Are the 70,000 Pentagon Mercs in Iraq killing Shias, Sunnis?

(Thanks to the Iguana for pointing out this article, as well as some very interesting comments.)

AlJazeera:

"Could some of the Pentagon’s hired Mercenaries be the real perpetrators of the daily bombings and assassinations of Sunnis and Shias in Iraq?

Is the current disaster taking place in the war-torn country part of a wider plot to provoke a U.S./Israeli planned civil war that will dismember Iraq?

That is what’s being said in Young Pelton’s upcoming book “Licensed To Kill: Hired Guns in the War on Terror”

Pelton, a journalist, filmmaker, and explorer who authored The World's Most Dangerous Places, Come Back Alive, The Adventurist, and Three Worlds Gone Mad, suggests that there are more than 70,000 armed men working as security contractors in Iraq to back the U.S. military as the U.S. begins to draw down troops."

Some people don't believe anything in Al Jazeera. I say disbelieve it at your own risk.

But check out the comments after the story for a sampling of what some people think is really going on. Then remember that virtually everything that the Bush administration has told us about, well, virtually everything, has been nothing but spin and lies.

Here's one of those comments:

yes,yes,yes of course yes.these are american and british agents who are killing both shias and sunnis and their puppet fox medias confusing the innocent people.there is no civil or any kind of war between innocent muslims.may be the americans and british can hide their crimes from people but they cant hide themselves before god,who is watching every step.the system and discipline of god is most perfect that no one can ranaway with such crimes.god will never forget it.although,i dont like saddam but i still remember his words "the desert of iraq will become grave yard for occupation forces" at least saddam was right with this.no matter how much muslims are killed by america and britain but iraq will be the grave yard for american and british proudness and honor.no matter how america and britain use their "tricks" of crimes but the piller of their power and prestige has been damaged once and for all.chaney's trips can save nothing.the chaneys have no value in the future of world.

The immediate point is that, judging from the comments section of that article, perceptions like this, whether they are true or not, are apparently common in Iraq.

Even more troubling is the possibility that this idea might be closer to the truth than the "chaos, chaos, all is chaos—as thought consumed with madness, former friends and family are now slaughtering each other" that we are hearing daily in the media.

But ask yourself: What was, and is, the real objective of the Iraq War? We know what it isn't—spreading democracy, eliminating Weapons of Mass Destruction, stabilizing the Middle East, and whatever else Bush has said lately. Oil? Saddam sold us piles of oil. We didn't have to go to war to get oil out of Iraq. To protect ourself from an evil dictator? Saddam did not threaten us. We support dictators just about as bad as Saddam all the time, without batting an eye. To battle Islamic Fundamentalism? To help Iraqi women? Hah! Iraq was the most secular of Middle Eastern countries before we destroyed it. Women were commen in all parts of Iraqi society—without covering themselves up. Now they cannot teach, work outside the house, or even walk the streets safely.

So what was the purpose of the war, really? Why are huge permanent bases being built there, and why aren't they ever mentioned? Who gains from provoking a real Civil War in Iraq? Who would benefit from seeing it permanently skewered into small fighting factions?

And who had a goal of dividing up troublesome countries—like Yugoslavia, like Iraq— years ago?

Here's some of what Mike Whitney had to say, forseeing where we are now over a year ago:

The Lords of War
by Mike Whitney
www.dissidentvoice.org
August 29, 2005

[. . .]
The sudden breakdown in the talks on the proposed constitution is an ominous sign that the violence in Iraq is likely to escalate dramatically in the coming months. The Sunnis, who represent 20% of the population and the vast majority of the Iraqi resistance, have played a minor role in drawing up the constitution. The Shiites and Kurds have dominated the negotiations and composed a document that will divide the country into three nearly autonomous regions, leaving the Sunnis in an area with miniscule oil resources.

The Shiites have managed to introduce Islam as the religion of the state and “a primary source of legislation,” ensuring that it will be an integral part of the legal system all the way up to the Supreme Court. Americans who may have thought that we were fighting for democracy in Iraq may want to read Article 2 of the constitution:

Paragraph 1: …Islam is the official religion of the state, and is a fundamental source for legislation. No law may be legislated that contravenes the essential verities of Islamic Law.

“By specifying Islamic Law this text enshrines Shariah or Islamic Canon Law quite explicitly in the constitution and would allow religious jurists to question secular legislation” (Juan Cole)

Cindy Sheehan has every right to ask if this is the “noble cause” for which her son died.

In just two years Bush has managed to achieve bin Laden’s dream of establishing an Islamic Theocracy and rebuilding the Caliphate. Who could have guessed that it would take the ham-fisted policies of the Bush administration to accomplish that goal?

Even more noteworthy, is the language in the constitution that provides for “vast autonomous regions” in the oil-rich north and south that will be controlled by the Kurds and Shiites respectively. That means that the central oil-poor region will be left to the Sunnis, who will lose political power accordingly.

Was the United States behind this strategy to divide Iraq into three parts?

In a word, yes.

Acting viceroy Zalmay Khalilzad is one of the founding members of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC), and has been actively involved in the negotiations from the beginning. Khalilzad oversaw the writing of the Afghanistan constitution which, according to the New York Times, “declared it an ‘Islamic Republic’ in which no law could contradict Islam.” Khalilzad has played a similarly supportive role in Iraq and produced the very same results.

"In view of this, it is absurd to say that the administration is committed to democracy in the Middle East. Quite the contrary, they are looking to duplicate the Saudi regime which has served American colonial objectives for over 50 years.

Does the Bush administration support the division of Iraq, as well?

Of course. It was the US that introduced the deceptive language of “federalism”, probably conjured up in a right-wing think tank, to disguise their real intention of breaking the country up into smaller, more manageable mini-states. The principle of “divide and conquer” is still the time-honored strategy of imperial powers. There’s nothing new here.

Two weeks ago, the Washington Post reported that, “The United States no longer expects to see a model new democracy, a self-supporting oil industry or a society in which the majority of people are free from serious security or economic challenges.” It was an astonishing admission of failure in all the original objectives of the war. The constitution moves the US mission in Iraq from mere disappointment to catastrophe. It is the calculated partitioning of the country and the destruction of Iraqi society through civil war. The administration’s plan to break up Iraq will end the political process, energize the resistance and, ultimately kill more American soldiers."

New Advice: Don't Sit Up Straight!

I can now lean back in my chair without feeling quite as guilty.

LiveScience.com:

"Using a new form of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), researchers studied 22 volunteers with no back pain history. The subjects assumed three different positions: slouching; sitting up straight at 90 degrees; and sitting back with a 135-degree posture—all while their spines were scanned.

'A 135-degree body-thigh sitting posture was demonstrated to be the best biomechanical sitting position, as opposed to a 90-degree posture, which most people consider normal,' said study author, Waseem Amir Bashir, a researcher at the University of Alberta Hospital in Canada. 'Sitting in a sound anatomic position is essential, since the strain put on the spine and its associated ligaments over time can lead to pain, deformity and chronic illness.'"

Are George W. Bush lovers certifiable?

Yes.

NEW HAVEN ADVOCATE: Andy Bromage :

"Lohse, a social work master’s student at Southern Connecticut State University, says he has proven what many progressives have probably suspected for years: a direct link between mental illness and support for President Bush."

One man's reason why Iran must be bombed

This article by Seymour Hersh goes into great detail about the Iran "problem" and what different folk think should be done about it. Though most experts think bombing Iran would be disasterous and fairly insane, some think Bush "has to bomb Iran" before leaving office, for various reasons. Here's one of the most interesting I've heard, from Ephraim Sneh, Israeli Deputy Defense Minister.

In an interview this month with the Jerusalem Post, Sneh expressed skepticism about the effectiveness of diplomacy or international sanctions in curbing Iran:

The danger isn’t as much Ahmadinejad’s deciding to launch an attack but Israel’s living under a dark cloud of fear from a leader committed to its destruction. . . . Most Israelis would prefer not to live here; most Jews would prefer not to come here with families, and Israelis who can live abroad will . . . I am afraid Ahmadinejad will be able to kill the Zionist dream without pushing a button. That’s why we must prevent this regime from obtaining nuclear capability at all costs.

The most intelligent voice on television today

It seems I'm always the last to see Olberman's latest. Here's last week's. I just watched it. It's priceless.

the REAL real reason the Democrats won

... and the reason they didn't get the total sweep they should have. All the house races were nearly stolen. Remember when Rove assured Bush that the Republicans wouldn't lose any seats? Because he "had the numbers?"

He planned on a theft of 4% being enough to win them all. It wasn't. If the huge surge of Democratic votes hadn't happened, he would have had the numbers.

Results Skewed Nationwide In Favor of Republicans by 4 percent, 3 million votes

A major undercount of Democratic votes and an overcount of Republican votes in U.S. House and Senate races across the country is indicated by an analysis of national exit polling data, by the Election Defense Alliance (EDA), a national election integrity organization.

These findings have led EDA to issue an urgent call for further investigation into the 2006 election results and a moratorium on deployment of all electronic election equipment.

"We see evidence of pervasive fraud, but apparently calibrated to political conditions existing before recent developments shifted the political landscape," said attorney Jonathan Simon, co-founder of Election Defense Alliance, "so 'the fix' turned out not to be sufficient for the actual circumstances." Explained Simon, "When you set out to rig an election, you want to do just enough to win. The greater the shift from expectations, (from exit polling, pre-election polling, demographics) the greater the risk of exposure--of provoking investigation. What was plenty to win on October 1 fell short on November 7.

"The findings raise urgent questions about the electoral machinery and vote counting systems used in the United States," according to Sally Castleman, National Chair of EDA. "This is a nothing less than a national indictment of the vote counting process in the United States!"

Pay Attention. This gets confusing very rapidly

But it seems important. WayneMadsonReports, again.

November 20, 2006 -- SPECIAL REPORT TO WMR.

The exposure of the Valerie Plame Wilson and her CIA non-official cover Brewster Jennings & Associates front company and her official cover Counter-Proliferation Division colleagues by neo-con elements in the Bush administration has taken a deeper turn down the rabbit hole of the CIA Leakgate scandal. While the neo-cons in Washington and Jerusalem continue to rattle sabers against Iran's nuclear program and were responsible for the phony intelligence on Iraq's non-existent nuclear program, the very same neo-con elements have not only turned a blind eye to Turkey's acquisition of nuclear technology but have been involved in the proliferation of such technology to and through Turkey. The interest of Brewster Jennings and the CIA in Turkish nuclear smuggling activities potentially involved moving up the food chain and stinging individuals close to Vice President Dick Cheney, including Lewis "Scooter" Libby.

Turkey, a country that has been a nexus of nuclear technology and drug smuggling and a center of attention for Russian, Israeli, and Turkish criminal syndicates, NATO, the powerful American Turkish Council and its defense contractor sponsors, the Mossad, the Turkish Armed Forces and MIT intelligence agency, the Abdul Qadeer (AQ) Khan nuclear smuggling network, and financiers of the so-called "Al Qaeda," has been intent on acquiring nuclear technology for many years with scant western media attention. In the last several months, Turkey has made a hasty decision to build a nuclear reactor at the Black Sea port of Sinop, ironically the location of a former National Security Agency listening station that monitored, among other things, nuclear developments in the USSR.

The most likely choice has emerged as Canadian CANDU (CANada Deuterium Uranium reactors manufactured by Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd.). The main concern about these style reactors is the ease with which they can produce tritium. Tritium can be used as the trigger catalyst for both fission and fusion nuclear bombs. India’s 1998 nuclear test was accomplished with tritium from CANDU reactors. More ominously, CANDU reactors are ideal for producing weapons grade plutonium.

On November 4, 1996, an auto accident on the Susurluk-Bursa highway in Turkey focused the attention of Turks on the close ties between the Turkish government and narcotics and weapons smugglers. Killed in the car were police officer Husein Kotzadag, a close aide to Home Affairs Minister Mehmet Agar, a former high police official. Also killed was his fellow passenger, Abdullah Tzatli, the chief of the right-wing fascist Grey Wolves. Injured in the accident was Sedat Butzak, a member of Parliament for the right-wing DYP (True Path Party).

Tzatli was involved in the escape of Mehmet Ali Agca from a Turkish prison. Agca then traveled to Rome where he attempted to assassinate Pope John Paul II in 1981. Although the assassination attempt on the Pope was blamed on the Soviet KGB and Bulgarian intelligence, the plot was a "false flag" operation designed to ratchet up tensions with the Soviet Union at a time when a group of former Democratic Cold Warriors, who once nested in Sen. Henry "Scoop" Jackson's office, became arch anti-Soviet officials in the Reagan administration. Many of these same individuals would later serve in the George W. Bush administration where they were not only the architects of America's failed invasion and occupation of Iraq but were also deeply involved in the nuclear and narcotics smuggling activities of Turkey's devlin deret (deep state).

Tzatli was also wanted on a number of Interpol red notices (criminal arrest warrants). However, his Turkish diplomatic passport managed to get him out of prison in France and Switzerland.

The CIA itself assisted members of the Turkish "deep state." The agency was implicated in allowing a Interpol wanted, drug smuggler and Turkish government hit man, Abdullah Catli, to “escape” from a Swiss prison. Catli was serving time for conviction of heroin smuggling. Catli's influence permitted Mesut Yilmaz to become the ANAP-Motherland Party's chief leader and later Prime Minister of Turkey through the use of Catli's “support” network in the eastern Turkish border regions. These support networks were directly involved in the smuggling of drugs and other illegal cargo. Both Tansu Ciller, a later DYP Prime Minister, and Yilmaz openly defended accusations of their supporting smuggling as necessary to defend the Turkish State against terrorists (i.e. Kurdish resistance). However, this was merely a reason for the state to be involved in narcotics smuggling. Yilmaz was charged by the State Public Prosecutor with corruption during his tenure as prime minister. He was found innocent under by the Supreme Court in 2006 in a case that lacked transparency. Three months ago, Yilmaz announced he would return to politics.

Mesut Yilmaz is allegedly a key element of the drug trade and money laundering and its international dimensions. Yilmaz’s nephew, Mehmet Kutman, is the owner/founder of Global Menkul Degreler (Global Securities). According to experienced Istanbul bankers, “They [Global Securities] came from nowhere” and quickly amassed enough money to compete with the top echelons of Turkish banking and brokerage houses. Kutman, on a personal level, has made hundreds of millions of dollars from insider information passed on by his uncle’s political appointees in Ankara. In 1999, it was reported by the Cumhurriyet newspaper that he made 2.5 billion US dollars from advance information gleaned from IMF documents held by Ankara authorities and leaked to him by his uncle.

Global Securities is also reportedly a linchpin in transfer and laundering of the Turkish state illicit drug money. His blatant flouting of the law has earned Kutman a number of enemies in Turkey. A failed bomb attempt on his life last year was largely unreported by the media. Currently, the largest retail stock broker in Turkey, Global Securities is suspected of involvement in worldwide drug laundering activities.

The largest port in Turkey, Kusadasi, was refinanced in a deal through Global Securities that enabled the Romanian-born Israeli shipping billionaire Sami Ofer (owner of Zim Shipping) to acquire the largest stake. Later, Zim shipping tendered a bid to acquire and develop the largest port in Istanbul, Galataport. The Turkish Maritime Authority overturned Zim shipping’s winning bid when it learned that the Turkish government granted a hugely favorable financing scheme to Zim Shipping.

The Turkish government also secretly sold 15 percent of the state owned oil firm TUPRAS through Global Securities. Turkish courts overturned this sale after the Islamist AKP Party Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, admitted that he had being lying about a personal relationship with Zim after newspapers disclosed his travel tickets to the Far East with Ofer. Erdogan also equivocated about his meeting with Ofer's son, Eyal, at the annual elitist gab fest at Davos, Switzerland. In fact, the relationship between the Islamist Erdogan and Ofer are so close, Ofer has publicly referred to Erdogan as the "second Mustafa Kemal Ataturk." Ataturk is the revered founder of the modern Turkish state.

Recently, the Italian bank IMI (Banca IMI) purchased 90 percent of Global Securities. Banca IMI is reported to be involved in narcotics money laundering. Banca IMI also just purchased the American Bank of Albania in Kosovo. In May, IMI bought the Albanian-Italian Bank. Kosovo, a UN-run contrivance that is protected by the United States military, is a well-known distribution center for Turkish refined heroin from a current bumper crop of opium in American and NATO-occupied Afghanistan.

There has also been a recent rush by neo-con influenced media empires to acquire Turkish media enterprises. For example, Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation recently purchased Turkey’s huge TGRT television network, while CanWest Global, which is owned by hard-line supporters of Israel's Likud Party, purchased Turkish radio stations Super FM and Metro FM, with the help of Global Securities.

The Brewster Jennings & Associates/CIA interest in Turkey's role
in nuclear proliferation led to individuals with ties to Cheney's office.

How does Israel figure into a government led by Turkish Islamists? Global Securities' Mehmet Kutman introduced Prime Minister Erdoğan to Sami Ofer in order to gain political support for Zim’s bid for the Istanbul port. There is now a nuclear reactor suddenly announced by Erdogan to be built in Sinop. Along with the reactor, a huge port facility is to be announced for the city of only 250,000. Zim Shipping is bidding for the Sinop port construction. Some observers believe that Zim wants to be close to the Afghan opium trans-shipments to Europe through a modern port on the Black Sea.

Others say it is part of a Israeli-Turkish ploy to provide cover for the CANDU nuclear reactors and secretly extract weapons grade plutonium from the reactor. Global Securities' Canadian co-owner is currently being investigated by the CRA (Canada Revenue Agency) for not reporting undisclosed assets—million dollar homes on the Aegean Sea and in the United States.

Bringing together an Islamist Party and Israel would, at first, appear to be an awkward alliance. However, there is a track record between Israel and Dubai, the financial center that helped transfer money from Pakistan to the 911 hijackers. When the Bush administration was hammering out a deal to allow Dubai Ports World to manage ports throughout the United States, there was a huge public outcry. However, support for Dubai Ports World soon came from an unusual source: Zim Shipping. The defense of Dubai Ports World, owned by the Dubai government, came despite the obvious prohibition of the UAE to do business with Israel pursuant to the Arab Boycott.

The US also arrested an South African Orthodox Jewish businessman named Asher Karni for selling nuclear parts to Pakistan via Dubai interlocutors. Karni's friend, Zeki Bilmen of New Jersey-based Giza Technologies, a Turkish Jewish businessman, was also implicated in selling nuclear triggered spark caps to Pakistan. And one company suddenly moved out of the World Trade Center North Tower to Norfolk, Virginia with its 200 workers shortly before 9-11, in order to “save on rent” despite a decades long presence and forfeiture of a $50,000 lease guarantee. That company -- Zim Shipping.

On June 13, 2006, WMR reported the following: The Turkish nexus of the Karni-Bilmen-Humayun [Khan]/A Q Khan smuggling network was of primary interest to both the CIA and FBI. It is also noteworthy that Judge [Thomas]Hogan, who dealt with the Karni case, was also the judge who ordered the FBI raid of Louisiana Democratic Representative William Jefferson's congressional office. House Speaker Dennis Hastert, who has reportedly been under investigation for receiving Turkish campaign donations and his ties to [Jack] Abramoff, strongly condemned the FBI raid of Jefferson's office. After Hastert's protests, the Justice Department leaked word to the media that the Abramoff scandal extended to include Hastert. Essentially, Abramoff money was being used by the Justice Department as a weapon against Bush administration critics. WMR has also learned that Abramoff's money was also used to blackmail other members of Congress who were investigating the Israeli connection to nuclear smuggling and the A Q Khan network.

References and Notes:

http://www.thenewanatolian.com/tna-4661.html
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/51/289.html, second paragraph provides a good summary. An excellent synopsis at Le Monde Diplomatique, http://mondediplo.com/1998/07/05turkey.
A reasonably reliable overview is available at http://www.timdrayton.com/a13.html.
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/world/2006/01/331315.html. Zim Shipping has the State of Israel as a large shareholder.
http://www.grupposanpaoloimi.com/portalir/ir/en_comunicati_2006/en_20061020_ABA.pdf
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Kosovo/Story/0,,193548,00.html
http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=50178. Yasin El Kadi, a suspected "Al Qaeda" financier identified by the United Nations Security Council had his assets frozen in 2001 in several countries, including Turkey. At the urging of Erdogan, his assets were unfrozen. http://www.thenewanatolian.com/tna-11298.html
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1139395526477&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/nuclear/part1.html
http://antiwar.com/deliso/?articleid=8091
http://www.jpost.com/editions/2001/09/16/digital

Reid Makes Curious Selection for Senate Sergent-at-Arms

Considering the page/Foley scandal stuff, this is pretty depressing.

www.waynemadsenreports.com

November 15, 2006 -- Reid selects GOP hack as Senate Sergeant-at-Arms. Incoming Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has picked former chief of the US Capitol Police Terrance W. Gainer as the Democrat's political patronage position of Senate Sergeant-at-Arms. Ironically, Gainer, who is a Republican who started out his police career by clubbing protestors at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1968, was the choice of House Speaker Dennis Hastert and former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay to head the Capitol police. Gainer was forced to resign after it was discovered he violated Capitol police ethics rules by hiring his son-in-law as a Capitol policeman. Gainer is also suspected by African American members of the Capitol police of being involved in setting up an incident with House GOP staff in which Georgia Rep. Cynthia McKinney was harassed by a white Capitol cop, resulting in a GOP and right-wing media feeding frenzy over the confrontation.

Gainer also headed the Illinois State Police at a time during which ex-Governor George Ryan cited police misconduct by the state police as a primary reason for his commutation of the death sentences of death row inmates. Gainer, while Chief of the Capitol Police, worked under the aegis of the House Sergeant-at-Arms who was partially responsible for House pages in his role as a member of the House Page Board. Capitol Police failed to get involved in the predatory pederast activities of ex-Rep. Mark Foley in targeting underage House pages. As Senate Sergeant-at-Arms, Gainer will have direct responsibility for the Senate Page System.

Sign of things to come?
Harry Reid rewards ethically-tainted
GOP operative with Senate Sergeant-at-Arms job.

It did not take very long for the next Democratic Majority Leader to taint himself in the Pagegate and nepotism scandals with the appointment of Gainer. The rank and file Democrats in the Senate should expect more from a leader who is supposed to clean up the ethics mess left by the Republicans.

Why the Republicans REALLY lost

The Raw Story |German Press Agency:

Affluent men showed greatest disillusionment with Republicans:

"Washington- Two days after US elections handed control of both houses of Congress to the Democrats, a poll released Thursday showed that Republicans lost support from their traditional base, but the largest drop was among affluent men. While 60 per cent of economically privileged men chose Republicans in 2004, only 46 per cent did so on Tuesday, according to the study conducted by a Democratic polling organization. "

The (Intentional) Full-System Meltdown of the US Dollar

This reminds me of the way Iraq has been destroyed, in hopes of rebuilding it in the image of neo-liberal (or is it neo-con?) principles of weath concentration, exploitation, and destruction of any civil or labor rights.


Mike Whitney — Information Clearing House:

"According to the Wall Street Journal the Chinese Central-bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan stated unequivocally that “We think we’ve got enough.” The Chinese presently have nearly $1 trillion in USD and US Treasuries.

“Enough”?

The United States runs a $200 billion per year trade deficit with China. If they’ve “got enough” we’re dead-ducks. After all, it doesn’t take a sell-off to kill the dollar, just unwillingness on the part of the main players to stop purchasing at the same rate.


Of course, everyone in Washington already knew that doomsday was approaching. That’s the way the system was designed from the very beginning. It’s all part of the madcap scheme to “starve the beast” and transfer the nation’s wealth to a handful of western plutocrats. That’s explains why the Fed and the White House whirred along like two spokes on the same wheel; every policy calculated to thrust the country headlong toward disaster.

The administration never created a funding mechanism for the $400 million tax cuts or for the 35% expansion of the Federal government. Defense spending increased by leaps and bounds as did the “no-bid” contracts for friends of the Bush clan. At the same time, interest rates were lowered to rock-bottom to put as much money as possible into the hands of people who couldn’t meet the traditional criteria for a mortgage. And, if gluttonous waste, reckless overspending and “Mickey Mouse” loans were not enough; the Fed capped it off by doubling the money supply in 7 years; a surefire prescription for hyper-inflation.

So, which one of these policies was not deliberate?

The financial crisis that we now face was created by design. It is intended to destroy the labor movement, crush the middle class, quash Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, reduce our foreign debt by 50 or 60%, force a restructuring of America’s debt, privatize all public assets and resources, and create a new regime of austerity measures which will divert more wealth to the banking and corporate establishments.

The avatars of neoliberalism invariably use crooked politicians to spawn enormous “unsustainable” debt so that the nations’ riches can be transferred to ruling elites. It works the same everywhere. It’s a form of corporate colonization, only this time the victim is the good old USA. "

Merry Christmas, Air America

Media Matters for America

ABC memo reveals Air America advertiser blacklist

An internal ABC Radio Networks memo obtained by Media Matters for America, originally from a listener to The Peter B. Collins Show, indicates that nearly 100 ABC advertisers insist that their commercials be blacked out on Air America Radio affiliates. According to the memo, the advertisers insist that "NONE of their commercials air during AIR AMERICA programming." Among the advertisers listed are Bank of America, Exxon Mobil, Federal Express, General Electric, McDonald's, Microsoft, Wal-Mart, and the U.S. Navy.

The memo appears below, and an enlarged version can be viewed here

.

The fine print says "Please be advised that Hewlett Packard has purchased schedules with ABC Radio Networks between October 30 and December 24, 2006. Please make sure you blackout this advertiser on your station, as they do not wish to air on any Air America affiliates."

followed by a list of 90 corporate advertisers who do not wish to advertise on Air America. . .

The letterhead says, "america listens to abc."

Roll another one, just like the other one....

Florida ballot terminals favor Republicans

Even when voters don't

By Thomas C Greene in Dublin

Published Tuesday 31st October 2006 13:15 GMT

Florida voters using electronic ballot machines are having persistent problems choosing Democrats in early elections, the Miami Herald reports.

The touch-screen gizmos seem strangely attracted to Republican candidates. One voter needed assistance from an election official, and even then, needed three tries to convince the machine that he wanted to vote for Democrat Jim Davis in the gubernatorial race, not his Republican opponent Charlie Crist.

Another voter who went Democrat across the board kept finding Republicans listed in the summary screen. He made repeated attempts until, finally, the machine registered his votes correctly, and he cast his ballot.

Yet another frustrated voter who complained of difficulties selecting a Democrat was told that the machine she was using had been troublesome. Poll workers fiddled with it for a bit, and then it seemed to work properly.