Wednesday, August 28, 2013

BTV Special! 50th Anniversary March for Jobs and Freedom!

The following was composed for the CWRU Inclusion, Diversity, and Equal Opportunity Department's essay contest held prior to the Martin Luther King Day events earlier this year. There were several prompts essayists could choose from but one stood out for us.

Prompt No. 3: King on Poverty and Social Justice
Presented by the Undergraduate Student Government and Share the Vision

"There is nothing new about poverty. What is new, however, is that we now have the resources to get rid of it. The time has come for an all-out world war against poverty … The well off and the secure have too often become indifferent and oblivious to the poverty and deprivation in their midst. Ultimately a great nation is a compassionate nation. No individual or nation can be great if it does not have a concern for "the least of these."

Prompt No. 3 Taken from King, Martin Luther Jr., Les Prix Nobel en 1964. The text in the New York Times is excerpted. His speech of acceptance delivered the day before in the same place is reported fully both in Les Prix Nobel en 1964 and the New York Times. Read the full Nobel Peace Prize Lecture Online:
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1964/king-lecture.html


Here now is our award-winning response to Prompt No. 3 (in 750 words or less).


ESSAY ON POVERTY IN AMERICA IN 2013
When Dr. King made this statement on poverty Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society programs were just getting underway and the Civil Rights Act had already been passed by Congress. Yet Dr. King knew there was much more to be done to combat poverty. At the time the war in Vietnam was escalating and the U.S. military budget was already over $367 billion (in inflation-adjusted dollars).1 It wasn’t until Dr. King’s speech at Riverside Church, New York City, on April 4, 1967 that he tied military spending to the plight of the poverty-stricken at home.2 Decades later our society faces much the same paradox: incredible amounts of money going to the military budget while Congress argues how much “austerity” they can bring about by cutting core social programs like Social Security and Medicare. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the next budget will include military spending in excess of $637 billion 3 even though $60 billion or more have been lost to waste and fraud in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.4 President Obama, in signing this spending bill into law wrote, “I have approved this annual defense authorization legislation, as I have in previous years, because it …. helps ensure that the United States will continue to have the strongest military in the world.”5

Meanwhile as the military budget continues to grow with no questioning or demands of accountability from Congress “nearly 15 million children in the United States – 21% of all children – live in families with incomes below the federal poverty level – $22,350 a year for a family of four” according to statistics from 2010 by the National Center for Children in Poverty.6 While the Federal Reserve has been pumping hundreds of billions of dollars into the banks through the Troubled Assets Relief Program (or TARP)7 and Quantitative Easing (or QE1, QE2, QE3 8) the lobbyist-led corporate-captured U.S. Congress wrote tax laws resulting in thirty of the country’s largest corporations paying no taxes at all amounting to over $78 billion in lost revenue9. Record numbers of foreclosures10 across the country forced millions of homeowners into the streets11 as part of the growing number of formerly middle-class families joining record numbers of homeless citizens.12 On top of all this the unemployment rate in the U.S. remains close to 9% with the Black/African-American segment over 15% and the Latino/Hispanic segment over 12%13 while corporations are posting record profits totaling over $824.5 billion. 14

The incredible amounts of resources that have been used to wage war abroad and to wage economic warfare on our people at home over the last decade is absolutely astounding. During the recent Presidential election debates poverty was hardly mentioned, what Tavis Smiley calls “the Side Streets of the country: people of color and the poor.”15 So many new laws our state and federal governments have passed these last few years have benefitted the only the wealthy and the privileged and have left Side Street America in the lurch, jobless, homeless, and indebted, indebted so much so that “student loan debt has surpassed total credit card debt in the U.S. … [totaling] more than $1 trillion.”16

Dr. King said in 1964, “We now have the resources to get rid of” poverty in America and we still do today. And now he would demand we look at our current economic situation with a new moral clarity and refocus our national principles. In the Riverside Church speech Dr. King explained, “True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.” Not since the robber barons of the early 20th century has our nation experienced so much economic inequality. Our systems of governance and social structures have massively failed a great majority of our citizens where the average CEO now makes nearly four hundred times that of their average worker17 while the bottom fifth have actually seen a decrease in their real wages.18 We must redouble our efforts to bring about real change to address this massive inequality. Numerous protests, petitions, strikes and other civil disobedience actions have not shaken the power edifice in any meaningful way. Until we have a critical mass of protest nothing much will change. Today we should all commit ourselves to bringing about that critical mass. If Dr. King was alive today he would be leading this struggle. Who will be the new leader of our time?


ENDNOTES:

  1. DaveManuel.com - U.S. Military Spending 1962-2010 http://www.davemanuel.com/2010/06/14/us-military-spending-over-the-years/ “The Growth of US Military Spending Over the Years” Inflation Adjusted Military Spending 1964: $367,569,000,000
  2. AntiWar.com - Riverside Church, New York City, on April 4, 1967 - http://www.antiwar.com/orig/bromwich.php?articleid=12844 Martin Luther King's Speech Against the Vietnam War
  3. Congressional Budget Office - http://www.cbo.gov/publication/43252
    “H.R. 4310 would authorize appropriations totaling $637 billion for fiscal year 2013.”
  4. Huffington Post - Military Spending Waste: Up To $60 Billion In Iraq, Afghanistan War Funds Lost To Poor Planning, Oversight, Fraud - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/30/military-spending-waste_n_942723.html
  5. The White House – Obama’s Signing Statement http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/01/03/statement-president-hr-4310
    "I have approved this annual defense authorization legislation, as I have in previous years, because it authorizes essential support for service members and their families, renews vital national security programs, and helps ensure that the United States will continue to have the strongest military in the world."
  6. National Center for Children in Poverty - http://nccp.org/topics/childpoverty.html
    2010 Statistics: Nearly 15 million children in the United States – 21% of all children – live in families with incomes below the federal poverty level – $22,350 a year for a family of four. Research shows that, on average, families need an income of about twice that level to cover basic expenses. Using this standard, 44% of children live in low-income families.
  7. Wiki - TARP http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troubled_Asset_Relief_Program “authorized to $475 billion.”
  8. Wiki – Quantitative Easing - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantitative_easing#QE1.2C_QE2.2C_and_QE3
  9. Citizens for Tax Justice http://www.ctj.org/pdf/notax2012.pdf
    Corporations that paid no federal taxes “30 of the companies paid no net federal income tax from 2008 through 2010. … all but four of the 30 companies remained in the no-federal-income-tax category over the 2008-11period. …. Had these 30 companies paid the full 35 percent corporate tax rate over the 2008-11 period, they would have paid $78.3 billion more in federal income taxes. Or put another way, over the four years, the 30 companies received more than $78 billion in total tax subsidies.”
  10. HousingWire.com - Foreclosures in 2011 to break last year's record: RealtyTrac - http://www.housingwire.com/news/2011/01/12/foreclosures-2011-break-last-years-record-realtytrac
  11. National Coalition for the Homeless - Foreclosure to Homelessness: The Forgotten Victims of the Subprime Crisis - http://www.nationalhomeless.org/factsheets/foreclosure.html
  12. Alternet - Homelessness Is at Record Highs: Let's Show Some Real Compassion - http://www.alternet.org/story/124861/homelessness_is_at_record_highs%3A_let%27s_show_some_real_compassion/
  13. Wall Street Journal - Unemployment Rate for Demographic Groups; Source: Labor Department - http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204301404577173513076165758.html
  14. Huffington Post - Fortune 500 Companies Made Record $824 Billion Profit In 2011 - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/07/fortune-500-company-earnings_n_1497593.html; Fortune 500 2011 rankings – CNN Money - http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/index.html
  15. ColorLines.com - Tavis Smiley and Obama’s Accountability [VIDEO] - http://colorlines.com/archives/2009/03/tavis_smiley_and_obamas_accoun.html
  16. Consumer Reports - U.S. Student loan debt set to hit $1 trillion; already outpaces national credit card debt - http://news.consumerreports.org/money/2011/06/us-student-loan-debt-set-to-hit-1-trillion-already-outpaced-national-credit-card-debt.html
  17. AFLCIO.org - CEO-to-Worker Pay Gap - http://www.aflcio.org/Corporate-Watch/CEO-Pay-and-the-99/CEO-to-Worker-Pay-Gap
  18. Income inequality - http://inequality.org/income-inequality/ “Between 1979 and 2009, the top 5 percent of American families saw their real incomes increase 72.7 percent, according to Census data. Over the same period, the lowest-income fifth saw a decrease in real income of 7.4 percent.”

Sunday, August 25, 2013

Brick TeeVee's Dog Days wrap!


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Closing up the Dog Days of Summer at Brick TeeVee! The Dog Days of Summer are coming to a close as The 50th Anniversary of March on Washington took place in DC yesterday. We'll have more on this next week (and the Beltway Bubalas are all over it on the Sunday morning talkies) but here are few for now from The Nation.
The Nation's Josh Eidelson reports Fired Walmart Workers Arrested at Rally Announcing Labor Day Deadline Nine fired workers and a current employee were arrested around 2:30 pm Thursday after locking arms and sitting in front of the entrance to a Washington, DC, Walmart office. The planned act of civil disobedience concluded a noon rally at which workers announced a Labor Day deadline for Walmart to raise wages and reinstate workers they allege were fired for their activism. Twenty workers who joined a June strike by the labor group OUR Walmart have since been terminated; another fifty-some have been otherwise disciplined by Walmart. “Hopefully it opens Walmart’s eyes and lets them know that this is just the beginning,” OUR Walmart activist Barbara Collins told The Nation prior to her arrest. If Walmart doesn’t meet the Labor Day deadline, she said yesterday, “then we’re going to give them a lot more actions, a lot stronger actions, a lot bolder ones. And it’ll be across the country.” ....... Organizers say hundreds of supporters joined this afternoon’s rally to demand Walmart cease retaliation and offer full-time jobs that pay a minimum of $25,000 a year. Chants included “Whose Walmart? OUR Walmart!” and “If we don’t get it, shut it down!” In live video posted online by the campaign, people in suits could be seen stepping over the human chain of seated ex-workers to enter the Walmart office. According to the campaign, arrests took place following three warnings issued over a bullhorn by police; participants in the civil disobedience were individually escorted to a nearby area where they were issued citations for a misdemeanor of blocking a passage, and then released. The DC protest comes as the city’s mayor mulls a veto of a retail living wage bill fiercely opposed by the retail giant. Some marched to the rally from the offices of the federal National Labor Relations Board, the agency charged with investigating the workers’ claims of widespread illegal discipline against activists. OUR Walmart has urged the NLRB to seek a federal injunction to more quickly address the alleged retaliation; the NLRB did not respond to a Wednesday request for comment on the case. ......... While fired Walmart workers were rallying against the company in DC, US Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker was delivering remarks and participating in a panel at an afternoon US Manufacturing Summit in Orlando hosted by Walmart. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment this morning on the alleged retaliation or the administration’s participation in the summit, and has not responded to inquiries from The Nation over the past nine months regarding labor strife at the retail giant. Asked this month whether the Obama administration should stop praising and appearing with Walmart, Service Employees International Union President Mary Kay Henry, whose union has backed organizing efforts against the company, told The Nation she “would rather, instead of dealing with the specific tactics of the president’s behavior with individual companies, keep calling on the president to say we have to have both a tax policy and an ability for workers to bargain again as a way to get off this low-wage road that the economy’s on. And I’d like to keep pressing on him to lead on the sort of bigger concern [rather] than grievance publicly about what he’s doing on individual things.” The Brick TeeVee Crew asks, "Where are YOUR 'comfortable shoes', Mary Kay? Eh?" We're pretty sure the SEIU president doesn't have to shop at Walmart while many of her membership certainly has fewer options. At ConsortiumNews.com In the Grip of Warfare Amid a deepening scientific consensus that human activity is inviting environmental catastrophe, humanity’s continued reliance on warfare to settle disputes is the other incendiary element in the mix for global annihilation, as Lawrence S. Wittner observes. Is the human race determined to snuff itself out through mass violence? There are many signs that it is. The most glaring indication lies in the continued popularity of war. Despite well over a hundred million deaths in World Wars I and II, plus the brutal military conflicts in Korea, Indochina, Hungary, Algeria, Lebanon, Angola, Mozambique, the Philippines, the Congo, Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere, wars continue to rage across the globe, consuming vast numbers of lives and resources......... The acceptability of mass violence is demonstrated on a much larger scale by national governments’ ongoing preparations for nuclear war. Sixty-eight years after the U.S. government employed atomic bombs to exterminate the populations of two Japanese cities and it became clear to all but the mentally feeble that nuclear war meant global annihilation, over 17,000 nuclear weapons remain in existence, with 94 percent of them in the arsenals of the U.S. and Russian governments. Despite numerous claims by national leaders that they are committed to building a nuclear weapons-free world, the United States, Russia, China, India and Pakistan are currently modernizing their nuclear weapons, with the United States and Russia spending about $75 billion a year between them on this project. ........ Good read! During our Dog Days week off we had in the can Zerohedge's Tyler Durdan report Japan Finally Admits The Truth: "Right Now, We Have An Emergency At Fukushima". For more on the story see Justin McCurry in The Guardian Fukushima operator reveals leak of 300 tonnes of highly contaminated water. Frantic efforts to contain radioactive leaks at the wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant have been dealt another blow after its operator said about 300 tonnes of highly contaminated water had seeped out of a storage tank at the site. The leak is the worst such incident since the March 2011 meltdown and is separate from the contaminated water leaks, also of about 300 tonnes a day, reported recently. Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) said it did not know how the water leaked out or where it had leaked to, but it believed that the spillage had not flowed into the Pacific ocean....... How an anyone believe anything TEPCO says now after denying just about everything for 2½ years? For another follow-up we go to WashingtonsBlog.com who tell us the West Coast of North America to Be Hit Hard by Fukushima Radiation An ocean current called the North Pacific Gyre is bringing Japanese radiation to the West Coast of North America: [image] The leg of the Gyre closest to Japan – the Kuroshio current – begins right next to Fukushima: [image] While many people assume that the ocean will dilute the Fukushima radiation, a previously-secret 1955 U.S. government report concluded that the ocean may not adequately dilute radiation from nuclear accidents, and there could be “pockets” and “streams” of highly-concentrated radiation. The University of Hawaii’s International Pacific Research Center created a graphic showing the projected dispersion of debris from Japan: [image] Last year, scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory and 3 scientists from the GEOMAR Research Center for Marine Geosciences showed that radiation on the West Coast of North America could end up being 10 times higher than in Japan: Much more! Click over to see the images and read more! Also at WashingtonsBlog this long read Low Level Radiation: Deadly … Or Harmless? AND these videos in You Won’t BELIEVE the Upshot of BP’s Gulf Oil Spill PLUS Biting Our Tongues Doesn’t Keep Us Safe … It Only INCREASES Danger In the Long Run Preface: German pastor Martin Niemöller initially supported Hitler. But he later opposed him, and was imprisoned in the Dachau concentration camp for years. Niemöller learned the hard way that keep your head down doesn’t keep one out of trouble … in the long run, it increases the danger to all of us. ...... NEXT Ellen Brown writes at her Web of Debt blog Not Too Big to Jail: Why Eliot Spitzer Is Wall Street’s Worst Nightmare Before Eliot Spitzer’s infamous resignation as governor of New York in March 2008, he was one of our fiercest champions against Wall Street corruption, in a state that had some of the toughest legislation for controlling the banks. It may not be a coincidence that the revelation of his indiscretions with a high-priced call girl came less than a month after he published a bold editorial in the Washington Post titled “Predatory Lenders’ Partner in Crime: How the Bush Administration Stopped the States from Stepping in to Help Consumers.” The editorial exposed the collusion between the Treasury, the Federal Reserve and Wall Street in deregulating the banks in the guise of regulating them, by taking regulatory power away from the states. It was an issue of the federal government versus the states, with the Feds representing the banks and the states representing consumers. Five years later, Spitzer has set out to take some of that local regulatory power back, in his run for New York City comptroller. Mounting the attack against him, however, are not just Wall Street banks but women’s groups opposed to this apparent endorsement of the exploitation of women. ........ Lynn Parramore, who considers herself a feminist, countered in an August 8th Huffington Post article that it is likely to be in the best interests of the very women who are opposing him to forgive and move on. His stand for women’s reproductive rights and other feminist issues is actually quite strong, and his role as Wall Street watchdog protected women from predatory financial practices. As New York Attorney General, he was known as the “Sheriff of Wall Street.” He is one of the few people with not only the insight and experience to expose Wall Street corruption but the courage to go after the perpetrators. ....... SPEAKING OF Wall Street corruption investigative journalist Greg Palast at vice.com uncovers The Confidential Memo at the Heart of the Global Financial Crisis When a little birdie dropped the End Game memo through my window, its content was so explosive, so sick and plain evil, I just couldn't believe it. The Memo confirmed every conspiracy freak’s fantasy: that in the late 1990s, the top US Treasury officials secretly conspired with a small cabal of banker big-shots to rip apart financial regulation across the planet. When you see 26.3 percent unemployment in Spain, desperation and hunger in Greece, riots in Indonesia and Detroit in bankruptcy, go back to this End Game memo, the genesis of the blood and tears. Let me explain: The year was 1997. US Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin was pushing hard to de-regulate banks. That required, first, repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act to dismantle the barrier between commercial banks and investment banks. It was like replacing bank vaults with roulette wheels. Second, the banks wanted the right to play a new high-risk game: "derivatives trading". JP Morgan alone would soon carry $88 trillion of these pseudo-securities on its books as "assets". Deputy Treasury Secretary Summers (soon to replace Rubin as Secretary) body-blocked any attempt to control derivatives. But what was the use of turning US banks into derivatives casinos if money would flee to nations with safer banking laws? The answer conceived by the Big Bank Five: eliminate controls on banks in every nation on the planet -- in one single move. It was as brilliant as it was insanely dangerous. How could they pull off this mad caper? Go read ALL of this! WOW! In a related matter The Atlantic's senior editor GARANCE FRANKE-RUTA asks Can the GOP Fix Its Woman Problem in Time to Fight Clinton? ...... The major impediment to women achieving parity in office right now in our two-party system is another form of the gap -- what Case Western Reserve Professor Karen Beckwith has called the "partisan imbalance in elected women." A September 2012 analysis by Beckwith found that Republican women in 2010, a wave year for the GOP that featured a record number of Republican women running for the House, were much less likely to win their primaries than were Democratic women. "Only 47 women won GOP nominations to run for House seats -- for a 37 percent win rate in the primaries. And only 24 Republican women actually won House seats in this very promising year," she wrote in a paper for the Scholars Strategy Network. "Democrats got shellacked in 2010, but even as their party lost its House majority, 91 Democratic women won their party's nomination (with a 68 percent win rate in primaries). In the end, 49 Democratic women were elected to the House." It had been even worse in 2008: Women were 22.3 percent of the Democrats who ran for the House, but less than 10 percent of Republicans candidates. At the local level, only a third of state Republican legislative candidates were women, and "just over half of them won their contests.' Meanwhile, "More females ran on Democratic tickets, and two-thirds won." So not only are female Republicans running at lower rates, they are winning at lower ones, too. When one considers the GOPhers elect crazies like Michele "I'm not Swiss" Bachmann, "Mean Jean" Schmidt and Sarah "I can see Russia from my porch" Palin it's amazing they win at all - and what does that say about their constituents who vote them in? Well it seems one GOPher isn't drinking the Red Kool-Aid anymore. In the GOPher War on Common Sense we find Iowa County Co-Chair Quits Party Because the GOP Has, ‘Declared War on Common Sense’ by Jason Easley at PoliticusUSA.com On the same day that seven Republican Party officials quit in Maine, an Iowa county co-chair quit because Republicans have, “declared war on science and common sense.” Polk County (Iowa) GOP co-chair Chad Brown wrote about his disappointment with the party in his resignation letter, “Having spoken with a pastor and having prayed about this for hours, I came to the conclusion that this is my only recourse. I’m disappointed with the Republican Party at the National level. I’m disappointed with the Republican Party at the Statewide level. I’m disappointed with the Republican Party at the Countywide level. I find it increasingly difficult to defend issues and statements made by Party leaders and officials from all three levels.” Brown expanded on his reasons for quitting the Republican Party in an interview with The Des Moines Register........ The seven party officials who quit in Maine left the GOP because it wasn’t conservative enough for them. Brown had the complete opposite problem. He thinks that the Republican Party has moved too far to the right. The fact that officials can quit the same party on the same day for completely opposite reasons is indicative of an organization with no identity. However, Brown’s criticism of his former party is more based in the reality of the times. The fact is that the Republican Party has declared war on common sense, and any Republican who is unable to suspend the ability to use their common sense will find the GOP intolerable. What Mr. Brown confirmed on his way out the door is that in order to be a Republican today, one has to leave their brain at the door. Anyone who uses common sense to come to the conclusion that maybe hating minorities isn’t the best way to win future elections has no place in this Republican Party. Immigration, climate change, healthcare, the economy, and women’s rights all areas where Republicans are fighting against science and/or common sense. If Republicans win their war on common sense, the only thing that will be certain is the future loss of many elections. Agreed! Sanity is not a prerequisite for the GOPher party (and the Dems too it seems sometimes). That's why the BTV crew has set up SanePeopleOfOhio.com AND SanePeopleOfAmerica.com! BTV WANT AD: We're looking for help to develop these web sites. If you are SANE and have web design skills please submit your credentials to btv33 AT att dot net. We're also looking for content bloggers & citizen journalists so stay tuned! If you can, go reserve your state's URL like SanePeopleOfIowa.com, SanePeopleOfOregon, SanePeopleOfNevada, SanePeopleOfMaine and so forth! You get the idea! Then write us to tell us you have the URL! We'll post your links at SanePeopleOfAmerica.com as they come in! The 2014 Mid-Term elections are around the corner so let's get busy! And as for Citizen Journalism California's alleged-Democratic Senator Diane Feinstein wants to limit who can be a journalist The most recent congressional threat to the free press in the United States comes from California Democrat U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein. In a proposed amendment to a media shield law being considered by Congress, Feinstein writes that only paid journalists should be given protections from prosecution for what they say or write. The language in her proposal is raising concerns from First Amendment advocates because it seems to leave out bloggers and other nontraditional forms of journalism that have proliferated in recent years thanks to the Internet. "It rubs me the wrong way that the government thinks it should be in the business of determining who should be considered a journalist," said Ken Bunting, executive director of the National Freedom of Information Coalition at the Missouri School of Journalism. ....... The difficulty with writing any such law - this is the third time Congress has attempted to craft a federal shield law - is that any such law would have to set standards for who counts as a journalist or what qualifies as an "act of journalism." There are shield laws on the books in 40 states, but they do not apply in federal court. The First Amendment of the U.S Constitution promises that the right to a free press "shall not be infringed." The proposed federal shield law would protect journalists from having to comply with subpoenas or court orders forcing them to reveal sources and other confidential information. The important question, of course, is how to determine that the shield law applies to one person and not another. In other words, how do you determine someone is a journalist? ...... Nation of Change reports that Facebook Removes March Against Monsanto Event Facebook has been accused of being a facade for free speech as it has been known to censor controversial content. ..... The group March Against Monsanto announced yesterday on their Facebook page that Facebook removed an event page promoting a rally in St. Louis, MO, where the biotech giant is headquartered. The rally is set to take place on Saturday, Oct. 12, with a broad coalition of regional groups and solidarity activists planning to converge at the company's corporate headquarters. While the event did not contain derogatory or inappropriate content, it was removed for violating Facebook's Statement of Rights and Responsibilities. The group has since created a new event page for the rally. ...... It's safe to assume that the censorship by the media will continue as critical mass awareness is being reached on the issues that are challenging systemic corruption. But with March Against Monsanto planning more than 600 solidarity events worldwide with an estimated 3.6 million people pledging participation, it is also safe to assume that no amount of censorship is going to keep that awareness from growing. THEN Alternet's Alex Kane found the 5 Companies That Make Money By Keeping Americans Terrified of Terror Attacks Michael Hayden, the former director of the National Security Agency, has invaded America’s television sets in recent weeks to warn about Edward Snowden’s leaks and the continuing terrorist threat to America. But what often goes unmentioned, as the Guardian’s Glenn Greenwald pointed out, is that Hayden has a financial stake in keeping Americans scared and on a permanent war footing against Islamist militants. And the private firm he works for, called the Chertoff Group, is not the only one making money by scaring Americans. Post-9/11 America has witnessed a boom in private firms dedicated to the hyped-up threat of terrorism. The drive to privatize America's national security apparatus accelerated in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks, and it’s gotten to the point where 70 percent of the national intelligence budget is now spent on private contractors, as author Tim Shorrock reported. The private intelligence contractors have profited to the tune of at least $6 billion a year. In 2010, the Washington Post revealed that there are 1,931 private firms across the country dedicated to fighting terrorism. What it all adds up to is a massive industry profiting off government-induced fear of terrorism, even though Americans are more likely to be killed by a car crash or their own furniture than a terror attack. Here are five private companies cashing in on keeping you afraid. WashingtonsBlog also covers CIA Admits It Helped Overthrow the Democratically Elected Government of Iran in 1953 Indeed, the bigger story is that the CIA admitted that it hired Iranians in the 1950's to pose as Communists and stage bombings in Iran in order to turn the country against its democratically-elected prime minister. Indeed, governments from around the world admit they carry out this sort of subterfuge: WashingtonsBlog has all the links to every bit of this including the whole back-story! Go read now! From AntiWar.com Justin Raimondo alerts us that They’re Going After Greenwald This time they've gone too far. The enemies of liberty have escalated their attack on Glenn Greenwald – the Guardian journalist whose reporting on Edward Snowden's revelations has provoked an international movement against the Surveillance State - in a way even I never thought possible. They have targeted his longtime partner, David Miranda: en route home to Brazil, where he and Greenwald presently reside, Miranda passed through London's Heathrow Airport, where he was detained by officers and questioned for nine hours. They claimed authority to do so under the terms of the "Terrorism Act 2000," which allows them to detain terrorist suspects at airports and border crossings at will. Miranda had been visiting friends in Berlin. After confiscating his laptops, his cell phone, and all electronics, they finally let him go. From news accounts of what happened at Heathrow, it looks as if the Brits dearly wanted to arrest him, or at least get clearance to hold him longer – and only the energetic efforts of the Brazilian embassy managed to just barely get Miranda out of there and home to a free country. As of this writing, we don't know exactly what the interrogation entailed, but it isn’t hard to imagine...... The message to journalists everywhere is ominous indeed: if you report things the US government and/or its overseas vassals don't like, not only you but your loved ones will be unmercifully harassed and quite possibly arrested until we make you stop. How is this different from what Josef Stalin, Saddam Hussein, and other world-infamous despots did to earn a prominent spot in history’s rogues gallery? This incident was clearly meant as a warning shot aimed directly at Greenwald, who has publicly expressed his desire to return to the United States. ........ If I were Glenn, I would stay in Brazil: there is no obligation to make oneself a martyr. I say this not because I'm so presumptuous as to offer him public advice on a highly personal matter (although I am that), but in order to make a political point: the guarantees of basic rights enshrined in the Constitution are simply no longer operable. It is admirable to take the Constitution seriously: for that reason, it is necessary to take the enemies of the Constitution just as seriously. These people mean business – and quite a dirty business it is, too. They don't care about the rule of law: as Greenwald spent a whole book explaining to us, today the law is applied in a grossly unequal manner, and this degeneration of our legal system has occurred over a long period of years. The vast secret surveillance apparatus he has so thoroughly exposed in his reporting shows this degenerative process is almost complete. In short, no one is safe – and that is the hallmark of an authoritarian society, now isn't it? No, not journalists, not the Guardian, not Antiwar.com – our power-crazed political class will stop at nothing to preserve its prerogatives and privileges. And if Greenwald thinks the Constitution will prove to be an obstacle in their path, then why is it that up until now they've used it as a doormat? Nothing short of a revolution is going to stop this power grab ..... No, it isn't too late to bring about peaceful change: but the hour is getting damned late. Which is why I fear it is going to take a lot more than a few bills in Congress - or even the victory of civil libertarians at the polls – to derail this coup d’etat against the rule of law and restore the Constitution. The Guardian's Editor Alan Rusbridger explains David Miranda, schedule 7 and the danger that all reporters now face and The Guardian's Josh Halliday explains Rusbridger: destroying hard drives allowed us to continue NSA coverage Esquire's Charles P. Pierce explains The Sentencing Of Bradley Manning This is what passes for mercy in the military-justice system, so you take what you can get. He goes away for 35 years instead of 90. There is an appeals process, which theoretically could mitigate the sentence some. The problem I have is that it is very likely that his whole story goes away with him, which it should not. As the invaluable Charlie Savage points out, there was a lot more going on in the saga of Bradley Manning than one private who leaked some classified material. ......... It's that last bit -- the part about Manning's being credited with the 112 days in the military jail -- that ought to be remembered, along with the fact that we know more about what was done in our name in Iraq because of what Manning did than the government wanted us to know. Manning was treated barbarically over those 112 days. This didn't happen by accident. This wasn't an oversight. It was a policy decision. He was treated that way deliberately by this government. He was treated that way because that is how this administration wanted him treated. This is an administration that simply does not want the people to know what is being done in its name. The last administration didn't want that either, but C-Plus Augustus wasn't a constitutional law professor promising the most open and transparent administration in history, either.) And that's the part of the story that shouldn't go away with Bradley Manning. Yes Charlie damn YES! We must again refer you to The Most Transparent Administration Ever™ for all the obomber apologists to read and try again to reconcile their unwavering support no matter how egregious his actions are to The Bill of Rights. Manning's statement is superb, too. From OSCAR LEÓN, TRNN PRODUCER: Bradley Manning In His Own Words After Being Sentenced to 35 years "Our nation has had similar dark moments for the virtues of democracy—the Trail of Tears, the Dred Scott decision, McCarthyism, the Japanese-American internment camps—to name a few. I am confident that many of our actions since 9/11 will one day be viewed in a similar light. As the late Howard Zinn once said, 'There is not a flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people.'" Statement from Center for Constitutional Rights We are outraged that a whistleblower and a patriot has been sentenced on a conviction under the Espionage Act. The government has stretched this archaic and discredited law to send an unmistakable warning to potential whistleblowers and journalists willing to publish their information. We can only hope that Manning's courage will continue to inspire others who witness state crimes to speak up. This show trial was a frontal assault on the First Amendment, from the way the prosecution twisted Manning’s actions to blur the distinction between whistleblowing and spying to the government’s tireless efforts to obstruct media coverage of the proceedings. It is a travesty of justice that Manning, who helped bring to light the criminality of U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, is being punished while the alleged perpetrators of the crimes he exposed are not even investigated. Every aspect of this case sets a dangerous precedent for future prosecutions of whistleblowers - who play an essential role in democratic government by telling us the truth about government wrongdoing - and we fear for the future of our country in the wake of this case. We must channel our outrage and continue building political pressure for Manning's freedom. President Obama should pardon Bradley Manning, and if he refuses, a presidential pardon must be an election issue in 2016. There is so much more info to read, watch and listen to so check out all of the posts below, especially in the BTV 'SUPPORT THE TROOPS WHO REFUSE TO FIGHT' section for more on Manning and also stay up-to-date on the NSA-Snowden coverage at The Guardian at their special section on THE NSA FILES and Glenn Greenwald's analysis at Glenn Greenwald on Security and Liberty section. Geez look at the time! We'll see you next week for our Labor Day Special! Go hunting below for great stories and interviews and CLICK ANYTHING and be INSTANTLY SMARTER! And tell yer SANE friends too!
BRICK TEEVEE ALERTS!©

Democracy NOW!

Democracy Now's Iraq interactive timeline

Headlines Monday, Aug 19, 2013

Headlines Tuesday, Aug 20, 2013 Headlines Wednesday, Aug 21, 2013
  • Gary Younge & William P. Jones 50 Years Later, the Untold History of the March on Washington & MLK’s Most Famous Speech For more on the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, 50 years later, we’re joined by two guests. In Madison, Wisconsin, William Jones is a professor at the University of Wisconsin specializing in civil rights and labor history. His new book is just out, The March on Washington: Jobs, Freedom, and the Forgotten History of Civil Rights. His recent piece for Dissent magazine is "The Forgotten [Radical] History of the March on Washington." And in Chicago, we’re joined by Gary Younge, an award-winning columnist for The Guardian and The Nation. His book, The Speech: The Story Behind Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Dream, has also just been published.
Headlines Thursday, Aug 22, 2013 Headlines Friday, Aug 23, 2013

GRITtv GRITtv @ www.grittv.org with Laura Flanders
»»» FEATURED SHOW Gary Younge: Beyond A Dream While Dr. King's "I Have A Dream" speech is the most often-remembered aspect of the historic event, the demands of the marchers were for concrete, tangible things like federal action to end segregation, punish discrimination, increase employment and raise the minimum wage. more.....

BRICK TEEVEE SPORT!©
»»» SUNDAY BASEBALL on TBS Braves @ Cardinals 2:15 pm et
»»» SUNDAY NIGHT BASEBALL on ESPN Red Sox @ Dodgers 8 pm et
»»» MONDAY NIGHT BASEBALL on ESPN Reds @ Cardinals 7 pm et
»»» WEDNESDAY NIGHT BASEBALL on ESPN Orioles @ Red Sox 7 pm et

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

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

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

STOP the ACHE NEW WEBSITE! AcheAct.org and Appalachian Community HEALTH EMERGENCY Advocating for government action and protection of the public from the health crisis in mountain top removal communities. The A.C.H.E. Act Is Re-Introduced In The 113th Congress!

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

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

NET NEUTRALITY! SaveTheInternet.com Declaration of Internet Freedom Tired of fighting bad bills like SOPA, PIPA and CISPA? Want to stand up against those who are trying to control what we do and say online? It's time for something different. A group of more than 1,500 organizations, academics, startup founders and tech innovators has come together to produce a Declaration of Internet Freedom, a set of five principles that put forward a positive vision of the open Internet. Our goal: Get millions of Internet users to sign on to this Declaration. Build political power for Internet users to make sure that we get a seat at the table whenever, and wherever, the future of the Internet is being decided. It's time to stop playing defense and start going on the offensive. The open Internet is central to people’s freedom to communicate, share, advocate and innovate in the 21st century. But powerful interests want to censor free speech, block the sharing of information, hinder innovation and control how Internet users get online. And all too often, people in power are making political decisions behind closed doors about how the Internet should operate — and they're doing this without the involvement of actual Internet users. The result: policies that could close down the open Internet and destroy our freedom to connect. It’s time for us to reclaim the Internet for its users. Take action now and sign the Declaration of Internet Freedom. ACTION! Meet the New CISPA. Same as the Old CISPA. Last year, thanks to a public outcry, the effort to pass overreaching cybersecurity legislation stalled in the Senate. Now supporters have reintroduced the House version of that legislation — the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA). The “new” version is in fact identical to the original CISPA — and poses the same threat to our digital civil liberties. If CISPA becomes law, it will be a major blow to our online privacy. But more than that, CISPA’s passage would have a chilling effect on our freedom to connect online. We won’t feel as free to state unpopular opinions, or to speak truth to power, if we know that Big Brother could get a feed of everything we say and do. This is not what the free and open Internet is about. We must tell Congress: Vote NO on CISPA and bury this bill for good.

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

CAMPAIGN FOR AMERICA'S FUTURE American Majority Rejects Washington Austerity Consensus – And We Demand Media Coverage by Roger Hickey, President, Campaign for America's Future: No more silent majority. The Campaign for America’s Future is joining with the Center for Economic and Policy Research (whose Co-Director, Dean Baker blogs regularly about economic bias in the media) and with FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting) to monitor the media’s coverage and representation of the American Majority views as they go into covering the big deficit fight. But we want to enlist YOU too. Send us accounts of unbalanced coverage in the national media and in your local newspapers and television. Call up reporters, editors, assignment people and tell them when they are under-representing the views of the American Majority. We should have at least half the experts, pundits, quotes and real people represented in their coverage. In a debate as important as the one we are going into, we can’t allow the media to ignore the American Majority. Much more at www.ourfuture.org MOVE TO AMEND! www.movetoamend.org SIGN HERE NOW! And check out more actions on the Move to Amend Calendar for more! Also visit Rep Alan Grayson's site www.savedemocracy.net GET INVOLVED! And Alan Grayson is BACK in the 113th Congress! Help out at CongressmanWithGuts.com

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

SUPPORT THE TROOPS WHO REFUSE TO FIGHT See CourageToResist.org and Bradley Manning Support Network UPDATE! From the Bradley Manning Support Network Update 8/24/13: Alexa O'brien's interview with defense lawyer David Coombs, NYT calls sentence "excessive" After the crushing sentence announcement earlier this week, Alexa O'brien interviewd Chelsea (formerly Bradley) Manning's lawyer David Coombs. Watch the video! And the New York Times has published an editorial criticizing the government and military for having given Manning far too harsh a sentence - particularly given his noble intentions. ....... AND Heroic whistle-blower addresses gender publicly: ready to move on to next phase of her life August 22, 2013. By Chelsea Manning. In a statement provided by lawyer David Coombs, the WikiLeaks whistle-blower formerly known as Bradley Manning announces: "As I transition into this next phase of my life, I want everyone to know the real me. I am Chelsea Manning. I am a female." Read the rest of her statement here.

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
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The essential guide for watching government propaganda!
THEY report. YOU throw bricks.©
Get your Foam Bricks at ThrowThings.com HERE!
IRAQ: 4,486 US Military Dead as of April 21, 2012
AFGHANISTAN: 2,264 US Military Dead as of Aug 23, 2013
The Obameter: Tracking Obama's Campaign Promises
MOCKINGBIRD: The Subversion Of The Free Press By The CIA
Who Owns The Media? The 6 Monolithic Corporations That Control Almost Everything We Watch, Hear And Read

  • This Week (ABC) Host George Stephanopoulos
    • The Latest on the Crisis in the Middle East with ABC News Chief Global Affairs Correspondent Martha Raddatz on the ground live from Cairo
    • Rep. John Lewis, D-Georgia, the last living speaker from the march
    • former Atlanta mayor and civil rights leader Andrew Young.

    • ROUNDTABLE: George Will and Cokie Roberts, Democratic strategist and ABC News contributor Donna Brazile, and Washington Post Chief Correspondent Dan Balz.


  • Face The Nation (CBS) Host Bob Schiefer
    • The March on Washington, 50 years later: special coverage of the March on Washington
    • House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas
    • Senator Jack Reed, D-R.I.
    • ROUNDTABLE: foreign policy panel


  • 60 Minutes (CBS)
    • 40 Million Mistakes - A Steve Kroft investigation looks into the accuracy of the credit reports that American consumers rely on for credit cards and loans. James Jacoby and Michael Karzis are the producers
    • A Face in the Crowd - The odds are you are not just a face in the crowd any longer. Even if your picture isn't on the Internet, computer facial recognition technology in public places is making it harder to remain anonymous. Lesley Stahl reports. Shachar Bar-On is the producer.


  • 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.
    • THIS SUNDAY: The American Dream
    • ROUNDTABLE: Rep. John Lewis (D-GA); plus Newark Mayor Cory Booker (D) who is trying to become the first African-American senator from New Jersey; and the country’s first Indian-American governor, Republican Bobby Jindal of Louisiana.
    • ROUNDTABLE II: Rep. Raul Labrador (R-ID); business executive and author, Sheryl WuDunn; President and Founder of the National Action Network, MSNBC’s Rev. Al Sharpton; New York Times Columnist David Brooks; and presidential historian and author of “Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream,” Doris Kearns Goodwin.


  • 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.
    • March on Washington: The "Dream" 50 years later
    • Congressman John Lewis


  • HEAD ON RADIO with Bob Kincaid
    HEAD ON
    Headon Radio with Bob Kincaid 6 PM Eastern, 3 PM Pacific, 2300 GMT. Duration: 3 hrs. To be part of Conversation Radio call toll-free (877) 443-2366, or use our Liberal community line at 304-658-3333. Email bob [at] headonradio [dot] com during the show!
    • Front Porch Friday!!!!! Bob wraps up the week! Listen NOW HERE - Wednesday, August 14th, 2013 (mp3)! Keep Bob on the air HERE ya hear? Amen to the White Rose Society! Bob's show archives at the White Rose HERE! Donate to Head On HERE! And join Coal River Mountain Watch at www.crmw.net!


  • YOUR GREEN NEWS REPORT With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen!
    desi-n-bradWhileWeWereOut
    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' - August 12, 2013 IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Special 'While We Were Out' Edition: Fukushima nuclear incident raised to Level 3; UN: climate change still a very big problem; Frackers drain TX towns of water; Wildfires n' water fights in the dried-out West; PLUS: The White House goes solar --- again ... All that and more in today's Green News Report!
    • IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see link): What Al Jazeera America didn't say about climate change; Germany breaks its own solar record; MSM's ambivalent coverage of climate change’s ‘new normal’; Battle over global warming is all in your head; Why so many conservatives deny climate sciece [they hate the solution]; Why US power grid's days are numbered; All US nuclear reactors vulnerable to terrorists; Mosquitos are worse this summer ... PLUS: Might as well face it, you’re addicted to oil (an intervention) ... and much, MUCH more! ...
    'Green News Report' - August 8, 2013 IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Record breaking weather extremes are the new normal; Surprise! 'Conservative' media disinforms the public; Fossil fuel industry showers Republicans with campaign cash; Seattle's community solar; PLUS: The FATBERG that threatened London ... All that and more in today's Green News Report!
    • BRADBLOG UPDATE! 'Whistleblower Protection':
    Manning Gets 35 Years
    As criminal bankers, Admin leakers, Congressional NSA liars, classified document thieves (like CNN's Jeffrey Toobin) -- and the Administration who lied us into war -- go free...
    • BRADBLOG UPDATE! Lawsuits Charge NC Voting Law Racially Motivated League of Women Voters, NAACP file federal suits against most restrictive voter suppression law since Jim Crow era, passed after SCOTUS gutted Voting Rights Act in June...
    • BRADBLOG UPDATE! TX AG Offers Fraudulent Case on Voter Fraud in Response to DoJ Lawsuit Cites absentee fraud as reason for state's discriminatory polling place Photo ID law...


  • The Peter B. Collins Show PODCAST!
    pbc show
    Listen at PeterBCollins.com!
    The Peter B. Collins Show covers American news and politics from the Left Coast. Veteran talk radio personality Peter B. Collins, based in San Francisco, delivers fresh interviews, commentary and analysis on a range of important topics, with views and voices you don’t often find in the corporate media.
    Holiday Break and Website Changes
      To my valued listeners: We are making some changes to the website and our terms, effective in January. We will continue to offer free podcasts–my new daily news and commentary. Our in-depth interviews will be available for $1 per episode, or to subscribers who pay $5 per month or more. Loyal listeners who simply can’t afford it should send an email to peter@peterbcollins.com, as we will be offering a limited number of scholarships to our friends who are hurting during these tough times. More information will be posted as we complete the revisions. I’m grateful to each of you for listening and supporting this work, and hope that the new model will enable us to keep it going well into the future. All the best, -pbc
    • Peter B Collins, Truthout | Op-Ed An Insider's View of the Progressive Talk Radio Devolution
    • PBC News & Comment Aug 21, 2013 PBC News & Comment: Harsh Sentence for Bradley Manning As the serious crimes he exposed remain unpunished, Manning draws 35-year sentence–intended to deter other whistleblowers, preserve police state….
    • PBC News & Comment Aug 22, 2013 PBC News & Comment: Private Manning Says, “Call Me Chelsea” Lawyer David Coombs relays the word that Private Manning identifies as female, and wishes to be known henceforth as Chelsea
    • PBC News & Comment Aug 23, 2013 PBC News & Comment: NSA Blinks in the Sunshine, More info on PRISM and FISA Court Rulings NSA damage control challenged by declassified FISA court rulings and new PRISM disclosures from Snowden published by The Guardian…. Podcast:
    • PBC http://www.peterbcollins.com/2013/08/16/boiling-frogs-dr-binoy-kampmark-of-australias-wikileaks-party-talks-about-snowden-manning-assange-and-more/" target="_blank">Boiling Frogs: Dr. Binoy Kampmark of Australia’s WikiLeaks Party Talks About Snowden, Manning, Assange and More
    • PBC Standard Podcast Aug 21, 2013 Journalist Kevin Gozstola’s Final Report on Court Martial of Bradley Manning–Judge Announces 35-year Sentence


  • Ring of Fire Radio
    rofheader
    Find us at http://ringoffireradio.com and http://goleft.tv/ hosted by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Mike Papantonio and Sam Seder
    Ring of Fire Radio - GoLeft TV - Robert F. Kennedy, Mike Papantonio, Sam Seder - Politics, Commentary, and News.
    This Weekend on Ring of Fire Radio! Aug 23, 2013 Saturdays at 3 o’clock Eastern, rebroadcasts Sunday nights at 7 pm Eastern.
    • Best-selling author and Harpers Magazine contributor Thomas Frank will tell us what’s changed in the 5 years since bankers burned down our economy.
    • Author Ari Berman will tell us why its time to fight back in order to protect voting rights.
    • Author Cliff Schecter will talk to us about Wall Street’s takeover of the Democratic Party.
    • Labor journalist Josh Eidelson will tell us about the fight for fair wages for immigrants.
    • And author Julie Fisher will tell us how we can support Democracy to the Middle East, without creating unrest.
    • NEW! This Week on Ring of Fire on Free Speech TV! Aug 24, 2013 Sundays at NOON!
    »» “Big Pharma’s War on Women.” Linda Lipsen, CEO of the American Association for Justice talks about big Pharma’s penchant for harming female consumers.
    »» “Labor Unions Help Save Lives.” Attorneys Mike Burg and Howard Nations talk about recent workplace atrocities around the globe, and how unions could have saved workers’ lives.
    »» “Cash Hoarders Devastate Economy.” Richard Eskow, host of The Breakdown and senior fellow at the Campaign for America’s Future, talks about the top 1% hoarding trillions in cash, and how this affects the income gap in America.
    »» “Your Mortgage Documents Are Fake!” Investigative journalist David Dayen talks about mortgage companies falsifying documents to illegally foreclose on homeowners.
    »» “Senior Citizens At Risk.” Attorney Charles Meltmar talks about the rise in cases of nursing home abuse.
    • VIDEO! THE HISTORY OF CORPORATE CORRUPTION & FRAUD with Robert Kennedy Jr & Mike Papantonio “Call us if you have a personal story about Fraud on Taxpayers or False Claims for Payment made by Corportations at 1-866-389-FIRE (3473) or contact us by email at info@ringoffireradio.com if you have evidence of fraud that robbed taxpayer dollars. If our government is paying too much due to fraud by a corporation, Ring of Fire wants to do a story on it.”
    • VIDEO! Pap and Seder: College Students Are Financially Screwed (VIDEO) Ring of Fire hosts Mike Papantonio and Sam Seder discuss how states have been gradually cutting back funds for college education, which has caused a massive increase in college tuition over the past decade.
    • VIDEO! Pap and Seder: More NSA Revelations Emerging (VIDEO) Ring of Fire hosts Mike Papantonio and Sam Seder discuss more NSA revelations that have recently emerged.
    Ring of Fire’s Weekly Rewind Aug 24, 2013 featuring the top stories from Ring of Fire from the past week.
    • Join our blog at www.ringoffireradio.com. You can now SUBSCRIBE TO OUR PODCAST by clicking on the "Podcast" tab at the top of the Ring of Fire blog. Please help support progressive radio by signing up! Ring of Fire Radio Ring of Fire, hosted by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Mike Papantonio and Sam Seder: Saturdays at 3 o’clock Eastern, rebroadcasts 7-10 et Sunday evenings on Chicago's Progressive Talk WCPT AM & FM and 4 pm et on Sirius/XM 167 featuring The PAP Attack! "We’ll bring you the stories that the mainstream media didn’t feel like reporting this week."


  • Majority Report with Sam Seder Streaming LIVE weekdays 12 NOON et @ Majority.fm!

    • MONDAY 8/19/13 Daniel Levy: Egypt's Counter Revolution & Ryan Devereaux NYC Stop & Frisk Is Racial Profiling
    • TUESDAY 8/20/13 Julia Ioffe: Russia's Attack On Gay Rights
    • WEDNESDAY 8/21/13 Bradley Manning Sentenced & Revealed: NSA Has No Idea What Snowden Took
    • THURSDAY 8/22/13 Eddie S. Glaude Jr: The 50th Anniversary of March on Washington
    • FRIDAY 8/23/13 Casual Friday: Cliff Schecter & Matthew Film Guy Weiss
    • MORE Podcast Interviews at majorityfm.libsyn.com!


  • KEISER REPORT Podcasts and more @ MaxKeiser.com!
    maxheaderhiyall
    "HI Y'ALL! Tell the people! Tell the people!"
    WHO IS MAX KEISER? Max Keiser is a financial expert, Prediction Markets analyst, inventor and filmmaker. He is the creator of the Hollywood Stock Exchange (HSX) the first Prediction Market. Max Keiser co-hosts "The Truth About Markets" on ResonanceFM 104.4 in London. He also produces and presents documentary films covering markets and finance for Al Jazeera’s "People & Power" series. Max Keiser started his career on Wall Street in 1983. He is the creator of KarmaBanque a site that enables activists to challenge corporate power.
    • VISIT PirateMyFilm.com!!! Crowd Funding for Pirates!
    • MaxKeiserTV on YouTube! MaxKeiserTV
    KEISER REPORT ON FACEBOOK STACY SUMMARY: For once and for all, here are our real Facebook pages, the other ones are fake. But if you feel like chatting to the fake ones, by all means, go ahead.
    »» Max Keiser
    »» Keiser Report
    »» Stacey Herbert
    The Federal Reserve 100th Anniversary Road Show Spectacular! by alexschaefer - Paint Provocateur Alex Schaefer wants to say “Happy Birthday, Federal Reserve!’ You made it to 100 years of conducting the nation’s monetary policy! Since mainstream media didn’t send a card, a painter, a protestor, a filmmaker, a freedom fighter and a mad crew are going on a road trip across the USA to visit all twelve of your branches to help you celebrate! Come rain or monkey shines, they are on a mission to throw the birthday party nightmares are made of. A party to highlight the historic END of the original 100 year charter the Federal Reserve Bank has with the U.S. Government December 23rd, 2013! CLICK HERE FOR THE CROWDFUNDING CAMPAIGN & HELP GET THE SHOW ON THE ROAD! Lots of great donation perks, all original works of art by Alex Schaefer and Cain Motter! This is a great way to collect some art AND help fund this amazing journey and film. It’s a win-win situation! Let’s some history and shake things up around here!
    Assange: How cryptography is a key weapon in the fight against empire states by maxkeiser - READ What began as a means of retaining individual freedom can now be used by smaller states to fend off the ambitions of larger ones (guardian.co.uk)
    Some Verrrry Interesting Points to Make About Spiralling Higher Education Costs by Stacy Herbert - First of all, this sentence: As we’ve reported before, colleges are increasingly directing their aid to wealthier families—who need it least—in a bid to increase revenue and raise their prestige (though it doesn’t necessarily fetch smarter students).The world over has an ingrained prejudice toward ‘the wealthy,’ and so privilege and ‘prestige’ are thrust upon them by the entire system around them, compounding their advantage. Of course, those who watch Fox News will find ways to justify these facts evident in the every day life around us, but, if it didn’t exist, then George W. Bush would never have been president. FACT. READ Are College Costs Reaching a Breaking Point? (businessweek.com)
    You’re pathologically ill. Ben Bernanke. Lloyd Blankfein. Ben Bernanke. Lloyd Blankfein. Jamie Dimon. by Stacy Herbert - Stacy Summary: Found this clip from a Keiser Report episode back in the 100s. This is one of the upsides of shooting in front of a green screen. Can’t do this now that we have a live backdrop. Maybe we ought to shoot a few in chroma studio just for a few of these . . .
    Cameron instructed Sir Jeremy Heywood to request The Guardian hand over classified material by maxkeiser - David Cameron told Cabinet Secretary to get Guardian to hand over Edward Snowden documents (independent.co.uk)
    Now we know what all that James Bond worshipping is all about… by maxkeiser -
    ~ Black Helicopters: Britain’s Blind Faith in Intelligence Agencies (spiegel.de)
    ~ Britain needs spies: William Hague searches for the next James Bond huffingtonpost.co.uk)
    ~ GCHQ: Furious German Ministers Protest To Britain Over Spying (independent.co.uk)
    • KEISER REPORT [KR486] Keiser Report: US High Cathedral of Fraud We discuss Mom and Pop investors taken out on a slab and their wealth burnt to a crisp by the high cathedral of fraud that is the New York Stock Exchange and its degenerate priests of high finance. Max proposes a scheme of mortgages collateralized by food stamps. In the second half, Max talks to Owen Jones, a columnist at the Independent and author of Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class, about the prejudice of George Osborne’s policies which takes nearly £12 billion from housing benefit for the poor and shifts it to property speculation schemes for the middle class.
    • KEISER REPORT [KR487] Keiser Report: NSA-spread Digital AIDS We discuss the fact that banks are lobbying to force credit unions to become banks in order to destroy the Move Your Money competitive threat. They also discuss frontrunning the NSA and the digital AIDS they’ve spread. In the second half, Max talks to former government official, Catherine Austin Fitts of Solari.com about extricating yourself from the tapeworm economy.
    • KEISER REPORT [KR488] Keiser Report: Dutch Blues & Bubble Markets We discuss the Dutch blues and the pay per gaze advertising coming to a pair of glasses near you. Max proposes a scheme of mortgages collateralized by food stamps. In the second half, Max talks to Ann Pettifor of PrimeEconomics.org about the Alice in Wongaland economy in the United Kingdom where people borrow from payday lenders in order to live and, instead of lending to the economy, the economy is lending to banks. They also discuss interest rate apartheid, carry trades and public unrest.
    • THE TRUTH ABOUT MARKETS [TaM-1286] The Truth About Markets – 27 July 2013 Stacy Summary: Forgot to post this yesterday! In this episode, the conversation is quite wide ranging. We ruminate a bit on the great aluminum vs aluminium debate. We talk about Business Secretary, Vince Cable, accusing the Bank of England of being ‘capital Taliban.’ We also discuss the latest in hacking cars. Download show HERE (mp3)
    • Donate to ResonanceFM here!


  • The Scott Horton Radio Show
    scotthorton
    Scott Horton is host of Antiwar Radio on Pacifica 90.7 FM KPFK in Los Angeles and KUCR 88.3 in Riverside, and the Scott Horton Show on No Agenda Radio. (You can listen live Monday through Friday, excluding Thursday, from 12-2 PM Eastern HERE.) Plenty of archives too!
    • Scott Horton Radio Show 8/22/13 Alexa O’Brien: Independent journalist Alexa O’Brien discusses her post-sentencing interview with Bradley Manning’s attorney David Coombs; the government’s failure to prove damage to national security from Manning’s leaks; the role of the FBI and State Department in his investigation and prosecution; the fertile grounds for appeal; and how Adrian Lamo worked with the feds to set Manning up.
    • Scott Horton Radio Show 8/22/13 Gareth Porter: Gareth Porter, an independent investigative journalist and historian, discusses his article taking issue with ProPublica journalist Sebastian Rotella’s report on the alleged 2008 Iranian bomb plot against the Israeli embassy in Azerbaijan; Gareth’s upcoming book on the web of lies about Iran’s nuclear program; and why the US government had no problem seeing the economic case for nuclear power in Iran during the Shah’s reign.
    • Scott Horton Radio Show 8/23/13 Andrew Cockburn: Andrew Cockburn, author of Rumsfeld: His Rise, Fall, and Catastrophic Legacy, discusses his article on “The ferocity and failure of America’s sanctions apparatus;” why US sanctions against Germany continued even after WWII was over; the decimation of Iraq’s economy due to 20 years of sanctions; how US domination of the world’s financial system prevents Iran from trading with other countries; and LBJ’s elephant-squashing-mosquito style of US foreign policy.
    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
    • Rep Eliot Engel (D-NY) Ranking Member of the Foreign Affairs Committee
    • Sen Bob Corker (R-TN) Ranking Member of the Foreign Relations Committee
    • Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin (R)
    • Stephens County OK District Attorney Jason Hicks

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