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03-21-09

• A Small Dash of Sanity:
• Immature Children Control Our Discourse (digbysblog)
• Judge Blocks Rule Permitting Concealed Guns In U.S. Parks (washingtonpost)
• Restore the Rule of Law! - Where Is the Accountability? - Looks Like It's Hiding in the Same Hole as Bush's Accountability:
• Israeli soldiers admit to deliberate killing of Gaza civilians (timesonline/uk - independent/uk) "cold-blooded murder. . . . 'That’s the beauty of Gaza. You see a man walking, he doesn’t have to have a weapon, and you can shoot him,' one soldier . . . ." said. "The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights released the names of 1,417 Gazans that it says were killed in the war, saying that 926 were civilians. The Israeli Government contends that most of those killed were combatants or legitimate targets." Israeli front-line soldiers contend otherwise.
• Israeli Army T-Shirts Mock Gaza Killings (skynews) -- Israel has become their former Nazi abusers.
• Update 03-24-09: Will Israel be Brought to Book? (guardian/uk) "The evidence of war crimes in Gaza is a challenge to universal justice: will western-backed perpetrators ever stand trial?"
• The Great Economic Shakedown:
• Madoff Took Fall for New York’s Richest And Most Powerful Politicians (opednews) "This article by Wayne Madsen . . . offers a plausible hypothesis why Madoff’s conviction is the end of the line, and prosecutors aren’t looking for co-conspirators."
• Arun Gupta: The Great Unraveling (indypendent)
• Krugman: Despair Over Financial Policy (nytimes - wonkroom) "The Geithner plan has now been leaked in detail. It’s exactly the plan that was widely analyzed — and found wanting — a couple of weeks ago. The zombie ideas have won."
• Greenwald: The virtues of public anger and the need for more (salon) "The public rage we're finally seeing is long, long overdue, and appears to be the only force with both the ability and will to impose meaningful checks on continued kleptocratic pillaging and deep-seated corruption in virtually every branch of our establishment institutions."
• Senate Republicans block Senate version of law to recapture AIG bonuses (americablog) "The defenders of the rich come to the rescue, again."
• Military-Industrial Complex:
• Is Anyone Covering Iraq?, The Lonely Soldier, and Got Docs (grittv video)
• Fermi's Gamma-Ray Sky (apod)
  

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03-20-09

• That Wonderful RW Religious Insane Asylum:
• Vatican insiders declare the Pope a 'disaster' (telegraph/uk) "Pope Benedict's repeated gaffes and the Vatican's inability to manage his message in the internet era are threatening to undermine his papacy, Vatican insiders have said."
• The Sixth Great Extinction:
• The Perilous State Of Birds In The U.S. (sfgate) "About one-third of 800 bird species in the United States are listed under federal law as endangered or threatened, or are dropping in numbers precipitously, because of lost habitat, invasive species, polluted water and changing climate, said the study, by government wildlife agencies and conservation groups."
• The Great Economic Shakedown:
• Geithner and Bernanke supported bonuses at AIG (americablog) "Show them both the door. Maybe Timmy is afraid to upset the friends that he developed during his time at the New York Fed when all of this was building. Let the guy join a club and buy friends but do it on his own dime and his own time. What part of "public" did he miss with "public service"? Geithner works for the American people, not Wall Street."
• A Model for Obama Not Named Lincoln (firedoglake) "This administration, elected on the promise of change, has already managed, in an astonishingly short time, to create the impression that it’s owned by the wheeler-dealers. And that leaves it with no ability to counter crude populism."--Paul Krugman (nytimes)
• Restore the Rule of Law!
• Ray McGovern on Gov't Accountability (consortiumnews video) "McGovern compares the American tolerance of Bush's crimes with the historical failure of the German people to stand up to the Nazis as Hitler's forces began to trample on the rights of the German people. 'On Jan. 20 of this year, we got rid of the Nazis,' McGovern said. 'The only question now is whether we have the courage to hold them accountable.'"
• Lawrence Wilkerson: Some Truths About Guantanamo Bay -- Many at Gitmo Are Innocent And the Bush Administration Knew It (thewashingtonnote) "In addition, it has never come to my attention in any persuasive way--from classified information or otherwise--that any intelligence of significance was gained from any of the detainees at Guantanamo Bay other than from the handful of undisputed ring leaders and their companions, clearly no more than a dozen or two of the detainees, and even their alleged contribution of hard, actionable intelligence is intensely disputed in the relevant communities such as intelligence and law enforcement. This is perhaps the most astounding truth of all, carefully masked by men such as Donald Rumsfeld and Richard Cheney in their loud rhetoric--continuing even now in the case of Cheney--about future attacks thwarted, resurgent terrorists, the indisputable need for torture and harsh interrogation and for secret prisons and places such as GITMO."
• Red Cross (the last word on and caretaker of the Geneva Conventions): Torture Committed At CIA Sites (cbsnews) "Such acts constitute violations of the United Nations' Convention Against Torture and the Geneva Conventions, the Red Cross said."
• Wilkerson Revelations + ICRC Report = Torturing the Innocent (firedoglake) It's "pretty much what we always suspected, isn't it? Cheney, Rumsfeld, and the rest of the PNAC Platoon would rather see innocent 90-year-old men jailed and tortured forever than admit to having made a mistake. Sad to see it so blatantly confirmed."
• Wilkerson Revelations + ICRC Report = Torturing the Innocent (firedoglake) It's "pretty much what we always suspected, isn't it? Cheney, Rumsfeld, and the rest of the PNAC Platoon would rather see innocent 90-year-old men jailed and tortured forever than admit to having made a mistake. Sad to see it so blatantly confirmed."
• U.N. rights envoy sees Israeli war crimes in Gaza (reuters) "the Geneva Conventions required warring forces to distinguish between military targets and surrounding civilians. . . . If it is not possible to do so, then launching the attacks is inherently unlawful and would seem to constitute a war crime of the greatest magnitude under international law . . . . [the] denial of people's right to flee the war zone as refugees may also constitute a crime against humanity"
• Military-Industrial Complex:
• CIA's Panetta Is Falling Short (consortiumnews) "President Barack Obama’s CIA director, Leon Panetta, needed only one month to establish that he lacks the courage, contrariness, judgment, and political and intellectual independence to reform the Central Intelligence Agency."
• Jobless rate at 11.2% for veterans of Iraq, Afghanistan (usatoday) "That's significantly higher than the corresponding 8.8% rate for non-veterans in the same age group . . . ."
• Gates Carries Over Iraq-WMD Lie (consortiumnews) "In 1987, President Ronald Reagan nominated Robert Gates to be Director of Central Intelligence (DCI), but he was denied confirmation because a majority of members on the Senate Intelligence Committee believed he was lying about his knowledge and role in the Iran-Contra Affair."
• Obama Avoids Foreign Base Cuts (consortiumnews) "Within his record $3.6 trillion budget, President Barack Obama has included a slight increase in funding for the Pentagon when compared with George W. Bush's budget of 2009."
• Our 'Liberal Media':
• Washington Post Is a Neocon Propaganda Sheet (consortiumnews) "For Americans who hear the name Washington Post and still think of 'All the President’s Men' – brave journalists facing down a corrupt President – today’s version of the newspaper would be a sad disappointment, a betrayal of a noble past."
• After Years Of Lies, WSJ Concedes That Employee Free Choice Act ‘Doesn’t Remove The Secret-Ballot Option’ (thinkprogress) -- What is the lying, anti-worker, anti-democracy- neocon Murdoch up to with this admission?
• Framing Obama -- by the Washington Post (consortiumnews) "An insidious power of a propagandistic newspaper – especially one with great influence – is how it can 'frame' an issue so the assumptions behind a story guide the readers to a preordained conclusion under the guise of presenting a fair journalistic account."
• Sunset at the Portara (apod) -- Winter is over. Happy first day of Spring.

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03-19-09

• Military-Industrial Complex:
• The war profiteers have their $mega-billions$ on this 6th anniversary of the beginning of Bush's criminal invasion of Iraq, but Baghdad still does not have drinkable water. (mcclatchydc)
• Steal That Election -- It's Oh So Easy!
• Clay County, Kentucky Election Officials Arrested, Charged With 'Changing Votes at E-Voting Machines' (bradblog) "Circuit court judge, county clerk and election officials among eight indicted for gaming elections in 2002, 2004, 2006 . . . . Clay County uses the horrible ES&S iVotronic system for all of its votes at the polling place. The iVotronic is a touch-screen Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) device, offering no evidence, of any kind, that any vote has ever been recorded as per the voters' intent."
• Our 'Liberal Media':
• Deep Thought (atrios) "MSNBC is so liberal that they have two hours of original programming hosted by self-described liberals and three hours of original programming hosted by a conservative Republican."
• The Great Economic Shakedown:
• Worldwide protests are spreading to America (takebacktheeconomy) "On March 19, 2009 Americans in cities nationwide will hold demonstrations at the offices of major banks and other corporations to demand more responsible corporate behavior and call on Congress to enact the change that will make it happen, employee free choice and healthcare reform."
• Geithner asked Dodd to create the AIG bonus loophole to avoid costly litigation (cnn) -- This gaggle of Democrats are so damned afraid of fighting for what the people elected them to do!
• Saturn: Moons in Transit (apod)
  

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03-18-09

• Theocrat Watch:
• Minor Victory Over Kentucky Religious Nut Jobs: Two Kentucky counties fined $400,000 for posting Ten Commandments in Their Courthouses (guardian/uk) "Two southern Kentucky counties where officials posted copies of the Ten Commandments in courthouses have been ordered by a federal judge to pay more than $400,000 to the American Civil Liberties Union and citizens who successfully challenged the displays."
• Nigerian Anglican Leader Calls Gay Marriage "A Holocaust," Says the "Crime" Should Be Punishable By Five Years in Prison (americablog) -- The progressive Anglican Communion should no longer either coddle or tolerate this nazi bigot and possible collaborator in the well-planned massacre of 660 Muslims -- Archbishop Peter (The Persecutor) Akinola. Enough is enough. Basta!
• Military-Industrial Complex:
• Jeremy Scahill: President Obama, Why Did You Pay Blackwater $70 Million in February? (huffingtonpost)
• Steal That Election!
• Diebold Admits Audit Logs in ALL Versions of Their Software Fail to Record Ballot Deletions (bradblog) "Even the audit log system on current versions of Premier Election Solutions' (formerly Diebold's) electronic voting and tabulating systems --- used in some 34 states across the nation --- fail to record the wholesale deletion of ballots. Even when ballots are deleted on the same day as an election. That's the shocking admission heard today from Justin Bales, Premier's Western Region manager, at a State of California public hearing on the possible decertification of Diebold/Premier's tabulator system, GEMS v. 1.18.19. . . . Diebold had been aware of the problem for years. , . . In addition, the software was discovered to have a 'Clear' button which, when pressed, would actually delete the contents of an audit log without even asking for confirmation from the user.
• Officials Say Feds Inappropriately Involved in Nevada's Pre-Election ACORN 'Voter Fraud' Raid (bradblog) "US Attorney [Greg Brower] who worked with state was installed after US Attorney firings; Strongly suggests DoJ violations . . . . The manual governing how federal prosecutors are supposed to act with respect to election crimes says you should do everything in your power to conduct your investigation so that the investigation does not become an issue in the election . . . .The raid is certainly not that."
• Global Broiling:
• James Hansen: Corporate Lobbying Has Undermined Democratic Attempts to Curb Carbon Pollution (guardian/uk)
• More Babies Were Born in the United States in 2007 Than Any Other Year in the Nation's History (yahoo) -- Oh so eager to totally destroy the already-collapsing global climate system by producing untold more tons of pollution to dump into the atmosphere and the hydrosphere. Too bad it's the kids who will be the ones to suffer more as they grow up and global broiling makes their lives either miserable or impossible.
• GLOBE at Night: Help Track Light Pollution (apod)
  

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03-17-09

• Steal that Election!
• E-Vote Bullet Dodged in El Salvador? (bradblog) "Challenging party wins despite 'dirty tricks' from D.C. Republicans and one creepy e-voting company..."
• Our 'Liberal Media':
• CNBC Hires Former Bush Flack Tony Fratto As On-Air Analyst (wonkroom) "Golly gee willikers! I feel so much more confident we'll get the straight scoop now that we'll have Dubya's Deputy Press Liar -- opps, I mean 'Secretary' there on CNBC to listen to depend on."
• They're Everywhere! -- Except in the Saint Patrick's Day Parade, Of Course. We Just Couldn't Have That. Who Ever Heard of a Gay Irishman?
• West Point graduates launch an LGBT alumni group (thinkprogress) "By publicly outing themselves, the 38 members of Knights Out ended once and for all the anonymity that has obscured from full view their service to the nation as West Point graduates. . . . Knights Out 'joins similar groups formed by graduates of the U.S. Naval and Air Force academies, including the U.S. Naval Academy’s USNA Out and the U.S. Air Force Academy’s Blue Alliance.'"
• That Wonderful Religious Right Asylum - Lies for Power:
• Pope Nazi irresponsibly tells Africans not to use condoms, that they spread AIDS (towerload) -- Using a fair set of justice criteria that the more people you hurt, the more severe your punishment, this man of great power deserves the gas chamber several times over because of all the people he has already killed and all he will kill with pronouncements such as this.
• Tycho's Supernova Remnant (apod)
  

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03-16-09

• The Great Economic Shakedown - Is Tim Geithner Actually Mini-Paulson?
• Another Giveaway? The Sad Truth about the Geithner TALF Plan (firedoglake) "This is ideology run rampant at the cost of common sense. What conceivable reason would Geithner have to pitch something like this? Would be because he doesn't believe government should make a profit, or that private investors should take losses? Or, worse than that. . ."
• If Obama Didn’t Like Geithner’s AIG Bonus Deal, Why Didn’t He Stop It Earlier? (firedoglake)
• Why Are AIG’s Contracts Sacrosanct But Not Union Workers’ Contracts? (thinkprogress) "Larry Summers: We are a country of law. [To which I ask, "Since when?"] There are contracts. The government cannot just abrogate contracts."
• Military-Corporate Complex:
• Lendman: The North American Union: Updating the Militarization and Annexation of North America (sjlendman) "In short, it's a military-backed corporate coup d'etat against the sovereignty of three nations, their populations and legislative bodies. It's a dagger through the heart of democratic freedom in all three, yet the public is largely unaware of what's happening."
• El Salvador Elects First Leftist President (latimes) -- Time to watch 'Romero' again to see how far El Salvador has come from the tyrannical repression supported by Reagan's CIA of El Salvador's poor by its rich. If Mexico's Calderone, with the help of the Bush regime, had not stolen the Mexican election from Obrador, we would now also have one more progressive leftist government south of the border. Instead, what conservative interloper Calderone gave the world was another narcostate.
• End of the Road for Agent Orange Victims? (ips) "Where can Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange get justice? Probably nowhere, after the United States Supreme Court refused to hear, this month, a final appeal by Vietnamese plaintiffs against chemical giants Dow and Monsanto." -- As always, the U.S. war machine has gotten away with it again.
• Pentagon plans dirigible to spy from more than 12 miles up (latimes) Will stay aloft for ten years and spy on moving vehicles and even people. -- I can't wait to start hearing all the UFO reports these 450-foot-long aircraft generate.
• U.S. Could Use Crisis to Wage 'Financial Warfare' (wired) -- What would our world ever be like without all its warfare planners?
• Preparing for Water Quarrels, if Not Wars (commondreams) "1.1 billion people live without clean drinking water. About 70 percent of water is used for irrigation - and most of that is lost before it reaches the plant."
• Martian Moon Deimos from MRO (apod)
  

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03-15-09

• Barack's Bush-Lite Gang: It's All About Deceptively Managing Obama's Positive Image While Rushing to Uphold Bush Doctrines
• Obama drops 'enemy combatant' label while, in fact, retaining the crux of Bush's extremist detention theory (salon) "Nobody is complaining because the Obama administration is acting too slowly in renouncing these policies. The opposite is true: they are rushing to actively embrace them. And while there are still opportunities to meaningfully depart from the extremism of the last eight years, the evidence appears more and more compelling that, at least in these areas, there is little or no intent on the part of the Obama administration to do so."
• Right Wing Destroyers - Willing to Destroy the Nation to Regain Their Undeserved Power
• The U.S. Is Facing a Weimar Moment (commondreams) "But, as was the case with Germany in 1919, Republicans do not intend to allow the new government to succeed. They will do everything they can to undermine it. If they are successful, the U.S. may yet go the way of Weimar Germany. . . . Federal Reserve economist Lawrence Kotlikoff has suggested that the U.S. government is 'actuarially bankrupt.' . . . Without loans from China, the U.S. economy cannot be revived. The significance of this cannot be overstated: the U.S. no longer exercises sovereignty over its own economic affairs. That sovereignty now resides in the hands of China, the U.S.'s greatest long-term rival. . . . And it's not at all clear that the liberals won't fail. . . . If [Republicans] succeed in derailing Obama's efforts, the cost will be incalculable. . . . But failure now by the U.S. will shift that center [of global power] . . . from the United States to China, out of the western world where it has resided for the past 500 years."
• The Great Economic Shakedown:
• Nader: Seven Avoidance Indicators (commondreams) "The other day I saw Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the Federal Reserve, just about predicting another round of recklessness in about fifteen years. But he called it 'human nature' not casino capitalism. Here are seven avoidance indicators which outline what Washington is not doing to prevent another round of greed and misdeeds by the Wall Street few against the innocent many throughout the country."
• White House says economy is sound despite 'mess' (yahoo) "In an echo of a position Obama had mocked, White House says economy is 'sound' if in a mess" -- Economist Larry Kotlikoff was quoted in an article three weeks ago, "The President's right about that. We'll get out of this. We're a very energetic nation." even though the very same Mr. Kotlikoff suggested earlier the US was "actuarially bankrupt" and proposed several draconian measures -- which to me sound very Republican -- for fixing it. Having at one time worked in the financial industry, I developed a healthy skepticism toward what economists had to say, and I apply that skepticism to his proposals. Roubini says the S&P can still drop into the 500's and the recession will continue into next year, despite Bernanke's claim to the contrary today.
• Phony RNC Cultural Wars:
• Wake Up America, The Democratic Party is the Pro-Life Party (consortiumnews) "When will Republicans and people of faith realize they have been duped and manipulated by the Religious Right (wholly owned by the RNCorp)?" Aborton "– along with gay marriage – is [the RNC's] 'meal ticket' to get people of faith and others to vote for them. They know where their bread is buttered." Bush insider David Kuo at first thought Bush was sincere, but left in disgust. He said the Bush team "would call the Evangelical leaders 'useful idiots.' Every week they would have to talk to the religious leaders to stroke their egos."
• A Prominent Solar Prominence from SOHO (apod)