"I know no safe depositary of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power."
--1820 -- Thomas Jefferson
Sen. James “Jackass” Inhofe calls Franken a clown, says super-majority not enough for health care bill – “I’ll tell you what a lot of people are thinking, and that is it looks like things are going to be over and we are going to get the clown from Minnesota,’’ the Tulsa World quoted Inhofe as saying. “They are not going to get more than 35 votes.’’ If anyone in the Senate is a clown, it’s Senator Inhofe, a massively ignorant man from Oklahoma.
Stimulus Magic: How the States Met Their Spending Deadline – Of the $16 billion obligated so far, the bulk of the money—71 percent—has gone for paving projects, followed by 11 percent for bridge construction and improvement.
ProPublica put together a chart based on the June 26 project list, and they will keep updating it as the stimulus progresses. For comparison, see the DOT’s tally of June 29 that served as the basis for the administration’s count.
Target 5: Secret Shots – Target 5: Secret Shots –’The shot was never listed in his records… Suddenly, ‘flu vaccine’ appears on his record.’ All military personnel who are headed to combat are required to take vaccinations. Are these shots leaving some soliders deathly ill? ‘But a case of friendly fire, in the form of a syringe, would forever change his life. On November 28th of 2005, David’s unit was lined up for what he says was an undisclosed shot… Three weeks later, Private Fey was back in Clermont County on his death bed at Clinton Memorial Hospital. His kidneys were failing… ‘The people [sic] who administered the shot never told us what it was.’ (YouTube video of NBC Target 5 report)
1,500 National Guard Troops To Border – KTSM.com, El Paso · Las Cruces · Juarez–1,500 National Guard volunteers will be used to support the existing ‘counter’-drug program on the border with Mexico. That includes in Texas and New mexico. The plan is being finalized between the Defense Department and Homeland Security. The program would use guardsmen for surveillance, intelligence analysis, and aviation support. They would also supply ground troops who help at border crossings.
Oil and the Iraq “withdrawal” – By James Cogan 30 Jun 2009 It is fitting that today’s deadline for the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq’s cities coincides with a meeting in Baghdad to auction off some of the country’s largest oil fields to companies such as ExxonMobil, Chevron and British Petroleum. It is a reminder of the real motives for the 2003 invasion and in whose interests over one million Iraqis and 4,634 American and other Western troops have been killed. The Iraq war was, and continues to be, an imperialist war waged by the American ruling elite for control of oil and geo-strategic advantage.
Did Steve Jobs’ money buy him a faster liver transplant? – The answer is YES. It’s sometimes easier for people with significant financial resources to get an organ transplant. (Jobs’ estimated net worth: $5.7 billion.) And it’s one reason why we need major health care reform in the United States.
Michael Jackson wasn’t the only major entity who died last week. The American Broadcast media has been on life support for a long time, and it has finally died. As a result, The News has been cancelled. If you get desperate for the “other” news, try newspapers or better yet, TMZ, (which covers other celebrities).
From now on, MSNBC, NBC, CNN, ABC, and CBS are the Michael Jackson News Network. Michael Jackson News trumps all others, even more so now that he’s dead. Michael Jackson News led the 3 major networks in their primetime news broadcasts today in America, trumping the stories of nearly 10% unemployment and the story of an American soldier kidnapped by the Taliban. Those stories were not nearly as important as where MICHAEL JACKSON’S MEMORIAL SERVICE WILL BE HELD, which will be at the Staples Center in L.A. Also, did you hear a new video of his last performance has surfaced?
That’s all you really need to know. Non-celebrity News is hereby canceled in the United States. Tune into the Michael Jackson News Network (that’s all of the ones listed above) for more real Michael Jackson news, 24/7, apparently until the End of Time.
After all, the guy kidnapped was just a soldier fighting in some war. Unemployment goes up and it goes down. Eh, not news. But OMG, who will get MJ’s kids?!
After all, Michael Jackson was the self-ordained KING OF POP, and therefore, more important than war and unemployment and all the rest.
What other news do we really need, anyway? If you think you’re missing something, just play “Beat It” again.
Lookin’ Back, Movin’ Forward: The End of MediaMouse.org – “Similarly, the project is almost painfully dysfunctional–there is no decision making structure, there are all sorts of problems with work distribution, no accountability, emails go unanswered, and almost all of the work is (and has been) done by one person.” Boy does that sound familiar! Totally understandable, since I went through the same thing 3 years ago. RIP, MediaMouse
How Mark Sanford’s Argentine affair ended a GOP star’s rise – “In eight short hours, the combination of the two anonymous tipsters and three actions — Sanford’s arrival at the Atlanta airport, unveiling the e-mails and finding Maria — took Sanford from would-be president to disgraced adulterer.” The biggest mystery about this is not why male Republican politicans keep torpedoing their careers with these clumsily-hid affairs. It’s why women keep having affairs with ugly male conservative politicians.
Franken wins, but don’t get all excited about those 60 votes – Franken, one-time star and writer on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live,” dismissed talk about his status as the 60th Democratic vote.” Well, the truth is Franken is kind of conservative and very pro-Israel gov. He is also sort of pro-war. So don’t get too optimistic. His is not a liberal vote.
Op-Ed Columnist – Betraying the Planet – NYTimes.com – Things that make me panic: “Thus researchers at M.I.T., who were previously predicting a temperature rise of a little more than 4 degrees by the end of this century, are now predicting a rise of more than 9 degrees.” Do you feel a little short of breath reading that?
Iraq’s “National Sovereignty Day” is U.S.-Style Hallmark Hype – All is not as it seems in Iraq: As we listen to these proclamations from Iraqi “government” officials praising their fake holiday, let’s remember this fact from veteran journalist Patrick Cockburn, who has covered Iraq more than almost any other Western journalist:
Iraq is the world’s premier kleptomaniac state. According to Transparency International the only countries deemed more crooked than Iraq are Somalia and Myanmar, while Haiti and Afghanistan rank just behind. In contrast to Iraq, which enjoys significant oil revenues, none of these countries have much money to steal.
Prime Minister Netanyahu and his cabinet intend to fight President Obama’s settlement policy. Netanyahu, in an effort to detract from the conversation, even went so far as to say: “I think that the more we spend time arguing about this, the more we waste time instead of moving towards peace.” In his talks with Secretary of State Clinton, Israeli Foreign Minister Lieberman said bluntly: “We cannot accept this vision absolutely, completely freezing these settlements.”
“Recently [last weekend] French president Nicolas Sarkozy urged the Israeli prime minister to fire his foreign minister — a hard-liner whose party tried to force Israelis to take a loyalty oath, two senior Israeli officials said Tuesday.
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman’s appointment has been ill-received internationally because of his hard-line positions on peace and Israel’s Arab population, among other issues. But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, addressing EU ambassadors on Tuesday, expressed “full confidence” in the country’s chief diplomat.
“He is a man who is fully committed to peace and security for our country,” Netanyahu said. “He is part of the democratically elected government of Israel which was elected with a clear mandate from the voters to achieve peace and security.”
In the meeting last week, Sarkozy told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that “you must get rid of that man,” the two officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose the contents of private conversations.”
Frack Attack: Drilling Technique Under Scrutiny – A drilling technique developed by Halliburton is under scrutiny as it pollutes water and they won’t release what chemicals are in the process.
Tall Tales from Spain – Rep. Doc Hastings (R-WA), above, and other conservatives are claiming to Congress that investments in renewable energy lead to higher prices and job losses, and they’re basing these arguments on a paper released in Spain.
State Supreme Court rules for Franken, 5-0 – “Al Franken received the highest number of votes legally cast and is entitled [under Minnesota law] to receive the certificate of election as United States Senator from the State of Minnesota,” the court wrote.
“A forensic examiner found that he (the prisoner) had essentially been crucified; he died from asphyxiation after having been hung by his arms, in a hood, and suffering broken ribs,” the magazine’s Jane Mayer writes in the magazine’s June 22nd issue. “Military pathologists classified the case a homicide.” The date of the murder was not given.
More lawmakers should speak out like this. Sen. Nan Orrock says that Eisenhower had it right — “Beware the military industrial complex”. It can distort your whole economy, and it has.
Senator Orrock was elected to the Georgia Senate in 2006, following her service in the House of Representatives for two decades. During her tenure in the House, she was elected as the first woman to hold the position of majority whip. She also served as the Governor’s Floor Leader and is the president of the Women Legislators’ Lobby (WILL).
US military spending versus the rest of the world:
When the US Fiscal Year 2009 budget request for military spending came out in early 2008, Travis Sharp and Christopher Hellman (mentioned earlier) projected the spending of other nations planned for 2008 thus allowing comparison between US military spending and the rest of the world:
Military Spending 2008
As someone commenting on the Real News said, “With well over 700 U.S. Military bases worldwide why not shut all of them down? This number does not even include bases in Iraq or Afganistan. This would save us well over $ 1 trillion a year.”
We could fund health care, (even single payer) and Medicare, and most of the things this country needs if we would only stop funding the military industrial complex. We have about 250,000 contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan, even as the soldiers begin to pull out of Iraq, and they make a lot more money than the soldiers. We also pay their salaries. What do we get in return? Nothing but lower unemployment numbers, and some protection for people who have no business being in Iraq in the first place. I don’t know what they are doing in Afghanistan. Rebuilding what we destroy?
It’s insane to have a debate about health care that doesn’t include the fact that we can fund all health care for the people of this country if only we’d stop funding the blowing up of other countries, for their oil and other resources. Why do we spend so much on destruction and not much on improving peoples’ lives? Imagine the money we’d have for health care and renewable energy if we could stop our addiction to WAR.
“The wave of attacks is undermining Prime Minister Nouri Maliki’s declaration of a “great victory” in the US pullout from urban areas by next Tuesday’s deadline.
He has declared June 30 a national holiday to be marked with celebrations.
Maliki, a Shiite, has pinned his re-election hopes largely on security gains that have driven violence to wartime lows – an issue that has become his stump speech in an undeclared campaign for a second term.”
On Friday, a bus station in Baghdad was bombed, killing 7 persons and wounding 31.
Still, Big Oil is nevertheless getting back into Iraq — my guess is that they are positioning themselves, even though the terms and the security now are bad. In the future they will have built a good working relationship this way.
“[a big risk] risk, [for international oil companies] however, might be failing to seize whatever opportunity presents itself in a country with the third-largest petroleum reserves in the world. Iraq desperately needs oil revenue for reconstruction, and it wants to double its daily crude output within four to five years.
On Monday, the country’s Oil Ministry is set to auction off service contracts that in total may pay up to $16 billion over 20 years to the dozens of oil companies that have qualified to bid. To put the potential payout into context, Irving, Texas-based Exxon Mobil on its own posted a $45.2 billion profit last year, earnings generated largely by extracting oil and gas, not taking fees to help others produce it.”
HEY WAIT A MINUTE, DIDN’T OUR WAR DESTROY THEIR COUNTRY? SHOULDN’T THE UNITED STATES PAY FOR RECONSTRUCTION? WHY DO THE IRAQIS HAVE TO GIVE AWAY THEIR OIL MONEY TO FIX WHAT WE AND OUR ‘WAR OF CHOICE’ DESTROYED? WE SHOULD BE PAYING FOR THAT.
AND HOW MUCH WILL EXXON PROFIT FROM THE FACT THAT A MILLION DEAD IRAQIS NOW LAY BURIED UNDER THE SAND?
I imagine at this point they mostly want the U.S. out of their hair too. Meanwhile, al-Maliki wants unity.
“Iraq’s prime minister said Saturday that the full withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from cities and towns was a message that his country was ready to take over its own security, even as he appealed for national unity. . . . .”
*Shouldn’t he be considered the “King of 1980s Dance Music”, instead of “Pop” music? And why is he the “King” of anything? And why is cable news covering him 24/7? No wonder Americans don’t know much.
The international Quartet on Middle East peace has called on Israel to halt Jewish settlements in the Palestinian territories and open border crossings as a first step to advance peace. The Quartet is the EU, Russia, the U.S. (YES) and the UN. The appeal was made on Friday.
In a widely expected move [2] that is sure to draw the ire of the oil and gas industry, Democratic members of Congress today introduced twin bills to amend the Safe Drinking Water Act and give the Environmental Protection Agency authority over the controversial drilling process [3] called hydraulic fracturing [4].
Evidence is emerging that medical personnel monitored the medical effects of the waterboarding of Abu Zubaydah, the al-Qaida operative who was, according to government reports, subjected to the near-drowning at least 83 times in August 2002.
The Obama administration, fearing a battle with Congress that could stall plans to close Guantanamo, has drafted an executive order that would reassert presidential authority to incarcerate suspected terrorists indefinitely, according to three senior government officials with knowledge of White House deliberations.
Senate Environmental and Public Works subcommittee heard testimony that mountains and streams will never be the same after mountain top removal coal strip mining. This should be a crime and how interesting that it’s not, given that President Obama said this practice should end, while he was campaigning for president.
FOX News has been lying to people in various ways for at least the last 10 years. Only a few days ago, when Governor Sanford admitted to an affair with a woman in Argentina, Faux News put a “D” after his name. That is only a small example, but it’s indicative of the general dishonesty of their news culture. It was obviously done on purpose, because he’s a prominent Republican whose name had been mentioned as a presidential contender in 2012. All Republicans, certainly those who populate the staff at FOX, know who he is. FOX has done that exact same thing before with other politicians who get into “trouble” — label them as “Democrats”. Later, they might correct it, or they might not. It’s unethical and bizarre that in the world of Faux News, they think they can do anything that want, no matter how dishonest, and get away with it by playing dumb. That’s the essence of Faux News — playing dumb. Their anchors are dumb, their news writers are dumb, and their viewers are dumb. Dumb, dumber, and even dumber.
Unfortunately, their dishonesty is court-sanctioned and completely legal. Think of the implications of this. It means broadcast news can be purposely wrong and false, and that’s OK. We expect that from right-wing talk radio, but many people do not yet expect that from “the News”. Here’s my advice: trust no U.S. news on TV or radio. It’s mostly slick, packaged garbage, in my humble opinion, and if you are lucky, it’s half right. Watch news online from international sources. It’s really getting alarming how ignorant not only the American public is but also the people they elect (watching C-SPAN makes that all too clear), and much of that is the fault of the nonsense presented as news by the mainstream U.S. media. Here’s an example: What did cable news cover today, non-stop? A celebrity death. So what if there are wars going on and record unemployment and a massive climate change bill being debated in the House — Michael Jackson died.
“The attorneys for Fox, owned by media baron Rupert Murdock, successfully argued the First Amendment gives broadcasters the right to lie or deliberately distort news reports on the public airwaves. We are pushing for a consumer protection solution that labels news content according to its adherence to ethical journalism standards that have been codified by the Society of Professional Journalists (Ethics: spj.org).
A News Quality Rating System and Content Labeling approach, follows a tradition of consumer protection product labeling, that is very familiar to Americans. The ratings are anti-censorship and can benefit consumers. Click Here to Read More Fox News Gets Court OK to Lie
Who needs the House! They are passing an extremely weak climate change bill, but a great new cap and trading system whereby people can lose a lot of money on carbon offsets.
The House of Representatives is scheduled to vote FRIDAY on the “American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009” (H.R. 2454, “Waxman-Markey” or “ACESA”). We cannot endorse the bill. The hundreds of provisions in ACESA’s 1,000-plus pages do not add up to the steps needed to avert catastrophic climate disruption. Moreover, the bill’s emissions trading provisions create vested interests that would block future reforms.A growing chorus of environmental and progressive voices is urging Congress to overhaul or scrap the bill.
Iranian state television has reported that a partial recount of the vote in the country’s disputed June 12 presidential election had verified the result.”
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