TODAY'S TOPICS: Dems Win 2, Walmart/Hillary, Columbia Trade, Jackie Speier, Daily Show v. Fox, Olbermann, Net Neutrality

"You're one of the finest lawyers—legal persons—that I've ever met or ever known. And without any question, you’ve added more to our board than any person we’ve ever had on that board.”

-- Sam Walton, owner of Walmart about Hillary Clinton, early 90’s

“I’m so proud of this company, and everything it represents.”

-- Hillary Clinton talking about Walmart in early 90’s

From Alternet: “It was during those six years that Clinton served with the notoriously anti-union Rose Law firm in Little Rock, defending Wal-Mart against workers who tried to unionize. It was also during those six years that Clinton served with fellow board member John Tate, whose favorite saying was: "Labor unions are nothing but blood-sucking parasites living off the productive labor of people who work for a living."

GREAT NEWS: DEMS WIN ON TRADE, PROBABLY WIRETAPPING TOO!

Pelosi hands Bush loss on Colombia trade pact! -- Standing above her own seal as speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi seemed to savor the smack down she delivered to President Bush on Thursday, a 224-195 vote to indefinitely postpone consideration of one of the president's final and deeply desired policy initiatives: a free trade agreement with Colombia. Carolyn Lochhead in the San Francisco Chronicle -- 4/11/08

I have an article by John Nichols of the Nation on just how horrific this trade bill down the post a ways. While its only a postponement, it likely means Bush will not get this through before he leaves office.

I should also point out, it appears the Dems are going to win the fight over Telecom Immunity too, as the Republican leader in the House said they’re going to move on to other fights. Great news!

SEE HERE:

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) is expected to announce today that conservatives will drop their push to pass an update to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act in order to shift their focus to the economy. This strategy was detailed in the inaugural edition of the "Freedom File" e-mail -- "a monthly memo to GOP activists -- from Boehner's political action committee, Freedom Project."

END

VIDEO SECTION

How do you stay in Iraq for 100 years? 6 months at a time…watch this great video montage of what we hear, EVERY SIX MONTHS, for the past five years, and for many more to come if McCain is elected:

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/04/10/q-how-do-you-get-to-100-years-in-iraq/

Classic Daily Show! They do a Fox News retrospective you need to see:

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/04/11/daily-show-the-rise-and-fall-of-fox-news/

Stephen Colbert does an excellent riff on the Iraq war…

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/04/10/colberts-the-w%c3%b8rd-starter-country/

Olbermann goes into something that is never talked about by the corporate media…the horrific treatment of our troops by this President:

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/04/10/countdown-president-bushs-cruel-treatment-of-our-soldiers/

Phil Donahue is interviewed by Truthout on his new film Body of War:

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/040708A.shtml

Go to about the half way mark of this video and see Jon Stoltz of Vote Vets (and an Iraq war veteran) powerfully rebut Bush’s mind bending speech on Iraq…esp. his deception regarding troop levels and troop deployment lengths. Sick:

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/04/10/bobby-muller-of-vfa-and-jon-soltz-of-votevets-respond-to-bushs-iraq-war-speech/

Olbermann’s Bushed series…

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/04/10/countdown-bushed-republicans-behaving-badly-edition/

ARTICLE SECTION: COLUMBIA TRADE DEAL

Here’s more on the Columbian “Free” (as in free for multinational corporations, thugs, and assassins) Trade deal defeated by the Democrats today from John Nichols. This deal is so bad, it really pushes the boundaries of just basic humanity…and really makes you question Bill Clinton’s involvement in its passage. Sickening…

A few clips on this abomination:

Colombian union federations say they opposed the pact not just because it would weaken domestic industries and jeopardize employment but because it would make it harder to advance the cause of human rights in a country where more than 2,500 trade unionists have been murdered over the past two decades.

While President Bush and his allies attempt to suggest that Colombian President Alvaro Uribe Velez has made progress in promoting human rights, honest political players in that country say the opposite. “(Uribe) has not responded adequately to the violence that plagues Colombians and particularly union leaders and human rights activists, as is demonstrated by the alarming figures from last month, in which four union leaders were murdered,” explains Carlos Gaviria Diaz, the Harvard-educated constitutional lawyer who serves as president of Colombia’s Polo Democrático Alternativo political party.

SNIP

The Colombia fight represents a critical test for Democrats in Congress. Most of the Democratic candidates who beat Republican members of the House and Senate in 2006 did so as outspoken critics of U.S. trade policies. Now, the party controls the Congress. By blocking this deal, they will keep an essential promise made to the American people — and they will, at the same time, display the sort of concern the people Colombia that might finally pressure that country’s oppressive government to begin respecting human rights.

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/04/11/8234/

Welcome to Congress, Jackie Speier

This was cool...her second day in Congress Jackie Speier speaks out on the war on the House Floor (she represents the south bay). This is essentially an anti-war pickup vote, as her predecessor, the recently deceased Tom Lantos, was liberal on most issues...all except when it comes to the Middle East and Israel. So this is great news...

By: Nicole Belle @ 9:50 AM - PDT

In office two days and shows more spine than the rest of her Democratic colleagues.

SF Chronicle:

It didn’t take long for Jackie Speier, the newest member of the U.S. House of Representatives, to put her straight-ahead style on display. Just as quickly, some of her new Republican colleagues greeted her with a sample of Washington-style partisanship.

Speier, who won Tuesday’s special election to complete the term of the late Rep. Tom Lantos, went right to work with a speech calling for action on a process to bring the troops home from Iraq. She mentioned Sen. John McCain’s observation that the United States could be in Iraq for 100 years. “History will not judge us kindly if we sacrifice four generations of Americans because of the folly of one,” she said.

Some Republicans booed. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista, walked out of the chamber. Speier, an 18-year state legislator known for taking on tough issues and interests, was nonplussed at the mini-controversy.

“The truth is, I think it was a minority of Republicans that were booing - and they represent a minority of Americans who still support the war,” Speier said by phone Thursday.

END

TAKE ACTION ON NET NEUTRALITY (FROM FREE PRESS)

Big phone and cable companies like AT&T, Verizon, Comcast and Time Warner have already begun blocking, censoring or disrupting content they don't agree with. They've worked very hard to oppose net neutrality and pave the way for "network management" practices that allow blocking of certain content in favor of Web sites and services the companies prefer.

The bipartisan Internet Freedom Preservation Act (HR 5353), co-sponsored by Representatives Ed Markey (D-MA) and Chip Pickering (R-MS), was introduced into Congress on February 13th and represents a vitally important step in ensuring the Internet remains a level playing field for consumers and innovators.

What good is free speech if powerful corporations have the ability to shut off or slow down viewpoints they find objectionable? Just as telephone companies are not permitted to tell consumers who they can call or what they can say, broadband carriers should not be allowed to use their market power to control activity online.

Click here to sign the petition in support of net neutrality and the Internet Freedom Preservation Act.

NEWS CLIPS

Tribunals for six detainees at Guantanamo Bay charged with war crimes related to the Sept. 11 attacks have "hit a snag" as military defense lawyers are "in short supply." In the two months since the charges were announced, "not one of the six detainees has met his military lawyer." Now, "a growing consensus among lawyers" believes that few of the detainees' "cases are likely to actually come to trial before the end of the Bush administration."

A new Pew Research Center poll finds that the majority of the American public believes that in the past five years, "they either haven't moved forward in life (25%) or have fallen backwards (31%). This is the most downbeat short-term assessment of personal progress in nearly half a century of polling" by the organization.

TODAY'S TOPICS: Moyers, Lieberman's Lies, Scheer, Petraeus/Crocker, Torture Bombshell, Election Fraud, Olbermann

"The present crisis of Western democracy is a crisis of journalism. Everywhere men and women are conscious that somehow they must deal with questions more intricate than any that church or school had prepared them to understand. Increasingly, they know that they cannot understand them if the facts are not quickly and steadily available. All the sharpest critics of democracy have alleged is true if there is no steady supply of trustworthy and relevant news. Incompetence and aimlessness, corruption and disloyalty, panic and ultimate disaster must come to any people denied an assured access to the facts."

-- Walter Lippman (someone I studied quite a bit in college)

LIEBERMAN’S LIES

LIE #1: Iran and Al Qaeda are Allies

fROM C&L: Joe Lieberman is taking a page out of Dick Cheney’s playbook and carefully connected al-Qaeda to Iran with an answer he gave to Nora O’Donnell on MSNBC moments ago. Much has been made of McCain’s foreign policy gaffe on his middle east tour when he said that Shia/Iran was training the Sunni/al-Qaeda. Lieberman had to whisper the correct answer in his ear at that time to correct that fallacy. However, we can see a clear pattern of deception the Senator from CT is using to try and once again confuse the American public about the nonexistent ties between al-Qaeda and Iran.

Liebermann: …we can do it on conditions on the ground, but if we just pull out there will be chaos, maybe genocide and al-Qaeda and Iran will win. (Al Qaeda and Iran are not allies!!!!)

Al-Qaeda is a very small percentage of the resistance that is on going in Iraq as we all know. Why hasn’t Holy Joe addressed the ethnic cleansing that has already occurred in Iraq between the Sunni and Shia’s militias in Baghdad alone? Joe can’t do that and admit the horror that he has enabled already. His only hope is to confuse the public into thinking that al-Qaeda is aligned with Iran. Have you no decency, sir?

LIE #2: Lamont Campaign Hacked His Website (and this may have won him the election...)

The FBI knew back in 2006 that Ned Lamont’s campaign did not hack into Joe Lieberman’s campaign website, but for some mysterious reason, we are just now getting their official statement. Emptywheel at FDL wants to know what about Holy Joe’s six figure slush fund?

In thoroughly unsurprising news today, the Ned Lamont campaign was cleared of any wrong-doing in the crash of Lieberman’s server leading up to primary day in 2006. The Stamford Advocate reports that the FBI determined–way back on October 25, 2006–that Lieberman’s campaign bears all responsibility for the server crash.

Case closed, right?

No. Not on the outstanding legal issues arising from the campaign, anyway. As you might recall, the Lamont campaign filed an FEC complaint, coincidentally just two days before the whole server crash case was closed in October 2006, noting that Joe Lieberman had a campaign finance entry for “petty cash” expenditures that were way beyond the legal limits: $387,000 of “petty cash.”

Read on…

Lieberman spokesperson, Dan Gerstein, recounts a different incident with the website to respond to the FBI report, and it appears that the IT professional the campaign quoted in 2006 admitted to The New York Times that he really isn’t that hip when it comes to matters of internet security.

IRAQ FUN FACTS:

This is what $25 billion on “reconstruction” has gotten us:

• 43% of population lives in absolute poverty
• prior to war 19% of children suffered malnutrition; today 28%
• last year 75% elementary-aged kids went to school; now 30%
• prior to war 50% lacked access to clean water; now 70%
• only 50 of 142 primary health care centers are open to public

VIDEO SECTION

Now it’s official: all the top officials of the Bush administration not only knew about the torture program, they were intricately involved in its creation…all the way down to the specific torture techniques, and how often they could be used. Can you say war criminals and murderers? The question of course is will this story get any major play, even 1/10th of the coverage of what Rev. Wright said in a sermon 5 years ago? I’d be happy with that…and what does that say about the state of our union?

From the ABC News Report:

The discussions in the White House were top secret and sources say, involve some of the President’s most senior and influential advisors, principals of the National Security Council. In dozens of private talks and meetings, sources said that a handful of top advisors discussed specific high-value al Qaeda prisoners and exactly how those prisoners would be interrogated. Whether, for example, they would be slapped, pushed, deprived of sleep or subjected to simulated drowning, called waterboarding.

The discussion about the “enhanced interrogation techniques” were so detailed, sources said, the interrogations were almost choreographed, down to the number of times the CIA could use a specific tactic. Former CIA director George Tenet, in an interview last year with ABC News told Charles Gibson, “It was authorized. It was legal, according to the Attorney General of the United States.”It also was discussed and approved in meetings by the National Security Council’s Principals Committee, a group that included Vice President Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell, Donald Rumsfeld, George Tenet, John Ashcroft.

tp://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/04/10/they-knew/

Trailer for Body of War…Donahue’s new film about Iraq war vets that have been permanently injured:

http://alternet.org/blogs/video/#81976

Olberman’s Bushed…always worth a look:

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/04/09/countdowns-bushed-be-careful-what-you-ask-for-edition/

The Daily Show on the incredible revelations that Bush administration FAA officials threatened FAA workers into NOT REPORTING their safety concerns…which happens to be why my last flight was cancelled! Apparently, and shockingly (I’m being sarcastic), there are those in industry and government that believe airline industry profits are more important than passenger safety!

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/04/09/the-daily-show-dont-talk-about-flight-club/

And Don Siegelman, now out of jail and going after Rove, is interviewed by Dan Abrams…this could get REAL good:

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/04/08/verdict-with-dan-abrams-don-siegelman-speaks-out/

Olbermann interviews NSA official on the Petraeus testimony…as in, has he no shame?

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/04/08/countdown-former-nsa-director-picks-apart-petraeus-crocker-propaganda/

Senator Melendez does one of the better jobs hear of cross examining war criminals Petraeus and Crocker:

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/04/08/sen-menedez-to-amb-crocker-reconstruction-billions-have-worsened-everyday-iraqi-life/

Michael Ware, CNN’s Iraq reporter, sets the record straight on just who’s running the show there…let’s just say it’s not Malicki. Let’s hope McCain is taking notes from him…but that would be expecting too much…ignorance, as they say, is bliss. The big problem with Ware though is, he’s still peddling the idea that we can’t leave Iraq because all hell would break loose if we do. While I reject that premise, I’d also point out the bottom line: the invasion and occupation was and is ILLEGAL and based on lies; the American people want us out; the Iraqi people want us out; and the troops even want the war to end. End of story…

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/04/08/the-situation-room-michael-ware-on-who-wields-power-in-iraq/

Olbermann discusses the latest Republican to make a racist comment about Obama…because hey, he’s multi-ethnic like Tiger:

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/04/09/countdown-mccain-supporter-disparages-obama-by-likening-him-to-tiger-woods/

ARTICLE SECTION: MOYERS, SCHEER

Bill Moyers gives another classic speech on a topic I so often discuss here…the media, journalism, and the more general collapse of the Fourth Estate.

A few clips:

Five years, thousands of casualties, and hundreds of billion dollars later, most of the media co-conspirators caught in flagrante delicto are still prominent, still celebrated, and still holding forth with no more contrition than a weathercaster who made a wrong prediction as to the next day's temperature. The biblical injunction, "Go and sin no more," is the one we most frequently forget in the press. Collectively, we don't seem to learn that all it takes to transform an ordinary politician and a braying ass into the modern incarnation of Zeus and the oracle of Delphi is an oath on the Bible, a flag in the lapel, and the invocation of national security.

SNIP

So for all the blunders for which we are culpable; for all the disillusionment that has set in among journalists with every fresh report of job cuts and disappearing news space; for all the barons and buccaneers turning the press into a karaoke of power; for all the desecration visited on broadcast journalism by the corporate networks; for all the nonsense to which so many aspiring young journalists are consigned; and for all the fears about the eroding quality of the craft, I still answer emphatically when young people ask me, "Should I go into journalism today?"

Sometimes it is difficult to urge them on, especially when serious questions are being asked about how loyal our society is to the reality as well as to the idea of an independent and free press. But I almost always answer, "Yes, if you have a fire in your belly, you can still make a difference." I remind them of how often investigative reporting has played a crucial role in making the crooked straight. I remind them how news bureaus abroad are a form of national security that can tell us what our government won't. I remind them that as America grows more diverse, it's essential to have reporters, editors, producers and writers who reflect these new rising voices and concerns. And I remind them that facts can still drive the argument and tug us in the direction of greater equality and a more democratic society. Journalism still matters.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/041008A.shtml

Robert Scheer writes on the farce that was the Petraeus/Crocker lie fest. I still sometimes feel I must be in some bizarre universe, trapped in a world of insanity and illogic, up is down, down is up, and liars are looked to for truth. I mean, these people don’t even try and pretend to tell the truth about the most obvious details about what’s really happening in Iraq, and how it relates to the once again up tick in saber rattling against Iran. So for the record, Iran is on the SIDE OF MALICKI…therefore, we are fighting, often, FOR IRAN!!

A few clips:

American history offers no greater heroes, not because of their considerable success in battle but because they gained the wisdom to sound the alarm against unbridled militarism so passionately and effectively. The farewell addresses of both those departing generals-turned-president still stand as the essential bookends for what has been written about the limits on military adventure required for democracy’s survival. Washington’s plea to the nation “to moderate the fury of party spirit, to warn against the mischiefs of foreign intrigue, to guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism” sets the standard for enlightened political discourse. A close second is Eisenhower’s warning that, “In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.”

SNIP

No such dissension from Petraeus - his faithful testimony, at least to the president if not the truth, on Tuesday was a particularly painful performance. Civilian deaths in March were 50 percent higher than in February, and there were a score of recent American deaths, and there is no evidence of political progress to support Petraeus’ stab at optimism over the “fragile” situation in Iraq. Most absurd was the suggestion that the problem would all go away if Iran would only behave, when in fact American troops are being sacrificed on the pro-Iranian side of an internal Shiite power dispute. The Shiites in charge of “our” government in Iraq are exiles trained for decades in Iran.

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/04/09/8176/

ELECTION FRAUD UPDATES (don't think we're in the clear yet...this election could easily be manipulated too)

Princeton Prof: Sequoia Voting Machine Failure in NJ Worse Than Previously Thought

New Findings Directly Contradict Company Explanation, Excuse...

Princeton computer science professor and now-well known academic hacker of e-voting systems, Ed Felten, reports on his blog...

This week we obtained six new summary tapes, from machines in Bergen and Gloucester counties. Two of these new tapes contradict Sequoia’s explanation and show more serious discrepancies that we saw before...

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5870

BREAKING: Sequoia Touch-Screen Voting Machines Subpoenaed in NJ

Judge Orders Mandatory Testing of Machines After Company Previously Threatened Legal Action Against Princeton Professors if They Dared To Examine Machines...

Please note: The subpoenaed machines are the same failed Sequoia AVC Advantage touch-screen voting systems scheduled for use in Pennsylvania in the important upcoming Democratic Primary!

FULL DETAILS: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5880

Failed Again: Widely-Used Diebold Touch-Screens Systems Dropped Votes in Recent Ohio Primary

Vote Totals from Memory Cards in Butler County Not Tallied by Central Tabulator, Despite System Reporting Otherwise

Letter to Company from County Officials Also Reveals New Admission Concerning Another Potential Serious Problem for November...

A failure in Diebold touch-screen voting systems in Butler County, OH resulted in votes not being included properly in Election Night results, even though the system had reported that all votes were uploaded and recorded correctly. Once the error was discovered, a subsequent upload of all of the county's 1599 touch-screen memory cards to the Diebold central election tabulator after the election, also resulted in the failure to record the results of one of the memory cards, despite the system having reported that all results were "uploaded properly."

The failure of Diebold's widely-used AccuVote TSx machines during the state's March 4th primary election resulted in the initial loss of at least 150 votes, and has prompted a letter of concern to the company (posted in full at the end of this article,) from Butler County's Election Director, Betty L. McGary and Deputy Director, Lynn Edward Kinkaid.

In the letter to David Byrd, President of Diebold's recently-renamed election division, "Premier Election Solutions," the officials point out that two different memory cards failed to upload vote tallies to the central tabulator.

"It may appear that every vote has been counted when cards indicate they are being properly uploaded, when in fact votes cast on a memory card(s) are not tabulated in the results," the officials wrote after having discovered the matter. "It is unimaginable how serious this situation could have been should the problem be undetected, or ignored," they concluded.

The letter also details yet another previously-unknown problem with Diebold's central tabulator --- one that could well-effect this November's general election --- as revealed to the officials by a company employee during the initial trouble-shooting of the problem.

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5879

TODAY'S TOPICS: McCain, Krugman, Ethanol Scam, Economy, Donahue, Trade

VIDEO SECTION

McCain WRONG AGAIN about Al Qaeda versus Shia…as C&L point out: “I can’t figure out if he’s doing this because he’s too stupid to learn and educate himself or if he buys into the Rovian theory that if you stubbornly keep repeating something over and over that eventually it’s accepted as the truth. Either way, is that the kind of Commander-in-Chief we need after Bush?”

Watch him do it again:

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/04/08/mccain-confuses-al-qaeda-in-iraq-with-shiites-again/

I’m going to be honest; one of my dreams is to punch Tucker Carlson, close fisted, right in the face. What can I say, I’m not perfect :) Watch Donahue debate him on the war as it relates to his new film “body of war”…a documentary about the troops that come home permanently injured and disabled…then left to rot by their own government.

I also agree with C&L’s point here…why is Tucker even brought in to comment and attack Donahue…a journalist of stature and respect? Why do they HAVE to have a right winger on for a discussion about Donahue’s film? Gee…I wonder…

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/04/08/verdict-with-dan-abrams-donahue-and-carlson-on-iraq/

QUOTES ON THE US ECONOMIC CRISIS (from some of my most respected experts)

"Where are we? We're in a disaster zone. It's like bird flu in the financial system. Buyers overseas who bought all of these securities have found out that they've been scammed. No one knows how to value this stuff. The Fed has unsuccessfully injected hundreds of billions into the system as well as slashed rates. But it hasn't solved the problem. No one is going to come out of this unscathed. This is a disaster. It's a 50-state Katrina, and then some."

-- Danny Schechter, award-winning producer for CNN and ABC, graduate of the London School of Economics and the man behind the documentary In Debt We Trust

"If you're one of the 2 million American families losing your house this year, it's a depression. If you're a mortgage shark, happy days are here again. The difference between the Great Depression and this one is that, back then, everyone was in it. Now, it's a selective mangling. Exxon's profit hit $40 billion, the highest of any corporation since the pharaohs. So how can you say the economy is going down? For whom?"

SNIP

“I'm sorry to tell you this, but higher oil prices and weak dollars is not a failure of policy. That is the policy. Clinton had a strong dollar policy and Bush hated it. The weak dollar is a way to temporarily hike exports to create short-term pretend juice for the economy. But the weak dollar also made it easier for foreigners to buy up U.S. assets. The capitalists are cashing out of America. They're keeping condos in New York, Palm Beach and Malibu, but their investments are where the returns are fatter: Malaysia, China, India. A weak dollar helps the transfer of capital ownership."

-- Greg Palast, BBC investigative journalist, author of Armed Madhouse

TRADE AND THE RISE OF PROGRESSIVE POPULISM

"Polls from the Wall Street Journal and Fortune magazine show that voters of both parties have had it with trade policies that they believe help other countries and slash jobs and wages here at home. A February Bloomberg poll found that by two-to-one, Americans say acquisitions of U.S. companies by other countries' so-called "sovereign wealth" funds have a negative impact on our economy. More than two-thirds said that "allowing foreign investment in U.S. companies gives foreign governments too much control over the U.S. market."

SNIP

First, a proposal by Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) would make new trade agreements harder to pass "unless they are accompanied by a more thorough financial analysis," as the Washington Post reported. Their bill would end the practice of flying blindly into the free trade abyss by forcing the government to provide estimates of potential job losses with any trade pact. (That's right - Congress currently makes trade policy without even asking what the consequences are.)

Second, for pacts that do pass, Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) is developing a proposal that would give nonprofit groups and individuals the same enforcement powers that corporations currently enjoy. Ellison floated a truncated version of this concept during the 2007 debate over the Peru Free Trade Agreement, arguing that if a trade deal gives a corporation the right to sue in international courts for enforcement of investor rights (copyrights, patents, intellectual property, etc.), then individuals and advocacy organizations should also have the same right to sue for enforcement of other rights (labor, environmental, etc.). A Democratic administration could incorporate this forward thinking into the core text of any future trade pact.

Third, there are the concerns about foreign economic influence. The 2006 brouhaha over a Dubai company attempting to buy a group of American ports focused the public's attention on the larger issue of state-owned companies and investment funds buying up large segments of the American economy. Today, these sovereign wealth funds hold $2.5 trillion in assets, and Morgan Stanley estimates they could hold $17 trillion within a decade. Many fear that these state-controlled entities, which often operate in secret, could use such assets as a political weapon.

Unlike the typical investor concerned only with the bottom line, foreign governments have agendas beyond making a buck. They could easily push companies to behave in ways that are politically advantageous to the owner country. That nationalist concern has led to congressional hearings, and according to Financial Week, some Democratic legislators appear poised to introduce a bill to strengthen the weak regulatory regime that currently oversees these international economic transactions.

And Fourth, The Patriot Corporation Act, a bill sponsored by Obama, would provide tax advantages and federal contracting preferences to companies that maintain their operations and employment base in the United States. This renewed effort to legislatively distinguish - and target - companies based on geographic employment and tax decisions started in 2002 with two little-noticed bills.

-- David Sirota

ARTICLE SECTION: Rich, Krugman

Frank Rich goes through example after example of just how wrong McCain has been, and continues to be, on every aspect of the war. God I would love to run a campaign against this guy. I hope Obama is taking notes from this...

A few clips:

So far his bizarre pronouncements have been drowned out by the Democrats' din. They've also been underplayed by a press that coddles Ol' Man Straight Talk and that rarely looks more deeply into the 'surge is success' propaganda than it did into Mr. Bush's announcement of the end of 'major combat operations' five years ago. The electorate doesn't want to hear much anyway about a war it long ago soundly rejected.

SNIP

Mr. McCain was just as wrong about Basra as he was in 2003, when he said the war would be 'brief' and be paid for by Iraqi oil revenues. Or as he was in the 1990s, when he championed extravagant State Department funding for the war instigator Ahmad Chalabi, who'd already been branded untrustworthy by the C.I.A. (The relationship between Mr. Chalabi and the former lobbyist Charles Black, now a chief McCain campaign strategist, is explored in a new book, 'The Man Who Pushed America to War,' by Aram Roston.)

As for Basra, Mr. McCain told Joe Klein of Time in January that it was 'not a problem.' He told John King of CNN while in Baghdad last month that Mr. Sadr's 'influence has been on the wane for a long time.' When the battle ended last week, Mr. McCain said: 'Apparently it was Sadr who asked for the cease-fire, declared a cease-fire. It wasn't Maliki. Very rarely do I see the winning side declare a cease-fire.' At least the last of those sentences was accurate. It was indeed the losing side - Maliki's - that pleaded for the cease-fire.

SNIP

Mr. McCain is also fond of portraying Mr. Maliki's 'democracy' in Iraq as an essential bulwark against Iran; his surrogate Lindsey Graham habitually refers to Mr. Sadr's Mahdi Army as 'Iranian-backed militias.' But the political coalition and militia propping up Mr. Maliki are even closer to Iran than the Sadrists. McClatchy Newspapers reported last week that the Maliki-Sadr cease-fire was not only brokered in Iran but by a general whose name is on the Treasury Department's terrorist list: the commander of the Quds force of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/040608B.shtml

And Paul Krugman writes about exactly what I’ve been calling it for years: The Ethanol Scam! He even uses the same terminology. Nice. As I had predicted too, the widespread use of ethanol is far more than just an environmental boondoggle - that does nothing to reduce carbon emissions - it's also increasing the price of food, esp. corn. This in turn, is hurting the poor across the entire world by making food less affordable and available.

The whole ethanol issue could become one of the great policy blunders of the last half century…makes you really wonder whether we need to end Iowa’s reign as the first state to vote in the primaries!

A few clips:

Where the effects of bad policy are clearest, however, is in the rise of demon ethanol and other biofuels. The subsidized conversion of crops into fuel was supposed to promote energy independence and help limit global warming. But this promise was, as Time magazine bluntly put it, a "scam."

This is especially true of corn ethanol: even on optimistic estimates, producing a gallon of ethanol from corn uses most of the energy the gallon contains. But it turns out that even seemingly "good" biofuel policies, like Brazil's use of ethanol from sugar cane, accelerate the pace of climate change by promoting deforestation.

And meanwhile, land used to grow biofuel feedstock is land not available to grow food, so subsidies to biofuels are a major factor in the food crisis. You might put it this way: people are starving in Africa so that American politicians can court votes in farm states.

SNIP

What should be done? The most immediate need is more aid to people in distress: the U.N.'s World Food Program put out a desperate appeal for more funds. We also need a pushback against biofuels, which turn out to have been a terrible mistake. But it's not clear how much can be done. Cheap food, like cheap oil, may be a thing of the past.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/040708N.shtml

MCCAIN’S MONEY RAISING AIN’T S***

Though the media is reporting the $15 million raised by McCain as some kind of success, just remember: the two Democratic candidates raised $60 million between them last month and John McCain scrapes together just a quarter of that, according to campaign sources. And this is supposed to be so great? A successful month for this guy? If we can just get rid of Hillary and get this campaign underway!

END

CONGRESS ADDS PRESSURE ON DEPT. OF JUSTICE TO RELEASE CLASSIFIED MEMOS: Last Tuesday, the Defense and Justice Departments released a previously-classified 2003 memo claiming that "federal laws prohibiting" torture against al Qaeda captives did not apply because the President's "ultimate authority" overrides those laws. The release of this memo has led members of both the House and the Senate to add pressure for the release of other documents that include information about "the treatment of detainees and the warrantless surveillance of U.S. citizens." Most of the pending legislative requests cover national security, notes the Washington Post. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) called these documents "the secret justifications of presidential lawlessness." Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), in his request of 2001 documents on presidential war powers, said that actions carried out under "'secret' powers known only to the President" are "antithetical" to the U.S. constitution.

TODAY'S TOPICS: Kerry v. McCain, Abstinence Only, Iraq, Siegelman, Rev. Wright, McCain Facts

No time today...articles tomorrow...still some good stuff...

From June 2007 through February 2008, deaths from ethno-sectarian violence in Baghdad have fallen approximately 90%. American casualties have also fallen sharply, down by 70%."

-- Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC), 4/7/08

VERSUS

"Iraqi deaths rose from a low of 568 in December and 541 in January to roughly 721 in February to more than 1,082 in March. ... US troop deaths have also crept up, from 23 in December -- the lowest number since 2004 -- to 40 in January, 29 in February, and 38 in March."

-- Boston Globe, 4/7/08

VIDEO SECTION

Oh yes…John Kerry dismantles the McCain myth!

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/04/07/senator-mccain-vs-nomination-mccain-sen-kerry-dismantles-the-mccain-myth/

More good news, as the Don Siegelman case is covered on 60 Minutes (now that he’s out of jail), where he challenges Rove to testify under oath! This could get good:

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/04/07/60-minutes-gov-siegelman-challenges-rove-to-testify-under-oath/

You won’t get much better an illustration of the media's bias in favor of war than this clip. Here, as so many reporters do, Cokie Roberts actually argues, with a straight face, that the public would be hard to convince that withdrawal from Iraq is needed. Thankfully the Nation’s Katrina Vanden Hueval is there to set her straight:

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/04/07/this-week-cokie-roberts-sneers-at-the-responsible-plan-to-end-the-war-says-most-americans-interested-in-winning/

And if you want to watch the sheer duplicity and, well, outright lies perpetrated by supposedly “pro troop” republicans, watch Lindsey graham debate Senator Webb (who would make an excellent VP for Obama by the way) on his new GI Bill. That’s right, Graham, Mr. Iraq war and patriotism, is AGAINST giving the troops more benefits. Similarly, McCain has so far refused to support it either…and he and Graham are buddies. So for the record, McCain is for torture, and against troop benefits…

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/04/06/lindsey-graham-uses-every-trick-in-the-book-not-to-support-webbs-new-gi-bill/

Finally, watch yet another frightening, and almost shocking example of just how little McCain understands, or cares to for that matter, what’s happening in Iraq:

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/04/06/john-mccain-is-clueless-on-the-ceasefire-in-basra/

John "the disgrace" McBush Fun Facts:

• According to Bloomberg News, McCain is more hawkish than Bush on Iraq, Russia and China. Conservative columnist Pat Buchanan says McCain "will make Cheney look like Gandhi."
• His reputation is built on his opposition to torture, but McCain voted against a bill to ban waterboarding, and then applauded President Bush for vetoing that ban.
• McCain opposes a woman's right to choose. He said, "I do not support Roe versus Wade. It should be overturned."
• The Children's Defense Fund rated McCain as the worst senator in Congress for children. He voted against the children's health care bill last year, then defended Bush's veto of the bill.
• McCain talks a lot about taking on special interests, but his campaign manager and top advisers are actually lobbyists. The government watchdog group Public Citizen says McCain has 59 lobbyists raising money for his campaign, more than any of the other presidential candidates.
• He positions himself as pro-environment, but he scored a 0—yes, zero—from the League of Conservation Voters last year.

Major Surge in Support for National Health Insurance among U.S. Physicians, New Study Finds

Solid majority support government legislation to establish national health insurance (we can partially thank Michael Moore for this)

New research by the Indiana University School of Medicine shows that 59 percent of doctors support legislation to establish a national health insurance system, up from 49 percent in 2002. Only 32 percent of doctors said they were opposed. A slightly lower percentage, 55 percent, agreed with a different question on what researchers considered "incremental" reform -- that is, one that relies on tweaking the existing employer-based insurance system and filling in the gaps from there.

Compared with the 2002 survey, is the extent to which doctors in every specialty increased their support for a national health plan. "Every group went up that we measured," he told me. Those who back national health insurance the strongest are psychiatrists, who see mentally ill people suffer from some insurers' outright ban on coverage for mental health, or from low reimbursement rates for mental health treatment. Those in pediatrics and emergency medicine were also strong supporters. "

END

NEWS CLIPS

Approximately one-third of U.S. soldiers "in hard-to-reach outposts in Iraq and Afghanistan lack timely access to mental health care, according to Pentagon officials and a recent survey." In Afghanistan, for example, "it can take an average of 40 hours for a psychologist to visit soldiers."

Intelligence centers run by states called "fusion centers" have access to personal information about millions of Americans, including unlisted cellphone numbers, insurance claims, driver's license photographs and credit reports." The centers were created after the 9/11 attacks."

Installed U.S. wind energy capacity grew nearly 45 percent last year to 16,800 megawatts, or about enough to serve 4.5 million homes, as interest in low-carbon power grew."

ABSTINENCE ONLY EDUCATION CREATES IDIOTS (my term)...

A recent survey that found some Florida teens believe drinking a cap of bleach will prevent HIV and a shot of Mountain Dew will stop pregnancy has prompted lawmakers to push for an overhaul of sex education in the state.

The survey showed that Florida teens also believe that smoking marijuana will prevent a person from getting pregnant. State lawmakers said the myths are spreading because of Florida’s abstinence-only sex education, Local 6 reported.

They are proposing a bill that would require a more comprehensive approach, the report said. It would still require teaching abstinence but students would also learn about condoms and other methods of birth control and disease prevention.

Read on…

A WHITE MEMBER OF REV. WRIGHT’S CHURCH SPEAKS OUT

I find it very troubling that we have distilled Wright's 35-year ministry to a few phrases; no context whatsoever has been offered or explored.

I do have a bit of personal context. About 26 years ago, I became engaged to my wife, an African-American. She was at that time and remains a member of Trinity. Somewhere between the ring and the altar, my wife had second thoughts and broke off the engagement. Her decision was grounded in race: So committed to black causes, the daughter of parents subjected to unthinkable prejudice over the years, an "up-and-coming" leader in the young black community, how could she marry a white man?

Rev. Wright, whom I had met only in passing at the time and who was equally if not more outspoken about "black" issues than he is today, somehow found out about my wife's decision. He called and asked her to "drop everything" and meet with him at Trinity. He spent four hours explaining his reaction to her decision. Racial divisions were unacceptable, he said, no matter how great or prolonged the pain that caused them. God would not want us to assess or make decisions about people based on race. The world could make progress on issues of race only if people were prepared to break down barriers that were much easier to let stand.

Rev. Wright was pretty persuasive; he presided over our wedding a few months later. In the years since, I have watched in utter awe as Wright has overseen and constructed a support system for thousands in need on the South Side that is far more impressive and effective than any governmental program possibly could approach. And never in my life have I been welcomed more warmly and sincerely than at Trinity. Never.

I hope that as a nation, we take advantage of the opportunity the recent focus on Rev. Wright presents - to advance our dialogue on race in a meaningful and unprecedented way. To do so, however, we need to appreciate that passion born of difficulty does not always manifest itself in the kind of words with which we are most comfortable. We also need to recognize that the basic goodness of people like Jeremiah Wright is not always packaged conventionally.

END

THE RESULT OF "BIPARTISINSHIP" = GARBAGE

As I said, meeting fascists and corporatists in the middle still produces crap. Or, if you mix a good idea with shit, you still get shit. I give you exhibit A. the terrible bill that the democrats and republicans came together on that supposdedly deals with the housing crisis. The Dems dropped all the good parts of the bill to appease the Republicans to join them, and walaaaa...we get this pile of crap:

THE BAD: Unfortunately, the Foreclosure Prevention Act has downfalls. One of the major add-ons to the bill was a "carryback" provision on net operating loss (NOL) for businesses. A company experiences a NOL when its annual expenses exceed its income in a given tax year. Under current law, companies can use NOLs to offset the taxes they owe on profits made in the two previous years. The Senate housing bill would extend the "carryback" period to four years from two. Although some of the corporations who were hit by the Wall Street market meltdown were innocent bystanders, some of the largest losses are on the books of the wealthiest financial players -- the same people who stand to gain from this clause. The housing rescue bill "started off in a very good place for consumers, average Americans," said Andrew Jakabovics, the Associate Director for the Economic Mobility Program at the Center for American Progress. "But it turned into something that was targeted at a narrow sector of the economy. ... The net operating loss provision is basically a handout to the building groups." The NOL stipulation is not the only that damages the American middle class. On Thursday afternoon, the Senate rejected its first and most contentious amendment to the bill, a proposal by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) to allow bankruptcy judges (THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN GREAT) to change the terms of subprime mortgages. Consumer groups see the exclusion of this provision as the bill's biggest setback, arguing that of all the legislative proposals aimed at helping homeowners, this was the most crucial. Absent from this legislation is any provision focusing on preventing future foreclosures and ensuring that responsible homeowners can remain in their homes. In the absence of an effective mechanism for preventing future foreclosures from overwhelming local housing inventories, Americans' home equity and the attendant economic benefits will continue to be in severe jeopardy.

DON'T FORGET ABOUT HOMEOWNERS: Billed as boosting the slumping housing market, the Foreclosure Prevention Act actually "showers money-losing businesses with $25 billion in tax relief in the next few years but offers just $3 billion to homeowners." "Benefits to businesses also dwarf $4 billion in the bill that would be given to cities and towns to buy and refurbish foreclosed and abandoned homes in an effort to stabilize communities and preserve neighboring home values." Political leaders must recognize that while this crisis must be dealt with quickly, the legislation must target the communities most greatly affected by high levels of foreclosures and rising foreclosure rates. The NYT/CBS poll reveals that Americans favor "help for individuals but not for financial institutions. A clear majority said they did not want the government to lend a hand to banks, even if the measures would help limit the depth of a recession."

EXPERTS SAY U.S. NO CLOSER TO LEAVING IRAQ THAN IT WAS A YEAR AGO: The United States Institute of Peace (USIP) released a new report today stating that because "political progress is so slow, halting and superficial, and social and political fragmentation so pronounced," the United States "is no closer to being able to leave Iraq than it was a year ago." The new assessment -- which was conducted by the same experts that advised the Iraq Study Group (ISG) -- "predicts that lasting political development could take five to 10 years of 'full, unconditional commitment' to Iraq, but also cautions that future progress may not be worth the 'massive' human and financial costs" to the United States. The report also says that the recent security gains in Iraq are "due to factors that are outside U.S. control and therefore subject to change." "Reductions in troop levels will likely result in some degree of chaos and violence no matter what," the report finds, but adds that a rapid withdrawal would cause "massive chaos and even genocide." The White House "blocked efforts to reassemble" the ISG for a follow-up report even though former co-chair Lee Hamilton "was interested in a sequel timed to the [Iraq] assessment this week by Gen. David Petraeus and Amb. Ryan Crocker."