Sunday, August 26, 2012

Brick TeeVee's Glimpse into the GOPher Convention!


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Glimpse into the GOPher Convention The following stories will give you SOME (only SOME) insight into what drives what will happen in Tampa this week that the fawning corporomedia will ignore: from the bogus "voter fraud" laws to the GOPher War on Women and continuing War on The Environment. If you tune in you will surely hear every GOPher CANARD we've pointed out and exposed as a LIE. But a bigger (maybe the biggest) issue took front stage. Last Sunday wikileaks founder Julian Assange spoke to a crowd outside the Ecuadoran embassy from a balcony. See the Guardian UK for the Julian Assange statement at Ecuadorean embassy – as it happened and also watch DN! End the WikiLeaks Witch Hunt: Julian Assange’s Full Address from the Ecuadorean Embassy. Filmmakers Michael Moore and Oliver Stone released this op-ed in the New York Times WikiLeaks and The Global Future of Free Speech concluding ...Taken together, the British and Swedish governments’ actions suggest to us that their real agenda is to get Mr. Assange to Sweden. ..... If Mr. Assange is extradited to the United States, the consequences will reverberate for years around the world. Mr. Assange is not an American citizen, and none of his actions have taken place on American soil. If the United States can prosecute a journalist in these circumstances, the governments of Russia or China could, by the same logic, demand that foreign reporters anywhere on earth be extradited for violating their laws. The setting of such a precedent should deeply concern everyone, admirers of WikiLeaks or not. We urge the people of Britain and Sweden to demand that their governments answer some basic questions: Why do the Swedish authorities refuse to question Mr. Assange in London? And why can neither government promise that Mr. Assange will not be extradited to the United States? The citizens of Britain and Sweden have a rare opportunity to make a stand for free speech on behalf of the entire globe. To find out more news and calls to action go to BradleyManning.org for the latest. Jake Blumgart editor@thestranger.com explains The Most Disturbing Thing About the Case Against Bradley Manning .... The most famous releases included the video WikiLeaks dubbed "Collateral Murder," which depicted a US helicopter gunship firing indiscriminately into a crowded Baghdad street, leaving 13 dead, including a Reuters journalist. In the chat logs, Manning allegedly said he hoped the leaks "might actually change something." Other leaks included on-the-ground accounts of incidents in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars and diplomatic cables from state department officials. None of the leaks were top secret material, and a majority weren't even classified, but the Obama administration and the military have gone after Manning with disturbing ferocity anyway. .... Manning's transfer to Fort Meade marked the beginning of a seemingly endless series of pretrial hearings. These are held on an older part of the base, where the housing and administrative buildings are redbrick. Seventy-six reporters from dozens of outlets descended on the base during the first day of hearings in December 2011. By the second day, the number of journalists fell to 41. The numbers have only dwindled as the interminable process has dragged on.
On a muggy morning a month ago, the shriveled pool of reporters consisted of representatives from Al Jazeera, the Associated Press, Courthouse News, and a French wire service, along with me, an independent correspondent representing The Stranger. The driver of the WikiLeaks truck, which rolls around the country covered in garish messages in favor of Manning and WikiLeaks, was there, too, smiling impishly and acting as an unofficial courtroom artist. Also in attendance was Firedoglake blogger Kevin Gosztola, who has stuck with the process throughout and cowritten a book (with the Nation's Greg Mitchell) about Manning's case, Truth and Consequences: The U.S. vs. Bradley Manning.
These few remaining reporters made light of the low attendance. "Still no one from the New York Times," someone snorted derisively. Another reporter noted that there wasn't even a representative from the Guardian, a progressive British paper that has taken a particular interest in the case. Manning's case has struggled to maintain sustained public interest since day one. Even the Obama administration's tacit condoning of Manning's unconstitutional punishments gained little attention until blogger Glenn Greenwald began writing about it. Even then, debate and concern were largely relegated to activist groups and politically inclined journalists. Unlike, say, the crappy economy or health-care reform, issues of civil liberties or foreign policy lack the blatantly obvious implications for the wider population. In that light, it isn't particularly surprising that the pretrial hearings have been reduced, in most media, to a nonstory. ..... Thus far, the hearings have suggested little hope for Manning and his supporters. All charges still stand. In a particular blow to the defense, Colonel Lind disallowed evidence showing that Manning's alleged leaks were not detrimental to national security. The prosecution insisted that "the crime is complete" as soon as a leak takes place, although the judge retorted that "the crime is complete only if the offense if proven." There are at least three more rounds of pretrial hearings left—another week beginning August 27, then a day in September, and then another week in October. It will be this last round where Coombs will attempt to hold the military responsible for Manning's treatment at Quantico. The defense will move to dismiss all charges because of the undeniably heinous treatment Manning suffered at Quantico, and if that does not work, Coombs will likely motion for Manning's treatment to be used as credit against potential sentencing. ..... Whether Manning is guilty or not, whether he should be prosecuted or lauded, whether he is a whistle-blower or an indiscriminate dumper of information, it is clear that Manning's case is an example of a larger trend in American society: The powerless and economically vulnerable are held to punishingly harsh standards, while the rich and powerful get away with a slap on the wrist (if that). Steal $100 of food from the grocery store? You go to jail. Steal $10,000 from your employees through shady employment practices? Worst thing that happens is you might have to pay them back (but probably not). If an antipoverty organization is involved in a scandal, Congress cuts off its funding. But if a big bank indulges in racist lending practices to line the pockets of its executives, it gets a stipulation-free bailout. This inequality of accountability, as MSNBC host Chris Hayes defines this trend, is one of the most disturbing aspects of Manning's case. Manning may spend the rest of his life in jail for allegedly leaking low-level information about our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to the public, but that is information that has caused little, if any, harm to anyone. But the high-ranking officials who lied to get the United States to go to war with Iraq, or who ordered the torture of human beings, or who allowed extrajudicial killings of American citizens—they're not even accused of crimes, let alone charged. Manning gets stripped naked in solitary confinement while the powerful get lucrative book deals. Bradley Manning's court martial is not likely to be held until February 2013. By that point, he will have been imprisoned without sentencing for more than 1,000 days.

LAW & DISORDER? NYPD's New Jersey Muslim "investigation" turns up NO LEADS! Imagine that! We go to ADAM GOLDMAN and MATT APUZZO of the Associated Press (via Miami Herald) NYPD: Muslim spying led to no leads, terror cases In more than six years of spying on Muslim neighborhoods, eavesdropping on conversations and cataloguing mosques, the New York Police Department's secret Demographics Unit never generated a lead or triggered a terrorism investigation, the department acknowledged in court testimony unsealed late Monday. The Demographics Unit is at the heart of a police spying program, built with help from the CIA, which assembled databases on where Muslims lived, shopped, worked and prayed. Police infiltrated Muslim student groups, put informants in mosques, monitored sermons and catalogued every Muslim in New York who adopted new, Americanized surnames. Police hoped the Demographics Unit would serve as an early warning system for terrorism. And if police ever got a tip about, say, an Afghan terrorist in the city, they'd know where he was likely to rent a room, buy groceries and watch sports.
But in a June 28 deposition as part of a longstanding federal civil rights case, Assistant Chief Thomas Galati said none of the conversations the officers overheard ever led to a case. "Related to Demographics," Galati testified that information that has come in "has not commenced an investigation." .... Galati testified as part of a lawsuit that began in 1971 over NYPD spying on students, civil rights groups and suspected Communist sympathizers during the 1950s and 1960s. The lawsuit, known as the Handschu case, resulted in federal guidelines that prohibit the NYPD from collecting information about political speech unless it is related to potential terrorism. Civil rights lawyers believe the Demographics Unit violated those rules. Documents obtained by the AP show the unit conducted operations outside its jurisdiction, including in New Jersey. The FBI there said those operations damaged its partnerships with Muslims and jeopardized national security. In one instance discussed in the testimony, plainclothes NYPD officers known as "rakers" overheard two Pakistani men complaining about airport security policies that they believed unfairly singled out Muslims. They bemoaned what they saw as the nation's anti-Muslim sentiment since the 2001 terrorist attacks. ..... After the AP began reporting on the Demographics Unit, the department's former senior analyst, Mitchell Silber, said the unit provided the tip that ultimately led to a case against a bookstore clerk who was convicted of plotting to bomb the Herald Square subway station in Manhattan. Galati testified that he could find no evidence of that. Attorney Jethro Eisenstein, who filed the Handschu case more than 40 years ago and questioned Galati during the deposition, said he will go back to court soon to ask that the Demographics Unit be shut down. It operates today under a new name, the Zone Assessment Unit. It recently stopped operating out of state, Galati said. "This is a terribly pernicious set of policies," Eisenstein said. "No other group since the Japanese Americans in World War II has been subjected to this kind of widespread public policy." Dozens of members of Congress have asked the Justice Department to investigate the NYPD. Attorney General Eric Holder has said he was disturbed by the reports. But John Brennan, President Barack Obama's top counterterrorism adviser, has said he is confident the NYPD's activities are lawful and have kept the city safe.

ProPublica has a dark money investigation How Nonprofits Spend Millions on Elections and Call it Public Welfare .... The Republican Jewish Coalition and similar organizations enjoy tax-exempt status in exchange for promoting social welfare. In this election, the most expensive in U.S. history, they also have emerged as the primary conduit for anonymous big-money contributions. Forget super PACs, their much-hyped cousins, which can take unlimited contributions but must name their donors. More money is being spent on TV advertising in the presidential race by social welfare nonprofits, known as 501(c)(4)s for their section of the tax code, than by any other type of independent group. As of Aug. 8, they had spent more than $71 million on ads mentioning a candidate for president, according to estimates by Kantar Media's Campaign Media Analysis Group, or CMAG. Super PACs have spent an estimated $56 million. .... An investigation by ProPublica, drawing on documents filed with the Internal Revenue Service and the Federal Election Commission, offers the most detailed picture to date of how 501(c)(4) groups have used their tax status for purposes likely never intended. Our examination shows that dozens of these groups do little or nothing to justify the subsidies they receive from taxpayers. Instead, they are pouring much of their resources, directly or indirectly, into political races at the local, state and federal level. The 2010 election functioned, effectively, as a dry run, providing a blueprint for what social welfare groups are doing on a larger scale today. Records on what is happening in the 2012 campaign will not be available until well after the election. For this story, ProPublica reviewed thousands of pages of filings for 107 nonprofits active during the 2010 election cycle, tracking what portion of their funds went into politics. We watched TV ads bought by these groups, looked at documents from other nonprofits that gave them money, and interviewed dozens of campaign finance experts and political strategists. We found that some groups said they would not engage in politics when they applied for IRS recognition of their tax-exempt status. But later filings showed they spent millions on just such activities. ..... We also found that social welfare groups used a range of tactics to underreport their political activities to the IRS, a critical measure in determining whether they are entitled to remain tax-exempt. .... Campaign-finance watchdogs say the IRS has not clarified rules for social welfare groups or enforced them vigorously. "The tax laws are being ripped off and the public is being denied information to which they are entitled — namely, who is financing ads that are being run to influence their votes," said Fred Wertheimer, the president of Democracy 21, a watchdog group that has filed repeated complaints about 501(c)(4)s to regulators. The IRS declined to answer questions from ProPublica for this story. The agency said in its annual work plan that it would look at "serious allegations of impermissible political intervention" by social welfare groups. Marcus Owens, who was the director of the IRS' exempt organizations division for 10 years, pointed out that chasing political nonprofits isn't the agency's primary function, nor one for which it is staffed. One measure of this: Between 2001 and 2011, the IRS recognized more than 14,000 501(c)(4)s and turned down 56 applications. One reason the IRS struggles is that it can't match the speed of politics. By the time some groups submitted tax returns spelling out the millions they put into the 2010 election, they had stopped operating, or disbanded and reformed under new names, ProPublica found. .... Much more! Huge!
Next John Eggerton at Broadcasting & Cable reports CREW Challenges Fox D.C. Licenses Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has petitioned the FCC to deny renewal of three Washington-area Fox-owned TV stations. The group had signaled the move last spring in the wake of the News of the World phone hacking scandal in Britain. The stations are WTTG-TV, WDCA-TV, both Washington, and WUTB Baltimore. CREW last spring asked the FCC to yank all Fox licenses, alleging that News Corp.'s Rupert and James Murdoch don't have the character qualifications to hold station licenses. The FCC has taken no action to date, the group pointed out, which prompted them to open the second front with the F.C. challenge to the station renewals. Fox had no comment on the petition. According to a Fox source, the two D.C. station licenses came up for renewal at the beginning of June, though actually they have been in renewal limbo for eight years thanks to previous unresolved petitions to deny renewal. Fox expects much of the station-challenge focus to shift to the D.C. stations, the source told B&C back when CREW first signaled it would be going after the D.C. stations. The group CREDO Action has already asked the FCC to revoke all of Fox's licenses, including the two in D.C.
David Sassoon publisher of InsideClimate News penned this op-ed in the NYT Crude, Dirty and Dangerous VERY day more than one million barrels of oil flow to refineries in the United States from western Canada’s oil sands region. Producers hope to quadruple that amount in the next decade, arguing that oil from a friendly neighbor will deliver an extra degree of national security. But this oil is no ordinary crude oil, and it carries with it risks that we’re only beginning to understand. Its core ingredient — bitumen — is not pumped from wells but is strip-mined or boiled loose underground. Industry insiders long considered bitumen to be a “garbage” crude. But now that the light, sweet oil we covet has become more scarce and its price has skyrocketed, bitumen has become worth the trouble to recover. At room temperature, bitumen has the consistency of peanut butter, thick enough to hold in your hands. To get it through pipelines, liquid chemicals must be added to thin it into what’s known as dilbit, short for diluted bitumen. Last month, the National Transportation Safety Board issued a report that was harshly critical of the federal government’s regulation and oversight of pipeline safety following a spill of more than one million gallons of dilbit into the Kalamazoo River in Michigan in 2010. The accident underscored not only how different dilbit is from conventional oil, but how unprepared we are for the impending flood of imports. After the dilbit gushed into the river, it began separating into its constituent parts. The heavy bitumen sank to the river bottom, leaving a mess that is still being cleaned up. Meanwhile, the chemical additives evaporated, creating a foul smell that lingered for days. People reported headaches, dizziness and nausea. No one could say with certainty what they should do. Federal officials at the scene didn’t know until weeks later that the pipeline was carrying dilbit, because federal law doesn’t require pipeline operators to reveal that information. ..... The nation’s pipeline network was designed to handle conventional crude oil and is governed by laws and regulations that were written long before the unique risks and hazards associated with dilbit began to emerge. In fact, dilbit is exempt from an excise tax that pays for oil spill cleanups, because the 1980 law that created the tax did not consider bitumen from the “tar sands” to be crude oil. After the spill, Congress passed new pipeline safety legislation, but it will take years for its modest provisions to have any impact. It does not require pipeline companies to reveal whether their lines are shipping dilbit. And while it does require a study of how dilbit affects pipeline corrosion, the scientists conducting that study met for the first time only last month, and their work is not likely to be completed before new pipelines are built or old ones are repurposed. The N.T.S.B.’s investigation of the Michigan spill identified “a complete breakdown of safety” at Enbridge, the pipeline’s operator. But it also revealed that pipeline rules are weakly enforced. One telling fact: Enbridge discovered defects in the area where the pipeline eventually ruptured as early as 2005, and reported them to regulators. Yet the company was able to delay making repairs without breaking any rules. .... Now that the industry is aiming to fill almost a quarter of America’s domestic oil needs from western Canadian sources, we need a transparent and informed discussion about dilbit’s risks and benefits, up-to-date laws and regulations, and improved leak detection. ...
We follow-up on the Ring of Fire interview from last week Truthout investigative journalist Mike Ludwig will tell us about the earthquakes and toxic waste that are coming from Ohio’s fracking boom. Fracking is facilitating an oil and gas boom in the Buckeye State, and Ohioans have reason to be shaken up about the issue. Between the spring of 2011 and early 2012, a fracking waste injection well known as Northstar 1 caused more than a dozen minor earthquakes near Youngstown, Ohio, including one 4.0 magnitude earthquake that was felt for miles. A Truthout investigation has revealed that Ohio regulators permitted Northstar 1 operators to raise its maximum injection pressure twice, once shortly before and once again after the well caused two initial earthquakes on March 17, 2011. The injection well had the highest pressure of any well in the state, but the well operator was not required to conduct seismic testing before drilling and operating the well. The well was drilled more than 9,000 feet into a deep rock formation called the Precambrian basement, where the bottom of the well was left uncased, or "open hole," allowing drilling waste to flow freely into the underground formation, according to geological documents obtained by Truthout. It appears the drilling waste fluid lubricated a previously unknown fault as drilling waste moved through the Precambrian layer and caused the series of earthquakes..... Much more at Truth-out! More Mike Ludwig! From 13 March 2002 Regulators Say Fracking Wastewater Well Caused 12 Earthquakes in Ohio and 18 June 2012 Hundreds Protest Fracking in Ohio as Drilling Expands
AKIN WATCH: We go to RT's The Big Picture with Thom Hartmann Republican "Legislative" Rape - Not Legitimate! Nancy Cohen, author, Delirium & Sarah Seltzer, Alternet, join Thom Hartmann. Republicans are quickly trying to distance themselves from Rep. Todd Akin's "legitimate rape" comments - and are calling for him to drop out of his Senate race. But - isn't this really the height of hypocracy - since the party today officially adopted the legislative version of Akin's extremism position on rape and abortion? Good item!
GOP WAR ON WOMEN UPDATE: Politico's James Hohmann explains why the GOP rejects rape exception in platform Even as Mitt Romney sought to quash the furor surrounding Todd Akin’s “legitimate” rape comments, the Republican platform committee here approved an abortion plank that includes no exemptions for rape, incest or even to save the life of the mother. The platform committee instead approved draft language Tuesday, calling for a “Human Life Amendment” that gives legal protection to the unborn. Democrats quickly labeled the GOP language the “Akin Plank,” referring to the Missouri Senate candidate’s statements that victims of “legitimate rape” rarely get pregnant. On Tuesday, not one of the 100-plus members on the GOP platform committee introduced amendments. They kept the identical language from 2004 and 2008. The full committee later passed a measure opposing the FDA approval of drugs like RU-486, which North Carolina representative Mary Summa called “an abortion pill.” The platform would now effectively prevent the sale of “any drug that terminates life after conception.” .... The abortion language approved Tuesday endorses legislation that would say the 14th Amendment applies after conception and that would oppose using public funds to pay for abortions. It urges Congress to strengthen the Born Alive Infant Protection Act of 2002 by adding civil and criminal penalties for doctors who don’t adequately care for newborn babies. It supports a ban on sex-selective abortions. It also calls for mandatory waiting periods and parental consent requirements..... And be sure to read Kate Sheppard at Mother Jones Wham, Bam, Sonogram! Meet the Ladies Setting the New Pro-Life Agenda From transvaginal ultrasounds to attacks on Planned Parenthood, Americans United for Life is targeting reproductive rights one state at a time. .... Lately, it's been chipping away at abortion access at an ever-faster pace. Its team of lawyers has written dozens of model bills, which are collected in a playbook, Defending Life, and delivered to every state and federal legislator. All told, 92 anti-abortion restrictions were passed throughout the country last year, an all-time record; AUL can claim credit for 24 new laws. So far in 2012, 17* laws promoted by AUL or based on its model legislation have been passed. Invasive vaginal ultrasounds in Virginia? That was AUL's bill. Trying to shut down all the abortion clinics in Kansas? That was AUL, too....
And in a GAWKER Exclusive The Bain Files: Inside Mitt Romney’s Tax-Dodging Cayman Schemes The documents are exceedingly complicated. We don't pretend to be qualified to decode them in full, which is why we are posting them here for readers to help evaluate—please leave your thoughts in the discussion below. We asked an attorney who specializes in complex offshore corporate transactions, including ones involving Cayman Island entities, to review them and help us understand them. (We also asked the Romney campaign. It hasn't responded yet.) The full set can be read here. Here's what we've found so far.... Of course as Mitt Headroom and his 0.01% backers enjoy record profits and hide them in off-shore tax havens the Middle Class isn't doing well at all. Pew Social and Demographic Trends released this study on the American middle-class The Lost Decade of the Middle Class. From Chapter 1 Summary As the 2012 presidential candidates prepare their closing arguments to America’s middle class, they are courting a group that has endured a lost decade for economic well-being. Since 2000, the middle class has shrunk in size, fallen backward in income and wealth, and shed some—but by no means all—of its characteristic faith in the future. These stark assessments are based on findings from a new nationally representative Pew Research Center survey that includes 1,287 adults who describe themselves as middle class, supplemented by the Center’s analysis of data from the U.S. Census Bureau and Federal Reserve Board of Governors. Fully 85% of self-described middle-class adults say it is more difficult now than it was a decade ago for middle-class people to maintain their standard of living. Of those who feel this way, 62% say “a lot” of the blame lies with Congress, while 54% say the same about banks and financial institutions, 47% about large corporations, 44% about the Bush administration, 39% about foreign competition and 34% about the Obama administration. Just 8% blame the middle class itself a lot. Their downbeat take on their economic situation comes at the end of a decade in which, for the first time since the end of World War II, mean family incomes declined for Americans in all income tiers. But the middle-income tier—defined in this Pew Research analysis as all adults whose annual household income is two-thirds to double the national median—is the only one that also shrunk in size, a trend that has continued over the past four decades. Lots to read there so dig in.
LAST WORD: Maddy points us to PennyRed..... Laurie Penny: If you really believe in WikiLeaks, you must want Assange to face up to justice Governments cannot be trusted currently to deliver justice and accountability. Which would you rather have – women’s rights or freedom of speech? Standing outside the Ecuadorian Embassy on Sunday, listening to various venerable activists give rousing speeches, that’s the choice that seemed to have been placed before the international left in the person of Julian Paul Assange. When the Wikileaks founder finally appeared on the balcony he praised the crowd for their courage. Nobody mentioned his being wanted for questioning in Sweden on alleged counts of rape and sexual assault. For Assange and his supporters, his persecution by Interpol has nothing to do with that, and everything to do with his release of confidential diplomatic cables and videos showing the US Army gunning down unarmed civilians and independent journalists in Iraq.
The idea that Assange cannot be prosecuted for charges related to a sexual assault without being prosecuted for charges related to exposing diplomatic secrets is one that the government of the United States is trying very hard to make reality. It is in their interests to ensure that Assange’s army of supporters cannot defend Wikileaks without also being seen to defend his sexual conduct, whatever the truth of the case.
“The allegations are beyond pathetic and ridiculous,” Andreas Kohl, a 17-year-old German-American Wikileaks supporter, told me. “It’s about freedom of speech, and there is absolutely no evidence of him committing anything that would be remotely considered rape.” Then there were the 15-year-old twin boys who told me that they thought the charges were “made up” because “he’s someone with a lot of information, and they want to get him to a place where they can extradite him.” This is the message that idealistic young men all over the world are learning from this case: governments need to be held to account, independent journalism is powerful, and women lie about rape. “It’s something that can just happen, you know,” said Bradford MP George Galloway, commenting on the case and defending the right of men everywhere not to have to ask “prior to each insertion”. Interestingly enough, “something that can just happen” is almost exactly how the United States describes collateral slaughter in the Middle East. It’s unfortunate, but it happens, and the victims were probably dressed unwisely. On the subject of women and their malicious lies, powerful white men across the political spectrum are curiously unanimous: just this week, Republican senatorial candidiate Todd Akin was criticised for repeating the myth that women cannot become pregnant in situations of “legitimate rape”. Ironically, in a case that is supposed to be all about radical transparency, the precise legal issues at play in Assange’s extradition are murky and misunderstood by practically everyone without access to every email chain. What charges is he facing, or are they just allegations, and does that matter before he crosses the Swedish border? Was it rape or just, in Galloway’s delicate phraseology, “bad sexual etiquette”? Can he really be legally extradited to the United States if he goes to Sweden, or will the US government make use of loopholes allowing his removal and prosecution? Nobody in the crowd outside the embassy seemed sure of the facts. Not the Occupy London supporters in Anonymous masks. Not the Ecuadorian women chanting support for their president, whose re-election campaign has been boosted by his support for Assange. And certainly not the police shoving journalists into a pen on the pavement “for our own safety”.
Let’s be clear here: nobody should have to stifle one set of principles in order to allow another to live. If you choose to do so, that’s a matter for your conscience. For myself, I believe in freedom of speech, and in the power of journalism– it’s what I do for a living. I believe that governments need to be made to answer for pursuing profit in the name of peace and massacring thousands in the name of security. I believe in ending the age of secrecy, and I believe that the United States currently seeks to prevent that by pursuing and prosecuting hackers, whistleblowers and journalists across the world. And I also believe women. I believe women when they say that their sexual consent is infringed, violently and coercively, by men they trust and admire, as well as by strangers. I believe that rape and sexual violence are wilfully ignored and misunderstood by governments except when the victims happen to be accusing radical transparency campaigners of assault. I believe that it is possible to believe women and to support Wikileaks at the same time without moral hypocrisy, and I believe that those across the left who seem to have a problem with holding those two simple ideas in their head at the same time need to ask themselves what accountability actually means. Nobody should be forced to choose between defending investigative journalism and freedom of speech and fighting for justice in the global war on women’s bodies. So please, don’t ask if one alleged sex attacker out of hundreds of millions currently walking free and unpursued across three continents should be made to answer for his actions in a court of law when all that distinguishes him from the rest of the army of decent men doing despicable things to women without facing the consequences is the fact that he happens to have personally embarrassed several governments. Please don’t ask, because the answer hurts.
The answer is that of course, Julian Assange should be held to account, of course he should, and he should be held to account in a system where due process means something and women are respected, and currently that system does not exist. Come back to me when the 19,000 annual sex attacks committed by members of the US Army and private contractors against their own fellow soldiers are prosecuted. Come back to me when Private Bradley Manning is free. That’s not a torturous way of saying, don’t come back to me at all. I want that world right now, and I want to see everyone else who believes in basic principles of truth and transparency put down their prejudices and fight for that world with some semblance of consistency. It all comes down to justice and accountability. Those are not things that world governments can currently be trusted to deliver at an international level, not for women, and not for the victims of war. Julian Assange should be held to account, and the system to do so fairly while protecting the work of Wikileaks does not exist, and anyone who believes in freedom needs to fight for both.
It is not only possible to defend both women’s rights and freedom of speech. It is morally inconsistent to defend one without the other. Cultures of secrecy, covert violence and unaccountability need to be exposed. That’s what Wikileaks is supposed to be about, and it’s also what feminism is about, and right now, governments are terrified of both. That, if nothing else, should tell us where the lines of power are really drawn.
Well said, PennyRed, well said. Of course the wikileaks thing was so last week the Beltway Bubalas have no room for any of it what with the GOPher convention and horse race to cover. Meet the David and State of the Candy go fearlessly head-on into Issac and the GOPher convention with lunatics like JEB BUSH, JAN BREWER (mtp) plus REINCE PROBISCUS, SCOTT WALKER and KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON (sotu). Not to be upstaged in the Crazy Department This Snufagopolis recruits BOB "ultrasound" MCDONNELL while Face the Bob gets crazier MARSHA BLACKBURN, HALEY BARBOUR and PROBISCUS while FAKE SNOOZE does a myoptic on Mr. & Mrs. KOLOB and 60 Minutes does a spiel on GROVER "no taxes" NORQUIST. Check out Actress Kathleen Turner on MTP about the women's vote and her new one-woman show about Texas political columnist Molly Ivins! The BTV Crew loves MOLLY IVANS! After that turn off the teevee and drop a dollar on PBC with GARETH PORTER on the U.S. drone policy or Harper's THOMAS FRANK on "Obama’s Centrist Ideology" PLUS a new BOILING FROGS with Whistlesblower Sibel Edmonds and RAY MCGOVERN! Ring of Fire talks to The Nation's ARI BERMAN about the GOP WAR ON VOTING (more on this at BRADBLOG) plus JUSTIN ELLIOT from ProPublica about "Bain Capital’s Central American Blood Money". So much to read, watch and listen to instead of the corporomedia echo machine! The Brick Teevee Crew especially liked DN!'s HOWARD ZINN's 90th Birthday on Friday. Click anything and be instantly smarter! The BTV Garden was late getting planted but we're seeing some banana peppers and THREE RED Cherry Tomatoes! Count' em THREE! The eggplants that survived the critter invasion are going great and we replanted beans, snap peas and spinach now that it's getting cooler. Another possibility why our tomato plants aren't going crazy (they're 4' tall) may be that the continent-wide drought has affected and stressed out the bee population even more so we're not getting regular visits from bees. Looks like lotsa pickled green tomatoes this year if they come in. Excellent with the banana peppers! How's yer garden been this year? Have a great Sunday and a great week!



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Monday, August 20, 2012 Tuesday, August 21, 2012 Wednesday, August 22, 2012 Thursday, August 23, 2012 Friday, August 24, 2012 GRITtv »»» GRITtv @ www.grittv.org with Laura Flanders
»»» FEATURED SHOW Racial Profiling on Trial in Arizona (Video) Arizona's Sheriff Joe Arpaio is facing a class action suit that accuses him of racism in law enforcement. Is Arpaio the only problem? No, the ACLU's Omar Jadwat tells Flanders. Another is the federal government.
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The 1st Amendment is Our Permit Our permit to occupy is The First Amendment. Quickly sign the following statement which will be delivered to mayors, police chiefs and major media across the country:
    Our permit to occupy public squares and parks is in The First Amendment, which affirms "the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." When people across the Middle East occupied public squares, leaders in Washington mostly cheered those protesters and warned Middle Eastern governments not to use force to clear them. Those other societies don’t have a First Amendment. Yet Washington affirmed the universal right to assembly and protest. We do have a First Amendment. The force being used to clear nonviolent protesters from public squares in our country is unacceptable. It must stop.

STOP the ACHE Appalachian Community HEALTH EMERGENCY Advocating for government action and protection of the public from the health crisis in mountain top removal communi ties
    Lawmakers concerned about the health effects on humans from mountaintop removal coal mining set forth legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives today. Representatives Dennis Kucinich (OH), Louise Slaughter (NY), Maurice Hinchey (NY), Earl Blumenauer (OR), Lucille Roybal-Allard (CA), John Yarmuth (KY), Lynn Woolsey (CA), Judy Chu (CA), Raúl Grijalva (AZ), James Moran (VA), Michael Honda (CA), John Conyers (MI), and Keith Ellison (MN) introduced the Appalachian Communities Health Emergency (ACHE) Act [H.R. 5959] which would place a moratorium on permitting for mountaintop removal coal mining until health studies are conducted by the Department of Health and Human Services. The ACHE coalition presently consists of participants from Coal River Mountain Watch, Mountain Health and Heritage Association, and Christians for the Mountains. “We encourage you, if you’re concerned about mountaintop removal’s effect on your community’s health, to join us in making your voice heard,” said Allen Johnson, executive director of Christians for the Mountains. “Please contact us, learn about the issue, and take action to protect your community.”

Community-Wealth.org community-wealth.org a project of the Democracy Collaborative at the University of Maryland Community-Wealth.org brings together, for the first time, information about the broad range of community wealth building activity. Featuring Community Wealth Building in Action: The Cleveland Model Something important is happening in Cleveland. The Democracy Collaborative—the host of C-W.org—in partnership with the Cleveland Foundation, the Ohio Employee Ownership Center, Shorebank Enterprise Cleveland, the City of Cleveland, and the city's major hospitals and universities—is helping to implement a new model of large-scale worker-owned and community-benefiting businesses. The Evergreen Cooperative Initiative is beginning to build serious momentum in one of the cities most dramatically impacted by the nation's decaying economy. Increasingly, this model is being referred to nationally as The Cleveland Model. Initial planning is now underway to assist other cities in Ohio and nationwide to replicate and adapt this innovative approach to economic development, green job creation, and neighborhood stabilization. Find more many resources at Community-Wealth.org!
NET NEUTRALITY! SaveTheInternet.com Declaration of Internet Freedom Tired of fighting bad bills like SOPA, PIPA and CISPA? Want to stand up against those who are trying to control what we do and say online? It's time for something different. A group of more than 1,500 organizations, academics, startup founders and tech innovators has come together to produce a Declaration of Internet Freedom, a set of five principles that put forward a positive vision of the open Internet. Our goal: Get millions of Internet users to sign on to this Declaration. Build political power for Internet users to make sure that we get a seat at the table whenever, and wherever, the future of the Internet is being decided. It's time to stop playing defense and start going on the offensive. The open Internet is central to people’s freedom to communicate, share, advocate and innovate in the 21st century. But powerful interests want to censor free speech, block the sharing of information, hinder innovation and control how Internet users get online. And all too often, people in power are making political decisions behind closed doors about how the Internet should operate — and they're doing this without the involvement of actual Internet users. The result: policies that could close down the open Internet and destroy our freedom to connect. It’s time for us to reclaim the Internet for its users. Take action now and sign the Declaration of Internet Freedom..
CAMPAIGN FOR AMERICA'S FUTURE American Majority Rejects Washington Austerity Consensus – And We Demand Media Coverage by Roger Hickey, President, Campaign for America's Future: No more silent majority. The Campaign for America’s Future is joining with the Center for Economic and Policy Research (whose Co-Director, Dean Baker blogs regularly about economic bias in the media) and with FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting) to monitor the media’s coverage and representation of the American Majority views as they go into covering the big deficit fight. But we want to enlist YOU too. Send us accounts of unbalanced coverage in the national media and in your local newspapers and television. Call up reporters, editors, assignment people and tell them when they are under-representing the views of the American Majority. We should have at least half the experts, pundits, quotes and real people represented in their coverage. In a debate as important as the one we are going into, we can’t allow the media to ignore the American Majority. Much more at www.ourfuture.org
MOVE TO AMEND! www.movetoamend.org SIGN HERE NOW! And check out more actions on the Move to Amend Calendar featuring David Cobb's Barnstorming Tour! Also visit Rep Alan Grayson's site www.savedemocracy.net GET INVOLVED! And Alan Grayson is running again in FL-8! Help out at CongressmanWithGuts.com
SUPPORT THE TROOPS WHO REFUSE TO FIGHT See CourageToResist.org and Bradley Manning Support Network UPDATE! Michael Ratner on ANTIWAR RADIO Michael Ratner May 2, 2012: Michael Ratner, President Emeritus of the Center for Constitutional Rights, discusses his article “Bradley Manning: a show trial of state secrecy;” Manning’s quasi-public trial (which is open to observation, yet vital evidence and court documents are withheld from the media and public); why the NY Times is just as guilty of “aiding the enemy” as Manning and WikiLeaks; how President Obama and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta made a fair trial impossible; and how you can support Bradley Manning in his time of need.
DONATE YOUR OLD CELL PHONES TO T.J. MARTELL FOUNDATIONHelp save lives. Donate your old & used iPhone, Blackberries, Droid and other phones to help the T.J. Martell Foundations fund life-saving cancer & AIDS research. For more information, go to www.tjmartellfoundation.org CELLULAR PHONE TASK FORCE EDUCATION, ADVOCACY, SUPPORT at CellPhoneTaskForce.org The Cellular Phone Task Force is dedicated to halting the expansion of wireless technology because it cannot be made safe. We provide: education to the public concerning electromagnetic pollution (electrosmog); advocacy for an electromagnetically cleaner environment; support for individuals disabled by radiation from wireless technology and other sources.


B R I C K T E E V E E
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The essential guide for watching government propaganda IRAQ: 4,486 US Military Dead as of April 21, 2012
AFGHANISTAN: 2,099 US Military Dead as of Aug 17, 2012
The Obameter: Tracking Obama's Campaign Promises
Considering Democracy: 8 Things to ask your Representative

  • This Week (ABC) hosted by Jake Tapper
    • Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell
    • Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa
    • ROUNDTABLE: George Will; Rep. Donna Edwards, D-Md.; former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, host of Current TV's "The War Room"; Republican strategist Mary Matalin; and FOX News anchor Greta Van Susteren.

  • Face The Nation (CBS) Host Bob Schiefer
    • RNC Chairman Reince Priebus
    • platform committee co-chair Rep. Marsha Blackburn D-Tenn
    • former Gov. Haley Barbour, R-Miss.
    • ROUNDTABLE: Wall Street Journal's Peggy Noonan, TIME's Rich Lowry, The Washington Post's Dan Balz, CBS This Morning co-host Norah O'Donnell and CBS News political director John Dickerson.

  • 60 Minutes (CBS)
    • The Pledge - Steve Kroft takes a look at Grover Norquist, the man many blame for holding up the deficit-reduction process because of the anti-tax pledges he has obtained from nearly all the Republican politicians in Washington. Frank Devine is the producer.
    • Stem Cell Fraud - Stem cells still have not proven to be the panacea many claimed they could be, yet the Internet is alive with stem cells for sale to treat incurable illnesses. Scott Pelley reports on one man offering to treat cerebral palsy who a respected stem cell researcher says could be endangering patients. Oriana Zill and Michael Rey are the producers.

  • Meet the Press (NBC) Host David Gregory - A special MTP from the RNC Convention in Tampa
    Microsoft, NBC News Dissolve MSNBC.com Joint Venture NBC is buying Microsoft's 50 percent interest in the MSNBC website for an undisclosed amount. MSNBC.com will be rebranded as NBCNews.com, and readers who logged into MSNBC.com late Sunday were automatically redirected to NBCNews.com. Microsoft is preparing to launch its own news service this fall. Although he declined to provide many details about the operation general manager of MSN.com Bob Visse said the news staff will be about the same size as the roughly 100 people who created original content for the MSNBC.com. "There is no question that we are going to have more flexibility to make our own decisions," said Vivian Schiller, NBC News' chief digital officer. "This is really an amicable breakup. We think competition will make us better." Okay then.
    • former Governor of Florida Republican Jeb Bush
    • Actress Kathleen Turner
    • ROUNDTABLE: DNC Chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz; The Republican Governor from Arizona, Jan Brewer; Republican Strategist Mike Murphy and NBC News Political Director and Chief White House Correspondent, Chuck Todd.

  • State of the Union With Candy Crowley (CNN) At 9 AM ET, Candy talks to the power players: politicians, business leaders and international newsmakers who will make Monday morning's headlines. At NOON ET, Candy wraps it all up with fresh interviews and the best of the earlier hours. “State of the Union” is live from the RNC Convention in Tampa.
    • RNC Chairman Reince Priebus
    • Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker
    • Al Cardenas, Chairman of the American Conservative Union
    • Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX)
    • Democrat Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley
    • ROUNDTABLE:CNN Senior Political Analyst Ron Brownstein and The Washington Post’s Karen Tumulty.


  • HEAD ON RADIO with Bob Kincaid
    HEAD ON
    Headon Radio with Bob Kincaid 6 PM Eastern, 3 PM Pacific, 2300 GMT. Duration: 3 hrs. To be part of Conversation Radio on Head-on Radio, call toll-free (877) 443-2366, or use our Liberal community line at 304-658-3333. Email bob [at] headonradio [dot] com during the show!
    • THORN IN THE SIDE THURSDAY!!!!! Pull up a chair and grab a cold one! Listen HERE (mp3) NOW! Amen to the White Rose Society! Donate to Head On HERE! And join Coal River Mountain Watch at www.crmw.net!


  • YOUR GREEN NEWS REPORT
    desi-n-bradheadroomoil
    The Green News Report with Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen: 6 minutes of green news, politics, analysis & snarky comment! BOOKMARK greennews.bradblog.com NOW!
    'Green News Report' - August 23, 2012 IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: A Green News Special Report: Mitt Romney's Energy Agenda - oil, oil and even more oil; PLUS: A hurricane of irony threatens the Republican National Convention in Tampa ... All that and more in today's Green News Report!
    • IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see link): Bill Nye: Media must ask candidates about climate change; GOP Rep: mentioning climate change would 'divide America'; India boosts community solar projects; KY coal plant cancels pollution upgrades; TX judge rules Transcanada can seize property for Keystone XL pipeline; Arctic and Antarctic both show rapid ice melt; Corporations spending millions to defeat GMO labeling ... PLUS: UK Science advisor warns climate target 'out the window' ... and much, MUCH more! ...
    • BRADBLOG UPDATE: News21: Rightwing ALEC Behind Push for GOP Photo ID Restriction Laws Otherwise excellent investigative news project still forwards several unsubstantiated 'voter fraud' myths...
    • BRADBLOG UPDATE: Report: Wife of WI GOP Legislator and Photo ID Restrictions Advocate, Committed Voter Fraud Yes, it looks like, once again --- no matter what the professional GOP "voter fraud" fraudsters and clowns like John Fund, Hans von Spakovsky and Matthew Vadum claim --- if there is an epidemic of "voter fraud" in this country, it seems that its not Democrats, but Republicans, and often very very high-profle Republicans at that, who are carrying it out. But wait! There is still more absurdity and/or irony and/or hypocrisy in this case...
    • GUEST POST! Earnest A. Canning Pennsylvania Refuses to Comply with U.S. Dept. of Justice Photo ID Document Request .... Section 5 of the VRA requires some 16 different jurisdictions in the U.S., with a history of racial discrimination, to get pre-clearance for new election-related laws. Pennsylvania is not one of those jurisdictions. However, all 50 states are barred from instituting discriminatory laws under Section 2 of the act. Commonwealth's General Counsel James D.Schultz accused the DoJ of targeting "a growing number of states…simply because they instituted legislation designed to insure the integrity of the voting process"... Schultz has, in essence, told the DoJ, "So sue me"!
    • Visit BradBlog.com to see who counts yer votes! Now up to 9,200+ Election Protection posts! Find out who's counting your votes and how at ElectionIntegrity.org too.


  • The Peter B. Collins Show PODCAST!
    pbc show
    Listen at PeterBCollins.com!
    The Peter B. Collins Show covers American news and politics from the Left Coast. Veteran talk radio personality Peter B. Collins, based in San Francisco, delivers fresh interviews, commentary and analysis on a range of important topics, with views and voices you don’t often find in the corporate media.
    Holiday Break and Website Changes
      To my valued listeners: We are making some changes to the website and our terms, effective in January. We will continue to offer free podcasts–my new daily news and commentary. Our in-depth interviews will be available for $1 per episode, or to subscribers who pay $5 per month or more. Loyal listeners who simply can’t afford it should send an email to peter@peterbcollins.com, as we will be offering a limited number of scholarships to our friends who are hurting during these tough times. More information will be posted as we complete the revisions. I’m grateful to each of you for listening and supporting this work, and hope that the new model will enable us to keep it going well into the future. All the best, -pbc
    • PBC Standard Podcast August 17, 2012 Boiling Frogs: Ex-CIA Analyst Ray McGovern on Obama’s Drones, Targeted Killings, Cyberwarfare and more
    • PBC Standard Podcast August 21, 2012 Harper’s Thomas Frank on Obama’s Centrist Ideology, and His Distress Over Erosion of Our Rights
    • PBC Standard Podcast August 23, 2012 Journalist Gareth Porter: US Drone Strikes ARE Killing Civilians; FireDogLake’s Kevin Gosztola Explains the State Secrets Privilege; Will Durst on Akin


  • Ring of Fire Radio
    rofheader
    Find us at http://ringoffireradio.com and http://goleft.tv/ hosted by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Mike Papantonio and Sam Seder
    Ring of Fire Radio - GoLeft TV - Robert F. Kennedy, Mike Papantonio, Sam Seder - Politics, Commentary, and News.
    This week on Ring of Fire August 24, 2012
    • Ari Berman, Nation correspondent and author of Herding Donkeys, will talk about the latest developments in the war on voting.
    • Scott Klinger from the Institute for Policy Studies will tell us how CEOs are ripping off American taxpayers.
    • RJ Eskow from the Center for American Progress will tell us how Social Security will be a major campaign issue for Republicans to overcome.
    • And Reverend Welton Gaddy will join us to talk about the role that religion will play in this year’s election.
    • VIDEO! THE HISTORY OF CORPORATE CORRUPTION & FRAUD with Robert Kennedy Jr & Mike Papantonio “Call us if you have a personal story about Fraud on Taxpayers or False Claims for Payment made by Corportations at 1-866-389-FIRE (3473)or contact us by email at info@ringoffireradio.com if you have evidence of fraud that robbed taxpayer dollars. If our government is paying too much due to fraud by a corporation, Ring of Fire wants to do a story on it.”
    • VIDEO! Papantonio: Hurricane Todd Akin Threatens RNC Convention Mike Papantonio appears on The Big Picture with Thom Hartmann to discuss Todd Akin’s claims about “legitimate rape,” and how the GOP is being forced to distance themselves from Akin, even though his views are in line with the mainstream GOP leadership.
    • VIDEO! Papantonio: Bain Capital’s Central American Blood Money Mitt Romney has some serious questions to answer about his history at Bain Capital – questions that could easily have a huge impact on whether or not he succeeds in his bid for the presidency. One of the biggest questions is why he sought money from warlords in El Salvador to help finance Bain Capital in its early years. Mike Papantonio discusses the story that Mitt Romney doesn’t want you to hear with Justin Elliot, an investigative journalist with ProPublica.
    Support Those Who Support Progressive Media! 2011 has certainly been a great year for Ring of Fire, and we’ve had some great sponsors that have helped support the show throughout the year. We wanted to take the time to personally thank each and every one of them, and we encourage all of our listeners to take the time to support those who have support us.
    • Join our blog at www.ringoffireradio.com. You can now SUBSCRIBE TO OUR PODCAST by clicking on the "Podcast" tab at the top of the Ring of Fire blog. Please help support progressive radio by signing up!
    Ring of Fire Radio Ring of Fire, hosted by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Mike Papantonio and Sam Seder: Saturdays at 3 o’clock Eastern, rebroadcasts 8-11 et Sunday evenings on Chicago's Progressive Talk WCPT AM & FM and 4 pm et on Sirius/XM 167 featuring The PAP Attack! "We’ll bring you the stories that the mainstream media didn’t feel like reporting this week."


  • Majority Report with Sam Seder Streaming LIVE weekdays 11:30 am et @ Majority.fm!

    • August 20, 2012 Wikileaks Monday Scott Horton of Harpers Magazine will join Sam today to discuss Wikileaks, international law and secrecy. Also Michael Ratner with the latest on Assange
    • August 21, 2012 Ari Berman, Voter Suppression and Amanda Marcotte Tells Us What Todd Akin Reveals About the Pro Life Movement
    • August 23, 2012 Education and Liberation
    • August 24, 2012 Casual Friday, Cliff Schecter
    • MORE Podcast Interviews at Majority.fm!


  • On the Edge with Max Keiser Podcasts and more @ MaxKeiser.com!
    maxheaderhiyall
    "HI Y'ALL! Tell the people! Tell the people!"
    WHO IS MAX KEISER? Max Keiser is a financial expert, Prediction Markets analyst, inventor and filmmaker. He is the creator of the Hollywood Stock Exchange (HSX) the first Prediction Market. Max Keiser co-hosts "The Truth About Markets" on ResonanceFM 104.4 in London. He also produces and presents documentary films covering markets and finance for Al Jazeera’s "People & Power" series. Max Keiser started his career on Wall Street in 1983. He is the creator of KarmaBanque a site that enables activists to challenge corporate power.
    • VISIT PirateMyFilm.com!!! Crowd Funding for Pirates!
    • NEW! MaxKeiserTV on YouTube! MaxKeiserTV PLUS here is Max Keiser’s official Facebook page And here is the official Keiser Report page
    The official Facebook pages for Max Keiser & Keiser Report STACY SUMMARY: For once and for all, here are our real Facebook pages, the other ones are fake. But if you feel like chatting to the fake ones, by all means, go ahead. Max Keiser & Keiser Report PLUS Stacey Herbert
    The “Keiser Report” has been begging europe to do this for years by maxkeiser READ European Banks Preparing To Boycott Big Three Rating Agencies (zerohedge.com)
    CNBC’s Admission, yes: Silver market is manipulated (skip to 9:30) by maxkeiser READ CNBC Host States Silver Manipulation is a Fact, NOT a Conspiracy! sliverdoctors.com with VIDEO! Once Barclays pointed the finger at BoE as colluding on Libor manipulation (instead of denying it), the roof got ripped off decades of blatant manipulation in these markets. The dollar and U.S. bonds have been protected with Fed interference and outright manipulation; same thing in the UK. And to bolster the price for sovereign bonds, the price of Gold and Silver has been manipulated down alongside the upside price movements of worthless paper. Ratings at CNBC have been plummeting this year – as the audience is way ahead of their talking heads on these points. When CNBC admits that markets, especially silver, are rigged, the few remaining viewers they have collectively sigh; ‘I heard that on Keiser Report three years ago.’ READ CNBC: Silver and Financial Markets Are Manipulated, But So What? Jesse's Crossroads Cafe
    Catherine Austin Fitts Commentary on Financial Holocaust
    • KEISER REPORT [KR331] Keiser Report: Liquidity Drought We discuss the fact that we’re all cows eating candy during the global liquidity drought and yet Central Bank ‘farmers’ can’t see the ill-effects because the stock markets are at four year highs. In the second half of the show, Max Keiser talks to Dmitry Orlov about 2013: revolutionary travel advisories, economic and supply chain collapse and food stamp lines at Walmart.
    • KEISER REPORT [KR332] Keiser Report: Debt Bomb We discuss CNBC swooning for Biebanke,’ Warren Buffett waving many red flags and tax revenue plummeting in UK after a dose of Georgie Porgie’s bubble and fraud pudding. In the second half of the show, Max Keiser talks to Dominic Frisby, resident gold bug at Moneyweek, about debt bombs and the City of London. They also discuss how North Sea oil enabled the big bang and how a property bubble could undo it.
    • ON THE EDGE On the Edge with Professor Steve Keen
    • THE TRUTH ABOUT MARKETS [Tam-1248] The Truth About That Dunkin’ Donuts Two For One Download show HERE (mp3)
    • Donate to ResonanceFM here!


  • ANTIWAR RADIO with Scott Horton
    antiwarradio.jpg LIVE (9-11am Pacific, 12pm - 2pm Eastern) Plenty of archives too!
    Listen at antiwar.com/radio
    Pepe Escobar June 30, 2012: Globetrotting journalist Pepe Escobar discusses his article “Syria and Turkey’s Phantom War;” Turkey’s violation of Syrian airspace in a purposeful, measured provocation and test of Syria’s defenses; the near-invocation of NATO Article 5 and a wider war (an attack on one NATO country is an attack on all); looking for ways to bypass the UN on Syria, since China and Russia won’t let an interventionist resolution pass the Security Council; grand plans for NATO expansion in the official “Assured Security, Dynamic Engagement” plan; counterrevolutions in the Middle East and South America, as the US looks to rebuild its portfolio of client states; and how Qatar has become the new superpower in the Middle East, surpassing even Saudi Arabia.
    SCOTT HORTON July 5, 2012: Scott says goodbye to Antiwar.com. Scott Horton is the former host of Antiwar Radio. Visit his blog Stress. Due to budget cuts Scott lost his gig at AntiWarRadio.com! Whoa! See ScottHortonShow.com for archives! Send emails to Scott at scotthorton.org to help Scott keep his podcast going!
    • Many more interviews at Antiwar Radio!


  • fauxnews
    • FORMER Governor Mitt Romney
    • Wife Ann Romney

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Sunday, August 19, 2012

Brick TeeVee's Privatizing Ryan Special!


Your Guest List for Sunday's Talking Head News Shows beamed across America by Corporate Media PLUS reports from the best lib/prog media! If you have related STORIES share below! DEBUNK HERE! Throw Bricks! First brick is on us! Get your Foam Bricks at ThrowThings.com

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PRIVATIZING RYAN SPECIAL! We must begin with this JULIAN ASSANGE UPDATE: Start with DN on Thursday Ecuador Grants Julian Assange Asylum; U.S. Seen as "Hidden Hand" Behind U.K. Threat to Raid Embassy with Ben Griffin from Veterans for Peace UK and Assange attorney Michael Ratner@justleft Michael Ratner@theccr who explained "I think it’s clear that Julian Assange cannot get a fair trial in the United States. Not only are there calls for his lynching, essentially, where the vice president, Biden, has called him akin to a high-tech terrorist, but you understand what has happened to Bradley Manning the minute they got their hands on him in the United States—essentially an underground solitary prison, stripped. The U.N. rapporteur has called it cruel and inhuman treatment, akin to torture, and said it was likely torture. This is what Julian Assange would be facing. In addition, the Espionage Act itself is a political statute that is used to go after free speech. That’s what it was—that’s what it was designed for in the First World War. That’s what it does. And that’s why they want to get Julian Assange. They don’t like his message. They want to kill the messenger. Rather than do that, they should be looking at their own crimes and going after the people who have committed crimes. So the Ecuadorean ambassador is absolutely—or the Ecuadorean minister, absolutely correct. He has a right to asylum under the refugee convention, and he will not get a fair trial in the United States.". For more Ratner go to "Back Off": Assange Attorney Michael Ratner Urges U.K., U.S. to Respect Asylum Decision, Int’l Law.
Next we go to El Pias Garzón: "We will go to international court if UK blocks Assange exit" Judge Baltasar Garzón, who is leading Julian Assange’s legal team, announced Thursday that he will go before the International Court of Justice at The Hague if Britain refuses to allow the WikiLeaks founder to travel to Ecuador, the country that granted him asylum. In an interview after Ecuador had announced that it was approving Assange’s request for diplomatic asylum, the former High Court judge criticized the show of force and "threats of invading" the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where his client has been holed up since June 19. "Of course they can’t do that," he said. "They have to comply with diplomatic and legal obligations under the 1951 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, and respect the sovereignty of a country that has granted asylum. "If Britain doesn’t comply with its obligations, we will go before International Court of Justice to demand that Britain complies with its obligations because there is a person who runs the risk of being persecuted politically," Garzón said. ..... Britain has said that that it won’t allow Assange out of the country unless his destination is Sweden. "We will not allow Mr Assange safe passage out of the United Kingdom, nor is there any legal basis for us to do so. The United Kingdom does not recognize the principle of diplomatic asylum," said William Hague, the foreign secretary.
From the Institute for Public Accuracy ROBERT NAIMAN of justforeignpolicy.org explains "Three Basic Questions" the Media Should be Asking in Assange Asylum Case "As Americans who appealed to Ecuador to grant Julian Assange’s request for political asylum from the threat of U.S. persecution, we are delighted with the decision by Ecuador to grant Assange asylum. But there are three questions the media should be asking.
"The UK is now saying that it does not respect diplomatic asylum and has threatened to raid Ecuador’s embassy, which would be a grave breach of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. The UK threat to violate international law is particularly extreme when one considers that these three basic questions have never been answered:
  • 1) why Sweden won’t agree to question Assange in the UK;
  • 2) why Sweden won’t promise not to extradite Assange to the United States if he voluntarily goes to Sweden;
  • 3) why the UK won’t promise to oppose an extradition request from the U.S. to Sweden if Assange voluntarily goes to Sweden."
COLEEN ROWLEY said today: "The entire U.S. Government’s fixation with secrecy that has led to over-classification of 92 million documents last year, the 'leak' frenzy that is driving the espionage prosecutions of so many former CIA, NSA and other government whistleblowers — also driving thousands of unnecessary polygraphs of government employees — is simply a gross over-reaction along with the UK threat today to storm the Ecuadorian Embassy to capture Julian Assange of WikiLeaks and thus deny his asylum."
At OpEdNews Ruth Hall asks Will Britain's Declaration of War Against International Law Backfire? Will British Embassies Be Stormed? If Britain acts on a local statute overturning international diplomatic law, Britain will have a tough time convincing other nations not to imitate its footsteps. By following through with the threat to storm the Ecuadorian Embassy and arrest Julian Assange, Britain would effectively be waiving any objection to Vladimir Puttin, Hu Jintao and Rafael Vicente Correa Delgado storming the British Embassies in Russia, China and Ecuador and arresting whomever they felt like arresting. While international law no more allows these countries to do that than it allows the U.K. police to raid the Ecuadorian Embassy, these countries could all pass quickie laws or write executive orders giving them as much legal authority to do these acts as the U.K. law gives to the U.K. police to conduct their international crime. Imagine hundreds of countries around the world retaliating and pointing to Britain's precedent for authority. Britain could raid the Ecuadorian Embassy on Thursday and find itself in total chaos on Friday. Britain's little local law does not have the ability to override international law regarding the sovereignty of embassy property. To storm the Ecuadorian embassy is not just an act of war and terrorism against the Government of Ecuador. It is also an act of war and terrorism against the world, thereby waiving any right of Britain to object to retaliation from any country, anywhere. Britain better hope any countries so retaliating don't have the death penalty for acts of war and terrorism. Once Britain opens the barn door, it can no longer claim its protection. Why would the Government of the U.K. risk the freedom and lives of its personnel around the world to break international law in apprehending a man who has not been charged with any crime, but who is just wanted for questioning regarding a broken condom? Who or what is running the Government of Britain, anyway? The only answer that makes sense is that Britain is bowing down to the country with the most weapons in the world: the United States. The leaders of Britain are apparently willing to risk British lives to kiss Barack Obama's behind. ..... So what do we in the United States do? Gee, there is an election coming up. If people continue to vote for the Democrats and Republicans, they will continue to get the same wars, lies and cuts in social programs that they have been getting for decades from the Democrats and Republicans. There are choices but a united vote against the Democratic/Republican lies would go a lot further than a split/losing vote. The Ministry of Truth is here and Obama runs it. (Remember, Romney also opposes truth.) Report the news and lose your freedom. Is this the world you want? Are you willing to stand up against the loss of your right to know? If you don't stand up now, pretty soon it will be too late. THIS JUST IN from theage.com.au Aug 19 'No' to diplomatic asylum for Assange THE United States says it does not believe in ''diplomatic asylum'' after Ecuador offered to let WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is wanted in Sweden on sexual assault allegations, stay indefinitely in its London embassy. An emergency meeting of the Organisation of American States has voted 23 to three in favour of a resolution proposed by Ecuador to convene a meeting of OAS foreign ministers this Friday at its Washington headquarters to discuss the standoff with Britain over Assange. The US, Canada, and Trinidad and Tobago voted against the resolution. Ecuador's President Rafael Correa said Assange would remain in Quito's embassy as long as Britain refused to give him safe passage out. ''Mr Assange can stay indefinitely in our embassy,'' Mr Correa said. Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said Sweden would ''wait and see what happens''. Under a 1954 agreement, the OAS agreed to allow asylum in diplomatic missions for ''persons being sought for political reasons'', although not individuals indicted for ''common offences''. In a statement, the State Department said the US was ''not a party to the 1954 OAS Convention on Diplomatic Asylum and does not recognise the concept of diplomatic asylum as a matter of international law''. ''We believe this is a bilateral issue between Ecuador and the United Kingdom and that the OAS has no role to play in this matter,'' it said..... Washington has said it has no intention of ''persecuting'' Assange. While the US did not sign or ratify the 1954 convention, it has often used the safety of its embassies to protect activists. In May, Chinese human rights campaigner Chen Guangcheng fled to the US embassy in Beijing after evading house arrest. A WikiLeaks tweet said Assange would give a live statement today (2pm London time) at the embassy. AFP Dr. Paul Craig Roberts writes at globalresearch.ca Ecuador President: "We Are Not A Colony" The once law-abiding British government had no shame in announcing that it would violate the Vienna Convention and assault the Ecuadorean Embassy, just as the Islamic students in the 1979 Khomeini Revolution in Iran took over the US Embassy and held the diplomatic staff captive. Pushed by their Washington overlords, the Brits have resorted to the tactics of a pariah state. Maybe we should be worried about British nuclear weapons. Let’s be clear, Assange is not a fugitive from justice. He has not been charged with any crime in any country. He has not raped any women. There are no indictments pending in any court, and as no charges have been brought against him, there is no validity to the Swedish extradition request. It is not normal for people to be extradited for questioning, especially when, as in Assange’s case, he expressed his complete cooperation with being questioned a second time by Swedish officials in London. What is this all about? ..... The Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino announced that Ecuador granted Assange asylum because "there are indications to presume that there could be political persecution." In the US, Patino acknowledged, Assange would not get a fair trial and could face the death penalty in a trumped up case. The US Puppet State of Great (sic) Britain announced that Assange would not be permitted to leave Britain. So much for the British government’s defense of law and human rights. If the British do not invade the Ecuadorean Embassy and drag Assange out dead or in chains, the British position is that Assange will live out his life inside the London Embassy of Ecuador. According to the New York Times, Assange’s asylum leaves him "with protection from arrest only on Ecuadorean territory (which includes the embassy). To leave the embassy for Ecuador, he would need cooperation that Britain has said it will not offer." When it comes to Washington’s money or behaving honorably in accordance with international law, the British government comes down on the side of money. The Anglo-American world, which pretends to be the moral face of humanity has now revealed for all to see that under the mask is the face of the Gestapo. JPMORGAN UPDATE: In HuffPoAOL Bonnie Kavoussi reports on our favorite classic sociopath Jamie Dimon: 'It's A Free. Fucking. Country.' Jamie Dimon wants you to remember what made this country great. The JPMorgan Chase CEO insisted in a New York magazine interview, published on Monday, that people should not blame big banks for the financial crisis. When asked him about his consistent defense of Wall Street and criticism of financial rules, Dimon pushed back, saying he considered himself more "an outspoken defender of the truth." "This is not the Soviet Union," he continued. "This is the United States of America. That's what I remember. Guess what.... It's a free. Fucking. Country." Since the financial crisis, Dimon has embraced his role as defender of Wall Street. Earlier this month, he said the larger problem surrounded scapegoating and finger-pointing, rather than systemic problems in his industry. Haha! Go watch the VIDEO of "Jamie Dimon's Anti-regulation Quotes" at the link! LIBOR UPDATE: The Telegraph Staff explains the latest in the Libor scandal: Lloyds Banking Group summoned by US regulators Florida attorney general Pam Bondi's office told the International Business Times that it was "actively reviewing the Libor matter" and had subpoenaed a total of 14 banks, including Lloyds banking Group. A spokesman for Lloyds said: “As with many others in the sector, the Group is assisting various regulators in their ongoing investigations into the setting of the London Interbank Offer Rate (LIBOR). Until these investigations are completed, it would be inappropriate for us to comment any further.” Pressure on the banking sector over the Libor-rigging scandal intensified this week after it emerged that seven other banks, including the Royal Bank of Scotland and HSBC, have been issued with subpoenas in the US. Ralph Silva, a banking analyst at SRN, said: "This is actually a bit surprising. We expected to hear more banks being served with Libor subpoenas, but we didn’t expect to see them all happen at the same time. "It’s quite clear that over the past six months [regulators] have put a tremendous amount of resources into this, and it looks like all those investigations are coming to a head right about now." MFGLOBAL UPDATE: Corzine walks! Zerohedges's Tyler Durden reports Jon Corzine Will Not Only Not Face Prosectuion, But May Be Launching A Hedge Fund Imminently In what should be the biggst non-news of the day, the NYT is reporting that not only will Jon Corzine not face any criminal prosecution for vaporizing hundreds of millions in client money (which subsequently condensed in the JPM middle office), but will in fact be launching ... wait for it... a hedge fund. "A criminal investigation into the collapse of the brokerage firm MF Global and the disappearance of about $1 billion in customer money is now heading into its final stage without charges expected against any top executives. After 10 months of stitching together evidence on the firm’s demise, criminal investigators are concluding that chaos and porous risk controls at the firm, rather than fraud, allowed the money to disappear, according to people involved in the case." And algos... And glitches... And faulty software installs... And some junior person who has long since left the company... and, and, and, lots and lots of passive voice... Because in the Banana republic of the crave, no bundles can ever go to jail, no matter how heinous the crime, which is not to say other places are better: in Thailand you you shoot your secretary in the stomach during dinner with an Uzi and you don't even pay a $600 fine. But at least it puts things in perspective. So what is next in store for this former man of power? "Mr. Corzine, in a bid to rebuild his image and engage his passion for trading, is weighing whether to start a hedge fund, according to people with knowledge of his plans. He is currently trading with his family’s wealth. If he is successful as a hedge fund manager, it would be the latest career comeback for a man who was ousted from both the top seat at Goldman Sachs and the New Jersey governor’s mansion." So will Jon will be buying Italian bonds? We don't know. Ask him yourself. Our own msgeaux notices that Canceling this expenditure would cover SS for quite a while.
    F-35 Joint Strike Fighter for Beginners Catherine, News & Commentary on August 11, 2012 by a Solari Report Subscriber The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program is the most expensive weapons program in US Defense Department history, costing almost 1.5 trillion dollars for around 2500 aircraft. The details I am examining here are entirely based on articles I have read in the media and not on experience. My interest on this issue stems entirely from my curiosity about one of the biggest engineering contracts of all time.
GO view this chart! PRIVATIZING RYAN We go to BTV's ljm for our first salvos! As smackdowns go, when it comes to Paul Ryan picking Ayn Rand as an idol, this posting is the most complete smackdown of Ayn Rand I could ever imagine could be written. It's probably worth stashing somewhere for argument points if the subject comes up and it totally goes with every discussion we've had about psychopaths. Ayn Rand admired psychopaths. Mark Ames: Paul Ryan’s Guru Ayn Rand Worshipped a Serial Killer Who Kidnapped and Dismembered Little Girls Yves here. There is one way that Mark Ames' underlying post needs a smidge of updating. Sadly, the technocratic elites in Europe are now firmly trying to inflict bone-crushing austerity on ordinary workers, despite visible evidence of its failure (debt to GDP ratios keep rising as the economies contract) and widespread public opposition. There the rationale is a bizarre combination of "punish the borrowers" when countries like Ireland and Spain were held up as poster children of economic success until the bust, and a need to hide the fact that what looks like rescues of the PIIGS is in fact bailouts of French and German banks. To celebrate today’s announcement that Ayn Rand fanboy Paul Ryan will in a few months' time be a heartbeat from the presidency—and to honor this special moment, marking the final syphilitic pus-spasms of America's decline and fall–we are reposting for your edification Mark Ames' 2010 article about the man behind the Rand: Ayn Rand's unrequited adoration of a notorious serial killer, William Edward Hickman. Yes, Vice President-to-be Paul Ryan owes his entire "moral" worldview to a lowly groupie of serial killers, a 1920's prototype of today's "Joker" wannabees. Yes folks, in a few months' time Americans will finally be able to stand up and declare: "We are all serial-killer groupies now." More ljm Ryan is the Koch brothers boy. Adele M. Stan, Alternet Romney's Veep Pick: Paul Ryan, Koch Ally and 'Right-Wing Social Engineer' It's official: The Republican Party is now officially a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Koch brothers' political enterprise. How else to explain Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's pick of Rep. Paul Ryan, Wis., as his running mate. .... In case anyone should miss the point that Ryan is a very Kochy guy, Romney did his big reveal of running-mate Ryan this morning aboard the U.S.S. Wisconsin, a decommisioned ship docked in the all-important swing state of Virginia. However important Virginia is to the electoral math, Wisconsin is a highly symbolic icon for the Tea Party. It's not only Ryan's home state; it's the poster state of right-wing triumph, the place where Gov. Scott Walker successfully fended off a recall attempt made by progressives in response to a bill he rammed through the state legislature that all but ended collective bargaining for the state's public employees. Much of the credit for Wisconsin's right turn goes to Americans For Prosperity, which boasts a particularly aggressive Wisconsin chapter, which began building a network of activists there in 2005. Ryan's association with the group goes back almost that far. .... It's not just Ryan. Rand is front and center with Clarence Thomas, Rush Limbaugh and the tea party. The second "John Galt" film is due to be released in December. The first one was a film for the tea partiers. Koch brothers have Paul Ryan's back Bob King, Politico Critics of the Koch brothers should have a field day with Rep. Paul Ryan on the GOP ticket: They've been one of his biggest campaign contributors. Koch Industries ranks as the Wisconsin Republican's sixth-largest source of campaign money throughout his career, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, which says the company's PAC and affiliated individuals have given him a total of $65,500 in donations. That also ranks Koch as Ryan's biggest energy-related donor, based on the center's tally. It says energy- and natural resources-related contributors have given Ryan a total of $432,181 during his career, including $244,250 from the oil and gas industries. Wait! There's more! AYN RYAN? We go to Monitor correspondent Husna Haq who explains in her Chapter&Verse blog Paul Ryan does an about-face on Ayn Rand .... Paul Ryan, the boyish young representative from Wisconsin who is injecting Romney’s presidential bid with fresh conservatism, is an ardent Randian who often cites Rand as his inspiration for entering public service and the philosophical basis for his economic vision for America. "[T]he reason I got involved in public service, by and large, if I had to credit one thinker, one person, it would be Ayn Rand," Ryan said in a 2005 speech to the Rand-devoted Atlas Society. "I grew up reading Ayn Rand and it taught me quite a bit about who I am and what my value systems are," he told the group, adding, "It’s inspired me so much that it’s required reading in my office for all my interns and my staff." In fact, two years earlier Ryan told the Weekly Standard, "I give out 'Atlas Shrugged' as Christmas presents." .... .... But Ryan took his Randian devotion further, using it as the inspiration for his "Path to Prosperity," his controversial austere budget plan that calls for ending Medicare as a mandate and replacing it with a voucher system. .... ... "What’s unique about what’s happening today in government, in the world, in America, is that it’s as if we’re living in an Ayn Rand novel right now," Ryan said in a series of videos posted to Facebook in 2009. "I think Ayn Rand did the best job of anybody to build a moral case of capitalism, and that morality of capitalism is under assault." Now here’s the funny thing. After years of praising Rand, assigning Rand readings to subordinates, and gifting friends and colleagues “Atlas Shrugged” for Christmas, Ryan has recently taken pains to distance himself from the conservative matriarch. The congressman from Wisconsin characterized his Rand-devotion as “urban legend” in a recent interview in the National Review. In fact, his romance with Rand was nothing more than a youthful dalliance, Ryan told the National Review. "I, like millions of young people in America, read Rand’s novels when I was young. I enjoyed them," he said. "…[but] I reject her philosophy." Why the sudden about-face? The atheist Rand, as the New Yorker pointed out in a recent piece, "is something of a philosophical wedge issue on the right, dividing religious conservatives from free market libertarians." As such, continued the piece, "Ryan’s sidestep from Rand was politically essential. As a Mormon, the last thing Romney needs is to alienate the Christian Right further by putting an acolyte of an atheist on the ticket." And let’s not forget the sting of social Darwinism, a no-no in these tough economic times. As the LA Times suggests, "[B]y the time he introduced his austere budget plan this year… Ryan was being depicted as a harsh absolutist. He did not need to be tied too closely to Rand and her sink-or-swim imperatives." .... Ryan told the Review. "It’s an atheist philosophy. It reduces human interactions down to mere contracts and it is antithetical to my worldview." And so, when push comes to shove, Ryan has shrugged off Ayn Rand. The only thing more insightful than Ryan’s devotion to Rand, it turns out, is his rejection of her. In an op-ed at the NYT David Stockman explains Paul Ryan’s Fairy-Tale Budget Plan PAUL D. RYAN is the most articulate and intellectually imposing Republican of the moment, but that doesn’t alter the fact that this earnest congressman from Wisconsin is preaching the same empty conservative sermon. Thirty years of Republican apostasy — a once grand party’s embrace of the welfare state, the warfare state and the Wall Street-coddling bailout state — have crippled the engines of capitalism and buried us in debt. Mr. Ryan’s sonorous campaign rhetoric about shrinking Big Government and giving tax cuts to “job creators” (read: the top 2 percent) will do nothing to reverse the nation’s economic decline and arrest its fiscal collapse. ..... Mr. Ryan showed his conservative mettle in 2008 when he folded like a lawn chair on the auto bailout and the Wall Street bailout. But the greater hypocrisy is his phony “plan” to solve the entitlements mess by deferring changes to social insurance by at least a decade. A true agenda to reform the welfare state would require a sweeping, income-based eligibility test, which would reduce or eliminate social insurance benefits for millions of affluent retirees. Without it, there is no math that can avoid giant tax increases or vast new borrowing. Yet the supposedly courageous Ryan plan would not cut one dime over the next decade from the $1.3 trillion-per-year cost of Social Security and Medicare. Instead, it shreds the measly means-tested safety net for the vulnerable: the roughly $100 billion per year for food stamps and cash assistance for needy families and the $300 billion budget for Medicaid, the health insurance program for the poor and disabled. Shifting more Medicaid costs to the states will be mere make-believe if federal financing is drastically cut. ..... In short, Mr. Ryan’s plan is devoid of credible math or hard policy choices. And it couldn’t pass even if Republicans were to take the presidency and both houses of Congress. Mr. Romney and Mr. Ryan have no plan to take on Wall Street, the Fed, the military-industrial complex, social insurance or the nation’s fiscal calamity and no plan to revive capitalist prosperity — just empty sermons. You might want to check out Romney campaign lied in response to Ryan insider trading story at examiner.com as well. Charlie Pierce at Esquire lays it all out in Paul Ryan: Murderer of Opportunity, Political Coward, Candidate for Vice President of the United States Leave it to Willard Romney, international man of principle, to get himself bullied into being bold and independent. Make no mistake. In his decision to make Paul Ryan, the zombie-eyed granny-starver from Wisconsin, his running mate, Romney finally surrendered the tattered remnants of his soul not only to the extreme base of his party, but also to extremist economic policies, and to an extremist view of the country he seeks to lead. .... Which is not to say this isn't a shrewd move. In one great swoop, Willard has recaptured a good portion of the elite political media, which has been crushing on Ryan's "courage" to take on the "tough choices" — none of which, it should be pointed out, likely will affect Ryan, who's already got himself an education out of the social safety net he now intends to shred, and certainly will never affect the haircut at the top of the ticket, or his great-grandchildren, for all that — and the coverage of the pick in the middle of the night showed that many of our finer chattering heads are already practicing tying the stem of the cherry with their tongues in preparation for covering the new Republican ticket. ...... Paul Ryan is an authentically dangerous zealot. He does not want to reform entitlements. He wants to eliminate them. He wants to eliminate them because he doesn't believe they are a legitimate function of government. He is a smiling, aw-shucks murderer of opportunity, a creator of dystopias in which he never will have to live. This now is an argument not over what kind of political commonwealth we will have, but rather whether or not we will have one at all, because Paul Ryan does not believe in the most primary institution of that commonwealth: our government. The first three words of the Preamble to the Constitution make a lie out of every speech he's ever given. He looks at the country and sees its government as something alien that is holding down the individual entrepreneurial genius of 200 million people, and not as their creation, and the vehicle through which that genius can be channelled for the general welfare. In the lengthy — and now, very prescient — profile of Ryan that ran in The New Yorker this week, Ryan Lizza pinned him down on this very point. Ryan responded in fluent Weaselspeak....[....] The fact is that his "budget" will demolish federal spending on those very things, either directly, or by sending the deficit off in the direction of Alpha Centauri. But the quote illustrates something else about Paul Ryan: get him out of his comfort zone of being thought an intellectual by the likes of Louie Gohmert, and of being thought of as a bold thinker by half the buffet-grazers in the Beltway media, and he really is quite the political coward. (In this way, he is a perfect match for the man who picked him.) He does not have the raw balls to explain to the country that, no, he does not believe in government — not the federal government, anyway, and not as it was originally conceived, as the fundamental expression of a political commonwealth. ..... Yes, Paul Ryan, the zombie-eyed granny starver, has done very well by the federal government that he seeks to dismantle. Come to think of it, so has Willard Romney, although we may never know exactly how well he's done by it. It turns out this is a match made in heaven, after all. Of course, it still could be that they're just trying to give poor Paul Krugman a stroke. Speaking of being on the Fed's dole while railing against it The Rude Pundit points out Paul Ryan's Family Is Rich Because of the Federal Government (Updated): ....The Ryan Incorporated Central webpage on the company's history says, "By the 1940's the Company had become a full-service grading contractor serving both private industrial and public transportation customers, including some of the original work at what would become O'Hare Airport." But on the website for Ryan Incorporated Southern, headquartered in Florida (there are various divisions of Ryan and, yes, still from the company founded by his great-grandfather that's run by Ryan's cousins), it's a bit more explicit: "The Ryan workload from 1910 until the rural interstate Highway System was completed 60 years later, was mostly Highway construction." And whose money built the interstate highway system? That'd be ours. In other words, you know how Barack Obama talked about how your business didn't build the roads that allow you to do business? Well, if you are in the Midwest, chances are that Paul Ryan's family did build some of the roads. And they got to be amazingly successful because the federal government gave them six decades of contracts and millions upon millions of dollars to build them. Are we clear here? We're talking about Paul Ryan, who, with his wife, is worth as much as $7.7 million and "much of the Ryans' wealth is in the form of trusts and inheritances." For Rep. Ryan, those trusts and inheritances are a result of money that the federal government spent on infrastructure. You wanna go further? Here's a list of defense contracts from the 1990s that went to Ryan Incorporated in its various forms. One of them, from 1996, is worth $5.6 million and went to Ryan Incorporated Central. So, just to get this right, Paul Ryan and his family are beneficiaries of expanded government spending to improve infrastructure. They continue to benefit from government contracts, including state and local ones. That's Paul Ryan, whose budget would inevitably gut most infrastructure spending and who, with Mitt Romney, wants to shrink federal spending to the point where, if the federal government had felt that way throughout a good chunk of the 20th century, his family would not have made a dime and, well, then we would have never heard about Paul Ryan. That's the depth of hypocrisy in play here..... And at Rolling Stone Tom Morello: 'Paul Ryan Is the Embodiment of the Machine Our Music Rages Against' Last week, Mitt Romney picked Paul Ryan, the Republican architect of Congress's radical right-wing budget plan, as his running mate. Ryan has previously cited Rage Against the Machine as one of his favorite bands. Rage guitarist Tom Morello responds in this exclusive op-ed. Paul Ryan's love of Rage Against the Machine is amusing, because he is the embodiment of the machine that our music has been raging against for two decades. Charles Manson loved the Beatles but didn't understand them. Governor Chris Christie loves Bruce Springsteen but doesn't understand him. And Paul Ryan is clueless about his favorite band, Rage Against the Machine. Ryan claims that he likes Rage's sound, but not the lyrics. Well, I don't care for Paul Ryan's sound or his lyrics. He can like whatever bands he wants, but his guiding vision of shifting revenue more radically to the one percent is antithetical to the message of Rage. I wonder what Ryan's favorite Rage song is? Is it the one where we condemn the genocide of Native Americans? The one lambasting American imperialism? Our cover of "Fuck the Police"? Or is it the one where we call on the people to seize the means of production? So many excellent choices to jam out to at Young Republican meetings! Don't mistake me, I clearly see that Ryan has a whole lotta "rage" in him: A rage against women, a rage against immigrants, a rage against workers, a rage against gays, a rage against the poor, a rage against the environment. Basically the only thing he's not raging against is the privileged elite he's groveling in front of for campaign contributions. ..... My hope is that maybe Paul Ryan is a mole. Maybe Rage did plant some sensible ideas in this extreme fringe right wing nut job. Maybe if elected, he'll pardon Leonard Peltier. Maybe he'll throw U.S. military support behind the Zapatistas. Maybe he'll fill Guantanamo Bay with the corporate criminals that are funding his campaign – and then torture them with Rage music 24/7. That's one possibility. But I'm not betting on it. Here's Robert Reich on why the Ryan pick is significant...it's all about the base. The Ryan Choice Ryan is not a firebrand. He’s not smarmy. He doesn’t ooze contempt for opponents or ridicule those who disagree with him. In style and tone, he doesn’t even sound like an ideologue – until you listen to what he has to say. It’s here — in Ryan’s views and policy judgments — we find the true ideologue. More than any other politician today, Paul Ryan exemplifies the social Darwinism at the core of today’s Republican Party: Reward the rich, penalize the poor, let everyone else fend for themselves. Dog eat dog. Ryan’s views are crystallized in the budget he produced for House Republicans last March as chairman of the House Budget committee. That budget would cut $3.3 trillion from low-income programs over the next decade. ....... In all, 62 percent of the budget cuts proposed by Ryan would come from low-income programs. The Ryan plan would also turn Medicare into vouchers whose value won’t possibly keep up with rising health-care costs – thereby shifting those costs on to seniors. At the same time, Ryan would provide a substantial tax cut to the very rich – who are already taking home an almost unprecedented share of the nation’s total income. Today’s 400 richest Americans have more wealth than the bottom 150 million of us put together. Ryan’s views are pure social Darwinism. As William Graham Sumner, the progenitor of social Darwinism in America, put it in the 1880s: “Civilization has a simple choice.” It’s either “liberty, inequality, survival of the fittest” or “not-liberty, equality, survival of the unfittest. The former carries society forward and favors all its best members; the latter carries society downwards and favors all its worst members.” Is this Mitt Romney’s view as well? Some believe Romney chose Ryan solely in order to drum up enthusiasm on the right. .... So in picking Ryan, Romney is motivating his rightwing base to get to the polls, and pull everyone else they can along with them. But there’s reason to believe Romney also agrees with Ryan’s social Darwinism. Romney accuses President Obama of creating an “entitlement society” and thinks government shouldn’t help distressed homeowners but instead let the market “hit the bottom.” And although Romney has carefully avoided specifics in his own economic plan, he has said he’s “very supportive” of Ryan’s budget plan. “It’s a bold and exciting effort, an excellent piece of work, very much needed … very consistent with what I put out earlier.” ..... At the same time, Romney wants to permanently extend the Bush tax cuts to the wealthy, reduce corporate income taxes, and eliminate the estate tax. ..... We designed regulations to protect against the inevitable excesses of free-market greed. We taxed the rich and invested in public goods – public schools, public universities, public transportation, public parks, public health – that made us all better off. In short, we rejected the notion that each of us is on our own in a competitive contest for survival. But choosing Ryan, Romney has raised for the nation the starkest of choices: Do we want to return to that earlier time, or are we willing and able to move forward — toward a democracy and an economy that works for us all? With the GOPher convention less than a fortnight away we also give Robert Reich our Last Word at CommonDreams.org Erasing W As Bill Clinton is resurrected by the Democrats, George W. Bush is being erased by the GOP — as if an entire eight years of American history hadn’t happened. While Bill Clinton stumps for Obama, Romney has gone out of his way not to mention the name of the president who came after Clinton and before Obama. Clinton will have a starring role at the Democratic National Convention. George W. Bush won’t even be at the Republican one – the first time a national party has not given the stage at its convention to its most recent occupant of the Oval Office who successfully ran for reelection. The GOP is counting on America’s notoriously short-term memory to blot out the last time the nation put a Republican into the Oval Office, on the reasonable assumption that such a memory might cause voters to avoid making the same mistake twice. As whoever-it-was once said, “fool me once …” (and then mangled the rest). Republicans want to obliterate any trace of the administration that told America there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and led us into a devastating war; turned a $5 trillion projected budget surplus into a $6 trillion deficit; gave the largest tax cut in a generation to the richest Americans in history; handed out a mountain of corporate welfare to the oil and gas industry, pharmaceutical companies, and military contractors like Halliburton (uniquely benefiting the vice president); whose officials turned a blind eye to Wall Street shenanigans that led to the worst financial calamity since the Great Crash of 1929 and then persuaded Congress to bail out the Street with the largest taxpayer-funded giveaway of all time. Besides, the resemblances between George W. Bush and Mitt Romney are too close for comfort. Both were born into wealth, sons of prominent politicians who themselves ran for president; both are closely tied to the nation’s corporate and financial elites, and eager to do their bidding; both are socially awkward and, as candidates, tightly scripted for fear of saying something they shouldn’t; and both presented themselves to the nation devoid of any consistent policies or principles that might give some clue as to what they actually believe. They are both, in other words, unusually shallow, uncurious, two-dimensional men who ran or are running for the presidency for no clear reason other than to surpass their fathers or achieve the aims and ambitions of their wealthy patrons. Small wonder the Republican Party wants us to forget our last Republican president and his administration. By contrast, the Democrats have every reason for America to recall and celebrate the Clinton years. Thanks Bob for that sunny outlook! But what about the illegal killings of Americans by the O! Administration? Or the illegal wiretapping of every electronic communication in America? Or the continuing hounding of Assange by The Most Transparent Administration Ever™? Or the planned Trans-Pacific Partnership nobody knows anything about? As Steve Hynde put it so succinctly in the Agonist I will not, while I am Editor in Chief of The Agonist, make a statement of endorsement of any candidate on behalf of The Agonist, nor will I prevent any Agonist diarist from endorsing a candidate purely on their own behalf. However, entirely on my own behalf I have this to say: we're in a class war, pure and simple, and it isn't enough to use the language of that war, although it's a good start. To talk of the 1% as "them" against "us" without acknowledging that the multi-millionaire president and his multi-millionaire staff, or multi-millionaire Democratic lawmakers, are anything other than part of the "them" is to ignore the evidence before our very eyes. Chris Hedges is spot-on when he writes that "Liberals bow before a Democratic Party that ignores them and does the bidding of corporations" and that "The liberal class prefers comfort to confrontation. It will not challenge the decaying structures of the corporate state. It is intolerant within its ranks of those who do." We should and must change that kow-towing into a general cry of "non serviam", "I will not serve". Ditto all that from the Brick TeeVee Crew. Of course the Beltway Bubalas are much happier discussing already-agreed-upon talking points between stints at said Beltway Buffet. Let the Cage Matches begin! This Tapper gets O! stooge STEPHANIEE CUTTER up against Mitt's KEVIN MADDEN while FAKE SNOOZE gets BOB GIBBBS facing off against ED GUILLESPIE. Not to be upstaged Face the Bob goes with DICK DURBIN up against RUDY GHOULIANI plus State of the Candy snags CUTTER and GOPher dreg ERIC FEHRNSTROM. Meet the David goes with a guvnor cage match featuring Maryland's MARTY O'MALLEY versus Virginia's BOB MCDONNELL. Throw bricks at GROVER NORQUIST on Face the Bob and This Tapper and SICK SANATARIUM on State of Candy! Lots more to read, watch and listen to below including BOB KINCAID on Majority Report, Catherine Austin Fitts with MAX, Carl Mayer on with PBC and so much more! Click anything and be instantly smarter! Have a great Sunday and a great week!
BRICK TEEVEE ALERTS!©
Democracy NOW!
Monday, August 13, 2012 Tuesday, August 14, 2012 Wednesday, August 15, 2012 Thursday, August 16, 2012 Friday, August 17, 2012 GRITtv »»» GRITtv @ www.grittv.org with Laura Flanders
»»» FEATURED SHOW Bill Moyers: Reclaiming Our Media Power (Video) Today, cable news has turned our elections themselves into unbalanced action adventures or worse, situation comedies. And public television shows, barring Bill Moyers' own, are barely keeping afloat - or keeping anyone awake A re-post from May 2011
BRICK TEEVEE SPORT!©
»»» NASCAR on ESPN It's the Pure Michigan 400 from the Michigan International Speedway! Coverage from Brooklyn MI begins at 12 pm etNOON et! »»» MLB Sunday TBS Dodgers @ Braves 1:35 pm et
»»» MLB Sunday Night ESPN Red Sox @ Yankees 8 pm et
»»» MLB Monday Night ESPN Giants @ Dodgers 10 pm et
»»» MLB Wednesday Night ESPN Yankees @ White Sox 8 pm et
BRICK TEEVEE ACTION!©
The 1st Amendment is Our Permit Our permit to occupy is The First Amendment. Quickly sign the following statement which will be delivered to mayors, police chiefs and major media across the country:
    Our permit to occupy public squares and parks is in The First Amendment, which affirms "the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." When people across the Middle East occupied public squares, leaders in Washington mostly cheered those protesters and warned Middle Eastern governments not to use force to clear them. Those other societies don’t have a First Amendment. Yet Washington affirmed the universal right to assembly and protest. We do have a First Amendment. The force being used to clear nonviolent protesters from public squares in our country is unacceptable. It must stop.

STOP the ACHE Appalachian Community HEALTH EMERGENCY Advocating for government action and protection of the public from the health crisis in mountain top removal communi ties
    Lawmakers concerned about the health effects on humans from mountaintop removal coal mining set forth legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives today. Representatives Dennis Kucinich (OH), Louise Slaughter (NY), Maurice Hinchey (NY), Earl Blumenauer (OR), Lucille Roybal-Allard (CA), John Yarmuth (KY), Lynn Woolsey (CA), Judy Chu (CA), Raúl Grijalva (AZ), James Moran (VA), Michael Honda (CA), John Conyers (MI), and Keith Ellison (MN) introduced the Appalachian Communities Health Emergency (ACHE) Act [H.R. 5959] which would place a moratorium on permitting for mountaintop removal coal mining until health studies are conducted by the Department of Health and Human Services. The ACHE coalition presently consists of participants from Coal River Mountain Watch, Mountain Health and Heritage Association, and Christians for the Mountains. “We encourage you, if you’re concerned about mountaintop removal’s effect on your community’s health, to join us in making your voice heard,” said Allen Johnson, executive director of Christians for the Mountains. “Please contact us, learn about the issue, and take action to protect your community.”

Community-Wealth.org community-wealth.org a project of the Democracy Collaborative at the University of Maryland Community-Wealth.org brings together, for the first time, information about the broad range of community wealth building activity. Featuring Community Wealth Building in Action: The Cleveland Model Something important is happening in Cleveland. The Democracy Collaborative—the host of C-W.org—in partnership with the Cleveland Foundation, the Ohio Employee Ownership Center, Shorebank Enterprise Cleveland, the City of Cleveland, and the city's major hospitals and universities—is helping to implement a new model of large-scale worker-owned and community-benefiting businesses. The Evergreen Cooperative Initiative is beginning to build serious momentum in one of the cities most dramatically impacted by the nation's decaying economy. Increasingly, this model is being referred to nationally as The Cleveland Model. Initial planning is now underway to assist other cities in Ohio and nationwide to replicate and adapt this innovative approach to economic development, green job creation, and neighborhood stabilization. Find more many resources at Community-Wealth.org!
NET NEUTRALITY! SaveTheInternet.com Declaration of Internet Freedom Tired of fighting bad bills like SOPA, PIPA and CISPA? Want to stand up against those who are trying to control what we do and say online? It's time for something different. A group of more than 1,500 organizations, academics, startup founders and tech innovators has come together to produce a Declaration of Internet Freedom, a set of five principles that put forward a positive vision of the open Internet. Our goal: Get millions of Internet users to sign on to this Declaration. Build political power for Internet users to make sure that we get a seat at the table whenever, and wherever, the future of the Internet is being decided. It's time to stop playing defense and start going on the offensive. The open Internet is central to people’s freedom to communicate, share, advocate and innovate in the 21st century. But powerful interests want to censor free speech, block the sharing of information, hinder innovation and control how Internet users get online. And all too often, people in power are making political decisions behind closed doors about how the Internet should operate — and they're doing this without the involvement of actual Internet users. The result: policies that could close down the open Internet and destroy our freedom to connect. It’s time for us to reclaim the Internet for its users. Take action now and sign the Declaration of Internet Freedom..
CAMPAIGN FOR AMERICA'S FUTURE American Majority Rejects Washington Austerity Consensus – And We Demand Media Coverage by Roger Hickey, President, Campaign for America's Future: No more silent majority. The Campaign for America’s Future is joining with the Center for Economic and Policy Research (whose Co-Director, Dean Baker blogs regularly about economic bias in the media) and with FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting) to monitor the media’s coverage and representation of the American Majority views as they go into covering the big deficit fight. But we want to enlist YOU too. Send us accounts of unbalanced coverage in the national media and in your local newspapers and television. Call up reporters, editors, assignment people and tell them when they are under-representing the views of the American Majority. We should have at least half the experts, pundits, quotes and real people represented in their coverage. In a debate as important as the one we are going into, we can’t allow the media to ignore the American Majority. Much more at www.ourfuture.org
MOVE TO AMEND! www.movetoamend.org SIGN HERE NOW! And check out more actions on the Move to Amend Calendar featuring David Cobb's Barnstorming Tour! Also visit Rep Alan Grayson's site www.savedemocracy.net GET INVOLVED! And Alan Grayson is running again in FL-8! Help out at CongressmanWithGuts.com
SUPPORT THE TROOPS WHO REFUSE TO FIGHT See CourageToResist.org and Bradley Manning Support Network UPDATE! Michael Ratner on ANTIWAR RADIO Michael Ratner May 2, 2012: Michael Ratner, President Emeritus of the Center for Constitutional Rights, discusses his article “Bradley Manning: a show trial of state secrecy;” Manning’s quasi-public trial (which is open to observation, yet vital evidence and court documents are withheld from the media and public); why the NY Times is just as guilty of “aiding the enemy” as Manning and WikiLeaks; how President Obama and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta made a fair trial impossible; and how you can support Bradley Manning in his time of need.
DONATE YOUR OLD CELL PHONES TO T.J. MARTELL FOUNDATIONHelp save lives. Donate your old & used iPhone, Blackberries, Droid and other phones to help the T.J. Martell Foundations fund life-saving cancer & AIDS research. For more information, go to www.tjmartellfoundation.org CELLULAR PHONE TASK FORCE EDUCATION, ADVOCACY, SUPPORT at CellPhoneTaskForce.org The Cellular Phone Task Force is dedicated to halting the expansion of wireless technology because it cannot be made safe. We provide: education to the public concerning electromagnetic pollution (electrosmog); advocacy for an electromagnetically cleaner environment; support for individuals disabled by radiation from wireless technology and other sources.


B R I C K T E E V E E
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image ©2006 arkysue
THEY report. YOU throw bricks. ©
Get your Foam Bricks at ThrowThings.com HERE!
The essential guide for watching government propaganda IRAQ: 4,486 US Military Dead as of April 21, 2012
AFGHANISTAN: 2,099 US Military Dead as of Aug 17, 2012
The Obameter: Tracking Obama's Campaign Promises
Considering Democracy: 8 Things to ask your Representative

  • This Week (ABC) hosted by Jake Tapper
    • Obama deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter
    • Romney campaign senior adviser Kevin Madden
    • ROUNDTABLE: Senate Budget Committee member Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa.; House Budget Committee ranking member Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md.; former TARP Special Inspector General Neil Barofsky; former Obama economic adviser Austan Goolsbee; Americans for Tax Reform president Grover Norquist; and Wall Street Journal columnist Kimberley Strassel.


  • Face The Nation (CBS) Host Bob Schiefer
    • Senator Dick Durbin, D-Ill.
    • former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, R-N.Y.
    • Grover Norquist
    • Kim Barker of ProPublica
    • ROUNDTABLE: CBS Political Director John Dickerson, the Washington Post's Nia Malika-Henderson, plus Jeff Zeleny and Carl Hulse from the New York Times


  • 60 Minutes (CBS) Summer reruns....
    • The Case Against Lehman - Steve Kroft talks to the bank examiner whose investigation reveals the how and why of the spectacular financial collapse of Lehman Brothers, the bankruptcy that triggered the world financial crisis. James Jacoby and Michael Karzis are the producers.
    • The Archbishop of Dublin - The sex abuse crisis in the Irish Catholic Church has rocked one of the most Catholic countries in the world and turned the archbishop of Dublin into an outspoken critic of the Church. Bob Simon reports. Tom Anderson is the producer.


  • Meet the Press (NBC) Host David Gregory
    Microsoft, NBC News Dissolve MSNBC.com Joint Venture NBC is buying Microsoft's 50 percent interest in the MSNBC website for an undisclosed amount. MSNBC.com will be rebranded as NBCNews.com, and readers who logged into MSNBC.com late Sunday were automatically redirected to NBCNews.com. Microsoft is preparing to launch its own news service this fall. Although he declined to provide many details about the operation general manager of MSN.com Bob Visse said the news staff will be about the same size as the roughly 100 people who created original content for the MSNBC.com. "There is no question that we are going to have more flexibility to make our own decisions," said Vivian Schiller, NBC News' chief digital officer. "This is really an amicable breakup. We think competition will make us better." Okay then.
    • Chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, Gov. Martin O’Malley (D-MD)
    • Chairman of the Republican Governors Association, Gov. Bob McDonnell (R-VA)
    • Senior Obama re-election adviser David Axelrod
    • ROUNDTABLE: NBC’s Chuck Todd; Atlanta’s Democratic Mayor Kasim Reed; Republican nominee and Tea Party backed candidate for the U.S. Senate in Texas, Republican Ted Cruz; the Washington Post’s E.J. Dionne; and the Wall Street Journal’s Peggy Noonan.


  • State of the Union With Candy Crowley (CNN) At 9 AM ET, Candy talks to the power players: politicians, business leaders and international newsmakers who will make Monday morning's headlines. At NOON ET, Candy wraps it all up with fresh interviews and the best of the earlier hours. CNN National Political Correspondent Jim Acosta hosts
    • Romney Senior Adviser Eric Fehrnstrom
    • Obama Deputy Campaign Manager Stephanie Cutter
    • Former Senator and GOP Presidential Candidate Rick Santorum
    • CNN Political Director Mark Preston and USA Today’s Jackie Kucinich


  • HEAD ON RADIO with Bob Kincaid
    HEAD ON
    Headon Radio with Bob Kincaid 6 PM Eastern, 3 PM Pacific, 2300 GMT. Duration: 3 hrs. To be part of Conversation Radio on Head-on Radio, call toll-free (877) 443-2366, or use our Liberal community line at 304-658-3333. Email bob [at] headonradio [dot] com during the show!
    • FRONT PORCH FRIDAY!!!!! Pull up a chair and grab a cold one! Listen HERE (mp3) NOW! Amen to the White Rose Society! Donate to Head On HERE! And join Coal River Mountain Watch at www.crmw.net!


  • YOUR GREEN NEWS REPORT
    desi-n-bradmothra
    The Green News Report with Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen: 6 minutes of green news, politics, analysis & snarky comment! BOOKMARK greennews.bradblog.com NOW!
    'Green News Report' - August 16, 2012 IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Obama stumps for clean energy, while Romney promotes...coal; Wildfires rage across the West; Nuclear reactor in hot water; PLUS: Mutant butterflies in Japan. This may not end well... All that and more in today's Green News Report!
    • IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see link): US CO2 emissions drop to 20-yr low (thanks to natural gas); KY to export coal to India; Rep. Ryan denies he lobbied for stimulus; Dallas to spray after West Nile virus deaths; Meet the new Ocean Health Index; Toilet Of The Future runs on sun ... PLUS: GOP 'Agenda 21' conspiracy theory, now offially in GOP platform ... and much, MUCH more! ...
    • BRADBLOG UPDATE: New Nationwide Study of Election Fraud Since 2000 Finds Just 10 Cases of In-Person Voter Fraud ... But now a major new nationwide analysis by News21 of all known cases of election fraud in the U.S. since 2000 underscores our years of accurate and detailed reporting once again...
    • BRADBLOG UPDATE: JUDGE UPHOLDS STATE CONSTITUTIONALITY OF GOP PHOTO ID VOTING RESTRICTIONS IN PA A state court has upheld the state constitutionality of the new Republican-enacted polling place Photo ID restriction law in Pennsylvania which critics say may imperil the votes of more than a million legally registered voters in the Keystone State this November. .... We're still reviewing the opinion of Judge Simpson, who is a Republican, and will have a more detailed analysis of the specifics of his ruling in the coming days. Plaintiffs have already vowed to appeal the case to the state Supreme Court, where four votes will be needed to overturn the Commonwealth Court's ruling. ........
    • GUEST POST! Earnest A. Canning The Myth of GOP 'Fiscal Responsibility' and Paul Ryan as 'Fiscal Conservative' No doubt during this election cycle, like every election cycle over the past forty years, we'll hear from the GOP about "tax and spend" Democrats. Even though it doesn't detail how every Republican since Reagan has combined massive, unpaid-for tax cuts for the wealthy with runaway, unpaid-for military spending --- creating a great excuse to destroy the New Deal safety net, in order to slash their runaway deficit-spending --- this chart is, nonetheless rather revealing...
    • Visit BradBlog.com to see who counts yer votes! Now up to 9,200+ Election Protection posts! Find out who's counting your votes and how at ElectionIntegrity.org too.


  • The Peter B. Collins Show PODCAST!
    pbc show
    Listen at PeterBCollins.com!
    The Peter B. Collins Show covers American news and politics from the Left Coast. Veteran talk radio personality Peter B. Collins, based in San Francisco, delivers fresh interviews, commentary and analysis on a range of important topics, with views and voices you don’t often find in the corporate media.
    Holiday Break and Website Changes
      To my valued listeners: We are making some changes to the website and our terms, effective in January. We will continue to offer free podcasts–my new daily news and commentary. Our in-depth interviews will be available for $1 per episode, or to subscribers who pay $5 per month or more. Loyal listeners who simply can’t afford it should send an email to peter@peterbcollins.com, as we will be offering a limited number of scholarships to our friends who are hurting during these tough times. More information will be posted as we complete the revisions. I’m grateful to each of you for listening and supporting this work, and hope that the new model will enable us to keep it going well into the future. All the best, -pbc
    • PBC Standard Podcast August 13, 2012 Boiling Frogs: Journalist Rick Rozoff on NATO, Syria and More
    • PBC Standard Podcast August 14, 2012 Attorney Carl Mayer and Plaintiff Tangerine Bolen Fight Obama’s Lawyers Over NDAA Detention; Prof. David Coates of Wake Forest on the Domestic Political “Wars” that Drown Out the Foreign Wars
    • PBC Standard Podcast August 17, 2012 Boiling Frogs: Ex-CIA Analyst Ray McGovern on Obama’s Drones, Targeted Killings, Cyberwarfare and more


  • Ring of Fire Radio
    rofheader
    Find us at http://ringoffireradio.com and http://goleft.tv/ hosted by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Mike Papantonio and Sam Seder
    Ring of Fire Radio - GoLeft TV - Robert F. Kennedy, Mike Papantonio, Sam Seder - Politics, Commentary, and News.
    This week on Ring of Fire August 17, 2012
    • Author Nancy Cohen will be here to discuss the ongoing war against women that the GOP is still waging.
    • Leadership expert Kathleen Schafer will discuss the leadership deficit that is plaguing our political system.
    • Truthout investigative journalist Mike Ludwig will tell us about the earthquakes and toxic waste that are coming from Ohio’s fracking boom.
    • Author Les Leopold will tell us how to fix our corrupt banking system in America.
    • And best-selling author and president of Libertas, LLC Cliff Schecter will be joining us to discuss this week’s biggest news stories.
    • VIDEO! THE HISTORY OF CORPORATE CORRUPTION & FRAUD with Robert Kennedy Jr & Mike Papantonio “Call us if you have a personal story about Fraud on Taxpayers or False Claims for Payment made by Corportations at 1-866-389-FIRE (3473)or contact us by email at info@ringoffireradio.com if you have evidence of fraud that robbed taxpayer dollars. If our government is paying too much due to fraud by a corporation, Ring of Fire wants to do a story on it.”
    • VIDEO! Papantonio: Republican Judicial Hacks Help Suppress Voters Mike Papantonio talks about how the Republican-controlled judiciary in our country is helping the GOP with their voter suppression tactics.
    Support Those Who Support Progressive Media! 2011 has certainly been a great year for Ring of Fire, and we’ve had some great sponsors that have helped support the show throughout the year. We wanted to take the time to personally thank each and every one of them, and we encourage all of our listeners to take the time to support those who have support us.
    • Join our blog at www.ringoffireradio.com. You can now SUBSCRIBE TO OUR PODCAST by clicking on the "Podcast" tab at the top of the Ring of Fire blog. Please help support progressive radio by signing up!
    Ring of Fire Radio Ring of Fire, hosted by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Mike Papantonio and Sam Seder: Saturdays at 3 o’clock Eastern, rebroadcasts 8-11 et Sunday evenings on Chicago's Progressive Talk WCPT AM & FM and 4 pm et on Sirius/XM 167 featuring The PAP Attack! "We’ll bring you the stories that the mainstream media didn’t feel like reporting this week."


  • Majority Report with Sam Seder Streaming LIVE weekdays 11:30 am et @ Majority.fm!

    • August 13, 2012 A Debate on Paul Ryan and Much More
    • August 14, 2012 Bob Kincaid on Mountain Top Removal
    • August 15, 2012 Sam Does News
    • Aug 16, 2012 Ecuador and the UK Square Off On Assange and From the Archives an Interview With the Late David Rakoff
    • Aug 17, 2012 Cliff Schecter, News and Comedian Hari Kondablu With Movie Picks
    • MORE Podcast Interviews at Majority.fm!


  • On the Edge with Max Keiser Podcasts and more @ MaxKeiser.com!
    maxheaderhiyall
    "HI Y'ALL! Tell the people! Tell the people!"
    WHO IS MAX KEISER? Max Keiser is a financial expert, Prediction Markets analyst, inventor and filmmaker. He is the creator of the Hollywood Stock Exchange (HSX) the first Prediction Market. Max Keiser co-hosts "The Truth About Markets" on ResonanceFM 104.4 in London. He also produces and presents documentary films covering markets and finance for Al Jazeera’s "People & Power" series. Max Keiser started his career on Wall Street in 1983. He is the creator of KarmaBanque a site that enables activists to challenge corporate power.
    • VISIT PirateMyFilm.com!!! Crowd Funding for Pirates!
    • NEW! MaxKeiserTV on YouTube! MaxKeiserTV PLUS here is Max Keiser’s official Facebook page And here is the official Keiser Report page
    The official Facebook pages for Max Keiser & Keiser Report STACY SUMMARY: For once and for all, here are our real Facebook pages, the other ones are fake. But if you feel like chatting to the fake ones, by all means, go ahead. Max Keiser & Keiser Report PLUS Stacey Herbert
    The “Keiser Report” has been begging europe to do this for years by maxkeiser READ European Banks Preparing To Boycott Big Three Rating Agencies (zerohedge.com)
    CNBC’s Admission, yes: Silver market is manipulated (skip to 9:30) by maxkeiser READ CNBC Host States Silver Manipulation is a Fact, NOT a Conspiracy! sliverdoctors.com with VIDEO! Once Barclays pointed the finger at BoE as colluding on Libor manipulation (instead of denying it), the roof got ripped off decades of blatant manipulation in these markets. The dollar and U.S. bonds have been protected with Fed interference and outright manipulation; same thing in the UK. And to bolster the price for sovereign bonds, the price of Gold and Silver has been manipulated down alongside the upside price movements of worthless paper. Ratings at CNBC have been plummeting this year – as the audience is way ahead of their talking heads on these points. When CNBC admits that markets, especially silver, are rigged, the few remaining viewers they have collectively sigh; ‘I heard that on Keiser Report three years ago.’ READ CNBC: Silver and Financial Markets Are Manipulated, But So What? Jesse's Crossroads Cafe
    Catherine Austin Fitts Commentary on Financial Holocaust
    • KEISER REPORT [KR327] Keiser Report: Jamievilles, Cramdowns and the Cantillon Effect with Azizonomics.com We discuss Jamie-villes in Ohio, suicide dummies in Vegas and truckloads of evidence piling up outside the Justice Department and yet no fraud can be spotted. In the second half of the show, Max Keiser talks to John Aziz of Azizonomics.com about rehypothecation and deal flow in the City of London, the Cantillon effect and the cram down.
    • KEISER REPORT [KR328] Keiser Report: Frankenmarkets and Austrian Economics In this episode, Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert discuss unknown people whose solvency is uncertain operating faster than the speed of light in the “franken-market” and Max Keiser asks, “what if a high frequency trading algo bot shrugged?” In the second half of the show, Max Keiser talks to Sandeep Jaitly of feketeresearch.com about the real Austrian economics of Carl Menger versus the fake Austrian economics of Ludwig von Mises. They also discuss how Ben Bernanke’s confusion about what money, how central banks are leading us into a second dark age and gold as the ultimate exinguisher of credit. Max and Sandeep also highlight the reason why rehypothecation in London is fraud. And, finally, Max hopes Lew Rockwell watches and learns.
    • ON THE EDGE [OTE172] On the Edge with JS Kim
    • THE TRUTH ABOUT MARKETS [Tam-1248] The Truth About That Dunkin’ Donuts Two For One Download show HERE (mp3)
    • Donate to ResonanceFM here!


  • ANTIWAR RADIO with Scott Horton
    antiwarradio.jpg LIVE (9-11am Pacific, 12pm - 2pm Eastern) Plenty of archives too!
    Listen at antiwar.com/radio
    Pepe Escobar June 30, 2012: Globetrotting journalist Pepe Escobar discusses his article “Syria and Turkey’s Phantom War;” Turkey’s violation of Syrian airspace in a purposeful, measured provocation and test of Syria’s defenses; the near-invocation of NATO Article 5 and a wider war (an attack on one NATO country is an attack on all); looking for ways to bypass the UN on Syria, since China and Russia won’t let an interventionist resolution pass the Security Council; grand plans for NATO expansion in the official “Assured Security, Dynamic Engagement” plan; counterrevolutions in the Middle East and South America, as the US looks to rebuild its portfolio of client states; and how Qatar has become the new superpower in the Middle East, surpassing even Saudi Arabia.
    SCOTT HORTON July 5, 2012: Scott says goodbye to Antiwar.com. Scott Horton is the former host of Antiwar Radio. Visit his blog Stress. Due to budget cuts Scott lost his gig at AntiWarRadio.com! Whoa! See ScottHortonShow.com for archives! Send emails to Scott at scotthorton.org to help Scott keep his podcast going!
    • Many more interviews at Antiwar Radio!


  • fauxnews
    • Robert Gibbs, Obama Campaign Senior Adviser
    • Ed Gillespie, Senior Adviser to the Romney campaign

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