On Today’s Show: The hard launch of the new Majority Report! Andy Harris puts his foot in his mouth, and Markos Moulitsas of the Daily Kos joins us to talk about lame ducks.
Shop Amazon through this box and the Majority Report gets a commission!
Click on this image, bookmark it, buy as usual through this link and by doing nothing else you will transfer wealth from Amazon to the Majority Report!
Using Amazon in Europe? you can still support the show
instructions here
-
Support Our Sponsors
Get a discount on delicious coffee, tea, or chocolate with a company that has great trade practices by using coupon code MAJORITY
Sam Seder Joins Ring of Fire Radio!
11:25 am
5 minutes until launch…take a pee and get another cup of joe.
11:57 am
You can message Sam during the show using either Twitter (Twitter ID @MajorityFM, hashtag #majorityfm) or an AOL Instant Messenger(AIM)-compliant IM client* (AIM ID MajorityFM).
* AIM Express works well for IM’ing from your web browser, avoiding the need to install any new IM software.
11:30 am
lets do this
11:33 am
morning all
11:33 am
dang! missed the start.
11:38 am
59 million!!!
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5ia6qJl_ViUjf_Lp1AdNjfn13K77Q?docId=CNG.003c06434b83e46dca5d95fb4df7cf8e.661
11:40 am
JUST COFFEE!! (Since I messed up their logo.)
11:40 am
Kewl!
11:41 am
Maddow is covering Dr. Andy too:
MaddowBlog Maddow Blog
Help start a #Maddow open thread for Rep. Andy Harris — how to get by without health insurance for a while: http://on.msnbc.com/dilmpZ
11:46 am
Morning to ya all! Beautiful day here in Northern IL.
11:54 am
Morning, Sandy. ’tis beautiful out.
12:00 pm
love you Sandy!
11:50 am
I’m here too until the top of the hour
11:53 am
Nicely evolved graphic over on the majorityreporters Tumber, guys.
11:53 am
errrr… Tumblr, that is
3:45 pm
I dunno. The trench coat kinda creeps me out…
11:54 am
Obama should watch his old campaign speeches to try to understand why people voted for him. It wasn’t for Compromise!
11:54 am
Sounds like it’s time for Obama to set aside childish things….
1:03 pm
People got forks ‘n knives, man they gotta cut something. Maybe Obama could compromise and make Hedge Fund Mgr’s pay 1% more in taxes than their secretaries?
11:55 am
Here we go again – Or do we?
11:57 am
Whatever you’re referring to, I think the answer is yes.
11:59 am
If you mean the show–Yes/yay!
12:19 pm
Yes, thanks, glory – But I’m having trouble saying stuff here
11:59 am
dream a little dream with me. no brainer.
12:02 pm
yay! It’s working I can HEAR! Its a miracle!
MRR is back. *sigh*
12:09 pm
Happy dance!
12:02 pm
How is making them go into the mil to get citizenship not punishing?
(The other alternative, two years college, requires funds [more and more] and also schools that prepare one for college.)
Jessayin’…
12:06 pm
Not to mention a REASON to go other than just to get citizenship.
12:03 pm
marcos, amen, swear away! fuck shit bullshit fuck.
12:03 pm
Any thoughts about putting the player in a pop-out window?
12:05 pm
Why not use the stream underneath?
12:08 pm
I can’t get the bottom link to work it says network error the top one works but you have to open another window or it closes the steam when you try to post here.
12:09 pm
b/c when I refresh it stops the stream. What am I missing?
12:11 pm
Open two windows or just use the microsoft player you get by hitting the photo beneath the player.
12:11 pm
This one:
Listen live with the above player or in iTunes/VLC/WINAMP using this link: http://live.majority.fm:8000/live.m3u
If so, are you sure it doesn’t just stop for a minute while it is buffering?
12:15 pm
You can open your media player (Windows Media Player, VLC, Winamp) and then copy/paste the above URL to open the stream.
12:17 pm
I just opened one page for the player and one for blog.
12:21 pm
That’s what I’m doing now but I have 5 other windows open, just trying to reduce the clutter. It’s you and 60th’s fault I’m spoiled. It’s not a necessity but rather a nice user friendly feature imo.
12:33 pm
the oxen are slow, but the earth is patient…
12:04 pm
sorry, the tax cuts do that to me. makes me too damn angry. it was friggin clear that we need the friggin money. when bush put them in we had a friggin surplus. I gotta go. peace
12:14 pm
peace, Cyrus.
12:09 pm
hellooo and welcome back MR!
12:10 pm
Regarding the tax extension, EVERYONE gets a break on the first $250,000 — not just the middle or working folk but EVERYONE. That gets LOST in a lot of people’s discussion. The greedy rich just want more.
12:13 pm
Yeah, another example of Democrats’ poor messaging.
12:14 pm
how true.
12:13 pm
Thank you, Markos! That was exactly my point last week re: Republicans’ mantra that “we will not compromise our principles.” They’re trying to make their policy positions equivalent to their religious beliefs and, therefore, above question and compromise.
12:18 pm
MSNBC is showing the Ground braking for G W Bush Library. Cheney is talking. He looks frail, thin. Maybe he’ll melt away!
12:22 pm
Cool! Even the ground is putting on the brakes?
3:29 pm
his suffering is purifying his really shitty karma!
12:22 pm
That Austerity bullshit is Thomas Friedman’s idea of the Ayn Rand model.
12:24 pm
Um – Milton. Granted, Thomas is full of the same destructive crap, but he didn’t think it up. The things Thomas F thinks up make even less sense.
12:31 pm
You’re right ellwort! I did mean Milton. I always confuse those names. Maybe because of Thomas F Flat Earth theory.
12:35 pm
My theory is Thomas Flat Head
12:30 pm
Ayn Rand modeling? Bleah!
12:36 pm
Ayn Rand maudlin
12:26 pm
Majority Report is Back!
life is good.
12:29 pm
Cat Chew said it best: Austerity should be applied to those who can afford it. (You know the folks who prospered from the Bush Tax Cuts that made the rich steenkin’ rich and did not create one mo’ fo’ job! .added by me purely for effect)
12:32 pm
Precisely. Simply consider we had a surplus in 2000 with prospects of eliminating our debt, but are now saddled with a supposedly crippling debt. Who’s benefited from the last decade’s policies and can handle the burden?
Still though, not much will change until the streets fill with protesters.
12:34 pm
Been saying that for a long time. Protests! But no one seems to want to!
1:15 pm
Surprising, considering how many have free time nowadays.
12:33 pm
Hey, the email announcement said the show would run from 11:30am-1pm Eastern!
We’ve been rooked! I want my money back!
12:37 pm
That’s including the IM segment for now… are you still listening? we’re still on!
12:42 pm
Has the IM segment hardened into a 30 minute limit? Nah, I’m guessing that’s a guaranteed minimum.
1:16 pm
Was just kidding, Evan; sorry.
12:36 pm
Bennies… hmmm. Sounds stimulating!
12:37 pm
Just what the doctor ordered in these dark times. Sam is back!
Atrios loves Sam and I hope he mentions this show soon along with all the other great progressive bloggers that love Sam.
12:39 pm
Man, I learn so much from all of you !!!!!!!
12:39 pm
Guess the Guest? What do we win if we guess correctly?
12:40 pm
Waste of money if you ask me …… G.W.’s library
Cheney is a waste of space
12:40 pm
JohnAmato JohnAmato
Wow, Joe Liebermann was standing up against his BFF, John McCain and supports a repeal of DADT with Andrea Mitchell.
12:41 pm
Everyone please look at this bill and if you don’t like it do something! Pass it on! Voting on Weds! http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DgOups0dfdwM%26feature%3Dshare&h=87884
1:19 pm
Thanks, Teresa.
1:21 pm
“Senate Bill S510 Makes it illegal to Grow, Share, Trade or Sell Homegrown Food”
12:41 pm
I enjoyed Maher’s take on this the other night: it’s not like we ask them to do other things – “Would you like to do a push-up?” LOL
12:42 pm
Hello Sunshine Jim!
12:46 pm
eya Dar!
Happy Dance! was thinking of you earlier hoping you’d post.
12:42 pm
OK podcast for me from now on when I am working. Two customers here. ONE of them laughed. I am waiting to see the other’s face when she comes to pay… :-}
12:47 pm
Never give better service than when I’m scared.
12:57 pm
Seems OK.
12:44 pm
rudepundit The Rude Pundit
Creepy true fact: Dick Cheney no longer has a heartbeat. It’s just a quiet, mechanical whir.
12:45 pm
markos Markos Moulitsas
Gallup on what’s important to Americans: Jobs 33, Deficit 9 shar.es/0NYzb
12:46 pm
The truth is, to be effective, anyone in any form of communications needs “ratings” of one kind or another… note Sam’s interest in #s of podcast downloaders, live listeners, etc.
12:47 pm
eya Dar!
good too read ya!
12:47 pm
Isn’t Kim Kardashian a Rula Lenska for our times?
12:48 pm
Keith Olbermann’s “special comment” on this last night was pretty much on target (though understandably a bit self-serving).
12:50 pm
Dane Cook – one of the world’s most over-rated comics IMNSHO
12:58 pm
EricBoehlert Eric Boehlert
I assume this is Boehner’s fault….RT @ondeadline Dow Industrials tumble below 11,000 for first time in a month. http://usat.ly/dlqBC1
1:18 pm
It is Boner’s fault! Just try to get Rethugs to believe that; Not gonna happen.
1:01 pm
MaddowBlog Maddow Blog
NBC News: Rep. Rangel guilty on 11 of 13 counts.
1:02 pm
Tosh or Maddow? LOL…
1:18 pm
The Paper Chase – good flic
1:23 pm
Morning Sedition – wow, do I still miss that. Some of the all-time best radio programming.
1:28 pm
What Jeremy Scahill/Bill Maher interview was the IMer referring to?
2:01 pm
Real Time w/ Bill Maher (3/7/08)- Jeremy Scahill on Iraq
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fywiS95Prd0
2:04 pm
Here’s another re the Contractors:
JEREMY SCAHILL BILL MAHER GUEST
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLKeTj–3Vg&feature=related
2:26 pm
thanks for both, Toni.
3:53 pm
Rep. Jan Schakowsky releases deficit reduction plan
by Chris Bowers
Tue Nov 16, 2010 at 11:18:03 AM PST
Representative Jan Schakowsky (D, IL-09) is a member of the Progressive caucus and holds a seat on the catfood commission. Today, she released her proposal to reduce the deficit. It is good, sensible policy, focusing on:
* Ending various corporate tax breaks (132.2 billion in annual savings)
* Reducing defense spending (110.7 billion in annual savings)
* Taxing Capital Gains and dividends as ordinary income (88.1 billion)
* Passing cap and trade (52 billion)
* Passing a robust public option (10 billion)
* Reducing agricultural subsidies (7.5 billion)
more at dkos
(I’m a good girl I am…
)
4:52 pm
Glory,
borrowing this post for the BRR blog with h/t to you. Thanks!
6:22 pm
NP. But you know if you’re borrowing it you gotta give it back, right..?
4:50 am
4:13 pm
@ddayen David Dayen
chaos at the Senate Banking Comm as homeowner calls Chase Home Loan CEO a liar, “let the homeowners speak!!”
No link yet. I guess it’s on the SPAN somewhere?
4:27 pm
dday’s liveblog in non-tweet form is here
4:29 pm
http://twitter.com/emptywheel is also live tweeting it.
4:53 pm
tpmmedia Talking Points Memo
GOP’s Top Tax Guy: Republicans Will Block Permanent Middle-Class Tax Cut http://tpm.ly/bHmNw0 ^@brianbeutler
4:55 pm
@thinkprogress ThinkProgress
Bachmann: Tax Cuts For Wealthy Must Be Extended, But Not If Tied To ‘Massive Spending’ On Unemployed http://bit.ly/cRqJLV
5:05 pm
Rimshot?
@Atrios: someone at hearing should ask the banksters about steroid usage. apparent only way to get charged w/lying to congress these days
5:34 pm
Obama And Top Congressional Democrats Call For DREAM Act’s Passage Before Year’s End
Amanda Terkel
First Posted: 11-16-10 05:22 PM | Updated: 11-16-10 05:22 PM
WASHINGTON — President Obama met with Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) members Tuesday afternoon and told them he backs their strategy of passing the DREAM Act during the lame duck session of Congress. The legislation would grant undocumented students who were brought into the United States as minors by their parents a path to citizenship through higher education or military service.
“It is not the time to hesitate or be unclear about what we are fighting for,” said Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) in a statement following the meeting. “We need the DREAM Act. I see it as a down payment on comprehensive reform and we will continue working towards comprehensive immigration reform today, tomorrow, and until it passes. But I will not pass up the chance to save a million or more children who grew up in the U.S., who know no other country, and who are threatened with deportation unless we act.”
According to a readout from the White House, Obama also reiterated [all together now] his hope that congressional Republicans will work with Democrats “ not only to strengthen security at the nation’s borders, but also to restore responsibility and accountability to what everyone agrees is a broken immigration system.”…
“http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/16/obama-congressional-democrats-dream-act-lame-duck-passage_n_784476.html?ref=tw.”>more at Huffpost
—-
I understand Gutierrez’s point of view. I just don’t think we should say it ain’t shitty.
Take out the military service (maybe add some other kind of national service if necessary) and it becomes a lot less shitty.
5:35 pm
We need a preview pane please.
link
5:39 pm
A business cannot, will not “create” jobs no matter how much of an incentive they are given by any governmental body. A healthy business will create and delete jobs based on the amount of business they do and/or if they have reason to anticipate an increase in business. PERIOD. For instance, many companies will hire extra employees for the Christmas season, and then layoff after wards. The National Census, Civil Service & the Military are the only sectors I can think of that you could actually claim that the government created those jobs. Other exceptions could be Public Sector jobs, education, emergency, fire, police, etc., But those are local and State government.
But my point is that the influence that governments have on “creating jobs” is not direct in the way that our leaders are framing their budget deficit vs. national debt arguments. Rather this is a great example of how the “right” using PR resources like the “Satan” wordsmith Frank Luntz to “demonize” an issue by rephrasing the lexicon used to describe it. “Estate Tax” becomes “Death Tax”. “ObamaCare”. ETC.
The truth is that what this deficit commission is proposing is nothing but ludicrous in the least, and apocalyptic in it’s worst scenario should it happen.
Put as simply as I can, and maybe you can elaborate while you are still being “cynical”.
OK, a business will create jobs when they have more business.
So if:
The government stays the tax cuts for the wealthy. You stated yourself that statistics show they will invest this money, and so it will not move into the general economy where it might result in “job creation”.
Austerity measures such as cutting Social Security, etc. will not put more money in the hands of the other 85% of us, and along with a continuing recession will only perpetuate inflation. Non-wealthy people will have less money to spend, thereby not leading to the creation of jobs. In fact, a likely scenario would be job loss (especially if you factor in the simultaneous “free-trade” talks going on with the G20).
Recommendations from the commission also give corporations more tax relief. Since nothing they do will actually create more business, then these companies will pocket their extra income, even though they could perhaps increase wages or even add infrastructure jobs in larger corporations.
Finally when the dust clears, there will have been jobs created. They will all be in the financial sector and support industries. Wall Street, Banking, etc. will benefit from all the wealthy investments and so they will need to hire more accountants. The Credit industry, loan sharks (payday loans), etc. will hire to compensate the growing number of poor to help them shore up their real income loss. Finally the foreclosure business will need to hire as more people fall behind.
I think however cynical you can speculate this will likely mirror the potential outcome more accurately than any politician will as they sell it to the amerikan sheeple. Yet, even though I see it as potential political suicide, they could succeed because they know how to “merchandise” and because they have a collective “Boehner” for authority and power.
Adam Curtis: “The Century of the Self” is a good reference to help understand how and why our culture and society seems, and is so gullible and oftentimes downright moronic acting.
5:44 pm
The Dream Act is a military recruiting tool for the future…
6:03 pm
All our economic problems are artificial in the sense that it is our “credit-based” monetary system coupled with unrestrained and unsustainable economic growth that allows the financial sector to manipulate the ups and downs that we call recession and depression, inflation and deflation. None of this would be possible if we had a national fiat currency and a regulated fiscal policy. Instead we allow the private sector to control our monetary system and thereby our economy.
What could possibly be democratic about that?
6:11 pm
What is this about Ralph Nader? Did I hear you correctly that you don’t think he is viable as a potential leader of the US?
6:22 pm
I don’t get DADT. When my generation was protesting Vietnam and avoiding the Draft, homosexuals were tickled pink that they could stay alive by fessing up. Many heteros claimed the same. Now we’re fighting for their right to die for a country that won’t even recognize their civil rights?
6:30 pm
James, the way to create jobs is to raise taxes on the wealthy, but give them a deduction for reinvesting in there business(here at home)..they would rather put money in their business than pay the govt. win win
9:51 pm
Couldn’t agree more.
6:32 pm
Thanks for being someone who is finally putting John Stewart in his corporate-media place. As long as the entire mainstream media industry is owned by big corporations and the likes of Rupert Murdock, there is a clear political line that you will not see their most progressive players cross. That includes Oberman, Maddow anyone else you can name. In my opinion calling any of them “progressive” is oxymoronic. Even AirAmerica and Pacifica Radio have been known to curb the truth-tellers if their style should offend the elite.
7:46 pm
Bob Kincaid on the HORN says WELCOME BACK SAM!!
8:50 pm
I must have died and gone to heaven. Majority Report is BACK! Congrats Sam.
Please try and get the old crew together too. Love to hear from Janeane and Mark.
9:52 pm
Here’s a great quote for your media-cynical toolbox:
“The corporate grip on opinion in the United States is one of the wonders of the Western world. No First World country has ever managed to eliminate so entirely from its media all objectivity – much less dissent” — Gore Vidal
11:52 pm
Bush At Large
By Ralph Nader
11/16/2010
George W. Bush is on a roll—a money roll with a $7 million advance for his book Decision Points and a rehabilitation roll to paint his war crimes as justifiable mass-slaughter and torture.
His carefully chosen interviewers—NBC’s Matt Lauer and Oprah Winfrey—agreed to a safe pre-taping to avoid demonstrations and tough questions. Requests for him to speak are pouring in from business conventions and other rich assemblages willing to pay $200,000 for “the Decider’s” banalities. This is “Shrub’s” month in the sun.
In his first week of book promotion, he was asked about anything he would have done had he known then what he knew now—especially regarding Iraq and its encircled dictator. Well, he deplored receiving “false intelligence” about Saddam Hussein having weapons of mass destruction which was one of several false claims he fed the American people before invading Iraq in 2003. But he has no regrets, saying that “the world was undoubtedly safer with Saddam gone.”
But was it safer for over a million Iraqis who lost their lives due to the invasion, over 4 million refugees, 4500 American soldiers lost, 1100 amputees, tens of thousands injured, sick and tens of thousands more GIs coming back with trauma to lost jobs, broken families and permanent damage to their health.
Was it worth a trillion dollars to blow apart the country of Iraq and incur many more enemies? Was it worth starting a war paid for by a massive debt handed to our children so that George W. and Dick Cheney could give themselves and their rich buddies a massive tax cut? Ex-presidents possess self-excusing delusions, but this is non compos mentis run amuck.
Then there is his escape from legal sanctions because the law enforcers in the Justice Department act as if Bush and Dick Cheney are above the law. “What is Attorney General Holder waiting for,” declared conservative/libertarian former Judge Andrew Napolitano, the legal analyst for Fox News, adding that Holder should criminally prosecute both Bush and Cheney for their many crimes. Just as a Justice Department task force was about to do to Richard Nixon after he resigned his office in 1974, for far lesser crimes, when President Ford pardoned him.
I asked Bruce Fein, an associate deputy attorney general under Ronald Reagan, constitutional rights litigator, author of books and articles and many Congressional testimonies on the imperial presidency, and its unlawful penchant for Empire, for his reaction. Here is his response:
“Former President Bush’s selective memoir is a little like Hamlet without the Prince of Denmark. With the exception of authorizing waterboarding, a form of torture, Bush neglects his serial vandalizing of the Constitution and the federal criminal code: five years of illegal surveillances of Americans on American soil; a war against Iraq without proper authorization by Congress; illegal detentions of enemy combatants without accusation or trials; hundred of unconstitutional signing statements professing an intent to refuse to faithfully execute the laws; unconstitutional defiance of congressional subpoenas; and, employing unilateral executive agreements to circumvent the treaty authority of the Senate over military commitments.”
“Despite his constitutional literacy, President Obama has balked at faithful execution of the laws against torture, warrantless spying on Americans, or obstruction of justice perpetrated by Bush and his servile minions. On that score, Obama resembles President Nixon, who was impeached by the House Judiciary Committee and forced to resign for sneering at his constitutional obligation to enforce, not ignore the laws.
“If Obama believes exculpatory circumstances justify non-prosecution of Bush-Cheney,” Fein continued, “then he should pardon them as authorized by the Constitution. A pardon must be accepted by the recipient to be effective, and acknowledges guilt and the inviolability of the rule of law. Ignoring lawlessness at the highest levels like Obama wounds the rule of law, and creates a precedent that lies around like a loaded weapon ready to destroy the Constitution. Obama himself is thus violating his oath of office by nonfeasance.”
Lawyer Fein is not referring to a one time episode like Watergate but a recurrent, pattern of massive outlawry here and abroad stretching for years. In 2005-2006, the large and very conservative American Bar Association, led by its then president, corporate attorney, Michael Greco, convened three task forces that produced white papers documenting three patterns of Bush’s unconstitutional behavior. Mr. Fein served on the panel that condemned the outpourings of Presidential signing statements. Although addressed and sent to President Bush, the ABA received no response to these unprecedented condemnations.
Our legal system and Constitution touted as the greatest in the world, decay when we allow epidemics of grave violations by the President and other White House violators to be rewarded for their unconstitutionalism and criminality.
On Armistice Day, November 11, 2010, The Washington Post put on page one the excruciating, but brave struggle of quadruple amputee, Marine Cpl. Todd A Nicely trying to make the best of his surviving an explosive device in Afghanistan. On the reverse page two there was a picture of a smiling George W. Bush signing his book. He is getting away with it.
Holding Bush/Cheney accountable by the soldiers he sent to kill and die in illegal wars, with few exceptions such as the Military Families Speak Out (MFSO.org) and the Iraq Veterans Against the War (ivaw.org) and Veterans for Peace (veteransforpeace.org) are not being made in public by enough soldiers after their service. Many know who was responsible but under pressure from their superiors and not wanting, along with their families, to admit publically that they suffered and fought in vain, they remain silent. With their credibility, more of them need to exert real patriotism and speak out against the militant White House draft-dodgers and their neo-con advisors who drove them and our country into these boomeranging, destructive wars.
The Post completed this grim trilogy with a full page color ad by the profitable munitions manufacturer, Lockheed Martin, which taxpayers paid for, thanking the “commitment” and “sacrifice” of those who are serving today in America’s military forces.
For the political cowards and their corporate profiteers, wars do not demand their sacrifice, they only invite their manipulative flattery. Same old racket, recalling double Congressional Medal of Honor winner, Marine General Smedley Butler whose book “War Is A Racket” said it all decades ago.
Of course more members of another profession should declare itself for prosecution—the one million-strong licensed attorneys sworn to uphold the law as “officers of the court”!
11:02 am
Remember how when we were kids, anyone could just ignore you and sooner or later it would affect your behavior? Usually to something more welcome by those ignoring you?
Why can’t we just do that with adults whose behavior we don’t like, famous, infamous or not?
I love Ralph Nader. I wish he had been elected President years ago when he first ran. We’d all be better off now, I know it in my deepest of hearts. Hell, if he’d been elected in 2008, he’d be cleaning “House” as we speak. And if there were still a Tea Party now, it would be real patriots in it and they’d probably be Ralph’s “base”.
But in spite of all that I can’t even stand hearing Mr. Nader talk about “him”. I wish we would either stop with the judicial cowardice in this country or forever forget this worm of a human being…
Publicity is what he wants, good or bad. Just look at that childish insane egotistical grin of his. I doubt he fully comprehends how despicable he truly is, and only wants the attention. Doesn’t care whether it’s laughing “at him” or “with him”. Though he behaves like everything is an inside joke that we’re all in on.
Maybe so, but the joke is still on US.
11:32 am
Ultimately this is not personal and it certainly isn’t about what “the worm” wants. He needs to be prosecuted b/c that’s how the law should work. Otherwise they will keep getting away with it, and that’s dangerous for everyone whether or not we are directly victimized.. Terrific way to recruit ‘people who want to do US violence (resisting the blanket use of the term “terrorist”) this killing and torturing Muslims.. (Since that is still the flavor of the year; may not always be).
It is also a dangerous precedent for state power now and in the future.
But you knew that.
Ralph stopping talking about him is certainly not going to keep him from getting publicity. The dangerous trend was the valentines that were starting to emerge in the M$M before ppl like Ralph started to speak out.
5:05 am
Protesters Say George Bush Library Should be a Pile of Rubble
Submitted by davidswanson on Wed, 2010-11-17 07:42
By Medea Benjamin
Several thousand people lined up to see George Bush, Dick Cheney and Condoleezza Rice shovel dirt into a hole at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, the site slated to become the George Bush Presidential Center housing a museum, library and archives.
Over 100 peace activists showed up to protest, including New York City artist Laurie Arbiter, who helped organize a March of the Dead and carried a sign asking “Does America Have a Conscience?” “Rather than build a library, we should leave the broken ground and just fill it with a big pile of rubble,” said Arbiter. “That would truly represent the catastrophic results of the Bush Administration.”
As part of the March of the Dead, protesters dressed in black, wore white death masks and had signs around their necks representing dead Iraqis, Afghans and U.S. soldiers. The dramatic March stopped traffic and provoked strong emotions in passers-by, participants and even the police. Renee Schultz, who drove from Indianapolis to join the protest, wore the death mask and a sign representing a 23-year-old female U.S. soldier killed in Iraq. “When I first put on the mask, I just stood there and cried. I kept thinking, ‘I am 23 years old and had my whole life ahead of me. Why did I die?’” Schultz looked over at the riot police and noticed that one of them also had tears streaming down his eyes.
When the marchers attempted to reach the public viewing area, the police forced them back to the designated “protest pen” far from the ceremony. One of the protesters, a wheelchair-bound veteran of the Korean War and World War, angrily told the police that he did not fight in two wars to be told that his freedom of speech would be confined to a “protest zone.”
The gathering was part of a three-day People’s Response, filled with rallies, marches, teach-ins, and exhibits of crosses and soldiers’ boots to represent the war dead. Organized by Texans for Peace, The Dallas Peace Center, CODEPINK and Veterans for Peace, among others, the speakers included former FBI agent Colleen Rowley, former CIA agent Ray McGovern, retired Colonel Ann Wright, professor Robert Jensen, author David Swanson, CODEPINK cofounder Medea Benjamin and Texas State Representative Lon Burnam….
More at War Is A Crime
5:33 am
‘Arizona-Style’ Bill, Other Anti-Illegal Immigrant Measures Filed In Texas
[snip]
Bills
Berman’s House Joint Resolution 38 would make English the official language of the Lone Star State and that all government business be performed in English.
The Tyler lawmaker said the bill would make all state documents published in English-only saving money for having to print in other languages.
Berman said the English-language bill would put the issue before a vote and become an amendment to the Texas Constitution.
His second bill seeks to take away birthright citizenship to children born in Texas but whose parents are both illegal immigrants.
Berman’s third bill seeks to deny food stamps and other state benefits to American-born children whose parents are illegal immigrants.
His fourth bill would prevent illegal immigrants from filing lawsuits in state courts.
Berman’s fifth bill relates to a controversy circulating on the Internet and talk show radio regarding President Barack Obama’s birth certificate.
The bill seeks to certify candidates on the Texas ballot for the offices of president and vice-president of the United States.
Berman said his sixth bill is an “Arizona-style” bill that would empower state and local law enforcement officials regarding illegal immigration.
The Tyler lawmaker said his bill avoids legal pitfalls of Arizona’s law by applying requiring police to ask the same questions to everybody, not just suspected illegal immigrants.
Berman said his Arizona-style bill also includes provisions against sanctuary cities.
He said he may file a separate sanctuary city bill in case the Arizona-style bill is defeated or vetoed.
A seventh bill seeks to levy on wire transfers to Mexico, Central American and South America but not on wire transfers to other nations….
http://www.valleycentral.com/news/story.aspx?id=541685
5:49 am
Sign our petition to Congress to investigate the TSA:
The TSA’s “porno scanners” are a gross invasion of privacy. After the House voted down invasive porno scanners, the TSA ignored the will of Congress and bought the machines anyway, wasting $25 million in stimulus funds to create just a single job.
The TSA’s new aggressive “pat downs” are clearly designed to punish people like John Tyner who refuse to go through the porno scanners. Neither the scanners nor the aggressive pat-downs make us any safer. Now the TSA is further abusing its power, threatening a citizen’s most basic rights to intimidate the rest of us.
It’s clear that the TSA is out of control. Congress should investigate the TSA’s abuse of power, and then pull the plug on the invasion of our privacy.
Add your name to our petition to the left.
Background Information
John Tyner had two options when he got to the airport: go through the TSA’s “porno scanners” unprotected, or get an aggressive groping by a TSA agent that one woman described as being “sexually assaulted by a government official.”
Tyner avoided the porno scanners, but when he objected to the TSA’s plan to fondle his genitals, the agents refused to let him board his flight. Tyner recorded the incident in a now-famous video in which he told the TSA to “don’t touch my junk.”
Now the TSA says they are “investigating” Tyner, threatening him with prosecution and $11,000 in civil penalties. It should be obvious why the TSA is investigating Tyner: to intimidate the rest of us into using their invasive, dangerous porno scanners.
The TSA’s “porno scanners” are a gross invasion of privacy. After the House voted down invasive porno scanners, the TSA ignored the will of Congress and bought the machines anyway, wasting $25 million in stimulus funds to create just a single job.
The TSA’s new aggressive “pat downs” are clearly designed to punish people like John Tyner who refuse to go through the porno scanners. Neither the scanners nor the aggressive pat-downs make us any safer. Now the TSA is further abusing its power, threatening a citizen’s most basic rights to intimidate the rest of us.
It’s clear that the TSA is out of control. Congress should investigate the TSA’s abuse of power, and then pull the plug on the invasion of our privacy.
Add your name to our petition to the left.
FDL Action..