Heroic Leakers and Reporters Who Help Them

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"COPENHAGEN, Denmark: The editor in chief and two reporters at one of Denmark's largest newspapers went on trial Monday for publishing classified intelligence reports about former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's weapons program.

"A former intelligence officer has previously been sentenced to prison for leaking the documents in the case, which is viewed in Denmark as a landmark test of media freedom.

"Niels Lunde, the Berlingske Tidende newspaper's top editor, and reporters Michael Bjerre and Jesper Larsen, face charges of publishing confidential government documents, which is punishable by fines or up to two years in prison.

"In February and March 2004, Bjerre and Larsen wrote a series of articles based on leaked reports from the Danish Defense Intelligence Service. The reports said there was no evidence that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction during Saddam Hussein's rule - one of the main reasons behind the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

Guy From Tennessee Says: Dems! Put Up or Shut Up

Tweet "Laws have been broken, the Constitution has been damaged, the
government must be cleansed.

"Let's see the Democrats prove that we are a nation of laws. It's time
to introduce the articles of impeachment that have been written for years, lying around waiting for statesmen and stateswomen with enough spine to see them through and a Congress that wasn't just fronting for
a despot. There's a well-worn list - start checking off the names.

"Let's see the Democrats rescind the "spies-r-us" Patriot Act. No
tinkering around the edges - the whole thing has got to go. And while hey're at it, let's see them dismantle the 1996 Anti-terrorism and pro-Death Penalty Act that Clinton signed.

"Let's see them restore the right to habeas corpus. Let's see them end
the use of torture by the U.S. military and CIA. Let's see them
dismantle private armies like Blackwater paid for with our tax
dollars, and end the torture rendition of people to countries whose
governments are under U.S. control where they can only dream of justice.

"Let's see them declare to the world that the U.S. will no longer try to
overthrow Castro, Chavez, Ortega or any other progressive leader who
stands up to the greed-driven, corporatist U.S. government and tries to bring about better conditions for their people.

"Until he's removed from office, let's see them reject every appointment of another war-mongerer that Bush tries to make. Let's see them start with his daddy's old buddy, the new Defense Secretary, an Iran-Contra artifact. Filibuster until January and then vote him down.

"Let's see them restore some modicum of respect for the United Nations by showing Bolton the door, and then acting to strengthen and rejuvenate its mission. Darfur awaits.

"Let's see them put a litmus test on ALL nominations to the federal
courts: either you're going to strike down anti-civil liberties laws
or you don't get appointed, period.

"Let's see them immediately withdraw (not redeploy) all U.S. troops from the Mideast. Moving them from Iraq to Saudi Arabia or Jordan is simply not enough. Get them the heck out of there. It's the only hope for stability in the Middle East. A more critical approach to Israeli aggression may be a pipe dream but without it, blood will continue to flow in Gaza and Lebanon.

US: Immigrants May Be Held Indefinitely

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"WASHINGTON (AP) - Immigrants arrested in the United States may be held indefinitely on suspicion of terrorism and may not challenge their imprisonment in civilian courts, the Bush administration said Monday, opening a new legal front in the fight over the rights of detainees.

"In court documents filed with the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., the Justice Department said a new anti-terrorism law being used to hold detainees in Guantanamo Bay also applies to foreigners captured and held in the United States.

"Ali Saleh Kahlah Al-Marri, a citizen of Qatar, was arrested in 2001 while studying in the United States. He has been labeled an "enemy combatant," a designation that, under a law signed last month, strips foreigners of the right to challenge their detention in federal courts.

"That law is being used to argue the Guantanamo Bay cases, but Al-Marri represents the first detainee inside the United States to come under the new law. Aliens normally have the right to contest their imprisonment, such as when they are arrested on immigration violations or for other crimes.

"It's pretty stunning that any alien living in the United States can be denied this right," said Jonathan Hafetz, an attorney for Al-Marri. "It means any non-citizen, and there are millions of them, can be whisked off at night and be put in detention."

The Baker Commission--Recipe for Inaction? (Michael Kinsley)

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"On the other hand, sometimes a problem is referred to a commission simply to get it off the table. Action is widely perceived as necessary, and the creation of a commission can be made to look like action.

"So which is the Baker commission? It's got elements of both. Part of the idea, certainly, was to get the politicians over the hump of the election and give them something to say in the meantime. ("We desperately need new ideas and fresh thinking about Iraq and, indeed, the entire Middle East. I look forward to the recommendations of the Baker commission and urge them to interpret their mandate widely and boldly.") And part of the idea is to legitimize some impalatable solution. But the Baker commission may be nearly unique in that there is no obvious solution waiting to be imposed. People actually hope that it will come up with something that no one has thought of.

"Good luck. The chance that this group of aging white men, plus Vernon Jordan and Sandra Day O'Connor, will come up with something original is not enormous. It's a nutty and not very attractive idea to turn an urgent issue of war and peace over to a commission. Commissions have usually been trotted out for long-run social problems: immigration, debt, health care. Going to war is something that ought to be decided by the people we elect. Congress, in recent decades, has virtually abandoned its duty under the Constitution to make the decisions about when American soldiers are sent to kill and die.

From Cursor.org

Racial gap growing, Census Bureau finds

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"WASHINGTON -- Decades after the civil rights movement, racial disparities in income, education and home ownership persist and, by some measurements, are growing.

"White households had incomes that were two-thirds higher than those of blacks and 40 percent higher than than those of Hispanics last year, according to data released today by the Census Bureau.

"White adults also were more likely than black and Hispanic adults to have college degrees and to own their own homes. They were less likely to live in poverty.

"Race is so associated with class in the United States that it may not be direct discrimination, but it still matters indirectly," said Dalton Conley, a sociology professor at New York University and the author of "Being Black, Living in the Red."

"It doesn't mean it's any less powerful just because it's indirect," he said.

CNN Slants the News--Is That Really News

Tweet CNN editors replaced all Palestinian quotations with quotes from the US and Israel in its story 'U.S. vetoes U.N. condemnation of Israel's Gaza strikes'. The new, more prominent article begins with the exact same wording as the original, but all Palestinian remarks are gone.

The two versions have identical first and second paragraphs:

----------
UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- The United States vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution Saturday that would have condemned Israel for its military operations in Gaza.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton said the resolution, which also called for Israel to immediately cease military operations in the Palestinian territory, was "biased against Israel and politically motivated."
----------

The original wire followed with:

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The U.S. veto angered Hamas government spokesman Ghazi Hamad, who called the veto "shameful" and "not the first time" the United States has used a veto "just to protect Israel."

The veto, Hamad said, is to "give Israel covering in order to continue its massacres and killings among our people. It is giving legitimacy to Israel to continue the aggression against our people."
----------

Elton John--Dump Religion & Get Into the Streets (I Knew I Liked That Guy)

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From my point of view I would ban religion completely, even though there are some wonderful things about it. I love the idea of the teachings of Jesus Christ and the beautiful stories about it, which I loved in Sunday school and I collected all the little stickers and put them in my book. But the reality is that organised religion doesn't seem to work. It turns people into hateful lemmings and it's not really compassionate.

The world is near escalating to World War Three and where are the leaders of each religion? Why aren't they having a conclave; why aren't they coming together? I said this after 9/11 and people thought I was nuts: instead of more violence why isn't there a [meeting of religious leaders]. It's all got to be dialogue - that's the only way. Get everybody from each religion together and say 'Listen, this can't go on. Why do we have all this hatred?'

We are all God's people; we have to get along and the [religious leaders] have to lead the way. If they don't do it, who else is going to do it? They're not going to do it and it's left to musicians or to someone else to deal with it. It's like the peace movement in the Sixties - musicians got through [to people] by getting out there and doing peace concerts but we don't seem to do them any more. We seem to be doing fundraisers for Africa and everything like that but I think peace is really important. If John Lennon were alive today he'd be leading it with a vengeance.

ON PROTEST:

People don't seem to protest in the streets any more, they are always blogging on the internet. They seem to do their protesting online, and that's not good [enough]. You have got to get out there and be seen and be vocal, and you've got to do it time and time again. People have become apathetic. There was a big march in London when Britain decided to join the war against Iraq and Tony Blair is on record as saying 'The people who march today will have blood on their hands.' That's returned to bite him in the ass.

We cannot solve everybody's fucking problems in the West. What we've done [in Iraq] has sped up an inevitable civil war after Saddam Hussein left power. I don't know the solution. I just know that all we can do as musicians - whether gay or straight - is to come together and promote peace. We have been promoting [anti-poverty] but when you do a concert sometimes they forget about their emotions: that's the power of music and sport - they are the two things that can do that.

From a post on Marxmail.org

$600,000 for a Democrat Aide--Supply and Demand

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Excerpts from Roll Call article:

#

One prominent lobbyist who hires Capitol Hill aides said that, in general, Republicans can expect to slash about $50,000 from what they might have commanded before the election returns came in. Yet, another lobbyist who runs his large firm said there are senior-level Democratic aides for whom he would offer as much as $600,000 in total compensation to lure them to his bipartisan shop because of simple supply and demand.

Veteran lobbyists and headhunters said some of the soon-to-be-unemployed aides and Members will find new jobs in the Bush administration, where a flurry of turnover is expected.

Some aides will look to fill other posts on the Hill, while others will catch on with trade associations, lobbying firms and corporate offices — though perhaps for a smaller salary than other Republicans commanded as little as six months ago.

From Raw Story found on Billmon.

U.S. Engineer Indicted for Passing Secrets to Israel

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U.S. engineer indicted for passing secrets to Israel

By Yossi Melman, Haaretz Correspondent

An American engineer standing trial for spying and revealing secrets to China has also been indicted for passing secrets to Israel. The indictment filed against Noshir Gowadia, 62, a U.S. citizen of Indian origin, does not provide details to the nature of the secrets passed to Israel or to whom they were given. If convicted, Gowadia could face the death penalty.

The secrets revealed to China are the primary allegations in the indictment, and those revealed to Israel secondary. Gowadia is also alleged to have delivered U.S. secrets to Germany and Switzerland.

The indictment indicated that Gowadia's motivations were financial only.

Gowadia is charged with passing information for an unspecified period to business sources in Israel, although he in no instance received payment for his services.

The identities of the Israeli sources have also not been disclosed, nor whether they were private businesspeople or firms.

The indictment does not refer to the Israeli government as being involved in the matter.

Gowadia, formerly a professor of aeronautics at Purdue University in Indiana, is considered one of the leading engineers in the field of the weapons and aircraft development.

He had previously worked at Northrop Grumman Corporation on the B-2 stealth bomber and at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.

According to the indictment, Gowadia helped China build and use essential components of a stealth cruise missile using technical knowledge he had gained while working in the U.S. defense establishment.

Antiwar.com

America and Britain Should Quit Iraq As Soon As Possible--Lord Lamont of UK

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"The failure of Messrs Bush and Blair and the neo-cons to understand Arab grievances has been translated into a "clash of civilisations" and a threat to Western values "by people determined to destroy our way of life", as the Prime Minister put it. But there is no clash of civilisations unless we are determined to create one. We are not going to live under a universal caliphate. Osama bin Laden and his gangsters have not the faintest chance of destroying our way of life, unless we do so ourselves.

"America over-reacted to the tragedy of 9/11 and, while the invasion of Afganistan was necessary, the bombing campaign was excessive. Mr Rumsfeld's remark - "There aren't enough targets in Afghanistan" - explains much of the motivation for the invasion of Iraq.

"The misconceived "war on terror" has made the world a much more dangerous place. I never thought that I would find myself agreeing with anything said by Mr Ahmadinejad, but in a letter he asked Mr Bush a good question: "What makes you think it right to flatten a village because two or three terrorists are there?" Many people we have seen on television, in funeral processions in Fallujah and Baghdad, have asked the same question.

America and Britain should leave Iraq as soon as possible. There are no other options. There never will be a right time. As long as foreign troops remain, the Iraqis will avoid responsibility for their own destiny, and the chances of holding their country together may be greater without foreign troops.

Antiwar.com

Democrats Say Will Push for Iraq Withdrawal

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"WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrats, who won control of the U.S. Congress, said on Sunday they will push for a phased withdrawal of American troops from Iraq to begin in four to six months, but the White House cautioned against fixing timetables.

"First order of business is to change the direction of Iraq policy," said Sen. Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat who is expected to be chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee in the new Congress.

"Democrats will press President George W. Bush's administration to tell the Iraqi government that U.S. presence was "not open-ended, and that, as a matter of fact, we need to begin a phased redeployment of forces from Iraq in four to six months," Levin said on ABC's "This Week" program.

From Antiwar.com

Bush Lost But We Haven't Won

Tweet What is important at a time like this is that those who truly want a democratic, decent and progressive America have to clearly differentiate themselves from both parties. There needs to be a loud third voice - not so much a political one as a moral and pragmatic one - constantly reminding the political leeches on both sides of the real issues, the real reforms, the real problems. One of the reasons Bush won office originally was because too many members of this third voice - including women's, civil liberties, and environmental groups - had indentured themselves to the Clinton machine and the sound of progress had gone voluntarily silent.

Now is the time not for silence but for the third voice of American politics to become far louder and to be constantly holding a light on a better path than is likely to followed by the new Congress. There must be a clearly visible alternative for everything the cowardly and corrupt center does or refuses to do. Phrases like 'universal healthcare' can not be politely avoided nor can the fact that those who fund both parties are destroying our planet.

We must always remember that while Bush and his capos lost this time we have yet to win.

Sam Smith at Progressive Review

Rumsfeld, Tenet, Gonzales to be Charged With War Crimes in Germany

Tweet "Just days after his resignation, former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is about to face more repercussions for his involvement in the troubled wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. New legal documents, to be filed next week with Germany's top prosecutor, will seek a criminal investigation and prosecution of Rumsfeld, along with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, former CIA director George Tenet and other senior U.S. civilian and military officers, for their alleged roles in abuses committed at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison and at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

"The plaintiffs in the case include 11 Iraqis who were prisoners at Abu Ghraib, as well as Mohammad al-Qahtani, a Saudi held at Guantanamo, whom the U.S. has identified as the so-called "20th hijacker" and a would-be participant in the 9/11 hijackings. As TIME first reported in June 2005, Qahtani underwent a "special interrogation plan," personally approved by Rumsfeld, which the U.S. says produced valuable intelligence. But to obtain it, according to the log of his interrogation and government reports, Qahtani was subjected to forced nudity, sexual humiliation, religious humiliation, prolonged stress positions, sleep deprivation and other controversial interrogation techniques.

"Lawyers for the plaintiffs say that one of the witnesses who will testify on their behalf is former Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, the one-time commander of all U.S. military prisons in Iraq. Karpinski — who the lawyers say will be in Germany next week to publicly address her accusations in the case — has issued a written statement to accompany the legal filing, which says, in part: "It was clear the knowledge and responsibility [for what happened at Abu Ghraib] goes all the way to the top of the chain of command to the Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld ."

Found on Progressive Review

From Lenin's Tomb: The Sublime Object of Ideology

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I, I, I am the continental principality of America

The Sublime Object of Ideology posted by lenin

"A typical thesis of the propaganda system is that the nation is an agent in international affairs, not special groups within it, and that the nation is guided by certain ideals and principles, all of them noble."

Noam Chomsky, Human Rights and American Foreign Policy, Spokesman Books, Nottingham, 1978.

South Africa Seen as Model for Palestine--Ali Abunimah in ChicagoTribune

Tweet "The two-state solution remains attractive and comforting
in its apparent simplicity and finality. But in reality,
it has proved unattainable because neither Palestinians
nor Israelis are willing to give up enough of the country
that they love. Faced with this impasse, a small but
growing group of Israelis and Palestinians are tentatively
exploring an old idea long dormant: Why not have a single
state in which both peoples enjoy equal rights and
protections and religious freedom? Many people dismiss
this as utopian dreaming.

"Allister Sparks, the legendary editor of the
anti-apartheid Rand Daily Mail newspaper, observed that
the conflict in South Africa most resembled those in
Northern Ireland and Palestine-Israel, because each
involved "two ethno-nationalisms" in a seemingly
irreconcilable rivalry for the "same piece of territory."
If the prospect of "one secular country shared by all"
seems "unthinkable" in Palestine-Israel today, then it is
possible to appreciate how unlikely such a solution once
seemed in South Africa. But "that is what we did," Sparks
says, "without any foreign negotiator [and] no handshakes
on the White House lawn."

Poor U.S. and Israel--They Are Targets of the U.N. General Assembly

Tweet The NYTimes has it's usual balanced report on another U.S. veto of resolution against Israel's vicious campaign in Gaza. Luckily for USreal, the general assembly has no one to supply it with billions to buy the latest weaponry.

"Almost all of the 45 nations that spoke during a daylong debate on the Middle East on Thursday condemned Israel. Arab nations are now expected to move for a vote in the 192-member General Assembly, a path they have followed in the past when such measures have failed to pass the Security Council.

"Unlike Security Council resolutions, those passed in the General Assembly are nonbinding and largely symbolic. But they generally attract widespread support when Israel, and, by extension, the United States, are the TARGETS.

Henry Waxman’s Toothless Investigations

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"For Waxman and the Democrats, the coming term is not about justice and addressing corruption and war crimes, to say nothing of stolen elections, it is about not appearing to be as vindictive as the Republicans who went after Bill Clinton, who was impeached for the wrong reason, and acquitted so as to not tarnish the office of presidency. ‘’It’s our obligation not to be repeating what the Republicans have done,'’ Waxman said.

"In short, if you think the Democrats will punish the neocons for illegal wars, you may as well wish for a pony.

"Henry Waxman, viewed as the last hope for sanity and justice, has thrown a wrench in the works. He may preside over a meaningless investigation of Bush and the neocons, but nothing will come of it, minus subpoena power, and the neocons, or their neoliberal successors, will get a big fat green light to continue the “clash of civilizations” game plan.

"Next up, Iran, as the presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton and her presumptive running mate, Barack Obama, have called for action against the Islamic nation. Such action may not be as in your face as that of the Zionist neocons, and may be more cosmetically polite, but it surely is not going away.

"AIPAC is not going away either.

Kurt Nimmo on Another Day in the Empire

From a Vet on Veterans Day

Tweet Waiting to be seen in a VA Hospital:
"They wear helmets or other protective headgear, but, it is obvious that the level of trauma that they took was far more heavy than I took. More often than not, when my name is called, I defer to one of these poor Brothers... or Sisters first. Who the fuck am I to hold up their obviously more urgent care. I often set a precedent for others in the waiting room. We KNOW who needs care more than us. Thus the Band of Brothers and Sisters.

"Regularly, we discuss the War, the Policies, the Funding, and to a man, lately... the past year, we were all in agreement... The Bush Administration has been fucking US Disabled Veterans as quickly as they are making them. They have reduced VA Department budgets by over $300 Million dollars in the past six years. We all know this and feel it in our care, service and treatment. I used to see the doctors once a month... Now it's every six months... out of budget necessities, and with their sincere apologies. I can't blame the VA. But, I CAN blame the Goddamned Bush Motherfuckers though.

"How FUCKING DARE THEY make thousands of Disabled Veterans every month, while they CUT the VA budget? Heartless motherfuckers. I'm not thinking about myself... I thinking about these poor kids in the Neurology Lab waiting room, hoping for... fuck... something... I cannot describe what I see in that lobby.

"Consider this: Picture a beautiful 19 or 20 year old young man or woman, with half a head, simply concave, OK? Half a brain, Half a head... GONE... No hair... just scar tissue... The people themselves are, well... functional. They breathe, their hearts beat, but, obviously, from talking with the family members, there is little left of the person they knew for so many years. They are usually missing arms or legs, along with parts of their head.

"Looking at the beautiful faces of my ruined Brothers and Sisters, simply wrecks me.

The article ends:

"In the past ten days of November, he's killed 23 soldiers for nothing.

"Something has to give... Whether it is massive Political pressure, or mobs with Pitchforks and Torches storming the White House... SOMETHING has GOT to give.

"This status quo of troops dying for no Goddamned reason must end.

"It simply must.

"I don't know how to bring it about, or what extreme is necessary, but, I will certainly participate in it's coming about... The death must stop NOW, George.

"For the sake of my Brothers and Sisters in Arms, and their Families, who have endured far too much.

"This war MUST end, NOW.

Found on WTF Is It Now

Conyers Betrays Impeachment--Kurt Nimmo

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"I feared as much, not trusting Democrats far as I can throw them, although I reluctantly backed down from my assertion prior to the election that a vote for any of these people would be a vote for treason. I declared my support for Democrats who said they would pursue impeachment. Now the numero uno Democrat supposedly behind impeachment has betrayed those of us who actually put credence in his promise, or what appeared to be a promise.

"I should have known better. I should have stuck to my guns.

"None of these traitors will impeach the September criminals, also the March criminals, as in March 20, 2003, when the neocons invaded Iraq under massive false pretenses.

"Call me cynical. I can only say that we cannot trust anybody in Congress to do the right thing. I’ve said this nigh onto nearly thirty years.

"Unfortunately, not even Ron Paul, the best Congress has to offer, has gone on the books and declared nine eleven an inside job. As the midterm elections now fade into history, we are even less likely to impeach Bush and Cheney and justice in regard to nine eleven is even more remote than it was two years ago.

"Pelosi and Conyers stand with Bush and the neocons.

"Few should actually be surprised.

Uruknet.info (and probably Another Day in the Empire)

When is a Crime so Great it Shouldn’t be Acknowledged?

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The article linked below was put on a list where a Democrat supporter was talking about "reconciliation" between the two corporate parties, rather than pursuing things like impeachment. The article basically says "don't forget the TRUTH part of Truth and Reconciliation." Linda

"Massive crimes have been committed. Our administration has ridden roughshod on our Constitution as though it were a hobbled and blind cow. What-might-have-been looks like a bomb crater. So irresponsible and massive are the crimes that the perpetrators have changed the laws to avoid being held accountable for crimes against humanity. So irresponsible that their failure to act to mitigate global warming endangers the very survival of human life on our planet. Hundreds of thousands of people are unnecessarily dead, many more hundreds of thousands maimed and wounded. The incredible debt undermines our economy and will plague our children. When is a crime so great that it shouldn’t be acknowledged? Or prosecuted? Do we pat Rummy & Dickie & Georgie & Connie on the butt and send them to the bench with a, “Nice game, kids. Let’s all be good sports and let someone else have a go at it”? Live and let live.

"Behind all the outrageous events of this era --- Iraq, global warming, the debt, election fraud, war profiteering, failure to create alternative energies, species extinction --- is a culture of non-accountability, cronyism, and obscene profit. How will it stop? Raising the minimum wage by $1.50 over three years might not do it. Arrogance, deceit and blatant crime are responsible for these crises. Not poor execution. Accountability is the way out. There is no reason why we can’t pass fair, life-saving legislation at the same time. We can walk and chew gum. We have grown so accustomed to living in a world of euphemism and double speak, so accustomed to not calling reality by its name, that we think there is no reality except what we can get away with, the reality that sells the product or “develops the resource.” Not true. Nature won’t be fooled. And we only imperil ourselves and our cherished institutions if we don’t hold ourselves accountable. It’s not about partisan revenge, it’s about naming the crime. Some very bad people have broken our laws, dashed our hopes, mortgaged our futures, broken our hearts, and betrayed our country. They need to pay the piper. If we don’t hold them accountable, who will we allow to hold us accountable for making things right?

U.S. Will train Latin American Militaries--Ban Lifted to Offset Trend Toward Left

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Oh, I'm just sure it is the ban of U.S. military training that is causing the leftward tilt--not the fact that the U.S. has been pervaying violence all around the world.

"WASHINGTON — Concern about leftist victories in Latin America has prompted President Bush to quietly grant a waiver that allows the United States to resume training militaries from 11 Latin American and Caribbean countries.

"The administration hopes the training will forge links with countries in the region and blunt a leftward trend. Daniel Ortega, an adversary of the United States in the region during the 1980s, was elected president in Nicaragua this week. Bolivians chose another leftist, Evo Morales, last year.

"A military training ban was originally designed to pressure countries into exempting U.S. soldiers from war crimes trials.

"The 2002 U.S. law bars countries from receiving military aid and training if they refuse to promise immunity from prosecution to U.S. servicemembers who might get hauled before the International Criminal Court. The law allows presidential waivers.

"The White House lifted the ban on 21 countries, about half in Latin America or the Caribbean, through a presidential memorandum Oct. 2 to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The training is conducted in the USA.

"A ban on giving countries weapons remains. Commercial arms sales are not affected, said Jose Ruiz, a U.S. Southern Command spokesman.

"The training ban had resulted in a loss of U.S. influence in the region. The issue gained urgency after a string of leftist candidates came to power in Latin America.

"On a trip to the region this year, Rice said that the impact of the ban had been “the same as shooting ourselves in the foot.”

USA Todaqy--via Angry Arab Newservice

House Passes U.S. Israel Security Tech Bill

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Working Together

---

Lawmakers strongly backed u.s.-israel homeland-security cooperation

October 23, 2006

The House has unanimously passed a bill opening new opportunities for the United States and Israel to strengthen their joint homeland security efforts.

The Promoting Antiterrorism Capabilities Through International Cooperation Act creates an office in the Homeland Security Department to develop and share counterterrorism technology and strategies with U.S. allies, including Israel.

The bill was led by House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter King (R-NY) and Ranking Member Bennie Thompson (D-MS) and Emergency Preparedness and Science and Technology Subcommittee Chairman Dave Reichert (R-WA) [AREN'T WE PROUD?] and Ranking Member Bill Pascrell Jr. (D-NJ).

The act authorizes private American and Israeli companies to receive federal funding to jointly research and commercialize security products, offers grants to scientists from U.S. and Israeli universities known for high-tech ingenuity and provides funding for quasi-governmental collaboration between federally funded laboratories and their Israeli counterparts to develop technologies such as improved explosive detection systems.

The sponsors applauded the bill—which still awaits action by the Senate—as a vital step in improving America’s ability to combat terrorism. “The time has come,” King said, “for us to break down artificial barriers, artificial walls, and use the commonality of our cultures, of our traditions, of our beliefs, and use the benefit of our technological expertise to form a common bond as we go forward to defeat international terrorism.”

Thompson expressed similar sentiments. “The different challenges faced by our many friends around the world have resulted in new approaches that the United States should leverage to protect our citizens,” he said.

Homeland security cooperation has constituted a central feature of the U.S.-Israel relationship following 9/11. Israeli Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter recently visited the United States to share his counterterrorism expertise with top law enforcement officials including Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and National Security Adviser Steven Hadley. •NER•

Found on Angry Arab Newservice

Democrats, Engaging Bush, Vow Early Action Over Iraq (Yeah, more talking)

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"Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, who is in line to become chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said Congress must be the agent “to make it clear to the Iraqis that we cannot save them from themselves.”

“They need to make the political compromises that only they can make,” Mr. Levin added. “We’ve got to let the Iraqis know there is no open-ended commitment.”

"Mr. Levin has for several months advocated linking the presence of American troops to political progress in Iraq, a stance that Pentagon officials had dismissed as reckless but that is now gaining wider, even bipartisan, support. While there is no language yet for such a resolution, he indicated that it could describe the requirements for continued American military commitment to Iraq, and some specified number of months for its duration.

“At the end of this time period, we would begin the reduction of American forces,” Mr. Levin said. “I think such a resolution would have tremendous power on the president. It would not just represent a bipartisan majority of Congress, and its urgent recommendation. It would be a reflection of the people’s voice as expressed” at the polls.

DO THOSE FIRST TWO PARAGRAPHS STRIKE ANYONE BUT ME AS CRAZY??? THE U.S. STARTED THIS WAR AND HAVE PROLONGED IT KILLING HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF IRAQIS. Now Levin is saying we can't "save them from themselves."

Oh yes, this are going to get better real soon (not). It's very disheartening but predictable.

Which Constituency Will Nancy Pelosi Serve?

Tweet From Kurt Nimmo on Uruknet.info

"In regard to the "I" word, Pelosi’s own constituency demands action. "Pelosi represents what may well be the most impeachment-friendly district in the country. On Tuesday, San Francisco voters approved a referendum, Proposition J, urging impeachment," notes John Nichols, writing for the Capital Times.

"Nancy Pelosi is all about respecting the wishes of her constituents—who are, after all, the corporations that fill her coffers: Charles Schwab, IBM, Wells Fargo, and the usual list of suspects. "Just in the third quarter of this year, her donors included such GOP-friendly groups as the American Bankers Assoc, the American Hospital Assoc, Credit Suisse, the Financial Services Roundtable, the Mortgage Bankers Assoc, Honeywell Corp, Accenture, Genworth, Lockheed Martin and even the Nat’l Beer Wholesalers," writes blogger Jonathan Tasini. According to Open Secrets, "securities and investment," i.e., the banksters, run the Nancy Pelosi song and dance show.

"As for foreign policy, Pelosi is as Zionist friendly as any Straussian neocon, albeit in a fuzzy Democrat sort of way, and thus we can expect more murder and mayhem in the Middle Eastern neighborhood.

"Pelosi "denies that the key issue is Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza," writes Mark Gaffney. "The real issue, she states, is the survival of Israel" and "the biggest danger to Israel today comes from Iran, whose nuclear ambitions, though still unproved, also threaten the US. Her perspective contains the seed of ominous things to come, because, after all, something will have to be done about Iran, right? Yes, and soon…. Meanwhile, Pelosi manages to overlook Israel’s brutal treatment of the Palestinians," a consistent crime, recently magnified to disgusting dimension by Israel’s recent attack on Beit Hanoun in the Gaza, killing innocents in their beds.

"The United States will stand with Israel now and forever. Now and forever," Pelosi avowed last year at the AIPAC meeting, never mind the seeming inexhaustible crimes against humanity. "There are those who contend that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is all about Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. This is absolute nonsense. In truth, the history of the conflict is not over occupation, and never has been: it is over the fundamental right of Israel to exist."

Bye-Bye Coke, Hello Pepsi--Blue Dog Group

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"You would guess that with the massive anti-Bush uproar the Democrats would now possess a progressive mandate to reshape the corruption that engulfs Washington. But you'd be wrong. Many of the Republicans' substitutes are anti-choice, pro-war, socially conservative centrists. Of the newly elected House Democrats at least 9 will be joining the conservative Blue Dog caucus. According to the coalition's spokesperson Vicky Walling, the organization had endorsed 16 new candidates this year.

"The difference between the Democratic Leadership Council liberals and the Blue Dogs is marginal. Whereas New Democrats tend to be socially liberal, Blue Dogs maintain traditionally conservative ideals. They may oppose free trade but the majority, like the DLC patrons, voted to limit access to bankruptcy protection and see social programs as expendable in the quest to balance budgets.

"Of the 37 current Blue Dogs in Congress, 36 were reelected with the exception of Rep. Harold Ford Jr. of Tennessee. Not one had opposed the invasion of Iraq. All supported the Bush tax cuts as well as the wall along the border of Mexico. None support impeachment. All support Israel unequivocally, and if Bush moves ahead with a military intervention in Iran, they'll all be on board.

Joshua Frank in Counterpunch.org

Watching the US Elections from Canada

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The Democratic Party has been all but dead for years as a meaningful national alternative. The party has no recognized national leader. It has no cause, no fire in the belly. It has been largely silent for six years while Bush rampaged through the world and literally peed on American liberties like a grotesquely-smirking, small-town sheriff. No President in history has shown so little respect for human rights, and with so little excuse, yet all the would-be defenders of the Republic, whether Congressmen or the Don't-Tread-on-Me crowd, have been no where to be seen. And Democrats like Lieberman or Kerry can hardly be distinguished from Republicans.

The Democrats have been elected because Americans are now sick of Iraq. Their enthusiasms die quickly. American expectations for the wars they start are perfectly captured by the image of Bush landing on an aircraft carrier with a big banner behind him saying Mission Accomplished. It's a blockbuster version of the Homecoming Game with guys in uniforms and cheerleaders and flags, and there is no hint of death or decay. Anything beyond that kind of performance is welcomed like the kid who couldn't make the team.

from counterpunch.org

Nightmare in Beit Hanoun--Jennifer Lowenstein

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An opened jaw with yellowed teeth gaped out of its bloodied shroud. The rest of the head parts were wrapped in a plastic bag placed atop the jaw and nostrils, as if to be close to the place to which it once belonged. The bag was red from the pieces that were stuffed inside it. Below the jaw was a human neck slit open midway down: a fleshy, wet wound smiling pink and oozing out from the browned skin around it, the neck that was still linked to the body below it. Above him, in the upper freezer of the morgue lay a dead woman, her red hennaed hair visible for the first time to strange men around her. More red plastic wrapped around an otherwise absent chin. She was dead for demonstrating outside a mosque in Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza where more than 60 men sheltered during the artillery onslaught by Israeli tanks and cannons.

Most of the others still had their faces intact. They lay on their silver morgue trays stiffly as unthawed frozen food. One man had a green Hamas band tied around his head; he looked like a gentle shepherd from some forgotten, pastoral age. Another's white eyes were partially opened, his face looking out in horror as if he'd died seeing it coming. Then a muddy, grizzled blob on the bottom left tray, black curls tangled and damped into its rounded head and blessedly shut eyes. A closer look revealed a child, a boy of 4: Majed, out playing his important childhood games when death came in like thunder and rolled him up in a million speckles of black mud. The other dead had already been taken away.

Muslim burials take place quickly, a god-send to the doctors, nurses and undertakers who, at the hospitals and morgues, desperately need the space for next batch of casualties who would sleep on the same sheets, same steel-framed beds, in the same humid heat, in the same close, crowded, grief-stricken rooms, often on the floors, with the same tired, unpaid attendants doing their rounds without the proper supplies to help them if they were still alive. And some would die on the operating table like the young man gone now to the Kamal Adwan hospital morgue when his wounds became too much for his body to bear. Two young girls preceded him earlier the same day. Blessed are they who leave this human wasteland washed and shrouded for a quiet, earthy grave.

from counterpunch.org

Bechtel's (Really Ours) Billions Down the Drain--Dahr Jamail

Tweet Bechtel's billions down the drain
By Dahr Jamail and Ali al-Fadhily

BAGHDAD - The decision of the giant engineering company Bechtel to withdraw from Iraq has left many Iraqis feeling betrayed. In the company's departure, they see the end of remaining hopes for the reconstruction of Iraq.

"It is much worse than in the time of Saddam Hussein," Communist Party member Nayif Jassim said. "Most Iraqis wish Saddam would be back in power now that they lived out the hardships of the occupation. The Americans did nothing but loot our oil and kill our people."

Bechtel, whose board members have close ties to the administration of US President George W Bush, announced last week that it was done with trying to operate in the war-torn country. The company has received US$2.3 billion of Iraqi reconstruction funds and US taxpayer money, but is leaving without completing most of the tasks it set out to do.

On every level of infrastructure measurable, the situation in Iraq is worse now than under the rule of Saddam. That includes the 12 years of economic sanctions since the first Gulf War in 1991, a period that Dennis Halliday, former United Nations humanitarian coordinator for Iraq, described as "genocidal" for Iraqis.

The average household in Iraq now gets two hours of electricity a day. There is 70% unemployment, 68% of Iraqis have no access to safe drinking water, and only 19% have sewage access. Not even oil production has matched pre-invasion levels.

Sorry. Lost the original source for this great article.

The "Accident" At Beit Hanun And The Logic Of Unilateralism

Tweet Photo: A Palestinian boy is reflected in a pool of water stained with blood after an Israeli shelling at Beit Hanoun town in the northern Gaza Strip November 8, 2006. Israeli shelling killed 18 civilians, including women and children, on Wednesday, Palestinian officials said, in one of Israel's deadliest strikes in the coastal territory in months. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem (GAZA)


Lawrence of Cyberia on Israel's Shelling of Beit Hanun

"A lot of words will be written and spoken about the IDF's shelling of a residential area of Beit Hanun early this morning, which killed at least 18 Palestinians as they slept. As I live in the U.S., most of the words I read and hear about it will blame the Palestinians for their own deaths, insisting that if only someone hadn't sometime in the past fired some crappy Qassam missile possibly from somewhere in the vicinity of where those dead Palestinians lived, then the IDF would not be attacking Palestinians and everything would be fine.

"This is bullshit. Let us stop pretending that the massive killing of Palestinians in Gaza over the last few months begins and ends with the Qassams, and that if only they would stop firing them, the Palestinians would find a government in Israel willing to sit down and talk peace. This is a lie. It is a story we tell ourselves, to maintain the happy illusion we were raised on, i.e. that poor little Israel is always sincerely seeking peace, but is constantly frustrated by neighbors who don't want it.

"Let's return to the real world via two quotes. One from Israeli journalist Gideon Levy:

What would have happened if the Palestinians had not fired Qassams? Would Israel have lifted the
economic siege that it imposed on Gaza? Would it open the border to Palestinian labourers? Free prisoners? Meet with the elected leadership and conduct negotiations? Encourage investment in Gaza? Nonsense. If the Gazans were sitting quietly, as Israel expects them to do, their case would disappear from the agenda here and around the world. Nobody would have given any thought to the fate of the people of Gaza if they did not behave violently.

"Well, that's an important first step. A recognition that the firing of missiles out of Gaza does not happen in a vacuum, but has a context; and that that context is Israel's determination to unilaterally impose on the Palestinians a "solution" that will retain Israel's domination over them through indirect rather than direct occupation, rather than allow to emerge through negotiation a viable, successful, independent Palestinian state.

No One Is Safe in Gaza

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THE LATEST FROM DR. EL-FARRA

"Monday, November 06, 2006
Gaza7.30 am -AlAwda Hospital -Jabalia camp

just few lines to let you all know , that nobody is safe in Gaza , while on their way to their school with their school bags , and their teacher on board of small school bus , the van has been attacked by one missile , teacher is seriously injured , 9 at least were ijured , one is killed , medical staff at AlAwda hospital are dealing with the injured , some were reffered to the shifa hospital ,in Gaza city .

all hospitals in the Gaza strip are working under big pressure ,and heavy load , due to the current Israeli operation against Gaza , on top of long period of economical sanctions , that left 70%of the population living on humanitarian aid .medics works under fire and very difficult situation, yesterday 2 medical rescue team men were killed while working , one of our staff in AlAwda hospital was injured the same day , all while on duty .

i have seen some of the shrapnels , that were recovered from the previous day injuries , with clear writing USA USA, the shrapnels seems unusual ,surgeons didnot come across before ,we donot have the time and facilities to investigatte , some experts might find results , any way killing of civilians is ilegal either with knives or internationaly abandended weapons .

my messege to all good American men and women , PLEASE PLEASE MAKE SURE THAT YOUR TAX MONEY ARE NOT USED FOR KILLING INNOCENT CIVILIANS IN GAZA

MOna with love and soliderity"

From Uruknet.info

We Have A Mandate

Tweet After a pretty harsh assessment of the Democrats performance on progressive issues, Michael Schwartz suggests we take up the mandate of the majority--"with or without Democratic leadership." Linda (Article is from TomDispatch--scroll down to Couch Potatoes Guide to Election Night)

What's at Stake in This Election
As in 2004, there is no mystery about what the voters think when it comes to this election: It is a referendum on Bush administration policies in which unhappiness over the war comes first, second, and third. And this is why, no matter what the Democrats do afterwards, the 2006 midterm elections whose results we will all be anxiously watching on Tuesday are so important. If the Democrats prevail, however narrowly, against a world of massively gerrymandered seats, Republican finances, blitzes of dirty ads, the presidential "bully pulpit," and well-planned campaigns of voter suppression, American -- as well as world public opinion -- will interpret it as a repudiation of Bush administration war policy. And this will become a mandate for those who oppose these policies to speak and act ever more forcefully. With or without Democratic Party leadership, this added momentum might even make a difference.

U.S. Government Incapable of Shame?

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"To me, the following quote reads like poetry...so that's how I'll present it:

"Whenever any form of
government
becomes destructive
to these ends,
it is the right of the people
to alter or to abolish it,
and to institute new government,
laying its foundation
on such principles
and organizing its powers
in such form,
as to them
shall seem
most likely
to effect
their safety
and happiness

(Thomas Jefferson)

******

"In her excellent 1995 book, "Bridge of Courage," Jennifer Harbury quotes a Guatemalan freedom fighter named Gabriel, responding to a plea to embrace non-violent resistance: "In my country child malnutrition is close to 85 percent. Ten percent of all children will be dead before the age of five, and this is only the number actually reported to government agencies. Close to 70 percent of our people are functionally illiterate. There is almost no industry in our country-you need land to survive. Less than 3 percent of our landowners own over 65 percent of our lands. In the last fifteen years or so, there have been over 150,000 political murders and disappearances... Don't talk to me about Gandhi; he wouldn't have survived a week here. There was a peaceful movement for progress here, once. They were crushed. We were crushed. For Gandhi's method to work, there must be a government capable of shame. We lack that here."

"Repeat after me: We lack that here.

U.S. Army Breeding Extremism in Iraq--Iraqi Delegation

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"An Iraqi parliamentary delegation visiting Qatar has accused the US army in Iraq of breeding extremism by carrying out an "irresponsible arrest campaign".

"The delegation represents the Iraqi Accordance Front, which is the biggest Sunni Arab bloc in the Iraqi parliament, occupying 44 seats in the 275 seat parliament.

"Adnan al-Dulaimi, the chairman of the Front, said: "There are now around 17,000 Iraqi detainees in Buka camp in the south. Most of them are innocent people. They get arrested and thrown in jail for months and years without charges and without trial, and while in prison they are approached by al-Qaeda people.

"When you are forgotten and suffer psychological pressure you tend to go back to religion and appeal to God to end your ordeal, added to that the desire to take revenge on those who illegally threw you in jail, you tend to be a soft target for extremists."

Found on Information Clearinghouse

Bush's Carnival of Blood-Mike Whitney

Tweet "Sentencing a man to hang merely to improve one’s prospects at the ballot-box is about as desperate as it gets. It may be the most cynical political-ploy we've seen in the last 6 years. It's a thoroughly vile act unworthy of anyone holding high-office.

"The whole circus atmosphere of the Saddam trial has further eroded confidence in American justice and evenhandedness. The outcome was known from the very beginning. Everyone knew that he would be condemned to death.

"So, why all the hoopla? Why not just shoot him outright?

"Did Bush want to give Saddam the opportunity to grab the moral high-ground and look like a statesman? Now the deposed dictator seems like the unwitting victim of “victor’s justice”. How smart was that?

"After the verdict was announced, Saddam issued brief a statement to his people which made him appear reflective and patriotic. He said:

“Pardon and do not take revenge on the invading nations and their people…and unify in the face of sectarian strife.”

"Saddam's message of forgiveness and reconciliation won't be warmly received in Washington where they were hoping that he would fall to his knees and beg for forgiveness. That was another miscalculation. Saddam may be a brutal tyrant but he was never a coward. His courtroom performance will only strengthen the resolve of the resistance and make life that much more difficult for occupation forces.

"The whole charade has been costly blunder for the Bush team; nothing was gained.

"Saddam’s death will have the same effect as the appalling photos of the hooded prisoner at Abu Ghraib which offended the sensibilities of decent people everywhere. It will just generate more hatred and violence.

"This isn’t justice. It's another example of a nation’s dark shame.

Mike is right; this is Bush's Carnival of Blood, but the Democrats are definitely at the Carnival enjoying the festivities. Otherwise, why haven't we heard anything from them on this topic?


Article was found on Information Clearinghouse

Revolutionaries For Democrats--by Jan Baughman

Tweet The author wishes to acknowledge Stan Goff, Andrew Austin, and all the Marxist Revolutionaries who have called to vote for the Democrats in the midterm ...

In addition, seeing the overwhelming support the Dems have given to Israel both in its bombing of Lebanon and its razing of Gaza and the West Bank, I could never support candidates who had a hand in that.--Linda

Ali Abunimah's Letter to Finland on European Inaction While Gaza Burns

Tweet "I would like to draw your attention to the following:

"-Israeli leaders indicate that they make no distinction
between civilians and combatant resistance fighters.
According to B'Tselem, the Israeli human rights
organization, Israel's prime minister Ehud Olmert told the
Knesset on October 30 that in the past three months, the
Israeli military has killed 300 "terrorists" in the Gaza
Strip. According to B'Tselem's investigation, Israeli
occupation forces did indeed kill 294 Palestinians in Gaza
between June 26 and October 27. However, over half of
those killed -- 155 people, including 61 children –- did
not participate in the fighting when they were killed.
These figures do NOT include the 49 Palestinians killed by
Israel since November 1.

"-As stated, since November 1 until today, Israeli
occupation forces have killed 49 Palestinians, injured
more than 150, and caused massive destruction to a people
under occupation which under international law, Israel is
bound to protect. Among the victims of these latest
Israeli atrocities are at least seven children, two women,
and two Red Crescent paramedics rendering assistance to
the injured. Can you tell me how many Israelis have been
killed or injured by the "terrorist" activity that you
allege authorizes the Israeli military action in Gaza?

"-While no one can dispute the "right of all states to
defend themselves," Israel is patently not engaged in
self-defence, but in protecting an ever-expanding colonial
infrastructure and occupation in East Jerusalem, the West
Bank and Gaza Strip. As the International Court of Justice
(ICJ) found in July 2004, Israel has the option to defend
itself by withdrawing all of its soldiers and settlers
from the territories occupied in 1967, as required by
international law. Your failure to call on Israel to do
this is tantamount to an endorsement of Israel's illegal
settler-colonies and its use of force to maintain them.

20,000 Protest Bush climate policy in London.- Yahoo! News

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"People have realized that climate change is a humanitarian issue, a peace-and-security issue, an economic issue, as much as it is a green issue," Ashok Sinha, director of organizers Stop Climate Chaos (SCC), said.

Read more at news.yahoo.com/s/nm/200...

Local Grassroots Organzing Key to Building Effective Progressive Movement

Tweet Portion of interview on Democracy Now:
CHIP BERLET: Well, that grassroots organizing is key and that too many political organizations and progressive social movement organizations have given up on door-to-door kind of neighborhood organizing and local organizing, and that really, when it comes to the real social change, that grassroots organizing makes the difference. Social movements pull political parties in their direction when they’re strong. If you don’t have a powerful progressive movement, it doesn’t matter how much you want the Democrats to do what you want them to do.

Berlet is Senior analyst at Political Research Associates in Somerville, Massachusetts. He wrote the book ‘Running Against Sodom and Osama: The Christian Right, Values Voters and the Culture Wars in 2006,’ - with Pam Chamberlain.

Makes sense to me.

Palestinian Women Confront Israeli Troops to Help Gunmen

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"The Beit Hanoun sweep is different from previous Israeli incursions into Gaza, a senior Israeli military official said. Rather than staying on the outskirts of populated areas, troops are going house to house in Beit Hanoun, sometimes breaking through inner walls to limit exposure to gunmen.

"In another new tactic, troops have rounded up hundreds of men for questioning, releasing most but detaining dozens, the army official said.

"In the most dramatic episode of the Beit Hanoun incursion, dozens of Palestinian gunmen, many from Hamas, took cover in the town's Al Nasser Mosque on Thursday and were quickly surrounded by Israeli forces. The two sides exchanged fire through the night. An army bulldozer knocked down an outer wall of the mosque, causing the ceiling to collapse.

"On Friday morning, Al Aqsa Radio, the local Hamas station, broadcast appeals to women to come to the rescue of the trapped gunmen. The women marched toward the mosque, coming under Israeli fire at times, and approached armored personnel carriers and bulldozers near the mosque.

"Volleys of shots were fired at them, sending the group rushing toward a wall for cover.

"Two women, both age 40, were shot and killed, and at least 10 others were wounded, hospital officials said.

"One of the wounded was Tahrir Shahin, 36, a housewife. She said that after hearing the radio appeal, she left her seven children sleeping at home and set out for the mosque with her sister. En route, a bullet hit Shahin's left leg; it had to be amputated above the knee.

"Still, she said, she did not regret her choice. "I was so upset about what was happening, so I answered their call," she said from her hospital bed.

Seattle University Honors Hamden Lawyer

Tweet "From the beginning, the administration maintained that a military commission was a full and fair trial. In it, they said a full and fair trial could be held without the accused actually being present ... that he didn't have the right to see evidence against him or her, that evidence could be put in that had been obtained by physical or mental coercion, that that evidence could be used to convict, that the accused did not have a right to represent themselves. And I said, 'There went the Bill of Rights.' "

"For his taking the case and side-tracking his career, Swift was passed over for promotion shortly after the Supreme Court's ruling in June -- meaning that he is being forced to retire next spring under the military's "up or out" promotion system. He has said he hopes to continue representing Hamdan.

"On Friday, Swift recalled visiting Hamdan's family in Yemen with a female colleague. The family's grandmother gathered all of the young girls, telling them the woman had studied hard to become a lawyer. If they studied hard, the grandmother said, they could become anything they wanted.

"She is the single most dangerous weapon against Osama bin Laden there is in the world," Swift said.

Neo Culpa: Neocons Fess Up--from Vanity Fair

Tweet Eliot Cohen, director of the strategic-studies program at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and member of the Defense Policy Board: "I wouldn't be surprised if what we end up drifting toward is some sort of withdrawal on some sort of timetable and leaving the place in a pretty ghastly mess.… I do think it's going to end up encouraging various strands of Islamism, both Shia and Sunni, and probably will bring de-stabilization of some regimes of a more traditional kind, which already have their problems.… The best news is that the United States remains a healthy, vibrant, vigorous society. So in a real pinch, we can still pull ourselves together. Unfortunately, it will probably take another big hit. And a very different quality of leadership. Maybe we'll get it."

Personally, I don't feel so vibrant myself. As for leadership we will get after the neocons, I feel positively pale.

Found on Angry Arab Newservice

Guess They Could Just Cut Out Their Tongues

Tweet "The Bush administration has told a federal judge that terrorism suspects held in secret CIA prisons should not be allowed to reveal details of the "alternative interrogation methods" that their captors used to get them to talk.

Will any Democrats speak out against this?

Found on Angry Arab Newservice

Israel Gets Even More Vicious in Palestine

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"In Saturday's Gaza violence, Israeli aircraft killed a Hamas rocket maker in a missile strike on his minivan and ground forces blew up a weapons storehouse. Six Hamas gunmen were killed in separate incidents and a civilian died when his house, apparently weakened by the shock of explosions, collapsed on him, according to Palestinian reports.

"In another incident, a 12-year-old girl was shot in the head and killed by an Israeli sniper, Palestinian officials said. The Israeli military expressed regret, saying the sniper was aiming at an armed militant and hit the girl by mistake.

"Hamas gunmen attacked a building used by Israeli forces, detonating explosives and firing rockets, said Abu Obeida, a spokesman for Hamas militants. Witnesses said they saw two Israelis evacuated by helicopter.

"The deputy head of Beit Hanoun's town council, Tisyan Hamad, said the destruction in the latest sweep is worse than anything the town has suffered in past Israeli operations.

''There's no electricity ... the people have no water, no food, telephone lines are cut, the infrastructure is damaged,'' he said.

In a related story from Angry Arab News, main stream media coverage of some more of Israel's war on Palestine:

"Yesterday, Israeli occupation troops shot at unarmed Palestinian women. Watch how US newspapers justified Israeli killings:
LA Times: "Hamas militants flee Gaza mosque aided by women"
NY Times: "Israelis Fire on Marchers Aiding Gaza Gunmen, Killing 2"
Washington Post: "At Least 14 Palestinians Die in Israeli Raids"

Flashpoints Radio Valuable Resource

Tweet

This is a plea for you to make a habit of listening to (and supporting) Flashpoints radio from KPFA in Berkeley. You can listen online or downlowd it or get a podcast. The summary for today's [Wednesday's] show is below:

"Today on Flashpoints: Israel's Operation Autumn Cloud in Gaza leaves twelve Palestinians dead in 48 hours, we'll have a special report from Dr. Mona al-Farra in Gaza City; also, unarmed protesters in Oaxaca beat back the federal police, Jon Gibler reports from the streets; plus, a lively debate on Proposition 90 and what it means for the Black and Brown communities in California; and the Knight Report."

Democracy Now is good as far as it goes, but Flashpoints definitely has more hard-edge reporting. On the Nov. 1st podcast, I heard a heart-wrenching and informative report from a Palestinian NGO coordinator about the latest vicious Israeli incursions into both Gaza and the West Bank. He called on the international community to intervene instead of just watching all this happening. There was also a report on the Israel lobby's activities from James Petras.

Below is the website. Knowledge is power. Ignorance is not blissful; just dangerous (or paraphrasing John Kerry, it may get us into Iran or a lot of other places we have no business being)

http://flashpoints.net/

--

As Bechtel Goes--So Go the Democrats?

Tweet This article by Paul Krugman bemoans US efforts in Iraq and ends with the plaintive question why are Americans dying there. But in the course of the article, I believe he echos the new Democratic meme: we will be in charge, but we are not going to look back--we are looking to the future. Which means there will be no accountability for the U.S. government's agressive wars and destruction around the world. I hope I will be proved wrong.--L

"Bechtel, the giant engineering company, is leaving Iraq. Its mission — to rebuild power, water and sewage plants — wasn’t accomplished: Baghdad received less than six hours a day of electricity last month, and much of Iraq’s population lives with untreated sewage and without clean water. But Bechtel, having received $2.3 billion of taxpayers’ money and having lost the lives of 52 employees, has come to the end of its last government contract.

"As Bechtel goes, so goes the whole reconstruction effort. Whatever our leaders may say about their determination to stay the course complete the mission, when it comes to rebuilding Iraq they’ve already cut and run. The $21 billion allocated for reconstruction over the last three years has been spent, much of it on security rather than its intended purpose, and there’s no more money in the pipeline.

"The failure of reconstruction in Iraq raises three questions. First, how much did that failure contribute to the overall failure of the war? Second, how was it that America, the great can-do nation, in this case couldn’t and didn’t? Finally, if we’ve given up on rebuilding Iraq, what are our troops dying for?

"There’s no definitive way to answer the first question. You can make a good case that the invasion of Iraq was doomed no matter what, because we never had enough military manpower to provide security. But the lack of electricity and clean water did a lot to dissipate any initial good will the Iraqis may have felt toward the occupation. And Iraqis are well aware that the billions squandered by American contractors included a lot of Iraqi oil revenue as well as U.S. taxpayers’ dollars.

"Consider the symbolism of Iraq’s new police academy, which Stuart Bowen, the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, has called “the most essential civil security project in the country.” It was built at a cost of $75 million by Parsons Corporation, which received a total of about $1 billion for Iraq reconstruction projects. But the academy was so badly built that feces and urine leak from the ceilings in the student barracks.

"Think about it. We want the Iraqis to stand up so we can stand down. But if they do stand up, we’ll dump excrement on their heads.

"As for how this could have happened, that’s easy: major contractors believed, correctly, that their political connections insulated them from accountability. Halliburton and other companies with huge Iraq contracts were basically in the same position as Donald Rumsfeld: they were so closely identified with President Bush and, especially, Vice President Cheney that firing or even disciplining them would have been seen as an admission of personal failure on the part of top elected officials.

"As a result, the administration and its allies in Congress fought accountability all the way. Administration officials have made repeated backdoor efforts to close the office of Mr. Bowen, whose job is to oversee the use of reconstruction money. Just this past May, with the failed reconstruction already winding down, the White House arranged for the last $1.5 billion of reconstruction money to be placed outside Mr. Bowen’s jurisdiction. And now, finally, Congress has passed a bill whose provisions include the complete elimination of his agency next October.

"The bottom line is that those charged with rebuilding Iraq had no incentive to do the job right, so they didn’t.

"You can see, by the way, why a Democratic takeover of the House, if it happens next week, would be such a pivotal event: suddenly, committee chairmen with subpoena power would be in a position to investigate where all the Iraq money went.

"But that’s all in the past. What about the future?

"Back in June, after a photo-op trip to Iraq, Mr. Bush said something I agree with. “You can measure progress in megawatts of electricity delivered,” he declared. “You can measure progress in terms of oil sold on the market on behalf of the Iraqi people.” But what those measures actually show is the absence of progress. By any material measure, Iraqis are worse off than they were under Saddam.

"And we’re not planning to do anything about it: the U.S.-led reconstruction effort in Iraq is basically over. I don’t know whether the administration is afraid to ask U.S. voters for more money, or simply considers the situation hopeless. Either way, the United States has accepted defeat on reconstruction.

"Yet Americans are still fighting and dying in Iraq. For what?

Apt Comment on Kerry's Kerfluffle--from Stop Me Before I Vote Again

Tweet john kerry is the heart and soul of the present generation of Dem pols of distinction

"elitest oblige "
at some point
always trips over itself

kerry timed this one perfectly

if he'd been talking to those who had made the "life choices" he was warning against,
he'd not have said what he said

but thew New Dem swinger strateeeegery
requires pandering to the lower echelons
of the great middle klass
those who play by the rules
and finish off
the leader board

john needs to hang with some
hill billy drop outs
guys that
signed up
and
didn't get plugged
not walt whitman's
types wheeling around
at the VA

but guys lookin back at their best
and forward to "a darkness visible "

then his soul would bloom

i know he ain't so bad
inside that merit sadism
beats another better heart

he's just ambitious and privileged
so he
" can't get down "
and stay down
he keeps floating back up
to where his silver ass hole
can do the talkin for him

Striking Janitors Block Houston Traffic

Tweet HOUSTON (AP) -- Striking janitors demanding higher wages and better insurance benefits staged a sit-in at one of the city's busiest intersections.

About 150 members of the Service Employees International Union disrupted traffic in Houston's upscale Galleria shopping district for about 90 minutes Thursday. A dozen community activists who joined the protest chained themselves to metal garbage cans and sat in the middle of the street. They were arrested and charged with obstructing a pathway.

More than 1,700 janitors have been on strike since Oct. 23, when talks broke down with several of the city's commercial cleaning companies. The strike has targeted about 60 buildings in the city's downtown and shopping district. Workers want a pay increase to $8.50 an hour, up from the current average of $5.30, plus more guaranteed hours of work and medical insurance.
Dozens of protesters linked arms and formed a human chain to stop cars from passing through the intersection during the demonstration.

Protesters waved picket signs, beat drums and chanted upbeat slogans of ''Si se puede'' (Yes, we can) and ''Aqui estamos, no nos vamos'' (Here we are, and we're not leaving).
The rally rankled many drivers trapped in traffic, including a few who tried to bulldoze their way through the demonstrators. Others shrugged at the unexpected delay and said they supported the strikers.

2-year old Palestinian Girl Released from Israeli Jail

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November 2, 2006

The attached are from our local Al-Quds newspaper on Nov 1, 2006. They are from a story about a 2-yr old girl who was released from an Israeli prison near Ramallah. Her name is Aiysha, which in Arabic means "life."

Aiysha’s mother gave birth to her while detained in an Israeli prison. Aiysha was released two days ago, her mother is still being detained under "Administrative Detention," in other words, no charge, no trial, nothing…just a unilateral Israeli decision to detain her for 6 months at a time, already renewed 4 times!

This poor baby. She knows nothing in life but the walls of her mother’s prison cell. She only knows her father from visits, when they were possible. She has never seen a road, a city, grass, trees, a real bed, her own bedroom, a park, a real meal, friends, real toys, etc, etc.

I weep for this girl and pity the father as he is bound to be faced with her first question, "Where’s mom?," and her mom, who sleeps tonight, alone.

The Baker Report: Alternatives--The Nation

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The Baker Report: Alternatives

by EVAN EISENBERG

[posted online on November 2, 2006]

"I think it's fair to say our commission believes that there are alternatives [probably not the ones listed below!--linda] between the stated alternatives, the ones that are out there in the political debate, of stay-the-course and cut-and-run."
-- James A. Baker III, co-chair of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, on ABC's This Week

OPTION A: CUT TO THE CHASE

• All forces under Allied command in Iraq and Afghanistan are redeployed to the search for Osama bin Laden.

• Bin Laden is apprehended.

• The United States declares victory.

• Bin Laden is tried, convicted and sentenced to serve as administrator of both nations, while United States withdraws.

the article continues with other unprobable outcomes

One-third Support 'Some Torture'

Tweet Nearly a third of people worldwide back the use of torture in prisons in some circumstances, a BBC survey suggests.

Although 59% were opposed to torture, 29% thought it acceptable to use some degree of torture to combat terrorism.

While most polled in the US are against torture, opposition there is less robust than in Europe and elsewhere.

More than 27,000 people in 25 countries were asked if torture would be acceptable if it could provide information to save innocent lives.

April 2004--Bush Admits Iraqis are Unhappy Being Occupied

Tweet Going unscripted has always been dangerous for Bush. Back in April 2004, he acknowledged that the US was occupying Iraq. Don't hear that much anymore do you? Everything is just fine and democratic now. They've had 3 elections after all. Uh-huh. L

"Perhaps most surprising was Bush's switch from a consistently upbeat view of the situation in Iraq to what he acknowledged was a "pretty somber assessment" on Tuesday of the difficulties there. He talked of "tough weeks" and "serious violence," acknowledging that recent developments have been hard on the military and their relatives, on the American public and even on his own administration.

"He also admitted, for the first time, that Iraqis are not entirely pleased with the situation created by the US-led war.

"They're not happy they're occupied. I wouldn't be happy if I were occupied either," Bush said.

"But he would only go so far, rejecting comparisons to the Viet Nam War -- which have come mostly from Democrats critical of Bush's Iraq policies -- and insisting that most Iraqis are glad that the United States freed their country from Saddam Hussein's rule and are remaining there to help provide security.

Pelosi Admits Israel Comes First--Joshua Frank

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"I think it is finally time we stood up and thanked Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the darling Democrat from the Bay Area who leads her party in the House. Pelosi's recent speech to the Israel-American lobby AIPAC, the second largest lobby in Washington, was monumental – truly unparalleled in its candor.

"Despite the fact that AIPAC was recently busted for spying on the United States, Pelosi, along with many other top bureaucrats from Washington, gushed effusions of praise on the foreign power. "There are those who contend that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is all about Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza," Pelosi said as she rallied AIPAC loyalists. "This is absolute nonsense. In truth, the history of the conflict is not over occupation, and never has been: it is over the fundamental right of Israel to exist."

"Apparently Pelosi has never asked Palestinians what they think of Israel's brutality. Not that she hasn't witnessed the occupation firsthand; Pelosi is just not concerned in the least with the Palestinian resistance.

"This spring, I was in Israel as part of a congressional trip that also took us to Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq," said Pelosi. "One of the most powerful experiences was taking a helicopter toward Gaza, over the path of the security fence. We set down in a field that belonged to a local kibbutz. It was a cool but sunny day, and the field was starting to bloom with mustard. Mustard is a crop that grows in California, and it felt at that moment as if I were home. And then we were told that the reason we had to land in that field, as opposed to our actual destination, was because there had been an infiltration that morning, and they weren't sure how secure the area was. And that point alone brought us back to the daily reality of Israel: even moments of peace and beauty are haunted by the specter of violence."

Pelosi, like so many other Democrats and Republicans in D.C., does not appreciate the asymmetry of the conflict. She cannot understand that Palestinians are faced with violence every day as their livelihoods and homes are uprooted to make way for new Israeli settlements. Never mind that the farm collective where Pelosi landed in her fancy helicopter was at one time operated by Palestinian farmers. For the land, according to Pelosi, has always belonged to the state of Israel.

From Antiwar.com

Recharging the Anti-War Movement--Get Local, Stay Positive

Tweet Below is part of a very insightful essay about antiwar organizing by a local professor from Olympia, Zoltan Grossman, on Counterpunch.org. I picked this part of the essay not to offend my many friends who disdain TV, but to give an example of the new perspective Prof. Grossman is trying to give antiwar organizers. Hope you'll read it. [Click on the link in the first line to read the whole article.] Linda

7. Watch TV

I am baffled every time I talk with a peace activist about a TV news interview or a critical program, and the activist stops me to proudly proclaim that "we don't have a TV." This is a sure-fire sign of an activist who has no interest in being an organizer. How in the world can we educate or organize people around an issue if we don't know what bogus "facts" and myths that the people are already receiving? How can we talk with them if we don't have an understanding of mass culture as a common language? Joking about a TV drama or comedy is often a frame of reference that can open a conversation, and shows that we don't see ourselves as superior.

I understand if progressives are protecting their kids, but the kids eventually go to bed. I also understand if they don't want to sacrifice their souls, and turn their brains into mush with overly large doses of TV. But thousands of people have gone to jail (or even died) to fight war and injustice in this country's history. Why can't we make the sacrifice of laughing at an episode of Barbershop on Showtime? Not every program is like Survivor or Deal or No Deal; some programs actually try to critique society, and are probably safe to consume in small doses.

Many progressive activists attack "mainstream" people as nothing but consumers and TV watchers, without recognizing that people are passive because they feel powerless, and feel they have limited choices in their lives. Television is a critical part of shaping collective consciousness in the U.S. Just as the Latin American rebel has to know the rainforest, and the Middle Eastern rebel has to know the deserts or mountains, the North American rebel has to know television. It is our wilderness-our jungle-that we ignore at our peril. It may make us uncomfortable, but we must not become so isolated that we can only talk with others who don't have a TV.

Revealed: U.S. Soldier Killed Herself After Objecting to Interrogation Techniques

Tweet "Peterson objected to the interrogation techniques used on prisoners. She refused to participate after only two nights working in the unit known as the cage. Army spokespersons for her unit have refused to describe the interrogation techniques Alyssa objected to. They say all records of those techniques have now been destroyed….”

"She was was then assigned to the base gate, where she monitored Iraqi guards, and sent to suicide prevention training. “But on the night of September 15th, 2003, Army investigators concluded she shot and killed herself with her service rifle,” the documents disclose.

Editor & Publisher (found on Information Clearinghouse)

Mike Gravel: Running for Pres with a Good Platform

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MIKE GRAVEL RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT IN '08. Looks like a good platform:

Commence an immediate and orderly withdrawal from Iraq;

Raze Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib prisons to the ground;

Stop Congress from raiding the Social Security Trust Fund;

Initiate a Universal Single Payer Healthcare Plan;

Abolish the Federal Income Tax & IRS, replacing them with the "Fair Tax" (a national sales tax);

End the war against America's veterans; and

Ask the American people to enact The National Initiative for Democracy so that you can decide on our agenda and all of the issues that affect your lives"

His website is here: http://www.gravel08.us/