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    June 30

    Bush administration is not only reckless but lawless =PLEASE SIGN=

    It has been said in the past that the Bush administration is not only reckless but lawless.  The extent of this lawlessness was made abundantly clear yesterday.

    In what we could only wish had been an April Fool's Day joke, the Department of Justice declassified and released a 2003 Office of Legal Counsel memo advising the Pentagon that laws and treaties forbidding torture and other forms of abuse did not apply to U.S. interrogators because of the president's wartime power.

    What kind of harm, you might ask, would be prohibited under the standard established by this memo?  Very little, it turns out.  It declared that an interrogation technique must "shock the conscience" in order for it to be illegal.  But it gets even worse.  The memo also asserted, "Whether conduct is conscience-shocking turns in part on whether it is without any justification." 

    Just because one lawyer at the Justice Department wrote a memo asserting that certain conscience-shocking actions were justified and therefore legal does not change the real truth here:  The Bush administration has flagrantly violated domestic law and international treaties.

    The only question now is what should be done.

    Prosecutions may be appropriate.  Impeachment should not be out of the question.  But what is needed immediately is a thorough investigation into the Bush administration's understanding of the extent of the president's power as commander-in-chief.

    Please send an email to your representatives in Congress, urging them to support wide-ranging hearings into the abuses of executive power that have occurred over the past seven years.  Just click here to get started:

    http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/2165/t/1027/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=23997

    At this point in history, we must be concerned not only with punishing Bush administration officials for wrongdoing, but also with setting standards for the next administration.  We must establish now that the "war on terror" has NOT created a "wartime president" with unlimited powers.  If we do not, then we can only expect executive power to expand in the future.

    Tell your representatives in Congress you are concerned about excessive executive power by sending an email today:

    http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/2165/t/1027/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=23997

    And after you have sent your email, please use our Tell-A-Friend option to encourage others to do the same.

    Thank you for taking action.

    Best,
    Steve

    Steve Fox
    Campaign Director
    American Freedom Campaign Action Fund

    VIDEO'S YOU MUST WATCH!! =Brave Nation=

    What an amazing trip this has been! After months and months of hard work, This Brave Nation wraps with its thrilling fifth episode: Tom Hayden in conversation with Naomi Klein. Hayden is, of course, the legendary activist who was a member of the Chicago 7 and who also spent 18 years in the California Legislature. Klein is the author of two best-selling books, the anti-globalization manifesto No Logo, and the recent hit, The Shock Doctrine.

    Watch the full fifth episode

    Together, they cover everything from the tumult of the 1960's to protests in Seattle to what it means to be a true witness of the events around you. Spirited and lively, Hayden and Klein have one of the most compelling conversations of this series, one you won't want to miss.

    Watch the entire episode.

    If you've missed one episode of This Brave Nation, you've missed too many! For a $15 donation to This Brave Nation, you'll receive 2 DVDs of the first five episodes. Remember that the most important part of this series is the ability to share it with everyone you know, including a local school or library! We've already started shipping DVDs of This Brave Nation, so now is the time to get yours.

    And don't forget to vote in our Brave Nation Young Activist Award contest. We've narrowed the list of incredible nominees down to just five contestants for you to choose from. On July 13th, when we bring you LIVE the final episode of This Brave Nation featuring 2 very special guests, we will announce the winner of the award.

    Vote today and decide who the next Tom Hayden or Naomi Klein could be.

    Sincerely,
    Robert Greenwald and Katrina vanden Heuvel
    Brave New Foundation and The Nation

    "Print married with film. Film and print married with the internet. Internet married with text, audio and video. Text, audio and video married with ACTION. You don't need a user's manual to get the beauty of all this integration." - The Agitator review of This Brave Nation.

    ----
    Brave New Foundation is supported by members like you, please consider making a donation. Our videos are available via email, RSS, YouTube and iTunes here.

    THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP!! Ron G.

    June 29

    STOP THE KILLING!!! =PLEASE HELP=

    STOP WAR ON IRAN !
    • An Attack could be Imminent
    • We Can't Afford to Wait
    • Take It to the Streets This Summer
    • U.S. out of Iraq, Money for human needs, not war!

    MASS MARCH IN NYC
    SATURDAY, AUGUST 2
    Assemble 12 p.m.
    at Times Square

    43rd St. & Broadway


    AN APPEAL TO ORGANIZERS AND ACTIVISTS ACROSS THE COUNTRY AND AROUND THE WORLD:

    Consider as soon as possible if you can organize a STOP WAR ON IRAN protest in your locality during the weekend of August 2 - 3.  Let us know so that your protest can be listed.

    YET ANOTHER U.S. WAR?

    The U.S. occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan is hated by the people there. These wars have no support at home and are ruining the domestic economy. Instead of pulling out, the Bush administration is preparing for still another war-this time against Iran . This must be stopped!

    AGRESSION TOWARDS IRAN IS ESCALATING

    On June 4, George Bush, with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert at his side, called Iran a "threat to peace."  Two days before, acting as a proxy for the Pentagon, Israel used advanced U.S. fighter planes to conduct massive air maneuvers, which the media called a "dress rehearsal" for an attack on Iran 's nuclear facility. Under pressure from the U.S. , the European Union announced sanctions against Iran on June 23.  A bill is before Congress for further U.S. sanctions on Iran and even a blockade of Iran .


    IRAN "THREATS" A HOAX

    Iran as a "nuclear threat" is as much a hoax as Bush's claim of "weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq used to justify the war there. The International Atomic Energy Agency, which inspects Iran 's nuclear facilities, says it has no weapons program and is developing nuclear power for the days when its oil runs out. Even Washington 's 16 top spy agencies issued a joint statement that said Iran does not have nuclear weapons technology!

    U.S. and Israel are the real nuclear danger. The Pentagon has a huge, nuclear-capable naval armada in the Persian/Arabian Gulf, with guns aimed at Iran . Israel , the Pentagon's proxy force in the Middle East , has up to 200 nuclear warheads and has never signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.  Iran did sign it.

    WAR HURTS U.S. ECONOMY


    While billions of dollars go to war, at home the unemployment rate had the biggest spike in 23 years.  Home foreclosures and evictions are increasing; fuel and food prices are through the roof. While the situation is growing dire for many, Washington 's cuts to domestic programs continue.  A new U.S. war will bring only more suffering.

    WHAT WE DO RIGHT NOW CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE

    While the summer is a difficult time to call protests, the August recess of Congress gives the White House an opportunity for unopposed aggression against Iran .  We must not let this happen! From the anti-war movement and all movements for social change, to religious and grassroots organizations, unions and schools, let us join forces to demand "No war on Iran, U.S. out of Iraq, Money for human needs not war! "

    This call to action is issued by
    StopWarOnIran.org, a network of thousands of concerned activists and organizations fighting to stop a new war against Iran since February  2006.

    Losing On The Forgotten Front =AFGHANISTAN =

    AFGHANISTAN

    Losing On The Forgotten Front

    In November 2007, Center for American Progress Senior Fellow Lawrence Korb and Senior Policy Analyst Caroline Wadhams issued a report on the war in Afghanistan called The Forgotten Front, arguing that "the situation has dramatically deteriorated since 2005." "Afghanistan faces a growing insurgency that directly threatens its stability and the national security interests of the United States and its allies," wrote Korb and Wadhams. Now, roughly eight months later, the circumstances on the ground in Afghanistan have become even more perilous. In May, American and allied combat deaths in Afghanistan "passed the monthly toll in Iraq for the first time." Not yet over, the month of June has been even deadlier with 39 coalition deaths, which is "the highest monthly toll of the war." In fact, in the first six months of 2007, 28 Americans were killed in combat in Afghanistan, but in 2008, that number has already reached 50. On Monday, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Michael Mullen told members of his staff that "violence is up this year by every single measure we look at." According to the Los Angeles Times, the measurable increase in violence has "prompted the military's top leadership to order a review of its strategy in Afghanistan." Commanders believe they need three brigades, or 10,000 troops, to address the situation in Afghanistan, but with the heavy U.S. commitment in Iraq, those numbers are difficult to muster. 

    IRAQ DRAINING RESOURCES: On Monday, NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams reported that on a recent trip to Afghanistan, "several U.S. commanders complained" to the network that they lack "resources, aircraft, soldiers and support
    because of the war in Iraq." The complaints of the commanders who spoke to Williams were echoed that same day by Mullen, who told reporters that Afghanistan is "an economy-of-force campaign," which, "by definition," means that "we don't have enough forces there." "I am constrained on forces I can generate quite frankly because of Iraq," said Mullen. Many military officials want to take "advantage of future troop reductions in Iraq by giving U.S. units more time at home to rest and train," but the requirements of the situation in Afghanistan mean that "future troop reductions in Iraq instead will lead to an increase in U.S. units in Afghanistan." With uncertainty about when troop reductions in Iraq will occur, military officials "have begun looking to bases in the U.S. for about 1,000 new troops that csan be sent to Afghanistan in October." At the same time, this strain on the military's resources means that the unpopular "stop-loss" policy won't end anytime soon. In a meeting with soldiers earlier this month, Mullen said that the policy would continue for "the near future" and could "see a slight growth in the next couple of years."

    RESURGENT EXTREMISM: "Across a wide swathe of southern and south-eastern Afghanistan, the
    Taliban have never looked stronger since they were driven from power by an American-backed alliance in November 2001," the Economist wrote in a recent issue. A searing example of the Taliban's renewed strength was the massive jailbreak at Sarposa Prison in the southern city of Kandahar earlier this month, when Taliban fighters used suicide car bombs and a concerted rocket-and-machine gun assault to free as many as 1,200 prisoners, including somewhere between 350 and 400 Taliban fighters. The Taliban's tactics have also become more sophisticated. "The Taliban, by and large, have moved -- not unlike what happened in Iraq -- to the asymmetric, IED-style warfare," said Mullen last week. But it isn't only the Taliban that are stressing coalition efforts in the country. New Pentagon data shows that insurgent activity is increasing and spreading into "once stable areas." Attacks are up almost 40 percent in Afghanistan's eastern province, where "a patchwork of Sunni Muslim groups" are clashing with coalition forces, not just the Taliban. Yesterday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates called the increased insurgent activity in the Eastern province "a real concern." Gates pointed to the porous border with Pakistan as one of the main roots of the resurgence.

    EARLY WARNING SIGNS: Similar to Korb and Wadhams, military officials and foreign policy analysts have been sounding alarm bells over the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan for some time now. At the beginning of 2008, two reports were released by prestigious committees that declared that Afghanistan is "at great risk of becoming 'the forgotten war'" and "could become a failed state." "Make no mistake, NATO is not winning in Afghanistan," said the report by the Atlantic Council, which was chaired by retired Gen. Jim Jones. In January 2008, then-CentCom Commander Adm. William Fallon explained the increased tempo of terrorist attacks in Afghanistan by saying "we moved focus to Iraq," and "there was a resurgence of the Taliban." In April, Mullen told the Senate Armed Forces Committee that "with the bulk of our ground forces deployed to Iraq...we cannot now meet extra force requirements in places like Afghanistan."

    UNDER THE RADAR

    ENERGY -- U.S. GOVERNMENT FREEZES SOLAR ENERGY PROJECTS: Today, the price of a barrel of oil rose past $140 a barrel for the first time. Yet the U.S. government has quietly shut down all new solar energy projects on public land, citing the need for research on their environmental impact. The research could delay new projects by two years. The decision to freeze new proposals "has caused widespread concern in the alternative-energy industry, as fledgling solar companies must wait to see if they can realize their hopes of harnessing power from swaths of sun-baked public land, just as the demand for viable alternative energy is accelerating." According to a new analysis by McKinsey, solar electricity will soon sell for roughly the same price as fossil electricity. In fact, California, Texas, and New York are expected to reach grid parity by 2020. The government's freeze is expected to halt "projects that have the potential to power more than 20 million homes." 

    ADMINISTRATION -- CHENEY AIDE STONEWALLS COMMITTEE, REFUSES TO ANSWER QUESTIONS ON TORTURE: Yesterday, David Addington, chief of staff to Vice President Cheney and "the man most responsible for building President Bush's notion of an imperial presidency," testified before Congress regarding his role in crafting the administration's torture policies. Addington, who was subpoenaed, "provided little specific information on his role in pressing for controversial interrogation tactics." He evaded questions on the legality of torture, responding, "I'm not going to answer a legal opinion on every imaginable set of facts any human being could think of." When asked about specific interrogation techniques, Addington responded, "I can't talk to you, al Qaeda may watch C-SPAN." When Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-FL) questioned his inability to remember conversations about interrogation techniques, he interrupted: "Is there a question pending, ma'am?" Asked if it would be legal to torture a detainee's child, he replied, "I'm not here to render legal advice to your committee. You do have attorneys of your own." Later, Addington was asked whether he would meet privately to discuss classified matters. "You have my number," he said. "If you issue a subpoena, we'll go through this again." Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) characterized Addington's attitude as "smug."

    GLOBAL WARMING -- COURT REFUSES TO SET DEADLINE ON EPA ENDANGERMENT RULING: Yesterday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia
    unanimously denied a petition to order the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to make a finding "whether greenhouse gases and global warming threaten public health and welfare." The petition had been filed by officials of 18 states exactly a year after the Supreme Court issued its decision in Massachusetts v. EPAordering the EPA to issue an endangerment finding and issue emissions regulations. The New York Times revealed that the Bush administration has resorted to extraordinarily absurd methods to stonewall the process, including an incident last December. For example, White House officials refused to open the e-mail from the EPA that concluded "climate change endangers the public" and recommended regulating greenhouse emissions. Yesterday's ruling underscores that "the Bush administration has not done anything, will not do anything, and has stood in the way of anyone else doing anything," said David Bookbinder, chief climate counsel for the Sierra Club. Meanwhile, as the EU reached a landmark deal to cap airline emissions and reduce the threat of climate change, the EPA is preparing to issue a report that "will seek comments only on 'whether' it poses such a danger."

    General Accuses White House of War Crimes =TORTURE=MUST READ=

    Breaking News and Commentary from Citizens For Legitimate Government
    19 Jun 2008
    All items are here:

    General Accuses White House of War Crimes 18 Jun 2008 The two-star general who led an Army investigation into the horrific detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib has accused the Bush administration of war crimes and is calling for accountability. In his 2004 report on Abu Ghraib, then-Major General Anthony Taguba concluded that "numerous incidents of sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses were inflicted on several detainees." He called the abuse "systemic and illegal." Now, in a preface to a Physicians for Human Rights report based on medical examinations of former detainees, Taguba adds an epilogue to his own investigation. The new report, he writes, "tells the largely untold human story of what happened to detainees in our custody when the Commander-in-Chief and those under him authorized a systematic regime of torture. This story is not only written in words: It is scrawled for the rest of these individual's lives on their bodies and minds... In order for these individuals to suffer the wanton cruelty to which they were subjected, a government policy was promulgated to the field whereby the Geneva Conventions and the Uniform Code of Military Justice were disregarded. The UN Convention Against Torture was indiscriminately ignored. . . . After years of disclosures by government investigations, media accounts, and reports from human rights organizations, there is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes. The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account." [See: 'I saw ___ fucking a kid...' (Graphic) Source: The "Taguba Report" On Treatment Of Abu Ghraib Prisoners In Iraq, statement by Kasim Mehaddi Hilas, Detainee #151108, 1300/18 Jan 2004, as published by The Washington Post.]

    Torture 'is basically subject to perception.' CIA Played Larger Role In Advising Pentagon 18 Jun 2008 A senior CIA lawyer advised Pentagon officials about the use of harsh interrogation techniques torture on prisoners at Guantanamo Bay in a meeting in late 2002, defending waterboarding and other methods as permissible despite U.S. and international laws banning torture, according to documents released yesterday by congressional investigators. Torture "is basically subject to perception," CIA counterterrorism lawyer Jonathan Fredman told a group of military and intelligence officials gathered at the U.S.-run detention camp in Cuba on Oct. 2, 2002, according to minutes of the meeting. "If the detainee dies, you're doing it wrong." ...By the time of the meeting, the CIA already had used waterboarding on at least one terrorism suspect and was holding high-level 'al-Qaeda' detainees in secret prisons overseas -- actions that Bush administration lawyers had approved.

    Report: Exams reveal US electric shock torture of detainees --Report reveals medical evidence of torture, including beatings and electric shock --Study calls on U.S. government to issue a formal apology to tortured detainees 18 Jun 2008 Former terrorist suspects detained by the United States were tortured, according to medical examinations detailed in a report released Wednesday by a human rights group. The Massachusetts-based Physicians for Human Rights reached that conclusion after two-day clinical evaluations of 11 former detainees, who had been held at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and in Afghanistan. The detainees were never charged with crimes. In a 121-page report, the doctors' group said that it uncovered medical evidence of torture, including beatings, electric shock, sleep deprivation, sexual humiliation, sodomy and scores of other abuses.

    U.S. Torture of Detainees Caused Severe Pain, Long-Term Suffering 17 Jun 2008 A team of doctors and psychologists convened by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) to conduct intensive clinical evaluations of 11 former detainees held in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantánamo Bay has found that these men suffered torture and ill-treatment by U.S. personnel, which resulted in severe pain and long-term disability. The men were ultimately released from U.S. custody without charge or explanation.

    Lying on the Bench =Scalia Used False Information in Gitmo Dissent=

    Scalia Used False Information in Gitmo Dissent

    By Marjorie Cohn, AlterNet. Posted June 24, 2008.

    "At least 30 of those prisoners hitherto released from Guantánamo have returned to the battlefield," the belligerent judge said. This is a lie.
     
     

    To bolster his argument that the Guantánamo detainees should be denied the right to prove their innocence in federal courts, Justice Antonin Scalia wrote in his dissent in Boumediene v. Bush: "At least 30 of those prisoners hitherto released from Guantánamo have returned to the battlefield." It turns out that statement is false.

    According to a new report by Seton Hall Law Center for Policy and Research, "The statistic was endorsed by a Senate Minority Report issued June 26, 2007, which cites a media outlet, CNN. CNN, in turn, named the DoD as its source. The '30' number, however, was corrected in a DoD press release issued in July 2007, and a DoD document submitted to the House Foreign Relations Committee on May 20, 2008 abandons the claim entirely."

    The largest possible number of detainees who could have "returned to the fight" is 12; however, the Department of Defense has no system for tracking the whereabouts of released detainees. The only one who has undisputedly taken up arms against the United States or its allies, "ISN 220," was released by political officers of the DoD against the recommendations of military officers.

    Scalia bolstered his hysterical claim that the Boumediene decision "will almost certainly cause more Americans to be killed" with stale information that was proven to be false one year ago. Professor Mark Denbeaux, director of the Seton Hall Center, said, Scalia "was relying uncritically on information that originated with a party in the case before him."

    The Supreme Court decided in a 5-4 decision that the Guantánamo detainees were entitled to file petitions for writ of habeas corpus to challenge their detention. More than 200 men who have been held for up to six years and have never been charged with a crime, will now have their day in court. Many were snatched from their homes, picked up off the street or in airports, or sold to the U.S. military by warlords for bounty.

    Scalia, who sits on the highest court in the land, has acted as a loyal foot soldier for the executive branch of government.

    This article first appeared at www.marjoriecohn.com.

    June 28

    Retired General: "The Current Administration Has Committed War Crimes"

    Retired General: "The Current Administration Has Committed War Crimes"

    By Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez, Democracy Now!. Posted June 23, 2008.

    As Congress pieces together the White House torture program, former Army General Antonio Taguba condemns Bush's "systematic regime of torture."
     
     

    Last Tuesday, the Senate Armed Services Committee held an eight-hour hearing that exposed the role of top Bush administration officials in authorizing the use of harsh interrogation techniques. Meanwhile, Retired Major General Antonio Taguba, the Army general who first investigated the abuse at Abu Ghraib, has accused the Bush administration of committing war crimes. "The commander in chief and those under him authorized a systematic regime of torture," Taguba said.

    Juan Gonzalez: Retired General Antonio Taguba, who led the U.S. Army's investigation into the Abu Ghraib abuses, has accused the Bush administration of "a systematic regime of torture" and war crimes. Taguba's accusations appear in the preface to a new report released by Physicians for Human Rights. The report uses medical evidence to confirm first-hand accounts of eleven former prisoners who endured torture by U.S. personnel in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay.

    Taguba writes, "There is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes. The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account."

    Amy Goodman: The report was published in the midst of two days of congressional hearings on Capitol Hill. On Tuesday, the Senate Armed Services Committee held an eight-hour hearing that exposed the role of top Bush administration officials in authorizing the use of harsh interrogation techniques. The committee released a series of previously classified documents detailing how the Pentagon and the CIA transformed the military's SERE resistance training program into a blueprint for interrogating terrorist suspects. Committee Chair Senator Carl Levin explained the timeline of implementing the SERE, or Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape, techniques and the role of military psychologists in devising these routines.

    Sen. Carl Levin: On October 2, 2002, a week after John Rizzo, the acting CIA general counsel, visited Gitmo, a second senior CIA lawyer, Jonathan Fredman, who was chief counsel to the CIA's Counterterrorism Center, went to Guantanamo, attended a meeting of Gitmo staff and discussed a memo proposing the use of aggressive interrogation techniques. That memo had been drafted by a psychologist and psychiatrist from Gitmo, who a couple of weeks earlier had attended that training given at Fort Bragg by instructors by the SERE school.

    While the training -- excuse me, while the memo remains classified, minutes from the meeting where it was discussed are not. Those minutes clearly show that the focus of the discussion was aggressive techniques for use against detainees.

    When the Gitmo chief of staff suggested at the meeting that Gitmo "can't do sleep deprivation," Lieutenant Colonel Beaver, Gitmo's senior lawyer, responded, "Yes, we can -- with approval." Lieutenant Beaver added that Gitmo, quote, "may need to curb the harsher operations while the International Committee of the Red Cross is around."

    Mr. Fredman, the senior CIA lawyer, suggested that it's, quote, "very effective to identify detainee phobias and to use them" and described for the group the so-called "wet towel" technique, which we know as waterboarding. Mr. Fredman said, quote, "It can feel like you're drowning. The lymphatic system will react as if you're suffocating, but your body will not cease to function," close-quote.

    And Mr. Fredman presented the following disturbing perspective of our legal obligations under our anti-torture laws, saying, quote, "It is basically subject to perception. If the detainee dies, you're doing it wrong."

    "If the detainee dies, you're doing it wrong." How on earth did we get to the point where a senior U.S. government lawyer would say that whether or not an interrogation technique is torture is, quote, "subject to perception" and that if, quote, "the detainee dies, you're doing it wrong"? The Gitmo senior JAG officer Lieutenant Colonel Beaver's response was: "We will need documentation to protect us."

    Juan Gonzalez: The Pentagon's former general counsel William Haynes was repeatedly questioned at Tuesday's hearing about his role in authorizing the interrogation techniques. During two hours of testimony, Haynes responded to dozens of questions by saying he could not recall or remember details about the process of approving the interrogation techniques. Democratic Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island blasted Haynes's role in authorizing torture.

    Sen. Jack Reed: You said the Geneva Convention doesn't apply, and they honestly ask, "What does apply?" And the only thing you sent them was: these techniques apply -- no conditions, nothing. So don't go around with this attitude of you're protecting the integrity of the military. You degraded the integrity of the United States military.

    Juan Gonzalez: A major McClatchy newspaper series investigating the detention of terrorist suspects names Haynes as one of a group of five lawyers at the White House, Pentagon and Justice Department who called themselves the "War Council" and reinterpreted U.S. and international laws about accountability and the treatment of prisoners. Other members of the War Council included Vice President Cheney's former legal adviser and current chief of staff, David Addington; former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales; former Justice Department lawyer John Yoo; and former deputy to Gonzales, Timothy Flanigan.

    MUCH MORE TO READ HERE:  http://www.alternet.org/rights/89141/

    The New Surveillance Bill: The Worst of Both Worlds!!

    The New Surveillance Bill: The Worst of Both Worlds

    By Aziz Huq, The Nation. Posted June 21, 2008.

    On fundamental matters of privacy and accountability, the new FISA Amendments Act reduces the separation of powers to a check-the-box exercise.
     
     

    Months of troubled negotiations over new surveillance legislation ended in the House of Representatives today, with the approval of the so-called FISA Amendments Act of 2008. Hailed in some quarters as a "compromise" after the capitulation of the Protect America Act of 2006, the new surveillance bill is nothing of the kind: on core issues of privacy and accountability, there is no compromise, since little in the measure honors those two values.

    Since the New York Times's revelation of massive illegal surveillance by the NSA, electronic privacy has been a battlefield for claims of executive power and civil liberties. In 2006, the Administration used the shadow of midterm Congressional elections to stampede both Houses into temporary authorization of sweeping new powers in the Protect America Act (PAA). The measure's grants of new authority had sunset clauses, which expire either immediately before or after the 2008 elections.

    The PAA set the scene for another legislative bait-and-switch: On the cusp of national election contests, the Administration rang alarms of crisis, claiming the nation is losing spying capabilities. Legislators inclined to protect civil liberties weighed their exposure to soft-on-security attacks against their allegiance to constitutional values. Either way -- in terms of raw power or partisan advantage -- the Administration and its supporters win.

    House Democratic leadership agreed to support the measure -- seemingly out of fear of losing conservative Democrats to an even weaker proposal. But it is the worst of both worlds. It contains just enough of a pretense of accountability to allow the legislators to claim a victory for civil liberties, as it sells out core principles of accountability and privacy.

    Begin with accountability. Since the enactment of the PAA, the Administration and its allies have pushed for legislative immunity for the telecommunications companies that aided the NSA's illegal spying from 2001 until 2005. (Those companies are the defendants in multiple suits, presently consolidated before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, challenging their complicity in past illegal wiretapping).

    They argue that protection is necessary to ensure future cooperation, even though the telecoms were not deterred by the fact their past actions were clearly in violation of federal law.

    In fact, immunity is on the White House front burner for wholly different reasons: pending lawsuits against the telecoms are the best opportunity for the American public to learn what kind of illegal surveillance occurred under Bush's watch, and how existing law against warrantless wiretapping was circumvented. As bad as the telecoms will look, the Administration will look worse as more of its cynical and results-oriented reasoning and contempt for constitutional rights is fully aired.

    At first blush, the new bill seems to be a fair compromise. Under Section 802, pending lawsuits are not automatically dismissed. They are not even moved to the secretive FISA court, as an earlier proposal would have done. Rather, the district court in each case is required to dismiss a case provided that a defendant telecom can show that it acted with the "authorization" of the President and also with a certain kind of "written request or directive." The bill then provides an elaborate description of that directive: it can be from the Attorney General, or the head of "an element of the intelligence community" (or from their deputy), and must say simply that the surveillance was determined to be lawful. The bill does not say who must have made this determination.

    According to a report in the Washington Post, this provision would give courts "the chance to evaluate whether telecommunications companies deserve retroactive protection from lawsuits." But the provision does nothing of the kind. Rather, the court can only look to see if the defendant has the piece of paper described in the law, and if it does, the court must dismiss the case. By interposing a certification requirement, and directing judicial attention to a piece of paper, the bill fends off judicial scrutiny of what in fact occurred.

    And there is every reason to believe that the telecom defendants will have the necessary piece of paper. Indeed, there is every reason to believe that the bill has been carefully written to track the precise piece of paper the telecoms have -- otherwise, why list both the Attorney General and the heads of intelligence community elements? And why include the weird codicil about the deputies of one but not the other?

     

    MORE HERE:   http://www.alternet.org/rights/88973/

    BIG MEDIA TAKE-OVER!! =STOP THEM=

     
    Racial and ethnic minorities make up
    34 percent of the U.S. population

    Yet they only own
    7.7 percent of full-power radio stations
    3.15 percent of television stations< p>

    The FCC's Dec. 18th decision to relax media ownership rules will make this situation even worse.
    Tell Congress to Intervene»

    June 24

    Urge Your Senators to Support Landmark Climate Bill

    Urge Your Senators to Support Landmark Climate Bill

    Dear friends,

    This week, as the U.S. Senate finally begins debate on comprehensive global warming legislation, the Union of Concerned Scientists released a landmark statement, signed by more than 1,700 prominent U.S. scientists and economists that calls for swift and deep reductions in our nation's global warming pollution.

    The Senate bill currently under consideration includes a strong framework for reducing the pollution that causes global warming. However, the bill needs improvements to ensure it will reduce our oil dependence, promote clean energy, and avoid the worst consequences of climate change. Please urge your senators to support amendments that strengthen the bill and oppose attempts to weaken it.

    Sincerely,

    Kate Abend
    National Field Organizer
    UCS Climate Program

    TAKE ACTION HERE:   http://ucsaction.org/campaign/6_2_08_climate_bill?rk=Hdw%5f%2dIFq3NqUE

    Subject: Support and Strengthen Climate Security Act (S. 3036)

    Dear Senator,

    As the Senate begins debate on the landmark Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act (S. 3036), more than 1,700 U.S. scientists and economists have released a statement calling on policy makers to protect against dangerous warming by ensuring U.S. emission reductions on the order of 15 to 20 percent by 2020 and 80 percent by 2050.

    The Climate Security Act is a strong, comprehensive bill that takes the kind of actions called for in this letter and establishes a good framework for reducing the pollution that causes global warming.

    To ensure the bill is strong enough to be effective, please support any efforts to strengthen the bill by:

    • establishing a mechanism for rapid adjustment of the bill's targets and timetables if emerging science shows that we are not on track to avoid dangerous warming, using the long-term 80 percent target called for by scientists and economists as a starting point;
    • adding a renewable electricity standard requiring utilities to obtain 20 percent of their power from clean, renewable energy sources-like the wind and sun-by 2020 and shifting allowance revenues from polluters to energy efficiency and renewable energy programs; and
    • increasing funding for international forest protection, which is needed to support tropical nations in reducing their emissions.

    In addition, please oppose weakening amendments. For instance:

    • The bill should not include a "safety-valve" that would stall emission reductions when carbon prices exceed a threshold level and discourage investments in clean energy solutions. 
    • The bill should not preempt states from implementing stronger global warming, vehicles, and energy policies that go beyond the targets created in this bill.
    • Coal and nuclear power should not be given any further subsidies as they already receive substantial benefits under this bill.

    Please help pass a strong global warming bill that will protect our children from dangerous climate change and set us on the path to a stronger, cleaner energy.

    PLEASE TAKE ACTION HERE:   http://ucsaction.org/campaign/6_2_08_climate_bill?rk=Hdw%5f%2dIFq3NqUE

    McCain on Iraq's Human Toll: "That's Not Too Important"

    McCain on Iraq's Human Toll: "That's Not Too Important"

    By Laila Al-Arian, Huffington Post. Posted June 12, 2008.

    The man who says we could be in Iraq for 100 years shows his lack of concern for U.S. troops -- and callous disregard of Iraqi civilians.
     
     

    Sen. John McCain was asked in an interview yesterday when U.S. forces should begin withdrawing from Iraq. "That's not too important," McCain responded dismissively. "What's important is the casualties in Iraq," he continued, referring to the more than 4,000 American troops killed since the invasion. While the Republican nominee has said he would maintain the U.S. occupation of Iraq for 100 years if necessary, he now seeks to soothe a war-weary American public by pledging to keep U.S. casualties at a minimum if he becomes commander-in-chief.

    In an interview with David Letterman last April, McCain conceded that the Iraqi death toll was "in the hundreds of thousands." In fact, according to a survey by the well-regarded British polling agency, Opinion Research Business, more than 1 million Iraqi civilians have been killed since the occupation began, a figure significantly higher than previously reported. Even after acknowledging the horrendous toll the occupation has exacted on Iraqi civil society, McCain insists that withdrawal is "not too important." The only factor that McCain deems worthy of concern is American military casualties -- and even the prospect of more dead troops has not deterred him from his war cheerleading.

    The impact of the occupation on Iraqi society is a subject that has been overlooked by not only McCain, but by most of his peers as well. The topic of US atrocities against Iraqi civilians is too sensitive, meanwhile, for the mainstream American media to touch. Thus essential questions remain largely unexamined: What do ordinary Iraqis whose lives have been upended by the violence of the occupation want? Do they want American soldiers to remain garrisoned in their cities, indiscriminately raiding their homes, and manning dangerous checkpoints in their neighborhoods? Perhaps the withdrawal of our troops from their country is important, after all.

    Six months ago, veteran war reporter Chris Hedges and I embarked on an intensive project to answer these questions. We wanted to document and reveal the ugly, under-acknowledged underbelly of the occupation. To do this, we interviewed more than 50 Iraq war combat veterans on the record about their experiences with Iraqi civilians. Many of them described witnessing, and even participating in, atrocities against unarmed Iraqis. Chris and I discovered that war crimes against Iraqi non-combatants have been far more widespread than is commonly known.

    We reported our findings in a new book, Collateral Damage: America's War Against Iraqi Civilians. Our sources comprised the largest number of named eyewitnesses from within the U.S. military to have spoken on the record. In vivid detail, they revealed to us that the U.S. military is not the stabilizing force politicians like McCain have insisted it is. The Iraqis they encountered came to see our military as simply another armed group among many beating a path of bloodshed and misery everywhere it goes to advance its own narrow mission.

    MORE HERE:  http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/88008/

    June 23

    Stop Telecom Immunity =PLEASE SIGN=

    TrueMajority

    Dear friends,

    Stop Telecom Immunity

    Send a message to progressive leaders Senators Dodd, Feingold and Obama and urge them to filibuster telecom immunity.

    Report Your Call

    For months now we've been fighting against a bill that would grant retroactive immunity to phone companies which helped George Bush spy on Americans. Despite the grassroots pressure, last week leading Democrats cut a deal with the Republicans that lets phone companies off the hook.1

    How bad is this deal? In the words of Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold, "The proposed FISA deal is not a compromise; it is a capitulation."2

    Now that the House has passed the FISA compromise, a Senate filibuster by a progressive champion may be the last chance to stop immunity.

    Tell Senators Dodd, Feingold and Obama to stop the FISA compromise:
    http://www.truemajority.org/StopFISA

    It's hard to overstate how much is at stake in this battle. Passing retroactive immunity would put an end once and for all to lawsuits which have the potential to expose the full extent of Bush's illegal wiretapping program. This is literally one of the last avenues we have to hold the Bush administration accountable before they leave office. On this question, there can be no doubt, immunity for phone companies is the same as immunity for George Bush and Dick Cheney.

    Thanks for taking action,

    Ron G.

    June 20

    Medical, Healthcare, and Health Provider Whistle-blower site.

    Medical, Healthcare, and Health Provider Whistle-blower site. By Kim Sanders-Fisher
     
              We will all require Medical care at some point in our life, but today in the US that care is far from safe.  I urge you to support this new Physician Whistleblower Petition by signing and passing this link on to your friends:  

    http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?patients&1
                    

              Numerous conscientious patient advocates in all areas of Healthcare including our Doctors and Nurses, are coming under serious attack when they attempt to report negligent practices or dangers towards the patients they are treating. Those in the Medical profession swear a solemn oath and are therefore legally obligated to advocate for their patients safety and best interests regarding treatment, but abiding by their duty to report unsafe or negligent practices will often cost them their job and can sabotage their entire career.  There are almost no Whistleblower protections to prevent retaliation against Healthcare workers in most States and this leaves the general public at risk.  Rampant Corporate profiteering has drastically reduced staff numbers to unworkable levels making US healthcare unsafe, but our Medical professionals remain powerless to speak out.  
           

               Just as "Bad Faith Peer Review" has been manipulated to target conscientious Physicians, so called "Risk Management" and the supposedly independent Compliance Hot Lines have targeted other Medical staff for removal to stifle their protest. I was fired for attempting to report the danger that Deliberate Negligent Understaffing posed to Surgical patients in the OR at the "Best Hospital in America." This problem is so pervasive it goes all the way to the very top, compromising care in the most prestigious and iconic Hospital in the nation.   
    A sincere thank you to all who  signed my own Whistleblower Petition that has now garnered nearly 3000 signatures and is almost ready for sending off to the targeted Doctors who will hopefully demand action.  To read or sign it before it goes visit: 

    http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/938995258
      

                This Petition has experienced some technical difficulties in the past few weeks so sadly,  the 250 informative links are  no longer active.  This older Petition demands accountability to expose the corrupt lack of oversight, lack of retaliatory protection and subsequent refusal to investigate by a Compliance Line obviously more committed to serving greedy Corporate interests at the expense of genuinely safe patient care.  If this represents best practice at America's most iconic Hospital what about lesser institutions?  The public have every right to be extremely worried, but we cannot change bad practice without protecting those who will continue courageously abiding by their duty as Medical professionals to conscientiously advocate for their patients.
      
     

    W.H.E.N?   WHISTLEBLOWERS in HEALTHCARE EXPOSE NEGLIGENCE!
     
    Read more at this Blog post: http://medteam.wordpress.com/category/whistleblowers-in-healthcare-expose-negligence-when/

    Please visit the MedTEAM - TRANSPARENCY for EQUAL ACCOUNTABILITY in MEDICINE, my Blog site at WordPress where you can learn more about the new agenda for positive change and the C.U.T! Campaign Goals to CONTROL UNDERSTAFFING TODAY which also  include strong universal Whistleblower protection provisions for all Healthcare workers throughout the US:
    http://medteam.wordpress.com/  

    We must end Corporate profiteering and unsafe Medical care.  So please join me in supporting the Leap for Patient Safety by signing this Petition at:
    http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?patients&1

    I hope you will also take the time to visit the Leap for Patient Safety site at:  
    http://www.leapforpatientsafety.org/


                  Don't forget to forward this to all your friends,
    June 19

    A VERY SERIOUS READ!! OUR INTERNET?

    Corporations Plan To Pull Plug On The Free Internet
    Web users naive about agenda to turn Internet into regulated cable TV model
     
     

    The Internet is the last true unregulated outpost of freedom of speech but moves are afoot to stifle, suffocate, control and eventually pull the plug on the world wide web as we know it. These threats are not hidden nor are they hard to deduce and yet a significant number of Internet users remain naive as to their scope.

    Despite many questioning the authenticity of a report that claimed ISP's had resolved to restrict the Internet to a TV-like subscription model where users will be forced to pay to visit selected corporate websites by 2012, while others will be blocked, the march towards regulation of the web is clear and documented.

    We have been warning about the plan to let the old Internet die and replace it with a restricted and controlled Internet 2 for years. In 2006, we published an article about how the RIAA were attempting to broaden intellectual property distinctions to a point whereby merely linking to external content is judged as copyright infringement.

    At the time, the article was met with a mixed response. Many were aware of the imminent dangers that threaten to change the face of the Internet but others were more hostile to the supposition that the world wide web could be devastated by landmark copyright case rulings as well as plans to develop "Internet 2."

    Some accused us of yellow journalism and scaremongering yet the warning that the Elektra vs. Barker case could criminalize the very mechanism that characterizes the Internet was not concocted by Alex Jones or Paul Joseph Watson, it was a statement made by the very lawyer fighting the case, Ray Beckerman.

    It was a danger also reported on by one of the UK's biggest technology news websites, the Inquirer, which also highlighted the frightening development in an article entitled, RIAA wants the Internet shut down.

    June 17

    Legal Drugs Kill Far More people Than Illegal =MUST READ=

    New York Times
    Legal Drugs Kill Far More people Than Illegal, Florida Says
    By DAMIEN CAVE
    June 14, 2008

    MIAMI — From “Scarface” to “Miami Vice,” Florida’s drug problem has been portrayed as the story of a single narcotic: cocaine. But for Floridians, prescription drugs are increasingly a far more lethal habit.

    An analysis of autopsies in 2007 released this week by the Florida Medical Examiners Commission found that the rate of deaths caused by prescription drugs was three times the rate of deaths caused by all illicit drugs combined.

    Law enforcement officials said that the shift toward prescription-drug abuse, which began here about eight years ago, showed no sign of letting up and that the state must do more to control it.

    “You have health care providers involved, you have doctor shoppers, and then there are crimes like robbing drug shipments,” said Jeff Beasley, a drug intelligence inspector for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which co-sponsored the study. “There is a multitude of ways to get these drugs, and that’s what makes things complicated.”

    The report’s findings track with similar studies by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, which has found that roughly seven million Americans are abusing prescription drugs. If accurate, that would be an increase of 80 percent in six years and more than the total abusing cocaine, heroin, hallucinogens, Ecstasy and inhalants.

    The Florida report analyzed 168,900 deaths statewide. Cocaine, heroin and all methamphetamines caused 989 deaths, it found, while legal opioids — strong painkillers in brand-name drugs like Vicodin and OxyContin — caused 2,328.

    Drugs with benzodiazepine, mainly depressants like Valium and Xanax, led to 743 deaths. Alcohol was the most commonly occurring drug, appearing in the bodies of 4,179 of the dead and judged the cause of death of 466 — fewer than cocaine (843) but more than methamphetamine (25) and marijuana (0).

    The study also found that while the number of people who died with heroin in their bodies increased 14 percent in 2007, to 110, deaths related to the opioid oxycodone increased 36 percent, to 1,253.

    Florida scrutinizes drug-related deaths more closely than do other states, and so there is little basis for comparison with them.

    It has also witnessed several highly publicized cases in recent years that have highlighted the problem. Only last year, an accidental prescription drug overdose killed Anna Nicole Smith in Broward County.

    Still, the state has lagged in enforcement. Thirty-eight other states have approved prescription drug monitoring programs that track sales. Florida lawmakers have repeatedly considered similar legislation, but privacy concerns have kept it from passing.

    As a result, federal, state and local law enforcement officials say, Florida has become a source of prescription drugs that are illegally sold across the country.

    “The monitoring plan is our priority effort, but that is not enough,” William H. Janes, the Florida director of drug control, said in a statement accompanying the study. He said Florida was also looking at ways to curb illegal Internet sales and to encourage doctors and pharmacists to identify potential abusers.

    Some local police departments have taken a more novel approach.

    In Broward County on May 31, deputies completed a “drug takeback” in which $5 Wal-Mart, CVS or Walgreens gift cards were distributed to 150 people who cleaned out their medicine cabinets and turned in unused drugs in an effort to keep them out of young people’s hands.

    “The abuse has reached epidemic proportions,” said Lisa McElhaney, a sergeant in the pharmaceutical drug diversion unit of the Broward County Sheriff’s Office. “It’s just explosive.”

    Link to story: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/14/us/14florida.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss 

     

    June 14

    The White House Torture Policy =MUST READ=

    An Independent Prosecutor Should Investigate the Architects of the White House Torture Policy  

    An Independent Prosecutor Should Investigate the Architects of the White House Torture Policy
    By Marjorie Cohn, Jurist Legal News and Research
    It's not just administration officials who should be targeted for sanctioning torture. The lawyers who advised them

     

    An Independent Prosecutor Should Investigate the Architects of the White House Torture Policy

    By Marjorie Cohn, Jurist Legal News and Research. Posted May 13, 2008.

    This is an excerpt from Marjorie Cohn's recent testimony before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties

    What does torture have in common with genocide, slavery, and wars of aggression? They are all jus cogens. That's Latin for "higher law" or "compelling law." This means that no country can ever pass a law that allows torture. There can be no immunity from criminal liability for violation of a jus cogens prohibition.

    The United States has always prohibited torture in our Constitution, laws, executive statements, judicial decisions, and treaties. When the U.S. ratifies a treaty, it becomes part of American law under the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution.

    The Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, says, "No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification for torture."

    Whether someone is a POW or not, he must always be treated humanely; there are no gaps in the Geneva Conventions.

    The U.S. War Crimes Act, and 18 USC sections 818 and 3231, punish torture, willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health, and inhuman, humiliating or degrading treatment.

    The Torture Statute criminalizes the commission, attempt, or conspiracy to commit torture outside the United States.

    The Constitution gives Congress the power to make laws and the President the duty to enforce them. Yet Bush, relying on memos by lawyers including John Yoo, announced the Geneva Conventions did not apply to alleged Taliban and Al Qaeda members. But torture and inhumane treatment are never allowed under our laws.

     

    MORE ARTICLE HERE:   http://www.alternet.org/rights/85204/

    The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder =MUST READ=

    The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder  

    The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder
    By Vincent Bugliosi, Vanguard Press
    Why do so many in the liberal media simply move on to another topic after stating that Bush took the nation to

     

    The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder

    By Vincent Bugliosi, Vanguard Press. Posted May 24, 2008.

     
    Why do so many in the liberal media simply move on to another topic after stating that Bush took the nation to war based on a lie?

    The following is an excerpt from Vincent Bugliosi's new book, The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder.

    With respect to the position I take about the crimes of George Bush, I want to state at the outset that my motivation is not political. Although I've been a longtime Democrat (primarily because, unless there is some very compelling reason to be otherwise, I am always for "the little guy"), my political orientation is not rigid. For instance, I supported John McCain's run for the presidency in 2000. More to the point, whether I'm giving a final summation to the jury or writing one of my true crime books, credibility has always meant everything to me. Therefore, my only master and my only mistress are the facts and objectivity. I have no others. This is why I can give you, the reader, a 100 percent guarantee that if a Democratic president had done what Bush did, I would be writing the same, identical piece you are about to read.

    Perhaps the most amazing thing to me about the belief of many that George Bush lied to the American public in starting his war with Iraq is that the liberal columnists who have accused him of doing this merely make this point, and then go on to the next paragraph in their columns. Only very infrequently does a columnist add that because of it Bush should be impeached. If the charges are true, of course Bush should have been impeached, convicted, and removed from office. That's almost too self-evident to state. But he deserves much more than impeachment. I mean, in America, we apparently impeach presidents for having consensual sex outside of marriage and trying to cover it up. If we impeach presidents for that, then if the president takes the country to war on a lie where thousands of American soldiers die horrible, violent deaths and over 100,000 innocent Iraqi civilians, including women and children, even babies are killed, the punishment obviously has to be much, much more severe. That's just common sense. If Bush were impeached, convicted in the Senate, and removed from office, he'd still be a free man, still be able to wake up in the morning with his cup of coffee and freshly squeezed orange juice and read the morning paper, still travel widely and lead a life of privilege, still belong to his country club and get standing ovations whenever he chose to speak to the Republican faithful. This, for being responsible for over 100,000 horrible deaths?* For anyone interested in true justice, impeachment alone would be a joke for what Bush did.

    MORE ARTICLE HERE:  [MUST READ]   http://www.alternet.org/rights/86232/

    PLEASE TAKE ACTION =IMPORTANT=

     
     

    Please consider taking action on these issues.

    Investigate the Propaganda Pundits

    Take action on this issue

    Spreading "covert propaganda" is illegal under federal law. Congress must investigate military pundits and their ties to the Bush administration, defense contractors and our national news media.

    Protect public broadcasting: Call your representative today

    Take action on this issue

    The Bush administration is pushing for severe cuts to the budget for public broadcasting. Your representative sits on the key committee that will decide whether funding for PBS, NPR and community media gets slashed or increased.

    Save the Internet: Protect Net Neutraliy in 2008

    Take action on this issue

    STI Markey/Pickering NN Bill '08

    Stop Big Media: Resolution of Disapproval

    Take action on this issue

    Stop Big Media: Resolution of Disapproval - RoD

    Support Community Internet

    Take action on this issue

    Support Community Internet

    Tell ABC: We Want Journalism, Not More Junk News

    Take action on this issue

    Are you outraged about the presidential debate on ABC? Instead of just switching channels, we need to demand better media.

    FISA: A Crime Is about to Happen

    Take action on this issue

    Congress is about to hand phone companies a get-out-of-jail-free card for illegally turning over private phone records to the government.

    Low-Power FM Radio: Call Your Elected Officials

    Take action on this issue

    National Call-in report for the Low-Power FM Radio campaign

    No More Fake News

    Take action on this issue

    No Fake News Petition

    Promote Local Radio: Take Action at the FCC

    Take action on this issue

    LPFM FNPRM -- FCC Comments

    Save the Internet -- Gamers Petitions

    Take action on this issue

    STI Markey/Pickering NN Bill '08

    Save the Internet: Call Your Elected Officials

    Take action on this issue

    National Call-in report for the Save the Internet campaign

    Save Your Favorite Magazine. Stop Postal Rate Hikes.

    Take action on this issue

    Postal Increase Action Page

    Sign the Letter: "Thank" Bill O'Reilly

    Take action on this issue

    Rupert Murdoch and Bill O'Reilly launched a vicious attack against Bill Moyers, the media reform movement, and quality journalism everywhere. Send a "Thank You" e-mail to O'Reilly.

    Stop Big Media: Call Your Elected Officials

    Take action on this issue

    National Call-in report for the Stop Big Media campaign

    Support Low Power FM Radio

    Take action on this issue

    LPFM Petition - Live

    Free the iPhone. Sign the petition to the FCC.

    Take action on this issue

    iPhone Petition

    Sign the Petition -- Don't Let Congress Ruin the Internet

    Take action on this issue

    STI Petition 2007 - LIVE

    Support Low Power FM Radio

    Take action on this issue

    LPFM Petition TY to co-sponsors



    June 13

    "End Raids on Medical Marijuana Patients"

    Hi Friends,

    I have just read and signed the petition: "End Raids on Medical Marijuana Patients"



    http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/471269084

    Thanks!

    STOP THE WAR WITH IRAN!!! =PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION=


    Help us mobilize NOW to
    Stop War on Iran!
    We are writing because of the new and immediate danger of a U.S. attack on Iran, either directly by the Pentagon or through Israel.

    In the next few weeks and months, we need your help to organize and mobilize a grassroots movement in opposition to another illegal U.S. war predicated on lies about "weapons of mass destruction."

    The real threat of such an attack was made clear last week, when Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert,  addressing a convention of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) in Washington DC, said that Iran's nuclear program must be stopped by "all possible means."  Democrats and Republicans seemed united as they lined up to express unequivocal support for this position, presenting Iran's totally legal development of nuclear energy as a dire threat to "world peace."

    This well-coordinated threat escalated after Olmert returned to Israel from his U.S. meetings. Within hours of his return, Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz called war against Iran "unavoidable."  Prime Minister Olmert then fanned the flames, echoing President Bush in saying, "All options, including the military option, must remain on the table."  Bush's swing through European capitals took the same message of threats against Iran.

    Meanwhile, the May 28 Asia Times On-Line reported that the Bush administration plans to launch an air strike against Iran within the next two months. According to the article, two key U.S. senators briefed on the attack, Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California and Senator Richard Lugar, Republican of Indiana, plan to go public with their opposition to the move. But their projected New York Times op-ed piece has yet to appear.

    Even former German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer warned in the Israeli daily Haaretz of June 1 that Bush and Olmert seem to be planning to end Iran's nuclear program "by military, rather than by diplomatic means."

    The only real opposition to the growing danger of a new war will come from the grassroots, not from the politicians. It is imperative that we take this threat seriously and begin to mobilize now.

    Stop War on Iran was the first international grassroots campaign launched to oppose the Bush Administration's drive to war.  Since our launch in 2005, we have generated more than half a million petitions sent to elected officials and the media.  We have held meetings across the U.S. and have taken Stop War on Iran placards, literature and buttons to dozens of local and national antiwar rallies.

    But it is clear that we must do more.  This is a time when the grassroots movement cannot be silent.  Over the next few weeks and months, we must do everything we can to mobilize to stop another criminal war for oil.  We need your help - please sign the attached petition; help circulate it to friends, co-workers, and classmates; print it out and take it to your school, community center, union hall, or place of worship; and please consider making an emergency donation to help with the enormous expenses of printing literature and petitions, producing placards, and organizing meetings.