TODAY'S TOPICS: Pat Tillman, Public Financing, Videos, Dem War Bill, E-Voting News!, McCain's Disgrace, Gonzales
Note: I highly suggest you check out the video clips of Maher and Saunders in my post on wednesday.
First, at my work we are working on a public financing of elections bill in California. Please take action if you live in the state:
http://www.consumercal.org//actiononcleanmoney/
"I was not involved in seeing any memos, was not involved in any discussions about what was going on.”
-- Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, 3/12/07
VERSUS
"I don't think it's entirely accurate what he said. ... I spoke with him every day, so I think [we had] at least five [discussions]."
-- Kyle Sampson, Gonzales' former chief of staff, 3/29/07
And this...
JUDICIARY -- SAMPSON ADMITS URGING FITZGERALD'S FIRING, REFUSES TO SAY WHETHER HE DISCUSSED WITH ROVE: The Washington Post reported recently that Patrick Fitzgerald -- the special prosecutor in the Libby trial -- was given a poor ranking by the Bush administration despite being described by his colleagues as a "legal star." The Post reported that Fitzgerald was "ranked among prosecutors who had 'not distinguished themselves' on a Justice Department chart sent to the White House in March 2005, when he was in the midst of leading the CIA leak investigation that resulted in the perjury conviction of a vice presidential aide, administration officials said yesterday." The ranking was drawn up by Kyle Sampson, but the reference to Fitzgerald “is in a portion of the memo that Justice has refused to turn over to Congress.” During yesterday’s hearing, Sampson acknowledged he had suggested firing Fitzgerald, but said he thought at the time, "I knew it was the wrong thing to do, I knew it was inappropriate." Asked why he suggested it to White House officials, Sampson said he didn't know, that maybe it was just to "get a reaction out of them." Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) repeatedly asked Sampson whether he ever discussed drawing up this ranking with Karl Rove. On eight different occasions, Sampson refused to rule out that he had discussed firing Fitzgerald with Rove or his office. (Watch the video.)
No suprise...Feingold and I of the exact same mind regarding the Dem Iraq withdrawal bill...and that's "good", now what?
But Congress still isn't moving fast enough and our fight to end one of the biggest mistakes in the history of our country is not over. Much more needs to be done. I continue to believe that the only way we are going to truly end this war is to use Congress's 'power of the purse' to safely redeploy our troops out of Iraq. And I need your help to do just that.
I need you to contact your elected officials in Washington and tell them to support my 'power of the purse' legislation to prohibit the use of funds for the continued operations in Iraq six months after enactment. Please contact your elected officials today and make your voice be heard.
-- Senator Russ Feingold
"General Petraeus goes out there almost every day in an unarmed humvee."
-- Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), 3/27/07, on how safe Iraq is because of President Bush's escalation
VERSUS
"I mean, in the hour since Sen. McCain's said this, I've spoken to military sources and there was laughter down the line. I mean, certainly the general travels in a humvee. There's multiple humvees around it, heavily armed."
-- CNN's Baghdad correspondent Michael Ware, 3/27/07
“The Army continues to deny the family and the public … access to the original investigation and the sworn statements from that [Scott] investigation … His investigation contained the unaltered statements, taken when memories were still fresh, by witnesses to the events surrounding Pat’s death. We know … that more than one of the original statements was altered, after Capt. Scott’s investigation ‘disappeared.’ This is not a misstep. It is evidence tampering… The characterization of criminal negligence, professional misconduct, battlefield incompetence, concealment and destruction of evidence, deliberate deception, and conspiracy to deceive, are not ‘missteps.’ These actions are malfeasance.”
-- Tillman Family Statement
Tillman’s mother on Olbermann...you've got to hear her!
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/03/28/mary-tillman-demands-answers/
Watch and listen to Edwards ‘reframe’ the environmental debate…and by the way, his global warming plan is detailed, and excellent…again, SUBSTANCE! Bans all new coal plants and caps emissions at the level…wait for it…that scientists say is necessary if we are to dent global warming…that means strict baby. And again, on an issue like global warming, as with so many, “moderating” gets us NOWHERE! On this issue most of all:
http://alternet.org/blogs/video/49856/
Pelosi puts Bush in his place..."there's a new congress in town"...nice:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/03/28/pelosi-to-bush-calm-down-with-the-threats-theres-a-new-congress-in-town/
Mccain backpedals on his lies…what a disgrace:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/03/28/john-roberts-debunks-mccains-rosy-baghdad-scenario/
I know, its hard to keep clear who is more disgraceful, McCain or Lieberman. Well, they continue to duel it out for who's the most shameful. Watch Michael Ware do to Lieberman what he did to McCain (see my blog from Wednesday) the other day...expose the lies:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/03/29/michael-ware-to-joe-lieberman-were-only-talking-about-the-surface/
Olbermann on Gonzales and Sampson...great coverage and analysis by Keith, as always:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/03/29/kyle-sampson-contradicts-gonzales/
Daily Show on Gonzales:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/03/28/jon-stewart-slams-gonzales-for-blatant-contradiction/
I was tough on Katie Couric the other day, and deservedly so. But to demonstrate this to you beyond a reasonable doubt, watch this remix of the interview, with all the questions she asked that focused on the SAME bullshit insinuations of the Edwardes's regarding their implied manipulation of cancer put back to back. Incredible:
http://alternet.org/blogs/video/49883/
Back to one of the more egregious examples of criminality by the current terrorists running our country, the use of Pat Tillman as propaganda tool for recruitment, even intentionally lying about his death AT HIS FUNERAL, to his parents. A few clips from the great Robert Scheer:
C’MON! The Pentagon’s inspector general concludes that nine top officers were involved in the cover-up of NFL football star Cpl. Pat Tillman’s “friendly fire” death, yet insists that this apparent conspiracy to conceal the truth does not rise to the level of criminality? Rather, it was “missteps” that led four generals and five officers of lower rank to conceal from his family and the American public the truth known instantly in the field: Tillman died not, as the Pentagon first claimed, in a firefight with the enemy in Afghanistan but rather at the hands of his fellow Rangers.
SNIP
The family points out that Rumsfeld was very familiar with the case. He wrote Tillman a personal letter thanking him for enlisting. Rumsfeld was obviously aware that this was the most high-profile death in the wars in Afghanistan or Iraq. the family noted it is inconceivable that the Pentagon would have been able to coordinate a carefully orchestrated campaign of lies converting Tillman’s death at the hands of friendly fire into a Rambo-like assault on Taliban guerrillas, while keeping the secretary of Defense and the White House in the dark.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/03/28/135/
Altogether now, "the Iraq invasion was, largely about OIL...not for oil mind you, but "about" oil. Or put another way, do you think we would have invaded if Iraq's big cash crop was say, peanuts? Here's Greg Palast uncovering more of the behind the scenes haggling over what to do with the oil once we took over:
...we’ve learned that, despite protestations to the contrary, Condoleezza Rice held a secret meeting with the former Secretary-General of OPEC, Fadhil Chalabi, an Iraqi, and offered Chalabi the job of Oil Minister for Iraq…In all the chest-beating about how the war did badly, no one seems to remember how the war did very, very well — for Big Oil. The war has kept Iraq’s oil production to 2.1 million barrels a day from pre-war, pre-embargo production of over 4 million barrels. In the oil game, that’s a lot to lose. In fact, the loss of Iraq’s 2 million barrels a day is equal to the entire planet’s reserve production capacity. In other words, the war has caused a hell of a supply squeeze — and Big Oil just loves it. Oil today is $57 a barrel versus the $18 a barrel price under Bill “Love-Not-War” Clinton.
SNIP
The suspicion is that Bush went to war to get Iraq’s oil. That’s not true. The document, and secret recordings of those in on the scheme, made it clear that the Administration wanted to make certain America did not get the oil. In other words, keep the lid on Iraq’s oil production — and thereby keep the price of oil high. Of course, the language was far more subtle than, “Let’s cut Iraq’s oil production and jack up prices.” Rather, the report uses industry jargon and euphemisms which require Iraq to remain an obedient member of the OPEC cartel and stick to the oil-production limits — “quotas” — which keep up oil prices.
http://www.gregpalast.com/its-still-the-oilsecret-condi-meeting-on-oil-before-invasion/
Matt Taibbi, one of my favorite new writers, expands on a lot of my thoughts regarding the Dem withdrawal bill. I still want to stay positive though, and hope its a first step towards bigger, better and bolder moves. I also like how Taibbi discusses something that's been stuck in my craw for a long time, and that's this hero worship of any Republican (and there are about 5 out of 250) that speaks out against this war at all.
I mean, we on the left, have been exactly right since 2002 about EVERYTHING, and if we were listened to, we never would have launched this abomination. But, suddenly, a Republican speaks out about the obvious, and he's hailed as courageous and insightful! Please! Notice how anti-war peace activists still get no credit whatsoever for being right about anything? And let's be real here, we are right over and over again, yet as soon as some punk ass military officer or Republican, who cheer leaded for this war for years, suddenly, with the backing of hundreds of thousands of deaths and trillions in wasted dollars, and a vast majority of public opposition, decides to speak out, they are hailed as "mavericks" and "heros". What a crock of shit.
Don't get me wrong, I'm glad people like Hagel are FINALLY seeing the light, and have a teaspoon of honesty and ethics left in their bodies to join the obviously necessary movement to end this crime against humanity, but let's not get sucked into the Matrix yet again, and start swooning over these people. Progressives are the ones to be praising, still, and always. Here's Taibbi:
Of course it would have been nice if Hagel had taken on the administration's shameless witch-hunting and red-baiting of war opponents at a time when such a stance would have required actual political courage, and not when the poll numbers on a firm Iraq withdrawal are running about 60-38 in favor.
SNIP
So that's where we are: the very people who were leading the Crucible-like campaign against war dissent are now chanting "Not in our name!" and refusing to be "lemmings" for Dick Cheney. We all know what's going on here. Hagel is positioning himself as the antiwar Republican in the '08 presidential race, while the conservatives from "safe" 60-40-type states, people like Cochran and male impersonator Mitch McConnell, are still beating the victory drum.
SNIP
I've heard different stories from Democratic congressional aides about what the party's intentions are. Some say they think the leadership is just going to stall and pass a bunch of non-binding, symbolic, Kumbayah horseshit to help propel whoever the Democratic candidate is into the White House two years from now. Others claim with a straight face that all of these non-binding resolutions are only a start, that the strategy is to really end the war via a death-by-a-thousand-cuts type of legislative grind, with the leadership sending to the floor bill after bill after bill designed to eat away at either war policy or war funding. They claim that all of these votes are exercises in coalition-building, necessary steps to gathering the support needed to pass real biting measures later on. But I'll believe that when I see it. Right now, it all looks too convenient…You'll know that something real is going on in Washington when either a) the Democrats force the "antiwar conservatives" to actually cast a vote on whether or not to cut off spending for the war, or b) a dozen or so more Republicans cross the picket line to set up a possible override of a Bush veto. Until and unless one of those unlikely moments arrives, it sure looks like what we've got is one of those rare "good for both teams" baseball trades, an arranged standoff in which everybody gets to suck a little of that hot nourishing blood in the ballooning antiwar poll numbers.
http://alternet.org/columnists/story/49858/
Some good blogging on Crooks and Liars about the continued efforts of my man Waxman:
Hammerin' Hank Waxman has written letters to the RNC (and copied everyone in the world) directing that the RNC and its email service provider are to preserve all internet email correspondence on private email domains of the RNC. Waxman believes that there has been correspondence on RNC email domains regarding executive branch operational decisions that should have been limited exclusively to government email domains (eop.gov, anyone?). Conventional Wisdom: This could be explosive - and will most certainly set up yet another constitutional showdown between the executive branch and congress.
If I were a betting man, last Wednesday I would have placed a large wager on Gonzales having resigned by Friday due to internal pressure from the leadership of the Republican Party (and I'm not necessarily speaking about elected officials). He is hanging on by the barest of threads. This is not playing well for the GOP, and the elected representatives in congress (both Senate and House) have to be able to read the handwriting on the wall. Polling just released by USAToday is clearly indicating that a vast majority of the public favors further investigation by congress.
There is a general election approaching next year, and the longer this drags out, the worse it's going to be for the Republican Party. It's already bad - but unless they can get Alberto Gonzales off of the front page very quickly, this is just going to keep festering and festering. More importantly, I now know in my heart of hearts that this scandal goes all the way to the top. If George Bush was not intimately involved in the entire proceeding, Goodling (the designated runner between DOJ and the White House) would not be invoking the fifth. If he were not intimately involved in attempts to obstruct justice (San Diego) and tamper with elections (New Mexico), the coverup and denials simply wouldn't be this strong. And let's not forget that these are arguably among the least egregious potential crimes committed by the Bush regime.
END
CA SEC. OF STATE STEPPING UP AGAINST E-VOTING MACHINES!
Remember when I said perhaps the most important single vote you could cast last November was for Debra Bowen for Ca Secretary of State? Well, now everyone is seeing why! DRE voting machiens are finally on their way out of our state, for good! This from the Oakland Tribune...and a reporter I have worked on in the past:
E-voting demise could be near
By Ian Hoffman
MEDIANEWS STAFF
California's elections chief is proposing the toughest standards for voting systems in the country, so tough that they could banish ATM-like touch-screen voting machines from the state. For the first time, California is demanding the right to try hacking every voting machine with "red teams" of computer experts and to study the software inside the machines, line-by-line, for security holes. The proposals are the first step toward fulfilling a promise that Secretary of State Debra Bowen made during her 2006 election campaign to perform a "top-to-bottom" review of all voting machinery used in California.
SNIP
Advocates for stronger security in voting machinery applauded Bowen's standards and said it marked a refreshing change from regulating voting systems based heavily on what manufacturers were willing to sell. "Debra Bowen is holding up voting machines to the standards they deserve," said Avi Rubin, a computer science professor at Johns Hopkins University who published one of the first technical critiques of e-voting software. "I don't know of any other state in the country that requires red team testing of voting machines, and I've long maintained that this is the only reasonable way to test security."
Stanford computer science professor David Dill, the founder of VerifiedVoting.org, endorsed Bowen's standards as "quite good." "I think it's much to be preferred over our current see-no-evil approach," Dill said. In every other case of "red team" attacks on voting machines and examination of their software code, experts have found major security problems, he noted.
"It will be interesting to see what happens once the problems are found out," Dill said. "That could be tricky depending on what disruptions there might be."
SNIP
Rubin called those requirements "very rigid, but rigid requirements are appropriate for voting." "The criteria are clearly designed to eliminate DRE voting in California," said Michael Shamos, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University and a voting system examiner, in an e-mail. "An army of computer scientists will come forward to testify that computer programs cannot be verified to be secure against 'undetectable vote tampering' and therefore they all will have to be decertified." If so, California would be headed back to all paper ballot elections as governors have ordered in New Mexico and proposed in Florida.
END
HACKIN' HARRI HURSTI TO APPEAR BEFORE PANEL IN RIVERSIDE COUNTY, CA!
Finnish Security Expert to Appear, Give Testimony This Friday Before County's 'Blue Ribbon' Commission Investigating Complaints About Local Election System
No Word on Whether Gamblin' County Supervisor, Jeff '1000 to 1' Stone, Will Be in Attendance...Harri Hursti is coming to Riverside County, home of County Supervisor Jeff "1000 to 1" Stone, he of the now infamous, if ill-conceived "Riverside Hack Challenge".
Hursti, the Finnish computer security expert, and hacker of Diebold voting machines past (see HBO's Hacking Democracy for but one example) will be testifying to and answers the questions of the "Blue Ribbon" commission empaneled by the county to investigate complaints about the administration of the 2006 election, as well as the the many expressed security and accuracy concerns about their Sequoia Edge touch-screen DRE voting systems.
As BRAD BLOG readers may recall, The Sequoia voting systems in question would be the ones that Stone challenged Election Integrity advocates, on video tape, back in December to bring in a programmer and "set up an appointment with one of our machines" in order to "verify that they can manipulate that machine."
"I'm gonna bet a thousand to one that they cannot do it...I'll make that challenge," Stone blurted out to the continuing dismay of his fellow Supervisors and County Registrar Barbara Dunmore. And then, Hursti stepped in to accept the challenge. Stone has been wafflin', duckin' and dodgin' ever since (see this page for our complete hilarious special coverage of the "Riverside Challenge"). Hursti will testify at the commission's March 30th panel at 9am in Palm Desert, CA at the Palm Desert City Hall, 73-510 Fred Waring Drive. The hearing and testimony is open to both the public and media...
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=4332
And Then There Was One...Bob Bennett is Now Last Man Standing on Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Elections Board
Another Resignation Leaves Only the Chair of Both the Ohio Republican Party and Cuyahoga's Election Board After SoS Demands All Resign in State's Most Democratic County...
One more of the Cuyahoga County (Cleveland), Ohio, Board of Elections directors, Republican Sally Florkiewicz, has stepped down this afternoon. Her resignation leaves just one member, the board's chairman, Bob Bennett, left to fight the demand by Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner that all board members resign in the wake of a years-long string of elections disasters, two criminal convictions related to the recount of the 2004 Presidential Election, and a new criminal investigation which was launched last week into newly-revealed administrative election improprieties and irregularities in the county.
The resignation of Florkiewicz from the board of Ohio's most Democratic county leaves only Bennett --- who is the chair of both the Election Board and the state's Republican party --- to fight the order by Brunner...
FULL REPORT: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=4330
TELL OBAMA NOT TO SUPPORT LIQUID COAL!
Two days ago, over 1,200 Environmental Action activists signed on to the petition asking David Geffen to use his influence with Sen. Barack Obama to get Sen. Obama away from liquid coal. Why? Well, last month, David Geffen, the 45th wealthiest man in the US, held a fundraiser for Sen. Obama's presidential campaign, raising $1.2 million for him. I think that Geffen could get Sen. Obama's attention in a way that neither you or I can.
And this is critical - Sen. Obama has been a champion of liquid coal technology. Liquid coal is the process of turning coal into liquid fuel, which produces twice as much CO2 emissions as traditional fuel. This massive increase will only speed up global warming, something Barack has come out against. We need to get the Senator this message - 'Say No To Liquid Coal', and what better a messenger than one of his top fundraisers? Add your name to the petition today, and next week, we'll send them off to Mr. Geffen.
http://www.environmental-action.org/gw.asp?id=2210&id4=ES
SOME GOOD NEWS…
In an "'historic advance,' Burger King, the world's second-largest hamburger chain, said yesterday that it would begin buying eggs and pork from suppliers that did not confine their animals in cages and crates."
"The House on Tuesday approved a two-year extension [through 2010] of a program offering tax credits for construction of low-income housing in areas hit by Hurricane Katrina in 2005."
AND BAD NEWS…
Income inequality grew significantly in 2005, with the top 1 percent of Americans -- those with incomes that year of more than $348,000 -- receiving their largest share of national income since 1928. … The top 10 percent, roughly those earning more than $100,000, also reached a level of income share not seen since before the Depression."
ETHICS -- ADMINISTRATION'S VOTER FRAUD EXCUSE FOR FIRING PROSECUTORS IS A FRAUD: The Justice Department has attempted to cover up its partisan firings of eight U.S. attorneys by accusing them of failing to aggressively pursue charges of voter fraud. Last week, President Bush said, "We did hear complaints and concerns about U.S. attorneys. Some complained about the lack of vigorous prosecution of election fraud cases." As the New York Times wrote last week, the right wing's pursuit of voter fraud is "code for suppressing the votes of minorities and poor people." Michael Waldman and Justin Levitt from the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law also note that "the notion of widespread voter fraud, as these prosecutors found out, is itself a fraud. Firing a prosecutor for failing to find wide voter fraud is like firing a park ranger for failing to find Sasquatch. Where fraud exists, of course, it should be prosecuted and punished. ... Yet evidence of actual fraud by individual voters is painfully skimpy." In testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday, FBI Director Robert Mueller further discounted the administration's claims, saying that since 2001, there have been no FBI investigations related to election fraud that "should have resulted in an indictment but did not." In addition, he confirmed that he was never consulted about the performance of the fired prosecutors by the Attorney General or his chief of staff.
"The Army's new acting surgeon general said Tuesday she is concerned about long-term morale because the military lacks money to hire enough nurses and mental health specialists to treat thousands of troops coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan."
After environmental groups leaked the Interior Department's secret plan to "gut" the Endangered Species Act yesterday, senators vowed to block the proposed changes through appropriations legislation.
"Hundreds of Iraqis detained in the current security crackdown have been crammed into two prisons run by the Defense Ministry that were designed to hold only dozens of people."
Friday, March 30, 2007
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
TODAY'S TOPICS: Bill Maher, Bernie Saunders, War Bill Debate, Gonzales, Global Warming, More E-Voting Revelations, Zinn, Videos, Couric
Bill Maher on plame and patriotism. Must Watch!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWhy-hhoBkA
Also a must watch…a senator I have talked about a lot in recent months (the new one from Vermont...was a house member...used to be a socialist, now is an independent...but is very progressive and caucuses with the Dems), and one of my favorite 2 politicians in the country (the other being feingold). Watch Bernie Saunders (how he talks should sound familiar...at least if I've been doing my job right :) deliver this impassioned speech about our burgeoning Banana Republic. A clip first:
"Today, the upper 1 percent of families in America have not had it so good since the 1920s. According to Forbes Magazine, the collective net worth of the wealthiest 400 Americans increased by $120 billion last year to $1.25 trillion. The 400 wealthiest Americans are now worth $1.25 trillion at the same time that hunger in America is increasing and 5 million more of our citizens have slipped into poverty."
http://alternet.org/blogs/video/49679/
"I was not involved in seeing any memos, was not involved in any discussions about what was going on."
-- Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, 3/12/07, claiming no personal involvement in the U.S. attorney firings
VERSUS
"Attorney General Alberto Gonzales approved plans to fire several U.S. attorneys in a November meeting, according to newly released documents."
-- AP, 3/23/07
And…in the same interview…contradict yourself much??:
"I was not involved in the deliberations over whether or not the US attorneys should resign…"
VERSUS
"I know why I asked these United States attorneys to leave and it was not for improper reasons…"
-- Alberto Gonzales in interview with NBC’s Pete Williams
Bolton slapped down again…this time by Iraqi woman and former British UN member and soldier…very powerful stuff…and more evidence as to why it was so critical for the Dems to oppose Bolton, and in the end, fire his ass:
http://alternet.org/blogs/video/49779/
Michael Ware of CNN, the best on the scenes reporter in Iraq, absolutely dissects and destroys McCain’s latest set of criminal lying regarding Iraq. I say criminal because I think when a public official knowingly lies about a war to intentionally prolong it, and in this case being an illegal invasion that is resulting in the death of hundreds of thousands of people, than you are, in my mind, a criminal. I’m so glad the nation is finally realizing what I’ve been saying all along…this guy is a political chameleon, a warmonger, and a strict conservative…just because on 2-3 issues you’re better than terrorists like Dick Cheney doesn’t make you a “maverick”. Sorry blue pill takers…but you can forget the Matrix’s image of McCain, and start dealing in reality:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/03/27/michael-ware-i-dont-know-what-part-of-neverland-senator-mccain-is-talking-about/
The idiocy and moral depravity of America’s media tops itself yet again, this time with the continuous second degree given to the Edwards’s over their “use’ of cancer and that somehow THEIR decision to continue the campaign is dishonest or hypocritical. And worse, that it’s the media’s job to question them on this!
My man David Sirota breaks it down aptly:
Isn't it nice that Couric asks all the questions Limbaugh and conservative critics have been attacking the Edwards’s with? I guess its fine as long as she masks them as if she's being a compassionate journalist. Couric should at least have the guts to tell her audience who is actually criticizing them.
Perhaps the most disturbing display of all, however, was 60 Minutes' Katie Couric. She spent most of her interview with the Edwards’s behaving like a prosecutor, cross-examining them about why they are going forward with the presidential campaign. And when I say "interrogate" I mean interrogate. This was no ordinary interview - this was a televised guilt trip. She stated as fact John Edwards that he is supposedly "putting your work first, and your family second." She also pulled the "some say" technique, claiming that an unnamed "some" say that in making this decision, Edwards is displaying "a case of insatiable ambition."
In pursuing this line of repeated questioning, of course, Couric ignored the pretty well-known psychological value of work during health care crises. She also ignored the fact that this is an immensely personal decision that does not require some multimillion-dollar journalist to perform a televised, Gitmo-style interrogation in order for viewers at home to glean the "news value." And most incredibly, she ignored her own behavior when her spouse was diagnosed with cancer.
That's right, Katie Couric's husband was diagnosed with cancer in 1997. I did a quick check of the transcripts for that year - and it's pretty clear that she kept working as the anchor for NBC's Today Show, if not full time, then pretty close to it.
I want to be extremely clear: That Couric continued to work while her husband was sick was entirely her and her family's personal decision. I'm not going to comment on the merits of that decision not because I think it was a bad one or a good one, but because it's AN ENTIRELY PERSONAL DECISION. Really, who the hell am I - and who the hell is anyone else - to question someone's decision to keep working during a family health crisis?
END
Now my turn. If you can stomach it, here’s the ignorant hypocrite that is Katie Couric question an actual couple with character in today’s toxic stew of political players, compromisers, and equivocators. The saddest part is that journalists like these actually believe this line of questioning is an example of them asking “the tough” questions, and doing their job well! Here’s a suggestion, ask tough questions about the war, about torture, about wealth disparity, about poverty, about wiretapping, and don’t question people about their personal choices about how to deal with cancer, particularly when it’s to soldier on and fight!
As if a couple would have one that for some reason felt the need to benefit from sacrificing his wife…and the other, somehow wanting to sacrifice themselves, and all to do what exactly...make a difference in this country?? I’m just trying to follow the logic of these questions. What are they saying here??? See the idiot disgrace’s interview here:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/03/25/couric-channels-limbaugh/
But polling data on the issues, from Pew and elsewhere, suggest that the G.O.P.'s problems lie as much with its ideology as with one man's disastrous reign. For the conservatives who run today's Republican Party are devoted, above all, to the proposition that government is always the problem, never the solution. For a while the American people seemed to agree; but lately they've concluded that sometimes government is the solution, after all, and they'd like to see more of it.
SNIP
But at this point it looks as if we're seeing an emerging Republican minority. After all, Democratic priorities - in particular, on health care, where John Edwards has set the standard for all the candidates with a specific proposal to finance universal coverage with higher taxes on the rich - seem to be more or less in line with what the public wants. Republicans, on the other hand, are still wallowing in nostalgia - nostalgia for the days when people thought they were heroic terrorism-fighters, nostalgia for the days when lots of Americans hated Big Government.
-- Paul Krugman citing the new Pew poll of the nation’s shift towards more progressive values and policies (which is what I’ve been saying was under way, and why its so important for us to passionately and articulately communicate those values and issues…not continue to moderate, compromise, and equivocate!)
THE DEM'S WAR BILL DEBATE
I’m of two minds on the Democratic bill that narrowly won approval establishing a timetable for withdrawal (but with no way of enforcing it). First, it is a sad commentary on the moral and philosophical depravity of our current nation, both the public, and its politicians, that in the face of an illegal, catastrophic, criminal, and totally immoral war, the best we can come up with is a toothless bill like this.
However, I am not quite the purist that Howard Zinn is either, in that, I don’t outwardly oppose the bill's passage, and in fact, think generally, its better that it won than lost. I also understand, though it won’t do a damn thing to really end the war, it does provide a minimal "victory" to the Dems in the eyes of the public and media (and a necessary distinction in their minds between the two parties), and it could be used to truly ramp up the pressure to end this war. Further, by establishing a distinction on the war between themselves and the Repubs, it "could" help win a greater majority in Congress in 08’, and "maybe" help the Democratic candidate for President a tiny bit in winning the White House. And these in turn, "could" help, very slightly, in getting us out of Iraq quicker once Bush leaves office. Now that's a lot of "coulds' and "maybes" and political calculations when considering we're supposed to be trying to end this abomination, isn't it?
For me, rather than decry the meaninglessness of this bill, or celebrate it, I choose to ask the necessary question all Dems must answer (being that the Republican Party is so grossly deficient they are not even worth discussing): “Now What?”. Fine, you got this small “political victory”, now are you going to start really putting the heat on, through real de-funding of the war, and funding of withdrawal, or say, IMPEACHMENT!? Or are you going to rest on your laurels, and sit back and allow for thousands, if not hundreds of thousands more Americans and Iraqi’s to die in the deserts for lies, damn lies, and money?
And for those that say, "but if they try bold actions like that they will be called troop deserters, and terrorist embolders, and will be charged with de-funding the military in their time of need." Guess what...that's what is being said by Bush and Co. now!!! So why not take strong, morally and philosophically honest steps, like impeachment and war defunding, if you're going to be attacked with the identical charges anyway?
So again, I find this measure lacking, timid, and a sad commentary on our sick country. But, I am not quite of the mind that it would be better if it was defeated. Some, but very little, good could will come from this unless it is used as a launcing pad for bolder, much bolder steps (oversight is going well in many areas)…so the question remains for the Dems: “Now What?” Build on this, and go WAY further, or sit back and allow for more murder?
Thankfully, we do have voices like Howard Zinn though, to keep us morally and philosophically honest, and continue pouring those red pills down our throats at a time when we need them more than ever. This is outstanding…and should be remembered as many “celebrate” this very small accomplishment…at least in terms of truly ending this war and representing true courage as all real changes in our nation’s history have demonstrated require.
Here’s Zinn:
Timetables for withdrawal are not only morally reprehensible in the case of a brutal occupation (would you give a thug who invaded your house, smashed everything in sight, and terrorized your children a timetable for withdrawal?) but logically nonsensical. If our troops are preventing civil war, helping people, controlling violence, then why withdraw at all? If they are in fact doing the opposite - provoking civil war, hurting people, perpetuating violence - they should withdraw as quickly as ships and planes can carry them home. It is four years since the United States invaded Iraq with a ferocious bombardment, with "shock and awe." That is enough time to decide if the presence of our troops is making the lives of the Iraqis better or worse. The evidence is overwhelming. Since the invasion, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have died, and, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, about two million Iraqis have left the country, and an almost equal number are internal refugees, forced out of their homes, seeking shelter elsewhere in the country.
SNIP
I am reminded of the situation at the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, when the black delegation from Mississippi asked to be seated, to represent the 40 percent black population of that state. They were offered a "compromise" - two nonvoting seats. "This is the best we can get," some black leaders said. The Mississippians, led by Fannie Lou Hamer and Bob Moses, turned it down, and thus held on to their fighting spirit, which later brought them what they had asked for. That mantra - "the best we can get" - is a recipe for corruption.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/032607J.shtml
And Frank Rich breaks down everything you need to know about the Gonzales scandal, particularly his history with Bush, and the connection of all the dots. Read this, and start to really put the puzzle together. A few clips first:
Mr. Gonzales's career has been laced with such narrow escapes for both him and Mr. Bush. As a partner at the Houston law firm of Vinson & Elkins, Mr. Gonzales had worked for Enron until 1994. After Enron imploded in 2001, reporters wanted to know whether Ken Lay's pals in the Bush hierarchy had received a heads up about the company's pending demise before its unfortunate shareholders were left holding the bag. The White House said that Mr. Gonzales had been out of the Enron loop "to the best of his recollection." This month Murray Waas of The National Journal uncovered a more recent close shave: Just as Justice Department investigators were about to examine "documents that might have shed light on Gonzales's role" in the administration's extralegal domestic wiretapping program last year, Mr. Bush shut down the investigation.
It was Mr. Gonzales as well who threw up roadblocks when the 9/11 Commission sought documents and testimony from the White House about the fateful summer of 2001. Less widely known is Mr. Gonzales's curious behavior in the C.I.A. leak case while he was still White House counsel. When the Justice Department officially notified him on the evening of Sept. 29, 2003, that it was opening an investigation into the outing of Valerie Wilson, he immediately informed Andrew Card, Mr. Bush's chief of staff. But Mr. Gonzales waited another 12 hours to officially notify the president and inform White House employees to preserve all materials relevant to the investigation.
SNIP
…incriminating evidence coalesces around a familiar administration motive: its desperate desire to cover up the corruption that soiled what was supposed to be this White House's greatest asset, its protection of the nation's security. This was the motive that drove the White House to vilify Joseph Wilson when he challenged fraudulent prewar intelligence about Saddam's W.M.D. The e-mails in the attorney flap released so far suggest that this same motive may have driven the Justice Department to try mounting a similar strike at Patrick Fitzgerald, the United States attorney charged with investigating the Wilson leak.
SNIP
Another canned attorney to track because of her scrutiny of Bush administration national security scandals is Carol Lam. She was fired from her post in San Diego after her successful prosecution of Representative Duke Cunningham, the California Republican who took $2.4 million in bribes from defense contractors….To see what Mr. Rove might be trying to cover up, look instead at what Ms. Lam was up to in May, just as the Justice Department e-mails indicate she was being earmarked for removal. Building on the Cunningham case, she was closing in on Dusty Foggo, the C.I.A.'s No. 3 official and the director of its daily operations. Mr. Foggo had been installed in this high intelligence position by Mr. Bush's handpicked successor to George Tenet as C.I.A. director, Porter Goss.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/032507B.shtml
FL-13: NEW UNDISCLOSED LETTER OF AGREEMENT FROM ES&S TO STATE UNEARTHED!
Terms of 'Independent' State Run Audit, Source Code Review Dictated by Voting Machine Company to Florida State Election Director Prior to Tests of Failed Touch-Screen Voting Systems from Contested Jennings/Buchanan Election!
The private voting machine company which manufactured the touch-screen hardware and software used during Sarasota, Florida's contested District 13 Congressional election between Christine Jennings (D) and Vern Buchanan (R) sent a letter in December of 2006 to David Drury, the chief of the state's Bureau of Voting Systems Certification, dictating the terms of the state-run audit convened to investigate the causes for massive undervote rate which seems to have tipped the election.
The extraordinary 3-page letter (posted in full at the end of this article) from Electronic Systems & Software, Inc. (ES&S), Vice President, Steven Pearson, is described as an "agreement" and instructs Drury on what may and may not be disclosed in the state's final audit report regarding the investigation. The letter includes a long, bullet-pointed and very narrow litany of specific dictates concerning what may and may not be done and/or discussed by the state-convened panel of investigators in their final report...
FULL REPORT, COMPLETE LETTER & NEW QUESTIONS NOW RAISED IN ITS WAKE:
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=4321
MORE GLOBAL WARMING NEWS…its everywhere…if you just look on the science section of the web…so can we all agree that the mainstream media should stop giving a megaphone to the GOP deniers and active destroyers of all life on the planet? I mean, does everything have to be covered by the media in a Dem v. Republican frame of “he said, she said”?
How about this, let’s go with facts, and let’s delve into issues and solutions, and give coverage and attention to people that have a shred of credibility on those issues. Would we go to McDonalds for expertise about health and fitness…or a nutritionist and a trainer? Or if we were doing a story on the holocaust, would we still give half the TV time to a Nazi denier? NO, we wouldn’t. Here you go:
Nuclear energy 'not the solution to global warming' (DUHHH!!!!)
Environment ministers from Austria, Iceland, Ireland and Norway said Monday that nuclear power was not the solution to global warming…the "inherent risks and problems associated with the nuclear energy option remain and it can not therefore claim to be a clean alternative to fossil fuel use."
"It is our collective view that the current debate seeks to downplay the environmental, waste, proliferation, nuclear liability and safety issues and seeks to portray nuclear energy as a clean, safe and problem free response to climate change." The statement said the trans-boundary nature of health and environment risks associated with nuclear energy dictated that governments in countries with nuclear power needed to ensure that other countries' concerns were taken into consideration.
They said that reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel represents a key source of pollution risks and remains a significant source of radioactive pollution and called on Britain not to re-open the THORP plant at its Sellafield site.
END
Sweeping changes to global climate seen by 2100: study - Warming may create climates, cut others
Many of the world's climate zones will vanish entirely by 2100, or be replaced by new, previously unseen ones, if global warming continues as expected, a study released Monday said. Some climates may disappear from Earth entirely, not just from their current locations, while new climates could develop if the planet continues to warm, a study says...Tropical regions in particular may face unexpected changes, particularly the rain forests in the Amazon and Indonesia, Williams' researchers concluded.
SNIP
Species living in tropical areas may be less able to adapt, he said, adding that that is speculative and needs further study. Areas like the Southeastern United States and the Arabian Peninsula may also be affected, the researchers said. And they said mountain areas such as in Peruvian and Colombian Andes and regions such as Siberia and southern Australia face a risk of climates disappearing altogether.
That doesn't mean these regions would have no climate at all — rather their climate would change and the conditions currently in these areas would not occur elsewhere on Earth. That would pose a risk to species living in those areas, Williams observed. The models suggest that the climate zones covering as much as 48 percent of the earth's landmass could disappear by 2100. By that point, close to 40 percent of the world's land surface area would also have a "novel" or new climate, according to the climate models. Even if emission rates slowed due to mitigation strategies, the changes would still affect up to 20 percent of the earth's landmass in each scenario, the authors said.
End
More on Gonzales…and how a lot of this relates to vote theft and fraud:
SUPPRESSING MINORITY VOTERS: The Justice Department has attempted to cover-up the partisan firings by accusing several of the ousted U.S. attorneys of failing to aggressively pursue charges of voter fraud. Like the administration's efforts to push out the lead prosecutor in the Jack Abramoff investigation in 2002, the more recent firings suggest that the White House allowed politics to govern the administration of justice. Republican leaders, such as the New Mexico GOP chairman, complained to Karl Rove that the former prosecutor David Iglesias didn't go after voter fraud aggressively enough. Former U.S. attorney in Washington John McKay upset White House officials and state GOP leaders when he refused to convene a federal grand jury to investigate voter fraud in the hotly contested 2004 gubernatorial election, which had been certified in favor of the Democratic candidate. But McKay says his office thoroughly reviewed every allegation of voter fraud in the 2004 election and "concurred with the state trial court judge that there was no evidence -- and let me just emphasize, zero evidence -- of election voter fraud in that election." Iglesias, who was called "inattentive" to voter fraud by New Mexico GOP officials, had actually been "heralded for his expertise in that area [voter fraud] by the Justice Department, which twice selected him to train other federal prosecutors to pursue election crimes." As the New York Times notes, "In partisan Republican circles, the pursuit of voter fraud is code for suppressing the votes of minorities and poor people. By resisting pressure to crack down on 'fraud,' the fired United States attorneys actually appear to have been standing up for the integrity of the election system."
HEALTH CARE -- PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES UNITE AROUND NEED FOR UNIVERSAL COVERAGE: On Saturday, the Center for American Progress Action Fund and the Service Employees International Union co-hosted the New Leadership of Health Care presidential forum…Former Sen. John Edwards (D-NC) "was the only candidate who came to the forum having put forth a specific plan for universal coverage and said it would cost $90 billion to $120 billion a year." Speaking two days after he announced that his wife's breast cancer has returned, Edwards said, "It's not right that a woman has to go through--or anyone has to go through--this kind of struggle and have to worry about the medicine they need, the health care that they need…Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) "offered the most sweeping proposal, to create 'a universal, single-payer not-for-profit health care system providing Medicare for all.'" “Health care is a right, not a privilege,” he said.
Is CNN building bridges to the longtime Fox News-friendly Bush administration? That’s the message one could take from CNN’s guests at the Radio and TV Correspondents Dinner at the Washington Hilton this Wednesday. CNN is hosting top Bush adviser Karl Rove, as well as Gen. Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.”
Lawyers for New York City are rejecting calls to release police records of spying activities conducted on progressive activist groups in the lead-up to the 2004 Republican National Convention. The lawyers say “the documents should remain secret because the news media will ‘fixate upon and sensationalize them.’”
Bill Maher on plame and patriotism. Must Watch!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWhy-hhoBkA
Also a must watch…a senator I have talked about a lot in recent months (the new one from Vermont...was a house member...used to be a socialist, now is an independent...but is very progressive and caucuses with the Dems), and one of my favorite 2 politicians in the country (the other being feingold). Watch Bernie Saunders (how he talks should sound familiar...at least if I've been doing my job right :) deliver this impassioned speech about our burgeoning Banana Republic. A clip first:
"Today, the upper 1 percent of families in America have not had it so good since the 1920s. According to Forbes Magazine, the collective net worth of the wealthiest 400 Americans increased by $120 billion last year to $1.25 trillion. The 400 wealthiest Americans are now worth $1.25 trillion at the same time that hunger in America is increasing and 5 million more of our citizens have slipped into poverty."
http://alternet.org/blogs/video/49679/
"I was not involved in seeing any memos, was not involved in any discussions about what was going on."
-- Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, 3/12/07, claiming no personal involvement in the U.S. attorney firings
VERSUS
"Attorney General Alberto Gonzales approved plans to fire several U.S. attorneys in a November meeting, according to newly released documents."
-- AP, 3/23/07
And…in the same interview…contradict yourself much??:
"I was not involved in the deliberations over whether or not the US attorneys should resign…"
VERSUS
"I know why I asked these United States attorneys to leave and it was not for improper reasons…"
-- Alberto Gonzales in interview with NBC’s Pete Williams
Bolton slapped down again…this time by Iraqi woman and former British UN member and soldier…very powerful stuff…and more evidence as to why it was so critical for the Dems to oppose Bolton, and in the end, fire his ass:
http://alternet.org/blogs/video/49779/
Michael Ware of CNN, the best on the scenes reporter in Iraq, absolutely dissects and destroys McCain’s latest set of criminal lying regarding Iraq. I say criminal because I think when a public official knowingly lies about a war to intentionally prolong it, and in this case being an illegal invasion that is resulting in the death of hundreds of thousands of people, than you are, in my mind, a criminal. I’m so glad the nation is finally realizing what I’ve been saying all along…this guy is a political chameleon, a warmonger, and a strict conservative…just because on 2-3 issues you’re better than terrorists like Dick Cheney doesn’t make you a “maverick”. Sorry blue pill takers…but you can forget the Matrix’s image of McCain, and start dealing in reality:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/03/27/michael-ware-i-dont-know-what-part-of-neverland-senator-mccain-is-talking-about/
The idiocy and moral depravity of America’s media tops itself yet again, this time with the continuous second degree given to the Edwards’s over their “use’ of cancer and that somehow THEIR decision to continue the campaign is dishonest or hypocritical. And worse, that it’s the media’s job to question them on this!
My man David Sirota breaks it down aptly:
Isn't it nice that Couric asks all the questions Limbaugh and conservative critics have been attacking the Edwards’s with? I guess its fine as long as she masks them as if she's being a compassionate journalist. Couric should at least have the guts to tell her audience who is actually criticizing them.
Perhaps the most disturbing display of all, however, was 60 Minutes' Katie Couric. She spent most of her interview with the Edwards’s behaving like a prosecutor, cross-examining them about why they are going forward with the presidential campaign. And when I say "interrogate" I mean interrogate. This was no ordinary interview - this was a televised guilt trip. She stated as fact John Edwards that he is supposedly "putting your work first, and your family second." She also pulled the "some say" technique, claiming that an unnamed "some" say that in making this decision, Edwards is displaying "a case of insatiable ambition."
In pursuing this line of repeated questioning, of course, Couric ignored the pretty well-known psychological value of work during health care crises. She also ignored the fact that this is an immensely personal decision that does not require some multimillion-dollar journalist to perform a televised, Gitmo-style interrogation in order for viewers at home to glean the "news value." And most incredibly, she ignored her own behavior when her spouse was diagnosed with cancer.
That's right, Katie Couric's husband was diagnosed with cancer in 1997. I did a quick check of the transcripts for that year - and it's pretty clear that she kept working as the anchor for NBC's Today Show, if not full time, then pretty close to it.
I want to be extremely clear: That Couric continued to work while her husband was sick was entirely her and her family's personal decision. I'm not going to comment on the merits of that decision not because I think it was a bad one or a good one, but because it's AN ENTIRELY PERSONAL DECISION. Really, who the hell am I - and who the hell is anyone else - to question someone's decision to keep working during a family health crisis?
END
Now my turn. If you can stomach it, here’s the ignorant hypocrite that is Katie Couric question an actual couple with character in today’s toxic stew of political players, compromisers, and equivocators. The saddest part is that journalists like these actually believe this line of questioning is an example of them asking “the tough” questions, and doing their job well! Here’s a suggestion, ask tough questions about the war, about torture, about wealth disparity, about poverty, about wiretapping, and don’t question people about their personal choices about how to deal with cancer, particularly when it’s to soldier on and fight!
As if a couple would have one that for some reason felt the need to benefit from sacrificing his wife…and the other, somehow wanting to sacrifice themselves, and all to do what exactly...make a difference in this country?? I’m just trying to follow the logic of these questions. What are they saying here??? See the idiot disgrace’s interview here:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/03/25/couric-channels-limbaugh/
But polling data on the issues, from Pew and elsewhere, suggest that the G.O.P.'s problems lie as much with its ideology as with one man's disastrous reign. For the conservatives who run today's Republican Party are devoted, above all, to the proposition that government is always the problem, never the solution. For a while the American people seemed to agree; but lately they've concluded that sometimes government is the solution, after all, and they'd like to see more of it.
SNIP
But at this point it looks as if we're seeing an emerging Republican minority. After all, Democratic priorities - in particular, on health care, where John Edwards has set the standard for all the candidates with a specific proposal to finance universal coverage with higher taxes on the rich - seem to be more or less in line with what the public wants. Republicans, on the other hand, are still wallowing in nostalgia - nostalgia for the days when people thought they were heroic terrorism-fighters, nostalgia for the days when lots of Americans hated Big Government.
-- Paul Krugman citing the new Pew poll of the nation’s shift towards more progressive values and policies (which is what I’ve been saying was under way, and why its so important for us to passionately and articulately communicate those values and issues…not continue to moderate, compromise, and equivocate!)
THE DEM'S WAR BILL DEBATE
I’m of two minds on the Democratic bill that narrowly won approval establishing a timetable for withdrawal (but with no way of enforcing it). First, it is a sad commentary on the moral and philosophical depravity of our current nation, both the public, and its politicians, that in the face of an illegal, catastrophic, criminal, and totally immoral war, the best we can come up with is a toothless bill like this.
However, I am not quite the purist that Howard Zinn is either, in that, I don’t outwardly oppose the bill's passage, and in fact, think generally, its better that it won than lost. I also understand, though it won’t do a damn thing to really end the war, it does provide a minimal "victory" to the Dems in the eyes of the public and media (and a necessary distinction in their minds between the two parties), and it could be used to truly ramp up the pressure to end this war. Further, by establishing a distinction on the war between themselves and the Repubs, it "could" help win a greater majority in Congress in 08’, and "maybe" help the Democratic candidate for President a tiny bit in winning the White House. And these in turn, "could" help, very slightly, in getting us out of Iraq quicker once Bush leaves office. Now that's a lot of "coulds' and "maybes" and political calculations when considering we're supposed to be trying to end this abomination, isn't it?
For me, rather than decry the meaninglessness of this bill, or celebrate it, I choose to ask the necessary question all Dems must answer (being that the Republican Party is so grossly deficient they are not even worth discussing): “Now What?”. Fine, you got this small “political victory”, now are you going to start really putting the heat on, through real de-funding of the war, and funding of withdrawal, or say, IMPEACHMENT!? Or are you going to rest on your laurels, and sit back and allow for thousands, if not hundreds of thousands more Americans and Iraqi’s to die in the deserts for lies, damn lies, and money?
And for those that say, "but if they try bold actions like that they will be called troop deserters, and terrorist embolders, and will be charged with de-funding the military in their time of need." Guess what...that's what is being said by Bush and Co. now!!! So why not take strong, morally and philosophically honest steps, like impeachment and war defunding, if you're going to be attacked with the identical charges anyway?
So again, I find this measure lacking, timid, and a sad commentary on our sick country. But, I am not quite of the mind that it would be better if it was defeated. Some, but very little, good could will come from this unless it is used as a launcing pad for bolder, much bolder steps (oversight is going well in many areas)…so the question remains for the Dems: “Now What?” Build on this, and go WAY further, or sit back and allow for more murder?
Thankfully, we do have voices like Howard Zinn though, to keep us morally and philosophically honest, and continue pouring those red pills down our throats at a time when we need them more than ever. This is outstanding…and should be remembered as many “celebrate” this very small accomplishment…at least in terms of truly ending this war and representing true courage as all real changes in our nation’s history have demonstrated require.
Here’s Zinn:
Timetables for withdrawal are not only morally reprehensible in the case of a brutal occupation (would you give a thug who invaded your house, smashed everything in sight, and terrorized your children a timetable for withdrawal?) but logically nonsensical. If our troops are preventing civil war, helping people, controlling violence, then why withdraw at all? If they are in fact doing the opposite - provoking civil war, hurting people, perpetuating violence - they should withdraw as quickly as ships and planes can carry them home. It is four years since the United States invaded Iraq with a ferocious bombardment, with "shock and awe." That is enough time to decide if the presence of our troops is making the lives of the Iraqis better or worse. The evidence is overwhelming. Since the invasion, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have died, and, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, about two million Iraqis have left the country, and an almost equal number are internal refugees, forced out of their homes, seeking shelter elsewhere in the country.
SNIP
I am reminded of the situation at the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, when the black delegation from Mississippi asked to be seated, to represent the 40 percent black population of that state. They were offered a "compromise" - two nonvoting seats. "This is the best we can get," some black leaders said. The Mississippians, led by Fannie Lou Hamer and Bob Moses, turned it down, and thus held on to their fighting spirit, which later brought them what they had asked for. That mantra - "the best we can get" - is a recipe for corruption.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/032607J.shtml
And Frank Rich breaks down everything you need to know about the Gonzales scandal, particularly his history with Bush, and the connection of all the dots. Read this, and start to really put the puzzle together. A few clips first:
Mr. Gonzales's career has been laced with such narrow escapes for both him and Mr. Bush. As a partner at the Houston law firm of Vinson & Elkins, Mr. Gonzales had worked for Enron until 1994. After Enron imploded in 2001, reporters wanted to know whether Ken Lay's pals in the Bush hierarchy had received a heads up about the company's pending demise before its unfortunate shareholders were left holding the bag. The White House said that Mr. Gonzales had been out of the Enron loop "to the best of his recollection." This month Murray Waas of The National Journal uncovered a more recent close shave: Just as Justice Department investigators were about to examine "documents that might have shed light on Gonzales's role" in the administration's extralegal domestic wiretapping program last year, Mr. Bush shut down the investigation.
It was Mr. Gonzales as well who threw up roadblocks when the 9/11 Commission sought documents and testimony from the White House about the fateful summer of 2001. Less widely known is Mr. Gonzales's curious behavior in the C.I.A. leak case while he was still White House counsel. When the Justice Department officially notified him on the evening of Sept. 29, 2003, that it was opening an investigation into the outing of Valerie Wilson, he immediately informed Andrew Card, Mr. Bush's chief of staff. But Mr. Gonzales waited another 12 hours to officially notify the president and inform White House employees to preserve all materials relevant to the investigation.
SNIP
…incriminating evidence coalesces around a familiar administration motive: its desperate desire to cover up the corruption that soiled what was supposed to be this White House's greatest asset, its protection of the nation's security. This was the motive that drove the White House to vilify Joseph Wilson when he challenged fraudulent prewar intelligence about Saddam's W.M.D. The e-mails in the attorney flap released so far suggest that this same motive may have driven the Justice Department to try mounting a similar strike at Patrick Fitzgerald, the United States attorney charged with investigating the Wilson leak.
SNIP
Another canned attorney to track because of her scrutiny of Bush administration national security scandals is Carol Lam. She was fired from her post in San Diego after her successful prosecution of Representative Duke Cunningham, the California Republican who took $2.4 million in bribes from defense contractors….To see what Mr. Rove might be trying to cover up, look instead at what Ms. Lam was up to in May, just as the Justice Department e-mails indicate she was being earmarked for removal. Building on the Cunningham case, she was closing in on Dusty Foggo, the C.I.A.'s No. 3 official and the director of its daily operations. Mr. Foggo had been installed in this high intelligence position by Mr. Bush's handpicked successor to George Tenet as C.I.A. director, Porter Goss.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/032507B.shtml
FL-13: NEW UNDISCLOSED LETTER OF AGREEMENT FROM ES&S TO STATE UNEARTHED!
Terms of 'Independent' State Run Audit, Source Code Review Dictated by Voting Machine Company to Florida State Election Director Prior to Tests of Failed Touch-Screen Voting Systems from Contested Jennings/Buchanan Election!
The private voting machine company which manufactured the touch-screen hardware and software used during Sarasota, Florida's contested District 13 Congressional election between Christine Jennings (D) and Vern Buchanan (R) sent a letter in December of 2006 to David Drury, the chief of the state's Bureau of Voting Systems Certification, dictating the terms of the state-run audit convened to investigate the causes for massive undervote rate which seems to have tipped the election.
The extraordinary 3-page letter (posted in full at the end of this article) from Electronic Systems & Software, Inc. (ES&S), Vice President, Steven Pearson, is described as an "agreement" and instructs Drury on what may and may not be disclosed in the state's final audit report regarding the investigation. The letter includes a long, bullet-pointed and very narrow litany of specific dictates concerning what may and may not be done and/or discussed by the state-convened panel of investigators in their final report...
FULL REPORT, COMPLETE LETTER & NEW QUESTIONS NOW RAISED IN ITS WAKE:
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=4321
MORE GLOBAL WARMING NEWS…its everywhere…if you just look on the science section of the web…so can we all agree that the mainstream media should stop giving a megaphone to the GOP deniers and active destroyers of all life on the planet? I mean, does everything have to be covered by the media in a Dem v. Republican frame of “he said, she said”?
How about this, let’s go with facts, and let’s delve into issues and solutions, and give coverage and attention to people that have a shred of credibility on those issues. Would we go to McDonalds for expertise about health and fitness…or a nutritionist and a trainer? Or if we were doing a story on the holocaust, would we still give half the TV time to a Nazi denier? NO, we wouldn’t. Here you go:
Nuclear energy 'not the solution to global warming' (DUHHH!!!!)
Environment ministers from Austria, Iceland, Ireland and Norway said Monday that nuclear power was not the solution to global warming…the "inherent risks and problems associated with the nuclear energy option remain and it can not therefore claim to be a clean alternative to fossil fuel use."
"It is our collective view that the current debate seeks to downplay the environmental, waste, proliferation, nuclear liability and safety issues and seeks to portray nuclear energy as a clean, safe and problem free response to climate change." The statement said the trans-boundary nature of health and environment risks associated with nuclear energy dictated that governments in countries with nuclear power needed to ensure that other countries' concerns were taken into consideration.
They said that reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel represents a key source of pollution risks and remains a significant source of radioactive pollution and called on Britain not to re-open the THORP plant at its Sellafield site.
END
Sweeping changes to global climate seen by 2100: study - Warming may create climates, cut others
Many of the world's climate zones will vanish entirely by 2100, or be replaced by new, previously unseen ones, if global warming continues as expected, a study released Monday said. Some climates may disappear from Earth entirely, not just from their current locations, while new climates could develop if the planet continues to warm, a study says...Tropical regions in particular may face unexpected changes, particularly the rain forests in the Amazon and Indonesia, Williams' researchers concluded.
SNIP
Species living in tropical areas may be less able to adapt, he said, adding that that is speculative and needs further study. Areas like the Southeastern United States and the Arabian Peninsula may also be affected, the researchers said. And they said mountain areas such as in Peruvian and Colombian Andes and regions such as Siberia and southern Australia face a risk of climates disappearing altogether.
That doesn't mean these regions would have no climate at all — rather their climate would change and the conditions currently in these areas would not occur elsewhere on Earth. That would pose a risk to species living in those areas, Williams observed. The models suggest that the climate zones covering as much as 48 percent of the earth's landmass could disappear by 2100. By that point, close to 40 percent of the world's land surface area would also have a "novel" or new climate, according to the climate models. Even if emission rates slowed due to mitigation strategies, the changes would still affect up to 20 percent of the earth's landmass in each scenario, the authors said.
End
More on Gonzales…and how a lot of this relates to vote theft and fraud:
SUPPRESSING MINORITY VOTERS: The Justice Department has attempted to cover-up the partisan firings by accusing several of the ousted U.S. attorneys of failing to aggressively pursue charges of voter fraud. Like the administration's efforts to push out the lead prosecutor in the Jack Abramoff investigation in 2002, the more recent firings suggest that the White House allowed politics to govern the administration of justice. Republican leaders, such as the New Mexico GOP chairman, complained to Karl Rove that the former prosecutor David Iglesias didn't go after voter fraud aggressively enough. Former U.S. attorney in Washington John McKay upset White House officials and state GOP leaders when he refused to convene a federal grand jury to investigate voter fraud in the hotly contested 2004 gubernatorial election, which had been certified in favor of the Democratic candidate. But McKay says his office thoroughly reviewed every allegation of voter fraud in the 2004 election and "concurred with the state trial court judge that there was no evidence -- and let me just emphasize, zero evidence -- of election voter fraud in that election." Iglesias, who was called "inattentive" to voter fraud by New Mexico GOP officials, had actually been "heralded for his expertise in that area [voter fraud] by the Justice Department, which twice selected him to train other federal prosecutors to pursue election crimes." As the New York Times notes, "In partisan Republican circles, the pursuit of voter fraud is code for suppressing the votes of minorities and poor people. By resisting pressure to crack down on 'fraud,' the fired United States attorneys actually appear to have been standing up for the integrity of the election system."
HEALTH CARE -- PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES UNITE AROUND NEED FOR UNIVERSAL COVERAGE: On Saturday, the Center for American Progress Action Fund and the Service Employees International Union co-hosted the New Leadership of Health Care presidential forum…Former Sen. John Edwards (D-NC) "was the only candidate who came to the forum having put forth a specific plan for universal coverage and said it would cost $90 billion to $120 billion a year." Speaking two days after he announced that his wife's breast cancer has returned, Edwards said, "It's not right that a woman has to go through--or anyone has to go through--this kind of struggle and have to worry about the medicine they need, the health care that they need…Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) "offered the most sweeping proposal, to create 'a universal, single-payer not-for-profit health care system providing Medicare for all.'" “Health care is a right, not a privilege,” he said.
Is CNN building bridges to the longtime Fox News-friendly Bush administration? That’s the message one could take from CNN’s guests at the Radio and TV Correspondents Dinner at the Washington Hilton this Wednesday. CNN is hosting top Bush adviser Karl Rove, as well as Gen. Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.”
Lawyers for New York City are rejecting calls to release police records of spying activities conducted on progressive activist groups in the lead-up to the 2004 Republican National Convention. The lawyers say “the documents should remain secret because the news media will ‘fixate upon and sensationalize them.’”
Monday, March 26, 2007
TODAY’S TOPICS: Another Erased!, Bill Moyer’s Manifesto, Public Financing Bill!, Videos, Global Warming, Vote Rigging
Note: I literally took 3 days to "recover" from Friday, as my entire own manifesto was erased from existence on this blog again. So, as with the last week's one that got deleted (yes, I will now even copy and/or save my on the fly stuff now), I'm posting without any of the incredibly insghtful commentary I had earlier! :) Seriously, all I will say is if there is one article to read this year, its this speech by Bill Moyers...it encapsulates everything I've been writing about on this blog...and done better than anyone on this planet could do.
As such, I have set the speech up by posting various quotes of others he uses, then, I have posted large segments of his manifesto for those that are too damn lazy to read the entire 8 pages...but I highly suggest you all do :)
The only answer to organized money is organized people.
-- Bill Moyers
"We've gone way past ourselves. I see the unfathomable numbers in the national debt and deficit, and the way that the Federal government was physically unable to respond to Hurricane Katrina. I look at Iraq; where 50% of the question is how to get out, and the other 50% is how did so few people have the power to start the invasion in the first place. If the Republic were functioning, they would have never had that power."
-- Writer Jan Frel
“…it is the mark of truly educated people to be moved by statistics.”
-- Oscar Wilde
"Things have reached such a state of affairs," "that the first duty of every intelligent person is to pay attention to the obvious."
-- the journalist George Orwell
"…income inequality growing to levels not seen since the Gilded Age and social mobility falling behind, the United States risks calcifying into a European-style class-based society." The editors point to an "education system increasingly stratified by social class" in which poor children "attend schools with fewer resources than those of their richer contemporaries" and great universities that are "increasingly reinforcing rather than reducing these educational inequalities." They conclude that America's great companies have made it harder than ever "for people to start at the bottom and rise up the company hierarchies by dint of hard work and self-improvement."
-- The editors of The Economist, America's pre-eminent PRO-business magazine
…an America society in which elites cocoon themselves "in gated communities, guarded by private security guards, and filled with people who drink bottled water, depend on private pensions, and send their children to private schools." Gradually, they lose the motivation "to support the police force, the municipal water supply, Social Security, and public schools."
-- Collapse: How Societies Choose to Succeed or Fail
"increasing inequalities threaten the American ideal of equal citizenship and that progress toward real democracy may have stalled in this country and even reversed."
== The American Political Science Association study
“When powerful interests shower Washington with millions in campaign contributions, they often get what they want. But it is ordinary citizens and firms that pay the price and most of them never see it coming. This is what happens if you don't contribute to their campaigns or spend generously on lobbying. You pick up a disproportionate share of America's tax bill. You pay higher prices for a broad range of products from peanuts to prescriptions. You pay taxes that others in a similar situation have been excused from paying. You're compelled to abide by laws while others are granted immunity from them. You must pay debts that you incur while others do not. You're barred from writing off on your tax returns some of the money spent on necessities while others deduct the cost of their entertainment. You must run your business by one set of rules, while the government creates another set for your competitors.
In contrast, the fortunate few who contribute to the right politicians and hire the right lobbyists enjoy all the benefits of their special status. Make a bad business deal; the government bails them out. If they want to hire workers at below market wages, the government provides the means to do so. If they want more time to pay their debts, the government gives them an extension. If they want immunity from certain laws, the government gives it. If they want to ignore rules their competition must comply with, the government gives its approval. If they want to kill legislation that is intended for the public, it gets killed.”
-- NOT Karl Marx's Das Kapital or Mao's Little Red Book, but Time Magazine
"Some people will obviously have to do with less...It will be a bitter pill for many Americans to swallow the idea of doing with less so that big business can have more." The long-range strategy was to cut workforces and their wages, scour the globe in search of cheap labor, trash the social contract and the safety net that was supposed to protect people from hardships beyond their control, deny ordinary citizens the power to sue rich corporations for malfeasance and malpractice, and eliminate the ability of government to restrain what editorialists for the Wall Street Journal admiringly call "the animal spirits of business."
-- Business Week on the right wing’s rise
“During the 1970s, business refined its ability to act as a class, submerging competitive instincts in favor of joint, cooperate action in the legislative area." Big business political action committees flooded the political arena with a deluge of dollars. And they built alliances with the religious right - Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority and Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition - who gleefully contrived a cultural holy war that became a smokescreen behind which the economic assault on the middle and working classes would occur. From land, water, and other resources, to media and the broadcast and digital spectrums, to scientific discovery and medial breakthroughs, a broad range of America's public resources have been undergoing a powerful shift toward elite control, contributing substantially to those economic pressures on ordinary Americans that "deeply affect household stability, family dynamics, social mobility, political participation and civic life."
-- Thomas Edsall of the Washington Post
Now to Bill Moyers Manifesto...please read:
For years now a small fraction of American households have been garnering a larger and larger concentration of wealth and income, while large corporations and financial institutions have obtained unprecedented power over who wins and who loses. Inequality in America is greater than it's been in 50 years. In 1960 the gap in terms of wealth between the top 20% and the bottom 20% was 30 fold. Today it's more than 75 fold.Such concentrations of wealth would be far less of an issue if the rest of society were benefiting proportionally. But that is not the case. Throughout our industrial history incomes grew at 30% to 50% or more every quarter, and in the quarter century after WWII, gains reached more than 100% for all income categories.
Since the late 1970s, only the top 1% of households increased their income by 100%... just a couple of decades ago, only 20% of one's future income was determined by the income of one's father. New research suggests that today 60% of a son's income is determined by the level of his father's income. In other words, children no longer have a roughly equal chance of success regardless of the economic status of the family into which they are born. Their chances of success are greatly improved if they are born on third base and their father has been tipping the umpire.
SNIP
This is a marked turn of events for a country whose mythology embraces "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" as part of our creed. America was not supposed to be a country of "winner take all." Through our system of checks and balances we were going to maintain a healthy equilibrium in how power works - and for whom. Because equitable access to public resources is the lifeblood of any democracy, we made primary schooling free to all. Because everyone deserves a second chance, debtors, especially the relatively poor, were protected by state laws against their rich creditors. Government encouraged Americans to own their own piece of land, and even supported squatters' rights. In my time, the hope of equal opportunity became reality for millions of us.
Although my parents were knocked down and almost out by the Great Depression, and were poor all their lives, my brother and I went to good public schools. The GI Bill made it possible for him to go to college. When I bought my first car with a loan of $450 I drove to a public school on a public highway and stopped to rest in a public park. America as a shared project was becoming the engine of our national experience. Not now. Beginning a quarter of a century ago a movement of corporate, political, and religious fundamentalists gained ascendancy over politics and made inequality their goal. They launched a crusade to dismantle the political institutions, the legal and statutory canons, and the intellectual and cultural frameworks that have held private power. And they had the money to back up their ambition.
SNIP
Looking backwards, it all seems so clear that we wonder how we could have ignored the warning signs at the time. What has been happening to working people is not the result of Adam Smith's invisible hand but the direct consequence of corporate activism, intellectual propaganda, the rise of a religious literalism opposed to any civil and human right that threaten its paternalism, and a string of political decisions favoring the interests of wealthy elites who bought the political system right out from under us. To create the intellectual framework for this revolution in public policy, they funded conservative think tanks that churned out study after study advocating their agenda.
SNIP
I came to Occidental because your campus has a reputation for believing in a political system where ordinary people have a voice in making the decisions that shape their lives, not just at the ballot box every two or four years in November, but in their workplaces, their neighborhoods and communities, and on their college campuses. In a real democracy, ordinary people at every level hold their elected officials accountable for the big decisions, about whether or not to go to war and put young men and women in harm's way, about the pollution of the environment, global warming, and the health and safety of our workplaces, our communities, our food and our air and our water, the quality of our public schools, and the distribution of economic resources.
It's the spirit of fighting back throughout American history that brought an end to sweatshops, won the eight-hour working day and a minimum wage, delivered suffrage to women and blacks from slavery, inspired the Gay Rights movement, the consumer and environmental movements, and more recently stopped Congress from enacting repressive legislation against immigrants.I believe a new wave of social reform is about to break across America. We see it in the struggle for a 'living wage' for America's working people. Last November, voters in six states approved ballot measures to raise their states' minimum wage above the federal level; 28 states now have such laws. Since 1994, more than 100 cities have passed local living wage laws that require employers who do business with the government - who get taxpayer subsidies, in other words - to pay workers enough to lift their families out of poverty.
SNIP
No cheek turned there. No second mile traveled. On the contrary, Jesus grows angry. He passes judgment. His message becomes more threatening. And he takes action.Over the past few years as we witnessed the growing concentration of wealth and privilege in our country, prophetic religion lost its voice, drowned out by the corporate, political, and religious right who hijacked Jesus.That's right: They hijacked Jesus. The very Jesus who stood in Nazareth and proclaimed, "The Lord has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor" - this Jesus, hijacked by a philosophy of greed. The very Jesus who fed 5000 hungry people - and not just those in the skyboxes; the very Jesus who offered kindness to the prostitute and hospitality to the outcast; who raised the status of women and treated even the hated tax collector as a citizen of the Kingdom. The indignant Jesus who drove the money changers from the temple - this Jesus was hijacked and turned from a friend of the dispossessed into a guardian of privilege, the ally of oil barons, banking tycoons, media moguls and weapons builders.
SNIP
To you students at Occidental, let me say: I have been a journalist too long to look at the world through rose-colored glasses. I believe the only way to be in the world is to see it as it really is and then to take it on despite the frightening things you see. The Italian philosopher Gramschi spoke of the "the pessimism of the intellect and the optimism of the will." With this philosophy your generation can bring about the Third American Revolution. The first won independence from the Crown. The second won equal rights for women and for the sons and daughters of slavery. This third - the revolution of the 21st Century - will bring about a democracy that leaves no one out. The simple truth is we cannot build a political society or a nation across the vast divides that mark our country today. We must bridge that divide and make society whole, sharing the fruits of freedom and prosperity with the least among us. I have crossed the continent to tell you the Dream is not done, the work is not over, and your time has come to take it on.
http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0322-24.htm
And this is directly related to Moyers speech...and one of THE SOLUTIONS to the challenges he outlines:
Senators Durbin and Specter Introduce Historic Public Financing of Elections Bill
On Tuesday, March 20th Assistant Senate Majority Leader Richard Durbin (D-IL), alongside sponsor Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) introduced the bipartisan Fair Elections Now Act (link to release). Modeled on the successful Clean Elections systems in Maine, Arizona, and North Carolina, the bill will provide full public financing for qualified congressional candidates. Joining Sens. Durbin and Specter, Representatives John Tierney (D-MA), Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), and Todd Platts (R-PA) introduced companion legislation, the Clean Money Clean Elections Act in the House of Representatives.
In a strong show of bipartisan support behind winning this important reform, Sens. Durbin (D-IL) and Specter (R-PA) and Reps. Tierney (D-MA), Grijalva (D-AZ), and Platts (R-PA) have taken a huge step forward in bringing Clean Elections to both chambers of Congress. If you haven’t already, please sign on as a citizen co-sponsor of the Fair Elections Now Act today!
END
When historians sort out what happened to the United States at the start of the 21st Century, one of the mysteries may be why the national press corps ganged up like school-yard bullies against a well-qualified Democratic presidential candidate while giving his dimwitted Republican opponent virtually a free pass..
-- Robert Parry, Author, jounalist, on the Al Gore "global warming debate" coverage
Today the Committee – and the country – will have the opportunity to revisit a particularly flawed piece of legislation that was passed shortly after the 9/11 attacks. I am referring, of course, to the USA Patriot Act. The National Security Letter, or NSL, authorities were dramatically expanded by Sections 358 and 505 of the Patriot Act. Unfortunately, in its haste to pass this flawed legislation, Congress essentially granted the FBI a blank check to obtain some very sensitive records about Americans, including people not under any suspicion of wrong-doing, without judicial approval… Congress needs to exercise extensive and searching oversight of those powers, and it must take corrective action. The Inspector General report has shown both that current safeguards are inadequate and that the government cannot be trusted to exercise those powers lawfully. Congress must address these problems and fix the mistakes it made in passing and reauthorizing the flawed Patriot Act.
-- Senator Russ Feingold
VIDEO SECTION…
You got to see professional liar and con man Tony Snow do is thing to subvert the Constitution…and people wonder why I can stay so passionate and dedicated? Are you kidding??? Have you seen these criminals destroying our country and world? Jesus…that combined with a basic philosophy of compassion and justice is all the engine fuel anyone could ever need!@
http://alternet.org/blogs/video/49663/
Now this is refreshing…a Dem calling out the Washington Post for their war lies and complicity…its about time they start to realize that if the right wing frames the media as “left” all the time, the public perception will follow suit…and the pressure on the media to NOT “be left” (which is laughable) will be countered…at this point its completely one sided…kudos to David Obey on the House floor:
http://alternet.org/blogs/video/49674/
Daily show on right to lie:
http://alternet.org/blogs/video/49626/
Stewart v. Bolton…if you missed the debate, here’s a little historical review of just some of the dribble and lies that came out of Bolton’s mouth:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/03/23/stewart-v-bolton-post-game-analysis/
rocky Anderson v. o’reilly...the very best, versus the very worst our country has to offer:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/03/22/rocky-and-billwinkle/
Mitt Romney denies ever knowing Rocky Anderson – 2007…but here he is endorsing him…don’t Republicans understand that we have things called video and paper records? Its as if they think they can just lie about anything and people will just believe them without checking the records (sadly, most people do, as do journalists…but not ALL OF US):
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/03/23/mitt-romney-endorses-rocky-anderson-2003/
Colbert dares dems to try and impeach:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/03/22/colbert-dares-democrats-to-impeach-bush/
NEW POLLING…this is what I’ve been predicting here for sometime…this also ties to Moyers’s point about the shift taking place
The survey, by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center for People and the Press, found a "dramatic shift" in political party identification since 2002, when Republicans and Democrats were at rough parity. Now, half of those surveyed identified with or leaned toward Democrats, while only 35% aligned with Republicans. What's more, the survey found the public attitudes are drifting toward Democrats' values: Support for government aid to the disadvantaged has grown since the mid-1990s, skepticism about the use of military force has increased and support for traditional family values has edged down.
Republicans seem to be paying a price for a growing sense of dissatisfaction with the state of the country during the Bush years. Three out of 10 people said they were satisfied with the way things are going in the country--a 25-point drop in the last seven years.
Back then, 57% believed the government had a responsibility to take care of people who cannot take care of themselves; now 69% believe that. On the other hand support for Bush's signature issue--a strong, proactive military posture--has waned since 2002, when 62% said that the best way to ensure peace is through military strength. Now, only 49% believe that. On social issues, the survey found that support for some key conservative positions has edged down: The people who said they supported "old-fashioned values about family and marriage" dipped from 84% in 1994 to 76%.Support for allowing school boards to have the right to fire homosexual teachers dropped from 39% in 1994 to 28% in 2007.
END
This is a hysterical media “frame” of the issue of massive vote rigging, and two coups…this is one clip about what’s being uncovered in Ohio as reported by AP:
“The county, which includes all of Cleveland and has 1 million registered voters, has had difficulty adjusting to electronic voting.” – AP
Now for the truth:
NEW CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION LAUNCHED INTO ELECTION IMPROPRIETIES IN CUYAHOGA COUNTY, OH
Election Results of Early Voting Found Printed Prior to Election Day…NATIONWIDE EFFORT? - Identical Situation Recently Discovered in Pima County, AZ...
FULL STORY:
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=4306
Diebold Fails Again: Nearly 50% of DRE Touch-Screen Systems Fail Accuracy Test in Montgomery County, OH!
56 of 125 Machines Tested, after Voter Complaints, Incorrectly Registered Votes!
REPORT:
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=4304
GLOBAL WARMING TRUTHS…as our media still "debate" this looming catastrophe, and gives eqaul time to GOP criminal science deniers like James Inhoefe, I found these 3 stories in ONE DAY on Yahoo's SCIENCE section (next up for "debate", gravity and whether the earth is round):
Southern Ocean current faces slowdown threat
By Michael Byrnes
The impact of global warming on the vast Southern Ocean around Antarctica is starting to pose a threat to ocean currents that distribute heat around the world, Australian scientists say, citing new deep-water data. Melting ice-sheets and glaciers in Antarctica are releasing fresh water, interfering with the formation of dense "bottom water," which sinks 4-5 kilometers to the ocean floor and helps drive the world's ocean circulation system.
A slowdown in the system known as "overturning circulation" would affect the way the ocean, which absorbs 85 percent of atmospheric heat, carries heat around the globe."If the water gets fresh enough ... then it won't matter how much ice we form, we won't be able to make this water cold and salty enough to sink," said Steve Rintoul, a senior scientist at the Australian government-funded CSIRO Marine Science. "Changes would be felt ... around the globe," said Rintoul, who recently led a multinational team of scientists on an expedition to sample deep-basin water south of Western Australia to the Antarctic.
…researchers fear increased melting of the Greenland ice sheet risks disrupting the conveyor. If it stops, temperatures in northern Europe would plunge. Rintoul, who has led teams tracking water density around the Antarctic through decades of readings, said his findings add to concerns about a "strangling" of the Southern Ocean by greenhouse gases and global warming.
Australian scientists warned last month that waters surrounding Antarctica were also becoming more acidic as they absorbed more carbon dioxide produced by nations burning fossil fuels. Acidification of the ocean is affecting the ability of plankton -- microscopic marine plants, animals and bacteria -- to absorb carbon dioxide, reducing the ocean's ability to sink greenhouse gases to the bottom of the sea. Rintoul said that global warming was also changing wind patterns in the Antarctic region, drawing them south away from the Australian mainland and causing declining rainfall in western and possibly eastern coastal areas.
This was contributing to drought in Australia, one of the world's top agricultural producers, he said.
END
Global warming puts Canada's hunted seals on thin ice
Global warming threatens Canada's harp seals, protesters warned Thursday, calling for this year's annual cull to be cancelled to spare sea mammals already in peril from retreating ice used as breeding grounds...."A large percentage of the seal pups born in the northwest Atlantic this year are dying as their habitat is destroyed," said Rebecca Alderworth, director of Canadian wildlife issues for the US Humane Society. "We cannot allow the survivors of this ecological disaster to be slaughtered to produce fashion items," she said, estimating that more than 260,000 seal pups had perished due to climate change.
END
Save forests to fight global warming
Forest clearance for farming or urban development released large amounts of the greenhouses gases blamed for climate change, he told reporters at a meeting in Indonesia's capital, Jakarta. "The world has to work together to provide a strong fund to cut deforestation in Indonesia, Brazil and other countries," he said.
In a landmark report commissioned by the British government, Stern warned last year that climate change could bring economic disaster on the scale of the world wars and the 1930s' Great Depression unless urgent action was taken… Experts say Indonesia has about two percent of the world's forest area but is losing large amounts of it annually, which releases carbon dioxide and makes the country one of the world's largest greenhouse gases polluters.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation said this month that forests were expanding in several regions of the world, but that each day saw a net loss equivalent to an area twice the size of Paris.
Global forest covers about 30 percent of the world's land area. From 1990 to 2005, the world lost three percent of its total forest area, according to the organisation.Ten countries account for 80 percent of the world's primary forests, of which Indonesia, Mexico, Papua New Guinea and Brazil saw the highest losses in the five years from 2000 to 2005, it said.
The IPCC, the United Nations' United Nations' paramount scientific authority on global warming, has predicted the Earth's surface temperatures will rise between 1.8 and 4.0 degrees Celsius (3.2 and 7.2 degrees Fahrenheit) by 2100.
END
Note: I literally took 3 days to "recover" from Friday, as my entire own manifesto was erased from existence on this blog again. So, as with the last week's one that got deleted (yes, I will now even copy and/or save my on the fly stuff now), I'm posting without any of the incredibly insghtful commentary I had earlier! :) Seriously, all I will say is if there is one article to read this year, its this speech by Bill Moyers...it encapsulates everything I've been writing about on this blog...and done better than anyone on this planet could do.
As such, I have set the speech up by posting various quotes of others he uses, then, I have posted large segments of his manifesto for those that are too damn lazy to read the entire 8 pages...but I highly suggest you all do :)
The only answer to organized money is organized people.
-- Bill Moyers
"We've gone way past ourselves. I see the unfathomable numbers in the national debt and deficit, and the way that the Federal government was physically unable to respond to Hurricane Katrina. I look at Iraq; where 50% of the question is how to get out, and the other 50% is how did so few people have the power to start the invasion in the first place. If the Republic were functioning, they would have never had that power."
-- Writer Jan Frel
“…it is the mark of truly educated people to be moved by statistics.”
-- Oscar Wilde
"Things have reached such a state of affairs," "that the first duty of every intelligent person is to pay attention to the obvious."
-- the journalist George Orwell
"…income inequality growing to levels not seen since the Gilded Age and social mobility falling behind, the United States risks calcifying into a European-style class-based society." The editors point to an "education system increasingly stratified by social class" in which poor children "attend schools with fewer resources than those of their richer contemporaries" and great universities that are "increasingly reinforcing rather than reducing these educational inequalities." They conclude that America's great companies have made it harder than ever "for people to start at the bottom and rise up the company hierarchies by dint of hard work and self-improvement."
-- The editors of The Economist, America's pre-eminent PRO-business magazine
…an America society in which elites cocoon themselves "in gated communities, guarded by private security guards, and filled with people who drink bottled water, depend on private pensions, and send their children to private schools." Gradually, they lose the motivation "to support the police force, the municipal water supply, Social Security, and public schools."
-- Collapse: How Societies Choose to Succeed or Fail
"increasing inequalities threaten the American ideal of equal citizenship and that progress toward real democracy may have stalled in this country and even reversed."
== The American Political Science Association study
“When powerful interests shower Washington with millions in campaign contributions, they often get what they want. But it is ordinary citizens and firms that pay the price and most of them never see it coming. This is what happens if you don't contribute to their campaigns or spend generously on lobbying. You pick up a disproportionate share of America's tax bill. You pay higher prices for a broad range of products from peanuts to prescriptions. You pay taxes that others in a similar situation have been excused from paying. You're compelled to abide by laws while others are granted immunity from them. You must pay debts that you incur while others do not. You're barred from writing off on your tax returns some of the money spent on necessities while others deduct the cost of their entertainment. You must run your business by one set of rules, while the government creates another set for your competitors.
In contrast, the fortunate few who contribute to the right politicians and hire the right lobbyists enjoy all the benefits of their special status. Make a bad business deal; the government bails them out. If they want to hire workers at below market wages, the government provides the means to do so. If they want more time to pay their debts, the government gives them an extension. If they want immunity from certain laws, the government gives it. If they want to ignore rules their competition must comply with, the government gives its approval. If they want to kill legislation that is intended for the public, it gets killed.”
-- NOT Karl Marx's Das Kapital or Mao's Little Red Book, but Time Magazine
"Some people will obviously have to do with less...It will be a bitter pill for many Americans to swallow the idea of doing with less so that big business can have more." The long-range strategy was to cut workforces and their wages, scour the globe in search of cheap labor, trash the social contract and the safety net that was supposed to protect people from hardships beyond their control, deny ordinary citizens the power to sue rich corporations for malfeasance and malpractice, and eliminate the ability of government to restrain what editorialists for the Wall Street Journal admiringly call "the animal spirits of business."
-- Business Week on the right wing’s rise
“During the 1970s, business refined its ability to act as a class, submerging competitive instincts in favor of joint, cooperate action in the legislative area." Big business political action committees flooded the political arena with a deluge of dollars. And they built alliances with the religious right - Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority and Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition - who gleefully contrived a cultural holy war that became a smokescreen behind which the economic assault on the middle and working classes would occur. From land, water, and other resources, to media and the broadcast and digital spectrums, to scientific discovery and medial breakthroughs, a broad range of America's public resources have been undergoing a powerful shift toward elite control, contributing substantially to those economic pressures on ordinary Americans that "deeply affect household stability, family dynamics, social mobility, political participation and civic life."
-- Thomas Edsall of the Washington Post
Now to Bill Moyers Manifesto...please read:
For years now a small fraction of American households have been garnering a larger and larger concentration of wealth and income, while large corporations and financial institutions have obtained unprecedented power over who wins and who loses. Inequality in America is greater than it's been in 50 years. In 1960 the gap in terms of wealth between the top 20% and the bottom 20% was 30 fold. Today it's more than 75 fold.Such concentrations of wealth would be far less of an issue if the rest of society were benefiting proportionally. But that is not the case. Throughout our industrial history incomes grew at 30% to 50% or more every quarter, and in the quarter century after WWII, gains reached more than 100% for all income categories.
Since the late 1970s, only the top 1% of households increased their income by 100%... just a couple of decades ago, only 20% of one's future income was determined by the income of one's father. New research suggests that today 60% of a son's income is determined by the level of his father's income. In other words, children no longer have a roughly equal chance of success regardless of the economic status of the family into which they are born. Their chances of success are greatly improved if they are born on third base and their father has been tipping the umpire.
SNIP
This is a marked turn of events for a country whose mythology embraces "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" as part of our creed. America was not supposed to be a country of "winner take all." Through our system of checks and balances we were going to maintain a healthy equilibrium in how power works - and for whom. Because equitable access to public resources is the lifeblood of any democracy, we made primary schooling free to all. Because everyone deserves a second chance, debtors, especially the relatively poor, were protected by state laws against their rich creditors. Government encouraged Americans to own their own piece of land, and even supported squatters' rights. In my time, the hope of equal opportunity became reality for millions of us.
Although my parents were knocked down and almost out by the Great Depression, and were poor all their lives, my brother and I went to good public schools. The GI Bill made it possible for him to go to college. When I bought my first car with a loan of $450 I drove to a public school on a public highway and stopped to rest in a public park. America as a shared project was becoming the engine of our national experience. Not now. Beginning a quarter of a century ago a movement of corporate, political, and religious fundamentalists gained ascendancy over politics and made inequality their goal. They launched a crusade to dismantle the political institutions, the legal and statutory canons, and the intellectual and cultural frameworks that have held private power. And they had the money to back up their ambition.
SNIP
Looking backwards, it all seems so clear that we wonder how we could have ignored the warning signs at the time. What has been happening to working people is not the result of Adam Smith's invisible hand but the direct consequence of corporate activism, intellectual propaganda, the rise of a religious literalism opposed to any civil and human right that threaten its paternalism, and a string of political decisions favoring the interests of wealthy elites who bought the political system right out from under us. To create the intellectual framework for this revolution in public policy, they funded conservative think tanks that churned out study after study advocating their agenda.
SNIP
I came to Occidental because your campus has a reputation for believing in a political system where ordinary people have a voice in making the decisions that shape their lives, not just at the ballot box every two or four years in November, but in their workplaces, their neighborhoods and communities, and on their college campuses. In a real democracy, ordinary people at every level hold their elected officials accountable for the big decisions, about whether or not to go to war and put young men and women in harm's way, about the pollution of the environment, global warming, and the health and safety of our workplaces, our communities, our food and our air and our water, the quality of our public schools, and the distribution of economic resources.
It's the spirit of fighting back throughout American history that brought an end to sweatshops, won the eight-hour working day and a minimum wage, delivered suffrage to women and blacks from slavery, inspired the Gay Rights movement, the consumer and environmental movements, and more recently stopped Congress from enacting repressive legislation against immigrants.I believe a new wave of social reform is about to break across America. We see it in the struggle for a 'living wage' for America's working people. Last November, voters in six states approved ballot measures to raise their states' minimum wage above the federal level; 28 states now have such laws. Since 1994, more than 100 cities have passed local living wage laws that require employers who do business with the government - who get taxpayer subsidies, in other words - to pay workers enough to lift their families out of poverty.
SNIP
No cheek turned there. No second mile traveled. On the contrary, Jesus grows angry. He passes judgment. His message becomes more threatening. And he takes action.Over the past few years as we witnessed the growing concentration of wealth and privilege in our country, prophetic religion lost its voice, drowned out by the corporate, political, and religious right who hijacked Jesus.That's right: They hijacked Jesus. The very Jesus who stood in Nazareth and proclaimed, "The Lord has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor" - this Jesus, hijacked by a philosophy of greed. The very Jesus who fed 5000 hungry people - and not just those in the skyboxes; the very Jesus who offered kindness to the prostitute and hospitality to the outcast; who raised the status of women and treated even the hated tax collector as a citizen of the Kingdom. The indignant Jesus who drove the money changers from the temple - this Jesus was hijacked and turned from a friend of the dispossessed into a guardian of privilege, the ally of oil barons, banking tycoons, media moguls and weapons builders.
SNIP
To you students at Occidental, let me say: I have been a journalist too long to look at the world through rose-colored glasses. I believe the only way to be in the world is to see it as it really is and then to take it on despite the frightening things you see. The Italian philosopher Gramschi spoke of the "the pessimism of the intellect and the optimism of the will." With this philosophy your generation can bring about the Third American Revolution. The first won independence from the Crown. The second won equal rights for women and for the sons and daughters of slavery. This third - the revolution of the 21st Century - will bring about a democracy that leaves no one out. The simple truth is we cannot build a political society or a nation across the vast divides that mark our country today. We must bridge that divide and make society whole, sharing the fruits of freedom and prosperity with the least among us. I have crossed the continent to tell you the Dream is not done, the work is not over, and your time has come to take it on.
http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0322-24.htm
And this is directly related to Moyers speech...and one of THE SOLUTIONS to the challenges he outlines:
Senators Durbin and Specter Introduce Historic Public Financing of Elections Bill
On Tuesday, March 20th Assistant Senate Majority Leader Richard Durbin (D-IL), alongside sponsor Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) introduced the bipartisan Fair Elections Now Act (link to release). Modeled on the successful Clean Elections systems in Maine, Arizona, and North Carolina, the bill will provide full public financing for qualified congressional candidates. Joining Sens. Durbin and Specter, Representatives John Tierney (D-MA), Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), and Todd Platts (R-PA) introduced companion legislation, the Clean Money Clean Elections Act in the House of Representatives.
In a strong show of bipartisan support behind winning this important reform, Sens. Durbin (D-IL) and Specter (R-PA) and Reps. Tierney (D-MA), Grijalva (D-AZ), and Platts (R-PA) have taken a huge step forward in bringing Clean Elections to both chambers of Congress. If you haven’t already, please sign on as a citizen co-sponsor of the Fair Elections Now Act today!
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When historians sort out what happened to the United States at the start of the 21st Century, one of the mysteries may be why the national press corps ganged up like school-yard bullies against a well-qualified Democratic presidential candidate while giving his dimwitted Republican opponent virtually a free pass..
-- Robert Parry, Author, jounalist, on the Al Gore "global warming debate" coverage
Today the Committee – and the country – will have the opportunity to revisit a particularly flawed piece of legislation that was passed shortly after the 9/11 attacks. I am referring, of course, to the USA Patriot Act. The National Security Letter, or NSL, authorities were dramatically expanded by Sections 358 and 505 of the Patriot Act. Unfortunately, in its haste to pass this flawed legislation, Congress essentially granted the FBI a blank check to obtain some very sensitive records about Americans, including people not under any suspicion of wrong-doing, without judicial approval… Congress needs to exercise extensive and searching oversight of those powers, and it must take corrective action. The Inspector General report has shown both that current safeguards are inadequate and that the government cannot be trusted to exercise those powers lawfully. Congress must address these problems and fix the mistakes it made in passing and reauthorizing the flawed Patriot Act.
-- Senator Russ Feingold
VIDEO SECTION…
You got to see professional liar and con man Tony Snow do is thing to subvert the Constitution…and people wonder why I can stay so passionate and dedicated? Are you kidding??? Have you seen these criminals destroying our country and world? Jesus…that combined with a basic philosophy of compassion and justice is all the engine fuel anyone could ever need!@
http://alternet.org/blogs/video/49663/
Now this is refreshing…a Dem calling out the Washington Post for their war lies and complicity…its about time they start to realize that if the right wing frames the media as “left” all the time, the public perception will follow suit…and the pressure on the media to NOT “be left” (which is laughable) will be countered…at this point its completely one sided…kudos to David Obey on the House floor:
http://alternet.org/blogs/video/49674/
Daily show on right to lie:
http://alternet.org/blogs/video/49626/
Stewart v. Bolton…if you missed the debate, here’s a little historical review of just some of the dribble and lies that came out of Bolton’s mouth:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/03/23/stewart-v-bolton-post-game-analysis/
rocky Anderson v. o’reilly...the very best, versus the very worst our country has to offer:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/03/22/rocky-and-billwinkle/
Mitt Romney denies ever knowing Rocky Anderson – 2007…but here he is endorsing him…don’t Republicans understand that we have things called video and paper records? Its as if they think they can just lie about anything and people will just believe them without checking the records (sadly, most people do, as do journalists…but not ALL OF US):
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/03/23/mitt-romney-endorses-rocky-anderson-2003/
Colbert dares dems to try and impeach:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/03/22/colbert-dares-democrats-to-impeach-bush/
NEW POLLING…this is what I’ve been predicting here for sometime…this also ties to Moyers’s point about the shift taking place
The survey, by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center for People and the Press, found a "dramatic shift" in political party identification since 2002, when Republicans and Democrats were at rough parity. Now, half of those surveyed identified with or leaned toward Democrats, while only 35% aligned with Republicans. What's more, the survey found the public attitudes are drifting toward Democrats' values: Support for government aid to the disadvantaged has grown since the mid-1990s, skepticism about the use of military force has increased and support for traditional family values has edged down.
Republicans seem to be paying a price for a growing sense of dissatisfaction with the state of the country during the Bush years. Three out of 10 people said they were satisfied with the way things are going in the country--a 25-point drop in the last seven years.
Back then, 57% believed the government had a responsibility to take care of people who cannot take care of themselves; now 69% believe that. On the other hand support for Bush's signature issue--a strong, proactive military posture--has waned since 2002, when 62% said that the best way to ensure peace is through military strength. Now, only 49% believe that. On social issues, the survey found that support for some key conservative positions has edged down: The people who said they supported "old-fashioned values about family and marriage" dipped from 84% in 1994 to 76%.Support for allowing school boards to have the right to fire homosexual teachers dropped from 39% in 1994 to 28% in 2007.
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This is a hysterical media “frame” of the issue of massive vote rigging, and two coups…this is one clip about what’s being uncovered in Ohio as reported by AP:
“The county, which includes all of Cleveland and has 1 million registered voters, has had difficulty adjusting to electronic voting.” – AP
Now for the truth:
NEW CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION LAUNCHED INTO ELECTION IMPROPRIETIES IN CUYAHOGA COUNTY, OH
Election Results of Early Voting Found Printed Prior to Election Day…NATIONWIDE EFFORT? - Identical Situation Recently Discovered in Pima County, AZ...
FULL STORY:
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=4306
Diebold Fails Again: Nearly 50% of DRE Touch-Screen Systems Fail Accuracy Test in Montgomery County, OH!
56 of 125 Machines Tested, after Voter Complaints, Incorrectly Registered Votes!
REPORT:
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=4304
GLOBAL WARMING TRUTHS…as our media still "debate" this looming catastrophe, and gives eqaul time to GOP criminal science deniers like James Inhoefe, I found these 3 stories in ONE DAY on Yahoo's SCIENCE section (next up for "debate", gravity and whether the earth is round):
Southern Ocean current faces slowdown threat
By Michael Byrnes
The impact of global warming on the vast Southern Ocean around Antarctica is starting to pose a threat to ocean currents that distribute heat around the world, Australian scientists say, citing new deep-water data. Melting ice-sheets and glaciers in Antarctica are releasing fresh water, interfering with the formation of dense "bottom water," which sinks 4-5 kilometers to the ocean floor and helps drive the world's ocean circulation system.
A slowdown in the system known as "overturning circulation" would affect the way the ocean, which absorbs 85 percent of atmospheric heat, carries heat around the globe."If the water gets fresh enough ... then it won't matter how much ice we form, we won't be able to make this water cold and salty enough to sink," said Steve Rintoul, a senior scientist at the Australian government-funded CSIRO Marine Science. "Changes would be felt ... around the globe," said Rintoul, who recently led a multinational team of scientists on an expedition to sample deep-basin water south of Western Australia to the Antarctic.
…researchers fear increased melting of the Greenland ice sheet risks disrupting the conveyor. If it stops, temperatures in northern Europe would plunge. Rintoul, who has led teams tracking water density around the Antarctic through decades of readings, said his findings add to concerns about a "strangling" of the Southern Ocean by greenhouse gases and global warming.
Australian scientists warned last month that waters surrounding Antarctica were also becoming more acidic as they absorbed more carbon dioxide produced by nations burning fossil fuels. Acidification of the ocean is affecting the ability of plankton -- microscopic marine plants, animals and bacteria -- to absorb carbon dioxide, reducing the ocean's ability to sink greenhouse gases to the bottom of the sea. Rintoul said that global warming was also changing wind patterns in the Antarctic region, drawing them south away from the Australian mainland and causing declining rainfall in western and possibly eastern coastal areas.
This was contributing to drought in Australia, one of the world's top agricultural producers, he said.
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Global warming puts Canada's hunted seals on thin ice
Global warming threatens Canada's harp seals, protesters warned Thursday, calling for this year's annual cull to be cancelled to spare sea mammals already in peril from retreating ice used as breeding grounds...."A large percentage of the seal pups born in the northwest Atlantic this year are dying as their habitat is destroyed," said Rebecca Alderworth, director of Canadian wildlife issues for the US Humane Society. "We cannot allow the survivors of this ecological disaster to be slaughtered to produce fashion items," she said, estimating that more than 260,000 seal pups had perished due to climate change.
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Save forests to fight global warming
Forest clearance for farming or urban development released large amounts of the greenhouses gases blamed for climate change, he told reporters at a meeting in Indonesia's capital, Jakarta. "The world has to work together to provide a strong fund to cut deforestation in Indonesia, Brazil and other countries," he said.
In a landmark report commissioned by the British government, Stern warned last year that climate change could bring economic disaster on the scale of the world wars and the 1930s' Great Depression unless urgent action was taken… Experts say Indonesia has about two percent of the world's forest area but is losing large amounts of it annually, which releases carbon dioxide and makes the country one of the world's largest greenhouse gases polluters.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation said this month that forests were expanding in several regions of the world, but that each day saw a net loss equivalent to an area twice the size of Paris.
Global forest covers about 30 percent of the world's land area. From 1990 to 2005, the world lost three percent of its total forest area, according to the organisation.Ten countries account for 80 percent of the world's primary forests, of which Indonesia, Mexico, Papua New Guinea and Brazil saw the highest losses in the five years from 2000 to 2005, it said.
The IPCC, the United Nations' United Nations' paramount scientific authority on global warming, has predicted the Earth's surface temperatures will rise between 1.8 and 4.0 degrees Celsius (3.2 and 7.2 degrees Fahrenheit) by 2100.
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