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Miscellaneous Madness While many of the low-info voters concentrate their resources on the NCAA's made-for-corporoteevee March Madness many other things went down they refused to cover and failed to discuss with their viewers and listeners. What a surprise. Following up on last week's MEK story Laura Rozen now reports Treasury issues subpoenas in investigation into funding for pro-MEK lobby campaign (yahoo news) The U.S. Treasury Department has issued subpoenas in an investigation into several prominent former senior American officials taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in speaking fees to promote a controversial Iranian terrorist group, the Mujahedin e-Khalq (MEK). Among the former cabinet level officials whose speaking agencies have received subpoenas in the investigation are former Pennsylvania governor and DNC chair Ed Rendell, former Pennsylvania governor and Department of Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge, former FBI director Louis Freeh, and former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Hugh Shelton, NBC's Michael Isikoff reported Friday. Rendell first disclosed that his speaking agency had received a subpoena in the investigation in a report by the Washington Times' Guy Taylor last week. The Treasury Department investigation, which dates back to last summer, is seeking to understand where the money for the pro-MEK lobbying campaign is coming from, people familiar with the investigation said. At least 11 subpoenas have been issued to date in the probe, one source briefed on it said Friday. .... .... Calls by Yahoo News Friday to the office of Tom Ridge, and Ridge's speaker's bureau the Washington Speakers bureau were not returned. A spokesman for Louis Freeh told Yahoo News Friday that he did not have immediate comment on the case. The irony, both Jacobson and Marashi said, is that for all the hundreds of thousands of dollars that have been spent on the MEK public relations campaign, it is unlikely to affect the State Department's decision. "This is a big waste of their money," Jacobson said. "These decisions are based upon the facts. They are based upon evidence and they are based upon foreign policy determinations." ... NEXT Matt Taibbi Why Isn't Wall Street in Jail? Financial crooks brought down the world's economy — but the feds are doing more to protect them than to prosecute them Over drinks at a bar on a dreary, snowy night in Washington this past month, a former Senate investigator laughed as he polished off his beer. "Everything's fucked up, and nobody goes to jail," he said. "That's your whole story right there. Hell, you don't even have to write the rest of it. Just write that." I put down my notebook. "Just that?" "That's right," he said, signaling to the waitress for the check. "Everything's fucked up, and nobody goes to jail. You can end the piece right there." Nobody goes to jail. This is the mantra of the financial-crisis era, one that saw virtually every major bank and financial company on Wall Street embroiled in obscene criminal scandals that impoverished millions and collectively destroyed hundreds of billions, in fact, trillions of dollars of the world's wealth — and nobody went to jail. Nobody, that is, except Bernie Madoff, a flamboyant and pathological celebrity con artist, whose victims happened to be other rich and famous people. The rest of them, all of them, got off. Not a single executive who ran the companies that cooked up and cashed in on the phony financial boom — an industrywide scam that involved the mass sale of mismarked, fraudulent mortgage-backed securities — has ever been convicted. Their names by now are familiar to even the most casual Middle American news consumer: companies like AIG, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America and Morgan Stanley. Most of these firms were directly involved in elaborate fraud and theft. Lehman Brothers hid billions in loans from its investors. Bank of America lied about billions in bonuses. Goldman Sachs failed to tell clients how it put together the born-to-lose toxic mortgage deals it was selling. What's more, many of these companies had corporate chieftains whose actions cost investors billions — from AIG derivatives chief Joe Cassano, who assured investors they would not lose even "one dollar" just months before his unit imploded, to the $263 million in compensation that former Lehman chief Dick "The Gorilla" Fuld conveniently failed to disclose. Yet not one of them has faced time behind bars. .... "You put Lloyd Blankfein in pound-me-in-the-ass prison for one six-month term, and all this bullshit would stop, all over Wall Street," says a former congressional aide. "That's all it would take. Just once." But that hasn't happened. Because the entire system set up to monitor and regulate Wall Street is fucked up. Just ask the people who tried to do the right thing..... MORE TAIBBI! Watch his interview on DN! below discussing his latest at Rolling Stone Bank Of America: Too Crooked to Fail (WAY TOO MUCH TO SNIP) and Matt's interview with SAM SEDER below! After reading this don't be afraid to MOVE YOUR MONEY and "Invest in Main Street NOT Wall Street"! YES! Over at HuffPoAOL Laura Basset reports how Texas Loses Entire Women's Health Program Over Planned Parenthood Law The Department of Health and Human Services announced on Thursday that it will cut off all Medicaid funding for family planning to the state of Texas, following Gov. Rick Perry's (R) decision to implement a new law that excludes Planned Parenthood from the state's Medicaid Women's Health Program. Cindy Mann, director of the Center for Medicaid and State Operations (CMSO), wrote Texas health officials a letter on Thursday explaining that the state broke federal Medicaid rules by discriminating against qualified family planning providers and thus would be losing the entire program, which provides cancer screenings, contraceptives and basic health care to 130,000 low-income women each year. "We very much regret the state's decision to implement this rule, which will prevent women enrolled in the program from receiving services from the trusted health care providers they have chosen and relied upon for their care," she wrote. "In light of Texas' actions, CMS is not in a position to extend or renew the current [Medicaid contract]." The federal government pays for nearly 90 percent of Texas' $40 million Women's Health Program, and nearly half of the program's providers in Texas are Planned Parenthood clinics. But the new law that went into effect earlier this month disqualified Planned Parenthood from participating in the program because some of its clinics provide abortions, even though no state or federal money can be used to pay for those abortions. ..... The GOPher War on Women continues in Arizona where Arizona Lawmaker: Women Should ‘Watch An Abortion Being Performed’ Prior To Having It
The Arizona legislature is considering at least two separate bills that would significantly limit women’s access to abortion by banning the procedure after 20 weeks of gestation and strip funding to Planned Parenthood. But those restrictions don’t go far enough for conservative lawmaker Rep. Terri Proud (R) who told a constituent in an email that women should be required to “watch an abortion being performed” prior to having it ...... Proud is now co-sponsoring a measure that would allow employers to opt out of covering birth control in their health insurance plans. That's one creepy hypnotized woman! Next DDay at FDL explains the Misnamed JOBS Act – Which Deregulates Financial Markets – Gets Senate Vote Today .....And before you curse the damn Republicans for selling out to the finance lobby again, consider that only a couple dozen Democrats voted against the JOBS Act in the House, that Chuck Schumer is pushing this bill along in the Senate, it was initially a Democratic bill written by Rep. Jim Himes, and that the White House supports it. Johnson calls it “legislative madness.” The investor protections that Carl Levin and Jack Reed want to add ameliorate the bill somewhat, but considering the purpose of the enterprise is to deregulate the financial markets, I don’t see why you would pass it under any circumstances..... MORE DDAY!
American Jobs Act Fails First Senate Cloture Vote As expected, the American Jobs Act failed to pass a cloture vote last night. The vote was 50-49. Democrats held the vote open so “New Englander of the Year” Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) could return from Boston and cast the final vote in favor, giving them the talking point that a majority supported the bill. Tom Coburn, under treatment for prostate cancer, missed the vote. Harry Reid switched his vote to no at the last minute to enable him to bring it up again, so Shaheen’s vote was needed for that majority. Two Democrats, Jon Tester and Ben Nelson, voted with all Republicans save Coburn against the legislation. Nelson gave no explanation, while Tester released a statement saying that “The things I support in this bill are outweighed by the things I can’t support.” [...Tester gobbledygook...] I find that to be mostly gobbledygook. What he calls “bailing out states” I call “saving the jobs of teachers and cops and firefighters.” And any look at the unemployment rolls shows that the loss of 500,000 jobs in the public sector since 2008 is one of the major drags on growth. His alibi amounts to “this bill doesn’t solve every problem ten years out in the manner I want so I’ll vote no.” It’s a typical politician’s dodge. Nelson would at least just say “I don’t want to raise taxes on anyone” and be done with it; Tester’s excuse is more of an insult. Just because there was majority support for the cloture vote doesn’t mean there was majority support for the legislation. Joe Manchin, Jim Webb and Joe Lieberman all expressed their opposition to the underlying bill. So the bill itself is going nowhere, though it was a political vehicle all along more than a serious piece of legislation. Now the plan is to break the bill up into component parts and to call out Republicans as obstructionists. That was the focus of the President’s statement after the vote:... (OF NOTE: the Republicans have set a New World Record for Most Filibusters. -Ed.) Did your city or region set any new high records last week? If so then go to Common Dreams for Silent Spring Dawns Hot, Dry and Merciless by Jennifer Browdy de Hernandez ... This year, as I see how the natural world around me is struggling to provide for the chipmunks, the bear and the turkeys; as I greet the arrival of the few straggling migrant birds who have managed to run the gauntlet of a landscape devastated by chemical warfare and industrial agriculture; as I gaze out at the bare trees shimmering in the unnatural midday heat, I know in my heart that it is only a matter of time before our turn comes. Today it is the indigenous people of Indonesia who are going down with their forests. It is the desert people of North Africa who are starving, and the teeming masses of Asia who are fleeing the floods of torrential rains. We in the huge, pampered gated communities of North America and Europe will be insulated from these shocks for much longer than those on the outside. But our time will come. And when it comes, it will be with the full force of every violent futuristic film we’ve ever dreamed up. Waterworld, anyone? Mad Max? Yeah. As Obama Vows More U.S. Oil Production as Pipeline Gets Priority in his visit to Cushing OK Bill McGibbon & 350.org issued this press release at 350.org

Cushing, OK -- Today President Obama will make a speech in Cushing, OK on his Administration’s work to fast track the permitting of the southern leg of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline: Bill McKibben, the founder of 350.org who has led protests against the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, issued the following statement: “Barack Obama has done a little more than his predecessors about climate change. But nowhere near enough. And no movie producer, fifty years from now, will be able to resist a scene that explains the depth of our addiction to oil: the president coming to the state that just recorded the hottest summer in American history, in the very week that the nation has seen the weirdest heat wave in its history, and promising not to slow down climate change but instead to speed up the building of pipelines. It's clear that the power of the oil industry drives political decision-making in America--that's why we need to go after them directly. The first step is an effort to remove the subsidies that they and the rest of the fossil fuel industry enjoy.” 350.org is helping coordinate protests at Ohio State University this afternoon, where students will call on President Obama to stop Keystone XL, fracking, and other "extreme energy" projects. Last August, 1,253 people were arrested at the White House to push President Obama to stop Keystone XL. More than 12,000 people surrounded the White House last November to stop the pipeline, leading to an administration commitment to delay a permit for the project.

Listen to Bill McGibbon on APM's Marketplace "Obama's 'all of the above' plan means nothing" (mp3) From the Spill Baby Spill department Reuters reports Chevron, Transocean charged in Brazilian oil spill (Reuters) - A Brazilian federal prosecutor filed criminal charges on Wednesday against Chevron and drill-rig operator Transocean for a November oil spill, raising the stakes in a legal saga that has added to Chevron's woes in Latin America and could slow Brazil's offshore oil boom. Prosecutor Eduardo Santos de Oliveira also filed criminal charges against 17 local executives and employees at Chevron and Transocean, owner of the world's largest oil rig fleet. Among the defendants is George Buck, 46, a U.S. national in charge of Chevron's operations in Brazil, the prosecutor's office said in a statement. "The spilling of oil affected the entire maritime ecosystem, possibly pushing some species to extinction, and caused impacts on economic activity in the region," Santos de Oliveira, a prosecutor in the oil district of Campos de Goytacazes, said in the filing. "The employees of Chevron and Transocean caused a contamination time bomb of prolonged effect." The charges stem from a 3,000-barrel leak in the Frade field, about 120 km (75 miles) off the coast of Rio de Janeiro state. They include: failure to realize protocols to contain the leak; failure to take steps to kill the well and stop the drilling process; breach of licenses, legal norms and regulation, including altering documents; and failure to meet legal and contractual duties. Chevron and Transocean strongly disputed the charges. ..... Chevron's troubles in Brazil could force it to rethink its Latin American strategies. A shortage of trained workers, engineers and equipment have driven up costs in Brazil and Chevron faces an $18 billion environmental verdict in Ecuador. Oliveira's filings allege that Transocean's Sedco 706 rig, which drilled the well that leaked, had "grave" equipment failures that were detected by Brazil's national petroleum agency, the ANP. In addition to Buck, prosecutors leveled criminal charges against other Chevron and Transocean employees, including five other Americans, five Brazilians, two Frenchmen, two Australians, a Canadian and a Briton. Among them was Guilherme Dantas Rocha Coelho, 38, the Brazilian head of Transocean's operations in the country. All were ordered to turn in their passports last Saturday and remain in the country. Each individual will be required to post 1 million reais ($550,000) bail and each company 10 million reais ($5.5 million) to ensure payment of future fines. JAIL TIME UNLIKELY - Prison sentences could be as lengthy as 31 years, the filings said. Oliveira told Reuters in January that jail terms for the oil workers would be unlikely and a "last resort." .... Yep pay the fine, move on, it's only the "cost of doing business" right? NEXT Grace Wyler has this BusinessInsider EXCLUSIVE: Documents Show Homeland Security Was Tracking Occupy Wall Street Even Before The First Protest The Department of Homeland Security has been tracking the Occupy Wall Street movement since well before protesters first took Zuccotti Park last September, according to internal DHS memos obtained by Business Insider through a Freedom of Information Act Request. The documents show that DHS alerted its agents to the Wall Street protests — and specifically the involvement of the hacker group Anonymous in organizing the protests — sometime before the Sept. 17 kickoff of the protests in downtown Manhattan. In an undated memo, titled "Details On 'Anonymous' Upcoming Operations: 17 September 2011: Occupy Wall Street; U.S. Day of Rage," the DHS Office of Intelligence notes that the hacker group had came out in support of the planned Sept. 17 Wall Street protests. The memo provides details of a YouTube video released by Anonymous that called on protesters "to adopt a non-violent 'Tahrir-acampadas model,'" and to "flood into lower Manhattan, set up tents, kitchens, peaceful barricades and occupy Wall Street for a few months." The memo warns that AdBusters, the original organizers of the OWS protests, had also planned a demonstration on the National Mall to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq in October 2011.Another DHS Intelligence memo provides further warnings about the impact and likelihood of upcoming Anonymous Operations. ... See all the DHS memos in full at the link! In the wake of the incredible uproar over the shooting of Traymon Martin the NYT's Gail Martin writes Pity the Poor Gun Lobby ....This year, in search of new worlds to conquer — or at least to arm — a couple of states are giving serious attention to bills that would allow gun owners to carry their concealed weapons in places like day-care centers and school buses. People, do you think there is a loud public outcry for more guns on school buses? I truly believe that this is all the product of a desperate N.R.A., trying to show its base that there are still lots of new battles to be won. “I subscribe 100 percent to that theory,” said Brian Malte of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, a group that is never going to suffer from a problem of not having anything left to work on. Why, other than a frantic search for ways to show your gun bona fides, would legislators pass something like the Stand Your Ground law? As the whole country learned this week, 21 states now have laws allowing people to shoot anyone they feel is putting them in imminent physical danger, whether they’re at home, in a bar or on the street being hassled by an irritating panhandler. It was thanks to Florida’s Stand Your Ground law that a crime-watch volunteer was not arrested after he fatally shot an African-American teenager with no criminal record — and, as far as we can tell so far, no intent to do anything more dangerous than carrying home a bag of Skittles. “Florida is the N.R.A. utopia,” said Malte. “Make it as easy as possible to carry a loaded gun in public, virtually anywhere. And then instill the mentality that you can shoot first, ask questions later.” The N.R.A. did not respond to my request for comment, although, to be fair, they’ve been having a pretty busy week. ..... Since no amount of gun-related tragedy seems sufficient to get state lawmakers to dial back on their firearms-friendly laws, we need to find a different approach, or face a future in which citizens of some states are required to carry a weapon with them at all times except when bathing. I am thinking that the best solution for all concerned would be a strict national gun-control law that makes it very difficult to get a concealed weapons permit, permits gun dealers to sell only one handgun per individual per year, and makes it illegal for even permit holders to keep handguns anywhere but their home, store or car glove compartment unless they are employed in the security business. The N.R.A. would have a whole new lease on life, and the donations from the gun industry would come flooding in. Legislators in red states would be kept out of other mischief for a decade, while they devoted their entire careers to passing new gun-friendly laws. And it’s very possible that the purple states would find that they like the new order of things just fine. Everybody wins! No need to thank me. It’s the least I could do for the school bus drivers. Meanwhile The Nation's John Nichols reports that Florida's Senator Marco Rubio Stands His Ground for Deadly 'Stand Your Ground' Laws ... Rubio served in the legislature as an ally of the National Rifle Association and a member of the American Legislative Exchange Council, the shadowy group funded by the Koch brothers to craft and promote passage of measures such as the “Stand Your Ground” law. In reviewing Rubio’s tenure, the Miami Herald noted: “Rubio had an ‘A’ rating by the National Rifle Association. Rubio voted for major NRA priorities such as a 2005 ‘castle doctrine’ law allowing people to use deadly force if attacked in their home or any place a person ‘has a right to be.’ Rubio also supported a 2008 law allowing most employees to bring guns to work, as long as they held a concealed weapons license and kept the gun in their cars.” Two other ALEC members, state Representative Dennis Baxley and state Senator Durell Peadon were the primary sponsors of the “Stand Your Ground” law. Now—as African-American legislators are calling for the repeal of the measure—Florida media outlets report that “Baxley says it is worth revisiting to determine whether the law should be amended.” And Florida Governor Rick Scott, Jeb Bush’s Republican successor, has appointed a task force to consider changes to the “Stand Your Ground” law. Scott says that, in light of the Trayvon Martin killing, it is necesssary to “thoroughly review Florida’s ‘Stand Your Ground’ law and any other laws, rules, regulations or programs that relate to public safety and citizen protection.” But Rubio—who has felt pressure from the NRA in the past, at rare points where he has tried to balance public safety and gun rights concerns—knows he can’t disappoint the gun lobby if he wants a place on the GOP ticket. So Rubio is standing firm for the measure that Kendall Coffey, the former US attorney for Southern Florida, calls a “license to kill.” The Tampa Bay Times reports that the senator says it is “too early” to say whether the “Stand Your Ground” law should be repealed or—at the very least—clarified. Remarkably, Rubio continues to caution against criticism of the law . “I voted for it and I think there is rational behind it but we have no idea whether that applies at all in this case,” says Rubio. “I think that’s very important to understand.” It’s not just Jeb Bush who says Marco Rubio should be the Republican nominee for vice president. Rubio’s name tops most lists of prospects for the number-two position on what now looks like a Mitt Romney-led ticket. .... There are Florida officials who backed the state’s “Stand Your Ground” law, and who still stand strong for gun rights, but who now acknowledged that the law needs to be rewritten or retracted. Marco Rubio is not one of them..... Glenn Greenwald has a list of Ironies in American justice and political cheerleading so go read all of them but we though this one was most ironic: (3) After Bradley Manning was arrested on charges that he leaked documents to WikiLeaks, he was held in intense solitary confinement for ten months until political pressure finally forced his transfer to more humane conditions in Fort Leavensworth; the top U.N. torture official last week concluded that Manning’s treatment during those 10 months was “cruel and inhumane.” By stark contrast, Staff Sgt. Robert Bales — the prime suspect in the slaughter of 16 Afghan civilians — is already at Fort Leavensworth and is receiving this treatment:

already being integrated into the normal pretrial confinement routine

recreation

resume the normal integration process

An ABC News article back when Manning was transferred to Fort Leavensworth included these details:

The 150 inmates at the facility — including eight who are awaiting trial — are allowed three hours of recreation a day, she said, and three meals a day in a dining area.That likely means that there will be some substantial interaction between Bales and Manning. Think about that: if you expose to the world previously unknown evidence of widespread wanton killing of civilians (as Manning allegedly did), then you will end up in the same place as someone who actually engages in the mass wanton killing of civilians (as Bales allegedly did), except that the one who committed atrocities will receive better treatment than the one who exposed them. That’s a nice reflection of our government’s value system (similar to the way that high government officials who commit egregious crimes are immunized, while those who expose them are aggressively prosecuted). If the chat logs are to be believed, Manning decided to leak those documents because they revealed heinous war crimes that he could no longer in good conscience allow to be concealed, and he will now find himself next to a soldier who is accused of committing a heinous war crime. And do check out Glenn's (4) Op-Ed in The Guardian on the quick removal of Bales from Afghanistan and the resulting exclusion of Afghans from the investigation into what happened. Listen to Glenn's interview with SAM SEDER on Ring Of Fire Radio below! James Bamford reports at Wired.com The NSA Is Building the Country’s Biggest Spy Center (Watch What You Say) ... Rather than Bibles, prophets, and worshippers, this temple will be filled with servers, computer intelligence experts, and armed guards. And instead of listening for words flowing down from heaven, these newcomers will be secretly capturing, storing, and analyzing vast quantities of words and images hurtling through the world’s telecommunications networks. In the little town of Bluffdale, Big Love and Big Brother have become uneasy neighbors. Under construction by contractors with top-secret clearances, the blandly named Utah Data Center is being built for the National Security Agency. A project of immense secrecy, it is the final piece in a complex puzzle assembled over the past decade. Its purpose: to intercept, decipher, analyze, and store vast swaths of the world’s communications as they zap down from satellites and zip through the underground and undersea cables of international, foreign, and domestic networks. The heavily fortified $2 billion center should be up and running in September 2013. Flowing through its servers and routers and stored in near-bottomless databases will be all forms of communication, including the complete contents of private emails, cell phone calls, and Google searches, as well as all sorts of personal data trails—parking receipts, travel itineraries, bookstore purchases, and other digital “pocket litter.” It is, in some measure, the realization of the “total information awareness” program created during the first term of the Bush administration—an effort that was killed by Congress in 2003 after it caused an outcry over its potential for invading Americans’ privacy. But “this is more than just a data center,” says one senior intelligence official who until recently was involved with the program. The mammoth Bluffdale center will have another important and far more secret role that until now has gone unrevealed. It is also critical, he says, for breaking codes. And code-breaking is crucial, because much of the data that the center will handle—financial information, stock transactions, business deals, foreign military and diplomatic secrets, legal documents, confidential personal communications—will be heavily encrypted. According to another top official also involved with the program, the NSA made an enormous breakthrough several years ago in its ability to cryptanalyze, or break, unfathomably complex encryption systems employed by not only governments around the world but also many average computer users in the US. The upshot, according to this official: “Everybody’s a target; everybody with communication is a target.” ... —there is no doubt that [nte NSA] has transformed itself into the largest, most covert, and potentially most intrusive intelligence agency ever created. In the process—and for the first time since Watergate and the other scandals of the Nixon administration—the NSA has turned its surveillance apparatus on the US and its citizens. It has established listening posts throughout the nation to collect and sift through billions of email messages and phone calls, whether they originate within the country or overseas. It has created a supercomputer of almost unimaginable speed to look for patterns and unscramble codes. Finally, the agency has begun building a place to store all the trillions of words and thoughts and whispers captured in its electronic net. And, of course, it’s all being done in secret. To those on the inside, the old adage that NSA stands for Never Say Anything applies more than ever..... Read the shocking rest at Wired.com and see Bamford's interview on DN! below. In a related matter Truth-Out.com has NYT's Charlie Savage Total Information Awareness: Sweeping New Surveillance Measures Approved in the US The Obama administration is moving to relax restrictions on how counterterrorism analysts may retrieve, store and search information about Americans gathered by government agencies for purposes other than national security threats. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. on Thursday signed new guidelines for the National Counterterrorism Center, which was created in 2004 to foster intelligence sharing and serve as a terrorism threat clearinghouse. The guidelines will lengthen to five years — from 180 days — the amount of time the center can retain private information about Americans when there is no suspicion that they are tied to terrorism, intelligence officials said. The guidelines are also expected to result in the center making more copies of entire databases and "data mining them" using complex algorithms to search for patterns that could indicate a threat. ... The changes are intended to allow analysts to more quickly identify terrorism suspects. But they also set off civil-liberties concerns among privacy advocates who invoked the "Total Information Awareness" program. That program, proposed early in the George W. Bush administration and partially shut down by Congress after an outcry, proposed fusing vast archives of electronic records — like travel records, credit card transactions, phone calls and more — and searching for patterns of a hidden terrorist cell. .... "We're all in the dark, and for all we know it could be a rerun of Total Information Awareness, which would have allowed the government to make a computerized database of everything on everybody," said Kate Martin, the director of the Center for National Security Studies, who criticized the administration for not making the draft guidelines public for scrutiny ahead of time. ... The ACLU responded with ACLU Statement on Extension of Time U.S. Can Retain Info on Innocent Americans in Counterterror Databases Michael German, ACLU senior policy counsel and a former FBI agent said: “The decades-old rules limiting the collection and retention of U.S. citizen and resident information by the intelligence community and the military existed for a very good reason: to ensure that the powerful tools designed to protect us from foreign enemies are not turned against Americans. Authorizing the 'temporary' retention of non-terrorism related citizen and resident information for five years essentially removes the restraint against wholesale collection of our personal information by the government, and puts all Americans at risk of unjustified scrutiny. Such unfettered collection risks reviving the Bush administration’s Total Information Awareness program, which Congress killed in 2003. .... American citizens and residents should not be considered potential terrorists until the NCTC decides otherwise. Having innocent people’s information in intelligence databases for five years without any suspicion of wrongdoing creates an unacceptable risk to Americans’ privacy through error and abuse.” Out LAST WORD goes to CUNY Professor Frances Fox Piven who appeared on Democracy Now! last Monday discussing the six-month anniversary of Occupy Wall St. (link to video below) Well, I think the movement is reconnoitering at the—after two months of occupations, which were dramatic, brilliant, imaginative, I think captured something for the American people. I think the American public resonated to the "We are the 99 percent" Occupy Wall Street slogans. After two months, a lot of the occupations were leveled. And I think that what has been happening is that the occupiers and all the people who really responded to their rhetoric, to their dramatic depiction of financial capitalism in control and out of control, what people have been figuring out how to do is to move the protest into the neighborhoods, into the workplaces, into the schools. I think, in the end, it may turn out that evicting the occupations was the precipitant of expanding the movement, because the movement’s agenda has broadened, and they’re now experimenting with reoccupying foreclosed homes, for example, with ways of rallying to the defense of workers who are locked out or on strike. And with the spring, I think there’s going to be a lot of protest in the universities and the colleges. And young people are very responsive to the appeals of Occupy, to their cultural style. And everybody in the colleges understands that high unemployment, high student debt spells foreclosed opportunities for a life. ... Well, no, [Occupy has] not gone away. I don’t think it’s gone away at all. Everywhere I look, I hear about Occupy East Harlem, Occupy the South Bronx. I think Occupy has spread out. And this kind of mobilization, this kind of building outrage, confronts a financial steering mechanism in the American economy, which is very vulnerable. It’s very vulnerable to the indignation and outrage of the millions and millions of ordinary people who are losing their nest egg. They’re losing their home, everything they put into their hopes for a stable future. They’re losing their pensions. They are graduating from the college they worked so hard to get into and to stay in; they’re graduating with massive debts. Well, in the background of this, there is, I think, the basic relationship between these lenders and these debtors. They have made so many Americans into debtors. Well, you know, it isn’t true, necessarily, that debtors are powerless and lenders have all the power, because the lenders depend on those debtors accepting their debts and putting their shoulder to the wheel and taking the extra job and working very hard until they pay the massive debts that have been piled on their heads. So I think financial America is—the financial corporations are also vulnerable at this point in time, if we can mobilize the indignation, the outrage of the people who have been screwed. Yes. I think that not only in the 1960s and in the Great Depression, but from the beginning of the American Republic, it has been these periodic risings of ordinary people that have humanized American society. And sometimes the reforms that were implemented in response to the outrage, the indignation and the defiance, sometimes they did not last. But something lasted. Something lasted of the Revolutionary-era mobs who demanded radical democracy. Something lasted of the struggle of abolitionists for the freeing of the slaves. And something lasted of the Populist movement. Something lasted of the labor uprisings of the 1930s. And of course a lot lasted of the victories of the civil rights movement. But without these movements, what happens is that the big corporation of America really flood, overflow democratic processes with propaganda and with their lobbying and with their campaign contributions. Democracy doesn’t work in the absence of protest movements. Protest movements are what give us that part of democracy that we have achieved. And I’m absolutely convinced that Occupy is the beginning of another massive protest movement. Protest movements have a long life—10, 15 years—and they are what we have to rely on to take our country back. Well said! For your Sunday Funnies the White House Limo carts around White House Senior Adviser David Plouffe on This Snufagopolis, State of the Candy and even FAKE SNOOZE. Good brick targets are on Face the Bob with Theocrat SICK SANITARIUM and Budget Destroyer PAUL "Budget Bullshitter" RYAN and kwazy Theocrat Michele Bachmann still being taken seriously by This Snufagopolis! Haha! The unofficial BTV count this week is 5-2 GOP vs. Dems on the bobblehead shows. Yep that "goddamned librul press" is at it again! True dat. Huh. Sorry for the short post this week but we were in a week-long intense seminar on the "virtues of server virtualization", commanding most of our CPU, Network, Storage and Memory resources! Haha! The Brick TeeVee crew nevertheless has been glued to the Bracketology Games and we were crushed when the Ohio University Bobcats lost in overtime to North Carolina! But the OSU Buckeyes are going to the Final Four again after squeaking out a win against a determined Syracuse Orange squad! With the incredible warm weather our garden efforts begin in earnest as we have to prep the garden and get some early spring goodies in the ground. We hope you get the opportunity to do the same! For you beginners or if you want to maximize your home garden we recommend Mini Farming: Self-Sufficiency on 1/4 Acre. Good item! Have a great week and Occupy Somewhere!

BRICK TEEVEE ALERTS!_©

»»» Guardian reporter Ryan Devereaux & CUNY's Frances Fox Piven @ Democracy NOW! Police Arrest 73 in Occupy Wall Street Crackdown as Protesters Mark Six Months Since Uprising Began March 19, 2012 & RELATED Strategic Directions for Occupy Wall Street: Foreclosing Banks, Defending Homes, Making History

»»» Ina May Gaskin @ Democracy NOW! Ina May Gaskin on Rising U.S. Maternal Mortality Rate, Midwifery and Home Births March 19, 2012

»»» Trayvon Martin Coverage @ Democracy NOW! March 20, 2012: Attorney Jasmine Rand representing Trayvon Martin’s family Walking While Black: Florida Police Resist Calls to Arrest Shooter of Unarmed Teen, Trayvon Martin AND Florida Democratic State Representative Mia Jones Florida Legislative Black Caucus Urges Full Federal Probe of Police Handling of Trayvon Martin Death PLUS "A Modern-Day Lynching": Outrage Grows over Killing of Trayvon Martin by Neighborhood Watch Patrol with Shelton Marshall, president of the Black Law Students Association at Florida A&M University College of Law AND Florida’s "Shoot First" Law Critiqued by Gun Control Advocates Following Shooting of Trayvon Martin with Caroline Brewer of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence

»»» Investigative reporter James Bamford @ Democracy NOW! Exposed: Inside the NSA’s Largest and Most Expansive Secret Domestic Spy Center in Bluffdale, Utah March 21, 2012
»»» Thomas Drake & Drake’s attorney Jesselyn Radack @ Democracy NOW! NSA Whistleblower Thomas Drake Prevails Against Charges in Unprecedented Obama Admin Crackdown March 21, 2012

»»» Matt Taibbi @ Democracy NOW! March 22, 2012 "Too Crooked to Fail": Matt Taibbi Says Bailouts, Fraud are the Secrets to Bank of America’s Success RELATED: Matt Taibbi on the Explosive Resignation of Goldman Sachs Executive Greg Smith

»»» Ben Jealous @ Democracy NOW! March 22, 2012 NAACP’s Ben Jealous: Justice for Trayvon Martin Begins with Killer’s Arrest, Police Chief’s Ouster
»»» 350.org's Bill McGibbon @ Democracy NOW! Bill McKibben: Winter Heat Wave Underscores Need for Obama to Reject, Not Fast-Track, Keystone XL

»»» OWS Activist Cecily McMillan @ Democracy NOW! Exclusive: OWS Activist Cecily McMillan Describes Seizure, Bodily Injuries in Arrest by NYPD March 23, 2012

GRITtv

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

»»» FEATURED SHOW The Laura Flanders Show...coming soon! After three years in daily production, GRITtv is transforming into the Laura Flanders Show, for distribution online and on public TV later this year.

BRICK TEEVEE SPORT!_©

»»» NASCAR on FOX It's the Auto Club 400 at the 2-mile Fontana Speedway! Coverage begins 2:30 p.m. ET

»»» NCAA Basketball Tournament on CBS More coverage of this year's college tourney! Spots for the Final Four coming up Sunday! 2:20 ET: #3 Baylor vs. #1 Kentucky then at 5:05 ET: #2 Kansas vs. #1 North Carolina

»»» NBA on ESPN ESPN Sunday double-header Heat @ Thunder 8 pm et then Grizzlies @ Lakers! And Friday double-header Mavs @ Magic 8 pm et then Blazers @ Clippers!

BRICK TEEVEE ACTION!_©

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

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

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

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

NET NEUTRALITY! SaveTheInternet.org A Push for Privacy in the Wake of the Carrier IQ Controversy Remember Carrier IQ, the company that makes the secret spying software that’s installed on more than 140 million phones? You know, the software that can record our most sensitive personal data? ... Thanks in part to the 22,000 people who joined Free Press’ call for a congressional investigation, some of those questions are closer to being answered and mobile users are closer to being protected. The protection comes in the form of a bill from Massachusetts Rep. Ed Markey. Markey released a draft of a bill called the “Mobile Device Privacy Act” that would require phone companies to disclose to users just what is being done with all of their data. If the bill passes, an opt-out provision would go into effect a year later and would require companies to allow users to opt out of data-collection schemes like the one developed by Carrier IQ........

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 and Bradley Manning Support Network
UPDATE! Ed Pikington of the Guardian UK reports Bradley Manning's treatment was cruel and inhuman, UN torture chief rules The UN special rapporteur on torture has formally accused the US government of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment towards Bradley Manning, the US soldier who was held in solitary confinement for almost a year on suspicion of being the WikiLeaks source. Juan Mendez has completed a 14-month investigation into the treatment of Manning since the soldier's arrest at a US military base in May 2010. He concludes that the US military was at least culpable of cruel and inhumane treatment in keeping Manning locked up alone for 23 hours a day over an 11-month period in conditions that he also found might have constituted torture. "The special rapporteur concludes that imposing seriously punitive conditions of detention on someone who has not been found guilty of any crime is a violation of his right to physical and psychological integrity as well as of his presumption of innocence," Mendez writes. .... Mendez, who runs the UN office that investigates incidents of alleged torture around the world, told the Guardian: "I conclude that the 11 months under conditions of solitary confinement (regardless of the name given to his regime by the prison authorities) constitutes at a minimum cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment in violation of article 16 of the convention against torture. If the effects in regards to pain and suffering inflicted on Manning were more severe, they could constitute torture." ..... But the Pentagon's arguments did not impress the special rapporteur. He stressed in his final conclusions that "solitary confinement is a harsh measure which may cause serious psychological and physiological adverse effects on individuals regardless of their specific conditions." Moreover, "[d]epending on the specific reason for its application, conditions, length, effects and other circumstances, solitary confinement can amount to a breach of article seven of the international covenant on civil and political rights, and to an act defined in article one or article 16 of the convention against torture." He also said that the US government had tried to justify Manning's solitary confinement by calling it "prevention of harm watch". Yet the military had offered no details as to what actual harm was being prevented. ... Much more at link!
UPDATE II ! Jesselyn Radack on March 16, 2012 at The Whistleblogger Bradley Manning Hearing: Government Foiled By Its Own Policies Bradley Manning's attorney (David Coombs) requested that charges against Manning be dismissed because the prosecution had so badly bungled discovery obligations. Josh Gerstein of Politico reported in detail: At a hearing last month, prosecutors in the case against Pfc. Bradley Manning noted that they didn't receive the messages but could not explain why. Chief prosecutor Capt. Ashden Fein said at a hearing Thursday that the messages had been "blocked by a spam filter for security." However, it fell to defense attorney David Coombs to explain precisely why the e-mails about evidence issues in the Manning case never made it. "Apparently, they were blocked because the word 'WikiLeaks' was somewhere in the e-mail," Coombs said. The government's own WikiLeaks policies are now hampering the prosecution's work in the case against Manning. Yesterday's Manning hearing also revealed that the U.S. claims that Manning aided al-Qaeda by allegedly giving documents to WikiLeaks. What about the New York Times, which also posted the WikiLeaks documents? Much more at link plus video of whistleblower and author Peter Van Buren on Channel 9 WUSA news.

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

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

B R I C K T E E V E E

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THEY report. YOU throw bricks. ©

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The essential guide for watching government propaganda

IRAQ: 4,486 US Military Dead as of March 23, 2011

AFGHANISTAN: 1,915 US Military Dead as of March 23, 2012

The Obameter: Tracking Obama's Campaign Promises
Considering Democracy: 8 Things to ask your Representative

This Week (ABC) anchor George Stephanopoulos
• 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'
• Obama senior advisor David Plouffe
• Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-MN
• ROUNDTABLE: George Will and Cokie Roberts, Democratic strategist and ABC News contributor Donna Brazile, political strategist and ABC News political analyst Matthew Dowd, and "Nightline" co-anchor Terry Moran
Face The Nation (CBS) Host Bob Schiefer
• Republican Presidential Candidate Rick Santorum
• House Budget Chairman Republican, Representative Paul Ryan
• Chairman of the Democratic Policy Committee, Senator Chuck Schumer
60 Minutes (CBS)
• Resurrecting Chrysler - Just a few years ago, Chrysler was in chapter 11, its future bleak. Now, with a new leader in Sergio Marchionne and a new company forged by an alliance with Fiat, the automaker has made a remarkable turnaround to profitability. Steve Kroft reports. Frank Devine and Maria Gavrilovic are the producers.
• Evidence of Innocence - Michael Morton was finally freed when DNA evidence exonerated him after 25 years in prison; he speaks out in his first interview. As Lara Logan reports, Morton's case is one of a series of high profile wrongful convictions that have cast a harsh light on prosecutors. Andy Court and Anya Bourg are the producers.
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!
• White House Senior Adviser David Plouffe.
• MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow joins us for a conversation about her provocative new book Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power that tries to answer the question: “When did America make peace with perpetual war?”
• ROUNDTABLE: Fmr. Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour (R); head of the NAACP, Ben Jealous; NPR’s Michele Norris; presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin; and the New York Times’ David Brooks.
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.
• White House Senior Adviser David Plouffe
• Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC)
• Florida’s Governor Rick Scott (R)
• Time Magazine’s Mike Duffy and USA Today’s Susan Page
HEAD ON RADIO with Bob Kincaid

Headon Radio with Bob Kincaid 6 PM Eastern, 3 PM Pacific, 2300 GMT. Duration: 3 hrs. To be part of Conversation Radio on Head-on Radio, call toll-free (877) 443-2366, or use our Liberal community line at 304-658-3333. Email bob [at] headonradio [dot] com during the show!
• PRAYER MEETIN' WEDNESDAY!!!!! Uber Pope/Rabbi/Imam Bob leads the discussion of yet more religioso fanatics! Plus all the regulars chime 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' - March 22, 2012 IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Zombie Keystone pipeline rises again, as Obama fast-tracks southern leg; The Waxman cometh with a deficit-cutting carbon tax proposal, while the GOP protects Big Oil's billion-dollar subsidies; Exxon Valdez to the scrap heap of history; PLUS: It's World Water Day --- do you know where your clean water is?... All that and more in today's Green News Report!
• IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see link): GOP vs. the Navy on clean energy; Fracking: Is Dimock’s water really safe?; U.S. slaps low tariffs on Chinese solar panels; Beekeepers urge ban on toxic pesticide; Myths and Facts: Germans switch from nukes to renewables; SCOTUS rules against EPA; Denmark to boost offshore wind; Damage to oceans could cost $2tr by 2100 ... PLUS: House Republican accidentally tells truth about Solyndra investigation ... and much, MUCH more! ...
• BRADCAST! 'The BradCast' on KPFK: GOP Empire Strikes Back at the Ron Paul Revolutionaries Today, on my KPFK/Pacifica Radio show, I was joined by two of the key players at both of those of remarkable scenes. My guests were Brent Stafford, the Paul organizer seen, incredibly enough, being arrested while trying to reconvene the aborted caucus in St. Charles after pandemonium had broken out inside, and Lori Bone of Athens, who was seen (also on video, thankfully) trying to demand an explanation from Republican Party officials in GA after they'd rammed through a slate of delegates at the Clarke County GOP convention, and then ended the proceedings, ignoring the Paul supporters majority --- all in blatant violation of the official rules.
• BRAD on RT! Brad on RT TV: 'Republican Party Establishment Hates Democracy (and Ron Paul Supporters)' I was back on RT TV this afternoon (this time, without a wingnut loon to waste our time), to discuss the GOP caucus chaos over the weekend in MO, where Ron Paul supporters stood up for themselves, rather than allowing the Republican establishment to railroad them. Once again, the host was RT's Liz Wahl. Here's what happened today... WATCH THE VIDEO!!
• BRADBLOG UPDATE: Did Walker Conspire to Violate Employee Residence Law? Motion by his indicted former deputy suggests 'WalkerGate' file still growing, as criminal probe appears to target the Republican Guv's tenure while County Executive in Milwaukee...
Visit BradBlog.com to see who counts yer votes! Now up to 9,200+ Election Protection posts! 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
• PBC Podcast 412 Sue Wilson of “Broadcast Blues” Talks About Boycotts of Limbaugh Sponsors; Will Durst Says We’re All Muppets Media activist Sue Wilson joins us to talk about the sponsor boycotts of Rush Limbaugh’s radio show; Will Durst reacts to the Goldman Sachs guy who bailed: “We’re all Muppets”.
• PBC Podcast 414 Boiling Frogs: Attorney Jon Eisenberg’s Kafka-esque Fight vs. Illegal Wiretapping Two strong views on the Middle East: Jennifer Lowenstein teaches Middle East studies at U of Wisconsin; Trita Parsi is president of the National Iranian American Council.
• PBC Standard Podcast Marxian Economist Richard Wolff on Causes of Economic Mess; “Solartopia” Author Harvey Wasserman is Optimistic About Shutting Down Vermont Yankee Nuke Plant Prof. Richard Wolff teaches at New School in New York, writes for Truthout, and is the author of Capitalism Hits the Fan; Harvey Wasserman is longtime anti-nuke activist, author of Solartopia.
• PBC Standard Podcast Boiling Frogs: Peter van Buren Speaks Out for Whistleblowers As He is Being Drummed Out of State Dept. Peter van Buren, author of We Meant Well, defends other whistleblowers even as he is being forced out of his 20+ year career at the State Department in this Boiling Frogs interview, co-hosted with Sibel Edmonds.
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! March 23, 2012
• best-selling author and Harpers Magazine contributor Thomas Frank will tell us who will really be choosing the next Republican Presidential nominee.
• Investigative journalist Greg Palast will be here to discuss the recent BP oil spill settlement.
• Criminal defense attorney Leo Thomas will join us for a legal discussion on the Trayvon Martin killing.
• Mark Potok from the Southern Poverty Law Center will be here to tell us why American hate groups are expanding at an unprecedented rate.
• And author and clinical psychologist Bruce Levine will be here to tell us why America’s obsession with money is killing us as a society.
• VIDEO! Sam Seder: Obama Continues Disastrous Bush-Era Foreign Policies During the Bush years, Americans weren’t shy to express their anger over the former administration’s policies regarding people they deemed to be “terrorists.” Whether it was the indefinite detention and torture at Guantanamo Bay, or the killing of civilians in the Middle East, Americans made it clear that they were angry with the Bush Administration. So today, with some of those same policies – or even worse policies – in place, where is that outrage? Sam Seder talks about how the Obama administration is still carrying out some of the nastiest deeds of the Bush administration with Salon.com contributor and author Glenn Greenwald.
• VIDEO! Papantonio: Zimmerman Charge Should Be Premeditated Murder Mike Papantonio appears on MSNBC’s The Ed Show to discuss the legal ramifications for George Zimmerman under Florida’s Stand Your Ground law for killing 17-year old, unarmed Trayvon Martin.
• 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!

• Ryan Devereaux on the Police Violence at Occupy Wall Street's 6 Month Anniversary [03•19•12]
• Jeff Smith of Occupy Wall Street with his 1st Hand Account of Occupy's Anniversary [03•19•12]
• Jonathan Cohn on Obamacare vs Supreme Court [03•20•12]
• Jonathan Cohn on Obamacare vs Supreme Court [03•20•12]
• Brian Beutler on the Paul Ryan Budget, Obama Admin + more [03•21•12]
• Josh Orton with an Update from Wisconsin [03•22•12]
• Matt Taibbi on the Bank of America Con [03•22•12]
• Cliff Schecter and Sam Seder discuss Trayvon Martin, Gun Laws, Paul Ryan's Budget + more! [03•23•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
• EThey have become abattoirs where the real wealth of the nation is taken and slaughtered by maxkeiser - READ When the Abuse of Insider Information and Control Grows So Large as to Become the Market BTV jessescrossroadscafe
• VIDEO! How America Avoided Fascism in 1933 by maxkeiser WATCH How America Avoided Fascism in 1933 jessescrossroadscafe
• VIDEO! Max Keiser, the host of RT’s Keiser Report calls Smith’s diatribe an “embarrassing confession of the firm’s wrong doings” by maxkeiser GO TO Goldman Sachs exec leaves sinking ship in disgust on rt
• KEISER REPORT [KR263] Keiser Report: Rip out eyes, tear off head We discuss ripping out client eyeballs and losing millions for a free breakfast; maggots of risk and plastic financial apartheid. In the second half of the show Max talks to filmmakers William Gagan and Geoff Shively about their crowd funded journey to Syria and ‘fake’ activists and, with the introduction of anti-free speech laws in Chicago, the filmmakers discuss the small drone helicopters they have acquired for reporting on the NATO summit.
• KEISER REPORT [KR264] Keiser Report: Guns vs Gadgets We discuss ‘anti-human, bigoted algos’ buying Apple shares; new technology versus old-fashioned gunpowder and the American economy as a lava lamp. In the second half of the show Max talks to musician Tomas Kalnoky of Streetlight Manifesto about wanting to be the first band to sell no records while the RIAA and record industry executives crash and burn with their dying model.
• KEISER REPORT [KR265] Keiser Report – Unbanked & Unworthy We discuss the great ‘unbanked’ masses dumping gold believing in a ‘recovering economy’ and an end to money printing while banks and insiders buy gold and mortgage backed securities in preparation for more quantitative easing by the Fed. In the second half of the show Max talks to Mark Melin of Uncorrelated Investments about MF Global, JP Morgan and the future of the futures market. They also discuss the Charles Mansons of the futures industry and the branch office of the too big too fail banks formerly known as the SEC. Your thoughts below on why the MF Global crime has not apparently interested the Occupy Wall Street crowd.
• KEISER REPORT [KR266] Keiser Report: Selective Amnesia for Brokers & Murderers We discuss Irish stoicism and social ostracism, boycotts and ponzis and the banking practices of Chuckie. In the second half of the show Max talks to independent journalist, Lars Schall, about his recently published investigation into insider trading around the 9-11 terrorist attack as well as his pursuit of Germany’s elusive gold reserves.
• ON THE EDGE [OTE150] On the Edge with Chris Cook Stacy Summary: Dang, where else can you find such consistently amazing information and thought-provoking ideas!? My primary question to you the viewer regarding this interview with Chris Cook is – do you agree with his analysis regarding oil prices and his prediction that they will collapse in the second half of the year?
• THE TRUTH ABOUT MARKETS [TaM-358] The Truth About The Pain For Motorists Stacy Summary: We talk about the price of petrol rising in the UK and the Bats IPO being pulled. 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
• Peter Certo March 22, 2012: Peter Certo, editorial assistant at Right Web and the Institute for Policy Studies, discusses his article “U.S. Government Finally Catching up With MEK Boosters Like Ed Rendell;” the shocking development that the rule of law might actually apply to former high-level US government officials; the usual suspects – humanitarian activists and Muslims who upload videos on YouTube – who face “material support” of terrorism charges under the PATRIOT Act; and the connection between the MEK’s terrorist-group designation, Camp Ashraf in Iraq, and Iran-war fever.
• Barbara Slavin March 22, 2012: Barbara Slavin, author of Bitter Friends, Bosom Enemies: Iran, the U.S. and the Twisted Path to Confrontation, discusses her article “Subtle Signs Obama Diplomacy May Work on Iran ;” who was really at fault for Iran’s failed uranium fuel-swap deal in 2009; growing concern with Iran’s 20% enrichment process that yields medical isotopes and a “breakout” capability; and why the Treasury Department’s investigation of MEK shills like Edward Rendell may be Obama’s way of reaching out to Iran.
• Kevin Zeese March 22, 2012: Kevin Zeese, Executive Director of VotersForPeace and Co-Chair of Come Home America, discusses his article “Dismissal Is the Only Option in Bradley Manning Case;” the prosecution’s withholding of government damage-assessment reports, which could help disprove Manning’s “aiding the enemy” charge; statements from President Obama and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey (last paragraph) that bolster an “unlawful command influence” defense; and whether Judge Col. Denise Lind will rule fairly, resisting the government pressure and bribes that accompany cases of this magnitude.
• Lawrence Wittner March 23, 2012: Lawrence Wittner, Professor of History at the State University of New York/Albany, discusses his article “Try a Little Nuclear Sanity ;” the “SANE” legislation introduced by Congressman Edward Markey that would cut the budget and scope of the US nuclear weapons program; how Russia is threatened by “missile defense,” that supposedly exists to protect Europe from Iran but actually gives the US an unanswerable first-strike capability; why the Cold War military budget and mindset persist even though the USSR was dissolved over 20 years ago; and the unspoken Ronald Reagan/liberal agreement on nuclear disarmament.
• Many more interviews at Antiwar Radio!
fauxnews
• Senior Adviser to President Obama, David Plouffe
• House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan

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Sunday, March 25, 2012

Brick TeeVee and Miscellaneous Madness!

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