Brick TeeVee's Viva Hugo Chávez!

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Viva Hugo Chávez! Last week Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez passed away at the age of 58. The U.S. press has been insipid in trying to tear down Chávez and his lasting legacy of Bolivarian Revolution he led. Respect Party MP George Galloway wrote, "Chavez transformed Venezuela by the force of his will and a popular revolution which encompassed the marginal, the ethnic minorities, the workers, and key sections of the progressive intelligencia who saw in him a veritable Spartacus." More on Chávez in a bit but first we point you to a VIDEO with Catherine Austin Fitts at the Breakthrough Energy Movement conference, 2012 Holland. WATCH THE WHOLE VIDEO Economy and Culture, imagining the reinvention of everything. More lectures from the 2012 Breakthrough Energy Movement conference in Holland at GLOBALBEMVOICES.COM, PART OF THE BREAK THROUGH ENERGY MOVEMENT. Lots to watch!
In a follow up to an item we reported last week Inside Climate News's Lisa Song finds Critical Part of Keystone Report Done by Firms with Deep Oil Industry Ties Two consulting firms provided State Department with key analysis of whether the pipeline would speed development of Canada's oil sands. The State Department's recent conclusion that the Keystone XL pipeline "is unlikely to have a substantial impact" on the rate of Canada's oil sands development was based on analysis provided by two consulting firms with ties to oil and pipeline companies that could benefit from the proposed project. EnSys Energy has worked with ExxonMobil, BP and Koch Industries, which own oil sands production facilities and refineries in the Midwest that process heavy Canadian crude oil. Imperial Oil, one of Canada's largest oil sands producers, is a subsidiary of Exxon. ICF International works with pipeline and oil companies but doesn't list specific clients on its website. It declined to comment on the Keystone, referring questions to the State Department. EnSys president Martin Tallett said he couldn't talk about the proposed pipeline, but he pointed out that in addition to working for the oil industry, his company also works for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Energy and the World Bank. "We don't do advocacy," Tallett said. "Our goal is to tell it like it is, to tell the way we see it… If we were the pet of government agencies or oil companies, the other side wouldn't come to us." The State Department did not respond to questions about the 2,000-page Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) it released on Friday...... Surprised?
The Guardian & BBC Exclusive: Revealed: Pentagon's link to Iraqi torture centres General David Petraeus and 'dirty wars' veteran behind commando units implicated in detainee abuse The Pentagon sent a US veteran of the "dirty wars" in Central America to oversee sectarian police commando units in Iraq that set up secret detention and torture centres to get information from insurgents. These units conducted some of the worst acts of torture during the US occupation and accelerated the country's descent into full-scale civil war. Colonel James Steele was a 58-year-old retired special forces veteran when he was nominated by Donald Rumsfeld to help organise the paramilitaries in an attempt to quell a Sunni insurgency, an investigation by the Guardian and BBC Arabic shows. ..... A second special adviser, retired Colonel James H Coffman, worked alongside Steele in detention centres that were set up with millions of dollars of US funding. Coffman reported directly to General David Petraeus, sent to Iraq in June 2004 to organise and train the new Iraqi security forces. Steele, who was in Iraq from 2003 to 2005, and returned to the country in 2006, reported directly to Rumsfeld. The allegations, made by US and Iraqi witnesses in the Guardian/BBC documentary, implicate US advisers for the first time in the human rights abuses committed by the commandos. It is also the first time that Petraeus – who last November was forced to resign as director of the CIA after a sex scandal – has been linked through an adviser to this abuse. ..... "They worked hand in hand," said General Muntadher al-Samari, who worked with Steele and Coffman for a year while the commandos were being set up. "I never saw them apart in the 40 or 50 times I saw them inside the detention centres. They knew everything that was going on there ... the torture, the most horrible kinds of torture." Additional Guardian reporting has confirmed more details of how the interrogation system worked. "Every single detention centre would have its own interrogation committee," claimed Samari, talking for the first time in detail about the US role in the interrogation units. "Each one was made up of an intelligence officer and eight interrogators. This committee will use all means of torture to make the detainee confess like using electricity or hanging him upside down, pulling out their nails, and beating them on sensitive parts." There is no evidence that Steele or Coffman tortured prisoners themselves, only that they were sometimes present in the detention centres where torture took place and were involved in the processing of thousands of detainees. The Guardian/BBC Arabic investigation was sparked by the release of classified US military logs on WikiLeaks that detailed hundreds of incidents where US soldiers came across tortured detainees in a network of detention centres run by the police commandos across Iraq. Private Bradley Manning, 25, is facing a prison sentence of up to 20 years after he pleaded guilty to leaking the documents. ....... The pattern in Iraq provides an eerie parallel to the well-documented human rights abuses committed by US-advised and funded paramilitary squads in Central America in the 1980s. Steele was head of a US team of special military advisers that trained units of El Salvador's security forces in counterinsurgency. Petraeus visited El Salvador in 1986 while Steele was there and became a major advocate of counterinsurgency methods. Steele has not responded to any questions from the Guardian and BBC Arabic about his role in El Salvador or Iraq. He has in the past denied any involvement in torture and said publicly he is "opposed to human rights abuses." Coffman declined to comment. MUCH MORE! See the full-length documentary film of the 15-month investigation HERE! Speaking of the "dirty wars" in Central America in the 1980s we have this WAR CRIMES UPDATE: Bill Van Auken has this item at wsws.org Operation Condor trial begins in Argentina A trial that opened Tuesday in Buenos Aires is the first to consider the totality of crimes carried out under Operation Condor, a coordinated campaign by various US-backed Latin American dictatorships in the 1970s and 1980s to hunt down, torture and murder tens of thousands of opponents of those regimes. Condor was prosecuted in the name of a crusade against “terrorism.” Its methods in many ways prefigured the systematic and continuing crimes carried out by the US government decades later with its use of “extraordinary rendition,” torture and “targeted killings.” The case will take up the disappearance and murder of 106 people, the greatest number of them (48) Uruguayans, but also Chileans, Paraguayans, Bolivians, Argentines and one Peruvian. While other cases in both Spain and Italy have touched on the crimes carried out under Operation Condor, the Argentine trial is of far greater historic weight. This is the country in which an estimated 30,000 workers, students, left-wing activists, intellectuals and others targeted by the regime are believed to have been abducted and executed, and where the greatest number of killings of foreigners was carried out. Those who organized Operation Condor included the military regimes in Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Brazil, Bolivia, and Paraguay. Peru and Ecuador also participated in some of the operation’s crimes. The US government, and in particular former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, provided crucial support for the bloody repression carried out under the mantle of Condor...... It was on the basis of these incriminating documents that Argentine federal judge Rodolfo Canicoba Corral issued a formal request last August to the Obama administration’s Justice Department to make Henry Kissinger, US secretary of state between 1973 and 1977, available for questioning. The Justice Department did not even reply to the request. One of the documents declassified by Washington over the past decade was a transcript of a June 1976 discussion in Santiago, Chile between Kissinger and the foreign minister of the Argentine dictatorship, Admiral Cesar Augusto Guzzetti. ..... Watch DN! for Operation Condor Trial Tackles Coordinated Campaign by Latin American Dictatorships to Kill Leftists for an interview with John Dinges, author of The Condor Years: How Pinochet and His Allies Brought Terrorism to Three Continents who explains, "They have asked for Kissinger to give testimony many times. And in my book, I quote the one time where he actually responded to a petition from France, I believe it was. And he basically denied everything. This is very frustrating. I was able to—it was clear to me that, there’s no other word for it, these were lies. I mean, the documents say one thing; Kissinger said another thing. And he knew what those documents said. It’s not—the United States has never allowed any of its officials to face trial in other countries. We are not a member of the ICC. ... There’s never been any participate—there’s never been any trials that have brought Americans in the dock. There was an attempt in Italy; of course, all of those people were gone. The United States, for one reason or another, Democrats and Republicans, protect our own human rights criminals when it’s involving human rights crimes outside of the United States. It’s just the way it is."
NEXT Subbing for Glenn Greenwald at The Guardian's "Comment Is Free" Kade Crockford asks Drones are coming home to skies near you: feel safer? ......The DHS told McCullagh that it isn't using "signals interception" on its drones – yet – and that "[a]ny potential deployment of such technology in the future would be implemented in full consideration of civil rights, civil liberties, and privacy interests and in a manner consistent with the law and long-standing law enforcement practices." But if "longstanding law enforcement practices" are any indication of where the DHS is headed, we are in trouble. That's because often "long-standing law enforcement practice" has been to get away with whatever it can using the loosest interpretation of the fourth amendment possible, before legislators or courts act to correct the problem (if they ever do). ACLU public records requests on a range of cutting-edge law enforcement technologies (from cellphone tracking to license plate readers) show that federal, state and local law enforcement know full well that the surveillance tools at their disposal have gotten out far ahead of state and federal statutes, and many agencies aren't afraid to use that power to their advantage. We are, after all, living in an era in which law enforcement has said it needs access to our emails without warrants – and while courts are in the process of setting related precedent, Congress has yet to answer the question for the nation, once and for all...... Very important! Go read all of this! Be sure to catch Glenn Greenwald on Democracy NOW!'s Tuesday broadcast below!
And if you caught any of Rand Paul's filibuster last week you must read Adele Stan at Alternet Rand Paul No Progressive Hero, Despite Anti-Drone Filibuster; if you missed it then see Hayes Brown at ThinkProgressSecurity blog What Rand Paul Really Thinks About Drones.
MORE GOPher HIPOCRISY: This headline says it all: John Cornyn Applauds Violence Against Women Act Becoming Law, Even Though He Voted Against It by Jennifer Bendary at HuffPoAOL. And the GOPhers law-writng is so corporately cut-n-paste they don't even READ THEM! New GOP budget bill would defund now-dead ACORN for the 2nd time despite the fact that the group a) was already stripped of federal funding once; and b) has been defunct for almost three years and c) that law was struck down by the courts as unconstitutional! See The BradBlog below for an update on James O'Keefe who is $100K lighter for his "pimp" antics filming ACORN employees that launched this ridiculous bill the first time.
BIGGEST GOPher CANARD EVER?: Rex Nutting at MarketWatch reveals Obama spending binge never happened Of all the falsehoods told about President Barack Obama, the biggest whopper is the one about his reckless spending spree. As would-be president Mitt Romney tells it: “I will lead us out of this debt and spending inferno.” Almost everyone believes that Obama has presided over a massive increase in federal spending, an “inferno” of spending that threatens our jobs, our businesses and our children’s future. Even Democrats seem to think it’s true. But it didn’t happen. Although there was a big stimulus bill under Obama, federal spending is rising at the slowest pace since Dwight Eisenhower brought the Korean War to an end in the 1950s. Even hapless Herbert Hoover managed to increase spending more than Obama has. Here are the facts, according to the official government statistics:

• In the 2009 fiscal year — the last of George W. Bush’s presidency — federal spending rose by 17.9% from $2.98 trillion to $3.52 trillion. Check the official numbers at the Office of Management and Budget.
  
• In fiscal 2010 — the first budget under Obama — spending fell 1.8% to $3.46 trillion.
  
• In fiscal 2011, spending rose 4.3% to $3.60 trillion.
  
• In fiscal 2012, spending is set to rise 0.7% to $3.63 trillion, according to the Congressional Budget Office’s estimate of the budget that was agreed to last August.
  
• Finally in fiscal 2013 — the final budget of Obama’s term — spending is scheduled to fall 1.3% to $3.58 trillion. Read the CBO’s latest budget outlook.

Over Obama’s four budget years, federal spending is on track to rise from $3.52 trillion to $3.58 trillion, an annualized increase of just 0.4%. There has been no huge increase in spending under the current president, despite what you hear. Why do people think Obama has spent like a drunken sailor? It’s in part because of a fundamental misunderstanding of the federal budget. ........ After adjusting for inflation, spending under Obama is falling at a 1.4% annual pace — the first decline in real spending since the early 1970s, when Richard Nixon was retreating from the quagmire in Vietnam. In per capita terms, real spending will drop by nearly 5% from $11,450 per person in 2009 to $10,900 in 2013 (measured in 2009 dollars). By the way, real government spending rose 12.3% a year in Hoover’s four years. Now there was a guy who knew how to attack a depression by spending government money! We MUST ADD that the corporomedia who NEVER challenge the GOPhers (and some Dems) on this canard contribute a BIG PART of WHY so many people are buying it. IN A RELATED MATTER Michael I Niman at Truthout explains Sequester This! A Story of Sabotage and Theft The “crisis” we are facing, what this week we’re calling “the sequester,” is an illusion sustained by a compliant media who dutifully parrot choreographed memes and metaphorical names while otherwise remaining asleep at the wheel. There is no phenomenon either in the natural world or in the history of our economic structures that goes by the name “the sequester.” There is no hurricane or typhoon blowing through our economy. There is no earthquake shaking the foundations of our monetary system. There is no landslide threatening to bury us and no wildfire about to incinerate us. Godzilla is not about to destroy Tokyo. Mothra is not real. There is no “sequester.” “The sequester,” like “the fiscal cliff” and the recurring “debt ceiling,” is an intentionally crafted, make-believe crisis. Climate change and nuclear proliferation, in contrast, are bona fide crises—meaning they pose grave threats and defy easy solutions. By comparison, we can easily cancel make-believe sequesters, cliffs, and ceilings and get on with the business of governing the country. If the deficit really needs immediate attention, the simplest and quickest fix would be to roll back a few of the massive tax cuts we’ve gifted to the richest Americans, so that those who have benefitted the most from our economic system can pick up the tab for some of its operating expenses. That’s if we really had a deficit emergency. But we don’t. The sequester, like the cliffs and ceilings, is this decade’s terrorism threat level—Code Orange. Be scared. Be very scared. And stop thinking for yourself..... Despite its supposedly monstrous character, Wall Street rallied with stock market indexes tickling all-time record highs on the day the sequester was unleashed. This confused the pundit class. What was going on? Weren’t we just sequestered off the cliff or tossed against the ceiling? Why the giddiness among corporate titans and investors? The giddiness is because the sequester monster is their monster—an attack dog whose sole purpose is to escalate the war on the public sector, hopefully crippling the government’s ability to efficiently function. This is the dark side of “sequestration.” And this is where this seemingly misused word actually starts to make sense. Let’s look at the word “sequester.” It’s a transitive verb, not the noun it’s made out to be. It’s not a thing, as in “the” sequester. Hence, it’s not a real flesh-and-blood monster. Definition one reads, “to remove or withdraw into solitude or retirement; seclude.” But the sequester is an accounting gimmick, not a monk. Definition two states, “to remove or separate.” Definition three is legal terminology meaning to seize as collateral, eventually to be returned. Definition four is also a legal term, meaning to “requisition, hold and control enemy property.” It’s this last definition that comes the closest to making sense, though I doubt clarity was anyone’s intention. ....... The problem for the plutocracy, however, is that despite what the corporate media claims, government generally provides these services with more efficiency, more accountability, and far less corruption than the private, for-profit sector controlled and owned by the plutocrats. Hence, government for the people by the people is the enemy. And true to definition four, the sequester seizes its—our—property. In the corporate mind, our government, owned and operated by the public, is the enemy...... Much more so go read all of this! So as the DJIA climbs new "highs" we get some incredible honesty from Adam Davidson on NPR's All Things Considered from Wednesday's show Dow's 'Record Highs' Misleading Without Including Inflation .... For reasons I cannot understand, nobody adjusts for inflation when they're talking about the Dow. I don't understand why. We do that with every other number that matters, from wages to house prices, to GDP. The Dow reached close to 12,000 back in the year 2000. In today's dollars, the Dow's peak back then would be about 15,500 or a little bit higher. So we are still 10 percent below the record it reached 13 years ago. If I told you, oh, I'm all excited, I'm all excited, my salary is now the same number that it was back in 2000, you would tell me, well, that's not such great news. You should make more dollars now than you did in 2000 because of inflation. And anyway, even if it did reach a record, this is not the measure we should be paying attention to. ....... The stock market really only has a loose correlation with things like inflation, the overall growth of the economy, the things that really matter to us. And more crucially, for the last generation, the last 30 years or so, I'd say the central issue in the U.S. economy is that for all the economic growth we've had, that has gone, rather famously now, to a very tiny percentage of the very richest Americans. And it's important to note that 80 percent or so of stocks are owned by the richest 10 percent of Americans. So if you're measuring the stock market well, and if it does reach a historic high, then all you're celebrating is the fact that the top 10 percent got a little bit richer, and I'm not convinced that's something that the media needs to be running around celebrating. At Zerohedge Phoenix Capital Research posts Stocks Are At New Highs... But We're All Poorer For It Stocks hit a new high in the Dow yesterday. CNBC cheered and Fed economists everywhere patted each other on the back. The unfortunate reality for this “success” is that it only works in nominal terms. A DOW at 14,296 vs. a DOW at 13,000 only means something if the rise in price occurs against low inflation. If inflation was 10% during the time period that this rise occurred, then you’ve not generated any actual wealth. At best you’ve maintained your purchasing power. On that note, unfortunately for the Fed, real inflation in the US is nearly 10% today. Indeed, if you look at the economy the primary costs for consumers (food, energy, housing and healthcare) have been increasing dramatically. ....... [Food] .... [Energy] ... [Housing] ... [Healthcare] .... A secondary issue to the rise in stock pries pertains to dividends. A little known fact is that dividends account for 60% of stocks gains historically… going back to 1900. (bloomberg.com) U.S. equities returned 6 percent a year on average since 1900, inflation-adjusted data compiled by the London Business School and Credit Suisse Group AG show. Take away dividends and the annual gain drops to 1.7 percent, compared with 2.1 percent for long-term Treasury bonds, according to the data. Take away dividends, and stocks underperform even Treasuries. And inflation east away at dividends too. If a company pays you $1.00 last year, and then pays you $1.05 this year and inflation is over 5%, you’re not making more money. And if you use this new dividend to buy more overpriced stock which is rallying on the back of a falling Dollar… you’re not getting any richer… at all. Checkmate, Fed. You’re spending over $100 million per day to create a grand illusion. Stocks are hitting new all time highs, but none of us are any richer for it. THEN at Jesse's Café Américain Elizabeth Warren: What Level of Criminality Will It Take to Shut Down a Bank, (Mr. President)? ....And so Senator Warren might as well ask: "Mr. President, to what level of criminality must a Bank, and its management, rise before you would be willing to allow your Justice Department to indict and prosecute it? And as an aside, why are you so zealous in prosecuting whistleblowers and reformers, but so tolerant of even extreme examples of white collar financial crime that abets unrelated, non-financial felonies?" It is doubtful that the mainstream Republicans and Democrats will ever bring anyone to account, because they are as, or even more, complicit in this web of corruption, having been given enormous amounts of money by the Banks in speaking fees and campaign contributions, with the promise of greater amounts for consulting after their terms in office. And there it is: the credibility trap. Justice for some. However one wishes to rationalize it, but always in order to preserve it. Senator Warren may as well have asked, like the childlike innocent, "Why is the Emperor naked?" C'est la mode du temps, cherie, c'est la mode. Also read Jesse's post The Middle Class: Death By a Thousand Cuts - Is Nothing Sacred? with comments from Bill Moyers, Dr. Cornell West and Chris Hedges and watch the video at the end! Spread far and wide! Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR.org) catches just one story typical of the disdain western media have for Chavez AP: Chavez Wasted His Money on Healthcare When He Could Have Built Gigantic Skyscrapers By Jim Naureckas One of the more bizarre takes on Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's death comes from Associated Press business reporter Pamela Sampson (NPR 3/5/13): Chavez invested Venezuela's oil wealth into social programs including state-run food markets, cash benefits for poor families, free health clinics and education programs. But those gains were meager compared with the spectacular construction projects that oil riches spurred in glittering Middle Eastern cities, including the world's tallest building in Dubai and plans for branches of the Louvre and Guggenheim museums in Abu Dhabi. That's right: Chavez squandered his nation's oil money on healthcare, education and nutrition when he could have been building the world's tallest building or his own branch of the Louvre. What kind of monster has priorities like that? In case you're curious about what kind of results this kooky agenda had, here's a chart (NACLA, 10/8/12) based on World Bank poverty stats–showing the proportion of Venezuelans living on less than $2 a day falling from 35 percent to 13 percent over three years. (For comparison purposes, there's a similar stat for Brazil, which made substantial but less dramatic progress against poverty over the same time period.) Of course, during this time, the number of Venezuelans living in the world's tallest building went from 0 percent to 0 percent, while the number of copies of the Mona Lisa remained flat, at none. So you have to say that Chavez's presidency was overall pretty disappointing–at least by AP's standards. Be sure to read Greg Palast's Vaya con Dios, Hugo Chàvez, mi Amigo Here's a snip: .......So what made Chavez suddenly "a dangerous enemy"? Here's the answer you won't find in The New York Times: Just after Bush's inauguration in 2001, Chavez' congress voted in a new "Law of Hydrocarbons." Henceforth, Exxon, British Petroleum, Shell Oil and Chevron would get to keep 70% of the sales revenues from the crude they sucked out of Venezuela. Not bad, considering the price of oil was rising toward $100 a barrel. But to the oil companies, which had bitch-slapped Venezeula's prior government into giving them 84% of the sales price, a cut to 70% was "no bueno." Worse, Venezuela had been charging a joke of a royalty – just one percent – on "heavy" crude from the Orinoco Basin. Chavez told Exxon and friends they'd now have to pay 16.6%. Clearly, Chavez had to be taught a lesson about the etiquette of dealings with Big Oil. ..... See Greg on The Big Picture with Thom Hartmann Greg Palast discusses Hugo Chavez' legacy. Also As a purgative for the crappola fed to Americans about Chavez, my foundation, The Palast Investigative Fund, is offering the film, The Assassination of Hugo Chavez, as a FREE download. Based on my several meetings with Chavez, his kidnappers and his would-be assassins, filmed for BBC Television. DVDs also available. CHAVEZ F.O.I.A.: Global Research News staff report on The Death of Hugo Chávez: Was it a Political Assassination? Freedom on Information (FOIA) Demands on Possible Assassination Plans Within hours of the announcement of the death of President Hugo Chávez, civil rights groups in the United States filed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) demands with federal agencies seeking information and documents that “relate to or reference or discuss any information regarding or plans to poison or otherwise assassinate the President of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez.” The records demands have been made to the Central Intelligence Agency, the Department of State, and the Defense Intelligence Agency and have been filed by the civil rights legal organization, the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, the anti-war group, ANSWER Coalition and Liberation Newspaper. The Venezuelan government is also calling for an investigation into the circumstances of President Chávez’s illness, specifically whether he was poisoned or deliberately exposed to cancer causing elements, according to NBC News and other media outlets..... The full FOIA letter is available here. RT.com has these headlines:

• Venezuela expels two US embassy officials amid Chavez cancer conspiracy
  
• Hugo Chavez: President, TV star, thorn in US side
  
• Hugo Chavez: Never lost for words
  
• Chavez 'demonization will grow in US' even after death
  
• Chavez's pal or US-backed rich kid: Who will inherit Venezuela?

Our man in Pipelineistan Pepe Escobar writes in the Asia Times El comandante has left the building Now that would be some movie; the story of a man of the people who rises against all odds to become the political Elvis of Latin America. Bigger than Elvis, actually; a president who won 13 out of 14 national democratic elections. No chance you will ever see such a movie winning an Oscar - much less produced in Hollywood. Unless, of course, Oliver Stone convinces HBO about a cable/DVD special. How enlightening to watch world leaders' reactions to the death of Venezuela's El Comandante Hugo Chavez. Uruguay's President Jose Mujica - a man who actually shuns 90% of his salary because he insists he covers his basic necessities with much less - once again reminded everyone how he qualified Chavez as "the most generous leader I ever met", while praising the "fortress of democracy" of which Chavez was a great builder. Compare it with US President Barack Obama - in what sounds like a dormant cut and paste by some White House intern - reaffirming US support for "the Venezuelan people". Would that be "the people" who have been electing and re-electing Chavez non-stop since the late 1990s? Or would that be "the people" who trade Martinis in Miami demonizing him as an evil communist? El Comandante may have left the building - his body defeated by cancer - but the post-mortem demonization will go on forever. One key reason stands out. Venezuela holds the largest oil reserves in the world. Washington and that crumbling Kafkaesque citadel also known as the European Union sing All You Need is Love non-stop to those ghastly, feudal Persian Gulf petro-monarchs (but not to "the people") in return for their oil. By contrast, in Venezuela El Comandante came up with the subversive idea of using oil wealth to at least alleviate the problems of most of his people. Western turbo-capitalism, as is well known, does not do redistribution of wealth and empowerment of communitarian values. ........ The verdict is now open on what exact brand of revolutionary was Chavez. He always praised everyone from Mao to Che in the revolutionary pantheon. He certainly was a very skillful popular leader with a fine geopolitical eye to identify centuries-old patterns of subjugation of Latin America. Thus his constant reference to the Hispanic revolutionary tradition from Bolivar to Marti. ........ Stark numbers tell most of the story that needs to be known. Venezuelan public deficit is a mere 7,4% of GDP. Public debt is 51,3% of GDP - much less than the European Union average. The public sector - defying apocalyptic "communist" accusations - accounts for only 18,4% of the economy; less than state-oriented France and even the whole of Scandinavia. In terms of geopolitics of oil, quotas are established by OPEC; so the fact that Venezuela is exporting less to the US means it's diversifying its customers (and exporting more and more to strategic partner China). And here's the clincher; poverty accounted for 71% of Venezuelan citizens in 1996. In 2010, the percentage had been reduced to 21%. For a serious analysis of the Venezuelan economy in the Chavez era, see here. ..... Information Clearing House posts these essays:

• Chris Nineham Chavez: Farewell to Neoliberalism's Nemesis Chavez put to shame all the so-called progressive leaders around the world who hide behind fabricated public opinion to justify embracing the market and moving to the right.
  
• Tony Cartalucci US Plots Conquest of Venezuela in Wake of Chavez' Death Dark days lay ahead for Venezuela.
  
• Dr. Kevin Barrett Chavez: Another CIA Assassination Victim? "It is very hard to explain, even with the law of probabilities, what has been happening to some leaders in Latin America. ” President Chavez.

Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers also post at Information Clearing House The Revolution Within the Revolution Will Continue ..... If Americans knew the truth about the growth of real democracy in Venezuela and other Latin American countries, they would demand economic democracy and participatory government, which together would threaten the power of concentrated wealth. Real democracy creates a huge challenge to the oligarchs and their neoliberal agenda because it is driven by human needs, not corporate greed. That is why major media in the US, which are owned by six corporations, aggressively misinform the public about Chávez and the Bolivarian Revolution. Mark Weisbrot of the Center for Economic and Policy Research writes: The Western media reporting has been effective. It has convinced most people outside of Venezuela that the country is run by some kind of dictatorship that has ruined it. In fact, just the opposite is true. Venezuela, since the election of Chávez, has become one of the most democratic nations on Earth. Its wealth is increasing and being widely shared. But Venezuela has been made so toxic that even the more liberal media outlets propagate distortions to avoid being criticized as too leftist. We spoke with Mike Fox, who went to Venezuela in 2006 to see for himself what was happening. Fox spent years documenting the rise of participatory democracy in Venezuela and Brazil. He found a grassroots movement creating the economy and government they wanted, often pushing Chávez further than he wanted to go. They call it the “revolution within the revolution.” Venezuelan democracy and economic transformation are bigger than Chávez. Chávez opened a door to achieve the people’s goals: literacy programs in the barrios, more people attending college, universal access to health care, as well as worker-owned businesses and community councils where people make decisions for themselves. Change came through decades of struggle leading to the election of Chávez in 1998, a new constitution and ongoing work to make that constitution a reality. Challenging American Empire The subject of Venezuela is taboo because it has been the most successful country to repel the neoliberal assault waged by the US on Latin America. This assault included Operation Condor, launched in 1976, in which the US provided resources and assistance to bring friendly dictators who supported neoliberal policies to power throughout Latin America. These policies involved privatizing national resources and selling them to foreign corporations, de-funding and privatizing public programs such as education and health care, deregulating and reducing trade barriers. ......Neoliberalism in Venezuela arrived through a different path, not through a dictator. Although most of its 20th century was spent under authoritarian rule, Venezuela has had a long history of pro-democracy activism. The last dictator, Marcos Jimenez Perez, was ousted from power in 1958. After that, Venezuelans gained the right to elect their government, but they existed in a state of pseudo-democracy, much like the US currently, in which the wealthy ruled through a managed democracy that ensured the wealthy benefited most from the economy. As it did in other parts of the world, the US pushed its neoliberal agenda on Venezuela through the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank. These institutions required Structural Adjustment Programs (SAP) as terms for development loans. As John Perkins wrote in Confessions of an Economic Hit Man , great pressure was placed on governments to take out loans for development projects. The money was loaned by the US, but went directly to US corporations who were responsible for the projects, many of which failed, leaving nations in debt and not better off. Then the debt was used as leverage to control the government’s policies so they further favored US interests. Anun Shah explains the role of the IMF and World Bank in more detail in Structural Adjustment – a Major Cause of Poverty. ........ In fact, Venezuela paid its debts to the IMF in full five years ahead of schedule and in 2007 separated from the IMF and World Bank, thus severing the tethers of the Washington Consensus. Instead, Venezuela led the way to create the Bank of the South to provide funds for projects throughout Latin America and allow other countries to free themselves from the chains of the IMF and World Bank too. ....... If the United States and the oligarchs think the death of Chávez means the end of the Bolivarian Revolution he led, they are in for a disappointment. This revolution, which is not limited to Venezuela, is likely to show to itself and the world that it is deep and strong. The people-powered transformation with which Chávez was in solidarity will continue. Much more so please read the rest for the full picture. And be sure to watch DN! for more coverage including Friday's funeral for El Comandante! Also more coverage at Postcards from the Revolution and News of the Restless. We're gonna go out on a limb and predict Vice President Nicolás Maduro will win the election in a landslide! Viva Bolivarian Revolution! Viva Hugo Chávez! Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías 28 July 1954 – 5 March 2013 R.I.P.BRICK TEEVEE ALERTS!_©

Monday, March 4, 2013

• Darcy Burner live from the Freedom to Connect conference "After Aaron": Late Activist’s Campaign for Open Internet Continues at Freedom to Connect Conference
  
• Derek Khanna "GOP "Rising Star" Derek Khanna Fired After Penning Controversial Copyright Reform Memo
  
• Khanna & Burner 5 Years in Jail for Unlocking a Phone? Petition Led by Former GOP Staffer Prompts Probe of New Ban
  
• Chris Mitchell, director of the Telecommunications as Commons Initiative, of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance Municipal Broadband Networks Bridge the Digital Divide as Telecom Industry Tries to Block Them
  

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

• Glenn Greenwald Glenn Greenwald on Bradley Manning: Prosecutor Overreach Could Turn All Whistleblowing into Treason PLUS Trevor Timm of the Electronic Frontier Foundation New Funding Group Calls for 100 More WikiLeaks to Offset Unprecedented Gov’t Secrecy AND Importing the War on Terror: Glenn Greenwald & Activist Trevor Timm on Domestic Drone Surveillance
  
• Former Republican staffer Derek Khanna White House Denounces Cellphone Unlocking Ban Hours After Petition Backer Appears on Democracy Now!
  
• Sascha Meinrath, director of the New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute Sharing the Internet: "Commotion Wireless" Technology Lets Communities Create Free Webs of Access
  

Wednesday, March 6

• Death of Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez Dead: Transformed Venezuela & Survived U.S.-Backed Coup, Now Leaves Uncertainty Behind We’re joined by five guests: Miguel Tinker Salas, Pomona College professor and author of two books on Venezuela; Venezuelan-American attorney Eva Golinger, a friend and adviser to Chávez; New York University professor and author Greg Grandin; Gregory Wilpert, founder of Venezuelanalysis.com; and Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington-based policy forum on Western Hemisphere affairs.
  

Thursday, March 7, 2013

• John Dinges, author of "The Condor Years: How Pinochet and his Allies Brought Terrorism to Three Continents." Operation Condor Trial Tackles Coordinated Campaign by Latin American Dictatorships to Kill Leftists
  
• Director David Riker & Actress Abbie Cornish The Girl: Abbie Cornish Stars in Film About Tragic Smuggling of Immigrants Across US-Mexico Border
  

Friday, March 8, 2013

• Carol Delgado, Venezuelan consul general in New York Hugo Chávez Funeral: Derided by US Media, Venezuelan Leader Uplifted Poor from Caracas to the Bronx
  
• Juana Majel Dixon & Mara Keisling New Violence Against Women Act Includes Historic Protections for Native American and LGBT Survivors
  
• Vandana Shiva Vandana Shiva on Int’l Women’s Day: "Capitalist Patriarchy Has Aggravated Violence Against Women"
  

GRITtv @ www.grittv.org with Laura Flanders

»»» FEATURED SHOW Oliver Stone and Tariq Ali on Hugo Chavez [Repost] Reposted from June 26, 2010. Stone and his screenwriter Tariq Ali met seven Latin American leaders and shot an amazing film, South of the Border, and they met with Laura this week in New York to talk about the film, the American left, Obama, the BP disaster, and more.

BRICK TEEVEE SPORT!_©

»»» NASCAR on FOX NASCAR Sprint Cup Series at Las Vegas Motor Speedway 3 pm et

»»» NBA on ABC SUNDAY Doubleheader! Celtics @ Thunder 1 pm et then Bulls @ Lakers 3:30 pm

»»» NBA on TNT THURSDAY Doubleheader! Mavs @ Spurs 8 pm et then Knicks @ Blazers 10:30 pm

**** MLB OPENING DAY IN 22 DAYS! ****

BRICK TEEVEE ACTION!_©

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

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

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

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

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

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

NET NEUTRALITY! SaveTheInternet.com Declaration of Internet Freedom Tired of fighting bad bills like SOPA, PIPA and CISPA? Want to stand up against those who are trying to control what we do and say online? It's time for something different. A group of more than 1,500 organizations, academics, startup founders and tech innovators has come together to produce a Declaration of Internet Freedom, a set of five principles that put forward a positive vision of the open Internet. Our goal: Get millions of Internet users to sign on to this Declaration. Build political power for Internet users to make sure that we get a seat at the table whenever, and wherever, the future of the Internet is being decided. It's time to stop playing defense and start going on the offensive. The open Internet is central to people’s freedom to communicate, share, advocate and innovate in the 21st century. But powerful interests want to censor free speech, block the sharing of information, hinder innovation and control how Internet users get online. And all too often, people in power are making political decisions behind closed doors about how the Internet should operate — and they're doing this without the involvement of actual Internet users. The result: policies that could close down the open Internet and destroy our freedom to connect. It’s time for us to reclaim the Internet for its users. Take action now and sign the Declaration of Internet Freedom.

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

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

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

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

SUPPORT THE TROOPS WHO REFUSE TO FIGHT See CourageToResist.org and Bradley Manning Support Network UPDATE! From the Bradley Manning Support Network Bradley Manning’s own words: blowing the whistle on war crimes AND Update 3/4/13: Bradley's attorney seeking approval to release "official" statement

DONATE YOUR OLD CELL PHONES TO T.J. MARTELL FOUNDATION Help save lives. Donate your old & used iPhone, Blackberries, Droid and other phones to help the T.J. Martell Foundations fund life-saving cancer & AIDS research. For more information, go to www.tjmartellfoundation.org CELLULAR PHONE TASK FORCE EDUCATION, ADVOCACY, SUPPORT at CellPhoneTaskForce.org The Cellular Phone Task Force is dedicated to halting the expansion of wireless technology because it cannot be made safe. We provide: education to the public concerning electromagnetic pollution (electrosmog); advocacy for an electromagnetically cleaner environment; support for individuals disabled by radiation from wireless technology and other sources.

B R I C K T E E V E E

_{image ©2006 arkysue}

The essential guide for watching government propaganda!

THEY report. YOU throw bricks.© Get your Foam Bricks at ThrowThings.com HERE!

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

AFGHANISTAN: 2,179 US Military Dead as of March 7, 2013

The Obameter: Tracking Obama's Campaign Promises

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

• This Week (ABC) Host George Stephanopoulos
  • former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush
  • ROUNDTABLE: Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis.; DNC Chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla.; ABC News' George Will; Nobel Prize-winning economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman; and Bloomberg News White House correspondent Julianna Goldman.
  • SPOTLIGHT: filmmaker R.J. Cutler discusses his latest documentary "The World According to Dick Cheney"
  

  
  

• Face The Nation (CBS) Host Bob Schiefer
  • New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg
  • former Gov. Jeb Bush, R-Fla.
  • Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio
  • Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md.
  

  
  

• 60 Minutes (CBS)
  • Lethal Medicine - Scott Pelley investigates the source of tainted pain medication that caused fungal meningitis that has so far has killed 48 Americans and sickened hundreds more. Michael Radutzky, Oriana Zill de Granados and Michael Rey are the producers.
  • Sheryl Sandberg - Facebook's COO Sheryl Sandberg talks to Norah O'Donnell about the feminist movement that she says has stalled, her ascent to the highest realms of corporate America and her mission at the social media giant. Tanya Simon and Deirdre Naphin are the producers.
  • God's Architect - Perhaps the world's most beautiful and unique church, the Sagrada Família in Barcelona has been under construction for more than 130 years, since genius architect Antoni Gaudí started working on it in 1883. Long after his death, builders are using modern technology to realize the master architect's vision. Lara Logan reports. Max McClellan is the producer.
  

  
  

• Meet the Press (NBC) Host David Gregory
  • Microsoft, NBC News Dissolve MSNBC.com Joint Venture NBC is buying Microsoft's 50 percent interest in the MSNBC website for an undisclosed amount. MSNBC.com will be rebranded as NBCNews.com, and readers who logged into MSNBC.com late Sunday were automatically redirected to NBCNews.com. Microsoft is preparing to launch its own news service this fall. Although he declined to provide many details about the operation general manager of MSN.com Bob Visse said the news staff will be about the same size as the roughly 100 people who created original content for the MSNBC.com. "There is no question that we are going to have more flexibility to make our own decisions," said Vivian Schiller, NBC News' chief digital officer. "This is really an amicable breakup. We think competition will make us better." Okay then.
  • ROUNDTABLE: Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA), Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), freshman Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI), Rep. Cory Gardner (R-CO) and host of MSNBC’s Morning Joe, fmr. Rep. Joe Scarborough (R-FL).
  • ROUNDTABLE II: former White House Press Secretary under President Clinton, Dee Dee Myers; Tennessee Republican Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn; former John McCain 2008 Presidential Campaign Manager Steve Schmidt; and Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus.
  

  
  

• State of the Union With Candy Crowley (CNN) At 9 AM ET, Candy talks to the power players: politicians, business leaders and international newsmakers who will make Monday morning's headlines. At NOON ET, Candy wraps it all up with fresh interviews and the best of the earlier hours.
  • House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)
  • House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-CA)
  • Former Governor Jeb Bush (R-FL)
  • Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR)
  • ROUNDTABLE: former White House Communications Director Anita Dunn, former Speaker of the House and Republican Presidential Candidate Newt Gingrich, former Bush and Romney adviser Alex Castellanos and Democratic Strategist Donna Brazile
  

  
  

• HEAD ON RADIO with Bob Kincaid
  
  Headon Radio with Bob Kincaid 6 PM Eastern, 3 PM Pacific, 2300 GMT. Duration: 3 hrs. To be part of Conversation Radio on Head-on Radio, call toll-free (877) 443-2366, or use our Liberal community line at 304-658-3333. Email bob [at] headonradio [dot] com during the show!
  • FRIDAY ON THE FRONT PORCH!!!!! Pull up a chair and a cold one! Listen NOW HERE!! Keep Bob on the air HERE ya hear? Amen to the White Rose Society! Donate to Head On HERE! And join Coal River Mountain Watch at www.crmw.net!
  

  
  

• YOUR GREEN NEWS REPORT
  
  The Green News Report with Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen: 6 minutes of green news, politics, analysis & snarky comment! BOOKMARK greennews.bradblog.com NOW!
  • 'Green News Report' - March 7, 2013 IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Obama's Interior nominee promises "balanced" use of public lands; Extreme weather forces Republicans to cancel climate science denial hearing; Colorado city defies Governor, bans fracking; Conflict of interest in State Dept's glowing Keystone XL pipeline report; PLUS: Hottest summer ever on record in Australia ... All that and more in today's Green News Report!
  • IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see link): Why are sinkholes swallowing Florida?; 'Carbon capture and storage will never pay off'; Jump In atmospheric CO2 brings climate catastrophe closer; U.S. clean energy trade surplus with China; Climate change will open up surprising new Arctic shipping routes; Ice Age study bolsters CO2 and warming link; CA town requires all new homes to have solar power; GOP legislator seeks a new carbon tax on bicycle riders; Infections with 'Nightmare Bacteria' on the rise in U.S. hospitals ... PLUS: Don't Worry: Keystone XL pipeline would be safe from the climate impacts it would cause ... and much, MUCH more!
  • BRADBLOG UPDATE! O'KEEFE TO PAY $100,000 TO ACORN WORKER Federal criminal James O'Keefe agrees to settle with San Diego ACORN employee fired after being illegally videotaped in phony "pimp" hoax...
  • BRADBLOG UPDATE! Devastating HuffPo Front Page Slams 'U.S. Drone Policy' Amidst dispute about U.S. secret policy, Rand Paul's filibuster, photo montage of kids said killed and injured by U.S. drones featured on front page of Huffington Post...
  • BRADBLOG UPDATE! Back to the Future for NYC Elections?City weighs possibility of returning to mechanical lever voting machines after op-scan computers pose problems for September runoff election...
  

  
  

• 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
  • PBC Standard Podcast March 5, 2013 Jason Leopold Follows FOIA Requests of the Late Aaron Swartz; Craig Holman of Public Citizen Says Chevron Made Illegal Campaign Contribution
  • PBC News & Comment March 7, 2013“The Gaza Doctor” Izzeldin Abuelaish Shares the Tragic Story of the 2009 Deaths of 3 Daughters and a Niece–and His Inspiring Message: “I Will Not Hate”
  • PBC News & Comment March 7, 2013PBC News & Comment: Rand Paul’s Filibuster May Have Important Impacts After opening tribute to guitarist Alvin Lee, we go deep on possible impacts of Sen. Rand Paul’s 13-hour filibuster…..
  

  
  

• Ring of Fire Radio
  
  Find us at http://ringoffireradio.com and http://goleft.tv/ hosted by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Mike Papantonio and Sam Seder
  Ring of Fire Radio - GoLeft TV - Robert F. Kennedy, Mike Papantonio, Sam Seder - Politics, Commentary, and News.
  This Weekend on Ring of Fire Radio! Saturdays at 3 o’clock Eastern, rebroadcasts Sunday nights at 8 pm Eastern
  • Author and environmental activist Bill McKibben will join us to talk about his idea for getting young people motivated about climate change action.
  • Captain Paul Watson from the Sea Shepherd will be joining us to discuss the actions of Sea Shepherd International that made a federal court declare Watson and his group “pirates.”
  • Investigative journalist Lee Fang will tell us how the private prison industry is helping push discriminatory immigration laws.
  • And author Martha Rosenberg will be here to tell us how drug companies are selling marked up drugs to made up patients.
  • 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.”
  • NEW! This Week on Ring of Fire on Free Speech TV!
  • America is under attack by activist conservative judges who have been packed into courtrooms under a decades-long Republican plan. Attorney Howard Nations will give us the details on that story.
    
  • American workers are getting squeezed financially and politically thanks to Republican union busting efforts. But there is still hope, as grassroots organizations have now taken on the fights that unions once fought for workers. Labor journalist Josh Eidelson will have that story.
    
  • Alternet senior writer and editor Joshua Holland will join us for a discussion on the consequences that unrestrained capitalism has on American workers.
    
  • And the war on women continues, but this time the attackers are the pharmaceutical industry. We’ll be taking a look at two products on the market that are destroying the lives of women all over the country. Attorneys Seth Katz and Robert Price will bring us the latest.
  • Ring of Fire’s Weekly Rewind Stay up to date with the Ring of Fire Weekly Rewind. Here are the most popular stories from the past week. • Join our blog at www.ringoffireradio.com. You can now SUBSCRIBE TO OUR PODCAST by clicking on the "Podcast" tab at the top of the Ring of Fire blog. Please help support progressive radio by signing up! Ring of Fire Radio Ring of Fire, hosted by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Mike Papantonio and Sam Seder: Saturdays at 3 o’clock Eastern, rebroadcasts 8-11 et Sunday evenings on Chicago's Progressive Talk WCPT AM & FM and 4 pm et on Sirius/XM 167 featuring The PAP Attack! "We’ll bring you the stories that the mainstream media didn’t feel like reporting this week." • NEW!! Ring of Fire TV on Free Speech TV - Sundays 12 PM noon et!!!

• Majority Report with Sam Seder Streaming LIVE weekdays 11:30 am et @ Majority.fm!
  
  • MONDAY 3/4/13 Jonathan Alter: On His Calls For Dems To Embrace Entitlement Cuts
  • TUESDAY 3/5/13 Haley Sweetland Edwards: The Financial Industry Assault on Wall Street Reform
  • WEDNESDAY 3/6/13 Nikolas Kozloff: Hugo Chavez's Death & Political Legacy
  • THURSDAY 3/7/13 Bill Black: Austerity Wars, Baby Seder Arrives, Matt & Michael Guest Host
  • FRIDAY 3/8/13 Casual Friday: Cliff Schecter & Film Guy Matthew Weiss With Matt & Michael
  • 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!
  • NEW! MaxKeiserTV on YouTube! MaxKeiserTV PLUS here is Max Keiser’s official Facebook page And here is the official Keiser Report page
  • The official Facebook pages for Max Keiser & Keiser Report 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 PLUS Stacey Herbert
  • MEDIA ALERT Yes, we’ll be taking phone calls . . . by maxkeiser - Listen to Max and Stacy live: from 8-10pm EST on PRN.FM March 12th. We’ll be hosting a two hour special Max and Stacy talk radio March 12th at prn.fm. You can call in on 888-874-4888. See ya tuesday!
  • The GCSB has admitted to illegally surveilling Dotcom as part of an investigation into alleged copyright piracy and money laundering. by maxkeiser - READ Kim Dotcom, Megaupload.com Founder, Alleges NSA Involvement In Copyright Case (HuffPoAOL)
  • VIDEO Mike Maloney’s Hidden Secrets of Money by stacyherbert - Part one of this AWESOME series by Mike Maloney and GoldSilver.com. Max features along with David Morgan and other greats! Part two will be released soon, so watch this now!!• Hundreds of thousands protest in Portugal by maxkeiser - READ Screw the Troika (rt.com)
  • VIDEO BreakingTheSet with Abby Martin: Max Keiser on Bitcoin, Hugo Chavez Myths, Latin American Socialism
  • KEISER REPORT [KR414] Keiser Report: Chase, Bully & Attack! We discuss HFT and QE3 rat-bots chasing and bullying the world into a Great Depression. They also discuss the dangerous situation of France once again becoming a peripheral country to German. In the second half of the show, Max Keiser talks to Pierre Jovanovic, French radio talk show host and author of Blythe Masters, about the smell of not napalm but revolution in the air in France where unemployment is worsening, suicides by jumping in front of a train are up drastically and Goldman Sachs says workers need to cut their pay by 30%. They also discuss history repeating itself as Germany once again finds itself looking for its gold as in Wagner’s Das Rheingold.
  • KEISER REPORT Keiser Report: Mon-Satan (E415) In this episode of the Keiser Report, Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert discuss Mon-Satan before the Supreme Court as the vertical devastation of copyright monopolies become apparent. In the second half of the show, Max Keiser talks to musician Eric Hilton of Thievery Corporation about what he sees as the serf like lifestyle of many musicians in the techn-gulag in which only a handful are making money off of 'free music,' while most make nothing. They also discuss the RIAA acting like the war on drugs commandos going after all the wrong people, all guns blazing.
  • KEISER REPORT [KR416] Keiser Report: Bitcoin Millionaires vs Paper Billionaires We discuss both the Dow and bitcoin hitting an all time high as the Fed continues to print $85 billion per month for Wall Street handouts whilst the sequester cuts $85 billion from services to the poor, the elderly and soldiers. They also talk about house prices tripling to all time highs in Hong Kong (thanks to quantitative easing) whilst ‘surreal’ ghost cities are built in mainland China but which nobody can afford and about how incomes in America are collapsing – thanks to quantitative easing. In the second half of the show, Max Keiser talks to Charles Hugh Smith of OfTwoMinds.com about both socialism and capitalism leading to debtism.
  • ON THE EDGE On the Edge with Greg Hunter An interview with Greg Hunter of USA Watchdog.
  • THE TRUTH ABOUT MARKETS [TaM-1268] The Truth About Denis Rodman in North Korea, Money Velocity in America and Kitty Litter in Your Cigar Download show HERE (mp3)
  • Donate to ResonanceFM here!
  

  
  

• The Scott Horton Radio Show
  
  
  Scott Horton is host of Antiwar Radio on Pacifica 90.7 FM KPFK in Los Angeles and KUCR 88.3 in Riverside, and the Scott Horton Show on No Agenda Radio. (You can listen live Monday through Friday, excluding Thursday, from 12-2 PM Eastern HERE) Plenty of archives too!
  • Scott Horton Radio Show 3/6/13 Marcy Wheeler: Blogger Marcy Wheeler discusses Attorney General Eric Holder's claim that the president can kill Americans on US soil with a drone if he so chooses – and Congress can’t stop him; Rand Paul’s filibuster of John Brennan’s CIA director nomination; the Bush administration's deliberation on sending the military to arrest/kill the "Lackawanna 6" in 2002; and how drone assassinations in Yemen are turning entire villages against the US.
  Listen to more interviews at The Scott Horton Show!
  • SCOTT HORTON July 5, 2012: Scott says goodbye to Antiwar.com. Scott Horton is the former host of Antiwar Radio. Visit his blog Stress. Due to budget cuts Scott lost his gig at AntiWarRadio.com! Whoa! See ScottHortonShow.com for archives! Send emails to Scott at scotthorton.org to help Scott keep his podcast going!
  • Older interviews at Antiwar Radio!
  

  
  

• fauxnews
  • Paul Ryan (R-WI)
  • Jeb Bush (R-FL)
  

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