Did Clinton camp make Obama "blacker"?

Wired Politics
Daily Kos

Oh, no! She Di'unt! Oh yes, she de'ud! Oh, no! She Di'unt!

I just report 'em, folks.

Beware: This is only the beginning of the ridiculous behavior.

AP Chief: 9/11 Attacks Harmed First Amendment

AP/RawStory

The shadow of the Sept. 11 terror attacks is eclipsing press freedom and other constitutional safeguards in the United States, Associated Press President and CEO Tom Curley said Thursday."What has become clear in the aftermath of 9/11 is how much expediency trumps safeguards," Curley said in remarks prepared for the annual dinner of the Radio and Television News Directors Foundation.

"Congress steps back from its constitutional role of executive oversight. Civilian oversight of the military wanes. A Justice Department interprets laws in ways that extend police powers. More drastically, prisons are established in places where government or military operatives circumvent due process or control trials," Curley said in accepting the foundation's First Amendment Leadership Award. "It's at moments like these when a free press matters most," he said. Curley was selected for his role in pushing for more openness in government and for emphasizing reporting on First Amendment issues. That includes efforts by the AP to establish the Sunshine in Government Initiative, a news media coalition that presses for strengthening Freedom of Information laws and for greater government openness.

Also receiving First Amendment honors from the foundation Thursday were CBS News correspondent Bob Schieffer and NBC Universal vice president Paula Madison. A special award also recognized former Federal Communications Commission Chairman Richard Wiley.

Second City Cop

Second City Cop is written by an anonymous group of CPD officers illustrating the trials of a patrol officer. This week, The Chicagoist did an interesting interview with SSC about the recent shake-up in the department and the lumps CPD has taken over the past year.

The interview, and the blog are pretty interesting. I think the fact that the blog takes a political stance (Links for Right Thinking People) distracts from the substance of the site: The Job. I was immediately put off. Besides that, I was pleasantly surprised. It is well written and thought out. I think people are want to believe "Cops Suck" or that "You want them on that wall... you NEED them on that wall" and not think about all the intense shit they deal with, the bureaucracy, the death, the mettle necessary to do what they do: the daily stare into the abyss that is our society without going crazy. Just like there are good and bad people, there are good and bad cops, and we tend to paint them with too broad a brush.

That said, a lot of the substance of the blog deals with departmental minutiae, and disgust with the new Superintendent (Jody Weis from the FBI, in case you live in a cave) trying to create a trust relationship with community leaders in high crime neighborhoods, namely "the reverends." There is a lot of talk about certain "demographics" who make up, according to SSC, the majority of perps, the disparaging of Weis' attempt at hiring more minorities and conducting sensitivity training... the list of grievances goes on. Fine. This is America, say and think what you like. However, how can you constantly say others don't look at a cop's lot from a cop's perspective, when you don't look at anything from the perspective of community leaders (or "reverends" or "fronts for gang activity"). Any hint at this double standard is met with "I put my life on the line every day".

Needless to say, policing a city the size of Chicago, with the breadth of issues this city faces is a daunting task. There are no easy or definitive fixes. But cops, like the "reverends" need to realize that they also don't have all the answers.

Ron Paul Slams Bernanke in Congress, Again: "History is Against You"

Presidential candidate Congressman Ron Paul takes FED chairman Ben Bernanke to task once again in a House Financial Services Committee meeting today in Washington. Paul lets loose on the FED chairman about their destructive activity that is destroying the value of the dollar. Bernanke, like clockwork, gives his same old tired response about the CPI, which does NOT comprehensively account for all of the areas of "consumer cost". Frankly, its just a ridiculous response. Bernanke really ends up having no choice but to admit that Paul is right.

Faux News .... or Fox Porn?

You gotta check out the links in this blurb, which contain real Faux News footage... Wicked good, and wicked bad.

From Lawyers, Guns, and Money:

Via Feminist Law Profs comes this interesting website/advertisement for "Outfoxed," a documentary about how Fox News is dragging down the entire television medium. The website "Fox News Porn" exposes how Fox News consistently relies on images of scantily clad and gyrating women to titillate its conservative audience (puns intended). All of the images on the faux site were actually broadcast on Fox News.

The segments (which you can view on Outfoxed's really well done (and provocative) site) Fox News Porn are particularly surprising (at least to me, since I never -- ever -- stop flipping the channels at Faux News) in light of O'Reilly's near-constant screeds about moral values and the decline of the American social fabric. Nice to know that Murdoch's empire is putting its money where its mouth is.

Inside the World of War Profiteers

Slowly, the graft associated with the largely privatized war in Iraq is being exposed. Unfortunately, an impotent Congress and a wholly corrupt Department of Justice owned by the Executive branch will keep most of this under wraps, or at least in the "a few bad apples" ball park, long enough to let everyone off unscathed except the taxpayers.

From The Chicago Tribune:

ROCK ISLAND, Ill.—Inside the stout federal courthouse of this Mississippi River town, the dirty secrets of Iraq war profiteering keep pouring out.

Hundreds of pages of recently unsealed court records detail how kickbacks shaped the war's largest troop support contract months before the first wave of U.S. soldiers plunged their boots into Iraqi sand.

The graft continued well beyond the 2004 congressional hearings that first called attention to it. And the massive fraud endangered the health of American soldiers even as it lined contractors' pockets, records show.

Federal prosecutors in Rock Island have indicted four former supervisors from KBR, the giant defense firm that holds the contract, along with a decorated Army officer and five executives from KBR subcontractors based in the U.S. or the Middle East. Those defendants, along with two other KBR employees who have pleaded guilty in Virginia, account for a third of the 36 people indicted to date on Iraq war-contract crimes, Justice Department records show. (story continues here)

All Starbucks Closing Tonite, Apocalypse Imminent

From Chicagoist:

If you're cramming for a test, need a post-dinner pick me up or want a Paul McCartney CD between the hours of 5:30 and 8:30 tonight, you'll have to go somewhere other than Starbucks. Nearly all of the coffee chain's locations will be closed for a company-wide education and training session for employees. Dunkin' Donuts just happens to have a promotion running today and will be giving away free lattes. Our favorite quote in the Trib's story comes courtesy of Frances Allen, Dunkin' Donuts' brand marketing officer: "We never want any customers to ever be denied access to their specialty drinks." You tell 'em, Ms. Allen. Let's draft a constitutional amendment guaranteeing Frappuncino availability.

If you want a quality hot beverage this evening that you don't mind paying for, we recommend opting for Intelligentsia (the Millennium Park store is open till 8 and Broadway till 10). Talking Heads' frontman and all-around awesome guy David Byrne agrees with us. On a recent trip to Los Angeles he stopped by Intelligentsia's new Silverlake location and prounounced the coffees "incredible. This seems to be common knowledge — the place is filled with hipsters waiting patiently to order." Absolutely.

Former Congressman Warns of Martial Law In America

Former Congressman Dan Hamburg co-authored this article recently in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Here are a few excerpts.

Since 9/11, and seemingly without the notice of most Americans, the federal government has assumed the authority to institute martial law, arrest a wide swath of dissidents (citizen and noncitizen alike), and detain people without legal or constitutional recourse in the event of "an emergency influx of immigrants in the U.S., or to support the rapid development of new programs."

Beginning in 1999, the government has entered into a series of single-bid contracts with Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR) to build detention camps at undisclosed locations within the United States. The government has also contracted with several companies to build thousands of railcars, some reportedly equipped with shackles, ostensibly to transport detainees.

According to diplomat and author Peter Dale Scott, the KBR contract is part of a Homeland Security plan titled ENDGAME, which sets as its goal the removal of "all removable aliens" and "potential terrorists."

Guy Stabs In-Law over Clinton/Obama Argument

Yep, here it is. The party of "non-violence". Apparently a heated exchange between in-laws over the merits of a Clinton or Obama administration proved too much to handle. It seems this Clinton supporter likes knives..

Happy 50th Birthday, Peace Sign

From LRC

"The peace sign is 50 years old today. It was designed in 1958 by British artist Gerald Holtom, who combined the semaphore letters N and D, for nuclear disarmament".



Wow, 50 years and still nothin'. I say we come up with a new sign. Any ideas?

Crinch Pin Late Night Music Club: Black Sabbath

Of course I could have played war pigs which is the obvious choice for our current political situation. But I just had to post this amazing live version of fairies wear boots from Paris, 1970.
This just completely rules in so many ways, I don't know where to begin. Enjoy!

Nader to Announce?

Ralph Nader will be appearing on Meet the Press this week (2/24), and rumor is he will announce his candidacy.

As much as I respect the guy, and will admit to the world that I voted for him in 2000*, it's time that Nader admitted to himself and his followers that his impact can be at it's greatest if he uses his considerable clout to build the Green Party's local organizations throughout the country. This year in Illinois, I could have actually filled out a Green Party ballot for the primary. In a state where the Democratic Machine has all but suffocated any other party organizations, this is no small feat.

* I do not believe that Nader lost the election for Al Gore. Nader had and has every right to run, and we have and had every right to vote for him. Al Gore lost the election by a) running a shitty campaign, b) moving to the Right to garner votes, c) bowing to the media pressure and basically giving up on the "intent of the voter" standard in Bush v. Gore before the Supreme Court thus stopping the Florida recount and handing the election to Bush.

Serbian Blowback

Looks like "blowback" is once again the product of another tentacle of U.S. foreign policy, this time it's Kosovo. The LRC blog has a great post on this by Lew Rockwell via James Elliot:

Writes James Elliott: "I just saw the headlines on the Serbian 'storming' of the US Embassy in Belgrade. This was not done to the French Embassy, because the French did not bomb Serbia beginning on their highest holy day, Orthodox Easter, the way the US did under the enlightened 'genocide'-halting foreign policy of the Clinton/Albright administration, and we have the audacity to ask the UN to be incensed for us over this issue now! Blow back strikes again."

Also, I just watched some highlights of the Clin-ton/O'Bomber debates on CNN . Imagine if the moderators would have asked a pertinent question about oh..I don't know...something that is happening right now....ummm...like maybe the fact that there are Serbians setting fire to our embassy right now in Belgrade over our Kosovo policy. Ok, Who wants to answer first?

Kucinich to Investigate 9/11 Insider Trading

Dennis the Menace is at it again, and I mean "menace" in a good way. The establishment can't wait to get rid of this guy. Probably why the corporate controlled DNC is making sure he has a primary challenger this year. Anyways, I love this guy. He's all truth and no bullshit. I've seen one YouTube video after another where 9/11 truth activists are hounding Kucinich to look into the discrepancies and lies in the official story. Well, Dennis has delivered again and again, and this time is no exception. The Ohio congressman just recently said that he will initiate an investigation of the pre-9/11 insider trading that has been exposed, dealing primarily with put options placed for both United and American Airlines.
I have a feeling that Dennis may be legitimately concerned about losing his congressional seat, so he is goin for broke. Cynthia McKinney, the former Congresswoman from Georgia has been pretty vocally supportive of those questioning the the official story. She was one of the only members of Congress who really took some of the administration and military officials to task by asking the important, and for those being questioned, uncomfortable questions about the government's response on that day. We all know what happened to her during the election of 2004. Let's hope Dennis doesn't get "McKinneyed". These are a few excerpts from Kucinich on this topic while being interviewed again on the Alex Jones Show.

"I've indicated a long-standing interest in gathering information and trying to get to the bottom of exactly what happened with respect to all the stock activity that took place preceding 9/11."

"From my own personal standpoint, I've had long-standing questions about why this volume, why those airlines, why that time, who made the buys, why did they buy them, who told them to make the buys, who was involved? There are questions there that need to be answered as part of an effort to get to the truth,"

"I think we need to talk to the people who were involved in making those transactions in order to try to figure out why they were made, for example, American Airlines and United Airlines stock."

UPDATE:

Here's Kucinich discussing more details about how and when this will be brought into hearings.

Teevee Terror

Damn! Greenwald is ON FIRE today.

Check out the shit the GOP is trying to pull over on all the impressionable sheeple out there:



Were it not so serious, this would be laughable. Unfortunately, dear reader, a lot of God and country loving Americans out there will take a look at this and say "Them turrorists are tryin' to take away ma 'Merican Gladiaters and neckid Lindsay Lohan pitchers?" and that will be it. No one will be able to convince them that they are victims of a cleverly targeted media terror campaign against their Constitutional rights.

Hey... can you get those Lindsay Lohan pics in the womb?