WHY ELIOT SPITZER WAS ASSASSINATED

link to Spitzer article in the Washington Post

RON PAUL ON THE [NON-FEDERAL] "FEDERAL" RESERVE, ECONOMY, GOLD

A NEW PRESIDENT SHOULD SEIZE CONTROL OF THE U.S. MONETARY SYSTEM

Granted Hillary Clinton and her speechwriters have done a marvelous job of describing the pain of ordinary citizens faced with job loss, rising gas prices, lack of health insurance, and foreclosure of their homes. But her proposal to freeze foreclosures for 90 days and subprime mortgage rates for five years would address only the worst of the symptoms. Barack Obama wouldn’t even go that far. He says Clinton’s suggestion would unfairly drive up interest rates for everyone else. And how about their approach to the Federal Reserve? Clinton says she has “spoken about” the Fed’s actions with Chairman Ben Bernanke and president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York Timothy Geithner. Wow. I’m impressed. Obama has yet to say he has done even that. Meanwhile, what passes for radical action in Congress is a bill backed by Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Representative Barney Frank (D-MA) to allow the Federal Housing Administration to back mortgages held by “distressed borrowers.” But what more can Congress do, we might ask? Isn’t all this really a matter for the alleged experts who understand far more about what makes the financial world tick than the mere mortals who work for a living and those who supposedly represent them in our republican system of government?

Well, let me point out that the U.S. Constitution gives Congress authority over our monetary system.

LAVROV: EASE ON GAZA, STOP SETTLEMENTS

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — Russia's foreign minister called on Friday for an end to the blockade of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip and demanded that Israel halt settlement activity in Jerusalem and the West Bank.

OSAMA BIN LADEN IS DEAD

I do wonder how many of you share my views about these so-called Osama bin Laden tapes. It's my own personal belief that this guy doesn't exist anymore, except in the minds of the people who are trying to keep him alive. The tapes are either pre-recorded from when Osama was still sucking wind, or they're being faked now by his zombie followers.

Hey CIA spooks! Did you hear what this guy just called ouy? -- ZDN

WHY ALL THE CHEMTRAILS?

Can't we have one nice day in this town without having our skies covered with these obnoxious chemtrails?

ON IRAQ WAR’S FIFTH ANNIVERSARY, BUSH SAYS US TROOPS MUST STAY

President George W. Bush marked the fifth anniversary of the US war in Iraq on Wednesday by touting the supposed successes of the “surge” that sent an additional 30,000 US troops into the occupied country, while insisting that the expanded troop levels must be maintained to avoid “chaos and carnage.”

MILITARY VETERANS TO DELIVER CITIZEN ARREST WARRANTS FOR BUSH AND CHENEY

Backed by family members and supporters all across the nation, U.S. military veterans will serve citizen arrest warrants for George Bush and Dick Cheney tomorrow in Washington, D.C.

GEORGE GALLOWAY TALKING ABOUT WAR WITH IRAN

George Galloway blasts a caller about 'strategic strikes' on Iran.

DON'T MISS THIS! Galloway is an extraordinary fellow. -- ZDN

here is his website

In the following video Galloway rips to shreds the U.S. Senate who is trying to smear him over the 'oil for food' disastor. This is from May 2005. -- ZDN

CLINTON WAS GREAT WHITE HOUSE COFFEE HOSTESS

While a great deal of Hillary Clinton’s newly released First Lady schedule features mystery private meetings, documents from 1996 clearly show her participating in a lot of fundraising events including the scandalous White House coffees used for illegal campaign fundraising.

DISTRICT COURT RULES JUDICIAL WATCH MAY CONDUCT DISCOVERY INTO CLINTON LIBRARY

The National Archives has requested, in effect, an indefinite stay in Judicial Watch’s lawsuit to obtain Hillary Clinton’s records, estimating in court documents that it will take “one to two years” to begin processing Hillary’s telephone logs.

EXXON MOBIL SPENT $16.9M LOBBYING

Besides Congress, Exxon Mobil lobbied the White House, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, U.S. Trade Representative's office, the departments of Energy, Defense, Interior, State, Commerce, Homeland Security and more.

FED BAILOUT OF BEAR STEARNS FIRST OF ITS KIND SINCE GREAT DEPRESSION

The nation’s fifth largest investment bank Bear Stearns nearly collapsed last week. It was saved only after the Federal Reserve took extraordinary measures to help JPMorgan purchase the eighty-five-year-old firm.

SPITZER GOT SNAGGED BY THE FINE PRINT OF THE PATRIOT ACT

The odd connection between the antiterror law and Spitzer's trysts with call girls illustrates how laws enacted for one purpose often end up being used very differently once they're on the books.

PLANS FOR CANADA ANTI-TERROR UNIT FOUND IN GARBAGE

The plans -- which the passer-by handed to the Ottawa Citizen newspaper -- contain detailed drawings of the building's floor plan, electrical grid and the storage bay for robots designed to detect chemical and biological agents.

INVESTMENT FIRMS TAP FED FOR BILLIONS

The Fed, in a bold move Sunday, agreed for the first time to let big investment houses get emergency loans directly from the central bank. This mechanism, similar to one available for commercial banks for years, got under way Monday and will continue for at least six months. It was the broadest use of the Fed's lending authority since the 1930s.

COURT DISBARS CHENEY EX-AIDE

Libby was convicted of lying to the FBI and other federal investigators about whether he discussed the identity of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame with reporters in the spring and summer of 2003.

At the time, the Bush administration was keen to undermine allegations made by Plame's husband that it had twisted intelligence to justify going to war with Iraq. Libby and others in the administration linked Plame in conversations with reporters to a fact-finding trip her husband took to the Middle East for the CIA.

THE PENTAGON HAS ALWAYS GONE HOLLYWOOD

In fact, Hollywood and the Pentagon have been in an intricate dance of support and cross-promotion for almost a century, from a time when the Department of Defense was still quaintly—if more accurately—known as the War Department. Today, however, without leaving Hollywood behind, the Pentagon has branched out into the larger universe of entertainment. Video games, TV, NASCAR racing, social networking, professional bull riding, toys, professional wrestling, you name it and the military-entertainment complex has a hand in it—and don’t forget about the Pentagon’s links to Starbucks, Apple Computer, Oakley sunglasses, and well, gosh ... in one way or another, directly or indirectly, just about everything that looks civilian in (or out of) your house.

THE GUARDIAN: THE SURGE MAY BE ON THE VERGE OF COLLAPSE

Our occupation of Iraq and the fragile surge has been all but blacked out in the U.S. media, but thankfully, the foreign press is still out there trying to bring the truth to the rest of the world. A big part of the surge was the Awakening Project. The goal of the project was to pay Sunni and former insurgents to fight al Qaeda and drive them out of their towns. The result is 80,000 angry men and a surge on the brink of collapse.

THE VIDEO SURVEILLANCE MARKET IS ABOUT TO EXPLODE!

Tech market think tank ABI Research has just come out with a new study predicting that the global video surveillance market will "expand from revenue of about $13.5 billion in 2006 to a remarkable $46 billion in 2013." In a press release only Philip K. Dick could love, ABI gushes excitedly about all the fun new uses of the vidcams and databases you could be manufacturing, buying, and selling to the surveillance-craving masses.

A GOOD NAME DRAGGED DOWN: CONSUMERS GET TANGLED IN TERRORIST WATCHLIST

One man went into a Glen Burnie, Md., Toyota dealership to buy a car, only to be told that a name check revealed he was on a U.S. Treasury Department watchlist of suspected terrorists and drug dealers. He had to be "checked for tattoos," he said, to make sure he wasn't the suspect.

JOBLESS CLAIMS JUMP BY 22,000

The Labor Department said Thursday that applications for jobless benefits totaled 378,000 last week. That was an increase of 22,000 from the previous week and was a far bigger jump than had been expected.

RICK BURNLEY POEM’S “TO IMPEACH OR NOT TO IMPEACH”

Standing in front of the White House, on March 19, 2008, poet/activist Rick Burnley read his poem, “To Impeach on Not to Impeach.” The day marked the fifth anniversary of the launching of the illegal and immoral Iraq War by the Bush-Cheney Gang. Burnley, in the best tradition of the troubadour, has been rightfully acclaimed as the “Poet Laureate of Camp Casey.”

FRUSTRATED ANTI-WAR LEADER PLEADS FOR CONGRESS TO IMPEACH

(CNSNews.com) - One of the organizers of this week's anti-war protests in Washington, D.C., is pleading with House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers (D.-Mich.) to make good on his repeated threats to begin impeachment proceedings against President Bush.

NYT IRAQ WAR TIMELINE WHITEWASHES HISTORY

To mark the fifth anniversary of the Iraq War yesterday, The New York Times published an interactive timeline. Yet even after the paper's mea culpa about its deficient reporting leading up to the invasion, The Times repeats similar journalistic malpractice in this stroll down memory lane.

THE LIES THAT LED TO WAR

Since the US-led invasion four years ago, the fifth estate has covered Iraq and the war on terror from virtually every angle--the military, media, intellligence, politics--revealing aspects of the story that you didn't find anywhere else.

IRAQ SLOGGER HAS PUBLISHED A PENTAGON REPORT THAT THEY HOPED TO KEEP SECRET

This study found no "smoking gun" (i.e., direct connection) between Saddam's Iraq and al Qaeda. Saddam's interest in, and support for, non-state actors was spread across a variety of revolutionary, liberation, nationalist, and Islamic terrorist organizations.

PENN'S WAR: MEDIA LAP DOGS BACKED IRAQ MESS

Sean Penn, the actor-director-turned-political-activist, narrates a new anti-war documentary that alleges U.S. presidents since Kennedy have manipulated the public to wage wars.

BLACKWATER "BLOOD MONEY" ANGERS IRAQIS

At least two Iraqi families of victims killed by Blackwater security guards in September tell ABC News they have refused compensation offered by the company.

The father of a 9-year-old boy, who says his son was one of the 17 civilians killed when Blackwater guards, escorting a diplomatic convoy, opened fire at Baghdad's Nisour Square on Sept. 16, says he is trying to file a lawsuit against the company. He told ABCNews.com that Blackwater offered him $20,000 through an Iraqi prosecutor, but he refused the money.

WORDS TO THE DIE-IN PARTICIPANTS: WE AS A PEOPLE HAVE THE POWER

by Daniel Ellsberg

On this fifth anniversary of an ongoing American crime against the peace, it is well to remember the 40th anniversary - four days ago, this last Sunday - of an American war crime in a hamlet named My Lai. On March 16, 1968, American soldiers - as brave as any fighting now in Iraq - obeyed blatantly illegal orders to gun down 504 Vietnamese civilians, nearly all women, children and infants.

JON STEWART DOES IRAQ WAR ANNIVERSARY AND THE DICK CHENEY NO!

AN AGENT, A GREEN CARD, AND A DEMAND FOR SEX

No problems so far, the immigration agent told the American citizen and his 22-year-old Colombian wife at her green card interview in December. After he stapled one of their wedding photos to her application for legal permanent residency, he had just one more question: What was her cellphone number?

BUSH ADMINISTRATION TRYING TO STOP FRAUD REPORTING BY WAR CONTRACTORS ABROAD

The controversial loophole has irked Democrats and Republicans alike. But it has the support of a trade association that lobbies on behalf of giant global government contractors, including Blackwater USA, KBR Inc., Boeing Co., CACI International Inc. and Lockheed Martin.

DOZENS OF CHILDREN IN U.S. FACE LIFE IN PRISON

The U.S. Supreme Court abolished the death penalty for minors in 2005 but 19 states permit "life-means-life" sentences for those under 18, according to a study by the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI).

In all, 2,225 people are sentenced to die in U.S. prisons for crimes they committed as minors and 73 of them were aged 13 and 14 at the time of the crime, according to the group, which is based in Montgomery, Alabama.

SOMALI ISLAMISTS SAY U.S. TERROR LISTING FORGES UNITY

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Islamist insurgents in Somalia say their inclusion on a U.S. terrorism list will help recruiting and has spurred them to strengthen ties with other groups blacklisted by Washington.

"We were not terrorists," rebel commander Mukhtar Ali Robow told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location.

"But now we've been designated ... we have been forced to seek out and unite with any Muslims on the list against the United States," he said late on Thursday.

MONTCO TEEN LAUDED BY BUSH SENTENCED IN ROBBERY

Apparently, the teenager who'd foiled a Columbine-like terror plot last year and was lauded by Bush was just sentenced for, not once but twice, breaking into the home of one of the terror plotters, who was in juvie at the time.

NO RECESSION, DEPRESSION, OR PANIC

It's merely a "sharp decline" according to Henry Paulson.

"sharp decline"? More like driving off a cliff. -- ZDN

OSAMA BIN USEFUL

The latest Osama tape reminds, once again, of why Bush did not want to kill or capture him. Ming the Merciless is too useful. He scares the people into accepting endless wars, massive spending, Fed recessions, and the Republican police state--the whole neocon enchilada.

WE DON'T LIKE IT EITHER

The New American magazine notes that an Iranian who used to chant "Death to America" now expresses his preference for America: "I like American goods, and I prefer American people. It's just the government I don't like." You're not alone, Mr. Iranian, we don't like it either.

THE FEDERAL RESERVE

Pretty slick "Federal" Reserve timeline. The link takes you to the list view, but at the top you can select a 'timeline' view. -- ZDN

JOHN MCCAIN: BLOWING UP THE WORLD AT 3AM?

McCain's sanctimonious certainty is another problem. In one of the Republican debates he declared "I'm the expert" on Iraq. Yet on his most recent trip to Iraq he confused Iraq and Iran, denouncing the latter, a Shi'ite state, for training al-Qaeda, made up of Sunnis, and had to be corrected by Sen. Joseph Lieberman, who was standing nearby at the obligatory press conference on the "nonpolitical" trip. Will Sen. Lieberman move into the White House along with the McCains to hover near the phone at 3am?

THURSDAY: 25 IRAQIS KILLED, 28 WOUNDED

At least 25 Iraqis were killed and another 28 were wounded in the latest round of violence. No Coalition casualties were reported, but Turkey resumed air attacks on Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) hideouts in northern Iraq.

EDITORIAL: MCCAIN DOESN'T KNOW SHIA FROM SHINOLA

That McCain was trying to distort the truth should come as a surprise to no one. His entire campaign is built on the Iraq war and his support of the surge. And his main strategy is fear; keeping Americans afraid so that support for this debacle continues. The other day he said "if we pull out the troops, al Qaeda wins." The Repug neocons have been morphing Iraq and Iran into al Qaeda since the 9-11 attacks.

THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION AND JOHN MCCAIN LEND DIRECT AID TO OUR ENEMIES

American soldiers are now dying for a government that recently gave official sanction to the murderous president of Iran while he lends aid to the insurgency with training, weapons and money. It is despicable that not one single member of the Bush Administration, not one single member of the Congress, not John McCain or any of his right-wing cronies, have said one single word about this clearly insane development in our support for a government in Iraq that is clearly our enemy and not our ally. Let me repeat this—American soldiers are dying for a government that just officially hosted the government that is assisting in the killing of American soldiers. This is the same Iran that George Bush refers to as part of the “Axis of Evil,” that he is planning for war with and whom Dick Cheney and John McCain think we should be bombing today.

WATERBOARDING VICTIM GRANTED VA DISABILITY

The Department of Veterans Affairs has reversed earlier rulings and granted a rare disability claim by an Eight Mile veteran who says he suffered long-term emotional problems after being waterboarded during a Navy survival course in April 1975.

NEITHER HILLARY OR OBAMA WILL END THE IRAQ WAR

12 GIS ELECTROCUTED IN IRAQ BY FORMER HALLIBURTON SUBSIDIARY UNDER INVESTIGATION

At the center of the probe is private contractor KBR, a company that not only dodged $500 million in Medicare and Social Security taxes but also provided "unmonitored and potentially unsafe" water to U.S. troops in Iraq.

HOPE, CHANGE, AND PISSING IN THE WIND, 'OF OBAMA, DEMOCRATS, AND THE POWER ELITE'

Obama is no cure for the malignant creep toward fascism plaguing our nation.

Nor is anyone unwilling to eliminate the "Federal" Reserve and the IRS -- ZDN

I AM BECOME DEATH - THE DESTROYER OF THE WORLDS

On the fifth anniversary of the Iraq invasion, George Bush said, "Because we acted, the world is better and the United States of America is safer." With a million dead Iraqis, more than 30,000 dead and wounded American soldiers, the world now teeming with a new breed of America haters and more than 3 trillion dollars blown to achieve all that, the US president sits atop an economically crumbling America and happily crows his mantra. George W. Bush indeed seems far removed from reality.

ST. LUCIE CATHOLIC CHURCH OPENS NEW TYPE OF SOUP KITCHEN

Loretta Barnes saw a desperate need in her community.

Families losing their homes to foreclosure...people struggling to fill their gas tanks.