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Torture Report Special Thanks for hanging with us (pun intended) as we assemble this week's post. We have never seen so much big-time significant stuff come out in one week! From our perch it looks like lots of peeps are NOT going to have a Happy Holiday while others are popping champagne corks (some are the same peeps!). And we don't even have ONE story about the COP20 so see DN! for all those updates on Global Climate Change!
Malloy chatter Anitole78 gives us this snippet from Howard Zinn A Power Governments Cannot Suppress, 2007: "Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is that people all over the world have obeyed the dictates of leaders…and millions have been killed because of this obedience…Our problem is that people are obedient allover the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves… (and) the grand thieves are running the country. That’s our problem......... The challenge remains. On the other side are formidable forces: money, political power, the major media. On our side are the people of the world and a power greater than money or weapons: the truth. Truth has a power of its own. Art has a power of its own. That age-old lesson – that everything we do matters – is the meaning of the people’s struggle here in the United States and everywhere. A poem can inspire a movement. A pamphlet can spark a revolution. Civil disobedience can arouse people and provoke us to think, when we organize with one another, when we get involved, when we stand up and speak out together, we can create a power no government can suppress. We live in a beautiful country. But people who have no respect for human life, freedom, or justice have taken it over. It is now up to all of us to take it back."
UPDATE! The mother of 12-year-old Tamir Rice that was just shot by a cop not allowed to ride in the EMT to the hospital with her dying child and had to go to the hospital in the squad car with her 12-year-old daughter the CPD already caught and detained Tamir Rice’s Sister was Handcuffed After His Shooting, Mom Says Tamir Rice’s 14-year-old sister rushed to her brother’s side after finding out the boy had been shot, and upon arriving police officers “tackled” her, handcuffed her and placed Tamir’s sister in a police car with the officer who shot Tamir, her mother and a Rice family attorney disclosed reporters on Monday. The mother of Tamir Rice, Samaria Rice, was also threatened to be arrested after she attempted to charge and yell at the officers “because they wouldn’t let her run to her son’s aid,” she said. ............ the mother remembered the moment she received the news that her youngest of her four children had been shot. “Two little boys came and knocked on my door and said, ‘Police officers just shot your son twice in the stomach,’ ” she said. At first, she didn’t believe them but quickly realized they were telling the truth. “I really thought they was playing, like joking around, but I saw the seriousness in their face, and it scared me,” she said. She ran to the scene, admittedly frantic, and arrived at the same time as an ambulance. Officers wouldn’t let her check on her son, she said, “and then I saw my daughter in the back of a police car, the same one the shooter got out of.” Family attorney Walter Madison said police placed Tamir’s sister in the car with Loehmann. Samaria Rice said she calmed down and asked police to release her daughter. They told her no, she said. Not only would they not release her daughter, but later, she said, they made her choose: Stay with her daughter or accompany her son to a hospital. She chose the latter but was told she couldn’t ride in the back of the ambulance with her son, so she rode in the front seat on the way to the hospital, she said...... WOW! AND Breanna Edwards of TheRoot.com explains Tamir Rice’s Mom Wants a Conviction in Her Son’s Death Samaria Rice, the mother of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, who was fatally shot by Cleveland police Nov. 22, is “looking for a conviction” for both of the officers who were on the scene at the time of her son’s death, ABC News reports. ........... In an exclusive interview with ABC, the grieving mother said that she wants the “police [to] be accountable for what they did to my son. I’m looking for a conviction for both of the officers.” ........... The family has also recently filed a wrongful death suit against the city and the two officers involved in Tamir’s shooting death, claiming that the officers acted recklessly and that the police left the little boy on the ground bleeding without medical attention, ABC News notes. In a related story we follow up with Cleveland's Ideastream who reports Cleveland Mayor Jackson says police problems complex, stands by leadership In the wake of last week’s scathing Justice Department review of the Cleveland police, Mayor Frank Jackson says many factors, inside and outside the force, have contributed to problems. Responding to the finding of routine, excessive use of force, Jackson talked about the path to reform during an open discussion with reporters today at City Hall. ideastream’s Joanna Richards reports. .......... The mayor acknowledged problems with the police force, but insisted they did not amount to systemic failure. He stood by the division’s leadership despite calls from demonstrators and a city councilman for firings following the Justice Department review. The mayor also repeatedly questioned whether the department had its facts straight, and said the city is looking into the claims. “We’re just not accepting it because the DOJ said it,” Jackson said. But despite his misgivings about the report, the mayor acknowledged city policing had its flaws. ........ He called the recent shooting death of Tamir Rice by an officer his "worst moment as mayor", and talked about the difficulty of striking a delicate balance between protecting the public and allowing police leeway to protect themselves. Overall, Jackson welcomed reform he says is already underway, and will ramp up under a legal agreement being negotiated with the Justice Department. Listen to the story at the link! Of course we'll keep you posted on updates to these stories! Matt Taibbi at Rolling Stone weighs in with "The crooked math that's going to crash American law enforcement if policies aren't changed" in The Police in America Are Becoming Illegitimate Nobody's willing to say it yet. But after Ferguson, and especially after the Eric Garner case that exploded in New York yesterday after yet another non-indictment following a minority death-in-custody, the police suddenly have a legitimacy problem in this country. Law-enforcement resources are now distributed so unevenly, and justice is being administered with such brazen inconsistency, that people everywhere are going to start questioning the basic political authority of law enforcement. And they're mostly going to be right to do it, and when they do, it's going to create problems that will make the post-Ferguson unrest seem minor. The Garner case was a perfect symbol of everything that's wrong with the proactive police tactics that are now baseline policy in most inner cities. ................. The ostensible goal of Broken Windows is to quickly and efficiently weed out people with guns or outstanding warrants. You flood neighborhoods with police, you stop people for anything and everything and demand to see IDs, and before long you've both amassed mountains of intelligence about who hangs with whom, and made it genuinely difficult for fugitives and gunwielders to walk around unmolested. ................ But the psychic impact of these policies on the massive pool of everyone else in the target neighborhoods is a rising sense of being seriously pissed off. They're tired of being manhandled and searched once a week or more for riding bikes the wrong way down the sidewalk (about 25,000 summonses a year here in New York), smoking in the wrong spot, selling loosies, or just "obstructing pedestrian traffic," a.k.a. walking while black. This is exactly what you hear Eric Garner complaining about in the last moments of his life. "Every time you see me, you want to mess with me," he says. "It stops today!" This is the part white Middle American news audiences aren't hearing about these stories. .............. The press and the people who don't live in these places want you to focus only on the incidents in question. It was technically a crime! Annoying, but he should have complied! His fault for dying – and he was a fat guy with asthma besides! But the real issue is almost always the hundreds of police interactions that take place before that single spotlight moment, the countless aggravations large and small that pump up the rage gland over time. .................This policy of constantly badgering people for trifles generates bloodcurdling anger in "hot spot" neighborhoods with industrial efficiency. And then something like the Garner case happens and it all comes into relief. Six armed police officers tackling and killing a man for selling a 75-cent cigarette. That was economic regulation turned lethal, a situation made all the more ridiculous by the fact that we no longer prosecute the countless serious economic crimes committed in this same city. A ferry ride away from Staten Island, on Wall Street, the pure unmolested freedom to fleece whoever you want is considered the sacred birthright of every rake with a briefcase.
If Lloyd Blankfein or Jamie Dimon had come up with the concept of selling loosies, they'd go to their graves defending it as free economic expression that "creates liquidity" and should never be regulated. Taking it one step further, if Eric Garner had been selling naked credit default swaps instead of cigarettes – if in other words he'd set up a bookmaking operation in which passersby could bet on whether people made their home mortgage payments or companies paid off their bonds – the police by virtue of a federal law called the Commodity Futures Modernization Act would have been barred from even approaching him. There were more cops surrounding Eric Garner on a Staten Island street this past July 17th then there were surrounding all of AIG during the period when the company was making the toxic bets that nearly destroyed the world economy years ago. This is the crooked math that's going to crash American law enforcement if policies aren't changed. .............
PRINT THIS POSTER and distribute! Asks Anitole78 "Who polices the policemen? Who watches the watchers?"
AP EXCLUSIVE: Via Bill Hutchison at NYDailynews.com U.S. co-opted Cuba's hip-hop scene in failed attempt to spark unrest in communist nation An Associated Press investigation revealed a secret operation to infiltrate Cuba’s underground hip-hop scene was ill-conceived and put innocent Cubans at risk. A covert U.S. operation to spark a democracy-spreading youth movement in Cuba by infiltrating the country’s underground hip-hop scene ended up a Looney tune. An Associated Press investigation blew the lid off the clandestine mission by the U.S. Agency for International Development, revealing it flopped because it was ill-conceived, reckless and executed by amateurs. Instead of spreading democracy, the mission put innocent Cubans at risk and left unwitting recruits detained and interrogated by Cuban officials. On Thursday, U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) called the operation “just plain stupid,” while U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) deemed it “boneheaded.” .............. Uncovering reams of records, the AP found that USAID repeatedly put innocent Cubans and its own operatives in jeopardy despite warning signs. Authorities detained or interrogated musicians or USAID operatives at least six times, often confiscating their computers and thumb drives, which in some cases contained material linking them to USAID. The missions initial point person, a Serbian music promoter named Rajko Bozic, infiltrated a popular rap group known as Los Aldeanos. But When the Cuban government caught wind of the scheme, Los Aldeanos began facing political pressure and had to emigrate to South Florida. A popular music festival was also banned because of the perception that USAID was pulling the strings for it. So instead of sparking a democratic revolution, it compromised an authentic source of protest that had produced some of the hardest-hitting grassroots criticism since Fidel Castro took power in 1959, an AP investigation found. Of course USAID is not the happy smiley (taxpayer-funded) entity it claims to be USAID Subversion in Latin America Not Limited to Cuba notes Dan Beeton at The Center for Economic and Policy Research. ....... As CEPR Co-Director Mark Weisbrot described in an interview with radio station KPFA’s “Letters and Politics” yesterday [04 April 2014], USAID and OTI in particular have engaged in various efforts to undermine the democratically-elected governments of Venezuela, Bolivia, and Haiti, among others, and such “open societies” could be more likely to be impacted by such activities than Cuba. Declassified U.S. government documents show that USAID’s OTI in Venezuela played a central role in funding and working with groups and individuals following the short-lived 2002 coup d’etat against Hugo Chávez. A key contractor for USAID/OTI in that effort has been Development Alternatives, Inc. (DAI). More recent State Department cables made public by Wikileaks reveal that USAID/OTI subversion in Venezuela extended into the Obama administration era (until 2010, when funding for OTI in Venezuela appears to have ended), and DAI continued to play an important role. ...... and for more background read this item at Longitutde361.com The USAID-CIA consortium in which Obama was raised from 2011 and The Myths of ‘Democracy Assistance’: U.S. Political Intervention in Post-Soviet Eastern Europe by Gerald Sussman at monthlyreview.org from 2006.

Due to lack of time and space please read these very important items:

• Soldiers For Peace International TURKEY'S TURN TO RUSSIA COULD SPELL THE END OF NATO
  
• Zerohedge.com has this Guest Post: False East/West Paradigm Hides The Rise Of Global Currency Submitted by Brandon Smith of
  Alt-Market blog
  
• HuffPo UK Luke Somers, Al Qaeda Hostage, Killed In Failed Special Forces Rescue Attempt
  
• New York Times Uruguay Accepts 6 Detainees Held at Guantánamo
  
• Shahid Buttar Common Dreams What Ferguson, Eric Garner, and CIA Torture Have in Common
  

NEXT Eric Lipton at the NYT uncovers Energy Firms in Secretive Alliance With Attorneys General The letter to the Environmental Protection Agency from Attorney General Scott Pruitt of Oklahoma carried a blunt accusation: Federal regulators were grossly overestimating the amount of air pollution caused by energy companies drilling new natural gas wells in his state. But Mr. Pruitt left out one critical point. The three-page letter was written by lawyers for Devon Energy, one of Oklahoma’s biggest oil and gas companies, and was delivered to him by Devon’s chief of lobbying. ................. The email exchange from October 2011, obtained through an open-records request, offers a hint of the unprecedented, secretive alliance that Mr. Pruitt and other Republican attorneys general have formed with some of the nation’s top energy producers to push back against the Obama regulatory agenda, an investigation by The New York Times has found. Attorneys general in at least a dozen states are working with energy companies and other corporate interests, which in turn are providing them with record amounts of money for their political campaigns, including at least $16 million this year. They share a common philosophy about the reach of the federal government, but the companies also have billions of dollars at stake. And the collaboration is likely to grow: For the first time in modern American history, Republicans in January will control a majority — 27 — of attorneys general’s offices. ................ Out of public view, corporate representatives and attorneys general are coordinating legal strategy and other efforts to fight federal regulations, according to a review of thousands of emails and court documents and dozens of interviews. “When you use a public office, pretty shamelessly, to vouch for a private party with substantial financial interest without the disclosure of the true authorship, that is a dangerous practice,” said David B. Frohnmayer, a Republican who served a decade as attorney general in Oregon. “The puppeteer behind the stage is pulling strings, and you can’t see. I don’t like that. And when it is exposed, it makes you feel used.” Unbeleivable! Read on! Much more! Erika Eichelberger at MotherJones.com explains how Citigroup Wrote the Wall Street Giveaway The House Just Approved Update Friday, December 12, 2014: On Thursday night, the House passed the spending bill with the Citigroup-written provision. The Senate is expected to approve the legislation. A year ago, Mother Jones reported that a House bill that would allow banks like Citigroup to do more high-risk trading with taxpayer-backed money was written almost entirely by Citigroup lobbyists. The bill passed the House in October 2013, but the Senate never voted on it. For months, it was all but dead. Yet on Tuesday night, the Citi-written bill resurfaced. Lawmakers snuck the measure into a massive 11th-hour government funding bill that congressional leaders negotiated in the hopes of averting a government shutdown. President Barack Obama is expected to sign the legislation. "This is outrageous," says Marcus Stanley, the financial policy director at the advocacy group Americans for Financial Reform. "This is to benefit big banks, bottom line." As I reported last year, the bill eviscerates a section of the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform act called the "push-out rule":

Banks hate the push-out rule…because this provision will forbid them from trading certain derivatives (which are complicated financial instruments with values derived from underlying variables, such as crop prices or interest rates). Under this rule, banks will have to move these risky trades into separate non-bank affiliates that aren't insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and are less likely to receive government bailouts. The bill would smother the push-out rule in its crib by permitting banks to use government-insured deposits to bet on a wider range of these risky derivatives.

The Citi-drafted legislation will benefit five of the largest banks in the country—Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo. These financial institutions control more than 90 percent of the $700 trillion derivatives market. If this measure becomes law, these banks will be able to use FDIC-insured money to bet on nearly anything they want. And if there's another economic downturn, they can count on a taxpayer bailout of their derivatives trading business......... MORE! NEXT we have MORE MATT TAIBBI at Rolling Stone Dodd-Frank Budget Fight Proves Democrats Are a Bunch of Stuffed Suits ........... The dominant media narrative this past week has been that Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, firmly saddled in her high horse, is trying to hold up the passage of the budget over a trifle. In reality, the so-called "Citigroup" provision to kill a rule designed to prevent future bailouts (so named because it was allegedly written by Citigroup lobbyists) is potentially quite an evil and destructive little thing. But the nitpicking counter-spin is already coming hot and heavy."Every leading Democrat," said RNC spokescreep Sean Spicer, "feels like Elizabeth Warren is looking over their shoulder to go further to the left." All of this is infuriating on multiple levels, but mainly because Warren's opposition to the Citi provision wasn't a left-leaning move at all. It was very much a conservative position. Ayn Rand herself, dragged from the grave and lashed to a chair on the floor of the Senate, would have argued the same thing. All the Dodd-Frank rule says is that if you're a federally-insured depository institution – if you're an FDIC-guaranteed bank, where real people have real bank accounts that are guaranteed by the federal government – you can't also be gambling with swaps and other dangerous derivative instruments. Think of it in terms of a workman's compensation law. If you're going to be insured against injury by the state, the state should get to demand that you don't engage in fire-eating or base-jumping during work hours. There's no logical argument against the provision. The banks only want it because they want to use your bank accounts as a human shield to protect their dangerous gambling activities. Thus it was no surprise when JPMorgan Chase chief Jamie Dimon started personally calling lawmakers this week to make sure the Citigroup provision passed. Dimon's bank is the poster child for this rule, since the infamous London Whale episode of a few years ago is exhibit A of what this rule is designed to prevent: a trillion-dollar federally-insured depository bank engaging in tons of unsafe financial sex with risky derivatives, leading to spiraling losses in the billions that imperiled the savings of millions of ordinary people. Both parties are moving against their ideological reputations in this fight. ........... Conservatives for welfare, and liberals for big business. It doesn't make sense unless we're not really dealing with any divided collection of conservatives or liberals, and are instead talking about one nebulous mass of influence, money and interests. I think of it as a single furiously-money-collecting/favor-churning oligarchical Beltway party, a thing that former Senate staffer and author Jeff Connaughton calls "The Blob." What's happening here is that The Blob, which includes supposed enemies like Reid and Graham, wants to give donation-factory banks like Citi and Chase a handout. But a coalition of heretics, including the liberal Warren, the genuinely conservative Vitter and (surprisingly to me) the usually party-orthodox Nancy Pelosi is saying no to the naked giveaway. Is killing the Citigroup provision really worth the trouble? Is it a "Hill to die on"? Maybe not in itself. But the key here is that a victory on the swaps issue will provide the Beltway hacks with a playbook for killing the rest of the few meaningful things in Dodd-Frank, probably beginning with the similar Volcker Rule, designed to prevent other types of gambling by federally-insured banks. Once they cave on the swaps issue, it won't be long before the whole bill vanishes, and we can go all the way back to our pre-2008 regulatory Nirvana. ....... Read on! Awesome! Next Brick TeeVee Contributor msgeaux sez "The country is no more.... What a travesty!!!!! This is 10 times the last bailout" and points us to Tyler Durden at Zerohedge.com Presenting The $303 Trillion In Derivatives That US Taxpayers Are Now On The Hook For with some awesone charts from the one and only Office of the Comptroller of Currency at Treasury Courtesy of the Cronybus(sic) last minute passage, government was provided a quid-pro-quo $1.1 trillion spending allowance with Wall Street's blessing in exchange for assuring banks that taxpayers would be on the hook for yet another bailout, as a result of the swaps push-out provision, after incorporating explicit Citigroup language that allows financial institutions to trade certain financial derivatives from subsidiaries that are insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, explicitly putting taxpayers on the hook for losses caused by these contracts. ............ We say explicitly, of course, because taxpayers have always been on the hook implicitly for the next Wall Street meltdown. Why? Exhibit A: US banks are the proud owners of $303 trillion in derivatives (and spare us the whole "but.. but... net exposure" cluelessness - read here why that is absolutely irrelevant when even one counterpaty fails): [chart] Exhibit B: Here are the four banks that are in complete control of the US "republic." [chart] At least we now know with certainty that to a clear majority in Congress - one consisting of republicans and democrats - the future viability of Wall Street is far more important than the well-being of their constituents. Which also, implicitly, was made clear when Hank Paulson was waving a three-page "blank check" term sheet, and when Congress voted through the biggest bailout of banks in US history back in 2008. The only question is when the next multi-trillion (or perhaps quadrillion now that all global central banks are all in?) bailout takes place. Source: OCC FREEDOM INDUSTRIES UPDATE: CHARLESTON – Remember that toxic spill in WVA into the Elk River of 4-methylcyclohexane methanol (or MCHM) that's used to "clean" coal contaminating the drinking water for some quarter-million+ peeps? Sure you do. (look here.) And remember how the company immediately filed for BANKRUPCY repesented by another company they "have interest in"? Sure you do. (look here.) Now comes Jeff Freely at Bloomberg's BusinessWeek.com Freedom Industries Charged in Fraud After Chemical Spill The former president of Freedom Industries Inc., the chemical maker that in January contaminated drinking water for 300,000 West Virginia residents, was charged with fraud in the company’s bankruptcy filing, which was triggered by lawsuits after the catastrophe shut down water service to the state's largest city. Gary Southern, an executive of Charleston, West Virginia-based Freedom since 2009, was arrested and accused of lying during bankruptcy proceedings in hopes of protecting about $8 million in personal assets, according to a Federal Bureau of Investigation complaint filed Dec. 8. The chemical maker sought bankruptcy protection from creditors in January, days after state officials discovered that a leak from one of Freedom’s tanks sent about 7,500 gallons of a cleaning agent used in coal-mining operations spilling into the Elk River. The spill contaminated drinking water for about 300,000 people in the Charleston area and sent more than 100 residents to the hospital. Shortly after the leak was discovered, “Southern engaged in a pattern of deceitful behavior, which included numerous false and/or fraudulent statements” about his role at Freedom, FBI Special Agent James Lafferty said in court filings. .............. Southern, who owns a house on Marco Island, Florida, was arrested two days ago on bankruptcy-fraud and wire-fraud charges and appeared before a federal magistrate in Fort Myers yesterday, the Associated Press reported. He was released on a $100,000 unsecured bond and ordered to hand over his passport. He’s accused of misrepresenting his role at Freedom Industries and his involvement in the December 2013 sale of the chemical maker to Chemstream Holdings Inc., a company controlled by Pennsylvania coal-mining magnate J. Clifford Forrest. As part of a probe into the cause of Elk River spill, Lafferty said he learned Southern testified under oath in the bankruptcy case that he hadn’t worked at Freedom before Chemstream’s acquisition of the company. Records show Southern was hired as Freedom’s chief operating officer in May 2009 and served on the company’s board from March 2010 until October 2013, Lafferty said in an affidavit filed in federal court in Charleston. 'Financial Type’ Southern testified during a bankruptcy hearing that he worked for Freedom as “a part-time, financial type consultant” prior to the Chemstream acquisition, according to the filing. Contrary to those statements, Southern “possessed and exercised significant management authority” at Freedom before the purchase, Lafferty said in the affidavit. ....... LOTS MORE to read so click over for the rest! SENATE FOIA UPDATE: OpenTheGovernment.org has been tracking paggage of an updated Freedom Of Information Act bill Now or (Almost) Never for FOIA Reform The House has an opportunity to pass a meaningful Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) reform bill today that will force federal agencies to be more accountable to the public. While we understand that the bill, S. 2520, is jostling for position on the House schedule with many other pieces of legislation, we urge Congressional leadership to not miss this window of opportunity. S. 2520, and it's House companion bill, HR 1211, passed their respective bodies with no opposition. Good bipartisan work was critical to achieving this result. Particularly on the Senate side, though, the vote belies the difficulty open government advocates had in bringing the bill to a vote. As many people are aware, the Senate bill barely squeaked out after an attempt by Senator Rockefeller to kill the bill by placing an 11th hour hold on the legislation. ................. The political reality of the situation is that is S.2520 fails to pass in this Congress, independent agencies like the FTC and other components of the career civil service that do not want to be held more accountable will work even harder to bottle it up during the next Congress. The 113th Congress has already passed a lot of ground-breaking open government legislation, including the DATA Act and the Presidential and Federal Records Act. Let's add one more accomplishment to the list, Speaker Boehner! Please put S. 2520 on the schedule for a vote TODAY. AND they have this UPDATED: Failure of Speaker Boehner to Pass FOIA Reform Statement of Patrice McDermott, Executive Director of OpenTheGovernment.org: We are particularly concerned that Speaker Boehner has now said that he has “no knowledge of the plan” to pass the bipartisan, bicameral FOIA reform bill. If accountability and making the federal government answer to the public is really a priority for the Republican Caucus, passing this bill should be a priority. The House passed the House companion bill 410 – 0. The Senate passed the bill by unanimous consent after the open government community waged an all-out war against a last second attempt by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and other independent agencies that are supposed to be on the public’s side to stop the bill. It’s up to Speaker Boehner to put this bill to a vote and create the levels of open government the public needs. We call on Speaker Boehner to work with Minority Leader Pelosi to pass S.2520 by unanimous consent.......... Well it looks like Da House split town before they could vote on H.T. 1211 FOIA Act. Wonder why? Writing at Counterpunch.org Billy O'Connor explains The Death of the Fourth Estate Non-journalists are also beginning to question print and broadcast news. According to a recent Gallup survey, only 40 percent of Americans believe what they read in newspapers. After scanning today’s tabloids, one only wonders why the percentage is that high. ................ Because controversy sells, stations are no longer content with merely slanting their broadcasts. Now, in order to rile-up their audiences, “newscasters” flat-out lie. Whether you’re left or right wing, “news” is skewered, biased or twisted to suit the objectives of the medium’s owner. And if someone owns a television, radio station or a newspaper, he’s rich. So viewers, listeners, or readers are subjected to a steady stream of a wealthy man’s slant. Oligarchs hire “newscasters” for ratings not competence — witness the abundance of the blonde hair, blue-eyed variety on right-wing stations. Because our uninformed electorate craves the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought, today’s affirmation and checkbook journalists thrive and flourish. ................... A true journalist must be fiercely independent. He must analyze or unearth vital information, and while doing so, seek the whole truth. Americans today rarely witness that kind of reporting because real news doesn’t sell, and it also presents the journalist with a dilemma. Does the broadcaster work for the public or the man who signs his paycheck? If current “newscasters” disagree with their bosses, they lose their forums, so they will do or say as they’re told. If a broadcaster has a National audience, chances are he has already sold out. In today’s America If Diogenes searched for honest journalism, his lamp would run out of oil because if information is truly the currency of democracy, our Republic has been bankrupt since Reagan deregulated news ownership. .................. America doesn’t have elections. We have auctions. Ninety seven percent of the time, whatever candidate spends the most money wins. Economic power translates into political influence, and because of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision to bestow life status upon corporations, in some Orwellian-Frankensteinian nightmare, plutocrats now control all three branches of our government. How does unlimited, anonymous money pouring into our lawmaker’s coffers help our Republic? It doesn’t, and even the least informed of our electorate knows it. Eighty percent of Americans want Citizens United overturned. It won’t happen. The oligarchs prefer laws that sell to the highest bidder. The wealthiest Americans not only own our government but the fourth estate as well. Poor people don’t own news stations. .................. America has 8000 channels telling us what five rich men want us to hear and a tiny handful of independent channels and papers that nobody has ever heard of. The latest midterms proved that the 30 percent who voted listened to this biased information and then did as they were told. ................. Question everything you see in print. Verify everything you read or hear. If today’s journalism is truly the first draft of history, then Hemingway’s old adage rings true. “The first draft of everything is shit.” ............ The NYT Editorial Board pens this item Dark Again After Report on C.I.A. Torture We have not always agreed with Senator Dianne Feinstein on national security issues like wiretapping, but the California Democrat who heads the Senate Intelligence Committee has displayed commitment and courage in the investigation of the illegal detention, abuse and torture of prisoners by the Central Intelligence Agency. Realizing she had one last chance to get this report to the public before Republicans take over the Senate, Ms. Feinstein released a summary of the findings despite heavy pressure from Republicans and the White House to withhold it. She and her aides deserve enormous credit for their five-and-a-half-year struggle. Sadly, that is pretty much it on the disclosure front. In post-9/11 America, when it comes to momentous matters of national security, democratic tradition and the rule of law, there is precious little disclosure and no justice and accountability. It’s a bipartisan affliction. Employees of the C.I.A. and the military, as well as private contractors, illegally detained, tortured and abused prisoners — some of them really dangerous men, but also some who should never have been detained. None of them should have been dealt with in such a shameful and evidently unlawful way. The jailers and torturers acted on orders that descended from President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, C.I.A. chief George Tenet and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, among others. They justified their action with twisted legal memos arguing that torture was not torture when the president wanted to do it. ........... Under Mr. Bush, foreign citizens with no connection to terrorism were snatched from the streets and, on one occasion, from Kennedy International Airport in New York. They were bound, gagged, blindfolded and flown off to countries that commit even more hideous acts of torture than the ones the C.I.A. seemed to prize so highly. .............. No one was held accountable. When the prisoners were finally set free, their bodies broken and their lives ruined (one was dropped on a remote road in a lonely part of Europe where nobody spoke his language and had to make his way home to a family that had long thought him dead), the United States rolled out its legal guns to make sure that no court ever heard their cases. The excuse was national security. The real reason was that if these stories were told in public, it would be hideously embarrassing to the government. That policy of concealment continued into the Obama administration, with perhaps even greater zeal than under Mr. Bush. To this day, the United States government will not even acknowledge these abductions, much less apologize or provide compensation. ........... Here are two items you must sift through for all the details:

• CommonDreams.org Staff by Jon Queally, staff writer Senate CIA Torture Report Details 'Ruthless' Brutality of Bush Era with updates! Senate Intelligence Committee's report says CIA abuse violated 'U.S. law, treaty obligations, and our values.' Journalists, experts and human rights advocates say that torture program under the Bush administration was systematically orchestrated by top officials.
  
• GLENN GREENWALD at The Intercept Live Coverage of the Senate Torture Report with even more updates! The Intercept will have comprehensive coverage of the report throughout the day. We’ll have full annotations of the report; graphical guides to the key parts; reporting in Washington from Dan Froomkin, who has been covering the report for months, and other reporters; and I’ll be live-blogging key parts of the report and other fallout in this space all day, appearing, in reverse chronological order, underneath these initial observations.

WAY TOO MUCH TO SNIP! AND be sure to listen to Majority Report's 12/10/14 Marcy Wheeler: They Knew It Was Torture & Rebecca Gordon: Torture Is Mainstreamed. NEXT AP's JOHN HEILPRIN explains some of the international reaction UN Expert Calls For Prosecution Over U.S. Torture via HuffPoAOL's TheWorldPost GENEVA (AP) — All senior U.S. officials and CIA agents who authorized or carried out torture like waterboarding as part of former President George W. Bush's national security policy must be prosecuted, top U.N. officials said Wednesday. It's not clear, however, how human rights officials think these prosecutions will take place, since the Justice Department has declined to prosecute and the U.S. is not a member of the International Criminal Court. Zeid Raad al-Hussein, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, said it's "crystal clear" under international law that the United States, which ratified the U.N. Convention Against Torture in 1994, now has an obligation to ensure accountability. "In all countries, if someone commits murder, they are prosecuted and jailed. If they commit rape or armed robbery, they are prosecuted and jailed. If they order, enable or commit torture — recognized as a serious international crime — they cannot simply be granted impunity because of political expediency," he said. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon hopes the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee report on the CIA's harsh interrogation techniques at secret overseas facilities is the "start of a process" toward prosecutions, because the "prohibition against torture is absolute," Ban's spokesman said. Ben Emmerson, the U.N.'s special rapporteur on counterterrorism and human rights, said the report released Tuesday shows "there was a clear policy orchestrated at a high level within the Bush administration, which allowed (it) to commit systematic crimes and gross violations of international human rights law." He said international law prohibits granting immunity to public officials who allow the use of torture, and this applies not just to the actual perpetrators but also to those who plan and authorize torture. "The fact that the policies revealed in this report were authorized at a high level within the U.S. government provides no excuse whatsoever. Indeed, it reinforces the need for criminal accountability," Emmerson said. .............. Much more! NEXT ESQUIRE's Charlie Pierce has these three reports:

• The Torture Report, Part One: What It Says
  
• The Torture Report Part Two: What It Means
  
• The Torture Report, Part Three: What Will Happen Now

Michael Meurer at Truth-Out.org explains The Missing Photos From the Senate Report on CIA Torture ................ However, the 528-page "summary version" of the report's "Findings and Conclusions" has, by the admission of Feinstein herself, been heavily redacted and is focused only on CIA torture. It reports only one prisoner death and does not include more damning information and photographic evidence on US torture and prisons operated by the US Army, US Navy and other Department of Defense (DOD) agencies. ........... The availability of this investigative data as early as 2005, showing widespread deaths in US custody, with DOD investigations concluding there were more than two dozen homicides, makes it clear that the Senate report on CIA torture is just a start on the long road to full disclosure. More than 100,000 prisoners have been detained, and many of them tortured, at the US network of prisons across Central Asia since the war on terror began in 2002. As Truthout reported in October 2014, a pending American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) lawsuit seeks the release of more than 2,000 photos from the US Army that document an estimated 400 cases of abuse at Abu Ghraib and six other prisons between 2001 and 2005, including sexual assaults using "a truncheon, wire and a phosphorescent tube." ................... President Obama opposes release of these photos and has publicly stated they would inflame anti-US sentiment. But what signal does the United States send to its own citizens and the world by continuing to suppress and deny the widespread violation of our most fundamental values and the conscious contravention of the Geneva Conventions on torture and human rights? Civil rights groups from Amnesty International to Human Rights Watch are calling for the prosecution of those responsible for the extra-legal human rights violations documented in the Feinstein Senate report on CIA torture. Yet the full spectrum of US torture, secret prisons and even covert airlines to transfer prisoners in secret from one prison to another needs to be exposed in order to know how far up the chain of command responsibility goes. .............. Sibel Edmonds' Boiling Frogs has this item from NarcoNews: Torture Report Reveals CIA’s Manipulation of US Media Agency Used Classified Information as Currency for Deception - By Bill Conroy ................ And much of the information leaked to the media via these authorized leaks “on the operation of the CIA’s Detention and Interrogation Program and the effectiveness of its enhanced interrogation techniques was inaccurate…,” the Senate report states. So, in essence, the CIA operated as a propaganda machine, utilizing classified information as part of a larger effort to deceive the American public about the shortcomings of its torture program, if the Senate report is to be believed. Now, none of this is really new in the big picture of how the government and the media work with respect to classified information. The simple rule to remember is that the higher up in the government the leaker is, the less risk they face. As far back as 1974, politicians were pointing out this basic flaw in the system. A Congressional Research Service (CRS) report released last year touches on the reality: … You can read the complete investigative report here @ NarcoNews LASTLY The Rude Pundit warns us Before the Torture Report Disappears It's already happening, no? The Senate Intelligence committee's report on the CIA's post-9/11 interrogation techniques, known colloquially as "torture," is in the fast fade from our news cycle and from our outrage churner. It's become like that hot fuck one torrid night on a Mexican vacation, when the tequila and ecstasy flowed and you went back to your timeshare with one of the local dudes and balled your brains out, in the rush, the hurlyburly and hustle of the three hours left between leaving the bar and the cruel light of dawn. Ah, that was something you did, you can say later, and then go on with your life. If it left you with a case of herpes, well, shit, people live with that all the time, don't they? At least it ain't the HIV. Where's the beach? So it seems it will be with the torture report, something that stays with us the rest of our days, incurable, occasionally surfacing, but tolerated. Already, the media have moved on, to the CRomnibus, the Sony email leak, the floods in California. There will be more Eric Garner and Michael Brown protests, so we're not so brain-damaged that we can't have memory of something for more than a week or two. The Tamir Rice shooting is coming into sharper focus, too. And there's all that Christmas shopping to be done. The Rude Pundit has never had any illusions. He never thought that any prosecutions or even arrests would happen. He never thought there would be a reckoning of any sort. Oh, sure, he hoped we might spend more than a few days pointing fingers. But we are a nation that simply doesn't like to look in the mirror. And if no one is there to hold our heads and point them straight ahead, then we are happy to glance and then gaze away, into the unknown, always blindly optimistic about the future. Before we move on, though, the Rude Pundit wants to deal with a couple last things and then we can go back to snarkily saying, "Rectal infusion" and giggling, ignoring the whole ass rape part of the act. ................ Either way, why the fuck would it matter what the reaction would be? When the people supporting the cops defend the officer who killed Eric Garner, they say that Garner should have just allowed himself to be arrested. It's his fault that violence happened. If he didn't want something bad to happen to him, he shouldn't have done something wrong in the first place. Well, fuck, doesn't that also go for torture? The time to worry about what the Muslim world - if not the entire rest of the globe - thought about us is before you start torturing. Once you've done it, aren't you kind of just asking for it? The Rude Pundit doesn't want there to be any violence against Americans, but, Jesus, stop behaving as if we're so fucking special that, even when we do evil shit, we should not be viewed as an enemy. When did we start giving a fuck about the possible damage we might be doing? The number of civilian deaths doesn't stop us from firing drone missiles. ................... Others talk about how scared Americans were. The Rude Pundit was a thinking adult on September 11, 2001. He talked to lots of thinking adults. We were gung-ho for getting the fuckers who were behind the attacks. But mostly we were just sad about how fucked up the world had become, and he remembers specific conversations with people about how we hoped the United States wouldn't act like assholes. As soon as the invasion of Afghanistan occurred (and not a small force just to get bin Laden), along with the opening of the prison at Gitmo, the Rude Pundit knew we were gonna be total dicks. We tortured because we're big enough to be bullies without fear of real recriminations. We also tortured because we're cowards who demonstrated quite plainly that all that shit about freedom is readily cast aside when we feel even a bit threatened. We're forgetting about it now because we're also really good at pretending, a family that sweeps it all under a rug so lumpy that you have to walk around it to get across the room. Our Brick TeeVee LAST WORD goes to BTV Contributor BillORightsMan who caught this exchange between former Deputy CIA Director John McLaughlin and National Petroleum Radio's Audie Cornish on Tuesday Former Deputy CIA Director Says 'Torture Report' Misses The Point - Audie Cornish talks to former Deputy CIA Director John McLaughlin and has this rebuttal. Mr. McLaughlin's statements to Ms. Cornish reminded me of statements the "good Germans" made at the Nuremburg trials. He repeatedly deferred to "the State Department" and "the Justice Department" for approval of the torture methods employed by those under his command. Not once did he ever mention by name John Yoo (author of the "torture memos") or any other person within the Bush Administration that he could cite by name who issued these "orders". He even tried to equivocate drone strikes to torture. He relied over and over on an "imminent threat" to justify these appalling human rights violations that took place under his watch even invoking "actionable intelligence" when it has been proved unequivocally that torture does the exact opposite. Perhaps if Mr. McLaughlin's defense that these torture methods are lawful and provide truthful statements he should be "extraordinarily renditioned" to some secret base for some waterboarding and 24-hour sleep deprivation to see if he's telling the truth? And to Ms. Cornish's discredit she never once tried to press him for any evidence to prove his statements. So much for Ms. Cornish's "adversarial" journalism. Perhaps she is a "good German" too? ENDNOTE: Most of the "good Germans" at Nuremburg were sentenced to long prison terms or death for "following orders". Well said BillORightsMan! And we'll add everything the Third Reich did in WWII was "legal" too. We'll have more SPIN next week from "The Torturers" that appeared on this Sunday's corporomedia including former CIA Director Gen. Michael Hayden (thisweak) Darth Cheney (pressthemeat) and Dim Son (stateofthecandy). Have a great week and we'll see you next Sunday!

BRICK TEEVEE ALERTS!_©

Broadcasting all week from the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP20 "Conference of Parties" in Lima, Peru Headlines Monday, December 08, 2014

• Lidy Nacpil of the Philippine Movement for Climate Justice As Typhoon Hagupit Wreaks Havoc, Leading Filipino Environmental Voice Silenced at U.N. Climate Talks
  
• Lidy Nacpil of the Philippine Movement for Climate Justice & Saleemul Huq, a Bangladeshi climate scientist At Lima Talks, Nations Worst Hit by Global Warming Say Climate Aid Isn’t Charity, But Reparations
  
• Julia Urrunaga, Peru programs director for the Environmental Investigation Agency The Laundering Machine: How U.S. Corporations Threaten Peru’s Forests Through Illegal Logging New report "The Laundering Machine: How Fraud and Corruption in Peru’s Concession System Are Destroying the Future of Its Forests."
  
• Widows Julia Pérez and Ergilia Rengifo Widows of Peru’s Murdered Indigenous Rainforest Defenders Demand Justice at U.N. Climate Summit
  

Headlines Tuesday, December 09, 2014

• Godwin Uyi Ojo, executive director of Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria "They Have Destroyed Our Livelihood": Activists Protest Shell and Chevron at U.N. Climate Talks
  
• Pascoe Sabido of the Corporate Europe Observatory "Corporate Conquistadors": New Report Exposes How Multinationals Drive, Profit from Climate Change
  
• Atossa Soltani, founder and executive director of Amazon Watch First Ever Climate Summit in Amazon Country Amidst Growing Threat to "Heart of the Planet"
  
• Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network Indigenous Women: Earth Defenders Speak Out from the Front Lines of Climate Change
  
• Pablo Solón, executive director of Focus on the Global South A Global Climate Deal is Within Reach, But Only Public Pressure Can Ensure It Meets Earth’s Needs
  
• Chile, Africa and New Zealand climate protesters Climate Justice Activists from Around the World Show Solidarity with Philippines
  

Headlines Wednesday, December 10, 2014

• Reed Brody, counsel and spokesperson for Human Rights Watch "These Are Crimes": New Calls to Prosecute Bush Admin as Senate Report Reveals Brutal CIA Torture
  
• Nnimmo Bassey, a Nigerian environmental activist, director of Health of Mother Earth Foundation From South America to Africa, "Capitalist" Solutions to Climate Change Seen as Path to Catastrophe
  
• Chief Ninawa Huni Kui, president of the Federation of the Huni Kui, an indigenous group in Brazil Brazilian Indigenous Leader: Carbon Trading Scheme "REDD" a False Solution to Climate Change
  
• Democracy Now! visits Casa de Convergencia TierrActiva As U.N. Summit Enters High-Level Talks, Protesters Gather for Historic Climate March in Lima
  

Headlines Thursday, December 11, 2014

• Lima Climate Summit 2014, Indigenous, Peru "We Are Like the Walking Dead": Latin American Indigenous Groups Decry Corporate Destruction of Land
  
• Democracy Now!’s Deena Guzder and Nermeen Shaikh Putting People Before Profit: Thousands March in Peruvian People’s Climate March in Lima
  
• Democracy Now! producer Renée Feltz From the Streets to the Suites, Protesters Call for Climate Justice at Corporate Gathering in Lima
  
• Marly Anzualdo Castro, whose brother, Kenneth Anzualdo Castro, was disappeared in 1993 during Fujimori’s reign Peruvian Protester: My Brother Was Disappeared in 1993 at El Pentagonito, the Site of Climate Summit
  
• Chris Moye, the environmental governance campaigner for Global Witness Peru’s Deadly Environment: Host Nation of U.N. Summit is Among Most Dangerous for Land Defenders Global Witness new report Deadly Environment
  

Headlines Friday, December 12, 2014

• United Nations Climate Change Conference in Lima, Peru "We are on a Course Leading to Tragedy": At U.N. Talks, Kerry Delivers Urgent Plea on Climate Change
  
• More COP20 Coverage Former VP Al Gore Urges Obama to Reject Keystone XL as Kerry, Top U.S. Negotiator Stay Mum
  
• Climate Change, Keystone XL, Natural Gas & Oil Drilling Silencing Dissent: U.N. Bars Climate Protesters from Putting "Keystone," "Kerry" or "U.S." on Signs
  
• Climate Change, Natural Gas & Oil Drilling As Fossil Fuel Divestment Movement Grows, U.N. Negotiators Consider a "Zero Emissions" Future
  
• Sean Sweeney, director and founder of the Global Labor Institute at Cornell University, and Bruce Hamilton, vice president of Amalgamated Transit Union Pipe Dreams? Labor Researchers Say Keystone XL Project May Kill More Jobs Than It Creates
  
• Winnie Byanyima, director of Oxfam & Dipti Bhatnagar, Friends of the Earth International Activists: Climate Talks Have Done Nothing to Avert Catastrophe, But Hope Lies in People’s Action
  

GRITtv @ www.grittv.org with Laura Flanders - New Episode Every Monday at TELESUR
»»» VIDEO OF THE WEEK ACT UP Against Ebola: Organizing Against Fear Healthcare panic surrounding ebola seems familiar to activists of the ACT Up era. Should we focusing on science or sensationalism? Anne-christine d'Adesky and National Nurses United's Deborah Burger on GRITtv.

BRICK TEEVEE SPORT!_©
»»» SUNDAY FOOTBALL NIGHT IN AMERICA on NBC Cowboys @ Eagles 8:30 pm et
»»» MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL on ESPNSaints @ Bears 8:30 pm et
»»» THURSDAY NBA DOUBLEHEADER ON TNT Knicks @ Bulls on 8 pm et then Thunder @ Warrior 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

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: No Frankenstein Net Neutrality The FCC is considering a new plan that has the same big problems we’ve been protesting against all year. Tell the agency we’ll accept nothing less than REAL Net Neutrality. Just how bad is it? This new proposal: • Would allow broadband providers to cut specialized deals with companies to reach Internet users. • Still gives us slow lanes and gives users no real protection against discrimination from Internet service providers. • Rests on shaky legal arguments that won’t stand up in court. This isn't what millions of us have been fighting for. SIGN NOW at Tell Chairman Wheeler: No Frankenstein Net Neutrality 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 Chelsea 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! New Action- write letters to DoD officials requesting clemency for Chelsea! AND Chelsea's new appeals team named a leading US firm Dec 2, 2014. The National Law Journal and Law.com has named Freedman, Boyd Hollander, Goldberg, Urias & Ward as one of the "Top 50 Leading Plaintiff Firms in America"..........

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: 2,356 US Military Dead as of Dec 12, 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
  Meet ABC News' Newest Contributor, Laura Ingraham 10 Moments That Illustrate The Right-Wing Radio Host's Fringe Viewpoints And Disdain For Civil Discourse - Ingraham has repeatedly engaged in inflammatory and hateful rhetoric, lobbing numerous attacks against everyone from President Obama to people who receive government assistance to her favorite target, immigrants. Here are 10 hateful moments from Ingraham in the past year...
  • former CIA Director Gen. Michael Hayden
  • Army veteran Eric Fair discusses his experience as a contract interrogator in Iraq in 2004
  • New York Times columnist Tom Friedman
  • ROUNDTABLE: Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., former House Speaker and CNN political commentator Newt Gingrich, syndicated radio host and ABC News contributor Laura Ingraham, and CNN & SiriusXM host Michael Smerconish
  

• Face The Nation (CBS) Host Bob Schiefer
  • Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., Vice Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee
  • Sen. Angus King, I-Maine
  • Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich.
  • Sen. John Mccain, R-Ariz.
  • ROUNDTABLE: Peggy Noonan of the Wall Street Journal, who is now a CBS News contributor, Michael Gerson of the Washington Post, Charles Ellison of The Root, and Mark Mazzetti of The New York Times
  

• 60 Minutes (CBS)
  • The Fox 'News'-ification of CBS News and '60 Minutes': 'The Cleantech Crash'
  • CBS' '60 Minutes' admits to faking Tesla car noise
  • Sunday, Dec. 14 at 7 p.m. ET/PT
  • Inside Syria's civil war - Survivor of Homs siege recalls having to eat grass as food ran out and documenting images that offer a rare look inside the country's cruel civil war
  • Anderson Cooper plugs in to mindfulness - Anderson Cooper gives up his cell phone to report on "mindfulness," the self-awareness that's hard to attain in today's digitally distracted world
  

• Meet the Press (NBC) Host Chuck Todd
  • Microsoft, NBC News Dissolve MSNBC.com Joint Venture 07/15/12 — 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.
  All legal notices should be sent by mail to the editor-in-chief NBCNews.com, One Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA 98052
  • Former Vice President Dick Cheney
  • Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore.
  • ROUNDTABLE: tba
  

• State of the Union With Candy Crowley (CNN) Sunday at 9 am ET and Noon ET.
  • Rep. Peter King of the House Intelligence Committee
  • Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick
  • part two of Candy Crowley’s exclusive interview with President George W. Bush
  

  
  

• 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 our Liberal community line at 304-658-3333. Email bob [at] headonradio [dot] com during the show!
  • TITANIC TUESDAY! Bob goes ballistic over the Senate Torture Report! Listen here NOW! Tuesday, December 9th, 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!
  
  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 9, 2014 IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Super Typhoon Hagupit blows 2014 into the record books; Doesn't look good for Keystone XL pipeline, if Obama on The Colbert Report is to be believed; PLUS: Rich vs. Poor: Deep divisions stall UN climate talks... All that and more in today's Green News Report! IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see link): Solar panel efficiency breakthrough - record 40 percent efficiency; Louisiana's 'moon shot' to restore disappearing coastline; 'Significant' methane leaking from abandoned wells; Supreme Court rejects BP challenge to Gulf spill settlement; Heat waves will increase in Europe... PLUS: Fossil Fuel companies in secretive alliance with Republican Attorneys General ... and much, MUCH more! ...
  • BRADCAST! The Clint Curtis Story, Ten Years Later: A KPFK 'BradCast' Special Edition Plus MUCH MORE this week...
  • BRADBLOG UPDATE! Not Voting IS a Vote Stop blaming those who didn't turn out. Americans did vote. By not turning out, they voted against the two major parties and against the system as a whole. It may have been a dumb vote, but it was a landslide...
  • BRADBLOG VIDEO! East Coast/West Coast Investigative Election Integrity Muckraking with Friedman and Palast on Hartmann TV!
  • BRADBLOG UPDATE! 'Tom Tomorrow' Tooned About Torture For Years Before the U.S. Senate Torture Report Everything old is true again...
  • BRADBLOG UPDATE! SOLVED: Mystery that Flipped Maine Senate Election! 21 'phantom ballots' flipped the results of a Nov. 4th state Senate election from D to R. But a dramatic turn of events and hand-counted paper ballots have now resolved the mystery...
  • BRADBLOG UPDATE! Proponents of Oregon GMO Measure 92 Concede Defeat Adverse court ruling, barring inclusion of 4,600 rejected ballots, signals end of road (for now) of state's most expensive campaign, decided by just 800 votes out of 1.5 million cast...
  

  
  

• 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
  
  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
  • 10 Dec 2014 PBC News & Comment: Lies & Deception Revealed by Senate Torture Review Compounded by Enablers, Defenders Senate torture review is limited-hang-out, but sparks calls for prosecution, and purging the torture team from CIA, other agencies…..
  • 11 Dec 2014 PBC News & Comment: Dems Fight GOP Sneak Attacks in Must-Pass Spending Package Brinksmanship, backroom deals, delay tactics, and DeLay’s tactics in budget vote, stark preview of GOP muscle in next Congress….
  • 12 Dec 2014 PBC News & Comment: On Poisoned Spending Bill, Obama Leads 57 House Dems Over a Fiscal Cliff Obama leads Dems in the House over a fiscal cliff, as 57 Dems bail out Boehner on massive spending bill....
  • PBC Standard Podcast November 25, 2014 Green Chemistry Isn’t About Perfection, But Works to Reduce Toxic Chemicals Meet the “father of green chemistry”, Dr. John C. Warner. The former research head for Polaroid founded the Warner Babcock Institute and co-authored the book Green Chemistry. He defines his vision, and notes that industry is way ahead of academia in embracing his principles.
  • PBC Standard Podcast December 5, 2014 Progressive Think Tanker Dave Johnson Asks: Is the Democratic Party Relevant Anymore? Following the mid-term elections, your humble host tagged the Democratic Party as “increasingly irrelevant”. In a recent article, Dave Johnson asks the question, and surveys recent progressive commentary.
  

  
  

• 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 Week on Ring of Fire December 5, 2014 Saturdays at 3 o’clock Eastern, rebroadcasts Sunday nights at 8 pm Eastern.
  »» The Best of Ring of Fire Radio!
  »» Author Naomi Klein will join us to talk about her new book “This Changes Everything.”
  »» Michael Burg will explain how employer wage theft is threatening the minimum wage movement.
  »» And author Daniel Schulman will explain everything you ever wanted to know about the Koch brothers’ rise to power.
  • This Week on Ring of Fire on Free Speech TV! - Sundays at NOON!
  »» David TeSelle will explain how big box retail stores like Walmart and Home Depot are gaming everything from labor laws to environmental standards through their campaign donations.
  »» Peter Mougey will give us the dirty details on Antonio Weiss, Obama’s nominee as Secretary of the Treasury.
  »» Progressive host David Pakman in New York City will talk about a recent study that shows a direct correlation between gun ownership rates and gun death rates.
  »» David Haynes will explain how big business has purchased local judges to advance their disastrous agendas without fear of legal repercussions.
  »» Author Paul Waldman will tell us why Obama’s executive order on immigration has left the Republican Party feeling defeated.
  »» And Sam Seder will join Pap to discuss the death of Eric Garner, and the grand jury’s decision to not bring charges against the officer that killed him.
  »» Watch at FSTV
  • 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
  • VIDEO! Pap and Abby Martin: How the Eric Garner Case Exposed the Sham of Grand Juries by Gary Bentley - Abby Martin speaks with America’s Lawyer, Mike Papantonio and former DC police officer, Ronald Hampton, about the decision by a grand jury not to indict New York police officer, Daniel Pantaleo, over the choking death of 43-year-old Eric Garner.
  • VIDEO! Pap and Thom Hartmann: Has A Democratic Party’s Populist Moment Finally Arrived? by Gary Bentley - West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin has now joined Elizabeth Warren’s campaign against the nomination of banker Antonio Weiss to the Treasury Department. Does this mean that the Democratic Party’s populist moment finally arrived? America’s Lawyer, Mike Papantonio, joins Thom Hartmann to discuss this.
  • VIDEO! Seder: What Else Has Our Incompetent, Lying CIA Hid From Us? by Gary Bentley - Ring of Fire’s Sam Seder and author Cliff Schecter discuss how the Senate’s recently released report on CIA torture show us just how much the CIA has hid from us.
  • VIDEO! Elizabeth Warren Explains How Very Serious the Wall Street Take Over of Your Life has Become by Joshua Schwitzerlett
  • 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 12/8/14 How Cigarette Taxes Explain The Death Of Unarmed Black Americans
  • TUESDAY 12/9/14 Kristen Buras: The Neoliberal Charter Attack On Post Katrina New Orleans' Schools
  • WEDNESDAY 12/10/14 Marcy Wheeler: They Knew It Was Torture & Rebecca Gordon: Torture Is Mainstreamed
  • THURSDAY 12/11/14 Stanley Aronowitz: The Death and Life of American Labor
  • FRIDAY 12/12/14 Cliff Schecter & Andy Kindler
  • 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
  • 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)
  • Bail-In and the Financial Stability Board: The Global Bankers’ Coup by Ellen Brown — On December 11, 2014, the US House passed a bill repealing the Dodd-Frank requirement that risky derivatives be pushed into big-bank subsidiaries, leaving our deposits and pensions exposed to massive derivatives losses. The bill was vigorously challenged by Senator Elizabeth Warren; but the tide turned when Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorganChase, stepped into the ring. Perhaps what prompted his intervention was the unanticipated $40 drop in the price of oil. As financial blogger Michael Snyder points out, that drop could trigger a derivatives payout that could bankrupt the biggest banks. And if the G20’s new “bail-in” rules are formalized, depositors and pensioners could be on the hook......... READ MORE ........
  • Fracker down by Stacey Herbert — Stacy Summary: As we’ve warned repeatedly, frackers were losing money at $100/barrel, they’re going bust at $60/barrel. READ Oil price collapse claims WA’s Red Fork Energy, shale gas company in receivership The collapse of the oil price has snared its first West Australian victim with Red Fork Energy losing the support of its major lender. The Perth-based company drills for shale gas in the United States, producing oil and gas. But, it is completely exposed to the US shale gas industry, which analysts say has come unviable at current oil prices. But Bank of America said shale fracking was profitable at even $40!?
  • The Shocking Data Proving Shale Oil Is Massively Over-hyped by Peak Prosperity — Hooray, oil is suddenly much cheaper than it used to be. That’s great news, right? Not so fast. For certain it’s not good news for those counting on a continued rise in US oil production from the “shale miracle”. Many drillers were challenged to operate profitably when oil was above $70 per barrel. Very few will remain solvent with oil in the $50s (as it is as of this writing). So, expect US oil production to suffer from these lower prices if they persist. But even if oil prices rise and rise soon, there’s new data that indicates the total amount of extractable oil from America’s shale plays is less — much less — than what we’re being told (or better put, “sold”). Click here to listen to the full interview (peakprosperity.com)
  • Welcome to the Recovery – McKinsey Survey Shows 40% of Americans Living Paycheck to Paycheck, Up From 30% in 2012 by Michael Krieger — Nothing screams economic recovery like 2 out of every 5 Americans living paycheck to paycheck. Especially when that number has reportedly increased by 33% since 2012. Perhaps someone should inform these destitute plebs that the stock market is up nearly 45% over the past two years, and after all, nothing says economic success like the 0.01% enriching themselves via fraud and financial engineering… Read the rest HERE.
  • KEISER REPORT Keiser Report: Fracking, Fascism & Market Failure We discuss the motto of the modern financial markets: “my word is my bond, but my bond is your problem.” As the yield-chasers have piled into the junk bond market in the past few years of ZIRP, this could spell big trouble for the fracking sector as oil prices plunge. In the second half Max chats to the CEO of Bitpay.com, Stephen Pair. They discuss Foxtrot – a project that hopes to do for networks what bitcoin did for currency – and also about the latest in bitcoin, internet 2.0 and regulations.
  • KEISER REPORT [KR691] Keiser Report: Real Reasons behind UK Porn Law We look at the ‘death eaters’ and ‘deglobalizers’ longing for suffering by ordinary people, especially if the ruling elite can’t be the guaranteed winners. They look at currency crises due to balance of payments and deglobalization and those cheering it on. In the second half Max interviews Itziar Bilbao Urrutia – aka Ms Tytania – about the new ban on certain female acts in porn and the real reason behind the ban being censorship and fear of another Wikileaks or Snowden. Max also suggests if Westminster wants to help children, they should stop harming them first.
  • KEISER REPORT [KR692] Keiser Report: Debt Meteor Approaching Earth We believe that ‘something’s gotta give’ as the real world continues to tumble while equity markets continue rising – and not everyone is ‘lovin’ it.’ We also compare the debt curse to the oil curse. In the second half, Max interviews equity crowdfunding pioneer, Simon Dixon of BankToTheFuture.com, about the latest in CrowdFunding 2.0 as both the political and financial space is disinter mediated.
  

  
  

• 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 New show hours effective 5/26/2014 @ 12-3 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 - http://kpfk.org), 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....... New show hours effective 5/26/2014: 12-3 PM Eastern!
  • 12/10/14 Marcy Wheeler: Blogger Marcy Wheeler discusses the CIA’s lies about properly vetting their enhanced interrogation program with their Congressional overseers; Dick Cheney’s conspicuous absence from the CIA torture report; and the 9000 CIA documents withheld that likely implicate the Office of Legal Council and Cheney in the torture program.
  • 12/10/14 Jonathan Landay: Jonathan Landay, a McClatchy Foreign Staff journalist, discusses his article about the real intent of the Bush administration’s torture program – to lie us into war: “Report: Abusive tactics used to seek Iraq-al Qaida link.”
  • 12/11/14 Lawrence Wilkerson: Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, discusses how he helped with Powell’s infamous address to the UN in 2003, making the case for war with Iraq; the behind-the-scenes pressure exerted by Bush administration officials to keep the “garbage intel” linking Iraq and al-Qaeda in Powell’s speech; and Dick Cheney’s effort to hide his criminal behavior behind OLC lawyers and their memos justifying torture.
  • 12/12/14 Andrew Cockburn: Andrew Cockburn, author of Rumsfeld: His Rise, Fall, and Catastrophic Legacy, discusses the unholy merger of the Israel lobby and the military-industrial complex; how NATO expansion enriches Lockheed; and his article “Game On: East vs. West, again,” about the renewing Cold War with Russia.
  • 12/12/14 Jeffrey Kaye: Jeffrey Kaye, a psychologist active in the anti-torture movement, discusses the CIA-contracted psychologists who largely designed the CIA’s “enhanced interrogation” torture program, and their link to the same CIA department that brought us MKULTRA.
  • Older interviews at Antiwar Radio!
  

  
  

• fauxnews
  • Sen Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), a former Intelligence Committee member
  • Karl Rove, former top White House Advisor to President George W. Bush
  • Jose Rodriguez, former Director of the CIA’s National Clandestine Service
  
  
  

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