Libertas Continued

As if the End Of Oil, Floods, Tidal Waves, Astroids, Global Warming, and Endless War aren't enough, the next great crisis is fresh Water. Blue Covenant: Maude Barlow on the Global Movement for Water Justice

According to a new article in the Texas Observer , Dallas Oil Billionaire Ray L. Hunt, Friend of G. W. Bush, escapes the new US Border Fence on his 6000 acre plantation in Brownsville, TX. After donating $35-million to build the new BUSH Presidential Library at SMU, Hunt the CUNT, has been granted a pass on the new border fence that abruptly stops at his property along the Rio Grand. Even as the Feds. file Eminent Domain Actions against the less wealthy people along the border, stealing their land and building a fence with gaping holes. For more see Democracy Now

Dibold Accidentally Leaks Results Of 2008 Election Early

For the first time a whole web site, named WikiLinks.org , has been taken off the internet by court order. This is the first time a court has been willing to censor an entire web site DNS entry by taking it off the internet, rather than just ordering it to remove critical information. WikiLinks.org uses the popular "User Contributions" web technology of a WIKI to provide a forum for WHISTLE BLOWERs world wide to air information that reports various forms of wrongdoing. This is a great anonymous service that puts a great check on governments and businesses that would harm people or the environment for profit. "The US arm of Wikileaks, a website that makes it easy for whistleblowers to leak documents, has been cut off after hosting evidence that claimed a bank located in the Cayman Islands engaged in money laundering and tax evasion." Julius Baer , the illicit banking enterprise in the Cayman's, claims that the leaked records were 'stolen and forged'. Th

Courage is asking the hard questions, even to those on your side. When Andrew Meyer stood up and asked those questions to John Kerry, He was struck down by 12 police who "Tazed" him into submission. Beware the coming election. When you speak your mind you will be tazed!

A Problem from Hell - Samantha Power (Pulitzer Prize) Who is this Samantha Power? A professor at Harvard's J. F. Kennedy School of Government. ON CHARLIE ROSE 1 ON CHARLIE ROSE 2 On Darfur

by Samantha Power The real cost of war is the loss of our best. What could have been if we had chosen to fulfill our potential rather than waste each other?

There are always changes in the environment: every winter all the bugs go away. But the last couple of years have seen the honey bees in North America fly away , and now the bats are going to die off, too . Lucky, the republican propaganda about climate change has kept us all questioning that "Global Warming" thing. No evidence of environmental crisis here. "The BAT disease, dubbed "white nose syndrome" because of a flaky white fungus on the nose of many of the sick and dead bats. Scientists do not yet know if the fungus is a cause of the illness or an effect. Some of the sick bats behaved oddly, clustering near the entrance of New York caves, flying in winter when they should have been sleeping and crashing into snow banks." Just in case though, you may want to stock up on canned fruit for a few years. And don't blame the TOBACCO producers or Chemical Companies, neonicotinoids are just good business. Ask SYNGENTA . Excerpt from 60 MINUTES (i.e. 40 m

I was just reading through the writing from America at the Crossroads and it is some of the most serious writing I've ever seen. If you have the guts, read it.

Strange that three of the five Feature Length Documentaries up for an Academy Award are about the Iraq War. The incompetent and illegal bungling of the Bush Administration has created an inadvertent positive result, almost infinite number of examples of how NOT to change the world. The fact that the DISCOVERY CHANNEL recently refused to present TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE , to which it owns the TV broadcasting rights, which has now won the OSCAR in its category, ironically demonstrates that the rift between truth and corporate interests is far too wide to bridge with even the best film. Other Nominees in the Best Feature Length Documentary category include: NO END IN SIGHT - official site OPERATION HOMECOMING: WRITING THE WARTIME EXPERIENCE - On PBS SICKO - by American Hero, Michael Moore WAR DANCE - what happens in the world when the USA turns bad. WATCH THEM ALL

Today NPR program DAY TO DAY , reported on the trial, after FIVE years of imprisonment, of a SUSPECTED terrorist who has been tortured by the USA. Amazingly, the former prison warden, Col. Morris Davis, has come forward to testify on the "terrorists" behalf against the very system that has failed to bring us justice. "Guantanamo Bay detainee Salim Ahmed Hamdan faces life in prison if an upcoming military tribunal convicts him of conspiracy and supporting terrorism. Now Col. Morris Davis, the former chief military prosecutor at Gitmo, says he will testify on Hamdan's behalf if permitted to do so." They then interviewed the new Guantanimo Prison Warden, Brig. Gen. Thomas Hartmann. When asked if he thought that testimony gained by 'WATER-BOARDING' (i.e. CONTROLLED DROWNING, not the boating sport) should be allowed in MILITARY COURT, the current POLITICALLY APPOINTED Commander at Guantanimo Bay, Brig. Gen. Thomas Hartmann dodged the question, and interviewi

From LA TIMES Contractor gets 12 years for bribing congressman Brent R. Wilkes was charged with paying more than $700,000 in cash and gifts to San Diego-area Rep. Randy 'Duke' Cunningham. By Richard Marosi, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer February 20, 2008 SAN DIEGO -- A former military contractor was sentenced Tuesday to 12 years in federal prison for bribing former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham with cash, ritzy vacations and prostitutes in exchange for help in getting government contracts. Brent R. Wilkes, 53, who was convicted in November on 13 counts involving more than $700,000 in bribes, was taken into custody after the hearing in San Diego federal court. He was ordered to pay more than $1.1 million in fines and forfeitures. Wilkes' firm, ACDS Inc., which is based in the San Diego suburb of Poway, specialized in storing and analyzing records and intelligence documents. Prosecutors contended that the firm got more than $80 million in contracts in exchange for t

New documentary is too adventurous for Discovery Channel Taxi to the Dark Side, a documentary about an innocent Afghan taxi driver tortured to death by U.S. officials at Bagram Air Base, has received wide critical acclaim since its debut in April at the Tribeca Film Festival . The New York Times’s A.O. Scott said, “If recent American history is ever going to be discussed with the necessary clarity and ethical rigor, this film will be essential .” Director Alex Gibney agreed to sell the rights of Taxi to the Discovery Channel because executives convinced him they would “give the film a prominent broadcast.” Now, however, Discovery has dropped its plans to air the documentary because the film is too controversial. Gibney responded to the news in a press release this week: Now, I am told that ‘it doesn’t fit into Discovery’s plans,’ and that the film’s controversial content might damage Discovery’s public offering. The Usual Suspects

On November 19, 2005, the US Marines killed 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha. Today the investigation has culminated in a military courts marshal against the two soldiers considered responsible. The defense is likely to argue that the killings were 'justified' under the RULES OF ENGAGEMENT, and they are right. In WAR atrocities happen. Civilians get killed. It is never just, but if you WIN the war, then you have committed no war crimes, under the law. The truth is that WAR is the murder of one group by another group, that is what it means. The WAR is the CRIME. That individuals can legally hide behind RULES OF ENGAGEMENT does not admonish them from their moral obligations. They may not be imprisoned for their deeds, but they are forever guilty. In Haditha unarmed men, women, and children were killed in their pajamas. Some say that it was retribution for a road bomb that killed one US Marine. No one will be held accountable. See , "RULES of ENGAGEMENT" on FRONTLINE.

When you look at the horrible state of the USA, you just want to blame someone? But the rat skipped town when the ship went down.

Wow, only five year after the beginning of the Iraq War, someone in congress finally has the courage to ask the hard questions about going into war! Lucky for us, according to the integrity of Secretary Rice, the administration never lied to the American People about WMD. It would have been WRONG to lie, so the instead they made the best judgement that they could. So far that judgement has cost the US its "moral superiority", its reputation, 4000 troops (note: does not include 'contractors') , $2-TRILLION , and that doesn't count the wasted lives of at least half-a-million Iraqis . That doesn't include the tens-of-thousands of wounded Americans , and I will not mention the destruction of US Constitutional protections and our system of checks and balances, sacrificed in the name of "national security". No, Rice used the best information she had, the fact that there were no WMD, the fact that there was no link to Al Queada, these false statements were

Over the course of the last seven years, the US Administration has decided to throw out the US Constitution. Embarrassed by their abject failure to stop the horrors of 9/11, fearing that they will also fail to recognize or uncover countless other potential threats, they have become the very force for evil in the world that they claim to struggle against. Now in the darkest hour of Islam, the USA creates martyrs by denying our military prisoners the basic human rights we give even the slimiest citizen criminal in our over packed domestic prisons. We need to restore Habeas Corpus , the right to trial, even for the worst of our enemies. We need to treat the 'evil-doers' with the very respect that they would (reportedly) deny others, because that IS the difference between the righteous and evil. Good people do not fear truth, they do not cower from their imprisoned enemy. What harm can those we have do to us? Is our nation so weak, our society so bankrupt, that the act of simply AL

According to Democracy Now and Matt Rothschild, of The Progressive, the US Federal Government has deputized private corporations to "shoot to kill" in times of martial law or a "national security emergency". A child of the Federal Bureau of Investigation , according to their web site the mission of Infragard is "to promote ongoing dialogue and timely communication between members and the FBI. InfraGard members gain access to information that enables them to protect their assets and in turn give information to government that facilitates its responsibilities to prevent and address terrorism and other crimes." According to the Progressive, FBI Director Robert Mueller urged InfraGard members to contact the FBI if they “note suspicious activity or an unusual event.” And he said they could sic the FBI on “disgruntled employees who will use knowledge gained on the job against their employers.” That must be why 23,682 corporations feel they need to collaborat

It seems that despite of the utter impudence of the US Administration and the impotence of the United States's Courts, Legislature, and public citizens, the impatience of the world's popular opinion takes the case of Guantanamo to the people. Michael Moore's Sicko used Gitmo's Medical Services as the answer to the Health Care Problem. A group of Gitmo's inmates have written the best selling poetry book of 2008. Jesus has come back to deliver a message and finds himself sent to Gitmo. Dozens of songs have been written to protest against Gitmo. And now in a Kafkaesque Farce, the Harold and Kumar movie , two minority looking types get shuffled off to INDEFINITE DETENTION. For great fishing don't miss Guantanamo Bay . Poems from Guantanamo: The Detainees Speak

After fifteen years of struggle the FOIA Ombudsman legislation was approved by unanimous approval from both the US Senate and the House was signed into law on Dec. 31, 2007. (do you know how rare veto proof legislation is?) Then buried in the new $3 TRILLION Bush budget, on page 239 of the appendix of the Commerce Department section, without mentioning FOIA, or the Office of Government Information Services (the new FOIA Ombudsman), President G.W. Bush closed the office and transfered the FOIA request services to the JUSTICE DEPARTMENT! The very department that has been so instrumental in covering up many of the latest Bush scandals! There is still hope, the congress is not likely to stop the budget, but Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., who authored the FOIA overhaul with Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, vowed to restore funding for the job at the National Archives. Support them, and open the doors to our government information and archives. ONLY IN THE LIGHT OF DAY CAN WE END THE SECRETS.

A pre-eminent voice for liberal Christianity, John Shelby Spong was the Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Newark for 24 years before his retirement in 2000. His admirers acclaim his legacy as a teaching bishop who makes contemporary theology accessible to the ordinary lay person—he's considered a champion of an inclusive faith by many both inside and outside the Christian church. His challenges to the church have also made Bishop Spong a target of hostility, fear, and death threats. In what may come as a surprise to his critics, his latest book, A New Christianity for a New World, is a statement of Christian faith and love for the church. Calling himself "a joyful, passionate, convinced believer in the reality of God," he seeks not to create a new religion, but to reform the church he loves Buy it online and send it to your favorite Republican.

Our Constitution is under threat and the most basic principle of checks and balances is being undermined. Not since Watergate has a president so openly disregarded the will of Congress. During hearings in the Judiciary Committee yesterday, I told Attorney General Michael Mukasey that I called for impeachment hearings because of the stonewalling and blatant abuses of the Bush Administration. He responded by stating that he will NOT enforce a contempt of Congress citation against Harriet Miers and White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten for refusing to testify before Congress. The video is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7M9sjRLCtQ Alberto Gonzales may be long gone, but the Bush Administration continues its executive overreach with the new Attorney General. We can debate the need for Impeachment hearings. We can argue its effects on the election or our agenda. But one thing is abundantly clear: If Congress' right to require testimony is undermined, then our country's leaders

This question comes to mind reading the responses to this ‘blog’ . It seems that those who support the ‘conservative’ ‘Republican’ platform all practice some form of cognitive dissonance*. The author claims to support Mitt Romney based upon his “Leadership” and “Business Success” during the 2002 Olympics? They seem to forget that the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics were plagued by scandal after scandal for the cheating and bribes that were doled out to various political and business forces. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Winter_Olympic_bid_scandal ) "Successful Business" means you didn't get caught. A number of I.O.C. members are forced to resign after it is uncovered that they have accepted inappropriately valuable “gifts” in return for voting for Salt Lake City to hold the Games. Perhaps to a ‘conservative republican’ that seems like a very successful business practice, just like Dick Cheney’s no-bid war profiteering contracts to Hallibutron. In 2002, Dual gold medal