Patti introduces us to Urban Sustainable Living. Added: December 22, 2007
Day: March 5, 2008
Garden Girl TV: Cucumbers
Fresh home grown cucumbers are delicious. Check out this video about how to grow your own tasty cucumbers organically in the city.
Mosaic News: 03/4/08 – World News from the Middle East
Warning
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This video may contain images depicting the reality and horror of war and should only be viewed by a mature audience.
For more: http://linktv.org/originalseries
“Hopes of Peace Dim in Gaza,” Dubai TV, UAE
“Washington Plotted to Overthrow Hamas,” Al Jazeera English, Qatar
“Will Rice Succeed in Reviving Annapolis?,”IBA TV, Israel
“Syrians Demonstrate Ahead of Arab summit,” Syria TV, Syria
“Anti Taliban Jirga Attacked in Northeastern Pakistan,” Al-Alam TV, Iran
“Iran’s Reformers Let Down,” Al Jazeera TV, Qatar
“Sudanese Tribes Push for Peace,” Sudan TV, Sudan
“Obama, Japan For Obama,” Al Arabiya TV, UAE
Produced for Link TV by Jamal Dajani.
Vodpod videos no longer available. from www.youtube.com posted with vodpod
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How Republicans Created Executive Branch Hegemony By Paul Craig Roberts
By Paul Craig Roberts
March 03, 2008
Having made the mistake of confirming Michael Mukasey as US Attorney General, the Democrats again find their efforts to hold Republican government officials accountable for illegal and unethical behavior stonewalled by the Department of Justice (sic) and blocked by the brownshirt tactics for which the Bush Regime is now infamous.
White House chief of staff Josh Bolten and former White House counsel Harriet Miers were found in contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with subpoenas and refusing to cooperate with congressional committee investigations of the Bush Regime’s political firings of eight Republican US Attorneys. The eight fired US Attorneys declined to politicize their offices by investigating only Democratic officials and ruining their election chances with leaks from “investigations” designed to smear their reputations.
…
Moreover, the case for impeaching Bush and Cheney—indeed the entire administration—is by far the most powerful and necessary case for impeachment that has ever existed. By declaring Bush unimpeachable, Pelosi is giving away Congress’ only remaining power to prevent tyrannical rule by the executive branch. If Bush is above impeachment, every future president will be as well.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
The Clock Is Ticking: 60 Days to Stop Media Consolidation
By Josh Stearns
Free Press
From StopBigMedia.com
March 5, 2008
This morning Sen. Byron Dorgan introduced a bill in the Senate that would overturn the FCC’s disastrous December vote to gut media ownership rules. But there is a catch. The bill will expire unless it is passed in 60 legislative days.
So the clock is ticking �” we have to act now to protect our communities from a massive new wave of media consolidation.
Take action now or read on to find out more about this important new bill.
Déjà Vu All Over Again
In the days and weeks before the FCC dismantled the 30-year-old rule that prevented one company from owning the major newspaper and a radio or TV station in one town, Commissioner Michael Copps noted that it felt like “Déjà vu all over again.”
In 2003, when the FCC tried to do away with all media ownership rules, nearly 3 million people took action, writing their members of Congress, telling their friends and organizing their communities to speak out on this important issue. With that kind of momentum, lawmakers had no choice but to listen. The Senate voted to overturn the FCC decision, before the courts tossed them out altogether.
“The situation isn’t going to repair itself,” proclaimed Commissioner Copps on the day of the FCC vote last December. “Big media is not going to repair it. This Commission is not going to repair it. But the people, their elected representatives, and attentive courts can repair it. Last time the Commission went down this road, the majority heard and felt the outrage of millions of citizens and Congress and then the court. … Last time a lot of insiders were surprised by the country’s reaction. This time they should be forewarned.”
Time for Action
In just one week after the FCC vote more than 200,000 people signed on to an open letter to Congress calling on them to overturn the FCC’s holiday handout to Big Media. Now with a bill in the Senate, we need to build the momentum and turn up the heat on our policy makers.
Stop Big Media
A bipartisan group of 26 senators wrote a letter to the FCC in December vowing to “immediately move legislation that will revoke and nullify the proposed rule” and now is their chance to follow through on that promise.
Here’s what we need to do:
1. We need every person who signed on to the open letter in 2007 to write their Senators again asking them to support to Senator Dorgan’s “resolution of disapproval.”
2. Spread the word. We need all of you to talk with five of your friends or neighbors and get them to take action as well. If all 200,000 people can get just five other people to take action, we’ll get a million letters into the Senate.
There has never been a more important time to take a stand for quality journalism, strong local news, and diverse and independent voices. Can you help us fight for a better media in America?
Take Action Online Here:
https://secure.freepress.net/site/Advocacy?id=243&pagename=homepage
Send a Message to a Friend Here:
http://free.convio.net/site/Ecard?ecard_id=1109
Then join others from around the country at the Free Press Action Network to talk about other ideas to make your voice heard and get the word out in your community. The discussion is going on now at www.freepress.net/action.
This article is from StopBigMedia.com. If you found it informative and valuable, we strongly encourage you to visit their Web site and register an account, if necessary, to view all their articles on the Web. Support quality journalism.
All original text, images and other materials hosted on freepress.net servers are Copyright 2008 Free Press, unless otherwise noted (e.g. news articles and licensed photos).We encourage reproduction and distribution of original materials on this site for educational and personal use. All content on this site created by Free Press (unless otherwise noted) is available to you under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.
In short, this license allows you to copy, distribute, display, or make derivative works provided that you a) credit Free Press, b) do not use it for commercial purposes, and c) release any derivative works under this same license.
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Senate Bill Would Veto Big Media Giveaway
From Free Press
March 5, 2008
Today, Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) introduced a “Resolution of Disapproval” that would overturn media ownership rules approved by the Federal Communications Commission last December. Sen. Dorgan will join public interest groups on a national conference call today to discuss the new legislation.
In a 3-to-2 vote on Dec. 18, the FCC eliminated the longstanding ban on “newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership,” which prohibits one company from owning a broadcast station and the major daily newspaper in the same market.
“The American public has resoundingly rejected more media consolidation,” said Josh Silver, executive director of Free Press, which coordinates the StopBigMedia.com Coalition. “The FCC wouldn’t listen, but Congress can still stop this massive giveaway. Whether you’re on the left or the right, Republican or Democrat, you know the last thing we need is for our local news to be swallowed up by the same few companies who already own too much.”
Sen. Dorgan and a bipartisan group of 25 senators sent a letter to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin prior to the Dec. 18 vote, vowing to “immediately move legislation that will revoke and nullify the proposed rule.” In 2003 �” the last time the FCC tried to change media ownership rules �” the Senate passed a similar resolution to reject the new rules.
Though the FCC’s latest attempt to remove media ownership limits was approved in December, the final language of the new rules just reached the Senate this week. Now that the resolution has been introduced, the Senate has 60 days on the legislative calendar to approve it. In the week after the FCC’s vote, more than 200,000 concerned citizens signed on to an open letter calling on Congress to overturn the rules.
“People across the country still depend on their local TV and newspaper to find out what’s happening in their communities,” said Alexandra Russell, program director of Free Press. “They won’t sit idly by while Big Media companies like Tribune, Media General and Gannett greedily gobble up the few remaining independent voices and keep new, diverse owners from getting on the air.”
The new rules also must past muster with the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which threw out the previous rule changes and sent them back to the FCC in 2005. Free Press has joined Media Access Project, Prometheus Radio Project, Georgetown Institute of Public Representation, United Church of Christ and Media Alliance in a lawsuit appealing the new rules.
“We applaud Senator Dorgan for taking a stand against Big Media on behalf of the vast majority of Americans who oppose what the FCC has done,” Silver said. “We look forward to working with Congress to reverse this terrible decision and start rolling back media consolidation.”
Read the FCC’s cross-ownership order: http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-07-216A1.pdf
Learn more about the FCC’s new rules: http://www.stopbigmedia.com/files/devil_in_the_details.pdf
This article is from Free Press. If you found it informative and valuable, we strongly encourage you to visit their Web site and register an account, if necessary, to view all their articles on the Web. Support quality journalism.
All original text, images and other materials hosted on freepress.net servers are Copyright 2008 Free Press, unless otherwise noted (e.g. news articles and licensed photos).
We encourage reproduction and distribution of original materials on this site for educational and personal use. All content on this site created by Free Press (unless otherwise noted) is available to you under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.
In short, this license allows you to copy, distribute, display, or make derivative works provided that you a) credit Free Press, b) do not use it for commercial purposes, and c) release any derivative works under this same license.
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Am I a Torturer? By Justine Sharrock
By Justine Sharrock
Mother Jones
March/April 2008 Issue
The prisons in Iraq stink. Ask any guard or interrogator and they’ll tell you it’s a smell they’ll never forget: sweat, fear, and rot. On the base where Ben Allbright served from May to September 2003, a small outfit named Tiger in western Iraq, water was especially scarce; Ben would rig a hose to a water bottle in a feeble attempt to shower. He and the other Army reservists tried mopping the floors, but the cheap solvents only added a chemical note to the stench. During the day, when the temperature was in the triple digits, the smell fermented.
…
Ben was not a “bad apple,” and he didn’t make up these treatments. He was following standard operating procedure as ordered by military-intelligence officers. The MI guys didn’t make up the techniques either; they have a long international history as effective torture methods. Though generally referred to by circumlocutions such as “harsh techniques,” “softening up,” and “enhanced interrogation,” they have been medically shown to have the same effects as other forms of torture. Forced standing, for example, causes ankles to swell to twice their size within 24 hours, making walking excruciating and potentially causing kidney failure.
Ben says he never saw anything like that. The detainees didn’t faint or go insane, as people have been known to do under similar conditions, but they also “weren’t exactly lucid.” And, he notes, “I was hardly getting any sleep myself.”
FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
see
Extraordinary Rendition (video)
Tell Bush: Don’t Veto Torture Ban
Abu Omar: I Was Kidnapped by the CIA + The Torture Playlist
The attack on Ecuador – Underestimating Rafael Correa By Fidel Castro Ruz
By Fidel Castro Ruz
ICH
03/05/08
I remember when he visited us, months before the electoral campaign when he was thinking of running as a candidate for the Presidency of Ecuador. He had been the Minister of the Economy in the government of Alfredo Palacio, a surgeon with professional prestige who had also visited us as Vice President, before becoming the President in an unexpected situation that took place in Ecuador. He had been receptive to a program of ophthalmologic operations that we offered him as a form of cooperation. There were good relations between our two governments.
A while earlier Correa had resigned from the Ministry of the Economy. He was unhappy with what he called administrative corruption instigated by Oxy, a foreign company that explored and invested important sums of money, but was holding on to four out of every five barrels of oil that it extracted. He didn’t talk about nationalization, but about taxing them heavily; these taxes would be assigned in advance to specific social investments. He had already approved the measures and a judge had declared them to be valid.
Since the word “nationalize” had not been mentioned, I thought he felt apprehensive about the concept. It didn’t surprise me because he had graduated as an economist with much acclaim from a well-known U.S. university. I didn’t bother getting into much depth; I bombarded him with questions from the arsenal accumulated in the struggle against the Latin American foreign debt in 1985 and of Cuba’s own experience.
There are high-risk investments that use sophisticated technology and that no small nation like Cuba or Ecuador could take on.
Since this was already in 2006 and we were determined to promote the energy revolution, –ours was the first country on the planet to proclaim this as a vital issue for humankind– I had dealt with the subject particularly emphatically. But I halted, as I understood one of his reasons.
I related to him the conversation I had had a while ago with the president of REPSOL, a Spanish company. This company, associated with other international companies, would undertake an expensive operation to drill the ocean floor, more than 2000 meters down, using sophisticated technology, in Cuba’s jurisdictional waters. I asked the head of the Spanish company: How much is an exploratory well worth? I ask you this because we would like to participate, even if it is for one percent of the total cost and we would like to know what you want to do with our oil.
Correa, for his part, had told me that for every one hundred dollars taken out by the companies, only twenty remained in the country; it didn’t even get into the budget, he said; it was left in a separate fund for just about anything other than improving the living conditions of the people.
I abolished the fund, he told me, and directed 40 percent towards education and health, technological and highway development, and the rest towards buying back the debt if the price was favorable, and if not, investing it in something more useful. Before, every year we had to buy a portion of that debt which was becoming more expensive.
In the case of Ecuador, he added, oil policies verged on treason against the country. Why do they do it? I asked him. Is it because they are afraid of the Yankees or due to unbearable pressure? He answered: If they have a Minister of the Economy who tells them privatization would improve efficiency, you can just imagine. I didn’t do that.
I encourage him to go on and he calmly explains. The foreign company Oxy is one that has broken its contract and according to Ecuadorian law it requires an expiration date. It means that the oil field operated by this company must go over to the State, but because of Yankee pressure the government does not dare to occupy it; a situation is created which is not contemplated by the legislation. The law just states that an expiration date must be set, and nothing more. The judge at the court of first instance at that moment was the president of PETROECUADOR and he made it happen. I was a member of PETROECUADOR and they called an emergency meeting to expel him from his position. I didn’t attend and they couldn’t fire him. The judge declared the expiration date.
What did the Yankees want? I asked him. They wanted a fine, he quickly replied. Listening to him I realized that I had underestimated him.
I was in a hurry because of a great number of commitments. I invited him to sit in on a meeting with a large group of highly qualified Cuban professionals who were leaving for Bolivia to be part of the Medical Brigade; it had staff for more than 30 hospitals including 19 surgical positions that could do more than 130 thousand ophthalmologic operations per year; all in the manner of free cooperation. Ecuador possesses three similar centers with six ophthalmologic positions.
Dinner with the Ecuadorian economist took place into the morning hours of February 9, 2006. There were scarcely any view points that I didn’t cover. I even spoke to him about the very harmful mercury that modern industry scatters throughout the planet’s oceans. Consumerism was of course a subject that I emphasized; the high cost of the kilowatt/hour in the thermoelectric plants; the differences between socialist and communist forms of distribution, the role of money, the trillions spent on advertising which people had no choice but to pay for in the prices of goods, and the studies made by university social brigades who discovered, among the 500 thousand families in the capital, the number of elderly folk lived alone. I explained the stage of university courses for all that we were involved in.
We became friends even though he perhaps received the impression that I was self-sufficient. If that happened, it was truly not my intention.
Since that time I have observed his every step: the electoral process, focusing on the concrete problems of Ecuadorians and the people’s victory over the oligarchy.
In the history of our peoples there are many things that bring us together. Sucre was always a highly admired figure, along with The Liberator Bolivar; as Marti said, what he hasn’t done in America remains to be done, and as Neruda exclaimed, Bolivar awakens every hundred years.
Imperialism has just committed a monstrous crime in Ecuador. Deadly bombs were dropped in the early morning hours on a group of men and women who, almost without exception, were asleep. That has been deduced by all the official reports right from the beginning. Any concrete accusations against that group of human beings do not justify that action. They were Yankee bombs, guided by Yankee satellites.
Absolutely no one has the right to kill in cold blood. If we accept that imperial method of warfare and barbarism, Yankee bombs directed by satellites could fall on any group of Latin American men and women, in the territory of any country, war or no war. The fact that this happened on undisputed Ecuadorian territory is an aggravating circumstance.
We are not an enemy of Colombia. Previous reflections and exchanges demonstrate how much of an effort we have made, both the current President of the Council of State of Cuba and I, to abide by a declared policy of principles and peace, proclaimed years ago in our relations with the rest of the Latin American states.
Today, with everything at risk, we have not been transformed into belligerent people. We are determined supporters of that unity among peoples which Marti named Our America.
If we keep quiet we shall become accomplices. Today they would like to have our friend, the economist and President of Ecuador Rafael Correa, seated in the dock; this is something we couldn’t even conceive that morning of February 9, 2006. At that time it seemed that my imagination was capable of embracing all kinds of dreams and risks, but never anything like what has occurred in the early morning of Saturday March 1, 2008.
Correa has in his hands the few survivors and the rest of the bodies. The two which are missing prove that Ecuadorian territory was occupied by troops that crossed the border. Now he can cry out like Emile Zola: J’accuse!
Fidel Castro Ruz, March 3, 2008, 8:36 p.m.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
Ahmadinejad’s visit to Iraq (video)
Wednesday March 5th, 2008
Babak Yektafar: Iran asserts regional influence
Babak Yektafar, Editor-in-Chief of Washington Prism is a graduate of Farleigh Dickinson University with a B.A. in Communications. From 1999 to 2005, Babak was a producer with C-SPAN network’s national live morning program, Washington Journal.
Intro:
VOICE OF ZAA NKWETA: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visit to former enemy Iraq on Sunday was the first by an Iranian president. The two countries fought a long and bloody war in the 1980s. Mr. Ahmadinejad was in Iraq on invitation from the Iraqi President Jalal Talabani. The Real News spoke with Babak Yektafar about the purpose of the Iranian president’s historic visit.
Iran Contra 2.0: Interview with David Rose (link)
Democracy Now!
Mar 5, 2008
Iran Contra 2.0: How the Bush Admin Lied to Congress and Armed Fatah to Provoke Palestinian Civil War Aiming to Overthrow Hamas
In its latest issue, Vanity Fair reports that the White House tried to organize the armed overthrow of the Hamas-led goverment after Hamas swept Palestinian elections two years ago. According to the article, the Bush administration lied to Congress and boosted military support for rival Palestinian faction Fatah in the aim of provoking a Palestinian civil war they thought Hamas would lose. Vanity Fair dubbed the episode “Iran Contra 2.0”—a reference to the Reagan administration’s funding of Nicaraguan Contras by covertly selling arms to Iran. We speak with David Rose, the journalist who broke the story. [includes rush transcript]
Real Video Stream
The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org
. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.see
The Daily Show: Ralph Nader (video)
Black 47: The Ballad of Cindy Sheehan + Funky Céilí (music videos) + Black 47 Takes on the War
From the new album, IRAQ
Added: March 02, 2008
Funky Céilí
On Myspace
***
Black 47 Takes on the War
By Mike Farragher
Irish Voice
March 5, 2008
MARCH is the biggest month of the year for our bloodline. Everything Irish is hot for the party that starts now and ends sometime later this month. For one band, this month will be about telling stories from the front lines of the war.
Black 47 has just released their hard-hitting new CD, IRAQ. As the name would imply, the band that sang about Michael Collins and Bobby Sands during the Troubles have turned their rebel eyes to the situation in Iraq with explosive results.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
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Talks of Great Depression Coming (video)
3/1/08 CNN Your Money
Vodpod videos no longer available. from www.youtube.com posted with vodpod
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Get ready for the price of gold to soar after this type of story in mainstream! John Williams discusses a coming financial depression. Many financial experts outside of mainstream has spoken about an economic collapse for years; such as Bob Chapman from http://theinternationalforecaster.com/
“Being ahead of the masses in your observations of economic trends is no way to win a popularity contest. If you’re 30 days ahead of the masses, you’re considered a genius; but if you’re two years ahead, you’re considered insane. It makes me wonder about the experiences of historical geniuses like Nikola Tesla, since they were at least a hundred years ahead in their understanding of science.” -Mike Adams
Please explore these articles:
FDIC Girds For Bank Failures & The FDIC Will Seek to Rehire 25 of It’s Own Retired Members, Many of Whom Specialized in Bank Closings.
http://www.thestreet.com/print/story/…
http://www.investmentnews.com/apps/pb…Wall Street Bank Run
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/…US Properties Plunge Into Negative Equity Than At Any Time Since The Great Depression Of The 30’s http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/20…
U.S. Credit Markets Collapsing!
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/…America’s Economy Risks the Mother of All Meltdowns
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ft/20080219/b…U.S. Mortgage Crisis Spreads Past Subprime Loans!
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/02/1…Dozens of U.S. Banks Will Fail by 2010
http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/n…Wealthy Investor Jim Rogers Warns About Economy, ‘It’s Going To Be Much Worse’
http://money.cnn.com/2008/01/30/news/…Crisis may make 1929 look a ‘walk in the park’
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main…World Economic Situation Serious – IMF
http://news.smh.com.au/world-economic…Full global impact phase of the Very Great US Depression
http://www.leap2020.eu/GEAB-N-21-is-a…“If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom; and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that too.” -Somerset Maugham
Whistleblower Sibel Edmonds – Hearings Now! (video)
WWW.VelvetRevolution.US – Video about whistleblower Sibel Edmonds who tried to expose corruption and the danger of the selling of nuclear technology on the black market, and was fired and gagged by the FBI to protect corrupt officials.
Added: February 28, 2008
Burying the dead in Baghdad (video)
4 March 08
As attacks across Baghdad continue, there’s growing concern about where to bury the dead. Areas which were once parks and playgrounds, are now replaced by graveyards. Al Jazeera’s Mike Hanna reports from Adhamiya, one of the neighbourhoods too overcrowded to bury the dead.
Dandelion Salad 