Rachel Maddow: No We Can’t! with Matt Taibbi

MoxNewsDotCom
August 17, 2009

http://MOXNews.com/
August 17, 2009 MSNBC Rachel Maddow

more about “No We Can’t! Rachel Maddow & Matt Tai…“, posted with vodpod

Bagram Isn’t The New Guantánamo, It’s The Old Guantánamo by Andy Worthington

by Andy Worthington
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.andyworthington.co.uk
17 Aug. 2009

Back in September 2005, when I first began researching Guantánamo for my book The Guantánamo Files, the prison was still shrouded in mystery, even though attorneys had been visiting prisoners for nearly a year, following the Supreme Court’s ruling, in June 2004, that they had habeas corpus rights. Researchers at the Washington Post and at Cageprisoners, a human rights organization in the UK, had compiled tentative lists of who was being held, but, although these efforts were commendable, much of it was little more than groping in the dark — a broken jigsaw puzzle based on media reports and interviews with released prisoners — because the Bush administration refused to provide details of the names and nationalities of those it was holding.

DOD Refuses To Turn Over List Of Bagram Detainee Information

American Civil Liberties Union
(8/13/2009)

Government Must Shed Light On Afghan Prison To Prevent “Other Guantánamos,” Says ACLU

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: (212) 549-2666; media@aclu.org

NEW YORK – The government cannot continue to fully withhold a list of names, citizenship, length of detention, capture location and other vital information about detainees at the Bagram detention facility in Afghanistan, according to a letter the American Civil Liberties Union sent to the Department of Defense (DOD) today. In response to an April Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request made by the ACLU to the Departments of Defense, Justice and State and the CIA for documents related to the detention and treatment of prisoners at Bagram, the DOD told the ACLU that it has a list containing basic information about the Bagram detainees but is withholding it in its entirety. The CIA has refused even to confirm the existence of records about Bagram.

“There are serious concerns that Bagram is another Guantánamo – except with many more prisoners, less due process, no access to lawyers or courts and reportedly worse conditions,” said Melissa Goodman, staff attorney with the ACLU National Security Project. “As long as the Bagram prison is shrouded in secrecy, there is no way to know the truth or begin to address the problems that exist there.”

Ahmadinejad: Some neighbouring countries are serving Zionism in the name of Islam

compiled by Cem Ertür
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
17 August 2009

1) Iran Lambasts Policies of Certain Neighboring States (16 August 2009)
2) Tenth ‘Reliant Mermaid’ Joint Naval Exercise (11 August 2009)
3) [from the archives] Turkey and Israel Strategize (Winter 2002)

_____________________

http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=8805251405

excerpt from: Iran Lambasts Policies of Certain Neighboring States

Fars News Agency, 16 August 2009

We are sorry for those countries around us and those neighbors which are at the service of the Zionists in the name of Islam and are providing means of their hegemony over the world. They don’t understand so they provide the Zionists with their possibilities, we hope that they wake up.

[Iran’s President Ahmadinejad, speech to commemorate the World Mosques Day, Tehran, 16 August 2009]

_____________________

The Secret of China’s Miracle Economy: The Government Owns the Banks Rather than the Reverse by Dr. Ellen Brown

by Dr. Ellen Brown
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
webofdebt.com
August 17, 2009

“The banks — hard to believe in a time when we’re facing a banking crisis that many of the banks created — are still the most powerful lobby on Capitol Hill. They frankly own the place.” — U.S. Senator Dick Durbin, Democratic Party Whip, April 30, 2009

While the U.S. spends trillions of dollars to bail out its banking system, leaving its economy to languish, China is being called a “miracle economy” that has decoupled from the rest of the world. As the rest of the world sinks into the worst recession since the 1930s, China has maintained a phenomenal 8% annual growth rate. Those are the reports, but commentators are dubious. They ask how that growth is possible, when other countries relying heavily on exports have suffered major downturns and remain in the doldrums. Economist Richard Wolff skeptically observes:

A Healthcare Proposal That Solves Obama’s Problems (Except for Campaign Funding) by Thom Hartmann

You, too, can let President Obama know how you feel about this issue.  Take action: http://www.whitehouse.gov/CONTACT/.  ~ DS

By Thom Hartmann
After Downing St
Aug. 17, 2009

Dear President Obama,

I understand you’re thinking of dumping your “public option” because of all the demagoguery by Sarah Palin and Dick Armey and Newt Gingrich and their crowd on right-wing radio and Fox. Fine. Good idea, in fact.

Instead, let’s make it simple. Please let us buy into Medicare.

It would be so easy. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel with this so-called “public option” that’s a whole new program from the ground up. Medicare already exists. It works. Some people will like it, others won’t – just like the Post Office versus FedEx analogy you’re so comfortable with.

Just pass a simple bill – it could probably be just a few lines, like when Medicare was expanded to include disabled people – that says that any American citizen can buy into the program at a rate to be set by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) which reflects the actual cost for us to buy into it.

[...]

via A Healthcare Proposal from Thom Hartmann That Solves Obama’s Problems Except for Campaign Funding | AfterDowningStreet.org

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see

Money is God, Greed is King and Corruption Runs the Game By Siv O’Neall

Why Aren’t Progressives Disrupting ObamaCare Town Halls? by Dave Lindorff

Fascist America II: The Last Turnoff By Sara Robinson

Thom Hartmann: Free Trade Is Destroying Our Economy

Thom Hartmann: The Crisis of Western Culture (must-see)

single payer healthcare HR 676 S 703

from the archives:

Dennis Kucinich: This Is A Hoax! It Is A Swindle! Wake Up America!

Recovering from Neoliberal Disaster: Why Iceland and Latvia Won’t (and Can’t) Pay the EU for the Kleptocrats’ Ripoffs by Prof. Michael Hudson

by Prof. Michael Hudson
Global Research, August 17, 2009

Can Iceland and Latvia pay the foreign debts run up by a fairly narrow layer of their population?

The European Union and International Monetary Fund have told them to replace private debts with public obligations, and to pay by raising taxes, slashing public spending and obliging citizens to deplete their savings.

Resentment is growing not only toward those who ran up these debts – Iceland’s bankrupt Kaupthing and Landsbanki with its Icesave accounts, and heavily debt-leveraged property owners and privatizers in the Baltics and Central Europe – but also toward the neoliberal foreign advisors and creditors who pressured these governments to sell off the banks and public infrastructure to insiders.

Women Warriors. Sharing The Danger. by Eileen Coles

by Eileen Coles
Guest Writer
Dandelion Salad
crossposted at www.docudharma.com/diary
August 17, 2009

While I was serving at Ramstein during Desert Storm, “Overseas!” magazine came out with an article with that incredibly cheesy title. It featured a tough looking gal in chocolate chip cami’s with a firm set to her jaw and a pair of the ubiquitous 1980′s ZZ Top “cheap sunglasses” that were being offered for sale in every AAFES store, BX, PX, and commissary. I believe she was either standing there holding a weapon or standing behind a gun emplacement. The very idea that this woman would be in combat was laughable at the time, women were having enough problems being allowed to fly C130 cargo missions for USAFE’s arm of the Desert Storm operation, Proven Force.

At the time, I was adjusting to my first experience with soft contact lenses and so I went out and got myself a pair of these superdark black-on-black $3 aviator shades because light sensitivity was proving to be an issue with the new lenses, especially while driving. I would stick out my jaw while wearing these silly things, mugging like I was the tough gal on the cover of “Overseas!” and grunt in my best Brooklyn butch bitch voice: “Women warriors! Sharing the danger!” to make my fiancee at the time crack up laughing.

John Pilger: Obama Is A Corporate Marketing Creation

http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/

(replaced video 8.11.10)

Wakeymedia3 | June 08, 2010

August 12, 2009

Afghanistan: How the East was lost

AlJazeeraEnglish
August 16, 2009

We examine how the Taliban managed to return after they were removed from power 8 years ago.

more about “Afghanistan: How the East was lost – …“, posted with vodpod

Pt 2-4

Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox: Cynthia McKinney + Sheehan to lead protests against the wars

By Cindy Sheehan
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox Blog
Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox
August 17,  2009

Cynthia! – August 16, 2009 (SOAPBOX #31) – Cindy welcomes former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, “kidnapped” and imprisoned by the Israelis for seven days.  Maybe she was considered dangerous for her “crime”:  She actually brought CRAYONS to the children of Gaza!  A heinous crime indeed!  Everybody knows that we should look forward and not back when it comes to trivial matters (like systematic torture) – but intolerable evils such as distributing CRAYONS to CHILDREN (evidently) deserve the full force of (someone’s) law!  What a danger to humanity!  Listen in!

***

Cindy Sheehan to lead protests against the wars near Obama’s vacation spot on Martha Vineyard

For immediate release:

Next week, Cindy Sheehan will join other like-minded peace activists to have a presence near the expensive resort on Martha’s Vineyard where President Obama will be vacationing the week of August 23-30.

Irked by US-Colombia deal, Chavez warns of war

PressTV
Sun, 16 Aug 2009

Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez has again slammed US plans to increase its military presence in Colombia, echoing his earlier remarks in which he warned of an imminent war in the region.

The US President Barack Obama is ‘lost in the Andromeda’ galaxy on Latin American policy, Chavez said on Sunday in his weekly address.

He made the comments after Bogota announced a deal that will allow US troops to use seven military bases on Colombian soil. The leftist president believes that a larger US troop presence ups the prospect of a war in the region.

[...]

via Irked by US-Colombia deal, Chavez warns of war

see

Eva Golinger: America wants to attack Venezuela

Why the U.S. Government Hates Venezuela By Shamus Cooke

Bob Dylan Arrested for Walking

James Joyner
http://www.outsidethebeltway.com
Sunday, August 16, 2009

Bob Dylan was on the pavement, thinking about the government. And they arrested him.

[...]

Alex Knapp is less than pleased:

That’s just utterly disgusting to me. A 68 year old man out for a walk shouldn’t have to offer his ID to the police. Was he committing a crime? No. Was he suspected of committing a crime? No. Were there any indications that a crime was going to be committed? No. He was just “suspiciously” enjoying public rights-of-way.

[...]

via Bob Dylan Arrested for Walking

see

Uighur Protest In Guantánamo: Photos by Andy Worthington + Bob Dylan: Subterranean Homesick Blues

Good Shepherd Sunday + Bob Dylan: Gotta Serve Somebody