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ALL LINKS OPEN A NEW WINDOW!!! Click on anything below and be INSTANTLY SMARTER! New Year 2012 EDITION! Here's a late xmas present from ILARGI at The Automatic Earth: December 25 2011: Most. Tragic. Species. Ever. Very long read so here's a small snip ...What may be worse than all of this is a conflict that is brewing, slowly simmering, and that will tear our societies apart from within. It happens slow enough to perhaps not be much noticed next year, but that is not a good thing: it would be better to put out the fire before it spreads. Unfortunately, there is no way in sight to put it out. It looks like it will have to burn it course before it fades. This one will pit parents against their own children and grandchildren. That's how you tear a society apart. ...... Yes, it's not just generation versus generation, not just parents against their children. The problem is much more perverted. We no longer have a functioning financial system, a functioning banking system, or a functioning political system for that matter. All these systems died on the same battlefield. Credit. WaPo provides this shocker Growing wealth widens distance between lawmakers and constituents ...the financial gap between Americans and their representatives in Congress has widened considerably since then, according to an analysis of financial disclosures by The Washington Post. Between 1984 and 2009, the median net worth of a member of the House more than doubled, according to the analysis of financial disclosures, from $280,000 to $725,000 in inflation-adjusted 2009 dollars, excluding home equity. Over the same period, the wealth of an American family has declined slightly, with the comparable median figure sliding from $20,600 to $20,500, according to the Panel Study of Income Dynamics from the University of Michigan. ... The Center for Responsive Politics [...] reports that 37 Senate Democrats and 30 Senate Republicans reported an average net worth in excess of $1 million, as did 110 House Republicans and 73 House Democrats. Jeez can you guess which ones work for the 1%? Or are PART of the 1%? MoJo Editors Monika Bauerlein and Clara Jeffery explain "Grotesque income inequality is just a symptom of our larger political disease" in Occupied Washington (January/February 2012 Issue) ... In chronicling Occupy Wall Street, it struck us that the protesters, the passersby, and even the cops weren't just pissed about being permanently gated off from the spoils of the über-rich. Oh no. What they were really pissed about is that the megawealthy and Washington have become so symbiotic as to be a single entity. Indeed, Occupy's best move, as conservative blogger/financier Gregory Djerejian noted at TheAtlantic.com, was "directing their ire squarely toward the real elites of the country, rather than their bought-and-paid marionettes sitting in Washington." You didn't have to spend long at the edge of Zuccotti Park before you heard the phrase Citizens United, as folks who'd come to see the camp from New Jersey, Texas, and Montana began to contemplate the connection between their anemic bank accounts and political decisions that line the pockets of those already most advantaged. Americans are not opposed to the rich getting richer—as John Steinbeck is said to have noted, "Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires." But this prospect only satisfies so long as people believe that with luck and hard work, their ship, or at least their kids' ship, may some day come in. In a system overrun by piracy—a system in which the pirates also, sorry to stretch the metaphor, run the Navy—the dream becomes hard to sustain. .... While the media and political professionals fixated on the movement's lack of demands, they missed the real story. It wasn't about demands; it was about diagnosis. The occupations provided a catalyst, but the most interesting conversations haven't taken place in the camps via the human mic. They've happened among the millions of people who found that kids in tents were quite effectively articulating their own sense of abandonment. What comes next is the question that should occupy us in 2012, and beyond. Also see MoJo's Aaron Ross for "A short, shady history of how American elections are bought and paid for" in Timeline: The Best Government Money Can Buy. Next Tyler Durdan at zerohedge reports Former Fed VP Accuses Bernanke Of Bailing Out Europe Via Currency Swaps First it was Zero Hedge. Then Ron Paul joined in. Now it is the turn of a former Dallas Fed Vice President, Gerald ODriscoll, to outright accuse the Fed of bailing out Europe courtesy of "incomprehensible" currency swaps, and implicitly accusing Bernanke of lying that he would not bail out Europe even as he has done precisely that. And not only that: by cutting the USD swap spread from OIS+100 to OIS+50, the Fed has made sure it gets paid less than ever for extended Europe the courtesy of bailing it out all over again. Incidentally, O'Driscoll says, "America's central bank, the Federal Reserve, is engaged in a bailout of European banks. Surprisingly, its operation is largely unnoticed here." One thing we can say proudly - it has been noticed loud and clear here... From the WSJ:... The two central banks are engaging in this roundabout procedure because each needs a fig leaf. The Fed was embarrassed by the revelations of its prior largess with foreign banks. It does not want the debt of foreign banks on its books. A currency swap with the ECB is not technically a loan. The ECB is entangled in an even bigger legal and political mess. What the heads of many European governments want is for the ECB to bail them out. The central bank and some European governments say that it cannot constitutionally do that. The ECB would also prefer not to create boatloads of new euros, since it wants to keep its reputation as an inflation-fighter intact. To mitigate its euro lending, it borrows dollars to lend them to its banks. That keeps the supply of new euros down. This lending replaces dollar funding from U.S. banks and money-market institutions that are curtailing their lending to European banks—which need the dollars to finance trade, among other activities. Meanwhile, European governments pressure the banks to purchase still more sovereign debt. This Byzantine financial arrangement could hardly be better designed to confuse observers, and it has largely succeeded on this side of the Atlantic, where press coverage has been light. Reporting in Europe is on the mark. ... Continue reading at WSJ. Art Cashin Exposes The Behind The Scenes Panic In Europe Think "all is fine" in Europe after today's largely irrelevant Italian bill auction (the auction was for 6 month debt - even Greece can raise that kind of money)? Think again. Here is the Fermentation Committee Chairman explaining why Europe is so hard pressed to create a fake sense of calm, allowing those who know the real story to take advantage of the situation while they still can, and sharing the behind the scenes truth you won't get anywhere else. From UBS:

The distrust on the streets is said to be growing also. Barroom gossip says that safe-deposit boxes are in a demand that borders on frenzy. They allow you to take your Euros and covert them into something of value (gold, Swiss Francs, etc.) and sock it away in a safe place. Others are said to be buying property in London and elsewhere lest you awake one day and discover that your Euros have reverted to drachmas or lira. Savvy bankers are said to be setting up personal and communal trusts domiciled in places like the Bahamas, the Caymans or the Isle of Jersey.

The scramble for currency (value) protection among the public could turn into that bank run in the same way that a crowd can instantly turn into a mob. Watch the money flows out of Greece and Italy very carefully.

Glenn Greenwald dissects WaPo's Greg Miller Under Obama, an emerging global apparatus for drone killing in Snapshots of Washington’s essence The article, by Greg Miller, is being promoted by the Post this way: “In 3 years, the Obama administration has built a vast drone/killing operation”; it describes the complete secrecy behind which this is all being carried out and notes: “no president has ever relied so extensively on the secret killing of individuals to advance the nation’s security goals.” ... Because it’s a Democrat (rather than big, bad George W. Bush) doing this, virtually no members of that Party utter a peep of objection (a few are willing to express only the most tepid, abstract “concerns” about the possibility of future abuse). And even though these systematic, covert killings are widely known and discussed in newspapers all over the world — particularly in the places where they continue to extinguish the lives of innocent people by the dozens, including children — Obama designates even the existence of the program a secret, which means our democratic representatives and all of official Washington are barred by the force of law from commenting on it or even acknowledging that a CIA drone program exists (a prohibition enforced by an administration that has prosecuted leaks it dislikes more harshly than any other prior administration). ..... This media invisibility of America’s victims is due in part to the fact that it’s considered unpatriotic to discuss them in any prominent way (as MSNBC’s Ashleigh Banfield pointed out in the 2003 speech that led to her demotion and firing), but also because, at this point, there’s no partisan gain to be had from it: given that it’s a policy supported by both parties, it doesn’t help one side or the other win an election, so what’s the point of talking about it? Anyone who does raise it will be immediately met with these vapid questions from election-obsessed partisans .... (2) I have an Op-Ed in today’s print edition of The Guardian regarding the challenge faced by GOP presidential candidates in attacking President Obama given that he has governed, in Paul Krugman’s words, as a “moderate conservative” (at least in the domestic policy realm; he’s further to the Right in the foreign policy/civil liberties realm). That Op-Ed can be read here. Joe Kishore of wsws.org also has a take on the Post's drone article at Global Research Obama’s Global Murder, Inc. .... The Post provides a description of competing “kill lists” drawn up by the CIA and the military’s Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), with no publicly available information on the criteria used to select targets for assassination. The CIA’s list is apparently shorter than the military’s, which some in the drone program attribute to the fact that it has had less time to compile it. “Over time, officials said, the agency would catch up.” Among those killed have been three US citizens, including Anwar Al-Awlaki by the CIA on September 30 and his 16-year old son by the JSOC a few weeks later, both in Yemen. In the latter attack, the Post claims, the young Awlaki was not the intended target. “A US citizen with no history of involvement with al-Qaeda,” he was, instead, “an unintended casualty.” In explaining the increase in drone assassinations, the Post cites the official closure of CIA detention programs and an end to new transfers to Guantanamo Bay. This left “few options beyond drone strikes…” In other words, instead of locking alleged “terrorists” in prison camps and torture centers, the Obama administration decided it would be more efficient to simply kill them in secrecy. ... The actions of the Obama administration, and the vast growth in the secret powers of the CIA and the military, go far beyond these past crimes. Extra-judicial state-sanctioned killing is a metastasis of the global “war on terror,” an escalation of international criminality that has included the launching of aggressive wars, indefinite detention, and torture. It has become a central component of US military policy, including the war in Libya, which was concluded with the US-backed assassination of Muammar Gaddafi. Obama has singled out the extra-legal killing of Osama bin Laden as a high point and defining moment of his administration. Unbridled violence and the suppression of democracy are two sides of the same process. The revelations by the Post come less than two weeks after the passage of the National Defense Authorization Act, which for the first time provides an explicit congressional imprimatur on the indefinite military detention of US citizens and non-citizens alike, at the discretion of the president. The act effectively abolishes the writ of habeaus corpus and basic constitutional guarantees of due process. The administration that is overseeing this assertion of quasi-dictatorial powers, headed by Obama, is essentially an alliance of powerful financial interests and the military-intelligence apparatus. This government of extreme reaction has the crucial support of sections of the affluent middle class, which, on the basis of identity politics, has reconciled itself to policies that go beyond even those carried out by the Bush administration. Anything is acceptable, even “progressive,” so long as it is carried out by an African-American president. David S. Cloud at the Los Angeles Times discovers Civilian contractors playing key roles in U.S. drone operations America's growing drone operations rely on hundreds of civilian contractors, including some — such as the SAIC employee — who work in the so-called kill chain before Hellfire missiles are launched, according to current and former military officers, company employees and internal government documents. Relying on private contractors has brought corporations that operate for profit into some of America's most sensitive military and intelligence operations. And using civilians makes some in the military uneasy. At least a dozen defense contractors that supply personnel to help the Air Force, special operations units and the CIA fly their drones are filling a void. It takes more people to operate unmanned aircraft than it does to fly traditional warplanes that have a pilot and crew. The Air Force is short of ground-based pilots and crews to fly the drones, intelligence analysts to scrutinize nonstop video and surveillance feeds, and technicians and mechanics to maintain the heavily used aircraft. ... Writing in a military law journal in 2008, Lt. Col. Duane Thompson, chief lawyer for the Air Force Operations Law Division, warned that allowing nonmilitary personnel to communicate targeting information directly to pilots would violate international laws of war. Moreover, civilians are not subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which subjects military personnel to prosecution for war crimes or for violations of rules of engagement on when to use force. "Persons who relay target identification for an imminent real-world mission to persons causing actual harm to enemy personnel or equipment should be uniformed military," Thompson wrote. The "involvement of civilians in intelligence collection, analysis and planning" is "less objectionable" because it is "further removed" from actual combat, he added. That involvement is now substantial. In a recent job advertisement, SAIC said it had 450 employees working for the Air Force Special Operations Command and other units analyzing video feeds from the battlefield. BAE Systems Inc., a U.S. subsidiary of a British aerospace firm, posted an ad seeking an Air Force Special Operations Command veteran to manage "several hundred employees while conducting ISR/FMV missions." ISR and FMV are military abbreviations for Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance, and Full Motion Video, both of which commonly come from drones..... Washington's Blog has some cool videos at Fly Your Own Spy Drone … For $300 with this Disclaimer: We don’t know whether there are any Department of Homeland Security, FAA or other regulations or laws prohibiting flying your own spy drone. Consult with a representative of all appropriate Federal, state, county and local agencies to determine whether or not you may fly your own drone. Russ Baker at WHO WHAT WHY points out Justifying War with Iran A growing body of evidence points to a concerted campaign to prepare Americans and the world for war against Iran. This is not idle speculation. It fits a pattern that repeatedly preceded previous hostilities. Here are the recent examples on Iran: [...] ... And here are a few past examples (1990 to 2011). Add your own in the COMMENTS section below: [...] ... You don’t have to approve of these regimes to see that these appear to be (and in many cases certainly were) false provocations that reek of ulterior motives (hint: how many of these countries are oil exporters?) In fact, you can abhor these regimes and hope that they will not survive, and still realize how problematical it is for the American government to repeatedly foist big lies on its own people. This kind of thing is beneath any administration claiming lofty ideals and purporting to serve the public interest—and something that none of us should feel comfortable being party to. If the public interest is defined as “seizing oil wherever it may be found,” then, well, that’s a conversation we need to have…and quick. There are severe consequences of this definition. Among them, the empowerment of those forces, both corporate and governmental, that profit most from the unbridled development of fossil fuels—and that have good reasons to block the development of renewable sources of energy. They’re known today as the One Percent, and they are destroying our world. Read all of it at whowhatwhy.com. Next Iranian writer, Middle East expert, Iranologist and lexicographer Dr. Ismail Salami writes for Global Research Building Another Pretext to Wage War on Iran: US Court Holds Tehran Responsible for the 9/11 Attacks - $100 billion in damages In line with its silent war with Iran, a US court in Manhattan made a mockery of justice, issued a default judgment against Iran, and accused Tehran of being involved in the 9/11 terrorist attacks, an allegation which stands in stark contrast to reason in view of the plethora of evidence pointing with force and logic to the joint role of the CIA and the Mossad in the tragic incident. Juxtaposing Iran with the Taliban and the al-Qaeda is an outrageously calculated move devised to further drag Iran into the margins of isolation on the one hand and to sway the sympathy of the international community to support a US-led invasion of Iran on the other. Any time there is a new allegation against Iran, one should not ignore the prominent role the Zionist lobby plays in the matter. In this case too, a Zionist-funded Birmingham law firm had an important part to play in contributing to the warps and wefts of the plot. Among the eight law firms colluding in this case is Wiggins Childs Quinn & Pantazis. ... The Manhattan court decided in late December that Iran and Hezbollah materially and directly financed and supported al-Qaeda in the attacks, thereby holding them legally responsible for to-be-determined monetary damages to family members. ... READ MORE! Then listen to Scott Horton's interview with Gareth Porter on AntiWarRadio! Porter blows GIANT HOLES in this court's ruling! Excellent! And David Swanson chimes in with this headline at WarIsACrime.org US Tells Israel Under What Specific Circumstances It Would Commit an International Crime of Mass Slaughter, Israel Insists on Full Commitment From the Daily Beast: The Obama administration is trying to assure Israel privately that it would strike Iran militarily if Tehran’s nuclear program crosses certain “red lines”—while attempting to dissuade the Israelis from acting unilaterally. Eli Lake reports exclusively. With all the talk of aggression against Iran (again) let us not forget how this might unfold. We go to an article by USAF veteran Douglas Herman at rense.com from January 2005 Day One -The War With Iran The war began as planned. The Israeli pilots took off well before dawn and streaked across Lebanon and northern Iraq, high above Kirkuk. Flying US-made F-15 and F-16s, the Israelis separated over the mountains of western Iran, the pilots gesturing a last minute show of confidence in their mission, maintaining radio silence. Just before the sun rose over Tehran, moments before the Muslim call to prayer, the missiles struck their targets. While US Air Force AWACS planes circled overhead--listening, watching, recording--heavy US bombers followed minutes later. Bunker-busters and mini-nukes fell on dozens of targets while Iranian anti-aircraft missiles sped skyward. The ironically named Bushehr nuclear power plant crumbled to dust. .... The Iranian air force, like the Iranian navy, never really knew what hit them. Like the slumbering US sailors at Pearl Harbor, the pre-dawn, pre-emptive attack wiped out fully half the Iranian defense forces in a matter of hours. By mid-morning, the second and third wave of US/Israeli raiders screamed over the secondary targets. The only problem now, the surprising effectiveness of the Iranian missile defenses. The element of surprise lost, US and Israeli warplanes began to fall from the skies in considerable numbers to anti-aircraft fire. At 7:35 AM, Tehran time, the first Iranian anti-ship missile destroyed a Panamanian oil tanker, departing from Kuwait and bound for Houston. Launched from an Iranian fighter plane, the Exocet split the ship in half and set the ship ablaze in the Strait of Hormuz. A second and third tanker followed, black smoke billowing from the broken ships before they blew up and sank. By 8:15 AM, all ship traffic on the Persian Gulf had ceased. US Navy ships, ordered earlier into the relative safety of the Indian Ocean, south of their base in Bahrain, launched counter strikes. Waves of US fighter planes circled the burning wrecks in the bottleneck of Hormuz but the Iranian fighters had fled. At 9 AM, Eastern Standard Time, many hours into the war, CNN reported a squadron of suicide Iranian fighter jets attacking the US Navy fleet south of Bahrain. Embedded reporters aboard the ships--sending live feeds directly to a rapt audience of Americans just awakening--reported all of the Iranian jets destroyed, but not before the enemy planes launched dozens of Exocet and Sunburn anti-ship missiles. A US aircraft carrier, cruiser and two destroyers suffered direct hits. The cruiser blew up and sank, killing 600 men. The aircraft carrier sank an hour later. .... By 9:30 AM, gas stations on the US east coast began to raise their prices. Slowly at first and then altogether in a panic, the prices rose. $4 a gallon, and then $5 and then $6, the prices skyrocketed. Worried motorists, rushing from work, roared into the nearest gas station, radios blaring the latest reports of the pre-emptive attack on Iran. While fistfights broke out in gas stations everywhere, the third Middle Eastern war had begun. ... Read on! Remember this is already six years old. To find out more about Iran go to StopIranWar.com. Boston University Professor of International Relations Andrew J. Bacevich at The Atlantic compares the warnings Eisenhower gave in 1961 on the Military-Industrial Complex we are all familiar with to today's global U.S. hegemony and military empire and its “military metaphysics” properties in The Tyranny of Defense Inc. In 1961, Dwight Eisenhower famously identified the military-industrial complex, warning that the growing fusion between corporations and the armed forces posed a threat to democracy. Judged 50 years later, Ike’s frightening prophecy actually understates the scope of our modern system—and the dangers of the perpetual march to war it has put us on..... In his 1956 book, The Power Elite, C. Wright Mills, a professor of sociology at Columbia, dubbed this perspective “military metaphysics,” which he characterized as “the cast of mind that defines international reality as basically military.” Those embracing this mind-set no longer considered genuine, lasting peace to be plausible. Rather, peace was at best a transitory condition, “a prelude to war or an interlude between wars.” Perhaps nothing illustrates military metaphysics more vividly than the exponential growth of the U.S. nuclear stockpile that occurred during Eisenhower’s presidency. In 1952, when Ike was elected, that stockpile numbered some 1,000 warheads. By the time he passed the reins to John F. Kennedy in 1961, it consisted of more than 24,000 warheads, and it rapidly ascended later that decade to a peak of 31,000. ...... If anything, Eisenhower’s characterization of the cozy relations between the military and corporate worlds understates the contemporary reality. C. Wright Mills came closer to the mark when he wrote of “a coalition of generals in the roles of corporation executives, of politicians masquerading as admirals, of corporation executives acting like politicians.” Add to that list the retired senior officers passing as pundits (often while simultaneously cashing the checks of weapons manufacturers), policy wonks pretending to be field marshals, and journalists eagerly competing to carry water for heroic field commanders. Throw in the former members of Congress who lobby their successors on behalf of defense contractors, and the serving members who vote in favor of any defense appropriations that send money to their districts, and one begins to get a sense of the true topography. With what result? Not peace, and not prosperity. Instead, American soldiers traipse wearily from one conflict to the next while the nation as a whole suffers from acute economic distress. What has gone amiss? Be sure to read all of this as you begin to absorb the mass media hypnosis cheerleading the next war. As Bascevich points out, If anything, Eisenhower’s characterization of the cozy relations between the military and corporate worlds understates the contemporary reality. C. Wright Mills came closer to the mark when he wrote of “a coalition of generals in the roles of corporation executives, of politicians masquerading as admirals, of corporation executives acting like politicians.” Add to that list the retired senior officers passing as pundits (often while simultaneously cashing the checks of weapons manufacturers), policy wonks pretending to be field marshals, and journalists eagerly competing to carry water for heroic field commanders. Throw in the former members of Congress who lobby their successors on behalf of defense contractors, and the serving members who vote in favor of any defense appropriations that send money to their districts, and one begins to get a sense of the true topography. Go to AntiWarRadio and listen to Scott Horton Interviews Andrew Bacevich November 14, 2011: Author of The Short American Century: A Postmortem , Andrew Bacevich discusses his article “The Passing of the Postwar Era;” the major factors leading to a “transformative” decline in US power and prestige on the world stage; the American political elites who are driving the country into a ditch; the redundancy or counter-productivity of overseas bases (excepting the Asia Pacific region); and the lack of “prudent” decision making in Washington D.C. For a good bird's eye view of the current global situation see this interview with Brazilian-born journalist Pepe Escobar "Our Man in Pipelineistan" by German journalist Lars Schall at Consortium News Shifting Ground for Vital Resources. Very long and very good! READ ALL OF IT! And catch PBC Podcast 340 Back Story on Syria: Sibel Edmonds and Journalist Pepe Escobar too! Also at Global Research Homeland Security's Covert Surveillance of Facebook and Twitter: Electronic Privacy Information (EPIC) files lawsuit against DHS EPIC has filed a Freedom of information Act lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security to force disclosure of the details of the agency's social network monitoring program. In news reports and a Federal Register notice, the DHS has stated that it will routinely monitor the public postings of users on Twitter and Facebook. The agency plans to create fictitious user accounts and scan posts of users for key terms. User data will be stored for five years and shared with other government agencies.The legal authority for the DHS program remains unclear. EPIC filed the lawsuit after the DHS failed to reply to an April 2011 FOIA request. For more information, see EPIC: Social Networking Privacy. SOPA UPDATE at Washington's Blog Sopa Would DESTROY Jobs and the Economy … So Why are Unions Supporting It? with a long list of groups and people AGAINST the bill. AND from TechDirt.com Who Will Be The First Politician To Be GoDaddy'd? Having GoDaddy back off its support for SOPA/PIPA is one thing, but it hardly kills off these bills. Politicians are still very much in support of the bills, and both bills are poised to move forward in Congress when it comes back into session in late January. Of course, 2012 is an election year, which means that all of the members of the House who are supporting SOPA are up for re-election, and 1/3 of the Senate is up for re-election. If I were a candidate looking to challenge the incumbents, I'd be paying close, close attention to what happened to GoDaddy, and seeing how the "netroots" community was willing to band together quickly to make things happen. I'd be especially focused on this if I were running against one of the key supporters of SOPA, like Lamar Smith, John Conyers, Bob Goodlatte or Mel Watt (whose opponent should just play that video of him saying he doesn't understand technology, but believes the experts are wrong anyway, over and over and over again). Perhaps a little crowdsourcing is in order. Can we figure out who's already registered to run against the incumbent supporters of SOPA and PIPA, and reach out to get their opinions on the bills and of censorship of the internet? ... It seems that anyone running against these folks would be missing out on a huge opportunity not to make the incumbent's support of censoring the internet into a campaign issue. GOOD ITEM! Suburban Guerilla Susie has more on the Dai-Ichi Fukushima nuclear catastrophe Clusterf**k with VIDEO! I have to think this is in our future, too. (After all, we’re giving a loan guarantee to TEPCO to build a nuclear plant in Texas .) And it’s pretty clear that when it comes to these corporate disasters, the financial needs of the corporations are always going to override the public’s health:

authorities had grossly underestimated tsunami risks, assuming the highest wave would be 6 meters (20 feet). The tsunami hit at more than double those levels. The report criticized the use of the term “soteigai,” meaning “outside our imagination,” which it said implied authorities were shirking responsibility for what had happened. It said by labeling the events as beyond what could have been expected, officials had invited public distrust.

But wait, there’s more! Health experts are also extremely critical

opted to “define the problem out of existence” by raising the permissible level

Mark Crispin Miller reports On Election Day 2008, ’09 & ’10, ES&S op-scans blocked the (Democratic) vote in Cuyahoga County, Ohio! (2 items) The scanners are “defective,” finds the US Election Assistance Commission (EAC). One in ten would “miss some votes,” freeze up “inexplicably,” etc. Although ES&S “tried to fix the problems earlier this year… the upgrade actually created more problems.” “Defective”? Not really. Those scanners have been performing as intended by ES&S—an outfit started up and managed by right-wing Republicans, whose goods are always pooping out, or screwing up, in Democratic areas, like Cuyahoga County. That their goods thus deliver for the party means there’s really nothing wrong with them per se. What’s “defective,” rather, is the US voting system overall—and the vision of all those (the EAC included) who refuse to see what’s happening right before their eyes. -MCM Click over to News from Underground for the two items MCM lists from the CLE Pee Dee. BradBlog.com scoops GINGRICH ADMITS CAMP COMMITTED MASSIVE 'VOTER FRAUD' IN VA! Can you imagine? Next OpEdNews.com has this Stop Elections from Being Stolen: Election Integrity's Victoria Collier Speaks Up Write Voterfraud@foxnews.com and give them some good examples of REAL voter fraud! InsightOutNews hopes to be live streaming Occupy Rose Bowl LIVE on Monday! Tune into InsightOutNews to see if they get it going while you watch the parade. Get more info and updates at Occupy The Rose Parade. And you might want to get started with this in the New Year too! Occupy Facebook: The Occupy Movement is Planning and Launching Their Own Social Network January 2012. Good item for the New Year! We close our first post of 2012 with this call to action from The Peoples Congress

The recent spate of corporate scandals is only the tip of an iceberg that is on a rapid collision course with our democratic Republic. Although the call for government accountability to the People is getting louder, our representatives will not heed the cries for meaningful reform until we organize into one unified voice for real change. That is the intention of the Peoples Congress. There are so many organizations, groups, and individuals working to create a better world. We all share a common problem. Runaway corporate power is preventing the free and meaningful exercise of democracy. Now with the Supreme Court’s decision in the Citizens United case, there is simply no restraint on corporations and unless we act decisively, our voice will soon be forgotten. We are a group of American citizens organizing this grassroots call to action because it is the only solution to our escalating crisis. With your participation in the Peoples Congress, the era of global dominance by multinational corporations may close and a new era of democracy, hope, and justice may begin. Our dreams for a sustainable world do not have to remain dreams. If we gather our strength, collect our will, focus our energy, demand to be heard, tomorrow will be more than a shadow of our hopes. ... Peoplescongress.org is calling for a week long action in which We the People pass specific legislation which, when enacted by Congress, will put an immediate end to the corporate take-over of our government, revitalize and re-democratize elections, allow for a more responsible and open media, and end the secrecy in policy making. Until we reform these institutions and the laws governing them, our goals for a just and sustainable world will remain elusive at best. An earnest national dialog about our future cannot happen until we re-balance the wheels of democracy. It is the intention of the People’s Congress to secure that change directly in accordance with the will of the People and the principles established by our Constitution. This action may persist beyond the planned one-week horizon if necessary. Over the course of 5 days, we will collect our voices and determination, present a People’s State of the Union message, seat a “People’s Congress” on the Mall and pass legislation to be ratified by our national legislature. Finally, we will celebrate our unity and commitment to a just and sustainable world centered on peace.

The People’s Congress will take place the week(s) preceding the Congressional Summer Recess, 2012. Currently, the Majority Leader’s office has not published a calendar for 2012, so an exact date is not yet possible to determine. Once our steering committee has this information, a specific date will be announced. For now, plan for late May through early July, 2012 Official notice, Executive Committee

This is your invitation to dream. Success is only limited by our imaginations. If we are to live in a just and sustainable world, we must all have the courage to set our imaginations free. Now is the time to choose your future. You can remain stuck in the past and hope change will come, or charge ahead with the courage of your convictions and demand change together! The potential of this event is undeniable just as surely as it is unavoidable. It is time to end the corruption and dysfunction that has become to appear all too normal. We the People do have the Power. The time has come to use it. If you wish to participate in the development of the People’s Congress, please visit our Forum page now and log in to the subject which is of most interest to you.

As we head into 2012 we hope you resolve to become engaged in this process, get involved locally and be ready to OCCUPY somewhere with your own MIC CHECK at the ready! HAPPY NEW YEAR!

BRICK TEEVEE ALERTS!_©

»»» Catherine Crump, staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union & George Schulz, works with the Center for Investigative Reporting @ Democracy NOW! The War at Home: Militarized Local Police Tap Post-9/11 Grants to Stockpile Combat Gear, Use Drones Dec 27, 2011
»»» Nnimmo Bassey, executive director of Environmental Rights Action in Nigeria @ Democracy NOW! Oil Slick from Massive Spill in Nigeria Threatens Coastline, May Be Largest Spill in a Decade Dec 27, 2011
»»» Alaa Abd El Fattah, Egyptian Blogge @ Democracy NOW! Alaa Abd El Fattah, Egyptian Blogger and Critic of Military Regime, Speaks Out After Months in Jail Dec 28, 2011
»»» Syrian cyber-activist Karam Nachar & Syrian activist and filmmaker Bassel @ Democracy NOW! Syrian Activist Speaks Out from Hiding as Arab League Mission Fails to Slow Deadly Crackdown Dec 29, 2011
»»» Bruce Cumings, professor of history at the University of Chicago @ Democracy NOW! North Korea’s New Leader Kim Jong-un Inherits Father’s Nuclear Legacy & Country’s Uncertain Future Dec 29, 2011
»»» Lorenzo Lopez, Korina Lopez & Dr. Rodolfo Acuña @ Democracy NOW! Tucson Orders Closure of Mexican-American School Program as Ethnic Studies Faces Nationwide Threat Dec 29, 2011
»»» Scott Olsen @ Democracy NOW! WATCH NOW Scott Olsen, U.S. Vet Wounded at Occupy Oakland, on Recovery, Protests, Iraq and Bradley Manning Dec 30, 2011
»»» Stephen Cohen, professor of Russian studies at New York University WATCH NOW Election Fraud Galvanizes Russian Opposition, Communist Party 20 Years After Soviet Union’s Collapse Dec 30, 2011
GRITtv

»»» GRITtv @ www.grittv.org with Laura Flanders
»»» FEATURED SHOW Nobel Prize Winner Laymeh Gbowee on Sex, War & Invisible Heroes 2011 Nobel Paace-Prize winner, Laymeh Gbowee of Liberia talks to Laura Flanders of GRITtv about sex as an organizing tool, the prospects for women in Eqypt and where NGOs - and the US - go wrong when it comes to making peace after war.
BRICK TEEVEE SPORT!_©
»»» NFL Week 17 Check you local listings
»»» College Bowl Games The traditional New Year's Day games will be on Monday including The Outback, Gator, Capital One, TicketCity, Fiesta and Rose Bowl! Check your local listings. The rest of the bowls will be on the rest of the week with the majority on ESPN.
»»» NBA on TNT! Double-header Thursday! Heat @ Hawks 8 pm et then Lakers @ Blazers 10:30 pm et
BRICK TEEVEE ACTION!_©
The 1st Amendment is Our Permit Our permit to occupy is The First Amendment. Quickly sign the following statement which will be delivered to mayors, police chiefs and major media across the country:

Our permit to occupy public squares and parks is in The First Amendment, which affirms “the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” When people across the Middle East occupied public squares, leaders in Washington mostly cheered those protesters and warned Middle Eastern governments not to use force to clear them. Those other societies don’t have a First Amendment. Yet Washington affirmed the universal right to assembly and protest. We do have a First Amendment. The force being used to clear nonviolent protesters from public squares in our country is unacceptable. It must stop.

October2011.org Sign the Petition to Get the 99% Deficit Proposal Heard in Congress
Please SIGN THE PETITION in support of the "99%'s Deficit Proposal" and plan direct actions to tell the Super Committee that the 99% have better solutions to our nation's crises. You can plan your own action at your Congressmember's office or join us in Freedom Plaza in Washington, DC for marches to Capitol Hill. Check our calendar for announcements.

NET NEUTRALITY! SaveTheInternet.org SOPA If you've been living under an Internet-free rock the past couple of weeks, you might have managed to miss the steady drumbeat of opposition to HR 3261, the so-called Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). Then again, if you've been living under an Internet-free rock, you've already had a preview of what we're facing if SOPA goes into effect. AmericanCensorship.org has pulled together an infographic that explains in very basic terms the services and sites that are at greatest risk from SOPA here: Infographic: Effects of the Internet Blacklist Bill (SOPA). More info at American Censorship Day READ Internet Censorship: Not Today, Not Tomorrow SIGN NOW! Internet censorship is coming to America. It’s in the form of a bill in Congress that gives corporations unprecedented power to blacklist websites at will. If passed, the “Stop Online Piracy Act,” or SOPA (HR 3261), could rip apart the open fabric of the Internet. People could see their websites disappear from the Internet for a “crime” as innocent as posting a video of themselves singing along to a favorite song. Sign this petition NOW! Keep BTV and YOUR blog alive! Listen to Sam Seder with Tim Karr of Free Press on Net Neutrality [11•10•11] UPDATE: Bypass SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) DNS Blocking with DeSopa 1.1 A new anti-SOPA add-on for Firefox, titled “DeSopa” is such a counter measure.When installed, users can click a single button to resolve a blocked domain via foreign DNS servers, bypassing all domestic DNS blockades and allowing the user to browse the site though the bare IP-address (if supported).“I feel that the general public is not aware of the gravity of SOPA and Congress seems like they are about to cater to the special interests involved, to the detriment of Internet, for which I and many others live and breathe,” DeSopa developer T Rizk told....
CAMPAIGN FOR AMERICA'S FUTURE American Majority Rejects Washington Austerity Consensus – And We Demand Media Coverage by Roger Hickey, President, Campaign for America's Future: No more silent majority. The Campaign for America’s Future is joining with the Center for Economic and Policy Research (whose Co-Director, Dean Baker blogs regularly about economic bias in the media) and with FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting) to monitor the media’s coverage and representation of the American Majority views as they go into covering the big deficit fight. But we want to enlist YOU too. Send us accounts of unbalanced coverage in the national media and in your local newspapers and television. Call up reporters, editors, assignment people and tell them when they are under-representing the views of the American Majority. We should have at least half the experts, pundits, quotes and real people represented in their coverage. In a debate as important as the one we are going into, we can’t allow the media to ignore the American Majority. Much more at www.ourfuture.org
MOVE TO AMEND! www.movetoamend.org SIGN HERE NOW! Also visit Rep Alan Grayson's site www.savedemocracy.net And Alan Grayson is running again in FL-8! Help out at CongressmanWithGuts.com
SUPPORT THE TROOPS WHO REFUSE TO FIGHT See CourageToResist.org UPDATE! Manning-Lamo Chat Logs Revealed at wired.com plus The Deeply Personal Details in New Bradley Manning Chat Logs and Bradley Manning Support Network Much more at link.
UPDATE! BRADLEY MANNING UPDATE: Robert Parry Exclusive America’s Debt to Bradley Manning So, it was useful to examine the WikiLeaks documents regarding the election of the new IAEA leader in 2009 to understand why this flip may have occurred. What those classified State Department cables show is that the IAEA’s new director general, Japanese diplomat Yukiya Amano, credited his victory largely to U.S. government support and promptly stuck his hand out for U.S. money. Further, Amano left little doubt that he would side with the United States in its confrontation with Iran and that he would even meet secretly with Israeli officials regarding their purported evidence on Iran’s nuclear program, despite the fact that Israel is arguably the world’s preeminent rogue nuclear state and rejects IAEA inspections of its own nuclear sites. According to U.S. embassy cables from Vienna, Austria, the site of IAEA’s headquarters, American diplomats in 2009 were cheering the prospect that Amano would advance U.S. interests in ways that outgoing IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei wouldn’t. ..... In private, Amano agreed to “consultations” with the head of the Israeli Atomic Energy Commission, Pyatt reported. (It is ironic indeed that Amano would have secret contacts with Israeli officials about Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons program, which has yet to yield a single bomb, when Israel possesses a large and undeclared nuclear arsenal.) In a subsequent cable dated Oct. 16, 2009, the U.S. mission in Vienna said Amano “took pains to emphasize his support for U.S. strategic objectives for the Agency. Amano reminded ambassador [Glyn Davies] on several occasions that … he was solidly in the U.S. court on every key strategic decision, from high-level personnel appointments to the handling of Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons program. “More candidly, Amano noted the importance of maintaining a certain ‘constructive ambiguity’ about his plans, at least until he took over for DG ElBaradei in December” 2009. In other words, the emerging picture of Amano is of a bureaucrat eager to bend in directions favored by the United States and Israel, especially regarding Iran’s nuclear program. Amano’s behavior surely contrasts with how the more independent-minded ElBaradei resisted some of Bush’s key claims about Iraq’s supposed nuclear weapons program, denouncing some documents as forgeries. Today, with some Republican presidential contenders falling over themselves to bond with Israel over its desire to attack Iran, this sort of detail puts the IAEA report into a fuller context that can help American voters judge whether another war is necessary or whether they’re being misled again by hyped allegations. More at link...
DONATE YOUR OLD CELL PHONES TO T.J. MARTELL FOUNDATION Help save lives. Donate your old & used iPhone, Blackberries, Droid and other phones to help the T.J. Martell Foundations fund life-saving cancer & AIDS research. For more information, go to www.tjmartellfoundation.org

B R I C K T E E V E E
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The essential guide for watching government propaganda
IRAQ: 4,484 US Military Dead as of Dec 31, 2011
AFGHANISTAN: 1,863 US Military Dead as of Dec 31, 2011
The Obameter: Tracking Obama's Campaign Promises
Considering Democracy: 8 Things to ask your Representative

This Week (ABC) with Christiane Amanpour
• Fact Checking ABC's "This Week" at NPR "On the Media" - Jake Tapper, interim host of ABC's "This Week," liked the idea of fact-checking his guests' comments, so he set up a partnership with Politifact, a non-partisan fact-checking organization. See Politifact Statements ABC News 'This Week'
• Rep. Ron Paul
• Rep. Michele Bachmann
• Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad
• BC News' senior political correspondent Jonathan Karl
• Radio Iowa's O. Kay Henderson
• ROUNDTABLE: ABC News political analyst Matthew Dowd, Neera Tanden of the Center for American Progress, Washington Examiner chief political correspondent and Fox News contributor Byron York, and former Iowa Republican Party political director Craig Robinson, founder and editor-in-chief of The Iowa Republican.
Face The Nation (CBS) Host Bob Schiefer
• Sen. Rand Paul
• former Sen. Jim Talent
• former Congressman J.C. Watts
• ROUNDTABLE: Mike Allen of Politico; John Dickerson of CBS; Norah O’Donnell of CBS; and David Yepsen of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute.
60 Minutes (CBS)
• The Majority Leader - Lesley Stahl profiles House Majority Leader Eric Cantor about his life and the recent bipartisan wars in Congress. Karen Sughrue is the producer
• The Perfect Score - In his first interview about his criminal fraud, Sam Eshaghoff tells how he was able to take the SAT and ACT college admissions exams for others who paid him up to $2,500 per test. Alison Stewart reports. Katherine Davis is the producer.
Meet the Press (NBC) Host David Gregory
• Meet the Facts at NPR "On the Media" - Last December, NYU professor Jay Rosen proposed something simple yet revolutionary: why don't the Sunday morning chat shows fact check their guests? After "Meet the Press" host David Gregory declined, two college students launched a website to do it for him. One of them, Chas Danner, explains what they're trying to accomplish. See their website MeetTheFacts.com updating soon!
• Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum
• IOWA PREVIEW: NBC News Political Director Chuck Todd and Chair of the Republican Party of Iowa, Matt Strawn.
• ROUNDTABLE: Des Moines Register’s Kathie Obradovich, GOP strategist Mike Murphy, the New York Times’ David Brooks, Time’s Mark Halperin, and NBC’s Andrea Mitchell.
State of the Union With Candy Crowley (CNN)
At 9 AM ET, Candy talks to the power players: politicians, business leaders and international newsmakers who will make Monday morning's headlines. At NOON ET, Candy wraps it all up with fresh interviews and the best of the earlier hours.
• Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas)
• Rep. Steve King, (R-Iowa)
• Iowa Governor Terry Branstad (R)
• Dan Balz of the Washington Post and Neil King of the Wall Street Journal.
HEAD ON RADIO with Bob Kincaid

Headon Radio with Bob Kincaid 6 PM Eastern, 3 PM Pacific, 2300 GMT. Duration: 3 hrs. To be part of the conversation on Head-on Radio, call toll-free (877) 443-2366, or use our Liberal community line at 304-658-3333. Email: bob [at] headonradio [dot] com.
• PRAYER MEETIN' WEDNESDAY!!!!! Uber Pope Imam Bishop Rabbi Bob! Listen now HERE (mp3)!
Amen to the White Rose Society! Donate to Head On HERE! And join Coal River Mountain Watch at www.crmw.net!
YOUR GREEN NEWS REPORT

The Green News Report with Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen: 6 minutes of green news, politics, analysis & snarky comment!
BOOKMARK greennews.bradblog.com NOW!
• 'Green News Report' - December 22, 2011 IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Breaking: More aid to Africa for drought/famine relief; Good year-end news for anyone who breathes: new rules to clean up toxic mercury and arsenic from coal plants; 30k Chinese 'occupy' to protest coal plants; Meet today's World's Newest Oil Spill, now in Nigeria; PLUS: Um... "explosive" trends in a melting Arctic ... All that and more in today's Green News Report!
IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see link): House GOP earns ‘Worst Environmental Record Of Any Congress’; Record TX drought kills 500m trees; Genetic mutations in farm-raised salmon; New material breakthrough could double solar efficiency - with cheap plastic; Seattle bans plastic bags; Keystone XL would ship oil to China; USDA deregulates Monsanto GMO seed; Top clean energy stories of 2011 ... PLUS: Don't paint it black: US researchers invent paint-on solar cells ... and much, MUCH more! ...
BRADCAST UPDATE: Brad sits in AGAIN on the Mike Malloy Show Thursday & Friday!
• THU 12/29: The GOP's 'Voter Fraud' Fraud, the IA Caucuses & Occupying the LAPD... THE GOP LOVES VOTER FRAUD! And tonight, I'll prove it! With lots of "fraud" news to cover from the caucuses of Iowa to the primary ballots of Virginia and beyond! OCCUPYING FOR ACCOUNTABILITY I'll be joined in studio by several OccupyLA'ers who will share their stories of horrific treatment at the hands of the LAPD, as we try to bring some accountability. Also will speak with the great independent citizen journalist/web-streamer Spencer "OakFoSho" Mills on his quest for accountability for LAPD Officer Escamilla. PLUS! More than I have time to mention here,
• FRI 12/30: The 2012 circus begins, w/ Bev Harris, Desi Doyen & Ernie Canning!... END OF THE YEAR/BEGINNING OF ELECTION YEAR ROUND-UP: Everything we've yet to get to this year, and everything you'll need to know as the zany 2012 election year circus will finally get under way! VISITS FROM FRIENDS: In addition to (hopefully) lots of calls from you guys, we may have a few visits from a few friends o' the blog! PLUS! Anything and everything that's on your minds at year's end as 2012 awaits
• Check out the LIVE CHAT you can read through on these links! Excellent commentary and more links!
AND BRAD on Thom Hartman's THE BIG PICTURE Tuesday My Appearance on Thom Hartmann's TV Show Last Night... My appearance last night on The Big Picture with Thom Hartmann was a round-up of a bunch of the latest voting news, from the DoJ's rejection of South Carolina's Photo ID restriction, to Newt's failure to get enough signatures to make it onto the VA Primary ballot, to the 93-year old woman who cleaned the TN state capitol for decades being told she may not be able to vote with her expired state ID, to the U.S. EAC finding, finally, that hackable ES&S paper ballot op-scan computers fail to count some votes without notice to anybody...
Visit BradBlog.com to see who counts yer votes! Reference yer background/research at Who's Counting? too.
The Peter B. Collins Show PODCAST!

Listen at PeterBCollins.com!
The Peter B. Collins Show covers American news and politics from the Left Coast. Veteran talk radio personality Peter B. Collins, based in San Francisco, delivers fresh interviews, commentary and analysis on a range of important topics, with views and voices you don’t often find in the corporate media.
• PBC Live! Weekly on KGO PBC Live! Weekly on KGO Your humble host has been remiss in keeping you apprised of his other media activities. Since February, I’ve been hosting a regular weekly show on KGO, the leading San Francisco talk station with a huge coverage area–at night, you can hear it anywhere on the West Coast. TFN (till further notice), you can hear me every Friday night–or, more precisely, Saturday morning, from 1-5 am (PDT) on 810-AM or streaming at www.kgoradio.com. If you’d like to be alerted each week, sign up on Facebook as a fan of “Peter B. Collins Show” or you can follow me on Twitter, @pbcsf
• PBC Podcast 340 Back Story on Syria: Sibel Edmonds and Journalist Pepe Escobar Cutting through the disinformation and spin, Sibel Edmonds and Pepe Escobar reveal back stories about the conflict in Syria that are not reported in the mainstream media.
• Holiday Break and Website Changes
Ring of Fire Radio

Find us at http://ringoffireradio.com and http://goleft.tv/ hosted by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Mike Papantonio and Sam Seder
Ring of Fire Radio - GoLeft TV - Robert F. Kennedy, Mike Papantonio, Sam Seder - Politics, Commentary, and News.
This Week on The Best of Ring of Fire! December 30, 2011
• Brave New Films founder Robert Greenwald will join us to discuss his latest film that will expose every shady activity being carried out by the Koch Brothers.
• Mark Potok from the Southern Poverty Law Center will be here to tell us about the rising numbers of anti-government hate groups that have popped up in the last year.
• Investigative journalist Chris Hayes will be joining us to discuss the real reason behind skyrocketing gas prices at the pump.
• And author Rick Perlstein will be here to give us an update on the situation in Wisconsin.
• VIDEO! Papantonio: GOP War On Voting Heats Up There is going to be a race taking place between Republicans trying to prevent minorities, elderly, and 18 -25 year olds from voting and Democrats who believe the right to vote is important. The race is taking place in the courts – in an effort to enforce the guidelines laid out in the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
• Support Those Who Support Progressive Media! 2011 has certainly been a great year for Ring of Fire, and we’ve had some great sponsors that have helped support the show throughout the year. We wanted to take the time to personally thank each and every one of them, and we encourage all of our listeners to take the time to support those who have support us.
• Join our blog at www.ringoffireradio.com. You can now SUBSCRIBE TO OUR PODCAST by clicking on the “Podcast” tab at the top of the Ring of Fire blog. Please help support progressive radio by signing up!
Ring of Fire Radio Ring of Fire, hosted by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Mike Papantonio and Sam Seder: Saturdays at 3 o’clock Eastern, rebroadcasts Sunday nights at 7 pm ct on Chicago's Progressive Talk WCPT AM & FM and 4 pm et on Sirius/XM 167 featuring The PAP Attack! "We’ll bring you the stories that the mainstream media didn’t feel like reporting this week."
Majority Report with Sam Seder Streaming LIVE weekdays 11:30 am et @ Majority.fm! NEW SHOWS NEXT WEEK!

• David Graeber, one of the original Occupy Wall Street organizers, on Debt: the First 5,000 Years, OWS & D12 [12•12•11]
• Jason Benlevi on Our Digital Life: How We're Changing and Who Benefits? [12•19•11]
• Brian Beutler of Talking Points Memo on the Payroll Tax Cut Fiasco [12•21•11]
• Digby on Ron Paul, Libertarianism & the 2012 Elections [12•22•11]
• An Update from Occupy New Hampshire! [12•22•11]]
MORE Podcast Interviews at majorityreport.official.fm!
On the Edge with Max Keiser Podcasts and more @ MaxKeiser.com!

"HI Y'ALL! Tell the people! Tell the people!"
WHO IS MAX KEISER? Max Keiser is a financial expert, Prediction Markets analyst, inventor and filmmaker. He is the creator of the Hollywood Stock Exchange (HSX) the first Prediction Market. Max Keiser co-hosts “The Truth About Markets” on ResonanceFM 104.4 in London. He also produces and presents documentary films covering markets and finance for Al Jazeera’s “People & Power” series. Max Keiser started his career on Wall Street in 1983. He is the creator of KarmaBanque a site that enables activists to challenge corporate power.
• VISIT PirateMyFilm.com!!! Crowd Funding for Pirates!
• NEW! MaxKeiserTV on YouTube! MaxKeiserTV PLUS here is Max Keiser’s official Facebook page And here is the official Keiser Report page
• VIDEO! MISH’s year end predictions by maxkeiser. READ Mish 2012 Predictions; 2011 Year in Review with Max Keiser (globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com)
• VIDEO! Max Keiser on Capital Account: Presidential Futures are like “Running Man on Steroids” by stacyherbert.
• KEISER REPORT [KR228] Keiser Report – Parasites with bailouts
• KEISER REPORT [KR229] Jamie Dimon Suckles on Ben Bernanke’s Quantitative Easing We discuss London brokers shrinking, boycotting JP Morgan, boycotting the financial system and command and control credit derivatives. In the second half of the show, Max talks to JS Kim of SmartknowledgeU about the MF Global fraud and gold and silver.
• KEISER REPORT [KR230] Keiser Report: Outrageous Predictions for 2012 This week we discuss virtual dollars and American plots and tinned goods and small-caliber weapons. In the second half of the show, Max talks to Detlev Schlichter about elastic money and financial crises.
• ON THE EDGE Euro crisis-On the Edge with Max Keiser-12-09-2011 Guest: Greg Hunter
• THE TRUTH ABOUT MARKETS [TaM-1228] The Truth About Markets – 10 December 2011 Download show HERE (mp3)
• Donate to ResonanceFM here!
ANTIWAR RADIO with Scott Horton
LIVE (9-11am Pacific, 12pm - 2pm Eastern) Plenty of archives too!
Listen at antiwar.com/radio
• Barbara Slavin December 24, 2011: Barbara Slavin, author of Bitter Friends, Bosom Enemies: Iran, the U.S. and the Twisted Path to Confrontation, discusses her article “Mass Tragedy Feared as Closure of MEK Camp Looms;” how MEK leader Maryam Rajavi is using the camp residents as pawns while pressuring the State Department to remove the group’s terrorist status; the proposed 2003 prisoner swap (MEK for al-Qaeda) between the US and Iran that was scuttled by Doug Feith and Paul Wolfowitz; and how UN interviews with MEK members (to arrange relocation after Camp Ashraf’s closing) could reveal brainwashing and other unflattering cult-like behavior.
• Stephen Zunes December 26, 2011: Dr. Stephen Zunes, Professor of Politics and International Studies at the University of San Francisco, discusses the Arab Spring as the culmination of decades of peaceful rebellion against tyrannical governments; why nonviolent protests are more inclusive and tougher to eradicate; why the Libyan revolution was not in the Arab Spring mold (more like a foreign intervention/regime change); how violent revolutions tend to breed more violence and result in authoritarian governments; how the Bush administration helped bring down Middle East/North African client dictators (without meaning to); and the status of Syria, Yemen, Bahrain, Morocco and Algeria.
• Jason Ditz December 26, 2011: Jason Ditz, managing news editor at Antiwar.com, discusses the large bombings in Iraq after US withdrawal; Prime Minister Maliki’s attempt to arrest Vice President Tareq Hashemi as a “terrorist;” Iraq’s coalition government falling apart, as Maliki overreaches; the 700 US troops scheduled to remain behind as trainers; the military’s report justifying the fatal US air attack on Pakistani border posts; back-channel negotiations between the US and Pakistan’s civilian government to undermine the Pakistani military’s power; and indications NATO is staying in Afghanistan for the long haul.
• Gareth Porter December 30, 2011: Gareth Porter, independent historian and journalist for IPS News, discusses his article “Crackpot Anti-Islam Activists, ‘Serial Fabricators’ and the Tale of Iran and 9/11;” the US court judgement finding Iran liable for the 9/11 attacks in a civil lawsuit brought by victims’ families; the testimony of an Iranian defector, previously discredited as a “serial fabricator;” the alleged secret meeting between Iran’s leadership and OBL’s son, complete with miniaturized models of 9/11 targets and an ominously dangling toy missile; the anti-Islam groups peddling a grossly exaggerated, conspiratorial narrative in “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” style; and how Iran’s passport-stamping practices have become the basis of “material support” of al-Qaeda charges.
Many more interviews at Antiwar Radio!
fauxnews
• Congressman Ron Paul
• Texas Governor Rick Perry
• Congresswoman Michele Bachmann.

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brick

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Saturday, December 31, 2011

Brick TeeVee Rings In the 2012 New Year!

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