News Wire for Dvanhorn News Wire of David Van Horn

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT

News Wire for dvanhorn News wire of David Van Horn. Sources include: BBC News | Middle East | World Edition, CIR: All New Content, Chemical Weapons Convention Archive, CounterSpin, Democracy Now!, Democracy Now! Blog, Electronic Intifada, Hearsay Culture, Left Out -- Reality-Based Radio, ProPublica: Articles and Investigations, ReliefWeb - OCHA Situation Reports, and Weekly Radio Spin. http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/dvanhorn/rss/

Israelis ponder ceasefire calls

A concerted diplomatic drive is under way to try to end Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip and Hamas rocket attacks. http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/middle_east/7805558.stm

Iraq signs foreign troops deals

Iraq signs deals with the UK and Australia for their troops to stay after a UN mandate expires on 1 January, Baghdad says. http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/middle_east/7805529.stm

Group storms UK embassy in Iran

Demonstrators storm the compound of the British Embassy in Iran, the Foreign Office confirms. http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/middle_east/7805455.stm

Zimbabwe: Donor Funding of Cholera Emergency - 30 Dec 2008

Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/EDIS-7MTTSH?OpenDocument&RSS20=22-P

Hold on Iraqi suspects' handover

The European Court of Human Rights halts a decision to allow two Iraqis accused of murdering British soldiers to be tried in Iraq. http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/uk_news/7805425.stm

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 1 of 76 Gaza aid boat 'rammed by Israel'

A boat taking medical supplies to Gaza has been rammed by the Israeli navy in international waters, activists say. http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/middle_east/7805075.stm

Next in Iraq

A year of change ends, but what about the future? http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/middle_east/7795222.stm

Iraq shoe thrower trial postponed

The trial of the Iraqi journalist who threw shoes at US President Bush is postponed pending an appeal against the charges. http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/middle_east/7804856.stm

Iraqi-Canadian 'spied for Saddam'

An Iraqi-born Canadian citizen is charged in the US of conspiring to spy from 2000 for the former Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussein. http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/americas/7804558.stm

Colombia: Infogramas situaci?n humanitaria Antioqu?a 2004 - Primer semestre 2008

Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/ASAZ-7MTFD7?OpenDocument&RSS20=22-P

Harold Pinter (1930-2008) on "Art, Truth and Politics"

Harold Pinter, the Nobel Prize-winning British playwright, screenwriter, poet, actor and political activist died last week at the age of seventy-eight after a prolonged battle with cancer. In his 2005 Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Pinter excoriated US foreign policy. "The invasion of Iraq was a bandit act, an act of blatant state terrorism, demonstrating absolute contempt for the concept of international law," Pinter said. We play an excerpt from his speech. [includes rush transcript] http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/30/harold_pinter_1930_2008_on_art

Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon Remembers Musical Icon Odetta (1930-2008)

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 2 of 76 Considered the ?Queen of American Folk Music,? Odetta introduced audiences worldwide to American roots music and especially African American folk, blues and gospel. She died earlier this month. When Rosa Parks was asked which songs meant the most to her, she replied, ?All of the songs Odetta sings.? We hear Odetta in her own words and speak to Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon, original member of the SNCC Freedom Singers and founder of Sweet Honey in the Rock. [includes rush transcript] http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/30/dr_bernice_johnson_reagon_remembers_musical

Headlines for December 30, 2008

Gaza Death Toll Tops 375Israel Vows to Wage ?War to the Bitter End?UN: 64 Palestinian Civilians Killed Four Israelis Killed in Palestinian Rocket AttacksBan Ki-Moon Accuses Israel of Using Excessive ForceIsrael Rams Activist Boat Carrying Aid to GazaKucinich Calls on UN to Investigate Israeli AttackMolotov Cocktail Thrown at Synagogue in ChicagoBangladesh Holds First Election in Seven YearsUgandan Rebels Accused of Massacring 189 in CongoIranian Officials Raid Home of Shirin EbadiRare Suicide Bombing in Iran Kills FourTreasury Bails Out GMACGov't Pushes Oil Drilling Off California CoastJudge Rejects Class Action Suit from Katrina SurvivorsWashington Prison Doctor Quits Over Death PenaltyJazz Trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, 70, Dies http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/30/headlines

DR Congo: Dungu, Orientale Province Situation Report No. 4, 29 Dec 2008

Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/TUJA-7MT3GP?OpenDocument&RSS20=22-P

Meet the Lebanese Press: Gazing towards Gaza

Like much of the world press, Israel's war on Gaza dominates the headlines in Lebanon. Massive protests in Beirut, particularly at the Egyptian embassy, took place. In an address to the tens of thousands of demonstrators, Hizballah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah called, among other things, for ordinary Egyptians to open up the crossing at the Egypt-Gaza border by force and in defiance of government security forces. Nasrallah's explicit condemnation of the Egyptian regime and the stern response by Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit reflects the long-term impact of the Gaza war on the dynamics of regional alliances playing out in Lebanon. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/electronicIntifada/~3/498316664/article10071.shtml

Only mild Security Council criticism for Israeli attacks

UNITED NATIONS (IPS) - After an emergency closed-door session Sunday night, the 15-member Security Council issued a politically bland statement expressing "serious concern" over the devastating Israeli air strikes on Gaza and calling for an "immediate halt to all violence." The statement was predictable because the United States, a traditionally loyal Israeli ally, would never agree to anything smacking of a "censure" or "condemnation" of Israel -- even as the death toll rose to more than 300 Palestinians, mostly civilians.

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 3 of 76 http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/electronicIntifada/~3/498245827/article10070.shtml

Weekly Situation Report on Cholera in Zimbabwe No. 08, 29 Dec 2008

Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/YSAR-7MSRVZ?OpenDocument&RSS20=22-P

Oil rises on Middle East tensions

Crude oil prices rise on concerns Israel's attacks on Hamas could threaten supplies from the Middle East. http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/business/7803595.stm

Colombia: OCHA Informe de situaci?n humanitaria No 38 - 39, 22 Nov - 05 Dic 2008

Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/STRI-7MSQWS?OpenDocument&RSS20=22-P

Renewed protests at Israeli raids

Thousands in the Arab world rally against Israeli air raids in Gaza, while Hezbollah puts its fighters in southern Lebanon on alert. http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/middle_east/7803569.stm

Why would Israel bomb a university?

Last night, during the second night of Israel's unprecedented attack on Gaza, I was awakened by the deafening sound of intensive bombardment on the Islamic University of Gaza (IUG). Of course Israeli politicians and generals would claim that IUG is a Hamas stronghold and that it preaches terrorism. As an independent professor, not affiliated with any political party, I can say that IUG is an academic institution which embraces a wide spectrum of political affinities. Dr. Akram Habeeb writes from the besieged Gaza Strip. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/electronicIntifada/~3/498074460/article10069.shtml

Mideast papers on Gaza

Commentators in the Palestinian press are united in dismay at the Israeli operation in Gaza. http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/middle_east/7803050.stm

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 4 of 76 Gaza without electricity, water

GAZA CITY, occupied Gaza Strip (IRIN) - As a result of a major Israeli offensive on 27 December against the Gaza Strip a dire humanitarian situation looms, according to aid officials. Gaza had been teetering on the edge of such a crisis even before the Israeli offensive: humanitarian access to Gaza has been severely restricted by Israel since early November. Now infrastructure in several areas has been destroyed, leaving residents without electricity and water. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/electronicIntifada/~3/498053457/article10068.shtml

Ethiopia: Humanitarian Bulletin - 29 Dec 2008

Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/MCOT-7MSHUF?OpenDocument&RSS20=22-P

Dubai sex man faces massive bill

A British man convicted of having sex on a Dubai beach has been left with a legal bill of tens of thousands of pounds. http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/uk_news/7803047.stm

"They are wrong to think we are the terrorists"

Saturday was supposed to be a normal day -- at least as close to normal as we are allowed to enjoy in Gaza. Where else but in Gaza are students killed in air strikes on their classrooms? From my desk in my university classroom we could see the smoke from Israel's bombing and hear the most terrifying sound of non-stop explosions. Eman Mohammed writes from the besieged Gaza Strip. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/electronicIntifada/~3/498017943/article10067.shtml

Briefing humanitaire en RD Congo du 22 au 26 d?cembre 2008

Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/ASAZ-7MSEXZ?OpenDocument&RSS20=22-P

RD Congo : District de Haut U?l?, Province Orientale, Rapport de Situation, 29 d?cembre 2008

Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/VDUX-7MSS6Z?OpenDocument&RSS20=22-P

The dogs of war

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 5 of 76 As a consequence of his foreign policy misadventures, Bush leaves the Middle East in flames and America's reputation in tatters. Yet, one thing has remained constant for the aloof president: deference to an Israeli "show of strength" rather than diplomacy. Only a year ago, Bush hosted the Annapolis conference that "relaunched" the "peace process" and then predictably stood by as it stalled out. Unable to launch a war against Iran, capture Osama bin Laden, pacify Afghanistan or Iraq, or broker a Palestinian-Israeli peace, rather than ride into the sunset in the waning days of his presidency, Bush is determined to leave in a final blaze of malicious incompetence. As it has been so often over the past eight years, the site of his enmity is Gaza. Osamah Khalil comments for The Electronic Intifada. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/electronicIntifada/~3/497861576/article10066.shtml

Israeli Attacks Kill Over 310 in Gaza in One of Israel's Bloodiest Attacks on Palestinians Since 1948

Amidst worldwide protests, Israel is continuing its bombing campaign against Gaza for the third consecutive day and preparing to launch a possible ground invasion. Following months of a crippling blockade, this has been described as one of Israel's bloodiest attacks on Palestinians since 1948. Latest reports indicate that 310 people have been killed and 1,400 injured in the aerial strikes across the Gaza Strip since Saturday morning. The latest targets of the air strikes include the Hamas Interior Ministry building and the Islamic University. Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak announced today that Israel is in an "all-out war with Hamas and its proxies" in Gaza. Fears of a ground invasion are growing after Israel declared a military buffer zone around Gaza, closing off the strip and its 1.5 million residents to journalists and civilians.

We speak to Dr. Moussa El-Haddad and Fida Qishta in Gaza, Dr. Mustafa Barghouti in Ramallah, Gideon Levy in Tel Aviv and Ali Abunimah in the US. [includes rush transcript] http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/29/israeli_attacks_kill_over_310_in

Headlines for December 29, 2008

Over 310 Palestinians Killed in Israeli Attack on GazaIsrael: International Community Should Condemn HamasHamas Accuses Israel of Causing a HolocaustUN Calls for ?Immediate Halt to All Violence"US Officials Back Israeli AttackTennessee Coal Disaster Three Times Larger Than First ProjectedPakistan Redeploys Troops to Indian Border14 Afghan Children Killed in Suicide BombingSomalian President Resigns Brazil to Arrest Rancher in Death of American Nun19 States Make Cuts to Medicaid BenefitsAbstinence Pledges Ineffective, Study FindsGOP Candidate Sends Out ?Barack the Magic Negro? CDPlaywright Harold Pinter, 78, DiesSinger & Actress Eartha Kitt, 81, Dies http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/29/headlines

Iraq civilian deaths down in 2008

The number of civilians killed by violence in Iraq has fallen by two-thirds in 2008, researchers say. http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/middle_east/7802545.stm

Saddam loyalists face new charges

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 6 of 76 Two senior allies of Saddam Hussein face new charges of crushing political opponents while in power. http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/middle_east/7802514.stm

The longest night of my life

Here's an update on what's happening here from where I am, the second night of Israeli air (and sea) raids on Gaza. It's 1:30am but it feels like the sun should be up already. For the past few hours there's been simultaneous, heavy aerial bombardment of Gaza City and the northern Gaza Strip. It feels like the longest night of my life. Safa Joudeh writes from the besieged Gaza Strip. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/electronicIntifada/~3/497441637/article10065.shtml

Gaza carnage sparks protests throughout Palestine

RAMALLAH, occupied West Bank (IPS) - Anger, shock and revulsion at the continuing carnage in Gaza has ignited spontaneous demonstrations and riots across the West Bank and Israel, sparking concerns of a possible third Palestinian uprising or intifada. More than 300 Palestinians were killed and at least 900 wounded following an intensive Israeli air bombing campaign over the Gaza strip through the weekend. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/electronicIntifada/~3/497421804/article10064.shtml

Most Gaza casualties were non-combatants, civilians

In one of its bloodiest military operations, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) initiated a wide-scale air strike operation against the Gaza Strip. Dozens of targets were attacked from the air simultaneously using heavy missiles and bombs. Mostly, the strikes targeted police and security installations across the densely populated Gaza Strip, which is indicative of IOF's disregard for civilian life and well-being. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/electronicIntifada/~3/497313518/article10063.shtml

Turkey 'hits PKK targets in Iraq'

Turkish fighter planes bomb suspected Kurdish rebel positions in northern Iraq, Turkish military sources say. http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/europe/7802106.stm

OPT: Gaza Humanitarian Situation Report 28 Dec 2008 16:00

Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/MUMA-7MS2K9?OpenDocument&RSS20=22-P

Palestinian leaders in Israel declare strike, call for boycott

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 7 of 76 In the presence of all national alliances, an urgent meeting for the Follow up Committee was held today declaring Sunday 28 December 2008 a general strike in protest of the Israeli massacres committed against Palestinians in Gaza. The meeting called for the organization of demonstrations and marches in every Arab town in al-Naqab [Negev], the Triangle, the Galilee areas and coastal towns as a symbol of the rage and severe grief of the Palestinian nation upon the loss of hundreds of its citizens in Gaza. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/electronicIntifada/~3/497100352/article10062.shtml

Gaza: "This is only the beginning"

Majid Salim, stood beside his comatose mother, Fatima. Earlier today she had been sitting at her desk at work at the Khadija Arafat Charity, located near the headquarters of Hamas' security forces in Gaza City. Israel's attack had left her with multiple internal and head injuries, a tube down her throat and a ventilator keeping her alive. Majid gestured to her, "We didn't attack Israel, my mother didn't fire rockets at Israel. This is the biggest terrorism, to have our mother bombarded at work." Ewa Jasiewicz reports from the besieged Gaza Strip. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/electronicIntifada/~3/497070046/article10061.shtml

Revisiting Ali

Disabled Iraqi orphan shows footballing prowess http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/middle_east/7797876.stm

"Shabbat Shalom" in Gaza

Shabbat Shalom! "Peaceful Saturday." I don't believe that Israeli leaders appreciate the meaning of this Hebrew greeting given at the start of the weekly Jewish day of rest. No more "Shabbat Shalom," as on Saturday, 27 December 2008, just a few days before the start of a new year, Israeli warplanes dropped bombs on different parts of the Gaza Strip. The Electronic Intifada correspondent Rami Almeghari writes from the besieged Gaza Strip. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/electronicIntifada/~3/496695545/article10060.shtml

"The amount of death and destruction is inconceivable"

It was just before noon when I heard the first explosion. I rushed to my window and barely did I get there and look out when I was pushed back by the force and air pressure of another explosion. For a few moments I didn't understand but then I realized that Israeli promises of a wide-scale offensive against the Gaza Strip had materialized. Safa Joudeh writes from the besieged Gaza Strip. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/electronicIntifada/~3/496628833/article10059.shtml

The rains of death in Gaza

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 8 of 76 We woke up this morning to the news in Gaza. It seems we always wake up to news there -- so it has become a matter of perspective how bad the news is each time; how remote it seems each time; how real or not; how severe and whether the severity warrants an "international outcry" or whether the animals can continue to suffer in their cages for a while longer. Laila El-Haddad writes from the US. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/electronicIntifada/~3/496500017/article10058.shtml

Rights orgs: Israel's willful killings a war crime

Palestinian human rights organizations strongly condemn the recent military attacks carried out by the Israeli occupying forces in the Gaza Strip on 27 December 2008. The attacks began at approximately 11:30am and lasted for approximately three hours. These attacks have destroyed most of the Gaza security offices including police stations, resulting in the deaths of more than 200 Palestinians. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/electronicIntifada/~3/496500018/article10057.shtml

Boycott committee: "Stop the massacre in Gaza - boycott Israel now!"

Today, the Israeli occupation army committed a new massacre in Gaza, causing the death and injury of hundreds of Palestinian civilians, including a yet unknown number of school children who were headed home from school when the first Israeli military strikes started. This latest bloodbath, although far more ruthless than all its predecessors, is not Israel's first. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/electronicIntifada/~3/496480974/article10056.shtml

Gaza massacres must spur us to action

"I will play music and celebrate what the Israeli air force is doing." Those were the words, spoken on Al Jazeera today by Ofer Shmerling, an Israeli civil defense official in the Sderot area adjacent to Gaza, as images of Israel's latest massacres were broadcast around the world. A short time earlier, US-supplied Israeli F-16 warplanes and Apache helicopters dropped over 100 bombs on dozens of locations in the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip killing at least 195 persons and injuring hundreds more. Many of these locations were police stations located, like police stations the world over, in the middle of civilian areas. The Electronic Intifada co-founder Ali Abunimah comments. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/electronicIntifada/~3/496387188/article10055.shtml

Iranians join Bush shoe protest

Protesters in Iran's capital throw footwear at pictures of the US leader in support of the Iraqi shoe-attack journalist. http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/middle_east/7800453.stm

Situation humanitaire en RDC (Katanga) - Rapport hebdomadaire du 16 au 23 d?cembre 2008

Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 9 of 76 http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/VDUX-7MPMCX?OpenDocument&RSS20=22-P

RD Congo : Rapport de la mission conjointe du 09 au 12 d?cembre 08 ? Masisi

Source: UN High Commissioner for Refugees, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, UN Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo, World Food Programme http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/VDUX-7MPM84?OpenDocument&RSS20=22-P

Center for Media and Democracy - Weekly Radio Spin, December 26, 2008

5:00 minutes (4.59 MB) http://www.prwatch.org/node/8094

Somalia: Situation Report No. 51 ? 26 Dec 2008

Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/ASAZ-7MPET7?OpenDocument&RSS20=22-P

An Hour with the Renowned South African Poet,Writer, Painter and Anti-Apartheid Activist Breyten Breytenbach

Breyten Breytenbach is one of South Africa's most famous poets. He's also an award-winning writer and painter, and well-known as an anti-apartheid activist and outspoken advocate for justice around the world. The exiled poet was born to an Afrikaner or white South African family in 1939. He moved to Paris in the early 1960s and became deeply involved with the anti-apartheid movement. In 1975, Breytenbach returned secretly to South Africa under a false passport. He was arrested, charged with terrorism and imprisoned for seven years. One of his most famous books based on his experience in prison is called The True Confessions of an Albino Terrorist. Today, Breytenbach divides his time between New York University, where he teaches creative writing, and the Goree Institute in Senegal, West Africa. [includes rush transcript] http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/26/an_hour_with_the_renowned_south

Kali Akuno, Andy Worthington and Francesca Grifo on Bush legacy

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 10 of 76 This week on CounterSpin: December 2008 marks not just the conclusion of another calendar year, but the end of eight years of the George W. Bush administration-an era notable for, among other things, particular predations on civil liberties, the free flow of information and the public's right to know. Other administrations have been wary of the press corps, to be sure. But it was the Bush White House whose first attorney general instructed federal agencies to drag their feet on FOIA requests; whose Defense Department orchestrated the pulling down of a statue of Saddam Hussein-supposedly by joyous Iraqis-as part of a disinformation campaign on the war. Who pressured EPA officials to "clean up" public statements on air quality at Ground Zero after September 11, 2001. Whatever one thinks of the incoming administration, it's fair to say the departing one has left a very high hole to dig out of a number of fronts. On this special edition of CounterSpin, we're going to look back at just a very few of the stories that defined the Bush era, and that posed particular challenges for journalists. The ongoing disaster of Hurricane Katrina-a story the press had at one time pledged to get to the bottom of, confronting powers that be and asking hard questions about structural inequalities. Guant?namo Bay, where the Bush administration has created a kind of "non-place" beyond the reach of international law and serious press scrutiny. And finally the field of science, where some fear this White House's hostility and agenda-driven policy may have set research back decades. We'll hear again from CounterSpin guests working on these stories that, though they may be largely products of the last eight years, will need to be addressed for years to come. Call them the lingering legacies of the Bush era. Links: - Kali Akuno's U.S. Human Rights Network - The Guant?namo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America's Illegal Prison, by Andy Worthington - Francesca Grifo at the Union of Concerned Scientists http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3665

Ahmadinejad UK TV speech condemned

The decision by UK TV's Channel 4 to broadcast an alternative Christmas speech by Iran's president is criticised. http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/entertainment/7799652.stm

Egypt teacher jailed for killing pupil

An Egyptian court sentences a teacher to six years in jail for beating a pupil to death because he had not done his homework. http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/middle_east/7799777.stm

Palestinian jailed for 30 years

The leader of a Palestinian armed group is sentenced to 30 years in prison by an Israeli military court. http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/middle_east/7799755.stm

Nativity diary

BBC reporter reaches end of epic Bethlehem trek http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/middle_east/7795809.stm

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 11 of 76 Muted festivities

UK troops celebrate Christmas in zones of conflict http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/uk_news/7799669.stm

Pope laments global instability

Pope Benedict XVI calls for peace in the Middle East and stability in Africa in his Christmas Day message from the Vatican. http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/europe/7799628.stm

Israel warns Hamas over rockets

Israeli leaders issue stern warnings to Palestinian militant group Hamas to stop firing rockets into Israel. http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/middle_east/7799593.stm

No bread in Gaza

Yesterday, after I finished my lecture at one of Gaza's universities, my wife asked me to bring some bread from Gaza City. All bakeries in our area have stopped operating because of the lack of flour and cooking gas due to Israel's 18-month siege of the territory. I drove throughout Gaza City to try to find some bread for my four children, instead finding a miserable scene. The Electronic Intifada correspondent Rami Almeghari writes from the occupied Gaza Strip. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/electronicIntifada/~3/494968124/article10054.shtml

Hunger before the storm

Israeli politicians, in the run-up to elections, are promising to deal a severe blow to Gaza as this is how Israeli policy is made. However, every household in Gaza is already under siege. In Gaza you can only find pale, angry and frustrated faces. If you visit my house you won't find power, while my neighbor is out of gas. Another neighbor seeks potable water as power outages have left him without for four days. A third neighbor desparately looks for milk for his child but does so in vain. Sameh A. Habeeb writes from the occupied Gaza Strip. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/electronicIntifada/~3/494968125/article10053.shtml

A Tribute to Yip Harburg: The Man Who Put the Rainbow in The Wizard of Oz

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 12 of 76 His name might not be familiar to many, but his songs are sung by millions around the world. Today, a journey through the life and work of Yip Harburg, the Broadway lyricist who wrote such hits as ?Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?? and who put the music into The Wizard of Oz. Born into poverty on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, Yip always included a strong social and political component to his work, fighting racism and poverty. A lifelong socialist, Yip was blacklisted and hounded throughout much of his life.

Taking us on today?s trip through the music and politics of Yip is his son, Ernie Harburg. First, we?re going to go through Yip?s early life, his collaboration with the Gershwin?s, through ?Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?? Then we?re going to take an in-depth look at The Wizard of Oz. And finally, we?ll hear a medley of Yip Harburg?s Broadway songs and the politics of the times in which they were created. [includes rush transcript] http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/25/a_tribute_to_yip_harburg_the

Israeli strike kills Hamas member

Militants in the Gaza Strip fire mortars and rockets into southern Israel, in retaliation for the killing of three men on Tuesday. http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/middle_east/7798685.stm

Baghdad ambition

The boy band from Iraq taking on the Backstreet Boys http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/programmes/crossing_continents/7785537.stm

Weekly Situation Report on Cholera in Zimbabwe No. 07, 24 Dec 2008

Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/EDIS-7MMSD2?OpenDocument&RSS20=22-P

Colombia: OCHA Humanitarian Situation Report No. 38 - 39, 22 Nov - 05 Dec 2008

Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/EDIS-7MMQ3T?OpenDocument&RSS20=22-P

Situation humanitaire en RDC (Sud Kivu) - Rapport hebdomadaire du 17 au 23 d?cembre 2008

Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/VDUX-7MMNQU?OpenDocument&RSS20=22-P

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 13 of 76 Situation humanitaire en RD Congo (Province orientale) - Rapport hebdomadaire du 16 au 22 d?cembre 2008

Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/VDUX-7MMNHC?OpenDocument&RSS20=22-P

oPt: Protection of civilians weekly report 17 - 23 Dec 2008

Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/EDIS-7MMLJZ?OpenDocument&RSS20=22-P

Amy Goodman's New Column: "One Man?s Bid to Aid the Environment"

Tim DeChristopher is an economics student at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. He had just finished his last final exam before winter break. One of the exam questions was: If the oil and gas companies are the only ones who bid on public lands, are the true costs of oil and gas exploitation reflected in the prices paid?

DeChristopher was inspired. He finished the exam, threw on his red parka and went off to the controversial Bureau of Land Management land auction that the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance called ?the Bush administration?s last great gift to the oil and gas industry.? Instead of joining the protest outside, he registered as a bidder, then bought 22,000 acres of public land. That is, he successfully bid on the public properties, located near the Arches and Canyonlands National Parks and Dinosaur National Monument, and other pristine areas. The price tag: more than $1.7 million.

More http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2008/12/24/amy_goodmans_new_column_one_mans_bid_to_aid_the_en vironment

Oil falls back below $39 a barrel

More bad economic news from the US on Tuesday sends oil prices falling back below $39 a barrel. http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/business/7799042.stm

Humanitarian response in Somalia: Monthly cluster report, Nov 2008

Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/FBUO-7MMETQ?OpenDocument&RSS20=22-P

Championing global human rights: interview with Richard Falk

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 14 of 76 Earlier this month, Israeli authorities deported Professor Richard Falk, United Nations Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, who had arrived in the country to conduct his duties to investigate rights abuses in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. The Electronic Intifada contributor Victor Kattan interviews Falk about the motivation behind his deportation. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/electronicIntifada/~3/494152366/article10051.shtml

Peace Women: A Look at the 11 Women to Win the Nobel Peace Prize

This year, the Norwegian diplomat Martti Ahtisaari won the Peace Prize. But in this season of peace, we look at the eleven women who have won the prize. We speak to Anne Ruffer, author of Peace Women. [includes rush transcript] http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/24/women_nobels

Spill at Tennessee Coal Plant Creates Environmental Disaster

Parts of Tennessee remain buried under toxic sludge today after a major disaster at a coal plant. A forty-acre pond containing toxic coal ash has collapsed, spilling out millions of gallons of coal ash. Environmentalists say the spill is more than thirty times larger than the Exxon Valdez, but the story has received little national attention. Greenpeace is calling for a criminal investigation. [includes rush transcript] http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/24/spill_at_tennessee_coal_plant_creates

HRW Says US Intervention Worsening Somalia Crisis

This past year, Somalis have experienced the worst violence in a decade. In a new report, Human Rights Watch says the United States is only making the crisis worse. The report states, "The United States, treating Somalia primarily as a battlefield in the global war on terror, has pursued a policy of uncritical support for transitional government and Ethiopian actions, and the resulting lack of accountability has fueled the worst abuses." We speak to HRW's Leslie Lefkow. [includes rush transcript] http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/24/somalia

One Family?s Daring Experiment: Christmas Without All the Stuff

And finally, on this Christmas Eve, I?m joined by a man who makes a compelling environmental case for a non-consumptive Christmas. Colin Beavan is also known as the No Impact Man. Beavan, along with his wife, their two-year-old daughter and dog, spent a year attempting to minimize their ecological footprint while continuing to live in the heart of New York City. [includes rush transcript]

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 15 of 76 http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/24/one_familys_daring_experiment_christmas_without

Activist, Right Livelihood Winner Asha Hagi Fights for Women's Role in Somali Peace Process

Asha Hagi is the co-founder and current chair of the non-profit, Save Somali Women and Children. During the Somali peace talks in 2000, Hagi founded the Sixth Clan, the clan of women, to complement the traditional five male-dominated Somali Clans. This became the first time women were represented in a peace process in Somalia. Since the Ethiopian invasion two years ago, Hagi has been based in Kenya because of her vocal opposition to the US-backed invasion. [includes rush transcript] http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/24/asha_hagi

Headlines for December 24, 2008

US to Fund, Train Afghan MilitiasIraq Sets July 2009 Withdrawal Date for Non-US TroopsGaza Rocket Fire Follows Israeli Killing of 3 PalestiniansReport: Cheney Admitted Wider Role in Plame LeakObama: No Improper Contact with BlagojevichHousing Starts at Lowest Level in 50 YearsAmEx to Receive $3.39B Bailout AidWal-Mart Agrees to $352M Settlement in Wage LawsuitsStarr to Defend Prop. 8Lesbian Woman Raped, Beaten in Anti-Gay Hate CrimeNixon to Kissinger: ?Just Bomb the Hell Out of Them? http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/24/headlines

RD Congo : Rapport de situation humanitaire au Nord-Kivu du 17 au 23 d?cembre 2008

Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/TUJA-7MM7Z2?OpenDocument&RSS20=22-P

DR Congo: OCHA Humanitarian Situation Update No. 20 - North Kivu, 17 - 23 Dec 2008

Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/TUJA-7MM4H9?OpenDocument&RSS20=22-P

Rapport sur la situation humanitaire au Tchad, 22 d?cembre 2008

Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/VDUX-7MLUDQ?OpenDocument&RSS20=22-P

Gear purchased with grant money didn't save two killed in blast

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 16 of 76 A bomb explosion at an Oregon bank Dec. 12 that killed two police officers and seriously injured a third has raised questions about why officials didn't utilize sophisticated and costly equipment purchased by the state to prevent precisely these incidents from occurring. Officials plan to ask the FBI to help determine what went wrong. http://centerforinvestigativereporting.org/blogpost/20081223gearpurchasedwithgrantmoneydidn039tsavetwoki lledinblast

25 Years of the Harper's Index

Harper's Magazine is marking the twenty-fifth anniversary of its popular monthly feature, the Harper's Index. The Index reports sometimes funny, often sobering political realities through statistics and unusual figures. Turn to this month's edition, and you'll find out things like how much the Bush campaign paid Enron and Halliburton for use of corporate jets during the 2000 recount, or the estimated total calories members of Congress burned giving President Bush's 2002 State of the Union standing ovations. [includes rush transcript] http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/23/25_years_of_the_harpers_index

Max Blumenthal on "Rick Warren's Double Life"

President-elect Barack Obama is drawing criticism from many supporters for his choice to deliver the invocation at next month's inauguration. Obama has selected the Reverend Rick Warren, a leading evangelical opponent of abortion and same-sex marriage. Warren supported California's recent gay marriage ban and has compared abortion to the Nazi Holocaust. In a recent interview with the website BeliefNet.com, Warren said he thinks gay marriage is comparable to incest, polygamy and child abuse. We speak to investigative journalist Max Blumenthal. [includes rush transcript] http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/23/max_blumenthal_on_rick_warrens_double

Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) Calls for Independent Counsel to Investigate Cheney and Rumsfeld for Violating Torture Laws

Democratic Congressman Jerrold Nadler of New York has urged Attorney General Michael Mukasey to appoint an independent counsel to investigate Vice President Dick Cheney, former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and other senior Bush administration officials for violations of the law relating to the torture of prisoners in US custody. Nadler is the chair of the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. [includes rush transcript] http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/23/rep_jerrold_nadler_d_ny_calls

Headlines for December 23, 2008

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 17 of 76 US to Fund Afghan MilitiasGovernment Accused of Entrapment in Fort Dix Terror CaseBailed-Out Banks Can't Account for Gov't FundsIraq Delays Vote on Allowing Non-US Troops to Stay in IraqLawyer: Journalist Will Not Apologize for Shoe-Throwing IncidentEuropeans May Take Guantanamo PrisonersMilitary Seizes Power in Guinea After Death of PresidentDoctors Without Borders Lists World's Worst Humanitarian Crises Groups Sue EPA Over Mountaintop Mining RulesNo Charges Yet Against Student Who Disrupted Gas & Oil Auction in UtahChico Mendes Honored on 20th Anniversary of His MurderPope: Homosexuality Could Lead to Self-Destruction of Human RaceNYT Publishes Fake Letter to Editor http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/23/headlines

Ethiopia: Humanitarian Bulletin - 22 Dec 2008

Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/KSAI-7ML9JQ?OpenDocument&RSS20=22-P

OCHA Nepal Situation Overview Issue No. 38, 01 - 15 Dec 2008

Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/MCOT-7MKKRV?OpenDocument&RSS20=22-P

OCHA Pastoralists Voices, Volume 1, Issue 12 - Dec 2008/Jan 2009

Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/FBUO-7MKKD2?OpenDocument&RSS20=22-P

Revue humanitaire Afrique de l'Ouest 2008

Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/FBUO-7MKJMB?OpenDocument&RSS20=22-P

West Africa: 2008 Humanitarian Review

Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/MCOT-7MKJ2C?OpenDocument&RSS20=22-P

West Africa: 2008 Humanitarian Review

Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/MCOT-7MKJ2C?OpenDocument&RSS20=22-P

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 18 of 76 Somalia: Situation Report No. 50 ? 19 Dec 2008

Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/MCOT-7MKHMG?OpenDocument&RSS20=22-P

Frontline suburb

Major settlement 'unlawful' under Israeli law http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/middle_east/7795139.stm

Nepal: Koshi River Floods in Sunsari and Saptari OCHA Situation Report No. 16

Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/MCOT-7MKDY2?OpenDocument&RSS20=22-P

Burundi Weekly Humanitarian News, 08 - 14 Dec 2008

Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/MCOT-7MKD6S?OpenDocument&RSS20=22-P

Linda Bilmes: "The $10 Trillion Hangover: Paying the Price for Eight Years of Bush"

In a new article in Harper's Magazine, Linda Bilmes and Joseph Stiglitz estimate that the cost of undoing the Bush administration's economic choices, from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to the collapse of the financial system, soaring debt, and new commitments to interest payments and Medicare, all add up to over $10 trillion. [includes rush transcript] http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/22/linda_bilmes_the_10_trillion_hangover

Republican IT Specialist Dies in Plane Crash

A top Republican internet strategist who was set to testify in a case alleging election tampering in 2004 in Ohio has died in a plane crash. Michael Connell was the chief IT consultant to Karl Rove and created websites for the Bush and McCain electoral campaigns. Michael Connell was deposed one day before the election this year by attorneys Cliff Arnebeck and Bob Fitrakis about his actions during the 2004 vote count in Ohio and his access to Karl Rove's email files and how they went missing. [includes rush transcript] http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/22/republican_it_specialist_dies_in_plane

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 19 of 76 Posing as a Bidder, Utah Student Disrupts Government Auction of 150,000 Acres of Wilderness for Oil & Gas Drilling

In a national broadcast exclusive, University of Utah student Tim DeChristopher explains how he "bought" 22,000 acres of land in an attempt to save the property from drilling. The sale had been strongly opposed by many environmental groups. Stephen Bloch of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance said, "This is the fire sale, the Bush administration?s last great gift to the oil and gas industry.? [includes rush transcript] http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/22/posing_as_a_bidder_utah_student

Headlines for December 22, 2008

US Officer: Up to 30,000 More Troops to AfghanistanUS Missile Strike Kills 8 in PakistanToyota to Report First Loss in 71 YearsBush OKs $17.4 Billion Loans for GM & ChryslerAuto Workers to Face Salary and Benefit CutsFedEx Suspends All Contributions to Workers' 401(K) PlansObama Seeks to Create or Save 3 Million JobsObama: Time to ?Put Science at the Top of Our Agenda?Rep. Frank: Selection of Rev. Warren Is ?Deeply Offensive?California AG Asks Court to Overturn Prop 8Rep. Nadler Asks Mukasey to Investigate Cheney & RumsfeldIsrael Threatens Attack on GazaIran Closes Shirin Ebadi's Human Rights Organization Class Action Filed Against Pentagon over PTSD TreatmentBlagojevich Refuses to ResignAl Franken Takes Lead over Norm ColemanLinguist Carol Chomsky, 78, Dies http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/22/headlines

What about the sacredness of our children?s future?

As I read about the latest industry to beg DC policymakers to give them taxpayer money to "bail" them out, I am reminded of the words of the late Senator Paul Tsongas: "We are a continuum. Just as we reach back to our ancestors for our fundamental values, so we, as guardians of that legacy, must reach ahead to our children and their children. And we do so with a sense of sacredness in that reaching."

In the flurry of fear accompanying every industry's prediction of imminent demise, we seem to have lost that sense of sacredness. Although I understand that in the very short term we need to invest and table deficit reduction as a top priority, I am very concerned that the taxpayer will lose massive amounts of money on the [insert massive number north of $1 trillion here] "bailout" and we'll still be talking about short-term stimulus packages in 2012 and 2016.

Let's hope that there are people left in positions of power who care about our children's future and are incensed that our children will pay for the greed of today. In the race to save all who did well when times were good and now want taxpayers to cover their downside risk, perhaps policymakers can stop once in a while and say "no." Our children will be happy we did. http://www.hearsayculture.com/?p=254

How the West?s Energy Boom Could Threaten Drinking Water for 1 in 12 Americans

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 20 of 76 by Abrahm Lustgarten, ProPublica and David Hasemyer, The San Diego Union-Tribune - - The Colorado River, the life vein of the Southwestern United States, is in trouble.

The river's water is hoarded the moment it trickles out of the mountains of Wyoming and Colorado and begins its 1,450-mile journey to Mexico's border. It runs south through seven states and the Grand Canyon, delivering water to Phoenix, Los Angeles and San Diego. Along the way, it powers homes for 3 million people, nourishes 15 percent of the nation's crops and provides drinking water to one in 12 Americans.

Now a rush to develop domestic oil, gas and uranium deposits along the river and its tributaries threatens its future.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/propublica/main/~3/491159481/

Katrina's Hidden Race War

http://centerforinvestigativereporting.org/articles/katrinashiddenracewar

SEC Report: Employees Browsed Porn, Ran Private Businesses

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 21 of 76 by Jake Bernstein, ProPublica - The Securities and Exchange Commission is taking a drubbing these days for its abject failure?despite detailed tips?to catch Bernie Madoff in what appears to be the biggest Ponzi scheme in our nation?s history.

Now, thanks to little-noticed report from the agency?s inspector general, we have a detailed glimpse into other bad behavior by some SEC employees.

The report, released the day after Thanksgiving, reveals that some employees at the agency were clearly preoccupied with matters other than their mission of "protecting investors and maintaining fair, orderly, and efficient markets." The semi-annual report to Congress, which covers the period from this past April to September, details among other things a handful of employees circumventing internal controls to download porn. Let?s pause for some detail:

[Investigators] uncovered evidence that an employee who was still in his probationary period had used his SEC laptop computer to attempt to access Internet websites classified as containing pornography, resulting in hundreds of access denials. The OIG investigation also disclosed that this employee successfully bypassed the Commission?s Internet filter by using a flash drive.

Presumably, that?s not the kind of initiative the SEC is looking for.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/propublica/main/~3/490034924/

This Week in Scandals by Alexandra Andrews, ProPublica - Every week, we take stock of how the week unfolded for the top stories we're tracking in Scandal Watch (see the right sidebar). Here is how we do it. And, as always, feel free to suggest new scandals.

1. Madoff's Long Con

Bernie Madoff's fall from grace last week was the thud heard 'round Wall Street. Fallout from his alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme has claimed countless casualties: Jewish charities, Hollywood bigwigs, a Palm Beach country club, the New York real estate industry and middlemen who handed over their clients' cash to Madoff. They're not going to see much of a safety net, and a potential tax break isn't likely to comfort stricken investors either.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/propublica/main/~3/490001819/

Voices: Gaza ceasefire ends

People in Gaza and Sderot consider what lies ahead http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/middle_east/7791522.stm

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 22 of 76 Center for Media and Democracy - Weekly Radio Spin, December 19, 2008

5:00 minutes (4.58 MB) http://www.prwatch.org/node/8080

Formaldehyde Found in Houses Provided for Katrina Victims in Mississippi by Joaquin Sapien, ProPublica -

In the latest chapter of the formaldehyde controversy we?ve been tracking, the Sierra Club has unearthed documents showing that the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency knew for months that cottages it provided to Hurricane Katrina victims contained potentially dangerous levels of the chemical – but MEMA never told the cottage residents.

"MEMA apparently made the same mistakes as FEMA did earlier in denying a problem with formaldehyde in FEMA housing," said Becky Gillette, a Sierra Club employee who has been leading the organization?s formaldehyde campaign since April 2006. That?s when Gillette discovered high levels of formaldehyde inside trailers FEMA issued to Katrina survivors.

In May of this year, the Sierra Club tested formaldehyde levels in the MEMA homes, known as "Katrina cottages," and found levels high enough to cause health problems. The organization immediately shared the results of its testing with MEMA, and the agency promised to follow up with its own tests.

Earlier this month, a MEMA spokesman told the Biloxi Sun Herald that it still hadn?t conducted the promised testing. But documents obtained by the Sierra Club show that MEMA had in fact tested some of the cottages in April and found formaldehyde at levels between .046 parts per million and .116 parts per million.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/propublica/main/~3/489937499/

Papers fear end of Gaza truce

Israeli and Palestinian papers anticipate violence when a truce between militant groups in the Gaza Strip ends. http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/middle_east/7791701.stm

Video: The Guns of Algiers Point

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 23 of 76 - Return to the main story.

An 18-month investigation shows a disturbing picture of the Big Easy in the days after Hurricane Katrina crashed into New Orleans, when the city fractured along racial fault lines as its government collapsed. This video details the stories of some of the vigilantes and some of the victims lined up along those fault lines.

Reporter: A.C. Thompson Produced by Hidden Driver and The Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute

A.C. Thompson's reporting on New Orleans was supported by the Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute, ProPublica, the Center for Investigative Reporting and New America Media.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/propublica/main/~3/489882586/

Post-Katrina, White Vigilantes Shot African-Americans With Impunity by A.C. Thompson, ProPublica - This story was originally published by The Nation. Today we're posting the full story as well as a sidebar, video and documents.

The way Donnell Herrington tells it, there was no warning. One second he was trudging through the heat. The next he was lying prostrate on the pavement, his life spilling out of a hole in his throat, his body racked with pain, his vision blurred and distorted.

It was Sept. 1, 2005, some three days after Hurricane Katrina crashed into New Orleans, and somebody had just blasted Herrington, who is African-American, with a shotgun. "I just hit the ground. I didn't even know what happened," recalls Herrington, a burly 32-year-old with a soft drawl.

The sudden eruption of gunfire horrified Herrington's companions -- his cousin Marcel Alexander, then 17, and friend Chris Collins, then 18, who are also black. "I looked at Donnell and he had this big old hole in his neck," Alexander recalls. "I tried to help him up, and they started shooting again." Herrington says he was staggering to his feet when a second shotgun blast struck him from behind; the spray of lead pellets also caught Collins and Alexander. The buckshot peppered Alexander's back, arm and buttocks.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/propublica/main/~3/490020178/

Body of Evidence

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 24 of 76 by A.C. Thompson, ProPublica - In September 2005, roughly a week after Hurricane Katrina ripped into the Gulf Coast, a group of New Orleans police officers discovered the burned shell of a car sitting on an earthen levee overlooking the bloated Mississippi River. Inside the scorched sedan, scattered across the back seat, lay black ashes and bones. Human bones. A charred skull, shards of rib, an arm bone, clumps of roasted flesh. Equipped with a digital camera, one cop clicked off a string of photos of the tableau.

Eventually, the remains were stuffed into five red plastic bags and hauled to a temporary morgue in the tiny town of St. Gabriel, some seventy miles up the road from New Orleans, autopsy records show. At the St. Gabriel facility, a team of rescue workers and forensic pathologists gave the collection of body fragments a number -- 06-00189 -- and began trying to answer a pair of intertwined questions: who was this man, and how did he die?

Dr. Kevin Whaley, a forensic pathologist, had an immediate suspicion about the latter. "My first reaction was that it was a homicide," recalls Whaley, a Virginia state medical examiner who went to Louisiana as part of a federal disaster response team. "When I heard he was found in a burned car I thought that was a classic homicide scenario: you kill someone and burn the body to get rid of the evidence."

Whaley studied a full-body X-ray of the remains. "There wasn't very much left of him," Whaley says. "Pretty much most of him had gone to ash." He figures victim 06-00189 must have been burned at an extremely hot temperature, somewhere between 1,500 and 2,000 degrees. Mixed in with the bones and cinders, the scan revealed, was a constellation of metal bits; the autopsy report (PDF) notes "rib fractures with minute fragments of metal within the surrounding soft tissues." From the X-rays, Whaley couldn't tell if the metal chunks were the remnants of a bullet or a knife blade -- either way, they looked to him like evidence of a possible murder.

In Whaley's view, the case should have been treated as a possible homicide. But Orleans Parish coroner Frank Minyard ruled the death "unclassified" after what appears to have been a cursory inquiry. And in the end no law enforcement agency ever probed the matter, and no media outlet ever reported on the enigmatic case of the burned man, who was eventually identified, via DNA analysis, as Henry Glover, 31.

If the NOPD ever bothers to learn who set fire to Glover, the department's first step should be questioning its own personnel: a trail of clues leads right back to the police force.

I've been able to reconstruct the final hours of Henry Glover's life from interviews with two eyewitnesses. On Sept. 2, 2005, Glover was walking with his friend Bernard Calloway behind a shuttered Chuck E. Cheese pizza place in a run-down strip mall in the Algiers section of New Orleans. Suddenly, there was a shout -- "Get out of here!" -- followed by the crack of a single gunshot. The bullet pierced Glover's chest.

As Glover bled, Calloway ran and got Glover's brother, Edward King, who was at an apartment complex nearby. King tells me neither he nor Calloway saw the shooter, and he doesn't know why the crime went down. But King knows what happened next: he and Calloway began desperately searching for someone with a car who could drive Glover to a hospital.

When William Tanner came rolling down Seine Street in his white 2002 Chevrolet Malibu, King rushed into the road and pleaded with him to stop. A middle-aged junkyard helper and lawn mower repairman, Tanner didn't know King or the others, but he could see Glover needed immediate medical attention. "We picked [Glover] up and put him in the car," Tanner recalls. "He was still breathing. We thought he might have a fair chance of surviving."

Tanner says he made a snap decision that the nearest hospital -- the West Jefferson Medical Center -- was

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 25 of 76 too far away and chose instead to drive Glover to Paul B. Habans Elementary School, a public school that had been commandeered by the New Orleans Police Department tactical unit, or SWAT team, for use as a temporary base. The police, Tanner thought, would know how to help the wounded man; at the very least, they'd be able to get him an ambulance. But when Tanner pulled his car into the school's semicircular driveway, things turned out very differently: rather than rushing to aid Glover, the officers treated everyone in the vehicle with hostility, according to Tanner and King.

"They put guns in our faces," says Tanner. He suspects the police "assumed [Glover] was looting and that's why he got shot. They assumed we were looters, too."

King tells me he frantically tried to get the officers to help Glover: "I was hollering, saying, 'My brother's shot!' They handcuffed us. I said, 'You're not worrying about my brother.' They said some bad words to us and started beating us. They were beating us for 20 minutes." Tanner and King say that they, along with Calloway, were seated on a bench and cuffed while a swarm of officers punched, slapped and berated them. One of the officers bludgeoned Tanner in the face with the butt of an assault rifle, they say. "Every time I'd look up or sit up, they'd beat me," King tells me, noting that about five officers, all of them white, participated in the beating.

Meanwhile, in the back seat of the car, Glover, a father of four, was sliding toward death as blood poured from his wound, according to King and Tanner. Both men insist the officers did nothing to try to save Glover, despite his obvious injury, and both firmly believe that Glover died that day in Tanner's Chevy.

When the officers finally decided to free the men, they held on to Tanner's car, Tanner and King say. Tanner recalls one officer saying, "The car is in police custody. It's under investigation," and yanking his jumper cables, Stanley toolbox and gas can out of the Chevy, while a second officer got into the car and drove away with Glover's body slumped in the back. Poking out of a pocket on the driver's dark cargo pants were two emergency flares, Tanner remembers.

Immediately after the incident, Tanner phoned his wife, who'd evacuated to Houston. "When William contacted me, he told me they'd beaten him," Catrina Tanner, a state worker with the Louisiana Department of Social Services, recalls. "He was upset. He kept telling me that I wouldn't believe what was going on, that police were killing people." She continues, "He said the police drove off [in his car] towards the levee."

Carrying a laptop computer, a law enforcement source meets me in a quiet cafe. After ordering a cup of coffee, the source sits down at my table and slips a CD of photos into the computer. A grisly color image appears on the screen: spread across the seat of a burned auto is that human skull surrounded by ashes. These are Glover's remains, as they were found and photographed by cops from the Fourth District, which serves Algiers, this person tells me. The source, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation, says the car is Tanner's Chevy, which was discovered on a levee a few hundred yards from the Fourth District station.

NOPD brass chose not to investigate the death at the time, the source says, adding that some police believed Glover was a looter, and that his body was burned up by officers who didn't want to smell the corpse as it decayed in the brutal Louisiana heat. "Have you ever smelled a dead body?" the source asks. "They smell horrible."

Scrolling through the photos, the source studies the damage to the car and notes that it takes an accelerant or an incendiary device to cause such extensive scorching.

In response to my repeated queries about the death of Henry Glover -- including two sets of detailed written questions -- NOPD spokesman Robert Young offers two sentences via e-mail: "The death of Mr. Glover was

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 26 of 76 investigated by the Orleans Parish Coroner's Office independent of the New Orleans Police Department, who found no evidence to rule the death of Mr. Glover a homicide. Furthermore, the New Orleans Police Department did not receive any information to support or substantiate the information that you received from your sources."

The allegations about Glover's death don't startle Mary Howell, a New Orleans civil rights attorney who's been litigating against the NOPD for more than 30 years. During the 1980s, Howell sued the force over the torture and killing of African-Americans by west bank police, crimes that led to the jailing of three officers, a multimillion-dollar settlement and a significant shake-up in the department. Officers, explains Howell, "would tie people down and put a bag over their heads until they started to suffocate. It was the New Orleans equivalent of waterboarding."

In Howell's view the department remains seriously dysfunctional. "The things that happened with the police department during Katrina were shocking," she says. "They were disturbing. I wish I could say they were aberrant. But they were not. They are what happens when you have a department that is deeply troubled."

After Glover's death, Tanner left town. Since he no longer had a car, his mother-in-law drove from Texas to pick him up. At the time Tanner was keeping a video diary, and in a scene shot in a motel room outside New Orleans he wonders aloud about the fate of his Chevy. Only after Tanner and his wife returned home on Sept. 29, 2005, did they learn that someone had incinerated the vehicle, along with Glover.

Tanner and his wife say Homeland Security agents, who were assisting NOPD during that time, alerted them to the location of their charred vehicle. Despite the state of the car, the couple was able to identify it by the license plate and the vehicle identification number.

Still disturbed by the incident, Tanner met with Althea Francois, an organizer with Safe Streets/Strong Communities, a local police accountability group, in the spring of 2006. After interviewing Tanner, Francois typed up a detailed two-page description (PDF) of the episode, an account that mirrors what Tanner and King told me later in interviews.

Francois, who regularly documents incidents of police misconduct, found Tanner's story convincing. "I was appalled," she tells me. "As unbelievable as it sounds, I believe it. He had no reason to lie about any of this." Safe Streets, Francois says, "just didn't have the resources" to find Tanner a lawyer to file suit over the episode.

When I show up to meet with Glover's mother, Edna Glover, at her west bank townhouse, I get a surprise. Hoping to glean some new information about Glover's death, his sister, brother, nieces, nephews and cousins have all crowded into the living room to talk with me. A framed photo of Glover decked out in a white tuxedo hangs on the wall.

NOPD, Edna says, never contacted the family about her son's death. "We didn't hear nothing," she mutters. To her knowledge, police didn't interview anyone else about the crime, either. Glover's sister, Patrice Glover, is teary as she tells me, "We want justice done. That was my brother, and we all loved him dearly. We wanna know who did it. We're all still hurting." Patrice says her family, like Tanner, has been unable to find a lawyer willing to bring suit against the NOPD.

After leaving Edna Glover's home, Tanner takes me to see the skeleton of his car, which, more than three years after the hurricane, is still sitting by the river, rusting away in the swampy air. Here, in this broken city, certain things have a way of being forgotten.

A.C. Thompson's reporting on New Orleans was supported by the Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute,

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 27 of 76 ProPublica, the Center for Investigative Reporting and New America Media.

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Blago Wants His Money (For His Lawyers) by Ben Protess , ProPublica - Earlier this week, we wondered whether Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich can tap his campaign war chest to pay for his defense against federal corruption charges.

The governor seems to think so. As various papers are reporting, Blagojevich plans to ask permission from the U.S. district court to use his campaign committee funds, totaling $3.6 million as of July.

"There's a real question about how he will be able to pay for his defense," Michael Ettinger, a lawyer for the campaign committee's chairman, told the New York Times. (By the way, that chairman is one Robert Blagojevich, the governor's brother.)

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/propublica/main/~3/489837537/

Obama Regulatory Pick Blocked Influence of Agency He?ll Now Head by Jake Bernstein, ProPublica - In the midst of a stream of financial scandals and regulatory failures, President-elect Barack Obama announced the nomination of two key regulators yesterday: Mary Schapiro as the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission and Gary Gensler to head the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The two will be responsible for creating "a 21st century regulatory framework to ensure that a crisis like this can never happen again," said Obama.

The choice of Gensler for that mission is ironic. While in the Clinton administration, the former assistant Treasury secretary helped oppose regulation of the exotic derivatives at the center of the financial crisis.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/propublica/main/~3/489729682/

Take Back the Land: Miami Grassroots Group Moves Struggling Families into Vacant Homes

The Miami grassroots group Take Back the Land has launched a campaign to help some of the victims of the foreclosure crisis. The group has been helping homeless families illegally move into vacant homes that have been foreclosed. We speak to Take Back the Land founder Max Rameau. [includes rush transcript] http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/19/take_back_the_land_miami_grassroots

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 28 of 76 Katrina's Hidden Race War: In Aftermath of Storm, White Vigilante Groups Shot 11 African Americans in New Orleans

In a shocking new report, The Nation magazine exposes how white vigilante groups patrolled the streets of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, shooting at least eleven African American men. Local police have never conducted investigations into the shootings. We speak to reporter A.C. Thompson and New Orleans resident Donnell Herrington, who nearly died after being shot by a white vigilante. [includes rush transcript] http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/19/katrinas_hidden_race_war_in_aftermath

US Auto Giants, Workers Face Uncertain Future as Bush Admin Mulls "Orderly" Bankruptcy

The future of auto giants General Motors and Chrysler remains up in the air one week after Senate Republicans rejected a deal to grant the automakers $14 billion in emergency loans. Chrysler is closing all of its plants today. The White House says it is considering allowing the companies to go bankrupt in what it describes as an ?orderly way.? We speak to union activist and writer Gregg Shotwell, a thirty-year General Motors retiree. [includes rush transcript] http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/19/us_auto_giants_workers_face_uncertain

Headlines for December 19, 2008

US Accused of New Civilian Killings in AfghanistanObama to Name Labor, Trade SelectionsObama?s Intel Chief Pick Backed Indonesian Occupation of East TimorObama Science Picks Favor Research, Emissions CurbsObama Vows Financial Regulation, Defends Invocation ChoicePentagon Prepares to Shut Gitmo Rwandan Sentenced to Life in Prison in Genocide TrialUS Opposes UN Declaration Affirming Gay Rights Castro Offers to Release Dissidents for Freedom of ?Cuban 5?Coleman Lead Falls to 5 Votes in Minn. RecountNew School Students Win Demands in ProtestCheney Declares Right to Withhold RecordsChicago Activist, Journalist Beauty Turner Dies at 51Mark Felt, ?Deep Throat? in Watergate Scandal, Dies at 95 Professor: Don?t Expect Change in Mideast Policy Under Obama http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/19/headlines

Michael Ratner on detainee abuse report, Alfie Kohn on education nominee

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 29 of 76 This week on CounterSpin: When the Senate Armed Services Committee issued a report finding former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other high officials responsible for abusive treatment of detainees in Guant?namo, Iraq and Afghanistan--with few exceptions, the media played the story down, preferring, for instance, righteous anger over embroiled Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich. We'll discuss the Senate report with the Center for Constitutional Rights' Michael Ratner, whose book, The Trial of Donald Rumsfeld, was published in September. Also on CounterSpin today, Obama's pick for education secretary drew more attention than you might have expected--in large part because the press corps was lobbying Obama to make a more conservative choice. What do the media mean when they talk about things like education "reform"? We'll be joined by author and education expert Alfie Kohn to talk about the media's role in this debate, and what we should make of Obama's choice of Arnie Duncan. Links: - The Trial of Donald Rumsfeld, by Michael Ratner - Beware School 'Reformers', by Alfie Kohn (Nation, 12/10/08) http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3664

Conyers Responds to Revelations on Katrina Crimes by A.C. Thompson, ProPublica - Responding to a ProPublica/Nation investigation into vigilante violence after Hurricane Katrina, Rep. John Conyers issued a public statement expressing concern. The investigation details how some white residents in New Orleans' Algiers Point neighborhood repeatedly attacked African American men after the storm struck.

In interviews, eyewitnesses -- including some of the vigilantes themselves and two men who were blasted with a shotgun -- describe a string of shootings in which at least 11 people were wounded or killed. Here's a video on the violence, featuring interviews with some of the vigilantes, including one who says, "It was great! It was like pheasant season in South Dakota. If it moved, you shot it."

"I am deeply disturbed by the reported incidents in Algiers Point, Louisiana following Hurricane Katrina," said Conyers, a Michigan Democrat and chair of the House Judiciary Committee.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/propublica/main/~3/489109662/

Who?s Not on the Clinton Foundation Donor List?

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 30 of 76 by Kristin Jones, ProPublica - Dec. 19: This post has been corrected.

Curiosity killed the Clinton Foundation Web site.

In response to a deal with the Obama transition team, the foundation publicly posted its list of contributors today, drawing enough traffic to crash its fragile server. (The Wall Street Journal has put up its own list of the major donors.) Those who were able to access the list found an impressive roster of foreign governments likely to be interested in getting a word in with Hillary Clinton, future secretary of state.

Who exactly is on the list?

The Washington Post points out that the governments of Saudi Arabia (more than $10 million), Norway ($5 million to $10 million), Kuwait, Qatar, Brunei, Oman ($1 million to $5 million apiece), Italy and Jamaica ($50,000 to $100,000 apiece) all ponied up. So did billionaires and business interest groups from Israel, China, India and Ethiopia, the former deputy prime minister of Lebanon, the son-in-law of the former prime minister of Ukraine and many, many more.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/propublica/main/~3/489862807/

Is environmental reform at odds with economic growth?

Tonight on KQED public radio in San Francisco, Mark Schapiro appears on Health Dialogues in a discussion about toxins in consumer products, and efforts by the California Green Chemistry Initiative signed by Governor Schwarzenegger to put California at the forefront of chemical reform, aligning state laws more closely to those of the European Union. http://centerforinvestigativereporting.org/blogpost/20081218isenvironmentalreformatoddswitheconomicgrowth

New report links at least 50 deaths to Taser

At least 50 deaths in the U.S. since 2001 are linked to Taser stun guns, according to autopsy reports and research compiled by Amnesty International. http://centerforinvestigativereporting.org/blogpost/20081218newreportlinksatleast50deathstotaser

Three New Midnight Regs

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 31 of 76 by Jesse Nankin, ProPublica - And the list keeps growing. We added three more rules to our Midnight Regulations chart for your Thursday afternoon reading pleasure.

The Environmental Protection Agency issued a rule late last month that attempts to shine a light through the pea-soup fog surrounding the designation of 'navigable waters' under the Clean Water Act. But the rule cemented a definition that weakens the protection of wetlands and other small bodies of water.

The rule was pushed through with unusual alacrity. It went into effect and was finalized on the same day—public comments were not solicited. The EPA justified the truncated process by citing "good cause" under the Administrative Procedures Act.

Another rule deals with the drug and alcohol testing of miners. The Mine Safety and Health Administration, which under Bush has been generally friendly to industry, has engendered opposition from lobbyists and industry groups who are dismayed by the last-minute push.

We've listed another rule affecting the flailing auto industry. This one seeks to increase the standard for the amount of impact a car roof can sustain. The National Highway Safety Traffic Administration has delayed its completion at least three times as it grapples with demands from safety advocates and the industry. The most recent postponement sets the finalization date well into the next administration.

Please keep the suggestions flowing! We are posting rules as quickly as we can!

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/propublica/main/~3/489073709/

Bush Abortion Rule Finalized Despite Opposition by Christina Jewett , ProPublica - A contentious midnight regulation we've been following has been finalized today, significantly strengthening the government's power to inflict financial pain on any health provider deemed to discriminate against health workers who refuse to perform tasks they find morally objectionable.

Although about 200,000 letters of opposition rolled in, the administration made only technical changes to the rule (PDF). When it becomes law in 30 days, any worker, trainee or volunteer from health insurance companies to podiatry schools will be emboldened to refuse to participate in tasks that offend their conscience.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/propublica/main/~3/488948750/

Post-Katrina, White Vigilantes Shot African-Americans With Impunity

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 32 of 76 by A.C. Thompson, ProPublica - The way Donnell Herrington tells it, there was no warning. One second he was trudging through the heat. The next he was lying prostrate on the pavement, his life spilling out of a hole in his throat, his body racked with pain, his vision blurred and distorted.

The sudden eruption of gunfire horrified Herrington's companions -- his cousin, Marcel Alexander, then 17, and friend, Chris Collins, then 18, who are also black. "I looked at Donnell and he had this big old hole in his neck," Alexander recalls. "I tried to help him up and they started shooting again." Herrington says he was staggering to his feet when a second shotgun blast struck him from behind; the spray of lead pellets also caught Collins and Alexander. The buckshot peppered Alexander's back, arm and buttocks.

Read the full story on The Nation's Web site as well as a second story, "Body of Evidence."

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?The World?s Largest Hedge Fund Is a Fraud? by Paul Kiel, ProPublica - It just keeps getting worse for the SEC. Documents obtained by the Wall Street Journal show the agency was downright lethargic in investigating allegations that Bernie Madoff was running "the world?s largest Ponzi Scheme." And when it did probe, its investigation was half-hearted, almost apologetic, a lame attempt that appears to have been easily thwarted.

Harry Markopolos, an independent fraud investigator and derivatives expert, made it his hobby for nine years to uncover Madoff?s fraud. "Madoff was our fantasy sport," he tells the Journal. "We wanted him nailed."

Starting in 1999, Markopolos sent detailed memos to SEC staff outlining his case against Madoff. It had all started, he said, when he was working as a money manager at a rival investment firm. His bosses wanted him to match Madoff?s remarkable returns. But when he tried to replicate Madoff?s supposed strategy (trading a mix of stocks and stock-index options), he found that he couldn?t. And when he asked other derivatives experts, they agreed it was impossible to match Madoff?s legendarily steady returns.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/propublica/main/~3/488869124/

Special Roundup: Bernie Madoff?s Long Con

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 33 of 76

More details about Madoff's relationship with the SEC, his sons' foundations and the fallout from his alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme: Madoff Misled SEC in '06, Got Off - Wall Street Journal ($) SEC Knew Madoff As Foe and Friend - New York Times Madoff Sons Didn't Let Dad Manage Foundation Funds - Cityfile NY Fund Decimated by Madoff Considers Suing Accountants - Financial Times Madoff Scandal Shakes Real Estate Industry - New York Times Editorial: Financial Enforcement Usually Fails to Protect Investors - WSJ ($) Click here for more Madoff coverage.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/propublica/main/~3/488784783/

Obama's Choice for Education Secretary, Arne Duncan, Seen as Compromise Between Divided Strands

As chief executive officer of the Chicago public school system, the third largest in the country, Education Secretary-designate Arne Duncan expanded charter schools and launched a performance pay plan for teachers. Duncan was seen as a compromise pick between progressive and conservative education advocates. We speak to Michael Klonsky, professor of education and longtime school reform activist in Chicago, and Deborah Meier, a well-known teacher, writer and public advocate. [includes rush transcript] http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/18/duncan

Shunning Environmental Groups, Obama Taps Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar for Interior Dept.

We continue our look at Obama's latest cabinet nominations. Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar has been tapped to head the Department of Interior. Obama chose Salazar despite a campaign by many environmental groups who were pushing the President-elect to choose Arizona Congressman Raul Grijalva. [includes rush transcript] http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/18/shunning_environmental_groups_obama_picks_colorado

Obama Picks Pro-Ethanol, Agribusiness Ex-Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack to Head Agricultural Dept.

President-elect Barack Obama has officially nominated former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack to head the Agriculture Department. The pro-ethanol Vilsack will manage a staff of more than 105,000 and a budget of more than $95 billion. We discuss Vilsack's nomination with Ronnie Cummins of the Organic Consumers Association and Brian Moore of the National Audubon Society. [includes rush transcript] http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/18/obama_picks_pro_ethanol_former_iowa

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 34 of 76 Headlines for December 18, 2008

Chrysler Extends Plant Closure to One MonthObama to Nominate GOP Rep. LaHood for Transportation Dept.Obama Picks Anti-Gay Marriage, Anti-Abortion Evangelical for Inaugural InvocationCommanders Offer Obama Iraq Time Line Beyond Stated 16-Month Withdrawal PledgeState Dept. IG: Iraq Could Ban BlackwaterIraqi Officials Accused of Attempted Revival of Baath PartyIraq Protests Continue as Jailed Journalist Faces Charges for Shoe IncidentProtesters Lob Shoes Outside White HouseMorales: Expel US Ambassadors Until Cuba Embargo DroppedUN Halts Gaza Food Aid, Israeli Attack Kills Palestinian Civilian Antiwar US Vets Support Israeli Military ObjectorsIllinois Supreme Court Rejects Blagojevich OusterNew School Students Protest Kerrey with Sit-InLindh Parents Ask Bush for Commutation http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/18/headlines

Foreclosure ?Hope for Homeowners? Program Still Hopeless by Alexandra Andrews, ProPublica - Early in November, we wrote that HUD's "Hope for Homeowners" program was struggling to dole out the hope. In its first two weeks, only 42 people applied to the program meant to help as many as 400,000 avoid foreclosure. Two weeks later, the government made some fixes, but we couldn't figure out how they've been working out. Until today.

HUD Secretary Steve Preston told today's Washington Post that the program is a flop: Only 312 people have applied because it's "too expensive and onerous for lenders and borrowers alike."

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A Final Note on Cunningham Scandal by Marcus Stern, ProPublica - Earlier this month, we noted that defense contractor Mitchell Wade, a key figure in the Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham scandal, gave authorities what his lawyers claimed were tips on five other members of Congress.

As we detailed, four of the five lawmakers did have at least some connection to the Cunningham scandal. But there is no evidence any of them committed any crimes. And all four had publicly denied wrongdoing.

The fifth lawmaker cited was Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-HI). He had never before been named in connection to the Cunningham scandal. So we tried, unsuccessfully, to contact Inouye.

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New Citizens Face Swearing-In Delays as Courts Wrangle for Fees

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 35 of 76 by Alexandra Andrews, ProPublica - How much is a new citizen worth? Well, to the courts performing the naturalization ceremonies, $14.09.

That's how much the government pays courts to administer each oath. According to the Washington Post and a new report (PDF) by a government ombudsman, that money is enough to keep some judges from letting officials with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services perform the ceremonies themselves. This has resulted in a glut of delayed naturalization ceremonies.

A little less than half of USCIS district offices administer naturalization oaths themselves. In the other districts–including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Detroit–federal district courts have the sole power to do so. Those courts are then reimbursed by USCIS for all oath ceremonies they perform. For instance, Los Angeles received $2.4 million for the 169,799 oaths it administered in 2008.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/propublica/main/~3/488804824/

"Workers Laid Off, Executives Paid Off, Bernard Madoff"

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 36 of 76 By Amy Goodman

The global financial crisis deepens, with more than 10 million in the U.S. out of work, according to the Department of Labor. Unemployment hit 6.7 percent in November. Add the 7.3 million ?involuntary part-time workers,? who want to work full time but can?t find such a job. Jobless claims have reached a 26-year high, while 30 states reportedly face potential shortfalls in their unemployment-insurance pools. The stunning failure of regulators like the Securities and Exchange Commission was again highlighted, as former NASDAQ head Bernard Madoff (you got it, pronounced ?made off") was arrested for allegedly running the world?s largest criminal pyramid scheme, with losses expected to be $50 billion, dwarfing those from the Enron scandal. The picture is grim?unless, that is, you are a corporate executive.

The $700-billion financial bailout package, TARP (Troubled Assets Relief Program), was supposed to mandate the elimination of exorbitant executive compensation and ?golden parachutes.? As U.S. taxpayers pony up their hard-earned dollars, highflying executives and corporate boards are now considering whether to give themselves multimillion-dollar bonuses.

According to The Washington Post, the specific language in the TARP law that forbade such payouts was changed at the last minute, with a small but significant one-sentence edit made by the Bush administration. The Post reported, ?The change stipulated that the penalty would apply only to firms that received bailout funds by selling troubled assets to the government in an auction.?

Read the fine print. Of the TARP bailout funds to be disbursed, only those that were technically spent ?in an auction? would carry limits on executive pay. But Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and his former Goldman Sachs colleague Neel Kashkari (yes, pronounced ?cash carry"), who is running the program, aren?t inclined to spend the funds in auctions. They prefer their Capital Purchase Program, handing over cash directly. Recall Paulson?s curriculum vitae: He began as a special assistant to John Ehrlichman in the Nixon White House and then went on to work for a quarter-century at Goldman Sachs, one of the largest recipients of bailout funds and chief competitor to Lehman Brothers, the firm that Paulson let fail.

The Government Accountability Office issued a report on TARP Dec. 10, expressing concerns about the lack of oversight of the companies receiving bailout funds. The report states that ?without a strong oversight and monitoring function, Treasury?s ability to ensure an appropriate level of accountability and transparency will be limited.? The nonprofit news organization ProPublica has been tracking the bailout program, reporting details that remain shrouded by the Treasury Department. As of Tuesday, 202 institutions had obtained bailout funds totaling close to $250 billion.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said recently, ?The Treasury Department?s implementation of the TARP is insufficiently transparent and is not accountable to American taxpayers.? Barney Frank, D-Mass., chair of the House Financial Services Committee, said earlier, ?Use of these funds ... for bonuses, for severance pay, for dividends, for acquisitions of other institutions, etc. ... is a violation of the terms of the act.?

Republican Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa said of the loophole, ?The flimsy executive-compensation restrictions in the original bill are now all but gone.? Put aside for the moment that these three all voted for the legislation. The law clearly needs to be corrected before additional funds are granted.

The sums these titans of Wall Street are walking away with are staggering. In their annual ?Executive Excess? report, the groups United for a Fair Economy and the Institute for Policy Studies reported 2007 compensation for Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs (Paulson?s replacement), at $54 million and that of John Thain, CEO of Merrill Lynch, at a whopping $83 million. Merrill has since been sold to Bank of America, after losing more than $11 billion this year?yet Thain still wants a $10-million bonus.

Paulson, Kashkari and their boss, President George W. Bush, might not be the best people to spend the next

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 37 of 76 $350-billion tranche of U.S. taxpayer money, with just weeks to go before the new Congress convenes Jan. 6 and Barack Obama assumes the presidency Jan. 20. As Watergate leaker Deep Throat was said to have told Bob Woodward, back when Paulson was just starting out, ?Follow the money.? The U.S. populace, its representatives in Congress and the new Obama administration need to follow the money, close the executive-pay loophole and demand accountability from the banks that the public has bailed out.

Denis Moynihan contributed research to this column.

Listen to this Column http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2008/12/17/amy_goodmans_new_column_workers_laid_off_executives_ paid_off_bernard_madoff

Days After Calling Israeli Blockade of Gaza "A Crime Against Humanity," UN Human Rights Investigator Richard Falk Detained, Expelled from Israel

The United Nations human rights chief Navi Pillay has accused Israel of "unprecedented and deeply regrettable" treatment of UN human rights investigator Richard Falk. Falk was deported from Israel Monday after being detained at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport for twenty hours. Falk's detention and expulsion came days after he condemned Israel's blockade of Gaza as a "flagrant and massive violation of international humanitarian law" and "Crime Against Humanity." We speak to Falk about his detention and expulsion from Israel. [includes rush transcript] http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/17/days_after_calling_israeli_blockade_of

As Madoff Scandal Wipes Out Charities and Foundations, SEC Admits it Missed Repeated Warnings on Historic $50B Financial Fraud

The Securities and Exchange Commission has admitted it missed repeated opportunities to discover what may be the largest financial fraud in history, a multi-billion-dollar pyramid scheme operated by Wall Street legend Bernard Madoff. Now several non-profits and foundations are being forced to close, because their entire endowments have been wiped out. We speak to Robert Crane of the now-shuttered New York-based JEHT Foundation and ProPublica reporter Paul Kiel. [includes rush transcript] http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/17/as_madoff_scandal_wipes_out_charities

Federal Report Finds $100B Failure in US Reconstruction of Iraq

An unpublished federal report has concluded the US reconstruction effort in Iraq has been a $100 billion failure. It found that the rebuilding has not done much more than restore what was destroyed during the invasion and the looting that followed. We speak to journalist T. Christian Miller of the investigative website ProPublica, who obtained a copy of the report. [includes rush transcript]

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 38 of 76 http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/17/federal_govt_report_finds_100b_failure

Headlines for December 17, 2008

Fed Cuts Interest Rates to Historic LowObama to Name Pro-Ethanol Vilsack Agriculture Sec.HUD Sec.: Housing Relief Efforts Failed6 Killed in Iraq AttackIraq, GE Ink $3B Turbine DealSecurity Council OKs Vague Support for Two-State SolutionAid Groups: Civilians at Risk from UN-Backed Military Raids on Somali Pirates US Frees 5 Gitmo PrisonersLatin American, Caribbean Nations Meet on Regional IntegrationBolivia Delays Legal Action on US Trade SuspensionScientists: Arctic Warming at Unforeseen RateAmnesty: 334 Taser Deaths Since 2001 http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/17/headlines

Sexy secrets of the Syrian souk

Exploring the exotic world of Syrian lingerie http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/middle_east/7786564.stm

Delayed raid likely cost Chauncey Bailey his life

http://centerforinvestigativereporting.org/articles/delayedraidlikelycostchaunceybaileyhislife

Farmers and Food Advocates Urge Obama to Create a National Sustainable Food and Agricultural Policy

A group of farmers, chefs and policy advocates called "Food Democracy Now" have submitted a letter to Obama's transition team urging him to take on industrialized agriculture and promote a more sustainable policy. The letter urges the President-elect to nominate a Secretary of Agriculture who will advocate for independent family farms, nutrition, environmental protection, food workers' rights and animal welfare. [includes rush transcript] http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/16/farmers_and_food_advocates_urges_obama

President-Elect Barack Obama Names Environmental Team as Climate Change Conference Wraps Up in Poland

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 39 of 76 President-elect Barack Obama has unveiled his nominees for top climate change and energy positions in his administration. Nobel-winning physicist Steven Chu has been tapped to serve as Energy Secretary. Lisa Jackson, chief of staff to New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine, will head the Environmental Protection Agency. Former EPA head Carol Browner will run a newly created White House council to oversee environmental issues. And Los Angeles Deputy Mayor Nancy Sutley will head the White House Council on Environmental Quality. At a news conference in Chicago Monday, Obama highlighted his plans to encourage innovation to address the US dependency on foreign oil. [includes rush transcript] http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/16/president_elect_barack_obama_names_environmental

?The Fed Who Blew the Whistle"

The whistleblower behind the exposure of the Bush administration's domestic spy program has revealed his identity. In an interview with Newsweek, former Justice Department official Thomas Tamm says he personally called the New York Times from a Washington, D.C. subway pay phone in 2004 to tell them about the program. Tamm was working as an attorney in the Justice Department?s Office of Intelligence Policy and Review. The secretive unit oversees surveillance of terrorist and espionage targets. [includes rush transcript] http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/16/the_fed_who_blew_the_whistle

Headlines for December 16, 2008

Cheney Defends Use of TortureShoe-Throwing Iraqi Journalist Remains ImprisonedObama Picks More Cabinet PositionsIllinois Lawmakers Vote to Begin ImpeachmentCaroline Kennedy to Pursue NY Senate SeatIsrael Detains UN Human Rights EnvoyANC Rivals Launch New PartyFallout Expands from Madoff $50 Billion Pyramid SchemeNYPD Officer Indicted for Shoving CyclistNY Governor Criticizes SNL Skit http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/16/headlines

Filmmaker Ron Howard on His New Film "Frost/Nixon"

Academy Award-winning director Ron Howard's new film is about the only American president who was forced to resign from office, Richard Nixon. The film is called Frost/Nixon and is set in 1977, three years after Nixon's resignation. It recreates a famous set of televised interviews where Nixon broke his silence for the first time since leaving office. He was interviewed by British talk show host David Frost for more than twenty-eight hours. The interview ended with Nixon making a tacit admission of guilt regarding his role in the Watergate scandal. [includes rush transcript] http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/15/filmmaker_ron_howard_on_his_new

Arundhati Roy: 9 Is Not 11 (And November Isn't September)

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 40 of 76 As comparisons between the attacks in Mumbai and the September 11th attacks continue to be made, Indian officials unveiled a massive revamp of the country's security and anti-terror infrastructure last week. I am joined now by someone who warns of the dangers of comparing the attacks in Mumbai to the attacks in New York: award-winning novelist, essayist and activist, Arundhati Roy. Her latest article is called "9 Is Not 11 (And November Isn't September)." It was published in India's Outlook magazine, Britain's Guardian newspaper, and on TomDispatch.com here in the United States. [includes rush transcript] http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/15/arundhati_roy_9_is_not_11

Headlines for December 15, 2008

Iraqi Journalist Throws Shoes at President BushSenate GOP Rejection of Auto Loans Seen as ?First Shot Against Organized Labor?State Unemployment Funds Run LowLoophole Prevents Congress from Limiting Executive PayReport: CIA Shot Down 15 Civilian Aircraft in PeruPortugal Offers to Take Guantanamo PrisonersClimate Talks End Without New Goals to Cut EmissionsInternal Gov't Report Criticizes US Reconstruction in IraqDomestic Spying Whistleblower Speaks OutWorkers at Smithfield Hog Plant in NC Vote to UnionizeTanzanian Mine Shut Down after Thousands Raid MineSarah Palin's Home Church Set on FireJimmy Carter Urges Hamas and Fatah to Come TogetherEcuadorean Immigrant Dies After Brutal Beating http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/15/headlines

Center for Media and Democracy - Weekly Radio Spin, December 12, 2008

5:01 minutes (4.59 MB) http://www.prwatch.org/node/8067

Syria's own 'war on terror'

Syria grapples with an emerging internal threat http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/middle_east/7778951.stm

US Use of Bases in Germany for Iraq War Goes Against German Constitution that Forbids Launching Wars from German Soil, Says Activist

Germany is home to tens of thousands of US troops and the largest number of US bases in the world outside of America. We speak with US activist Elsa Rassbach. She moved to Berlin, where she is part of the American Voices Abroad Military Project. [includes rush transcript] http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/12/us_use_of_bases_in_germany

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 41 of 76 Senate Report Finds Rumsfeld Directly Responsible for US Torture of Prisoners

A bipartisan Senate report has accused former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other top Bush administration officials of being directly responsible for the abuse and torture of prisoners at Guantanamo and other US prisons. We speak with the man who sued Donald Rumsfeld in Berlin, German, attorney Wolfgang Kaleck. [includes rush transcript] http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/12/senate_report_finds_rumsfeld_directly_responsible

EXCLUSIVE...AWOL US Soldier Seeks Asylum in Germany Over Returning to "Illegal" War in Iraq

A US soldier who went absent without leave a year and a half ago to avoid returning to Iraq has applied for asylum in Germany. Specialist Andre Shepherd served in Iraq between September 2004 and February 2005 as an Apache helicopter mechanic. When his unit was called up to return to Iraq in early 2007, he went AWOL to avoid redeployment, calling the war "illegal." He lived underground in Germany for a year and a half before applying for asylum two weeks ago. We speak with Shepherd in his first international broadcast interview. [includes rush transcript] http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/12/exclusiveawol_us_soldier_seeks_asylum_in

Headlines for December 12, 2008

Senate Panel Faults Rumsfeld, Bush Admin for Torture at Gitmo, Foreign Jails57 Dead in Iraq Bombing Gates: Thousands More US Troops in Afghanistan by Spring6 Killed in US Strike in PakistanAuto Bailout Collapses in SenateObama Chooses Daschle for Top Health PostBank of America Announces Mass Layoffs Jobless Claims at 26-Year HighDeveloping Nations Agree to Emissions CutsChavez Renews Effort to End Term LimitsAntiwar Vet Plans Civil Suit over Hempstead Protest InjuriesWhite Suspects Charged in Dragging Death of African AmericanEcuadorian Immigrant Clings to Life Following Apparent Hate CrimeMexican Guestworkers Allege Forced SlaveryEvangelical Lobbyist Resigns After Supporting Gay Marriage http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/12/headlines

Bob McChesney on Tribune bankruptcy, Steve Early on card check

This week on CounterSpin: The Tribune Company that owns the Chicago Tribune and the LA Times along with much else declared bankruptcy this week, just a year after new owner Sam Zell took over, with his notable lack of background or interest in newspapers. It sounds like workers will wind up with the short end of the stick but what does it mean in the bigger picture? Are capitalists losing interest in media and if so, what do we think about that? We'll talk with media scholar and author Bob McChesney about that story. Also on the show: The fight over "card check" union organizing was somewhat low-key during the general election. But the issue soon became a favorite topic for pundits who were either warning that Obama would lurch to the left, or those who held out the hope that Obama would turn his back on the labor movement. What is card check, and why does it have corporate America-and much of the corporate media-up in arms? We'll find out from labor journalist Steve Early. Links: - RobertMcChesney.com - Unions to Obama: Don't Abandon Us, by Steve Early (Boston Globe, 12/6/08)

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 42 of 76 http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3661

Analysis: Kirkuk faultline

Tension and violence in the ethnically-mixed city http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/middle_east/7777980.stm

Radical German Attorney Kurt Groenewold on Representing the Baader-Meinhof and Being Tried Himself

One of the last members of the left-wing militant group Red Army Faction, also known as the Baader-Meinhof Group, to remain in prison is set to be released after twenty-six years behind bars. Christian Klar was was given six life sentences plus fifteen years in prison after being convicted for the murder of German business leaders in the 1970s. We speak with radical German attorney Kurt Groenewold. During the 1970s, he made headlines when he was disbarred and sentenced to jail for representing members of the Baader-Meinhof Group. [includes rush transcript] http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/11/radical_german_attorney_kurt_groenewold_on

Editor of Europe's Largest Magazine "Der Spiegel" on Why Obama is "The World's President," the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Media and More

Hamburg is home to Der Spiegel, the largest circulation news magazine in Europe. After Barack Obama won the presidential election in the United States, Der Spiegel had him on its cover with the headline "President of the World." We speak with Mathias Müller Von Blumencron, editor-in-chief of Der Spiegel. [includes rush transcript] http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/11/president_of_the_world_editor_of

Uprising in Greece: Protests, Riots, Strikes Enter 6th Day Following Fatal Police Shooting of Teen

Protests, riots and clashes with police have overtaken Greece for the sixth straight day since the fatal police shooting of a teenage boy in Athens Saturday night. One day after Wednesday's massive general strike over pension reform and privatization shut down the country, more than a hundred schools and at least fifteen university campuses remain occupied by student demonstrators. A major rally is expected Friday, and as solidarity protests spread to neighboring Turkey, as well as Germany, Spain, Italy, Russia, Denmark and the Netherlands, dozens of arrests have been made across the continent. We speak to a student activist and writer from Athens. [includes rush transcript] http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/11/greek_uprising_protests_riots_strikes_enter

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 43 of 76 Headlines for December 11, 2008

Chicago Workers End Factory Occupation with Severance DealRep. Jackson Denies Role in Blagojevich ScandalHouse Approves Carmaker BailoutBritain to Withdraw from IraqInternational Human Rights Day Marked WorldwideBone Fragments Discovered at Argentine Torture SiteAhtisaari Awarded Nobel Peace PrizeObama Picks Chu for Energy PostObama to Speak in Muslim CapitalAdmin Abandons Effort to Weaken 2 EPA Rules http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/11/headlines

State to participate in examination of Chauncey Bailey case; more evidence ignored

Who's in charge of investigating the handling of Chauncey Bailey's murder case? It seems to be a political hot potato, according to a new article from The Chauncey Bailey Project. http://centerforinvestigativereporting.org/blogpost/20081210statetoparticipateinexaminationofchaunceybaileyc asemoreevidenceignored

"A Tale of Two Nobel Nations"

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 44 of 76 STOCKHOLM, Sweden? The days are short here in Stockholm, which is so far north that winter daylight is limited to about four hours a day. But the city is buzzing with visitors, media and activities, for the Nobel prizes are being given this week. While the Nobels recognize lifetime achievements in medicine, chemistry, physics, literature, economics and peace, and Sweden is a paragon among progressive, social democracies, there is another side to Sweden and the Nobels that warrants a closer look.

Alfred Nobel made a fortune as an inventor, principally for his invention of dynamite. He died in 1896, leaving most of his fortune to endow the Nobel prizes. Nobel lived in a time when European rivalries and wars were the norm. He believed the destructive power of his inventions could promote peace. He wrote to his lifelong friend, peace activist Bertha von Suttner, who would win the Nobel Peace Prize almost a decade after his death, ?Perhaps my factories will put an end to war even sooner than your Congresses; on the day when two army corps will be able to annihilate each other in a second, all civilised nations will recoil with horror and disband their troops.?

If only. Now countries can destroy each other many times over, but instead of recoiling in horror, they just continue buying ever more destructive weapons, ironically making Sweden one of the world leaders, per capita, in weapons exports. Nobel turned Swedish munitions into a stable, multinational enterprise. In 1894, he acquired the weapons company Bofors, now a subsidiary of the weapons maker BAE Systems. While the world?s eyes are on the Nobel Prize winners, several Swedes are facing prison time for taking direct action against Bofors.

Cattis Laska is a member of the anti-war groups Ofog and Avrusta, Swedish for mischief and disarm. She told me about their protests against the Swedish weapons industry: ?We went into two weapon factories the same night. Two went into Saab Bofors Dynamics (while General Motors bought Saab?s auto division, Saab in Sweden makes weapons) ... and they disarmed about 20 [grenade launchers] ... to prevent them from being used in wars. They did it by using a hammer. There?s very much details in those launchers, so they have to be perfect. So it?s enough just to scrape inside to disable them. And then, me and another person went into the BAE Systems Bofors factory, where we disabled some parts for howitzers going to India. We also used hammers.? Like the Plowshares activists in the United States, they follow the biblical prescription from Isaiah 2:4, turning ?swords into plowshares.?

Annika Spalde also participated in the actions: ?We sell weapons to countries at war and to countries who seriously violate human rights, and still these sales just grow bigger and bigger, so we feel that we, as ordinary citizens, have a responsibility to act then and to physically try to stop these weapons from being shipped off.? Spalde is awaiting trial. Laska has been sentenced to three months in prison.

Traditional Swedish politics also are in flux. Brian Palmer is an American, a former Harvard lecturer, who has immigrated to Sweden and become a Swedish citizen. Palmer has penned a biography of Sweden?s prime minister, Fredrik Reinfeldt. Palmer credits Reinfeldt, 43, with leading the shift away from the progressive social policies for which Sweden has become world-famous. He said Reinfeldt, in 1993, ?wrote a book, ?The Sleeping People,? where he said that the welfare state should only prevent starvation, nothing beyond that. After being elected ... one of his first major visits abroad was to George Bush in the White House.?

Reinfeldt and his Moderate Party hired Karl Rove as a political consultant to help with the election coming in 2010. Palmer went on: ?We have a real kind of silent war on the labor movement. We have a rather dramatic change in the tax system, abolishing the inheritance tax and most property taxes, cutbacks in social-welfare institutions.? This week, a new coalition of center-left political parties formed to challenge this rightward drift.

The U.S. electorate has thoroughly rebuked the Bush administration, handing Barack Obama and the Democrats a mandate for change on issues of war and health care, among others. One of the world?s leading laboratories for innovative social policies, Sweden is now wrestling with its own future. Those seeking change in the U.S. would be wise to watch Sweden, beyond Nobel week.

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 45 of 76 http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2008/12/10/amy_goodmans_new_column_a_tale_of_two_nobel_nations

"This Agreement Has Incredible Importance for Our Movement" - Immokalee Workers Win Agreement with Subway over Tomato Prices in Florida

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers reached an agreement last week with Subway, the third largest fast-food chain in the world and the biggest fast-food buyer of Florida tomatoes. Subway now joins other fast-food giants, McDonald's, Taco Bell and Burger King, that have all agreed to pay farm workers at least another penny per pound of tomatoes they harvest and improve working conditions. [includes rush transcript] http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/10/this_agreement_has_incredible_importance_for

Unsteady Calm Following Settler Violence Against Palestinian Residents in Hebron

We take a look at the troubled West Bank city of Hebron, where the city's Palestinian residents have been at the receiving end of a new wave of attacks from hard-line Jewish settlers. Violence flared last week after Israeli riot police forcibly evicted some 250 settlers from a disputed Palestinian-owned home that the settlers had occupied last year. Tensions have been high ever since an Israeli High Court ruling last month that ordered the settlers to vacate the building. We go to Hebron to get the latest. [includes rush transcript] http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/10/unsteady_calm_following_settler_violence_against

Workers Win Offer from BofA in Chicago Factory Sit-In

For the past six days, hundreds of laid-off union workers have refused to leave the Republic Windows & Doors plant, staging a factory sit-in seldom seen in this country since the 1930s. The factory was closed last week after the factory owners said Bank of America cut off the company?s line of credit. On Tuesday, the workers won a victory: Bank of America offered loans to the firm to resolve the pay dispute. We speak with a factory worker and a union organizer. [includes rush transcript] http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/10/workers_win_offer_from_bofa_in

Illinois Governor Arrested on Corruption Charges Including Scheme to Sell Obama?s Senate Seat

Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich was arrested yesterday on staggering corruption charges, including allegations that he tried to sell the Senate seat vacated by fellow Democrat, President-elect Barack Obama. In recorded conversations with his advisers, Governor Blagojevich laid bare a "pay to play" culture that, according to prosecutors, began shortly after he took office in 2002 and continued until yesterday morning, when FBI agents arrested him and his chief of staff, John Harris. Blagoevich was also accused of trying to extort the Chicago Tribune into firing editorial writers who were critical of him. [includes rush transcript]

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 46 of 76 http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/10/illinois_governor_arrested_on_pay_to

Headlines for December 10, 2008

Illinois Gov. Arrested in Elaborate Corruption ScandalWhite House, Dems Agree on Auto BailoutUN: Israeli Occupation a ?Crime Against Humanity?6 Afghan Officers Die in US BombingUN: Rising Food Prices Pushing More into HungerDem House Intel Chair Calls for Continuity of Bush Policies, AppointeesPentagon: Roadside Bombing Deaths Were PreventableAIG Continues Multi-Million-Dollar Payouts3 NYPD Officers Charged in Subway Assault Case http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/10/headlines

Disclosure Statement

For those that are interested, I've posted a disclosure statement addressing the major questions that you might have about the logistics and operations of Hearsay Culture. I hope that you find it . . . disclosing. http://www.hearsayculture.com/?p=245

Sweden Opens Doors for Iraqi and Afghan Refugees

Sweden is home to more Iraqi refugees than other European countries. The nation has also let in many Afghan refugees. We speak to Faisal Enayat Khan. He is a reporter for the Swedish newspaper The Local. Originally from Afghanistan, he is in Sweden after being granted asylum. [includes rush transcript] http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/9/sweden_opens_doors_for_iraqi_and

Blackwater Guards Indicted for Role in Nisoor Square Massacre

Five Blackwater security guards were charged on Monday for their role in the 2007 Nisoor Square massacre in Baghdad that left seventeen Iraqis dead and more than twenty wounded. The federal prosecutors accused the Blackwater guards of opening machine gun fire on innocent Iraqis and launching a grenade into a girls' school. We speak with Jeremy Scahill, author of Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army. [includes rush transcript] http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/9/blackwater_guards_indicted_for_role_in

Sweden Ranks Second in the World in Per Capita Weapons Exports

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 47 of 76 Institutions like the Nobel Prize have helped link Sweden's international reputation to peace and reconciliation, but few people know Sweden is also one of the world's top exporters of weapons. Sweden is among the world's top arms exporters in per capita terms. Its clients include the United States and Britain, with shipments more than doubling since 2000. We speak with two activists in Sweden. [includes rush transcript] http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/9/sweden_ranks_second_in_the_world

Bush, Rove Tied to Effort to Dismantle Sweden's Social Welfare Program

Sweden's three main left-leaning opposition parties have just announced plans to build a coalition for next year's parliamentary elections. The Social Democrats, the Green Party and the Left Party say collectively they'll try to wrest power from the Moderate Party, which leads a coalition of center-right groups. We speak with social anthropology professor Brian Palmer. [includes rush transcript] http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/9/bush_rove_tied_to_effort_to

The History of the Nobel Prize: A Look at Alfred Nobel, the Man Who Invented Dynamite

We broadcast from Sweden, where the Nobel Prize will be handed out at ceremonies here in Stockholm and in Oslo. The prize is awarded in the categories of Chemistry, Physics, Medicine, Literature, Peace and Economics. They're handed out every year on the anniversary of the death of the Nobel Prize's founder, the Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, who invented dynamite. We speak with Peter Zander, the curator of the Nobel Museum. [includes rush transcript] http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/9/the_history_of_the_nobel_prize

Headlines for December 9, 2008

Illinois Cuts Ties to Bank of America Over Plant ClosingFive Blackwater Guards Charged on 34 Counts in Iraq KillingsWashington Could Take Stake in Auto FirmsTribune Company Declares BankruptcySony to Cut 8,000 Jobs; Dow Chemical Cuts 5,000Guantanamo Prisoners Ask to Plead GuiltyUnrest Continues in Greece Following Police KillingOlmert "Ashamed" by "Pogrom" in HebronRights Group: Israel's West Bank System Like Apartheid50 Arrested at UK Airport Climate ProtestHaitian Children Face MalnourishmentJet Fighter Crashes in San Diego, 3 KilledBush Buys Home in Former All-White Neighborhood http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/9/headlines

New report finds Taser shocks stronger than company claims possible

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 48 of 76 We'd be remiss if we didn't single out other great investigations into Taser, like this one from CBC News and Radio-Canada. The two news organizations teamed up to produce an amazing piece that aired Thursday night in Canada. http://centerforinvestigativereporting.org/blogpost/20081208newreportfindstasershocksstrongerthancompany claimspossible

Gynecologist Monika Hauser Receives Right Livelihood for Work on Behalf of Victims of Sexual Violence in War

We speak with Right Livelihood laureate, Monika Hauser, a gynecologist and founder of "medica mondiale," a German-based non-governmental organization that works to prevent and punish sexual violence against women and girls in wartime. They have helped over 70,000 traumatized women and girls in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia and Afghanistan. [includes rush transcript] http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/8/gynecologist_monika_hauser_receives_right_livelihood

"India's Soul" - Krishnammal Jagannathan Awarded Right Livelihood for Realizing "Gandhian Vision of Social Justice and Sustainable Human Development"

We speak with Right Livelihood laureate, Krishnammal Jagannathan, an 82-year-old activist from southern India. She was active in the Gandhian struggle for Indian independence and the movement to restore land to the landless. With her husband, she founded an organization called "Land for the Tillers' Freedom" that has redistributed land to some 13,000 Dalit women. She and her husband received the Right Livelihood Award for "two long lifetimes of work dedicated to realizing in practice the Gandhian vision of social justice and sustainable human development, for which they have been referred to as India's soul." [includes rush transcript] http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/8/indias_soul_krishnammal_jagannathan_awarded_right

The Right Livelihood Award: A Look at Sweden's "Alternative Nobel"

Democracy Now! broadcasts from Stockholm, Sweden, where Amy Goodman is joining three remarkable women from around the world to receive the Right Livelihood Award, also known as the Alternative Nobel Prize. The three women are Asha Hagi Elmi, co-founder of Save Somali Women and Children; Krishnammal Jagannathan, an 82-year-old activist from southern India; and Monika Hauser, a gynecologist and founder of "medica mondiale." We speak with the founder of the Right Livelihood Award, Jakob von Uexkull. [includes rush transcript] http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/8/the_right_livelihood_award_a_look

Headlines for December 8, 2008

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 49 of 76 Laid Off Workers Occupy Chicago Factory533,000 Jobs Lost in November; 2 Million in 2008Obama Pledges Massive Investment in National InfrastructureObama Taps Eric Shinseki to Head VAObama Outspent McCain 2:1 in Final Months of RaceDemocrats Working on New Plan for Auto AidFive Blackwater Guards Indicted for Killing 17 Iraqi CiviliansUS Supply Trucks Destroyed in PakistanCommander: US Needs to Double Troop Level in AfghanistanPakistan Raids Militant CampPolice Killing Sparks Riots in GreeceRep. William Jefferson (D-LA) Defeated http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/8/headlines

Show #81 ? Prof. John Palfrey ? posted

I am pleased to post Show #81, December 3, my interview with Prof. John Palfrey of Harvard Law School, co-author of Born Digital (co-authored with Urs Gasser). Born Digital addresses the basic questions of how we should view our children as they are (in large part) unwittingly immersed in a vastly interconnected world. What issues do we need to confront when it comes to regulating, protecting and judging today's youth in the context of "read-write" culture? John and Urs move well beyond the "good Internet/bad Internet" discussion to offer deeper analysis of the questions and answers we must consider. Directed at parents, technologists and lawyers, I hope that you enjoy the interview!

Happy holidays to all; look for new shows beginning in mid-January! http://www.hearsayculture.com/?p=212

Amy Goodman and other Right Livelihood Award Laureates arrive in Stockholm

The Right Livelihood Awards (RLA) festivities are beginning in Stockholm, Sweden. Joining Amy are RLA Laureates Krishnammal Jagannathan, Asha Hagi, and Monika Hauser.

Tune in to Democracy Now! on Monday, Dec. 8th for Amy's interviews with her sister laureates, and to the live webstream of the award ceremony on Monday, 12 noon EST, at democracyow.org

For more info, see the Right Livelihood Awards webpage http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2008/12/6/amy_goodman_and_other_right_livelihood_award_laureates_ arrive_in_stockholm

Lebanon Joins the CWC

On November 20, 2008 Lebanon deposited its instrument of accession to the Chemical Weapons Convention . The CWC will enter into force for Lebanon on Dec 20, 2008, 30 days after accession.

With the inclusion of Lebanon in the CWC only 10 states remain outside of the Convention. The Bahamas, the Dominican Republic, Israel and Myanmar have signed but not ratified the CWC and Angola, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Egypt, Iraq, Somalia and the Syrian Arab Republic have neither

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 50 of 76 signed nor ratified the CWC. http://fas.org/blog/cw/2008/12/lebanon-joins-the-cwc.html

Center for Media and Democracy - Weekly Radio Spin, December 5, 2008

5:00 minutes (4.58 MB) http://www.prwatch.org/node/8033

The Blogging Revolution: A Look at the Repression of Online Journalism Around the World

A new report by the Committee to Protect Journalists says more internet journalists are jailed today than journalists in any other medium. We speak with journalist Antony Loewenstein, author of The Blogging Revolution. He traveled to Iran, Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Cuba and China in 2007 to look at bloggers around the world who live and write under repressive regimes. [includes rush transcript] http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/5/the_blogging_revolution_a_look_at

400 Killed in Nigeria in Violent Clashes Over Disputed Election Results

In Nigeria, 400 people were killed last week in violent clashes over disputed election results in the central Nigerian city of Jos. Christian and Muslim protesters took to the streets Friday, killing people and burning down homes, mosques and churches over what they said were rigged election results. At least 7,000 people were forced to flee their homes. We speak with Nigerian human rights activist, Omoyele Sowore. [includes rush transcript] http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/5/400_killed_in_nigeria_in_violent

Ralph Nader and Medea Benjamin on Obama's Cabinet and Grassroots Organizing Under the Next Administration

We speak with longtime consumer advocate and former presidential candidate Ralph Nader and with activist Medea Benjamin, founder of CODEPINK, about President-elect Barack Obama's cabinet selections and how the antiwar and social justice movements will organize under an Obama administration. [includes rush transcript] http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/5/ralph_nader_and_medea_benjamin_on

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 51 of 76 CEOs of Big Three Automakers Return to Capitol Hill to Plead for $34B Federal Bailout

The chief executives of Detroit's Big Three automakers returned to Capitol Hill yesterday to plead for $34 billion in federal aid to bail out the industry. The company CEOs all drove to Washington in hybrid vehicles after being criticized for flying in for hearings last month in separate private jets. Lawmakers said they were not convinced that the automakers could return to profitability even with a massive infusion of government cash. We speak with longtime consumer advocate Ralph Nader and Wendy Thompson, a retired worker at American Axle in Detroit and the former president of UAW Local 235. [includes rush transcript] http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/5/ceos_of_big_three_automakers_return

Headlines for December 5, 2008

Auto Execs Plead for $34B BailoutIraqi Presidential Council Approves Troop Pact11 Iraqis, 2 US Troops Killed in Iraq ViolenceIsrael Lifts Gaza Ban on Journalists, Aid WorkersReport: Israel Prepares Iran Strike PlansCanadian PM Forces Parliament Closure to Avoid No-Confidence VoteObama Appears to Drop Oil Windfall Tax ProposalFrank Urges Greater Obama Role During TransitionStudy: Violence Linked to Laxer Gun LawsBank of America to Stop Investing in Mountaintop RemovalOnline Journalists Top Media Jailings Blackwater Could Face Charges Under 30-Year Old Drug LawJewish Settlers Attack Palestinians in Hebron http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/5/headlines

Paul Sullivan on Gulf War Syndrome, Peter Hart on Obama's nominees

This week on CounterSpin: For years veterans claiming to suffer from Gulf War Syndrome were derided as cranky and hysterical by the department of defense and even by some journalists. Will that change now that a definitive report says the Gulf War illnesses are real, incurable, and caused by toxic materials used by the U.S. military during the 1991 Gulf War? We'll talk to Paul Sullivan, a veteran and the executive director of Veterans for Common Sense. Also on the show: As the Obama White House takes shape, Americans are asking what the president-elect's cabinet choices suggest about the political direction his administration may take. Corporate media are making no effort to hide what they think are smart, responsible choices for Obama, but the reasons for those strong preferences are rarely explored. We'll talk with FAIR's Peter Hart about the press reception of the new cabinet picks. Links: - Veterans for Common Sense - Media Advisory: Media Cheer for ''Non-Ideological'' Centrists (FAIR, 11/26/08) http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3658

13th Session of the Conference of the States Parties

From December 2-5 the Conference of the States Parties to the CWC held its 13th session in The Hague. The Conference Agenda and other documents as well as copies of the National Statements made to the Conference and available on the newly redesigned OPCW website. http://fas.org/blog/cw/2008/12/13th-session-of-the-conference-of-the-states-parties.html

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 52 of 76 Gannett Papers Shocked by Taser?s Claims

http://centerforinvestigativereporting.org/articles/gannettpapersshockedbytaser%E2%80%99sclaims

Gov't Study Concludes ?Gulf War Syndrome? is Legitimate Condition, Affects 1 in 4 Vets

Seventeen years after the Gulf war, a congressionally mandated committee has concluded that "Gulf war syndrome" is a legitimate condition that continues to affect one quarter of the nearly 700,000 US soldiers deployed in that war. In a report presented last month to the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, the Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses said, ?Scientific evidence leaves no question that Gulf War illness is a real condition with real causes and serious consequences for affected veterans.? We speak with a Gulf War vet who was a part of the committee and who himself is sick. [includes rush transcript] http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/4/govt_study_concludes_gulf_war_syndrome

Vietnamese Agent Orange Victims Demand Accountability from US, Chemical Companies in Suit

The Second National Congress of the Vietnam Association for Victims of Agent Orange just concluded in Hanoi Wednesday. Vietnamese victims continue to demand accountability and compensation from the US government as well as the largest makers of Agent Orange, Dow Chemical and Monsanto. Earlier this year, a delegation of women victims of Agent Orange toured the United States. We speak with two of them: 71-year old Dang Hong Nhut, who has had several miscarriages and now has cancer, and 21-year-old Tran Thi Hoan, a second-generation victim of Agent Orange who was born without two legs and with one hand seriously atrophied. [includes rush transcript] http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/4/vietnamese_agent_orange_victims_demand_accountability

Indiana Guardsmen Sue KBR Over Chemical Exposure in Iraq

Sixteen Indiana National Guard soldiers have sued the Houston-based defense contractor KBR, saying the company knowingly allowed them to be exposed to a toxic chemical in Iraq in 2003. The soldiers were providing security for KBR during repairs of a water treatment plant in southern Iraq shortly after the US invasion. The suit claims the site was contaminated for six months by hexavalent chromium, "one of the most potent carcinogens" known to man. It alleges that KBR knew the plant was contaminated but concealed the danger from civilian workers and soldiers. We speak with one of the soldiers and with the lead attorney in the case. [includes rush transcript] http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/4/indiana_guardsmen_sue_kbr_over_chemical

Headlines for December 4, 2008

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 53 of 76 Auto Execs Head to Capitol Hill for Bailout PleaAudit: Bailout Lacks Oversight; All Requests ApprovedFood Stamp Use Breaks RecordUS Shed 250,000 Jobs in NovemberObama Picks Richardson for Commerce Dept.Franken Team Claims 22-Vote Lead; Chambliss Keeps Senate SeatAG: No Need for Preemptive PardonsDefying US, Afghanistan Signs Cluster BanIraqi Guards Open Fire on KBR Worker ProtestProbe: Bolivian Peasant Killings an Anti-Gov. Massacre2 Palestinian Teens Killed in Israeli AttackLibya Accuses Israel of ?Piracy? for Gaza Ship BlockadeStudy: College Tuition Increasingly UnaffordableWal-Mart Sued for Wrongful Death in Worker TramplingZimbabwe Declares Cholera Emergency http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/4/headlines

"Chevron in the White House"

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 54 of 76 By Amy Goodman

President-elect Barack Obama introduced his principal national-security Cabinet selections to the world Monday and left no doubt that he intends to start his administration on a war footing. Perhaps the least well known among them is retired Marine Gen. James Jones, Obama?s pick for national security adviser. The position is crucial?think of the power that Henry Kissinger wielded in Richard Nixon?s White House. A look into who James Jones is sheds a little light on the Obama campaign?s promise of ?Change We Can Believe In.?

Jones is the former supreme allied commander of NATO. He is president and chief executive of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce?s Institute for 21st Century Energy. The institute has been criticized by environmental groups for, among other things, calling for the immediate expansion of domestic oil and gas production and issuing reports that challenged the use of the Clean Air Act to combat global warming.

Recently retired from the military, Jones has parlayed his 40-year military career into several corporate directorships. Among them is Cross Match Technologies, which makes biometric identification equipment. More germane to Jones? forthcoming role in Obama?s inner circle, though, might be Jones? seat as a director of Boeing, a weapons manufacturer, and as a director of Chevron, an oil giant.

Chevron has already sent one of its directors to the White House: Condoleezza Rice. As a member of that California-based oil giant?s board, she actually had a Chevron oil tanker named after her, the Condoleezza Rice. The tanker?s name was changed, after some embarrassment, when Rice joined the Bush administration as national security adviser. So now Chevron has a new person at the highest level of the executive branch. With Robert Gates also keeping his job as secretary of defense, maybe Obama should change his slogan to ?Continuity We Can Believe In.?

But what of a Chevron director high up in the West Wing? Obama?s attacks on John McCain during the campaign included a daily refrain about the massive profits of ExxonMobil, as if that was the only oil company out there. Chevron, too, has posted mammoth profits. Chevron was also a defendant in a federal court case in San Francisco related to the murder, 10 years ago, of two unarmed, peaceful activists in the oil-rich Niger Delta region of Nigeria. On May 28, 1998, three Chevron helicopters ferried Nigerian military and police to the remote section of the Delta known as Ilajeland, where protesters had occupied a Chevron offshore drilling platform to protest Chevron?s role in the destruction of the local environment. The troops opened fired on the protesters. Two were killed, others were injured. (Rice was in charge of the Chevron board?s public policy committee when it fought off shareholder resolutions demanding that Chevron improve its human rights and environmental record in Nigeria.)

One of those shot was Larry Bowoto, who, along with the family members of those killed, filed suit in California against Chevron for its role in the attack. Just after Jones was named Obama?s national security adviser Monday, a jury acquitted Chevron. Bowoto told me: ?I was disappointed in the judgment by the jury. I believe personally the struggle continues. I believe the attorney representing us will not stay put. He will take the initiative in going to the court of appeals.? I met Bowoto in 1998, just months after he was shot. He showed me his bullet wounds when I interviewed him in the Niger Delta. I also met Omoyele Sowore, who has since come to the U.S. and started the news Web site SaharaReporters.com.

Sowore has followed the case closely. Though disappointed, he said: ?We have achieved one major victory: Chevron?s underbelly was exposed in this town. ... Also there is Nigeria: Protesters won?t give up. ... This will not discourage anybody who wants to make sure Chevron gives up violence as a way of doing business. American citizens are increasingly protective of their economy. ... Chevron played into fears of ... the jurors, saying these are people [the Nigerian protesters] who made oil prices go through the roof. This was a pyrrhic victory for Chevron. If I was in their shoes, I wouldn?t be popping champagne.?

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 55 of 76 Nigerians know well the power of the military-industrial complex in their own country. While Obama was swept into office promising change, his choice of Marine Gen. James Jones as national security adviser probably has U.S. corporate titans breathing easy, leaving the poor of the Niger Delta with the acrid air and oil-slicked water that lie behind Chevron?s profits.

Denis Moynihan contributed research to this column. http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2008/12/3/amy_goodmans_new_column_chevron_in_the_white_house

US Interrogator in Iraq Says Torture Policy Has Led to Deaths of Thousands of American Soldiers

We speak with a former special intelligence operations officer who led an interrogations team in Iraq two years ago. His nonviolent interrogation methods led Special Forces to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the head of al-Qaeda in Iraq. He has written a new book, How to Break a Terrorist: The US Interrogators Who Used Brains, Not Brutality, to Take Down the Deadliest Man in Iraq. The publication date for the book was delayed for six weeks due to the Pentagon's vetting of it. The soldier wrote it under the pseudonym, Matthew Alexander, for security reasons. He says the US military's use of torture is responsible for the deaths of thousands of US soldiers by inspiring foreign fighters to kill Americans. [includes rush transcript] http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/3/us_interrogator_in_iraq_says_torture

Attorney Scott Horton on "Justice After Bush: Prosecuting an Outlaw Administration"

We speak with Scott Horton, an attorney specializing in international law and human rights. He is also a legal affairs contributor to Harper?s magazine, where he has the cover story in the latest issue, called "Justice After Bush: Prosecuting an Outlaw Administration." We also speak with Horton about Eric Holder, President-elect Barack Obama's choice for attorney general. [includes rush transcript] http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/3/attorney_scott_horton_on_justice_after

Headlines for December 3, 2008

US Refuses to Sign Treaty Banning Cluster BombsAutomakers Seek $34 Billion BailoutRice Arrives in India Following Mumbai AttacksObama Considers Naming Holbrooke South Asia EnvoyChinese Americans Protest Nomination of Richardson to Cabinet PostObama Pledges to Work with GovernorsGates: Closing Gitmo Will Be ?High Priority?Climate Activists Protest at Climate ConferenceEPA Guts Mountaintop Mining Rule Protecting StreamsLegendary Folk Singer Odetta, 77, Dies http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/3/headlines

Chevron Cleared in 1998 Shooting Deaths of Protesters in Niger Delta

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 56 of 76 A federal jury in San Francisco has just cleared oil giant Chevron of any responsibility for the May 1998 shooting and killing of protesters in the oil-rich Niger Delta. A decade ago over 100 protesters had occupied a Chevron-owned oil platform to demand compensation and jobs for the environmental damage caused by Chevron's drilling. The Nigerian military shot and killed two unarmed protesters and wounded several others. Survivors had argued that Chevron should be held accountable because it paid the Nigerian military and transported them by helicopter to the oil platform. We speak with the lead plaintiff and the attorney in the case [includes rush transcript]. http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/2/chevron_cleared_in_1998_shooting_deaths

Israeli Reporter Amira Hass Forced Out of Gaza by Hamas, Detained by Israeli Police For Entering Gaza Without Permit

Israel has imposed a tightened blockade over its million and a half residents for nearly a month. Last month, award-winning Israeli journalist Amira Hass defied the blockade and entered Gaza on a boat with international peace activists. But on Sunday, Hamas officials told Hass they could no longer guarantee her security and forced her to leave. Hass was briefly detained by Israeli security officials upon re-entering Israel Monday because she did not have a permit for Gaza. Amira Hass joins us on the phone from Ramallah [includes rush transcript]. http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/2/israeli_reporter_amira_hass_forced_out

Change or More of the Same? Obama Introduces National Security Team

President-elect Barack Obama named former rival Senator Hillary Clinton as secretary of state on Monday and said Robert Gates would remain defense secretary. Other nominees included retired General James Jones to be National Security Adviser and Susan Rice as ambassador to the United Nations. Is that change or more of the same? We speak with investigative journalist Robert Dreyfuss of The Nation magazine and Steven Clemons of the New America Foundation [includes rush transcript]. http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/2/change_or_more_of_the_same

Headlines for December 2, 2008

Obama Taps Clinton To Be Secretary Of StateAs Recession is Declared, Dow Falls 680 PointsCalifornia Declares Fiscal Emergency; Philadelphia Plans Massive CutsBush: ?I Think I Was Unprepared For War?Thai Court Orders Dissolution of Ruling PartyReport: U.S. Warned India About Attack on MumbaiJury Clears Chevron in Suit Over 1998 Killings In Nigeria20th Anniversary of World AIDS Day MarkedUN Climate Conference in Poland OpensU.S. Senate Runoff Election Held in GeorgiaCharges Dropped Against Iraq Veterans Against the WarTexas Judge Dismisses Indictments Against Cheney & GonzalesGM & Ford CEOs To Drive Hybrids To Washington http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/2/headlines

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 57 of 76 Hearsay Culture selected as one of the ABA Journal?s Blawg 100 of 2008

I am thrilled and honored to announce that Hearsay Culture has been listed in the American Bar Association ("ABA") Journal's Blawg 100 of 2008, as one of the "top 100 best Web sites by lawyers, for lawyers." Specifically, Hearsay Culture was selected by the editors as one of the top five in the new podcast category. Ominously, the ABA Journal issued a "warning" about Hearsay Culture in its description: "The shows are academic and, as a result, very long." As far as I could tell, Hearsay Culture is the only podcast that earned an explicit "warning," an honor (as far as I'm concerned) in and of itself.

Now comes the quasi-crowdsourcing (credit: Jeff Howe) part: lawyers can vote for their favorite podcast through January 2, 2009. So, I encourage all lawyers who listen to the show and feel it worthy to vote for Hearsay Culture. I am facing some excellent competition, so regardless of your vote, I encourage all to check out the other terrific podcasts listed.

Thanks, as always, for your support of the show!

http://www.hearsayculture.com/?p=199

New EU law requires chemical companies to come clean

Today is the deadline for international chemical companies to comply with a sweeping new European law requiring proof that products they export are safe. On Marketplace, CIR's Mark Schapiro talks about the law, which may force American companies to make safer chemicals. http://centerforinvestigativereporting.org/blogpost/20081201neweulawrequireschemicalcompaniestocomeclea n

Iranian blogs on Obama victory

Iranians blogging in Farsi give their reaction to Obama's election victory. http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/middle_east/7746653.stm

Wal-Mart Worker Crushed to Death in Early Morning Stampede of Shoppers on Black Friday

A Wal-Mart employee in Long Island, New York died after being trampled to death by a mob of shoppers on Friday, the traditional first day of the holiday shopping season. The 34-year-old worker Jdimytai Damour was killed after a crowd of 2,000 broke down store doors and ran over him shortly before the store"s schedule 5 a.m. opening. Four shoppers were injured in the stampede. Nassau County police were trying to determine what happened during the stampede, but said it was unclear if there would be any criminal charges [includes rush transcript]. http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/1/wal_mart_worker_crushed_to_death

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 58 of 76 Toll From Deadly, Coordinated Mumbai Attacks Tops 170, Two Top Indian Officials Resign, Tensions Rise Between India and Pakistan

We host a roundtable discussion on the attacks in Mumbai, India's financial and entertainment capital, that has left nearly 200 people dead and hundreds wounded. Indian officials claim that as few as 10 gunmen coordinated attacks that began late Wednesday night on multiple targets including a crowded railway station, two luxury hotels, a popular cafe, a Jewish center, a hospital, and a movie theater. India's top domestic security official, the Home Minister, Shivraj Patil resigned Sunday over his failure to contain the attacks. The State Chief Minister and his deputy have also offered to quit. We speak with South Asian History professor Vijay Prashad, New York City-based activist Biju Mathew, veteran journalist and commentator Tariq Ali and award-winning activist and journalist from Mumbai Teesta Setalvad [includes rush transcript]. http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/1/toll_from_deadly_coordinated_mumbai_attacks

Headlines for December 1, 2008

172 Die in Coordinated Assault on MumbaiIndia Raises Security To ?War Level?Iraqi Parliament Approves Security pact With U.S.Obama To Introduce National Security TeamObama Defends Selection Of Top Aides U.S. Military to Deploy 20,000 Soldiers For Homeland Security400 Nigerians Killed in Christian-Muslim ClashesLabor Department Pushes Rule Change on Toxic Substances in WorkplaceU.S. War Resister Seeks Asylum in GermanyStampede of Shoppers Kill Worker At Wal-MartNational Day of Mourning Held on ThanksgivingChris Matthews Seen As Possible Senate Candidate http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/1/headlines

Death By Taser?

http://centerforinvestigativereporting.org/articles/deathbytaser

Are Tasers Safe?

http://centerforinvestigativereporting.org/articles/aretaserssafe

Shows #79 and 80 ? Prof. Mark Bauerlein and Jeff Howe ? posted and schedule

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 59 of 76 I am pleased to post two new shows. The first, Show #79, is my interview with Prof. Mark Bauerlein of Emory University, author of The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future (Or, Don't Trust Anyone Under 30). Mark takes a critical view of the impact of technology on youth. He cites a wide array of empirical data to support his core assertion that technology, and particularly the Internet, is not leading to a greater degree of knowledge or awareness among our youth. Mark's book, with its highly-charged title, is among the best of the contributions on this side of the ledger, and I hope that you enjoy our interview.

I am also pleased to post Show #80, my interview with Jeff Howe, author of Crowdsourcing. Jeff's book takes a journalist's perspective on the growing ability of groups to innovate and create. Jeff collects a variety of examples to show ways that the crowd can create, both in terms of goods and services as well as movements generally. We had a wide ranging discussion, and I hope that you enjoy it!

Alas, there is one more show this quarter, and then Hearsay Culture is in hiatus until the beginning of January. Happy holidays! http://www.hearsayculture.com/?p=182

Mark Brenner on Big 3 bailout, Steve Rendall on the Fairness Doctrine

This week on CounterSpin: Bailing out the Big Three. GM, Ford and Chrysler are on the brink of total failure, we're told. In a season of corporate bailouts of all sorts, this one is meeting more resistance-in part because union autoworkers, we're told, are making too much money. Mark Brenner of Labor Notes will join us to talk about it. Also on CounterSpin today, with Democrats poised to take more power in Washington, is there really a plan in the works to muzzle right-wing talk radio? Steve Rendall of FAIR and CounterSpin will join us to dispel some of the myths surrounding the Fairness Doctrine. Links: - End of the Road: If the Auto Industry Is Dead What Does That Mean for Workers?, by Mark Brenner & Jane Slaughter (Labor Notes, 11/20/08) - The Fairness Doctrine: How We Lost It, and Why We Need It Back, by Steve Rendall (Extra!, 1?2/05) http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3656

Center for Media and Democracy - Weekly Radio Spin, November 28, 2008

5:00 minutes (4.58 MB) http://www.prwatch.org/node/7996

"Tutu, Obama and the Middle East"

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 60 of 76 By Amy Goodman

As President-elect Barack Obama focuses on the meltdown of the U.S. economy, another fire is burning: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

You may not have heard much lately about the disaster in the Gaza Strip. That silence is intentional: The Israeli government has barred international journalists from entering the occupied territory.

Last week, executives from the Associated Press, New York Times, Reuters, CNN, BBC and other news organizations sent a letter of protest to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert criticizing his government?s decision to bar journalists from entering Gaza. Israel has virtually sealed off the Gaza Strip and cut off aid and fuel shipments. A spokesman for Israel?s Defense Ministry said Israel was displeased with international media coverage, which he said inflated Palestinian suffering and did not make clear that Israel?s measures were in response to Palestinian violence.

Read More http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2008/11/26/amy_goodmans_new_column_tutu_obama_and_the_middle _east

Zapping Taser

http://centerforinvestigativereporting.org/articles/zappingtaser

Overseas Press Club concerned by 'muddled investigation' of Bailey's murder

The Overseas Press Club sent a letter to the California Attorney General in support of a re-investigation of Chauncey Bailey's murder: November 17, 2008 Hon. Edmund G. BrownAttorney GeneralCalifornia Department of JusticeP.O. Box 944255Sacramento, CA 94244 Attn: Public Inquiry Unit Dear Mr. Attorney General: http://centerforinvestigativereporting.org/blogpost/20081124overseaspressclubconcernedby039muddledinves tigation039ofbailey039smurder

Zapping Taser: The Lawsuits

http://centerforinvestigativereporting.org/articles/taserlawsuits

Banished wins anthropology award

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 61 of 76 The Society for Visual Anthropology said Banished?a documentary co-produced by CIR about racial cleansings in small American towns?"has great anthropological value" and honored the film with an Award of Commendation. From the SVA website: http://centerforinvestigativereporting.org/blogpost/20081121banishedwinsanthropologyaward

Center for Media and Democracy - Weekly Radio Spin, November 21, 2008

5:00 minutes (4.59 MB) http://www.prwatch.org/node/7984

Kai Wright on the Proposition 8 vote, Andy Worthington on Guant?namo

This week on CounterSpin: The victory of Proposition 8 in California has, at least for the moment, put the brakes on gay marriage in that state. The post-election recriminations are flying, but the main story we're hearing is that black voters turned out in droves-to support Barack Obama, and to defeat gay marriage rights. Is that narrative correct? We'll ask journalist Kai Wright. Also on CounterSpin today: According to the New York Times, Newsweek and NPR, for Barack Obama to keep his promise to close the Guant?namo detention camp, will be next to impossible, extremely complicated and easier said than done. You could get the idea that some journalists would like to put off resolving the problems created by a Bush policy to isolate detainees and totally deprive them of rights. We'll discuss Guant?namo, Obama's promise and the media with journalist Andy Worthington, the author of The Guant?namo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America's Illegal Prison. Links: - The Prop 8 Blame Game (TheRoot.com, 11/20/08) - The Guant?namo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America's Illegal Prison, by Andy Worthington http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3653

"A View From the South"

Evo Morales knows about ?change you can believe in.? He also knows what happens when a powerful elite is forced to make changes it doesn?t want.

Morales is the first indigenous president of Bolivia, the poorest country in South America. He was inaugurated in January 2006. Against tremendous internal opposition, he nationalized Bolivia?s natural-gas fields, transforming the country?s economic stability and, interestingly, enriching the very elite that originally criticized the move.

More http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2008/11/20/amy_goodmans_new_column_a_view_from_the_south

November 19: Post-Election Wrap-Up

Post-Election Wrap-Up

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 62 of 76 http://www.leftout.info/nov-19-08

Silent addiction

This week, a dispatch from FRONTLINE/World investigates a silent epidemic in Afghanistan?opium addiction among women and children. http://centerforinvestigativereporting.org/blogpost/20081119silentaddiction

Iraqis comment on US troop deal

The Iraqi cabinet approves a security pact with the US, which foresees a US troop withdrawal by the end of 2011. http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/in_depth/7733786.stm

Ad-ing it all up

The game is over. Some won, some lost, and a lot of people laid down their money. http://centerforinvestigativereporting.org/blogpost/20081117adingitallup

New European investigative reporters network takes on Big Pharma

A new European journalists network launched a trifecta of stories last week investigating the pharmaceutical industry. The stories reveal how European pharmaceutical companies have put the lid on disquieting information about potential side effects from an array of commonly used medicines, the power of the pharmaceutical lobby in influencing European legislation, and the new policies which permit drug advertising. http://centerforinvestigativereporting.org/blogpost/20081117neweuropeaninvestigativereportersnetworktakeso nbigpharma

Center for Media and Democracy - Weekly Radio Spin, November 14, 2008

5:01 minutes (4.59 MB) http://www.prwatch.org/node/7963

Maurice Carney on the Congo, Sasha Lilley on The War Comes Home

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 63 of 76 This week on CounterSpin: As the Congo sinks again into crisis, U.S. journalism is again largely portraying the conflict as peculiar to the Congo, a story explained by the country's and its neighbors' endless, intractable ethnic struggles. We'll be joined by Maurice Carney, the executive director of Friends of the Congo, who says international corporations and western consumers like you are as key to the conflict as are local African factors. Also on the show: Media activists have called for more in-depth and critical reporting on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq since their beginnings--the corporate press, with some exceptions, has rarely risen to the challenge but independent media of various kinds have grown to fill in many of the cracks. One project hoping to keep the stories of war alive is the War Comes Home, a collaborative, multimedia project from the group CorpWatch and radio station KPFA in the Bay Area. We'll hear about that from KPFA interim program director Sasha Lilley. Links: - Friends of the Congo - War Comes Home http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3651

Gaza voices on the closure

People in Gaza may be without UN food aid from Saturday, after Israel refused to allow in emergency supplies. The territory has been sealed off since 5 November; Israel says continued mortar fire from Gaza militants is to blame. Three Gazans describe how the enforced closure has affected them. http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/middle_east/7727219.stm

Report says LAX vulnerable to cyber attack

Computer systems and other equipment used by customs and border officials, the U.S. Coast Guard and transportation security personnel for homeland security operations at Los Angeles International Airport are vulnerable to theft and tampering, according to a report by the Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security. http://centerforinvestigativereporting.org/blogpost/20081113reportsayslaxvulnerabletocyberattack

"President Obama Can Redeem the White House"

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 64 of 76 Alice Walker is the first African-American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. But Monday, I called her to talk about a true story. The Obamas had just visited the White House. The first African-American elected president of the United States had visited his soon-to-be residence, a house built by slaves. Walker told me: ?Even when they were building it, you know, in chains or in desperation and in sadness, they were building it for him. Ancestors take a very long view of life, and they see what is coming.? The author of ?The Color Purple,? who writes about slavery and redemption, went on, ?This is a great victory of the spirit and for people who have had to live basically by faith.?

Many decades ago, Alice Walker had broken anti-miscegenation laws in Mississippi by marrying a white man. She is a descendant of slaves.

While Barack Obama is not?he is the son of a Kenyan man and a white Kansan woman?his wife, Michelle, is, and so, too, are their daughters, Sasha and Malia. Michelle Obama?s ancestors come from South Carolina; her grandfather was part of the great migration north to Chicago.

Melissa Harris-Lacewell, associate professor of politics and African-American studies at Princeton University, reflected on the Obamas? forthcoming move: ?There are two African-American girls, little girl children, who are going to grow up with 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue as their home address. That?s an astonishing difference for our country. It does not mean the end of racial inequality. It does not mean that most little black girls growing up with their residence on the South Side of Chicago or in Harlem, or Latino boys and girls growing up at their addresses, that the world is all better for them. But it does mean that there is something possible here.?

Construction of the White House started in 1792, with sandstone quarried by slaves in Aquia, Va., then transported up the Potomac River and hauled into place by slaves. The White House Historical Association lists several of the slaves on that historic construction crew: ?Tom, Peter, Ben, Harry and Daniel, three of whom were slaves owned by White House architect James Hoban.? Stonecutters, or sawyers, ?on government payrolls, such as ?Jerry,? Jess,? ?Charles,? ?Len,? ?Dick?, ?Bill? and ?Jim? undoubtedly were slaves leased from their masters.? Randall Robinson, in his book ?The Debt,? wrote of slave labor in the construction of the U.S. Capitol: ?The worn and pitted stones on which the tourists stood had doubtless been hauled into position by slaves, for whom the most arduous of tasks were reserved. They had fired and stacked the bricks. They had mixed the mortar. They had sawn the long timbers in hellishly dangerous pits with one slave out of the pit and another in, often nearly buried alive in sawdust.?

Looking forward, Barack Obama can make history in another way. The executive orders he issues will set the tone of his presidency and could usher in a new era. Human-rights groups are calling for the closing of the Guantanamo prison camp and CIA ?black sites,? where torture has been commonplace.

Which brings us back to slavery. When Frederick Douglass, the renowned abolitionist, was young, he was enslaved on a plantation on Maryland?s Eastern Shore, called Mount Misery, owned by Edward Covey, a notorious ?slave breaker.? There, physical and psychological torture were standard. That property, today, is owned by Donald Rumsfeld, the former secretary of defense who was one of the key architects of the U.S. military?s program of torture and detention.

With the stroke of a pen on Inauguration Day, President Obama could outlaw torture. It would be a tribute to those slaves who built his new home, the White House, a tribute to those slaves who built the U.S. Capitol Building, a tribute to those who were tortured at Mount Misery.

Denis Moynihan contributed research to this column. http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2008/11/13/amy_goodmans_new_column_president_obama_can_redee

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 65 of 76 m_the_white_house

Amy Goodman on CNN Newsroom, November 10, 2008

Amy Goodman comments on Barack Obama's visit to the White House.

http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2008/11/11/amy_goodman_on_cnn_newsroom_november_10_2008

Anjali Kamat's New Column: "Change We Can Believe In?"

Democracy Now! producer Anjali Kamat writes, "To all those for whom America has represented generations of racial injustice, the election of America's first Black president marks the beginning of a new era...But unless the inspired millions who brought him to power continue to believe their demands matter and insist on holding him accountable each step of the way, it will be Obama's corporate and hawkish friends who determine the domestic and foreign policies of the coming administration and our collective future."

Read full article http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2008/11/10/anjali_kamats_new_column_change_we_can_believe_in

Fat lady hasn't sung in Georgia

And you thought you were done with political ads on TV. Well, not if you're in Georgia. Because Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) seems stuck below the 50-percent mark in Tuesday's balloting, the race under state law seems destined for a December run-off. Freedom's Watch doesn't have much going on these days, and it isn't wasting any time. http://centerforinvestigativereporting.org/blogpost/20081107fatladyhasn039tsungingeorgia

What they don't want you to know

Now that it's over, we can look back and ponder which independent groups might have had an impact on the election, which attack ads left a mark, and who might have blown millions of dollars. But there's at least one group that doesn't want us to know anything. It's in court, suing to strike down the disclosure requirements that tell us who runs ads near an election, how much gets spent and, sometimes, who puts up the cash. http://centerforinvestigativereporting.org/blogpost/20081107whattheydon039twantyoutoknow

Center for Media and Democracy - Weekly Radio Spin, November 7, 2008

5:00 minutes (4.58 MB)

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 66 of 76 http://www.prwatch.org/node/7927

Bernie Horn on election mandate, Billy Bragg on art & activism

This week on CounterSpin: Media are naturally enough busy trying to draw meaning from the results of the 2008 election that brought Barack Obama to the presidency. One emerging line is notable: That the victory of the African American Democrat either doesn't change or actually confirms that the United States is a "center-right" nation politically. Same goes for Congress, where we're told Democrats won by acting like Republicans. It's unclear if this narrative is going to take hold; meanwhile we'll get a different view from Bernie Horn, from the Campaign for America's Future. Also on CounterSpin today, what do American politics look like to singer and activist Billy Bragg? He was on tour in the United States during the presidential campaign, and we caught up with him a few days before the election to get his thoughts. Links: - Campaign for America's Future - BillyGragg.co.uk http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3644

"Organizer in Chief"

You could almost hear the world?s collective sigh of relief. This year?s U.S. presidential election was a global event in every sense. Barack Hussein Obama, the son of a black Kenyan father and a white Kansan mother, who grew up in Indonesia and Hawaii, represents to so many a living bridge?between continents and cultures.

More http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2008/11/6/amy_goodmans_new_column_organizer_in_chief

Noah will wake up in a better country and world

Tonight, I looked at my 21 month-old son Noah, sleeping peacefully in his crib. He, God willing, will wake up in a stronger, more hopeful and advanced nation in the morning. I am very proud of America tonight.

Congratulations to President-elect Obama and to the United States. I am confident that future generations will thank us for our courage and perception at this defining moment in our nation's history. http://www.hearsayculture.com/?p=179

Shows 76, 77 and 78 ? Prof. Paul Ohm, David Rice and Michael Gollin ? posted

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 67 of 76 As I sit here and follow the election results (and did I mention, screen within a screen is great - local news in the small box, national news in the main screen), thoughts naturally flow to posting new Hearsay Culture shows. So I'm pleased to post three new shows! When you need a break from election and post-election coverage, you may want to check one (or all three) out.

The first, Show #76, is my interview with Prof. Paul Ohm of the University of Colorado Law School. We discussed his most recent article, The Rise and Fall of Invasive ISP [Internet Service Provider] Surveillance. It is a fascinating article that discusses, in greal detail, Paul's core argument that consumers and citizens should be extremely concerned about how ISPs can and do monitor the Internet activities of their subscribers. We discuss not only the whys but the hows of ISP surveillance and Paul's suggestions to address these issues. I very much enjoyed the interview.

Show #77 is my interview with David Rice, author of Geekonomics: The Real Cost of Insecure Software. David's book focuses on the concerns surrounding insecure and/or flawed software to our nation's (and the world's) economy and infrastructure. This is a serious issue that we need to address as a nation - and a great start would be to take notice of these issues as a populace through David's book. I greatly enjoyed the interview!

Finally, Show # 78 is my interview with Michael Gollin, Esq. of Venable LLP, author of Driving Innovation. Michael's book is a comprehensive overview of the application of intellectual property law (IP) to the business plan and management of businesses. In our interview, we largely focus on an often-ignored aspect of IP management: the human factor. Michael's book would be a great desk reference for those in any aspect of IP management. I hope that you enjoy the interview as much as I did! http://www.hearsayculture.com/?p=169

Reinvestigating the Bailey case

The Committee to Protect Journalists, an international organization that defends journalists worldwide, issued a statement today in support of the decision by California authorities to reinvestigate the Chauncey Bailey murder case: From the CPJ website: Bailey slaying to be investigated anew http://centerforinvestigativereporting.org/blogpost/20081104reinvestigatingthebaileycase

And they keep coming ...

Independent groups are vying to get in the last word before the election's over, so we'll try too. Here's a litte potpourri of last-minute efforts... http://centerforinvestigativereporting.org/blogpost/20081104andtheykeepcoming

Israel-Palestine: Life on the border

http://centerforinvestigativereporting.org/blogpost/20081104israelpalestinelifeontheborder

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 68 of 76 The union of politics and telemarketing?what's not to like?

Robocalls?those recorded, automatically dailed phone messages?have been lighting up phones everywhere the past few days. Nobody seems to like getting them. Some are inocuous?the standard fare of campaigns and candidates. But then there are underhanded, unaccountable calls meant to confuse voters. http://centerforinvestigativereporting.org/blogpost/20081104theunionofpoliticsandtelemarketing%E2%80%94 what039snottolike

Advancing Wisconsin with national money

With all the new groups that we've seen shoveling money into high-profile TV and radio ads, it's easy to overlook the outfits working to influence the election while staying below the radar. http://centerforinvestigativereporting.org/blogpost/20081104advancingwisconsinwithnationalmoney

Blue ads in red territory

Eugene Hedlund acknowledges that when Hollywood and New York filmmakers prepare political ads to target Middle America, they can spark a "backlash." So the self-described former Republican voter's political action committee, TruthandHope.org, teamed up with Hollywood and New York filmmakers to let Middle America speak for itself. http://centerforinvestigativereporting.org/blogpost/20081104blueadsinredterritory

Big bucks let freedom ring

We know that Let Freedom Ring is one of the most active anti-Obama organizations this election. It's spending millions of dollars on a seemingly infinite supply of new ads. And now we know who's bankrolling the massive effort. http://centerforinvestigativereporting.org/blogpost/20081103bigbucksletfreedomring

"The culture of death" and other last-minute volleys

With the campaign din becoming ever more shrill in these last hours, opponents of Barack Obama are hoping an anti-abortion message can cut through to sympathetic voters. http://centerforinvestigativereporting.org/blogpost/20081103quotthecultureofdeathquotandotherlastminutevoll eys

Catholics can't vote for Obama?

Retired Texas Bishop Rene Gracida says that Catholics cannot, in good conscience, vote for Obama. Now, in a last-ditch attempt to derail Latino support for Obama, an anti-abortion crusader and anti-illegal immigration activist have teamed up to blast out Gracida's message by email to nearly three million Latino voters and reaching even more people by radio.

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Ads hit McCain in home state, Obama in Florida

Arizona is McCain territory -- he's made his home there since 1982 -- and losing it to Barack Obama would sting. So it's no wonder MoveOn.org wants to make that happen. With Obama's campaign gearing up in the state, the liberal group joins in with this TV ad, showcasing a Republican vet who is voting for Obama. http://centerforinvestigativereporting.org/blogpost/20081103adshitmccaininhomestateobamainflorida

Studs Terkel, 1912-2008

The legendary radio broadcaster, writer and oral historian Studs Terkel has died at the age of 96 in Chicago.

Studs Terkel worked as an activist, a civil servant, a labor organizer, an ad writer, a television actor, and a radio DJ, among many other occupations. But since the 1960s, he was particularly well-known as a world-class interviewer, a writer and radio personality who drew celebrities and, far more often, average citizens into sharing their oral histories.

For 45 years, Studs Terkel spent an hour each weekday on his nationally syndicated radio show, conversing with famous and not-so-famous guests and with a loyal audience of Chicago listeners.

With his unique style of oral history on subjects such as race, war and employment, Terkel spent decades interviewing Americans across the country, creating intimate portraits of everyday life and chronicling changing times through this century.

He was also a regular guest on Democracy Now. Below are links to watch or listen to our archive of interviews with Studs Terkel.

November 04, 2003 'Hope Dies Last'?An Hour with Legendary Broadcaster and Author Studs Terkel

October 05, 2005 Legendary Broadcaster and Author Studs Terkel on President Bush, Mahalia Jackson, James Baldwin, Louis Armstrong, the Rebuilding of New Orleans and What Gives Him Hope

May 16, 2007 Studs Terkel At 95: 'Ordinary People Are Capable of Doing Extraordinary Things, and That?s What It?s All About. They Must Count!'

November 13, 2007 Legendary Radio Broadcaster and Oral Historian Studs Terkel on the Iraq War, NSA Domestic Spy Program, the Labor Movement and His New Memoir 'Touch and Go' http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2008/10/31/studs_terkel_1912_2008

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 70 of 76 GOP Trust PAC gets on the air

The National Republican Trust PAC is finally putting some advertising muscle behind all its claims about being able to beat Obama. The group yesterday laid down $880,000 on an ad buy, pretty big for an insta-PAC created last month. We earlier blogged that the PAC was spending more on fundraising emails than actual airtime, but this completely changes the calculation. http://centerforinvestigativereporting.org/blogpost/20081031goptrustpacgetsontheair

Swift Boat donor defends Mitch McConnell

Swift Boat Veterans founding donor Bob Perry is funding a new 527 organization, but this one is a lot less expensive. The First Amendment Alliance is airing radio ads against Democrat Bruce Lunsford, who is in a tight race with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). Perry, a Texas developer, gave $50,000 this month to the group. He's better known for giving $4.4 million in seed money to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which helped to defeat John Kerry in 2004. http://centerforinvestigativereporting.org/blogpost/20081031swiftboatdonordefendsmitchmcconnell

RightChange gets money from controversial businessman

RightChange.com's blitz of anti-Obama ads has been bankrolled mainly with more than $5 million from pharmaceutical executive Fred Eshelman. But this month the 527 organization diversified: it put out a new ad (below) supporting Republican Sen. Elizabeth Dole in its home state of North Carolina. And it reported receiving $100,000 from a controversial businessman named R. Craig Estey. http://centerforinvestigativereporting.org/blogpost/20081031rightchangegetsmoneyfromcontroversialbusiness man

Center for Media and Democracy - Weekly Radio Spin, October 31, 2008

5:00 minutes (4.59 MB) http://www.prwatch.org/node/7886

Homeland Security Pays Dividends for Alaska

http://centerforinvestigativereporting.org/articles/homelandsecuritypaysdividendsforalaska

Bob Dreyfuss on Syria airstrike, Wally Bowen on "white spaces"

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 71 of 76 This week on CounterSpin: The election is not over as we record this show, but no matter who wins, the Iraq War was largely a second-tier issue for the media, more of a discussion of the past than the present. Not even the war spilling over into Syria seemed enough to push the war back into the campaign spotlight. We'll ask national security reporter Bob Dreyfuss for his take on the U.S. attack inside Syria, and what he makes of the current political situation in Iraq itself. Also on CounterSpin today, the presidential election is not the only vote scheduled for November 4. That's also the day the FCC is supposed to make a decision on white spaces -- those areas of the airwaves that will be left vacant when TV goes digital next February. Should that empty space be gifted to the broadcasters who already own so much, or should they be given back to communities to be used for, among other things, providing wireless internet access to the millions of Americans who still can't get it? Doesn't sound like a tough call to us. We'll hear from Wally Bowen of the Mountain Area Information Network on that story. LINKS:--The Dreyfuss Report--Mountain Area Information Network http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3638

Uppercase or lowercase?big difference

Let Freedom Ring is putting a lot of money behind its current kitchen-sink blast of anti-Obama ads. Attention must be paid. The latest in the freedom-ringing fusillade shows Obama saying he will not develop new nuclear weapons and will "slow our development of future combat systems." The footage is from what the ad calls an "Obama campaign-produced solicitation video" from last October. http://centerforinvestigativereporting.org/blogpost/20081030uppercaseorlowercase%E2%80%94bigdifference

McCain-Palin: The nightmare before Christmas?

At some moment in the last month, Danny Elfman had an idea. It wasn't another creepy soundtrack to another Tim Burton film. It wasn't a reunion tour with his old band Oingo Boingo. It was, rather, about his "greatest fear": President Sarah Palin. In no time, Elfman and followers formed a political action committee, a Web site (OurGreatestFear.org) and a political ad now doing a small run in Ohio and Pennsylvania. http://centerforinvestigativereporting.org/blogpost/20081030mccainpalinthenightmarebeforechristmas

Reagan endorses Obama! Or not ...

Okay, so Ronald Reagan isn't around to actually endorse anyone. But that won't stop political operatives from invoking his presidency to boost their candidate. A new, liberal Colorado-based group called Progressive Future is bringing back the Gipper to put in a plug for Obama, while the conservative Let Freedom Ring calls Obama the "anti-Reagan." http://centerforinvestigativereporting.org/blogpost/20081030reaganendorsesobamaornot

Union power?more than meets the eye

Organized labor is in the mail, on the airwaves and on the streets for Obama and other Democratic candidates. And there's even more union activity underneath the surface. Besides their own ads and massive get-out-the-vote campaigns, which we detail below, unions are bankrolling the attack ads of several other advocacy organizations. Here are some new disclosures:

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"Election Protection"

Election Day approaches, and with it a test of our election system?s integrity. Who will be allowed to vote; who will be barred? Who will get paper ballots; who will use electronic voting machines? Will polls be open long enough to accommodate what is expected to be a historic turnout?

More http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2008/10/30/amy_goodmans_new_column_election_protection

Parting shots from the Left

It's the final push, folks, and they're pushing hard. Here's a wave of liberal ads hoping to unseat Senate Republicans -- and a video representation of Republican fear. http://centerforinvestigativereporting.org/blogpost/20081029partingshotsfromtheleft

Trust in small business, not Obama

It's sort of like a reverse coattails effect. A pro-business political action committee is running ads boosting vulnerable Republican senators by contrasting them with Obama. In fact, the spots seem more like anti-Obama ads than ads supporting pro-business Republicans, as they are billed by the Trust in Small Business PAC. http://centerforinvestigativereporting.org/blogpost/20081029trustinsmallbusinessnotobama

Latest campaign boogeyman: China

Maybe "McChina" would have sounded better. Reaching back to the 1970s for its rhetoric, a Kentucky-based labor group is sounding the alarm that John McCain and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell are selling us out to "Communist China." http://centerforinvestigativereporting.org/blogpost/20081029latestcampaignboogeymanchina

Clarion DVD now circulated by religious right group

Remember the Clarion Fund and its DVD, "Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against The West"? The DVD -- and the fund's murky background -- caused an uproar when Clarion spread 28 million copies of the disk throughout battleground states, all in the name of attracting media attention. http://centerforinvestigativereporting.org/blogpost/20081029clariondvdnowcirculatedbyreligiousrightgroup

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 73 of 76 MoveOn money behind the curtain

"Paid for by MoveOn Political Action" appears at the end of only one TV ad these days, but MoveOn.org is involved in more behind the scenes. MoveOn, for example, gave $583,000 to bankroll Health Care for America Now's recent ad hammering McCain's health care policy. http://centerforinvestigativereporting.org/blogpost/20081028moveonmoneybehindthecurtain

Anti-Obama ads, amid an onslaught of emails

Every election season, some independent groups sizzle with controversy and impact, and others fizzle. We couldn't tell at first, but the National Republican Trust PAC appears to be of the sizzling variety. http://centerforinvestigativereporting.org/blogpost/20081028antiobamaadsamidanonslaughtofemails

I'm not endorsing, but vote for him anyway

On his latest Focus on the Family Action radio broadcast, evangelical leader James Dobson says, "While I will not endorse either candidate this year...I can say that I am now supportive of Senator John McCain and his bid for the presidency." http://centerforinvestigativereporting.org/blogpost/20081028i039mnotendorsingbutvoteforhimanyway

Evidence Ignored in Chauncey Bailey Murder Case: A Timeline

http://centerforinvestigativereporting.org/articles/evidenceignoredinchaunceybaileymurdercaseatimeline

Even the advertiser calls ad 'bizarre'

Usually advocacy groups avoid spending money on attack ads against politicians they can't beat. But the brand-new 2020 Action Fund, challenging Republican Sen. Jim Inhofe in deep-red Oklahoma, is in it for the long haul. Even the spokesman for the Boston-based group calls its new ad "borderline bizarre." http://centerforinvestigativereporting.org/blogpost/20081025eventheadvertisercallsad039bizarre039

Promoting an ethnic wedge issue

A Republican Latino group with ties to the Bush Administration is airing radio ads alleging that Obama puts African Americans before Latinos and Africa before Latin America. The 527 group, Latinos For Reform, is new this month and now it's running a Spanish-language ad in Pennsylvania and Colorado. The ad translates, in part, as: http://centerforinvestigativereporting.org/blogpost/20081025promotinganethnicwedgeissue

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 74 of 76 The cameraman always wins

Why do people assault cameramen? Don't they realize they have cameras? It's a continuing mystery, as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce uses one angry-man-versus-cameraman confrontation to blast union-friendly legislation and the Democrats who support it. http://centerforinvestigativereporting.org/blogpost/20081025thecameramanalwayswins

Center for Media and Democracy - Weekly Radio Spin, October 24, 2008

5:00 minutes (4.58 MB) http://www.prwatch.org/node/7859

Devin West on 'collateral damage,' Francesca Grifo on science and free speech

This week on CounterSpin: Stories about civilian casualties inflicted by the U.S. military in Afghanistan or Iraq may be moving and troubling, but you virtually always come away with the sense that, while regrettable, such deaths are certainly always unintentional and somehow unavoidable in the midst of war. A new report from the Institute for Policy Studies looks at the policies and practices that make civilian casualties so foreseeable, actually, as to seem to be an actual strategy of U.S. warfare. We'll talk to report co-author Devin West. Also this week: We've heard about the battles between the Bush White House and various government scientific agencies--what reporter Chris Mooney dubbed the "Republican war on science." But how does that battle play out in the media? If agency scientists can't speak to the press, what effect does that have on journalists'--and more broadly, the public's--right to know? Francesca Grifo of the Union of Concerned Scientists will join us to talk about her group's new report on government science and the press. Links: - Collateral Damage, by Devin West & Marcus Raskin (Institute for Policy Studies, 10/10/08) - Freedom to Speak?: A Report Card on Federal Agency Media Policies (Union of Concerned Scientists, 10/17/08) http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3632

From 'oops' to on-air in five days

How long does it take to go from gaffe to attack ad? Five days, based on our most recent example. You'll recall that on Sunday, Democratic VP candidate Joe Biden said, "Mark my words. It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy...Watch, we're gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy." http://centerforinvestigativereporting.org/blogpost/20081023from039oops039toonairinfivedays

Electioneering by hypnosis in Oregon

The Democrats have figured it out. The key to defeating Sen. Gordon Smith (R-OR) is hypnosis. How else to explain these similarly transfixing anti-Smith ads from two liberal groups? The Service Employees International Union offers a spinning kaleidoscope of money, symbolizing the "deep dark hole" of the economy. Add ominous music, show Smith's face; then bring back the kaleidoscope, cue the feel-good chords and show Smith's competition, Democrat Jeff Merkley. In Youtube format, you can watch again and

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 07:24 GMT / Created by RSS2PDF.com Page 75 of 76 again! http://centerforinvestigativereporting.org/blogpost/20081023electioneeringbyhypnosisinoregon

Sure, the economy is important, but...

Abortion, religion and judges -- oh my! Move over, economy, the culture wars continue. The Judicial Confirmation Network's most recent ad says it best: "Fixing the economy is crucial, but..." But? Yes, but what? "But America's principles and Constitution are threatened by one more liberal activist vote on the Supreme Court." The $250,000 ad buy goes out to Pennsylvania, Ohio and northern West Virginia. http://centerforinvestigativereporting.org/blogpost/20081023suretheeconomyisimportantbut

Alan Keyes' revenge

Think of it as a rematch. In 2004, Alan Keyes -- the Christian conservative activist and perennial long-shot candidate -- lost the Illinois Senate race by a landslide to a state senator named Barack Obama. Now, as Obama runs for president, Keyes is the presidential nominee of America's Independent Party (which sees John McCain as too liberal and the Keyes campaign as an "extension" of the 2004 race against Obama.) http://centerforinvestigativereporting.org/blogpost/20081023alankeyes039revenge

A tour of Senate ads

Our business here is to monitor indie political groups and their ads, and business has been good. Advocacy groups haven't run out of money. The bad news? They've run out of ideas. Two new North Carolina ads follow story lines we've heard over and over before (not that that's a bad way to influence voters -- it just makes the blog more boring). Here's one from Freedom's Watch, blaming Democratic Senate candidate Kay Hagan for jacking up taxes. Our takeaway: She wants to tax candy?! http://centerforinvestigativereporting.org/blogpost/20081023atourofsenateads

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