tagged w/ Wrongful Lobbying
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Former FBI Language Specialist Sibel Edmonds finally gets to testify under oath, after being hit with a gag order.
Bombshells Under Oath: INCLUDE: CONGRESS MEMBERS NAMED IN ESPIONAGE, BRIBERY, SEXUAL BLACKMAIL SCHEMES; NEW BREWSTER JENNINGS / VALERIE PLAME DISCLOSURE...
Long gagged under the "state secrets" privilege by the Bush Administration, the Obama Administration's DoJ chose not to re-invoke privilege, paving the way for this information to finally make its way on to the unclassified public record.
LINK TO ARTICLE: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7348.
Former FBI Language Specialist Sibel Edmonds finally gets to testify under oath,... more
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Please, do meet one of the the most unfriendly anti-green and anti-social institutions in the US. Harley Davidson and SEMA.
Here it is how acoustic aftermarket crime are politically lobbied by SEMA
This is lobbying against our Constitutional rights and against social peace. I am requesting everyone that has a responsibility to defend our Constitutionals rights, our neighborhoods and communities around the United States to boycott "Specialty Equipment Market Association" Known as (SEMA) that corrupts the Congress and our Civic Laws.
Have any of you herd about these institutions? The name is "SEMA" please do not confuse it with FEMA. The acronym of SEMA means "Specialty Equipment Market Association." These people were suppose to only supply their out laws products to a supposed off road car shows. Instead their tentacles reach far beyond the law and beyond human health and environmental issues. They have corrupted Congress and the law and spoofed law enforcement so badly that will take some serious money to re-train officers to recognize the crime of modifying cars and motorcycle mufflers to sound louder. Next time you wake up in the middle of the night or you get blasted with noise and carbon monoxide by a vehicle without the noise suppressants that we all call "mufflers," you can remember these words, "Harley Davidson" and "SEMA."
The hand and hand partners of health and environmental crime in the US at your service.Please, do meet one of the the most unfriendly anti-green and anti-social institutions... more
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AIPAC, the main Israel / Jewish Lobby's indicted spy Steve Rosen (he was indicted by the FBI/Justice Department along with another AIPAC Senior Employee for spying for Israel against the USA). He was one of Charles W. ("Chas") Freeman's major critics and one of the reasons Mr Freeman stepped down from the director of national intelligence post.
Why? Because the Israeli / Jewish Lobby cried fowl when he (rightfully so) criticized Israel and US Policy on Israel. The 'lobby' did a smear campaign against him and this may be a last gasp for a lobby that has only one thing in mind. And that, my fellow readers is only to benefit Israel...and NOT in the best interest of the USA.
Who is running America?
The ones
Spying against America?
Lock em up!........toss out the Israel / Jewish Lobby. They are not lobbyists..they are agents for another country. Their manipulation has caused much violence in the world today.
Here is the beginning of this amazing story with the rest at the link above:
Is the Israel lobby in Washington an all-powerful force? Or is it, perhaps, running scared?
Judging by the outcome of the Charles W. ("Chas") Freeman affair this week, it might seem as if the Israeli lobby is fearsome indeed. Seen more broadly, however, the controversy over Freeman could be the Israel lobby's Waterloo.
Let's recap. On February 19th, Laura Rozen reported at ForeignPolicy.com that Freeman had been selected by Admiral Dennis Blair, the director of national intelligence, to serve in a key post as chairman of the National Intelligence Council (NIC). The NIC, the official in-house think tank of the intelligence community, takes input from 16 intelligence agencies and produces what are called "national intelligence estimates" on crucial topics of the day as guidance for Washington policymakers. For that job, Freeman boasted a stellar resumé: fluent in Mandarin Chinese, widely experienced in Latin America, Asia, and Africa, a former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia during the first Gulf War, and an ex-assistant secretary of defense during the Reagan administration.
A wry, outspoken iconoclast, Freeman had, however, crossed one of Washington's red lines by virtue of his strong criticism of the U.S.-Israeli relationship. Over the years, he had, in fact, honed a critique of Israel that was both eloquent and powerful. Hours after the Foreign Policy story was posted, Steve Rosen, a former official of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), launched what would soon become a veritable barrage of criticism of Freeman on his right-wing blog.
Rosen himself has already been indicted by the Department of Justice in an espionage scandal over the transfer of classified information to outside parties involving a colleague at AIPAC, a former official in Donald Rumsfeld's Pentagon, and an official at the Israeli embassy. His blog, Obama Mideast Monitor, is hosted by the Middle East Forum website run by Daniel Pipes, a hard-core, pro-Israeli rightist, whose Middle East Quarterly is, in turn, edited by Michael Rubin of the American Enterprise Institute. Over approximately two weeks, Rosen would post 19 pieces on the Freeman story.----------more at linkAIPAC, the main Israel / Jewish Lobby's indicted spy Steve Rosen (he was indicted by... more
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Israel's Death Squads: A Former Soldier Breaks His Silence
The target, Razeq, was in the passenger seat, closest to the APC. "I have no doubt I see him in the scope. I start shooting. Everyone starts shooting, and I lose control. I shoot for one or two seconds. I counted afterwards – shot 11 bullets in his head. I could have shot one shot and that's it. It was five seconds of firing.
"I look through the scope, see half of his head. I have no reason to shoot 11 bullets. I think maybe from the fear, maybe to cope with all the things that are happening, I just continue shooting."
As far as he can recall, the order to fire was not specific to the sharpshooters in the APC. He cannot know for certain if the troops in the truck thought wrongly that some of the fire was directed at them from the cars. But he says that after he stopped "the firing gets even worse. I think the people in the truck started to panic. They're firing and one of the cars starts driving and the commander says, 'Stop, stop, stop, stop!' It takes a few seconds to completely stop and what I see afterwards is that both cars are full of holes. The first car, too, which was there by coincidence."
Razeq and Dhuheir, the militants, were dead. So were Abu Laban and Al Leddawi. Miraculously, the driver of the taxi, Nahed Fuju, was unscathed. The sharpshooter can remember only one of the four bodies lying on the ground. "I was shocked by that body. It was like a sack. It was full of flies. And they asked who shot the first car [the Mercedes] and nobody answered. I think everybody was confused. It was clear that it had been a screw-up and nobody was admitting [it]." But the commander did not hold a formal debriefing until the unit returned to its main base.
"The commander came in and said, 'Congratulations. We got a phone call from the Prime Minister and from the Minister of Defence and the chief of staff. They all congratulated us. We succeeded perfectly in our mission. Thank you.' And from that point on, I understood that they were very happy." He says the only discussion was over the real risk there had been of soldiers' casualties from friendly fire in the shoot-out, in which at least one of the IDF's own vehicles was hit by ricocheting bullets, and at the end of which at least one soldier even got out of the 4x4 and fired at an inert body on the ground.
Saying his impression was "theyIsrael's Death Squads: A Former Soldier Breaks His Silence
The target,... more
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"Nothing is more damaging to US interests than the inability to have a proper debate about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."
—Financial Times, Editorial, Saturday, April 01, 2006
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The Power of Israel in the United States
by James Petras
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"A provocative analysis of a serious problem that should be discussed and debated widely among the U.S. public, academics, and the policy establishment, this book succeeds in exposing in great detail the enormous power and influence of Israel and the Jewish Lobby in shaping U.S. policy toward the Middle East."
—Berch Berberoglu, Ph.D.
Professor of Sociology, University of Nevada, Reno
Author of TURMOIL IN THE MIDDLE EAST.
“Once again James Petras takes us on a fearless truth trip—with lucid style, tough factual blows, commanding research, and compelling analysis. This is an eye-opening, must-read book for every advocate of democracy and every opponent of imperialism.”
—Michael Parenti,
author of The Culture Struggle and Superpatriotism
“An outstanding analysis of the political machinery responsible for so much suffering in the Middle East: the social science equivalent of John Adam´s opera “Klinghoffer”. Brilliant and substantive”.
John Saxe-Fernandez,
Professor and Senior Researcher, Faculty of Political Science National Autonomous
University of Mexico and leading world authority on US foreign policy and the oil industry
”Jim Petras has been one of the few courageous individuals, in or outside of academia, to take a critical view of the pro-Israel lobby and its influence over US Middle East policy and to challenge the “conventional wisdom” on the part of the Left that Israel acts as a “cop on the beat” and is simply serving America’s imperial interests.”
Jeff Blankfort,
A leading Jewish authority, writer and critic in the US on the pro-Israel Lobby
“Jim Petras is one of the best informed political scientists of his generation, not given to avoiding difficult issues. Here he addresses one such, which he tackles in a characteristically challenging way.”
Tom Brass, Editor
The Journal of Peasant Studies
“Always meticulously researched and full of insight, in the final analysis Petras’ opinions are almost always vindicated by events. I believe that this will be the case here.”
—Cy Gonick,
Canadian Dimension magazine
“Jim Petras, a man with vast expertise assembled in Latin America, takes the Leftist anti-imperialist discourse one step further, beyond safe condemnation of American imperialism.He begins where Chomsky and Zunes stop. In this book, Petras turns to the Middle East, where he discovers, through the haze of anti-Muslim polemics, assassinations and tortures, the identity of the decisive factor: that of “Jewish power shaping US policy in the Middle East against the interest of Big Oil”.
Petras’ critique of “soft Left” with its fear to alienate wealthy and influential Jewish supporters is a breath of fresh air; this critique has to be internalised if the Left wills to regain its place in society.”
Israel Shamir, Jaffa
Leading Russian-Israeli intellectual, writer, translator and journalist"Nothing is more damaging to US interests than the inability to have a proper debate... more
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Tell the EPA to Control CO2
Target: Joseph Lapka, EPA Scientist
Sponsored by: Earthjustice
The EPA is ready to approve a monstrous, 1,500 megawatt coal-fired power plant - without any CO2 controls - on Navajo land in New Mexico. The Desert Rock coal plant will inundate native communities with health-robbing pollutants that cause asthma and heart attacks and spew 12.7 million tons of CO2 greenhouse gases into the atmosphere every year.
Desert Rock is a centerpiece of Bush-era plans to spread coal power across the land without regard for its environmental havoc. But thanks to President Obama, the EPA now must listen to what we have to say. This is the chance we all have been waiting for - to be heard!
We only have until February 23 to speak up and help build a groundswell movement in support of controlling this plant's air pollution. Tell the EPA to impose the strictest-possible CO2 controls - making it the first plant in EPA history to have such limits.Tell the EPA to Control CO2
Target: Joseph Lapka, EPA Scientist
Sponsored by:... more
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Robert F. Kennedy, Jr delivers his opening statement during the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming hearing, "Approaching Midnight: Oversight of the Bush Administration's Last-Minute Rulemakings" on December 11, 2008.
While this intervention is crucial; his speach at LIVE EARTH 2008 was the most explicit & aggressive as for the responsibility we all share in this...
Here's an excerpt...
The most important thing you can do is to get involved in the political process and get rid of all these rotten politicians that we have in Washington D. C. Who are nothing more than corporate toadies for companies like Exxon and Southern Company, these villainous companies that consistently put their private financial interest ahead of American interests and ahead of the interests of all of humanity.
This is treason and we need to start treating them now as traitors.
And they have their slick public relations firms and their phony think tanks in Washington D. C. and their crooked scientists who are lying to the American People day after day after day.
And we have a press that has completely let down American democracy.
That's giving us Anna Nicole Smith and Paris Hilton instead of the issues that we need to understand to make rational decisions in a democracy.
Like global warming.
And so I got to tell you this that the next time you see John Stossel or Glen Beck or Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity, these flat-earthers, these corporate toadies, lying to you, lying to the American public and telling you that global warming doesn't exist.
You send an email to their advertisers and tell them you're not going to buy their products any more.
And I want you to remember this; that we are not protecting the environment for the sake of the fishes and the birds, we're protecting it because Nature is the infrastructure of our communities.
And if we want to meet our obligation as a generation, as a civilization, as a nation, which is to create communities for our children.
That provide them with the same opportunities for dignity and enrichment and good health and prosperity and stability as the communities that our parents gave us, we've got to start by protecting our environmental infrastructure.
The air we breathe, the water we drink, the wildlife the public lands the things that connect us to our past to our history that provide context to our communities and that are the source ultimately of our values and our virtues and our character as people and the future of our children and I will see all of you on the barricades.Robert F. Kennedy, Jr delivers his opening statement during the Select Committee on... more
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William Timmons, the Washington lobbyist who John McCain has named to head his presidential transition team, aided an influence effort on behalf of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein to ease international sanctions against his regime.William Timmons, the Washington lobbyist who John McCain has named to head his... more
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Oh My GOD, this is classical!
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According with Michael Moore, Watching C-Span yesterday morning was one of the best comedy shows I'd seen in ages. There they were, one Republican after another who had backed the war and sunk the country into record debt, who had voted to kill every regulation that would have kept Wall Street in check -- there they were, now crying foul and standing up for the little guy! One after another, they stood at the microphone on the House floor and threw Bush under the bus, under the train (even though they had voted to kill off our nation's trains, too), heck, they would've thrown him under the rising waters of the Lower Ninth Ward if they could've conjured up another hurricane. You know how your dog acts when sprayed by a skunk? He howls and runs around trying to shake it off, rubbing and rolling himself on every piece of your carpet, trying to get rid of the stench. That's what it looked like on the Republican side of the aisle yesterday, and it was a sight to behold.
The 95 brave Dems who broke with Barney Frank and Chris Dodd were the real heroes, just like those few who stood up and voted against the war in October of 2002. Watch the remarks from yesterday of Reps. Marcy Kaptur, Sheila Jackson Lee, and Dennis Kucinich. They spoke the truth. According with Michael Moore, Watching C-Span yesterday morning was one of the best... more
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The man suspected of a triple murder in Yankton was apparently the one who reported the crime.
According to court documents, the 58-year-old called 911 and said, "This is Ernie Tupper, I just killed three people. I'm sorry." Police then found 21-year-old Robert Riibe 21-year-old Chassidy Bamsey and 28-year-old Brian VanWagner, Jr, dead in an apartment. The man suspected of a triple murder in Yankton was apparently the one who reported... more
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ANP: But is it really? And where is American capitalism headed?
Amid the chaos and chatter about this week's financial bailout, one clear theme emerged in some quarters: The era of free-market fundamentalism is over. But is it, really?
ANP: But is it really? And where is American capitalism headed?
Amid the chaos and... more
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The Bush Family Business
For four generations now, the Bush family has been involved in supporting the country's enemies (most notably the Nazi Party in Germany) and robbing the country blind.
The family was directly involved and profited from the Savings and Loan scandal of the 1980s and has participated in security fraud as well.
With this understanding as a background, the Iraq War can be viewed as their "masterpiece."
The Bush family and its associates have stolen countless billions of dollars in the course of the war. In fact, one of their motivations for pushing the war in the first place was the opportunity for theft.
Chances are the destruction of World Trade Tower Seven, the home of crucial and now lost forever SEC and other federal law enforcement evidence and case files was carried out to cover their tracks.
The Bush Family Business
For four generations now, the Bush family has been... more
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The City of Myrtle Beach will use this week's fall motorcycle rally as a "dry run" for one of the new anti-motorcycle-rally laws it put in place Tuesday and as a chance to educate riders about the city's expectations.
Amendments to the city's noise ordinance, including details of vehicle noise levels and motorcycle muffler requirements, took effect Tuesday afternoon as soon as the City Council gave them final approval.
Myrtle Beach councils have wrestled with the rallies for years, as the Harley-Davidson-focused spring ride grew from a four-day event to a 10-day one, and crowds drawn to the Atlantic Beach Bikefest over Memorial Day weekend spilled over into Myrtle Beach and turned Ocean Boulevard into a street party for three nights a year.
By Lorena Anderson - landerson@thesunnews.comThe City of Myrtle Beach will use this week's fall motorcycle rally as a "dry run" for... more
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Here in my house, acoustic issues are life threatening events, a trespass and therefore a crime. When the legislative made graffiti a crime, many people did learn to use their personal energy towards a better and safe direction. That also helped abate graffiti and improve the neighborhood quality of life. Now it is time to draft our acoustic policy to follow this same direction. Just in case you are really interested in making San Francisco a first class City so people that come here as a tourist will have something good to talk about abroad. If you are in doubt of the benefits, just remember that Tourism it is a multimillion dollar business that greatly benefits the wealth of this City.
Here in my house, acoustic issues are life threatening events, a trespass and... more
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Cynicism may now represent one of the greatest threats to democracy, according to a research project at the London School of Economics.
Findings indicate that people are more cynical about politics than anything else, and that cynicism is a more important factor than distrust when it comes to whether people vote. Those who think politicians are liars will probably continue to vote, whereas those who are contemptuous of them are less likely to do so.
But what if politicians could measure the impact that their buzz words were having on the cynicism levels of different groups? The Syntony Research Team at the LSE is trying to develop a 'Cyndex' - a cynicism index. It would measure the emotional responses of cynics according to their age, race, religion, gender and socio-economic backgrounds - from mild frustration to violent anger.
'All the evidence shows people are getting more cynical with the messages we get from government, from businesses, from the media,' said Charles Liasides of Syntony, who is a senior research fellow at the Institute of Social Psychology. 'People are deserting some TV stations because they are becoming cynical about reality TV insulting their intelligence; they turn off from some adverts because they are patronising; and all those wonderful gaffes we have had with the government recently - the U-turns, the backfiring policies - are having an effect. But is it good for democracy?'
In a pilot survey linked to the Royal Society of Arts (involving questionnaires completed by 1,100 fellows), Syntony's conclusion is that cynicism is infecting the very fabric of our society. Top of the list was politics, for which the average level of cynicism registered was 51 per cent, compared with 31 per cent for general cynicism of life, 30 per cent for business cynicism and 37 per cent for media cynicism.
Men were more cynical about their fellow human beings than women (32 per cent compared with 27 per cent). 'It seems women are more idealistic,' said Dr Alain Samson of the Syntony team.
Those who regularly read newspapers were significantly less cynical about the media (34 per cent against 40 per cent).
'But our most important finding suggested that people who did not vote were more likely to be cynical about the government than distrusting,' said Samson. 'Usually, people focus on distrust, or lack of confidence, as the most important factor when it comes to disengagement. But in fact, it is cynicism.'
Cynicism may now represent one of the greatest threats to democracy, according to a... more
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Disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff was sentenced to four years in federal prison Thursday for his corrupt lobbying activities, which led to the downfalls of a congressman and several other Washington officials.
Choking back tears, Abramoff delivered a highly emotional plea for the judge to exercise leniency, but readily admitted he had done wrong.
"I stand before you a broken man," he said during the two-hour sentencing hearing. "I am not the same man."
Abramoff has served 22 months in prison on a separate conviction involving casinos in Florida. The judge said that the new four-year term will run concurrently with the remainder of that sentence.
Disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff was sentenced to four years in federal prison... more
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(AP) Electric and hybrid vehicles may be better for the environment, but the California Legislature says they're bad for the blind.
It has passed a bill to ensure that the vehicles make enough noise to be heard by visually impaired people about to cross a street.
The measure would establish a committee to study the issue and recommend ways the vehicles could make more noise.
The state Department of Motor Vehicles says more than 300,000 of the vehicles are on state roads. Officials say they don't keep statistics on pedestrian accidents involving those vehicles.
The bill has been sent to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has not taken a position.
(AP) Electric and hybrid vehicles may be better for the environment, but the... more
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The Auto Alliance's ad is deceptive—Help us run our response
Automaker lobbyists have been trying to deceive American consumers and lawmakers about pollution emitted from today's cars, pickups, minivans, and SUVs. See their ad (left) and our response (right) and then learn more about the level of the Auto Alliance's misrepresentation and why we at the Union of Concerned Scientists felt obliged to respond so strongly.
http://go.ucsusa.org/general/special_features/page.cfm?pageID=1667The Auto Alliance's ad is deceptive—Help us run our response
Automaker lobbyists... more
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CHICAGO, July 28 (Reuters) - One of three U.S. adults already suffers from some degree of hearing loss and the use of personal stereos and an aging population may create a hearing impairment epidemic, researchers said on Monday.
A team at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore estimated that 55 million Americans have hearing loss in one or both ears, with men, whites and the least-educated most affected.
One out of six, or 29 million adults, have some trouble discerning speech, more than previous estimates, they reported in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
"The prevalence of hearing loss in the United States is predicted to rise significantly because of an aging population and the growing use of personal listening devices. Indeed, there is concern that we may be facing an epidemic of hearing impairment," Dr. Yuri Agrawal of the Baltimore hospital wrote.
It is common for people to ignore or disavow hearing loss, the researchers said, leading to difficulty communicating that can result in productivity problems at work, depression, and less access to health care that ultimately raises the risk of sickness and death.
Hearing loss is common among people 70 and older, according to the report. But hearing loss also affected 8.5 percent of those in their 20s and 17 percent of people in their 30s. Exposure to workplace noise, firearms, and loud music were all risk factors.
Read the whole story here;
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN28498722
(Reporting by Andrew Stern; Editing by Maggie Fox and Eric Walsh)
CHICAGO, July 28 (Reuters) - One of three U.S. adults already suffers from some degree... more
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