When the nation was terrorized by deadly anthrax attacks in late 2001, Virginia's state laboratory played a crucial role in the response, performing more than 1,000 tests on samples.
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Heroes to Pigs: The Shapeshifting of New York's Cops Took Only 24 Hours of Porcine Behavior
By Dave Lindorff
Probably the biggest accomplishment of the Occupy Wall Street movement to date has not been the light these courageous and indomitable young activists have shined on the gangsters of Wall Street, as important as that has been. Rather it has been how they have exposed the police of the nation’s financial capital as the centurions of the ruling class, and not the gauzy “people’s heroes” that they have been posing as since some of their number, along with many more firefighters, nobly gave their lives trying to rescue people in the World Trade Center towers on 9-11.
Is the United States a Police State?
By John Grant
Putin Bashing
Putin Bashing - by Stephen Lendman
On September 24, Russia's Vladimir Putin announced he'll run again for president in 2012 after serving eight years as Dmitry Medvedev's Prime Minister.
America's media have better memories than elephants. In November 2007, they recall Putin on National Unity Day telling military cadets and youth groups that while:
Do Biological Weapons Labs Everywhere Make You Feel Safer or Less Safe?
Changes at lab reflect the times
Richmond Times Dispatch
By
They Torture Horses (To) Don't They?: Graphic Exposé of How the BLM is “Managing” America’s Wild Horse Herds
(Thanks to activists Laura Leigh and Marilyn Wargo)
The Perfect Answer to the "Give Us Your One Simple Demand" Crowd
From OccupyWallStreet
This is the fifth communiqué from the 99 percent. We are occupying Wall Street.
On September 21st, 2011, Troy Davis, an innocent man, was murdered by the state of Georgia. Troy Davis was one of the 99 percent.
Ending capital punishment is our one demand.
On September 21st, 2011, four of our members were arrested on baseless charges.
Ending police intimidation is our one demand.
On September 21st, 2011, the richest 400 Americans owned more than half of the country’s population.
Ending wealth inequality is our one demand.
On September 21st, 2011, we determined that Yahoo lied about occupywallst.org being in spam filters.
Ending corporate censorship is our one demand.
On September 21st, 2011, roughly eighty percent of Americans thought the country was on the wrong track.
Ending the modern gilded age is our one demand.
On September 21st, 2011, roughly 15% of Americans approved of the job Congress was doing.
Ending political corruption is our one demand.
On September 21st, 2011, roughly one sixth of Americans did not have work.
Ending joblessness is our one demand.
On September 21st, 2011, roughly one sixth of America lived in poverty.
Ending poverty is our one demand.
On September 21st, 2011, roughly fifty million Americans were without health insurance.
Ending health-profiteering is our one demand.
On September 21st, 2011, America had military bases in around one hundred and thirty out of one hundred and sixty-five countries.
Ending American imperialism is our one demand.
On September 21st, 2011, America was at war with the world.
Ending war is our one demand.
On September 21st, 2011, we stood in solidarity with Madrid, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Madison, Toronto, London, Athens, Sydney, Stuttgart, Tokyo, Milan, Amsterdam, Algiers, Tel Aviv, Portland and Chicago. Soon we will stand with Phoenix, Montreal, Cleveland and Atlanta. We’re still here. We are growing. We intend to stay until we see movements toward real change in our country and the world.
You have fought all the wars. You have worked for all the bosses. You have wandered over all the countries. Have you harvested the fruits of your labors, the price of your victories? Does the past comfort you? Does the present smile on you? Does the future promise you anything? Have you found a piece of land where you can live like a human being and die like a human being? On these questions, on this argument, and on this theme, the struggle for existence, the people will speak. Join us.
We speak as one. All of our decisions, from our choice to march on Wall Street to our decision to continue occupying Liberty Square, were decided through a consensus based process by the group, for the group.
Former Editor Sues Philadelphia Police for Constitutional Violations in Her Arrest
by WALTER BRASCH
A former managing editor for the online newspaper, OpEdNews, has sued the city of Philadelphia and eight of its police officers for violating her Constitutional rights.
Cheryl Biren-Wright, Pennsauken, N.J., charges the defendants with violating her 1st, 4th, and 14th amendment rights. The civil action, filed in the U.S. District Court, Philadelphia, is based upon her arrest during a peaceful protest Sept. 12, 2009, at the Army Experience Center (AEC) in the Franklin Mills Mall.
Some Resonance Please!
By Charles M. Young
Protecting Americans? President Obama's Shameful Silence in the Face of Israel's Murder of a Young American
By Dave Lindorff
Among the many shameful and cowardly things that President Barack Obama has and has not done, few can rival his complete unwillingness to express outrage at the Israeli military’s murder of a young American teen executed at close range during the Israeli Defense (sic) Force assault on the Turkish-flagged aid ship the Mavi Marmara in international waters in the Mediterranean Sea back on May 31, 2010.
Furkan Dogan, born in the US to Turkish parents, both legal residents of the U.S., and educated in the US, was a volunteer on the Mavi Marmara, the flag ship in a six boat aid flotilla that tried to sail with humanitarian aid from Turkey to the Israeli prison colony known as Gaza only to be stormed and captured and pirated to Israel.
New York Times: Railing Against Palestinian Statehood
New York Times: Railing Against Palestinian Statehood - by Stephen Lendman
Longstanding Times policy supports wealth and power; war, not peace; US hegemony and imperial rampaging; and all things benefitting Israel.
In so doing, it turns a blind eye to its most egregious violations of international law, norms and standards.
9/11 Sparks Vigorous Debates in London and Beyond
By Linn Washington, Jr.
What Passes for Journalism and Opinion in America
What Passes for Journalism and Opinion in America - by Stephen Lendman
War Spending: The Idea Whose Name Cannot be Mentioned at The Times
By Dave Lindorff
When you are the New York Times, or in this case, one of the only real liberal columnists working for the Times anymore, there are apparently some things you just cannot mention.
How else to explain how a seemingly intelligent economist like Paul Krugman can scorch the Republicans in Congress and President Obama for failing to deal with the crisis of joblessness and deepening economic collapse in the U.S., but never once mention the endless and pointless wars into which the country is pouring hundreds of billions of dollars a year?
Here’s Krugman:
Media Manipulation of 9/11 Truth
Media Manipulation of 9/11 Truth - by Stephen Lendman
In February 2003, a Florida Court of Appeals unanimously ruled for Fox News, saying no rule or law prohibits distorting or falsifying news.
Just as Wall Street, war profiteers, Big Oil, Big Pharma, and other corporate favorites steal with impunity, it's OK for America's media to lie.
Corporate America Sends a Labor Day Message
by Walter Brasch
For most Americans, the only significance of Labor Day is that it concludes a three day weekend.
For Kirk Artley, it means he has about six weeks left of employment.
On Aug. 24, RR Donnelley, a Chicago-based megacorporation that claims to be “the world’s premier full-service provider of print and related services,” told Artley and the other 283 workers at the Bloomsburg, Pa., plant that “economic conditions” forced the closing of the book printing facility. The workers said they would take significant pay cuts if that would save the plant. RR Donnelley rejected the offer.
Most of the workers live in Columbia County, a small rural county of about 65,000, with unemployment about 8 percent, slightly less than the national rate. Adding 284 persons would significantly increase that rate.
Return of the Malaise: Up to Our Asses in Alligators
By John Grant
It’s a sad reality of our day that denial and bullshit seem the most useful talents to getting elected and to govern in America.
Bullshit is meant in the sense used by Harvard philosopher Harry Frankfurt in his popular book titled On Bullshit. He defines bullshit as language with no basis in truth or fact focused on obtaining power. A liar knows the truth and tries to sell falsehoods; bullshitters simply don’t care what the truth is.
Some of the most popular candidates for the Republican Party (think Rick Perry and Michelle Bachman) are classic bullshitters who completely disdain rational analysis. For them it’s OK to say anything, like Perry and others' denial of evolution and global warming. Reason and responsible history are for the weak.
Glenn Beck Accuses Me and October2011.org of Destroying the Country: We Must Be Onto Something
First they ignore you.
Then they laugh at you.
Then Glenn Beck attacks you as "anarchist communists."
Then you win.
Join us: http://october2011.org
How to Be a Thinking Feeling American
Alan Grayson says "This is a textbook for a college-level course on what it means to be a thinking, feeling American. I recommend it to everyone with a head and heart."
He's talking about this book: http://planamerica.org It's called "Fix America! How Each of Us Can Help All of Us."
I'm proud to have contributed two chapters to it, but even gladder to have read it. What a wealth of information and inspiration. This is a collection of the best recent blogging from the perspective of some truly progressive editors looking for guidance in how we should be thinking, talking, strategizing, and organizing. Contributors include friends of mine, authors I knew I'd benefit from, and others relatively new to me.
They include: Robert Abston, Linda Beale, Beth Becker, Denis Campbell, Cory Doctorow, Barry Eisler, Al Franken, Joshua Holland, Karoli Kuns, George Lakoff, Jon Nichols, Matt Osborne, Ralph Paine, Lee Papa, Robert Pollin, Kenneth Quinnell, Jennie Rigg, Coleen Rowley, Linda Salter, Richard Spisak Jr., The Punk Patriot, Joan Walsh, and Cassandra Vert.
Cassandra Vert edited the book along with Abston and Spisak, and Vert contributed the greatest number of chapters, each of them extremely informative and inspiring. True to the name Cassandra, Vert predicts the future. But she predicts multiple possible futures, depending on what actions we choose to take. I'm hoping that this Cassandra is listened to.
TCBH! Staff Tell the Philadelphia Inquirer to Start Acting Like a Real Newspaper
Journalists from ThisCantBeHappening! took on the Philadelphia Inquirer, the nation’s third oldest surviving daily, this morning, conducting a leafletting “happening” in front of the paper’s soon-to-be-sold headquarters building on Broad Street.
A one-page flyer, written in old English and featuring a replica of the masthead of Benjamin Franklin’s original one-page broadsheet, the Pennsylvania Gazette, accused the oft re-sold and steadily downsized and gutted Inquirer of abandoning its Fourth Estate role in favor of entertainment and profits.
Speaking a message of peace at a Swedenborgian chapel
From LA Quaker
This Sunday at 10 AM I will be giving a message at Wayfarers’ Chapel, a beautiful all-glass church designed by Frank Lloyd Wright's son, in Palos Verde. It's one of the most beautiful spiritual venues I've ever seen, with vistas that are unbelievable. See http://www.wayfarerschapel.org/ I will be speaking there along with my dear Jewish friend Roni Love, who is a teacher, and Tony Lee, a Bahai college professor who writes poetry and teaches African American Studies. It should be a lovely time of interfaith fellowship. In the afternoon, I will help facilitate an interfaith cafe at St Margaret's Catholic Church in Lomita from 2-5 PM.
Here's what I plan to share at the Wayfarer's Chapel:
Thank you for inviting me to speak about peace, a subject that is dear to my heart. For the past 25 years I have been a Quaker peace activist and have been involved in numerous peace projects and several peace organizations, including the American Friends Service Committee and, most recently, Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace. I firmly believe that war is not only morally wrong but it should also be abolished, like slavery.
I am convinced that war is a social disease, one that destroys the soul as well as the body. It has been estimated that between 100 and 150 million people were killed in the 20th century due to war. (See http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat8.htm) In addition to war’s physical death toll, hundreds of millions of survivors of war have been left psychologically traumatized. Suicide, chemical addiction, spousal abuse and similar signs of post-traumatic stress disorder are the fruits of war.
New York Times: Lying about Libya and Palestine
New York Times: Lying about Libya and Palestine - by Stephen Lendman
Note: A follow-up article will continue the narrative below. Currently, events in Tripoli are fluid.
Progressive Radio News Hour contributor Mahdi Nazemroaya's overnight email said:
Falsified New York Times Middle East Reports
Falsified New York Times Middle East Reports - by Stephen Lendman
They appear daily like weeds on all topics. As a result, Times reports aren't fit to read, let alone print. August 18 was no exception, publishing lies about Libyan insurgent victories.
On August 18, headlining, "Libyan Rebels Gain Control of Oil Refinery as Qaddafi Forces Flee," Kareem Fahim's article was pure Pentagon propaganda, duplicitously lying to readers.
Murdoch in Free Fall - Credibility Gone Billions to Follow
Rupert and James Murdoch conjured up a fictional report that serves as the fig leaf used to cover the naughty secret of News Corporation –- they never investigated phone hacking in general and they never tried to clean house.
The House of Commons committee investigating Rupert Murdoch’s United Kingdom media properties released new evidence this week. The evidence elaborates on themes generated at the committee hearing of July 19 and adds new information to the toxic brew that threatens to drown the largest media company in the world. (Images: Hubert Burda Media, L, World Economic Forum)
New York Times Disinformation, Denial and Suppressing Vital Truths
New York Times Disinformation, Denial and Suppressing Vital Truths - by Stephen Lendman
America's "newspaper of record" makes painful reading for alternative media consumers, knowledgeable about what Times correspondents, opinion contributors and editorial writers misreport, conceal, or lie outrageously about.
For example, writer CJ Chivers' August 12 "Notes From the Front Lines" piece practically lionized cutthroat rebels, embedded with them to present their point of view only, saying:
Special Ops: The New Face of War
By John Grant
'Deadliest Day' in Afghanistan? Not by a Long Shot
By Jim Naureckas, FAIR
August 6, 2011, when 38 soldiers, including 30 U.S. troops, were killed when their helicopter was shot down, was the "deadliest day" of the Afghan War, several media outlets told us:
New York Times Support for US Imperial Wars
New York Times Support for Imperial Wars - by Stephen Lendman
The Times never met a US imperial war it didn't endorse or designated enemy it didn't vilify. Nor are concerns ever raised about constitutional and international law issues, crimes of war and against humanity, or mass slaughter and destruction.
The war without end is a war with hardly any news coverage
By John Hanrahan
hanrahan@niemanwatchdog.org
The United States is bogged down in a 10-year-old war in Afghanistan in which 100,000 American troops and 40,000 other NATO personnel are fighting at a cost to U.S. taxpayers of $2 billion a week in a country beset by grinding poverty and ever-increasing civilian and military casualties. There is no shortage of news to be covered, all of it with serious ramifications for the Afghan people and for American foreign policy and military spending, decision-making and the ravages of war.
Yet, other than in its early stages in 2001-2002, the American press has greatly under-reported this war. Only handfuls of reporters are stationed there for more than brief periods. They often do remarkable reporting but face numerous problems that can affect coverage: roadside bombs; the threat of kidnapping if they stray too far from Kabul on their own; language barriers; strict constraints when they are embedded with the military; having to cope with the military’s spin on particular battle actions or policies; budget issues that can limit a reporter’s support personnel, etc. And when they overcome such problems the reporting is still sparse: There are just too few reporters to describe the war and life in Afghanistan.
Lila Garrett hosts CONNECT THE DOTS with Bob Filner, David Swanson, Jeff Norman
Listen on Monday 7-8 a.m. PT: http://kpfk.org
Democratic Congressman Bob Filner: Why after 10 yrs of fighting for the progressive agenda in Congress is he leaving to run for Mayor of San Diego?
Author David Swanson: What chilling cuts can we expect from in the Debt Ceiling Deal? Is a major depression inevitable? Is the movement to challenge Obama in the Primary gaining momentum?
Jeff Norman Exec Dir of Veteran Project describes the shut out of homeless vets from their own facility by the Veteran’s Administration. Is that facility being privatized?
KPFK 90.7 FM in LA; 98.7 Santa Barbara; 93.7 San Diego;
99.5 China Beach
Airs Mondays from 7AM to 8AM.
To pod cast or download the broadcast use this link:
http://archive.kpfk.org/parchive/index.php?shokey=ctd
Each show is on line for three months.
