CIVILIANISM PODCAST

Highlights from Powershift09 sending a message to end the use of coal — and as speaker Robert Kennedy put it, coal is a criminal enterprise. What they are doing to mountains and our air is nothing short of criminal. It’s time to take action to stop coal. It’s time for a citizens arrest of coal. Speakers from Powershift09 include RFK Jr., Van Jones and Lisa Jackson; also Bill McKibben and Jimmy Carter in the second half.

The Age of Stupid movie trailer can be seen here.

Interested in the Clean Energy Corp — story link about green jobs from the Environment News Service:
“Clean Energy Corps Proposed to Create Jobs, Fight Global Warming”

In the 2nd half, you’ll hear about why natural gas isn’t such a great fuel, why it’s not “clean” like Pelosi is claiming, and whatever happened to Jimmy Carter’s solar panels, and his dream of clean energy. It’s not a happy story, but 30 years later, we have another realistic chance at it. And at the end, bits of a speech from 32 years ago, much of which President Obama could be saying today.

Nancy Pelosi’s conflict of interest is her financial interest in T. Boone Picken’s natural gas venture.
From the Wall Street Journal.

WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her husband invested between $50,000 and $100,000 in T. Boone Pickens’s Clean Energy Fuels Corp., which could benefit from legislation the California Democrat favors to boost U.S. use of natural gas.

Nancy Pelosi’s letter about switching the CPP to natural gas: Read the whole thing here.

Pelosi has a conflict of interest with natural gas, being an investor in T. Boone Pickens natural gas company. She’s an investor in natural gas, so she is pushing the use of natural gas on the nation’s capitol, insinuating that it’s “clean” and renewable, which it most certainly is not. She should be installing solar panels instead. — like our president did 30 years ago. The drilling process for natural gas contains the use of toxic chemicals, including Benzene which causes cancer. And get this — the company who perfected this deadly technique was Halliburton. Here more about this in part 2 of this episode.

From Scientific America.

“Sublette County is the home of one of the nation’s largest natural gas fields, and many of its 6,000 wells have undergone a process pioneered by Halliburton called hydraulic fracturing, which shoots vast amounts of water, sand and chemicals several miles underground to break apart rock and release the gas. The process has been considered safe since a 2004 study by the Environmental Protection Agency found that it posed no risk to drinking water. After that study, Congress even exempted hydraulic fracturing from the Safe Drinking Water Act. Today fracturing is used in 9 out of 10 natural gas wells in the United States.”

As for Jimmy Carter’s solar panels–they were removed by the Reaganites, and now you can hear why.
I read much of the story, but you can read the rest of it here.

You can download this episode here.

Related articles:

• Sen. Reid has plan to reform energy infrastructure (news.cnet.com)
• As Oil and Gas Prices Plunge, a Frenzy of Drilling Ends (nytimes.com)

Wondering what President Obama is busy doing to promote peace in the Middle East? He started with returning the US to the “moral high ground” by ending torture and signing an executive order to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay. He then continued on Thursday at the State Department with Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, and George Mitchell as special envoy to the Middle East.

But, why are we still bombing Pakistan? These and other mysteries will be covered in episodes to come.

Played: Clips from Obama at the State Department and former senator, now Middle East special envoy, George Mitchell from last October.

Something on your mind? Send me news, tips, and music for the podcast by using the form here (Contact tab on the top), or email me with news and comments.

You can also call my Skype comment line 24/7 at : 320-300-4273.

The shorter episodes will continue for now, but Civilianism in its more in-depth format (i.e., really long form) will return at some point later on.

DOWNLOAD here or subscribe on the right.

Bush is gone! This is the full inauguration address of President Barack Obama, January 20, 2009.

Imagine this: We not only have “hope” back but we have a president who respects science and the law again. What a relief!

Download or listen here.
A new episode of PLNC is coming soon. PLNC is new: Podcast Liberally News and Commentary and will be a new podcast under 20 minutes: news and commentary and music. You can see the website here, but I will also be putting it into the Civilianism podcast feed for a while. The Civilianism podcast will also continue but on bi-monthly basis instead of weekly.
Speech recording courtesy of ABC News.

The U.S., according to journalist Chris Hedges, is addicted to war and the dehumanization of an Other. This has serious consequences in the form of collateral damage, which is what his latest book is about. Our war on terror is actually a war on people, because the numbers of civilian dead is climbing, and our next president has said he wants to escalate the war in Afghanistan instead of end it. That means we have to step up our efforts at organizing for peace and pressuring our government to give up seeking revenge and start to focus on a peaceful future.

Who is Eric Holder? Obama’s new Attorney General.

Chris Hedges talks about the Iraq war and his new book about Collateral Damage.
You can see the entire Miami Book TV event from last week at CSPANjunkie.

Obama advisers: Bush era war criminals will walk.

Obama: Warming must be tackled now.
Good speech! This ones gives me real hope for the future.

Congress has fast-track power to Kill Bush rules.
Good! I hope they come through and do it.

What is Islamofascism? It’s a meaningless made-up word that racist people use to justify all sorts of bad attitudes towards people who are from the Middle East or Muslim. It’s a way to demonize them and justify our being at war with them. We have to make sure this war in Afghanistan stops as soon as possible because we are spreading terrorism instead of stopping it and it’s just plain immoral to be trying to solve problems by bombing people. Time to evolve. We need to convince President Obama to end the war in Afghanistan even as he is bringing soldiers out of Iraq, before they are redeployed. It’s time to start to get invovled in a real peace movement, one that looks at the root cause of terrorism and fights it as the crime that it is, not a dehumanizing war where we drop bombs on civilians. Collateral damage is not acceptable now and it never was. (There is no such thing as “avenging” 9/11, no matter what Rachel Maddow says.) An eye for an eye leaves everyone blind.

This episode also covers news about Obama, the Iraq status of forces agreement, automakers headed for bankruptcy, the G20 summit and more. You can download it here or subscribe on the right.

Take action on the bailout issue by visiting Break the Bailout by visiting http://www.BreakTheBailout.com — we need to show Congress that we will hold them accountable.

Music by American Sex Machine, Little Green Bag and Michael Franti, The Future

Congrats to our new President-elect Obama! It will be interesting to see how his presidency shapes up in the coming weeks. But remember, he isn’t the president yet, so technically he can’t be blamed for anything yet either.

Recorded on Veterans Day. Although I am against American militarism, and even though I feel there are far better and more honorable ways to serve your country than by harming other people and destroying their country, I wish all veterans well, especially the anti-war veterans who have realized the truth.

Lawrence Velvel on our new president-elect and his policy on Afghanistan: Read here.

Download this podcast here or subscribe on the right.

From The Real News Network: More U.S. missile strikes kill civilians in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Pakistan and Afghanistan are moving backwards instead of forwards. The U.S. can no longer help militarily because we are creating new terrorists by our actions. Read here

The interview from Alternative Radio is Andrew Bacevich, who wrote “The New American Militarism” in 2005. The interview is from 2006 and he gives a historical perspective on the history of how Americans relate to their military and the MIC.

Wall Street Journal: Intelligence policy to stay largely intact under Obama? Read here.

G20 Finance Ministers Call for Growth and Stability. Read here.
Guido Mantega warns that emerging economies are tired of appearing at meetings with industrialized countries only to be allowed to “drink coffee.”

OMB Watch article on what bush is doing with new rules and regulations.
Midnight at the White House: Bush Using Rules to Cement Legacy

Obama and Iran comments from Informed Comment . Why is he still talking tough on Iran?

IPS News US/IRAQ We have to share this pain
by Dahr Jamail

Winter Soldier: Eyewitness Accounts of War

It would be great if the US spread peace around the globe instead of ever-increasing bombings across borders where we have no business being. Instead we are finding new countries to invade. What will Bush do before he leaves office? Whatever it is, it looks like it is haunting him.

Finally a third party debate, but only two people show up. In fairness, Cynthia McKinney showed up last week, alone, and for this debate in Washington, Ralph Nader and Chuck Baldwin show up. You can download this episode here or subscribe on the right.

Lets get UNserious today for a change. I play the Al Smith Dinner comedy show, starring John McCain and Barack Obama, almost in its entirety. Join me for political hilarity.

Also, an announcement of the 3rd party debates on C-SPAN on Sunday night! See ThirdPartyTicket for more information.

I don’t say much about the debates because what’s to say? You’ve heard most of the analysis already. But Jon Stewart helps with a few comments on Joe the Plumber. Here is the full story on the Joe the Plumber myth.
It’s a hit or myth podcast!

UPDATE: Regarding the remarks I made about Canada’s election, here is some clarification that was sent by a listener in Canada.

Download this one directly here or subscribe on the right.

Voter and nonvoter ignorance is so prevalent and accepted, from our politicians, to our media, to people we know. Yes, it’s everywhere. Help me fight it. John McCain is a Neocon and thanks to a listener, I have proof: he signed a PNAC document regarding Russia that is on their site.

You can download this episode here or subscribe on the right.

I discuss a maddening email from a John McCain supporter who also denies science and climate change, and my response to it. Climate change is real, and I have started a new information center on my website, under the “climate” tab at civilianism.com/gate. Please visit it and add comments and links to new sites if you are aware of any. Help me fight the ignorance of those who have a “religious” belief system that doesn’t accept scientific evidence.

If I hear one more person tell me that global warming is a myth I will turn into a solar flare myself. Shine some light in the darkness! And no, I do not want my country to go down in flames. Stop–don’t vote for John McCain!

ACORN: John McCain once loved them. Might have just been a sordid affair, like so many of his others. But Republicans everywhere are lying to Americans and telling them this is voter fraud, when any irregularities are actually just registration fraud. No one has voted yet using these registrations. I find out this morning my state’s ACORN is also being sued. Squirrels everywhere are very upset. And, more ignorance to fight: McCain Volunteers Taught to Accuse Obama of Terrorism from Feldman’s Frameshop.

The Rolling Stone article about John McCain: Make Believe Maverick. Related articles on the same page, all worth reading.

I also play a mysterious voicemail and I need help in deciphering its meaning.

The new 501 Lobby group against a nuclear Iran — for what purpose? — is here: United Against Iran

Juan Cole spoke on September 29th at St. John’s University in MN, on the subject of Iraq, and I play part of his talk in the 2nd half. (It’s a little bit hard to hear, sorry about that). Here is his website, Informed Comment.

First song: MidLife Crisis, by Faith No More

Middle Song: The Man, The Myth, The McCain by Roy Zimmerman

Final song: This World is Too Crowded by The Rotters

Watch Dennis rock the house at the DNC/Obama Fest in Denver.

He had the room on its feet in a standing O  and the crowd whipped into a frenzy.

New podcasts are coming soon — I’m working on some new software issues and a Civilianism Radio concept (uh-oh) and enjoying the outrageously expensive and AT&T-sponsored spectacle of the DNC.    I’m also feeling nervous about the RNC next week, to be honest… police in St. Paul are already confiscating cameras and cell phones and calling people terrorists according to reports from  Minnesota Public Radio. This does not appear to be a good omen for next week.  So the question is, should I take my cheap camera or my good camera?

[tags]Dennis Kucinich, DNC, Democratic Convention, election 2008[/tags]

Hear Cynthia McKinneys acceptance speech excerpt in this episode. Civilianism is supporting Cynthia McKinney’s run for president because she is a real progressive. Civilianism also supports the Green Party.

Republicans lie to us about security and want to make us live trapped in a constant fear and eternal war. Action item: United for Peace and Justice, NO WAR ON IRAN (click here)

Ominous signs: the Terrorist Watch List is at one million names. Bush wants to hold “enemy combatants”, even if they are Americans, for ever, and ever.

No one gets the real energy crisis. McCain wants to drill in the Gulf of Mexico, and in ANWR, as does my crazy Congresswoman, Michele Bachmann

McCain falsely claimed Katrina and Rita did not cause significant oil spills

Elwyn Tinklenberg for Congress

Cynthia McKinney for President
Chris Hedges article for the Los Angeles Times — how FISA will cost him sources and impede his journalism
Read Stop the New FISA

Alas, it’s too late! The FISA Grand Capitulation passed the House and the Senate, and Democrats voted for it in alarmingly large numbers. This is the domestic surveilliance that even ex-Attorney General John Ashcroft, while in the hospital, would not sign off on! Read the account of James Comey’s heroic efforts for the Justice Department here. The current bunch of Democrats just threw it all away and voted for something even John Ashcroft could not endorse in 2004.

Gates and Bush seem to be moving away from war with Iran, but the Pentagon seems to be moving forward. Which will prevail? The Democrats aren’t doing much about anything, so don’t ask them. Meanwhile, Obama outlines policy of endless war.

Tzipi Livni, Israel foreign minister, said it really would not be that big of a deal if Iran had a nuclear weapon. You heard that right, no existential threat there.

Spying programs: Total Information Awareness, The MATRIX, the National Applications Office, TIPS, and Infragard. We live in a surveillance society that is in a state of high paranoia, even as we grow ever more distant from 9/11. What’s going on? Why are we so paranoid and full of fear? Oh yeah, there’s an election coming up, and someone’s going to lose power.

Infragard article by Matt Rothschild from Common Dreams/The Progressive magazine

Download this episode here or subscribe on the right.

Green Party website and Cynthia McKinney’s acceptance speech.

Gutting the 4th Amendment? The Congress is seemingly paid off to sell our 4th Amendment rights. Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer lead the charge with the most money received to them directly from the telecoms and they are the most enthusiastic in fighting for them. The Senate then voted for cloture and the FISA vote may now be delayed to July. The true heroes of this saga: Chris Dodd and Russ Feingold. Where is Obama on our 4th amendment rights? Nowhere to be seen. Instead, he released a statement that said he supports the compromise.

Supreme Court Exxon decision here.

The Physician’s for Human Rights report called Broken Laws, Broken Lives can be found here.

Major General Antonio Taguba, USA, Preface to Broken Laws, Broken Lives

JUSTICE is on the table — via Lawrence Velvel: Law School to Plan Bush War Crimes Prosecution

“A conference to plan the prosecution of President Bush and other high administration officials for war crimes will be held September 13-14 at the Massachusetts School of Law at Andover .

“This is not intended to be a mere discussion of violations of law that have occurred,” said convener Lawrence Velvel, dean and cofounder of the school. “It is, rather, intended to be a planning conference at which plans will be laid and necessary organizational structures set up, to pursue the guilty as long as necessary and, if need be, to the ends of the Earth.”

“We must try to hold Bush administration leaders accountable in courts of justice,” Velvel said. “And we must insist on appropriate punishments, including, if guilt is found, the hangings visited upon top German and Japanese war-criminals in the 1940s.”

John McCain gave an energy speech that contradicts his own habits! The cars he drives are not energy efficient at all. How about 13 mpg?

June 21 Air Force Air Power Summary – the fuel we are using for war is insane.

As for the FISA compromise: Nancy Pelosi is not upholding the constitution and should be impeached.

FISA compromise bill is here. (Download pdf)

The Politico (linked above) has provided the full text of the compromise bill (114 page PDF file) and points to section 201, listed as, “Procedures for implementing statutory defenses under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978.” That is where it explains the portion that has caused the most conflict, which is immunity for the telecommunications industry.

Cloture vote against furthering debate on FISA compromise: List of votes in the Senate

Obama’s support for the FISA “compromise”

AntiWar Radio (Entire Glen Greenwald interview)

How are telecoms are attempting to buy amnesty from Congress? Read about it here.

George Carlin has died, and he was much more than just a comedian. He was a liberal warrior. At the end of this episode I play a clip of Glenn Greenwald on FISA, and a bit of George Carlin. Make sure with the upcoming FISA vote: Call your Senators!

Download this episode here or subscribe on the right. Music at end: Iris DeMent, Our Town. Subscribe to the new podcast feed here. The old one will disappear soon!

[tags]FISA, telecom immunity, Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer, 4th amendment, constitution, constitutional rights, George Carlin, Maplight, Glenn Greenwald[/tags]

The state of American corporate media is in bad shape. The state of independent media is good and getting better! I attended the National Conference on Media Reform last weekend and tell you about it in this podcast. It was fantastic, and I’m so grateful I got to go. THANKS AGAIN to everyone who contributed to help me attend! You can read more about it here, and you can find my photos here and a link to more in a blog entry below this, and find more audio and video at Freepress.net/tune-in

I play two of the speeches and panel talks I heard in this podcast, and will be playing more in the next one. Media reform is essential to our democracy as more and more of our media is being bought out by corporations that are interested in only one thing: profits.
Fortunately, we can all be a part of the media. Podcasting, blogging, making videos, writing stories, communicating information in all ways that is shared IS media. Be your own media, share what you know and get active in the media reform movement.
People from all around the country, regular people and media professionals, shared their stories and methods for creating media and supporting independent media at this conference. Independent media is the future because corporate media has lost its integrity.
I also cover some news: Iraq, Afghanistan, the treaty Bush is trying to force on the Iraqis that they don’t want that would take away their autonomy, and what is happening to an LA news magazine. Also, a man handing out RNC protest information in the form of a piece of paper was arrested on June 5th outside the very convention hall where Republicans will meet to plot in September!

But this is important: Dennis Kucinich has introduced articles of impeachment. It’s now been sent to the Judiciary Commmittee. His main co-sponsor is Robert Wexler. Call his office, call the Judiciary Committee, call Nancy Pelosi and tell them to impeach George W. Bush! 202 225-3121
It’s important that everyone call Nancy Pelosi’s office and also John Conyer’s office — I just did. It’s easy. Ask for Speaker Pelosi’s comment line. You can then demand she put impeachment back on the table.

Watch the video of O’Reilly calling us crazy and fascists!

Download this podcast here or subscribe on the right.

Music played: Andy Pratt, Masters of War

[tags]podcast, liberals, media, reform NCMR2008, National Media Reform Conference, CODEPINK, Keith Ellison, Minneapolis, podcasting, progressives, impeachment, Kucinich[/tags]

It looks like the Democrats finally have their nominee.
Obama unofficially gets the nomination for the Democrats; Hillary and Obama give gracious, inspiring speeches after the last primaries finally end, and both of them would be better than McCain so let’s get them to run together. Seriously. Then the plan is: Get progressives to fill Congress. The day of Republican rule is over.

Now that he has the clout, Obama should fix what the Rules and Bylaws Committee did on 5/31 — they took votes from one person and gave them, arbitrarily, to another person. It was a backroom deal, away from the public and the cameras. No matter what you think of either candidate, this was wrong, and probably illegal. You can read the details I have gotten from another writer who know the rules better than I do here.

On Monday, McCain gave a frightening, misinformed and misleading AIPAC speech. Obama and Hillary are sure to give similar pro-Israel speeches on Wednesday but they will probably lack the highly paranoid tone of McCain’s speech. Paranoia combined with a war-glorifying tendency is much worse than just plain old tough talk.

The Lieberman-Warner climate change bill is being debated this week in the Senate with a vote next week. Call your Congressman! Dumb Army scientist story here.

Iran gets a new speaker for its parliament. Supposedly, he’s a moderating force. The Ayatollah calls Bush a few choice words. There is little love lost between us and Iran at the moment, thanks to the Bush administration.

Next up, a possible report from the Media Reform Conference. Don’t expect much! When I get back there will be more to it, but I may attempt something low-quality while I am there this weekend.

Blackwater gets a new fighter jet from Brazil and gives it to its new subsidiary, EP Aviation. Along with its new armed helicopters, Blackwater seems to be building its own private Air Force, — I wonder why?

Hear a clip of Terry McAullife on The Daily Show from Tuesday night at the end. You can download this episode here or subscribe on the right.

[tags]Obama, Democratic, nominee, Democrats, Hillary, Clinton, Primary, presidential election, speeches, Xcel Energy Center, St. Paul Minnesota, Iran, Ali, Larijani, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Bush[/tags]

Politics, waste and fraud are related topics in the U.S. but one of them isn’t getting enough media attention. Meanwhile, our media has a problem fairly covering Hillary Clinton, and I play opinions from AAR of how someone else believes that also. What are Hillary’s plans, and will it all be over after this weekend, and will all the votes be counted? (It looks like they will not be, which was announced after this was recorded.)

Here is information on the movie In the Valley of Elah (trailor) and Democracy Now’s Winter Soldier episode.

What does the future Bush administration have in store for us this summer? It could be an attack on Iraq, or it could be random incarceration of anyone it chooses under Directive 51.
NSPD-51 and the Potential for a Coup d’état during a National Emergency.
Also discussed: Top Iraq Contractor Skirts US Taxes Offshore
Iraq Spending has ignored the rules, according to the Pentagon itself.
Byron Dorgan and the Senate appropriations committee on waste, fraud and abuse has found that billions of American taxpayer dollars have supposedly gone to fund war and reconstruction, but are now missing. There is little accountability in Iraq and contractors are war profiteers of the most irresponsible kind.

Pictured above is President Bush at the Air Force Academy, his last speech as commander and chief to Air Force graduates, May 28, 2008. His speech declared that they could fight terrorism by sitting in a cubicle in the U.S. and pushing a button so that a drone thousands of miles away could bomb a “terrorist hideout”. I’m sure that’s exactly what the Air Force graduates were hoping did not happen to their careers. You can find the original photo and others here. The video is interesting too.

This episode also discusses what happens if Karl Rove ignores his latest subpoena, and how Congressman Wexler is still pursuing the impeachment of George Bush.

Byron Dorgan, U.S. Senator from North Dakota, from the U.S. Senate talking about waste fraud and abuse by the U.S. contractors in Iraq is played. If you want more of an in-depth interview with him, see this one by Anti-war Radio in which he discusses corruption within the al-Maliki government, the State Department corruption in Iraq, Halliburton Iraq contracts, the situation of Iraqi judge al-Radi and more.
You can download this episode here or subscribe on the right.

[tags]Memorial Day, Byron Dorgan, Waste Fraud and Abuse, government corruption, Iraq, war, spending, taxpayer fraud, Scott McClellan, Hillary, Obama, Democrats[/tags]

The main portion of this episode is a radio interview with Australian climate specialist Philip Sutton on climate change and the future. Sutton is the co-author of Climate Code Red and he tells us what we should expect in the next few years and beyond, and why it’s a cause for action, not despair.

The Senate did it again. Who voted for more war? Hillary Clinton voted NO on the $165 billion for more war and occupation. McCain didn’t even show up. Obama was there but didn’t vote. Nice showing for the two “presumptives”. I hope that’s not an indication of how hard they would “work” as president. See a list of the other senators who voted to continue the war here: Who voted to continue the war.

If you are interested in the Synthesis/Regeneration magazine I mentioned, I found the website for it here.

Oil Change International: Who does Big Oil donate to the most? Find out here.

The Obama direct mail piece about Kentucky Coal that campaigned in the state of Kentucky for him can be found here on Grist.org.

” . . . . Meanwhile, Obama may believe in clean Kentucky coal, (that doesn’t exist) but many residents of the state are more familiar with the dirty kind. According to activists on the ground, strip-mining “is turning Eastern Kentucky into a despicable latrine.” Hundreds of mountains have been leveled, leaving poverty and unemployment in their wake. The number of jobs created in Kentucky by coal has dropped by 60 percent in the last 15 years.”

Not good.

Download “The Future Part 2” here or subscribe on the right.

Thanks again to everyone who has donated and is sending me to the Media Reform Conference!

Climate Code Red: The Campaign for a sustainability emergency

“Climate policy is characterised by the habituation of low expectations and a culture of failure. There is an urgent need to understand global warming and the tipping points for dangerous impacts that we have already crossed as a sustainability emergency, that takes us beyond the politics of failure-inducing compromise. We are now in a race between climate tipping points and political tipping points.”

Download the report CLIMATE CODE RED here.

Music: Bombs by Faithless

[tags]Philip Sutton, Climate Code Red, Clean coal, Emergency, Obama, Hillary, Election 2008, environment, climate change, global warming, Kentucky, coal[/tags]

Think it is possible to keep your anti-war idealism and back a non-anti-war candidate? Maybe, maybe not (see below). Making concessions for politics is what most people end up doing but it doesn’t necessarily mean you lose your principles. We need to be goal-oriented and defeat McCain, and in this podcast I make a case for it. I think even Republicans might agree, McCain isn’t really what they want either. The most important thing is to keep Republicans far away from the White House and if that happens, real change will happen.
After admitting he approved torture, Bush has made us less safe. The torture may continue, the uncharged prisoners in Guantanamo Bay may continue to be held, but in the meantime, the ACLU has obtained important documents through the FOIA. This is from the ACLU:

“NEW YORK – The American Civil Liberties Union has obtained previously withheld documents from the Defense Department, including internal investigations into the abuse of detainees in U.S. custody overseas. Uncensored documents released as a result of the ACLU’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit shed light on the deaths of detainees in Iraq and internal disagreement within the military over harsh interrogation practices used at Guantanamo Bay.”

False Pretenses: Following 9/11, President Bush and seven top officials of his administration waged a carefully orchestrated campaign of misinformation about the threat posed by Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. Doug Feith, Architect of the Iraq War, and head of the Office of Special Plans, appeared on the Daily Show, and hear some of his cut interview.

Environmental news: The Guardian reports that we have reached levels of 367 ppm C02 in the atmosphere. This is not good news. The levels are rising to dangerous levels while our “leadership” doesn’t do nearly enough.

*MEDIA REFORM CONFERENCE info here*.

Phillipe Sands — the Green Light

TORTURE: Prisoner 063 and the Keith Olbermann Special Comment of May 13.

This podcast also contains a large part of the last Keith Olbermann Special Comment on Bush. It’s a scorcher!

You can Download Podcast #53 here.

U.S. is continuing to bomb homes Sadr City: Hospital was accidently bombed as neighborhood house was bombed, no ‘terrorists’ inside.

Khalid Shaikh Mohammed’s crimes confessed to under waterboarding, now he’s one of five that will probably be given the death penalty, even though their “evidence” of crimes was obtained under torture. He confessed to over 30 (some outrageous) terrorists attacks, and if he was tortured (he was) none of it is admissible in court.

DON’T TAKE this to mean I won’t change my mind about the “Democrats”. I always reserve the right to change my mind about politics, politicians and election topics.

[tags]political, progressive, podcast, Civilianism, Civilianism, Countdown, Olbermann, special comment, Daily Show, Feith, interview, anti-war, anti-torture, torture, campaign 2009, election[/tags]

So many Republican policies are just illogical. The U.S. economy is in trouble, and jobs are in trouble. We need to take away the health care burden from companies that are trying to employ people and put it on the government where it belongs. And speaking of the economy; people might not understand NAFTA, but they understand job losses, and there were a lot of them in February — 63,000. Hundreds of thousands of “marginal” workers have also given up the search for jobs and are now paying their bills with their credit cards. What happens when they can’t make the payments?
Republican economic politics hurt the American worker and they just don’t make any sense. This is why we need to get Republicans out of office and convince our Republican friends to stop voting against their own best interests. Soon gas will be so expensive we will all have to ride bikes everywhere we go, or not go anywhere. Another bad byproduct of the Iraq occupation, our meddling in the Middle East and the weak dollar.

The peace process between Gaza and Israel needs to be brokered by the U.S. more fairly and evenly. So far, the situation is not being helped with our bias towards Israel all the time. And this will come as no big surprise; from DemocracyNow.org

“Obama & Clinton Express Support for Israel’s Actions in Gaza — On the campaign trail, both Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have voiced support for Israel following its attack on Gaza. Obama said, “The violence in Gaza is the result of Hamas’s decision to launch rocket attacks on Israeli civilians, and Israel has a right to defend itself.” Clinton issued a similar statement, saying, “I deplore and condemn the Hamas rocket attacks on southern Israel, including the city of Ashkelon. Israel has the right to defend its citizens.”

Former Sen. Bob Kerrey will appear on an upcoming airing of CLOUT (Air America Radio) to go public with his announcement calling for a Permanent 9/11 committee.

Here is the video of AAR host Richard Greene’s announcement

Big Coal’s Futuregen was killed off by our very own government, and last week was the end of the loans program for coal plants, which has been suspended now probably forever. Good for the environment — bad for jobs!
Loans Program for Coal Suspended

Here is Bush’s environmental speech where he does not talk about coal, but rather wind and solar power.

Here is Bush’s veto of the veto to end separate, secret CIA “enhanced interrogation” techniques.
Message to the House of Representatives
I am returning herewith without my approval H.R. 2082, the “Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008.”

Samantha Power, humanitarian, author and former Obama aide, called Senator Clinton a “monster” and was forced to resign by the Obama campaign last week. I have some excerpts from her remarkable BBC interview, and her Telegraph interview is here.

Our U.S. embassy in Iraq is now going to cost us $700 million? What are they thinking?

Thanks to Theo for his voicemail on what happened in Florida before their primary. Will Michigan and Florida redo their primaries and who will pay for it?

Big thanks to Bill B. and Samantha N. for their reports on the Texas caucuses from last week.

If you live in Pennsylvania, give me a call and tell me who you like for a candidate this year!

VOICEMAIL NUMBER/comment line: 320-300-4273

And, President Obama calls Hillary for help at the end of the podcast.

Subscribe to the podcast on the right, or download and listen to this episode directly right here.

[tags]Gaza, Israel, Samantha, Power, Hillary, Clinton, Michigan primary, Futuregen, big coal, coal power, clean coal, Florida primary[/tags]

A discussion with Texans on their upcoming primary and caucus, the two remaining Democratic candidates, and politics. Also, a brief explanation on my viewpoint of Clinton’s war resolution vote of 2002. You can find her speech explaining the vote here, or better yet, you can listen to me reading it with my analysis.

In part, it states: “A vote for it is not a vote to rush to war; it is a vote that puts awesome responsibility in the hands of our President and we say to him – use these powers wisely and as a last resort.”

At nearly the same time, Barack Obama was giving a speech that started out: “Let me begin by saying that although this has been billed as an anti-war rally, I stand before you as someone who is not opposed to war in all circumstances.

The Civil War was one of the bloodiest in history, and yet it was only through the crucible of the sword, the sacrifice of multitudes, that we could begin to perfect this union, and drive the scourge of slavery from our soil. I don’t oppose all wars.”

As an anti-war person, I don’t think the Civil War was necessary either. Other countries ended slavery by making it illegal, not by fighting a long and bloody war. So it’s clear that neither Democratic candidate is anti-war.

You can download this episode directly here or subscribe on the right.

I’m leaving Skype on on Tuesday night (03/04) if you want to report on your primary or anything else, you can call in. If I get any reports they will be recorded and included in the next podcast.
The number to call is 320-300-4273. Voicemail comments are welcome too, which may be played in the podcast.

[tags]election, 2008, primary, caucus, Texas, Ohio, Clinton, Obama, Brazil, war resolution[/tags]

Today, a discussion of some reasons republicans have to go. They cannot take over the White House in 2009, or we might as well succumb to the next asteroid. It’s over for life as we know it if Republicans continue to run the country. Hillary and Obama: this is what’s left. For me, this leaves no choice, but at the same time, a bigger choice:Â Â Can I even support a Democrat who’s not really a liberal? The answer might surprise you.
Social and economic justice issues are but one reason that Republicans have to go! Royal Dutch Shell made 26.7 Billion dollars in 2007, while the poor people of Haiti are literally eating dirt.

In order to start battling climate change, we have to get out of Iraq. NOW.
And cap and trade is probably past its prime as an idea

Juancole.com — The surge is not working. Are you kidding me?
Polls: Most Israelies want Olmert to resign

Bush misleads on Troop withdrawals

The candidates refused to fight in the debate on Thursday night, so I fight for them! Hillary voted to authorize the war, sure, but she’s not alone. Barack Obama wasn’t ALL THAT against the war, either — more that he thought it was a bad strategy. And eventually, Obama got on board with AIPAC: see How Obama learned to love Israel and AIPAC.

One million Iraqis dead in war:

“MORE than one million Iraqis have died because of the war in Iraq since the US-led invasion of the country in 2003, according to a study.

The study based its findings on survey work involving the face-to-face questioning of 2414 Iraqi adults aged 18 or above, and the last complete census in Iraq in 1997, which indicated a total of 4.05 million households. “We now estimate that the death toll between March 2003 and August 2007 is likely to have been in the order of 1,033,000,” ORB said in a statement. The margin of error for the survey was 1.7 per cent, making the estimated range between 946,000 and 1.12 million fatalities.”

Congressman Keith Ellison (D-MN) went to Norway to study a Department of Peace because he’s smart, so I guess that makes him Islamointelligentsia.

The surge is hampering Iraq reconciliation. Bush bragged that this is great. It’s not. All these stories and more in Civilianism episode #45, which you can directly download right here.

Thanks to AJ of the 2Cents Worth podcast for his weekly Eco Moment. Next one: Your voicemails and comments.

[tags]obama, debate, hillary, media, Ellison, Norway, Department of Peace, end the war, anti-war, progressive, liberal, podcast[/tag]