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Sunday, January 15, 2012

Brick TeeVee and Ten Years of Gitmo

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Ten Years of Gitmo We begin with this from Face the Bob Democracy Now Headlines Monday Jan 9, 2010 On Sunday, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta appeared on CBS’s "Face the Nation" to discuss Iran. Leon Panetta: "I think the pressure of the sanctions, I think the pressure of—diplomatic pressures from everywhere—Europe, the United States, elsewhere—is working to put pressure on them, to make them understand that they cannot continue to do what they’re doing. Are they trying to develop a nuclear weapon? No. But we know that they’re trying to develop a nuclear capability. And that’s what concerns us. And our red line to Iran is, do not develop a nuclear weapon. That’s a red line for us." Did you catch that? "Are they trying to develop a nuclear weapon? No." NO! From the transcript Panetta's true hubris comes out: "We made very clear that the United States will not tolerate the blocking of the Straits of Hormuz. That's another red line for us and that we will respond to them." Go to AntiWarRadio and listen to Scott Horton Interviews Flynt Leverett from January 1, 2012 for a more sane assessment: Flynt Leverett, former Senior Director for Middle East Affairs at the National Security Council, discusses Iran’s threat to close the Strait of Hormuz, as a response to sanctions that may eventually cut off Iran’s oil exports; why the US and Israel don’t really have a problem with Iranian nuclear weapons, just Iran’s refusal to submit to US regional hegemony; Israel’s “red line” on Iran’s uranium enrichment at Qom; why US foreign policy planners don’t learn from prior mistakes (because superpowers don’t have to); and why waging war with borrowed money is a sure sign of a declining empire. Flynt Leverett runs The Race For Iran blog for more good info.

Bloomberg.com's William D. Cohan explains How Wall Street Turned a Crisis Into a Cartel Almost 65 years ago, in 1947, the U.S. government sued 17 leading Wall Street investment banks, charging them with effectively colluding in violation of antitrust laws.
In its complaint -- which was front-page news at the time - -- the Justice Department alleged that these firms had created “an integrated, overall conspiracy and combination” starting in 1915 “and in continuous operation thereafter, by which” they developed a system “to eliminate competition and monopolize ‘the cream of the business’ of investment banking.”
The U.S. argued that the top Wall Street investment banks - - including Morgan Stanley (MS) (the lead defendant) and Goldman Sachs -- had created a cartel by which, among other things, it set the prices charged for underwriting securities and for providing mergers-and-acquisitions advice, while boxing out weaker competitors from breaking into the top tier of the business and getting their fair share of the fees.
The government argued that the big firms placed their partners on their clients’ boards of directors, putting them in the best possible position to know when a piece of business was coming down the pike and to make sure that any competitors were given a very hard time should they dare to try to win it.
The government was spot on: The investment-banking business was then a cartel where the biggest and most powerful firms controlled the market and then set the prices for their services, leaving customers with few viable choices for much needed capital, advice or trading counterparties. The same argument can be made today. .... Today, while there is no inkling of an antitrust lawsuit against Wall Street, its cartel-like behavior is very much in evidence. The remaining banks have increased their hold over the marketplace and continue to collude when it comes to pricing their services. ....

The Automatic Earth digs deeper with Ashvin Pandurangi writing about the global "Mergers and Acquisitions" (M&A) and mass "centralization" in January 7 2012: Death of an Institution: Desperate Mergers & Destructive Acquisitions ...It is, in reality, a sign of desperation and a harbinger of decreased resilience (a.k.a. "impending doom"), and that becomes quite clear when we consider the type of M&A activity that has been occurring over the last few years. Relatively large companies are suddenly finding themselves in a position of pure desperation, where they must either combine with other companies through some legal process or die. .... They are the last remaining dust particles of competition within those industries, waiting to be vacuumed up as soon as the slightest window of opportunity presents itself. These opportunities are pervasive in the current volatile environment, where share prices of public companies are frequently pummeled down in tandem and the markets remain in an indefinite state of uncertainty due to opaque asset valuations and government policy. ..... Should we be surprised that the wholesale destruction of European economies is described as presenting the "best buying opportunities" in history? Perhaps we should call them the "best opportunities for institutional cannibalism in all of history". This centralization process does not only take the form of "voluntary" mergers, especially in present times, but more often results from bankruptcy filings that force companies to liquidate or restructure their assets. ......So as the lower and upper "middle class" citizenry of the developed world are being rapidly digested in the acidic bowels of financial capitalism, the "big, yet not quite big enough" institutions are systematically having their "assets" aggregated on the books of a few supranational giants at not only cheap prices, but through illegal transfers and illegally discounted prices. As the weak wither and die, the strong draw lots to see who among them will be devoured first (JPM and Goldman always draw the biggest straw). ... Make no mistake, these are not rational economic actors acting in the best interests of their stakeholders and maximizing long-term institutional value, but desperate, irrational and short-sighted actors coerced into deals for a quick payoff. The low-level employees and mid-level managers of the acquired institutions usually find themselves joining a line in the local unemployment office or perhaps attending a "networking seminar", designed to create the illusion that they remain important to the system. Meanwhile, there are millions of new, starry-eyed faces that have been spewed out of various "educational" institutions, wading tens of thousands deep in debt, who are now "willing" to work longer hours for much less salary and fewer benefits. Your degree, work experience and interpersonal skills mean next to nothing, because there is simply no more room for your specialized "credentials" in the institutional system. ....

A Must-Read from Glenn Greenwald from a couple of weeks ago Progressives and the Ron Paul fallacies ... Whatever else one wants to say, it is indisputably true that Ron Paul is the only political figure with any sort of a national platform — certainly the only major presidential candidate in either party — who advocates policy views on issues that liberals and progressives have long flamboyantly claimed are both compelling and crucial. The converse is equally true: the candidate supported by liberals and progressives and for whom most will vote — Barack Obama — advocates views on these issues (indeed, has taken action on these issues) that liberals and progressives have long claimed to find repellent, even evil. Then read his follow-up Democratic Party priorities ....The chances that any of these issues will be debated in an Obama/Romney presidential contest are exactly zero. On all of these issues — Endless War, empire, steadfast devotion to the Israeli government, due-process-free assassinations, multiple-nation drone assaults, escalating confrontation with Iran, the secretive, unchecked Surveillance and National Security States, the sadistic and racist Drug War, the full-scale capture of the political process by bankers and oligarchs — Romney is fully supportive of President Obama’s actions (except to the extent he argues they don’t go far enough: and those critiques will almost certainly be modulated once the primary is over, resulting in ever greater convergence between the two). As National Journal‘s Michael Hirsh put it yesterday: “In truth, Obama and Romney are far closer in mindset and philosophy than anyone is willing to acknowledge just now.” ...

As the tenth anniversary of the opening of Guantanamo Bay passes Marcy Wheeler at emptywheel explains This Gitmo Anniversary Needs to Be about Bagram, Too No one has, as far as I know, asked the more general question: “does the Administration plan to get out of the due process-free indefinite detention business?” That question would be a lot harder for Carney to answer–though the answer, of course, is “no, the Administration has no intention of stopping the practice of holding significant numbers of detainees without adequate review.” Rather than reversing the practice started by the Bush Administration, Obama has continued it, even re-accelerated it, expanding our prison at Bagram several times. That question seems to be absent from discussions about Gitmo’s anniversary, too. .... There’s a difference between what is legal under international law developed for very different wars and what is just or what is the best way to conduct that war. And the problem with Gitmo (mitigated somewhat over the decade)–and the problem with Bagram, still–is that we’re spending unbelievable amounts of money to detain and abuse people that we haven’t even adequately reviewed to make sure we need to detain them. That’s not a smart way to conduct a war, particularly not one its backers insist will never end, particularly one that depends on our ability to win support among Afghans and other Muslims. The only thing that was and is problematic about Gitmo that is not also problematic about Bagram is the publicity surrounding it (presumably, though, just here and in Europe–I imagine Afghans, Pakistanis, and al Qaeda members know as much about Bagram as they do about Gitmo). That is, by treating–and allowing the Administration to treat–Gitmo as the problem, rather than due process-free and possibly abusive indefinite detention generally, we’re all acting as if the problem is that people know we’re conducting due process-free indefinite detention, not that we’re doing it at all. We’re letting the Administration off easy with its claims that mean old Congress has prevented it from closing Gitmo, when Bagram offers proof that it wants to do so not for the right reasons–because it is wrong, because it damages our ability to claim to offer something better than corrupt regimes–but because what America has become and intends to stay is embarrassing, politically inconvenient. I understand that this anniversary will attract general attention to Gitmo. I’m thrilled that, for once, people are listening to the reporters and activists and lawyers and guards and especially the detainees who have fought to close it. But by allowing the myth that Gitmo is the problem to go unchallenged, and not our due process-free indefinite detention generally, we’re simply pretending that unjust and stupid actions that occur outside of the glare of the press don’t matter as much as those that make the news. We are led to believe (of course) that those imprisoned in Gitmo are "the worst of the worst" yet many were simple farmers or taxicab drivers, turned over to the U.S. by people motivated by revenge and a nice cash handout or "reward" offered by the military, what Noam Chomsky calls the global "unpeople" in Recognizing the "Unpeople"
...On March 12, the Arab League gained the status of people by supporting U.N. Resolution 1973. But approval soon faded when the League withheld support for the subsequent Western bombardment of Libya. And on April 10, the Arab League reverted to unpeople by calling on the U.N. also to impose a no-fly zone over Gaza and to lift the Israeli siege, virtually ignored. That too makes good sense. Palestinians are prototypical unpeople, as we see regularly. Consider the November/December issue of Foreign Affairs, which opened with two articles on the Israel-Palestine conflict. One, written by Israeli officials Yosef Kuperwasser and Shalom Lipner, blamed the continuing conflict on the Palestinians for refusing to recognize Israel as a Jewish state (keeping to the diplomatic norm: States are recognized, but not privileged sectors within them). The second, by American scholar Ronald R. Krebs, attributes the problem to the Israeli occupation; the article is subtitled: “How the Occupation Is Destroying the Nation.” Which nation? Israel, of course, harmed by having its boot on the necks of unpeople. ... Whatever one thinks of capturing a soldier from an attacking army, kidnapping civilians is plainly a far more serious crime – unless, of course, they are mere unpeople. The strange breed of unpeople can be found everywhere, including the U.S.: in the prisons that are an international scandal, the food kitchens, the decaying slums. But wouldn't you know the so-called "worst of the worst" Taliban leaders held at Guantánamo Bay to be released in peace talks deal reports Guardian UK's Julian Borger and Jon Boone. The US has agreed in principle to release high-ranking Taliban officials from Guantánamo Bay in return for the Afghan insurgents' agreement to open a political office for peace negotiations in Qatar, the Guardian has learned. According to sources familiar with the talks in the US and in Afghanistan, the handful of Taliban figures will include Mullah Khair Khowa, a former interior minister, and Noorullah Noori, a former governor in northern Afghanistan. More controversially, the Taliban are demanding the release of the former army commander Mullah Fazl Akhund. Washington is reported to be considering formally handing him over to the custody of another country, possibly Qatar. The releases would be to reciprocate for Tuesday's announcement from the Taliban that they are prepared to open a political office in Qatar to conduct peace negotiations "with the international community" – the most significant political breakthrough in ten years of the Afghan conflict. The Taliban are holding just one American soldier, Bowe Bergdahl, a 25-year-old sergeant captured in June 2009, but it is not clear whether he would be freed as part of the deal. Damn. MORE EMPTYWHEEL The Beat from Hell: Carol Rosenberg’s Decade Covering Gitmo For the record, Carol Rosenberg has been covering Gitmo for more than the decade that has elapsed since she arrived there on January 9, 2002 to cover the impending arrival of the first war on terror detainees. ....
But it was 10 years ago today when Rosenberg first started covering the base’s use as a prison for alleged terrorists. As I’ve heard others who have made the trip explain, Rosenberg is now the institutional memory of the place, often describing what a space was used for years before DOD’s current press minders ever showed up. Or, as she described in a National Press Club speech last year, what the rules used to be for journalists and attorneys. ....
Of course, for much of that decade, Rosenberg was one of the only ones–aside from the detainees, their attorneys, and those unlucky enough to get stationed there–paying attention. She’s often been the one to report on hunger strikes and force feeding, one new Kafkaesque rules invented for the detainees, and most recently on the high cost of keeping detainees at Gitmo–a remarkable contrast to her reporting on the cost-cutting at Gitmo from 1999. Much more on Carol Rosenberg's coverage of Gitmo at EmptyWheel.

Some good news from Bill Moyers: Back With a New Series (truthout): I'm coming back because in tumultuous times like these I relish the company of people who try to make sense of the tumult. These are the people I'll bring to our new broadcast, Moyers & Company.
Journalism has long been for me a continuing course in adult education. Given what's happening in this country, it's time to sign up for more classes. The lack of civility and common sense that has paralyzed our democracy, the vast economic and social inequality that sends both left and right raging into the streets, the corrosive influence of money in politics - we're in a tailspin with little hope for a course correction from our elected leadership or corporate-dominated media. The need for voices of reason, simple and eloquent, has rarely been stronger. ... This will be a political series, but not a partisan one. In the conversation of democracy, everyone's invited. That means you, too. You're welcome to share opinions in the marketplace of ideas we'll be offering with our all-new website, billmoyers.com. Our aim is dialogue, not diatribe, and we want you in it.

And for those who like lists, here's a few from AlterNet

Martha Rosenberg: 4 Creepy Ways Big Pharma Peddles its Drugs
Tana Ganeva: 5 Things You Should Know About the FBI's Massive New Biometric Database
Les Leopold: 7 Ways to Really Take the Ax to Wall Street

And here's one more worth a study Dr. Lawrence Britt outlines Fourteen Defining Characteristics Of Fascism at Rense.com originally at Free Inquiry. SOPA/PIPA UPDATE: From Yves at nakedcapitalism Why Banks Back SOPA, the “Bring the Chinese Internet to America” Bill So why is the American Bankers Association one of the sponsors of a bill that seems awfully remote from its terrain? The bill allows anyone to send a complain about a purported SOPA violation and get the site disappeared. This faster and more brutal than the execution of Wikileaks via cutting off its access to payment networks. From TechDirt in December (emphasis theirs): .... That’s because this section says that anyone who takes voluntary action “based on credible evidence”: basically gets full immunity. Think about what that means in practice. If someone sends a service provider a notice claiming infringement on the site under this bill, the first thing every lawyer will tell them is “quick, take voluntary action to cut them off, so you get immunity.” Even worse, since this is just about immunity, there are no counternotice rules or anything requiring any process for those cut off to be able to have any redress whatsoever… End result: SOPA 2.0 contains a crazy scary clause that’s going to make it crazy easy to cut off websites with no recourse whatsoever. And this part isn’t just limited to payment providers/ad networks — but to service providers, search engines and domain registrars/registries as well. Yes. Search engines. So you can send a notice to a search engine, and if they want to keep their immunity, they have to take the actions in either Section 102(c)(2) or 103(c)(2), which are basically all of the “cut ‘em off, block ‘em” remedies. That’s crazy. This basically encourages search engines to disappear sites upon a single notice. It encourages domain registries to kill domains based on notices. With no recourse at all, because the providers have broad immunity. Oh no, this isn’t crazy at all, it’s authoritarian. Imagine how long Goldman666 or Matt Taibbi or Karl Denninger or yours truly would be around with this rule. Wikileaks demonstrates that even Swedish domiciled sites are not safe.And it isn’t just the banks that favor SOPA. So too does the AFL-CIO... YOIKES! BTV's msgeaux offers Lessons in American History: Scapegoating "Iran is Not the Real Target," writes Gordon Duff, Senior Editor Veterans Today Some time ago, during the Clinton administration, I learned that a group of Israeli/American extremists in Washington were planning on forcing the US to invade Iran. Some of these people worked with friends in the White House, some being taped by the FBI tied to spying by their closest associates, spying on the US, nuclear secrets and such, secrets passed on by Israel to China. As soon as Bush took office, friends at every agency told me they were being asked to submit falsified intelligence about weapons programs in Iraq and terrorist cells in both Iraq and Iran. They said the orders came from the president’s national security advisor who was planning a war on Iraq. Other friends, some at the highest levels of government, Reagan onward, now working as lobbyists, told me a pattern was emerging and that war was coming. All were good friends of Israel, some had visited many times, some actually headed pro-Israeli organizations in the US. ..... The lying started long before Bush. Oklahoma City was Clinton’s gift, an attempt to paint America’s right wing as terrorists. “Working groups” were set up in several agencies, groups that met “off campus” to discuss the real work of our government, running drugs, coordinating with organized crime and planning acts of domestic terrorism. However, when the Bush gang got in, they had a plan in hand, invade Iraq, invade Iran, quadruple the size of government, tax the middle class out of existence, end Social Security, flood the country with illegal aliens. With control of Afghan opium production they could switch the cities from “crack” to cheaper heroin which was controlled by the Bush family for decades. And they could end the electoral process through using the CIA to run elections through Diebold and other companies like Wackenhut. A systematic plan was put in place to take control of Federal courts, killing the constitution, the Supreme Court was stacked with “bought and paid for” organized crime shills. Then came 9/11, planned two years before, with FBI agents infiltrating terror cells that were really Israelis, with thousands of pages of new laws annulling the constitution, some written as early as 1999 suddenly showing up. This should be the history we are teaching our children, grade school, high school, college, what our military is being taught about the wars they fight. Now we are talking about pushing Iran to war by cutting their oil revenue with an illegal blockade and starving 100 million people to death. Read on! Dahr Jamail writes at AJE Fallujah babies: Under a new kind of siege Doctors and residents blame US weapons for catastrophic levels of birth defects in Fallujah's newborns. Fallujah, Iraq - While the US military has formally withdrawn from Iraq, doctors and residents of Fallujah are blaming weapons like depleted uranium and white phosphorous used during two devastating US attacks on Fallujah in 2004 for what are being described as "catastrophic" levels of birth defects and abnormalities. Dr Samira Alani, a paediatric specialist at Fallujah General Hospital, has taken a personal interest in investigating an explosion of congenital abnormalities that have mushroomed in the wake of the US sieges since 2005. "We have all kinds of defects now, ranging from congenital heart disease to severe physical abnormalities, both in numbers you cannot imagine," Alani told Al Jazeera at her office in the hospital, while showing countless photos of shocking birth defects. As of December 21, Alani, who has worked at the hospital since 1997, told Al Jazeera she had personally logged 677 cases of birth defects since October 2009. Just eight days later when Al Jazeera visited the city on December 29, that number had already risen to 699. "There are not even medical terms to describe some of these conditions because we've never seen them until now," she said. "So when I describe it all I can do is describe the physical defects, but I'm unable to provide a medical term." ..... Alani showed Al Jazeera hundreds of photos of babies born with cleft palates, elongated heads, a baby born with one eye in the centre of its face, overgrown limbs, short limbs, and malformed ears, noses and spines. She told Al Jazeera of cases of "thanatophoric dysplasia", an abnormality in bones and the thoracic cage that "render the newborn incompatible with life". ... Alani, along with Dr Christopher Busby, a British scientist and activist who has carried out research into the risks of radioactive pollution, collected hair samples from 25 parents of families with children who have birth defects and sent them to a laboratory in Germany for analysis. Alani and Busby, along with other doctors and researchers, published a study in September 2011 from data obtained by analysing the hair samples, as well as soil and water samples from the city. Mercury, Uranium, Bizmuth and other trace elements were found. The report's conclusion states: "Whilst caution must be exercised about ruling out other possibilities, because none of the elements found in excess are reported to cause congenital diseases and cancer except Uranium, these findings suggest the enriched Uranium exposure is either a primary cause or related to the cause of the congenital anomaly and cancer increases. Questions are thus raised about the characteristics and composition of weapons now being deployed in modern battlefields." "As doctors, we know Mercury, Uranium and Bismuth can contribute to the development of congenital abnormalities, and we think it could be related to the use of prohibited weapons by the Americans during these battles," Alani said. .... In Babil Province in southern Iraq, the head of the Babil Cancer Centre, Dr Sharif al-Alwachi, said cancer rates have been escalating at alarming rates since 2003, for which he blames the use of depleted uranium weapons by US forces during and following the 2003 invasion. "The environment could be contaminated by chemical weapons and depleted uranium from the aftermath of the war on Iraq," Dr Alwachi told Al Jazeera. "The air, soil and water are all polluted by these weapons, and as they come into contact with human beings they become poisonous. This is new to our region, and people are suffering here." The US and UK militaries have sent mixed signals about the effects of depleted uranium, but Iraqi doctors like Alwachi and Alani, and along with researchers, blame the increasing cancer and birth defect rates on the weapon. Abdulhaq Al-Ani, author of Uranium in Iraq, has been researching the effects of depleted uranium on Iraqis since 1991. He told Al Jazeera he personally measured radiation levels in the city of Kerbala, as well as in Basra, and his Geiger counter was "screaming" because "the indicator went beyond the range". Alani explained that she is the only doctor in Fallujah registering cases of congenital abnormalities. ... Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists press release: DOOMSDAY CLOCK MOVES 1 MINUTE CLOSER TO MIDNIGHT WASHINGTON, D.C. -- January 10, 2012 -- Faced with inadequate progress on nuclear weapons reduction and proliferation, and continuing inaction on climate change, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (BAS) announced today that it has moved the hands of its famous "Doomsday Clock" to five minutes to midnight. The last time the Doomsday Clock minute hand moved was in January 2010, when the Clock's minute hand was pushed back one minute from five to six minutes before midnight. In a formal statement issued at the time of today's announcement, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists noted: "It is five minutes to midnight. Two years ago, it appeared that world leaders might address the truly global threats that we face. In many cases, that trend has not continued or been reversed. For that reason, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is moving the clock hand one minute closer to midnight, back to its time in 2007." Much more you need to read at TheBulletin.org! Doomsday Clock Overview The Doomsday Clock conveys how close humanity is to catastrophic destruction--the figurative midnight--and monitors the means humankind could use to obliterate itself. First and foremost, these include nuclear weapons, but they also encompass climate-changing technologies and new developments in the life sciences that could inflict irrevocable harm. ... SURVEILLANCE UPDATE! Homeland Security Monitors Journalists Freedom of speech might allow journalists to get away with a lot in America, but the Department of Homeland Security is on the ready to make sure that the government is keeping dibs on who is saying what. Under the National Operations Center (NOC)’s Media Monitoring Initiative that came out of DHS headquarters in November, Washington has the written permission to retain data on users of social media and online networking platforms. Specifically, the DHS announced the NCO and its Office of Operations Coordination and Planning (OPS) can collect personal information from news anchors, journalists, reporters or anyone who may use “traditional and/or social media in real time to keep their audience situationally aware and informed.” According to the Department of Homeland Security’s own definition of personal identifiable information, or PII, such data could consist of any intellect “that permits the identity of an individual to be directly or indirectly inferred, including any information which is linked or linkable to that individual.” Previously established guidelines within the administration say that data could only be collected under authorization set forth by written code, but the new provisions in the NOC’s write-up means that any reporter, whether someone along the lines of Walter Cronkite or a budding blogger, can be victimized by the agency. Also included in the roster of those subjected to the spying are government officials, domestic or not, who make public statements, private sector employees that do the same and “persons known to have been involved in major crimes of Homeland Security interest,” which to itself opens up the possibilities even wider. The department says that they will only scour publically-made info available while retaining data, but it doesn’t help but raise suspicion as to why the government is going out of their way to spend time, money and resources on watching over those that helped bring news to the masses. ... SURVEILLANCE UPDATE II ! Justin Elliott at Salon The Army is reading your Bradley Manning tweets! Our LAST WORD goes to Hal Crowther at IndyWeek.com Otherwise occupied: What price revolution? Here are some highlights ... Idiot force has been deployed against Occupy at dozens of its tent cities, although assault rifles have yet to appear anywhere other than Chapel Hill. Every image of belligerent overreaction to a nonviolent protest—diligently videotaped, instantly online—is a victory for this promising experiment in civil disobedience, which in the digital age commands an audience inconceivable to Mohandas Gandhi or Martin Luther King Jr. But those great martyrs of nonviolence, who succeeded in spite of the violence they failed to survive, laid down the rules of this game. It's about self-control: You conquer by conquering yourself. Your enemy is exposed, isolated and in the end defeated by his brutality and lack of restraint. That's all to the good, unless those are your ribs, your hair. The other lesson young rebels learn rapidly is that revolutions, in the words of one of Chapel Hill's declared anarchists, "are not like a dinner party." Civil disobedience is no walk in the park. It involves serious physical risks. There are sometimes martyrs. Pressed sufficiently, even the most benign authority will usually show its fangs. Television deceives. Was there ever a real-life lawman like Sheriff Andy Taylor, who never met a malefactor he didn't like? Or even one like Marshal Matt Dillon, who was always fair and avoided violence if he could? It's not a great secret that most people who seek authority, or defend it, fall toward the controlling side of the psychological spectrum. They tend to prize order and orderly citizens, an equilibrium that civil disobedience so rudely violates. "Disturbing the peace" is a punishable offense with deep historical roots. Disturb their peace and they will bite you, they will beat you. They might shoot you. Expect no smiles, no brownies. You make a stern, life-altering commitment when you take your grievances to the street. I had to grin at an e-mail an old friend forwarded to me, from his daughter in New York, who joined last week's night march across the Brooklyn Bridge to reclaim Zuccotti Park. "Being a revolutionary is cold work," she reports. ...... It's up to them now, the green, clean, unexpected revolutionaries one Manhattan office worker called "those terrific kids in the park." It's up to you, whoever you are, and encouraging polls indicate that most Americans don't buy the predictable smears from the right-wing coven, the ones that dismiss you as spoiled children of privilege who would rather demonstrate than work. If our self-esteem is based on the noxiousness of our enemies—I cherish mine—you should all be swollen with pride. You've been called "fascists" by Karl Rove, a criminal thug who belongs on Cellblock B instead of Fox News. Ann Coulter claims that America views you with "hilarity and revulsion," which pretty accurately sums up her own impact and her career. "Go get a bath right after you get a job," snarls Newt Gingrich, an influence-peddler who's had no legitimate job for 15 years and exists only to give the word "hypocrisy" a human face. My sympathies are obvious. What you in the tents can accomplish remains to be seen. But what I think I see, through the media fog of polarized America, is the return of the full-fledged idealists (as opposed to single-issue idealists) who seemed to go underground around 1980, possibly because the mass media abandoned them during the mudslide of self-celebration that began with Reaganism and culminated in Facebook. I say God bless them, and God will if he still has any investment in the United States of America. The Goliath they challenge has crushed a thousand Davids. The good news is that "the kids" are right on target. Their diagnosis is bull's-eye correct, and the patient is critical. For this country to survive, it must find saner ways to pursue and multiply wealth, and find them quickly. The cannibal capitalism that produced a Goldman Sachs and a Bernie Madoff is subhuman and obscene. There's no form of government more inherently offensive than plutocracy—only theocracy comes close. When a citizen comes of age in a plutocracy, he has no moral choice but to slay Pluto or die trying. .... This is beyond unacceptable, much closer to unspeakable, like an economic survey comparing the French court at Versailles to the sans-culottes. This is not what the Founders of the Great American Experiment had in mind (they thought slavery might be the fatal worm in our apple, but it turned out to be capitalism). This is what the OWS demonstrators, emerging from our underperforming high schools and colleges, found blocking their way to the future. Critics chide them for failing to establish specific demands, but a slate of demands from Occupy Chicago struck me as savvy and dead-on: repeal tax cuts and close loopholes for the rich, prosecute the Wall Street felons of 2008, separate commercial lending from investment banking, rein in lobbyists, eliminate corporate personhood and overturn the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision of 2010. This last demand is perhaps the most critical. The decision that defined campaign contributions as free speech, delivered by the court's 5-4 Republican majority, removed the last legal obstacles to a wallet-based political system that leaves the 1 percent, or one-hundredth of 1 percent, in unchallenged control of our fortunes and our public lives. It opened the floodgates for a multibillion-dollar campaign to defeat President Obama, and any candidates who might resist corporate feudalism, in 2012. In the words of the late Molly Ivins, "We either get the money out of politics or we lose the democracy." There's a grave possibility that it has already been lost. But those "terrific kids" in the tents, with their black-and-blue ribs and their eyes red from pepper spray, seem to be the only Americans who are dead sure what's at stake. The usual GOPher Circus suspects dominate yer Sunday Funnies but look for NOBEL LAUREATE PAUL KRUGMAN on THIS SNUFAGOPOLIS returning to "This Week" since Christine Anapour left to return "to CNN with a weekday program on its International network, while continuing at ABC News as a global affairs anchor" while KRUGMAN debates the troglodytes on the class war being waged BY the GOP and how the GOP 1% is winning. Throw yer bricks at everybody else because the Klown Kar is everywhere! Meanwhile check out MAX KEISER with news dissector Danny Schechter and Nomi Prins, RING OF FIRE has Slate's Dahlia Lithwick, VIDEO with The Nation's Ari Berman and Chauncey DeVega PLUS The Atlantic's Steve Clemons and WILLIAM HARTUNG on Democracy Now! PLUS AntiWarRadio's interview with Robert Koehler discussing his article Bugsplat’: the civilian toll of war. It is truly amazing that "The Right" can claim the media is "librul" when the CONservatives DOMINATE the airwaves. Be sure to watch Ex-FCC Commissioner Michael Copps on Media Consolidation, Broadband Expansion, Threats to Journalism. There just ARE NOT ANY LIBERALS on yer teevee AT ALL save KRUGMAN trying desperately to get the word out that "These people are crazy" and NONE of their "solutions" work whether it's economics, science, foreign policy or domestic policy. The entire CANARD of "The Evil Librul Media" is just that: a CANARD. And too many voters buy into this CANARD hook, line and sinker. Why? That's all they get on right-wing corporate-controlled terrestrial airwaves 24-7. We recommend Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media at informationclearinghouse "Required Viewing for every citizen in the Free World." The Brick TeeVee Crew was surfing around and found this video from Sept 2011 Tom Morello on REAL TIME with Bill Maher.... WATCH NOW!

TOM MORELLO THE NIGHTWATCHMAN

Enjoy Martin Luther King Day 2012!

BRICK TEEVEE ALERTS!_©

»»» William Hartung @ Democracy NOW! Drones, Asia and Cyber War: Pentagon Shifts Priorities in New Review; Budget Still Exceeds Bush Era Jan 9, 2012
»»» Colin Goddard, a survivor of the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre @ Democracy NOW! As Arizona Remembers Tucson Shooting, Virginia Tech Massacre Survivor Calls for New Gun Control Jan 9, 2012
»»» Guantánamo Bay Prison’s 10th Anniversary @ Democracy NOW! Guantánamo Detainees Launch Hunger Strike to Protest Prison’s 10th Anniversary AND Guantánamo Exclusive: Former Chief Prosecutor, Ex-Prisoner Call on Obama to Close Prison PLUS NDAA: Obama Signs Law Restricting Transfer of Guantánamo Prisoners and Expands Indefinite Detention Jan 10, 2012
»»» Dale Kuehne, Arnie Arnesen, Arnie Alpert @ Democracy NOW! Rivals’ Attacks on Romney’s Corporate Record Display Occupy Wall Street’s Wide Reach RELATED: How New Hampshire Became Last U.S. State to Recognize MLK Day Holiday Jan 11, 2012
»»» Michael Copps WATCH NOW Ex-FCC Commissioner Michael Copps on Media Consolidation, Broadband Expansion, Threats to Journalism Jan 12, 2012
»»» Trita Parsi, founder and president of the National Iranian American Council @ Democracy NOW! A Path to War? Assassination of Iran Nuclear Scientist, New Sanctions Strain U.S.-Iran Relations Jan 12, 2012
»»» Randall Robinson, founder and past president of TransAfrica @ Democracy NOW! 2 Years After Devastating Earthquake, Haiti’s Rebuilding Weighed Down by Legacy of Foreign Meddling Jan 13, 2012
»»» Michelle Alexander & Randall Robinson @ Democracy NOW! WATCH NOW On Eve of MLK Day, Michelle Alexander & Randall Robinson on the Mass Incarceration of Black America Jan 13, 2012
GRITtv

»»» GRITtv @ www.grittv.org with Laura Flanders
»»» FEATURED SHOW This Video is Absurd as Corporate Personhood What will it take to overturn the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United? Perhaps a viral video! Here is “It’s Viral,” with The Nation’s own Katrina vanden Heuvel, Jim Hightower and more. Exec produced by the We the People Campaign. Think it’ll work? And while you're thinking, repost! For more on citizens' opposition to Citizen's United, read the full post at TheNation.com .
BRICK TEEVEE SPORT!_©
»»» NFL Divisional Playoffs 49'ers and Patriots move on! Giants @ Packers & Texans @ Ravens on Sunday!
»»» NBA on TNT! Double-header Thursday! Lakers @ Heat 8 pm et then Mavs @ Jazz 10:30 pm et
BRICK TEEVEE ACTION!_©
The 1st Amendment is Our Permit Our permit to occupy is The First Amendment. Quickly sign the following statement which will be delivered to mayors, police chiefs and major media across the country:

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

October2011.org Sign the Petition to Get the 99% Deficit Proposal Heard in Congress
Please SIGN THE PETITION in support of the "99%'s Deficit Proposal" and plan direct actions to tell the Super Committee that the 99% have better solutions to our nation's crises. You can plan your own action at your Congressmember's office or join us in Freedom Plaza in Washington, DC for marches to Capitol Hill. Check our calendar for announcements.

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] UPDATE: Bypass SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) DNS Blocking with DeSopa 1.1 A new anti-SOPA add-on for Firefox, titled “DeSopa” is such a counter measure.When installed, users can click a single button to resolve a blocked domain via foreign DNS servers, bypassing all domestic DNS blockades and allowing the user to browse the site though the bare IP-address (if supported).“I feel that the general public is not aware of the gravity of SOPA and Congress seems like they are about to cater to the special interests involved, to the detriment of Internet, for which I and many others live and breathe,” DeSopa developer T Rizk told....
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! BRADLEY MANNING UPDATE: Robert Parry Exclusive America’s Debt to Bradley Manning So, it was useful to examine the WikiLeaks documents regarding the election of the new IAEA leader in 2009 to understand why this flip may have occurred. What those classified State Department cables show is that the IAEA’s new director general, Japanese diplomat Yukiya Amano, credited his victory largely to U.S. government support and promptly stuck his hand out for U.S. money. Further, Amano left little doubt that he would side with the United States in its confrontation with Iran and that he would even meet secretly with Israeli officials regarding their purported evidence on Iran’s nuclear program, despite the fact that Israel is arguably the world’s preeminent rogue nuclear state and rejects IAEA inspections of its own nuclear sites. According to U.S. embassy cables from Vienna, Austria, the site of IAEA’s headquarters, American diplomats in 2009 were cheering the prospect that Amano would advance U.S. interests in ways that outgoing IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei wouldn’t. ..... In private, Amano agreed to “consultations” with the head of the Israeli Atomic Energy Commission, Pyatt reported. (It is ironic indeed that Amano would have secret contacts with Israeli officials about Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons program, which has yet to yield a single bomb, when Israel possesses a large and undeclared nuclear arsenal.) In a subsequent cable dated Oct. 16, 2009, the U.S. mission in Vienna said Amano “took pains to emphasize his support for U.S. strategic objectives for the Agency. Amano reminded ambassador [Glyn Davies] on several occasions that … he was solidly in the U.S. court on every key strategic decision, from high-level personnel appointments to the handling of Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons program. “More candidly, Amano noted the importance of maintaining a certain ‘constructive ambiguity’ about his plans, at least until he took over for DG ElBaradei in December” 2009. In other words, the emerging picture of Amano is of a bureaucrat eager to bend in directions favored by the United States and Israel, especially regarding Iran’s nuclear program. Amano’s behavior surely contrasts with how the more independent-minded ElBaradei resisted some of Bush’s key claims about Iraq’s supposed nuclear weapons program, denouncing some documents as forgeries. Today, with some Republican presidential contenders falling over themselves to bond with Israel over its desire to attack Iran, this sort of detail puts the IAEA report into a fuller context that can help American voters judge whether another war is necessary or whether they’re being misled again by hyped allegations. More at link...
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

IRAQ: 4,484 US Military Dead as of Dec 31, 2011
AFGHANISTAN: 1,875 US Military Dead as of Jan 13, 2012
The Obameter: Tracking Obama's Campaign Promises
Considering Democracy: 8 Things to ask your Representative

This Week (ABC) anchor George Stephanopoulos

UPDATE: CNN reported today that renowned international correspondent Christiane Amanpour will be returning to CNN with a weekday program on its International network, while continuing at ABC News as a global affairs anchor. Former “This Week” host George Stephanopoulos will return to the program on 8 January, while continuing his role as an anchor for “Good Morning America”. FULL STORY

• 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'

• Texas Gov. Rick Perry

• comedian Stephen Colbert

• ROUNDTABLE: George Will and Cokie Roberts, ABC News senior political correspondent Jonathan Karl, the Wall Street Journal's Peggy Noonan, and New York Times columnist and Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman
Face The Nation (CBS) Host Bob Schiefer

• GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum

• GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich

• Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C.
60 Minutes (CBS)

• Groupon - In his first major interview since taking the multibillion dollar Internet company public late last year, the founder and CEO of online daily deals site Groupon talks about the company Forbes called the fastest growing in the world. Lesley Stahl interviews Andrew Mason. Shachar Bar-On is the producer.

• Qatar -The tiny and prosperous Middle Eastern country with no income taxes and free health care is an island of calm in a sea of unrest as neighbors like Syria, Egypt and Bahrain experience social upheaval. Bob Simon reports. Harry Radliffe is the producer.

• Jake -At 13 years old, Jake Barnett is already attending college and tutoring his much older "peers." In fact, the math and science prodigy was acing college courses when he was just eight and hopes to use his gift to change the world someday. Morley Safer reports. Katy Textor 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!

• GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich

• Sen. Lindsey Graham

• Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)

• Personal finance guru Suze Orman

• Tea-Party backed freshman Rep. Tim Scott.
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.

• Texas Governor and Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry

• senior campaign strategist David Axelrod

• Sen. John McCain (Senile-AZ)

• South Carolina evangelical leaders, Bob Jones III, chancellor Bob Jones University and

• Reverend Brad Atkins, president South Carolina Baptist Convention
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.

• PRAYER MEETIN' WEDNESDAY!!!!! Uber Pope Imam Bishop Rabbi Bob! Listen now HERE (mp3)!

Amen to the White Rose Society! Donate to Head On HERE! And join Coal River Mountain Watch at www.crmw.net!
YOUR GREEN NEWS REPORT

The Green News Report with Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen: 6 minutes of green news, politics, analysis & snarky comment!

BOOKMARK greennews.bradblog.com NOW!

• 'Green News Report' - January 12, 2012 IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: GOP planning end-run around Obama on Keystone XL pipeline?; 2 years after massive earthquake, Haiti still devastated; Big polluters in your neighborhood? There's a map for that; PLUS: While Obama talks clean energy, Germany actually does it ... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see link): Cow (poo) Power for Seattle; Deaths in Nigerian oil subsidy riots; Oil prices rise on Iran tensions; Federal judge reinstates EPA boiler rule; Thomas Edison's revenge?; Improving TV energy efficiency saves money; Lesions on gulf fish linked to BP oil spill; NASA's Hansen: extreme heat in TX, OK, Russia "caused by global warming ... PLUS: "Profound cascading consequences" as Rocky Mountains lose snowpack ... and much, MUCH more! ...

BRADCAST UPDATE: Guest Hosting 'Malloy Show' Friday the 13th! A Nightmare on Malloy Street! TONIGHT: All of your worst 2012 nightmares, plus great news out of Wisconsin!

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.

• Holiday Break and Website Changes
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! January 13, 2012

• Legal correspondent for Slate Dahlia Lithwick will tell us why the Montana Supreme Court sent a message to corporations, informing them that they are NOT people.

• Psychologist and Alternet contributor Bruce Levine will talk to us about the over-medication of our children.

• Steve Clemons from The Atlantic will join us for a discussion on how to restore America’s super power status in the world.

• Steve Kornacki from Salon.com will tell us why Mitt Romney will have to appease Ron Paul if he wants to win the Republican nomination.

• And author and radio host Maria Armoudian will be here to tell us about the evolution of the Occupy Movement.

• VIDEO! Papantonio: Inside the GOP’s Block The Vote MachineMost Americans are under the correct assumption that the right to vote is a guarantee for every legal US citizen. But as we’ve noted during this show, the GOP is working tirelessly to prevent minorities, the elderly, and young people from being able to cast a vote in next year’s presidential election. That’s because these groups tend to favor Democrats over the GOP’s new brand of crazy Tea Party candidates. Mike Papantonio talks about the GOP’s war on voting rights with author and Nation Magazine contributor Ari Berman.

• VIDEO! Papantonio: Racism Prevalent at GOP Primaries When you drill down to the heart of the GOP’s war on voting, you’ll see that racism is the driving factor. And that racism isn’t just coming in the form of voter suppression – even the GOP Tea Party candidates are diving head first into the realm of race baiting. Mike Papantonio talks about how racism is driving the Tea Party candidates’ campaigns with blogger and author Chauncey DeVega.

• Support Those Who Support Progressive Media! 2011 has certainly been a great year for Ring of Fire, and we’ve had some great sponsors that have helped support the show throughout the year. We wanted to take the time to personally thank each and every one of them, and we encourage all of our listeners to take the time to support those who have support us.

• Join our blog at www.ringoffireradio.com. You can now SUBSCRIBE TO OUR PODCAST by clicking on the “Podcast” tab at the top of the Ring of Fire blog. Please help support progressive radio by signing up!

Ring of Fire Radio Ring of Fire, hosted by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Mike Papantonio and Sam Seder: Saturdays at 3 o’clock Eastern, rebroadcasts 8-11 et Sunday evenings on Chicago's Progressive Talk WCPT AM & FM and 4 pm et on Sirius/XM 167 featuring The PAP Attack! "We’ll bring you the stories that the mainstream media didn’t feel like reporting this week."
Majority Report with Sam Seder Streaming LIVE weekdays 11:30 am et @ Majority.fm!

• Rocky Anderson on his Presidential Run, Ron Paul & Occupy Wall Street [01•10•12]

• Jeff Smith of the Occupy Wall Street Press Team on the Upcoming J17 Occupy Congress Events [01•10•12]

• Dave Weigel of Slate on the New Hampshire Primary [01•11•12]

• Matt of Occupy New Hampshire on Their Role in the NH Primary [01•11•12]

• Robert Forrant on Bread and Roses Labor Strike [01•12•12]

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 PLUS here is Max Keiser’s official Facebook page And here is the official Keiser Report page

• COMPETITION FROM RT AND THE ‘KEISER REPORT’ HAS FORCED THE NYT into admitting it’s not pursuing truth and then asking its readers if they are interested in the truth… by maxkeiser. READ NYT OpEd: Should The Times Be a Truth Vigilante? (nyt) maxkeiser: I like to think we had a hand in this… Our reports on RT are so shockingly truthful that now the NYT is playing catch-up in the truth business. Something you would have thought they were doing all along.. But we told you otherwise. And that’s the truth. See Cenk Uygur rips New York Times over ‘truth vigilante’ column!

• VIDEO! Max Keiser on Capital Account: Presidential Futures are like “Running Man on Steroids” by stacyherbert.

• KEISER REPORT [KR233] Keiser Report: Spiral of debt towards the paranormal In this episode, we discuss Brits using payday loans to pay off interest only mortgages while Greeks bury their cash for fear of being Gaddafi’d by the banksters. In the second half of the show, Max talks to David Morgan of Silver-Investor.com about silver, Sprott and bonds.

• KEISER REPORT [KR234] Keiser Report – Hollywood Cons Congress We discuss copyright and how Hollywood cons Congress by using Wall Street accounting. In the second half of the show, Max talks to Amir Taaki about hackers, piracy, technology and bitcoin.

• KEISER REPORT [KR235] Keiser Report – Death by Thousand Revelations In this episode, we discuss death by a thousand revelations and destroying the City to save the City. In the second half of the show, Max talks to author, Nomi Prins about the role of JP Morgan in Jon Corzine’s MF Global crime.

• KEISER REPORT [236] Keiser Report: Wall Street Gangsta! We discuss corruption with a clean face and Jamie “Spaghetti Face” Dimon. In the second half of the show, Max talks to investment adviser and blogger Michael Krieger about Ron Paul, the Fed and political futures.

• ON THE EDGE On the Edge with Danny Schechter Max talks to the news dissector, Danny Schechter.

• 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

• Flynt Leverett January 1, 2012: Flynt Leverett, former Senior Director for Middle East Affairs at the National Security Council, discusses Iran’s threat to close the Strait of Hormuz, as a response to sanctions that may eventually cut off Iran’s oil exports; why the US and Israel don’t really have a problem with Iranian nuclear weapons, just Iran’s refusal to submit to US regional hegemony; Israel’s “red line” on Iran’s uranium enrichment at Qom; why US foreign policy planners don’t learn from prior mistakes (because superpowers don’t have to); and why waging war with borrowed money is a sure sign of a declining empire. Flynt Leverett runs The Race For Iran blog.

• Mark Sheffield January 12, 2012: Mark Sheffield of the Policy on Point blog discusses his article “Skip the Turban, Check the Brain: It’s Called the Persian Gulf for a Reason;” why the Persian Gulf qualifies as US-occupied territory; the mainstream media’s spin on Iran’s naval war games and their bluff and bluster about closing the Strait of Hormuz; Iran’s asymmetrical options for counterattacking a US or Israeli airstrike; and the danger of Silkworm missiles to US naval vessels, especially aircraft carriers.

• Robert Koehler January 12, 2012: Nationally syndicated writer Robert Koehler discusses his article “‘Bugsplat’: the civilian toll of war;” robbing America’s enemies of their humanity through derisive name calling or utter indifference; how US nationalism – America’s civic religion – permits the government to commit atrocities abroad without domestic political repercussions; why all the regular people look like ants to those on high; and military recruiting through video games and high unemployment.

Many more interviews at Antiwar Radio!
fauxnews

• Former Senator Rick Santorum

• Rick Tyler, a senior adviser to the pro Gingrich Super Pac

• Chris Chocola, the president of the Club for Growth

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Brick TeeVee - THEY report. YOU throw bricks. ©

We're here because you're there. ©

First brick is on us!
brick

Get your Foam Bricks at ThrowThings.com HERE! T

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Brick TeeVee and the End of the Constitution

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

ALL LINKS OPEN A NEW WINDOW!!!
Click on anything below and be INSTANTLY SMARTER!
THE U.S.CONSTITUTION IS NOW DEAD Fellow Clevelander Andy Borowitz at BorowitzReport tweets "If only 8 more people liked me than Rick Santorum I would put a gun in my mouth." From The BTV "They watch so you don't have to" Department we get a "Happy New Year" greeting from Sick Santorum! Our interpid jen then snags this nugget from CROOKSANDLIARS on New Year's Day David Gregory Pushes Back at Rick Santorum For Lying About the President Not Meeting With Republicans WITH VIDEO! by Heather

Sadly what we did not get from David Gregory here is pointing out the record number of filibusters and Republicans refusing to vote for things that they claim they once supported and the fact that they're more worried about making President Obama a one term president than ever cooperating with him on anything. Instead he allowed Santorum to rant and rave about how the President hasn't been talking nicely enough to them, while in the mean time they're out calling him a Socialist and a Marxist and turning the definition of "class warfare" on its head when it's their party that's waging it.

Now we cannot let this stand. ThinkProgress has Rick Santorum’s Top 10 Most Outrageous Campaign Statements where we need to point out these three items:

• 8) HEALTH REFORM WILL KILL MY CHILD: Santorum, who claims that Obamacare motivated him to run for president, told reporters in April that his daughter Bella — who was born with a genetic abnormality — wouldn’t survive in a country with “socialized medicine.” “Children like Bella are not given the treatment that other children are given.” FOR THE RECORD Senator Sanatarium AND HIS FAMILY recieve LIFELONG FEDERAL HEALTH CARE funded by EVERY TAXPAYER IN THE U.S. See USA Today Lawmakers far outpace most Americans in benefits: "any member who lasts five years in office also can get taxpayer-subsidized health care until he or she reaches Medicare age."

for a black man

of course is a phony exception

NOW for the hypocritical truth read this from Philly.com Articles Collection 1997 Issue Turns Personal For Santorums The Senator And His Wife Had To Consider An Abortion As She Lay Near Death which is the most accurate item the BTV Crew could find. And the truth-challenged Sick Santorum now goes with this Santorum’s Racist Welfare Rant: ‘I Don’t Want To Make Black People’s Lives Better’ With Taxpayer Money And now can you believe Santorum Denies Making Racially-Charged Claim After Apparently Acknowledging Saying It with VIDEO! Watch and YOU DECIDE!
Here's some Schadenfreude News Two Ex-Scott Walker Staffers Arrested In Ongoing Investigation An expansive “John Doe” corruption investigation targeting employees and former employees of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) has led to its first arrests today, nabbing three people, including two former aides to Walker. The investigation centers around Milwaukee County workers during Walker’s tenure their as executive, and has previously involved an FBI raid on the home of a fourth person, one of Walker’s top aides.
At George Washington's blog Psychopaths Caused the Financial Crisis … And They Will Do It Again and Again Unless They Are Removed From Power ...Unless We Remove the Psychopaths from Power, They Will Cause More and More Destruction. The inmates are still running the asylum. Anyone who knows Jamie Dimon, Lloyd Blankfein or the other Wall Street “leaders” can tell you that they haven’t changed a bit since 2008. They are not repentent for their role in the financial crisis. They don’t feel bad that the taxpayers have had to bail them out again and again … and that they have used that money to enrich themselves and stick it to the little guy.
The Daily Bell has an Exclusive Interview with Catherine Austin Fitts on Wall Street's Corruption, the Austrian School and Who's 'Really' in Charge Good item!
And AmericanBanker predicts Jamie Dimon Will Have His Comeuppance in 2012
Zerohedge has a Guest Post: Eight Simple Truths You Need To Know About 2012 submitted by Simon Black from Sovereign Man. Yesterday we discussed certain events that, in my view, are nearly mathematical certainties. Things like a restructuring of public pensions and Social Security in Europe and the US. Western governments blocking Internet and mobile networks. War. The US government being forced to issue debt in a foreign currency. All of these events are underpinned by a simple premise: 1) Public and private debts included, most western nations are insolvent. Big time. .... Read on for the other seven!
At NakedCapitalism Yves Smith posts Philip Pilkington: The Reactionary Mind – The Truth About Conservatism; An Interview with Corey Robin Part I Well worth the whole read; here's just a small snip.

PP: Interesting point about the conservative ideologue being an outsider. That brings to a point that you raise in your book which I found fascinating as it really chimed with my personal experience: namely, that conservatism is the ‘politics of the loser’. In talking about this realistically I think we risk opening up criticism on two fronts: on the left, if we are frank, we break the pact of political correctness and open ourselves up to criticism in that vein; while the right will simply accuse us of getting our political knives out. But no matter because I think this should be spoken about quite clearly. Conservatism is an ideology that seems to appeal to people with a chip on their shoulder. That sounds strange because this is usually the argument raised against the left; most profoundly in the Nietzschean vein of the priest appealing to the ressentiment of the masses. But in my experience – and I’ve spoken with others who move in such circles in private and they agree with me – conservative ideologues are often people with enormous chips on their shoulders. Many are afflicted with some disadvantage or other – or, at least, something that they seem to think a disadvantage. .... It’s often people of this disposition that stand up in defence of power. And there seems to be some sort of psychology behind it that’s not often talked about – the phrase ‘identification with the aggressor’ certainly comes to mind, for example. How deeply does this psychology run in conservative doctrine? And how do you make sense of it?
CR: Again, I want to stress that mine is not a psychological theory of conservatism. I’m leery of speculating about the psychic states that lead men and women to subscribe to one theory or another, particularly since so many of those states seem like universal experiences, elements of the human condition that can’t be limited to one set of the population or another. But I will say this: the sensibility you describe – experiencing or identifying oneself as a victim — is a consistent feature of conservative thought. Regardless of whether the ideologue or camp follower of conservatism sees him or herself as a victim, the idea of victimhood plays a critical part in conservatism. Going back to Burke. Marie Antoinette is the first great victim of the conservative canon. The sovereign who Joseph de Maistre recommends be restored to power once the counterrevolution prevails – someone Maistre describes as being schooled in the ways of adversity, who’s been brought low by fortune and thus learned a thing or two – he’s a victim (and Maistre recommends him to power on the basis of that victimhood). William Graham Sumner’s “forgotten man” is another victim. Nietzsche’s master class, in fact, is a victim. So is Nixon’s silent majority. And so on. ..... But as you say, it speaks for the loser not by democratizing society – making things more equal – but by making it more elite, more privilege, more unequal.

ThinkProgress has this from Wednesday BREAKING: Obama To Make Recess Appointments To National Labor Relations Board President Obama is planning to announce today that, in addition to his recess appointment of former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray as the first director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, he will also use his recess appointment powers to place Department of Labor Attorney Sharon Block, labor lawyer Richard Griffin, and NLRB counsel Terence Flynn to the National Labor Relations Board. Like the CFPB, Republicans have spent the past year blocking nominations to the NLRB in an effort to keep the agency from functioning. Those efforts would have paid off soon, since after Craig Becker’s term on the board expired this week, the NLRB would have been reduced to two members, which is the number it had for more than two years from 2008 to 2010. This effectively shuts down the board, since the Supreme Court ruled in 2010 that two members does not constitute a legal quorum, and thus, a two-member board can’t make binding rulings. All 47 Senate Republicans have warned Obama of a “constitutional conflict” should he choose to use his recess appointment powers — authority he is well within his right to use, as ThinkProgress’ Ian Millhiser noted yesterday — but it was Chief Justice John Roberts, a noted conservative, who suggested the president should make recess appointments to keep the NLRB functioning, as ThinkProgress reported in 2010. Obama’s appointment of Block, Flynn, and Griffin is important, too, because it boosts the board’s membership to five, protecting its quorum even if member Brian Hayes follows through on his threats to quit. Preserving its right to quorum ensures that its rulings will not be thrown out on legal challenges, as more than 600 cases were by the Roberts Court in 2010. We didn't put in all the cross-links so go to ThinkProgress to follow those juicy items. Now, think back to the "conservative as a victim" meme as you read the UPDATE: Republicans have shown outrage at Obama for using his recess appointment powers with Consumer Financial Protection Bureau director Richard Cordray, and similar outrage is likely to follow the news of the NLRB appointments. But the past three Republican presidents also made recess appointments to the NLRB. Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush each made three recess appointments to the NLRB, while George W. Bush made seven such appointments.
Matt Taibbi at Rolling Stone offers Iowa: The Meaningless Sideshow Begins In the wake of the Tea Party, the Occupy movement, and a dozen or more episodes of real rebellion on the streets, in the legislatures of cities and towns, and in state and federal courthouses, this presidential race now feels like a banal bureaucratic sideshow to the real event – the real event being a looming confrontation between huge masses of disaffected citizens on both sides of the aisle, and a corrupt and increasingly ideologically bankrupt political establishment, represented in large part by the two parties dominating this race. Let’s put it this way. What feels more like a real news story – Newt Gingrich calling Mitt Romney a liar for the ten millionth time, or this sizzling item that just hit the wires by way of the Montana Supreme Court:

HELENA — The Montana Supreme Court restored the state's century-old ban on direct spending by corporations on political candidates or committees in a ruling Friday that interest groups say bucks a high-profile U.S. Supreme Court decision granting political speech rights to corporations… A group seeking to undo the Citizens United decision lauded the Montana high court, with its co-founder saying it was a "huge victory for democracy." "With this ruling, the Montana Supreme Court now sets up the first test case for the U.S. Supreme Court to revisit its Citizens United decision, a decision which poses a direct and serious threat to our democracy," John Bonifaz, of Free Speech For People, said in a statement.

The Iowa caucus, let’s face it, marks the beginning of a long, rigidly-controlled, carefully choreographed process that is really designed to do two things: weed out dangerous minority opinions, and award power to the candidate who least offends the public while he goes about his primary job of energetically representing establishment interests. If that sounds like a glib take on a free election system that allows the public to choose whichever candidate they like best without any censorship or overt state interference, so be it. But the ugly reality, as Dylan Ratigan continually points out, is that the candidate who raises the most money wins an astonishing 94% of the time in America. .... The reason 2012 feels so empty now is that voters on both sides of the aisle are not just tired of this state of affairs, they are disgusted by it. They want a chance to choose their own leaders and they want full control over policy, not just a partial say. There are a few challenges to this state of affairs within the electoral process – as much as I disagree with Paul about many things, I do think his campaign is a real outlet for these complaints – but everyone knows that in the end, once the primaries are finished, we’re going to be left with one 1%-approved stooge taking on another. ..... The campaign is still a gigantic ritual and it will still be attended by all the usual pomp and spectacle, but it’s empty. In fact, because it’s really a contest between 1%-approved candidates, it’s worse than empty – it’s obnoxious. It was always annoying when these two parties and the slavish media that follows their champions around for 18 months pretended that this was a colossal clash of opposites. But now, with the economy in the shape that it’s in thanks in large part to the people financing these elections, that pretense is more than annoying, it’s offensive. And I imagine that the more they try to play up the drama of these familiar-but-empty campaign rituals, the more irritating to the public it will all become. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if, before the season is out, the campaign itself will become a hated symbol of the 1% -- with the conventions and the networks’ broadcast tents outside the inevitable "free speech zones" attracting protests the same way the offices of Chase and Bank of America did this fall. Or maybe not, we’ll see. In any case, it all starts tonight. It’s the same old campaign ritual, but I just don’t think it’s going to fly the same way this time around. MORE TAIBBI! Listen to Sam Seder's interview Matt Taibbi on the Meaningless Sideshow that is the GOP Primaries [01•04•12] AND Goldman's Latest Boiler-Room Stock: America It seems Jim O'Neill, the head of Goldman's Asset Management department, is predicting that the United States stock market may go up "15 to 20 percent." O'Neill apparently believes Ben Bernanke and the Federal Reserve will resort to another round of money-printing, and finally green-light the long-awaited "Qe3," or third round of "Quantitative Easing." ..... Goldman is building an impressive resume of sweepingly bullish predictions that later on, in retrospect, look more like signals to investors that they should run screaming in the opposite direction. A good example might be May of 2008, when Goldman boldly predicted that oil would go to $200 a barrel; oil would go on to peak at $147 less than two months later and crash to the floor soon after. Read more at Rolling Stone for the full effect.
Will Potter at GreenIsTheNewRed reveals FBI Says Activists Who Investigate Factory Farms Can Be Prosecuted as Terrorists
The FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force has kept files on activists who expose animal welfare abuses on factory farms and recommended prosecuting them as terrorists, according to a new document uncovered through the Freedom of Information Act. This new information comes as the Center for Constitutional Rights has filed a lawsuit challenging the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA) as unconstitutional because its vague wording has had a chilling effect on political activism. This document adds to the evidence demonstrating that the AETA goes far beyond property destruction, as its supporters claim. The 2003 FBI file details the work of several animal rights activists who used undercover investigation to document repeated animal welfare violations. The FBI special agent who authored the report said they “illegally entered buildings owned by [redacted] Farm… and videotaped conditions of animals.” The animal activists caused “economic loss” to businesses, the FBI says. And they also openly rescued several animals from the abusive conditions. This was not done covertly in the style of underground groups like the Animal Liberation Front — it was an act of non-violent civil disobedience and, as the FBI agent notes, the activists distributed press releases and conducted media interviews taking responsibility for their actions. Based on these acts — trespassing in order to photograph and videotape abuses on factory farms — the agent concludes there “is a reasonable indication” that the activists “have violated the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, 18 USC Section 43 (a).” Click here to view the FBI document. The file was uncovered through a FOIA request by Ryan Shapiro, who is one of the activists mentioned. [Please note that this document has additional redactions in order to protect the identities of the other activists, at their request.] Shapiro is now a doctoral candidate at MIT. “It is deeply sobering to see one’s name in an FBI file proposing terrorism charges,” he said in an email. “It is even more sobering to realize the supposedly terroristic activities in question are merely exposing the horrific cruelty of factory farms, educating the public about what goes on behind those closed doors, and openly rescuing a few animals from one of those farms as an act of civil disobedience.”
But then shouldn't the FDA be looking into these practices? The Department of Agriculture? The CDC? Somebody? Anybody? In a related story our intrepid Maddy finds out that the FDA Gives Up on Antibiotic Restrictions in Livestock by Tom Laskawy The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) pulled a Scrooge move just before Christmas. The agency published an entry in the Federal Register declaring that it will end its attempt at mandatory restrictions on the use of antibiotics in animal agriculture. The agency isn’t advertising the shift, though: This news would have remained a secret if not for Maryn McKenna’s Superbug blog over at Wired. McKenna, who specializes in writing about antibiotics and their link to pathogens, caught the Federal Register notice. .... Inaction has consequences: According to the vast majority of microbiologists and public health experts, restrictions on agricultural uses are key to preserving the effectiveness of antibiotics as well as to preventing the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria like MRSA and salmonella Heidelberg (cause of last summer’s record-breaking ground turkey recall). And it’s no small dosage: Every year 29 million pounds of antibiotics are given to animals — often via their feed. That figure represents 80 percent of all antibiotics used in the U.S. Consumer groups like the Union of Concerned Scientists and the Pew Charitable Trusts have been calling for an end to the practice for years. But it’s not just outsiders who are fed up with the agency’s work on this issue; the administration’s own watchdog group, the Government Accountability Office, recently gave the agency a failing grade in the subject. In many ways, this issue parallels the ongoing battle over BPA, the endocrine-disrupting chemical used in food packaging, plastics, and register receipts. When finally pushed to ban the chemical, the FDA declared that “its hands were tied” by regulatory hurdles and jurisdictional questions. Yet soon after, the industry lobbying group American Chemical Council responded to consumer anger and petitioned the agency to go ahead and ban BPA. Only then did the FDA indicate it would follow through. In other words, the FDA is admitting that as long as the industry opposes it, the agency can’t keep antibiotics out of our meat and dairy products (nor, for that matter, can it ensure that antibiotics will remain effective). It’s also admitting it has no real power over the industries it regulates. If the agency continues to favor industry’s concerns over the public health, it begs the question: Who exactly is looking out for us? BTV's msgeaux exclaims "Can you say serious cases of dysbiosis in all people eating the treated animals? Destroying the beneficial microbes in the human gut leads to diseases such as dyspraxia, autism, ADD, ADHD, Dyslexia, Depression, Schizophrenia, Autoimmune diseases, serious immune system disfunction, etc. 85% of your immune system is in the gut and is provided by the gut's beneficial bacteria, fungi, yeast, and many more microbes unidentified by man. The USDA has a collection of over 95,000 species of beneficial microbes in store. This is a travesty of immense proportions." BTV's jen chimes in "Yup. Federal agencies, also owned and controlled by big money. The more light is shined on big money's influence on governent, to the great detriment of society and the environment, the less they're going to be able to stay in control. If only people had the means to completely boycott mass produced, corporate meat and vegetables, and buy only organic foods, this chit would change immediately. "
ASTROTURF ALERT from ThinkProgress The 1 Percent Solution: Koch Brothers Bankroll Right-Wing ThinkProgress Clone This morning in Politico, Ben Smith breaks the news that the Koch Brothers and others on the right are launching a new organization explicitly modeled after ThinkProgress:

Impressed by the effectiveness of the liberal Center for American Progress, a group of conservative journalists and operatives are preparing to engage in their own sincerest form of flattery

according to its chairman, Michael Goldfarb, and will house a new conservative online news outlet, the Washington Free Beacon, edited by former Weekly Standard writer Matthew Continetti.

.... The new organization’s mimickry of ThinkProgress and CAP at times borders on comical. For example, Smith reports that “the new group’s mission statement, for instance, appears at points to be literally copied and pasted from CAP’s, with the word ‘freedom’ substituted for ‘progress.’” Let us digress to The Reactionary Mind interview with Cory Robin. He goes on to say, "And yet as you note, there is often a not-so-secret affinity between conservatism and radicalism. At its most basic, the conservative often realizes – indeed, this can be a condition of his coming to awareness of himself as a conservative – that if he is going to oppose the left, he must borrow from, imitate, and even in some way become like, the left. That can mean everything from the rhetoric of the left (freedom and rights, for example, are two tropes that the right often borrows from the left) to the tactics of the left (street protest) to the underlying worldview of the left (that men and women have it in their capacity to order the political world as they see fit). This borrowing can be very self-conscious and instrumental. You have folks like Margaret Thatcher saying that the other side have got an ideology, we’ve got to have one too. But more interesting, to me at any rate, is when it’s not self-conscious or instrumental, when it happens – as it were – almost behind the back of the conservative, without him or her realizing it. Think about it: there is the conservative arguing, day in and day out, against his antagonist. At some level, that argument has to start shaping the way he thinks about his own views. Sometimes that means he will sharpen and come to a deeper awareness of his own beliefs and their presuppositions. But sometimes it will also mean that he be influenced by his antagonist, that he will – again, without even realizing it – let slip an argument, or betray an assumption, a way of thinking and speaking, that came from that opponent."
ASTROTURF ALERT II: Israeli students to get $2,000 to spread state propaganda on Facebook reports Ali Abunimah on Electronic Intefada The National Union of Israeli Students (NUIS) has become a full-time partner in the Israeli government’s efforts to spread its propaganda online and on college campuses around the world. NUIS has launched a program to pay Israeli university students $2,000 to spread pro-Israel propaganda online for 5 hours per week from the “comfort of home.” The union is also partnering with Israel’s Jewish Agency to send Israeli students as missionaries to spread propaganda in other countries, for which they will also receive a stipend. This active recruitment of Israeli students is part of Israel’s orchestrated effort to suppress the Palestinian solidarity movement under the guise of combating “delegitimization” of Israel and anti-Semitism.
The involvement of the official Israeli student union as well as Haifa University, Tel Aviv University, Ben-Gurion University and Sapir College in these state propaganda programs will likely bolster Palestinian calls for the international boycott of Israeli academic institutions. ... The paid scholarship will allow them to get training and then work from home for five hours per week for a year to “refute” what it calls “misinformation” about Israel on social networking sites. .... What is completely missing from the program is any indication that criticism of Israel could be valid. Rather the National Union of Israeli Students apparently seeks to indoctrinate Israeli students that every criticism of Israel is “hate” and “anti-Semitism” and that the Internet should be seen as a battlefield on which they are foot soldiers. -Using e-learning tools for government propaganda- An interesting aspect of the NUIS program is that it uses the common open source virtual learning environment Moodle as its interface with program participants. This interface can be found at students.digitalchange.co.il. Whereas Moodle was designed for education – to spread mind-opening learning beyond the constraints of geography – the Israeli innovation here is to use it for mind-narrowing propaganda: getting students to be uncritical, to not think for themselves, but rather to spread Israel’s state-sponsored propaganda. See the world, spread more propaganda!
Dave Lindorff writes for OpEdNews.com Killing Kids is So American discussing "another point, that gets beyond this one case of overkill by police: the double standard of concern when it is an American kid and when it is foreign kids who are killed." (WARNING: graphic pic at top of story).
OCCUPY UPDATE: For those who relied on Tim Pool for some excellent live streaming of the OWS on the Ustream channel TheOther99 please read this Tim Pool short story "Tim Pool of TheOther99 on today's events. "
NYT published a study on Upward Mobility in Harder for Americans to Rise From Lower Rungs ... At least five large studies in recent years have found the United States to be less mobile than comparable nations. A
project led by Markus Jantti, an economist at a Swedish university, found that 42 percent of American men raised in the bottom fifth of incomes stay there as adults. That shows a level of persistent disadvantage much higher than in Denmark (25 percent) and Britain (30 percent) — a country famous for its class constraints. Meanwhile, just 8 percent of American men at the bottom rose to the top fifth. That compares with 12 percent of the British and 14 percent of the Danes. Despite frequent references to the United States as a classless society, about 62 percent of Americans (male and female) raised in the top fifth of incomes stay in the top two-fifths, according to research by the Economic Mobility Project of the Pew Charitable Trusts. Similarly, 65 percent born in the bottom fifth stay in the bottom two-fifths.
By emphasizing the influence of family background, the studies not only challenge American identity but speak to the debate about inequality. While liberals often complain that the United States has unusually large income gaps, many conservatives have argued that the system is fair because mobility is especially high, too: everyone can climb the ladder. Now the evidence suggests that America is not only less equal, but also less mobile.... Very disturbing. How's that "trickle down economics" working out for you now?
David Sirota writes about "Words we don’t want to lose" By far, the laziest, most vapid articles annually published during this post-holiday season are lists of the past year’s top 10 words and aphorisms. Admittedly, the sloth of such an endeavor tempts me. But as a new dad obsessed with my 1-year-old son’s future, I think I’ve got a more worthy list to add to the pile — one of current words and phrases that my kid may never know because they might end up as relics of a lost vernacular. Here are those harrowing 10. I hope I’m wrong but fear I’m not.
WHITEOUT PRESS has this "hair-on-fire" article US Troops going to Israel In one of the most blacked-out stories in America right now, the US military is preparing to send thousands of US troops, along with US Naval anti-missile ships and accompanying support personnel, to Israel. It took forever to find a second source for confirmation of this story and both relatively mainstream media outlets are in Israel. With one source saying the military deployment and corresponding exercises are to occur in January, the source providing most of the details suggests it will occur later this spring. Calling it not just an “exercise”, but a “deployment”, the Jerusalem Post quotes US Lt.-Gen Frank Gorenc, Commander of the US Third Air Force based in Germany. The US Commander visited Israel two weeks ago to confirm details for “the deployment of several thousand American soldiers to Israel.” In an effort to respond to recent Iranian threats and counter-threats, Israel announced the largest ever missile defense exercise in its history. Now, it’s reported that the US military, including the US Navy, will be stationed throughout Israel, also taking part. Also confirming the upcoming US-Israeli military missile exercises is JTA.org - 'global news service of the Jewish people'. In their account, they report, 'Last week, plans for Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, to visit Israel in January were leaked to Israeli media; his visit likely will coincide with the largest-ever joint U.S.-Israel anti-missile exercise'. ... In preparation for anticipated Iranian missile attacks upon Israel, the US is reportedly bringing its THAAD, Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, and ship-based Aegis ballistic missile systems to Israel. The US forces will join Israeli missile defense systems like the Patriot and Arrow. The deployment comes with “the ultimate goal of establishing joint task forces in the event of a large-scale conflict in the Middle East”....

We have no more Constitution in any meaningful sense. It had a darn good run.

R.I.P. US Constitution

usconstitution

1887 - 2012
Esteemed George Washington University Constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley proclaims on his blog Final Curtain: Obama Signs Indefinite Detention of Citizens Into Law As Final Act of 2011

President Barack Obama rang in the New Year by signing the NDAA law with its provision allowing him to indefinitely detain citizens. It was a symbolic moment to say the least. With Americans distracted with drinking and celebrating, Obama signed one of the greatest rollbacks of civil liberties in the history of our country . . . and citizens partied only blissfully into the New Year. Ironically, in addition to breaking his promise not to sign the law, Obama broke his promise on signing statements and attached a statement that he really does not want to detain citizens indefinitely.
Obama insisted that he signed the bill simply to keep funding for the troops. It was a continuation of the dishonest treatment of the issue by the White House since the law first came to light. As discussed earlier, the White House told citizens that the President would not sign the NDAA because of the provision. That spin ended after sponsor Sen. Carl Levin (D., Mich.) went to the floor and disclosed that it was the White House that insisted that there be no exception for citizens in the indefinite detention provision.
The latest claim is even more insulting. You do not “support our troops” by denying the principles for which they are fighting. They are not fighting to consolidate authoritarian powers in the President. The “American way of life” is defined by our Constitution and specifically the Bill of Rights. Moreover, the insistence that you do not intend to use authoritarian powers does not alter the fact that you just signed an authoritarian measure. It is not the use but the right to use such powers that defines authoritarian systems.
The almost complete failure of the mainstream media to cover this issue is shocking. Many reporters have bought into the spin of the Obama Administration as they did the spin over torture by the Bush Administration. Even today reporters refuse to call waterboarding torture despite the long line of cases and experts defining waterboarding as torture for decades. On the NDAA, reporters continue to mouth the claim that this law only codifies what is already the law. That is not true. The Administration has fought any challenges to indefinite detention to prevent a true court review. Moreover, most experts agree that such indefinite detention of citizens violates the Constitution.
There are also those who continue the long-standing effort to excuse Obama’s horrific record on civil liberties by either blaming others or the times. One successful myth is that there is an exception for citizens. The White House is saying that changes to the law made it unnecessary to veto the legislation. That spin is facially ridiculous. The changes were the inclusion of some meaningless rhetoric after key amendments protecting citizens were defeated. The provision merely states that nothing in the provisions could be construed to alter Americans’ legal rights. Since the Senate clearly views citizens are not just subject to indefinite detention but even execution without a trial, the change offers nothing but rhetoric to hide the harsh reality. THe Administration and Democratic members are in full spin — using language designed to obscure the authority given to the military. The exemption for American citizens from the mandatory detention requirement (section 1032) is the screening language for the next section, 1031, which offers no exemption for American citizens from the authorization to use the military to indefinitely detain people without charge or trial.
Obama could have refused to sign the bill and the Congress would have rushed to fund the troops. Instead, as confirmed by Sen. Levin, the White House conducted a misinformation campaign to secure this power while portraying Obama as some type of reluctant absolute ruler, or as Obama maintains a reluctant president with dictatorial powers.
Most Democratic members joined their Republican colleagues in voting for this unAmerican measure. Some Montana citizens are moving to force the removal of these members who they insist betrayed their oaths of office and their constituents. Most citizens however are continuing to treat the matter as a distraction from the holiday cheer.
For civil libertarians, the NDAA is our Mayan moment. 2012 is when the nation embraced authoritarian powers with little more than a pause between rounds of drinks.
So here is a resolution better than losing weight this year . . . make 2012 the year you regained your rights.

ACLU press release President Obama Signs Indefinite Detention Bill Into Law ... “President Obama's action today is a blight on his legacy because he will forever be known as the president who signed indefinite detention without charge or trial into law,” said Anthony D. Romero, ACLU executive director. “The statute is particularly dangerous because it has no temporal or geographic limitations, and can be used by this and future presidents to militarily detain people captured far from any battlefield. The ACLU will fight worldwide detention authority wherever we can, be it in court, in Congress, or internationally.” Under the Bush administration, similar claims of worldwide detention authority were used to hold even a U.S. citizen detained on U.S. soil in military custody, and many in Congress now assert that the NDAA should be used in the same way again. The ACLU believes that any military detention of American citizens or others within the United States is unconstitutional and illegal, including under the NDAA. In addition, the breadth of the NDAA’s detention authority violates international law because it is not limited to people captured in the context of an actual armed conflict as required by the laws of war. “We are incredibly disappointed that President Obama signed this new law even though his administration had already claimed overly broad detention authority in court,” said Romero. “Any hope that the Obama administration would roll back the constitutional excesses of George Bush in the war on terror was extinguished today. Thankfully, we have three branches of government, and the final word belongs to the Supreme Court, which has yet to rule on the scope of detention authority. But Congress and the president also have a role to play in cleaning up the mess they have created because no American citizen or anyone else should live in fear of this or any future president misusing the NDAA’s detention authority. ...” TAKE ACTION! He signed it. We'll fight it. Sign the ACLU's pledge to fight worldwide indefinite detention.
Forbes has this headline President Obama Signed the National Defense Authorization Act - Now What? by E.D. Kain, Contributor For every story of police abuse I’ve read, there’s another story about corruption and violence exposed by something as simple as a camera phone. But can technology help us overcome truly pernicious legislation like the National Defense Authorization Act recently signed by the president? The National Defense Authorization Act greatly expands the power and scope of the federal government to fight the War on Terror, including codifying into law the indefinite detention of terrorism suspects without trial. Under the new law the US military has the power to carry out domestic anti-terrorism operations on US soil. “The fact that I support this bill as a whole does not mean I agree with everything in it,” the president said in a statement. “I have signed this bill despite having serious reservations with certain provisions that regulate the detention, interrogation and prosecution of suspected terrorists.” Worse, the NDAA authorizes the military to detain even US citizens under the broad new anti-terrorism provisions provided in the bill, once again without trial. ....
Bob Alexander opines at tvnewslies From now on … Our Biggest Mistake is Believing We Are Free ...Fast forward to December 31, 2011 when Reader Supported News editor Marc Ash wrote, “President Obama today signed the highly controversial Defense Spending Bill. The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), with its so-called Homeland Battlefield provisions, allows, according to many legal scholars, the indefinite detention of US citizens by the US military. What is most striking is a lengthy signing statement by Obama, in which he maintains his reservations about the Homeland Battlefield provisions, saying, 'I have signed this bill despite having serious reservations with certain provisions that regulate the detention, interrogation, and prosecution of suspected terrorists.' His defense of civil liberties in the signing statement was passionate. Nonetheless, at the same moment, he signed the bill into law.” So as of now … anyone … anywhere … can be detained indefinitely by order of the President of the United States. Obama said. “I want to clarify that my Administration will not authorize the indefinite military detention without trial of American citizens.” But what he just signed says he can. We just have to trust him … and all future presidents from now on. Florida Democratic representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz says she’ll be working with other Democrats to repeal the Homeland Battlefield provisions as soon as Congress reconvenes. Good luck with that one. What are the chances a Republican controlled house will repeal provisions it had already passed in a 283 to 136 vote? If the provisions are not repealed, or if the president changes his mind and decides to use the law he signed … then any of us could end up like Al-Jazeera journalist Sami Al-Hajj. He was arrested in Pakistan on December 15, 2001 and detained at Guantánamo for over 6 years. According to documents published by Wikileaks, the government wanted Al-Hajj “to provide information on the al-Jazeera News Network's training program, telecommunications equipment, and newsgathering operations.” He was beaten, sexually assaulted… and released without charge on May 1, 2008. We are all now officially … small prey animals. We have the same rights a field mouse has against a hawk. Prey animals can’t get a lawyer or a trial. Prey animals get eaten. So let’s kick off The New Year with what we know about Late Great The United States. ... Read on at tvnewslies!
Naomi Wolf explains how "State and corporate actors everywhere are learning how to repress protesters while maintaining democratic facades" in
The streets of 2012 ... What does the New Year hold for the global wave of protest that erupted in 2011? Did the surge of anger that began in Tunisia crest in lower Manhattan, or is 2012 likely to see an escalation of the politics of dissent? The answers are alarming, but quite predictable: We are likely to see much greater centralisation of top-down suppression - and a rash of laws around the developed and developing world that restrict human rights. But we are also likely to see significant grassroots reaction. What we are witnessing in the drama of increasingly globalised protest and repression is the subplot that many cheerleaders for neoliberal globalisation never addressed: the power of globalised capital to wreak havoc with the authority of democratically elected governments. From the perspective of global corporate interests, closed societies like China are more business-friendly than troublesome democracies, where trade unions, high standards of human-rights protection, and a vigorous press increase costs. All over the world, the pushback against protest looks similar, suggesting that state and corporate actors are learning "best practices" for repressing dissent while maintaining democratic facades. .... Finally, in the US, the National Defence Authorisation Act, enacted by Congress in December, allows the president to suspend due process for US citizens, detain them indefinitely and render them for torture. One should not be surprised to see similar legislation adopted in democracies worldwide. Not only are laws criminalising previously legal dissent, organising, and reporting being replicated in advanced democracies; so are violent tactics against protesters, backed by the increasing push in countries with long traditions of civil policing to militarise law enforcement.....
WATCH Lifting the Veil movie "Barack Obama and the failure of capitalist 'democracy' " on Vimeo!
Is this not an abrogation of the U.S. Constitution by a freakin "alleged" constitutional lawyer (yeah you go see if you can dig up any records of The Great 0! attending Columbia or anywhere else. YOU WOULD THINK any college would BOAST about their graduate becoming pResident, NO?) Especially from the self-proclaimed "most transparent administration" EVER!
We're calling BULLSHIT. Is this not an abrogation of Congress's oath to "protect" the Constitution? Is it Treasonous?
With all the chaos going on worldwide we turn introspective with our LAST WORD from Dana Mrkich at her Evolution Revolution blog. (h/t BTV contributor lsophia) This year integrity and authenticity override fear.
January 2012 Monthly Visions: Expect More

.... This is the year that we show the world that our ‘crazy’ ways actually work, and that in fact the old ways of working is what’s crazy! It is the year that many conscious souls who have not been able to find their place in the mainstream will come out of hiding as if an inner alarm has gone off saying ‘get out there’. More people will be asking for, and needing, assistance to understand the higher energies that are coming in and the resulting changes occurring to them and around them. You will be shining your light brighter than ever before, but this won’t be coming anymore from a ‘I have to save the world’ mentality. As you shine your light, you will help others find their own light. It’s like being in a dark forest with a huge torch, so that others can look down and find their own torch that has been on them (in them) the whole time. One has to enter the new reality from a space of self-empowerment, but that doesn’t mean we are on our own – support is available for anyone who asks in whatever form they need it. Looking down on humanity from above, it’s going to look like the scene when you fly over a city just as sun sets – millions of little lights all sparking up one at a time. It is beautiful and magical. In many ways it will seem like a year of contradictions. Every day we will be immersed in more and more high frequency energy, giving us more support than ever before to embody our true, divine natures, create magical lives and co-create a magnificent world. At the same time there is less and less energy supporting the ways of the old world, and so we will witness a lot of collapsing systems and structures that will be experienced as either cause for celebration or cause for despair, depending on which side of the reality coin you predominantly reside in. The two realities are like a sticker peeling away from a piece of paper. They have co-existed for a long time but now that the peeling away has begun there is no turning back, there is no ‘sticking it back together’. As the sticker peels further away from the paper, we may experience it as a feeling of disconnection and detachment from the old reality, and those still residing there. It can at times feel like there is a movie playing somewhere, but you know it isn’t real and if you don’t want to watch it you simply don’t tune in to that channel. This doesn’t mean we ignore people’s genuine suffering and hardship – quite conversely we may find ourselves more and more wanting to be out there on the ground working actively toward social reform and assisting with humanitarian efforts. Rather, we will feel no connection to people engaging in old dramas, and we will see right through the facade of news broadcasts, political speeches and perspectives given to us by the media. It will feel like we are watching a fictitious movie because in reality we are. ..... Now that it is time to re-enter the light, a lot of people will be shocked by the amount of deception and restriction humanity has endured. We will witness one revelation after the other across all areas including politics, health, science, religion, economy, energy and other-planetary beings. It will be hard for many people to digest the fact that the minority have held knowledge about free energy technology and health cures for decades, have deliberately created wars and repressed truth simply because it benefitted them to do so despite the detrimental effect on others. For a heart-centred person, which most of humanity are, it is inconceivable to think that someone with a cure for cancer for example or the ability to ensure all people have access to electricity and running water, would repress this information for the sake of making more money or gaining more power, yet we’ll discover that there are such people. We will also (eventually) discover that this minority were being used in the same way they were using us by some of the less nice other planetary beings, being promised untold power in exchange for selling out earth and humanity. However it is not our destiny to be sold in this way, and thus those beings also have underestimated both us and those who protect us. ..... The so called Arab Spring and Occupy Movement are not random events, they are the beginnings of something we will see increase: the uprising of a humanity who have had enough. We are all now active participants in an evolution revolution triggered by our growing awareness that something is very wrong and needs to be put right, and triggered by the awakening of our true selves and authentic power. The world is not ending in 2012, the illusion is ending. In its place a new reality will be revealed, a new humanity will emerge and a new world will be born. These are truly special times.

Perhaps WE are the people we've been waiting for.

»»» Year of Global Uprisings Year of Global Uprisings, from the Arab Spring to Occupy Wall Street: A Special Look Back at 2011 Jan 2, 2012

»»» John Nichols, Washington correspondent for The Nation @ Democracy NOW! Super PACs, Occupy Iowa Protests and a Surging Rick Santorum: Iowa GOP Caucus Begins 2012 Race Jan 3, 2012

»»» Thomas Frank @ Democracy NOW! "Pity the Billionaire": Thomas Frank on the "Unlikely Comeback of the Right" Ahead of Iowa Caucus Jan 3, 2012

»»» Iowa Caucus Discussion @ Democracy NOW! Santorum’s Emergence Signals Divided GOP Base While Paul Gains from Dems’ Disenchantment with Obama Jan 4, 2012

»»» Lawrence Lessig @ Democracy NOW! As States Take on Citizens United, Lawrence Lessig Offers Bold Plan to Get Money Out of Politics Jan 4, 2012

»»» Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen @ Democracy NOW! Defying GOP and Eying Re-Election, Obama Makes Bold Recess Pick of Cordray for Consumer Bureau Jan 5, 2012

»»» Bob Wieckowski, Melissa Mark-Viverito & Robert Weissman @ Democracy NOW! WATCH NOW Citizens United Backlash Grows from Cali. to NYC Urging Congress to Overturn Corporate Personhood Jan 5, 2012

»»» Ralph Isenberg, Reverend Peter Johnson & Jacqueline Stevens WATCH NOW Deportation of U.S. Teen to Colombia Latest Failure of Immigration System Jan 6, 2012

»»» Mark Provost WATCH NOW Occupy New Hampshire Member on His Exchange with Mitt Romney over Support for Corporate Personhood Jan 6, 2012

»»» Buddy Roemer WATCH NOW Buddy Roemer: GOP Pres. Candidate Who Backs Occupy, Campaign Finance Reform, Excluded from Debates Jan 6, 2012

GRITtv

»»» GRITtv @ www.grittv.org with Laura Flanders

»»» FEATURED SHOW The F Word: Iron Lady: The Margaret Thatcher Movie We Don't Need In the new bio-pic, Margaret Thatcher's iron isn't just rusty, it's melted down into something depoliticized and personal. The Iron Lady give us Thatcher -- The ABBA Version. It's the last thing we need

BRICK TEEVEE SPORT!_©

»»» NFL Wild Card Playoffs Texans and Saints move on! Falcons @ Giants & Broncos @ Steelers on Sunday!

»»» College Bowl Games BCS Title Game No. 1 LSU (13-0) vs. No. 2 Alabama (11-1) Monday on ESPN 8:30 pm (Now why wouldn't any over-the-air broadcast network show this game? Hmmmm)

»»» NBA on TNT! Double-header Thursday! Knicks @ Grizzlies 8 pm et then Magic @ Warriors 10:30 pm et

BRICK TEEVEE ACTION!_©

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

October2011.org Sign the Petition to Get the 99% Deficit Proposal Heard in Congress

Please SIGN THE PETITION in support of the "99%'s Deficit Proposal" and plan direct actions to tell the Super Committee that the 99% have better solutions to our nation's crises. You can plan your own action at your Congressmember's office or join us in Freedom Plaza in Washington, DC for marches to Capitol Hill. Check our calendar for announcements.

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] UPDATE: Bypass SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) DNS Blocking with DeSopa 1.1 A new anti-SOPA add-on for Firefox, titled “DeSopa” is such a counter measure.When installed, users can click a single button to resolve a blocked domain via foreign DNS servers, bypassing all domestic DNS blockades and allowing the user to browse the site though the bare IP-address (if supported).“I feel that the general public is not aware of the gravity of SOPA and Congress seems like they are about to cater to the special interests involved, to the detriment of Internet, for which I and many others live and breathe,” DeSopa developer T Rizk told....

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! BRADLEY MANNING UPDATE: Robert Parry Exclusive America’s Debt to Bradley Manning So, it was useful to examine the WikiLeaks documents regarding the election of the new IAEA leader in 2009 to understand why this flip may have occurred. What those classified State Department cables show is that the IAEA’s new director general, Japanese diplomat Yukiya Amano, credited his victory largely to U.S. government support and promptly stuck his hand out for U.S. money. Further, Amano left little doubt that he would side with the United States in its confrontation with Iran and that he would even meet secretly with Israeli officials regarding their purported evidence on Iran’s nuclear program, despite the fact that Israel is arguably the world’s preeminent rogue nuclear state and rejects IAEA inspections of its own nuclear sites. According to U.S. embassy cables from Vienna, Austria, the site of IAEA’s headquarters, American diplomats in 2009 were cheering the prospect that Amano would advance U.S. interests in ways that outgoing IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei wouldn’t. ..... In private, Amano agreed to “consultations” with the head of the Israeli Atomic Energy Commission, Pyatt reported. (It is ironic indeed that Amano would have secret contacts with Israeli officials about Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons program, which has yet to yield a single bomb, when Israel possesses a large and undeclared nuclear arsenal.) In a subsequent cable dated Oct. 16, 2009, the U.S. mission in Vienna said Amano “took pains to emphasize his support for U.S. strategic objectives for the Agency. Amano reminded ambassador [Glyn Davies] on several occasions that … he was solidly in the U.S. court on every key strategic decision, from high-level personnel appointments to the handling of Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons program. “More candidly, Amano noted the importance of maintaining a certain ‘constructive ambiguity’ about his plans, at least until he took over for DG ElBaradei in December” 2009. In other words, the emerging picture of Amano is of a bureaucrat eager to bend in directions favored by the United States and Israel, especially regarding Iran’s nuclear program. Amano’s behavior surely contrasts with how the more independent-minded ElBaradei resisted some of Bush’s key claims about Iraq’s supposed nuclear weapons program, denouncing some documents as forgeries. Today, with some Republican presidential contenders falling over themselves to bond with Israel over its desire to attack Iran, this sort of detail puts the IAEA report into a fuller context that can help American voters judge whether another war is necessary or whether they’re being misled again by hyped allegations. More at link...

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: 4,484 US Military Dead as of Dec 31, 2011

AFGHANISTAN: 1,872 US Military Dead as of Jan 6, 2012

The Obameter: Tracking Obama's Campaign Promises

Considering Democracy: 8 Things to ask your Representative

This Week (ABC) George Stephanopoulos hosts a special edition of "This Week" live from Manchester, N.H.

• 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'

• former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee

• Obama campaign adviser David Axelrod

• ABC News senior political correspondent Jonathan Karl

• ROUNDTABLE: George Will, Republican strategist Mary Matalin, ABC News political analyst Matthew Dowd, Democratic strategist Donna Brazile and ABC News senior White House correspondent Jake Tapper
Face The Nation (CBS) Host Bob Schiefer

• Defense Secretary Leon Panetta

• Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey

• Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
60 Minutes (CBS) (Special 8 p.m. broadcast)

• Stem Cell Fraud - Stem cells still have not proven to be the panacea many claimed they could be, yet the Internet is alive with stem cells for sale to treat incurable illnesses. Scott Pelley reports on one man offering to treat cerebral palsy who a respected stem cell researcher says could be endangering patients. Oriana Zill and Michael Rey are the producers.

• The Most Expensive Food in the World - European white truffles can sell for as much as $3,600 a pound. But harvests are down and a black market has emerged that has allowed an influx of inferior and cheap Chinese truffles that are diluting this lucrative market. Lesley Stahl reports. Ira Rosen 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!

• Special MTP event: NBC News-Facebook Debate

• This Sunday, David Gregory will moderate the final presidential debate before the all-important New Hampshire primary on Meet the Press.

• Visit the MTP Facebook page to submit a question you would like to hear asked.
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.

• Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D) Minority leader

• the latest on the 2012 elections from New Hampshire
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.

• PRAYER MEETIN' WEDNESDAY!!!!! Uber Pope Imam Bishop Rabbi Bob! Listen now HERE (mp3)!

Amen to the White Rose Society! Donate to Head On HERE! And join Coal River Mountain Watch at www.crmw.net!
YOUR GREEN NEWS REPORT

The Green News Report with Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen: 6 minutes of green news, politics, analysis & snarky comment!

BOOKMARK greennews.bradblog.com NOW!

• 'Green News Report' - January 5, 2012 IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Riots over oil in Nigeria; Victory over Big Oil in Ecuador; Curbing drug abuse (antibiotic drug abuse, that is) and antibiotic super bugs(!) in farm animals; Heat wave in Antarctica; PLUS: Mutant hybrid sharks! ... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see link): December 2011 setting heat records; Is there really 100 years’ worth of natural gas beneath the United States? [NO.]; Insurance payouts point to climate change; U.S. coasts unprepared for higher seas; The end of real maple syrup?; EPA regs create more jobs than Keystone XL pipeline; Low income kids exposed to more pollution; Future of a stable climate depends on the 2012 Presidential Election: report ... PLUS: ZOMG! Zomb-bees! ... and much, MUCH more! ...

BRADCAST UPDATE: Brad on Hartmann TV: Hypocrisy of Gingrich's 'Voter Fraud' & of GOP's Iowa Caucus Processes By Brad Friedman on 1/4/2012 5:00pm: I've been busy doing a lot of media and a lot of digging today. So until I can get free to follow up here on some Iowa Caucus issues, here's my latest appearance on The Big Picture with Thom Hartmann, from last night... AND catch Brad with PAP (see Ring of Fire VIDEO below!)

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 News & Comment, Tuesday January 3 CNY Times won Pulitzer for exposing Rumsfeld’s propaganda on Iraq invasion, but buries report of Inspector General exonerating Rummy and the gang. Plus: appeals court on wiretapping lawsuits, North Korea’s L’il Kim and much more……….Catching up on a backlog of items reported during the holidays...

• PBC News & Comment, Wednesday January 4 Santorum’s surge and Paul’s strong showing in Iowa lead Perry and Bachman to drop out; progressives see Ron Paul as better than Obama on many key issues.

• PBC Chats with Listener: Should Progressives Support Ron Paul? Meet Author and Anarchist scott crow! Listener Doug Zimmerman joins PBC to talk about the pluses and minuses of Ron Paul–should progressives support him, at least in the primaries? Anarchist scott crow (sic, no caps) deepens the definition of “anarchism”…..prepare to be surprised!

• Holiday Break and Website Changes
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! January 6, 2012

• best-selling author Thomas Frank will join us for a discussion on his new book “Pity the Billionaire.”

• Occupy Wall Street activist Jesse LaGreca will tell us about his recent trip to Washington to fight for the middle class.

• Reverend Nathan Monk joins us for a discussion on the importance of local elections, and how the right wing is trying to pack school boards and city councils.

• John Amato from Crooks and Liars will be here to talk about the elite class that rules our Congress.

• Policy adviser to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, John Feinblatt, will be here to tell us how convicted criminals are getting their hands on illegal firearms.

• And investigative journalist Brad Friedman will join us to discuss the ongoing problems with electronic voting machines.

• VIDEO! Papantonio: Will Voting Machines Steal 2012 Election? We’ve talked a lot recently about the GOP’s plan to stop the vote ahead of the 2012 election, but there are other hurdles for voters, even if they manage to make it to the polls. Those hurdles come in the form of electronic voting machines. The same problems that voters have been experiencing for the last decade with electronic voting machines not counting votes, changing votes, or deleting votes are still as rampant today as they were years ago. Mike Papantonio talks about the latest round of voting machine problems with investigative journalist Brad Friedman.

• VIDEO! Papantonio: Inside the GOP’s Block The Vote Machine Most Americans are under the correct assumption that the right to vote is a guarantee for every legal US citizen. But as we’ve noted during this show, the GOP is working tirelessly to prevent minorities, the elderly, and young people from being able to cast a vote in next year’s presidential election. That’s because these groups tend to favor Democrats over the GOP’s new brand of crazy Tea Party candidates. Mike Papantonio talks about the GOP’s war on voting rights with author and Nation Magazine contributor Ari Berman.

• Support Those Who Support Progressive Media! 2011 has certainly been a great year for Ring of Fire, and we’ve had some great sponsors that have helped support the show throughout the year. We wanted to take the time to personally thank each and every one of them, and we encourage all of our listeners to take the time to support those who have support us.

• 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 7 pm ct on Chicago's Progressive Talk WCPT AM & FM and 4 pm et on Sirius/XM 167 featuring The PAP Attack! "We’ll bring you the stories that the mainstream media didn’t feel like reporting this week."
Majority Report with Sam Seder Streaming LIVE weekdays 11:30 am et @ Majority.fm! NEW SHOWS NEXT WEEK!

• Dave Weigel Live in Iowa on the Iowa Caucus [01•03•12]

• Matt Taibbi on the Meaningless Sideshow that is the GOP Primaries [01•04•12]

• Jeff Smith of the OWS Press Team on the NDAA Grand Central Protest [01•05•12]

• Cliff Schecter and Sam Seder discuss the Iowa Caucus, Rick Santorum, Ron Paul & more! [01•06•12]

• An Update from Occupy New Hampshire! [12•22•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 PLUS here is Max Keiser’s official Facebook page And here is the official Keiser Report page

• VIDEO! MISH’s year end predictions by maxkeiser. READ Mish 2012 Predictions; 2011 Year in Review with Max Keiser (globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com)

• VIDEO! Max Keiser on Capital Account: Presidential Futures are like “Running Man on Steroids” by stacyherbert.

• KEISER REPORT [KR231] Keiser Report – From Russian Oil With Love We present an Eastern European special looking at Swiss franc mortgages in Hungary, bank runs in Latvia and the wisdom of austerity. In the second half of the show, Max talks to economist, Professor Constantin Gurdgiev....

• KEISER REPORT [232] Keiser Report: Wall Street saints above God & law

• KEISER REPORT [KR233] Keiser Report: Spiral of debt towards the paranormal In this episode, we discuss Brits using payday loans to pay off interest only mortgages while Greeks bury their cash for fear of being Gaddafi’d by the banksters. In the second half of the show, Max talks to David Morgan …

• ON THE EDGE On the Edge with Paul Craig Roberts We interview Paul Craig Roberts; here’s his latest blog post at his new site: The Dismal Economic Outlook For The New Year

• 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

• Anthony Gregory January 1, 2012: Anthony Gregory, Research Editor at the Independent Institute, discusses his article “Non-Interventionism: Cornerstone of a Free Society;” why war is just legalized mass murder, made acceptable because a state – instead of an individual – does it; why Americans have a hard time seeing their own government as an aggressive war-maker (we’re the good guys!); the irony of veteran soldiers (who supposedly fought for our freedom) getting killed by cops while peacefully demonstrating; and getting lied into war yet again, this time with Iran.

• Jason Ditz January 1, 2012: Jason Ditz, managing news editor at Antiwar.com, discusses Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s attempt to purge Sunnis from government; how Iraq’s central state is being challenged by Kurdish and Sunni autonomous regions; the thousands of Americans remaining in Iraq to staff the embassy and provide training; why most members of Congress still don’t understand that the US gave Iraq to Iran on a silver platter; and how the recent killing of 35 Kurds by the Turkish military resembles the US practice of execution without due process.

• Gareth Porter January 1, 2012: Gareth Porter, independent historian and journalist for IPS News, discusses the Israeli Mossad chief’s admission that a nuclear-armed Iran would not be an “existential threat;” the conflict between policy “realists” in Israel’s military and intelligence community and the “messianic” hawks aligned with Netanyahu and Ehud Barak; why a Republican presidential victory in 2012 (excepting Ron Paul) would advance Netanyahu’s push for war; how ever-harsher sanctions are leading to a complete shutdown of Iran’s oil exports (which could provoke a reaction like Japan’s in 1941); and why Obama would be “crazy” to push for a Libyan-style regime change in Syria.

Many more interviews at Antiwar Radio!
fauxnews

• Congressman Ron Paul

• RNC Chairman Reince Priebus

• DNC Chair Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

First brick is on us!
brick

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