Dorian Breuer's news archive

2007-11-20T05:46:00.000-08:00

The good 'ole Democrats are behind a new clamp-down on dissent

As you'll read in this fact sheet from the Center for Constitutional Rights, and watch on Nov. 20th 2007 Democracy Now!, the "Violent Radicalization and Home Grown Terrorism Act of 2007" or H.R. 1955 sponsored by Democrat Jane Harmon (CA), is a vaguely worded bill that seeks to "study" "extreme" views that it says lead to violent action. The process and definitions used in the measure, which passed the House 404 to 6 and soon will be considered in the Senate, could lead to greater criminalization of dissent.

Under the measure, civil disobedient acts such as groups of people riding bicycles on the street like the monthly Critical Mass bike rides or participation in peaceful protests could be considered terrorist acts under the wording of this bill.

As the CCR points out about sections of the bill:

“SEC. 899A (2) VIOLENT RADICALIZATION- The term `violent radicalization' means the process of adopting or promoting an extremist belief system for the purpose of facilitating ideologically based violence to advance political, religious, or social change.”

What is an extremist belief system? term is left undefined and open to many interpretations, socialism, anarchism, communism, nationalism, liberalism, etc. that would serve to undermine expressions that don’t fit within the allowable areas of debate. A direct action led by any group that blocks traffic can be looked upon as being coercive.

“SEC. 899B. (3) The Internet has aided in facilitating violent radicalization, ideologically based violence, and the homegrown terrorism process in the United States by providing access to broad and constant streams of terrorist-related propaganda to United States citizens.”

The focus on the internet is crucial, it can set up far more intrusive surveillance techniques, without warrants, and the potential to criminalize ideas and not actions can mean penalties for your stance rather than any criminal act.

“SEC. 899A. (4) IDEOLOGICALLY BASED VIOLENCE- The term `ideologically-based violence' means the use, planned use, or threatened use of force or violence by a group or individual to promote the group or individual's political, religious, or social beliefs.”

What is force, is civil disobedience covered under that, if arrested at a protest rally and charged with disorderly conduct, obstructing governmental administration, or even assault does that now open you up to possible terrorist charges in the future?

2007-04-18T05:30:00.000-07:00

Flags at Half Staff, equal treatment by the President?

I'm not sure President Bush is treating disaster victims the same when it comes to his most noble duty of ordering, by proclamation apparently, that flags be flown at half staff.

For the recent shoots at Virginia Tech University and September 11, 2001, the President ordered flags flown at half staff in about 24 hours.

It took the president six days to issue a similar proclamation after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast eventually claiming over 1,800 deaths.

Here are the differences:
Incident

.....................Days to issue.............Days to issue
.....................proclamation.............'Day of Remembrance'
Virginia Tech............1.......................N/A
Katrina..................6.......................10
September 11.............1.......................2

2006-12-05T19:45:00.000-08:00

World's richest 1% own 40% of all wealth, UN report discovers

Thanks to the Guardian for covering this. Key statistics:

Bottom 50% of population own less than 1% of global wealth.
More than 1/3 of all global weath is owned by Americans.
27% of global wealth is owned by the Japanese.
Top three per capita wealth; (1) $181,000 (Japanese), (2) $144,000 (Americans), (3) $127,000 (British).
Study by the UN's World Institute for Development Economics Research.
Total weath of the globe is $125 trillion ($125,000,000,000,000)
Top 10% of adults owned 85% of all global wealth.

2006-12-05T11:24:00.000-08:00

Democratic Senators Falling Down on the Job Again?

Democratic Senators such as Carl Levin from Michigan apparently plan to not question Robert Gates, President Bush's pick to follow Donald Rumsfeld as Secretarty of 'Defense*' on his past of apparently breaking U.S. law. This is discussed here on Democracy Now! this morning.

Robert Gates apparently was heavily involved in breaking U.S. law in the 1980's when he helped the CIA efforts to provide funds to the terrorist 'Contra Rebels' attacking Nicaragua by secretly selling U.S. weapons to Iran. According to Ray McGovern, former colleague of Gates at the CIA, new documents and evidence has emerged since 1991, the last Senate hearing Gates was subject to, that show his heavy involvement in the Iran Contra Affair.

Also, Senate Democrats like Levin and others say they will not question Gates about his producing false CIA intelligence reports, euphemized as 'politicizing intelligence,' because this is 'old news.'

According to McGovern, again, Gates was involved in producing false intelligence regarding the need to bomb the country of Nicaragua and also to mine its bays, which the U.S. then did and was then found guilty of - the only nation in the world to have been found guilty of a terrorist act by the International Court of Justice (read the judgment for yourself here).

What do you think, are Senate Democrats falling down on the job of keeping criminality, corruption and anti-democratic action out of the United States Government again?

*In my view, the Department of Defense should be properly called the Department of War, which it used to be called before 1947 and of course more accurately reflects the vast majority of its purpose and actions and activities around the world.

2006-11-27T14:13:00.000-08:00

Will Rumsfeld be found a war criminal under the War Crimes Act?

The blog Balkinization helpfully highlights (mentioned in Cursor.org) that former U.S. General Janis Karpinski says she is now ready to testify that Donald Rumsfeld personally approved interrogation methods that break the Geneva Convention.

According to the 1996 War Crimes Act, "a grave breach in any of the international conventions signed at Geneva 12 August 1949, or any protocol to such convention to which the United States is a party" is considered a War Crime, and thus subjects any U.S. National found guilty of a war crime to be subject to the penalties of the War Crimes Act.

If Donald Rumsfeld is tried and found guilty under the War Crimes Act as a result of evidence like the testimony from General Karpinski, here are the penalties Rumsfeld could be subject to:

"fined under this title or imprisoned for life or any term of years, or both, and if death results to the victim, shall also be subject to the penalty of death"

That's right, it seems to me that Donald Rumsfeld better hope he has very good defense lawyers standing by in case he is tried in the United States judicial system for War Crimes. Don't forget that at least at Abu Garab, a number of prisioners died during interrogations by Pentagon personnell, effectively employees of Donald Rumsfeld. Will Rumsfeld some day get the death penalty?

2006-10-18T23:38:00.000-07:00

I hate to say I told you so - a year ago!!!

Consumers Organized for Reliable Electricity, (C.O.R.E.) is a sham, something Lisa Madigan (Illinois Attorney General) and ABC7 Chicago news investigative reporter Chuck Goudie have just, apparently, come around to finding out...

I even tried to give this story to another major news network in November of last year, but they weren't interested in pursuing it.

But Charlie and Lisa are on the job now.

They uncovered some good new information including that C.O.R.E. registered as a Springfield lobbying entity with one client, ComEd! Chuck doesn't seem to be aware, or didn't report, however, C.O.R.E.'s connection to the Hill and Knowlton Public Relations firm that I outlined in my blog piece.

Chuck's full story below:

Battle over rate increase heats upConsumer interest group 'front group for
ComEd'

By Chuck Goudie

October 18, 2006 - The battle over the ComEd rate increase is heating up. Two top Illinois officials want some answers from ComEd. State Attorney General Lisa Madigan and Lieutenant Governor Pat Quinn are both trying to short-circuit the big rate increase for the electric power utility.

Quinn is asking for emergency hearings into ComEd's relationship with a so-called consumer interest group that is backing the utility. Madigan says the multi-million dollar salaries paid to ComEd executives are a conflict of interest. ABC7 investigative reporter Chuck Goudie has exclusive details in this Intelligence Report. Edison wants to charge about 25 percent more every time we switch on a light or run appliances. The huge rate increase comes at a time when huge executive paychecks paid to ComEd officials are raising questions about whether higher consumer rates will merely feed even higher salaries.

A TV commercial is featured on the website of an organization called CORE, Consumers Organized for Reliable Electricity. The group's aim is to promote the interest of electricity consumers. But, a spokeswoman for CORE admits, they are joined at the hip with an unlikely partner, ComEd.

"A large portion of it is funded by Commonwealth Edison -- I can't tell you how much," said Avis LaVelle, CORE media liaison. Not only is CORE funded by ComEd, the I-Team has learned that CORE is actually a registered state of Illinois lobbyist, according to secretary of state records lobbyist registration records, the Consumers Organized for Reliable Electricity has one client, ComEd. "There is something wrong if we are going to allow this one company with highly paid executives to raise the electric rates," said Quinn. Over the weekend, Lt. Governor Pat Quinn raised his voice against ComEd compensating its top five executives nearly $47 million a year. Quinn is raising the stakes in a letter to Illinois Commerce Commission Chairman Charles Box. The lieutenant governor is asking for emergency public hearings on Edison's executive compensation policy and on the so-called consumer interest group, CORE, that Quinn states "is acting solely in the financial interests of ComEd."

Attorney General Madigan said Wednesday that CORE is "a front group for ComEd" and that CORE has not registered with her office as is required by law for a non-profit organization.

Madigan says ComEd executives have a personal financial incentive to buy the most expensive electricity, because the more money ComEd brings in, the higher the stock option from parent company Exelon.

2006-10-13T08:24:00.000-07:00

ComEd and Amerern’s ‘Reverse Auction’ must be stopped.

Statement by Dorian Breuer, Green Party candidate for Illinois State Senate, 1st District Wednesday, September 20, 2006
1856 S. Throop St. #2F, Chicago,IL 60608
Stephanie Lane, Campaign Manager, (773) 562-7492
votebreuer.org

The results of last Friday’s wholesale electricity reverse auction are disastrous: ComEd customers will receive a rate increase of 22 percent and Ameren customers an increase of 56 percent.

This must be stopped and I support SB 5766, a bill that would extend the current electricity rate freeze until the legislature can craft a plan that will protect consumers from the huge profit windfall Exelon and Ameren expect to receive.

Published reports state that SB 5766 is unlikely to pass the Senate, however, because State Senate President Emil Jones is not interested in passing the bill.

What has not been widely published is that that Exelon Corporation is the fourth largest campaign contributor to Emil Jones’ campaign fund with $30,000 in donations in the 2006 reporting period according to the website the Institute on Monday in State Politics. Not only that, but Electric Utilities in Illinois are the fifth largest industry to contribute to President Jones’ campaign with more than $55,000 in donations.

In fact since the 2002 election cycle, Emil Jones has received $100,000 in campaign donations directly from Exelon Corporation.

If President Jones was a Federal officeholder, those donations would be illegal.

Is it any wonder that the Illinois Senate is unlikely to consider SB 5766, a bill that would remove the massive profit windfall Friday’s reverse auction will bring to Exelon?

As a former member of the Board of Directors of the Citizen’s Utility Board for the 4th Congressional District, I saw first hand the anti-consumer tactics that Exelon has used in lobbying for this anti-consumer reverse auction.

Today I call on State Senate President Emil Jones to support SB 5766 while there is still time to protect the consumers of Illinois and to repair the impression that he is simply doing the bidding of one of his largest campaign contributors, the Exelon Corporation.

Green Party candidates refuse campaign contributions from corporations so that candidates once elected can pass legislation with only the interests of real people at heart.

If elected, I will work to sponsor and pass pro-consumer legislation like SB 5766 clear from all the corrupting influence of PAC and Corporate donations that course through the veins of Illinois politics.

I also support returning to the state’s regulation of the electric utilities as the only effective way to keep electricity rates low for Illinois’ consumers while also guaranteeing proper investment in our electricity infrastructure. Regulated monopolies can still earn a profit, they simply have to do it while ensuring the interest of consumers.

2006-08-10T15:36:00.000-07:00

Nader would garner 3%-11% if 2004 presidential election held today?!

According to a poll released yesterday by the Scripps Howard News Service, voters today would vote differently than they did in 2004, giving Nader 7% (with a +/-4%). In the actual election, Nader won less than 1% of the vote.

The poll also revealed that from the 2000 presidential election, Nader and/or Buchanan would have garnered 9% of the vote. Presumably most of that 9% was for Nader.

It is interesting that after the major-party pre-election hype dies down and voters wake up, groggy, the next morning after an election, that in the last two presidential elections they would vote much more strongly for 3rd party alternatives as well as against the election winner.

Of course, national polls of 1,200 people have to be taken with a grain of salt, but it is still instructive and not meaningless.

2006-07-05T15:29:00.000-07:00

BBC News: Italy Arrests own Intelligence Officers over the 'CIA Kidnap'

See article here.

This is really amazing. I'm not aware of any other case where individual CIA agents have been pursued by another western industrialized nation's (an ally's) legal system for breaking local laws like we have in Italy right now.

The Italian prosecutor's pursuit of the criminal abduction of an Egyptian national on Italian soil (euphemized in the U.S. media as 'rendition') by CIA agents with help from Italian intelligence officials poses a real threat to the quiet complicity between many national governments around the world and the CIA to operate above the law and in secret.

The unaccountable international network of secret government intelligence officials should be all but eliminated. It has proven to be close to nothing but a secret arm of an already highly unaccountable and undemocratic system of governance both in the United States and in most other nations as well.

I call for a severe re-write of the federal National Security Act of 1947 to increase the public’s oversight of the CIA and all federal intelligence agencies. The right of the American people to use the Freedom of Information Act should be strengthened to allow the public to review more of what the CIA does. Also, the CIA and the federal government in general should be outlawed from having the CIA raise its own funds outside of the already classified annual budget given it by U.S. taxpayers.

2006-07-03T05:57:00.000-07:00

Greg Palast on the July 2 Mexican elections

Dispatch from Mexico City:STEALING IT IN FRONT OF YOUR EYES
Matt Pascarella in Mexico City, Greg Palast in London
Monday, 3 July
Gore v. Bush. Kerry v. Bush. Obrador v. Calderon.

As in Florida in 2000, as in Ohio in 2004, the exit polls show the voters voted for the progressive candidate, but the race is "officially" too close to call.

But they will call it -- after they steal it. Reuters News agency reports that, as of 8pm Eastern time, as voting concluded in Mexico, exit polls show Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of the "left-wing" Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) leading in exit polls over Felipe Calderon of the ruling conservative National Action Party (PAN).

We've told you again and again: Exit polls tell us how voters say they voted, but the voters can't tell pollsters if their vote will be counted. In Mexico, counting the vote is an art, not a science -- and Calderon's ruling crew is very artful indeed. The PAN-controlled official electoral commission, not surprisingly, has announced that the presidential tally is too close to call.
Calderon's election is openly supported by the Bush Administration.

On the ground in Mexico City, our news team reports accusations from inside the Obrador campaign that operatives of the PAN had access to voter files which are supposed to be the sole property of the nation's electoral commission.
We are not surprised.

This past Friday, we reported that the US Federal Bureau of Investigation had obtained Mexico's voter files under a secret "counterterrorism" contract with database company ChoicePoint of Alpharetta, Georgia. (See BUSH TEAM HELPS RULING PARTY “FLORIDIZE” MEXICAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION)

The FBI's contractor states that, following the arrest of ChoicePoint agents by the Mexicangovernment, the company returned or destroyed its files. The firm claims not to have known collecting this information violated Mexican law. Such files can be useful in challenging a voter's right to cast a ballot or in preventing that vote from counting.

It is, of course, impossible to know if the FBI destroyed its own copy of the files of Mexico's voter rolls obtained by Choicepoint or if these were then used to illegally assist the Calderon candidacy. But we can see the results: as in the US, first in Florida then in Ohio, the exit polls are at odds with "official" polls.

In November 2004, US Republican Senator Richard Lugar, in Kiev, cited the divergence of exit polls and official polls as solid evidence of "blatant fraud” in the vote count in Ukraine. As a result, the Bush Administration refused to recognize the Ukraine government's official vote tally ... which proves once again that Republicans are incapable of irony.

The foreign mainstream press has already announced, despite the polling discrepancies, that Mexico's elections were fair and clean -- which would be a first for that country where Obrador's party has seen its candidates defeated by "blatant fraud" before. The change this time is that the fraud is simply less blatant.
********
Watch for our video reports from Mexico City at www.GregPalast.com to be carried on Democracy Now!, with Amy Goodman, this Wednesday, July 5. Rick Rowley, in Mexico City, contributed to this report.

Matt Pascarella is North American producer for GregPalast.com. Greg Palast is the author of the New York Times bestseller, "ARMED MADHOUSE: Who's Afraid of Osama Wolf?, China Floats Bush Sinks, the Scheme to Steal '08, No Child's Behind Left and other Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Class War."

2006-06-14T11:00:00.000-07:00

Palast has Evidence of Current Republican Party Illegal Voter Roll Expunging

You have to watch today's Democracy Now! here. Read the Segment here. The segment with author Greg Palast has Palast explaining how he got a hold of lists of thousands of registered voters being emailed between top Republican operatives for the purpose of organizing challenges to their validity either on or before voting day in November. Most of the names were African Americans and Jews two demographics that are demonstrated high Democratic Party voters.

This information, if true - and the BBC, Palast's employer, has looked at Palast's evidence and accepted it - is so shocking that it is truely hard to believe. Please watch or read this information and ask the questions for yourself: are top Republican Party operatives actually capable of such actions.

Palast's new book, Arm the MadHouse, apparently has information on this evidence as well.

2006-05-26T06:31:00.000-07:00

Another Right Lost: Right to information on Companies

Now the Security Czar/SS Comandante (Negroponte) has the right himself to deem any financial disclosures by any company he secretly deems of 'National Security' in this non-existent 'time of war' as secret National Security items classified from public view and scrutiny.

Business WQeek On Line
http://tinyurl.com/zhol6

MAY 23, 2006

NEWS By Dawn Kopecki

Intelligence Czar Can Waive SEC Rules
Now, the White House's top spymaster can cite national security to exempt businesses from reporting requirements President George W. Bush has bestowed on his intelligence czar, John Negroponte, broad authority, in the name of national security, to excuse publicly traded companies from their usual accounting and securities-disclosure obligations. Notice of the development came in a brief entry in the Federal Register, dated May 5, 2006, that was opaque to the untrained eye.

Unbeknownst to almost all of Washington and the financial world, Bush and every other President since Jimmy Carter have had the authority to exempt companies working on certain top-secret defense projects from portions of the 1934 Securities Exchange Act. Administration officials told BusinessWeek that they believe this is the first time a President has ever delegated the authority to someone outside the Oval Office. It couldn't be immediately determined whether any company has received a waiver under this provision.

The timing of Bush's move is intriguing. On the same day the President signed the memo, Porter Goss resigned as director of the Central Intelligence Agency amid criticism of ineffectiveness and poor morale at the agency. Only six days later, on May 11, USA Today reported that the National Security Agency had obtained millions of calling records of ordinary citizens provided by three major U.S. phone companies. Negroponte oversees both the CIA and NSA in his role as the administration's top intelligence official.

FEW ANSWERS. White House spokeswoman Dana M. Perino said the timing of the May 5 Presidential memo had no significance. "There was nothing specific that prompted this memo," Perino said.

In addition to refusing to explain why Bush decided to delegate this authority to Negroponte, the White House declined to say whether Bush or any other President has ever exercised the authority and allowed a company to avoid standard securities disclosure and accounting requirements. The White House wouldn't comment on whether Negroponte has granted such a waiver, and BusinessWeek so far hasn't identified any companies affected by the provision. Negroponte's office did not respond to requests for comment.

Securities-law experts said they were unfamiliar with the May 5 memo and the underlying Presidential authority at issue. John C. Coffee, a securities-law professor at Columbia University, speculated that defense contractors might want to use such an exemption to mask secret assignments for the Pentagon or CIA. "What you might hide is investments: You've spent umpteen million dollars that comes out of your working capital to build a plant in Iraq," which the government wants to keep secret. "That's the kind of scenario that would be plausible," Coffee said.

AUTHORITY GRANTED. William McLucas, the Securities & Exchange Commission's former enforcement chief, suggested that the ability to conceal financial information in the name of national security could lead some companies "to play fast and loose with their numbers." McLucas, a partner at the law firm Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr in Washington, added: "It could be that you have a bunch of books and records out there that no one knows about."

The memo Bush signed on May 5, which was published seven days later in the Federal Register, had the unrevealing title "Assignment of Function Relating to Granting of Authority for Issuance of Certain Directives: Memorandum for the Director of National Intelligence." In the document, Bush addressed Negroponte, saying: "I hereby assign to you the function of the President under section 13(b)(3)(A) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended."

A trip to the statute books showed that the amended version of the 1934 act states that "with respect to matters concerning the national security of the United States," the President or the head of an Executive Branch agency may exempt companies from certain critical legal obligations. These obligations include keeping accurate "books, records, and accounts" and maintaining "a system of internal accounting controls sufficient" to ensure the propriety of financial transactions and the preparation of financial statements in compliance with "generally accepted accounting principles."

2006-05-22T11:07:00.000-07:00

Church of England report questions market capitalism

A report released today about the condition of life in urban areas by the Church of England asks:

"A key concern raised by the Commission is whether our society is being run for the benefit of the rich, or for all its members. Countering social inequality, and trying to reduce it, is the litmus test of a society’s moral adequacy.

But there is a deeper question about our reliance on market driven capitalism than simply questioning its role in promoting inequality. It is time to ask whether this economic and social model can really deliver happiness or wellbeing for all.

Why, the report asks, is it that young people in Britain, the fourth largest economy in the world, are among the most depressed in Europe? Why is it that despite year after year of economic growth, as a society we are no happier?"

2006-05-22T09:43:00.000-07:00

Cursor.org: our eroding civil liberities

a good snapshot today of views about the eroding of our civil liberities in a time of a non-existant war:
Cursor.org - : "McGovern also accuses congress of 'Bowing to the Police State,' and Balkanization describes the twin dangers of a national surveillance state as 'national security displacing the criminal justice system and the criminal justice becoming increasingly like the national security system."

2006-04-27T12:00:00.000-07:00

Worse than Watergate: Democracy Now! covers the vital parallel between Nixon's Watergate and the Bush Administration today

Folks, every patriot needs to listen to the great Americans interviewed today and yesterday on Democracy Now!

Yesterday's Show information: 1. Nat Hentoff on the Government Crackdown on Information From Whistleblowers to Journalists 2. FBI Seeks to Seize Control of Files of Deceased Investigative Journalist Jack Anderson 3. Pentagon Papers Whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg to Government Insiders: Risk Prison to Leak Information Exposing Illegal Government Actions

Today's Show information: Nixon White House Counsel John Dean and Pentagon Papers Leaker Daniel Ellsberg on Watergate and the Abuse of Presidential Power from Nixon to Bush.

2006-04-25T08:43:00.000-07:00

8 U.S. nuclear reactors had "near misses" of an accident on the scale of Chernobyl since 1986.

Greenpeace Report: AN AMERICAN CHERNOBYL: Nuclear “Near Misses” at U.S. Reactors Since 1986

See above to download and read a 2006 study by Greenpeace using U.S. Nuclear Regulatory documents that looks at accidents that happened at U.S. nuclear reactors since 1986. They found among other things that in 8 cases accidents at U.S. nuclear power plants led to conditions that had a 1-in-1,000 chance of causing a total meltdown of the reactor core, meaning an accident on the scale of Chernobyl or worse.

On page 5 of the report it is revealed that nuclear reactors in Illinois not far from Chicago were responsible for 15 of 46 'frequent' near miss incidents that could have led to a reactor core meltdown and the explosion and release of radioactive clouds accross the region just like the Chernobyl disaster or worse. That means that since 1986, Illinois reactors have had 1/3 of the frequent near misses in the United States.

The report continues:

The reactors that experienced the most “near misses” since Chernobyl, DC Cook 1 and Dresden 3 [located 20 miles south west of Joliet], both have containments that offer the public little or no defense in the event of a meltdown.

Later, the report explains that in 1986 right after the Chernobyl disaster the Nuclear Regulatory Commission testified to Congress about how dangerous U.S. nuclear power was:

Less than a month after the disaster, NRC Commissioner James K. Asselstine testified that, "given the present level of safety being achieved by the operating nuclear power plants in this country we can expect to see a core meltdown accident within the next 20 years and it is possible that such an accident could result in off site releases of radiation which are as large as or larger than the releases estimated to have occurred at Chernobyl."
"While we hope that their occurrence is unlikely, there are accident sequences for U.S. plants that can lead to rupture or bypassing of containment in U.S. reactors which would result in the off-site release of fission products comparable or worse than the releases estimated by the NRC staff to have taken place during the Chernobyl accident."
"That is why the Commission told Congress recently that it could not rule out a commercial nuclear power plant accident in the United States resulting in tens of billions of dollars of property losses and injuries to the public."

2006-04-17T14:58:00.000-07:00

A snapshot of the news today...

evidence now in that bush is planning an attack on iran (Seymore Hirsh in the New Yorker)
now 7 retired (many of them just retired) generals are calling for the resignation of rumsfeld. This response for just-retired generals is virtually unprecidented according to Retired Colonel Sam Gardiner on Democracy Now.
eight die in a horrible and cowardly palastanian suicide attack on israeli civilians
US military has broken U.S. law by arming Iraqi security forces that have then conducted human rights abuses.
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/04/17/143232
Democracy Now: Ex-ExxonMobil CEO Earned $150,000 Per DayIn business news, it has been revealed that Lee Raymond, the former CEO of ExxonMobil, received a total of $686 million in compensation between 1993 and 2005. That comes out to an average of nearly $150,000 a day.

2006-04-07T12:56:00.000-07:00

The Secret Domestic Spying U.S. Government is upon us...

From Democracy Now! today, two stories that should be gut-wrenching to those of us who want our country to be free of extra-judicial secret domestic spying. It is not acceptable for the administration to say that it is okay for them to clearly break the law in the 'cause' of securing the nation and rooting out 'terrorists.' Just like the pre-war Nazi regime, when is the line crossed between a country being a nominal democratic republic to that of a totalitarian regime?

For those that support the right of the administration to break the law to wiretap domestic-to-international calls or even domestic-to-domestic calls without FISA court review, I have to ask you this.

What proof are you given to support the administration's claim that it is only using the illegal NSA domestic wiretapping program to monitor calls from/to the U.S. and Al Queda?

You are given none.

The purpose of the FISA court is exactly to provide a means of popular monitoring of the actions of the secret government - the NSA, CIA, FBI and others. It is to provide that proof, that evidence. FISA was created after abuses made by the Nixion administration of domestic and international wiretapping in the name of national security but, it turned out, were actually used against their political enemies, public dissidents and citizens expressing legal, peaceful speech.

Why would anyone simply blindly trust, without any proof, that this administration is actually being truthful about anything, and particularly about domestic wiretapping when it says to just 'trust us' we're not using our massive wiretapping and monitoring systems for anything other than Al Queda.

The point is, the administration may be telling the truth about its illegal wiretapping program. But, we will never know if it is telling the truth because it is not letting us (meaning the people of the United States) see any evidence that it is telling the truth because it is side-stepping the FISA court.

Gonzales: Gov't Has Power To Monitor Domestic Calls
Back in Washington, the Bush administration is now suggesting it might have the legal authority to conduct surveillance on domestic communication between Americans without a court warrant. Until now the administration has maintained it only has the authority to conduct warrantless eavesdropping of calls made to or coming from other countries. On Thursday Attorney General Alberto Gonzales testified before the House Judiciary Committee. When he was asked if the president might order strictly domestic spy operations, Gonzalez said "I'm not going to rule it out." Congressman Adam Schiff of California said he found Gonzales statement to be very disturbing. Schiff said "If the administration believes it can tap purely domestic phone calls between Americans without court approval, there is no limit to executive power. This is contrary to settled law and the most basic constitutional principles of the separation of powers."

AT&T Whistleblower: AT&T Cooperated With NSA Over Spying
Meanwhile a retired AT&T telecommunications technician named Mark Klein has reportedly given a sworn statement that AT&T has been working with the National Security Agency to spy on Americans. Klein gave the statement as part of a lawsuit by the Electronic Frontier Foundation against several major telecommunications companies. Klein reportedly also disclosed several internal AT&T documents that showed AT&T put a "dragnet surveillance" in place to help the NSA. Klein's statement and the documents have been put under seal. According to attorneys at EFF, the leaked AT&T documents supports the group's claim that AT&T is diverting Internet traffic into the hands of the NSA wholesale, in violation of federal wiretapping laws and the Fourth Amendment. EFF's staff attorney Kurt Opsahl said "Mark Klein is a true American hero. He has bravely come forward with information critical for proving AT&T's involvement with the government's invasive surveillance program."

2006-03-31T18:42:00.000-08:00

Study: Long-term cell use raises brain tumor risk

One of the largest and longest studies done yet.

Is this going to be another asbestos or DDT or C8 (key deadly chemical in Teflon now found in all of us)?

I hate the cell phone I use at least an hour each day.

2006-03-14T14:06:00.000-08:00

Support the Censure of President Bush!

See Feingold's resolution:

Remarks of U.S. Senator Russ Feingold Introducing a Resolution to Censure President George W. Bush

Here is the fax I sent today to Senators Obama and Durbin:

As a constituent of yours in Chicago, I ask that you please vote in favor of and speak publicly in support of Senator Feingold’s Censure Resolution introduced yesterday on the floor of the U.S. Senate.

I feel that the leaked, secret National Security Agency wire-tapping program authorized by President Bush is an obvious violation of United States law and as such the President should face impeachment in the U.S. House and at the least a censure, now, in the U.S. Senate with your support.

I feel if you do not support Senator Feingold’s Censure Resolution you will be further degrading the constitutional power and role of the congress, specifically the U.S. Senate, and as such should be voted out of office for doing so when you are next up for election.

It is difficult to fathom what more information we as citizens and Senators need to read regarding the President’s secret illegal National Security Agency wire-tapping program before we understand that further silence and inaction in the face of this most recent chipping-away of our constitutional rights brings the United States closer to crossing the line from a being a democratic republic to that of a tyranny.

Most of the people I have daily contact with feel exactly the way I do. Please take a bold step and publicly join Senator Feingold in his resolution.

Sincerely,
Dorian Breuer

2006-02-22T12:16:00.000-08:00

Will the Musharraf coup soon be toppled in Nuclear Pakistan?

This is a very disturbing story (thanks to Cursor.org) of the fragility of the Pakistani government.

Thanks to the spread of nuclear civilian use (nuclear power plants) and its subsequent military use (nuclear weapons) to countries like Pakistan, the downfall of the Pakistani government in this case could explode the possibilities of the actual use and spread of nuclear weapons.

2006-02-14T17:04:00.000-08:00

Is the U.S. Government Manipulating recruits?

As noticed (I think exclusively) by Democracy Now!, the Government Accountability Office released a report that showed that the U.S. Government spent 1.62 billion dollars on advertising and public relations in the last two years, the majority of it spent by the Department of Defense ($1.1 billion).

I don't think this is appropriate. Most of this money seems to have been spent to recruit, through manipulation, new 'voluntary' members of the military. The military already receives huge amounts of money to offer incentives to recruits who join.

The advertising and public manipulation dollars that must be spent by the military to maintian recruiting levels shows the degree to which military recruitment is anti-democratic. For in order to convince young residents of the United States to join the military, the military must spent vast resources finding ways to convince them.

If the cause of joining the military was just and right, then presumably the military would not need to spend any money convincing residents to join the military - there would be lines around the block of recruits eager to join.

This recruiting problem shows the disconnect between government policy on the one hand - foreign policy, United States' global military adventurism for example - and the views, sentiments, desires and hopes of regular residents of the United States on the other hand.

It reveals the almost total failure of the U. S. Democracy (need we look farther than the 50% U.S. voter participation in elections for confirmation of this conclusion?).

2006-02-10T12:53:00.000-08:00

Folks, if this story is largely true, then this is a facinating look inside the amazing cloaked world of the White House. Unbelieveable, actually. Read this to get insight about the mechanics at the top of the executive branch.

Domestic Spying: Bush Appointees Revolt - Newsweek Politics - MSNBC.com

2006-01-31T12:47:00.000-08:00

From Democracy Now! today:

During the last three months of 2005 the oil giant [Exxon] made over $1,300 every second or nearly $5 million every hour.

2006-01-26T11:02:00.000-08:00

Teflon is killing us - why should the EPA wait until 2015 to regulate it?

Today's paper found on the Metra? Chicago Tribune, Jan 26 2006.

As I've noted before (here and here), Teflon and its key chemical component Perflourooctanoic acid (PFOA) is potentially extremely harmful. According to yet another great article by the Trib's environment reporter, Michael Hawthorne, the EPA seeks to eventually regulate PFOA in the same class of persistent and toxic chemicals as mercury, lead and PCBs.

DuPont, the developer, patent holder and sole manufacturer of the chemical claims there is no harmful effects on humans, animals or the environment from the chemical.

2006-01-21T09:08:00.000-08:00

U.S. lying about torture in Uzbekistan

I have shocking news for you. The U.S. and British Governments are lying to you. Aren't you shocked!

Thanks to yet another whistleblower former government official who is helping expose this illegal government lying, we have yet more evidence and examples.

In this case, the whistleblower is Craig Murray, the former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan. See Ambassador Murray here on DemocracyNow! this week.

He has published various documents proving that the U.S. and British governments are lying about their statements about their use of or complicity in torture.

He has published these documents [npaper.jpg and telegrams.pdf] which I am republishing from my website to help get the word out about these blatant government lies.

See http://www.blairwatch.co.uk/node/716 for more detailed information about this story.

2006-01-16T00:58:00.000-08:00

Switching to the Greens and is Chicago Mean?

Chicago is the 12th meanest city for homeless persons according to an advocacy group.

And from the Daily Kos blog site, here is one person's interesting internal political battle; stay with the corporate-wed Democratic Party or join, by moral necessity, the political fringe 'outside' the party.

There are other stories about why some have moved from the Democratic Party to the Green Party at iswitched.org.

Finally, here's one of my favorite articles from Z magazine describing political strategy for progressives in the united states. In it, the author speculates what the political landscape would be like in the U.S. if it were to become a true multi-party system:

...the current Republican Party would be rendered politically marginal and garner at most 10-15% of the vote, the current Democratic Party would be seen for what it is (a center-right party) and obtain perhaps 25%, there would emerge a new center-left Democratic Party with maybe another 25-30%, a party to its left (the Greens?) would receive another 25%, and a party to its left would gain perhaps 10%.

2006-01-10T13:39:00.000-08:00

Post/ABC poll: Over 70% of Americans also say they don't see much difference in the levels of ethics and honesty between Republicans and Democrats.

Another stellar day for Democracy now. Just about every headline is unbelievable (See here). My highlights:

Award-Winning Iraqi Journalist Arrested by US Troops

Study: Iraq War Cost Could Reach $2 Trillion

Bremer Criticizes Pentagon, Governing Council in New Memoirs

Brits Who Disclosed Al Jazeera Memo Back in Court

Democracy Now! Headlines for January 10, 2006: "Poll: 58% See Abramoff Scandal As Part of Wider Corruption
And a new Washington Post/ABC News Poll shows 58% of US citizens believe Abramoff's criminal case is evidence of widespread corruption in Washington rather than a limited individual case. Over 70% of Americans also say they don't see much difference in the levels of ethics and honesty between Republicans and Democrats. "

2006-01-06T16:07:00.000-08:00

Last Monday, the U.S. military in Iraq bombed the wrong house: CNN.com - U.S. says bomb hit wrong house in Iraq - Jan 5, 2006

Okay, that's it. I'm in favor of a constitutional amendment to limit the executive's powers. More on that later, as well as my ideas for other constitutional amendments such as taking away corporate personhood (where thanks to supreme court precedence, corporations are legally people with almost the name rights as natural persons.

Also, Bush decided that he could waive McCain's new anti-terrorism law (article).

"But, the official said, a situation could arise in which Bush may have to waive the law's restrictions to carry out his responsibilities to protect national security. He cited as an example a ''ticking time bomb" scenario, in which a detainee is believed to have information that could prevent a planned terrorist attack."

What do you think of this argument? I think it is ridiculous because I believe with all the other powers available to the government for search and seizure for cause, any information that would be gained through torture should be already available through other search means. And even if it is not, putting aside any moral issues with torture, then as is almost universally acknowledged, torture is unlikely to produce correct or usable information anyway.

As McCain says: when you're being tortured, you'll say anything you think your torturers will want to hear to make the pain stop.

2006-01-04T15:15:00.000-08:00

Is Waterboarding Torture?

Do you think the United States Government's procedure of 'Waterboarding' people in its custody is torture?

According to a December 28, 2005 Tribune back pages article, waterboarding is:

The subject is strapped to a board and tilted so his head is lower than his feet. A cloth is tied over his nose and mouth and saturated with water, eventually making it impossible for him to breathe.

When used in the field, the technique is less elaborate but no less effective. No board, for example, is involved; the suspect is simply held down.

"You just pull the guy's T-shirt over his face and dump a canteen of water on his head," said the SEAL, who spoke on condition that he not be identified and who emphasized that he had never used the technique during a real interrogation.

Waterboarding has been described as "the illusion of drowning." In fact, there is no illusion; if interrogators didn't stop, the subject would drown.

"Inhaling even a small amount of water causes the body to close the glottis and violently cough to remove the offending substance," said the SEAL, who is also trained as a Navy hospital corpsman.

"This entire process initiates the fight-or-flight response in the sympathetic nervous system, causing the person to involuntarily raise their heart rate, respiratory rate, and flail and writhe in an effort to break free from the situation.

"This reaction is even more pronounced when the subject is lying on his back with feet elevated and head down. This is due to the fact that the nostrils serve as a catch basin for small, but significant nonetheless, amounts of water."

Because the water prevents air from entering the nose and mouth, and therefore the lungs, the supply of oxygen available for metabolic functions is exhausted within seconds.

"After performing this on a target for 30 seconds and then stopping the flow of water, the sense of relief and then the realization that this is but a brief respite are extremely powerful motivators for the subject to cooperate in the interrogation," the SEAL said.

Practice seen in training

Waterboarding experienced in training, he added, "is instantly effective on 100 percent of Navy SEALs, a group which is probably more comfortable in adverse maritime swimming conditions than any other on the planet."

"In my case, I wasn't even held down. My teammate simply poured a canteen of water over my face while I had my T-shirt pulled over my head. Instantly, my ability to breathe through the T-shirt was taken away and my natural reaction to inhale deeply through my mouth and nose for air caused me to take on small amounts of water."

Waterboarding is also effective, the SEAL said, because the subject realizes that "there are no enduring physiological consequences, which he intuitively knows. This is important psychologically, because he can legitimately hope that he will be able to live on normally after the experience, if only he cooperates.

"Breaking kneecaps and pulling out fingernails does not hold this promise. The fact that the target has a chance to remain fully whole makes him more likely to be truthful and to break more quickly."

What does the Bush Administration have to say about this procedure according to the article?:

Atty. Gen. Alberto Gonzales recently told CNN that "Congress has defined what torture is, and it is intentional infliction of severe--I emphasize the word `severe'--intentional infliction of severe physical or mental pain or suffering."

Asked whether "waterboarding" would be allowed under that definition, Gonzales replied that "that would be something that would have to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis."

To me, waterboarding is torture.

2005-12-29T17:26:00.000-08:00

Go Jessica Popovac! Chicago Turns Down Discounted Venezuelan Oil is an important outing of a story I had just heard about myself last week from Little Village sources. According to the person I spoke with who was familiar with the concerted negotiations for some weeks between the Venezuelan Government, elected officials from Boston and officials from the City of Chicago and the CTA, representatives of the White House directly contacted Mayor Daley's office to urge that Chicago *not* participate in these efforts by the U.S. oil company Citco owned by the Venezuelan Government.

Great article, and a dizzying display of wrong priorities by the CTA and the Daley administration.

2005-12-21T09:03:00.000-08:00

Thanks to the ACLU and Professor Alasdair Roberts, Syracuse U., here is a Memorandum of Agreement between the FBI, Chicago Police Department and the Illinois State Police forming the "Chicago Counterterrorism Tas Force" dated in 1991.

2005-12-21T08:40:00.000-08:00

There really has been too much news to keep up with recently including:

the transit strike in New York

the illegal spying on people within the United States by the National Security Agency as ordered by the President

the 11th hour adding of a provision that would allow corporations to drill for oil in Anwar, Alaska to the defense budget in the House and the Senate.

But Today the BBC reports that there has been another toxic spill into a river in China. This time the chemical is cadmium among others. This is also significant because it is cadmium that the Federal EPA's proposed rollback on reporting rules would eliminate from reporting in Illinois.

2005-12-13T10:31:00.000-08:00

Multinational Corporations, most based in the United States, are increasingly directly involved in international human rights abuses, acording to a Global Exchange report.

2005-12-07T13:59:00.000-08:00

The times we live in. Hard to believe. Excellent Democracy Now! Program today, check it out:
- Anniversary of Massacre in East Timor
- Government Fails to Convict Palestinian Professor on Terror Charges
- German Citizen Files Rendition Lawsuit Against US
- Rice Secures New Military Base in Romania
- Tehran Plane Crash Kills Over 110 People
- US Security Consultant Kidnapped in Iraq
- Hundreds of Families Flee US Offensive in Ramadi

2005-12-02T13:15:00.000-08:00

Ouch. Biting commentary about Obama by the Black Commentator blog: "U.S. Senator Barack Obama has planted his feet deeply inside the Iraq war-prolongation camp of the Democratic Party..."

Also, the US military has officially planted positive stories in the Iraq media. Ahh, nothing like the retoric of building a democracy in Iraq. Lies.

2005-12-01T15:20:00.000-08:00

Watch video here about recent 'British Ocean Scientists' finding that the Gulf Stream has cooled by one third.

2005-12-01T14:25:00.000-08:00

WBBM AM 780 reports: Illinois National Guard Strapped For Equipment. And Chicago Crain's reports: Gov. asks ICC to lean on Peoples Energy for refund.

And most important of all, unlike what some people have told me, Chipotle Grill is indeed owned by McDonalds as described by Crain's.

2005-11-27T08:13:00.000-08:00

Don't you think Illinois should become one of the 10 states drafting or already having passed vehicle emissions standards that mirror California's as covered in yesterday's New York Times? Currently it is not. If vehicle emissions could be curbed along with power plant emissions, you would be hitting the sources of 66% of air pollution. Let's do it.

2005-11-27T08:10:00.000-08:00

Remember congress's role in sending us to war in Iraq?

Read the original joint resolution (H.J.Res. 114) in October 2002 that clearly passed authority to declare war from congress (where the constitution says the authority should be) to the executive. Crazy stuff. It reads like it is strait out of Cheney's office. Here are some great quotes:

"Whereas the efforts of international weapons inspectors, United States intelligence agencies, and Iraqi defectors led to the discovery that Iraq had large stockpiles of chemical weapons and a large scale biological weapons program, and that Iraq had an advanced nuclear weapons development program that was much closer to producing a nuclear weapon than intelligence reporting had previously indicated;"

We now know that every statement in this clause is almost completely false if not flagrant exaggeration.

Here is how individual senators and representatives voted on that resolution.

2005-11-25T15:55:00.000-08:00

General Strike today in Italy with the three major unions coordinating efforts.

2005-11-24T21:30:00.000-08:00

What a few days.

We've got a massive chemical leak in China affecting millions of people with the government witholding anouncing the release for days.
Then recently it was revealed that the US military used phosphorus as a chemical weapon during it's attack on Falluja in Iraq-a blatant war crime. Great british commentary as described by Cursor.org: "In a Guardian commentary, George Monbiot argues that the use of chemical weapons by U.S. forces against Fallujah was "a war crime within a war crime within a war crime."

2005-11-22T10:18:00.000-08:00

Illinois CORE, the mysteriously high-profile 'not for profit' organization that appeared suddenly in 2005 to oppose the Illinois Governor's policy on Utility issues including his appointment of Marty Cohen (former Executive Director of the Citizen's Utility Board) to head the Illinois Commerce Commission, appears to be a fabrication created by the huge international public relations firm Hill and Knowlton. What seems to be the evidence?

Check out the registration listing for the Illinois CORE website: (see full record here).

Domain Name:ILLINOISCORE.ORG
Created On:19-Aug-2005 17:49:35 UTC
Last Updated On:19-Oct-2005 04:04:05 UTC
Expiration Date:19-Aug-2006 17:49:35 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar:Register.com Inc. (R71-LROR)
Status:CLIENT TRANSFER PROHIBITED
Registrant ID:9099760dc1d82616
Registrant Name:Jason Maymon
Registrant Organization:Hill and Knowlton
Registrant Street1:222 Merchandise Mart Plaza
Registrant Street2:Suite 275
Registrant Street3:
Registrant City:Chicago
Registrant State/Province:IL
Registrant Postal Code:60654
Registrant Country:US
Registrant Phone:+1.3124755902
Registrant Phone Ext.:
Registrant FAX:+1.3122553030
Registrant FAX Ext.:
Registrant Email:jason.maymon@hillandknowlton.com

Illinois Core was created as a not-for-profit organization on September 6, 2005 (full record here - select the 'By File Number' and type file number '64370693'). The organization's agent is corporate lawyer Randi Valerious.

On its website, it lists a P.O. Box number as its mailing address. Is it possible that it has no mailing address because it doesn't exist as a real organization? Somehow it has enough money for hundreds of primetime television ads and more, yet it does not have its own office!

Also their 'media liaison' is the highly politically connected former Vice President of the Chicago Board of Education, Avis LaVelle, who now runs her own public relations and lobbying consulting firm, A. LaVelle Consulting Service, LLC. You even get her consulting service office when you call LaVelle's number listed on the Illinois CORE website, 312-223-0581.

When I called the toll free number for 'CORE' 866-395-CORE (2673), I got their 'coordinator' named Jennifer Schuh. Here are my notes from our conversation 5 minutes ago:

Q: Is Illinois CORE an Illinos Not-For-Profit Corporation?
A: Yes, I believe it is.
Q: Is it a 501(c)(3) Organization?
A: I believe it is, but I'm not sure.
Q: How does one become a member of CORE?
A: just ask.
Q: I'd like to become a member.
A: Okay, I'll note that in your file.
Q: Does Illinois CORE hold any meetings?
A: No, not yet. We're focusing on new calls to action coming up at the end of December to early January. Instead of meetings, CORE contacts it's members and encourages them to just contact their legislators.
Q: Who is on the board of directors of CORE?
A: Well, we have an advisory committee, and the members of that committee are...
Q: Yes, that committee list is on the website, right?
A: Yes.
Q: Well that's an advisory commitee. What about a board of directors, do you have one, and who sits on that?
A: I think our advisory committee is our board of directors.
Q: Do you know how CORE got started, how it got organized?
A: I believe it started in August, and I don't know who started it.
Q: How long have you been with CORE?
A: I've been here since September.
Q: I noticed that the organization that registered the website address illinoiscore.org is from the firm Hill and Knowlton, do you know anything about this?
A: No, I don't know anything about this. I didn't even know that kind of information was out there.
Q: Did Illinois CORE hire you or did someone else hire you?
A: I'm sorry, but I have another call, I will send you the new materials very shortly. Good Bye.

The question is, who exactly is paying Hill and Knowlton to create and front this Illinois CORE organization? Is it the many large utility corporations in Illinois: SBC, ComEd (Exelon Corp), People's Energy, Midwest Generation (coal plant owner), who else?

It presents a surprising list of it's 'advisory committee' which the Illinois CORE website says are it's members. Among the predicted corporate interest listings are some surprising 'members':

Mary Gonzalez Koenig, President, CEO and Founder, Spanish Coalition for Jobs
Phillip Jackson, Executive Director, The Black Star Project
Juan Rangel, CEO, United Neighborhood Organization (UNO)

Those above 'members' are all nominally part of African American or Latino community organizations. How did CORE, a clearly anti-consumer rights organization convince these folks to 'join'? Are members and workers in those organizations aware that their leaders support/join Illinois CORE?

Is this organization really (as it's name suggests) Consumers Organized for Reliable Electricity? Did consumers really start and organize this organization? Or, rather, did corporations and business interests create and organize this organization to fool real consumers into thinking it is a consumer interest group?

Is there any false advertising law that this organization is violating? Illinois CORE purchased likely millions of dollars worth of print, radio and television advertising (some would say propagandaizing) all under a sham corporate-created organization?

This can't be right, can it? Even for people who believe that corporations should have the rights of a natural person (which I don't), one must see that this is clearly cooersive and decptive behavior on the part of those that created this organization and currently act in its name.

====================
Additional information:

The irony gets thicker: the Media Consultant for Illinois CORE, the organization that worked to sink Governor Blagojevich's appointment to the ICC, Avis LaVelle, was appointed in December of 2002 by Blagojevich to sit on a policy advisory committee to the Governor before he took office. This is the description given of Ms. LaVelle on the announcement of the committee:

Avis LaVelle, senior partner for the Foster Group and vice president of the Chicago Board of Education, who formerly served as Vice President of Government and Public Affairs for the University of Chicago Hospitals, and as former Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

2005-11-22T10:14:00.000-08:00

Incredible story from Rolling Stone and covered on DemocracyNow! yesterday (watch the segment here).

In short, the Rendon Group, a public relations firm in Washington D.C., through contracts with the CIA and the Pentagon was heavily involved in and largely responsible for the success of 'selling' the need for the U.S. to invade Iraq.

In fact, according to the article, even the organization of the supposedly grassroots and self-organized Iraqi National Congress - an umbrella group of dissident Iraqis, headed by none other than Ahmad Chalabi (then receiving a salary by the CIA) was done by the Rendon Group.

The details and extent of the relationship of various arms of the U.S. Government with this public relations firm is hardly able to be believed.

One of my reactions to all this is to promote the following federal legislation: that it be illegal for any department or person of or working for the U.S. Federal government to make any contracts with or employ any public relations firm, or media or public perception management experts, and the like.

The government itself should not be in the business of hiring experts to manipulate public opinion through corporate owned, willing media.

It should be illegal.

2005-11-17T13:32:00.000-08:00

Excellent Health and Saftey News out of Europe. BBC says:

"Euro MPs back major chemicals law

Business has sought to weaken the law, unions to strengthen it
The European Parliament has approved far-reaching legislation which will lead to the safety testing of thousands of chemicals used in everyday products."

With more information coming out about the toxic effects of commonly used chemicals like those in Teflon and others, this will affect the world wide chemical industry so that they must prove saftey , not just the lack of extreme, immediate harm from the use of chemicals.

This is so common sense that it is hard to fathom.

2005-11-16T21:12:00.000-08:00

Washington Post: Leaked White House document proves direct Oil Industry ties to 2001 Cheney Energy Task Force. It is lovely to see Fox News forced to cover the story here.

Possibly the worst or most sinister part of the story is how Republican Senators, themselves dripping with Oil campaign cash, howled and panted when it was suggested at last week's Senate hearing on 'record oil profits' that Oil Industry executives there to testify be exempted from testifying under oath.

Of course, if this Post document is confirmed, then almost all of the Oil Executives testifying last week who denied any involvement in Cheney's Task Force would have perjured themselves. But of course now it appears that if they lied there is no law broken. This was covered in today's DemocracyNow! program.

2005-10-20T12:55:00.000-07:00

Supreme Court Justices make $199,000 per year. Did you know that? Here's a Wall Street Journal article that includes talk of the net worth of Supreme court Justices. Check out this little chart:

2005-10-18T21:42:00.000-07:00

Pentagon Iraq spending has been completely unsupervised since 2004! Unbelievable. Thanks to Cursor.org I saw this article (a quote):

"WASHINGTON - The chief Pentagon agency in charge of investigating and reporting fraud and waste in Defense Department spending in Iraq quietly pulled out of the war zone a year ago - leaving what experts say are gaps in the oversight of how more than $140 billion is being spent."

2005-10-13T13:50:00.000-07:00

http://tinyurl.com/dz7ox

THE HARRIS POLL

Nearly Half of Americans Cite 'Too Little' Environment Regulation

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE
October 13, 2005

Nearly three-quarters of U.S. adults agree that protecting the environment is important and standards cannot be too high, according to a Harris Interactive poll.

At the same time, nearly half of Americans surveyed say there is too little government regulation and involvement in the area of environmental protection, compared with about 19% who feel there is too much regulation and 32% who say it's just right.

The telephone poll of 1,217 adults indicates concern about too little environmental protection has risen slightly from 39% in 2000, when this poll was last conducted. But the percentage is far below the 63% who said there was too little regulation back in 1991.

Americans view large corporations as one of the biggest culprits in environmental problems: 71% said they are doing less than their share to help reduce environmental problems. But 63% say the general public isn't doing its share.

Only 12% of U.S. adults describe themselves as active environmentalists. While more than half of U.S. adults say they are sympathetic to environmental concerns, nearly a quarter say they are neutral and 4% say they are unsympathetic.

Water pollution is the top concern among poll respondents, followed by air pollution. Other priorities included global warming, ozone depletion, and depletion of forest lands.

2005-10-13T13:06:00.000-07:00

Interesting BBC article on the Green Party in Germany and Europe. Explains a mixed bag of recent fortunes for these parties.

2005-10-11T13:08:00.001-07:00

Alright people that blog! "One blog created 'every second'" according to the BBC.

Also, according to the Sun-Times Bush's nominee for the Supreme Court, Harriet Miers, likely possessed a concealed hand gun with out the proper permit. State officials won't release (they say the law doesn't require them to) information as to whether or not she had such a license.

How will she rule, if she is confirmed, on hand gun issues? Hmm.

2005-09-29T14:04:00.000-07:00

Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela, is pushing fascinating cooperatively run manufacturing ventures in the country- see the BBC report here. I think lessons will be learned there that will be added to the lessons already being learned in places like Argentina regarding the feasibility of democratic, worker-run enterprises. This news is a huge boost to that movement and model for constructing a more economically democratic society.

2005-09-22T17:25:00.000-07:00

Un-F*&#ing believeable. Perhaps not. We are all going to die. The Pentagon accidentally published (then removed) a non-classified document containing war plans for a preemptive strike using nuclear weapons.

What do we have to do here to survive??? Thanks to Cursor.org for that news/info.

Also, when will we hear in our dead media (blah blah blah) about the hunger strikes at Guantanamo Bay??

2005-09-21T12:27:00.000-07:00

More bird flu News from the BBC. Indonesia makes the prediction of an epidemic.

Also, according to Reuters, "World has slim chance to stop bird flu pandemic."

2005-09-14T20:16:00.000-07:00

Nation States not for almost anyone...

Hmm. For those lovers of Nation States as a way of organizing human affairs and society, some bad news. Most people, according to the BBC, don't think their country "is governed by the will of the people."

As for the United States and Canada, "49% of people said they trusted religious leaders, compared to a global average of 19%." It was quite a small sample size for the US and Canada, only 1,500 people. But still, very interesting.

2005-08-25T12:47:00.000-07:00

Yes. Expect the Bird Flu pandemic. The evidence seems to keep rolling in. Here are British Experts warning the UK:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4184346.stm

2005-08-23T15:17:00.000-07:00

BBC: TV host urges US to kill Chavez

Pat Robertson tells it like the administration may be thinking it:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4177664.stm

2005-07-31T20:54:00.000-07:00

Check out this mini debate C-Span had between Bill Moyers and Chairman Tomlinson of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting that I found on Cursor.org. Tomlinson, a republican, has been attacking Bill Moyer's former show 'Now' as being liberal advocacy journalism.

2005-07-21T10:40:00.000-07:00

Fat Americans?

First the restaurant industry led by the huge fast-food chains successfully pays for and passes in the house the 'Cheeseburger Bill' or the 'Personal Responsibility in Food Consumption Act' see here and here. Now fast-food restaurants have been offering an array of healthier options seemingly to head off charges in future lawsuits that they are only offering fatty foods.

But now, according to an article in the Sun-Times today (link to the source Scripps Howard News Service), many of these fast-food restaurants say that the healthier options like 1/2 fat tacos and light crust on pizza didn't sell while the double fat options offered at the same time sold very well. They are now pulling those healther options.

2005-07-21T10:36:00.000-07:00

Go Tillman Go!

Buried on page 50 or so is this Sun-Times story on Tillman's drive to get financial companies wanting contracts with the City of Chicago to admit links to slavery in their past. This is a great effort and I applaud Tillman for this.

2005-07-20T13:52:00.000-07:00

It looks increasingly likely that Teflon by DuPont will become a story like asbestos or DDT. Early studies are showing that a highly toxic substance used in Teflon called perfluorooctanoic acid (and related chemicals) actually gets out of Teflon and into our bodies. DuPont assured various regulatory agencies at the time of acceptance that this chemical would stay put inside teflon, but it looks likely that they either lied or simply got it wrong. More general info here.

Looks like some class-action lawyers are already on the case as reported today in the trib here.

Here's the story:

ACROSS THE NATION
DuPont's Teflon subject of $5 billion suitItems compiled from Tribune news servicesPublished July 20, 2005
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A $5 billion class-action lawsuit is being filed against DuPont Co. saying the company failed to warn consumers of the dangers of a Teflon chemical.Two Florida law firms said Tuesday they were filing the suit in federal courts in eight states, including Illinois, on behalf of 14 people who bought and used cookware with the non-stick Teflon. It is made using perfluorooctanoic acid and its salts, known as PFOA, or C-8.The plaintiffs want DuPont to spend $5 billion to replace the cookware, impose a warning label and create two funds to pay for medical monitoring and scientific research.DuPont spokesman Clif Webb said the company "will vigorously defend itself." "Consumers using products sold under the Teflon brand are safe," Webb said.

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