Neos' Video News & Reports/ Music Videos

Avenging Annie - Andy Pratt is Back

2012-01-25T17:02:00.000-05:00

The 9/11 Video / They Can Not Debunk..Bombs Planted

2012-01-23T19:14:00.000-05:00

New 9/11 Video

2011-10-26T12:53:00.002-05:00

Neos' Video News & Reports/ Music Videos: Neos' Video News & Reports/ Music Videos: Church Of Scientology Investigated 'South Park' Creators

2011-10-24T15:52:00.001-05:00

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/24/church-of-scientology-investigate-south-park_n_1027538.html?icid=maing-grid7%7Cmain5%7Cdl3%7Csec1_lnk3%7C106821Neos' Video News & Reports/ Music Videos: Neos' Video News & Reports/ Music Videos: Church Of Scientology Investigated 'South Park' Creators

Lewis Black Re: Our USA...To Funny :)

2011-10-24T13:46:00.000-05:00

Omni, The Ultimate Super Hero Who Conquered The Evil Ones' & ETC

2011-10-23T15:38:00.000-05:00

Cheating

2011-10-23T14:37:00.001-05:00

Globle Changes in Weather Patterns Affecting Animals Extinction

2011-10-17T17:38:00.001-05:00

WASHINGTON -- From the mighty polar bear to the tiny house sparrow, many of Earth's species appear to be shrinking in size, a new study reports. And the authors think it's probably due to global warming, a little like wool sweaters that shrink when washed in hot water.

But other experts say that conclusion goes too far, blaming global warming for what may be natural changes.

The new research was published online Sunday in the journal Nature Climate Change. It's based on a review of other studies and found that 38 of 85 animal and plant species showed a documented reduction in size over decades, including a type of Scottish sheep that is 5 percent smaller than in 1985. Those studies looked at species over different time periods and in varying numbers.

The shrinking victims, according to the study, include cotton, corn, strawberries, bay scallops, shrimp, crayfish, carp, Atlantic salmon, herring, frogs, toads, iguanas, hooded robins, red-billed gulls, California squirrels, lynx and wood rats.

Two years ago, Scottish researchers made news with the shrinking sheep study. Several studies have shown that polar bears, which rely on sea ice during the summer, also are not as big. And this latest study said the house sparrow's weight has dropped by one-seventh from 1950 to 1990. A bird called the graceful warbler showed a 26 percent weight drop during the same time period.

"There is a trend in a number of organisms across the board from plants to big vertebrates getting smaller," said study co-author Jennifer Sheridan, a biology researcher at the University of Alabama. "The theory is as things get warmer they don't need to grow as large."

Most of these animals are cold-blooded so the warmer the weather, the faster their metabolism is and the more calories they burn, Sheridan said. There's a biological law, called Bergmann's rule, that says that as it gets colder, animals get bigger. This is the unwritten flip side of it, she said.

But Yoram Yom-Tov, a zoologist at Tel Aviv University whose studies Sheridan used in her research, said many species are shrinking, and you can't blame global warming exclusively.

"Changes in body size are a normal phenomenon," Yom-Tov wrote in an email. "When conditions are favorable, they increase in size or reproduce at higher rates, and when conditions are deteriorating, they do the opposite. I think that most species will adapt to climate change and survive. No need for alarm."

And Stanford biologist Terry Root, an expert in climate change, said the study's conclusions "seem kind of far-fetched."

Occupy Wall Street ( Update 28 Days Later )

2011-10-14T14:27:00.002-05:00

#OWS VICTORY: The people have prevailed, gear up for global day of action
Posted Oct. 14, 2011, 8:51 a.m. EST by OccupyWallSt

People power triumphs over Wall Street’s bid to end the protests mayor bloomberg and Brookfield Inc. back down on eviction world prepares for day of action Saturday October 15 in 950+ cities in 82 countries. We Are Winning!

NEW YORK, NY – Over 3,000 people gathered at Liberty Plaza in the pre-dawn hours this morning to defend the peaceful Occupation near Wall Street. The crowd cheered at the news that multinational real estate firm Brookfield Properties will postpone its so-called “cleanup” of the park and that Mayor Bloomberg has told the NYPD to stand down on orders to remove protesters. On the eve of the October 15 global day of action against Wall Street greed, this development has emboldened the movement and sent a clear message that the power of the people has prevailed against Wall Street.

“We are winning and Wall Street is afraid,” said Kira Moyer-Sims, a protester from Portland, Oregon. “This movement is gaining momentum and is too big to fail.”

“Brookfield Properties is the 1%. They have invested $24 billion in mortgage-backed securities, so as millions face foreclosure and eviction due to predatory lending and the burst of the housing bubble that Wall Street created, its not surprising they threatened to evict Occupy Wall Street,” said Patrick Bruner, an organizer with Occupy Wall Street from the Bed-Stuy neighborhood of Brooklyn. “But Brookfield and Bloomberg have backed down and our movement is only growing as the 99% take to the streets world wide to call for economic justice.”

The early morning announcement from the Mayor’s office in New York came after 300,000+ Americans signed petitions to stop the eviction, and flooded the 311 phone network in solidarity with those in Liberty Square. At 6 AM this morning, 3,000+ New Yorkers, unions, students, and others joined the occupiers in the square to send a clear message to the 1% who want to silence this peaceful assembly of the 99%. Donations poured into the protesters from Italy, England, Mexico and many other countries by everyday people hoping to help the movement grow.

“For too long the 99% have been ignored as our economic system has collapsed. The banks got bailouts and we’ve been sold out, ” said Harrison Schultz, business analyst from Brooklyn . “Wall Street’s greed has corrupted our country and is killing our planet. But today we celebrate victory and vow to keep fighting for justice and change on Wall Street, and in over 100 cities in the US and over 950 cities globally.”

On October 15th, Occupy Wall Street will demonstrate in concert over 951 cities in 82 countries and counting as people around the globe protest in an international day of solidarity against the greed and corruption of the 1%.

Occupy Wall Street is a people powered movement that began on September 17, 2011 in Liberty Square in Manhattan’s Financial District, and has spread to over 100 cities in the United States and actions in over 1,500 cities globally. #OWS is fighting back against the corrosive power of major banks and multinational corporations on the democratic process, and the role of Wall Street in creating an economic collapse that caused the greatest recession in generations. The movement is inspired by uprisings in Egypt, Tunisia, Spain, Greece, Italy and the UK, and aims to expose how the richest 1% of people who are writing the rules of the global economy and are imposing an agenda of neoliberalism and economic inequality.

427 Comments

Parents bring Children to #ows tonight

I'm an AssHole----Denis Leary

2011-09-20T11:16:00.002-05:00

Haarp 2 of 4

2011-06-01T22:43:00.000-05:00

Haarp 4 of 4

2011-06-01T22:39:00.000-05:00

Haarp 3 of 4

2011-06-01T22:34:00.000-05:00

Haarp 1 of 4

2011-06-01T22:15:00.000-05:00

Full Spectrum Dominance Pt.1

2011-05-17T19:34:00.000-05:00

More at The Real News

2011-02-25T02:06:00.001-05:00

2011-02-25T02:05:00.001-05:00

YouTube - DEVIL VATICAN!(Part 1),The Whore of Babylon

2011-02-25T02:00:00.000-05:00

YouTube - DEVIL VATICAN!(Part 1),The Whore of Babylon

North Korean attack on South Korea pushes China's patience

2011-02-04T22:47:00.000-05:00

North Korea's powerful neighbour keen to ensure country doesn't collapse at same time as maintaining trade links with South

It is only weeks since China's leaders commemorated the 60th anniversary of its entry into the Korean War and the "friendship established in battle" with the North.

But the last week's events demonstrate that its neighbour and ally is more often a source of frustration than sympathy these days. Indeed, Beijing's cautious response to the artillery attack – refusing to ascribe blame and calling on all sides to show restraint – should not be mistaken for approval.

"Of course they [Chinese leaders] will be angry. But they are angry in their hearts – not publicly," said Shi Yinhong, professor of international relations at Renmin University in Beijing. "It is hard to find the delicate balance between relations with the North and the South. It is also hard to balance international expectations and China's trait of not openly condemning or pressing North Korea hard," added Zhu Feng, professor of international relations at Peking University, though he warned that Beijing's patience would run out if the North continued to act provocatively. Continue Story At The Link below > http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/nov/24/north-korea-attack-south-korea-china

Share25 Tania Branigan in Beijing guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 24 November 2010 21.32 GMT Article history

Houses destroyed in the North Korean attack on Yeonpyeong island: China has shied away from condemning the attack. Photograph: Dong-A Ilbo/AFP/Getty Images

NukeGate – Pakistan, “Greatest Threat to the West Today,” Experts Agree, and The Bomb

2011-01-10T01:23:00.000-05:00

NukeGate – Pakistan, “Greatest Threat to the West Today,” Experts Agree, and The Bomb
7th January 2011

On NukeGate: “The Biggest Political Scandal of the Past Decade: Lockheed/Sandia, Bush’s State Dept., Pakistan’s Nuclear Smuggling & the Hidden Parapolitics of the Plame Scandal”

” … Overwhelmingly, the experts selected Pakistan as the country that posed the greatest threat to the West today, and a majority also picked it as the country most likely to have its nukes end up in the hands of terrorists. … “

From: “Duane Baughman on how political consulting led to ‘Bhutto’ documentary”
Excerpt – By Rick Marianetti Examiner January 7th, 2011

… In the current issue of Foreign Policy, 65 top experts in terrorism were asked, “Which country poses the greatest threat to the West today?” Almost 80% picked the same place:

Overwhelmingly, the experts selected Pakistan as the country that posed the greatest threat to the West today, and a majority also picked it as the country most likely to have its nukes end up in the hands of terrorists. Interestingly, only two experts named Iran as the West’s greatest threat or as a nuke proliferator to terror groups.

The Foreign Policy/Fund for Peace Failed States Index 2010 rated Pakistan in 10th place. To put that assessment in context, Somalia was at the top of the list, while Sweden (175), Finland (176), and Norway (177) finished in the last three slots. Haiti (11), Nigeria (14), North Korea (19), Rwanda (40), and Guatemala (72) were all rated more stable than Pakistan.

Through Bhutto’s story, Baughman blends interviews and incredible video footage that reveal a dangerously divided country armed with at least 100 operational nuclear weapons.

Culture and Events caught up with Baughman last week (the day after the 3rd anniversary of Benazir Bhutto’s assassination) at a San Francisco coffee house. He talked about his political consulting work and how it led to him make a film about the epic tragedy of one of the world’s most extraordinary women of the last half century. …

During the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, the United States assumed — wrongly, it was discovered years later — that the Soviet military command stationed in Cuba had the authority to launch a nuclear strike independent of the Kremlin. What is the situation in Pakistan?

Baughman: Benazir Bhutto found out about the details of her own country’s nuclear capabilities, the strategic location of her own nuclear facilities, from the CIA on a visit to Washington.

In the film, Islamic scholar Reza Aslan said of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI): “It is the NSA, CIA and Pentagon rolled into a single body; it is a shadow military force.”

Baughman: They have total control. That’s why it’s as much a negotiation with military as civilian leadership. For the first time in the short history of Pakistan, this government, as weakened as it is, is having actual success in having a small partnership with the military. The civilian government under Zardari (Bhutto’s husband) is actually handing over and decentralizing power for the first time, power that was accumulated under Musharrif’s dictatorship. …

One of the things that wasn’t in the movie: Zia (Pakistani President assassinated in 1988) kept her in prison and would put vials of poison at her door everyday with fake newspapers that read, “Bhutto to hang like her father” — in order to try to get her to commit suicide. In Muslim society, that kind of death, for non-religious reasons, is one of the most painful deaths because it’s about self. She would go to the door of the prison and kick the vials with whatever energy she could muster. It’s not anything she ever talked about. She just did it, she went on, and if she was going to die there, she was going to die in prison at the hands of the government. …

What is the status of the investigation into Bhutto’s assassination since the film was completed?

Baughman: In April, a United Nations investigation concluded General Musharraf refused to provide adequate security for her and intentionally destroyed forensic evidence at the scene of both bombings. It was a hugely uncharacteristic report from a usually benign United Nations.

Then just two weeks ago they arrested the actual policeman and the Chief, who was a Musharraf acolyte and gave the approval to one of his minions to go out and hose the thing down. This is in a place where they’re used to not getting justice — you only have to look back at the murders of her two brothers, which are still unsolved, and will remain unsolved as long as we live.

This is a bottom-up investigation, and it will lead to a Musharraf arrest, I guarantee it. …

http://www.examiner.com/culture-events-in-national/duanne-baughman-on-how-political-consulting-led-to-bhutto-documentary

NukeGate – Pakistan, “Greatest Threat to the West Today,” Experts Agree, and The Bomb

GlobalResearch.ca - Centre for Research on Globalization

2011-01-10T01:04:00.000-05:00

Big Brother: America's Police State Mentality in the Electronic Age

by Prof. Rodrigue Tremblay

Global Research, January 1, 2011

“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”Benjamin Franklin (1706 - 1790), American inventor, journalist, printer, diplomat, and statesman (1775)

“Americans used to roar like lions for liberty; now we bleat like sheep for security.”Norman Vincent Peale (1898 –1993), American Christian preacher and author

"A Party member lives from birth to death under the eye of the Thought Police. Even when he is alone he can never be sure that he is alone. ...At the apex of the pyramid comes Big Brother. Big Brother is infallible and all-powerful. Every success, every achievement, every victory, every scientific discovery, all knowledge, all wisdom, all happiness, all virtue, are held to issue directly from his leadership and inspiration." George Orwell (1903-1950) (Eric Arthur Blair), (book: 1984)

“Since information gives power, access to personal files can lead to unreasonable pressures, even blackmail, especially against those with the least resources, people who depend upon public programs, for example. Big Brother isn't a camera. Big Brother is a computer.” C.J. Howard, political novel “Cybercash”

In 2049, when the 100th anniversary of the publication of George Orwell political novel “1984” will be celebrated, it will be recalled that the immediate post September 11, 2001 period marked the beginning of a gradual decline in personal liberty and freedom, especially in the United States but also elsewhere, and the emergence of a great information-obsessed Leviathan. Freedom rarely disappears in one fell swoop. Its disappearance is rather the end result of a thousand encroachments.

Pushed to the extreme and without clear democratic oversight, it becomes the mark of a totalitarian state, when authorities feel that they never have enough information on the people. It is because information is power and state bureaucrats and politicians naturally like to be in control; on the one hand, releasing as little information about their own actions through an imposed secrecy, and on the other, accumulating as much information as possible about the citizens.

And today, modern governments have all the tools to transform their country into a creeping police state, more so now then ever before, in this electronic age. They have access to information technology that previous full-fledged “police state” governments could only have dreamed about.

Nowadays, with super computers and revolutionary new models to gather information and build databases, governments, i.e. bureaucrats and politicians, are in a position as never before to accumulate and correlate tremendous amounts of personal information on their citizens, from public (federal, state and local) as well as from a plethora of private sources. Government intelligence on each and every citizen is thus rendered much easier and, I would add, much more frightening. Indeed, the potential for abuse is enormous.

In 2002, for example, retired Vice Admiral John Poindexter proposed that the U.S. government create a tracking and monitoring system called "Total Information Awareness", in order for the U.S. government to gather information in a preventive way about individuals from widely varied sources, including tax records, telephone calling records, credit card charges, banking transactions, airline or ship reservations, and various biometric databases, without taking into consideration civil liberties or a citizens' right to privacy, the U.S. Privacy Act of 1974, or without having to request search warrants and without having to give prior notice to the persons involved. —The pretext was to allow the government to thwart possible terrorist activity, thus creating an unlimited appetite for information.

Well, there are clear signs that this massive data mining system on individuals is now solidly in place and is in full operation and can be expected to grow over time. George Orwell must be turning in his grave.

First, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s network of fusion centers, launched in 2003, has allowed the government to centralize a host of previously disparate information about Americans and foreigners alike, whether related to personal and business records, drivers licenses, local taxes, local infractions, police records, etc., through a host of coordinated information-sharing networks. (N.B.: The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was established on November 25, 2002 and is the domestic equivalent of the Department of Defense.)

Secondly, central provisions of the USA Patriot Act, signed into law by President George W. Bush on October 26, 2001, allow the government to operate roving wire taps, search any individual’s business, personal, and even library records upon presentation of a national security letter, and spy on so-called "lone wolf" suspects, i.e., foreign nationals who have no known links to groups designated as terrorist. On this, the current Obama administration, by extending those provisions, is scarcely different than the previous Bush administration.

Thirdly, since passports and tight intelligence screening have been made a requirement for most international travel by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, since January 1, 2008, every individual traveling in and out of the United States has all his or her whereabouts and movements recorded so the government knows at all times his or her address and the places he or she has traveled to and from.

For instance, U.S. Transportation Security Administration's recent decision to use full-body airport X-ray scanners and full body groping at airports is another example where so-called security procedures are applied blindly and indiscriminately. There is more to come, since it has been announced that such invasive intelligence screening is coming to hotels and shopping malls, as well as to trains, buses and ports, etc.

These are some of the main features of the new government apparatus to gather information on people. There are many others. —Take for instance the requirement, since 2002, that all American high schools must give Pentagon military recruiters the names and contact information of all their juniors and seniors. Failure to comply on their part may result in the loss of government funding.

The logical next step for the U.S. government would be to follow a recent Italy's lead and outlaw outright the use of cash for most transactions, except for small ones, thus providing the government even more minute information about an individual's income, purchases and displacements. Nothing will escape the watching eye of the government in the electronic age. People will be filed, photographed and corralled.

Indeed, the way mass government surveillance systems are growing, by year 2020, chances are good that Americans will be living in a “Brave New World”!

—CYBER BIG BROTHER would know it all and it will be watching you.

Rodrigue Tremblay is professor emeritus of economics at the University of Montreal and can be reached at rodrigue.tremblay@yahoo.com. He is the author of the book "The Code for Global Ethics" at: www.TheCodeForGlobalEthics.com/

The book “The Code for Global Ethics, Ten Humanist Principles”, by Dr. Rodrigue Tremblay, prefaced by Dr. Paul Kurtz, has just been released by Prometheus Books.

The French version of the book is also now available. See: www.lecodepouruneethiqueglobale.com/ or on Amazon Canada

Rodrigue Tremblay is a frequent contributor to Global Research. Global Research Articles by Rodrigue Tremblay

A New Look at Old New World Order,Etc..

2010-10-17T00:11:00.000-05:00

International Union For Conservation Of Nature News From AOL News

2010-09-03T20:00:00.000-05:00

International Union For Conservation Of Nature News From AOL News: "Study: Mass Extinctions Could Shake Up Marine Life
By Hugh Collins7 HOURS 5 MINUTES AGO

De Agostini / Getty Images(Sept. 3) --The rate at which animals and plants are going extinct could drastically alter life in the Earth's seas, according to a new study. Mass extinctions throughout history have altered the structure of life in the seas, with dominant creatures being toppled and others rushing in to take their place, creating a whole new ecosystem. De...
Related News: mass extinction, historical geology, species"

2010-06-11T15:46:00.002-05:00

Most Recent Osama Bin Laden Warning

2010-05-17T17:03:00.000-05:00

Bin Laden Broadcast To Obama ( 3 months ago)

2010-05-17T16:27:00.000-05:00

The Real Deal Re: Our Leader

2010-05-17T15:50:00.000-05:00

Is It Constitutional

2010-02-11T18:15:00.000-05:00

Obama Mocks & Attacks Jesus Christ And The Bible / Video / Obama Is Not A Christian

2009-11-17T00:11:00.000-05:00

Change Player Size Watch this video in a new windowObama Youth Sing as their parents ordered

2009-11-16T23:52:00.001-05:00

Obama Civilian Security

2009-11-16T23:44:00.000-05:00

The Obama Brigade In Formation

2009-11-16T23:33:00.002-05:00

The Obama Youth Movement

2009-11-16T23:30:00.001-05:00

In This Western We're the Indians; So, we're Screwed!

2009-10-21T03:35:00.003-05:00

Jounal Entry 1. 10/21/090

After Bush I Thought “ Obama is The One "” No One Was More Surprised,” I was never happier that I had a Cardiac Specialist

This website has seen almost 2 years of news from alternate sources regarding the Bush administration. Okay, now it's the Obama administration and I find no shortage of news, editorial commentary on any number of Pres. Obama's initiatives. While I was gathering information, some background, and the rest of my research has been to get a well-rounded view and understanding of his initiatives. After being sworn in as president, Pres. Obama and administration hit the ground running at breakneck speed, seemingly trying to put a face on all the important issues He had talked about during his campaign. His actions were first looked upon as being very ambitious and committed to the job that he had talked about throughout his campaign. Now, we have all seen and paid attention to the fallout in feedback from Congress, Republicans and Democrats alike; we see a presidency that has stalled on his prize initiative of national healthcare. There have been dangerous signs of to put it lightly, overly ambitious agenda; when the opposition, questioning his initiatives, which is their right and patriotic duty; we heard sound bites that criticized patriotic American citizens who happen to question Pres. Obama's initiatives. He doesn't want to believe or acknowledge the fact that Americans who had voted for him would do an about-face and question his agenda; it's what happens when any president seems to have changed his platform between the time of his campaign and winning the election and actually launching his " change " initiatives. And I haven't even gotten to the most important issue, which has been National Health Care. Now, before that bill is passed since all the indicators seem to point to his resolve and determination to have this bill passed, I have elected to wait. And I doubt it will be a long one. Before making my final decision and report in this journal. What I have found to bring me to my decision. Until then, Peace “

and God bless us all. Everyone. Neo

The Jounal

2009-10-15T17:26:00.002-05:00

"Observations Of Myself & The Matrix / World We Live In"

Google Page Creator

2009-09-21T20:30:00.000-05:00

Google Page Creator: "Neos'Broastcast Site cont.2in revision"

Free The Border Agents

2009-08-30T20:29:00.000-05:00

How The Banks Create Money

2009-08-18T00:19:00.001-05:00

Asset Based Economics - Alternative Revolutionary Currency - The funniest videos are a click away

Hubble's Surprise Proves To Be Huge

2009-08-15T18:36:00.000-05:00

B - Side

2009-06-28T14:46:00.000-05:00

Holder Just Made Me a Promise

2009-04-23T17:55:00.002-05:00

Holder Just Made Me a Promise
Submitted by davidswanson on April 23, 2009 - 4:44pm.
Bush Prosecution
As Attorney General Eric Holder left an appropriations subcommittee hearing on Thursday I spoke loudly from the third row as he prepared to leave the room:
"We need a special prosecutor for torture, Mr. Attorney General. Americans like the rule of law. The rule of law for everybody."
He replied as he approached and walked by, surrounded by bodyguards:
"And you will be proud of your country."
I was joined by others in replying simultaneously:
"Yes, we want to be proud of our country. We're ready. No need to wait."
Holder knew exactly what it would take for me to be proud of my country, and he told me directly that I would be.
Will I? Time will tell.
Some friends from Code Pink and Veterans for Peace and I had held up signs during the hearing: "Torture Is Illegal", "Special Prosecutor", "Justice for ALL", "Are Laws for Everyone?", "Special Counsel for War Crimes", "No Torture", etc.
But I had come with a coalition of groups led by the ACLU in an attempt to present a petition to Holder asking for a special prosecutor.
Pre-hearing we presented the petition to an assistant attorney general who then sat in the front row with a few other DOJ staffers. He promised to hand Holder the petition, and I asked him again in the hallway afterwards, and he promised to hand it to him.
Here's the opening of the ACLU's press release:
"A broad coalition of advocacy groups today will deliver petitions containing a quarter million signatures to Attorney General Eric Holder demanding that he appoint an independent prosecutor to investigate the Bush administration’s use of torture on terrorism suspects. The petitions were gathered by the American Civil Liberties Union, MoveOn.org Political Action, the Center for Constitutional Rights, Firedoglake.com, Democrats.com and other advocacy groups. The petitions will be delivered during Holder’s testimony before a House Appropriations Subcommittee."
And here's what I said in that press release:
"David Swanson, Washington Director of Democrats.com: 'Torturing people to compel agreement with fictional justifications for war suggests that we have not advanced greatly during the past millennium. And yet I know that we have, and that we can prove it by enforcing our laws in the face of fear and misunderstanding. A delay cannot be justified by a lack of evidence (the evidence is overwhelming) or by a political calculation. Appointing an independent special counsel to enforce our laws would give a new basis for progress in our relations with the world, a rationale for improving our criminal code moving forward, and the necessary space for congress to properly pursue accountability and prevention of future abuses of power.'"
This was my blog of the hearing. A number of congress members said and asked very good things, but the questioning was not very pointed, and the answers were either vague or put matters off until June when task forces finish their work. (Do I have to wait until then to start being proud of my country?)
2:40 p.m. Rep David Obey opens with story of political prosecution in WI.
2:45 pm Rep Frank Wolf (R., Va.) talked about 9-11.
2:50 Holder says OPR report should be done "relatively soon."
2:55 Obey is asking about prosecution for torture team.
2:59 Holder says DOJ task forces on interrogations and detentions will report in July, but does not actually answer the question of whether there will be prosecutions.
3:01 Wolf is worried that enforcing the law might make employees in the future feel they had to be careful to obey laws. So, Wolf repeats the question: will you pursue the prosecutions? AND are there docs that show torturing saved lives?
3:02 Holder will not prosecute people who acted in good faith on justice dept memos, but claims to enforce the rule of law blah blah and MIGHT be open to prosecuting the people who wrote the memos. Holder has not seen and is unfamiliar with any memos that back up Cheney's claims but he hopes to make all OLC memos public. Wolf wants ALL memos, OLC and otherwise.
Let him have em!!! Here's how crazy Cheney's claim is.
3:09 hearing's being played live on MSNBC right now, and covered on CNN and Fox. Fattah is now asking about massive funding of prisons and pittance for re-entry programs, and about mortgage fraud.
3:10 Holder answers re mortgage fraud.
3:13 Asked again, Holder says he supports the Second Chance Act. He supports schools and parenting. (Not really his department?) He supports educating prisoners. (So why not fund it?)
Questioning drifting from topic of torture. I'm reading the news. NY Times has an op-ed from Roger Cohen, who wants immunity for torturers.
3:21 Schiff nails it. Holder said water boarding torture. Torture has occurred. Laws must be enforced.
3:25 Holder hems and haws.
3:25 Culverson wants to know if CIAers who did not act in good faith might be prosecuted. Holder says yes.
3:31 Serrano: if we do not prosecute torture we provide a recruiting tool to terrorists, and we leave people unable to travel outside the country for fear of arrest. But Serrano asks no question and moves on to immigrants issues.
3:40 Rep Ruppersberger asks about the torture again and Holder answers about his task forces through July again.
I just posted an excellent article the AG should read.
I'm going to turn this off and try to talk to Holder when he leaves.
More to come.
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2009-04-02T19:48:00.001-05:00

Us,Iranian and Afghan Talks/Whoa

2009-03-31T20:33:00.001-05:00

Published on Tuesday, March 31, 2009 by the Associated Press

US and Iran at Afghan Talks

The United States was meeting today with countries from around the world, including its adversary Iran, to seek support for its new strategy to end a stalemate in Afghanistan.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was not expected to hold substantive talks with Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammad Mehdi Akhoundzadeh at the meeting in The Hague.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, left, and Afghanistan's President Hamid Karma, right, are seen at the start of a meeting at the Afghanistan Conference in The Hague, Netherlands, Tuesday March 31, 2009. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

But the conference would nonetheless bring the two together as Washington tries to enlist regional support in tackling Islamist militants in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Richard Holbrooke, US special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, said Iran's presence at the conference was a logical part of efforts to produce peace for Afghans.

"How can you talk about Afghanistan and exclude one of the countries that's a bordering, neighbouring state?" he told reporters in The Hague. "The presence of Iran here is obvious."

Ahead of the conference, Akhoundzadeh repeated Iran's opposition to the presence of US troops in Afghanistan.

"The presence of foreign troops cannot bring peace and stability for Afghanistan," he was quoted as saying by Iran's official IRNA news agency.

"It encourages radicalism," he said. "This policy (that the Western countries) decide for the Afghan nation and for the Afghan officials does not work out any more." Full Story

London Bridge Is Falling Down

2009-03-29T18:21:00.001-05:00

Sunday, March 29, 2009 by TimesOnline/UK

G20 Protesters Face Police with Tasers

by David Leppard and Steven Swinford

LONDON - Scotland Yard is to deploy officers armed with 50,000-volt Taser stun guns to deal with violent demonstrators planning to disrupt this week's G20 summit in London.

Thousands of demonstrators take part in the "Put People First" march through central London. Tens of thousands of demonstrators from trade unions and environmental and anti-capitalism groups marched through London Saturday, starting a series of mass protests ahead of the G20 summit.(AFP/Leon Neal)

The centrepiece of the security plan will be hundreds of officers from the Metropolitan police territorial support group, who are routinely armed with speedcuffs, extended batons and CS gas spray.

The Met confirmed yesterday that they will be supported by officers equipped with Tasers on stand-by should trouble break out.

"There will be an armed response vehicle element to this operation and [those officers] will be carrying Tasers," said a spokeswoman.

The Met's admission that Tasers could be used for the first time in the UK during riots came as protest groups claimed police had contacted them to warn that a day of protest in the City on Wednesday would be "very violent".

All police leave has been cancelled and 10,500 officers, including reinforcements from other forces, will be deployed in the biggest policing operation undertaken in London.

Demonstrations intended to bring the capital's financial centre to a standstill on Wednesday and disruption to the G20 summit at the ExCel centre in Docklands on Thursday will provide the first big test for Sir Paul Stephenson, the new Met commissioner. He will be aware that the protests provide an opportunity to show the world that London is up to the security and public order challenges of the 2012 Olympics Full Story

An American Foreign Legion ?

2009-02-17T20:39:00.001-05:00

Published on Monday, February 16, 2009 by TomDispatch.com
Is the US Military Now an Imperial Police Force?
An American Foreign Legion
by William Astore
A leaner, meaner, higher tech force -- that was what George W. Bush and his Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld promised to transform the American military into. Instead, they came close to turning it into a foreign legion. Foreign as in being constantly deployed overseas on imperial errands; foreign as in being ever more reliant on private military contractors; foreign as in being increasingly segregated from the elites that profit most from its actions, yet serve the least in its ranks.
Now would be a good time for President Barack Obama and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to begin to reclaim that military for its proper purpose: to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Now would be a good time to ask exactly why, and for whom, our troops are currently fighting and dying in the urban jungles of Iraq and the hostile hills of Afghanistan.
A few fortnights and forever ago, in the Bush years, our "expeditionary" military came remarkably close to resembling an updated version of the French Foreign Legion in the ways it was conceived and used by those in power -- and even, to some extent, in its makeup.
For the metropolitan French elite of an earlier era, the Foreign Legion -- best known to Americans from countless old action films -- was an assemblage of military adventurers and rootless romantics, volunteers willing to man an army fighting colonial wars in far-flung places. Those wars served the narrow interests of people who weren't particularly concerned about the fate of the legion itself.
It's easy enough to imagine one of them saying, à la Rumsfeld, "You go to war with the legion you have, not the legion you might want or wish to have." Such a blithe statement would have been uncontroversial back then, since the French Foreign Legion was -- well -- so foreign. Its members, recruited worldwide, but especially from French colonial possessions, were considered expendable, a fate captured in its grim, sardonic motto: "You joined the Legion to die. The Legion will send you where you can die!"
Looking back on the last eight years, what's remarkable is the degree to which Rumsfeld and others in the Bush administration treated the U.S. military in a similarly dismissive manner. Bullying his generals and ignoring their concerns, the Secretary of Defense even dismissed the vulnerability of the troops in Iraq, who, in the early years, motored about in inadequately armored Humvees and other thin-skinned vehicles.
Last year, Vice President Dick Cheney offered another Legionnaire-worthy version of such dismissiveness. Informed that most Americans no longer supported the war in Iraq, he infamously and succinctly countered, "So?" -- as if the U.S. military weren't the American people's instrument, but his own private army, fed and supplied by private contractor KBR, the former Halliburton subsidiary whose former CEO was the very same Dick Cheney.
Fond of posing in flight suits, leather jackets, and related pseudo-military gear, President Bush might, on the other hand, have seemed overly invested in the military. Certainly, his tough war talk resonated within conservative circles, and he visibly relished speaking before masses of hooah-ing soldiers. Too often, however, Bush simply used them as patriotic props, while his administration did its best to hide their deaths from public view.
In that way, he and his top officials made our troops into foreigners, in part by making their ultimate sacrifice, their deaths, as foreign to us as was humanly possible. Put another way, his administration made the very idea of national "sacrifice" -- by anyone but our troops -- foreign to most Americans. In response to the 9/11 attacks, Americans were, as the President famously suggested only 16 days after the attacks, to show their grit by visiting Disney World and shopping till they dropped. Military service instills (and thrives on) an ethic of sacrifice that was, for more than seven years, consciously disavowed domestically.
As the Obama administration begins to deploy U.S. troops back to the Iraq or Afghan war zones for their fourth or fifth tours of duty, I remain amazed at the silent complicity of my country. Why have we been so quiet? Is it because the Bush administration was, in fact, successful in sending our military down the path to foreign legion-hood? Is the fate of our troops no longer of much importance to most Americans?
Even the military's recruitment and demographics are increasingly alien to much of the country. Troops are now regularly recruited in "foreign" places like South Central Los Angeles and Appalachia that more affluent Americans wouldn't be caught dead visiting. In some cases, those new recruits are quite literally "foreign" -- non-U.S. citizens allowed to seek a fast-track to citizenship by volunteering for frontline, war-zone duty in the U.S. Army or Marines. And when, in these last years, the military has fallen short of its recruitment goals -- less likely today thanks to the ongoing economic meltdown -- mercenaries have simply been hired at inflated prices from civilian contractors with names like Triple Canopy or Blackwater redolent of foreign adventures.
With respect to demographics, it'll take more than the sons of Joe Biden and Sarah Palin to redress inequities in burden-sharing. With startlingly few exceptions, America's sons and daughters dodging bullets remain the progeny of rural America, of immigrant America, of the working and lower middle classes. As long as our so-called best and brightest continue to be AWOL when it comes to serving among the rank-and-file, count on our foreign adventurism to continue to surge.
Diversity is now our societal byword. But how about more class diversity in our military? How about a combat regiment of rich young volunteers from uptown Manhattan? (After all, some of their great-grandfathers probably fought with New York's famed "Silk Stocking" regiment in World War I.) How about more Ivy League recruits like George H.W. Bush and John F. Kennedy, who respectively piloted a dive bomber and a PT boat in World War II? Heck, why not a few prominent Hollywood actors like Jimmy Stewart, who piloted heavy bombers in the flak-filled skies of Europe in that same war?
Instead of collective patriotic sacrifice, however, it's clear that the military will now be running the equivalent of a poverty and recession "draft" to fill the "all-volunteer" military. Those without jobs or down on their luck in terrible times will have the singular honor of fighting our future wars. Who would deny that drawing such recruits from dead-end situations in the hinterlands or central cities is strikingly Foreign Legion-esque?
Caught in the shock and awe of 9/11, we allowed our military to be transformed into a neocon imperial police force. Now, approaching our eighth year in Afghanistan and sixth year in Iraq, what exactly is that force defending? Before President Obama acts to double the number of American boots-on-the-ground in Afghanistan -- before even more of our troops are sucked deeper into yet another quagmire -- shouldn't we ask this question with renewed urgency? Shouldn't we wonder just why, despite all the reverent words about "our troops," we really seem to care so little about sending them back into the wilderness again and again?
Where indeed is the outcry?
The French Foreign Legionnaires knew better than to expect such an outcry: The elites for whom they fought didn't give a damn about what happened to them. Our military may not yet be a foreign legion -- but don't fool yourself, it's getting there.
© 2009 William Astore

Obama Shows Resolve

2009-02-01T02:27:00.002-05:00

Now Before The Post for Today; A Word From

" WeThe People "

Published on Saturday, January 31, 2009 by the Chicago Tribune

Obama Lets CIA Keep Controversial Renditions Tool

by Greg Miller

WASHINGTON - The CIA's secret prisons are being shuttered. Harsh interrogation techniques are off-limits. And Guantanamo Bay will eventually go back to being a wind-swept naval base on the southeastern corner of Cuba.

But even while dismantling these discredited programs, President Barack Obama left an equally controversial counterterrorism tool intact.

Under executive orders issued by Obama last week, the CIA still has authority to carry out what are known as renditions, or the secret abductions and transfers of prisoners to countries that cooperate with the U.S.

Current and former U.S. intelligence officials said the rendition program is poised to play an expanded role because it is the main remaining mechanism-aside from Predator missile strikes-for taking suspected terrorists off the street.

The rendition program became a source of embarrassment for the CIA, and a target of international scorn, as details emerged in recent years of botched captures, mistaken identities and allegations that prisoners were turned over to countries where they were tortured.

The European Parliament condemned renditions as an "illegal instrument used by the United States." Prisoners swept up in the program have sued the CIA as well as a subsidiary of Boeing Corp., which is accused of working with the agency on dozens of rendition flights.

But the Obama administration appears to have determined that the rendition program was one component of the Bush administration's war on terrorism that it could not afford to discard.

The decision underscores the fact that the battle with Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups is far from over and that even if the U.S. is shutting down the prisons, it is not done taking prisoners.

"Obviously you need to preserve some tools, you still have to go after the bad guys," said an Obama administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity when discussing legal reasoning behind the decision. "The legal advisers working on this looked at rendition. It is controversial in some circles and kicked up a big storm in Europe. But if done within certain parameters, it is an acceptable practice."

One provision in one of Obama's orders appears to preserve the CIA's ability to detain and interrogate terrorism suspects as long as they are not held long-term. The little-noticed provision states that the instructions to close the CIA's secret prison sites "do not refer to facilities used only to hold people on a short-term, transitory basis."

Obama's decision to preserve the program did not draw major protests, even among human-rights groups. Leaders of such organizations said that reflects a sense, even among advocates, that the United States and other nations need certain tools to combat terrorism.

"Under limited circumstances, there is a legitimate place" for renditions, said Tom Malinowski, the Washington advocacy director for Human Rights Watch. "What I heard loud and clear from the president's order was that they want to design a system that doesn't result in people being sent to foreign dungeons to be tortured."

In his executive order on lawful interrogations, Obama created a task force to re-examine renditions to make sure that they "do not result in the transfer of individuals to other nations to face torture" or otherwise circumvent human-rights laws and treaties.

Work Needed; Apply Here

2009-01-24T11:20:00.003-05:00

Jan. is coming to a close and I am ready (in spirit ) to update my site. Had to wait
and see Just what will Our New President Do & How long will he take to make the Moves
to undo the Damage Done By GW & Co.So be patient and all will come in its' Time!
God bless, Neo

Neos' Notebook & Jounal

2008-11-06T22:42:00.000-05:00

Neos' Notebook: "Neos' News & Reports { from Our Matrix }

How The Uk Furthers ' The New World Order '

Neo News & Reports { from Our Matrix }"

Presidential Debates? A Democratic Process ?

2008-09-28T18:16:00.015-05:00

I, Like Millions of American Voters,I Would Like to see All viable Candidates Invited.
or It's Just Demoracy Being ignored and Americans being cheated again out of our Demorcracts elections by The Exclusion of all Candidates that represent a Third or more Political Parties who have demonstrated themselves to be another Credible American Political Party who have Recieved The People's vote of Confidence that have Enough suport to alter or begin Their Influence on The American Political Election Process.We Must Have More Than A Two Party System If We Are To Be A Goverment By The People, For The People And Of The People. Respecfully Yours, Neo

History Of The Bush Family - The Library Of Congress Documents all Info.

2008-09-16T23:08:00.014-05:00

The Truth Inspite of The Lies

2008-09-15T22:13:00.001-05:00

How Total Control Begins (Police State)

2008-09-09T19:59:00.001-05:00

BIG MEDIA REFRESHER Video

2008-08-30T18:18:00.002-05:00

Truth Without The Spin 24

2008-03-19T14:51:00.003-05:00

Ron Paul; He Can Do It.....

2008-02-23T20:56:00.002-05:00

Fresh Meat=More Of ur Young&Poor

2008-02-22T21:06:00.001-05:00

2008-01-27T18:12:00.000-05:00

9/11 & the NWO, Explosive Devices & Iluminati etc.

2008-01-08T01:20:00.000-05:00

9/11 The DVD, One Of The Best

2007-12-30T22:17:00.000-05:00

US Intelligence Review Directly Contradicts Bush’s Line On Iran

2007-12-05T23:47:00.001-05:00

Published on Wednesday, December 5, 2007 by Inter Press Service

US Intelligence Review Directly Contradicts Bush’s Line On Iran
by Gareth Porter

WASHINGTON - Despite the White House spin that the new National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) supports its policy of increasing pressure on Iran, the estimate not only directly contradicts the George W. Bush administration’s line on Iranian intentions regarding nuclear weapons, but points to a link between Tehran’s 2003 decision to halt research on weaponization and its decision to negotiate with European foreign ministers on both nuclear and Iranian security concerns.

By using unusually strong and precise language in characterizing its pivotal judgment that Iran ended work relating to nuclear weapons four years earlier, the estimate deals a serious blow to the administration’s claim that Iran is determined to acquire nuclear weapons. The key judgment released Monday said, “We assess with high confidence that in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program [and] that the halt lasted at least several years.”

The intelligence community also said for the first time in the new NIE, “[W]e do not know whether it currently intends to develop nuclear weapons.”

That judgment confirms what International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Mohammed ElBaradei and other close observers of the Iranian nuclear program have been saying since 2004: Iran is not interested in nuclear weapons but in the deterrent value inherent in the knowledge of mastering the nuclear fuel cycle.

The Washington Post revealed Tuesday that the White House had been briefed on the new evidence of the Iranian abandonment of weaponisation in 2003 as early as last July, and that White House officials had sharply challenged that evidence. According to a story by Dafna Linzer and Joby Warrick, “several of the president’s top advisers” had argued that electronic intercepts of Iranian military officers, which were reportedly a key element of the new evidence, were part of a “clever Iranian deception campaign”. Full Story , Link Below http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/12/05/5629/inphase.rock@gmail.com

This Looks Like " Just The Beginning "!

2007-11-09T18:06:00.001-05:00

In This era, There Is a Dangerous Tension Between Millions of American Patriots ( citizens ) & What The President Can Handle; given his all to obvious Presidential Stance that translates to his Agenda Objectives. Now is the time when Peacefull Demonstrations, Internet Petition signings,ect.

We need to make our #s strong and keep The Pressure, as much we can bring to bear on This White House before it is able to distract us with some legal maneuvering, or worse; Events of warlike nature. Which is possibly the last card to be played.Let us Not Forget, or exclude the unbelievable; which would be of an Emergency or Wartime Sabotage. Nothing like an alleged Radical Attack or A Threat of an Impending Terrorist Act.

This Scenario is one a 1/2 Dozen I could come up with as possible's that would cause more American military & probably Iraqi civilian kill stats and Distract The Congress and enough Key Legislative Pressure. Lets make his escape from the United States Constitutional Arm of Justice. Thank You and Peace In All Things, GOD Bless One and All ......Neo

Published on Friday, November 9, 2007 by DesMoines Register (Iowa)

18 Peacemakers Busted at Giuliani and Hillary Offices and No Original Reporting From The Register

by David Goodner

Eighteen peace activists were arrested in Des Moines, Iowa Thursday for trespassing inside the campaign offices of presidential candidates Rudy Giuliani and Hillary Clinton, according to the Associated Press.

Both the New York Times and the Huffington Post picked up the AP story. The protest is the top story this morning over at the KCCI Channel 8 homepage, and their video coverage last night and this morning was exceptional.

The Des Moines Register ran the AP story Friday morning, but was apparently too busy for any original reporting about a major protest in their own backyard.

The Des Moines Register should fix that today by doing some original reporting in time for the weekend edition. Kathy Kelly, a 2-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee, and several others are scheduled to be arraigned in Polk County this morning.

Those arrested Thursday at Giuliani’s campaign office are:

Nick Kinkel, 19, Des Moines, Iowa

Mickey Davis, 16, Waukee, Iowa

Joy First, 53, Madison, Wisconsin

Jeff Leys, 43, Chicago, Illinois

Dan Pearson, 26, Chicago, Illinois

Suzanne Sheridan, 31, Chicago, Illinois

Ed Bloomer, 60, Des Moines, Iowa

Ron Durham, 26, Chicago, Illinois

Kathy Kelly, 54, Chicago, Illinois

Elton Davis, 45, Des Moines, Iowa

Those arrested at Hillary’s office Thursday are:

Renee Espeland, 46, Des Moines, Iowa

Robert Braam, 51, Manhaton, Illinois

Chrissy Kirchoefer, 30, Marseilles, Illinois

David Goodner, 26, Iowa City, Iowa

Mona Shaw, 56, Des Moines, Iowa

Chris Guant, 51, Grinnell, Iowa

Brian Terrell, 51, Maloy, Iowa

Farah Mokhtareizadeh, 24, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Our campaign, Seasons of Discontent: A Presidential Occupation Project, is demanding that all presidential candidates agree to:

A complete withdrawal of U.S. military forces and private contractors from Iraq and Afghanistan within 100 days of assuming the office of President of the United States;
A complete halt to any and all military actions against Iraq and Iran;
Reparations and full funding for the reconstruction of Iraq;
Work to end the Israeli occupation of Palestine while ensuring security for Israel and justice for Palestine;
Publicly commit to oppose the use of U.S. military forces against Iran, Pakistan or any other opening front in the “war on terror.”;
Publicly commit to dismantle most of the U.S. nuclear arsenal
Full funding for veterans health care
Full funding for the Common Good in the U.S.- rebuild our education and health care systems; job training programs and livable wages for all Americans; universal health care for all; rebuild our country’s inner cities and rural communities; and initiate a comprehensive campaign on the scale of a new Tennessee Valley Authority and Rural Electrification Project of the Great Depression era to create affordable, safe and sustainable alternative forms of energy and energy consumption; and for other vital social programs.
Repeal NAFTA and CAFTA and implement fair trade agreements, foreign aid, and other foreign policies that give a preferential option to the poor.
© 2007 DesMoines Register

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Climate Change will devastate Impoverish

2007-11-08T21:01:00.001-05:00

Countries and The Ongoing Relife Programs

Program Details: Climate Change

Climate change threatens agricultural production - and food security - for farmers around the world, leading to food crises and conflict. Photo: Thatcher Cook for Mercy Corps

Mercy Corps is preparing for climate change impacts in its global operations in over 32 countries. The agency accepts the Stern Report findings that climate change threatens the life support systems for all people on our planet by disrupting water access, food production and health.

Climate change will increase poverty and conflict in the countries and communities where Mercy Corps works. It is critical to address this paramount challenge on an immediate and ongoing basis in everything we do.

The agency is taking steps to prepare for the impacts of climate change by strengthening and expanding environmental programs, all of which will be impacted by climate change. These include agroforestry, ecotourism, environmental governance and natural resource management.

Mercy Corps also seeks to set an example in being climate responsible: the agency in assessing its carbon footprint to become carbon neutral. It is also designing a green building for its American headquarters, which will include an educational center focusing on issues including Mercy Corps' mission and how it is impacted by climate change.

New partnerships are being forged with universities and researchers to develop a methodology for producing actionable information from climate change data. This information will be integrated with conflict analysis and mitigation tools to predict conflict trends and develop recommended mitigation policies.

The Case For Impeachment & lets not Forget GW Bush

2007-11-06T20:19:00.001-05:00

Published on Tuesday, November 6, 2007 by USA Today

House Tied In Knots Over Resolution To Impeach Cheney

Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, is trying to impeach Vice President Cheney for what he describes as “high crimes and misdemeanors” before the invasion of Iraq.

Right after the proposal was read on the House floor this afternoon, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer stepped forwarded and tried to convince lawmakers to table the bill.

“Impeachment is not on our agenda. We have some major priorities. We need to focus on those,” Hoyer told Fox News.

Update at 3:39 p.m. ET: We thought that the vote to table was over — the clock said 0:00 — but lawmakers are still switching things around and Kucinich is within a few votes of getting his bill to come up for a vote.

Update at 3:43 p.m. ET: At least 149 Republicans have voted in favor of considering the impeachment resolution. Hoyer’s motion, which would have blocked a vote, looks like its going to fail by at least 31 votes.

Update at 3:53 p.m. ET: The 15-minute vote began at 2:53 p.m. ET. It’s been an hour, and they’re still voting. The tally stands at 170-242 right now. Hoyer needed 218 votes to push the bill off the agenda. He’s 72 votes short.

Update at 4:02 p.m. ET: Hoyer’s motion failed 251-162. (Roll Call) The House is now voting on whether to vote on whether the resolution should be sent to the Judiciary Committee.

Update at 4:25 p.m. ET: The vote to decide to vote (yes, you read that correctly) just ended. By a 218-194 margin, the House has to vote on whether to send the resolution to the Judiciary Committee. That’s happening right now.

Update at 4:30 p.m. ET: Perhaps we should pause to explain. When most Republicans unexpectedly — and on orders of GOP leadership, the AP is reporting — switched sides and voted against tabling the measure, they essentially forced Democrats to keep talking about it on the floor. Tabling the measure would have killed it.

Debate over Cheney’s impeachment is in direct opposition to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s wishes. She has repeatedly said an impeachment of Cheney or President Bush is off the table. Thus, failing to table this measure is a essentially a jab in Pelosi’s ribs.

“We’re going to help them out, to explain themselves,” Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, told the AP of the impeachment’s supporters. “We’re going to give them their day in court.”

Update at 4:32 p.m. ET: The House just voted, 218-194, to send the resolution to the Judiciary Committee. That should end today’s debate — but it does keep the resolution at least technically alive.

© 2007 USA Today

Much Ado 'Bout Nothing

2007-10-10T22:48:00.001-05:00

The Washington Post Published A News Piece Yesterday With The Following HeadLine.

Published on Monday, October 8, 2007 by the Washington Post by Dan Balz

"Clinton’s Iran Vote Prompts A Harsh Back-and-Forth"

The Article had less dramatic news then The headline Suggest. In fact , if you were scanning The Headlines for what to read next ect, You just might get the impression That the The Rock, Mrs. Hillary Clinton Had Somehow Stirred the flames underneath the already Tence Feelings between Iran and President Bush, who Speaks For,in Effect, The Whole of All Americans.

Now, I'm not a big " Anybody's Fan", But after reading The short artical, I had to say "Good for you Hillary" For telling us exactly what the Bill in Question was and then how the amended version was very moderate in tone and Diplomacy With tact !

Here it is >>

Clinton’s Iran Vote Prompts A Harsh Back-and-Forth

by Dan Balz

NEW HAMPTON, Iowa - Randall Rolph said he came to New Hampton, Iowa, on Sunday to see Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) with an open mind about whether to support her candidacy. After a tough exchange over Iran, he left saying he had ruled her out.

Randall Rolph was one of several hundred people who turned out in this small town in northern Iowa for Clinton’s appearance. When she called on him for a question, he pulled out a piece of paper and read a question about Iran.

Rolph asked Clinton to explain her Senate vote Wednesday for a resolution urging the Bush administration to label the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization. Rolph interpreted that measure as giving Bush authority to use military action against the Iranians.

“Well, let me thank you for the question, but let me tell you that the premise of the question is wrong and I’ll be happy to explain that to you,” Clinton began.

She offered a detailed description of the resolution, which she said stressed robust diplomacy that could lead to imposing sanctions against Iran, and then pointedly said to Rolph that her view wasn’t in “what you read to me, that somebody obviously sent to you.”Continued

Syria Steps Up To The Forefront As They Resort To Gestapo Ways

2007-10-08T20:59:00.001-05:00

Syria: Stop Arrests for Online Comments

Two Internet Activists Held Incommunicado,

" May Be ‘Disappeared "

NEW YORK - October 8 – Syria should immediately release writers and activists detained solely for expressing their opinions or reporting information online, Human Rights Watch said today. Syrian authorities have held two men in incommunicado detention since June for expressing online views that are critical of the Syrian government. Authorities have refused to disclose the whereabouts of the detained men to their families. On September 23, the Supreme State Security Court sentenced a third man to two years in prison for posting online comments that displeased the authorities.

“The fact that Syria arrests people solely because they criticize the state speaks volumes about the government’s utter disregard for the most basic human rights,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Even worse, Syrian intelligence has the nasty habit of not telling families where their loved ones are being detained – in effect, disappearing them for periods of time.”

On June 7, the Mantaqa Branch of Military Intelligence detained Karim `Arbaji, 29, allegedly for moderating http://www.akhawia.net/, a popular online forum for Syrian youth covering social and political issues. Persons familiar with the case told Human Rights Watch that the Mantaqa Branch may have transferred him to the Palestine Branch in Damascus, but the authorities have provided no official notification of `Arbaji’s whereabouts. On June 30, 2007, Military Intelligence in the coastal city of Tartous arrested Tarek Biasi, 22, because he “went online and insulted security services,” according to a person familiar with the case. Biasi remains in incommunicado detention, his whereabouts unknown. On September 23, the Supreme State Security Court sentenced Ali Zein al-`Abideen Mej`an to two years in prison for “undertaking acts or writing or speeches unauthorized by the government ... that spoil its ties with a foreign state” because he posted comments online attacking Saudi Arabia.

The UN General Assembly condemned “enforced disappearances” as “a grave and flagrant violation” of human rights, and defined the violation in these terms: “[P]ersons are arrested, detained or abducted against their will or otherwise deprived of their liberty by officials of different branches or levels of Government ... followed by a refusal to disclose the fate or whereabouts of the persons concerned or a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of their liberty, which places such persons outside the protection of the law.” The UNGA Declaration on the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance states that enforced disappearance violates the right not to be subjected to torture, and constitutes a grave threat to the right to life.

Syrian security services frequently require internet cafe owners to spy on customers that access “sensitive” sites. On December 13, 2006, Political Security arrested `Ahed al-Hindi, 23, and one of his relatives, in an internet cafe in Damascus, because al-Hindi was sending comments and information to opposition websites outside Syria. The owner of the internet cafe had filmed al-Hindi posting the comments. Al-Hindi and his relative were released on January 15, 2007.

Syrian authorities recently took measures to restrict the use of anonymous comments that many Syrian writers rely on to escape state surveillance. On July 25, 2007, the Syrian minister of communications and technology, `Amr Salem, issued a decree requiring all website owners to display “the name and e-mail of the writer of any article or comment [appearing on their site] ... clearly and in detail, under threat of warning the owner of the website, then restricting access to the website temporarily and in case the violation is repeated, permanently banning the website.” In the first documented application of the directive, the Ministry of Communications and Technology restricted access to http://www.damaspost.com/, a popular Syrian news website, for 24 hours after a commentator identified as “Jamal” criticized the head of the Journalists’ Union and the al-Ba`ath newspaper for nepotism.

Under international law, the rights to privacy and free expression entail a corollary right to communicate anonymously. Allowing persons to speak anonymously, without fear of reprisal or stigma, encourages the sort of expression that is critical to protection of rights and a democratic society – from political pamphleteering, to anonymous tips for journalists, to “blowing the whistle” on corruption by officials or companies. While the right to anonymity is not absolute, the restrictions imposed by the Syrian decree eliminate it altogether in the name of repressing purportedly “criminal” expression.

The Syrian government blocks websites that span a range of categories. Authorities impose most substantial filtering against sites that criticize government policies or support Syrian opposition groups. Censored websites also include Arabic newspapers outside Syria that carry materials critical of the government, such as the London-based al-Quds al-Arabi (http://www.al-quds.co.uk/) and al-Sharq al-Awsat (http://www.asharqalawsat.com/), the Beirut-based al-Mustaqbal (http://www.almustaqbal.com.lb/), the Kuwaiti newspaper al-Seyassah (http://www.alseyassah.com/), as well as websites belonging to Syrian opposition or Kurdish political parties and Islamist websites. OpenNet Initiative, a partnership of four leading universities in the US, Canada and the UK, which monitors government filtration and surveillance of the internet, says that filtering of political websites in Syria is “pervasive.” The Syrian government’s censorship also covers popular websites such as Google’s blogging engine, www.blogspot.com, and www.youtube.com.

The last six years have seen an explosion of internet use in Syria, with close to 1 million of the country’s 18 million people now online, compared to just 30,000 in 2000. The Arab Advisors Group, an Amman-based business-consulting firm, projects that the number of Syrian internet users will exceed 1.7 million by 2009.

Human Rights Watch called on Syria to cease blocking websites that carry material protected by the right to free expression and access to information, and to release all those detained solely for exercising these rights, online or otherwise. Full Story

Bush, Smarter Than Scientists

2007-10-08T20:20:00.001-05:00

Published on Monday, July 16, 2007 by Agence France Presse

Bush Administration Accused of Putting Ideology Above Science

by Jean-Louis Santini

WASHINGTON - Testimony from President George W. Bush’s former surgeon general last week has fueled charges that his administration has trumped science in favor of its political and religious ideologies.

The administration has been at loggerheads with scientists since it came to power in 2001 on issues ranging from stem cell research to global warming and the theory of evolution.

It stood accused again of putting ideology over science this week after the administration’s former surgeon general charged that it deliberately quashed or downplayed several important health reports for political reasons.

Dr Richard Carmona, a Bush appointee who held the post as the country’s chief health educator from 2002 to 2006, told a Congressional committee Tuesday that he was not authorized to discuss certain sensitive subjects in public.

They included embryonic stem-cell research, whose federal funding Bush restricted in 2001, the controversial morning-after pill and sex education.

Carmona admitted to lawmakers that when he had taken up his post he had been “still quite politically naive” but he was “astounded” by the “partisanship and political manipulation” he witnessed.

Health department spokesman Bill Hall rejected Carmona’s accusations, saying: “It has always been this administration’s position that public health policy should be rooted in sound science.”

Michael Halpern, a member of the influential Union of Concerned Scientists, an advocacy group, said scientists believe the Bush administration is the “worst” ever in terms of political interference and censure.

“Information inconvenient to the administration’s priorities is sidelined,” Halpern told AFP.

In 2004, the Union of Concerned Scientists organized a petition signed by more than 12,000 scientists, including 50 Nobel prize winners and former senior science advisers to several US presidents, to denounce political interference by the Bush administration.

“Scientists believe that political interference is unacceptable,” the petition said.

“If our policy makers are going to make fully informed decisions about our health, safety, and environment, they need access to independent science,” it said. “Reforms can and should be put in place to insulate science from politics.”

The petition has apparently had little impact on the White House.

In 2006, NASA’s top climate expert, James Hansen, accused the administration in a New York Times interview of pressuring him to censure his research on global warming, notably during the 2004 presidential campaign.

His charges were confirmed by other staffers at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, leading Democrats as well as Bush’s own Republicans in Congress to call for greater scientific transparency in the agency.

A NASA press official, George Deutsch, who was close to Bush’s reelection campaign, was forced to resign after being accused by Hansen for barring journalists from interviewing him.

In his book “The Assault on Reason,” former vice president Al Gore said that Deutsch, who has no scientific education or university diplomat, wrote a memo to scientists saying that the Big Bang is “not proven fact; it is an opinion.”

“This is more than a science issue, it is a religious issue,” Deutsch wrote, according to Gore, the former Democratic candidate who lost the 2000 election to Bush.

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Most Want War Funding Cut

2007-10-03T00:14:00.001-05:00

Published on Tuesday, October 2, 2007 by The Washington Post

Most in Poll Want War Funding Cut

by Jon Cohen and Dan Balz

Most Americans oppose fully funding President Bush’s $190 billion request for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and a sizable majority support an expansion of a children’s health insurance bill he has promised to veto, putting Bush and many congressional Republicans on the wrong side of public opinion on upcoming foreign and domestic policy battles.

The new Washington Post-ABC News poll also shows deep dissatisfaction with the president and with Congress. Bush’s approval rating stands at 33 percent, equal to his career low in Post-ABC polls. And just 29 percent approve of the job Congress is doing, its lowest approval rating in this poll since November 1995, when Republicans controlled both the House and Senate. It also represents a 14-point drop since Democrats took control in January.

Despite discontent with Congress this year, the public rates congressional Republicans (29 percent approve) lower than congressional Democrats (38 percent approve). When the parties are pitted directly against each other, the public broadly favors Democrats on Iraq, health care, the federal budget and the economy. Only on the issue of terrorism are Republicans at parity with Democrats.

Part of the displeasure with Congress stems from the stalemate between Democrats and the White House over Iraq policy. Most Americans do not believe Congress has gone far enough in opposing the war, with liberal Democrats especially critical of their party’s failure to force the president into a significant change in policy.

At the same time, there is no consensus about the pace of any U.S. troop withdrawals from Iraq. In July, nearly six in 10 said they wanted to decrease the number of troops there, but now a slim majority, 52 percent, think Bush’s plan for removing some troops by next summer is either the right pace for withdrawal (38 percent) or too hasty (12 percent would like a slower reduction, and 2 percent want no force reduction). Fewer people (43 percent) want a quicker exit.

John Csanadi of Nanuet, N.Y., said he has mixed feelings about what to do next in Iraq. Asked about Bush’s proposal for a modest drawdown of troops, he said: “It’s a start. Not the best solution, but at least it’s a start.”

Sara Carter, a schoolteacher from Westland, Mich., called Bush’s plan “better than it might be, not as good as it could be.”

But Don Hiatt of Las Vegas said he sees the proposal as a holding action by a president stalling for time. “I think he’s trying to just play it until he gets out of office and let the next president handle it, and that’s not a good thing if that’s what he’s doing,” Hiatt said.

Overall, 55 percent of Americans want congressional Democrats to do more to challenge the president’s Iraq policies, while a third think the Democrats have gone too far. The level of agitation for more action in opposition to the war has not dissipated since August 2005, when Democrats were the minority party in Congress. Rest of The Story>>>http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/10/02/4251/

When I Hear Impeachment, I :)

2007-10-03T00:00:00.001-05:00

Then I pray. Neo

"Well let me be among the 1st to say I Love Oregon" and that we now have what we can Call more than half-dozen Confirmed States that Represent Millions of American Voters Across These United States. And There's more in the wings who for no good reason, Have Not Answered The Bell. Well There's still Time....... " Let Us Pray " & GOD Bless

Oregon Impeachment news Link, This Story Received a Ton Of Comments , if not the Story I'd Go just for The Comments :)

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/10/02/4255/

Palestinians Sue To Use Their Road. Israelis Say No!

2007-09-18T20:51:00.001-05:00

Published on Monday, September 17, 2007 by the Baltimore Sun

Palestinians Sue for Use of Road Built for Them

by John Murphy

BEIT SIRA, West Bank - Every day, thousands of Israeli drivers speed through the olive-tree-dotted hills and valleys of the West Bank on Highway 443, a popular four-lane roadway connecting Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
But this convenient commuter shortcut comes at a heavy price for Palestinians.

Since the beginning of the second Palestinian uprising in 2000, only Israelis have been allowed to use the highway because of security concerns - though it is built on Palestinian land and, according to Israeli courts, is meant primarily for the benefit of thousands of Palestinian villagers who live alongside it.

The ban has effectively marooned about 40,000 Palestinians living in a half-dozen villages that have long depended on the 15-mile highway. Residents complain that the closure has ruined their businesses, created frustratingly long and expensive commutes to work and school on back roads, and isolated their communities from emergency and medical services.

Now the Palestinian villagers are taking their grievances to Israel’s high court, demanding that Israel reopen the road to them.

The court case, in effect, weighs the demands of an estimated 40,000 Israeli commuters, who use the road daily as a rapid thoroughfare, against the needs of about the same number of Palestinians who relied on the road for their own livelihoods.

After a string of Palestinian attacks against Israeli motorists, Israeli authorities barred Palestinians from driving or walking on 443, and they erected steel gates, concrete barriers, walls and security watchtowers to keep them out.

For seven years, Israel has sided with Israeli motorists, turning the highway into a heavily fortified corridor.

Even with the ban in place, attacks against Israelis on 443 have continued, leaving five people dead and a dozen more injured.

Attorneys representing Israeli citizen groups, who are helping to defend the Israeli government against the petition, say they fear that violence would increase if Palestinians and Israelis were allowed to drive side by side again.

“Many Israelis are going to be killed if this petition is accepted by the court. If you let Palestinians on 443, it is like giving them a ticket to enter Tel Aviv,” says Ilan Tsion, an attorney and founder of Fence for Life, a grass-roots group that supports Israel’s separation barrier and other Israeli security measures.

If security is the issue, Israelis - not Palestinians - should be banned from the road, says Limor Yehuda, attorney for the Association of Civil Rights in Israel, which, along with six Palestinian villages, filed the petition against Israel.

“It’s a road inside the West Bank, and in this sense it is outside the borders of Israel, and basically Israelis don’t have a right to go there,” she said. “It’s the same as Israelis claiming that Palestinians don’t have the right to enter Israel. The same argument should apply to Israelis [in the West Bank].”

But Israel has been reluctant to give up what has become a key artery for Israeli drivers.

“This is a road that Israel wants,” Yehuda says.Full Story

Activists; No Longer Safe Globally

2007-09-18T20:28:00.001-05:00

Published on Tuesday, September 18, 2007 by Agence France Presse

Global Trade Union Reports 144 Activists Killed in 2006

Paris - Nearly 150 labour labour activists were killed worldwide in 2006, a new global trade union said in a report Tuesday outlining a rising tide of violence and harassment against unionists across the globe.

The number killed of activists killed rose to 144 from 115 in 2005, while 800 were injured or tortured and more than 5,000 arrested and 500 jailed, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) said.A single country, Colombia, accounted for more than half the victims with 78 unionists killed last year, according to the ITUC’s first annual survey of rights violations since being founded in November 2006.

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe is spending millions to “tell the world that the situation is Colombia is improving … instead of using its resources to tackle the real problem,” ITUC secretary general Guy Ryder says in the report.

“They are lying,” he said.

Those killed included Jose Gregorio Izquierdo, a public service union leader, murdered after receiving threats from paramilitary groups, Daniel Cortez Cortez, an electrician shot dead at work, and farmers Jose Mario Guerrero Garzon and Hector Jairo Yate.

Violence against unionists soared worldwide, with the outlook particularly worrying in parts of Asia and across Africa.

In the Philippines, at least 33 unionists were killed in “an orgy of extrajudicial violence,” ITUC said, charging that members of the government or security forces were guilty in several high-profile cases.

The ITUC said a “prevailing atmosphere of impunity” in the country had further undermined labour rights, “with many other trade unionists facing intimidation, abduction and even torture.”

One Filipino factory worker and activist, Rogelio Concepcion, was abducted by armed men on a motorcycle and later found dead, his body bearing marks of torture.

Across Africa in 2006, the report said the “use of disproportionate force against trade union protestors and striking workers was a depressingly common occurrence.”

In Guinea for example, the report said, at least 11 people were killed during national demonstrations organised by the country’s two main unions.

Dozens of labour activists were kept in jail in China, Myanmar and Cuba for pursuing independent trade union work, while in countries such as the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, trade unions remained banned altogether.

In the United States, it said “millions more were deprived of organizing and bargaining rights” after a federal ruling expanded the definition of a “supervisor,” who do not have the right to vote in union elections.

In Europe, meanwhile, the ITUC quoted the corporate social responsibility firm Vigeo as saying that less than 10 percent of all companies fully upheld union rights and promote collective bargaining.

The Brussels-based ITUC was created in November 2006 from the merger of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions and the World Confederation of Labour

Full Story.

"How Is He Still Around ?" Asked of Intelligent Comm.

2007-09-11T23:14:00.001-05:00

Bin Laden urges martyrs in anniversary video

9/11 hijacker appears along with al-Qaida leader six years after attacks

NBC News video

Al-Qaida has 9/11 anniversary message
Sept. 11: Al-Qaida releases a new videotape on the sixth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the U.S. NBC's Pete Williams reports.

NBC News and news services

Updated: 12:42 p.m. ET Sept 11, 2007

CAIRO, Egypt - Osama bin Laden urged sympathizers to join the “caravan” of martyrs as he praised one of the Sept. 11 suicide hijackers in a new video that emerged Tuesday to mark the sixth anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

Al-Qaida traditionally issues a video every year on the anniversary, with the last testament of one of the 19 hijackers involved in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. This year’s video showed hijacker Waleed al-Shehri addressing the camera and warning the U.S.: “We shall come at you from your front and back, your right and left.”

The new message, which AP Television News obtained from the IntelCenter monitoring group in suburban Washington, came days after the world got its first current look at bin Laden in nearly three years, with the release of a video Saturday in which the terror leader addressed the American people.

Later in the day it appeared on militant Web sites, with a note from al-Qaida’s media production wing al-Sahab saying it was intentionally sent to television stations before being placed on the Internet.

It begins with an audiotape introduction by bin Laden. While his voice is heard, the video shows a still image of him, raising his finger. In the image, bin Laden has the same dyed-black beard and the same clothes — a white robe and cap and beige cloak — that he had in Saturday’s video.

But it was not known if the audiotape was recently made. In the past, al-Qaida has used footage and audio of bin Laden taped long ago for release later.

Analysis confirms voice

A senior U.S. intelligence official told NBC News that the voice on the latest video “does appear to be that of Osama Bin Laden, according to our technical analysis.”

Content analysis continues, said the official, adding that initial analysis does not show “much new, much more than could be expected on a September 11 anniversary.”

In the tape, bin Laden praised al-Shehri, saying he “recognized the truth” that Arab rulers were “vassals” of the West and had “abandoned the balance of (Islamic) revelation.”

“It is true that this young man was little in years, but the faith in his heart was big,” he said.

“So there is a huge difference between the path of the kings, presidents and hypocritical Ulama (Islamic scholars) and the path of these noble young men,” like al-Shehri, bin Laden said. “The formers’ lot is to spoil and enjoy themselves whereas the latters’ lot is to destroy themselves for Allah’s Word to be Supreme.”

“It remains for us to do our part. So I tell every young man among the youth of Islam: It is your duty to join the caravan (of martyrs) until the sufficiency is complete and the march to aid the High and Omnipotent continues,” he said.

At the end of his speech, bin Laden also mentions the al-Qaida leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed in an U.S. air strike there. Al-Zarqawi followed in the footsteps of al-Shehri and his brothers who “fulfilled their promises to God.”

Click for related content

Full coverage — 9/11: Six years later
Bush: Bin Laden’s video underscores threats
Newsweek: Ongoing hunt for bin Laden

“And now it is our turn,” bin Laden says.

After bin Laden speaks, the video of al-Shehri appears. Al-Shehri — one of the hijackers on American Airlines Flight 11, which hit the World Trade Center — is seen wearing a white robe and headscarf, with a full black beard, speaking in front of a backdrop with images of the burning World Trade Center.

“We shall come at you from your front and back, your right and left,” al-Shehri said, asserting that America would suffer the same fate as the Soviet Union. Cont. and Link To Video

Another Mockery of US Optimism

2007-09-11T21:47:00.001-05:00

Published on Tuesday, September 11, 2007 by The Independent/UK

Mounting Death Toll Which Makes a Mockery of US Optimism

by Kim Sengupta

By the time General Petraeus had finished speaking yesterday the slaughter in Iraq for the previous 24 hours could be tallied. It was not an exceptionally violent day by the standards of Iraq: seven US soldiers lay dead and 11 injured in the capital; other instances of sectarian violence included a suicide bomb which had killed 10 and wounded scores near Mosul while 10 bodies were found in Baghdad. Three policemen were killed in clashes in Mosul, and a car bomb outside a hospital in the capital had exploded, killing two and wounding six.

In Baghdad, on the surface the overt violence appears to have diminished. There are fewer loud explosions. But, the city is now being partitioned by sectarian hatred and fear; by concrete walls and barbed wire. Claims that the US military strategy is paving the way for a stable society bear little resemblance to the reality on the ground.

The US is accused of manipulating figures relating to violence to fit their case, ignoring evidence which shows that the influx of 30,000 troops has done little to end the continuing bloodshed.

The death of Omar al-Husseini in the Huriya district of Baghdad is one of many which does not even figure in the American reckoning. His killers, masked and carrying guns, dragged him away as his mother wept and his father pleaded for mercy. That was the last time they saw their son alive. Three weeks later they heard that he had been killed.

Omar was 20. His killers were Shia, he was a Sunni, the victim of a spree of murders which has ethnically cleansed neighbourhoods through the city. But both the US military and the Iraqi police have told his parents that as far as they are concerned the abduction and killings were purely criminal acts. This means, statistically, that his death is not included by the US in the calculations for sectarian killings produced yesterday.

The causes behind the daily death toll, if addressed at all, draw conflicting accounts. Mourners carried the coffin of a young mother along the streets of Sadr City yesterday. She had been killed, said the locals, along with her two daughters when US and Iraqi government forces had stormed four homes. The US military confirmed they had exchanged small-arms fire during the operation, but insisted they had no reports of civilian casualties. Also yesterday, attendants at the Baghdad morgue did their round of collecting bodies, nameless victims of faceless killers.

Omar’s father, 48-year-old Barzan, said the attack on his son came after the Mehdi Army, a Shia militia, declared that they must leave their home. ” We were going to leave, we did not want any trouble. We had very excellent relations with our Shia neighbours, but they could not do anything to help us “, he said. “They [the Mehdi Army] were also saying that my two sons were involved with the insurgents. That was not true, they had nothing to do with politics. Mohammed was away when they came, but Omar was there and they took him away and shot him. The police and the Americans say he was an Ali Baba [thief] and this killing was something to do with that. But everyone knows why he died, it is because we are Sunnis.”

Barzan had fled with his family to the Khadrah district where he found refuge with his cousin. They could not watch much of General Pertraeus’s address on satellite TV because of a power cut. Four years after the war, electricity supply in the city has dwindled to one hour a day.

Not far away from Barzan’s new home are other houses, some with singe marks on doors and windows, properties of Shia who had been terrorised and driven out the other way. The walls being put up by US contractors at a record speed are formalising this break-up of Baghdad along sectarian lines. Militias rule the roost in the newly created ghettos; armed young men with sunglasses manning checkpoints, collecting levies from passing traffic, and meting out their own justice to victims who would never make the calculations on the effects of the surge.

The Americans at first welcomed the forming of the vigilante groups, calling them “guardians”; in some areas this was described as part of the ” Sunni awakening”, away from the insurgency. But this began to be tempered after tales of extortion began to surface, and now some have been arrested for “suspected al-Qa’ida ties”. Full Story

The Music Must Change

2007-08-25T15:06:00.001-05:00

The Music Must Change
by Neo, Aug. 25, 2007

The Title "The Music Must Change " comes From Peter Townsend's {The Who }Song of the same name.The song is noteworthy since it opened among The Top 10-20 singles ,in Billboard, one of the most accredited Music Monthly Magazines that's not a Trade Mag. Peter wrote that song in the recent past and I'm not taken by coincidence that this was one of his best singles with such a direct message. This is the first song that , for me , has " lyrical wisdom and truths. I had hoped to provide music as a media presentation tool ; but not here..yet ! Listen to" The Music Must Change" and You'll see more clearly where I'm going with this !

" Wisdom is at it's Purest form, When it's at it's Simplest form. "

The Music Must Change pt 2.

That being said ; Everything , { as far as we know } , worth saying has been said before in one manner or another . So how do Artists deliver their message? It depends on their ability to translate the content in the manner that Their Audience can understand !
When the Young Artist ie. poet,lyricist, songwriter,etc., Is not satisfied with what his Teaches are laying down as the accepted body of approved knowledge for the young student.It is then that the said student/artist may ponder the validity of what their being told to believe.While there are various ways to spark the individual to Question The Status Quo of conformity , the young students of life have always been our contemporary active Artists who need to Speak to The Audience of their time. When FM Radio was as its best before The Corporations got their money grappling hooks into The Music and Radio Industry. Sorry , X Gens. and to the younger generation currently Being targeted by Record and Radio alike to listen to certain songs by certain Bands and Artists and " That's All Folks "! Before all that FM Stations, ex. WBCN, Boston, USA, played whatever they thought was really cool, and really new. Not only that , but they played whatever else from the new album that they though worthy of The Young Rock Audience! Listen to Tom Petty's " The Last DJ "! Imagine hearing The First Led Zeppelin Song ,as a pre-release copy sent to FM stations like WBCN ! Then another track from the same album . WBCN became, for all intents and purposes, the first FM AOR { Album Orientated Rock } radio station in Boston. AOR FM lasted for 15-20yrs before giving way to Alt. Rock and numerous other hybrid categories. Which brings us up to date for now ! However, there is a bright side to all this . They still have to play the popular Artists of the day { that fit the stations genre limitations } ! That being the case , we come full circle back to the Artists and/or Bands that deliver the goods, be it Quality music with meaning and/or just plain ol' good time rock ,alt. rock, etc.

"Legislators" End Dogs For Death

2007-08-25T14:21:00.001-05:00

Matches!!

Pit bulls, guns seized in raid of DMX’s home

Rapper was not at home when the raid occurred

MSNBC video

Police raid rapper DMX's home
Aug. 24: Phoenix police raid the home of rapper DMX, where officers say they seized 12 "distressed" pit bulls. MSNBC's Milissa Rehberger reports.

Updated: 4:30 p.m. ET Aug 24, 2007

PHOENIX, Ariz. - Authorities raided the home of rapper DMX in Phoenix on Friday morning, “Access Hollywood” has learned.

Maricopa County Sheriff’s Deputies seized 12 pit bulls, which they described as distressed.

Guns were also found and seized during the raid of his Cave Creek-area home

MSNBC

DMX, whose real name is Earl Simmons, was not at home when the raid occurred, according to KPNX Channel 12 in Phoenix.

DMX is no stranger to trouble. During his 1999 “Hard Knock Life” tour he was arrested in Denver on a warrant for charges he stabbed and shot his mother. He was later cleared.

In 2002, he avoided prison time when he pleaded guilty in New Jersey to 13 counts of animal cruelty for neglecting 13 pit bulls. As part of his sentence, he did a public service announcement against animal abuse.

More details to come.

Iraq corruption whistleblowers face penalties

Google Earth opens new ‘Sky’ for stargazers

Dean wiped out Mayan homes, crops

From U.S. Military "Opppose The War"

2007-08-21T21:21:00.001-05:00

Published on Tuesday, August 21, 2007 by OneWorld.net

Iraq War Resisters to Get Boost from Veterans Group

by Aaron Glantz

SAINT LOUIS - Members of a leading Iraq war veterans’ organization voted this weekend to launch a campaign encouraging U.S. troops to refuse to fight.

The decision was made at the group’s annual membership meeting, held this weekend in Saint Louis, Missouri alongside the annual convention of the Veterans for Peace organization.

“Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) decided to make support of war resisters a major part of what we do,” said Garrett Rappenhagen, a former U.S. Army sniper who served in Iraq from February 2004 to February 2005.

“There’s a misconception that they’re cowards,” Rappenhagen said. “Most war resisters have already gone on a tour in Iraq. They’ve seen the war firsthand and have come to the conclusion that it’s morally wrong. This is something we all should support. So to break that timidness of how we view war resisters in America, IVAW decided to embrace them.”

To underscore that point, the veterans group elected Staff Sergeant Camilo Mejia chair of its board of directors. In the winter of 2003, Mejia was the first soldier to refuse to return to fight in Iraq after an initial tour in the war zone.

When Mejia came home on leave after six months in Iraq, he went AWOL rather than return. Ultimately, he served nine months in prison after the military denied his demand to be discharged as a conscientious objector. Full Story Full Story

For The Common Welfare of All { Not }

2007-08-21T20:26:00.001-05:00

(Published on Tuesday, August 21, 2007 by McClatchy Newspapers

Efforts to Crack Down on Lead Paint Thwarted by China, Bush Administration

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration and China have both undermined efforts to tighten rules designed to ensure that lead paint isn’t used in toys, bibs, jewelry and other children’s products.

Both have fought efforts to better police imported toys from China.

Now both are under increased scrutiny following last week’s massive toy recall by Mattel Inc., the world’s largest toymaker. The recalls of Chinese-made toys follow several other lead-paint-related scares since June that have affected products featuring Sesame Street characters, Thomas the Train and Dora the Explorer.

Lead paint is toxic when ingested by children and can cause brain damage or death. It’s been mostly banned in the United States since the late 1970s, but is permitted in the coating of toys, providing it amounts to less than six parts per million.

The Bush administration has hindered regulation on two fronts, consumer advocates say. It stalled efforts to press for greater inspections of imported children’s products, and it altered the focus of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), moving it from aggressive protection of consumers to a more manufacturer-friendly approach.

“The overall philosophy is regulations are bad and they are too large a cost for industry, and the market will take care of it,” said Rick Melberth, director of regulatory policy at OMBWatch, a government watchdog group formed in 1983. “That’s been the philosophy of the Bush administration.”

Today, more than 80 percent of all U.S. toys are now made in China and few of them get inspected. Full Story Full Story

US Contractors In Iraq & Their Private Mercenaries

2007-08-17T21:57:00.001-05:00

Dying to Get Paid in Iraq
Re-Posted August 17, 2007
July 5th, 2007

George W. Bush & The White House. I feel the same way about Our Legislators ! Democrats and Republicans are starting to look " All The Same To Me! " ! My 14 yr old Daughter and my 25 year old Son are by far more Intelligent than any of aforementioned elected or appointed People. I can say that without being facetious August 17, 2007....RePosted by Neo (from The Matrix) " Ok, This is the 1st time I've re-posted any of the Neo's Broadcast Site's Posts. Why ? Because I've really sick and tired, or exasperated by " The Arrogance Of President Bush's Teflon Persona & The Rest of His Hit Men because they All know how to use Reason, Intellect, common sense and logic to make wise decisions. Nomatter what self-Will would dictate, they both know that letting their personal agenda influence their decision would be self fulfilling and not what is Best for All Concerned; in this case, what The American People want, need and is best for everybody. How about the Truth for a Change. Or were'nt They Raised Right...C'mon Dont insult The American People by responding with " Huh? Oh, I did'nt know" or "If I had known that" . No Excuses. No more chances. Being elected again; Think Again ! "I don't know what will happen but we know who you are and we will tell everybody about you", we dont know how this will end but we do know that there will be changes...The rest is up to You." Neo

US Contractors In Iraq & Their Private Mercenaries

The issue of Iraq is not one that is only debated in our halls of government. Corporate interests have a heavy say in the war through private contracts vetted by the U.S. military. A recently Los Angeles Times Article (one heavily quoted in this blog) said, “The number of U.S. paid, private contractors in Iraq now exceeds that of American combat troops, newly released figures show, raising fresh questions about the privatization of the war effort and the government’s capacity to carry out military and rebuilding campaigns.” The contracts given for the missions in Iraq were given to private companies with links to the Bush administration in 2003 without a proper bidding process required by law.

Government officials claim that some duties are contracted out because they provide necessary services giving military personal time to engage in combat operations. The problem, of course, is that private contractors, unlike military personal, are not subject to the same rules of engagement and code of conduct the U.S. military is said to enforce. “At one point in 2004, for example, U.S. forces were put on food rations when (contracted) drivers balked at taking supplies into a combat zone.” These logistical contracts are primarily owned by Kellog Brown & Root (a Houston-based oil services company) and its parent company Halliburton Co.

Of course, I would be remiss if I did not mention the security contracts held by Blackwater, Triple Canopy and Erinys. “We don’t have control of all the coalition guns in Iraq. That’s dangerous for our country,” said William Nash, a retired Army general and reconstruction expert. Military policy experts report that on several occasions “heavily armed private contractors have engaged in firefights when attacked by Iraqi insurgents.”

This brings to light the question, why are civilians engaging in activities mandated to the military? The answer is, as always, money. Peter Singer, a Brookings Institution scholar said, “This is not the coalition of the willing. It’s a coalition of the billing.” Full Story

Another Attempt at " Getting Away With It "

2007-08-16T22:19:00.001-05:00

Published on Thursday, August 16, 2007 by The Nation

“An Attempt to Deceive Americans Into Another War”

by John Nichols

Dennis Kucinich may not be a front runner in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.

But the congressman from Cleveland has succeeded in distinguishing himself from the other contenders when it speaking those truths that are self-evident.

And in an era of mass delusion and denial on the party of leaders in both major political parties, stating the obvious can be a radical act.

Such is the case with Kucinich appropriate answer to the latest move by the Bush-Cheney administration to ramp up hostilities with Iran. That move — the unprecedented attempt to label Iran’s 125,000-strong Republican Guard as a “specially designated global terrorist” group — is, as the congressman says “nothing more than an attempt to deceive Americans into yet another war — this time with Iran.”

No one who has paid even the slightest attention to the Bush-Cheney administration’s approach to Middle East affairs can doubt that Kucinich is right. Yet, his is a lonely voice of clarity amid the din of Democratic obfuscation that aids and abets this White House’s worst instincts.

“The belligerent Bush Administration is using this pending designation to convince the American public into accepting that a war with Iran is inevitable,” argues Kucinich.

“This designation will set the stage for more chaos in the region because it undercuts all of our diplomatic efforts,” he adds. explaining that, “This new label provides further evidence for Iran’s leaders that there is no point to engage in diplomatic talks with the United States if our actions point directly to regime change.”

Delivering the response that should be coming from New York Senator Hillary Clinton, Illinois Senator Barack Obama and especially from Delaware Senator Joe Biden, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee when he isn’t campaigning for president, Kucinich argued that, “Our nation is better served by demanding sensible and responsible diplomatic foreign policy initiatives from the Bush Administration.”

Kucinich, who has proposed impeaching Vice President Cheney for continually prodding the country toward an unnecessary war with Iran, may not get the political credit he deserves for calling out this administration. But history will recognize him as the man who sounded the alarm when the Bush administration moved America closer to the brink of disaster.

John Nichols’ new book is The Genius of Impeachment: The Founders’ Cure for Royalism. Rolling Stone’s Tim Dickinson hails it as a “nervy, acerbic, passionately argued history-cum-polemic [that] combines a rich examination of the parliamentary roots and past use of the ‘heroic medicine’ that is impeachment with a call for Democratic leaders to ‘reclaim and reuse the most vital tool handed to us by the founders for the defense of our most basic liberties.’”

Copyright © 2007 The Nation

The Real Deal re: New Shady Records Release

2007-08-16T20:07:00.001-05:00

Hip-Hop News: Rap Star Eminem Presents Hip Hop

Protégés

Latest release from Shady/Interscope Records is titled "Eminem Presents: The Re-Up."

Posted by Dave
Rap News Network

9/19/2006 8:07:16 AM

Tags and topics realted to this article include Eminem, Stat Quo, Obie Trice, 50 Cent and Ca$his. Rap, Hip Hop and New Releases.

Rumors about an upcoming mixtape project prompted Eminem today to reveal details about the album. "So much wrong information has gotten out," said the multiplatinum-selling rap superstar, "it's time to set the record straight."
Eminem Presents: The Re-Up(Shady Records/Interscope Records), to be released December 5th, began as a street mixtape project -- an underground, unofficial CD with raw production values -- designed to help launch new Shady Records artists Stat Quo, Ca$his and Bobby Creekwater. "But what happened is that the material was so good and the tracks were getting produced like a regular album," said Eminem. "Instead of putting it out there rough and unfinished, I thought we should add some other new tracks, make it a real album, and put it in the record stores to give these new artists a real boost." The album was executive produced by Eminem, who also produced the majority of the songs. A handful of selections were produced by The Alchemist, who also compiled the album in true mixtape fashion. The Alchemist is best known for his work with Cypress Hill, Nas, Snoop Dogg, Mobb Deep, and Jadakiss.
Each of the tracks makes its official CD debut on Eminem Presents: The Re-Up, though Stat Quo's "Billion Bucks," and Obie Trice's "Cry Now" (Remix), produced by LT Moe, was recently released on mixtapes and to radio. The first single and video will be "You Don't Know" from Eminem, 50 Cent, Ca$his and Lloyd Banks. With Eminem and Ca$his from the Shady camp and 50 Cent and Lloyd Banks from G-Unit, the rap illustrates the unity of the two organizations.
The Re-Up also gave acclaimed hip-hop producer The Alchemist a chance to work with Shady's new regime. After joining forces on-stage as Eminem's DJ on last year's Anger Management 3 tour, Alchemist and the Shady camp began collaborating in the studio. This new album features the results of this anticipated collaboration with new tracks produced by The Alchemist featuring Stat Quo, Ca$his, Bobby Creekwater and Obie Trice.
Among the album's other recordings are "No Apologies" from Eminem; "Talkin' All That" from Ca$his; "City Of Gold" from Bobby Creekwater; "Murder" from Bizarre and Kuniva (both of D12); and The "Smack That (Remix)" with Akon.
Stat Quo, hailing from Atlanta, was signed to a joint deal between Shady Records and Dr. Dre's Aftermath Entertainment after Eminem and Dre heard him on the Underground Atlanta mixtape series. Creekwater, also from Atlanta, was inked after Eminem heard his work on demos and in the studio with The Alchemist. Ca$his, a Chicago native transplanted in his youth to Orange Co., California, was a member of West Coast underground favorites The Renegadez.

Rampant misinformation about Eminem Presents: The Re-Up included many false internet tracklistings and that the mixtape would be a tribute to D12's Proof, the recently slain rapper and close friend of Eminem. "The D12 album and those unreleased songs with Proof are coming," said Eminem. "But The Re-Up is about these new artists and these new songs. It isn't fair to them or to the memory of Proof to mix them up."

Find out more about Eminem. Other items you may find on Eminem include updates, news, multimedia, chat, links and more. Click here...

Find out more about Stat Quo. Other items you may find on Stat Quo include updates, news, multimedia, chat, links and more. Click here...

Headlines Put Cheny at The Top of Being " The Messenger "

2007-08-10T22:05:00.001-05:00

By Neo and News Posted

By Commondreams.org

Published on Friday, August 10, 2007 by McClatchy Newspapers

Cheney Urging Strikes On Iran

by Warren P. Strobel, John Walcott & Nancy A. Youssef

WASHINGTON - President Bush charged Thursday that Iran continues to arm and train insurgents who are killing U.S. soldiers in Iraq, and he threatened action if that continues.

At a news conference Thursday, Bush said Iran had been warned of unspecified consequences if it continued its alleged support for anti-American forces in Iraq. U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker had conveyed the warning in meetings with his Iranian counterpart in Baghdad, the president said.

Bush wasn’t specific, and a State Department official refused to elaborate on the warning.

Behind the scenes, however, the president’s top aides have been engaged in an intensive internal debate over how to respond to Iran’s support for Shiite Muslim groups in Iraq and its nuclear program. Vice President Dick Cheney several weeks ago proposed launching airstrikes at suspected training camps in Iraq run by the Quds force, a special unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to two U.S. officials who are involved in Iran policy.

The debate has been accompanied by a growing drumbeat of allegations about Iranian meddling in Iraq from U.S. military officers, administration officials and administration allies outside government and in the news media. It isn’t clear whether the media campaign is intended to build support for limited military action against Iran, to pressure the Iranians to curb their support for Shiite groups in Iraq or both.

Nor is it clear from the evidence the administration has presented whether Iran, which has long-standing ties to several Iraqi Shiite groups, including the Mahdi Army of radical cleric Muqtada al Sadr and the Badr Organization, which is allied with the U.S.-backed government of Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki, is a major cause of the anti-American and sectarian violence in Iraq or merely one of many. At other times, administration officials have blamed the Sunni Muslim group al Qaida in Iraq for much of the violence.

For now, however, the president appears to have settled on a policy of stepped-up military operations in Iraq aimed at the suspected Iranian networks there, combined with direct American-Iranian talks in Baghdad to try to persuade Tehran to halt its alleged meddling.

The U.S. military launched one such raid Wednesday in Baghdad’s predominantly Shiite Sadr City district.

But so far that course has failed to halt what American military officials say is a flow of sophisticated roadside bombs, known as explosively formed penetrators, into Iraq. Last month they accounted for a third of the combat deaths among U.S.-led forces, according to the military.

Cheney, who’s long been skeptical of diplomacy with Iran, argued for military action if hard new evidence emerges of Iran’s complicity in supporting anti-American forces in Iraq; for example, catching a truckload of fighters or weapons crossing into Iraq from Iran, one official said.

The two officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to talk publicly about internal government deliberations.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice opposes this idea, the officials said. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has stated publicly that “we think we can handle this inside the borders of Iraq.”

Lea Anne McBride, a Cheney spokeswoman, said only that “the vice president is right where the president is” on Iran policy.

Bush left no doubt at his news conference that he intended to get tough with Iran.

“One of the main reasons that I asked Ambassador Crocker to meet with Iranians inside Iraq was to send the message that there will be consequences for . . . people transporting, delivering EFPs, highly sophisticated IEDs (improvised explosive devices), that kill Americans in Iraq,” he said.

He also appeared to call on the Iranian people to change their government.

“My message to the Iranian people is, you can do better than this current government,” he said. “You don’t have to be isolated. You don’t have to be in a position where you can’t realize your full economic potential.”

The Bush administration has launched what appears to be a coordinated campaign to pin more of Iraq’s security troubles on Iran.

Last week, Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, the No. 2 U.S. military commander in Iraq, said Shiite militiamen had launched 73 percent of the attacks that had killed or wounded American troops in July. U.S. officials think that majority Shiite Iran is providing militiamen with EFPs, which pierce armored vehicles and explode once inside.

Last month, Brig. Gen. Kevin Bergner, a multinational force spokesman, said members of the Quds force had helped plan a January attack in the holy Shiite city of Karbala, which lead to the deaths of five American soldiers. Bergner said the military had evidence that some of the attackers had trained at Quds camps near Tehran.

Bush’s efforts to pressure Iran are complicated by the fact that the leaders of U.S.-supported governments in Iraq and Afghanistan have a more nuanced view of their neighbor.

Maliki is on a three-day visit to Tehran, during which he was photographed Wednesday hand in hand with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Unconfirmed media reports said Maliki had told Iranian officials they’d played a constructive role in the region.

Asked about that, Bush said he hadn’t been briefed on the meeting. “Now if the signal is that Iran is constructive, I will have to have a heart-to-heart with my friend the prime minister, because I don’t believe they are constructive. I don’t think he in his heart of hearts thinks they’re constructive either,” he said.

Bush and Afghan President Hamid Karzai differed on Iran’s role when they met last weekend, with Karzai saying in a TV interview that Iran was “a helper” and Bush challenging that view.

The toughening U.S. position on Iran puts Karzai and Iraqi leaders such as Maliki in a difficult spot between Iran, their longtime ally, and the United States, which is spending lives and treasure to secure their newly formed government.

A senior Iraqi official in Baghdad said the Iraqi government received regular intelligence briefings from the United States about suspected Iranian activities. He refused to discuss details, but said the American position worried him.

The United States is “becoming more focused on Iranian influence inside Iraq,” said the official, who requested anonymity to discuss private talks with the Americans. “And we don’t want Iraq to become a zone of conflict between Iran and the U.S.”

Proposals to use force against Iran over its actions in Iraq mark a new phase in the Bush administration’s long internal war over Iran policy.

Until now, some hawks within the administration - including Cheney - are said to have favored military strikes to stop Iran from furthering its suspected ambitions for nuclear weapons.

Rice has championed a diplomatic strategy, but that, too, has failed to deter Iran so far.

Patrick Clawson, an Iran specialist at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said a strike on the Quds camps in Iran could make the nuclear diplomacy more difficult.

Before launching such a strike, “We better be prepared to go public with very detailed and very convincing intelligence,” Clawson said.

Let's All Give "Humane Treatment" A Try.

2007-07-25T01:11:00.001-05:00

Published on Tuesday, July 24, 2007 by OneWorld.net

Rights Groups Dismiss " Bush’s Rules for Secret Prisons "

by Aaron Glantz

SAN FRANCISCO - Human rights organizations are reacting coldly to President George W. Bush’s executive order forbidding the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from torturing, humiliating, or abusing detainees in its once-secret interrogation program.

“It’s incredibly vague to the point of being useless as a way to stop torture,” said Shayana Kadidal, an attorney at the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights, who represents detainees held at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Bush’s five page executive order issued Friday bars CIA agents from acts of violence serious enough to be comparable to murder, torture, mutilation, and cruel or inhumane treatment.

It also bars willful or outrageous acts that any reasonable person would deem “to be beyond the bounds of human decency, such as sexual or sexually indecent acts undertaken for the purpose of humiliation, forcing the individual to perform sexual acts or to pose sexually, [and] threatening the individual with sexual mutilation.”

But the order does not explicitly forbid sleep deprivation or mock drowning (often called waterboarding), leaving Kadidal to believe it was written “intentionally to give leeway” to agents and “provide them with a legal defense if charged with torture.”

“We’re not pleased with it at all,” added John Sifton, senior researcher at New York-based Human Rights Watch, which believes the CIA program should be scrapped.

“The bigger issue is that this order continues to formalize a detention system that is outside the rule of law,” he told OneWorld.

Detainees held by the CIA, he noted, “have no access to a lawyer, no family visits, and no oversight by the International Committee of the Red Cross. They’re held indefinitely. It’s an enforced disappearance of a person: a person is thrown into a black hole and no one knows where they are.”

It’s not known how many people have been arrested by the CIA and secretly detained at so-called “black sites” around the world.

After published newspaper reports appeared on the program last September, Bush confirmed its existence but would not disclose how many individuals were secretly detained.

Human rights organizations have been able to document some of the cases, however.

Last month, six major human rights groups — Amnesty International, Cageprisoners, the Center for Constitutional Rights, the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at NYU School of Law, Human Rights Watch, and Reprieve — published a report called “Off the Record” identifying 39 individuals believed to have been held at some point by the United States in secret sites.

All but one remain missing.

Among those in the report is Ali Abdul-Hamid al-Fakhiri, a Libyan national who allegedly ran a training camp in Afghanistan from 1995 to 2000. After being apprehended by Pakistani authorities in November 2001, al-Fakhiri was turned over to the CIA in January 2002.

According to Human Rights Watch, the U.S. government moved al-Fakhiri from a U.S. base in Afghanistan to the U.S.S. Bataan to Egypt and then back to a secret U.S. detention facility in Afghanistan in 2003. Al-Fakhiri was reportedly transferred out of Afghanistan in late 2003 to a secret U.S. detention facility and then transferred to Libya in late 2005 or early 2006. On December 5, 2005, ABC News reported that he had been held in a secret U.S. detention facility in Poland.

“Al-Fakhiri is now reportedly held in isolation in Tripoli,” the six-group report reads, “and is said to be suffering from tuberculosis and to be in very poor health. At least one U.S. official has acknowledged U.S. involvement in elements of al-Fakhiri’s treatment, including questioning al-Fakhiri and transferring al-Fakhiri to a third country for interrogation.

“On July 19, 2006 his name was included in the ‘Terrorists No Longer a Threat’ List,” the report continues. “No other information about al-Fakhiri’s fate has been released by the U.S. government, and his whereabouts remain officially unexplained.”

Human Rights Watch’s Sifton believes the complex system of secret prisons abroad is unnecessary.

“We have a federal criminal code that dealt with the KKK and the Italian mafia,” he said. “The federal courts are also more than able to deal with any of these alleged terrorists just like we indicted the people who carried out the 1998 Embassy bombings or the 1993 World Trade Center bombings.”

Little Bush Bullies Anti-War Leading Activist

2007-07-25T00:45:00.001-05:00

Published on Tuesday, July 24, 2007 by Reuters

Peace Activist Cindy Sheehan Arrested at Congress

by Thomas Ferraro

WASHINGTON - Calling for the impeachment of U.S. President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, Cindy Sheehan and 45 fellow Iraq war protesters were arrested on Monday after they refused to leave a U.S. lawmaker’s office and adjoining hallway, authorities said.

Before police escorted her away, Sheehan, who emerged as a leading peace activist after her son Casey was killed in Iraq in 2004, announced what she had earlier suggested — that she would be a candidate for Congress next year.

Sheehan said she would challenge House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat. Pelosi has refused calls to start impeachment of Bush and Cheney for what critics charge was misleading the United States into war.

The new Democratic-led Congress has been hit with approval ratings of less than 25 percent largely because of its failure to deliver on a campaign vow to withdraw troops from Iraq.

Sheehan and fellow protesters were led away in plastic handcuffs after they refused to heed repeated calls by Capitol Police to depart the office of Democratic Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, and a hallway outside his office.

“What do we want? Impeachment. When do we want it? Now,” Sheehan and others chanted while seated on the floor of Conyers’ office following her private meeting with him.

A spokeswoman for Capitol Police said the 46 protesters were being charged with disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor, and were likely to be released within hours after processing.

Conyers had raised the possibility of impeaching Bush more than a year ago while Republicans were in charge of Congress.

But Pelosi rejected the idea during last year’s campaign that saw Democrats win control of the House and Senate, saying she wanted to concentrate efforts on ending the war.

“The speaker is focused on changing course in Iraq by bringing our troops home safely and soon and refocusing our effort on protecting Americans from terrorism,” said Brendan Daly, Pelosi’s press secretary.

When Sheehan and others arrived on Capitol Hill they were confronted by a number of backers of the war. One held a sign reading, “Patriots want victory in Iraq.”

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97 Comments so far

L3ESmith July 24th, 2007 9:20 am

This woman is inspiring.
sjc_1 July 24th, 2007 9:26 am

I guess under the new order signed by the insano on July 17th, Cindy could be declared disruptive of the Iraq war policy and have her assets frozen by the Treasury department. What a fascist world this little mad man has woven and we just watch.
lillulu July 24th, 2007 9:43 am

The thugs in charge of the U.S. government better not harm one hair on Cindy’s head.

I thought bush said the mission was accomplished years ago. Pelosi says she wants to concentrate efforts to end the war. What war? It’s an occupation now. She’s just another Republican in Democratic clothing, a DINO — as most Democrats are.
End the friggin’ occupation!
By the way, how come the U.S. wasn’t concerned about how Kim Jong Il treats his people? They’re starving to death. Why didn’t the U.S. attack and occupy N Korea the way it did Iraq. The Iraqis by comparison were better off under Saddam; women were the best educated in the middle east. Now they have to sell their bodies in order to survive, thanks to King George and his greed.
Coyotita July 24th, 2007 9:48 am

Cheney Pushes Bush To War With Iran

2007-07-17T19:19:00.001-05:00

Published on Monday, July 16, 2007 by the Guardian/UK

Cheney Pushes Bush to Act on Iran

by Ewen MacAskill in Washington and Julian Borger

WASHINGTON - The balance in the internal White House debate over Iran has shifted back in favour of military action before President George Bush leaves office in 18 months, the Guardian has learned.

The shift follows an internal review involving the White House, the Pentagon and the state department over the last month. Although the Bush administration is in deep trouble over Iraq, it remains focused on Iran. A well-placed source in Washington said: “Bush is not going to leave office with Iran still in limbo.”

The White House claims that Iran, whose influence in the Middle East has increased significantly over the last six years, is intent on building a nuclear weapon and is arming insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The vice-president, Dick Cheney, has long favoured upping the threat of military action against Iran. He is being resisted by the secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, and the defence secretary, Robert Gates.

Last year Mr Bush came down in favour of Ms Rice, who along with Britain, France and Germany has been putting a diplomatic squeeze on Iran. But at a meeting of the White House, Pentagon and state department last month, Mr Cheney expressed frustration at the lack of progress and Mr Bush sided with him. “The balance has tilted. There is cause for concern,” the source said this week.

Nick Burns, the undersecretary of state responsible for Iran and a career diplomat who is one of the main advocates of negotiation, told the meeting it was likely that diplomatic manoeuvring would still be continuing in January 2009. That assessment went down badly with Mr Cheney and Mr Bush.

“Cheney has limited capital left, but if he wanted to use all his capital on this one issue, he could still have an impact,” said Patrick Cronin, the director of studies at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

The Washington source said Mr Bush and Mr Cheney did not trust any potential successors in the White House, Republican or Democratic, to deal with Iran decisively. They are also reluctant for Israel to carry out any strikes because the US would get the blame in the region anyway.

Link To Full Story

The Government Wants to Let Big Business Regulate & Monopolize Internet On i-phones

2007-07-14T22:59:00.001-05:00

By Neo July 14, 2007

This is another Attack on The citizens of Our

Country, " The United States Of America ", and our

Constitutional Inherent Right to Free Speech and

also The Access To It. Again Big Business is trying

to limit or censor " The Free Exchange of Ideas,

Opinions and Editorial responses To acts and

Government Policy on any issue/s ; thereby Taking

away The United States Citizen's Right to the

unrestricted Exchange of free thought and Ideas

whether or not they are popular with

The People's Government!

" Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all sub-versions. It is the one UN-American act that could most easily defeat us."—Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas

US Contracters In Iraq & Their Private Mercenarys

2007-07-11T21:54:00.001-05:00

Dying to Get Paid in Iraq
July 5th, 2007
The issue of Iraq is not one that is only debated in our halls of government. Corporate interests have a heavy say in the war through private contracts vetted by the U.S. military. A recently Los Angeles Times Article (one heavily quoted in this blog) said, “The number of U.S. paid, private contractors in Iraq now exceeds that of American combat troops, newly released figures show, raising fresh questions about the privatization of the war effort and the government’s capacity to carry out military and rebuilding campaigns.” The contracts given for the missions in Iraq were given to private companies with links to the Bush administration in 2003 without a proper bidding process required by law.
Government officials claim that some duties are contracted out because they provide necessary services giving military personal time to engage in combat operations. The problem, of course, is that private contractors, unlike military personal, are not subject to the same rules of engagement and code of conduct the U.S. military is said to enforce. “At one point in 2004, for example, U.S. forces were put on food rations when (contracted) drivers balked at taking supplies into a combat zone.” These logistical contracts are primarily owned by Kellog Brown & Root (a Houston-based oil services company) and its parent company Halliburton Co.
Of course, I would be remiss if I did not mention the security contracts held by Blackwater, Triple Canopy and Erinys. “We don’t have control of all the coalition guns in Iraq. That’s dangerous for our country,” said William Nash, a retired Army general and reconstruction expert. Military policy experts report that on several occasions “heavily armed private contractors have engaged in firefights when attacked by Iraqi insurgents.”
This brings to light the question, why are civilians engaging in activities mandated to the military? The answer is, as always, money. Peter Singer, a Brookings Institution scholar said, “This is not the coalition of the willing. It’s a coalition of the billing.” Full Story

" We Can Dream" ; Can't We ?

2007-07-07T00:36:00.001-05:00

Published on Thursday, July 5, 2007 by the Los Angeles Times

A Place to Push Impeachment

by Howard Blume

BEVERLY CENTER, Calif. - If President Bush or Vice President Dick Cheney were ever to be impeached, their foes could cite this Independence Day as a milestone - the day that the nation’s first “impeachment headquarters” opened its doors in a storefront near the Beverly Center.

“This is an impeachment 4th of July,” Byron De Lear, a Green Party activist, said Wednesday. He called removing Bush and Cheney “a patriotic duty to restore the integrity of the United States.”

Those assembled cited various Bush actions or policies, including “lies that led the U.S. into war.”

They also said that Bush–Cheney policies precipitated torture, illegal spying on American citizens, and the curtailment of privacy and civil rights in the name of fighting terrorism.

The latest irritant was the president’s decision to commute the prison sentence of former Cheney aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, whom a jury convicted of obstructing justice.

“Isn’t it ironic that Paris Hilton will spend more days in jail than Libby?” said De Lear.

The day’s star power was provided by Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles), who had vigorously defended then-President Bill Clinton when he faced impeachment in 1998.

“This is one of the most important efforts this country has ever seen,” said Waters, speaking to about 300 gathered for a noon rally at nearby La Cienega Park.

In an interview, she added: “We can make changes through organizing. If the numbers are in the streets, Congress will listen.”

Any impeachment motion - ultimately voted on by the House of Representatives - would have to pass through the House Judiciary Committee, to which Waters belongs.

Organizers could not definitively name another “pro-impeach” representative on that committee.

In the House at large, they tally 14 like-minded lawmakers, most of whom have signed on to articles of impeachment against Cheney that were introduced by Dennis J. Kucinich (D-Ohio), who is running for president.

When asked who might lead the cause in the Senate, Waters paused, then said she would have to defer that question for now.

In the end, removing Bush or Cheney from office would require a two-thirds vote by the Senate.

In the mid-term elections, many more Democrats - and some Republicans - spoke out against the war, including some who had originally voted to permit the Bush administration to invade Iraq.

But concluding the war and impeaching Bush don’t look like compatible policies to most members of Congress, said progressive Democratic columnist Harold Meyerson, executive editor of the American Prospect, in a telephone interview.

“Impeachment is a distraction since it’s not going to happen,” said Meyerson.

“At the root of this is the notion that Bush lied us into war and that’s been out there 4 1/2 years. Impeachment would stop everything else in Congress and the Democrats think they actually need to accomplish stuff instead of fighting unwinnable battles, especially with poll numbers falling for Congress. The main thing is to defeat Republicans electorally.”

Republican analyst Arnold Steinberg said an impeachment drive would help his side: “This gambit will excite the leftist base but marginalize reasonable Democrats and alienate independent voters - and motivate Republicans. I can only say, ‘Grow up and get a life.’ Or, better yet, ‘Go for it.’ You’ll end up sinking Democratic Party prospects for 2008.”

Critics seeking to define the headquarters opening as a conclave of the political fringe could point out the largely middle-aged, deeply left-wing audience or the accordion player in floppy shoes who opened the rally with a version of “America” that substituted “siblinghood” for “brotherhood.”

But the audience also included fresh recruits Trevor Torquato, 19, and Lauren Kuzma, 17, of Murrieta.

“I’m actually new to politics,” said Torquato. “I’m here to be educated. I’m going to register with the Green Party today.”

“I’m just hoping all of this will get Bush out of office,” said Lauren, “so we can get our troops out of Iraq. They don’t really talk about that in school. They talk about past history, not what’s going on now.”

The impeachment center was sponsored by Progressive Democrats of Los Angeles, Westside Greens, Santa Monica Democratic Club and the Los Angeles Greens.

Activists plan to meet every Saturday from 2 to 6 p.m. at the 3rd Street storefront, where they’ll stuff envelopes, do phone banking, spread the word about http://www.bcimpeach.com and make plans to circulate petitions and lobby elected officials. They report that 79 municipalities and townships nationwide have passed impeachment resolutions.

Former Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg, who spoke at the event, insisted that principles ought to trump narrow political imperatives. “Leadership requires that people step out,” she said. “It is not hopeless. Stand up. Do something for your rights.”

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The Bush Two Step

2007-07-05T17:08:00.001-05:00

Published on Thursday, July 5, 2007 by the Toronto Star

Bush Duplicity Hinders Battle Against Extremism

by Haroon Siddiqui

So, it is the terrorist Hamas that gets the kidnapped BBC correspondent Alan Johnston released. That’s just one of many ironies of the American-Israeli - and Canadian - approach to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

George W. Bush “invested the heart of my presidency” to bring democracy to the Middle East. Yet he rejected the result of the Palestinian election won by Hamas, and browbeat the allies into starving the Palestinian people.

The West has swung its support for Mahmoud Abbas now that he has replaced the Hamas government with a handpicked prime minister. As Daniel Levy, a former Israeli peace negotiator, suggests, the West has helped impose one-party rule on the Palestinian body politic.

Hamas is a terrorist organization because it uses violence. Yet in the last 18 months, the U.S. and its allies have helped Abbas’s security forces use violence and goon tactics to create anarchy and undermine Hamas.

Since taking over Gaza June 15, Hamas has restored order, banning even the firing of celebratory gunfire, that revolting Arab custom. And it has secured Johnston’s release from a clan close to Abbas’s security chief.

Similarly, America’s other allies across the Middle East - in Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, etc. - continue their authoritarian rule. Yet Bush singles out Iran and Syria as oppressor states. He said last week that the Iranian and Syrian peoples “yearn for freedom and liberty” and wish to “say what they think (and) travel where they wish.” So do the Egyptians, the Jordanians, the Saudis, the Kuwaitis and, of course, the Palestinians. But there’s nary a mention of them.

Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, who succeeded his father, Hafez, recently won a presidential election in which he was the only candidate. In Egypt, too, the path is being paved for Hosni Mubarak’s son, Gamal, to assume the presidency.

Ayman Nour, the most likely challenger to Gamal, rots in jail on trumped-up charges. When Bush recently issued the obligatory call for his release, Cairo mocked him by reminding him of Guantanamo Bay. Full Story

Cheney Claims Exemption from Classified Data Rules

2007-06-25T00:15:00.000-05:00

Cheney Claims Exemption from Classified
Data Rules

June 22, 2007

VP Dick Cheney's office has refused to comply with an executive order governing the handling of classified information for the past four years, and recently tried to abolish the office at the National Archives and Records Administration that sought to enforce those rules, according to documents released by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, chaired by Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-CA).

During his 6 and a half years tenure, Cheney has rejected any attempt to peer into the inner workings of his office, hiding information such as the industry executives who advised his energy task force, details about his privately funded travel and Secret Service logs showing who visits his official residence. The fight about classified information regulations shows that Cheney has resisted oversight not only from the public generally, but even by the parts of the administration officially charged to do so. Cheney's office argued that it is exempt from the rules because it is not an "entity within the executive branch."

As described in a letter from Rep. Waxman to the Vice President, the National Archives protested the Vice President's position in letters written in June 2006 and August 2006. When these letters were ignored, the National Archives wrote to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in January 2007 to seek a resolution of the impasse. The Vice President's staff responded by seeking to abolish the agency within the Archives that is responsible for implementing the President's executive order.

In his letter to the Vice President, Rep. Waxman writes: "I question both the legality and wisdom of your actions... [I]t would appear particularly irresponsible to give an office with your history of security breaches an exemption from the safeguards that apply to all other executive branch officials."

"He's saying he's above the law," said Rep. Waxman to the Washington Post. "It just seems to me this is arrogant and shows bad judgment," he added.

The Justice Department confirmed that it is looking into the issue. "This matter is currently under review in the department," said spokesman Erik Ablin, who declined to elaborate.

DayDreams

2007-05-27T18:23:00.001-05:00

We Will Never Know !

2007-04-23T17:55:00.001-05:00

Was Kurt Vonnegut A 9/11 Truther?
Cult icon was one of Bush administration's fiercest critics

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
Thursday, April 12, 2007

Legendary author and cultural icon Kurt Vonnegut sadly died yesterday at the age of 84, seemingly before he was able to go public on his doubts about the official story behind 9/11 and join a cadre of other well-known personalities in lending support to the 9/11 Truth Movement.

Vonnegut had seen Alex Jones' videos about 9/11 and government sponsored terror and asked Alex to send him more, after which Alex Jones received a personalized drawing and a letter back from Kurt and was in the process of trying to set him up for an appearance on his radio show before he became ill.

From all indications and other people Alex Jones had talked to, it seemed clear that Vonnegut was ready to add his name to the growing list of high profile public figures who have risked their reputations to slam the official 9/11 story.

We know that Vonnegut had come into contact with and researched the subject with the aid of Alex Jones' documentary films. He was at least questioning the official 9/11 fable and had begun to look into it more deeply.

What would the effect of Kurt Vonnegut speaking out have been? Unfortunately we may never know, but we hope to get back in touch with his representatives at the appropriate time because it is historically important to record Vonnegut's stance on this issue.

Vonnegut was certainly clued in to the fact that the political process in America is completely bought and paid for. In his final book, A Man Without a Country, Vonnegut noted that "no matter which one wins, we will have a Skull and Bones President," referring to the 2004 "election" between Bush and Kerry.

In his final major speech at the Ohio State University just over a year ago, Vonnegut offered further insights on the Bush presidency, clarifying the fact that "The only difference between Bush and Hitler is that Hitler was elected."

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"You all know, of course, that the election was stolen. Right here,” Vonnegut told the audience.

Vonnegut was no stranger to the methods of dictators, he fought in World War 2 and was captured by German soldiers in Dresden in December 1944. The Nazis put Vonnegut to work collecting bodies for mass burial but there were too many corpses to bury so the Nazis simply sent in men with flamethrowers and burned the remains to ashes. Vonnegut was imprisoned in an underground meatpacking cellar known as Slaughterhouse Five, which later became the title of perhaps his most popular book.

The personalized drawing Kurt Vonnegut sent Alex Jones (click for enlargement).

Vonnegut was one of the Bush administration's harshest critics in his final years, using his razor sharp words to regularly slam the war in Iraq through his In These Times column.

"By saying that our leaders are power-drunk chimpanzees, am I in danger of wrecking the morale of our soldiers fighting and dying in the Middle East?" he wrote. "Their morale, like so many bodies, is already shot to pieces. They are being treated, as I never was, like toys a rich kid got for Christmas in December."

Vermont Calls for Impeachment

2007-04-21T23:16:00.000-05:00

Published on Friday, April 20, 2007 by Associated Press

Vermont Senate Calls
for
Bush, Cheney Impeachment
Associated Press staff

MONTPELIER, Vt. - Vermont senators voted Friday to call for the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, saying their actions have raised “serious questions of constitutionality.”The non-binding resolution was approved 16-9 without debate - all six Republicans in the chamber at the time and three Democrats voted against it.

The resolution says Bush and Cheney’s actions in the U.S. and abroad, including in Iraq, “raise serious questions of constitutionality, statutory legality, and abuse of the public trust.”

“I think it’s going to have a tremendous political effect, a tremendous political effect on public discourse about what to do about this president,” said James Leas, a vocal advocate of withdrawing troops from Iraq and impeaching Bush and Cheney.

Vermont lawmakers earlier voted to demand an immediate troop withdrawal from Iraq in another non-binding resolution.
Democratic House Speaker Gaye Symington has kept a similar resolution from reaching the floor in her chamber. She argued that an impeachment resolution would be partisan and divisive and that it would distract Washington from efforts to get the United States out of Iraq, which she says is more important.
In the Senate, Republican Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie had opposed the resolution, but he was absent Friday. That left Democratic Senate President Pro Tem Peter Shumlin in charge, and he immediately took up the measure.
Forty towns voted in favor of similar non-binding impeachment resolutions at their annual town meetings in March. State lawmakers in Wisconsin

2007-04-21T23:04:00.000-05:00

The Teflon Administration

This Administration has acted out with impunity and orchestrated The second worst Record of non-accomplishments since Gw's first four years.The difference between his two terms is that ; at the time of this posting, Life for the NotRich American folks has become Harder and still more Challenging than before GW took office. Well, I still believe in miricals. Whether or not you do or does it really come into play when I think, " If Nixon was a thread away from impeacement then maybe there's still a probability of having some justice nomatter where the criminals come from ? Hmmm...Even "Teflon" wears out with enough use of it. And we all know this teflon has been hot a long time now. Hope,Pray,do whatever it is you do when you want something badly enough!! Peace & Participate, Neo
Enjoy the following Good News

Published on Friday, April 20, 2007 by Atlantic Free Press
Kucinich to Sponsor Impeach Cheney Bill
by Dave Lindorff

Sources close to the office of Representative Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) confirm that the progressive Democratic congressman and Democratic presidential aspirant intends to introduce a bill of impeachment against Vice President Dick Cheney in the House of Representatives on Wednesday, April 25. The move will mark the second time that an impeachment bill has been submitted against a member of the Bush administration. Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) filed a bill of impeachment against President Bush in December of last year, just as the 109th Congress was about to end, and as Rep. McKenney was about to leave office (she was defeated in last November’s election).

Kucinich’s bill will go to the Judiciary Committee, where Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) and the other members will have to decide whether to request subpoena powers and to begin a hearing into impeachable offenses by the vice president.
Kucinich’s action marks a major step forward for impeachment activists, who have been frustrated by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who has repeatedly stated that she has no interest in having the House hold impeachment hearings against president or vice president (and who has been leaning hard on Democratic caucus members in the House not to file impeachment bills).

By bucking Pelosi and filing his bill, Kucinich may force the mainstream corporate media to start discussing the idea. There has been a virtual blackout on impeachment in the media, which has not even been asking the question in polls, since a year ago, when Pelosi made it clear she had no interest in impeachment.

Kucinich’s move comes as citizens across the country are bringing impeachment resolutions to town meetings, city councils, Democratic Party county and state committees, and even state legislatures–and getting them passed.

The Democratic Party Establishment has been resisting impeachment, fearing that it could “turn off” independent voters, although the few polls that have been conducted suggest that a majority of Americans, and even not a few Republicans, favor impeaching the president. But as the administration’s scandals have grown in number and seriousness, from financial chicanery to voter suppression to political firings of federal prosecutors to illegal spying on citizens, and as the president’s War in Iraq has lurched from bad to catastrophic, public pressure is mounting for Democrats to take tougher action.

Kucinich’s bill may not in itself put Bush’s impeachment back on the Congressional table, but it could whet the public’s appetite for more substantial fare.

Immigration Law As Intended in 1952

2007-04-01T01:01:00.001-05:00

Amended By Neo

July 4, 2007

Laws are always well intended! We, "The Common American Citizens" have been duped into reacting with prejudice against "Each Other, Re:The Illegals and The Amnesty Legislation" . None of this would happening if The President didn't want it to. By avoiding it and going on with his Own Agenda, namely The Colonization Policy ( The War) and that also includes Mexico and Canada and making both borders with its own super Highway From Mexico, across and through the USA and into Canada. Deliberate avoidance of Upholding The Immigration Laws of the McCarran-Walter Act or the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) of 1952.

The INA relied on a national origins quota system with a preference system for Eastern Hemisphere immigrants, and was concerned with excluding and removing subversives and communists. Since the INA, amendments have been added and the law changed in an apparent attempt to solve the illegal alien problem. This discussion does not attempt to analyze each amendment or law in any detail. The main issue is the apparent consequences of all the legislation. After INA, the Immigration Act of 1965 repealed the national origins quota system and all nations were given an equal chance to immigrate to the United States. Immigration Commissioners come and go with each Administration, but the only consistent pattern that has emerged since the 1970s is that the illegal alien population is growing at a rapid pace.

The Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) of 1986 was signed into law by President Reagan and included amnesty for aliens who could establish residence in the United States since January 1, 1982, employer sanctions aimed at removing the lure of employment, and a special exemption for aliens employed in agricultural work. The Triennial Comprehensive Report on Immigration (USINS, 1999) showed that 2.7 million person gained lawful permanent residence as a direct result of IRCA. Although the Immigration Act of 1990 (IMMACT90) that took effect in 1992, more than doubled the number of visas available to persons who qualified for employment-based immigration, it also attempted to begin removing aliens with aggravated felony convictions. This focus on removing criminal aliens continued with the addition of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) that attempted to apply retroactivity to aggravated alien felons in the United States. In addition to adding Border Patrol agents (5000) and interior enforcement agents (300) over several years, the IIRIRA also expedited removals of certain excludable aliens applying for admission into the United States. Needless to say, the various amendments are under continuous judicial review and this tends to neutralize the intent of the laws.

More 911 Reports Refused

2007-03-21T18:15:00.001-05:00

Bloomberg Kills 'Sensitive 9/11 Probe'

SUSAN EDELMAN
NY Post
Monday, March 19, 2007

Mayor Bloomberg killed a study on the city's response to the 9/11 attacks after his lawyers said they did not want a report that cited any missteps or dealt with "environmental" or "respirator issues," says a former city official.

City lawyers raised fears that the proposed "after-action report" - which the U.S. Department of Justice had offered to fund - could lead to criticism and fuel lawsuits, David Longshore, former director of special programs for the city's Office of Emergency Management, told The Post.

"The Bloomberg administration acted to sweep any potential problems under the rug," said Longshore, who was trapped in a loading dock outside the WTC while both towers collapsed. He later developed sinusitis and throat polyps and sued the city.

Longshore, who left his city job last year, showed The Post his work notes on internal OEM discussions with city lawyers in February 2003. His notes say the Law Department "doesn't want a critical report" and "does not want a report that says we did anything wrong."

Bush and His Plan Using " The Patriot Act " To Spy on Us

2007-03-18T00:31:00.001-05:00

MARCH 9, 2007

9:32 AM

CONTACT: Senator Russ Feingold
Zach Lowe (202) 224-8657

Feingold On the Department of Justice Inspector General Report on the USA PATRIOT Act

WASHINGTON, D.C. – March 9 – “This report proves that "trust us" doesn't cut it when it comes to the government’s power to obtain Americans' sensitive business records without a court order and without any suspicion that they are tied to terrorism or espionage. I fought hard to prevent abuses of this power when the Senate debated reauthorizing the Patriot Act last year. I will work with Senator Leahy and Senator Rockefeller to make sure the Judiciary and Intelligence Committees conduct full and prompt investigations, and I will press for quick Senate action on sensible reforms to help prevent future abuses of National Security Letters.” .

###

The Post ; Playing Footsie With Bush ? Media Selling Out ?

2007-03-18T00:30:00.001-05:00

'The Real Problem'

How to get the full story on the dismissals of eight U.S. attorneys

Friday, March 16, 2007; Page A20

PRESIDENT BUSH says he's "not happy" about the way the firing of eight U.S. attorneys was "mishandled." He says the dismissals were "entirely appropriate," but "the fact that both Republicans and Democrats feel like that there was not straightforward communication troubles me." If so, he should ensure that lawmakers get the full story. That means allowing White House staff members to be interviewed if the Senate deems necessary.

The Senate Judiciary Committee moved yesterday to authorize the issuance of subpoenas for five current and former Justice officials involved in the firings. But after an objection by the ranking Republican, Arlen Specter (Pa.), it delayed a decision on whether to take the same step with White House officials who, as e-mail messages released this week demonstrate, were immersed in the action.

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As a general matter, the president has a right to confidential communications with his top advisers; routinely bringing White House officials in to testify before Congress or demanding their e-mail would chill their ability to provide frank advice. But this is no routine matter, and the misleading conduct of Mr. Bush's Justice Department has opened the door to departing from general principles. It wouldn't be the first time: President Bill Clinton's top aides were routinely hauled before Congress to testify on everything from Whitewater to presidential pardons.

White House counsel Fred F. Fielding has been discussing the request for access to White House officials with members of the Senate Judiciary Committee and is supposed to report back to them today. The two sides might consider a two-step process. The panel, having been misled by Senate-confirmed officials, is entitled to hear from political appointees at the Justice Department about the decision to remove the prosecutors. That should take place first. Then, if senators still have reason to ask current and former White House officials about their roles in the firings, the president should make his aides available under reasonable circumstances and with reasonable conditions attached.

E-mails already released suggest ample basis for such questioning. For instance, a May 11, 2006, e-mail from Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales's chief of staff, D. Kyle Sampson, to Deputy White House Counsel William Kelley asks him to call to discuss "the real problem we have right now with Carol Lam that leads me to conclude we should have someone ready to be nominated on 11/18, the day her 4-year term expires." Ms. Lam was the U.S. attorney in San Diego who prosecuted former representative Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Calif.). That morning, the Los Angeles Times had reported that the U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, in an outgrowth of the Cunningham probe, was investigating House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.). Ms. Lam's name had been on the Justice hit list for months, but -- as Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) asked in a letter to the president -- what was the "real problem" to which Sampson was referring?

White House involvement in deciding whether to remove the prosecutors is not necessarily nefarious. These are presidential appointees; it would be surprising if the White House were not involved. But what spurred their firings is a legitimate and important question for congressional inquiry.

Bush and His Plan Using " The Patriot Act " To Spy on Us

2007-03-10T18:55:00.000-05:00

MARCH 9, 2007
9:32 AM
CONTACT: Senator Russ Feingold Zach Lowe (202) 224-8657
Feingold On the Department of Justice Inspector General Report on the USA PATRIOT Act
WASHINGTON, D.C. – March 9 – “This report proves that "trust us" doesn't cut it when it comes to the government’s power to obtain Americans' sensitive business records without a court order and without any suspicion that they are tied to terrorism or espionage. I fought hard to prevent abuses of this power when the Senate debated reauthorizing the Patriot Act last year. I will work with Senator Leahy and Senator Rockefeller to make sure the Judiciary and Intelligence Committees conduct full and prompt investigations, and I will press for quick Senate action on sensible reforms to help prevent future abuses of National Security Letters.” .
###

The End Of US News You Can Trust

2007-02-23T23:59:00.000-05:00

The Decline of U.S. Media: Fox News Leads Race to the Bottom

From Huffington Post, February 22, 2007By Josh SilverSenator Barack Obama is refusing to appear on Fox News after the network reported a litany of GOP-talking point lies about the presidential candidate. A coalition of organizations is leading a bold campaign to convince Democrats not to play ball with Fox and urge businesses to pull their ads from the network.Why is this issue so important? Let’s start with three facts you might not know: 1) Over 60% of Americans get their primary news from television; 2) The most watched TV news channel is Fox News (with more viewers than CNN & MSNBC combined); 3) The handful of massive companies that own most of the US media care primarily about profit, not delivering a quality product. Understand this, and you understand why it took five years for majorities of Americans to stop supporting our blundering and dangerous president while losing our nation’s integrity and the world’s goodwill. These facts are also crucial to understanding why, four years into the Iraq debacle, when President Bush and his cronies should be worrying about impeachment but aren’t, when Anna Nicole Smith dominates the news for two weeks, and when stories like the “emerging Iranian threat” continue to be ripped and read from Pentagon press releases, you likely feel that we are doomed to a lethal replay of Groundhog Day for years to come.Fox News continues to amaze us and propagandize many, labeling as fringe-left anyone who disagrees with the president, takes issue with tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy, says that Iraq is a quagmire, or dares to declare that all Americans deserve a living wage and guaranteed health care. The narrow, corporate-driven rhetoric that passes as reasonable political debate on Fox and most of the mainstream American media has become a laughing stock — if only to keep us from crying.Owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, and run by far-right operative Roger Ailes, the network has figured out how to deliver rightwing-propaganda-dressed-as-legitimate-news into millions of living rooms every day using reactionary messages, cutting-edge graphics and a fast-paced infotainment format. Their latest antics falsely allege that Democratic senator and presidential candidate Barack Obama went to a Muslim grade school, was raised by his Muslim father, that his middle name is a major liability, and that….don’t inhale…..he’s a cigarette smoker! (The last one is true, but their point is?) Brave New Films released this two-minute video on Thursday that details the Obama smear, and Obama has wisely decided not to appear on Fox in the future.But Fox is not alone. CNN, CBS, ABC, and NBC are not much better, except for a few journalists who have awoken from their power-induced haze to occasionally deliver actual reporting: Lou Dobbs on labor issues (if not immigration); Anderson Cooper in New Orleans (though the type of reporting he did there is becoming a distant memory), and the increasingly brilliant clarity of Keith Olbermann. But 99 percent of the time Americans remain flooded with 24/7 celebrity, soundbyte and uncritical fare — at the expense of investigative journalism, government accountability, and informed political debate. And unless TV viewers teach themselves to become savvy Internet users, they’re increasingly out of luck. Newspapers, the media outlets that hire real reporters to dig up real stories — local and national — are dying a quiet and quickening death. Circulation is withering as the industry is battered by online classified services such as Craig’s list and migration of readership to the Net with its free content and immediacy. Combine this with increased operating costs and consolidated ownership (refer to fact #3 above), and the results are eviscerated newsrooms and the demise of the last bastion of local journalism in America. Newspaper consolidation has made most American cities one-newspaper towns, usually owned by giants like Gannett, McClatchy, Tribune, Hearst or a handful of other conglomerates. Even amid this downward spiral, Bush-appointed Federal Communication Commission Chairman Kevin Martin is moving to eliminate the long-standing law preventing major newspapers from also owning TV and radio stations (and vice versa). The hubris and corruption of the Administration is staggering even by current standards.In the face of the Fox-ification of TV news, most terrifying is what will happen if the US suffers another major terrorist attack: media that will allow those in power to again manipulate the public with more fear and blind patriotism rather than informed analysis and reason. What passes for political opinion and debate in the mainstream US media has become a dangerous joke, and Fox is the top prankster. If, like me, you’re sick and tired of being the butt of the joke, take action at www.foxattacks.com.This article is from Huffington Post. If you found it informative and valuable, we strongly encourage you to visit their Web site and register an account, if necessary, to view all their articles on the Web. Support quality journalism.

Storms Stronger Due to Warming

2007-02-23T22:21:00.000-05:00

IPCC: Storms Stronger Due to Warming

From Environmental Defense: All News and Publications

On February 2, the international group of experts tasked with evaluating climate science — the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) — released a summary of its latest assessment. In it, they concluded that global warming is already causing the intensity of storms in general and hurricanes in particular to increase.

Because IPCC reports are the consensus of about 2,000 scientists and dozens of governments, they are conservative. Despite this mandate for caution, the world’s scientists report that "numerous long-term changes in climate have been observed. These include changes in…the intensity of tropical cyclones." (More about how the IPCC works.)

More recent research shows hurricanes getting stronger globally
As noted in the report, the strongest evidence for fiercer storms has been in the North Atlantic, where increases in hurricane strength are "correlated with increases of tropical sea surface temperatures." Scientists were more cautious about trends in other hurricane basins. One likely reason for this is that the assessment does not include studies published during 2006 because the cutoff date to be included in the IPCC report was December 2005. Two of last year’s hurricane studies were particularly relevant:

• Ryan Sriver and Matthew Huber of Purdue University looked at global hurricane strength using an entirely different hurricane dataset than the one used in earlier studies. Their independent analysis also indicated that storms are getting stronger, not just in the Atlantic but all over the world.

• Carlos Hoyos and his colleagues at Georgia Tech did a rigorous statistical analysis of environmental factors and showed that, in all the world’s hurricane basins, the only factor that consistently correlated with hurricane strength was sea surface temperature, which we know is rising because of global warming.

These studies have strengthened the link between warming and hurricane intensity at the global scale. Research has also continued in the Atlantic. A 2006 study by Kevin Trenberth and Dennis Shea from the National Center for Atmospheric Research found that global warming contributed to 2005’s brutal Atlantic hurricane season and has raised the risk of severe storms in the future.

As with all science, there is ongoing discussion about parts of the story. But the world’s most thorough and conservative evaluation of climate science has now concluded that hurricane intensity is rising due to global warming.

The Enviromental Academy Globie Awards

2007-02-23T21:01:00.000-05:00

Dear Neo,

Who won this year's Globie Awards?

The votes are in. We've counted them. And this is the moment we've all been waiting for.
We're pleased to announce the winners of the first-ever Global Warming Globie Awards.
Based on the votes from more than 20,000 online supporters, we've chosen the best and worst global warming performances - from public officials to corporate leaders.
Their actions in recent years - from promoting solutions to obstructing real action - got them nominated. But your votes determined the winners.
This has been a fun, new campaign for us. We wish to thank all the Globie voters for their support and participation. You've helped make the first-ever Global Warming Globie Awards a huge success.
With that, it's time to open the virtual envelopes. So, without further ado, the winners are...

Neos' Video News & Reports/ Music Videos

Avenging Annie - Andy Pratt is Back

The 9/11 Video / They Can Not Debunk..Bombs Planted

New 9/11 Video

Neos' Video News & Reports/ Music Videos: Neos' Video News & Reports/ Music Videos: Church Of Scientology Investigated 'South Park' Creators

Lewis Black Re: Our USA...To Funny :)

Omni, The Ultimate Super Hero Who Conquered The Evil Ones' & ETC

Cheating

Globle Changes in Weather Patterns Affecting Animals Extinction

Occupy Wall Street ( Update 28 Days Later )

I'm an AssHole----Denis Leary

Haarp 2 of 4

Haarp 4 of 4

Haarp 3 of 4

Haarp 1 of 4

Full Spectrum Dominance Pt.1

YouTube - DEVIL VATICAN!(Part 1),The Whore of Babylon

North Korean attack on South Korea pushes China's patience

NukeGate – Pakistan, “Greatest Threat to the West Today,” Experts Agree, and The Bomb

GlobalResearch.ca - Centre for Research on Globalization

A New Look at Old New World Order,Etc..

International Union For Conservation Of Nature News From AOL News

Most Recent Osama Bin Laden Warning

Bin Laden Broadcast To Obama ( 3 months ago)

The Real Deal Re: Our Leader

Is It Constitutional

Obama Mocks & Attacks Jesus Christ And The Bible / Video / Obama Is Not A Christian

Change Player Size Watch this video in a new windowObama Youth Sing as their parents ordered

Obama Civilian Security

The Obama Brigade In Formation

The Obama Youth Movement

In This Western We're the Indians; So, we're Screwed!

The Jounal

Google Page Creator

Free The Border Agents

How The Banks Create Money

Hubble's Surprise Proves To Be Huge

B - Side

Holder Just Made Me a Promise

Us,Iranian and Afghan Talks/Whoa

US and Iran at Afghan Talks

London Bridge Is Falling Down

G20 Protesters Face Police with Tasers

An American Foreign Legion ?

Obama Shows Resolve

Obama Lets CIA Keep Controversial Renditions Tool

Work Needed; Apply Here

Neos' Notebook & Jounal

Presidential Debates? A Democratic Process ?

History Of The Bush Family - The Library Of Congress Documents all Info.

The Truth Inspite of The Lies

How Total Control Begins (Police State)

BIG MEDIA REFRESHER Video

Truth Without The Spin 24

Ron Paul; He Can Do It.....

Fresh Meat=More Of ur Young&Poor

9/11 & the NWO, Explosive Devices & Iluminati etc.

9/11 The DVD, One Of The Best

US Intelligence Review Directly Contradicts Bush’s Line On Iran

This Looks Like " Just The Beginning "!

18 Peacemakers Busted at Giuliani and Hillary Offices and No Original Reporting From The Register

Climate Change will devastate Impoverish

Countries and The Ongoing Relife Programs

Program Details: Climate Change

Climate change threatens agricultural production - and food security - for farmers around the world, leading to food crises and conflict. Photo: Thatcher Cook for Mercy Corps

Mercy Corps is preparing for climate change impacts in its global operations in over 32 countries. The agency accepts the Stern Report findings that climate change threatens the life support systems for all people on our planet by disrupting water access, food production and health.

Climate change will increase poverty and conflict in the countries and communities where Mercy Corps works. It is critical to address this paramount challenge on an immediate and ongoing basis in everything we do.

The agency is taking steps to prepare for the impacts of climate change by strengthening and expanding environmental programs, all of which will be impacted by climate change. These include agroforestry, ecotourism, environmental governance and natural resource management.

The Case For Impeachment & lets not Forget GW Bush

House Tied In Knots Over Resolution To Impeach Cheney

Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, is trying to impeach Vice President Cheney for what he describes as “high crimes and misdemeanors” before the invasion of Iraq.

Right after the proposal was read on the House floor this afternoon, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer stepped forwarded and tried to convince lawmakers to table the bill.

“Impeachment is not on our agenda. We have some major priorities. We need to focus on those,” Hoyer told Fox News.

Update at 3:39 p.m. ET: We thought that the vote to table was over — the clock said 0:00 — but lawmakers are still switching things around and Kucinich is within a few votes of getting his bill to come up for a vote.

Update at 3:43 p.m. ET: At least 149 Republicans have voted in favor of considering the impeachment resolution. Hoyer’s motion, which would have blocked a vote, looks like its going to fail by at least 31 votes.

Update at 3:53 p.m. ET: The 15-minute vote began at 2:53 p.m. ET. It’s been an hour, and they’re still voting. The tally stands at 170-242 right now. Hoyer needed 218 votes to push the bill off the agenda. He’s 72 votes short.

Update at 4:02 p.m. ET: Hoyer’s motion failed 251-162. (Roll Call) The House is now voting on whether to vote on whether the resolution should be sent to the Judiciary Committee.

Update at 4:25 p.m. ET: The vote to decide to vote (yes, you read that correctly) just ended. By a 218-194 margin, the House has to vote on whether to send the resolution to the Judiciary Committee. That’s happening right now.

Debate over Cheney’s impeachment is in direct opposition to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s wishes. She has repeatedly said an impeachment of Cheney or President Bush is off the table. Thus, failing to table this measure is a essentially a jab in Pelosi’s ribs.

“We’re going to help them out, to explain themselves,” Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, told the AP of the impeachment’s supporters. “We’re going to give them their day in court.”

Update at 4:02 p.m. ET: Hoyer’s motion failed *251-162. (Roll Call) The House is now voting on whether to vote on whether the resolution should be sent to the Judiciary Committee.***

Update at 4:32 p.m. ET: The House *just voted, 218-194, to send the resolution to the Judiciary Committee. That should end today’s debate — but it does keep the resolution at least technically alive.***