Petition to let federal legislators know you want Human Beings to run our Government.. NOT Corporations.

Whole Story and Petition:
http://www.dscc.org/petition?petition_KEY=236&track=SEM-G-S-scotus-finance

This petition should get high numbers because it's DSCC. Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. I'm not declaring my allegiance to this party or any other, here, but it's a good way to get our "it's 'We the People', NOT 'We the Corporations'" message heard by large numbers.

I urge you be counted by doing this petition.
http://www.dscc.org/petition?petition_KEY=236&track=SEM-G-S-scotus-finance


http://www.AmericanWisdom.org

We Need to Reduce The HATE Going Around

Whole Story:
http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0327/patriot-hate-groups-grew-244-2009/

"..

‘Patriot’ hate groups grew by 244% in 2009

By Andrew McLemore
Saturday, March 27th, 2010 -- 6:25 pm
...
Hatred is getting a lot of press this week as reports of violent harassment against Congressional Democrats continue to surface. It began last weekend with Tea Party activists
...

But new research shows the Tea Party may be the nice guys amid soaring numbers of hate groups.

An "astonishing" 363 anti-government or "Patriot" groups appeared in 2009, with the totals going from 149 groups to 512, according to a report released by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

That's a 244 percent increase in one year. Many of the "Patriot" groups are militias. Before 2009, there were 42. Now, there are 127. Hate groups overall stayed at a record high of nearly 1,000
...

Individuals associated with the Patriot movement during its 1990s heyday produced an enormous amount of violence, most dramatically the Oklahoma City bombing that left 168 people dead.

...

Democratic leaders and many political commentators have said the GOP is not only refusing to condemn recent hate crimes as they should, but encouraging it to gain political leverage.

...

Chip Berlet, a veteran analyst of the American radical right, wrote earlier this year that the US is "in the midst of one of the most significant right-wing populist rebellions in history."

"We see around us a series of overlapping social and political movements populated by people [who are] angry, resentful, and full of anxiety. They are raging against the machinery of the federal bureaucracy and liberal government programs and policies including health care, reform of immigration and labor laws, abortion, and gay marriage."

.."

http://www.AmericanWisdom.org

Repugnant Cons Block Jobless Bill Again

Whole Story:
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/3/26/headlines#7

"..
support for community colleges and historically black schools.

GOP Blocks Jobless Benefits Bill

For the second time in a month, a Republican lawmaker has singlehandedly blocked a vote on a stopgap jobless benefits bill. With Congress in recess for two weeks, this could mean that on April 5 a host of popular provisions could expire, including unemployment insurance and COBRA benefits for the jobless. Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn blocked the measure last night. Republican Senator Jim Bunning of Kentucky blocked passage of a similar extension in February.

Obama to Announce New Program to Help Homeowners

.."

http://www.AmericanWisdom.org

We can use the FCC (among other resources) to Reduce Domestic Terrorism

This one is Actionable. Stand and be Counted at the following "Whole Story" web address:
http://www.stopdomesticterror.com/

"..
www.StopDomesticTerror.com
A VelvetRevolution.us Campaign

Stop Domestic Terror

Update: DOJ Vows Action On Hate Crimes. It appears that our campaign, letters and emails to the DOJ have gotten the attention they deserve. On December 22, 2009, the DOJ announced that it was making hate crimes “a top priority.” Let’s keep the pressure on so DOJ keeps its promise.

Recently, there has been an explosion in threats and acts of domestic terrorism. The majority of these can be traced to groups and individuals who do not accept the results of our recent election or the laws enacted or proposed by those who have been elected. They seek to undermine the democratic process through threats, intimidation, and even outright murder. They can't accept the legitimacy of the President, or a woman's legal right to make choices about her own medical care, or an immigrant's right to be treated humanely under the law, so they carry out acts that are antithetical to American democracy, American values, and both civil and human rights.

The fringe element that makes up those who commit these acts of terror is frequently exploited by a continuous wave of rightwing media advocating violence, either directly or indirectly, and by commentators amplifying the talking points of extremist religious leaders and extremist political leaders. This fringe is incited on our public airwaves, and urged to take matters into their own hands, with the underlying belief that the Bible and/or U.S. Constitution justify using ‘whatever means’ are necessary to oppose what they believe to be immoral laws.

We are taking a stand against this dangerous trend towards the incitement of lawlessness and violence. We strongly believe in the First Amendment right of free expression and discourse, even when that expression is abhorrent and not in line with our own beliefs. However, the First Amendment does not protect debate where one side includes the threat or act of violence.

We have written a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder outlining our concerns and requesting that he act quickly to address this wave of domestic terrorism. A copy of the letter is here with the exhibits A-F here:

Exhibit A-Pet for Inquiry (FCC Letter)
Exhibit B-Letter to NTIA (NTIA Letter)
Exhibit C-Armed Revolution (Armed Revolution Website)
Exhibit D-Tiller Report (Op Rescue Tiller Baby Killer)
Exhibit E-talk radio(Structural Imbalance of Talk Radio)
Exhibit F-Frank Schaeffer letter (Schaeffer Letter to Holder)

Specifically, we are taking the following steps to address this dangerous trend toward extremism.

...

Sign On Form

Please add your name and email address to sign on to this campaign HERE.

.."

http://www.AmericanWisdom.org

Chomsky says Hold your Nose and Vote for the "Healthcare" Bill

Whole Story:
http://rawstory.com/2010/03/noam-chomsky-health-bill/

"..

Chomsky: Health bill sustains the system’s core ills

By Sahil Kapur
Monday, March 22nd, 2010 -- 10:17 am

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Despite its flaws, I'd have 'held my nose' to pass reform, renowned intellectual tells Raw Story

...

In an interview with Raw Story, world-renowned scholar and political critic Noam Chomsky reluctantly called the bill a mildly positive step, but cautioned that it wouldn’t fix the fundamental problems with the nation's troubled system.

"The United States’ health care system is so dysfunctional it has about twice the costs of comparable countries and some of the worst outcomes," Chomsky told Raw Story. "This bill continues with that."

The decades-long critic of corporate power alleged that premiums won't stop rising as the package is designed in no small part to funnel money into the pockets of the health care industry. "The bill gives away a lot to insurance companies and big pharmaceutical corporations," he said.

...

The legislation forbids government from negotiating prices with pharmaceutical companies or permitting the importation of drugs. Nor does it provide competition to private insurers, an oligopolistic industry that will maintain its impunity from antitrust laws. But despite this, Chomsky, an advocate for a single-payer system, said killing the bill wasn't a better solution.

"If I were in Congress," he said, "I’d probably hold my nose and vote for it, because the alternative of not passing it is worse, bad as this bill is. Unfortunately, that’s the reality."

"If it fails, it wouldn’t put even limited constraints on insurance companies," he explained, noting that the bill takes "at least has some steps towards barring the withholding of policies from people with prior disabilities." The consumer protections from dodgy insurance practices are among the bill's most popular components.

The mandate to purchase insurance has been a central qualm of progressives and conservatives opposed to the effort. Chomsky, while admitting it’s a boon to insurance companies, called it a "step toward universality," asserting that "without some kind of mandatory coverage, nothing is going to work at all."

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor added that it’s a damning referendum on American democracy that one of the most highly supported components of the effort nationally, the public insurance option, was jettisoned. He partly blamed the media for refusing to stress how favorably it’s viewed by the populace.

"It didn't have 'political support,' just the support of the majority of the population," Chomsky quipped, "which apparently is not political support in our dysfunctional democracy."

...

"There should be headlines explaining why, for decades, what's been called politically impossible is what most of the public has wanted," Chomsky said. "There should be headlines explaining what that means about the political system and the media."

Chomsky: I would have 'held my nose' to pass health care

.."

http://www.AmericanWisdom.org

Immigration 2-Facedness.

Whole Story:
http://rawstory.com/2010/03/200000-protesters-dc-immigration-reform/

"..

200,000 protesters in DC for immigration reform

By Agence France-Presse
Sunday, March 21st, 2010 -- 4:21 pm

Raids before rally aimed to 'intimidate' marchers, claims activist

In Monday's Washington Post, staff writer David Montgomery explores how immigration raids have cast a shadow on such events.

Weeks ago, as Gustavo Torres, executive director of the Latino and immigration advocacy and assistance organization, CASA de Maryland, was set to shake President Obama's hand, he was alerted to multiple raids back home.

It was just after midday, Thursday, March 11, and it seemed like an auspicious moment for Torres, executive director of CASA of Maryland, and a dozen other immigrant-rights leaders granted the 75-minute presidential audience. The president reaffirmed his commitment to reforming the broken immigration system. And the advocates looked forward to flexing the movement's grass-roots muscles during the upcoming march on the Mall.

Torres's job in the meeting was to raise the subject of workplace raids, which he believes sweep up people whose only crime was crossing the border in search of work. The Obama administration has significantly reduced the number of workplace raids, but most immigrants removed through all enforcement measures continue to be non-criminals.

Focus on people who've committed crimes, Torres urged the president, according to participants. Obama replied that he must enforce existing law, but he directed Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano to meet with the leaders to discuss ways to lessen the impact on hardworking immigrants.

Torres received an urgent text message alerting him that "[p]olice vans, unmarked SUVs and squad cars had wheeled into the driveways and parking lots of two restaurants, an office and several residences in Anne Arundel and Baltimore counties. Dozens of ICE agents and local police surrounded the properties and secured the exits."

"At the raided locations, 28 men and one woman from Guatemala, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico and Bangladesh were detained," the Post article continues. "So far, none has been charged with a crime. All are suspected of 'administrative' violations of immigration law. All but six were released by Friday. The six are those who have prior immigration violations. The fates of the others will be decided by immigration officials in coming weeks."

Torres charged that the timing looked like an attempt to "intimidate" the marchers.

Meanwhile, administration officials used back channels to try to convince advocates that the timing was coincidental. They characterized these raids as fitting the administration's policy of targeting alleged criminal violators, including employers.

"It was part of an ongoing criminal investigation into worker exploitation," said a federal law enforcement official who declined to be identified in order to discuss
.."

http://www.AmericanWisdom.org

A D**K Wrapped in the Flag

http://www.AmericanWisdom.org

War Protest in DC has larger attendance than Teabaggers, but MUCH LESS PRESS COVERAGE

Whole Story:
http://blogs.alternet.org/rossl/2010/03/21/1000s-march-on-capitol-against-healthcare-on-white-house-for-peace-guess-which-is-covered-more/

"..

Posted by rossl at 2:54 pm
March 21, 2010

REPLIES: 1

1000s march on capitol against healthcare, on White House for peace. Guess which is covered more…

Everyone seems to know that the tea party “movement” had a rally on the steps

...

MSNBC estimates that somewhere between 1,500 and 2,000 tea party people showed up at the capitol building. Yet the low end of the estimates for the number of people who showed up at the peace demonstration (including myself) is about 2,500, and the high end is about 10,000. Where’s our moment on Meet the Press? Where’s our article in the New York Times?

If you ever needed proof that the tea party “movement” is not really a movement but a few people newly interested in politics magnified one thousand times by a lazy, irresponsibly press, this is it. Two rallies in DC yesterday. One was for peace, one was for stopping the health care bill. One was put together by the ANSWER Coalition and other antiwar groups. One was put together by the tea party people and their friends in high places. One had as many as 2,000 people attend. One had as many as 10,000 people attend. Yet the smaller tea party protest had a much higher profile in the news than the march for peace!

The peace movement is a real grassroots movement that exists Without the wmagnifying glass of the corporate media to exaggerate the impact of it. Unfortunately, it doesn’t benefit the Washington Post to admit that the reason the march stopped in front of their building was not actually their “editorial board’s positions on the wars,” but their reporting which – in its substance and topics which are covered – is completely biased in favor of a corporatist, echo chamber view of reality. Maybe that’s the reason why there was a speaker from Project Censored.

As for what happened at the protest, starting at about noon there were speakers on a platform that had been set up in Lafayette Park, across the street from the White House. When I arrived, I spoke to Mike Gravel for a bit, although he did not give a speech. Famous personalities like Cindy Sheehan and Ralph Nader spoke, as well as prominent people in the antiwar movement like Kevin Zeese, along with some lesser known people, like a group of high school students.

At one point, the Raging Grannies got up and sang a song in honor of the late Granny D. I couldn’t find a video of it, but here’s an equally entertaining and poignant song about the Citizens United ruling:

Some speakers were veterans – one of Korea, a few of Afghanistan and Iraq, including one who burnt a flag while saying, “This is what I think of this country!” – and some were mothers who have had their children killed in the line of duty. One representative of labor spoke, and a few representatives of the Arab and Muslim communities spoke. There was a strong socialist presence at the rally (maybe

...

Monday and saw plenty of people my age there. The largest age group was probably those same people who have been showing up at these events since the ’60s. Some see that as a sign of desperation, that they still have to show up forty

...

we can, if we need to, take comfort in the words of those great radicals Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn.

...

constraints…They had to back down…Iraq’s a horror story, but it could’ve been a lot worse. So, yes, citizen protest can do something…we know that from this and many other examples. When there’s no protest and no attention, the power just goes wild. Like in Cambodia, Northern Laos.
.."

http://www.AmericanWisdom.org

China, Tariffs, Exchange Rates

Whole Story:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/21/AR2010032101111.html

"..

China warns U.S. that 'trade war' will hurt Americans even more

TOO PrintWashington Post Staff Writer

Sunday, March 21, 2010; 1:53 PM

BEIJING -- China's minister of commerce warned that United States on Sunday that if it launches a "trade war" against China by leveling punitive tariffs on Chinese imports, the United States would suffer the most.

Minister Chen Deming also said what he termed was the U.S. government's "obsession" with China's exchange rate could not be seriously addressed until the U.S. government stopped blocking the export of high-tech products, such as supercomputers and satellites, to China.

"If some congressman insist on labeling China as a currency manipulator and slap punitive tariffs on

...

Chen said the best way for the United States to increase its exports to China would be to relax restrictions on the export of high-technology and dual use goods to China. Since 1989, when China launched a crackdown on student-led protests around Tiananmen Square, the United States has limited some exports to China. Chen said those limits amounted to billions of a dollars a year of potential exports to China.

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And don't expect that China will simply do without these goods, he added. "We're a nation of 1.3 billion people. We graduated 7 million university students a year. We'll either make it ourselves or buy it from somewhere else."
...

But if the United States does decide to slap tariffs on China, Chen said, American companies, which account for more than 60 percent of China's exports to the United States, would surely be hurt the most.

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http://www.AmericanWisdom.org

Tea Party Bigots Shout Slurs at Congressmen

Whole Story:
http://www.kansascity.com/2010/03/20/1826369/tea-party-protesters-hurl-racial.html

"..

Tea party protesters hurl racial insults at Georgia Rep. John Lewis

By WILLIAM DOUGLAS

McClatchy Newspapers

More News

Demonstrators outside the U.S. Capitol, angry over the proposed health-care reform bill, shouted "nigger" Saturday at U.S. Rep. John Lewis, a Georgia congressman and civil rights icon who was nearly beaten to death during an Alabama march in the 1960s.

The protesters also shouted obscenities at other members of the Congressional Black Caucus, lawmakers said.

"They were shouting, sort of harassing," Lewis said. "But, it's OK, I've faced this before. It reminded me of the '60s. It was a lot of downright hate and anger and people being downright mean."

Lewis said he was leaving the Cannon office building across from the Capitol when protesters shouted "Kill the bill, kill the bill," Lewis said.

...

Protestors also used a slur as they confronted Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., an openly gay member of Congress. A writer for Huffington Post said the crowd called Frank a "faggot."

Frank told the Boston Globe that the incident happened as he was walking from the Longworth House office building to the Rayburn House office building, both a short distance from the Capitol. Frank said the crowd consisted of a couple hundred of people and that they referred to him as "homo."

...

"People out there today, on the whole, were really hateful," Frank said. "The leaders of this movement have a responsibility to speak out more."

Thousands of demonstrators gathered outside the Capitol on Saturday as the House Democratic leadership worked to gather enough votes to enact a health-care overhaul proposal that has become the centerpiece of President Barack Obama's domestic agenda. Most were affiliated with so-called tea party organizations that originally sprang up during last summer's protests of the health-care proposals.

Heated debate has surrounded what role race plays in the motivations of the tea party demonstrators. During protests last summer, demonstrators displayed a poster depicting Obama as an African witch doctor complete with headdress, above the words "OBAMACARE coming to a clinic near you." Former President Jimmy Carter asserted in September that racism was a major factor behind the hostility that Obama's proposals had faced.

...

House Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C., said Saturday's ugliness underscored for him that the health-care overhaul isn't the only motivation for many protesters.

"I heard people saying things today I've not heard since March 15th, 1960, when I was marching to try and get off the back of the bus," Clyburn said. "This is incredible, shocking to me."

He added, "A lot of us have said for a long time that none of this is about health care at all. It's about extending a basic fundamental right to people who are less powerful."

(McClatchy's James Rosen contributed to this report.)

Posted on Sat, Mar. 20, 2010 07:07 PM

Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2010/03/20/1826369/tea-party-protesters-hurl-racial.html#ixzz0ilgx0ubL

.."

http://www.AmericanWisdom.org

Help Get Super-Fast Internet In St. Petersburg

Whole story at:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Downtown-St-Pete-wants-the-Google-Fiber-Experiment/397940030785?ref=nf#!/pages/Downtown-St-Pete-wants-the-Google-Fiber-Experiment/397940030785?v=info&ref=nf

"..

Downtown St Pete wants the Google Fiber Experiment

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businesses have unparalleled access to an internet connection so powerful they're able to make daily life more efficient, just by residing here. Where, instead of waiting minutes or hours for a file to download or a video to load, it would occur in seconds, allowing technology to take us places we've never even imagined before. With Google's Fiber Experiment, this is all completely possible.

Currently, Google is looking for communities to test ultra-high speed broadband networks across the country. The network would deliver Internet speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have access to today, over 1 gigabit per second, fiber-to-the-home/business connections.

As you can imagine, it would present fantastic opportunities to a community like St Petersburg! It could:

* Attract businesses to our community
* Improve the quality of life for our citizens
* Improve our schools, health care system and government agencies

This type of technology has the power to put Downtown St Petersburg on the global map!


How You Can Help:

1. Join this Facebook Group!
2. Submit a nomination form: http://www.google.com/appserve/fiberrfi/public/options
3. Record a video testimonial (dates and locations to be announced)
4. Email your City Council person or County Commissioner urging them to submit a government nomination:
5. Tell your friends - post it, blog it, tweet it, email it, YouTube it, say it - do whatever you can to help us get the word out!

...

on:

to get 20,000 fans by March 26, 2010 to show Google Broadband we are the city that wants the Google Fiber Experiment!. The jobs, new technologies, buzz it will create in invaluable to Downtown St Petersburg

Products:

..
.."

http://www.AmericanWisdom.org

If you're Late on a Car Payment, They might Turn it OFF, Remotely

Whole Story:
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/03/hacker-bricks-cars/

"..

Hacker Disables More Than 100 Cars Remotely

• By Kevin Poulsen
• March 17, 2010 |
• 1:52 pm |
• Categories: Breaches, Crime, Cybersecurity, Hacks and Cracks
• 
  

More than 100 drivers in Austin, Texas found their cars disabled or the horns honking out of control, after an intruder ran amok in a web-based vehicle-immobilization system normally used to get the attention of consumers delinquent in their auto payments.

Police with Austin’s High Tech Crime Unit on Wednesday arrested 20-year-old Omar Ramos-Lopez, a former Texas Auto Center employee who was laid off last month, and allegedly sought revenge by bricking the cars sold from the dealership’s four Austin-area lots.

...

was to remove the battery.”

The dealership used a system called Webtech Plus as an alternative to repossessing vehicles that haven’t been paid for. Operated by Cleveland-based Pay Technologies, the system lets car dealers install a small black box under vehicle dashboards that responds to commands issued through a central website, and relayed over a wireless pager network. The dealer can disable a car’s ignition system, or trigger the horn to begin honking, as a reminder that a payment is due. The system will not stop a running vehicle.

...

First rolled out about 10 years ago, remote immobilization systems are a controversial answer to delinquent car payments, with critics voicing concerns that debtors could suffer needless humiliation, or find themselves stranded during an emergency. Proponents say the systems let financers extend credit to consumers who might otherwise be ineligible for an auto loan.

Austin police filed computer intrusion charges against Ramos-Lopez on Tuesday.

Read More http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/03/hacker-bricks-cars/#ixzz0iZXIqySg

.."

http://www.AmericanWisdom.org

Kucinich opposes Obama "Healthcare" Scam

whole story at:
http://www.cleveland.com/opinion/index.ssf/2010/03/latest_health_care_reform_bill.html

"..

Latest health care reform bill leaves Americans vulnerable to insurance companies: Dennis Kucinich

By Plain Dealer guest columnist

March 14, 2010, 3:01AM

View full sizeFile photoU.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich Dennis Kucinich / U.S. Representative
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Unfortunately, the president's plan, as it currently stands, leaves patients financially vulnerable to insurance companies. It requires all Americans to buy private health insurance policies, while failing to ensure those policies do what they are supposed to do -- protect people from financial catastrophe caused by injury or illness.

...

care when they get sick or injured. When that happens, illness can lead to economic ruin. Half the personal bankruptcies in America occur because health insurance companies refuse to pay medical bills.

Unfortunately, if the president's plan becomes law without substantive change, you would still be only a major illness or injury away from personal bankruptcy, except the federal government will have required you to buy a private health insurance policy.

Over the years, I have held many town hall meetings in the 10th District on health care. I am the co-author of H.R. 676, a bill that would improve Medicare and extend its coverage to those under age 65.

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passed the Senate was even worse.

Absent a strong public option or legal protection for states that wish to pursue single payer, the bill that the president is proposing is a step in the wrong direction. Even with the few modest improvements in the bill, the insurance companies will still have dozens of loopholes to deny care and continue to find ways to leave Americans with the unpayable bill.

.."

http://www.AmericanWisdom.org

Obama working to Deny Americans Internet Access

whole story:
http://rawstory.com/2010/03/emanuels-brother-three-strikes-law/

"..

Rahm Emanuel’s brother lobbies for ‘three strikes’ law against downloaders

By Raw Story
Monday, March 15th, 2010 -- 5:42 pm

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...

Modeled on a similar law enacted recently in France, a "three strikes" law would force Internet service providers to cut off Internet access to any users accused three times of downloading or sharing copyrighted material without permission.

Ari Emanuel, the brother of Rahm Emanuel, told the Abu Dhabi Media Summit last week that he is engaged in a lobbying effort to have such a law put on the books in the United States.

...

Opponents of three-strikes laws say there are significant problems with the policy. For one, it would cut off Internet access to entire households, not just individuals accused of illegal file-sharing. For another, the law, as laid out in French legislation, does not require a court to rule on the denial of access -- the individual need only be accused three times.

Opposition to the proposal could further be hindered by the fact the public increasingly views Internet access as a human right. In a recent poll, nearly 80 percent of people surveyed in 26 countries agreed that the Internet is a "fundamental human right."

The US is among ten countries, plus the EU, currently negotiating the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, a broad international proposal that would bring copyright laws across many developed nations into sync with each other.

According to documents obtained by privacy and security expert Michael Geist, a "three strikes" law has been included in drafts of the proposed treaty.

But, months before any decisions on ACTA are expected to be made public, some governments have already rebelled against the three-strikes idea. Last week, by a vote of 663 to 13, the European Parliament condemned the secretive ACTA negotiations and forbade member countries from passing "three strikes" laws.

But, as Nate Anderson at Ars Technica points out, the Obama administration appears to be taking a different view. In a speech at the US Export-Import Bank last week, President Obama pointed to ACTA as a cornerstone of the White House's intellectual property strategy.

.."

http://www.AmericanWisdom.org

More outposts in Palestine are an Affront to Peace.

Whole story at:
http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Israeli_settlement_action_an_insult_03142010.html

"..
Israeli settlement action 'an insult': Obama aide

Published: Sunday March 14, 2010

Israel's announcement of plans to build 1,600 settler homes in east Jerusalem was not only an "insult" to the United States but "destructive" of the Middle East peace process, a top White House official said Sunday.

"This was an affront, it was an insult but most importantly it undermined this very fragile effort to bring peace to that region," said David Axelrod, one of President Barack Obama's closest advisers.

"We have just started proximity talks, that is shuttle diplomacy, between the Palestinians and the Israelis, and for this announcement to come at that time was very destructive," he said on NBC television's Meet the Press show.

Israel's announcement of plans to build the 1,600 housing units in mostly Arab east Jerusalem came March 10 during a visit by US Vice President Joe Biden that had aimed to encourage the first indirect Israeli-Palestinian talks since Israel's 2008-2009 offensive in Gaza.

Axelrod's comments were further evidence of the Obama administration's growing frustration with conservative Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Biden himself condemned the east Jerusalem building plan in a sharp statement issued in Jerusalem and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told Netanyahu directly in a 43-minute phone call that the announcement sent a "deeply negative" signal about Israel's approach to relations with Washington.

...
.."

http://www.AmericanWisdom.org

Corporations Bought our government.. now they want to BE our government.

Whole story at:
http://rawstory.com/2010/03/corporate-candidate-kicks-bid-congress/

"..

Corporate entity becomes ‘candidate’, kicks off bid for Congress

By Stephen C. Webster
Saturday, March 13th, 2010 -- 12:14 pm

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When the Supreme Court decided the ..

Meet Murray Hill, Inc., the first corporation to run for Congress in the United States.

"Until now, corporations only influenced politics with high-paid lobbyists and backroom deals," the company's YouTube account declares. "But today, thanks to an enlightened supreme court, corporations now have all the rights the founding fathers meant for us. That's why Murray Hill Incorporated is taking democracy's next step-- running for Congress."

...

Hill says it plans to file as a Republican for the GOP primary in Maryland's eighth congressional district, currently represented by Democrat Chris Van Hollen.

...
The company, a self-titled "progressive" messaging firm, was launched in 2005 by one Eric Hensal, who used to work with Group360, an advocacy organization in Washington, D.C.

Hill said in a statement that its campaign would put people "second, or even third," according to The Washington Post.

"It's a new day," Hill's ad says. "Until now, corporations influenced politics with high paid lobbyists and backroom deals. However, as much as corporate interests gave to politicians, we could never be absolutely sure they would do our bidding. But today, thanks to an enlightened Supreme Court, corporations now have all the rights the founding fathers meant for us. It's our democracy: we bought it, we paid for it and we're going to keep it."

Hill "wanted to run as a Republican because we feel the Republican Party is more receptive to our basic message that corporations are people, too," campaign manager William Klein told the Post.

...

A blogger with watchdog group The Sunlight Foundation called the decision the "corporate globalization" of U.S. elections, cautioning that allowing corporate funds in elections would also make way for undue foreign influence on U.S. politics.

"It allows corporations to spend all the money they want to buy and sell elected officials through the campaign process," Rep. Grayson said of the Citizens United case. "It allows them to reward political sellouts, and it allows them to punish elected officials who actually try to do what's right for the people."

.."

http://www.AmericanWisdom.org

U.S. Textbooks about to go far to the Right

Full Story:
http://209.157.64.200/focus/news/2469406/posts?page=1
and
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7059048.ece

"..
Texas educators take aim at ‘left-wing’ curriculum with opt-out plans
The Times ^ | 3/12/2010 | Giles Whittell

Posted on Friday, March 12, 2010 5:43:06 AM by bruinbirdman

Country and western music, the leadership of the Confederate General Stonewall Jackson and the work of America’s most powerful gun lobby will all have to be taught in Texas schools if conservatives prevail at a highly charged meeting of the state’s board of education.

A total of 48 of the 50 states have signed up to a plan being promoted by the White House for new, higher national educational standards but Texas and Alaska have opted out, in order to keep control of what is taught in their state-funded schools.

The late Charlton Heston, a vociferous president of the National Rifle Association,
which could become compulsory study

The effects will be felt far beyond Texas, because of its dominant influence over US textbook publishing. According to one estimate, 90 per cent of all American schools use the books approved by Texan officials. Social studies texts are likely, therefore, to give new prominence to Ronald Reagan, Newt Gingrich’s “Contract with America” and the role of Christianity in US history.

With more than a thousand school districts serving 4.5 million pupils, the Texas Education Agency is the second largest body of its kind in America, after its California counterpart, and by far the biggest to be overseen by elected conservatives.

Don McLeroy, chairman of the Texas Board of Education, is a Creationist who believes that the world was created 10,000 years ago and claims that history has vindicated Senator Joseph McCarthy, the instigator of the anti-Communist witch-hunts of the 1950s. Dr McLeroy, a dentist, will not be able to stand for re-election in November but says he intends to use his remaining time in office to leave his mark on Texas curriculum.

An amendment he proposed in January complained that the curriculum was “rife with leftist periods and events” including President Roosevelt’s New Deal and President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society legislation — watershed achievements for Democratic governance in the 20th century. Expected to come into force in May, the measure would require Texas high school students to be able to “describe the causes . . . of the conservative resurgence of the 1980s and 1990s, including Phyllis Schlafly, the Contract with America, the Heritage Foundation, the Moral Majority and the National Rifle Association”.

Mrs Schlafly is a prominent antifeminist, while the Heritage Foundation is a conservative think-tank that, like the gun lobby, helped to spearhead opposition to progressive reforms during President Clinton’s two terms.

Other amendments expected to be approved this week would require schools to teach the career of Stonewall Jackson, the most successful Southern field commander in the Civil War, as a study in effective leadership; to drop all mention of Ralph Nader, the consumer-rights advocate; and to assert the superiority of free enterprise over other economic systems.

The Texas Conservative Coalition said that the group was confident Dr McLeroy’s amendments would pass, thanks to the board’s eight-strong conservative majority. Any changes to Texas textbooks will stay for ten years before the next round of revisions.

Dr McLeroy, who has also said he believes that mankind and dinosaurs once cohabited on Earth, has objected to the teaching of Chinese literature in Texan schools. “You really don’t want Chinese books with a bunch of crazy Chinese words in them,” he said in 2008. “Why should you take a child’s time trying to learn a word that they’ll never use again?”

.."

http://www.AmericanWisdom.org

Past: Nazi Julius Streicher. Present: Coulter, Beck and Limbaugh

Whole Story:
http://www.truthout.org/beck-coulter-and-limbaugh-avatars-julius-streicher57551

"..

Beck, Coulter and Limbaugh: Avatars of Julius Streicher

Wednesday 10 March 2010

by: Davidson Loehr, t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed

...

"Avatars of Julius Streicher" doesn't sound quite sober - hardly anyone recognizes his name today, but Streicher's spirit is alive and well in Beck, Coulter and Limbaugh. Streicher was one of the 11 Nazis sentenced to hang by the Nuremberg Trials on October 16, 1946. Only ten were hanged because Hermann Goering committed suicide with some cyanide capsules the night before. Of the 11, Streicher was the only one who was not in the military, not in any significant position to command anything regarding the treatment and execution of millions of people who didn't fit the Nazi mold. But Streicher may have been the person most responsible for implanting the spirit of anti-Semitism that let Germans dehumanize and slaughter millions of people. Between 1923 and 1945, Streicher published "Der Stuermer" ("The Stormtrooper"), and spoke wherever he could to instill this deadly spirit into everyone he could reach. He especially liked to address schoolchildren, and would get them so conditioned that when he asked if they knew who the enemy of Germany was, they would shout, "The Jew! The Jew!" Streicher was hanged with the Nazi leaders for publishing this fact-free newspaper that did more than anything else to prepare the way for the Nazi death machines. A typical issue of "Der Stuermer" was described as "nothing but an incitement to the people of Germany who read it, an incitement to murder. It is filled with pictures of murder. It is an encouragement to all who read it to avenge themselves in the same way."

At his trial in Nuremberg, the prosecution said that while Streicher was not directly involved in the physical commission of these deadly crimes against humanity, "his crime is no less worse for that reason.... It was to the task of educating and poisoning the people with hate, and of producing murderers, that Streicher set himself. For 25 years, he continued unrelentingly the perversion of the people and youth of Germany. He went on and on as he saw the results of his work bearing fruit. In the early days, he was preaching persecution. As persecution took place, he preached extermination and annihilation and, as millions of Jews were exterminated and annihilated in the Ghettos of the East, he cried out for more and more.

"The crime of Streicher is that he made these crimes possible, which they would never have been had it not been for him and for those like him. In its extent Streicher's crime is probably greater and more far-reaching than that of any of the other defendants. The misery which they caused ceased with their capture. The effects of this man's crime, of the poison that he has put into the minds of millions of young boys and girls goes on, for he concentrated upon the youth and childhood of Germany. He leaves behind him a legacy of almost a whole people poisoned with hate, sadism, and murder, and perverted by him. That people will remain a problem and perhaps a menace to the rest of civilization for generations to come."

Against that historical background, consider just a few of these sound bites:

Ann Coulter:

We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity. [Her suggestion for dealing with the Middle East.]

Liberals are always against America. They are either traitors or idiots, and on the matter of America's self-preservation, the difference is irrelevant.

...

"If I'm going to say anything about John Edwards in the future, I'll just wish he had been killed in a terrorist assassination plot."

"Liberals love America like O.J. loved Nicole."

"There are a lot of bad republicans; there are no good democrats."

"My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times Building."

"God gave us the earth. We have dominion over the plants, the animals, the trees. God said, 'Earth is yours. Take it. Rape it. It's yours.'"

"I think the government should be spying on all Arabs, engaging in torture as a televised spectator sport, dropping daisy cutters wantonly throughout the Middle East and sending liberals to Guantanamo."

Glenn Beck:

"I'm thinking about killing Michael Moore, and I'm wondering if I could kill him myself, or if I would need to hire somebody to do it.... No, I think I could. I think he could be looking me in the eye, you know, and I could just be choking the life out of him." [Responding to the question, "What would people do for $50 million?," "The Glenn Beck Program," May 17, 2005.]

"When I see a 9/11 victim family on television, or whatever, I'm just like, 'Oh shut up' I'm so sick of them because they're always complaining." ["The Glenn Beck Program," September 9, 2005.]

"The only [Katrina victims] we're seeing on television are the scumbags." ["The Glenn Beck Program," September 9, 2005.]

"This president I think has exposed himself over and over again as a guy who has a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture.... I'm not saying he doesn't like white people, I'm saying he has a problem. This guy is, I believe, a racist." [On President Obama, sparking an advertiser exodus from his FOX News show.]

"Progressivism is the cancer in America and it is eating our Constitution, and it was designed to eat the Constitution, to progress past the Constitution."

Rush Limbaugh:

"...

"Take that bone out of your nose and call me back"

"They vote with their vaginas"

"If we are going to start rewarding no skills and stupid people - I'm serious, let the unskilled jobs, let the kinds of jobs that take absolutely no knowledge whatsoever to do - let stupid and unskilled Mexicans do that work."

The spirit of these three Americans is the same spirit that filled Streicher. It is a spirit of hateful bigotry, preparing the way for these vulgar sentiments to become deadly atrocities. The overwhelming majority of Americans, like the overwhelming majority of Germans, are far better than this. We need to respond, not by stooping to the same level, but by reminding ourselves that the better angels of our nature call us to a higher standard. A great nation is at stake.

.."

http://www.AmericanWisdom.org