Tom Burghardt
Antifascist Calling…
October 7, 2008

Ten months before the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld approved an updated version of the U.S. Army’s secret operational Continuity of Government (COG) plans.

A draft document published by the whistleblowing website Wikileaks entitled, “Army Regulation 500-3, Emergency Employment of Army and Other Resources. Army Continuity of Operations (COOP) Program,” dated 19 January 2001, spells out changes in Army doctrine.

Issued by Headquarters, Department of the Army and signed off by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and the Secretary of the Army, the document is affixed with a warning: “Destruction Notice: Destroy by any method that will prevent disclosure of contents or reconstruction of the document.” The restricted document as published by Wikileaks states:

History. This regulation is a revision of the original regulation that was effective on 10 July 1989. Since that time, no changes have been published to amend the original.

Summary. This regulation on the Army Continuity of Operations (COOP) Program has been revised to update Army COOP policy and extend the requirement for all-hazards COOP planning to all Army organizations. Classified information contained in the 1989 version of this AR has been removed and placed in a classified HQDA Operations Plan (OPLAN).

Applicability. This regulation applies to the Active Army, the U.S. Army Reserve (USAR), and when federalized to the Army National Guard (ARNG). In the event of conflict between this regulation and approved OSD or JCS publications, the provisions of the latter will apply. (”Army Regulation 500-3, Emergency Employment of Army and Other Resources. Army Continuity of Operations (COOP) Program,” 19 January 2001, p. 3) [emphasis added]

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truthout.org
Wednesday 01 October 2008
by: Robert Schwartz, Labor Notes

An overlooked order by the Labor Board’s lead lawyer this summer dealt a serious blow to the rights of U.S. workers to protest government policies.

    On May Day 2006, hundreds of thousands of immigrant workers walked off their jobs to protest restrictive immigration legislation. Some were fired, and brought complaints to the board. Ronald Meisburg, the National Labor Relations Board general counsel, responded by posting a directive on “political advocacy” this July that enables bosses to immediately fire employees who participate in work stoppages of a political nature.

The directive, as yet apparently unnoticed by both unions and labor lawyers, cannot be appealed. Read the rest of this entry »

this just in from Myspace…

—————– Bulletin Message —————–
From: Jack Blood
Date: Oct 1, 2008 3:29 PM

If you haven’t heard, all of the speakers INVITED to the “We The People” Fest in Los Angeles this past Saturday, 9.27.08 WERE CENSORED BY AUTHORITIES IN LA

(This included Myself - Jack Blood, Anti War Icon and Congressional Candidate Cindy Sheehan, and Green Party Presidential Candidate and former Congresswoman (GA) Cynthia McKinney.)

The event was besieged with problems beginning just a few weeks before the scheduled event at the Los Angeles State Historic Park located just south of Downtown LA.

The event organizers were put under an enormous amount of pressure after certain political entities became abusive over the event artwork, and the choice of speakers to attend. The police were “concerned” that a riot could ensue if we spoke to the 5,000 plus crowd. (Many more would’ve been at the event which could hold 20,000 if the police did not block the entrance after they decided too many people were gathered together with “anti - government” opinions.) What happened to the First Amendment???? Read the rest of this entry »

Published on Sunday, September 21, 2008 by the Huffington Post

by Larisa Alexandrovna

If you must break the law, do it to seize power: in all other cases observe it.
- Julius Caesar

In 2000, the long fought for and long admired democracy of the United States of America began a slow and steady decline toward fascism - a Bush family tradition - with the installment of a president - a man the citizens overwhelmingly rejected (although the funny math told a still believed myth) - by a few corrupt judges on the US Supreme Court. That coup is now nearly complete and checkmate is all but unavoidable.

Let me first point you to the Bush administration’s so-called Wall Street bailout bill, here, so that you can see for yourself that this treachery is being conducted in the light of day. Fascism is finally and formally out of the right-wing closet even if the F word is not yet openly being used (although it should be, and often).

Now, if you do not yet understand that the Wall Street crisis is a man-made disaster done through intentional deregulation and corruption, I have a bridge in Alaska to sell to you (or Sara Palin does anyway). This manufactured crisis is now to be remedied, if the fiscal fascists get their way, with the total transfer of Congressional powers (the few that still remain) to the Executive Branch and the total transfer of public funds into corporate (via government as intermediary) hands. Read the rest of this entry »

The riveting excerpts below are from the revealing accounts of 20 award-winning journalists in the highly acclaimed book Into the Buzzsaw. These courageous writers were prevented by corporate media ownership from reporting major news stories. Some were even fired or laid off. They have won numerous awards, including several Emmys and a Pulitzer. Join in building a better world by helping to spread this news across the land.

Jane Akre—Fox News. After our struggle to air an honest report [on hormones in milk], Fox fired the general manager [of our station]. The new GM said that if we didn’t agree to changes that the lawyers were insisting upon, we’d be fired for insubordination in 48 hours. We pleaded with [him] to look at the facts we’d uncovered. His reply: “We paid $3 billion dollars for these stations. We’ll tell you what the news is. The news is what we say it is!” [After we refused] Fox’s GM presented us an agreement that would give us a full year of salary, and benefits worth close to $200,000, but with strings attached: no mention of how Fox covered up the story and no opportunity to ever expose the facts. [After declining] we were fired. (click for more)

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By Barton Gellman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, September 14, 2008; A01

14/09/08 “Washington Post” — - This is the first of two stories adapted from “Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency,” to be published Tuesday by Penguin Press. Original source notes are denoted in [brackets] throughout.

Five government lawyers had gathered around a small conference table in the Justice Department command center. Four were expected. David S. Addington, counsel to Vice President Cheney, got wind of the meeting and invited himself. Read the rest of this entry »

Wayne Madsen
Online Journal
September 15, 2008

Antipathy and disgust for the Bush administration and its neocon ideological ilk, including the key players and advisers in the John McCain campaign, have long taken root in the Middle East and South Asia. Names like Cheney, Wolfowitz, Perle, Feith, and Ledeen are held in utmost contempt throughout the Middle East and Muslim worlds.

The same kind of hatred for the United States and its neocon Latin American policy is now sweeping through South and Central America. In Latin America, it is individuals with names like Goldberg, Levey, Shapiro, Mukasey, Berman, Brownfield, and Shannon who have rankled Latin American nerves by their meddlesome actions in not only grossly interfering in the domestic affairs of Latin American nations, including fomenting insurrection and acts of terrorism, but designating certain Latin American leaders and officials as aiding in drug trafficking and terrorism. Read the rest of this entry »

Kingpins of Military-Industrial complex say they will “brand” websites they consider “trustworthy and reliable sources of information”

Steve Watson
Infowars.net
September 15, 2008

A foundation populated by the giants of business, banking, government and military wants to “vet” websites and limit the spread of information that it says creates “conspiracy theories”.

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), fronted by Internet creator Sir Tim Berners-Lee, says it is worried about the way the web has been “used to spread disinformation”.

Speaking to the BBC, Berners-Lee said that there needed to be a new system that would give websites a “label for trustworthiness” once they had been proved reliable sources. Only then would the rise of “cult thinking” be avoided according to Berners-Lee.

“On the web the thinking of cults can spread very rapidly and suddenly a cult which was 12 people who had some deep personal issues suddenly find a formula which is very believable,” Berners-Lee said. “A sort of conspiracy theory of sorts and which you can imagine spreading to thousands of people and being deeply damaging.”

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Daily Newscaster

September 4th, 2008

By: D. H. Williams @ 7:29 PM - EST

Today at the Republican National Convention, as the Ron Paul Delegates were taking a picture in front of the model White House inside the Convention Center, they were surrounded by Secret Service which proceeded to search the bags of all the delegates. They took any and everything related to Ron Paul including signs, buttons, videos, slim jims, cards, even books.

Alternate Delegate Dennis Rothacker from Florida said “We were done taking the picture when Secret Service started walking into the room and surrounded us. There were about 30 of them. When they searched my bags they took my Ron Paul sign and turned a deaf ear to my complains, they just walked away.”

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Overcoming Human Nature
By: Peter Chamberlin

03/09/08 “ICH” — - What words can I conjure to give meaning to the visions that dominate my brain, images of evil and bloodlust, consuming the flesh of an unwary people. I see the rapidly approaching epic, the cataclysmic convulsion of a violent racist culture, stabbing feverishly at its own womb, hoping to abort the birth of the new man of peace and unity.

I see clearly the rising image of the new race, a new culture dedicated to enlightenment. The new mankind will be hungry for knowledge, in the same way that the current race is hungry for wealth and power. The new man will seek to overcome life’s problems through understanding them, instead of forcefully re-ordering them to a more acceptable configuration.
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By Liliana Segura, AlterNet. Posted September 3, 2008.

“It’s like we don’t have rights. Like we don’t even live here.”

Sitting outside the Black Dog cafe in lower St. Paul late Tuesday morning, a lanky kid in dreadlocks and a black Bob Marley T-shirt stopped, asked me for a light, and sat down next to me. It was drizzly and gray, and eerily quiet. The night before, nearly 300 people had been arrested by Minnesota police in a sweeping display of brute force. Among them were journalist Amy Goodman and two Democracy Now! producers, both of whom were physically assaulted. With helicopters overheard and the National Guard out, it felt like a city under siege.
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The San Francisco Chronicle’s Joe Garofoli interviews Amy Goodman right as she was released from jail about what took place .

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
www.democracynow.org

September 1, 2008

Contact:
Denis Moynihan 917-549-5000
Mike Burke 646-552-5107, mike@democracynow.org

ST. PAUL, MN—Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman was unlawfully arrested in downtown St. Paul, Minnesota at approximately 5 p.m. local time. Police violently manhandled Goodman, yanking her arm, as they arrested her. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYjyvkR0bGQ
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William Cormier
OpEdNews
September 1, 2008

Blackwater International is running a full page on their website attempting to compile “a list of qualified security personnel for possible deployment into areas affected by Hurricane Gustav.” This is a task that has historically been undertaken by our various state National Guard Units.

CNN is reporting that President Bush and Vice-President Darth Cheney will not attend the RNC because of Hurricane Gustav. Some believe it’s nothing more than a PR stunt, however, as we look behind the scenes, it is possible that something far more sinister is behind Bush and Cheney’s decision to forgo the Republican National Convention:

Bush tells Gulf Coast residents to flee ‘dangerous’ storm

“This storm is dangerous,” he warned, urging residents to heed calls to evacuate.

After a briefing at FEMA headquarters, Bush said he would forgo an appearance at the GOP National Convention on Monday and will be in Texas instead.

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TheUptake.comSat. Aug 30, 2008. Saint Paul, MN Police Department raids a home at 951 Iglehart Avenue at gunpoint. The journalists include a contributing photojournalist with “Democracy Now”, whose host Amy Goodman appears in this clip jumping a fence to question police officers.This is part of a series of police actions on the eve of the Republican National Convention in St. Paul.After several hours, all those detained were released. No arrests. No property was seized as result of the search warrant. The clip ends with an interview with homeowner Mike Whalen. At the start of the clip, a neighbor shouts to the media and onlookers that we could all come into her backyard to see the detained people held in the adjacent backyard.Video by Chuck Tomlinson

 Salon.com
Glenn Greenwald

Sunday Aug. 31, 2008 11:46 EDT

As the police attacks on protesters in Minnesota continue — see this video of the police swarming a bus transporting members of Earth Justice, seizing the bus and leaving the group members stranded on the side of the highway — it appears increasingly clear that it is the Federal Government that is directing this intimidation campaign. Minnesota Public Radio reported yesterday that “the searches were led by the Ramsey County Sheriff’s office. Deputies coordinated searches with the Minneapolis and St. Paul police departments and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.”

Today’s Star Tribune added that the raids were specifically “aided by informants planted in protest groups.” Back in May, Marcy Wheeler presciently noted that the Minneapolis Joint Terrorist Task Force — an inter-agency group of federal, state and local law enforcement led by the FBI — was actively recruiting Minneapolis residents to serve as plants, to infiltrate “vegan groups” and other left-wing activist groups and report back to the Task Force about what they were doing. There seems to be little doubt that it was this domestic spying by the Federal Government that led to the excessive and truly despicable home assaults by the police yesterday.
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TheUptake.com

Saint Paul, MN Police Department raids a home at 951 Iglehart Avenue at gunpoint. The journalists include a contributing photojournalist with “Democracy Now”, whose host Amy Goodman appears in this clip jumping a fence to question police officers.

This is part of a series of police actions on the eve of the Republican National Convention in St. Paul.

After several hours, all those detained were released. No arrests. No property was seized as result of the search warrant. The clip ends with an interview with homeowner Mike Whalen. At the start of the clip, a neighbor shouts to the media and onlookers that we could all come into her backyard to see the detained people held in the adjacent backyard.

By Dave Lindorff

28/08/08 “ICH” — - I was a speaker last night at an anti-war event sponsored by the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Monmouth County, Progressive Democrats of America and Democrats For America in Lincroft, NJ, near the shore. It was a great group of activist Americans who want to see this country end the Iraq War, turn away from war as a primary instrument of policy, and start dealing with the pressing human needs of the country and the world.Yet even in this group of committed people, one woman stood up during the question-and-answer session and said, “I want to get involved in writing emails to members of Congress urging them to cut off funding for the war and other things, but if I do that won’t I end up getting put on a “watch list’” or something?”

I told her the short answer was yes, she probably would. In George Bush’s and Dick Cheney’s America, no one is safe from such spying, and even from harassment, as witness Tom Feeley, the man behind the website Information Clearing House, who had armed men invade his house at night and threaten his wife complaining about his First Amendment-protected effort to publicize important stories on the Internet.

But I also told her that it didn’t matter. She should defend her freedom of speech and her right to petition for redress of grievances, just as she was defending her freedom of assembly by attending last night’s event.
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