carapace – Not your father's america

FIVE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW TO UNDERSTAND THE LATEST VIOLENCE IN IRAQ

By Joshua Holland, Raed Jarrar, AlterNet

The traditional media is incapable of reporting what’s going on in Southern Iraq.

http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/80580/

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Kadhafi warns US allies could suffer Saddam’s fate

29 Mar 2008

Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi warned Arab allies of the United States that they could meet the same fate as former Iraq president Saddam Hussein, hanged in 2006 three years after the US-led invasion. “A foreign force occupied an Arab country and hanged its president and we stood by and watched,” he told an Arab summit in the Syrian capital. Saddam was hanged in December 2006 after being sentenced to death for crimes against humanity over the mass killing of Shiites in the 1980s. “How can they execute a prisoner of war and the president of a member of the Arab League?” Kadhafi asked. He said Saddam had been a friend of the United States during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s “before they turned against him and executed him.” “You could all suffer the same fate,” he warned. “Even you, even we, who are considered friends of America, one day (America) can give the green light for our own hanging,” said the Libyan leader.

At:

http://tinyurl.com/253upu  (news.yahoo.com)

From: CLG News

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Theodore Roosevelt, Labor Day speech at Syracuse, NY, Sept 7, 1903

The death-knell of the republic had rung as soon as the active power became lodged in the hands of those who sought, not to do justice to all citizens, rich and poor alike, but to stand for one special class and for its interests as opposed to the interests of others.

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The WasteBasket: A Bulletin on Wasteful Government Spending – A SHOT IN THE DARK

by Taxpayers for Common Sense
http://www.taxpayer.net/

A SHOT IN THE DARK

Volume XIII No. 13 – March 28, 2008

Back in 1983, when President Reagan unveiled his vision of a weapons system that could intercept and destroy ballistic missiles before they hit U.S. soil, he warned it would take “years, probably decades” likely marked by “failures and setbacks.”

Today, the Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS)?originally the Strategic Defense Initiative or “Star Wars”?has racked up plenty of years, failures and dollars. Yet the most expensive weapons system fielded by the United States ($120 billion to date) is operating largely outside the reach of government auditors.

Though BMDS has its roots in the Cold War, its unaccountable budget structure was created more recently by former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. By moving the program’s many elements out of the regular Defense Department budget and into a newly-created Missile Defense Agency (MDA), BMDS avoids the pesky review process all Pentagon projects must undergo as they move through various stages of development and production.

MDA exists in an exalted program status, exempted from budgeting rules that require the agency to produce baseline cost and schedule estimates that DoD and Congress can measure progress against. It is not hindered by “fly before you buy” acquisition laws that require the Defense Department’s testing and evaluation office to green-light weapons before they go into full production. It is not subject to independent review. Finally, it classifies its entire budget as research and development funding, allowing it to move money around more easily?despite the fact that it has laid bricks and mortar on projects like the interceptor bases in California and Alaska.

In short, all the hard-earned lessons about how to protect taxpayers from wasteful procurements go out the window when it comes to the MDA.

MDA has a perpetual “get-out-of-jail free” card when one considers the “setbacks” that have, per Reagan’s predictions, befallen BMDS. First there’s the fact that it has only managed to take out incoming missiles in tests so tightly managed that they do not approximate realistic conditions, according to the Government Accountability Office. The test results are about as valid as those of a college applicant who takes the SAT with the answer key in their lap. Then there’s the agency’s failure to meet recent performance goals while jacking up its budget estimate. That nearly 60 percent of MDA’s manpower comes from contractors who cost around $3 billion also cries out for rigorous oversight.

After years of rubber stamping, Congress is finally taking on the MDA’s hide-the-budget strategy. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee held the first in a series of hearings on missile defense earlier this month, and language added to the 2008 defense authorization bill called for an independent review by a federally-funded research center of the agency and proposed missile sites in Eastern Europe, among other measures.

But previous actions by MDA indicate Congress will have to bolster its remedies with some strong medicine. The agency rejected GAO recommendations to adopt firm baselines or use procurement funds for its operational systems. And though MDA restructured its 2009 budget request, theoretically to enhance transparency, it neglected to include a schedule baseline or a comprehensive accounting of all the system’s elements.

MDA is asking for a record $10 billion in fiscal year 2009 in a clear attempt to load up its budget before the new administration takes over. But Congress shouldn’t be taken in: MDA’s blank-check days must draw to a close and its budget integrated back into the Defense Department’s planning process. No major weapons program, much less the nation’s costliest, should be allowed to operate completely off the balance sheet.

Going on at Taxpayer.net This Week

Mining Industry Receives Special Tax Treatment
http://capwiz.com/taxpayer/utr/1/EDULIGLABO/NISZIGLAHN/1855835661

Check out TCS’s Complete FY2008 Database of Congressional Earmarks
http://capwiz.com/taxpayer/utr/1/EDULIGLABO/LLEJIGLAHO/1855835661

Ending the Earmark ATM: An Insider’s View of Congressional Earmarks
http://capwiz.com/taxpayer/utr/1/EDULIGLABO/EUDNIGLAHP/1855835661

TCS in the News

Battle Looms Over Adding Wind Coverage to Federal Flood Insurance (CQPolitics.com)
Bend fails to ask Walden for $15M to aid projects (Bend Bulletin, Oregon)
Farm Lobby Beats Back (Wall Street Journal)
Ex-congressman’s role in water project blasted (Boston Globe)
Coalition forms to oppose flood insurance plan (Reuters)
Yale stands apart from peers in refusing federal earmarks (Yale Daily News, Connecticut)
Pork Three Ways (Town Hall, Washington DC)
Earmark ‘fetish’ confounds lawmaker (Tallahassee Democrat, Florida)
University ranks high in earmarks (The Daily Collegian Online, Pennsylvania)
Political Bacon Or Deserving Projects? (Media General, Washington DC)
Pork Shoveling: Consider it a Virtue (13WHAM-TV, New York)
Billion$ in earmarks go to colleges and universities (OneNewsNow, Mississippi)
Earmark transparency (Bucks County Courier Times, Pennsylvania)
Mack’s area wish list $12.6 million (The News-Press, Florida)
Lawmakers Keep Pork On USF’s Plate (Tampa Tribune)
Something’s fishy about pork debate (Chicago Tribune)
Deal, other Ga. Republicans join anti-earmark crusade (Access North Georgia)
Earmark requests under wraps (Honolulu Advertiser)
‘Ed McMahon Syndrome’? Gilhooley, Holden voice differences over … (Republican & Herald, Pennsylvania)
Texas reaps $2.2 billion in earmarks (Houston Chronicle)
Would Kansas snub McCain over tankers? (The Wichita Eagle, Kansas)
Alaska 1st, Arizona last in pork-barrel spending (USA Today)
Earmarks go to the lawmakers in need (Arizona Republic)
Solar Cities — Santa Rosa — $350000 (Santa Rosa Press Democrat, California)
A Michigan view of earmarks (Detroit Free Press)
Earmarks create a Web collapse (Marketplace, California)

Notable Quote

“Something appears to have gone fundamentally wrong inside the Defense Department.”

- House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA), on federal contracts awarded to AEY Inc. to supply weapons, ammunitions, and munitions to military forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Weekly Wastebasket at http://www.taxpayer.net/

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U.S. News Media in Quite a State

Source: Project for Excellence in Journalism, March 16, 2008

“The state of the American news media in 2008 is more troubled than a year ago,” opens the latest “State of the News Media” report from the Project for Excellence in Journalism. Among the major findings is that the Internet is not yet the democratizing media force many hoped for. “Even with so many new sources, more people now consume what old media newsrooms produce, particularly from print, than before,” the report states. A detailed analysis of the news stories covered in 2007 found that “the media and the public often disagreed about which stories were important,” and that U.S. media mostly ignored the rest of the world. Even though 2007 “was the deadliest for American forces in Afghanistan since that war began,” less than one percent of international news dealt with that country. And journalists are more pessimistic, especially about “cutbacks in the newsroom” and the “broken economic model” for many news operations.

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In reporting on McCain’s stated opposition to government “bail out” of “big banks,” Wash. Post, NY Times failed to note his approval of Bear Stearns aid

The Washington Post and The New York Times reported that Sen. John McCain, in the words of Times reporters Michael Powell and Jeff Zeleny, “argued this week against a vigorous federal intervention to address the [housing] crisis, saying Washington should not bail out banks and homeowners who in his view had knowingly taken on risky mortgages.” However, neither article noted that McCain reportedly expressed support for the Federal Reserve’s decision to extend a $30 billion line of credit to facilitate the acquisition of Bear Stearns by JP Morgan Chase.

Read More

http://mediamatters.org/items/200803280008?lid=189414&rid=5955730

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Worse Than Bush

In 2001, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) opposed the first round of President Bush’s tax cuts, saying they were “generous tax relief to the wealthiest individuals of our country at the expense of lower- and middle-income American taxpayers.” But now, as he runs for president, McCain openly mocks rhetoric that talks about “who the, quote, ‘wealthy’ are in America.” In fact, McCain has offered massive tax cuts, mostly for corporations, that are as costly as Bush’s tax cuts and even more regressive. In an analysis released last week, Center for American Progress Action Fund Senior Fellow Robert Gordon and Domestic Policy Adviser James Kvaal conclude that McCain’s proposals are “enormously expensive,” as they essentially double the Bush tax cuts. Additionally, “the McCain plan would predominantly benefit the most fortunate taxpayers” while shifting “the tax burden from investment income onto earned income.” Not only would McCain ease the tax burden predominantly for the most wealthy, according to Gordon and Kvaal, but his plan “will lead to increased sheltering.” Additionally, “McCain cannot pay for his tax cuts without massive reductions in Social Security, Medicare, or other key programs that benefit the vast majority of Americans.” In essence, McCain has adopted the agenda of anti-tax ideologue Grover Norquist, who wants to make radical changes to the U.S. tax code “at the expense of lower- and middle-income Americans.”

EMBRACED BY NORQUIST: Throughout McCain’s time in the Senate, he has rarely been a favorite of Norquist’s. In fact, just three years ago, Norquist referred to him as “the nut-job from Arizona.” Pressed on the comment by the Washington Post, Norquist said he “misspoke” and that he “meant to say gun-grabbing, tax-increasing Bolshevik.” Now, Norquist — who famously said he wants the government “down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub” — calls McCain “very good on taxes” because he has embraced “the Americans for Tax Reform’s entire agenda.” Speaking to Newsweek last month, Norquist said that “on the tax issue,” McCain “has moved very hard and far, and I believe convincingly.” Explaining his recent embrace of McCain, Norquist told the Politico earlier this year that “successful movements accept prodigal sons when they return.”

McCAIN BEGINS BACKING AWAY?: Speaking to the Washington Post last week, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, McCain’s senior policy adviser, responded to Gordon and Kvaal’s criticism, conceding that they “had a point” on “the question of tax cuts.” “It will make deficits expand up front, no question,” admitted Holtz-Eakin, former director of the Congressional Budget Office. But Holtz-Eakin defended the central points of McCain’s plan, claiming that “helping corporations ultimately helps workers because it ensures their employer remains internationally competitive.” “That place has to be economically viable, otherwise they have a problem,” said Hotz-Eakin. Moreover, though he conceded to Gordon and Kvaal on tax cuts, Holtz-Eakin’s Washington Post op-ed today about McCain’s plan for “turning around the economy” never mentions the massive corporate tax cuts that McCain billed barely two months ago as the first item in his “economic stimulus plan.”

QUESTIONS FOR McCAIN: Responding to Holtz-Eakin on the Center for American Progress Action Fund’s Wonk Room blog, Gordon and Kvaal note that Holtz-Eakin’s “signal that Senator McCain may change his economic agenda yet again” raises four questions: 1) Why is it necessary to cuts taxes for corporations to make them “economically viable” when the United States already has the fourth-lowest corporate tax revenue as a share of the economy in the industrialized world? 2) Why are deficit-financed corporate tax cuts likely to increase growth when (a) in the short-run, Moody’s Economy.com ranked them the least cost-effective stimulus among 13 options, and (b) in the medium or longer-run, the effect on growth of deficit-financed tax cuts “tends to be small?” 3) How do massive tax cuts for the most fortunate further shared prosperity when income inequality is at its highest level since before the Great Depression (or earlier)? 4) Given the admission that this plan will immediately increase federal budget deficits, how will McCain meet his own goal of balancing the budget by 2012?

The Progress Report http://www.americanprogressaction.org/

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Borowitz Report – Hillary Vow Shocker

Hillary Vows to Stay in Race 100 Years

Nixes Exit Strategy

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton stunned voters at a town hall meeting in Erie, Pennsylvania today by telling them that she was prepared to stay in the nomination fight for an additional century.

“How much longer will I stay in the race?” she responded to a voter’s question. “Fifty years? How about one hundred years?”

When asked to clarify, Sen. Clinton replied, “I’ll stay in this race for a thousand years. A million years. A billion years.”

Sen. Clinton added that she was refusing to announce an exit strategy from the race because “that would send the wrong message to the enemy.”

The New York senator’s comments echoed a strategy outlined in a recently leaked internal campaign memo, which calls for her to remain in the race long after the Democratic National Convention, even if Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill) becomes the party’s official nominee.

According to the memo, Sen. Clinton plans to follow Sen. Obama’s campaign bus around in a Chevy Suburban in the hopes of running it off the road.

“If necessary, we will sideswipe or ram into his bus,” the memo said. “Just really mess him up.”

For her part, Sen. Clinton remained resolute at the town hall meeting, responding to a question about the recent surge in negative attacks her campaign has lobbed in Sen. Obama’s direction: “What can I tell you? The surge is working.”

Elsewhere, to inaugurate the 2008 Major League Baseball season, former pitching great Roger Clemens threw out the first syringe.

Andy in Montreal – April 8
Andy makes his first-ever appearance in Canada on Tuesday, April 8 at the Jewish Public Library in Montreal. 7:30 PM, 5151 Côte Ste-Catherine; admission free.

Andy’s Only West Coast Appearance – April 24
Andy makes his only scheduled West Coast appearance Thursday, April 24 at University of California, Santa Barbara. 8 PM at Campbell Hall. Tickets available at https://artsandlectures.sa.ucsb.edu/

Andy with Calvin Trillin, Susie Essman and Jonathan Alter – May 13
Andy hosts “Countdown to ’08″ on Tuesday, May 13 at 8 PM at the 92nd St. Y with his special guests Calvin Trillin (bestselling author, The New Yorker), Susie Essman (HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm) and Jonathan Alter (Newsweek, MSNBC). The Y is located at 92nd St. and Lexington Avenue. For tickets, go to http://www.92y.org/ .

Andy at Mark Twain’s House – May 28
Spend “An Evening With Andy Borowitz” at the Mark Twain House and Museum in Hartford, Connecticut on Wednesday, May 28. Event begins at 6 PM. For tickets and information call Janet Youmans at 860-280-3113 or email Janet.youmans@marktwainhouse.org

http://www.borowitzreport.com/

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three thousand words

Tom Toles: big guts lead to dementia

http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/uc/20080327/ltt080328.gif

Tom the Dancing Bug: the corporate casino

http://images.ucomics.com/comics/td/2008/td080329.gif

Ted Rall: cultural news from the western world

http://images.ucomics.com/comics/tr/2008/tr080329.gif

#3 of the Top 10 Bizarre Biblical Tales

Even God is proud of his backside

Found in: Exodus 33:23

It’s a big day for Moses. He’s finally going to meet God face to face and is giddy with anticipation. Soon the time comes and Moses positions himself on a rock ready to see the divine creator himself. But God backs out at the last minute claiming that no man can see his face and live. However, he has a solution. He will let Moses have a peek at his backside, “And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen.” Moses must be heartbroken. He was hoping to see God’s face not his bottom! Imagine explaining that to the wife: “Oh honey, did you see God’s face?” “Umm not quite…I got a great look at his ass though!” Moses most likely slept alone that night.

The moral of this story? God works in mysterious (and slightly gay) ways.

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Does Religion Cause Terrorism?

COLUMN By DOUG THOMAS
For HumanistNetworkNews.org
March 19, 2008

Once again, religious hatred has caused some young people in Israel to kill some other young people at a Jewish Seminary. Anytime that students die, there is a particular wrench in one’s gut. Students have the special status of being children of us all.

The niggling question, though, asks whether religions actually cause violence and spawn terror. There are extreme examples of course. The World Trade Center terrorists were clear adherents to a branch of Islam that gave them not only permission to commit that travesty, but also encouraged them to seek heaven through that gate.

Does this mean that we have to look askance at every religious person we encounter? Is every one of the blue-rinsed ladies who meet in whatever church basement a potential terrorist?

Now I don’t wish to appear either sexist or ageist, but I don’t think they have what it takes to do that kind of violence. I also don’t think they have the motivation.

However, this does not let religion off the hook. For centuries, religions organized mass torture and executions of people who did not agree with them or that they thought did not agree with them. Now, their vitriol has been reduced to attacking non-believers verbally and insisting on the insertion of their religious practices into the daily lives of those of us who wish to be free from religion.

…

Complete article at:

http://www.humaniststudies.org/enews/?id=340&article=5

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Police: Girl Dies After Parents Pray for Healing Instead of Seeking Medical Help

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

WESTON, Wis. —  An 11-year-old girl died after her parents prayed for healing rather than seek medical help for a treatable form of diabetes, police said Tuesday.

Everest Metro Police Chief Dan Vergin said Madeline Neumann died Sunday.

“She got sicker and sicker until she was dead,” he said.

Vergin said an autopsy determined the girl died from diabetic ketoacidosis, an ailment that left her with too little insulin in her body, and she had probably been ill for about 30 days, suffering symptoms like nausea, vomiting, excessive thirst, loss of appetite and weakness.

The girl’s parents, Dale and Leilani Neumann, attributed the death to “apparently they didn’t have enough faith,” the police chief said.

They believed the key to healing “was it was better to keep praying. Call more people to help pray,” he said.

The mother believes the girl could still be resurrected, the police chief said.

…

Complete article at:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,341574,00.html

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WOULD GOD EVER DAMN AMERICA?

By Robert Scheer, Truthdig

Many religious leaders prophesy divine retribution for America’s bad behavior. I wonder what we would be punished for.

http://www.alternet.org/stories/80573/

ANTI-CHOICE AND THE WOO FACTOR

By Amanda Marcotte, RH Reality Check

It’s time for rational people to cast an eye of skepticism on the unscientific and wholly irrational claims of the anti-choice movement.

http://www.alternet.org/reproductivejustice/80602/

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Clergy Sex Abuse Will Take You to Places Darker Than You Can Imagine

By Frank Douglas

And then, in 2001, Father Tom Doyle, the Catholic priest who has crusaded for clerical sex-abuse victims, told me that I’d better be careful if I pursued the abuse story further. “It will take you places darker than you can imagine,” he …

http://reform-network.net/?p=1506

‘Sexually violent’ priest won’t go free

Chicago Sun-Times – United States

Some of the sexual abuse took place after Lenczycki went through a church-sponsored therapy program, said Assistant Attorney General Debra Blomgren. …

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/852924,CST-NWS-priest20.article

Court sets next hearing for minister accused of sex abuse as …

WAND – Decatur,IL,USA

AP – March 22, 2008 1:14 PM ET BLOOMINGTON, Ill. (AP) – A Bloomington minister accused of sedating and molesting four boys has seen his local case delayed …

http://www.wandtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=8054507

Minister charged with sex offense

Frederick News Post (subscription) – Frederick,MD,USA

By Sonia Boin ROCKVILLE

– An ordained minister has been arrested on charges of sex offense and child abuse of a female church choir member in Gaithersburg …

http://tinyurl.com/2c64ad    (www.fredericknewspost.com)

Former Minister Charged With Sex Abuse

By admin

Anyone with information or who has had any inappropriate sexual contact with Mann is asked to contact the Family Crimes Division at 240-773-5400. (Read the full post about ‘Former Minister Charged With Sex Abuse’…)

http://marylandlog.com/news/former-minister-charged-with-sex-abuse/

Minister Charged

WIFR – Rockford,IL,USA

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. (AP) — A Bloomington minister accused of sedating and molesting four boys has seen his local case delayed again while a related federal …

http://www.wifr.com/home/headlines/16926471.html

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three thousand words

THE SURFERS’ HEROIC TALES OF WILDLY TRAGIC ENDS WERE OFTEN CUT SHORT BY THE APPEARANCE OF JONAH

http://www.reverendfun.com/2008/03/20080328_pda.gif

Atheist Eve

http://www.atheist-community.org/images/cartoon/jmU2416322xKPO26sP26.jpg

Don Addis: gorilla? what gorilla?

http://ffrf.org/fttoday/2008/march/images/addisgorillaevolutioncartoon.jpg

GOD DAMN AMERICA – ESPECIALLY PENNSYLVANIA

By Greg Palast

[Sunday, March 23, 2008, Forest City, PA ]

The kids were snoozing so I drove along the back roads skirting the Lackawanna River on a dawn hunt for black coffee and a newspaper.

I think even Norman Rockwell would have found this place too sticky sweet, too postcard:  the weathered barns, the fallow fields perfectly snow-frosted; red, white and blue flags already up on the clapboard farmhouses and the white-washed church in the valley already full for Easter prayers.

At a gas station, I scored the paper and coffee, spilled some on the front page – the closest thing I’ve got to a religious ritual – then parked in front of a row of insanely pretty salt-box houses shining like mad teeth on the river bank. One was missing a pick-up in the driveway; its screen door was left half-open, and there was a letter taped to the window.  The Sheriff’s Notice of eviction.  Another foreclosure.

God damn America.

I know that’s what Obama’s spiritual guide would say. 

But why?  It seems likes He’s already done a pretty good job of damning these United States. 

And He seems to have really taken it out on this corner of Pennsylvania. 

The gargantuan Bethlehem steel works have dwindled to a few robot-operated mills controlled from Mumbai, India. The only remainders of nearby Carbondale’s mining industry are in display cases at the ageing Coal Inn.  But you could still get out by selling your home to ski tourists from New York – until this year when mortgage markets turned cancerous. 

That leaves Forest City’s one industry, lumbering – which we can kiss goodbye since a recent ruling by the NAFTA board which allows the import of cheap Canadian wood.

Some local kid has made the paper having been thrown, helmet first, into the volcano called Iraq.  The Scranton Times-Tribune, two pages after the photo of a priest blessing a bowl of who knows what, noted that three soldiers killed in yesterday’s bombing are, “pushing the death toll in the five-year conflict to nearly 4,000” – which is true if you don’t count Iraqi dead.  But Someone must be counting them.  (From way up in heaven, I wonder if we look like a nation of Christians – or an empire of Romans.)

Phil Ochs, before he killed himself, wrote,

“This is a land full of power and glory,
        Beauty that words cannot recall.
    But her power shall rest on the strength of her freedom.
        Her glory shall rest on us all.”

Whatever.     It’s a difficult place to be an atheist, in this America, surfeited as it is on every vista with signs of His overwhelming grace and His exasperated wrath.  It’s as if the Lord Himself is just as confused and frustrated and disappointed as the rest of us by blessings so abused.

There’s one consolation.  He has apparently granted Pennsylvanians the privilege, come April 22, of choosing which Democrat will lose in November. 

Which may not mean much to Sandy Ryder on whom the spirit of Easter has landed like a ton of bricks.  Sandy, says the flyer tacked up at the Bingham diner, was, “Recently diagnosed with Inflammatory Breast Cancer.”  She’s a,  “Single mother of two – Tony and Brandon – and Grandmother of one – Jason.”

And there they were in a photocopied portrait, the earnest elder son and little Jason to her right, the young slacker (Tony?  Brandon?) slouched to her left.   The town’s hawking a benefit for Sandy, $10 at the door, “including Food and Beverage” and a “Chinese auction.”

(I’ll bet Al Qaeda could pick up some recruits here – if Osama would offer health insurance.)

Whatever. This is, after all, Holy Week, which marks the anniversary of the grounding of the Exxon Valdez, the day the giant oil corporation soaked 1,200 miles of Alaska’s coast with crude sludge. March 24 marks 19 years since the grounding and 19 years since Exxon’s promise to compensate the ruined fishermen. You should watch the 19-year-old video-tape of Exxon’s man in Alaska. I especially like the part where he tells the fishermen, “You have had some good luck – and you don’t realize it.”

I know some of the fishermen on the TV footage, like the Anderson family, Eyak Natives. I can tell you, the Eyak don’t feel so lucky, still waiting for the Supreme Court to act on Exxon’s latest stall on payment. They’ve seen plenty of Sheriff’s Notices these past 19 years.

So Happy Easter.

George Bush tells us he’s, “feeling just fine.”  And we should be glad for him, I suppose.  

Bush ends his most belligerent speeches by saying, “God bless America.” 

So, why hasn’t He?

Maybe you can tell us, Mr. President:  Why hasn’t He?

Greg Palast is the author of the NY Times best-selling books Armed Madhouse and Best Democracy Money Can Buy. Read his reports at www.GregPalast.com and sign up for the audio podcasts RSS here.

http://gregpalast.com/section/podcasts/feed

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Oil prices surge past 107 dollars on Iraq pipeline attack

27 Mar 2008

Oil prices jumped above 107 dollars a barrel on Thursday when concern about tight supplies increased on news that saboteurs had blown up a major Iraqi export pipeline, traders said. New York’s main oil contract, light sweet crude for delivery in May, rose by 1.12 dollars to 107.02 dollars per barrel.

At:

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5g3yj077TBCe4pRDC9icZLe1XNDKA

From: CLG News

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MCCAIN FALSELY CLAIMS ‘NO ONE’ BELIEVES IRAQ ‘DIVERTED ATTENTION’ FROM OSAMA CHASE

By Jordan Michael Smith, Think Progress

According to Bob Woodward, when Gen Tommy Franks received the top-secret message asking for an Iraq war plan within a week, he was incredulous.

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/80526/

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AP uncritically quoted McCain claim that Obama will “raise taxes” on homeowners

The Associated Press quoted Sen. John McCain claiming that Sen. Barack Obama will “raise taxes” on homeowners. In fact, Obama has proposed “at least $80 billion a year in tax cuts to middle-class workers, homeowners and retirees,” and specifically called for “extending a mortgage credit to taxpayers who do not itemize, generating about $500 in savings for 10 million people.”

Read More

http://mediamatters.org/items/200803270009?lid=183066&rid=5838534

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Is an International Financial Conspiracy Driving World Events?

By Richard C. Cook
 

Global Research, March 27, 2008

“They make a desolation and call it peace.” -Tacitus

Was Alan Greenspan really as dumb as he looks in creating the late housing bubble that threatens to bring the entire Western debt-based economy crashing down?

Was something as easy to foresee as this really the trigger for a meltdown that could destroy the world’s financial system? Or was it done, perhaps, “accidentally on purpose”?

And if so, why?

Let’s turn to the U.S. personage that conspiracy theorists most often mention as being at the epicenter of whatever elite plan is reputed to exist. This would be David Rockefeller, the 92-year-old multibillionaire godfather of the world’s financial elite.

The lengthy Wikipedia article on Rockefeller provides the following version of a celebrated statement he allegedly made in an opening speech at the Bilderberg conference in Baden-Baden, Germany, in June 1991:
 

“We are grateful to the Washington Post, the New York Times, Time magazine, and other great publications whose directors have attended our meetings and respected their promises of discretion for almost forty years. It would have been impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subject to the bright lights of publicity during these years. But the world is now more sophisticated and prepared to march towards a world government which will never again know war, but only peace and prosperity for the whole of humanity. The supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the national auto-determination practiced in the past centuries.”

This speech was made 17 years ago. It came at the beginning in the U.S. of the Bill Clinton administration. Rockefeller speaks of an “us.” This “us,” he says, has been having meetings for almost 40 years. If you add the 17 years since he gave the speech it was 57 years ago—two full generations.

Not only has “us” developed a “plan for the world,” but the attempt to “develop” the plan has evidently been successful, at least in Rockefeller’s mind. The ultimate goal of “us” is to create “the supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers.” This will lead, he says, toward a “world government which will never again know war.”

Just as an intellectual exercise, let’s assume that David Rockefeller is as important and powerful a person as he seems to think he is. Let’s give the man some credit and assume that he and “us” have in fact succeeded to a degree. This would mean that the major decisions and events since Rockefeller gave the speech in 1991 have probably also been part of the plan or that they have at least represented its features and intent.

Therefore by examining these decisions and events we can determine whether in fact Rockefeller is being truthful in his assessment that the Utopia he has in mind is on its way or has at least come closer to being realized. In no particular order, some of these decisions and events are as follows:

…

Complete article at:

www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8450

Richard C. Cook is a former U.S. federal government analyst, whose career included service with the U.S. Civil Service Commission, the Food and Drug Administration, the Carter White House, NASA, and the U.S. Treasury Department. His articles on economics, politics, and space policy have appeared on numerous websites. His book on monetary reform entitled We Hold These Truths: The Promise of Monetary Reform is in preparation. He is also the author of Challenger Revealed: An Insider’s Account of How the Reagan Administration Caused the Greatest Tragedy of the Space Age, called by one reviewer, “the most important spaceflight book of the last twenty years.” His website is at www.richardccook.com .

                          ==========

Mass Layoffs Summary:  …  and more

“In February, employers took 1,672 mass layoff actions, seasonally adjusted, as measured by new filings for unemployment insurance benefits during the month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported [March 21, 2008]. Each action involved at least 50 persons from a single employer; the number of workers involved totaled 177,374, on a seasonally adjusted basis. February layoff events and associated initial claimants were the highest since September 2005 (which reflected the impact of Hurricane Katrina) and were the highest for the month of February since 2003. The number of mass layoff events in February 2008 increased by 234 from the prior month, while the number of associated initial claims increased by 33,263. In February, 529 mass layoff events were reported in the manufacturing sector, seasonally adjusted, resulting in 66,913 initial claims. Over the month, mass layoff activity in manufacturing increased by 102 events, and initial claims increased by 11,425.”

Table of Contents: Mass Layoffs (Monthly) – includes data from March 2004 to February 2008

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/mmls.nr0.htm

Brunswick to Close Ohio Boat Plant

Forbes – NY,USA
AP 03.20.08, 5:43 PM ET

Boat maker Brunswick Corp. says it’s closing a factory in Bucyrus (byoo-SEYE’-rus), Ohio. The plant has 285 employees and will stop …

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2008/03/20/ap4800650.html

Honolulu Facility Closing – 85 Affected

KGMB9.com

Plant …

85 people will be out of a job when a Honolulu facility closes. Weyerhaeuser announced that it will be closing its box plant at 900 N. Nimitz Hwy….

http://kgmb9.com/main/content/view/4751/76/

Belden to cut 132 jobs, close Connecticut plant

Bizjournals.com – Charlotte,NC,USA

Belden is closing its copper cable products manufacturing plant in Manchester, Conn., and cutting approximately 132 jobs in an effort to reduce production …

http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/2008/03/24/daily29.html

                          ==========

ECONOMIC MELTDOWN: THE CONSEQUENCES OF LEGAL BRIBERY

By Peter Dreier, Huffington Post

The financial services industry has shown again and again that it cannot self-regulate. It’s time for the government to step in.

http://www.alternet.org/workplace/80581/

                          ==========

It’s Not Your Grandfather’s Oil Industry

Source: Rocky Mountain News (Colorado), March 22, 2008

The oil industry’s “nationwide publicity drive to clear up what it calls ‘common and surprising misperceptions’” about its record-breaking profits continues. The American Petroleum Institute’s (API’s) senior economic analyst, Rayola Dougher, was in Denver recently. Her message: “It’s not your grandfather’s oil and gas industry anymore.” She added that API is “trying to reach out to legislators and consumers in 40 locations.” API received some unwanted attention on the fifth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. On March 19, the group “No War, No Warming” held a protest outside API’s Washington DC headquarters. The protesters claimed that the industry group was changing its name to the “Alternative Power Institute” and notifying the U.S. Congress that, “in light of API’s just announced transition to promotion of renewable energy technologies, there is no further requirement to fund the occupation of Iraq,” writes David Swanson.

                          ==========

And now for the important news …. 

By Argus Hamilton

The Pentagon admitted Tuesday it sent nuclear missile fuses to Taiwan thinking they were helicopter batteries. How scary. If the U.S. government can’t tell the difference between a nuclear fuse and a battery, thank goodness the Prius is built by a Japanese company.

http://www.JewishWorldReview.com

                          ==========

three thousand words

Ben Sargent: so?

http://images.ucomics.com/comics/bs/2008/bs080326.gif

Lisa Benson: Spare Change

http://img.slate.com/media/11/080327_ed.gif

Jen Sorensen: Election Preconceptions

http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoons/SorenJ/2008/SorenJ20080324A_low.jpg

Library of Congress – Updated: Global Warming and Climate Change Tracer Bullet

Newly revised. The following guide is intended for those who are looking for a review of the literature and vetted online resources on global warming and climate change. Materials cited are available in the collections of the Library of Congress or on the Internet.

http://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/tracer-bullets/globalwarmingtb.html

                          ==========

The immorality of ethanol

Times-Standard
03/25/2008
Henry L. Stuart

My daughter, who owns a feed and farm supply business in Bosque County, Texas, 40 miles west of Waco, reports that corn is being grown in Texas where corn has never grown before. This corn is destined for the ethanol craze.

The agricultural programs supporting corn make it a sure winner for growers. If the crop fails for any reason, federal crop insurance covers the losses. If a bumper crop and a glut tend to depress prices, there is compensation for that, too.

A corn grower cannot lose money. How would you like to be in a business that can’t lose money? And 51 cents per gallon federal subsidy for ethanol production sweetens the deal, further distorting grain markets.

The new corn planting in Texas is replacing soybean planting creating a thin supply of soybeans and escalating prices. Soybeans and corn, among other things, are the favored feed for chickens, eggs and dairy production. Cottonseed meal is the second choice. It is not in short supply, but it is chasing the price of soybeans.

Before this crop cycle is completed, grocery shoppers can expect to see breathtaking prices for eggs, chicken and dairy products. Beef and pork won’t be far behind, but there are some substitute feeds for them.

The ethanol farce behind all this is promoted by two misrepresentations by the Bush White House.

The first misrepresentation is that imported oil is somehow a national security issue. Baloney. Most of our imported oil comes from non-Arab countries, especially Canada, Mexico and Venezuela. Where is the national security issue in that?

…

Complete article at:

http://www.times-standard.com/opinion/ci_8688750

Henry L. Stuart resides in McKinleyville.

                          ==========

Iraq Oil Report – ‘Iraq oil exports and revenue up, but production is down’ and more

Plus:

*Fighting in Basra, Iraq’s oil capital
*Oil flow not affected, ministry says
*Likely outcome troubling for violence and politics
*Chevron ready for Iraq deals
*Lukoil says West Qurna progress
*Workers poisoned at water plant needed for oil sector
*CS Monitor marks Five Years in Iraq
*Turkey vs. Kurds in Basra?
*Iraq’s female detainees show deep problems

Iraq’s oil exports have increased in recent [...]

You may view the latest post at

http://tinyurl.com/2xzr97   (iraqoilreport.com)

Iraq Oil Report – ‘Fighting in Iraq’s oil capital Basra isn’t the first bloodshed between varying political and armed groups but may be the decisive battle for control over the oil sector, local government and thefate of the province.’

The violence that has killed dozens and injured hundreds since Tuesday is billed as Iraq’s military against “criminals, terrorist forces and outlaws,” in the words of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki who this week launched an Iraqi Security Forces offensive into Basra, Ben Lando reports for United Press International.

But political parties and their militias have [...]

You may view the latest post at

http://tinyurl.com/3yc5mk  (iraqoilreport.com)

                          ==========

Think Tank Citations Sink

Source: Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, March / April 2008

“The 25 most media-prominent think tanks were cited 17 percent less in 2007 than they were the year before,” according to an annual survey by Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR). “The overall ideological breakdown was the same … 47 percent of citations went to centrist think tanks, 37 percent to conservative or right-leaning think tanks, and 16 percent to progressive or left-leaning think tanks.” The downward trend “is not necessarily a bad thing. … Given that FAIR’s surveys have consistently found that these supposedly detached experts actually tilt toward the center-right, fewer of them spinning and shaping news coverage may be a net plus for media transparency, if not diversity.” The current issue of FAIR’s magazine “Extra!” also contains the group’s annual “Fear & Favor” report. Among the news outlets mentioned is Portland’s KOIN-TV, which CMD documented airing a video news release. KOIN merited mention for its “weekly medical report,” which is sponsored by Providence Health Systems and consistently features Providence experts and information.

                          ==========

How Much Will the Iraq War Cost?

In the recently released book “The Three Trillion Dollar War,” Linda Bilmes and Joseph Stiglitz conclude that the Bush administration drastically underestimated the economic consequences of the Iraq war: “By the administration’s own reckoning … the cost of the Iraq war, counting only the money officially appropriated, will soon be some $600 billion. …

But even the $600 billion number is disingenuous — which is to say false. The true cost of the war in Iraq, according to our calculations, will, by the time America has extricated itself, exceed $3 trillion. And this is a deliberately conservative estimate. The ultimate cost may well be much higher.”

LINDA BILMES, via Michael Johnson, michael_johnson@harvard.edu,

ljb@ksg.harvard.edu, http://ksghome.harvard.edu/~lbilmes/index.htm

Bilmes is a former Assistant Secretary and Chief Financial Officer of the U.S. Department of Commerce. A professor at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, she co-authored “The Three Trillion Dollar War.” Bilmes said today: “There is no such thing as a free lunch and there is no such thing as a free war. After five years of war, 4,000 [American] deaths, 60,000 injuries, $600 billion spent so far (with the price tag expected to reach $3 trillion once we add veterans costs,
military reset, interest on the debt, and economic losses), the U.S. public is waking up to the fact that the war is hurting the economy.”

She added: “In a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll (completed March 14-16), 71 percent of Americans say that government spending on the war in Iraq is partly responsible for the nation’s economic troubles. The public has got it right: In our new book ‘The Three Trillion Dollar War,’ we show how the war has weakened our economy.”

From: Institute for Public Accuracy

                          ==========

Analysis of the Escalating Warfare in Iraq

The New York Times website reports this afternoon: “Fighting in two of Iraq’s largest cities threatens to destabilize a long-term truce that had helped reduce the level of violence in the five-year-old war.”

RAED JARRAR, jarrar.raed@gmail.com, http://raedinthemiddle.blogspot.com

Jarrar, who was born and raised in Iraq, is Iraq consultant for the American Friends Service Committee. He said today: “Preparations for the next Iraqi elections are underway now. The Iraqi executive branch, controlled by the five Sunni, Shiite, and Kurdish separatist parties, wants to make sure their rivals won’t win the next provincial elections expected to take place before October. But unlike other pre-election preparations that might include TV advertisements and sticking posters around the streets, the separatist Shiites in the Iraqi executive branch sent 50,000 Iraqi troops, backed by U.S. troops, to Basra to destroy and kill their rivals (the nationalist Shiites).”

Jarrar added: “This Shiite-Shiite fight is an excellent example of how the Iraqi civil conflict is more about political/economic issues rather than sectarian and religious as the U.S. mainstream media and politicians have been repeating for years.”

From: Institute for Public Accuracy

                          ==========

FIVE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW TO UNDERSTAND THE LATEST VIOLENCE IN IRAQ

By Joshua Holland, Raed Jarrar, AlterNet

The traditional media is incapable of reporting what’s going on in Southern Iraq.

http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/80580/

                          ==========

AMERICA DEFEATED: HOW TERRORISTS TURNED A SUPERPOWER’S STRENGTHS AGAINST ITSELF

By Mark Danner, Tomdispatch.com

America’s enemies have used an evangelical, redemptive regime, hell-bent on remaking a fallen world, to lay the seeds of their success.

http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/80547/

                          ==========

Borowitz Report – Clarification Shocker

Hillary Says 8-Year-Old Bosnian Girl Was Actually Sniper

Bouquet of Flowers Hid Semiautomatic Weapon

Accused in recent days of embellishing her story of a brush with sniper fire in Bosnia, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton today said “don’t be fooled” by photos showing her being greeted at the airport by a pony-tailed 8-year-old Bosnian girl with a bouquet of flowers.

“That was no little girl,” Sen. Clinton told reporters in Gary, Indiana. “That was a covert ops midget sniper.”

The New York senator said that moments after the “so-called little girl” presented her with the flowers, she revealed what the bouquet had been hiding: “a tiny semi-automatic weapon.”

“Fortunately, I had the presence of mind to use some of the Tae Kwon Do techniques I had learned in preparation for the Northern Ireland peace talks,” she said.

Defending his wife against charges that she had yet again fabricated her exploits while First Lady, former President Bill Clinton told CNN’s John King that “Democratic voters have a clear choice this election: do they want a liar or a plagiarist?”

“Hillary tells some real whoppers, but at least they’re original,” he said.

In response to a question about whether he believes his wife’s account of the events in Bosnia, Mr. Clinton said, “All I have to say about that is Reverend Wright Reverend Wright Reverend Wright Reverend Wright Reverend Wright.”

Andy in Montreal – April 8
Andy makes his first-ever appearance in Canada on Tuesday, April 8 at the Jewish Public Library in Montreal. 7:30 PM, 5151 Côte Ste-Catherine; admission free.

Andy’s Only West Coast Appearance – April 24
Andy makes his only scheduled West Coast appearance Thursday, April 24 at University of California, Santa Barbara. 8 PM at Campbell Hall. Tickets available at https://artsandlectures.sa.ucsb.edu

Andy with Susie Essman and Jonathan Alter – May 13
Andy hosts “Countdown to ’08″ on Tuesday, May 13 at 8 PM at the 92nd St. Y with his special guests Susie Essman (HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm) and Jonathan Alter (Newsweek, MSNBC). The Y is located at 92nd St. and Lexington Avenue. For tickets, go to www.92y.org .

http://www.borowitzreport.com/

                          ==========

three thousand words

Tom Tomorrow: neocons discuss their regrets

http://action.credomobile.com/comics/03-26-08Original%20Image.jpg

Steve Benson: excuse me sir, but we have lost 4,000 comrades …

http://www.azcentral.com/php-bin/commphotos/view.php?id=133749

David Horsey: prodigal son – not so prodigal son

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/dayart/20080327/335cartoon20080327.jpg

How Much Does it Cost to Buy the President?

How much does it cost to buy the presidency? The 2008 presidential election is the most expensive race in history, with some estimating that as much as $3 billion will be raised and spent!

But where does that money all come from? And, just as important, where does it all go?

The Center for Public Integrity has the answers in its signature project, The Buying of the President.

Every four years, the Center’s The Buying of the President investigates how money shapes presidential campaigns. The 2008 edition explores the roles that money and special interests play in presidential politics — a behind-the-scenes examination of everything from how the major candidates and their parties raise money to the ins and outs of opposition research and the spoils that go with a term in the Oval Office.

We will release a new chapter every month in five parts over the course of a week. This month’s chapter examines the history of campaign finance reform, and there is a wealth of information about how big money influences the presidential election process on our website at

http://www.buyingofthepresident.org/ .

All these features collectively aim to eliminate the mystery of how presidential campaigns are financed. Ultimately, we hope, the insights and revelations offered here will help readers puzzle through an increasingly central question of our democracy: Is the presidential campaign more of an election or an auction?

Learn more about the Center’s flagship project and let others know the first chapter of The Buying of the President is now available online!

Thanks for your support,

Bill Buzenberg
Executive Director

P.S. Thanks to committed supporters like you, we are able to continue to deliver transparent and comprehensive reporting both in the United States and around the world. Please support The Buying of the President and all of the Center’s projects and help us continue our critical work!

Center for Public Integrity    http://www.publicintegrity.org/

                          ==========

So? … A Note from Michael Moore 

Monday, March 24th, 2008

Friends,

It would have to happen on Easter Sunday, wouldn’t it, that the 4,000th American soldier would die in Iraq. Play me that crazy preacher again, will you, about how maybe God, in all his infinite wisdom, may not exactly be blessing America these days. Is anyone surprised?

4,000 dead. Unofficial estimates are that there may be up to 100,000 wounded, injured, or mentally ruined by this war. And there could be up to a million Iraqi dead. We will pay the consequences of this for a long, long time. God will keep blessing America.

And where is Darth Vader in all this? A reporter from ABC News this week told Dick Cheney, in regards to Iraq, “two-thirds of Americans say it’s not worth fighting.” Cheney cut her off with a one word answer: “So?”
 

“So?” As in, “So what?” As in, “F*** you. I could care less.”

I would like every American to see Cheney flip the virtual bird at the them, the American people. Click here and pass it around. Then ask yourself why we haven’t risen up and thrown him and his puppet out of the White House.

The Democrats have had the power to literally pull the plug on this war for the past 15 months — and they have refused to do so. What are we to do about that? Continue to sink into our despair? Or get creative? Real creative. I know there are many of you reading this who have the chutzpah and ingenuity to confront your local congressperson. Will you? For me?

Cheney spent Wednesday, the 5th anniversary of the war, not mourning the dead he killed, but fishing off the Sultan of Oman’s royal yacht. So? Ask your favorite Republican what they think of that.

The Founding Fathers would never have uttered the presumptuous words, “God Bless America.” That, to them, sounded like a command instead of a request, and one doesn’t command God, even if they are America. In fact, they were worried God would punish America. During the Revolutionary War, George Washington feared that God would react unfavorably against his soldiers for the way they were behaving. John Adams wondered if God might punish America and cause it to lose the war, just to prove His point that America was not worthy. They and the others believed it would be arrogant on their part to assume that God would single out America for a blessing. What a long road we have traveled since then.

I see that Frontline on PBS this week has a documentary called “Bush’s War.” That’s what I’ve been calling it for a long time. It’s not the “Iraq War.” Iraq did nothing. Iraq didn’t plan 9/11. It didn’t have weapons of mass destruction. It DID have movie theaters and bars and women wearing what they wanted and a significant Christian population and one of the few Arab capitals with an open synagogue.

But that’s all gone now. Show a movie and you’ll be shot in the head. Over a hundred women have been randomly executed for not wearing a scarf. I’m happy, as a blessed American, that I had a hand in all this. I just paid my taxes, so that means I helped to pay for this freedom we’ve brought to Baghdad. So? Will God bless me?

God bless all of you in this Easter Week as we begin the 6th year of Bush’s War.

God help America. Please.

Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
MichaelMoore.com

                          ==========

Has McCain Been Consistent on Iraq War?

“I believe that success will be fairly easy.”
– John McCain (9/24/02, CNN)

“I believe that we can win an overwhelming victory in a very short period of time.”
– John McCain (9/29/02, CNN)

“The American people … were led to believe that this would be some kind of a day at the beach which many of us, uh, fully understood from the very beginning would be a very, very difficult undertaking.”
– John McCain (8/22/06, CNN)

“I knew it was probably going to be long and hard and tough. And those that voted for it and thought that somehow it was going to be some kind of an easy task, then I’m sorry they were mistaken. Maybe they didn’t know what they were voting for.”
– John McCain (1/4/07, MSNBC)

STEPHEN ZUNES, zunes@usfca.edu, http://www.stephenzunes.org.

Zunes is Middle East editor for Foreign Policy in Focus, professor of politics at the University of San Francisco and the author of “Tinderbox: U.S. Middle East Policy and the Roots of Terrorism.” He said today: “Despite claims of ‘consistency’ on Iraq and his supposed knowledge of military affairs, John McCain’s record on Iraq appears to be as problematic as that of George W. Bush or Hillary Clinton. For example, just prior to the vote to authorize the invasion in the fall of 2002, he claimed on CNN that ‘we can win an overwhelming victory in a very short period of time’ and that ‘I believe that success will be fairly easy.’

“More recently, however, as U.S. forces continue to be bogged down in a bloody counter-insurgency war that many of us had forewarned about, McCain claims that he actually did know that a U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq was ‘probably going to be long and hard and tough’ and that, for him, it was ‘fully understood from the very beginning would be a very, very difficult undertaking.’”

From: Institute for Public Accuracy

                          ==========

A MCCAIN MOMENT: DO YOU WANT FOUR MORE YEARS OF THIS?

By Arianna Huffington, Huffington Post

It’s not just George Bush’s war that McCain wants to continue; it’s George Bush’s approach.

http://www.alternet.org/election08/80537/

                          ==========

McCain: Petraeus, Osama agree on Iraq

25 Mar 2008

War enthusiast Senator John McCain says General David Petraeus and Osama Bin Laden are finally ‘in agreement’ about the battleground. In a bid to express his Iraq policy of a hundred year war, McCain said Monday that his democratic rivals are naïve and ‘dead wrong’ for wanting to withdraw troops. “For the first time, I have seen Osama bin Laden and General Petraeus [top US commander in Iraq] in agreement, and, that is, a central battleground in the battle against al-Qaeda is in Iraq today,” said the Republican nominee-in-waiting. “And that’s what bin Laden was saying and that’s what General Petraeus is saying and that’s what I’m saying, my friends,” the Arizona senator continued. [Birds of a feather flock together.]

At:

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=48934&sectionid=3510203

From: CLG News

                          ==========

Olbermann named Kristol “Worst Person” “runner-up,” McCain and Hume the “winners”

On the March 24 edition of MSNBC’s Countdown, Keith Olbermann named New York Times columnist William Kristol the “runner-up” and Sen. John McCain and Fox News’ Brit Hume the “winners” in his nightly “Worst Person in the World” segment.

Read More

http://mediamatters.org/items/200803250009?lid=177940&rid=5740974

                          ==========

The Financial Action Task Force Issues Terrorist Financing Report

 

“The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is an inter-governmental body whose purpose is the development and promotion of national and international policies to combat money laundering and terrorist financing.”

FATF Terrorist Financing Report, March 14, 2008 (37 pages, PDF): “This study examines the means used by terrorists to raise funds and the wide variety of methods used to move money within and between organisations. The adaptability and opportunism shown by terrorist organisations suggests that all the methods that exist to move money around the globe are to some extent at risk.”
 

http://www.fatf-gafi.org/dataoecd/28/43/40285899.pdf

Day of Infamy: The March 20, 2008 US Declaration of War on Iran

By John McGlynn

Global Research, March 24, 2008
japanfocus.org 

March 20, 2008, destined to be another day of infamy. On this date the US officially declared war on Iran. But it’s not going to be the kind of war many have been expecting.

No, there was no dramatic televised announcement by President George W. Bush from the White House oval office. In fact on this day, reports the Washington Post, Bush spent some time communicating directly with Iranians, telling them via Radio Farda (the US-financed broadcaster that transmits to Iran in Farsi, Iran’s native language) that their government has “declared they want to have a nuclear weapon to destroy people.” But not to worry, he told his listeners in Farsi-translated Bushspeak: Tehran would not get the bomb because the US would be “firm.”

Over at the US Congress, no war resolution was passed, no debate transpired, no last-minute hearing on the Iran “threat” was held. The Pentagon did not put its forces on red alert and cancel all leave. The top story on the Pentagon’s website (on March 20) was: “Bush Lauds Military’s Performance in Terror War,” a feel-good piece about the president’s appearance on the US military’s TV channel to praise “the performance and courage of U.S. troops engaged in the global war on terrorism.” Bush discussed Iraq, Afghanistan and Africa but not Iran.

But make no mistake. As of Thursday, March 20 the US is at war with Iran.

So who made it official?

A unit within the US Treasury Department, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), which issued a March 20 advisory to the world’s financial institutions under the title: “Guidance to Financial Institutions on the Continuing Money Laundering Threat Involving Illicit Iranian Activity.”

FinCEN, though part of the chain of command, is better known to bankers and lawyers than to students of US foreign policy. Nevertheless, when the history of this newly declared war is someday written (assuming the war is allowed to proceed) FinCEN’s role will be as important as that played by US Central Command (Centcom) in directing the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

In its March 20 advisory FinCEN reminds the global banking community that United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSC) 1803 (passed on March 3, 2008) “calls on member states to exercise vigilance over the activities of financial institutions in their territories with all banks domiciled in Iran, and their branches and subsidiaries abroad.”

…

Complete article at:

www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8429

John McGlynn is an independent Tokyo-based economic and financial analyst. His three reports on the US use of financial sanctions against North Korea in the Banco Delta case are available at 1, 2, 3. Email: jmcgtokyo@yahoo.com

                          ==========

Avoid the Britney Results 

By Bob Brewin

Intelligence analysts need “high-fidelity” search tools to separate relevant information from irrelevant information, says Maj. Gen. John Custer, commander of the Army Intelligence Center at Fort. Huachuca, Ariz. Custer spoke this week at the annual Department of Defense Intelligence Information System Conference in San Diego.

That means developing search tools to ensure that when analysts perform an Internet search they don’t come up with “a lot of Britney Spears hits,” Custer said.

A Google search shows that, indeed, the troubled pop star permeates cyberspace, so much so that she outperforms even George W. Bush in Web hits. The president of the United States garners a mere 32.9 million hits while Britney commands 101 million.

(Full disclosure: I’m pleased to have Britney in this column, as this may just increase my click rate. In a business that lives and dies by clicks, that’s good.)

Finding a Needle in a Video Haystack

…

From:

Government Executive  600 New Hampshire Avenue, NW  Washington, DC 20037 GovExec.com

                          ==========

And now for the important news …. 

By Argus Hamilton

Los Angeles prosecutors filed criminal charges against two ladies who took out life insurance polices on homeless men last year, then ran them over in their cars. You could not do that today. The insurance payout wouldn’t cover the cost of the gasoline.

http://www.JewishWorldReview.com

                          ==========

three thousand words

Tom Toles: pay no attention to the man behind the curtain

http://img.slate.com/media/43/080325_ed.gif

Jeff Danziger: Cheney, “So?”

http://danzigercartoons.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/dancart3541.jpg

Chip Bok: thanks to obama I’m not afraid of black men anymore …

http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoons/BokC/2008/BokC20080326_low.jpg

NEW PULSE POSTED 

At:

http://www.ornl.gov/news/pulse/pulse_v257_08.htm

That’s the url to the March 24, 2008, issue of DOE Pulse. Pulse is a newsletter about accomplishments at the Department of Energy’s national laboratories. Here is some of what you’ll find in this issue:

* Savannah River: Hydrogen truckin’

* Pacific Northwest: Proteins clue to nano toxicity

* Sandia: Biowatch center

* SLAC: SSRL beamline’s first light

Feature: Sandia, Oak Ridge collaborate on exascale computing

Researcher profile: Brookhaven Lab’s Etsuko Fujita

                          ==========

FOX’S SEAN HANNITY CONFRONTED OVER RELATIONSHIP WITH NEO-NAZI HAL TURNER

By Jason Linkins, Huffington Post

Turner: “I can tell you from my firsthand, personal experience that Sean Hannity does, in fact, agree with many of my political and social views.”

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/80477/

                          ==========

The Republican resurrection 

March 24, 2008

Frank Rich:

McCain’s calamitous behavior is relegated to sideshow status by many, if not most, news media. At a time of serious peril for America, he reveals himself to be alarmingly out of touch on both of the most pressing issues roiling the country.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/356200_richonline25.html

Frank Rich is a columnist with The New York Times.

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Republicans Plan Double-Whammy

By Michael Carmichael
 

Global Research, March 21, 2008

It has been a long Good Friday even though Easter arrives early this year.  Today’s full moon coincides with yesterday’s vernal equinox to deliver a very early Passover and Easter.

This holiday weekend, elite political circles will be charged with talk of a Republican “Double Whammy,” the internal nomenclature for a top secret plan to deliver the White House to the hand-picked candidate of the Bush-Cheney junta.

While the media is filled with stories analyzing and dissecting the White House plans for war with Iran in the wake of the sacking of Admiral William Fallon, only a select few politicians and their minions will be privy to a plan that it is arresting in its boldness and predicated on the establishment of an ironclad pretext for the forthcoming US hard-power attack on the regime in Tehran.

Some Republican strategists have become apoplectic at the rise of Barack Obama.  Sagacious Republicans now see Obama as the most dangerous threat their party has faced since the Great Depression, when FDR relieved them of power for the next twenty years.

Republicans have never been as motivated to maintain their weakening grasp on power as they are today.  The new era of Republican ruthlessness launched in 2000, when James Baker and his cronies, John Roberts and John Bolton, engineered the legal coup d’etat to rescue their lost election and place the Bush-Cheney junta in power.

Karl Rove is deemed to be a mastermind of political strategy, but Rove’s presidential campaigns have both resulted in colossal failures.  In 2000, Gore won the popular vote, a factor that tarnished the first Bush-Cheney administration with the taint of illegitimacy.  In 2004, Rove’s plan led to what appeared to be a narrow margin for the re-election of a sitting president in time of war – in fact, it was the smallest proportional margin for a presidential re-election since 1828.  It eventually became apparent that Rove and his Republican operatives had manipulated votes across the red and blue spectrum of states using a veritable cornucopia of tactics for rigging and fixing the outcome.

So where’s the Rovian beef?  As Greg Palast informs us, Rove’s beef is there in several dubious achievements in which he has established himself as a master:

•    the suppression of Democratic votes by racial discrimination;

•    vote rigging via ‘spoiled’ paper ballots;

•    purges of voter rolls of eligible voters with names similar to convicted felons and

•    hacking elections via clandestine manipulation of electronic voting machines.

At this point in the current campaign, Democrats are still engaged in settling the matter of the presidential nomination.  In actual point of fact, Barack Obama has won the nomination as Hillary Clinton cannot reasonably expect to overtake his lead in delegates in the remaining primaries.  Neither can she hope that a majority of the superdelegates will violate the will of the primary voters and opt for her over Obama – after he has won the majority of delegates available in the primaries and the majority of their votes, as well.

…

Complete article at:

www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8412

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PolitiFact repeated mischaracterization of “maverick” McCain’s misstatements on Al Qaeda and Iran

Echoing claims made by John McCain’s campaign, PolitiFact.com again characterized as a momentary lapse McCain’s admittedly false claim that “[i]t’s common knowledge and has been reported in the media that Al Qaeda is going back into Iran and is receiving training and are coming back into Iraq from Iran.” PolitiFact repeated its earlier claim that “McCain recovered quickly” but failed to note that McCain made the misstatement more than once during a press conference and did so as well the day before in a radio interview.

Read More

http://mediamatters.org/items/200803240003?lid=174579&rid=5683271

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Iraq Invites Bids to Develop Akkaz Gas Field –Iraq negotiating with four major oil companies to increase production in five producing oil fields; Amman negotiations with Royal Dutch Shell, BP, ExxonMobil, and Chevron.

23 Mar 2008

Iraq’s Oil Ministry has invited international companies to bid for the development of the Akkaz natural gas field, which has estimated reserves of more than 2.15 trillion cubic feet, the ministry said on its Web site. The ministry said the aim of the project is to export gas from the field, which is in the western province of Anbar near the Syrian border.

At:

http://tinyurl.com/2s7tfu  (money.cnn.com)

From: CLG News

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Iraq Oil – ‘Iraq announces tenders for Iraq-Iran pipelines, Akkas gas field and testing of Kirkuk and Rumaila’

Plus:
*Putin’s plea for Iraq oil deals during Lukoil CEO’s visit
*The power struggle
*Basra violence get Maliki visit

Iraq announced tenders for international oil companies to test two of its largest oil fields, develop a major natural gas field and build a pipeline to Iran, Ben Lando reports for UPI. The four tenders, revealed on the Oil Ministry
[...]

You may view the latest post at

http://tinyurl.com/2fnam7    (iraqoilreport.com)

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Bakers March in D.C. Over High Wheat Prices

24 Mar 2008

Ethanol Producer Magazine reports that bakers are worried they are in a “commodity crisis” because wheat and bread prices have reached all-time highs. The American Bakers Association (ABA) led a march in Washington D.C. to shine a light on rising wheat prices and low wheat stockpiles. The march drew about 80 representatives from the industry to speak with legislators. One measure the ABA asked for is getting rid of the ethanol import tariff and the temporary waivers of ethanol production limits.

http://tinyurl.com/2wcu3x   (www.biodieselinvesting.com)

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Borowitz Report – Misspeaking Shocker

Hillary Says She ‘Misspoke’ About Wrestling Bin Laden

Was Greeting Students in Orlando, Clinton Admits

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who has been accused in recent days of padding her foreign policy resume while First Lady, admitted today that she may have exaggerated about an encounter she said she had with al-Qaeda terror mastermind Osama bin Laden in 1998.

In an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Sen. Clinton told host Tim Russert, “I wrestled bin Laden in his cave in 1998 and had him pinned to the ground before the bastard got away.”

But a review of Sen. Clinton’s official White House schedule from that period revealed that the then-First Lady was nowhere in the vicinity of Mr. bin Laden on that day, but was instead greeting a group of honor roll students at Disney World in Orlando.

“I may have misspoke about what went on that particular day,” Sen. Clinton said today. “But it was a very busy time for me, what with having that knife-fight with Kim Jong-Il and all.”

Reporters peppered Sen. Clinton’s new press spokesman with questions about another purported exploit of hers, in which the senator claimed that she and a ragtag team of blue-collar drillers deflected an asteroid on a collision course with the Earth.

“Everything Hillary Clinton says is true,” said her new spokesman, the author James Frey.

Andy in Montreal – April 8
Andy makes his first-ever appearance in Canada on Tuesday, April 8 at the Jewish Public Library in Montreal. 7:30 PM, 5151 Côte Ste-Catherine; admission free.

Andy’s Only West Coast Appearance – April 24
Andy makes his only scheduled West Coast appearance Thursday, April 24 at University of California, Santa Barbara. 8 PM at Campbell Hall. Tickets available at https://artsandlectures.sa.ucsb.edu

Andy with Susie Essman and Jonathan Alter – May 13
Andy hosts “Countdown to ’08″ on Tuesday, May 13 at 8 PM at the 92nd St. Y with his special guests Susie Essman (HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm) and Jonathan Alter (Newsweek, MSNBC). The Y is located at 92nd St. and Lexington Avenue. For tickets, go to www.92y.org .

Andy at Mark Twain’s House – May 28
Spend “An Evening With Andy Borowitz” at the Mark Twain House and Museum in Hartford, Connecticut on Wednesday, May 28. Event begins at 6 PM. For tickets and information call Janet Youmans at 860-280-3113 or email Janet.youmans@marktwainhouse.org

http://www.borowitzreport.com/

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three thousand words

MStreeter: a milestone – a millstone

http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoons/StreeM/2008/StreeM20080325_low.jpg

RJ Matson: experience you can believe in

http://www.rjmatson.com/images/cartoons/STL629.jpg

Mike Peters: opening the candidates passports had nothing to do with politics …

http://www.grimmy.com/images/MP_Archive/MP_2008/MP0321.gif