Harvey Wasserman writes: No matter what you think of George W. Bush, he is staking out his claim as a bona fide Horseman of the Apocalypse.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011706O.shtml

Like the iceberg that hit the Titanic, the full costs of the war are still largely hidden below the surface. Our calculations include not just the money for combat operations, but also the costs the government will have to pay for years to come.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011706L.shtml

In the anxious months after the September 11 attacks, the National Security Agency began sending a steady stream of telephone numbers, e-mail addresses and names to the FBI in search of terrorists. The stream soon became a flood, requiring hundreds of agents to check out thousands of tips a month.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011706J.shtml

William Rivers Pitt writes: Say "fascism" to anyone you meet, and you will be greeted with the boilerplate response of the blithely overconfident: such a thing cannot happen here. This is the United States of America, land of the free and home of the brave. Ours is a nation of laws, of checks and balances, of righteousness and decency. Our laws and traditions stand as a bulwark against the rise of totalitarian madness. It cannot happen here. Thus we are indoctrinated into the school of our own assumed greatness.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011706I.shtml

Please join me in calling on Democratic Senators to stand up for the core principles of our party by opposing Samuel Alito's nomination to the Supreme Court. His record, both on the bench and as an official in the Reagan and first Bush administrations, shows that he is an ideologue whose extreme views would put our fundamental rights at risk. This is not my petition; it is ours, because all of us are threatened by this nomination. Sign our petition calling on Senate Democrats to stand together and block Alito's confirmation with every means at their disposal. We will share the results with key Senate Democrats.

http://www.oneamericacommittee.com/oppose_alito

What would it mean if Alito is confirmed to the Supreme Court? Alito is a conservative activist in the mold of Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas. If he replaces the moderate Sandra Day O'Connor, a consistent swing vote, the court would shift far to the right, endangering our liberties so deeply that it would affect the lives of every single American.

Here are just a few of the positions Alito has staked out that put our fundamental rights in danger.

Abuse of Power. President Bush is now engaging in surveillance of United States citizens that violates federal law. He could have asked Congress to change the law, but he didn't. That overt abuse of power demonstrates the importance of a Supreme Court committed to protecting our basic freedoms. But Alito has consistently expressed support for vesting tremendous power in the hands of the President, with few checks by Congress and the courts. In questioning, he responded that the courts were ill-equipped to determine the limits for interrogations or detentions that the administration or the military deems important for security or to balance the government's needs against basic constitutional protections. The implication that he would take a hands off approach whenever the administration says "national security" is in invitation for governmental abuse.

Eliminating the Right To Choose. When Alito applied to work at the Justice Department in 1985, he expressed his strong belief that, in his own words, "the Constitution does not protect a right to an abortion." As a judge, he took a narrow view of Roe that the Supreme Court, and Justice O'Connor, explicitly rejected. In his hearing, Democratic Senators repeatedly pressed Alito to distance himself from the view he expressed in 1985. He didn't. Instead he focused on the undisputed doctrine of stare decisis, that is, giving weight to existing case law. In the absence of a repudiation of his unequivocal statement in 1985, I am not comforted much. His answers about abortion sounded a lot like Clarence Thomas's. It's clear that given the opportunity, Alito will vote to restrict - and probably eliminate - a woman's right to choose.

Conservative Judicial Activism. Judge Alito has a history of putting his conservative ideology over the rule of law. He has voted to invalidate important laws passed by Congress, including a ban on machine guns and the Family and Medical Leave Act. And he has consistently ruled against victims of discrimination in the workplace. In all these cases, he has proven more conservative than many of his Republican colleagues on the courts of appeals and even more conservative than Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas in some cases.

Judge Alito has consistently sided with the most powerful interests, business or government, which concerns me greatly. But I am most concerned about his willingness to overlook executive abuse of power, which has been the hallmark of this administration. This is a judge who is way out of the mainstream, someone who disregards our fundamental rights and endangers our liberties. Join me today in urging Senate Democrats to stand together and use every means they have available to block this dangerous nomination.

http://www.oneamericacommittee.com/oppose_alito

Sign this important petition today. Your support will make an enormous difference to our Democratic Senators as they stand together to fight Samuel Alito's confirmation to the Supreme Court.

Thank you for all that you do for our party,

John Edwards


Tell your friends about this petition by clicking here:
http://redir.plusthree.com/rdr/002CA00vj20004U

In the months before 9/11, thousands of American citizens were inadvertently swept up in wiretaps, had their emails monitored, and were being watched as they surfed the Internet by spies at the super-secret National Security Agency, former NSA and counterterrorism officials said.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011706Y.shtml

PLEASE PASS THIS EMAIL STAMPEDE ON TO ALL OF YOUR CONTACTS!

Buffalo Field Campaign West Yellowstone, Montana Working in the field every day to stop the slaughter of Yellowstone's wild free roaming buffalo.

We are blessed to live in America. Can you spare 3 minutes to read the following, then act to save a beautiful & historic piece of it? PLEA FOR AN AMERICAN ICON: Pass this message on! He lay alone all night in the bitter cold with two broken legs before bullets ended his life. Others have been shot in their beds. Twelve were forced onto thin lake ice; they broke through and two drowned while their companions, in utter terror, struggled to pull themselves from the frigid water. Elsewhere, 300 were rounded up on their native soil, inhumanely incarcerated, and sentenced to death. Does this sound like a planned campaign of persecution and extermination? Perhaps a government-sanctioned attempt to destroy a population?

Something that could happen only in a repressive and brutal regime? Friends, it's happening in America. It's happening in Montana and Yellowstone National Park. It's happening to an American symbol of strength and freedom, to our nation's last wild, free-roaming buffalo, the American bison, who once roamed our land in the tens of millions.

http://www.buffalofieldc/6E87C025.jpg

Most Americans are unaware that only 23 bison escaped the mass extermination of the 1870s, finding refuge from extinction in the world's first national park. Yellowstone's bison are the genetically-pure descendents of those 23 survivors, our nation's last continuously-wild herd. Today, under assault again, they need help from people of conscience. In the park, they are beloved wildlife. But their migratory instinct leads them to lower elevation land in Montana to escape the park's harsh winter. Here they are greeted with capture, quarantine, experimentation, bullets, and slaughter. Family groups are torn apart. Mothers and babies are separated. They suffer terror and injury as they are hazed and harassed relentlessly with snowmobiles, ATVs, helicopters...

http://www.buffalofieldc/25356BCB.jpg

Where does this happen? In Yellowstone National Park and on surrounding public land...land belonging to ALL Americans, whether we live near or far. Who is perpetrating this? The State of Montana. The National Forest Service. Even the National Park Service itself!

Why is this happening? The politically-powerful Montana livestock industry sees bison as competition for grazing resources. They claim that bison will infect their cattle with brucellosis (a bacterial cattle disease), but this has never occurred in the wild, never once since cattle first infected bison in the early 1900s.

Who pays for this? YOU do "the American taxpayer" at over $3 million per year.

http://www.buffalofieldc/6073CED6.jpg

What can YOU do? If you do nothing else, pass this message on to your e-mail contacts across the country and around the world. But if you want to learn more, visit

http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org/action.html

Buffalo Field Campaign volunteers are in the field every day documenting the activities that pass for bison management in Montana (view video footage at the website), and working for the day when these beautiful native creatures are welcomed home onto designated habitat where they are truly free to roam America's public land. Sign up for weekly BFC up-dates at: bfc-media@wildrockies.org Subject line: "Subscribe. "Want to do more? Consider writing to one or both of the following: Gov. Brian Schweitzer: (406) 444-3111,

http://governor.mt.gov/contact/comments.asp (Montana is responsible for hazing, hunting, capture & quarantine, & slaughter.) In your own words, ask the governor to designate bison habitat and manage bison as America's treasured wildlife using science, not politics.

Suzanne Lewis, Superintendent, Yellowstone (307) 344-2002, suzanne_lewis@nps.gov (Yellowstone is responsible for capture within the park & shipment to slaughter.) In your own words, ask Ms. Lewis to stop killing bison to prevent them from leaving the park, contrary to everything the national park stands for.

Edward Abbey said, "A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government." In defending America's last wild bison, we stand up to greed and dishonesty. We stand up for justice and the enduring qualities embodied in our great nation's symbol of freedom, the magnificent American bison.

KEEP IT GOING! PASS THIS MESSAGE ON

SPREAD THE WORD TO SAVE THE HERD!

Learn More at: http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org/action.html


Buffalo Field Campaign P.O. Box 957 West Yellowstone, MT 59758
406-646-0070 bfc-media@wildrockies.org http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org

BFC is the only group working in the field every day to defend the last wild herd of buffalo in America.

Kurz vor dem Irak-Krieg hielt der Philosoph Georg Meggle einen Vortrag über dessen Hintergründe, der mit dem sich zuspitzenden Konflikt mit dem Iran wieder aktuell geworden ist.

http://www.telepolis.de/tp/r4/artikel/21/21801/1.html

http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/print_friendly.php?p=opedne_sibel_ed_051229_nswbc_call_to_patrio.htm


Informant: Martin Greenhut

Von der Antarktis, dem Walschutzgebiet im Südpolarmeer, bis in die Straßen von Amsterdam, Berlin, Kalkutta, Tokio, Auckland, bitten wir die Menschen, sich als Meeresschützer zu melden und zusammen mit uns die Wale zu schützen.

*Werde Meeresschützer!*

Registrier dich hier

http://prefs.greenpeace.org/mail-links/clicks/13291.2133086.5409

Mehr Info's unter:
http://www.livelogcity.com/users/omega/35192.html

Ofcom are in planning to auction off the spectrum of 1785 - 1805 MHz. The consultation about this is still running. Shouldn't we make a representation about the health risk? Is anyone aware of any studies about this frequency having been done? (we could approach Ecolog to check their database) The licence will allow any use, at really high output. I think we need to make a point about the precautionary principle.

Best, Andrea

http://www.ofcom.org.uk/consult/condocs/availspec/

--------

Here is the PDF document of the Draft Annual Plan of OFCOM
http://www.buergerwelle.de/pdf/ofcom_annual_plan_2006.pdf and my comments to it:
http://www.buergerwelle.de/pdf/ofcom_annual_plan_comments.doc

Please forward it to the Mastsanity email group. Hopefully others will take this matter up too and send their own comments to OFCOM. the consultation closes on February 10. There is another consultation running specifically on the auctioning of licences for yet unused UHF frequencies. Maybe someone more technically versed than myself can take this up and send their comments with regards to that. That consultation runs until the beginning of March.

--------

If anyone lives near the following locations and can attend one of OFCOM's annual plan consultation events it would be good. Unfortunately we missed the London one as we didn't find out in time.

18th Jan Plymouth and Belfast

19th Jan Londonderry and Dumfries

20th Jan Glasgow and Cardiff

26th Jan Liverpool

3rd Feb Caernarfon


http://www.ofcom.org.uk/consult/condocs/annual_plan2006/annual_plan200607/invite

--------

I suppose the point is that we should ask OFCOM to halt any further sell off of any frequencies and the roll out of digital TV until, roll out of WIFI, etc the health issue is properly investigated.

Perhaps we should get a UK wide petition on it?

sarah

Does anyone want to send questions to You and Yours who are looking into the analogue TV switch off question.

I am sure the new signals will be pulsed microwaves! Operated by Crown Castle!

We need to put the health issue on their agenda.

They are taking e-mails forward to the minister they said.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/youandyours/

--------

The frequency band 1785-1805 MHz is a GSM channel. Please see link http://www.ero.dk/rtte

Regards. Agnes

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Common Dreams
by Joan Wile

01/16/06

On October 17, eighteen grandmothers were arrested at the Times Square Recruiting Booth and incarcerated. We were charged with disorderly conduct as a result of our attempting to enlist and, when denied entrance, sitting down in front of the door. Why did we do it? People ask us if we have grandchildren fighting in Iraq. Actually, none of us have, but that's really beside the point. We are concerned for grandchildren in the generic sense. They are all our grandkids, and we grieve for each young person who dies or is maimed as a result of our tragically ill-conceived, illegal occupation of Iraq...

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0116-28.htm


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Common Dreams
by John Buell

01/16/06

Shooting wars often hide many domestic sins of commission and omission. Nonetheless, as the war in Iraq drags on, the Administration's cavalier attitude toward civil liberties has become a concern. The media have reacted with surprise and alarm to the latest revelations about the National Security Agency, but no one should have been surprised. The Administration's repeated suggestions that the ruthlessness of the enemy justifies whatever steps it takes should have kept media watchdogs on alert. For history students, Bush's rhetoric recalls those dogmatic left wing defenses of Stalin in the thirties. Stalin's sympathizers argued that food and security must be established before full freedom could be assured. I suspect we will have little security or economic justice if we don't start devoting more time to protecting our civil liberties...

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0116-30.htm


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Village Voice
by Nat Hentoff

01/13/06

If Arlen Specter, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is able to go ahead with his investigation that will include the NSA itself, it may be possible for Americans to prevent our falling into that abyss from which Frank Church warned 'there is no return.' As of this writing, however, there is White House and congressional Republican leadership pressure to move the Senate investigation into the hands of Pat Roberts (R-Kansas) and his Senate Intelligence Committee. (According to The Almanac of American Politics, Pat Roberts's American Civil Liberties Union rating is 22 out of 100.) If this Congress fails again to rein in the NSA, Thomas Jefferson told us what to do: 'The people ... are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.' So, as Joe Hill would say, it's time to begin to organize to change Congress...

http://villagevoice.com/news/0603,hentoff,71743,6.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Independent Institute
by Ivan Eland

01/16/06

The CIA's recent botched attempt to kill al Qaeda’s number two man, Ayman Zawahiri, in Pakistan illustrates why the Bush administration's overly aggressive 'war on terror' actually motivates terrorists to attack the United States. Certainly, capturing or killing the brains behind al Qaeda is an important goal. Unfortunately, in the U.S. method of warfare -- which unduly emphasizes attrition, heavy firepower and sophisticated weaponry, even against guerrillas and terrorists -- the technology of killing has outstripped the quality of human intelligence needed to hit the correct targets. The CIA's unmanned Predator drone fired missiles that killed many Pakistani civilians, including women and children, but apparently not Zawahiri...

http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1654


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

America's Future Foundation
by James N. Markels

01/15/06

Most newspapers pay for the op-eds they publish in their editorial sections. Think tanks are in the business of paying scholars to write op-eds, studies, and books. America's Future Foundation, the nonprofit that runs this website, has paid writers to provide the content herein. In fact, I was paid by AFF to write this very article. Does that make those published opinions dishonest? The reason I bring this up is because of what's happened to a former colleague of mine, Doug Bandow, who lost a syndicated column and a position at the Cato Institute when it was revealed that he had accepted thousands of dollars from felon lobbyist Jack Abramoff to write op-eds but never mentioned that fact to his readers...

http://www.affbrainwash.com/archives/020654.php


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

AlterNet
by Al Gore

01/16/06

A president who breaks the law is a threat to the very structure of our government. Our Founding Fathers were adamant that they had established a government of laws and not men. Indeed, they recognized that the structure of government they had enshrined in our Constitution -- our system of checks and balances -- was designed with a central purpose of ensuring that it would govern through the rule of law. As John Adams said: 'The executive shall never exercise the legislative and judicial powers, or either of them, to the end that it may be a government of laws and not of men.' An executive who arrogates to himself the power to ignore the legitimate legislative directives of the Congress or to act free of the check of the judiciary becomes the central threat that the Founders sought to nullify in the Constitution -- an all-powerful executive too reminiscent of the King from whom they had broken free... [speech transcript]

http://www.alternet.org/rights/30905/


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Published on Monday, January 16, 2006 by CommonDreams.org 'We the People' Must Save Our Constitution by Al Gore Constitution Hall, Washington, D.C. Monday, January 16 2006 12:30 PM

Congressman Barr and I have disagreed many times over the years, but we have joined together today with thousands of our fellow citizens-Democrats and Republicans alike-to express our shared concern that America's Constitution is in grave danger.

In spite of our differences over ideology and politics, we are in strong agreement that the American values we hold most dear have been placed at serious risk by the unprecedented claims of the Administration to a truly breathtaking expansion of executive power.

As we begin this new year, the Executive Branch of our government has been caught eavesdropping on huge numbers of American citizens and has brazenly declared that it has the unilateral right to continue without regard to the established law enacted by Congress to prevent such abuses.

It is imperative that respect for the rule of law be restored.

So, many of us have come here to Constitution Hall to sound an alarm and call upon our fellow citizens to put aside partisan differences and join with us in demanding that our Constitution be defended and preserved.

It is appropriate that we make this appeal on the day our nation has set aside to honor the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who challenged America to breathe new life into our oldest values by extending its promise to all our people.

On this particular Martin Luther King Day, it is especially important to recall that for the last several years of his life, Dr. King was illegally wiretapped-one of hundreds of thousands of Americans whose private communications were intercepted by the U.S. government during this period.

The FBI privately called King the "most dangerous and effective negro leader in the country" and vowed to "take him off his pedestal." The government even attempted to destroy his marriage and blackmail him into committing suicide.

This campaign continued until Dr. King's murder. The discovery that the FBI conducted a long-running and extensive campaign of secret electronic surveillance designed to infiltrate the inner workings of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and to learn the most intimate details of Dr. King's life, helped to convince Congress to enact restrictions on wiretapping.

The result was the Foreign Intelligence and Surveillance Act (FISA), which was enacted expressly to ensure that foreign intelligence surveillance would be presented to an impartial judge to verify that there is a sufficient cause for the surveillance. I voted for that law during my first term in Congress and for almost thirty years the system has proven a workable and valued means of according a level of protection for private citizens, while permitting foreign surveillance to continue.

Yet, just one month ago, Americans awoke to the shocking news that in spite of this long settled law, the Executive Branch has been secretly spying on large numbers of Americans for the last four years and eavesdropping on "large volumes of telephone calls, e-mail messages, and other Internet traffic inside the United States." The New York Times reported that the President decided to launch this massive eavesdropping program "without search warrants or any new laws that would permit such domestic intelligence collection."

During the period when this eavesdropping was still secret, the President went out of his way to reassure the American people on more than one occasion that, of course, judicial permission is required for any government spying on American citizens and that, of course, these constitutional safeguards were still in place.

But surprisingly, the President's soothing statements turned out to be false. Moreover, as soon as this massive domestic spying program was uncovered by the press, the President not only confirmed that the story was true, but also declared that he has no intention of bringing these wholesale invasions of privacy to an end.

At present, we still have much to learn about the NSA's domestic surveillance. What we do know about this pervasive wiretapping virtually compels the conclusion that the President of the United States has been breaking the law repeatedly and persistently.

A president who breaks the law is a threat to the very structure of our government. Our Founding Fathers were adamant that they had established a government of laws and not men. Indeed, they recognized that the structure of government they had enshrined in our Constitution - our system of checks and balances - was designed with a central purpose of ensuring that it would govern through the rule of law. As John Adams said: "The executive shall never exercise the legislative and judicial powers, or either of them, to the end that it may be a government of laws and not of men."

An executive who arrogates to himself the power to ignore the legitimate legislative directives of the Congress or to act free of the check of the judiciary becomes the central threat that the Founders sought to nullify in the Constitution - an all-powerful executive too reminiscent of the King from whom they had broken free. In the words of James Madison, "the accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny."

Thomas Paine, whose pamphlet, "On Common Sense" ignited the American Revolution, succinctly described America's alternative. Here, he said, we intended to make certain that "the law is king."

Vigilant adherence to the rule of law strengthens our democracy and strengthens America. It ensures that those who govern us operate within our constitutional structure, which means that our democratic institutions play their indispensable role in shaping policy and determining the direction of our nation. It means that the people of this nation ultimately determine its course and not executive officials operating in secret without constraint.

The rule of law makes us stronger by ensuring that decisions will be tested, studied, reviewed and examined through the processes of government that are designed to improve policy. And the knowledge that they will be reviewed prevents over-reaching and checks the accretion of power.

A commitment to openness, truthfulness and accountability also helps our country avoid many serious mistakes. Recently, for example, we learned from recently classified declassified documents that the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which authorized the tragic Vietnam war, was actually based on false information. We now know that the decision by Congress to authorize the Iraq War, 38 years later, was also based on false information. America would have been better off knowing the truth and avoiding both of these colossal mistakes in our history. Following the rule of law makes us safer, not more vulnerable.

The President and I agree on one thing. The threat from terrorism is all too real. There is simply no question that we continue to face new challenges in the wake of the attack on September 11th and that we must be ever-vigilant in protecting our citizens from harm.

Where we disagree is that we have to break the law or sacrifice our system of government to protect Americans from terrorism. In fact, doing so makes us weaker and more vulnerable.

Once violated, the rule of law is in danger. Unless stopped, lawlessness grows. The greater the power of the executive grows, the more difficult it becomes for the other branches to perform their constitutional roles. As the executive acts outside its constitutionally prescribed role and is able to control access to information that would expose its actions, it becomes increasingly difficult for the other branches to police it. Once that ability is lost, democracy itself is threatened and we become a government of men and not laws.

The President's men have minced words about America's laws. The Attorney General openly conceded that the "kind of surveillance" we now know they have been conducting requires a court order unless authorized by statute. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act self-evidently does not authorize what the NSA has been doing, and no one inside or outside the Administration claims that it does. Incredibly, the Administration claims instead that the surveillance was implicitly authorized when Congress voted to use force against those who attacked us on September 11th.

This argument just does not hold any water. Without getting into the legal intricacies, it faces a number of embarrassing facts. First, another admission by the Attorney General: he concedes that the Administration knew that the NSA project was prohibited by existing law and that they consulted with some members of Congress about changing the statute. Gonzalez says that they were told this probably would not be possible. So how can they now argue that the Authorization for the Use of Military Force somehow implicitly authorized it all along? Second, when the Authorization was being debated, the Administration did in fact seek to have language inserted in it that would have authorized them to use military force domestically - and the Congress did not agree. Senator Ted Stevens and Representative Jim McGovern, among others, made statements during the Authorization debate clearly restating that that Authorization did not operate domestically.

When President Bush failed to convince Congress to give him all the power he wanted when they passed the AUMF, he secretly assumed that power anyway, as if congressional authorization was a useless bother. But as Justice Frankfurter once wrote: "To find authority so explicitly withheld is not merely to disregard in a particular instance the clear will of Congress. It is to disrespect the whole legislative process and the constitutional division of authority between President and Congress."

This is precisely the "disrespect" for the law that the Supreme Court struck down in the steel seizure case.

It is this same disrespect for America's Constitution which has now brought our republic to the brink of a dangerous breach in the fabric of the Constitution. And the disrespect embodied in these apparent mass violations of the law is part of a larger pattern of seeming indifference to the Constitution that is deeply troubling to millions of Americans in both political parties.

For example, the President has also declared that he has a heretofore unrecognized inherent power to seize and imprison any American citizen that he alone determines to be a threat to our nation, and that, notwithstanding his American citizenship, the person imprisoned has no right to talk with a lawyer-even to argue that the President or his appointees have made a mistake and imprisoned the wrong person.

The President claims that he can imprison American citizens indefinitely for the rest of their lives without an arrest warrant, without notifying them about what charges have been filed against them, and without informing their families that they have been imprisoned.

At the same time, the Executive Branch has claimed a previously unrecognized authority to mistreat prisoners in its custody in ways that plainly constitute torture in a pattern that has now been documented in U.S. facilities located in several countries around the world.

Over 100 of these captives have reportedly died while being tortured by Executive Branch interrogators and many more have been broken and humiliated. In the notorious Abu Ghraib prison, investigators who documented the pattern of torture estimated that more than 90 percent of the victims were innocent of any charges.

This shameful exercise of power overturns a set of principles that our nation has observed since General Washington first enunciated them during our Revolutionary War and has been observed by every president since then - until now. These practices violate the Geneva Conventions and the International Convention Against Torture, not to mention our own laws against torture.

The President has also claimed that he has the authority to kidnap individuals in foreign countries and deliver them for imprisonment and interrogation on our behalf by autocratic regimes in nations that are infamous for the cruelty of their techniques for torture.

Some of our traditional allies have been shocked by these new practices on the part of our nation. The British Ambassador to Uzbekistan - one of those nations with the worst reputations for torture in its prisons - registered a complaint to his home office about the senselessness and cruelty of the new U.S. practice: "This material is useless - we are selling our souls for dross. It is in fact positively harmful."

Can it be true that any president really has such powers under our Constitution? If the answer is "yes" then under the theory by which these acts are committed, are there any acts that can on their face be prohibited? If the President has the inherent authority to eavesdrop, imprison citizens on his own declaration, kidnap and torture, then what can't he do?

The Dean of Yale Law School, Harold Koh, said after analyzing the Executive Branch's claims of these previously unrecognized powers: "If the President has commander-in-chief power to commit torture, he has the power to commit genocide, to sanction slavery, to promote apartheid, to license summary execution."

The fact that our normal safeguards have thus far failed to contain this unprecedented expansion of executive power is deeply troubling. This failure is due in part to the fact that the Executive Branch has followed a determined strategy of obfuscating, delaying, withholding information, appearing to yield but then refusing to do so and dissembling in order to frustrate the efforts of the legislative and judicial branches to restore our constitutional balance.

For example, after appearing to support legislation sponsored by John McCain to stop the continuation of torture, the President declared in the act of signing the bill that he reserved the right not to comply with it.

Similarly, the Executive Branch claimed that it could unilaterally imprison American citizens without giving them access to review by any tribunal. The Supreme Court disagreed, but the President engaged in legal maneuvers designed to prevent the Court from providing meaningful content to the rights of its citizens.

A conservative jurist on the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals wrote that the Executive Branch's handling of one such case seemed to involve the sudden abandonment of principle "at substantial cost to the government's credibility before the courts."

As a result of its unprecedented claim of new unilateral power, the Executive Branch has now put our constitutional design at grave risk. The stakes for America's representative democracy are far higher than has been generally recognized.

These claims must be rejected and a healthy balance of power restored to our Republic. Otherwise, the fundamental nature of our democracy may well undergo a radical transformation.

For more than two centuries, America's freedoms have been preserved in part by our founders' wise decision to separate the aggregate power of our government into three co-equal branches, each of which serves to check and balance the power of the other two.

On more than a few occasions, the dynamic interaction among all three branches has resulted in collisions and temporary impasses that create what are invariably labeled "constitutional crises." These crises have often been dangerous and uncertain times for our Republic. But in each such case so far, we have found a resolution of the crisis by renewing our common agreement to live under the rule of law.

The principle alternative to democracy throughout history has been the consolidation of virtually all state power in the hands of a single strongman or small group who together exercise that power without the informed consent of the governed.

It was in revolt against just such a regime, after all, that America was founded. When Lincoln declared at the time of our greatest crisis that the ultimate question being decided in the Civil War was "whether that nation, or any nation so conceived, and so dedicated, can long endure," he was not only saving our union but also was recognizing the fact that democracies are rare in history. And when they fail, as did Athens and the Roman Republic upon whose designs our founders drew heavily, what emerges in their place is another strongman regime.

There have of course been other periods of American history when the Executive Branch claimed new powers that were later seen as excessive and mistaken. Our second president, John Adams, passed the infamous Alien and Sedition Acts and sought to silence and imprison critics and political opponents.

When his successor, Thomas Jefferson, eliminated the abuses he said: "[The essential principles of our Government] form the bright constellation which has gone before us and guided our steps through an age of revolution and reformation... [S]hould we wander from them in moments of error or of alarm, let us hasten to retrace our steps and to regain the road which alone leads to peace, liberty and safety."

Our greatest President, Abraham Lincoln, suspended habeas corpus during the Civil War. Some of the worst abuses prior to those of the current administration were committed by President Wilson during and after WWI with the notorious Red Scare and Palmer Raids. The internment of Japanese Americans during WWII marked a low point for the respect of individual rights at the hands of the executive. And, during the Vietnam War, the notorious COINTELPRO program was part and parcel of the abuses experienced by Dr. King and thousands of others.

But in each of these cases, when the conflict and turmoil subsided, the country recovered its equilibrium and absorbed the lessons learned in a recurring cycle of excess and regret.

There are reasons for concern this time around that conditions may be changing and that the cycle may not repeat itself. For one thing, we have for decades been witnessing the slow and steady accumulation of presidential power. In a global environment of nuclear weapons and cold war tensions, Congress and the American people accepted ever enlarging spheres of presidential initiative to conduct intelligence and counter intelligence activities and to allocate our military forces on the global stage. When military force has been used as an instrument of foreign policy or in response to humanitarian demands, it has almost always been as the result of presidential initiative and leadership. As Justice Frankfurter wrote in the Steel Seizure Case, "The accretion of dangerous power does not come in a day. It does come, however slowly, from the generative force of unchecked disregard of the restrictions that fence in even the most disinterested assertion of authority."

A second reason to believe we may be experiencing something new is that we are told by the Administration that the war footing upon which he has tried to place the country is going to "last for the rest of our lives." So we are told that the conditions of national threat that have been used by other Presidents to justify arrogations of power will persist in near perpetuity.

Third, we need to be aware of the advances in eavesdropping and surveillance technologies with their capacity to sweep up and analyze enormous quantities of information and to mine it for intelligence. This adds significant vulnerability to the privacy and freedom of enormous numbers of innocent people at the same time as the potential power of those technologies. These techologies have the potential for shifting the balance of power between the apparatus of the state and the freedom of the individual in ways both subtle and profound.

Don't misunderstand me: the threat of additional terror strikes is all too real and their concerted efforts to acquire weapons of mass destruction does create a real imperative to exercise the powers of the Executive Branch with swiftness and agility. Moreover, there is in fact an inherent power that is conferred by the Constitution to the President to take unilateral action to protect the nation from a sudden and immediate threat, but it is simply not possible to precisely define in legalistic terms exactly when that power is appropriate and when it is not.

But the existence of that inherent power cannot be used to justify a gross and excessive power grab lasting for years that produces a serious imbalance in the relationship between the executive and the other two branches of government.

There is a final reason to worry that we may be experiencing something more than just another cycle of overreach and regret. This Administration has come to power in the thrall of a legal theory that aims to convince us that this excessive concentration of presidential authority is exactly what our Constitution intended.

This legal theory, which its proponents call the theory of the unitary executive but which is more accurately described as the unilateral executive, threatens to expand the president's powers until the contours of the constitution that the Framers actually gave us become obliterated beyond all recognition. Under this theory, the President's authority when acting as Commander-in-Chief or when making foreign policy cannot be reviewed by the judiciary or checked by Congress. President Bush has pushed the implications of this idea to its maximum by continually stressing his role as Commander-in-Chief, invoking it has frequently as he can, conflating it with his other roles, domestic and foreign. When added to the idea that we have entered a perpetual state of war, the implications of this theory stretch quite literally as far into the future as we can imagine.

This effort to rework America's carefully balanced constitutional design into a lopsided structure dominated by an all powerful Executive Branch with a subservient Congress and judiciary is-ironically-accompanied by an effort by the same administration to rework America's foreign policy from one that is based primarily on U.S. moral authority into one that is based on a misguided and self-defeating effort to establish dominance in the world.

The common denominator seems to be based on an instinct to intimidate and control.

This same pattern has characterized the effort to silence dissenting views within the Executive Branch, to censor information that may be inconsistent with its stated ideological goals, and to demand conformity from all Executive Branch employees.

For example, CIA analysts who strongly disagreed with the White House assertion that Osama bin Laden was linked to Saddam Hussein found themselves under pressure at work and became fearful of losing promotions and salary increases.

Ironically, that is exactly what happened to FBI officials in the 1960s who disagreed with J. Edgar Hoover's view that Dr. King was closely connected to Communists. The head of the FBI's domestic intelligence division said that his effort to tell the truth about King's innocence of the charge resulted in he and his colleagues becoming isolated and pressured. "It was evident that we had to change our ways or we would all be out on the street.... The men and I discussed how to get out of trouble. To be in trouble with Mr. Hoover was a serious matter. These men were trying to buy homes, mortgages on homes, children in school. They lived in fear of getting transferred, losing money on their homes, as they usually did. ... so they wanted another memorandum written to get us out of the trouble that we were in."

The Constitution's framers understood this dilemma as well, as Alexander Hamilton put it, "a power over a man's support is a power over his will." (Federalist No. 73)

Soon, there was no more difference of opinion within the FBI. The false accusation became the unanimous view. In exactly the same way, George Tenet's CIA eventually joined in endorsing a manifestly false view that there was a linkage between al Qaeda and the government of Iraq.

In the words of George Orwell: "We are all capable of believing things which we know to be untrue, and then, when we are finally proved wrong, impudently twisting the facts so as to show that we were right. Intellectually, it is possible to carry on this process for an indefinite time: the only check on it is that sooner or later a false belief bumps up against solid reality, usually on a battlefield."

Whenever power is unchecked and unaccountable it almost inevitably leads to mistakes and abuses. In the absence of rigorous accountability, incompetence flourishes. Dishonesty is encouraged and rewarded.

Last week, for example, Vice President Cheney attempted to defend the Administration's eavesdropping on American citizens by saying that if it had conducted this program prior to 9/11, they would have found out the names of some of the hijackers.

Tragically, he apparently still doesn't know that the Administration did in fact have the names of at least 2 of the hijackers well before 9/11 and had available to them information that could have easily led to the identification of most of the other hijackers. And yet, because of incompetence in the handling of this information, it was never used to protect the American people.

It is often the case that an Executive Branch beguiled by the pursuit of unchecked power responds to its own mistakes by reflexively proposing that it be given still more power. Often, the request itself it used to mask accountability for mistakes in the use of power it already has.

Moreover, if the pattern of practice begun by this Administration is not challenged, it may well become a permanent part of the American system. Many conservatives have pointed out that granting unchecked power to this President means that the next President will have unchecked power as well. And the next President may be someone whose values and belief you do not trust. And this is why Republicans as well as Democrats should be concerned with what this President has done. If this President's attempt to dramatically expand executive power goes unquestioned, our constitutional design of checks and balances will be lost. And the next President or some future President will be able, in the name of national security, to restrict our liberties in a way the framers never would have thought possible.

The same instinct to expand its power and to establish dominance characterizes the relationship between this Administration and the courts and the Congress.

In a properly functioning system, the Judicial Branch would serve as the constitutional umpire to ensure that the branches of government observed their proper spheres of authority, observed civil liberties and adhered to the rule of law. Unfortunately, the unilateral executive has tried hard to thwart the ability of the judiciary to call balls and strikes by keeping controversies out of its hands - notably those challenging its ability to detain individuals without legal process -- by appointing judges who will be deferential to its exercise of power and by its support of assaults on the independence of the third branch.

The President's decision to ignore FISA was a direct assault on the power of the judges who sit on that court. Congress established the FISA court precisely to be a check on executive power to wiretap. Yet, to ensure that the court could not function as a check on executive power, the President simply did not take matters to it and did not let the court know that it was being bypassed.

The President's judicial appointments are clearly designed to ensure that the courts will not serve as an effective check on executive power. As we have all learned, Judge Alito is a longtime supporter of a powerful executive - a supporter of the so-called unitary executive, which is more properly called the unilateral executive. Whether you support his confirmation or not - and I do not - we must all agree that he will not vote as an effective check on the expansion of executive power. Likewise, Chief Justice Roberts has made plain his deference to the expansion of executive power through his support of judicial deference to executive agency rulemaking.

And the Administration has supported the assault on judicial independence that has been conducted largely in Congress. That assault includes a threat by the Republican majority in the Senate to permanently change the rules to eliminate the right of the minority to engage in extended debate of the President's judicial nominees. The assault has extended to legislative efforts to curtail the jurisdiction of courts in matters ranging from habeas corpus to the pledge of allegiance. In short, the Administration has demonstrated its contempt for the judicial role and sought to evade judicial review of its actions at every turn.

But the most serious damage has been done to the legislative branch. The sharp decline of congressional power and autonomy in recent years has been almost as shocking as the efforts by the Executive Branch to attain a massive expansion of its power.

I was elected to Congress in 1976 and served eight years in the house, 8 years in the Senate and presided over the Senate for 8 years as Vice President. As a young man, I saw the Congress first hand as the son of a Senator. My father was elected to Congress in 1938, 10 years before I was born, and left the Senate in 1971.

The Congress we have today is unrecognizable compared to the one in which my father served. There are many distinguished Senators and Congressmen serving today. I am honored that some of them are here in this hall. But the legislative branch of government under its current leadership now operates as if it is entirely subservient to the Executive Branch.

Moreover, too many Members of the House and Senate now feel compelled to spend a majority of their time not in thoughtful debate of the issues, but raising money to purchase 30 second TV commercials.

There have now been two or three generations of congressmen who don't really know what an oversight hearing is. In the 70's and 80's, the oversight hearings in which my colleagues and I participated held the feet of the Executive Branch to the fire - no matter which party was in power. Yet oversight is almost unknown in the Congress today.

The role of authorization committees has declined into insignificance. The 13 annual appropriation bills are hardly ever actually passed anymore. Everything is lumped into a single giant measure that is not even available for Members of Congress to read before they vote on it.

Members of the minority party are now routinely excluded from conference committees, and amendments are routinely not allowed during floor consideration of legislation.

In the United States Senate, which used to pride itself on being the "greatest deliberative body in the world," meaningful debate is now a rarity. Even on the eve of the fateful vote to authorize the invasion of Iraq, Senator Robert Byrd famously asked: "Why is this chamber empty?"

In the House of Representatives, the number who face a genuinely competitive election contest every two years is typically less than a dozen out of 435.

And too many incumbents have come to believe that the key to continued access to the money for re-election is to stay on the good side of those who have the money to give; and, in the case of the majority party, the whole process is largely controlled by the incumbent president and his political organization.

So the willingness of Congress to challenge the Administration is further limited when the same party controls both Congress and the Executive Branch.

The Executive Branch, time and again, has co-opted Congress' role, and often Congress has been a willing accomplice in the surrender of its own power.

Look for example at the Congressional role in "overseeing" this massive four year eavesdropping campaign that on its face seemed so clearly to violate the Bill of Rights. The President says he informed Congress, but what he really means is that he talked with the chairman and ranking member of the House and Senate intelligence committees and the top leaders of the House and Senate. This small group, in turn, claimed that they were not given the full facts, though at least one of the intelligence committee leaders handwrote a letter of concern to VP Cheney and placed a copy in his own safe.

Though I sympathize with the awkward position in which these men and women were placed, I cannot disagree with the Liberty Coalition when it says that Democrats as well as Republicans in the Congress must share the blame for not taking action to protest and seek to prevent what they consider a grossly unconstitutional program.

Moreover, in the Congress as a whole-both House and Senate-the enhanced role of money in the re-election process, coupled with the sharply diminished role for reasoned deliberation and debate, has produced an atmosphere conducive to pervasive institutionalized corruption.

The Abramoff scandal is but the tip of a giant iceberg that threatens the integrity of the entire legislative branch of government.

It is the pitiful state of our legislative branch which primarily explains the failure of our vaunted checks and balances to prevent the dangerous overreach by our Executive Branch which now threatens a radical transformation of the American system.

I call upon Democratic and Republican members of Congress today to uphold your oath of office and defend the Constitution. Stop going along to get along. Start acting like the independent and co-equal branch of government you're supposed to be.

But there is yet another Constitutional player whose pulse must be taken and whose role must be examined in order to understand the dangerous imbalance that has emerged with the efforts by the Executive Branch to dominate our constitutional system.

We the people are-collectively-still the key to the survival of America's democracy. We-as Lincoln put it, "[e]ven we here"-must examine our own role as citizens in allowing and not preventing the shocking decay and degradation of our democracy.

Thomas Jefferson said: "An informed citizenry is the only true repository of the public will."

The revolutionary departure on which the idea of America was based was the audacious belief that people can govern themselves and responsibly exercise the ultimate authority in self-government. This insight proceeded inevitably from the bedrock principle articulated by the Enlightenment philosopher John Locke: "All just power is derived from the consent of the governed."

The intricate and carefully balanced constitutional system that is now in such danger was created with the full and widespread participation of the population as a whole. The Federalist Papers were, back in the day, widely-read newspaper essays, and they represented only one of twenty-four series of essays that crowded the vibrant marketplace of ideas in which farmers and shopkeepers recapitulated the debates that played out so fruitfully in Philadelphia.

Indeed, when the Convention had done its best, it was the people - in their various States - that refused to confirm the result until, at their insistence, the Bill of Rights was made integral to the document sent forward for ratification.

And it is "We the people" who must now find once again the ability we once had to play an integral role in saving our Constitution.

And here there is cause for both concern and great hope. The age of printed pamphlets and political essays has long since been replaced by television - a distracting and absorbing medium which sees determined to entertain and sell more than it informs and educates.

Lincoln's memorable call during the Civil War is applicable in a new way to our dilemma today: "We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country."

Forty years have passed since the majority of Americans adopted television as their principal source of information. Its dominance has become so extensive that virtually all significant political communication now takes place within the confines of flickering 30-second television advertisements.

And the political economy supported by these short but expensive television ads is as different from the vibrant politics of America's first century as those politics were different from the feudalism which thrived on the ignorance of the masses of people in the Dark Ages.

The constricted role of ideas in the American political system today has encouraged efforts by the Executive Branch to control the flow of information as a means of controlling the outcome of important decisions that still lie in the hands of the people.

The Administration vigorously asserts its power to maintain the secrecy of its operations. After all, the other branches can't check an abuse of power if they don't know it is happening.

For example, when the Administration was attempting to persuade Congress to enact the Medicare prescription drug benefit, many in the House and Senate raised concerns about the cost and design of the program. But, rather than engaging in open debate on the basis of factual data, the Administration withheld facts and prevented the Congress from hearing testimony that it sought from the principal administration expert who had compiled information showing in advance of the vote that indeed the true cost estimates were far higher than the numbers given to Congress by the President.

Deprived of that information, and believing the false numbers given to it instead, the Congress approved the program. Tragically, the entire initiative is now collapsing- all over the country- with the Administration making an appeal just this weekend to major insurance companies to volunteer to bail it out.

To take another example, scientific warnings about the catastrophic consequences of unchecked global warming were censored by a political appointee in the White House who had no scientific training. And today one of the leading scientific experts on global warming in NASA has been ordered not to talk to members of the press and to keep a careful log of everyone he meets with so that the Executive Branch can monitor and control his discussions of global warming.

One of the other ways the Administration has tried to control the flow of information is by consistently resorting to the language and politics of fear in order to short-circuit the debate and drive its agenda forward without regard to the evidence or the public interest. As President Eisenhower said, "Any who act as if freedom's defenses are to be found in suppression and suspicion and fear confess a doctrine that is alien to America."

Fear drives out reason. Fear suppresses the politics of discourse and opens the door to the politics of destruction. Justice Brandeis once wrote: "Men feared witches and burnt women."

The founders of our country faced dire threats. If they failed in their endeavors, they would have been hung as traitors. The very existence of our country was at risk.

Yet, in the teeth of those dangers, they insisted on establishing the Bill of Rights.

Is our Congress today in more danger than were their predecessors when the British army was marching on the Capitol? Is the world more dangerous than when we faced an ideological enemy with tens of thousands of missiles poised to be launched against us and annihilate our country at a moment's notice? Is America in more danger now than when we faced worldwide fascism on the march-when our fathers fought and won two World Wars simultaneously?

It is simply an insult to those who came before us and sacrificed so much on our behalf to imply that we have more to be fearful of than they. Yet they faithfully protected our freedoms and now it is up to us to do the same.

We have a duty as Americans to defend our citizens' right not only to life but also to liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It is therefore vital in our current circumstances that immediate steps be taken to safeguard our Constitution against the present danger posed by the intrusive overreaching on the part of the Executive Branch and the President's apparent belief that he need not live under the rule of law.

I endorse the words of Bob Barr, when he said, "The President has dared the American people to do something about it. For the sake of the Constitution, I hope they will."

A special counsel should immediately be appointed by the Attorney General to remedy the obvious conflict of interest that prevents him from investigating what many believe are serious violations of law by the President. We have had a fresh demonstration of how an independent investigation by a special counsel with integrity can rebuild confidence in our system of justice. Patrick Fitzgerald has, by all accounts, shown neither fear nor favor in pursuing allegations that the Executive Branch has violated other laws.

Republican as well as Democratic members of Congress should support the bipartisan call of the Liberty Coalition for the appointment of a special counsel to pursue the criminal issues raised by warrantless wiretapping of Americans by the President.

Second, new whistleblower protections should immediately be established for members of the Executive Branch who report evidence of wrongdoing -- especially where it involves the abuse of Executive Branch authority in the sensitive areas of national security.

Third, both Houses of Congress should hold comprehensive-and not just superficial-hearings into these serious allegations of criminal behavior on the part of the President. And, they should follow the evidence wherever it leads.

Fourth, the extensive new powers requested by the Executive Branch in its proposal to extend and enlarge the Patriot Act should, under no circumstances be granted, unless and until there are adequate and enforceable safeguards to protect the Constitution and the rights of the American people against the kinds of abuses that have so recently been revealed.

Fifth, any telecommunications company that has provided the government with access to private information concerning the communications of Americans without a proper warrant should immediately cease and desist their complicity in this apparently illegal invasion of the privacy of American citizens.

Freedom of communication is an essential prerequisite for the restoration of the health of our democracy.

It is particularly important that the freedom of the Internet be protected against either the encroachment of government or the efforts at control by large media conglomerates. The future of our democracy depends on it.

I mentioned that along with cause for concern, there is reason for hope. As I stand here today, I am filled with optimism that America is on the eve of a golden age in which the vitality of our democracy will be re-established and will flourish more vibrantly than ever. Indeed I can feel it in this hall.

As Dr. King once said, "Perhaps a new spirit is rising among us. If it is, let us trace its movements and pray that our own inner being may be sensitive to its guidance, for we are deeply in need of a new way beyond the darkness that seems so close around us."


Informant: John Calvert

Ohio Rep. Robert Ney personally lobbied the then Secretary of State Colin Powell to relax U.S. sanctions on Iran. Who asked him to? A convicted airplane broker who had just taken the congressman and a top aide on an expense-paid trip to London, Newsweek has learned.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011606F.shtml

Even though administration officials and lawmakers have known for months that the next year's deficit would be higher, Mr. Bush and Republican leaders in Congress are pushing hard to pass nearly $90 billion in tax cuts for the next five years.

http://tinyurl.com/a9vq7


From Information Clearing House

Michigan is among 20 states where party affiliations had been tracked by government.

http://tinyurl.com/cf6td


From Information Clearing House

Medicare's new prescription-drug program is causing thousands of low-income seniors and disabled Americans to lose their drug benefits, prompting at least 14 states to pay for their prescriptions.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2006-01-12-seniors-medicare_x.htm?csp=34


From Information Clearing House

House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo said Monday he and other congressmen weren't attempting to block a federal investigation of a prominent Texas political contributor, but were trying instead to keep a government agency from wrongly seizing the man's property.

http://www.ktvu.com/news/5966365/detail.html?rss=fran&psp=news


From Information Clearing House

To understand the culture of corruption that infects Washington, DC, it's important to understand the origins of the K Street Project.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11581.htm

For three years federal agents trailed Mohammed Yousry, a chubby 50-year-old translator and U.S. citizen who worked for radical lawyer Lynne Stewart. Prosecutors wiretapped his phone, and FBI agents shadowed and interviewed him. They read his books and notepads and every file on his computer.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11580.htm

Merkel's 24-Hour Massage of Bush's Psyche:

Love of a political nature has definitely broken out between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and U.S. President George W. Bush. That may explain why, according to this account of the trip from Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung, Merkel gets away with discussing issues that past German Chancellors wouldn't have dared broach.

http://www.watchingamerica.com/sueddeutsche000003.shtml


From Information Clearing House

“Instant-Mix Imperial Democracy, Buy One Get One Free”

As we lurch from crisis to crisis, beamed directly into our brains by satellite TV, we have to think on our feet. On the move. We enter histories through the rubble of war. Ruined cities, parched fields, shrinking forests, and dying rivers are our archives.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3441.htm

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/01/15/EDG1UGN6PN1.DTL&type=printable


From Information Clearing House

By year three of Iraq's occupation, for most western citizens the fact that they live in a world subjugated by lies, half-truths and suppressed facts has become part of everyday life.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1687114,00.html


From Information Clearing House

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11585.htm


Informant: Friends

http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/3952/


Informant: jensenmk

From ufpj-news

How would you like to be the next senator elected from . . .

NEW ACTION PAGE TO FILIBUSTER ALITO: http://www.nocrony.com

CALL YOUR SENATORS RIGHT NOW at 888-818-6641, 888-355-3588 or 800-426-8073. If you can't leave a message try back again first thing in the morning, and submit the action page above in the meantime.

When they surrendered on the original filibuster confrontation without a fight they told us they were "saving our ammunition." Strike one.

When they waved Roberts through without demanding access to any of his records for the last 20 years they told us they were "keeping our powder dry." Strike two.

Don't DARE try to tell us that now rubberstamping the most radical jurist on the appellate bench is yet more "picking our battles."

A number of senators in the last couple days have made statements to the effect they did not hear anything at Alito's confirmation hearing that would make them vote against him. Of course not, because he did not actually say ANYTHING!

Alito is on the record stating that he believes in a dictatorial model of the president and that a woman's private decisions are up for grabs. He lied about his position on the former and categorically refused to repudiate the latter. Robert Bork himself stated the other day he believes conclusively that Alito still holds that view. THAT is the evidence to filibuster Alito, not what he might have evaded saying at his hearing.

This is our litmus test. If our senators will not protect us from this constitutional outrage, we call for each and every one to be defeated in their next election. We call for candidates to arise in their own primaries if necessary to punish them for their cowardice and their complicity. If putting their own job on the line is not a circumstance "extraordinary" enough for them we don't know what is.

Alito has been called a "walking constitutional amendment." Let our senators clearly understand that for them he represents a walking pink slip. And don't think because you are not up for re-election in 2006 that we will not remember. If you blow this one you will come to find out what a "done deal" really is. Nothing you can do in the future will redeem you. We the people can do better.

CALLING ALL POTENTIAL PRIMARY AND GENERAL ELECTION CANDIDATES

If you live in a state where your senator has expressed support or indifference on the Alito nomination we need you to immediately contact us about mounting a primary or general election challenge with yourself or someone else you know as the candidate. Be ye not concerned where you will get the money to run. We will provide you with the tools to run a campaign with no money and win. All you need is the courage to want to represent your fellow constitutents and do what they want their senators to do . . . for a change.

Did you catch Alito's snaky answer when asked if he thought Roe v. Wade was well settled? He said it depended on what you meant by "well settled." And they ridiculed Clinton for quibbling about the meaning of the word "is". When he says stare decisis is not an inexorable command, what he really means is Katie bar the door to the Supreme Court.

He doesn't always rule against the "little guy" he said at this hearing. And he gave as his primary example the machine gun case. Oh swell . . . if you are a little guy with a machine gun you can get a fair shake in judge Alito's courtroom.

On issue after issue he refused to comment, on the grounds that it might come before him. MIGHT come before him? Of course these issues will come before him. That's the whole plan, to systematically revisit every one of these decisions and roll them back one century at a time. The members of the Federalist society have been plotting this judicial coup since their mentor Bork was rejected for admitting his extremism. Since then they have been packing the courts with true believers who refuse to disclose their agendas, accelerated by the Bush neocon cabal. And Alito is the last piece of the puzzle they need to fall into place, WITHOUT WHICH THEY CANNOT PROCEED.

That is why it is so critical. That is why you must speak out again now. That is why you must submit this action page now.

http://www.nocrony.com

That is why you must ignore even now the voices on our own side who have been conned into parroting the right wing line that this is a foregone conclusion. Our senators did not have the burden of proof to stop Alito. It was his burden of proof to earn the position with straight forward and honest answers to the American people about what he stood for. The Federalist society knows EXACTLY what he stands for. They dropkicked Miers because they weren't 100% sure about her. It is the American people they are so desperately trying to keep in the dark.

This one is a ringer. You don't run with the wolf pack for so many decades without being a wolf. But they could not nominate a wolf without outfitting him with the sheep's clothing of "I'd have to carefully examine the facts of the case." They played up a weepy wife to trivialize the monumental danger this man represents as the fifth and deciding vote to overturn absolutely everything we ever cared about. And his supporters admit it even if he will not. Yeah, sure they say, that's what they want, to roll to clock back to the mid-thirties for starters and work backwards from there.

One of the most pathetic reasons we've ever heard for inaction is that they'll just nominate somebody as bad if Alito is rejected. What kind of defeatism is that? C'mon folks, snap out of it. No, not only are we going to turn thumbs down on Alito, but the next one, and the next one, until we get a true moderate at the very worse. That is what the American people deserve, if only you will demand it by calling your senators right now at one of the toll free numbers. There are three we know of, 888-818-6641, 888-355-3588, 800-426-8073.

Tell them if they do not filibuster Alito their own jobs are in jeopardy. Those who will not exercise the power they have will have whatever power they do have taken away from them. The OTHER side will do that if we do not do it first. Hold a press conference and declare your opposition and willingness to run in the primary of any state where such a senator dwells. You won't have to worry about raising money. You will be drafted so fast it will make your head spin.

Please take action NOW, so we can win all victories that are supposed to be ours, and forward this message to everyone else you know.

Powered by The People's Email Network Copyright 2005, Patent pending, All rights reserved

From George Vye
http://www.vhemt.org/

http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/article338830.ece

James Lovelock: The Earth is about to catch a morbid fever that may last as long as 100,000 years

Each nation must find the best use of its resources to sustain civilisation for as long as they can

Published: 16 January 2006

Imagine a young policewoman delighted in the fulfilment of her vocation; then imagine her having to tell a family whose child had strayed that he had been found dead, murdered in a nearby wood. Or think of a young physician newly appointed who has to tell you that the biopsy revealed invasion by an aggressive metastasising tumour. Doctors and the police know that many accept the simple awful truth with dignity but others try in vain to deny it.

Whatever the response, the bringers of such bad news rarely become hardened to their task and some dread it. We have relieved judges of the awesome responsibility of passing the death sentence, but at least they had some comfort from its frequent moral justification. Physicians and the police have no escape from their duty.

This article is the most difficult I have written and for the same reasons. My Gaia theory sees the Earth behaving as if it were alive, and clearly anything alive can enjoy good health, or suffer disease. Gaia has made me a planetary physician and I take my profession seriously, and now I, too, have to bring bad news.

The climate centres around the world, which are the equivalent of the pathology lab of a hospital, have reported the Earth's physical condition, and the climate specialists see it as seriously ill, and soon to pass into a morbid fever that may last as long as 100,000 years. I have to tell you, as members of the Earth's family and an intimate part of it, that you and especially civilisation are in grave danger.

Our planet has kept itself healthy and fit for life, just like an animal does, for most of the more than three billion years of its existence. It was ill luck that we started polluting at a time when the sun is too hot for comfort. We have given Gaia a fever and soon her condition will worsen to a state like a coma. She has been there before and recovered, but it took more than 100,000 years. We are responsible and will suffer the consequences: as the century progresses, the temperature will rise 8 degrees centigrade in temperate regions and 5 degrees in the tropics.

Much of the tropical land mass will become scrub and desert, and will no longer serve for regulation; this adds to the 40 per cent of the Earth's surface we have depleted to feed ourselves.

Curiously, aerosol pollution of the northern hemisphere reduces global warming by reflecting sunlight back to space. This "global dimming" is transient and could disappear in a few days like the smoke that it is, leaving us fully exposed to the heat of the global greenhouse. We are in a fool's climate, accidentally kept cool by smoke, and before this century is over billions of us will die and the few breeding pairs of people that survive will be in the Arctic where the climate remains tolerable.

By failing to see that the Earth regulates its climate and composition, we have blundered into trying to do it ourselves, acting as if we were in charge. By doing this, we condemn ourselves to the worst form of slavery. If we chose to be the stewards of the Earth, then we are responsible for keeping the atmosphere, the ocean and the land surface right for life. A task we would soon find impossible - and something before we treated Gaia so badly, she had freely done for us.

To understand how impossible it is, think about how you would regulate your own temperature or the composition of your blood. Those with failing kidneys know the never-ending daily difficulty of adjusting water, salt and protein intake. The technological fix of dialysis helps, but is no replacement for living healthy kidneys.

My new book The Revenge of Gaia expands these thoughts, but you still may ask why science took so long to recognise the true nature of the Earth. I think it is because Darwin's vision was so good and clear that it has taken until now to digest it. In his time, little was known about the chemistry of the atmosphere and oceans, and there would have been little reason for him to wonder if organisms changed their environment as well as adapting to it.

Had it been known then that life and the environment are closely coupled, Darwin would have seen that evolution involved not just the organisms, but the whole planetary surface. We might then have looked upon the Earth as if it were alive, and known that we cannot pollute the air or use the Earth's skin - its forest and ocean ecosystems - as a mere source of products to feed ourselves and furnish our homes. We would have felt instinctively that those ecosystems must be left untouched because they were part of the living Earth.

So what should we do? First, we have to keep in mind the awesome pace of change and realise how little time is left to act; and then each community and nation must find the best use of the resources they have to sustain civilisation for as long as they can. Civilisation is energy-intensive and we cannot turn it off without crashing, so we need the security of a powered descent. On these British Isles, we are used to thinking of all humanity and not just ourselves; environmental change is global, but we have to deal with the consequences here in the UK.

Unfortunately our nation is now so urbanised as to be like a large city and we have only a small acreage of agriculture and forestry. We are dependent on the trading world for sustenance; climate change will deny us regular supplies of food and fuel from overseas.

We could grow enough to feed ourselves on the diet of the Second World War, but the notion that there is land to spare to grow biofuels, or be the site of wind farms, is ludicrous. We will do our best to survive, but sadly I cannot see the United States or the emerging economies of China and India cutting back in time, and they are the main source of emissions. The worst will happen and survivors will have to adapt to a hell of a climate.

Perhaps the saddest thing is that Gaia will lose as much or more than we do. Not only will wildlife and whole ecosystems go extinct, but in human civilisation the planet has a precious resource. We are not merely a disease; we are, through our intelligence and communication, the nervous system of the planet. Through us, Gaia has seen herself from space, and begins to know her place in the universe.

We should be the heart and mind of the Earth, not its malady. So let us be brave and cease thinking of human needs and rights alone, and see that we have harmed the living Earth and need to make our peace with Gaia. We must do it while we are still strong enough to negotiate, and not a broken rabble led by brutal war lords. Most of all, we should remember that we are a part of it, and it is indeed our home.

The writer is an independent environmental scientist and Fellow of the Royal Society. 'The Revenge of Gaia' is published by Penguin on 2 February


"All our lauded technological progress--our very civilization--is like the axe in the hand of the pathological criminal." ~ Albert Einstein


Informant: Hopedance

http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewWeb&articleId=10816


Informant: Lew Rockwell

William Rees-Mogg on the police state.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,1052-1987493,00.html


Informant: Lew Rockwell

Posted on another group - Anna

http://www.thedailyjournalonline.com/article.asp?ArticleId=215974&CategoryId=14093

Antarctic icebergs pose serious risks

Caracas, Tuesday January 17,2006 HOME | Argentina Buenos Aires, (EFE). – Two huge icebergs that broke off the Antarctic ice pack are posing a risk for some 350 ships in the South Atlantic, most of them fishing boats working in the Argentine Sea, the coast guard announced here on Thursday.

“The risk is greater” for about 30 fishing boats operating in the Atlantic Ocean off the southern coast of Buenos Aires province, about 800 kilometers (500 miles) from the capital, authorities said. The icebergs were detected on Wednesday and “should be arriving in the area of southern Brazil in 10 or 15 days,” the head of the coast guard, Osvaldo Aguirre, told Mitre radio in Buenos Aires. Aguirre said that the detachment of individual icebergs from the southern ice pack is a normal event during the austral summer, but he emphasized that these particular specimens “are larger (than normal) and thus the risks are also greater.” The huge blocks of ice are drifting northwards at about 2 kilometers (1 mile) per hour and “the submerged portion (of each) is between three and seven times” larger than what is visible above the ocean’s surface, he added. Other officials with the coast guard told EFE on Thursday that at the beginning of the 1990s a huge iceberg floated from Antarctica to southern Brazil, where it finally melted. EFE

and...

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000085&sid=aBBkUmI7Oaaw&refer=europe

Moscow Temperatures May Drop to Coldest in 50 Years This Week

Jan. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Temperatures in Moscow, Europe's largest city, may plunge to the coldest in five decades this week, according to a forecast by the Moscow Meteorological Bureau.

Muscovites will have to endure readings of as low as minus 30 degrees Celsius (minus 22 degrees Fahrenheit) by tomorrow evening. Temperatures will plummet from around zero today and hold for two to three days, Tatiana Pozdnyakova, the head specialist at the Moscow Meteorological Bureau, said in a telephone interview.

The cold snap comes five weeks after Mosenergo, the city's biggest power supplier, warned of power cuts below minus 20 Celsius. Industrial users of power and street lamps may have their supply cut to conserve energy needed for residential and other essential consumers should demand be too high, Vasily Zaharov, a spokesman for Mosenergo, said today.

The freeze will arrive from western Siberia where an emergency situation was declared in the town of Tomsk as temperatures fell to minus 50 Celsius and below, the coldest for a century. The world's coldest inhabited place is Oymyakon in Siberia where temperatures of minus 71 degrees Celsius have been recorded.

By a margin of 52% to 43%, Americans want Congress to consider impeaching President Bush if he wiretapped American citizens without a judge's approval, according to a new poll commissioned by After Downing Street and conducted by Zogby International.

"The American people are not buying Bush's outrageous claim that he has the power to wiretap American citizens without a warrant. Americans believe terrorism can be fought without turning our own government into Big Brother," said AfterDowningStreet.org co-founder Bob Fertik.

Read the results and print out a one-page flyer summarizing the various polls that have been done on impeachment:
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/polling

Tell the media to cover this news:
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/1084

____________

Bush on Trial in New York This Weekend

Is the Bush Administration guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity? Even raising this question has been ruled out of order and out of bounds in the U.S. today, but on January 20-22 in NYC an unprecedented citizens Commission of Inquiry will ask -- and seek to answer -- exactly these questions and alter the terms of debate about this government.

Internationally-known expert witnesses and whistleblowers from the US and UK will testify in five areas: war, torture, global environment, global health (AIDs and reproductive rights), and the administration’s response to Katrina. Witnesses and judges include former commander of Abu Ghraib prison Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, former British ambassador Craig Murray (quoted today by Al Gore) who exposed US use of torture in Uzbekistan, Scott Ritter, Dennis Brutus, ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern, Dahr Jamail, Guantanamo prisoners’ lawyer Michael Ratner, David Swanson, Katrina survivors, former US diplomat and retired US Army Reserve Colonel Ann Wright.

Indictments from the Commission’s first session were delivered to the White House on January 10 by a delegation including Ray McGovern who told the press: "Back in the '30s the Germans hunkered down and hoped that Hitler and the Nazis would just go away. They didn't do the kind of thing [we are doing here]. Unlawful wiretapping and spying, Iraq and the torture and detentions, and on and on. This can't go down unopposed." Ann Wright on the Tribunal: "These are indictments that will ultimately bring down this administration."

The Commission is open to the public. Friday/Saturday sessions are at Riverside Church, Sunday session at Columbia Law School. More info: http://www.bushcommission.org

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_________

Demand that Republican Senate Leadership Let the Truth Out

President Bush has said over 100 times that Congress was shown the same pre-war intelligence he was. Senator Kennedy submitted an amendment in December to an intelligence bill asking the White House to turn over to the Senate Intelligence Committee the President's daily briefings, beginning with the last term of the Clinton Administration and ending on first day of the war in Iraq in 2003. In response, an anonymous Republican Senator blocked the bill and is still blocking it.
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/6818

Email and phone these three members of the Republican leadership and demand that they have the hold taken off the bill:

SENATOR BILL FRIST, Phone: 202-224-3344, Fax: 202-228-1264
http://tinyurl.com/2dnol

SENATOR MITCH MCCONNELL, Phone: 202-224-2541, Fax: 202-224-2499 http://mcconnell.senate.gov/contact_form.cfm

SENATOR PAT ROBERTS, Phone: 202-224-4774, Fax: 202-224-3514
http://roberts.senate.gov/e-mail_pat.html

____________

Stop Alito! (An alert from Progressive Democrats of America)

Judge Alito's nomination to the Supreme Court poses a grave threat to the nation. President Bush's nomination of Third Circuit Judge Samuel Alito to the U.S. Supreme Court poses grave threats to numerous progressive values. Unlike recently appointed Chief Justice John Roberts, Judge Alito has an extensive paper trail documenting the right-wing political agenda that he has actively advanced, not only as a high-ranking official in the Reagan Administration, but also as a judge. E-MAIL YOUR SENATORS:
http://tinyurl.com/8qfag

____________

"I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today -- my own government." -- Martin Luther King, Jr.
____________


FORWARD THIS INFORMATION



http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=impeach
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Downing+Street+Memo

http://news.scotsman.com/features.cfm?id=76062006


Informant: NHNE