By David Boyajian | Dissident Voice | March 26, 2014
After two fair and lengthy hearings, the eight elected members of the Massachusetts Governor’s Council, in a 4-4 tie vote on March 5, refused to confirm attorney Joseph Berman to be a Superior Court judge. It was a defeat for Governor Deval Patrick, who had nominated Mr. Berman. But the Council took its responsibilities seriously and rendered a well-considered judgment.
Ma’an – 27/03/2014
JERUSALEM – Israeli forces on Wednesday prevented Palestinian human rights organizations in Jerusalem from holding a conference in opposition to Arab enlistment in the Israeli military, organizers said.
Israeli special forces and police reportedly stormed the headquarters of the Yabous Cultural Center immediately prior to the beginning of the conference and shut down the building until the evening.
The only state that has both Senate seats up in November is South Carolina. That's because Lindsey Graham has served his 6 year term and is up for reelection for one seat and because Jim DeMint resigned and was replaced with a gubernatorial appointment, right-wing extremist Tim Scott, for the other seat. There will be a special election to fill out the rest of DeMint's term.
I was thrilled this week when Guy Cecil and Michael Bennet got on board and gave the Shenna Bellows campaign the DSCC's big thumbs up. Hopefully, that will be the beginning of the end for fake moderate Susan Collins in Maine. So, RIGHT ON GUY CECIL and RIGHT ON Michael Bennet. I will refrain from any gratuitously nasty statements about the two of them for at least… well, I hope forever. Next up: South Dakota prairie populist Rick Weiland.
The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release March 26, 2014
FACT SHEET: U.S. Efforts in Support of NATO Allies and Partners
[Bold print added - RR]
Deutsche Welle
March 26, 2014
NATO next for Sweden and Finland?
Russia’s annexation of Crimea has prompted non-aligned Sweden and Finland to weigh defense options such as beefing up partnership with NATO or formally joining the alliance. Analysts say it’s up to Russia what’s next.
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Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts
Bertolt Brecht: Selections on war
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Bertolt Brecht
From Threepenny Novel (1934)
Translated by Desmond I. Vesey
Press TV – March 27, 2014
Senior British politicians say the United States is “bullying” UK banks and is hampering legal exports from Britain to Iran.
The politicians, including former British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and former Chancellor Lord Lamont, made the remarks at a Westminster Hall debate on Wednesday.
RT | March 27, 2014
The West has not yet reached a stage where it will be ready to impose economic sanctions on Russia, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said, stressing that she hopes for a political solution to the stalemate over Ukraine crisis.
The chancellor said she is “not interested in escalation” of tensions with Russia, speaking after Wednesday meeting with the South Korean president in Berlin.
by Alex Kane
(Mondoweiss) – Israel’s pugnacious Foreign Minister is trying to put a legal veneer on his proposal to transfer Palestinian citizens into a future Palestinian state. Avigdor Lieberman has long pushed for stripping Palestinians in Israel of their citizenship, and now has a legal document in his hand claiming that his plan is in line with international law.
(Al-Akhbar) – Israeli occupation forces who shot dead a Palestinian teenager in the West Bank last week used live fire, without warning, against innocent youngsters out foraging for roots, an Israeli rights group said Wednesday.
On March 13, the Colorado Court of Appeals issued a ruling that may provide a benefit for a small but not insignificant number of the people arrested for marijuana in the state. Brandi Jessica Russell had her 2011 conviction for possession of less than an ounce of marijuana overturned, and this precedent could be applied […]
Except for the definition and mechanism of proving treason, no area of the Constitution addressing the rights of all persons when the government is pursuing them is more specific than the Fourth Amendment. The linchpin of that specificity is the requirement that the government demonstrate probable cause to a judge as a precondition to the […]
Remember reading how CPAC had once snubbed Chris Christie and had welcomed him as some kind of conservative hero this year? Well, maybe John Boehner will be caught up in a big scandal one day that will make him a hero too, but he-- unlike Mitch McConnell-- was snubbed by CPAC this year.
Webster G. Tarpley on INN World Report Radio INN World Report with Tom Kiely March 25, 2013 [download INN audio]
The Iraqi government is hoping to find a quick solution to a legal problem that could cause the delay of next month's election. Meanwhile, at least 39 people were killed and 74 more were wounded across Iraq. Dozens were wounded in attacks against polling stations.
March 27, 2014 (Tony Cartalucci - NEO) - R2P, or the “responsibility to protect,” was a geopolitical tool used by the West after thoroughly destabilizing a nation through armed proxies to then intervene militarily, enact regime change, occupy, and reorder the nation both economically and sociopolitically.
Sandy Hook was indeed a fraud and a massive criminal operation. Nobody died in this operation, period. The purpose of this operation was two fold... One to bring in further gun restrictions against the American people in clear violation of the 2nd Amendment of the US Constitution, and two, to use the psychology of fear and paranoia to further restrict American freedoms while turning the US itself into a police state....
When Malaysian flight MH370 "disappeared" somewhere over the Indian Ocean, I smelled a rat. This was an extended range Boeing 777 aircraft that had enough fuel to land almost anywhere in the Indian Ocean area. Unsurprising to me, the Jewish controlled media was busy misleading everyone into the false belief that the plane crashed somewhere off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia in the eastern Indian Ocean. Once the plane mysteriously turned westbound, its flight path was in a direct line to the US military base at Diego Garcia. This plane had plenty of fuel to land there, and yet the me
What? You settle for a BLT made with fewer than 50 strips of bacon? Then you need to hie to Jersey City by April 1 to the Zeppelin Hall Spring Bacon Festival to sample the Fifty Shades of Bacon BLT.
Dr. Paul Craig Roberts (former US Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy) returns to the programme for a detailed analysis of the crisis in Ukraine, and an assessment of the Western propaganda war being waged against Russia. Setting the discussion in the context of decades of US imperialism, and identifying the current crisis as largely agitated by Washington through its NGOs, Dr. Roberts reveals how Ukraine fits into the neocon game plan for world hegemony.
Dr. Paul Craig Roberts (former US Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy) returns to the programme for a detailed analysis of the crisis in Ukraine, and an assessment of the Western propaganda war being waged against Russia. Setting the discussion in the context of decades of US imperialism, and identifying the current crisis as largely agitated by Washington through its NGOs, Dr. Roberts reveals how Ukraine fits into the neocon game plan for world hegemony.
1613 – The first English child born in Canada at Cuper’s Cove, Newfoundland to Nicholas Guy.
1625 – Charles I becomes King of England, Scotland and Ireland as well as claiming the title King of France.
1794 – The United States Government establishes a permanent navy and authorizes the building of six frigates.
1814 – War of 1812: In central Alabama, U.S. forces under General Andrew Jackson defeat the Creek at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend.
Comparing Obama to Tricky Dick Nixon, your humble host says White House “reform” proposal doesn’t address critical surveillance issues…Click here for free audiobook download from Audible, and earn $15 for the PBC Podcast!
–Obama’s “limited hang out” on metadata changes are spun by corporate media as voluntary reforms
–Snowden notes “turning point”, demands more
–McGovern, Rowley and Solomon submit 100,000 petitions supporting Snowden
–Rachel Maddow added to Todashev story last night
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
March 26, 2014
NATO Secretary General and US President stress commitment to collective defence
Interfax-Ukraine
March 26, 2014
U.S. president, NATO secretary general talk about additional security measures for allies in view of situation with Ukraine
U.S. President Barack Obama has discussed with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen additional security measures for alliance members in the light of the developments in Ukraine.
Obama said their meeting in Brussels on Wednesday focused on the situation in Ukraine.
I met state Senator Ted Lieu at John Amato's birthday dinner a few weeks ago. I didn't know a lot about him-- just that he's one of the hard-working progressives in the state legislature and that he infuriated the banksters by writing and passing-- it took two sessions-- a consumer protection bill that stopped shady mortgage come-ons dead in their tracks.
Via Charles Davis, the Washington Post reports on comments made by President Obama today:
U.S. Department of Defense
March 26, 2014
U.S., British Defense Leaders Discuss Ukraine, NATO
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON: U.S. and United Kingdom defense leaders today reiterated that there must be consequences for Russia following President Vladimir Putin’s forced annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.
As Malaysia is reluctantly thrust into the world spotlight, what better time to talk again to our friend Nile Bowie, "a Malaysia-based political analyst and columnist with Russia Today".
Al-Akhbar | March 26, 2014
A Bahraini court on Wednesday jailed 29 people, including an award winning photographer, for up to 10 years for an alleged attack on a police center in April 2012.
A judicial source and activists said the verdicts were based on defendants’ confessions that were extracted under torture.
By Ayman Rabi | The Ecologist | March 22, 2014
This week the UN celebrated World Water Day - a day to remember the billion people who are unable to meet their needs for safe, clean water due to drought, poverty and official neglect.
This supplemental podcast is an edited version Free Talk Live from 3-12-14. Ian and I planned to discuss a reason.com article called Homework Can Turn Your Kid Into a Stressed-Out Wreck, Researchers Say by J.D. Tuccille, but our discussion meanders into numerous school and education-related digressions.
This supplemental podcast is an edited version Free Talk Live from 3-12-14. Ian and I planned to discuss a reason.com article called Homework Can Turn Your Kid Into a Stressed-Out Wreck, Researchers Say by J.D. Tuccille, but our discussion meanders into numerous school and education-related digressions.
This supplemental podcast is an edited version Free Talk Live from 3-12-14. Ian and I planned to discuss a reason.com article called Homework Can Turn Your Kid Into a Stressed-Out Wreck, Researchers Say by J.D. Tuccille, but our discussion meanders into numerous school and education-related digressions. Included Topics:-Obedient Teachers -Ending Government School -Anger and Activism -Insane Homework Requirements -Young People Innovating-Compulsory Shakespeare -Common CoreFull show:
Competition?
For some reason the New Bern police decided that a guy with a lot of chicken and roosters must be engaged in illegal cockfighting. That is how it looks from this news story anyway. They were serving a drug warrant and then took almost sixty chickens and roosters “as part of an investigation.”
The owner was never charged, and he never got his property returned to him.
Despite Justin’s attempts to place me in the the same camp as the neocons, Anthony Gregory of the Independent Institute has written a balanced and principled piece on this controversy. Here’s an excerpt:
An IPCC document produced for its meeting in Yokohama uses emphatically activist language. What happened to the scientific body delivering a scientific report based on scientific research?
MEMO | March 26, 2014
Israel’s army radio reported on Wednesday that the US administration has offered to release the American who spied for Israel, Jonathan Pollard, in exchange for the 26 Palestinian prisoners initially scheduled for release in March, but only if Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas agrees to extend the negotiations with Israel.
Republicans know they will never win the CA-17 congressional seat. It's way too educated, way too blue for them, D+20. So wealthy GOP plutocrats are bankrolling a sleazy, conservative fake Democrat, Ro Khanna to run against beloved progressive icon Mike Honda. It won't work any more than Khanna's past ridiculous races against Democrats Tom Lantos and Pete Stark.
John Glaser’s blog post on Crimea is typically American – i.e. it is bathed in unconscious albeit ferocious nationalism.
He starts out by accusing me of excusing “the crimes and misdeeds of foreign regimes that Washington sees as antagonistic.”
MEMO | March 26, 2014
Commissioner General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) Filippo Grandi yesterday called on Israel and Egypt to lift the siege that has been imposed on the Gaza Strip for more than half a decade.
Grandi said the siege on the Gaza Strip is considered the longest in history; longer than that of Sarajevo, Berlin and Leningrad.
In opposing and challenging U.S. foreign policy, there is a tendency among some in the libertarian movement to excuse the crimes and misdeeds of foreign regimes that Washington sees as antagonistic. Fundamentally, I believe this represents a grave bias that has no place in the liberty movement.
#Terrornoia Update | This week, the empire runs amok in Syria with little indication of progress or peace -- just as the neocon-inspired destabilizers prefer. Today's update includes: Eyes on Syria, Terrornoia and electioneering across the Middle East, Blowback and backfiring across Africa, and more.
RIA Novosti | March 25, 2014
MOSCOW – A ruling by a Ukrainian court to suspend broadcasts of four Russian TV channels in Ukraine is an attack against human rights and media freedom, a senior Russian diplomat said on Tuesday.
The District Administrative Court in Kiev ruled to suspend broadcasts of Russia’s Rossiya 24, Channel One, RTR Planeta, and NTV-World in Ukraine pending hearings on a permanent ban.
Incirlik Air Base
March 24, 2014
NATO forces work together for Patriot exchange
By Senior Airman Nicole Sikorski
39th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
INCIRLIK AIR BASE, Turkey: Airmen from the 39th Air Base Wing and 728th Air Mobility Squadron continued Incirlik Air Base’s support of NATO’s ongoing Patriot missile mission in Turkey by helping replace an Patriot missile for the U.S. Army 5-7 Air Defense Battalion March 20, here.
