Our sincere condolences to the families and friends of those who died in this tragic crash. ~ DS
Updated: 2.14. 09
[Note: replaced video Aug. 8, 2010]
February 13, 2009 MSNBC Keith Olbermann
Day: February 13, 2009
Deficit Nonchalance – Obama’s voodoo economics By Paul Craig Roberts
By Paul Craig Roberts
Information Clearinghouse
February 13, 2009
Who remembers economists’ hysteria over the “Reagan deficits”? Wall Street was in panic. Reagan’s fiscal irresponsibility was bringing the end of the world.
The fiscal year 2009 federal budget deficit that Obama is inheriting, and adding to, will be ten times larger in absolute terms than Reagan’s biggest and a much larger share of GDP in percentage terms. Yet, economists are sending up no alarms.
Paul Krugman, for example, couldn’t damn Reagan’s puny deficits enough. But today he thinks the deficit can’t be large enough!
The central issue of the stimulus and bailout plans is how to finance the massive budget deficit. This issue remains unaddressed by economists and policy makers.
As far as I can tell, the government, its advisers and cheerleaders think financing the deficit will be a cakewalk, like the Iraq War.
Revealed: Pentagon’s secret prisons, legal loopholes and CIA ‘ghost’ detainees + Prisoners tortured to death
Stephen C. Webster
The Raw Story
Thursday February 12, 2009
Three major human rights organizations have declared the Department of Defense was running secret prisons at Bagram and in Iraq, actively sought ways around the terms of the Geneva conventions and cooperated with the CIA’s “ghost detention” program which saw prisoners hidden from Red Cross oversight.
The arrival of the documents comes on the same day the ACLU published two unredacted pages of a government report which reveals detainees in US custody were tortured to death
“These newly released documents confirm our suspicion that the tentacles of the CIA’s abusive program reached across agency lines,” said Margaret Satterthwaite, Director of the NYU International Human Rights Clinic, in a Thursday advisory. “In fact, it is increasingly obvious that defense officials engaged in legal gymnastics to find ways to cooperate with the CIA’s activities. A full accounting of all agencies must now take place to ensure that future abuses don’t continue under a different guise.”
[…]
via The Raw Story | Revealed: Pentagon’s secret prisons, legal loopholes and CIA ‘ghost’ detainees.
***
Unredacted documents reveal prisoners tortured to death
Stephen C. Webster
The Raw Story
Thursday February 12, 2009
Human rights groups accuse Pentagon of running secret prisons, cooperating with CIA “ghost detention” program
The American Civil Liberties Union has released previously classified excerpts of a government report on harsh interrogation techniques used in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay. These previously unreported pages detail repeated use of “abusive” behavior, even to the point of prisoner deaths.
The documents, obtained by the ACLU under a Freedom of Information Act request, contain a report by Vice Admiral Albert T. Church, who was tapped to conduct a comprehensive review of Defense Department interrogation operations. Church specifically calls out interrogations at Bagram Air base in Afghanistan as “clearly abusive, and clearly not in keeping with any approved interrogation policy or guidance.”
The two unredacted pages from the Church report may be found here.
The ACLU’s release comes on the same day as a major FOIA document dump by three other leading human rights groups: Documents which reveal the Pentagon ran secret prisons in Bagram and Iraq, that it cooperated with the CIA’s “ghost detention” program and that Defense personnel delayed a prisoner’s release to avoid bad press.
[…]
via The Raw Story | Unredacted documents reveal prisoners tortured to death.
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
When Will We March Against Obama? by Margaret Kimberley
State Secrets and Deceit: Obama Embraces CIA Torture by Tom Burghardt
Jolting Congress, by Ralph Nader
by Ralph Nader
The Nader Page
2.13.09
Can Congress “walk and chew gum at the same time?”
Gerald Celente: Worst economic collapse ever
In 2009 were going to see the worst economic collapse ever, the Greatest Depression, says Gerald Celente, U.S. trend forecaster. He believes its going to be very violent in the U.S., including there being a tax revolt.
What If? by Congressman Ron Paul (+ video)
Abortion Rights, Gay Equality, Guns, the Constitution and Senator Gillibrand By Steven Jonas, MD, MPH
by Steven Jonas, MD, MPH
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
crossposted on TPJmagazine
February 13, 2009
On January 31, 2009 a New York Times editorial (“Listening to Ms. Gillibrand) tore up the newly appointed Senator from New York. “She has 100% support from the NRA,” they roared. And as for her position on illegal immigration, well, oh my!
Well, my usual knee-jerk reaction to such a writing would be “well, we’ll get her in 2010.” But even before I saw that editorial I had received two other communications. One, from the Planned Parenthood Federation cheered New York Governor Patterson’s appointment (clumsily handled though it was). The PPFA had already given her a 100% as a Congressperson. And then I heard from the Lesbian and Gay (political) Alliance: she is in favor gay marriage! You read that right. Not just “domestic partnership” (otherwise known as second class citizenship status) for gay couples. But full marriage rights? The Times, stretching the definition of what a “liberal Democrat” is, claimed that “gay marriage is a non-starter even among liberal Democrats like Hillary Rodham Clinton and Charles Schumer,” but tossed off Sen. Gillibrand’s endorsement of it by saying words to the effect of she’s only for it because Gov. Patterson is.
‘Bipartisanship,’ Republican Style by Steven Jonas, MD, MPH
by Steven Jonas, MD, MPH
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
crossposted on Buzzflash.com
February 13, 2009
A major plank of President Obama’s presidential campaign was the promise to “change the atmosphere in Washington.” That meant, in part, to engage in true bipartisanship on policy development. Now true bipartisanship, whether because of desire on both sides or for political necessity, has not been seen since the days of the Reagan/Bush I Presidency. During the latter, the Democrats controlled the Congress and if Reagan/Bush wanted to get anything done, they had to deal with that reality. Of course, being the usual kind of post-Lyndon Johnson-before-Vietnam Democrats, the latter pretty much gave Reagan/Bush what they wanted. And when the latter went around the Congress, as they did with Iran-Contra secret trading Ollie North style and aid to the Nicaraguan rebels (both illegal acts), Democrats in Congress let them get away with it. The last era of true bipartisanship on foreign policy was during the Cold War, when both parties were fully supportive of what came to be the last 45 years of the 75 Years War on the Soviet Union.
Jewish Activists Protest World Zionist Organization
Jewish Activists Protest World Zionist Organization
Democracy Now!
2.13.09 Continue reading
Mosaic News – 2/12/09: World News From The Middle East
Warning
This video may contain images depicting the reality and horror of war/violence and should only be viewed by a mature audience.
Mosaic needs your help! Donate here: http://linktv.org/contribute
“Hamas says truce with Israel soon,” Al Jazeera TV, Qatar
“Livni’s Kadima Party Maintains Lead,” IBA TV, Israel
“Dreams of return buried in Gaza rubble,” Al Jazeera English, Qatar
“Taliban kill 20 at state offices in Kabul before US envoy’s visit,” Dubai TV, UAE
“Holbrook’s visit to Afghanistan and Pakistan brings hope,” Press TV, Iran
“Bahrain Arrests Three Opposition Leaders,” Al-Alam TV, Iran
“US and Germany Refuse to Return Artifacts to Iraq,” Alsumaria TV, Iraq
“Freedom of the Press Threatened Worldwide,” Al Arabiya TV, UAE
Produced for Link TV by Jamal Dajani.
When Will We March Against Obama? by Margaret Kimberley
by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley
blackagendareport.com
10 February 2009
“The Obama administration’s position is not change. It is more of the same.”
In just three weeks, the Barack Obama administration has demonstrated its determination to hold on to the same presidential prerogatives claimed by George W. Bush. Bush’s successor evidently wants the same prerogatives and he wants to get them through by the same means. Obama supporters either don’t care or are too deep in denial to admit this now obvious fact.The much talked about Obama administration changes in interrogation policy and intelligence gathering are nothing more than talk. Leon Panetta, CIA director nominee, made it official during his confirmation hearing.
Initially Panetta stated an incontrovertible and well documented fact, that the Bush administration kidnapped people around the world for the purpose of interrogating and torturing them. When republican Senator Kit Bond took Panetta to task for being truthful, Panetta obediently remembered his place, backtracked and told an enormous lie. “I am not aware of the validity of those claims.”
[…]
It is time to take not only Obama to task, but faux progressives to task as well. They are the Obamites who claimed they would hold his feet to the fire if we would just shut up and let him get elected. It is time to protest against them too and call them out for being the hypocrites they are.
[…]
via blackagendareport.com – Freedom Rider: When Will We March Against Obama?
see
State Secrets and Deceit: Obama Embraces CIA Torture by Tom Burghardt
CIA made Rolling Stone satire into dirty bomb plot: report + How Bush Threatened Britain
“Meet the new boss, same as the old boss”
Geithner’s Debut: “Not Ready for Prime Time” By Mike Whitney
By Mike Whitney
Information Clearinghouse
February 13, 2009
Tuesday was Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s coming out party. He was supposed to outline Obama’s Financial Stability Plan to the Senate Banking Committee. Wall Street was looking for clarity, but it didn’t get it. Instead, they got 25 minutes of political posturing and blather. The markets went into freefall. By the end of the day, the Dow was down 382 points. It was a complete fiasco.
Geithner is a smart man. He knows what Wall Street wants. They want a plan and they want the details. They don’t want more gibberish. He knew that he’d get hammered if he didn’t produce a workable scheme for fixing the banks, but he went ahead anyway figuring he could dazzle his audience with his brilliance. It didn’t work. The markets plummeted and the pundits wrote him off as “not ready for prime time”. Now his credibility is shattered just three weeks into the new administration. Why did he do it?
Most people who’ve been following the financial crisis know what needs to be done. It’s no secret. The insolvent banks have to be nationalized. They have to be taken over by the FDIC, the shareholders have to be wiped out, bondholders have to take a haircut, management has to be replaced and the bad assets have to be written down. There’s no point in throwing public money down a rathole just to keep zombie banks on life support.
Welcome to the crony capitalist convention by William Bowles
where New Labour got into bed with the bankers but we were the ones who got screwed
By William Bowles
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Creative-i
13 February 2009
The cry goes up, ‘wha’ happened?’ The former boss of HBOS and one of the world’s biggest banks, Sir James Crosby became head of the Financial Services Authority, allegedly the ‘watchdog’ of the financial sector and then it emerges that Crosby was one of the architects of what Michael Hudson describes as,
“The commercial banks…us[ing] their credit-creating power not to expand the production of goods and services or raise living standards but simply to inflate prices for real estate (making fortunes for their brokerage, property appraisal and insurance affiliates), stocks and bonds (making more fortunes for their investment bank subsidiaries), fine arts (whose demand is now essentially for trophies, degrading the idea of art accordingly) and other assets already in place.” — ‘Bubble Economy 2.0: The Financial Recovery Plan from Hell’ By Michael Hudson’
Not exactly how the BBC’s economic ‘guru’ Robert Peston explains it. Peston, in a vain attempt to put a gloss on the disaster has this to say,
“But – amazing as it may now seem – HBOS and the FSA did not believe, in 2004 and 2005, that it was appropriate to assess the riskiness of its rate of growth on the basis that funds from wholesale sources could vanish.”
Kucinich: Keep People in Their Homes, the Banks Will Get Their Money as Well
by Congressman Dennis Kucinich
Washington, Feb 11, 2009
Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) today made the following statement on the ongoing foreclosure crisis:
“According to today’s Wall Street Journal, Moody’s economy.com claims that nearly five million families could lose their homes to foreclosure between 2009 and 2011. Now is the time for our government to take a controlling interest in mortgage-backed securities and then direct loan modification, lowering principles and interest rates, extending terms of payments and keeping people in their homes.
“Banks are not lending money. They are hoarding money, because they fear their own balance sheets understate their losses. Instead of giving the banks more of taxpayers’ money in the hopes that banks will loan the money to keep people in their homes, the government must take charge to save the homes of so many American families. Keep people in their homes, the banks will get their money as well.
“Its time to stand up for the dream of American home ownership by saving the homes that are in jeopardy.”
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
Dennis Kucinich Takes An Hour To Explain Our Current Economic Situation
Dandelion Salad 