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Mixed Bag Sunday There are so many things to cover from last week so let's get to it!
First we start with Our Man in Pipelieistan Asia Times ROVING EYE Pepe Escobar who files this Book Report on Blackwater founder Erik Prince's new book Civilian Warriors: The Inside Story of Blackwater and the Unsung Heroes of the War on Terror A bunch of sexy, badass patriots filled with insights like ..... Prince had me howling with laughter when he stresses that Blackwater maintained "the highest ethics while dealing with these contacts"; I pictured a Bunuel-esque Discreet Charm of the Afghan Bourgeoisie shot by Scorsese. Or Tarantino. Still one favor led to another, and by 2002 an incorporated offshoot, Blackwater Security Consulting, was tasked to provide security for the CIA headquarters in Kabul. Then came "Operation Iraq Freedom". Blackwater's contribution to the birth pangs of a "free Iraq" was to protect the repellent Paul Bremer, he of the ridiculous navy blazer-and-combat boots outfit, the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA). .......... It would take a Fort Meade roomful of computers to check/correct/edit Prince's own version of, for instance, the "rebuilding" of Fallujah in April 2004 - dubbed Operation Vigilant Resolve - after the murder of four Blackwater contractors; or the 2004 Blackwater versus the Mahdi Army four-hour battle in Najaf ("no credit for or mention of Blackwater"). ....... Good one! Next At Global Research TV Snowden Leaks Spark UN Probe into NSA Mass Surveillance with VIDEO! Press TV has conducted an interview with James Corbett, the editor of the corbettreport.com, about the United Nations launching an investigation into the massive surveillance programs of American and British intelligence agencies following revelations from US whistleblower Edward Snowden. What follows is an approximate transcription of the interview. ...... Corbett: Well it is difficult to say what recommendations it will be able to make especially because the UN General Assembly is a body without any teeth as it has been demonstrated over the previous decades. And again I am not sure what this new inquiry is going to uncover because I think only the most naïve in international relations have not understood already that they were being spied on by the US and Britain and other intelligence agencies. Besides, it is really just the Edward Snowden’s leaks [that] are bringing this to the forefront. So I am not sure that this inquiry will really have really much effect other than a symbolic one and I do not think any recommendations other than the recommendations not to spy on allies will be the result of this type of inquiry. ..... Much more! Then At TheGuardian.com Spencer Ackerman finds NSA review to leave spying programs largely unchanged, reports say A participant in a White House-sponsored review of surveillance activities described as “shameful” an apparent decision to leave most of the National Security Agency’s controversial bulk spying intact. Sascha Meinrath, director of the Open Technology Institute, said Friday that the review panel he advised is at risk of missing an opportunity to restore confidence in US surveillance practices. “The review group was searching for ways to make the most modest pivot necessary to continue business as usual,” Meinrath said. ............. Should the review group’s report resemble descriptions that leaked late Thursday, the report “does nothing to alter the lack of trust the global populace has for what the US is doing, and nothing to restore our reputation as an ethical internet steward,” said Meinrath, who met with the advisory panel and White House officials twice to discuss the bulk surveillance programs that have sparked international outrage. Leaks about the review group’s expected recommendations to the New York Times and Wall Street Journal strengthened Meinrath and other participants’ long-standing suspicions that much of the NSA’s sweeping spy powers would survive. The Times quoted an anonymous official familiar with the group saying its report “says we can’t dismantle these programs, but we need to change the way almost all of them operate”. According to the leaks, the review group will recommend that bulk collection of every American’s phone call data continue, possibly by the phone companies instead of the NSA, with tighter restrictions than the “reasonable, articulable suspicion” standard for searching through them that the NSA currently employs. Less clear is whether the review will recommend removing authorities NSA possesses to allow searches for Americans’ identifying information in its vast databases of foreign communications content. ........... The report also appears to embrace the idea of allowing a privacy advocate to contest government collection requests before the secret surveillance panel known as the Fisa court, a key reform sought by congressional privacy advocates. But the White House rejected a more controversial proposal that would split the technologically sophisticated NSA from the military's relatively new cyber command, which is tasked with protecting the military's data networks and launching wartime cyberattacks. Keeping the NSA director in charge of cyber command is "the most effective approach to accomplishing both agencies’ missions", Hayden told the Washington Post. The decision likely indicates the NSA will continue to be run by a military officer, unless an unusual bureaucratic arrangement is found. On Wednesday, NSA director Keith Alexander, the army general who will retire in the spring after leading the agency for eight years, strongly defended the bulk collection of phone data as necessary to detect future domestic terrorist attacks. “There is no other way we know of to connect the dots,” Alexander told the Senate judiciary committee. ....... WOW! REALLY? We go to Tom McCarthy's live blog of the hearing NSA awards itself A+ for accountability – as it happened for this tidbit:

2.24pm ET Alexander defends metadata collection.

Haha! So Alexander thinks ALL of our communications data is like an old-style library card-catalog card? And some of our cards are "bad books"? So then who decides which cards are bad or good? Santa Claus? We want to know what drugs he's on. Must be a halucinegetic like LSD but without the laughing effect! Is this guy serious? But wait! Here's some push-back from some unlikely folks albeit ones who wholeheartedly already supplied the NSA with massive amounts of data, much of it without any search warrant at all. Kate Tummarello at TheHill.com's Hillicon Valley blog reports Tech giants unite against NSA The giants of the tech industry are uniting to wage a campaign for sweeping reforms to the National Security Agency. Google, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, Microsoft, Apple, LinkedIn and AOL are setting aside their business rivalries to demand that Congress and President Obama scale back the government’s voracious surveillance. “[T]his summer’s revelations highlighted the urgent need to reform government surveillance practices worldwide,” the companies wrote in an open letter to Obama and members of Congress, appearing in a national print ad Monday. “The balance in many countries has tipped too far in favor of the state and away from the rights of the individual — rights that are enshrined in our Constitution. … It’s time for change.” The companies are demanding reforms above and beyond legislation in front of Congress that would curb the NSA’s powers. ...... “Recent revelations about government surveillance activities have shaken the trust of our users, and it is time for the United States government to act to restore the confidence of citizens around the world,” Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer said in a statement. The campaign comes after months of leaks that have revealed, in ever-greater detail, efforts by the U.S. government to spy on Internet users and track their contacts. Documents released by Edward Snowden show the government collects information about Americans’ phone calls and Internet communications, including by tapping into tech companies’ data streams. Tech companies fear the revelations could put their entire business models at risk. If users begin to get skittish about sharing information online, it could stop the booming business of Internet advertising dead in its tracks. .............. "There's been spying for years, there's been surveillance for years, and so forth, I'm not going to pass judgment on that, it's the nature of our society," Google Chairman Eric Schmidt said at an event in New York in September. But the companies began to change their tone as more details of the NSA’s surveillance emerged. The most explosive revelation, from their perspective, came in October with a report that the NSA has secretly mined Google and Yahoo’s data as it traveled between overseas servers. Schmidt called the activity "really outrageous." "The steps that the organization was willing to do without good judgment to pursue its mission and potentially violate people's privacy, it's not OK," Schmidt told The Wall Street Journal in November. Since the revelations began in June, the companies have fought for the ability to tell their users what information the government has accessed. Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo and LinkedIn have all asked the court that authorizes foreign intelligence surveillance for the ability to publish information about the scope of requests for user data they receive. ........... Much more so click over for the rest! So do you smell something fishy too? Salon's Falguni A. Sheth has figured out Corporations’ greedy motive to oppose surveillance: Profits! Tech companies are just fine with the government violating your privacy -- until it makes them lose customers - As philosopher Robin James insightfully pointed out last week, “privacy is a red herring”; that is, it is not a relevant consideration in the debate over surveillance and government power. Rather, the real issue is the balance between “security and freedom,” as Obama and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper repeat ad nauseam, the trite pro-surveillance mantra. Balance, according to James, can be considered either as “the average of two extremes” or it “could mean a dynamically-adjusting continuum (the kind of balancing done, for example, by an audio equalizer or an electrical resistor).” She argues that the discussion over balance is about the latter — how to continually fine-tune the precise resting place between security and freedom. James’ point is well taken. ......... Prima facie, the tech companies are concerned about the encroachment upon individual freedoms, such as privacy. Coincidentally, such “tipping” dovetails with profit losses for these companies, since as customers continue to hear about how these corporations have turned over supposedly private information to the government (sometimes making even more profit in the mix), they may challenge them by shutting down their Facebook, LinkedIn and Yahoo accounts (which in turn induces further lost revenue from advertisers). They may engage in some other form of resistance (as encouraged through a neoliberal environment — of relocating their money and potential corporate profits elsewhere), such as by shifting to nonprofit tech organizations or open-source browsers, software, etc., whose primary mission is to protect user privacy. As such, the tech companies’ own “balance” of interests – located between complying with government requests and profiting by (falsely) claiming to protect their customers’ privacy for profit – also tips, in favor of the state. .......... So, the “balance” that the tech companies suggest is a balance between the government’s “need for data,” “users’ reasonable privacy interests” and “impact on trust in the Internet.” Funny how the “principle” is rather an exercise in pragmatism: The tech companies don’t disagree that the state “needs” private information. They just insist that the state restrict its demands to that information that falls outside of “users’ reasonable privacy interest.” Presumably, “we” would all be OK if the National Security Agency just collected the data of only those who might be terrorists and threatening American security interests. Still, on this “principle,” I wonder how the U.S. would distinguish between terrorists and reasonable privacy unless they collected everyone’s data. Doesn’t that bring us full circle back to the premise of all-encompassing surveillance? .......... It is not necessarily a problem to tip over from freedom to security, as long as government surveillance doesn’t begin to cause unrest among their customers such that they lose their profit machine. Presumably “being sensible means not undermining “trust in the Internet,” which makes total sense, when your business profits depend on your customers’ trust in the Internet. So the appeal from the tech companies to the U.S. government, in essence, is to continue their collaboration with the corporations to mine and acquire as much data as possible, but to be less obtrusive, less extreme, less confrontational about it. One way to do so is to reinstitute strict controls on which persons are the focus of data collection. This is the quintessential neoliberal environment: Corporations and the government converge to strip the focus away from rights so as to have better control over individuals. But at the moment that corporate profit is threatened, corporations no longer act in complete concert with the state, but rather “institutions” (the government and corporations) battle each other for control over consumers/citizens. .......... In other words, the struggle between the tech companies and the government is over managing individual actions en masse, and by extension, its dialectical counterpart: consumers’/subjects’ resistance to being managed. And this battle reflects the red herring of interests: The discourse of “interests” saturates the public conversation, such that privacy is no longer a relevant question. In fact, the prime concern that governs state actions is “its” own interests. This makes more sense if we revert to the assumption that the state’s interest is in its own survival, not that of its subjects/citizens. That corporations have their own interests in mind is obvious, but their interests are profits as extracted through the control/management of consumers’ actions (such as through Google’s and Facebook’s data collection methods), which in turn are enhanced by targeting personalized ads at each user, which in turn extracts more information about user behavior. The issue at stake is not about principles, or ethics, or privacy, per se. Rather, the real concern, from the perspective of the tech companies, is their profits being lost. That is the tipping point that shifts the balance away from profit in the service of overwhelming government desire to know everything that’s going on. That interest was OK, so long as the public (customers) didn’t know (or didn’t focus so much on) the fact that their information was being handed over in volume by the tech companies. But when that knowledge threatens to drive away their customer base, then the “balance” qua fine-tuning has been lost. ...... Get it now? But the hypocrisy runs deep. We go to Nick Surgey at PRWatch.org The Googlization of the Far Right: Why is Google Funding Grover Norquist, Heritage Action and ALEC? Google, the tech giant supposedly guided by its "don't be evil" motto, has been funding a growing list of groups advancing the agenda of the Koch brothers. Organizations that received "substantial" funding from Google for the first time over the past year include Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform, the Federalist Society, the American Conservative Union (best known for its CPAC conference), and the political arm of the Heritage Foundation that led the charge to shut down the government over the Affordable Care Act: Heritage Action. In 2013, Google also funded the corporate lobby group, the American Legislative Exchange Council, although that group is not listed as receiving "substantial" funding in the list published by Google. U.S. corporations are not required to publicly disclose their funding of political advocacy groups, and very few do so, but since at least 2010 Google has chosen to voluntarily release some limited details about grants it makes to U.S. non-profits. The published list from Google is not comprehensive, including only those groups that "receive the most substantial contributions from Google's U.S. Federal Public Policy and Government Affairs team." What Google considers "substantial" is not explained -- no dollar amounts are given -- but the language suggests significant investments from Google and, with a stock value of $330 billion, Google has considerably deep pockets. Google has a distinctively progressive image, but in March 2012 it hired former Republican member of the House of Representatives, Susan Molinari as its Vice President of Public Policy and Government Relations. According to the New York Times, Molinari is being "paid handsomely to broaden the tech giant's support beyond Silicon Valley Democrats and to lavish money and attention on selected Republicans." ....... Google Funding for Anti-Government Groups Heritage Action, the tea-party styled political advocacy arm of the Heritage Foundation, is perhaps the most surprising recipient of Google's largesse. .......... Perhaps surprisingly, Google has a history of supporting Cruz. Via its Political Action Committee -- Google Inc. Net PAC -- the PAC provided the "Ted Cruz for Senate" campaign with a $10,000 contribution in 2012. Additionally, despite being five years out from the freshman Senator's next election, Google's PAC has already made a $2,500 contribution to the Cruz reelection campaign for 2018, the largest amount that the PAC has given so far to any Senate candidate running that election year according to disclosures made by Google. ............. ATR President Grover Norquist infamously said that he wants to shrink government "down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub." Google's position on the relative size of government versus bathtubs is not known, but according to a Bloomberg analysis of Google's U.S. corporate filings, it avoids approximately $2 billion dollars globally in tax payments each year through the use of creative tax shelters. Bloomberg reported in May 2013 that in France alone Google is in the midst of a dispute over more than $1 billion in unpaid taxes that have been alleged. An August 2013 report by U.S. PIRG -- "Offshore Shell Games" -- found that Google is now holding more than $33 billion dollars offshore, avoiding taxes on these earnings in the United States. National Taxpayers Union, headed by former eleven-year American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) Executive Director Duane Parde, has a similar anti-tax, anti-government agenda, and it also received funding from Google in 2013. ............ Google joined ALEC just this year, and stepped up funding to groups such as ATR, Federalist Society and Heritage Action in 2013, but under the radar it has been funding a handful of other right-wing groups for several years. In 2013 Google provided a reported $50,000 sponsorship check to the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), another group trying to thwart efforts to address climate change, but it has previously funded "Google Policy Fellows" at CEI for several years, and has listed the organization as one that it has supported financially on its "transparency" pages for at least three years. ...... Are you starting to get it now? In a nutshell so far: Goggle has handed over massive amounts of its user data to the NSA for years without even demanding a warrant, makes money off the deal, then funds far-right-wing groups that help elect teabaggers and now want said teabaggers to make legislation that eases up on the spying Goggle profits from. For more on this see CommonDreams.org 225,000 Tell Google To Quit ALEC and at The Real News Network Google Moves Right By Funding ALEC & Heritage Action In a related matter Ed Pilkington at TheGuardian.com posts ALEC facing funding crisis from donor exodus in wake of Trayvon Martin row and State conservative groups plan US-wide assault on education, health and tax Conservative groups across the US are planning a co-ordinated assault against public sector rights and services in the key areas of education, healthcare, income tax, workers' compensation and the environment, documents obtained by the Guardian reveal. The strategy for the state-level organisations, which describe themselves as "free-market thinktanks", includes proposals from six different states for cuts in public sector pensions, campaigns to reduce the wages of government workers and eliminate income taxes, school voucher schemes to counter public education, opposition to Medicaid, and a campaign against regional efforts to combat greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change. The policy goals are contained in a set of funding proposals obtained by the Guardian. The proposals were co-ordinated by the State Policy Network, an alliance of groups that act as incubators of conservative strategy at state level. The documents contain 40 funding proposals from 34 states, providing a blueprint for the conservative agenda in 2014. In partnership with the Texas Observer and the Portland Press Herald in Maine, the Guardian is publishing SPN's summary of all the proposals to give readers and news outlets full and fair access to state-by-state conservative plans that could have significant impact throughout the US, and to allow the public to reach its own conclusions about whether these activities comply with the spirit of non-profit tax-exempt charities. ............. Most of the "thinktanks" involved in the proposals gathered by the State Policy Network are constituted as 501(c)(3) charities that are exempt from tax by the Internal Revenue Service. Though the groups are not involved in election campaigns, they are subject to strict restrictions on the amount of lobbying they are allowed to perform. Several of the grant bids contained in the Guardian documents propose the launch of "media campaigns" aimed at changing state laws and policies, or refer to "advancing model legislation" and "candidate briefings", in ways that arguably cross the line into lobbying. The documents also cast light on the nexus of funding arrangements behind radical rightwing campaigns. The State Policy Network (SPN) has members in each of the 50 states and an annual warchest of $83m drawn from major corporate donors that include the energy tycoons the Koch brothers, the tobacco company Philip Morris, food giant Kraft and the multinational drugs company GlaxoSmithKline. SPN gathered the grant proposals from the 34 states on 29 July. Ranging in size from requests of $25,000 to $65,000, the plans were submitted for funding to the Searle Freedom Trust, a private foundation that in 2011 donated almost $15m to largely rightwing causes. The trust, founded in 1998, draws on the family fortune of the late Dan Searle of the GD Searle & Company empire – now part of Pfizer – which created NutraSweet. The trust is a major donor to such mainstays of the American right and the Tea Parties as Americans for Prosperity, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the Heartland Institute and the State Policy Network itself.......... Hoo Wee! Click over to read all of this! Can you believe it? THEN Listen to interviews with Ed Pilkington on Fresh Air with Terry Gross How ALEC Serves As A 'Dating Service' For Politicians And Corporations and also on Majority Report with Sam Seder (below).
(We find it ironic our missives can slam its host BLOGGER owned now by Goggle for ten years and not be censored haha! We'll be moving to a different hosting site in 2014. Stay tuned! -Ed)
Back in The Day the Kenmore brand and Sears was an American Staple. But today the company that started out as a printed-catalog mail-order company a century ago is pretty much toast. Lynn Parramore at Alternet via Salon.com finds Ayn Rand-loving CEO destroys his empire explaining "That’s what happens when Ayn Rand is the basis for your business plan." Once upon a time, hedge fund manager Eddie Lampert was living a Wall Street fairy tale. His fairy godmother was Ayn Rand, the dashing diva of free-market ideology whose quirky economic notions would transform him into a glamorous business hero. ...... Lampert is now known as one of the worst CEOs in America — the man who flushed Sears down the toilet with his demented management style and harebrained approach to retail. Sears stock is tanking. His hedge fun is down 40 percent, and the business press has turned from praising Lampert’s genius to watching gleefully as his ship sinks. Investors are running from “Crazy Eddie” like the plague. That’s what happens when Ayn Rand is the basis for your business plan.Crazy Eddie has been one of America’s most vocal advocates of discredited free-market economics, so obsessed with Ayn Rand he could rattle off memorized passages of her novels. As Mina Kimes explained in a fascinating profile in Bloomberg Businessweek, Lampert took the myth that humans perform best when acting selfishly as gospel, pitting Sears company managers against each other in a kind of Lord of the Flies death match. This, he believed, would cause them to act rationally and boost performance. If you think that sounds batshit crazy, congratulations. You understand more than most of America’s business school graduates. ....... So how is it that this AynRandian gets pummeled by "the invisible hand" of the "free" market yet Randian troglodytes like Rand Paul, Paulie Ryan and a gaggle of no-name teabaggers (not to mention many helpful DINO idiots like Rahm Emmanuel and Chuck Shumer to name a few) can implement Austerity-by-another-name-Sequestration across huge swaths of local, state and federal governments? HINT: Read Naomi Klein's SHOCK DOCTRINE for clues. And yet the "invisible hand" of "free" market capitalism rolls on.
NEW LAW! MEXICO: Richard Fausset at the LA Times reports Mexico's Senate passes sweeping oil industry reforms MEXICO CITY—The Mexican Senate has approved a sweeping reform of the country’s energy sector that would open the underperforming state-run oil company to foreign investment — a move that supporters say could boost a stagnant economy and bolster President Enrique Peña Nieto's assertions that he is leading Mexico through a time of profound transformation. The vote to approve the bill came at 11:55 p.m. Tuesday, after nine hours of debate on the Senate floor, and as leftist opponents, who argue that the reform amounts to “selling the Fatherland,” used stones and hammers to beat furiously upon tall metal barricades surrounding the Senate building. Among other things, the legislation would alter the Mexican constitution to allow major foreign oil companies to drill for oil and take a cut of the crude produced, as opposed to simply sharing profits in such ventures, as Peña Nieto’s party had originally proposed in August. Such “production sharing” arrangements are important to big oil companies because they often own their own refineries and tend to prefer the simplicity of taking oil directly from the well-head to the refinery. But the idea of foreigners taking a cut of Mexican oil is a sensitive matter. The oil industry here was nationalized in 1938 with great fanfare after what were perceived as exploitative practices by British and U.S. oil companies. ........... Pemex, as the national oil company is known, currently supplies about a third of the federal government's income. The legislation will not change the part of the Mexican constitution that declares the nation to be the owner of subsurface oil and gas. But Dolores Padierna, a senator with the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution, noted on the Senate floor that with a production-sharing contract, “at the mouth of the well, the private oil company will be the owner of a percentage of the production.”......... Ugh.
NEW LAW! MICHIGAN: Laura Bassett at HuffPoAOL reports Michigan 'Rape Insurance' Bill Passes Into Law Michigan lawmakers passed a controversial measure on Wednesday that will ban all insurance plans in the state from covering abortion unless the woman's life is in danger. The law, which takes effect in March, will force women and employers to purchase a separate abortion rider if they would like the procedure covered, even in cases of rape and incest. Supporters of the "Abortion Insurance Opt-Out Act" argue that it allows people who are opposed to abortion to avoid paying into a plan that covers it. Opponents have nicknamed it the "rape insurance" initiative, because it would force some women to anticipate the possibility of being raped by purchasing the extra abortion insurance ahead of time. “This tells women who were raped … that they should have thought ahead and planned for it,” said Senate Minority Leader Gretchen Whitmer (D-East Lansing) during debates. “Make no mistake, this is anything but a citizens' initiative. It’s a special interest group’s perverted dream come true.” ........ Several Democratic women lawmakers became emotional during debates on Wednesday as they told personal stories of miscarriage and abortion, and State Rep. David Knezek (D) blasted the measure as misogynistic. "This body made up of 80 percent men will make a decision that will impact 100 percent of women," he said. ........ That's right ladies! You have to buy special insurance to cover if you MIGHT BE RAPED! What's next for the Michigan legislators? Mandatory Burkas?
At ZeroHedge.com from Tuesday morning Gold Halted As Prices Spike Higher; Stocks Stumbling Gold (>$1260) and silver (>$20) are extending yesterday's gains as US markets awake this morning. The crack higher at around 8:07ET caused the futures market to be halted after 3,000 Gold Futures contracts traded in one second at 08:07:45 on December 10, 2013 sending the price up $10 and tripping circuit breakers for 10 seconds. Silver is now +4% on the week and gold +2.5% as Treasuries are also bid. Stocks are stumbling overnight, driven by the "fundamentals" of a drop in EURJPY after it tagged 142 overnight and fell back. PMs spiking again at the US open... See the graphs there! Last week the corporomedia focused on Nelson Mandela's passing at 95. Yet they failed to mention the CIA's role in his imprisonment. Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting found back in 1991 CIA Role in Mandela’s Capture? While the mass media devoted hours of broadcast time and scores of articles to Mandela’s release, they missed a key part of the story on how he got to prison in the first place--namely, the CIA’s reported role in luring Mandela to his capture. Mandela was arrested in August 1962, while traveling disguised as a chauffeur. According to 1986 reports in the South African press, Mandela had been on his way to a top secret meeting with the U.S. consul in Durban, South Africa--Donald Rickard, a diplomat reputed to be a CIA officer. Rickard, the reports said, had tipped off the South African authorities to the time and place of his meeting with Mandela, allowing him to be apprehended. This story was referred to on CBS Evening News (8/5/86), in an op-ed column in the New York Times (10/13/86), and it received extensive coverage in the Fall/Winter 1986 National Reporter. But in all the reporting on Mandela’s release, FAIR saw no mention of the CIA’s reputed role in his capture. Now FAIR.org reports CIA and Mandela: Can the Story Be Told Now? .......So with coverage of Mandela's death dominating the media now, can the story of the CIA's role in Mandela's capture be told? Mostly not. The link between the CIA and Mandela's capture--reported by CBS Evening News (8/5/86) and in a New York Times column by Andrew Cockburn (10/13/86)--was almost entirely unmentioned in media discussions of his death. There were a few exceptions. MSNBC host Chris Hayes mentioned it on December 5 ("We know there's reporting that indicates the CIA actually helped the South African police nab Mandela the first time he was captured"). On Melissa Harris-Perry's MSNBC show (12/7/13), Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman brought it up:

The US devoted more resources to finding Mandela to hand over to the apartheid forces than the apartheid forces themselves. It was the CIA that actually located Mandela, and he was driving dressed up as a chauffeur when he was stopped, and he was arrested and ultimately serves 27 years in prison........ So with Mandela's death making headlines everywhere, there is still very little coverage of this part of the Mandela story. One place you can find it, though--the New York Times letters to the editor section today (12/10/13), where this appears under the headline "CIA and Mandela's Arrest":

To the Editor: Nelson Mandela’s membership in the South African Communist Party in the early 1960s was acknowledged by the Communist Party itself last week, confirming the findings of my own historical research, reported by Bill Keller ("Nelson Mandela, Communist," column, Dec. 8). Perhaps the United States government will now confirm the role of the Central Intelligence Agency in Mr. Mandela's arrest in August 1962, which is also indicated by my research. It was the height of the Cold War, and it was all a long time ago, but the truth still counts. STEPHEN ELLIS, Amsterdam, December 9, 2013

"The truth still counts" shouldn't just guide government decisions about what it chooses to reveal about its own history. It's something journalists should consider too. Much of the coverage of Mandela is focused on his remarkable ability to forgive his opponents. It would be especially useful for US media to spell out which US government actions might have to be forgiven. We concur it would be USEFUL but we doubt it will happen any time soon since "US MEDIA" is hand-in-pocket with The Government (pick yer branch). The Brick TeeVee Crew were especially troubled by some statements made by our so-called "leaders" to wit: Nelson Mandela memorial: Barack Obama's speech in full

"Around the world today, men and women are still imprisoned for their political beliefs." Two words: Don Siegleman
"There are too many leaders who claim solidarity with Madiba's struggle for freedom, but do not tolerate dissent from their own people." Oh really? Naomi Wolf at The Guardian explains Occupy encampments coordinated attacks Revealed: how the FBI coordinated the crackdown on Occupy New documents prove what was once dismissed as paranoid fantasy: totally integrated corporate-state repression of dissent.

Then there's this. U.S., John Kerry Disgusted With Ukrainian Response to Protests "The United States expresses disgust with the decision of the Ukrainian authorities to meet the peaceful protest in [Kiev's] Maidan Square with riot police, bulldozers and batons, rather than respect for democratic rights and human dignity." We remind Mr. Windsurfer Kerry

DO YOU GET IT NOW? A LITTLE? Keep reading! And now read Bob Alexander's The Flag Remains the Same: Parts One, Two and Three for a short summary of How We Got Here. Good Item! Be sure to check out our regulars especially the full-hour DN! interview with Ronnie Kasrils, leading anti-apartheid activist and friend of Nelson Mandela from the early 60's. We leave you with Poet Maya Angelou’s Tribute to Nelson Mandela: We Lift Our Tearful Voices to Say 'Thank You' His day is done.
Is done.
The news came on the wings of a wind, reluctant to carry its burden.
Nelson Mandela’s day is done.
The news, expected and still unwelcome, reached us in the United States, and suddenly our world became somber. Our skies were leadened.
His day is done.
We see you, South African people standing speechless at the slamming of that final door through which no traveler returns.
Our spirits reach out to you Bantu, Zulu, Xhosa, Boer.
We think of you and your son of Africa, your father, your one more wonder of the world.
We send our souls to you as you reflect upon your David armed with a mere stone, facing down the mighty Goliath.
Your man of strength, Gideon, emerging triumphant.
R.I.P. NELSON MANDELLA

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela
18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013

BRICK TEEVEE ALERTS!_©

Headlines Monday, Dec. 9, 2013

Investigative reporter Seymour Hersh Seymour Hersh: Obama "Cherry-Picked" Intelligence on Syrian Chemical Attack to Justify U.S. Strike
Rev. Jesse Jackson Rev. Jesse Jackson on the Life of Nelson Mandela & the Movement that Backed His Anti-Apartheid Fight

Headlines Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2013

Headlines Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2013

Lisa Graves, executive director of the Center for Media and Democracy and publisher of PRWatch.org and ALECexposed.org ALEC’s "Institutional Corruption," From Backing Apartheid to Assault on Clean Energy, Public Sector
Piero Gleijeses, professor of American foreign policy at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University The Secret History of How Cuba Helped End Apartheid in South Africa
Masha Gessen, a journalist in Moscow who blogs for The New York Times & Anastasia Smirnova, coordinator with the coalition of Russian LGBT organizations As Olympic Winter Games Near, Russian LGBT Activists Speak Out Against Anti-Gay Laws

Headlines Thursday, Dec. 12, 2013

Ronnie Kasrils, leading anti-apartheid activist The Anti-Apartheid Underground: Ronnie Kasrils on Meeting Nelson Mandela in an ANC Safe House in 1962
Ronnie Kasrils From Marxism to Neoliberalism: Ronnie Kasrils on How Mandela & ANC Shifted Economic Views

Headlines Friday, Dec. 13, 2013

Eliseo Medina, former SEIU international secretary-treasurer Labor Leader Eliseo Medina on Fasting for Immigration Reform, Organizing with Cesar Chavez
Caroline Hunter, formed the Polaroid Workers Revolutionary Movement Polaroid & Apartheid: Inside the Beginnings of the Boycott, Divestment Movement Against South Africa
Andrew Cockburn, Washington editor for Harper’s magazine "One of Our Greatest Coups": The CIA & the Capture of Nelson Mandela

GRITtv @ www.grittv.org with Laura Flanders
»»» FEATURED SHOW Sean Sweeney: Trade Unions and Extending Solidarity to the Ecosystem What would it mean to extend solidarity to the eco-system? That's the question at the heart of this conversation with union activist and environmentalist, Sean Sweeney. more......

BRICK TEEVEE SPORT!_©
»»» SUNDAY FOOTBALL NIGHT IN AMERICA on NBC Bengals @ Steelers 8:30 pm et
»»» MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL on ESPN Ravens @ Lions 8:30 pm et
»»» NBA on TNT THURSDAY DOUBLEHEADER Bulls @ Thunder 8 pm et THEN Spurs @ Warriors 10:30 pm et

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

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

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 communities. The A.C.H.E. Act Is Re-Introduced In The 113th Congress!

Appalachian Community Health Emergency Act

H.R. 526

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 and check out his latest effort DontAttackSyria.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 From the Bradley Manning Support Network Announcing the Private Manning Support Network! August 26, 2013, By attorney David Coombs and the Private Manning Support Network (formerly the Bradley Manning Support Network). Additional clarification on PVT Chelsea (formerly Bradley) Manning's request regarding her gender and name. With your continued support, our network will continue its advocacy efforts in support our heroic WikiLeaks whistle-blower through this new phase of her life. ....... UPDATE! PVT Chelsea Manning tells TIME Magazine what she's thankful for this Thanksgiving TIME Magazine asked WikiLeaks whistleblower PVT Chelsea Manning what she's thankful for. Her answer was published alongside Michelle Obama's, Joe Biden's, and 14 others. Many people working for the betterment of society will appreciate her answer. ..... AND Update 12/14/13: Chelsea's fourth birthday behind bars, lawyer makes public presentations Chelsea's birthday is on December 17th. It will be her fourth birthday behind bars. Submit a photo sending her a message of support! And Chelsea's lawyer made three presentations this week where he discussed the trial and Chelsea's future. Finally, Amnesty International continues to collect signatures calling for Chelsea's immediate release. .....

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. WATCH THIS MOVIE at Top Documentary Films Resonance: Beings of Frequency Now we live an an ocean of electromagnetic radiation. It’s all around us now, invisible, but we know it’s there. Every time you lift up your mobile phone you know it’s there. It is very hard to turn the clock back, in fact it is impossible, but we need to be aware of the adverse health effects so that we can have the choice of taking precautions against the exposures. How we could have possibly thought that putting microwaves to our brain was safe. We just don’t fully understand what we’re doing. "Resonance: Beings of Frequency" is the first documentary to investigate the actual mechanisms by which mobile phone technology can cause cancer. The film takes a deeper look at how humanity is reacting to the most profound environmental change the planet has ever seen. Read more HERE!!

B R I C K T E E V E E

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: 2,293 US Military Dead as of Dec. 13, 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
Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media at informationclearinghouse
R.I.P. Peter Wintonick "Manufacturing Consent" Director Peter Wintonick Dead at 60

This Week (ABC) Host George Stephanopoulos
• ABC News Chief Global Affairs Correspondent Martha Raddatz travels to Vietnam with Secretary of State John Kerry
• ROUNDTABLE: ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Jonathan Karl and our powerhouse roundtable - ABC News’ Cokie Roberts, former House speaker and CNN “Crossfire” co-host Newt Gingrich, University of California, Berkeley professor and former Clinton Labor secretary Robert Reich, and Republican strategist and CNN contributor Ana Navarro.
• New York Times investigative reporter Andrea Elliott
Face The Nation (CBS) Host Bob Schiefer - This Sunday on Face the Nation, we’ll conclude our coverage of the 50th Anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and its impact on America.
• Senate Minority whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
• the latest on the protests in Kiev
• ROUNDTABLE: CBS News Foreign Correspondent Clarissa Ward, Tom Friedman of the New York Times, Radhika Jones of TIME, Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic and Bloomberg View.
• reports coming from the Nelson Mandela funeral in South Africa, and a panel of Deborah Patta of CBS News, South African journalist and CBS consultant Tim Modise, Allen Pizzey of CBS News, and John Carlin, author of “Knowing Mandela” and “Invictus.”
• tribute to the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting
60 Minutes (CBS)
• 60 Minutes apologizes for Benghazi report
• A deal for Snowden? NSA leak task force leader says a deal with Snowden is worth discussing, but the general who heads the NSA is against any deal
• Egypt's Coptic Christians - "60 Minutes" reports on the Copts, Egypt's Christians who have suffered one of their worst periods in nearly 2,000 years
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.
• Budget Committee Chair Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA)
• Budget Committee Chairs Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)
• Former head of the NSA and CIA, General Michael Hayden.
• ROUNDTABLE: Former New Mexico Gov. and ambassador Bill Richardson, TIME magazine Managing Editor Nancy Gibbs, Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker and Nation Public Radio’s Steve Inskeep
State of the Union With Candy Crowley (CNN) Sunday at 9 am ET and Noon ET.
• Republican Arizona Senator John McCain
• ROUNDTABLE: two former directors of the Congressional Budget Office – Peter Orszag and Doug Holtz-Eakin – and Time Magazine Assistant Managing Editor Rana Foroohar
• ROUNDTABLE II: Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank, Cook Political Report National Editor Amy Walter and National Review Senior Editor Ramesh Ponnuru.
HEAD ON RADIO with Bob Kincaid

Headon Radio with Bob Kincaid 6 PM Eastern, 3 PM Pacific, 2300 GMT. Duration: 3 hrs. To be part of Conversation Radio call toll-free (877) 443-2366, or use our Liberal community line at 304-658-3333. Email bob [at] headonradio [dot] com during the show!
• FRONT PORCH FRIDAY the Thirteenth! Friday wrap with a H.O.R.N. listener roundtable! Pull up a cold one! Listen NOW HERE - Friday, December 13th, 2013 (mp3)! Amen to the White Rose Society! Bob's show archives at the White Rose HERE! Keep Bob on the air! Donate to Head On HERE! And join Coal River Mountain Watch at www.crmw.net!
YOUR GREEN NEWS REPORT With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen!

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' - December 12, 2013 IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Scientists warn of abrupt climate change; Prominent scientists call for a carbon tax... while Big Oil is secretly planning for it; FDA moves to ban some antibiotics in factory farming; PLUS: After moving to claim the North Pole as their own, Canada promises to protect Santa from the Russians ... All those new fronts in the War on Christmas in today's Green News Report!
• IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see link): Can We Avert the End of Elephants?; Competitive hunting of wolves, coyotes in Idaho sparks outcry; We can get 100% of our aluminum from recycling using only 5% of the energy; US fracking boom destroying homes' real estate value; Extreme weather worries insurers, farmers; Arctic Warming Drives More Extreme Summer Heat Waves, Droughts And Deluges; Japan to store radioactive Fukushima soil; Chinese media touts the 'benefits' of extreme pollution, while government trains airline pilots to land in extreme smog; EPA to cut back on inspections ... PLUS: Iraq and Climate Change are both case studies in the failure of journalism ... and much, MUCH more! ...
• 'Green News Report' - December 10, 2013 The climate action legacy of Nelson Mandela; Historic water compact in the volatile Middle East; Air pollution linked to autism; Water pollution linked to miscarriages; PLUS: Canada is claiming the North Pole because... drill baby drill ... All that and more in today's Green News Report!
• BRADBLOG UPDATE! CBS' Logan to Take 'Leave' After Bogus Benghazi Report 60 Minutes correspondent and producer Max McClellan are out, for now, following internal report on failures leading to discredited story...
• BRADCAST! 'BradCast': Dr. Michael Mann, The 'Hockey Stick' & the Very Center of the Climate Wars Brad's KPFK/Pacifica Radio intvw with perhaps the most attacked climatologist in the world, who also created one very famous graph...
• BRADBLOG UPDATE! New Net Hijack Highlights Madness of Internet Voting Unknown to users, 'massive vulnerability' in Internet allowed newly discovered 'man-in-the-middle' exploit to 'siphon vast amounts of data' to foreign countries earlier this year...
• BRADBLOG UPDATE! New CA Law Makes Election Oversight Slightly Easier Citizen Election Integrity advocate Tom Courbat has bipartisan success in passing bill to allow better post-election analysis of results...
The Peter B. Collins Show PODCAST!

Listen at PeterBCollins.com!
The Peter B. Collins Show covers American news and politics from the Left Coast. Veteran talk radio personality Peter B. Collins, based in San Francisco, delivers fresh interviews, commentary and analysis on a range of important topics, with views and voices you don’t often find in the corporate media.
• Holiday Break and Website Changes
• Peter B Collins, Truthout | Op-Ed An Insider's View of the Progressive Talk Radio Devolution
• PBC News & Comment 11 Dec 2013 PBC News & Comment: Canada Spy Agency Partners with NSA to Collect Data on Americans Today’s Snowden flurries fall on Canada, whose spy agency collaborates with NSA to collect data in 20 countries, including data….
• PBC News & Comment 13 Dec 2013 PBC News & Comment: Gitmo’s First Commander Says “It’s Long Past Time to Close Guantanamo” We get comment from super lawyer Michael Ratner on strong statements by Gitmo’s first commander about closing Guantanamo prison……
• PBC Standard Podcast Dec. 10, 2013 Columbia Prof. Carl Hart Has Powerful Personal Story, and Fights the Hysteria of the War on Some Drugs
• PBC Standard Podcast Dec. 13, 2013 Michael Ratner of Center for Constitutional Rights Echos Original Gitmo Commander: Shut Down Guantanamo!
Ring of Fire Radio

Find us at http://ringoffireradio.com and http://goleft.tv/ hosted by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Mike Papantonio and Sam Seder
Ring of Fire Radio - GoLeft TV - Robert F. Kennedy, Mike Papantonio, Sam Seder - Politics, Commentary, and News.
This Weekend on Ring of Fire Radio! Dec. 13, 2013 Saturdays at 3 o’clock Eastern, rebroadcasts Sunday nights at 8 pm Eastern.
• Congressman Alan Grayson will tell us what House Democrats are doing to reign in Wall Street corruption.
• Author Nomi Prins will explain why the Federal Reserve needs to concentrate on monetary policies that actually create jobs.
• Joel Rubin from The Ploughshares Fund will tell us about the nuclear deal with Iran, and what it means for national security.
• And author Chase Madar will join us for a discussion on the growing police state in America.
• NEW! This Week on Ring of Fire on Free Speech TV! Dec. 14, 2013 Sundays at NOON!
»» Farron Cousins, executive editor of The Trial Lawyer Magazine, will be filling in for Mike Papantonio this week.
»» Author and Nation Magazine Washington Correspondent John Nichols will talk about the Detroit bankruptcy, and what it means for other cities facing similar circumstances.
»» Attorney Howard Nations will join us to talk about the growing problem of income inequality, and why it scares global elites.
»» Attorney Seth Katz will discuss the lack of federal action on gun laws, and the actions being taken by state governments to prevent another mass shooting.
»» Attorney Matthew Edling will tell us about Halliburton’s attempts to weaken investor protections.
»» Brendan DeMelle, managing editor of DeSmogBlog.com will discuss the World Bank’s double-speak about climate change.
»» And Desi Doyen, co-host of The Green News Report, will tell us about the absurd right wing claim that climate change is going to be a net benefit to the United States.
• Ring of Fire’s Weekly Rewind Posted on December 7, 2013 by Joshua Schwitzerlett - Ring of Fire’s top stories from the past week.
• 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.”
• Ring of Fire’s Weekly Rewind Posted on November 30, 2013 by Joshua Schwitzerlett
• VIDEO! Papantonio: U.S. Chamber Fights Corruption Laws (VIDEO) This segment originally aired on the December 8th, 2013 episode of Ring of Fire on Free Speech TV. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has launched an attack on a law that punishes companies who bribe foreign officials. Ring of Fire’s Mike Papantonio discusses this with attorney Tim O’Brien.
• VIDEO! Papantonio: JP Morgan’s Fraud Goes Unpunished (VIDEO) This segment originally aired on the December 8th, 2013 episode of Ring of Fire on Free Speech TV. The Department of Justice thinks that their recent fraud settlement with JP Morgan proves that they are finally getting serious about cracking down on Wall Street fraud. But the settlement is not worth celebrating. Ring of Fire’s Mike Papantonio discusses this with attorney James Kauffman.
• 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 12/9/13 Zach Carter: New Corporate Powers In Secret TPP Trade Deal
• TUESDAY 12/10/13 Ed Pilkington: ALEC Withering In the Sunlight
• WEDNESDAY 12/11/13 Mike Konczal: A Tea Party For Liberals
• THURSDAY 12/12/13 David Dayen: Hidden Disaster in New Budget: Demonic Plot to Raid Pensions
• FRIDAY 12/13/13 Casual Friday: Cliff Schecter
• MORE Podcast Interviews at majorityfm.libsyn.com!
KEISER REPORT Podcasts and more @ MaxKeiser.com!

"HI Y'ALL! Tell the people! Tell the people!"
WHO IS MAX KEISER? Max Keiser is a financial expert, Prediction Markets analyst, inventor and filmmaker. He is the creator of the Hollywood Stock Exchange (HSX) the first Prediction Market. Max Keiser co-hosts "The Truth About Markets" on ResonanceFM 104.4 in London. He also produces and presents documentary films covering markets and finance for Al Jazeera’s "People & Power" series. Max Keiser started his career on Wall Street in 1983. He is the creator of KarmaBanque a site that enables activists to challenge corporate power.
• VISIT PirateMyFilm.com!!! Crowd Funding for Pirates!
• MaxKeiserTV on YouTube! MaxKeiserTV
• KEISER REPORT ON FACEBOOK 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.
»» Max Keiser
»» Keiser Report
»» Stacey Herbert
• 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!
• Assange: How cryptography is a key weapon in the fight against empire states by maxkeiser - READ What began as a means of retaining individual freedom can now be used by smaller states to fend off the ambitions of larger ones (guardian.co.uk)
• “Of $70 billion in debt, $52 billion is subject to a downgrade to junk status. The rest may not even be rated. Puerto Rico is toast.” by maxkeiser - READ Moody’s Puts Puerto Rico on Downgrade to Junk Review Citing Very High Debt, Pension Obligations, Chronic Deficits; Exodus Underway
• Why are bankers investigated in Iceland and not so much elsewhere? by maxkeiser - @maxkeiser you have copied&pasted my blog on your website but without my name. Could you please add attribution&link? — Sigrun Davidsdottir - Today, I was interviewed both on BBC radio 5 live and BBC radio 2 regarding bankers being sentenced to prison in Iceland. On both stations I was asked why bankers are being prosecuted in Iceland. I would rather turn that question around? Why are bankers not being investigated – and eventually charged, if there is a case against them – in other countries, for example in Britain? .......
• VIDEO! Iceland jails four ‘banksters’ in financial fraud case by Stacy Herbert
• The Megaupload battle against copyright cartel mirrors BTC’s battle against Central Banks by maxkeiser - READ Megaupload Slams U.S. Secret Move to Share Evidence With Copyright Holders (torrentfreak.com)
• KEISER REPORT [KR534] Keiser Report: Bitcoin Battle We discuss the bitcoin price plunge as Baidu ditches the crypto currency and China bans it for financial firms. Unnoticed at the same time, Germany declares bitcoin to be private money and Merrill Lynch claims it can replace money transfer systems like Western Union. In the second half, Max interviews Dr. Christos Vlachos, CFO of the University of Nicosia, which is now accepting bitcoin as payment and he explains how the volatility in the price won’t matter to the university. They also discuss Dr. Vlachos’ hope to turn Cyprus into a bitcoin hub.
• KEISER REPORT [KR535] Keiser Report: US oil vigil for price of Cold War We discuss Commie-Pus and the $8 trillion wasted by the US taxpayer in protecting the flow of oil out of the Strait of Hormuz where more than 50% heads to Asia. In the second half, Max interviews Liam Halligan of Telegraph.co.uk about the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement and mis-statements, about Liam’s forecast for Russia to be the largest economy in Europe by 2020 and they ask whether or not the Iran peace deal means Saudi Arabia is just not that important in a post-peak world.
• KEISER REPORT [KR536] Keiser Report: Debt Incest Cult We discuss the debt incest cult operating on Wall Street in which JP Morgan’s Sons and Daughters mate two units of related debt for four generations and thus spawning a deformed and cross-eyed credit market. In the second half, Max interviews Jeff Berwick of DollarVigilante.com about the great Bitcoin divide in the libertarian community and about the great migration from the USA to Mexico and beyond by Americans seeking more liberty and freedom.
• THE TRUTH ABOUT MARKETS [TaM-1299] The Truth About Markets – 07 December 2013 Stacy Summary: We talk about ‘tumbled’ chicken at Asda and tumbling bitcoin in China. Download show HERE (mp3)
• Donate to ResonanceFM here!
The Scott Horton Radio Show

Scott Horton is host of Antiwar Radio on Pacifica 90.7 FM KPFK in Los Angeles and KUCR 88.3 in Riverside, and the Scott Horton Show on No Agenda Radio. (You can listen live Monday through Friday from 3-5 PM Eastern HERE.) Plenty of archives too!
• Scott Horton Radio Show Progress Report: All right, yall, welcome back to the show to the inaugural Scott Horton Show progress report! It’s been an eventful year since the show and I (amicably) parted ways with Antiwar.com, so I thought I would highlight just a few of the show’s important milestones, as well as preview some of the exciting projects to look for in the near future. ........ The show on Pacifica KPFK 90.7 FM in L.A., still called Antiwar Radio, has now moved to join their Sunday morning public affairs line up (8:30 am pt), and remains the largest source of listeners, with 15,000-20,000 people tuning in weekly. The future: Liberty Express Radio is growing and bringing me along for the ride. The great Charles Goyette hooked me up with Alan Butler and the Liberty Express earlier this year, and what has been the daily replay there from 3-5 eastern time has become my best listened-to show. And now they’re adding my friend Tom Woods to the lineup from 2-3 PM. That does it. I’m making the switch! Starting Monday, October 14, the live show is moving to 3-5 PM Eastern time on LibertyExpressRadio.com, as well as NoAgenda and my own stream.......
Week Off Well I gotta leave town for a week and miss the show, but I’m going to be spending a bit more time around the blog and working on other parts of the site, so see ya around. Sunday morning on KPFK will be the Peter Jenkins interview from Thursday.
• Scott Horton Radio Show 12/05/13 Peter Jenkins: Peter Jenkins, former UK Ambassador to the IAEA and UN, discusses why nuclear-related sanctions on Iran are no longer justified and how the US Congress is sabotaging a settlement by refusing to lift sanctions in exchange for Iranian concessions.
• Scott Horton Radio Show 12/06/13 Steve Horn: Steve Horn, a Madison, WI-based freelance investigative journalist, discusses Serbian activist Srdja Popovic’s collaboration with private intelligence firm Stratfor, and how Popovic’s CANVAS organization uses “soft power” to topple foreign governments that are disliked in Washington.
• Scott Horton Radio Show 12/06/13 Mike Maharrey: Mike Maharrey, the Communications Director for the Tenth Amendment Center, discusses the NSA’s massive database of information codenamed FASCIA; the Tenth Amendment Center’s campaign to shut down NSA facilities by pressuring states to deny them water and electricity; and the progress being made in the fight against the federal war on drugs.
• Visit his blog Stress. See ScottHorton.org for archives! Send emails to Scott at scotthorton.org to help Scott keep his podcast going!
• Older interviews at Antiwar Radio!
fauxnews
• Rep Paul Ryan (R-WI)
• Carlee Soto, sister of victim Victoria Soto who died while shielding her students from the shooter at Sandy Hook Elementary
• Mark Kelly, husband of former Arizona Congresswoman and gun violence victim Gabrielle Giffords
• Larry Pratt of Gun Owners of America

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

First brick is on us! brick

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Sunday, December 15, 2013

Brick TeeVee Mixed Bag Sunday again!

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