How to Solve America's Wage Crisis

When labor rights are protected, wages go up. It's time to make union-membership a civil right.

By David Sirota, Creators Syndicate.

History books teem with six-word phrases, from the comforting ("Nothing to fear but fear itself") to the inspiring ("Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall") to the embarrassing ("Read my lips, no new taxes"). But the six words, "on the basis of union membership" could be more momentous than any of those. Though hardly Roosevelt's rhetoric, Reagan's bluster or Bush's clumsiness, the clause could solve America's wage crisis.

Of course, when Tom Geoghegan told me this in a Chicago park two weeks ago, I almost snarfed my coffee through my nose. Solving major social problems typically demands more than six words. But as the longtime labor lawyer and author explained his idea to me on a muggy afternoon, it started making sense.

Geoghegan reminded me that data show the more union members in an economy, the better workers' pay. The problem, he said, is that weakened labor laws are allowing companies to bully and fire union-sympathetic workers, thus driving down union membership and wages.

Enter Geoghegan's six words. If the Civil Rights Act was amended to prevent discrimination "on the basis of union membership," it would curtail corporations' anti-labor assault by making the right to join a union an official civil right.

"Hang on," I interrupted. "Joining a union isn't a civil right?"

Correct.

Under current law, if you are fired for union activity, you can only take your grievance to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) -- a byzantine agency deliberately made more Kafkaesque by right-wing appointees and budget cuts. Today, the NLRB takes years to rule on labor law violations, often granting victims only their back pay -- a tiny cost of doing business.

Union leaders are now focused on reforming the NLRB -- an admirable goal -- but Geoghegan's plan implies that workers are harmed by being legally leashed to Washington in the first place. His proposal says rather than being forced to rely on an unreliable bureaucracy for protection, workers should be empowered to defend themselves.

The six words would do just that. Regardless of whether the NLRB is strengthened or further weakened, persecuted workers would be able to haul union-busting thugs into court. There -- unlike at the NLRB -- plaintiffs can subpoena company records and win costly punitive damages.

Bolstering his argument, Geoghegan told me to consider variations in corporate behavior.

For example, because the Civil Rights Act bars racial discrimination, businesses are motivated to try to prevent bigotry: They want to avoid being sued. This is why no company brags about being racist.

But when it comes to unions, there is no such deterrent. The lack of civil rights protection effectively encourages businesses to punish pro-union employees -- and publicize the abuse to intimidate their workforce. By making the six words law, the dynamic would shift. Companies would have a reason -- fear of litigation -- to respect workers' rights.

When Geoghegan and I finished chatting, I remembered why I believe he is America's most talented writer and thinker on labor issues. His relative anonymity is a tragicomic commentary on the media and the American Left. The Milton Friedmans are celebrated by pundits and cast in bronze by conservative think tanks, while the Geoghegans are dismissed by the chattering class and ignored by a progressive movement that regularly venerates Hollywood celebrities as its heroes.

Perhaps, though, this proposal will change things. In developing a way to shift incentives, Geoghegan has discovered a solution that both unionists and economists can love. It cribs the best from liberals' pro-union sympathies and conservatives' distrust of Big Government, and should make him famous (or at least a Cabinet secretary). After all, anyone who can bring such disparate ideologies and adversaries together is worthy of serious consideration -- as is his six-word stroke of genius.

COPYRIGHT 2008 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.

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G8 to Poor Women: Let Them Eat Dirt

By Yifat Susskind

Last week, leaders of the world’s richest countries, the Group of Eight (G8), met to chart the course of the global economy at the luxurious Windsor Hotel Toya Resort and Spa in Toyako, Japan. While President Bush and his colleagues discussed world hunger over a six-course lunch, women in Haiti were preparing cakes of dirt for their children’s dinner.

Eating dirt, mixed with salt and vegetable shortening, is the latest coping strategy of Haitian mothers trying to quiet hungry children in a year when the cost of rice (Haiti’s staple food) has risen nearly 150 percent.

Ironically, many of these women were once rice farmers themselves. But in the 1980s, U.S.-grown rice began pouring into Haiti. Thanks to federal subsidies, the imported rice was sold for less than what it cost to grow it. Haitian farmers just couldn’t compete.

Neither could millions of other farmers around the world, who have been bankrupted by the influx of rice, corn, and wheat from the U.S., Europe and Japan. These farmers have gone from growing their own food and feeding their countries to having to buy food that’s priced on a global market. Now that these commodity markets have spiked, millions of more families cannot afford to eat.

Even here in the U.S., still the world’s richest country, more and more families are struggling to afford food these days. Thankfully, we are not forced to feed our children mud cakes. But ultimately, all working families and small farmers, whether in Haiti or Iowa, are hurt by farm policies that are designed for the benefit of giant food corporations.

Consider the U.S. grain subsidies that have pushed so many Haitian families to the brink of survival. They have also hurt family farmers here at home. That’s because the lion’s share of this $307 billion goes to the largest factory farms, leaving small-holder farmers to fend for themselves.

As we saw last month, when floods wiped out hundreds of acres of crops in the Midwest, farming is a risky business. It’s the family farmers who don’t have much of a financial cushion that we should be protecting with subsidies.

The same goes for small-holder farmers in Haiti and other developing countries. Most of these farmers are women, are mothers, who like most moms in the U.S., are responsible for putting dinner on the table every day. In developing countries, these mothers often grow their family’s food from scratch.

The small-holder, women farmers had no say in the decisions that the G8 leaders’ made about the global food crisis. Yet, it turns out that they have a lot to say when it comes to finding solutions to the crisis they are facing.

Just before the G8 meeting, a network of women’s groups from Haiti, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Colombia issued an open letter to the G8. Brought together by the international women’s human rights organization, MADRE, the women called on the G8 to support real solutions to the food crisis. They proposed concrete changes in the global economy, like international mechanisms to stabilize the cost of food and protect the livelihoods of farmers. They called for billion-dollar-a-day agricultural subsidies to be converted from support for big agribusiness to incentives for sustainable, small-scale and organic farms.

These are solid proposals backed up by research and years of first-hand experience in communities that are on the frontlines of today’s food crisis.

But instead of taking steps that could remedy the problem, the G8 plugged more of the same corporate-friendly trade and agriculture policies that brought on the food crisis in the first place.

G8 leaders called for more “open markets” in food trade. Openness sounds good, but in practice this means that poor countries can’t use tariffs to protect farmers from unfair competition.

The G8 also pushed for stricter patent laws. These rules take ownership of seeds — the very basis of all agriculture — away from small farmers and enable giant biotech companies like Monsanto to control our food supply.

The G8 did call for more aid to countries like Haiti that have been hard hit by the spike in food prices. That’s an important step when lives are at stake. But the money is to be administered through the International Monetary Fund, famous for making offers with strings attached. In this case, governments will be required to implement more of the kind of trade liberalization that hurts poor people and small farmers and has created record profits for big food corporations this year.

But as the women’s letter to the G8 clearly shows, it’s not corporate profits, but human rights –including the basic right to food — that will underpin real solutions to the food crisis.

Susskind is the communications director of MADRE: Rights, Resources and Results for Women Worldwide.

Copyright © 2008 by the American Forum.

Original article

The Despotism of the Image

by Dmitry Orlov

The ostensible goal of this Web site, and the small but enthusiastic community that surrounds it, is to change the culture. We all recognize that the contemporary mainstream culture of over-consumption and unbridled growth is toxic on every level -- physical, emotional, and cultural -- and is accelerating on a collision course with resource depletion, climate disruption, and environmental devastation. We all want to jump off in time, or, perhaps lacking the necessary courage, to find ourselves lucky enough to be thrown clear.

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Army court-martials resister for blowing whistle on 'bait-and-kill'

Private First Class James Burmeister faces a Special Court Martial at Fort Knox on July 16. The charges are AWOL and desertion. He returned to Fort Knox voluntarily in March, after living 10 months in Canada with his spouse and infant child. He refused redeployment to Iraq while on leave in May 2007.

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Death of free internet is imminent: Canada to become test case

by Kevin Parkinson

In the last 15 years or so, as a society we have had access to more information than ever before inmodern history because of the Internet. There are approximately 1 billion Internet users in the world B and any one of these users can theoretically communicate in real time with any other on the planet. The Internet has been the greatest technological achievement of the 20th century by far, and has been recognized as such by the global community.

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Inflation and the Spectre of World Revolution

by James Petras

Inflation and all of its repercussions for wage and salaried workers, fixed income middle classes, as well as manufacturers and transport industries is splashed all over the financial pages of the major newspapers throughout the world.

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Debka File: Senior Israeli official: If nuclear talks fail, Bush will order Iran attack between Nov and Jan

Well, he might order it, but does that mean it will happen? - Ed.

This assessment was reported by Israeli national radio Saturday overnight quoting a high-placed “security-political” official.

The source predicted that President George W. Bush would order Iran attacked between the November 4 presidential election and his exit from the White House in January.

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Cryptogon: Why are tens of thousands of plastic "burial vaults" stacked in a field near Madison, GA?

I have no idea what to make of this one. All of the sites I was able to find that reference this stockpile assume that it has something to do with an upcoming American holocaust and martial law, etc. Again, I have no idea.

Let’s try to work trough this one a bit…

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Are we Americans now barbarians and savages?

I am still reading Military Journal of the American Revolution by James Thacher MD , and came across the following passage on page 67 regarding military engagements between the colonists (our American forefathers) and the British during the Revolutionary War. These battles/skirmishes occurred around White Plains and the River Brunx- Thacher writes about some prisoners taken by the Americans:

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Israel's Collective Psychosis: The Denial Syndrome

by Khalid Amayreh

This week, Israel sank in an avalanche of national lethargy, hypocrisy and self-righteousness. Seeking to cope with Hezbullah’s success in getting Israel to release all Lebanese prisoners, dead and living, in exchange for the remains of two Israeli soldiers, Israeli leaders, media and shapers of public opinion have been indulging in sanctimonious self-glorification while denouncing the other side as “hateful, uncivilized and representing an inferior culture.”

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Scott Ritter: Take off those yellow ribbons

Watch video.

Rendering Public Opinion Irrelevant

by Glenn Greenwald

One of the most striking aspects of our political discourse, particularly during election time, is how efficiently certain views that deviate from the elite consensus are banished from sight -- simply prohibited -- even when those views are held by the vast majority of citizens.

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A united front to oppose militarism

by Bob Finch

The ziocons have been behind most of the critical political changes in American foreign policy since the early 1970s and yet, politically, they remained completely invisible for almost thirty years. For instance, the Jewish lobby in America and Israel, were responsible for pushing America and Britain into the first Gulf war. With the exception of Patrick Buchanan’s remarks about the zionist amen corner, no commentator discussed the ziocons’ role in triggering this war or the subsequent sanctions against Iraq. However, America’s invasion of Iraq in 2003 has brought about a significant political change. There has been a dramatic increase in the number of commentators criticizing the Likudnik traitors at the heart of the Bush administration who initiated America’s invasion of Iraq.

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Lawrence of Cyberia: Is Anti-Zionism Anti-Semitism?

I wrote the following as a comment on a post of the same name at My Left Wing. I'm reproducing it here because it is also a suitable response to readers who email from time to time with questions along the lines of "How can criticizing a Jewish state not be anti-semitic?"*:

I think this post misses the point entirely about why people can be anti-Zionist but not anti-semitic. And it misses the point because you start off from a strawman argument. Specifically this misrepresentation of why people might be opposed to Zionism:

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Ray McGovern: Israel planning a Sept/Oct surprise?

You say you expected more rhetoric than reality from Senators Obama and McCain yesterday in their speeches on Iraq and Afghanistan? Well, that’s certainly what you got.

What I find nonetheless amazing is how they, and the pundits, have taken such little notice of the dramatic change in the political landscape occasioned by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s bombshell on July 7 — his insistence on a “timetable” for withdrawal of US troops before any accord is reached on their staying past the turn of the year.

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Gilad Atzmon: Caught between sobbing and war chants

Scathing commentary on the tough, tough Israelis. - Ed.

Monitoring the current Israeli collective pornographic lament in the Hebrew press, I found, to my amazement, a critical editorial written by Dr Mordechai Keidar, an Israeli rightwing academic.

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Americans being electrocuted in Iraq on 'almost a daily basis'

Among the seemingly innumerable scandal-worthy stories which have so marked the war in Iraq is one growing tragedy which has been largely ignored: shoddy electrical work by U.S. contractors at military bases leading to numerous electrical fires, troops receiving painful shocks, and even death by electrocution.

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Biological Warfare against US troops...Courtesy of Halliburton

via SOTT, Brasscheck TV

This is how George Bush and Dick Cheney support the troops. And you can thank Congress for it too while you're at it.

Simple biological warfare - poisoning the troops' water supply - is the most cost effective way of neutralizing the effectiveness of an armed force.

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Stuart Taylor on Bush and Torture

This is unbelievable. He suggests we just let them all off the hook. Yes. That way we'll get to the bottom of everything. WTF would you expect from Newsweek? - Ed.

To get a full accounting of how U.S. interrogation methods were used, the president should give those accused of 'war crimes' a pass.

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Anti-fascist calling: Simulating urban warfare

In Planet of Slums, socialist historian Mike Davis mapped the brutal urban realities shared by more than one billion of the earth's inhabitants, unmoored by neoliberal globalization from the "formal" world economy. From Baghdad to Karachi and from Lagos to Los Angeles and beyond, as ever-broader segments of the world's population are transformed into "a surplus humanity," the master class presents "no scenario" for ameliorating the immiseration it has itself designed through the "normal" functioning of a grotesque system of exploitation and injustice.

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ACLU calls for probe of Chertoff's use of terrorist watch list

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, when Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Michael Chertoff testifies before the House Homeland Security Committee, the American Civil Liberties Union calls on the committee to exercise vigorous oversight of the many DHS programs that endanger U.S. citizens’ privacy and civil liberties without increasing security. DHS’s unchecked detention and deportation powers have resulted in abusive interrogations of families with children at checkpoints, creation of militarized zones within the U.S. and widespread fear in immigrant communities facing natural disasters. Collectively, these practices illustrate how DHS has mismanaged its authority and wasted resources.

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GM's pain hits retirees

Look how our corporations break their promises to older Americans. Nice. - Ed.

by Andrea K. Walker, Baltimore Sun

When Charles Miller went to work at General Motors' Broening Highway plant in 1954, he was attracted to the company by its reputation for good salaries and stellar benefits.

He stayed for 31 years. Since he retired from his job as a data processor in 1985, he has gotten health coverage from the automaker, which helped pay for his heart surgery last year.

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Non-violent struggle means No Violence

This is a fighting website,

but the enemy we are fighting

is not one of flesh and blood, but of spirit – a spiritual enemy,

who is waging war against the spirit of all mankind.

It is not just Americans who are under extreme duress from the ceaseless assault,

crushing the spirit of all the people in the entire world

is the objective of this spiritual parasite.

We fight the lies of the enemies of humanity,

the men who would use the power of the “Big Lie”

to decimate the human spirit

and destroy our will to resist them.

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'Because killing people is what we do'

by Joe Bageant

Hi Joe,

I want to share a chance encounter I had last weekend while visiting my brother in southern Ohio. My trips there invariably involve our stopping at various pubs in several surrounding communities. Late Saturday night we visited the pub whose owner my brother considers to be a good friend -- except for his politics. But the guy has a good heart. And he tells funny stories. And he is a good guitar player. He even supplied and “ran” the fireworks display at our parents’ 50th anniversary party a number of years ago. But this particular evening, I don'’t even remember how my brother and I “got started” with him regarding politics,– the military, the war, blah, blah.

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Ron Paul: Something big is happening

Madam Speaker, I have, for the past 35 years, expressed my grave concern for the future of America . The course we have taken over the past century has threatened our liberties, security and prosperity. In spite of these long-held concerns, I have days--growing more frequent all the time--when I'm convinced the time is now upon us that some Big Events are about to occur. These fast-approaching events will not go unnoticed. They will affect all of us. They will not be limited to just some areas of our country. The world economy and political system will share in the chaos about to be unleashed.

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Little war criminals get punished, big ones don't

by Paul Craig Roberts

National Public Radio has been spending much news time on Darfur in Western Sudan where a great deal of human suffering and death are occurring. The military conflict has been brought on in part by climate change, according to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. Drought is forcing nomads in search of water into areas occupied by other claimants. No doubt the conflict is tribal and racial as well. The entire catastrophe is overseen by a government with few resources other than bullets.

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AT&T Whistleblower: Spy bill creates infrastructure for a police state

Mark Klein, the retired AT&T engineer who stepped forward with the technical documents at the heart of the anti-wiretapping case against AT&T, is furious at the Senate's vote on Wednesday night to hold a vote on a bill intended to put an end to that lawsuit and more than 30 others.

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Winter Patriot: Why are we celebrating?

Did you ever wonder why we've been drinking beer, dancing in the parking lots, watching fireworks, and chanting "USA! USA! USA!"? Well here's your answer, or at least part of it, from Dennis Kucinich:

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Will Israeli settlers' terrorism finally be prosecuted?

by Mustafa Qadri

Susia, a little known village in the West Bank, has made international headlines after an old Palestinian couple and their nephew were filmed being lynched by four youths.

The video was captured thanks to an advocacy project sponsored by the Israeli human rights organization B'tselem.

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Turning the tables on the Israeli firsters

by Michael Scheuer

Now that the dust has settled in the spat between journalist Joe Klein and the ideologues at Commentary, it is time to regret the ink spilled over the non-issue of "dual loyalties." The idea that there are U.S. citizens who have equal loyalties to the United States and Israel is passé. American Israel-firsters have long since dropped any pretense of loyalty to the United States and its genuine national interests.

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The trouble with Naalin is the will to live

by les vis

Do you ever think about the point inside the point inside the point inside the point? What I mean is how connections that seem to be one issue can be gathered together to be the same issue but with an entirely different perspective? I guess I’m talking about intentional enigmas; convolutions, shell games, ironies, conundrums and more things than I can recall at the moment.

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We are at the edge of the abyss

by Karl Schwartz

The Rense website has posted an article out of Russia that everyone needs to read, comprehend and heed.

No sooner than this article was announced out of Russia and Iran than Bush calls a press conference and lifts the executive ban on offshore drilling. There is also a very good possibility that such an act by George W Bush was an "unofficial announcement of defeat". I think the US just lost the entire debate regarding the oil and gas out of the entire Caspian Basin region. If you do not know what that means, see the other article I have on Rense titled "The Pyrrhic Victory of The Great Decider".

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Elections, Capitalism, and Democracy

Because so many of the people on the political left fear that John McCain will become the next president, they have allowed themselves to see the very moderate democratic candidate, Barach Obama, as a desirable alternative to the decidedly ghoulish McCain, rather than supporting a genuine progressive like Dennis Kucinich, Cynthia McKinney, or Ralph Nader. They thus perceive Obama to be far more progressive than he really is. Such comparisons lead us down a dichotomous pathway that assures a continuous drift to the right.

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s o s: 2 Billion to Die (within the next 12 months)

I was quite shocked at this man's understanding of Revelation and his careful analysis. Anyone who has studied Revelation, Daniel, and Matthew 24 knows it has to have a perfect fit...

A must see for anyone who follows the prophetic line of information and for atheists too.

Detente or hidden agendas? A sign of the times

by Gilad Atzmon

Back in 2003 I wrote, “If ‘world peace’ is our main concern, we must achieve a balance of power, we must let the oppressed people of this world have access to the most advanced weaponry…. Balance of power is the only key to peace.” Nowadays, when Israel and its supportive lobbies are doing everything within their powers to drag us all into a third world war, I find it necessary to say it again. The only way to spare the Middle East and the entire world from another devastating cycle of bloodshed is to let the Iranians have their nuclear toy. But it goes even further, seemingly, the only way to save the Jewish state from its merciless parade of belligerent omnipotence is to let Iran join the nuclear club ASAP. The only thing that may cool down the Zionist militant genocidal enthusiasm is an overwhelming Iranian might of deterrence.

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Kicking sand in Russia's face

by Eric Margolis

Last week’s utterly useless and hugely expensive G8 summit in Japan was at least a welcome comic relief after all the bombast and threats flying back and forth between the US, Israel and Iran.

The world leaders dined on caviar as they earnestly discussed hunger and the global food crisis. They agreed to do something about global warming by 2058. That’s real courage and leadership.

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President Bush is a murderer?

Check out the arrogance of your MSM. They are guilty as sin. - Ed.

Status report on the collapse of the economy

by Richard C. Cook

With the economic news of the week of July 14—the continuing crisis among mortgage lenders, the onset of bank failures, the announced downsizing of General Motors, the slide of the Dow-Jones below 11,000—we are seeing the ongoing collapse of the U.S. economy.

Even the super-rich are becoming nervous as cries for an emergency suspension of short selling ring out.

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The terrorist watch list reaches +1Million and growing

Are you an activist, an author, a journalist, a patriot, or maybe a scholar who speaks out his or her mind in the defense of democracy? If you are, then, the chance of having your boarding pass stamped with the ominous symbol of “SSSS” on your next flight from the United States is very high.

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Rick Steves: Understand Iran

A friend from the Washington State chapter of the United Nations Association called me six months ago and asked what I could do to help them build understanding between Iran and the US, and to defuse the tension that could be leading to war. I answered, “The only powerful thing I could do would be to produce a TV show on Iran.”

I remember when the bombs first fell on Baghdad, thinking I'd missed an opportunity to make a travel show that could humanize Baghdad and give “collateral damage” a face. I didn’t want to miss an opportunity to do this for Iran. My government would let me go. The Islamic Republic of Iran actually wanted the publicity. I threw together a proposal for a TV show — no politics, just travel. The working title: Iran: Its People and Culture, Yesterday and Today.

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Decision Time

I promised my long time readers and my friends who knew me even before the Internet to issue warnings before World War III starts and the Next Great Depression begins. I am now saying it is nearly certain there will be a Hyperinflationary worldwide Great Depression in the first 6 months of 2009 that will be far worse than 1929-1939. World War III will also start next year at about the same time.

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Karen Selick looks on the bright side of hate speech

There’s been plenty of discussion lately about the harmful consequences of censorship — the extra publicity that hate speech gets when prosecuted, the chilling of legitimate debate and the dangers of slippery slopes.

However, I think a case can be made that allowing the publication of repugnant remarks about minority groups might actually have positive benefits for society.

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Patriotism: Wait one damn minute

By Fahim A. Knight-EL

This writer grew up in an era and attended public schools where between 8:15am and 8:30am every morning the principal of the various schools I attended would come on the public address (PA) system and recite “The Pledge of Allegiance” over the intercom and it was mandated that each student had to stand and place their right hand on their heart and turn towards the U.S. Flag which hung in every classroom and recite The Pledge of Allegiance.

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Money, Honey...and face tiime in your dreams

by les vis

For those of us still capable of independent thought, there is a question that arises in the mind. It is a perplexing question. Why is it that when people gain some measure of power, through money, influence or by association… why is it that so many of them choose to embrace corruption over principles and reputation? Why would so many potentially good people go bad and not care about the loss of their ideals and good name?

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We Are Winning

by Hari Heath

Against incredible odds, with very little that can be called an organization, WE—the people—are winning. There is still a long way to go, but the battle is ours. The enemies within humanity, the psychopaths in the shadows of power, are losing their quest for dominion over humanity and the world. They are starting to run scared.

If we look to the cycles of human history the challenge has always been for the common people to live decent and prosperous lives despite the psychopathic elite’s relentless obsession with institutionalizing various forms of slavery, subjugation, murder and dominance to live in idle luxury at the commoners’ expense.

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A CIA Lawyer's Smoking Gun

by Nat Hentoff

In October 2002, 10 Defense Department lawyers and officials met at Guantánamo to figure out which interrogation techniques would finally extract information from the hard-shelled terrorism suspects there. Also in attendance was a CIA counterterrorism lawyer, Jonathan Fredman, who revealed a way that exceptionally aggressive methods could be used that would not amount to the U.S. being charged with torture.

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Amber Alert!

Another take on the meaning of GWB's and Israel's 'Amber Alert' status. - Ed.

by Justin Raimondo

In spite of reassurances from the Washington talking heads and policy wonks that the U.S. is not about to launch an attack on Iran, or countenance an Israeli strike, the Sunday Times has the real scoop:

"President George W. Bush has told the Israeli government that he may be prepared to approve a future military strike on Iranian nuclear facilities if negotiations with Tehran break down, according to a senior Pentagon official.

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Iran Shows its Cards

by Scott Ritter

There can no longer be any doubt about the consequences of any U.S. and/or Israeli military action against Iran. Armchair warriors, pundits and blustering politicians alike have been advocating a pre-emptive military strike against Iran for the purpose of neutralizing its nuclear-related infrastructure, as well as retarding Iran’s ability to train and equip “terrorist” forces on Iranian soil before dispatching them to Iraq or parts unknown. Some, including me, have warned of the folly of such action, and now Iran itself has demonstrated why an attack would be insane.

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Afghanistan opposes US use of country to stage Iran attack

Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai said in an interview Monday he opposes any U.S. use of his country as a staging point for an attack against neighboring Iran.

The Islamic republic has threatened to lash out against Israel and U.S. interests in the region if it comes under attack over its continued development of a suspected nuclear weapons program.

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Man Arrested for 'Unlawful Photography'

Um....no such thing, officer.
Don't miss the 7/14 @ 2:51 comment. Outstanding. - Ed.

By Darius Radzius
Reporter / WJHL
Published: July 11, 2008

Nearly everyone carries a cell phone and it’s hard to find one without that camera feature. It’s convenient when you want to take that impromptu photo, but a Tri-Cities area man ended up behind bars after snapping a shot of a Johnson County sheriff’s deputy during a traffic stop.

The cell phone photographer says the arrest was intimidation, but the deputy says he feared for his life.

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Accountability Now and strange bedfellows: The strategy and rationale

by Glenn Greenwald

In the 2006 mid-term elections, Americans handed The Democratic Party a sweeping, staggering, and historic victory -- as the GOP was removed from power and Democrats given control over both the House and Senate. It marked only the third time in the last 60 years that there was a change in control of the Congress. The Democrats defeated six GOP Senators, and picked up 31 House seats. Six Governorships switched from the GOP to the Democrats. Not one single Democratic incumbent in Congress and not one Democratic Governor lost -- only the second time in U.S. history in which one of the major parties failed to defeat even a single Congressional incumbent from the other party.

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Murdering God: Of Shotguns, American Capitalism, and Moral Expediency

by Jason Miller

Experiencing decreasing levels of the comfort that ensures our loyalty to the criminal enterprise of American Capitalism, we “average” US Americans comprising the poor, working class, and rapidly shrinking middle class still revel in our relatively meaningless social freedoms (we can say “fuck you” to George Bush but can’t even get our “elected representatives” to impeach him for his Nuremberg class war crimes) as the economic manacles and shackles of wage slavery clamp ever tighter about our wrists and ankles.

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Greenwald: The Al-Haramain ruling: The President broke the law for years

via SOTT

A Bush-41-appointed Federal District Judge yesterday became the third judge -- out of three who have ruled on the issue -- to reject the Bush administration's claim that Article II entitles the President to override or ignore the provisions of FISA. Yesterday's decision by Judge Vaughn Walker of the Northern District of California also guts the central claims for telecom immunity and gives the lie to the excuses coming from Congress as to why the new FISA bill is some sort of important "concession." More than anything else, this decision is but the most recent demonstration that, with this new FISA bill, our political establishment is doing what it now habitually does: namely, ensuring that the political and corporate elite who break our laws on purpose are immune from consequences.

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Marine's graphic interview describes killing of prisoners in Iraq

by Tony Perry, LA Times Staff Writer, via ICH

CAMP PENDLETON -- A graphic, vulgarity-laced interview in which a Marine described how he and two other Marines killed four unarmed prisoners in Iraq was played today during a preliminary hearing in the case.

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Pentagon "Calmatives": Biochemical substances as incapacitating weapons of war and social control

by Tom Burghardt, Global Research

Ours is a social system spinning wildly out of control. Wherever one glances, the political-economic-ecological crises engulfing late capitalism are insolvable in terms of structural reforms that might mitigate the system's approaching zero hour. Call it the proverbial band-aid over gangrene syndrome; a plethora of terminal "fixes" that fix nothing.

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Let the Lawsuits Begin: Banks Brace for a Storm of Litigation

Very interesting. - Ed.

by Ellen Brown, Global Research

In an article in The San Francisco Chronicle in December 2007, attorney Sean Olender suggested that the real reason for the subprime bailout schemes being proposed by the U.S. Treasury Department was not to keep strapped borrowers in their homes so much as to stave off a spate of lawsuits against the banks. The plan then on the table was an interest rate freeze on a limited number of subprime loans. Olender wrote:

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Call to Action July 19-21: No War With Iran

Responding to the renewed threats of a U.S./Israeli attack on Iran before President Bush leaves office, United for Peace and Justice calls for coordinated Days of Action across the United States on July 19-21. Now is the time to speak out against any U.S./Israeli military attack on Iran.

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The Bipartisan Surveillance State

by Anthony Gregory, San Diego Union-Tribune

The Democratic Congress passed and Bush signed the "FISA Amendments Act of 2008," legalizing the president's longstanding illegal wiretapping program. The law allows broad warrantless surveillance of Americans in the United States, so long as the call or e-mail is thought to be international. Eavesdropping on domestic communications is legal for a week before court papers even have to be filed. The telecom companies that cooperated with Bush are immune from civil lawsuits. Most important, the administration's illegal conduct has been retroactively approved and future administrations have wider powers than ever to spy on Americans.

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Beware Bush's preemptive strike on torture

by James Ross, Salon

July 10, 2008 | New revelations of the U.S. government's systematic use of torture in the "global war on terror," including communist Chinese "brainwashing" methods from the 1950s, have brought renewed calls from lawmakers and human rights advocates for the prosecution of senior Bush administration officials. While the legal and political obstacles to such prosecutions are steep, those implicated will not want to leave the enjoyment of their retirement years to the mercy of the federal judiciary.

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Scott Ritter: What an attack on Iran will look like

Watch 2 minute video.

Putting a name to Gaza's injured

Bedridden but painfully conscious, nearly paralyzed with no feeling from the waist down, 16-year-old Abdul Rahman (nicknamed Abed) is one of the hundreds who were injured by intense Israeli shelling and firing on Gaza between 27 February - 3 March 2008, during an operation dubbed "Hot Winter" by Israel. According to a World Health Organization report, during this period the Israeli army killed at least 116 Palestinians, nearly half of them civilians and more than a quarter children, including a six-month-old and a 20-day-old baby, and injured 350. Later counts put the number killed as high as 150, with more than 55 killed in one day alone. Over half of the week's fatalities and injuries occurred in and around Jabaliya, the refugee camp where Abed was born and has called home all of his life.

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Game Over: 36 surefire signs that your empire is crumbling

by David Michael Green

So. You've built yourself an empire, eh?

Well, bully for you!

What's next, you ask? Well, now you've got to do what everybody does when they have an empire, of course. You've got to worry about it falling apart, mate!

But how to tell for sure? Let me see if I can be helpful. Here are some rules of thumb to keep in mind, thirty-six sure-fire indicators that your empire is falling apart:

You know your empire's crumbling when the folks who are gearing up their empire to replace yours start blowing up satellites in space. And then they don't bother to return your phone calls when you ring up to ask why.

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Desk Rage spoils workplace for many Americans

The chickens...they are coming home to roost. Lots and lots of chickens. - Ed.

Take the ‘consumer’ out of zombie consumer and what do you have left?

A serious security problem.

Without being able to self medicate during the weekend recess, the problems that have been there all along, and many new ones, are boiling over.

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Rice warns Iran: US will defend Israel

TBILISI (AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned Iran on Thursday that Washington had beefed up its security presence in the Gulf and would not hesitate to defend Israel and other allies in the region.

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From the bad to the really sinister

The first half of the year is over, and now all those brokerage accounts and retirement accounts will be sending out statements to hapless account holders, and it is bad news in spades. This is why (I assume) the Plunge Protection Team (composed of the US Federal Reserve, the Treasury and bank insiders) tried to drive the stock markets up on Monday, June 30 - to make those account statements look not quite as bad, and, hopefully, prevent people from dumping all of their stock and bond holdings in a desperate attempt to save something before the whole idiotic, fiat-currency, unlimited-fractional-banking thing just collapses.

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Why the US won't attack Iran

Let's hope he's right. - Ed.

It's been on the minds of antiwar activists and war critics since 2003. And little wonder. If you don't remember the pre-invasion of Iraq neocon quip, "Everyone wants to go to Baghdad. Real men want to go to Tehran..." -- then take notice. Even before American troops entered Iraq, knocking off Iran was already "Regime Change: The Sequel." It was always on the Bush agenda and, for a faction of the administration led by Vice President Cheney, it evidently still is.

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The Face of the Enemy

How do you suppose God looks on injustices like this? - Ed.

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN—The vehicle braked to a halt outside an unmarked gate and the guards gestured at me to dismount. It had been a circuitous route through crowded Kabul streets, and we had changed vehicles twice. Although my escorts were from the elite Afghan National Directorate of Security (or secret service), the final mode of transport had been a battered, old Nissan minivan, which the NDS uses in order to remain discreet.

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"Non-Lethal" Weapons: Where science and technology service repression

Acoustic microwave armaments? Laser induced plasma channels? Vortex ring guns? Are these high-tech MacGuffins spiffing-up the latest Hollywood near-future thriller? Regrettably, no. Welcome to the twisted world of "non-lethal" weapons research brought to you by the "fun" folks at the Pentagon's Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate (JNLWD).

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ACLU Sues over unconstitutional dragnet wiretapping law

NEW YORK - The American Civil Liberties Union filed a landmark lawsuit today to stop the government from conducting surveillance under a new wiretapping law that gives the Bush administration virtually unchecked power to intercept Americans' international e-mails and telephone calls. The case was filed on behalf of a broad coalition of attorneys and human rights, labor, legal and media organizations whose ability to perform their work - which relies on confidential communications - will be greatly compromised by the new law.

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Stanley Heller: A Damned Good Assembly

A big cheer filled the hall as an important section of the US Left broke new ground and incorporated the Palestinian struggle firmly into the analysis the anti-war movement. The program of the National Assembly to End the Iraq War and Occupation recognized Palestine as not just as a worthy cause to be embraced from time to time as long as no one objected, but declared it was intertwined with the War at the root. It also overthrew years of Left dogma and recognized the Israel lobbies as a force not only in influencing policy on Israel/Palestine, but also on Iraq and Iran as well.

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Kucinich's House Floor Impeachment Statement

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Yesterday in the House, we had a moment of silence for the troops. Today it is time to speak out on behalf of those troops who will be in Iraq for at least another year, courageously representing our nation while their Commander in Chief sent them on a mission that was based on falsehoods about the threat of WMDs from Iraq.

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Visiting the Axis of Evil: What you believe about Iran is probably wrong

No, I didn’t have to cover my face, just my head. No, nobody cared if I was American. No, nobody attacked me for being an “infidel.” Yes, most anybody can get a visa. And no, it is not “dangerous.” Nobody even tried to aggressively sell me a carpet.

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ClubOrlov: Keeping Fed

The inability to feed their people stands as the Soviet Union’s most striking failure. In just a couple of generations, a country that was the breadbasket of Europe had been turned into Europe’s agricultural basket case, so that by the time the Soviet Union collapsed it was financially and politically hamstrung by its need to obtain grain import credits from countries that were hostile to its interests. In the 1970s, an oil boom made it complacent, but when the boom ended and oil prices collapsed it was left with no room to maneuver. Its oil provinces reached their all-time peak of production in the mid-80s; consequently, it was unable to further ramp up production and boost exports.

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America stabbed in the heart by US Congress

FOURTH AMENDMENT FINALLY EVISCERATED - CONGRESS FISA TELECOM IMMUNITY BILL PASSED 69-28

One of the beacons of the Bill of Rights (the first Ten) struck down as officially non-existent in the Corpocrat-Fascist United States of America.

___________

Amendment IV

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

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Appeal to American NSA officers: Join Us

A good review here of the sacrifices made by our founding fathers and the oath of office taken by our public servants. From dkos, not someplace I frequent; but this piece is good. - Ed.

by Ralph Lopez

We know you are reading this, because now it's your job to read and hear everything, private, not-private, personal, that could keep the Bush administration in power, keeps it from being impeached or brought up on war crimes charges, keeps its Halliburton/Kellogg Root Brown agenda on track (I wonder who gets to rebuild Iran for cost-plus-any-profit-you-dream-of, after we commit genocide with nukes as it looks we are about to do?) You hand up the info to your bosses, who hand it up to their bosses, who decide how it can best be used. In flagrant violation of the letter and spirit of the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution. But you are still American officers, some of you. Never forget that.

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Learning from past blunders

Paul Barratt July 7, 2008

AS WE become accustomed to higher petrol prices resulting from Israeli threats to attack Iran, it is timely to ask whether the West's current approach to Iran really serves our interests. My critique centres on three points: the outrage about Iran's assumed nuclear intentions ignores the fact that the major powers have degraded the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty; the efforts to bluster Iran into dropping its indigenous program are unrealistic and doomed to failure; and the costs associated with any military strike would be completely unacceptable - to all parties.

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Domestic Spying Quietly Goes On

With Congress on the verge of outlining new parameters for National Security Agency eavesdropping between suspicious foreigners and Americans, lawmakers are leaving largely untouched a host of government programs that critics say involves far more domestic surveillance than the wiretaps they sought to remedy.

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There Are No Sunglasses

Peter Chamberlain's new blog.

This new website, therearenosunglasses.wordpress.com is dedicated to building the American resistance movement. It will be limited in scope at first, so that it can remain focused on the search for finding more effective ways to resist the empire, as it moves against the American people, freedom’s last defense.

Lies, damn lies, and the case for an Iran war

Looks like Pakistan has saved their butts from US bombs. But what about Iran?

Many claims have been made by the Bush White House about Iran these past three years, among the most outrageous being that Iran is providing funding and weapons to terror groups in Iraq. Each one of these, as usual with these crooks, are backed up with air and nothing else, and will be summarily debunked here.

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The psychopathic origins of Bush/GOP wars, torture and injustice

If Bush can immunize himself for his own crimes after he's committed them, then he can, likewise, prosecute you for breaking laws for which he has yet to issue a decree! There is a word for this: tyranny! The people of England beheaded a King for less egregious offenses. This outcome has flowed from a single spring: GOP psychopathy!

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A last throw of the dice...?

When President George W Bush was sworn in as US president in the first year of a new millennium and a new century, the United States appeared to be at the height of its powers - astride the world stage like a colossus. Some time elapsed before it was realized that Bush had entrusted his foreign policy to a group of mostly unelected conservative ideologues whose world views had been shaped during the Cold War. Playing on the imperial associations of the Roman and British empires, they aimed to lay the foundations for a century of unbroken American political, military, and economic pre-eminence to be known as "Pax Americana".

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Long term unemployment in the US climbs 37% in one year

The US economic slowdown has brought not only sustained job losses, but also a steep rise in the proportion those unemployed for prolonged periods. The number of people out of work for more than six months has shot up by 37 percent since June of 2007, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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Narcissists/Psychopaths

“My view is, there exists a group of people in the world that have a disease. I call it the ‘power disease.’ They want to rule and control other people. They are a more important plague than cancer, pneumonia, bubonic plague, tuberculosis, and heart disease put together. They can only think how to obliterate, control, and use each other. They use people as nothing more than instruments to cast aside when they don’t need them anymore. The structure we have now is, the sicker you are socially, the more likely it is that you’ll come out at the top of the heap.” —Dr. John Gofman

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FISA Immunity and September 11

Why is the American political establishment so keen on allowing Bush to grant immunity to telecommunications company wrongdoers who broke the law in helping Bush to fight Bibi's 'war on terror' by running roughshod over the rights of Americans? Even Obama, whose instincts seem top notch, refuses to take what appears to be the obvious politically appropriate position, infuriating many of his core supporters. Could it be because the the American political establishment is afraid that telecom executives, put on trial, will sing a sorry tune in their defense concerning American government foreknowledge of September 11? From the NYT (my emphasis in red):

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'Iran does not intend to wipe out Israel'

This man is so not crazy. - Ed.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says Israel is disintegrating on its own and Iran will not take any act of aggression against it.

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Professor Ticketed for "No to Empire" bumper sticker

Professor Robert Ovetz was driving through San Francisco on the morning of June 30 when he saw the lights of a police car behind him.

Ovetz pulled over.

"When the officer came up to my window, he asked the typical police requests: registration, drivers’ license, insurance card," says Ovetz. "I asked him why he was pulling me over. And he said because of the bumper sticker on my back window."

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US relocates warship after Iran warning

The Pentagon has moved an aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf after Iran warned US ships would come under fire if they attack the country.

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Impeachment Article to be introduced Thursday

Washington, Jul 8 Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) sent the following letter today to his colleagues in Congress:

WHEN THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF LIES TO GO TO WAR, HE MUST BE IMPEACHED
A SINGLE ARTICLE OF IMPEACHMENT WILL BE BROUGHT TO THE FLOOR ON THURSDAY; PLEASE CO-SPONSOR

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Let Vanunu go

She doesn't mention it, but Vanunu converted to Christianity during his long prison term. Some in Israel consider that his most unforgivable crime. - Ed.

In 1986, a young Israeli man called Mordechai Vanunu followed his conscience and told the world that Israel had a nuclear weapons programme. He was convicted of espionage and treason and sentenced to 18 years in prison. After serving this (12 years of which were in solitary confinement), Vanunu was released. In April 2004, about 80 people from around the world went to welcome him out of prison. Unbelievably, upon his release Vanunu was made subject to severe restrictions, which forbade him many basic civil liberties (including his right to leave Israel, to speak to foreigners and foreign media) and restricted his travel within Israel.

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As America collapses, US government secret plans revealed

On March 13th 2008 there was a secret closed door meeting of The United States House Of Representatives in Washington. In the history of The United States this is only the fourth time a secret meeting was held by the house. Even though Representatives are sworn to secrecy by House Rules XVII, some of the members were so shocked, horrified, furious, and concerned about the future of America by what was revealed to them inside the secret meeting, that they have started to leak this secret information to independent news agencies around the world. The mass media said almost nothing about the secret meeting of the House, mentioning only one of the items being discussed. (The new surveillance techniques that are going to be used by the U.S. Government to watch all American citizens). The story was first released in a newspaper out of Brisbane, Australia revealing the contents of the secret U.S. Government meeting and plans for America including all of it’s citizens. Shortly there after, David J. Meyer from Last Trumpet Ministries found it and made it more available for the world to see.

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US electromagnetic weapons and human rights

This research explores the current capabilities of the US military to use electromagnetic (EMF) devices to harass, intimidate, and kill individuals and the continuing possibilities of violations of human rights by the testing and deployment of these weapons. To establish historical precedent in the US for such acts, we document long-term human rights and freedom of thought violations by US military/intelligence organizations. Additionally, we explore contemporary evidence of on-going government research in EMF weapons technologies and examine the potentialities of continuing human rights abuses.

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This is the only thing you need to read today

War on Iran: The Perfect Storm from Hell

As the global bankers’ plan to bring down the American and world’s economy continues (so that they can acquire as much of our wealth as possible at ‘fire sale’ prices ~ an old strategy), the world is facing another much worse danger. A regional war in the Middle East that will involve global strategic weapons of mass destruction with deaths in the hundreds of millions in North America, Europe, the Middle East and globally.

I have served as a consultant to three very high tech aerospace firms. My specialty is conceptualizing advanced warfare especially as it relates to new cutting edge advanced weapon systems. What I see unfolding with a war on Iran is the most frightening set of circumstances I have ever seen; and I have been involved in advanced theoretical weaponry strategy and design for over 20 years.

The rise of the Likud/neo-cons, with Benjamin Netanyahu as the unholy high priest, has been a disaster for Israel, America, the Middle East, and the world at large. The smartest thing that Israel ever did was to use American money to buy off Jordan and Egypt and make peace with them. The dumbest thing was to empower the Likud Party hardliners centered on Bibi Netanyahu and the Bush/Cheney Administration (with supporting roles played by Sharon, and neo-con leaders in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, and elsewhere). Four years ago Israel was no where near a MAD (mutually assured destruction) environment. Today it has a very dangerous four-front MAD environment and it was unable, in the Second Lebanon War of two years ago, to overturn the dangers surrounding it, in fact the level of MAD danger has increased considerably since the summer of 2006.

The war party in Israel and America has facilitated the rise of a regional (Iran/Syria/Lebanon/Palestine) MAD. I truly believe that the Likud/neo-con strategy is a total failure. The stated goal of the strategy is to break-up and weaken several Middle Eastern states that pose, or could pose, a strategic risk to Israel. To this end Saddam was encouraged to attack Kuwait resulting in the First Gulf War. When he was able to demonstrate, even in the face of intense allied air attacks, his ability to “deliver ordinance on target” using his Scud missiles the United States (and allies) decided not to drive all the way to Bagdad. We knew that he was holding back “the heavy stuff” and only using “dumb” high explosive warheads; not the chemical, biological and radiological warheads that could have caused massive damage to Israel and to the Saudi oilfields. Saddam Hussein's military had prepared what it called the "great equalizer", an arsenal of 25 Scud warheads carrying over 11,000lb of biological agents, including deadly botulism poison and anthrax germs (an additional 33,000lb of germ agents were placed in artillery shells and bombs). It was only after he was forced into denuding himself of his advanced weaponry that the neo-cons were able to begin the Second Gulf War.

After Iran, the Likud/neo-con war strategy calls for the neutralizing of Iran and Syria. The Iranians response was to train and equip Hezbollah in Lebanon and to deepen their strategic alliance with Syria.

During the 2006 Second Lebanon War, the Iranian trained and equipped Hezbollah forces repeated the efforts of Saddam during the First Gulf War. They delivered a very large number of rockets with “dumb” high explosive warheads on Israel. The Hezbollah Special Forces are in-effect a highly trained and well-equipped Iranian commando force of at least a Brigade in size. They man and protect a large number of mostly unguided and rather crude rockets, generally Katyusha 122mm artillery rockets with a 19 mile/30km range and capable of delivering approximately 66 pounds/30kg of warheads. Additionally, Hezbollah are known to possess a considerable number of more advanced and longer range missiles. During the 2006 war Hezbollah fired approximately 4,000 rockets (95% of which were Katyshas) all utilizing only "dumb" high explosive warheads. Some Iranian build and supplied Fajr-3 and Ra'ad 1 liquid-fueled missiles were also fired. At the time of the 2006 war Hezbollah was reported to have in the range of 13,000 rockets. There are creditable reports that this number has been rebuilt and expanded upon since the end of that war and that the number of rockets is now at least 20,000 and perhaps 30,000 or more.

During the 2006 war the world watched as Israeli towns were hit time and time again by the Katyushas. What was not discussed by the main stream news media was the fact that the ordinance delivered by the Katyushas was mainly harassment fire with very limited effect. The Iranian/Syrian trained and supplied Hezhollah commandos were holding back their "heavy stuff" both in terms of their longer range guided missiles capable of hitting southern Israel and most importantly warheads of strategic military importance. That is NBC (nuclear [in this case radiological] chemical and biological) and advanced-conventional warheads. They were demonstrating their ability to deliver "ordinance on target" and their ability to survive a heavy Israeli ground and air combined arms attack.

Hezbollah has the capability of loading truly strategic warheads on the large number of mostly crude older technology unguided rockets that it has. The use of advanced-conventional fuel-air explosive (FAE) warheads on the Katyushas would have had a much more profound effect in Israeli cities. The use of FAE submunitions on the larger missiles capable of hitting any target in Israel would have given Hezbollah the firepower of low-yield nuclear weapons without crossing the nuclear threshold. Coupled with the large number of missiles in Syria and those in Iran, the Hezbollah rockets posed, and continue to pose, a truly grave strategic threat to Israel if FAE warheads are used. This threat is dramatically increased if radiological ("dirty bombs"), chemical, and/or biological warheads are used.

The massive number of Hezbollah rockets could also be outfitted with chemical warheads. It is worth noting that the joint Syrian-Iranian chemical warfare R&D and production program is perhaps the largest and most complicated on earth. Generally the Israelis have shown themselves to be prepared for chemical warfare, however a chemical war attack following closely behind a FAE attack (to open up bunkers and apartment buildings) would have greater effect. While it is not necessary to utilize a rocket to deliver a biological war attack, it could be done and there is some benefit militarily to a rapid dispersal of biowar agents under the cover of conventional attacks. Radiological weapons deliver the long term (which can be hundreds of thousands of years) lethal effects of radiation without the blast effect of a nuclear bomb.

The combined military strategic capability of NBC/Advanced Conventional warheads and very large numbers of rockets operated and protected by Hezbollah, coupled with the arsenal of Syria and Iran (and Hamas) acts as a MAD (mutually assured destruction) between Israel and Iran/Syria. Yes the Israelis can nuke the hell out of both Iran and Syria; however, they possess a fatal return punch.

The response from the Israeli and neo-con hardliners to the new MAD strategic environment has been frightening. Instead of recognizing the danger to Israel and to the entire world from the Iranian/Syrian “checkmate” on the aggressive Israeli/neo-con strategy, and making major changes to their strategy, they are attempting to “tough it out”. The issue of “danger from the Iranian nuclear program” is a smokescreen to facilitate the coming war on Iran and her allies (Syria, Hezbollah, and Hamas) and to continue with the next stage of the neo-con strategy. The response from the hardliners is more war and damn their WMD (weapons of mass destruction). This is most unwise and most dangerous to the entire world.

When the USSR was falling apart, and in the aftermath of the USSR breakup, Iran spend a lot of money to hire some of the best Soviet biological war experts. The advanced biowar weapons that Iran has developed gives Iran a Global Strategic Weapon of Mass Destruction that can unleash levels of death among the populations of the major neo-con nations (USA, UK, France, German, Italy, etc.) very similar to that from a global strategic nuclear strike. This means that Iran and her allies have a MAD with America, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, German, Italy, etc.

Most people think of biological warfare as anthrax and smallpox; they do not understand that there has been a major shift in technology. The difference between the old biowar (that most people think of) and advanced biowar (with its recombination DNA designer super killer viruses) is like the difference between an old Model T Ford and a 2008 Rolls Royce Phantom. Both are cars, or biological weapons, but there is a difference of several orders of magnitude.

Regardless of how a war against Iran breaks out, it is likely to very quickly escalate to the usage of WMD. There has been talk among USAF war planners of a 1,200 (some say 2,000 to 3,000 or more) target attack on Iran’s nuclear, industrial, military, political and religious infrastructure. If a foreign enemy were to bomb 1,200 or more targets in the United States what would be the response of the American government and it’s military? Actually the answer to this question is well known. The stated doctrine of the United States of America is to rain hundreds of hydrogen bombs (WMD) on the territory and people of such an aggressor; this has been our policy for approximately 60 years. Why do we presuppose that the Iranians would not do the same?

If Iran is hit by either an Israeli and/or an American air attack, it is certain that Iran will respond. This response, even if is non-WMD at first, will certainly result in more escalation and counter-escalation. The chances of a regional Middle East war between Iran/Syria/Hezbollah/Hamas and Israel/USA not becoming a nuclear and advanced biological war nightmare are very low. In fact, since both sides know this, there is a strong military incentive to move to all out usage of WMD when the first bombs begin to fall (in order to utilize more of one’s weaponry before its destruction).

The end result will be a third or so of Israelis dead and large parts of the Israeli nation poisoned for hundreds of thousands of years by radiological warheads. Syria, Iran, and large parts of Lebanon and Palestine will cease to exists and will be little more than a green radioactive debris field poisonous to all forms of life higher than a cockroach for hundreds of thousands of years (longer than modern man has existed). The Iranian oilfields and most likely the oilfields of a large part of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and other areas of the Middle East are also apt to be so poisoned by Iranian radiological warheads or Israeli/American nuclear fallout.

The world will suffer its most complete economic collapse in history. All of this will take less than one week.

At about two weeks, after the beginning of the war on Iran, emergency rooms and doctors offices will begin to see a sudden spike in a number of new diseases with numerous very ill people being admitted to hospitals in North America, and Western Europe and what is left of Israel. By that time the Iranian and Syrian states will have effectively ceased to exist with insufficient manpower and organization to even bury their dead.

The many new genetically engineered viruses causing the strange diseases showing up will have been spread by sleeper agents supplied with a number of new viruses and distributed in public places (movie theaters, shopping malls, churches, etc.) quietly without anyone knowing. Humans themselves will become the vectors of the diseases/biowar agents. Although the Bush Administration has spent $40 billion on biowar defense in the last couple of years, there is little that can realistically be done against a global strategic advanced biowar attack. The tactic of necessity will be to lock down everyone, with only key persons being allowed to leave their homes, in order to let the multiple genetically engineered diseases burn themselves out (a nice way of saying letting everyone who has the illnesses die off).

Expect to see dear old Bibi Netanyahu as ‘head’ of what is left of Israel. Expect to see sub dermal RFID chips implanted under the skin of the population left in the major neo-con states to “prove your disease free status” and necessary to buy, sell, or work. Expect to see military checkpoints everywhere and total control by the neo-con national governments over all aspects of life. Expect to see concentration camps for persons suspected of disloyalty to the state (this will include many viewers of sites like this one). Expect to see levels of death, fear, repression that are almost incomprehensible.

Expect to see the various biological warfare diseases spread throughout the world, even with a total shutdown of international travel. Millions will die in Russia and China. Expect to see those national governments not controlled by the neo-con masters to go ape shit when their populations face the nightmare of advanced biowar. Expect the regional war in the Middle East to trigger an all out global battle utilizing all forms of weapons of mass destruction within a few months of the initial attacks on Iran.

Stirling

Update 6 July 2008: A article in the Sunday Times (London, England) supports what I am saying about Iran and its biowar program. Name of article is "Germ warfare fear ovr african monkeys taken to Iran".

Scottish barony title for sale ~ link.
Several sites have linked to this story or have run this story in whole on their web pages, including WhatReallyHappened.com, The Truth Seeker, OpEd News, Jeff Rense Program, etc.
Lord Stirling is expected to be interviewed on the national radio program of What Really Happened Monday night at 8:00 p.m. (central time zone USA).

Palestinians Murder, Israelis Have Accidents

So, the JTA thinks it is a stupid suggestion (from James Taranto in the Wall Street Journal) that the "accidental killing" of American activist Rachel Corrie by an Israeli bulldozer in March 2003 may have given the Palestinian who perpetrated Wednesday’s attack in Jerusalem the idea for turning his vehicle into a deadly weapon.

The JTA has a point. It is impossible to know what goes through the mind of a murderer as he embarks upon his murders, so it is sheer speculation to suggest Wednesday's killer might have been influenced by the Corrie "accident".

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Averting Catastrophe: When the leaders are the problem

Dr. Gerstein’s final chapter has given guidelines for leaders on how they might avert the kinds of catastrophes described in this book. It would be good for society (and all organizations) if more leaders exhibited this kind of concern and followed the suggestions he gives.

However, in my own experience in government, and in my study of national security policy catastrophes in the decades since, I have come to believe that the most dangerous practices in the national security realm reflect priorities, in general, that are set by top officials: getting reelected, avoiding condemnation for past actions, or other political or bureaucratic objectives. Those priorities generally take great precedence over safety or preventing public harm.

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Automated McCarthyism

McCarthyism has come a long way since the dark days of the 1950’s…. its new arena of ‘action’ is now the Internet. Instead of FBI goons doing searches for the suspected enemy, the dirty work is done today by robots.

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The so-called 'president' is a mass murderer

'Terrorism' is simply the response to US terrorism --perpetrated primarily by the CIA and US surrogates. The 'blowback' is the root cause of terrorism, the motivation for it, the fuel that keeps it alive. Fighting a 'war on terrorism' is just plain stupid. Such a war 'causes' terrorism and I've got the stats prove it.

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1-Sentence debunking of NIST's report on WTC 7

I can debunk NIST's new report - which claims that fires alone brought down WTC 7 - in one sentence. I'll do so by linking to a New York Times article :

Partly EVAPORATED Steel Beams Were Found At WTC 7; But Normal Office and Diesel Fires are Not NEARLY Hot Enough to Evaporate Steel

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US 'fears Israel will fail Iran mission'

Here's an idea...how about we don't come to Israel's rescue this time? If they want to do something really stupid that they can't pull off, let them deal with the consequences. As wise people say, You made your bed; go lay in it. - Ed.

Pentagon chiefs fear that plans drawn up by Israel to bomb Iranian nuclear facilities will fail because of Tel Aviv's lack of intelligence, a report says.

According to a report published by the Sunday Telegraph, American commanders worry that despite having 'no guarantee' of Israel's ability to stop Iran's nuclear progress, Tel Aviv may have plans to launch a premature military strike on Iran.

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