Sunday, March 30, 2014

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Mixed Bag Sunday We begin with a homily from Arch Pope Uber-Rabbi Animated Animus Ultimate Imam Antagonized Agnostic Bob Kincaid Prayer Meetin' Wednesday Show! Scoot up to 8:00 minutes in for Reverand Bob!
Bob recommends desmogblog's Steve Horn detailed report Follow the Money: Three Energy Export Congressional Hearings, No Climate Change Discussion. Good Item! Also at desmogblog BP Lake Michigan Oil Spill: Did Tar Sands Spill into the Great Lake? Is it conventional crude or tar sands? That is the question. And it's one with high stakes, to boot. The BP Whiting refinery in Indiana spilled between 470 and 1228 gallons of oil (or is it tar sands?) into Lake Michigan on March 24 and four days later no one really knows for sure what type of crude it was. Most signs, however, point to tar sands. The low-hanging fruit: the refinery was recently retooled as part of its “modernization project,” which will “provide Whiting with the capability of processing up to about 85% heavy crude, versus about 20% today.” As Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) Midwest Program Director Henry Henderson explained in a 2010 article, “heavy crude [is] code for tar sands.” ........ Also for the BTV Sunday School Report Politico's Stephanie Simon posts this very scary Special report: Taxpayers fund creationism in the classroom Taxpayers in 14 states will bankroll nearly $1 billion this year in tuition for private schools, including hundreds of religious schools that teach Earth is less than 10,000 years old, Adam and Eve strolled the garden with dinosaurs, and much of modern biology, geology and cosmology is a web of lies. Now a major push to expand these voucher programs is under way from Alaska to New York, a development that seems certain to sharply increase the investment. ............. Decades of litigation have established that public schools cannot teach creationism or intelligent design. But private schools receiving public subsidies can — and do. A POLITICO review of hundreds of pages of course outlines, textbooks and school websites found that many of these faith-based schools go beyond teaching the biblical story of the six days of creation as literal fact. Their course materials nurture disdain of the secular world, distrust of momentous discoveries and hostility toward mainstream scientists. They often distort basic facts about the scientific method — teaching, for instance, that theories such as evolution are by definition highly speculative because they haven’t been elevated to the status of “scientific law.” And this approach isn’t confined to high school biology class; it is typically threaded through all grades and all subjects. One set of books popular in Christian schools calls evolution “a wicked and vain philosophy.” Another derides “modern math theorists” who fail to view mathematics as absolute laws ordained by God. The publisher notes that its textbooks shun “modern” breakthroughs — even those, like set theory, developed back in the 19th century. Math teachers often set aside time each week — even in geometry and algebra — to explore numbers in the Bible. Students learn vocabulary with sentences like, “Many scientists today are Creationists.” Some 26 states are now considering enacting new voucher programs or expanding existing ones, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. One concept that is gaining popularity, on the table in eight states: setting up individual bank accounts stocked with state funds that parents can spend not just on tuition but also on tutors or textbooks, both secular and religious. On Friday, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled the approach constitutional; lawmakers there are already working to broaden eligibility. ................ The shifting of public funds to religious schools, especially at a time when scientists are making great strides in understanding the origins of the universe, alarms advocates of strong science education. “I don’t think the function of public education is to prepare students for the turn of the 19th century,” said Eric Meikle, project director at the National Center for Science Education. Critics also contend that the growth of voucher programs undermines the bipartisan drive to set uniformly high academic standards across the U.S. through the Common Core, which covers math and language arts, and the Next Generation Science Standards, which set out clear expectations for teaching about evolution and the origins of life. Voucher schools are free to ignore those standards and set their own curriculum, generally with little state oversight. ............ Voucher supporters have skillfully built strong networks of allies in many states. They’ve spent heavily to campaign for sympathetic lawmakers, both Democrats and Republicans — often targeting primary races to knock out anti-voucher candidates early. They’ve staged rallies packed with cheering families. They’ve funded local advocacy groups such as North Carolina Citizens for Educational Freedom and Hoosiers for Economic Growth. And they’ve worked closely with black ministers to boost demand for vouchers in African-American neighborhoods. The American Federation for Children, a major pro-voucher group, has spent $18 million on campaigns since 2007, spokesman Matt Frendewey said. The Koch-funded group Americans for Prosperity is also a major player. In the last year alone, it has worked to promote subsidies for private schools in 10 states, including Maine, Tennessee, Virginia and Wisconsin, said Peggy Venable, the group’s senior state policy adviser. She said the group is motivated by a conviction that vouchers will encourage both private and public schools to compete and improve. “School choice provides accountability simply by providing parents with the power of choice,” she said. With the groundwork laid, the fight is moving to statehouses......... Regardless of your religious views it's going to take more than Bill Nye debating Creationists to stem the tide of these regressive initiatives to not only teach Creationist dogma but to at the same time de-fund public education through expanded voucher schemes and break teachers' unions. Listen to Sam Seder's Interview with Stephanie Simon: How You Are Funding Creationism in the Classroom and also from a few weeks back Alfie Kohn: Feel-Bad Education author of Feel-Bad Education And Other Contrarian Essays on Children and Schooling.
WAR ON WOMEN UPDATE: You MUST see this. NOW. From DN! Thursday Targeted by Firebombing, Legislation, and Now Vandalism, Montana Abortion Provider Shutters Clinic A Montana medical office that provided abortions, among other services, has been forced to close after a vandal systematically broke or slashed practically every object and surface inside. All Families Healthcare saw the destruction of its plumbing and heating systems, plants pulled up by their roots, and holes stabbed through faces in family photographs. The accused vandal, Zachary Klundt, is the son of a former board member of the anti-choice group Hope Pregnancy Ministries. Twyla Klundt resigned after her son’s arrest. We are joined by All Families Healthcare owner Susan Cahill, who is facing the latest threat to her work following decades of providing abortion as part of family healthcare. Another clinic where she worked was firebombed in 1994. The following year, the Montana state Legislature passed a measure known as the Susan Cahill Law to ban physician assistants from providing abortions. Cahill was the only physician assistant providing abortions in the state. The Montana Supreme Court later upheld her right to do so. A freakin' human tornado. Think Tazmanian Devil from WB. These people are FREAKS. These people are SO FULL OF HATE and DENIAL of BASIC SCIENCE and WOMEN'S HEALTHCARE fed to them overandoverandover by the likes of limpballs, Pat "gold mine" Robertson and Glan Beck and Godzilla from Wasilla and Michele (1 L) Bachmann and the whole lot of climate deniers IT MAKES US SICK. These people are dangerous. Very dangerous. Carole Joffe, University of California, posts As Susan Cahill Faces a Vandalized Clinic, a Reminder of Her Contribution to Abortion Access.
Some History of How We Got Here from BTV Correspondent Maddy In Search of Jimmy Carter: The Missing Link to the Democratic Party’s Pivot to Wall Street by CHRIS MACAVEL at Counterpunch.org The egalitarian Left is long overdue for soul searching. For decades the Democratic Party, ostensibly the instrument of progressive policy, has informally renounced its New Deal roots. Consequently, the middle class, long held as the linchpin America’s democratic system, has been dramatically attenuated from its peak in the post-New Deal state of the 1940s. In this reorientation of America, the physical economy — America’s highly skilled labor force, manufacturing capacity, and infastructure — has languished to a near moribund state while a veritable financial casino economy has emerged transcendent. Although this phenomenon cannot be entirely ascribed to any single political leader or movement, its center of gravity is undoubtedly Wall Street. The Democratic Party — imbibing on years of “free-market” orthodoxy and neoliberalism, has rejected its erstwhile commitment to economic progress for the average person. Instead, it has enabled the financial interests of the owning and possessing class to enrich itself at the expense of the vast majority of Americans, leading to the glaring income disparities that have become a feature of current public discourse. This fundamental reality was recently explored in Harpers by political scientist Adolph Reed Jr. in perhaps one of the most incisive — though not perfect — much needed critiques of Left politics in recent times. Reed observes:
    For nearly all the twentieth century there was a dynamic left in the United States grounded in the belief that unrestrained capitalism generated unacceptable social costs. That left crested in influence between 1935 and 1945, when it anchored a coalition centered in the labor movement, most significantly within the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). It was a prominent voice in the Democratic Party of the era, and at the federal level its high point may have come in 1944, when FDR propounded what he called “a second Bill of Rights.” Among these rights, Roosevelt proclaimed, were the right to a “useful and remunerative job,” “adequate medical care,” and “adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment.”
.......... Although not without merit, this assessment falls short in identifying the true origins of the Democratic Party’s rightward economic reorientation. Before the advent of Reaganism, the foremost tragedy to progressivism was the presidency Jimmy Carter. This “tragedy” of the Carter tenure, as described by one journalist, Haynes Johnson in his "In the Absence of Power", has become eclipsed by the ensuing Reagan presidency. Reaganism was doubtless a resounding defeat for the Left, but the coming of Carter, a watershed event, set the Democratic Party on a rightward economic trajectory from which it has yet to alter in any meaningful way. Suprisingly, any mention of Carter, is conspicuously absent from Reed’s analysis. This glaring omission detracts from Reed’s overall analysis because it is from the presidency of Carter that the Democratic Party repudiates its historic relationship to labor and its commitment to deliver economic progress to the average person. ..................... The Carter years not only saw a dramatic reduction of the Democratic Party’s efforts at social reform such as the war on poverty and programs for the working poor, but it also began the process of deindustrialization of the American economy. Carter who presented himself as being above the fray of Washington politics, torpedoed a number of water and dam projects, which he considered to be government porkbarrel profligacy. Sparking the ire of the congressional Democrats, the loss of these projects represented a blow to much needed jobs. Tellingly, Carter also ushered in the tendency towards deregulation of key industries such as oil and gas, airlines, banking, trucking, and public utilities — also a later hallmark of the Reagan regime. Most notably, the systematic deindustrialization of the United States began under Carter, represented the loss of innumerable blue-collar jobs and the US’s preeminent productive capacity, a national asset. Carter, who originally claimed to regard unemployment as one of the most crucial issues, reversed his policy, deciding instead that addressing inflation was of paramount importance. Trade unionists of the AFL-CIO, who were up until this point an integral part of the Democratic electoral base, anticipated Carter would propose a public works program of $30 billion to reduce unemployment. Carter’s refusal to enact the program, inter alia, produced resentment among industrial trade unionists. Kaufman comments that labor was in “open rebellion” against Carter. The AFL-CIO termed Carter’s new plan as “a retreat from the goals we understand President-elect Carter to have set during last year’s election campaign.” (Kaufman 29) Similarly, Democratic mayors, who needed an infusion of aid for their cities, were shunned. These were the groups that elected him in the first place. More than any other event, the process of deindustrialization, and its corrollary the defeat of labor, accelerated when Carter nominated Paul A. Volcker as head of the Federal Reserve.....................
Much more!
JC Sevcik at UPI reports on a UNC Study that it is Cheaper to house the homeless than to do nothing, study finds (UPI) -- A new study from the University of North Carolina, Charlotte shows providing housing for the homeless may be cheaper than the expenses associated with allowing them to live on the street. Monday UNCC is set to release the first-year impact report on Moore Place, the first homeless facility in Charlotte with a “housing first” model. Housing first is the idea that the homeless can more effectively address other issues -- employment, addiction, and both mental and physical healthcare -- once they have stable housing. ............. The study showed a drastic reduction in expenses related to medical bills, with tenants having 447 fewer visits to the emergency room and 372 fewer days spent hospitalized, a savings of $1.8 million in the first year. There was also a staggering drop in incarceration, with a 78 percent decline in arrests and 84 percent fewer days spent in jail according to Caroline Chambre, director the Urban Ministry Center’s Housing Works. “You can’t argue with the statistics,” said Chambre. “This approach was controversial at one time because of the stereotype of who the homeless are, and we had to change that stereotype.” These staggering reductions are largely due to avoiding crimes associated with being on the street -- public consumption of alcohol, public intoxication or urination, loitering, trespassing, begging, etc. -- and the significant decrease in hospital visits and stays is largely thanks to having access to primary care, a higher quality of living, and the avoidance of risk factors associated with being on the street, i.e., malnutrition, exposure to inclement weather and unsanitary conditions, accidents, physical altercations, etc. ........
BTV correspondent msgeaux find the Race against time to save rice By John Vidal Conservationist reintroduces genetically diverse, drought-tolerant varieties - Fifty years ago every Indian village would probably have grown a dozen or more rice varieties that grew nowhere else. Passed down from generation to generation and family to family, there would have been a local variety of rice for every soil and taste that would grow well in droughts or deep floods, which had the aroma of mangoes or peanuts, tolerance for saltwater or medicinal value.
Back then, says the rice conservationist Debal Deb, India may have had more than 100,000 landraces, or local varieties. “Today there could be just 6,000, with fewer being grown every year. Every community had its own varieties. The rest are no longer cultivated and the knowledge of how to grow them will have been lost.”
Deb, a plant scientist turned farmer, is on a mission not just to reintroduce the lost varieties but to improve agriculture for an age of climate change and scarcity. He is cultivating 920 rice varieties on just 2.5 acres (1.01 hectares) in a forested area of the Niyamgiri hills, where the indigenous people last year managed to drive out the giant mining company Vedanta.
His seed bank, Vrihi, the Sanskrit word for rice, is growing fast as people bring rare seed to him. He grows it and then distributes it in 1-kilogramme packets. “Farmers take the seeds on condition they bring some back,” he says.
“They must return 2-kg as proof they have cultivated it. Most give 1-kg to other farmers so the cycle continues. In three years in Orissa, 2,000 farmers have received the seeds and 350 varieties have been distributed.” .................... “We have developed two varieties of drought-tolerant seeds. In addition, we have six varieties of salt-tolerant rice, which we have reintroduced into the Sunderbans. They were the only varieties to survive when cyclone Aila struck the region in May 2009. Deb, who was a Fulbright scholar and who has done postdoctoral ecology work at the University of California at Berkeley, is not impressed by GM science or hybrid rice growing. “Companies are spending billions on ‘gene mining’, or seeking specific genes. Yet after 60 years they still do not have one, which can withstand a drought or flooding or seawater. But all of these characteristics are available in the landraces. I have varieties of rice that can grow and live for months in 3.5-metre deep water. There are varieties with amazing medicinal properties. The tribals know about certain dark-grained rice that give high levels of antioxidants and can prevent cancers.” Living seed bank - He prefers a living seed bank where varieties are grown every year. “The Indian seed bank has 65,000 varieties, but 90 per cent of them are dead and will not germinate. They are useful for big companies because the genes are still good, but they are useless on a farm. I have a living seed bank." .........
More!
NEXT Eco-Business.com discovers Leaked UN climate change report paints grim picture of Philippines, rest of Asia Millions of people in vulnerable areas, such as some parts of Asia, will have to deal with a worrying scenario of conflicts, food crises, flooding, droughts and huge economic losses caused by climate change by the end of the century, according to the leaked draft of a forthcoming international climate report. The latest report of the United Nations panel, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), looked at the growing threat of climate change and on how human and natural systems are expected to address the “ widespread and consequential” impacts. The leaked document, which is yet to be finalized by hundreds of international scientists and is scheduled to be release by end of March 2014, is the second of the three reports of the IPCC’s scientific assessment on climate change. The report also finds other alarming and devastating impacts from climate change revealing that hundreds of millions of people, mostly in Asia, will be forced to move due to coastal flooding and land loss as sea level rise. ............. In a recent interview, Rosa Perez, a climate scientist from the Manila Observatory and one of the authors of the latest IPCC report, told Environews.ph that most of the content of the assessment report deals with vulnerability and adaptation. Perez revealed that much of the results of the IPCC’s Working Group II report derived from the Special Report on “Managing Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation” (SREX) which was released last year. The report, where Perez is also one of the authors, tackles the challenge of understanding and managing the risks of climate extremes to advance climate change adaptation. ........... The document said that climate change will compound the many stresses caused by rapid urbanization, industrialization, and economic development. Furthermore, climate change is expected to adversely affect the sustainable development capabilities of most Asian developing countries by aggravating pressures on natural resources and the environment. Climate change will also impact industry both directly by affecting industrial production and indirectly by affecting the cost of infrastructure and potential damages. It will likely reinforce existing inequalities, disrupt the social fabric of communities and cities, and exacerbate poverty. ...... Much more!
The pilferring of Ukraine has begun reports Jesse's Café Américain Ukraine Gold Reserves Said To Be Put On Plane For Safekeeping in the US This is a story based on a report out of the Ukraine. Obviously I do not know yet if it is accurate. The information coming out of the Ukraine and Crimea should be sifted carefully, no matter what the source. I find this one hard to believe. I am informed by highly reliable people that no one cares about gold anymore. And very important analysts claim that transporting many tonnes of gold (Ukraine is said to have about 33 tonnes) is very difficult, and so unwieldy and fraught with peril that it must be a multiyear project. But if the Ukraine's gold was taken away for safekeeping, it may be so safe that they will never see it again for a long time. Just ask Germany. Newswire 24: Ukrainian gold reserves loaded on an unidentified transport aircraft in Kiev By Marcus Brooks. ......"Official narrative: gold bullion is going to USA (maybe to reassure the Germans their gold is in safe hands, after all the despite numerous requests from the German Govt The Feds have not given access for them to even view their Gold Bullion) . Real narrative: probably to Switzerland where it is divided between Yulia Tymoshenko and her cronies." Here is a machine translation of the story in Russian from Iskra News..... WOW!
More from msgeaux! At the BBC Ukraine agrees to 50% gas price hike amid IMF talks Ukraine's interim government says it will raise gas prices for domestic consumers by 50% in an effort to secure an International Monetary Fund (IMF) aid package. An official at Ukraine's Naftogaz state energy company said the price rise would take effect on 1 May, and further rises would be scheduled until 2018. Ukrainians are accustomed to buying gas at heavily subsidised rates. But the IMF has made subsidy reform a condition of its deal. Ukraine currently buys more than half of its natural gas from Russia's Gazprom, and then sells it on to consumers at below market prices. Yury Kolbushkin, budget and planning director at Naftogaz, told reporters that gas prices for district heating companies would also rise by 40% from 1 July. IMF negotiators are still in Kiev to negotiate a package of measures worth billions of dollars to help Ukraine's interim government plug its budget deficit and meet foreign loan repayments. The IMF is also asking Ukraine to crack down on corruption and end central bank support for the Ukrainian currency. On Tuesday, Ukraine's finance minister Olexander Shlapak said the country was seeking $15-20bn (£9-12bn) from the IMF. .......
And even MORE from msgeaux! Chris Rossini at the Economic Policy Journal explains Oh...So That's What The "Strategic Petroleum Reserve" Is For Bloomberg reports:
    America’s emergency stockpile of oil stands twice as large as the amount required by an international pact. George Soros has proposed selling some now to punish Russian President Vladimir Putin -- and U.S. lawmakers are starting to listen.
Oh, so that's the "emergency" that the stockpile is supposedly there for. Political punishments!
    As the U.S. and its European allies seek to rebuke Russia for taking over the Crimea region of Ukraine, America could push down global oil prices by as much as $12 a barrel by selling 500,000 barrels a day from its strategic reserve, said Philip Verleger, a consultant who worked in the Ford and Carter administrations. The lower prices would cost Russia about $40 billion in lost income from oil and gas sales, equivalent to 2 percent of its economy, he said.
Lew Rockwell once provided a short backgrounder on this central planning monstrosity:
    The nutty Strategic Petroleum Reserve had its origins at the height of New Deal fascism, 1944, when Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes pushed the idea of stockpiling crude. Of course this was also a period when all food, clothing, raw materials, and nearly every other good was being rationed, all wages and prices were being set by the wartime czars, and young men were being drafted against their will and sent to their deaths in a foreign war. A little oil confiscation was hardly a big deal. But the call was renewed after the beginning of the Cold War, when Truman’s Minerals Policy Commission proposed a strategic oil supply in 1952. After the Suez crisis, Eisenhower joined the chorus. But it took Nixon and the oil crisis of 1974, a period of oil price control, to finally get the policy imposed. This is truly a bipartisan program: both parties with a hand in your gas tank.
And that's the real boil on the average American's back: We pay through the nose for gasoline because of the central planners. The Soviet-style oil reserve should be abolished. They should get rid of every single drop. And while they're at it, abolish the punishing gasoline taxes that we pay at the pump as well. Instead of being used for the futile game of Empire, oil should be priced on the market without government rigging the supply and price as it sees fit.

Veteran New York Times Reporter James Risen declares The Obama Administration Is “The Greatest Enemy Of Press Freedom That We Have Encountered In At Least a Generation” at WashingtonsBlog.com Veteran Journalists Reveal that – Contrary to It’s Claims of “Openness” and “Transparency” – The White House is Trying to Crush the Free Press Veteran New York Times reporter James Risen said last Friday:
    [The Obama administration is] the greatest enemy of press freedom that we have encountered in at least a generation. [The administration wants to] narrow the field of national security reporting to create a path for accepted reporting. [Anyone journalist who exceeds those parameters] will be punished. [The administration’s aggressive prosecutions have created] a de facto Official Secrets Act. ”
New York Times Executive Editor Jill Abramson agrees:
    This is the most secretive White House that I have ever been involved in covering, and that includes — I spent 22 years of my career in Washington and covered presidents from President Reagan on up through now, and I was Washington bureau chief of the Times during George W. Bush’s first term. I dealt directly with the Bush White House when they had concerns that stories we were about to run put the national security under threat. But, you know, they were not pursuing criminal leak investigations. The Obama administration has had seven criminal leak investigations. That is more than twice the number of any previous administration in our history. It’s on a scale never seen before. This is the most secretive White House that, at least as a journalist, I have ever dealt with.
......................... The Obama administration has prosecuted more whistleblowers than all other presidents combined. And it goes out of its way to smear whistleblowers, threaten reporters who discuss whistleblower information and harass honest analysts. Journalism is not only being criminalized in America, but investigative reporting is actually treated like terrorism. The government admits that journalists could be targeted with counter-terrorism laws (and here). For example, after Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Chris Hedges, journalist Naomi Wolf, Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg and others sued the government to enjoin the NDAA’s allowance of the indefinite detention of Americans – the judge asked the government attorneys 5 times whether journalists like Hedges could be indefinitely detained simply for interviewing and then writing about bad guys. The government refused to promise that journalists like Hedges won’t be thrown in a dungeon for the rest of their lives without any right to talk to a judge. After the government’s spying on the Associated Press made it clear to everyone that the government is trying to put a chill journalism, the senior national-security correspondent for Newsweek tweeted: "Serious idea. Instead of calling it Obama’s war on whistleblowers, let’s just call it what it is: Obama’s war on journalism." .............
Much much more! Click over to read all of this including a video with long-time CNN political reporter Bob Franken (now with MSNBC)! Chilling!
CommonDreams.org posts this Press Release from The Sparrow Project NSA Invokes “National Defense” and the Espionage Act to Stonewall MIT Student’s FOIA Request on Nelson Mandela Lawsuit filed against NSA, FBI, DIA, & CIA for release of records ranging from Mandela’s 1962 arrest to his inclusion on U.S. Terror Watch List until 2008. WASHINGTON - March 25 - Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) PhD candidate Ryan Shapiro filed a lawsuit this morning against the National Security Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Defense Intelligence Agency over the spy agencies’ failure to comply with his Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for records on anti-apartheid activist and South African President, Nelson Mandela. Shapiro’s requests seek, among other records, documents pertaining to the U.S intelligence community’s role in Mandela’s 1962 arrest and Mandela’s placement on the U.S. terror watch list until 2008. Shapiro is already suing the Central Intelligence Agency over this same failure. Shapiro wants to know why the NSA, FBI, DIA, and CIA viewed Mandela as a threat to American security, and what actions the Agency took to thwart Mandela’s efforts to secure racial justice and democracy in South Africa. A .PDF of Shapiro’s Lawsuit Filed This Morning is Available HERE. Notably, in addition to invoking the Espionage Act (Title 18 U.S. Code 798), the NSA’s denial of Shapiro’s FOIA request (see embedded document) invokes “national defense” to support the agency’s refusal to even acknowledge the existence of records about Mandela. Asserts the NSA, “the fact of the existence or non-existence of the materials you request is a currently and properly classified matter [….] to be kept secret in the interest of national defense[.]” Shapiro, a FOIA specialist, is an historian of the political functioning of national security and the policing of dissent. His pathbreaking FOIA work has already led the FBI to declare his MIT dissertation research a threat to national security. Shapiro is represented by FOIA specialist attorney Jeffrey Light............. "The records of government are the property of the people. Yet, unknown billions of pages are needlessly hidden from the American people behind closed doors and “classified” markings. Undefined “national security” concerns ostensibly legitimize this secrecy. "........ See DN! Tuesday (below) for an interview with Ryan Shapiro for the whole hour!
BTV correspondent ljm notes Reading Reich and Krugman on the .1% and the power of the oligarchs money in politics, I have to wonder where they've been? Is it an ivory tower thing? From Kansas it's been war with these guys since the 90s at least and from ground zero in Kansas, they are winning. Kobach is all smiles on the voter citizenship/ ID thing. Brownback is going around the state promoting religious values, which I have to think means his religious values. We are deep in the dark ages around here. And it gets creepier and creepier in Kansas. Kansas can pull Planned Parenthood funding -U.S. appeals court (Reuters) - A federal appeals court panel on Tuesday upheld a 2011 Kansas law that would stop federal family planning money the state receives from flowing to two Planned Parenthood clinics. The ruling overturned a Kansas federal judge's preliminary injunction that stopped the state from eliminating the federal funding to family planning clinics Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri operates in Wichita and Hays. No abortion services are provided at the health centers and Planned Parenthood has said they would lose more than $330,000 in funding, their eligibility for a low-cost drug-purchasing program and it likely would lead to the Hays clinic closing. Planned Parenthood said it was reviewing its options after the ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit and remained committed to Kansas women and their families. And you can watch this PBS News Hour Debating Kansas’ mandate on tighter voter ID enforcement with Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach and Jenny Rose Flanagan of Common Cause. And for some background see ColorLines.com for Kris Kobach and the Connection Between Restrictive Voting and Immigration Laws and at BradBlog.com Kansas Sec. of State Kris Kobach Has New Plan to Keep 17,500+ Legal Voters From Voting
Go get involved and watch Forward13TheMovie.com - Waking up the American Dream and visit their TheRoadIsHome.org page plus EveryManSuperPac.com
At The Nation Greg Mitchell asks and answers Media Response to Iraq War Anniversary: What Iraq War? As you may have noticed—or rather, not noticed—few in the media paid any attention to last week's 11th anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq, an event which had, oh, a few consequences. This seemed especially odd, and revealing, since US vets are still dying from their wounds and brain injuries and committing suicide in still growing numbers—not to mention the continuing toll in Iraq (more bombings killing dozens seemingly to mark the anniversary).
Last year on the 10th anniversary there was a good deal of coverage, which I guess we can't expect for any year that doesn't end in zero (see: Hiroshima). But still: almost no coverage or probing or re-capping at all? Perhaps the media are rightly still embarrassed by their performance in the run-up to the war, which helped make it possible...inevitable.
That makes it all the more important for them to re-visit their massive failures, especially with new calls for US intervention abroad. Consider how close we came to bombing Syria (or more) just a few months back, based on sketchy evidence, and calls from "liberal hawks" like Keller and Kristof to take military action there. And now: Crimea and the Ukraine. Maybe: Iran (still). That's why I like the idea proposed elsewhere of naming the anniversary of our invasion of Iraq, March 20, henceforth as "Media Atonement Day." Well, I've tried to do my part by posting about 20 stories, items and videos here in the past ten days or so at my Pressing Issues blog. Will Media Atonement Day happen? Don't bet on it. .........
And see Peter Van Buren at FDL Iraq War Anniversary: Me and Colin Powell in the NYC ....Last week marked the 11th anniversary of the Iraq War, so Powell’s self-debasement took place some 11 years ago. A little recap is due.......
And be sure to watch DN! Thursday show with Errol Morris, director of the new documentary, "The Unknown Known" about the smiling-like-Cheshire-Cat DONALD RUMSFELD from over 33 hours of interviews The Unknown Known: Errol Morris’ New Doc Tackles Unrepentant Iraq War Architect Donald Rumsfeld Says Morris, "This is one of the strangest and most disturbing interviews I’ve ever done." See the entry below in the DN! section for links to the trailer and more! Lastly we bid adieu to author, journalist, peace activist and The Nation's peace and disarmament correspondent Jonathan Schell. Katrina vanden Heuvel and The Editors of The Nation Magazine have this tribute Remembering Jonathan Schell: 1943-2014 .......... The power and persuasiveness of so much of Jonathan's work came not only from his elegant style, clarity of analysis and powerful logic but also in the enduring belief that there is no idea so powerful as a moral one. In a special 1998 Nation issue making the case for nuclear abolition, he compelled us to confront the nuclear peril in which we all find ourselves, and he brilliantly laid out the argument that there exists a viable and desirable alternative to continued reliance on war and nuclear weapons. On the nuclear crisis, no voice was as clear, no writing as perceptive as Jonathan’s, going back to his acclaimed 1982 book The Fate of the Earth and his articles in The Nation and in other publications. In the days after September 11, and in the weeks running up to the disastrous invasion of Iraq, Jonathan was one of the most thoughtful, reflective and independently critical voices to emerge in a media landscape filled with calls for war and vengeance. His weekly column, "Letter from Ground Zero," launched just hours after 9/11, was a remarkable chronicle of those charged times. Never losing his bearings, as so many others did, Jonathan used the column to unwaveringly advance the case for sensible and moral non-military actions. ......... Jonathan once told me he valued the freedom The Nation accorded its writers. We will forever value Jonathan for the freedom he argued for—and ceaselessly supported with his words and actions. We present a selection of Jonathan's work for The Nation below. Please visit The Nation and click through all the great SIGNIFICANT articles Jonathan Schell wrote that Katrina and the staff posted.


R.I.P. Jonathan Schell

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Jonathan Edward Schell

August 21, 1943 – March 25, 2014

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Headlines Monday, March 24, 2014

Headlines Tuesday, March 25, 2014 Headlines Wednesday, March 26, 2014 Headlines Thursday, March 27, 2014 Headlines Friday, March 28, 2014

GRITtv GRITtv @ www.grittv.org with Laura Flanders
»»» FEATURED SHOW Risky Talking: What is a Real Risk? "What is a real risk? What is a risky thought? How would politics, development, real estate and our very lives be different if artists were at the table? In an age of rapid and rampant gentrification, how do we create spaces where creativity can happen?......... more!

BRICK TEEVEE SPORT!©
1 DAY UNTIL MLB OPENING DAY!
»»» NASCAR on FOX Sprint Cup Series at Martinsville Speedway 1 pm et
»»» NCAA March Madness! Coverage on CBS Sunday 2:20 PM (7) Connecticut vs (4) Michigan State then 5:05 PM (8) Kentucky vs (2) Michigan
»»» SUNDAY NIGHT BASEBALL on ESPN Dodgers-Padres at 8 p.m.
»»» MLB OPENING DAY on ESPN/ESPN2 Five games on the schedule beginning at 1 PM! Play Ball!
»»» NBA on TNT Tuesday Doubleheader! Rockets @ Nets 8 pm et then Blazers @ Lakers 10:30 pm et
»»» NBA on TNT Thursday Doubleheader! Spurs @ Thunder 8 pm et then Mavs @ Clippers 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!

    Washington, DC – Today a group of U.S. House of Representatives lawmakers introduced the Appalachian Community Health Emergency Act (ACHE Act, H.R. 526) to protect Appalachian families and communities from the nation’s most extreme form of coal mining, mountaintop removal. The Appalachian Community Health Emergency Act’s leading sponsors are Rep. John Yarmuth (D-KY) and Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY), joined by original cosponsors Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ), Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), Rep. John Sarbanes (D-MD), Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA), Rep. Donna Edwards (D-MD), Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA), Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY), Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA), Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), Rep. Michael Honda (D-CA), Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR), Rep. Matt Cartwright (D-PA), Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA), Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-ME), Rep. Janice Schakowksy (D-IL), Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA), Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), and Rep. Jared Polis (DCO).

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! Tell the FCC: Restore Net Neutrality An appeals court just dealt the latest blow to the open Internet. The court struck down the Federal Communications Commission’s Open Internet Order because of the questionable legal framework the agency used when it adopted its Net Neutrality rules in 2010. This ruling means there is no one who can protect us from ISPs that block or discriminate against websites, applications or services. But there’s hope: FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler can correct the agency’s past mistakes and truly protect our nation’s communications infrastructure. The agency must take the necessary steps to make broadband networks open, accessible, reliable and affordable for everyone. Tell the FCC to start treating broadband like a communications service, and to restore its Net Neutrality rules. GO NOW TO NET NEUTRALITY IS DEAD at freepress.net NOW.

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. 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! NEW!!! NATION ACTION! Stop the Comcast/Time Warner Cable Merger! GO THERE NOW!

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! UPDATE! Legalize Democracy Film Premieres on Free Speech TV Jan 21 Move to Amend is thrilled to announce that the premiere of our mini documentary, Legalize Democracy, will be airing on Free Speech TV (FSTV) next week to coincide with the "anniversary" of Citizens United. Legalize Democracy is a 28 minute film by Dennis Trainor, Jr. about the movement to amend -- why it is needed, and how you can get involved. Watch live on our website here. 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 "Chelsea Manning Support Network" March 19, 2014. By CMSN. PVT Manning has filed to change her name legally to "Chelsea Elizabeth Manning" and to receive hormone therapy. To show our support in this struggle, we are renaming ourselves to the "Chelsea Manning Support Network." ..... UPDATE! David Coombs: Update on PFC Chelsea Manning March 26, 2014. By attorney David Coombs. Since being retained to represent [Chelsea Manning] on July 16, 2010, I have fought to ensure that she received a fair trial and a just result. Unfortunately, I do not believe that she received either...... AND Update 3/24/14: Government censoring Freedom of Information requests more then ever before The Associated Press recently concluded its study of government Freedom of Information requests (FOIA) and the results are disappointing at best. More then under any other administration, the Obama government is censoring and blocking Freedom of Information requests and departments are taking longer to process them......

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
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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: 2,315 US Military Dead as of Mar 21, 2014
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
60 Words And A War Without End: The Untold Story Of The Most Dangerous Sentence In U.S. History

  • This Week (ABC) Host George Stephanopoulos
    • New JerseyAssemblyman John Wisniewski, D-N.J., co-chair of the state investigation into the “Bridgegate” scandal.
    • ESPN’s Keith Olbermann
    • latest on the crisis in Ukraine and the U.S. response to Russian President Vladimir Putin
    • ROUNDTABLE: ABC News contributor and Democratic strategist Donna Brazile, ABC News political analyst Matthew Dowd, ABC News contributor and Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol, and ABC News contributor and former Obama White House senior adviser David Plouffe.


  • Face The Nation (CBS) Host Bob Schiefer
    • latest on the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370
    • NCAA president Mark Emmert
    • Gov. Jay Inslee (D-WA)
    • Michael Morell, the former Deputy CIA Director and now a CBS News Contributor, and Michael Hayden, the former NSA director
    • Politics ROUNDTABLE: Gwen Ifill of PBS, Carolyn Ryan of The New York Times, David Ignatius of The Washington Post, and David Gergen of CNN


  • 60 Minutes (CBS)
    The Fox 'News'-ification of CBS News and '60 Minutes': 'The Cleantech Crash'
    • Coming Up Sunday, March 30 at 7 p.m. ET/PT
    • Stock market rigged, says Michael Lewis in new book
    • Billionaire Elon Musk on 2008: "The worst year of my life"
    • Wynton Marsalis debuts on 60 Minutes with jazz gem Marcus Roberts


  • 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.
    • Senate Intelligence Committee member, and longtime critic of NSA bulk data collection, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR).
    • Christie Report: Fmr. New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and New Jersey State Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck)
    • Obamacare: The Final Push - Jonathan Cohn of The New Republic and Avik Roy of Forbes magazine
    • ROUNDTABLE: former Republican Presidential Candidate Rick Santorum; national editor of the Cook Political Report Amy Walter; Peter Baker of the New York Times; and the youngest mayor in the history of Ithaca, NY, Svante Myrick.


  • State of the Union With Candy Crowley (CNN) Sunday at 9 am ET and Noon ET.
    • Malaysia Airlines Flight 370: compensation attorney Kenneth Feinberg
    • Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)
    • Former U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte
    • Governor Jay Inslee (D-WA)
    • Politics ROUNDTABLE: Bill Burton, Kevin Madden, Darlene Superville.


  • 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 call our Liberal community line at 304-658-3333. Email bob [at] headonradio [dot] com during the show!
    • Front Porch Friday! Featuring the H.O.R.N./Malloy Skype chatters and more! Listen here NOW! Friday, March 28th, 2014 (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!
    desi-n-bradSnohomishLandslide
    The Green News Report with Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen: 6 minutes of green news, politics, analysis & snarky comment! BOOKMARK greennews.bradblog.com NOW!
    'Green News Report' - March 27, 2014 IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Was logging a factor in deadly Washington landslide?; New BP oil spill in Lake Michigan; Rooftop solar endangers the electric grid? 'Bullsh*t', says former Energy Secretary; Next UN climate report warns climate change will affect 'every aspect of human life' and 'cost trillions'; PLUS: Irreversible climate change could be locked in as early 2036... All that and more in today's Green News Report! IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links at site): House of Representatives votes for No More National Parks; U.S. Oil Boom Shifts Alliance as Obama Visits Saudi King; Ridiculously Resilient Ridge Hangs Tough; Fracking’s Earthquake Risks Push States to Collaborate; Fracking the USA: New Map Shows 1 Million Oil, Gas Wells; EPA moves to protect streams, wetlands; Drug companies agree to curb livestock antibiotic use ... PLUS: Millions of salmon begin migration --- by truck ... and much, MUCH more! ...
    • BRADCAST! KPFK 'BradCast': War Bait and E-Cigs and Dems, Oh My! Nothing but rants and calls this week! From US media misinfo on Ukraine to the Dems' (so far) woeful plans for 2014 to rapidly accelerating and wildly dangerous media disinfo on the miracle of e-cigs...
    • BRADCAST SPECIAL with ConsortiumNews.com's Robert Parry! U.S. Media's 'Lost' Ukraine Narrative Investigative reporter Robert Parry joins Brad to discuss what the U.S. media is failing to tell you about the crisis in Iraq Syria Ukraine; PLUS MUCH MORE...
    • BRADBLOG UPDATE! NYTimes Plays Stooge in Deadly 'War on E-Cigs' The 'Paper of Record' fires yet another volley in the 'misguided' war against those quitting smoking by switching to vaping. Their new argument may be the most absurd to date...
    • BRADBLOG UPDATE! Koch Is It! Dems 2014 Strategy Revealed! Democrats are up against it this year, but they've got a plan to raise money that appears to work: Attack the Kochs! Our suggestion: Give American voters something to vote for...
    • BRADBLOG UPDATE! VICE Founder: Climate Change 'Biggest Problem Facing Humanity' Shane Smith of HBO's new documentary series, discusses show's alarming episode on Greenland's melting ice, 'people who know the science is real paying people to say it's not'...


  • 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 News & Comment 24 Mar 2014 PBC News & Comment: My Favorite Talking Head, David Byrne, Calls for a New, Secure Internet David Byrne, former leader of Talking Heads, pens thoughtful, funny commentary on spying and need for a secure internet…
    • PBC News & Comment 26 Mar 2014 PBC News & Comment: Obama’s “Limited Hangout” on Metadata Changes Comparing Obama to Tricky Dick Nixon, your humble host says White House “reform” proposal doesn’t address critical surveillance issues…
    • PBC News & Comment 27 Mar 2014 PBC News & Comment: Journalist Roger Shuler Freed from Jail!! After 5 months of unconstitutional incarceration, journalist Roger Shuler was finally released from jail yesterday in Shelby County, Alabama!…
    • PBC Standard Podcast March 25, 2014 Journalist/Author Prof. Peter Laufer Talks Secession and “The Elusive State of Jefferson”
    • PBC Standard Podcast March 28, 2014 Journalist Roger Shuler Recounts His 5 Months in Alabama Jail


  • 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! March 28, 2014 Saturdays at 3 o’clock Eastern, rebroadcasts Sunday nights at 8 pm Eastern.
    • Paul Waldman from The American Prospect will tell us what’s really behind the racially charged language of GOP leadership.
    • Harold Meyerson will tell us the best way to raise wages for American workers.
    • And Joshua Field from the Center for American Progress will explain what’s at stake with the Hobby Lobby Supreme Court case.
    • NEW! This Week on Ring of Fire on Free Speech TV! March 29, 2014 Sundays at NOON!
    »» We’ll talk about how investing in infrastructure could solve some of our biggest economic problems.
    »» We’ll examine what’s really behind the GOP’s war on voting rights – rather than change their extremist positions, they can win elections by simply rigging the system.
    »» Ian Millhiser from Think Progress will tell us if the GOP has made any progress since releasing their autopsy report last year.
    »» We’ll look at the choice that the Democratic Party has to make in this year’s midterms and in the next presidential election. The question is: Will they be populists or corporatists?
    »» And Ring of Fire co-host Sam Seder is going to discuss some of the best stories from independent progressive media from the last week – stories that the traditional, corporate-controlled media never talk about.
    Ring of Fire’s Weekly Rewind Posted on March 15, 2014 by Joshua De Leon - 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.” Also see Papantonio & Kennedy on Corporate Corruption and Fraud — Pt. 1/4
    Ring of Fire’s Weekly Rewind Posted on March 29, 2014 by Joshua De Leon
    • VIDEO! Papantonio: Wells Fargo Foreclosure Fraud Exposed (VIDEO) Mike Papantonio and Thom Hartmann talk about the recently uncovered documents that show that banking giant Wells Fargo put together a strategy to help their people falsify foreclosure documents.
    • VIDEO! Papantonio: Wells Fargo’s Fraud Handbook (VIDEO) Ring of Fire’s Mike Papantonio appears on The Big Picture with Thom Hartmann to discuss Wells Fargo’s recent foreclosure fabrication scam.
    • 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 3/24/14 Rafia Zakaria: This is What We Get Wrong About Foreign Aid
    • TUESDAY 3/25/14 Dahlia Lithwick: Hobby Lobby At SCOTUS
    • WEDNESDAY 3/26/14 Stephanie Simon: How You Are Funding Creationism in the Classroom
    • THURSDAY 3/27/14 Micah Uetricht: Strike for America: Chicago Teachers Against Austerity
    • FRIDAY 3/28/14 Casual Friday: Cliff Schecter & Film Guy Matthew Weiss
    • MORE Podcast Interviews at majorityfm.libsyn.com!
    • SPECIAL THIS MONDAY! Special start time 11:30 am et as Majority Report celebrates TEN YEARS with Special Guest and former co-host Janeane Garofalo!


  • 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
    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
    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)
    Does Our System Select for Incompetent Sociopaths? by Charles Hugh Smith - What is the shelf life of a system that rewards confidence-gaming sociopaths rather than competence? Let’s connect the dots of natural selection and the pathology of power.
    In his 2012 book The Wisdom of Psychopaths: What Saints, Spies, and Serial Killers Can Teach Us About Success, author Kevin Dutton described how the attributes of sociopathology are in a sense value-neutral: the sociopathological attributes that characterize a dangerous criminal may also characterize a cool, high-performing neurosurgeon. Read more HERE .......
    A COMEX GOLD MANIPULATED HIT VISUALIZED by The Doc - The primary reason the U.S. Government and Federal Reserve intervene actively in the gold market is to keep to keep the price from moving higher in order the protect the reserve status of the U.S. dollar. Given that we know Russia and China are actively disabusing their foreign reserve holdings of Treasuries – quietly and now apparently more quickly – the dollar was in danger of breaching key technical levels to the downside and drop like a rock into the mid-70's (USDX basis). Janet Yellen saved the day with her non-transparent post-FOMC statement that suggested the possibility of higher rates in six months, which all know is total nonsense. However, mission accomplished as her words managed to spike the dollar index back over 80 and now the Fed via its agent bullion banks are trying smash the price of gold lower to "reinforce" the move in the dollar. This is what Monday's manipulated hit on the gold market looked like: more HERE....READ Petrodollar Alert: Putin Prepares To Announce "Holy Grail" Gas Deal With China .....
    Daily Mail: Goldman Sachs Are Financial Terrorists by maxkeiser - READ How the vampire squid is controlling our lives: They helped cause the crash. Then profited from it. Now, from the Bank of England to the Fed, ex-Goldman Sachs chiefs are pulling the levers of power (dailymail.co.uk)
    The Co-Op Movement – A Decentralized Solution to Solving Inequality and Avoiding Serfdom? Submitted by Michael Krieger of Liberty Blitzkrieg - As most of you are well aware, the entrenched power structure has proven itself unwilling to address any of the extreme fraud, crony capitalism and corruption that plagues the U.S. economy. As such, it has become increasingly clear to myself and countless others that the solutions we need must be grassroots and decentralized. I have personally made it a point to encourage people to take matters into their own hands, using whatever tools they have available to make the communities in which they live better for their families and their neighbors. To that end, I want to highlight this encouraging article from the New York Times titled, Who Needs a Boss?, which explores possibilities worker co-ops provide for workers everywhere. Not only is the pay far better, not only is work engagement considerably more robust, but it restores a sense of community and power to those involved. Read more here.
    • VIDEO! U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson: we should be applauding Russian action in Ukraine and Crimea… by maxkeiser
    • KEISER REPORT [KR579] Keiser Report: UK Budget = Pig with Lipstick We discuss how wrong the minister for universities in the UK got his maths so, so wrong. The tripling of student fees has, in fact, cost the government more in defaults than had the government kept fees at £3000. We also discuss house prices earning more in a month than one of these university educated graduates earns in a two years. In the second half, Max puts lipstick on a pig with Mitch Feierstein, author of Planet Ponzi. They discuss the UK, Spanish and Chinese debt stories and what it would take Mitch to become bullish on the S&P.
    • KEISER REPORT [KR580] Keiser Report: Money out of Thin Debt Air We discuss the paper fist ruling the Empire of Debt. We look at the poor people being financially strip searched, stopped and frisked and then choked while standing in an X-Factor like line in order to get a low paying job at a supermarket. In the second half, Max interviews entrepreneur and investor, Matthew Mellon, about bitcoin and the blockchain, luxury shoes and Hanley-Mellon.
    • KEISER REPORT [KR581] Keiser Report: No Planet for Young People We discuss no country, no planet for young people as they are forced to flee their own austerity or bubble hit countries for more affordable places abroad. In the second half, Max interviews Telegraph journalist, Liam Halligan, about the cost of Russian sanctions to European and American corporations; the lobbying war between the Defense Lobby and the Retail Lobby and, finally, Liam actually has some nice words to say about George Osborne’s budget!
    • THE TRUTH ABOUT MARKETS [TaM-1309] The Truth About Markets – 15 March 2014 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 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.......
    • Scott Horton Radio Show 03/24/14 Gareth Porter: This is the eighth part in a series of interviews on Porter’s new book Manufactured Crisis: The Untold Story of the Iran Nuclear Scare. Porter discusses the CIA’s flawed assessment of Iran’s nuclear program; re-using the “fix the facts around the policy” strategy from the Iraq war; the good guys in the CIA like Paul Pillar; why wrongheaded National Intelligence Estimates go unchallenged; and the high-level coverup of a “John Doe” CIA operative’s discovery that Iran was not pursuing nuclear weapons.
    • Scott Horton Radio Show 03/25/14 Catherine Crump: Catherine Crump, a staff attorney with the ACLU, discusses her Tomdispatch article “Big Data and the Internet of Things Means the Surveillance of Everything.”
    • Scott Horton Radio Show 03/27/14 Adam Morrowr: Adam Morrow, an IPS News journalist based in Cairo, discusses Field Marshall al-Sisi’s announced candidacy for president and his main competition; the Egyptian government’s bad reputation on the world stage for its mass death sentences; and the how Egypt’s turmoil is causing rifts between Gulf monarchies.
    • Scott Horton Radio Show 03/27/14 Ray McGovern: Ray McGovern, a retired CIA analyst turned political activist, discusses why the US media thinks a Russian invasion of Ukraine is imminent; and Victoria Nuland’s successful regime change operation as her guy “Yats” becomes interim prime minister and paves the way for IMF austerity.
    • 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
    • Sen Angus King (I-ME)
    • Sen John Barrasso (R-WY)
    • Rep Mike Rogers (R-MI), Chairman of the House Select Committee on Intelligence.


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