Brick TeeVee and the Euro Disaster!

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ALL LINKS OPEN A NEW WINDOW!!! Click on anything below and be INSTANTLY SMARTER! EURO DISASTER If you read anything this week we strongly urge you to visit The Automatic Earth and read their 1,000th post December 5 2011: Look Back, Look Forward and Look Down. Way Down.

Ilargi: At the start of a week that has been dubbed "historical" and "one of the most important moments in Europe's history", I can't seem to forget the statements by Merkel and Sarkozy sometime mid-October, when both solemnly pledged that by the end of that month the euro crisis would be resolved. We know where that went. And we also know that establishing stronger fiscal ties across the continent, the somewhat vague "plan" that seems to be worked out in all haste, even if it can be accomplished, which is by no means guaranteed, will take a lot of time. Time that Europe almost certainly won't be allowed. Merkel, Sarkozy, Monti, Draghi, they've lost all credibility in the eyes of the markets. The only thing they still trust them to do is throw more of their people's funds and future funds as free money at the fire, which the markets can then lap up. At some point, though, the free money will run out. Satyajit Das has some nice quotes:
The Sovereign Debt Train Wreck The US is in serious, perhaps irretrievable, financial trouble. Peter Schiff, president of Euro Pacific Capital, identified the state of the Union with characteristic bluntness: "Our government doesn’t have enough spare cash to bail out a lemonade stand. Our standard of living must decline to reflect years of reckless consumption and the disintegration of our industrial base. Only by swallowing this tough medicine now will our sick economy ever recover." There is a lack of political or popular will to take the action necessary to even stabilise the position. The role of US dollars and US government bonds in the financial system mean that the problems are likely to spread rapidly to engulf other nations. As John Connally, US Treasury Secretary under President Nixon, beligerently observed: "Our dollar, but your problem."
Connally's observation is about to be thrown right back into the face of America: "Our euro, but your problem." Europe doesn't have the means to save itself. It will look to the rest of the world, especially the US, to do it instead. The same US that "... doesn’t have enough spare cash to bail out a lemonade stand". Nice dilemma. As former broker Ann Barnhardt observes: Europe is mathematically impossible. It cannot be saved. [..] You even want to make a start at trying to bail out Europe we are talking $25 trillion just to start. [..] if you were going to bail out the entirety of Europe - you would now be talking about hundreds of trillions of dollars. Whatever concocted statements or plans come out of the EU summit on Friday, December 9, it doesn't really matter anymore. The best the Europeans can do is extend and pretend the can down the road for a few more days or weeks. So how about it, America? Here's Stoneleigh with our 1000th post on TAE:

And that is just the beginning of a long essay so go read this NOW. Tyler Durden at zerohedge finds out Eurozone To Avoid Any Popular Vote In Treaty Change Why bother with the one true barbarous relic - democracy - when good ole' fascism will suffice. As The Telegraph's Bruno Waterfield reports, "EU to avoid any votes - parliamentary or popular on treaty change - via obscure Lisbon Treaty 'passerelle' clause, Art. 126 (14) via protocol 12. "This decision does not require ratification at national level. This procedure could therefore lead to rapid and significant changes," says confidential Van Rompuy text. Funnily enough, only Britain will have to have a parliamentary vote under the Tories recent Sovereignty Act even though it is eurozone only changes." And that is how a bunch of corrupt kleptocratic incompetent eurocrats usurp all power in a regime now entirely controlled by Goldman Sachs. Unless, of course, the UK once again stops the insurgent takeover of the insolvent continent by the squid. (see this AWESOME GRAPH) Of course, the one person the chart above ignores is US ambassador to Germany, Philip Murphy, a 23 year old retired partner of... Goldman Sachs. SURPRISE! Following up on that is CSM's Jason Walsh How an obscure rule could trample EU dissenters The EU might invoke an 'overpass' clause to head off individual nations' objections to more centralized budgetary powers. First proposed Monday by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the amendments to the Lisbon Treaty would centralize national budgetary powers in EU institutions. The move highlights a growing point of tension in the EU: the question of national politics overriding EU interests, and vice versa. Opposition could upend momentum toward greater unity, as Ireland showed was possible when it initially vetoed the Lisbon Treaty in 2008. But a leak from the European Council says the EU plans to circumvent national parliaments to ensure passage of the effort. ...the European Council document indicates the EU may attempt to avoid a referendum using a "passerelle" clause in the Lisbon Treaty. Passerelle, French for "overpass," means the European Council is enabled to override the need for an intergovernmental convention. But any changes via this method will not amount to the sweeping centralization of powers that Merkel in particular wants. Article 126 of the treaty, which deals with excessive deficits, allows heads of government to change a protocol attached to the treaty without having to go to a convention involving national parliaments or, in the case of Ireland, a referendum. ... Businessman Declan Ganley, who led the campaigns against the Lisbon treaty in both 2008 and 2009, says he warned of the EU's ability to override the national parliaments and Ireland's Constitution in 2009. "We [the No campaign] labeled Lisbon the self-amending treaty [because] they could make changes to the treaty without consulting parliaments and the public. To force a change such as this through, boy, are they making a point. If they do this, we are fundamentally entering a post-democratic phase in European affairs, and that is alarming." ... Paul Murphy, a United Left Alliance European MP from Ireland, said action would be taken to secure a referendum. "There's a large chance of a need to take a court case over this. It looks like they're going to push the clause to the maximum. What's happening is a major move toward fiscal union," he said. Well wouldn't ya know? AP via NPR U.K. Balks At New Accord To Save Euro The European Union said Friday that 26 of its 27 member countries are open to joining a new treaty tying their finances together to solve the euro crisis. Only Britain remains opposed, creating a deep rift in the union. In marathon overnight talks, the 17 countries that use the euro gradually persuaded nearly all the others to consider joining the new treaty they would create. Some of those countries may face parliamentary opposition to the treaty, which would allow for unprecedented oversight of national budgets. ... While the deal could help save the euro, the political implications of the rift could be enormous. Germany and France had hoped to persuade all 27 EU countries to agree to change the treaty that governs their union. But Britain, which doesn't use the euro, firmly said no. Britain's leaders argued that the revised treaty would threaten their national sovereignty and damage London's financial services industry. Germany and France, the eurozone's biggest economies, made clear that a deal among the 17 euro countries and whoever else wanted to join was better than nothing. Hungary, the Czech Republic and Sweden said they would need to consult their parliaments, while the other six countries outside the eurozone — Denmark, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Latvia, Lithuania — agreed they wanted to join. ... Cameron defended his stance. "What was on offer is not in Britain's interest so I didn't agree to it," he said. "We're not in the euro and I'm glad we're not in the euro. We're never going to join the euro and we're never going to give up this kind of sovereignty that these countries are having to give up." Tyler Durden points out Wall Street's Response: The Summit Is A Failure The overnight agreement by 17 European countries to tighten euro-area budget controls and expand bailout funds fails to address key aspects of the crisis and may fall at the first hurdle, analysts and investors say. The summary of various Wall Street expert opinions is compiled and presented below from Bloomberg. It is not pretty. Unleashing The Future: Advancing Prosperity Through Debt Forgiveness by Zeus Yiamouyiannis from Of Two Minds at zerohedge About this series: Given accelerating conditions and trends in Europe, the U.S. and Asia, debt will be renounced, forgiven or written down, and how that process unfolds is now of paramount importance. Will private entities who dined so gloriously on their profits now eat their losses? Can the public who has seen its fortunes commandeered mount an effective response? Will there be convincing practical alternatives to a rigged world economy based in debt expansion and servitude? The answer is "yes" to all three, contends this five-part series by longtime contributor Zeus Yiamouyiannis. The series offers practical analyses and blueprints for liberating the world from debt and thus freeing its people to pursue greater, more productive purposes. Now here's Unleashing The Future: Advancing Prosperity Through Debt Forgiveness (Part 3) & (Part 4). More zerohedge!

• "Le Snub" - New Cold War In Eurozone Confirmed: Sarkozy Gives Cameron The "Cold Shoulder" Last night, when headlines hit that it was the UK's "fault" for vetoing a joint dictatorial Fra-Ger "compromise" and in essence making the Eurozone summit a total failure (with a follow up summit scheduled for March), it became clear that a new cold war has broken out in Europe: between France (not so much Germany as Germany frankly does not want to bailout Europe if its has to pay for the bail out) and the UK. We now have official video confirmation that the latest conflict in Europe is between the countries just across the Chunnel. The video below of a diminutive Sarkozy giving David Cameron the proverbial cold shoulder (described in painful detail here) will achieve nothing but merely inflame further the animosity between the two countries: just what Europe can least afford right now.
• The Top 30 Global Geopolitical Hot Spots for 2012 The Council on Foreign Relations has released their politically-correctly-named 'Preventive Priorities Survey' or put another way - where-in-the-world-is-stuff-going-to-hit-the-fan-next report. The report is designed to help the US policy community comprehend where the next conflict will occur in the world and the relative catastrophe factor. The 3 tiers of chaos offer a menu of drivers-for-war, likely terrorist targets, and political tensions. Notably they include such systemic factors as the European debt crisis, budgetary limits, and Saudi political instability's impact on oil supplies at Tier 1 (most critical) contingencies.

Good stuff! Read on! In case you need a reminder read about the 737 US military bases around the world in An excerpt of Chalmers Johnson’s Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic EXCERPT: CAMP BONDSTEEL, Kosovo: "the huge Camp Bondsteel built in 1999 and maintained ever since by the KBR corporation (formerly known as Kellogg Brown & Root), a subsidiary of the Halliburton Corporation of Houston." The Guardian UK's "Comment is Free" features Seumas Milne who warns War on Iran has already begun. Act before it threatens all of us Escalation of the covert US-Israeli campaign against Tehran risks a global storm. Opposition has to get more serious. They don't give up. After a decade of blood-drenched failure in Afghanistan and Iraq, violent destabilisation of Pakistan and Yemen, the devastation of Lebanon and slaughter in Libya, you might hope the US and its friends had had their fill of invasion and intervention in the Muslim world. It seems not. For months the evidence has been growing that a US-Israeli stealth war against Iran has already begun, backed by Britain and France. Covert support for armed opposition groups has spread into a campaign of assassinations of Iranian scientists, cyber warfare, attacks on military and missile installations, and the killing of an Iranian general, among others. The attacks are not directly acknowledged, but accompanied by intelligence-steered nods and winks as the media are fed a stream of hostile tales – the most outlandish so far being an alleged Iranian plot to kill the Saudi ambassador to the US – and the western powers ratchet up pressure for yet more sanctions over Iran's nuclear programme. ... Whether the officials' motive was to soften up public opinion for war or warn against it, this was an extraordinary admission: the Britain military establishment fully expects to take part in an unprovoked US attack on Iran – just as it did against Iraq eight years ago. .... There is in fact no reliable evidence that Iran is engaged in a nuclear weapons programme. The latest International Atomic Energy Agency report once again failed to produce a smoking gun, despite the best efforts of its new director general, Yukiya Amano – described in a WikiLeaks cable as "solidly in the US court on every strategic decision". ... The whole campaign has an Alice in Wonderland quality about it. ... Maybe it won't happen. Maybe the war talk is more about destabilisation than a full-scale attack. But there are undoubtedly those in the US, Israel and Britain who think otherwise. And the threat of miscalculation and the logic of escalation could tip the balance decisively. Unless opposition to an attack on Iran gets serious, this could become the most devastating Middle East war of all. In a related matter about Iran's ALLEGED nuke program CSM correspondent Tom A. Peter reports Russia balks at NATO's revised plans for missile defense shield Officials from the NATO military alliance say the system is necessary to protect against threats like Iran and say they have sought Russian cooperation and participation. But Russian officials contend that such a shield could threaten its strategic nuclear forces and risk triggering a new arms race. Moscow is now threatening to withdraw from the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) and deploy ballistic missiles along the border of Europe as a countermeasure. ... As frustration mounts among NATO officials, Russians have countered that the West does not understand their position. Alexei Arbatov from the Center for International Security told the Voice of Russia that his nation wants its interests taken into consideration and written guarantees that Europe will reconsider the missile defense system if the Iran nuclear threat diminishes. “NATO’s position is not impeccable and inviolable, as the alliance’s chief claims it to be," Mr. Arbatov said. "Besides, NATO should not force its will on Russia or dictate to it, not if it wants to have Russia as a reliable partner.” Comrade Arbatov, the Iranian "nuclear threat" is non-existent! The U.S. and NATO have been claiming this for over a DECADE! Comrade Arbatov go read Seumas Milne! And listen to M.J. Rosenberg on AntiWar Radio and read his article “American Enterprise Institute Admits: Iran Threat Isn’t That It Will Launch Nuclear Attack! And the proposed "missile shield" doesn't even work!! Covering the latest MK Global grand theft BusinessInsider's Lisa Du live-blogged Thursday from the House Ag Committee Here's What Happened At Jon Corzine's MF Global House Hearing Today . Very good! And Corzine didn't take The Fifth but squirreled his way through claiming "I had no idea!" most of the time. Jon-boy has a few more appearances on The Hill so stay tuned! Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi has a different angle Jon Corzine's Relationship With CFTC Chair Gary Gensler Probed Getting a lot of calls about Jon Corzine and his relationship with Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) chairman Gary Gensler. Both Corzine and Gensler worked at Goldman back in the day, and the word is that Corzine personally lobbied Gensler to delay the implementation of new rules that would have helped prevent Corzine from raiding his own clients' funds. This whole issue smacks of the improper communications between other former Wall Street co-workers like Hank Paulson and Lloyd Blankfein. More and more, it appears that, as a matter of routine, federal regulators like Paulson (in 2008) and, later, Gensler reach out to old friends on Wall Street to negotiate/discuss the timing and the form of various policy changes, bailouts, and other regulatory matters. Inside information seemingly is traded with remarkable casualness. This is one of those issues where there's no point in calling for more regulations. No matter what laws we have, we can't have regulatory heads breezily chatting about their enforcement plans with former co-workers who have huge financial interests resting upon their decisions. ... Bill Quigley lists Twenty Examples of the Obama Administration Assault on Domestic Civil Liberties The Obama administration has affirmed, continued and expanded almost all of the draconian domestic civil liberties intrusions pioneered under the Bush administration. Here are twenty examples of serious assaults on the domestic rights to freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of association, the right to privacy, the right to a fair trial, freedom of religion, and freedom of conscience that have occurred since the Obama administration has assumed power. Consider these and then decide if there is any fundamental difference between the Bush presidency and the Obama presidency in the area of domestic civil liberties. Robert Reich tells us The First Amendment Upside Down. Why We Must Occupy Democracy ...If there’s a single core message to the Occupier movement it’s that the increasing concentration of income and wealth at the top endangers our democracy. With money comes political power. Yet when real people without money assemble to express their dissatisfaction with all this, they’re told the First Amendment doesn’t apply. Instead, they’re treated as public nuisances – clubbed, pepper-sprayed, thrown out of public parks and evicted from public spaces. Across America, public officials are saying Occupiers have to go. Even in universities – where free speech is supposed to be sacrosanct – peaceful assembly is being met with clubs and pepper spray. The First Amendment is being stood on its head. Money speaks, and an unlimited amount of it can now be spent bribing and cajoling politicians. Yet peaceful assembly is viewed as a public nuisance and removed by force. ... How are Americans to be heard about what should be done about any of this if they are not allowed to mobilize and organize? When the freedom of speech goes to the highest bidder, moneyed interests have a disproportionate say. Now more than ever, the First Amendment needs to be put right side up. Nothing less than the future of our democracy is at stake. Next TruthOut's Jason Leopold exhorts us to Occupy the Police State Kolin, a political science professor at Hilbert College in Buffalo, New York, has done a masterful job of tracing the origins of the "political repression of mass-based movements" and the rise of the "police state" in his exhaustively researched book, "State Power and Democracy: Before and During The Presidency of George W. Bush. " (Click here to read an excerpt.) In an interview with Truthout, Kolin said, all police states, "and Germany in the [1930s] is the classic example," develop by "crushing democracy." The goal of a police state, Kolin said, is to "modernize state functions and concentrate control over society through the creation of specialized departments." .... In the introduction to "State Power," Kolin explains how the national security policies implemented by Bush and embraced by Obama, such as the Patriot Act, which authorized the warrantless wiretapping of US citizens, were the culmination of extraordinary tension between state power and democracy dating back to the founding of the Republic.

The expansion of state power over the course of US history came at the expense of democracy. As state power grew, there developed a disconnect between the theory and practice of democracy in the United States. Ever-greater state power meant it became more and more absolute. This resulted in a government that directed its energies and resources toward silencing those who dared question the state's authority. Such questioning of state power had emanated as a response to mass-based political movements striving to further democracy with an increase in freedom, especially for the downtrodden. This put mass movements in direct confrontation with the elite politics of policy makers. So, over time, as the US government continued on its course of seeking to increase state power by extending ever-greater control over people and territory, it also meant it worked toward a goal to diminish mass-based political movements.

This is an important history lesson, especially for the generation who became politically aware during Bush's presidency and view the crackdown on the Occupy protests as somewhat unprecedented. ... One member of Congress, however, is speaking up about police tactics used against protesters. On Tuesday, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-New York), the ranking member on the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder urging him to launch a full-scale investigation "into law enforcement activities surrounding the Occupy Wall Street protests and similar events in other cities, to determine whether the unlawful use of force, or the unlawful targeting of individuals [via surveillance] based on their participation in constitutionally protected activities, occurred." Still, Kolin is highly critical of the Obama administration for remaining completely silent as disturbing images of peaceful protesters, such as the University of California, Davis, students who were pepper sprayed by campus police as they sat with their arms linked, flashed across television screens and went viral on the Internet. Much more! Great stuff as always from Jason Leopold. Hey! Wait a minute! BTV wants vigors for that headline! Haha! BRICK TEEVEE AHEAD OF THE CURVE again! See our "Brick TeeVee Occupy the Police State!" from a few weeks ago! As the last of the OWS encampments are torn down by stormtroopers in the wee hours in Boston OWS is planning a new "Continental Convention" of their own! Here's the ad in SF Chronicle announcing it. And here's the link to sign the petition to get the 99% Deficit Proposal heard in Congress. And read the entire Declaration at WarIsACrime.org The 99 Percent Declaration posted by David Swanson. We would add to #19 that all elections be transparent and use Hand Counted Paper Ballots counted at the PRECINCT level as outlined by Nancy Tobi in Hands-On Elections: An Informational Handbook for Running Real Elections, Using Real Paper Ballots, Counted by Real People - 2nd Edition Your vote-the right by which all your other rights are secured-is now the private property and trade secret of corporate e-voting industrialists. These for profit corporations seize our ballots, count them in secret, tell us what the results are, and then lock away the records, so nobody can ever verify our election results. This is no way to run a democracy! We need to reclaim our public elections. Fortunately for us, it turns out this is something we all can do! Get your copy now! And make your plans now for July 4th 2012 in Philly! Read My Occupy LA Arrest by Patrick Meighan one of the writers from "The Family Guy" who got scooped up by LA's "finest" when Occupy LA was brutally attacked. A snip:

As a reminder, Antonio Villaraigosa has referred to all of this as “the LAPD’s finest hour.” So that’s what happened to the 292 women and men were arrested last Wednesday. Now let’s talk about a man who was not arrested last Wednesday. He is former Citigroup CEO Charles Prince. Under Charles Prince, Citigroup was guilty of massive, coordinated securities fraud.

Go to DeepGreenResistance.org for "Derrick Jensen Interviews: Arundhati Roy, Waziyatawin, Aric McBay, Thomas Linzey, Stephanie McMillan, Lierre Keith" and more like Occupy the Machine – Stop the 1%, Literally: Our Bodies Will Be Our Demand - Open Letter to the Occupy Movement "Click here to download this document as a pamphlet to distribute anywhere." Good item! ProPublica's Abrahm Lustgarten and Nicholas Kusnetz report Feds Link Water Contamination to Fracking for the First Time In a first, federal environment officials today scientifically linked underground water pollution with hydraulic fracturing, concluding that contaminants found in central Wyoming were likely caused by the gas drilling process. The findings by the Environmental Protection Agency come partway through a separate national study by the agency to determine whether fracking presents a risk to water resources. In the 121-page draft report released today, EPA officials said that the contamination near the town of Pavillion, Wyo., had most likely seeped up from gas wells and contained at least 10 compounds known to be used in frack fluids. “The presence of synthetic compounds such as glycol ethers … and the assortment of other organic components is explained as the result of direct mixing of hydraulic fracturing fluids with ground water in the Pavillion gas field,” the draft report states. “Alternative explanations were carefully considered.” The agency’s findings could be a turning point in the heated national debate about whether contamination from fracking is happening, and are likely to shape how the country regulates and develops natural gas resources in the Marcellus Shale and across the Eastern Appalachian states. "Progressives' basic morality needs to be talked about over and over again, in every corner of the country," writes George Lakoff at Alternet in Conservative Frank Luntz Has Set a Trap for Progressives -- Here's How to Outsmart Him and Boost the Occupy Movement But Luntz is not just addressing his remarks to Republicans. He is also looking to take Democrats for suckers. How? By choosing his frames carefully, and getting Democrats to do the opposite of what he tells Republicans. There is a basic truth about framing. If you accept the other guy's frame, you lose. This is very good so read all of it and take notes! Meanwhile the GOP CANARDS keep coming. Said Mike Malloy on his show Friday "Karl Rove will be on a spit right next to Limbaugh" and here's why: From Scott Keyes at ThinkProgress Disingenuous Karl Rove Ad Smears Elizabeth Warren, Implies She Facilitated Bank Bailouts And Corporate Bonuses Karl Rove’s independent group Crossroads GPS is up with a new advertisement today, smearing Massachusetts senate candidate Elizabeth Warren (D) by insinuating that she was responsible for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), the bank bailout that took place at the height of the financial crisis. The ad blames Warren for “bailing out the same banks that caused the financial meltdown, bailouts that helped pay big bonuses to bank executives while middle class Americans lost out.” It closes by imploring the viewer to “tell Professor Warren we need jobs, not more bailouts and bigger government.” The accusation that Warren is responsible for TARP, bank bailouts, or huge executive bonuses is beyond absurd. TARP and the bank bailouts were Republican ideas that began under President Bush. As Simon Johnson notes, Warren “has also been a strong supporter of all efforts to rein in Too Big To Fail banks, including by breaking them up.” Read Simon Johnson Karl Rove’s Latest Attack On Elizabeth Warren. Seems the only thing Turd Blossom and his cohorts have is to Lie. Lie. Lie. The Big Lie. Repeat The Lie. Over and over and over again. Then, seemingly with only bluster and hubris left Republicans Debate Nonexistent Farm Dust Rule (huffpo/aol) Environmental Protection Agency officials have said - over and over again - that they won't propose new regulations to limit dust kicked up by farm equipment. ... Democrats have scoffed at the bill and are calling it a waste of time. Maryland Rep. Steny Hoyer, the No. 2 Democrat in the House, joked sarcastically on Tuesday that the bill is "critically important" since the EPA has said they have no intention of regulating farm dust. "We are once again doing a bill that is not necessary and has no effect," Hoyer said at a news conference at the Capitol. Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) said last October that since the farm dust threat was fictional, the EPA should perhaps also consider regulating "pixie dust." .... Environmentalists say the House bill, which is not likely to make it through the Senate, would prevent the EPA from even considering tighter regulations if that became necessary for public health. "When it comes to stuff in the air that could harm your health, it would be nice if the government could at least do an honest assessment," says Frank O'Donnell, president of Clean Air Watch. He says the bill is "totally detached from reality - the kind of issue that makes people cynical about Congress." Ah but not so fast Earthling! EarthWorks' Aaron Mintzes explains Particulate Matter Pollution Exists. Farm Dust Exists. Pixie Dust is a Fantasy. And EPA is Still Not Regulating Them. What the House Majority calls “farm dust” is particulate matter (PM)- tiny particles only a few microns in diameter created from coal combustion, mining, and other large industrial processes. Exposure can lead to serious health problems including decreased lung function, increased hospital admissions for heart disease, and premature death in people with heart or lung disease. ... While pollution from PM poses serious public health risks, there is no such thing as farm dust for purposes of the Clean Air Act. Nor is there such thing as farm dust for the purposes of HR 1633; the only place those words appear in the bill is in the title. Farm dust sounds like nothing more than tiny harmless grains of common dirt. Since the movement toward new regulations for either dirt or PM is just fantasy, Democrats have mocked this bill as preventing regulation of pixie dust. HR 1633 instead talks about “nuisance dust”. Nuisance dust is PM that is: “…generated from natural sources, unpaved roads, agricultural activities, earth moving, or other activities typically conducted in rural areas” So, this is not just a semantic argument over whether one characterizes dust as a nuisance, pixie, or indigenous to farms. This is an argument over the Bingham Canyon mine in Utah. The largest copper mine in the world, owned by Kennecott Copper, Bingham Canyon spews out particulate matter pollution that contaminates the air around Salt Lake City. HR 1633 creates a loophole for Kennecott’s particulates. This, of course, does not make Salt Lake City’s air any cleaner. Now go back and read Lakoff! Our last word goes to William I. Robinson at commondreams who warns about a Global Rebellion: The Coming Chaos? This is a long essay so here's just a snip: As the crisis of global capitalism spirals out of control, the powers that be in the global system appear to be adrift and unable to proposal viable solutions. From the slaughter of dozens of young protesters by the army in Egypt to the brutal repression of the Occupy movement in the United States, and the water cannons brandished by the militarized police in Chile against students and workers, states and ruling classes are unable are to hold back the tide of worldwide popular rebellion and must resort to ever more generalized repression. Simply put, the immense structural inequalities of the global political economy can no longer be contained through consensual mechanisms of social control. The ruling classes have lost legitimacy; we are witnessing a breakdown of ruling-class hegemony on a world scale. To understand what is happening in this second decade of the new century we need to see the big picture in historic and structural context. .... The pauperizing effects unleashed by globalization have generated social conflicts and political crises that the system is now finding more and more difficult to contain. The slogan "we are the 99 per cent" grows out of the reality that global inequalities and pauperization have intensified enormously since capitalist globalization took off in the 1980s. Broad swaths of humanity have experienced absolute downward mobility in recent decades. Even the IMF was forced to admit in a 2000 report that "in recent decades, nearly one-fifth of the world’s population has regressed. This is arguably one of the greatest economic failures of the 20th century". ... the system has been unable to recover; it is sinking deeper into chaos. Global elites cannot manage the explosive contradictions. Is the neo-liberal model of capitalism entering a terminal stage? It is crucial to understand that neo-liberalism is but one model of global capitalism; to say that neo-liberalism may be in terminal crisis is not to say that global capitalism is in terminal crisis. Is it possible that the system will respond to crisis and mass rebellion through a new restructuring that leads to some different model of world capitalism - perhaps a global Keynesianism involving transnational redistribution and transnational regulation of finance capital? Will rebellious forces from below be co-opted into some new reformed capitalist order? Or are we headed towards a systemic crisis? A systemic crisis is one in which the solution involves the end of the system itself, either through its super-session and the creation of an entirely new system, or more ominously the collapse of the system. Whether or not a structural crisis becomes systemic depends on how distinct social and class forces respond - to the political projects they put forward and as well as to factors of contingency that cannot be predicted in advance, and to objective conditions. It is impossible at this time to predict the outcome of the crisis. However, a few things are clear in the current world conjuncture. Read on! The Sunday Talkies will be filled with lies, misrepresentations, canards and various distractions from Saturday night's troglodyte "debate" on ABC, so just have yer bricks at the ready! The Brick TeeVee Crew can't handle all the fawning of the Kwazy Kandidates and will opt for Chris Carter's 500th episode hosting "Breakfast with The Beatles" heard on Sirius/XM 21 (also on DISH-TV Ch. 6021) 9 am et & repeated at midnight and LIVE on 95.5 KLOS LISTEN LIVE LINK 8 am pt. It's a Fab Fab Fab good time! Tune in! And have a great week!

BRICK TEEVEE ALERTS!_©

COP17 United Nations Climate Change Conference Coverage Democracy Now! is in Durban South Africa covering the COP17 climate talks.
»»» Kumi Naidoo @ Democracy NOW! Greenpeace Director Kumi Naidoo, from Anti-Apartheid Activist to Leading Voice for Climate Justice Dec 5, 2011
»»» John Vidal, environment editor for The Guardian @ Democracy NOW! The Road to Durban: Tracking Global Warming’s Devastating Impact Across the African Continent Dec 5, 2011
»»» Nnimmo Bassey, Olubukola Oyawoye & Zaid Shopeju @ Democracy NOW! At Durban Summit, Leading African Activist Calls U.S. Emissions Stance "A Death Sentence for Africa" Dec 6, 2011
»»» Praful Bidwai, Indian journalist and activist @ Democracy NOW! U.S. Focus on China, India Emissions Burdens World’s Poor, Skirts Own Responsibility–Praful Bidwai Dec 6, 2011
»»» Rajendra Pachauri @ Democracy NOW! Nobel-Winning IPCC Chair Rajendra Pachauri Urges Obama to "Listen to Science" on Global Warming Dec 7, 2011
»»» Mumia Abu-Jamal @ Democracy NOW! Mumia Abu-Jamal Spared Death Penalty After Prosecutors Drop 30-Year Bid for Execution RELATED: South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu Calls for Release of Mumia Abu-Jamal Dec 8, 2011
»»» Abigail Borah, Middlebury College student and environmental activist @ Democracy NOW! WATCH NOW "I’m Scared for My Future": Student Disrupts Speech by U.S. Climate Envoy Todd Stern in Durban Dec 8, 2011
»»» Wanjira Maathai, Patrick Bond, Pablo Solon @ Democracy NOW! WATCH NOW Wanjira Maathai: U.S. Should "Shape Up or Get Out" at U.N. Climate Talks Dec 8, 2011
»»» Friday Show from Durban @ Democracy NOW! Start here U.S. Publicly Shifts Climate Stance in Face of Widespread Criticism — Then Quietly Backtracks then click "Next story" at the top to see the final day's coverage. Dec 9, 2011

»»» GRITtv @ www.grittv.org with Laura Flanders
»»» FEATURED SHOW The Maldives Face Rising Waters and Despondancy at Durban Climate Conference As the 17th United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, popularly known as COP-17, takes place in Durban, South Africa, Nov 28 - Dec 9, I think of this man: Dr. Mohammed Waheed Hassan, with whom I had a chance to speak this September in New York. Waheed, as he prefers to be called, is Vice President of the Republic of the Maldives, the lowest country on the planet. An archipelago of coral atolls in the Indian Ocean, the Maldives have seen the sea waters around their low-level homeland rise almost 8 inches in the last 100 years and accelerating rates of warming threaten their nation's future. Read the full story at TheNation.com .
BRICK TEEVEE SPORT!_©
»»» Football Night in America on NBC Giants @ Cowboys! Kickoff at 8:20 pm et
»»» Monday Night Football on ESPN Rams @ Seahawks! Kickoff at 8:30 pm et
»»» Thursday Night Football on NFL Network Jaguars @ Falcons! Kickoff at 8:30 pm et
BRICK TEEVEE ACTION!_©
The 1st Amendment is Our Permit WASHINGTON - October 14 - This is an emergency appeal. Spread it widely. Our permit to occupy is called “The First Amendment.” This morning, Occupy Wall Street protesters celebrated when New York authorities beat a last-minute retreat from clearing Liberty Plaza – as hundreds of labor and other activists rushed to defend the square. But at the same time this morning, dozens of state troopers in riot gear cleared out Occupy Denver protests. In cities across the country, Occupy protesters have faced police violence and arrests. Some occupations have been forcibly removed while others have stood their ground successfully. The authorities say we don’t have the proper permits to occupy public spaces. 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.

Action for a Progressive Future (the organization that runs RootsAction) is a nonprofit, progressive, public policy advocacy group that will engage citizens in the democratic process and help make sure legislators hear their voices. (h/t jen)
October2011.org October 2011 is the 10th anniversary of the invasion of Afghanistan and the beginning of the 2012 federal austerity budget. It is time to light the spark that sets off a true democratic, nonviolent transition to a world in which people are freed to create just and sustainable solutions. Take this pledge at October2011.org

"I pledge that if any U.S. troops, contractors, or mercenaries remain in Afghanistan on Thursday, October 6, 2011, as that occupation goes into its 11th year, I will commit to being in Freedom Plaza in Washington, D.C., with others on that day or the days immediately following, for as long as I can, with the intention of making it our Tahrir Square, Cairo, our Madison, Wisconsin, where we will NONVIOLENTLY resist the corporate machine by occupying Freedom Plaza to demand that America's resources be invested in human needs and environmental protection instead of war and exploitation. We can do this together. We will be the beginning."

Do it NOW!
NET NEUTRALITY! SaveTheInternet.org SOPA If you've been living under an Internet-free rock the past couple of weeks, you might have managed to miss the steady drumbeat of opposition to HR 3261, the so-called Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). Then again, if you've been living under an Internet-free rock, you've already had a preview of what we're facing if SOPA goes into effect. AmericanCensorship.org has pulled together an infographic that explains in very basic terms the services and sites that are at greatest risk from SOPA here: Infographic: Effects of the Internet Blacklist Bill (SOPA). More info at American Censorship Day READ Internet Censorship: Not Today, Not Tomorrow SIGN NOW! Internet censorship is coming to America. It’s in the form of a bill in Congress that gives corporations unprecedented power to blacklist websites at will. If passed, the “Stop Online Piracy Act,” or SOPA (HR 3261), could rip apart the open fabric of the Internet. People could see their websites disappear from the Internet for a “crime” as innocent as posting a video of themselves singing along to a favorite song. Sign this petition NOW! Keep BTV and YOUR blog alive! Listen to Sam Seder with Tim Karr of Free Press on Net Neutrality [11•10•11]
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! Also visit Rep Alan Grayson's site www.savedemocracy.net And Alan Grayson is running again in FL-8! Help out at CongressmanWithGuts.com
SUPPORT THE TROOPS WHO REFUSE TO FIGHT See CourageToResist.org UPDATE! Manning-Lamo Chat Logs Revealed at wired.com plus The Deeply Personal Details in New Bradley Manning Chat Logs and Bradley Manning Support Network Much more at link.
UPDATE! Kim Zetter WIRED.COM's Threat Level - Feds Withholding Evidence Favorable to Bradley Manning, Lawyer Charges The civilian lawyer for Bradley Manning, the Army private who allegedly leaked tens of thousands of classified U.S. government documents to WikiLeaks, is seeking to question the severity of the leak by requesting the government’s own internal damage assessments that reportedly contradict statements that Manning irreparably damaged national security. Manning’s defense attorney, David E. Coombs, is attempting to get evidence from the government to defend Manning in his upcoming pre-trial hearing on Dec. 16, but says the government is stonewalling him. “The defense has repeatedly requested the below discovery in this case, but the government has consistently responded with a blanket denial of the defense request,” Coombs wrote in the partially redacted filing. ... The filing also sheds light on other likely avenues Coombs will use to mitigate or challenge the charges against Manning, including questioning the actions of President Barack Obama and Manning’s betrayer, Adrian Lamo. ... Coombs’ filing also addresses issues around Manning’s alleged mistreatment in prison, asking the government to hand over copies of all audio and video surveillance of the visitation booths at the Marine Corps brig in Quantico, Virginia, and at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas, where Manning was moved earlier this year. Coombs requested a video the military apparently took of Manning when he was ordered to surrender his clothing while in custody earlier at Quantico. More at wired.com
UPDATE at AntiWarRadio: Jeff Patterson December 1, 2011: Jeff Paterson, Project Director of Courage to Resist, discusses whistleblower Bradley Manning’s December 16th court hearing, his first after a year and a half long pretrial detention; Manning’s lawyer’s complaints about the government’s refusal to disclose evidence; the life-sentence facing Manning for allegedly leaking information embarrassing – but not harmful – to the government and military; how Manning’s treatment at the Quantico Marine brig clearly violated the UCMJ; and how you can donate to Manning’s legal defense and/or participate in a demonstration supporting him at Fort Meade on December 16th and 17th. LISTEN NOW HERE (mp3)
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

B R I C K T E E V E E
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The essential guide for watching government propaganda
IRAQ: 4,483 US Military Dead as of Dec 7, 2011
AFGHANISTAN: 1,852 US Military Dead as of Dec 7, 2011
The Obameter: Tracking Obama's Campaign Promises
Considering Democracy: 8 Things to ask your Representative

• This Week (ABC) with Christiane Amanpour
  • Fact Checking ABC's "This Week" at NPR "On the Media" - Jake Tapper, interim host of ABC's "This Week," liked the idea of fact-checking his guests' comments, so he set up a partnership with Politifact, a non-partisan fact-checking organization. See Politifact Statements ABC News 'This Week'
  • GOP Candidate Jon Huntsman
  • Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos
  • ABC News senior White House correspondent Jake Tapper, senior political correspondent Jonathan Karl, and correspondent John Berman from Iowa
  • ROUNDTABLE: George Will, Democratic strategist Donna Brazile, and Republican strategist Leslie Sanchez in Washington, and Des Moines Register political columnist Kathie Obradovich from Iowa

• Face The Nation (CBS) Host Bob Schiefer
  • Michele Bachmann (R-MN)
  • Rep. Steve King (R-IA)
  • ROUNDTABLE: CBS News political director John Dickerson and CBS News chief White House correspondent Norah O'Donnell.

• 60 Minutes (CBS)
  • President Obama - Steve Kroft questions the president on a wide range of critical topics, including his performance in office, the U.S. economy and unemployment, and the budget woes in Washington. Michael Radutzky and Frank Devine are the producers.
  • Howard Buffett - Legendary investor Warren Buffett has chosen his son Howard to succeed him as head of his multibillion dollar holding company. But as Lesley Stahl reports, "Howie" - a farmer - is no chip off the old block. Karen Sughrue and Julie Holstein are the producers.

• Meet the Press (NBC) Host David Gregory
  • Meet the Facts at NPR "On the Media" - Last December, NYU professor Jay Rosen proposed something simple yet revolutionary: why don't the Sunday morning chat shows fact check their guests? After "Meet the Press" host David Gregory declined, two college students launched a website to do it for him. One of them, Chas Danner, explains what they're trying to accomplish. See their website MeetTheFacts.com updating soon!
  • Ron Paul (R-TX)
  • Dick Durbin (D-IL)
  • Lindsey Graham (R-SC)
  • ROUNDTABLE: Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, NBC News Special Correspondent Ted Koppel, NBC's Senior Investigative Correspondent, who covered Captiol Hill during Gingrich's tenure as speaker, Lisa Myers, Republican strategist Alex Castellanos, and NBC's Chief White House Correspondent Chuck Todd.

• 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.
  • Republican Presidential candidate Rick Santorum
  • Former U.S. Congressman Bob Walker
  • Former NH Governor John Sununu
  • Obama White House Communications Director Anita Dunn
  • Former NH Governor John Sununu
  • Republican Tom Davis a former member of congress
  • Postmaster general and CEO, Patrick Donahoe

• 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 the conversation 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.
  • Front Porch Friday!!!!! Bob wraps up the week! Listen now HERE (mp3)!
  Amen to the White Rose Society! Donate to Head On HERE!

• 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' - December 8, 2011 IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Triumph of propaganda over truth: D.C.'s King of the Deniers, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OIL) takes a victory lap; Deadlock at Durban? Final days of the UN Climate Conference in S. Africa; 2011 breaks its own record for weather disasters; PLUS: GOP threatens to take another hostage to push the Keystone XL pipeline ... All that and more in today's Green News Report!
  IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see link): Must-reads: "The Brutal Logic of Climate Change" and "The Brutal Logic of Climate Change Mitigation"; EPA finds natural gas 'fracking' contaminated WY drinking water; Coal company put 'profits over people' in mining disaster; $4 billion for energy efficiency retrofits; GOP Jon Hntsman flip-flop-flips on climate denial; 1st floating wind turbine deployed in Atlantic ... PLUS: See for yourself: Time history of e of Meltdown in Japan ... PLUS: The end of world as we know it: a surprisingly uplifting documentary... and much, MUCH more!
  BRADCAST UPDATE: Brad LIVE on KPFK every Wednesday 3:30 pm pt Radio Daze: Will Bunch Joins Me on KPFK to Discuss OWS Media; Desi and I Storm 'The Green Front'...
  Clear Channel to Replace Green960, San Francisco's Only AM Progressive Talk Station, With Glenn Beck, Other RWers as Election Year Begins
  It's Official! OH's GOP Voter Suppression Law Now On Hold, Will Face Referendum on 2012 Ballot Today, Secretary of State John Husted (R), officially certified that opponents of HB194 --- the anti-voting bill that would have shortened early voting hours and imposed other big government restrictions on the exercise of the franchise in Ohio --- were successful in their effort to place the law on the ballot for a voter referendum in 2012. Thus, the act, passed by the GOP legislature and signed by Kasich earlier this year, is officially suspended for now.
  Visit BradBlog.com to see who counts yer votes! Reference yer background/research at Who's Counting? too.

• 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.
  • PBC Live! Weekly on KGO PBC Live! Weekly on KGO Your humble host has been remiss in keeping you apprised of his other media activities. Since February, I’ve been hosting a regular weekly show on KGO, the leading San Francisco talk station with a huge coverage area–at night, you can hear it anywhere on the West Coast. TFN (till further notice), you can hear me every Friday night–or, more precisely, Saturday morning, from 1-5 am (PDT) on 810-AM or streaming at www.kgoradio.com. If you’d like to be alerted each week, sign up on Facebook as a fan of “Peter B. Collins Show” or you can follow me on Twitter, @pbcsf
  • PBC Podcast 323 PBC News & Comment, Tuesday December 6 Our daily podcast today leads with President Obama’s strong speech in Kansas, where he decried trickle-down economics and the assaults on our middle class.
  • PBC Podcast 324 Urge Obama to Veto Defense Bill with Draconian Clauses: FBI Whistleblower Coleen Rowley and Patriot Act Victim Susan Lindauer Coleen Rowley, 24-year FBI agent, details Senate debate and 93-7 passage of dangerous bill; Susan Lindauer was detained at a military base and spent 5 years fighting in court to win freedom...
  • PBC Podcast 325 PBC News & Comment, Wednesday December 7 Today’s lead: 20 Examples of Obama Administration’s Assault on Domestic Civil Liberties from law professor Bill Quigley, read the list here.
  • PBC Podcast 326 PBC News & Comment, Tuesday December 8 Breaking: 2 dead in Virginia Tech shootout; Senate rejects Obama’s nominee for consumer watchdog; Jon Stewart skewers Senate for curtailing our rights.....
  • PBC Podcast 327 Author/Expert Nick Bryant Comments on Sandusky/Penn State Case and Others Nick Bryant, author and expert on child sex predators, talks about the Sandusky case at Penn State, and the Nebraska child sex trafficking ring he exposed in his book, The Franklin Scandal.

• Ring of Fire Radio
  
  Find us at http://ringoffireradio.com and http://goleft.tv/ hosted by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Mike Papantonio and Sam Seder
  Ring of Fire Radio - GoLeft TV - Robert F. Kennedy, Mike Papantonio, Sam Seder - Politics, Commentary, and News.
  This Week on Ring of Fire! December 9, 2011
  • Harvard Business professor and author Joseph Bower will be joining us to talk about how businesses can help make capitalism work for the middle class.
  • Attorney Peter Mougey will be here to tell us about the fraud and corruption that is taking place in America’s financial sector.
  • J.A. Myerson from Truthout will join us to discuss the Occupy Our Homes event that took place this week.
  • And we’ll hear from author Les Leopold about Wall Street’s secret government bailouts that the American public didn’t know about.
  • VIDEO! Sam Seder: Disastrous Trade Deals Are Crippling Our Economy Citizens of the U.S. pay some of the highest prices for pharmaceuticals in the world. And now that pharmaceutical companies know they can get away with charging ridiculous markups, they’re looking to the Obama Administration to help them keep this practice going in countries across the globe. These higher drug prices are going to prevent millions of people from having access to life-saving drugs, but it will put enormous profits in the hands of big Pharma CEOs. Sam Seder talks about this with Zach Carter, a staff reporter for The Huffington Post.
  • VIDEO! Papantonio: More Birth Control Dangers Revealed We’ve talked a lot about the birth control drug Yaz on this show in the past year, and for good reason. Hundreds of thousands of women have taken Yaz for birth control and many of them did so based on false claims given by both Bayer Pharmaceuticals and their own doctors who were also duped by Bayer. And now, new studies are showing us that Yaz has even more problems than original thought, and could very well be one of the most dangerous birth control products on the market. Mike Papantonio discusses the latest developments in the Yaz case with attorney Chris Paulos.
  • 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 Sunday nights at 8 pm (4 pm on 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 11:30 am et @ Majority.fm!
  
  • Ari Berman of The Nation on Austerity Measures & Strikes in the UK [12•05•11]
  • Mark Bray of Occupy Wall Street Discusses Occupy Our Homes Action! [12•06•11]
  • Bill Scher of Liberal Oasis & Campaign for America’s Future on Obama’s 12/6/11 Speech [12•07•11]
  • Abby Clark, an Occupy Our Homes Organizer on the Fight Against Foreclosure [12•07•11]
  • Suki Hawley, Director of Battle for Brooklyn, on One Neighborhood’s Battle to Fight Big Business from Taking their Homes [12•08•11]
  • Cliff Schecter and Sam Seder talk Gingrich + more! [12•09•11]
  MORE Podcast Interviews at majorityreport.official.fm!

• On the Edge with Max Keiser 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
  • “It’s really this simple, Europe: either rebel against the banks or accept decades of debt-serfdom.” by maxkeiser. READ Charles Hugh Smith: It’s Your Choice, Europe: Rebel Against the Banks or Accept Debt-Serfdom (oftwominds.com)
  • Holy Larceny, Batman! MFG and JPM used wire transfer reversals to desegregate funds? by maxkeiser. READ On Corzine – MFG in the fog of war (Bruce Krasting)
  • Yep, that GLD you’re holding is probably worthless by maxkeiser. READ The Gold “Rehypothecation” Unwind Begins: HSBC Sues MF Global Over Disputed Ownership Of Physical Gold (zerohedge)
  • KEISER REPORT [KR216] Keiser Report: Kleptocrats Go for Gold We discuss lunatics for Italian gold and another failed debt auction in Germany. In the second half of the show, Max talks to Mark O’Byrne of Goldcore.com about the European debt crisis and Ireland’s gold.
  • KEISER REPORT [KR219] Keiser Report: ‘Feckless’ Parents, Reckless Banks We discuss feckless parents and fiscal unions. In the second half of the show, Max talks to Josh Brown of TheReformedBroker.com about social media snake oil and internet ponzis.
  • KEISER REPORT [220] Keiser Report: Economics is the New Rock’n'Roll with Rick Ackerman
  • ON THE EDGE Euro crisis-On the Edge with Max Keiser-12-09-2011 Guest: Greg Hunter
  • THE TRUTH ABOUT MARKETS [TaM-1228] The Truth About Markets – 10 December 2011 Download show HERE (mp3)
  • Donate to ResonanceFM here!

• ANTIWAR RADIO with Scott Horton
  LIVE (9-11am Pacific, 12pm - 2pm Eastern) Plenty of archives too!
  Listen at antiwar.com/radio
  • Michael Klare December 6, 2011: Michael Klare, professor and author of Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet t, discusses his article “Playing With Fire: Obama’s Risky Oil Threat to China ;” why the geopolitical struggle for oil resources is more about leveraging power and influence than economic exploitation; changing the US foreign policy focus from the Middle East to Asia and the Pacific; China’s increasing dependence on Middle East and African energy resources; and how a US naval incursion in China’s coastal waters is akin to a Chinese fleet dropping anchor in the Gulf of Mexico.
  • M.J. Rosenberg December 6, 2011: M.J. Rosenberg, journalist and Senior Foreign Policy Fellow at Media Matters Action Network, discusses his article “American Enterprise Institute Admits: Iran Threat Isn’t That It Will Launch Nuclear Attack;” why the neoconservatives fear Iran getting a nuclear weapon and then not using it, dispelling the “crazy Ayatollah” image carefully created by Iran-hawks; how a nuclear-armed Iran would disrupt the “balance of power,” so the US and Israel could no longer wage undeclared war with impunity; the new round of “crippling” Iran sanctions, which would end conventional trade and create nation-wide black markets; and why Israelis keen on attacking Iran should expect retaliation from Hezbollah’s large arsenal of missiles in Lebanon.
  • Robert Stinnett December 9, 2011: Robert Stinnett, author of Day of Deceit: The Truth about FDR and Pearl Harbor , discusses how he found the McCollum memo – outlining the FDR administration’s eight step plan to provoke a Japanese attack – while searching through the National Archives; the radio “listening stations” that intercepted the Japanese fleet’s coded transmissions, earlier decrypted by the US; official orders from Naval command to stand aside and let the attack happen; and Stinnett’s new work-in-progress book, dealing in part with whether Admiral Kimmel’s was complicit or framed-up.
  • Philip Giraldi December 9, 2011: Former CIA officer Philip Giraldi discusses his article “Washington’s Secret Wars;” Obama’s newly signed “findings,” authorizing covert operations to destabilize the Iranian and Syrian governments; how the US and Israel use the Baluch Jundallah, Kurdish PJAK and MEK groups to commit terrorism-by-proxy; the MEK’s energetic and well funded campaign to get de-listed as a terrorist group (in order to more easily commit terrorist acts); and how the 1996 neoconservative policy document “A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm” is going according to plan.
  Many more interviews at Antiwar Radio!

• fauxnews
  • “2012: One on One” series of interviews with a Texas Governor Rick Perry
  • Mitch McConnell (R-KY)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

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ALL LINKS OPEN A NEW WINDOW!!! Click on anything below and be INSTANTLY SMARTER! $7.7 TRILLION DOLLARS We begin this Sunday's rant with some remarkably good news! Our friends at 4closurefraud.org has the scoop...
COMPLAINT | COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS v. BANK OF AMERICA, JPMORGAN CHASE, CITIBANK, GMAC, WELLS FARGO, MERS, et al
Five National Banks Sued by AG Coakley in Connection with
Illegal Foreclosures and Loan Servicing
Bank of America, Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase, Citi, and GMAC All Named As Defendants;
Mortgage Electronic Registration System (“MERS”) Also Sued

MATT TAIBBI is having a party somewhere!

Read on for how "vigorously" the banks' lawyers will "defend" their "position". How bad did it get? Whistleblowers ignored, punished by lenders, dozens of former employees say Mortgage fraud involved many lenders, former employees say by Michael Hudson (No not THAT PROFESSOR Michael Hudson! This is iWatchNews's Michael W. Hudson Our bold, as always. -Ed.) ... Parmer isn’t alone in claiming she was punished for objecting to fraud in the midst of the nation’s home-loan boom. iWatch News has identified 63 former employees at 20 financial institutions who say they were fired or demoted for reporting fraud or refusing to commit fraud. Their stories were disclosed in whistleblower claims with the U.S. Department of Labor, court documents or interviews with iWatch News. “We did our jobs. We had integrity,” said Ed Parker, former fraud investigations manager at now-defunct Ameriquest Mortgage Co., a leading subprime lender. “But we were not welcome because we affected the bottom line.” These ex-employees’ accounts provide evidence that the muzzling of whistleblowers played an important role in allowing corruption to flourish as mortgage lenders and their patrons on Wall Street pumped up loan volume and profits. Codes of silence at many lenders, former employees claim, helped discourage media, regulators and policymakers from taking a hard look at illegal practices that ultimately harmed borrowers, investors and the economy. .... Parker, the former Ameriquest fraud investigations chief, claims that he had few problems when he did “ones” and “twos” — investigating cases that involved an employee or two who could cause only limited damage, he said. But things changed, he said, when he tried to fight systemic fraud by focusing on branches or regions where fraud was so prevalent, workers joked that bogus documents were being produced in the “art department.” .... At a White House press conference in October, ABC News correspondent Jake Tapper asked President Obama why his administration hadn’t pursued criminal cases more aggressively in the aftermath of disasters at Lehman Brothers and other banks. “I don’t think any Wall Street executives have gone to jail, despite the rampant corruption and malfeasance that did take place,” Tapper said. Obama replied that in many instances the government might have trouble making criminal charges stick, because “a lot of that stuff wasn’t necessarily illegal. It was just immoral or inappropriate or reckless.” Obama isn’t alone in suggesting that criminal fraud by banks wasn’t the main cause of the nation’s financial disaster. ..... Many whistleblowers who worked inside major banks counter that it was fraud by lenders — not borrowers — that was the driving force in the growth of toxic loans that caused the mortgage meltdown. “Fraud is fraud,” Parker said. “It’s fraud if someone changes information in a loan file without the borrower’s knowledge or does anything deceptive to get a loan approved and passed through. How can you say those are not criminal acts?” Parker and other former mortgage workers say some borrowers did take part in the fraud, but they usually did so with coaching from sales representatives who knew how to work the system to get deals done. And in many cases, Parker and others say, borrowers weren’t aware of the deception and were fooled by bait-and-switch salesmanship and other tactics used by the mortgage professionals who controlled the process. A two-year U.S. Senate investigation (pdf) found that senior management at Washington Mutual ignored clear evidence that bank employees were engaging in fraud. ... WaMu collapsed in September 2008, a $300 billion institution buried in bad loans. It was the largest bank failure in American history — and one of the biggest casualties of risky practices and missed warning signs stretching back to the start of the last decade. Way too much more so go read at the link. And Watch 60 Minutes after football for their segment "Prosecuting Wall Street" with "two whistelblowers". And here's more good news! Occupy Wall Street: Can filmmaking website unify the movement? On her humming laptop in the media tent, Ms. Clapier navigates to StudioOccupy.org where activists have placed 17 pages (so far) of stamp-sized, clickable links, each taking the user to videos, images, or audio uploaded by participants. Some are of live demonstrations in New York or Los Angeles, others are personalized messages of solidarity by random supporters (or celebrities such as Deepak Chopra), others are merely photographs of protesters having fun. Think YouTube, but better, say its fans. “This is amazing,” says Clapier, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Occupiers. “Now every single person can become their own storyteller with their own cell phone or webcam. They can upload and edit their own content and have it be shared with all the other occupiers around the planet.” By placing all their own content on a “cloud” server – with unlimited storage space that all can access – various encampments can create a universal video, image, and audio database that all can use to create individual messages, using other’s footage as well as their own. Users can create “call outs” – wish lists of footage needed with specific content and specific dates – and will eventually be able to find the return submissions by typing in key words such as “pepper spray,” “chanting,” or “police on horseback.” After three months of beta-testing, the new platform was unveiled Tuesday. Soon to come are complete editing banks and tutorials that teach users how to edit, splice, and mix images and sound. “This is such an advance over the old way, it’s hard to explain,” says Lee Jon Taylor, considered one of Occupy L.A.’s best editors. “I used to have to call people and ask if they had any footage of this and that, and then get permission from them to access their hard drives. Some of them didn’t want to do that, and the process was so cumbersome.” Mr. Taylor and Clapier say the advantages are a quantum leap over such current sites such as YouTube, because the clips can be longer, can be labeled and cross referenced more easily, and the individual shooter retains copyrights. “This is the first, truly free media,” says Taylor. The new platform has been donated by Citizen Global, a Venice, Calif.-based firm that creates ways for businesses to communicate with their customers. READ UP OWS'rs! And then dig into Naomi Klein's latest at The Nation Capitalism vs. the Climate. GOOD ITEM! And our TWEET OF THE WEEK goes to Emma Sullivan of Kansas

Sam Brownback: #heblowsalot.

Now for some not-so-good news. First Glenn Greenwald explains the ramifications of Congress endorsing military detention, a new AUMF ...it is worth briefly examining each of the three provisions that are the most significant. These are complex issues that cannot be meaningfully analyzed in a 400-word post. But they are important enough to take the time to understand: ... But, with a few exceptions, the objections raised by the White House are not grounded in substantive problems with these powers, but rather in the argument that such matters are for the Executive Branch, not the Congress, to decide. In other words, the White House’s objections are grounded in broad theories of Executive Power. They are not arguing: it is wrong to deny accused Terrorists a trial. Instead they insist: whether an accused Terrorist is put in military detention rather than civilian custody is for the President alone to decide. Over and over, the White House’s statement emphasizes Executive power as the basis for its objections to Levin/McCain: ... so please read all of Greenwald's post since this version of AUMF codifies much of what GWB and O! have already done to the Bill Of Rights 1st, 4th, 6th, 10th Amendments. See Glenn on DN! below for more info. Next TWO NUMBERS you need to know about: $707,568,901,000,000 AND $7.77 Trillion First Tyler Durden at zerohedge $707,568,901,000,000: How (And Why) Banks Increased Total Outstanding Derivatives By A Record $107 Trillion In 6 Months There is much more than can be said on this topic, and has to be said, because an increase of that magnitude is simply impossible to perceive without alarm bells going off everywhere, especially when one considers the pervasive deleveraging occurring at every sector but the government. All else equal, this move may well explain the massive surge in bank profitability in the first half of the year. It also means that with banks suffering massive losses, and rumors of bank runs and collateral calls, not to mention the aftermath of the MF Global insolvency, the world financial syndicate will have no choice but to increase gross notional even more, even as the market value continues to get ever lower, thus sparking the risk of the mother of all margin calls: a veritable credit fission reaction. But no matter what: the important thing to remember is that "they are all hedged" - or so they say, a claim we made a completely mockery of a few weeks back. So ex-sarcasm, the now parabolic increase in derivatives means that when the bilateral netting chain is once again broken, and it will be (because AIG was not a one off event), there will simply be trillions more in derivatives that no longer generate a booked cash flow stream for the remaining counterparty, until at the very end, the whole inverted credit0money pyramid collapses in on itself.... Much more and cool revealing graphs! Then Bloomberg News finally won their FOIA request and posted this bombshell by Bob Ivry, Bradley Keoun and Phil Kuntz Secret Fed Loans Gave Banks Undisclosed $13B It is very long and detailed so go read the whole thing for yourself but we noticed this snip: $7.77 Trillion The amount of money the central bank parceled out was surprising even to Gary H. Stern, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis from 1985 to 2009, who says he “wasn’t aware of the magnitude.” It dwarfed the Treasury Department’s better-known $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP. Add up guarantees and lending limits, and the Fed had committed $7.77 trillion as of March 2009 to rescuing the financial system, more than half the value of everything produced in the U.S. that year. Wait there's more! Yves Smith remarks Quelle Surprise! Banks Lied About Bailout Funds and Got $13 Billion in Profit from Them exclaiming, "And the bottom line is everybody close to the process lied like crazy." All this was NOT lost on the U.S. Congress (well at least ONE congresscritter). RAW STORY (with VIDEO!) Kucinich: Federal Reserve has captured control of our government Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) called for the U.S. Federal Reserve to be reformed after Bloomberg reported the central bank secretly loaned nearly $8 trillion to financial institutions from 2007 to 2009. ... "Remember the great debate we had here over the 700 billion in TARP funds?” he said on the House floor Tuesday. “There was no debate over the 7.7 trillion the Fed gave the banks.” “Did Congress have a clue?” he continued. “There is another game going on way over our heads, and our constituents are struggling while the banks with the help of the Feds have captured control of our government.” “Now the rating services are threatening us, if we don’t come up with a deal they’ll downgrade U.S. debt. Could the threat to our national sovereignty be any clearer?” Kucinich has proposed legislation, called the National Emergency Employment Defense (NEED) Act, that would incorporate the Federal Reserve within the United States Treasury and thereby make it accountable to Congress. Listen up teabaggers! Dennis HAS IT RIGHT! Don't believe us? Frequent MAX KEISER guest Karl Denninger at The Market Ticker editorializes Dennis Kucinich: Delete The Fed summarizing "We're about to find out if people like Ron and Rand Paul really stand for what they claim, or if they're empty suits. If they do, then I expect to see them on the Tee Vee within hours demanding passage of this bill, and joining with Mr. Kucinich in making sure that it is immediately reintroduced in the new Congress - and passed. If that does not happen then these two claimants of a demand for "sound money" have been immediately and permanently exposed as FRAUDS, as will any so-called "Tea Party" members of Congress. This is a bill that must become law with the above-mentioned infirmities removed." YES! Nomi Prins explains (cue the Twilight Zone music...) The Fed’s European “Rescue”: Another back-door US Bank / Goldman bailout? Ya think? In the wake of chopping its Central Bank swap rates today, the Fed has been called a bunch of names: a hero for slugging the big bailout bat in the ninth inning, and a villain for printing money to help Europe at the expense of the US. Neither depiction is right. The Fed is merely continuing its unfettered brand of bailout-economics, promoted with heightened intensity recently by President Obama and Treasury Secretary, Tim Geithner in the wake of Germany not playing bailout-ball. Recall, a couple years ago, it was a uniquely American brand of BIG bailouts that the Fed adopted in creating $7.7 trillion of bank subsidies that ran the gamut from back-door AIG bailouts (some of which went to US / some to European banks that deal with those same US banks), to the purchasing of mortgage-backed–securities, to near zero-rate loans (for banks). ...... Similarly, today’s move was also about protecting US banks from losses – self inflicted by dangerous derivatives-chain trades, again with each other, and with European banks. Now, consider this: the top four US banks (JPM Chase, Citibank, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs) control nearly 95% of the US derivatives market, which has grown by 20% since last year to $235 trillion. That figure is a third of all global derivatives of $707 trillion (up from $601 trillion in December, 2010 and $583 trillion mid-year 2010. ) Breaking that down: JPM Chase holds 11% of the world’s derivative exposure, Citibank, Bank of America, and Goldman comprise about 7% each. But, Goldman has something the others don’t – a lot fewer assets beneath its derivatives stockpile. It has 537 times as many (from 440 times last year) derivatives as assets. Think of a 537 story skyscraper on a one story see-saw. Goldman has $88 billon in assets, and $48 trillion in notional derivatives exposure. This is by FAR the highest ratio of derivatives to assets of any so-called bank backed by a government. The next highest ratio belongs to Citibank with $1.2 trillion in assets and $56 trillion in derivative exposure, or 46 to 1. JPM Chase's ratio is 44 to 1. Bank of America’s ratio is 36 to 1. (So much for fractional reserve banking eh? 10:1 would seem quaint today... -Ed.) Separately Goldman happened to have lost a lot of money in Foreign Exchange derivative positions last quarter. (See Table 7.) Goldman’s loss was about equal to the total gains of the other banks, indicative of some very contrarian trade going on. In addition, Goldman has the most credit risk with respect to the capital it holds, by a factor of 3 or 4 to 1 relative to the other big banks. So did the Fed's timing have something to do with its star bank? We don't really know for sure. Sadly, until there’s another FED audit, or FOIA request, we’re not going to know which banks are the beneficiaries of the Fed’s most recent international largesse either, nor will we know what their specific exposures are to each other, or to various European banks, or which trades are going super-badly. But we do know from the US bailouts in phase one of the global meltdown, that providing ‘liquidity' or ‘greasing the wheels of ‘ banks in times of ‘emergency’ does absolute nothing for the Main Street Economy. Not in the US. And not in Europe. It also doesn’t fix anything, it just funds bad trades with impunity. Last week also saw a massive public workers one-day protest in Great Britain while Merkel and Sarkozy try to stave off the inevitable crash of The Euro with some sort of austerity-banking hocus-pocus combo. NakedCapitalism also has a guest post Philip Pilkington: The Coming Age of Neocla describing "neoclassical economics whenever it comes to truly occupy a real seat of power; that is, when this set of ideas takes control over peoples’ lives in a wholly unmediated manner" as it is happening right now in the Eurozone. But we are now seeing the birth of a new centre for neocla policymaking in Europe that I fear will be far more difficult for its victims to do away with. We see this new centre – let us call it the ‘Politeuro’ – emerge slowly through the centralisation of fiscal policy that is currently taking place in Europe; as yet its constitution is indeterminate, but even now we can start to make out its general shape and nature. We can see a broad sketch of it here, as written by Professor Bill Mitchell:

Basically it is setting up a centralised surveillance unit to further usurp the fiscal capacity of the member states without at the same time establishing a fully-fledged “federal” fiscal capacity to meet asymmetric aggregate demand shocks (across the region). The plan would require all member states (17 nations) to send draft budgets to the EC by October 15 each year. The Commission could then reject the plan and force the nation to alter the spending and taxation proposals. There would also be stricter rules under the “Excessive Deficit Procedure” which would seek to enforce the Stability and Growth Pact more closely. All member states would be forced to set up “independent fiscal councils” which would be involved in the preparation of budgets and official forecasts. If a nation needed financial assistance there would be federal support it would have to be obedient under these rules. Short conclusion: it would be a total disaster.

And that doesn’t even take into account the subcommittees of neocla that will enforce privatisation and various other microeconomic policies on governments that cannot comply with their impossible demands. Soon a bunch of neocla policymakers will have significant control over the minutiae of government policy in the peripheral countries. And, since they are unchecked by the populations – not being subject to democratic control – and basically have free rein to implement their policies from a distance, we can be sure that they will concoct a most outlandish and stupid grab-bag of neocla policies which they will then force down the necks of the periphery governments. They will tinker with taxes and impose privatisations, all of which will fly in the face of common sense – and all of which will be undertaken in reverence to a ‘free market’ that only exists in the foggiest corners of their own minds. The economies and the societies of the periphery will suffer to no end, but these neocla technocrats will be particularly difficult to get rid of. They will be allied neither to a single government, nor will they be tied to a strictly international institution like the IMF. Instead they will be built into the European ‘chain of command’. The Politeuro will be listened to by governments in the periphery and the citizens that elect these impotent governments will pay for it in real living standards. Meanwhile, these citizens will not have within their grasp any lever of power that they can pull to change the rules of the game. Next go read this Guest Post: Unleashing The Future: Advancing Prosperity Through Debt Forgiveness (Part 1) and (Part 2) Submitted by Zeus Yiamouyiannis, from Of Two Minds at zerohedge. About this series: Given accelerating conditions and trends in Europe, the U.S. and Asia, debt will be renounced, forgiven or written down, and how that process unfolds is now of paramount importance. Will private entities who dined so gloriously on their profits now eat their losses? Can the public who has seen its fortunes commandeered mount an effective response? Will there be convincing practical alternatives to a rigged world economy based in debt expansion and servitude? The answer is "yes" to all three, contends this five-part series by longtime contributor Zeus Yiamouyiannis. The series offers practical analyses and blueprints for liberating the world from debt and thus freeing its people to pursue greater, more productive purposes. CHS Last week our Last Word went to Naomi Wolf The shocking truth about the crackdown on Occupy The violent police assaults across the US are no coincidence. Occupy has touched the third rail of our political class's venality. This week Alternet's Josh Holland refutes Naomi Wolf Naomi Wolf’s ‘Shocking Truth’ About the ‘Occupy Crackdowns’ Offers Anything but the Truth: Naomi Wolf's latest theory veers wildly from the known facts who is immediately shredded in the comments section as a Vichy "Change you can believe in" Dem apologist he apparently is. This week our last word goes to Journalist SAM HUSSEINI Legitimacy of Saudi Regime Challenged, National Press Club Membership Suspended Sam Husseini questioned the LEGITIMACY of the REGIME running Saudi Arabia. And Prince Turkey Al Gibblets and Gravy immediately REVERSED Sam's question making it out as questioning the LEGITIMACY of the COUNTRY NOT THE REGIME. Sam writes in How Questioning the Saudi Regime's Legitimacy Got Me Suspended by the National Press Club There's a serious question of double standards about when tough questioning is encouraged and when it is discourage or even prevented. For example, when Jörg Haider, the Austrian neo-Nazi, was at the Press Club several years ago, I was allowed by Peter Hickman, the same moderator at the recent event, to ask several follow-ups in a very similar, rigorous manner and gave me his congratulations. I've been unable to obtain a transcript or video of the event, but I recall being visibly angry when questioning him -- realizing I was talking to someone who, if he were ever to actually come to power, could commit unspeakable evil, and I was at least as tough with him as I was with Amb. al-Saud. Real journalism is asking tough questions of all the players. Or, more appropriately, asking the toughest questions of the most powerful. Too often, I've seen reporters fawn over a figure more the more powerful they are. That I think is exactly the wrong instinct. And he further explains in his own blog An Open Letter to the Ethics Committee of the National Press Club Mr. Hughes has written me: "On the journalism front, please give a complete explanation of what makes you a journalist. If you are an advocate/consultant/pr representative in addition to doing some kind of journalistic enterprise, please explain the amount of time you spend on each one, who your clients are, and where most of your income comes from. These are the questions the Press Club must sort out all the time, because as you know we have journalist and non-journalists members. As a journalist, are you credentialed by the congressional press gallery, or any others?" Again, why raise this if Communicator members have the same rights to ask questions as journalist members as Mr. Hughes states? But to answer directly: Mr. Hughes, while much more professional in tone, seems to have the same misunderstanding about my work at the Institute for Public Accuracy that Mr. McCarren has. IPA does not have "clients." We do not do consulting or even advocacy per se, though of course we give voice to advocates, as any media enterprise does. As stated on our webpage, we take no money from anyone for putting them on a news release. IPA is funded largely through foundations. In addition to my IPA work, I do some journalism work for various independent outlets, occasionally participating in talk radio program journalist round tables, writing for various webpages, my personal blog, and the washingtonstakeout.com project I founded. The Press Club immediately suspended Sam for two weeks but soon came to its senses. Sam explains in Ethics Committee Rescinds National Press Club Suspension I've been informed by the chair of the Ethics Committee that my suspension at the National Press Club has been lifted. I welcome this decision and aim to ask ever tougher and sharper questions. I hope others will as well. I had asked the Saudi ambassador about the legitimacy of his regime, but if tough questions are not welcome at the Press Club, or at other media institutions, then their legitimacy is also undermined. I particularly welcome this decision as it allows me to attend the debate for the Press Club presidency this evening. It's a rare contested election -- with the Let's Press Ahead slate having issued a strong statement on my behalf. I hope it will mark a meaningful step forward. BRAVO SAM HUSSEINI! THIS IS WHAT REAL JOURNALISM LOOKS LIKE! The Brick TeeVee Crew has been painting and fixing and cleaning all week in preparation for a new tenant so it's surprising we got THIS MUCH in this week! We hope you read as much as you can from our links and spread the word! We hear NEWT "Children should be janitors" GINGRICH is weighing Cain's "endorsement" from one womanizer to another we're told. Haha! Go check out everything below and as always click on ANYTHING and be INSTANTLY SMARTER! Have a great week!

BRICK TEEVEE ALERTS!_©

»»» Glenn Greenwald @ Democracy NOW! NATO Kills 24 Pakistani Troops in 2-Hour Assault on Pakistani Base, Tensions Flare in Region & Glenn Greenwald: Is Obama Fulfilling the Neocon Dream of Mass Regime Change in Muslim World? Nov 28, 2011
»»» Julian Assange @ Democracy NOW! WikiLeaks, Julian Assange Win Major Australian Prize for “Outstanding Contribution to Journalism” Nov 28, 2011
»»» Daphne Eviatar, Senior Associate, Human Rights First’s Law and Security Program @ Democracy NOW!
• Battlefield America: U.S. Citizens Face Indefinite Military Detention in Defense Bill Before Senate Nov 29, 2011
»»» Kamran Loghman @ Democracy NOW! Pepper-Spray Creator Decries Use of Chemical Agent on Peaceful Occupy Wall Street Protesters Nov 29, 2011
»»» Pamela Brown & Andrew Ross @ Democracy NOW! Occupy Student Debt: Students Urged to Refuse to Pay Off Loans As Schools Hike Tuition Nov 29, 2011
»»» OWS @ Democracy NOW! Occupy Wall Street Camps in Los Angeles, Philadelphia Dismantled in Massive Police Raids Nov 30, 2011
»»» Peter Van Buren @ Democracy NOW! WATCH NOW State Dept. Veteran Peter Van Buren Defies U.S. Censors to Recount Failed Reconstruction in Iraq Nov 30, 2011
»»» Rena Steinzor, professor at the University of Maryland Carey School of Law and President of the Center for Progressive Reform @ Democracy NOW! WATCH NOW Report: Obama Has Weakened More Lobbyist-Opposed Health, Public Safety Regulations Than Bush Nov 30, 2011
»»» Democracy Now! Correspondent Anjali Kamat @ Democracy NOW! Democracy Now! Correspondent Anjali Kamat on Reporting the Revolutions in Egypt and Libya Dec 1, 2011
»»» Ramsey Clark, lawyer and former U.S. attorney general & Harry Murray, one of the Hancock 38 Drone Resisters @ Democracy NOW! "Hancock 38" Defendants Found Guilty for Bold Army Base Protest Against U.S. Drone Attacks Abroad Dec 2, 2011
»»» Richard Wolff @ Democracy NOW! Richard Wolff: Eurozone Woes Result from Mating of Our "Dysfunctional" Political, Economic Systems Nov 30, 2011

»»» GRITtv @ www.grittv.org with Laura Flanders
»»» FEATURED SHOW The Maldives Face Rising Waters and Despondancy at Durban Climate Conference As the 17th United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, popularly known as COP-17, takes place in Durban, South Africa, Nov 28 - Dec 9, I think of this man: Dr. Mohammed Waheed Hassan, with whom I had a chance to speak this September in New York. Waheed, as he prefers to be called, is Vice President of the Republic of the Maldives, the lowest country on the planet. An archipelago of coral atolls in the Indian Ocean, the Maldives have seen the sea waters around their low-level homeland rise almost 8 inches in the last 100 years and accelerating rates of warming threaten their nation's future. Read the full story at TheNation.com .
BRICK TEEVEE SPORT!_©
»»» Football Night in America on NBC Lions @ Saints! Kickoff at 8:20 pm et
»»» Monday Night Football on ESPN Chargers @ Jaguars! Kickoff at 8:30 pm et
BRICK TEEVEE ACTION!_©
The 1st Amendment is Our Permit WASHINGTON - October 14 - This is an emergency appeal. Spread it widely. Our permit to occupy is called “The First Amendment.” This morning, Occupy Wall Street protesters celebrated when New York authorities beat a last-minute retreat from clearing Liberty Plaza – as hundreds of labor and other activists rushed to defend the square. But at the same time this morning, dozens of state troopers in riot gear cleared out Occupy Denver protests. In cities across the country, Occupy protesters have faced police violence and arrests. Some occupations have been forcibly removed while others have stood their ground successfully. The authorities say we don’t have the proper permits to occupy public spaces. 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.

Action for a Progressive Future (the organization that runs RootsAction) is a nonprofit, progressive, public policy advocacy group that will engage citizens in the democratic process and help make sure legislators hear their voices. (h/t jen)
October2011.org October 2011 is the 10th anniversary of the invasion of Afghanistan and the beginning of the 2012 federal austerity budget. It is time to light the spark that sets off a true democratic, nonviolent transition to a world in which people are freed to create just and sustainable solutions. Take this pledge at October2011.org

"I pledge that if any U.S. troops, contractors, or mercenaries remain in Afghanistan on Thursday, October 6, 2011, as that occupation goes into its 11th year, I will commit to being in Freedom Plaza in Washington, D.C., with others on that day or the days immediately following, for as long as I can, with the intention of making it our Tahrir Square, Cairo, our Madison, Wisconsin, where we will NONVIOLENTLY resist the corporate machine by occupying Freedom Plaza to demand that America's resources be invested in human needs and environmental protection instead of war and exploitation. We can do this together. We will be the beginning."

Do it NOW!
NET NEUTRALITY! SaveTheInternet.org SOPA If you've been living under an Internet-free rock the past couple of weeks, you might have managed to miss the steady drumbeat of opposition to HR 3261, the so-called Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). Then again, if you've been living under an Internet-free rock, you've already had a preview of what we're facing if SOPA goes into effect. AmericanCensorship.org has pulled together an infographic that explains in very basic terms the services and sites that are at greatest risk from SOPA here: Infographic: Effects of the Internet Blacklist Bill (SOPA). More info at American Censorship Day READ Internet Censorship: Not Today, Not Tomorrow SIGN NOW! Internet censorship is coming to America. It’s in the form of a bill in Congress that gives corporations unprecedented power to blacklist websites at will. If passed, the “Stop Online Piracy Act,” or SOPA (HR 3261), could rip apart the open fabric of the Internet. People could see their websites disappear from the Internet for a “crime” as innocent as posting a video of themselves singing along to a favorite song. Sign this petition NOW! Keep BTV and YOUR blog alive! Listen to Sam Seder with Tim Karr of Free Press on Net Neutrality [11•10•11]
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! Also visit Rep Alan Grayson's site www.savedemocracy.net And Alan Grayson is running again in FL-8! Help out at CongressmanWithGuts.com
SUPPORT THE TROOPS WHO REFUSE TO FIGHT See CourageToResist.org UPDATE! Manning-Lamo Chat Logs Revealed at wired.com plus The Deeply Personal Details in New Bradley Manning Chat Logs and Bradley Manning Support Network Much more at link.
UPDATE! Kim Zetter WIRED.COM's Threat Level - Feds Withholding Evidence Favorable to Bradley Manning, Lawyer Charges The civilian lawyer for Bradley Manning, the Army private who allegedly leaked tens of thousands of classified U.S. government documents to WikiLeaks, is seeking to question the severity of the leak by requesting the government’s own internal damage assessments that reportedly contradict statements that Manning irreparably damaged national security. Manning’s defense attorney, David E. Coombs, is attempting to get evidence from the government to defend Manning in his upcoming pre-trial hearing on Dec. 16, but says the government is stonewalling him. “The defense has repeatedly requested the below discovery in this case, but the government has consistently responded with a blanket denial of the defense request,” Coombs wrote in the partially redacted filing. ... The filing also sheds light on other likely avenues Coombs will use to mitigate or challenge the charges against Manning, including questioning the actions of President Barack Obama and Manning’s betrayer, Adrian Lamo. ... Coombs’ filing also addresses issues around Manning’s alleged mistreatment in prison, asking the government to hand over copies of all audio and video surveillance of the visitation booths at the Marine Corps brig in Quantico, Virginia, and at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas, where Manning was moved earlier this year. Coombs requested a video the military apparently took of Manning when he was ordered to surrender his clothing while in custody earlier at Quantico. More at wired.com
UPDATE at AntiWarRadio: Jeff Patterson December 1, 2011: Jeff Paterson, Project Director of Courage to Resist, discusses whistleblower Bradley Manning’s December 16th court hearing, his first after a year and a half long pretrial detention; Manning’s lawyer’s complaints about the government’s refusal to disclose evidence; the life-sentence facing Manning for allegedly leaking information embarrassing – but not harmful – to the government and military; how Manning’s treatment at the Quantico Marine brig clearly violated the UCMJ; and how you can donate to Manning’s legal defense and/or participate in a demonstration supporting him at Fort Meade on December 16th and 17th. LISTEN NOW HERE (mp3)
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

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IRAQ: 4,483 US Military Dead as of Dec 1, 2011
AFGHANISTAN: 1,848 US Military Dead as of Dec 1, 2011
The Obameter: Tracking Obama's Campaign Promises
Considering Democracy: 8 Things to ask your Representative

• This Week (ABC) with Christiane Amanpour
  • Fact Checking ABC's "This Week" at NPR "On the Media" - Jake Tapper, interim host of ABC's "This Week," liked the idea of fact-checking his guests' comments, so he set up a partnership with Politifact, a non-partisan fact-checking organization. See Politifact Statements ABC News 'This Week'
  • Rick Santorum
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  • ROUNDTABLE: George Will, Democratic strategist Donna Brazile, AOL Huffington Post's Arianna Huffington, and Major Garrett of National Journal.

• Face The Nation (CBS) Host Bob Schiefer
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• 60 Minutes (CBS)
  • Prosecuting Wall Street - Two whistleblowers tell Steve Kroft that their warnings about fraudulent and substandard mortgages were ignored by their companies, offering a rare window into the root causes of the subprime mortgage meltdown still holding back the struggling U.S economy. James Jacoby is the producer.

• Meet the Press (NBC) Host David Gregory
  • Meet the Facts at NPR "On the Media" - Last December, NYU professor Jay Rosen proposed something simple yet revolutionary: why don't the Sunday morning chat shows fact check their guests? After "Meet the Press" host David Gregory declined, two college students launched a website to do it for him. One of them, Chas Danner, explains what they're trying to accomplish. See their website MeetTheFacts.com updating soon!
  • Obama re-elect chief strategist David Axelrod
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  • ROUNDTABLE: Publisher of the New Hampshire Union Leader Joe McQuaid, the BBC's Katty Kay, Fmr. Rep. Harold Ford, Jr. (D-TN) and TIME's Mark Halperin

• State of the Union With Candy Crowley (CNN) Our special coverage begins at 9 a.m EST on CNN with the dedication beginning at 11 a.m. EST.
  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.
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  The Green News Report with Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen: 6 minutes of green news, politics, analysis & snarky comment!
  BOOKMARK greennews.bradblog.com NOW!
  • 'Green News Report' - December 1, 2011 IN TIN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Newt makes stuff up; Historic drought in TX now worst in a century; This week's newest oil spill, now in CO; Extreme weather disasters will cost even more due to global warming; One step forward, two steps back in UN climate negotiations; PLUS: House GOP wins another courageous battle in the fight against imaginary regulations ... All that and more in today's Green News Report!
  IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see link): In spite of Solyndra, military solar project a GO; How to slash CA's greenhouse gas emissions by 2050; Abrupt climate change possible from melting permafrost; Study: Renewables can reduce pollution at no cost to the economy; Running dry on the Great Plains; Algae bloom baffles scientists; Study Shows Worse Picture of Meltdown in Japan ... PLUS: The end of world as we know it: a surprisingly uplifting documentary... and much, MUCH more!
  BRADCAST UPDATE: Brad LIVE on KPFK every Wednesday 3:30 pm pt OccupyLA Live-Streamers 'OakFoShow' and 'OccupyFreedomLA' Join Me In-Studio on KPFK...
  Visit BradBlog.com to see who counts yer votes! Reference yer background/research at Who's Counting? too.

• 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.
  • PBC Live! Weekly on KGO PBC Live! Weekly on KGO Your humble host has been remiss in keeping you apprised of his other media activities. Since February, I’ve been hosting a regular weekly show on KGO, the leading San Francisco talk station with a huge coverage area–at night, you can hear it anywhere on the West Coast. TFN (till further notice), you can hear me every Friday night–or, more precisely, Saturday morning, from 1-5 am (PDT) on 810-AM or streaming at www.kgoradio.com. If you’d like to be alerted each week, sign up on Facebook as a fan of “Peter B. Collins Show” or you can follow me on Twitter, @pbcsf
  • PBC Podcast 320 Boiling Frogs: Andrew Gavin Marshall, Part 1 of New World Order Series This is part 1 of our interview series on the New World Order, part of the Boiling Frogs interview series, co-hosted with Sibel Edmonds.
  • PBC Podcast 321 Boiling Frogs: F. William Engdahl, Part 2 of New World Order Series This is Part 2 of our interview series on the New World Order, part of the Boiling Frogs interview series, co-hosted with Sibel Edmonds

• Ring of Fire Radio
  
  Find us at http://ringoffireradio.com and http://goleft.tv/ hosted by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Mike Papantonio and Sam Seder
  Ring of Fire Radio - GoLeft TV - Robert F. Kennedy, Mike Papantonio, Sam Seder - Politics, Commentary, and News.
  This Week on Ring of Fire! December 2, 2011
  • This week on Ring of Fire: best-selling author Thomas Frank joins us to talk about how the federal government can help put Americans back to work.
  • Chris Mooney, author of The Republican War on Science, will tell us about the latest study confirming that Fox News viewers are still the most misinformed.
  • Author Greg Palast will discuss the oil industry vultures that are fighting over the remains of Alaska’s oil fields.
  • Frances Beinecke, the president of the NRDC, will be joining us to discuss an under-reported side effect of climate change: The effects it will have on human health.
  • And activist Jesse LaGreca will be here to give us the latest developments with Occupy Wall Street.
  • VIDEO! Sam Seder: The Problem of Republican Stupidity Both the mainstream media and the Republican Party have been going down the drain for decades. And if you turn on network news or tune into the Sunday morning political pundit shows, you’ve probably noticed that the problems with the media and the GOP are not getting any better. In fact, about the only word you could use to describe both, is “stupid.” Sam Seder discusses the problems that arise from this stupidity with Eric Alterman, Professor of Journalism at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism and contributing writer for The Nation.
  • VIDEO! Papantonio: The Dimwit Republican Circus Freaks March Again Mike Papantonio appears on MSNBC’s The Ed Show to discuss a Republican campaign season that has brought us: Donald Trump telling us Obama wasn’t born in America. Gingrich’s $500,000 credit line at Tiffany’s. Rick Perry’s lack of knowledge on every issue. Michele Bachmann’s “pray away the gay” clinic and her chronic mythomania. Mitt Romney’s flip flops. Herman Cain’s endless trail of sexual trysts. These people are making George Bush look like Dwight Eisenhower
  • 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 Sunday nights at 8 pm (4 pm on 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 11:30 am et @ Majority.fm!
  
  • Thomas Frank on his books Pity the Billionaire & What’s the Matter with Kansas, Occupy Wall Street and More [11•28•11]
  • David Segal of Demand Progress on the PROTECT IP Act & SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) [11•29•11]
  • Jeff Madrick on the European debt crisis, crony capitalism + more! [11•30•11]
  • Tina Dupuy's First Hand Account of the Occupy LA Eviction [11•30•11]
  • Sarah Jaffe on Student Debt and Possible Future Debt Strike [12•01•11]
  • Cliff Schecter and Sam Seder discuss the GOP Candidates, OWS & more! [12•02•11]
  MORE Podcast Interviews at majorityreport.official.fm!

• On the Edge with Max Keiser 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
  • “Issues that should be decided in open court are being decided in back rooms in Washington.” by maxkeiser. READ Internet now a ‘surveillance machine’: Julian Assange (nationalpost)
  • Ye Olde Debtor’s Prison by maxkeiser. READ America's Modern-Day Debtor's Prison (theatlantic)
  • Wall Street has been taken over by sociopaths – Propublica READ Wall Street Is Already Occupied The financial industry has strayed far from being an intermediary between companies that want to raise capital so they can sell people things they want. Instead, it is a machine to enrich itself, fleecing customers and exacerbating inequality. When it goes off the rails, it impoverishes the rest of us. When the crises come, as they inevitably do, banks hold the economy hostage, warning that they will shoot us in the head if we don’t bail them out. “There have been repeated fines and malfeasance at literally all the investment banks, but it doesn’t seem to affect their behavior much,” he said. “So I have to conclude it is part of strategy as simple cost/benefit analysis, that fines and legal costs are a small price to pay for the profits.
  • VIDEO! Max Keiser on Europe’s Brave New Debt by maxkeiser. Technocrat governments, like the ones in Italy and Greece, will not provide any solutions to the ongoing eurozone crisis, claims financial analyst Max Keiser. Instead, as Keiser told RT, they will only drag Europe into deeper recession. “You have to understand, this is a systemic problem that requires a total re-architecting of the system and a total execution, in one way or another, of these banksters that are just predatory leeches; a cancer on the system”, said the host of RT’s Keiser Report.
  • KEISER REPORT [KR216] Keiser Report: Kleptocrats Go for Gold We discuss lunatics for Italian gold and another failed debt auction in Germany. In the second half of the show, Max talks to Mark O’Byrne of Goldcore.com about the European debt crisis and Ireland’s gold.
  • KEISER REPORT [KR217] Keiser Report: Überdebten We discuss Überdebten, financial eugenics and secret Fed loans. In the second half of the show, Max talks to Karl Denninger about MF Global, pepper spraying banksters and Occupy Wall Street.
  • KEISER REPORT[KR218] Keiser Report: Big Bazookas, Dead Whistleblowers & Hanging Paulson Metaphorically speaking, of course. We also discuss big bazookas, Pol Pot and dead whistleblowers. In the second half of the show, Max talks to Jon Thorisson about the new Eva Joly Institute and Iceland’s ongoing fight for justice.
  • ON THE EDGE [OTE132] On the Edge with Dan Collins of The China Money Report This guy, Dan Collins, has a great new site, The China Money Report, which covers all the local news in China, especially gold and silver!
  • ON THE EDGE [OTE134] On the Edge with Yanis Varoufakis We interview David DeGraw
  • THE TRUTH ABOUT MARKETS [TaM-1227] The Truth About a Paris Cafe Stacy Summary: Truth About Markets from Prague. 26 November 2011. FYI, tomorrow I will be posting the live Truth About Markets from last week in London. Download show HERE (mp3)
  • Donate to ResonanceFM here!

• ANTIWAR RADIO with Scott Horton
  LIVE (9-11am Pacific, 12pm - 2pm Eastern) Plenty of archives too!
  Listen at antiwar.com/radio
  • Marcy Wheeler December 1, 2011: Blogger Marcy Wheeler discusses the McCain-Levin and Udall amendments to the Defense Authorization Act; how the Supreme Court allowed American citizens to be labeled “enemy combatants” and subject to indefinite detention by the Hamdi decision in 2004; why a more restrictive – or revoked – Iraq War AUMF (as proposed by Rand Paul) would more effectively protect citizens than the Udall amendment; why “enhanced interrogation” may be making a (legalized) comeback; and the Obama administration’s opposition to language in the Act that limits Executive power and “flexibility.”
  • Jeb Sprague December 2, 2011: Jeb Sprague, author of Paramilitarism and the Assault on Democracy in Haiti, discusses his article “WikiLeaks Reveal: U.S. and UN Officials Oversaw Integration of Ex-Army Paramilitaries into Haiti’s Police Force ;” a brief overview of Haiti’s history, from colonial slave state to current times; Aristide’s democratic election following “Papa Doc” and “Baby Doc” Duvalier dictatorships; and how international aid agencies have destroyed Haiti’s domestic rice production and spread cholera.
  • Trevor Timm December 2, 2011: Trevor Timm, Activist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, discusses his article “Cablegate One Year Later: How WikiLeaks Has Influenced Foreign Policy, Journalism, and the First Amendment ;” how the WikiLeaks revelation of an Iraqi family’s massacre by US soldiers (and the attempted coverup with an airstrike) hastened the end of the war; why WikiLeaks deserves some credit for the Arab Spring, especially in Tunisia; who is and who isn’t bound by government classified documents; and the grand jury convened to indict WikiLeaks and Julian Assange for somehow violating the Espionage Act of 1917.
  • James Bovard December 2, 2011: James Bovard, author of Attention Deficit Democracy, discusses his article “Dying to Corrupt Afghanistan;” Hamid Karzai’s empty promises of reform as Afghanistan claims the title of most corrupt government in the world; Mitt Romney’s eager prostrating to the military in a time when “support the troops” has exempted the whole institution from public reproach; and why it’s no coincidence every country the US is about to go to war with has a (supposedly) crazy ruler who can’t be negotiated with.
  Many more interviews at Antiwar Radio!

• fauxnews
  • Michele Bachmann
  • Kent Conrad, D-N.D.
  • Tom Coburn, R-Okla.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

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