Greetings, fellow Freedom Fighters™ and Defenders of Democracy™!
We have another jam-packed edition this week--so much injustice and outrage; so little time! Here are this week’s top stories:
-- Look for important petitions and other action items in our all-new “Sign here” department!
-- Correction to last week's issue: D.C. does NOT yet have its very own vote in the House of Representatives. The House had voted for D.C. to be granted a House seat with full voting rights (along with granting an additional House seat to Utah because, unlike Republicans, Democrats don't seem to be in the mood for creative gerrymandering these days). In his infinite racism, the conman-in-thief had the vote put off because, as we all know, he is a consummate racist just like the rest of the right-wingers. Bush does not want Black people to vote any more than he wants them to occupy that primo real estate in the Gulf coast of Louisiana. (If you don't believe us re Bush's anti-Black deeds regarding voting rights and Katrina, just read Greg Palast's investigative journalism ... if you have the stomach for it.) Yep ... not only do the District's residents suffer from taxation without representation, but many of them are economic conscripts who are fighting Bush's war over in Iraq to bring “freedom” and “democracy” to the Iraqis. How's that for irony?
-- March! March! March! Another update from A.N.S.W.E.R. makes it clear that, no matter how vehemently the conman-in-thief denies it, this nation is against his invasion of Iraq. We want our troops home NOW!
-- Bush's Private Army and Praetorian Guard: Blackwater. Jeremy Scahill does an expose that should scare you out of your wits if you still care about American democracy. We'll give you a hint: “privatization” = “public (our) tax money funds private companies that are not accountable to us”! That means that mercenaries like Blackwater get to spend our tax money however they wish; they are not accountable for their atrocities under military law (and they're trying like hell not to be held accountable under corporate or civil law, too!); and we the people have no way of keeping them honest. Just like Rummy wanted it. For more information, visit http://www.blackwaterbook.com
-- Be afraid ... be very, very afraid: in addition to borrowing (probably stealing) from the world's poorest countries, the conman-in-thief and his cronies are secretly confiscating our hard-earned dollars to support their out-of-control spending habits.
-- Neocons can't govern! Gonzo is merely the latest imperious conservative tripped up by his own ideological arrogance. Luckily, the Congress is finally, slowly starting to get around to investigating some of the “provisions” that Chimpie snuck into the PATRIOT Act.
-- AlterNet says it better than we could: “Congrats, George. Mission accomplished. You managed to make Saddam's tyranny look good in comparison with 'liberated Iraq.'”
-- Ever notice how damned EXPENSIVE neocons are--ever notice how much money they are costing US? AlterNet did!
-- Want to know the latest symbol of American wanton, reckless, imperial greed as seen through the eyes of the Middle East? The lavish, sprawling imperial embassy that is being built in the heart of Baghdad is fit for a king ...
-- Amy Goodman reports on Chiquita Banana's eager support of terrorism
-- From the “We couldn't make this up” department: White House declares war on the Constitution as Tony Snow flatly denies Checks and Balances ...!
-- America and Americans are maxed out on credit. The Middle Class? Nothing more than a happy illusion gratis financial smoke and mirrors.
-- U.S. military expert Chalmers Johnson argues that American empire may be on the verge of collapse. Would that it were so!
-- Senator Sanders blasts Bush on Bushonomics (which is like Reaganomics only more ruthless): “How can the economy be doing well if 1 million children have slipped into poverty on your watch?”
-- CIA Director Michael Hayden speaks the truth to power: Valerie Plame was a covert agent. Don't let the liars in the Republican party tell you any different!
-- "[O]f the 468 confirmations made by the Senate over the 25-year period [1981-2006], only 10 left office involuntarily for reasons other than a change in administration prior to the firings that took place in December." - Center for American Progress Senior Fellow Scott Lilly
-- Another Tony Snowjob (aka Bush blowjob): executive privilege is fine for Bush but unconstitutional for Bill Clinton because he could have invoked so much secrecy that he would not have been accountable to anyone. Snowjob thinks it's just fine and dandy for Chimpie not to be held accountable for shredding the Constitution and causing the deaths of hundreds of thousands worldwide, which we all know is so much less serious than getting a blowjob from an intern.
-- DN! reports: “The Ghosts of Abu Ghraib”--a new HBO documentary--traces the political and legal precedents that led to the torture of prisoners at the infamous Iraqi prison.
-- DN! reports on Puerto Rico's ugly history gratis the United States
-- The brown shirts aren't coming: they're already here in force! DN! reports on widespread international and domestic spying by the NYPD on political activists before and during the RNC convention. Oh, sure, the NYPD spokescop claimed that they were just reporting on events, like the U.S. Open, but The Scallion's bullshit detectors cry “BULLSHIT!” If all NYPD were doing is reporting on events, that would not exactly be newsworthy ... besides, the police spokesbrownshirt never even attempted to deny that NYPD personnel had infiltrated non-violent, anti-war organizations and SPIED on them. It's the politics, stupid!
-- Not since the Gilded Age of the late 19th century has America witnessed such a rapid shift in the distribution of economic wealth as it has in the past 30 years. Hint: it's not going to the poor or middle classes.
-- AlterNet posts an R-rated rant on the miscreant failures in the White House from Bill Maher
-- Women: DON'T SLEEP WITH REPUBLICANS! Case in point: Missouri's Gov. Matt Blunt (R) announced that he will cut off all program funding to Planned Parenthood.
-- Despite his LIES to the contrary, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales approved plans to fire several U.S. attorneys in a November meeting, according to newly released documents!
-- New York Times reveals that one of the women who appeared in last week's cover story on female Iraq veterans never served in Iraq and might have made up much of what she said in her interview. Ya think?
-- Don't miss the Clintons' real trouble with truth!
Keep the faith and keep fighting: together, we WILL win our nation back!
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Interesting things we found in our travels
Elizabeth Edwards may be John Edwards's best campaign asset
While John is tough as nails, he is going ahead with the campaign with Elizabeth's full support:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/03/22/schneider.edwards/index.html
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W = WORST!
Although the author below puts Chimpie in the bottom three, The Scallion believes that the conman-in-thief belongs well under the lowest rung available for grading occupanhts of the Oval (or should we say Offal) Office ...
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0524-31.htm
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Buzzflash: Bush wanted U.S. Attorneys fired because they were leading the field prosecuting REPUBLICAN SCANDALS!
Fired U.S. Attorneys led the Nation in Convictions. No Wonder the Bush Administration was Worried!
Submitted by BuzzFlash on Wed, 03/21/2007 - 1:12pm. Analysis
A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS
Every day, the explanations for the firings of the eight U.S. attorneys are becoming less about competence and more about corruption. Some new statistics show that the prosecutors were in fact leading the nation in output:
Six ranked in the top third of all U.S. attorneys for prosecutions, filing a combined 106,188 last year alone
Five ranked in the top third for convictions, achieving 98,939
Three were among the top five in the number of immigration prosecutions (including Carol Lam, whose firing was attributed to immigration by Karl Rove)
Now these were some busy folks. It is almost a wonder that the fired U.S. attorneys had the time to take the phone calls notifying them of their dismissals.
If these U.S. attorneys were deemed expendable after leading the nation in prosecutorial output, what have the underperformers been doing to keep their jobs? If prosecutions and convictions don't matter, what does?
Apparently less is more when it comes to following the law for this anti-Constitution administration. Especially when the investigations are hitting a little too close to home.
A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS
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The Clintons' Real Trouble with Truth
By Robert Parry
February 24, 2007
Hollywood mogul David Geffen touched a raw nerve with Hillary Clinton when he told New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd that “everybody in politics lies, but they [the Clintons] do it with such ease, it's troubling.”
The Clintons' trouble with truth, however, is not just the petty political lying nor is it their quibbling over what “is” is or what “mistake” means. It's that they have never shown any real reverence for the truth. Too often, they see it as something to be traded away for a transitory tactical advantage.
If a future historian is ever to understand what happened to the United States in this era-- how the world's greatest power so disastrously lost its way-- that scholar should look back to the first Clinton-Bush transition in 1992-93, when Bill Clinton could have grasped a unique historical moment but didn't.
Clinton was the first U.S. President to take office after the end of the Cold War. He could have ordered a long-needed historical review of what nine U.S. presidents had done, often behind opaque cloaks of government secrecy.
This review also could have assessed what damage those decades of secrecy, propaganda and deception had done to the core values of the American Republic. By revealing the truth, both the good and the bad, Clinton could have helped restore vibrancy to the democratic process by giving the voters the means to again be an informed electorate.
Yet, even if Clinton didn't want to spend the political capital that creation of a grand truth commission might have required, he still could have cooperated with three key investigations that were underway at the end of 1992.
Special prosecutor Lawrence Walsh was still battling the cover-up that had surrounded the Iran-Contra scandal of the 1980s; Democratic congressmen were digging into the “Iraqgate” scandal, the covert supplying of dangerous weapons to Iraq's Saddam Hussein in the 1980s; and a House task force was suddenly inundated with evidence pointing to Republican guilt in the “October Surprise” case, alleged interference by the Reagan-Bush campaign in 1980 to undermine President Jimmy Carter's efforts to free 52 American hostages then held in Iran.
Combined, those three investigations could have rewritten the history of the 1980s, exposing serious wrongdoing by Republicans who had held the White House for a dozen years. The full story also would likely have terminated the presidential ambitions of the powerful Bush family, since George H.W. Bush was implicated in all three scandals.
After winning in November 1992, however, Bill Clinton and the leaders of the Democratic majorities in Congress didn't care enough about the truth to fight for it. Heeding advice from influential fixers like Vernon Jordan, Clinton and the congressional Democrats turned their backs on those investigations.
Easy Exit
Clinton agreed to let George H.W. Bush retreat gracefully into retirement despite Bush's brazen attempt to destroy Walsh's criminal investigation by issuing six pardons to Iran-Contra defendants on Christmas Eve 1992.
In his 2004 memoirs, My Life, Clinton wrote that he “disagreed with the pardons and could have made more of them but didn't.” Clinton cited several reasons for giving his predecessor a pass.
“I wanted the country to be more united, not more divided, even if that split would be to my political advantage,” Clinton wrote. “Finally, President Bush had given decades of service to our country, and I thought we should allow him to retire in peace, leaving the matter between him and his conscience.”
By his choice of words, Clinton revealed how he saw information: not something that belonged to the American people and that had intrinsic value to the democratic process but as a potential weapon that could be put to “political advantage.”
On the Iran-Contra pardons, Clinton saw himself as magnanimously passing up this club that he could have wielded to bludgeon an adversary. He chose instead to join in a cover-up in the name of national unity, presumably with the hope of some reciprocity from the Republicans when his own secrets might need sweeping under the rug.
Similarly, the Democratic congressional leadership ignored the flood of incriminating evidence pouring into the “October Surprise” task force in December 1992.
Chief counsel Lawrence Barcella urged task force chairman Lee Hamilton to extend the investigation several months to examine this new evidence of Republican guilt, but Hamilton ordered Barcella simply to wrap the probe up.
Some of that evidence--including an unprecedented report from the Russian government about its knowledge of illicit Republican contacts with Iran--was simply hidden away in boxes that I discovered two years later and dubbed “The October Surprise X-Files.”
The “Iraqgate” investigation met a similar fate under the Clinton administration, as evidence of covert shipments of dangerous war materiel to Saddam Hussein in the 1980s was ignored or treated with disdain.
When former Reagan administration official Howard Teicher came forward with an affidavit describing secret U.S.-backed arms shipments to Iraq, Clinton officials went on the offensive-- against Teicher, bullying him into silence.
Clinton seemed so determined to prove his mettle to the insider crowd in Washington, as a guy who knew how to keep the secrets, that his cover-ups of Reagan-Bush-era misdeeds were almost as aggressive as those mounted by the Republicans when they held the White House. [For details, see Robert Parry's Secrecy & Privilege.]
No Radar
Early in Clinton's presidency, I approached then-deputy White House chief of staff John Podesta and other senior officials to ask about their plans for pursuing important historical investigations that had been left undone in 1993. I was told those issues simply weren't “on the radar scopes.”
However, if Clinton thought that his collaboration in keeping the Reagan-Bush secrets from the American people would earn him a measure of protection from Republicans, he was mistaken.
Freed from having to defend Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, right-wing media outlets went on the attack against Clinton, seizing on petty issues like his Whitewater real estate deal and launching endless investigations designed to cripple his presidency.
Only during his second term did Clinton agree to declassify limited quantities of Cold War records, such as those pertaining to the brutal U.S.-supported counterinsurgency campaigns in Guatemala. A Guatemalan truth commission had requested the documents, which revealed U.S. complicity in genocide against Mayan Indians in the 1980s.
But Bill Clinton never ordered a major declassification project, nor did he establish any U.S. truth commissions to put the Cold War history in a meaningful context. To Clinton, truth never seemed to be a high priority, either in his private life or in his public duties.
Ironically, Bill Clinton's protection of the Reagan-Bush administrations didn't protect him. Clinton saw his prized domestic agenda, including Hillary Clinton's health care reform, defeated; his party lose control of Congress in 1994; the House vote to impeach him; and his Vice President, Al Gore, have the 2000 election stolen from him.
Then, once the Bush family again controlled the White House, one of the first acts of the new President, George W. Bush, was to sign an executive order ensuring that Reagan-Bush-era historical records, scheduled for release in 2001, stayed locked up, possibly forever.
Based on this pattern of events, it could be said that Republicans value the power of information--even as they work to hide or distort it--while Democrats may say they appreciate reality but then act as if truth were a mere chip to be bargained cheaply away.
David Geffen may not have had Bill Clinton's sacrifice of historical truth in mind when he chastised the Clintons for their ease with political lying. The direct context of his remark was President Clinton's decision before leaving office in 2001 to forego a pardon for American Indian activist Leonard Peltier while granting one to international businessman Marc Rich.
“Marc Rich getting pardoned? An oil-profiteer expatriate who left the country rather than pay taxes or face justice?” Geffen fumed in his interview with Maureen Dowd. “Yet another time when the Clintons were unwilling to stand for the things that they genuinely believe in. Everybody in politics lies, but they do it with such ease, it's troubling.” [NYT, Feb. 21, 2007]
While Geffen's remark may have been harsh, it does appear to be the case that the Clintons value truth only to the degree that it doesn't require them to show political courage.
Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories in the 1980s for the Associated Press and Newsweek. His latest book, Secrecy & Privilege: Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq, can be ordered at secrecyandprivilege.com. It's also available at Amazon.com, as is his 1999 book, Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, the Press & 'Project Truth.'
To comment at Consortiumblog, click here. To comment to us by e-mail, click here. To donate so we can continue reporting and publishing stories like the one you just read, click here.
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Sign here!
Below are important petitions and action items we'd like to share with our readership. We encourage you to participate--make your voice heard!
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From the ACLU:Make a Call to Restore the Constitution
It's hard to believe this happened in America: Last October,
Congress and the President passed the Military Commissions
Act, eliminating habeas corpus -- the right to challenge unlawful
imprisonment -- for some people.
This law undermines American due process and our laws
against torture.
It gives the President the power to decide who is and who is not
an enemy of our country, and to imprison people indefinitely
without charging them with any crime.
This week, we are calling for change. It's time for Congress to
restore our Constitution and reassert the very rights that make
us unique as a country by fixing the un-American Military
Commissions Act. A bill already under consideration -- the
Restoring the Constitution Act of 2007 -- does just that.
Help restore the Constitution. Call your Members of
Congress right now:
http://action.aclu.org/site/R?i=RwCqnkm9l1K6-2plolhxLA..
Tell them:
"It's time to restore due process and defend the Constitution.
Please co-sponsor the Restoring the Constitution Act of 2007."
(In the House, the bill number is H.R. 1415. In the Senate, it's S. 576.)
The Bush administration is working hard to stop Congress from
passing this vital legislation. But we're working harder.
We're leading the charge, running radio ads for nearly two weeks,
asking Americans who care about the Constitution to call their
Members of Congress.
Join in, call now. We need every voice to win:
http://action.aclu.org/site/R?i=3nWxKw3BZBJIvDAVQ7ooUQ..
Our Members of Congress need to know that we'll never give up
the rights that define us.
We're pulling out all of the stops, and so is a broad, bi-partisan
coalition of organizations who are calling on their membership
and activists this week to pass the "Restoring the Constitution
Act of 2007." When you pick up the phone today, you will be joining
with countless others from across the country who care deeply
about restoring the Constitution.
Please, add your voice. Call your Members of Congress now.
http://action.aclu.org/site/R?i=0WLqKV58YNXoXEZknviB1g..
The Restoring the Constitution Act of 2007 restores due process
and habeas corpus rights for detainees being held indefinitely at
Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere. It enforces the Geneva
Conventions as the law on how we treat people. And it holds
government officials accountable so that due process violations
and torture stop.
With so much pressure from the White House, we need every
voice to win this fight, including yours. I'm sure you agree: We
must make sure we don't fall a few votes short when freedom
is on the line.
That's why your call today is critically important.
Sincerely,
Anthony D. Romero
Executive Director
ACLU
P.S. The ACLU and our half-million members are doing all we can
to restore habeas corpus and due process and stop torture.
To make sure these abuses never happen again, we have just
launched a nearly two-week long radio campaign urging people
who care about the Constitution to call their Members of Congress
and urge them to support the Restoring the Constitution Act of 2007.
Listen to the ads here:
http://action.aclu.org/site/R?i=NvX58mT0nG81HvpvjB8hyg..
Then, call your Members of Congress:
http://action.aclu.org/site/R?i=0ICY0CNM-sqF1U5b0F7TUw..
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From SaveOurEnvironment—tell Exxon-Mobil to pay up (deadbeats)!
ExxonMobil still has not paid the victims of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill
Tell Exxon it's time to pay up!
It's been 18 years since the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill and ExxonMobil still has not paid the punitive damages it owes to the victims of the spill.
The oil spill destroyed the livelihoods of thousands of Alaskan fishermen and others, and decimated wildlife.
Instead of paying what it owes, ExxonMobil has dragged more than 30,000 people through 13 years of litigation by appealing every guilty verdict it's been given since 1994! During this time 6,000 people have died waiting for compensation.
Click here now to send a fax to ExxonMobil's CEO and Board Chair and tell them to stop appealing the guilty verdicts and pay the damages they owe.
The Exxon Valdez spill didn't just maim and kill hundreds of thousands of birds, otters, seals, and whales (many of which have yet to recover). It also wiped out an entire multi-million dollar herring fishing industry upon which so many lives - and the ecosystem - depended.
Please show your support for the Alaskan communities whose way of life and livelihoods were devastated by the Exxon Valdez oil spill.
Click here to send a fax demanding ExxonMobil pay the punitive damages it owes the victims of the Exxon Valdez spill. Justice delayed is justice denied.
ExxonMobil's behavior is shameful. That is why victims of the spill will gather on Saturday, March 24th in Cordova, Alaska to unveil a 7-foot tall wooden ExxonMobil Ridicule Pole. The special totem pole is a native Alaskan tradition meant to force a person of high standing to pay a debt or obligation.
You may not be able to attend the unveiling but you can join in solidarity by sending a message to ExxonMobil. Click here to send your fax now.
After you send your fax, please forward this message to your friends and family and ask them to join you in demanding justice for the victims of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.
Your support can help close this painful chapter in the lives of thousands of Alaskans - so they can start rebuilding their communities at last. Thank you.
Julie Waterman
Campaign Director, SaveOurEnvironment.org
info@saveourenvironment.org
Shawnee Hoover
Campaign Director, Exxpose Exxon
info@exxposeexxon.com
P.S. To learn more, read The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Exxposed: A Reality Check on ExxonMobil's Claims or watch the 30-min documentary, The Day The Water Died.
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From Dennis Kucinich: STOP BIG MONEY!
Be One of a Million - Stop BIG Money!
Be one of a million - or five million, ten million and more! Be part of the groundswell of those who are saying NO to Big Money corrupting politics today. And, join those who are saying YES to Dennis Kucinich as President of the United States.
Dennis has never accepted campaign funds from corporations. For forty years, he has answered to YOU, not Big Money. Dennis will be the President with "no strings attached," no ties to corporations - only bound to the best interests of the American people.
Just a few days from now, Dennis' campaign hits its first big benchmark, the March 31 Federal Election Commission (FEC) Quarterly Report deadline.
This report is important in that it will show support for a man:
- * who wants to take Washington back for the people,
- * who is in touch with what they want and need,
- * who takes the time to ensure the right decisions are being made,
- * who wants to give all of us the American dream, and
- * who holds dearly the words of the Constitution.
Dennis "talks the talk, and walks the walk"; he doesn't just say it, he does it. Dennis has numerous bills and proposals on the floor of Congress today, including:
- Kucinich H.R. 1234, the only bill that will bring the troops home safely from Iraq, and start the road to Peace and Security today. Recently introduced to the House, it is already gaining co-sponsors.
- View Kucinich 12-Point Plan for Iraq
- Read Kucinich 12-Point Plan for Iraq / HR 1234
- Conyers/Kucinich H.R. 676, the only Health Care bill that will provide Not-For-Profit Health CARE to all, because it cuts out the fat, the profits, the middlemen - the insurance companies. It is co-sponsored by 60 leading members of the House of Representatives.
- Dennis' Health Care presentation at the SEIU Presidential Forum in Las Vegas last Saturday (March 23, 2007)
- Conyers/Kucinich Plan for Health Care/H.R. 676
- Kucinich's proposal to cancel NAFTA, CAFTA and the WTO, and start over. This is the only plan of action that can bring jobs back to the United States, while it protects the job, safety and environmental rights of workers in America and overseas. This proposition is strongly supported by numerous trade unions.
- View Kucinich Plan for NAFTA
- Read Kucinich Plan for NAFTA
We have just a few days - to midnight March 31, 2007 - to kickstart the most successful grassroots funding effort ever. Working together, we are going to raise millions of dollars with "no strings attached."
Help get us started. Contribute $50, $100 or $250 today - or the limit of $2,300, if you're able. Help us reach our goal as fast as we can.
Be excited about voting again. Be a part of electing a president who has proven to take action, not just make promises - Dennis Kucinich.
Be one of millions to contribute online. Or, one of millions to mail in a contribution, download and print this form.
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From Democrats.com
Bush to Congress: Drop Dead
After weeks of administration lies about the "Pearl Harbor Day Massacre" of eight U.S. Attorneys, the Senate and House Judiciary Committees are preparing to subpoena Alberto Gonzales, Harriet Miers, and Karl Rove.
But George Bush went on TV to declare he will "oppose any attempts to subpoena White House officials." Why? Obviously because Bush, Gonzales, Miers, and Rove conspired to fire U.S. attorneys who were prosecuting Republican corruption. That's obstruction of justice - grounds not only for impeachment but also prosecution.
Bush promised to fight any subpoenas in the courts if he has to. Of course we know the Republican-controlled Supreme Court will take Bush's side, just as it did in 2000 when it threw out 175,000 never-counted Florida votes to steal the Presidency for him.
Ultimately Congress has just one tool to force Bush and Cheney to respect the Constitution: Impeachment and Removal.
Over 74,000 of our supporters have urged their Representatives to Impeach Bush and Cheney. Help us reach 100,000:
http://www.democrats.com/peoplesemailnetwork/88?ad=d7
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Join Cindy Sheehan in Urging Dennis Kucinich to Introduce Articles of Impeachment
On Monday, Dennis Kucinich asked everyone if it's time for impeachment, and many of you visited his website to enthusiastically say Yes.
On Tuesday, Cindy Sheehan wrote a letter to Kucinich urging him to introduce Articles of Impeachment. Ask everyone you know to sign Cindy's letter:
http://www.democrats.com/kucinich-please-impeach
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Tell Congress to Vote NO on Supplemental Spending Bill for War
The House is scheduled to vote to give Bush another $93 billion for his disastrous Iraq War on Thursday.
Speaker Pelosi is desperate to pass the bill and is threatening political revenge against progressive Democrats who oppose it, led by Barbara Lee and Maxine Waters.
Pelosi is also trying to prevent Barbara Lee from offering her crucial amendment to restrict any new funds to a "fully-funded withdrawal." Tragically, she even persuaded Moveon to conduct a dishonest poll of its members that deliberately excluded Lee's amendment:
http://www.democrats.com/more-dishonesty-from-moveon
This is our last chance to ask our Representatives to support Barbara Lee's Amendment:
http://www.democrats.com/peoplesemailnetwork/96
Here are some words of inspiration from Democrats who oppose the Supplemental:
Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.): "As a nation, can we hear the words of Gandhi, so simple, so true--that it's either non-violence or non-existence? Can we hear the words of Martin Luther King, Jr. that we must learn to live together as brothers and sisters or perish as fools? Tonight I must make it plain and clear, that as a human being, as a citizen of the world, as a citizen of America, as a member of Congress, and as an individual committed to a world at peace with itself, I will not and cannot vote for another dollar or another dime to support this war."
Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.): "The best way to keep [the troops] safe is to bring them home. It's difficult to oppose [House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). She's a great leader and working wonders to get this passed, but some things I can't vote for. [If the resolution fails] It won't look good, like the Democrats can't get their act together, but that's OK. We can write a better bill."
If you have a few extra moments to end Bush's disastrous war, please call one or more undecided members of the Progressive Caucus and post the results in our comments:
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/19669
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Peace and Impeachment Photos Project
Some friends of ours took anti-war signs onto public trains last weekend and asked people if they would be photographed with them. On Sunday, March 18, four teams of photographers went through the New York City subway. On five subway lines, 333 people agreed to be photographed. Looking through the collection is an eye-opening experience.
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/subway
Why not try this in your city or small town? And include Bush Is Over and Cheney Is Over signs!
http://www.bushisover.org
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PDA Grassroots Leadership Conference -- March 23-25, 2007
Join us in Washington, D.C., to work on these issues:
-End the Occupation/ Redirect Funding (Oversight/Accountability/Impeachment)
-Implement Universal HealthCare
-Assure Economic Justice
-Guarantee Clean, Fair Transparent Elections
-Stop Global Warming
Panelists include: Medea Benjamin, PDA Board Member/Code Pink; Marilyn Clement, PDA Universal Health Care Issue Organizing Team/Health Care Now!; Lori Wallach, Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch; Bill Fletcher, Center for Labor Renewal; Steve Cobble, PDA Board Member; David Swanson, PDA Board Member; Tim Carpenter, PDA Executive Director; Bill Goold, Congressional Progressive Caucus Executive Director; Terry Lierman, PDA Board Member and Maryland Democratic Party State Chair; Greg Moore, PDA Board Member; Jeff Cohen, PDA Communications Consultant.
http://tinyurl.com/2e6odd
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Come to Crawford for Easter
The Spring holidays are a time of re-birth, and nothing could bring a re-birth of our democracy like impeachment. So, we'll be holding an impeachment hearing outside Bush's estate in Crawford, Texas. Please come join Cindy Sheehan, David Swanson, Ann Wright, Debra Sweet, and many others for an imPEACHment festival and impeachment hearings on the emperor's back porch. Willie and Annie Nelson, Jodie Evans, Ann Wright, the Crawford Peace House, and Ava Lowery will receive Camp Casey Peace Awards. Emma's Revolution and many others will perform. And the Make Hip Hop Not War Tour will roll through. Join us:
http://www.gsfp.org/article.php?id=320
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On April 28, Spell Out IMPEACH
Since Congress doesn't seem to get it, on April 28th America will spell it out: IMPEACH! Spell it out in your own creative ways. You can use your bodies on the ground, or use chalk on the sidewalk, paint it on the side of a barn (provided it's your barn!), tattoo it on your arm, parade down the sidewalk carrying giant letters, hire a skywriter, plant flowerbeds in the shape of the letters, etc. A military mother in Brooklyn plans to spell it out with pizza pies on the Coney Island boardwalk. Let us hear your creative ideas!
http://www.a28.org
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From MoveOn: Fair Elections Now!
Clicking here will add your name:
"Congress must pass public financing to make our elections fair."
Dear MoveOn member,
The Iraq debate rages on, but leaders in Congress are kicking off another important fightpublic financing of our elections. Top Democrats and Republicans just announced a groundbreaking bill to repair our democracy with fairly funded elections.1
Can you imagine if people could be elected to Congress without massive wealth and without begging for campaign cash from big donors? Congress wouldn't owe corporate lobbyists any favors. That's why those very lobbyists will work overtime to kill this exciting reform.
Let's work to make Congress answer to the people. The first step is to gather 200,000 signatures for this petition: "Congress must pass public financing to make our elections fair."
Please click here to add your name to the petition:
http://pol.moveon.org/fairelections/o.pl?id=10063-1005254-R0jULY&t=3
After you sign, forward this email to your friends, co-workers, and family to spread the word.
This is our best chance ever to advance the cause of public financing for fair elections. The idea's been proven in numerous states, and with the new Congress, this effort has a real shot.2 It will take hard work, but public financing of elections has become a personal passion for two of the most powerful senators in the countrythe number two Democrat in the Senate, Dick Durbin (D-IL), and Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA). This bipartisan effort is unprecedented.
The Fair Elections Now Act would let candidates run on their ideas, not how much money they can raise. Candidates would qualify for public financing by raising small donations from enough voters to show they have real grassroots support. If their opponent opts for private fundraising, publicly financed candidates would receive extra funds to match dollar for dollar.3
The money for the Fair Elections system would be raised by charging a new fee to big media companies. Media companies use the public airwaves to make huge profits from political ads every election season.
Beating back the lobbyists and winning this reform won't happen overnight, but today we begin a crucial fight for fair elections.
Sign this petition to make Congress answer to the people: "Congress must pass public financing to make our elections fair." Clicking here will add your name:
http://pol.moveon.org/fairelections/o.pl?id=10063-1005254-R0jULY&t=4
Thank you for all you do.
Noah, Ilyse, Tom, Jennifer, and the MoveOn.org Political Action Team
Thursday, March 22nd, 2007
P.S. If you want to learn more, check out this great op-ed from our friends at Public Campaign:
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=2435&id=10063-1005254-R0jULY&t=5
Sources:
1. "Specter joins Democrats in call for public campaign financing," Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, March 21, 2007
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07080/771121-84.stm
2. "Durbin and Specter Take on D.C. Money Culture," Huffington Post, March 20, 2007
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=2435&id=10063-1005254-R0jULY&t=6
3. Senate Fair Elections Now Act, Public Campaign
http://www.publicampaign.org/node/38166
Support our member-driven organization: MoveOn.org Political Action is entirely funded by our 3.2 million members. We have no corporate contributors, no foundation grants, no money from unions. Our tiny staff ensures that small contributions go a long way. If you'd like to support our work, you can give now at:
http://political.moveon.org/donate/email.html?id=10063-1005254-R0jULY&t=7
PAID FOR BY MOVEON.ORG POLITICAL ACTION, http://pol.moveon.org/
Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.
-----
From our information clearinghouse
These are items we receive from the countless mailing lists to which The Scallion collectively subscribes. They are worth the effort of at least a good skim.
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From the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
From the Pentagon to California,
Antiwar protests sweep across the country
*Please forward widely to your email lists, friends and family*
The March starts across the bridge to the Pentagon
To see the report from Saturday's demo, click this link.
Thirty-seven years ago when anti-war protests began to engulf the United States, the Nixon administration adopted a public posture of utter indifference. Nixon went out of his way to claim that he didn't notice massive anti-war demonstrations in Washington because he was watching a football game on TV. We learned later from the memoirs of high government officials that the rising tide of anti-war protests between 1968 and 1970 constituted one of the greatest fears for the war makers. The movement spread deep into the rank-and-file of the U.S. military as well, as soldiers, marines and sailors carried out their own protests and acts of resistance. Sometimes the people underestimate their own power, but the ruling establishment knows all too well the consequences of a politicized and mobilized people.
Bush pleads for "patience"
Iraq Veterans Against the War marches alongside
Veterans for Peace and Vietnam Veterans against the war
(Photo: Bill Hackwell)
It is the protests sweeping throughout the United States during the past four days and the prospect of other demonstrations to come that forced Bush to go on the airwaves Monday to "plead for patience." The Bush administration and the Pentagon high command fear that the protest movement could become a contagion. Politics is dynamic and political apathy, lethargy and inaction can turn into their opposites. The protests of the last days anchored by the march of tens of thousands at the Pentagon raises this specter for the White House and the Pentagon.
This is still an unfulfilled potential, but it can happen.
It will only be the actions of all anti-war organizations and the people that can significantly change the political climate. Many who came to the March on the Pentagon, and the many thousands who tried but couldn't because of the weather, are making their plans for local demonstrations, protests at local Federal Buildings, city-wide marches and rallies, community protests and vigils, civil disobedience and a range of ongoing actions building anti-war pressure into an irresistible force.
Protest and resistance
Iraq Veterans Against the War and Appeal for Redress,
an anti-war organization of active-duty service members against the war (Photo: Bill Hackwell)
The next step for the ANSWER Coalition and many affiliated organizations and individuals is captured in the slogan, "Protest and Resistance," encouraging sustained activity including mass action protests on a local level, continued education and mobilization and acts of collective and individual resistance to the war machine. As happened during Vietnam, active-duty soldiers are beginning to participate in both protest and in acts of resistance. National coalitions play a role, as do local organizations as do all of us as individuals both inside and outside the military .
To tell us about your local antiwar activities, click on this link - we will be posting notices of upcoming actions and sending out nation-wide report backs.
Media coverage on the spreading antiwar protests
For a very good round-up of the actions across the United States marking the beginning of the fifth year of the war in Iraq, listen to the coverage from the March 19 edition of "Democracy Now," hosted by Amy Goodman. (The best way to listen is to right-click, select "Save Target As" and then open the file on your computer). To see the C-SPAN coverage of the March on the Pentagon, go to the C-SPAN homepage, and find "ANSWER Rally Against Iraq War."
The people repudiate pro-war thugs
The forces of ultra-right racism and militarism tried to "Swift Boat" the Washington protest. Wrapping themselves in American flags, groups like Rolling Thunder pretended to "defend" the Vietnam Memorial from threats that they themselves totally fabricated. (Operation Rolling Thunder was the name given to the U.S. Air Force's B-52 carpet-bombing of Vietnam between February 1965 and October 1968, in which thousands of Vietnamese civilians died each month.)
On March 17, these pro-war puppets showed their true colors. They shoved elderly people, screamed at parents whose children had been killed in Iraq, yelled racist comments at Arab and Muslim participants, and spit on and ripped signs out of the hands of high school students.
The government's police stood by and let this happen, despite their oft-repeated claims to be "keeping the peace." A very strong ANSWER security squad blocked these pro-Bush provocateurs from entering the front of the march. Anti-war protestors were disciplined and focused and refused to be provoked into the confrontation the government was hoping for. The enormous power of the people was felt as all those from around the country fighting to stop the war came together, rendering the sideline fascists irrelevant, and marched united on the Pentagon.
Go to www.answercoalition.org for more information.
To see the report from Saturday's demo, click this link.
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From AlterNet
Bush's Shadow Army
By Jeremy Scahill, The Nation
The Bush Administration is increasingly dependent on private security forces to do its dirty work, Jeremy Scahill reveals in his new book, Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army. Read more
Think the Nation's Debt Doesn't Affect You? Think Again
By John F. Ince, AlterNet
In addition to borrowing from the world's poorest countries, Bush & Co. are secretly confiscating your hard-earned dollars to support their out-of-control spending habits.
'Born-Again Virginity' in the Age of Girls Gone Wild
By Amy DePaul, AlterNet
Born-again virginity has been debunked by research, but serious proponents of it -- from mature single women to evangelicals -- continue embrace the chastity pledge, for strikingly different reasons.
How True Are the Confessions of a Terror Mastermind?
By Danny Schechter, MediaChannel.org
Just as a scandal in the Justice Department has the Bush Administration reeling, al Qaeda's #3 operative has admitted to killing U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl. So, what can we believe?
Why Conservatives Can't Govern
By Robert L. Borosage, TomPaine.com
Alberto Gonzales is the latest imperious conservative tripped up by his own ideological arrogance.
Four Years in Iraq and Bloodier by the Minute
By Anthony Arnove, Tomdispatch.com
A short rundown of some of what George Bush's war and occupation has wrought.
Are Big Enviro Groups 'Holding Back' Anti-Warming Movement?
By Megan Tady, The NewStandard
While the U.S. government and some corporations are finally acknowledging global climate change, some critics say partnering with such forces may "tame" the movement's goals and strategies.
Indicting NYC Cops Is One Thing, Convicting Them Is Another
By Earl Ofari Hutchinson, New America Media
The attorney for the NYC police officer accused of killing Sean Bell believes his client will be acquitted. This is not typical attorney bluster; the odds are that he is right.
PEEK and Video: The hottest buzz and videos on the web
You, too, can be an Iraqi policeman ... [VIDEO]
By Joshua Holland
And other clips from the front.
Senate debate on revoking Gonzales's appointment authority begins
By Bob Geiger
Bush administration snuck provision into Patriot Act last year.
Hillary's Politics are sooo 1984 [Video]
By Jan Frel
A video spoof lays bare the artificiality of Hillary Clinton's attempt to run her campaign as a one-way "national conversation."
Why Having More No Longer Makes Us Happy
By Bill McKibben, Mother Jones
The formula of human well-being used to be simple: Make money, get happy. So why is the old axiom suddenly turning on us? Read more
Conservatives Cost a Lot of Money
By Jane Smiley, HuffingtonPost.com
Let's put it this way: Carpet bombing is much more costly in every way than good intelligence and loyal allies. It's a pocketbook issue.
The '60s Are Gone, But One of Its Most Controversial Organizations Is Back
By Astra Taylor, AlterNet
Since its fiery demise in 1969, there have been various attempts to revive Students for a Democratic Society. All such efforts failed ... until recently.
Building an Embassy Fit for an Empire
By Adil E. Shamoo, The Baltimore Sun
The United States is building a massive embassy complex in the heart of Baghdad that is already becoming a symbol of America's imperial ambitions in the Middle East.
Disrupting Power: A CODEPINK Activist Explains How to Stand on Your Chair and Yell for Justice
By Gayle Brandeis, AlterNet
One activist's story of finding her courage to speak up to the powerful.
It's Been an 'All Out War' on Pot Smokers for 35 Years
By Paul Armentano, AlterNet
Since 1972, U.S. taxpayers have spent well over $20 billion enforcing criminal marijuana laws and 16.5 million people have been arrested. It's time to put an end to this waste.
Saddam Has the Last Laugh
By Robert Scheer, Truthdig
Congrats, George. Mission accomplished. You managed to make Saddam's tyranny look good in comparison with "liberated Iraq."
Chiquita's Slipping Appeal
By Amy Goodman, King Features Syndicate
Want to help finance terrorism? Buy a Chiquita banana.
PEEK and Video: The hottest buzz and videos on the web
Bush White House: I wasn't involved... [VIDEO]
By Evan Derkacz
... but if I was, it's a security issue...
House subpoenas Rove, Miers
One step closer to Constitutional showdown...
A $210 Million Tip? Nice Work If You Can Get It
By Barbara Ehrenreich, The Progressive
Home Depot salesclerks get about $8-$10 an hour for lifting heavy objects and running around the floor all day with no tips while its departed CEO got $210 million bonus for sinking the value of the company's stock.
Debate: To fund Iraq or not to fund... [VIDEO]
By Evan Derkacz
Realpolitik v. idealpolitik?
Australian court: If you suck, you must f**k
By Jessica Valenti
Disturbing decision...
White House Maintains "Right to Lie" [VIDEO]
By Evan Derkacz
Daily Show on Attorney Scandal...
America, Maxed Out
By James Scurlock, Scribner
Hard times, easy credit and the era of predatory lenders. Read more
From the Mirage of a Middle-Class Life to the Slavery of Debt
By Joshua Holland, AlterNet
Maxed Out director James Scurlock explains how without credit cards, millions of apparently middle-class Americans would live at the poverty level.
The First Openly Godless Member of Congress
By Ellen Goodman, Truthdig
Representative Pete Stark is the highest-ranking politician in American history say publicly that he doesn't believe a "supreme being" -- but believes that real political courage is saying, "Let's tax the rich and give money to poor kids."
Five Health Care Questions for the Democratic Candidates
By Roger Hickey, TomPaine.com
Here are five questions the Democratic presidential candidates at Saturday's health care debate must answer.
Is the American Empire on the Brink of Collapse?
By Mark Karlin, BuzzFlash
U.S. military expert Chalmers Johnson argues the catastrophe in Iraq and the staggering cost of running a military that stretches across 130 countries on 737 bases may finally cost America its empire.
Moral Panic Comes 'Unhooked'
By Ann Friedman, Campus Progress
Author Laura Sessions Stepp shows unnecessary alarm over college "hookup culture" in her new book.
Colbert says Impeach Bush now... [VIDEO]
By Evan Derkacz
Or you're a bunch of wimps...
Lies My Paper Told Me
By Allan Uthman, Buffalo Beast
We can't just blame the media alone for not telling the truth -- we've got to face the fact that audiences are paying to hear those lies they know not to be true.
What's an opinion worth?
By Sean Gonsalves, AlterNet
How to combat the anti-intellectual virus.
Socialist Senator Sanders blasts Bush economy [VIDEO]
By Evan Derkacz
Mr. President, how can the econ be doing well if 1 million children have slipped into poverty on your watch?
White House Declares War... on Constitution [VIDEO]
By Melissa McEwan
Tony Snow flat-out denies Checks and Balances...
Rubber-stamping, Bush-enabling, Foley-protecting hypocrites
By Bob Geiger
Funny lecture from RNC to Democrats
Going AWOL vs. Going to Iraq
By Mary Wiltenburg, Der Spiegel
As criticism of the Iraq war grows at home, some US soldiers abroad increasingly are rejecting Bush's mission. On military bases across Germany, many are now seeking a way out through desertion or early discharge. Read more
Edwards Challenges Obama and Clinton, Richardson Surprises at Health Care Debate
AlterNet
The New Leadership On Health Care presidential forum put on display which of the candidates have the most serious plans -- Kucinich, Edwards, Gravel and Richardson -- and who isn't clear on their plans -- Obama and Clinton.
Who's Gorging and Who's Getting Roasted in the Economic Barbecue?
By James M. Cypher, Dollars and Sense
Not since the Gilded Age of the late 19th century has America witnessed such a rapid shift in the distribution of economic wealth as it has in the past 30 years.
New Rule: Traitors [Bush & Cheney et al] don't get to question my patriotism [VIDEO]
By Evan Derkacz
Rated R rant on the miscreant failures in the White House from Bill Maher
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From the Center for American Progress
GOOD NEWS
On Friday, the Food and Drug Administration reversed course and decided to fully fund the agency's Office of Women's Health.
STATE WATCH
COLORADO: Gov. Bill Ritter (D) "signed a law requiring hospitals to tell rape victims about the availability of emergency contraception."
NORTH CAROLINA: Study finds that North Carolina is suffering from "devastating costs" of the Iraq war.
CIVIL RIGHTS: Several states are considering legislation to express regret or apologize for their role in slavery.
BLOG WATCH
THINK PROGRESS: Public support for Iraq war in fast decline since 2003.
FEMINISTING: Businesses don't have to cover birth control pills.
FISH BOWL DC: Helen Thomas keeps her front-row seat at White House press briefings.
DAILY GRILL
"She [Valerie Plame Wilson] was not covert. She did not meet the criteria, in any way, shape, matter or form as a covert agent."
-- Fox News host Sean Hannity, 3/6/07
VERSUS
Ms. Wilson was covert.
-- CIA Director Michael Hayden, 3/16/07
GOOD NEWS
In a 94-2 vote, the Senate yesterday voted to "end the Bush administration's ability to unilaterally fill U.S. attorney vacancies as a backlash to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' firing of eight federal prosecutors."
STATE WATCH
OREGON: "Oregon House backed a resolution Tuesday urging President Bush and Congress to withdraw troops from Iraq as soon as possible."
WASHINGTON: A community plans to produce several "zero-energy" homes.
IOWA: State House passes resolution allowing voter registration on Election Day.
BLOG WATCH
THINK PROGRESS: Right-wing amendment forces Katrina victims to find a job before receiving aid.
TALKING POINTS MEMO: Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-OH) calls conditions at Walter Reed "overblown."
POGO BLOG: In support of whistleblower protections.
THE SWAMP: Attorney General Alberto Gonzales cancels his House appearance tomorrow to discuss the Justice Department budget and other issues not related to the U.S. Attorney purge.
DAILY GRILL
"[The prosecutor purge is] a customary practice by presidents. U.S. attorneys and others serve at the pleasure of the President. Past administrations have removed U.S. attorneys. It is their right to do so."
-- President Bush, 3/14/07
VERSUS
"[O]f the 468 confirmations made by the Senate over the 25-year period [1981-2006], only 10 left office involuntarily for reasons other than a change in administration prior to the firings that took place in December."
-- Center for American Progress Senior Fellow Scott Lilly, 3/20/07
GOOD NEWS
"Public housing projects damaged by Hurricane Katrina would not be knocked down until the U.S. government has a plan to replace them" under a bill passed by the House yesterday.
STATE WATCH
LOUISIANA: "The pace of rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina has slowed, leaving New Orleans and some other Gulf Coast areas with less than half the people they had before the storm."
NEW HAMPSHIRE: State residents vote to reduce greenhouse gases.
HEALTH CARE: Coalition of governors rallies to block the Bush administration's plan to cut $5 billion in Medicaid funding.
BLOG WATCH
THINK PROGRESS: Former Reagan U.S. Attorney Bob Barr blasts administration over purge.
BLOG FOR OUR FUTURE: Bloggers react to Al Gore's testimony on global warming.
BUSH V. CHOICE: The "horrifying" nomination of anti-choice Richard Honaker for a federal judgeship in Wyoming.
DAILY KOS: What happens when Tom DeLay forgets his reading glasses.
DAILY GRILL
"We feel pretty comfortable with the constitutional argument."
-- Tony Snow, 3/20/07, on the White House's use of "executive privilege" to keep top aides from testifying to Congress about the U.S. attorney firings
VERSUS
"Taken to its logical extreme, that position would make it impossible for citizens to hold a chief executive accountable for anything. He would have a constitutional right to cover up."
-- Snow, 3/29/98, on President Clinton's use of executive privilege
GOOD NEWS
At Saturday's health care forum, Democratic presidential candidates for the first time "were united...in pledging to provide universal health care to all Americans."
STATE WATCH
MISSOURI: Gov. Matt Blunt (R) announces that he will cut off all program funding to Planned Parenthood.
TEXAS: Lawmakers this session filed more global warming related bills than at any other time in legislative history.
CIVIL RIGHTS: Six states "consider stiffer new punishments by adding attacks on homeless to state hate crime laws."
BLOG WATCH
THINK PROGRESS: Presidential candidates should catch up to the American people on universal coverage.
TAYLOR MARSH: Liveblogging from the weekend's presidential health care forum. (MyDD, Swampland, and Blog for Our Future have more.)
CROOKS AND LIARS: Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol calls on President Bush to replace Alberto Gonzales.
DEADLINE HOLLYWOOD DAILY: Donald Rumsfeld: the newest guest editor of the LA Times?
DAILY GRILL
"I was not involved in seeing any memos, was not involved in any discussions about what was going on."
-- Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, 3/12/07, claiming no personal involvement in the U.S. attorney firings
VERSUS
"Attorney General Alberto Gonzales approved plans to fire several U.S. attorneys in a November meeting, according to newly released documents."
-- AP, 3/23/07
-----
From “Democracy Now!”
* Three Officers Charged in Sean Bell Killing Plead Not Guilty, Family Calls
For Justice *
The three police officers indicted for the killing of unarmed bridegroom
Sean Bell pleaded not guilty Monday after surrendering at the Queens County
Courthouse. Detectives Michael Oliver and Gescard Isnora are each charged
with first and second-degree manslaughter. Detective Marc Cooper, was
charged with second-degree reckless endangerment. All three officers are
free pending trial.
Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/03/20/1337220
* Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army *
Investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill joins us to talk about his new book,
"Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army." Scahill
writes, "Blackwater is the elite Praetorian Guard for the 'global war on
terror,' with its own military base, a fleet of twenty aircraft, and 20,000
private contractors at the ready. Run by a multimillionaire Christian
conservative who bankrolls President Bush and his allies, its forces are
capable of overthrowing governments." From Iraq to New Orleans, Blackwater
has continued to pull in multi-million-dollar government contracts, mostly
without accountability and in near-secrecy.
Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/03/20/1337226
* Headlines for March 20, 2007 *
- Over 100 Arrested in Anti-War Actions in NYC and SF
- Bush Says War in Iraq Can Still Be Won
- MoveOn Criticized For Backing Additional War Funding
- White House Considering Replacements for Alberto Gonzales
- War Crimes Prosecutor Says Bush & Blair Could Face Charges
- Ex-Oil Lobbyist Admits Changing Gov't Climate Studies
- Colombia Might Seek Extradition of Chiquita Officials
Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/03/20/1337212
* Capitol Hill Showdown Looms Over U.S. Attorney Scandal as Bush Refuses to
Let Officials Testify Under Oath *
President Bush on Tuesday rejected Democratic demands to question key White
House aides under oath. The President said he would only authorize private
testimony before select lawmakers and warned he would fight any subpoenas in
court. We speak with Adam Cohen of the New York Times.
Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/03/21/1340200
* "The Ghosts of Abu Ghraib" - Doc Traces Path to Torture of Prisoners at
Infamous Iraqi Prison *
"The Ghosts of Abu Ghraib" - a new HBO documentary - traces the political and
legal precedents that led to the torture of prisoners at the infamous Iraqi
prison. It includes numerous interviews with U.S. soldiers directly involved
with torture at Abu Ghraib, Iraqi torture survivors as well as experts, legal
scholars and former government officials. We speak with acclaimed filmmaker
Rory Kennedy.
Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/03/21/1340204
* Part II - Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army
*
We turn to the second part of our discussion with investigative journalist
Jeremy Scahill, author of the new book "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's
Most Powerful Mercenary Army." Scahill discusses Blackwater's role in the
Caspian Sea region in Central Asia and the battle in Congress over
accountability for private contractors.
Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/03/21/1340210
* Headlines for March 21, 2007 *
- Bush Refuses to Let Officials Testify Under Oath
- Congressional Study Finds Firings Of Attorneys is Unprecedented
- Dem Leadership Pressures Anti-War Caucus To Back War Funding
- Report: U.S. Military Spending At Highest Level Since WWII
- Iraqi Vice President Calls For Peace Talks With Sunni Militants
- Baghdad Residents Criticize U.S. Actions Over Past Four Years
- Death Toll of Journalists Reaches 187 In Iraq
Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/03/21/1339253
* Funding War? A Democratic Debate Between Rep Lynn Woolsey and Robert
Borosage *
The House is set to vote today on a controversial bill that sets a timetable
for withdrawing US troops from Iraq. The Democratic measure would give
President Bush nearly $100 billion more for the wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan. We host a debate with Rep. Lynn Woolsey, co-founder of the Out
of Iraq Caucus in the House and Robert Borosage of the Campaign for
America's Future.
Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/03/22/1413255
* 9-Year-Old Canadian Citizen and Iranian Parents Arrive in Toronto After
Six Weeks in Texas Immigration Jail *
After six weeks in a Texas immigration jail, a nine year-old Canadian
citizen and his Iranian parents were released and allowed back into Canada
last night. Canadian immigration authorities have granted the boy's parents
temporary residency. We speak with their attorney.
Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/03/22/1414201
* Remembering Puerto Rico's Ponce Massacre *
In Puerto Rico, Wednesday marked the 70th anniversary of the Ponce massacre.
On March 21st, 1937, 19 people were killed and more than one hundred wounded
when police opened fire on a demonstration calling for independence from the
United States. The day is considered a defining event in Puerto Rico's
history of struggle against US domination.
Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/03/22/1414207
* Headlines for March 22, 2007 *
- House Judiciary Panel OKs Subpoena For Rove
- Al Gore Testifies Before Congress On Global Warming
- Canadian Boy Released from U.S. Immigration Jail
- U.S. Looks to Send More Arms to Middle Eastern Nations
- Pentagon: Reports of Sexual Assault in Military Up 24%
- 20 Die in Intense Fighting in Somalia
- U.S. Gives Pakistani Gov't Sophisticated Spy Technology
- Chiquita Defends Paying Colombian Terrorist Group
Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/03/22/1413247
*Report: NYPD Conducted Extensive National, International Spy Campaign on
Protesters Before GOP Convention*
The New York City Police Department carried out an extensive national and
international spying operation on protesters leading up to the Republican
National Convention in 2004. On Sunday, the New York Times reported teams of
undercover officers were sent across the nation, to Canada and to Europe to
spy on groups and individuals planning to take part in the protests in New
York. We speak with Jim Dwyer, the New York Times reporter who broke the
story. [rush transcript included]
Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/03/26/1329201
*NYPD Debates Civil Liberties Attorney Over Police Spying of Protesters*
The New York Times has revealed that undercover New York City police
officers traveled around the country, Canada and Europe to spy on protesters
planning to attend the 2004 Republican National Convention. We host a debate
with NYPD spokesperson, Paul Browne and civil rights attorney, Jethro
Eisenstein. We also speak with one of the hundreds of targets of the NYPD
surveillance operation. Joshua Kinberg was arrested at the RNC protests and
is the subject of four pages of surveillance records. [rush transcript
included]
Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/03/26/1329207
* Headlines for March 26, 2007 *
- - House Approves War Spending Bill & Timetable to Withdraw Troops
- Eight Anti-War Democrats Vote Against War Funding
- British Demands Iran Release Captured Sailors
- Pet Food Company Expands Recall
- Documents Indicate Gonzales OK'd Firing of U.S. Attorneys
- Ban Ki-moon Criticizes Israel For Building West Bank Wall
- Sami Al-Arian Ends Hunger Strike After 60 Days
Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/03/26/1328254
-----
From Greg Palast
It's STILL the oil: Secret Condi Meeting on Oil Before Invasion
by Greg Palast
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Four years ago this week, the tanks rolled for what President Bush originally called, "Operation Iraqi Liberation" -- O.I.L.
I kid you not.
And it was four years ago that, from the White House, George Bush, declaring war, said, "I want to talk to the Iraqi people." That Dick Cheney didn't tell Bush that Iraqis speak Arabic well, never mind. I expected the President to say something like, "Our troops are coming to liberate you, so don't shoot them." Instead, Mr. Bush told, the Iraqis,
"Do not destroy oil wells."
Nevertheless, the Bush Administration said the war had nothing to do with Iraq's oil. Indeed, in 2002, the State Department stated, and its official newsletter, the Washington Post, repeated, that State's Iraq study group, "does not have oil on its list of issues."
But now, we've learned that, despite protestations to the contrary, Condoleezza Rice held a secret meeting with the former Secretary-General of OPEC, Fadhil Chalabi, an Iraqi, and offered Chalabi the job of Oil Minister for Iraq. (It is well established that the President of the United States may appoint the cabinet ministers of another nation if that appointment is confirmed by the 101st Airborne.)
In all the chest-beating about how the war did badly, no one seems to remember how the war did very, very well -- for Big Oil.
The war has kept Iraq's oil production to 2.1 million barrels a day from pre-war, pre-embargo production of over 4 million barrels. In the oil game, that's a lot to lose. In fact, the loss of Iraq's 2 million barrels a day is equal to the entire planet's reserve production capacity.
In other words, the war has caused a hell of a supply squeeze -- and Big Oil just loves it. Oil today is $57 a barrel versus the $18 a barrel price under Bill "Love-Not-War" Clinton.
Since the launch of Operation Iraqi Liberation, Halliburton stock has tripled to $64 a share -- not, as some believe, because of those Iraq reconstruction contracts -- peanuts for Halliburton. Cheney's former company's main business is "oil services." And, as one oilman complained to me, Cheney's former company has captured a big hunk of the rise in oil prices by jacking up the charges for Halliburton drilling and piping equipment.
But before we shed tears for Big Oil's having to hand Halliburton its slice, let me note that the value of the reserves of the five biggest oil companies more than doubled during the war to $2.36 trillion.
And that was the plan: putting a new floor under the price of oil. I've have that in writing. In 2005, after a two-year battle with the State and Defense Departments, they released to my team at BBC Newsnight the "Options for a Sustainable Iraqi Oil Industry." Now, you might think our government shouldn't be writing a plan for another nation's oil. Well, our government didn't write it, despite the State Department seal on the cover. In fact, we discovered that the 323-page plan was drafted in Houston by oil industry executives and consultants.
The suspicion is that Bush went to war to get Iraq's oil. That's not true. The document, and secret recordings of those in on the scheme, made it clear that the Administration wanted to make certain America did not get the oil. In other words, keep the lid on Iraq's oil production -- and thereby keep the price of oil high.
Of course, the language was far more subtle than, "Let's cut Iraq's oil production and jack up prices." Rather, the report uses industry jargon and euphemisms which require Iraq to remain an obedient member of the OPEC cartel and stick to the oil-production limits -- "quotas" -- which keep up oil prices.
The Houston plan, enforced by an army of occupation, would, "enhance [Iraq's] relationship with OPEC," the oil cartel.
And that's undoubtedly why Condoleezza Rice asked Fadhil Chalabi to take charge of Iraq's Oil Ministry. As former chief operating officer of OPEC, the oil cartel, Fadhil was a Big Oil favorite, certain to ensure that Iraq would never again allow the world to slip back to the Clinton era of low prices and low profits. (In investigating for BBC, I was told by the former chief of the CIA's oil unit that he'd met with Fadhil regarding oil at Bush's request. Fadhil recently complained to the BBC. He denied the meeting with the Bush emissary in London because, he noted, he was secretly meeting that week in Washington with Condi!)
Fadhil, by the way, turned down Condi's offer to run Iraq's Oil Ministry. Ultimately, Iraq's Oil Ministry was given to Fadhil's fellow tribesman, Ahmad Chalabi, a convicted bank swindler and neo-con idol. But whichever Chalabi is nominal head of Iraq's oil industry in Baghdad, the orders come from Houston. Indeed, the oil law adopted by Iraq's shaky government this month is virtually a photocopy of the "Options" plan first conceived in Texas long before Iraq was "liberated."
In other words, the war has gone exactly to plan -- the Houston plan. So forget the na?e cloth-rending about a conflict gone haywire. Exxon-Mobil reported a record $10 billion profit last quarter, the largest of any corporation in history. Mission Accomplished.
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From Media Savvy
Lets Broaden Our Focus To Include Economic Issues: It's Time To 'Stop The Squeeze'
By Danny Schechter
Let's expose the real power in this country - the economic engine driven by the financialization of consumerism that sells us what we don't need and lends us what we can't pay back. As we fight the military-industrial complex, let's not ignore the credit and loan complex.
Army Bullies Blogger, Invades YouTube
By Noah Shachtman, Wired
The Army has set up shop on content-sharing sites like Flickr, del.icio.us, and YouTube. The material is like the stilted, propaganda-like reports, straight from the Armed Forces Network.
What If The Jayson Blair Was On The Other Foot?
By EFF
Big trouble at the New York Times Magazine as an editors' note reveals that one of the women who appeared in last week's cover story on female Iraq veterans never served in Iraq and might have made up much of what she said in her interview.
Dark Days
By Julia M. Klein, CJR
Labor is losing even more ground in the newsroom.
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From ImpeachBush.org
Tens of Thousands March on the Pentagon and Call for Impeachment
The March on the Pentagon, March 17, 2007
Congratulations to everyone who made it through the snow and freezing rain to get to Washington and join together in the tens of thousands and March on the Pentagon marking the beginning of the fifth year of the war against Iraq. The Impeachment message was broadcast loud and clear and reached a national and worldwide audience!
The Demonstration Stikes A Nerve
Disgraced Tom Delay went on television Sunday morning and complained on Meet the Press that "we shouldn't have had what we had yesterday...in Washington, D.C." with people calling for "impeaching the commander in chief." Much as Tom Delay would probably like to see the First Amendment removed from the Bill of Rights, the stark reality that he and the White House faced was a huge outpouring of people from across the United States calling for the Impeachment of Bush, Cheney and other high officials. Feeling the heat from mass demonstrations around the country, Bush was forced to go on national television Monday and "plead for patience" from the people of the United States.
Led by a contingent of Iraq war veterans, active-duty service-members, Gold Star families, and veterans from other past and present wars, the demonstration received a large amount of media coverage. CNN featured the demonstration, which the report described as a march of tens of thousands, in its rotation Saturday and Sunday. There were hundreds of articles in US newspapers and world wide, and photographs featuring thousands of impeachment signs including, "Guilty of War Crimes, ImpeachBush.org." The major French newspaper, Le Monde, ran a significant article under the headline, "More than 50,000 People Protest Against the War in Iraq," about the March on the Pentagon and wrote that the protestors were calling for the impeachment of Bush for war crimes. The rally was broadcast live on C-span and Al-Jazeera. Ramsey Clark; Cindy Sheehan; Cynthia McKinney; Jonathan Hutto and Liam Madden, co-founders of Appeal for Redress; Iraq Veterans Against the War; Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson; constitutional rights attorney Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, and others spoke. You can view the rally by going to http://www.cspan.org/ and clicking on the March 17 anti-war rally under the video section. Ramsey Clark's speech is available on YouTube by clicking on this link.
The March on the Pentagon was not a solitary action but one of more than 1,000 protests that are taking place in the U.S. between March 17 and March 20. ImpeachBush.org played a major role in co-sponsoring the March on the Pentagon as well as the Los Angeles demonstration that drew 50,000 and the San Francisco demonstration of 40,000 that filled 15 blocks of Market Street, a six-lane avenue. Impeachment supporters have been out at rallies around the country all week.
Ramsey Clark speaking at the March on the Pentagon
Click to see his speech.
The March on the Pentagon took place the day after a severe winter snow and sleet storm suddenly hit northeastern states that prevented many buses from traveling, 700 fights from taking off, and thousands of cars from reaching the March. Motorists were advised throughout New England and the Mid-Atlantic region to stay off the road. The large turnout at the demonstration was all the more significant given the hardships people had to endure to participate in the activity. People marched to the Pentagon and stayed as long as they could braving 20 mile-an-hour winds and a windchill factor into the teens.
A great thank you is owed to the committed volunteers who endured a torrential downpour of freezing rain though Friday night to help set up the assembly and rally sites. People stayed overnight with the equipment and then began working again at 5:00 am in complete darkness. The assembly area had become a lake on March 16 and filled with mud by the time the march stepped off. The windchill in the early hours was not far above zero. At the rally site the large tents, including the Impeachment Tent, and canopies blew down. Volunteers continued to work long hours after the rally ended to take-down, pack, clean the entire area and unload trucks. The anti-war movement and impeachment movement are growing both numerically and in their organizational capabilities and the tireless work of volunteers forms the core of this success.
Pentagon Prevents People from Joining the Rally
The Pentagon and Virginia State Police, many clad in riot gear, wearing gas masks and wielding batons, blocked people coming from the subway/metro who wanted to attend the demonstration. They also blocked buses from accessing the Pentagon in contravention of the agreements reached in the permit. This required people to walk nearly two miles to get to their buses following the rally.
Many people who came to the rally after it had begun - some who had seen the huge march at a distance as it crossed over the Memorial Bridge across the roadways and wanted to then join the activity - were blocked by the Pentagon and the police from entering the rally site through a maze of misdirection, road closures and threats of arrest at multiple different locations. March organizers worked to get people in and they and their attorneys went to the site of sudden police confrontations and shutdowns, but many people were still unable to get in including the hip-hop artist Immortal Technique who was scheduled to perform.
Ramsey Clark on Impeachment and the War
As Ramsey Clark stated at the Pentagon rally, the effort to Impeach Bush has immediate and long term consequences. The Bush regime is rotting from within. Growing scandals are an indicator. The public revulsion to the endless lies about Iraq has set the stage even more so. Impeachment can and must become a reality and we can do it with your continued support.
Please make a donation today to sustain this intensifying campaign of newspaper ads, mass demonstrations, rallies and lobbying. Click this link to make a donation today.
Ramsey Clark challenged all of us when he spoke at the Pentagon: "We've got work to do. If you thought about what will happen in the next 22 months if we don't act now, there will be a big buildup of U.S. troops in Iraq. That's what the surge is about. It's a permanent surge."
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From HuffPo
Rep. John Murtha: Four Costly Years at War
AP
Excerpted from Rep. John Murtha's Blog:
...During this year, the Bush Administration has requested $1 trillion for the Department of Defense. $9 billion a month is being expended for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, including a $2 billion a month logistic trail for transporting equipment and personnel into Iraq.
Over 3,200 of our sons and daughters have lost their lives in Iraq and close to 25,000 have been wounded, to include thousands of traumatic brain injuries and hundreds of limb amputations. The cost of disability benefits as a result of this protracted and intense war will be staggering. A recent report by the Harvard University School of Government put the total cost of providing medical care and disability benefits to veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan at $350 to $700 billion...
Click here to read more.
ON THE BLOG TODAY
Bob Cesca: Four Years And The Suspects Are Still At Large?
Ned Lamont: Two Months
Rep. John F. Tierney: Four Years of Incompetence
Suzanne Nossel: 10 Lessons Learned the Hard Way in Iraq
Arianna Huffington: Halliburton Polls
AP
On Scarborough last night I was asked repeatedly about a new poll by a British polling company, Opinion Research Business, that showed "an unexpected level of optimism" among the 5,019 Iraqis interviewed. It sounded even more preposterous than the usual polling results, and was contradicted by multiple other polls. So I sent an email to my good friend and HuffPost blogger Simon Jenkins, who had been the editor of the Evening Standard and The Times of London, and who I assumed would know something about the polling firm.
Here is his response...
Click here to read more.
ON THE BLOG TODAY
Simon Jenkins: An Anniversary, Not a Celebration
Chris Mooney: NASA, Political Interference, and the Vindication of James Hansen
Norman Lear: Conditions on the Ground
Jane Smiley: Conservatives Cost a Lot of Money
Bill Maher: How Dare Valerie Plame Get Past Her Victimhood
news.yahoo.com
Excerpted from Bill Maher's Blog:
Conservative pundits seem miffed that Valerie Plame, her cover blown, decided to pose for Vanity Fair or get a book deal or sell her story to Hollywood. Well, what do they expect? She lost her job, her career. She can't become a covert agent for Canada. Or Mexico. And just because she's bounced back doesn't mean she wasn't victimized...
Click here to read more.
ON THE BLOG TODAY
Paul Slansky: Deep Gloat
Francis Wilkinson: The White House's "Voter Fraud" Fraud
Leslie Savan: A Snowball's Chance in Hummer
Aziz Huq: Subpeonas and the Exercise of "Executive Privilege"
Arianna Huffington: Impeach Gonzales: The Quickest Way To The Truth
news.yahoo.com
Excerpted from Arianna Huffington's Blog:
In his weekend radio address, President Bush said of the investigation into the U.S. Attorney firings: "Members of Congress now face a choice: whether they will waste time and provoke an unnecessary confrontation, or whether they will join us in working to do the people's business."
He got it half right. If his administration continues to thwart the ability of Congress to uncover the truth about the firings, there will indeed but a "confrontation." But it will hardly be "unnecessary."
If the president continues trying to run out the clock on this scandal, Congress should immediately begin impeachment proceeding against Alberto Gonzales. It's the quickest way to the truth...
Click here to read more.
ON THE BLOG TODAY
Jon Robin Baitz: Imperial Doubtfulness and the Paper of Record
Al Eisele: Georgetown and John Edwards: A Pair of Winners
Diane Ravitch: The Future of NCLB
Trudi Loh: I Saw John and Elizabeth
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And now for something you'll really like!
We of The Scallion have our occasional guilty pleasures. One of them is reading the Dilbert Blog, which is updated daily (or nearly so) by Dilbert creator Scott Adams. Scott has a wonderfully vivid, delightfully twisted imagination combined with the ability to twine the images that can be created using the English language around his little finger. Some of his posts are thought-provoking; some are just his clever and sometimes not so clever musings; and others are just plain snort-coffee-out-your-nose funny.
The link below leads to a post (and reader comments) that are snort-coffee-out-your-nose funny.
WARNING: please read the disclaimer on this blog before clicking the link below. The material is adult in nature, but it is funnier than hell. The Scallion's Editor in Chief nearly hyperventilated from laughing at post and several of the reader comments. The post begins, “Did you hear about the Wisconsin man who is charged with having sex with a dead deer that he found in a ditch?” It gets worse (and funnier) from there. You have been warned.
http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2007/03/oh_deer.html
P.S. - read the “The Happiness Formula” and “The Meaning of Meaning” posts, too (25 and 26 March). The Happiness Formula gives the context for The Meaning of Meaning. Together, they are uplifting and thought-provoking—not pungent, like “oh deer.”
posted by The Scallion @ 6:24 PM
