Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Congress Is Playing With Real Fire Now...The People!


At The Very First Sign That The Congress Is playing More Politics With The Economic Revival Of This Nation A Million Man March On The Houses On Congress Should Be Launched!

 

 

 

McConnell Urges Caution in Debate on Economic Stimulus Measure

 

Dec. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said he wants to slow consideration of the economic stimulus package Democrats are drafting, warning that the measure sought by President-elect Barack Obama invites wasteful spending.

 

“A trillion-dollar spending bill would be the largest spending bill in the history of our country at a time when our national debt is already the largest in history,” McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said in a statement. “As a result, it will require tough scrutiny and oversight. Taxpayers, already stretched to the limit, deserve nothing less.”

 

McConnell called for giving lawmakers and the public at least one week to review the legislation once it has been written. He also said he wanted Senate committee hearings on the measure, rather than immediate floor consideration.

 

His demand, in a Senate where minority Republicans will still have the power to block legislation, could stall a drive by Democrats to approve legislation soon after Obama’s Jan. 20 inauguration.

 

Obama advisers and congressional Democrats estimate the stimulus package, expected to include new infrastructure spending and tax cuts, may total $850 billion. Some economists are recommending as much as $1 trillion to boost the sagging economy.

 

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, says her goal is to send legislation to Obama on the day of his inauguration. A spokesman for Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said today that, because he will need some Republican support to approve the legislation, the timing of Senate action is unclear.

 

Republican Cooperation

 

“It remains to be seen” when the Senate will consider the package, Reid spokesman Jim Manley said. “It all depends on what cooperation we get from Senate Republicans.”

 

McConnell’s party will have at least 41 Senate seats next year, giving it the power to filibuster legislation or delay it with unlimited debate. He said he wants to closely scrutinize the stimulus proposal to make sure individual projects and tax breaks truly spark economic growth.

 

“We must make distinctions between what is ‘stimulus’ -- defined by Speaker Pelosi earlier this year as ‘timely, targeted and temporary’ -- and what is merely more government spending on favored projects we don’t need with money we don’t have,” McConnell said.

 

House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio said today he has reservations about the size of the plan. He also called for hearings on it and at least a week of publicly available text for taxpayers to review. In the House the minority party doesn’t have as much power as in the Senate to stall legislation.

 

To contact the reporter on this story: Laura Litvan at llitvan@bloomberg.net

 

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) voiced skepticism today about the emerging economic stimulus plan, applying a brake to Democratic plans to quickly pass up to $850 billion in spending and tax cuts soon after President-elect Barack Obama's Jan. 20 inauguration.

 

"As of right now, Americans are left with more questions than answers about this unprecedented government spending, and I believe the taxpayers deserve to know a lot more about where it will be spent before we consider passing it," McConnell said in a statement, which will be publicly issued later today.

 

Obama's advisers and congressional Democrats have been huddling in the Capitol trying to craft a massive stimulus plan that could cost anywhere from $675 billion to $850 billion, while some economists are pushing for a total package worth more than $1 trillion.

 

McConnell -- the most powerful Republican in Washington, based on the filibuster-proof level of 41 GOP Senate seats -- called for many congressional hearings on the stimulus plan and some undetermined safeguards to assure the money is being spent wisely.

 

 

 

 

 

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/bloggers.html

 

 

 

 

While The World Celebrates Innocents Die Tonight And War Criminals Walk Free Down The Road Of Escape.



While The World Celebrates Innocents Die Tonight And War Criminals Walk Free Down The Road Of Escape.


 

"The action I am taking is no more than a radical measure to hasten the explosion of truth and justice. I have but one passion: to enlighten those who have been kept in the dark, in the name of humanity which has suffered so much and is entitled to happiness. My fiery protest is simply the cry of my very soul. Let them dare, then, to bring me before a court of law and let the enquiry take place in broad daylight!"

- Emile Zola, J'accuse! (1898) -

 

A Frightening Inside Look At the Bush Presidency « A Time for Change
Think about it each and every time Bush, Cheney, Condi or any other member of the BushAdministration claims to have made this nation “safer.” Gary Berntsen, C.I.A. intelligence commander at Tora Bora: We knew [Osama bin Laden was in ...
A Time for Change - http://cmacivor.wordpress.com/

 

 

Worldwide actions protest Israeli massacre in Gaza

 

Sign the Petition Online Now - http://www.iacenter.org/gazapetition

 

Join the ONLINE PETITION initiated by Ramsey Clark - sign on and send the message to President Bush, President-Elect Obama, VP Cheney, VP-Elect Biden, Secretary of State Rice, Secretary of State designate Clinton, Congressional leaders, the U.N. Secretary General, Security Council, the Israeli President, Prime Minister and cabinet, and members of the world media appealing for Israel to Immediately Cease Its Murderous Bombing, Siege and Threatened Invasion of Palestinian Gaza.

 

 

Urgent Appeal for Israel to Immediately Cease Its Murderous Bombing, Siege and Threatened Invasion of Palestinian Gaza!



To: President George W. Bush, President-Elect Barack Obama, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, Secretary of State Designate Hillary Clinton, Vice President Richard Cheney, Vice President-elect Joe Biden, Congressional leaders, U.N. Secretary General Ban, U.N. General Assembly President d'Escoto-Brockmann, members of the U.N. Security Council, U.N. member states, the President, Prime Minister, Cabinet and Opposition leader of Israel, and Major media representatives:



For 60 years, Israel has persecuted the Palestinian people with impunity in defiance of United Nations General Assembly and United Nations Security Council Resolutions, orders of the International Court of Justice, International Law and fundamental human rights.

 

Throughout the years, Israel has proclaimed itself the victim as it grew richer, more powerful and more violent, while Palestinians were abused, impoverished, divided and demeaned.

 

A consistent tactic of Israel through all the years has been to divide Palestinians against their most effective organizations. Through most of the recent years Israel has attacked Fatah. Now it is Hamas that Israel attacks. But there is only one Palestinian people and there can be only one Palestinian State. This has been the guiding principle of the PLO. Israel's policy has always been to destroy the possibility of a Palestinian State. Its criminal assault on Hamas is in truth Israel's continuing assault on the possibility of a Palestinian State: divide and conquer.

Now in the waning days of the disastrous Bush Administration, the government of Israel with its Prime Minister under criminal indictment, is testing whether world opinion will permit it to escalate its isolation and impoverishment of Palestine and selective and systematic assassination of Palestinian leadership in Gaza to a genocidal, indiscriminate assault and invasion of Palestinian Gaza, knowing full well its acts will inflame passions throughout the Middle East and Arab and Muslim worlds risking conflict of disastrous magnitude in Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Afghanistan, and elsewhere, even between India and Pakistan.

Beyond crushing Gaza's capacity to resist and imposing its final solution on Palestinians, Israel is seeking confrontation that will lead to war with the U.S., the European Union, and NATO fighting for Israel against Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Pakistan and Afghanistan to impair their ability to prevent expansion of Israel's domination of the region while the "only one President at a time" the U.S. has, George W. Bush, will support Israel, finding all fault with Gaza.

In these dangerous and difficult days and hours the undersigned call upon the United Nations, the United States, the European Union, NATO members, and European countries independently, the governments of Asia, foremost China, India, Indonesia and Pakistan, the nations of Africa, and the Americas to demand an immediate ceasefire throughout Israel and Palestine and the assurance of peace. All borders to Gaza, Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea, must be opened for humanitarian relief and a complete arms and trade embargo on Israel until it fully complies with all the requirements of permanent peace.

We call upon all the people, the ultimate power in every nation when organized and energized, to take to the streets where they live and demand that their governments do all in their power to cause Israel to stop its war of aggression against Palestine and for all parties to pursue peace and for Israel, the U.S. and other nations who have provided material support for Israel's aggression to be held accountable for the deaths, injuries and damage Israel has inflicted.

We call upon governments and humanitarian agencies to provide all needed emergency relief to Palestine - medical care, food, humanitarian supplies, shelter; and on all the media that truly seeks peace, justice and respect for the equal dignity of every child, woman and man on earth to headline the demand that Israel stop its aggression immediately. All parties must engage in continuous negotiation with all Palestinians until a one state solution is agreed or the state of Palestine as mandated not later than October 1948 in UN General Assembly Resolution 181 (1947) is created, fully implemented, and Palestine thrives.

Sincerely,

Initiated and signed by
Ramsey Clark, winner, 2008 U.N.Human Rights Award and Founder, International Action Center 

 

Add your signature to this letter now - go to http://www.iacenter.org/gazapetition

 

 

Happy New Year?




A Happy New Year 2009?


 "The action I am taking is no more than a radical measure to hasten the explosion of truth and justice. I have but one passion: to enlighten those who have been kept in the dark, in the name of humanity which has suffered so much and is entitled to happiness. My fiery protest is simply the cry of my very soul. Let them dare, then, to bring me before a court of law and let the enquiry take place in broad daylight!"

- Emile Zola, J'accuse! (1898) -


While many will celebrate in hope for the coming year; I fear the exercise is more like a drinking to oblivion ritual to forget reality.

 

 

The World Has become A Global Village And It Is About Time That The Village Focus On Sanity And Stability In The Middle East.


The World Has become A Global Village And It Is About Time That The Village Focus On Sanity And Stability In The Middle East.

 

 

"The action I am taking is no more than a radical measure to hasten the explosion of truth and justice. I have but one passion: to enlighten those who have been kept in the dark, in the name of humanity which has suffered so much and is entitled to happiness. My fiery protest is simply the cry of my very soul. Let them dare, then, to bring me before a court of law and let the enquiry take place in broad daylight!"

- Emile Zola, J'accuse! (1898) –

 

Please See The Note At The End Of This Post:


The occupation debate in Israel


Daniel Levy: Most Americans are not hearing the full debate

 

PAUL JAY, SENIOR EDITOR, THE REAL NEWS NETWORK:

 

Thank you for joining us for our interview with Daniel Levy. In this part of the interview we're going to discuss the debate within Israel. Daniel, there seems to be different fracture lines in Israeli society—settlements, no settlement; a greater Israel, a real two-state solution. There's even a small segment of opinion in Israel for a one-state solution that includes everyone. There's a debate, and I think a very big one, over the question of whether to have a secular state in Israel. [There are] a lot of secular people that are fed up with the control that the religious right and fundamentalists have over the Israeli state. And there's even some debate—I guess not too much among the Jewish population, but certainly amongst the non-Jewish population—whether in this day and age there should even be such a thing as a Jewish state, as opposed to a secular democratic state. Tell us the way this debate unfolds. 

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Daniel Levy: AIPAC aggressive positions not supported by most American Jews and Israeli opinion is split

 

What does it mean to be "pro-Israel"? Levy says one side ways it means to support the occupation. But there are many Jews in Israel and the US who oppose the occupation and the bellicose policies of Israel's government. AIPAC acts as if there is only one "pro-Israel" position when in fact, in the US, they represent the minority.

 

From The Boston Globe: http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2008/12/31/israelis_consider_48_hour_truce  

 JERUSALEM - With its punishing air attacks on Gaza about to enter a fifth day, its gunboats gathering near the Gaza port, and its ground forces poised for imminent action, Israel said yesterday that it was considering a 48-hour cease-fire that would also require Hamas to stop its rocket fire.

 

The idea was in an early stage, the result of a conversation between Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner of France and Defense Minister Ehud Barak of Israel seeking at least a temporary pause in the fighting that would allow humanitarian relief to be delivered to the besieged coastal strip. Aides to Barak said he was interested in exploring it and would do so with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and the rest of the Cabinet today.

 

"The leading option right now is still a ground invasion but the target of this operation is an improved cease-fire, and if that can come without the invasion, fine," said a close aide to Barak, who was speaking on the condition of anonymity because he is not Barak's authorized spokesman. "But, of course, Hamas has to agree, and there has to be a mechanism to make it work."

 

In Paris, where Kouchner was meeting with his European Union colleagues over the Gaza crisis, he called publicly for a permanent cease-fire. A similar call came from the so-called Quartet focused on the region - the United Nations, the European Union, the United States, and Russia.

 

President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made phone calls to Israeli and Arab leaders to explore prospects for halting the fighting. They emphasized that any cease-fire should be "durable and sustainable," compelling Hamas to end its rocket attacks, a State Department spokesman said.

 

"That is different from the cease-fire that existed in the last six months," the spokesman, Gordon Duguid, said, noting that Hamas routinely violated the previous agreement by firing rockets into southern Israel.

 

The flurry of diplomacy appeared to be mostly byplay in Jerusalem and Gaza, as Israeli officials spoke of a continuing and expanding military operation, and Hamas vowed to step up its resistance. Israeli warplanes attacked tunnels used to smuggle supplies in southern Gaza and destroyed the home of a top militant leader.

 

Olmert told the Israeli president, Shimon Peres, that the air strikes were the first of several planned phases, according to spokesmen for the officials. It was also clear that the number of targets available from the air was declining, making the likelihood of a ground offensive greater.

 

In Gaza, Hamas militants issued a taped statement vowing revenge for those killed in the Israeli air raids since Saturday and warning that a ground invasion would prove painful for Israel. Palestinian officials say more than 370 people have been killed - among them, the United Nations says, at least 62 women and children and an unknown number of civilian men. Two sisters, ages 4 and 11, were killed in a strike in the north as concern was growing around the world that the assault was taking a terrible toll on civilians.

 

"It would be easier to dry the sea of Gaza than to defeat the resistance and uproot Hamas, which is in every house of Gaza," said the statement from the military wing of Hamas. It was played on Hamas's television station, which had been shut down by an Israeli missile but went back on the air by broadcasting from a van. The statement added that if there was a ground invasion, "the children of Gaza will be collecting the body parts of your soldiers and the ruins of tanks."

 

Hamas continued to fire longer-range rockets at Israel, shooting deep into the city of Ashdod for a second day as well as into Beersheba, a major city in Israel's south, where one landed in an empty kindergarten. There was a report of light injuries and a number of people in shock.

 

Israeli warplanes, returning repeatedly to the same section of Gaza City overnight, pummeled the main government complex with about 20 missiles, locals said. The complex had been evacuated since the start of the operation Saturday, which also hit nearly all of Hamas's security complexes, its university, and other symbols of its sovereignty and power.

 

The Nakhala family, which lives next to the compound, was inspecting the damage yesterday morning and recounting the utter fear and panic they all felt as the missiles hit.

 

"We have no shelters in Gaza," said the father, Osama Nakhala. "Where shall we go? I also have to worry about my mother, who is 80 years old and paralyzed."

 

His 13-year-old son, Yousef, was with him. When asked his view of the situation, he took an unusual stand for someone in Gaza, where Israel is being cursed by most everyone. "I blame Hamas. It doesn't want to recognize Israel. If they did so there could be peace," he said. "Egypt made a peace treaty with Israel, and nothing is happening to them."

 

His brother Amjad, 16, disagreed and blamed the Palestinian president in the West Bank, Mahmoud Abbas, saying that he had sided with Israel.

 

Gaza City was entirely without electricity for the first time, the result of an air attack that hit the system's infrastructure. Repair workers said they were afraid to work because of the possibility of more raids.

 

The few open bakeries and grocery stores had lines stretching outside as people tried to stock up. But essentials - like diapers, baby food, bread, potatoes, and fresh vegetables - were in short supply and costlier than normal.

 

Israel sent in about 100 trucks with emergency supplies of food and medicine, the military reported.

 

At the Hassouna Bakery near Shifa Hospital, about 100 men and 50 women waited in separate lines to buy bread. Amal Altayan was telling others in the line that she kept her cellphone in her pocket so that if an Israeli missile destroyed her house she would be able to phone for help. The other women mocked her, saying that if a missile hit her house, she would be gone.

 

Showing familiarity with the kind of knowledge circulating in Gaza these days, Altayan replied: "It depends. If it is an F-16 I will turn into biscuits, but if it is an Apache I may have a chance."

 

Osama Alaf, 41, said he spent four hours waiting in line to buy bread. "I bought flour until now," he said. "I don't have cooking gas, but I make a fire out of cartons and paper and make bread that way."

 

Asked whom he blamed, he said, "Israel, which is slaughtering us, and whoever is cooperating with Israel, like Egypt."

 

Anger at Egypt has grown across the Arab and Muslim worlds because it has declined to open its border with Gaza and is seen as cooperating with Israel.

 

The Comments:


AND A DANGEROUS REMINDER

 

 

 VOTE FOR THE SPECIAL PROSECUTOR QUESTION NOW ON THE OBAMA SITE


We all understand the historical urgency and imperative of holding Bush and Cheney accountable for their grave crimes against our own country and all of humanity.

And we haven't got alot of time to move on the particular action in this alert so please go to the Obama change site TODAY (voting closes 12/31 at midnight), where there is already a question calling for a special prosecutor, and

1.  Sign in at http://change.gov/openforquestions

2.  Search for "Fitzgerald"

3.  This will display several similar questions, so look carefully for "Bob Fertik" (who started the question)

4.  Look right for the checkbox, mouseover it so it goes from white to dark, then click to cast your vote

And let's all vote for the SAME question (don't start another new one) and demonstrate to our new incoming administration that letting the crimes of the past slide without retribution is NOT an option.

THEN GET YOUR NEW CONVICT DICK & W CAP TO DEMONSTRATE WITH

As we in the White House accountability movement look forward, whether it's impeachment, federal prosecution, or state by state prosecutions as a last resort, the key work is "convict".  And that is why we are introducing a new cap to wear to continue to carry the ball with that says "CONVICT DICK & W" in red, white and blue.  If you want to be one of the first to get one of these new caps please submit the page below.

New Convict Dick & W Cap: 
http://www.usalone.com/convict_cap.php

We are not setting a price for these.  You can have one for a contribution of any amount.  We just want to put as many out there as possible.  And we will have much more news for you soon about planned actions to pressure prosecutors at all levels to step up to the plate and do their duty.

We are in this thing for the long haul, folks.  The criminal dictators of the future can only be constrained by pursuing prosecution NOW of the criminal dictators of the present and past.  In some cases it has taken many years of work by dedicated activists to bring criminal former heads of state to justice.

We the people will never forget the crimes of the Bush/Cheney administration.  How can we?  Their willful disasters will cripple our economy, our military, every aspect of our government and our own personal lives for many years to come.  But if we just continue to speak out, someday soon enough there WILL be prosecutors at some level who will have the integrity, backbone and determination to do what Congress to their eternal shame did not.

Please take action NOW, so we can win all victories that are supposed to be ours, and forward this alert as widely as possible.

If you would like to get alerts like these, you can do so at
http://www.usalone.com/in.htm


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Invitations to the new Google Group are still available to those who wish to join in.  We are looking for serious contributing activist members determined to protect, defend and restore the Constitutional health of this nation and those concerned with the welfare of all humanity and the environmental health of our fragile planet, not quarrelsome or conspiracy advocates.  Those given to those pursuits should look elsewhere. 

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