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Tuesday, October 23:

Vidya Ishaya: Test Submission of member Article Test Submission of member Article

Wednesday, September 5:

Vidya Ishaya: Test Article for Flagged Words (1 comments) Test Article for Flagged Words

Wednesday, August 15:

Robert Chapman: Abstinence only instruction Abstinence only insttruction is not about avoiding sex- it is about building character.

Burton Smith: Test Article Submit Test Article Submit

Wednesday, August 1:

Burton Smith: Test Article - this is only a test (1 comments) Test Article - this is only a test

Tuesday, July 31:

Vidya Ishaya: Test of Caching the Tag Clouds Test of Caching the Tag Clouds

Tuesday, July 10:

Joyce McCloy: Politicized DOJ Issues License to Purge Voters to North Carolina The DOJ wants to purge 10% of North Carolina's votes. They sent a "license to purge" to our top election officials. More votes are lost by deliberate voter supression than any other method. North Carolina election officials turned down the "invite to purge", but will your election officials? See the memo from the DOJ, and how incorrect information was used to build a case to purge.

Monday, July 9:

Richard Benson: *THE ZENING OF DUBYA This Column is written as a satrical comment about the sad state of Dubya's lust for power and my attempt to modify his behavior. The views expressed are my own.

Rob Kall: What If Bush's Supreme Court Blocks Congressional Oversight by Hearing and Subpoena? It's very likely that Bush or his surrogate has already discussed strategy with the Supreme Court Whores who put him in office and who are now tearing apart the constitution, precedent after precedent.

Sunday, July 8:

Rowan Wolf: The Birth of a New Environmental Movement? Examines the role of Al Gore in what seems to be the birth of a new environmental movement.

Saturday, July 7:

Sherwin Steffin: It's time to go! A suggestion to George Bush that it is in his best interest to resign now.

Friday, July 6:

Amy Fried: DC Deserves a Variety of Progressive Talk The DC radio market is being poorly served, when it comes to progressive talk.

WILLIAM FISHER: EXACTLY WHAT ARE CONSERVATIVE JUDGES CONSERVING? A disgraceful Supreme Court Sesssion.

Wednesday, July 4:

Kathlyn Stone: Anti-war marchers to converge in Washington D.C. September 11

Saturday, June 30:

John R Moffett: Darwin Strikes Back (of molecules and men) Darwin and his followers continue the battle to inject rationality into the evolution-creation debate.

Thursday, June 28:

Rob Kall: In Defense of Anne Coulter and Support for Paris Hilton... sort of.

Thursday, June 21:

Joel S. Hirschhorn: Are Americans Unready to Boil? (6 comments) Sometimes the greed and arrogance of Ruling Classes makes them careless and social waters heat too quickly. Sensing doom, alert citizen-frogs escape or revolt. Or they stay complacent and boil. In colonial America the greedy British motivated our Revolutionary War, but with oppression now coming from within, will Americans wait too long?

Phil Rockstroh: Within the Architecture of Denial and Duplicity: The Democratic Party and the Infantile Omnipotence of The Ruling Class (11 comments) I could never reconcile myself with the Judea/Christian/Islamic conception of god -- some strange, invisible, "who's-your-daddy-in-the-sky," sadist -- who wants me on my knees (as if I'm a performer in some kind of cosmic porno movie) to show my belief in and devotion to him -- I can't delude myself into feeling any sense of devotion to the present day Democratic Party.

Ron Jacobs: The Intimidation of a Vet: An Interview with Liam Madden (1 comments) An interview with Iraq vet Liam Madden regarding the Marines' attempts to silence him for speaking out against the war in Iraq.

Russ Wellen: Come on, You Slacker Terrorists, Attack Us Already! (1 comments)

Remember the "Nuclear Freeze"? Whatever happened to our dreams of disarmament?

Professor Emeritus Peter Bagnolo: The Feckless, Pelosi, Rahm Emanuel "Stratagem," Will Lose in 2008! (2 comments) Super fund raiser, Rahm Emanuel has been the fair haired boy of the Democrats, but his current finger twiddling approach to Impeachment, Special Prosecutors intervention, and any kind of resistance to the Bushites Aggressiveness combined with the democratic cave in on war funding, is more than annoying to Progressive Democratic voters, it is driving them fully into the arms of waiting Independents mad middle of the road Republ

Dennis Diehl: Questions Your Pastor Will Hate - Part 3 (13 comments) Pastor, I have a few questions about the events surrounding the Crucifixion. I know reading the Gospels is like four people seeing the same accident, as you keep telling me, but help me out here...

F. Vyan Walton: Cheney's Office Scoffs at National Security Rules - Literally In order to avoid National Security Reporting requirements, Dick Cheney claims that he's not part of the "Executive Branch." I kid you not.

Steve Young: HILLARY PROVES THE POWER OF SATIRE I've written in the past that the secret political weapon available to presidential candidates is SATIRE. This week, Hillary Clinton proved my point.

Robert Jensen: The Last Last Sunday? Austin organizing project contemplating its future

James Fetzer: New Study from Pilots for 9/11 Truth: No Boeing 757 Hit the Pentagon (7 comments) Pilots for 9/11 Truth obtained black box data from the government under the Freedom of Information Act for AA Flight 77, which The 9/11 Report claims hit the Pentagon. Analysis of the data contradicts the official account in direction, approach, and altitude. The plane was too high to hit lamp posts and would have flown over the Pentagon, not impacted with its ground floor.

Jimmy Montague: Rich Advice for Poor Marketers (2 comments) Senate hacks are trying to revive their late, unlamented effort at immigration reform. No matter what you're trying to sell, you gotta consult the right consultants.

Jim Bush: "They Can Love" On honoring or dishonoring life's gifts.

Virginia Simson: *About Bloody Time -- But Don't Fall for the PR (4 comments) Soldiers completely demolished after service stints finally shame the Defense Department into taking action on PTSD and addictions issue. But there is still plenty to be done.

Allen L Roland: *DON'T UNDERESTIMATE MICHAEL BLOOMBERG New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is jumping the Republican ship for two good reasons ~ Bush is determined to take the party down with him in 2008 and, as an Independent, Bloomberg offers the electorate a fresh and compelling alternative versus seeing the Clintons in the White House again: Allen L Roland

Nancy Tobi: *HR 811 (The Holt Bill) and The Commission: Alien invaders in our democracy Centralizing the power to control votes and determine who controls our country is more a form of national socialism than democracy. This is what The Commission does. We need to abolish this alien creature from our government.

Rory Winter: Pro Patria Mori? (1 comments)

In William Shirer's epic, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, Air Marshal Goering is quoted as having predicted that, "In thirty years time, Britain [would] be an overcrowded little island living on the glories of its past."

Tom Rinaldo/"silences" We Are Losing the Fight Over Iran! The Neo-Cons have selected the designated next enemy of the United States, and they are hard at work convincing Americans to fear Iran.

Ed Ward, M.D.: Bombs in the WTC Mean Nothing? Fireman Lou Cacchioli was the first to grab me by the heart, mind and soul with his isolated courage by simply telling the truth about what he experienced to the only media that cared to ask about his eyewitness account of 9/11 on July 19,2005.

Wednesday, June 20:

Bernard Weiner, The Crisis Papers: Dems' Timidity May Cost Them Dearly in 2008 (11 comments) The Democrats are ceding the moral high ground by not doing what the voters elected them to do: end the war, stop the corruption, fix the electoral system, save the Constitution. But it's not too late for major changes that will help solve many of this country's problems.

Rob Kall: High Doses of Gravel, Richardson, Obama and Edwards at TBA (6 comments)

Tony Sutton of ColdType interviewed by Jason Miller: Northern Light As you will discover, Tony and his marvelous publication are two of the best kept secrets we political educators and agitators for social justice have in our arsenal. Domiciled in the Great White North, Tony publishes one of the finest radical journals in existence. In terms of content, contributing writers, and presentation, ColdType's quality is unparalleled.

W. Christopher Epler (Bill): No offense, but isn't it about time for the Catholic Church to put up or shut up? (6 comments) Jesus Christ acknowledged and dealt with social evil and left teachings filled with love and compassion, so where has the Catholic Church been hiding for the last 6 years? It's one thing for a religion to tread softly with social issues, but it's another to effectively TOTALLY turn the other way in the face of monstrous social/political evil, i.e., the Bush/ Republican Heart of Darkness. Is anybody home in Rome?

Mirah Riben: *BOYCOTT ADOPTION.COM (8 comments) Adoption.com supports agencies and adoption facilitators, which are unregulated and profit from child placement.

Muhammad Khurshid: Help Us In War On Terrorism (1 comments) Elimination of terrorism in Bajaur Agency, tribal areas will certainly result in helping to defeat terrorism in Iraq and other parts of the world. The world is a global village and events in this part of the world will certainly be felt in your parts. Urgent steps are required for crushing terrorism, which has been posing great threat to the very existenc of this world.

Ernest Partridge: Market Failure: The Back of the Invisible Hand (3 comments) A "market failure" is a socially undesirable consequence of an unconstrained and unregulated free market. Almost all of us are aware of market failures, whether or not we have ever studied economics. But regressive politicians and "scholars" who work for The Heritage Foundation, The American Enterprise Institute, The Cato Institute, etc. somehow manage to completely forget about "market failures."

Steve Young: An Open Letter To President Bush From Bob, The Stem Cell: Currently Waiting In A Freezer Until I Can Be Used For Researc (1 comments) A lot of the guys in the freezer wanted to make their "lives" mean something. And then there are those who just want to throw their "lives" away. Adopt our idea and you help us all.

Randolph T. Holhut: Immigration: The Issue That May Tear Apart The GOP (3 comments)

David Swanson: Curbing the Imperial Presidency (1 comments) We must end the worst excesses of the imperial presidency, Conyers said. (What about the rest of the imperial presidency?)

David Swanson: *Kucinich Comes to Take Back America (2 comments) My friend Steve Cobble gave Kucinich a great introduction, receiving applause for each point he made about Kucinich's platform and past performance, arguing that Kucinich was right four years ago that opposition to the war and support for fair trade were key to winning, and that's how Democrats won in 2006.

David Swanson: Hillary Clinton Booed Again at Take Back America (8 comments) Ellen Malcolm introduced Hillary Clinton, talking about health care, and Clinton opened her speech with a promise to lift a ban on stem cell research.

Stephen Lendman: The Record of the Newspaper of Record (1 comments) Exposing the deceit and hypocrisy of the New York Times in its coverage of Venezuela under Hugo Chavez

Edrea Davis: America's Addiction to Prison Should be the Focus in Paris Hilton's Case (8 comments) Hilton Should Become a Poster Child for the Ailing Criminal Justice System

Camillo "Mac" Bica: Beyond PTSD, Part Three The Moral Casualties of War: War Crazy (2 comments) In this installment of Beyond PTSD, in the hope of providing a more complete picture of the psychological, emotional, and moral impact of war, Professor Bica offers, not theoretical analysis, but personal observations regarding the aftermath of war. In doing so, he will ask the reader not to think so much as to feel.

Mike Vieten: *Iraq Solution: Bloomberg and Plan C (Part 1) (6 comments) An analysis of the 2008 Presidential candidate pool and the emergence of Michael Bloomberg....then why the socio-political environment is ripe for Bloomberg to succeed and what it will take for him to be the first ever Independent to win the White House.

Gustav Wynn: Bush was not involved in planning 9-11 (44 comments) Corrupt or incompetent? No White House plan would ever have made Bush seem as inept and ill-prepared to defend America as the events of 9-11 have. Let's look back at the string of failures that spotlight Bush's pre-911 indifference on al Qaida.

Professor Emeritus Peter Bagnolo: Extra, Extra, Read All About it: Bloomberg Quits GOP! (4 comments) Mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg, a former lifelong Democrat, who bolted the party to run in New York as a republican, has dumped the GOP, to enter the ranks of an Independent, in a possible Presidential Run as Third Party Candidate.

Allen L Roland: *HUMANS MAY NOT SURVIVE BUT NATURE WILL SURVIVE AND THRIVE Make no mistake about it ~ if we destroy ourselves in a nuclear armageddon, nature will not only survive but it will rapidly thrive as all our monuments to human greed and power will quickly crumble to dust and vegetation. Nature is a living example of a loving plan in action and our human species, as others have in the past, will disappear if we don't surrender to our deepest and innate need to cooperate and love one another.

Tuesday, June 19:

Linda Milazzo: Democrats, Stop Coddling The Children! STOP BEING SO DAMN FREAKING WEAK!! (2 comments) When Democrats took the majorities of the Senate and the House in November of 2006, your goal was to show America just how freaking nice you were and to change the tone in Washington from bellicose to genteel. . What you failed to realize is that America doesn't need you to be nice. America needs you to be strong. You've succeeded at being nice. But you've failed at being strong!

Mary MacElveen: Mayor Michael Bloomberg wins my 'Founding Fathers Award' (2 comments) I wish to congratulate Mayor Michael Bloomberg for having the courage of his convictions by not wishing to align himself with anyone party. I hope that this starts a trend in which people will awaken that they too should claim their independence from party politics. I hope it serves as a wakeup call to our esteemed politicos.

Michael Bonanno: Emergency Anti War Convention - Philadelphia (3 comments)

We need a paradigm!

Timothy V. Gatto: The End of Political Parties? (6 comments) The fact that he brought a giant kiss-off to the party of Lincoln, the party that gave us George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, warms my heart. The fact that he did not run to the pretenders for political backing, tells me that he realizes what many of us already know, that the Democrats are no catch either.

David Swanson: *Hip Hop Comes to Take Back America Conference "Hip Hop Artists and Activists: Politically Empowering a Culture of Resistance" was the name of a panel at the Take Back America Conference in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. Cherryl Aldave from National Hip Hop Political Convention MC'd.

Jane Stillwater: Illegal Aliens: NAFTA, Bush's Middle East blunders & the great migrations in the EU & here (2 comments) Just like birds fly south for the winter, illegal aliens migrate to Europe and America from Mexico and the Middle East when it gets too hot for them in their own countries. What to do? If we get rid of both NAFTA and George Bush, then people who WANT to stay in their own countries can do so without risking starving to death or getting blown up.

(More...)

Monday, July 9:

Curent Invective Sir! Kiss My Ass, Sir!

Friday, July 6:

THE "PENNY KING " SPEAKS THE MYTH OF THE MILLION DOLLAR PENNY Legend has it that there is a man alive today in the United States who has for many years now been going around buying up pennies from strangers he meets along his travels, giving them a 100,000% return on their pennies. He pays one dollar for each penny and tells the story of "The Penny King"...

Alex S Gabor: *PENNY SHORTAGE IN LOS ANGELES BEING CAUSED BY THE PENNY KING Did you hear about the penny shortage? Some think it is a joke, but others know it is part of a national movement to change the way we value our money and our freedoms.

Monday, July 2:

press release: Fitzgerald Disagrees with Bush

Thursday, June 28:

Add New Tags to Directory Add New Tags to Directory

Thursday, June 21:

Sherwood Ross: U.S. Corporations Keeping Biowarfare Work Secret Major U.S. corporations, notably pharmaceutical houses, are performing biowarfare research for the U.S. government in secret that is supposed to be done in public. Why the secrecy, unless the work is for really offensive purposes?

New Gallup data show confidence in Congress at all time low - Gallup Guru - USATODAY.com maybe it's because they don't give a damn what we want

Peter Rost: Did Pfizer's maraviroc whistleblower delay FDA approval of HIV drug? Did the allegations related to illegal premarketing of maraviroc result in delayed FDA approval?

Peter Rost: Monogram Biosciences stock: Panic selling after news of delayed Pfizer HIV drug

Peter Rost: Pfizer risked HIV drug approval "to make it a little harder" for plaintiff's lawyers. According to the WSJ today, "Pfizer Inc.'s pipeline was dealt a surprise blow last night, when the FDA delayed the approval of one of its most interesting drug prospects, a new type of medicine for HIV."

Forwarded by Radical Priest: Eli Israel--Soldier in Iraq Resists the Occupation (2 comments) An active duty soldier stationed in Iraq refuses to continue fighting. Will he end up in a hole at Abu Graib, or meet with an accident? Do we respond after he's been there fighting and killing for oil. Is this a real change of conscience of "I found God over the weekend"? Is it heroism after the fact, is it commendable or deplorable. Is it too late for this G.I.?

john Atlas: US ATTORNEYGATE, ACORN, VOTER SUPPRESSION AND THE MAINSTREAM PRESS Apart from the McClatchy News outlet, the mainstream media coverage of the U.S. attorney scandal has missed the important backstory: the protracted struggle over voting rights. At the center of the storm is a David versus Goliath battle. On the one side is the Bush Administration and the Republican Party apparatus. On the other side is ACORN, a little-known, national, grassroots, anti-poverty organization.

Wednesday, June 20:

Lawsuit Alleges Deputies Needlessly Killed Pets A lawsuit has been filed and is seeking class action status claiming sheriff's deputies wantonly killed pets . . .

Greg Palast: *Medical Alert: Washington Post Goes Blind - Misses 'Caging' Story Last week, someone named "Dan Froomkin," on the Washington Post website, huffed and puffed and tried to blow down BBC's exposure of voter 'caging' - a GOP trick for challenging legitimate ballots.

Melinda Pillsbury-Foster: Scared of the IRS and going to court: You need David Myrland (2 comments) You no longer need to be afraid of the court system or such scary things as the IRS. David Myrland discovered that the courts were corrupt; he got to work on a set of user friendly tools you can use to fix your own problem. Join us for a short session in how that is done and to hear his story this Friday on BBSradio.com. You will be glad you did.

JGideon: 'Daily Voting News' For June 20, 2007 a collection of local, state, national and international articles on electronic voting and election issues

Dave Lindorff: Get Out! Iraqi Labor Leaders Blame US for Violence in Iraq (1 comments) The U.S. is behind the violence in Iraq, and it won't end until the occupation ends, say visiting Iraqi labor leaders.

Was Recent Attack on Shia Shrines in Samarra Orchestrated by Negroponte? (1 comments) "The US Deputy Secretary of State reportedly planned the attack on the holy Shia shrines in Samarra to help topple the Iraqi government," according to Press TV. "John Negroponte plotted the attack during an unannounced trip to Iraq on June 12."

Michael Moore Finally Speaks About 9/11 (1 comments) "I've had a number of firefighters tell me over the years and since Fahrenheit 9/11 that they heard these explosions," Michael Moore told reporters, "that they believe there's MUCH more to the story than we've been told. I don't think the official investigations have told us the complete truth -- they haven't even told us half the truth."

Mental care for vets may get bigger budget Barack Obama has been trying to increase mental health funding for vets for a long time, and it's finally coming up for a vote. Bush, naturally, is threatening to cut funds elsewhere if the bipartisan bill passes with $6.5 billion more funding than Bush wants to give. You know what to do!

Anti Gay Marriage Legislation Causes UnMarried Couples to Lose Benefits. all of a sudden, the anti gay legislation is hurting tens of millions more americans in unwed relationships. This could change everything

Bloomberg Quits GOP. Step Toward Running? (1 comments)

The Backstory on Obama-Clinton Attack Memos - The Caucus - Politics - New York Times Blog Back story on Memos circulated by Clinton to "prove" Obama engages in "dirty" politics. Conclusions: Nothing "dirty" in research of opponents and trying to get media coverage of findings. Clinton was given the internal memos from Obama's campaign by "someone" and a PAC for India called USIPAC plus fundraisers from/for India, both of which raised millions for Hillary, cried "racism". Hillary and PAC use NYT to air their claims.

Jon Fox: *Internet Radio Will Be Silenced Without Your Help Internet Radio is under attack. Help us save it from draconian legislation. On June 26, 2007 Net Radio will go silent for the day. Help make sure this does not become the norm.

Barack Obama Takes Over the Take Back America Conference | Democrats.com Obama rocked the house in the Take Back America Conference, but you'd hardly know it by this tepid report by former Kucinich Communications Director, David Swanson. Why not let the "Aggressive Progressives" know why you support Obama? Watch the video on Google videos called "Sen. Barack Obama - Take Back America" June 19, 2007, then please respond to this article. Obama 08!

Army Major General Claims Pentagon Lied About Bush Torture Program NEW YORK (AFP) - A general who investigated US troops sexually humiliating Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison said in a report out Saturday that top Pentagon officials denied knowledge of lurid photographs of the acts. Army Major General Antonio Taguba says the Pentagon officials are lying.

Army Again Considers Longer Combat Tours The Army is considering whether it will have to extend the combat tours of troops in Iraq if President Bush opts to maintain the recent buildup of forces through spring 2008.

Georgianne Nienaber: Watchdog Group SAEN Banned from National Primate Meeting SAEN will release documents and photos detailing law violations and waste of tax dollars

Jackson Thoreau: Who took America? Take Back America conference asks some tough questions Jason Alexander may have asked the toughest: Who took America?

Tuesday, June 19:

Wendy Quigley: FWC SEARCHES FOR CAUSE OF EAST COAST SEABIRD DIE-OFF (2 comments) The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) has received reports of more than 200 dead or sick greater shearwaters, a gull-like bird, since Saturday along Florida's east coast.

Michael Richardson: White House Watch: Unity08 is a "little jolt of reality" to GOP and Democrats (5 comments) Unity08 is a bi-partisan plan to remake America's method of selecting President in 2008

Brad Friedman: *SENATORS DEMAND JUSTICE DEPT. INVESTIGATION INTO TIM GRIFFIN, RNC 2004 VOTE CAGING ALLEGATIONS (1 comments) SENATORS DEMAND JUSTICE DEPT. INVESTIGATION INTO TIM GRIFFIN, RNC 2004 VOTE CAGING ALLEGATIONS Sens. Kennedy and Whitehouse Send Letter to DoJ Inspector General's Office Seeking Probe into RNC Voter Supression Tactics Inquiry Into What Justice Officials Knew About Griffin's Vote Caging Activities When He Was Named as US Attorney for Arkansas

Carter: Stop favoring Fatah over Hamas (1 comments) Carter, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who was addressing a conference of Irish human rights officials, said the Bush administration's refusal to accept the 2006 election victory of Hamas was "criminal."

Republican Thompson highlights serious Iran threat (3 comments) Tougher sanctions or a blockade on Iran could help foment growing internal dissent to topple the government, former U.S. Republican senator Fred Thompson, a potential presidential candidate, said on Tuesday. Military action must always remain an option and world powers must agree on the nature of what Thompson called the "very, very serious threat" from Tehran.

JGideon: 'Daily Voting News' For June 19, 2007 a collection of local, state, national and international articles on electronic voting and election issues

Sherwood Ross: Is It Time For You To Become Your Primary Health Care Provider? (1 comments) Can't sleep at night without pills? Maybe you're spending money on medications that you don't have to spend, if only you would assign yourself the job of becoming your own primary health care provider. Yes, YOU.

Israel's Tech Boom Preys on Our Insecurities "The key to Israel's supergrowth is not mysterious," writes Naomi Klein in The Nation. "Many of the country's young entrepreneurs are using Israel's status as a fortressed state, and its occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, as a kind of twenty-four-hour-a-day showroom -- a living example of how to enjoy relative safety amid constant war. Now Israel is exporting that model to the world."

Bob Nichols: MORET: Geiger Counter Shootout At the OK Corral (2 comments) US Military Trashes and Contaminates Paradise. Hawaii now radioactive and dangerous.

Jersey Girls Deliver Petitions, Request Support September 11th Advocates Regarding Declassification and Release of Documents June 18, 2007 The Public's Right to Know - Declassification and Release of Documents petition at petitiononline.com surpassed 15,000 signatures. As promised, we have hand delivered it to lawmakers in Washington, DC.

Rob Kall: Tapping the Progressive Energy and Inspiration at the Take Back America Conference (5 comments) reporting from wash d.c.

Monday, June 18:

Petraeus: Iraq 'Challenges' to Last for Years Gen. Petraeus said that the "many, many challenges" would not be resolved "in a year or even two years." Similar counterinsurgency operations, he said, citing Britain's experience in Northern Ireland, "have gone at least nine or 10 years." He said he would make "some recommendations on the way ahead" to Congress, and that it was realistic to assume "some form of long-term security arrangement" with Iraq.

Froomkin: New Questions About Abu Ghraib according to Seymour M. Hersh' s blockbuster story in the New Yorker, Bush was told about the abuse Abu Ghraib long before the photographs went public, failed to respond appropriately -- and may indeed have recognized what happened at Abu Ghraib as the predictable result of administration policy rather than the random act of a few bad apples.

Republicans get ready to threaten Valerie Plame Wilson with subpoena Republican committee members made clear that their effort to subpoena Wilson was meant to fight back against Waxman's investigation of President Bush's push for the invasion of Iraq. Rep. Dan Burton (R-IN), the former chairman of the committee during the Clinton administration, assailed Waxman for his attempts to subpoena Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Pelosi reverses on no Iran attack In January, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that President Bush lacks the authority to invade Iran without specific approval from Congress. By March, however, the Dems stripped from a military appropriations measure a provision meant to weaken President Bush's ability to respond to threats from Iran. Flip-flop, anyone?

Could Pakistan fall to extremists? (3 comments) This fear of nuclear-armed mullahs has played a motivating role in American policy toward Pakistan since Sept. 11, experts say. It has led the Bush administration to back a military ruler seen to be strong and supportive of American interests, despite the fact that he overthrew a democratically elected government.

JGideon: 'Daily Voting News' For June 17 and 18, 2007 a collection of local, state, national and international articles on electronic voting and election issues

Greg Palast: The Tears of a Clone (5 comments) Boo-hoo! I made Tim Griffin cry. He cried. Then he lied. You remember Tim. Karl Rove's right hand (right claw?) man. The GOP's ragin' cagin' man. Griffin is the Rove-bot exposed by our BBC Newsnight investigations team as the man who gathered and sent out the infamous 'caging' lists to Republican state chairmen during the 2004 election.

Oxfam pulls out of Darfur Oxfam has decided to permanently close down its humanitarian operation in the town of Gereida in Sudan's western region of Darfur, citing reluctance by authorities there to improve security and stop attacks on aid workers

At least 7 Afghan children killed in U.S. Airstrike (1 comments) The American-led coalition forces in Afghanistan killed seven children during an air strike on a religious school thought to be an al-Qaeda safe house

Pakistan Condemns Rushdie Knighthood Minister warns controversial author's honor may provoke suicide attacks and fuel extremist fire

GORE: 'The planet is in distress and all of the attention is on Paris Hilton'

Evelyn Pringle: No MedGuide for Zyprexa after Eleven Years of Death and Injury (1 comments)

Seymour Hersh: ABU GHRAIB INVESTIGATOR DETAILS PENTAGON COVER-UP [silences]I'd been in the Army thirty-two years by then, and it was the first time I thought I was in the Mafia.

Sunday, June 17:

Humana, UnitedHealth Suspend Some Health Plans After Complaints Humana Inc., UnitedHealth Group Inc. and five other U.S. health insurance companies agreed to stop selling a type of government-funded plan for the elderly in response to complaints that sales agents forged signatures and enrolled dead people.

Leslie Radford: The South Central Farmers: No derrotados! (1 comments) The Farm, the Farmers, their supporters and a new promise.

Rand Clifford: King Hemp part 1: From DEA Deadly Birdseed, Toward Power To The People (1 comments) Continued prohibition of hemp deprives Americans of the world's most valuable crop. Legislation introduced by Rep. Ron Paul aims at ending this most costly prohibition. The DEA remains the primary roadblock to progress regarding hemp. Will Ron Paul armed with truth prevail over the DEA armed with lies? Stay tuned....

Saturday, June 16:

John R Moffett: More US Personnel Killed in Iraq than Reported (2 comments) "The U.S. military has never released complete statistics on contractor casualties or the number of attacks on privately guarded convoys. The military deleted casualty figures from reports..."...the military wanted to hide information showing that private guards were fighting and dying in large numbers because it would be perceived as bad news."

Bo Lipari: Action Alert! Will you allow Microsoft to Dictate Terms to the NY State Legislature? It's urgent that you call your State Senator and Assembly representatives on Monday,June 18,at their Albany offices,and tell them they must not weaken New York State's escrow and review requirements.Remind them that the Legislature passed a strong law 2 years ago-they must not give in to pressure by voting machine vendors to undermine those protections.We've found out about this secretive move only four days before the vote

$1.7 million voting system gets little use:Authorities question of cost touch-screen voting machines Doogan said his objection to the use of touch screens is that the model purchased by the state provides no paper trail that can be used to check whether votes were cast and tallied appropriately. Doogan said Alaska should stand up to the feds and not use the touch screens at all."What are they going to do?" he asked. "Send in troops and force us to use voting machines?"

(More...)

Tuesday, July 31:

Test of Caching Tag Clouds Test of Caching Tag Clouds

Saturday, July 7:

What is Reality Anyway? The way forward is via a mythology based in a trans-religious ethic. It might go something like this: The fact that human beings are alive on this planet is extremely important. We are in the middle of a cosmic, evolutionary experiment whose end is unclear.

Thursday, June 21:

A Banana Republic with Nukes The Bush/NEOCON Nexis of Evil has stepped up its attacks on the Bill of Rights and due process of law. In memoriam, our lost Constitution, our lost Bill of Rights, our lost republic.

911 Culprits? Why the Towers Really Fell (7 comments) There is probable cause to begin an official investigation of George W. Bush in connection with the mass murders of US citizens on 911. In US law, investigations proceed from probable cause that a crime has been committed. Commonly, it refers to a standard by which an officer may make an arrest in connection with a crime.

Wednesday, June 20:

George Bush and the First Person Possessive (1 comments) And you thought George Bush didn't have a vision for America. Unfortunately, it's one big MySpace page, from sea to shining sea. The American Freedom Agenda has asked asked each GOP presidential candidate to sign a ten-point pledge promising, if elected, to restore the Constitution's checks and balances, to honor fundamental protections against injustice, and to eschew usurpations of legislative or judicial power.

At Least They Found 140,000 From a New York Times editorial: "The post-Watergate law requiring the preservation of presidential records has proved to be no match for the Bush White House's stealthy use of back-channel e-mails via the Republican National Committee's computer system. Smoking C-drive or not, the nation must ask what made this veiled communication system so necessary."

Fatah and US Close the Door on Democratic Debate (1 comments) "In the last few days, Hamas has made several overtures towards Fatah," writes Paul Woodward at War in Context, and "acknowledges Mahmoud Abbas' legitimacy and authority as Palestinian president; Hamas officials are calling for dialogue with Fatah -- it is Fatah's own leadership under American direction with Israeli and allied support that has firmly closed the door on democratic debate -- at least for now."

"We Know More About Killing Than Living" During the Cold War, said former senator Sam Nunn in a landmark speech before the Council on Foreign Relations, "Thousands of men and women thought deeply and worked diligently on both sides of the Iron Curtain to prevent nuclear war. In the future, it won't be enough to be lucky once or twice. If we're to avoid a catastrophe, all nuclear powers will have to be capable, careful, rational, and lucky –- every single time."

King Kong: The Map, the Mad Scientist and the Mayor (2 comments) Hundreds of millions of dollars are annually funneled into the scientific mapping industry under the banners of "conservation" and the now prominent buzzwords of "sustainable development" and "capacity building."

Tuesday, June 19:

Open the gates immediately - Haaretz Editorial (6 comments) Many Israelis are watching the television news these days with feelings of powerlessness and shame. They see hundreds of haunted and frightened women and children crowding into the corridor of the Erez crossing and asking to be allowed to flee Gaza through Israel to the West Bank in order to save their lives.

Casual Lawbreaking at the White House Karl Rove and many of his colleagues used RNC e-mail accounts for official business - even though White House policy is clear that doing so is a violation of the Presidential Records Act

Gaza: Another Mess Made in the USA "Hundreds of Palestinians have died and thousands more have had their lives ruined by the brutal arrogant folly of Rice, Abrams and company," writes Time's Tony Karon at The Rootless Cosmopolitan.

Puncturing the Ronald Reagan Myth (3 comments) "The canonization of Ronald Reagan rests crucially on one thing Reagan himself did well: forgetting the facts. It seems timely to exhume a few." Read "The Enduring Lies of Ronald Reagan" by Susan J. Douglas at In These Times.

Impeach and Convict Bush and Cheney for High Treason George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and the gang subverted the Constitution to carry out a war of naked aggression, itself a war crime, and, under US Criminal Codes punishable by death. But it's worse than that. It is an aggravated crime as Rep Elizabeth Holtzman makes abundantly clear.

Monday, June 18:

Pepe Escobar: Levitate the Pentagon (3 comments) Forty years after the levitation of the Pentagon, there's no "democracy" to speak of anywhere. This is a plutocratic world. There's no formidable push to change the world for the better anywhere - but there are already rumblings of repressed anger from all corners of the global South, capable of exploding like a thousand volcanoes.

Like GWB, Adolf Hitler was in the death business (5 comments) One of the greatest disasters to befall humankind was triggered by a state crime perpetrated by Adolf Hitler. That crime was The Reichstag Fire. It led inexorably to the Holocaust, a crime of unimaginable proportions.

Incumbency Rackets DSCC and DCCC are "incumbency rackets" and completely outside the democratic tradition and against the principles incorporated into our Constitution.

Laboratory for a Fortressed World "Much of this growth has been in the so-called "homeland security" sector. Before 9/11 homeland security barely existed as an industry. By the end of this year, Israeli exports in the sector will reach $1.2 billion--an increase of 20 percent. The key products and services are high-tech fences, unmanned drones, biometric IDs, video and audio surveillance gear, air passenger profiling and prisoner interrogation systems."

How the Military Commissions Obscure Gitmo's Real Purpose The vast majority of its detainees will never face a trial of any kind.

John Nichols: How to Restore Habeas Corpus The Senate could patch the hole in the Constitution. But activists must get "strict-constructionist" Republicans to vote right.

An Invisible 500-pound Gorilla Haunts the Missile-defense Debate (2 comments) "That the MAD 'era' ended in 1991 would be news to U.S. and Russian nuclear launch commanders," writes Alexander Zaitchik in The eXile. "Since the end of the Cold War, neither side has even for a moment removed its missiles from their pre-'91 hair-trigger footings. While burying MAD is a worthy and necessary goal, there is a right way to do it, and the American way."

Palestine: How Will the Hypocritical West Deal with a Coup D'état by an Elected Government?

James Kuntsler: Iraq Is Not a War (1 comments) "It seems to me you can call the situation in Iraq a lot of things, but it's not a war," writes James Kuntsler on Atlantic Free Press. "We're involved in Iraq because we don't want to begin thinking about modifying our behavior at home. We are desperate to preserve our access to Middle East oil because that is the only way we can keep running our society the way we're used to running it."

Sunday, June 17:

Online Records Put To The Test . . . After Ed Rybczynski shared his results with the state they immediately issued a warning that the government website should not be used . . .

Bush's Sorry, "Skull and Bones" Legacy of Torture and Psycho-sexual Perversity A general who investigated US troops sexually humiliating Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison says Rumsfeld and other Pentagon honchos lied. Imagine that! Of course, they lied! When have they ever told the truth?

Saturday, June 16:

Red Light Camera Pose Legal Hazard For Officials Running red lights is risky business. Profiting from the controversial cameras may be even riskier. Billions of dollars and your civil rights are at stake in class action suits and criminal charges filed against city official's and government contractors who profit from red light cameras in the U.S. and Canada.

Illegals here to stay, and other pressing realities (1 comments) Dystopian nightmares come to life. In creating an underclass, illegals are denied amnesty and selectively deported. Maidens forced into fertility bondage? Harsh interrogations produce little intelligence and stir resistance. US overreaches in its effort to plunder Iraqi oil, subsidized by taxpayer money and lives.

How children lost the right to roam in four generations When George Thomas was eight he walked everywhere. It was 1926 and his parents were unable to afford the fare for a tram, let alone the cost of a bike and he regularly walked six miles to his favourite fishing haunt without adult supervision. Fast forward to 2007 and Mr Thomas's eight-year-old great-grandson Edward enjoys none of that freedom.

Friday, June 15:

Another Sorry Ascension - New York Times on Bush's nominee to the Federal Election Commission (1 comments) Democrats should make clear to the White House - and to Mr. Reid - that the F.E.C. is too important to be left in the hands of political hacks or to be sacrificed for the sake of a political deal.

Greg Palast and RFK Jr. Speak in NYC on MayDay 2007 A series of short YouTube pieces with investigative journalist Greg Palast and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Our friend (and OpEdNews contributor) Mary Kiraly particularly recommends segments 5 and 8 for your viewing "pleasure".

Death Penalty for "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques"? "Before there were 'enhanced interrogation techniques,' there was verschärfte Vernehmung developed by the Gestapo," writes Scott Horton on Harper's website. But the Bush Administration techniques are "generally more severe and include a number of practices that the Gestapo expressly forbade [on paper already]." It's now officially okay to compare bush & Co. to the Nazis.

US Army Engulfed by "Tidal Wave of Unsustainable Demands" "No commander in chief in American history has cared less about the overall health of America's Armed Forces," writes historian Andrew Bacevich at American Conservative magazine. He should know: He lost his son in Iraq last month.

Beyond PTSD Part Two: The Moral Casualties of War, Programming Our Children to Kill In this essay, I will argue that moral injuries are primarily the consequence of late adolescents/young adults having undergone the sophisticated psychological and emotional conditioning regimen of basic training/boot camp – being programmed to kill – and then, upon experiencing the horror and insanity – the reality – of war, suffering the realization of the moral gravity of their actions on the battlefield.

James R. Brett: Not Since Kennedy Never, since the assassination of Kennedy, has the national morale been so low. We are in significant trouble as a culture. Our form of government no longer functions. Corruption abounds. There is only one way out of this mess, and waiting for Bush to retire is not it.

Polygamy: the Red State Answer to Family Values. AZ and UT Attorney Generals Won't Prosecute It. And Then There's Orrin

Venezuela: Battle over Media is about Race and Class (1 comments) The protests in Venezuela are motivated by more than a TV station. The oligarchy fears it is losing its right to run the country. "Ostensibly the argument is about the media" writes Richard Gott, of The Guardian. Yet, "The debate in Venezuela has less to do with the alleged absence of freedom of expression than with a perennially tricky issue locally referred to as "exclusion", a shorthand term for "race" and "racism".

Big Trouble in Little Tombstone (2 comments) Bush support for immigration bill threatens to separate Bush from his hard-core support network.

America Experiencing "Significant Shrinkage" Remember George Costanza? This shrinkage, though, is America's loss of height vis a vis Europe. Something, Paul Krugman of The New York Times writes, "has caused Americans to grow richer without growing significantly taller. It's not the population's changing ethnic mix due to immigration: the stagnation of American heights is clear even if you restrict the comparison to non-Hispanic, native-born whites."

"Talibanization" of Pakistan an Old Story "There has been an awful lot of talk in the Western press about the frightful and new 'Talibanization' of Pakistan," writes Philip Smucker on Asia Times Online. "But the radicalization of Pakistan has been a long time coming and the West, particularly the United States, is probably as culpable as Pakistan's generals in the matter."

How the GOP Nexis of Evil Threatens America and Advocates Terrorism Recently, the GOP has been caught wishing more Americans might die that Bush may be vindicated! How evil is that?

Thursday, June 14:

Government Website Posted Private Medical Information Online Officials acknowledged today that the personal information of 12-hundred Lynchburg people was posted on the city's website. Similar blunders put thousands at risk of a particularly dangerous type of identity theft known as medical identity theft.

Study: Two-Thirds of Voters Fail to Notice Vote-Flipping on Touch-Screen DRE Voting Systems Guest blogged by John Gideon of Voters Unite! If Voters Don't Notice Incorrect Votes on The Review Screen in Front of Their Face, Why Would They Notice it on a So-Called 'Paper Trail' Printed Afterward? ...Rather than adding useless and expensive printers; why not just get rid of these machines all together?

Red Alert! FL Legislature short-circuits citizens' constitutional rights By erecting more hurdles for citizen initiatives to clear,the chamber and the Legislature showed how unlevel the electoral playing field really is.Petitioners must run a complex legal gantlet that includes gathering 611,000 valid signatures;lawmakers vote their constitutional amendments straight onto the ballot.Indeed,80% of amendments come from the Legislature.So if anyone's hijacking the referendum process, [it's]Tallahassee

What Makes Us Think We Can Entrust The Future of The Human Race to These People? Johann Hari of the Independent writes: The G8 was a slap-in-the-face reminder that we can't leave it up to our leaders to choose a sane path. The heads of the richest nations could not agree to keep global warming this side of two degrees centigrade, and despite Vladimir Putin pledging to point his nukes at European cities once again, they didn't even talk about reducing the number of nuclear weapons in the world.

Congressman John Conyers: Why I Issued Subpoenas (2 comments) I had hoped that the White House would be more forthcoming in assisting our investigation. Unfortunately, this subpoena provided the only legal means for the American people, to find out how their government functions. This subpoena represents a very serious step by Congress not to be taken lightly. Defiance or failure to comply would run counter to the checks and balances that are the foundation of our government

Juan Cole: Samarra Fallout, Surge not Working The Sadr Bloc in the Iraqi Parliament is threatening to suspend their participation in legislation in protest against the failure to rebuild and protect the Shiite Askariya shrine in Samarra. If they really do suspend participation in parliament, it would probably mean that no benchmark legislation will be passed any time soon-- not the petroleum law, not revision of the laws on de-Baathification, not constitutional amendments

We Didn't Win the Cold War, We Survived It by Dumb Luck (1 comments) "What winning the Cold War really meant," writes Paul Woodward at War in Context, "was that by luck rather than design, we didn't all get incinerated." A courageous president "would have championed a movement for global nuclear disarmament." (Remembering, of course, that a "courageous president" is a contradiction in terms.)

Do You Have Campaign Gap Or Bulge? Let's start with the obvious: Candidates hate to raise money. They understand that it's a necessity if they want to win, but they still hate doing it. As a result, they tend to favor the fundraising tools with which they are most comfortable.

To the Bitter End Democrats are right to push for an end to the Iraq war. But don't expect the troops to be grateful. The Dems, writes Spencer Ackerman in The Washington Monthly, should "acknowledge that many fighting men and women want to stay in the battle and would be willing to do so for years longer. There's nothing wrong with saying that, nor in emphasizing that this is part of what makes us so proud of our military."

The New Day After Former Secretary of Defense William Perry and others just released a report called "The Day After" about how to prepare for and survive a nuclear attack by terrorists. Jayne Vaynman at Arms Control Wonk writes: "Perhaps the most interesting recommendation in the report is for a fallout shelter program. (No, this is a serious shelter comment, for once.)"

Wednesday, June 13:

"The Clowns Are Once Again Spilling out of the Volkswagen" "Lately, the Neocons seem all over the public airwaves," writes Matt Taibbi. "Even worse, a few are still in office and seem to be cooking up a last-minute encore before the curtain finally comes down in '08."

"The US Is a 12-Year-Old with a Shotgun" (4 comments) If we attacked Iran, said historian Gwynne Dyer in an interview, it "would actually convince a great many people that the United States is congenitally a rogue state. A senior Japanese diplomat said to me 'You know the United States is a twelve year old with a shotgun.' And what he meant was that [on its way down, the US] is becoming extremely erratic."

Lieberman's Bomb-Iran Talk Part of a Coordinated Offensive "U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman's call for cross-border raids into Iran appears to be the culmination of a two-week long campaign by proponents of war to put the military option center-stage in the U.S. debate over Iran once more," writes Trita Parsi at AntiWar. Everybody's favorite jellyfish lashes out again with his stinging tentacles.

In Defense of Itself: Missile Defense Speaks Out "With so much talk about missile defense, we thought it was time to talk to missile defense," writes Alexander Zaitchik, who "called Max the Missile Defense Main Frame at its base in Fort Greeley, Alaska. In a wide-ranging interview conducted over a secure military phone line, we found the system good-natured, forthcoming and racked by self-doubt."

Pentagon Wages Deadly, Silent, Toxic War on US (2 comments) While the US military is laying waste to Iraq, it wages a silent and toxic campaign against the people of the US. The US military is dumping toxic wastes offshore near heavily populated in the North East, the Southeast and the South -specifically New York, Washington DC, Philadelphia, Boston as well as locations farther south offshore between Newport News and Charleston and offshore between New Orleans and Mobile.

Tuesday, June 12:

The EEVS of Our Destruction By Nancy Levant. We are one to two years away from our REAL ID designations and only God knows what other "legislation" will result from America's new paramilitary dictatorship. The Employment Eligibility Verification System proposed in the STRIVE Act would require all people- both citizens and non-citizens - to obtain and present newly proposed documents compliant with the REAL ID Act in order to work or continue working.

Playing Politics With Gonzales (1 comments) The Republicans play politics with the integrity of our government and blame the Democrats for playing politics, and the press parrots their absurd ideas. Gonzales is unqualified and is completely corrupt.

World Parliament The purpose of a world parliament is to hold international bodies to account. It is not a panacea. It will not turn the IMF or the UN Security Council into democratic bodies. But it does have the potential to impose a check on them. It wields no army, no police force, no weapons, no ready-made powers. Instead, it possesses something that none of the other global bodies have: legitimacy.

Funding and Crying: Why the Dems Capitulated (1 comments) "Dems lack a coherent vision and ideology from which they could derive strength of purpose that would provide the foundation on which they could easily develop a moral backbone to fight for what they believe in," writes Rabbi Michael Lerner, co-chair of the Network of Spiritual Progressives.

Monday, June 11:

Rush Holt's HR 811 Does More Harm than Good by Ellen Theisen I have not addressed every problem with the bill.But these seven problems are sufficient to convince me that this bill is not just "imperfect."In my opinion,the flaws in this bill are more damaging to democracy and our future election process than the good that might come of the minimal safeguards it could provide for our elections in 2008 and beyond.So,far from celebrating a Holt election reform bill ...

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