Tuesday, January 13 2009   -   Get Involved

At 10am EST tomorrow morning, General Eric Shinseki, President-elect Obama's choice for VA Secretary, will try to convince Congress he's the right person for the job.

In advance of the hearing, IAVA released ten crucial questions that Congress needs to ask the nominee. And I'm going to be live-blogging about the hearing straight from DC, watching to see what issues are addressed.

Click here to follow along with my commentary in real time.

If he's confirmed, General Shinseki will be facing an urgent and critical fight to improve support for our nation's veterans. As a wounded and decorated combat veteran, and the first Asian-American in US history to be a four-star general, he has the potential to lead the second-largest bureaucracy in the US government into the 21st century.

 

Tuesday, January 13 2009   -   In the Media

Live Broadcast: Hillary Clinton Senate Confirmation Hearing for Secretary of State

The broadcast is scheduled for Tuesday Jan 13th at 6am Pacific – 9am Eastern. Information at the top of:
http://noliesradio.org
or
http://67.18.54.205/~nolies

 

Tuesday, January 13 2009   -   Other Important News

January 12, 2009
A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS
by Meg White

As Bush gives his final press conference today, lamenting the "mistakes" of his presidency, some are wondering if he and other members of his administration will get a chance to tell such tales to a special prosecutor.

"History will look back,'' he told reporters, most likely hoping the next administration's Justice Department will solely look forward. Judging from the most recent comments from his successor, that may very well be the case.

It all started when Bob Fertik, progressive writer and co-founder of Democrats.com, posed this question to President-elect Barack Obama:

"Will you appoint a special prosecutor -- ideally Patrick Fitzgerald -- to independently investigate the gravest crimes of the Bush Administration, including torture and warrantless wiretapping?"

Fertik submitted the question to Change.gov, the official transition Web site for the incoming Obama Administration. The site has a forum called "Open for Questions" where people can post items of particular concern for the Obama team to review. Fertik's question got so much attention and approval from other users on the site that it made its way to the top of the Change.gov list and onto the Sunday talk shows, finally garnering this response from Obama when George Stephanopoulos asked the question directly:

 

Monday, January 12 2009   -   Other Important News

Catherine Austin Fitts
January 9, 2009
Solari.com/blog

In fiscal 1999, the Department of Defense was "missing" $2.3 trillion dollars. To put that amount of money in perspective, it is approximately 3X what President-elect Obama is proposing to spend to revitalize America.

In fiscal 2000, the Department of Defense was "missing" $1.1 trillion, about 1.5X what President-elect Obama wants to invest in America.

So between October 1998 and September 2000, the Department of Defense was "missing" $3.3 trillion. Because the amount of money disappearing is so enormous, years ago we started a archive of articles on the "missing money" to try to keep up with the trillions sliding out of the federal accounts.

 

Monday, January 12 2009   -   9/11 A/V Galleries

The audio of Griffin's excellent presentation, "9/11 and Nationalist Faith" was broadcast on Bonnie Faulkner's KPFA program, Guns and Butter, on Wednesday, January 07, 2009, and is now available at her archives for online listening.

In "9/11 and Nationalist Faith," Dr. David Ray Griffin shows that the greatest obstacle to seeing the truth - that 9/11 was an inside job - is not the lack of evidence, but what can be called "nationalist faith" ...

Visit Guns and Butter to listen to this presentation here. (Or play mp3 stream here.) Many other excellent shows are archived for listening here.

 

Monday, January 12 2009   -   In the Media

by Eve Conant
NEWSWEEK
From the magazine issue dated Jan 12, 2009

In the grim, sleepless months of excavation after the September 11 attacks, forensic pathologists in New York City worked day and night to identify the dead. They didn't have much to go on. The collapsed World Trade Center towers had burned at temperatures reaching 2,000 degrees, incinerating those trapped inside. Many of the bodies of the passengers aboard the two airplanes that struck the buildings were consumed by burning jet fuel, leaving only traces of DNA, much of it so damaged that it was impossible to read. Few bodies were found intact. Most of the human remains culled from the vast wreckage at Ground Zero were little more than tiny fragments of charred tissue and bone. The volume was overwhelming. Robert Shaler, who headed the city's Department of Forensic Biology and was a leader of the identification effort, worried his lab would be paralyzed if it tried to identify every piece. At first, they decided they would only attempt to test samples that were "the size of a thumb or larger," he says. But when they saw how small many of the fragments were, they changed their minds. "If we were really going to make an honest effort," Shaler says, "we had to do everything that came along."

Shaler and his colleagues at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner gave weekly updates to family members of the victims, reporting how many of the dead had been identified and reassuring them that the city was doing everything to identify their loved ones. But the families weren't only concerned with their own dead. In meeting after meeting, Shaler says, relatives would ask about the hijackers. Had the scientists identified any of their remains?

 

Sunday, January 11 2009   -   Other Important News

by Josh Israel
January 7, 2009
A Center for Public Integrity Investigation

As America approaches a historic transfer of power, it is becoming ever-clearer what a daunting set of tasks awaits the new administration. When Barack Obama takes the oath of office at noon on January 20 he will inherit an economy collapsing before our eyes and a pair of ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. But he will also inherit a federal government whose machinery should bear an “out of order” sign.

 

Saturday, January 10 2009   -   Other Important News

January 10, 2009
by Janice Matthews
911truth.org (link to article)

911truth.org was contacted this week by Charles W. (Bill) White, of Houston, who provided extensive information to Russ Baker in the writing of his explosive new Bush dynasty historical expose, Family Secrets: The Bush Dynasty, the Powerful Forces That Put It in the White House, and What Their Influence Means for America. More about him is in his letter to Senator Levin, below, wherein he expresses grave concern for the safety of nearly 6,000 Sailors and Marines who will carry out their duties aboard the Navy's new nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the USS George H.W. Bush.

Today, that ship was christened in spite of White's caution.

 

Saturday, January 10 2009   -   9/11 Consequences

Eric Brewer
Saturday January 10, 2009

One of the many sad ironies of the Bush era that is rapidly and mercifully drawing to a close is that after the president created a “central front in the war on terror” by invading Iraq, the amount of “terrorism” in the world skyrocketed. I call it the Bush Bubble:

 

Saturday, January 10 2009   -   Resources and Materials

Media Alert
January 8, 2009
NationalArchives.org

WHAT: The National Archives will open more than 150 cubic feet of records of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States, known as the 9/11 Commission, an independent, bipartisan commission created by Congress. The Commission's mandate was to provide a "full and complete accounting" of the attacks of September 11, 2001, and recommend how to prevent such attacks in the future.

On January 14th at 9 AM EST, Memoranda for the Record (summaries of 709 interviews conducted by the Commission), series descriptions, and folder title lists will be available online (www.archives.gov). These records include information on the terrorists, past terrorist events, al Qaeda in general, and related subjects. The records also include information concerning the emergency responses to the attacks in New York City and Washington, DC.

 

Saturday, January 10 2009   -   Other Important News

21 hours ago
AFP at www.google.com/hostednews

WASHINGTON (AFP) -- The outgoing White House administration will next week hold a joint "disaster scenario" exercise with top members of the incoming team of president-elect Barack Obama, US officials said Friday.

"I'm not going to go into the details of it, but it is a disaster scenario where the government would be very much tested," White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said.

"It is an exercise scenario, a hypothetical scenario that is designed to test and tax the capabilities of the federal government," he added.

He did not specify whether Obama or vice president-elect Joe Biden would take part in Tuesday's three-hour long exercise, saying merely it was part of regular training events and had not been motivated by any specific threat.

 

Friday, January 9 2009   -   Editorials

UPDATE 1/10/09: Shamefully, the US House of Representatives yesterday passed H.Res.34, "Recognizing Israel's right to defend itself against attacks from Gaza, reaffirming the United States' strong support for Israel, and supporting the Israeli-Palestinian peace process," on a suspension of the rules since it had not yet come back out of the Committee on Foreign Affairs. (Apparently, Rep. Howard Berman was in a big hurry to get this done.) Full text of the resolution is reposted at the end of this article.

In the end, 116 Reps Cosponsored the Resolution, and roll call vote shows 490 YEA, 5 NAY, 22 COWARD (aka "PRESENT"), with 16 not voting. Integrity Award goes to NO voters Dennis Kucinich, Gwen Moore, Ron Paul, Nick Rahall, and Maxine Waters. For all the terrible details, see "House Adopts Measure Backing Israel on

 

Friday, January 9 2009   -   9/11 Consequences

Among the men about to undergo military trials at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is the self-proclaimed 9/11 mastermind.

By Peter Finn
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 7, 2009

The military judge overseeing proceedings against five of the men accused of planning the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks signed an order designed to protect classified information that is so broad it could prevent public scrutiny of the most important trial at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, according to lawyers and human rights groups.

The protective order, which was signed on Dec. 18 by Judge Stephen R. Henley, an Army colonel, not only protects documents and information that have been classified by intelligence agencies, it also presumptively classifies any information "referring" to a host of agencies, including the CIA, the FBI and the State Department. The order also allows the court in certain circumstances to classify information already in the public domain and presumptively classifies "any statements made by the accused."

 

Friday, January 9 2009   -   In the Media

By Paul Craig Roberts
January 08, 2009
Information Clearinghouse

The American print and TV media has never been very good. These days it is horrible. If a person intends to be informed, he must turn to foreign news broadcasts, to Internet sites, to foreign newspapers available on the Internet, or to alternative newspapers that are springing up in various cities. A person who sits in front of Murdoch's Fox "News" or CNN or who reads the New York Times is simply being brainwashed with propaganda.

Before conservatives nod their heads in agreement, I'm not referring to "the liberal media." I mean the propaganda that issues from the US government and the Israel Lobby.

It was neoconservative Bush regime propaganda fed to America through Judith Miller and the New York Times and through Murdoch's Fox "News" that convinced Americans that they were in danger from a small secular Arab country half way around the globe called Iraq. It was the American media that convinced Americans that getting rid of dangerous "weapons of mass destruction," weapons that did not exist in Iraq, would be a cakewalk paid for by Iraqi oil revenues.

 

Friday, January 9 2009   -   Other Important News

By Paul Elias
Associated Press
January 7, 2009

SAN FRANCISCO -- Six veterans who claim they were exposed to dangerous chemicals, germs and mind-altering drugs during Cold War experiments sued the CIA, Department of Defense and other agencies today.

The vets volunteered for military experiments they say were part of a wide-ranging program started in the 1950s to test nerve agents, biological weapons and mind-control techniques.

They allege in their lawsuit filed in San Francisco federal court that they were never properly informed of the nature of the experiments and are in poor health because of their exposure. They are demanding health care and a court ruling that the program was illegal because it failed to obtain their consent.