LIBERTAS - In the Name of Liberty

In June 2006, Lt. Watada held a press conference where he declared that the Iraq War was illegal, and that it was his duty to refuse orders to deploy. Lt. Watada was charged with violations of articles 87 and 133 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice for refusing to deploy to Iraq, and publicly explaining his reasons for doing so. If convicted, he faced up to six and a half years in prison.

The Army's prosecution of the first officer to publicly refuse to deploy to Iraq has been in legal limbo since a February court martial ended abruptly when the military judge threw out a stipulation agreement and declared a mistrial.

As Lt. Watada's case appears to be headed for what supporters call a victory, it's useful to remember that the original issues Lt. Watada raised -- those of the illegality of the war, and a soldier's obligation to refuse orders thought to be illegal -- have not yet had their day in court.

I'm worried that none of the Presidential candidates are addressing the INVISIBLE AGENDA.
Those who form the core of the Republican party are Religious Fundamentalists bent upon world domination and Armageddon.
Why don't you guys address this underlying religious fanaticism that threatens our true American Value, Liberty?
Stand up and say it! Fundamentalist Evangelical Christians are UN-AMERICAN.
And they will destroy American Potential to secure their deeply flawed religious agendas.

See the documentary.

(Why don't all the canadates do this?)

We all know that something is very wrong in our country. The Rule of Law, the Balance of Powers, and our Constitutionally guaranteed Civil Liberties have been under sustained assault by an Administration that is brazen and unrepentant in its abuses of our rights and our founding principles. And, to make matters worse, the Democratic leadership of the House and the Senate have failed to exercise the Constitutional authority granted to Congress to stop those abuses and hold violators accountable.

The results? The powers of the Executive Branch have gone unchecked and its policies unchallenged. The Congress and the American people were deceived into an illegal and immoral war in Iraq, and those same deceptions and manipulations are being used to justify a new war in Iran. The government is spying on its own citizens, ignoring judicial protections and due process, denying the right of habeas corpus, and refusing to abide by international laws, treaties, and principles.

Our nation faces a crisis, yet its leaders, and the candidates campaigning for the Presidency, refuse to acknowledge or address it in any substantive way.
That's why it's time for: A DIALOGUE FOR DEMOCRACY.

This Thursday, November 29, Democratic Presidential Candidate Dennis Kucinich will host an unprecedented "Dialogue for Democracy" forum that will be streamed LIVE on the Internet at KucinichTV.com. Along with invited guests, Dennis will bring this crisis to the attention of the nation and the world so we can better understand what's wrong, and, more importantly, what we can do about it. The first segment of the LIVE broadcast begins at 11 a.m. and continues until 1 p.m. The LIVE forum will resume at 5 p.m. and end at 9:30 p.m.

AN INVITATION TO SPEAK OUT! The Kucinich campaign is also extending this open invitation to representatives of interested organizations and concerned citizens to participate in this "Dialogue" by sending an email to dialogue@kucinich.us. Tell us who you are, the issues you want discussed, and whether you or your organization would like to participate directly during any of the LIVE broadcasts.

OUR DEMOCRACY - YOUR DEMOCRACY - is at stake in this election. And there's something you can do about it. You can stand with the candidate who stands with you. The one candidate who isn't afraid to speak the truth, to give honest answers, and to lay out real solutions that don't protect the status quo. If that's the kind of leader you want, someone who will protect and defend YOUR interests and rights under the Constitution, consider making a contribution to the Kucinich for President Campaign today. It's your way of ensuring that your voice will continue to be heard throughout the debates, the primaries, and the caucuses.

DOUBLE YOUR IMPACT! Any contribution you make now through November 29th is eligible for federal matching funds. That means your $50 contribution becomes a $100 contribution. A $100 contribution becomes $200. BUT THE DEADLINE IS THURSDAY NIGHT, so please don't wait.

Click here to double the impact of your contribution so you can have an even bigger impact on the campaign, and on the future of our nation.

Defend the Constitution
The Kucinich Campaign

http://www.dennis4president.com

Libertas, ancient Rome's goddess of freedom from slavery, oppression, and tyranny.

"The New Colossus" by Emma Lazarus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"



Happy Thanksgiving

WES CLARK = An Educated Warrior, knows the military, and should be the next Secretary of Defense.

If you have been feeling the pinch of home ownership, don't worry, soon it will all be over.
Gold is at a twenty year high against the dollar, Oil is going to $200/barrel, and your home is going down in price, all because of the mistakes of the Republican Administration. Note how the value of the U.S. Dollar has fallen over the course of the Bush Presidency. Those home equity gains you thought you made, really didn't get you any value, as the dollars are worth less than half of what they were just six years ago.

But don't worry, that means the loan payments on your morguage are only half as expensive in real value. Then again so is your pay check.

Another movie on the "War on Terror" is out in theaters now. I've heard that it contains a prolonged scene of water boarding, the non-torture that 'simulates' drowning. It seems a bit obsene to demonstrate torture in order to get people's attention, they should know it is wrong without needing to be shown. But if that were true I guess we wouldn't be doing this would we?

A few years ago there was a movie called IRREVERSIBLE, which used a very unique backward cinimatography to show how Revenge and Rath make individuals become Murders, you sercome to the very evil you attempt to destroy. There is a lesson in ther somewhere. Anyway, the RAPE scene in the movie was 15 minutes long. Critics called it pornography. I watched, and understood something, you must experience RAPE in order to truely understand it, not that you must be the victem of tragic violence or a preditor, but you must see it, hear it, imagine it fully, to truly understand the horror and terror. Unless you face the thing you fear, it will control you. Perhaps that is what RENDITION is trying to do?

De Palma's New Movie - REDACTED

SYNOPSIS

A fictional story inspired by true events, REDACTED is a unique cinematic experience that will force viewers to radically reconsider the filters through which we see and accept events in our world, the power of the mediated image and how presentation and composition influence our ideas and beliefs. A profound meditation on the way information is packaged, distributed and received in an era with infinite channels of communication, REDACTED utilizes a variety of created source material-video diaries, produced documentary, surveillance footage, online testimonials, news pieces-to comment on the extreme disconnect between the surface of an image and the reality of ideas and the truth, especially in times of strife.

Centered around a small group of American soldiers stationed at a checkpoint in Iraq, REDACTED alternates points of view, balancing the experiences of these young men under duress and members of the media with those of the local Iraqi people, illuminating how each have been deeply affected by the current conflict and their encounters with each other. The charged apotheosis of Brian De Palma's filmmaking career, REDACTED caps off a body of work which has explored the politics of image-making and reception more fully than any living filmmaker.



I haven't seen the film yet, the trailer looked like a fictional movie account of Iraq. I wonder what the point will be? Seems like there is enough REAL DRAMA over there to deal with, why do we need a fiction about it? Just take a camera and make some journalism, or a documentary. Let me know your opinion.

Finally,
One of the dozens of aspiring presidential candidates has drawn a line in the sand and taken a real stand, not just on one issue, preaching to one interest group or another, but on ALL the issues. John Edwards is the only candidate who has written his entire PLATFORM, for all to see.

John Edwards has produced an eighty page document, outlining in detail what his issues are and what he will do if elected. It is organized into three areas:
Standing Up For Regular Families
Restoring America's Leadership Role In The World
Investing In Our Future And Our Communities

My favorite part is what he says he will do about GOVERNMENT REFORM.

But see what he says about the NEW ENERGY ECONOMY and WOMEN , IRAQ and HEALTH CARE.

This proves he's thinking ahead, about everything, and he is way out ahead of any other candidate in stating his position BEFORE the upcoming IOWA PRIMARY. For once we can VOTE FOR SOMETHING, rather than against it.

Welcome to the fourth annual "Falsies Awards" contest, sponsored by the Center for Media and Democracy to recognize the people and players responsible for polluting our information environment. This year, we are asking you to help identify the worst spinners and propagandists of 2007. Please read through the list of nominees below and rank them. You can also nominate additional candidates in our readers' award section.

Please note: you can vote for multiple winners in each category and the CMD judges will take the recommendations into account when deciding the falsest of the false.

Help choose the winners of this year's Falsies Awards

Ten Reasons to Impeach Cheney:

1. Treason - Vice President Cheney gave up the top secret identity of CIA Agents working on non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, putting U.S. National Security at risk.

2. Treason - Vice President Cheney propagated lies to the public about the non-existent Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq, in order to incite an illegal invasion.

3. Treason - Vice President Cheney used his special position to enrich himself and his company by directing no-bid contracts into the hands of his war profiteering enterprises.

4. Treason - Vice President Cheney used the tragic events of 9/11 to incite a War against an innocent sovereign country, killing hundreds of thousands of Iraq citizens and turning the region into chaos, which decreased our national security and cost thousands of U.S. Military lives.

5. Treason - Vice President Cheney has violated his security clearance, and continues to use his top secret clearance to illegally decimate classified information through propaganda and illicit political leaks.

6. Treason - Vice President Cheney has violated his oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution by encouraging the President to issue illegal presidential signing statements to circumvent the lawful checks and balances imposed by the U.S. Constitution, and his efforts to expand Presidential powers have led to illegal spying on the electronic communication of U.S. Citizens without warrant. .

7. Treason - Vice President Cheney has violated his oath of office by failing to represent the People of the U.S., instead choosing to represent the private interests of Dubai based company, Haliburton.

8. Treason - Vice President Cheney has committed high crimes and misdemeanors by encouraging torture and illegal abuse of human rights by U.S. agents and military in secret offshore prisons, and in using private mercenary forces to fight illegal wars and commit terrorism in the name of the USA.

9. Treason - Vice President Cheney knowingly allowed the suspension of Habeas Corpus and the role of Posse Comitatus, by knowingly allowing U.S. Military Agents to capture U.S. Citizens to be imprisoned and sent to Guantanamo Bay Cuba without any access to the courts or charging them with any crime.

10. Treason - Vice President Cheney is a traitor to the U.S., in promoting the policy of no-bid contract and encouraging the emptying of our war chest, spending the U.S. Treasury and putting the U.S. into ever increasing debt, his actions put our national security in grave danger, limiting our future potential and placing great financial power in the hands of our enemies.

Put Impeachment ON The Table of the House Judiciary Committee

This week Dennis Kucinich led an heroic effort to put the impeachment of Dick Cheney ON the table by requesting a floor vote on H.Res. 333. As expected, BushDemocrat Steny Hoyer moved to table the bill. And then all hell broke loose as 165 Republicans voted with Kucinich and 85 brave Democrats to force a debate on impeachment over the objections of Nancy Pelosi. To block that debate, Hoyer moved to send H.Res. 333 back to the Judiciary Committee, and this motion passed. Watch David Swanson explain the events to Paul Jay of The Real News .

Kucinich is urging Judiciary Chairman John Conyers to start hearings immediately because Cheney is desperately manipulating the National Intelligence Estimate on Iran to justify a U.S. attack, just as he did with the pre-war NIE on Iraq. But Judiciary Democrats are deeply divided on impeachment, with Robert Wexler (FL-19) calling for immediate impeachment hearings, while fellow Palm Beacher Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL-20), who is close to Speaker Pelosi, told Ed Schultz she adamantly opposes hearings.

So what do we do next to move impeachment forward?

1. Email all of the Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee:
http://www.democrats.com/topelosiandjudiciary
and call them:
http://www.democrats.com/house-judiciary-democrats

2. If you live in the district of a House Judiciary Committee member, call their office and tell them you're a constituent and you want immediate hearings on H.Res. 333. Then join your Congressional District Impeachment Committee http://democrats.com/cdic-find
and organize a HonkToImpeach rally http://www.democrats.com/honktoimpeach
in front of your Representative's district office. Then keep up the pressure on your Representative every way you can, including letters to the editor, op-eds, calls to local talk shows, protests at local media offices, and pointed questions at every community forum attended by your Representative.

3. If your Congress Member is not on Judiciary, ask them to cosponsor H Res 333:
http://www.democrats.com/peoplesemailnetwork/73

4. Ask pollsters to poll the public on impeachment, especially of Cheney: http://www.democrats.com/impeachment-poll-petition
and promote impeachment through media activism:
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/748

5. Watch for updates and notice of a national conference call with Rep. Dennis Kucinich at http://impeachcheney.org

There is no better investigative journal.

The lack of real WMD in Iraq in 2003 embarrassed the Bush Administration. Either they are incredibly incompetent to tragic proportions never before achieved, or they are so evil as to kill hundreds of thousands of people, waste American soldiers, and destroy U.S. credibility by invading a country on a profound lie. This level of stupidly is unequaled in history, even the Nazi's of the 1930's had some intelligence about their evil ambitions. Yet Bush 43 and his clan are willing to causes irrevocable harm to this country, to Iraq, even the entire world, and for what? If all their reasons were either mistakes or lies? Why did we invade Iraq?

But I digress. For it was the Ambassador to Niger, Joe Wilson, who first spoke up. He reputed the claims of Nigerian uranium 'yellow cake' being shipped to Iraq. Claims made by Collin Powel in front of the United Nations, and by Bush himself in his now infamous sixteen words during his 2003 State of the Nation. But Wilson would pay a price for his whistle blowing, or rather his wife would. Valerie Plame Wislon, CIA operative, assigned to work on the proliferation of nuclear weapons, would be outed by White House advisor Karl Rove and his first lieutenant "Scooter" Libby.

In an act of pure treason, the White House leaked Valerie Plame's name to the press. Using their corrupt reporter contacts, the administration attacked Joe Wilson's family in order to discredit him. This case would eventually indite and convict Libby, but not before dragging on for years, and smearing the American Press and our system of government with the filthy sweat of our hard working leaders.

Now, out of work, and with two young boys to raise, Valerie Plame Wilson, a woman I consider to be one of the United States most courageous female heros, has written a book documenting what she went through. Every patriotic American should buy a copy and keep it out on the coffee table as a reminder of what the powers of government can do to you if you speak against them.

Once that career was destroyed, she wrote this account of her experiences as a means of both supporting herself and settling scores. She was contractually obligated to submit a draft of the book to the Central Intelligence Agency’s Publications Review Board. That draft came back heavily expurgated. She was then expected to rewrite her book so that it made sense despite many deletions.

But Ms. Wilson and her publisher, Simon & Schuster, contend that much of the censored information is in the public domain — and that the suppression of information is itself part of Ms. Wilson’s story. So “Fair Game” has been published with the censor’s marks visible as blacked-out words, lines, paragraphs or pages. The publisher amplifies the book with an 80-page afterword by Laura Rozen, a reporter, who uses matters of public record to fill in some of the gaps.



Watch the whole story unfold on PBS FRONTLINE

How can the gonverment ban U.S. Citizens from Capitol Hill?
They just do.

CODEPINK activist Desiree Anita Ali-Fairooz was barred from Capitol Hill after she covered her hands in fake blood and approached Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice last week at the start of a congressional hearing. Ali-Fairooz said that the blood "of millions of Iraqis" was on the hands of the Bush administration. [includes rush transcript]

So, next time you see any one in the BUSH administration, paint your left hand red and raise it in protest, just as the brave activitst at code pink did last week.

Read a REVIEW



A scathing portrait of contemporary executive power run amok, by the author of the original 1976 Church Committee Report on executive abuse

In thirty-four years, I have repeatedly seen an erosion of the powers and the ability of the president of the United States to do his job.
—VICE PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY

Thirty years after the Church Committee unearthed COINTELPRO and other instances of illicit executive behavior on the domestic and international fronts, the Bush administration has elevated the flaws identified by the committee into first principles of government.

Through a constellation of non-public laws and opaque, unaccountable institutions, the current administration has created a “secret presidency” run by classified presidential decisions and orders about national security. A hyperactive Office of Legal Counsel in the Department of Justice is intent on eliminating checks on presidential power and testing that power’s limits. Decisions are routinely executed at senior levels within the civilian administration without input from Congress or the federal courts, let alone our international allies. Secret NSA spying at home is the most recent of these. Harsh treatment of detainees, “extraordinary renditions,” secret foreign prisons, and the newly minted enemy combatant designation have also undermined our values. The resulting policies have harmed counterterrorism efforts and produced few tangible results.

With a partisan Congress predictably reluctant to censure a politically aligned president, it is all the more important for citizens themselves to demand disclosure, oversight, and restraint of sweeping claims of executive power. This book is the first step.


Frederick A.O. Schwarz Jr. is senior counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law and a partner at Cravath, Swaine & Moore. He was chief counsel to the Church Committee. Aziz Z. Huq is associate counsel at the Brennan Center and previously clerked for the U.S. Supreme Court. They both live in New York City.

It is worth repeating. Bill Moyers Journal is absolutely necessary for a free and democratic republic.

Watch or listen to this episode on the increasing power of the residency. Tell your friends and neighbors, find out if you live among Americans or Republicans.