• The United States’ — and the World’s — Weakest Link •

New York Times — by Frank Rich — 25 July 2010 — She speaks with hard-won authority. While America’s progress on race has been epic since the days when Sherrod’s father could be murdered with impunity, we have been going backward since Election Day 2008.

THE GLITTERING YOUNG BLONDE IN A LOW-CUT GOWN IS SIPPING champagne in a swank Manhattan restaurant back in the day when things were still swank. She is on a first date with an advertising man as dashing as his name, Don Draper. So you don’t really expect her to break the ice by talking about bad news. “The world is so dark right now,” she says. “One of the boys killed in Mississippi, Andrew Goodman — he’s from here. A girlfriend of mine knew him from summer camp.” Her date is too busy studying her décolletage, so she fills in the dead air. “Is that what it takes to change things?” she asks. He ventures no answer.
• Philadelphia, Mississippi in 1964 •
This is just one arresting moment — no others will be mentioned here — in the first episode of the new “Mad Men” season premiering tonight. Like much in this landmark television series, the scene haunts you in part because of what people don’t say and can’t say. “Mad Men” is about placid postwar America before it went smash. We know from the young woman’s reference to Goodman — one of the three civil rights activists murdered in Philadelphia, Miss., in June 1964 — that the crackup is on its way. But the characters can’t imagine the full brunt of what’s to come, and so a viewer in 2010 is left to contemplate how none of us, then or now, can see around the corner and know what history will bring.

• Another piece of metal memorializing murder victims •
This country was rightly elated when it elected its first African-American president more than 20 months ago. That high was destined to abate, but we reached a new low last week. What does it say about America now, and where it is heading, that a racial provocateur, wielding a deceptively edited video, could not only smear an innocent woman but make every national institution that touched the story look bad? The White House, the N.A.A.C.P. and the news media were all soiled by this episode. Meanwhile, the majority of Americans, who believe in fundamental fairness for all, grapple with the poisonous residue left behind by the many powerful people of all stripes who served as accessories to a high-tech lynching.

• Ms. Shirley Sherrod •
Even though the egregiously misleading excerpt from Shirley Sherrod’s 43-minute speech came from Andrew Breitbart, the dirty trickster notorious for hustling skewed partisan videos on Fox News, few questioned its validity. That the speech had been given at an N.A.A.C.P. event, with N.A.A.C.P. officials as witnesses, did not prevent even the N.A.A.C.P. from immediately condemning Sherrod for “shameful” actions. As the world knows now, her talk (flogged by Fox as “what racism looks like”) was an uplifting parable about how she had risen above her own trials in the Jim Crow South to aid poor people of every race during her long career in rural development.

The smear might well have stuck if the white octogenarian farmer saved by Sherrod 24 years ago was no longer alive and if he didn’t look like a Norman Rockwell archetype. Only his and his wife’s testimony to her good deeds on CNN could halt the lynching party. Tom Vilsack, the secretary of agriculture who fired Sherrod without questioning the video’s patently spurious provenance, was far slower to reverse himself than the N.A.A.C.P. Good for him that he seemed genuinely chagrined once he did apologize. But an executive so easily bullied by Fox News has no more business running a government department than Ken Salazar, the secretary of interior who let oil companies run wild on deepwater drilling until disaster struck. That the White House sat back while Vilsack capitulated to a mob is a disgraceful commentary on both its guts and competence. This wasn’t a failure of due diligence — there was no diligence.

Even now, I wonder if many of those who have since backtracked from the Sherrod smear — including some in the news business who reported on the video without vetting it — watched her entire speech. What’s important is not the exculpatory evidence that clears her of a trumped-up crime. What matters is Sherrod’s own story.

She was making the speech in Georgia, her home state, on March 27, the 45th anniversary of her father’s funeral. He had been murdered when she was 17, leaving behind five children and a wife who was pregnant with a sixth. Sherrod had grown up in Baker County, a jurisdiction ruled by a notorious racist sheriff, L. Warren Johnson, who was nicknamed “Gator” for a reason. Black men were routinely murdered there but the guilty were never brought to justice. As Sherrod recounted, not even three witnesses to her father’s murder could persuade the grand jury to indict the white suspect.

• Mr. Charles Sherrod •
Sherrod had long thought she’d flee the South, but had an epiphany on the night of her father’s death. “I couldn’t just let his death go without doing something in answer to what happened,” she said. So she made the commitment to stay and devote her life to “working for change.” She later married Charles Sherrod, a minister and co-founder of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, whose heroic efforts to advance desegregation, including his imprisonment, can be found in any standard history of the civil rights movement.

• SNCC •
None of this legacy, much of it accessible to anyone who wanted to look (or ask), prevented the tarring of Shirley Sherrod last week. And it all unfolded while the country was ostentatiously marking the 50th anniversary of “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

• Atticus Finch, from To Kill A Mockingbird •
— To read the rest click HERE! —

Original post 2009-12-30

Mario Savio, University of California
at Berkeley Free Speech Movement • December 2nd, 1964 •

• The Only Way to Peace is Through US People •
• Be Part of History! •

• High Time to get Tough •

Independent Political Report — by Cindy Sheehan — 21 July 2010 — If there existed an antiwar movement that had integrity — it would have said that “all wars are dumb,” and we withhold our support for just another dyed-in-the-wool warmonger.

DURING THE CAMPAIGN, MANY COLLEAGUES AND FRIENDS OF MINE ASSURED ME that Obama was just saying this hostile crap to “get elected” and once he was elected that he would “do the right thing.” Well, first of all, why support such a pandering Jackwagon, and secondly, how has that ever worked? Three days after Obama swore to uphold and defend the Constitution, he drone-bombed a “target” in Pakistan killing 3 dozen civilians — and since that day he has elevated the art of drone bombings to new heights, while the so-called antiwar movement looks on in silent complacency and while Democratic operatives disguised as antiwar groups are hoping against hope that Obama comes out strong with a new antiwar marketing campaign to assure his “re-election.” Even though not one progressive issue has been propagated during his term, these war supporters are looking forward to another four years of the dance of death. Right foot kill — left foot torture — spin around for environmental devastation—allemande left for health care fascism — and shimmy right for bankster bailouts. Wasn’t eight years of this crap during the Bush stain enough for y’all?

Many antiwar groups and people who claim they are for peace lose their minds during election season thinking that the razor-thin difference between the Democrat and Republican is enough to go ape-shit crazy in working for the Democrat. Just take the last two Democratic candidates, for example. Kerry and Obama both supported more war. An “antiwar” movement de-legitimizes itself when it works hard for a candidate who does not promise total and rapid withdrawal of troops from wherever they happen to be at the time AND does not promise to end war as an imperial tool of corporate conquest.

The majority of the so-called antiwar movement, in fact, voted for a candidate that PROMISED to contract one war only to be able to profoundly EXPAND another. Obama all along said that he is not against all war, just “dumb wars.” If there existed an antiwar movement that had integrity — it would have said that “all wars are dumb,” and we withhold our support for just another dyed-in-the-wool warmonger

• Cindy Sheehan • True Progressive • True Leader • True Patriot •
Recently, I received an email from Veterans for Peace (VFP) Chapter 136 in Central Florida asking me for an endorsement of its resolution to impeach Barack Obama.

First of all, I would like to commend the Central Florida chapter for its integrity and vision for peace that this resolution exhibits. In my own experience, it’s not even popular to criticize the Dalai Bama, let alone call for his removal from office. Kudos!

Secondly, even though Chapter 136 uses the EXACT SAME references and charges that National VFP used for its resolution to impeach Bush and Cheney, I have little hope that National VFP will pass a similar resolution at its national convention. It’s unfortunate that standards are rarely applied equally across the board. I “hope” I am wrong.

In 2005, National VFP called for impeaching the Bush criminals even before it was en vogue to be against the regime. I remember being severely and thoroughly attacked by the left, right and in between for riding to Crawford in a bus driven by VFP members that had “IMPEACH BUSH” written across the sides in huge letters. On November 5th, 2004, I was myself in the avant-garde of calling for Bush’s impeachment just a day after his “re-election” to a second term.

In 2007, I announced my electoral challenge to Speaker of the House, Nancy “Impeachment off the Table” Pelosi because I felt so strongly in this Constitutional remedy to a criminal executive. Did I believe I would win? Just about as much as I believe that Nancy will impeach someone from her own party if she wouldn’t impeach a scoundrel like Bush.

But like VFP’s resolution says:

“We want to emphasize that our chapter’s call for the Impeachment
of President Obama for war crimes is not based on whether or not
Impeachment is likely to occur, but rather our call for Impeachment
is based on what we as Veterans For Peace feel is our duty
in the case where war crimes are being committed under
the command and authority of any United States President.”

PROSECUTE THEM NOW! endorses this call for impeachment of President Obama

This is the text of the resolution:
IMPEACHMENT OF PRESIDENT BARACK H. OBAMA FOR WAR CRIMES
Whereas Barack H. Obama is Commander In Chief of the U.S. Armed Forces and the head of the Executive Branch of the U.S. government; and,

Whereas the illegal U.S. invasion, bombing and occupation of Iraq initiated by the Bush administration continues under the Obama administration; and,

Whereas the U.S. government is currently engaged in illegal wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan and Obama has pledged to increase the number of military personnel and the amount of tax dollars spent on the wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan; and,

Whereas the U.S. military has used and continues to use depleted uranium munitions, cluster bombs and white phosphorous in densely populated areas in violation of U.S. and international laws and treaties prohibiting the indiscriminate killing of civilians; and,

Whereas the Geneva Conventions specifically prohibit the use of especially injurious weapons and materials that cause unnecessary harm by remaining active and deadly after a battle and over large areas of land; and,

Whereas a large number of babies born in Iraq and Afghanistan suffer from illness and deformity like Down’s syndrome, weak hearts, severe disfigurement and brain damage that doctors believe are caused by the U.S. military’s massive and widespread use of toxic and radioactive materials; and,

Whereas millions upon millions of Iraqi, Afghani and Pakistani civilians have been killed, maimed, poisoned and displaced from their homes as a direct result of the U.S.’s ongoing, illegal acts of war; and,

Whereas illegal, immoral and counterproductive detainee torture and brutalization at the hands of the U.S. military’s Immediate Reaction Force continue at Guantanamo under the Obama administration; and,

Whereas President Obama is an accessory after the fact for obstructing justice by not initiating an investigation into numerous and blatant U.S. war crimes committed by the Bush administration for which it is manifestly accountable under the rule of law; and,

Whereas Veterans For Peace supported the impeachment of Bush/Cheney for the same war crimes that are now being committed by Obama in violation of the U.S. Constitution, U.S. federal laws, the United Nations Charter, the Hague Convention, the Geneva Conventions, The United Nations Convention Against Torture and the Nuremberg Tribunal Charter; and,

Whereas Veterans For Peace is committed to its stated mission to restrain our government from intervening, overtly or covertly, in the internal affairs of other nations, to seek justice for veterans and victims of war, to increase public awareness of the costs of war, and to abolish war as an instrument of national policy; and,

Therefore be it resolved that Veterans For Peace calls on the U.S. House of Representatives to immediately begin impeachment proceedings against President Barack H. Obama for failure to uphold his sworn oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States of America from all enemies foreign and domestic, and for his commission of war crimes, crimes against humanity, obstruction of justice and the violation of numerous national and international laws, treaties and conventions.

Note: This resolution to call for the Impeachment of President Barack H. Obama for War Crimes was debated, voted on, and approved by the members of the Central Florida chapter of Veterans For Peace on 7 July 2009.

I endorse this call, as does my organization, Peace of the Action.

If you would like to individually endorse, or as a group:

Endorsed by:

___________________________________________________________

On this _______ day of ___________________________________, 2010

Please return mail or fax to:
Central Florida Veterans For Peace
P.O. Box 9012
Daytona Beach, FL 32120-9012

Phone/Fax: (386) 788-2918

Text Copyright © 21 July 2010 Independent Political Report

• Swing into ACTION •

• The President’s lost my support •
• If he doesn’t end the wars, I will work to impeach him •
• UPDATE: Learn, Educate, Organize for Peace! •

Peace of the Action — by POTA — 26 May 2010
• SIZZLIN’ SUMMER PROTEST FROM PEACE OF THE ACTION •

Start Summer off with a Bang!

Rethink Tyranny

— CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST! —
PLUS read the text and hear the audio
of Mario Savio’s famous 1964 speech!

• Prosecute Them Now, Remember? •

IMPEACH JAY BYBEE, PROSECUTE BYBEE AND JOHN YOO NOW!
Click ImpeachBybee.org
Truthout — by Jason Leopold — 15 July 2010 — “Judge Bybee made clear in his testimony that there were techniques employed that were not approved. I have known that for years.”

Jay Bybee, who as a senior Justice Department lawyer signed two memos in 2002 authorizing CIA interrogators to torture “war on terror” prisoners, told a congressional panel that more than a half dozen other brutal methods were used by the CIA without legal approval.• Bybee & Yoo • The Torture Brothers •
In a closed-door interview with members of the House Judiciary Committee on May 26, Bybee said his Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) did not allow the CIA to use diapering, water dousing, blackout goggles, extended solitary confinement, daily beatings, forcing a detainee to defecate on himself, hanging a detainee from ceiling hooks or subjecting prisoners to loud music or noise.

Bybee, who is now a federal appeals court judge in San Francisco, did sign off on a variety of other torture techniques, including the near-drowning experience of waterboarding. Prolonged diapering was included in a list of torture techniques that the OLC initially approved in 2002, but it was removed possibly because it might have resulted in a lengthy legal review.

Some of the techniques, including diapering, were permitted by CIA Director George Tenet and other senior agency officials despite the lack of clear OLC sign-off in 2002. Diapering and other abuses, such as water “dousing,” were cleared by the OLC later after Bybee left to become a federal judge.

In an investigative report published by Truthout on April 17, intelligence officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said Abu Zubaydah, the first high-value detainee captured after 9/11, was subjected to repeated sessions of “water dousing” prior to the issuance of the August 2002 torture memos. At the time interrogators used it on Zubaydah, water dousing was described by intelligence officials knowledgeable about Zubaydah’s torture as spraying him with extremely cold water from a hose while he was naked and shackled by chains attached to a ceiling in the cell he was kept in at a black-site prison.

• Right and Wrong can Sure be Obvious Sometimes •
Water dousing was believed to have played a part in the November 2002 death of Gul Rahman, a detainee who was held at an Afghanistan prison known as The Salt Pit. He died of hypothermia hours after being doused with water and left in a cold prison cell. The OLC did not approve the use of water dousing as an interrogation technique until August 2004.

Bybee’s statements to the committee appeared to be an attempt to shift the blame for some illegal torturing onto the CIA.

“If the CIA departed from anything that it told us here, if it had any other information that it didn’t share with us or if it came into any information that would differ from what they told us here, then the CIA did not have an opinion from OLC,” Bybee said, according to the transcript of his interview released by the Judiciary Committee on Thursday.

Moreover, Bybee said his OLC memos prohibited the “substantial repetition” of harsh techniques, such as waterboarding. Justice Department documents and a report released by the CIA’s Inspector General state that two high-value detainees, Zubaydah and self-professed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, were waterboarded 83 times and 183 times in the course of a single month.

In 2005 one of Bybee’s successors, Steven Bradbury, permitted several of the torture tactics to be used in combination. The application of the torture techniques alone and in various patterns appears to have amounted to a form of human experimentation.

Last month, the international doctors’ organization, Physicians for Human Rights, released a report that said waterboarding was monitored in early 2002 by CIA medical personnel who collected data about how detainees responded to the torture technique. The data was then used in Bradbury’s 2005 torture memo advising CIA interrogators how to refine the practice.

• Is either of these men fit to be a judge, a lawyer, or an inmate in prison for life? •
The doctors’ report also noted that CIA medical personnel obtained experimental research data by subjecting more than 25 detainees to a combination of torture techniques as a way of understanding “whether one type of application over another would increase the subjects’ susceptibility to severe pain.”

That medical analysis then informed “subsequent [torture] practices,” the report said.

Criticizing Yoo

In the congressional interview, Bybee was also harshly critical of his former colleague John Yoo, the principal author of the torture memos as well as other opinions asserting that President George W. Bush could exercise unlimited powers as commander in chief during the “war on terror.”

— To read the rest click HERE! —

• Ain’t much money to a company that paid over $16 billion in bonuses last year •

• But the Firm Acknowledges CDO Marketing Materials Were
Incomplete and Should Have Revealed Paulson’s Role •
SEC — Securities and Exchange Commission — For Immediate Release — 15 July 2010 — According to the New York Times, “News of the settlement sent Goldman’s shares 5 percent higher in after-hours trading, adding far more to the firm’s market value than the amount it will have to pay in the settlement.”

The Times further reports:
“One look at Goldman’s first-quarter earnings this year show how quickly the firm can make up for the fine and restitution.

“Goldman earned $3.84 billion in the quarter, atop a staggering $12.78 billion in revenues. By that measure, the fine amounts to nearly 15 days of earnings in the first three months of the year. (It’s about 14.3 days of earnings, to be more precise.)

“Some other first-quarter numbers to put the Goldman fine in perspective:

• $720 million in net revenue for debt and equity underwriting
• $7.4 billion in net revenue for fixed income, currencies and commodities trading
• $946 million in net revenue for asset management

“A colleague pointed out that we should use only days on which the market was open for our calculations. That means the Goldman fine amounts to about 10.2 days of earnings, based on its first-quarter results.”

• Parasites, Thieves, Murderers and Politicians: America with No Apple Pie •
WASHINGTON DC, July 15, 2010 — THE SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION TODAY ANNOUNCED THAT GOLDMAN, SACHS & CO. WILL PAY $550 MILLION and reform its business practices to settle SEC charges that Goldman misled investors in a subprime mortgage product just as the U.S. housing market was starting to collapse.

In agreeing to the SEC's largest-ever penalty paid by a Wall Street firm, Goldman also acknowledged that its marketing materials for the subprime product contained incomplete information.

In its April 16 complaint, the SEC alleged that Goldman misstated and omitted key facts regarding a synthetic CDO — Collateralized Debt Obligation — it marketed that hinged on the performance of subprime residential mortgage-backed securities. Goldman failed to disclose to investors vital information about the CDO, known as ABACUS 2007-AC1, particularly the role that hedge fund Paulson & Co. Inc. played in the portfolio selection process and the fact that Paulson had taken a short position against the CDO.

In settlement papers submitted to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Goldman made the following acknowledgement:

“Goldman acknowledges that the marketing materials for the ABACUS 2007-AC1 transaction contained incomplete information. In particular, it was a mistake for the Goldman marketing materials to state that the reference portfolio was "selected by" ACA Management LLC without disclosing the role of Paulson & Co. Inc. in the portfolio selection process and that Paulson's economic interests were adverse to CDO investors. Goldman regrets that the marketing materials did not contain that disclosure.”

• What More’s It Take to Move YOU to Action? •
“Half a billion dollars is the largest penalty ever assessed against a financial services firm in the history of the SEC,” said Robert Khuzami, Director of the SEC's Division of Enforcement. “This settlement is a stark lesson to Wall Street firms that no product is too complex, and no investor too sophisticated, to avoid a heavy price if a firm violates the fundamental principles of honest treatment and fair dealing.”— To read the rest click HERE! —

• Outside the Casino •
New York Times — by Bob Herbert — 12 July 2010 — People who are out of work and deeply in debt don’t have any money to spend. The only way to get real money back into their wallets and bank accounts (and thus back into the economy) is to get them back to work.

The hustlers and high rollers at Wall Street’s gaming tables are starting to feel lucky again.

Hiring is beginning to pick up in the very sector that led the country to the edge of a depression. An article on the front page of The Times on Sunday noted that this turnaround “underscores the remarkable recovery of the biggest banks and brokerage firms since Washington rescued them in the fall of 2008, and follows the huge rebound in profits for members of the New York Stock Exchange, which totaled $61.4 billion in 2009, the most ever.”

• The big money puts our world on a roulette wheel •

• Now about cutting all that wasteful spending... •
The hustlers and high rollers are always there to skim the cream, no matter what’s happening in the real world of ordinary American families.

In a column that was published a few days before Christmas 2007, the very month that the great recession began, I wrote about the record-breaking seasonal bonuses being handed out on Wall Street: an obscene $38 billion, the highest total ever. The subprime mortgage debacle was already upon us and the economy was sinking like a stone, but the casino crowd was celebrating as never before. “Even as the Wall Streeters are high-fiving and ordering up record shipments of Champagne and caviar,” I noted, “the American dream is on life support.”

The fattest of the fat cats live in a perpetual heads-I-win, tails-you-lose environment. But if you step outside the Wall Street casino, you’ll notice that things aren’t going too well in the rest of the country. More than 14 million Americans are out of work, and nearly half of them have been jobless for six months or longer. The unemployment rate for black Americans is 15.4 percent.

• Only the top 1% of people — the super rich — ever win •
• For the 99% — the rest of us — you may as well play with that loaded gun •

• We say the real jobless rate is 20-25%, decent people with no work •
School districts across the country are taking drastic steps to cope with collapsing budgets: firing personnel, increasing class sizes, cutting kindergarten and summer-school programs and, in some cases, moving to a four-day school week. The Associated Press, in a demoralizing report, recently noted: “As the school budget crisis deepens, administrators across the nation have started to view school libraries as luxuries that can be axed rather than places where kids learn to love reading and do research.”

What a country. We’ll do whatever it takes to make sure the bankers keep living the high life and swilling that Champagne while at the same time we’re taking books out of the hands of schoolchildren trying to get an education.

I’m no friend of the deficit hawks, but the staggering amounts of money we’ve been spending for the past several years have not benefited the people most in need of help and have not laid the foundation for a more secure economy going forward. We’ve handed over unconscionable tax breaks to the very rich (you can see the Prada paraders high-stepping along Fifth Avenue in their million-dollar flip-flops) and countless billions to the private contractors brazenly feeding off the agony of the endless wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

• See Wealthy Reduce Buying in a Blow to the Recovery •

• Foreclosure in the 1930s Depression •
(Sunday’s paper also had an article about six more American G.I.’s killed in Afghanistan.)

What’s needed is the same sense of urgency about helping struggling families and putting people back to work as the Bush and Obama crowds showed when the banks were about to go bust. That sense of urgency is always missing when it’s ordinary people who are in trouble.

• A good question •

• How many millions of families are really suffering? •
Millions of Americans are stuck in an economic depression. Several million have either lost their homes to foreclosure during the recession or are in imminent danger of losing them. The long-term unemployed are facing painful daily choices on such basic matters as whether to buy food or refill needed prescription medication or pay electric bills to keep the lights on.— To read the rest click HERE! —

• Keeping it Real •
Black Commentator — by Larry Pinkney — 8 July 2010 — It’s time to both speak and act truth to power, and bring about real systemic change that we everyday people “can believe in.”

• NO •
THE GOVERNMENT, THE CORPORATE STREAM MEDIA, and many of our so-called ‘education’ institutions have us believe that wars, particularly those waged by the United States, are waged for altruistic reasons. Yet, true history and common sense tell us unequivocally otherwise.

Wars are essentially a deliberately perpetuated lapse in human sanity. They are not inevitable. They do, however, represent the height of humankind’s manipulated insanity.

• It’s All in the Numbers •
• This is #1 •
Why are wars, as horrifying as they are, perpetuated? And who perpetuates and manipulates humanity into these constant bloody quagmires? And for what purpose or purposes?

• TEARS OF RAGE •
• #2 •
Anup Shah, World Military Spending, Global Issues, Updated: July 07, 2010

• Repulsive, Ugly, Offensive • It’s the Truth of War •
• And Perpetual War Shames Us •

War is packaged and made palatable to the U.S. populace by the perpetually perpetrated myth that it is being waged in order to bring about, or maintain, supposed “freedom” and “democracy,” or to end “terrorism."

An inescapable irony in this is of course, that war is in itself the very zenith of “terrorism.” It is officially sanctioned horror — ad infinitum. Particularly is this the case when war is waged between nation-states or by a nation-state or nation states against the peoples of another nation-state.

• Is Obama going to Order an Attack on Iran or isn’t He? •
Wars are invariably fought by the many at the behest of the few. In this nation, wars are consistently and inevitably fought by just plain common folk — everyday Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people — for a relatively tiny, avaricious corporate military elite. Notwithstanding the cynically hollow platitudes attributed to everyday people by the corporate government and its allies in the corporate-stream media, the essence of most wars, and certainly those being waged in this century, remains unquenchable greed on the part of the wealthy elite, coupled with their insatiable desire to dominate economically, politically, and socially.

• #3 •

No amount of double-talk or false patriotism can mitigate this fact: Unquenchable greed and the desire for hegemony [i.e. domination] are the root causes for these terrible and inhuman wars being waged. And it is everyday people who continue to pay the severest consequences with our very lives and livelihoods for this insanity.

• THIS DOES NOT WIN HEARTS OR MINDS •
Think about it! You don’t see the children and families of the wealthy corporate elite dying en masse in these perpetual wars. Of course not! But you do see everyday Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people carrying out, and dying in, these wars for the corporate elite!

• Tears of Grief •

• Too Many People Have Died •
As systemic contradictions continue to manifest themselves, the real reasons for perpetual war will also become ever clearer. Wars are not a necessity; they are a manipulated bane upon humankind.


• Hurts So Bad •

• We can’t Count All the Places • We can’t Count All the Wars •
• We can’t See All the Faces •
— To read the rest click HERE! —

• Private Industry Puts Profit Before People And Our Whole World •
• BP: The Case for Public Ownership •
In These Times — by Billy Wharton — 1 July 2010 — If arrogant disregard for humanity and the natural world were qualities that triggered the seizure of assets, BP would have been under public ownership long ago. It still isn’t.

BP’S CRIMINAL ACT OF POLLUTING THE GULF OF MEXICO with an estimated 2.5 million gallons of oil per day — easily the worst environmental disaster in American history, and on the verge of becoming the worst ever in the Gulf — is only half the reason that U.S. assets of the global energy giant should be brought under public control immediately. The other is the increasingly desperate crisis of global warming triggered, in large part, by a suicidal dependence on pollution-producing fossil fuels. Public ownership is the answer to both the short-term crisis caused by BP and the longer-term threat to the ecological stability of our planet.

Congressional hearings have indicated that BP management deviated from standard safety procedures and that its anti-worker culture prevented whistle-blowers from halting production. BP CEO Tony Hayward’s continual evasion of questions stands as a shocking symbol of corporate arrogance and disregard for public oversight.

In the days immediately after the April 20th explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, which killed 11 workers, BP focused resources on what it understood as its most pressing problem — public-relations damage control. Early plans to stem the tide of the oil flow were confused and prioritized media strategies. The company blocked scientists who wanted to estimate how much oil was flowing into the Gulf in order to develop a more precise cleanup plan. It quickly became apparent that BP had no established plan or protocol to deal with the gushing oil and that they were reluctant to shift resources toward stemming the flow of the oil and cleaning the environment. There was no profit in it.

• Best, Most Reliable Source in the USA •
BP employed various domes and caps on the gushing pipe because, if successful, they would serve the company’s dual corporate purpose of stemming the immediate flow and preserving the well for future drilling. Only after these failed, and millions of gallons of oil were released, did BP move to more invasive measures such as the failed “top-kill” attempt. And only significant government pressure forced BP to carry out more costly strategies such as digging relief wells around the site.

Meanwhile, environmentalists protested BP’s use of the toxic oil dispersant Corexit, claiming that it may do as much environmental damage as the oil itself. Even after the Environmental Protection Agency issued an order for BP to use a less toxic alternative, the company took weeks to comply, preferring to pay the fine instead of buying a less toxic agent.

BP has also continued to employ its standard anti-worker tactics. When clean-up workers complained about dizziness, nausea, headaches, and a lack of safety equipment, company officials claimed that the symptoms were probably the result of food poisoning. Internally, BP sent a directive to clean-up workers stating that future complaints about illness would result in termination.

BP must be placed under public control because its botched attempts at closing the well, its use of toxic dispersants and its negligent treatment of workers are evidence that BP is incapable of managing this catastrophe. Why? Not from lack of resources or expertise, but from the absence of any profit motive to act. It's against the company’s one-dimensional corporate interests to do so.

• Carpe Diem! • Seize This Moment! • Now! Today! •The time for action is now.
Take Action Now! Sign the Petition!

Public ownership, and the road to a new energy system
The U.S. government should immediately seize the U.S. assets of British-based BP. After the clean-up is completed and claims against the company are settled, a hearing can be held to propose compensation for BP. Until then, the company’s American arm, BP America Inc., should be operated as a publicly owned company that provides employees with full work site protections and a significant voice in the day-to-day operations through a program of workplace democracy. Public ownership would put the full resources of BP to work stopping the oil leak and engaging in an effective clean-up of the Gulf. Such a measure would be unprecedented in the United States, but has proven, in other nations, to be effective in transforming industries acting against the public interest.— To read the rest click HERE! —

• We can trust private enterprise to be responsible or we can take control •
• Which road leads to justice? •
Seize BP — by International ANSWER — 5 July 2010 — The government of the United States must seize BP and freeze its assets, and place those funds in trust to begin providing immediate relief to the working people throughout the Gulf . . . The people who are suffering today, here and now, deserve nothing less. They are not at fault. We know who the responsible parties are.The time for action is now
Take Action Now! Sign the Petition!
9 June 2010 — THERE ARE THREE ROADS, OR OPTIONS, BY WHICH COMPENSATION can be provided for those who have been harmed by the BP oil disaster.

The first path, or option, is the BP claims process whereby BP determines what to cover and how much to pay. On this road all power rests with BP.

The second path is through the courts, where people can file litigation and lawsuits against BP. The burden of proof lies with the harmed individuals, who must employ lawyers and then battle BP’s army of attorneys for years, possibly decades.

Both BP and the Obama administration want to push everyone seeking compensation down these two paths, but these two paths lead nowhere.

There is, however, a third option: the seizure of BP’s assets in an amount commensurate with estimated damages and the delivery of immediate and ongoing compensation to all those who have suffered and will suffer lost jobs, wages and business for years to come.

People around the country are mobilizing for the third option.

• Protect Our Planet! •
The case for freezing and seizing BP’s assets


Rate the video HERE

For those who are directly affected by the BP oil spill, there is urgency for action. Every affected person and family should be able to go to sleep at night knowing, regardless of the final measure of spillage, regardless of the scope of environmental harm, that they will be taken care of financially, that they will be made whole. Not 20 years from now or in some distant future, with victims worn down and claims whittled away by an army of BP lawyers, as occurred with the Exxon Valdez disaster.

Compensation must be immediate. It must be ongoing. Make-whole relief will require enormous assets, amounting to tens of billions of dollars by all estimates.

The Seize BP demand is simple: Seize the assets of BP, place those assets in trust for the immediate and ongoing relief of those directly affected. Simplified and swift claims processes.

BP has no intention of paying tens of billions of dollars in costs and damages. Tony Hayward, responding to plummeting stock values, reassured the financial industry that BP can escape this disaster paying no more than $3 billion in costs and damages. His projection included all physical cleanup costs.

BP has every interest and intention of avoiding claims and damages. BP is a profit-maximizing corporation. It is not a creature of social beneficence. Like any profit-maximizer, BP has as its purpose the maximization of revenues while avoiding costs or expenditures.

BP is a profit predator that grows fat on the accumulation of mega-profits. BP lied about the volume of spillage, first denying any spillage, then conceding 1,000 barrels per day and ultimately low-balling the actual spillage volume by insisting that it is only 5,000 barrels per day.

BP simultaneously announces that its recent containment efforts have resulted in the collection of 15,000 barrels of oil per day. It’s a veritable miracle, apparently, that so much can be collected when so little is spilling. BP is lying.

On June 9th, BP’s chief operating officer told the Today show that there is “no evidence” of plumes of toxic oil beneath the surface. It just disappeared, never mind the scientific and government confirmation by research vessels that massive plumes not only exist but are on the move, placing coastlines at risk even up the Atlantic Seaboard. BP is self-interested and untrustworthy.

• Protect People! •— To read the rest and see more videos and hear Joan Baez perform, click HERE! —

• Krugman Finally Says It •
• We Predicted It Two Years Ago •
• See And the Big Crash is Coming, It’s a Depression, and DEPRE$$ION $IGN$ •

New York Times — by Paul Krugman — 27 June 2010 — We are now in the early stages of a third depression... Tens of millions of will go jobless for years, and many of whom will never work again.

RECESSIONS ARE COMMON: DEPRESSIONS ARE rare. As far as I can tell, there were only two eras in economic history that were widely described as “depressions” at the time: the years of deflation and instability that followed the Panic of 1873 and the years of mass unemployment that followed the financial crisis of 1929-31.

Neither the Long Depression of the 19th century nor the Great Depression of the 20th was an era of nonstop decline — on the contrary, both included periods when the economy grew. But these episodes of improvement were never enough to undo the damage from the initial slump, and were followed by relapses.

We are now, I fear, in the early stages of a third depression. It will probably look more like the Long Depression than the much more severe Great Depression. But the cost — to the world economy and, above all, to the millions of lives blighted by the absence of jobs — will nonetheless be immense.

• They Take It All And It All Falls Down •
And this third depression will be primarily a failure of policy. Around the world — most recently at last weekend’s deeply discouraging G-20 meeting — governments are obsessing about inflation when the real threat is deflation, preaching the need for belt-tightening when the real problem is inadequate spending.

In 2008 and 2009, it seemed as if we might have learned from history. Unlike their predecessors, who raised interest rates in the face of financial crisis, the current leaders of the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank slashed rates and moved to support credit markets. Unlike governments of the past, which tried to balance budgets in the face of a plunging economy, today’s governments allowed deficits to rise. And better policies helped the world avoid complete collapse: the recession brought on by the financial crisis arguably ended last summer.

But future historians will tell us that this wasn’t the end of the third depression, just as the business upturn that began in 1933 wasn’t the end of the Great Depression. After all, unemployment — especially long-term unemployment — remains at levels that would have been considered catastrophic not long ago, and shows no sign of coming down rapidly. And both the United States and Europe are well on their way toward Japan-style deflationary traps.

— To read the rest click HERE! —

• Is it possible President Obama can take off the gloves? •

• Is it possible the president will finally break away
from the stranglehold of USA, Incorporated? •

• Read the whole posting and learn the answer! •

• See “The Up-or-Down Vote on Obama’s Presidency” •

New York Times — 30 January 2010 — by Frank Rich — In an October 1936 speech, nearly four years after Hoover, President Roosevelt was still railing against the “hear-nothing, see-nothing, do-nothing government” he inherited. He reminded unemployed and destitute radio listeners that there had been “nine crazy years at the ticker” and “nine mad years of mirage” followed by three long years of bread lines and despair. F.D.R. soon won re-election in the greatest landslide the country had seen.

HANDS DOWN, THE STATE OF THE UNION’S BIG MOMENT WAS PRESIDENT OBAMA’S direct hit on the delicate sensibilities of the Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito. The president was right to blast the 5-to-4 decision giving corporate interests an even greater stranglehold over a government they already regard as a partially owned onshore subsidiary. How satisfying it was to watch him provoke Alito into a “You lie!” snit. Here was a fight we could believe in.

There was more to admire in Obama’s performance as well. He did not retreat into the bite-size initiatives — V-chips, school uniforms — embraced by an emasculated Bill Clinton after his midterm pummeling of 1994. The president’s big original goals — health care, economic recovery, financial reform — remained nominally intact, as did his sense of humor. In a rhetorical touch William Safire would have relished, Obama had the wit to rush the ritualistic “our union is strong” so it would not prompt the usual jingoistic ovation.

Good thing, too, since our union is not strong. It is paralyzed. Many Americans were more eagerly anticipating Steve Jobs’s address in San Francisco on Wednesday morning than the president’s that night because they have far more confidence in Apple than Washington to produce concrete change. One year into Obama’s term we still don’t know whether he has what it takes to get American governance functioning again. But we do know that no speech can do the job. The president must act. Only body blows to the legislative branch can move the country forward.

The historian Alan Brinkley has observed that we will soon enter the fourth decade in which Congress — and therefore government as a whole — has failed to deal with any major national problem, from infrastructure to education. The gridlock isn’t only a function of polarized politics and special interests. There’s also been a gaping leadership deficit.

In Obama’s speech, he kept circling back to a Senate where both parties are dysfunctional. The obstructionist Republicans, he observed, will say no to every single bill “just because they can.” But no less culpable are the Democrats, who maintain “the largest majority in decades” even after losing Teddy Kennedy’s seat — and yet would rather “run for the hills” than accomplish anything.

What does strong Senate leadership look like? That would be L.B.J. in the pre-Kennedy era. Operating with the narrowest of majorities and under an opposition president, he was able to transform a sleepy, seniority-hobbled, regionally polarized debating society into an often-progressive legislative factory. As Robert Caro tells the story in his book “Master of the Senate,” this Senate leader had determination, “a gift for grand strategy,” and a sixth sense for grabbing opportunities for action before they vanished for good. He could recognize “the key that might suddenly unlock votes that had seemed locked forever away” and turn it quickly. The horse trading with recalcitrant senators was often crude and cynical, but the job got done. L.B.J. knew how to reward — and how to punish.

We keep hearing that they just don’t make legislative giants like that anymore. In truth, the long drought has led us to forget what they look like and to define senatorial leadership down. L.B.J.’s current successor, Harry Reid, could be found yawning on camera Wednesday night. He might as well have just taken the whole nap. Here was this leader’s pronouncement last week on the future of the president and his party’s No. 1 priority: “We’re not on health care now. We’ve talked a lot about it in the past.” Yes, a lot of talk — a year’s worth, in fact — with nothing to show for it. [Editor’s Note: See also Here, Here, and Here.]

— Read the rest! Click HERE! —
— Plus see the complete text of FDR’s legendary speech at Madison Sq. Garden in 1936! —
— And video and audio clips of the speech, PLUS President Roosevelt’s call for a Second Bill of Rights! —

• The controlled demolition of the Twin Towers and WTC 7 is not a Conspiracy Theory •
• It’s a conspiracy fact based on undeniable Evidence of Treason •
It demands a Grand Jury Investigation in order that
those who perished “shall not have died in vain.”
911 Citizens Campaign — 17 June 2009 — by Donald Meserlian & Prosecute Them Now — As of July 16th, AE911Truth registers 10,056 people, including 1,225 architects and engineers, all demanding that Congress conduct a truly independent investigation —

— We must Attack Power with Truth and put our adversaries on the defensive. This is the only way any battle is won; whether nonviolent or violent. —

THE IMPORTANCE OF MOVING FROM “9/11 TRUTH” TO 9/11 JUSTICE cannot be overestimated.

The illegal wars of Iraq and Afghanistan have bankrupted this nation and moved us on a path to becoming a third world nation. The unconstitutional USA Patriot Act and Military Commissions Act have been approved by our congressional idiot representatives of corporate power whereby the predictions of George Orwell in 1984 have become true to life in today’s Amerika, a nation that I no longer pledge allegiance to.

The many groups that want to achieve peace, justice and the nonviolent overthrow of every level of the present government are being asked to join forces to present a united front to our common enemy: Our common goal should be my goal as National Leader of the Citizen’s Campaign for a 9/11 Grand Jury Investigation in 2010 — read the undeniable “evidence of treason” contained in the 9/11 Truth Proclamation and the two laws: USC 18 par. 2382 Misprision of Treason that must be obeyed by every U.S. citizen, and the New York State law on “Obstruction of Justice.”

Click http://bit.ly/9cqmsw to rate this crucially important video recorded 13 April 2010 with Robert Bowman — click http://bit.ly/duMr2g — retired Air Force Lt. Col, who was in charge of a research project under the Ford and Carter administrations later called Star Wars. During the Reagan administration Robert Bowman became a whistle blower knowing from the inside that this technology could only be successful as an offensive weapon. Robert Bowman is one of more than 200 Senior Military, Intelligence Service, Law Enforcement, and Government Officials who question the US government’s “official version” of what happened on September 11, 2001, listed at PatriotsQuestion911. He is also National Commander at ThePatriots.US

Read the three “template” letters to: Andrew Cuomo, New York State Attorney General, your state’s Attorney General and your local Mayor/municipal court judge.

• Letter to Andrew Cuomo — click http://bit.ly/cnFviu
• Letter to YOUR mayor — click http://bit.ly/amfddC
• Letter to YOUR state Attorney General — click http://bit.ly/crmtyj
• Letter to Tom Wornam, Director, Special Prosecutors Bureau,
New York County District Attorney’s Office
— click http://bit.ly/98MR44 —

Both the “9/11 Truth Proclamation” and the template letter to the N.Y. State Attorney General were sent to the Palatine Bridge, N.Y. Municipal Court Justice. He accepted the undeniable “evidence of treason,” abided by the law of Misprision of Treason — and sent the Proclamation and letter to Andrew Cuomo where it sits in limbo until the sovereign states Attorney Generals demand that he take action. Activists from 7 states have sent the three “Triple Threat” letters on the Voices of Safety web page and will hopefully follow up by phoning the recipients as often as necessary until their state’s A.G. sends the letter to Andrew Cuomo.

The key to achieving our common goal is to prove that the collapse of the Twin Towers and WTC 7 on 9/11/01 was an “act of treason” based on the use of nano thermite, a military controlled explosive not available in the caves of Afghanistan, and demanding that the Manhattan District Attorney convene a Grand Jury to determine whether “9/11 was an Inside Job.”

You can rate this video at http://bit.ly/aNjVWF
We commend NYCCAN — New York City Coalition for Accountability Now — for initiating the “1000 letters per week in June” campaign to have the “Special Prosecutions Bureau of the New York County Manahattan District Attorney’s office recommend that a Grand Jury Investigation begin as soon as possible. We decided to help NYCCAN by adding the following letter to Tom Wornam, Director, Special Prosecutions Bureau of the Manhattan District Attorney's Office to the three letters at 911 Citizens Campaign to change from a “Triple Threat” to a Quadruple Threat Campaign for 9/11 Justice!

You can rate this video at http://bit.ly/9KkqsB
We can no longer “Speak Truth to Power” because those in power refuse either to listen or communicate with most non influential citizens. We must Attack Power with Truth and put our adversaries on the defensive. This is the only way any battle is won; whether non violent or violent. Violent revolutions occur when non violent attempts to achieve justice fail; this is the major lesson of history that will be repeated in America if non violent attempts at achieving 9/11 justice fail.
It’s time to unite by taking the following actions:

• Send our letters to Tom Wornam, Director, Special Prosecutions Bureau of the
Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.
• Be sure to insert your name and organization
• E-mail your letters to all parties listed.
• Copy and fax to 212.335.8914 or mail to:
Tom Wornam, Director
Special Prosecutions Bureau
Manhattan District Attorney’s Office
One Hogan Place
New York, NY 10013

• Phone Tom Wornam’s Secretary, Vicki 212.335.8922
to verify he received your letter.
• Phone as often as necessary until he is forced to obey the two laws and recommend
that the Manhattan Attorney General convene a Grand Jury as soon as possible.

For a printable text of this article, click To All Patriots Who Want to Restore America

For a printable text of the 911 Citizens for Truth Proclamation,
which you can sign to register your support for a Grand Jury,
Click HERE!

• Art Transforms Sorrow to Pity — The Poetry’s in the Pity •
Photo Copyright © 12 September 2001 by Thomas Franklin/Bergen Record

By joining the Citizen's Campaign for a 9/11 Grand Jury Investigation with NYCCAN we can achieve our goals and the goals of all peoploe who receive this letter.

Let’s Kick Ass and get rolling...Let’s Roll! to find the true terrorists who caused the collapse of the Twin Towers and WTC 7 on 9/11/01. Nine years is too long to wait to achieve justice for the victims who died and continue to die as a result of the toxic dust when the three towers collapsed.

FAX TO: Tom Wornam, Director, Special Prosecutors Bureau, New York County District Attorney’s Office — Fax 212.335.8914 — Phone Secretary Vicki 212.335.8922

June is NYCCAN’s 1000 Letters Per Week Campaign during the month of June 2010 to “urge the Manhattan District Attorney to investigate the destruction of World Trade Center Building 7.”

— To Read the Rest click HERE! —

• Record Crowds Flood Trenton •
• Protesting Against N.J. Gov. Chris Christie’s Budget Cuts •
• Largest Demonstration in New Jersey History •

Also see Trenton Rallies Ignite Take Back New Jersey Coalition
and Jersey Gives Civics Lesson for the Internet Age
and GREED

Newark Star-Ledger — by Claire Heininger, Matt Friedman, Peggy Ackermann, MaryAnn Spoto and the Star-Ledger Statehouse Bureau Staff — 22 May 2010 — “Impeach Christie or vote that sucker out!”

TRENTON — Fury over Gov. Chris Christie’s proposed budget cuts echoed outside the Statehouse today as record crowds flooded the capital to protest the rookie Republican — and warn Democrats against backing his agenda.

The protesters — most from public worker unions and progressive groups — numbered 30,000 to 35,000, according to the State Police.

[Editor’s Note: We believe the State Police count underestimates the number of people attending the rally. We were there in Trenton Saturday and believe a realistic estimate of the rally’s size is between 40 to 45,000 people attending.]

They clutched signs labeling Christie a “loser” and calling for his ouster. They started chants: “They say cut back, we say fight back!” and “We are not the problem!” They even mocked the governor’s affection for working-class hero Bruce Springsteen.

• FAT CITY •

[Editor’s Note: Another chant we heard was “Impeach Christie or vote that sucker out!]

“I don’t know how you can save New Jersey by shutting down our firefighters, police and teachers,” said Zein Maya, a West Orange resident and Newark firefighter.

“He just picked us as a scapegoat. We just feel so targeted,” said Lauren Sheldon, an English teacher at North Hunterdon High School who lives in Pennsylvania.

Though the rally was the culmination of months of animosity between Christie and unions over cuts to pay and benefits, speakers cast the fight in broader terms, linking it to historical causes from women’s suffrage to civil rights.

“It is the beginning of a new political movement in this state, one that stands in opposition to the kinds of cruel and unnecessary cuts that are devastating New Jersey,” said Chris Shelton, a vice president with the Communications Workers of America. “One that says to all elected officials — if you want our support, you have to earn it.”

But few politicians of either party were on hand to hear the message. The governor was signing a bill at Monmouth Park in Oceanport, where he recived a mix of cheers and boos and dismissed a question about the protest. And despite legislative Democrats’ showdown with Christie over his refusal to raise taxes on millionaires, just U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone (D-6th Dist.) and a few Democratic legislators were visible near the stage.

• MAD AS HELL •
“If our legislators remain silent, they are his accomplices,” New Jersey Education Association president Barbara Keshishian said. “They will share the blame.”

Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver (D-Essex), who was not at the rally, said today that Democrats are standing up to Christie — even if they didn’t stand with the protesters.

“There are vast differences between what we believe and what the governor believes,” Oliver said.

To rate the video click HERE

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Want to do something about this mess?
Do you think it’s time for us victims to take action?
Contact TakeBackTrenton
Or Phone Michael McCabe – 201.704.3494
Riad Azar – 201.835.7471

— Click HERE to read the rest! —

To rate the video click HERE!

Lyrics | Muse Lyrics | Apocalypse Please Lyrics

• Click to rate this video •

• Let Everyone Learn It •
• Let Everyone Know It •
• Let Everyone Teach It •
• Then The Truth Sets Us Free •

To rate this video click HERE!

Also see the astounding A War Vet Speaks Truth to Power