HOPES OF PEACE DIM IN GAZA

President Mahmoud Abbas pulled out of the negotiations Sunday in protest over the number of Palestinians killed during an Israeli military operation in Gaza that left more than 100 people dead, including dozens of civilians.

PROTESTS FOR GAZA IN BERLIN AND TEL AVIV (CENSORED ON GERMAN IMC)

A number of former radical leftists in Germany have, in the last few years, transformed themselves into defenders of the Zionist state. Their political arithmetic is essentially: "we are against Nazis, and some German Nazis say they support Palestine, therefore we must ... support the state of Israel!" There is of course a more complicated theoretical background to this tendency (en.wikipedia.org), but their absurdity is best summed up in their famous slogan: "For communism! Long live Israel!"

IRANIAN JEWS CONDEMN ISRAELI CRIMES IN GAZA

The Iran Jewish Committee's statement said that the latest crimes committed by Israel against the defenseless citizens of Gaza "have distressed the faithful and godly people's sentiments."

ISRAEL WEIGHS AID CORRIDORS FOR GAZA ASSAULT

Israeli forces killed more than 120 Palestinians, about half identified by medical workers as civilians, in a five-day Gaza assault that ended on Monday before a visit to Israel and the West Bank by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

TESTIMONY: IDF MISSILE STRIKES SCHOOLYARD OF SCHOOL IN NORTHERN GAZA STRIP

Some of the students were in the yard and some were already in class. It was 7:25. We walked through the yard to the classrooms. When we were about sixty meters from the gate, there was a powerful explosion next to us. We all fell down. My whole body hurt. I lay there and the teacher Hani Na’im was to my left. I saw he had been hit and had died on the spot. Blood was flowing from his mouth and nose, and his whole body was bloody. Nidal and ‘Emad were laying between us. They were bloody and were screaming in pain.

HATE CRIMES IN WEST VIRGINIA ON BLACK WOMAN

6 White Torture suspects may face hate crime charges after beating, humiliation, and torturing a black woman over a week.

INTERVIEW OF THE VICE PRESIDENT BY TONY SNOW

THE VICE PRESIDENT:

So we've never made the case, or argued the case that somehow Osama bin Laden [sic] was directly involved in 9/11. That evidence has never been forthcoming.

For reference, please see the following -- ZDN

Bin Laden says he wasn't behind attacks

9/11 not mentioned of his FBI page

"9/11 is not mentioned on Usama Bin Laden's Most Wanted page. He has not been formally indicted and charged in connection with 9/11 because the FBI has no hard evidence connecting Bin Laden to 9/11."

—FBI agent Rex Tomb, June 6, 2006

PETITION FOR REDRESS OF GRIEVANCES

WHEREAS, in March 1997, in an interview with Osama bin Laden published by CNN’s Peter Arnett, bin Laden said:

“We have declared jihad [the defensive war] against the US government, because the US government is unjust, criminal, and tyrannical. It has committed acts that are extremely unjust, hideous, and criminal, whether directly or through its support of the Israeli occupation of [Palestine]. And we believe the US is directly responsible for those who were killed in Palestine, Lebanon and Iraq. The mention of the US reminds us before everything else of those innocent children who were dismembered, their heads and arms cut off in the recent explosion that took place in Qana [in Lebanon]. This US government abandoned even humanitarian feelings by these hideous crimes. It transgressed all bounds and behaved in a way not witnessed before by any power or any imperialist power in the world. … Due to its subordination to the Jews, the arrogance and haughtiness of the US regime has reached such an extent that it occupied the gibla [the direction of the prayers] of the Muslims…For this and other acts of aggression and injustice, we have declared jihad [the defensive war] against the US…the US is responsible for any reaction, because it extended its war against troops to civilians…As for what you asked regarding the American people, they are not exonerated from responsibility, because they chose this government and voted for it despite their knowledge of its crimes in Palestine, Lebanon and Iraq, and in other places, and its support of client regimes who filled their prisons with our best children and scholars.”

“Today, the nation is interacting well by uniting its efforts through jihad [the defensive war] against the US, which has, in collaboration with the Israeli government, led the ferocious campaign against the Islamic world in occupying the holy sites of the Muslims.”

“The US today, as a result of this arrogance, has set a double standard, calling whoever goes against its injustice a terrorist. It wants to occupy our countries, steal our resources, install collaborators to rule us with man-made laws, and wants us to agree on all these issues. If we refuse to do so, it will say we are terrorists. With a fleeting glance at US behavior, we find that it judges the behavior of the poor Palestinian children whose country was occupied: if they throw stones against the Israeli occupation it says they are terrorists, whereas when the Israeli pilots bombed the United Nations building in Qana, Lebanon, while it was full of women and children, the US stopped any plan to condemn Israel…Wherever we look, we see the US as the leader of terrorism and crime in the world…The US does not consider it terrorism when hundreds of thousands of our sons and brothers in Iraq died for lack of food and medicine. So there is no basis for what the US says….”

“If the American government is serious about avoiding the explosions in the US, then let it stop provoking the feelings of 1.25 billion Muslims. Those hundred of thousands who have been killed or displaced in Iraq, Palestine, and Lebanon, do have brothers and relatives [who] will make Ramzi Yousef a symbol and a teacher. The US will drive them to transfer the battle into the United States. Everything is made possible to protect the blood of the American citizen while the bloodshed of Muslims is permitted everywhere. With this kind of behavior, the US government is hurting itself, hurting Muslims and hurting the American people.”

“If there is a message that I may send through you, then it is a message I address to the mothers of the American troops who came here with their military uniforms walking proudly up and down our land while the scholars of our country are thrown in prisons. I say that this represents a blatant provocation to 1.25 billion Muslims. To those mothers I say that if they are concerned for their sons, then let them object to the American government’s policy and to the American president. Do not let them be cheated by his standing before the bodies of the killed soldiers describing the freedom fighters in Saudi Arabia as terrorists. It is he who is a terrorist who pushed their sons into this for the sake of the Israeli interest…They came in support of the Israeli forces in occupied Palestine….” and

WHEREAS, in December 1998, in an interview with Osama bin Laden published by the Qatari television network, Al-Jazeera, bin Laden said:

“America accuses Iraq of using poison gas against the Kurds, against its own people. It also accused Iraq of using lethal weapons against Iran; however, what people should realize is that America was not accusing Iraq at that time, but rather was supporting it through various means and agents in the region. But from the point when Iraq became a notable regional power, and even became the biggest Arab power in the region, threatening the security of Jews and Israelis who are occupying Jerusalem, America started to dig all these issues up again and to claim that it would have to hold Iraq to account….” “It is now clear that it is Israel that is behind all these attacks on states in the Islamic world…the Jews were able to employ American and British Christians to do the job of attacking Iraq. America claims that it is bringing Iraq to account and to justice, but the fact is that the Israeli authority and the Jewish authority, which has become powerful inside the White House, as everyone can see – the Defense Minister is Jewish, the Secretary of State is Jewish, the CIA and the National Security officials are Jewish, all the biggest officials are Jews—led the Christians to clip the wings of the Islamic world. Their real target is not Saddam Hussein but the growing power of the Arab and Islamic world.”

“The infidels tell Muslims that bin Laden is threatening to kill civilians—yet what are they doing in Palestine? They’re not only killing innocents, but children as well! And America has taken over the media sphere, manipulating in different measures these enormous powers as it sees fit. Every American is our enemy, whether he fights directly or whether he pays taxes.”

“It is not acceptable in such a struggle as this that he [the Crusader] should attack and enter my land and holy sanctuaries, and plunder Muslims’ oil, and then when he encounters any resistance from Muslims, to label them terrorists. This is stupidity, or considering others stupid. We believe it is our legal duty to resist this occupation with all our might, and punish it in the same way as it punishes us.” “How angry America gets when it attacks people and those people resist…what is wrong with resisting those who attack you? All religious communities have such a principle…This is a legal right.”

EX-CONGRESSMAN: U.S. GOVERNMENT CREATED AL-QAEDA, INVOLVED IN 9/11

A former Congressman says that the U.S. government created Al-Qaeda and was involved in bombing its own citizens on 9/11, telling a national radio show that elements of the Bush administration assisted the attacks on the WTC and the Pentagon.

LETS TALK ABOUT TOMORROW'S PRIMARIES

DO NOT LISTEN TO THE MSM TOMORROW if McCain wins Ohio and Texas and they say he has the nomination locked up.....THEY COULD NOT BE MORE WRONG!!!!!!!!

DJ SKIEFER AND GRASSROOTS PRESENT:

IRS GETS ASS KICKED: 64 FELONY CHARGES BEATEN

Seattle, Washington – Two innocent and patriotic citizens dodge 64 IRS lethal bullets in a triumph for justice and the American way.

RON PAUL AND TAX TERRORISM

Dr. Paul wants to go directly for the jugular of the REAL terrorists in America - the IRS and the Federal Reserve!

AIMEE ALLEN'S UNOFFICIAL RON PAUL REVOLUTION VIDEO

Reposting because this music video is so damn cool! -- ZDN

So I'm putting the "unofficial video" up on my page in honor of the cause...and due to popular demand.

MCCAIN'S CITIZENSHIP CALLED INTO QUESTION

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and his advisers are doing their best to brush aside questions — raised in the liberal blogosphere — about whether he is qualified under the Constitution to be president. But many legal scholars and government lawyers say it's a serious question with no clear answer.

GULF INVESTORS MAY NOT SAVE CITIGROUP, DUBAI EXECUTIVE SAYS

DUBAI (Zawya Dow Jones) -- Mideast sovereign wealth funds may fail to save troubled U.S. banking giant Citigroup Inc.

FCC OFFICIAL WANTS PROBE OF "60 MINUTES" BLACK-OUT

FCC Commissioner Michael Copps said he had asked the chairman of the FCC to open an inquiry into the February 24 incident at WHNT, a CBS affiliate in Huntsville, Alabama, in which civil rights footage from the 1960s was blacked out.

A WAVE OF THE WATCH LIST, AND SPEECH DISAPPEARS

Steve Marshall is an English travel agent. He lives in Spain, and he sells trips to Europeans who want to go to sunny places, including Cuba. In October, about 80 of his Web sites stopped working, thanks to the United States government.

WOMEN'S LIVES ARE WORSE THAN EVER, THANKS GEORGE W.

Women's lives worse than ever. That's the actual headline to an article in The Independent about the state of women's (and girls') lives in Afghanistan, six years after our war to "liberate" them.

WHAT DOES OBAMA REALLY THINK ABOUT NAFTA?

As the federal corruption trial of Barak Obama’s good friend and top fundraiser got going this week, a national media outlet exposed a damaging government memo stating that the Democratic presidential candidate’s campaign promise to rework an international trade pact is rhetoric to appease constituents in key primary states that oppose the deal.

U.S. TAKES OUT DEBT-CONSOLIDATION LOAN

"My fellow Americans, we have just taken the first step toward regaining control of our finances," said President Bush at a press conference. "Thanks to a joint arrangement between the Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve, and E-Z Debt Services of Baltimore, we are finally on our way to freedom from debt."

As of press time, the national debt stands at $6,144,393,982,061.52.

Sure George. Whatever you say.

DEMS JOIN IN GANG RAPE OF CONSTITUTION

In his famous "Give me liberty or give me death" speech, Patrick Henry uttered words that underpin his more well-known ultimatum. I believe his words are worth considering today. Now that congressional Democrats have shown their mettle and have told this administration and the world that not only is it OK to illegally wiretap Americans, but that it's OK to torture, too, all in the supposed name of "keeping America safe," what Patrick Henry - a true patriot who faced the very real, not imagined, loss of his life, liberty and property - said in 1775 bears reflection today:

Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced additional violence and insult; our supplications have been disregarded; and we have been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of the throne. In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and reconciliation. There is no longer any room for hope.

If we wish to be free -- if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending -- if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained, we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of Hosts is all that is left us!

They tell us, sir, that we are weak -- unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance, by lying supinely on our backs, and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? . . .

Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?

VA BUCKELING UNDER STRAIN OF RETURNING VETERANS

“The flood is coming,” said Patrick W. Welch, director of veterans services for Erie County. “Within the next three to five years, the flood of vets seeking help is probably going to overwhelm the VA.”

THE PRICE FOR AN OUNCE OF GOLD WILL ROCKET TO MORE THAN $1,000

According to Credit Suisse, the price for one ounce of gold will rocket to more than $1,000 over the following five years. This is due to the combination of a decreasing supply and an increasing demand.

I'm hearing prices in the 2K/oz. range before this is over. Also worth noting is the fact that silver is a rarer metal than gold and is way undervalued. -- ZDN

THE PRICE OF WHEAT IS MORE THAN 80% HIGHER THAN A YEAR AGO

According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the price of wheat is more than 80 percent higher than a year ago, and corn prices are up by a quarter. Global cereal stocks have fallen to their lowest level since 1982.

ADVANCING THE CAUSE OF PEACE

As the British government announces that the educational curriculum is to now include school children visiting Auschwitz “lest we forget” the horrors of the Holocaust and to learn that such inhumanity must never be repeated, the Vice Israeli Minister for Collective Punishment and Serial Killing (sorry, “Defence”) Matan Viilnai, threatened a new “Holocaust” in the Gaza Strip.

MCCAIN EMBRACES BUSH’S FAILED SOCIAL SECURITY PLAN

It’s one thing for McCain to flip-flop from his position from 2000; that was eight years ago. But for the candidate to reject his own campaign’s policy position — after a year of campaigning — is just remarkable.

WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON?

Having lost the civil war, many Sunnis were suddenly desperate to switch sides — and Gen. David Petraeus was eager to oblige. The U.S. has not only added 30,000 more troops in Iraq — it has essentially bribed the opposition, arming the very Sunni militants who only months ago were waging deadly assaults on American forces. To engineer a fragile peace, the U.S. military has created and backed dozens of new Sunni militias, which now operate beyond the control of Iraq's central government.

MCCAIN TO CONTINUE BUSH’S ANTI-SCIENCE, ANTI-CHILD LEGACY

John McCain has appealed to the anti-science and anti-child George Bush base once again. It evidently isn’t enough for McCain to support Bush’s failed foreign policies on Iraq, terrorism, etc. McCain is flip flopping on science as well.

BUSH SHREDS THE CONSTITUTION

Mark Levine takes on a Republican and a caller about the President’s secret warrantless wiretapping program.

AT&T WHISTLEBLOWER MARK KLEIN

Keith Olbermann interviews the former employee/technician of AT&T about the Telecommunications Industry and spying on Americans.

BUSH PRESSES HOUSE FOR SURVEILLANCE BILL

The Senate version of a law to make it easier for the government to conduct domestic eavesdropping on suspected terrorists' phone calls and e-mails provides retroactive legal protection for telecommunications companies that wiretapped without court permission. The House version does not.

COURT REJECTS ACLU CHALLENGE TO WIRETAPS

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court dealt a setback Tuesday to civil rights and privacy advocates who oppose the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping program. The justices, without comment, turned down an appeal from the American Civil Liberties Union to let it pursue a lawsuit against the program that began shortly after the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

KOS WRITER GETS IT WRONG

What else is new -- ZDN

Daily Kos diarist catspaw offers "arguments which will put holes into" the justification for immunizing telephone carriers from pending civil suits in connection with the Administration's terrorist surveillance program (discontinued since last year).

TODAY'S MUST READ

Two weeks ago, the Protect America Act lapsed. And ever since then, Republicans and the administration have shown impressive stamina in continually hyping the "increased danger" -- and insisting on retroactive immunity for the telecoms' participation in the administration's warrantless wiretapping program.

THE PRODIGAL PRESIDENT

What does it say about Iraqi security and American influence in the Mideast when Iranian President Mamoud Ahmadinejad can go to Iraq and openly parade around surrounded by Shi’ite and even Kurdish love, not to mention the forbearance of Sunnis, while George W. Bush, his Cabinet and our lawmakers cannot even dream of doing so?

GOLD HIT RECORD OF $989 AN OUNCE, FALLS BACK $981

Gold has gained 19 percent this year to a record $989.54 yesterday, as the U.S. dollar tumbled to record low against the euro at $1.5274 while the crude oil rose to record $103.95.

THE MURDER OF RAÚL REYES: BORDER WAR OR WALL STREET MAFIA HIT?

If we are to follow the corporate media line, Chávez and Ecuador’s Rafael Correa, both oft characterized as rotten commies, are to blame for the prospect of impending war with Colombia, even though Colombia is at fault for a violent violation of Ecuador’s national sovereignty.

ADDING INSULT TO INJURY

Remember the story of Jamie Leigh Jones, the 22-year-old former Halliburton worker in Iraq who was allegedly drugged, gang-raped, and locked in a storage shed until the State Department rescued her after her congressman intervened? Thanks to an order signed by Paul Bremer, employees of U.S. contractors in Iraq are beyond the reach of the Iraqi criminal justice system, leaving them effectively in a legal black hole, as Michael Walzer wrote in our last issue.

IRAQI REFUGEES: 'NOT OUR COUNTRY TO RETURN TO'

DAMASCUS - More Iraqis continue to flee their country than the numbers returning, despite official claims to the contrary.

HILLARY PLAGIARIZING BUSH

DOCTORS INTERROGATE CHILDREN AS INFORMANTS ON PARENTS' BEHAVIOR

Encouraged by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), pediatricians across the United States have begun questioning children about their parents' habits, in some cases even filing police reports based on this information, according to an opinion article published in the Boston Herald.

MCCAIN’S RECORD INCLUDES ’SOME INCONSISTENCIES’

Senator John McCain likes to present himself as the candidate of the “Straight Talk Express” who does not pander to voters or change his positions with the political breeze. But the fine print of his record in the Senate indicates that he has been a lot less consistent on some of his signature issues than he has presented himself to be so far in his presidential campaign.

MCCAIN JUMPS INTO AUTISM CONTROVERSY, REJECTS SCIENCE AND EVIDENCE

I can appreciate that this is an emotional issue for some people, but if we limit ourselves to evidence and science, it looks like we have yet another issue in which John McCain doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

PENTAGON TO GAS CRYSTAL CITY RESIDENTS

The Pentagon has assured residents of Crystal City, Virginia, that the gases they will release downtown on Thursday are completely harmless, while on the other hand secretly hoping that the fearmongering about imminent biological terror attacks the tests are set to generate is contagious.

NEWSPAPER FAKES STORY OF ACTRESS’ “APOLOGY” OVER 9/11 COMMENTS

Oscar-winning actress Marion Cotillard has refused to yield to a non-existent media-manufactured "outrage" and recant her comments about 9/11, as some newspapers falsely claim that she has "apologized" for discussing the collapse of the WTC complex and sharing doubts about the official story held by the majority of Americans.

Under the headline, Marion Cotillard U-turns on 9/11 conspiracy, the London Telegraph claims that the French actress has been, "Forced into an embarrassing climb-down after accusing America of fabricating the 9/11 attacks."

In actual fact, Cotillard merely said that she regretted the fact that the comments had been taken out of context by the media, and in a London Times report re-affirms her original statements.

BUSH DENYING ACCESS TO “THE DUSTBIN OF HISTORY”?

Bush’s Executive Order 13233 could change history — literally — by restricting historians’ access to materials that help them document and ultimately judge a president’s actions, lapses, and principles.

THE FEDERAL RESERVE'S RESCUE HAS FAILED

The verdict is in. The Fed's emergency rate cuts in January have failed to halt the downward spiral towards a full-blown debt deflation. Much more drastic action will be needed.

THE FED RELEASES CRISIS PREPAREDNESS VIDEO

The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta this past January released a video on crisis preparedness. The timing of such a video being released is suspicious considering the prospect of bank failures and an inflationary collapse of the U.S. monetary system loom large.

BIO TECH PROMISES DISEASE VACCINES VIA FOOD

A seemingly bizarre experiment in genetically engineering plants has come up with a strain of rice that could make vaccination injections a thing of the past.

MAKING THE MORTGAGE MESS WORSE

Recently the Bush administration unveiled a plan for homeowners facing foreclosure to receive a 30-day reprieve from their creditors. This might come as welcome news in Sacramento where a jaw-dropping 46 percent of December sales were foreclosed homes. Unfortunately, the latest plan-as well as earlier government ideas to freeze rate resets on adjustable rate mortgages-will only exacerbate the mortgage and housing crisis.

U.S. BORDER REGION DEVASTATED BY IMMIGRATION

An in-depth assessment of the economic, political and social conditions of the 24 U.S. counties that border Mexico exposes the devastating impact that illegal immigration has had on those communities.

TOP TWENTY RON PAUL T-SHIRTS

MONDAY: 102 IRAQIS KILLED, 120 WOUNDED

Several bombings and other violence left 102 Iraqis killed and 120 wounded. The figures include new casualties from a previous reported bombing in Samarra. Among today's dead and injured are a woman and children, who were accidentally targeted by British troops in Basra. Also, Iraqi army troops beat journalists covering a bombing in Baghdad. No Coalition deaths were reported.

THE DEATH OF VINCE FOSTER - WHAT REALLY HAPPENED? (1995)

Evidence is presented that the death of White House Deputy Counsel Vince Foster was not a suicide. Expert testimony, contradictory statements from witnesses, official bungling/corruption, the missing bullet, the missing X-rays, the missing crime scene photos, the strange, untraceable gun, the missing papers from Foster's office, plus more disturbing evidence and possible motives for his murder, are reviewed in detail.

JEWS AND THE GAZA HOLOCAUST

Now what is the difference between these Nazi atrocities and what Israel, the “only democracy in the Middle East” is doing in the Gaza Strip, where “the most moral army in the world” is slaughtering babies as young as six-months’ old? I know that many Jews, especially Zionist Jews, have developed almost instinctive knee- jerk defensive reactions to any comparisons between Israel and Nazi Germany. However, the truth must be proclaimed aloud, irrespective of how many Zionists will get angry.

VANITY FAIR: ABBAS, DAHLAN CONSPIRED WITH ISRAEL, US, TO TOPPLE HAMAS

The famous American magazine Vanity Fair has publishing a meticulously-researched expose showing that Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, his aide Muhammed Dahlan actively conspired with the Bush administration to topple the democratically-elected government of Hamas and engineer civil war in the occupied Palestinian territories.

ISRAELI EXTRA-JUDICIAL EXECUTIONS

Palestinians are attacked on any pretext, but February 28 wasn't typical. A day after a Qassam rocket killed an Israeli in Sderot, Israeli aircraft killed 18 Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. Five of them were children, and it was after 11 deaths the previous day, including three children. One victim was the son of senior Hamas lawmaker, Khalil al-Haya, a top figure in Gaza and himself a target of previous assassination attempts. Palestinians know what they face - continued attacks from the air or the ground. This is state terrorism, collective punishment, executions without trial, cold-blooded killings, a serious breach of international law and against the 1948 Convention on the Prevention of the Crime of Genocide.

NINE INCH NAILS CRACKS NET DISTRIBUTION (MAYBE)

Nine Inch Nails founder Trent Reznor has become the latest recording artist to bypass the traditional music distribution machine by releasing a 36-track album over the internet.

VISTA VOLUME ACTIVATION CRACKED

A crack from pirate group Pantheon allows pirated Vista installations to be activated and made fully operational. The approach avoids reliance on beta activation or time stamp hacks, instead concentrating on flaws in the volume activation process.

IE8 TO FOLLOW WEB STANDARDS BY DEFAULT

Could this be the first time in history this proprietary, bug-riddled, security hole infested browser actually does something right? You mean webmasters won't have to tailor their creations in order to support the shortcomings of Internet Exploder? -- ZDN

Internet Explorer general manager Dean Hachamovitch conceded that the move is a change from what Microsoft had previously said and prompted (at least in part) by a desire to avoid regulatory and legal problems.