to Unravel
A quote...."Over three weeks have passed since the Iraqi election, and its resolution seems as uncertain as ever. The top two factions, the Iraqiya bloc of Ayad Allawi and the State of Law party of Nouri al-Maliki remain at each others throats, and neither seems to be making much progress in gaining partners among the smaller blocs." - also posted at WarInIraq

28 Nations Helped US to Detain Suspects
Data Base - A quote...."Twenty-eight nations have cooperated with the U.S. to detain in their prisons, and sometimes to interrogate and torture, suspects arrested as part of the U.S. "War on Terror."

EXCLUSIVE: Iran Nuclear Scientist Defects to U.S. In CIA 'Intelligence Coup'
A quote...."An award-winning Iranian nuclear scientist, who disappeared last year under mysterious circumstances, has defected to the CIA  and been resettled in the United States, according to people briefed on the operation by intelligence officials."

Missing Iran N-scientist 'defected to US'
Related Article -- A quote...."An Iranian nuclear scientist, who has gone missing since June, has defected to the United States, where he is helping spy on Tehran's enrichment work, US media report."

Minister warns about US activities in Lebanon
A quote...."Lebanese Minister of State for Administrative Reform, Mohammad Fneish, says the former Bush administration took advantage of divisions in Lebanon through agreements and other activities."

US cannot rule the world alone, says Nicolas Sarkozy
A quote...."FRENCH President Nicolas Sarkozy has called for US economic reforms and, in comments echoing Franco-American spats of the past, said Washington cannot "run the world" alone."

Africom and the USA's Hidden Battle fo Africa - PDF
A quote...."What is the current meaning of  "War against Terror" for Africa? The true intention of America's recent military interventions in the African continent (both covert and open) is nothing other than the expansion and consolidation of Western capital." - also posted at Uruknet -- For more on this isue see....Africa - the Next Target - 02-28-08 - mpg

Russia, Venezuela to set up JV to develop Khunin-6 oil field
Full quote...."Russia and Venezuela have signed an agreement on setting up a joint venture to develop Khunin-6 oil field, Venezuela's Energy ministry said in a statement. The agreement has been signed during the 7 session of the Russian-Venezuelan intergovernmental commission in Caracas. Russia's share in the joint venture is 40%. The oil field's proved reserves amount to 53 billion barrels. This year the oil production is expected at 50,000 barrels a day and next year it will increase up to 450, 000 barrels a day."

Eight Colombians Arrested in Venezuela on Spy Charges
A quote...."Eight Colombians who own and run an ice cream business in the west-central state of Barinas were arrested by Venezuelan authorities and charged with espionage."

Why there is no mainstream investigative journalism about the Israel lobby - Because of their money?!?!? - mpg
A quote...."Today on my drive back to NY from PA I listened to some fine journalism about religion and politics, and it highlighted everything that is wrong with our coverage of Israel/Palestine." - also posted at AlethoNews
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More On The Palestinian Situation....

They Died So That We Can Live, And Their Spirt Lives On - Land Day 2010
Must View Photo Essay - A quote...."For a quarter of a century, the Palestinian minority in Israel has celebrated Land Day on 30 March 30 as a protest against Israel’s discriminatory policies toward its one million Palestinian citizens and to underline its collective and individual rights. Land Day, or Yoam al-’Ard in Arabic, is also a commemoration of the bloody confrontations with state “security” forces that took place in 1976 when six Palestinians were killed and some 100 injured." - also posted at Uruknet

My Beautiful Palestine
Special Note - A quote...."This is to all of the Palestinian parents in exile and the long trail of olive trees they've planted around the globe. -- A few days ago, my father emailed me a photo of my mom and him standing proudly next to my newest sibling; a young olive tree they've planted in their garden in Queensland Australia. I was moved beyond belief looking at that photo and thinking of my beautiful Palestine." - also posted at Uruknet

IOF assaults on Land Day demos: 4 youths shot at close range
A quote...."Four non-violent demonstrators were shot at close range with live ammunition by Israeli soldiers during six simultaneous protests throughout the Gaza Strip commemorating “Land Day”." - also posted at Uruknet

Chaos at trial for Palm Sunday detainees
A quote...."Ramallah – Ma'an – Israeli military judges inhaled thick tear gas used to disperse protesters in front of the Ofer military court on Wednesday, as men detained during a peaceful Palm Sunday demonstration were set to be tried." - also posted at Uruknet

Israel's policy of land theft
A quote...."A Palestinian human rights report has accused the Israeli Occupation of confiscating approximately 160,000 acres of Palestinian land during 2009 by abusing various laws, such as the Barren Land Law and the laws on closed areas and fallow land." - also posted at Uruknet

More Israeli Incursions into Gaza
A quote...."Israeli forces supported by tanks and bulldozers have reportedly made two other incursions into the Gaza Strip, local sources say. - The Israeli army crossed into the southern Qarara region late Tuesday and then invaded Dair al-Balah in central Gaza. - The latest incursions follow several more conducted by the Israeli military over the past week."

The PA Abuses Journalists to Protect the Occupation
A quote...."Two days ago the Israeli military arrested a leader of Fatah and the Palestinian Authority, Abbas Zaki, during his participation in a peaceful demo in Bethlehem demanding the freedom of movement and worship on the sidelines of the celebrations of Palm Sunday, and transferred him to Ofer prison. This crime took place under the silence of the Palestinian Authority officials while its “security forces” attacked the journalists covering the event in order to prevent them from publishing the news about this shameful incident of arrest of Palestinian leaders and peaceful demonstrators." - also posted at Uruknet

Palestinian Christians to be barred from Old City
A quote...."Bethlehem - Ma'an - Palestinians, particularly Christians will be barred from entering Jerusalem's Old City and accessing the Church of the Holy Sepulchre on Saturday, when eastern Orthodox Christians observe Sept An-Nour, or Saturday of light."

Palm Sunday Marchers Break Out of Bethlehem 28Mar10 - Alt - (YuTb - 7min 7sec - March 28, 2010)
Video - Action Update - A quote...."Around 200 Palestinians, Israelis and internationals walk from the Nativity Square to the direction of Jerusalem, against the restrictions imposed by the Israelis especially restrictions on the right to worship and freedom of movement as many Christians will not be able to go to Jerusalem to celebrate Easter in Jerusalem. The crowd managed to outnumber and surprise the Israeli soldiers and security forces at Bethlehem checkpoint and managed to walk through. After having walked 300 meters on the road to Jerusalem, they were stopped by Israeli soldiers. After having declared the march over and as they were walking back to Bethlehem, Israeli soldiers attacked the crowd and violently arrested around 15 persons, among them a Palestinian cameraman, an Israeli photographers, members of the popular committee from Al Ma’sara, and staff from Holy Trust."

Free Gaza Movement to Launch Cargo Ship from Ireland
Action Alert - A quote...."Today, Wednesday 31st March, the Free Gaza Movement, a human rights organisation which has successfully sent a number of boats into Gaza through the Israeli naval blockade, announced that it had bought a 1200 tonne cargo ship at an auction in Dundalk, Ireland." - also posted at Uruknet

London supermarket occupied in Israel boycott - Alt - (YuTb - 2 min 14 sec - March 31, 2010 0
Action Alert - Video -  Boycott, Divest and Sanction - Because we've been talking with Israel for sixty years with NO results. - mpg -- March 31, 2010 — Shoppers occupied Waitrose supermarket in London in protest over the support for illegal settlements in Israel. Much of the produce sold as 'Israel' actually comes from stolen lands in Palestine. - more info on http://www.waronwant.org" --  For more on how to Boycott, Divest and Sanction the state of Israel see the upper-left-corner of the "Front Page" of this website. - mpg

Swedish fashion chain H&M under pressure  - Alt - (YuTb - 4min 20sec - March 24, 2010)
Action Alert - Video -  Boycott, Divest and Sanction - Because the Israelis won't change their policies unless they're MADE to. - mpg -- A quote...."More than a year ago, several concerned Swedish organizations asked fashion chain H&M about its plans to extend its franchise to Israel. H&M's management denied the rumors but refused to provide written confirmation. In March, H&M unexpectedly opened a store in Tel Aviv and a second store in Jerusalem's Malha shopping mall. The mall is built on the Palestinian village of al-Malha which was ethnically cleansed during the 1948 Nakba. In several European cities activists protested H&M's presence in Israel."--  For more on how to Boycott, Divest and Sanction the state of Israel see the upper-left-corner of the "Front Page" of this website. - mpg

Movie: Jaffa the orange’s clockwork by Eyal Sivan
Film Event - A quote...."he film is a political essay excavating the entwined visual and political history of that famous citrus fruit originating in Palestine and known worldwide as the ‘Jaffa Orange’."
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Keiser Report №29: Markets! Finance! Scandal! - Alt - (RTMKYuTb - 26 min 58 sec - March 31, 2010)
MKVideo - More Max! - (Regarding Brown's "bad gold sale" and gold price supression) -- A quote...."This week Max Keiser and co-host Stacy Herbert look at the scandals of Brown's Bottom, the worst economic judgment of all time and Bono's private equity, "the worst investor in America." Max chats to Brits in Trafalgar Square and also talks to Mark Schapiro, author of the Harper's article, "Conning the Climate: Inside the Carbon Trading Shell Game"."

UK Treasury Relases FOIA On Gordon Brown's 1998 Gold Sale, Catches Tony Blair Lying, Questions US Treasury's Good Delivery Standards - Related Article - A quote...."One of the bigger stories in the UK over the past several days, has been the increasing pressure on Prime Minister Gordon Brown to justify his sale of 395 tons of gold in 17 auctions in the period from 1998 through 2002, when Brown was Chancellor of the Exchequer, a role identical to the one Tim Geithner now performs in the US as Treasury Secretary. The issue is that in the abovementioned period, gold was trading at the rock bottom prices of the past two decades, and as such his rush to sell is estimated to have cost UK taxpayers £6 billion. One reason previously given to Parliament, to explain the transactions from Treasury ministers and Tony Blair was that the sale was made 'on the technical advice of the Bank of England.' Today the UK Treasury has released long-withheld FOIA documents which disprove this claim, and indicate that in fact the BOE was if not completely against selling the bullion then certainly waiting until the price improved."

More Financial Bubbles Ahead in the US Housing Market
Special Note - A quote...."We are in a vast home inventory expansion and builders are going to build 535,000 new homes. The projected foreclosure rate could give us as much as a 3-year home inventory, up from present levels of about a year, if one includes the lenders shadow inventory. This past week the home building index rose 7.1% and it is up 25.1% year-to-date. The retail index rose 17% y-t-d, yet unemployment stubbornly clings to 22-1/8%. In fact, the retail index is up 87.4% y-o-y. We would say that index is grossly overpriced. As you can see bubbles have a way of not wanting to die quickly. This is caused by man’s disparately wanting to cling to the past attempting to take the easy way out rather than adapting to change. Government tries to keep sections of the economy alive rather than letting the cleansing process take its course. "

March Records Fastest Ever CMBS Delinquency Deterioration In History According To TREPP
Chart - Related Article - A quote...."On top of the previously announced record delinquency rate for Fannie, here comes some even worse news out of commercial real estate, which together with record high downtown vacancy rates, should be enough to push all REITs to 1052 week highs tomorrow. RealPoint has just released its March CMBS delinquency data, according to which delinquencies hit an all time high 6%. Not to be ignored, according to TREPP this number is even worse, at nearly 8%, after the single biggest monthly spike in 30 day + delinquencies."

Euro regains value amid soaring US unemployment
A quote...."The European single currency has risen sharply against dollar after an unexpected rise in private-sector job losses painted a grim picture of the US recovery."

Chicago PMI Weaker Than Expected, Advance Release Spooks Market, Inventories Surge Boost Index
Chart - A quote...."For those wondering what caused the market to take a beating at 9:42 AM Eastern, it was the 3 minute advance release of the Chicago PMI to subscribers (a topic we have discussed previously). The index came out for the general mort consumption at 9:45 AM, when the bulk of the loss had already taken place. As for the actual data, add the PMI to the latest set of double dip inflection indicative data. After declining sequential increases of 5.8%, 4.8%, and 1.8%, the March PMI recorded a substantial downward move of -6.1%, from 62.6 to 58.8. And as you can see on the chart below, if it had not been for the Inventories subcomponent, which surged by 24% from 42.4 to 52.4, the index would have likely posted a double digit drop. As for the credibility of an inventory build up so late in the stimulus cycle, we will leave that to the integrity of the actual data. "

China Must Reduce Reliance on Treasury Bills, China Daily Says
A quote...."April 1 (Bloomberg) -- China should be cautious about investing in or selling U.S. Treasury Bills because of the risks they present, the China Daily quoted Cheng Siwei, former vice- chairman of the standing committee in the National People’s Congress, as saying."

Bank Of England Estimates Global Output Losses From Financial Meltdown At Up To $200 Trillion
A quote...."As Nobel-prize winning physicist Richard Feynman observed, to call these numbers “astronomical” would be to do astronomy a disservice: there are only hundreds of billions of stars in the galaxy. “Economical” might be a better description. It is clear that banks would not have deep enough pockets to foot this bill. Assuming that a crisis occurs every 20 years, the systemic levy needed to recoup these crisis costs would be in excess of $1.5 trillion per year."

When It Comes to Innovation, Is America Becoming a Third World Country?
A quote...."Is America turning into a third world country? That was the provocative topic of a panel I took part in last week at a conference sponsored by The Economist entitled "Innovation: Fresh Thinking For The Ideas Economy." -- Once upon a time, the United States was the world's dominant innovator -- partly because we didn't have much competition. As a result of the destruction wreaked by WWII, the massive migration of brainpower to the U.S. caused by the war, and huge amounts of government spending, America had the innovation playing field largely to itself. None of these factors exist as we enter the second decade of the 21st century." - also posted at ICH

Tuesday March 30th 2010

Blueprint for Truth, The Architecture of Destruction - Architects and Engnrs for 9/11 Truth (1121 of them)
Must View Video - From the history file - aprox. 03-30-09 - (previously posted) - Alt/1 - Alt/2 - (GoglVid - 1hr59min - 1 year ago) -- A quote...."This is the best 9/11 presentation on the web. If you only see one 9/11 video, see this one. Richard Gage delivers the most complete argument to date that the official story defies reality, logic, and the laws of physics. Included in his presentation are clips from 9/11 Mysteries and Loose Change. Richard Gage is the founder of Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth located at ae911Truth.Org" - For more on this issue see....Reficultnias's 9/11 Central

Ed Asner voices AE911Truth TV spots airing in New York
Contains Video - Action Alert - Alt - A quote...."Another first. AE911Truth runs first-ever television ads on NY1 this Tuesday, 3-30 and Friday, 4-2. Featuring the voice of Ed Asner, these 30-second spots mention nanothermite, show WTC 7 imploding and have great coverage of the AE911Truth website. They will also coincide with Week 3 of the “Building What?!” campaign."

9/11 Reconstruction: Mental Before Physical
A quote...."March 30, 2010 "Information Clearing House" -- The failure to rebuild the World Trade Center site in Manhattan has received endless attention.  But public anger about this failed reconstruction should not been seen so negatively.  After all, mental reconstruction has also still not been successful and is surely more needed, with too many Americans still accepting the official government story about 9/11.  This, despite a huge amount of compelling evidence that elements of the US government played some role, despite a very large, active 9/11 truth movement, and despite an impressive number of highly credible people demanding a new investigation as documented at patriotsquestion911.com." - also posted at GlobalRsrch

US Recants Claims on 'High-Value' Detainee Abu Zubaydah
Must Read - Propaganda Exposed! - A quote...."The Justice Department has quietly recanted nearly every major claim the Bush administration had made about "high-value" detainee Abu Zubaydah, a Guantanamo prisoner who at one time was said to have planned the 9/11 attacks and was the No. 2 and 3 person in al-Qaeda. -- Additionally, Justice has backed away from claims intelligence officials working in the Clinton administration had also leveled against Zubaydah, specifically, that he was directly involved in the planning of the 1998 embassy bombings in East Africa. -- Zubaydah's name is redacted throughout a 109-page court document the government filed in US District Court in Washington, DC in response to 213 discovery requests Zubaydah's attorneys made in connection with his habeas corpus case, which sought evidence to support the government's position that Zubaydah was a top al-Qaeda official. -- But he is identified on the first page of the filing by his real name, Zayn Al Abidin Muhammad Husayn. He was the first detainee captured after 9/11 who was subjected to nearly a dozen brutal torture techniques, which included waterboarding, and was the catalyst, the public has been told, behind the Bush administration's "enhanced interrogation" program. Former Vice President Dick Cheney has publicly admitted that personally approved of Zubaydah's waterboarding. -- His torture was videotaped and the tapes later destroyed. The destruction of 90 videotapes of his interrogations is the focus of a high-level criminal investigation being conducted by John Durham, a federal prosecutor appointed special counsel in 2008 by then-Attorney General Michael Mukasey." - bold by webiste editor - also posted at 9/11Truth -- For more on this issue see....9/11-Iraq-Torture Fables

Advocate of 9/11 Censorship on Obama's Short List for Supreme Court
A quote...."Cass Sunstein, a Harvard Law Professor and Confidant of Obama was appointed to be Obama's head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. -- He became infamous within this movement for writing a paper on how to best to combat "Government Conspiracy Theory Groups," including by covert infiltration, as described by Glen Greenwald. http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/01/15/sunstein  -- And now rumor has it that he's on a short list to replace John Paul Stevens on the US Supreme Court. http://alethonews.wordpress.com/2010/03/26/the-horrible-prospect-of-supr...  -- That's great - Eh? A real Constitutionalist there who will stand up for the Bill of Rights, including dissent and free speech. He would be a shoe in for confirmation - what with his Neocon, Big Brother Street Cred with Republicans and Obama's support. If Obama nominates this guy it will be one more in a long list of Obama sell-outs to the Security State." - also posted at DProgram

CNN Attempt To Portray Patriots As Terrorists Backfires, Segment Fails To Air
AJVideos - AJ(1/2) - AJ(2/2) -- A quote...."(PaulWatson) – A CNN Anderson Cooper segment which was set to demonize critics of big government and Obamacare as violent extremists backfired after radio host Alex Jones pointed out that corporate media outlets like CNN were responsible for killing over a million Iraqis as a consequence of their repeated lies about weapons of mass destruction."

CNN Fails to Stop Fall in Ratings
Related Article - Hey....Alex, this one's for you. - mpg -- A quote...."CNN continued what has become a precipitous decline in ratings for its prime-time programs in the first quarter of 2010, with its main hosts losing almost half their viewers in a year."

The Fear Factory Revisited:The Hutaree 9 and Remembering Liberal Warnings of the Growing Fascist State
Special Note - Contains Video - Alt -- A quote...."As the liberal and “progressive” blogosphere breathlessly hypes the demonization of militia groups and Tea Party members as the real “homegrown terrorists” in America, I would ask you to pause for a second, take a breath, and just THINK for a minute. -- You would think that after electing Barack Obama, most “progressives” and liberals would have learned a little something about jumping to conclusions based solely on emotion based rhetoric. You would think that they would be wary at this point of those who would mislead them with emotion based appeals which do nothing more than re-affirm their existing value structure. Let’s hope the lessons of the award-winning ”Product Obama” campaign aren’t lost on all the liberal intelligentsia." - Video shown below....

Talk - Naomi Wolf - The End of America - (YouTube 47 min 47 sec - October 14, 2007)
Must View Video - From the history file - Oct. 14, 2007 -- A quote...."Talk by Naomi Wolf author of "The End of America: Letter of Warning To A Young Patriot" given October 11, 2007 at Kane Hall on the University of Washington campus." -- ||  Mp3  ||

Naomi Wolf Thinks the Tea Parties Help Fight Fascism -- Is She Onto Something or in Fantasy Land?
Interview - A quote...."March 30, 2010  |   In her bestselling "End of America:Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot", [GoglBkSrch]*, Naomi Wolf outlines the 10 warning signs that America is headed toward a fascist takeover. Using historical precedents, she explains how our government is mimicking those of Mussolini, Hitler and Stalin through practices like surveillance of ordinary citizens, restricting the press, developing paramilitary forces and arbitrarily detaining people."  -*links added

The Real Anti-Americans
A quote...."As Democrats, after a Sunday rally on the Capitol grounds, marched to the House hand-in-hand to vote health care reform, Tea Partiers reportedly shouted the “n-word” at John Lewis and another black congressman. A third was allegedly spat upon. And Barney Frank was called a nasty name. -- Tea Partiers deny it all. And neither audio nor video of this alleged incident has been produced, though TV cameras and voice recorders were everywhere on the Hill."

FBI Agent Discovered at Center of Alleged Hutaree Conspiracy
Geeeee Whiz!!!  What a surprise (roll the eyes) - A quote...."The FBI had an informant inside the Hutaree group and he participated in the alleged conspiracy to kill law enforcement officers, according to The Wall Street Journal today. -- In sworn testimony, Thomas William Piatek is described as a Cooperating Witness and an undercover FBI agent." - Regarding this issue see quote shown below....


How the Left Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the FBI
A quote...."Now we are back to the Brown Scare, to militia hysteria, to fears that the out-of-power anti-government right, Christian groups, separatists, gunowners, opponents of national social programs, census and tax resisters and so forth are a great threat to American security. With all the Bush-era anti-Muslim hysteria and war on terror authoritarianism still in place, we have under Obama a revitalization of 1990s-style paranoia about “hate groups,” survivalists and indeed the entire populist right. Just as Bush conservatives could not differentiate Saddam Hussein from Osama bin Laden, or an innocent Muslim doing charity work in Pakistan from an engineer of 9/11, or an antiwar American activist from an anti-American enemy within giving comfort to the enemy abroad, so too do the Obama leftists conflate peaceful separatists with violent racists, peaceful survivalist militia men with Timothy McVeigh. " -- Folks, it's called Mutt & Jeff, Good Cop Bad Cop, the Two Faced Janus of this One Party State, the parasitic class has been playing this sorry old piece of horse crap on the American people for the last sixty years....and it's REALLY getting boring. - mpg

Website Back Online
Web Censorship Attack/Attempt - A quote...."After nearly five days our website is back online. Our most grateful thanks go to Josh at CrisisHost.com  web hosting company. He continues to help us get through every attack from those who do not want you to read the content on our website. Josh owns one of the very few companies that truly supports our right to free speech. - See below the email I sent to our BRIGADE email list. Seems that not everyone received it. - Please consider supporting our work.  It’s not easy keeping this website up and running – Thanks!"
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The Plight of Mass Unemployment in America. What are the Causes?
Must Read - A quote...."In an interview with Detroit Free Press and USA Today just before his "jobs summit" in December, President Obama said "It's just not going to be possible for us to have a huge second stimulus, because frankly, we just don't have the money."  And "I want to be clear: while I believe the government has a critical role in creating the conditions for economic growth, ultimately true economic recovery is only going to come from the private sector."  This was just two days after he announced a $30 billion per year escalation of the war in Afghanistan.  (emphasis added) --  The president opened the summit itself by saying that we had to face the fact that our resources are too limited to finance job creation.  But he failed to mention that the $1.4 trillion deficit tripled last year's deficit due, in large part, to the bank bailout, which "according to the Inspector General of TARP, was allocated up to $23.7 trillion (of the people's money) in cash handouts, loans, debt guarantees and other subsidies" to the financial sector. (1)  That's in addition to the loss of $1.3 trillion in revenue due to the Bush tax cuts that went overwhelmingly to the already superfluously wealthy. (2)  (italics added)" - also posted at ICH

The crisis of neoliberalism  - Alt - (RNNYuTb - 8min 57sec - March 30, 2010)
RNNVideo -- A quote...."Dumenil: Neoliberalism imposed a new discipline on worker, cutting the progress of purchasing power. -- Bio:  Dr. Dumnil is one of the worlds foremost theorists of neoliberalism and economic crisis and is the author of numerous influential books, many of which have been translated into several languages. These include "Capital Resurgent: Roots of the Neoliberal Revolution (2004)" and his forthcoming "The Crisis of Neoliberalism: from the subprime to the great contraction."

177 Countries and Counting - The Bases of Empire
Book Review - A quote...."The Bases of Empire: The Global Struggle Against U.S. Military Posts," [GoglBkSrch]*  a collection edited by Catherine Lutz, has the potential to open American eyes to both the empire they pay for and permit, and to the world's responses to it. Included in this book is an overview of the empire of bases, and a detailed look at several parts of the world, starting with Latin America and the Caribbean, where the U.S. government's driving mission is the maintenance and expansion of bases, and where communism has been replaced as an excuse by drugs as much as by terrorism." - *links added

Our President Is Deceiving the American Public”: Pentagon Papers Whistleblower on President Obama and the Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq -- A quote...."We are joined by a man who played a major role in efforts to end the Vietnam War in the 1970s. In 1971, the then-RAND Corporation analyst Daniel Ellsberg leaked to the media what became known as the Pentagon Papers, a 7,000-page classified history outlining the true extent of US involvement in Vietnam. After avoiding a life sentence on espionage charges, Daniel Ellsberg has continued to speak out against US militarism until the present day. [includes rush transcript]" --  ||  Real Video Stream  ||  Real Audio Stream  ||  MP3 Download  ||  More…  || 
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Allawi's lead is now in jeopardy
A quote...."BAGHDAD: A commission with responsibility for stopping former Baath Party loyalists from returning to public life in Iraq has mounted a challenge to the country's recent election, saying six candidates who won seats had been banned from standing. -- The Accountability and Justice Commission played a prominent role before the election this month, outlawing dozens of candidates and sparking fears of another mass Sunni boycott, as well as concerns that it had a political agenda."

Iraq's new ruling elite show contempt for voters
A quote...."The first indication of problems arose in January, when the justice and accountability commission – the organisation charged with pursuing the de-Ba'athification process set in train by the Americans in 2003 – issued edicts seeking to ban 511 individual candidates and 14 party lists from the elections. On the eve of the vote the commission banned a further 50 candidates. Meanwhile, Ali Faisal al-Lami, the head of the justice and accountability commission, also ran as a parliamentary candidate, in a blatant conflict of interest indicative of a system where governmental institutions have been colonised by political parties and run as private fiefdoms."

Sadr Calls for Referendum on Maliki
A quote...."Sadr has a long history of enmity toward both Maliki and Allawi, and Maliki’s issuance of an arrest warrant for Sadr just days before the vote could come back to haunt him, now that the cleric is so politically powerful. In the meantime, delegates from both blocs have been flocking to Tehran, Sadr’s base of operations, in an effort to curry support. -- The call for a referendum, however, is somewhat perplexing. Few would seriously imagine that such a thing would be possible, and once a caretaker government takes over there would appear to be no legal authority capable of authorizing it."
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Media Disinformation regarding America’s Afghan War
Special Note - Presstitute Alert - A quote...."Examining a microcosm can shed light on the larger reality. I have chosen to analyze a small mountain hamlet, Chagoti Ghar (Chergotah), located some forty kilometers east of Khost city in eastern Afghanistan in a time frame separated by eight and a third years – November 23rd 2001 and March 24th 2010. Both times, two Afghan civilians perished as a result of foreign occupation fire. In both instances, the U.S corporate media was silent. Both times, to pierce the veil of silence spun by the American military industrial media information complex (MIMIC) a person had to turn to independent, regional media;"

A Bomber Jacket Doesn't Cover the Blood
A quote...."President Obama has taken a further plunge into the kind of war abyss that consumed predecessors named Johnson, Nixon and Bush. -- On Sunday, during his first presidential trip to Afghanistan, Obama stood before thousands of American troops to proclaim the sanctity of the war effort. He played the role deftly -- a commander in chief, rallying the troops -- while wearing a bomber jacket. -- There was something candidly macabre about the decision to wear that leather jacket, adorned with an American Eagle and the words "Air Force One." The man in the bomber jacket doesn't press the buttons that fire the missiles and drop the warheads, but he gives the orders that make it all possible. -- One way or another, we're used to seeing presidents display such tacit accouterments of carnage."

US-NATO Atrocities Committed in Afghanistan: How Did We Become this Pacified to War?
A quote...."If the U.S. public looked long and hard into a mirror reflecting the civilian atrocities that have occurred in Afghanistan, over the past ten months, we would see ourselves as people who have collaborated with and paid for war crimes committed against innocent civilians who meant us no harm."` - also posted at GlobalRsrch & OnlineJournal

Canada tells Clinton troops are leaving - i.e. Hideous Hillary strikes out. - mpg
A quote...."OTTAWA (AP) - Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper told U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton that Canada's military mission in Afghanistan will end in 2011. -- Clinton went on Canadian television on Monday and said the U.S. would like Canadian troops to remain in Afghanistan past 2011 and suggested they could switch from a combat to a training role."

No means no, PM tells Clinton - Yeah.....in addition to being hideous, she's hard of hearing too. - mpg
Related Article - A quote...."Prime Minister Stephen Harper told U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton this morning that Canada’s combat mission in Afghanistan ends in 2011. -- Mr. Harper and Mrs. Clinton met for [just] 20 minutes [well that was short and sour] at a hotel in Aylmer, Que., across the river from Ottawa where G8 foreign ministers are meeting today."

Making a Killing: US-NATO Fuel New Arms Race in the Middle East
A quote...."Now, here’s where it gets interesting. The top four arms suppliers to the region are the US, France, Germany and Britain – the very Western powers that are falling over themselves to warn the “international community” of the “threat posed by Iran”. -- Tellingly, within the wider Middle East region it is the Gulf enclave opposite Iran that is the growing hotspot for Western arms deals."

Offering No Evidence, US Continues anti-Iranian Propaganda Drive
Special Note - Presstitute Alert - (The New York Times again for the nth time, maybe they should get an award for being one of this nation's top producing Presstitutes?) -- A quote...."The Obama administration is ratcheting up its war threats against Iran in a calculated effort to provoke a crisis with Tehran that could produce a general war in the Middle East. In multiple venues—planted articles in the press, the release of a think tank study on military options, speeches at the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC, and congressional declarations—Washington is building a case for a new eruption of US military aggression."

Turkey to build railway to connect with Iran: report
A quote...."Turkey is preparing to build a railway in its eastern part to connect its railway network with Iran, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported Tuesday. -- The railway will link eastern Turkish destinations of Kars, Igdir, Aralik and Dilucu and is part of the Istanbul-Islamabad railway project, said the agency." - also posted at Mathaba & GlobalTimes
    
Iran rediscovers value of Persian roots
A quote...."Over the weekend, Iran hosted the presidents of Iraq, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan to celebrate Nowruz, the ancient Persian new year marking the first day of spring that is celebrated by some 300 million people around the world who together form an important cultural bloc."

Pakistani MPs abandon US visit over body scanning - Hip Hip Hooray!!  Good for them! - mpg
A quote...."Pakistani lawmakers belonging to different political parties have refused to visit the United States amid a row over body scanning at American airports. -- A senior member of the Pakistani Parliament told Press TV on condition of anonymity that 18 lawmakers had rejected official invitation extended by the US embassy in Islamabad. -- The lawmakers say they would not visit the US until their exemption from scanning at US airports."

Japanese rally against US base
A quote...."Thousands of Japanese from Tokunoshima Island have gathered to protest against the government's plan to relocate a US base to their island."

World Bank official says no case for yuan revaluation
A quote...."BEIJING, March 31 -- A leading figure from the World Bank has rejected U.S. government claims that the Chinese yuan is undervalued."

Europe unlikely to join any new yuan offensive
Special Note - A quote...."(Reuters) - If Washington picks a fight with China over the weakness of the state-managed currency, it will do so without European reinforcement, not least because the euro has weakened in tandem with Greece's debt crisis."

The growing danger of trade war
A quote...."Demands for trade war measures against China are mounting in Washington as the April 15 deadline approaches for the US Treasury Department to submit its semi-annual report to Congress on currency matters. The key issue is whether to declare China a “currency manipulator” and thus open the way for retaliatory US penalties."

Ecuador, Venezuela Discuss Military Cooperation
A quote...."QUITO – Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa and Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez met on Friday for talks that centered on joint economic initiatives, but the visiting head of state also raised the possibility of military cooperation in the face of threats posed by the U.S. “empire.”"

Brazil, Uruguay to Boost UNASUR
A quote...."Montevideo, Mar 30 (Prensa Latina) Uruguayan Foreign Minister Luis Almagro said on Tuesday that the presidents of Brazil and Uruguay agreed to give a boost to UNASUR''s performance as a pro-integration and political coordination factor in the region."

Colombia: FARC Frees Pablo Emilio Moncayo
A quote...."Florida, Colombia, Mar 30 (Prensa Latina) The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) released Sgt. Pablo Emilio Moncayo."

U.S. Bases in Colombia Rattle the Region
A quote...."Palanquero is at the heart of a ten-year, renewable military agreement signed between the United States and Colombia on October 30, 2009, which gives Washington access to seven military bases in the country. Though officials from the U.S. and Colombian governments contend the agreement is aimed at fighting narcotraffickers and guerrillas within Colombian borders, a U.S. Air Force document states the deal offers a “unique opportunity” for “conducting full spectrum operations” in the region against various threats, including “anti-U.S. governments.” - also posted at CommonDreams & UpsideDownWrld
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Israel Threatens Lebanon - A New Middle East War?
A quote...."When Israeli Minister without Portfolio Yossi Peled said recently that a war with Lebanon’s Hezbollah was “just a matter of time” and that such a conflict would include Syria, most observers dismissed the comment as little more than posturing by a right-wing former general. But Peled’s threat has been backed by Israeli military maneuvers near the Lebanese border, violations of Lebanese airspace, and the deployment of an anti-missile system on Israel’s northern border."

Israeli leak suspect held in secret house arrest
A quote...."For the past three months, a 23-year-old Israeli journalist has been under a secret house arrest over charges that she leaked classified information suggesting that the Israel military violated a legal ruling on killings of militants in the West Bank." - also posted at Uruknet

UN chief says Israeli settlement activities illegal
A quote...."SIRTE, Libya, March 27 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary General Ban Ki- moon said Israeli settlement activities are illegal and against the international law, stressing that they should come to an end. -- In a speech at the opening session of the 22nd Arab Summit, the UN chief addressed that the significance of Jerusalem should be respected as a capital for both Israel and the future Palestinian state."

Cutting aid to Israel is quickly becoming conventional wisdom
Action Alert -- Boycott, Divest and Sanction - Because it's the moral and just thing to do. - mpg --
A quote...."Business Week writer Celestine Bohlen makes a case for cutting US financial ties with Israel: The advantages for the U.S. are obvious: It would save money at a time when the federal debt is zooming out of sight. The sums aren’t great — a drop compared with the $1.4 trillion budget deficit in fiscal 2009 — but it would take some of the sting out of Israel’s stubborn opposition to U.S. policies." -- For more on how to Boycott, Divest and Sanction the state of Israel see the upper-left-corner of the "Front Page" of this website. - mpg

Israeli Boycott Campaign- Set to Kick off on 30th March
Action Alert -- Boycott, Divest and Sanction - Because if the world doesn't, Israel will continue to murder innocent men, women and children. - mpg -- A quote...."A coalition of Palestinian solidarity movements are tightening their plans for a major Israeli boycott campaign, set to kick off on Tuesday 30th March. Consumers will be urged to boycott all Israeli products as part of the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, in protest of the government's expanding Zionist policies, which has seen tensions rise in Palestine over the past few weeks." --  For more on how to Boycott, Divest and Sanction the state of Israel see the upper-left-corner of the "Front Page" of this website. - mpg

Health workers and advocates support call for U of Arizona to divest
Action Alert -- Boycott, Divest and Sanction - Because it MUST be done. - mpg - A quote...."A joint group of more than 50 Jewish, Christian, Muslim and agnostic medical and health advocates of the Tucson and surrounding region, following student initiative, are calling on the University of Arizona to divest from corporations benefiting from the global health and humanitarian crisis in Palestine caused by Israel's military occupation, supported by the United States." --  For more on how to Boycott, Divest and Sanction the state of Israel see the upper-left-corner of the "Front Page" of this website. - mpg
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More On The Palestinian Situation....

Children of Gaza - Alt - (Englands Channe 4 (UK)’s Dispatches - 47 min 59 sec Monday 15th March 2010)
Must View Video - A quote...."A moving, must-see video that first aired on Channel 4 (UK)’s Dispatches on 15 March. BAFTA-winning filmmaker Jezza Neumann follows the lives of three children for over a year. The children are amazing: well-spoken, reflective, resilient, understandably vengeful and fearful, but very endearing. The toll this inhumanity has taken is also clear." -- "How You Can Help  - To donate to the children in this film, and for information on how to help them and others, please visit this website http://childrenofgazafund.org/ "

Palestine's "turbulent priest" delivers a blistering Easter message
A quote...."He warns of the relentless Zionist programme to completely Judaise Jerusalem, alter its features, expel its people, destroy its houses, seize its land and build numerous settlements. "We lament Jerusalem, and miss its beautiful ceremonies. This year thousands of tourists will weep with us. They will not be able to march the 'Way of the Cross' with Palestinians. There will be no national Palestinian Folklore to discover or Arab religious crafts to take with them as gifts, and no local prayers, hymns and music to experience in the warm faith of believers in Palestine. They will be shocked entering the Holy Sepulchre to find Israeli police inside."

EU officials to attend Palm Sunday detainees' court appearance
A quote...."Hebron – Ma'an – Representatives of the European Union, French and Spanish offices in Jerusalem will attend the court appearance of a Fatah Central Committee member detained on Palm Sunday during Bethlehem protests, the official's aides said."

"We are defending our culture": an interview with Samir Joubran
A quote...."Earlier this month the Palestinian group Le Trio Joubran gave a concert in Geneva to support the work of the Association Meyrin-Palestine, which is planning to build a cultural center in Gaza. Le Trio Joubran is comprised of three brothers, Samir, Wissam and Adnan Joubran, who play the oud, a pear-shaped instrument from the Middle East related to the lute. The Electronic Intifada contributor Adri Nieuwhof spoke with Samir Joubran about the trio's music." 

IOA plans more expropriation of Palestinian land in OJ
A quote...."OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) have barred farmers in Aisawiya town in occupied Jerusalem from reaching their farmlands in a bid to expropriate them later."

Israel's war against children
A quote...."Naseem Jawad Abu Dakka, 14, was playing in front of his grandfather’s house, under the lemon tree in the front of the house, 800 metres from the area where Israeli army the made an incursion, firing tanks shells and bullets. One medium calibre bullet entered his back and exited from his chest, leading to a fracture in the spine in the ninth and tenth vertebrae. The second bullet pierced his chest and has harmed him so much that his spleen had to be removed."

Egyptian forces detain 12 Gaza children
A quote...."Al-Arish – Ma'an – Egyptian authorities detained 12 Palestinian children attempting to enter Egypt on Monday, through Gaza's subterranean tunnel complex." - also posted at Uruknet

Israel's blood diamonds
A quote...."Israel -- which stands accused of war crimes, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing, genocide, the crime of apartheid, extrajudicial executions within and outside the territory it controls and persistent serious breaches of the Geneva Conventions -- is the world's leading exporter of diamonds (see Figure 1 below). Israeli companies import rough diamonds for cutting and polishing, adding significantly to their value, and export them globally via distribution hubs in Antwerp, London, Hong Kong, New York and Mumbai."

My Father was a Freedom Fighter Released in the US
Book Review/Release - A quote...."LONDON/NEW YORK – "My Father was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza’s Untold Story", [GoglBkSrch], the latest book by Palestinian-American author Ramzy Baroud, was released in the United States, on Tuesday, March 30, 2010, the author and the publisher of the book announced today. - Released in January 2010 in the U.K. and in many countries around the world, the book has already garnered the praise of many authors and intellectuals.  It was described by Aljazeera as “a book that finally placed Gaza back into the heart of the Palestinian struggle.” - *links added/changed
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State Debt Woes Grow Too Big to Camouflage
A quote...."California, New York and other states are showing many of the same signs of debt overload that recently took Greece to the brink — budgets that will not balance, accounting that masks debt, the use of derivatives  to plug holes, and armies of retired public workers who are counting on benefits that are proving harder and harder to pay." - also posted at Yahoo

Monday March 29th 2010

The Neoliberals; A Bi-partisan, Hybrid Political-Corporate Party in Service of Predatory Globalization
Special Note - A quote...."The Road to Neoliberalization: A bi-partisan not-for-profit Think Tank called  ”The Neoliberal War on Democracy Foundation” - They don’t want you to know their name, much less to speak it. They don’t want you to know they exist, much less to join  them. They don’t want your participation, they don’t want your suggestions, because quite simply put, they don’t want you."

[former] CIA Officer- Robert Steele Stresses the Importance of Blogging - Alt - (YuTb 10m58s March 26, 2010)
Video - Special Note - (For hard working bloggers everywhere....) -- A quote...."This is a follow up montage to those who say Bloggers and making videos (Vloggers) and those who comment, are not making a difference"

You Say You Want a Revolution? Think Again
Special Note - Quote of the Day...."At this point in time, the average American citizen neither understands nor desires liberty. Today, even in the unlikely event of victory on the battlefield for the forces of liberty, it would all quickly amount to nothing. Freedom is impossible to force onto a people, and we would soon find, as even did God with the rebellious angels He cast out of heaven, that he "who overcomes by force, hath overcome but half his foe." (Milton, 32) -- So leave your AK hanging over the fireplace, it is not time for that." - Yet. - mpg

Saudis fund Balkan Muslims spreading hate of the West [& East]
Special Note - They've been doing this non-stop for almost thirty years folks, with the FULL support of the US-NRE, Israel and Britain. - For more on this issue see....US Support of Terror - Madrasas -- A quote...."SAUDI ARABIA is pouring hundreds of millions of pounds into Islamist groups in the Balkans, some of which spread hatred of the West and recruit fighters for jihad in Afghanistan. - According to officials in Macedonia, Islamic fundamentalism threatens to destabilise the Balkans. Strict Wahhabi and Salafi factions funded by Saudi organisations are clashing with traditionally moderate local Muslim communities. - Fundamentalists have financed the construction of scores of mosques and community centres as well as handing some followers up to £225 a month. They are expected not only to grow beards but also to persuade their wives to wear the niqab, or face veil, a custom virtually unknown in the liberal Islamic tradition of the Balkans."

Terrorists responsible for Moscow blasts will be eliminated - Putin (WRAPUP 1)
Multiple Articles, Vids, and More - (Related Article?) -- A quote...."The terrorists behind the two blasts that killed at least 38 people in the Moscow metro system on Monday morning will be eliminated, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin vowed."
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Maliki Orders Elected Sunni MPs Detained as Vote Dispute Turns Ugly
A quote...."It is only one day after the results were announced, and already the battle to form the next government in Iraq is turning ugly, as Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki seems intent on eating into rival Ayad Allawi’s two seat plurality any way possible." - also posted at WarInIraq

Former CIA asset Allawi touted as next Iraqi prime minister
A quote...."The result of the March 7 Iraq election has given the largest bloc of seats in the 325-member parliament to the Sunni-based and ostensibly secular Iraqiya coalition headed by Iyad Allawi, a former CIA asset and one-time US-installed prime minister. With just 91 legislators, however, Allawi needs to strike agreements with other factions to obtain the necessary 163-seat majority." -- also posted at WarInIraq

Sadrists Pivotal Party, Vows Liberation of Iraq from Foreigners;  Tehran attempts to Broker Alliance
A quote...."No sooner, the article says, than the election tallies began coming in did the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki begin gradually releasing Sadrist prisoners who had been in Iraqi penitentiaries for years. Al-Hayat's sources say that in Babil Province, orders were received from the government to release members of the Sadr Movement, in an attempt to mollify that group. -- Sadrist leader Liqa' Al-Yasin said that the Sadrists have now become the spinal column of the Iraqi National Alliance. He said that the movement had demonstrated that it had a large public base, and asserted that that base is cultured, aware, and abiding by the principles both of Islamic Law and the Nation. Al-Yasin said that the Sadrists would work for the liberation of Iraq and the realization of national sovereignty. [Translation: they want US troops out of their country tout de suite.]"

Iraq: The Exodus Continues ‎
A quote...."What's wrong with this picture? Eight years after the U.S.-led invasion, with the phased American military withdrawal already underway and following elections this month that the Obama administration hopes will mark the closing chapter of U.S. involvement in Iraq, there are still more Iraqi refugees leaving their country than returning to it. According to the latest report from the U.N. High Commission on Refugees, released last week, 24,000 Iraqi refugees sought asylum in the industrialized nations in 2009. But that's not counting those who crossed into Syria or Jordan, who have in the past tended to be more numerous but are not covered in the U.N. surveys. According to a Brookings Institution ongoing Iraq watch, there are now 1.2 million Iraqi refugees in Syria, and around 450,000 in Jordan." - bold by website editor
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Washington [i.e. AIPAC] ratchets up war threats against Iran
War Alert - A quote...."The Obama administration is ratcheting up its war threats against Iran in a calculated effort to provoke a crisis with Tehran that could produce a general war in the Middle East. In multiple venues—planted articles in the press, the release of a think tank study on military options, speeches at the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC, and congressional declarations—Washington is building a case for a new eruption of US military aggression."

An Israeli attack on Iran via the Saudi route is practically impossible - Alt
War Alert - Tactics Alert - From the history file - (originally written in 2006) - Which means the US-NRE or the Saudi Royals or Both will have to participate in the attack on Iran. - mpg -- A quote...."An Israeli airborne attack on Iran via the Saudi route is practically impossible because of the long distance to prime target at Natanz, near Esfahan and the ability to safely refuel in mid-air, at least twice... " -- See also....

Israel: A Handful of Aerial Tankers and More Regional Sway - Alt
Israel Bolsters KC-707 Refueling Fleet - Alt
Ankara won’t allow Israel to use Turkish airspace in attacking Iran
Israeli Air Force increases KC-707 Tanker Fleet - contains video - Alt/Vid
How would Israel attack Iran?
EADS: Saudis will double order for A330 aerial refueling tanker
EADS tanker program affirms maturity with refueling of NATO AWACS aircraft
Saudis Seek E-3 Fleet Upgrades

Turkey PM says opposed to Iran sanctions, urges diplomacy
A quote...."Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday he did not favor imposing economic sanctions to pressure Iran into showing that it has no covert nuclear weapons program. - Erdogan discussed different approaches with visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel to international efforts to rein in Iran's nuclear ambitions, but made clear Turkey's reluctance to back the use of sanctions." -- also posted at WarInIraq
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Protests worldwide on Aafia Siddiqui Day, Sunday March 28, 2010
Action Update - A quote...."Today is the seventh anniversary of the day that Pakistani neuroscientist Dr. Aafia Siddiqui and her three young children were reportedly abducted in Karachi, leading to Aafia’s disappearance for over five years — when she was apparently held in secret prisoners and subjected to appalling abuse — before she resurfaced in Afghanistan and supposedly attempted to shoot a number of US soldiers."

US Bagram Airbase hit during Obama visit
A quote...."The US Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan has been hit by rockets during an official visit by President Barack Obama to the war-torn country. -- Afghan officials told Press TV on Monday that three rockets targeted the airfield."

Taliban claims shooting down NATO chopper in S Afghanistan
Some quotes...."KABUL, March 29 (Xinhua) -- Taliban militants fighting Afghan and NATO-led troops have claimed responsibility for shooting down a NATO helicopter that crashed in Afghanistan's southern Zabul province on Monday morning." -- "In the press release, the NATO-led ISAF forces also ruled out the involvement of hostile fire in the chopper crash, adding there are no indications that it was caused by insurgent action." -- "This was the third NATO chopper crashed in Afghanistan over the past week. Previously two helicopters crashed in Wardak and Kunduz provinces respectively." --  Editor's Note - If the Afghan resistance can get their hands on, or even worse (or better from their perspective), be able to manufacture (they're really not all that hard to make) effective, long range (ten to twenty miles), man-portable anti-aircraft and anti-amour weapons, the US-NRE's and Israel's neo-colonial ambitions for countries throughout the Middle East would come to an abrupt and highly expensive halt. -- Think of what would happen if Iran decides to make these weapons in quantity and stockpile them in the event they're attacked by Israel.  Which it appears they are in fact doing.  All they'd have to do is release their stockpiles after they'd been attacked and that would be the end of that. - mpg
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Russian ‘Nuke’ Bombers Invade UK Airspace…Again
A quote...."People may be surprised to know that our crews have successfully scrambled to intercept Russian aircraft on more than 20 occasions since the start of 2009. -- "Our pilots, navigators and indeed all the support personnel at RAF Leuchars work very hard to deliver the UK Quick Reaction Alert Force 24 hours a day, which can be scrambled in minutes, to defend the UK from unidentified aircraft entering our airspace, or aircraft in distress." -- Gawd Dang!!  Ain't that amazing folks!!  The UK scrambles their jets within minutes every time an alert occurs to intercept those Ruskies whereas on 9/11 it took almost TWO HOURS for the US-NRE's vaunted Air Force to even TRY to intercept some slow flying  passenger jets. Just think about it for awhile folks....it'll come to you. - mpg

Russia to have military training centre in Kyrgyzstan
A quote...." Russia and Kyrgyzstan have confirmed commitment to an agreement between their Presidents at a summit last summer  for a Russian military training centre on Kyrgyz territory.      Head of the Collective Security Treaty Organization Nikolai Bordiuzha told this to the press on Monday after emerging from talks with officials in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek. He said a formal paper is in the works.     The planned training centre would replace all existing Russian military facilities in Kyrgyzstan  and be available for use by the Joint Rapid Reaction Force of the CSTO. The Organization brings this country and Kyrgyzstan together with Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan."

Putin, China's Xi vow 'strategic' support in first meeting
A quote...."MOSCOW — Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, tipped to become China's president, hailed the strength of bilateral ties Tuesday as they looked to forge a counterbalance to the power of the US. -- "We are in favour of Russia playing an important role in international and regional affairs," Xi, currently China's vice-president, said after the pair held their first talks. "We will surely support you." - also posted at WarInIraq

Castro’s secret archives: US Special Ops prepares to snatch five decades of damaging material
A quote...."(WMR) -- WMR has learned from knowledgeable sources in the Pentagon that the U.S. Special Operations Command has recently been tasked to come up with a covert operation designed to snatch the secret archives complied over five decades by former Cuban President Fidel Castro. -- Our sources report that among Castro’s archives are documents proving the collaboration of top U.S. Mafia figures, including Mafia financial boss Meyer Lansky, with the CIA in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas in 1963. Castro apparently kept track of many of those involved in the assassination of Kennedy because they were also actively involved in anti-Castro plots associated with right-wing Cuban exiles that were organized out of Miami, New Orleans, Houston, and Dallas, cities where the Mafia was extremely active."

Honduras: The risks of Practicing Journalism
A quote...."Tegucigalpa, Mar 29 (Prensa Latina) Honduras has become one of the most dangerous places to practice journalism if we take into account the murders of five journalists during March. --   The most recent crimes took place last weekend in Olancho department, where hired assassins massacred Jose Bayardo Mairena and Victor Manuel Juarez some minutes after they finished a space news program in Super 10 radio station in Catacamas locality." -- Hillary must be so "exicited" by her new death squads, she might even be "turned on" by the photos in the article above.  These are the people you vote for folks, and this is what they knowingly enable. - mpg -- For more on this issue see....Hideous Hillary's New Death Squads

Obama Just Got His Private Army
A quote...."Remember when Obama said he wanted a “national security force”? Not the national guard, but a civilian one that has not sworn to uphold the Constitution? On July 2, 2008 in a speech in Colorado Springs, Barack Obama called for a police state. -- Remember that first alarming glimpse of what that army might look like? Notice how much these “Hitler youth” type young men talk about health care! -- Obama just got his private army…  …And no one seems to have noticed. It is buried in the Senate revisions to the health care bill."
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More on Obama's Insurance Bail-Out-Boondoggle No-Care Bill....

Rep. Burgess: Government Can Force Us to Buy General Motors Products If Obamacare Mandate Upheld in Court
A quote...."CNSNews.com also asked Burgess, “If the federal government mandates that you have to purchase health insurance, is there any legal commodity that the federal government cannot require individuals to purchase?” --  “That’s the next step and what else?” said Burgess. “Could the federal government require all of us to purchase a General Motors product? And the answer is yes.” --  “If this mandate is ruled, upheld by the courts, it opens the door for all kinds of mischief by the federal government,” he said.  “We’ll be better off not opening this door or closing it very, very quickly.”
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Algerian authorities arrest Mossad agent holding forged passport
A quote...."ALGERIA, (PIC)-- Algerian newspaper revealed on Sunday that the authorities in Algeria arrested a secret agent working for the Mossad, Israel’s intelligence apparatus, and holding a forged Spanish passport." - also posted at Uruknet

Report: Israel copied thousands of passports
Special Note - Hey folks....remember the fifteen "named" Saudi "citizens" out of the nineteen "terrorists" (patsies) who carried out 9/11, many of whom later turned out to be alive?  No doubt many of the terrorist-patsies were indeed Saudi citizens, but many of them also weren't who the FBI claimed them to be.  That EXACT sort of thing will usually happen with pass-port duplication.  Gee, one wonders why the 9/11 commission didn't investigate this issue, or the FBI.  One TRULY wonders what country would have been highly motivated to "help" lamp-light (pave the way) for a terrorist attack on the US-NRE to enable the completion of the PNAC Protocols?  A quote shown below....


Must be just ANOTHER one of those amazing coincidences, ain't that right folks? - mpg

Militia Raids Part Of Government Effort to Provoke Violence, Purge Dissent
Ahhhh, but please note, the FBI is really good at creating wannabe "terrorists" out of illiterate, dope-smoking, homeless, dim-wited, crack addicts, living in trailer parks and empty warehouses.  By the way, from this website editor's point of view should all this time, energy and tax payer dollars the FBI is so lavishly spending on behalf of our parasitic class's plans of propaganda detract from the search for actual terrorist groups out there -- and after hundreds of thousands of Muslims have been tortured, imprisoned and millions made homeless or murdered under the US-NRE's auspices, rest assured there are a few out there  --  and this lack of focus results in a REAL terrorist attack, Americans should hold every member of the FBI responsible. - mpg -- A quote...."News of a bust on nine members of a militia group in Detroit who were planning to “levy war” against the United States and “oppose by force” the nation’s government, should be treated with extreme suspicion, given that every major terror bust in the U.S. in recent years has been contrived." - also posted at DProgram
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More On The Palestinian Situation....

Tzipi Livni: “the ONLY targets are Military targets” A Video by Shadi Nassar
Video - (This is a must view video) - Alt/Vid#1-BlipTV - Alt/Site - Alt/Vid#2-VodPod - AltSite -- This video was previously posted on this site, but I can't find it anywhere. Most curious. As a result of this indiscretion by this website editor, it'll be posted at the top of this page for a period of thirty days, 'till 03-28-10 - Please post it on your website and pass it on. - mpg -- A quote...."A truly outstanding video by Shadi Nassar that shows clips of Tzipi Livni and others, during the Israeli wanton destruction of Gaza known as “Operation Cast Lead”. Her words contradict the actions of her government and army." - For more on this issue see....No Leadership From Obama. - Oh Contraire! - 12-28-08 - mpg  & Gaza Invasion of 12/27/08

A Thirteen Year Old Girl in Israeli Jail
A quote...."Israeli soldiers detained a thirteen-year- old girl from her home in the Old City of Hebron on Tuesday the 23rd of March.  At about 5:45 PM, CPTers followed four soldiers as they entered the girl’s home and ordered the entire family to the roof.  Once on the roof, a fifth soldier from a permanent post on a neighboring Israeli settler home ordered the family’s three teenage daughters to one side of the roof.  The soldier singled out the thirteen-year- old and accused her of throwing a stone.  The girl’s mother protested saying that minutes before she had notified this soldier about settlers throwing stones at her as she hung her laundry and that he had seen settlers throwing stones.  She was dumbfounded that the soldier’s response was to call another unit of soldiers to detain her daughter." - also posted at Uruknet

Revealing maltreatment in Israeli Jails
Full quote...."Gaza, March 29, (Pal Telegraph) The Palestinian Center for Defending the prisoners, and according to one of the editors who were released from Israeli jails, revealed that one of the prisoners patients was blinded and lost the sense of sight, showing that the prisoner suffered initially from a simple disease in his eye like "Ophthalmology spring," while the Prison’s administration has refused to provide treatment to him, and rejected his submission to the prison doctor, which resulted, after months, his health deteriorated rapidly and that cost him the sense of sight. -- The Palestinian Center for Defending the Prisoners warned that the continued adoption by the Israeli occupation authorities and the prison administration of the policy of the deliberate medical neglect against the prisoners in the prisons, considering that it as a “ deliberate and slow death”. - also posted at Uruknet

Army Invades Khan Younis, Israeli Leaders Weigh Resumption Of Assassinations
A quote...."Several armored military vehicles carried on Sunday morning a limited invasion into Khan Youni, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip. The latest attack comes admits talks of a likely resumption of assassinations in the coastal region. Israeli Finance Minister called for “reoccupying” Gaza and “eliminating Hamas”. " - also posted at AlethoNews & WarInIraq
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It's Official - America Now Enforces Capital Controls
Special Note - Financial Warning - Capital Controls (have now been implemented!) -- A quote...."It couldn't have happened to a nicer country. On March 18, with very little pomp and circumstance, president Obama passed the most recent stimulus act, the $17.5 billion Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act (H.R. 2487), brilliantly goalseeked by the administration's millionaire cronies to abbreviate as HIRE. As it was merely the latest in an endless stream of acts destined to expand the government payroll to infinity, nobody cared about it, or actually read it. Because if anyone had read it, the act would have been known as the Capital Controls Act, as one of the lesser, but infinitely more important provisions on page 27, known as Offset Provisions - Subtitle A—Foreign Account Tax Compliance, institutes just that. In brief, the Provision requires that foreign banks not only withhold 30% of all outgoing capital flows (likely remitting the collection promptly back to the US Treasury) but also disclose the full details of non-exempt account-holders to the US and the IRS." -- Everybody should take their capital out of the US-NRE NOW!!! - mpg

The NY Fed's Trading Desk Head Laments The End Of Stupid Leverage And Wants His Derivatives Back (Or Why We Are Stuck With ZIRP For A Long, Long Time) -- A quote...."Does anybody notice the blatant contradiction between what the Fed "wants" and what Dodd's proposed toothless reform is expected to "achieve." Regulatory capture and hypocrisy aside, it is reading between Brian's lines that is critical. Sack realizes that the Fed will need to start raising rates at some point: be it in H2, in 2011, 2015, 2999, some time. In the meantime the marginal benefit to banks P&Ls as a function of the record steepness is already getting exhausted. The only way to counteract this: begin the shadow leverage play once again. However, to cover up its tracks, the Fed wants banks to preempt its flattening initative by expanding on securitization ahead of rate hikes, thus minimizing the impact of the most artificial monetary environment in the history of America. Should we go from a 300 bps curve to 100, it is a virtual certainty that merely that move alone will be enough to if not destroy a few of the TBTFs, then require a new and much more sizable reimplementation of TARP. What is most troubling, is that the Fed, just like the clueless-in-all-matters-economic Obama administration does not realize the difference between supply push and demand pull."

More Than Meets The Bottom Line: Are Banks Getting Crushed Due To Negative Swap Spreads And The $154 Trillion IR-Derivative Market? -- A quote...."Lots of confused chatter in the bond community as to why the negative swap spread story (anywhere between 7Y and 30Y) is being largely ignored by the media. After all, the associated market, which according to the BIS was roughly $154 TRillion in June 30 makes the Greek bond debacle and various sovereign CDS discussions in the media pale in comparison. As several bond traders pointed out, the likelihood of negative spreads having been modelled out by the TBTFs is very low, if any, meaning that unhedged bank IR-swap exposure is suffering massively, and is likely to surpass all record past prop desk losses. In fact, rumors abound that a few of the desks having placed leveraged bets on spread divergence over the past months and years are currently in critical condition, yet nobody is discussing this for fear of another round of bank run concerns among the TBTF banks."

March 29, 2010 Total Debt Subject To Limit: $12,629,674,000,000
A quote...."Total US Debt Subject To Limit: $12,629,674,000,000.
Total debt at the beginning of March: 12,383,717,000,000
Net debt (includes Trust Funds and marketable debt) issuance month to date: $246 billion."

• Net Bills issued: $107 billion
• Net Notes issued: $138 billion
  
• Net Bonds issued: $13 billion
  

"Debt limit: $14,294,000,000,000. Debt capacity: $1.665 trillion and dropping. At $220 mBillion per month in net new issuance as projeced by the CBO, this will last the US just under 8 months."

Film: Money as Debt - Alt/1 - Alt/2 - (GoogleVideo - 47min:07sec - 2 years ago)
Video - Special Note - From the history file - 2 years ago - (previously posted) -- A quote...."Paul Grignon’s 47-minute animated presentation of “Money as Debt” tells in very simple and effective graphic terms what money is and how it is being created. It is an entertaining way to get the message out." - For more on this issue see....$1.3 Quadrillion and Counting - 09-18-08 - mpg

Ireland poised for new bank bailout
A quote...."Irish taxpayers face pouring billions more euros into their troubled banking sector on what is being dubbed "bailout Tuesday". -- The government is expected to take bigger stakes in Allied Irish Banks and Bank of Ireland as the property lending spree that took place before the 2007 credit crunch continues to knock holes in their battered balance sheets."

Sunday March 28th 2010

No posts. - mpg

Saturday March 27th 2010

An Act of Treason by Members of the United States Congress?
Video - Alt - (YouTube - 2 min 19 sec - March 27, 2010) -- A quote..."March 27, 2010 — It must have been realised that the letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, signed by nearly 300 members of the U.S. Congress, affirming their commitment to Israel, would be widely publicised and fall into the hands of that illegal Apartheid State, so the writing and signing of that letter should be considered an act of treason. - The letter has totally undermined the power of the President of the United States by virtually telling Israel: "It does not matter what you do to the Palestinians, how many illegal structures you build on the territory you stole from them; how you behave towards the Lebanese, or what you have in mind for Iran, we, the signatories on this letter are with you, all the way." -- That's right folks, working for another foreign power, especially one with only five and half million people, to the detriment of a nation with three hundred and twenty million people, and actually signing a letter to that effect practically swearing fealty to such a country, is not only treason, it's stupid! - mpg

Stop Funding the Israelis
A quote...."If Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to the AIPAC conference isn’t a reason for the US to declare – finally – that they’ve had quite enough of the "special relationship," then nothing is. After ambushing the Vice President of the United States with an announcement that new "settlements" are in the works, the Prime Minister then took his anti-American jihad to the enemy’s very gates, in Washington, D.C., where he invoked what Cato policy analyst Justin Logan trenchantly described  as "the fallacy of ‘39": - also posted at PatrickBuchanan

Bibi's Hollow Victory
A quote...."Given the irreconcilable positions, the deadlock, why will Israel not prevail as she always prevails in such collisions? Why would Bibi's "No" to Obama's demand for a halt to the building of settlements and a cancellation of the 1,600 housing units in Jerusalem not be the final and irrevocable answer that Obama must grudgingly accept? -- Answer: There is a new party to the quarrel: the U.S. military, in the person of Gen. David Petraeus. -- According to Foreign Policy magazine, in January, a delegation of senior officers from Petraeus' command were sent to brief Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Michael Mullen." - also posted at ICH -- And no sooner did the letters leave Buchanan's pen than did David Petraeus back down, (see article shown below). It was Staff Adm. Michael Mullen himself who was once reputed to have said of Petraeus that he was an "ass-kissing little chicken sh-t".  If accurate, never were truer words spoken. - mpg

Petraeus Backs Down - Petraeus to Ashkenazi: I never said Israel policy endangers U.S.
A quote...."March 26, 2010 "Haaretz " -- Commander of the U.S. Military's Central Command Gen. David Petraeus phoned his Israeli counterpart, Gabi Ashkenazi, this week to deny reports that he had blamed Israeli policy for the failure in a regional solution and for endangering U.S. interests." -- Squawk!!  Squawk!!  Cluck, Cluck, Cluck!  Squuuaaaawwwk!!! - mpg

Norman Finkelstein – 3-23-2010 Democracy NOW!
Videos - Special Note -  NF(1/2) - NF(2/2) -- A quote...."The first part of that interview is on Youtube so I have it here on this site… Part 1 (of Part 1) is below… Part 2 (of Part 1) is after the break. Watch those, then go to Democracy Now and watch the best interview with Norman Finkelstein I have ever seen." - [Shown below]

Part II: Scholar Norman Finkelstein on Next Steps Towards Resolution in Israel-Palestine
Must View Video - (Absolutely outstanding - a must view!!) -- A quote...."Norman Finkelstein is author of several books on the Israel Palestine conflict. His latest is This Time We Went Too Far: Truth & Consequences of the Gaza Invasion. It’s available only at OrBooks.com. - In Part II of our conversation, Finkelstein discusses lessons he learned from Gandhi, the role of public opinion in politics, and more." -- ||  Listen-Mp3  ||
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Obama administration pushes for more war funding
A quote...."Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appeared on Capitol Hill Thursday, March 25, to launch the Obama administration’s drive to secure nearly $40 billion in supplemental appropriations, the bulk of it to fund the escalation of the Afghanistan war." - also posted at Uruknet

Iraq unable to deal with numerous mass graves
A quote...."A senior Iraqi official says Baghdad does not have the means and expertise to deal with the high numbers of mass graves being discovered. -- Ayam Sharif, the head of the Department of Terror and Victims at the Ministry of Human Rights, said that 84 mass graves were discovered in the country last year, all of which held victims of the post-Saddam violence that has rent the fabric of the country. " - bold by website editor - For more on this issue see....US support Death Sqds

Allawi wins Iraq election by two seats: official results
A quote...."Former premier Iyad Allawi's secular Iraqiya bloc won the most seats in Iraq's March 7 parliamentary election, two more than incumbent Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's bloc, official results showed Friday."

Maliki to seek court order for vote recount
A quote...."Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's coalition is set to ask a court to order a manual recount of ballots cast in the March 7 polls, citing reports of fraud in two major cities."

Maliki's forces move against winning Sunni candidates
A quote...."BAGHDAD , Iraq_At least four Sunni Muslim candidates who appear to have won parliamentary seats on the winning ticket of secular leader Ayad Allawi have become targets of investigation by security forces reporting to the narrowly defeated Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki , according to interviews Saturday with relatives, Iraqi security forces and the U.S. military." - also posted at Uruknet

US marine to stand trial for Haditha killings
A quote...."A US military judge Friday denied a bid to dismiss charges against a former squadron leader accused in the 2005 killings of 24 Iraqi civilians after a roadside bomb attack."
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An Unaccustomed Truth: American Commander Admits Afghan Atrocities
It appears to have been an accident, admitting the truth that is, rest assured it won't ever happen again. - mpg -- A quote...."One can only assume that the regular editors of the New York Times were all out at a party, or left early for a weekend in the Hamptons, or something -- but somehow, the paper published a front webpage story that stated -- without the usual thousand excuses and extenuations -- that American troops are routinely slaughtering Afghan civilians at checkpoints. What's more, the story unequivocally ties the civilian killings to the "surge" ordered by the noble Nobel Peace laureate, Barack Obama." - also posted at Uruknet

Taliban Securing Kandahar Neighborhoods Ahead of US Invasion
A quote...."NATO saw significant criticism for its invasion of Marjah last month, after over a month of US pledges to invade the tiny farming community gave local insurgents ample time to litter the roads with IEDs, leaving them with a much more difficult than expected fight, despite sending some 15,000 troops." - also posted at Uruknet

NATO Tries to Silence a Truth-Teller in Afghanistan After Killing Pregnant Women
Propaganda Alert - Contains Video - A quote...."Q: Why would U.S. and allied forces in Afghanistan go out of their way to smear a journalist? -- A: Because he told the truth about a night raid that killed Afghan civilians, including pregnant women. - Last week, I spoke with Afghanistan-based journalist Jerome Starkey about his reporting on special forces raids that killed civilians and NATOs surprising–and disappointing–response. This video contains disturbing images, and an even more disturbing story of violence, and an attempt to silence a truth-teller. It shows why its absolutely essential that we keep pushing back against the Pentagon’s message machine." -- also posted at ICH & Uruknet - For more on this issue see....US Fake Intel / Propaganda

Botched raid in Afghanistan covered up by NATO
Related Article - A quote...."In the predawn hours of Friday, February 12, two pregnant women, a teenage girl and two local officials were shot to death in their home in Afghanistan." -- also posted at Uruknet

Leaked e-mail links Merkel to controversial Afghan air strike
A quote...."CHANCELLOR ANGELA Merkel’s office was informed hours after a German-ordered air strike in Afghanistan last September that civilians were among the casualties, contrary to previous claims about the controversial bombing."
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The Bloody Hands of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar
A quote...."(Kabul:) The insurgent group Hezb-i-Islami (there’s an affiliated political party of the same name) is led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar,* arguably the most brutal Afghan warlord of the past 30 years. - During the first half of Afghanistan’s civil war in the 1990’s, Hekmatyar’s forces committed atrocities that elsewhere in the world are met with international arrest warrants and indictments for war crimes and crimes against humanity –not hints of future inclusion in government." - also posted at Uruknet - *link added -- For more on this issue see....

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CIA report into shoring up Afghan war support in Western Europe
Special Note - Propaganda Alert - Wikileaks -- A quote...."March 26, 2010 - This classified CIA analysis from March, outlines possible PR-strategies to shore up public support in Germany and France for a continued war in Afghanistan. After the dutch government fell on the issue of dutch troops in Afghanistan last month, the CIA became worried that similar events could happen in the countries that post the third and fourth largest troop contingents to the ISAF-mission. The proposed PR strategies focus on pressure points that have been identified within these countries. For France it is the sympathy of the public for Afghan refugees and women. For Germany it is the fear of the consequences of defeat (drugs, more refugees, terrorism) as well as for Germany’s standing in the NATO. The memo is an recipe for the targeted manipulation of public opinion in two NATO ally countries, written by the CIA. It is classified as Confidential / No Foreign Nationals..." - bold by website editor - also posted at ICH & RawStory & Uruknet

'CIA seeks using Afghan women to promote war'
Related Article - A quote...."The CIA has called for recruiting Afghan women in a public relations bid to persuade Europeans to support war in Afghanistan, a document leaked to the media has revealed." - also posted at AlethoNews & WarInIraq

Leaked CIA Report: "Public Apathy Enables Leaders To Ignore Voters" In Waging Endless Wars
Related Article - A leaked CIA report PDF says:  Public apathy enables leaders to ignore voters. -- The report is discussing apathy among the French and German people to their countries' involvement in the war in Afghanistan, but the same is true to the apathy of Americans towards the Iraq and other wars as well. -- For a little background on the manipulation of public opinion, see this and this."

The war on WikiLeaks and why it matters
Contains Videos - Special Note - Related Article - A quote...."It's both interesting and revealing that the CIA sees Obama as a valuable asset in putting a pretty face on our wars in the eyes of foreign populations. It is odious -- though, of course, completely unsurprising -- that the CIA plots ways to manipulate public opinion in foreign countries in order to sustain support for our wars.  Now that this is a Democratic administration doing this and a Democratic war at issue, I doubt many people will object to any of this.  But what is worth noting is how and why this classified Report was made publicly available:  because it was leaked to and then posted by WikiLeaks.org, the site run by the non-profit group Sunshine Press, that is devoted to exposing suppressed government and corporate corruption by publicizing many of their most closely guarded secrets." - also posted at Uruknet

War on whistleblower: CIA spies on WikiLeaks for 'Pentagon murder cover-up' exposure?
RTVideo - Alt - (RTYuTb - 6 min 21 sec - March 26, 2010) -- A quote...."The Pentagon has been accused of spying on a whistleblower website that specialises in leaking top secret documents. The US Army has already labeled the website as a security threat. Now Wikileaks - which won Amnesty Internationals news media award last year - has issued a statement claiming its editors are being investigated: WikiLeaks is currently under an aggressive US and Icelandic surveillance operation, - the claim published on Tweeter said."

Something Is Rotten in the State of Iceland
Web Censorship Action/Alert - Related Article - A quote...."Developing world violence aside, we’ve become used to the level of security service interest in us and have established procedures to ignore that interest. -- But the increase in surveillance activities this last month, in a time when we are barely publishing due to fundraising, are excessive. Some of the new interest is related to a film exposing a U.S. massacre we will release at the U.S. National Press Club on April 5." -- Support WikiLeaks in its effort to fight intimidation.
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Korea Tensions Pale Alongside Agenda To Attack Iran
A quote...."An incident in the Yellow Sea that could trigger further heightened tension between North and South Korea is likely to be played down by the globalist power structure in the U.S. because it threatens the focus of their agenda in the middle east."

No assent given to US drone attacks:Pakistan
A quote...."Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik says the US drone attacks in the tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan are carried out without the consent of Islamabad."

U.S. Plunges Central America Back To Era Of Coups And Death Squads
A quote...."March 24th of this year was the thirtieth anniversary of the assassination of Oscar Arnulfo Romero, the Roman Catholic archbishop of El Salvador. - His killing drew attention to the murderous rampages of death squads in that nation and throughout Central America as no other slaying had, although hundreds of thousands of civilians were slaughtered in El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Honduras before and during the 1980s by paramilitary formations usually led by graduates of the U.S.'s School of the Americas and covertly funded by the same nation's Central Intelligence Agency."
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Rule by fear or rule by law?
A quote...."U.S. Rep. Jane Harman, D-Venice (Los Angeles County) has come up with a new way to expand the domestic "war on terror." Her Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007 (HR1955), which passed the House by the lopsided vote of 404-6, would set up a commission to "examine and report upon the facts and causes" of so-called violent radicalism and extremist ideology, then make legislative recommendations on combatting it." -- also posted at DProgram

9/11 Truth: Treason in America Conference - Alt - (RTYuTb - 8 min 23 sec - March 08, 2010)
RTVideo - A quote...."There is a growing number of Americans who believe 9/11 was an inside job. 9/11 truthers, as they are known, attended a two day conference that was called Treason in America, in the hopes of bringing awareness to their cause. Is this a signal that the movement is gaining traction?" -- For more on this issue see....Reficultnias's 9/11 Central

‘Has the FBI Infiltrated the Tea Parties?’
HECK! Who do you think has been doing all that nasty "agent provocateur" stuff?  OK, lets get a little bit real, some of the Tea Partiers are a few beers short of a six-pack, not to mention completely racist.  But who do you think encourages some of them in their anti-social behavior?  Gives them a little nudge in the wrong direction? - mpg - A quote...."A friend asked me that question yesterday. Of course, I said. We know that Homeland Security considers Ron Paul supporters and other libertarians to be potential terrorists (which is all you need to know about the state’s use of that term). In the 1970s, the FBI had agents at the tiny Libertarian party’s conventions. Now the FBI and other spy agencies are vastly bigger. There are the federal and state DHSs. Then there is the CIA, other intelligence agencies, and what used to be called the Red Squads of state and local police departments. There are probably hundreds of thousands of government spies in the land of the free." - also posted at DProgram

The McCain-Lieberman Police State Act
Special Note - A quote...."If enacted, it will advance what this writer addressed in a December 2007 article titled, "Police State America - A Look Back and Ahead," covering numerous Bush administration laws, Executive Orders (EOs), National and Homeland Security Presidential Directives, edicts, and various illegal acts targeting designated domestic and foreign adversaries, dissent, civil liberties, human rights, and other democratic freedoms." - For more on this issue see....


Pope accused of mishandling case of German paedophile priest
Germans abandon Catholic Church
Kueng charges Pope with role in cover-up
The Great Catholic Cover-Up
Regarding the four articles shown above....In the four and a half years this website has been up and running this website editor has probably only posted ten articles on this ongoing scandal.  Not being Catholic, this website editor is hesitant to give advice but each time the issue has been addressed on this website, it has been strongly urged that this situation MUST be taken care of.

That the Catholic Church has a duty to remove, de-frock, prosecute and even ex-communicate any members of the Church who engage in these sorts of activities.

It should also be apparent by now to absolutely everyone that the Church must not only lift the ban on marriage for their priests, they should in fact encourage them to get married, that only by practicing what they preach, the life time loving union between a man and a woman -- and thereby encouraging people who SHARE these values to JOIN the Church and encouraging those who don't to LEAVE  --  will they bring these abhorrent acts of abuse to an end. - mpg
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More on Obama's Insurance Bail-Out-Boondoggle No-Care Bill....

Don’t Be Fooled: Republicans Love Government Enforced Healthcare
A quote...."Forget all the self-serving diatribes by Republicans about Obamacare. They are for government enforced health care. “Republicans were for President Barack Obama’s requirement that Americans get health insurance before they were against it,” the Associated Press reports this morning. -- Republicans trumpeted the “obligation” (at gunpoint) that Americans buy health care insurance from large monopolistic corporations for decades, long before Hill and Bill attempted to foist their version on the plebs. -- Republican statists view health care at gunpoint as a “free-market route to guarantee coverage for all Americans — the answer to liberal ambitions for a government-run entitlement like Medicare." - also posted at DProgram

Flashback: House Speaker Pelosi admits JAIL is fair for not buying health insurance – 11-9-09
Contains Video - A quote...."During a press conference at Swedish Medical Center in Seattle, Nancy Pelosi skirted a surprise question, twice. The questions pertained to 5-year jail terms and $250,000 fines for those refusing to buy health insurance under her plan. However, she did say her plan was “fair”."
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More On The Palestinian Situation....

When it comes to E Jerusalem, ‘NPR’ misleads and misinforms
Presstitute Alert - AIPAC Lackey Alert - A quote...."It’s been almost two weeks since I wrote to National Public Radio’s senior Washington editor, Ron Elving, and to the network’s ombudsman, Alicia Shepard, to ask why Elving used an Israeli formulation – "disputed" area – to characterize East Jerusalem, instead of calling it "occupied," the term used by the U.S. government, the United Nations, the International Court of Justice, and virtually every other international body. So far, neither has replied." - also posted at AlethoNews & WarInIraq

By the Maps: Understanding Israel's Increasing Grip On Jerusalem - Alt - (YuTb - 5m32s - March 26'10)
Must View Video - (Here's the TRUTH) - A quote...."A video briefing explaining Israel's continued and expanding grip on Jerusalem since the occupation began in 1967."

Erdogan Netanyahu's statement on Jerusalem "madness"
A quote...."TRIPOLI, (PIC)-- Turkish premier Recep Erdogan has described Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu's statement about retaining Jerusalem as the eternal, unified capital of Israel as sheer "madness". -- He said in a statement at the inaugural session of the Arab summit in Libya that the statement would lead to serious consequences affecting the enire region."

UN chief says Israeli settlement activities illegal
A quote...."SIRTE, Libya, March 27 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary General Ban Ki- moon said Israeli settlement activities are illegal and against the international law, stressing that they should come to an end. -- In a speech at the opening session of the 22nd Arab Summit, the UN chief addressed that the significance of Jerusalem should be respected as a capital for both Israel and the future Palestinian state."

Israeli invasion into southeastern Gaza kills 4, injures 8, destroys a home and ravages farmland
A quote...."On 26 March, fighting erupted between Palestinian resistance and invading Israeli soldiers when IOF jeeps, tanks, and bulldozers invaded, supported by F-16s, Apache helicopters and unmanned drones from above." - also posted at Uruknet

Palestinian Political Prisoners
A quote...."The numbers vary but range at any time from over 7,000 to 12,000 or more. In April 2008, the Adalah Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel cited 11,000, including 345 children and 98 women. Over 1,000 suffered from chronic or other diseases. Around 150 were seriously ill from heart disease, cancer, and other diseases, and 195 or more Palestinians died or were killed in prison since 1967."

"Foreign fraud aimed at controlling territory in Sinai has Israeli involvement"
A quote...."Sinai PpeninsulaIt has been alleged that foreign control of large swathes of the Sinai Peninsula has been obtained through fraud. The claim was made by Egyptian writer and intellectual Fahmi Howeidi, who revealed that over "800 sq.km of the peninsula has been obtained by foreigners, including Israelis, by fraudulent means". An additional 1000 residential units in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh's have also come under foreign control fraudulently. The land deals in question have been concluded by an Egyptian corporation that is, claimed Mr. Howeidi, a front for a German company which used eleven lawyers to "fix 450 judicial rulings through which the registration and payments outside Egypt took place successfully".
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Obama: Inside Man for the Greatest Heist in History
A quote...."Black America and “progressives” lurched into self-imposed irrelevancy at precisely the time that finance capital was swallowing the American state whole. Barack Obama is the Great Facilitator of Wall Street's desperate effort to loot itself out of oblivion. Disaster is certain if we remain without a movement that confronts both the banksters and Obama."

Bankers named suspected conspirators in muni case
A quote...."(Reuters) - Nearly 30 bankers from more than a dozen financial companies have been named by the federal government as suspected co-conspirators in a broad investigation into pricing of certain municipal derivatives, according to court documents."

The Case for Buying Foreign Bonds from Low-Deficit Countries
A quote...."Bill Gross is recommending that investors buy the debt of low-deficit countries. Via Business Week:


Four banks fail; FDIC pulls back on loss shares
A quote...."(Reuters) - Four small banks across the United States were seized by regulators on Friday evening, ticking up the year bank failure tally to 41."

Central Banks Stashing Away Gold at Brisk Pace
A quote...."Central banks around the world added 425.4 metric tons of gold to their reserves last year, the biggest increase since 1964, according to the World Gold Council." - also posted at BLN

Friday March 26th 2010

No posts. - mpg

Thursday March 25th 2010

“The US government does not want it known that it was using chemicals on human beings in a country whose leader it overthrew ostensibly because he retained the capacity to do the same thing.” - also posted at ICH

"a giveaway to the insurance industry -- $70 billion a year, and no guarantees of any control over premiums, forcing people to buy private insurance. I just don't see that this bill is the solution."