Sunday, April 15, 2012

Brick TeeVee and The Tax Man 2012!



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Tax Man! Did you file your taxes yet? We did! Doubtful Egypt's Omar Suleiman did. Egypt MPs bar ex-Mubarak presidential candidates The parliament in Egypt has passed a law banning senior officials who served under ex-President Hosni Mubarak from running in May's presidential election. It means the former Vice-President Omar Suleiman would not be able to continue as a presidential candidate. But the law would only come into effect if it is approved by the country's ruling military council, which took power last year. The justice ministry has already said the new measure is unconstitutional. The BBC's Jon Leyne in Cairo says the ruling military council is likely to block the law. He says the law was adopted as a direct response to the decision of Gen Suleiman, the country's former intelligence chief, to run for president. .... Gen Suleiman was the head of Egypt's intelligence service for 18 years, before taking over as vice-president just before Mr Mubarak resigned. It was a position that gave him a central role in a regime that was accused of corruption and human rights abuses. We're shocked. At FireDogLake Kevin Gosztola reports US Pressures UK to Not Hear Rendition, Torture Victims’ Cases in Open Court A new report published by the United Kingdom-based new organization The Guardian highlights the rendition and torture of a Libyan militant, who led the fight against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, and his pregnant wife. Making use of documents uncovered in Tripoli after Gaddafi was defeated by coalition and rebel forces last year, the report pays particular attention to revelations on UK involvement in an act that was previously believed to have been authorized solely by the United States. .... Abdel Hakim Belhaj and Sami al Saadi are suing Sir Mark Allen, who likely played a key role in the rendition of Belhaj and Saadi to Libya where they would inevitably be tortured. In one of the documents found, Allen, then-head of counterterrorism at MI6, congratulates Koussa on the “safe arrival” of Belhaj. He adds it is “the least we could do for you and for Libya.” The fact that the CIA wanted any intelligence from Belhaj and Saadi to be shared with them is called “amusing.” Allen also writes the intelligence that led to the rendition of Belhaj and his wife was British. ... Lawyers for Belhaj’s wife, Fatima Bouchar, see this as a mechanism that could be used to ensure cases are litigated in secret to protect British intelligence agents. .... When the United States applies pressure to the UK government so that cases involving intelligence agents occur in secret, this is what they are trying to keep from being disclosed. They are trying to keep victims’ allegations of torture at the hands of the CIA from ever being substantiated by whatever evidence the UK might have of the agency’s involvement. They are trying to prevent what happened in Italy in 2009 when CIA agents were symbolically convicted from ever happening again. And they are protecting military members that ordered torture during interrogations. .... If this push is successful, US operations would not just be protected but, as already briefly suggested, British intelligence agents would likely be protected as well. The nature of the secret proceedings would make it possible to get away with limiting the discovery or presentation of certain evidence. Belhaj and Saadi would be less likely to get a fair trial. The court proceedings would probably be a whitewash and make it possible to move forward without litigating any other cases. Finally, the UK is not only moving to make aspects of civil court proceedings function like American military tribunals. The country is also planning on doing away with a mechanism that made it possible for Mohamed to force the disclosure of information on his rendition and torture. So, again, the US pressure is aimed at making it impossible for victims to bring attention to crimes or wrongdoing committed by the US in the “war on terror.” .... Read all of this and watch two VIDEOS. This is of course from the Most Transparent Administration Evah™. Seymour Hersh discusses news about the MEK in The New Yorker blog Our Men in Iran? .... The M.E.K.’s ties with Western intelligence deepened after the fall of the Iraqi regime in 2003, and JSOC began operating inside Iran in an effort to substantiate the Bush Administration’s fears that Iran was building the bomb at one or more secret underground locations. Funds were covertly passed to a number of dissident organizations, for intelligence collection and, ultimately, for anti-regime terrorist activities. Directly, or indirectly, the M.E.K. ended up with resources like arms and intelligence. Some American-supported covert operations continue in Iran today, according to past and present intelligence officials and military consultants. Despite the growing ties, and a much-intensified lobbying effort organized by its advocates, M.E.K. has remained on the State Department’s list of foreign terrorist organizations—which meant that secrecy was essential in the Nevada training. “We did train them here, and washed them through the Energy Department because the D.O.E. owns all this land in southern Nevada,” a former senior American intelligence official told me. “We were deploying them over long distances in the desert and mountains, and building their capacity in communications—coördinating commo is a big deal.” (A spokesman for J.S.O.C. said that “U.S. Special Operations Forces were neither aware of nor involved in the training of M.E.K. members.”) The training ended sometime before President Obama took office, the former official said. .... Five Iranian nuclear scientists have been assassinated since 2007. M.E.K. spokesmen have denied any involvement in the killings, but early last month NBC News quoted two senior Obama Administration officials as confirming that the attacks were carried out by M.E.K. units that were financed and trained by Mossad, the Israeli secret service. NBC further quoted the Administration officials as denying any American involvement in the M.E.K. activities. The former senior intelligence official I spoke with seconded the NBC report that the Israelis were working with the M.E.K., adding that the operations benefitted from American intelligence. He said that the targets were not “Einsteins”; “The goal is to affect Iranian psychology and morale,” he said, and to “demoralize the whole system—nuclear delivery vehicles, nuclear enrichment facilities, power plants.” Attacks have also been carried out on pipelines. He added that the operations are “primarily being done by M.E.K. through liaison with the Israelis, but the United States is now providing the intelligence.” An adviser to the special-operations community told me that the links between the United States and M.E.K. activities inside Iran had been long-standing. “Everything being done inside Iran now is being done with surrogates,” he said. Go read all of this long item of vital importance. See Hersh below on DN! where he emphasizes again "There's no evidence the Iranians are making weapons." Next GlobalResearch.ca posts this from Antifascist Calling's Tom Burghardt SPYING ON AMERICANS: Obama's Backdoor "Cybersecurity" Wiretap Bill Threatens Political and Private Rights As Antifascist Calling has frequently warned, with the endless "War on Terror" as a backdrop the federal government, most notably the 16 agencies that comprise the so-called "Intelligence Community" (IC), have been constructing vast centralized databases that scoop-up and store all things digital--from financial and medical records to the totality of our electronic communications online--and do so without benefit of a warrant or probable cause. The shredding of constitutional protections afforded by the Fourth Amendment, granted to the Executive Branch by congressional passage of the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) after the 9/11 attacks, followed shortly thereafter by the oxymoronic USA Patriot Act set the stage for today's depredations. Under provisions of multiple bills under consideration by the House and Senate, federal officials will be given broad authority over private networks that will almost certainly hand security officials wide latitude over what is euphemistically called "information-sharing" amongst corporate and government securocrats. ..... 'Information Sharing' or Blanket Surveillance? Among the four bills currently competing for attention, the most egregious threat to civil liberties is the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act of 2011 (CISPA, H.R. 3523). Introduced by Mike Rogers (R-MI) and Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD), the bill amends the National Security Act of 1947, adding language concerning so-called "cyber threat intelligence and information sharing." ..... In other words, should "cleared" cyber spooks be directed by their corporate or government masters to install state-approved malware on private networks as we discovered last year as a result of the HBGary hack by Anonymous, it would be a crime punishable by years in a federal gulag if official lawbreaking were disclosed. The bill authorizes "a cybersecurity provider (a non-governmental entity that provides goods or services intended to be used for cybersecurity purposes)," i.e., an outsourced contractor from any one of thousands of spooky "cybersecurity" firms, to use "cybersecurity systems to identify and obtain cyber threat information in order to protect the rights and property of the protected entity; and share cyber threat information with any other entity designated by the protected entity, including the federal government." Furthermore, the legislation aims to regulate "the use and protection of shared information, including prohibiting the use of such information to gain a competitive advantage and, if shared with the federal government, exempts such information from public disclosure." And should the public object to the government or private entities trolling through their personal data in the interest of "keeping us safe" well, there's an app for that too! The bill "prohibits a civil or criminal cause of action against a protected entity, a self-protected entity (an entity that provides goods or services for cybersecurity purposes to itself), or a cybersecurity provider acting in good faith under the above circumstances." One no longer need wait until constitutional violations are uncovered, the Rogers bill comes with a get-out-of-jail-free card already in place for state-approved scofflaws. Additionally, the bill also "preempts any state statute that restricts or otherwise regulates an activity authorized by the Act." In other words, in states like California where residents have "an inalienable right to privacy" under Article 1, Section 1 of the State Constitution, the Rogers bill would be abolish that right and effectively "legalize" unaccountable snooping by the federal government or other "self-protected," i.e., private entities deputized to do so by the secret state. Social Media Spying - How would this play out in the real world? Click over for the very scary rest! Of course in the Real World of the U.S. Security State citizens face a much more onerous set of laws that now govern us. According to Naomi Wolf athe Guardian UK's Comment is Free, "Believe me, you don't want the state having the power to strip your clothes off. And yet, it's exactly what is happening" in How the US uses sexual humiliation as a political tool to control the masses In a five-four ruling this week, the supreme court decided that anyone can be strip-searched upon arrest for any offense, however minor, at any time. This horror show ruling joins two recent horror show laws: the NDAA, which lets anyone be arrested forever at any time, and HR 347, the "trespass bill", which gives you a 10-year sentence for protesting anywhere near someone with secret service protection. These criminalizations of being human follow, of course, the mini-uprising of the Occupy movement. Is American strip-searching benign? The man who had brought the initial suit, Albert Florence, described having been told to "turn around. Squat and cough. Spread your cheeks." He said he felt humiliated: "It made me feel like less of a man." In surreal reasoning, justice Anthony Kennedy explained that this ruling is necessary because the 9/11 bomber could have been stopped for speeding. How would strip searching him have prevented the attack? Did justice Kennedy imagine that plans to blow up the twin towers had been concealed in a body cavity? In still more bizarre non-logic, his and the other justices' decision rests on concerns about weapons and contraband in prison systems. But people under arrest – that is, who are not yet convicted – haven't been introduced into a prison population. Our surveillance state shown considerable determination to intrude on citizens sexually. There's the sexual abuse of prisoners at Bagram – der Spiegel reports that "former inmates report incidents of … various forms of sexual humiliation. In some cases, an interrogator would place his penis along the face of the detainee while he was being questioned. Other inmates were raped with sticks or threatened with anal sex". There was the stripping of Bradley Manning is solitary confinement. And there's the policy set up after the story of the "underwear bomber" to grope US travelers genitally or else force them to go through a machine – made by a company, Rapiscan, owned by terror profiteer and former DHA czar Michael Chertoff – with images so vivid that it has been called the "pornoscanner". Believe me: you don't want the state having the power to strip your clothes off. History shows that the use of forced nudity by a state that is descending into fascism is powerfully effective in controlling and subduing populations. ...... Where are we headed? ..... Why is this happening? Click over to read the shocking conclusion and then read the Q&A with Naomi Wolf: supreme court, strip searches and sexual humiliation too. Harvey Wasserman echoes Naomi Wolf at Common Dreams A Dying Empire Invades Oaksterdam, Our Privacy & Our Speech At freedom's core is protection from arbitrary police power and the right to choose one's own medicine, as well as to express one's opinion, however controversial. All three of these rights have taken very troubling recent hits. Mired in imperial war and corporate privilege, the US Supreme Court and Obama Administration have escalated their attacks on our basic rights. The results are horrifying, and a huge warning to all Americans that the foul debris of a collapsing empire is falling directly on us all. ..... Over the 220 years since its adoption, the Fourth Amendment has been revered worldwide as a bulwark of essential human rights. When George W. Bush violated it by ordering warrantless wiretaps on millions of phone calls, a tremendous uproar ensued. But now the 5-4 "conservative" majority on the US Supreme Court has essentially trashed the entire amendment. In a horrifying decision that would make the Founders cringe, the Roberts-Scalia-Alito-Thomas-Kennedy cabal has ruled that police can strip-search any citizen without a warrant or even a shred of evidence that such an invasion is called for under the law. As "strict constructionism" goes, the ruling is utterly insane. It negates even the most basic procedures mandated by Madison and those who fought the arbitrary power of the British king, then took such great care to limit that of the new federal government. It essentially says that police power is now unlimited in this country, that the niceties of the Constitution no longer matter, and that the core of the Bill of Rights is no longer with us. It is the perfect companion piece not only to the Citizens United decision granting human rights to corporations, but also to President Obama's recent assertion that he has the right to kill any American without due process. Most troubling about this Fourth Amendment demolition is the lack of a public response. The New York Times and a few others have opined against it. But the decision has elicited precious little outrage, least of all from so-called conservatives who rant on about "freedom" but only when it comes in defense of corporate personhood and privilege. The right of actual human beings to dignity and defense from police assault apparently doesn't qualify for the right-wing lexicon. Make no mistake--the obliteration of the Fourth Amendment represents a giant step toward the kind of dictatorship brandished by empires throughout history as they collapse and grab desperately at every lever of arbitrary power available to keep their populations in line. Read on about Obomber's DEA raiding Oaksterdam and how this ties in with the incredible power the federal government is amassing.

The Beatles - Tax Man
While many are doing their federal taxes at the last minute this weekend they may also have to file a tax return with the state they live or work in, along with possibly city/county returns. If you are one of these you may not want to read this COLUMN-Taxed by the boss: David Cay Johnston April 12 (Reuters) - Across the United States more than 2,700 companies are collecting state income taxes from hundreds of thousands of workers - and are keeping the money with the states' approval, says an eye-opening report published on Thursday. The report from Good Jobs First, a nonprofit taxpayer watchdog organization funded by Ford, Surdna and other major foundations, identifies 16 states that let companies divert some or all of the state income taxes deducted from workers' paychecks. None of the states requires notifying the workers, whose withholdings are treated as taxes they paid. General Electric, Goldman Sachs, Procter & Gamble, Chrysler, Ford, General Motors and AMC Theatres enjoy deals to keep state taxes deducted from their workers' paychecks, the report shows. Foreign companies also enjoy such arrangements, including Electrolux, Nissan, Toyota and a host of Canadian, Japanese and European banks, Good Jobs First says. Why do state governments do this? Public records show that large companies often pay little or no state income tax in states where they have large operations, as this column has documented. Some companies get discounts on property, sales and other taxes. So how to provide even more subsidies without writing a check? Simple. Let corporations keep the state income taxes deducted from their workers' paychecks for up to 25 years. .... Deals cut with the states over the past two decades diverted $5.5 billion from public purposes to private gain, the report says. Close to $700 million more was diverted last year, Good Jobs First estimates. New Jersey approved $73.2 million in new deals in 2011 on top of $178 million diverted that year alone under previous deals. I calculate that at nearly $80 per household in corporate welfare based on New Jersey's 3.1 million households. These deals typify corporate socialism, in which business gains are privatized and costs socialized. They also mean government picks winners and losers, interfering with competitive markets. Leaders in both parties embrace these giveaways because they draw campaign donations from corporate interests and votes from people who do not understand that they are subsidizing huge companies. .... And you wonder why states across the country have huge deficits (besides the tax give-aways to the top 1%)? Just a mere coincidence? Hmmmmm. Over at BusinessInsider.com we have Robert Reich ON VIDEO! This Is How Romney Makes So Much Money And Pays So Little In Taxes Now that Mitt Romney is the presumed Republican candidate, it’s fair to ask how he made so much money ($21 million in 2010 alone) and paid such a low tax rate (only 14.9 percent). Not only fair to ask, but instructive to know. Because the magic of private equity reveals a lot about how and why our economic system has become so distorted and lopsided – why all the gains are going to the very top while the rest of us aren’t going anywhere. The magic of private equity isn’t really magic at all. It’s a magic trick – and it’s played on you and me.
Jake Kornbluth and I have made this 2 minute video that explains it all in eight simple steps. [VIDEO] It’s a giant con game, and it continues to this day. Here’s what has to be done to stop it:
  1. End the “carried interest” loophole that allows private-equity managers like Mitt Romney to treat their income as capital gains, taxed at 15 percent, even though they don’t risk a dime of their own income. Their earnings should be treated as ordinary income.
  2. Hold the managers of private-equity funds, hedge funds, and pension funds to a “due diligence” standard. So if the funds lose money and these managers didn’t exercise due diligence, the Pension Guaranty Corporation can claw back their bonuses.
  3. Raise the capital-gains rate to match the tax rate on ordinary income – especially for short-term investments. Give a tax preference only to “patient capital” – that is, for investments held for, say, five years or more.
  4. Resurrect Glass-Steagall.
Mitt and others like him won’t like any of these reforms. They’d eliminate the humongous profits they’ve enjoyed at the expense of the rest of us. But these reforms are necessary if we’re to take back our economy.
There are quite a few others who wouldn't like them either. Abby Zimet at Common Dreams notes G.E., Boeing, Verizon Et Al: Still Making Money From Taxes, Or Lack of Same Remember those burdensome, job-killing corporate taxes the right is always talking about? Neither do we. A new report from Citizens for Tax Justice shows that of 30 Fortune 500 companies that paid no federal income tax up through 2010, 26 still didn't this year - thus making more money after taxes than before - with the tax rate for the other four less than 4%. All told, despite $205 billion in profits, they enjoyed an overall negative tax rate of -3.1 percent, thus costing the rest of us $78.3 billion in the form of the tax subsidies they got to avoid the 35% tax rate they're supposed to be paying. Organized labor is having an April 17 Day of Action to protest the appalling numbers. Click over to see the eye-popping charts! Pissed off enough yet? Now go to PayUpNow.org "Pay Up Now is an online effort by US Uncut Chicago members to boycott corporations that pay little or no federal income tax. Choose a company, note the products or services you need to avoid, and click 'Send Message' to tell them to PAY UP NOW." From the GOPher CANARD DESK we have Bloomberg Businessweek's Scott Shane explaining yet another CANARD often-cited by state GOPher leaders as a reason to slash taxes on corporations and so-called "job creators" Small Businesses Don't Choose Low-Tax States State lawmakers often argue that their tax policies for small businesses need to be more favorable than those in other states. A mellow tax regime, the argument goes, will attract entrepreneurs from other states, enhancing employment and economic growth within the state. That oft-repeated bit of political theater ignores a basic reality: State taxes do little to influence where entrepreneurs choose to operate. That’s because no state has the “best” tax policy for all entrepreneurs. Rather, different states have tax policies that suit certain types of companies. The states that are best for new businesses are not the most favorable for existing small businesses. Those that are best for new C corporations aren’t best for new sole proprietorships, partnerships, or S corps. The most advantageous states for people starting service firms aren’t the best for people starting manufacturing ventures. And those most desirable for R&D-intensive firms are not the most favorable for low-tech businesses. .....Even when a state has the most favorable tax policies for a particular type of business, the policy does little to influence where people start companies. While comparisons of state taxes might make for good political arguments or help list-makers tout their research, they have little bearing on where people start companies. Our politicians might consider that the next time they say state X is going to lose entrepreneurs to state Y because the latter has more entrepreneur-friendly tax policies. Thanks Scott but somehow we doubt the GOPhers will deviate from their prescribed talking points: they haven't had a new economic idea in decades! All they know is "cut taxes!" In case you haven't been following Paul Krugman we go to The Renegade Economist for The Economics Spring by Dan Gay For economics nerds like me the last week has been riveting. Paul Krugman, a Nobel-prizewinning member of the economics establishment, has been debating with Steve Keen, a radical who’s long argued that the conventional economics taught in universities is woefully unrealistic because it ignores important features of the real world like uncertainty, the role of banks, debt and how money is created. Do read this to catch up! WAR ON WOMEN UPDATE: Amanda Terkel at HuffPo reports Scott Walker Quietly Repeals Wisconsin Equal Pay Law A Wisconsin law that made it easier for victims of wage discrimination to have their day in court was repealed on Thursday, after Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) quietly signed the bill. The 2009 Equal Pay Enforcement Act was meant to deter employers from discriminating against certain groups by giving workers more avenues via which to press charges. Among other provisions, it allows individuals to plead their cases in the less costly, more accessible state circuit court system, rather than just in federal court. .... SB 202 was sent to Walker on March 29. He had, according to the state constitution, six days to act on the bill. The deadline was 5:00 p.m. on Thursday. The governor quietly signed the bill into law on Thursday, according to the Legislative Reference Bureau, and it is now called Act 219. ...... “We are finally starting to see progress here in Wisconsin, yet like their counterparts across the country, Legislative Republicans want to turn back the clock on women’s rights in the workplace,” said State Sen. Dave Hansen (D-Green Bay). Women earn 77 cents for every dollar that men make. In Wisconsin, it's 75 cents, according to the Wisconsin Alliance for Women’s Health (WAWH), which also estimates that families in the state "lose more than $4,000 per year due to unequal pay." .... Sara Finger, executive director of WAWH, said that the repeal was a "demoralizing attack on women’s rights, health, and wellbeing." .... Meanwhile amid laws like this that target women Mitch "No Neck" McConnell says there's no WAR ON WOMEN. Annie-Rose Strasser atThinkProgress notes Confused McConnell Thinks Female GOP Senators Agree With Him That There Is No ‘War On Women’ Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is either confused about what’s going on in his caucus, or in denial. On a local Kentucky radio show today, the Senate minority leader argued that the female members in his caucus agree with him that the GOP’s “war on women” is just “a manufactured issue”:
    MCCONNELL: There is no issue. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison and Kelly Ayotte from New Hampshire and Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe from Maine I think would be the first to say — and Lisa Murkowski from Alaska — ‘we don’t see any evidence of this.’
Except that they do. Three of the four women McConnell names have already come out against the GOP’s war on women — Sens. Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK). In fact, Murkowski specifically pushed back on claims like McConnell’s, saying, “If you don’t feel this is an attack, you need to go home and talk to your wife and your daughters.” Maybe McConnell should take her advice. Listen to McConnell’s remarks here...
So as you head out for that Occupy protest this spring and summer remember these 5 real-life weapons straight out of a sci-fi movie including the Speech-suppressing Gun, the Vomit Ray (commissioned by the U.S. Navy with a company called Invocon to develop a weapon that uses radio frequency (RF) to affect a person's sense of hearing and equilibrium), the Pain Ray (more formally known as the Active Denial System (ADS) developed by the Pentagon) and its little cousin the Silent Guardian (developed by defense technology company Raytheon and is currently available for use by law enforcement agencies), the Mind-control Gun (scary zombie guns are confined to Russia and have not yet appeared in the United States, right?), the Medusa ray gun (developed by U.S. company Sierra Nevada Corporation) — a weapon that uses rapid microwave pulses that your brain perceives as extremely annoying sounds (that the weapon can't produce sounds annoying enough to disperse crowds unless it shoots strong microwave pulses that can literally fry your brain). So ya got THAT goin' for ya! Go read Tim From LA's item at politicususa.com Joe Arpaio: From Sheriff to Potential Felon After reading THAT do you think Eric Holder gives a damn? TRAYVON UPDATE: MorpheusDreamer offers "Reading the affadavit of the Prosecution is fascinating. I think it's a slam dunk if a Judge doesn't throw it out of court under the "Stand Your Ground" law fiasco. Prosecutors Contend George Zimmerman provoked confrontation with Trayvon Martin-read the affidavit here here (pdf)." READ Prosecutors contend George Zimmerman provoked confrontation with Trayvon Martin then WATCH DN! Thursday for an interview with NAACP'S BEN JEALOUS and Jasmine Rand of the Parks and Dunn law firm representing the Martin Family in BTV Updates below. Psychoticus Rex recommends Unwelcome Guests ("like a ... grab bag of philosophy and recent events hosted by a guy in Bangledesh.") and Radio Ecoshock ("Ecoshock is probably the best environmental news roundup i've ever heard...well that's still on the air.") for your entertainment! Do watch DN! Thursday's show with LISA GRAVES all about ALEC's "Corporate Bill Mill" and privatization! Be sure to watch 60 Minutes this week for thier tribute to Mike Wallace who passed away last Sunday at 93. CBS News "60 Minutes" icon Mike Wallace dies at 93.
R.I.P. Mkie Wallace mike wallace Myron Leon "Mike" Wallace May 9, 1918 – April 7, 2012
BRICK TEEVEE ALERTS!© Democracy NOW! Monday, April 9, 2012 Tuesday, April 10, 2012 Wednesday, April 11, 2012 Thursday, April 12, 2012 Friday, April 13, 2012 GRITtv »»» GRITtv @ www.grittv.org with Laura Flanders »»» FEATURED SHOW Can 'Caring Across Generations' Change the World? Ask anyone. We all have our “care stories.” What we don’t tend to have is a plan for what we’ll do when someone we love needs care, or when we ourselves turn out not to be invincible. We don’t have a plan, and neither does our government, and yet a crisis looms »»» Jeffrey Sachs: Population Controller? In a March 1 op-ed in the Washington Post Columbia economist Jeffrey Sachs made his pitch to be the next president of the World Bank promising to “lead the bank into a new era of problem-solving.” John Cavanaugh and Robin Broad have laid out a raft of righteous concerns about Sachs’s candidacy. The “solutions” Sachs proposes to poverty, they point out, can be summed up in the not very-new words: “aid” and “trade.” As if that wasn’t bad enough, there’s Sachs’s other favorite problem solver: population control. That’s taking us to a new era, alright: right back to the nineteenth century of Thomas Malthus. Read the full article at The Nation. BRICK TEEVEE SPORT!© »»» MLB Sunday TBS Rays @ Red Sox 1:35 pm et »»» MLB Sunday Night ESPN Angels @ Yankees 8 pm et »»» NBA on ESPN Wednesday double-header Magic @ Celtics 8 pm et then Lakers @ Warriors 10:30 pm et BRICK TEEVEE ACTION!© The 1st Amendment is Our Permit Our permit to occupy is The First Amendment. Quickly sign the following statement which will be delivered to mayors, police chiefs and major media across the country:
    Our permit to occupy public squares and parks is in The First Amendment, which affirms "the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." When people across the Middle East occupied public squares, leaders in Washington mostly cheered those protesters and warned Middle Eastern governments not to use force to clear them. Those other societies don’t have a First Amendment. Yet Washington affirmed the universal right to assembly and protest. We do have a First Amendment. The force being used to clear nonviolent protesters from public squares in our country is unacceptable. It must stop.
October2011.org Sign the Petition to Get the 99% Deficit Proposal Heard in Congress
    Please SIGN THE PETITION in support of the "99%'s Deficit Proposal" and plan direct actions to tell the Super Committee that the 99% have better solutions to our nation's crises. You can plan your own action at your Congressmember's office or join us in Freedom Plaza in Washington, DC for marches to Capitol Hill. Check our calendar for announcements.
VotersForJustice.org OUR GOAL: TO EMPOWER voters with facts and perspectives necessary to decipher the spin, obtain the truth, and support candidates that best represent their interests and values. 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! Kevin Zeese on ANTIWAR RADIO 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. Kevin Zeese is the Executive Director and co-founder of VotersForPeace . He also served as the Executive Director of Democracy Rising, is an attorney, and a long term peace advocate. He took a leave from VotersForPeace for most of 2006 while he was running for the U.S. Senate in Maryland. Zeese was a founding member of the Montgomery County Coalition Against the War in Maryland and has worked with various non-profit organizations on peace, justice, and democracy issues since 1978. 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 brick_teevee_test.jpg image ©2006 arkysue THEY report. YOU throw bricks. © Get your Foam Bricks at ThrowThings.com HERE! The essential guide for watching government propaganda

IRAQ: 4,486 US Military Dead as of April 14, 2012 AFGHANISTAN: 1,935 US Military Dead as of April 14, 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'
    • Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner
    • ROUNDTABLE: ABC News' Cokie Roberts; former Obama domestic policy adviser Melody Barnes; Wall Street Journal editorial page editor Paul Gigot; advisor to the Romney campaign Kevin Madden; and Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor and publisher of The Nation.


  • Face The Nation (CBS) Host Bob Schiefer
    • Sen. John McCain
    • Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner


  • 60 Minutes (CBS)
    • Mike Wallace: "60 Minutes" will devote its entire hour to its beloved colleague and founding correspondent, Mike Wallace, who died on April 7 at the age of 93. David Browning and Warren Lustig 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!
    • Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner
    • Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)
    • former presidential candidate Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN)
    • ROUNDTABLE: former Rep. Harold Ford, Jr. (D-TN), Republican strategist Mike Murphy, and NBC News’ Savannah Guthrie and Chuck Todd.


  • State of the Union With Candy Crowley (CNN) At 9 AM ET, Candy talks to the power players: politicians, business leaders and international newsmakers who will make Monday morning's headlines. At NOON ET, Candy wraps it all up with fresh interviews and the best of the earlier hours.
    • interview with legendary actor/comedian/writer/producer/activist Bill Cosby
    • RNC Chairman Reince Priebus
    • Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY)
    • Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA)
    • Dan Balz of The Washington Post and Matt Bai of The New York Times.


  • HEAD ON RADIO with Bob Kincaid
    HEAD ON
    Headon Radio with Bob Kincaid 6 PM Eastern, 3 PM Pacific, 2300 GMT. Duration: 3 hrs. To be part of Conversation Radio on Head-on Radio, call toll-free (877) 443-2366, or use our Liberal community line at 304-658-3333. Email bob [at] headonradio [dot] com during the show!
    • FRONT PORCH FRIDAY!!!!! Kick back on the front porch with Bob! 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
    desi-n-bradObama_Hazard
    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' - April 13, 2012 IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: 'Better living through chemistry'? Obama's EPA approves Agent Orange herbicide, his FDA refuses to ban antibiotics in animal feed; Debunking the GOP: Gas prices were higher under Bush; Total Oil totally can't stop massive off-shore leak; PLUS: Even Lloyd's of London warns against Arctic drilling... All that and more in today's Green News Report!
    • IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see link): GOP’s worst nightmare: Green Muslims; Ocean acidification from CO2 causing oyster die-offs; Worst. Farm bill. Ever.; NYT magical thinking on natural gas boom; Bringing back the American Chestnut; Activists succeed in cancelling proposed GA coal plant; TN passes anti-science, anti-evolution, anti-climate education law ... PLUS: Actually, not that many fish in the sea ... and much, MUCH more! ...
    • BRADCAST! 'The BradCast' on KPFK/Pacifica: 'What's the Problem With ALEC?' Today, The BRAD BLOG's legal analyst Ernie Canning joined me on KPFK/Pacifica Radio's The BradCast to respond to my question: "What's the problem with ALEC?"
    • BRADBLOG UPDATE: What's the Problem With ALEC? We Are. Today, Suzanne Merkelson at United Republic, an actual non-partisan organization, dedicated to highlighting the corruption of public officials via "special interests and big money lobbyists", offers a bit of ammunition which buttresses Canning's argument...
    • 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!
    pbc show
    Listen at PeterBCollins.com!
    The Peter B. Collins Show covers American news and politics from the Left Coast. Veteran talk radio personality Peter B. Collins, based in San Francisco, delivers fresh interviews, commentary and analysis on a range of important topics, with views and voices you don’t often find in the corporate media.
    Holiday Break and Website Changes
      To my valued listeners: We are making some changes to the website and our terms, effective in January. We will continue to offer free podcasts–my new daily news and commentary. Our in-depth interviews will be available for $1 per episode, or to subscribers who pay $5 per month or more. Loyal listeners who simply can’t afford it should send an email to peter@peterbcollins.com, as we will be offering a limited number of scholarships to our friends who are hurting during these tough times. More information will be posted as we complete the revisions. I’m grateful to each of you for listening and supporting this work, and hope that the new model will enable us to keep it going well into the future. All the best, -pbc
    • PBC Podcast 435 Boiling Frogs: Journalist Pepe Escobar on the Complex Layers and Players in Syria, Iran Preview Clip The inimitable Pepe Escobar of Asia Times returns with a fascinating report on Syria in this Boiling Frogs interview, co-hosted with Sibel Edmonds.
    • PBC Standard Podcast Whistleblower Doubleheader: Sibel Edmonds’ Lawyer, Steve Kohn on the FBI; Update from Peter van Buren on Retaliation by State Dept. Attorney Steve Kohn talks about FBI games to block publication of the Sibel Edmonds Story, and Peter van Buren returns with a chilling account of State Dept. retaliation for his book, We Meant Well.
    • PBC Standard Podcast Professor Lisa Hajjar on Egypt’s Torturemaster-turned-Presidential Candidate; and on Syria Conflict, Upcoming Show Trials at Gitmo Professor Lisa Hajjar of UC Santa Barbara profiles Egypt’s Omar Suleiman, the reliable torture vendor now running for president.


  • Ring of Fire Radio
    rofheader
    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! April 14, 2012
    • Photographer James Balog will be joining us to talk about his quest to capture footage of the effects of global climate change – a quest that was chronicled in the new documentary film Chasing Ice.
    • Alternet contributor and author Steven Rosenfeld will tell us why there might still be some hope for our extremist U.S. Supreme Court.
    • Bill Lazonick from the University of Massachusetts will be here to tell us how corporations evolved from serving the public good, to only serving their self-interests.
    • Ed Wytkind from the AFL-CIO will be joining us to discuss why its necessary for Congress to stop the partisan bickering and pass a transportation bill that will not only put Americans back to work, but help repair our crumbling infrastructure.
    • VIDEO! Sam Seder: NYPD’s Illegal Spying Activities Recently, the Associated Press broke the story about how the NYPD had been actively spying on Muslims in the Northeast, particularly Muslim college students. Emails were intercepted, phone calls were bugged, and in some extreme cases, officers would actually follow students around day to day. These activities began in 2006 during the Bush administration, but have been ongoing since Obama took office. Sam Seder talks about the surveillance program and the effect that it has had on the Muslim community with Seth Wessler, an investigative journalist with ColorLines.com.
    • VIDEO! Papantonio: Who’s REALLY To Blame For High Gas Prices? One of the biggest concerns on the minds of American voters this year is the price of gas. And if you listen to Republican politicians and talking heads, you probably believe that President Obama is the sole responsible party when it comes to their pain at the pump. But just like most Republican talking points, the "blame Obama" claim has absolutely no basis in reality. Mike Papantonio talks about who is really to blame about the price of gas, and why the GOP’s talking points keep falling flat, with Alternet senior editor Josh Holland.
    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!

    Cliff Schecter on SCOTUS v Obamacare, the Trayvon Martin smear campaign + more [03•30•12]
    Senator Tom Harkin on SCOTUS vs. Obamacare [03•28•12]
    Cancer Survivor Spike Ward on Healthcare in America [03•28•12]
    Ethan Rome on the Obamacare / SCOTUS case [03•28•12]
    Adam Serwer on Obamacare's Supreme Court Disaster [03•29•12]
    Josh Orton with Updates on the Wisconsin Recalls [04•02•12]
    Bruce Afran, Lawyer for the Plaintiffs in the Case Against the NDAA [04•04•12]
    • MORE Podcast Interviews at majorityreport.official.fm!


  • On the Edge with Max Keiser Podcasts and more @ MaxKeiser.com!
    maxheaderhiyall
    "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
    They 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
    • KEISER REPORT [KR273] Keiser Report: Return of the Silver Liberation Army We discuss the return of the Silver Liberation Army as JP Morgan's Blythe Masters claims the bank does not manipulate silver prices. They also discuss JP Morgan's 'London whale' breaking the credit default swap (CDS) index market with massive prop position. In the second half of the show Max talks to author, Pierre Jovanovic, about Blythe Masters role at JP Morgan and the similarities between the world today and France of the 18th century on the eve of revolution.
    • KEISER REPORT [KR274] Keiser Report: Somali Style! We discuss debt fondue and Central Banks. They also talk about Somalia's stable shilling and the lesson it holds for Europe. In the second half of the show Max talks to professor and economist, Constantin Gurdgiev about the new book of essays he’s edited – What if Ireland defaults? They discuss the good cop, bad cop routine by the Troika in Ireland and what lessons can be drawn from the Russian default of the late 90's.
    • KEISER REPORT [KR275] Keiser Report: Too Broke To Go Broke We discuss the hot topic of currency wars in China and Americans being too broke to go broke while hoping to outrun the global flash crash. In the second half of the show Max talks to Rick Ackerman of Rick’s Picks newsletter. They discuss flash crashes, market making, options trading, manipulating markets and more.
    • ON THE EDGE On The Edge with Mish Shedlock
    • THE TRUTH ABOUT MARKETS [TaM-359] Truth About Debtflation Download show HERE (mp3)
    • Donate to ResonanceFM here!


  • ANTIWAR RADIO with Scott Horton
    antiwarradio.jpg LIVE (9-11am Pacific, 12pm - 2pm Eastern) Plenty of archives too!
    Listen at antiwar.com/radio
    M.J. Rosenberg April 15, 2012: M.J. Rosenberg, journalist and former Senior Foreign Policy Fellow at Media Matters Action Network, discusses how his criticism of Israel made him a liability for his former employer; why members of Congress won’t take a risk on controversial issues, even when they have “safe seats;” why the Palestinian Authority risks losing US aid for giving an award to journalist Helen Thomas; billionaire Sheldon Adelson’s circulation-leading, money-losing, right-wing Israeli newspaper; the longtime friendship between Mitt Romney and Bibi Netanyahu; why Americans are free to badmouth US presidents and politicians, but risk being labeled an anti-Semite for criticizing Netanyahu; and the enigma of Alan Dershowitz.
    Gareth Porter April 15, 2012: Gareth Porter, investigative historian and journalist specializing in U.S. national security policy, discusses his article “Israeli Experts Mum on Iran Attack to Support Bibi’s Bluff ;” Obama’s dangerous game, talking tough on Iran to appease Israel and Republican critics while trying to avoid war; how outrageous US demands on Iran’s nuclear program risk scuttling negotiations before they even begin; and how Israel-sponsored terrorism in Iran (using Jundullah or MEK as a proxy) could start a war if Iran counterattacks.
    Peter Jenkins April 15, 2012: Peter Jenkins, the UK’s Permanent Representative to the IAEA from 2001-06, discusses his article “Iran Nuclear Talks Offer Opportunity If The US Wants It ;” the mainstream media’s sudden truth-telling on Iran’s nuclear program; Obama’s apparent interest in good-faith negotiations that recognize Iran’s NPT rights; why excessive US demands (close Fordow facility, give up 20% uranium) don’t necessarily preclude reasonable compromises later on; Ray McGovern’s theory that a Jundullah terrorist attack scuttled the 2009 fuel swap agreement; why Israel is the main hindrance to better US-Iran relations; IAEA claims that the “alleged studies” documents are corroborated by other sources, and that Iran at least pursued knowledge (if not production) of nuclear weapons before 2003; and a comparison of IAEA chief Yukiya Amano and his predecessor Mohamed ElBaradei.
    • Many more interviews at Antiwar Radio!


  • fauxnews
    • Obama Campaign Chief Strategist David Axelrod
    • Senior Adviser to the Romney Campaign Ed Gillespie.
    • FNS anchor Chris Wallace remembers the life and legacy of his father, legendary journalist Mike Wallace.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

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