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Walker Signs Bill Stripping Unions of Collective Bargaining Rights
Gov. Scott Walker signed a bill Friday that takes away most collective bargaining for state employees on Friday.
The state Assembly passed the bill Thursday after the Senate approved it Wednesday without 14 AWOL Democrats. The vote in the Senate followed more than three weeks of dramatic protests that clogged the streets, hallways and meeting rooms of the Capitol.
Walker has notified public employee unions that he's rescinding notices he sent last week that could have resulted in 1,500 layoffs. Walker said the layoffs would not be necessary since the bill, which includes $30 million in concessions from state employees, had passed.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/03/11/walker-signs-stripping-unions-collective-bargaining-rights/
UN alarmed at huge decline in bee numbers
GENEVA (AFP) – The UN on Thursday expressed alarm at a huge decline in bee colonies under a multiple onslaught of pests and pollution, urging an international effort to save the pollinators that are vital for food crops.
Much of the decline, ranging up to 85 percent in some areas, is taking place in the industrialised northern hemisphere due to more than a dozen factors, according to a report by the UN's environmental agency.
They include pesticides, air pollution, a lethal pinhead-sized parasite that only affects bee species in the northern hemisphere, mismanagement of the countryside, the loss of flowering plants and a decline in beekeepers in Europe.
"The way humanity manages or mismanages its nature-based assets, including pollinators, will in part define our collective future in the 21st century," said UNEP executive director Achim Steiner.
"The fact is that of the 100 crop species that provide 90 percent of the world's food, over 70 are pollinated by bees," he added.
Wild bees and especially honey bee colonies from hives are regarded as the most prolific pollinators of large fields or crops.
Overall, pollinators are estimated to contribute 153 billion euros ($212 billion) worldwide or 9.5 percent of the total value of food production, especially fruit and vegetables, according to the report.
Honey bee colony declines in recent years have reached 10 to 30 percent in Europe, 30 percent in the United States,and up to 85 percent in Middle East, said scientist Peter Neumann, one of the authors of the first ever UN report on the issue.
But in South America, Africa and Australia there were no reports of high losses.
"It is a very complex issue. There are a lot of interactive factors and one country alone is not able to solve the problem, that's for sure. We need to have an international network, global approaches," added Neumann of the Swiss government's Bee Research Centre.
Some of the mechanisms behind the four-decades-old trend, which appears to have intensified in the late 1990s, are not understood. UNEP warned that the broad issue of countryside management and conservation was involved.
"The bees will get the headlines in this story," UNEP spokesman Nick Nuttall told journalists.
"But in a sense they are an indicator of the wider changes that are happening in the countryside but also urban environments, in terms of whether nature can continue to provide the services as it has been doing for thousands or millions of years in the face of acute environmental change," he added.
Nonetheless, scientists have been unable so far to quantify the direct impact of bee decline on crops or plants, and Neumann insisted that some of the impact was qualitative.
Citing British research, the report estimated that pollination by managed honey bees is worth 22.8 billion to 57 billion euros in terms of crop yields, and that some fruit, seed and nut crops would decrease by more than 90 percent without them.
One key driving force behind bee destruction in Europe and North America has been a type of mite, the varroa destructor pest, which attacks bees and that beekeepers struggle to control, Neumann said.
"It's quite shocking how little we know about this essential pest of honey bees although it has caused havoc in agriculture for more than 20 years."
"African bees are tolerant, we don't know why," he added.
Meanwhile, frequent changes in land use, degradation and fragmentation of fields, trade carrying hostile species such as the Asian hornet into France or virulent fungi, chemical spraying and gardening insecticides as well as changing seasons due to climate change have added to the hostile environment for bees.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110310/sc_afp/unenvironmentspeciesanimalfarmbee_20110310124832
Brazilian central banker on trial for attempted murder
In a stomach-churning video, the happy bicycling crew transforms into a screaming, wailing mass after a black car plows through the crowd with bodies and bikes richocheting off the hood.
The driver, 47-year old Ricardo José Neis, who works for the Brazilian central bank, has been arrested and placed under psychiatric care. He is being charged with attempted murder. Neis's lawyer told the Brazilian newspaper Zero Hora that he felt threatened by the bikers and acted in self defense.
Commerce Dept. Reduces Screening of Foreign Nationals Working in High-Tech Industries
Charged with keeping technologies that have both civilian and military uses from falling into the wrong hands overseas, the U.S. Department of Commerce has dramatically cut back on its screening of foreign nationals for American visas, even though this process is a prime way to prevent foreign agents from working in high-tech companies.
A report from the Government Accountability Office shows the Commerce Department reviewed only 150 visa applications in fiscal year 2009—compared to the 54,000 applications it examined in 2001. The department also has practically given up on conducting follow-up inspections of visa applications—going from 160 eight years ago to only one last year.
Commerce officials claim their agency is focusing more on quality than quantity with its visa inspections, due to limited resources that prevent it from analyzing the entire visa database.
Florida Bill SB 1246 Would Criminalize Photographing Farms
http://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2011/1246/BillText/Filed/HTML
Almost 1 in 4 Homes Worth Less Than Their Mortgage
Because of declining home prices at the end of last year, nearly 25% of mortgage holders in the U.S. found themselves with a home that was worth less than their home loan.
According to CoreLogic, the rate of underwater mortgages was 23.1% at the conclusion of 2010, representing 11.1 million homeowners. Another 5%, or 2.4 million borrowers, had “near negative equity” mortgages. If housing prices decline this year another 5-10%, as some experts predict, the nation could find itself with one-third of all mortgages underwater.
Things are even worse in some parts of the country. In Nevada, about two-thirds of homeowners have a mortgage with negative home equity, followed by Arizona, Florida, Michigan and California, where the rate is around 50% of mortgage holders. In Las Vegas, 69.1% of homeowners have negative equity and in Phoenix, Arizona, the rate is 56.5%.
In total, residential properties in the United States covered by mortgages are worth about $12.5 trillion, of which $3.7 trillion is equity and $8.8 trillion is debt.
Perhaps instead of the north American Union we can just call it what it is, Dystopia
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/03/10/new-york-man-faces-five-years-in-jail-for-linking-to-online-videos/
Japan Orders Evacuation From Near Nuclear Plant After Quake
Overturned ink-carrying tractor-trailer paints the town red... literally
What you're looking at in the psychedelic photograph above is the result of an overturned tractor-trailer in Peabody, Massachusetts that was carrying a load of -- you guessed it -- printer ink. Fortunately the spillage isn't believed to cause any environmental damage, but unfortunately you can't just take your empty cartridges down to Peabody for a quick fill-up. No word on how this may affect HP's bottom line, but since the markup on ink is absurd, we're sure they'll have enough dough to cover the loss. Bonus shot after the break.
Great song, like that whole CD more and more each time I listen to it.
US farmers fear the return of the Dust Bowl
"For years the Ogallala Aquifer, the world’s largest underground body of fresh water, has irrigated thousands of square miles of American farmland. Now it is running dry..."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/8359076/US-farmers-fear-the-return-of-the-Dust-Bowl.html
It's something how the conversation began with discussing manufacturing consent of the majority with an appeal to religious belief, and got spun into what it became.
BofA Segregates Almost Half of its Mortgages Into ‘Bad Bank’
"Bank of America Corp. (BAC), the biggest U.S. lender by assets, is segregating almost half its 13.9 million mortgages into a “bad” bank comprised of its riskiest and worst-performing “legacy” loans, said Terry Laughlin, who is running the new unit. "
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-08/bofa-segregates-almost-half-its-mortgages-into-bad-bank-under-laughlin.html
HUNDREDS "tanks" APC's / Medical... moving EAST through TEXAS.. March 7, 2011
Believe what suits your opinion, ignore first hand knowledge if you choose.
or the Nazis providing cheap labor to Volkswagen and Siemens
Really.. I live here
Reminds me of this one
Lupe by Evin Grant (nice in full screen 1080)
Clinton quote translation; "you hemp people cant bribe lawmakers nearly as much as we get from big pharma, alcohol/tobacco, prison lobby, etc.. "
There is No desire to protect the Mexican board for 2 reasons
1) cheap labor, these immigrants provide the cheapest labor outside of prisoners
2) cheap labor, prisons are run for profit by private corporations in at least 35 states. inside prison, victims of the drug war produce products for companies like Boeing and Raetheon cheaper than off-shorring the work (Take THAT China)
U.S. Prisoners Build Missile Parts for Raytheon and Lockheed to Sell Abroad
(speaking of being governed by Nazis)
Inmates in American prisons have come a long way from the days of making license plates. Nowadays, prisoners are helping build missiles and other sophisticated weapons, and providing dirt-cheap labor in the process.
While earning as little as 23 cents an hour—and no more than $1.15—inmates assemble electronic components for the Patriot missile, which has been used by the U.S. military and sold to allies like Israel, Egypt, Kuwait and Taiwan . The use of prisoners employed by Unicor, a government-owned corporation formerly known as the Federal Prison Industries, saves the makers of the Patriot, Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, a lot of money on labor costs.
Unicor inmates also have contributed work to the building of the McDonnell Douglas/Boeing F-15 fighter, the General Dynamics/Lockheed Martin F-16, Bell/Textron’s Cobra helicopter and BAE Systems’ Bradley Fighting Vehicle.
Prisoners used to make helmets for the military, until 44,000 of them had to be recalled for shoddy quality.
Although Unicor is pitched as a job training program for prisoners, it has some observers worried. William Hartung, author of Prophets of War: Lockheed Martin and the Making of the Military-Industrial Complex, told Justin Rohrlich of Minyanville, “It’s really on the cutting-edge of questionable practices. The fact that it does an end-run around organized labor is a problem. There’s no greater restriction on a worker’s rights than being stuck in prison.”
This is a political move. Outside of Madison, considered the only liberal city in the state, Wisconsin is still a very conservative catholic state. Just like most of the older presidents used to do, playing the Christianity card, he's trying to appeal to a majority.
SATIRE: Obama Lowers National Speed Limit to 45 MPH, Adds Speed Bumps to Freeways
In an effort to make Americans conserve gasoline in this latest oil crisis, President Barack Obama has signed an emergency bill lowering the national speed limit a full 10 miles per hour, from 55 to 45. In addition, the President is asking the Department of Transportation to coordinate adding speed bumps on the nation's highways to slow everyone down.
Since no one is certain how much longer we can expect turmoil in the Middle East, not to mention imminent war in Libya, which is certain to drastically affect America's ability to get cheap oil, the measures were top priority for the White House.
Asked if speed bumps wouldn't cause harm to cars with faulty suspension systems, Obama simply said "Arrive Alive, Drive 45, Buckle Up and Save Oil," which he has dubbed the new official highway slogan. Unfortunately, no one really thinks this idea will catch on.
However, the National Association of State Troopers lauded the move. "Do you know how many drivers in this country can't even keep it at or under 55?" asked Biff Cunningham, President of the Association. "With this new law, we're gonna have people going so seriously over the speed limit, we're betting that speeding ticket revenue alone will pull many states out of the red and possibly save many teachers' jobs."
Upon hearing this latest news, Sarah Palin remarked, "Well, I swear. Even when Barack Obama steps in poop (referring to the protests in Wisconsin), he still can come out smelling like a rose, unlike some New Jersey governors I know."
http://www.thespoof.com/news/spoof.cfm?headline=s2i92819
Another recommended series.. if you like cynical satire:
How TV Ruined Your Life
Episode 4. Love
Michigan workers jam Capitol to protest union plan
- In a scene reminiscent of Wisconsin, hundreds of pro-union protesters jammed the Michigan state Capitol on Tuesday to oppose a bill that would give emergency managers authority to break labor deals to revive failing schools and cities.
About 1,000 pro-union demonstrators gathered on the Capitol steps in Lansing, Michigan, then 400 entered the building to occupy the rotunda and floors overlooking as the Republican state Senate moved the bill toward a final vote expected Wednesday.
New Republican Gov. Rick Snyder's proposal would expand the powers of emergency financial managers who are named to oversee faltering school districts and cities. The House approved the measure in February. Republicans hold a 26-12 Senate majority.
In Wisconsin, protesters occupied the Capitol Building in Madison for weeks to protest new Republican Gov. Scott Walker's proposals to limit public sector union powers for collective bargaining and require yearly recertification votes.
With Michigan cities and school districts struggling from the severe recession and potential state funding cuts, the bill expands the power for the state to name financial overseers.
The state's biggest school district, the Detroit Public Schools, was put under the emergency financial management of by Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm in 2009. It is the only district in the state under emergency management.
Brent Gillette, political director for the AFL-CIO in Michigan, said he was frustrated that Republicans did not discuss it in advance and sees parallels to the power-reducing union limits proposed in Wisconsin.
"I've heard him say more than once that he wants to be transparent that he wants to talk across the table, he doesn't want this to be Wisconsin," Gillette said of Michigan's Snyder. "Unfortunately, this bill says to me that he wants to take on the same fight as Wisconsin. He just wants to do it from the back door."
Steve Benkovsky, director of Capitol facilities, said demonstrators filled the base of the rotunda, the second and third floor balconies and filtered onto the fourth floor. He estimated the crowd at about 400 inside and 1,000 total.
"They seemed pretty well behaved other than being boisterous," Benkovsky said. No arrests were made.
(Writing by David Bailey)
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/08/us-michigan-protest-idUSTRE7276NQ20110308
The Seattle Times Calls For Pot Legalization; The Drug Czar Calls The Seattle Times — Your Tax Dollars At Work Stifling Debate?
Posted by Paul Armentano
Several weeks ago, President Obama stated that he believed the subject of drug legalization and regulation was “an entirely legitimate topic for debate.” Yet recent actions by White House Office of National Drug Control Policy head Gil Kerlikowske imply that this administration has no interest in having this debate in the public arena — at least not in Seattle.
On Friday, February 18, the Seattle Times editorial board opined in favor of House Bill 1550, which legalizes and regulates the “production, distribution, and sale” of marijuana to adults. The editorial, titled “The Washington Legislature should legalize marijuana” did not mince words.
Marijuana should be legalized, regulated and taxed. The push to repeal federal prohibition should come from the states, and it should begin with the state of Washington.
… Some drugs have such horrible effects on the human body that the costs of prohibition may be worth it. Not marijuana. This state’s experience with medical marijuana and Seattle’s tolerance policy suggest that with cannabis, legalization will work — and surprisingly well.
Not only will it work, but it is coming.
According to Seattle Times editorial page editor Ryan Blethen, the public’s reaction to the paper’s pot-friendly position was overwhelming.
“It is rare we publish an editorial on a hot topic and receive near universal praise. But that is what happened last week when we came out in support of Washington state legalizing cannabis,” Bethen wrote in February 25 commentary. “When people take the time to e-mail or call me about an editorial, it is usually because they do not agree with the editorial page. This editorial was different. The compliments rolled in, the discussion in the comments section of the editorial is nearing 600 and is interesting and thoughtful — which is not always the case — and so far the editorial has been recommended by about 3,000 people on Facebook.”
Yet there was is one prominent, former Seattle resident who is clearly not amused by the Times call for “a sober discussion about marijuana.” That person is the Drug Czar, Gil Kerlikowske.
The Seattle alt-weekly The Stranger has the details — and they aren’t pretty.
The Stranger has learned that immediately after the Seattle Times ran an editorial last week supporting a bill to tax and regulate marijuana, the newspaper got a phone call from Washington, D.C. The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy director Gil Kerlikowske wanted to fly to Seattle to speak personally with the paper’s full editorial board.
The meeting is scheduled for next Friday, an apparent attempt by the federal government to pressure the state’s largest newspaper to oppose marijuana legalization. Or at least turn down the volume on its new-found bullhorn to legalize pot.
Bruce Ramsey, the Seattle Times editorial writer who wrote the unbylined piece, says the White House called right “right after our editorial ran, so I drew the obvious conclusion… he didn’t like our editorial.”
… This isn’t the first time the Obama Administration has campaigned to keep pot illegal. Kerlikowske, who is also Seattle’s former police chief, also traveled to California last fall to campaign against Prop 19, a measure to decriminalize marijuana and authorize jurisdictions to tax and regulate it.
NORML Has long argued that pot prohibition can not withstand careful and consistent scrutiny from the mainstream media. The Drug Czar knows this to be true better than anyone; hence the White House’s need to try and squelch any media-led ‘legitimate debate.’ Fortunately, the genie is out of the bottle and isn’t going back — at least not in Seattle. In fact, just days after The Drug Czar’s phone call, the Seattle Times reiterated their editorial support for legalization, stating “the costs of prohibition in police, courts, jails, gang warfare, civil liberties and blighted lives are too high, especially for a product that lends itself so well to be handled like alcohol.”
Like it or not President Obama, you are going to get your debate. We’re ready; are you?
http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2011/03/01/the-seattle-times-calls-for-pot-legalization-the-drug-czar-calls-the-seattle-times-your-tax-dollars-at-work-stifling-debate/
Yemeni security forces open fire on protesters
Strong quake hits N. Japan, tsunami warning issued
* Quake has preliminary magnitude of 7.2 - agency
* Tsunami advisory up to 50 cm issued for northeastern Japan
* No impact on nuclear plants
TOKYO, March 9 (Reuters) - A strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.2 hit off the coast of northeastern Japan on Wednesday, the Japanese Meteorological Agency (JMA) said, but there were so far no reports of damage from the quake.
A tsunami advisory of up to 50 cm (about 20 inches) was issued for northeastern Japan after the quake hit around 11:45 a.m. (0245 GMT), JMA said.
"First I felt a jolt that pushed from underneath, then a big sideways tremor that lasted for about 20 seconds," Yoshiyuki Sato, an official at Kurihara City in Miyagi prefecture, about 300 km (186 miles) northeast of Tokyo, told Reuters.
"The tremor was relatively big but things did not fall off the shelves in the city government building," he said.
The focus of the tremor was 10 km (6 miles) below the surface of the earth, off the coast of Aomori prefecture, public broadcaster NHK said.
An official at the National Police Agency said there was no information on damage from the quake so far.
Tohoku Electric Power (9506.T) said its Onagawa nuclear plant was operating normally after the quake. Tokyo Electric Power (9501.T) also said there was no impact on its power plants in the region.
Bullet trains resumed running in northeastern Japan after stopping briefly, Kyodo news agency reported.
Earthquakes are common in Japan, one of the world's most seismically active areas. The country accounts for about 20 percent of the world's earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater. (Reporting by Yoko Kubota, Shinichi Saoshiro and Kiyoshi Takenaka; Editing by Nathan Layne and Chris Gallagher)
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/09/japan-quake-idUSTOE72802A20110309
President Obama Issues Executive Order Institutionalizing Indefinite Detention
Administration Also Announces It Will Use Military Commissions For New Terrorism Cases
NEW YORK – President Obama today issued an executive order that permits ongoing indefinite detention of Guantánamo detainees while establishing a periodic administrative review process for them. The administration also announced it will lift the ban on bringing new military commissions charges against detainees that don’t already have ongoing cases in the substandard system.
The American Civil Liberties Union has long called for Guantánamo to be shut down and opposes the indefinite detention of prisoners there, some of whom have been imprisoned by the U.S. without charge or trial for nine years. The ACLU has also long called for an end to the illegitimate military commissions and for the government to prosecute terrorism suspects in the federal criminal courts.
The following can be attributed to Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director of the ACLU:
“The best way to get America out of the Guantánamo morass is to use the most effective and reliable tool we have: our criminal justice system. Instead, the Obama administration has done just the opposite and chosen to institutionalize unlawful indefinite detention – creating a troubling ‘new normal’ – and to revive the illegitimate Guantánamo military commissions.
“While appearing to be a step in the right direction, providing more process to Guantánamo detainees is just window dressing for the reality that today’s executive order institutionalizes indefinite detention, which is unlawful, unwise and un-American. The detention of Guantánamo detainees for nine years without charge or trial is a stain on America’s reputation that should be ended immediately, not given a stamp of approval. Moreover, the procedures for providing more process are flawed as they vest too much discretion and power in the Secretary of Defense, essentially asking the fox to guard the hen house.
“Even with recent improvements, the military commissions rules are inadequate under established criminal law and international law. Where credible evidence exists against Guantánamo detainees, they should be charged and prosecuted in our federal courts, which have a proven record of prosecuting terrorism suspects and are the only way to provide the fair and reliable outcomes that Americans deserve.
“The only way to restore the rule of law is to put an end to indefinite detention at Guantánamo and the broken commissions system, and to prosecute terrorism suspects in federal criminal courts. Today’s announcement takes us back a step when we should be moving forward toward closing Guantánamo and ending its shameful policies.”
http://www.aclu.org/national-security/president-obama-issues-executive-order-institutionalizing-indefinite-detention
Four dead as Ivory Coast troops open fire on civilians
Shooting by soldiers loyal to Laurent Gbagbo follows demonstration against massacre of women
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/08/ivory-coast-troops-open-fire-civilians
Millions of dead fish float to surface at California beach
Millions of dead fish, mainly anchovies, washed up at a harbor near Redondo Beach, Calif., today, preventing many boaters from leaving the area.
Staci Gabrielli, marine coordinator for King Harbor Marina says the fish apparently swam into the harbor to escape a red tide, a naturally occurring event that can poison fish or starve them of oxygen, the Associated Press reports.
Gabrielli says high winds apparently kept the fish from leaving the harbor and they all crushed up against the harbor wall, where they used up the oxygen and suffocated.
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2011/03/millions-of-dead-fish-float-to-surface-at-california-beach/1
Internet access blocked across much of Libya
It's sort of becoming the "thing to do" when people are revolting: find a way to cut people's access to the internet. This happened across most of Libya yesterday, according to various traffic monitors. Traffic from the country to sites like YouTube and Google nearly disappeared, even though it seems that technically, the servers are still up and running. Unlike the previous actions of the Egyptian government, which took down entire servers, it appears that in this case, some wicked throttling is occurring. While it's not completely clear who is choking the bandwidth, the assumption that it's the Libyan government is probably not an insane one. Hit up the source links for more.
http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/05/internet-access-blocked-across-much-of-libya/
Under Obama, Better to Commit a War Crime Than Expose One
by Medea Benjamin and Charles Davis
Bradley Manning is accused of humiliating the political establishment by revealing the complicity of top U.S. officials in carrying out and covering up war crimes. In return for his act of conscience, the U.S. government is holding him in abusive solitary confinement, humiliating him and trying to keep him behind bars for life.
The lesson is clear, and soldiers take note: You're better off committing a war crime than exposing one.
An Army intelligence officer stationed in Kuwait, the 23-year-old Manning – outraged at what he saw – allegedly leaked tens of thousands of State Department cables to the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks. These cables show U.S. officials covering up everything from U.S. tax dollars funding child rape in Afghanistan to illegal, unauthorized bombings in Yemen. Manning is also accused of leaking video evidence of U.S. pilots gunning down more than a dozen Iraqis in Baghdad, including two journalists for Reuters, and then killing a father of two who stopped to help them. The father's two young children were also severely wounded.
“Well, it's their fault for bringing kids into a battle,” a not-terribly-remorseful U.S. pilot can be heard remarking in the July 2007 “Collateral Murder” video.
None of the soldiers who carried out that war crime have been punished, nor have any of the high-ranking officials who authorized it. Indeed, committing war crimes is more likely to get a solider a medal than a prison term. And authorizing them? Well, that'll get you a book deal and a six-digit speaking fee. Just ask George W. Bush. Or Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld or Condoleezza Rice. Or the inexplicably “respectable” Colin Powell.
In fact, the record indicates Manning would be far better off today – possibly on the lecture circuit rather than in solitary confinement – if he'd killed those men in Baghdad himself.
Hyperbole? Consider what happened to the U.S. soldiers who, over a period of hours – not minutes – went house to house in the Iraqi town of Haditha and executed 24 men, women and children in retaliation for a roadside bombing.
“I watched them shoot my grandfather, first in the chest and then in the head,” said one of the two surviving eyewitnesses to the massacre, nine-year-old Eman Waleed. “Then they killed my granny." Almost five years later, not one of the men involved in the incident is behind bars. And despite an Army investigation revealing that statements made by the chain of command “suggest that Iraqi civilian lives are not as important as U.S. lives,” with the murder of brown-skinned innocents considered “just the cost of doing business,” none of their superiors are behind bars either.
Now consider the treatment of Bradley Manning. On March 1, the military charged Manning with 22 additional offenses – on top of the original charges of improperly leaking classified information, disobeying an order and general misconduct. One of the new charges, “aiding the enemy,” is punishable by death. That means Manning faces the prospect of being executed or spending his life in prison for exposing the ugly truth about the U.S. empire.
Meanwhile, the Obama administration has decided to make Manning's pre-trial existence as torturous as possible, holding him in solitary confinement 23 hours a day since his arrest 10 months ago – treatment that the group Psychologists for Social Responsibility notes is, “at the very least, a form of cruel, unusual and inhumane treatment in violation of U.S. law.”
In addition to the horror of long-term solitary confinement, Manning is barred from exercising in his cell and is denied bed sheets and a pillow. And every five minutes, he must respond in the affirmative when asked by a guard if he's “okay.”
Presumably he lies.
And it gets worse. On his blog, Manning's military lawyer, Lt. Col. David Coombs, reveals that his client is now being stripped of his clothing at night, left naked under careful surveillance for seven hours. When the 5:00 am wake-up call comes, he's then “forced to stand naked at the front of the cell.”
If you point out that the emperor has no clothes, it seems the empire will make sure you have none either.
Officials at the Quantico Marine Base where Manning is being held claim the move is “not punitive” but rather a “precautionary measure” intended to prevent him from harming himself. Do they really think Manning is going to strangle himself with his underwear – and that he could do so while under 24-hour surveillance?
“Is this Quantico or Abu Ghraib?” asked Rep. Dennis Kucinich in a press release. Good question, congressman. Like the men imprisoned in former President Bush's Iraqi torture chamber, Manning is being abused and humiliated despite having not so much as been tried in a military tribunal, much less convicted of an actual crime.
So much for the constitutional lawyer who ran as the candidate of hope and change.
Remember back when Obama campaigned against such Bush-league torture tactics? Recall when candidate Obama said “government whistleblowers are part of a healthy democracy and must be protected from reprisal”? It appears his opposition to torture and support for whistleblowers was only so much rhetoric. And then he took office.
Indeed, despite the grand promises and soaring rhetoric, Obama’s treatment of Manning is starkly reminiscent of none other than Richard Nixon. Like Obama – who has prosecuted more whistleblowers than any president in history – Nixon had no sympathy for “snitches,” and no interest in the American public learning the truth about their government. And he likewise argued that Daniel Ellsberg, the leaker of the Pentagon Papers, had given “aid and comfort to the enemy” for revealing the facts about the war in Vietnam.
But there's a difference: Richard Nixon never had the heroic whistleblower of his day thrown in solitary confinement and tortured. If only the same could be said for Barack Obama.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/03/07-1
'America Is NOT Broke': Michael Moore Speaks in Madison, WI -- March 5, 2011
U.S. sets $223B deficit record
"The federal government posted its largest monthly deficit in history in February, a $223 billion shortfall that put a sharp point on the current fight on Capitol Hill about how deeply to cut this year’s spending."
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/mar/7/government-posts-biggest-monthly-deficit-ever/
Senator Mark Kirk on currencies and federal debt
Giant crack opens in the ground in Seagi Gulistan in Pakistan