Yesterday in a stunning development, a bipartisan majority of Congress rejected the attempt to kill the privileged resolution brought by Dennis Kucinich to impeach Vice President Cheney, for his unprecedented constitutional high crimes. Instead the bill was sent to the House Judiciary Committee, which is exactly where we want it to build momentum. Now all we have to do is pressure them to follow through, and impeachment will be a reality.

We have created a special action page which not only sends your personal message to your individual House members, but also sends a copy to BOTH Nancy Pelosi and the House Judiciary Committee itself.

This is now a whole new ballgame. Please submit this page now to reiterate your support for impeachment of Cheney first, H.Res 333.

H.Res 333 Action Page: http://www.usalone.com/hres333.php

Facebook Version:
http://apps.facebook.com/fb_voices/action.php?qnum=pnum709

We asked you to take action over the weekend and you did. And the result was a dramatic jump in support for impeachment of Cheney in
Congress.

We told you that we were shipping 25,000 full color 11x17 glossy Impeach Cheney posters last week and we did. We now have nearly 1,000
volunteers putting them up all over college campuses right now. And even before the amazing victory yesterday we had already made a
commitment for yet another 25,000 for delivery next week. You can see the poster at this page.

Impeach Cheney Poster:
http://www.usalone.com/impeach_cheney_flyer.php

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Contact: Cres Vellucci, Vets for Peace, 916/996-9170

ATTN: News Desk

Rep. Matsui's call for end to Iraq war
rings hollow, charges veteran organization;
Vet cites Matsui's refusal to sign peace declaration

SACRAMENTO – Rep. Doris Matsui (D-Sacramento, CA5) on Tuesday issued a
statement calling for a "responsible" end to the war in Iraq – but the
words ring hollow to U.S. troops in Iraq, said a spokesperson for a
veterans organization here.

"We are about to mark another Veterans' Day on Nov. 11, but Rep. Matsui
still cannot bring herself to call for an immediate withdrawal of our
troops from Iraq, without qualifiers," said Cres Vellucci, of Veterans for
Peace, Chapter 87 (Sacramento).

I don't care if Dennis Kucinich isn't a Democratic front runner in the presidential campaign - I'm going to write him in regardless and I urge everybody else to do so. Not only is he against the war, for impeachment of Darth Cheney, and against weapons in space, but he's done the ultimate really cool thing - see a UFO! I just hope he comes out for full disclosure of the hundreds of thousands of pages of UFO documents that the U.S. national security state has covered up.

http://blog.cleveland.com/openers/2007/10/kucinich_see_ufo_new_book_clai.html

Kucinich sees UFO, new book claims
Posted by Mark Naymik October 22, 2007 16:25PM

Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich has seen a UFO, writes Shirley MacLaine in her new book, "Sage-Ing While Age-Ing."

Kucinich, she writes on page143-144 of the book, "had a close sighting over my home in Graham, Washington, when I lived there. Dennis found his encounter extremely moving. The smell of roses drew him out to my balcony where, when he looked up, he saw a gigantic triangular craft, silent, and observing him. It hovered, soundless, for ten minutes or so, and sped away with a speed he couldn't comprehend. He said he felt a connection in his heart and heard directions in his mind."

DiFi:

The attorney general nominee's answers on torture are clear, and he will rise to the challenges of the job.

I'm going to focus on the sanctioned torture by this administration and our alleged Representatives and leave aside the other "qualifications" Mr. Mukasey is alleged to have in spades, if I get time later this week I'll get into his so-called national security qualifications. I've got a few videos for you Dianne

.

But first I think you should read the following because it calls into question his veracity and sincerity in his answers to the Judicial Committee in regard to how he'll run the Dept. of Justice ...

Yea, sure, his answers are clear in that he thinks the Fourth Amendment is merely precatory (advisory)

US Attorney General nominee Michael Mukasey has written a very lawyerly letter to the Senate Judiciary committee. The letter fails to use the word “waterboarding” although the acceptance of a cast-iron prohibition on “torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment” might fairly be seen to cover banning it. The letter might be enough to peel off a few votes on the torture issue.

If you read the letter with any care, however, you will see that it very carefully refuses to say that — even in the face of the FISA legislation occupying the field

Yes, that is The Liberty Bell, and yes, that is Independence Hall in the background

America's Anti-Militarist Tradition

by Sheldon Richman, October 12, 2007

The right wing went apoplectic at the skepticism that greeted Gen. David Petraeus’s recent testimony about the alleged success of the military escalation in Iraq. It was as though a member of the military was incapable of engaging in spin to support his commander in chief’s war policy. President Bush summed up this attitude revealingly when he said it was one thing to attack him, but quite another to question General Petraeus. War, Clausewitz noted, is politics by other means. That makes high-ranking generals a species of politician. Not a few have harbored presidential thoughts, and some have made it. It is said that Petraeus would like to be another. These are the people the pro-war conservatives are willing to trust implicitly? (Anti-war members of the armed forces, on the other hand, are, in Rush Limbaugh’s words, “phony soldiers.”)

It is unappreciated today that an earlier American culture was anti-militarist. In his classic study The Civilian and the Military: A History of the American Antimilitarist Tradition (1956), historian Arthur A. Ekirch Jr. wrote, “The tradition of antimilitarism has been an important factor in the shaping of some two hundred years of American history.” This tradition, Ekirch notes, stretched back to England, where until the seventeenth century the militia, not a standing army, provided defense and was unsuited to aggressive war.

This attitude was carried to the New World, where “subordination of military to civil power became the cardinal principle it was in England.”

Anti-militarism colored much political thinking as the new country took shape.

Seymour Hersh is to speak in two days @ U.C. Davis. I'm throwing a couple background articles in this post on what to expect if the psychopathic neo-cons get their way; click the 1st pic for Mr. Hersh's recent interview with Keith Olberman, and the second for the possible Iranian response. The first message (not really an article) is on the wargaming of the radicals and how they could get their way, and then Mr. Hersh's interview in the latest SNR

.

How it might begin

9/26/2007 1:33:58 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time

Note: I worked with an engineer at SAI (now SAIC) who told me they'd done computer modeling of this for the CIA at the El Segundo office back in the early 70's. This is actually similar to one of the scenarios that they came up with. There were three areas of the world that they figured would be the flash point - the Middle East, Central America, and Southeast Asia - any one of which has been so politically unstable for so long that almost any event could start WW III. They figured it would start with some small conflict which would quickly drag the "superpowers" into it and that would be the beginning of the end for all of so-called 'modern' civilization.

The Alarming Parallels Between 1929 and 2007

Has deregulation left the economy at risk of another 1929-scale crash? Should the Fed keep bailing out speculators? Robert Kuttner testified yesterday before the House Financial Services Committee.

Robert Kuttner | October 2, 2007

Mr. Chairman and members of the Committee:

Thank you for this opportunity. My name is Robert Kuttner. I am an economics and financial journalist, author of several books about the economy, co-editor of The American Prospect, and former investigator for the Senate Banking Committee. I have a book appearing in a few weeks that addresses the systemic risks of financial innovation coupled with deregulation and the moral hazard of periodic bailouts.

In researching the book, I devoted a lot of effort to reviewing the abuses of the 1920s, the effort in the 1930s to create a financial system that would prevent repetition of those abuses, and the steady dismantling of the safeguards over the last three decades in the name of free markets and financial innovation.

Your predecessors on the Senate Banking Committee, in the celebrated Pecora Hearings of 1933 and 1934, laid the groundwork for the modern edifice of financial regulation. I suspect that they would be appalled at the parallels between the systemic risks of the 1920s and many of the modern practices that have been permitted to seep back in to our financial markets.

Although the particulars are different, my reading of financial history suggests that the abuses and risks are all too similar and enduring. When you strip them down to their essence, they are variations on a few hardy perennials -- excessive leveraging, misrepresentation, insider conflicts of interest, non-transparency, and the triumph of engineered euphoria over evidence.

Two stories: First, a story on the potential votes of women and how they could effect all elections, and second, how military moms could effect the outcome of the next election.

Millions of Women Still Fail to Cast Ballots

By Jacqueline Lee
Women's eNews

Tuesday 07 August 2007

US women mark their 87th year of suffrage under the 19th Amendment on August 26. But millions of women remain stubbornly disenfranchised by factors such as under representation, social instability and culture gaps.

In "Election Day," a documentary about the experiences of voters in the 2004 election, an Ohio woman is shown having trouble casting her ballot. She had moved, and despite re-registering, went to three different poll locations because her name didn't appear on the books.

"The woman in Shaker Heights is carrying her small child in the morning and she had been getting the runaround and go-around, going from one polling place to the next," said Maggie Bowman, producer of "Election Day," released in March. "A lot of the challenges faced by working people in general are more extreme for working women."

American Peace Activists Denied Entry to Canada After Appearing on FBI Database
Friday, October 5th, 2007

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/05/1419236

Two leading U.S. peace activists were denied entry into Canada on Wednesday after their names appeared on an FBI criminal database that the Canadian government is using at its borders. Ann Wright, a retired Army colonel and former diplomat, and Medea Benjamin, co-founder of women’s peace group CODEPINK, were headed to Toronto to appear at an antiwar event. We speak to Ann Wright about her entry denial and its implications on civil liberties. [includes rush transcript]

Two leading U.S. peace activists were denied entry into Canada on Wednesday after their names appeared on an FBI criminal database that the Canadian government is using at its borders. Ann Wright, a retired Army colonel and former diplomat, and Medea Benjamin, co-founder of women’s peace group CODEPINK, were headed to Toronto to discuss peace and security issues at the invitation of the Toronto Stop the War Coalition. Canadian authorities detained and questioned them for several hours at the border crossing between Buffalo and Niagara Falls.

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The first is on SCHIP and the second is on the hi-jacking of the California healthcare plans by the insurance industry

Send a message to Congress about SCHIP here, or here

Send a free fax to your legislators about California healthcare here

Nancy Pelosi admits she's useless when it comes to Iraq ... and is contemptuous about it

BLITZER: But you could in the House of Representatives use your power of the purse, the money, to stop funding the war if you really wanted to.

PELOSI: I wish the speaker had all the power you just describe. I certainly could do that. That doesn't bar the minority from bringing up a funding resolution. They have their parliamentary prerogative as well.

So, is she admitting that every penny that goes to fund the occupation is at the prerogative of Dinos, such as herself, Rahm Emanuel and Harry Reid?

BLITZER: So, are you telling your angry base out there in the Democratic Party that wants to see this war over with, wants to see the U.S. troops home, that you, as speaker, there's nothing you can do, you have to just throw your hands up and say...

CIA "Rendition" Plane brought down in Mexico with FOUR TONS of Cocaine on board

U.S. authorities are assisting the Mexican government in the investigation of an American business jet that crashed near Cancun this week with four tons of cocaine on board, officials said Thursday.

One of the men listed as the registered owners of the plane, Joao Luiz Malago, said in a telephone interview from Brazil that his Florida-based company sold the aircraft for $2 million on Sept. 16 to a Lakeland, Fla., man and his partner, who Malago believed was from Miami.

Malago said he feared the man was dead because he hasn’t been picking up the phone.

Officials at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico had no information on any American citizens being killed or arrested in connection with the aircraft, a 1975 model Gulfstream II.

“We’re in the process of a judicial investigation that the Mexican government is conducting and we are providing information,” said an embassy official, who wasn’t authorized to speak on the record. “Part of that investigation is to find out more about where this plane came from and who had it before.”

Some news reports have linked the plane to the transport of terrorist suspects to the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, but those reports cite logs that indicate only that the plane flew twice between Washington, D.C., and Guantanamo and once between Oxford, Conn., and Guantanamo. No terrorist suspects are known to have been transferred to Guantanamo directly from the United States.

Electoral initiative backers give up

Plagued by a lack of money, supporters of a statewide initiative drive to change the way California's 55 electoral votes are apportioned, first revealed here by Top of the Ticket in July, are pulling the plug on that effort.

In an exclusive report to appear on this website late tonight and in Friday's print editions, The Times' Dan Morain reports that the proposal to change the winner-take-all electoral vote allocation to one by congressional district is virtually dead with the resignation of key supporters, internal disputes and a lack of funds.

The reality is hundreds of thousands of signatures must be gathered by the end of November to get the measure on the June 2008 ballot.

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Texas Hypocrisy

Texas State Representative Debbie Riddle (R) says she is concerned about the same person voting twice at the polls, so she is trying to pass a law requiring that anyone who wants to vote must have a photo ID. Another Texas lawmaker has introduced a bill that would "criminalize anyone who delivers a ballot for someone unable to drive to the polls."

Here's a video showing Rep. Riddle and many of her fellow representatives voting twice on the same issue in the legislature.

Later in the video, Riddle explains why its OK for her to cast ballots in other people's names: "We have a lot of votes. We have a lot of amendments. And there's times where we don't break for lunch, and we don't break for dinner, we don't have bathroom breaks."

by Dan Bacher

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's address to the United Nations today about global climate change is one of the most blatant examples of hypocrisy that I've ever witnessed. Schwarzenegger challenged the leaders of the world's nations to “solve global warming” as he continues to push the Legislature to accept a $9 billion water bond package that would build an environmentally devastating Delta canal and more dams.

Schwarzenegger addressed delegates and invited guests for the United Nations conference – “The Future in our Hands: Addressing the Leadership Challenge of Climate Change” at the General Assembly Hall at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, NY. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon invited the Governor to speak at today's special session in July, when they toured a San Jose business that is developing the technology for countries to help reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

“What we're doing is changing the dynamic, preparing the way and encouraging the future,” Schwarzengger told the U.N. “The aerospace industry built the modern economy of Southern California. The computer industry and the Internet built the economy of Silicon Valley. And now green, clean technology - along with biotech - will take California to the next level.”

Sad Alan’s Lament

By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: September 17, 2007

When President Bush first took office, it seemed unlikely that he would succeed in getting his proposed tax cuts enacted. The questionable nature of his installation in the White House seemed to leave him in a weak political position, while the Senate was evenly balanced between the parties. It was hard to see how a huge, controversial tax cut, which delivered most of its benefits to a wealthy elite, could get through Congress.

Then Alan Greenspan, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, testified before the Senate Budget Committee.

"Would you like another cup of coffee, sir?" said the waitress as she walked by.

"No, no thank you," replied Jem as he sat in the old fashioned diner he and his parents went to when they needed to get out of the house and just have a piece of pie and see old friends

He looked furtively at his watch and thought, "Where is he? Where is George?" He again looked down, this time at his new screenplay, the one that is going to get him out of this too long of a slump and maybe then he can buy his house back that he had to sell because of his lean times. He was just asking himself if he remembered to put money in the parking meter when he heard a voice calling his name from across the diner.

"Jem, you son of a gun, this better be good. I was on my way to my house in Italy when I got your message."

"Oh, it is," said Jem, in his best fake confident voice, because he knew this might be the last shot.

George looked at him with a twinkle in his eye, "I believe you." He caught the waitress' eye and said, "I'll take a cup a joe and a piece of apple pie, please." He looked back at Jem and said "whaddaya have there for me?" As he picked up the script and looked at it, which said "Nukes at Midnight". Alright Jem give me the final scene.

Jem starts, "That's just a working title. Anyway it's a thriller. Sort of Seven Days in May meets Broken Arrow meets Dr. Strangelove meets Operation Northwoods that's set in .."

HT/Suin @ FDL

Minister tackled, arrested by Capitol police at Petraeus hearing

by: pam
Tue Sep 11, 2007 at 07:00:00 AM EDT

[UPDATE: Liz from Hip Hop Caucus passed on word that Rev. Yearwood has a broken leg as a result of the fracas with the police.]

If you had any doubts about the near-police state we are in, take a look at this: Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr., president of the grassroots political organization Hip Hop Caucus, attempted to attend the Petraeus hearings yesterday, along with many others who had to pass a checkpoint to file into the room.

Rev. Yearwood was not only stopped from entering the room, but he was tackled by six Capitol police officers, which resulted in a trip to the hospital. It was all captured on video.

You can hear people yelling "take it easy" and "he's a minister" and asking him "are you hurt?" in the background when the Capitol police officers push him to the ground. According to Capitol Police spokeswoman Sgt. Kimberly Schneider, Rev. Yearwood was tackled and detained by SIX cops because he allegedly refused to go to the end of the line of people waiting to enter the hearing room. He was charged with disorderly conduct and assault on a police officer.

Video from The National Security Network via Think Progress

The Terrorism Index

Third Semi-annual, Nonpartisan Survey of Foreign Policy Experts from the Center for American Progress and Foreign Policy

In the third Terrorism Index, more than 100 of America’s most respected foreign-policy experts see a world that is growing more dangerous, a national security strategy in disrepair, and a war in Iraq that is alarmingly off course.

Americans are thinking more about the war on terror than ever before. But that doesn’t mean they’ve come to see this issue in the black-and-white terms preferred by many elected leaders. The combination of bloody wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, continued terrorist attacks from Britain to Somalia, and a presidential election in which candidates are defining themselves based on how they would stare down the threats has many seeing shades of gray. Six years after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, just 29 percent of Americans believe the United States is winning the war on terror—the lowest percentage at any point since 9/11.

This is Bob Perry,

huge financial supporter of George Bush,
Texas Republicans and the SwiftBoat Veterans for Truth. And good friend of Karl Rove with many connections to Texas Republicans, a man who likes to stay in the shadows

Why would you happen to see him or have any connection to him in Sacramento or California? And why should you care?

Because he's the man behind the curtain in the Republican scheme to revamp how California counts it's electoral votes. And he's had his eye on California for at least a year.

I don't have a lot of time to devote to this post, so here are some more links I dug up on Mr. Perry. click "read more"

El Frente de Mexicanos en el Exterior and the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement AFL-CIO will hold a press conference on Monday, September 3, at 1 pm at William Land Park in Sacramento to announce national efforts to stop the repressive deportations and raids on immigrant workers.