A well-informed citizenry

Yes, we just talked about this hearing Friday, which is this coming Wednesday. Several will be present to share our INFORMED concerns.

Thanks for the information.

Here is a new "video only" blog, another "peoples' project" of DIY media:
http://romewithtelevision.blogspot.com/

Is it illegal to show a peace sign in Congress?

The titles of the newspaper articles about the candidates are irritating me badly. There is all this talk about "aggression" and toughness - who can be the most manly and God forbid, not a "metrosexual" - the most tough of them all may yet turn out to be a woman. Right now I can not have a strong positive feeling about any of them moreso than the other due to the extreme marketing ploys. Will have to examine their records some more.

All I sense is strategists behind the scenes and pollsters and studiers of demographics esp. peoples' insecurities. What will work? How can we psychologically manipulate the masses into voting for us?

I will never forget working for Eugene McCarthy in my teens and learning how the candidates tailor their speeches for different crowds, even if they sometimes contradict themselves. Mike Gravel is right - they will say what they need to & get into office & then don't have to do what they said. Isn't that why so many are pissed at the Democrats right now & ranking them low?

Bah humbug (so far) to the 2008 election.

I painted Billie Holiday, check it out.

http://christysartblog.blogspot.com/

NMP, there are a few different ones to pick from there. All recent. My older works I have to go dig out of peoples houses.

Rossi, did you ever get your copy of An American Princess? Do you like it and do you have a pic of it? I can't find the pic I took.

October 28, 2007 12:49 PM
not my president

Amen.

Christy
THANKS! I'll bookmark that when I get on my own computer and I'll look it over more & I'll link to it. I can take jpgs off there, w/your permission. My son is on my computer right now. & now I know the one email address will likely get through if the other one won't. We're all set. Right now we have the antiwar rally pics up & I share the site w/a couple of others but no hurry - would rather have waited til I knew where all the pics were. Knew at one time you had an art blog but didn't have the link but did have a few on Rossi's site. Love the Billie Holiday. It's inspiring me to get back at it - I had pretty much been doing just photography lately & I haven't gotten into painting but had done some political satirey cartoony type stuff awhile back & drawing of architecture. I quit for about 3 decades and retrained myself in 4 days after my lst trip to England at age 40. It's amazing what a rich visual input will do!

Christy
I have it basically ready so I can always put it up sometime next week and you can tell me if you want anything changed. I did a little bio just from how I know you, & reprinted your writing about "Preaching to the Choir." I like it.

This is posted at the request of Elizabeth Walter, Seattle, who was happy to hear about the thread topic. Some of this is pertinent to here but parallel with what will happen elsewhere.

Further media consolidation is imminent once again.

No date has been set, however when an official hearing was held In L.A. last year, the FCC gave only 4 days notice.

Reclaim theMedia (local volunteer group invested in media justice issues), will conduct workshops where folks canget testimony prep help. Watch www.reclaimthemedia.org for breaking information and workshop details.

What's at stake are the federal rules which preserve democratic media accountability by placing limits on the number of TV and radio stations a single firm can own, and by limiting local newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership.

The main issues at the Seattle hearing will include:
* whether one company should be allowed to own newspapers, radio and TV in the same town;
* media ownership by minorities and women;
* the impact of consolidated media on Native American communities;
* the impact of radio consolidation on regional music scenes;
* the extent to which internet and internet governance issues affect media ownership policy.

This will be an official hearing (unlike the unofficial hearing hosted by Reclaim the Media in Seattle last November which drew more than 400 people). That means that all five commissioners will attend this hearing, and all comments at the hearing will become part of the FCC's official record.

What can we do?
* Plan to attend the hearing. We need to send the FCC - and Congress - a powerful message that the Northwest wants less corporate media consolidation, not more.
* Testify. It's a public hearing - anyone can get on the mic and give their 2-minute prepared testimony.
* Sharpen your testimony at a pre-hearing workshop. Reclaim the Media will be offering workshops to share information and help you prepare your 2-minute remarks.
* The next workshop dates Mon. Oct 29, 7-9pm at Beacon Hill Library ( 2821?Beacon Ave S.36/38/60 bus)
*Thurs. Nov 1, 6pm-8pm at Cal Anderson Park ( 163511th Ave.9/10/11 bus)

* Tell your networks, friends, family and co-workers.. We need to overwhelm the FCC with authentic public
voices that care about local culture, local politics, diverse views and voices.

* Stay informed., Watch reclaimthemedia.org for the latest updates and visit www.stopbigmedia.com
* Be a volunteer to help with pre-hearing special events F r further information about the hearing or our rapid response organizing, please contact Jonathan Lawson,?(206.931.0565), or Karen Toering (206.941.5596), orSabrina Roach (206.218.6416).

Other notes: The FCC tried to suppress its own report that showed the importance of locally-owned broadcasters. In
2004, an FCC-commissioned study found that locally-owned broadcasters devote, on average, an additional 20 to 25 percent of their newscasts to local news stories —approximately 5.5 more minutes per half hour broadcast. The study also found that Network-owned and operated stations --belonging to ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox – aired significantly less local news. Since the FCC last voted on this issue in 2003, more than 3,000 local TV and radio stations that have had their licenses transferred to larger owners. Even under the existing rules, consolidation grows, localism suffers and diversity dwindles

Please Tell the FCC to Stop allowing media consolidation where fewer and fewer big corporations own more and more of the media promote localism promote diversity of voices and ownership. Give more rights to Low Power FM!?

Try it:

Rossi, did you ever get your copy of An American Princess? Do you like it and do you have a pic of it? I can't find the pic I took.
******
Got them while you were at you Grandmothers funeral, left a message here on DCP for you.
they are wonderfull, put them up on my site.

Christy
Leaving for the movies .. just got what I needed from you so I'll finish the story and put it up real soon. Thanks again!

Karen said:

Ralpheh,

That video infuriates me all over. They really went after Liz and Lori and you can see the look on the cop's face (I think his name is SULLIVAN) as he yanks Liz up, and then goes for Lori.

@@@@@

After I saw the C-Span coverage of this hearing and Chairman Lantos praising Condi Rice and kissing her butt FOR JUST APPEARING and then his scolding of the protesters; and later seeing a protester being dragged out for saying nothing, holding no sign, just showing the two finger peace, I called Lantos's office asked whether Condi Rice, when as national security advisor, had not lied repeatedly about Iraq's WMD. They didn't want to say anything Condi's past lies. I repeatedly called their office for comment. Then they told me they would contact Capitol Police about my calls. I told them go ahead - I had broken no law.

I asked Lantos's office as well, who had ordered the arrest of the protesters - again they had no response.

BTW on Friday, Rep. Lantos got in trouble for dissing Dutch officials who had asked that Guantanamo be closed. He said that "we" saved them from the Nazi's WW2 and were not in a position to ask for anything....

Just came back from a meeting with CodePink's Gayle Brandeis. She was doing a poetry reading at a coffee shop 10 minutes from my place.

We caught up on the stuff surrounding yesterday's peace march (which she had to miss out on), as well as CodePink related stuff (not to mention my novel, which she's been helping me on, but that's a different topic). I mentioned Democracy Cell Project again to her (I first mentioned it two years ago), and of course brought up all the work Karen is doing on behalf of CodePink and their DC house.

Karen: Gayle may be in DC next month for a literary event to be determined. If she makes it to DC, she'll visit the CodePink house - and will be looking for you!

(Of course, I also mentioned that both of you drive Civic hybrids. :) )

Got this notice from pair.com around 6:20 pm ET.

Network Problems

----------------

Our monitoring suggests that shortly after 6pm Eastern time, HE.net began blackholing traffic destined for our network. We have seen a decrease in inbound and outbound traffic on that circuit, with no corresponding rise on other circuits. The traffic levels are slowly returning to normal, and we are seeking an explanation from the provider.

If any customer continues to be affected by this "brownout", please contact us with details.

So if you're still having any problems, let me know.

Thanks,

dwahzon

Dwahzon
That doesn't mean the government is spying on us does it? ;)

General comment to all:
Just saw "Across the Universe" and recommend it - brings back Vietnam era memories & has some antiwar message .. also really did see Eddie Izard, Bono and Joe Cocker playing parts .. didn't imagine it!

U.S. promises on Darfur don't match actions
Bush expresses passion for issue, but policies have been inconsistent

By Michael Abramowitz
washingtonpost.com

In April 2006, a small group of Darfur activists -- including evangelical Christians, the representative of a Jewish group and a former Sudanese slave -- was ushered into the Roosevelt Room at the White House for a private meeting with President Bush. It was the eve of a major rally on the National Mall, and the president spent more than an hour holding forth, displaying a kind of passion that has led some in the White House to dub him the "Sudan desk officer."

Bush insisted there must be consequences for rape and murder, and he called for international troops on the ground to protect innocent Darfuris, according to contemporaneous notes by one of those present. He spoke of "bringing justice" to the Janjaweed, the Arab militias that have participated in atrocities that the president has repeatedly described as nothing less than "genocide."

"He had an understanding of the issue that went beyond simply responding to a briefing that had been given," said David Rubenstein, a participant who was then executive director of the Save Darfur Coalition, which has been sharply critical of the administration's response to the crisis. "He knew more facts than I expected him to know, and he had a broader political perspective than I expected him to have."

Yet a year and a half later, the situation on the ground in Darfur is little changed: More than 2 million displaced Darfuris, including hundreds of thousands in camps, have been unable to return to their homes. The perpetrators of the worst atrocities remain unpunished. Despite a renewed U.N. push, the international peacekeeping troops that Bush has long been seeking have yet to materialize.

Just this weekend, peace talks in Libya aimed at ending the four-year conflict appeared to be foundering because of a boycott by key rebel groups.

Many of those who have tracked the conflict over the years, including some in his own administration, say Bush has not matched his words with action, allowing initiatives to drop because of inertia or failure to follow up, while proving unable to mobilize either his bureaucracy or the international community.

The president who famously promised not to allow another Rwanda-style mass murder on his watch has never fully chosen between those inside his government advocating more pressure on Sudan and those advocating engagement with its Islamist government, so the policy has veered from one approach to another.

Meanwhile, a constant turnover of key administration advisers on Darfur, such as former deputy secretary of state Robert B. Zoellick and presidential aide Michael Gerson, has made it hard for the administration to maintain focus.

"Bush probably does want something done, but the lack of hands-on follow-up from this White House allowed this to drift," said one former State Department official involved in Darfur who did not want to be quoted by name criticizing the president. "If he says, 'There is not going to be genocide on my watch,' and then 2 1/2 years later we are just getting tough action, what gives? He has made statements, but his administration has not given meaning to those statements."

Cannot be seen 'invading another Muslim country'
more...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21524041/

Yeah, so what else is new?

monkey.
So are you saying he is not really in charge?? That what he believes does not matter to the machine he is part of?

Shocked, we are.

No Karen, I'm saying that since Day 1 of this Regressive Regime, they have talked a helluva game of caring and compassion and whatnot, and choreographed quite another game beneath the radar.

I think he's in charge of the biggest scam to ever hit Planet Earth.

They smile in your face
All the time they want to take your place
The back stabbers...
Back stabbers!

Monkey
Yes - an oil and power grab, a heist of the US Treasury, a dissembling of the federal government & infrastructure, a selling of much of our assets, a soiling of our international reputation, a respite service for criminals here & abroad, & last but not least, a deficit & debt that extends out 3-4 generations if they were to stop now.

PS My mother had breast cancer so I think this is especially fake. On one hand, the "compassion" of breast cancer awareness in the middle east, where it has a stigma. On the other, turning a blind eye to the effects of depleted uranium, & that is just one of many examples.

If Dick Cheney were a dog...
http://www.kcci.com/news/14441475/detail.html

Monkey
I got one of those white "ghost pumpkins" (pasty-looking) and made a Dick Cheney Jack'o'lantern (I mean I still need to cut out the face parts I drew on it), using the New Yorker cover as a model, complete with sneer and glasses. It's already scaring me and it's not even dark!

The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead
by XTC

Peter Pumpkinhead came to town
Spreading wisdom and cash around
Fed the starving and housed the poor
Showed the vatican what gold's for

But he made too many enemies
Of the people who would keep us on our knees
Hooray for Peter Pumpkin-
Who'll pray for Peter Pumpkinhead?
Oh my!

Peter Pumpkinhead pulled them all
Emptied churches and shopping malls
Where he spoke, it would raise the roof
Peter Pumpkinhead told the truth

But he made too many enemies...
Peter Pumpkinhead put to shame
Governments who would slur his name
Plots and sex scandals failed outright
Peter merely said
Any kind of love is alright

But he made too many enemies...
Peter Pumpkinhead was too good
Had him nailed to a chunk of wood
He died grinning on live TV
Hanging there he looked a lot like you
And an awful lot like me!

But he made too many enemies...
Hooray for Peter Pumpkin
Who'll pray for Peter Pumpkin-
Hooray for Peter Pumpkinhead
Oh my oh my oh!
Doesn't it make you want to cry, oh?

If you're going to attend a Climate Change Convention, why not go to one in Bali?!! I would love to go & photograph it!

Kerry Offers Post-Kyoto Global Climate Change Approach
With Upcoming International Talks in Bali, Kerry Pushes U.S. to Lead, Engage Developing Nations in Solution

New York, N.Y. — Senator John Kerry will speak to the Council on Foreign Relations today. His address, “After Kyoto, Eyes on Bali: Global Climate Change and American Leadership,” will focus on the security challenge of global climate change and the way forward as the United States approaches the next round of global climate change talks in Bali in December. Sen. Kerry and Sen. Boxer are leading the Senate delegation to this next round of international discussions. The speech begins at 12:30 at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City.

The text of Kerry’s speech is below:

I’d like to focus my introductory remarks on an issue which frankly not enough people are talking about in the context of our foreign policy – but which could have a greater long-term impact on our security than any other: and that is global climate change.
There will be critical meetings this year about our security --- Secretary Rice’s Mideast Summit in Annapolis, perhaps some meetings between US and Iranian officials. But potentially just as important is the meeting which will happen just over a month from now, when delegates from 154+ nations arrive in Bali to start work on a new international climate change treaty, and I’ll be leading a bipartisan delegation from the US Senate.

The road to our present predicament is littered with missed opportunities, but we still face the same, ever more acute, choice: either America finally leads the world in crafting a comprehensive new international agreement, or the countries of the world will pollute our way into a catastrophe of unknowable parameters but undeniable peril.

We’ve all heard the warnings. Drought. Famine. Floods. Refugees. Devastated crops. Lost GDP. Instability. Border tensions—and more of the failed states that shelter and breed terrorists. The plagues seem to stop just short of the Old Testament slaying of the firstborn in Egypt. But we can’t wait for divine intervention—we have to act. How’s this for a call to action? Here’s a recent headline from Time magazine: “How to prevent the next Darfur. Step One: Get serious about climate change.” I’m pleased but not surprised to hear that the Council is once again ahead of the curve, and I look forward to hearing from the Independent Task Force chaired by Tom Vilsack and George Pataki.

I don’t intend to use this forum to dwell on or re-litigate the science, but let me say briefly, since the start of the industrial age, atmospheric CO2 levels are up 35%, to 380 parts per million. Scientists say that anything above 450 —which means a total warming of 2 degrees centigrade—passes a tipping point into catastrophic climate change. And guess what? Unless we slam the brakes—now—we’ll hit 600-700 ppm by 2100.

Mobilizing to solve climate change is especially tough because of the delayed onset of its impact—emissions stay in the atmosphere for 100 years, so the window for preventing climate change may close before we even begin to feel its full force. But the first signs are there: Recently we learned that Arctic sea ice is down 39% from its long-term average—and maybe as much as 50% since the 1950s. Two weeks ago, Nature warned that oceans—which historically absorb about a quarter of our CO2—are losing their capacity to serve as a “sink” for our emissions. As a result, the increased CO2 in the atmosphere has outpaced even our own dire predictions by 35% over the last 7 years. That’s the evidence: clear, growing, and urgent.

I don’t have to emphasize just how much we’ve been set back by 8 years outside the international system. It is crucial that our delegation to Bali send a clear message to the world that America is finally serious about fixing climate change. We’re ready to end the era of obstruction and start leading by example.

We, as a nation, are indispensable to this process. Our inaction is a green light to all the world’s polluters. But it’s humbling to remember that even when we had leadership that recognized the problem, a White House that signed a treaty, we still couldn’t put a system in place that reduced CO2 emissions. Kyoto failed. And it failed because we weren’t able to bridge the gap between developed and developing nations.

Our primary goal in Bali must be to arrive at a mandate for future negotiations to finally reach a truly global agreement on a truly global effort-- not one that leaves the world’s largest emitter of the past and the largest emitters of the future outside the system. That’s why we failed last time.
Ten years ago, the issue simply wasn’t ripe for solution—it wasn’t possible to craft a treaty that China would sign and the US Senate would ratify. I can’t emphasize enough how much—and how quickly—things have changed in both countries. You’ve witnessed the sea change here over the past few years. What is less well known is that today, a country like China finally grasps that they have an immediate and vital interest in getting this right. China has 16 of the world's 20 most polluted cities. Chinese villagers in Yunnan have watched their sacred Mingyong Glacier disappear before their very eyes. China put forth a climate change plan this year. They’ve already begun setting ambitious goals, such as a 20% cut in energy intensity by 2010. Next year, China’s fleet-wide fuel efficiency will be 36.7 mpg—higher than the Senate’s proposed target for 2020. There’s a cartoon out there that China won’t listen—but the reality is that a diplomatic breakthrough may be within reach.

That’s the best thing that could come out of Bali—an agreement on a serious mandate for moving forward. Ultimately, it boils down to this: the only fair, realistic solution is shared but differentiated responsibility. The US and other industrialized nations must accept mandatory caps and acknowledge that poorer nations won’t forego economic growth or bear the cost of other’s past emissions. China and other developing countries will have to take on their own binding commitments—not the same form as ours— but perhaps a commitment per unit of GDP growth instead of population or a single-industry cap. Down the road, China, India, Brazil, Mexico and other developing nations will have to lower absolute emissions. But today we must share the challenge of putting China on a path to doing so without infringing on its right to economic development. The consequences of China’s failure will be ours too.

That is why, in Bali and beyond, we must also commit ourselves to a massive new campaign aimed at fostering green development. And at the heart of that effort must be coal. We have to spread carbon capture and sequestration techniques—which can capture up to 100% of coal’s emissions—to China and the rest of the developing world. We must be realistic about the fact that a developing county like China—rich in coal, growing at 11%, and in need of a cheap source of energy—won’t adopt clean coal technology unless we help them. And their decisions may be irreversible: Today the Chinese are building one coal-fired power plant per week—most are not even designed so that they might be retrofitted later with clean technology. That’s the real cost of inaction in real time. Coal accounts for 80% of China’s CO2 emissions, and the EPA tells us that Chinese pollution accounts for ¼ of the smog over Los Angeles. That too is a cost of inaction. We should create an internationally-funded research consortium devoted to developing green technologies and spreading them to developing countries—we need to do everything we can—not just to develop green technologies, but to see them actually adopted by billions of people.

We should be reducing tariffs on green producers overseas, rewarding countries that meet emissions standards, and helping US companies to sell green products overseas. We should be financing low-carbon energy sources and vehicles through institutions like the World Bank, and building capacity for energy and environmental data collection.

Finally, we must address deforestation—which accounts for 20% of emissions, Because they pull CO2 out of the air, forests are the planet’s natural defense. This needs to be a major part of our next agreement, and in the meantime we need to make sure these countries have tools to measure the problem and capacity to start addressing it.

We must begin thinking of climate change as a major issue in our foreign policy and national security. We should recognize that the solutions to many of our greatest challenges-- energy security, terrorism, democracy promotion, and climate change—all intersect when it comes to our use of energy. Over the next 25 years, oil consumption in developing Asian nations will double to 32 million barrels per day—accounting for 80% of increased global demand for oil, much of it housed in unstable, authoritarian regimes. All of our most pressing geopolitical concerns point us in the same direction: a massive investment in alternative energy and green technology.

This is a test of America as a world leader in the 21st century. We need a new environmental diplomacy—a commitment to make the fight against global warming an integral part of our foreign relations and our national security strategy. Just ask the 11 high-ranking retired soldiers from every branch of the military who called it “a serious national security threat”—a “threat multiplier” that sparks and exacerbates conflict.

In the wake of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the world’s two superpowers walked back from the brink of mutual assured destruction. Kennedy and Khrushchev set up a hotline between Washington and Moscow because they understood that, at the end of the day, the buck stopped with them. That’s where America, China, and the developing world stand today— we’ve taken brinksmanship as far as it goes. Now it’s time to reach for the phone and give diplomacy a try. Our security depends more than ever before on our ability to influence others— we must get back into the business of good old fashioned persuasion.

Ultimately, the threat of climate change demands a new approach from America that looks an awful lot like the America we remember, the place Lincoln called “the last best hope of earth”. We should recommit to the hard but vital work of diplomacy and reengage with the rest of the planet. We must return to an understanding of the world where real strength means not just the absence of restraints but also the moral leadership that comes from leading by example.

before someone jumps on me about having a link I don't have one because I received it via email from his press agent

The trephination is done, also the lobotomy & we have discovered Mr. Cheney lacks an amygdala.

All of Kerry's statements are posted at his website,

http://kerry.senate.gov/newsroom/press.cfm

as is the one you posted, nmp.

CAPITOL HILL - Another House Republican is retiring.

A spokesman for Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo has confirmed he will not seek a sixth term.

Tancredo is running for the Republican presidential nomination, but the spokesman says the decision not to seek re-election is separate from that effort.

More than a dozen House Republicans have recently announced plans not to seek another term.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21530209/

20 headless corpses found in Iraq, police say
U.S. brigadier general injured in IED attack; 29 killed in suicide bombing

BREAKING NEWS
MSNBC News Services

BAGHDAD - Twenty decapitated bodies were found dumped near a police station on Monday west of the volatile city of Baqouba in Iraq, police said Monday.

There was no immediate information on who the victims were. Baqouba, about 40 miles northeast of Baghdad, is a mixed Sunni and Shiite city that has been torn sectarian violence.

In Baghdad, a U.S. brigadier general was wounded in an IED attack Monday, the U.S. military reported. He was the highest-ranking American officer to be hurt since the conflict began in March 2003.

more...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21522861/

Dwahzon
Thank you for the information on where the speech by John Kerry was posted. Will have to remember to check for that next time.

Oil prices top $93 a barrel

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12400801/

Kayakbiker PeacePumpkin

Monkey

Inversely correlated with the value of the dollar, with the Eurodollar now worth $1.44 to US $1 vs $.85 in 1999.

Saw "Across the Universe" last night with a 75 year old woman who recently saw Bob Dylan in Paris - she is amazing! Asked her what she thought about the world's turn of events and she said, "We're going down the tube."

Quick! Name ONE THING done under this President that has gone well, or is currently going well and represents the best interest of this nation.

Just one... I dare ya.

October 29, 2007 1:37 PM
not my president:

The trephination is done, also the lobotomy & we have discovered Mr. Cheney lacks an amygdala.

That is HYSTERICAL!

And frightening...

This sounds familiar - could it happen here?

Argentine First Lady Now President-Elect
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/102907T.shtml
Bill Cormier, The Associated Press, reports: "Cristina Fernandez rode into the presidency on her husband's reputation but now must learn to stand on her own: Argentina's economy is overheating, voters are angry about inflation and crime, and unpopular hikes in utility rates are inevitable."

Bill Richardson on the Overhaul of American Elections and "Why Tuesday"

Sunday talk about World War III

Justice for Iraqis in Georgies illegal war and occupation.

Did America and the Coalition go t Liberate or occupy?

Bush Administration Promised Blackwater Immunity Over Shooting Of 17 Iraqis

Immunity Deal Hampers Blackwater Inquiry
LARA JAKES JORDAN October 29, 2007 08:33 PM EST
WASHINGTON — The State Department promised Blackwater USA bodyguards immunity from prosecution in its investigation of last month's deadly shooting of 17 Iraqi civilians, The Associated Press has learned.
The immunity deal has delayed a criminal inquiry into the Sept. 16 killings and could undermine any effort to prosecute security contractors for their role in the incidentthat has infuriated the Iraqi government.
"Once you give immunity, you can't take it away," said a senior law enforcement official familiar with the investigation.
State Department officials declined to confirm or deny that immunity had been granted. One official _ who refused to be quoted by name_ said: "If, in fact, such a decision was made, it was done without any input or authorization from any senior State Department official in Washington."
Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd and FBI spokesman Rich Kolko declined comment.
FBI agents were returning to Washington late Monday from Baghdad, where they have been trying to collect evidence in the Sept. 16 embassy convoy shooting without using statements from Blackwater employees who were given immunity.
Three senior law enforcement officials said all the Blackwater bodyguards involved _ both in the vehicle convoy and in at least two helicopters above _ were given the legal protection as investigators from the Bureau of Diplomatic Security sought to find out what happened. The bureau is an arm of the State Department.
The law enforcement and State Department officials agreed to speak only if they could remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of the inquiry into the incident.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20071029/blackwater-prosecutions/

NMP,

Please email me your mailing addy.

Kangaroo

Outrage is an understatement.

If anyone deserves to go to jail, even more so than W and Dick, it's Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater and a Christian nutjob.

What part of "THOU SHALT NOT STEAL" and "THOU SHALT NOT KILL" does Blackwater NOT understand?

20 headless corpses in Bagdhad. Again.

Hmmm.

Hey Rossi, do you think one single homegrown entity is doing the beheadings? I think it is a Saudi Group. They are fond of decapitation.

BTW, are the drill hole bodies still turning up or did they just stop reporting on it?

BTW, are the drill hole bodies still turning up or did they just stop reporting on it?

They just stopped reporting them.

On a lighter note,

Could be worse I suppose.

The body dumps in the Tigris outside of Bagdhad never even got reported on.

Which is interesting considering they were suppossedly the bodies of OUR soldiers.

And the mass graves..

Do you realize I can not have this conversation with my own countrymen? Not in any way. Maybe the ones here, but the rest...Not even my own family, not even my own lover understands how much I DON'T say.

Not even us here discuss it much. I mean, what to say really?

God I hate george w bush.

God I hate george w bush.

'DITTO'

Christy

Tell me about it.

But the inexplicable thing is, W did win the 2004 race by a tamper-proof margin of 3 million votes.

The US general population was seriously had, and now has blood on their hands. That's EVERYONE who was eligible to vote in 2004.

http://s3.amazonaws.com/thenation/pdf/bush_mosaic.pdf

Commander-in-Chief

Hail-to-the-Thief

SParrow, responding to your reasons to impeach, these are my comments in bracket):

1. Starting a war on lies [what would the actual charge be? What crime and what specifics? Neither starting wars nor lying is a crime.]
2. Treason [In what sense, specifically? If memory serves, treason has to do with aiding and abetting. It can't be hypothetical either, it has to be a concrete case, or else we run the risk that any interpretation of any political act could be deemed treason if you could get a majority to agree -- for example, the idea of defunding the war could be. Bad foreign policy and cynical domestic policy is not treason.]
3. War Profiteering and Torture. [War profiteering is a slogan, and a bad practice, not a crime. Torture is a crime. I doubt a direct case could be made against Bush on that. He is too careful. Good families like the Bushes don't do torture -- the help takes care of that sort of thing, I am guessing.]
4. Spying illegally without warrants. [This one could fly, but (1) can the case be made and (2) would it be political suicide to make it? Or does that matter?]
5. Losing billions of dollars in Iraq. [Not a crime]
6. Hatch violations and illegal vote purges. [I am sure many people n the apparatus of the GOP could be, and I believe have been, proscuted for this. There is probably a firewall around POTUS however.] Setting up the DOJ against Americans who aren't Republicans. [Ditto]
7. Violating the Geneva Conventions and signing off on treaties with other countries. [See: 3 above.]
8. Illegally utilizing a "no-fly list" to persecute dissenters. [See: 7 above.]
9. Illegally using our tax dollars to buy media publicity. [See: 7 above.]
10. Illegally using our tax dollars to persecute political dissenters like Jesselyn Radack and others ... [Don't know the reference, but probably,again,akin to 7 above.]
11. Criminal neglegence in NOLA. [Not sure what the standards are for criminal negligence, but I am sure that it would not apply to the federal government's reaction to a crisis, cf: 2 above.]
12. Criminal care of Veterans. [See: 11 above.]

Chuck in Houston

Sorry -- in my above post, on items 8-10, the reference to item 7 should be a reference to item 6.

The frustrating thing about George Bush, to me, when it comes to impeachment, is that he is crazy like a fox. Notice that his manlin of syntax saves him in many respects -- from teh transcript (and even hearing him), you cannt tell whatthe heck he actually means. He is sort of a Rorsacht test or however you spell that. So many Bus/Cheney statements that infuriate people of good-will, upon close examination, tend to be statements that can be neither proved nor disproved. They are simple assertions. In other words, they are bull [manure]. And notice how jealously the right to promulgate (spread) bull manure without ever having to be subjected to matters like oathes is guarded by these folks! Impeaching them is very difficult at best. Whether or not it is advisable to go that route, regardless of how it would be perceived by the general public, is another matter.

Chuck in Houston

manlin = mangling in the above

Sorry!

Personally, I see no utility in impeaching Bush right now. I see a big potential electoral and political (and even social)downside, and the only upside is President Cheney. If both were to be impeached, I see a President Pelosi. Such an outcomehas no immediate necessity since the legislative is no longer under the control of Bush/Cheney: they are effectively contained. However, moving Pelosi to POTUS through impeachment would really exacerbate tensions in this country, which have already increase beyond reason. Better to remedy this through elections, which are not far off.

Chuck in Houston

Actually, what I just posted was a little hasty and ill-considered, so I would like to expand on one thought. I think that social tensions in the US have increased beyond reason, but I think they are decreasing now. In other words, I think reason is coming back in to vogue again, a bit. So the virtue in forgoing impeachment is to hasten that decrease, rather than to impede the increase, which is, I think. the impression I left above.

Chuck in Houston

I read an article a while back -- I think it was published by Harvard -- where they analyzed theRed-Blue thing. Oddly, I think many would find, the best predictor of whether a person votes D or R was whether or not the locality they lived in had a high percentage of immigrants in the period 1880-1920 (or something like that). The thesis was that the D-trend is comfortable with multi-cultural settings, and hence not "black-and-white" in their judgements, while the R-trend is the obverse.

Sorry, just a hobby-horse of mine.

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=874977

Also, I've poked around in Genealogy abit, and I am not sure why. My dad's side is obscure (Genoa Italian, Irish and English Catholic from Baltimore) but my mom's side is well documented, so I looked into my mom's side. The weird thing is, they (my mom's side) all lived in Braxton County, West Virginia (or what became that county) from about 1810-1910 -- and I mean all the branches on all sides (some came a little later, like the Benders from Germany in 1840) lived in Braxton County. Several families sorted of rotated marraiges, it seems -- Squires, Hopkins, Friends, Frames, Haymonds, Butchers, Gibsons, etc. Braxton County is Jackson Democrat (in fact my great gread grandfather was named Andrew Jackson Hopkins -- althoug the successful Benders ended up GOP, it seems). It all got mixed up in Chicago after WWII (by which I mean, that's where my parents met and married). So I kind of see both sides of that thesis.

Different Subject
Maddie fund 'used for mortgage'

KATE and Gerry McCann have reportedly used the $2.2 million Find Madeleine fund - set up to help locate their daughter - to pay off their million-dollar Leicestershire home and meet other living expenses.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22672506-2,00.html

Underemployed? Just bored at work?

The Direct Action & Research Training (DART) Center is currently accepting resumes from those interested in social and economic justice issues for their paid, four-month community organizing training program known as the DART Organizers Institute. The application deadline for this program is January 1, 2008.

The DART Center has built non-partisan community organizations throughout the country that have won important improvements on a broad set of issues affecting low-moderate income people including:

. Education reform in low-performing public schools
. Job Training
. Drugs and Violence
. Affordable Housing
. Criminal Recidivism
. Neighborhood Revitalization, etc.

The DART Organizers Institute starts June 17, 2008 and combines a 7-day classroom with 15-week field training. Organizer Trainees will learn such things as:

. Entering a community
. Identifying and training local leaders
. Strategic planning and issue cutting
. Relationship and community building
. Direct Action on community issues
. Fundraising

This is a paid training program designed to promote successful graduates into permanent salaried positions making up to $35,000/year in starting salaries, plus benefits. Graduates from the DART Organizers Institute have gone onto accept Executive Director and Associate Community Organizing positions throughout the country. We continue to train the best of those working to build the power of low-moderate income neighborhoods to win victories on important issues in their community.

To understand what graduates of the DART Organizers Institute have accomplished, please take a moment and read through a few examples:

1. Jeff Modzelewski finished his undergraduate degree in 2004 at Capital University in Columbus, Ohio. After working for two years in the business world, he then was accepted into the DART Organizers Institute. Eight months after Jeff's paid community organizing training, he organized over 750 community leaders in Columbus, Ohio to reign in payday lending operations that prey upon the most vulnerable by charging exorbitant fees and interest on short-term loans. As a result, State Senator Miller introduced statewide legislation that will equitably regulate the rampant misuse of payday lending. With the momentum of the State Senator's commitment, Jeff and coalition leaders are now building a statewide power base to ensure passage of this legislation.

2. Leah Woodward finished her masters in film in 2005 at University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida and then graduated from the Organizers Institute in 2005. She then accepted a job with the FAST organization in St. Petersburg, Florida. Using the training provided, Leah and another organizer mobilized 1,800 people from 28 congregations to take action on affordable housing. As a result of this action, County Commissioners agreed to create a $10 million dollar housing trust fund that will set public monies aside for building housing that low- to moderate-income families can afford. In addition, the commission unanimously approved a mandatory inclusionary zoning ordinance that will compel builders to include affordable units in their developments for years to come.

3. Andy Lee graduated from Michigan State University and went into the DART Organizers Institute in 2004 and was hired onto staff with the BUILD organization in Lexington, Kentucky. Andy organized with local leaders to create a drug recovery program in the women's jail in 2006. During an in-depth research phase facilitated by Andy, leaders discovered that over 80% of the jail population in Fayette County are there for problems related to drugs and alcohol, and with treatment the re-arrest rate drops from 66% to 19%. While a drug recovery program existed in the jail for men there was no program for women. After initially denying any consideration of BUILD's plan to add the needed $175,000 to the city's annual budget for the program, the mayor eventually agreed to do so after being confronted by 1,010
people from 20 congregations all pressing for the program at a community action on March 20, 2006. Two months later the Urban County Council made it official by approving the Mayor's budget, and later that summer,the drug recovery program in the women's jail opened. The program is expected to save millions of dollars in tax money previously spent on re-arrests, while also demonstrably improving the lives of thousands of women who would have continued wrestling with drug addiction and crime. Andy is now the Executive Director of another community organization in Broward County, Florida known as BOLD Justice.

4. Virginia Lynch finished her undergraduate degree at Emory University with a degree in religious studies and then entered the DART Organizers Institute in 2004. Following training she accepted a position on staff with the PEACE organization in Lakeland, Florida. Using the training provided by DART, Virginia led an organizing drive that mobilized over 800 community leaders to publicly call for action on health care related issues. As a result of her work, the organization won the approval of a permanent half cent sales tax that will provide over $35 million dollars annually to fund one new health clinic a year for the next five years and increase indigent patients seen from the current 2,000 to 45,000 patients
per year. Virginia is now the Executive Director of a the RISC organization in Richmond, Virginia.

While these are clear-cut victories with measurable results, they are only snapshots in time depicting the work of three of the graduates of our training program. Along with over 30 others, Andy, Leah, Jeff, and Virginia continue to organize and regularly express a long-term commitment to the field. To apply, please send an updated resume to: Ben MacConnell, the Recruitment Director at:
institute@thedartcenter.org before January 1, 2008. You can also call him with questions: (785) 841-2680.
To find out more about the DART center, check out our website: http://www.thedartcenter.org.

So, coming back the long-way around, I see two groups of people. One group -- Braxton County -- stands by the ancestral hearth (at least as understood a few generations back, and new-comers are welcome as long as they try to work their way in). The other finally drags up and throws in with the city. The first group can live on certitudes. The second group is adrift in a see of relative values.

I know I was trying to go somewhere with this....

Chuck in Houston

More from and on the "Ontario Four"

http://news.therecord.com/article/262493

and the story on the peace rally they went to as soon as they got back:

http://news.therecord.com/article/262537

Also, NPR is supposed to run a story tomorrow on their plight.

Oh yeah -- I was thinking of the pace of change and globalization and what that means for modern politics.

Is all politics local? Is all politics identity politics? If so, how do synthesizing transformations occur in political culture? I mean, how do the big, almost unseen, changes get through the process and done? (Which they do.) I know that sounded nerdy. Should a person say "are politics" instead of "is politics?" I am never comfortable with abstract collective nouns -- just can't modify them smoothly.

Chuck
Well now the party can begin!

Yes people can get by with alot in this country, if they have the right connections. There is the revolving door, where big donors are given ambassadorships to countries they know nothing about, or people leaving government service are put in charge of big civilian contracts. I have plenty of examples and links if people want them.

This is the best though. It's from Parade magazine (hard copy) which I normally think of as a little conservative (kind of like Reader's Digest).

Anyway, it says (I'll have to copy it):

Is Hugo Chavez a Friend or a Foe?

Chavez called George W. Bush "the devil" in a 2006 UN speech.

To listen to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and the Bush Administration, you would think that our nations were mortal enemies. However, trade between the two actulaly has increased in each of the last four years. United States exports to Venezuela tripled between 2003 and 2006 . Car sales to Venezuela rose from $9.3 million to $323.9 million, while exports of computers and computer accessories jumped more than 400%, and organic chemicals soared 800%. During the same period, United States imports from Venezuela more than doubled, fueled by our purchase of more than $27 billion of crude oil from the petroeum-rich country in 2006.

WHEN I WAS OUT JUST NOW, I noticed that gasoline had jumped to $3.30/gallon. Earlier today I saw that is hit $94/barrel (wasn't so long it was $60). It's just because of a storm in the Gulf of Mexico. Volatility is the word of the day, in the markets of all kinds.

NMP:

On oil prices, "volatility" conjures "up-and-down, randomnly." Oil, on the other hand, I think is trending up up up (which is great for me, actualy, I drive a small car with great mileage and work in the upstream oil business in Houston). Venezuela and the US, on so many levels, is a microcosm of the disconnect between the rhetoric and reality of modern global politics. There are huge lessons in there.

Chuck in Houston, TX, the Capital of World Oil and Proud of it. We invented the darn stuff....

& speaking of globalization and the pace of things (as mentioned above by Chuck), I was paging through a "W" magazine while at the gym on the treadmill. It was talking about the "nouveau riche" of Russia and how any designer worth their salt is opening a boutique there. One opened (maybe Dior?) and a woman rushed in and bought four alligator handbags, handing over $100,000.

Saw an ad today encouraging me to invest in developing economies. It mentioned a country "that creates a city the size of San Francisco every two weeks." That would have to be China.

Watch this: (movie about China)
http://silencedmajority.blogs.com/silenced_majority_portal/2007/09/what-do-you-owe.html It's really amazing.

What happened to that person who was posting here who was working in China? China Tool? We used to have another guy who did work over there too. Love to hear from people who get out of the country and mix. It adds another dimension.

Re impeachment, Ramsey Clark had a case since 2002 but William F Buckley doesn't think so at all. Who is to say? That had me wondering how in the hell they had a case for Clinton. I mean, he didn't offend me much, not compared to these guys!

What can be enforced? The Europeans now have warrants out for the arrest of Rumsfeld for war crimes, much as they've had for Kissinger for years. It's kind of like when I was a kid and the Sheriff had the worst kid in town but he never actually got into any kind of trouble as far as punishment. Kind of like "Privileged son" (highly recommended book).

Bush and Chavez -- the Symbiosis of Hate Politics

NMP:

I though "Priviledged Son" was a CCR song....

You know:

"It ain't me,
"It ain't me,
"I ain't no fortunate one."

Or maybe that was "Fortunate One."

Chuck in Houston

NMP:

With respect to impeachment, the two times is was carried out -- Johnson and Clinton (1867 and 1997, I think), there was no legal case. It was actually a simple case of a split in party power between the legislative and the executive. Congress impeached becasue"it could." Fortunately, in both cases, the Senate took the longer view and voted not to convict.

Chuck in Houston

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X90T5sY5c2o

Oh when I just was a little boy
A standing to my papa's knee
My father said "Son, don't let the man getcha
"And do what he done to me."

....

"Born on a Bayou...."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAVhKjsImeI

Chuck in Houston

The book is actually FORTUNATE SON, not PRIVILEGED SON.

Pro-Bush

A Man of Faith : The Spiritual Journey of George W. Bush,
Dead Certain: The Presidency of George W. Bush
The Right Man : An Inside Account of the Bush White House
A Matter Of Character: Inside The White House Of George W. Bush
The Faith of George W. Bush
Shadow War: The Untold Story of How Bush Is Winning the War on Terror
First Son: George W. Bush and the Bush Family Dynasty
We Will Prevail: President George W. Bush on War, Terrorism and Freedom
Bush Country : How Dubya Became a Great President While Driving Liberals Insane
Fighting Back: The War on Terrorism from Inside the Bush White House
Misunderestimated: The President Battles Terrorism, John Kerry, and the Bush Haters
Bush At War

Anti-Bush

The Book on Bush: How George W. (Mis)leads America
Fortress Bush: How the White House Keeps the Press Under Control
Imposter: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy
Is Our Children Learning?: The Case Against George W. Bush
It's Still the Economy, Stupid : George W. Bush, The GOP's CEO, John Warrior King: The Case for Impeaching George Bush
The Immaculate Deception: The Bush Crime Family Exposed
Cronies: Oil, The Bushes, and the Rise of Texas, America's Superstate
Losing America: Confronting a Reckless and Arrogant Presidency
Against All Enemies : Inside America's War on Terror
The Lies of George W. Bush: Mastering the Politics of Deception,
Worse Than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush,
Bush Versus the Environment
Bushworld: Enter at Your Own Risk
Bush On The Couch: Inside the Mind of the PresidentAl Franken, Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right
Still More George W. Bushisms: Neither in French nor in English nor in MexicanAll the President's Spin: George W. Bush, the Media, and the Truth,
Fortunate Son: George W. Bush and the Making of an American President
The Bush - Haters Handbook: A Guide to the Most Appalling Presidency of the Past 100 Years
Bushwhacked : Life in George W. Bush's America
The Short but Happy Political Life of George W. BushMission Accomplished
The World According to Bush
Crimes Against Nature: How George W. Bush and His Corporate Pals Are Plundering the Country and Hijacking Our DemocracyThe Bush Dyslexicon: Observations on a National DisorderCruel and Unusual: Bush/Cheney's New World OrderDude, Where's My Country
Stupid White Men
Fahrenheit 9/11
The Bush Diaries: A Citizen's Review of the First Term
Strategic Ignorance : Why the Bush Administration Is Recklessly Destroying a Century of Environmental ProgressDeath of a President George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography
Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror
Unfit Commander: Texans for Truth Take on George W. Bush
House of Bush, House of Saud: The Secret Relationship Between the World's Two Most Powerful Dynasties
The Strategy Behind the Bush Lies and Why the Media Didn't Tell You, George Bush's War on Military Families, Veterans, and His Past, The I Hate George W. Bush Reader: Why Dubya Is Wrong About Absolutely Everything
State of DenialRevenge of the Bush Dynasty
American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune, and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush Plan of Attack

The Betrayal of America: How the Supreme Court Undermined the Constitution and Chose Our President

Supreme Injustice: How the High Court Hijacked Election 2000,

Did George W. Bush Steal America's 2004 Election?

Was the 2004 Presidential Election Stolen?: Exit Polls, Election Fraud, and the Official Count

The Votes That Counted: How the Court Decided the 2000 Presidential Election

What Went Wrong In Ohio: The Conyers Report On The 2004 Presidential Election

Fooled Again

Deadlock: The Inside Story of America's Closest Election

36 Days: The Complete Chronicle of the 2000 Presidential Election Crisis

The Crisis of American Democracy: The Presidential Elections of 2000 and 2004

Breaking the Deadlock: The 2000 Election, the Constitution, and the Courts

The Unfinished Election of 2000

Overtime! The Election 2000 Thriller

Down and Dirty: The Plot to Steal the Presidency

Too Close to Call: The Thirty-Six-Day Battle to Decide the 2000 Election

Of course, Bush says it doesn't matter - "We'll all be dead."

Hah! CCR is always right! Let the Midnight Special Shine a Light on Me:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DksGi7B5BdM

Chuck in Houston

Actually, what was with the extreme close-ups on that? The 'sixties were so over-the-top.

Chuck in Houston, b. 1961, Tachikawa AB

I mean, for style give me late 50's early 60's a la "North by Northwest."

And for you Pop-40 fans:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5NjU0_n-5Y

Chuck in Houston

Anyway, to bring the wheel back around -- I mean the space between Chicago and Braxton County(WV), and thinking of CCR, that reminds me of a time back in my mis-spent youth in Portland, OR (not really mis-spent; at least I can shoot passable pool). I was back at my mom's, and her mom, from Braxton County, was there, and me and my friend, nipping on a hidden (I assumed) bottle of Jim Beam, started to play "Cotton Fields," which we knew from CCR. It turned out that my mom and grandma knew it from Braxton County. So then (two acoustic guitars) we went to Beatles and my grandma (she was born in like 1896 or 1898 on a farm in Braxton County where they made their own shoes from their own pigs and where the dad quit drinking after he came in one night and started moving the coals around in the fire and then had to go plough the next morning and where she got struck by lightning milking the cow because she wasn't supposed to do that), started clogging to it. I call it "clogging" anyway -- to her it was just dancing.

And here is the King to let us know tha every wheel rolls on down to the end, in the Lord's good time:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZR7_v4WhTNA

Everybody's got a little Elvis in them!

So, anyway, in the spirit of well-informing the body politic, please realize that Elvis is King, and Elvis is everywhere:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gopc3fgnXDw

And for those of you that think you can escape Elvis by supporting third-world neo-anti-colonialists, dig this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuQavWU47FQ

Elvis has been there and done that.

But through all of that, the man never really surrendered the faith:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmVFnhO3A98

That flickered in the early days of the man's life:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uG_pNyCTjT8

And this one goes out to all the girls from the North Country:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPpxwjsP76E

That was Arkansas and Minnesota with maybe one too many sheets to the wind....

Here they are sober but not quite hitting it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84ortTXTKXM

And, finally, Johnny and Bob try to get a little Elvis out of them:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Sw4UE3pkVg

OK, one last blast from the past -- I couldn't resist this: Louis Armstrong and Johnny Cash:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqc209-rwNI

Cheers!

Chuck
You will have gone to bed maybe?
Anyway, try http://www.romewithtelevision.com - the top one.
Carlos Santana shreds - be sure to read how they got the audio.

Hey Sparrow,

You know that email conversation we had, where I said I could mimic anyones brushstroke, except maybe Muchas...?

Well. That is no longer a problem.

(I won't be imitating his colors though. Pastels are just so not me.)

That reminds me...

Hey Monkey,

Did your wife like the fish? I know we both said we dig it but, I never asked if she liked it, you know, since it was for her...?

I still think it's my favorite.

On a scale of one to 10, everybody digs the fish.