BUSTED: We Reject the False, Foul and Foolish

BUSTED: We Reject the False, Foul and Foolish

I'm hopeful that, in the spirit of true accountability and responsibility, our republic will see to it that rule by reason prevails, and we will undo this nihilistic madness:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6741120,00.html
"
White House, Cheney's Office Subpoenaed

Wednesday June 27, 2007 11:31 PM

AP Photo WCAP105, WCAP104

By LAURIE KELLMAN

Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Senate subpoenaed the White House and Vice President Dick Cheney's office Wednesday, demanding documents and elevating the confrontation with President Bush over the administration's warrant-free eavesdropping on Americans.

Separately, the Senate Judiciary Committee also is summoning Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to discuss the program and an array of other matters that have cost a half-dozen top Justice Department officials their jobs, committee chairman Patrick Leahy announced.

Leahy, D-Vt., raised questions about previous testimony by one of Bush's appeals court nominees and said he wouldn't let such matters pass.

``If there have been lies told to us, we'll refer it to the Department of Justice and the U.S. attorney for whatever legal action they think is appropriate,'' Leahy told reporters. He did just that Wednesday, referring questions about testimony by former White House aide Brett Kavanaugh, who now sits on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

The escalation is part of the Democrats' effort to hold the administration to account for the way it has conducted the war on terrorism since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The subpoenas extend the probe into the private sector, demanding among other things documents on any agreements that telecommunications companies made to cooperate with the surveillance program.

The White House contends that its search for would-be terrorists is legal, necessary and effective - pointing out frequently that there have been no further attacks on American soil. Administration officials say they have given classified information - such as details about the eavesdropping program, which is now under court supervision - to the intelligence committees of both houses of Congress.

Echoing its response to previous congressional subpoenas to former administration officials Harriet Miers and Sara Taylor, the White House gave no indication that it would comply with the new ones.

``We're aware of the committee's action and will respond appropriately,'' White House spokesman Tony Fratto said. ``It's unfortunate that congressional Democrats continue to choose the route of confrontation.''

In fact, the Judiciary Committee's three most senior Republicans - Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, former chairman Orrin Hatch of Utah and Chuck Grassley of Iowa - sided with Democrats on the 13-3 vote last week to give Leahy the power to issue the subpoenas.

The showdown between the White House and Congress could land in federal court.

Also named in subpoenas signed by Leahy were the Justice Department and the National Security Council. The four parties - the White House, Cheney's office, the Justice Department and the National Security Council - have until July 18 to comply, Leahy said. He added that, like House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., he would consider pursuing contempt citations against those who refuse.

Gonzales, in Spokane, Wash., on Wednesday to discuss gang issues with local officials, said he had not seen the subpoena documents and could not comment on them directly.

``There are competing institutional interests,'' Gonzales said.

The Judiciary committees have issued the subpoenas as part of a look at how much influence the White House exerts over the Justice Department and its chief, Gonzales.

The probe, in its sixth month, began with an investigation into whether administration officials ordered the firings of eight federal prosecutors for political reasons. The Judiciary committees subpoenaed Miers, one-time White House legal counsel, and Taylor, a former political director, though they have yet to testify.

Now, with senators of both parties concerned about the constitutionality of the administration's efforts to root out terrorism suspects in the United States, the committee has shifted to the broader question of Gonzales' stewardship of Justice.

The issue concerning Kavanaugh, a former White House staff secretary, is whether he misled the Senate panel during his confirmation hearing last year about how much he was involved in crafting the administration's policy on enemy combatants.

The Bush administration secretly launched the eavesdropping program, run by the National Security Agency, in 2001 to monitor international phone calls and e-mails to or from the United States involving people the government suspected of having terrorist links. The program, which the administration said did not require investigators to seek warrants before conducting surveillance, was revealed in December 2005.

After the program was challenged in court, Bush put it under the supervision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, established in 1978. The president still claims the power to order warrantless spying.

The subpoenas seek a wide array of documents from the Sept. 11 attacks to the present. Among them are any that include analysis or opinions from Justice, NSA, the Defense Department, the White House, or ``any entity within the executive branch'' on the legality of the electronic surveillance program.

Debate continues over whether the program violates people's civil liberties. The administration has gone to great lengths to keep it running.

Interest was raised by vivid testimony last month by former Deputy Attorney General James Comey about the extent of the White House's effort to override the Justice Department's objections to the program in 2004.

Comey told the Judiciary Committee that Gonzales, then-White House counsel, tried to persuade Attorney General John Ashcroft to reverse course and recertify the program. At the time, Ashcroft lay in intensive care, recovering form gall bladder surgery.

Ashcroft refused, as did Comey, who temporarily held the power of the attorney general's office during his boss' illness.

The White House recertified the program unilaterally. Ashcroft, Comey, FBI Director Robert Mueller and their staffs prepared to resign. Bush ultimately relented and made changes the Justice officials had demanded, and the agency eventually recertified it.

Fratto defended the surveillance program as ``lawful'' and ``limited.''

``It's specifically designed to be effective without infringing Americans' civil liberties,'' Fratto said. ``The program is classified for a reason - its purpose is to track down and stop terrorist planning. We remain steadfast in our commitment to keeping Americans safe from an enemy determined to use any means possible - including the latest in technology - to attack us.''

"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6741120,00.html

-- Mark Frankenberg

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Fed Up? Make our government Better!

Fed Up? Make our government Better!

Camp Wellstone is where you can learn how:



http://www.wellstone.org/camp/category_page.aspx?catID=3752

-- Mark Frankenberg

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Bushies Liable for Inherent Contempt

How have the Tories in the Bush Administration demonstrated their Inherent Contempt for our Republic?

1. Executive Signing Statements

2. Kangaroo Courts

3. Ignoring Subpoenas

4. Selling off government functions, including oversight

5. Bleeding off our military power in a completely un-necessary war in Iraq.

6. Lying to Congress and the American People in order to start the Iraq war.

I would Urge Congress, with no Subtlety, to do as they must with criminals who are ignoring subpoenas. Too much is at stake not to.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/3/27/113945/241
"

Dusting off "Inherent Contempt"

by Kagro X

Tue Mar 27, 2007 at 12:37:18 PM PDT

Yesterday, we discussed the fact that the standard, statutory contempt of Congress procedure was probably inadequate to the task of enforcing the Democratic Congress' hard-won subpoena power:

The last time the Congress actually voted to hold an executive branch official in contempt of Congress was in the 1982 case of EPA Administrator Anne Gorsuch Burford. Gorsuch (who was later remarried, to Bureau of Land Management head Robert Burford) was found in contempt by a House vote of 259-105 (with 55 Republicans voting in favor). The charges were, in keeping with practice in statutory contempt cases, referred to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia for prosecution.

And a lightbulb switches on! The actual prosecution of contempt of Congress charges is the responsibility of a U.S. Attorney.

What an extraordinary piece of bad luck, given the current situation!

A few astute commenters observed that Congress has another weapon in its arsenal for backing up the subpoena power: the long-dormant "inherent contempt" process, described below in the Congressional Research Service's "Congressional Oversight Manual" (PDF):

Under the inherent contempt power, the individual is brought before the House or Senate by the Sergeant-at-Arms, tried at the bar of the body, and can be imprisoned. The purpose of the imprisonment or other sanction may be either punitive or coercive. Thus, the witness can be imprisoned for a specified period of time as punishment, or for an indefinite period (but not, at least in the case of the House, beyond the adjournment of a session of the Congress) until he agrees to comply. The inherent contempt power has been recognized by the Supreme Court as inextricably related to Congress’s constitutionally-based power to investigate.

The most obvious benefit of inherent contempt is that it's conducted entirely "in-house," that is, entirely on the authority of the legislative branch. The most obvious drawback? Spending time on a trial. Well, that and the scene of having the Sergeant at Arms and the Capitol Police physically barred from entering the White House to arrest those who've defied subpoenas.

But is there another choice? What other power, besides impeachment, does the Congress have in its arsenal to enforce the "subpoena power" we were all told this election was about? There are no other direct options, only oblique approaches to using indirect leverage.

The next question, then, is whether or not anybody in Congress has bothered to think things through to this point, and begin preparing for this possibility. And here, I finally have some good news.

Rep. Brad Miller of North Carolina, in his capacity as chairman of the Science committee's Investigations and Oversight panel, has encountered the same sort of intransigence from the Bush "administration" that is threatened over the investigation into the U.S. Attorney firings. Only in the case of his investigation, involving the Department of Education, the "administration" hasn't even really done him the courtesy of making up an excuse for why they're not providing the requested documents. They're just not doing it.

So as Rep. Miller has become increasingly pessimistic about the chances that the "administration" will relent in his case, he's been consulting the same Congressional Oversight Manual, and was dismayed to learn that the enforcement options are indeed quite limited. Inherent contempt, he's discovered, is perhaps the only way Congress will be able to enforce its subpoena power with this "administration," and he's been talking with CRS experts to explore how a modern inherent contempt procedure might be established. Even better, he's been sharing that information with Rep. Linda Sanchez, chair of the Judiciary committee's Commercial and Administrative Law panel that's handling the subpoenas in the U.S. Attorneys matter.

Unfortunately, the current thinking among most Members of Congress is that the subpoena showdown will be settled in court. But as we discussed yesterday, that's highly unlikely. Rather, it seems most probably that the courts will dismiss such a case under the "political question doctrine," as they did in the Burford case in 1982.

Is there a stronger and more direct signal to send to the White House that the Congress is serious about its oversight authority than the one that would come from the House taking the time to dust off the inherent contempt concept, and establish a modern procedure for it? If so, I can't think of it.

At the very least, it's going to pay to be prepared sooner rather than later. Once those subpoenas are issued, it won't be long before we know precisely what the White House plans to do when the chips are down. And if we're sitting around looking at one another when the White House signals its final defiance, we're likely to lose a lot of momentum.

Let's face it: if the "administration" simply refuses to budge, the Congress either has to fold its tent and go home, or enforce on its own authority the subpoena power the American people voted for. Given that we've reached this impasse -- and we knew it was coming -- over an investigation into the hyper-partisan and hyper-politicized nature of the U.S. Attorneys, inherent contempt proceedings would appear to be the first and most direct resort of Congress in enforcing its mandate.

It would also appear to be the last stop short of impeachment. And with that remedy currently "off the table," Congress needs to speak -- and speak soon -- about how it intends to protect its prerogatives.

"
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/3/27/113945/241

-- Mark Frankenberg

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Out-Sourcing is Destroying our Government

Out-Sourcing is Destroying our Government













I think this Cartoon by Matt Wuerker, featured in the June 2007 issue of the Hightower Lowdown Newsletter, pretty well sums up the situation in Washington today:



-- Mark Frankenberg

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"NY Airport Plot" was bogus

"NY Airport Plot" was bogus

http://www.agrnews.org/
"
...
An alleged plot to blow up fuel tanks and pipelines at New York's JFK airport had little chance of success, according to safety experts, who have questioned whether the plot ever posed a real threat.
...
it would have been next to impossible to cause an explosion in the jet fuel tanks and pipeline. Furthermore, the plotters seem to have lacked the explosives and financial backing to carry out the attack.
...
citing the example of North Vietnamese forces attacking US fuel dumps during the Vietnam War.

"They hit the fuel tanks with pretty big rockets. You would get a big fire but not a big explosion other than the rocket."
...
"
http://www.agrnews.org/

-- Mark Frankenberg

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"Culture-Warrior" Right-Wash: 911/JFK

"Culture-Warrior" Right-wash: 911/JFK

I find it noteworthy that, a week after Bruce Willis makes remarks in a Vanity Fair Magazine interview (June, 2007 Issue) ("They still haven't caught the guy that killed [President] Kennedy,... I'll get killed for saying this, but I'm pretty sure those guys are still in power, in some form. The entire government of the United States was co-opted,"), Vincent Bugliosi's new book (trying to re-sell the Warren Commission's bogus magic bullet/Oswald/lone nut theory) hits the shelves.

http://ronrosenbaum.pajamasmedia.com/2007/05/20/
"
Consider the way he attempts to argue away any organized crime theory of the assassination. the way he substitutes hectoring lawyerly argumentation for evidence.
"
http://ronrosenbaum.pajamasmedia.com/2007/05/20/

Bugliosi made the big time when He prosecuted (then documented) the Charles Manson case in his book named after a Beatles Song, "Helter Skelter". I remember watching the TV Version. The Song is on the Beatles' White Album.

I remember that this Manson Case happened during the undeclared U.S. wars in Vietnam and Guatemala (death-squads trained and assisted by U.S. Green Berets), in the time of Cointelpro and political assassinations. It got all kinds of corporate-press coverage because it painted "hippies" in a sinister light, further diffusing the dissent that had been increasing steadily as our country's power-structure swung dangerously to the Right, in tragic contradiction of the populist spirit that had enabled our victories over the fascists in Germany and Japan in 1945.

It is a pattern of the Right to attempt to discredit dissenters who won't accept lies.

Like, "The Twin Towers Fell because of Fire". Bullshit. Steel buildings don't fall from fire.

Like, "Bullets can turn around in mid-air". Bullshit.

I think the fact that Bugliosi's book is so thick, and that it has an endorsement by Alan Dershowitz, of all shills, is evidence that the forces of evil in this world know that we're on to something when we say that there's a line of continuity between JFK and 911.

See What Dershowitz is all about in this debate with Noam Chomsky, where he struggles to defend apartheid in Israel:
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/12/23/1450216


And while we're on the subject of Israeli Militarism, you haven't forgotten the story of the "Dancing Israelis", have you?
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/fiveisraelis.html
"
The New York Times reported Thursday that a group of five men had set up video cameras aimed at the Twin Towers prior to the attack on Tuesday, and were seen congratulating one another afterwards. (1)
"
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/fiveisraelis.html

We True Americans believe that All Men are Created Equal. You who want wide disparity between the classes and try to shunt this class-war into a "culture-war", who want dissention between people of different backgrounds in order to keep working people divided, who want police-state in order to protect your tyranny, who KILLED our PRESIDENT in 1963 and who MURDERED 3000 AMERICANS in 2001, are destined to fail. We are going to get our America Back and you will be held accountable.

-- Mark Frankenberg

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What Now?

What Now?

We have to take a good, hard look at where we are and what we need to do.

Given this accurate assesment:

http://answer.pephost.org/site/News2?abbr=ANS_&page=NewsArticle&id=8501
"
The Democratic-controlled Congress voted overwhelmingly to extend and finance the war and occupation. The calculation of the Democratic Party leadership and the vast majority of its elected officials in Congress is based on avoiding at all costs taking responsibility for a pullout from Iraq which will be perceived as a defeat for the United States in this strategic oil-rich region. They believe that they can secure an electoral advantage in 2008 by having the war drag on and have the public hold the Republicans responsible for the war. Moreover, the Democratic Party is feeding from the same corporate financing trough as the Republicans and they share the Bush government’s broad objective of U.S. domination in the Middle East. Congress, under the current circumstances, is completely committed to not ending the war in Iraq in the next two years and probably for much longer than that.
"
http://answer.pephost.org/site/News2?abbr=ANS_&page=NewsArticle&id=8501

I would venture that the above statement rings largely true, and thus our future general security depends on the following:

Super - Global Military/Police Air and Space control by the U.S. as a committed, conscientious, supporting Member of the U.N. (Eliminate the need to physically occupy foreign lands).

Transition to a non-fossil-fuel-based global economy (Solar Cells Charging Batteries, batteries powering cars, trucks, buses, trains and ships).

Restoration of the Populist, Democratic-Republican national character of the United States as an example for other countries to follow. (Break up the Media Monopolies, Keep the Internet Free and Neutral, and address the cynicism that has infected our country).

-- Mark Frankenberg

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Setting it Straight about Rock and the 60's: Thanks, Neil!

Setting it Straight about Rock and the 60's: Thanks, Neil!

"This was not like the bobby-socks generation of Frank Sinatra. Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane-- these were not pop idols. They were part of a movement, and we were all in it together. It wasn't a music business. It wasn't the entertainment industry. We didn't have Entertainment Tonight and American Idol. We didn't have that shit. The music was believable, and the people believed it."

-- Neil Young, Interviewed in Rolling Stone Magazine, Special Double Issue RS 1025/1026

-- Mark Frankenberg

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Counter the Postal-Rate Threat to our Marketplace of Ideas

Counter the Postal-Rate Threat to our Marketplace of Ideas

http://zmagsite.zmag.org/curTOC.htm
"
...
the plan the USPS adopted was largely written by Time Warner Inc., the world’s largest media conglomerate.
...
McChesney also points out that the increases are a "radical reformulation" which "goes directly against 215 years of postal policy." Postal discounts for periodicals had been promoted by early U.S. leaders such as Thomas Jefferson and James Madison to allow the population "full information of their affairs," specifically intended for small political publications to "penetrate the whole mass of the people." Even Federalist Alexander Hamilton (as a fiscally conservative Treasury Secretary) conceded that such rate discounts were necessary for the good of the country.
...
These new rates will have grave consequences for disseminating the very type of information our founding fathers strove to protect and foster when they first established the public postal service." According to a study by McGraw Hill cited in the letter, "Some small magazines will no doubt go out of business. Some will be forced to produce a lesser product to pay for these increases."

Though the public comment period has passed, public outcry against the plan has been growing and is having some effect. Implementation of the new fee structure has been delayed from May until July 15, and a "Stamp Out The Rate Hikes" campaign is underway to generate further public opposition through letters and other actions.
"
http://zmagsite.zmag.org/curTOC.htm

http://action.freepress.net/freepress/postal_explanation.html
"
...
Our nation's founders understood the First Amendment would be worth little without a postal system that encouraged broad public participation in America's "marketplace of ideas."
...
President George Washington spoke out for free postage for newspapers through the mail, and Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton -- no proponent of government deficit -- conceded that incentives were necessary to spawn a viable press.
...
Our free press did not happen magically; it was built on the foundation of postal policies that encouraged small publications and dissident ideas to spout and flourish.
...
the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) rejected a postal rate increase plan offered by the U.S. Postal Service. Instead they opted to implement a modified version of an extraordinarily complicated plan submitted by media giant Time Warner.
...
the matter was so complicated and unreported that the general public played no role whatsoever, and publications that could not afford significant lobbying and lawyer fees faced high barriers to effective participation.
...
We all lose if the media system loses numerous small publications due to massive postal rate hikes and if it becomes cost prohibitive for new magazines to be launched in the future.
...
The Time Warner plan proposed higher costs for small publishers and discounts for big publishers. The Time Warner plan is so complex that many publications are still unclear what their rate hikes will be if implemented; those smaller publications that have been able to do the math are finding shocking increases on tap, as high as 25-30 percent.
...
The practical result of this move is not only the decline of a democratic mission, but a rate shock for small and medium size magazines even as big publishers are getting a break.

This Is a Battle for the Internet, too
...
Much of the material on the web sites people visit that covers public affairs is generated by these print publications. Much of the material bloggers address originates in these print publications.

If these publications are forced to slash their editorial budgets -- or even go out of business --to pay the massive postal rate increases brought on by the Time Warner plan, it will shrink the range and quality of material available on the Internet.
...
If the print publications do not exist, these stories do not get written.
...
It is imperative that Congress, which is ultimately responsible, intervene to protect the postal subsidy for small publications that is the foundation for the free press in the United States.

And Congress must intervene quickly to see that the July 15 rate hike does not have the unintended consequence of severely punishing countless small and medium-sized publications, perhaps driving hundreds out of business.

Congress must now step in to protect smaller media from these unfair rate hikes.
...

Stop the Rate Hikes, Stand Up for Independent Media:

For individuals: Send a Letter to Congress and the Postal Service

For publications: Sign the Letter to the Postal Board of Governors

For academics: Join Other Professors Who Support This Campaign

"

http://action.freepress.net/freepress/postal_explanation.html

-- Mark Frankenberg

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What did we elect these clowns for?

What did we elect these clowns for?

http://www.workingforchange.com/comic.cfm?itemid=22395

-- Mark Frankenberg

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War Profiteers are a Threat to the security of a Free State

War Profiteers are a Threat to the security of a Free State

The Second Amendment is NOT for the formation of rogue business Armies

"Amendment II
A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."

This could be read as to say that our communities.. our municipalities are legally able to organize defense forces to protect against a rogue central government, foreign invaders or corporate looters.

This DOESN't mean a "corporate person" should be able to build it's own mercenary army.

http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/53460/
"
Blackwater Heavies Sue Families of Slain Employees for $10 Million in Brutal Attempt to Suppress Their Story

By Daniel J. Callahan and Marc P. Miles, AlterNet. Posted June 8, 2007.

The lawyers representing the families of four American Blackwater contractors killed in Fallujah make the case that the company's executives are suing the families to keep them quiet and to avoid any accountability.

The following article is by the lawyers representing the families of four American contractors who worked for Blackwater and were killed in Fallujah. After Blackwater refused to share information about why they were killed, the families were told they would have to sue Blackwater to find out. Now Blackwater is trying to sue them for $10 million to keep them quiet.

Raleigh, NC -- The families of four American security contractors who were burned, beaten, dragged through the streets of Fallujah and their decapitated bodies hung from a bridge over the Euphrates River on March 31, 2004, are reaching out to the American public to help protect themselves against the very company their loved ones were serving when killed, Blackwater Security Consulting. After Blackwater lost a series of appeals all the away to the U.S. Supreme Court, Blackwater has now changed its tactics and is suing the dead men's estates for $10 million to silence the families and keep them out of court.
...
Blackwater...is owned by the wealthy and politically-connected Erik Prince.
...
Blackwater employed Kenneth Starr, famed prosecutor in the Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky scandal, to oppose the families.

To add additional muscle, Blackwater hired Cofer Black, who was the Director of the CIA Counter- Terrorist Center.
...
After filing its suit against the dead men's estates, Blackwater demanded that its claim and the families' existing lawsuit be handled in a private arbitration. By suing the families in arbitration, Blackwater has attempted to move the examination of their wrongful conduct outside of the eye of the public and away from a jury. This comes at the same time when Congress is investigating Blackwater.
...
Due to lack of accountability and oversight, Blackwater's private army has been able to obtain huge profits from the government, utilizing contacts established through Erik Prince's relationships with high-ranking government officials such as Cofer Black and Joseph Schmitz.
...
When the families' attorneys, Callahan & Blaine, obtained a Court Order to take the deposition of a former Blackwater employee with critical information about the incident, Blackwater quickly re-hired him and sent him out of the country.
...
Blackwater has now lifted this atrocity to a whole new level by going on the offensive and suing the families for $10 million. The families now find themselves looking down the barrel of a gun as Blackwater, armed with a war chest and politically-connected attorneys, is aggressively litigating against them. Blackwater has also threatened to hold the administrator of the estates personally liable to scare him into abandoning his position, and has threatened the families' attorneys as well.
...
Blackwater has said that it will not pay one red cent to assist or console the surviving families, but instead has counter sued for $10 million.

Without help, Blackwater will succeed in avoiding scrutiny for its conduct, escaping accountability for its actions, and silencing the families of the four Americans killed in Fallujah. A defense fund has been established by which the public is able to donate money to assist the families with litigation costs and expenses.

Donations can be sent to the estates' trust account, payable to "C&B ITF Blackwater Victims Defense Fund," c/o Callahan & Blaine, 3 Hutton Centre Drive, Ninth Floor, Santa Ana, California 92707. Donations may also be made securely online through PayPal by going to blackwatervictims.com. All donations will be kept confidential and anonymous.
"
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/53460/

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/11/1531232
"
Friday, May 11th, 2007
Author and DN! Correspondent Jeremy Scahill Testifies in Landmark House Hearing on Defense Contracting
...
Jeremy Scahill testified before a House Appropriations hearing on defense contracting. Scahill is author of the book "Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army."
...
a House panel put some of the harshest criticisms of this privatization of the war into the congressional record for the first time.
...
about the lack of oversight of the tens of thousands of contractors deployed in Iraq.
...
we face the widespread use of private forces seemingly accountable to no effective system of oversight or law. While tens of thousands of these contractors provide logistical support services for the military, thousands are heavily armed private soldiers roaming Iraq. We do know that there are 48,000 employees of private military companies in Iraq alone. These forces work for US companies like Blackwater, Triple Canopy and DynCorp, as well as companies from across the globe. Some contractors make in a month what many active-duty soldiers make in a year.
...
we have a phenomenon of soldiers leaving the active-duty military to jump over to the private sector. There’s now slang on the ground in Iraq for this jump; it's called "going Blackwater." To put it bluntly, these private forces create a system where national duty is outbid by profits
...
In four years, there have been no prosecutions for crimes against Iraqis committed by contractors and not a single known prosecution of an armed contractor. That either means that we have tens of thousands of boy scouts working as armed contractors or something is fundamentally wrong with the system.
...
Members of Congress tell me they've been stonewalled in attempts to gain detailed information about the activities of these private contractors. I think it's a disturbing commentary that I’ve received phone calls from members of Congress asking me for documents on the contractors, and not the other way around. In the current discussion in the Congress on this issue, what is seldom discussed is how this system, the privatization of war, has both encouraged and enabled the growth and creation of companies who have benefited and stand to gain even more from an escalation of the war.
...
This war contracting system has intimately linked corporate profits to an escalation of war and conflict. These companies have no incentive to decrease their footprint in the war zone and every incentive to increase it.
...
Blackwater is a company that has very deep connections in US intelligence, in the military. It does indeed have political connections to the White House.
...
Mr. Prince likes to refer to Blackwater as the Federal Express of the national security apparatus.
...
not only is Mr. Prince a significant contributor to several of the campaign causes of Republicans who are in influential positions, particularly in the years of the Republican-controlled congress, as well as to the White House, but he has deep connections to some of the religious right organizations that have come to a position of prominence in this country.
[...]
I think this is a company that embodies a lot of what President Eisenhower warned against in his farewell address in 1961.
...
what we need to do is de-link corporate profits from an escalation of conflict. I think we need to pass effective anti-mercenary legislation.
"
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/11/1531232



-- Mark Frankenberg

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Russ Feingold can Help Us End the War

Russ Feingold can Help Us End the War



--Mark Frankenberg

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Iron Curtain Revisits Germany

Iron Curtain Revisits Germany

Evidence that the G8 summit symbolizes what the people want:


http://www.chroniclejournal.com/CP_stories.php?id=47348


-- Mark Frankenberg

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Mike Malloy: Radio with Balls

Mike Malloy: Radio with Balls

It is entirely possible to play catch with a softball while listening to Mike Malloy on the radio.

This guy cuts to the chase so severely that Air America was afraid to keep him in their lineup.

Now you have to pay to hear him thru here (although the following free pieces are essential):

Mike Malloy: Angry Voice In The Wilderness
http://www.archive.org/details/Protean

Mike Malloy narrates a short summary of the 14 characteristics of Fascism:
http://www.bushflash.com/14.html

Here's what he had to say the day our Armed Forces invaded the sovereign country of Iraq:
http://server7.whiterosesociety.org/content/malloy/MalloyShow-(21-3-2003)_old.mp3

http://watch.windsofchange.net/pics/shockandawe.JPG

-- Mark Frankenberg

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Ways to violate the public trust:

Ways to violate the public trust:

1. Decieve them by shifting attention regarding certain words (I.E. "911" or "JFK") to a new, unrelated situation (Example: flooding the media with this new supposed pre-crime / thought-crime Kennedy Airport thing, so that anyone looking answers regarding links between the JFK assassination and the 911 murders will be hindered in their quest for answers).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_bomb

"
...
A Google bomb (also referred to as a 'link bomb') is Internet slang for a certain kind of attempt to influence the ranking of a given page in results returned by the Google search engine, often with humorous or political intentions.[1] Because of the way that Google's algorithm works, a page will be ranked higher if the sites that link to that page use consistent anchor text. A Google bomb is created if a large number of sites link to the page in this manner.
...
"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_bomb


When a leak becomes a story that is referred to by the leakers as justification for an action, the deception goes full circle. Then, both the public officials involved, as well as the corporations spreading the word, are effectively betraying the public trust.


-- Mark Frankenberg

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http://www.AmericanWisdom.org

Reporter Arrested for Asking Guliani staff 911/WTC Question at Press Conference

Reporter Arrested for Asking Guliani staff 911/WTC Question at Press Conference


We want a new, REAL investigation of 911. None of this Warren Commission Crap. This isn't Black and White TV, yo.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0706/S00036.htm
"
Reporter Arrested on Orders of Giuliani Press Sec
Wednesday, 6 June 2007, 4:46 pm
Press Release: Jones Report
Reporter Arrested on Orders of Giuliani Press Secretary

Charged with Criminal Trespass Despite Protest of CNN Staff and Official Event Press Credentials at GOP Debate in New Hampshire

Aaron Dykes & Alex Jones / Jones Report | June 5, 2006 http://www.jonesreport.com/articles/050607_reporter_arrested_giuliani_orders.html

Manchester, NH - Freelance reporter Matt Lepacek, reporting for Infowars.com, was arrested for asking a question to one of Giuliani's staff members in a press conference. The press secretary identified the New York based reporter as having previously asked Giuliani about his prior knowledge of WTC building collapses and ordered New Hampshire state police to arrest him.

Jason Bermas, reporting for Infowars and America: Freedom to Fascism, confirmed Lepacek had official CNN press credentials for the Republican debate. However, his camera was seized by staff members who shut off the camera, according to Luke Rudkowski, also a freelance Infowars reporter on the scene. He said police physically assaulted both reporters after Rudkowski objected that they were official members of the press and that nothing illegal had taken place. Police reportedly damaged the Infowars-owned camera in the process.

Reporters were questioning Giuliani staff members on a variety of issues, including his apparent ignorance of the 9/11 Commission Report, according to Bermas. The staff members accused the reporters of Ron Paul partisanship, which press denied. It was at this point that Lepacek, who was streaming a live report, asked a staff member about Giuliani's statement to Peter Jennings that he was told beforehand that the WTC buildings would collapse.

Giuliani's press secretary then called over New Hampshire state police, fingering Lepacek.

Though CNN staff members tried to persuade police not to arrest the accredited reporter-- in violation of the First Amendment, Lepacek was taken to jail. The police station told JonesReport.com that Lepacek is being charged with felony criminal trespass. Multiple witnesses on the scene reported that the state police were also heard discussing charges of espionage.

Wearing a webcam at a press event is not an act of espionage. Alex Jones, who was watching the live feed, witnessed Lepacek announce that he was wearing a camera connected to a laptop that was transmitting the press conference live at approximately 9:20 EST. When Lepacek announced that he was broadcasting live, Giuliani staff members responded by getting upset at his questions and ordering his arrest.

Freedom to Fascism reporter Samuel Ettaro was also dragged out after asking a question on Giuliani's ties with Cintra and Macquerie, two foreign contractors involved with the contentious Trans-Texas Corridor under development in Texas.

The entire incident took place in a large press auditorium, apart from the debate stages where authorized media were able to question candidates and their handlers.

Since when do campaign operatives have the power to order state police to arrest someone on false charges or arbitrate who has the right to conduct journalism, a right guarded by the Constitution?

A warning to the press-- if candidates or police don't like your questions, you could be arrested for trespassing and even espionage in the new Orwellian America.

The state police in Goffstown, New Hampshire, where the arrest was made, confirmed that Lepacek is in custody on charges of criminal trespass. Police said information on who filed the trespass complaint was not yet available and would be filed in the police report.

It is clear from talking to multiple eyewitness, as well as the live webcam, that there could not have been a complainant who originated police action, because it happened spontaneously. The police need to be very careful about violating the Bill of Rights and falsely charging someone with a felony crime. This constitutes extreme official oppression and is a total violation of the reporter's civil rights. It would have been bad enough if the reporter would have just been thrown out, but to arrest him when he had a valid press pass and CNN protested his arrest is an outrage.

The arrest-- which clearly violated the First Amendment-- was recorded from two separate camera angles, including a live feed recorded remotely-- so the episode is on record in the event that police destroy or lose tapes seized from Lepacek in attempt to obfuscate the facts of the incident.

If you doubt that police would assault reporters, seize video equipment and act on political orders, then consider the experience Alex Jones had when Texas state troopers arrested him for asking George W. Bush a question during a press conference while he was governor. See video below.

Reporters Matt Lepacek and Luke Rudkowski, both members of WeAreChange.org, as well as freelance reporters for Infowars.com, have also been previously accused-- falsely-- of being terrorists with bombs and have undergone multiple episodes of harassment during peaceful demonstrations and attempts at exercising the right of free press.

Luke Rudkowski and Jason Bermas contributed to this report.



"
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0706/S00036.htm


-- Mark Frankenberg

HEAR the MUSIC
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http://www.AmericanWisdom.org

Kennedy Assassination.. 9/11

Kennedy Assassination.. 9/11

Why Kennedy NOW?

The Kennedy assassination/coup and the 9/11 false-flag attack are two milestones in the destruction of the United States Republic.

Where are the connections? Here's one, from http://tomflocco.com/Docs/63/BushJfkBookDepo.htm

Some would say that posing in front of this building on that day could be interpreted as a way of winking and nodding to some, and flipping the bird to others.

Poppy's son has or is still destroying evidence.

http://www.cjog.net/speaking_charles_lewis_february_20.html
"
Under Bush’s plan, however, former presidents or their heirs may veto the release of their presidential papers, as may the sitting president—a decision that vested George W. Bush with the authority to block release of his father’s papers, for example
"
http://www.cjog.net/speaking_charles_lewis_february_20.html

Isn't it time people started pulling their heads out of their asses?

http://www.itwasjohnson.impiousdigest.com/

Check out the Bill Hicks Video. He was dead by age 32.

Bill Hicks on the JFK Assassination

See what he said before he died:
http://www.billhicks.com/

There's a lot of death surrounding the agenda of those who worship balance sheets more than human life.

-- Mark Frankenberg

HEAR the MUSIC
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http://www.AmericanWisdom.org

What Really Happened on 9/11?

9/11 carries the same stink that is all over the assassination of John F. Kennedy. There are even some of the same stinky people involved in both. Both incidents are historical low points in the life of the republic known as the United States of America. Indeed, many say that these two key events mark the death of the idea KNOWN as "America". I don't. I think we American Citizens need to do what we all said we would do when we recited the Pledge of Allegiance to the Republic for which the Flag Stands. We need to get informed. We need to demand the truth from those we have hired to administer our communities, and we need to hold those who are misusing their power accountable.

Cindy Sheehan is spot-on in her demand for answers regarding 9/11. Thank you Cindy.

http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/may2007/310507cindysheehan.htm
"
Cindy Sheehan: Twin Towers' Collapse Looked Like Controlled Demolition
...
Sheehan, who made headlines this week after she distanced herself from the Democratic party and the establishment left, joined Alex Jones to share her views on her skepticism towards the official 9/11 story.
...

Sheehan questioned why U.S. air defenses were distracted by drills and exercises scheduled for the morning of 9/11 and why standard operating procedure for intercepting errant aircraft was not followed for the first and only time in history.

"When you lose control of an airplane, you intercept it with a military jet and that should only take seconds - from what I understand it's not even an order to do that it's mandatory," said Sheehan.

Speaking on the collapse of the twin towers, Sheehan stated, "It does look to me like a controlled demolition - I'm not an expert - but it does look to me like a controlled demolition - I'm looking at common sense."

"I do see some very high profile people saying it was an inside job," concluded Sheehan.

...

"

http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/may2007/310507cindysheehan.htm


-- Mark Frankenberg

HEAR the MUSIC
get a FREE "Just Say NO to Fascism" Bumper Sticker
http://www.AmericanWisdom.org