Sunday, May 26, 2013

Brick TeeVee's 2013 Memorial Day Special!


Your Guest List for Sunday's Talking Head News Shows beamed across America by Corporate Media PLUS reports from the best lib/prog media! If you have related STORIES share below! DEBUNK HERE! Throw Bricks! First brick is on us! Get your Foam Bricks at ThrowThings.com

btvBRICKbrick_teevee_test.jpgbtvBRICK


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


ALL LINKS OPEN A NEW WINDOW!!! Click on anything below and be INSTANTLY SMARTER!
2013 Memorial Day Special! We begin with this OCCUPY UPDATE: Editor Matthew Rothschild at The Progressive explains Spying on Occupy Activists OVER THE LAST FEW YEARS, the Department of Homeland Security and local law enforcement officers have engaged in widespread domestic spying on Occupy Wall Street activists, among others, on the shaky premise that these activists pose a terrorist threat. Often, Homeland Security and other law enforcement agencies have coordinated with the private sector, working on behalf of, or in cooperation with, Wall Street firms and other companies the protesters have criticized. Thousands of public documents recently obtained by DBA Press and the Center for Media and Democracy add new evidence to an increasingly powerful case that law enforcement has been overstepping its bounds. The documents, obtained through state and federal open records searches and Freedom of Information Act requests, demonstrate that law enforcement agencies may be attempting to criminalize thousands of American citizens for simply voicing their disapproval of corporate dominance over our economic and political system. (Editor’s Note: This article is derived from research and writing conducted by Beau Hodai, published by DBA Press and the Center for Media and Democracy in the report “Dissent or Terror: How the Nation’s Counter Terrorism Apparatus, in Partnership with Corporate America, Turned on Occupy Wall Street.”) The anti-terrorist apparatus that the U.S. government established after 9/11 has now been turned against law-abiding citizens exercising their First Amendment rights. This apparatus consists not only of advanced surveillance technologies but also of “fusion centers” in state after state that coordinate the efforts of law enforcement up and down the line and collaborate with leading members of the private sector. Often, the work they do in the name of national security advances the interests of some of the largest corporations in America rather than focusing on protecting the United States from actual threats or attacks, such as the one at the Boston Marathon on April 15..... HUGE! Read all of this and watch the interview with Matthew Rothschild on DN! below calling for the resignation of US AG Eric Holder!
GOPher CANARD OF THE WEEK: Republican Iowa Congressman Steve King is quoted in the Washington Times King: Benghazi 10 times bigger than Watergate, Iran-Contra combined “I believe that it’s a lot bigger than Watergate, and if you link Watergate and Iran-Contra together and multiply it times maybe 10 or so, you’re going to get in the zone where Benghazi is,” Mr. King said. Robert F. Kennedy responded quickly at HuffPoAOL Obama and Nixon: A Historical Perspective ...... As usual, the Fox-fueled GOP narrative swayed the mainstream press. On May 16, Reuters' Jeff Mason interrupted Obama's press conference with Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan to ask the President, "How do you feel about the comparisons by some of your critics with the scandals of the Nixon Administration?" Obama responded with calm contempt; he would leave those comparisons to the journalists. But he urged Mason to "read some history." If Mason takes that advice, here are some of the historical tidbits he might consider. ...... Nixon's minions had the IRS set up a special internal arm "the Activist Organization Committee" in July of 1969 to audit an "enemies list" provided by Nixon. My uncle Senator Ted Kennedy was at the top of that list along with a small army of well-known journalists. The IRS later renamed its political audit squad "Special Services" or "SS" to keep its mission secret. The SS targeted over 1,000 liberal groups for audits and 4,000 individuals. The SS staff managed their files in a soundproof cell in the IRS basement. ..... Nixon personally put White House dirty trickster Tom Charles Huston, former president of the Young Americans for Freedom, in charge of setting up the new IRS "anti-radical squad" to make sure that the laggards in IRS's bureaucracy didn't drop the ball. Huston prepared a 43-page blueprint for Nixon outlining a government agency campaign targeting Nixon's enemies. Uncle Teddy was still at the top. The scheme included tapping phones without warrants, infiltrating organizations that had been critical of the President and, purging IRS agents who refused to tow the Republican line. Huston told the President, "we won't be in control of the government and in a position of effective leverage until such time or we have complete and total control of the top three slots" at the IRS. Nixon also enthusiastically authorized a series of "black bag jobs" including breaking into offices, homes and liberal think tanks like the Ford Foundation and the Brookings Institute which Nixon believed was home to many former Kennedy Administration officials. ..... The "Jewish-controlled media" and the "liberal media" were never far from Nixon's limbic system. Nixon also bugged reporters and used bribery, blackmail attempts, forgery, spying, burglary, and extensive bugging by national police agencies and by his own "plumbers squad" to monitor and manipulate the press for political purposes. Many of the top twenty names on Nixon's political enemies list (which eventually included 47,000 Americans) were reporters. They included Daniel Schorr, Mary McGrory, Edwin Guthman and Walter Cronkite. Nixon's staff and agencies bugged their phones, investigated their sex lives, rifled their trash, and had them watched and followed. Nixon directly ordered the investigation of imagined homosexuality by columnist Jack Anderson, a devout, teetotaling Mormon with a happy marriage and nine children. ...... Those who bother to read these historical snippets will find many important departures and only tenuous parallels between the Obama Administration's IRS affair and Richard Nixon's Watergate-era IRS scandal. A principal distinction is the ingredient of direct presidential involvement. President Nixon was the fulcrum, the visionary and the principal conspirator in his various capers to use the IRS as a political weapon. Nixon personally directed and persistently harangued his staff to audit, investigate and gather dirt on his enemies for personal purposes. Nixon went to reckless extremes even punishing IRS agents who refused to participate in his vendetta. A mean-spirited viciousness and his contagious enthusiasm for law breaking were also distinctive Nixon bailiwicks. In contrast, there is no evidence that Obama even knew of the IRS investigations which were presided over by Donald Shulman, a Bush appointee. The most recent evidence indicate that the Tea Party audits resulted not from intentional political targeting of conservatives from the sheer preponderous of Tea Party applications among the hundreds of 501(c)(4) tax exemption requests that deluged a tiny understaffed IRS field office. ..... Click over for all the sordid details and more of Nixon's "colorful" language!
NEXT The New Yorker's Jane Meyer has now published A Word from Our Sponsor: Public television’s attempts to placate David Koch Last fall, Alex Gibney, a documentary filmmaker who won an Academy Award in 2008 for an exposé of torture at a U.S. military base in Afghanistan, completed a film called “Park Avenue: Money, Power and the American Dream.” It was scheduled to air on PBS on November 12th. The movie had been produced independently, in part with support from the Gates Foundation. “Park Avenue” is a pointed exploration of the growing economic inequality in America and a meditation on the often self-justifying mind-set of “the one per cent.” As a narrative device, Gibney focusses on one of the most expensive apartment buildings in Manhattan—740 Park Avenue—portraying it as an emblem of concentrated wealth and contrasting the lives of its inhabitants with those of poor people living at the other end of Park Avenue, in the Bronx. Among the wealthiest residents of 740 Park is David Koch, the billionaire industrialist, who, with his brother Charles, owns Koch Industries, a huge energy-and-chemical conglomerate. The Koch brothers are known for their strongly conservative politics and for their efforts to finance a network of advocacy groups whose goal is to move the country to the right. David Koch is a major philanthropist, contributing to cultural and medical institutions that include Lincoln Center and New York-Presbyterian Hospital. In the nineteen-eighties, he began expanding his charitable contributions to the media, donating twenty-three million dollars to public television over the years. In 1997, he began serving as a trustee of Boston’s public-broadcasting operation, WGBH, and in 2006 he joined the board of New York’s public-television outlet, WNET. Recent news reports have suggested that the Koch brothers are considering buying eight daily newspapers owned by the Tribune Company, one of the country’s largest media empires, raising concerns that its publications—which include the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times—might slant news coverage to serve the interests of their new owners, either through executive mandates or through self-censorship. Clarence Page, a liberal Tribune columnist, recently said that the Kochs appeared intent on using a media company “as a vehicle for their political voice.” ........ A large part of the film, however, subjects the Kochs to tough scrutiny. ....... Affiliates such as WNET are almost entirely dependent on gifts, some of which are sizable: in 2010, WNET received fifteen million dollars from James Tisch, the C.E.O. of Loews Corporation, and his wife, Merryl. (James Tisch is now the chairman of WNET’s board.) In New York City, such benefactors inevitably live in lavish buildings. Indeed, several relatives of WNET board members live at 740 Park. In a recent phone interview, Neal Shapiro, the president of WNET, said that he grew concerned about the film, which he had not yet watched, after Ira Stoll, a conservative writer, lambasted it in the Post. On the Friday before the film’s Monday airdate, Stoll, whose Web site, Future of Capitalism, has frequently defended the Kochs, wrote, “If the station has any sense, it will use the time until then to reconsider its decision to air the program.” He added, “If it doesn’t, its trustees and donors, some of whom live on Park Avenue, may want to consider whether they want to continue supporting an institution that insults them so viciously.” ....... That Friday, Shapiro initially said, he called Koch at his office and told him that the Gibney film “was going to be controversial,” noting, “You’re going to be a big part of this thing.” Shapiro offered to show him the trailer, and added that he hoped to arrange “some sort of on-air roundtable discussion of it, to provide other points of view.” It could air immediately after the documentary. (Shapiro told me, “We did this after Ken Burns’s film on baseball, too. We like to have a local angle.”) Shapiro asked Koch, “Do you want to be involved?” He also offered Koch the opportunity to provide a written response, which the station could air after the show. According to Shapiro, Koch, who rarely speaks in public, passed on the roundtable offer, saying, “I may just want to take it in and watch it, and form an opinion.” He agreed to think about contributing a written response. Shapiro acknowledges that his call to Koch was unusual. Although many prominent New Yorkers are portrayed in “Park Avenue,” he said that he “only just called David Koch. He’s on our board. He’s the biggest main character. No one else, just David Koch. Because he’s a trustee. It’s a courtesy.” ....... The weekend before “Park Avenue” aired, Gibney said, it was clear that “something weird had happened.” Shapiro called him at home. “He was very upset,” Gibney said. “They were thinking of pulling the program.” Gibney was told that the most pressing problem was Charles Schumer, the Democratic senator from New York. Schumer’s staff had called WNET, arguing that “Park Avenue” falsely accused the Senator of supporting tax loopholes for hedge-fund managers. Gibney double-checked his research and stood by his interpretation. Nevertheless, Shapiro told him that he planned to allow Schumer to add a response after the broadcast. But, Gibney noted, “Shapiro told me nothing about the Kochs.” Gibney gives credit to Shapiro and WNET for airing his film uncensored. He is disappointed, though, that the station gave Koch and Schumer the last word. “They tried to undercut the credibility of the film, and I had no opportunity to defend it,” he said. Moreover, WNET replaced the introduction to “Park Avenue,” which was delivered by the actor Stanley Tucci, with one calling the film “controversial” and “provocative.” Gibney noted that he had asked to interview the Kochs while making “Park Avenue,” but they had refused. Cohlmia initially denied this, but after Gibney’s office provided me with the relevant e-mails she acknowledged that she had been contacted. ..... Much more!
Sibel Edmonds' Boiling Frogs has this BREAKING NEWS- How the Sunday Times Investigative Series on Sibel Edmonds & US Ties to Al-Qaeda Chief was Spiked The Sunday Times Journalists Describe How the Edmonds’ Story was Inexplicably Dropped under the Pressure of Undisclosed “Interest Groups” Associated with the U.S. State Department. UK magazine Ceasefire publishes never- before-disclosed insights into how the Sunday Times investigative series was spiked under the direct pressure of interest groups tied to the US government. The groundbreaking and revelatory exposé is investigated and reported by bestselling author and analyst Dr. Nafeez Ahmed. The comprehensive and lengthy investigative report contains several explosive revelations confirmed and backed by two Sunday Times’ journalists, current and former government officials, and independent experts and analysts. I am going to break up the multiple revelations reported in this report into three separate posts here at Boiling Frogs Post. For this first post I am going to provide you with excerpts on how and why the confirmed investigative series by the Sunday Times was stopped by direct pressure from the US government and ‘undisclosed’ special interest groups [All Emphasis Mine]: ........... I want to urge our readers and supporters to read and help disseminate this one-of-a-kind brave report. I am calling it brave because despite multiple sources and experts confirming the reports, major mainstream and pseudo-alternative publications here in the United States adamantly refused to run the story, furthering the imposed blackout on Sunday Times by the US government and ‘special interest’ groups. Please help true and real investigative reporting by taking it upon yourself to disseminate this explosive story widely. Also, send the magazine a thank you note if you can – they are of a now-rare-breed in journalism. Thank you. Much more! Very important! See PBC below for more info on the CeaseFireMagazine report!
IN A RELATED MATTER TechDirt.com editor Mike Masnick writes from the really-now? dept. President Obama Is 'Troubled' About Chilling Effects His Own Administration Is Causing To Journalism? Well, this is rich. During his talk on Thursday, much of which focused on terrorism and drones, President Obama admitted that he's asked Eric Holder to review the DOJ's process for investigating leaks that involve getting information from journalists:
    President Obama said Thursday that he is “troubled by the possibility that leak investigations may chill the investigative journalism that holds government accountable.” In a major speech on national security, Obama said that the “Justice Department’s investigation of national security leaks offers a recent example of the challenges involved in striking the right balance between our security and our open society.”
While it's great that he's "troubled," it's not a "possibility" that this is chilling investigative journalism, it's a confirmed fact. Not only that, but many believe that this was actually part of the goal all along. There's been no evidence of any interest in "balance." There has, instead, been what is clearly a concerted effort to intimidate whistleblowers and the press that investigates the federal government. The Obama administration has used the Espionage Act against more cases of whistleblowing to the press than all other Presidents combined. That's not about "striking the right balance."
    Obama said that “journalists should not be at legal risk for doing their jobs," but that the "focus must be on those who break the law."
Oh really? Then why did your own DOJ claim that a journalist was an aider and abettor and/or co-conspirator for reporting on a leak -- just like tons of other reporters? President Obama sounds like someone campaigning against his own policies. Either Eric Holder and the DOJ have "gone rogue" or the President is hastily pretending that his administration is not doing what it clearly has been doing for years.

Jim Lobe writes at his LobeLog about Elliott Abrahms involvement in Guatemala Speaking of Abrams, What Did He Know About Genocide in Guatemala? ..... in the middle of Elliott Abrams’ tenure as the Reagan administration’s assistant secretary of state for human rights. While human rights, church groups, and the American Anthropological Association repeatedly denounced that campaign (with some actually calling it “genocide”), the administration moved during that period to restore and increase military aid to the government. In fact, after visiting personally with Rios Montt in Honduras in early December, 1982, Reagan himself declared that the born-again president was getting a “bum rap” from rights groups and journalists and that he was “a man of great personal integrity” who faced “a brutal challenge from guerrillas armed and supported by others outside Guatemala.” ...... Precisely what his stance vis-a-vis Guatemala policy was during this period remains somewhat cloudy, as the American Republic Affairs (ARA) bureau, then led by the late Tom Enders (the man who oversaw the secret bombing of Cambodia), was the main public spokesman for the administration’s policy. Hopefully, the National Security Archive, whose dogged work played a major role in making Rios Montt’s prosecution possible, will soon release declassified documents that will shed light on what Abrams did or did not do on Guatemala during this period and specifically whether he signed off on/objected to/tried to amend testimony and other public statements made by Enders and other officials. (It would be very interesting to find out whether he may have, as the chief human rights official, personally briefed Reagan before the “bum rap” statement.)........ WOW. We know Elliot Abrahms is a known NEOCON and had his finger in MANY disinformation schemes over the last few decades. Will this one stick?
In a related matter McClatchy's Tim Johnson reports on the Reversal of Rios Montt verdict in Guatemala sparks criticism of genocide charge The overturning this week of former military dictator Gen. Efrain Rios Montt’s conviction on charges stemming from Guatemala’s brutal civil war has created a surprising consensus among critics on both the left and the right: Prosecutors badly overreached when they tried to pin accusations of genocide on the 86-year-old former president. Despite sharp divisions over the civil war – the legal process against Rios Montt exposed that underlying issues of racism and inequality are still-open wounds – starkly opposing forces are united in criticizing the prosecution for saying that ethnic hatred, and not economic or ideological issues, was the root of the war. They include two former Marxist guerrillas and a right-wing activist who asserts that Marxists infest the Attorney General’s Office. “To affirm that a genocide occurred is to twist history,” said Adrian Zapata, a sociologist who was a guerrilla commander during the civil war, which gripped Guatemala from 1960 until peace accords were signed in 1996. “What happened wasn’t an ethnic war like between the Hutus and the Tutsis in Rwanda.” ........ But in a dramatic reversal, Guatemala’s Constitutional Court overturned the verdict Monday, citing procedural errors. It said a lower tribunal must turn back the clock on the trial to the point where it stood on April 19, the date when one of the judges hearing testimony against Rios Montt rejected a previous order from another judge that would have halted the trial. It’s still unclear how the Constitutional Court’s order could be carried out. Few judges want to participate. Fifty-nine refused before judicial authorities found three who’d compose a new tribunal. “I don’t think there’s been this level of polarization in the country since the signing of the peace accords,” Zapata said. .......... Disappointment in the peace process is widespread. “We signed the peace accords because we thought it could be the beginning of improved conditions in the nation. But this hasn’t happened,” Zapata said. “We are at a moment of a lot of uncertainty,” added Alvaro Pop, an activist from the Kekchi branch of Mayans and a promoter of indigenous political participation. “The thirst for justice in Guatemala is very strong, and it has been historically thwarted.” ....... Some view the Rios Montt trial less through the lens of racial discrimination than through the perspective of economic privilege, political persuasion and international pressure. After the now-overturned verdict was handed down, the umbrella Guatemala business confederation, known by its initials as CACIF, called for its annulment, saying the verdict came because of international pressure. Enemies of Rios Montt saw that as the powerful business class meddling in the judiciary, while others say meddling came from elsewhere. “The people behind this trial aren’t former guerrillas. They are NGOs” – nongovernmental organizations – usually funded from abroad, Porras said........
WAR ON SCIENCE: John Timmer at ARS Technica reports on the latest Lamar Smith (R-TX) Proposed bill that would regulate NSF research funding faces backlash Over the past several months, Congress has gotten rather upset by some of the research funded by arms of the federal government, such as the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. That displeasure eventually prompted the House Science Committee's chair, Lamar Smith (R-TX), to float a bill that would require the head of the NSF to certify that every single grant its organization funded was either in the national interest or groundbreaking. As we pointed out, the mission of the NSF is to fund research in fundamental questions in science (typically called "basic" research). As such, the research isn't intended to have immediate commercial or military applications; those would come decades down the line, if ever. And it's generally considered impossible to predict which areas of research will eventually be viewed as groundbreaking at some point in the future. Now, scientists who have served in the NSF are saying the same things. In a letter to Smith obtained by Science magazine, they point out that the draft bill "frankly requires the Director [of the NSF] to accurately predict the future." And they point to a technology that's currently having a huge commercial impact—the laser—that grew out of basic research using microwaves. In fact, in their view, "many basic research projects in every field supported by the NSF would likely not qualify for certification under this bill."
GLOBAL WARMING UPDATE: The Koch Bros. et.al. War on Science disinformation campaign suffered a major setback with the release of this New Study: Climate Scientists Overwhelmingly Agree Global Warming Is Real and Our Fault reports Phil Plaitt at Slate.com A new study has just come out that looked at nearly 12,000 professional scientific journal papers about global warming, and found that—of the papers expressing a stance on global warming—97 percent endorse both the reality of global warming and the fact that humans are causing it. Ninety-seven percent. That’s what we call a “consensus”, folks. The study was clever. They found the papers by searching on the terms “global warming” and “global climate change”. Once they compiled the list of papers, they looked at the abstracts (a short summary of the results scientists put at the top of their papers) to see if the paper itself talked about the causes of global warming. About 4000 of the papers did so. That may seem like a smallish fraction, but most papers analyze measurements and climate effects, not the cause of global warming (like most astronomical papers on, say, galaxies don’t discuss how galaxies form, but focus on their structure, content, and so on—also, because there is such a strong consensus on warming, scientists don't generally feel the need to state the obvious in their abstracts). Examining those 4000 papers, the study authors determined that 97.1 percent of them endorsed the consensus that humans are causing global warming. And here’s where they did the clever bit: They contacted 8500 authors of the papers in question and asked them to self-rate those papers. They got responses from 1200 authors (a nice fraction), and, using the same criteria as the study, it turns out 97.2 percent of the authors endorse the consensus. That’s a remarkable agreement! And it’s no surprise. There have been several studies showing almost exactly the same thing. This new one is interesting due to the methodology, and the fact that it’s so robust...... Global warming is real. Climate change is happening. Carbon dioxide in the air is increasing, and is at a higher level than it has been for the past three million years. That carbon dioxide is increasingly heating us up: we are warming at a rate faster than in the past 11,000 years, and most likely far longer than that. And it’s our fault. It’s well past time we do something about it, and we need to get past this false controversy. For more information, go to The Consensus Project, and see what we can do about it.
AND if YOU want to learn even more go to DeepGreenResistance.org! Good item!
VIDEO! Economist Bill Black: "Weakness of financial regulators shows you can not "tame the scorpion"."
Here's the video & transcript at TruthOut by Paul Jay at The Real News Network Banks Win Big as Regulators Refuse to Rein in $700 Trillion Derivatives Market
    PAUL JAY, SENIOR EDITOR, TRNN: Welcome to The Real News Network. I'm Paul Jay in Baltimore. And welcome to this week's edition of The Black Financial and Fraud Report with Bill Black, who now joins us from Kansas City. Bill's an associate professor of economics and law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, a white-collar criminologist--he was and is. He was a former financial regulator. And he's the author of the book The Best Way to Rob a Bank Is to Own One. Thanks for joining us again, Bill.
WATCH THIS!
Then Matt Taibbi writes in Rolling Stone Deja Vu on the Hill: Wall Street Lobbyists Roll Back Finance Reform, Again ..... In the last two weeks, we've seen two major developments here. There was a wave of deregulatory bills that snuck through the House with surprisingly bipartisan support, and a series of regulatory decisions by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission that will seriously weaken the already-weak Dodd-Frank reform legislation, particularly with regard to derivatives trades. If a story about a wave of bills designed to prevent the meager derivatives reforms passed in Dodd-Frank from being enacted sounds familiar, that's because it is. I wrote almost exactly the same story a year ago, in the middle of May, 2012, when a herd of Wall Street-friendly congresshumans teamed up in the House Financial Services Committee to push through a wave of nine ambitious bills targeting derivatives reform. ..... But this is the key to understanding how financial lobbyists succeed in getting what it wants on the regulatory front: They never stop. It's not a war of ideas, it's a war of resources. You march up the Hill with some crazy idea about overturning a bill prohibiting bailouts of companies that engage in risky derivative trades, you get knocked down, and you march up again, then you march up again, and again . . . Which brings us to this month: A little while back, I got a call from someone in the House. "You wouldn't believe the shit they just pushed through the Financial Services Committee,” he groaned. This person read off a list of bills, suggested I look them up, then specifically told me to look at how many Democrats voted "yea" on them. "A lot of bad D votes on this one," was the editorial comment here. Almost all of these bills turned out to be aimed directly at Title VII of the Dodd-Frank Act, i.e. the derivatives portion. They included..... Go to the link to read Matt unpack the evil financial deregulatory bills on their way to the Senate. Taibbi concludes .... Moreover, the Democrats have become the victims of their own pusillanimity on these issues. The main Wall Street argument against these new rules is that they're excessive and onerously complicated. But they're only complicated because the Democrats didn't have the stones in the original Dodd-Frank debate to insist on simple concepts like putting all trades on open exchanges. Instead, they built a system based upon a series of fiendishly complicated compromises. They keep adding more and more fine print to the infrastructural rules for things like Swap Execution Facilities and deriviatives clearing, and the more fine print there is, the more cracks and crevices Wall Street's lawyers can find to slither through....
CORPORATE TAX AVOIDANCE UPDATE: In the wake of Apple's exposed Web of Tax Shelters Kevin Parrish writes at TomsHardware.com how Microsoft, HP Accused of ''Skirting'' U.S. Taxes U.S. companies have at least $1.5 trillion in profits sitting offshore, says the Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Reuters reports that both Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft are refuting claims that they use offshore units and loopholes to prevent Uncle Sam from yanking taxes from their billions of dollars in profits. The claims were made by the Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations which claims that tax avoidance is running rampant in the technology sector. Tech companies like Microsoft and HP have reportedly stashed away their intellectual properties, royalties and licensing fees in "overseas tax havens" to skirt government taxes. The report arrives after the panel subpoenaed internal documents from the two companies, and interviewed their top officials. "The tax practices and gimmicks range from egregious to dubious validity," said Democratic Senator Carl Levin, chairman of the panel during a news conference. ....... Now here's the shocker. Microsoft reportedly shifted $21 billion to offshore accounts from 2009 to 2011, almost half of its U.S.-based retail sales revenue. Thus, the Redmond company saved up to $4.5 billion USD in taxes on goods that were sold here in the States. The company has even moved royalty revenue of units to low-tax nations to avoid paying billions to the U.S. It gets even better. Levin told Reuters that the Redmond company legally established one Microsoft Singapore unit in Bermuda unmanned. Wanting to know why, Levin asked Microsoft's tax vice president, William Sample, if this office was established merely to cut its tax bill. Sample confirmed with a "yes, that is correct." The report goes on to reveal that HP avoided paying millions of dollars in taxes by using an exception in the law for short-term loans. The company reportedly funded its U.S.-based operation through intra-company loans. Now more than 90-percent of HP's cash is sitting offshore, and one document even suggests that HP has slipped cash into the States without paying the appropriate taxes.
Things are getting even worse as The Powers That Be (TPTB) are working diligantly to dismantle what's left of soveriegn countries' laws. Lori Wallach at Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch reports on The Rise and Fall of Fast Track Trade Authority and the latest on the Trans-Pacific Partnership: Corporate Power Tool of the 1%. Catch Lori on Ring of Fire Radio this week!
We give our BTV LAST WORD to Prairie2 in Bite of the rotten Apple ....... In other Congressional testimony this week it was revealed that the $102b in taxes that Apple is dodging by holding money 'overseas' to avoid paying US income taxes on is not only managed by an Apple subsidiary with its only employees in Reno NV, but the actual cash is in NYC banks. On paper the money is in Ireland where Apple has no employees, but it does add to the Irish GDP, at least on paper. Ireland's 'recovery' through austerity measures is much touted by the right, but is entirely a fiction based on this sort of 'tax free' corporate transaction, especially by Big Pharma. In real terms, Ireland isn't much better off than Greece. In fact all of the big US corporations have been doing exactly the same as the rotten Apple is doing, making many trillions here in the US and paying no taxes anywhere. Contrary to the made up 'science and history' of the corporate right, this is not the natural order of things that has existed since the world was created in 4000 BC. This used to be (before Reagan revised history and stopped enforcement) called 'tax evasion', and if you or I did it even now, it would land us in a Federal prison. The corporations and their network talking heads still lobby for a special law to 'repatriate' these offshore profits 'to America' so that they can take them as dividends while paying little or no taxes. Remember that the money is already here, they can throw it around as an economic weapon against anybody smaller than these behemoths, but they can't take these profits as dividends. The paid call-in trolls are pushing hard on the idea that corporations don't pay any taxes anyway and that they 'just pass it along to consumers'. If that were true, why do they care what tax rate they pay at all? It shouldn't be an issue for them to pay taxes to maintain the infrastructure that they use, since it doesn't really cost them anything, you know because the consumer pays their taxes. Too bad Trolls don't really live under bridges, squashing a few would be Karmic justice. Twitter @BruceEnberg Or scrawl your message on a rusty bridge beam, they need the paint. Thanks Bruce. The Brick TeeVee Crew also recommends Freeway Blogging! Visit Tales of the Freeway Blogger for ideas!
As for this Memorial Day if you go to your local parade and/or memoriam ceremony listen closely to those who make speeches. In our town (and maybe yours too) they always save a speaking slot for whomever is running the local VFW. Our designated VFW speechmaker (usuallly some old craggy-faced guy) has encouraged our youth to check out "the military option" as a "career path" to "serve your country". And every year I bite my tongue and shake my head. Recruiting? On Memorial Day? Decoration Day? For a war machine that has been at it somewhere in the world constantly for decades? Try this: count how many times the words "war" and "peace" are used in all their speeches. Nobody talks about Peace on Memorial Day, a day of reflection and remembrance of war dead. On Monday if you go to your community parade and/or ceremony and have a chance, maybe step up to the mic and start with "Can we talk about peace?" and go from there. We're sure you'll have plenty to work with. If we can't talk openly about Peace on Memorial Day with our fellow citizens, when can we? Go for it.
A warm BTV birthday wish for Pete Townsend who turned 68 on May 19th!
And a sad note Doors' keyboardist Ray Manzarek died this week at 74.
Break on through Ray.

R.I.P. Ray Manzarek

ray manzarek ray manzarek

Raymond Daniel Manczarek, Jr.

February 12, 1939 – May 20, 2013






BRICK TEEVEE ALERTS!©

Democracy NOW!

Democracy Now's Iraq interactive timeline

Headlines Monday, May 20, 2013

Headlines Tuesday, May 21, 2013 Headlines Wednesday, May 22, 2013 Headlines Thursday, May 23, 2013 Headlines Friday, May 24, 2013

GRITtv GRITtv @ www.grittv.org with Laura Flanders »»» FEATURED SHOW Justice for Patriot Mineworkers What's happening in St Louis doesn't look like a coal-field war, but the same things are at stake: reciprocity, respect, fair play. If the company can walk away from good union jobs and the UMWA, then heaven help the fast food workers. more....

BRICK TEEVEE SPORT!© »»» INDYCAR on ABC SUNDAY It's the 97th running of The Greatest Spectacle in Racing! 12 pm et »»» NASCAR on FOX SUNDAY It's the Coca-Cola 600 from Charlotte Motor Speedway! 6 pm et »»» SUNDAY BASEBALL on TBS Yankees @ Rays 1:40 pm et »»» SUNDAY NIGHT BASEBALL on ESPN Braves @ Mets 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

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

Community-Wealth.org community-wealth.org a project of the Democracy Collaborative at the University of Maryland Community-Wealth.org brings together, for the first time, information about the broad range of community wealth building activity. Featuring Overview: The Cleveland Model—How the Evergreen Cooperatives are Building Community Wealth 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 5/23/13: Coalition challenges Manning trial secrecy in civilian court; Nobel Peace Prize petition Julian Assange and a coalition of U.S. journalists sue military over transparency in Bradley Manning’s case, taking the suit to a civilian court after it was rejected by a military appeals court, and nearly 50,000 have signed a petition supporting Bradley Manning receiving the Nobel Peace Prize...... AND Greg Palast for Vice MagazineBradley Manning & The Deepwater Horizon Bradley Manning tried to save the eleven men who died, burnt alive, on the Deepwater Horizon. But Barack Obama and the New York Times made sure that wouldn't happen.

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 brick_teevee_test.jpg image ©2006 arkysue The essential guide for watching government propaganda! THEY report. YOU throw bricks.© Get your Foam Bricks at ThrowThings.com HERE! IRAQ: 4,486 US Military Dead as of April 21, 2012 AFGHANISTAN: 2,227 US Military Dead as of May 23, 2013 The Obameter: Tracking Obama's Campaign Promises MOCKINGBIRD: The Subversion Of The Free Press By The CIA Who Owns The Media? The 6 Monolithic Corporations That Control Almost Everything We Watch, Hear And Read

  • This Week (ABC) Host George Stephanopoulos
    • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky.
    • Retired Gen. John Allen, former commander of international forces in Afghanistan
    • ROUNDTABLE: Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y.; DNC Chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla.; former Director of National Intelligence Ret. Admiral Dennis Blair; New York Times national security correspondent Mark Mazzetti; ABC News Senior National Correspondent and Fusion White House Correspondent Jim Avila and Politico senior political reporter Maggie Haberman
    • Sunday Spotlight: the creators and executive producers of Showtime’s “Homeland” Alex Gansa and Howard Gordon


  • Face The Nation (CBS) Host Bob Schiefer
    • Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK)
    • New York Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY)
    • Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin
    • Author Joseph Persico
    • ROUNDTABLE: Chief Climatologist for Climate Central Dr. Heidi Cullen, TIME Magazine senior editor of science and technology Jeffrey Kluger, David Bernard, who is theChief Meteorologist from WFOR, and Marshall Shepherd, President of the American Meteorological Society.
    • ROUNDTABLE II: David Gergen of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and Michael Gerson of the Washington Post


  • 60 Minutes (CBS)
    • Killing Bin Laden - In this Memorial Day Weekend special broadcast, hear the first-hand account of the raid that killed the world's most wanted terrorist from one of the Navy SEALs who pulled the trigger. "Mark Owen," a former SEAL who was in the room when Osama bin Laden died from American bullets, speaks to Scott Pelley in his only interview. "Owen," a pseudonym he uses for security, recalls each step of the mission and the preparation he and the nation's elite force made for it, in order to give credit to his SEAL comrades and the hundreds of others whose work played a role in the historic mission. His riveting account will be in four parts and will be broadcast for the whole hour Sunday, May 26 at 7 p.m. ET/PT.


  • 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.
    • Meet the Press will not air Sunday, May 26: NBC Sports to feature 19.5 hours of Monaco coverage, with race live on NBC. For the first time, Formula One’s famed Monaco Grand Prix will air live on network television Sunday, May 26 at 7:30 a.m. ET on NBC.


  • 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.
    • Governor Mary Fallin (R-OK)
    • Staten Island Congressman Michael Grimm
    • Joplin, Missouri Mayor Melodee Colbert-Kean
    • House Homeland Security Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX)
    • ROUNDTABLE: CNN Senior Political Analyst Ron Brownstein, The Chicago Tribune’s Clarence Page, and Former House Speaker, Newt Gingrich.


  • 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!
    • Thorn in the Side Thurdsday!!!!! Pull up a chair and a cold one! Listen NOW HERE - Thursday, May 23, 2013 ! 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 With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen!
    desi-n-bradAlanGrayson
    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' - May 23, 2013 IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: House GOP votes again to expedite Keystone XL pipeline; New Energy Secretary Moniz declares climate change science 'not debatable'; Oklahoma tornado the 2nd costliest in U.S. history; New rules for fracking on public lands; PLUS: California teen invents a battery that could charge your cell phone in 20 seconds ... All that and more in today's Green News Report!
    • IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see link): How Memorial Day gas price hikes enrich oil companies; The truth about the anti-wind movement (tiny, paranoid, disinformed, Koch-funded); Top 10 cities to be screwed by climate change (sorry, Phoenix); CBO: Carbon tax an option to avoid 'catastrophic' outcomes; China to launch carbon emissions market; Print solar panels at home ... PLUS: Crazy Time: Alex Jones explains how "the government" caused deadly Oklahoma tornado ... and much, MUCH more! ...
    • BRADCAST UPDATE! KPFK 'BradCast': CO2 Madness, Obama Scandalpalooza On crossing 400ppm C02 milestone w/ Brad Johnson of ForecastTheFacts.org; On Obama's tidal wave of scandals, real and fake; MORE...
    • BRADBLOG UPDATE! Glenn Greenwald Responds to 'Lying' Charge by BRAD BLOG Commenter Constitutional attorney turned Guardian columnist responds to a reader who supports Obama's DoJ crackdown on Fox reporter...
    • BRADBLOG UPDATE! Video Trailer of Film Koch Brothers & PBS Tried to Keep You From Seeing If the Kochs were so pissed about it, it must be worth watching...


  • 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
    • Peter B Collins, Truthout | Op-Ed An Insider's View of the Progressive Talk Radio Devolution
    • PBC Standard Podcast May 24, 2013 Reporter Jason Leopold Debriefs His Recent Visit to Guantanamo, Comments on Obama’s Policy Changes
    • PBC Standard Podcast May 24, 2013 Boiling Frogs: Reporter Joe Lauria on the Spiked Series in “London Times”, Boston Bombing Investigation, Syria and More
    • PBC News & Comment May 23, 2013 PBC News & Comment: In Obama’s Big Speech, Any Change We Can Believe In? Obama’s speech today offers some hope for change regarding drones, targeted killing and closing Guantanamo–can we believe in it?
    • PBC News & Comment May 24, 2013 PBC News & Comment: Obama Offers New & Improved Vision, Without Leadership In important speech interrupted by Medea Benjamin, Obama delivered some truth, some truthiness, a revised vision but no leadership….


  • 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 Weekend on Ring of Fire Radio! Saturdays at 3 o’clock Eastern, rebroadcasts Sunday nights at 7 pm Eastern.
    • Author and law professor Michael Avery will be joining us to talk about how the conservatives managed to completely take over our judicial system.
    • Author David Neiwert will be joining us to talk about the Minutemen Project.
    • Karen Greenberg, director of the Center on National Security at Fordham University, will join us to talk about the realities of Guantanamo Bay.
    • And Lori Wallach from Public Citizen will tell us why the Trans Pacific Partnership is a bad deal for America.
    • NEW! This Week on Ring of Fire on Free Speech TV! Sundays at NOON!
    • We’ll be talking with author and Ring of Fire co-host Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. about the climate criminals who are pumping unprecedented amounts of carbon dioxide into our atmosphere.
    • We’ll take a look at Obama’s complete descent into corporatism with attorney Howard Nations.
    • College graduates are struggling to pay for their student loans, and both the banks and the Obama administration are pulling in billions of dollars off of this struggle. We’ll bring you all the details with radio host David Pakman.
    • Attorney Seth Katz will join us to talk about the horrible legacy that Eric Holder will be leaving as Attorney General.
    • And big pharma has been using human beings as lab rats for decades, but the true horror of what’s been happening only surfaced recently – investigative journalist Rick Outzen will tell you all about it.
    • VIDEO! THE HISTORY OF CORPORATE CORRUPTION & FRAUD with Robert Kennedy Jr & Mike Papantonio “Call us if you have a personal story about Fraud on Taxpayers or False Claims for Payment made by Corportations at 1-866-389-FIRE (3473) or contact us by email at info@ringoffireradio.com if you have evidence of fraud that robbed taxpayer dollars. If our government is paying too much due to fraud by a corporation, Ring of Fire wants to do a story on it.” • VIDEO! Papantonio: Big Pharma Using Humans As Guinea Pigs (VIDEO) Ring of Fire co-hosts Mike Papantonio and Sam Seder discuss the recent revelations out of Germany, where we found out that pharmaceutical companies were using human beings as lab rats for dangerous drugs, often without their knowledge. • Ring of Fire’s Weekly Rewind May 25, 2013 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 7-10 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 5/20/13 Matthew Rothschild: New Report: Homeland Security A Racket
    • TUESDAY 5/21/13 Glenn Greenwald: The Obama Administration's War On Press Freedom
    • WEDNESDAY 5/22/13 Apple, Immigration, Corporate Taxes And Press Freedom
    • THURSDAY5/23/13 Shocking New Drone Disclosures And Janeane "Katherine Harris" Garofalo
    • FRIDAY 5/24/13 Casual Friday: Cliff Schecter & Todd Barry
    • MORE Podcast Interviews at majorityfm.libsyn.com!


  • KEISER REPORT 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!
    • 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. The Federal Reserve 100th Anniversary Road Show Spectacular! by alexschaefer - Paint Provocateur Alex Schaefer wants to say “Happy Birthday, Federal Reserve!’ You made it to 100 years of conducting the nation’s monetary policy! Since mainstream media didn’t send a card, a painter, a protestor, a filmmaker, a freedom fighter and a mad crew are going on a road trip across the USA to visit all twelve of your branches to help you celebrate! Come rain or monkey shines, they are on a mission to throw the birthday party nightmares are made of. A party to highlight the historic END of the original 100 year charter the Federal Reserve Bank has with the U.S. Government December 23rd, 2013! CLICK HERE FOR THE CROWDFUNDING CAMPAIGN & HELP GET THE SHOW ON THE ROAD! Lots of great donation perks, all original works of art by Alex Schaefer and Cain Motter! This is a great way to collect some art AND help fund this amazing journey and film. It’s a win-win situation! Let’s some history and shake things up around here! • Kim Dotcom has announced that he is the inventor of the so-called two-step authentication system and has a patent to prove it by maxkeiser - READ Kim Dotcom to Google, Twitter, Facebook: I Own Security Patent, Work With Me (torrentfreak.com) • Hey! It’s the video cast of “Truth About Market” with Max and StacyThe BBC’s Program “Bankers – Fixing The System” by Rowan BosworthDavies - believe that the idea that the financial sector is little more than an organised criminal enterprise run by a group of mafia elites is an idea whose time has come. It is no longer unusual to hear the City of London or Wall Street referred to as criminal enterprises, indeed Professor Jeffrey Sachs, one of America’s leading commentators on financial crime in the suites, in a recent interview - (which you can watch at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovPefDfJDao,) has described Wall Street as engaging in a “…mountain of criminal behaviour…” He identifies that where we used to talk about ‘bubbles or mistakes’, we are now looking at “…criminal fraud operating in an essentially lawless environment…” • KEISER REPORT [KR446] Keiser Report: Whimsical Price Tyranny Stacy Summary: This is a repost. We examine stories about those who, using spoof trades, bogus securities and fictitious capital, steal real wealth and income. They discuss how it is that every benchmark index is rigged and introduce the concept of the ‘bonus benchmark.’ In the second half, Max talks to Dr. Michael Hudson, author of The Bubble and Beyond, about debt and wage deflation and about the intersection of interest rates and wages going back to David Ricardo when wages were measured against the price of bread to today when they are measured against the price of debt. • KEISER REPORT Keiser Report: Down is New Up, Up is New Down We examine whether the markets are soaring or crashing but find it impossible to determine as long standing data patterns have broken down. They discuss feeding the ducks while they’re quacking and bitcoin vigilantes fighting the Fed. In the second half, Max talks to Sandeep Jaitly of FeketeResearch.com about the imminent extinction of the price of gold as well as the permanent backwardation in both gold and silver markets. • KEISER REPORT [KR448] Keiser Report: Narcissists’ Rally We have a look at the narcissists’ rally as we drown in central banking their currency wars and their quantitative easing without wealth creation. In the second half, Max talks to Jim Rickards, author of Currency Wars, about why we don’t need to worry about a recession – because we’re in a depression! They discuss US Federal Chairman, Ben Bernanke’s, plan to not Beggar Thy Neighbor, but Enrich They Neighbor by jumping out of the printing plane together with simultaneous devaluations. And, in terms of gold, Keiser and Rickards suggest maybe it’s the Chinese manipulating the price of gold . . . and not the US Federal Reserve • KEISER REPORT Keiser Report: Drowning In Central Banking Abyss This is the second part of a two part currency war special focus on George Osborne hoping a rising stock market will convince voters his economic policies are working and the new front in the South Pacific as New Zealand… • ON THE EDGE On the Edge with Greg Hunter An interview with Greg Hunter of USA Watchdog. • THE TRUTH ABOUT MARKETS [TaM-1277] The Truth About Max Keiser’s Internet Connection The Truth About Credit Defraud Swaps and Incarcerated Trolls. Download show HERE (mp3) • Donate to ResonanceFM here!

  • The Scott Horton Radio Show
    scotthorton
    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 5/14/13 Marcy Wheeler: Blogger Marcy Wheeler discusses the DOJ’s surreptitious collection of Associated Press phone records after two reporters scooped the White House on the foiled "UndieBomb 2.0" plot; the Saudi undercover infiltrator (on the payroll of the British and Saudis) at the center of the alleged AQAP terrorism plot; the Obama administration’s war on (unflattering) leaks and confidential media sources; and the biometric ID proposal in the new immigration bill.
    • Scott Horton Radio Show 5/15/13 Ray McGovern: Former CIA analyst Ray McGovern discusses the scores of Guantanamo prisoners being denied the right to “escape” by starving themselves to death; how Obama could close Guantanamo – if he really wanted to; using civil disobedience to effect political change; why Americans remain almost completely ignorant of Israel’s attack on the USS Liberty in 1967; and Mearsheimer and Walt’s incomplete analysis of the Israel lobby.
    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 Dick Durbin (D-IL)
    • Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC)
    • Former Senator Bob Dole (R-KS)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Brick TeeVee - THEY report. YOU throw bricks. ©

We're here because you're there. ©

First brick is on us! brick Get your Foam Bricks at ThrowThings.com HERE!

FAIR USE: Regarding postings which may contain material published online by various sources: This site may present material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We present such material available in an effort to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a "fair use" of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is presented without charge to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. See: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Brick TeeVee and The DOJ, AP & Whistleblowers Special!


Your Guest List for Sunday's Talking Head News Shows beamed across America by Corporate Media PLUS reports from the best lib/prog media! If you have related STORIES share below! DEBUNK HERE! Throw Bricks! First brick is on us! Get your Foam Bricks at ThrowThings.com

btvBRICKbrick_teevee_test.jpgbtvBRICK


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


ALL LINKS OPEN A NEW WINDOW!!! Click on anything below and be INSTANTLY SMARTER!
DOJ, AP & Whistleblowers The biggest story last week was Obomber's and Eric Holder's Department of Justice secretly obtaining phone records of the Associated Press. Tyler Durden at ZeroHedge.com first reported DOJ's "Nixonian" Phone Spying Scandal Sets Labor Unions Against Obama and now has Watergate Was For Amateurs: Justice Department Spied For Months On Associated Press Reporters And so the final curtain falls on the myth of what was supposed to be, in its own words, the "most transparent administration" in history. ...... First amendment? Freedom of speech and press? Surely not when it comes to the Nobel-peace prize winning President and those who dare to expose his secret ways. And what's worst, is that the AP breach has all the makings of a spiteful hack driven by personal vengeance against one of America's premier news outlets. We can't wait to see the rest of the not so conservative media stands up in arms and defend one of their peers against an administration whose utter disdain for all checks and balances puts Stalinist Russia to shame. Or perhaps it will be merely a case of "first they came for AP's reporters, and we said nothing..." And while it has long been known that the NSA actively intercepts and records every single form of electronic communication, the unspoken truth is that the government can do anything it wants as long as it doesn't get caught. It just did, and not only in Benghazi, or the IRS fiasco, but in making a complete mockery of the First Amendment. ..... PLUS The News Media Guild issued this Guild statement on US Justice Department obtaining phone records of AP staffers and The AP covered itself in its Big Story Gov't obtains wide AP phone records in probe Go read these now! More on this incredible violation of the First Amendment's guarantee of Freedom of The Press later. Following up on last week's NPR conflicts of interest we find Elliott Negin, the director of news and commentary at the Union of Concerned Scientists, former NPR news editor and former managing editor of American Journalism Review with this look at some US media's covering the fossil fuel industry reporting in Unreliable Sources: How the Media Help the Kochs and ExxonMobil Spread Climate Disinformation Part One .... a six-part series .... documents that the press routinely cites climate contrarian think tanks without reporting their ties to the fossil fuel industry. ........ After poring over more than 1,000 stories, editorials, opinion columns and interviews, I narrowed my sample to 376 relevant pieces. Here's what I found: These top news organizations provided information about the Oil Eight's fossil fuel industry funding in only 32 percent of the climate and energy stories they published or aired over the two-year period. When I was in school, 32 percent was an F. Click over for all the graphs and charts. Good Item! And keep an eye out for parts 2-6 too!
Also following up on the conviction of Guatemalan dictator Rioss Mont Robert Parry at Consortium News explains Ronald Reagan: Accessory to Genocide Exclusive: More than any recent U.S. president, Ronald Reagan has been lavished with honors, including his name attached to Washington’s National Airport. But the conviction of Reagan’s old ally, ex-Guatemalan dictator Rios Montt, for genocide means “Ronnie” must face history’s judgment as an accessory to the crime, reports Robert Parry. Robert Parry also writes about Reagan and Argentina’s Dirty War Exclusive: The 87-year-old ex-Argentine dictator Jorge Videla died Friday in prison where he was serving sentences for grotesque human rights crimes in the 1970s and 1980s. But one of Videla’s key backers, the late President Ronald Reagan, continues to be honored by Americans, writes Robert Parry.
In Today's War News Sidney J. Freedberg at BreakingDefense.com reports on the X-47B: Navy Drone Launches Off Aircraft Carrier; A New Tailhook Era It’s hard enough for a human pilot to take off from the cramped and pitching deck of a US Navy aircraft carrier. Today, for the first time in history, a Remotely Piloted Aircraft did it. You can bet that military leaders in Beijing and Tehran sat up and took note as the batwinged X-47B drone took off from the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush. The aircraft that took off today, the Northrop Grumman-built X-47B UCAS (Unmanned Combat Air System), is just the trailblazer for an actual combat-ready drone, the UCLASS (Unmanned Carrier-Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike System), that the Navy plans to start developing in earnest this year. (The draft “request for proposals” is out and industry folks expect the final RFP to come out in the next few weeks). So, if the Navy gets its way — and sufficient funding, which is hardly a foregone conclusion – today’s modest 65-minute flight from the carrier at sea to the Navy’s celebrated “Pax River” test site ashore is just a taste of things to come...... YIKES!
Here are some items snagged from The BTV Bunker where some of our agents and contributors tirelessly toil..........
  • David Swanson, Nation of Change: Monsanto Has Taken Over the USDA The U.S. Department of Agriculture has been taken over by an outside organization. RootsAction has launched a campaign demanding a Congressional investigation. The organization is called Monsanto. Monsanto is, of course, the world's largest biotech corporation. These are the people who brought us Roundup weed killer and the resulting superweeds and superbugs, along with growth hormones for cows, genetically engineered and patented seeds, PCBs, and Agent Orange - which Monsanto now wants us to use as herbicide on genetically engineered corn and soybeans. This chemical company - responsible for environmental disasters that have destroyed entire towns, and a driving force behind the international waves of suicides among farmers whose lives it has helped ruin - has monopolized our food system largely by taking over regulatory agencies like the U.S. Department of Agriculture. A recent study links Roundup to autism, Parkinson's, and Alzheimer's.......... The recently passed and signed law nicknamed the Monsanto Protection Act strips federal courts of the power to halt the sale and planting of genetically engineered crops during a legal appeals process. The origin of this act can be found in the USDA's deregulation of Roundup Ready sugar beets in violation of a court order. The USDA argued that any delay would have caused a sugar shortage, since Monsanto holds 95% of the market. The revolving door keeps revolving. Monsanto's board members have worked for the EPA, advised the USDA, and served on President Obama's Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations. ........... The recently passed and signed law nicknamed the Monsanto Protection Act strips federal courts of the power to halt the sale and planting of genetically engineered crops during a legal appeals process. The origin of this act can be found in the USDA's deregulation of Roundup Ready sugar beets in violation of a court order. The USDA argued that any delay would have caused a sugar shortage, since Monsanto holds 95% of the market. ...........
  • Susan Ohanian, Daily Censored: The Feds Are Making a List; inBloom™ Is Checking It Twice On April 30, 2013 the Obama administration announced they’d cut the much-maligned application form for the health insurance exchanges from a 21-page application to three pages for individuals and seven pages for families.(This isn’t counting the 61-page instruction manual for applying online.) The devil is in the details. They now use three application forms and multiple appendices–to give the appearance of simplifying things. OK, bureaucracy as usual. But take a look at this:
      From Applying for ObamaCare—Still Not Simple, Wall Street Journal, May 11, 2013: Applicants may be further disturbed when they encounter, on the signature page, this message: “We’ll check your answers using information in our electronic databases and databases from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Social Security, the Department of Homeland Security, and/or a consumer reporting agency. If the information doesn’t match, we may ask you to send us proof.”
    The Feds are intent on adding to their data bases–so they’ll have all the “proof” they need to document every instant of people’s lives. It starts with the kids......

  • Ocean Robbins, Food Revolution: Former Pro-GMO Scientist Speaks Out On The Real Dangers of Genetically Engineered Food In his long career as a leading research scientist for the Canadian government, Thierry Vrain was paid to reassure the public that genetically engineered foods were safe to eat. But now, this insider is lifting the veil of deception and exposing the truth Monsanto doesn’t want you to know. He says:“I refute the claims of the biotechnology companies that their engineered crops yield more, that they require less pesticide applications, that they have no impact on the environment and of course that they are safe to eat... The scientific literature is full of studies showing that engineered corn and soya contain toxic or allergenic proteins.” ........
  • RELATED - Jamie Doward, The Observer: M&S, Co-op and Sainsbury's say chickens will be fed on GM soya As three more supermarkets drop their bans, the industry is accused of caving in to cartels and GM food giants.....
Malloy chatter will_from_chicago quips, "Michelle Bachmann being on the Intelligence Committee shows that irony is a fundamental building block of the universe." To that end Michele Bachmann Worries Obamacare May Let the IRS Kill Conservatives by Philip Bump at The Atlantic Wire! Haha! And Yes that's "Philip" with one "L" haha! But The New York Times Editorial Board asks Who Can Take Republicans Seriously? It is time for President Obama to abandon his hopes of reaching a grand budget bargain with Republicans. At every opportunity since they took over the House in 2011, Republicans have made it clear that they have no interest in reaching a compromise with the White House. For two years, they held sham negotiations with Democrats that only dragged down the economy with cuts; this year, they are refusing even to sit down at the table. ...... Senate and House Republicans are refusing to meet with Democrats to negotiate over the budgets passed by each chamber. Four times in the last two weeks, Senate leaders have proposed beginning a conference committee to hash out a federal budget; four times they have been blocked by Republicans. The Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, and Senator Ted Cruz of Texas said they were afraid the committee might reach an agreement to raise both taxes on the rich and the debt ceiling, which are, of course, the Democrats’ stated goals. Knowing that their positions would be deeply unpopular among the public if their stubbornness were exposed in an open committee, Republicans would simply prefer not to talk at all. Instead of negotiation, Republicans cling to their strategy of extorting budget demands by threatening not to raise the debt ceiling. ....... Republican lawmakers have become reflexive in rejecting every extended hand from the administration, even if the ideas were ones that they themselves once welcomed. Under the circumstances, Mr. Obama would be best advised to stop making peace offerings. Only when the Republican Party feels public pressure to become a serious partner can the real work of governing begin. Michael Tomasky at The Daily Beast begs to differ and explains The Coming Attempt to Impeach Obama ...... I think the notion of impeachment is industrial-strength insane. There is utterly no proof that the President Obama even knew anything directly about the shifting Benghazi responses, let alone did something about them (yes, folks; under the Constitution, the President must do something). And as for the Internal Revenue Service story, from what we now know, those transgressions were committed by IRS staffers in Cincinnati who have never been closer to Obama than their television sets. I always held a squishy spot in my breast for the Daily Mail because of the “Paperback Writer” mention, but as of this weekend they can go stick it up their punter, or whatever it is they say. Impeachment is crazy, the Daily Mail is crazy, and the idea that Obama has any direct culpability in either of these matters is, given what we know today, utter madness. Okay? But this is my point: utter madness is what today’s Republicans do. You can present to me every logical argument you desire. Benghazi at the end of the day was a terrible tragedy in which mistakes, bad mistakes, were certainly made, and in which confusion and the CYA reflex led to some bad information going out to the public initially, but none of this remotely rises to the level of high crime. The IRS cock-up was just that, a mistake by a regional office. I get all this, and I agree with you. But what we think doesn’t matter. I can assure you that already in the Pavlovian swamps of the nutso right, the glands are swelling. Theirs is a different planet from the one you and I inhabit........They do their base’s bidding, not America’s. How many times do you need to see them do this before you accept that it is the reality? And now there’s an added element. They want to gin up turnout among their base for next year’s elections. And if they gin it up enough, and the Democratic base stays home, they could end up holding the House and taking the Senate. And if they have both houses, meaning that the vote in the House would not be certain to hit a Senate dead-end, well, look out..... Go read all of this! AP PHONE RECORDS SEIZURE: At Wired.com Nicholas Weaver has this suggestion Hear Ye, Future Deep Throats: This Is How to Leak to the Press We now live in a world where public servants informing the public about government behavior or wrongdoing must practice the tradecraft of drug dealers and spies. Otherwise, these informants could get caught in the web of administrations that view George Orwell’s 1984 as an operations manual. With the recent revelation that the Department of Justice under the Obama administration secretly obtained phone records for Associated Press journalists — and previous subpoenas by the Bush administration targeting the Washington Post and New York Times — it is clear that whether Democrat or Republican, we now live in a surveillance dystopia beyond Orwell’s Big Brother vision. Even privately collected data isn’t immune, and some highly sensitive data is particularly vulnerable thanks to the Third Party Doctrine. So how can one safely leak information to the press? Well, it’s hard. Even the head of the CIA can’t email his mistress without being identified by the FBI. With a simple subpoena or warrant, the FBI can obtain historical calling information (and with cellphones, location history); email messages (and records revealing the pattern of where and when the target accessed these accounts); internet activity; and much more. Since even separate, innocuous contacts between a reporter and source may be sufficient for the FBI to establish a relationship in its investigations — and who knows what kind of leak triggers a crackdown — here’s my guide for potential leakers. ...... Follow all those links and then see Weaver's excellent and smart suggestions. Then Glenn Greenwald tells us the Justice Department's pursuit of AP's phone records is both extreme and dangerous ....... The legality of the DOJ's actions is impossible to assess because it is not even known what legal authority it claims nor the legal process it invoked to obtain these records. Particularly in the post-9/11 era, the DOJ's power to obtain phone records is, as I've detailed many times, dangerously broad. It often has the power to obtain those records without the person's knowledge (as happened here) and for a wildly broad scope of time (as also happened here). There are numerous instruments that have been vested in the DOJ to obtain phone records, many of which do not require court approval, including administrative subpoenas and "national security letters" (issued without judicial review); indeed, the Obama DOJ has previously claimed it has the power to obtain journalists' phone records without subpoeans using NSLs, and in its relentless pursuit to learn the identity of the source for one of New York Times' James Risen's stories, the Obama DOJ has actually claimed that journalists have no shield protections whatsoever in the national security context. It's also quite possible that they obtained the records through a Grand Jury subpoena, as part of yet another criminal investigation to uncover and punish leakers. None of those processes for obtaining these invasive records requires a demonstration of probable cause or anything close to it. Instead, the DOJ must simply assert that the records "relate to" a pending investigation: a standard so broad that virtually every DOJ desire will fulfill it. Even if a court were involved in the acquisition of these records - and that's unlikely here - it typically does little more than act as rubber-stamping functionary, just as it does when secretly approving the DOJ's requests for FISA warrants. This is what is reaped from continuously vesting the US government with greater and greater surveillance powers in the name of Terrorism and other fears. There has long been concern about the DOJ's snooping into the communications which journalists have with their sources precisely because the DOJ's power to obtain phone data and other sensitive records in secret is now so sweeping. Attempts to enact legislation to protect journalists from this type of concealed investigative intrusion into their source communications have been defeated in part due to the DOJ's insistence that it exercises this power responsibly and only in the most extreme cases. ....... That the Obama administration has prosecuted double the number of whistleblowers under espionage statutes as all previous administrations combined has already severely chilled the news gathering process. Imagine what message this latest behavior sends to journalists and their sources: that at any moment, the phone records of even the nation's most establishment journalists can be secretly obtained by the DOJ, which has no compunction about doing so even in the most extreme and invasive manner. The all-too-familiar axis that has enabled massive civil liberties assaults by the Obama administration - blindly partisan progressive media outlets and particularly obsequious self-styled neutral journalists - instantly sprung into action here and wasted no time jumping to the defense of the US government. ..... Many more details at the link so read ALL of this. Very Important! Ben Smith at buzzfeed.com wrties about The Panopticon President ..... But the AP records case, in particular, was the American government’s low-tech answer to an increasingly eyebrow-raising series of hacks and leaks that have been central to recent years’ of news: Wikileaks, overseas leaks, phone hacking in the UK, and Bloomberg spying on its customers. And it was the government version of the new political technologies that have alternately inspired and unsettled members of both parties, big data approaches that replace the old tactic of broadly targeting vast groups toward the new one of approaching voters one at a time based on sophisticate technical analyses and predictions of their political views and plans. The Justice Department’s subpoena of phone records in a leak case probably shouldn’t be a surprise: This Administration has been remarkably, unusually aggressive in targeting leaks — a policy that has surprised and pleased some critics, while alienating traditional alles. But, paired with questions about the IRS and a broader edginess over pervasive surveillance, it’s a sleeper issue that seems poised to break outside its small circle of reporters and advocates. This reaction, and this new fear, is in no small part the Administration’s fault. Obama has always sought to control elements of politics that couldn’t be controlled, and has an obvious affection for the surgical strike. But it also taps perfectly into the fears of the moment, in which futuristic visions of surveillance, hacking, impersonation, and drone war have become everyday powers of corporations, civilians, and the government...... See the film "The War on The Whistleblowers - Free Press and the National Security State" produced by Robert Greenwald and read this review at Mother Jones by Dana Liebelson New Film Explores Obama's War on Whistleblowers and the Free Press. And listen to Chris Hedges on NPR Talk of the Nation's WEDNESDAY SHOW Looking Ahead: Chris Hedges On Poverty, Politics, U.S. Culture. See Hedges on DN! below as well. For a good recap including the IRS-targets-teapartiers and the BenGhazi kerfluffle see Peter Hart at Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR.org) for Is There Really a 'Scandal Trifecta'? Next Bob Alexander at SuperBeans.com writes Hitchhiking Across the Plain of Megiddo ...... For the last week I’ve tried to jettison some words from my day-to-day vocabulary. Old habits die hard but the mind experiment is interesting. Try it yourself. For one week don’t use these words: Democrat, Republican, Liberal, Conservative, Right Wing, Left Wing, or any other label like Left of Center, Center, or Right of Center. Get rid of all quasi-political descriptors. Because they don’t really work anymore. They’re not very accurate or applicable. If I needed you to take care of my dog you’d need to know if I was talking about a Great Dane or a Chihuahua. “Just saying “dog” isn’t good enough. These days our political labels don’t really tell us anything. And while we’re at it let’s get rid of all the “-ists” and “-isms.” Socialism/Socialist, Communism/Communist, Capitalism/Capitalist, and Fascism/Fascist, are so emotionally charged some of us can’t think straight when they’re plopped into a conversation. Now that we’ve got those words out of the way … let’s perform another mind experiment. Let’s design A New Society. Not an over-reaching Utopia … just a place where you’d like to live. What would make up the basic foundation of such a place? Where to start? ...... So now let’s imagine a government. Not a huge federal bureaucracy … but something more like a town meeting where we’ll discuss what we’re going to do. Nothing complicated. Just a voice vote of Yes or No. For this example if anyone votes “no” the motion is defeated. We begin by voting on keeping our water supply unpolluted. A voice in the back shouts out “NO!” Next we vote on not poisoning the land. The same guy shouts out “NO!” How about cleaning up the air? NO! Eliminating toxins and genetically modified organisms from our food supply. NO! Universal Health Care? NO! Public schools, housing, and transportation? NO, NO and NO! ....... Even the most basic element of the electoral process, a voter-verified paper audit trail, goes down to defeat with a resounding HELL NO! Who is this guy? He is absolutely and completely against everything we would need to build a decent way of life. Not only is he against all social reforms, he wants to destroy our planet. He wants to pump even more carbon into the atmosphere and accelerate global climate change. He wants to pump millions of gallons of toxins into the Earth to get at natural gas. He wants to punch more holes into the ocean floor and suck out the oil. Regardless of the inestimable damage done … he wants to do more. Who is this guy? He’s insane. He’s dangerously insane. We know this because he lusts after all this destruction for the craziest of reasons. He’s doing it for money. Which only would make sense if you could eat, drink, or breathe … money. He wants to bring the Earth to a state where it can no longer support life. And along the way he wants us to be poor, sick, stupid, and soon enough dead. He’s our relative, a co-worker, our boss, our neighbor, our mayor, our congressman, senator, or president. He’s a CEO, a lawyer, a banker, a newspaper publisher, or head of a network. His “NO!” vote nullifies all of our plans while his continue unhindered. It is an oft used tactic to demonize the enemy. It makes it so much easier to shoot at them. But I think it would be best if we “humanized” our enemy. Our enemy is insane. His gargantuan stupidity has elevated him to what I can only call …evil. He possesses a malevolence that is at its core anti-human … anti-life. Are we headed towards a reckoning on the plain of Megiddo where great armies will clash by night in the ancient war between good and evil? Do we need to wait until we’re at the brink? Or could we take an different path? What if we turned to our relative, co-worker, boss, neighbor, or president and said …NO! We are not going to cooperate in our own destruction. And from that moment on … we DO NOT cooperate in our own destruction. What Would Happen Next? For our sake (or if there is to be a future), we have to find out..... Thanks Bob! Prairie2 gets our BTV LAST WORD with A new Strain of Rot New unemployment claims increased sharply last week reversing a multi-week downward trend, but it's still not so high as to cause any real concern, yet. Other economic indicators support the notion that we're not actually losing jobs. Have you noticed that most Republicans aren't talking about the deficit that much anymore? That's because it's disappearing out from under them like Arctic ice under a Polar bear, and they are forced to cling to any ginned up scandal or half-baked conspiracy theory that comes floating by. ....... Let's not start popping the champagne corks though. We've held the austerians at bay, but the underlying rot is still doing its work on the economy. A new twist on the old Con revolves around the housing market. It's been noticed for several years since the Bush Crash that about 25% of home sales have been for 'cash' meaning investors, and not home owners have been buying them. It turns out that it wasn't small local investors or house flippers buying bargains, but large scale private equity firms that have been squeezing out the little guys. They've buying as many as 40% of houses being sold in some market. ....... The problem is this is just one of many crooked schemes Wall Street is running. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has just backed off from a relatively strict rule on Derivatives that would have required five banks to compete on any derivative being marketed or it couldn't be sold. None of these things should be sold, they used to be illegal for good reason. So we still have 600 trillion dollars (ten times world GDP) of these things in circulation just waiting for the next big screw up to create another banking collapse. And those 'too big to fail' banks from the last crash? They're much bigger and are steadily gobbling up the small banks every day. Something will trigger a complete collapse in the next couple of years unless something is done. Republicans are successfully blocking the implementation of the modest reforms of Dodd-Frank so we are really worse off than we were before. It all hinges on next year's election, the only good news is the Republicans are being seen as less competent by the voters, the bad news is they still have all the money in world to simply buy elections. Geez look at the time! We have to get up early to set up for WRUW's LIVE BROADCAST of the Annual Hessler Street Fair from NOON et until dusk and the headliner Carlos Jones & the P.L.U.S. Band! Tune in to WRUW's Streaming Audio for the live show! Please do check out ALL out regulars below for more important news of the past week and bag the Corporate Beltway Bubalas!
BRICK TEEVEE ALERTS!©

Democracy NOW!

Democracy Now's Iraq interactive timeline

Headlines Monday, May 13, 2013

Headlines Tuesday, May 14, 2013 Headlines Wednesday, May 15, 2013 Headlines Thursday, May 16, 2013 Headlines Friday, May 17, 2013

GRITtv GRITtv @ www.grittv.org with Laura Flanders »»» FEATURED SHOW New Era for Labor: Creative Defiance from The Factory to the Street From state to state, fed-up workers are walking off the job, and into the history books. more....... BRICK TEEVEE SPORT!© »»» NBA Playoffs on ABC SUNDAY 3rd Round Coverage! Game 1 Grizzlies @ Spurs 3:30 pm et ) »»» NBA Playoffs on TNT WEDNESDAY Game 1 Pacers @ Heat 8:30 pm et »»» SUNDAY BASEBALL on TBS Dodgers @ Braves 1:35 pm et »»» SUNDAY NIGHT BASEBALL on ESPN2 Tigers @ Rangers 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
    Lawmakers concerned about the health effects on humans from mountaintop removal coal mining set forth legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives today. Representatives Dennis Kucinich (OH), Louise Slaughter (NY), Maurice Hinchey (NY), Earl Blumenauer (OR), Lucille Roybal-Allard (CA), John Yarmuth (KY), Lynn Woolsey (CA), Judy Chu (CA), Raúl Grijalva (AZ), James Moran (VA), Michael Honda (CA), John Conyers (MI), and Keith Ellison (MN) introduced the Appalachian Communities Health Emergency (ACHE) Act H.R. 5959 which would place a moratorium on permitting for mountaintop removal coal mining until health studies are conducted by the Department of Health and Human Services. The ACHE coalition presently consists of participants from Coal River Mountain Watch, Mountain Health and Heritage Association, and Christians for the Mountains. “We encourage you, if you’re concerned about mountaintop removal’s effect on your community’s health, to join us in making your voice heard,” said Allen Johnson, executive director of Christians for the Mountains. “Please contact us, learn about the issue, and take action to protect your community.”
Community-Wealth.org community-wealth.org a project of the Democracy Collaborative at the University of Maryland Community-Wealth.org brings together, for the first time, information about the broad range of community wealth building activity. Featuring Overview: The Cleveland Model—How the Evergreen Cooperatives are Building Community Wealth 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 Short Manning hearing: four government witnesses to testify secretly May 7, 2013. By Nathan Fuller. Today's brief session included the court's rulings allowing four of the government's witnesses to testify in closed sessions in undisclosed locations in order to protect their identity. Tomorrow there will be an entirely closed session, providing a 'dry run' to test divulging classified information for trial. Manning returns to court for an open session May 21-24. AND Greg Palast for Vice MagazineBradley Manning & The Deepwater Horizon Bradley Manning tried to save the eleven men who died, burnt alive, on the Deepwater Horizon. But Barack Obama and the New York Times made sure that wouldn't happen.

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 brick_teevee_test.jpg image ©2006 arkysue The essential guide for watching government propaganda! THEY report. YOU throw bricks.© Get your Foam Bricks at ThrowThings.com HERE! IRAQ: 4,486 US Military Dead as of April 21, 2012 AFGHANISTAN: 2,227 US Military Dead as of May 17, 2013 The Obameter: Tracking Obama's Campaign Promises MOCKINGBIRD: The Subversion Of The Free Press By The CIA

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

  • This Week (ABC) Host George Stephanopoulos
    • Obama senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer
    • Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., \\
    • Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio
    • Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga.
    • Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y.
    • POWERHOUSE ROUNDTABLE: George Will; National Journal Editorial Director Ron Fournier; American Urban Radio Networks White House Correspondent April Ryan; editor and publisher of The Nation Katrina vanden Heuvel; and ABC News Senior Washington Correspondent Jeff Zeleny


  • Face The Nation (CBS) Host Bob Schiefer
    • White House Senior Advisor Dan Pfeiffer
    • Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas)
    • Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah)
    • President and CEO of the Associated Press Gary Pruitt
    • ROUNDTABLE: New York Times' David Sanger, POLITICO's Lois Romano, The Washington Post's Dan Balz and CBS News Political Director John Dickerson.


  • 60 Minutes (CBS)
    • A Face in the Crowd - The odds are you are not just a face in the crowd any longer. Even if your picture isn't on the Internet, computer facial recognition technology in public places is making it harder to remain anonymous. Lesley Stahl reports. Shachar Bar-On is the producer.
    • Three Generations of Punishment - Born in a prison camp in North Korea, defector Shin Dong Hyuk describes how three generations of a family are brutally punished if one family member is considered disloyal to the regime. He tells Anderson Cooper the dramatic story of his escape. Andy Court is the producer.
    • LISTINGS FOR THE SPECIAL EDITION OF "60 MINUTES" 8:00-9:00 PM, ET/PT: A Long and Dangerous Journey - Thousands of Afghan boys are fleeing their war-torn country to make it to Europe -- a nearly 10,000 mile journey. As Anderson Cooper reports, it's one of the largest child migrations in modern times and some of them die along the way. Ira Rosen and Gabrielle Schonder are the producers.


  • 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.
    • Republican Leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky
    • Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld
    • President Obama’s senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer
    • Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI)
    • ROUNDTABLE: Rep. Camp joins the discussion along with the chairman of the Democratic Caucus, Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-CA); Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan; and the Washington Post’s Bob Woodward.


  • State of the Union With Candy Crowley (CNN) At 9 AM ET, Candy talks to the power players: politicians, business leaders and international newsmakers who will make Monday morning's headlines. At NOON ET, Candy wraps it all up with fresh interviews and the best of the earlier hours.
    • White House Senior Adviser Dan Pfeiffer
    • Senator Rand Paul (R-KY)
    • ROUNDTABLE: USA Today’s Susan Page, Democratic Strategist Donna Brazile, Republican Strategist Ana Navarro, and CNN Chief White House Correspondent Jessica Yellin.


  • 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!
    • Thorn in the Side Thurdsday!!!!! Pull up a chair and a cold one! Listen NOW HERE - Thursday, May 16, 2013 ! 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 With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen!
    desi-n-bradTeslaModelS
    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' - May 16, 2013 IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Hysterical Fox 'News' flip-floppery on Tesla; Consensus strikes again: 97% of climate scientists say global warming is man-made, but the public thinks it's evenly split; CO2 levels pass 400ppm; You're already paying a 'disaster tax'; PLUS: Thanks to renewable energy, one town now has too much money ... All that and more in today's Green News Report!
    • IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see link): Explosive pig poo foam!; Supreme Court rules for Monsanto; Floods could overwhelm London barriers; Conoco-Philips CEO admits humans cause global warming - but is against getting off oil; Interior Dept issues new fracking rules; Ernie Moniz confirmed as Energy Secretary; Stephen Chu wishes he'd accomplished more on climate change; Japan takes first step to a permanent reactor shutdown after Fukushima ... PLUS: Vote with your wallet in the supermarket? There's an app for that ... and much, MUCH more! ...
    • BRADCAST UPDATE! KPFK 'BradCast': CO2 Madness, Obama Scandalpalooza On crossing 400ppm C02 milestone w/ Brad Johnson of ForecastTheFacts.org; On Obama's tidal wave of scandals, real and fake; MORE...
    • BRADBLOG UPDATE! Holder: 'Banks Are NOT too Big To Jail' Attorney General wants to be 'very, very, very clear' that about that...before not jailing any of them in the last four years since they crashed the economy....
    • BRADBLOG UPDATE! IRS 'Scandal' Appears Nearly as Phony as Shirley Sherrod, Van Jones, ACORN 'Scandals' ..... Those fake scandals, however, all three of them, were shams. They were eventually identified as such, though only after a great deal of harm to Sherrod, Jones and ACORN had already been done by the Democrats who fell for them and acted out of knee-jerk and cowardly fear to try and contain the perception of "scandal" which was, naturally, helped along by the very loud misreporting of "the nightly news". The supposed IRS "scandal", as we detailed yesterday both here at The BRAD BLOG and at Salon --- after having bothered to actually read the full Treasury Department Inspector General's report [PDF] before reporting on it (didn't anybody else?!) --- appears almost as phony as those other three "scandals", despite the "outrage" over seemingly non-existent "misconduct", as Obama described it, by IRS employees. .......


  • 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
    • Peter B Collins, Truthout | Op-Ed An Insider's View of the Progressive Talk Radio Devolution
    • PBC Standard Podcast May 13, 2013 Jason Leopold Breaks Another Big Story, Reveals Gitmo Force-Feeding Manual
    • PBC Standard Podcast May 15, 2013 Prof. Robert McChesney on the Need for Media Reform, and Capitalism’s Corruption of the Internet
    • PBC News & Comment May 15, 2013 PBC News & Comment: ObamaCo Doubletalk on AP Spying, IRS Scandal and Benghazi White House resurrects proposed reporter shield bill in attempt to distract from illegal AP spying and widespread surveillance; GOP pounces…
    • PBC News & Comment May 16, 2013 PBC News & Comment: Finally, Some Beltway Outrage at ObamaCo Domestic Spying PBC welcomes corporate media to the battle for Bill of Rights protections from government snooping–reporters aren’t the only victims…..
    • PBC News & Comment May 17, 2013 PBC News & Comment: Perpetual War, No End In Sight Pentagon says war against al Qaeda likely for “10 to 20 years” as Senate considers limits on AUMF, the 9/11 blank check….


  • 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 Weekend on Ring of Fire Radio! Saturdays at 3 o’clock Eastern, rebroadcasts Sunday nights at 7 pm Eastern.
    • Investigative journalist Josh Israel will tell us why the IRS needed to investigate the Tea Party.
    • Author and journalist Steven Rosenfeld will talk about the growing corporate influence within the White House.
    • Investigative journalist Rick Outzen will be here to talk about the push to privatize public education.
    • And attorneys Joe Cotchett and Mike Burg will join us for a discussion on how private, corporate money is undermining academic research.
    • NEW! This Week on Ring of Fire on Free Speech TV! Sundays at NOON!
    • We’ll tell you how lobbyists have found a way to influence government policies from inside government. Attorneys Howard Nations and Dave TeSelle will join us for that discussion.
    • Wall Street bankers are stealing billions of dollars from cities and states every year, and securities attorney James Kauffman will tell you how that scheme is bankrupting America, one municipality at a time.
    • The Supreme Court consistently rules in favor of big business, and author and legal scholar Niall McCarthy will tell us how our courts became just another wing of corporate America.
    • And the insurance industry is gouging doctors with absurd premiums, and laying the blame on the legal system. Linda Lipsen, the CEO of the American Association for Justice, will tell you why that claim is completely false.
    • VIDEO! THE HISTORY OF CORPORATE CORRUPTION & FRAUD with Robert Kennedy Jr & Mike Papantonio “Call us if you have a personal story about Fraud on Taxpayers or False Claims for Payment made by Corportations at 1-866-389-FIRE (3473) or contact us by email at info@ringoffireradio.com if you have evidence of fraud that robbed taxpayer dollars. If our government is paying too much due to fraud by a corporation, Ring of Fire wants to do a story on it.” • VIDEO! Papantonio: Big Pharma Using Humans As Guinea Pigs (VIDEO) Ring of Fire co-hosts Mike Papantonio and Sam Seder discuss the recent revelations out of Germany, where we found out that pharmaceutical companies were using human beings as lab rats for dangerous drugs, often without their knowledge. • Ring of Fire’s Weekly Rewind May 18, 2013 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 7-10 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 5/13/13 Isabel Macdonald: GOP’s Drug-Testing Dragnet
    • TUESDAY 5/14/13 Scandals: Real & Imagined!
    • THURSDAY 5/16/13 Sandra Steingraber: Jailed Fighting Toxic Trespass
    • FRIDAY 5/17/13 Ari Berman & Jim Gaffigan, Casual Friday!
    • MORE Podcast Interviews at majorityfm.libsyn.com!


  • KEISER REPORT 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!
    • 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. The Federal Reserve 100th Anniversary Road Show Spectacular! by alexschaefer - Paint Provocateur Alex Schaefer wants to say “Happy Birthday, Federal Reserve!’ You made it to 100 years of conducting the nation’s monetary policy! Since mainstream media didn’t send a card, a painter, a protestor, a filmmaker, a freedom fighter and a mad crew are going on a road trip across the USA to visit all twelve of your branches to help you celebrate! Come rain or monkey shines, they are on a mission to throw the birthday party nightmares are made of. A party to highlight the historic END of the original 100 year charter the Federal Reserve Bank has with the U.S. Government December 23rd, 2013! CLICK HERE FOR THE CROWDFUNDING CAMPAIGN & HELP GET THE SHOW ON THE ROAD! Lots of great donation perks, all original works of art by Alex Schaefer and Cain Motter! This is a great way to collect some art AND help fund this amazing journey and film. It’s a win-win situation! Let’s some history and shake things up around here! • ‘CANTILLON EFFECTS’ AND THE NONNEUTRALITY OF INTERNATIONAL RESERVES by staceyherbert - Stacy Summary: Excellent report by our latest Keiser Report guest, John Butler. I can’t get enough of pieces on the Cantillon Effect,’ first introduced to me by John Aziz. Max had also indirectly identified this phenomenon in arguing that workers should tie their wages to money supply as bankers do . . . via the Cantillon Effect. READ Cantillon Effects and the Non-neutrality of International Reserves (atomcapital.co.uk) • The Collapse Of Fiat Money by a Falling Energy Supply by The Doc - Each passing day, the world gets closer to a total collapse of the global fiat monetary system. After the United States unilaterally terminated the convertibility of the U.S. Dollar to gold in 1971, the world has been settling trade on borrowed time. It was full faith in the dollar and U.S. Treasury market that allowed global trade to continue for 4 decades. However, faith in the dollar is waning as debts, derivatives and dishonesty plague the financial system. Most analysts (including many in the precious metal camp) are wasting time debating over the mere symptoms and not the disease itself. We must remember, debts are nothing more than “Energy IOU’s.” To pay back a debt, energy has to be burned so the market can generate goods and services. Thus, this allows for growth to continue which provides a surplus of wealth enabling the repayment of debts. The problem the world is facing, is not the huge amount of derivatives or debts, but the availability and affordability of its future energy supply. Actually, the world has not been able to afford the energy that it has been consuming for quite some time now. Basically, the world (especially the U.S.) cannot not afford its way of life, so it has created a system of debts and derivatives to cover up and mask the problems. The collapse of the dollar is already taking place. It has more to do with energy… than most realize. Click here for more on the coming collapse of fiat currency. • The BBC’s Program “Bankers – Fixing The System” by Rowan BosworthDavies - believe that the idea that the financial sector is little more than an organised criminal enterprise run by a group of mafia elites is an idea whose time has come. It is no longer unusual to hear the City of London or Wall Street referred to as criminal enterprises, indeed Professor Jeffrey Sachs, one of America’s leading commentators on financial crime in the suites, in a recent interview - (which you can watch at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovPefDfJDao,) has described Wall Street as engaging in a “…mountain of criminal behaviour…” He identifies that where we used to talk about ‘bubbles or mistakes’, we are now looking at “…criminal fraud operating in an essentially lawless environment…” • Investors are treating gold’s current travails as a buying opportunity in record numbers. by maxkeiser - READ Five Reasons Why Gold Bulls Are Right (WSJ) • KEISER REPORT [KR445] Keiser Report: Sacred Dow We behold the Sacred Dow, worshipped by economists and analysts around the world and to which whole economies and jobs have been sacrificed to keep it rising. They compare the Japanese bond market to Fukushima. Markets have become so distorted by manipulation, they argue that like godzilla, one day the market will go where it needs to go and it will smash down buildings and economies with it. In the second half, Max talks to John Butler of Amphora about confusing price signals caused by market manipulating central bankers and the misallocation of capital this encourages. They also talk about Japan’s economy, Krugman’s bond allegations and Mrs. Watanabe’s gold shopping spree. • KEISER REPORT Keiser Report: Whimsical Price Tyranny We examine stories about those who, using spoof trades, bogus securities and fictitious capital, steal real wealth and income. They discuss how it is that every benchmark index is rigged and introduce the concept of the ‘bonus benchmark.’ In the second half, Max talks to Dr. Michael Hudson, author of The Bubble and Beyond, about debt and wage deflation and about the intersection of interest rates and wages going back to David Ricardo when wages were measured against the price of bread to today when they are measured against the price of debt. • ON THE EDGE On the Edge with Greg Hunter An interview with Greg Hunter of USA Watchdog. • THE TRUTH ABOUT MARKETS [TaM-1276] The Truth About Markets – 04 May 2013 The Truth About Credit Defraud Swaps and Incarcerated Trolls. Download show HERE (mp3) • THE TRUTH ABOUT MARKETS [TaM-1277] The Truth About Max Keiser’s Internet Connection The Truth About Credit Defraud Swaps and Incarcerated Trolls. Download show HERE (mp3) • Donate to ResonanceFM here!

  • The Scott Horton Radio Show
    scotthorton
    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 5/14/13 Marcy Wheeler: Blogger Marcy Wheeler discusses the DOJ’s surreptitious collection of Associated Press phone records after two reporters scooped the White House on the foiled "UndieBomb 2.0" plot; the Saudi undercover infiltrator (on the payroll of the British and Saudis) at the center of the alleged AQAP terrorism plot; the Obama administration’s war on (unflattering) leaks and confidential media sources; and the biometric ID proposal in the new immigration bill.
    • Scott Horton Radio Show 5/15/13 Ray McGovern: Former CIA analyst Ray McGovern discusses the scores of Guantanamo prisoners being denied the right to “escape” by starving themselves to death; how Obama could close Guantanamo – if he really wanted to; using civil disobedience to effect political change; why Americans remain almost completely ignorant of Israel’s attack on the USS Liberty in 1967; and Mearsheimer and Walt’s incomplete analysis of the Israel lobby.
    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
    • Dan Pfeiffer, Senior Advisor to the President
    • Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Brick TeeVee - THEY report. YOU throw bricks. ©

We're here because you're there. ©

First brick is on us! brick Get your Foam Bricks at ThrowThings.com HERE!

FAIR USE: Regarding postings which may contain material published online by various sources: This site may present material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We present such material available in an effort to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a "fair use" of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is presented without charge to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. See: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml