MajorBlog

ISSUES with Health Care Insurance Lets break it down

Food Fascist — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 19:33:28 EDT

BANKRUPTCIES
Every year one million Americans
claim bankruptcy due to a major medical issue
Senator Bernie Sanders,
Thom Hartmann Show 8. 2009

INSURANCE CAPS
Once your cap is used say in a major medical
you are virtually uninsurable afterwards.
Representative Slaughter, Ron Reagan
Show 9/1. 2009

POST CLAIM UNDERWRITING
You pay your premiums faithfully but
when you have a major medical matter,
the company drops you from your policy.
Ex insuance broker, Stephanie Miller Show
8/17. 2009

CLAIM DENIAL
You pay your premiums faithfully, something major happens. Your claim was denied.
A bonus was paid to the employee for denying
your claim. Caller to Stephanie Miller Show8/17. 2009

LOSE YOUR JOB LOSE YOUR
COVERAGE / PORTABILITY
Then, if ill, this becomes a lapse in coverage
and a possible pre existing condition.

PRE EXISTING CONDITION
There are disabled persons and others
for whom will never be insurable.
How could this happen in America?

WORKMANS COMP/ MALPRACTICE CASES could be virtually be eliminated.

COST INCREASES TIES UP COMMERCE
The average business can spend as much
as 20% of their costs on health insurance making
them unable to compete with companies from
other countries that do have nationalized coverage.
USA 18-22% GDP is health care while other

THE COST OF NON INSURED
The average insured can pay as much as 1000. Per year more to compensate for those who are uninsured and relegated to using the emergency room as a source of primary care for which a tooth abscess can become a 250,000 surgery.

It Official - Barack is not trying to kill Grandma

Food Fascist — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 11:24:04 EDT

Dear Friend,

If you’re like most Americans, there’s nothing more important to you about health care than peace of mind.

Given the status quo, that’s understandable. The current system often denies insurance due to pre-existing conditions, charges steep out-of-pocket fees – and sometimes isn’t there at all if you become seriously ill.

It’s time to fix our unsustainable insurance system and create a new foundation for health care security. That means guaranteeing your health care security and stability with eight basic consumer protections:

No discrimination for pre-existing conditions
No exorbitant out-of-pocket expenses, deductibles or co-pays
No cost-sharing for preventive care
No dropping of coverage if you become seriously ill
No gender discrimination
No annual or lifetime caps on coverage
Extended coverage for young adults
Guaranteed insurance renewal so long as premiums are paid

Learn more about these consumer protections at Whitehouse.gov.

Over the next month there is going to be an avalanche of misinformation and scare tactics from those seeking to perpetuate the status quo. But we know the cost of doing nothing is too high. Health care costs will double over the next decade, millions more will become uninsured, and state and local governments will go bankrupt.

It’s time to act and reform health insurance, drive down costs and guarantee the health care security and stability of every American family. You can help by putting these core principles of reform in the hands of your friends, your family, and the rest of your social network.

Thank you,
Barack Obama

Teachers and not shot takers will solve health care reform

Food Fascist — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 10:56:32 EDT

THX - I will agree with Bill O Reilly of all people in that the right have no basic education on what health care reform is about altogether and we must bear the few hours it would take to put a simple power point together or promote pieces like ‘Sick around the world’ at pbs.org. Every college student can put one together to educate their class mates, surely our leaders ought to be able to bring those that do not understand the need for health care reform, the basics, and bring them up to speed. And certainly, we should not be allowing disinformation to interfere with what we need and want. In this, it would not be unreasonable to have case studies to reveal. -But right now, though there are places around the world to point to, Joe couch potato doesn't understand what's outside the USA or that we are not always the best at everything. Consequently, we have nothing to point to in America in terms of even test plots here in the USA. For example, the City of San Franciso’s shot at a universal health care is not working so well and the Massachusetts a disaster [ well thx to Mitt Romney]. Mike Papatonio had some reasonable strategies this past Saturday on Ring of Fire. Start, he says by ferreting out the inefficiencies in the system, as we are doing with mileage standards. Pitifully slow, but until we stop attacking the other side for how stupid they are and become teachers, we will just be hampsters spinning the same wheel. Hang out on twitter with this search 'health care' and you will see what I mean

We need a Washington Daily Brief

Food Fascist — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 09:59:49 EDT

Why are we not sending press releases out regularly to the smaller media such as KGO Radio and Progressive Radio and on line boards such as Yahoo News, Google Etc, Huffington Post. There should be a daily brief for which we can refer to so that when something happens in the news, we can know to go to the Daily Whitehouse Brief to get the truth. Maybe have a column in the Huffington post to support the people who supported you. In turn, People can subscribe to it. You ought to be on Thom Hartmann and Randi Rhodes in addition to Schultz with call to action. They ought to be on your list as with others to get your daily brief. You ought to state at least Thom's / Randi's name in the mainstream press to give him/ Air America Ron Reagen some recognition. These people can explain and bridge between what is real truth and what is not in the media. Newspaper reporters around the nation should receive this daily brief. So when the right wing radio says this will be Obama's Waterloo, we all know about it. I have yet to see in writing what is being proposed in term of health plans right now.. Its all a mess, all kinds of propaganda is out there. So good job by holding a national press conference tonight, but for those of us who work all the time, we will not see it but may see The Daily Whitehouse Brief.

Thumbs Up for the President and the Congress Today!

Food Fascist — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 16:42:34 EDT

Great work Mr. President and congress. Just a few scraps to the masses and we don't have to live like rats. Lets be sure though people do not party too much and begin having kids left and right- we need to maintain an ecological ethic bearing in mind foot print and quality of life in terms of having enough resources for everyone until we can take over another planet. Lord knows we could use a few more!

Good work on health care reform today! 500 billion over the next 10 years by just a small 1% tax on those over 350,000 and maybe 2% making did the congressman on Ed Schultz say one million...!?

We've got to start seeing other people

Food Fascist — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 22:40:42 EDT

Norman Solloman of War Made Easy said in an interview with Angie Coiro today that he saw a bumper sticker that said, "I love my country- but we've got to start seeing other people."

Janet Nepalitano Will the soliders keep them out or us in?

Food Fascist — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 10:20:43 EDT

I am with the pentagon. There be no reason to simply not enforce the laws in place against illegal hiring. Rather, you continue with Naomi Kline Shock Doctrine and you call the military to keep us in.

That's IT! President makes great come back

Food Fascist — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:22:36 EDT

Q Why have a national health care plan?

Its a tool to discipline the health insurance companies.

Q How are you going to pay for it?

The health care dollars are already in the system and all that needs to be done is to re allocate those dollars elsewhere.

An option for you to choose that is not profit driven.

President makes great response to 'Won't a government run health care system put the private insurers out of business."

A If true as the private insurers say that government can't run anything, they won't have any competition.

Q How will we pay?

A We already pay

ps one trillion now, aren't we already paying two trillion? projected estimates are 4 million according to Organic Consumers Association see this link http://foodfascist.blogspot.com/2009/06/organic-alternative-recipe-for-survival.html

Feinstein and Daschle on the take ! Health Care cant Reform when even the Democrats are Dirty

Food Fascist — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 15:04:22 EDT

Ellen Ratner reported on Thom Hartmann today at the very end of the show that Diane Feinstein is on the take from the health care industry as well as Tom Daschle, whose wife is a pharmaceutical lobbyists like Chris Dodds wife.

I would love to be wrong, if I am, show me the proof.

Americans are getting pissed off enough to vote for Kuninich, I tell you.

Tell Gov Pawlenty to stay out of Al Franken's win

Food Fascist — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 17:04:09 EDT

Contact Governor Tim Pawlenty and Lt. Governor Carol Molnau, please write, phone, fax or e-mail.

Mailing Address:

Office of the Governor
130 State Capitol
75 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
St. Paul, MN 55155

Other ways to reach our office:

Telephone: (651) 296-3391
Toll Free:    (800) 657-3717
Facsimile:   (651) 296-2089
E-mail:        tim.pawlenty@state.mn.us

How is Wylie Drake like Charles Manson?

Food Fascist — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 13:23:06 EDT

Buena Park City Hall
6650 Beach Blvd.
P.O. Box 5009
Buena Park, CA 90622-5009
(714) 562-3500
E-mail: cityhall@buenapark.com
Hours: 7:30 - 5:30 Monday through alternating Fridays

Re: How is Wylie Drake like Charles Manson?

My understanding is that Reverend Dr. Wylie Drake, VP of the Southern Baptist Convention Church has called for the assassination of President Barack Obama.

I am outraged no one has taken action to contain this vile outlandish decrepit being. I will boycott Knott's Berry Farm and Buena Park and make sure everyone knows that Reverend Wylie Drake lives in Buena Park where obviously a bunch of backward hicks must live.

I will also be contacting the secret service today to bring this situation you have allowed to grow in your community.

I will also be putting this letter into the blogosphere.

Thank you,

Signature

We Create the World We Live In

Ray T: Secret Service Arrest Wylie Drake Audio

Food Fascist — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 12:54:32 EDT

A must here powerful oration by Ray Taliafero, San Francisco's most beloved Civil Rights Activist Listen to these audios and call to action: Hour One http://members.kgoradio.com/kgo_archives/50200.mp3 Hour Two http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post_edit/_new/rNkpT

President Obama’s Cairo Speech swayed Lebanese voters to vote pro American

Food Fascist — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 13:29:33 EDT

The Thom Hartmann thesis that President Obama’s Cairo Speech swayed Lebanese voters to vote pro American is brilliant and true. The World loves President Obama and this takes hate as a tool away from these bizarre creepy fear mongers; those that truly do not love what America is all about.

Arae you still not listening to Thom Hartmann?

Go here M-F between 9 and noon or find podcasts here: http://www.thomhartmann.com/

Want more? Twitter Cairo as the search term and see the good feedback the President is getting on his speech.

John Rothmann’s analysis of President Barack Obama’s World Address Cairo, Egypt

Food Fascist — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 10:29:02 EDT

John Rothmann has the uncanny ability to take you back in time and bring you

up to date all in the same breath. As an author, lecturer, teacher, archivist, and political consultant, it's easy to see how he keeps up his end of the conversation. In fact, there's never a dull moment with John.

Using audio tools to convey important issues in a clear, interesting, and exciting way, John makes the radio come alive. The show might start with the day's headlines and then move on to revisit and capture a historical moment through original sounds. You name it, John can find the recording of it, and callers love to reminisce along with him. He inspires recollections you didn't even know you had! "The people that tune in to my show have strong opinions, are highly intelligent, and are very sophisticated - and that's the secret to why the show is so much fun!" says John.

A frequent lecturer on American politics and the Presidency, John has spoken at over 150 campuses throughout the United States, Canada, and Israel. He has been involved in many political campaigns on the national, state, and local levels, including Richard Nixon's in 1968. He has also published a wide range of articles on American political history, the Middle East, and education. John's personal love is his 15,000-volume library - one of the finest private libraries in the country - specializing in American political history and political biographies. All of these experiences, combined with his San Francisco heritage as a fourth generation native, make John a warm and captivating host for Bay Area listeners.

Click here: http://members.kgoradio.com/kgo_archives/60400.mp3

NOTE: There are about 10 minutes of news and advertizing that are at the top of the analysis that the station does not cut from the archive and so I am sorry that these simply must be waited through before you will actually hear John's voice.

John’s show is on weekends from 1AM to 5AM Friday and 1 AM – 6 AM Saturday mornings on the West Coast on various stations and also heard over the internet at http://www.kgoradio.com Archives are posted for one week so if you miss the show you can download the show during the day. Lately, he has been covering the M-F 10PM – 1AM slot as well.

BTW- in the case you would like to hear the full program..... here are all the links. The show happened to be all about WWII, with the Obama Cairo Address interwoven to reflect also the dedication of the day of honoring WWII veterans.

Click here:

http://members.kgoradio.com/kgo_archives/60200.mp3 1- 2AM * Edward Murrow recording

http://members.kgoradio.com/kgo_archives/61500.mp3 2- 3AM

http://members.kgoradio.com/kgo_archives/60400.mp3 3 – 4AM * Analysis of President Obama’s Cairo

http://members.kgoradio.com/kgo_archives/60500.mp3 4 – 5AM

President Obama goes To Cairo

Food Fascist — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 14:33:40 EDT

Here it is. I am so proud of our beautiful, literate decent leader Right on President Obama! Here is the link to the Cairo Talk http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/NewBeginning/ PS added effect: I listened to this live during the lightening storms we had last evening- terrific effect.

Eric Holder Socks

Food Fascist — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 12:41:37 EDT

Reported on progressive radio today was that not only did Eric Holder let Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens off the criminal charges against him due to some 'technicality' but that now Holder let James Tobin off. Tobin jammed the phones so that persons trying to find which polls to go to to vote Democrat, during the last elections for which resulted in Sununu to win the New Hampshire election.

What the hell kind of change is this?

Stop NBC from swiftboating universal health care.

Food Fascist — Fri, 29 May 2009 16:29:04 EDT

Americans' lives depend on whether we pass the right kind of health care reform. So why is NBC News airing an infomercial that will spread dangerous misinformation?

President Obama is committed to health care reform*, but some Democrats in Congress are already wavering on an extremely important provision - basically, without a public option, the health insurance industry gets to keep getting richer while Americans languish without the care they need.

We need to tell the truth about health care. But NBC is preparing to put lies on the air this Sunday.

To sign a peition to stop this click here at this link:

http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/nbc_healthcare/?r=3736&id=4251-1079485-zClfYax

Kennedy Kids Capture War Criminal : [The Darkth Neighbor] with Cookies!

Food Fascist — Thu, 21 May 2009 21:11:06 EDT

Kennedy Kids Capture War Criminal : [The Darkth Neighbor] with Cookies!

More bizarre Cheney This is a true story per audicast.

The Dark Force itself was confronted by the White Light of ebullient girls in bathing suits visiting Grandmother Kennedy for Mother’s Day. As told per the May 16th weekly broadcast of Ring of Fire Radio, apparently the Cheney’s purchased a home in Mrs. Kennedy’s neighborhood. Though Grandma has not exactly rolled out the welcome wagon, the bright new generation of gals boldly went where few have gone before to the door to the depths of the Cheney dungeon itself with …a plate of cookies.

Assumedly, a security guard answered the door but did not ask the girls to test taste them…..whereupon The Great Darth Vader himself appeared in all his crotchety bleakness to grumble “Where you kids from?”

The girls gleaned [to pick up after the reaper] –“over there”

“Oh- his back curled- “The Kennedy House” – [Dark Vaudeville Music sounds]

The cookies were kept.

The next day, so Mrs. Kennedy reported, several of the Cheney grandchildren brought forth from the depths of hell – a cake.

Listen yourself here: http://a1135.g.akamai.net/f/1135/18227/1h/cchannel.download.akamai.com/18227/podcast/SANFRANCISCO-CA/KKGN-AM/Ring%20Of%20Fire%20051609%20hr%201.mp3?CPROG=PCAST&MARKET=SANFRANCISCO-CA&NG_FORMAT=progressivetalk&SITE_ID=5257&STATION_ID=KKGN-AM&PCAST_AUTHOR=Green_960_/_Air_America&PCAST_CAT=Politics&PCAST_TITLE=Ring_of_Fire

The Bastard Wants Civil War

Food Fascist — Thu, 21 May 2009 21:07:31 EDT

Cheney is making himself more and more despicable. What a pathetic delusional crazy. We are going to have to, each one of us get out there and explain what happened during the last 8 years and educate.

Some of the best ways to do this are to encourage persons to listen to progressive radio. If you have no such access= click and listen on the internet to: http://www.green960.com/main.html

Or- purchase an XM or internet radio- check these out at best buy or ccrane radios http://www.ccrane.com/

The Torture Continues

Food Fascist — Mon, 18 May 2009 10:20:00 EDT

The "Black Shirts" of Guantánamo routinely terrorize prisoners, breaking bones, gouging eyes, squeezing testicles, and "dousing" them with chemicals. As the Obama administration continues to fight the release of some 2,000 photos that graphically document U.S. military abuse of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan, an ongoing Spanish investigation is adding harrowing details to the ever-emerging portrait of the torture inside and outside Guantánamo. http://www.truthout.org/051609Y

Here are some torture pictures http://www.pop.ly/1klo

Food Fascist — Thu, 14 May 2009 13:13:23 EDT

Here are some torture pictures http://www.pop.ly/1klo

GRAND IRAQI TORTURE SCANDAL DEMAND DISCLOSURE

Food Fascist — Thu, 14 May 2009 13:06:37 EDT

The Bush administration put relentless pressure on interrogators to use harsh methods on detainees in part to find evidence of cooperation between al Qaida and the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s regime, according to a former senior U.S. intelligence official and a former Army psychiatrist.

Let’s say this slowly: the Bush administration wanted to use 9/11 as a pretext to invade Iraq, even though Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. So it tortured people to make them confess to the nonexistent link.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/22/grand-unified-scandal/

Relase the Torture Pictures

Food Fascist — Thu, 14 May 2009 12:46:38 EDT

President Obama-

Martin Luther King said, it is always the right time to do the right thing.

If you allow these crimes to go unpunished, you are now a criminal as well.

Everyone, send money to the American Civil Liberties Union.

Who is interferring with whose health care?

Food Fascist — Thu, 07 May 2009 15:53:13 EDT

Dr. Margaret Flowers from the http://guaranteedhealthcare4all.org/content/what-leadership-conference was arrested per Senator Bachus because despite the fact that the majority of Americans want single payer healthcare, he told us we must remain enslaved to the torture of Western Medicine, derived from robbing of corpses from graves, unlike real wellness and health care while breaking the backbone of the capitalism for a few rich old fat white guys to watch their bank accounts fatten.

Call! blog! Get Angry! Watch the Ed Schultz Show on MSNBC this evening!

Kudos President Obama Time for Corporations to Pay

Food Fascist — Tue, 05 May 2009 17:50:46 EDT

We have your back, President Obama. These bastard corporations who aren't paying their fair share have become fascist parasites living off our blood and in the meanwhile turning life to hell on Earth. We are with you. Time to take care of the 'Homeland'.

BTW Can we get rid of that term Homeland, it is so Nazi Germany.

Love you!

Please Sign This Petition to AT&T Executives

Food Fascist — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 13:19:08 EDT

It's happening again. Another big corporation looking out for executives and big investors at the expense of workers.

AT&T made $12.9 billion in profits in 2008 and is on track this year for solid earnings, top executives say. Yet AT&T wants to cut quality jobs and benefits for employees.

Please Sign This Petition to AT&T Executives

Especially in these tough economic times, profitable companies like AT&T should lead the way in providing good, middle class jobs -- not look to cut benefits and lower middle class standards of living.

AT&T, we ask you to:

* Take the lead in helping to turn our economy around instead of copying the worst Wall Street behavior.

* Support the employees who make AT&T a success, and who help build today's high tech infrastructure.

* Work with CWA for real health care reform.

Americans want an economy that works for all of us.

http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/standupforworkers

National Call in day to stop subsidies for Nuclear and Coal - also support Climate Crisis Bill

Food Fascist — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 12:10:53 EDT

Thursday, April 30, will be a national call-in day in opposition to federal subsidies for nuclear power and coal burners..

Call the Senate Energy Committee at 202 224=3121- Also call the House Energy Committee at 202 225-2927.

1. Tell them you support Waxman Markey Climate Crisis Legislation and

2. Stop Subsidies to Coal and Nuclear Industries

See more here: http://nukefree.org/

Three times in the last two years the nuclear industry has come to Congress asking for $50 billion in handouts to build new atomic reactors that Wall Street won't finance.

Your activism has made the difference. All three times these attempts have been stopped..

And please note that we have re-vamped the NukeFree.org website. It features regular postings on the breaking news in nuclear power and green energy.

No Nukes!

BonnieRaitt
GrahamNash
Jackson Browne

We will keep you posted on the progress of the Senate Energy Bill and House Climate Bill. But please send your letters in now, call on April 30, and spread the word!

Call in Day: Energy Committees Stop Nuclear and Coal Subsidies Support Climate Crisis Legislation

Food Fascist — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 11:23:13 EDT

When I called the Senate Energy Committee at 202 224=3121- the nice gal there recommended we also be calling 202 225-2927 to the House Energy Committee at 202 225-2927. Tell them you support the Waxman Markley Climate Crisis legislation and Stop subsidies to Nuclear and Coal. Thank you, Karen Hansen We Create the World We Live In Make Progressive Radio Part of Your Day
From: Harvey Wasserman [mailto:windhw@mac.com]
Sent: Wednesday, April 29, 2009 12:27 AM
To: Undisclosed recipients:
Subject: Fwd: NATIONAL GRASSROOTS CALL-IN DAY TO STOP NUKE/COAL SUBSIDIES

Begin forwarded message:

From: "NukeFree.org" <contact@nukefree.org> Date: April 28, 2009 11:02:29 PM EDT To: Harvey Wasserman <windhw@mac.com> Subject: NATIONAL GRASSROOTS CALL-IN DAY TO STOP NUKE/COAL SUBSIDIES Reply-To: contact@nukefree.org
Having trouble reading this email? View it on our website. April
28,
2009 Hello from NukeFree.org

As you can see from the Action Alert below, this Thursday, April 30, will be a national call-in day in opposition to federal subsidies for nuclear power and coal burners..

Three times in the last two years the nuclear industry has come to Congress asking for $50 billion in handouts to build new atomic reactors that Wall Street won't finance.

Your activism has made the difference. All three times these attempts have been stopped.

Now we must do it again. Please support the national call-in.

And please note that we have re-vamped the NukeFree.org website. It features regular postings on the breaking news in nuclear power and green energy.

We also post a steady stream of critical action alerts that can continue to make the difference in saving the planet.

Time and again grassroots activism has paid off because people like you have ACTED when it was needed.

So please join Thursday's call-in....and keep checking in with us at NukeFree.org.

We welcome your feedback. And your activism!

No Nukes!

Bonnie Raitt
Graham Nash
Jackson Browne

***ACTION ALERT ***

NATIONAL GRASSROOTS CALL-IN DAY TO STOP NUKE/COAL SUBSIDIES
Wednesday, April 29th, 2009

LET'S KEEP CONGRESSIONAL PHONES RINGING ALL DAY LONG!

Dear Friends,

Both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives are beginning to consider separate legislation that could have an enormous impact on our nation's energy future. It is essential that we all weigh in now, in the strongest possible manner, to help shape that energy future. Let's tell Congress loud and clear to support renewable energy and energy efficiency programs and to stop any more taxpayer support for dirty and dangerous nuclear power and coal technologies.
Washington-based groups like NIRS, PSR, FoE, NRDC, NukeFree.org, and others are working hard to stop this legislation from becoming a gift to the nuclear power and coal industries. But the nuclear and coal industries have far more lobbyists and far more money than we do.

What those industries don't have is YOU.

And YOU can make the difference.

On Thursday, April 30, let's keep the phones in the Senate and House ringing all day long with a simple message: YES to renewable energy and energy efficiency programs, NO to any more taxpayer subsidies for nuclear power and coal.

Capitol Switchboard: 202-224-3121.

In the Senate, the Senate Energy Committee will begin considering a major new energy bill sponsored by Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-NM). Efforts will be made to add nuclear power to the bill's Renewable Electricity Standard, to add nuclear power to a so-called "Clean Energy Bank," to add still more taxpayer loan guarantees for new nuclear reactors and coal plants, and so forth.
In the House, the House Energy Committee will begin considering the Waxman-Markey climate crisis legislation. And we're going to see similar efforts in the House to add the same kind of nuclear and coal nonsense.
On April 30, please call both of your Senators and your Representative with the simple message: YES to renewables and efficiency, NO to nuclear power and coal.
And to help set the stage for thousands of phone calls, let's now start clogging the Congressional e-mail boxes with thousands of your letters! You can e-mail your Senators here and you can e-mail your Representative here.
Please forward this Alert as widely as possible, please make sure all your friends and colleagues know about it and can participate. Post the info on your websites, blogs, Facebook & MySpace pages, Twitter it, spread the word! It will take many thousands of us to overcome the nuclear and coal industry's lobbying efforts. But we CAN do it!

And please consider supporting our outreach and mobilization efforts with your contribution here. Honestly, your donations of any amount are both needed and very gratefully appreciated. We can't do this work without you!
And now for some good news: yesterday, the Missouri utility Ameren UE announced that it is suspending its plans to build a new EPR reactor, Callaway-2! Congratulations to everyone in Missouri and elsewhere who have worked so hard to block Ameren's plans to force ratepayers to pre-pay for this proposed reactor!

And some more good news: yesterday we learned that the FY 2010 budget resolution will NOT include the amendments from Sen. Crapo to support $50 billion in new taxpayer loan guarantees for new reactors and additional funding for reprocessing technologies.. Again, thank you to everyone who took action over the past two weeks to object to those provisions!

Maybe it sometimes doesn't seem like making a couple phone calls or sending some e-mails, or even contributing $5 or $10, makes a difference: but it does! And we've already seen it several times this year. Now we're asking you to take action again--because your actions CAN make the difference.

We will keep you posted on the progress of the Senate Energy Bill and House Climate Bill. But please send your letters in now, call on April 30, and spread the word!

Thanks for all you do,
Michael Mariotte
Executive Director
Nuclear Information and Resource Service
nirsnet@nirs.org
www.nirs.org

Pig Industry Overpowers President As Beef over Oprah?

Food Fascist — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 10:59:36 EDT

Oprah fought back and won President Obama!

CBS News declared this morning that the President of the United States no longer calls this flu the swine flu and instead is being encouraged to refer to it as the Mexican flu?

Do you see what they want you to do? They want you to hate Mexicans rather than Factory Farms.

Hello- anyone remember when the Cattlemans Association took Oprah Windfrey to the Supreme Court?

BTW I researched some natural antivirals. See here: http://naturalantiviral.blogspot.com/

A New Avian Component?

from David Kirby April 26, 2009

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-kirby/swine-flu-outbreak----nat_b_191408.html

Avian influenza viral components can easily mix with swine flu virus to create new bugs - and this can happen on both traditional hog farms and inside CAFOs, scientists say.

Last year, the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production issued a lengthy report on factory farming that included research on emerging forms of avian-swine-human influenza viruses. The molecular forensics of rapidly mutating animal pathogens makes epidemiological investigations all the more challenging, it said. "Populations exposed to infectious agents arising in CAFOs are even more difficult to define as some agents - such as a novel avian influenza virus - may be highly transmissible in or well beyond a community setting," the Pew report stated.

The transmission of avian or swine influenza viruses to humans, the report said, (almost wistfully, in retrospect), "seems a rather infrequent event today."

But the commission also issued this grave and perhaps all-too prescient warning:

The continual cycling of swine influenza viruses and other animal pathogens in large herds or flocks provides increased opportunity for the generation of novel viruses through mutation or recombinant events that could result in more efficient human-to-human transmission of these viruses. In addition, agricultural workers serve as a bridging population between their communities and the animals in large confinement facilities. This bridging increases the risk of novel virus generation in that human viruses may enter the herds or flocks and adapt to the animals.

Reassortant influenza viruses with human components have ravaged the modern swine industry. Such novel viruses not only put the workers and animals at risk of infections, but also potentially increase zoonotic disease transmission risk to the communities where the workers live. For instance, 64% of 63 persons exposed to humans infected with H7N7 avian influenza virus had serological evidence of H7N7 infection following the 2003 Netherlands avian influenza outbreak in poultry. Similarly, the spouses of swine workers who had no direct contact with pigs had increased odds of antibodies against swine influenza virus. Recent modeling work has shown that among communities where a large number of CAFO workers live, there is great potential for these workers to accelerate pandemic influenza virus transmission.

"We met with a team of researchers from the University of Iowa who are studying avian flu, and their real concern was the very scenario that may have happened in Mexico - that avian flu may get into a swine CAFO and rapidly mutate and then get passed to workers, and then on to other people very quickly," Bob Martin, who was executive director of the now-disbanded commission and currently a Senior Officer at the Pew Environmental Group, told me.

"Their concern was that new strains of avian flu combining with swine flu could make the swine flu more deadly," he said. "And because viruses pass so easily between pigs and people, the new avian component could make swine flu more virulent."

Researchers such as Gregory Gray, MD, a University of Iowa professor of international epidemiology and expert in zoonotic infections, warned that CAFO workers could serve as a "bridging population" to rural communities sharing viruses with the pigs, and vice-versa. Other scientists suggested that CAFO workers could theoretically spread disease quickly to great distances. An outbreak of infectious avian flu on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, for example, could reach the Rocky Mountains within 36 hours.

The Iowa team was also worried that CAFO production could lead to another 1918-style global pandemic. One theory behind that calamity is that waterfowl cross-infected U.S. pigs with a new type of avian-swine super-virus that was quickly transmitted to farm workers, possibly in Iowa, who went off to military training camps for WWI, and then spread the pathogen worldwide

"One very big concern was that swine flu mixed with wild bird flu, or bird flu in a chicken CAFO, tended to be ripe for incubating new types of viral infections, especially since the animals are so densely packed together," Bob Martin said.

Hog CAFOs are supposed to be completely closed environments, in order to protect the pigs from outside diseases. Visitors are usually required to shower and don special protective clothing (again, for the animals' benefit) before going inside a confinement.

But these are not hermetically sealed environments, and pathogens can enter and exit a CAFO in a number of ways other than via swine workers (or flies, another proven vector of CAFO diseases).

To begin with, some swine CAFO's recover water from their waste lagoons and recycle it back into the animal housing, in order to wash out the barns while also cutting down on dwindling groundwater supplies (a particular concern in parts of Mexico, to be sure). But wildfowl routinely land in CAFO lagoons, where they can easily shed influenza virus into the water. This can also happen at facilities that use water from nearby ponds or rivers.

Here in the U.S., the National Pork Board had already urged all producers to take a number of steps to reduce the risk of avian-to-swine influenza transmission (A new advisory has also been posted today).

"It is in the best interest of both human public health and animal health that transmission of influenza viruses from pigs to people, from people to pigs, from birds to pigs and from pigs to birds be minimized," says the group's website, Pork.org.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-kirby/swine-flu-outbreak----nat_b_191408.html

Swine Flu Outbreak Nature Biting Back at Industrial Agriculture

Food Fascist — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 10:52:38 EDT

David Kirby Journalist Huffington Post Posted April 26, 2009 | 05:17 PM (EST) Officials from the CDC and USDA will likely arrive in Mexico soon to help investigate the deadly new influenza virus that managed to jump from pigs to people in a previously unseen mutated form that can readily spread among humans. One of the first things they will want to look at are the hundreds of industrial-scale hog facilities that have sprung up around Mexico in recent years, and the thousands of people employed inside the crowded, pathogen-filled confinement buildings and processing plants. Industry calls these massive compounds "confined animal feeding operations," or CAFOs (KAY-fohs), though most people know them simply as "factory farms." You have seen them before while flying: Long white buildings lined up in tightly packed rows of three, four or more. Within each confinement, thousands of pigs are restricted to indoor pens and grain-fed for market, while breeding sows are kept in small metal crates where they spend most of their lives pregnant or nursing piglets. In the last several years, U.S. hog conglomerates have opened giant swine CAFOs south of the border, including dozens around Mexico City in the neighboring states of Mexico and Puebla. Smithfield Foods also reportedly operates a huge swine facility in the State of Veracruz. Many of these CAFOs raise tens of thousands of pigs at a time. Cheaper labor costs and a desire to enter the Latin American market are drawing more industrialized agriculture to Mexico all the time, wiping out smaller, traditional farms, which now account for only a small portion of swine production in Mexico. "Classic" swine flu virus (not the novel, mutated form in the news) is considered endemic in southern Mexico, while the region around the capital is classified as an "eradication area" - meaning the disease is present, and efforts are underway to control it. For some reason, vaccination of pigs against swine flu is prohibited in this area, and growers rely instead on depopulation and restriction of animal movement when outbreaks occur. U.S. and Mexican epidemiologists and veterinarians will surely want to take swine samples from Mexican CAFOs and examine them for the newly discovered influenza strain (No one knows exactly how long it has been in circulation). And though it is too early to know if this new virus mutated and incubated on Mexican hog CAFOs, the industrialized facilities unquestionably belong on the list of suspects. Pigs are nature's notorious "mixing bowls" for inter-species infections, and many swine flu viruses have long contained human influenza genetic components. Then, in the late 1990's - when industrialized swine production really took off in North America - scientists were alarmed to find that avian influenza genetic material was also mixed into the continent's viral soup (see below). Fortunately, it was not the dreaded and lethal H5N1 strain, which most people know of as "bird flu." So where did this new, virulent and highly infectious influenza emerge from? According to Mexico's Health Minister, Jose Angel Cordova, the virus "mutated from pigs, and then at some point was transmitted to humans." It sure sounds like something happened on some farm, somewhere. For years, leading scientists around the world have worried that large-scale, indoor swine "factories" would become breeding grounds for new pathogens that could more easily infect humans and then spread out rapidly in the general population - threatening to become a global pandemic. We know that hog workers in Europe and North America are far more likely than others to be infected with potentially lethal pathogens such as MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), drug-resistant E. coli and Salmonella, and of course, swine influenza. Many scientists also believe that people who work inside CAFOs are more at risk of contracting and spreading these and other "zoonotic" diseases than those working in smaller-scale operations, with outdoor pens or pasture and far lower animal density. But until now, hog workers with swine flu have rarely gone on to infect other people, save for close family members. And that is why this new strain of swine influenza virus is so vexing - and alarming. It seems to spread quite easily through casual human contact. This new strain making headlines and killing people contains genetic components of human flu virus, avian flu virus and - for the first time ever - two types of swine flu virus: American and Eurasian. "Such a combination of components (genes) was not found so far, neither among humans nor among pigs (as far as we know)," CDC spokesman Tom Skinner said in an email. Nobody yet knows whether the mysterious mixing of two continents' swine flu genes is what made this outbreak so deadly, and so infectious among people, but you can bet that the world's best labs are already on the case. Another possibility is that a new and more aggressive strain of avian influenza got into the new mix as well. How could this happen? There are several plausible explanations. A New Avian Component? Avian influenza viral components can easily mix with swine flu virus to create new bugs - and this can happen on both traditional hog farms and inside CAFOs, scientists say. Last year, the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production issued a lengthy report on factory farming that included research on emerging forms of avian-swine-human influenza viruses. The molecular forensics of rapidly mutating animal pathogens makes epidemiological investigations all the more challenging, it said. "Populations exposed to infectious agents arising in CAFOs are even more difficult to define as some agents - such as a novel avian influenza virus - may be highly transmissible in or well beyond a community setting," the Pew report stated. The transmission of avian or swine influenza viruses to humans, the report said, (almost wistfully, in retrospect), "seems a rather infrequent event today." But the commission also issued this grave and perhaps all-too prescient warning: The continual cycling of swine influenza viruses and other animal pathogens in large herds or flocks provides increased opportunity for the generation of novel viruses through mutation or recombinant events that could result in more efficient human-to-human transmission of these viruses. In addition, agricultural workers serve as a bridging population between their communities and the animals in large confinement facilities. This bridging increases the risk of novel virus generation in that human viruses may enter the herds or flocks and adapt to the animals. Reassortant influenza viruses with human components have ravaged the modern swine industry. Such novel viruses not only put the workers and animals at risk of infections, but also potentially increase zoonotic disease transmission risk to the communities where the workers live. For instance, 64% of 63 persons exposed to humans infected with H7N7 avian influenza virus had serological evidence of H7N7 infection following the 2003 Netherlands avian influenza outbreak in poultry. Similarly, the spouses of swine workers who had no direct contact with pigs had increased odds of antibodies against swine influenza virus. Recent modeling work has shown that among communities where a large number of CAFO workers live, there is great potential for these workers to accelerate pandemic influenza virus transmission. "We met with a team of researchers from the University of Iowa who are studying avian flu, and their real concern was the very scenario that may have happened in Mexico - that avian flu may get into a swine CAFO and rapidly mutate and then get passed to workers, and then on to other people very quickly," Bob Martin, who was executive director of the now-disbanded commission and currently a Senior Officer at the Pew Environmental Group, told me. "Their concern was that new strains of avian flu combining with swine flu could make the swine flu more deadly," he said. "And because viruses pass so easily between pigs and people, the new avian component could make swine flu more virulent." Researchers such as Gregory Gray, MD, a University of Iowa professor of international epidemiology and expert in zoonotic infections, warned that CAFO workers could serve as a "bridging population" to rural communities sharing viruses with the pigs, and vice-versa. Other scientists suggested that CAFO workers could theoretically spread disease quickly to great distances. An outbreak of infectious avian flu on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, for example, could reach the Rocky Mountains within 36 hours. The Iowa team was also worried that CAFO production could lead to another 1918-style global pandemic. One theory behind that calamity is that waterfowl cross-infected U.S. pigs with a new type of avian-swine super-virus that was quickly transmitted to farm workers, possibly in Iowa, who went off to military training camps for WWI, and then spread the pathogen worldwide "One very big concern was that swine flu mixed with wild bird flu, or bird flu in a chicken CAFO, tended to be ripe for incubating new types of viral infections, especially since the animals are so densely packed together," Bob Martin said. Hog CAFOs are supposed to be completely closed environments, in order to protect the pigs from outside diseases. Visitors are usually required to shower and don special protective clothing (again, for the animals' benefit) before going inside a confinement. But these are not hermetically sealed environments, and pathogens can enter and exit a CAFO in a number of ways other than via swine workers (or flies, another proven vector of CAFO diseases). To begin with, some swine CAFO's recover water from their waste lagoons and recycle it back into the animal housing, in order to wash out the barns while also cutting down on dwindling groundwater supplies (a particular concern in parts of Mexico, to be sure). But wildfowl routinely land in CAFO lagoons, where they can easily shed influenza virus into the water. This can also happen at facilities that use water from nearby ponds or rivers. Here in the U.S., the National Pork Board had already urged all producers to take a number of steps to reduce the risk of avian-to-swine influenza transmission (A new advisory has also been posted today). "It is in the best interest of both human public health and animal health that transmission of influenza viruses from pigs to people, from people to pigs, from birds to pigs and from pigs to birds be minimized," says the group's website, Pork.org. "The global reservoir of influenza viruses in waterfowl, the examples of infection of pigs with waterfowl-origin influenza viruses, the risks for reassortment of avian viruses with swine and/or human influenza viruses in pigs, and the risk for transmission of influenza viruses from pigs to domestic turkeys all indicate that contact between pigs and both wild and domestic fowl should be minimized," the Pork Board says. It then offers some "potentially useful" factors to "reduce transmission of influenza viruses between birds and pigs": ■ Bird-proofing - All doorways, windows and air-flow vents in swine housing units should be adequately sealed or screened to prevent entrance of birds. ■ Water treatment - Do not use untreated surface water as either drinking water or water for cleaning in swine facilities. Likewise, it may be prudent to attempt to minimize waterfowl use of farm lagoons. ■ Separation of pig and bird production - Do not raise pigs and domestic fowl on the same premises. ■ Feed security - Keep pig feed in closed containers to prevent contamination with feces from over-flying waterfowl. ■ Worker biosecurity - Provide boots for workers that are worn only within the pig housing units, thus eliminating. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-kirby/swine-flu-outbreak----nat_b_191408.html

Read the Torture Memos here at the ACLU site

Food Fascist — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 09:52:23 EDT

And if you can figure out how to contact anyone at the ACLU stop them from the special prosector idea they have and to take Elizabeth De La Veaga's and Presdient Barack Obama's idea so as in keeping with Thom's reasoning that we actually be able to let the information out to the public and not gagged or kept secret so that it cannot be used in court.

Ths shame to the legacy of Darth and Bush will be more important than even seeing them in jail. It is their legacy that is the real danger. We need to be able to study these years in our schools, just like the Nazi years in Germany.

http://www.aclu.org/safefree/general/olc_memos.html

The last time we tortured......

Food Fascist — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 10:05:31 EDT

.......innocent women were burned at the stake............

President Bush - The only US President in history to torture

Food Fascist — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 10:04:22 EDT

President Bush was the only US President in history to torture- hmmmmm........

Harvey Wasserman How Chernobyl could happen here

Food Fascist — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 19:15:59 EDT

Harvey Wasserman

How Chernobyl could happen here
April 21, 2009

A catastrophe like Chernobyl could happen here. It's the radioactive core of the second biggest lie in US industrial history.

The atomic pushers say such a disaster is “impossible” at a US reactor. But Chernobyl's explosion spewed radiation all over the world. And Sunday’s tragic 23rd anniversary reminds us that any reactor on this planet can kill innumerable people anywhere, at any time, by terror, error and more.

It further clarifies why yet another grab at billions of taxpayer dollars for new reactor construction must be stopped NOW!

The BIGGEST lie in US industrial history is that “nobody died at Three Mile Island.” Just before last month’s 30th anniversary of the central Pennsylvania melt down, critical new evidence was completely ignored by the corporate media.

Nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen, a former industry executive, reported in Harrisburg that new findings show far more radiation may have been released than previously estimated. Epidemiologist Stephen Wing of the University of North Carolina joined in a study indicating human health was indeed compromised downwind.

To this day neither TMI’s owners nor the Nuclear Regulatory Commission knows how much radiation escaped, where it went or whom it impacted. The Gundersen/Wing findings cast new light on the question of building more reactors.

But they got a Stalinesque blackout from ALL corporate media, which parroted the official lie that "nobody was harmed" at the 1979 disaster.

This week comes official Radioactive Lie #2: “Chernobyl can’t happen here.”

Chernobyl Unit 4 exploded in the wee hours of April 26, 1986. It was of a different design than US reactors. But its lid was stronger than about a third of the domes covering plants here. The Soviets who ran it also said Chernobyl could not explode, and that in any event its lid would hold.

On October 5, 1966, the Fermi I fast breeder reactor nearly delivered a far worse explosion. Cooled by highly volatile liquid sodium, it teetered for a month on the brink of a radioactive eruption that could have cratered much of southeastern Michigan and permanently destroyed the biggest fresh water bodies on Earth. The accident was kept under Soviet-style wraps for years.

When TMI melted a potentially explosive hydrogen bubble formed inside the dome. Officials denied there was a melt-down (there was) but were privately terrified the trapped gas could rupture the containment. The escaping cloud would have contaminated millions along the east coast from Boston to Washington.

Chernobyl's cloud blanketed Europe with deadly isotopes. Some came down in California within ten days, killing countless birds and possibly, in the long run, even more people. The radiation then crossed the entire northern United States, contaminating milk in New England. It returned later for a second pass.

Reactor backers say Chernobyl “only” killed 31 plant workers. But the Soviets denied the accident happened, then ran 800,000 drafted “jumpers” through the radioactive corpse for a futile clean-up. They have been dying in droves for two decades.

Chernobyl’s radiation rained down on a May Day parade among citizens of Kiev who were told nothing about the catastrophe 80 kilometers away. The heartbreaking deformities plaguing the children born thereafter are the starkest reminders of that horrific day. Dr. Alexey Yablokov, former environmental advisor to the late President Boris Yeltsin, and president of the Center for Russian Environmental Policy, has estimated the known death toll at 300,000. The financial costs have topped a half-trillion dollars. The sale of lambs is still banned 2000 miles away in Wales and Scotland, where radioactive cesium still contaminates sheep farms and grazing land.

The tidal wave of cancers, miscarriages, sterility and worse that still washes over the Ukraine and surrounding regions gets ever more horrifying as time passes. Because Chernobyl 4 was a new “state of the art” unit, its core spewed far less radiation than might come from older reactors at Indian Point, New York, or Oyster Creek, New Jersey, which has just been re-licensed to run twenty years beyond its original design specifications.

Chernobyl’s design was peculiar to the Soviets. But to say only it could explode is to argue that hybrid cars can’t run people over, or that since there are no more World Trade towers, terrorists can no longer kill Americans.

On January 31, 1986, four months prior to Chernobyl’s explosion, an earthquake shook the Perry reactor east of Cleveland, which thankfully was not operating at the time. Now it is.

By accident inspectors stumbled onto a football-sized hole eaten by boric acid to within a fraction of an inch through the pressure vessel at Davis-Besse near Toledo. A worker using a candle set a $100 million fire at the Browns Ferry reactor in Alabama. A cooling tower unexpectedly collapsed to the ground at Vermont Yankee. A basketball wrapped in tape was used to stop up a pipe at a reactor in Florida. This March 28, on TMI's 30th anniversary, an unexplained tremor shut Unit Two at Fermi.

And, of course, the first jet that flew into the World Trade Center passed directly over the two decrepit reactors at Indian Point, as well as the three spent fuel pools and one dormant core shut for lack of an emergency cooling system. No reactor on this planet could withstand a similar terror attack.

Small wonder the reactor industry cannot get private financing or insurance and has no place to go with its radioactive waste. Or why its pushers are yet again demanding $50 billion in loan guarantees for new reactor construction, and still more to perpetrate the myth that nuclear fuel can be reprocessed (to help stop this madness, see www.beyondnuclear.org, www.nirs.org and www.nukefree.org).

Chernobyl remains history's worst human-made disaster. Something slightly different but even worse could be happening as you read this. Building new reactors, and keeping old ones running, will guarantee it.

The only containment strong enough to make atomic energy truly safe is the political power YOU exert. Chernobyl “can’t happen here” only if the reactors are turned off before they kill again.

--
Harvey Wasserman edits http://nukefree.org. This article originally published by http://freepress.org.

How is this for a description of torture?

Food Fascist — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 12:46:36 EDT

One detail that horrified me a few years ago from the Mike Malloy show was that he read a detailed description of torture such that our female troops having their periods wiped themselves on the faces of those being tortured. I am really really sorry to say this, but I do remember Malloy reading this and other torture reports on the air and I think the media is white washing this entire torture thing. The journalists of today appear to be omitting history altogether.

Keith Olberman Prosecute Torture

Food Fascist — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 21:53:52 EDT

Without this nation standing up, Mr Bushs accounting of what worked will go into the history books- that torture worked - when actually it gave us the misinformation to go to a war we did not have to fight. Use your power to protect us from this ever happening again. Here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Inm5VxAJ94&NR=1

Torturers go Scott Free: Bewildered Ashamed Make Me Do It

Food Fascist — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 14:34:00 EDT

Bewildered and ashamed said an articulate caller to the Thom Hartmann show this morning. She said we need to re coup our national integrity. And then there was phenomenal Keith Olberman.

Another e-mailer said that while at a fundraiser, and even gave the date, then Mr, Obama said if we ever did something against a campaign promise, to 'make him' do it. President Obama of course must have been referring to FDR- who when confronted by labor unions for which had supported him into office was suddenly in office, not following through and then said to a man at a dinner- "Make me." -
"Make me" Meaning, afford me the backing because the facts of life are such that there is a power in Washington or from elsewhere threatening him should he as President attempt to go forth with what is best for the people. In other words that are 'powers that be' that lurk in the world that are evil and against the interests of the common man trying to control and indeed threatening our beloved leader.

So we must rise as a people with the ferocity we did to get President Obama elected and demand the big fish who gave the power and the orders to torture be held accountable and the little fish at least one year in prison.

Remember the 'The Peppermint Patty gal in the photo with the leash on the Iraqi was given how many years in prison. even a favorite local radio person here locally out of SF took a stance on saying torture was okay and was completely illiterate about how the results of this torture gave us the wrong information to go to an illegal war. And note- why is it the miliary that are against torture having done their own studies versus the masses of misinformed America.
Al Gore documents this false information based on torture in his book, Assault on Reason.
Again, hopefully Obama struck a deal with the little fish to give us the goods on the big fish.
Touching was the caller to Bernie Sanders on the show every Friday - how do I tell my son to become a decent human being when our leaders are so unethical and go without consequences?
One more thing, the precedent being set here is not only the employee can always just scream "my boss told me to kill that girl" but the employer- can always say - my employee is just saying that and I, like Charles Manson, never did anything.
Would Charles Manson go to jail under the logic Barack Obama just used in letting these bastards off?

Per the book, Washington's Crossing- cited Hillary Clinton as to how George Washington told his officers to treat the prisoners they had taken Treat them with humanity and let them have no reason to complain how you treat enemy combatants resonates around the world- let them know the difference between the British and the Americans.
The solution is not that we should become just like the monsters we are rounding up. The world will turn against us said Washington if we become just like them and we will not be able to fight the rest of the world.

And one more thing, why is it always the military leadership that comes out against torture. Who the hell was Bush and John Ewe and etc, to hire private contractors KBR to ejaculate off on sado masochistic torture.

Will we allow the legalized rape of women in Afghanistan?

Food Fascist — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 17:13:01 EDT

Will we allow the legalized rape of women in Afghanistan?
Whose side are we on in Afghanistan?
We cannot support sending tens of thousands of troops (and tens of billions of dollars) to Afghanistan to support a religious patriarchal society that permits marital rape.

On April 15, hundreds of brave women took to the streets of Kabul.

They were protesting a law passed last month by the elected government of Afghanistan that gives Shiite men the right to demand sex from their wives once every four days — essentially legalizing the marital rape of Shiite women.

So these 300 courageous women exercised their right to protest this barbaric law. And they were met with over 1,000 counter-protesters, some of whom threw stones at them, spat at them and called them whores.

We cannot support sending tens of thousands of troops (and tens of billions of dollars) to Afghanistan to support a religious patriarchal society that permits marital rape and allows for the stoning of those who protest.

President Obama has referred to the law in question as "abhorrent," but this is far from enough. The brave women of Afghanistan — not to mention our brave men and women in uniform — deserve far better.

Click here to to tell President Obama that if he doesn't have a strategy for our troops to protect the women and girls of Afghanistan, we shouldn't be there. In the meantime, he should do everything he can to pressure Afghan President Karzai to abolish this barbaric law.

Thank you for working to build a better world.

Kate Stayman-London, Campaign Manager
CREDO Action from Working Assets

Thumbs Up on Fast Track Trains President Obama

Food Fascist — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 13:06:35 EDT

GM Must Re-Make the Mass Transit System it Murdered

by Harvey Wasserman

Bail out General Motors? The people who murdered our mass transit system?

First let them remake what they destroyed.

GM responded to the 1970s gas crisis by handing over the American market to energy-efficient Toyota and Honda.

GM met the rise of the hybrids with "light trucks."

GM built a small electric car, leased a pilot fleet to consumers who loved it, and then forcibly confiscated and trashed them all.

GM now wants to market a $40,000 electric Volt that looks like a cross between a Hummer and a Cadillac and will do nothing to meet the Solartopian needs of a green-powered Earth.

For this alone, GM's managers should never be allowed to make another car, let alone take our tax money to stay in business.

But there is also a trillion-dollar skeleton in GM's closet.

This is the company that murdered our mass transit system.

The assertion comes from Bradford Snell, a government researcher whose definitive report damning GM has been a vehicular lightening rod since its 1974 debut. Its attackers and defenders are legion. But some facts are irrefutable:

In a 1922 memo that will live in infamy, GM President Alfred P. Sloan established a unit aimed at dumping electrified mass transit in favor of gas-burning cars, trucks and buses.

Just one American family in 10 then owned an automobile. Instead, we loved our 44,000 miles of passenger rail routes managed by 1,200 companies employing 300,000 Americans who ran 15 billion annual trips generating an income of $1 billion. According to Snell, "virtually every city and town in America of more than 2,500 people had its own electric rail system."

But GM lost $65 million in 1921. So Sloan enlisted Standard Oil (now Exxon), Philips Petroleum, glass and rubber companies and an army of financiers and politicians to kill mass transit.

The campaigns varied, as did the economic and technical health of many of the systems themselves. Some now argue that buses would have transcended many of the rail lines anyway. More likely, they would have hybridized and complemented each other.

But with a varied arsenal of political and financial subterfuges, GM helped gut the core of America's train and trolley systems. It was the murder of our rail systems that made our "love affair" with the car a tragedy of necessity.

In 1949 a complex federal prosecution for related crimes resulted in an anti-trust fine against GM of a whopping $5000. For years thereafter GM continued to bury electric rail systems by "bustituting" gas-fired vehicles.

Then came the interstates. After driving his Allied forces into Berlin on Hitler's Autobahn, Dwight Eisenhower brought home a passion for America's biggest public works project. Some 40,000 miles of vital eco-systems were eventually paved under.

In habitat destruction, oil addiction, global warming, outright traffic deaths (some 40,000/year and more), ancillary ailments and wars for oil, the automobile embodies the worst ecological catastrophe in human history.

Should current General Motors management be made to pay for the ancient sins of Alfred Sloan?

Since the 1880s, American corporations have claimed human rights under the law. Tasking one now with human responsibilities could set a great precedent.

GM has certainly proved itself unable to make cars that can compete while healing a global-warmed planet.

So let's convert the company's infrastructure to churn out trolley cars, monorails, passenger trains, truly green buses.

FDR forced Detroit to manufacture the tanks, planes and guns that won World War 2 (try buying a 1944 Chevrolet!). Now let a reinvented GM make the "weapons" to win the climate war and energy independence.

It demands re-tooling and re-training. But GM's special role in history must now evolve into using its infrastructure to restore the mass transit system---and ecological balance---it has helped destroy.

Harvey Wasserman is co-author, with Bob Fitrakis, of four books on election protection which are available atwww.freepress.org, where this article first appeared. His HARVEY WASSERMAN's HISTORY OF THE US is atwww.harveywasserman.com

Tea Party or Bash President Obama Day

Food Fascist — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 11:34:44 EDT

The first people I met on my way to the capital was fortunately to run into a couple with an appointment to do official business at the Capital for whom questioned me whether I understood the real history of the Boston Tea Party.

Thankfully, I was able to hand them a copy of the Hartmann paper of The Real Boston Tea Party which was against the East India Tea Company which had just won from the British government laws which made it easier to compete against the other businesses. Members of the British government and royalty including the king were stockholders in the company- Between 1681 and 1773, a series of laws were passed granting the Company monopoly on tea sold in the American colonies and exempting it from tea taxes. thus, the Company was able to lower its tea prices to undercut the prices of local importers and the small tea houses in every town in America.

There were about 400 people there including a major stage with band and large screen, and a member of the California Parks and Recreation passing out free books of both the United States Constitution and the State of California's constitution.

The only rally to take place were some persons on stage calling for the impeachment of one assembly member because he had voted to increases taxes in California. One of the perhaps 5 black people there, a 'famous blogger' Alfonso Riviera from San Francisco - no doubt a Michael Savage listener got up on stage and ridiculed President Obama by making some jokes about 'change.'

Clearly though, the masses had been slated as back drop to the Neil Cavuto on FOX News show. There had been no education or discourse about tax matters, just the blogger and then a right wing duo called Armstrong & Getty got up and shouted some things for which the crowd yelled back some things. When Neil Cavuto came on, I did not hear him address the crowd but perhaps that was because I was circulating through the crowd waiting for opportune times to pass out my true history of the Boston Tea Party as well as the Lauffer curve showing that two tenths of the American population had income greater than 90% of everyone else’s from lcurve.org. Then, I had typed on top= The Rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Forget

The First Lady had even been ridiculed as Marie Michelle Obama Antoinette along with buttons of the President with pictures of him on and then where the word 'Hope' would have been written, the 'H' was changed to 'D' for Dope.

Others gleefullly posed for cameras wearing 'Change you can’t believe in' and the like.

Two brave African American college gals were happy to accept my papers and then it was understood we were together and one perhaps became a bit too brave and figuratively bit right into one of the sign bearers with a picture of Obama and some incendiary message like give me my government back. She asked his good common sense questions and I joined in. The second girl joined in and then another member of the other side joined in - none of them able to provide any good answers- especially as to how disingenuous it was to not have had the tea parties in the former administration who spyed on us and stole the treasury altogether.

Did they understand that their taxes were indeed going down? there was nothing they could say that we could not blow over like a house of cards. Finally, the sign bearer got frustrated and left and his helper became very concerned that a camera man had picked up on the gals when even openly were shouting- "You are all just mad because a black man got into the highest office in the land- go on and admit it"- She further said, "We're black and we voted for a black man. And you can't handle that." Then- that gal she out rightly said "And i have had two abortions."- Now, this had not been my style, but I am not to judge here and backed off to find others I might continue to pass my flyers out to.

One opportune moment was a bright young fellow of about 10 years old who looked like Harry Potter held his mother's hand and asked "Why are we here again, Mom?" She said "oh- I guess you'll have to wait until your older. But there I was, with my paper flyers and said, "Here is an historical accounting of the tea party." then I learned to look for more restless children whose parents could not explain why they were there.

Another segment of the persons who were happy to take my information thought that they were there because they themselves were hurting economically.

Hartmann reported that if today’s billionaires had the same tax rates of 1955- we would have raised about 35 billion.

If we simply collected the off shore investments from the Cayman islands, we could greatly relieve our debts and wealth disparity.

John Birch Society was there- the Howard Jarvis.

Had been co-opted from the 911 truth movement, then the Ron Paul supporters, and now by Fox News.

The upshot was that the poor and the unkowing are being conned into defending the rich.

Sell marijuana to stop crime in San Francisco

Food Fascist — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 11:41:50 EDT

Legislation proposed by a San Francisco supervisor would make the city by the bay the first city with the Mary Jane.

Supervisors Ross Mirkarimi proposed legislation on Tuesday that would create a pilot program for the city to get into the medical marijuana business, according to a report in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Mirkarimi said he has asked city attorney to craft a measure that would allow the Department of Public Health to distribute medical marijuana.

See the remainder of the article here" http://www.examiner.com/x-4106-California-Statehouse-Examiner~y2009m4d15-San-Francisco-supe-makes-push-for-city-to-sell-marijunana

Google scholar: for more articles like this:

J. Clin. Invest. doi:10.1172/JCI37948.
The American Society for Clinical Investigation
Research Article

Cannabinoid action induces autophagy-mediated cell death through stimulation of ER stress in human glioma cells-

in other words, cannibus can shrink tumors and ceased tumors in two humans this study.

Our non supportive friends do not get that alcohol is indeed on par with an herb thata was only outlawed because Dupont and the Herst Corporation did not have the business savvy to compete with them

http://www.jci.org/articles/view/37948

"The prestige of government has undoubtedly been lowered considerably by the Prohibition law. For nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced. It is an open secret that the dangerous increase of crime in this country is closely connected with this.” ---- Albert Einstein, 1921

Save the Rich! Fox News Hosts the Tea Parties

Food Fascist — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 23:29:07 EDT

See this link - its a scream.

How do they get these people to keep cheerleading for the rich that would steal the blankets from their own baby and the food from their very mouths.

http://www.savetherich.com/

Debt is Not Money

Food Fascist — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 13:59:07 EDT

Published on Monday, April 13, 2009 by CommonDreams.orgDebt is Not Money

by Thom Hartmann

"Everything predicted by the enemies of banks, in the beginning, is now coming to pass. We are to be ruined now by the deluge of bank paper. It is cruel that such revolutions in private fortunes should be at the mercy of avaricious adventurers, who, instead of employing their capital, if any they have, in manufactures, commerce, and other useful pursuits, make it an instrument to burden all the interchanges of property with their swindling profits, profits which are the price of no useful industry of theirs."

--Thomas Jefferson letter to Thomas Cooper, 1814.

Are we standing at the edge of a Great Inflation (like Weimar Germany), a second Republican Great Depression, or a return to the middle class prosperity of the Roosevelt/Eisenhower New Deal era? Until Americans understand the difference between "money" and "debt," odds are its going to be one of the first two, at least over the next few years.

Money

"Money" is a convenient replacement for barter in an economy. Instead of my giving you five pounds of carrots, so you wash my car, then you trade the carrots for a new shirt, and the clothing store then trades the carrots to a trucker that brings them their inventory, we all just agree to use a ten-dollar bill. Because a nation's money supply represents that nation's "wealth" - the sum total of goods, services, and resources available in an economy/nation - it needs to have a fixed value relative to the number/amount of goods, services, and resources within the nation.

As an economy grows - more factories, more goods, more services - the money supply grows so one dollar always represents the same number of carrots. (And with a fractional reserve banking system like we have, that growth is created mostly by banks lending money and creating it out of thin air in the process.)

If the money supply contracts, or grows slower than the economy, then we experience deflation - the value of money increases, goods and services become less expensive (fewer dollars to buy the carrots), but because the value of money has increased it becomes harder to get. When this happens quickly, because of its economically destabilizing influence (businesses and people can't get current money - cash - or future money - credit - because money is more valuable), it's called a Depression.

On the other hand, if the money supply expands or grows faster than the economy, there are more dollars than there are goods and services so the number needed to buy a pound of carrots increases. This is inflation, and when it happens suddenly and on a large scale, it's called hyperinflation.

Therefore, one of the most important jobs overseen by Congress and executed by a Central Bank (or the Treasury Department if we were to go with the system envisioned by the Founders and Framers of the Constitution) is to "regulate the value" of our money (to quote Article I, Section 8.5 of our Constitution) by making sure the number of dollars in circulation always steadily tracks the size of the overall economy. If the economy grows 2%, then that year there should be 2% more dollars put into circulation. More than that will create inflation; fewer will create deflation.

Debt

"Debt" is not money. Instead, it's a charge against future money. But even though it's a charge against future money, it can still be spent as if it was today's money - except that it must be repaid with interest. And therefore debt must have some sort of a balanced relationship to the total size of the economy - albeit the future economy - for it not to be destabilizing.

In other words, if over the next twenty years (the term of a typical and healthy mortgage) the economy is expected to grow by X percent or X number of dollars, then the total amount of twenty-year debts that can be issued should be limited to X. But if it's greater than X, then when the future arrives there won't be enough circulating money to repay the debt, because the economy (and the money supply) won't have grown as great as the debt repayment demand. The only two options are for debt holders to default (bankruptcies, foreclosures, etc. - Depression), or for the government to suddenly increase the supply of money (inflation).

The same is true of one-year debt (credit cards), four- or five-year debt (car loans, typically), and all other forms of debt. In aggregate, if the amount of debt is allowed to grow faster than the economy will grow over the term of the debt, when the debt is due there will be a problem, and if it's grown hugely, a disaster.

This is what we're experiencing right now. Over the past three decades - largely since Reagan - debt (both private and public/government) has expanded much more rapidly than the economy has grown. "Now" was "the future" when the debt was issued, but the economy hasn't grown to the point where there are enough dollars (in reality, enough value - goods and services) to repay that debt. Thus we are experiencing a "wringing out" of that debt - bankruptcies and foreclosures - relative to the current wealth of the economy.

This is the most critical thing to see clearly - without adhering to this simple concept, a government or central bank will always either create boom/bust cycles (depressions/recessions) or inflation. Without regulating debt, a government will be taken hostage and an economy destroyed by for-profit institutions that are able to create debt without regulation (banks).

Panics

Although Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton - two opposite sides of the national bank debate - both understood this simple concept, it wasn't brought into the realm of law until the mid-1930s with a series of strict regulations on the abilities of banks to create debt (loan money), and strong political limits on the ability of government to go into debt outside of wartime. That's why from the founding of this nation until 1935, we experienced a "banking panic" at least once every 10 to 15 years from 1776 until 1935.

Then Roosevelt took the banks in hand, by creating a series of regulatory agencies and empowering them with strict laws. The result was that for fifty years in the United States - roughly 1937 to Black Monday of 1987 - we didn't experience a single national "panic" or consequential bank failure. The stock market grew steadily (allowing for the blips surrounding WWII).

It was also hard to get a credit card (short term debt), buy a car (medium-term debt), or get a mortgage (long-term debt) without proving that you would be able to repay the amount in the future - in other words, that there would be future expanded-economy dollars that you could lay claim to because of your particular job and skills. Credit was regulated.

Reagan changed the rules of the game, particularly when he brought in the anti-regulation Libertarian Alan Greenspan as Chairman of the Fed. He ran up a massive federal debt - greater than that of every president from George Washington to Jimmy Carter combined - in just eight years, and began the process of loosening the power of bank regulators.

That process was finished by a Republican Congress (particularly Phil Gramm) and President Bill Clinton (with help from Rubin and Summers) and then booted out the door by George W. Bush, who borrowed even more than Reagan. Bush even used an obscure 19th century law to fight states' attorneys general who wanted to regulate or prosecute fraud among banks and mortgage lenders in their states (see the article by Eliot Spitzer in the Washington Post just before his being outed for sleeping with a hooker).

Green Eyeshades

During the "Great Stability" - that period from the 1935 onset of the New Deal and the beginning of its end with Reagan's massive tax cuts of 1981 and 1986, leading directly to the stock market crash of 1987 and the S&L debacle - banking was, as Paul Krugman noted in a recent column, "boring." Credit and currency were considered part of the commons, not something off which a small elite should profit. Like the utilities in the game Monopoly, banks provided a predictable but relatively low profit. Nobody got rich, but nobody lost anything, either.

Bankers were the safe and predictable guys who wore green eyeshades at work and pocket protectors in their shirts. The nation's main products were goods and services; nobody "made money with money" in any big way.

Since the serial deregulations of the financial services sector brought on by Reagan, Bush, Clinton, and Bush, however, bankers became fabulously rich. They called themselves the "Masters of the Universe." They came to dominate contributions to politicians, and facilitated the takeover of most major US newspapers, all the while using debt as their mail tool to make money (burdening those newspapers with such debt that many are now going out of business because they can't repay it).

By 2005, fully 40 percent of all corporate profits in the US came from the financial services sector - a group of people who didn't produce anything at all of value, nothing edible or usable, nothing that would survive into future generations. They invented fancy derivative "products" that they "sold" at high commission rates around the world so others could "make money with money." In fact, they weren't making money - they were taking money. Behavior that would have been criminal during the Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, and Carter administrations became "normal" and was even encouraged: more than half of all the graduates from many of America's top colleges and universities went into finance so they could get in on the very lucrative scam.

They created debt. As Ellen Brown notes at www.webofdebt.com, according to the Bank of International Settlements, they created and sold at a profit over 900 trillion dollars worth of debt- and risk-based "instruments." That's a pretty mind-boggling number when you consider that the GDP of the United States is around 14 trillion and the GDP of the entire planet is around 65 trillion.

All of these "products" were made and sold based on the assurance that when "then" became "now" the economy would have grown fast enough for there to be enough dollars to pay it back. But the reality of a debt bubble that exceeds the world's GDP many times over came crashing in on us in 2007 - and still hasn't fully crested - producing the "crisis" we currently face.

Are we there yet?

Are we recovering from it all now? Will things soon be back to normal?

If by "normal" we mean like life during the "Great Stability," the answer is: "Not a chance." Back then we had in place tariffs and trade policies, first initiated in 1791 by Alexander Hamilton, that protected our domestic manufacturing industries. We still made things - in fact, the USA was the world's largest exporter of manufactured goods, and the world's largest creditor. Like today's China, for over 100 years we'd loaned other countries money so they could buy our stuff!

On the other hand, if by "normal" we mean how things were over the past 28 "Reaganomics" years - a stagnating middle class, disintegrating manufacturing sector, and piles of money being made by bets and debts - then maybe. After just the first decade of Reaganomics, we went from being the world's largest exporter of manufactured goods to being the world's largest importer; we went from being the world's largest creditor to being the world's largest debtor.

None of that has changed. We haven't repealed Reagan's disastrous tax cuts, which have exploded our nation's budget deficits. We haven't repudiated NAFTA and the WTO and gone back to an international trade policy that puts American interests over those of transnational corporations. We have not re-regulated the banks, and have not brought back 6000-year-old laws against usury (excessive interest rates on debt).

The bankers, in fact, are fighting it tooth and nail - the financial services industry in whole has spent over $5 billion lobbying Congress over the past ten years - and their acolytes like Lawrence Summers and Tim Geithner play major and consequential roles in the Obama administration.

It appears that the plan today is not to regulate the amount of debt that banks can create, but instead to both print more money and do everything possible to reinflate the debt bubble. (Lacking a return to Hamilton's national manufacturing and trade policy, as a nation we just continue to slip deeper and deeper into Third World status as an importer and debtor - this may be our only choice if we don't wake up soon.)

If followed, the Summers/Geithner policy can have only one of two outcomes: inflation or another, more serious crash. It's possible we could have both. Apparently the bankers and Summers/Geithner's hope is that neither or both don't happen for at least three and a half years...

Thom Hartmann (thom at thomhartmann.com) is a Project Censored Award-winning New York Times best-selling author, and host of a nationally syndicated daily progressive talk program The Thom Hartmann Show. www.thomhartmann.com His most recent books are "The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight," "Unequal Protection: The Rise of Corporate Dominance and the Theft of Human Rights," "We The People: A Call To Take Back America," "What Would Jefferson Do?," "Screwed: The Undeclared War Against the Middle Class and What We Can Do About It," and "Cracking The Code: The Art and Science of Political Persuasion." His newest book is Threshold: T he Crisis of Western Culture

Leave Michelle Obama's organic garden alone!

Food Fascist — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 12:46:05 EDT

Don't let them get away with it.
Ask your friends to join the campaign to tell pesticide lobbyists to stop spreading propaganda about Michelle Obama's organic garden at the White House.

In the past few days, tens of thousands of CREDO activists like you have mobilized to tell pesticide lobbyists that their propaganda about Michelle Obama's organic garden at the White House is unacceptable. It's truly amazing how many of you have taken up this fight in such a short time, and we thank you for your activism.

We need your friends to join this campaign so we can ensure the Mid America CropLife Association and the rest of the chemical industry know that it hurts America when they suggest we can't garden organically, sustainably, and without their chemicals.

Click here to send a note to your friends to tell them what the pesticide lobbyists said about Michelle Obama's organic garden at the White House.

You can also forward the sample message below to your friends.

Thank you for working to build a better world.

Kate Stayman-London, Campaign Manager
CREDO Action from Working Assets

P.S. CREDO is the phone company that fights for the environment and prints all of its bills on recycled paper. When you join CREDO, we'll give you a free phone, buy out your contract*, and give you $10 off your bill for a year! Click here to get the details.

*Up to $200. Offer valid with 2-year contract after credit approval.

Sample message to send to your friends:

Subject: Tell Pesticide Peddlers: We support Michelle Obama's organic garden.

Dear Friend,

The Mid America CropLife Association (MACA) has a bone to pick with Michelle Obama. MACA represents chemical companies that produce pesticides, and they are angry that — wait for it — Michelle Obama isn't using chemicals in her organic garden at the White House.

I am not making this up.

In an email they forwarded to their supporters, a MACA spokesman wrote, "While a garden is a great idea, the thought of it being organic made [us] shudder." MACA went on to publish a letter it had sent to the First Lady asking her to consider using chemicals — or what they call "crop protection products" — in her garden.

I just signed a petition telling MACA's board members to stop using Michelle Obama's garden to spread propaganda about produce needing to be sprayed with chemicals. I hope you will, too.

Please have a look and take action.

http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=3305&id=3482-1817417-EWkLp6x&t=15

Thanks!

Eye to the Future: Where's the Power Point?

Food Fascist — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 12:29:03 EDT

Great talk tpday. Wish: I am looking for the PowerPoint Presentation, cannot one be put together to cover more learning modalities other than simply audio/ speech. This could be presented as a simultaneous web cast. Enjoy having the Call to Action from you always.

Would like a slide of each pillar you propose - especially renewable energy- the 3rd Pillar. Germany is on track to be 30% by 2050- see NOVA Saved by the Sun.

Pillar 4 - Health Care - focus on affordability is good. Regular access to wellness counselors are 50 - 75.00 and used for thousands of years in India and China and other countries.

' Everyone should pay what they owe'

Final Point- Cree Indian Saying - only when the last fish has died will man discover he cannot eat money.

The house upon the rock.

I like what I heard today because it was converging more with my economic hero, Ravi Batra. For which you can hear at this link to the audio cast.

http://a1135.g.akamai.net/f/1135/18227/1h/cchannel.download.akamai.com/18227/podcast/SANFRANCISCO-CA/KKGN-AM/Thom%20Hartmann%20040109%20H2.mp3?CPROG=PCAST&MARKET=SANFRANCISCO-CA&NG_FORMAT=progressivetalk&SITE_ID=5257&STATION_ID=KKGN-AM&PCAST_AUTHOR=Green_960_-_Thom_Hartmann&PCAST_CAT=Podcasts&PCAST_TITLE=Green_960_-_Thom_Hartmann

Are you going to the Tea Party ?

Food Fascist — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 13:10:38 EDT

I am planning to show up at our tea party and pass out flyers with a copy of what is at http://www.lcurve.org/

The US population is represented along the length of the football field, arranged in order of income.

Median US family income (the family at the 50 yard line) is ~$40,000 (a stack of $100 bills 1.6 inches high.)

–The family on the 95 yard line earns about $100,000 per year, a stack of $100 bills about 4 inches high.

–At the 99 yard line the income is about $300,000, a stack of $100 bills about a foot high.

–The curve reaches $1 million (a 40 inch high stack of $100 bills) one foot from the goal line.

–From there it keeps going up…it goes up 50 km (~30 miles) on this scale

Welcome Bo! You are Beautiful!

Food Fascist — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 11:18:05 EDT

Call Attorney General Eric Holder Now

Food Fascist — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 12:40:19 EDT

Call Attorney General Eric Holder Now

CALL ATTORNEY GENERAL ERIC HOLDER AND ENCOURAGE HIM TO REVIEW GOVERNOR DON SIEGELMAN’S CASE: (202) 514-2001

(ALTERNATE # Office of the Attorney General - 202-353-1555)

Karl Rove actually had Siegelman in solitary confinement because a person was sitting on a committee as was for at least 2 other governors. Any reason will do apparently. At any rate, we put Democrats in office and the first thing the Attorney General does is to clear a Republican Senator who paved the Bridge to No Where when meanwhile Governor Don Siegelman was shackled. put in solitary confinement so not even his family or lawyer knew where he was. 60 fricken minutes had to give the case attention before anyone could do anything about it.

If these wounds are not cleaned and healed- this country is on track for Civil War per Fox News and their stupid tea parties- idiots they fight for less than 5% of the population playing them for stooges.

Stop blocking court review of illegal wiretapping.

Food Fascist — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 12:10:20 EDT

In the heat of the presidential campaign, then Sen. Barack Obama cast his lot with major telecommunications companies — and AT&T specifically — by voting to give big telecom retroactive immunity for allegedly helping the White House illegally spy on Americans. It was one of the most disappointing moments of the campaign.

However, as a candidate Obama did forcefully oppose the Bush administration's use of the "state secrets" privilege to get cases thrown out of civil court.

But now, President Obama is using the "state secrets" defense to make the case that the United States government can never be sued for surveillance that might violate federal privacy statutes.

Tell Obama: Stop blocking court review of illegal wiretapping.

On April 2, President Obama's lawyers invoked Bush's radical theory of executive power to argue for the dismissal of the Electronic Frontier Foundation's litigation against the National Security Agency for the warrantless wiretapping of countless Americans.

Of course, the government should be able to argue before a court that the public release of some information would unacceptably damage national security. But many courts have handled national security information with appropriate safeguards, and the mere assertion of "state secrets" without persuading a judge with evidence is just plain wrong.

When it comes to the abuse of "state secrets" defense, we agree with candidate Obama, not President Obama. If EFF's case against the NSA is dismissed, we may never know the extent of the Bush administration's illegal spying on Americans.

President Obama needs to hear from progressives on this issue. Click on the link below to join me and ask the president to stop Justice Department lawyers from asserting "state secrets" privilege.

Mr. President: Let the courts decide if Bush administration spying violated the constitution.

Sincerely,
Michael Kieschnick, President
CREDO Mobile from Working Assets

P.S. The Electronic Frontier Foundation continues to lead the fight to protect Americans from illegal government spying. It is one of the civil rights groups CREDO Mobile members are supporting with their phone bills this year. Click here to learn more about our support for EFF and other progressive causes.

Yet Another $50 Billion for Rust-Bucket Nukes? By Harvey Wasserman

Food Fascist — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 11:59:01 EDT

Yet Another $50 Billion for Rust-Bucket Nukes?
By Harvey Wasserman

The nuke power industry is back at the public trough for the fourth time in two years demanding $50 billion in loan guarantees to build new reactors. Its rust-bucket poster child is now the ancient clunker at Oyster Creek, whose visible New Jersey rust and advanced radioactive decay are A-OK with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which just gave it a twenty-year license extension. The industry's savior may be France, whose taxpayer-funded EdF and Areva Corporations may be poised to build their own reactors on US soil using French and American taxpayer money.

And President Obama's first big test on nuke power may be how he fills a vacancy---and the chair---at the NRC.

The latest demand for a $50 billion taxpayer handout has been sleazed into the Senate budget bill.  It has already been kicked out of the Stimulus Package, and George W. Bush’s Energy Bills of 2007 and 2008.  Bush did get $18.5 billion in guarantees into his 2005 Energy Bill, but that is being being challenged.
This latest bailout incarnation has been widely tagged “nuclear pork” even in the right-wing Washington Times, which says the Senate accepted it “without debate, explanation or a recorded vote.”   The amendment came from Sen. Michael Crapo (R-ID) with support from Budget Committee Chair Kent Conrad (D-ND).  Crapo says the guarantees are part of a program created in the 2005 Bush Energy Bill is aimed at “clean energy” programs, not just “advanced” nuclear power.  But no Congressional experts take that disclaimer seriously.

No independent financiers will take an un-subsidized flier on new reactors.  Nuke operators can’t get private insurance on a major melt-down.  With the proposed Yucca Mountain dump all but dead, the industry---after fifty years---has no certified place to take its high-level radioactive waste.
Guarantees are also part of a bill supported by Sen. George Voinovich (R-OH) and Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) who chairs the appropriations subcommittee that oversees energy spending, and has been working with Securing America’s Future Energy (SAFE), a pro-nuke cabal of business and retired military leaders. Green energy groups such as Friends of the Earth, Nuclear Information & Resource Service, Beyond Nuclear, NukeFree.org, Greenpeace, Physicians for Social Responsibility and others are gearing up for yet another Congressional fight.  If they win this time, they’ll have to fight it out again and yet again as the industry gloms onto new bills on a "clean energy bank," global warming, reprocessing and more.  “The $50 billion in nuke loan guarantees proposed in February’s economic stimulus bill were taken out in House-Senate conference following a national outpouring of opposition,” says Michael Mariotte of NIRS. “With a similar outpouring, we can defeat these again in the conference committee that will meet after the Easter recess.”

Mariotte says green energy groups are organizing a national write-in campaign to begin next week, and a call-in effort for April 27, the day after the anniversary of the 1986 Chernobyl catastrophe. No one doubts the industry will pour on one legislative scam after another in its desperate attempt to get taxpayer money as it is being priced into oblivion by rapid advances in renewables and efficiency.

Reports are also circulating that France’s heavily subsidized reactor pushers, EdF and Areva, may use newly purchased stakes in Constellation and other US utilities to strongarm their way into the American electricity market. Among other things they may use French taxpayer money to build reactors on American soil. Their foreign ownership status may insulate them from even the infamously lax NRC regulation. The Atomic Energy Act prohibits "foreign ownership, control or domination" of a US reactor project, but the industry will try to work around that. As the over-priced, inefficient French fleet wobbles at home without meaningful regulation, and with no solution to its waste problems, the EdF/Areva reactor pushers apparently view the US as virgin territory. Indeed, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has just granted a 20-year license extension to America’s oldest reactor. The Oyster Creek plant opened in December, 1969 with an expected design life of forty years. It now has visible rust around its core and has been constantly plagued by errant releases of hot water and lethal radiation. Perched 50 miles east of Philadelphia and 75 miles south of New York City, Oyster Creek could not be licensed at all by today’s standards. Its reactor containment was never required to withstand a jet crash and is far flimsier than the lid that blew off Chernobyl Unit Four in the Ukraine in 1986, releasing massive quantities of radiation into the surrounding countryside. Because Oyster Creek’s old core is laden with far more residual radiation, a breach could blanket the densely populated American northeast with an apocalyptic cloud of death and destruction. Owned by the Chicago-based Exelon Corporation, Oyster Creek has been bitterly opposed by area residents and nuclear experts who fear its vital internals are crumbling. The re-licensing process did not require a test of metals in the core, which can become dangerously embrittled after decades of exposure to super-hot water and intense radiation. In 1991, Massachusetts’ elderly Yankee Rowe was shut by lightening. Congressional pressure then demanded an embrittlement inspection that the reactor’s owners would not do. Parallel issues have been contested in bitter relicensing fights at Minnesota’s Monticello, Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island Unit One, Vermont Yankee and Indian Point, 45 miles north of New York City. The first terror jet to hit the World Trade Center on 9/11/2001 flew directly over Indian Point, whose elderly containments could not withstand an airplane's impact. But the NRC’s willingness to re-license the rickety, trouble-plagued Oyster Creek signals a willingness to ignore a wide range of serious health, safety and environmental concerns. Thus pushers of the “Peaceful Atom” are pumping hard for taxpayer handouts and against meaningful regulation, even for the oldest and most decrepit reactors still pumping radiation into the American landscape.

Fittingly, there is now a vacancy on the five-member NRC that President Obama could fill. He could also appoint a new chair. The number of Commissioners over the past three decades who have been at all responsive to legitimate safety and health concerns has been miniscule. An independent-minded appointee would signal that the administration is serious about the health, safety and environmental issues that cut to the core of the "Peaceful Atom."

But whomever Obama appoints, it's painfully clear that the world’s most expensive failed technology is not going away without a long, hard fight.

Harvey Wasserman edits the NukeFree.org website. His SOLARTOPIA! OUR GREEN-POWERED EARTH is at www.solartopia.org.

GM Killed the electric car Good riddance Waggoner you dope

Food Fascist — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 19:07:23 EDT

In 1996, General Motors (G.M.) launched the first modern-day commercially available electric car, the EV1. The car required no fuel and could be plugged in for recharging at home and at a number of 'battery parks'.

Many of the people who leased the car, including a number of celebrities, said the car drove like a dream.

"...the EV1 was a high performer. It could do a U-turn on a dime; it was incredibly quiet and smooth. And it was fast. I could beat any Porsche off the line at a stoplight. I loved it," Actress, Alexandra Paul told NOW. Even Mel Gibson ordered one and contested when they would no longer re-new his lease and came and took the car away from him to bring it to the auto wrecker.
Here is the link to a streaming video to a trailer of the film:

http://www.sonyclassics.com/whokilledtheelectriccar/electric.html

Yahoo! Enough of Waggoner That Schlep

Food Fascist — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 19:05:06 EDT

Published on Sunday, November 16, 2008 by CommonDreams.orgGM Must Re-Make the Mass Transit System it Murdered

by Harvey Wasserman

Bail out General Motors? The people who murdered our mass transit system?

First let them remake what they destroyed.

GM responded to the 1970s gas crisis by handing over the American market to energy-efficient Toyota and Honda.

GM met the rise of the hybrids with "light trucks."

GM built a small electric car, leased a pilot fleet to consumers who loved it, and then forcibly confiscated and trashed them all.

GM now wants to market a $40,000 electric Volt that looks like a cross between a Hummer and a Cadillac and will do nothing to meet the Solartopian needs of a green-powered Earth.

For this alone, GM's managers should never be allowed to make another car, let alone take our tax money to stay in business.

But there is also a trillion-dollar skeleton in GM's closet.

This is the company that murdered our mass transit system.

In a 1922 memo that will live in infamy, GM President Alfred P. Sloan established a unit aimed at dumping electrified mass transit in favor of gas-burning cars, trucks and buses.

But GM lost $65 million in 1921. So Sloan enlisted Standard Oil (now Exxon), Philips Petroleum, glass and rubber companies and an army of financiers and politicians to kill mass transit.

Should current General Motors management be made to pay for the ancient sins of Alfred Sloan?

Since the 1880s, American corporations have claimed human rights under the law. Tasking one now with human responsibilities could set a great precedent.

GM has certainly proved itself unable to make cars that can compete while healing a global-warmed planet.

So let's convert the company's infrastructure to churn out trolley cars, monorails, passenger trains, truly green buses.

NORML Strikes Back!!!

Food Fascist — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 16:25:02 EDT

SoloPocono Says:
March 26th, 2009 at 2:22 pm

OK Paul, I JUST got home from the doctors-where HE laughed at ME when I suggested Marinol, at LEAST, for my glaucoma, chronic ulcers, severe muscle spasms caused by frequent dislocations and fractures–all related to a genetic disorder I was born with. I live in a State where a congressman plans on introducing a bill for medical cannabis in the coming weeks: and where Allen can tell you-last night on a local newscast, the subject was all BUT laughed at. *I’M* NOT LAUGHING!!!
I”M IN PAIN, I”M GOING BLIND, and can’t take the eye drops because I’m allergic to them. 10 years ago I lost everything-my career as a healthcare professional, and my insurance which began a domino effect; beginning with my marriage, my home, my car, my children-and because of the latter-I nearly lost my sanity. Despite my deteriorating health, including a fight with ovarian cancer, I’ve pushed on. At 48yrs old, I would NEVER have guessed that in 2009, this valuable, medicinal, life giving, peace loving PLANT would STILL be illegal!! I’ve actually looked forward to the day where I could sit back, smoke a joint, LEGALLY, knowing that those magical cannabinoids that GOD PUT HERE ON EARTH FOR US, even constructing our own bodies complete with a receptive endocannabinoid system–were at work in my body helping me to heal,..in peace.
My fantasy is blown. Do you all realize what kind of effect this insane attitude that Obama portrayed this morning will have on those legislatures that are, right now,debating the possibility of legalizing cannabis? FINALLY?? We’ve come SO close, only to have this man WE BELIEVED IN, that we ALL believed would bring CHANGE–make a mockery of US??!!! A mockery of the suffering that MILLIONS are going through just waiting for the day we can have some HOPE??!!
uuhhmm..wasn’t “HOPE” a pillar of Obama’s campaign??!!
You know folks, I’m REALLY starting to believe that this man is just ONE MORE, bought and paid for, instrument of the almighty dollar, and ONLY the almighty dollar.
Maybe we should REALLY get to him where it WOULD make a CHANGE. A *CHANGE* in poll numbers, support of his other policies-most of which are all leaning towards the corporatocracy anyways.
Obama just DOESN’T “GET IT”. And I for one, am sick and tired of being laughed at, trodden on, and lied to by politicians, owned by special interests.
I’m calling Caseys and Specter office as soon as I’m done here. After that, I’ll start writing-to everyone I can. I REFUSE to continue to support a president who LAUGHS at the suffering and VERY hard work of others.
My fantasies about “CHANGE” are gone, the bubble has burst.
sorry folks–a rather emotional issue for a sleep-deprived woman in extreme pain right now….Keep up the GREAT Work Paul, Allen, and everyone else. I may be giving up on Obama, but NOT this cause….

See more here: http://blog.norml.org/2009/03/26/president-obama-what-is-so-funny-about-taxing-and-regulating-marijuana/comment-page-3/#comment-24974

President Obama Disrespects Jeer those who would legalize marijuana

Food Fascist — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 13:06:57 EDT

If Tom Ammiato’s Bill would pass in California, we could tax the herb and yield an estimated annual one billion dollars. Please educate yourself on it before disrespecting the issue. This would reduce significantly the Mexican drug cartels and keep medical doctors out of jail. Do you outlaw clover on your front lawn. Do you have any background in herbal medicine. Your response today really offended me. Read Dr. Sperling's book Rebel with a Cause. Marijuana has shown a big part in healing cancer. Stop making fun of the idea of making fun of legalizing marijuana and at least educate yourself on the matter or put in place. I’ll tell you what to laugh at- Clean coal.

You have the audacity to tell us herbalists what does and does not cure cancer when you are supporting the ficticeous clean coal that does? If the nation won’t allow marijuana, then be intellectually honest and prohibit alcohol. Eric Holder came out and said there would be no more federal raids in California and sure enough there was another raid at a medical marijuana club in San Francisco just a few days ago.

We have a problem with Western Medicine in general, I doubt many would have need spinal taps or unnecessary surgeries or additctive pain killers to mask their true health problems.

Obama's Excellent Atomic Omission

Food Fascist — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 10:32:51 EST

Harvey Wasserman

Obama's Excellent Atomic Omission
February 26, 2009

Two lethal words went thankfully unspoken in President Obama’s address to the nation this week---atomic energy.

Unfortunately, two others---“clean coal”---were included.

An increasingly desperate reactor industry just tried to sneak a $50 billion loan guarantee package into the stimulus bill. But for the third time since 2007, it got beat by a powerful national grassroots movement and key Congressional leaders.

Nuke pushers now want reactors painted “green” in a renewable standard Congress may soon set.

Hordes of radioactive lobbyists will swarm around that and new energy and global warming legislation. Every obscure sentence in those bills will be targeted for hidden handouts. Unfortunately, some money may already have slipped through from previous Bush-Cheney maneuvering.

EDF, the French national utility, wants to force its nukes into the American market. With Wall Street unwilling, Areva---the EDF front company---would use French tax money here as in Finland, where a new reactor project is already years behind schedule and billions over budget.

In Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, Maryland, Texas, Missouri, Wisconsin and elsewhere, the industry wants to tax ratepayers for reactor construction in advance. In Florida and Georgia, rates are already soaring. A Missouri utility is trying to overturn a 1976 public referendum banning such scams.

Obama’s position has been largely opaque. Close to pro-nuke Illinois utilities in his early days, he has never renounced the technology. But he’s firmly opposed Nevada’s Yucca Mountain high level repository, whose failure---after fifty years---leaves the industry with no solution to its waste problem.

Energy Secretary Stephen Chu has made pro-nuke rumblings. But the critical component---massive federal funding---has not materialized. So we green energy advocates held our collective breath when Obama promised to “invest fifteen billion dollars a year to develop technologies like wind power and solar power; advanced biofuels, clean coal, and more fuel-efficient cars and trucks built right here in America.”

In his acceptance speech for the Democratic nomination, Obama included nuke power. Now the reference is gone. Let’s hope that signals an end to all taxpayer funding for this catastrophic failed technology.

Unfortunately, Obama did mention “clean coal,” which---like “safe nukes”--- does not exist. On March 2, there will be non-violent civil disobedience against a coal burner in the nation’s capital. This welcome action follows in the tradition of mass occupations at the Seabrook (NH) and other reactor construction sites since 1976.

Back then, grassroots organizations like the Clamshell Alliance developed a Solartopian vision of a world totally free from fossil fuels and atomic power. The plan was born in part at a “Toward Tomorrow” energy fair in Amherst, Massachusetts that featured wind power pioneer William Heronemus and efficiency guru Amory Lovins.

A green-powered Earth means ending both fossil and nuke power, to run totally on solar, wind, tidal, geothermal, non-food-based biofuels and other true renewables, with increased efficiency and restored mass transit.

Like stashing nuke waste in an earthquake zone surrounded by dormant volcanoes, as at Yucca Mountain, carbon sequestration for coal is unworkable, unacceptable---and unnecessary.

The upcoming march against that coal burner will be ushered along by three decades of anti-nuke activism. Let’s hope it prompts Obama to omit that clean coal oxymoron from his next speech---and from all proposed government funding.

--
Harvey Wasserman edits the NukeFree.org website, and is author of SOLARTOPIA! Our Green-Powered Earth. He was arrested at the Diablo Canyon (CA) nuke in 1984, and Seabrook in 1989.
=

Just want to say your a good guy, Barack Obama

Food Fascist — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 00:40:26 EST

I know as the lefty liberal faculty member of a college that I have been tough on your centrist views including FISA, nuclear power, investigations of the Bush family.

I just want you to have on record one post in which you know how much I appreciate you. To have a president that can read and write! So impressive, you hold the world in your hands and we trust you will do right by us and with us.

Good will and good karma are so much more meaningful and so much more rich than dollars in the bank. Your spirit and soul are enriched with our good thoughts and will and intentions.

The world is excited and alive.

Many blessings to you, your family, the whole Obama Team and the world........

Entering the Age of Aquarius................

check out shoebush.org

Food Fascist — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 00:35:23 EST

also arrestbush.com and afterdowingstreet.com to sign a petition to investigate the Bush crime family

Just say no to Geiger & Sachs Treasury Secretary

Food Fascist — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 16:41:38 EST

The American public has been sacked by Sachs Enough!

If Geiger can't remember to pay his taxes or most likely simply did not want to pay his taxes- Just say no to these crooks dammit!!!!

Republican Myth: Cutting Taxes does NOT Raise Revenues

Food Fascist — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 23:51:01 EST

The following is regarding the current State of California budget crisis- but the following challenges Schwarzeneggers statements regarding taxation and makes use of a Thom Hartmann transcript to be used for the education of the state to get us past this horrible debt issue and perhaps to be used on a national level to help sell however President-elect Obama plans to pay for the stimulus.

THX for everything you do.

January 8, 2008 Senator Darrel Steinberg
President pro-Tem 1020 N Street, Suite 576 Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: (916) 651-1529 Dear Sir: On the local news various times per day I am hearing the voice of Governor Schwarzenegger say 'Californians cannot pass the proposed Democratic Party budget because it raises taxes that will cause the state to lose revenues.' Articulating against this case this very morning at the time I called your phone number to express my anxiety over hearing yet still squabble over a State budget, was my favorite broadcaster, author and pundit Thom Hartmann -literally making the case as I was trying to while on the phone to your staffer, Nicholas Barry. What timing! If only I could have put the phone next to my internet speakers. Well as promised, I am able to deliver the link to the audio cast to enable you to hear this fine delivery with an explanation of the origins of how the myth of cutting taxes raises revenues was generated; but am also extremely pleased to provide you with even a transcript of the case made for which was a response to an email I sent to Sue Nethercott of the show, who arranged a transcript to be developed and was promptly here to me for you just an an hour ago. This information in my opinion should be gotten to the media so the constituents of the state understand the argument. Find the link to the audio cast below. If link breaks, you can go to http://www.green960.com/main.html and to the 'listen here' tab, to Thom Hartman podcasts 01/08/09 hour 1 to the old podcast page for today, hour 1: http://a1135.g.akamai.net/f/1135/18227/1h/cchannel.download.akamai.com/18227/podcast/SANFRANCISCO-CA/KKGN-AM/Thom%20Hartmann%2001-08-09%20H1.mp3?CPROG=PCAST&MARKET=SANFRANCISCO-CA&NG_FORMAT=progressivetalk&SITE_ID=5257&STATION_ID=KKGN-AM&PCAST_AUTHOR=Green_960_-_Thom_Hartmann&PCAST_CAT=Podcasts&PCAST_TITLE=Green_960_-_Thom_Hartmann Beneath, please find the transcript Sue had made for your immediate attention.

Highlight of transcript below:

the Two Santa Claus Theory......

Republicans were opposed tax cuts. They thought that a balanced budget was a good thing. And historically the Republicans were opposed to government spending. Now, what Jude Wanniski did is, he came along and he said, 'you can, Republicans, you can now be in favor of tax cuts. You can be a Santa Claus to the American people, because we've invented this thing called the Laffer curve, and we've come up with this idea called 'supply side economics' that says if you cut taxes you're actually going to raise revenue.

.....the two Santa Clauses theory worked. The Republicans in the late 70s, Jude Wanniski, who invented supply side economics; invented the word, the phrase, and Grover Norquist sat down with Newt Gingrich and as Norquist writes, "Newt Gingrich thought he had died and gone to heaven". What, you mean we can be the Santa Claus who gives out tax breaks and tax cuts and we can be the Santa Claus who spends money? Yeah. All you have to do is bankrupt the government.

From: Sue Nethercott [mailto:sue.nethercott@gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, January 08, 2009 5:43 PM
To: Louise Hartmann
Cc: karenhansen108@comcast.net
Subject: Transcript: Obama's economic speech and the Two Santa Claus Theory rant, 08 January 2009

Thom Hartmann on Obama's Economic Speech and the Two Santa Claus Theory, 08 January 2009

Barack Obama gave a, knocked it out of the ball park today and here's what you're going to get on this program that you're not going to get on any other talk radio show, except perhaps those that follow this to the extent that this show becomes show prep for other shows, and that's the back story.

Why are we here? It's not, this is not just Republican irresponsibility, this is not just the failure of ideology, this mess that we are in, it's not just Phil Gramm doing away with Glass Steagall, it's not just, you know, there's a whole bunch, it's not just the Savings and Loan crisis, it's not just unregulated bankers and all that kind of thing.

In fact, in a very, very real way those are all symptoms of the real cause. And the real cause goes back to the mid '70s with conservative and Republican thinkers, plotters, schemers, people who hate America, at least the way that it was conceived by our founders, planning on how they could gain power, in their mind ideally even permanent power, but at least the majority of the power over the short term and over the long term so that they could make themselves wealthy, (a), but perhaps most important, (b), so that they could have America in the vision that it has been held since conservatives, well, since the very early days, since John Adams with the Alien and Sedition Acts; our first conservative president, the second president of the United States, the guy who shut down twenty newspapers. He put Benjamin Franklin Bache, Ben Franklin's grandson in prison, 'cause Ben Franklin's grandson dared to write that President John Adams was 'old, toothless, balding and querulous' - combative. For this he put him in prison. Okay.

The conservatives from the founding of this country have believed that if the majority of the people participate in governance, it's a bad thing. The conservative world view is that you must have a small governing elite. It must be the good people, the few good people. And how do you define the good people? Well, they're the rich ones, because riches, just ask John Calvin, right? The founder of Calvinism, the Calvinist church. This was a very, very popular notion for hundreds of, it still is. The way that you know the good people, they're the ones that God blessed. And how do you know that God blessed them? 'Cause they're rich.

So this was the goal: to strip America of small 'd' democracy and replace it with an autocracy. How to go about doing it? How do you achieve maximum power in a nation where the vast majority of the people would really rather not have a small group have maximum power? You do it with the Two Santa Claus Theory.

I mentioned this yesterday, Jude Wanniski, just in passing, I have the details for you now. I was just running off memory, I've done my homework since then. This is where it all began and I want to lay this out for you as we go through this hour and through this program today.

...

But first, Barack Obama and his comments:

"Nearly two million jobs have been now lost, and on Friday we are likely to learn that we lost more jobs last year than at any time since World War II. Just in the past year, another 2.8 million Americans who want and need full-time work have had to settle for part-time jobs. Manufacturing has hit a twenty-eight year low."

Now, now let's see, twenty-eight years ago, what was going on? Oh yeah, that was Ronald Reagan, twenty-eight years ago, what a surprise. Yeah, so he's identified the problem, that we have a job loss that we haven't seen since the Great Depression, the last Republican Great Depression. And, you know, Barack Obama is such a nice guy. It really helped him during the election; he didn't call out John McCain, he didn't point out the horrible things that were being done, he called it 'silliness', things like that. But there comes a time, in my humble opinion, when it's useful for a politician to actually call these guys out. Now hopefully that time will, or maybe he'll have attack dogs who'll do it. But this was Barack Obama identifying, broadly speaking, the issue. He continued:

"This crisis did not happen solely by some accident of history or normal turn of the business cycle."

See, and this, this is such an important point. This was not a normal turn of the business cycle and it was not an accident of history. This was intentional. Now, what he doesn't tell you in the speech is what I'm going to tell you, which is how this thing was planned going all the way back to the 1970s, and how it came about. Obama continues:

"And we won't get out of it by simply waiting for a better day to come, or relying on the worn-out dogmas of the past. We arrived at this point due to an era of profound irresponsibility that stretched from corporate boardrooms to the halls of power in Washington, DC."

And, frankly, it went beyond that. I mean, that's where it ended up, but it started with a group of conservatives saying, you know, 'how can we do this? What can we, let's make this thing happen'. As I said, I'll tell you the details in a minute.

"Politicians spent taxpayer money without wisdom or discipline, and too often focused on scoring political points instead of the problems they were sent here to solve."

Okay, and that gets to the heart of it. That gets right to the heart of it. This goes back to a guy named Jude Wanniski who, back in the 70s, laid out the blueprint for this whole thing, for the theft of American government. He and Grover Norquist were the guys who really put this thing together. Jude Wanniski invented the term "supply side economics". It was a revolutionary thing.

As Robert Novak, yes, that guy, you know, 'the dark prince' is the phrase he likes to use referring to himself. He's not the guy who coined it, but he loves it when people call him that. As Robert Novak wrote in 2005 in Real Clear Politics, his column, his nationally syndicated column, he says, "The late supply-side pioneer Jude Wanniski wrote about two governmental Santa Clauses -- one bestowing spending increases and the other tax cuts. For 50 years until the supply-side revolution in the late 1970s, Republicans rejected both Santa Clauses and cemented their minority political status."

You get this? Historically, Republicans were opposed tax cuts. They thought that a balanced budget was a good thing. And historically the Republicans were opposed to government spending. Now, what Jude Wanniski did is, he came along and he said, 'you can, Republicans, you can now be in favor of tax cuts. You can be a Santa Claus to the American people, because we've invented this thing called the Laffer curve, and we've come up with this idea called 'supply side economics' that says if you cut taxes you're actually going to raise revenue.

It was a lie then, it's a lie now. It has never worked although it still has it's apologists out there. But this was one of the most despicable and intentional lies of the conservatives and the Republicans to gain power. I'll share the second one right after this break.

...

Bumper music: The Gambler
You got to know when to hold em, know when to fold em,
Know when to walk away and know when to run.
You never count your money when you're sitting at the table.
There'll be time enough for counting when the dealing's done.

On a warm summer's evening on a train bound for nowhere
I met up with the gambler; we were both too tired to sleep.
So we took turns staring out the window at the darkness
til boredom overcame us, and he began to speak.

Your radio support group for we the people. Thom Hartmann here with you. Yeah, you need to know when to hold them and when to fold them and this is the time that Obama needs to be holding them, and pushing it forward.

Jude Wanniski died in 2005 and wrote several books, the guy who invented supply side economics. His partner in crime was Grover Norquist. Cato Institute president Ed Crane in an article about Wanniski titled, "The GOP: Slouching towards Irrelevance" talked about how this guy gave it to the Republicans. He said, "When [U.S. Representatives]", now this was a decade or more ago he wrote this. "When [U.S. Representatives] Jack Kemp, New Gingrich, Vin Weber, Connie Mack and the rest discovered Jude Wanniski and Art Laffer, they thought they'd died and gone to heaven. In supply-side economics they found a philosophy that gave them a free pass out of the debate over the proper role of government. Just cut taxes and grow the economy... That's why you rarely, if ever, heard Kemp or Gingrich call for spending cuts, much less the elimination of programs and departments."

Pretty straightforward stuff, economicprincipals.com, David Warsh, the proprietor, writing, you know, his article, "Wanniski-ism, RIP", says George W. Bush cut taxes, he "embraced to Second Santa Theory and rammed still more tax cuts through an all-too-willing Congress in the name of stimulating growth". Instead what it did, obviously, was explode the budget deficit. "Meanwhile", he says, "Bush played a little traditional Santa, shepherding through Congress the addition of an expensive pharmaceutical benefit to the national retirement medical system.". That would be Medicaid Part D.

Now, let's keep in mind who these, who Obama is going to be facing. First of all, Barack Obama, being very optimistic, good on him for this:

"Our problems are rooted in past mistakes, not our capacity for future greatness."

And he announces the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan, ARRP, which sounds a little bit like, you know, the retirement organization, but here it is:

"I have moved quickly to work with my economic team and leaders of both parties on an American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan that will immediately jumpstart job creation and long-term growth. It's a plan that represents not just new policy, but a whole new approach to meeting our most urgent challenges."

There you go. So this is the essence of what Barack Obama talked about this morning. He suggested that 2 million jobs have been lost, 2.8 million part time jobs, manufacturing's at a 28 year low, that this isn't an accident of history or a normal turn of the business cycle, this was created.

Now, he all but came out and said this was created intentionally. I'll say it: this was created intentionally. What the Republicans did is they said, "Okay, when we are in power we are going to spend like crazy and thus buy the loyalty of the American people while we accuse the Democrats of the same. But instead of paying for that spending in the traditional way that both parties have done, which is raising taxes so that you don't have a huge deficit, we're going to simply borrow it from our children and grandchildren."

And this is why this year, if you are an average tax payer in the United States, if you're making in the neighborhood of $45-50,000, about a thousand bucks of your federal tax bill is going to pay the interest on the money that Ronald Reagan borrowed following Jude Wanniski's and Grover Norquist's advice. About another $2,000 of the taxes that you're paying this year is going to pay the interest on the money that George Herbert Walker Bush, the first couple of years of the Clinton administration and George W Bush in particular borrowed, following the advice of Grover Norquist and Jude Wanniski.

If we don't understand how this happened, we can't fix it.

Grover Norquist; some of his most famous quotes, the greatest hits of Grover Norquist: "Bipartisanship", he said, now keep in mind, this is what Obama is calling for. And keep in mind, Grover Norquist runs the organization that sponsored the Republican, the RNC meeting last week. Grover Norquist put that thing together. Grover Norquist, here's a couple of quotes. "Bipartisanship", he said, "is another name for date rape", and "We are trying to change the tones in the state capitals -- and turn them toward bitter nastiness and partisanship".

If Barack Obama thinks that he's going to get a free pass on this thing because he speaks well, he's got another think coming. I'm telling you, the right wing talk shows today, already, right now, are going to be yelling and screaming it's socialism and they are going to be falling back on the Two Santa Claus Theory without ever telling their poor duped listeners who think of themselves as conservatives who don't realize that they are voting and playing into the hands of the über rich in America, the corporations in America, the people who hate American democracy, small 'd' democracy, and believe in a kleptocracy, an aristocracy, of the very wealthy.

So we've had 28 years of the Republicans playing both Santa Clauses; spending like crazy, and giving tax cuts, and now we have a disaster.

...

So here's the question: how's he going to do it? I mean, I'm telling you, the right wing web sites, Drudge for example, top headline, "We're Going to Spend Our Way Out Of This". Second headline, "Let's Print More Money!" The Republicans are going to go hysterical about this. They're going to absolutely go hysterical about this because, 'Oh my God, it's government spending money'. This after 28 years of Republicans spending money like drunken sailors. As I said the other day, no offence to drunken sailors. I've known a few in my life and living on the water I've gotten to know more recently. Some of them are fine people. But I lack a better metaphor.

Barack Obama says that we can actually make something here in the United States and not have the jobs outsourced. This was the one part of his entire speech that really caused me to raise an eyebrow. This little moment right here:

"In the process, we will put Americans to work in new jobs that pay well and can't be outsourced".

Can't be outsourced?

"Jobs building solar panels and wind turbines."

Now, wait a minute. The wind turbines are from Vestas; we import them from Denmark. The solar panels are from four different manufacturers in China, by and large. In fact, the French company that we used to get solar panels from was bought by the Chinese, they dismantled the factory in Paris, shipped it to China and rebuilt it. Is he announcing a change in trade policy?

"Constructing fuel-efficient cars and buildings; and developing the new energy technologies that will lead to even more jobs, more savings, and a cleaner, safer planet in the bargain."

OK, this is the one place where I'm having a little skeptical moment. We invented the transistor. Who made transistor radios? Japan. We invented the Integrated Circuit. Who's making IC-based computers and TVs and radios? Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Malaysia. We're not making them here. Try and buy a TV set made in the United States. I dare you. Try to buy a computer that's actually made in the United States. I know there's a couple of manufacturers who say, 'yeah, we make them in the United States'. They bring in the circuit boards, they bring in the case, and they assemble them in the United States.

So how are you going to do that, Mr. Obama? I, well, time will tell. We will see.

But I'm telling you, this, the two Santa Clauses have worked. The Republicans in the late 70s, Jude Wanniski, who invented supply side economics; invented the word, the phrase, and Grover Norquist sat down with Newt Gingrich and as Norquist writes, "Newt Gingrich thought he had died and gone to heaven". What, you mean we can be the Santa Claus who gives out tax breaks and tax cuts and we can be the Santa Claus who spends money? Yeah. All you have to do is bankrupt the government.

And then David Stockman comes along, remember, Ronald Reagan's Director of the Office of Management and Budget, former 35 year old Congressman, or, he was a young guy, Congressman, with no economic background whatsoever. And he says, "yeah, this is the 'starve the beast' theory. We're going to starve the beast, the government, of revenue, and we're going to throw it so far in debt that when the Democrats do come back into power they won't be able to spend any money". And you are seeing that played out right now. The plan that Wanniski and Norquist laid out in the late 70s, that Ronald Reagan ran with, everybody looked at, even George Herbert Walker Bush initially looked at this plan and said, 'this is crazy, this is voodoo economics, this is going to bankrupt our country, this isn't the best thing for America'. He changed his tune very quickly when Ronald Reagan picked him as Vice President.

And the Republicans have been hewing to this line ever since. And they have destroyed this country. And they have destroyed the economy in this country. And they have done it for purely political purposes and for a few million bucks in the pockets of their buddies and a few billion bucks in the pockets of their buddies.

And now Barack Obama has to pick up the pieces and they are going to go after him with a ferocity that you cannot imagine.

Back in the '30s when Franklin Roosevelt tried to do something like this, they called him a socialist, they called him a communist, there was a coup attempt; some of the nation's largest bankers, the Morgans and the Bushes, got together and they tried to hire the most famous, Smedley Butler, the most famous marine general in American history to lead a coup against Franklin Roosevelt. Butler blew the whistle or we would have had a coup in 1935.

I'm telling you, it's going to get ugly, and it's starting today.

Transcribed by Sue Nethercott.

Thank you, Karen Hansen Make Progressive Radio Part of Your Day

Blaming it on Greenspan

Food Fascist — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 14:57:32 EST

Here is a link to an article from dallasnews.com http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/stories/DN-Q&A_19bus.ART.State.Edition1.13656391.html
Ravi Batra's new paper back book on the Golden Age will be in the stores the first week of January 2008. Check it out! Economist with a workable plan. Ravi should be in Obamas cabinet. Pass this article on.
Blaming it on GreenspanBatra says ex-Fed chief created housing bubble, trade deficit

Peace Activists Take Shoes to White House

Food Fascist — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 01:14:29 EST

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 15, 2008
2:51 PM

CONTACT: CODEPINK
Medea Benjamin, CODEPINK co-founder, 415-235-6517
Gael Murphy, CODEPINK co-founder, 202-412-6700

Peace Activists Take Shoes to White House in Solidarity With Shoe-Throwing Iraqi JournalistCall for his release and tribute to Iraqis who have suffered under US occupation

WASHINGTON - December 15 - In solidarity with an Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at George W. Bush at a Baghdad press conference Sunday, peace activists will gather outside the White House with bags of shoes representing Iraqis and U.S. soldiers who have died since the Bush Administration's illegal invasion of Iraq.

They aim to show support for Iraqi journalist Muntader al-Zaidi, who hurled his shoes at President Bush while he spoke at the conference on his "surprise" visit to discuss the war. Al-Zaidi is currently being held by Iraqi police and questioned on his actions. The peace activists are calling on the Iraqi government to release al-Zaidi without charges and have set up a fund to support him and his family."

"It's outrageous that al-Zaidi could get two years in prison for insulting George Bush, when Bush is directly responsible for the deaths of 1.5 million Iraqis and 4,200 U.S. troops, and 5 million displaced Iraqis," says Medea Benjamin of CODEPINK. "The one who should be in jail is George Bush, and he should be charged with war crimes."

The gesture of throwing shoes is considered a major insult in Arabic culture.

"Al-Zaidi's act of civil disobedience expresses the disgust that so many Iraqis and Americans feel towards a man who has caused so much pain and suffering," says Anas Shallal of Iraqi Voices for Peace. "It is indeed a fitting tribute to the end of the Bush reign of terror."

U.S. veterans who served in Iraq will also participate in the shoe action at the White House.

"Having one shoe thrown at George Bush pales in comparison to the suffering that veterans and Iraqis go through everyday," says Geoffrey Milliard of Iraq Veterans Against the War. "Perhaps if Bush can see some more of these shoes before he leaves office, he will feel some of our pain."

WHAT: Peace activists to gather with shoes in solidarity to Iraqi journalist
WHEN: 11 a.m., Weds. Dec. 17
WHERE: In front of White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

For more information, please call Medea Benjamin at 415-235-6517.

###

CODEPINK, founded in 2002, is a women-initiated grassroots peace and social justice movement working to end the war in Iraq, stop new wars, and redirect our resources into health care, education and other life-affirming activities. With an emphasis on joy and humor, CODEPINK women and men seek to activate, amplify and inspire a community of peacemakers through creative campaigns and a commitment to non-violence. For more info, visit www.codepinkalert.org.

Take Action sign petition 2 Shoes at Bush

Food Fascist — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 18:50:08 EST

Perhaps by now you have heard that a brave Iraqi Journalist threw his 2 shoes directly at President Bush. Please read more about the issue and consider signing the petition at this site at the link below.

Please forward this email.

Also, consider contacting human rights groups such as Amnesty International to get involved.

http://raedinthemiddle.blogspot.com/

Great job rolling out the New Cabinet

Food Fascist — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 12:25:00 EST

I must admit I have griped plenty about the Hilary appointment but am extremely pleased with both the timing and manner and choices of today's roll out and am sensitive to the nature of President-elect Obama's delivery today.

I have joined Move On.orgs picture camgpaign to keep the troops active out here to ensure the agenda of the progressive thinkers that elected President-elect Obama are taken seriously and implemented as reasonable.

Barack's great smile juxtaposed with a serious face speaking in complete sentences is reassuring.

Harvey goes wild on Auto Bail Out

Food Fascist — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 09:42:31 EST

GM Must Re-Make the Mass Transit System it Murdered by Harvey Wasserman Bail out General Motors? The people who murdered our mass transit system? First let them remake what they destroyed. GM responded to the 1970s gas crisis by handing over the American market to energy-efficient Toyota and Honda. GM met the rise of the hybrids with "light trucks." GM built a small electric car, leased a pilot fleet to consumers who loved it, and then forcibly confiscated and trashed them all. GM now wants to market a $40,000 electric Volt that looks like a cross between a Hummer and a Cadillac and will do nothing to meet the Solartopian needs of a green-powered Earth. For this alone, GM's managers should never be allowed to make another car, let alone take our tax money to stay in business. But there is also a trillion-dollar skeleton in GM's closet. This is the company that murdered our mass transit system. The assertion comes from Bradford Snell, a government researcher whose definitive report damning GM has been a vehicular lightening rod since its 1974 debut. Its attackers and defenders are legion. But some facts are irrefutable: In a 1922 memo that will live in infamy, GM President Alfred P. Sloan established a unit aimed at dumping electrified mass transit in favor of gas-burning cars, trucks and buses. Just one American family in 10 then owned an automobile. Instead, we loved our 44,000 miles of passenger rail routes managed by 1,200 companies employing 300,000 Americans who ran 15 billion annual trips generating an income of $1 billion. According to Snell, "virtually every city and town in America of more than 2,500 people had its own electric rail system." But GM lost $65 million in 1921. So Sloan enlisted Standard Oil (now Exxon), Philips Petroleum, glass and rubber companies and an army of financiers and politicians to kill mass transit. The campaigns varied, as did the economic and technical health of many of the systems themselves. Some now argue that buses would have transcended many of the rail lines anyway. More likely, they would have hybridized and complemented each other. But with a varied arsenal of political and financial subterfuges, GM helped gut the core of America's train and trolley systems. It was the murder of our rail systems that made our "love affair" with the car a tragedy of necessity. In 1949 a complex federal prosecution for related crimes resulted in an anti-trust fine against GM of a whopping $5000. For years thereafter GM continued to bury electric rail systems by "bustituting" gas-fired vehicles. Then came the interstates. After driving his Allied forces into Berlin on Hitler's Autobahn, Dwight Eisenhower brought home a passion for America's biggest public works project. Some 40,000 miles of vital eco-systems were eventually paved under. In habitat destruction, oil addiction, global warming, outright traffic deaths (some 40,000/year and more), ancillary ailments and wars for oil, the automobile embodies the worst ecological catastrophe in human history. Should current General Motors management be made to pay for the ancient sins of Alfred Sloan? Since the 1880s, American corporations have claimed human rights under the law. Tasking one now with human responsibilities could set a great precedent. GM has certainly proved itself unable to make cars that can compete while healing a global-warmed planet. So let's convert the company's infrastructure to churn out trolley cars, monorails, passenger trains, truly green buses. FDR forced Detroit to manufacture the tanks, planes and guns that won World War 2 (try buying a 1944 Chevrolet!). Now let a reinvented GM make the "weapons" to win the climate war and energy independence. It demands re-tooling and re-training. But GM's special role in history must now evolve into using its infrastructure to restore the mass transit system---and ecological balance---it has helped destroy. Harvey Wasserman is co-author, with Bob Fitrakis, of four books on election protection which are available atwww.freepress.org, where this article first appeared. His HARVEY WASSERMAN's HISTORY OF THE US is atwww.harveywasserman.com along with SOLARTOPIA! OUR GREEN-POWERED EARTH, A.D. 2030

Wow! Now thats fast response

Food Fascist — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 09:39:30 EST

Here I have been crabbing all morning but thought to reply to someones post here regarding maybe we need to call for Jim Martin and I see on my home page that there has been a phone bank effort set up for him! Now THIS is exactly why I gave Barack another 5 bucks from my whitering nest the other day.

OKAY lets phone bank for Jim Martin and get a filibuster proof senate@ and get rid of that SAXBY who morphed honorble veteran Max Clelland into Osama Bin Laden.

Wjere is our Progressive to the Cabinet

Food Fascist — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 08:46:43 EST

I see .....its always the same....somewho the progressives....even though right on the war. first to break the news about PNAC. always on top of international relations and green jobs and getting off the hydrocarbon economy since the 60s, guaranteed to help you in the election, first to pound on doors and protest the war and hold the highest of education and struggle for new vision and wa la. not a single one of us in the cabinet, as though we were some kind of lepers.

Dennis Kucinich has it right, people will do whatever we provide for them to do by hiring them for jobs that could be for either peace or war- so why not hire for peace and put Kucinich in the cabinet in his Department of Peace---- lest we become disinfranchised,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,if we wanted a cabinet of old Clinton dinosaurs, we would have just elected Hilary wouldnt we have.

Just say yes to Governor of New Mexico

Food Fascist — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 00:42:30 EST

Bill Richardson for Chief of Staff please. If the Supreme court or Harry Reid's position ain't good enough for Hillary, forget her.

Oh- BobBrinkman saying good things about Obama on Money Talk, however frustrated Obama cannot take action until January. guest who wrote book on inflation says Obama at least ought to name Treasury Secretary to at least calm the masses- perhaps not a bad idea, but of course do not cave in to poor choices.

This author was even saying- hey, Obama ought to have known he was going to win and therefore, should have begun to make choices before he won- god! give Barack a break, running as the first black man and having his grandmother die a day before the election....my god, what times are these.....and yet the author seemed a decent man, concerned about the country.

Brinkman defended callers who alluded to 'marxist, socialist ect' and named the persons at Obama's economic meeting last week making the caller feel like the fool he was. Brinkman then used the bailing out of the banks as a case text as to what Socialism is. How can so many Americans not know the difference between giving out a loan to be repaid by the auto industry and a train robbery.

I tell you, we need to keep campaigning and educating the masses- true to Barack's words, our real work begins the day after the election.

Joy to the World Blue Velvet has a happy ending

Food Fascist — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 11:23:15 EST

Congratulations President-elect Obama,

And contratulations to all of us as well. Imagine, a president that can read and write and lead. All is possible now. And I as have spent a little more time getting up in the morning and slowing down a bit and relaxing a bit, there Barack is- already lining up his cabinet and receiving presidential briefs. Thank God- there is a God after all.

Sigh of big relief, as in the last scene of the movie Blue Velvet.

The birds have come to sing.

Our Deepest Sympathies

Food Fascist — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 17:09:13 EST

Tragic....yesterday Spuds Terling.....just now reported, 'Toot'- Barack's Grandmother.

I am so sorry-.............

To shy to call? Blog instead! www.smearbusters.org

Food Fascist — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 15:02:41 EDT

To shy to call? Blog instead! www.smearbusters.org

Check us out! We need more help! We are on Barack's side and work to combat ingnorance and misinformation about him on the internet.

169 smears busted

106 waiting for correction

Stop! Warch this: My Name is Barack Obama slide show

Food Fascist — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 21:34:27 EDT

If link is broken, go to http://green960.com and find Barack's picture in the list of todays news with the title 'My name is Barack Obama.' A must see.

http://www.green960.com/cc-common/mainheadlines2.html?feed=213008&article=4469623

Write letter to Media: Bradley Affect Schmadley Affect

Food Fascist — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 11:28:38 EDT

See my complaint letter and you can send on too!

OCT 24, 2008 CBS NEWS broke some story about at least everyone knew someone who wasn't voting for Barack Obama because he is black. What are your sources, and how were these numbers derived. I think you are taking oversight from Karl Rove who has been documented to direct this classic propaganda formula of creating the illusion there is a neck and neck race when it really is not that close while inventing an excuse for why the election was stolen. [see Bush’s Brain]. You major networks wonder why your viewership is falling, please do not insult the American and beyond audience- for pete's sake, I find myself relying upon International and internet radio here to get the truth or any confidence that what I just heard had any validity to it or not. According to a recent Stanford study, only 5% of whites are racist to the point where they would not vote for Barack. Qualify your statements.

For contact information to CBS, see the links below:

http://www.cbs.com/info/user_services/fb_global_form.php

http://www.cbs.com/info/user_services/info_faq_contact_us.shtml

Stuff You Can Do: Lawyers Needed Voter Protection Hotline

Food Fascist — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 11:05:02 EDT

TRAVELING AND LOOKING FOR LAWYERS FOR VOTER PROTECTION

There are two very important things that you can do to help over the next two weeks and that is 1) travel to a swing state and 2) voter protection if you are a lawyer or law student.

Drive for Change: http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/driveforchange

Lawyers Needed for Voter Protection: http://my.barackobama.com/page/s/vpcvol2

Also- any problems with election fraud? Call 866 our-vote; see www.866ourvote.org

Also- just sitting around, want to help us cancel smears on the net?

click here http://smearbusters.org and get comic book to bring to polls at http://www.stealbackyourvote.com

Lastly, keep yourself up to date on all these matters by listening to progressive radio live on the internet or in podcasts at the listen now tab on http:www.green960.com

Smearbusters. org needs you to defend Obama on internet

Food Fascist — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 23:40:03 EDT

Smearbusters. org spreads counter-responses to smears against Obama. We use a search engine to find sites, mostly blogs, that have posted smear messages. For each one, you just have to figure out how to post a response and then post our suggested response text (or tailor it to the particular site if you think that will be more effective). We have 200+ instances of smears waiting for responses, and we're finding 'em faster than our volunteers are fixing 'em, so we need more help. If you feel like fixing a few, check out http://smearbusters.org, and please pass the request on to anyone who you think might want to help out in this way.

www.wexlerforcongress.com

Food Fascist — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 12:56:29 EDT

Dear Karen,

I saw it with my own eyes: The Bush and GOP machine stole the 2000 election and the presidency in Florida (not to mention Ohio in 2004) and the results have been catastrophic for our nation and the world.

Don't take my word for it - read the dissent of Supreme Court Justices Stevens, Breyer and Ginsberg in the absurd legal decision of Bush v. Gore: "Although we may never know with complete certainty the identity of the winner of this year's Presidential election, the identity of the loser is perfectly clear. It is the Nation's confidence in the judge as an impartial guardian of the rule of law."

Back in 2000, in Florida, I witnessed the votes of World War II veterans thrown away and GOP thugs bully the Miami Dade elections office into stopping a recount. I swore to myself that never again would the votes of Americans be thrown away and replaced by the votes of appointed judges. Following the 2000 election, I spent 7 years fighting to remove the DIEBOLD electronic machines from Florida and to install a voter verified paper trail which we accomplished last year.

I have bad news: They are trying again to silence our votes.

Most people associate the 2000 election with paper "chads" and the Supreme Court's tragic decision. Yet the voter suppression in 2000 went way beyond not counting votes – from illegal roadblocks near minority precincts to the complete purging of legitimate voters from the rolls through what is called "voter caging "– the practice of using databases to improperly delete voters.

Now, we are seeing signs of voter caging again in both Michigan and Florida.

In Michigan, the state is using a list of foreclosures to purge voters (many of which are still legitimate voters in their districts).

In Florida, my home state, the Republican led Supervisor of Elections is aggressively applying a new law designed to limit voter fraud by summarily deleting voters who might have – as part of a clerical error – a different driver's license or social security number than was put in the database.

If legitimate, legal voters are denied access to the voting booth – we risk a repeat of 2000, in multiple states.

We must remain vigilant, not just in defense of our economy, but in defense of our rights as Americans.

I am working with my colleagues in Congress to call attention to this matter, but I encourage you to contact your state elections supervisor and demand that they allow every person who claims to be a legitimate voter to submit a provisional ballot.

There is a system in every state to deal with provisional ballots – to verify their legitimacy after the fact.

Voter caging is a threat to our (already challenged) democratic principals. Please join me and pass this email along to spread the word.

If you have not already signed up at www.wexlerforcongress.com, and would like to be on this list, please sign up today.

Sincerely,

Congressman Robert Wexler

Steal Back Your Vote Rolling Stone Article

Food Fascist — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 12:09:59 EDT

By ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR. & GREG PALAST
"I don't think the Democrats get it. All these new rules and games … could flip the vote to the GOP in half a dozen states." Rolling Stone Magazine is making this important investigative story available on the net in its entirety, free of charge. Read this excerpt, then read it all on-line at RollingStone.com Or download it all, with the Kennedy-Palast voter guide, Steal Back Your Vote, at StealBackYourVote.org. “The new registrations thrown out, the existing registrations scrubbed, the spoiled ballots, the provisional ballots that were never counted - and what you have is millions of voters, more than enough to swing the presidential election, quietly being detached from the electorate by subterfuge. "Jim Crow was laid to rest, but his cousins were not," says Donna Brazile. "We got rid of poll taxes and literacy tests but now have a second generation of schemes to deny our citizens their franchise." Come November, the most crucial demographic may prove to be Americans who have been denied the right to vote. If Democrats are to win the 2008 election, they must not simply beat John McCain at the polls - they must beat him by a margin that exceeds the level of GOP vote tampering. - From the current Rolling Stone These days, the old west rail hub of Las Vegas, New Mexico, is little more than a dusty economic dead zone amid a boneyard of bare mesas. In national elections, the town overwhelmingly votes Democratic: More than 80 percent of all residents are Hispanic, and one in four lives below the poverty line. On February 5th, the day of the Super Tuesday caucus, a school-bus driver named Paul Maez arrived at his local polling station to cast his ballot. To his surprise, Maez found that his name had vanished from the list of registered voters, thanks to a statewide effort to deter fraudulent voting. For Maez, the shock was especially acute: He is the supervisor of elections in Las Vegas. Maez was not alone in being denied his right to vote. On Super Tuesday, one in nine Democrats who tried to cast ballots in New Mexico found their names missing from the registration lists. The numbers were even higher in precincts like Las Vegas, where nearly 20 percent of the county's voters were absent from the rolls. With their status in limbo, the voters were forced to cast "provisional" ballots, which can be reviewed and discarded by election officials without explanation. On Super Tuesday, more than half of all provisional ballots cast were thrown out statewide. This November, what happened to Maez will happen to hundreds of thousands of voters across the country. In state after state, Republican operatives - the party's elite commandos of bare-knuckle politics - are wielding new federal legislation to systematically disenfranchise Democrats. If this year's race is as close as the past two elections, the GOP's nationwide campaign could be large enough to determine the presidency in November. "I don't think the Democrats get it," says John Boyd, a voting-rights attorney in Albuquerque who has taken on the Republican Party for impeding access to the ballot. "All these new rules and games are turning voting into an obstacle course that could flip the vote to the GOP in half a dozen states." Download the rest – and get the Kennedy-Palast comic book/voter guide – at StealBackYourVote.org. Or, read it on-line, and watch the video, at Rollingstone.com/issue1064

Help us! Contact Secretary of State West Virginia RE: voting machines flipping Obama votes to McCain

Food Fascist — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 11:23:29 EDT

Shelba Ketchum, a 69-year-old nurse retired from Thomas Memorial Hospital, described what happened Friday at the Putnam County Courthouse in Winfield.

"I pushed buttons and they all came up Republican," she said. "I hit Obama and it switched to McCain. I am really concerned about that. If McCain wins, there was something wrong with the machines.

"I asked them for a printout of my votes," Ketchum said. "But they said it was in the machine and I could not get it. I did not feel right when I left the courthouse. My son felt the same way."

See rest of article here and find contact information below:

http://www.newshounds.us/2008/10/19/west_virginia_voting_machines_flipping_obama_votes_to_mccain.php

Jackson County Commission 100 Court Street Ripley, WV 25271 Phone: (304) 373- 2220 /373-2258 Fax: (304) 372-1107 ... Jeff Waybright, County Clerk Sandy Garrett, County Administrator /

_______________________________________________________________

Secretary of State Betty Ireland

wvsos@wvsos.com

Secretary of State
Bldg. 1, Suite 157-K
1900 Kanawha Blvd. East
Charleston, WV 25305-0770

Toll-Free

(866) SOS-VOTE

Election Fraud Hotline

(877) FRAUD-WV

For more contact info http://www.wvsos.com/service/contactSOS.htm

Tell them you want an investigation and for these parties to be able to at least cancel out their old votes with another vote and then yet another after that per their constitutional rights.

* Ultimately, we want to vote on paper with receipt- for which can be done as an absentee which we will need to educate people to make arrangements to do.

* Keep in touch with bradblog.com and www.stealyourvoteback.org

Smearbusters.org Defend Obama we need more help

Food Fascist — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 21:59:09 EDT

Smearbusters. org spreads counter-responses to smears against Obama. We use a search engine to find sites, mostly blogs, that have posted smear messages. For each one, you just have to figure out how to post a response and then post our suggested response text (or tailor it to the particular site if you think that will be more effective). We have 200+ instances of smears waiting for responses, and we're finding 'em faster than our volunteers are fixing 'em, so we need more help. If you feel like fixing a few, check out http://smearbusters <http://smearbusters> .org, and please pass the request on to anyone who you think might want to help out in this way.

Votevets.org link to some commercials

Food Fascist — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 17:55:17 EDT

Here is the link to some commercials that Votevets.org put together found by John Solz

http://votevets.org/pages/?id=0015

Veterans have told me they desire Obama over Mc Cain because they fear Mc Cain will go to war over any reason rather than keep us out of war, for which is the job of the politicians we put in office, even Regan sat down and was diplomatic rather than hide behind the troops, he picked up the phone on many occassions and spoke with leaders he did not like rather than misdirect the toops. Mc Cain's nick name in highschool was 'punk' and 'mc nasty' - this was before he went to war.

The sentiment among many troops is that Mc Cain cannot control his temper and is unstable (he once punched a senator in the face and is known as a 'hot head'; whereas, Obama has shown consistent temperament, and is not rattled; calm in a crises; and therefore would do what a commander in chief should do in terms of back up the troops in vetting information and looking out for them, not making irresponsible remarks like 'bring it on.'- for which many people who have seen the documentary "Bush's Brain" about how Karl Rove uses propoganda to obtain political wins saw as a sound byte and photo op for re-election and political purposes only- for which caused much chaos in the field.

Disabled Veterans of America Scorecard

Food Fascist — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 17:23:19 EDT

Disabled Veterans of America Love Obama; rates McCain a D+

By Karen Hansen - Sep 12th, 2008 at 3:08 pm EDT Also listed in: 9 groups

Comments | Mail to a Friend | Report Objectionable Content Tags: disabled, scorecard, Veterans Disabled Veterans of America Rates Obama B+; rates McCain a D+
http://politicsandhypocrisy.com/2008/07/10/mccains-veteran-voting-record-not-very-veteran-like/ Bob Schwartz

From home at www.dav.org to Legislative Tab to Legislative Action Center to Elected Officials,

Enter Zip Code 85034
Mc Cain voted against Disabled Veterans
http://capwiz.com/dav/bio/keyvotes/?id=192&lvl=C&azip=85034&bzip=

Enter Zip Code 60064
Barack Obama votes with and for Disabled Veterans
http://dav.capwiz.com/bio/id/3181&submit.x=15&submit.y=10
________________________________________________________________- If the above does not work follow these instructions from Assistant National Legislative Director Adrian Atizado: (202) 554- 3501 www.dav.org 1. go to www.dav.org 2. click on legislative action center 3. click on "issues" 4. click on "key Votes" 5. scroll to the bottom of the page. You will see "Vote Scorecard." 6. choose a session of Congress (we are currently in the 110th Congress, second session; they are also marked by year). Click "Go." 7. choose your state in the drop-down box on the right. the votes used to generate the scorecard are listed; you can choose a full description of the vote by clicking "show all vote descriptions." The default position is a short title of the vote. 8. each member of Congress is given a percentage based on how they voted on the issues listen in the "Key Votes" section. No other criteria are used for these ratings.
From The Art & Science of Political Persuasion group on mybarackobama.com

The American Monetary Act.

Food Fascist — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 14:39:52 EDT

Kucinich’s Main Street Recovery Plan
(This plan includes programs on the following 16 points, abbreviated here)

1. Health Care for All and Medicare for All

2. Prescription Drug Benefit for Seniors

3. Stop the Oil Companies’ Price Gouging

4. Protecting the American Homestead

5. Jobs for All

6. American Manufacturing Policy

7. Works Green Administration

8. Fair Trade

9. Education for All

10. Protecting Pensions

11. Social Security

12. Protect Bank Deposits

13. Protect Investors

14. Strength through Peace

15. Safety in America and last but most important point of all -

16. Monetary Policy: It is long past the time that we looked at the implications of our debt based monetary system, the privatization of money created by the 1913 Federal Reserve Act, the banks fractional reserve system and our debt-based economic system. Unless we have dramatic reform of monetary policy, the entire economic system will continue to accelerate wealth upwards. I am currently working on drafting legislation for an 'American Monetary Act' to address these and other issues in order to protect the economic wellbeing of America."
Congressman Dennis Kucinich

17. Thom Hartman of Air America Radio, and William Greider of The Nation Magazine.

On July 22nd after Thom interviewed me he said:

"We need two major reforms - We need electoral reform so our votes count and we need monetary reform. We have to nationalize the Federal Reserve System."

Then in the August, 2008 cover story of The Nation Magazine, William Greider wrote that we need to:
"§ Assign the Federal Reserve's regulatory role to a new public agency that is visible and politically accountable. Make the Fed a subsidiary agency of the Treasury Department and reform its decision-making on money and credit to restore an equitable balance between competing goals and interests--seeking full employment but also stable money and moderate inflation."Stay tuned, Go to http:/www.monetary.org

Sincerely,
Stephen Zarlenga
AMI
P.O. Box 601
Valatie, NY, 12184

ABC had Chevron. CBS had Exxon. CNN had the coal lobby.

Food Fascist — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:51:30 EDT

Did you notice the ads after last night's presidential debate?

ABC had Chevron. CBS had Exxon. CNN had the coal lobby. But you know what happened last week? ABC refused to run our Repower America ad -- the ad that takes on this same oil and coal lobby.

I sent a letter asking ABC to reconsider their decision and put our ad on the air, but still we haven't heard back more than a week later. I think they need to hear from all of us. Can you help? Please send a message to ABC and tell them to air the Repower America ad this Friday on 20/20. Just click here:

http://www.wecansolveit.org/ABC

We're working to get 100,000 public comments to ABC before 20/20's next airing.

Barack Obama The Debate Master

Food Fascist — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 22:46:03 EDT

Barack Obama, I would be so proud to point to you as an example of a fine leader to aspire to.

Image, a modern president, that brings us to a higher standard.

Did you hear how Mc Cain equate the peace question with peace meaning a strong military-

Dennis Kucinich take heart.

John McCain's Barbie Doll is a Killer

Food Fascist — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 13:15:28 EDT

I just called Senator Mc Cain's Office and said: ' I heard a member of Miss Palin's crowd say that they wanted to kill Barack Obama. And another say he was a terrorist. I have these two requests 1. That Mc Cain get his surrogates in control and denounce her lack of appropriate leadership in actually instigating such talk and 2. that if Mr OBAMA is a terrorist, I suggest he call the FBI/ CIA and handle this situation immediately. Here is the phone number for the White house switch board. Ask for John Mc Cain's Office (202) 224-3121

Let them take 'shots' at my pet. Americans love their Animals.

Food Fascist — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 12:37:41 EDT

Let them take 'shots' at my pet. Americans love their Animals.

[Attention Action Wire You people are doing a great job on your latest commercials and the Keating 5 Disclosure. Please put together a commercial with the Humane Society. I have found in blogging that when those undecided read the article/ endorsement at this link: their attention and heart.... are captured.]

Standing on the sidelines is no longer an option for us.

If Palin is put in a position to succeed McCain, it could mean rolling back decades of progress on animal issues.

Voters who care about protecting wildlife from inhumane and unsporting abuses, enforcing the laws that combat large-scale cruelties like dogfighting and puppy mills, providing humane treatment of animals in agriculture, and addressing other challenges that face animals in our nation, must become active over the next six weeks to elect a president and vice president who share our values. Please spread the word, and tell friends and family members that an honest assessment of the records of the two presidential tickets leads to the inescapable conclusion that Obama-Biden is the choice for humane-minded voters.

Paid for by Humane Society Legislative Fund and not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.
Read the entire article here [ yes, there is a lot more....]
http://hslf.typepad.com/political_animal/2008/09/humane-society.html

Just the Opposite of What They Posit

Food Fascist — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 18:49:51 EDT

AP is reporting that the GOP is filing a complaint against Obama

….alleging the campaign has accepted donations that exceed federal limits as well as illegal contributions from foreigners. The complaint asks the Federal Elections Commission to audit Obama's campaign fund, RNC chief counsel Sean Cairncross said in a conference call with reporters.

Certainly we are going to continue to see such desperate acts. Barack is beating them fair and square and they can’t stand it.

Now …we have to be ready, get your action guide on election fraud today by downloading a copy of the comic guide with some dark facts and serious solutions you can take with you right into the voting booth and including info needed for you to register and walking your vote in, not mailing it in.

Down load it here http://www.stealbackyourvote.com/

Also see, www.bradblog.com

Also see ‘Uncounted,’ ‘Murder, Spies, & Voting Lies – The Clint Curtis Story’

See this podcast beneath the Listen Now tab from the home page:

We've got the rats on the run- keep doing what your doing!

Peter B Collins 10/03/08 H3
Guests: Brad Friedman from Bradblog.com; John Fund of the Wall Street Journal on Stealing Elections: how voter fraud threatens our democracy. Spoonamore and Conner: Ohio '04, 08 risks.

To download the podcast, right-click "Listen" and select "Save As" from the menu.

OBAMA ACORN Election Fraud Karl Rove FOX NEWS

Food Fascist — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 13:56:01 EDT

What is Obamas relationship to ACORN? What is Election Fraud? Karl Rove, FOX NEWS LIARS

Its a bogus lie is what it is. ACORN helps to sign up the poor and Karl Rove [ get this documentary from Netflix,com ‘Bush’s Brain’ ] and FOX, projecting what itself is doing [stealing the election] is now trying to get out in front of the media by saying OBAMA is trying to steal the election.

If I had your email address I could send you an explanation from Huffington Post Friday,Oct 3, 2008 Also, the Peter B Collins (PBC) Show has this podcast: www.green960.com Fri, 03 Oct 2008 21:30:59 -0400 Guests: Brad Friedman from Bradblog.com; John Fund of the Wall Street Journal on Stealing Elections: how voter fraud threatens our democracy. Spoonamore and Conner: Ohio '04, 08 risks.

Also as Brad Blog filled in for Mike Malloy Show on both Oct 2 and 3 with great shows on the subject. You should also find those podcasts at green960.com or novamradio.com

If you listen long enough, I am a caller to the show with the same question. For some reason at this moment, the link seems to be broken at green960.com and not up yet at http://www.peterbcollins.com If you email me by making friends with me on this platform, I will mail you these links when they activate.

Bradblog.com probably has plenty on the subject

Educate yourself to stealing elections here with something Bobby Kennedy, BBC inv reporter Greg Palast, and Willy Nelson have put together: http://www.stealbackyourvote.com/

There should also be a podcast at green960.com or ringoffireradio.com of Greg being interviewed by Mike Papatonio.

We need to put in place a concerted effort of poll workers, vote counters, vote challengers and lawyers in as many polling places as we can and we need to yell at the Barack Campaign, commercials and albeit wonderful intelligent speeches are not enough,

we need to be out in front on election day monitoring election fraud and we need everyone to read what is put together as a comic book at stealbackyourvote.com [ a non partisan book which may be taken into the poll booths with citizens to vote.]

Good on you for your time into this matter, Obama is brilliant in his getting out the vote success, but we must be equally vigilant in addressing election fraud.

Download the Steal Your Vote Back comic book guide.

Food Fascist — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 12:11:34 EDT

Download the Steal Your Vote Back comic book guide.
“THEY’RE STEALIN’ YOUR VOTE… WELL, STEAL IT BACK!”- Willie Nelson

You’ll be helping to spread the word… distribute printed copies of the voter guide… and complete the STEAL BACK YOUR VOTE film. Sincere thanks in advance!
As heard and based on Bobbie Kennedy Jr's radio show www.ringoffireradio.com

Nuclear - Not even Wall St will back it and no insurance company will.

Food Fascist — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 11:58:34 EDT

Not even Wall St will back it and no insurance company will. The amount of capital needed, time of decades to construct, the continuation of the mining of uranium a non-renewable resource, the billions of gallons of water for cooling, the real estate required to store it and the finished product as a terrorist target, the continued economic policies of little diversity and poor security as centralization of render nuclear power at least third to solar and wind developments.

Not being spoken about in the media is the thermal pollution and carcinogens resultant of it as the hot water returned to the environment kills entire ecosystems of food, [fish] and the radiation in the water introduces cancer into the food chain; is the significantly higher price per unit of energy. These kinds of unsupported statements must infuriate your listeners and potential solar sponsors. ____________________________________________________ No Water, No Nuclear Power Worldwide Droughts Projected

hmmm....power my tv or safe water to drink and bathe in

An Associated Press analysis of the nation's 104 nuclear reactors summer of 2008 found that 24 were in areas experiencing the most severe levels of drought. All but two are built on the shores of lakes and rivers and rely on submerged intake pipes to draw billions of gallons of water for use in cooling and condensing steam after it has turned the plants' turbines.

During Europe's brutal 2006 heat wave, French, Spanish and German utilities were forced to shut down some of their nuclear plants and reduce power at others because of low water levels — some for as much as a week. Similar restrictions, coupled with the drought, led to the one-day shutdown Aug. 16, 2008 of a TVA reactor at Browns Ferry in Alabama.

Officials further warned in November, 2007 that at Progress Energy Inc., the drought could force it to shut down its Harris reactor near Raleigh, according to documents obtained by the AP.

The water in Harris Lake stands at 218.5 feet — just 3 1/2 feet above the limit set in the plant's license. Should you do a simple search on google scholar, with the words environmental health and cancer with the word ‘nuclear’ – along with findings from Europe that radiation does leak from these plants and cancer is on the rise in these countries, you will find significant reasons to support sane, clean renewables.

Steal Your Vote Back Willie Nelson Action Comic Guide

Food Fascist — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 20:01:58 EDT

“THEY’RE STEALIN’ YOUR VOTE… WELL, STEAL IT BACK!”
- Willie Nelson

Download the Steal Your Vote Back guide. You’ll be helping to spread the word… distribute printed copies of the voter guide… and complete the STEAL BACK YOUR VOTE film. Sincere thanks in advance!

As heard and based on Bobbie Kennedy Jr's radio show www.ringoffireradio.com

Click here now! http://www.stealbackyourvote.com

Do not support celebrities voting Republican Slideshow

Food Fascist — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 12:04:25 EDT

Voting Republican in this election is a vote for fascism and highly unpatriotic-. See the slide show at the link below to see how each of the following are connected to the Right now Fascist Regime.

Chuck Norris, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, Kelsey Grammer, Jessica Simpson, Bruce Willis, John Elway, Mike Shanahan, Richard Petty, Curt Shilling, Mel Gibson *, Dale Earnhardt JR, Arnold Scwarzenegger, Ben Stein, Tom Clancy, Trace Adkins, Angie Harmon, Mike Ditka, Jon Voight, Jack Nicklaus, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, Stephen Baldwin, Pat Sajak, Susan Lucci, Kirk Cameron, Dennis Hopper, Robert Duvall, Clint Eastwood, Tom Selleck, Don King, James Woods, Mary Lou Retton, Dennis Miller, Rick Schroder, Bo Derek

http://cbs4denver.com/slideshows/Conservative.Celebrities.republican.20.830529.html?rid=33

Yes, and sorry to hurt anyone's view of a candidate but:

Food Fascist — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 16:24:28 EDT

Barack Obama-Biden has been endorsed by the Humane Society for the United States. McCain-Palin scoriated.

While we’ve endorsed hundreds of congressional candidates for election, both Democrats and Republicans, we’ve never before endorsed a presidential candidate. We have members on the left, in the center, and on the right, and we knew it could be controversial to choose either party’s candidate for the top office in the nation. But in an era of sweeping presidential power, we must weigh in on this most important political race in the country. Standing on the sidelines is no longer an option for us.

I’m proud to announce today that the HSLF board of directors—which is comprised of both Democrats and Republicans—has voted unanimously to endorse Barack Obama for President. The Obama-Biden ticket is the better choice on animal protection, and we urge all voters who care about the humane treatment of animals, no matter what their party affiliation, to vote for them.

The choice for animals is especially clear now that Palin is in the mix. If Palin is put in a position to succeed McCain, it could mean rolling back decades of progress on animal issues.

Voters who care about protecting wildlife from inhumane and unsporting abuses, enforcing the laws that combat large-scale cruelties like dogfighting and puppy mills, providing humane treatment of animals in agriculture, and addressing other challenges that face animals in our nation, must become active over the next six weeks to elect a president and vice president who share our values. Please spread the word, and tell friends and family members that an honest assessment of the records of the two presidential tickets leads to the inescapable conclusion that Obama-Biden is the choice for humane-minded voters.

Paid for by Humane Society Legislative Fund and not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.
Read the entire article here [ yes, there is a lot more....]
http://hslf.typepad.com/political_animal/2008/09/humane-society.html

Democrats Take the Bait Again and Again and Again

Food Fascist — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 14:45:35 EDT

Today CBS reported that Barack was calling senators to get them to vote for the bail out because he'll fix it once he's in. Well..with all due respect this seems naive and Braveheart has gotten himself into the October surprise grand trap.

Did you notice that just about all of the Democrats said yes to the bail out and not many if any of the Republicans [CBS reported and I did not write down exactly the yay nays] for it.

Now the Republicans will go to the Corporate Media and tell the nation that the bleeding heart liver lilly liberals gave into the aristocracy and the irresponsible Wall Street Boys and that's why you need to put a Republican into office.

I hope I am wrong but Democrats keep losing elections, whether its election fraud or political triangulation. We need to be doing what is right and not get intertwined into these complexities. The Democrats could have used any one's protfolio losses or 12% unemployment to get into office- now, they rescue some jobs and lose the presidency because they gamble with dares.

If Barack is the Sheriff of Blazing Saddles, I love him all the more. And this economic bomb was meant to go off inside his presidency. The Republicans screwed up and it went off early, but no problem, I will still vote for Barack but have begun to take my Green Collar Economy Dream to a non-partisan level. You can get a book about this at: http://www.vanjones.net/book

On November 5th, when they steal the election because the Democrats won't be honest with the American people and own up to the fact that the elections are being stolen, go out into the streets like Gandhi in a peaceful way. No one has been telling us the truth about fascism other than Dennis Kucinich, Ron Paul, and that Keith Ellison the senator from Minnesota.

thieves to steal an additional $700 billion

Food Fascist — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 00:56:04 EDT

Dear Friends of Monetary Reform,
Below is our press release after the 4th Annual Monetary Reform Conference (a report will soon go out; participants are emailing their congratulations)

Meanwhile, a gang of ruthless thieves is attempting to steal an additional $700 billion from our nation, under threat of an economic meltdown.

There are two things you can and should do RIGHT NOW to stop this outrage:
1) Forward this email immediately to your entire email list by Thursday at the latest, and request that they also forward it to their lists, etc, etc, etc!

2) Forward this email to both of your U.S. Senators, and to your Congressman. (The email address of your Congressman is at https://forms.house.gov/wyr/welcome.shtml   Your Senators email addresses are at: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

Do this before Thursday's vote!

Thanks,
Stephen Zarlenga
Ami

Press Release from the American Monetary Institute        Sept. 29, 2008
Contact person: Stephen Zarlenga       phone: 224-805-2200

The following press release is issued by the American Monetary Institute following its
4th annual Monetary Reform Conference at Roosevelt University, Sept. 25-28th.

"The private financial sector has failed. The public sector is expected to rescue them
and it will. Therefore the public sector should control the money system
to benefit the country".

Why No Immediate Wall Street Bailout Will Work

In order for the bail out to work, it needs to restore confidence among the public, not just Wall Street gamblers. Confidence won't be restored by rushing Congress into bailing out the very same people who wrecked our money and banking system. That will actually harm things further. The public understands this and sees the $700 billion grab as adding insult to injury.

The only way to restore confidence is if the Congress is seen to be carefully deliberating how to solve the crisis, in the American interest. The people will then understand that Congress is doing its job and our country can then start rebuilding it’s money system. The Predators accurately judged the Democratic and Republican Congress to be jellyfish. But they misjudged the American people, who have given our congress some backbone. We are going to have our opportunity to replace our unjust money system with a good one in the coming months and years, as this crisis develops.

MORE SPECIFICS FOLLOW and more is at http://www.monetary.org:

Monetary Reform of the Federal Reserve System.

At the heart of the problem is that our money system has been privatized. Naturally it’s been run for the benefit of the “privates” in control, with minimal concern for the public interest.

Legislation called The American Monetary Act has been in preparation for years. It’s based on well known monetary principles and actual experience from our own, and other countries monetary history. (see the act at http://www.monetary.org/amacolorpamphlet.pdf)

The Act incorporates the Federal Reserve System into the U.S. Treasury. It removes the banking systems privilege to create money, placing that firmly within government, and it establishes areas for governmentally created money to be introduced into the economy for infrastructure, including the human infrastructure of health care and education.

Should the situation deteriorate markedly now, the American Monetary Act could be put into effect immediately with the reliable understanding that it would be a definite and major improvement over the current system.

Our money system would then shift away from credit and debt, to real money. One difference between money and credit is that during uncertain times, credit evaporates as confidence declines, but money does not go out of existence, it is much more stable. A big part of the current problem is that while we have had loads of bank credit circulating, there has been very little “real money” issued by government in circulation mainly our coins and bills. The credit is evaporating along with housing valuations.

The AMI has been ready and working on these provisions for years, while realizing that it unfortunately might require a crisis to bring real attention to it. We have the crisis now.

Rather than borrowing the $ billions being demanded, and ending up paying back about 3 times the amount after interest charges, The US Government would issue money itself, instead of borrowing it from banks. But while the banks issue credit that substitutes for money, the U.S. would issue actual money. Our Government has the power to create the money, in an account, or by simply printing it as “greenbacks.”

There would not be inflationary effects, because it was already believed that those moneys existed in the form of the real estate values and loans. In effect this would stop a deflation which will follow from writing down those assets and loans to their present market values. Conditions in the act assure that the banking system could not use those government created dollars for further credit creation, as that would be inflationary. The US Treasury would help direct the money into the real economy, not speculation.

Warmest regards and ready to help,
Stephen Zarlenga
Director,
American Monetary Institute
224-805-2200

WHAT REALLY HAPPENED TODAY - Sept. 29, 2008

Food Fascist — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 00:52:45 EDT

WHAT REALLY HAPPENED TODAY - Sept. 29, 2008

by

Michael C. Ruppert

For years I have told you exactly what was going to happen and it has. Today's economic meltdown, with the Dow dropping 777 points and $1.2 trillion in equity lost is no exception. In our second FTW Economic Alert back in 2002 I predicted a market crash that saw $1 trillion in shareholder equity lost in the following three months. -- $1.2 trillion was destroyed just today. That and much more.

In FTW's fourth and last Economic Alert (http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/061406_abyss_awaits.shtml) -- just 11 days before our offices were burglarized on June 25, 2006 -- I specifically warned that this day (metaphorically speaking) would come. What prompted that alert was an unprecedented move by President George W. Bush to give the National Director of Intelligence, John Negroponte, the authority to exempt 'certain' Wall Street firms and banking giants from reporting their financial records to the Securities and Exchange Commission. It was this move which permitted everything that has happened over the last month. That move allowed smaller banks and investors to continue buying pigs (without lipstick) in a poke while average Americans were led to believe that everything was OK. If you don't believe me, go read the Economic Alert for yourself. It's all right there -- everything.

And if you had followed every piece of advice I gave in that warning -- two years ago -- today's events would have made you money. They would have strengthened your family. They would have made you immune to the panic that today touched American public consciousness.

Gold is likely to explode in price in short order. $2,000 an ounce is possible within six months.

Since 2003 I have told my readers that the destruction of the U.S. economy was planned, essential and a foregone conclusion. It has to do with Peak Oil. There is no economy without energy. The world is running out of oil faster than almost anyone had predicted. Even previously optimistic opponents of Peak Oil have acknowledged that global decline is now between 5.8% and 9% per year. That means that if the world produces 85 million barrels per day this year, it will possibly produce less than 80 Mbpd next year. Demand destruction is conserving a resource for which there is no replacement and this is what has always been intended. An $8 drop in price today has done nothing to reignite demand. The United States, with 5% of the world's population using a quarter of the world's oil, was/is the ONLY point of demand destruction available that will save human industrialized civilization. I have said that consistently for many years. I told you that the real Powers That Be had gotten or would get their money out and safe before they crashed everything. They did... It was your money. It was our money.

Those who read FTW for years know that time after time, and year after year my predictions have been proven correct. The United States economy is being deliberately destroyed. The fact that it was Republican House members who blocked the bailout today confirms that they are helping the Bush Administration complete its last mission before leaving office: the complete destruction of the American economy and the financial crippling of the American people. I believe the intent is, and has been, to leave a newcomer African-American president with an economy on life support which will expire early in his watch. Every Obama campaign ad that now promises to 'turn the economy around' only tightens the noose around his neck. The subconscious 'Jerome Corsi' message is, 'Blame the backs' next year when you get it that the Great Depression was a picnic compared to what is coming.

This is now the fast crash scenario. It is further complicated by two things.

First; today's failure coincidentally occurred at the beginning of Rash Hashana. I am not suggesting that Jewish members of congress had any part of this. It would not be, however, the first time that great crimes have been committed and subsequently blamed on Jews. The subconscious 'Jerome Corsi' message is 'Blame the Jews'. Congress will now not reconvene until Thursday, October 7. Seeing the meltdown and collapse of the U.S. financial system, and the failure of the U.S. government, a two-day congressional stand down will give other nations time to realign and adjust their finances before it is possible to see another House vote. In my opinion foreign economies will be energetically disengaging from the U.S. economy and the dollar in tranches as big as possible without totally destroying the value of their holdings. During that time, with the markets open, giants like Citigroup (not the only one) will be exposed. They have been counting on the bailout. Citigroup may survive but others will not. The ones who do survive will ultimately be corporations that have been in on this plan. Goldman Sachs will most certainly survive. Berkshire Hathaway will undoubtedly survive.

Just a few days ago China ordered its banks to stop lending to U.S. banks.

Second; Venezuela, North Korea, Russia, rebels in Nigeria, and pirates off Somalia are becoming increasingly more aggressive. They do this not with the intent of physically attacking the United States itself, but with breaking its credibility and economic back. The U.S. has been humiliated in Georgia and North Korea is firing up its nuclear plants again. I have predicted this for years also and it is totally understandable given the belligerent, hostile and bullying foreign policy of the United States over the last eight years. I predict that on the geopolitical scene we are going to see (or not) some very serious realignments beginning over the next two weeks. They will be irreversible. The world is fragmenting along purely geographical lines. Yes, I predicted that too.

I AM IN PERSONAL DANGER NOW

But it doesn't matter. I have broken an unspoken deal with the government to remain retired and not speak out. The legal harassments against me continue and I have just now crossed my own Rubicon. I am now preparing for physical attacks in the hopes that they do not occur. You who know how right I have been can help protect me by speaking my name in public, by writing to media outlets, to Congress and telling them about 'Crossing the Rubicon' and our incredible record at FTW. Given that we predicted all of this, is it not reasonable to expect that someone might look to us and our work for solutions? Isn't it reasonable to point others to the map we made? Isn't that the right thing to do?

Given that everything I have predicted is coming true; given that we are witnessing the planned destruction of the U.S. economy; given that it was Republican members of congress who delayed the bailout bill... is it still so impossible to believe that Dick Cheney orchestrated and executed 9-11? They have almost handed off the carcass and evidence to a doomed Obama presidency. Oh yes, he'll win in a landslide... while the Bushes and their 'base' will be laughing all the way to the bank.

Please help protect me. Speak my name. Please help others. Point them to 'Rubicon' and the FTW archives and teach them the map so they can find their own paths through this.

It is a good day to die.

Michael C. Ruppert

'Fascism ought more properly be called corporatism because it is the perfect merger of power between the corporation and the state.' -- Benito Mussolini

Purged from the Voting Role

Food Fascist — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 00:29:08 EDT

Tonight, Brad Blog reports on the Mike Malloy Show that even Katy Couric has reported from CBS news that thousands of voters have been purged from the rolls in 19 states. See Bradblog.com It won't be enough to be ahead of the polls if the voters votes don't count.

Stalin said, it doesn't matter who wins, it matters who counts the votes.

DONT BE NAIVE, Lawyers- please volunteer- everyone, contact your registrar of voter office and volunteer- I made 100 bucks the last time I did it.

National Lawyers Committee has started to put something together, I never thought I would love lawyers so much.

Please get this website out CanIvote.org votersunite.org

Purged from the Voting Roles

Food Fascist — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 00:17:37 EDT

Stalin said, it doesn't matter who wins, it matters who counts the votes.

DONT BE NAIVE, Lawyers- please volunteer- everyone, contact your registrar of voter office and volunteer- I made 100 bucks the last time I did it.

National Lawyers Committee has started to put something together, I never thought I would love lawyers so much.

Please get this website out CanIvote.org votersunite.org

Farm Aid's Nelson, Young Urge Congress to Redirect Bailout to Working Men and Women, Farmers

Food Fascist — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 10:59:12 EDT

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2008 Farm Aid's Nelson, Mellencamp, Young and Matthews Urge Congress to Redirect Bailout to Working Men and Women, Farmers In response to the $700 billion Wall Street bailout currently being considered by Congress, the Farm Aid Board of Directors Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, Neil Young and Dave Matthews sent an open letter to Congressional leaders urging them to redirect funds to farm communities and working men and women, where they can be better used to address our country’s economic, environment, energy and health crises. Please read the letter below and pass it on to your friends and family. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- September 25, 2008 Dear Congress, As you consider the distribution of $700 billion to the very banks and corporations that have gotten our country into the mess we’re in now, we ask you to pause for a moment and consider what that money could do for the people who build our country from the ground up… for our schools, healthcare system, our states, cities and towns, alternative energy development, the homeowners who were the pawns of the banking and mortgage industry. As the Board of Directors of Farm Aid, we want to alert you to what a mere $1 billion could do in the hands of the people who grow our food. American family farmers are the backbone of our economy, the first rung on the economic ladder. For 23 years, we’ve worked to keep family farmers on the land. But it’s not enough just to save family farmers; we have to create new farmers. When farms fail, Main Street businesses fail. The opposite is true too: When farms thrive, Main Street businesses and local communities thrive. Far from Wall Street, family farmers are creating real wealth, producing real value, growing from seeds and sunlight a product that nourishes us both physically and economically. Supporting diverse decentralized family farming will do far more for the stability and vitality of our country than a handful of global agribusiness corporations could ever do. The proposed $700 billion bailout asks taxpayers to foot the bill without giving them the opportunity to share in any gains. A $1 billion investment in family farm agriculture would enrich us all, because we are all shareholders of the family farm. The return on investment in the family farm includes thriving local economies, nutritious food for better health, a safer and more secure food supply, a cleaner environment and more renewable energy. Investing in local, sustainable and organic food would shorten the distance between eaters and farmers, conserve energy, create economic opportunities and new jobs through innovative processing and distribution systems, resulting in a better, greener, more efficient food and farm economy. We’ll leave the economic details to the experts, but we know from traveling the highways and back roads of this country that trickle down economic policy has not created wealth for the vast majority of Americans. Let’s start from the ground up. When we invest in our family farmers, we invest in the revitalization of our country. Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, Neil Young and Dave Matthews Farm Aid Board of Directors. http://farmaid.blogspot.com/2008/09/farm-aids-nelson-mellencamp-young-and.html

Bail Out is Election Gimmick Catch those fat pasty boys

Food Fascist — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 15:15:45 EDT

Thank God the bail out did not pass. Hound your reps- especially Chris Dodd and Barney Frank- and Obama of course. This is a fascist ploy. 'Trickle down" Bull- these rich republicans need to pull themselves up by their own boot straps.

Wall Street Can Bail Itself Out Without Destroying The Dollar

Food Fascist — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 14:41:49 EDT

How Wall Street Can Bail Itself Out Without Destroying The Dollar

By Thom Hartmann see podcast for September 28th at thomhartmann.com or www.green960.com

For Grover “Drown Government In The Bathtub” Norquist, this bailout deal will work out very well. At a proposed cost of $4,780 per taxpayer, it’ll further the David Stockman strategy of so indebting us that the next president won’t have the luxury of even thinking of new social spending (expanding health care, social security, education, infrastructure, etc.); taxes will even have to be raised just to pay for the bailout. It’ll debase our currency, driving up commodity prices and interest rates, which will benefit the Investor Class while further impoverishing the pesky Middle Class, rendering them less prone to protest (because they’re so busy working trying to pay off their debt). It’ll create stagflation for at least the next half decade, which can be blamed on Democrats who currently control Congress and, should Obama be elected, be blamed on him.