Brick TeeVee's Farewell to 2012!

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Good Bye 2012! This past year has given us destructive record heat waves, wild fires, drought, hurricanes and more. Joe Romm at ClimateProgress posts the Climate Story Of The Year: Extreme Weather From Superstorms To Drought Emerges As Political, Scientific Gamechanger Global Warming, Record Arctic Ice Loss Create Deadly ‘New Normal’ With Twenty-Five Billion-Dollar U.S. Weather Disasters In 2 Years. Also watch this youtube video Arctic Methane: Why The Sea Ice Matters from Envisionation.co.uk. And Jeff Biggers posts his Book of the Year: Clean Break, the Story of Germany's Energy Transformation -- and What Americans Can Learn From It. All good items!
AlterNet's Kristen Gwynne writes about 5 Senior Citizens Serving Life Without Parole for Pot Right now, five adults await death in prison for non-violent, marijuana-related crimes. Their names are John Knock, Paul Free, Larry Duke, William Dekle, and Charles “Fred” Cundiff. They are all more than 60 years old; they have all spent at least 15 years locked up for selling pot; and they are all what one might call model prisoners, serving life without parole. As time wrinkles their skin and weakens their bodies, Michael Kennedy of the Trans High Corporation has filed a legal petition with the federal government seeking their clemency. Otherwise they will die behind bars for selling a drug 40% of American adults have admitted to using, 50% of Americans want legal, and two states have already legalized for adult use. Since these men were convicted of these crimes many years ago, public opinion and policy related to marijuana have shifted greatly. Should these five non-violent senior-citizen offenders die behind bars for a crime Americans increasingly believe should not even be a crime?
THIS JUST IN: Sen. Boxer proposes deploying National Guard at schools Wait a minute. Didn't the NRA's LaPierre call for just this?
Wayne LaPierre: "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. I call on Congress today to act immediately to appropriate whatever is necessary to put armed police officers in every single school in this nationand to do it now, to make sure that blanket safety is in place when our kids return to school in January." (DN! Wednesday transcript)
Then Russ Baker at whowhatwhy.com goes Fact-Checking Wayne LaPierre Recently, on NBC’s Meet the Press, David Gregory asked Wayne LaPierre of the National Rifle Association why he would not support decreasing the number of permissible rounds held in ammunition magazines, as a way of reducing the number of dead. He proposed, for the sake of discussion, reducing the number of rounds in a magazine from, say 20, to 10. ..... So the gun LaPierre was referring to was manufactured before Feinstein’s bill even went into effect. On this count, his statement is highly misleading. ..... So LaPierre’s even raising the issue of Feinstein’s bill was a red herring—a distraction from the substance of what Gregory was saying. Thus, while it was true that Feinstein’s bill did not prevent the carnage at Columbine, the proposal Gregory was referring to very likely would have. ....
Everyone has a list this time of year so here are a few we liked:

• Kira Cochrane at The Guardian UK lists Worst ideas of 2012: Republicans thinking out loud Binders full of women, magical vaginas and other vote-losing concepts from the American right
  
• AlterNet's Sarah Jaffe counts The 10 Worst GOP Governors: What Horrors Did They Unleash in 2012?
  
• At Care2.com Jeff Feck itemizes the 10 Worst Political Quotes of 2012

Next at the Campaign for America's Future Dave Johnson explains why Radical Plan B Failed Because It Was Not Extreme Enough .... To understand just how radical and extreme today’s Republicans are, it is worth looking at what was in the “Plan B” that Speaker Boehner tried to bring before the House. They hate government and they mean it. Plan B cut off unemployment benefits for 2 million Americans. It actually raised taxes on most Americans while cutting taxes on the billionaires. It moved every cut onto the backs of domestic discretionary spending, dramatically gutting government all at once. This would literally destroy the government and certainly plunge the economy into recession. But the reason conservative Republicans opposed this was not because of the consequences on the rest of us, it was because it increased some taxes on a few billionaires. You can’t even imagine that you have the responsibility of being a legislator — never mind Speaker of the House — if you are prepared to offer a bill like this to the Congress, never mind that most of them favored this, and opposed it only because it was not radical enough. The cuts and destruction were fine with them, they wanted no tax increase whatsoever on the billionaires. What Was In “Plan B”? According to Americans for Tax Fairness if the Boehner “Plan B” passed these would have been some of the consequences..... Read on! And Washington Monthly's Political Animal Steve Benen asks Worst. Congress. Ever? ....Indeed, gaming out the coming months, the White House believes the very best we can hope for from Congress this year is a full extension of the payroll tax break — a measure I consider very unlikely to pass — and nothing else. It would mean the 112th Congress would wrap up later this year with exactly zero meaningful accomplishments. The question then becomes historical in nature: will this go down as the worst Congress in the history of the United States? Americans, who are ultimately responsible for creating this mess, are already inclined to think so. A recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll found 42% of the public sees this Congress as “one of the worst ever” — the highest percentage on this particular question the poll has found since it started asking it 22 years ago. ...... At the WaPo E.J. Dionne suggests It’s our system on the cliff The United States faces a crisis in our political system because the Republican Party, particularly in the House of Representatives, is no longer a normal, governing party. The only way we will avoid a constitutional crackup is for a new, bipartisan majority to take effective control of the House and isolate those who would rather see the country fall into chaos than vote for anything that might offend their ideological sensibilities. In a democratic system with separated powers, two houses of Congress, split between the parties, a normal party accepts that compromise is the only way to legislate. A normal party takes into account election results. A normal party recognizes when the other side has made real concessions. A normal party takes responsibility. By all of these measures, the Republican majority that Speaker John Boehner purports to lead is abnormal. That is the meaning of his catastrophic failure to gather the votes for his “Plan B” proposal on the “fiscal cliff.” Many of his most radical members believe they have a right to use any means at their disposal to impose their views on the country, even if they are only a minority in Congress. There may, however, be good news in the disarray: The right wing of the Republican House has chosen to marginalize itself from any serious negotiations. The one available majority for action, especially on budgets, is a coalition uniting most Democrats with those Republicans who still hold the old-fashioned view that they were elected to help run the country. ..... Our political structure has been disfigured in another way: In November’s election, Democrats failed to win the House even though they received about a million more votes in House contests than the Republicans did. Republicans were protected by gerrymandered districts and by political geography: Democrats tend to win urban and certain suburban districts by overwhelming margins. ...... This unfortunate moment is a vindication of those like my colleagues Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein, who have been arguing that today’s Republicans are fundamentally different from their forebears. In their appropriately named book, "It’s Even Worse than It Looks," Mann and Ornstein called the current GOP “an insurgent outlier in American politics,” and described the party this way: “It is ideologically extreme; scornful of compromise and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition.” Their words are a rather precise description of why Boehner was unable to deliver a majority of his party to his budget bill. ...... And at The Daily Beast Michael Tomasky: The GOP Brings Politics to a Crisis Point Really, what is to be done about this Republican Party? What force can change it—can stop Republicans from being ideological saboteurs and convert at least a workable minority of them into people interested in governing rather than sabotage? With the failed Plan B vote, we have reached the undeniable crisis point. Actually we’ve been at a crisis point for years, but this is really the all-upper-case Undeniable Crisis Point. They are a direct threat to the economy, which could slip back into recession next year if the government doesn’t, well, govern. They are an ongoing, at this point almost mundane, threat to democracy, subverting and preventing progress the American people clearly desire across a number of fronts. They have to be stopped, and the only people who can really stop them are corporate titans and Wall Streeters, who surely now are finally beginning to see that America’s problem is not Barack Obama and his alleged “socialism,” but a political party that has become psychologically incapable of operating within the American political system. ....... But these Republicans learned that they have to be even more obstructionist. Their ideas are unpopular, their America is dying. But by God, they’re standing until the last man! They’re Paulus’s soldiers at Stalingrad, surrounded by an enemy that embodies evil—and is fated to outlast them. This is how they’ve been trained to think. So they’ll give no ground. ........ They didn’t come to Washington to govern. They came to sabotage. So our working assumption must be whatever the issue, sabotage is what they’re going to do. And they can do it all they want. Our founders didn’t assume that a cadre of people of such immense bad faith and cynicism would ever come to control key levers of government; they built a system that would work, albeit slowly, in the hands of people of reasonably good will. It’s a system that people of bad will can subvert and stop from functioning. Someone has to tell them enough. The only people I can think of with the power to do so are the high-profile figures of Wall Street and the corporate world. They’re the only people these Republicans might conceivably listen to. ..... Do read Andrew Sullivan's Enough! ..... the current constitutional and economic vandalism removes any shred of doubt that this party and its lucrative media bubble is in any way conservative. They aren't. They're ideological zealots, indifferent to the consequences of their actions, contemptuous of the very to-and-fro essential for the American system to work, gerry-mandering to thwart the popular will, filibustering in a way that all but wrecks the core mechanics of American democracy, and now willing to acquiesce to the biggest tax increase imaginable because they cannot even accept Obama's compromise from his clear campaign promise to raise rates for those earning over $250,000 to $400,000 a year. And this is not the exception. It is the rule. .... This faction and its unhinged fanaticism has no place in any advanced democracy. They must be broken..... And his fellow republican Mark McKinnon "throws cold water on his wayward party" in All I Want for Christmas Is a New GOP. Everyone knows how Republicans bray about "ineffective government" then get elected and prove it. Esquire's Charles Pierce proclaims A PLAGUE UPON ONE HOUSE ..... It's beginning to give momentum to the phony voices of "moderation" who, at worst, believe that "both sides" are somehow at fault, as though the House were actually doing something, and at best, are shopping around for some deal, any deal, despite the fact that half the legislative branch has abandoned its role in governing the country in favor of costumed mummery for the rubes back home. The problem with a system of government designed the way ours is designed is that, for it to work that way it should, all its component parts have to share a basic committment that government should, you know, govern. Now, after carefully nurturing for 40 years the notion that government is bad, the Republican party has developed within it a legislative core that believes that, if government is bad, then governing is worse, that holds as an article of faith that the only legitimate function of government is to do nothing -- loudly, if possible. For years, we have been confronted in our elections with the conundrum of people who run for high political office because they are "not politicians." For years, we have elected -- and re-elected -- people to the national Congress in Washington because they are "not Washington insiders." What you see now in the House is a generation of elected officials raised in the fundamental absurdity of that kind of thinking, members of Congress who believe that the best way to keep faith with the people who elected them is to not do the job the people back home elected them to do. "That government is best which governs least," is a bromide that these people have turned into an iron syllogism. If that government is best which governs least, then the best possible government is that which governs not at all, and that, in the government's innermost parts, the best representatives are those that do as little as possible. And here we are. A House Of Representatives that declines to participate in governing the country, that would prefer not to, under the leadership of the gentleman from Ohio, Bartleby The Speaker. This isn't checks and balances. This isn't an exercise in protecting the rights of a legislative minority, which is supposed to be the point of checks and balances in the first place. This is enforced paralysis at the behest of a leaderless, rogue majority, and the financial powers behind it. It is a dangerous collision between an impotent leadership and fanatics who will not be led, by anyone, towards anything. Once you've convinced yourself that the worst thing you can do for your country is to do your job. Robert Riech calls for The Only Way Left to Beat Republican Fanatics: Call Their Bluff and Go Over the Cliff .... In a game of highway chicken, for example, the driver that can’t swerve because he’s tied his hands to the steering wheel and chained his foot to the accelerator forces the other to swerve in order to avoid crashing. The trick is for the first driver to convince the second that he’s crazy enough to have committed himself to instant death if the second doesn’t act rationally. House Speaker John Boehner’s failure to persuade rank-and-file House Republicans to raise taxes even on millionaires fits the fanatic’s strategy exactly. Boehner can now credibly claim he has no choice in the matter – Republican fanatics in the House have tied his hands and manacled his feet — so the only way to avoid going over the cliff is for Obama and the Democrats to make more concessions. The White House’s hope of getting the Senate to pass legislation that raises taxes on the wealthy in order to pressure Boehner won’t work because the legislation can’t possibly get through the House. That’s the point: Boehner has demonstrated he has no choice; the fanatics are in charge there. Obama could decide going over the cliff isn’t so bad after all – as long as he and congressional Democrats introduce legislation early in the 2013 that gives a tax cut to the middle class retroactively to January 1st (extending the Bush tax cut to the first $250,000 of income) and restores most spending — and Republicans feel compelled to go along. But with Boehner’s hands tied and the fanatics in charge, this gambit becomes far riskier. What if we go over the cliff and House Republicans continue to hold out against any tax increases on the rich while demanding major cuts in Medicare and Social Security? ..... The real problem with this gambit is it doesn’t change the game. Even down the road, Boehner’s hands will still be tied and the fanatics will remain in charge — which will give Republicans the stronger position in negotiations leading to a “grand bargain.” Compromise would have to be almost entirely on the Democrats’ side. That’s why I’d recommend going over the cliff and forcing the Republicans’ hand. It’s a risky strategy but it would at least expose the Republican tactic and put public pressure squarely on rank-and-file Republicans, where it belongs. The fanatics in the GOP have to be held accountable or they’ll continue to hold the nation hostage to their extremism. Even if it takes until the 2014 midterms to loosen their hold, the cost is worth it. Adding to all of this The Borowitz Report finds this HOLIDAY LETTER FROM JOHN BOEHNER which reads in part .... Yes, I’m sitting here in my man-cave, panelled in mahogany the color of me, doing a rack of Canadian Club shooters and smoking my way through a carton of Lucky Strikes as if they were the last Twinkies in creation. If my chief of staff knew that I was writing to you while I was this polluted, he’d shit a phone book. But guess what? I don’t fucking care anymore. You see, this will be my last Christmas as Speaker of the House, all because a cabal of Tea Party miscreants in the House of Representatives doesn’t think I’m a ginormous enough asshole for their taste. Who’s more to their liking? Virginia’s own Eric Cantor. ..... Bwaaahahahahahaaaa! On a more serious note we turn to the "lovely-stuff dept" at TechDirt.com LEAKED: White House's Bogus Talking Points On Why Senate Should Trample The 4th Amendment Want to know the White House's key propaganda lines for refusing to allow proper oversight into how the NSA is spying on us all? Well, sit back and read on, because the White House's "talking points" on why the Senate should reject four key amendments to try to roll back some of the excesses of the broad and massive secret program to collect tons of data on Americans, has been leaked. First, some background. ..... And on RT's "Breaking the Set" Abby Martin sits down with Academy Award Winning Director, Oliver Stone, and Historian Peter Kuznick, to talk about US foreign policy and the Obama administration's disregard for the rule of law in Oliver Stone: Obama a wolf in sheep's clothing. Plus the Partnership for Civil Justice has found through FOIA FBI Documents Reveal Secret Nationwide Occupy Monitoring FBI documents just obtained by the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF) pursuant to the PCJF’s Freedom of Information Act demands reveal that from its inception, the FBI treated the Occupy movement as a potential criminal and terrorist threat even though the agency acknowledges in documents that organizers explicitly called for peaceful protest and did “not condone the use of violence” at occupy protests. The PCJF has obtained heavily redacted documents showing that FBI offices and agents around the country were in high gear conducting surveillance against the movement even as early as August 2011, a month prior to the establishment of the OWS encampment in Zuccotti Park and other Occupy actions around the country. “This production, which we believe is just the tip of the iceberg, is a window into the nationwide scope of the FBI’s surveillance, monitoring, and reporting on peaceful protestors organizing with the Occupy movement,” stated Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, Executive Director of the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF). “These documents show that the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security are treating protests against the corporate and banking structure of America as potential criminal and terrorist activity. These documents also show these federal agencies functioning as a de facto intelligence arm of Wall Street and Corporate America.” “The documents are heavily redacted, and it is clear from the production that the FBI is withholding far more material. We are filing an appeal challenging this response and demanding full disclosure to the public of the records of this operation,” stated Heather Benno, staff attorney with the PCJF. ..... Watch an interview with Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, executive director of the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund on DN! below. At the Guardian UK Naoimi Wolf predicts The coming drone attack on America People often ask me, in terms of my argument about "ten steps" that mark the descent to a police state or closed society, at what stage we are. I am sorry to say that with the importation of what will be tens of thousands of drones, by both US military and by commercial interests, into US airspace, with a specific mandate to engage in surveillance and with the capacity for weaponization – which is due to begin in earnest at the start of the new year – it means that the police state is now officially here. .......... Given the Department of Homeland Security militarization of police departments, once the circle is completed with San Francisco or New York or Chicago local cops having their own drone fleet – and with Chase, HSBC and other banks having hired local police, as I reported here last week – the meshing of military, domestic law enforcement, and commercial interests is absolute. You don't need a messy, distressing declaration of martial law. And drone fleets owned by private corporations means that a first amendment right of assembly is now over: if Occupy is massing outside of a bank, send the drone fleet to surveil, track and harass them. If citizens rally outside the local Capitol? Same thing. As one of my readers put it, the scary thing about this new arrangement is deniability: bad things done to citizens by drones can be denied by private interests – "Oh, that must have been an LAPD drone" – and LAPD can insist that it must have been a private industry drone. For where, of course, will be the accountability from citizens buzzed or worse by these things? Domestic drone use is here, and the meshing has begun: local cops in Grand Forks, North Dakota called in a DHS Predator drone – the same make that has caused hundreds of civilian casualties in Pakistan – over a dispute involving a herd of cattle. The military rollout in process and planned, within the US, is massive: the Christian Science Monitor reports that a total of 110 military sites for drone activity are either built or will be built, in 39 states. That covers America. We don't need a military takeover: with these capabilities on US soil and this air force white paper authorization for data collection, the military will be effectively in control of the private lives of American citizens. And these drones are not yet weaponized. ......... Once again, in the fight to keep America a republic, grassroots activism is pitched in an unequal contest against a militarized federal government. Lastly please read this long Truthout Op-Ed There Is No American Left By Salvatore Babones. Thanks to all our loyal readers and a special Thank You to our cadre of contributors for all the stories we've shared on Brick TeeVee in 2012! See you next year! BRICK TEEVEE ALERTS!_©

Monday, December 24, 2012

• Paul Barrett, assistant managing editor at Bloomberg Businessweek Rep. John Lewis, Civil Rights Icon, on the Struggle to Win, and Now Protect, Voting Rights in U.S. As 2013 approaches, marking the 50th anniversary of the historic 1963 March on Washington, we spend the hour with one of the last surviving speakers from that day: Civil rights icon, now 13-term Georgia Congressmember, John Lewis.
  

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

• Dr. Gabor Maté Dr. Gabor Maté on the Stress-Disease Connection, Addiction and the Destruction of American Childhood
  a Democracy Now! special with the Canadian physician and bestselling author, Dr. Gabor Maté.
  

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

• Members of CODEPINK"Blood on Your Hands": CODEPINK Interrupts NRA’s Wayne LaPierre as He Calls for Guns in U.S. Schools
  
• Andrew Feinstein, author of The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade. As U.S. Faces Gun Epidemic Post-Newtown, Obama Urged to Break With NRA & Back Global U.N. Arms Treaty
  
• Pamela Palmater, chair in indigenous governance at Ryerson University Idle No More: Indigenous-Led Protests Sweep Canada for Native Sovereignty and Environmental Justice
  

Thursday, December 27, 2012

• Juan González NY Daily News Honors Juan González for 25 Years as "Beacon to Whistleblowers and Wronged People"
  
• Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, executive director of the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund The FBI vs. Occupy: Secret Docs Reveal "Counterterrorism" Monitoring of OWS from Its Earliest Days
  
• Michael Ratner, president emeritus of the Center for Constitutional Rights The Other Bradley Manning: Jeremy Hammond Faces Life Term for WikiLeaks and Hacked Stratfor Emails
  
• Kenneth Vogel, Politico reporter Tea Party Turmoil: FreedomWorks’ Dick Armey Takes $8 Million Exit Buyout After Failed Coup
  

Friday, December 28, 2012

• DENNIS KUCINICH Dennis Kucinich on the "Fiscal Cliff": Why Are We Sacrificing American Jobs for Corporate Profits? AND Outgoing Rep. Dennis Kucinich: With 2 Parties Failing U.S., It’s on Us to Build a "Culture of Peace"
  
• Wilmington 10 The Wilmington 10: North Carolina Urged to Pardon Civil Rights Activists Falsely Jailed 40 Years Ago
  

»»» GRITtv @ www.grittv.org with Laura Flanders »»» FEATURED SHOW Dean Spade: The US is the Most Imprisoning and Violent Nation in the World Dean Spade, trans activist, author, and founder of the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, talks prisons, criminalization, poverty, and how the US became the most imprisoning nation in the world. AND Dean Spade (Part Two:) Trickle-Up Justice When we move away from thinking about bad people and look instead at systems that "criminalize," we get a very different picture of what crime is and what we would actually have to do to have a safer country.

BRICK TEEVEE SPORT!_© »»» Football Night in America on NBC Cowboys @ Redskins 8:20 pm et »»» NCAA Bowl Games on New Year's Day CAPITAL ONE BOWL: No. 7 Georgia vs. No. 16 Nebraska 1 pm et ABC; ROSE BOWL: Wisconsin vs. No. 6 Stanford 5 PM ESPN; Check your local listings for more bowl games! »»» NBA on ESPN FRIDAY Doubleheader! Bulls @ Heat 8 pm et then Lakers @ Clippers 10:30 pm

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.

StrikeDebt.org & RollingJubilee.org! A bailout of the people by the people Rolling Jubilee is a Strike Debt project that buys debt for pennies on the dollar, but instead of collecting it, abolishes it. Together we can liberate debtors at random through a campaign of mutual support, good will, and collective refusal. Debt resistance is just the beginning. Join us as we imagine and create a new world based on the common good, not Wall Street profits. ADDENDUM: Naked Capitalism reports Top Tax Expert Confirms Our Doubts About Occupy Wall Street’s Debt Buying/Forgiveness Scheme

STOP the ACHE Appalachian Community HEALTH EMERGENCY Advocating for government action and protection of the public from the health crisis in mountain top removal communi ties

Lawmakers concerned about the health effects on humans from mountaintop removal coal mining set forth legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives today. Representatives Dennis Kucinich (OH), Louise Slaughter (NY), Maurice Hinchey (NY), Earl Blumenauer (OR), Lucille Roybal-Allard (CA), John Yarmuth (KY), Lynn Woolsey (CA), Judy Chu (CA), Raúl Grijalva (AZ), James Moran (VA), Michael Honda (CA), John Conyers (MI), and Keith Ellison (MN) introduced the Appalachian Communities Health Emergency (ACHE) Act H.R. 5959 which would place a moratorium on permitting for mountaintop removal coal mining until health studies are conducted by the Department of Health and Human Services. The ACHE coalition presently consists of participants from Coal River Mountain Watch, Mountain Health and Heritage Association, and Christians for the Mountains. “We encourage you, if you’re concerned about mountaintop removal’s effect on your community’s health, to join us in making your voice heard,” said Allen Johnson, executive director of Christians for the Mountains. “Please contact us, learn about the issue, and take action to protect your community.”

Community-Wealth.org community-wealth.org a project of the Democracy Collaborative at the University of Maryland Community-Wealth.org brings together, for the first time, information about the broad range of community wealth building activity. Featuring Community Wealth Building in Action: The Cleveland Model Something important is happening in Cleveland. The Democracy Collaborative—the host of C-W.org—in partnership with the Cleveland Foundation, the Ohio Employee Ownership Center, Shorebank Enterprise Cleveland, the City of Cleveland, and the city's major hospitals and universities—is helping to implement a new model of large-scale worker-owned and community-benefiting businesses. The Evergreen Cooperative Initiative is beginning to build serious momentum in one of the cities most dramatically impacted by the nation's decaying economy. Increasingly, this model is being referred to nationally as The Cleveland Model. Initial planning is now underway to assist other cities in Ohio and nationwide to replicate and adapt this innovative approach to economic development, green job creation, and neighborhood stabilization. Find more many resources at Community-Wealth.org!

NET NEUTRALITY! SaveTheInternet.com Declaration of Internet Freedom Tired of fighting bad bills like SOPA, PIPA and CISPA? Want to stand up against those who are trying to control what we do and say online? It's time for something different. A group of more than 1,500 organizations, academics, startup founders and tech innovators has come together to produce a Declaration of Internet Freedom, a set of five principles that put forward a positive vision of the open Internet. Our goal: Get millions of Internet users to sign on to this Declaration. Build political power for Internet users to make sure that we get a seat at the table whenever, and wherever, the future of the Internet is being decided. It's time to stop playing defense and start going on the offensive. The open Internet is central to people’s freedom to communicate, share, advocate and innovate in the 21st century. But powerful interests want to censor free speech, block the sharing of information, hinder innovation and control how Internet users get online. And all too often, people in power are making political decisions behind closed doors about how the Internet should operate — and they're doing this without the involvement of actual Internet users. The result: policies that could close down the open Internet and destroy our freedom to connect. It’s time for us to reclaim the Internet for its users. Take action now and sign the Declaration of Internet Freedom.

NEW!!! Stop Media Consolidation! Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski is trying to change the agency’s ownership rules to pave the way for Murdoch to get exactly what he wants. Worse, Genachowski and Murdoch are keeping this all very hush-hush, hoping you won't notice.3 These changes wouldn’t just benefit Murdoch. If the FCC proposal passes, one company could own the major daily newspaper, two TV stations and up to eight radio stations in your town. And that one company could be your Internet provider, too. What is the FCC thinking?!? We can still stop the agency from taking this perilous step — but we have less than a month to do it. By taking action, you’re joining a movement of millions who are working to stop big media from getting even bigger. Please take action today. Click HERE to view our infographic and send a message to the FCC! More info at Another FCC Cave-In: Julius Genachowski’s Media Consolidation Christmas Gift to Murdoch at StopTheCap.com!

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! And check out more actions on the Move to Amend Calendar featuring David Cobb's Barnstorming Tour! Also visit Rep Alan Grayson's site www.savedemocracy.net GET INVOLVED! And Alan Grayson is running again in FL-8! Help out at CongressmanWithGuts.com

SUPPORT THE TROOPS WHO REFUSE TO FIGHT See CourageToResist.org and Bradley Manning Support Network UPDATE! Natasha Lennard, assistant news editor at Salon Nobel Peace Laureates condemn prosecution of Bradley Manning Nov 15, 2012: Nobel Peace laureates Archbishop Desmond Tutu (Nobel Peace Prize, 1984), Mairead Maguire (Nobel Peace Prize, 1977) and Adolfo Pérez Esquivel (Nobel Peace Prize, 1980) have published a letter in support of Pfc. Bradley Manning in The Nation, following news that the soldier is willing to take responsibility for leaking information to WikiLeaks. The Peace Prize winners wrote against the government’s treatment of the soldier, who has been in prison for over 900 days.......more.....

DONATE YOUR OLD CELL PHONES TO T.J. MARTELL FOUNDATIONHelp 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 CELLULAR PHONE TASK FORCE EDUCATION, ADVOCACY, SUPPORT at CellPhoneTaskForce.org The Cellular Phone Task Force is dedicated to halting the expansion of wireless technology because it cannot be made safe. We provide: education to the public concerning electromagnetic pollution (electrosmog); advocacy for an electromagnetically cleaner environment; support for individuals disabled by radiation from wireless technology and other sources.

B R I C K T E E V E E

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The essential guide for watching government propaganda! THEY report. YOU throw bricks.©

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IRAQ: 4,486 US Military Dead as of April 21, 2012

AFGHANISTAN: 2,173 US Military Dead as of Dec 30, 2012

The Obameter: Tracking Obama's Campaign Promises

Who Owns The Media? The 6 Monolithic Corporations That Control Almost Everything We Watch, Hear And Read

• This Week (ABC) Host George Stephanopoulos
  • Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.
  • Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz.
  • ROUNDTABLE: former Vermont Governor and Founder of Democracy For America Howard Dean; Former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, President and CEO of the Financial Services Roundtable; Politico senior political reporter Maggie Haberman; and Vanity Fair National Editor Todd Purdum.
  

  
  

• Face The Nation (CBS) Host Bob Schiefer
  • Senator Dick Durbin, D-Ill.
  • Senator Tom Coburn, R-Okla.
  • ROUNDTABLE: The Wall Street Journal's Peggy Noonan, Vanity Fair's Dee Dee Myers, and TIME Magazine's Michael Duffy and Joe Klein
  • Updates from CBS News Chief White House Correspondent Major Garrett and CBS News Congressional Correspondent Nancy Cordes.
  

  
  

• 60 Minutes (CBS)
  • Breakthrough - Humans can now move robotic limbs using nothing but their thoughts, a big step in the development of new robotic prostheses that could improve the lives of millions, including veterans who have lost limbs. Scott Pelley reports. Denise Schrier Cetta is the producer.
  • Morten Storm - A former Danish spy claims to have played a crucial role in the controversial CIA drone strike that killed Anwar Al Awlaki, the American-born al Qaeda leader high on the list of wanted terrorists. Lara Logan reports. Howard Rosenberg is the producer.
  

  
  

• Meet the Press (NBC) Host David Gregory
  • Microsoft, NBC News Dissolve MSNBC.com Joint Venture NBC is buying Microsoft's 50 percent interest in the MSNBC website for an undisclosed amount. MSNBC.com will be rebranded as NBCNews.com, and readers who logged into MSNBC.com late Sunday were automatically redirected to NBCNews.com. Microsoft is preparing to launch its own news service this fall. Although he declined to provide many details about the operation general manager of MSN.com Bob Visse said the news staff will be about the same size as the roughly 100 people who created original content for the MSNBC.com. "There is no question that we are going to have more flexibility to make our own decisions," said Vivian Schiller, NBC News' chief digital officer. "This is really an amicable breakup. We think competition will make us better." Okay then.
  • President Barack Obama
  • ROUNDTABLE: Jon Meacham, Presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, New York Times columnist David Brooks, NBC’s Tom Brokaw, NBC’s Political Director Chuck Todd.
  

  
  

• 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.
  • Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack
  • ROUNDTABLE: Chairman of the Senate Republican Policy Committee, John Barrasso (R-Wyoming), Rep. Darrell Issa (R-California), Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-Michigan), and Congresswoman Donna Edwards (D-Maryland).
  • ROUNDTABLE II: CNN Chief White House Correspondent Jessica Yellin, Karen Tumulty of The Washington Post, Gerry Seib of The Wall Street Journal, and Matt Bai of The New York Times Magazine.
  • ROUNDTABLE III: Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyoming) and Rep. Raul Labrador (R-Idaho) and the very latest reporting from Capitol Hill on the fiscal cliff negotiations.
  

  
  

• 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 Conversation Radio 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 during the show!
  • Front Porch Friday!!!!! Bob wraps up the week! Listen HERE NOW! Keep Bob on the air HERE ya hear? 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 20, 2012 - End of the Year (and World!) Edition IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Snow is BACK! Winter returns to parched Midwest; Time's "Person of the Year" promises action on climate change, but can he deliver?; Good and Bad 2012: top environmental stories of the year; PLUS: It's the end of the Mayan Apocalypse Myth as we know it! (And we feel fine) ... All that and more in today's Green News Report!
  • IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see link): WSJ's climate "dynamite" is a dud; U.S. Electric Grid 2030: 100% renewable, 90% of the time; 333 straight warmer than "normal" months; U.K. dash a test for global fracking; 'Peak Farmland' as a good thing; China to overhaul solar industry; Keystone XL won't use advanced spill equipment; Sea otters vs. commercial fishermen; MoJo's Eco-Doom Headline Generator; To the Moon!: yes we can grow plants in space ... PLUS: We'll 'never run this economy on renewables' --- and why we'll never have to ... and much, MUCH
  • BRADCAST UPDATE! KPFK 'BradCast': Tipping Point for Gun Safety Regulations and the NRA Racket?
  • BRADBLOG UPDATE! 8 Dumbest Responses to Newtown Shooting It wasn't easy narrowing them down to just eight, given the remarkable amount of NRA-propagandized stooges out there...
  

  
  

• 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.
  • Holiday Break and Website Changes
  
  To my valued listeners: We are making some changes to the website and our terms, effective in January. We will continue to offer free podcasts–my new daily news and commentary. Our in-depth interviews will be available for $1 per episode, or to subscribers who pay $5 per month or more. Loyal listeners who simply can’t afford it should send an email to peter@peterbcollins.com, as we will be offering a limited number of scholarships to our friends who are hurting during these tough times. More information will be posted as we complete the revisions. I’m grateful to each of you for listening and supporting this work, and hope that the new model will enable us to keep it going well into the future. All the best, -pbc
  • PBC Standard Podcast December 17, 2012 Something Lighter for the Holidays: Calvin Trillin Rhymes About 2012, Thomas Frank Giggles at Mayan Doomsday, Will Durst Belittles Lame Ducks
  • PBC Standard Podcast December 20, 2012 Boiling Frogs: Chase Madar Reports on Pre-Trial Hearings in Bradley Manning’s Court Martial
  
  
  

  
  

• 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 Ring of Fire – December 29th, 2012 special guest hosts ERIC BURNS and KARL FRISCH from Bullfight Strategies: Saturdays at 3 o’clock Eastern, rebroadcasts Sunday nights at 8 pm Eastern
  • Elizabeth Wydra from the Constitutional Accountability Center will tell us what we can expect from the Supreme Court in their next term.
  • John Nichols from the Nation magazine will join us to talk about the Progressive Honor Roll for the year 2012, and what we can expect from Congress in the upcoming session.
  • Attorney Howard Nations will tell us how the gun industry managed to achieve complete immunity for creating products that kill Americans everyday.
  • And Alternet’s Washington correspondent Adele Stan will be here to tell us why gun sales are continuing to surge in America, even after all of the recent atrocities.
  • VIDEO! THE HISTORY OF CORPORATE CORRUPTION & FRAUD with Robert Kennedy Jr & Mike Papantonio “Call us if you have a personal story about Fraud on Taxpayers or False Claims for Payment made by Corportations at 1-866-389-FIRE (3473)or contact us by email at info@ringoffireradio.com if you have evidence of fraud that robbed taxpayer dollars. If our government is paying too much due to fraud by a corporation, Ring of Fire wants to do a story on it.”
  • VIDEO! Papantonio: Exposing The Climate Criminals A few months ago, polls showed that voters were concerned about the environment, but that issue didn’t effect who they were going to vote for. But today, after several months of record-breaking heat waves, voters’ attitudes have changed, and large majorities of undecided voters are now saying that climate change will play a role in how they vote this year. So let’s talk about some of the criminals who are allowing our planet to burn to the ground — Mike Papantonio recently spoke with Gaius Publius from America Blog to help shed some light on the climate criminals.
  • VIDEO! Papantonio: Corporate Fraud Costs Taxpayers Billions Mike Papantonio talks with attorney James Kauffman about the systemic fraud taking place in corporate America – fraud that the American taxpayers end up paying for.
  • 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 8-11 et Sunday evenings 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!
  
  • December 24, 2102 Best of Chris Hayes 2012
  • December 25, 2012 Merry Christmas & No Show
  • December 26, 2012 Guy Lawson: Octopus & Sam Debates a Conservative Talker
  • December 27, 2012 NSA Whistle Blowers & Senator, Sheldon Whitehouse
  • December 28, 2012 Best of Casual Friday!
  • MORE Podcast Interviews at Majority.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
  • The official Facebook pages for Max Keiser & Keiser Report STACY SUMMARY: For once and for all, here are our real Facebook pages, the other ones are fake. But if you feel like chatting to the fake ones, by all means, go ahead. Max Keiser & Keiser Report PLUS Stacey Herbert
  • VIDEO! Monkeys & Cocaine: HSBC money laundering case by staceyherbert
  • VIDEO! “They Shoot (fill in the blank), Don’t They?” The marathon goes on… and on… and on… by maxkeiser - READ The 10 Craziest Quotes From The NRA Press Conference (thinkprogress.org)
  • Harvey Organ: China is the Short Behind Gold & Silver Manipulation by The Doc - The Doc sat down with Harvey Organ again for the 2nd of several interviews regarding the recent massive cartel intervention in the gold and silver markets post the QE4 announcement, the fiscal cliff, the CFTC’s silver probe, and the unprecedented 20 million oz of silver still standing for December delivery. Harvey stated that recent evidence seems to validate his long held suspicions that China is behind the big gold & silver shorts, and stated that the nation is draining massive amounts of physical metal East. Harvey also made the shocking allegation that COMEX is settling allocated delivery & storage requests with paper metal, and stated that he no longer has any faith whatsoever in the numbers reported in the COMEX gold and silver inventories. Click here for Harvey Organ’s EXPLOSIVE interview with The Doc at SilverDoctors.com
  • Sandy's Silver Lining by Max Keiser - READ Poll: Supermajority of Americans finally support climate action
  • Federal Judge Dismisses Silver Manipulation Lawsuit Against JP Morgan by The Doc - Federal US District Court Judge Robert P. Patterson Jr. has dismissed the class-action litigation suit brought against JP Morgan (and originally HSBC) regarding silver market-rigging. Judge Patterson cited lack of specifics and claims of bad intent necessary to bring the suit to trial........
  • KEISER REPORT [KR384] Keiser Report: Ho, Ho, Freaking Ho! (ft. John Cooper Clarke) Max talks to punk poet John Cooper Clarke about Who Stole Bongo’s Trousers, private equity rock stars, the music business and onesies as the next big thing in fashion. In the second half, Max is joined by Stacy to talk about the ‘poverty barons’ financed by the British taxpayer.
  • KEISER REPORT [KR385] Keiser Report: Next American Revolution (ft. Gerald Celente) We discuss Hank Paulson sightings in Chicago and the Boxing Day presents for the global peasants from the global elite, including 45 bad banker apples (at UBS). In the second half, Max Keiser talks to trends forecaster, Gerald Celente of TrendsResearch.com about the next American Revolution and Nehru jackets.
  • KEISER REPORT [KR386] Keiser Report: Banker Infestation We argue over whether things are looking better or worse for the American worker. While Stacy argues that the return of some manufacturing is a sign that wealth creating jobs may return to the US, Max counters that the system is so corrupt that the chances of labor getting any cut of the wealth is nil and that the Internet giants will prevent the rise of a powerful decentralized economy online. In the second half, Max Keiser talks to Professor Jonathan Feldman about the Global Teach-In and about a boycott and short sale campaign and creating an industrial policy for America because right now the US even outsources some military production to China.
  • ON THE EDGE On the Edge with Greg Hunter An interview with Greg Hunter of USA Watchdog.
  • THE TRUTH ABOUT MARKETS [TaM-1260] The Truth About Markets – 08 December 2012 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
  • Pepe Escobar June 30, 2012: Globetrotting journalist Pepe Escobar discusses his article “Syria and Turkey’s Phantom War;” Turkey’s violation of Syrian airspace in a purposeful, measured provocation and test of Syria’s defenses; the near-invocation of NATO Article 5 and a wider war (an attack on one NATO country is an attack on all); looking for ways to bypass the UN on Syria, since China and Russia won’t let an interventionist resolution pass the Security Council; grand plans for NATO expansion in the official “Assured Security, Dynamic Engagement” plan; counterrevolutions in the Middle East and South America, as the US looks to rebuild its portfolio of client states; and how Qatar has become the new superpower in the Middle East, surpassing even Saudi Arabia.
  • SCOTT HORTON July 5, 2012: Scott says goodbye to Antiwar.com. Scott Horton is the former host of Antiwar Radio. Visit his blog Stress. Due to budget cuts Scott lost his gig at AntiWarRadio.com! Whoa! See ScottHortonShow.com for archives! Send emails to Scott at scotthorton.org to help Scott keep his podcast going!
  • Many more interviews at Antiwar Radio!
  
  
  

  
  

• fauxnews
  • Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC)
  • Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)
  • Bill Kristol, Evan Bayh, Byron York, Kirsten Powers
  
  

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Brick TeeVee's Yuletide Special!

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Yuletime Special We begin with Reverand Billy! On DN! "End of the World": Apocalypse or Shopocalypse? Reverend Billy on Consumerism and Climate Change Well, thank you for having the Stop Shopping Church here in your church. And today’s—today’s Democracy Now! show, from Spencer Cox’s talk about how to live our lives when we know the end might be near, to the presence, the poisonous presence, of the distortion of religion in South Africa and in Palestine and Israel, there’s a—there’s a through line today. We need to choose the one apocalypse that, Juan, that you mentioned, the Mayan apocalypse, the regeneration—Evo Morales says that it’s a time to go from the human-being-based life into the earth life, into the community life, and, like, let go of the Book of Revelation and all the violence of Batman, Spider-Man, Superman and all the American versions of the Book of Revelations. Especially, I would say, American foreign policy and our military presence around the world is very much right out of that last book of the Bible. .... I’m just inviting all of us to be creative, to give meaning to our lives right now. The tabloids and the comic books, they’re trying to relegate us to a certain series of actions. Let’s find our own creativity. The end will come for all of us. I don’t think it’s going to come today. If we’re really creative and give life and give radical regeneration to the next hours that we have, then the earth will rise up with us. Amen. Earthelujah! Get his new book The End of the World.
As we noted last week UBS was about to get clobbered over the LIBOR rate-fixing. Tyler Durden explains in UBS' Cheating LIBOR "Supermen" Kept Rate "As Low As Possible" To "Protect Sensitive Franchise" A $1.5bn fine. Sounds like a lot but in relation to the trillion dollar derivative markets hanging on every tick and reset from this now-proven-to-be-entirely-false market, it seems a fine is too easy. Just as with Barclays, the UBS traders (who combined their LIBOR submission and proprietary trading units from 2005 to 2009) used hints and suggestions and requests for "market color" to ensure fixes were exactly where they needed them up and down the curve. The quotes and hubris are entirely damning and also show a totally willful disregard for capture (especially following a discussion of the mainstream media noting 'odd' LIBOR quotes during the crisis). This went from top to bottom in the organization, summed up perfectly in this one exchange: "...It is highly advisable to err on the low side with fixings for the time being to protect our franchise in these sensitive markets. Fixing risk and PNL thereof is secondary priority for now." ....... But apart from that, we are sure UBS is an upstanding bank worthy of wealthy clients' trust. Read on for examples of the hubris!
ZeroHedge has another important Guest Post: Too Big To Jail Via John Aziz Of Azizonomics blog What’s worse than unjust and ineffective laws like the failed War on Drugs and the failed sanctions on Iran? Unjust and ineffective laws that apply to ordinary folks, but not to banksters: [....wsj....] This stings. It should sting anyone who cares about the idea of equality in front of the law, anyone who cares about the basic rule of law, anyone who doesn’t want to see their society devolve into a festering pool of feudalism. According to the most recent data, there were 197,050 sentenced prisoners under federal jurisdiction of which 94,600 were serving time for drug offenses.There were 1,362,028 sentenced prisoners under state jurisdiction of which 237,000 were serving time for drug offenses. That’s over 300,000 individuals serving time currently for drugs offenses, in addition to over one million currently on probation. Now I don’t agree with the War on Drugs at all. But big banks are deemed too “systemically important” to be held to the same standard as the huge and disproportionately black population of low-level drug users. If the Drug War laws don’t apply to the big banks — if Wall Street bankers who have broken the law can’t go to prison too — then how is incarcerating low-level drug users really much different to chattel slavery? Read on! We also linked to Matt Taibbi last week Outrageous HSBC Settlement Proves the Drug War is a Joke
..... It doesn't take a genius to see that the reasoning here is beyond flawed. When you decide not to prosecute bankers for billion-dollar crimes connected to drug-dealing and terrorism (some of HSBC's Saudi and Bangladeshi clients had terrorist ties, according to a Senate investigation), it doesn't protect the banking system, it does exactly the opposite. It terrifies investors and depositors everywhere, leaving them with the clear impression that even the most "reputable" banks may in fact be captured institutions whose senior executives are in the employ of (this can't be repeated often enough) murderers and terrorists. Even more shocking, the Justice Department's response to learning about all of this was to do exactly the same thing that the HSBC executives did in the first place to get themselves in trouble – they took money to look the other way. And not only did they sell out to drug dealers, they sold out cheap. You'll hear bragging this week by the Obama administration that they wrested a record penalty from HSBC, but it's a joke. Some of the penalties involved will literally make you laugh out loud. ...... So you might ask, what's the appropriate financial penalty for a bank in HSBC's position? Exactly how much money should one extract from a firm that has been shamelessly profiting from business with criminals for years and years? Remember, we're talking about a company that has admitted to a smorgasbord of serious banking crimes. If you're the prosecutor, you've got this bank by the balls. So how much money should you take? How about all of it? How about every last dollar the bank has made since it started its illegal activity? How about you dive into every bank account of every single executive involved in this mess and take every last bonus dollar they've ever earned? Then take their houses, their cars, the paintings they bought at Sotheby's auctions, the clothes in their closets, the loose change in the jars on their kitchen counters, every last freaking thing. Take it all and don't think twice. And then throw them in jail. Sound harsh? It does, doesn't it? The only problem is, that's exactly what the government does just about every day to ordinary people involved in ordinary drug cases. ...... They're now saying that if you're not an important cog in the global financial system, you can't get away with anything, not even simple possession. You will be jailed and whatever cash they find on you they'll seize on the spot, and convert into new cruisers or toys for your local SWAT team, which will be deployed to kick in the doors of houses where more such inessential economic cogs as you live. If you don't have a systemically important job, in other words, the government's position is that your assets may be used to finance your own political disenfranchisement. On the other hand, if you are an important person, and you work for a big international bank, you won't be prosecuted even if you launder nine billion dollars. Even if you actively collude with the people at the very top of the international narcotics trade, your punishment will be far smaller than that of the person at the very bottom of the world drug pyramid. ...... This is the disgrace to end all disgraces. It doesn't even make any sense. There is no reason why the Justice Department couldn't have snatched up everybody at HSBC involved with the trafficking, prosecuted them criminally, and worked with banking regulators to make sure that the bank survived the transition to new management. As it is, HSBC has had to replace virtually all of its senior management. The guilty parties were apparently not so important to the stability of the world economy that they all had to be left at their desks. So there is absolutely no reason they couldn't all face criminal penalties. That they are not being prosecuted is cowardice and pure corruption, nothing else. And by approving this settlement, Breuer removed the government's moral authority to prosecute anyone for any other drug offense. Not that most people didn't already know that the drug war is a joke, but this makes it official. And at NakedCapitalism.com Matt Stoller asks Where is Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy on Big Bank Crimes and Obama? One key question is why it is that Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, a former prosecutor, is utterly unwilling to do any investigation or oversight into this critical policy question? Leahy runs the Judiciary Committee in the Senate, and it would be impossible to find a more obvious topic for that committee to address. It’s not that there isn’t interest in the Senate. Senator Chuck Grassley, a Republican, and Senator Jeff Merkley, a Democrat, both blasted Eric Holder for this decision. Republican Senator Chuck Grassley is the ranking member on the committee, which means he’s the de fact Republican Chairman. ..... The rationale from the other side doesn’t hold water. The argument is that a guilty verdict would cause the bank to lose its charter, which means it could not operate in the United States. DOJ officials would not even bring a case under the bank secrecy act, which would carry a much less severe penalty. Even if we accept this rationale, there is still no reason not to prosecute the individuals at HSBC who helped launder this money. This isn’t just an Obama administration policy, it also belongs to Congress. Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, by doing no oversight, has consented to this policy framework. He has to date said nothing about the dramatic policy implied in the HSBC decision. Yet, last May, Leahy gave a pat on the back to FBI Director for doing a better job regarding fraud. The FBI and the Justice Department, he said, “have also worked hand in hand with us to make great strides toward more effective fraud prevention and enforcement. In the last Congress, I worked hard with Senators on both sides of the aisle to craft and pass the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act (FERA), the most expansive anti-fraud legislation in more than a decade.” FERA is explicitly the law that former Senate staffer Jeff Connaughton told us was undermined by the Senate funding structure and the administration. This law was co-sponsored by Senators Ted Kaufman, Chuck Grassley, and yes, Patrick Leahy. So at this point, it’s worthwhile to ask, when the US government has explicitly defied Congress’s will and put big bank executives above the law, where is Chairman of the Judiciary Committee Patrick Leahy? Commenter ex-PFC Chuck attempts an answer with "He’s in the bag like almost everyone else?"
Nathan Tempey of The National Lawyers Guild posted this press release Court rules peace activists can sue the U.S. military for infiltration In a potentially precedent-setting decision, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday that a Guild lawyer’s challenge to military spying on peace activists can proceed. The ruling marks the first time a court has affirmed people’s ability to sue the military for violating their First and Fourth Amendment rights. “This has never been done before,” said NLG member attorney Larry Hildes, who is handling the case. “The U.S. government has spied on political dissidents throughout history and this particular plot lasted through two presidencies, but never before has a court said that we can challenge it the way we have.” The ruling is the latest development in the lawsuit, Panagacos v. Towery, first brought by Hildes in 2009 on behalf of a group of Washington state antiwar activists who found themselves infiltrated by John Towery, an employee at a fusion center inside a local Army base. Fusion centers are multi-jurisdictional intelligence facilities which house federal and local law enforcement agencies alongside military units and private security companies. Their operations are largely secret and unregulated. There are currently 77 fusion centers in the United States. The lawsuit names Towery as well as the Army, Navy, Air Force, FBI, CIA, Department of Homeland Security, and other law enforcement agencies. ..... The latest ruling denies the government’s appeal on the basis that the allegations of First and Fourth Amendment violations carried out by Towery are “plausible.” His lawyers have until December 31 to appeal the decision. If they do not appeal, the case will return to district court and the discovery phase will begin.
The Center For Constitutional Rights posts this press release ICE Settles Case on Controversial Home Raids December 17, 2012, New York – Today, attorneys announced the settlement of a home raids case against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Seven men and women and one child brought the case in 2008 against more than thirty individual ICE officers for a series of predawn raids of their homes undertaken without consent or a warrant. They are represented by the Center for Constitutional Rights, the Civil Rights and Constitutional Litigation Clinic at Seton Hall University Law School, and Lowenstein Sandler PC. Said Center for Constitutional Rights Legal Director Baher Azmy, who began the litigation while at Seton Hall Law School, “Sleeping while Latino is not a crime. Agents cannot lie or force their way into people’s homes in the middle of the night, point guns at children and use force, all without a warrant or consent. This settlement provides accountability for discriminatory policing by immigration officials and shows that ICE is subject to the same restrictions as every other law enforcement agency.” ..... The case, Argueta v. ICE, charged that the individual ICE agents violated the plaintiffs’ Fourth Amendment right to be free from nonconsensual, warrantless entry into their homes and from shocking and abusive governmental conduct once agents were inside the home. ...... The lawsuit sought to attribute liability to the high-level policy makers who devised Operation Return to Sender for failure to anticipate the consequences of their arrest quota and for their failure to modify the policy once reports of widespread abuses became known to them through the media and congressional and local political leaders. The high-level officials named in the lawsuit were dismissed on appeal. However, beginning in 2011, the government instituted a number of policy changes prompted, in part, by this and a series of similar lawsuits. Said Co-Counsel Catherine Weiss of Lowenstein Sandler PC, “The bravery of our clients in standing up to ICE has been rewarded, not only by compensation, but by new federal guidelines that encourage prosecutorial discretion to avoid the detention of those who pose no threat. ICE has also established a new complaint system for those who claim to have been mistreated and created a new form to advise detained immigrants of their rights. The steps taken so far are small, but together they may help to prevent the recurrence of the indignities that gave rise to this lawsuit." Under the settlement, the eight plaintiffs will receive a total of $295,000 in compensation. .....
Blogrunner has a mash-up of The Three Speeches: Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama take a moment to address the nation in the wake of a school shooting. Clips are from addresses immediately following the Columbine, Virginia Tech and Sandy Hook shootings. And Max Keiser points out The 10 Craziest Quotes From The NRA Press Conference at ThinkProgress.org.
David Barstow at the NYT investigates The Bribery Aisle: How Wal-Mart Got Its Way in Mexico Wal-Mart Abroad | A retail giant fueled growth with bribes: Wal-Mart de Mexico was an aggressive and creative corrupter, offering large payoffs to get what the law otherwise prohibited, an examination by The New York Times found. .... The Times has now picked up where Wal-Mart’s internal investigation was cut off, traveling to dozens of towns and cities in Mexico, gathering tens of thousands of documents related to Wal-Mart de Mexico permits, and interviewing scores of government officials and Wal-Mart employees, including 15 hours of interviews with the former lawyer, Sergio Cicero Zapata. The Times’s examination reveals that Wal-Mart de Mexico was not the reluctant victim of a corrupt culture that insisted on bribes as the cost of doing business. Nor did it pay bribes merely to speed up routine approvals. Rather, Wal-Mart de Mexico was an aggressive and creative corrupter, offering large payoffs to get what the law otherwise prohibited. It used bribes to subvert democratic governance — public votes, open debates, transparent procedures. It used bribes to circumvent regulatory safeguards that protect Mexican citizens from unsafe construction. It used bribes to outflank rivals. Through confidential Wal-Mart documents, The Times identified 19 store sites across Mexico that were the target of Wal-Mart de Mexico’s bribes. The Times then matched information about specific bribes against permit records for each site. Clear patterns emerged. Over and over, for example, the dates of bribe payments coincided with dates when critical permits were issued. Again and again, the strictly forbidden became miraculously attainable. ..... See an interview with David Barstow on DN! The Bribery Aisle: How Wal-Mart Used Payoffs to Bribe Its Way Through Expansion in Mexico As a result of Barstow’s reporting, the Justice Department is now considering whether Wal-Mart violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which makes it a crime for American corporations to bribe foreign officials.
SEAN LENNON FRACKISVIST with ArtistsAgainstFracking.com on The Big Picture Sean Lennon on Artists Against Fracking & Gun Violence All across America - gas companies are tearing up land to make room for the piping needed for hydraulic fracturing - the highly controversial process used to harvest natural gas from shale rock. And along with this destruction of land come the risks of contaminated drinking water, toxic fumes and even poisoned livestock. One of the many groups trying to shut down the dangerous fracking practice is Artists against Fracking - a group of nearly 200 members working to expose and stop the practice of fracking through mass awareness and peaceful democratic action. Musician Sean Lennon, one of the founding members of Artists against Fracking - joins us now from our New York studios. Also check out Friday's full show The Big Picture Christmas Carol Tonight’s 'Big Picture Rumble' panel discusses the NRA’s absurd plan to protect our students in America from gun violence, the failure of Boehner’s 'Plan B' and what it means for the fiscal cliff negotiations, and a new report showing how tough single parents have it in the US compared with other nations. Thom also brings you the 'Big Picture Christmas Carol,' a look at where this nation has been, where it is now and what it might look like in the future.
GEORGE WILL's vision of your Right to Vote? Not so good as Andrew Cohen outlines in George Will Gets (Almost) Everything Wrong About Voting Rights at The Atlantic: There are so many things wrong with George Will's latest column on voting that it's hard to know where to begin. Actually, that's not right. It's easy to know where to begin. The very title of the piece, "Mountain out of a molehill," is offensive to every American whose right to vote was jeopardized this past election cycle by Republican voter-suppression efforts. Will's piece is 14 paragraphs long and the only one that survives close scrutiny is the first, because it consists mostly of a quote from Carl Sandburg. The other 13 paragraphs render wholly unrecognizable both the voting-rights battles of 2012 and the national debate over how those battles ought to be resolved. Let's take it one graph at a time. .... Good Item!
Also at The Atlantic Senior Editor Derek Thompson explains Plan B's Failure: Not a Disaster for the Fiscal Cliff, But a Disaster for the GOP Yesterday, the party of the 1 percent became the party of the 0.3 percent. Six weeks after Republicans failed to get out the vote and learned they can't win as a party for the rich, exclusively, Republican leadership couldn't find the votes to raise taxes on millionaires. Who said elections have consequences? There was never a remote chance that John Boehner's Plan B would become law. It was always a symbolic vote to let Republicans say they're willing to spare 99.7 percent of the country from a tax increase in 2013. Today, the GOP was hoping to stand before a pool of reporters and tell Democrats: It's on you, now. Instead, opening night for this little bit of theater was a smashing disaster and the symbolism worked entirely in the opposite direction. It was Republicans who sent the message that they'd rather let taxes go up on everybody than raise taxes for the top 0.3 percent of households. It was Republicans who made the symbolic display that they care more about immediate spending cuts in a weak economy than building an off-ramp before the fiscal cliff. And it was Republicans who appeared to have utterly no idea how to cope with the new inescapable political reality that taxes are going up, no matter what. Plan B was designed to fail, right from the start. In addition to raising taxes on millionaires (Kryptonite to Republicans) it also cut tax benefits for lower-income families (Kryptonite to Democrats). .... Plenty more details and coverage at CNN Boehner's Plan B fiscal cliff bill pulled amid dissension in GOP caucus. HIGHLIGHT: Eric Cantor standing behind Boner reminds us how Brutus stood behind Caesar with a shiv in his hand haha! See Andre Tartar's detailed analysis Some Conservatives Think It’s Time to Replace John Boehner at New York Magazine!
At the New York Review of Books Garry Wills explains our culture's near-religious obsession with guns Our Moloch .... Read again those lines, with recent images seared into our brains—“besmeared with blood” and “parents’ tears.” They give the real meaning of what happened at Sandy Hook Elementary School Friday morning. That horror cannot be blamed just on one unhinged person. It was the sacrifice we as a culture made, and continually make, to our demonic god. We guarantee that crazed man after crazed man will have a flood of killing power readily supplied him. We have to make that offering, out of devotion to our Moloch, our god. The gun is our Moloch. We sacrifice children to him daily—sometimes, as at Sandy Hook, by directly throwing them into the fire-hose of bullets from our protected private killing machines, sometimes by blighting our children’s lives by the death of a parent, a schoolmate, a teacher, a protector. Sometimes this is done by mass killings (eight this year), sometimes by private offerings to the god (thousands this year). The gun is not a mere tool, a bit of technology, a political issue, a point of debate. It is an object of reverence. Devotion to it precludes interruption with the sacrifices it entails. Like most gods, it does what it will, and cannot be questioned. Its acolytes think it is capable only of good things. It guarantees life and safety and freedom. It even guarantees law. Law grows from it. Then how can law question it? Its power to do good is matched by its incapacity to do anything wrong. It cannot kill. Thwarting the god is what kills. If it seems to kill, that is only because the god’s bottomless appetite for death has not been adequately fed. The answer to problems caused by guns is more guns, millions of guns, guns everywhere, carried openly, carried secretly, in bars, in churches, in offices, in government buildings. Only the lack of guns can be a curse, not their beneficent omnipresence. Adoration of Moloch permeates the country, imposing a hushed silence as he works his will. One cannot question his rites, even as the blood is gushing through the idol’s teeth. The White House spokesman invokes the silence of traditional in religious ceremony. “It is not the time” to question Moloch. No time is right for showing disrespect for Moloch. The fact that the gun is a reverenced god can be seen in its manifold and apparently resistless powers. How do we worship it? Let us count the ways: ...... Though LaPierre is the pope of this religion, its most successful Peter the Hermit, preaching the crusade for Moloch, was Charlton Heston, a symbol of the Americanism of loving guns. I have often thought that we should raise a statue of Heston at each of the many sites of multiple murders around our land. We would soon have armies of statues, whole droves of Heston acolytes standing sentry at the shrines of Moloch dotting the landscape. Molochism is the one religion that can never be separated from the state. The state itself bows down to Moloch, and protects the sacrifices made to him. So let us celebrate the falling bodies and rising statues as a demonstration of our fealty, our bondage, to the great god Gun.
Our LAST WORD goes to Michael Moore BTV first broadcast by Democracy Now! at the "Bring Leonard Peltier Home in 2012 Concert" at the Beacon Theatre in New York City courtesy filmmaker Lorna Tucker.

Earlier today, a crazy man went to an elementary school and attacked 22 children in China. A few hours before Connecticut, an elementary school was attacked in China by an insane man, and 22 children were his victims. But all he had was a knife. Total number of dead in the Chinese elementary school? Zero. I hope you don’t mind, but I’d like to just say a few words about what happened today, because I’ve been concerned about this issue for a long time. Yes, we need more gun control. Yes, we need free mental health services in this country. But I really believe that even if we had better gun control laws and better mental health, that we would still be the sort of sick and twisted, violent people that we’ve been for hundreds of years, that it’s something that’s just in our craw, just in our DNA. And to get that out of our DNA is going to take a lot more than passing a bill in Albany or D.C. That’s not going to do it. And, you know, other countries, I mean, they have their crazy people, and they have people that—there have been shootings and killings in Norway, in France and in Germany. But there haven’t been 61 mass killings like there have been in this country just since Columbine. Sixty-one mass shootings in this country. I like to say that I sort of agree with the NRA when they say, "Guns don’t kill people, people kill people," except I would just modify that a bit and say, "Guns don’t kill people, Americans kill people," because that’s what we do. We invade countries. We send drones in to kill civilians. We’ve got five wars going on right now where our soldiers are killing people—I mean, five that we know of. We are on the short list of illustrious countries who have the death penalty. We believe it’s OK to kill you when you’ve committed a crime. And then we have all the other forms of violence in this country that we don’t really call violence, but they are acts of violence. When you—when you make sure that 50 million people don’t have health insurance in your country and that, according to the congressional study that was done, 44,000 people a year die in America for the simple reason that they don’t have health insurance, that’s a form of murder. That murder is being committed by the insurance companies. When you evict millions of peoples—millions of people from their homes, that’s an act of violence. That’s called a home invasion. All the wrong people are in prison in this country. I can’t believe we’re just standing blocks away from the biggest criminal operation that this country has ever seen, right down that street, and not one of them has gone to prison for what they’ve done. When you have eliminated so many millions of jobs, when you’ve ruined communities like mine, Flint, Michigan, you have killed people, because—because having seen firsthand the effects of these corporate decisions—the alcoholism, the drug abuse, divorce, suicide, all the social problems that go along with this act of violence—but we don’t call it violence, and no one’s ever arrested for it—I think it’s a real shame. And frankly, as an American, this is not how I want to be remembered.

We leave you with Marvin Gaye who said it best when he said
"We don't need to escalate
You see, war is not the answer
For only love can conquer hate
You know we've got to find a way
To bring some lovin' here today
Picket lines and picket signs
Don't punish me with brutality
Talk to me, so you can see
Oh, what's going on"

We hope you had a great Winter Solstice and we wish a Happy Yule to all!




BRICK TEEVEE ALERTS!_©

Monday, December 17, 2012

• Paul Barrett, assistant managing editor at Bloomberg Businessweek "We Can’t Tolerate This Anymore": Obama Vows Action After Worst Grade School Massacre in U.S. History
  
• John Velleco, federal lobbyist for Gun Owners of America with Christian Heyne, legislative assistant and grassroots coordinator for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence & Paul Barrett Debate: After Newtown, Will Nation’s Worst-Ever Grade School Shooting Spur Tougher Gun Control?
  
• Sharif Abdel Kouddous, Democracy Now! correspondent Egypt’s Referendum Clears 1st Round, But Critics Seek Revote After Charges of Rigged Polls
  

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

• Newtown, CT As Newtown’s First Victims Are Buried, Washington Shows Signs of Life in Taking on Gun Lobby
  
• Rebecca Peters, international arms control advocate New Town to Newtown: How ’96 Massacre Spurred Gun Laws in Australia — and No Mass Shootings Since
  
• Michael Moore "Americans Kill People": Michael Moore on Newtown, Mass Shootings, and the U.S. Culture of Violence
  
• Lisa Graves, executive director of the Center for Media and Democracy As NRA Hides from Public After Newtown, ALEC Ties Reveal Extensive Lobbying Behind U.S. Gun Laws
  

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

• Rep. Carolyn McCarthy"We Have to Do Something": Rep. Carolyn McCarthy on the Growing Push for Gun Control After Newtown
  
• Rep. Raúl Grijalva Rep. Raúl Grijalva Rejects Obama "Fiscal Cliff" Plan to Cut More from Social Security than Military
  
• Michael Moore Michael Moore’s Poetic Plea to Obama: "Dear Mr. President, Please Let Leonard Peltier Come Home"
  

Thursday, December 20, 2012

• Goldie Taylor Domestic Abuse Survivor Goldie Taylor on Giving Up Her Gun & the Unseen Plague of National Violence
  
• Rhonda Lee, former meteorologist for KTBS in Shreveport, Louisiana Louisiana TV Station Fires Black Meteorologist for Responding to Viewer’s Barb About Her Hair
  
• David Barstow, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter for the New York Times The Bribery Aisle: How Wal-Mart Used Payoffs to Bribe Its Way Through Expansion in Mexico
  

Friday, December 21, 2012

• Matthieu Aikins, journalist New Report Sheds Light on Bin Laden Murder, as Pakistan Faces Fallout from U.S.-Led Vaccination Plot His most recent piece for GQ just came out, "The Doctor, the CIA, and the Blood of Bin Laden."
  
• Ana Nogueira & Eron Davidson co-directors of the new documentary, Roadmap to Apartheid As the ANC Votes to Support BDS, a New Film Compares Life in Palestine to Apartheid South Africa As the African National Congress voted Thursday to support the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel known as BDS, declaring it was "unapologetic in its view that the Palestinians are the victims and the oppressed in the conflict with Israel," we look at a new film that examines the apartheid analogy commonly used to describe the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
  
• Reverand Billy! "End of the World": Apocalypse or Shopocalypse? Reverend Billy on Consumerism and Climate Change
  

»»» GRITtv @ www.grittv.org with Laura Flanders »»» FEATURED SHOW Dean Spade: The US is the Most Imprisoning and Violent Nation in the World Dean Spade, trans activist, author, and founder of the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, talks prisons, criminalization, poverty, and how the US became the most imprisoning nation in the world. AND Dean Spade (Part Two:) Trickle-Up Justice When we move away from thinking about bad people and look instead at systems that "criminalize," we get a very different picture of what crime is and what we would actually have to do to have a safer country.

BRICK TEEVEE SPORT!_© »»» Football Night in America on NBC 49'ers @ Seahawks 8:20 pm et »»» NBA on ABC Christmas Day Doubleheader! Knicks @ Lakers 3 pm et then Thunder @ Heat 5:30 pm et »»» NBA on TNT THURSDAY Doubleheader! Mavs @ Thunder 8 pm et then Celtics @ Clippers 10:30 pm

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.

StrikeDebt.org & RollingJubilee.org! A bailout of the people by the people Rolling Jubilee is a Strike Debt project that buys debt for pennies on the dollar, but instead of collecting it, abolishes it. Together we can liberate debtors at random through a campaign of mutual support, good will, and collective refusal. Debt resistance is just the beginning. Join us as we imagine and create a new world based on the common good, not Wall Street profits.

STOP the ACHE Appalachian Community HEALTH EMERGENCY Advocating for government action and protection of the public from the health crisis in mountain top removal communi ties

Lawmakers concerned about the health effects on humans from mountaintop removal coal mining set forth legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives today. Representatives Dennis Kucinich (OH), Louise Slaughter (NY), Maurice Hinchey (NY), Earl Blumenauer (OR), Lucille Roybal-Allard (CA), John Yarmuth (KY), Lynn Woolsey (CA), Judy Chu (CA), Raúl Grijalva (AZ), James Moran (VA), Michael Honda (CA), John Conyers (MI), and Keith Ellison (MN) introduced the Appalachian Communities Health Emergency (ACHE) Act H.R. 5959 which would place a moratorium on permitting for mountaintop removal coal mining until health studies are conducted by the Department of Health and Human Services. The ACHE coalition presently consists of participants from Coal River Mountain Watch, Mountain Health and Heritage Association, and Christians for the Mountains. “We encourage you, if you’re concerned about mountaintop removal’s effect on your community’s health, to join us in making your voice heard,” said Allen Johnson, executive director of Christians for the Mountains. “Please contact us, learn about the issue, and take action to protect your community.”

Community-Wealth.org community-wealth.org a project of the Democracy Collaborative at the University of Maryland Community-Wealth.org brings together, for the first time, information about the broad range of community wealth building activity. Featuring Community Wealth Building in Action: The Cleveland Model Something important is happening in Cleveland. The Democracy Collaborative—the host of C-W.org—in partnership with the Cleveland Foundation, the Ohio Employee Ownership Center, Shorebank Enterprise Cleveland, the City of Cleveland, and the city's major hospitals and universities—is helping to implement a new model of large-scale worker-owned and community-benefiting businesses. The Evergreen Cooperative Initiative is beginning to build serious momentum in one of the cities most dramatically impacted by the nation's decaying economy. Increasingly, this model is being referred to nationally as The Cleveland Model. Initial planning is now underway to assist other cities in Ohio and nationwide to replicate and adapt this innovative approach to economic development, green job creation, and neighborhood stabilization. Find more many resources at Community-Wealth.org!

NET NEUTRALITY! SaveTheInternet.com Declaration of Internet Freedom Tired of fighting bad bills like SOPA, PIPA and CISPA? Want to stand up against those who are trying to control what we do and say online? It's time for something different. A group of more than 1,500 organizations, academics, startup founders and tech innovators has come together to produce a Declaration of Internet Freedom, a set of five principles that put forward a positive vision of the open Internet. Our goal: Get millions of Internet users to sign on to this Declaration. Build political power for Internet users to make sure that we get a seat at the table whenever, and wherever, the future of the Internet is being decided. It's time to stop playing defense and start going on the offensive. The open Internet is central to people’s freedom to communicate, share, advocate and innovate in the 21st century. But powerful interests want to censor free speech, block the sharing of information, hinder innovation and control how Internet users get online. And all too often, people in power are making political decisions behind closed doors about how the Internet should operate — and they're doing this without the involvement of actual Internet users. The result: policies that could close down the open Internet and destroy our freedom to connect. It’s time for us to reclaim the Internet for its users. Take action now and sign the Declaration of Internet Freedom.

NEW!!! Stop Media Consolidation! Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski is trying to change the agency’s ownership rules to pave the way for Murdoch to get exactly what he wants. Worse, Genachowski and Murdoch are keeping this all very hush-hush, hoping you won't notice.3 These changes wouldn’t just benefit Murdoch. If the FCC proposal passes, one company could own the major daily newspaper, two TV stations and up to eight radio stations in your town. And that one company could be your Internet provider, too. What is the FCC thinking?!? We can still stop the agency from taking this perilous step — but we have less than a month to do it. By taking action, you’re joining a movement of millions who are working to stop big media from getting even bigger. Please take action today. Click HERE to view our infographic and send a message to the FCC! More info at Another FCC Cave-In: Julius Genachowski’s Media Consolidation Christmas Gift to Murdoch at StopTheCap.com!

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! And check out more actions on the Move to Amend Calendar featuring David Cobb's Barnstorming Tour! Also visit Rep Alan Grayson's site www.savedemocracy.net GET INVOLVED! And Alan Grayson is running again in FL-8! Help out at CongressmanWithGuts.com

SUPPORT THE TROOPS WHO REFUSE TO FIGHT See CourageToResist.org and Bradley Manning Support Network UPDATE! Natasha Lennard, assistant news editor at Salon Nobel Peace Laureates condemn prosecution of Bradley Manning Nov 15, 2012: Nobel Peace laureates Archbishop Desmond Tutu (Nobel Peace Prize, 1984), Mairead Maguire (Nobel Peace Prize, 1977) and Adolfo Pérez Esquivel (Nobel Peace Prize, 1980) have published a letter in support of Pfc. Bradley Manning in The Nation, following news that the soldier is willing to take responsibility for leaking information to WikiLeaks. The Peace Prize winners wrote against the government’s treatment of the soldier, who has been in prison for over 900 days.......more.....

DONATE YOUR OLD CELL PHONES TO T.J. MARTELL FOUNDATIONHelp 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 CELLULAR PHONE TASK FORCE EDUCATION, ADVOCACY, SUPPORT at CellPhoneTaskForce.org The Cellular Phone Task Force is dedicated to halting the expansion of wireless technology because it cannot be made safe. We provide: education to the public concerning electromagnetic pollution (electrosmog); advocacy for an electromagnetically cleaner environment; support for individuals disabled by radiation from wireless technology and other sources.

B R I C K T E E V E E

_{image ©2006 arkysue}

The essential guide for watching government propaganda! THEY report. YOU throw bricks.©

Get your Foam Bricks at ThrowThings.com HERE!

IRAQ: 4,486 US Military Dead as of April 21, 2012

AFGHANISTAN: 2,171 US Military Dead as of Dec 21, 2012

The Obameter: Tracking Obama's Campaign Promises

Who Owns The Media? The 6 Monolithic Corporations That Control Almost Everything We Watch, Hear And Read

• This Week (ABC) Host George Stephanopoulos
  • Former congressman and DEA Administrator Asa Hutchinson, the head of the NRA's National School Shield Program
  • Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga.
  • Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.
  • ROUNDTABLE: Newark Mayor Cory Booker; Americans for Tax Reform President and NRA board member Grover Norquist; political strategist and ABC News political analyst Matthew Dowd; Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan; and WashingtonPost.com columnist and Editor and Publisher of The Nation Katrina vanden Heuvel.
  

• Face The Nation (CBS) Host Bob Schiefer
  • The future of gun control with NRA President David Keene, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, and Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va.
  • Senator-designate Rep. Tim Scott, R-S.C.
  • Actor Ben Affleck about his work with the Eastern Congo Initiative.
  

• 60 Minutes (CBS)
  • 60 Minutes Presents: "An Evening of Music," a special hour devoted to vocal artists
  

• Meet the Press (NBC) Host David Gregory
  • Microsoft, NBC News Dissolve MSNBC.com Joint Venture NBC is buying Microsoft's 50 percent interest in the MSNBC website for an undisclosed amount. MSNBC.com will be rebranded as NBCNews.com, and readers who logged into MSNBC.com late Sunday were automatically redirected to NBCNews.com. Microsoft is preparing to launch its own news service this fall. Although he declined to provide many details about the operation general manager of MSN.com Bob Visse said the news staff will be about the same size as the roughly 100 people who created original content for the MSNBC.com. "There is no question that we are going to have more flexibility to make our own decisions," said Vivian Schiller, NBC News' chief digital officer. "This is really an amicable breakup. We think competition will make us better." Okay then.
  • NRA's Wayne LaPierre
  • Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY)
  • Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC).
  • ROUNDTABLE: Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), former Democratic congressman Harold Ford, Jr., and NBC’s Andrea Mitchell and Chuck Todd.
  

• 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.
  • Congressman Steven LaTourette (R-OH)
  • Congressman Mick Mulvaney (R-SC)
  • Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT)
  • NRA's Asa Hutchinson
  • ROUNDTABLE: USA Today Wshington Bureau Chief Susan Page, CNN Senior Political Analyst Ron Brownstein, and Time's Washington Bureau Chief Michael Duffy
  

• 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 Conversation Radio 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 during the show!
  • Prayer Meetin' Wednesday!!!!! Bob runs down all the religious fanatics who try to justify the school murders in Sandy Hook! Listen HERE NOW! Keep Bob on the air HERE ya hear? 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 20, 2012 - End of the Year (and World!) Edition IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Snow is BACK! Winter returns to parched Midwest; Time's "Person of the Year" promises action on climate change, but can he deliver?; Good and Bad 2012: top environmental stories of the year; PLUS: It's the end of the Mayan Apocalypse Myth as we know it! (And we feel fine) ... All that and more in today's Green News Report!
  • IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see link): WSJ's climate "dynamite" is a dud; U.S. Electric Grid 2030: 100% renewable, 90% of the time; 333 straight warmer than "normal" months; U.K. dash a test for global fracking; 'Peak Farmland' as a good thing; China to overhaul solar industry; Keystone XL won't use advanced spill equipment; Sea otters vs. commercial fishermen; MoJo's Eco-Doom Headline Generator; To the Moon!: yes we can grow plants in space ... PLUS: We'll 'never run this economy on renewables' --- and why we'll never have to ... and much, MUCH
  • BRADBLOG UPDATE! VIDEO! 'The Daily Show' on Fox 'News' and Gun Violence: 'Shut Up and Shut Up' We've had plenty to say about the lackeys who mindlessly carry out the dishonest work of the terrorist-enabling NRA and the campaign to make sure nobody is ever allowed to even discuss gun violence or what, if anything, can or should be done about it. Now Jon Stewart and The Daily Show have something to say about it all, whether Fox "News" likes it or not. (Note: The video is broken into two parts for some reason, so be sure to watch through to Part 2!)
  • BRADBLOG UPDATE! 'Tax the Rich: An Animated Fairy Tale' The video was created by the California Federation of Teachers and is narrated by our pal Ed Asner. Enjoy! Better yet, share it with your kids!
  • BRADBLOG UPDATE! Guns Don't Kill People. They Kill LOTS of People. Merry Christmas from the White House and the NRA... UPDATES: Weapons used in mass murder legally purchased and registered; Newtown, CT elementary school shooting 2nd deadliest in U.S. history, most came since NRA helped loosen laws; Tearful President speaks in Brady Press Room, calls for 'meaningful action regardless of politics', fails to offer specifics...
  

• 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.
  • Holiday Break and Website Changes
  
  To my valued listeners: We are making some changes to the website and our terms, effective in January. We will continue to offer free podcasts–my new daily news and commentary. Our in-depth interviews will be available for $1 per episode, or to subscribers who pay $5 per month or more. Loyal listeners who simply can’t afford it should send an email to peter@peterbcollins.com, as we will be offering a limited number of scholarships to our friends who are hurting during these tough times. More information will be posted as we complete the revisions. I’m grateful to each of you for listening and supporting this work, and hope that the new model will enable us to keep it going well into the future. All the best, -pbc
  • PBC Standard Podcast December 17, 2012 Something Lighter for the Holidays: Calvin Trillin Rhymes About 2012, Thomas Frank Giggles at Mayan Doomsday, Will Durst Belittles Lame Ducks
  • PBC Standard Podcast December 20, 2012 Boiling Frogs: Chase Madar Reports on Pre-Trial Hearings in Bradley Manning’s Court Martial
  
  
  

• 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
  • Truthout investigative journalist Danny Weil will join us to talk about the Texas GOP’s war on reason.
  • Author Elizabeth Cline will tell us about the high ethical price of cheap fashion.
  • Attorney James Kauffman will talk to us about how whistleblowers help keep corporate America honest.
  • And Gaius Publius from AmericaBlog will join us for a discussion on how the oil industry is burning down the the planet.
  • VIDEO! THE HISTORY OF CORPORATE CORRUPTION & FRAUD with Robert Kennedy Jr & Mike Papantonio “Call us if you have a personal story about Fraud on Taxpayers or False Claims for Payment made by Corportations at 1-866-389-FIRE (3473)or contact us by email at info@ringoffireradio.com if you have evidence of fraud that robbed taxpayer dollars. If our government is paying too much due to fraud by a corporation, Ring of Fire wants to do a story on it.”
  • VIDEO! Papantonio: NRA Is A Toothless Tiger Do Not Fear Them (VIDEO) Ring of Fire's Mike Papantonio appears on The Big Picture with Thom Hartmann to discuss the impotence of the NRA, and why, as an organization involved in political matters, they are miserable failures.
  • VIDEO! Papantonio: Tea Party Purge Would Save Republican Party (VIDEO) Thanks to the invasive species known as the Tea Party, the modern GOP has been pushed to the farthest fringe of American politics. The question now is whether the party can purge the Tea Baggers and move back to the center, or if they’ll continue to shift further to the fringe right until they disappear completely. Mike Papantonio answers that question with Paul Waldman, contributing editor of the American Prospect.
  • 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 8-11 et Sunday evenings 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!
  
  • December 17, 2102 Cliff Schecter on Guns
  • December 18, 2012 David Dayen: Exits Blogging & Obama’s Bad Offer
  • December 19, 2012 Matt Taibbi: Bankers & Guns
  • December 20, 2012 Chrystia Freeland: Plutocrats
  • December 21, 2012 Casual Friday: Cliff Schecter & Isabel Gillies V Film Guy Matthew
  • MORE Podcast Interviews at Majority.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
  • The official Facebook pages for Max Keiser & Keiser Report STACY SUMMARY: For once and for all, here are our real Facebook pages, the other ones are fake. But if you feel like chatting to the fake ones, by all means, go ahead. Max Keiser & Keiser Report PLUS Stacey Herbert
  • VIDEO! Monkeys & Cocaine: HSBC money laundering case by staceyherbert
  • VIDEO! “They Shoot (fill in the blank), Don’t They?” The marathon goes on… and on… and on… by maxkeiser - READ The 10 Craziest Quotes From The NRA Press Conference (thinkprogress.org)
  • VIDEO! Seems to me that tyrants are more afraid of hackers and stackers than of packers of guns by staceyherbert - Stacy Thoughts: It doesn’t take much deep observation to see that governments are far more afraid of hackers and silver and gold stackers than of those packing guns. I think they have zero fear, in fact, of mere guns. There is no way a poxy gun can ever threaten their $1 trillion annual military arsenal. But the ideas, the ideas of the hacker and the stacker are far, far more dangerous to their money and propaganda machines. This is why the fact is that while fake propaganda is being spread via state television like Fox News about the fake idea that you will be disarmed, the governments are, in fact, violently and aggressively for real pursuing hackers and stackers.
  • Sandy's Silver Lining by Max Keiser - READ Poll: Supermajority of Americans finally support climate action
  • Financial war report: All is not quiet on the bond front by staceyherbert - Stacy Summary: Financial war report. All is heating up on the bond front. Two VERY important stories unfolding on this Saturday. The final outcome of each of these two stories will have major ramifications for all. READ FLASH: U.N. Court in Germany orders Ghana to release Argentine naval ship detained on bond holders' behalf (reuters) AND Pension fund slams San Bernardino for “sham” bankruptcy (reuters)
  • KEISER REPORT [KR381] Keiser Report: Monetized Genocide We look at central banking monkeys performing cannonballs into the global dark pools, the backlash against quantitative easing and the Queen ticking orf the Bank of England. In the second half, Max Keiser talks to economist Sandeep Jaitly of FeketeResearch.com about silver backwardation and a monetary path that will throw us *all* into such poverty that none of us will be able satisfy our ends.
  • KEISER REPORT [KR382] Keiser Report: Battle of Wall Street We look at the shootout at the OK Bond Corral as sovereigns battle Wall Street — which in turn battles state pension funds — for the same piece of infinitely re-hypothecated garbage collateral. In the second half, Max Keiser talks to hedge fund manager and ‘Planet Ponzi’ author Mitch Feierstein about the bond market, central bank-induced deflation and the London property market.
  • KEISER REPORT [KR383] Keiser Report: Crazyflation (ft. Peter Schiff) We look at the the central bank revolution that will end in disaster with Japan leading the way after voters have demanded even more aggression with the nation’s monetary policy. They also look at Moody’s ratings getting no respect because nobody has done better than flipping a coin for 50 years in a slow burning prison. In the second half, Max Keiser talks to Peter Schiff about bonds, dollars and governments buying their own debt.
  • ON THE EDGE On the Edge with Greg Hunter An interview with Greg Hunter of USA Watchdog.
  • THE TRUTH ABOUT MARKETS [TaM-1260] The Truth About Markets – 08 December 2012 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
  • Pepe Escobar June 30, 2012: Globetrotting journalist Pepe Escobar discusses his article “Syria and Turkey’s Phantom War;” Turkey’s violation of Syrian airspace in a purposeful, measured provocation and test of Syria’s defenses; the near-invocation of NATO Article 5 and a wider war (an attack on one NATO country is an attack on all); looking for ways to bypass the UN on Syria, since China and Russia won’t let an interventionist resolution pass the Security Council; grand plans for NATO expansion in the official “Assured Security, Dynamic Engagement” plan; counterrevolutions in the Middle East and South America, as the US looks to rebuild its portfolio of client states; and how Qatar has become the new superpower in the Middle East, surpassing even Saudi Arabia.
  • SCOTT HORTON July 5, 2012: Scott says goodbye to Antiwar.com. Scott Horton is the former host of Antiwar Radio. Visit his blog Stress. Due to budget cuts Scott lost his gig at AntiWarRadio.com! Whoa! See ScottHortonShow.com for archives! Send emails to Scott at scotthorton.org to help Scott keep his podcast going!
  • Many more interviews at Antiwar Radio!
  
  
  

• fauxnews
  • Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY), Chairman of the Senate Republican Policy Committee
  • Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND), Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee
  • Pastor of Saddleback Church Rick Warren
  
  

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