Libertas Continued

The Growing Illegal Immigration Problem, combined with the stresses on the U.S. Military due to wars around the world, has created an opportunity for the U.S. Government to outsource the Border Patrol to private 'security' contractors. The contract to guard the U.S. Borders will be very, very profitable, at least hundreds of billions $US. The private security firm Blackwater USA is planning to build a new military training center on an 800-acre ranch near Potrero, a tiny rural town east of San Diego. The project, known as Blackwater West, is being opposed by a growing coalition of local residents, environmentalists and peace activists. We speak with Rep Bob Filner who is exploring legislation to block the project Chris Taylor, Blackwater's vice president for strategic initiatives, referred to the planned facility in southern California as "Blackwater West." Blackwater Vice Chairman Cofer Black said the company is interested in creating a small army for hire - a br

American Fascists - Chris Hedges From Publishers Weekly Starred Review. The f-word crops up in the most respectable quarters these days. Yet if the provocative title of this exposé by Hedges (War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning)—sounds an alarm, the former New York Times foreign correspondent takes care to employ his terms precisely and decisively. As a Harvard Divinity School graduate, his investigation of the Christian Right agenda is even more alarming given its lucidity. Citing the psychology and sociology of fascism and cults, including the work of German historian Fritz Stern, Hedges draws striking parallels between 20th-century totalitarian movements and the highly organized, well-funded " dominionist movement ," an influential theocratic sect within the country's huge evangelical population. Rooted in a radical Calvinism, and wrapping its apocalyptic, vehemently militant, sexist and homophobic vision in patriotic and religious rhetoric, dominionism seeks absolute

Hear Jeremy Scahill , author of Blackwater May 1, 7pm Unitarian Universalist Church, Hillcrest 858-459-4650 May 2, 7pm, La Mesa Community Center 4975 Memorial Drive, La Mesa 619-464-0369 Black Water

This weekend I went to see John Edwards speak at the California Democratic Convention in San Diego. I've never been to a democratic convention, at any level, but since Bush took away my Bill of Rights I've become more committed to the political communication process. I went to support John Edwards, and his messages about the roll of our government. It was an eye opening experience. I live in San Diego, a heavily conservative military society, the people who live here all work for the government, directly or indirectly. They tend to be fundamentally worshipers, and have no problem with government use of their religious symbols. They are supernatural absolutist, and thus believe they are always right without reason. Their fear is tangible, in the way they support government unquestioningly. The smell of paranoia here is stifling, from the gated communities, to the gun-loving ex-military 'consultants', all seem to be suffering symptoms of P.T.S.D. Whenever a demonstration

Anyone who watched Bill Moyers journal, Buying the War , last Wednesday could see that Moyers was just restating the facts. He wanted to lay the foundation and remind the general public about the lies that have been sold to the public to get support for an illegal war of aggression against Iraq. Anyone who knows the truth, anyone who reads, anyone with a mind, understands the facts about the war and was already well aware of everything Moyers laid out. However, there was something in "Buying the War" that I hadn't heard before, that then Secretary of State, Collin Powell, in his now infamous speech to the United Nations, in February 2003, used fabricated intelligence plagiarized from the internet, from a University of California student dissertation, written 15 years earlier, about the IRAQ pre-first Gulf War. Below is an excerpt - see original . The media spin after U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell's UN speech on February 5, 2003, was about as dynamic as a Fox Ne

ARE YOU LOOSING IT CHARLIE? I love in-depth interviews, long format, informational, personal and deep. I know you pride yourself on being the penultimate gentleman and civil to a fault, but your pandering to General Petraeus was inexcusable. This man is in charge of the mess in IRAQ, a swarming chaos he inherited true, but he is not a leader prepared to lead Iraq out of the darkness, he is a SOLIDER, controlled and directed by the executives in office. You treated him as if he could speak truthfully and candidly, as if his answers were informed opinions, instead of the war propaganda they actually are. Did you hear him say that "HE AND HIS U.S. ARMY MEN gave THE IRAQIS THEIR RIGHT TO FREE SPEECH?" YOU DIDN'T EVEN BLINK. The right to dissent against any invading force is unquestionable. Hell, you can't really fault them for killing our soldiers, if our positions were reversed ... if they invaded our country without provocation ... we would do the same. But the right to

Four years ago on May 1, President Bush landed on the aircraft carrier USS Lincoln wearing a flight suit and delivered a speech in front of a giant "Mission Accomplished" banner. He was hailed by media stars as a "breathtaking" example of presidential leadership in toppling Saddam Hussein. Despite profound questions over the failure to locate weapons of mass destruction and the increasing violence in Baghdad, many in the press confirmed the White House's claim that the war was won. MSNBC's Chris Matthews declared, "We're all neo-cons now;" NPR's Bob Edwards said, "The war in Iraq is essentially over;" and Fortune magazine's Jeff Birnbaum said, "It is amazing how thorough the victory in Iraq really was in the broadest context." How did the mainstream press get it so wrong? How did the evidence disputing the existence of weapons of mass destruction and the link between Saddam Hussein to 9-11 continue to go largely unre

* MoveOn.Org and Air America will be co-hosting three "Virtual Town Halls" with the major Democratic presidential candidates, with the first one entirely about Iraq today, Tuesday, April 10. Obama, Clinton, Edwards, Richardson, Biden, Dodd and Kucinich will be answering questions from MoveOn members -- we'll be streaming it live 7:15-8:45 EST and rebroadcasting it to all our affiliates on Wednesday, 8-10pm EST. When you combine MoveOn's 3.2 million members and Air America's 2 1/2 million listeners – and add to that the topic of Iraq -- we expect an historic night in what promises to be a defining election. Listen to the show on you local station, or listen online: http://www.airamerica.com/node/3552 then report back .

PBS has a great news program called FRONTLINE , they do may great stories, but their biggest service is in documenting the ongoing destruction of democracy by our "leaders". Watch " The Dark Side " and learn the history of trechery that created Dick Chaney. Reminded me of that evil, criminal mastermind from Batman movies. Where is that caped crusader when you need him?

The recent firing of U.S. Attorney, Carol Lam and seven of her peers has boiled to the surface as a Political Scandal of the highest order. Last week the White House released over 3000 pages of email and other documents about the case in an attempt to overload the media with information, and force the story to cool before analysis could be made. But thanks to the age of the internet and the Web 2.0 concept of coordinated cooperating minds, any avalanche of information can be sifted and sorted, then assessed and edited in little time. Which is just what a blog called the "Talking Points Memo" did last week. Thus forcing the congress to investigate and hold accountable the political wrong doers, and keeping the scandal warm so that it can spread to reveal the whole truth.