Filthy Rich Stuff: Brick TeeVee's Corporations Gone Wild Edition!

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Corporations Gone Wild Our BTV Kansas Desk Correspondent LJM observes "We humans are the most savage species." Fact is every corporation is run by humans. Yet the U.S. refuses to bring any of these humans to account when the corporations deliberately violate The Rule of Law and degrade everything from our environment to our food supply and the once-believed "settled law" of property ownership while making $BILLION$ on providing its citizens with "health care". Of course a category of corporations colloquially known as The Military-Industrial Complex stand to gain "market share" by dealing in war and death. News Editor at Antiwar.com Jason Ditz exclaims Kerry: US Won’t Hesitate to Attack Iran, saber-rattling that looks to aid those M-I-C's bottom line under the guise of "protecting America's Interests" also known as "furthering American Corporate profits through exploitation". Speaking today in Jerusalem, US Secretary of State John Kerry insisted that the Obama Administration would “not hesitate” to launch a military strike on Iran if it decides that diplomacy has failed in the ongoing dispute over Iran’s civilian nuclear program. “No option is off the table. No option will be taken off the table,” Kerry added, saying that the international desire for diplomacy would not be allowed to “stand in the way” of attacking Iran. The comments are the usual post-summit threats following weekend talks between the P5+1 and Iran, which ended when Iran offered a plan for a broad settlement. Israel has demanded that the US threaten to attack Iran within the next few weeks, or at most a month. Kerry’s pro-forma threats were quickly dismissed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who insisted Israel would never trust the US or any other country to stop Iran, and would retain the option of attacking Iran themselves.
We go to IndianExpress.com Pak allowed US drone strikes in secret deal: Report for an NYT item by Mark Mazetti Nek Muhammad, a tribal warlord, knew he was being followed. On a hot day in June 2004, the Pashtun tribesman was speaking by satellite phone in a compound in South Waziristan. He asked one of his followers about the strange, metallic bird hovering above him. Less than 24 hours later, a missile tore through the compound, killing him and several others. A Pakistani military spokesman was quick to claim responsibility for the attack. That was a lie. Muhammad and his followers had been killed by the CIA, the first time it had deployed a Predator drone in Pakistan to carry out a "targeted killing." He was not a top operative of al-Qaeda, but a Pakistani ally of the Taliban who led a tribal rebellion and was marked by Pakistan as an enemy of the state. In a secret deal, the CIA had agreed to kill him in exchange for access to airspace it had long sought so it could use drones to hunt down its own enemies. That back-room bargain, described in detail for the first time in interviews with more than a dozen officials in Pakistan and the US, is critical to understanding the origins of a covert drone war that began under the Bush administration, was embraced and expanded by President Obama, and is now the subject of fierce debate. The deal, a month after a blistering internal report about abuses in the CIA's network of secret prisons, paved the way for the CIA to change its focus from capturing terrorists to killing them, and helped transform the agency into a paramilitary organisation. ...... As the battles raged in South Waziristan, the station chief in Islamabad paid a visit to Gen Ehsan ul Haq, the ISI chief, and made an offer: If the CIA killed Muhammad, would the ISI allow regular armed drone flights over the tribal areas? In secret negotiations, the terms of the bargain were set. Pakistani intelligence officials insisted that they be allowed to approve each drone strike, giving them tight control over the list of targets. And they insisted that drones fly only in narrow parts of the tribal areas — ensuring that they would not venture where Islamabad did not want the Americans going: Pakistan's nuclear facilities, and the mountain camps where Kashmiri militants were trained for attacks in India. Many more details at the link! For more we go to rediff.com Musharraf admits to deal with US on drone strikes Former President Pervez Musharraf has acknowledged his regime secretly cleared United States drone strikes, becoming the first serving or retired Pakistani official to publicly admit that the country had a deal on attacks by the CIA-operated spy planes. Musharraf said there was no blanket agreement with the US on the controversial drone campaign and that his regime had cleared missile strikes "only on very few occasions where the target was absolutely isolated and (the drone strike) had no chance of collateral damage". The drone strikes were discussed "at the military (and) intelligence level" and cleared only if "there was no time for our own (special operations task force) and military to act", he said. "That was...maybe two or three times only," he told CNN in an interview. Sometimes, he said, "you couldn't delay action". He added: "These ups and downs kept going...It was a very fluid situation, a vicious enemy...mountains, inaccessible areas". Musharraf said that one of those killed by US drones was Nek Mohammed, a tribal warlord accused of harbouring Al Qaeda militants in the tribal belt. At the time, in June 2004, Pakistan intelligence said Mohammed died after Pakistani forces launched a missile at a house where he was staying. Pakistani leaders have for long denied the country's involvement in clearing drone strikes. ....... Musharraf's admission suggests he and others did play some role even if they did not oversee the programme or approve every attack, CNN reported. ......
BTV Correspondent JEN offers Dave Lindorff at ThisCantBeHappening.net
Chase Down Mega Rich Tax Cheats and Recover the Offshore Trillion$ I mean it. Stop talking about cutting school budgets, Social Security benefits, Medicare, Veteran’s pensions. Stop cutting subsidies to transit systems, to foreign aid. Stop cutting unemployment benefits. Stop it all. There can not be any justification for budget cutting while wealthy criminals, corrupt politicians and business executives are hiding what reportedly totals between $29 trillion and $32 trillion in offshore tax havens. A massive data dump by the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), working in conjunction with dozens of news organizations around the globe, has exposed the secret files of over 120,000 dummy offshore companies that have been used for years to hide the wealth -- much of it ill-gotten, all of it tax-dodged -- of the world’s rich and mega-rich. Before we go further, let’s think about those numbers, which are really mind-boggling..... If this country were an honest and genuine democracy, Congress would be up in arms today about the news of all this hidden money, and would be setting up hearings even as you’re reading this article to investigate how it happened and how to recover it. There would be loud, impassioned calls for the Justice Department, the SEC and the IRS to launch massive legal probes to arrest and convict the crooks and to bring back the money. Have you seen any of this happening? Have you heard any such calls for action from Congress? No. The New York Times, the nation’s supposed leading newspaper, relegated its news report on the ICIJ documents exposing this crime of the millennium to an inside page and a few columns on Friday and focused on how scared and embarrassed it was making some rich people. Most Americans probably don’t even know what has been discovered, or even understand what a trillion dollars is. ....... Read all of this!
And BTV correspondent MADDY has this Health Care: The New American Sadism by Charles Simic You may have already read or heard about Steven Brill’s excellent, long article in Time magazine, called “Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us.” If you think it doesn’t concern you, don’t be so sure. Brill documents how a trip to the emergency room for chest pains that turn out to be indigestion can exceed the cost of a semester of college, how simple lab work done during a few days in a hospital can be more expensive than a new car, and how a drug that requires $300 to make and that the manufacturer sells to a hospital for $3,000–3,500, can cost the patient to whom it is prescribed $13,702. He looks closely at the outrageous prices on itemized hospital bills and finds that individual services listed on them have been priced at double and triple what those same services cost separately—for reasons neither the patient understands nor the hospital can explain. And he recounts the horror stories of people reduced to penury after a brief hospital stay, even though they had some health insurance, money in the bank, and suffered from only minor ailments. Put simply, Brill says, these bills tell us there’s no free market in our healthcare system, that hospitals set their rates knowing that someone in pain or in fear for his or her life is not going to ask to see the price list first before agreeing to some test or treatment. It’s no wonder that 60 percent of our fellow Americans who file for personal bankruptcy each year do so because of medical costs.......That may sound harsh. But Brill’s article makes one comprehend not just the talk in Washington about the supposed absolute necessity of replacing Medicare and Medicaid with “market-oriented” health care, but also the full human cost such a change would bring. If the elderly and the poor are stripped of the few protections these government programs give them, they’ll be left at the mercy of a medical industry and insurance companies whose already huge profits, so they imagine, will then get even bigger. Despite the claims that these are high-minded proposals that will fix our national debt, and despite their veneration as such by the political establishment and the media, what is being offered to the American people is nothing more than thinly-disguised money-making scams......This is the new face of American sadism: the unconcealed burst of joy at the thought that pain is going to be inflicted on someone weak and helpless. Its viciousness, I believe, is symptomatic of the way our society is changing. Everything from the healthcare industry, payday loans, and for-profit prisons to the trading in so-called derivatives, privatization of public education, outsourcing of jobs, war profiteering, and hundreds of other ongoing rackets all have that same predatory quality. It’s as if this were not their own country, but some place they’ve invaded in order to loot its wealth and fleece its population without caring what happens to that population tomorrow. The only interest these profit-seekers have in us is as cheap labor, cannon fodder for wars, and suckers to be parted with our money. If we ever have a police state here, I’ve been thinking, it won’t be because we’ve become fascists overnight, but because rounding up people and locking them up will be seen as just another way to get rich. If the hell that Jonathan Edwards and other Puritan divines described in such gruesome and graphic detail is still up and running, I hope that’s where many of them are headed for.
Next at Washingtonsblog.com we find this Guest Post by Eric Zuesse Obamacare Already Starts Collapsing Into Medical-Industry Feeding Frenzy Part of the Obama Administration’s promise to the American people regarding Obamacare was that the enormous waste in America’s medical expenses would be reduced. The reversal of that promise has already begun, with the Administration’s announcement on April 1st, that is will increase instead of (as had been promised) decrease, taxpayer subsidies to private health insurance companies. ...... On 14 March 2012, the Journal of the American Medical Association, headlined “Eliminating Waste in US Health Care,” and estimated that the waste amounted to somewhere between 21% and 47% of the total U.S. medical expenses, mixed public and private. One of the most wasteful parts of the entire system now is Medicare Part D “Advantage” private supplemental insurance plans, which are heavily subsidized by U.S. taxpayers, and yet, on average, still are costlier to Medicare recipients than is the government-run Part B program. ..... Part D, including “Advantage,” was sold by President George W. Bush to Congress on the basis of the President’s estimate that it would add “only” $395 billion to the deficit during its first ten years. Douglas Holtz-Eakin, who had previously been the head of Bush’s Council of Economic Advisors, was now the head of the Congressional Budget Office, and on 20 November 2003, right before the crucial House vote, he wrote to Congress, “CBO estimates that enacting the legislation would result in direct spending outlays totaling $395 billion.” This figure was crucial, because opponents had already said that any such legislation which would cost more than $400 billion (these were ten-year estimates, 2004-2013) would be unacceptable. Two months after the legislation was passed, the White House Budget Director revised that cost-estimate upward to the range of $534-$551 billion. Then, on 11 March 2004, Tony Pugh of Knight Ridder Newspapers headlined “Bush Administration Ordered Medicare Plan Cost Estimates Withheld,” and he opened: “The government’s top expert on Medicare costs [Richard S. Foster] was warned that he would be fired if he told key lawmakers about a series of Bush administration cost estimates that could have torpedoed congressional passage of the White House-backed Medicare prescription-drug plan.” On 2 April 2004, the Los Angeles Times headlined “Medicare Secrecy Inquiry Is Silenced: House Republicans stop Democrats from delving further into why the prescription drug bill’s true cost estimates were kept from Congress.” On 9 February 2005, the White House re-estimated what this legislation would cost the federal Government over ten years: $720 billion. That’s $320 billion more than congressmen had been promised when they voted to pass the legislation. (Almost no Democrats voted to pass it, but Republicans needed this cover from the Administration – “only $395 billion” – so that they could justify this program when speaking about it to their constituents.)
So, now with a Democratic President, on a 15 February 2013 Friday night news dump, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced a 2.3% reduction in subsidies to insurers who provide plans under Part D. This was supposed to be part of the cost-efficiencies in Obamacare, and an important part of the projected reductions in the growth of the federal debt. But then, after lots of lobbying by those insurers, CMS reversed itself on April 1st, and said that instead those subsidies would increase 3.3%. Reuters headlined on April 2nd, “In Reversal, US to Raise Medicare Advantage Payment Rate,” and announced, “In a reversal that followed intense lobbying from the health insurance industry,” the CMS “said on Monday it will increase the rate by 3.3 percent in 2014, reversing a 2.3 percent cut announced in February.” The many “free market” fans of increasing this Republican federal subsidy to big businesses were applauding. At fool.com, Sean Williams bannered “The Insurance Industry Shows Obamacare Who’s Boss,” and exulted “The insurance industry effectively dictated itself a raise.” He pointed out that Humana, Universal American, UnitedHealth, and Health Net, “generate 63.5%, 75%, 25%, and 25%, respectively, of their revenue from Medicare Advantage.” He didn’t note, however, that this “revenue” comes from enormous subsidies that are paid by U.S. taxpayers to those companies. CNN headlined on April 2nd, “Health Insurance Stocks Surge on Medicare Rate Hike,” and reported that all insurers jumped at least 4%, and “Humana, which has the greatest exposure to Medicare Advantage, jumped nearly 10%.”
In light of the death of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and the ensuing election, Milton Friedman's "petri dish" economic "free market by force" as outlined in John Perkins' Confessions of an Economic Hit Man (COEHM) and the cancer of austerity it has bred and spread as outlined in Naomi Klein's SHOCK DOCTRINE is already hitting not just the PIIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, Spain) but now Great Britain and the U.S. as we speak. At the core of some of the most brutal conflicts in South and Central America back in the 1970's was the U.S.'s Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Julian Assange and the wikileaks crew have now released a searchable database of previously disparate docs.
WIKILEAKS - THE KISSINGER FILES - 1.7 MILLION DOCUMENTS 1973-1976 The WIKILEAKS Public Library of US Diplomacy (PlusD) holds the world's largest searchable collection of United States confidential, or formerly confidential, diplomatic communications. As of April 8, 2013 it holds 2 million records comprising approximately 1 billion words. The collection covers US involvements in, and diplomatic or intelligence reporting on, every country on earth. It is the single most significant body of geopolitical material ever published. The PlusD collection, built and curated by WikiLeaks, is updated from a variety of sources, including leaks, documents released under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and documents released by the US State Department systematic declassification review. We are also preparing the processed PlusD collection for standalone distribution. If you are interested in obtaining a copy, please email: [email protected] and put 'Request' in the subject line. If you have unclassified or declassified US diplomatic documents to add to the PlusD collection please contact: [email protected] and put 'Submission' in the subject line. Please note that for inclusion in the PlusD Library we are generally unable to consider submissions of less than 1,000 documents at a time.
Included in the collection are:

Tim Walker at The Independent has more WikiLeaks releases Kissinger cables as part of 1.7 million US diplomatic records He may have been confined to London’s Ecuadorean Embassy for almost a year, but Julian Assange’s WikiLeaks website published its latest work today: more than 1.7 million US diplomatic communications from the years 1973-1976, which it has dubbed “The Kissinger Cables”. The documents date to when Henry Kissinger, right, was the US Secretary of State and National Security Adviser. Among the subjects illuminated by the cables are the 1973 Yom Kippur War, and America’s entanglement with a series of Cold War dictatorships in Europe and Latin America. They also include a detailed 1975 memo from the US Embassy in London, explaining the rise of late Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, saying she “blazed into national prominence almost literally from out of nowhere.” At around 700 million words, the Kissinger Cables are almost five times the size of Cablegate, the set of some 250,000 US diplomatic cables published by WikiLeaks between 2010 and 2011. Much of the work was done personally by Assange, 41. The Kissinger Cables, he said, represent, “the single most significant body of geopolitical material ever published.” The records were not leaked, however, but analysed and organised from publicly available government documents in the US National Archives and Records Association (NARA). Wikileaks has created a searchable database of the “confidential or formerly confidential” diplomatic communications that it calls the Wikileaks Public Library of US Diplomacy, or PlusD. In a related matter Witness at ex-dictator's trial links Guatemalan president to war crimes Mike McDonald reporting for Reuters UK explains A former member of Guatemala's armed forces implicated President Otto Perez in civil war atrocities as he testified on Thursday at the genocide trial of ex-dictator Efrain Rios Montt. Hugo Reyes, who was stationed as an army engineer in a violent region of Guatemala under Rios Montt's 1982-1983 rule, said Perez commanded soldiers who burned down homes and shot and killed civilians during the civil war, which pitted leftist insurgents against a series of right-wing governments. Perez, a retired army general who was elected president in 2011, also known as major Tito Arias during the civil war, has previously denied involvement in war crimes. Reyes, speaking to the court by video link from an undisclosed location, said he witnessed the killing of farmers on an army base near the village of Nebaj in northwestern Guatemala by troops under the command of Perez and another officer. "The soldiers under the orders of Major Tito Arias, known as Otto Perez Molina, Francisco Marin and the officers they were in charge of, and the commander of the company of engineers, coordinated the burning (of homes) and pulling people out so they could execute them," Reyes, 47, told the court. There were gasps in the court as he spoke, and people who had been chatting fell silent. Throughout his testimony, Reyes kept his face hidden with the peak of the baseball cap he wore. ....... Prosecutors allege Rios Montt turned a blind eye as soldiers used rape, torture and arson against leftist rebels and targeted indigenous people in a "scorched earth" offensive that killed at least 1,771 members of the Mayan Ixil group. Rios Montt, 86, has yet to take the stand in the trial, the first in which a country has prosecuted one of its former heads of state for genocide and crimes against humanity. Reyes, now a mechanic, related how soldiers took kidnapped civilians to a military base where they were tortured, killed and dumped in mass graves. "Some had their tongues cut out and their fingernails removed and other injuries," he said. "The army officers said to them: 'Sons of bitches, talk or we'll cut out your tongues.'" Many of the victims of the conflict were ethnic Maya. "Indian seen, Indian dead. That was the motto they had," said Reyes, the only former member of the armed forces prosecutors have lined up for the witness stand. Perez, a conservative, was the first military man to take the Guatemalan presidency since the end of the war. ....... We'll leave Melissa McEwan at Shakesville.com to comment for us on RIP Margaret Thatcher Margaret Thatcher was a radical conservative, and I don't have anything kind to say about her politics. She would not have had anything kind to say about mine. What if the THATCHER Assassination attempt in 1984 and the REAGAN Assassination attempt in 1981 had been successful? Would the "trickle-down" Thatcherism/Reaganism that spawned today's Global Austerity have continued or grown into the cancer that is now enveloping much of the developed world? BRAVE NEW FOUNDATION PRESENTS FightingForOurHomes.com Eight million people are at risk of losing their homes because Wall Street abandoned responsible lending practices to gain short-term profits. The housing crisis is not just a problem for families facing foreclosure - it's a problem for every homeowner in America. As long as foreclosures persist, home values will keep going down, and everyone loses. We need your help. Have you been affected by the housing meltdown? Foreclosed on? Underwater? Record your story, or the story of a friend, family member, or neighbor, and send it to us. You can also add your written story along with a photo for the map. Then, watch the video stories of the families, mothers, fathers, and children who have lost, or are losing the place they call home. We go to TopDocumentaryFilms.com for Ethos Ethos, a powerful new documentary hosted by Woody Harrelson, is an investigation into the flaws in our systems, and the mechanisms that work against democracy, our environment and the the common good. Democracy Now's Juan Gonzales writes in the NY Daily News Gonzalez: With much at stake, Gang of Eight senators' immigration bill, due to be unveiled soon, awaits uphill climb ...... For undocumented Mexicans, getting “to the back of the line” could mean a generation of waiting — unless Congress also increases the existing caps on legal immigration from that country. But this bill would do far more than just legalize the undocumented. Under pressure from employers, it will transform future labor flows into the country. The number of professional and scientific workers admitted each year (now capped at 85,000) would be dramatically increased — something feverishly sought by Silicon Valley companies. An entire new Blue Card would be created for agriculture, allowing immigrants who work for three years on U.S. farms to get an expedited path to legal status. A new “W-Visa” program for industries such as hotels, maintenance companies and retail stores would allow employers to sponsor up to 200,000 low-skilled immigrants per year and provide those workers an expedited path to permanent residency. And those are just some of the proposals in a bill that will run for hundreds of pages. The public debate will begin soon. It will not be easy. Never has been. On The Big Picture Thursday The USPS: A proxy fight in the war against austerity Guest host Sam Sacks is in for Thom Hartmann tonight and speaks with Rep. Mark Pocan and ‘The Nation’s’ John Nichols about the decision to continue mail deliveries on Saturdays. Also discussed: The upcoming gun control debate in Washington, what the Robin Hood Tax would do, and why increasing taxes on cigarettes to pay for preschool is a good idea. In tonight’s ‘Daily Take,’ Thom explains what the signing of the ‘Monsanto Protection Act’ means about our political system. KXL UPDATE: TarSandsBlockade.org TarSandsBlockade.org reports on Dispatches From Exxon’s Spill Zone: The Cover-up Continues Mayflower, AR, April 9 – As spill estimates are being revised to near 300,000 gallons, we have been hearing very disturbing reports about Exxon’s continued focus on PR damage control rather than actual damage control. At every turn they are attempting to obfuscate the truth even if it means endangering the health of workers, residents and the ecosystem. We already reported how they power-washed bitumen into a nearby wetland and then paid local sheriffs to keep cameras away, hiding the problem at the expense of the local watershed and everyone who relies on it for drinking water, hunting and fishing. During the day, workers and police are not wearing masks. We have spoken to several workers who had no idea that they were dealing with tar sands bitumen instead of crude oil. None were willing to talk further or go on the record. At night, according to reports from several residents, workers wear full protective suits. Something is wrong here. There are two possibilities, both alarming.

Workers are wearing protective suits at night because they are spraying toxic dispersants. We also have independent reports from multiple residents that workers are spraying something, but only at night. They also report that the smell is different and more intense while this is happening.
Exxon is knowingly exposing its workers to carcinogenic and teratogenic compounds, without their full knowledge or consent, in order to create a media fiction in which this spill is minor enough to not even require full hazmat gear.

Air quality testing trucks from Center for Environmental Health (CEH) are only on scene during the day, when residents say that the air is better anyway because of higher winds and when the alleged dispersal-spraying isn’t happening. Over a dozen of the residents we’ve spoken to, as well as all five members of our film crew, have experienced a range of symptoms including vomiting, diarrhea, headaches, gut-aches, burning throat, lethargy, nausea, and body-aches. These workers are in closer proximity to the spill for longer periods of time. We also have reports that Exxon is secretly removing dead fish from the lake at night. A resident saw a crew of workers in a boat near their property, trolling the lake with nets. Each net that came up, the resident said, held at least a dozen dead fish..... Much more at TarSandsBlockade.org Also Citizens have now filed an Exxon Oil Spill Class Action Lawsuit in Mayflower, Arkansas and a related matter Exxon MTBE Lawsuit: New Hampshire Jury Finds Oil Giant Liable In Groundwater Contamination . FUKUSHIMA DAICHI UPDATE: At WashingtonsBlog Fukushima Falling Apart … Because Plant Operator Has No Incentive to Spend Money to Fix It Submitted by George Washington Experts suspect the radioactive water has been leaking since early in the crisis, citing high contamination in fish caught in waters just off the plant. ...... “The nuclear crisis is far from over,” the nationwide Mainichi newspaper said in a recent editorial. “There is a limit to what the patchwork operation can do on a jury-rigged system.” Lots more to read with tons of links as always! ECOTERRORISM? Matt Sledge reports for HuffPoAOL Bureau of Prisons Backtracks, Again, On Daniel McGowan The latest twist in the saga of Daniel McGowan, an environmental activist who was convicted of arson linked to the Earth Liberation Front, has his lawyer exasperated with the Bureau of Prisons, which is now conceding it cannot stop him from blogging for The Huffington Post. McGowan was taken from his Brooklyn halfway house by marshals and put in jail last week in response to a blog post he wrote that was critical of the Bureau of Prisons. After his lawyers complained that his rights were being infringed upon, he was re-released to the halfway house where he had been serving out the final months of his term. But there was a twist: Upon being released, McGowan was forced to sign a document stating that "writing articles, appearing in any type of television or media outlets, news reports and/or documentaries without prior BOP approval is strictly prohibited." Violating that agreement, which he signed under duress, might mean going back to jail. It was, said Rachel Meeropol, his lawyer at the Center for Constitutional Rights, a form of "fast and loose retaliation." When HuffPost contacted the Bureau of Prisons' regional office in Philadelphia, however, they quickly backtracked on the agreement. "He's not prohibited from doing that, and we're going to address it with the (halfway house) contractor," said Lamine N'Diaye, a BOP public information officer. If McGowan wrote another HuffPost blog today, said N'Diaye, "he's not going to be punished." The BOP's new position may be on firmer legal ground than the contract McGowan was forced to sign: as the CCR pointed out when they fought for his rerelease, a federal judge ruled in 2007 that attempts to prohibit inmates from writing articles under their own byline are unconstitutional. "This chain of events is so ridiculous, it is almost laughable," said Meeropol. "What is sobering, however, is the impact of these repeated 'mistakes' -- a dedicated activist is being chilled from sharing important information with the public in violation of the First Amendment and the Bureau of Prison’s own regulations." Executive Director of the Navdanya Trust, Indian environmental activist and anti-globalization author Vandana Shiva writes for The Asian Age Seeds of suicide ..... Control over seed is the first link in the food chain because seed is the source of life. When a corporation controls seed, it controls life, especially the life of farmers. Monsanto’s concentrated control over the seed sector in India as well as across the world is very worrying. This is what connects farmers’ suicides in India to Monsanto vs Percy Schmeiser in Canada, to Monsanto vs Bowman in the US, and to farmers in Brazil suing Monsanto for $2.2 billion for unfair collection of royalty. Through patents on seed, Monsanto has become the “Life Lord” of our planet, collecting rents for life’s renewal from farmers, the original breeders. Patents on seed are illegitimate because putting a toxic gene into a plant cell is not “creating” or “inventing” a plant. These are seeds of deception — the deception that Monsanto is the creator of seeds and life; the deception that while Monsanto sues farmers and traps them in debt, it pretends to be working for farmers’ welfare, and the deception that GMOs feed the world. GMOs are failing to control pests and weeds, and have instead led to the emergence of superpests and superweeds. ....... The ultimate seeds of suicide is Monsanto’s patented technology to create sterile seeds. (Called “Terminator technology” by the media, sterile seed technology is a type of Gene Use Restriction Technology, GRUT, in which seed produced by a crop will not grow — crops will not produce viable offspring seeds or will produce viable seeds with specific genes switched off.) The Convention on Biological Diversity has banned its use, otherwise Monsanto would be collecting even higher profits from seed. Monsanto’s talk of “technology” tries to hide its real objectives of ownership and control over seed where genetic engineering is just a means to control seed and the food system through patents and intellectual property rights. A Monsanto representative admitted that they were “the patient’s diagnostician, and physician all in one” in writing the patents on life-forms, from micro-organisms to plants, in the TRIPS’ agreement of WTO. Stopping farmers from saving seeds and exercising their seed sovereignty was the main objective. Monsanto is now extending its patents to conventionally bred seed, as in the case of broccoli and capsicum, or the low gluten wheat it had pirated from India which we challenged as a biopiracy case in the European Patent office. That is why we have started Fibres of Freedom in the heart of Monsanto’s Bt cotton/suicide belt in Vidharba. We have created community seed banks with indigenous seeds and helped farmers go organic. No GMO seeds, no debt, no suicides. Then Daniel Moss at YES Magazine writes this review Look out Monsanto: The Global Food Movement Is Rising - The book "Harvesting Justice: Transforming Food, Land, and Agriculture in the Americas" isn’t just a look at the world’s most exciting food justice groups—it’s also a knockout organizing tool. .... Using “food sovereignty” as the secret sauce, the book sautés the individual ingredients of sister movements into a coherent, flavorful whole. The book was created for the U.S. Food Sovereignty Alliance—a network of organizations allied with La Via Campesina, which advocates for culturally appropriate (think tortillas in Mexico instead of bread), ecologically sound (no GMOs), and small-farmer friendly food systems. The book’s authors, Tory Field and Beverly Bell, do a lot more with food than just write about it. Field is a farmer who co-manages the Next Barn Over Farm, a CSA program in western Massachusetts. Bell has worked for decades with small farmer organizations in Haiti, including those who set fire to agricultural aid after the 2010 earthquake. The farmers didn't see the donated seeds as aid, but as a Monsanto “trojan horse” undermining their control over their own food....... Our BTV Last Word goes to Alternet's Ronnie Cummins & Katherine Paul who warn about Monsanto's Next Target: Democracy The battle for food sovereignty is a battle we cannot afford to lose: Big Food’s greatest fear is materializing. A critical mass of educated consumers, food and natural health activists are organizing a powerful movement that could well overthrow North America’s trillion-dollar junk food empire. Savvy and more determined than ever, activists are zeroing in on the Achilles heel of Food Inc. -- labeling. But as consumers demand truth and greater transparency in labeling, it isn’t just Big Food whose empire is vulnerable. The biotech industry, which makes billions supplying junk food manufacturers with cheap, genetically engineered (GE) ingredients, has even more to lose. Monsanto knows that if food producers are forced to label the genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in their food products, they’ll reformulate those products to meet consumer demand for GMO-free alternatives. That’s why companies like Monsanto, DuPont and Dow, along with Coca-Cola and Pepsi, last year spent more than $46 million to defeat Proposition 37, California’s GMO labeling initiative. The junk food and biotech industries narrowly (48.5% - 51.5%) prevailed in California, but they know it’s only a matter of time before one or more states pass a mandatory GMO labeling law. More than 30 state legislatures are now debating GMO labeling bills. And consumers have broadened the fight beyond just labeling. Five counties and two cities in California and Washington have banned the growing of GE crops. In addition, given the near total absence of FDA regulation, 19 states have passed laws restricting GMOs. How is the biotech industry fighting back? By attacking democracy. Experts say the laws are on the side of consumers. But consumers will no doubt still have to defend democracy against an increasingly desperate, and aggressive, industry bent on protecting the highly profitable business of genetically engineered food. The battle lines have been drawn. Will we cede our food sovereignty rights to a profit-at-all costs corporatocracy? Monsanto’s lobbyists are out in force in Washington, Vermont, Connecticut, and several dozen other states. They’re lobbying politicians behind the scenes and planting misleading articles in the press. Attacking pro-labeling anti-GMO proponents as anti-technology Luddites. They’re repeating ad nauseum their propaganda claims that GE foods and crops are perfectly safe and therefore need no labeling, that transgenics are environment- and climate-friendly, and that genetically modified crops are necessary to feed the world. ............ Yet undeterred by 200 years of case law and legislation institutionalizing states’ rights and local “Home Rule,” corporations are brazenly attacking the rights of states and localities to regulate Corporate America’s often reckless and criminal behavior. They’re getting help from the infamous pro-corporate lobbying group, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). ALEC is lobbying states across the country to restrict counties or local governments from passing any laws limiting pesticide use, GMOs, fracking, or industrial agriculture practices. ALEC and elements in the Republican and Democratic Party allegedly support "federalism," or state's rights -- a theory based on the idea that state government can better represent and respond to local interests than a more centralized federal government. Yet ALEC apparently does not apply this logic to relations between local and state government, at least not when local control steps on the toes of corporate America. We are engaged in a fundamental battle, for the right to know what’s in our food, the right to choose what we buy and eat, and the right to regulate out-of-control corporations that are threatening our environment, our health and future climate stability. Without BioDemocracy there can be no democracy. Without a balance of powers between the federal government, states and local home rule, there is no republic, but rather a corporatocracy, an unholy alliance between indentured politicians and profit-at-any-cost corporations. The battle for food sovereignty is a battle we cannot afford to lose. We hope you are making wise choices where you spend yer hard-earned dollars by supporting your local businesses and growers and turning away from the corporate-run homogenized outlets and brands. As Woody Harrelson explains in Ethos where you spend your cash WILL have an impact on the mega-corporations. In fact it may be the ONLY WAY to reverse our collective downslide to extinction. The lawmakers across the planet and the paymasters they serve aren't interested in any of this and will continue their corrupt destructive ways. And we offer a toast to Venezuela's Acting President Nicolas Maduro in victory against pro-COEHM Miranda state Governor Henrique Capriles this Sunday as polling centers were due to open from 6 a.m. (0630 EST) until 6 p.m. (1830 EST), though voting could run longer if there are still lines. And we also hope you have your gardening plans in place! The Brick TeeVee Crew is gearing up for our most productive vegetable garden ever this year featuring our first try at growing organic Sugar Pearl sweet corn from Gardens Alive! Have a great Sunday and we'll see you next week!

BRICK TEEVEE ALERTS!_©

Democracy Now's Iraq interactive timeline

Headlines Monday, April 8, 2013

Kristinn Hrafnsson, WikiLeaks spokesperson. "The Kissinger Cables": Three Years After "Collateral Murder," WikiLeaks Explores U.S. Diplomacys
Birgitta Jonsdottir, member of the Icelandic Parliament Icelandic Lawmaker Birgitta Jónsdóttir on Challenging Gov’t Secrecy from Twitter to Bradley Manning
Tariq Ali, British-Pakistani political commentator Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013): Tariq Ali on Late British PM’s Legacy from Austerity to Apartheid

Headlines Tuesday, April 9, 2013

"Pete", is an undercover animal rights investigator Undercover Activist Details Secret Filming of Animal Abuse & Why "Ag-Gag" Laws May Force Him to Stop
Emily Meredith, communications director for the Animal Agriculture Alliance & Will Potter, freelance reporter Debate: After Activists Covertly Expose Animal Cruelty, Should They Be Targeted With "Ag-Gag" Laws?

Headlines Wednesday, April 10

NYT’s Mark Mazzetti The Way of the Knife: NYT’s Mark Mazzetti on the CIA’s Post-9/11 Move from Spying to Assassinations
Amira Hass, Haaretz correspondent for the occupied Palestinian territories Israeli Journalist Amira Hass Sparks Furor at Home for Defending Palestinian Right to Resist

Headlines Thursday, April 11, 2013

"Rally for Citizenship" Wednesday in Washington, D.C. Rally for Citizenship: Tens of Thousands Flood Capitol Hill in Massive Call for Humane Reform
Juan González Juan González: Immigration Debate "A Battle Over What America Will Look Like in 21st Century"
Sharif Kouddous & Lina Attalah Sharif Kouddous & Lina Attalah on Egypt’s Media, Sectarianism & State Violence from Mubarak to Morsi

Headlines Friday, April 12, 2013

Bishop Thomas Gumbleton Bishop Thomas Gumbleton Speaks Out For Sexual Abuse Victims; Reflects on Lifetime of Activism As newly elected Pope Francis orders the Vatican to act more decisively on sexual abuse cases, we speak to retired Bishop Thomas Gumbleton of Detroit.

GRITtv @ www.grittv.org with Laura Flanders

»»» FEATURED SHOW The New Face of Healthcare: Drone Doctors? While problems with machines might be a surprise to industry executives -- and the New York Times -- nurses have long been aware of the downsides for quality care and human healthcare employment. more....

BRICK TEEVEE SPORT!_©

»»» NBA on ABC SUNDAY Bulls @ Heat 1 pm et

»»» NBA on TNT TUESDAY Doubleheader! Pacers @ Celtics 8 pm et then Blazers @ Clippers 10:30 pm et

»»» SUNDAY BASEBALL on TBS Rays @ Red Sox 1:35 pm et

»»» SUNDAY NIGHT BASEBALL on ESPN Orioles @ Yankees 8 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.

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

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

Appalachian Communities Health Emergency (ACHE) Act

H.R. 5959

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

NET NEUTRALITY! SaveTheInternet.com Declaration of Internet Freedom Tired of fighting bad bills like SOPA, PIPA and CISPA? Want to stand up against those who are trying to control what we do and say online? It's time for something different. A group of more than 1,500 organizations, academics, startup founders and tech innovators has come together to produce a Declaration of Internet Freedom, a set of five principles that put forward a positive vision of the open Internet. Our goal: Get millions of Internet users to sign on to this Declaration. Build political power for Internet users to make sure that we get a seat at the table whenever, and wherever, the future of the Internet is being decided. It's time to stop playing defense and start going on the offensive. The open Internet is central to people’s freedom to communicate, share, advocate and innovate in the 21st century. But powerful interests want to censor free speech, block the sharing of information, hinder innovation and control how Internet users get online. And all too often, people in power are making political decisions behind closed doors about how the Internet should operate — and they're doing this without the involvement of actual Internet users. The result: policies that could close down the open Internet and destroy our freedom to connect. It’s time for us to reclaim the Internet for its users. Take action now and sign the Declaration of Internet Freedom. ACTION! Meet the New CISPA. Same as the Old CISPA. Last year, thanks to a public outcry, the effort to pass overreaching cybersecurity legislation stalled in the Senate. Now supporters have reintroduced the House version of that legislation — the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA). The “new” version is in fact identical to the original CISPA — and poses the same threat to our digital civil liberties. If CISPA becomes law, it will be a major blow to our online privacy. But more than that, CISPA’s passage would have a chilling effect on our freedom to connect online. We won’t feel as free to state unpopular opinions, or to speak truth to power, if we know that Big Brother could get a feed of everything we say and do. This is not what the free and open Internet is about. We must tell Congress: Vote NO on CISPA and bury this bill for good.

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

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

MOVE TO AMEND! www.movetoamend.org SIGN HERE NOW! And check out more actions on the Move to Amend Calendar for more! Also visit Rep Alan Grayson's site www.savedemocracy.net GET INVOLVED! And Alan Grayson is BACK in the 113th Congress! Help out at CongressmanWithGuts.com

REPRESENT.US IT’S TIME TO GET MONEY OUT OF POLITICS SO THE GOVERNMENT CAN REPRESENT US. Represent.Us is a fresh campaign to pass the American Anti-Corruption Act: a law that would overhaul campaign finance, impose strict lobbying and conflict of interest laws, and end secret political money. We are mobilizing millions of Americans — conservatives and progressives, young and old, every issue group fighting K Street, online and offline — to join this campaign. Represent.Us is not just building a movement to pass the Act. The campaign will use hard-hitting accountability tactics to unseat politicians who fail to endorse the Act. If passed, the Act will completely reshape American politics and policy-making and give people a voice. See this Guest Blog at Greenpeace by Executive Director Josh Silver The $6 Billion Auction: Finally, A Plan to Get Money Out of Politics for more information!

SUPPORT THE TROOPS WHO REFUSE TO FIGHT See CourageToResist.org and Bradley Manning Support Network UPDATE! From the Bradley Manning Support Network Update 4/13/13: Bradley has done more for peace than Obama. It is time for the government to make a deal The LA Times argues that the recent ruling in favor of the defense offers the government an exit: it is time to make a deal. And Ron Paul states that Bradley Manning has done more for peace than Obama. Read more... AND Bradley Manning hearing, 4/10/13: partial victory for defense, new media restrictions April 10, 2013. By Nathan Fuller. Judge Lind denied one government motion and one defense motion in Bradley Manning's pretrial hearing today. The government will be allowed to bring a classified witness to testify, but it won't be allowed to lower its burden of proof regarding "aiding the enemy." Court is now in recess until a closed May 7-8 session, and then for an open session May 21-24.Read more....

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

The essential guide for watching government propaganda!

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

AFGHANISTAN: 2,198 US Military Dead as of April 5, 2013

The Obameter: Tracking Obama's Campaign Promises

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

This Week (ABC) Host George Stephanopoulos
• Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla
• Sen. Charles Schumer, D, N.Y.
• Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala.
• ROUNDTABLE: ABC News’ George Will; House Judiciary Committee chair Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va.; Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill.; Washington Post Columnist Ruth Marcus; and Wall Street Journal Columnist Kimberley Strassel.
• Sunday Spotlight: legendary New York Yankees’ closer Mariano Rivera and Yankees slugger Robinson Cano
Face The Nation (CBS) Host Bob Schiefer
• Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Penn.
• Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.V.
• Mark Kelly, the husband of former Rep. Gabby Giffords, R-Ariz.
• Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.
• ROUNDTABLE: The Washington Post's David Ignatius; The New York Times' David Sanger; Cook Political Report's Amy Walter; CBS News Political Director John Dickerson
60 Minutes (CBS)
• The Warlord - Lara Logan joins African soldiers and their U.S. military advisors as they search for Joseph Kony, the world's most wanted warlord known for abducting children to fight in his marauding army. Peter Klein and Jeff Newton are the producers.
• The Knuckleballer- R.A. Dickey is the only major leaguer throwing the knuckleball these days and the only knuckleballer ever to win the Cy Young Award for best pitcher. Lesley Stahl reports. Richard Bonin is the producer.
Meet the Press (NBC) Host David Gregory
• Microsoft, NBC News Dissolve MSNBC.com Joint Venture NBC is buying Microsoft's 50 percent interest in the MSNBC website for an undisclosed amount. MSNBC.com will be rebranded as NBCNews.com, and readers who logged into MSNBC.com late Sunday were automatically redirected to NBCNews.com. Microsoft is preparing to launch its own news service this fall. Although he declined to provide many details about the operation general manager of MSN.com Bob Visse said the news staff will be about the same size as the roughly 100 people who created original content for the MSNBC.com. "There is no question that we are going to have more flexibility to make our own decisions," said Vivian Schiller, NBC News' chief digital officer. "This is really an amicable breakup. We think competition will make us better." Okay then.
• Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL)
• GOP Senator Mike Lee of Utah
• New York Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand
• ROUNDTABLE: Senators Gillibrand and Lee join a discussion with the BBC’s Katty Kay, New York Times Columnist David Brooks, and NBC News Political Director Chuck Todd
• Learning from Jackie Robinson - filmmaker Ken Burns and Jackie Robinson’s wife, Rachel Robinson
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.
• Senator John McCain (R-AZ)
• Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA)
• Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV)
• Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL)
• ROUNDTABLE: Democratic Strategist Donna Brazile, Republican Strategist Ana Navarro and the Wall Street Journal’s Washington Bureau Chief Gerald Seib
HEAD ON RADIO with Bob Kincaid

Headon Radio with Bob Kincaid 6 PM Eastern, 3 PM Pacific, 2300 GMT. Duration: 3 hrs. To be part of Conversation Radio on Head-on Radio, call toll-free (877) 443-2366, or use our Liberal community line at 304-658-3333. Email bob [at] headonradio [dot] com during the show!
• FRONT PORCH FRIDAY!!!!! Pull up a chair and a cold one! Listen NOW HERE!! Keep Bob on the air HERE ya hear? Amen to the White Rose Society! Bob's show archives at the White Rose HERE! 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' - April 11, 2013 With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen... IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Profits vs. People at Obama's EPA confirmation hearing; Victory for the people in the federal fracking wars; GAO says nuke evacuation plans inadequate; Climate change is coming for your wine; PLUS: Environmental groups push back against Big Oil with hysterical ads ... All that and more in today's Green News Report!
• IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see link): Solar panels could destroy U.S. utilities, according to U.S. utilities; Wind Energy Record in California, equal to 2 nuke plants; Obama Budget Drains Tax Breaks For Big Oil; Keystone XL using old, badly welded pipelines?; Rep. Joe Barton Says Biblical 'Great Flood' Proves Climate Change Not Man Made; Tea Party Leader arrest after Agenda 21 threats; 85% of tax experts support a carbon tax; Climate change's big tax on Americans; Nike: betting against climate scientists is 'false hope' ... PLUS: Video: Sen. Bernie Sanders' call for climate action is full of awesome ... and much, MUCH more! ...
• BRADCAST UPDATE! Obama's Illegal Fracking Lease; Gingrich's Election Fraud: KPFK 'BradCast' Attorney who won first-of-its-kind challenge to federal land lease oil fracking deal joins Brad to discuss victory, what happens next...
• BRADBLOG UPDATE! Newt 2012 Campaign Worker 'Guilty' of Election Fraud Gingrich Presidential campaign worker pleads guilty to felonies in failed bid to put Newt on VA's 2012 GOP primary ballot; 'More arrests' may come, say prosecutors...
• BRADBLOG UPDATE! VIDEO! AR Tar Sands Oil Spill a Bargain for ExxonMobil Yes, it pays for the world's most profitable corporation to repeatedly violate federal law, as Rachel Maddow explains...
• BRADCAST UPDATE! Desi AND Brad Guest Host 'The Young Turks' It wasn't planned that way, but it happened, at the last minute...and it was a lot of fun. Check out a few short video clips on knives, guns, Rand Paul, Obama, Social Security & more...
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
• Peter B Collins, Truthout | Op-Ed An Insider's View of the Progressive Talk Radio Devolution
• PBC Standard Podcast April 9, 2013 Wide-ranging Conversations with Two Ex-Pats: Journalist Frank Viviano and Activist Jeff Halper
• PBC Standard Podcast April 10, 2013 Filmmaker Jean Phillippe Tremblay on “Shadows of Liberty”, Important New Documentary About Failings of US Media
• PBC News & Comment April 10, 2013 PBC News & Comment: Obama’s Gratuitous Giveaway on Social Security
• PBC News & Comment April 11, 2013PBC News & Comment: 22-foot Gash in Leaky Pipeline in Arkansas
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 Weekend on Ring of Fire Radio! Saturdays at 3 o’clock Eastern, rebroadcasts Sunday nights at 8 pm Eastern.
• Author Thomas Frank will be joining us to tell us why Hollywood consistently gets it wrong when it comes to depicting what really happens in Washington, D.C.
• Bill French from the National Security Network will be joining us to discuss the realities of the threats posed by North Korea.
• David Callahan, a senior fellow at Demos.org, will tell us how the super wealthy are able to control our democracy.
• And John Amato, founder and editor of the Crooks and Liars blog, will be here to talk about the trillions of dollars being funneled through offshore tax havens.
• NEW! This Week on Ring of Fire on Free Speech TV! Sundays at NOON!
- American citizens are painfully ignorant about the majority of issues that affect our day-to-day lives. Ring of Fire co-host Sam Seder will join us to discuss whether Americans are actually too stupid for democracy.
- Corporate America is trying to sell us the idea that government regulations are killing our economy. Will be exposing all of the myths of the anti- regulation talking points with attorney James Kauffman.
- Republicans have devised a new strategy to make disastrous changes to America’s political landscape, and Howard Nations and Mike Burg will join us for a discussion on that issue.
- And a proposed trade deal could give American corporations more power than our federal government – attorney Joe Cotchett will have the details.
• VIDEO! THE HISTORY OF CORPORATE CORRUPTION & FRAUD with Robert Kennedy Jr & Mike Papantonio “Call us if you have a personal story about Fraud on Taxpayers or False Claims for Payment made by Corportations at 1-866-389-FIRE (3473) or contact us by email at info@ringoffireradio.com if you have evidence of fraud that robbed taxpayer dollars. If our government is paying too much due to fraud by a corporation, Ring of Fire wants to do a story on it.” • Republicans Blast EPA, Protect Big Ag by Alisha Mims, writer and researcher with Ring of Fire. • Ring of Fire’s Weekly Rewind featuring the top stories from Ring of Fire from the past week. • 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 12 NOON et @ Majority.fm!

• MONDAY 4/8/13 Tim Shorrock: Obama's Crackdown on Whistleblowers
• TUESDAY 4/9/13 Matt & Michael: The Thatcher Legacy & The Grand Betrayal
• WEDNESDAY 4/10/13 Mark Blyth: Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea
• THURSDAY 4/11/13 Samhita Mukhopadhyay: Fast Food Strike & More, Matt & Michael Host
• FRIDAY 4/12/13 Casual Friday: Cliff Schecter & David Cross
• MORE Podcast Interviews at majorityfm.libsyn.com!
KEISER REPORT 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!
• MaxKeiserTV on YouTube! MaxKeiserTV
• STACY SUMMARY: For once and for all, here are our real Facebook pages, the other ones are fake. But if you feel like chatting to the fake ones, by all means, go ahead.
• Winner Takes All: The Super-priority Status of Derivatives [Ellen Brown] by Ellen Brown
•Max Keiser in a MMA cage fight event fighting Jamie Dimon? by maxkeiser - UPDATE: “That would be brilliant I doubt they got balls to show up though….. maybe we can get some lookalikes that you can beat the crap out of. There is a show on the 4th May at the Troxy on comercial road just round the corner of HSBC.” Hello Max, My name is Patrick Carroll [...]
• US Mint Sells Nearly 1 Million Silver Eagles Monday, Begins Rationing Sales! by The Doc - The US Mint has updated April sales statistics for the first time since last week, and to no surprise, the Mint again reported more massive sales, with another 833,000 silver eagles reported sold Monday! The April total through 6 business days is now 1.645 million ounces, bringing the 2013 total to a massive 15.868 million ounces. In response to the continued massive demand for silver eagles, the mint also has begun rationing sales of silver eagles to primary dealers resulting in supply delays! Just as was seen in January, tight physical supplies have seen premiums on ASE’s skyrocketing over the weekend and early this week, as ASE’s are rapidly becoming as scarce as 90%! Click here for more on the USMint’s Silver Eagle shortage.
• Gold sells off on fears that bankrupt European nations will be forced to sell their gold reserves by stacyherbert - Stacy Summary: While the ten tons to be sold by Cyprus is a blip in the gold ocean, apparently, some investors fear that the likes of Italy, Portugal and Spain will be forced to dump tons of gold on the market to satisfy the IMF, EU and ECB. I doubt very much Italy would sell any of its gold and would exit the euro before doing so. The same for Portugal, I assume. READ Cyprus sell-off fears send gold price tumbling (guardian.co.uk)
• NEW! The FIRST Issue of The Real Asset Report by stacyherbert - Stacy Summary: Lots of fun and interesting data, analysis, opinion and chart porn on gold, silver, bitcoin, currency wars, interviews with Jim Rickards, Max Keiser and more. I love the twitter account showdown idea (see below)! How funny, especially that Max is most active on Twitter on Monday at 1pm?!
• KEISER REPORT [KR429] Keiser Report: Yobbish Lifestyles of Financial Arsonists We ask whether taxpayers have been subsidizing the yobbish lifestyles of bankers and financial arsonists. In the second half of the show, Max Keiser talks to Reggie Middleton of BoomBustBlog.com about fraud and collapse at the heart of what remains of the Irish banking system.
• KEISER REPORT [KR430] Keiser Report: Myths of Margaret Thatcher We explore the myth that Margaret Thatcher “saved Britain.” Max suggests she gave the population a British dream of “striving to mature before your debts do.” They look at North Sea oil production, and wonder how big a UK sovereign wealth fund would be today if Thatcher had saved any of the country’s oil wealth. In the second half of the show, Max Keiser talks to Jan Skoyles of The Real Asset Company about Bitcoin: Is she bit-curious or bit-con? They also discuss her report released today which asks, who is buying gold? Brazil, Paraguay, China are stacking bail-ins with the people’s money in the bank.
• KEISER REPORT [KR431] Keiser Report: Bitcoin Bubble Buzz We discuss the Old Lady’s gold habit, the gold that may be leaving Cyprus’ central bank (or not) and Confucius’ famous saying: “IMF STUPID SELL TO GOLD, I’M BUYING.” They also look at the Federal Reserve data accidentally sent to Wall Street bank lobbyists and the venture capitalists entering the new Land Grab. In the second half of the show, Max Keiser talks to James Turk of Goldmoney.com about money, gold, bitcoin, currency wars and the nature of bank failures: to look good until the bank fails overnight. They also discuss Austrian school theories on money and how they relate to gold and to bitcoin.
• ON THE EDGE On the Edge with Greg Hunter An interview with Greg Hunter of USA Watchdog.
• THE TRUTH ABOUT MARKETS [TaM-1273] The Truth About the Currency Backed By War and Disease Stacy Summary: This week they discuss the Mt.Gox crash and bitcoin; the massive gold and silver sell-offs and Margaret Thatcher’s death. Download show HERE (mp3) • Donate to ResonanceFM here!
The Scott Horton Radio Show

Scott Horton is host of Antiwar Radio on Pacifica 90.7 FM KPFK in Los Angeles and KUCR 88.3 in Riverside, and the Scott Horton Show on No Agenda Radio. (You can listen live Monday through Friday, excluding Thursday, from 12-2 PM Eastern HERE.) Plenty of archives too!
• Scott Horton Radio Show 4/12/13 M.J. Rosenberg: M.J. Rosenberg, a special correspondent for The Washington Spectator, discusses his article on the history of Israel’s bad-faith negotiating with the US and PLO, and the responses of US administrations from Carter to Obama.
• SCOTT HORTON July 5, 2012: Scott says goodbye to Antiwar.com. Scott Horton is the former host of Antiwar Radio. Visit his blog Stress. Due to budget cuts Scott lost his gig at AntiWarRadio.com! Whoa! See ScottHortonShow.com for archives! Send emails to Scott at scotthorton.org to help Scott keep his podcast going!
• Older interviews at Antiwar Radio!
fauxnews
• Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL)
• Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL)
• Senator John Cornyn (R-TX)

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