May 04, 2008
Video - How to create an angry American
http://youtube.com/watch?v=XKyCpCrH3cY
Posted by doctormatt at 12:04 AM | Comments (0)
May 02, 2008
Ohio House OK's 28% cap on payday loans
Could it happen here?
http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1209630837298850.xml&coll=2
Posted by doctormatt at 04:32 AM
April 04, 2008
The 3 Trillion dollar war
When the United States invaded Iraq in March 2003, Americans were told Iraqi oil would cover the costs of the war and rebuilding. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld scoffed at estimates of $100 billion.
Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz of Columbia University and Harvard University professor Linda Bilmes raised a stir in 2006 by estimating the real cost of the war to be $1 trillion. That estimate has been tripled and the title of their new book is "The Three Trillion Dollar War."
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/qna/forum/three_trillion_dollar_war/index.html
Continue reading "The 3 Trillion dollar war"
Posted by Admin at 12:23 AM | Comments (0)
March 22, 2008
Why the attack on Spitzer now?
http://rense.com/general81/why.htm
Continue reading "Why the attack on Spitzer now?"
Posted by Admin at 11:54 PM | Comments (0)
March 15, 2008
New House FISA Bill
The US House of Representatives on Friday passed another version of a bill to expand government spying powers while excluding a provision demanded by the Bush administration granting retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies that have collaborated in the government’s illegal surveillance operations.
Continue reading "New House FISA Bill"
Posted by Admin at 11:48 PM | Comments (0)
March 14, 2008
FACTS: (1) The NSA approached Qwest more than six months before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. (2) The NSA asked AT&T Inc. to help it set up a domestic call monitoring site seven months before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
Dear Mainstream Media -
Please stop repeating the lie that domestic spying began "after the Sept. 11th attacks".
Washington Post -
A former Qwest Communications International executive, appealing a conviction for insider trading, has alleged that the government withdrew opportunities for contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars after Qwest refused to participate in an unidentified National Security Agency program that the company thought might be illegal. Former chief executive Joseph P. Nacchio, convicted in April of 19 counts of insider trading, said the NSA approached Qwest more than six months before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, according to court documents unsealed in Denver this week.
Bloomberg -
June 30 -- The U.S. National Security Agency asked AT&T Inc. to help it set up a domestic call monitoring site seven months before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, lawyers claimed June 23 in court papers filed in New York federal court.
Posted by Admin at 11:31 PM | Comments (0)
March 09, 2008
Video - Bush's lies leading to Iraq war
Posted by Admin at 11:49 PM | Comments (0)
March 04, 2008
Dems ready to cave on telecom immunity and domestic spying
Tuesday's Washington Post reports that House Democrats are close to granting all of President Bush's demands for more domestic spying powers and telecommunications amnesty, in exchange for, well, nothing:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ari-melber/house-dems-near-surrender_b_89726.html?view=print
Continue reading "Dems ready to cave on telecom immunity and domestic spying"
Posted by Admin at 12:47 PM
March 01, 2008
U.S. jails more than any other country
For the first time in U.S. history, more than one of every 100 adults is in jail or prison, according to a new report documenting America's rank as the world's No. 1 incarcerator.
According to the report, the average annual cost per prisoner was $23,876.
Four states — Vermont, Michigan, Oregon and Connecticut — now spend more on corrections than they do on higher education, the report said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080228/ap_on_re_us/prison_population
Posted by Admin at 05:34 PM | Comments (0)
February 28, 2008
Bush, Congress Wrangle Over Domestic Spying
Former senior intelligence officials are disputing claims by the George W. Bush administration that the failure of Congress to pass a new foreign surveillance law is jeopardising the country’s national security
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/02/28/7339/
Posted by Admin at 05:36 PM
February 24, 2008
McConnell/Mukasey: Eavesdropping Outside of FISA Is ‘Illegal’
The White House yesterday escalated its most brazen, Orwellian campaign of the last eight years — shrilly accusing House Democrats of jeopardizing the nation’s security by allowing the Protect America Act to expire even though it’s the President and House Republicans who blocked any extensions of that law.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/02/23/7243/
Continue reading "McConnell/Mukasey: Eavesdropping Outside of FISA Is ‘Illegal’"
Posted by Admin at 09:56 PM | Comments (0)
February 19, 2008
US Supreme Court Throws Out Wire-Tapping Case
What a joke. The judiciary rubber stamps executive power regarding illegal surveillance.
You can't win a case unless you can prove you were under surveillance.
However, if you try to introduce evidence (provided by the government) that you WERE under surveillance, that evidence is ruled inadmissible.
Incredible.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/02/19/7158/
Continue reading "US Supreme Court Throws Out Wire-Tapping Case"
Posted by doctormatt at 06:09 PM
February 17, 2008
Bush lies about FISA - Protect America Act
In his weekly radio address, President Bush not only blames Congress for expiration of the Protect America Act, he says that his government will have a harder time keeping you safe.
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/02/16/bush-paa-deadline/
Continue reading "Bush lies about FISA - Protect America Act"
Posted by Admin at 07:17 AM | Comments (0)
The Year in Earmarks
Thanks to Taxpayers for Common Sense.
Review article from TPM:
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/02/the_year_in_earmarks.php
Link to database:
http://www.taxpayer.net/budget/fy08earmarks/fy08databasemain.html
Posted by Admin at 07:09 AM
February 14, 2008
The National Lawyers Guild Condemns Senate Grant of Immunity to Lawbreaking Telecommunications Companies
NEW YORK - February 14 - Responding to fear-mongering by the Bush administration, the Senate voted on February 12 to give retroactive immunity to the telecommunications companies that have turned over our telephone and Internet communications to the government. These companies have violated several laws, including the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), Title III, the Communications Act, and the Stored Communications Act, as well as the First and Fourth Amendments to the Constitution.
Posted by Admin at 08:27 PM
February 13, 2008
Telecom retroactive immunity granted
Both Senator Alexander and Senator Corker voted YES on S 2248, granting the Telecommunications companies RETROACTIVE IMMUNITY and undercutting any lawsuit that would have allowed a court to determine whether the actions of these companies violated the law.
Did they hear from you?
Capitol switchboard:
(202) 224-3121
The Senate yesterday — led by Jay Rockefeller, enabled by Harry Reid, and with the active support of at least 12 (and probably more) Democrats, in conjunction with an as-always lockstep GOP caucus — voted to legalize warrantless spying on the telephone calls and emails of Americans, and also provided full retroactive amnesty to lawbreaking telecoms, thus forever putting an end to any efforts to investigate and obtain a judicial ruling regarding the Bush administration’s years-long illegal spying programs aimed at Americans.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/02/12/7004/print/
Continue reading "Telecom retroactive immunity granted"
Posted by Admin at 12:20 PM | Comments (0)
February 12, 2008
Video - Torture Talk - Daily Show
Great summary by Jon Stewart - Thanks to Comedy Central
Posted by Admin at 09:54 PM
January 31, 2008
Cheney's latest pitch for Retroactive Telecom Immunity for breaking law
http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2008/01/31/dicks-evolving-demands-for-immunity/
Posted by Admin at 09:46 PM
Section 1222 - Signing Statement
The White House has given ever-shifting rationalizations for invading and occupying Iraq, running the gamut from a claim of self-defense to a purported mission of bringing democracy and thus freedom to the citizens of that country.
Dissenters claim that the two central tenets were instead the establishing of a permanent military presence in order to control Iraq’s oil resources.
Who’s right? The White House or its dissenters? Recently some new evidence has been uncovered. Firsthand source material.
Continue reading "Section 1222 - Signing Statement"
Posted by Admin at 08:37 PM
January 28, 2008
State of the Union - Lies and misstatements corrected
Courtesy of Think Progress
http://thinkprogress.org/?tag=State+Of+The+Union
Continue reading "State of the Union - Lies and misstatements corrected"
Posted by Admin at 09:57 PM | Comments (0)
January 26, 2008
Video - Olbermann Speaks About 935 Lies that led to Iraq war
Center for Public Integrity counts Bush Administration lies that led to Iraq war.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/22811475#22811475
Posted by Admin at 10:43 PM | Comments (0)
Video - History channel - U.S. anthrax attacks were inside job
Posted by doctormatt at 10:34 PM | Comments (0)
Statement of U.S. Senator Russ Feingold
WASHINGTON, DC - January 25 - "The conduct of Senate Republicans yesterday was shameless. After weeks of insisting that it is absolutely critical to finish the FISA legislation by February 1, even going so far as to object to a one-month extension of the Protect America Act, they obstructed all efforts to actually work on the bill. Now they want to simply ram the deeply flawed Intelligence Committee bill through the Senate.
Continue reading " Statement of U.S. Senator Russ Feingold"
Posted by Admin at 08:49 PM
January 10, 2008
Will your vote be accurately counted in this election?
Democracy Now interview with Clive Thompson.
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/1/10/will_your_vote_be_counted_in
Posted by doctormatt at 10:40 PM | Comments (0)
January 04, 2008
Ohio - Paper ballots must be provided for primary
The state's top elections official has ordered 55 counties that use electronic touch-screen voting machines to provide paper ballots for voters who request them during the March 4 primary.
Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner has made clear she does not trust touch-screen machines and wants all 88 Ohio counties to switch to optical-scan systems by the November election.
Voters in the primary who don't want to use touch-screen machines should have the option of using a paper ballot, Brunner said.
http://www.ohio.com/news/break_news/13024032.html
Continue reading "Ohio - Paper ballots must be provided for primary"
Posted by Admin at 02:51 PM | Comments (0)
With Few Options, Colorado Considers All-Mail Vote
Colorado’s crash course in how to hold an election has begun.
With less than year before the November balloting, and the current system mostly in shambles after testing by the secretary of state last month found problems in voting machines across the state, the legislature is braced for a fight over what to do next. County clerks, who administer the elections, are counting the days, and the dwindling options.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/04/us/04voting.html?_r=1&ref=politics&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin
Continue reading "With Few Options, Colorado Considers All-Mail Vote"
Posted by Admin at 02:47 PM | Comments (0)
December 14, 2007
New Jersey Moves to End Its Death Penalty
TRENTON — The New Jersey General Assembly approved a bill eliminating capital punishment on Thursday, clearing the way for Gov. Jon S. Corzine to sign the measure as early as Monday.
Continue reading "New Jersey Moves to End Its Death Penalty"
Posted by Admin at 03:13 PM | Comments (0)
December 09, 2007
Video - CalTech Hydrogen generated from solar panels
Posted by Admin at 09:59 PM
December 02, 2007
Video - Winners of Upgrading Democracy contest
Contest sponsored by Fair Vote -
Instant Runoff Elections?
Proportional Representation?
Ranked Choice Voting?
See the winning videos:
Posted by Admin at 03:39 PM | Comments (0)
November 26, 2007
NIE held up by Cheney
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18692.htm
Posted by doctormatt at 11:27 PM
November 23, 2007
Chart - Where your federal income tax money goes:
Mililtary 51%. Non-military 49%
http://www.warresisters.org/piechart.htm
Posted by doctormatt at 10:08 AM | Comments (0)
November 22, 2007
U.S. prison system a costly and harmful failure: report
The number of people in U.S. prisons has risen eight-fold since 1970, with little impact on crime but at great cost to taxpayers and society, researchers said in a report calling for a major justice-system overhaul.
The report on Monday cites examples ranging from former vice-presidential aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby to a Florida woman's two-year sentence for throwing a cup of coffee to make its case for reducing the U.S. prison population of 2.2 million -- nearly one-fourth of the world's total.
http://www.reuters.com/articlePrint?articleId=USN1841666120071119
Continue reading "U.S. prison system a costly and harmful failure: report"
Posted by Admin at 02:08 AM | Comments (0)
November 15, 2007
House passes RESTORE act
Pelosi pitches bill on House floor RE: FISA
Posted by Admin at 11:56 PM | Comments (0)
November 09, 2007
The war on medical marijuana
Eleven years ago, California voters passed Prop 215, the Compassionate Use Act, permitting the use of marijuana to treat medical conditions. But state and local officials are still collaborating with federal law enforcement in a war on medical marijuana:
http://www.consortiumnews.com/Print/2007/110607a.html
Continue reading "The war on medical marijuana"
Posted by Admin at 01:33 AM | Comments (0)
November 05, 2007
The National Lawyers Guild on Friday unanimously and enthusiastically passed a resolution supporting the impeachment of Bush and Cheney.
Whereas George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney:
http://www.911truth.org/article.php?story=20071103104037177
Posted by doctormatt at 10:47 AM
November 02, 2007
Calling the Question — In the House — on Impeaching Cheney
Sixty-one percent of the Vermonters surveyed favor taking steps to impeach the president, while just 33% oppose doing so.
The numbers are even higher for impeaching Cheney. Sixty-four percent of Vermonters favor beginning the process of holding the vice president to account, where only 31 percent are opposed.
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat?bid=1&pid=248000
Continue reading "Calling the Question — In the House — on Impeaching Cheney"
Posted by Admin at 07:45 PM | Comments (0)
October 28, 2007
Fascist America, in 10 easy steps
Review of The End of America, by Naomi Wolf.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2064157,00.html
Posted by doctormatt at 10:08 PM
October 27, 2007
Dodd holds the line on telecon immunity
Senator Chris Dodd holds off senate Democrat's capitulation to Bush on retroactive immunity for telecon companies who violated FISA.... for now.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/20/opinion/20sat1.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Posted by doctormatt at 01:51 AM
October 23, 2007
War appropriations could reach $1 trillion
At their current rate, war appropriations could reach $1 trillion by the time Bush leaves office, a total that by some measures would exceed the cost of the Korean and Vietnam wars combined.
Most Americans oppose funding Bush's full war request, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll last month. Just a quarter of those surveyed supported the president's full spending plan, as it was then projected, and seven in 10 wanted it reduced. About 46 percent wanted it cut sharply or altogether.
The $45.9 billion Bush asked for yesterday comes on top of $150.5 billion already requested for the 2008 fiscal year that started Oct. 1. If passed, it would put the total cost of Iraq, Afghanistan and counterterrorism operations at $806 billion, more than any single U.S. conflict since World War II. A study by the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments last month said that in today's dollars the Persian Gulf war of 1991 cost $88 billion, the Korean War cost $456 billion and Vietnam cost $518 billion.
Source: Washington Post
Posted by doctormatt at 12:15 PM
October 21, 2007
Learn about Clean Elections
This is the solution to one of the fundamental threats to our democracy.
Public financed elections that work.
Wikipedia information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_Elections
Posted by doctormatt at 11:44 PM
October 20, 2007
PBS Debate Over Israeli Lobby in United States
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/middle_east/july-dec07/israel_10-09.html
Posted by doctormatt at 11:50 PM
Cheney's Law - PBS Frontline Video
Watch the video:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/cheney/view/main.html
Posted by doctormatt at 11:19 PM
October 15, 2007
Restoring Habeas Corpus
On September 19, 2007, the Senate voted on a cloture motion for including the Habeas Corpus Restoration Act as an amendment to the FY 2008 Defense Department Authorization bill. The final vote was 56-43, just four votes short of overriding the Republican filibuster.
Every Democrat voted for the bill as well as six Republicans. Those Republicans were Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), Gordon Smith (R-Ore.), Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), John Sununu (R-N.H.), and Arlen Specter (R-Penn.), who sponsored the bill.
The only non-Republican who voted against the bill was Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.).
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) stated that the Senate's passage of the Military Commissions Act, which suspended habeas corpus for detainees, "calls into question the United States' historic role of defender of human rights in the world. It accomplishes what opponents could never accomplish on the battlefield, whittling away our own liberties."
The Restoring the Constitution Act of 2007 was introduced by Chris Dodd, senator from Connecticut and candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, and by Senator Patrick Leahy.
Read the bill here:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c110:S.185:
or as a PDF file here
http://www.docuticker.com/?p=14613
Continue reading "Restoring Habeas Corpus"
Posted by doctormatt at 05:55 AM
October 11, 2007
Vicente Fox admits that he and George W. Bush have ’agreed’ on common currency, North American Union
Speaking on the Larry King show, former Mexican President Vicente Fox confirmed every assertion made by Jerome Corsi in his new book, NY Times bestseller "The Late Great U.S.A: The Coming Merger with Mexico and Canada" (WND Books, ISBNs 0-9790451-4-2, $25.95, July 2007). Not only did Fox admit that he and George W. Bush have "agreed" to create a common currency, the Amero, he contended that a North American Union is "inevitable" That’s something that Jerry Corsi takes issue with while applauding Fox’s openness on national television.
"At last we have public confirmation of the pernicious secret activity that’s been going on towards merging Mexico, Canada and the United States" declares Corsi, whose book became a bestseller shortly after publication. "Personally, I’d like to thank Vincente Fox. His candor about this merger is what’s going to stop it dead in its tracks"
Corsi continues, "Fox’s appearance with Larry King and, of all places, on The Daily Show constitutes the first time a leader of Mexico, Canada or the U.S. has openly confirmed a plan to create a regional currency called the Amero -- a plan I document in detail in ’The Late Great U.S.A.’" Fox went on to explain how current regional trade agreements between the United States and its hopelessly corrupt neighbor to the south are intended to evolve into other previously hidden aspects of North American integration.
As reported in WorldNetDaily, Larry King, near the end of the broadcast, asked Fox a question e-mailed from a listener: "I would like to know how you feel about the possibility of having a Latin America united with one currency"
Fox answered in the affirmative, admitting he and George W. Bush had "agreed" to pursue the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas – a free-trade zone extending throughout the Western Hemisphere – and that part of the plan was to institute a regional currency from Canada to the tip of South America!
Read more:
http://www.webwire.com/ViewPressRel.asp?aId=49877
Posted by Admin at 04:44 PM
October 08, 2007
Did White House Lie About Solution Provider's Role in Loss of 5 Million E-mails?
When Congress asked about 5 million executive branch e-mails that went missing, a White House lawyer pointed the finger at an outside IT contractor.
The only problem? No such IT contractor exists, according to sources close to the investigation of a possible violation of the Federal Records and Presidential Records acts.
White House Office of Administration (OA) Deputy General Counsel Keith Roberts told the House Oversight Committee on May 29 that "an unidentified company working for the Information Assurance (IA) Directorate of the Office of the Chief Information Officer was responsible for daily audits of the e-mail system and the e-mail archiving process," according to committee chair Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif. That briefing came about after it was confirmed by the White House in April that millions of e-mails had vanished from Executive Office of the President (EOP) archives from 2003-2005.
http://crn.com/government/202200837
Posted by Admin at 09:03 PM
October 05, 2007
Bush vetos SCHIP expansion
It’s not surprising that Bush is hoping no one notices his veto, which will deny health coverage to four million children. Over 70 percent of Americans support Congress’s proposed SCHIP increase. Bush has stated that he opposes funding the program with revenue from cigarette taxes, even though such taxes are tied to decreases in smoking. Furthermore, the public overwhelmingly supports raising tobacco taxes, by a margin of 67 percent to 28 percent.
Posted by doctormatt at 01:19 PM
Tax protestors arrested
Marshals Posed As Supporters To Arrest Browns
PLAINFIELD, N.H. -- U.S. marshals posing as supporters carried out the arrests of tax evaders Ed and Elaine Brown, officials said Friday.
The undercover officers were invited in by the Browns on Thursday evening, and before the couple realized they weren't supporters, they were already under arrest.
http://www.wmur.com/news/14274183/detail.html
Continue reading "Tax protestors arrested"
Posted by doctormatt at 01:12 PM
October 04, 2007
Secessionists Meeting in Tennessee
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) — In an unlikely marriage of desire to secede from the United States, two advocacy groups from opposite political traditions — New England and the South — are sitting down to talk.
Tired of foreign wars and what they consider right-wing courts, the Middlebury Institute wants liberal states like Vermont to be able to secede peacefully.
That sounds just fine to the League of the South, a conservative group that refuses to give up on Southern independence.
"We believe that an independent South, or Hawaii, Alaska, or Vermont would be better able to serve the interest of everybody, regardless of race or ethnicity," said Michael Hill of Killen, Ala., president of the League of the South.
http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/linkframe.php?linkid=43231
Continue reading "Secessionists Meeting in Tennessee"
Posted by Admin at 12:16 PM
October 02, 2007
On health care - Kucinich's leftist views could satisfy Republicans, Democrats alike
I must admit I am pretty fickle when it comes to choosing whom I cast my vote for. I am not one of those one-issue people.
If someone says they are pro-choice, that doesn't mean they are going to get my vote. I like to take a look at the whole picture and ensure they support all of the same liberal-commie causes I do: universal health care, an end to the war in Iraq, renewable energy, ending poverty in the United States and repealing the Patriot Act.
These issues are pretty important to me. I like to think most Americans actually agree with me when it comes to these issues. And I also happen to the think the candidate who best addresses these issues is Dennis Kucinich.
Posted by Admin at 04:54 AM
A Look at the Candidates on Health Care
Continue reading "A Look at the Candidates on Health Care"
Posted by doctormatt at 04:51 AM
John Edwards in the Slate mashup
Rose: Sen. Edwards, first on Iraq, give me your assessment of what Gen. Petraeus said and your opinion of whether he is accurate about the situation on the ground and what this administration is prepared to do next.
Edwards: My view about it is that both the administration and Gen. Petraeus are not focused on what is the only important question, which is, has there been political progress in Iraq? Because unless and until there's some political compromise between Sunni and Shia, there could not be stability in Iraq and the violence will continue. And instead of focusing on one small part of Iraq, Anbar province for example, where the Sunni tribal leadership has actually decided to work with America against al-Qaida, what we should be looking at is, has there been a political progress? Because without political progress, what's the purpose of us being here? I mean, what is the purpose of all the lives being lost? What's the purpose of now $500 billion and counting?
http://www.slate.com/id/2173855/
Continue reading "John Edwards in the Slate mashup"
Posted by Admin at 04:43 AM
Rep. Dennis Kucinich answers questions in our presidential mashup.
Rose: Congressman Kucinich, welcome to "mashup," this online debate. Let me begin by talking about Iraq. We'll have three minutes for that. And three minutes health-care education. And three minutes for a wild card. I begin with Iraq. Gen. Petraeus has made his statement to Congress, answered questions. The president will apparently support him. Is anything the Congress can do and will do to change that strategy?
Kucinich: Well, are we forgetting something here? I mean, do we still have civilian leadership in the United States or have we torn that page out of our Constitution as well? The founders made it very clear that Congress under Article 1, Section 8 has the power of war. And Congress also has the power of the purse. Congress must tell the president now, "The war is over. Bring the troops home. Bring the equipment home. Force those mercenaries to come home. Get Halliburton out of there." I mean, Congress has the power, and they can take action now. We cannot to fund this war.
http://www.slate.com/id/2173840/
Continue reading "Rep. Dennis Kucinich answers questions in our presidential mashup."
Posted by Admin at 04:41 AM
Democratic presidential candidates on health care
What have the candidates said on the issues so far? Are they changing their stories? Our cheat sheet on the previous debates will help you be the judge. Here we're offering background information on health care,
http://www.slate.com/id/2173484/nav/navoa/
Continue reading "Democratic presidential candidates on health care"
Posted by Admin at 04:36 AM
Slate's presidential Mashup
On Sept. 12, Slate co-sponsored the first-ever online-only presidential mashup with Yahoo! and the Huffington Post. Armed with your questions, Charlie Rose asked the top Democratic presidential candidates about their views on health care, Iraq, education, and other issues. Their video responses, posted on Yahoo! and linked to below, are coded and at your disposal—allowing you to create your own custom candidate forum.
http://www.slate.com/id/2173700/
Posted by Admin at 04:32 AM
Gravel: Representative Government Is Broken
Sen. Mike Gravel answers questions in our presidential mashup.
From Slate
Rose: Sen. Gravel, the president has said that he's going to listen carefully to what Gen. Petraeus says and reports to him about the surge and what might be America's commitment in the future. What do you make of what Gen. Petraeus has said?
Gravel: I think it's a tragic charade where obviously one could predict what Petraeus was going to say three years ago on this particular subject. And then you get the president, who is the commander in chief, saying he's going to follow what the dictates or recommendations of Gen. Petraeus, who is making recommendations that the White House wanted. This is a very tragic charade. While human lives are lost because of the inability of this government to have any sense of moral commitment.
http://www.slate.com/id/2173859/
Continue reading "Gravel: Representative Government Is Broken"
Posted by Admin at 04:30 AM
Interfaith leaders call for day of fasting to end the Iraq War
Sep. 26- Several religious leaders representing tens of millions of faithful Americans stood on Sept. 26 in the shadow of the US Capitol calling religious communities of various traditions to a day of fasting and prayer to end the Iraq war.
Continue reading "Interfaith leaders call for day of fasting to end the Iraq War"
Posted by doctormatt at 02:45 AM
September 30, 2007
Kucinich - "Congress Must Stop Funding The War"
WASHINGTON - September 26
Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), issued the following statement after opposing H.J.Res. 52, the continuing resolution for FY2007:
“We do not have to fund the war. The Democratic leadership must tell the President NO to any additional funding. We can separately appropriate money to bring the troops home. The only thing required is honesty, integrity and a willingness to end the war,” Kucinich said.
Continue reading "Kucinich - "Congress Must Stop Funding The War""
Posted by doctormatt at 12:32 AM
September 29, 2007
What’s Wrong With This Picture: More Blacks and Latinos Live In Jail Cells Than In Dorm Rooms
* Here’s a statistic to make you scratch your head and say, What is *wrong* with this country?! Ready?
* According to new Census numbers, more than three times as many African Americans live in prison cells than in college dorms. [ABC News]
* For Hispanics, there are 2.7 inmates for every one person living on a campus.
* For Whites, there are twice as many people living in a college dorm than in prison.
* The racial makeup of our prisons doesn’t match the racial makeup of our society, not by a long shot: About 46% of inmates are white, 41% are black and 19% are Hispanic.
* The number of Americans locked up in 2006 was double the prison population of 1990.
And think about how much more it costs to keep someone in jail than it does to improve early education. This makes no sense, people.
http://miccheckradio.org/issues/2007/september/28/necessary_news#13507
Posted by doctormatt at 03:51 PM
Hate crime bill passes, for now
Yesterday, the “Senate voted to expand the hate crimes law to include crimes motivated by gender, sexual orientation, or disability of the victims.”
The bill — which will pass as an attachment to the defense authorization bill — slid by with the 60 votes necessary to avoid a filibuster.
Continue reading "Hate crime bill passes, for now"
Posted by Admin at 03:49 PM
September 27, 2007
Mike Gravel on the issues
Posted by doctormatt at 10:23 AM
Barack Obama on the issues
Posted by doctormatt at 10:22 AM
Dennis Kucinich on the issues
Posted by doctormatt at 10:21 AM
Hillary Clinton on the issues
Posted by doctormatt at 10:20 AM
John Edwards on the issues
Posted by doctormatt at 10:19 AM
Joe Biden on the issues
Posted by doctormatt at 10:18 AM
Bill Richardson on the issues
Posted by doctormatt at 10:16 AM
Chris Dodd on the issues
Posted by doctormatt at 10:15 AM
September 25, 2007
From Prime to Subprime, America’s Home-Mortgage Meltdown Has Just Begun
Inflation is an immoral tax that leads to immoral values
~ Anonymous South American banker
Having been in the credit profession for the past 23 years, I have observed several cycles involving the loosening and then the inevitable tightening of credit-underwriting standards. Of course, the Federal Reserve stands at the epicenter of such cycles. While money and credit are flowing like beer at an Irish pub on St. Patrick’s Day, everyone ends up looking like an attractive credit risk. When it appeared that the U.S. economy was heading into a recession, after the collapse of the dot.com and telecom bubbles, the Federal Reserve opened up the taps and encouraged one and all to imbibe its tasty, low-cost credit – with the most popular "flavor" being the mortgage loan. At this point, mortgage lenders merely became bartenders serving anyone who walked in the door. To reach this nadir in mortgage-lending standards, it is inescapable that the "Five Cs" of credit were ignored regardless if a mortgage loan was deemed prime, Alt-A, or subprime. This is exactly why the home-mortgage meltdown has just begun.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/englund/englund41.html
Continue reading "From Prime to Subprime, America’s Home-Mortgage Meltdown Has Just Begun"
Posted by Admin at 11:42 PM
How the Market Will Unravel
The bearish case for stocks is predicated on the notion that the massive creation and accumulation of debt -- particularly the consumer sector -- contributed to a large portion of the domestic economic (and stock market) gains experienced since 2000.
This added liquidity from nontraditional lenders dulled the effect of the Fed and served to buoy the low credit markets, allowing companies that should have failed to have access to large sums of equity and bonds. This created the feeling that all was well with the business world as stock markets rallied around the world and corporate default rates hit all-time lows by early 2007.
But that was an illusion.
http://mparent7777-2.blogspot.com/2007/09/how-market-will-unravel.html
Continue reading "How the Market Will Unravel"
Posted by Admin at 11:36 PM
How the falling dollar affects Americans
US consumers' standard of living may drop as they pay more for foreign goods, but demand for American labor will rise, say economists.
The saga of the sagging dollar continues.
All year, the dollar has drooped compared with other major currencies. Last week, after the Federal Reserve reduced interest rates, it fell even further – now at a level not seen since 1997. The Canadian loonie is even stronger – on par with the greenback for the first time in 30 years.
http://mparent7777-2.blogspot.com/2007/09/how-falling-dollar-affects-americans.html
Continue reading "How the falling dollar affects Americans"
Posted by Admin at 11:33 PM
The Second Great Depression
This piece was first published February 2007...
At that time, the author asked "So why isn't the Euro soaring?"
Since then, the Euro has risen from 1.30 to 1.42, an increase of about 10%.
(That means the dollar has dropped 10% vs. the Euro in approximately the last 6 months.)
“The US economy is in danger of a recession that will prove unusually long and severe. By any measure it is in far worse shape than in 2001-02 and the unraveling of the housing bubble is clearly at hand. It seems that the continuous buoyancy of the financial markets is again deluding many people about the gravity of the economic situation.” Dr. Kurt Richebacher
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17145.htm
Continue reading "The Second Great Depression"
Posted by Admin at 11:11 PM
September 23, 2007
Hillary's Health Care Plan
By Maggie Mahar
Hillary's plan is out. As I discussed in the post below, it does require all Americans to buy insurance, but it also mandates that insurers must offer insurance to everyone, regardless of whether they are healthy or sick:
"End to Unfair Health Insurance Discrimination: By creating a level-playing field of insurance rules across states and markets, the plan ensures that no American is denied coverage, refused renewal, unfairly priced out of the market, or forced to pay excessive insurance company premiums"
Moreover, the plan guarantees that working families will receive a refundable tax credit designed to prevent premiums from exceeding a percentage of family income.
http://www.tpmcafe.com/blog/coffeehouse/2007/sep/17/update_hillarys_plan
Continue reading "Hillary's Health Care Plan"
Posted by Admin at 03:39 PM
CBO: Bush Plans For Iraq Will Cost Trillions
A new Congressional study finds that President Bush's plans for the U.S. in Iraq over the next several decades will reach the trillions of dollars, on top of the approximately $567 billion the war has already cost. That accounting assumes a significant troop draw-down -- and still tallies a daunting expense for the United States.
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004243.php
Posted by Admin at 03:23 PM
Quiz - Which presidential candidates share your views?
Take this quiz and find out!
http://www.dehp.net/candidate/index.php
Posted by doctormatt at 11:49 AM
Dates of initial presidential primaries
Saturday, January 5, 2008 - Wyoming
Monday, January 14, 2008 - Iowa
Tuesday, January 15, 2008 - Michigan
Saturday, January 19, 2008 - Nevada , South Carolina
Tuesday January 22, 2008 - New Hampshire
Tuesday, January 29, 2008 - Florida
Saturday, February 2, 2008 - Maine
Posted by doctormatt at 11:37 AM
YouTube - You Choose - presidential candidate videos
http://www.youtube.com/youchoose
Posted by doctormatt at 11:32 AM
Five Dems in Iowa Agree: 'No' to Single Payer System
By Kucinich for President 2008
Five Dems Agree: "No" To Single Payer System
Kucinich Takes Them All On
Statement by Dennis J. Kucinich, Democratic Candidate for President.
DAVENPORT, IA - In a debate sponsored by one of the nation's leading private insurance sales organizations, AARP, five Democratic presidential candidates unanimously voiced opposition to a single payer national health plan, Medicare for All. The only presidential candidate to author such a plan, Congressman Dennis Kucinich, was not invited to the debate, despite the fact that he has run ahead of or even with three of the five candidates on the stage in Iowa.
"They all decry the plight of the American people and then they turn around and promote the very system which is driving people towards ill physical and economic health, bankruptcy and death: the for-profit health insurance system," said Kucinich. "They do not believe they can get a consensus for change in Congress, yet there was no demonstration of any intention to change the system, despite the fact that 47,000,000 Americans have no health insurance and another 50,000,000 are underinsured."
Continue reading "Five Dems in Iowa Agree: 'No' to Single Payer System"
Posted by Admin at 09:03 AM
September 22, 2007
The Cost of Staying the Course in Iraq
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2007/09/costs_chart.html
Posted by doctormatt at 10:37 PM
How to Cut Poverty in Half in Just Four Steps
Imagine if everyone in California were poor. In other words, all 36.5 million inhabitants of California—the most populous state in the richest nation in the world—are living lives of privation. Holding on to life and liberty, maybe, but with little hope of engaging in the pursuit of happiness. A pretty sad state of affairs, right?
Well, you can stop imagining. Not everyone in California is poor, of course—Steven Spielberg lives there, after all—but it is the sad case that 37 million Americans across the country live below the poverty line, and millions more are struggling to make ends meet.
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2007/05/poverty_howto.html/print.html
Continue reading "How to Cut Poverty in Half in Just Four Steps"
Posted by Admin at 10:34 PM
Progressive report update
CONGRESS - Filibuster Frenzy
This week, a bipartisan majority of the Senate voted to restore the right of habeas corpus to detainees, grant the District of Columbia full voting representation in Congress, and mandate that U.S. troops receive at least as much time at home as they are deployed. But facing strong opposition from the White House, the measures narrowly fell short of the 60 votes needed to overcome the Republican leadership's filibusters and will not move forward. Instead, conservatives spent the week defending the Bush administration and condemning a New York Times ad. The media largely billed the defeats as Senate "rejections" of the measures, failing to highlight the conservative obstruction.
http://americanprogressaction.org
Continue reading "Progressive report update"
Posted by Admin at 10:06 PM
September 21, 2007
US medical students urge passage of employment non-discrimination act
The American Medical Student Association (AMSA), the nation's largest, independent medical student organization, representing more than 68,000 physicians-in-training, today urged the U.S. House of Representatives on Sept. 20 to pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (H.R. 2015), in order to protect every American from discriminatory employment practices based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
Continue reading "US medical students urge passage of employment non-discrimination act"
Posted by doctormatt at 11:26 PM
Physicians for a National Health Program
The U.S. spends twice as much as other industrialized nations on health care, $7,129 per capita. Yet our system performs poorly in comparison and still leaves 46 million without health coverage and millions more inadequately covered.
This is because private insurance bureaucracy and paperwork consume one-third (31 percent) of every health care dollar. Streamlining payment though a single nonprofit payer would save more than $350 billion per year, enough to provide comprehensive, high-quality coverage for all Americans.
Posted by Admin at 11:21 PM
Major Health Care Proposals Ignore the 'Big Leak,' Says Health Insurance Expert
“Universal health care is getting the attention it deserves, but unfortunately the proposals receiving the most attention ignore the ‘Big Leak,’” which is the enormous non-benefit costs incurred by health care providers who must match their billions of billings with thousands of differing private health care plans,” says Merton C. Bernstein, a founding member of the National Academy of Social Insurance and the Coles Professor of Law Emeritus at Washington University in St. Louis. “Putting everyone under the Medicare umbrella would eliminate that leak,” he says.
Continue reading " Major Health Care Proposals Ignore the 'Big Leak,' Says Health Insurance Expert"
Posted by Admin at 11:19 PM
White House in Contempt
Letter from Representative John Conyers -
I wanted to take the opportunity to update you on the status of the contempt of Congress resolution in the House of Representatives.
As you may know, the Judiciary Committee passed a resolution before the August recess holding the White House and Harriet Miers in contempt of Congress for their failure to provide documents and appear before the committee as legally required by subpoena.
The information we have received to date from the Justice Department from our U.S. Attorneys investigation indicates the White House played a central role in the firing of the nine federal prosecutors. Yet, the White House has stonewalled and consistently refused to cooperate with inquiries into this matter.
At the heart of our investigation is the evidence uncovered suggesting that the nine U.S. Attorneys were fired for politically-motivated reasons, while others may have been retained because they were pursuing partisan investigations.
We have also discovered that job candidates' political contributions and affiliations were considered in hiring decisions for nonpartisan positions in the Department of Justice. Our job has been made more difficult by apparent misleading testimony from the Attorney General and other Department of Justice officials.
Continue reading "White House in Contempt"
Posted by doctormatt at 05:59 AM
September 19, 2007
Paulson: U.S. to Hit Debt Limit Oct. 1
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson told Congress on Wednesday the government will hit the current debt ceiling on Oct. 1. He sought quick action to increase the limit, saying it was essential to protect the "full faith and credit" of the country, especially at a time of financial market turmoil.
The limit is $8.965 trillion. Unless Congress votes to raise it, the country would be unable to borrow more money to keep the government operating and to pay debt obligations coming due.
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070919/debt_limit.html?.v=2&printer=1
Continue reading "Paulson: U.S. to Hit Debt Limit Oct. 1"
Posted by Admin at 09:06 PM
September 16, 2007
Living in a Housing Bubble
Interview With Dr. Housing
How long have you been following the housing market?
In terms of following real estate closely, I have been following the market for 8 years. I've always had an interest in housing and real estate, however. My interest started when I read Nothing Down by Robert Allen. The ideas seemed so simple and made sense. When I read the book for the first time, nothing down still was used only by experts. Of course, once I got into investing and working in the industry, I realized that there was more to housing than simply finding a place and going zero down. Now after reading countless books and being active, real estate isn't such a simple industry. It is hard to believe that nothing down became mainstream in the last few years. Many people read only bullish housing books and jumped into a bullish time for housing, and now they are having a hard time figuring out what to do in a bearish market.
Continue reading "Living in a Housing Bubble"
Posted by Admin at 02:17 PM
Dollar's retreat raises fear of collapse
FRANKFURT: Finance ministers and central bankers have long fretted that at some point, the rest of the world would lose its willingness to finance the United States' proclivity to consume far more than it produces - and that a potentially disastrous free-fall in the dollar's value would result.
But for longer than most economists would have been willing to predict a decade ago, the world has been a willing partner in American excess - until a new and home-grown financial crisis this summer rattled confidence in the country, the world's largest economy.
On Thursday, the dollar briefly fell to another low against the euro of $1.3927, as a slow decline that has been under way for months picked up steam this past week.
"This is all pointing to a greatly increased risk of a fast unwinding of the U.S. current account deficit and a serious decline of the dollar," said Kenneth Rogoff, a former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund and an expert on exchange rates. "We could finally see the big kahuna hit."
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/09/13/news/econ.php
Continue reading "Dollar's retreat raises fear of collapse"
Posted by Admin at 02:11 PM
September 14, 2007
San Francisco to Offer Care for Every Uninsured Adult
Since contracting polio at age 2, Yan Ling Ho has lived with pain for most of her 52 years. After she immigrated here from Hong Kong last year, the soreness in her back and joints proved too debilitating for her to work.
That also meant she did not have health insurance. Not wanting to burden her daughter, who was already paying her living expenses, Ms. Ho delayed doctors’ visits and battled her misery with over-the-counter medications.
“Sometimes the pain was so bad, I would just cry,” she said. “I didn’t know what else to do.”
Last month, unable to bear her discomfort any longer, Ms. Ho went to North East Medical Services, a nonprofit community clinic on the edge of Chinatown, and discovered to her delight that she qualified for a new program that offers free or subsidized health care to all 82,000 San Francisco adults without insurance.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/14/us/14health.html?ref=health&pagewanted=print
Continue reading "San Francisco to Offer Care for Every Uninsured Adult"
Posted by Admin at 08:07 AM
Domestic Use of Spy Satellites To Widen
Law Enforcement Getting New Access To Secret Imagery
The Bush administration has approved a plan to expand domestic access to some of the most powerful tools of 21st-century spycraft, giving law enforcement officials and others the ability to view data obtained from satellite and aircraft sensors that can see through cloud cover and even penetrate buildings and underground bunkers.
A program approved by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Department of Homeland Security will allow broader domestic use of secret overhead imagery beginning as early as this fall, with the expectation that state and local law enforcement officials will eventually be able to tap into technology once largely restricted to foreign surveillance.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/15/AR2007081502430_pf.html
Continue reading "Domestic Use of Spy Satellites To Widen"
Posted by Admin at 06:32 AM
September 12, 2007
Dollar hits fresh 15-year low
The dollar fell to a fresh 15-year low against a basket of currencies on Tuesday as the greenback continued to suffer from the prospect of a cut in US interest rates.
Expectations that the Federal Reserve would move to lower interest rates at its meeting on September 18 have increased since last week’s US employment report, which showed the recent turmoil in the credit markets had spilled over into the wider economy.
“The dollar remains undermined by the increasing prospect of monetary easing by the Federal Reserve as it attempts to forestall the US economy from slipping into recession,” said Derek Halpenny at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e1281bc8-604c-11dc-8ec0-0000779fd2ac.html
Continue reading "Dollar hits fresh 15-year low"
Posted by doctormatt at 10:19 PM
September 11, 2007
Jurors hard to find for Warren Jeffs trial
ST. GEORGE, Utah - There is a very real possibility that the trial of Warren Jeffs - North America's most notorious polygamist - may be have to be moved from this southern Utah city because an impartial jury can not be found.
Jeffs was on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list alongside Osama bin Laden when he was arrested last August. He is the so-called prophet of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints whose 15,000 followers (including about 600 in Bountiful, B.C.) believe that he is God's mouthpiece on earth and may well be a god himself.
Continue reading "Jurors hard to find for Warren Jeffs trial"
Posted by Admin at 12:44 PM
September 10, 2007
Machinery In Place For Dictatorship in America
If President Bush doesn't make himself dictator it's only because he chooses not to do so, not because he lacks the means.
Indeed, we are all walking the streets today at the pleasure of the two gentlemen in the White House former Nixon counsel John Dean calls "co-presidents"- and whose regime, he warns, is "a dangerous threat to democracy."- (Read Dean's book, "Worse Than Watergate"-, published by Warner).
In fact, though, if anyone is pulling the strings to create a police state, it is Vice President Cheney. The former Halliburton CEO is tied closely both to those creating a private army and to those building massive new detention facilities.
Continue reading "Machinery In Place For Dictatorship in America"
Posted by doctormatt at 09:57 PM
September 09, 2007
Edwards/Kucinich 2008?
The Gold Standard For Progressive Candidates
When I exhorted Edwards to live up to his own gold standard, and when I urged the people to apply this standard to the candidates’ policy positions and to the conduct and financing of their campaigns, I should have cited the fine example already set by Dennis Kucinich. Why should I perpetuate the neglect modeled by the mass media?
The Superior Record of Dennis Kucinich
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/09/04/3597/print/
Continue reading "Edwards/Kucinich 2008?"
Posted by doctormatt at 10:00 PM
Big Brother IS Watching You, Starting October 1st
Perhaps one of the real benefits of my wee hours babysitting chores is my unrestricted access to the C-SPAN rebroadcast of Committee Hearings. This morning I watched a doosey - The House Committee on Homeland Security . You can link to the video on this page.
Beginning in October 2007 the Department of Homeland Security will open a new office called the National Applications Office (NAO) charged with civil/domestic intelligence gathering.
This new division of Homeland Security was conceived entirely by the Executive Branch, with no Congressional input, and will serve as a clearinghouse for requests to access the data provided by military spy satellites, with a resolution of inches, to view the territorial United States. During the hearing Charles Allen, Assistant Secretary for Intelligence & Analysis told Chairman Bennie Thompson that their legal and civil rights oversite concerns were misplaced.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/9/9/51544/46359
Continue reading "Big Brother IS Watching You, Starting October 1st"
Posted by doctormatt at 09:52 PM
August 30, 2007
Kucinich would not prosecute legitimate users of medical marijuana
Posted by doctormatt at 11:08 PM
August 08, 2007
In Bush we trust - or else
It doesn't require a subpoena of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales or a brave whistle-blower to find President Bush's latest affront to the U.S. Constitution. It's in plain view on the White House Web site: "Executive Order: Blocking Property of Certain Persons Who Threaten Stabilization Efforts in Iraq."
This far-reaching order of July 17 may be Bush's most brazen defiance of the Constitution, which is no small feat for an administration that thinks it can set its own rules on electronic surveillance, torture, kidnapping, rendition, and the designation of "enemy combatants" who can be arrested on U.S. soil and held indefinitely without judicial review.
Continue reading "In Bush we trust - or else"
Posted by Admin at 09:37 PM
Secret call log at heart of wiretap challenge
In open court and legal filings it's referred to simply as "the Document."
Federal officials claim its contents are so sensitive to national security that it is stored in a bombproof safe in Washington and viewed only by prosecutors with top secret security clearances and a few select federal judges.
The Document, described by those who have seen it as a National Security Administration log of calls intercepted between an Islamic charity and its American lawyers, is at the heart of what legal experts say may be the strongest case against the Bush administration's warrantless eavesdropping program. The federal appeals court in San Francisco plans to hear arguments in the case Aug. 15.
Continue reading "Secret call log at heart of wiretap challenge"
Posted by doctormatt at 09:31 PM
August 05, 2007
Six Judiciary Committee Members for Impeachment
Forty-five Congress Members now stand in one manner or another for impeachment.
Congressman Steve Cohen from Tennessee, and Congresswoman Shiela Jackson-Lee of Texas have signed onto H. Res. 333. That makes six Judiciary Committee members ready to impeach the Vice President. The other four are Hank Johnson of Georgia, Keith Ellison of Minnesota, Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, and Maxine Waters of California. Four of these six are African American. A fifth, Cohen, is white but represents a majority black district and attempted unsuccessfully to join the Congressional Black Caucus. All six represent urban districts, three from the South, two from the Midwest, and one from Southern California. All six are Democrats. None of the six chairs a subcomittee. Three of them are freshmen.
Continue reading "Six Judiciary Committee Members for Impeachment"
Posted by doctormatt at 11:04 PM
Illegal Secret Wiretap Controversy Continues
Olbermann's interview. Democrats weak kneed again.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQ3P1mzEe2A
Posted by Admin at 10:38 PM
August 03, 2007
Bill Moyers - Tough talk on Impeachment
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/07132007/profile.html
Bill Moyers talks with Bruce Fein and John Nichols
BILL MOYERS: One of the fellows you're about to meet wrote the first article of impeachment against President Clinton. Bruce Fein did so because perjury is a legal crime. And Fein believed no one is above the law. A constitutional scholar, Bruce Fein served in the Justice Department during the Reagan administration and as general counsel of the Federal Communications Commission. Bruce Fein has been affiliated with conservative think tanks such as the American Enterprise Institute and the Heritage Foundation and now writes a weekly column for THE WASHINGTON TIMES and Politico.com.
Continue reading "Bill Moyers - Tough talk on Impeachment"
Posted by Admin at 05:18 PM
August 01, 2007
CHIP - Children’s Health Plan Focus of New Struggle
WASHINGTON, July 31 — The Children’s Health Insurance Program has suddenly become a vehicle for an ideological struggle between President Bush and Congress over the future of the health care system.
But in the short term, members of both parties say, the broader outline of that struggle is likely to be reduced to a simple question: “Are you for or against children?”
Continue reading "CHIP - Children’s Health Plan Focus of New Struggle"
Posted by doctormatt at 12:26 PM
G.O.P. Leaders Fight Expansion of Children’s Health Insurance
WASHINGTON, July 24 — Republican leaders of the House and Senate on Tuesday attacked proposals that call for a major expansion of the Children’s Health Insurance Program, to be financed with higher tobacco taxes.
“Republicans will fight these proposals,” said the House Republican leader, Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio.
Continue reading "G.O.P. Leaders Fight Expansion of Children’s Health Insurance"
Posted by doctormatt at 12:24 PM
July 30, 2007
White House blocked Surgeon General's report
Global Health Draft In 2006 Rejected for Not Being Political
A Republican political appointee with close White House ties has blocked a 2006 report by the US surgeon general that called for action to tackle global health problems because the document did not promote the administration's policy accomplishments, The Washington Post reported Sunday.
Citing current and former public health officials, the newspaper said the report described the link between poverty and poor health and urged the US government to help combat widespread diseases as a key aim of its foreign policy.
Three people directly involved in the report's preparation said its publication was blocked by William Steiger, a specialist in education and a scholar of Latin American history whose family has long ties to President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard Cheney, the report said.
Steiger has run the Office of Global Health Affairs in the Department of Health and Human Services since 2001.
Richard Carmona, who served as surgeon general from 2002 to 2006, recently cited its suppression as an example of the Bush administration's frequent efforts during his tenure to give scientific documents a political twist, the paper reported.
Carmona told lawmakers that, as he fought to release the document, he was "called in and again admonished ... via a senior official who said, 'You don't get it,'" according to The Post.
He said a senior official told him that "this will be a political document, or it will not be released."
After a long struggle, Carmona refused to make the requested changes, the paper said. A few days before the end of his term as the nation's senior medical officer, he was abruptly told he would not be reappointed.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/28/AR2007072801420.html?hpid=topnews
Continue reading "White House blocked Surgeon General's report"
Posted by Admin at 06:34 PM
July 29, 2007
Censure and Impeachment: Take 2
The first resolution from Feingold and Hinchey is expected to cite Bush and Cheney for making intentionally false statements about Iraq's possession of weapons of mass destruction and for misleading Congress and the public into believing Saddam Hussein had ties to Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda. In addition, it will score the president and vice president for failing to plan for the occupation of Iraq, distorting the reality on the ground as it deteriorated, and overstretching the military in order to maintain the administration's mad mission in Iraq.
The second resolution is expected to suggest that Bush, Cheney and other senior administration officials have blatantly disregarded the rule of law. It will focus on the administration's illegal NSA warrantless surveillance program, its extreme policies on torture, the abusive use of presidential signing statements, the politically-motivated firings of U.S. Attorneys and the failure of the administration to cooperate with congressional inquiries.
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion?pid=218398
Posted by Admin at 12:48 AM
July 28, 2007
Gonzales Digs a Deeper Hole
Just when it seemed that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' reputation on Capitol Hill couldn't possibly get much worse, he showed up Tuesday for yet another hearing. And as with so many of his recent appearances before Congress, his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee raised a lot more troubling questions than it answered — not just about his own conduct of and honesty about the U.S. attorney firings, but also about the Administration's domestic intelligence gathering programs.
http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1646714,00.html
Continue reading "Gonzales Digs a Deeper Hole"
Posted by Admin at 11:57 PM
Proof Gonzales Lied Under Oath
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70_1Fmv4hL8
Posted by doctormatt at 10:08 PM
July 27, 2007
Legal expert 'baffled' why White House would invoke executive privilege in Tillman case
Keith Olbermann reported Monday that the administration is facing two deadlines where the House of Representatives has called for officials to testify and the administration is invoking executive privilege. One has to do with the death in Afghanistan of former football star Pat Tillman, which the Pentagon used for propaganda purposes instead of acknowledging it was the result of friendly fire. The other involves a subpoena to White House Counsel Harriet Miers over the US Attorney firings that Miers has refused to honor.
There is no "Executive Privilege" in the Constitution. It was created by the US Supreme Court for the express purpose of allowing a President and his aides to discuss matters without fear of later examination, much as the attorney-client privilege allows lawyers and clients to have frank and open discussions without incriminating themselves.
HOWEVER, that same US Supreme Court declared that Presidents could not use Executive Privilege outside the context of advise from his aides and struck down Nixon's attempt to claim Executive Privilege over the Oval Office tape recordings.
In the case of the Tillman killing and cover-up, there can be no legitimate reasons to invoke Executive Privilege.
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Law_scholar_baffled_by_Executive_Privilege_0716.html
Posted by Admin at 12:43 PM
Refusal to Testify - Hubris or Cover-up?
There are those who are trying to minimize the issue of the firing of the U.S. attorneys as political comedy, and no big deal. It is a very big deal when the Department of Justice becomes an arm of politics rather than an arm of justice. Gonzales has testified repeatedly that he "doesn't know" or "can't remember." Certainly a stonewalling technique. Bush then extended executive privilege to White House staff so they would not testify. Now the two highest ranked staffers subpoenaed have refused to even show up to testify before Congress. Is this just a flaunting of executive power, or is there a cover up?
Stacking the Department of Justice with political loyalists damages us all. That appears to be the purpose of the dismissal of U.S. prosecutors by Gonzales (who "doesn't remember" most of his tenure thus far).
Continue reading "Refusal to Testify - Hubris or Cover-up?"
Posted by Admin at 08:54 AM
Gonzales Memo: White House Granted Extraordinary Access to DOJ Files
A new wrinkle over the apparent politicization of the Department of Justice (DOJ) emerged on Tuesday during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing when a freshman Democratic lawmaker revealed the contents of a May 2006 memo. The memo, signed by embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, granted Vice President Dick Cheney extraordinary authority to review active federal civil and criminal investigations at the DOJ.
At the time the memo was signed by Gonzales, Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, was preparing his defense on obstruction of justice and perjury charges involving the leak of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson's name. Also, the special prosecutor who secured an indictment in the case on behalf of the government was reportedly trying to determine whether Cheney and numerous other White House officials also unmasked Plame's identity to reporters and lied about it to a grand jury and FBI investigators. Cheney had been interviewed about his role in the leak in 2004.
Continue reading "Gonzales Memo: White House Granted Extraordinary Access to DOJ Files"
Posted by Admin at 08:53 AM
23 days to Absolute Tyranny
Latest Bush Executive Order Outlaws Iraq War Dissent on Penalty of Full Asset Seizure
In an as yet un-numbered Executive Order (at least the number isn't published), president bush has decreed that your property - all of it - can be taken away at the sole discretion of the Secretary of the Treasury at the mere suspicion that you may commit a crime in the future. You can view and read this latest executive atrocity at the White House website.
An executive order only becomes law if Congress doesn’t overturn it within thirty days after it is published in the Federal Register.
Continue reading "23 days to Absolute Tyranny"
Posted by Admin at 08:49 AM
July 26, 2007
Democrats Urge Perjury Probe of Gonzales
A group of Senate Democrats called Wednesday for a special counsel to investigate whether Attorney General Alberto Gonzales perjured himself regarding the firings of U.S. attorneys and administration dissent over President Bush's domestic surveillance program.
"We ask that you immediately appoint an independent special counsel from outside the Department of Justice to determine whether Attorney General Gonzales may have misled Congress or perjured himself in testimony before Congress," four Democratic senators wrote in a letter Wednesday, according to a draft obtained by The Associated Press.
Continue reading "Democrats Urge Perjury Probe of Gonzales"
Posted by Admin at 02:08 PM
July 25, 2007
Report Suggests Laws Broken in Attorney Firings
House Democrats, preparing for a vote today on contempt citations against President Bush's chief of staff and former counsel, produced a report yesterday that for the first time alleges specific ways that several administration officials may have broken the law during the multiple firings of U.S. attorneys.
The report says that Congress's seven-month investigation into the firings raises "serious concerns" that senior White House and Justice Department aides involved in the removal of nine U.S. attorneys last year may have obstructed justice and violated federal statutes that protect civil service employees, prohibit political retaliation against government officials and cover presidential records.
The 52-page memorandum, from House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.), seeks to explain why Democrats are trying to overcome an effort by the White House to shield officials and documents from the congressional inquiry through a claim of executive privilege. The report also provides the first written account of the Democrats' interpretation of the firings and the administration's response to the controversy.
The investigation "has uncovered serious evidence of wrongdoing by the department and White House staff," Conyers says.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/24/AR2007072402311_pf.html
Continue reading "Report Suggests Laws Broken in Attorney Firings"
Posted by Admin at 05:52 PM
House Democrats Unveil SCHIP Legislation That Would Increase Cigarette Tax, Reduce Payments to Medicare Advantage Plans
House Democrats on Tuesday introduced legislation that would reduce payments to Medicare Advantage plans and increase the federal cigarette tax by 45 cents per pack to fund SCHIP and make revisions to Medicare, the AP/Houston Chronicle reports (Freking, AP/Houston Chronicle, 7/24). The legislation, called the Children's Health and Medicare Protection Act, would reauthorize SCHIP and increase funding for the program by $50 billion over five years. The expansion would allow an additional five million to six million children to enroll in the program, according to House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair John Dingell (D-Mich.) (Johnson [1], CongressDaily, 7/25).
In addition, the legislation would:
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/health2008dr.cfm?DR_ID=46472
Posted by doctormatt at 03:33 PM
July 24, 2007
More than 50% of Americans favor impeachment
On ABC’s This Week, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) highlighted the new American Research Group poll showing that nearly half of Americans want the House of Representatives to begin impeachment proceedings against President Bush, and 54 percent favor impeachment hearings for Vice President Cheney.
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/07/08/conyers-impeachment/
Posted by doctormatt at 06:04 PM
Bush’s Agencies Of Mass Politicization
This week’s report that officials in the Office of National Drug Control Policy made politically motivated appearances in the months leading up to the 2006 elections are only the latest example of the Bush administration’s misuse of federal employees.
For example, the Wall Street Journal reported in 2003 that Karl Rove or his top aide, Ken Mehlman, “visited nearly every agency to outline White House campaign priorities, review polling data and, on occasion, call attention to tight House, Senate and gubernatorial races that could be affected by regulatory action.”
Partisan campaign or electoral activities on federal government property are illegal. This prohibition, however, has not stopped the Bush administration from politicizing virtually every agency under its control. Below is a quick review of the extent of the White House’s efforts to politicize the federal agencies:
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/07/18/mass-politicization/
Posted by doctormatt at 05:55 PM
Gonzo gets grilled
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/07/24/specter-special-prosecutor/
...
and
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/07/24/schumer-rips-gonzales/
Posted by doctormatt at 05:48 PM
July 23, 2007
Bush aides face contempt charges
House Democrats on Monday targeted two of President Bush's longtime aides for criminal contempt citations, escalating a legal fight over executive privilege and access to White House deliberations on the firings of federal prosecutors.
Rep. John Conyers, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said his panel would vote Wednesday on citing White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and former Counsel Harriet Miers for contempt of Congress.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6799951,00.html
Continue reading "Bush aides face contempt charges"
Posted by Admin at 06:01 PM
July 22, 2007
Conyers almost ready to impeach
House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers has said that if three more Congress Members get behind impeachment he will start the impeachment proceedings.
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/24962
Continue reading "Conyers almost ready to impeach"
Posted by Admin at 09:28 PM
July 20, 2007
Bush’s New Interrogation Order Contains Loophole: ‘Does Not Create Any Right Enforceable At Law’
In October 2006, Bush signed the Military Commissions Act of 2006, which provided for the continuation of so-called CIA “black sites” for interrogating terrorism suspects and allowed evidence obtained through torture to be used against them. In its lengthy series on the Vice President, the Washington Post reported that the bill gave Cheney everything he wanted:
For all the apparent setbacks, close observers said, Cheney has preserved his top-priority tools in the “war on terror.” After a private meeting with Cheney, one of them said, Bush decided not to promise that there would be no more black sites — and seven months later, the White House acknowledged that secret detention had resumed.
Posted by doctormatt at 04:45 PM
FEMA Concentration Camps:
Locations of camps and Executive Orders -
There over 800 prison camps in the United States, all fully operational and ready to receive prisoners. They are all staffed and even surrounded by full-time guards, but they are all empty. These camps are to be operated by FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) should Martial Law need to be implemented in the United States and all it would take is a presidential signature on a proclamation and the attorney general's signature on a warrant to which a list of names is attached. Ask yourself if you really want to be on Ashcroft's list. The Rex 84 Program was established on the reasoning that if a "mass exodus" of illegal aliens crossed the Mexican/US border, they would be quickly rounded up and detained in detention centers by FEMA. Rex 84 allowed many military bases to be closed down and to be turned into prisons.
http://www.mindfully.org/Reform/2004/FEMA-Concentration-Camps3sep04.htm
Continue reading "FEMA Concentration Camps:"
Posted by Admin at 02:59 PM
July 19, 2007
Cheney Suppressed Evidence in California Energy Crisis
In-depth investigation shows how Vice President Dick Cheney pressured federal energy regulators to conceal evidence of widespread market manipulation by energy companies during the California electricity crisis in 2001.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/071907J.shtml
Continue reading "Cheney Suppressed Evidence in California Energy Crisis"
Posted by doctormatt at 06:01 PM
July 12, 2007
Justice Department: Disregard subpoenas
In a broadly worded legal opinion, the Justice Department has concluded that President Bush's former top lawyer, and possibly other senior White House officials, can ignore subpoenas from Congress to testify about the firings of US attorneys.
The three-page opinion raises questions about whether the Justice Department would prosecute senior administration officials if Congress voted to hold them in contempt for not cooperating with the investigation into the firing last year of eight top prosecutors.
Continue reading "Justice Department: Disregard subpoenas"
Posted by doctormatt at 10:45 PM
Judges OK warrantless monitoring of web use
Jul. 7- Federal agents do not need a search warrant to monitor a suspect's computer use and determine the email addresses and web pages the suspect is contacting, a federal appeals court ruled on July 6.
Continue reading "Judges OK warrantless monitoring of web use"
Posted by doctormatt at 10:41 PM
WHITE HOUSE MUZZLED, CENSORED FORMER SURGEON GENERAL
Richard Carmona served as President Bush's first Surgeon General from 2002-2006. Yesterday, he spoke before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and revealed that political appointees in the Bush administration muzzled him on key issues such as "stem cell research, contraceptives and his misgivings about the administration's embrace of 'abstinence-only' sex education."
Carmona explained, "The reality is that the 'nation's doctor' has been marginalized and relegated to a position with no independent budget, and with supervisors who are political appointees with partisan agendas. Anything that doesn't fit into the political appointees' ideological, theological, or political agenda is ignored, marginalized, or simply buried."
Continue reading "WHITE HOUSE MUZZLED, CENSORED FORMER SURGEON GENERAL"
Posted by Admin at 10:28 PM
July 10, 2007
Kucinich calls for impeachment of Cheney
Posted by doctormatt at 10:57 PM
June 27, 2007
Current key Supreme Court rulings
Courtesy of The Daily Show
Posted by doctormatt at 09:30 PM
June 22, 2007
What is “income”?
Lavin v. Marsh, 644 F.2nd 1378, 9th Cir., (1981)
Continue reading "What is “income”?"
Posted by doctormatt at 05:48 PM
1040 Checkmate?
DOJ Dismisses Felony Tax Prosecution
-- With Prejudice -- After PRA Defense Raised
Evidence OMB Complicit In Income Tax Fraud
DOJ & IRS Petitioned To Explain
On May 12, 2006 in Peoria, Illinois, the attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) begged the court to dismiss all charges against IRS victim Robert Lawrence in federal District Court.
The motion for dismissal came on the heels of a surprise tactic by Lawrence’s defense attorney Oscar Stilley.
The tactic threatened exposure of IRS’s on-going efforts to defraud the public. The move put DOJ attorneys in a state of panic that left them with only one alternative: beg for dismissal, with prejudice.
Stilley’s tactic paid off. Sixty days earlier, the DOJ had indicted Lawrence on three counts of willful failure to file a 1040 form, and three felony counts of income tax evasion. The federal Judge dismissed all charges with prejudice, meaning the DOJ cannot charge Lawrence with those crimes again.
Continue reading "1040 Checkmate?"
Posted by doctormatt at 05:39 PM
June 19, 2007
Countdown to coverage
On July 1, Massachusetts state law requires every adult to have health insurance if affordable plans are available.
There are many options. The following is a guide to those choices.
More than 135,000 Massachusetts residents who were previously uninsured have gotten free or subsidized coverage under the state's landmark health insurance law. The initiative established Massachusetts as the first state to require every resident to have coverage.
An estimated 250,000 to 350,000 people remain uninsured. The law mandated the expansion of Medicaid and the establishment of new state-subsidized insurance and lower-cost private plans. It also pressed businesses to provide insurance for their workers. Here are answers to some key questions about the insurance requirement.
Continue reading "Countdown to coverage"
Posted by doctormatt at 10:58 AM
June 14, 2007
ACLU Hears Administration’s Plan for Spying Law, Says Congress Cannot Legislate Without Investigating
WASHINGTON - JUNE 13 - In a meeting today with the office of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), the American Civil Liberties Union rebuffed attempts to "modernize" the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The ACLU and other privacy groups and academics met with the DNI at the invitation of the DNI to discuss the broad changes that the Bush Administration and Department of Justice are seeking to make to FISA.
"Congress enacted FISA with the intention of protecting Americans from the very sort of domestic wiretapping the administration has engaged in," said Caroline Fredrickson, Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office. "Amending FISA after the fact would only serve to legitimize and reward the president's illegal actions. There is no legitimate need to expand FISA and the argument that this law cannot keep up with technology is flatly false. "
Posted by doctormatt at 09:24 AM
June 03, 2007
Justice Department acted to repress Democrat vote count
Keith Olbermann video.
Courtesy of Truthout.org
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/050807A.shtml
Posted by doctormatt at 04:34 AM
June 02, 2007
White House follows new path to secrecy
A newly disclosed effort to keep Vice President Dick Cheney's visitor records secret is the latest White House push to make sure the public doesn't learn who has been meeting with top officials in the Bush administration.
Over the past year, lawyers for President Bush and Cheney have directed the Secret Service to maintain the confidentiality of visitor entry and exit logs, declaring them to be presidential records, exempt from a law requiring their disclosure to whoever asks to see them.
Continue reading "White House follows new path to secrecy"
Posted by doctormatt at 09:54 PM
US debt could trigger dollar collapse, UN warns
The United States dollar is facing imminent collapse in the face of an unsustainable debt, the United Nations warned today.
United States debt, which had now deepened to well over $3 trillion, might turn out to be unsustainable in the rest of 2007 or next, putting further downward pressure on the United States dollar, Rob Vos, the Director of the Development Policy and Analysis Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), told correspondents at a Headquarters press conference.
He pointed out that since its peak in 2002, the dollar had depreciated vis-à-vis the major currencies by some 35 per cent and by 25 per cent against a broader range of other currencies.
Continue reading "US debt could trigger dollar collapse, UN warns"
Posted by doctormatt at 11:08 AM
May 29, 2007
US deal over illegal immigrants
The White House and the US Senate have reached a deal on an immigration bill that could give legal status to many of the 12 million illegal immigrants in the US.
The proposal needs to be passed by both houses of Congress and formally signed by Bush to become law.
It comes after months of bitterly fought debate over the issue.
Continue reading "US deal over illegal immigrants"
Posted by Admin at 12:13 AM
May 28, 2007
PBS NOW video - False intelligence on going to war in Iraq
http://www.pbs.org/now/thisweek/index_020306.html
Posted by doctormatt at 10:52 PM