We're catching up!
Here is our October post
(heck, it's only five months late)
Forgive our tardiness in posting over recent months, but my younger daughter had her hands full and has not been able to be my webmeister.
October brought the most intense phase of what she calls her "personal family bail-out": she and her husband spent every waking moment outside work and emptied their bank accounts to help a family member rehabilitate her dilapidated house and move back into it as a lovely, functional, comfortable, safe home. My daughter went without a Christmas tree for the first time in her life so that this relative could be unpacked, decorated, and ready for visits from her children.
I think my daughter is a saint.
The workload at the relative's house is finally leveling off. So, even though my daughter also started a very hectic, demanding new job (she and President Obama had their first full days on their new jobs on January 21), she is ready to start being webmeister again.
With that, we bring you our October post. We will be posting subsequent months until we're all caught up.
Thanks for your patience, and read on!
*****
A Question from Dot Calm
How long will it take for the FAIRNESS DOCTRINE to reappear?
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A Word from Greg Palast
The Pits: Georgia's GOP Swipes the Peach State
by Greg Palast for SuicideGirls.com - November 5, 2008
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NO MORE STOLEN ELECTIONS!!!!!
~ November 5, 2008 ~
Later today, many of us will gather in "Voter Assemblies" in dozens of communities across the country, on every coast and throughout the heartland. We will celebrate the fact that in the presidential election, the will of the people won out over the effort to suppress the vote. And we will take a hard look at those vote suppression efforts, and at the ongoing dysfunctionality of our system of elections. Please take a look at our directory to find the assembly nearest you:
In addition to the problems John Nichols so convincingly describes below, yesterday's elections were targeted by a conscious campaign of voter misinformation, intimidation, and vote theft. In this election, the American people refused to play the victim. Yet what about the next election?
Later today, No More Stolen Elections! will send out an update regarding next steps. We will ask you to contact members of Congress and others, and to insist on corrective action to make sure, that in the words of the President-Elect, we don't, "go back to the way things were."
prepared for No More Stolen Elections! by John Nichols
Appearing on the HBO talk show “Real Time With Bill Maher” a few weeks before Tuesday’s election, actor Tim Robbins urged voters to stand their ground when it came to demanding their right to vote:
In an Orwellian twist on the actual Election Day, Robbins had to take his own advice. When he showed up at the New York City polling place where the politically-active actor has been voting for more than a decade, he was told that his name was not on the list of registered voters. So he refused to leave his polling place in Greenwich Village, even after an election worker suggested that the police might have to be called. Finally informed that he could go downtown to the office of the city’s Board of Elections, Robbins made the trek, got verification that he was properly registered, got a judge to rule that he would be allowed to vote, and headed back to his polling place to finally vote five hours after his Election Day ordeal began.
Robbins had the time, the resources and the information to make sure his vote would be cast and counted. He could overcome the hurdles placed in the way of democracy.
But not all Americans were so well-positioned, or so determined, as Robbins. And that is why Tuesday’s election cannot be called a success by anyone who takes serious the promise of the American experiment.
A great democracy that is home to a very busy people ought not ask citizens to wait up to eight hours to cast their ballots, But that is precisely what America has done during the course of this most volatile and critical of election seasons.
As citizens, we do democracy itself a disservice if we finish counting the votes and simply say: All’s well that ends well.
Barack Obama has won the presidency. Democrats have improved their positions in the House and Senate. And many Americans who griped through the last eight years about the Supreme Court intervention in the 2000 Florida recount and the mess that was Ohio in 2004 will be inclined to put aside their concerns about the deeply problematic process by which we choose this nation’s leaders
All is not well with the process by which America registers, casts and counts votes. And the time to repair a broken system is now, when the memories of its dysfunction -- so well documented by No More Stolen Elections! are fresh.
What are the signs of dysfunction?
2. Even people who are appropriately registered and ready to vote can run into problems such as the one Robbins faced. This is a simple technological issue. Election boards can and should have laptops at all polling places so that poll workers can conduct checks instantaneously. Not every voter can spend half a work day correcting official errors. And they should not have to do so. “We have the technology,” says Wilder. “Why not use it to make voting easier and more efficient?”
3. When voters actually get past the initial roadblocks, it appears that they can lose their votes in machines that, for reasons of incompetence or chicanery, do not function properly. There were scattered reports of machine breakdowns on Election Day -- as well as reports about that soggy ballots in Virginia would have to be dried before they could be counted -- and of course serious concerns about vote flipping. Even Oprah Winfrey had a problem with this. So did the Columbus Dispatch, a newspaper that endorsed McCain.
4. There are still patterns of intimidation at the polls. An Indiana judge ruled Tuesday that Republican poll watchers had violated a court order regarding the correct process for challenging voters at the polls, and the NAACP's Legal Defense Fund was monitoring similar problems across the country. In Wisconsin, after losing a lawsuit fight to make it easier to challenge newly-registered voters, the Republican attorney general of Wisconsin -- a McCain campaign co-chair -- dispatched assistant attorneys general and special agents to the polls in order to “monitor” supposed voter fraud, even though past Republican attempts to stir up controversies about voter fraud confirmed that there were few if any problems.
5. Counting processes don’t produce accurate results on Election Night, creating false impressions that can become definitional. A bad call of Florida in 2000 created the fantasy that George Bush had a credible lead in the state. In fact, he didn’t. It was too close to call. In 2008, many states – including Pennsylvania – officials planned to delay the counting of “emergency” and “provisional” ballots for days. Even though Pennsylvania went for Obama, such delays warp the picture of the his finish – denying Americans a clear image of the actual election result. And they are not necessary. Again, getting laptops into polling places would make it possible to resolve most registration and voting conflicts immediately.
The fundamental flaw in the system is that it really is no system at all.
The United States has no baseline standard for organizing federal elections. And thus, federal elections are as often gamed as they are won fairly.
Thus, in Ohio, a prospective voter much register his or her intention weeks before election day in order to be able to cast it.
In Minnesota, on the other hand, a resident of the state can show up on election day and vote.
In Texas, voters can cast ballots weeks before election day and they don’t even have to get out of their cars. “If you can drive or if you have a friend or relative who can drive you, you don't even have to get out of the car, announces the Texas Secretary of State. “Call ahead to notify the early voting clerk that you want to vote from your car. This procedure is called ‘curbside voting’ and is available to any voter who has difficulty walking or standing for long periods.”
In Pennsylvania, on the other hand, there is no “curbside voting.” In fact, there is no early voting. Barry Kauffman, the executive director of Common Cause Pennsylvania, says that, "Pennsylvania is very tradition-bound and not inclined to change with the time unless forced to."
And so it goes through every other aspect of the voting process. Different states, different rules. In some cases: within the same state, the rules differ from county to county, or even within counties.
What that means is that the American electoral system, while it may yesterday have produced a satisfying result, is not functioning as it should. Lots of Democrats said during the Bush years that the party needed to win by enough that the election couldn’t be stolen. But that should not be the standard in a nation that presumes to offer the world a democratic model.
“If we are an advanced society, if we are monitoring elections around the world, why not make voting right?” asks Douglas Wilder.
If this is to be a transformational moment, then let us begin be transforming our electoral system into one that is finally and truly democratic.
He is also a member of the Liberty Tree Board of Directors.
Please donate now to No More Stolen Elections! Click here to donate.
*****
A Word from Cindy Sheehan
"I have fought the good fight, I have run the good race, I have kept the faith."
St. Paul in 2Timothy
I kept on saying to my supporters, staff, interns, volunteers and myself, that no matter what happened on November 4th that we could hold our heads up high and be very proud of our campaign. Until yesterday, I wasn't sure that what I said would be true, but I feel an incredibly sense of peace and pride in our accomplishments. There were so many victories over the last year that the American paradigm of "winner-take all" just doesn't fit.
We moved into San Francisco a little over a year ago with less than nothing. We used savings and credit cards to open our office and sometimes to keep it open. We transformed a former "sex shop" to a fully functioning and vibrant campaign office. Our "natural base" never materialized, so we had to build a foundation in less than a few months.
In August, we historically gained ballot access as only the 6th independent campaign in California history to do so. Our platform based on humane economics was in place long before the recent collapses and resultant bailouts. Our labor platform was hailed all over the world, while unions here in SF supported the corporate "rescuer" Nancy Pelosi.
Cindy for Congress never once sold out our solid principles and issues based campaign and would never sell out the voters of San Francisco like Nancy Pelosi has. Nancy Pelosi never ran a campaign here, but she did run from my campaign and our demands to debate. Yet we persevered and did so amazingly well after a near total media black out and several attempts at political intimidation.
We got to the end of this stage with a barrel full of integrity and a boatload of dedication and love. Dozens of activists came from all over the country to be here to help us spread our progressive, peace based message and thousands donated to help keep our campaign afloat.
We have moved right through November 4th because this is a movement for peace and against corporate control of our political system. Movements can't stop: we must keep moving.
The way we do elections in this country must be reformed because clearly the campaigns with the most money won all over the country. If we never level the playing field to allow the people's voice and message to be heard, the tyranny of incumbency and the obscene amount of money spent on these circuses will continue and true progressive change will never happen. Long voting lines and the fact that election day is not a holiday or on Sunday give a clear disadvantage to the working class that need campaigns like mine and elected officials like me to improve their lives.
We will still have to fight the establishment with everything we have and this campaign has proven that we do have a lot of clout if we are persistent and devoted. Yesterday, at about 10, we were traveling around the district and receiving huge amounts of support and were dismayed to see an article from the AP saying that Nancy Pelosi had already defeated me. Our exit polling (from every area in the district) showed me receiving between 35-60% of the vote. We were very optimistic that we would do much better than we ultimately ended up doing.
However, Cindy for Congress got almost twice as many votes as anyone who has ever run against Pelosi since she eked out a primary victory in 1987 over Harry Britt, who was also the most progressive candidate. We raised a decent amount of money and are honored by the support we have gotten from all over this nation.
This is not the time to give up and give in to the politics of blinding amounts of money shrouded in "hope."
On November 5th, we still have millions of people sleeping on our streets and without jobs and health care. We still have our troops mired in two unconscionable wars that Obama has not promised to end. Our economy is still on a very precarious footing and oil, the lifeblood of the elite, is running out. There are many people in this world, and yes, even this nation that are food insecure and the next resource wars may be over water.
Despite all this, I slept like a baby last night for the first time in months. I feel like a new person today and am holding my head up high. I dedicated my campaign to my son, Casey, and his comrades who have tragically fallen and the people of Iraq and Afghanistan that our government have devastated. We need to continue to make their deaths count for something noble. I dedicate the next steps to them, also.
There are still many "fights" and "races" ahead. Take a few days to celebrate or mourn and reflect and then jump back in with both feet into the struggle for peace and justice.
*****
Editorial: King George's Final Path of Destruction
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/04/opinion/04tue1.html?em=&pagewanted=all
So Little Time, So Much Damage
While Americans eagerly vote for the next president, here’s a sobering reminder: As of Tuesday, George W. Bush still has 77 days left in the White House — and he’s not wasting a minute.
President Bush’s aides have been scrambling to change rules and regulations on the environment, civil liberties and abortion rights, among others — few for the good. Most presidents put on a last-minute policy stamp, but in Mr. Bush’s case it is more like a wrecking ball. We fear it could take months, or years, for the next president to identify and then undo all of the damage.
Here is a look — by no means comprehensive — at some of Mr. Bush’s recent parting gifts and those we fear are yet to come.
CIVIL LIBERTIES We don’t know all of the ways that the administration has violated Americans’ rights in the name of fighting terrorism. Last month, Attorney General Michael Mukasey rushed out new guidelines for the F.B.I. that permit agents to use chillingly intrusive techniques to collect information on Americans even where there is no evidence of wrongdoing.
Agents will be allowed to use informants to infiltrate lawful groups, engage in prolonged physical surveillance and lie about their identity while questioning a subject’s neighbors, relatives, co-workers and friends. The changes also give the F.B.I. — which has a long history of spying on civil rights groups and others — expanded latitude to use these techniques on people identified by racial, ethnic and religious background.
The administration showed further disdain for Americans’ privacy rights and for Congress’s power by making clear that it will ignore a provision in the legislation that established the Department of Homeland Security. The law requires the department’s privacy officer to account annually for any activity that could affect Americans’ privacy — and clearly stipulates that the report cannot be edited by any other officials at the department or the White House.
The Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel has now released a memo asserting that the law “does not prohibit” officials from homeland security or the White House from reviewing the report. The memo then argues that since the law allows the officials to review the report, it would be unconstitutional to stop them from changing it. George Orwell couldn’t have done better.
THE ENVIRONMENT The administration has been especially busy weakening regulations that promote clean air and clean water and protect endangered species.
Mr. Bush, or more to the point, Vice President Dick Cheney, came to office determined to dismantle Bill Clinton’s environmental legacy, undo decades of environmental law and keep their friends in industry happy. They have had less success than we feared, but only because of the determined opposition of environmental groups, courageous members of Congress and protests from citizens. But the White House keeps trying.
Mr. Bush’s secretary of the interior, Dirk Kempthorne, has recently carved out significant exceptions to regulations requiring expert scientific review of any federal project that might harm endangered or threatened species (one consequence will be to relieve the agency of the need to assess the impact of global warming on at-risk species). The department also is rushing to remove the gray wolf from the endangered species list — again. The wolves were re-listed after a federal judge ruled the government had not lived up to its own recovery plan.
In coming weeks, we expect the Environmental Protection Agency to issue a final rule that would weaken a program created by the Clean Air Act, which requires utilities to install modern pollution controls when they upgrade their plants to produce more power. The agency is also expected to issue a final rule that would make it easier for coal-fired power plants to locate near national parks in defiance of longstanding Congressional mandates to protect air quality in areas of special natural or recreational value.
Interior also is awaiting E.P.A.’s concurrence on a proposal that would make it easier for mining companies to dump toxic mine wastes in valleys and streams.
And while no rules changes are at issue, the interior department also has been rushing to open up millions of acres of pristine federal land to oil and gas exploration. We fear that, in coming weeks, Mr. Kempthorne will open up even more acreage to the commercial development of oil shale, a hugely expensive and environmentally risky process that even the oil companies seem in no hurry to begin. He should not.
ABORTION RIGHTS Soon after the election, Michael Leavitt, the secretary of health and human services, is expected to issue new regulations aimed at further limiting women’s access to abortion, contraceptives and information about their reproductive health care options.
Existing law allows doctors and nurses to refuse to participate in an abortion. These changes would extend the so-called right to refuse to a wide range of health care workers and activities including abortion referrals, unbiased counseling and provision of birth control pills or emergency contraception, even for rape victims.
•
The administration has taken other disturbing steps in recent weeks. In late September, the I.R.S. restored tax breaks for banks that take big losses on bad loans inherited through acquisitions. Now we learn that JPMorgan Chase and others are planning to use their bailout funds for mergers and acquisitions, transactions that will be greatly enhanced by the new tax subsidy.
One last-minute change Mr. Bush won’t be making: He apparently has decided not to shut down the prison in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba — the most shameful symbol of his administration’s disdain for the rule of law.
Mr. Bush has said it should be closed, and his secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, and his secretary of defense, Robert Gates, pushed for it. Proposals were prepared, including a plan for sending the real bad guys to other countries for trial. But Mr. Cheney objected, and the president has refused even to review the memos. He will hand this mess off to his successor.
We suppose there is some good news in all of this. While Mr. Bush leaves office on Jan. 20, 2009, he has only until Nov. 20 to issue “economically significant” rule changes and until Dec. 20 to issue other changes. Anything after that is merely a draft and can be easily withdrawn by the next president.
Unfortunately, the White House is well aware of those deadlines.
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A Word from "Democracy Now!"
* Penn Voters and the 2008 Election: Juan Gonzalez Reports from the Key Battleground State *
It's Election Day, and voters are heading to the polls across the country in what election officials are expecting to be record turnout numbers. Pennsylvania is one of the key battleground states in the presidential race. We go to the town of Scranton to get a report from Democracy Now! co-host Juan Gonzalez, where he is on assignment for the New York Daily News.
Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/11/4/penn_voters_and_the_2008_election
* From Gay Marriage to Predatory Lending, Voters to Decide on 150+ Ballot Initiatives Nationwide *
While the media focuses primarily on the presidential race, we get an overview of some of the 153 ballot initiatives being voted today in thirty-six states. Voters will weigh in on matters as diverse as clean energy, children's health insurance, stem cell research, predatory lending, affirmative action, immigrant rights, abortion, gay marriage, adoption, nonviolent drug offenses, income tax, and treatment of farm animals. We speak with Kristina Wilfore of the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center and Richard Kim of The Nation magazine.
Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/11/4/from_gay_marriage_to_predatory
* Felony Disenfranchisement and the Right to Vote: Democracy Now!'s Mike Kimber Casts a Ballot for the First Time *
As tens of millions head to the polls today, we take a look at the issue of felony disenfranchisement, the practice by state governments of barring people convicted of a felony from voting, even after they have served their time. What many don't realize is that while a few states have permanent felony disenfranchisement laws, many allow those with a felony record to eventually rejoin the voter rolls. Democracy Now!'s Mike Kimber discusses his experience casting a ballot for the first time in his life after realizing he was allowed to vote in New York. We also speak with Myrna Pérez of the Brennan Center for Justice.
Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/11/4/felony_disenfranchisement_and
* Video the Vote: National Citizen Journalists Network Monitors Polling Stations in Local Communities *
Video the Vote is a national network of citizen journalists monitoring the polling stations in their communities. The group has a toll-free number, 1-866-OUR-VOTE, that voters can call to report problems at the polls. A command center in Washington, D.C. can then choose from a database of some 3,000 people to dispatch camera-wielding volunteers to the voting sites.
Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/11/4/video_the_vote_national_citizen
* FCC to Vote on Opening Up "White Spaces" on TV Spectrum to Expand Broadband Access *
There's another important vote today, but it's not the US election. The Federal Communications Commission is scheduled to decide on a measure that could expand wireless broadband internet access to more of the country. The FCC will vote on whether to allow the unlicensed use of so-called "white space" television spectrum for wireless internet services. We speak with Timothy Karr of the media reform group Free Press.
Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/11/4/fcc_to_vote_on_opening_up
* Headlines for November 4, 2008 *
Record Voter Turnout Expected for Historic Election
Over $1.5 Billion Spent in Most Expensive Race Ever
Perino's Compares Bush Disapproval Rating to High School Popularity Contest
Afghan Election Could Be Scrapped Due to Instability
Pakistan Urges US to Halt Missile Strikes
US & Zimbabwe Rejects Drafting New UN Arms Trade Treaty
Dissident ANC Members Form Rival South African Party
Auto Sales Plummet to Lowest Levels in 25 Years
Circuit City to Lay Off 7,000 Workers; Close 155 Stores
Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/11/4/headlines
*****
A Friendly Reminder
The Keating Five Narrative: How McCain Turns Scandal Into Campaign Fairy Tale
Submitted by meg on Fri, 10/31/2008 - 11:31am. AnalysisA BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS
by Meg White
One could argue that Sen. John McCain has been campaigning for president for a decade. McCain never quite got over having his run bulldozed by the Bush/Rove machine in 2000. On his second run through, McCain learned he needed a narrative, a story about himself to sell to the American people. He had to take everything that could be construed as a negative in his past and spin it into a positive chapter in his long political history.
When scandal shows up on your Wikipedia page, you'd better start spinning fast. Thus, the Keating Five scandal became for McCain a turning point, where he supposedly learned an important lesson in ethics.
To sum up, as the Savings and Loan crisis bubbled, McCain and four other senators met with government regulators, asking them to go easy on Charles Keating, a major campaign contributor to the five lawmakers. But McCain's connections to Keating went further than the others.
Of the five, McCain was the only one to have a direct financial conflict of interest. His wife Cindy had a major interest in a Keating real estate development. He was also the closest of the five senators to Keating on a personal level. The McCains flew down to Keating's vacation home in The Bahamas on his private jet multiple times.
In the end, the risky investments of Keating's company led to a massive taxpayer bailout. Pensioners and others lost their life savings when Keating's company went under. Keating spent four years in prison. The financial scandal went down in history as one of, if not the, worst in the history of the Senate.
McCain got off with a mild rebuke from Congress. He said he entered that meeting telling regulators that he didn't want to ask for any special favors, or to do anything that would seem inappropriate. But who goes into a meeting saying he doesn't want to come out of it looking bad? Someone who has questions about his own guilt, I'd say.
McCain uses this episode in his narrative. He calls it a turning point, at which he realigned his moral compass. But did he really learn his lesson?
In a word, no. He kept pushing for more and more deregulation. In fact, all the way up until last month, he was calling himself "fundamentally a deregulator."
This deregulation (particularly that pushed by McCain advisor Phil Gramm) allowed the subprime housing crisis to unfold, bringing the nation to the brink of economic collapse.
McCain has surrounded himself on all sides with lobbyists in his campaign. He even hired the same lawyer who "investigated" him during the Keating scandal to fend off accusations of impropriety with lobbyist Vicki Iseman.
This past Sunday, The New York Times Magazine published an insightful piece by Robert Draper titled "The Making (and Remaking) of McCain." After months of following the campaign and speaking with senior aides, Draper identified six different narratives for the candidate, just over the past year or so. That's right: Six separate identities created by McCain's handlers to explain to the American people who McCain really is.
It's clear McCain's talk about the Keating scandal as a turning point is just another one of these narratives, cooked up special for the American voter by the McCain campaign.
*****
The Plunge Protection Team
Who are they, why do they exist, and who created them?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_12631
Read this and lets see if you want to invest in the market ever again...
http://www.rense.com/general52/secretsoftheplunge.htm
*****
It's a mouthful ... but we love Buzzflash anyway
Sarah Palin Called Racist Hoax Perpetrator to Express Sympathy for a Self-Inflicted Wound. No Doubt, the McCain Campaign Thought Their Willy Horton Ship Had Come In. But It Imploded. Now Sarah Palin Owes the American People an Apology for What She and the Campaign Were Trying to Do, Further Unleash Racial Fears in Western Pennsylvania. 10/25
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From the Center for American Progress:
The Progress Report for October 24, 2008
Redistributing To The Rich
Seizing on comments Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) made to "Joe the Plumber," Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) campaign has argued that Obama's economic policies would redistribute the wealth of hard working Americans and provide "just another government giveaway to others." "The redistribution of wealth is the last thing America needs right now. The goal is not to redistribute wealth, but to create it," McCain said during an event in Manchester, NH. But as the Tax Policy Center points out, "today's tax code is riddled with examples of government 'taking' money from one taxpayer and giving it to another." "[F]or decades, government has used the tax code for much more than raising money. These days, redistributing tax revenues are the principal way government encourages people to do what it wants and discourages them from doing what it doesn't," TPC wrote. In fact, during the last eight years, President Bush's regressive economic policies have effectively redistributed the nation's wealth to the richest Americans. According to a recent report released by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), "the
BUSH REDISTRIBUTED TO THE WEALTHY: An analysis by the Center for American Progress Action Fund shows that President Bush's economic policies have "redistributed wealth to the richest Americans and left the majority with stagnating wages and declining household incomes." Looking at the effects of the first three Bush tax cuts, the Congressional Budget Office concluded that "the percentage by which the effective tax rate was cut for high-income families was nearly twice the rate cut for those in the middle of the income spectrum." Meanwhile, the administration's failure to raise the minimum wage coupled with its poor enforcement of federal wage and hour laws, trade agreements, and union rights further undermined the economic security of middle and lower-income Americans. Data prepared by the IRS from tax returns filed during the post-9/11 recovery (2002 to 2006) reveals that household income grew by $863 billion during the period. "The 15,000 families at the top of the income scale saw their annual incomes go from about $15 million a year to nearly $30 million," accounting for more than 25 percent of all of the growth in income for the entire country. The remaining 1.7 million families in the top 1 percent of households accounted for nearly another 50 percent. But while the "top 10 percent of families accounted for 95.3 percent of the nation's income growth between 2002 and 2006," the average real income for families in the bottom 90 percent of households increased by about $300 to a little less than $30,700."
MCCAIN WOULD DOUBLE DOWN: McCain claims that "in this country, we believe in spreading opportunity." But his Bush-like economic policies would only further
MOBILITY THREATENED:
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*****
A Word from the Center for Constitutional Rights
Dear CCR Supporter,
We are excited to announce the web release of "THE END OF AMERICA" - a feature-length documentary based on Naomi Wolf's bestselling book of the same name - this coming Tuesday, October 21. Our own Michael Ratner and Maria LaHood as well as our client Maher Arar are featured, and CCR is privileged to partner in the online premiere of this powerful and provocative film.
Naomi Wolf, a long-time supporter and ally of CCR, set out on a national tour over the past year to discuss the evolution of America from a functional democracy into a closed, fear-driven society with a terrifying absence of due process. She lays out what she calls the 10 steps necessary to end a democracy and shows us just how close we are to completing them:
1. Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy.
2. Create secret prisons where torture takes place.
3. Develop a thug caste or paramilitary force not answerable to citizens.
4. Set up an internal surveillance system.
5. Harass citizens' groups.
6. Engage in arbitrary detention and release.
7. Target key individuals.
8. Control the press.
9. Treat all political dissents as traitors.
10. Suspend the rule of law.
The End of America movie box artIn her film, Naomi Wolf makes a plea for Americans to stand up and fight for our most cherished rights. One thing you can do is check out our new 100 Days Campaign (with this link) and stay tuned for ways to get involved in telling the next administration what they must to do to restore, protect and expand our constitutional rights.
You can also screen THE END OF AMERICA for your friends and neighbors one of two ways - you have a unique opportunity to get a copy of the film now before it hits stores in early 2009. Host a free public screening of the film before November 4, 2008 and they'll provide you with a free DVD. Show it at school, work or place of worship; take it to your local coffee shop or bar; urge organizations you're a member of to host a free screening. They'll send you posters and postcards to promote your event. For more information contact myamerica@katahdinproductions.com. You can also support the project by purchasing a special Election Edition DVD, available to Center for Constitutional Rights members through this indiepix films on-line store link.
Stay tuned for an email next week with details of how to view THE END OF AMERICA online this Tuesday.
Sincerely,
Annette Dickerson
Director of Education and Outreach
*****
Slacker Uprising
From: "Michael Moore"
To:
Subject: 'Slacker Uprising' Now Belongs to You (Down/Load, Rise/Up!)
Date: Tuesday, September 23, 2008 12:28 AM
Friends,
It's officially September 23rd and my new film, "Slacker Uprising," is now premiering live at SlackerUprising.com! It is available for free as a gift from me to all of you. And you have my permission to share it or show it in any way you see fit.
Watch it all: http://slackeruprising.com/download/location.php?utm_medium=download&utm_source=26884513
At that link, there are five ways you can watch it free and without advertising:
1) blip.tv is providing streaming right from slackeruprising.com, free of commercials and advertising.
2) Amazon Video on Demand will provide a higher resolution version of the above stream for people with lots of bandwidth. It will be available in a few hours.
3) iTunes will make it easy for you to download "Slacker Uprising" on your iTunes, iPod, or Apple TV, and view it there or transmit it to your television. This way, the film can be portable as well as for home viewing. This will be available soon.
4) Hypernia is providing bandwidth and servers to host MPEG4 and DivX versions of "Slacker Uprising" online, so you can burn a DVD or download the film to watch on your computer, XBOX, or PS3.
5) Lycos is providing free streaming of the film and an on-demand version.
Stream it, download it, burn it now. It's the first time a major feature-length film is being released for free on the internet. You can be part of this historic moment by logging on now!
Enjoy!!
Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
MichaelMoore.com
SlackerUprising.com
P.S. Remember, we're doing something that's never been done, so I have no idea how it will all go! Don't give up if it seems to go slow (like with any streaming, give the downloading a head start before you hit play), and don't forget there are two places where you can actually download it to your hard drive and three ways to stream it. You can get to all of them at the link above.
P.P.S. If you're not yet registered to vote, here's a good link: https://www.voteforchange.com/. There's less than two weeks for you to get registered, especially if you have moved since the last time you voted.
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Here's what the government really should have told Wall Street when the meltdown started
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Information Clearinghouse: News You Won't Find on CNN
This is a great site for independent news. Here, Naomi Klein explains how Wall Street used shock doctrine during the beginning of the financial meltdown to fleece us taxpayers. Turns out that thinking people around the country knew all along that we'd be screwed if Bush got the bail-outs he demanded (yes, as usual, Bush demanded and Dems complied). Too bad our government wasn't as smart as we were. I wonder how many generations it will take to get us back on solid footing again.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20848.htm
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Elliot Spitzer tried to stop predatory lending
The first line of the article tells it all: "The Washington Post published this op-ed by then New York Governor Eliot Spitzer just three weeks before he was taken down. Coincidence?"
http://sheilacasey.com/2008/07/spitzer-tried-to-stop-predatory-lending-practices.html
***** Enron and the Sub-prime Meltdown
(Editor's note: this was forwarded to Dot Calm in an e-mail, so you'll have to go online to find its source.)
Have you experienced the financial news this week? What did you think?
Today the financial markets are reeling--again. This week we have seen amazing news of bankruptcies and layoffs and 400 and 500-point drops in the Dow--all related to something called credit default swaps. Since they were deregulated in 2000, the market for these securities has ballooned from $900 Billion to more than $45.5 Trillion--bigger than the U.S. equity markets, U.S. Treasuries, and Mortgaged Securities, combined. (NY Times, February 18, 2008, by Gretchen Morgenson)
Wouldn't it be something if this mess is somehow connected to Enron and the deregulation that allowed Enron to do commodities future trading? Guess what? It is.
Try this on for size: John McCain's Chief Economic Advisor and Campaign chairman (until July 18, 2008) wrote the bill deregulating the financial industry and creating "swaps," a bill that had a little something in it for Enron, too. This is so incredible that I know you will want to check it out. There are many Google sources, but you can start here: www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2008/05/30/mccain_gramm/index.html The title of the article is "McCain's Scary Economic Advisor," dated May 30, 2008.
Eight years ago, as part of a decades-long anti-regulatory crusade, Phil Gramm, a Republican Senator from Texas, pulled a sly legislative maneuver that paved the way to the multibillion-dollar subprime meltdown.
Gramm's most cunning coup on behalf of his "friends / contributors" in the financial services industry came on December 15, 2000. Things in Congress were a bit tense. Only two days earlier, the Supreme Court had issued its decision on Bush v. Gore. As Congress and the White House were hurriedly hammering out a $384 BILLION omnibus spending bill, Gramm cleverly slipped in a 262-page addition called the Commodity Futures Modernization Act. Written with the help of financial industry lobbyists and co-sponsored by Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), the chairman of the agriculture committee, the act would give free reign to "swaps" (credit default swaps). Phil Gramm strode onto the Senate floor to hail the act's inclusion into the "must-be-passed" budget package. He declared that this measure would ensure that neither the SEC nor the Commodity Futures Trading Commission got into the business of regulating newfangled financial products called swaps--and would thus "protect financial institutions from overregulation" and "position our financial services industries to be world leaders into the new century."
These unregulated swaps have been at the heart of the subprime meltdown. The U.S. has affected the world, for sure.
In 2003, Phill Gramm left the Senate to take a highly lucrative job at UBS, which had been able to acquire investment house PainWebber because of the banking deregulation bill. His title? It is Vice-Chairman of UBS Investment Bank, a financial services company based in Switzerland. Until March, 2008, UBS paid Gramm to lobby Congress, the Fed, and the Treasury Department for UBS on banking and mortgage matters. By May 30, 2008, Gramm was John McCain's Campaign Chairman and Chief Economic Advisor.
Oh, lest I forget--The Gramm-Leach-Blily bill, entitled the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000, was the act broadly deregulating the financial industry. One provision of the bill was referred to as the "Enron loophole." It included a provision that exempted energy trading from regulatory oversight. (The loophole was provided to Phil Gramm by an ENRON lobbyist, a generous Gramm contributor.)
Wikipedia notes: "Some critics blame the provision for permitting the Enron scandal to occur." Soon after that rule was passed, Phil's wife Wendy Gramm joined Enron and served on Enron's board of Directors. Interesting, how it all comes together.
Also of interest, Wikipedia reports the following: "In a July 9, 2008 interview explaining McCain's plans in reforming the U.S. economy, Phil Gramm downplayed the idea that the nation was in a recession, stating, 'You've heard of mental depression; this is a mental recession. We have sort of become a nation of whiners, you just hear this constant whining, complaining about a loss of competitiveness, America in decline.'" Hmmmmm.....
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Found in our travels: HATE is a basic core value of the GOP...
"Fiscal conservative" = We hate government that helps working people
"Supply side economics" = we hate taxes, and we hate working people
"Federal deficits" = we hate our grandchildren
"Patriotism" = we hate the rest of the world
"Preemptive war" = we hate peace
"Free speech zones" = we hate the First Amendment and people who try to exercise it
"Domestic spying" = we hate freedom, liberty, and privacy; we hate the Fourth Amendment
"Unitary executive" = we hate the Constitution, checks and balances, and accountability when it's directed at us or keeps us from getting our way
"Financial deregulation" = we hate individual borrowers
"Free trade" = we hate foreign workers
"Immigration reform" = we hate foreign workers who come here
"Welfare reform" = we hate poor people
"Tort reform" = we hate injured people
"Right to work" laws = we hate unions
"Reverse Roe v. Wade" = we hate women
"Protection of marriage" = we hate gays and lesbians; we hate anyone who isn't a rich, straight, white, Christian (preferably evangelical) male
"Second Amendment protection" = we hate gun violence victims
"Opposition to climate change legislation" = we hate the earth
"Opposition to state regulation of air quality" = we hate clean air (and states if they are blue)
"Dumping more mercury into the water" = we hate healthy people
"Immunizing drug makers from legal liability" = we hate sick people
Seems the only thing Republicans love is MONEY. And we couldn't have said it better ourselves.
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Brave New Films Foundation's Meet the Bloggers
http://meetthebloggers.org/?utm_source=rgemail
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Bush-Cheney Crony Got Big Oil Deal in Iraq
Now there's a surprise.
http://www.buzzflash.net/story.php?id=58359
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My Fellow Americans, We've Been Had
The "Bushstole04.com" website has films and articles that will amaze and shock you. If you ever thought for a moment that our government could be trusted, this site will convince you otherwise. Below are links to two items you should definitely see.
Who killed JFK and why?
Please watch this film. It will make you think seriously about JFK's assassination and what we have been told. Even if you don't buy their theories of who done it and why (spoiler: Skull and Bones had its filthy hand in it), you will realize that our government has not told us the truth (now, there's a surprise ... not).
http://bushstole04.com/bushfascism/bush_nixon_jfk.htm
My younger daughter was so shocked as she watched this film that she interrupted herself to e-mail me her reaction: "Holy moly. I'm only half-way through, but it's a jaw-dropper. I'll watch the rest of it in the morning. Every American should see this film so we can all understand how we are being manipulated by the evildoers in the right wing. It makes me wonder what sorts of conspiracies they pulled prior to assassinating JFK."
What exactly happened to WTC7?
This has been bothering me ever since 9/11. I am still waiting for answers.
http://bushstole04.com/911/wtc7_security.htm
posted by Dot Calm @ 5:39 AM
