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Ralph Lopez majored in Economics and Political Science at Yale University. He writes for Truth Out, Alternet, Consortium News, Op-Ed News, and other Internet media. He reported from Afghanistan in 2009 and produced a short documentary film on the situation. He has also been published in the Boston Globe and the Baltimore Sun.
(14 comments) SHARE Friday, December 4, 2009 Obama Lied: Taliban Did Not Refuse to Hand Over Bin Laden
Obama slipped past a real doozy Tuesday night when he said the Taliban refused to hand over bin Laden. It just ain't so. They tried three times to open negotiations for this, but Bush refused each time.
(1 comments) SHARE Monday, January 2, 2012 Arrests at White House Over NDAA Military Detention of Americans, Occupy Wall Street Joins Fight.
Were OWS to get behind a nationwide effort to pass state recall laws and then immediately use them, the shadowing effect on congressmen, especially senators, might be enough to persuade many to resign. Shoot, Jim, it just ain't as fun as it used to be, with this recall bidness and what-all. Then the OWS agenda - money-out-of-politcs etc. - might have a chance.
(27 comments) SHARE Saturday, August 16, 2008 Breaking: Conyers Calls Committee Back from Summer Recess to Investigate Suskind Allegations
Participate in the campaign to reach Judiciary members' campaign contributors, to ask them as one citizen to another to withhold contributions until the member does this clearest of patriotic duties. Why this route? Because congressmen have shown themselves to be impervious to any amount of constituent pressure.
(4 comments) SHARE Monday, November 5, 2012 Ron Paul Certified as an Official Write-In Presidential Candidate in California
Paul has repeatedly lambasted both Obama and Romney for their pursuit of government powers to hold US citizens in military detention without charge or trial indefinitely. Paul says the NDAA, a common acronym for the National Defense Authorization Act of 2011, violates the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Paul also criticizes both parties for engaging in "foreign adventures."
(10 comments) SHARE Tuesday, November 12, 2013 JFK nephew names 'rogue CIA' in JFK assassination plot
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said, to virtually no media coverage, that his father Bobby believed that Oswald did not act alone, and neither does he. Kennedy then implicated a "rogue" faction of the CIA.
(7 comments) SHARE Friday, September 23, 2011 Welcome to Boston, Mr. Rumsfeld. You Are Under Arrest.
Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has been stripped of legal immunity for acts of torture against US citizens authorized while he was in office. The ruling comes as new, uncensored photos of Abu Ghraib spark fresh outrage across Internet, and as awareness grows that Bush-era crimes went far beyond mere waterboarding. Worse, torture tactics are now aimed at American citizens.
(3 comments) SHARE Thursday, October 3, 2013 'One Million Truckers' Ride to Restore Constitution Next Week
A nationwide, 2,000-plus big rig truck convoy called Ride for the Constitution is calling for all congressmen to start obeying their oath of ofice, to defend the US Constitution. They are calling for repeal of the Patriot Act, repeal of NDAA military detention of u.S citizens, an end to illegal NSA spying, and for the impeachment of Obama.
(3 comments) SHARE Saturday, July 18, 2009 President Carter: Many Children Were Tortured Under Bush
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said at the time: "The American public needs to understand, we're talking about rape and murder here. We're not just talking about giving people a humiliating experience. We're talking about rape and murder and some very serious charges."
(5 comments) SHARE Sunday, December 4, 2011 We Are All Really Bradley Manning Now: Senate Passes Military Detention for American Citizens.
In military detention you are subject to the whim of a commander, as Bradley Manning was during his year in Quantico, or Jose Padilla in his 3 1/2 years in the Navy brig at Goose Creek, SC. Even with every protection under the Constitution afforded to Troy Davis, despite seven out nine eyewitnesses recanting their testimony, justice did not prevail.
(12 comments) SHARE Saturday, December 22, 2012 Psychiatrists Say Psych Meds 'Cause' Violence; Lanza Records Still Not Released
Psychiatrists have come forward to assert that certain psychiatric medications, such as those known as SSRIs, are almost certainly the chemical cause of a large number of instances of random violence. The media has reported that the suspected shooter in the Sandy Hook multiple killings, Adam Lanza, was on some form of psychiatric medication.
(34 comments) SHARE Wednesday, October 30, 2013 Toronto Star on Eve of Cheney Canada Visit: Arrest Him for War Crimes
Unlike the United States, Canada is a signatory to the United Nations Convention Against Torture, which obliges the Canadian government to investigate and prosecute known instances of torture under the Geneva Conventions.
(21 comments) SHARE Thursday, September 3, 2009 Cheney Running Scared, But Where's Rahm Emanuel?
Emanuel could be using any of these credible sources to defend Obama against Cheney's all-but-announcing that Obama is a traitor putting American lives at risk. But so far, no Rahm.
SHARE Sunday, December 18, 2011 Why a Constitutional Law Professor Cannot Sign NDAA, Allowing Military Detention of Americans
Common sense alone says you might have unlimited powers in a war of limited duration, or you might have limited powers in a war of unlimited duration, but the plain language of the Constitution tells us you cannot have both: unlimited powers in a war of unlimited duration.
(4 comments) SHARE Friday, December 30, 2011 Combating the Distortions Over NDAA Military Detentions, Does This Mean You? You'd Better Believe It
Perhaps the only thing more worrisome than the recently passed NDAA provisions for the indefinite military detention of American citizens is the extent and sophistication of the efforts to distort their true meaning in order to lead people to believe that American citizens are excluded.
SHARE Saturday, November 27, 2010 Losing the Real Bradley Manning Story
Manning virtually predicts that, because he will probably be held incommunicado and without a chance to speak for himself as he is tried in the media, his biggest problem to be to tell his side of the story.
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, January 18, 2012 Pulitzer Prize-Winner Sues Obama Over NDAA, Says Occupy Wall Street is the Target.
Today Occupy DC pressed the message of getting the influence of money out of politics by descending on Congress. The protesters carried signs saying: "Face it liberals, the Dems sold us out," "Congress for sale" and "Banksters of America."
(2 comments) SHARE Thursday, October 28, 2010 Controversial Tillman Commander Promoted, 3 Soldiers Allege Ordered Massacres, "360 Rotational Fire"
I have contacted at least four members of the House of Representatives and Senator John Kerry's office about their testimony, and asked to commence an investigation on now-Col. Ralph Kauzlarich on the order for "360 rotational fire." I have asked them to grant immunity to lower ranking soldiers who testify and to invoke the Yamashita Standard , which holds a commander alone responsible for the actions of his men.
(3 comments) SHARE Sunday, February 6, 2011 Protesters Being Tortured While Obama Blabs About "Transition"
Our calls to suspend shipments of all military hardware to the Egyptian Army should continue. They will back Mubarak behind the scenes as long as they think we are backing him implicitly with aid, no matter what we say.
(29 comments) SHARE Friday, March 27, 2009 Center's Ratner Says New Bush Memos Amount to "Treason"
Saying that calls for prosecution of Bush officials can never let up, the director of the staid and respectable Center for Constitutional Rights, who is a legal scholar, has said that the legal arguments made in the infamous Yoo memos amount to treason against the nation's institutions, similar to the "Fuhrer's law" of Nazi Germany.
SHARE Tuesday, November 29, 2011 Arrest McCain and Levin Now. Senate to Vote on Military Detention of Americans.
A disinformation campaign is in progress to convincing people that American citizens are exempt. But it is not so. Although there is an exemption for American citizens from the mandatory detention requirement in section 1032 of the bill, there is no exemption from the authorization to use the military to indefinitely detain people without charge or trial in section 1013. McCain included a red herring.
(8 comments) SHARE Friday, December 24, 2010 We Are Bradley Manning
There are many who say good job on Bradley Manning, let him rot and throw away the key. What these hardliners do not understand is that the rights they are attacking are theirs as well. This could be anyone, liberal, conservative, office worker, union worker, police officer.
SHARE Saturday, July 3, 2010 Women Used to Wear Mini-Skirts in Afghanistan? Why Congress Must Say No to More War
The regime consisted of young Afghans tired of seeing their people starving over the hundreds of years, and filled their heads with idealistic thoughts about everybody eating, without being affiliated with the Soviet Union. But that didn't matter to Brzezinski. The word Marxist was enough. They had to be taken out.
(34 comments) SHARE Thursday, April 3, 2008 It Has Happened: I'm a 9/11 Truther; A New Investigation, Broad Amnesty, and Forgiveness
The biggest problem with the 9/11 Truth Movement is where it leads: a place dark and evil beyond imagination. Even if deep down you believed it was an inside job, you would need to deny it. So when hundreds of American military officers, pilots, engineers, and CIA veterans stepped forward to say they believed the official story to be a monstroThe conspiracies led to the deep dark hole that we are ruled by criminal psychos.
(1 comments) SHARE Monday, January 30, 2012 Obama Orders Military-Police Department Joint Exercises in Los Angeles.
This deployment is in direct violation of the spirit of Posse Comitatus, the post-Civil War law intended to bar the use of the military for domestic law enforcement. This is a role for which the National Guard was designed in case of emergencies.
(9 comments) SHARE Thursday, July 17, 2008 Nine Republicans Break Party Ranks: Send Impeachment Article to Judiciary for Hearings
In a stunning development which fell with the silence of a feather yesterday, nine Republicans broke with their iron-fisted party to put country first, and voted to send Rep. Dennis Kucinich's article of impeachment HR 1345 to the Judiciary, where Chairman John Conyers will hold a hearings on abuses of power by the Bush administration, according to the Congressional Quaterly's CQToday.
SHARE Thursday, January 15, 2009 Prepare to Impeach Obama if He Accepts Unconstitutional Powers
Obama is in a tenuous position, and it would behoove him to understand that there are those on his own left who take the constitutional form of government seriously. If he does not explicitly renounce the power to torture, detain Americans as enemy combatants, and engage in warrantless surveillance, them he implicitly endorses them and will pass them on to his successor, who could be Jeb Bush. Now that's scary.
(2 comments) SHARE Monday, August 9, 2010 Afghan Blogger Films Survivors of Massacre, Contradicts NATO Denial
One villager says on-camera that the U.S. is now worse than the Russians. Russia and Russians still occupy a particularly hated place in Afghan lore, as brutal occupiers who killed civilians wantonly, and slaughtered unarmed civilians in direct retaliation for attacks on Soviet troops. The villager states, "In all of my experiences not the Russians or the Taliban ever did what they [N.A.T.O.] did."
(4 comments) SHARE Tuesday, December 27, 2011 I Talked With an Algerian Last Night About NDAA, He Said Expect People to Start Disappearing
He said this is how it starts, the declared figleaf of legal authority to detain anyone. He acted as if he knew what comes next. His age was hard to tell, but he was obviously educated, and he spoke well despite the thick French accent. I have no opinion on whether he might be right or wrong, or if what he was saying is valid. I am relating a story about someone whom I can describe as genuine, intelligent, and sincere.
(13 comments) SHARE Thursday, May 22, 2014 Obama confirms new law passed to deprive citizens of jury trial
Whether or not challengers will be able to overcome incumbents' money and other advantages may depend on how well they are able to harness the citizen energy swirling around NDAA at the grassroots level. The far-flung network of activists, who are deeply rooted in their own communities, could provide ready-made, fledgling ground organizations for congressional challengers.
(5 comments) SHARE Tuesday, October 7, 2008 Senator William Blount Was Impeached, Impeach Pelosi for Complicity in War Crimes
The Constitution allows for the impeachment of "The President, Vice President, and all civil officers of the United States." The impeachment of Senator William Blount in 1798 shows that "all civil officers" includes congressmembers and senators.
(11 comments) SHARE Wednesday, January 23, 2013 Local Police Harass Iraq Veteran Turned Anti-War Activist Ethan McCord
McCord was catapulted to national prominence after a video allegedly leaked by PFC Bradley Manning to Wikileaks was broadcast on national television. He has become outspoken in his opposition to the US military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan, and participates in "counter-recruiting" efforts organized by various peace organizations. In these, former soldiers speak to high school students of the realities of war.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, February 16, 2012 Afghan War Victory? In Kabul: Babies Freezing, Lack of Food, Fuel, Blankets
The "burn rate" for the occupation, the military's term for the rate of spending, is over $8 billion a month or $10 million every hour, making it the most expensive war in US history. Since January 15, at least 23 children under 5 have died frozen to death in the camps.
(3 comments) SHARE Saturday, June 14, 2014 As Sgt. Bergdahl is attacked, Congress still chief funder of Taliban
In 2010, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton indicated in congressional testimony that she and the administration were fully cognizant of the irony of taking a hard line on the Taliban while at the same time being one of its biggest sources of income
(3 comments) SHARE Friday, December 26, 2008 Rove's Dead IT Guru Was Saving Unborn Babies
Conyers and Kucinich were informed because the first thing you do if you are afraid something like this might happen to you is you tell people who are high-profile, because you feel it might protect you.
(41 comments) SHARE Monday, January 4, 2010 Shooting Handcuffed Children: Afghans Take to Streets.
Burning an effigy of Obama and the American flag, Afghans have taken to the streets over the execution of children, ranging in age from 12 to 18, who were pulled from their beds by Special Operations forces in the middle of the night, handcuffed, and shot.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, August 28, 2008 Would a Charge of Treason Stick to George Bush?
There has been discussion within the impeachment movement over whether George Bush can formally be accused of treason, or if such accusations are fanciful and would not meet legal muster. I believe they would.
(12 comments) SHARE Tuesday, May 7, 2013 Call for FBI Director Robert Mueller to Resign Over Boston Bombing
The FBI is portraying its bungling of repeated Russian warnings about Tamerlan Tsarnaev as "requests for information." But Russian intelligence was not asking if Tamerlan was going to "join unspecified underground groups." It was telling the FBI. Russian intelligence was not asking if Tamerlan was a "follower of radical islam." It was making an affirmative statement.
(4 comments) SHARE Wednesday, October 3, 2012 Bush on Trial: After Media Black-Out, The Prosecution of an American President Opens at US Theaters
In the declassified version of the 2002 National Intelligence Estimate, two key paragraphs were deleted from the classified version which was given to Bush and which represented the consensus opinion of 16 US intelligence agencies. The passages states that Saddam would not attack except in self-defense.
(9 comments) SHARE Wednesday, June 2, 2010 Norm Finkelstein: Israel Now a "Lunatic State," Withholding Names of Dead
Israel is withholding the names of the activists killed in the raid on the Freedom Flotilla, and although America media reports place the number at nine BBC reports the number is 19. Withholding the names of the dead is utterly inhumane to the families.
(5 comments) SHARE Monday, October 24, 2011 Occupy Wall Street Current Official Demands, Voting Closed Oct. 21, 2011
The Sovereign People's Movement, represented nationally through the people occupying the various Liberty Square locations across this great country, have laid out and democratically submitted and are currently voting on the list of following Demands to then be distilled into one Unified Common demand of the people.
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, November 19, 2008 Cheney Indicted, So Impeach Bush, Mr. Conyers
At the very least an official impeachment inquiry should be called on the Administration scrubbing the 2002 "White Paper" of the conclusion that Saddam was not an imminent threat, and would attack only if we attacked him first. Congress WAS NOT looking at the same intelligence on the eve of the Iraq war vote.
(1 comments) SHARE Tuesday, December 20, 2011 Anonymous: Night Raid Equipment-Maker Lobbied for NDAA, Singles Out Sen. Rob Portman.
If we are pulling out of Iraq and Afghanistan, what is all this stuff for? Night-raid gear? These are basically made to blind people as they awake from you busting down their door, not for open combat. In a night firefight you don't want any lights near you whatsoever. That gives the other guy an easy target. A $23 million contract would buy enough of these things to outfit maybe 50,000 soldiers.
(1 comments) SHARE Monday, May 4, 2009 Connell's Sister Now Doubts Plane Crash Was Accident
With the investigation and prosecution of Bush officials for torture unexpectedly and dramatically being pushed onto the front pages by Americans outraged at revelations of innocent victims, counter-productiveness in the war on terror, and methods reaching into pure sadism, it remains to be seen if the previous invincibility of the Bush administration has been sufficiently weakened to allow congress to investigate.
SHARE Saturday, March 10, 2012 OccupyAIPAC Gives Iran War Lobby Raucous Times
The annual meeting of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the conservative lobbying group which favors "enshrining" in U.S. law that it is "U.S. policy to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons," was met with the full-blown Occupy Wall Street treatment last week by OccupyAIPAC, which seeks to stop the drumbeat for war with Iran which threatens to destabilize the world.
(7 comments) SHARE Sunday, February 21, 2016 Bernie Sanders Rocks Latino Vote in Nevada
Bernie Sanders' gains among Latino voters is a nationwide trend, NBC reports, as he closes a gap which until recently was greater than ten points.
(2 comments) SHARE Sunday, March 27, 2016 Comeback Kid Bernie Blows Out Coastopolis - Why He Can Win
Energized and motivated Sanders workers have every reason to double down. As the Internet, if not the major media, wakes Democratic voters up the fact that Sanders beats Trump soundly in nearly every poll, while Trump is closing in on Hillary, the curtain which portrays Hillary as the presumptive nominee might be finally yanked aside.
SHARE Saturday, April 28, 2012 AP: U.S. Soldiers Promised Massacre, Including Children, Days Before Bales' Alleged Rampage
In a striking omission to mainstream coverage of the Afghan massacre which took the lives of 17 Afghans including many children, one as young as two, the AP has reported that US soldiers came to their villages after a roadside bombing two days before and promised retaliation. The Pentagon has denied that any bombing took place, putting it in direct contradiction to the attorney for Sgt. Robert Bales.
(1 comments) SHARE Monday, December 5, 2011 Arizona Tea Party Leads Fight Against Military Detention of American Citizens
Arizona Tea Party and conservatives have announced a protest action at Sen. John McCain's home office in Tuscon to demand the elimination of the provisions passed by the Senate last Thursday which allow for the indefinite military detention of Americans without charge or trial.
(3 comments) SHARE Friday, March 28, 2014 Ukraine Neo-Nazis attack state TV CEO, force resignation letter, no charges brought
Although the brutal attack was videotaped by another Svoboda member present and posted by the assailants on Youtube, the Ukrainian Parliament has thus far only censured the primary assailant, MP Igor Miroshnichenko, and the state prosecutor's office has promised an "investigation." No criminal charges have been brought in answer to the violent physical assault.
SHARE Saturday, January 18, 2014 Should Obama be tried for treason after his NSA speech on Friday?
It is not up to the president to "endorse" anything in the Constitution. He is sworn by oath to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States," since it was here before him.
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, August 13, 2010 Wikileaks Soldier Who Found Rocket Launcher at Scene Says No Attack Was Imminent
McCord also again attested to witnessing a high-level war crime, that of random execution of civilians in retaliation for an attack on U.S. forces, a crime which was successfully prosecuted after World War II. McCord's allegation was broadcast widely across the Internet two months after he first made it in an interview in April.
(5 comments) SHARE Thursday, December 25, 2008 Did Lame Congress Enable Connell Murder?
Hey, this is what happens when you have a congress that starts out its term by putting "impeachment off the table." By never, ever, ever holding these people accountable, they start to think they can get away with anything.
SHARE Thursday, March 19, 2009 Oxfam Warns Obama of Disaster in Afghanistan, Targets Louis Berger Group
In an unusually strongly worded letter to President Obama, the major non-profit organization at the center of relief and reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan has warned that the country is "sliding into a major humanitarian crisis" which could undermine significant peace initiatives now underway between major Taliban factions and the Karzai government.
(7 comments) SHARE Wednesday, January 21, 2009 Pelosi Does About-Face on Bush Prosecution
In a startling reversal on Fox News Sunday, Nancy "impeachment-is-off-the-table" Pelosi said the law might compel Democrats to press forth on some prosecutions, even if they are politically unpopular, adding: "That's not up to us to say that doesn't matter anymore." Of Bush administration crimes Pelosi questioned "do we even have a right to ignore it."
SHARE Friday, May 15, 2009 Torture, Joe Six-Pack, and the Iraq Thing
As the stockholders who make campaign contributions to politicians which result in 100,000 and 200,000 PERCENT returns on their politician investments now bargain hunt for property and the 401k mutual funds you had to sell at rock bottom just to eat, it's time for Joe to realize that money didn't just disappear. Someone took it.
(6 comments) SHARE Friday, November 13, 2009 Bill Moyers Calls for Draft if Obama Escalates in Afghanistan
The poor and lower middle-class are already pre-selected. Who registers for Selective Service? Anyone who wants a Pell Grant. Who qualifies for Pell Grants. The poor. They'll simply come after those and not enforce the law too aggressively that all young men of a certain age must register. That would risk political backlash.
(2 comments) SHARE Thursday, February 9, 2012 Agreeing to Disagree on Much, Occupiers and Tea Party Stand Together Against NDAA
In a cruel slap in the face of the American people, Congress passed the law precisely on Bill of Rights Day. Congress's clear intention that the law apply to Americans was on vivid display when it voted down numerous amendments offered to address precisely these concerns.
SHARE Wednesday, October 29, 2014 US citizen tortured by 3 years isolation before trial over socks for Al Qaeda
Unbeknownst to Fahad, and according to the US government, the suitcases in the corner contained a number of raincoats, ponchos, and waterproof socks which the house guest, months later, passed on to an alleged Al Qaeda operative in Pakistan. There was, and never has been, any allegation that Fahad is a member of al Qaeda. He maintained that he barely knew his house guest, and never knew what was in the suitcases in the corner.
(1 comments) SHARE Saturday, December 6, 2008 Impeach if You Care About Obama, You Have Been Warned
It's been nine years since "impeachment fatigue" and America is ready again. Don't hand the right-wing a fresh impeachment play. They are already gearing up to impeach Obama for trivia, unless Democrats beat them to the punch. This is how they hamstrung Clinton's presidency.
(4 comments) SHARE Friday, June 13, 2014 What did Todashev, shot by FBI, know about the Boston bombing?
Now that it has emerged that the friend of Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev was shot three times in the back, and once in the top of the head, as he allegedly attacked an FBI agent and a Massachusetts state trooper, rampant speculation may begin. Let's suppose that someone else knew of any continuing contact with the FBI that Tamerlan and his brother might have had.
(5 comments) SHARE Saturday, June 26, 2010 Busted: McChrystal Was a Big Show, Cover for War Vote
McChrystal was given the chance to voice objections to the controversial parts of the Rolling Stone article in which drunken aides were quoted, but he signed off anyway.
SHARE Saturday, June 30, 2018 Stunning Progressive Upsets in Three States with Ballot Image Verification
After a year of election transparency activists suing election authorities in numerous states, and demanding to see the automatically stored digital images of ballots generated by many vote scanning machines, progressive Democrats have won stunning upsets in primaries this week in states with this capacity
SHARE Friday, October 11, 2013 Activists announce call campaign to repeal NDAA with truckers
Anti-NDAA activist says:
"We're going to work with the truckers on this particular item. We are all in the same boat. This is common in the broad coalitions, we don't have to agree on everything. Congress passed the NDAA three times now despite overwhelming opposition from the public each time. We want to say, 'can you hear us now, Congress?'"
(3 comments) SHARE Wednesday, August 18, 2010 Killing "Hajis" Where They Pray
As soldier after soldier steps forward to reclaim his humanity in the midst of the wars in Afghanistan and the Middle East, we are getting a peek at the brutalization process which the Army employs to divorce young men from their natural resistance to doing the kinds of things required to maintain a brutal occupation.
SHARE Friday, March 16, 2012 Afghanistan: $2 Billion a Week for Hatred is Too Much, FBI Says Now It's Coming Here
Hold up. For this we are paying $2 billion every week? My subway is about to put another 30,000 cars a year onto the roads because people will abandon the commuter rails as a result of fare increases. Gov. Patrick, can you give Obama a call please and explain this to him?
(6 comments) SHARE Sunday, October 20, 2013 Ongoing bank bailouts make mockery of budget talks
What will never be written about in the mainstream media is the elephant in the room. The script is carefully designed to keep attention off the real money, the ongoing bail-outs to the bank and financial services industry.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, January 21, 2010 Look at What You Have Done, Rahm Emanuel
If it were any other state the message would be in danger of getting lost. Two- to - one Democrats to Republicans, a state legislature with 21 lonely Republicans out of 180 representatives and state senators, consistently polling 60 percent or even higher in presidential elections, and the message is a ballpeen hammer: it's not about who voted in Massachusetts. It's about who didn't.
(3 comments) SHARE Sunday, December 10, 2017 Voters in Roy Moore - Doug Jones Race Sue to Prevent Election Officials from Destroying Evidence of Hacking
An Alabama Republican, a Democrat, an Independent, and a minister have filed a lawsuit asking a Montgomery circuit court to order Alabama election officials to not destroy an audit trail generated by most Alabama vote-counting machines in next week's contest between Judge Roy Moore and attorney Doug Jones.
(3 comments) SHARE Tuesday, November 18, 2008 Bush and The Great Escape, Impeach Obama?
The problem with right-wing radio is that 60 million people listen to it as their main source of opinion. You can only counter these kind by clipping their wings, meaning calling an impeachment hearing right now. If they get their way, Bush will be off the hook but guess how long it will take for impeachment to come back into fashion?
(4 comments) SHARE Thursday, September 9, 2010 No Tillman movie at Army, Air Force theaters
Why should the soldiers be allowed to see, without driving to the next city, something which concerns them? It is galling that they are good enough to die for their country, but not good enough to trusted with the truth.
(7 comments) SHARE Sunday, August 3, 2008 Bush Appointee Bates: Meirs Must Testify, Sets Up Constitutional Crisis
If congress does not cancel summer recess, referred to in the official calendar as their "District Work Period," we must be clear that we will be camped on their front lawns with signs. They will come out and talk to us and explain why they aren't in Washington doing their jobs. There will be no fiddling while Rome burns.
SHARE Sunday, August 23, 2009 Tom Ridge Bombshell Only Scratches Surface: Plame II
As the most visible ex-vice president in history Dick Cheney has spent an inordinate amount of time on the talk show circuit saying his torture saved lives, and that abolishing torture endangers the nation. The truth is, for tangible damage to the national security, no one comes close to what the Bush administration has wrought.
SHARE Tuesday, December 20, 2011 Why is the Media Lying About New NDAA Power for Indefinite Military Detention of Americans?
We know what happened. The Bill of Rights has been overturned. And enough has been written on the deceptive language first warned of by Congressman Justin Amash, when he told The Grand Rapids Press that the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) was "carefully crafted to mislead the public," for newspaper editors to know better.
(3 comments) SHARE Tuesday, January 28, 2014 'NATO 3' in court on terrorism charges, defense claims entrapment
The young mens' odyssey began when they were stopped for making a turn on "private property." Now all three are facing 85 years each for terrorism charges with evidence obtained by police infiltrators. The defense alleges evidence was planted and their clients were entrapped.
SHARE Wednesday, May 20, 2009 George Bush's Village People Moment
At stake is whether or not the most massive, carefully-orchestrated deception in American history will stand, with all its ramifications for our Constitution. I haven't forgotten about the nearly 5,000 of my American brothers and sisters who are dead over this, and countless Iraqis. I haven't forgotten that this war has cost us one trillion dollars so far when we need every penny at home. Yea, George Bush, you bet I care.
(1 comments) SHARE Sunday, October 16, 2011 Who is the "99 Percent?" And: O'Reilly Must be Sued.
Bill O'Reilly has, beneath the radar, begun to routinely slander Occupy Wall Street as organized and run by "anti-Semites." Media observers should begin to document that O'Reilly spews this dangerous venom in his radio shows but not on television, where he would probably be shut down or subject to legal action.
(2 comments) SHARE Saturday, December 20, 2008 Blago Was Standing up to Bank of America, Crooks They Can Live With
My my, look at how fast someone can be impeached when they are messing with B of A. This is serious, not just starting some dumb old war, shredding the Constitution, defying congressional subpoenas, and otherwise in a thousand different ways telling the American people to go f**k themselves.
(2 comments) SHARE Thursday, July 15, 2010 Rep. Tierney: DoD Dollars Rival Opium as Taliban Funds Source, Military Complicit
This is not friendly fire, which means in the fog of war one soldier unintentionally kills another. A deliberate decision has been made, and continues to be made, since the military acknowledges there is no other way to get this volume of supplies around and still have a decent war.
(2 comments) SHARE Sunday, February 28, 2010 Bomb Blast in Kabul: That Was Me.
It's not that it could have been me. It was me, the way I see it. This war is pointless, futile, and unnecessary. For what we spend in 2 months on military hardware and jet fuel contracts, we have done the math, you could take every one of these desperate, unemployed men and put them to work for a year. Then they could easily be on their own.
(3 comments) SHARE Saturday, February 28, 2009 Obama'stan: Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss
American casualties are at an all time high in Afghanistan, and will go higher as young soldiers fight heroically and with extraordinary sensitivity against both insurgents, and a deaf, dumb, and blind American foreign policy.
(1 comments) SHARE Saturday, March 26, 2016 Bernie Sanders: "I Am That Candidate" Who Can Beat Trump
"If Democrats want to defeat a Republican candidate, Trump or anybody else, I think the evidence is overwhelming: I am that candidate." - Bernie Sanders
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, November 2, 2011 Occupy Wall Street Talking Points: Who You Calling Slacker?
It is Wall Street which is lazy, feckless, and which doesn't want to work for a living. It is much easier to bribe politicians to open the public treasury and the good faith and credit of the United States to the depredations of bad businessmen who want something for nothing.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, December 29, 2011 The "Enemy Combatant" Designation Really Means More Due Process, Not Less
Article III clearly establishes what must be done with any Americans accused of making war against the United States or aiding the enemy -- those Americans must be tried in an Article III civilian court before a jury of their peers, and there must be two witnesses to the overt act or a confession in open court (extra evidentiary hurdles) as Justices Scalia and Stevens pointed out in their dissent in Hamdi.
(7 comments) SHARE Wednesday, August 4, 2010 Rep. Rogers Wants to Execute Wikileaks Whistle Blower Manning, But Voted for Taliban Funding
Rep. Mike Rogers has called for the death penalty for Pfc. Bradley Manning for allegedly leaking classified documents to Wikileaks, but himself last week voted for funds which a congressional report shows end up funding weapons and explosives used by the Taliban for attacks on American troops. The amount of U.S. funds going to the Taliban in "protection payments" for truck convoys is estimated between $100 million to $400 mil
(4 comments) SHARE Sunday, April 26, 2009 Tortured Wrong Guys, Didn't Prevent Attacks, and Oh Yes, Helped Al Qaeda
The narrative must indeed be focused, and public. Leahy's commission must have a narrow title like "Commission on the Torture and Detention of the Innocent," otherwise the defenders of torture will shift the debate onto ground they like, that of the non-existent "ticking-bomb" scenario. And it must be public, broadcast on CSPAN full-blast.
SHARE Sunday, November 7, 2010 Republicans Want to Give Taliban More Money
We know that at least 20% of Pentagon contract funds for overland transportation of military supplies goes to insurgents, as payment for not attacking the truck convoys. This means up to $400 million a year goes directly to financing the Taliban and its allies. If the Pentagon gave the Taliban anymore, it should be issued stock.
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, January 13, 2012 Help Johnnie Lee Savory Get His DNA Tests So He Can Prove His Innocence.
Johnnie Lee Savory was first arrested for a double murder he did not commit at the age of 14. His sentence was commuted last year by the Governor of Illinois. He is now 50 and has spent most of his life in jail. He is asking the Governor of Illinois to allow DNA tests which he says will fully exonerate him, but Governor Quinn is refusing even though it would cost the state nothing, because supporters will cover all costs.
(2 comments) SHARE Wednesday, April 6, 2011 Quran Burning Touched Dry Tinder of Afghan Misery
After the US has spent 40 times Afghanistan's yearly GNP on military operations, with a relative trickle of mostly misdirected civilian assistance, the UN estimates nearly 40% of Afghan children are clinically malnourished, along with 35% of the general population, and malnutrition wards hold children with their ribcages showing across the country.
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, May 21, 2010 Who the Hell is Rand Paul?
Those who wish to understand the Tea Party movement should understand that there are really two of them: the Sarah Palin, pro-war, pro-torture Neocon wing and the Ron Paul-based Libertarians, who both employ the same small gubmint rhetoric while arriving at it from vastly different perspectives.
(2 comments) SHARE Sunday, April 5, 2009 Leahy: Truth Commission Dead; Law School Dean Rocks Radio on Torture
The news is not all bad. Law School Dean Lawrence Velvel of the Justice Jackson prosecution project, which seeks to file a complaint against Bush administration officials for torture this spring, has taken to the airwaves and is tearing them up. This interview is a MUST LISTEN.
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, April 22, 2009 General Petraeus, Will You Talk to Me Now?
Valley elder Sham Sher Khan says the way to counter the insurgency hasn't changed. "The Taliban say they are fighting because there are Americans here and it's a jihad. But the fact is, they aren't fighting for religion. They are fighting for money. If they had jobs, they would stop fighting."
(5 comments) SHARE Thursday, May 26, 2011 As U.S. Troops Prepare to Withdraw, Let Us Not Abandon Afghans Once Again
To miss the opportunity to bring stability to the country, at such little cost relative to what we are already spending, will not and should not be forgiven by future generations seeking a more peaceful world.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, January 20, 2011 Try Robert Gates for Treason, Not Bradley Manning
If guarding our national security is the reason he is on trial, and it may be so, then only one conclusion is possible. For aiding and assisting the enemy, to the tune of up to $400 million per year every penny of which is devoted to paying for roadside bombs and more and better ways of killing American troops in Afghanistan, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates must be sitting right next to him.
(1 comments) SHARE Monday, February 11, 2008 ObaMO
Keep ObaMOMENTUM going, circulate this essay, go to ObaMO.org.
SHARE Saturday, December 22, 2007 C.I.A. Tapes a Smoking Gun on American "Enemy Combatant"
Missing almost entirely from news coverage of the destroyed CIA tapes is the explosive fact that they involve Jose Padilla, the American citizen held incommunicado and without charges or a trial for nearly four years.
(3 comments) SHARE Saturday, August 30, 2008 Bush and the Rest on Film Saying One Thing Then Exactly Opposite
One of the most moving videos I have ever seen, of Bush Cheney and the rest saying one thing then exactly the opposite. Alex has captured them in their own words coming from their own mouths. Shame on Democrats, shame on Republicans for not getting it. No one will finish watching this short video unaffected.
(6 comments) SHARE Wednesday, March 25, 2009 Bush Official: They Knew Many Innocent Were Tortured
Here it comes...the truth that Senator Pat Leahy must get at if his new Truth Commission has anything to do with truth. New whistleblower, former Colin Powell Chief of Staff Larry Wilkerson, is blasting the media for burying the story of many innocents captured and tortured by the Bush administration.
(5 comments) SHARE Sunday, August 23, 2009 Nine Republicans Tell Holder "Don't Go There" on Torture
We now have a fairly good alternative explanation of what motivated the administration's penchant for torture, and not mere waterboarding, either. It was the crayon that "connected the dots" for the official myth for public consumption. Binyam was 16 when he hung up by straps, beaten and had his genitals mutilated with a scalpel to make him confess to a 'dirty bomb' plot, very similar to that previously alleged of J
SHARE Friday, November 27, 2009 Military Families Ask Obama Not to Send Sons and Daughters
Our son returned to us in good physical health and we were able to hold him in our arms and not just keep him in our hearts. So many of our friends within the organization we co-founded, Military Families Speak Out, have not shared this outcome.
(3 comments) SHARE Thursday, October 30, 2008 Potential Bush Prosecutor AG Candidate in Vermont Lays-Out Jurisdiction
Charlotte Dennett and Vincent Bugliosi contended that the "effects" principle of the law gave state prosecutors jurisdiction if it could be shown that a crime which occurred outside the territorial jurisdiction of the state had a harmful effect on the people of the state. Vermont has the highest per capita loss of soldiers in Iraq of any state in the nation.
(2 comments) SHARE Friday, August 29, 2008 Will the Charge of "Treason" Stick to George Bush?
There has been discussion within the impeachment movement over whether George Bush can formally be accused of treason, or if such accusations, though arguable, would not meet legal muster. I believe they would.
(5 comments) SHARE Saturday, October 17, 2009 Peace Movement Grows Up, Codepink vs. "Anti-imperialist" Flap
We take a pre-bombed country, bombed because Ziggy Brzezinski couldn't wait to arm Islamic extremists to give the Russians "their own Vietnam", then bomb it some more then split. In the Seventies women were wearing mini-skirts in Kabul. Brzezinski and US policy fixed all that.
Leave them to work their own problems out now? With what? They are already starving, have nothing to grow but poppies, their irrigation and ca
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, July 18, 2008 Executive Privilege, Why Aren't They Hollering "Cover-up?"
The congressional game is to attempt to appease the impeachment movement with some sort of action while keeping it as quiet as possible, lest the general electorate catch wind. We need to ask them why they aren't hollering "cover-up!" to Bush's recent claim of executive privilege.
(3 comments) SHARE Wednesday, November 19, 2008 Where is Obama's Moral Compass on Torture?
Is this what the Democrats think that millions of newly enfranchised Americans turned out in record numbers to vote for? Is this kind of same-old same-old the reason why people were dancing in the streets the night of November 4th? For most ominous missteps on important issues, before even taking office, I nominate the president-elect.
(2 comments) SHARE Wednesday, January 11, 2012 NDAA Military Detention of US Citizens Breaks Through to Major Media. Not American One, the BBC.
Breaking the major broadcast news media's blackout on the most radical elimination of American rights in U.S. history, Professor of Law Jonathan Turley speaks to BBC on the National Defense Authorization Act of 2011 (NDAA), which allows for the indefinite military detention of US citizens without charge or trial in violation of the right to a jury trial guaranteed by the Constitution.
(1 comments) SHARE Monday, February 7, 2011 U.S.-Financed Egyptian Military Orchestrating Attacks on Protesters
Ragui Assaad, an Egyptian and professor at the University of Minnesota, said Friday that the military would make a cold-blooded decision about Mr. Mubarak: "They are a rational, calculating institution. The moment they see it is not in their interest to retain him, they will usher him out."
(1 comments) SHARE Tuesday, October 11, 2011 Barack O'Bailout Feels Occupy Wall Street Protesters' Pain.
Any sympathy Obama professes for the OWS movement without taking his share of responsibility for the crisis hitting the "99%" only gives ammunition to those who would like to sideline the movement as a creation of George Soros and the overtly partisan MoveOn.org There should be no mistake and it should be said very clearly: The Occupy Wall Street protesters do not approve of Barack Obama.
(6 comments) SHARE Monday, June 18, 2012 NATO 3 Indicted. The Charges: We'll Get Back to You on That.
The arrests took place after police infiltrators, acknowledged by the CPD, infiltrated the apartment where the three were staying. The apartment was raided and the three were arrested six days after they posted a video on Youtube of a traffic stop in which they were harassed by Chicago police, including what appears to be an unconstitutional trunk search. Protesters say the charges are retaliation for posting the video.
SHARE Friday, July 13, 2012 Tokyo Conference Fails, Insures Civil War in Afghanistan
It would a waste of unimaginably tragic proportions to give these youth over to yet more war. If this happens, not a single American foreign policy maker will be able to say they did not know exactly how, and why, it came about.
(2 comments) SHARE Friday, August 6, 2010 Wikileaks is "Old News?" I Didn't Know This Stuff.
Notwithstanding the administration's proclamation that the 90,000 classified documents posted by Wikileaks contain "nothing new," you sure could have fooled me. What comes through when you download the entire Wikileaks file is the sheer frequency of "sh*t happening." You start wondering how there is anyone left to populate a war zone.
SHARE Sunday, December 19, 2010 U.S. Taxpayer Dollars Killing American Troops in Afghanistan, Wall Street Bullish on War
In an April 2010 article "How to profit from the war in Afghanistan" the editor writes: "The Afghanistan troop surge means profits! The likelihood that the US will end up the loser in Afghanistan is a long-term worry. In the short-term, military contractors doing business in Afghanistan will make a boatload of money."
(9 comments) SHARE Monday, December 31, 2007 A Conservative's Case for Impeachment
An "Eisenhower-Teddy Roosevelt Republican" calls for an accounting for the violation of Americans' rights. Even John Ashcroft from his hospital bed couldn't stomach the NSA warrantless surveillance, and he's not exactly liberal.
SHARE Sunday, April 29, 2012 MSNBC: Evidence of Multiple Shooters, Night Raid in Sgt. Bales Case
"One man entered the room and the others were standing in the yard, holding lights," Noorbinak said in the video.
A brother of one victim told Hakim that his brother's children mentioned more than one soldier wearing a headlamp. They also had lights at the end of their guns, he said.
(1 comments) SHARE Sunday, April 25, 2010 The Games "Anti-War" Congressmen Play
How many times do we ask for an exit strategy and get ignored, before talk turns to voting for not funding the war?
(6 comments) SHARE Sunday, January 13, 2008 Admirers of Constitution Booted for Wearing Impeach T-shirts in DC
With the original First Amendment "Freedom of Speech" looking on, admirers of the U.S. Constitution in the Washington D.C. National Archives Building today were ordered to leave for wearing tee-shirts reading "Impeach Bush and Cheney." Many of the tourist-activists were in town to hail the arrival of impeachment marcher John Nirenberg, the 61 year-old college professor who has just walked from Boston to D.C.
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, February 26, 2016 Bernie Sanders Says He Would Take Aim at "Citizens United" as President
Sanders distances himself from the ideological socialism of his youth, saying: "The next time you hear me attacked as a socialist -- like tomorrow -- remember this: I don't believe government should take over the grocery store down the street, or own the means of production,"
(2 comments) SHARE Sunday, April 19, 2009 Beware the Abu Ghraib Trap on Torture, Start With Hayden
If we are going to prosecute a CIA official, fine. Our demands should focus on General Michael Hayden, the Director of the CIA under whose watch these acts occurred, and under whose watch nearly 100 interrogation videotapes were destroyed, which is felony destruction of evidence.
(8 comments) SHARE Friday, May 8, 2009 A Really Stupid, Unnecessary War
What the congressmen and the media don't tell us as they bluster and pump us up for more war is that this is an easy one. Flood Afghanisan with cash-for-work job programs like they already have in some provinces like Jawzjan, Uruzgan, and Balkh, and you've got that many more young men who don't even like the Taliban quitting and not shooting at our guys.
SHARE Monday, April 11, 2011 Get the $8 Trillion Wall Street Bail-out Money Back, There is No Budget Crisis
Funny, I don't see anything on "Debt Clock" about this all-time greatest theft in world history, along with the "big three" which are responsible for most government spending which are right near the top: Social Security, Pentagon, and Medicare/Medicaide.
SHARE Tuesday, September 10, 2013 So Killing Civilians in Syria Avenges Killing Civilians How?
Since many of the weapons we would use for "military action" contain depleted uranium, a heavy metal made to punch through concrete, steel, armor, and people alike, the very ground in Syria will turn radioactive, giving rise to the hideous spike in unspeakable birth deformities that we now see in Iraq and Afghanistan.
And for this we are risking a world war?
SHARE Sunday, August 29, 2010 Another $9 Billion for This, Sarah Palin? Six Children Killed in NATO Attack, While Picking Trash
Who perpetuates this racket? Here is the roll-call of congresscritters who voted last June to pass the latest chunk of money which buys the $100,000 bombs and missiles which were dropped on those children, plus the fuel contracts for the fighter planes, plus replacement costs for anything that happens to get damaged or doesn't work. As far as rackets go, this one is money hand over fist.
(7 comments) SHARE Tuesday, April 14, 2009 The Difficulty of New Thinking on Afghanistan
General Karl Eikenberry, former Commander of U.S. Forces in Afghanistan, told Congress: "Much of the enemy force is drawn from the ranks of unemployed men looking for wages to support their families." If Biden and General Eikenberry are correct, then it follows logically, and the conclusion cannot be escaped, that by killing "Taliban" we are killing mostly young men whose main crime is that they want to feed their families.
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, January 11, 2012 When Does "Support and Defend" the Constitution Become Enforceable?
Now that we know NDAA clearly includes American citizens, the question is, if the Oath to support and defend the Constitution has no meaning in practice, and is never to be enforced, should it, in the interest of avoiding rank hypocrisy before the eyes of the world, be simply eliminated? Should the oath-taker be spared the affront to honor of repeating empty words?
(3 comments) SHARE Thursday, December 11, 2008 Impeach: Bi-Partisan Panel Says Bush Directly Responsible for Torture
It doesn't matter if impeachment passes, as much as it matters that the American people have stated to the world their clear break with the men (and Rice) who did this in their names. Don't worry about whether it can pass or not. Don't worry if you think time is short. Pick up the phone and say "impeach" just so you can tell your grandchildren that you did it. It's your Christmas present to them, someday in the future.
(2 comments) SHARE Sunday, March 15, 2009 Afghan War Could Be Over, Please Keep Pushing!
In perhaps the most significant breakthrough since the overthrow of the Taliban, Taliban Chief Mullah Omar has given his approval for talks aimed ending the war in Afghanistan. A mediator for Saudi-sponsored peace negotiations, Abdullah Anas, said "A big, big step has happened. For the first time, there is a language of . . . peace on both sides."
(2 comments) SHARE Monday, November 30, 2009 Afghan Villagers Take Revenge for Civilian Casualties
Since American news organizations have utterly abdicated their responsibility to show the true face of war, it is left to the Internet to fill in the gaps. That, and of course, the BBC.
BBC Nightly News report, young American soldiers react to casualties after being hunted by locals in revenge for civilian casualties sustained in an air-strike.
(2 comments) SHARE Wednesday, February 22, 2012 With Mass Child Freezing Deaths, Proof of Mass Starvation, US in Violation of Geneva in Afghanistan
There is no doubt that within short distances of the camps, at Camp Phoenix outside of Kabul, warehouses are stacked high to the rafters with blankets, sleeping bags, Meals-Ready-to-Eat, heat tabs, and insulating material which are normal stocks for an occupation of 100,000 soldiers. The $2 billion per week in war spending which flows into Afghanistan every week makes Afghanistan the most expensive war in US history.
(2 comments) SHARE Friday, July 11, 2008 Appeal to American NSA Officers: Join Us
No law may be made which is contrary to the Constitution, which is the "Supreme Law of the Land." The Constitution can only be changed by Constitutional Convention, and ratified by all 50 states. Any law which violates the Constitution is illegal.
SHARE Friday, January 6, 2012 Can the US Government be Trusted as Judge and Jury in NDAA Indefinite Detention of U.S. Citizens?
It will be decided by the manner of men who said it was "100% certain" that Brandon Mayfield's fingerprints were a match in the Madrid train bombing, until the Spanish authorities went public with the FBI error after telling the FBI privately, repeatedly, that they had the wrong guy in Mayfield.
(2 comments) SHARE Saturday, April 18, 2009 Time Says No Win in Afghanistan without Jobs
The credit goes to activists who quietly forward and fax articles and arguments to congressmen, to the White House, to newspapers, to the media. They may not talk about it or write diaries or make comments in blogs, but they do the work. You are succeeding.
(5 comments) SHARE Friday, September 5, 2008 2014
Legal analysts lamented that, at every stage of the way, precedents had been allowed to stand unchallenged which led to the next expansion of executive powers. The precedents which the Bush-Cheney administration of the past had set, which at the time had been called by a small minority of activists "impeachable offenses" which constituted "breaking the law," were breaking the law no more.{Back to Future story]
(2 comments) SHARE Wednesday, November 12, 2008 Here it is! Bush Indictment for Dummies
The classified 2002 National Intelligence Estimate gave Bush notice, prior to the speech
in Cincinnati, that the CIA DID NOT CONSIDER HUSSEIN AN IMMINENT THREAT TO THIS NATION. SO WHEN BUSH TOLD THE NATION ON THE EVENING OF OCTOBER 7 THAT HUSSEIN WAS AN IMMINENT THREAT TO THIS COUNTRY, HE WAS TELLING MILLIONS OF AMERICANS THE EXACT OPPOSITE OF WHAT HIS OWN CIA WAS TELLING HIM.
BYE BYE GEORGE!!!
SHARE Saturday, March 7, 2009 Senator Leahy? The "Truth" is Jack Bauer Tortured the Wrong Guys
The world is watching, Mr. Leahy. Will you dare remind folks that men we did this to had done nothing to us? Or will you stay this side of the Jack Bauer political firewall? This is important. You see, because the dirty little secret of Bush's conduct of the War on Terror is that Jack had the wrong guys all along.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, November 26, 2009 Fire Insubordinate McChrystal Now! Civilian Government!
Continuing to try to paint the president into a corner and infringing on the president's prerogative to shape his own foreign policy is serious insubordination, and the leak and spin wars now conducted by "military officials" could not be more in the open.
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, June 3, 2009 I am in Kabul, Afghanistan, Report I
A city full of formidable-looking men with automatic weapons posted at gates and doors. There is no hostility in the dark-eyed gazes under thatches of jet-black hair as you pass by them to walk inside a restaurant or hotel. They respond politely in kind when you say "salaam" and place your hand over your heart, in the warm greeting meaning "peace."
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, March 27, 2008 New Hampshire State Reps to Vote on Impeachment Resolution, Please Call
Nixon resigned just one and 1/2 weeks after three articles were adopted, there is plenty of time. The New Hampshire State House of Representatives will vote on an impeachment resolution filed by 87 year-old State Representative Betty Hall sometime in early April, employing little-known "Jefferson's Manual" rules in an effort to force Congress to begin impeachment hearings against George Bush and Dick Cheney.
(2 comments) SHARE Wednesday, December 19, 2007 Senate Challenger Laurie Dobson, Maine
Laurie Dobson does not mince words. The"mother bear in defense of my children and their future", as she describes herself, says she is "disgusted with the depravity and the cowardice of our leaders." The fifty-one-year-old mother of three who is running to unseat Senator Susan Collins spares no Democrat.
SHARE Thursday, October 27, 2011 Demand To Get The Money Out Of Politics: A "one Demand" For Occupy Wall Street?
A corporation's contributions to candidates have been shown over and over to generate tangible monetary returns: bailouts, further contracting for wars. This meets the legal definition of bribery. My right to express myself when attempting to give an officer the many reasons why he should not give me a speeding ticket does not extend to me handing over a 100 dollar bill.
(1 comments) SHARE Tuesday, July 22, 2008 Impeachment Hearing This Friday, July 25
How wrong that these courageous soldiers are not the ones making decisions for our country, while the ewes in congress tremble before the power of George Bush to do something bad to them.
(1 comments) SHARE Monday, November 19, 2007 Expanding NSA Power Bad, Fourth Amendment Good
Did the Founders, who took pains to enshrine freedom from "unreasonable search and seizure," without "probable cause," understand what the Stasi, Hitler, and the KGB all understood? That knowledge is power, and absolute knowledge of peoples' lives becomes absolute power?
(4 comments) SHARE Thursday, June 25, 2009 What Next for TortureGate?
It is important to remember the context in which American soldiers were turned into brutal sadists. If you cry for the victims of torture in Iraq, cry for the soldiers too.
(2 comments) SHARE Thursday, February 9, 2012 Where is Conyers with Impeachment Threats Against President for Iran Attack Now?
If we attack Iran, it will be an excuse to pour millions of rounds of utterly demonic - there is no other word - depleted uranium ammunition into a country which has done us no harm. One of the most little-noted after effects of the invasion of Iraq is the rate of horrifying birth deformities caused the the U.S.'s use of these weapons.
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, February 4, 2011 Kristoff: "Pro-Mubarak" Attackers are Government-Sponsored Thugs, Photographic Proof
The media is attempting to portray a "clash" between "Mubarak supporters" and anti-government protesters, in order to lend Mubarak an air of legitimacy. But the "pro-Mubarak crowds" attacking peaceful protesters are all government-sponsored thugs.
(2 comments) SHARE Sunday, January 20, 2008 The Crimes of Dick Cheney
On July 22, 2005, Special Forces Colonel Patrick Lang said before a congressional committee that, as a result of the exposure of Valerie Plame, our ability to know when terrorists would "carry 10-pound bags of explosive in subway stations" would "go right down the drain." The media never reported this. Instead it was busy chasing the White House spin that Plame was not a covert agent.
(1 comments) SHARE Tuesday, May 8, 2012 Pentagon Disputes Bales' Account of Friend Being Wounded, Losing Leg
The Pentagon thus denies the existence of an American soldier recovering from the loss of a leg in Mokhoyan, where the bombing allegedly occurred, and where reporters from different media outlets acknowledge seeing a bomb crater in the road. American casualty reports from the Pentagon, at the time of writing, tally only fatalities, and do not include wounded by province. The name of the alleged wounded man is still unknown.
SHARE Wednesday, September 4, 2013 Back from the edge: A world-wide peace plan
As Obama begins work persuading Congress to allow him to bomb Syria, perhaps the time has come for a Great Awakening.
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, February 12, 2010 Shooting Fish in a Barrel in Helmand Province
Today as the world's mightiest empire deploys its helicopter gunships, F-16s, and other fearsome weaponry on young "insurgents" the vast majority of which would rather not be there, something called "Afghan-ness" is being challenged, much to the delight of the war machine, which guarantees a fight and no surrender no matter how they really feel about the Taliban.
SHARE Tuesday, February 28, 2012 Child Malnutrition Rises in Afghanistan as Obama Renews "Commitment" to Rebuild
When the Quran gets burned it's the straw which breaks the camel's back. The child malnutrition rate in a country where $2 billion a week in cargo crosses the country to military bases might perhaps not go down much, although this too is inexcusable, but it should certainly not go up.
(2 comments) SHARE Tuesday, August 4, 2009 Anti-Torture Rock
Music can turn complacency around, new rock-rap against torture.
SHARE Thursday, September 25, 2008 This Impeachment TV Ad Now Running in Conyers' District
The 110th Congress is far from over, and it comes back to a full workload and schedule of hearings after the Nov. 4th election. Bush's case is far more open and shut than Clinton's ever was, since their offenses are admitted and in the public record, including the most recent impeachable offense: the defiance of congressional subpoenas.
(1 comments) SHARE Sunday, February 24, 2008 Al Qaeda, Impeachment, and Iraq
I hope to show that not only is our presence in Iraq beneficial to Al Qaeda; they actually need us there to survive. Al Qaeda is neither wanted nor liked in Iraq. The sooner we pull out, the sooner the local populations will identify and expel them, or kill them.
SHARE Monday, February 18, 2008 Congressman Reyes Takes On Bush Lies on FISA, American Safety
If our nation is left vulnerable in the coming months, it will not be because we don't have enough domestic spying powers. It will be because your Administration has not done enough to defeat terrorist organizations – including al Qaeda -- that have gained strength since 9/11.
SHARE Thursday, July 29, 2010 U.S. Continues to Fund Taliban IEDs; Says Wikileaks Endangers Troops
This week the White House condemned the posting of politically embarrassing classified documents which could come to be known as the Afghan Pentagon Papers on the Internet, saying this "could put the lives of Americans and our partners at risk, and threaten our national security," on the same day that Congress approved the administration's requests for further war funding.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, March 27, 2008 An Impeachment Resolution in Every State; One Way to Jump-Start Impeachment
Here's the dirty little secret: it's really easy. All you need to do is print out a version of the below resolution, walk it to an amenable state representative (or assemblyman/woman), and have them enter it into State House business. Now you have an active impeachment resolution in your state. 50 states having impeachment resolutions in the works would make Congress's I-See-Nothing position untenable.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, September 25, 2008 This Impeachment TV Ad Now Running in Conyers' District
The 110th Congress is far from over, and it comes back to a full workload and schedule of hearings after the Nov. 4th election. Bush's case is far more open and shut than Clinton's ever was, since their offenses are admitted and in the public record, including the most recent impeachable offense: the defiance of congressional subpoenas.
(1 comments) SHARE Monday, February 8, 2010 This is What Peace Can Look Like, Afghans Win Gold in Basketball
The US State Department and the Obama administration is having an "internal debate" over Karzai's overtures for peace talks with Taliban leadership. That the Taliban high command is even considering this is a sign of weakness, and readiness to renounce Al Qaeda and come in from the cold.
SHARE Monday, May 10, 2010 Military Action Does Not "Weaken" Taliban
The surest way to weaken the Taliban is to strengthen the Afghan people. A Works Progress Administration such as that which prevented social unrest in America during the Great Depression would go far. Fortunately, such a program exists in the Afghan National Solidarity Program, and guess what? It is underfunded.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, May 20, 2010 Liberal Groups Call for Unity with Tea Parties Against War
Wednesday, May 19, liberal groups against the wars will be sitting in and protesting outside congressmens' home offices, demanding they vote against the upcoming $33 billion to escalate the war in Afghanistan. They are inviting the Tea Parties to join them.
(1 comments) SHARE Saturday, July 3, 2010 These 21 A%^holes Can Stop the War, Vote is on Thursday, One-Click Email
Yes, pretty rude, but I'm in no mood to be polite. People I love stand to be shipped out this year to Afghanistan if this war doesn't end so I guess these congress-persons' tender feelings will have to be secondary. I can always apologize later. The young Americans killed, however, will not get the chance to live their lives later.
SHARE Tuesday, April 27, 2010 Flirting With Disaster in Afghanistan, and a Glimmer of Hope
At this moment, it may not be too late. The benefits of a commitment to addressing hunger and unemployment will be visible immediately, and planning for withdrawal of combat forces can begin in earnest as the tribes turn upon the Taliban, as have the Pashtun Shinwari.
SHARE Wednesday, March 20, 2013 Karzai Charges US Collusion with Taliban, Congressional Report Backs Him Up
It has been clear that the Obama administration is aware of the practice since Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in congressional testimony in 2009: "One of the major sources of funding for the Taliban is the protection money."
SHARE Friday, November 23, 2007 Next Impeach Target: Major Campaign Contributors
Wars will come and go, even Iraq, but once the Constitution is gone, it's gone forever. Begin dialogue with congressmens' major campaign contributors to force Congress to do its duty to impeach Cheney and Bush.
SHARE Wednesday, December 23, 2009 Starvation Alert, Our Chance to Show Afghans We Are for Real
The Berlin Airlift in 1948 saved hundreds of thousands of Germans from freezing and starvation. Decades later this is still what many Europeans remember about America. Let the help in the winter of 2010 be what many young Afghans years from now remember about us, not a surge in troops.
SHARE Friday, February 1, 2008 Foreign Policy Advice for Barack Obama
You can have a muscular foreign policy without being militaristic. You can apologize without surrendering. You can use that line if you want, Barack.
SHARE Saturday, July 31, 2010 Nick Kristof Hits on Afghan Exit Strategy, Cost Same as 246 Soldiers
Not only is your tax money funding the Taliban to an extent which is perhaps even greater than the opium trade; not only is the Pakistani military helping Afghan insurgents attack American troops (again most likely with part of that $1 billion a year we give them); not only is the $50 billion Congress just borrowed to keep the war going making us even poorer; the kicker is it could all be done and won for a teeny tiny fraction
(2 comments) SHARE Thursday, December 6, 2007 Thomas Paine the Impeacher
As we shop and consume our way toward tyranny and fascism, let us remember Paine's words, and remember that as overweight, addicted, and alcoholic as we are as a nation, we are also one other thing: We are free. We are still free to demand these criminals be brought to justice. We are still free to demand they be impeached. Rich, poor, conservative, liberal, powerful, powerless, we are all just Americans now.
SHARE Friday, July 2, 2010 War Vote Tonight, It Can Stop. A Little Perspective
There are 21 progressive who can tilt the scales and bring the Afghan escalation to a screeching halt now. They are: Yvette Clarke, Steve Cohen, Jim Cooper, Jerry Costello, Barney Frank, Luis Gutierrez, Jay Inslee, Steve Kagen, John Lewis, Edward Markey, Doris Matsui, Jim McDermott, George Miller, Grace Napolitano, Richard Neal, James Oberstar, Mike Thompson, Edolphus Towns, Nydia Velázquez, and Anthony Weiner
SHARE Friday, July 2, 2010 Rep. Lowey: Punish Karzai, Not the Afghan People, and End Military Operations
What is now understood beyond the shadow of a doubt is that military operations can serve no further purpose in Afghanistan. Congress must vote "no" this week on funding for anything but orderly withdrawal, and carefully-targeted assistance. President Obama himself acknowledged last Sunday at the Toronto G-20 that the Taliban is a "mix of hardcore ideologues and kids who sign up because it's the best job they can get".
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, April 10, 2008 A New 9/11 Commission: Defining Amnesty
If you believe 911 was an inside job, and you believe that in order to get at the truth, it may be necessary to grant officers in the military and in the civilian branches like the CIA some sort of immunity, that is, full or partial amnesty for their role or knowledge of the events, how do you determine who gets what?
SHARE Monday, April 22, 2013 Obama DOJ interviewed Boston bomber in 2011 at urging of Russian government
The Federal Bureau of Investigation of the US Department of Justice (DOJ) has confirmed that in 2011, it interviewed the older of the two brothers suspected of carrying out the Boston Marathon bombing. The interview was conducted at the urging of the Russian government, and warned that Tamerlan Tsarnaev had become dangerous.
(1 comments) SHARE Tuesday, March 18, 2008 A Call for Alliance Among Impeachment Advocates; Immigration Reform, Constitution, War on Al Qaeda
There comes a time in the struggle for freedom when Americans must unite. At times we unite with those whose priorities may not be ours, and those whom with we disagree on many things. I launch this call because I will do anything to save my Constitution. My call is to my countrymen in the Immigration Reform Movement, who believe that George Bush must be impeached for aiding unacceptable levels of illegal immigration.
SHARE Wednesday, December 2, 2009 Major General Announces Escalation II for Obama
In one of the most bizarre episodes of the on-going contradictory claims between the White House and the Pentagon on a possible troop escalation in Afghanistan, a top CENTCOM commander in a "wide-ranging" interview granted to the St. Petersburg Times, days before the president is scheduled to make a speech on the issue, all but announced a massive escalation.
(2 comments) SHARE Saturday, February 2, 2008 The Forever Wartime Powers Coup
When George Bush declared war on an enemy which, for the first time ever, cannot be seen, and never knows when he's beat, it should have set off alarm bells.
SHARE Saturday, December 29, 2007 Pakistan Totters as Bush's "Gift" to bin Laden Bears Fruit
With the assassination of Bhutto, Pakistan is closer than ever to civil war. And ultimately, Islamist forces marching into Islamabad in victory, us tied down in Iraq and not able to do a damned thing about it. This is the first of the many dominoes bin Laden had envisioned, including the "apostate" regimes of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and UAE. But most especially on bin Laden's list was Pakistan.
SHARE Thursday, January 24, 2008 20 Years: What Political Prisoners Can Expect in the Future
The Bush administration has managed to carve out an illegal authority to pick anyone up off the street, lock us up incommunicado for at least a few years, and send us to trial knowing that, after what they did, we'd be pretty much useless in our own defense. Today's sentencing of Jose Padilla is not about Padilla. This is about you. After the next terror attack, it will be easy to include any bothersome political diarists.
SHARE Thursday, December 13, 2007 The Padilla Tapes
And what could be so important in the destroyed CIA tapes that are the object of current controversy, that despite the criticism which would certainly follow, they were destroyed anyway? Abu Zubaydah, a subject of the tapes, is none other than the foreign national whom Padilla's lawyers say was tortured into linking Padilla with Al Qaeda.
SHARE Saturday, December 29, 2007 Obama Campaign Hits Bullseye on Pakistan
We have exactly ZERO time left to get this, folks. Bin Laden is on a roll. He wants no change in American foreign policy whatsoever. Only for us to keep doing exactly what we have been doing.