Friendly fire in Iraq — and a coverup By Mark Benjamin

Dandelion Salad

Warning

.

This video may contain images depicting the reality and horror of war/violence and should only be viewed by a mature audience.

By Mark Benjamin
http://www.salon.com
Oct. 14, 2008
PHILADELPHIA

The Army says no, but a graphic video and eyewitness testimony indicate that a U.S. tank killed two American soldiers. The mother of one soldier demands answers.

Editor’s note: Mark Benjamin’s friendly fire investigation contains 1) the main article, 2) video documentation and 3) the Army’s own report on the killing of Nelson and Suarez.

Once a cop, always a cop. Asked if she wanted to see a graphic battle video showing her son Albert bleeding to death, Jean Feggins, retired from the Philadelphia Police Department, said yes.

“Listen, I’ve moved dead bodies of people I don’t even know,” she told me,  as she sat on a brown couch in the den of her West Philadelphia row house. “I need to know everything. Because he is not a stranger. That’s my baby. That’s my child.”

When Pfc. Albert Nelson died in Iraq in 2006, the Army first told Feggins that he might have been killed by friendly fire, and then that it was enemy mortars. She says she never believed the Army’s explanation. “I always felt like they were lying to me,” she said. “I could never prove it.”

[…]

via Friendly fire in Iraq — and a coverup | Salon News (videos at link)

h/t: CLG

***

Friendly Fire Incident in Ramadi Iraq

VOTERSTHINKdotORG

http://cspanjunkie.org/
October 14, 2008 CNN

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Does the bailout pass the smell test? By Paul Craig Roberts

Dandelion Salad

By Paul Craig Roberts
10/14/08 “Information Clearinghouse”

The explanation that has been given for the financial crisis does not match up with the solution that has been devised. Moreover, the windows into the crisis offered by the authorities are opaque rather than transparent.

The only clarity we have is that the crisis is resulting in financial concentration and that the bailout constitutes a massive raid by financial crooks on both taxpayers and central bank reserves in the US and Europe.

The public monies that are being directed to private financial institutions are huge. According to news reports, Germany is devoting $540 billion to shoring up German banks, England is devoting $73 billion, and France has pledged over $400 billion. The US now has four separate bailouts underway, $800 billion for banks, $200 billion for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, $85 billion for the insurer AIG, and $25 billion for the US auto industry. These figures add to more than $2.1 trillion.

Some of these public monies are for purchasing troubled paper assets. Others are to be directly injected into the banks as public supplied capital for private financial institutions, an ironic outcome for the free market ideology that resulted in the deregulation of the US financial system. According to news reports, in England the entire $73 billion is being poured into banks as publicly supplied new capital. In Germany $135 billion is for recapitalizing troubled banks. In the US Treasury Secretary Paulson is talking about using bailout money to purchase non-voting bank shares.

How is it possible that a financial crisis of such magnitude hit with such suddenness and urgency, catching finance ministries and central banks unaware?

If the problem is what the public has been told, namely that defaulting subprime mortgages are reducing the income flows through to the holders of the mortgage backed securities, why isn’t the bailout money being used to refinance the defaulting mortgages and to pay off the foreclosed mortgages? That would restore the value of the mortgage backed securities, and it would not be necessary to pour huge amounts of taxpayers’ money into recapitalizing banks and purchasing their bad assets.

There is not an unmanageable number of defaulting mortgages. According to the US Treasury estimate, 90-93% of the mortgages are good. How does a 7% or 10% default rate on US mortgages translate into a systemic worldwide financial crisis?

The popping of the US real estate bubble could not produce worldwide systemic financial crisis without the mark-to-market rule, short-sellers, and a great deal of hype and orchestration. Why did Secretary Paulson let Lehman Bros. fail when every other firm is bailed out? Did Lehman’s failure, by unwinding its own large portfolio, push hedge funds and banks into panic selloffs that spread the crisis at home and abroad?

The US Congress held no hearings on the crisis and consulted no independent experts. Congress responded dumbly to the financial crisis, just as it did following 9/11 when the Bush regime handed it the PATRIOT Act and the Afghan invasion. To secure Congress’ acquiescence to the Paulson bailout, the Bush regime used threats of meltdown and martial law to panic Congress into turning over vast amounts of money for which accountability is lacking. The hype behind the Paulson bailout is the financial version of the mushroom cloud evocation used by the Bush regime to panic Congress into accepting the US invasion of Iraq. Is yet another hidden agenda at work?

It is unclear how the bailout will play out. The monies for the US bailout will have to be borrowed abroad or printed. If foreign central banks need their dollar reserves in order to bail out their own banks that are polluted with toxic US financial instruments, the US Treasury might not have an easy time in the debt market. Moreover, the interest expense on an additional borrowed $700 billion will raise the US current account deficit and burden US taxpayers with higher interest payments. If the money has to be printed, inflation and dollar devaluation will depress living standards for most Americans.

If the US economy sinks deeper into recession, lost jobs and rising interest rates on troubled mortgages will result in more defaults and foreclosures, thus further impairing mortgage backed securities and requiring Congress to put more burdens on hard-pressed US taxpayers in behalf of the banks.

The authorities have blamed subprime mortgages for the crisis. Why then does their solution fail to address the problem of the mortgages? Instead, the solution directs public money into an increasingly concentrated private financial sector, the management of which is not only vastly overpaid, but also has escaped accountability for the financial chicanery that, allegedly, threatens systemic financial meltdown unless bailed out by the taxpayers.

Perhaps my nose is too sensitive, but this bailout doesn’t pass the smell test.

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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Ralph Nader to Paulson: Bail out your buddies + Rally & Protest NYC

Marc Faber: US will go bankrupt

When the Federal Government Fails the People by Joel S. Hirschhorn

The Capitalist Shakedown By William Bowles

Capitalism Hits the Fan

The panic of 2008 by Lee Sustar

The Economy Sucks and or Collapse

Ralph Nader to Paulson: Bail out your buddies + Rally & Protest NYC

Dandelion Salad

Updated: added a video of Nader reading his letter to Paulson.

Ralph Nader for President in 2008
Ralph Nader to Paulson, “Bail out your buddies” — Ralph Nader for President in 2008
Oct 14, 2008

News Advisory

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact Ryan Mehta, 408-348-0681, rmehta@votenader.org

PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE RALPH NADER TO CALL OUT PAULSON

Who: Ralph Nader

What: Ralph Nader will issue a statement to Hank Paulson asking him to give 25% of his own money from the fortune he made on Wall Street ($150 million) to help bailout his comrades

When: 1.30 pm – 2.00 pm

Where: In front of the Treasury Building, 1500 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC

Marc Faber: US will go bankrupt

Dandelion Salad

Note: replaced video Apr 19, 2011

robpatozz on Oct 22, 2008

Marc Faber said on 2008.10.13 that US longterm Treasury bonds should have “junk” ratings and US government will go bankrupt, it’s only a matter of time, sooner or later

Mosaic News – 10/13/08: World News from the Middle East

Dandelion Salad

Warning

.

This video may contain images depicting the reality and horror of war/violence and should only be viewed by a mature audience.

linktv

Mosaic needs your help! Donate here: http://linktv.org/contribute

“Markets in Arab World Rebound Except for Kuwait,” Al Arabiya TV, UAE
“Acre residents: Extremists to blame for riots,” Dubai TV, UAE
“Peres in Acre: In Israel there are several religions, but only one law,” IBA TV, Israel
“Livni on course to become Israel’s second female PM,” Al Jazeera English, Qatar
“Aoun’s Controversial Trip to Iran,” Abu Dhabi TV, UAE
“Iran Plans to Eliminate Sahwa Leaders,” Al Sharqiya TV, Iraq
“Russia Tests New Missile,” Al-Alam TV, Iran
“Gen. McKiernan Denies NATO Losing in Afghanistan,” Al Jazeera TV, Qatar
Produced for Link TV by Jamal Dajani.

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When the Federal Government Fails the People by Joel S. Hirschhorn

by Joel S. Hirschhorn
featured writer
Dandelion Salad
www.foavc.org
October 14, 2008

The hardest thing for Americans to do right now in this presidential election season is to fight distraction and, instead, focus on the failure of all three branches of the federal government.  And also to resist the propaganda masquerading as patriotic obligation that voting will fundamentally fix the federal government.  The real lesson of American history is that things have turned so ugly that electing a new president and many new members of Congress will at best provide band-aids when what is needed is nothing less than what Thomas Jefferson wisely said our nation would need periodically: a political revolution.

The basis for this view is that the institutions of the three branches have been so corrupted and perverted that they no longer meet the hopes and aspirations embedded in our Constitution.

It is easy to condemn George W. Bush as the worst president in history.  The larger truth is that the presidency has accumulated far too much power over the past half century.  This has resulted from the weakening of the Congress that no longer, in any way, has the power of an equal branch of government, not that any recent Congress has shown any commitment or capability to execute its constitutional authorities.  Concurrently, we have become accepting of a politicized Supreme Court that has not shown the courage to stop the unconstitutional grabbing of power by the presidency and in 2000 showed its own root failure in choosing to select the new president.

Worst of all, modern history has vividly shown Americans that the federal government has usurped the sovereignty of the “we the people” and of the states, and has even sold out national sovereignty to a set of international organizations and the greed of corporate-crazed globalization.

The current economic and financial sector meltdown is just another symptom of deep seated, cancerous disease of government that has sold out the public because of the moneyed influence of the corporate and wealthy classes of special interests.  The serious disease is a long festering unraveling of the constitutional design of our government.  Each of the three branches of the federal government is totally unequal to each other and completely incapable of ensuring the constitutional functioning of each other.  Checks and balances have become a fiction.

These sad historic realities have been produced because of an all too powerful and corrupt two-party political machine that has prevented true political competition and real choices for voters.  This two-party system has thrived because of corruption from money provided for Democrats and Republicans to maintain the status quo that is the ruination of our constitutional Republic.

Yet the hidden genius of the Founders and Framers was to anticipate how the Republic would most likely unravel under the pressures of money and corruption.  Unknown to nearly all Americans is a part of the Constitution that all established political forces have worked hard to denigrate over our entire history.  They fear using what is provided as a kind of escape clause in the Constitution, something to use when the three branches of the federal government fail their constitutional responsibilities.  What is this ultimate solution that those who love and respect our Constitution should be clamoring for?

It is the provision in Article V to create a temporary fourth branch of the government – in the form of a convention of state delegates – that operates outside the control of Congress, the President and the Supreme Court, and that has only one single function: to consider proposals for constitutional amendments, just like Congress has done over our history, but that must also be ratified by three-quarters of the states.  One of the most perplexing questions in American history that has received too little attention is simple: Why have we never had an Article V convention?

One possible answer might be that what the Constitution requires to launch a convention has never been satisfied.  But this is not the case. The one and only requirement is that two-thirds of state legislatures apply to Congress for a convention.  With over 600 such state applications from all 50 states that single requirement has long been satisfied.  So why no convention?

Because Congress has refused to honor the exact constitutional mandate that it “shall” call a convention when that requirement has been met.  Simply put, Congress has long broken the supreme law of the land by not calling a convention, and virtually every political force on the left and right likes it that way.  Why?  Because they have learned to corrupt the government and fear an independent convention of state delegates that could propose serious constitutional amendments that would truly reform our government and political system to remove the power of special interests and compel all three branches to follow the letter and spirit of the Constitution.

With great irony, the public has been brainwashed to fear an Article V convention despite many hundreds of state constitutional conventions that have never wrecked state governments, and that in countless cases have provided much needed forms of direct democracy that have empowered citizens and limited powers of state governments.

There is only one national, nonpartisan organization with the single mission of educating the public about the Article V convention option and building demand for Congress to convene a convention.  It is the Friends of the Article V Convention group that has done something that neither the government nor any other group has ever done; it has been collecting all the hundreds of state applications for a convention and making them available to the public at www.foavc.org.

With a new president and many new members of Congress, now is the ideal time for Americans that see the need for obeying the Constitution and seek root reforms to rally behind this mission of obtaining the nation’s first Article V convention.  The new Congress in 2009 should give the public what the Constitution says we have a right to have and what Congress has a legal obligation to provide.  Always remember that the convention cannot by itself change the Constitution, but operating in the public limelight it could revitalize what has become our delusional and fake democracy.  The main thing to fear is not a convention, but continuation of the two-party plutocracy status quo.  Sadly, no presidential candidate, not even third-party ones, has spoken out in support of Congress obeying the Constitution and giving us the first Article V convention.

[Joel S. Hirschhorn is a co-founder of Friends of the Article V Convention.  Contact Joel S. Hirschhorn through www.delusionaldemocracy.com.]

Mouseland (2006 and 1962)

Dandelion Salad

intrakota

May 05, 2006

Kiefer Sutherland

Tommy Douglas and a vision for Saskatchewan

Theater of the Absurd + Triumph Interviews Ralph Nader

Dandelion Salad

Media Blackout – Theater of the Absurd

votenader08

2008 Presidential Candidate Ralph Nader discusses the media blackout of our campaign in Omaha, Nebraska.

America’s Political Cannibalism By Chris Hedges

Dandelion Salad

By Chris Hedges
10/13/08 TruthDig

It is no longer our economy but our democracy that is in peril. It was the economic meltdown of Yugoslavia that gave us Slobodan Milosevic. It was the collapse of the Weimar Republic that vomited up Adolf Hitler. And it was the breakdown in czarist Russia that opened the door for Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks. Financial collapses lead to political extremism. The rage bubbling up from our impoverished and disenfranchised working class, glimpsed at John McCain rallies, presages a looming and dangerous right-wing backlash.

Rachel Maddow: GOP Panic + McCain: I’m Proud of My Supporters

Dandelion Salad

heathr456

Rachel reports on all of the conservatives who are throwing McCain and Palin under the bus, and a very rude David Frum joins her to talk about it.

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Dana Bash Interviews John McCain

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Countdown: Troopergate + Richard Lewis

Sarah Palin on SNL? Just say NO!

Max Blumenthal on Sarah Palin’s Radical Right-Wing Pals + Feeding the Hate

TrooperGate Official Report Finds Gov Palin Broke Alaska Law

Rachel Maddow: Palin’s Secessionist Connection + Palin’s radical right-wing mentors

McCain Campaign Masters the Art of Dog Whistling Their Fear Mongering to the Religious Right

McCain-John

Palin-Sarah

Obama-Barack

Biden-Joe

Countdown: Troopergate + Richard Lewis

Dandelion Salad

Countdown
Oct 13, 2008

heathr456

Palin and McCain’s Campaign Troubles

Keith reports on the latest troubles for Palin on the campaign trail and at the Flyers game, McCain’s sinking poll numbers, the lastest to come out of both the McCain camp and the Obama camp on the campaign trail. Richard Wolffe weighs in.

Troopergate

Keith talks to Wayne Barrett about the latest on Troopergate.

McCain Campaign’s Mixed Messages

Keith reports on the conflicting messages and attacks coming out of the McCain campaign. Chris Hayes weighs in.

Richard Lewis Interview

see

Sarah Palin on SNL? Just say NO!

Max Blumenthal on Sarah Palin’s Radical Right-Wing Pals + Feeding the Hate

Palin’s Wolf-Killing Program Results in 14 Wolf Pup Deaths

TrooperGate Official Report Finds Gov Palin Broke Alaska Law

Rachel Maddow: Palin’s Secessionist Connection + Palin’s radical right-wing mentors

McCain Campaign Masters the Art of Dog Whistling Their Fear Mongering to the Religious Right

McCain-John

Palin-Sarah

Obama-Barack

Biden-Joe

The Prosecution for War Crimes of President Bush

Dandelion Salad

Global Research, October 13, 2008

SHERWOOD ROSS ASSOCIATES
Media Consultants

PRESS RELEASE

Massachusetts law school Dean Lawrence Velvel will chair a Steering Committee to pursue the prosecution for war crimes of President Bush and culpable high-ranking aides after they leave office Jan. 20th.

The Steering Committee was organized following a conference of leading legal authorities and scholars from the U.S. and abroad convened by Velvel on Sept. 13-14 in Andover, Mass., titled “The Justice Robert Jackson Conference On Planning For The Prosecution of High Level American War Criminals.”

“If Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, and others are not prosecuted,” Velvel said, “the future could be threatened by additional examples of Executive lawlessness by leaders who need fear no personal consequences for their actions, including more illegal wars such as Iraq.”

Besides Velvel, members of the Steering Committee include:

Ben Davis, a law Professor at the University of Toledo College of Law, where he teaches Public International Law and International Business Transactions. He is the author of numerous articles on international and related domestic law.

Marjorie Cohn, a law Professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego, Calif., and President of the National Lawyers Guild.

Chris Pyle, a Professor at Mount Holyoke College, where he teaches Constitutional law, Civil Liberties, Rights of Privacy, American Politics and American Political Thought, and is the author of many books and articles.

Elaine Scarry, the Walter M. Cabot Professor of Aesthetics and the General Theory of Value at Harvard University, and winner of the Truman Capote Award for Literary Criticism.

Peter Weiss, vice president of the Center For Constitutional Rights, of New York City, which was recently involved with war crimes complaints filed in Germany and Japan against former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and others.

David Swanson, author, activist and founder of AfterDowningStreet.org/CensureBush.org coalition, of Charlottesville, Va.

Kristina Borjesson, an award-winning print and broadcast journalist for more than twenty years and editor of two recent books on the media.

Colleen Costello, Staff Attorney of Human Rights, USA, of Washington, D.C., and coordinator of its efforts involving torture by the American government.

Valeria Gheorghiu, attorney for Workers’ Rights Law Center.

Andy Worthington of Redress, a British historian and journalist and author of books dealing with human rights violations.

Initial actions considered by the Steering Committee, Velvel said, are as follows:

# Seeking prosecutions of high level officials, including George Bush, for the crimes they committed.

# Seeking disbarment of lawyers who were complicitous in facilitating torture.

# Seeking termination from faculty positions of high officials who were complicitous in torture.

# Issuing a recent statement saying any attempt by Bush to pardon himself and aides for war crimes prior to leaving office will result in efforts to obtain impeachment even after they leave office.

# Convening a major conference on the state secret and executive privilege doctrines, which have been pushed to record levels during the Bush administration.

# Designation of an Information Repository Coordinator to gather in one place all available information involving the Bush Administration’s war crimes.

# Possible impeachment of 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Jay Bybee for co-authoring the infamous “torture memo.”

Further information and to arrange interviews with Dean Velvel, contact Sherwood Ross, Sherwood Ross Associates, Suite 403, 102 S.W. 6th Avenue, Miami, FL 33130; (305) 205-8281. E-mail sherwoodr1@yahoo.com.

© Copyright , SHERWOOD ROSS ASSOCIATES , 2008

The url address of this article is: www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=20081013&articleId=10554

see

The 35 Articles of Impeachment & the Case for Prosecuting George W. Bush by Dennis Kucinich

Sarah Palin on SNL? Just say NO!

Dandelion Salad

Also added on current

Action Alert

by Mark Crispin Miller
News From Underground

[…]

So why would SNL help “humanize” this vicious character? What is NBC’s excuse, and/or Lorne Michaels’, for giving her an opportunity, ten days before Election Day, to wink and grin and say “Doggone it!” and “You betcha!” (and also, winningly, to mock herself for doing so)? And how can all the show’s hip regulars, including Tina Fey, put up with this?

The fact is that they shouldn’t have to: Sarah Palin has no place on SNL, and you should let them know.

NBC: 212-664-4444

General Electric: 212-575-6000, or 1-800-626-2000

NBC and GE are both headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, NY, NY, 10112.

NBC’s FAQ online: http://www.nbc.com/Footer/Contact_Us/

(Any tips re: how to reach the network or the show itself–and their corporate sponsors–would be much appreciated.)

MCM

***

GOLLY, PALIN TO PLAY HERSELF ON ‘SNL’

By CINDY ADAMS
http://www.nypost.com
October 10, 2008

SOCCER moms and Joe Sixpacks, listen up. Get your beer, mooseburgers and caribou dips ready. Sarah Palin is doing “Saturday Night Live.” Not Tina Fey doing Sarah Palin doing “Saturday Night Live.” But the Sarah Herself. She has already OK’d it. She’s booked. It’s confirmed. Done deal. Sketches are being sketched as we speak. She – eyeglasses, haircomb, designer jacket and trunkful of gosh-darns, golly-gees and gol-dangs – will be on “SNL” Saturday night, Oct. 25. Sarah’s rehearsal time has already been penciled in for Friday the 24th. And it’s because she wants to do it.

So, my question is: Does this mean Tina Fey has plans to run for VP?

via GOLLY, PALIN TO PLAY HERSELF ON ‘SNL’ – New York Post

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

Max Blumenthal on Sarah Palin’s Radical Right-Wing Pals + Feeding the Hate

Palin’s Wolf-Killing Program Results in 14 Wolf Pup Deaths

TrooperGate Official Report Finds Gov Palin Broke Alaska Law

Rachel Maddow: Palin’s Secessionist Connection + Palin’s radical right-wing mentors

McCain Campaign Masters the Art of Dog Whistling Their Fear Mongering to the Religious Right

Bill Moyers Journal: George Soros + Going Negative + Iraq War Vote

Divide and Conquer by Bruce Gagnon (+ video)

McCain and The Evil Empire

McCain-John

Palin-Sarah

Obama-Barack

Biden-Joe

The 35 Articles of Impeachment & the Case for Prosecuting George W. Bush by Dennis Kucinich

Dandelion Salad

By Congressman Dennis Kucinich
AfterDowningStreet.org
Oct 13, 2008

With Additional Material by David Swanson and Elizabeth de la Vega

trade paperback edition • 156 pages • 5.5 x 8.5 • ISBN: 978-1-932595-42-0 • $12
Price: $12
PURCHASE A COPY

Feral House offers this important and urgent publication of Dennis Kucinich’s Articles of Impeachment this election season in two formats: an offset-printed paperback book available for the cost of $12 and a free downloadable PDF available below.