Filthy Rich Stuff: January 2012

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Brick TeeVee's Shotgun Blasts to the Bill Of Rights!

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Shotgun Blasts to the Bill Of Rights We had an opening rant that goes something like this:
"JOSE PADILLA CASE ZERO RIGHTS COURT IGNORES AND BETRAYS THEIR CONSTITUTIONAL BALANCE OF POWER - Some may call it "TROIKA!" or "Three Strikes" or "Father-Son-Holy-Spirit" or "Hook Line and Sinker". Any way you look at it ALL THREE BRANCHES of Federal Government have been taken over by transnational corporations, a likelyhood The Founders feared: One force taking over all three branches of government, "if you can keep it" Ben Franklin quipped" but the BTV Crew gets easily distracted by the day's news even though U.S. citizens can now be deemed "enemy combatants" by The pResident at whim then "renditioned" to a far-away land for "enhanced interrogation" or even assassinated, habeus corpus is non-existent, telcos can monitor and save all citizens' electronic communications and hand them over to the government all without a court warrant while the government cries "STATE SECRETS" at every trial challenging these draconian laws and the judicial branch exonerates the plaintiffs as not having "standing" in the "opinion" of "The Court" while transnational corporations can spend unlimitied money getting their cronies elected to pass even more laws like these and the U.S. "defense" budget dwarfs all other countries' military expenditures COMBINED while the U.S. Constitution's Bill Of Rights has been riddled with so many legal shotgun blasts it is practically moot. But our regular BTV readers KNOW ALL THIS, right? So we move on....
The long saga of the murders in Haditha Iraq apparently have come to an end as the BBC reports Haditha marine Frank Wuterich enters guilty plea The final US marine to face charges over the killing of unarmed Iraqi civilians in Haditha in 2005 has pleaded guilty to dereliction of duty. Sgt Frank Wuterich was one of eight marines charged with murder or failure to investigate the killings, but now faces just three months in jail. The charges against six were dropped or dismissed, and one was acquitted. Sgt Wuterich reached a plea deal to bring an end to the most notorious case against US troops from the Iraq war. He faces a maximum of three months confinement, two-thirds forfeiture of pay and a demotion to the rank of private. Filmmaker Nick Broomfield wrote a few weeks ago in The Guardian UK
For the families of Haditha, this is a matter of honour ... My film, Battle for Haditha, which recreated the incident in all its brutality, split critics along political lines and drew cries of "unpatriotic" at a screening in front of marines in Los Angeles. Eight of those charged had their charges dropped and one was acquitted, leaving just Wuterich to stand. But if there was any doubt that the killings that day could be classed as anything other than war crimes, a number of incriminating documents have come to light in the past few weeks that place guilt beyond doubt. Some 400 pages from the military interrogation of the offending troops, which should have been destroyed as the Americans left Iraq last year, were uncovered by a New York Times reporter at a junkyard in Baghdad. One statement from a marine says Wuterich told his men to "shoot first and ask questions later", another witness recalls seeing Wuterich and other marines telling occupants of the taxi to kneel down before spraying them with bullets. One statement from soldier Steven Tatum, who has already been granted immunity, shows he changed his recollection of the day to admit he knew he was firing upon children at the time. Also recovered are the failed polygraph results of Sergeant Sanick Dela Cruz, who responded "no" on both counts when asked if he shot men at close range and kneeling down, and who later confessed he was told by Wuterich to lie about what happened that day.
Raheem Salman and Patrick J. McDonnell report for the Los Angeles Times In Iraq, Haditha case is reminder of justice denied The teacher still keeps family photos of the dead, visual mementos of lives cut short in an unremitting hail of gunfire. "The Americans killed children who were hiding inside the cupboards or under the beds," said Rafid Abdul Majeed Hadithi, 43, a teacher in the city of Haditha who says he witnessed the 2005 assault by U.S. Marines that took the lives of 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians. "Was this Marine charged with dereliction of duty because he didn't kill more? Is Iraqi blood so cheap?" In the United States, the brutal saga of Haditha — among the dead were seven children, including a toddler, three women, and a 76-year-old man in a wheelchair — may have concluded Monday with Marine Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich's guilty plea to negligent dereliction of duty. A military judge said Tuesday that Wuterich will serve no time in the brig under the terms of his plea bargain. Charges were previously dropped against six others involved in the Euphrates Valley incident; a seventh Marine was acquitted. The plea closed the books on a politically charged case that sparked debate about the manner in which U.S. troops react amid the "fog of war" and the tension of combat. For many Iraqis, however, Haditha remains a visceral reminder of the most troubling aspects of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion and subsequent occupation of their homeland. ... "This is the wrong message," said Yaseen Mehdi, an engineer and human rights activist. "We are not looking for financial compensation. We are looking for ethical compensation." Others have lamented what they saw as a lack of contrition. "With such crimes, the man who is responsible at least has to apologize to the families of the martyrs," said Ashwaq Jaff, a member of the Iraqi parliament's human rights committee. She has no doubt that cases such as Haditha, reinforcing the perception that U.S. forces went unpunished in the death or abuse of Iraqis, helped sully America's image. "There was a very negative reaction as a result of these incidents," said Jaff, a Kurd, one Iraqi ethnic group that did largely welcome the U.S. invasion. "This made the Iraqi street refuse their [continued] presence in Iraq." ... CBS News also reports Iraq eyes legal action over deadly Haditha raid Iraq will take legal action to ensure justice for the families of 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians killed in a U.S. raid in Haditha seven years ago, a government spokesman said Thursday, after the lone U.S. Marine convicted in the killings reached a deal to escape jail time. Residents in Haditha, a former Sunni insurgent stronghold of about 85,000 people along the Euphrates River valley some 140 miles northwest of Baghdad, have expressed outrage at the American military justice system for allowing Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich to avoid prison. "The Haditha incident was a big crime against innocent civilians," said Ali al-Moussawi, a spokesman for the Iraqi government. "We will follow up all legal procedures and judiciary measures" to seek justice in the case, he added. And NYT's Michael S. Schmidt adds Anger in Iraq After Plea Bargain Over 2005 Massacre ... Khalid Salman, 45, whose cousin was killed by the Marines in the massacre...vowed not to let the matter rest. “That soldier would be sent to prison for more than three months if he had thrown trash on the streets in America,” he said, adding: “We won’t be silent. We will resume the case through all international courts, and we will appeal the American resolution. Injustice has won this round, but there are many more rounds left.” Assim Omar al-Hadithi, 40, a relative of another victim, said that such a light sentence “shows the lies of the Americans, whether they are judges or members of the military.” He continued: “All the world knew that the American soldiers committed crimes in Iraq. We were extensively surprised when we heard the news, and it has made our minds even worse. It is no consolation for the victims’ families.”
SURVEILLANCE ALERT: Robert Wenzel of the Economic Policy Journal has this item at lewrockwell.com Dear Americans, We Are Surrounded ... But, now, in addition to these minor harassments, we have the NDAA, which allows the military on the President's order to grab any American off the street, who is deemed to be "aiding terrorists" and hold that American until the end of the "War on Terror", without trial or jury. And now, the DHS wants funding for more Visible Intermodal Prevention & Respons (VIPR) teams. What will these teams do? According to LaTi: As many as 25 VIPR (Visible Intermodal Prevention & Response) teams began patrolling train stations nationwide last summer conducting an estimated 9,300 "suspicionless" spot searches of travelers. The agency has said the presence of officers with explosive detection dogs, radiation monitors and other devices will act as a deterrent in the nation’s busiest travel hubs...A video shot in a train station in Savannah, Georgia, in February apparently showed TSA agents screening passengers as they stepped off a train — as opposed to the more common pre-boarding screening procedures..The TSA is planning to add an additional 12 VIPR teams across the country in 2012. As I said, we are surrounded, and still that doesn't mean much in and of itself, other than the minor harassment, but here's how things could get bad very fast. Serious price inflation could be only months away. It is very possible that this could result in the President putting price controls in effect at some point. Every person , who knows the first thing about price controls, knows they don't work and only result in shortages, still presidents reach for them. ... I fear price controls in a period when we are surrounded with all sorts of enforcement personnel tired of playing enforcement and looking for real enforcement. Unlike, during Nixon's price controls when there were no enforcement patrols, the enforcement teams are already in place. What could this mean? If the price inflation is high enough and the price controls tight enough, shortages could quickly develop across the country, but unlike the controls during the Nixon era, you have a built in DHS bureaucracy that will want to see the controls maintained, so they can show how necessary they are, just like we have now with the Drug Enforcement Agency. Welcome to the police state comrades!
Last Saturday marked the second anniversary of the SCOTUS's now infamous Citizens United ruling and it was met by Move to Amend Occupies the Courts! On HuffPo/AOL Mile Mogulescu explains On 2nd Anniversary of Citizens United: Why the Right, Left and Center Should Support Getting Money Out of Politics ... At least 15 constitutional amendments declaring that corporations are not people (at least for the purposes of making electoral contributions) and/or that money isn't speech have been introduced in Congress. A number of old line good government groups like Common Cause, Public Citizen and People for the American Way, as well as a number of new groups like United Republic, Move to Amend, and Free Speech for People have initiated mass citizens' movements to get money out of politics. City councils in Los Angeles, New York and a number of smaller cities have passed resolutions supporting amending the Constitution and efforts are under way to pass similar resolutions in cities, towns and states throughout the country. But even when this movement is led by non-partisan organizations like Common Cause and Public Citizen, they have been supported largely by people on the left of center and have received little support, or even been opposed by, conservatives. ... Surprisingly, many of the biggest corporations who make large campaign contributions would rather not have to. They feel that they're in an arms race in which they must make large-scale investments in political campaigns because their competitors do to. But anonymous sources tell me that many CEOs would rather not spend so much of their corporate cash in this way. If the playing field could be leveled, there may be support from elements of the business community to limiting money in politics. .... Conservatives should consider that getting money out of politics and ending the corruption of legal bribery that guarantees the continuation of wasteful government spending paid for by campaign contributions may well be in their best interest. Likewise, getting money out of politics should be a priority for "centrists" who would like to see a "grand bargain" in which the deficit is addressed by conservatives agreeing to tax increases and liberals agreeing to cutting spending, including on Medicare and Social Security. .... So on this second anniversary of the Citizens United decision, let's begin a dialogue between left, right and center on how to end the corruption of big money that is destroying American democracy. Let's create a system in which elections can produce an honest debate across the political spectrum of the best way to solve America's growing problems, based on who has the best ideas and not who has the most money. James Kwak, an associate professor at the University of Connecticut School of Law, writes at The Atlantic Citizens United Turns 2—and It's Still Wrong Since then, Harvard law professor John Coates has put some effort into figuring out just what corporations are doing with their political spending, and how it affects their shareholders. The short answer, revealed in his new working paper, is that political activities are bad for shareholders. ... The glorification of the corporation over the past thirty years has been predicated in large part on the myth that corporations are solely dedicated to maximizing shareholder value. But corporations only maximize shareholder value if shareholders have a way to keep executives and employees in line and prevent them from simply lining their own pockets. Decades of research have shown numerous failings in the standard corporate governance model: boards that are stuffed with cronies of the CEO, directors who have no ability to evaluate what their companies are actually doing, massive golden parachutes that insulate CEOs against failure, and so on. Poor oversight of political activity may be another to add to the list. There is much work still to be done on corporate political activity and its implications for shareholders. But the early evidence is that we cannot simply assume, as the Supreme Court did in Citizens United, that shareholder pressure will magically ensure that a company's political spending is always in its best interests. In this context, the need for improved disclosure is even more urgent. In a related matter The Institue for Public Accuracy has some comments from the The Nation Institute's Max Blumenthal via iWatchnews about how Newt Gingrich Gets Another $5 Million Via Pro-Israeli Casino Mogul Adelson .... He said today: "After Newt Gingrich befriended Las Vegas casino baron Sheldon Adelson in the late 1990's, Gingrich's politics on the Middle East suddenly developed a hawkish, neoconservative edge. Adelson, who is America's 8th wealthiest man, is a vocal supporter of the Greater Israel project of Jewish settlements and a military strike on Iran. .... Back in the U.S., Adelson pumped millions into rehabilitating Gingrich's career after the former House Speaker's ignominious political demise and descent into personal scandal. Thanks to Adelson, Gingrich was able to found a think tank that allowed him to build the infrastructure for his coming presidential bid. "On the presidential trail, Gingrich injected an ugly tinge of Islamophobia and anti-Arab bigotry into the campaign. His remark to a right-wing Jewish news outlet that the Palestinians were 'an invented people' was met with widespread criticism — and a vigorous defense by Adelson. Days later, Adelson funneled $5 million into a pro-Gingrich Super PAC, turning the key to Gingrich's stunning upset of Mitt Romney in South Carolina. Now, with Gingrich polling ahead of Romney in Florida, Adelson has pledged another $5 million, virtually guaranteeing that Gingrich will be competitive — and that more nasty attacks on Palestinians, Muslims, and Obama's foreign policy lay on the horizon. Adelson's relationship with Netanyahu, and his motives for funding Gingrich, were outlined in detail in Blumenthal's investigative report for the new Lebanese-based Al-Akhbar English, "The Bibi Connection" earlier this month. Blumenthal wrote that Netanyahu is waging a "shadow campaign … intended to be a factor in defeating Obama and electing a Republican in his place." Of course the most radical right-wingers are lining up to start a war against Iran and the most pro-Israel group that supports this is the American Israel PAC or AIPAC. Here's an ACTION ALERT! Will You Occupy AIPAC?

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Even as Gnewt Gingrich Namedrops ‘Ronald Reagan’ More Times In Debates Than Everyone Else Combined (mediaite.com) and the Right desperately try to rewrite history (see this classic with Mike Stark of StarkReports.com Rush Limbaugh chats w/me about Ronald Reagan’s legacy) ConsortiumNews.com has this "Exclusive: Guatemala has begun a politically difficult process to make human rights violators of the 1980s accountable for their crimes, including genocide inflicted on Indian villages, but the United States still heaps praise on the killers’ chief American accomplice, Ronald Reagan, writes Robert Parry" in Reagan’s Hand in Guatemala’s Genocide (Contains graphic descriptions)
We ask you to read Activists express concern for imprisoned priest at DisarmNowPlowshares.wordpress.com [83-year-old] Jesuit Fr. Bill Bichsel was serving a three-month prison term in the Federal Detention Center near Seattle, Wash., for a July 2010 action at the Y-12 [Nuclear Resisters] National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., where a new nuclear weapons manufacturing facility is being planned. The priest has not eaten since Jan. 10 to protest his placement in solitary confinement. .... Supporters say Bichsel was visited by Buddhist monks with the Nipponzan Myohoji order when he was moved to the Tacoma facility Jan. 10. They say the authorities at the facility reprimanded Bichsel for the visit and had him rearrested the next morning. According to Kremer, Bichsel started his fast partly “to unite us as one and strengthen resolve against nuclear weapons” and would be appreciative of any who would join him in the effort. UPDATE: Bix has ended his fast… and some words from him!!!
Listen to Alternet's Joshua Holland on FRIDAY's Rick Smith Show (bottom of hour 2) where Holland announces a **NEW SHOW** Alternet Radio with Joshua Holland beginning Sunday February 7th at 6 PM ET on WE ACT RADIO. More info as it becomes available!
Liam Fox at NewsJunkiePost.com asks and answers Has Ex Goldman Sachs Staff turned Democrat Campaigner Infiltrated Occupy?
And last week pResident Obomber delivered his "State of the Union" speech we're sure you all watched! For a recap we defer to Melissa McEwan who decodes So the President Gave a Speech Last Night... at shakespearessister.blogspot.com with all the dog whistles exposed. Haha! Good Item! Then Lambert at The Daily Beast deconstructs George Soros in asking
The eternal question: Are the 1% stupid and/or evil? Soros votes for both Go read this excellent deconstruction! We already know Fox News Viewers Know Less Than People Who Don't Watch Any News so now comes a Yahoo News piece by LiveScience.com's Stephanie Pappas Low IQ & Conservative Beliefs Linked to Prejudice There's no gentle way to put it: People who give in to racism and prejudice may simply be dumb, according to a new study that is bound to stir public controversy. The research finds that children with low intelligence are more likely to hold prejudiced attitudes as adults. These findings point to a vicious cycle, according to lead researcher Gordon Hodson, a psychologist at Brock University in Ontario. Low-intelligence adults tend to gravitate toward socially conservative ideologies, the study found. Those ideologies, in turn, stress hierarchy and resistance to change, attitudes that can contribute to prejudice, Hodson wrote in an email to LiveScience. .... Nonetheless, there is reason to believe that strict right-wing ideology might appeal to those who have trouble grasping the complexity of the world. "Socially conservative ideologies tend to offer structure and order," Hodson said, explaining why these beliefs might draw those with low intelligence. "Unfortunately, many of these features can also contribute to prejudice." In another study, this one in the United States, Hodson and Busseri compared 254 people with the same amount of education but different levels of ability in abstract reasoning. They found that what applies to racism may also apply to homophobia. People who were poorer at abstract reasoning were more likely to exhibit prejudice against gays. As in the U.K. citizens, a lack of contact with gays and more acceptance of right-wing authoritarianism explained the link. ..... This item was too late for last week's BTV we have an UPDATE from Jesse's Café Américain Corzine, MF Execs and JPM Named in RICO Lawsuit snagged from Bloomberg Jan. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Jon Corzine, MF Global Holdings Ltd.’s former chief executive officer, was sued under U.S. racketeering law by commodity customers alleging he and other executives “unlawfully” took money from their accounts and failed to segregate their money as the law requires. The suit alleges that hundreds of millions of dollars were transferred from customers’ accounts to other MF Global units, at a time when the company was short of cash and faced calls for collateral as its risky Eurobond and other investments fell in value. Named in the suit, JPMorgan Chase & Co., the company’s banker, should have noticed the “depletion” of customer money, and should have investigated, according to the plaintiff. The customers are seeking unspecified restitution and damages. Privately sponsored RICO lawsuits have a difficult time obtaining the types of information that are required to make a conspiracy case unless they get lucky in the discovery process or find a willing whistleblower. The defendants generally lawyer up and stonewall, using the types of court maneuvers that prove so effective in mortgage fraud cases, theft of customer funds, and mass foreclosures based on forged documents. The chances of an Obama Administration investigation with teeth seems unlikely. Their Justice Department has strong ties to the big banks and mortgage companies and a very poor record of prosecuting fraud cases. Of course there is little reason to hope for anything different from any Republican administration. Ron Paul would be honest enough, but it is hard to tell which laws he would choose to enforce and which ones would be considered an intrusion on free markets. It might be more effective for the public to demand the appointment of a special prosecutor with a proven record of effective investigation of the big banks. Too bad Eliot Spitzer was taken out of the picture in a bank sponsored 'investigation' into his sex life by the Bush Justice Department. Also MAX KEISER alerts us with
Jamie Dimon to MF Global clients: “Let them eat shit” and points out this item at Bloomberg MF Global Clients May Lose in $700M Fight In another too-big-to-fail story Pat Garofalo at ThinkProgress posts this encouraging headline Bank Of America’s Offer To Homeowners: We’ll Modify Loans If You’ll Erase All The Mean Things Said About Us On Twitter ... According to BusinessWeek, Bank of America is fighting back by giving loan modifications to borrowers who have made complaints. The catch is that, in return for the modification, the borrower must agree to stay silent and expunge any previous criticisms of the bank from his or her public record: [story here] ...Now, if the Arizona officials’ claims are true, Bank of America has gone from obstruction to explicit payoffs in order to keep its mortgage mess under wraps. (HT: Naked Capitalism) Speaking of Naked Capitalism Matt Stoller posts Can the Schneiderman-Infused Financial Fraud Unit Prosecute Vikram Pandit? .... The Obama administration’s posture is not passive because Obama is weak, it is passive because President Obama and his administration believe passivity towards business interests is the appropriate role of government. Schneiderman does not believe this, he wants to govern. And that’s why he wants this Federal task force, because the Federal government has more resources and tools (including legal authority, personnel, jurisdiction, and documents) that he needs to do a reasonable job explaining to the country through the use of the Justice system what happened in the multi-trillion theft and why. But he is coupled, as co-Chair, with several of these people who, as Matt Taibbi puts it, might “in an ideal world… be targets of their own committee’s investigation.” This makes it very difficult to consider how they could possibly work well together, with such misaligned interests. There is a possible a collision coming, because the two parties have contradictory objectives. For now, the administration probably believes that this is a good political talking point, and nothing more. Perhaps the task force will go after a few mid-level people, or not, but it isn’t really going to cause any major problems for them. Schneiderman for his part has already said he’d walk away publicly if he is impeded in his investigation, as Dave Dayen noted in his terrific series of articles on the whole episode. As just one example, Jonathan Weil keeps wryly pointing out that Vikram Pandit at Citigroup may be guilty of violating Sarbanes-Oxley..... Speaking of D-Day he finds The Schneiderman Gambit: Financial Fraud Unit Appears Designed to Fail, and Grease Skids for Foreclosure Fraud Settlement ... This move opens up access to a variety of federal resources, at a larger scale available than in the New York Attorney General’s office. Schneiderman already had a deal with the Inspector General of the FHFA on information-sharing, but it was more limited. It also opens up other relevant jurisdictions that Schneiderman can pursue. But that assumes Schneiderman can get the buy-in he needs from co-chairs that seem committed to protecting the banks from harm. As Abigail Field writes, the deck looks stacked against Schneiderman if the goal is to reach consensus on prosecutions. And that could mean that the long-view goal here was not to prolong investigations and delay the settlement , as Felix Salmon believes, but precisely the opposite (though I do think Felix makes good points in that post, particularly about how this endless process has mainly delayed needed principal reductions). As one observer close to an AG told me last night, “I don’t know how Eric Schneiderman gets a wave and a wink from the President of the United States in the State of the Union address without standing behind the Administration’s agreement.” Indeed. That upsets the entire balance of power with respect to the settlement. If Schneiderman joins, it undermines the group of “Justice Democrat” AGs who were working on how to deal with investigations in the absence of a settlement. AG offices are freaking out about this, and it will be tough to keep them from acquiescing now. After all, they have a fig leaf of this new new investigation. More important, this announcement has collapsed the unified wall of objection on the left to a settlement. And I mean COLLAPSED. .... Only this isn’t a victory at all, at least not yet. Schneiderman may be trying to work from within, but he’s saddled with a panel full of co-chairs tied to banks with a history of obstructing accountability. The united front of Justice Democrats has been nicked. Kamala Harris, facing enormous pressure to go along with the settlement (she remains opposed at this point), now must contend with being the main big-state holdout AND having a family member co-chairing the investigation panel! .... I’d really like to be wrong about this. But this just reads like a gambit, a fix, a charade.
Our own BTV contributor msgeaux finds this very interesting article at GOLEM XIV from December
Plan B – How to loot nations and their banks legally. Does anyone think that if our governments fail to keep to their austerity targets and fail to keep bailing out the banking sector, that the banks will just shrug and say, “Well, thanks for trying” and accept their fate? Or do you think the banks might have a Plan B of their own? .... What I offer from here on is thinking out loud. I obvioulsy have no proof at all that there is a plan B. All I can hope to do is show you the elements which I think could make a Plan B for the banks. Then my argument is that if the mechanism I describe could work, if I have not simply misunderstood something, then I think the banks will surely have thought of it before me. And so it either already exists or it will. I think there are scraps of information that suggest it does exist and the collapse of MF Global might even be the first example of Plan B in action. The MF Global case certainly contains all the clues. .... The answer to all these questions lie in a change to Bankruptcy laws that happened around the world between 2002 and 05. This might seem like a detour into nerd city but it is not. It is the key. We urge you all to read this very carefully because this may be the linchpin of the entire global economy's collapse.
OUR LAST WORD comes from CHRIS HEDGES at TruthDig.com. Please go there to read all of this essay. We snip these....
Thank You for Standing Up

....... Our electoral system, already hostage to corporate money and corporate lobbyists, gasped its last two years ago. It died on Jan. 21, 2010, when the Supreme Court in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission granted to corporations the right to spend unlimited amounts on independent political campaigns. The ruling turned politicians into corporate employees. If any politician steps out of line, dares to defy corporate demands, this ruling hands to our corporate overlords the ability to pump massive amounts of anonymous money into campaigns to make sure the wayward are defeated and silenced. Politicians like Obama are hostages. They jump when corporations say jump. They beg when corporations say beg. They hand corporations exemptions, subsidies, trillions in taxpayer money, no-bid contracts and massive loans with virtually no interest, and they abolish any regulations that impede profits and protect the citizen. Corporations like Goldman Sachs, because they own the system, are bailed out by federal dollars and given essentially free government loans to gamble. I am not sure what to call our economic system, but it is not capitalism. And if any elected official so much as murmurs anything that sounds like dissent, the Supreme Court ruling permits corporations to destroy him or her. And they do. Turn off your televisions. Ignore the Newt-Mitt-Rick-Barack reality show. It is as relevant to your life as the gossip on “Jersey Shore.” The real debate, the debate raised by the Occupy movement about inequality, corporate malfeasance, the destruction of the ecosystem, and the security and surveillance state, is the only debate that matters. You won’t hear it on the corporate-owned airwaves and cable networks, including MSNBC, which has become to the Democratic Party what Fox News is to the lunatic fringe of the Republican Party. You won’t hear it on NPR or PBS. You won’t read about it in our major newspapers. The issues that matter are being debated, however, on “Democracy Now!,” LINK TV, The Real News , OCCUPY websites and Revolution Truth. They are being raised by journalists such as Glenn Greenwald and Matt Taibbi . You can find genuine ideas in corners of the Internet or in books by political philosophers such as Sheldon Wolin. But you have to go looking for them. Voting will not alter the corporate systems of power. Voting is an act of political theater. Voting in the United States is as futile and sterile as in the elections I covered as a reporter in dictatorships like Syria, Iran and Iraq. There were always opposition candidates offered up by these dictatorships. Give the people the illusion of choice. Throw up the pretense of debate. Let the power elite hold public celebrations to exalt the triumph of popular will. We can vote for Romney or Obama, but Goldman Sachs and ExxonMobil and Bank of America and the defense contractors always win. There is little difference between our electoral charade and the ones endured by the Syrians and Iranians. Do we really believe that Obama has, or ever had, any intention to change the culture in Washington? In this year’s presidential election I will vote for a third-party candidate, either the Green Party candidate or Rocky Anderson , assuming one of them makes it onto the ballot in New Jersey, but voting is nothing more than a brief chance to register our disgust with the corporate state. It will not alter the configurations of power. The campaign is not worth our emotional, physical or intellectual energy. Our efforts must be directed toward acts of civil disobedience, to chipping away, through nonviolent protest, at the pillars of established, corporate power. The corporate state is so unfair, so corrupt and so rotten that the institutions tasked with holding it up—the police, the press, the banking system, the civil service and the judiciary—have become vulnerable. It is becoming harder and harder for the corporations to convince its foot soldiers to hold the system in place. ....... “History shows the demands made by those in revolt are never initially considered by government,” [Kevin Zeese] said. “Our job is to make the politically impossible the politically inevitable.” I do not know how long it will take to dethrone the corporate state, but I do know it is a dead and terminal system of power. As the global economy deteriorates and climate change causes greater disruptions, these corporations will be increasingly discredited. I know the iron grip of corporations over our lives will, eventually, be broken. The corporate state will, like all wounded animals, lash out with a blind fury, which is why I suspect we have been given the National Defense Authorization Act, which permits the military to arrest and hold U.S. citizens without due process. It will increase pressure to become crueler and more callous at the base of the columns it depends on for survival. And eventually it will break. No one knows how long this will take. It could be months, years, maybe even a decade, although the massive assault by the fossil fuel industry on the ecosystem will probably force a popular response sooner than we expect. The only question is how much damage these corporations will be permitted to inflict. I attended a rally Friday night in Foley Square, a few blocks from the criminal court where I had spent the morning. It was part of the Occupy the Courts event held across the nation to protest America’s corporate coup and the Supreme Court ruling in the Citizens United case. It was cold and blustery. Snow was on the way. Many in the crowd of a couple of hundred were visibly chilled. I spoke about the movement. I spoke about the lawsuit I have brought against Barack Obama and the secretary of defense to challenge the National Defense Authorization Act. I spoke about the inevitability of the Occupy movement. I realized, afterward, I had forgotten to say what was most important. I forgot to say thank you. Thank you for standing up to corporate power on a cold winter’s night. Thank you for making hope visible. You must never underestimate your power. I was sentenced in the day. I was exonerated in the night.

Well said, Mr. Hedges, well said. And we didn't have time to cover the First Anniversary of Egypt's Tahrir Square protests so see Sharif Abdel Kouddous at DN! for that story. Read, watch and listen to more of this week's stories and events below and have a good active week! OCCUPY SOMEWHERE!

BRICK TEEVEE ALERTS!_©

»»» GRITtv @ www.grittv.org with Laura Flanders

»»» FEATURED SHOW Where are the Peace Pundits? President Obama's 2012 State of the Union opened and closed with a celebration of the US military. That was his choice; the media chose not to raise a peep of critique. Yet US military targets proliferate—abroad—with unmanned drones assassinating unconvicted suspects in innumerable undeclared wars. And at home. The 2012 National Defense Authorization Act makes indefinite military detention without charge or trial a permanent feature of the American legal system. It’s kind of the critics not to mention that—or the president's four-year-old pledge to close Guantánamo, and to restore the “rule of law.” If only peace activists were invited to contribute to those post-show pundit panels! Long time peace-builder and GRITtv regular, Kathy Kelly joined Laura in studio in June 2010 to discuss the consequences of a "robotized" U.S. military. She described the devastation she had seen and the way people are forced to live, and she questioned the logic of continuing to spend so much money on war. You can read Laura's column on the president's speech ("Not a Peep") in full at TheNation.com .

BRICK TEEVEE SPORT!_©

»»» NBA on TNT! Double-header Thursday! Bulls @ Knicks 8 pm et then Nuggets @ Clippers 10:30 pm et

BRICK TEEVEE ACTION!_©

360.org January 24 2012 in Washington D.C. Blow the Whistle on Big Oil Corruption On Tuesday January 24th, we going to Washington DC to blow the whistle on Big Oil corruption in Congress. We'll be gathering at the Capitol dressed in referee uniforms (yep, stripes and all), and then heading to the American Petroleum Institute - Big Oil's top lobby - to do the same. It will be unavoidable, very visible, and just disruptive enough to absolutely get the attention of the oil industry's representatives in Congress and put them on notice that the era of big oil corruption will soon be coming to an end.
UPDATE: We're still working out the exact meeting place and a few other details, but here are the key things you need to know:
What: Blowing the Whistle on Big Oil Corruption in Congress
When: Tuesday January 24th, 12 Noon
Where: West Lawn, US Capitol Building, Washington DC

The 1st Amendment is Our Permit Our permit to occupy is The First Amendment. Quickly sign the following statement which will be delivered to mayors, police chiefs and major media across the country:

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

October2011.org Sign the Petition to Get the 99% Deficit Proposal Heard in Congress

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

NET NEUTRALITY! SaveTheInternet.org SOPA If you've been living under an Internet-free rock the past couple of weeks, you might have managed to miss the steady drumbeat of opposition to HR 3261, the so-called Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). Then again, if you've been living under an Internet-free rock, you've already had a preview of what we're facing if SOPA goes into effect. AmericanCensorship.org has pulled together an infographic that explains in very basic terms the services and sites that are at greatest risk from SOPA here: Infographic: Effects of the Internet Blacklist Bill (SOPA). More info at American Censorship Day READ Internet Censorship: Not Today, Not Tomorrow SIGN NOW! Internet censorship is coming to America. It’s in the form of a bill in Congress that gives corporations unprecedented power to blacklist websites at will. If passed, the “Stop Online Piracy Act,” or SOPA (HR 3261), could rip apart the open fabric of the Internet. People could see their websites disappear from the Internet for a “crime” as innocent as posting a video of themselves singing along to a favorite song. Sign this petition NOW! Keep BTV and YOUR blog alive! Listen to Sam Seder with Tim Karr of Free Press on Net Neutrality [11•10•11] UPDATE: Bypass SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) DNS Blocking with DeSopa 1.1 A new anti-SOPA add-on for Firefox, titled “DeSopa” is such a counter measure.When installed, users can click a single button to resolve a blocked domain via foreign DNS servers, bypassing all domestic DNS blockades and allowing the user to browse the site though the bare IP-address (if supported).“I feel that the general public is not aware of the gravity of SOPA and Congress seems like they are about to cater to the special interests involved, to the detriment of Internet, for which I and many others live and breathe,” DeSopa developer T Rizk told....

CAMPAIGN FOR AMERICA'S FUTURE American Majority Rejects Washington Austerity Consensus – And We Demand Media Coverage by Roger Hickey, President, Campaign for America's Future: No more silent majority. The Campaign for America’s Future is joining with the Center for Economic and Policy Research (whose Co-Director, Dean Baker blogs regularly about economic bias in the media) and with FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting) to monitor the media’s coverage and representation of the American Majority views as they go into covering the big deficit fight. But we want to enlist YOU too. Send us accounts of unbalanced coverage in the national media and in your local newspapers and television. Call up reporters, editors, assignment people and tell them when they are under-representing the views of the American Majority. We should have at least half the experts, pundits, quotes and real people represented in their coverage. In a debate as important as the one we are going into, we can’t allow the media to ignore the American Majority. Much more at www.ourfuture.org

MOVE TO AMEND! www.movetoamend.org SIGN HERE NOW! Also visit Rep Alan Grayson's site www.savedemocracy.net And Alan Grayson is running again in FL-8! Help out at CongressmanWithGuts.com

SUPPORT THE TROOPS WHO REFUSE TO FIGHT See CourageToResist.org UPDATE! Manning-Lamo Chat Logs Revealed at wired.com plus The Deeply Personal Details in New Bradley Manning Chat Logs and Bradley Manning Support Network Much more at link.

UPDATE! BRADLEY MANNING UPDATE: Robert Parry Exclusive America’s Debt to Bradley Manning So, it was useful to examine the WikiLeaks documents regarding the election of the new IAEA leader in 2009 to understand why this flip may have occurred. What those classified State Department cables show is that the IAEA’s new director general, Japanese diplomat Yukiya Amano, credited his victory largely to U.S. government support and promptly stuck his hand out for U.S. money. Further, Amano left little doubt that he would side with the United States in its confrontation with Iran and that he would even meet secretly with Israeli officials regarding their purported evidence on Iran’s nuclear program, despite the fact that Israel is arguably the world’s preeminent rogue nuclear state and rejects IAEA inspections of its own nuclear sites. According to U.S. embassy cables from Vienna, Austria, the site of IAEA’s headquarters, American diplomats in 2009 were cheering the prospect that Amano would advance U.S. interests in ways that outgoing IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei wouldn’t. ..... In private, Amano agreed to “consultations” with the head of the Israeli Atomic Energy Commission, Pyatt reported. (It is ironic indeed that Amano would have secret contacts with Israeli officials about Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons program, which has yet to yield a single bomb, when Israel possesses a large and undeclared nuclear arsenal.) In a subsequent cable dated Oct. 16, 2009, the U.S. mission in Vienna said Amano “took pains to emphasize his support for U.S. strategic objectives for the Agency. Amano reminded ambassador [Glyn Davies] on several occasions that … he was solidly in the U.S. court on every key strategic decision, from high-level personnel appointments to the handling of Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons program. “More candidly, Amano noted the importance of maintaining a certain ‘constructive ambiguity’ about his plans, at least until he took over for DG ElBaradei in December” 2009. In other words, the emerging picture of Amano is of a bureaucrat eager to bend in directions favored by the United States and Israel, especially regarding Iran’s nuclear program. Amano’s behavior surely contrasts with how the more independent-minded ElBaradei resisted some of Bush’s key claims about Iraq’s supposed nuclear weapons program, denouncing some documents as forgeries. Today, with some Republican presidential contenders falling over themselves to bond with Israel over its desire to attack Iran, this sort of detail puts the IAEA report into a fuller context that can help American voters judge whether another war is necessary or whether they’re being misled again by hyped allegations. More at link...

DONATE YOUR OLD CELL PHONES TO T.J. MARTELL FOUNDATION Help save lives. Donate your old & used iPhone, Blackberries, Droid and other phones to help the T.J. Martell Foundations fund life-saving cancer & AIDS research. For more information, go to www.tjmartellfoundation.org

B R I C K T E E V E E

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

IRAQ: 4,484 US Military Dead as of Dec 31, 2011

AFGHANISTAN: 1,888 US Military Dead as of Jan 27, 2012

The Obameter: Tracking Obama's Campaign Promises

Considering Democracy: 8 Things to ask your Representative

This Week (ABC) anchor George Stephanopoulos

UPDATE: CNN reported today that renowned international correspondent Christiane Amanpour will be returning to CNN with a weekday program on its International network, while continuing at ABC News as a global affairs anchor. Former “This Week” host George Stephanopoulos will return to the program on 8 January, while continuing his role as an anchor for “Good Morning America”. FULL STORY

• Fact Checking ABC's "This Week" at NPR "On the Media" - Jake Tapper, interim host of ABC's "This Week," liked the idea of fact-checking his guests' comments, so he set up a partnership with Politifact, a non-partisan fact-checking organization. See Politifact Statements ABC News 'This Week'

• former House Speaker Newt Gingrich

• House Speaker John Boehner

• ROUNDTABLE: George Will, Democratic strategist Donna Brazile, former Obama economic adviser Austan Goolsbee, and radio host and Fox News contributor Laura Ingraham
Face The Nation (CBS) Host Bob Schiefer this Sunday: Live from Miami

• Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz

• Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus

• former Presidential Candidate, Republican Congresswoman Michele Bachmann

• Businessman Donald Trump

• Florida Congressmen Republican Allen West and Mario Diaz-Balart

• ROUNDTABLE: CBS News' Political Director John Dickerson, Real Clear Politics' Scott Conroy, Marc Caputo of the Miami Herald

• Florida native, humorist Dave Barry
60 Minutes (CBS) "60 Minutes Presents: Into the Wild," a special hour devoted to the natural world

• Defense Secretary Panetta - He's balanced the budget, run the CIA and eliminated Osama bin Laden. Now, Leon Panetta takes on another great challenge as U.S. Secretary of Defense, with massive responsibilities, including keeping Iran from producing a nuclear bomb. Scott Pelley reports. Henry Schuster is the producer.

• Big Game Hunting - The same kinds of exotic, sometimes endangered, species found in places like Africa can be hunted here in the U.S. for a price. The ranchers who breed them claim to be preserving them, a notion animal rights people strongly disagree with. Lara Logan reports. Max McClellan is the producer.
Meet the Press (NBC) Host David Gregory

• Meet the Facts at NPR "On the Media" - Last December, NYU professor Jay Rosen proposed something simple yet revolutionary: why don't the Sunday morning chat shows fact check their guests? After "Meet the Press" host David Gregory declined, two college students launched a website to do it for him. One of them, Chas Danner, explains what they're trying to accomplish. See their website MeetTheFacts.com updating soon!

• For Romney, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ)

• For Gingrich, Fmr. Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Law & Order)

• ROUNDTABLE: MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough, presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, & NBC News 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.

• Presidential Candidate and Texas Congressman Ron Paul

• Florida Governor Rick Scott

• Sen. Mitch McConnell

• debate with Carlos Gutierrez, a former Bush commerce secretary, and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, an Obama supporter
HEAD ON RADIO with Bob Kincaid

Headon Radio with Bob Kincaid 6 PM Eastern, 3 PM Pacific, 2300 GMT. Duration: 3 hrs. To be part of the conversation on Head-on Radio, call toll-free (877) 443-2366, or use our Liberal community line at 304-658-3333. Email: bob [at] headonradio [dot] com.

• PRAYER MEETIN' WEDNESDAY!!!!! Uber Pope-Imam-Rabbi Bob dissects one religious pundit's obsession with gay sex! Side-splitting great show! Don't miss it! And of course the rest of the H.O.R.N. family chimes in! Listen HERE (mp3) NOW

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' - January 26, 2012 IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Drill-Baby-Drill and Frack-Baby-Frack: Obama talks energy in his State of the Union address --- featuring actual clean energy! --- while climate denier Republicans double down on dirty energy; PLUS: Speaking the forbidden words --- out loud! ... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see link): Conoco profits jump 66%; 5 energy issues to watch for in tonight’s GOP debate in FL; WH pressured scientists to underestimate BP spill; State Dept: Don’t mess with us on Keystone; CO2 is “driving fish crazy”; NHTSA: 'Chevy Volt is safe'; Judge blocks health studies from mine permit; NASA animation charts modern global warming ... PLUS: Raiding the bread basket: use and abuse of the Mississippi River basin ... and much, MUCH more! ...

Visit BradBlog.com to see who counts yer votes! Reference yer background/research at Who's Counting? too.
The Peter B. Collins Show PODCAST!

Listen at PeterBCollins.com!

The Peter B. Collins Show covers American news and politics from the Left Coast. Veteran talk radio personality Peter B. Collins, based in San Francisco, delivers fresh interviews, commentary and analysis on a range of important topics, with views and voices you don’t often find in the corporate media.

• Holiday Break and Website Changes
Ring of Fire Radio

Find us at http://ringoffireradio.com and http://goleft.tv/ hosted by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Mike Papantonio and Sam Seder

Ring of Fire Radio - GoLeft TV - Robert F. Kennedy, Mike Papantonio, Sam Seder - Politics, Commentary, and News.

This Week on Ring of Fire! January 20, 2012

• MSNBC host and author Dylan Ratigan will join us to discuss his new book “Greedy Bastards.”

• University of Maryland professor and author Mark Feldstein will be joining us to talk about how muckraking journalists used to help expose political scandals, rather than helping to cover them up.

• 3rd Party presidential candidate Rocky Anderson will tell us why he’s challenging President Obama for the progressive vote in America.

• Mother Jones’ Andy Kroll will tell us about the dark money that’s influencing the GOP primary results.

• And George Washington University professor John Sides will tell us which candidates voters think will take care of the middle class the best.

• VIDEO! Papantonio: The New Right Wing Confederacy About the only consistent theme we’ve seen come from the pathetic crop of Republican presidential wanna-be’s is their eagerness to appeal to the most bigoted and racist members of their Republican Tea Party base. By attacking Muslims, African Americans, and basically anyone that isn’t a white Christian, GOP candidates like Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry are helping to further divide America with their hate. Mike Papantonio talks about how these candidates are creating a new confederacy with Theo Anderson, a contributor to In These Times magazine.

• VIDEO! Papantonio: Public Says Romney Only Cares for the Wealthy One of the biggest questions that voters will have to ask themselves this coming November is “who will take of my interests better.” The latest polls tell us that voters have already asked themselves that question, and the answer for most of the 99% is Obama. But for those in the top 1%, they overwhelmingly support Republicans like Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich. Mike Papantonio talks about how voters’ perceptions of who is the friendliest to Wall Street will play out this year with John Sides, political science professor and contributor to The American Prospect.

• Support Those Who Support Progressive Media! 2011 has certainly been a great year for Ring of Fire, and we’ve had some great sponsors that have helped support the show throughout the year. We wanted to take the time to personally thank each and every one of them, and we encourage all of our listeners to take the time to support those who have support us.

• Join our blog at www.ringoffireradio.com. You can now SUBSCRIBE TO OUR PODCAST by clicking on the “Podcast” tab at the top of the Ring of Fire blog. Please help support progressive radio by signing up!

Ring of Fire Radio Ring of Fire, hosted by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Mike Papantonio and Sam Seder: Saturdays at 3 o’clock Eastern, rebroadcasts 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!

• No Said the Elephant, a song from the Screaming Majority [01•23•12]

• Steve Kornacki on Mitt Romney's Meltdown, South Carolina & the Race Going Forward [01•23•12]

• Digby on All Things GOP [01•24•12]

• David Dayen on the State of the Union Address & NY AG Eric Schneiderman [01•25•12]

• Jeff Smith of the Occupy Wall Street Press Team on Recent Occupy Actions [01•25•12]

MORE Podcast Interviews at majorityreport.official.fm!
On the Edge with Max Keiser Podcasts and more @ MaxKeiser.com!

"HI Y'ALL! Tell the people! Tell the people!"

WHO IS MAX KEISER? Max Keiser is a financial expert, Prediction Markets analyst, inventor and filmmaker. He is the creator of the Hollywood Stock Exchange (HSX) the first Prediction Market. Max Keiser co-hosts “The Truth About Markets” on ResonanceFM 104.4 in London. He also produces and presents documentary films covering markets and finance for Al Jazeera’s “People & Power” series. Max Keiser started his career on Wall Street in 1983. He is the creator of KarmaBanque a site that enables activists to challenge corporate power.

• VISIT PirateMyFilm.com!!! Crowd Funding for Pirates!

• NEW! MaxKeiserTV on YouTube! MaxKeiserTV PLUS here is Max Keiser’s official Facebook page And here is the official Keiser Report page

• Jamie Dimon to MF Global clients: “Let them eat shit.” READ MF Global Clients May Lose in $700M Fight (bloomberg)

• Gold/Silver Vigilante No. 1 Throws Down! See Eric King interviews Eric Sprott – Extremely important interview and listen to the mp3

• KEISER REPORT [KR240] Keiser Report – Dangerous Species of Bankers

• KEISER REPORT [KR241] Keiser Report – Kill Hollywood! We discuss discuss killing Hollywood, poor Chris Dodd and how Mubarak’s fall brought about the assault on the internet. In the second half of the show, Max interviews Mike Ruppert about SOPA, the NDAA and Iranian oil.

• ON THE EDGE [OTE141] On the Edge with Gonzalo Lira Great interview with Gonzalo Lira. The UK government did NOT want you to see this.

• THE TRUTH ABOUT MARKETS [TaM-1231] The Truth About Markets! 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

• Roy Gutman January 12, 2012: Roy Gutman, Baghdad Bureau Chief for McClatchy Newspapers, discusses the bureaucratic hindrances to the MEK’s move out of Camp Ashraf in Iraq; how individual asylum cases will essentially force the MEK to disband (as no country is willing to accept the whole group); Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki’s efforts to consolidate power in the splintered and unworkable Iraqi government system; the many Iraqi politicians with huge security forces that also function as hit squads against rivals; why Iraq’s political outcome is critical to the region, world oil market and Western world; how Iran, Saudi Arabia and Turkey are jockeying for position in the “up for grabs” countries of Syria and Iraq; why US intervention in the Middle East is necessary to protect oil resources and fill the security vacuum; and the merits of US interventionism in general, from Iraq to Afghanistan.

• Pepe Escobar January 24, 2012: Globetrotting journalist Pepe Escobar discusses his article “Sinking the Petrodollar in the Persian Gulf ;” the increasingly divergent US and Israeli “red lines” on Iran’s nuclear program; proposed pipelines that would route oil around the Persian Gulf, marginalizing Iran’s ability to shut the Strait of Hormuz; how sanctions on Iran have lessened the US dollar’s dominance in global oil trading transactions; and the civil strife in Syria, where the opposition is no more credible than the reigning minority Assad regime.

• The Other Scott Horton January 24, 2012: The Other Scott Horton (no relation), international human rights lawyer and contributing editor at Harper’s magazine, discusses his article “Spanish Court Resumes Gitmo Prosecution;” the many other foreign courts, frustrated with the US’s refusal to act, restarting their own torture prosecutions; uncertainty of how high up the chain of command indictments will go, and whether the White House OLC lawyers enabling torture will be targeted; how WikiLeaks got the ball rolling again by exposing high-level US efforts to squash previous Spanish investigations of American political and military figures; the US’s repudiation of international law and universal jurisdiction, after helping establish them after WWII; and Ron Paul’s effort to repeal the NDAA’s indefinite detention provision.

Many more interviews at Antiwar Radio!
fauxnews

• Presidential Candidate Gnewt "Contract with Israel" Gingrich

• Congressman Paul Ryan, Chairman of the House Budget Committee

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

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We're here because you're there. ©

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Sunday, January 22, 2012

Brick TeeVee and the SOPA PIPA Internet Blackout!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

ALL LINKS OPEN A NEW WINDOW!!!
Click on anything below and be INSTANTLY SMARTER!
SOPA PIPA INTERNET BLACKOUT
Picking up on our post from two weeks ago Jonathan Turley codifies 10 reasons the U.S. is no longer the land of the free ... While each new national security power Washington has embraced was controversial when enacted, they are often discussed in isolation. But they don’t operate in isolation. They form a mosaic of powers under which our country could be considered, at least in part, authoritarian. Americans often proclaim our nation as a symbol of freedom to the world while dismissing nations such as Cuba and China as categorically unfree. Yet, objectively, we may be only half right. Those countries do lack basic individual rights such as due process, placing them outside any reasonable definition of “free,” but the United States now has much more in common with such regimes than anyone may like to admit. These countries also have constitutions that purport to guarantee freedoms and rights. But their governments have broad discretion in denying those rights and few real avenues for challenges by citizens — precisely the problem with the new laws in this country. The list of powers acquired by the U.S. government since 9/11 puts us in rather troubling company. ... If you haven't yet committed all ten to memory already then click over! There will be a test later! Next Senator Carl Levin thought he was pulling a fast one and sent out a letter saying Turley was all wrong about indefinite detention of U.S. citizens in the NDAA! Turley quickly calls "Bullshit!" on Levin Indefinite Detention of Citizens: A Response To Senator Carl Levin

Is the Senator familiar with the fact that it was the administration which asked us to remove the very language which we had in the bill which passed the committee, and that we removed it at the request of the administration that this determination would not apply to U.S. citizens and lawful residents? Is the Senator familiar with the fact that it was the administration which asked us to remove the very language, the absence of which is now objected to by the Senator from Illinois?

“The provisions on detention of terror suspects in the bill got more attention than all these other important priorities. The criticism of these provisions has usually been wildly inaccurate; if the bill did what some of its critics claim, I would have led the opposition. . . . It does not prohibit civilian trials for terror suspects. It does not strip the FBI and other civilian law enforcement agencies of their authority. It does not allow the military to make arrests on U.S. soil. It does not enact new authority to hold U.S. citizens without trial or charge. It does not provide for indefinite detention of citizens without access to civilian courts.”

First they came for the communists, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a communist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak out because I was Protestant. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me.

While people appear ready to protest over taxes against “big government,” some of the people often seem to remain silent in the face of the very abuses that the Framers sought to combat from indefinite detention to warrantless searches to assassination.

Now author, journalist and activist Chris Hedges has sued Obama over the NDAA Why I’m Suing Barack Obama Attorneys Carl J. Mayer and Bruce I. Afran filed a complaint Friday in the Southern U.S. District Court in New York City on my behalf as a plaintiff against Barack Obama and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta to challenge the legality of the Authorization for Use of Military Force as embedded in the latest version of the National Defense Authorization Act, signed by the president Dec. 31. ... I have had dinner more times than I can count with people whom this country brands as terrorists. But that does not make me one.
Once a group is deemed to be a terrorist organization, whether it is a Palestinian charity or an element of the Uighur independence movement, the military can under this bill pick up a U.S. citizen who supported charities associated with the group or unwittingly sent money or medical supplies to front groups. We have already seen the persecution and closure of Islamic charity organizations in the United States that supported the Palestinians. Now the members of these organizations can be treated like card-carrying “terrorists” and sent to Guantanamo.
But I suspect the real purpose of this bill is to thwart internal, domestic movements that threaten the corporate state. The definition of a terrorist is already so amorphous under the Patriot Act that there are probably a few million Americans who qualify to be investigated if not locked up. Consider the arcane criteria that can make you a suspect in our new military-corporate state. The Department of Justice considers you worth investigating if you are missing a few fingers, if you have weatherproof ammunition, if you own guns or if you have hoarded more than seven days of food in your house. Adding a few of the obstructionist tactics of the Occupy movement to this list would be a seamless process. On the whim of the military, a suspected “terrorist” who also happens to be a U.S. citizen can suffer extraordinary rendition—being kidnapped and then left to rot in one of our black sites “until the end of hostilities.” Since this is an endless war that will be a very long stay.
This demented “war on terror” is as undefined and vague as such a conflict is in any totalitarian state. Dissent is increasingly equated in this country with treason. Enemies supposedly lurk in every organization that does not chant the patriotic mantras provided to it by the state. And this bill feeds a mounting state paranoia. It expands our permanent war to every spot on the globe. It erases fundamental constitutional liberties. It means we can no longer use the word “democracy” to describe our political system.
The supine and gutless Democratic Party, which would have feigned outrage if George W. Bush had put this into law, appears willing, once again, to grant Obama a pass. But I won’t. ... Please go to TruthDig.com to read the rest for yourself plus the entire Text of Hedges’ Legal Complaint (Updated) & the NDAA Official Text that Professor Turley has dissected. Listen to Peter B Collins interview Attorney Carl Mayer Talks About Chris Hedges’ Suit Against Obama; Journalist Jason Leopold Exposes FBI “Blackballing” of FOIA Requests for more background and analysis. In a related story Yves Smith at nakedcapitalism explains how the Ron Paul Debate Flushes Out Gender-Baiting Right Wing Opportunists Masquerading as Progressives ... The gender card is similarly played shamelessly and with remarkable hypocrisy by Megan Carpentier in the Guardian on the Greenwald post: [...] Greenwald’s position on Paul is so blatantly distorted by Carpentier as to render her article worthy of retraction (see Greenwald’s objection for details) but her dissimulation is more important than her hatchet job. ... Who is Megan Carpentier? She’s currently the executive editor at Raw Story. And reading her salvo at Greenwald, most readers would assume she’s a progressive. She’s hectoring Greenwald from a presumed leftist position. In fact, Carpentier is no such thing. She is a conservative opportunist using her feminist fundamentalism as a cover. She was a lobbyist for seven year and wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post which is noteworthy for trying to improve the public image of lobbyists by stating that they weren’t obscenely well paid, that they really were interested in politics, and that they provide helpful research to Congressional staffers. But Carpentier is less than forthcoming about her history and her ideological leanings. Her last gig as a lobbyist was for the Tax Foundation, which was an early anti-New Deal outfit founded in 1937 by reactionary oligarchs like GM Chairman Alfred Sloan. It was “financially troubled” when the Koch brothers purchased its name and other assets and made it a unit of their’ “Citizens for a Sound Economy” (CSE in 2004 split into Americans For Prosperity and FreedomWorks). The Tax Foundation newsletter that announced she had joined touts her “extensive experience in promoting sound economic and tax policies to Congress and state legislatures.” In other words, she is a loyal and effective foot soldier for the right. ... It’s disingenuous for Carpentier to cavil about white male privilege and the need for women to have rights to abortions, when those rights are less meaningful if you can’t afford to exercise them. Soi disant feminists like Carpentier are missing in action when it comes to defending their supposed sisters on economic issues, most importantly, labor rights.
Now your might claim I’m being unfair, that Carpentier had a Pauline (pun intended) conversion from her former faith. Why is there no mention of her Koch connection?. Why hasn’t she done a David Brock mea culpa? Rather than proudly put forward why she had changed her views (which is what you’d expect if they really had changed) has she instead tried to downplay the power of lobbyists? Why, when the influence of the Koch brothers were one of the biggest progressive story of the past 3 years, has she had NOTHING to say about her time working for one of their key outfits? .... So here we have it: Carpentier, a closet libertarian, falsely depicting “progressive” support of Ron Paul as a symbol of white male bigotry and distorting Greenwald’s nuanced discussion of Ron Paul as an endorsement to create a brouhaha, apparently to cover her own tracks. With Quislings like this, the progressives don’t need enemies. So keep THAT in mind when going to Raw Story.
Wednesday's internet blackout in response to SOPA/PIPA was widespread. Here is wikipedia's explanation on their English Wikipedia anti-SOPA blackout TechDirt.com has A Gallery Of The SOPA Blackout Protest Screens by Dennis Yang from the mr-smith-takes-over-the-internet dept.
TechDirt's Mike Masnick lays out some facts in
An Updated Analysis: Why SOPA & PIPA Are A Bad Idea, Dangerous & Unnecessary from the enough-of-the-bull dept. ... So, let's look at the facts. PIPA & SOPA are (now) very similar bills, both with significant problems. In fact, the remaining "differences" in the bills each have serious problems , which is why neither bill is a "better" bill, since both are terrible. The claimed purpose behind these bills is to give both law enforcement and private individuals/companies tools to go after "foreign" websites that are offering infringing (either copyright or trademark) content. The bills offer two ways to do this: via the Attorney General taking action against the sites, or via a "private right of action," in which copyright or trademark holders take direct action themselves against a site they believe is dedicated to infringement. ... ... The "only impacts foreign sites" claim is also a red herring. It's a favorite of the pro-PIPA/SOPA folks, but it's a lie. While the current bill targets foreign sites, all of the remedies and enforcement require compliance by domestic sites. That's costly. I recognize that policy analysts, lawyers, lobbyists and politicians who have never actually run a business think this stuff is simple, but for those of us who actually run companies, this is terrifying. We now have to worry about staying in compliance with a broad law that's almost impossible to comply with in any realistic manner. In our debate yesterday, the US Chamber of Commerce's Steve Tepp insisted that there was "no liability" for any domestic site. This is ridiculous. What he meant was no direct monetary liability. Leave it to an out of touch policy guy to think that it's only a liability if there's the potential to cost you money in court. The liability is in the possibility of being dragged to court over this. It's in the possibility of facing additional punishment/sanctions for failing to obey an impossible-to-obey court order to cut off certain users. That is a tremendous liability. There are additional provisions that are troubling, including SOPA's inclusion of "felony streaming" provisions, that could lead to jail time for those who lip synch over songs and put that up in a YouTube video, or those who embed infringing YouTube videos on their own site. PIPA does not have that directly, but there is a companion bill in the Senate that has similar things. So why, specifically, are these two bills so bad: Read the rest and BE INFORMED! Tell yer friends and pass it on! Great stuff at TechDirt! Troll around there and find more great stories! Of course "anonymous" could not stand by idly as TechDirt's Mike Masnick also reports
The Internet Strikes Back: Anonymous Takes Down DOJ.gov, RIAA, MPAA Sites To Protest Megaupload Seizure from the doj-does-not-understand-what-has-been-unleashed dept I'll have a more detailed look at the Megaupload indictment tomorrow (there are some really ridiculous claims in there, but also some evidence of bad actions on the part of Mega, which isn't too surprising). However, even if you're 100% positive that Megaupload was a bad player in the space, you have to question both the timing and the process of completely taking down the site/company the day after practically the entire internet rose up to protest the threat of similar takedowns under SOPA/PIPA. For them not to think the reaction would be fast and furious shows (yet again) just how incredibly, ridiculously, out of touch with the internet the DC establishment is. Within minutes of the site being shut down, and DOJ releasing its statement, Anonymous sprang into action and started taking down a ton of sites -- including websites for the DOJ, the US Copyright Office, Universal Music, the RIAA, the MPAA and a bunch of other sites. They're apparently still targeting more.... But Wait! There's more! From RT Anonymous downs government, music industry sites in largest attack ever ... Only hours before the DoJ and Universal sites went down, news broke that Megaupload, a massive file sharing site with a reported 50 million daily users, was taken down by federal agents . Four people linked to Megaupload were arrested in New Zealand and an international crackdown led agents to serving at least 20 search warrants across the globe. The latest of sites to fall is FBI.gov, which finally broke at around 7:40 pm EST Thursday evening. Less than an hour after the DoJ and Universal sites came down, the website for the RIAA, or Recording Industry Association of America, went offline as well. Shortly before 6 p.m EST, the government's Copyright.gov site went down as well. Thirty minutes later came the site for BMI, or Broadcast Music, Inc, the licensing organization that represents some of the biggest names in music. Also on Thursday, MPAA.org returned an error as Anonymous hacktivists managed to bring down the website for the Motion Picture Association of America. The group, headed by former senator Chris Dodd, is an adamant supporter of both PIPA and SOPA legislation. ... [Anonymous operative Barrett Brown tells RT on Thursday afternoon and] adds that “more is coming” and Anonymous-aligned hacktivists are pursuing a joint effort with others to “damage campaign raising abilities of remaining Democrats who support SOPA.” As a side note the main sponsor of SOPA had an image on his OWN WEBSITE that he copped from Creative Commons but NEVER gave credit to the photographer! And just to show how much these politicians are only water boys for big industry and have no clue what's in the lobbiest-written legislation they try to pass The Author of SOPA Is a Copyright Violator sez Vice.com's Jamie Lee Curtis Taete US Congressman and poor-toupee-color-chooser Lamar Smith is the guy who authored the Stop Online Piracy Act. ....So I took a look back at an archived, pre-SOPA version of his site. This is a screenshot of his site as it appeared on the 24th of July, 2011. [pic] And this is the background image Lamar was using. I managed to track that picture back to DJ Schulte, the photographer who took it. [pic] I contacted DJ, to find out if Lamar had asked permission to use the image and he told me that he had no record of Lamar, or anyone from his organization, requesting permission to use it: "I switched my images from traditional copyright protection to be protected under the Creative Commons license a few years ago, which simply states that they can use my images as long as they attribute the image to me and do not use it for commercial purposes. "I do not see anywhere on the screen capture that you have provided that the image was attributed to the source (me). So my conclusion would be that Lamar Smith's organization did improperly use my image. So according to the SOPA bill, should it pass, maybe I could petition the court to take action against www.texansforlamarsmith.com." ... We need your help! Join our "Shop a SOPA" Copyright Hypocrite Hunt and help us find copyright violations on the other 31 SOPA co-sponsors' websites. Much more SOPA coverage with Max Keiser on [TaM-1231] The Truth About Markets!, Sam Seder Garlin Gilchrist of MoveOn on the SOPA / PIPA Internet Blackout [01•18•12] and Jon Fox on HeadOnRadio (mp3). In a related issue General Dynamics has been hired to "monitor" websites. We go to Washingtonsblog for details
Homeland Security Shreds Constitutional Right to Anonymous Political Speech – Not to Protect Our Security – But to Monitor Dissent ... Gene Howington provides details in a must-read essay: Do you have a right to anonymous political free speech?
According to the Supreme Court, you do. According to the Department of Homeland Security, you don’t. They’ve hired General Dynamics to track U.S. citizens exercising this critical civil right. The history of anonymous political free speech in America dates back to our founding. The seminal essays found in “The Federalist Papers” were written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay under the nom de plume of “Publius” although this was not confirmed until a list of authorship complied by Hamilton was posthumously released to the public. As previously discussed on this blog, the right to anonymous political free speech has been addressed by the Supreme Court. Most notably in the cases of Talley v. California, 362 U.S. 60 (1960) and McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Commission, 514 U.S. 334 (1995). In Talley, Justice Hugo Black writing for the majority said that, “Anonymous pamphlets, leaflets, brochures and even books have played an important role in the progress of mankind. Persecuted groups and sects from time to time throughout history have been able to criticize oppressive practices and laws either anonymously or not at all.” In McIntyre, Justice John Paul Stevens writing for the majority said that, “Anonymity is a shield from the tyranny of the majority. [… ] an author’s decision to remain anonymous, like other decisions concerning omissions or additions to the content of a publication, is an aspect of the freedom of speech protected by the First Amendment.” That seems clear enough in defining that citizens do have a Constitutionally protected right to anonymous political free speech. .... This question about the right to anonymous political free speech is also asked over the background of the Electronic Privacy Information Center filing a FOIA request against the DHS to find out the details of the agency’s social network monitoring program. ... As part of recent disclosures related to the EPIC suit, it is revealed that the DHS has hired and instructed General Dynamics to monitor political dissent and the dissenters. The range of websites listed as being monitored is quite impressive. Notably, jonathanturley.org is not on this list [Howington's essay is a guest blog on constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley's website], but equally of note is that this list is by the DHS’ own admission “representative” and not “comprehensive”. ... Some of the more high profile and highly trafficked sites being monitored include the comments sections of The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, the Huffington Post, the Drudge Report, Wired, and ABC News. In addition, social networking sites Facebook, MySpace and Twitter are being monitored. For the first time, the public not only has an idea who the DHS is pursuing with their surveillance and where, but what they are looking for as well. General Dynamics contract requires them to “[identify] media reports that reflect adversely on the U.S. Government, DHS, or prevent, protect, respond government activities.” The DHS also instructed General Dynamics to generate “reports on DHS, Components, and other Federal Agencies: positive and negative reports on FEMA, CIA, CBP, ICE, etc. as well as organizations outside the DHS.” In other words, the DHS wants to know who you are if you say anything critical about the government. Anybody thinking of the name “Goebbels” at this point is not out of line. This has nothing at all to do with keeping us safe:

BEFORE 9/11

start monitoring all criticism against it

using anti-terror laws to crush dissent

Protest is considered low-level terrorism, as is questioning war, asking questions about pollution or about Wall Street shenanigans, supporting Ron Paul, being a libertarian, holding gold

stocking up on more than 7 days of food

investigating factory farming

can get your harassed

a nation of powerful men arbitrarily making laws in secret

protect their power

Calling the GOP's bluff to decide on the Keystone XL Pipeline's fate by February 21 Obama puts Keystone pipeline on hold, decries 'rushed and arbitrary' deadline Mark Gaurino at csmonitor.com President Obama announced Wednesday he is putting the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline expansion project on hold, saying a decision can’t be made by the February deadline imposed by Congress. While environmental groups cheered the news, the setback is temporary and the pipeline operator says it will resubmit plans to have the pipeline running in 2014. ... Republicans in Congress, in return for their support for an extension of the payroll tax holiday, forced the new Feb. 21 deadline, a date that Mr. Obama on Wednesday called “rushed and arbitrary.” His statement stressed the decision was not a ruling on the merits of the pipeline, but on the action of Congress, which he said, “prevented the State Department from gathering the information necessary to approve the project and protect the American people.” “I’m disappointed that Republicans in Congress forced this decision, but it does not change my administration’s commitment to American-made energy that creates jobs and reduces our dependence on oil,” he said. .... The Keystone XL project is far from resolved, as TransCanada is allowed to resubmit its permitting application, which the company says it will have ready by September or October.
Following Obama’s decision, the company announced it will work with the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality to determine a possible new route to avoid running the pipeline over portions of the Ogallala Aquifer, a major source of fresh water for drinking and agriculture that runs under several states in the US heartland. ... Bill McGibbon of 350.org then sent this email to 350.org supporters in the United States and Canada
Big News: Obama rejects Keystone XL - but we can't stop here. We wanted to share with you the news: this afternoon the Obama Administration announced that they are denying the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline. You did good work, against some of the longest possible odds. ... For years, the knock on the President Obama was that he backed down too easily in the face of opposition. Not here. When Republicans in Congress forced the issue again by passing a 60-day time limit on the President's final decision, he stood strong and denied the permit. And that was despite the most explicit threats from Big Oil: that they would exact ‘huge political consequences’ if he did the right thing on Keystone. Make no mistake—this is a brave decision.
And make no mistake about this either—Big Oil will do everything it can to overturn that decision, because they are not used to losing. They have one weapon—money. They’ve used it to buy the allegiance of many Representatives and Senators and now they’ll use Congress to try and get their dirty work done. That’s what happened when the President delayed the permit last November, and we should expect them to try again now.
That’s why we’re going to Congress and Big Oil, beginning next Tuesday the 24th. If you can join us, we’re meeting at noon on the West Lawn, and you should wear a referee’s shirt. We’re going to ‘blow the whistle’ on the corruption that passes for business as usual on Capitol Hill, where people take money from companies whose interests they vote on. Check your email for the rest and check our BTV ACTION for more details. Of course the right wing and the corporate extraction industries' "spokespeople" are HOWLING, calling Obama a "job killer" and worse. However it's all kabuki theater!
David Sirota at Salon explains The real beneficiaries of energy subsidies Don't buy the GOP's claims. Oil companies, not green alternatives, are making a killing from the government Listen to the typical conservative rhetoric about energy being thrown around on talk radio or in Republican presidential debates, and you’re likely to hear that our government primarily uses its regulatory and financial power to create a destructive green energy boondoggle — one that enriches a few politically connected Solyndra executives, appeases a bunch of wild-eyed tree huggers, but hides the fact that renewables supposedly can’t stand on their own in the private sector.
In the face of catastrophic climate change and dwindling fossil fuel resources, this cartoonish narrative has gained traction because it invokes the moment’s most powerful political metonyms, from implicit allegations of crony capitalism to hippie-themed epithets about environmentalists to “free market” fundamentalism. The underlying idea — which will only be more amplified in the wake of the Obama administration’s pipeline decision Wednesday — is that fossil fuels are being persecuted by the American government.
But the reality, of course, is something wholly different. Indeed, this mythology is a perfect example of Orwellian Newspeak in which the reverse of the rhetoric is true. As recent news highlights, the government is doing exactly the opposite of what conservatives say: It is aggressively favoring the fossil fuel industry in ways that give that industry a special economic advantage over clean energy. .... According to data compiled by the Environmental Law Institute, the United States is a big contributor to this global subsidy imbalance, “provid(ing) substantially larger subsidies to fossil fuels than to renewables.” In practice, some of the biggest of those U.S. subsidies come in the form of special tax breaks for oil and gas development , and in direct taxpayer funding of multinational corporations’ foreign mining projects (yes, you read that right — your tax dollars go to fund fossil fuel development overseas). Notably, the latter subsidies champion some of the most environmentally hazardous practices in operation such as “fracking” — a practice that our own Environmental Protection Agency has found in two separate reports to be a major potential threat to groundwater....... it all adds up to a government that is far more committed to toxic and finite sources of energy than to clean and renewable sources of energy. You may not hear that from either party’s presidential candidates or media defenders — but the facts are quite clear, even if they are inconvenient. Does it have to be this way? We go to Scotland and Brian Merchant Scotland Guns for 100% Renewable Energy by 2020 treehugger.com In 2010, Alex Salmond, the First Minister of Scotland, announced that his government was aiming to power all of Scotland with 100% renewable energy by 2025. Just a few months later, they kicked it up a notch or five: Scotland would seek to run entirely on renewable power by 2020. Most of that would come from ambitious onshore and offshore wind farms, as well as some smaller wave and tidal power projects—and there are 7 GW of such clean energy projects already completed or underway. By the end of 2011, it looked as if all was going to plan, despite the requisite naysaying from skeptics. Here's Triple Pundit on Scotland's progress thus far: [...] "The costs of offshore wind will have to be reduced by 20% to be competitive," [Alex Salmond] said at a press conference today. Efforts to analyze and improve the supply chain will be a top priority, as will examining transmission challenges inherent in efficiently transporting electricity over long distances. Salmond repeatedly emphasized the need to commercialize offshore wind to make the technology available for wider deployment (and granting Scotland a foothold in one of the next generation's most promising industries).... So where is the U.S. and its "can-do" attitude? Stuck in the morass of "drill baby drill" anywhere and everywhere (Shell’s Arctic Drilling Plan Clears Hurdle nyt), fracking (Confirmed: Fracking caused Ohio earthquakes rt.com), blowing up more Appalachian mountains (Alpha fights to block health studies from permit lawsuit wvgazette) and fighting more wars for natural resources. Global climate change is a non-starter in the "conventional wisdom" of the DC Bubalas. How many more oil spills, earthquakes and wars will it take? Grrrrr. On a happier note Our Man in Wisconsin John Nichols of The Nation reports A Million Wisconsinites Petition to Recall Scott Walker Petitions with the names of 1 million Wisconsinites were submitted to state elections officials today, in a move that will jump-start the process of removing the nation’s most notorious antilabor governor from office. A total of 540,208 valid signatures are required to recall Scott Walker, the Republican governor, who was elected in 2010. On Tuesday afternoon, the United Wisconsin movement that was organized to recall and remove the governor submitted almost twice that number. The people have spoken loud and clear and we are ready to put an early end to Governor Walker’s reign," announced Wisconsin AFL-CIO President Phil Neuenfeldt. In addition to the 1 million signatures seeking Walker's recall, petitions with 845,000 signatures were submitted to force the recall of Republican Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch. Petitions were also filed to recall four Republican state senators: erry Moulton in northwest Wisconsin, Pam Galloway in north-central Wisconsin, Van Wangaard in southeast Wisconsin and Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, Walker's legislative point man in the struggle last year over the governor's move last year to strip collective bargaining rights from state, county and municipal employees and teachers. If just one of the four senators is recalled and removed, control of the chamber will shift from the Republicans to the Democrats—who picked up two seats in recall elections last summer. In all, close to 2 million signatures were submitted Tuesday, building the historic in-the-streets popular uprising that rocked Wisconsin in 2012 into a electoral uprising that has the potential to rock the politics not just of the state but of the nation in 2012. The movement to oust Walker will have secured the support of a higher percentage of eligible voters than has ever before sought to recall an American governor. No other gubernatorial recall drive in American history has gathered the signatures of so large a proportion of the electorate. .... But most indications are that the challenges raised by Walker and his agents will be acts of political theater and strategy, rather a serious threat to the recall process. That is because these petitions were not be casually submitted; they have been meticulously collected, reviewed and prepared for submission by 25,000 volunteers with the United Wisconsin movement . While some signatures will undoubtedly be disqualified in the review process, and by the Walker team’s challenges, even Republican election observers quietly acknowledge that the petitions are likely to pass muster. .... The Wisconsin democracy movement is real. And Scott Walker should be afraid, very afraid, of the opposition he has unleashed in a state where it is now clear that the people are prepared to defend their rights, and their future. ON WISCONSIN! Listen to John Nichols on Ring of Fire Radio for more info.

We end today saying good-bye to blues singer Etta James. She will be missed by many.

R.I.P. Etta James (born Jamesetta Hawkins)
EttaJames

January 25, 1938 – January 20, 2012

»»» William Hartung @ Democracy NOW! Drones, Asia and Cyber War: Pentagon Shifts Priorities in New Review; Budget Still Exceeds Bush Era Jan 9, 2012

»»» Colin Goddard, a survivor of the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre @ Democracy NOW! As Arizona Remembers Tucson Shooting, Virginia Tech Massacre Survivor Calls for New Gun Control Jan 9, 2012

»»» Guantánamo Bay Prison’s 10th Anniversary @ Democracy NOW! Guantánamo Detainees Launch Hunger Strike to Protest Prison’s 10th Anniversary AND Guantánamo Exclusive: Former Chief Prosecutor, Ex-Prisoner Call on Obama to Close Prison PLUS NDAA: Obama Signs Law Restricting Transfer of Guantánamo Prisoners and Expands Indefinite Detention Jan 10, 2012

»»» Dale Kuehne, Arnie Arnesen, Arnie Alpert @ Democracy NOW! Rivals’ Attacks on Romney’s Corporate Record Display Occupy Wall Street’s Wide Reach RELATED: How New Hampshire Became Last U.S. State to Recognize MLK Day Holiday Jan 11, 2012

»»» Michael Copps WATCH NOW Ex-FCC Commissioner Michael Copps on Media Consolidation, Broadband Expansion, Threats to Journalism Jan 12, 2012

»»» Trita Parsi, founder and president of the National Iranian American Council @ Democracy NOW! A Path to War? Assassination of Iran Nuclear Scientist, New Sanctions Strain U.S.-Iran Relations Jan 12, 2012

»»» Randall Robinson, founder and past president of TransAfrica @ Democracy NOW! 2 Years After Devastating Earthquake, Haiti’s Rebuilding Weighed Down by Legacy of Foreign Meddling Jan 13, 2012

»»» Michelle Alexander & Randall Robinson @ Democracy NOW! WATCH NOW On Eve of MLK Day, Michelle Alexander & Randall Robinson on the Mass Incarceration of Black America Jan 13, 2012

GRITtv

»»» GRITtv @ www.grittv.org with Laura Flanders

»»» FEATURED SHOW This Video is Absurd as Corporate Personhood What will it take to overturn the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United? Perhaps a viral video! Here is “It’s Viral,” with The Nation’s own Katrina vanden Heuvel, Jim Hightower and more. Exec produced by the We the People Campaign. Think it’ll work? And while you're thinking, repost! For more on citizens' opposition to Citizen's United, read the full post at TheNation.com .

BRICK TEEVEE SPORT!_©

»»» NFL Conference Championship Ravens @ Patriots 3 pm et & Giants @ 49ers 6:30 pm et on Sunday!

»»» NBA on TNT! Double-header Thursday! Celtics @ Magic 8 pm et then Grizzlies @ Clippers 10:30 pm et

BRICK TEEVEE ACTION!_©

360.org January 24 2012 in Washington D.C. Blow the Whistle on Big Oil Corruption On Tuesday January 24th, we going to Washington DC to blow the whistle on Big Oil corruption in Congress. We'll be gathering at the Capitol dressed in referee uniforms (yep, stripes and all), and then heading to the American Petroleum Institute - Big Oil's top lobby - to do the same. It will be unavoidable, very visible, and just disruptive enough to absolutely get the attention of the oil industry's representatives in Congress and put them on notice that the era of big oil corruption will soon be coming to an end.
UPDATE: We're still working out the exact meeting place and a few other details, but here are the key things you need to know:
What: Blowing the Whistle on Big Oil Corruption in Congress
When: Tuesday January 24th, 12 Noon
Where: West Lawn, US Capitol Building, Washington DC

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:

B R I C K T E E V E E

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

IRAQ: 4,484 US Military Dead as of Dec 31, 2011

AFGHANISTAN: 1,886 US Military Dead as of Jan 20, 2012

The Obameter: Tracking Obama's Campaign Promises

Considering Democracy: 8 Things to ask your Representative

This Week (ABC) anchor George Stephanopoulos

UPDATE: CNN reported today that renowned international correspondent Christiane Amanpour will be returning to CNN with a weekday program on its International network, while continuing at ABC News as a global affairs anchor. Former “This Week” host George Stephanopoulos will return to the program on 8 January, while continuing his role as an anchor for “Good Morning America”. FULL STORY

• Fact Checking ABC's "This Week" at NPR "On the Media" - Jake Tapper, interim host of ABC's "This Week," liked the idea of fact-checking his guests' comments, so he set up a partnership with Politifact, a non-partisan fact-checking organization. See Politifact Statements ABC News 'This Week'

• former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum

• ROUNDTABLE: GeoGeorge Will, political strategist and ABC News analyst Matthew Dowd, National Journal's Ron Brownstein, and The Nation's Katrina vanden Heuvel
Face The Nation (CBS) Host Bob Schiefer

• Gov. Haley Barbour (R-Miss.)

• Sen. Lindsey Graham (D-S.C.)

• ROUNDTABLE: CBS News political director John Dickerson, TIME Magazine's Joe Klein and The Wall Street Journal's Kelly Evans.
60 Minutes (CBS) "60 Minutes Presents: Into the Wild," a special hour devoted to the natural world

• The Great Migration - Scott Pelley visits Kenya, the site of the great wildebeest migration, and looks at the threats to this natural spectacle comprised of over a million animals. Henry Schuster and Rebecca Peterson are the producers.

• Qatar -The tiny and prosperous Middle Eastern country with no income taxes and free health care is an island of calm in a sea of unrest as neighbors like Syria, Egypt and Bahrain experience social upheaval. Bob Simon reports. Harry Radliffe is the producer.

• The Secret Language of Elephants -Researchers listening to elephant sounds and observing their behavior are compiling an elephant dictionary. Bob Simon goes to Central Africa to listen to the language of the forest elephants first hand. Harry Radliffe is the producer.

• Jane Goodall -Jane Goodall brings Lara Logan and 60 MINUTES cameras back to the forests of Tanzania, where she began her love affair with chimpanzees 50 years ago, to remind the public that chimps are endangered. Max McClellan is the producer.
Meet the Press (NBC) Host David Gregory

• Meet the Facts at NPR "On the Media" - Last December, NYU professor Jay Rosen proposed something simple yet revolutionary: why don't the Sunday morning chat shows fact check their guests? After "Meet the Press" host David Gregory declined, two college students launched a website to do it for him. One of them, Chas Danner, explains what they're trying to accomplish. See their website MeetTheFacts.com updating soon!

• Romney Supporter Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ)

• GOP Hopeful Newt Gingrich

• ROUNDTABLE: Joe Scarborough, Republican strategist Mike Murphy, the BBC’s Katty Kay, and NBC News 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.

• Rick Santorum

• Newt Gingrich

• Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC)

• House Assistant Democratic Leader James Clyburn (D-SC)

• Reverend Brad Atkins, president South Carolina Baptist Convention
HEAD ON RADIO with Bob Kincaid

Headon Radio with Bob Kincaid 6 PM Eastern, 3 PM Pacific, 2300 GMT. Duration: 3 hrs. To be part of the conversation on Head-on Radio, call toll-free (877) 443-2366, or use our Liberal community line at 304-658-3333. Email: bob [at] headonradio [dot] com.

• PRAYER MEETIN' WEDNESDAY!!!!! Jon Fox Hosting! TOPIC: The SOPA/PIPA Internet Blackout. Great show! Listen HERE (mp3) NOW

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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' - January 19, 2012 IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: White House wins GOP Keystone XL pipeline game - for now; Perry's Texas tough-guy talk on EPA fails; Snowmageddon in Seattle; Snow No-show in California; PLUS: Climate change, now with slightly less apocalypse! ... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see link): TX to unlock secrets of fracking; 'No evidence' that Wind Turbine Syndrome exists; Bush speechwriter slams 'culture war' over climate change; Should we only have rules coal lobbyists agree to?; Bat deaths a catastrophe in the making; New mileage standards save money immediately; Coral reef disease hits Hawaii; Breakthrough material 'eats' CO2 in the air ... PLUS: 5 myths about the Keystone XL pipeline ... and much, MUCH more! ...

Visit BradBlog.com to see who counts yer votes! Reference yer background/research at Who's Counting? too.
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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
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! January 20, 2012

• Award-winning investigative journalist Robert Parry will tell us how the Republicans are trying to turn America into a giant shanty town.

• John Nichols from The Nation will be here to talk about the continuing anti-union attacks coming from right wing state governors.

• And we’ll have a collection of interviews from this week’s Families USA‘s Health Action 2012 conference.

• VIDEO! Papantonio: Public Says Romney Only Cares for the Wealthy One of the biggest questions that voters will have to ask themselves this coming November is “who will take of my interests better.” The latest polls tell us that voters have already asked themselves that question, and the answer for most of the 99% is Obama. But for those in the top 1%, they overwhelmingly support Republicans like Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich. Mike Papantonio talks about how voters’ perceptions of who is the friendliest to Wall Street will play out this year with John Sides, political science professor and contributor to The American Prospect.

• VIDEO! Papantonio: How Republicans Packed Our Courts While all the putrid Republican conduct was playing itself out during the Bush years, the Democrats and most Americans appeared to be virtually unaware of how the Grand Ol’ Party was doing its most serious damage. The GOP and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce knew where they could do the most harm to democracy and, at the same time, improve the balance sheets for their corporate pals.
They could accomplish both of those goals in the Court system – the civil justice system where judges are often the last line in the sand when it comes to protecting Americans from the type of reckless criminal conduct that the Bush Republicans carried out for 8 dark years. While Americans were distracted trying to figure out where the Hell the WMDs were, the Republicans were packing the federal trial courts and appellate courts from the bottom up. Not with talented experienced jurists, but with political hacks who had proven their commitment to right wing ideology completely enough that they were rewarded with a black robe and a federal courtroom gavel.

• Support Those Who Support Progressive Media! 2011 has certainly been a great year for Ring of Fire, and we’ve had some great sponsors that have helped support the show throughout the year. We wanted to take the time to personally thank each and every one of them, and we encourage all of our listeners to take the time to support those who have support us.

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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!

• Rocky Anderson on his Presidential Run, Ron Paul & Occupy Wall Street [01•10•12]

• Corey Robin on his book The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Sarah Palin [01•17•12]

• Jeff Smith of the OWS Press Team with a Live in DC J17 Occupy Congress Report [01•17•12]

• Garlin Gilchrist of MoveOn on the SOPA / PIPA Internet Blackout [01•18•12]

• Tina Dupuy of Crooks and Liars Live in DC on Occupy Congress [01•18•12]

MORE Podcast Interviews at majorityreport.official.fm!
On the Edge with Max Keiser Podcasts and more @ MaxKeiser.com!

"HI Y'ALL! Tell the people! Tell the people!"

WHO IS MAX KEISER? Max Keiser is a financial expert, Prediction Markets analyst, inventor and filmmaker. He is the creator of the Hollywood Stock Exchange (HSX) the first Prediction Market. Max Keiser co-hosts “The Truth About Markets” on ResonanceFM 104.4 in London. He also produces and presents documentary films covering markets and finance for Al Jazeera’s “People & Power” series. Max Keiser started his career on Wall Street in 1983. He is the creator of KarmaBanque a site that enables activists to challenge corporate power.

• VISIT PirateMyFilm.com!!! Crowd Funding for Pirates!

• NEW! MaxKeiserTV on YouTube! MaxKeiserTV PLUS here is Max Keiser’s official Facebook page And here is the official Keiser Report page

• The [Max Keiser's] information is so powerful they wish to keep it secret by maxkeiser. READ Voting with your dollar: More than just SOPA and PIPA (examiner): “You’re taking a traditional boycott and applying economic metrics and in this process it gives the activist more leverage,” says financial activist Max Keiser, “Think strictly in strategic results. If you have enough boycotters and activists applying the boycott you will attract attention from the global hedge fund community, which is always looking for stocks to sell short or prices to attack.”
This information is a powerful tool for activists of all spectrums be it left-wing Occupy or further to the right Tea Party. The information is so powerful they wish to keep it secret, such as the SOPA [Stop Online Piracy Act] iPhone app or Firefox extension. Critics claim that SOPA will destroy free speech on the internet. The app works by scanning a barcode and if the company supported ‘SOPA’ through campaign donations or lobbying a ‘stop’ sign appears encouraging you to not buy this product. Receiving a ‘clear’ status results from the company’s hands being clean of the debate.
Boycotting so such a powerful tool that already numerous Senators and Representatives have switched to the oppose column concerning PIPA and SOPA despite the Hollywood lobbyist money flowing into their individual PACs and Committees. Now you’ve got a multi-trillion dollar industry blindly working with activist to attack the stock. The result is a lower stock price,” Max Keiser continues that the only way to see if your boycott is effective is by measuring the stock price. “The only thing that an activist should look for, in terms of whether they’re successful or not—it’s not what the company says, it’s not what the company writes in its annual report, it’s not what some politician says the company says—they should only look at one thing, and that’s the stock price. The stock price goes up, they’re failing; the stock price goes down, they’re winning.”

• KEISER REPORT [KR238] Keiser Report: Scam On Epic Scale We discuss 419 scams and Tim Geithner’s gimp. In the second half of the show, Max talks to financial blogger and semi-retired Wall Street executive Warren E. Pollock about MF Global, wealth confiscation and bank holidays.

• KEISER REPORT [KR239] Keiser Report: Sinking Ship In Credit Sea In this episode, we discuss captains of the financial industry abandoning ship while tripping into TARP. In the second half of the show, Max talks to former oil market regulator, Chris Cook, about the imminent collapse of the oil market …

• ON THE EDGE [OTE141] On the Edge with Gonzalo Lira Great interview with Gonzalo Lira. The UK government did NOT want you to see this.

• THE TRUTH ABOUT MARKETS [TaM-1231] The Truth About Markets! 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

• Roy Gutman January 12, 2012: Roy Gutman, Baghdad Bureau Chief for McClatchy Newspapers, discusses the bureaucratic hindrances to the MEK’s move out of Camp Ashraf in Iraq; how individual asylum cases will essentially force the MEK to disband (as no country is willing to accept the whole group); Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki’s efforts to consolidate power in the splintered and unworkable Iraqi government system; the many Iraqi politicians with huge security forces that also function as hit squads against rivals; why Iraq’s political outcome is critical to the region, world oil market and Western world; how Iran, Saudi Arabia and Turkey are jockeying for position in the “up for grabs” countries of Syria and Iraq; why US intervention in the Middle East is necessary to protect oil resources and fill the security vacuum; and the merits of US interventionism in general, from Iraq to Afghanistan.

• Gareth Porter January 19, 2012: Gareth Porter, independent historian and journalist for IPS News, discusses the Israeli Mossad’s false flag operation that made the CIA appear responsible for terrorist attacks inside Iran; using Jundullah to assassinate Iranian nuclear scientists to provoke a military response – not set back their nuclear program; how terrorist attacks marginalize Iranian political moderates and make diplomatic negotiations with the US impossible; and the predictable nationalistic “blowback” response of Iranian students, who are defiantly switching majors to nuclear science .

• Philip Giraldi January 21, 2012: Former CIA officer Philip Giraldi discusses his article ”What War With Iran Might Look Like;” the many layers of obfuscation (like peeling an onion) in the Jundallah/CIA/Mossad frame-up; President Bush’s “absolutely ballistic” response to Israeli operatives, posing as CIA officers, recruiting Jundullah agents to commit terrorist acts in Iran; and why the Obama administration is powerless to stop Israel from starting a war with Iran (and dragging the US along with it).

Many more interviews at Antiwar Radio!
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• Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney

• Speaker of the House John Boehner

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First brick is on us!
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