Wounded in Iraq: Shattered bodies, shattered lives

This is a must see story and videos.
Wounded in Iraq: Shattered bodies, shattered livesBy Cal Perry
CNN

Editor's note: In our Behind the Scenes series, CNN correspondents share their experiences in covering news and analyze the stories behind the events. CNN's Cal Perry was given rare access inside the 10th Combat Support Hospital in Baghdad.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- "Ever seen someone have their chest cracked," one of the medics asked me on my first day in May at a combat hospital here in Iraq.

How in the world do you answer that question?

"Not as far as I can remember," I said sarcastically.

"You will," he answered with a sly, childish grin on his face.

I had no idea what I would see and how real the war becomes here in the 10th Combat Support Hospital in Baghdad -- the busiest in the country.

Helicopters land around the clock, bringing in U.S. troops wounded and dead, along with wounded insurgents and civilians. (Watch as medics scramble to treat war wounded -- 2:22)
The job of these doctors and medics is to save the life of someone who has endured "fresh trauma," which means they were pulled directly from the battlefield and taken right into the trauma room. Eighteen-year-old medics are doing things here that they would never do back home. They do it, because they have to. No one can imagine the strength it takes to look another 18-year-old in the face as he pleads for his life, putting his entire future in the hands of people he has just met.

It happens here, every day.

The U.S. military has now had more than 20,000 troops wounded in Iraq and nearly 2,700 more killed. More than 9,100 of the wounded were unable to return to duty -- their injuries taking them home to their mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, wives and children. In the statistical tables and graphs released by the military, they are just numbers with no mention of what combat wounds really look like.

At combat hospitals across Iraq, medics see limbs completely blown off, head "shots and blasts," burns, contusions, compound fractures and bullet wounds to name just a few. An improvised explosive device -- the phrase the military uses to describe the deadliest of insurgent weapons -- doesn't just send shrapnel into the body, it tears the body apart. Americans hear this term every day, as if it's another regular item in the daily news.

What they don't see is what it does to the soldiers. The human body literally shatters and tears. As one doctor told me, "You realize that all we are is a very thin bag of water."

I spent the better part of four weeks reporting from the combat hospital. Soldiers were coming in with legs and arms missing -- limbs sometimes recovered on the streets, bagged up by the combat medics who live with the "fresh trauma" forever.

Doctors at the 10th Combat Support Hospital told me the story of one combat medic who was at the beginning of his tour. He carried in an arm one day with a "thousand-mile stare on his face," followed closely behind a soldier screaming in pain and begging for his life. The new medic didn't know yet that there was nothing they could do with the arm.

Countless soldiers are returning home with the loss of a limb or limbs. Their lives will never be the same.

The American people also need to know that combat medicine has vastly improved in the past 30 years. Ninety-four percent of those who make it to the 10th Combat Support Hospital leave alive, a number significantly higher than previous conflicts. But the increased survival rate also means that soldiers are going home with wounds and injuries that will require long-term care.

It's impossible to imagine how these long-term injuries affect the war wounded, their lives and the lives of their families. Forever.

Cheney Lies, Rice Lies, and Bush lies,are they all Sociopaths?

Senator Feingold tells it like it is!!! Actions of the Bush administration have made us weak, not the actions of the Democrats. They have botched programs that President Clinton lined out and handed to Bush.




Now that ABC is going to go ahead and air "Path To 9/11", I think we need to focus on accountability. As I stated before I will boycott all Disney products and programming, this includes ABC and it's sponsors. But now, I think the main focus needs to be brought back to the Bush administration and the it's crimes.

On September 8th, the Senate Intelligence report stated that Iraq had no ties to Al Quaida link before the USA invaded Iraq. Even though all of these facts have come to light, Vice President Cheney and Condolezza Rice still want to lie and associate Iraq with Al Quaida. Cheney Lies On Meet The Press When it is thrown in their faces (the truth) they still continue with their lies. This is sociopathic behavior. Is this Bush administration full of sociopathic criminals?



Senate Intelligence report finds no Saddam-al-Qaida link
By LAURIE KELLMAN
AP
WASHINGTON (AP) - Saddam Hussein rejected overtures from al-Qaida and believed Islamic extremists were a threat to his regime, a reverse portrait of an Iraq allied with Osama bin Laden painted by the Bush White House, a Senate panel has found.

The administration's version was based in part on intelligence that White House officials knew was flawed, according to Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee, citing newly declassified documents released by the panel.

The report, released Friday, discloses for the first time an October 2005 CIA assessment that prior to the war Saddam's government "did not have a relationship, harbor or turn a blind eye toward" al-Qaida operative Abu Musab al-Zarqawi or his associates.

As recently as an Aug. 21 news conference, President Bush said people should "imagine a world in which you had Saddam Hussein" with the capacity to make weapons of mass destruction and "who had relations with Zarqawi."

Democrats singled out CIA Director George Tenet, saying that during a private meeting in July Tenet told the panel that the White House pressured him and that he agreed to back up the administration's case for war despite his own agents' doubts about the intelligence it was based on.

"Tenet admitted to the Intelligence Committee that the policymakers wanted him to 'say something about not being inconsistent with what the president had said,"' Intelligence Committee member Carl Levin, D-Mich., told reporters Friday.

Tenet also told the committee that complying had been "the wrong thing to do," according to Levin.

"Well, it was much more than that," Levin said. "It was a shocking abdication of a CIA director's duty not to act as a shill for any administration or its policy."

Leaders of both parties accused each other of seeking political gain on the eve of the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

Republicans said the document contained little new information about prewar intelligence or postwar findings on Iraq's weapons and connection to terrorist groups.

Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan., accused Democrats of trying to "use the committee ... insisting that they were deliberately duped into supporting the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's regime."

"That is simply not true," Roberts added, "and I believe the American people are smart enough to recognize election-year politicking when they see it."

The report speaks for itself, Democrats said.

The administration "exploited the deep sense of insecurity among Americans in the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, leading a large majority of Americans to believe - contrary to the intelligence assessments at the time - that Iraq had a role in the 9/11 attacks," said Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee.

Still, Democrats were reluctant to say how the administration officials involved should be called to account.

Asked whether the wrongdoing amounted to criminal conduct, Levin and Rockefeller declined to answer. Rockefeller said later he did not believe Bush should be impeached over the matter.

According to the report, postwar findings indicate that Saddam "was distrustful of al-Qaida and viewed Islamic extremists as a threat to his regime." It quotes an FBI report from June 2004 in which former Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz said in an interview that "Saddam only expressed negative sentiments about bin Laden."

Saddam himself is quoted in an FBI summary as acknowledging that the Iraqi government had met with bin Laden but denying that he had colluded with the al-Qaida leader. Claiming that Iraq opposed only U.S. policies, Saddam said that "if he wanted to cooperate with the enemies of the U.S., he would have allied with North Korea or China," the report quotes the FBI document.

The Democrats said that on Oct. 7, 2002, the day Bush gave a speech speaking of that link, the CIA had sent a declassified letter to the committee saying it would be an "extreme step" for Saddam to assist Islamist terrorists in attacking the United States.

Levin and Rockefeller said Tenet in July acknowledged to the committee that subsequently issuing a statement that there was no inconsistency between the president's speech and the CIA viewpoint had been a mistake.

They also charged Bush with continuing to cite faulty intelligence in his argument for war as recently as last month.

The report said that al-Zarqawi, the al-Qaida leader killed by a U.S. airstrike last June, was in Baghdad from May 2002 until late November 2002. But "postwar information indicates that Saddam Hussein attempted, unsuccessfully, to locate and capture al-Zarqawi and that the regime did not have a relationship with, harbor or turn a blind eye toward Zarqawi."

In June 2004, Bush also defended Vice President Dick Cheney 's assertion that Saddam had "long-established ties" with al-Qaida. "Zarqawi is the best evidence of connection to al-Qaida affiliates and al-Qaida," the president said.

The report concludes that postwar findings do not support a 2002 intelligence community report that Iraq was reconstituting its nuclear program, possessed biological weapons or ever developed mobile facilities for producing biological warfare agents.

A second part of the report finds that false information from the Iraqi National Congress , an anti-Saddam group led by then-exile Ahmed Chalabi, was used to support key intelligence community assessments on Iraq.

On the Net:

Senate Intelligence Committee: Senate Intelligence report finds no Saddam-al-Qaida link



While Republicans and Democrats try and play the blame game, one thing is still apparent...soldiers and civillians in Iraq and Afghanistan are dying.

Progressive awareness

In the last few weeks I have really begun to realise that people in the USA are truly ignorant. The word "fascism" has been tossed back and forth like a volleyball from the left to the right and vice versa. Let's define the word, fascism-is a radical political ideology that combines elements of corporatism, authoritarianism, nationalism, militarism, anti-anarchism, anti-communism and anti-liberalism. Merriam-Webster defines fascism as "a political philosophy, movement, or regime (as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition". For those of you that read this blog, that have an open mind, I want you to remember one phrase-Progressive awareness.

Now, something I read this evening really enlightened me about America:


The Reichstag Fire Syndrome

On January 30, 1933, Weimar Republic President Paul von Hindenburg appointed Adolph Hitler Chancellor. On February 27, 1933, the German Parliament Building--the Reichstag-- burned down. The deep red glow of the burning Reichstag caught the eye of President Hindenburg and Vice-Chancellor Papen, who were dining at a club facing the building. Papen put the elderly Hindenburg in his own car and took him to the scene.

Hitler was at Goebbels's apartment having dinner. They rushed to the scene where they met Göring who was already screaming false charges and making threats against the Communists. At first glance, Hitler described the fire as a beacon from heaven. "You are now witnessing the beginning of a great epoch in German history. . . This fire is the beginning," Hitler told a news reporter at the scene.

While not all historians agree on who was actually responsible for the Reichstag Fire, writers such as Klaus P. Fischer feel that most likely the Nazis were responsible.

A dazed Dutch Communist named Marinus van der Lubbe was found at the scene and charged with arson. He was later found guilty and executed.

On February 28, 1933--the day after the Reichstag fire--President Hindenburg and Chancellor Hitler invoked Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution, which permitted the suspension of civil liberties in time of national emergency.

"Restrictions on personal liberty, on the right of free expression of opinion, including freedom of the press; on the rights of assembly and association; and violations of the privacy of postal, telegraphic and telephonic communications and warrants for house searches, orders for confiscations as well as restrictions on property, are also permissible beyond the legal limits otherwise prescribed."

This Decree of the Reich President for the Protection of the People and State abrogated the following German constitutional protections:
Free expression of opinion
Freedom of the press
Right of assembly and association
Right to privacy of postal and electronic communications
Protection against unlawful searches and seizures
Individual property rights
States' right of self-government

A supplemental decree created the SA (Storm Troops) and SS (Special Security) Federal police agencies.

It's most likely that Hitler and his henchmen created the Reichstag fire crisis so they could destroy civil rights in Germany. The Decree enabled the Nazis to ruthlessly suppress opposition in the upcoming election.

On his first day as Chancellor, Hitler manipulated Hindenburg into dissolving the Reichstag and calling for new elections. On March 5, 1933, the national elections gave the Nazis a 44% plurality in the Reichstag. Herman Göring--later to become the head of Germany's armed forces--declared that there was no further need for State governments. Over the next few weeks, each of the legal Weimar State governments fell to the same ruse:
Local Nazi organizations instigate disorder
The disorder is quelled by replacing the elected state government by appointed Nazi Reich Commissioners

On March 24, 1933, the Reichstag passed the Law for Terminating the Suffering of People and Nation, also known as the Enabling Law, essentially granting Adolph Hitler dictatorial power.

The Reichstag Fire Syndrome occurs whenever a democracy is destroyed by creating a law-and-order crisis and offering as a "solution" the abdication of civil liberties and state's rights to a powerful but unaccountable central dictator. The men of wealth who put the tyrant into power are then able to reap obscene war profits.

I further went on to read:

America 2006 Is Germany 1930
As much as I read this article and the many articles on the site, it still astounds me how much the USA is changing. It is quite gradual. Hopefully, Americans will wake up before it is too late. I have posted many articles from Norman D. Livergood because I believe The New Enlightenmentsite offers a great index of articles from different, reputable sources. I feel if one just takes the time (which it does take alot of time) they will be well informed.

Here are part of the article, please take the time to read and open your mind.

America 2006 Is Germany 1930

Norman D. Livergood

We who live in the post-World War II period possess an immensely valuable symbol, even if we don't understand it or use it effectively: the example of Nazi Germany.
"The German experiment, except to those who are its victims, is particularly interesting, and, like the offer of a strong man to let himself be vivisected, should make a great contribution to political science. For the Germans are the most gifted and most highly educated people who ever devoted the full strength of a modern state to stopping the exchange of ideas; they are the most highly organized people who ever devoted all the coercive power of government to the abolition of their own intellectual life; they are the most learned people who ever pretended to believe that the premises and the conclusion of all inquiry may be fixed by political fiat."

Walter Lippmann. (1936), The Good Society

An Unknown Episode In American History
Nazi Germany was created by the criminal cabal that currently rules the United States and much of the world. One of the early underlings of this cabal was Prescott Bush, Dubya's grandfather. Prescott Bush was a director of the Union Banking Corporation, which the U.S. government took over in 1942 under the Trading with the Enemy Act. The U.S. Alien Property Custodian seized Union Banking Corporation stock shares, all of which were owned by E. Roland Harriman, Prescott Bush, three Nazi executives, and two other associates of Prescott Bush.

President Franklin Roosevelt's Alien Property Custodian, Leo T. Crowley, signed Vesting Order Number 248 seizing the property of Prescott Bush under the Trading with the Enemy Act. The order, published in obscure government record books and kept out of the news, explained nothing about the Nazis involved; only that the Union Banking Corporation was run for the Thyssen family of Germany and/or Hungary, nationals of a designated enemy country

This act by the U.S. government made it clear that Prescott Bush and the other directors of the Union Banking Corporation were in essence front men for the Nazis. By keeping news of this seizure quiet, the American government avoided the more important issue: in what way were Hitler and his Nazi cohorts set up, armed, and supported by the New York and London cartel of which Prescott Bush was an executive manager?

On Oct. 28, 1942, the U.S. government issued orders seizing two Nazi front organizations run by the Bush-Harriman bank: the Holland-American Trading Corporation and the Seamless Steel Equipment Corporation. Nazi interests in the Silesian-American Corporation, long managed by Prescott Bush and his father-in-law, George Herbert Walker, were seized under the Trading with the Enemy Act on November 17, 1942. In this action, the government announced that it was seizing only the Nazi interests, leaving the Nazis' U.S. partners to carry on the business.

These were actions taken by the U.S. government during wartime, but Prescott Bush and his collaborators had already played a central role in financing and arming Adolf Hitler for his takeover of Germany. Harriman, Bush and the other cabal puppets had financed the buildup of Nazi war industries for the conquest of Europe and war against the U.S. They had also helped in the development of Nazi genocide theories and racial propaganda, with the slave labor and extermination camps as the result.

The cabal that controls America has moved as rapidly as possible to bring about the same conditions of dictatorship and fascism in the U.S. as it did in Nazi Germany in the 1930s. The first major thrust toward fascism began during the Bush takeover of the Reagan presidency. During Bush Senior's (second) presidency he pulled off the Iran-Contra drugs-for-weapons crime, the savings-and-loan heist, the illegal use of U.S. military force to protect Bush's criminal collaboration with Manuel Noriega, his man in Panama, and many other crimes of state.

Beginning in 2000, the cabal forced their chosen puppet into the U.S. presidency and have now put in place a mechanism to steal all future elections in America. As they did in Germany, they have now destroyed the bedrock of democracy, the right of citizens to vote for their leaders.

American Citizen Complicity in the Current Fascist Dictatorship

The 2004 election revealed that many American citizens are as intellectually and morally incompetent as the Germans in 1930. Such incompetence and ignorance always lead to tyranny. The United States is exactly at the same point in national degradation as the German nation in the 1930s when Hitler assumed absolute power and began his regime of mass murder and war crimes against the people of the world.

We've been conditioned to see Germany under Hitler as an unquestionably horrible example of dictatorial tyranny and inhuman barbarity--and to see our present American culture as completely opposite to that of Nazi Germany. And we like to think that if a tyranny such as that in Germany under the Nazi regime were present and growing in America we'd unquestionably be able to see it.

So it's a shock when we realize: most people living in Nazi Germany didn't see the tyranny! They thought it was the best time of their lives!

Milton Mayer's book, They Thought They Were Free, concerns Germans still living after World War II who had been members of the Nazi Party. Mayer came to know them and studied their lives and attitudes.
"As we know Nazism, it was a naked, total tyranny which degraded its adherents and enslaved its opponents and adherents alike; terrorism and terror in daily life, private and public; brute personal and mob injustice at every level of association . . .

"These nine ordinary Germans [who lived in Nazi Germany] knew it otherwise, and they still know it otherwise.

"An autocracy? [they say] Yes, of course . . . But a tyranny, as you Americans use the term? Nonsense."

How could Germans living under Hitler's National Socialism not have seen what it was? How did their lack of social and personal awareness make them blind to their reality?

How could Americans now possibly be living under a creeping dictatorship and not know it? And how could we not only not see a police state condition but actually think we're living in complete freedom?
Because most of us don't WANT to know what's going on. We've lost the ability to think critically about political, economic, and social dangers confronting us.

If we have a job--as most people did in Nazi Germany--if the political-economic system seems stable--as it does in America--then that's all we want to know.

"When [modern man] is completely infantile ... he does not need and does not have an understanding of the outer world. It exists for him merely as gratification or denial."
Walter Lippmann (1889-1973)

To the Germans in Mayer's study, each occasion of Nazi violence was worse than the last, but only a little worse. So they waited for the one shocking event, thinking that they would join with others if or when it happened. But as the violence escalated, no one rose up to condemn the concentration camps and general oppression. No one wanted to act alone, and when a mass uprising failed to occur, the common people just let events take their course. They progressively lost the ability to understand the horror of Nazism and the will to oppose it.

Similarly, we don't see the growing fascism in America and the world because we don't want to see it and because it happens somewhat gradually, which makes it almost imperceptible to those who don't think critically. Everything in your society--Nazi Germany or twenty-first century America--seems so ordinary. Read More

This does not give me pleasure to realise what is happening in my country. Contrary to right-wing propaganda, liberals do love their country. I want our people to be united. But, until this regime is out of office, I truly believe that there cannot be unity in the USA or in the world.

ABC: Tell the truth about 9/11

ABC: Tell the Truth About 9/11

Contributed by Working Assets


On September 10th and 11th, ABC -- which is owned by Disney -- is planning to air a "docu-drama" called "Path to 9/11," which is being billed as "an objective telling of the events of 9/11." In fact, the film was written by an unabashed conservative who twists the facts to blame President Clinton.

In fact, the list of counterterrorism initiatives undertaken by the Clinton administration is lengthy and comprehensive. Regrettably, the record shows that most of these efforts were watered down or abandoned by the Bush administration when they came into office. History will also record that President Bush was the one who received -- and while on vacation, chose to ignore -- a Presidential Daily Briefing on August 6, 2001 entitled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US."

ABC's new six-hour film was apparently screened in advance only to conservative bloggers and journalists -- and received extensive praise from none other than Rush Limbaugh. ABC is advertising the film as being "based on the 9/11 Commission report" -- yet also admits that it's a "docu-drama," in which writers and producers are free to invent and distort facts. Former counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke has already completely refuted one of the key scenes of the movie.

It's simply stunning to think that as this fall's election approaches, a major television network would devote six hours of prime-time programming to air such a slanted and inaccurate program. There is simply no way that a conservative writer, with an anti-Clinton axe to grind, should be allowed to use public airwaves to broadcast a gross distortion of the truth -- especially on the anniversary of the worst day in our history.



Call to action:
Send a message to ABC asking them to cancel the show.

Deadline:
9/10/2006

Additional Information:
We urge you to personalize the letter and express your views on this topic in your won words.
If you would like to also contact your local ABC affiliate and request that they cancel the show, a listing of those affiliates is here.


ABC: Tell the truth about 9/11

Please do not air "The Path to 9/11

The airing of this program is dispicable. It totally disrespects the memory of those that died on 9/11. It should not be aired at this time when Americans already have been fed so many lies by this administration.
Please sign the petition.
Please do not air "The Path to 9/11
AP
Excerpt:

On September 10 and 11, ABC will air a “docudrama” called “The Path to 9/11.” It was written by Cyrus Nowrasteh, who describes himself as “more of a libertarian than a strict conservative,” and is giving interviews to hard-right sites like FrontPageMag to promote the film.

What will it say about President Clinton? Here’s Rush Limbaugh with a preview:

A friend of mine [Cyrus Nowrasteh] out in California has produced and filmed — I think it’s a two-part mini-series on 9/11 that ABC is going to run in prime-time over two nights, close to or on 9/11. It’s sort of surprising that ABC’s picked it up, to me. I’ve had a lot of people tell me about it, my friends told me about it…And from what I have been told, the film really zeros in on the shortcomings of the Clinton administration in doing anything about militant Islamofascism or terrorism during its administration. It cites failures of Bill Clinton and Madeleine Albright and Sandy Burglar.

How does it deal with President Bush?

Condoleezza Rice gets that fated memo about planes flying into buildings, and makes it very clear to anyone who’ll listen just how concerned President Bush is about these terrorist threats — despite the fact that we’re given little concrete evidence of the president’s concern or interest in taking action. Maybe my memory fails me, but the only person I remember talking about Osama bin Laden back in 1998 was President Clinton, while the current anti-terrorist stalwarts worked the country into a frenzy over what? Blow jobs. In the end, “The Path to 9/11″ feels like an excruciatingly long, winding and deceptive path, indeed.

H.L.s Take:
First they take Monday Night Football off the air, and now this. Thats it I am boycotting ABC, (not that I would watch any of their trash besides MNF anyway) I suggest you do the same. Big TV Networks and Newspapers, are nothing now except for propaganda rags for the guy who gave them (the richest 1% not people who do manual labor.) those big tax cuts.

-------------------------

9/11 Miniseries Is Criticized as Inaccurate and Biased
Sign In to E-Mail This Print Reprints Save

By JESSE McKINLEY
Published: September 6, 2006
SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 5 — Days before its scheduled debut, the first major television miniseries about the Sept. 11 attacks was being criticized on Tuesday as biased and inaccurate by bloggers, terrorism experts and a member of the Sept. 11 commission, whose report makes up much of the film’s source material.

The six-hour miniseries, “The Path to 9/11,” is to be shown on ABC on Sunday and Monday. The network has been advertising the program as a “historic broadcast” that uses the commission’s report on the 2001 attacks as its “primary foundation.”

On Tuesday, several liberal blogs were questioning whether ABC’s version was overly critical of the Clinton administration while letting the Bush administration off easy.

In particular, some critics — including Richard A. Clarke, the former counterterrorism czar — questioned a scene that depicts several American military officers on the ground in Afghanistan. In it, the officers, working with leaders of the Northern Alliance, the Afghan rebel group, move in to capture Osama bin Laden, only to allow him to escape after the mission is canceled by Clinton officials in Washington.

In a posting on ThinkProgress.org, and in a phone interview, Mr. Clarke said no military personnel or C.I.A. agents were ever in position to capture Mr. bin Laden in Afghanistan, nor did the leader of the Northern Alliance get that near to his camp.

“It didn’t happen,” Mr. Clarke said. “There were no troops in Afghanistan about to snatch bin Laden. There were no C.I.A. personnel about to snatch bin Laden. It’s utterly invented.”

Mr. Clarke, an on-air consultant to ABC News, said he was particularly shocked by a scene in which it seemed Clinton officials simply hung up the phone on an agent awaiting orders in the field. “It’s 180 degrees from what happened,” he said. “So, yeah, I think you would have to describe that as deeply flawed.”

ABC responded Tuesday with a statement saying that the miniseries was “a dramatization, not a documentary, drawn from a variety of sources, including the 9/11 commission report, other published materials and from personal interviews.”

“The events that lead to 9/11 originally sparked great debate,” the statement continued, “so it’s not surprising that a movie surrounding those events has revived the debate.”

Former Gov. Thomas H. Kean of New Jersey, the chairman of the Sept. 11 commission and a consultant on the miniseries, defended the program, saying he thought the disputed scene was an honest representation of a number of failed efforts to capture Mr. bin Laden.

“I pointed out the fact that the scene involving Afghanistan and the attempt to get bin Laden is a composite,” Mr. Kean said, adding that the miniseries format required some conflation of events. But, he said, “The basic fact is that on a number of occasions, they thought they might have been able to get bin Laden, and on those occasions, the plug was pulled for various reasons.”

Mr. Kean conceded that some points might have been more drama than documentary. “Some of the people shown there probably weren’t there,” he said.

Online commentators seized on remarks made last week by Rush Limbaugh, the conservative radio host, who said “The Path to 9/11” had been written and produced by a “friend of mine out in California” named Cyrus. “From what I’ve been told,” Mr. Limbaugh said, according to a transcript on rushlimbaugh.com, “the film really zeros in on the shortcomings of the Clinton administration.”

Reached Tuesday, Cyrus Nowrasteh, the film’s screenwriter and one of its producers, said he had met Mr. Limbaugh on the set of “24,” the serialized thriller on Fox.

“I met him briefly,” Mr. Nowrasteh said, declining to say if the two men were close. “And that’s it.”

As for criticism that his movie was soft on the Bush administration, Mr. Nowrasteh said, “Let the movie speak for itself.”

ABC said it planned to run a disclaimer with the broadcast, reminding viewers that the movie was not a documentary.

But Richard Ben-Veniste, a member of the Sept. 11 commission, said genre confusion would not be a problem for commission members, several of whom saw part of the miniseries last week.

“As we were watching, we were trying to think how they could have misinterpreted the 9/11 commission’s finding the way that they had,” Mr. Ben-Veniste said. “They gave the impression that Clinton had not given the green light to an operation that had been cleared by the C.I.A. to kill bin Laden,” when, in fact, the Sept. 11 commission concluded that Mr. Clinton had.

Mr. Ben-Veniste said he did, however, approve of the casting. “I like Harvey Keitel,” he said of the actor who plays John O’Neil, the onetime F.B.I. counterterrorism expert who died in the attacks. “I liked him in ‘Mean Streets.’ I’m a fan.”





http://www.petitiononline.com/dearabc/petition.html



To: American Broadcasting System (ABC)
Dear American Broadcasting System,
Please do not air "The Path to 9/11." Such a topic shouldn't be something that is simply based on a true story, the whole truth should be told and the acts of government officials should not be manipulated, exagerated, or misrepresented in any way. Cyrus Nowrasteh, the man who wrote the screenplay is a conservative who is considered by Rush Limbaugh "a friend of mine out in California." We seriously question the integrity of this mini-series, as well as its air times proximity to the 2006 Elections. On the surface this appears to be nothing more than conservative propaganda, ABC Television should be above this sort on programming.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned


Please do not air "The Path to 9/11

Republicans Playing the Terror Game

Republicans Press Terrorism, Taxes to Reverse Slide


By James Rowley and Ryan J. Donmoyer

Sept. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Republicans seeking to stem an erosion of political support threatening their control of Congress will use votes this month to try to paint Democrats as soft on terrorism and eager to raise taxes.

Topping the agenda is legislation authorizing President George W. Bush's secret eavesdropping on suspected terrorists without court warrants. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee also may seek a vote to permanently reduce taxes on multimillion-dollar estates.

The Senate returned from a monthlong recess today and the House will reconvene tomorrow, as polls suggest that Democrats are poised to gain seats and possibly seize majorities in the Nov. 7 elections. The Democrats would need net gains of 15 seats to control the 435-member House, where everyone is up for re- election, and six seats in the 100-member Senate, where a third of the members are up.

Republicans will ``position the Democrats as weak on the war on terror,'' said Greg Mueller, a party strategist who worked in the presidential campaigns of Pat Buchanan and Steve Forbes. The agenda also will let party lawmakers ``talk about what the Democrats want to do if they take back the House and Senate that they won't tell you: higher taxes.''

Lawmakers have a large agenda for what will likely be fewer than 20 working days before they leave again to campaign for the elections. John Bolton's nomination as United Nations ambassador, a proposal to open areas off U.S. coasts to oil and natural-gas drilling, an overhaul of immigration policy and revisions to lobbying rules are among the pending issues.

`Cynical Attempt'

Partisan attacks began as soon as Democrats and Republicans returned to Capitol Hill. House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland called the Republican plan to focus on terrorism this month ``an openly cynical attempt to use our nation's security in a political gamble to save their congressional majority.''

``They believe they can scare the American people into continuing to support their disastrous policies,'' Hoyer told reporters at a news conference.

Democrats said they would push for a vote on a Senate resolution calling for the replacement of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other civilian leaders of the U.S. military.

Frist called the resolution on Rumsfeld ``a pure political game'' by Democrats, conducted as Republicans are ``making sure our government and our representatives have the tools to fight this war on terror.''

Bush's Terrorism Policies

Opinion polls show a majority of American voters approve of Bush's anti-terrorism efforts, even as they are moving toward the Democrats in November. A Pew Research Center poll conducted Aug. 9-13 found that 50 percent of those surveyed would vote for a Democratic congressional candidate while 41 percent would vote for a Republican. The same poll found that 57 percent are concerned that if Democrats gain control of Congress they might weaken government efforts to prevent a repeat of the 2001 attacks.

Terrorism is ``the one issue on which the Republicans continue to have an advantage,'' said David Rohde, a political scientist at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. ``It's just the most natural'' strategy, because ``they don't have many good options.''

Senator Charles Schumer of New York, who leads the Democrats' effort to retake the Senate, said Republican reliance on the ``old chestnuts'' -- such as painting his party as soft on national security -- won't work this year. That strategy was successful in 2004 when ``Americans were basically content'' with Bush's foreign policy, he said.

`A Change of Feeling'

Voters have now had a ``change of feeling'' about the Iraq war, and ``the American people are no longer content with what we are doing with homeland security,'' Schumer told reporters on Aug. 29.

Democrats have argued that the Congress shouldn't take steps to legalize the National Security Agency effort to intercept international long-distance calls between suspected al-Qaeda operatives and their associates in the U.S. until Bush provides lawmakers with more information about it.

The surveillance legislation, negotiated by Bush and Senator Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican who chairs the Judiciary Committee, would provide for review by a secret intelligence court of the program's legality.

The measure wouldn't require individual warrants and would allow the president to continue surveillance even if the secret court objects.

In an appearance on the Fox News Sunday program Sept. 3, Specter said he thought ``we have a pretty good chance'' of passing the legislation, while adding: ``It's a matter of getting it out of committee, and so far the debate has been very, very extended.''

Handling the War

Continued Senate debate on a $466 billion defense spending measure will give Democrats an opportunity to discuss Bush's handling of the war.

In addition to the surveillance measure, Frist plans to bring up proposals for trying suspected terrorists in military detention. Legislation is needed to reconstitute military tribunals to try such suspects after the Supreme Court found the Bush administration's process lacked the necessary legal authority.

Democrats should tread carefully, because ``government actions haven't reached the point of public outcry,'' said Michael Dimock, associate director of the Washington-based Pew Center. ``More people tell us they are worried that the government hasn't yet done enough to protect us against terrorism than worry that the government has gone too far,'' he said.

Estate Tax

Frist also is looking for an opportunity for the Senate to reconsider permanently reducing taxes on all but the largest estates. ``The senator wants to see a permanent fix for the unfair tax,'' said Carolyn Weyforth, Frist's spokeswoman.

In August, he attached the proposal to legislation that would provide the first increase in the minimum wage since 1997 and renew $38 billion in tax cuts that enjoy support in both parties. The tax cuts include a deduction for college-tuition payments and a research credit for businesses.

The so-called trifecta measure fell four votes short of the 60 needed to allow consideration. Most Democrats opposed it, saying they shouldn't be forced to give a tax cut for large estates to boost wages for the working poor.

Supporters argue estate-tax relief is needed to enable family farms and small businesses to be passed from one generation to the next.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican, said in an interview that ``without a doubt'' there will be another vote on the estate tax before the election. He said he was trying to reformulate the measure to attract more Democratic support.

Phase-Out

The temporary phase-out in federal estate taxes, enacted by Congress in 2001, is set to expire in 2011. For this year, individual estates valued at more than $2 million are taxed at a top rate of 46 percent. By 2009, estates valued at less than $3.5 million will be exempt. In 2010, the levy will be completely repealed. Unless Congress extends the cuts beyond that year, the tax will be reimposed in 2011, with a top rate of 55 percent on estates worth more than $1 million.

Schumer said continuing to hold the tuition deduction hostage to the estate-tax cut won't work with voters. Republicans ``have refused to renew'' the tuition deduction, which, along with health insurance, job security and retirement security are ``meat and potato issues'' for Democratic voters, he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ryan J. Donmoyer in Washington at rdonmoyer@bloomberg.net ; James Rowley in Washington at jarowley@bloomberg.net .

Last Updated: September 5, 2006 15:23 EDT

Labor Day... The True Meaning

Labor History Timeline
Labor History on the Internet
Since Labor Day is approaching I would like to write about the reason for the holiday. To pay tribute to the people in America that have built our great country. I don't want to toot the horn of the president or talk about Iraq. Immigrants from around the world help build this nation. From the Irish, German, and Chinese, to the Christian, Islamic, and Athiest. Many Americans have fought and given their lives to support labor unions in America. My grandfather was from Italy and he helped construction in Chicago. My other grandfather was from Germany. He became an American farmer in Alabama. Both of these men and my grandmothers worked hard during the Depression. My father told me stories of his sister having to work in factories at the age of thirteen to support him and his siblings after they became orphaned. My father shined shoes and did what ever menial jobs to help with the family. Times were rough. I regret that my family had to work in factories as children or live such a life. But, thankfully, we have protection in the USA so that children do not have to work in such conditions. This is why we celebrate Labor Day. To honor those that spoke up and stood up. To honor those that work everyday to provide for their families and to follow their dreams.
As we know, many right wing groups are trying to tear down these labor unions. They do not want people to unite and speak up for the rights that any human should be entitled. There have been great Americans in history, such as Eugene V. Debs that fought for the unions. He also tried to run for president five times. During these times Debs was arrested for his beliefs. He was charged with sedition several times to stop his movement.




Brief history of Eugene V. Debs


Socialist Eugene V. Debs was one of the major players in American politics at the turn of the 20th century. He made five attempts to gain the presidency - in 1900, 1904, 1908 1912 and 1920 - all as the standard bearer of the Socialist Party. He conducted his last campaign from behind the bars of a federal prison. A gifted orator, Debs rivaled William Jennings Bryan in his ability to move a crowd with his words.

Born in Indiana in 1855, Debs went to work for the railroad at age 14 but soon gave it up at his mother's urging. He became active in the union movement forming the American Railway Union, the nation's largest, in 1893. Arrested during the Pullman Strike of 1894, he served six months behind bars. In jail, Debs converted to socialism. He helped found the Social Democratic Party of America in 1897, the Socialist Party in 1901 and the Industrial Workers of the World in 1905. "I am for socialism because I am for humanity" he declared.

He opposed America's entrance into World War I and denounced the Espionage Act designed to silence all antiwar sentiment. In 1918, he received a 10-year prison sentence for his public opposition to the war. At his trial, Debs admitted he spoke the words the federal government considered traitorous and addressed the jury in his own defense. "I am doing what little I can to do away with the rule of the great body of people by a relatively small class and establish in this country industrial and social democracy." A guilty verdict sent Debs to the federal prison in Atlanta.

In 1920, the Socialist Party again nominated him as their presidential candidate and over 915,000 voted for prisoner #9653. President Wilson vigorously denied a request for Deb's pardon in 1921. Finally, Warren G. Harding released Debs under a general amnesty on Christmas Day 1921. Harding asked the old socialist to stop by the White House. "I have heard so damned much about you, Mr Debs, that I am very glad to meet you personally" Harding remarked at their meeting. Debs died in 1926.



Growing up in Chicago, Jane Addams became one of my heroes in history. She worked to further womens, childrens, minorities, and immigrants rights. She began and joined many organizations that helped Americans, especially women and children. She was also involved in peace movements.

A Brief History About Jane Addams

Detailed timeline and photo essay about Jane Addams

Born in Cedarville, Illinois, on September 6, 1860, and graduated from Rockford Female Seminary in 1881, Jane Addams founded, with Ellen Gates Starr, the world famous social settlement Hull-House on Chicago's Near West Side in 1889. From Hull-House, where she lived and worked until her death in 1935, Jane Addams built her reputation as the country's most prominent woman through her writing, settlement work, and international efforts for peace.

Social settlements began in the 1880s in London in response to problems created by urbanization, industrialization, and immigration. The idea spread to other industrialized countries. Settlement houses typically attracted educated, native born, middle-class and upper-middle class women and men, known as “residents,” to live (settle) in poor urban neighborhoods. Some social settlements were linked to religious institutions. Others, like Hull-House, were secular. By 1900, the U.S. had over 100 settlement houses. By 1911, Chicago had 35.

In the 1890s, Hull-House was located in the midst of a densely populated urban neighborhood peopled by Italian, Irish, German, Greek, Bohemian, and Russian and Polish Jewish immigrants. During the 1920s, African Americans and Mexicans began to put down roots in the neighborhood and joined the clubs and activities at Hull-House. Jane Addams and the Hull-House residents provided kindergarten and day care facilities for the children of working mothers; an employment bureau; an art gallery; libraries; English and citizenship classes; and theater, music and art classes. As the complex expanded to include thirteen buildings, Hull-House supported more clubs and activities such as a Labor Museum, the Jane Club for single working girls, meeting places for trade union groups, and a wide array of cultural events.

The residents of Hull-House formed an impressive group, including Jane Addams, Ellen Gates Starr, Florence Kelley, Dr. Alice Hamilton, Julia Lathrop, Sophonisba Breckinridge, and Grace and Edith Abbott. From their experiences in the Hull-House neighborhood, the Hull-House residents and their supporters forged a powerful reform movement. Among the projects that they helped launch were the Immigrants' Protective League, the Juvenile Protective Association, the first juvenile court in the nation, and a Juvenile Psychopathic Clinic (later called the Institute for Juvenile Research). Through their efforts, the Illinois Legislature enacted protective legislation for women and children in 1893. With the creation of the Federal Children's Bureau in 1912 and the passage of a federal child labor law in 1916, the Hull-House reformers saw their efforts expanded to the national level.



Another great American that help change racial and social injustice was A. Philip Randolph. He fought for the rights of sleeping car porters and formed the BSCP (Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.) He then went on to form the March on Washington Movement (MOWM). He organized the March on Washington Movement (MOWM), based on the Ghandian principle of nonviolent direct mass action. The MOWM won its first major victory in June 1941, when President Franklin Roosevelt issued an Executive Order banning discrimination in the federal government and the defense industry, after Randolph had threatened to lead a march into the nation's capital. The achievement catapulted Randolph into being known as "the towering civil rights figure of the period." In 1948, Randolph secured another historic Executive Order from President Harry Truman to ban racial segregation in the armed forces.

A Brief History of A. Philip Randolph
A. Philip Randolph was born April 15, 1889, in Crescent City, Florida. He migrated in 1911 to Harlem, becoming a prominent young intellectual -- one of the "race radicals" drawn to "the Negro capital of the world."
He co-founded a journal, The Messenger, which fiercely opposed American participation in World War I, thundered against lynchings, protested the treatment of black soldiers and advocated socialism and labor unionism as solutions to racial injustice.

In 1925, Pullman porters sought Randolph's help in organizing their workforce into an independent labor union. The powerful Pullman Company had always contemptuously silenced criticism of its treatment of porters and, for the next twelve years, opposed recognizing the new Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP). It was the longest and bitterest battle of Randolph's career -- one of the most rigorous tests of his convictions and character.

By 1927 the BSCP claimed a membership of 5,700. Still, ongoing organizational and educational effort was necessary to retain and increase membership, while simultaneously opposing the Pullman Company. Effective January 1927, BSCP leaders instituted an internal password and sign associated with porters' everyday mores of racial pride, religion and parental obligation. No porter without his 1927 card was eligible to receive the password ("SOLIDARITY") and sign (left arm extended downward in a clenched fist).

Not until 1937 did the BSCP win its epic fight to represent the porters. After the passage of enabling labor laws, the Pullman executives finally condescended to bargain with Randolph and his negotiating team.




Labor movements of the 1800's and 1900's changed many laws in the USA and helped protect our children in America. Unfortuately, child labor is still being exploited in many parts of the world. If it were not for such organizations like the National Child Labor Committee NCLC established in 1904, such laws like the Act of Congress in 1907. The mission of this legislation was "promoting the rights, awareness, dignity, well-being and education of children and youth as they relate to work and working."
There are many Americans that worked for social change. Most of these people were pacifists that did not believe in war or war profiteering. They believed in humanity and understood that everyone should have equal rights. I ask that you all educate yourselves about the history of labor organizations. The good that they did in American is immeasurable.

Afghan Citizens Being Called Insurgents Now?

It is incredible to me that the U.S. has invaded both Iraq and Afghanistan and still have not found Osama. These people are sick of their families dying. The U.S. policy is to kill any man that is within the age they see as a threat. I would call this genocide. How cowardice. They are tired of the insecurity in their country. If it was a mess before, the USA has really made a mess of things. I could not imagine living under these conditions and not hating the soldiers that are killing people I love all around me. These so called "insurgents" are people that want their country back and see NATO not doing the job they set out to do. Our military leadership is appalling. All I can say is that if you define a person that defends their homes against fascists such as the Taliban and the USA as insurgents, the I guess I would be one of those insurgents.


Coalition troops kill Taliban suspects By NOOR KHAN, Associated Press Writer



KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - NATO and Afghan forces killed dozens of suspected Taliban with air strikes and artillery in a major operation in a volatile province in southern Afghanistan, the alliance said Sunday.

ADVERTISEMENT

Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Zahir Azimi said 89 militants and a number of civilians had died during two days of fighting in the Panjwayi district, about 10 miles from the city of Kandahar.

The casualty counts could not be independently confirmed because the government has ordered vehicles off roads leading to the area. Azimi cited intelligence reports but did not elaborate on how the number was obtained.

NATO spokesman Maj. Scott Lundy said NATO forces had suffered casualties, including some fatalities, during Operation Medusa, which started Saturday. "More information will be released when appropriate, because of the ongoing nature of the operation," he said.

Lundy said the NATO and Afghan forces had gained ground during the operation, and had disrupted the militants' command and control so their fighters were moving in a confused way.

The alliance released a statement saying its troops reported dozens of insurgents killed during the fighting Saturday. It said many more have been wounded, and a significant number arrested. At odds with Azimi's account, NATO said no civilian casualties had been reported.

It was not possible to independently confirm the death toll as reporters were unable to gain access to the battlefield, and there was no indication that bodies had been taken local hospitals.

NATO said its casualty estimate was based on reports from troops on the ground. Lundy said that typically its assessments draws on information from its surveillance and reconnaissance assets, including troops viewing the battle scene, as well as Afghan witnesses, Afghan officials and other evidence such as freshly dug graves.

On Saturday, a reconnaissance plane supporting Operation Medusa in Panjwayi crashed, killing all 14 British troops on board. NATO said it was not caused by hostile fire.

Azimi said NATO and Afghan forces had launched about 40 artillery and airstrikes. He said that on Sunday morning, the forces launched a ground attack, crossing a bridge in the Argandab area, followed in the afternoon by an air attack.

Ann Coulter Finally Gets The Smackdown and Whines Like A Baby

Finally!! Finally! The biatch is put in her place by a real woman!! I love it! She gets the smackdown!! pmsl

Things are going "swimmingly" in Afghanistan???

This is what is happening in Afghanistan:

For Ms. Coulters benefit, heres an update on the situation in the last couple of months in Afghanistan:

From:  Think Progress

Security situation is close to anarchy. Last month, a senior British military commander said the situation is close to anarchy in Afghanistan, and warned western forces were running out of time to meet expectations Afghanis have for their security.

Discontent among Afghans is boiling. After months of widespread frustration with corruption, the economy and a lack of justice and security, the New York Times reported that doubts about President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, and by extension the American-led effort to rebuild that nation, have led to a crisis of confidence.

Opium production is at record levels. Opium cultivation in Afghanistan has hit record levels - up by more than 40 percent from 2005 - despite hundreds of millions in counternarcotics money, the Associated Press reported. The increase could have serious repercussions for an already grave security situation, with drug lords joining the Taliban-led fight against Afghan and international forces.

 

 

Rights of Man

Rights of Man By Thomas Paine


Among the incivilities by which nations or individuals provoke and irritate each other, Mr. Burke's pamphlet on the French Revolution is an extraordinary instance. Neither the People of France, nor the National Assembly, were troubling themselves about the affairs of England, or the English Parliament; and that Mr. Burke should commence an unprovoked attack upon them, both in Parliament and in public, is a conduct that cannot be pardoned on the score of manners, nor justified on that of policy.

There is scarcely an epithet of abuse to be found in the English language, with which Mr. Burke has not loaded the French Nation and the National Assembly. Everything which rancour, prejudice, ignorance or knowledge could suggest, is poured forth in the copious fury of near four hundred pages. In the strain and on the plan Mr. Burke was writing, he might have written on to as many thousands. When the tongue or the pen is let loose in a frenzy of passion, it is the man, and not the subject, that becomes exhausted.

Hitherto Mr. Burke has been mistaken and disappointed in the opinions he had formed of the affairs of France; but such is the ingenuity of his hope, or the malignancy of his despair, that it furnishes him with new pretences to go on. There was a time when it was impossible to make Mr. Burke believe there would be any Revolution in France. His opinion then was, that the French had neither spirit to undertake it nor fortitude to support it; and now that there is one, he seeks an escape by condemning it.

Not sufficiently content with abusing the National Assembly, a great part of his work is taken up with abusing Dr. Price (one of the best-hearted men that lives) and the two societies in England known by the name of the Revolution Society and the Society for Constitutional Information.

Dr. Price had preached a sermon on the 4th of November, 1789, being the anniversary of what is called in England the Revolution, which took place 1688. Mr. Burke, speaking of this sermon, says: "The political Divine proceeds dogmatically to assert, that by the principles of the Revolution, the people of England have acquired three fundamental rights:


To choose our own governors.


To cashier them for misconduct.


To frame a government for ourselves." Read More...

Conclusion

Reason and Ignorance, the opposites of each other, influence the great bulk of mankind. If either of these can be rendered sufficiently extensive in a country, the machinery of Government goes easily on. Reason obeys itself; and Ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it.

The two modes of the Government which prevail in the world, are-

First, Government by election and representation.

Secondly, Government by hereditary succession.

The former is generally known by the name of republic; the latter by that of monarchy and aristocracy.

Those two distinct and opposite forms erect themselves on the two distinct and opposite bases of Reason and Ignorance.- As the exercise of Government requires talents and abilities, and as talents and abilities cannot have hereditary descent, it is evident that hereditary succession requires a belief from man to which his reason cannot subscribe, and which can only be established upon his ignorance; and the more ignorant any country is, the better it is fitted for this species of Government.

On the contrary, Government, in a well-constituted republic, requires no belief from man beyond what his reason can give. He sees the rationale of the whole system, its origin and its operation; and as it is best supported when best understood, the human faculties act with boldness, and acquire, under this form of government, a gigantic manliness. Read More...

On Liberty

This summary is very timely. So, I thought I would share some of these writings I did on the subjects.


In the article On Liberty, John Stuart Mill states that when the government deals within individuals in a civilized society, they must only use power for the purpose of diverting and protecting them from harm or harming others. They cannot interfere with an individual based on that persons moral agenda or whether it would be in their “good interest” to be overpowered. If interacting with a person to persuade their opinions, this is allowed, but no harm is to come to them to change said opinions. The persons conduct can only be judged if it concerns others, and then they must be held accountable to society. An individual is independent of by right, and they have total control over their thoughts and body.
Mill continues to say that these principles can only apply to humans that are “mature of their faculties”, unless they are children below age of consent. Those that require care, or that are incapacitated must be protected from society and themselves. The only time tyranny can be applied is when dealing with the uncivilized, only if it is means of improving that society. Free and equal discussion is the principle of Liberty. “Utility”, defined as the interests of man, should be used only to help man progress. Those in power have the authority to act upon those that are misguided and can hurt or harm other people. Mill says “If any one does an act hurtful to others, there is a prima facie case for punishing him, by law, or, where legal penalties are not safely applicable, by general disapprobation.” Acts that are beneficial to society are those one feels obligated to complete. These acts may be very beneficial to society. Offering evidence in a court of justice, defending society, or working to protect interests in the society. Mill believes it is man's duty to protect and serve society, to ignore, or take no action against wrong doing is to assume responsibility for those non-actions. There are exceptions to this rule which make one not accountable or judged by society.
Human liberty is comprised of three elements. One, “the inward domain of consciousness”, two, “the liberty of tastes and pursuits”, and lastly, “freedom to unite”. If a society lacks these basic human liberties it is not free. An individual must be allowed to pursue their own interests, as long as they do not infringe those interests on others in a harmful way to violate anothers individuals rights. Humans are in control of their bodies and minds. Finally, Mills ends his statement “Mankind are greater gainers by suffering each other to live as seems good to themselves, than by compelling each to live as seems good to the rest.”

Islamic Fascism....American Fascism

It seems the new word of the week is "Islamic Fascism." Ann Coulter is using it. Bush used it over and over again. Now we see it's re-emergence before the coming elections. The November elections are a crucial turning point in American history. It is the time where we might possibly take control of the "American Fascism" that has gripped the USA. I watch tv and see the deluge of American propaganda overtaking the airwaves. Such shows that have similiar names like this;"Hunt for Bin Ladin", "Why We Invaded Iraq: They Wanted It", "We Fucked Up, but We Had Great Intentions", and finally last , but not least "If Terrorists Would Not Have Committed 9-11, We Would Have Responded Quicker In New Orleans." Their assault on the American psychi is very similiar to the practices Hitler used to win the support of the citizens of Germany. ,America 2005 Is Germany 1930






Brainwashing America

It also seems Bush has not learned nothing from his rants after 9-11. After reading the interview he gave with NBC,Bush interview he is still insisting on linking the terrorist events of 9-11 to Iraq. After he has said that Iraq had "nothing" to do with 9-11. Is the American people so foolish to fall into this trap again? Will they accept war profiteering and sacrificing their children for Bush and his manufactured freedom? Stay tuned folks!

Bush During Katrina

Now that we are at the first anniversary of the tragedy that was Katrina, I have to make a few comments. I am also working on a video of images that were forever imprinted on my mind coming from the Gulf Coast. In John Stewart's way, he shows us quite clearly how Bush responded to Katrina:

bush katrina video

funny videos at darlugo.com

Vote down Senate Bill 2453

In my blog I like to pass along as much action correspondence as I possibly can. Hopefully if it motivates just one person to take action it is a good thing. I recieved this today in my mailbox, among others also, calling for action concerning the illegal wiretapping. I will post Charles V. Sanders letter:

A message from Charles W. Sanders:

ACTION PAGE: http://www.usalone.com/sanders/pnum459.php
Take Action Sign Petition

Please join me in defending our Constitutional rights against illegal
wiretapping which will be expressly permitted if Dick Cheney and Arlen
Specter get their way. What is ironic about Cheney's obsession is that
a U.S. District judge in Detroit has already ruled that wiretapping was
in fact, illegal.

This fear-mongering pair, if they are not stopped, would use current
Senate Bill 2453 to totally absolve their misguided conspirators and
themselves of any legal wrongdoing, should they win approval. I was in a
Third District assembly which included U.S. Representative John Conyers
who expressed his displeasure with wiretapping and other improper
incursions by the Bush and Cheney.

Please display your righteous indignation by submitting this action
page so we can rally opposition to this blatant over reach on behalf of
the Bush administration. If passed, this legislation would usurp any
semblance of recourse through the ordinary remedies available through due
process. As your representative in Congress I would vote it down. In
the meantime we can speak out together against this conniving dosier.
Don't allow your fourth Amendment Constitutional rights against illegal
search and seizure to be swept away.

My name is Charles W. Sanders and I am running in Ohio's Third
Congressional district in a special election on September 15, 2006, to become
the Democratic nominee. Your submissions of my action page on the
Voting Rights act had a definite impact on the renewal of this historic
measure back into law earlier this year.

However, Senator Arlen Specter has worked closely with Vice President
Cheney to develop a bill that would cede even more power to the
executive branch -- and tries to strip us of our Fourth Amendment right not to
be wiretapped without a warrant.

Specter's bill, S. 2453, would give the Administration new authority to
obtain blanket "warrants" for its domestic wiretapping program - as
well as for any other wiretapping programs it desires. Once it obtains
this blanket permission, the Administration would apparently be exempt
from the Fourth Amendment's requirement to show a reason for each wiretap
and obtain a warrant. (The legislation does not directly address the
fact that the wiretapping program was just declared unconstitutional in a
U.S. District Court.

S. 2453 would also:

Send all court cases involving warrantless surveillance - including
cases currently pending in Federal courts -- to the secret Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review, which is completely off-limits to
lawyers without the highest security clearances. Allow these cases to
be dismissed for "any reason" with no chance for appeal. Remove other
protections, enabling the White House to freely conduct data-mining of
your private information.

Thank you for speaking out,
Charles W. Sanders

ACTION PAGE: http://www.usalone.com/sanders/pnum459.php

We NEED candidates like Charles Sanders to stand up and make an issue
of the repeated trangressions of the current administration. Charles
needs your help to get his message out for all of us. Please make a
contribution now to enable Charles to go to Congress and fight for you on
the issues you care about.

DONATIONS LINK: http://www.charleswsanders.org/donations3.html

How many times have you felt helpless and wished you could influence
the votes of representatives in other districts to prevail on a critical
vote in Congress, but thought you could not do so effectively because
you were not one of their own constituents? How much more would you
support Charles if you do live in his district?

Here we have a courageous candidate who will fight for all the issues
you care about, if only he is given the chance to make the run. Please
donate whatever you can to help Charles get on the radio to recruit and
mobilize even more people to speak out so we can have a real impact on
these policy decisions now and for the future. What would you give to
have a whole legislature of people like Charles Sanders? Won't you
give him your support now to make that a reality?

We have been valiantly speaking out with action alerts based on one
fundamental premise --- either our representatives in Congress would
listen to and heed the voices of their people --- or else we would work to
replace them in the next election.

The time for the replacement action is NOW.

Take Action Sign Petition

I Hope That Spineless Rove Gets Everything He Deserves

I read an article today about Cindy Sheehan and 50 other great Americans protesting a Karl Rove republican fundraiser. I was shocked, but not surprised that as these protesters cried out such things as "Check your conscience", "Rove v. Truth: No Contest. Pink slip Rove." , and "Rove: Guilty of crimes against humanity", these fundraiser attendees laughed and joked along with Karl Rove(at the expense of the protesters). These rich republican supporters of Rove and Bush should be ashamed of themselves.
Here is a link to the story:
http://news.aol.com/topnews/articles/_a/sheehan-others-protest-at-rove-event/n20060820045109990001?cid=842

Sheehan, Others Protest at Rove Event
By ANGELA K. BROWN
AP
AUSTIN, Texas (Aug. 20) - Chanting "Try Rove for treason," Cindy Sheehan and more than 50 other war protesters disrupted a reception before President Bush 's top adviser Karl Rove spoke at a fundraiser Saturday. One woman was arrested during a scuffle with police after Sheehan and the anti-war demonstrators rushed toward the closed doors and kept chanting loudly after the guests went into the dinner. Rove was speaking to the Associated Republicans of Texas, and ticket prices started at $200. He was not in the Renaissance Hotel lobby during the reception. "I want him arrested. He planned the war that killed my son," Sheehan told officers guarding the door. Sheehan's oldest son Casey was killed in Iraq in 2004. Police then ordered the group to leave, but some protesters had paid for rooms for the night. Those protesters went upstairs, including Sheehan. One protester slipped inside the ballroom during the dinner but was escorted out after shouting about men and women dying, the Austin American-Statesman reported in its Sunday editions. "Pat, did you get her check before she left?" Rove quipped to the GOP group's executive director, Pat Robbins, as the crowd of 300 laughed, the newspaper reported. "I don't question the patriotism of our critics. Many are hardworking public servants who are doing the best they can. Some of them are people looking for a free meal," Rove said, drawing more laughs. Earlier, wearing shorts and T-shirts while guests of the lobby reception walked past in sequined dresses and expensive suits, anti-war demonstrators carried American flags and signs, including one that read "Check your conscience." A few protesters unfurled a large banner from a sixth-floor hotel balcony that read "Rove v. Truth: No Contest. Pink slip Rove." Those at the reception sipped their drinks and largely ignored the protesters before they started chanting. One man looked at the group and said, "Go Bush!" Earlier Saturday, the group of more than 70 gathered at the hotel entrance, carrying a large banner that read, "Rove: Guilty of crimes against humanity." Ann Wright, a former U.S. diplomat who resigned in 2003 in protest over the war, yelled through a bullhorn, "Karl Rove, you are a criminal!" After about 30 minutes, Austin police made them move onto grass at the edge of the property about a block away. Dozens remained later Saturday, holding signs as cars drove by, honking their horns. Sheehan and the group left their campsite in Crawford near Bush's ranch, where they have held vigil the past two weeks, and drove about 100 miles south to Austin. The war protest will continue until early September, although Bush's ranch 10-day ranch vacation ended last weekend. Sheehan's 26-day protest last August drew more than 10,000 people to her campsite in ditches off the rural road leading to the ranch, but she recently bought land near downtown for the group to camp on.
08/20/06 04:46 EDT

As I observe more of people in the USA, it is clearly evident that the gap between rich and poor is widening. It is so unfortunate that these elite, including celebrities and politicians, can wine and dine, when so many people in the world are dying because of American supremacy. It is also so unfortunate that Americans buy into the celeb-glamour mentality. Do they lack something in their lives that makes them look up or crave what these people have? I wonder do people realise they are making others rich at their expense? I also wonder when they buy their children games, dvds, cds, or any new fad of the week, do they think about the people they are making very wealthy? This story about Rove somehow is just bittersweet to me, because I realise that the "have nots' outweigh the "haves." As this invasion in the Middle East continues, what we see here is going to happen more and more. I hope that I had the ability to join Cindy Sheehan and do my part. So, it is sad and bittersweet, that I can sit here and blog when their are people out their trying to make a difference.

Wannabe In History

I just couldnt help myself, enjoy!!!

Message From Ted Kennedy: Cheney Must Apologize To Connecticut

There are 146,587 terrorist supporters living in the state
of Connecticut according to Vice President Dick Cheney - the
number of Ned Lamont voters.

He claims they're encouraging "the Al Qaida" types who want
to "break the will of the American people in terms of our
ability to stay in the fight and complete the task" in Iraq.

Cheney's gone too far. His disgraceful declaration of war
Ned Lamont supporters is an attack not just on Democrats,
but on democracy itself.

We can't stand by while Republicans like Cheney slander the
people of Connecticut and millions of other Americans
nationwide who are showing up at the polls to reject the
failed record of the Bush Administration.

I just demanded an apology from the VP, and I thought you
might like to join me:

http://www.tedkennedy.com/apologize



Thanks!

Judge Halts Warrantless Wiretapping Program

Hurray for U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor!!! The judge became the first federal judge to speak up and declare the warrantless wiretapping program to be unconstitutional and ordered it to be stoppped!! It is about time someone had the courage to face this highly debated issue. Like I said before, I believe in our system of check and balance. It may be slow and still have problems, but in the most part it works. Now we shall see how Congress or Mr. Bush break laws to go around this court order. You would think they would have learned something from the Terry Shiavo case. This is such a grand day, I love it when justice reigns supreme!


Judge Orders Halt To Warrantless Surveillance

9/11 Detainee tells His Story...Is Conspiracy a Crime?

If Bush and his group of clowns have their way, they will disrespect the decision of the Supreme Court and try other means to convict suspected terrorists and war criminals. Now, that they are slowly releasing people from Gitmo, the true stories of what the USA has been doing to suspected terrorists are hitting the media. I think we need to pass along these human rights stories as much as possible. These people need their stories read and heard. I urge people to post as many human rights stories to their blogs. Especially those stories Iraqi vets , Gitmo prisoners, and civillians caught in this power struggle. Americans need these stories in their faces, they need to be reminded of what their votes or their support of the Bush administration has done to many people and their families.
Invest in printer ink and paper (10 bucks) and spread these stories that might not be read in the rural areas or where proganda plays a part in brainwashing Americans.

A recent article from the Science Christian Monitor:

Is Conspiracy A War Crime?
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0814/p02s01-usju.html


Benemr Benatta was detained from Sept. of 2001 and released in July of 2006. He was not charged with any crime. After five years, he tells his story:

9/11 Detainne Released After Nearly Five Years
http://articles.news.aol.com/news/_a/911-detainee-released-after-nearly-five/20060813130409990006

US steps up anti-Castro Tv-Science Christian Monitor

Here we go again! As if we do not have enough involvement in other countries. Now, we want to help promote 'democracy' in Cuba. Listen up people!!! You cannot force democracy or freedom on people, they must want it. I hope Americans wake up soon, this rogue nation has become totally out of control.

A recent story I read:



US steps up anti-Castro TV
By Warren Richey | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

MIAMI – Every evening from Monday to Saturday, a small twin-engine prop plane taxis down the runway past combat-ready jet-fighters at Naval Air Station, Key West.
The commuter aircraft takes off and banks to the south over the deep-blue Florida Straits as pilot and crew prepare for their nightly invasion of Cuba.

In the Monitor
Thursday, 08/17/06



Hostage: The Jill Carroll Story - Part 4 : A mother as suicide bomber


Suicide bombings by women in Iraq

US steps up anti-Castro TV

Their mission: to spread democracy there by serving as an airborne broadcast platform for a US Spanish-language television network known as TV Martí.

Welcome to the newest front in Washington's propaganda war against Fidel Castro and his brother, Raúl. With Cuba's leader said to be frail but recovering from surgery and his brother provisionally designated as his successor, US officials are stepping up efforts to encourage the Cuban people to end Mr. Castro's 47-year revolution with a revolution of their own.

Officials with the Miami-based Office of Cuba Broadcasting (OCB), an arm of the US government, are quick to point out that their twin-prop Grumman G-1 at no time leaves international air space. Nonetheless, the Cuban government views the operation as the equivalent of a full-on invasion of Cuban sovereignty.

How effective this information 'invasion' may be is a matter of considerable debate. The Cubans have worked to jam TV Martí for years. The new plane and its high-powered transmitter were pressed into action Aug. 5 and are still in the testing phase. But officials say initial indications are positive.

"It is getting through. We have reports from Havana [and] Matanzas ... that it is being seen," says Alberto Mascaro, OCB's chief of staff. "Every day, it is getting better as they fine-tune the equipment."

Critics scoff at such claims. They see information warfare directed at Cuba as an expensive boondoggle related more to the political power of anti-Castro Cuban-Americans than to any demonstrable impact on bringing free elections to Cuba.

The US government has spent nearly $500 million to fund Radio Martí since 1985 and TV Martí since 1990. The Cuban government responded with an array of frequency jammers in and around Havana, and opponents of the propaganda effort say it has achieved little more than bringing very expensive "snow" to Cuban television screens.

"The bottom line is that TV Martí since the day it went on the air, regardless of the technology used, has virtually no audience. Every new technology that they have announced has not worked; it is very easy to jam," says John Nichols, a communications professor at Penn State University and coauthor of the book "Clandestine Radio Broadcasting."

Last month, a presidential commission recommended measures aimed at hastening the transition to democracy in post-Castro Cuba. One recommendation was to break Castro's information blockade. "The regime fears the day that the Cuban people have full access to independent information," it said.

Radio Martí programming has been somewhat more successful than TV Martí in evading jamming, but analysts say it nonetheless has failed to attract a large and loyal audience after more than 20 years in operation. One government estimate in 2005 said only 1.7 percent of Cubans were regular listeners.

But that hasn't slowed US efforts to find new and better ways to get information into Cuba. When TV Martí first started, it was broadcast from a blimp attached to a cable 10,000 feet above Cudjoe Key in the Florida Keys.

After the signals were easily blocked in Havana, the US responded with transmissions from a C-130 transport plane. Those broadcasts were also blocked. Now, TV Martí officials hope the new plane - with state-of-the-art equipment - will generate a signal strong enough to punch through the jammers.

That's not the only front in this information warfare. In 2003, TV Martí began beaming its signal throughout the island via satellite. The Cuban government tightly controls access to satellite broadcasts. But estimates are that there are perhaps 10,000 black- market satellite dishes island-wide.

"Now is the time to gear up and take action," says Stephen Johnson, a Cuba policy expert at the Heritage Foundation. He says the key to success at Radio and TV Martí is building credibility by offering reliable and useful information.

"What they need is information to help them realize that there are different ways of living out in the rest of the world, and that there are things they are missing out on," he says. "It is not to be anti-Castro, but to help plant seeds of change."

Professor Nichols says it won't work because no one in Cuba is listening. "The audience is the sender, not the receiver. The [attempted broadcasts] are making Cuba mad and the Cuban exile community happy," he says. "That is the real message."

USA Highways Being Sold

So, the mainstream is finally waking up to the truth. What takes the mainstream so long to catch on? Finally, a story about foreign companies buy our roads and bridges.

By LESLIE MILLER, Associated Press Writer
Sat Jul 15, 2:44 PM ET



WASHINGTON - Roads and bridges built by U.S. taxpayers are starting to be sold off, and so far foreign-owned companies are doing the buying.



On a single day in June, an Australian-Spanish partnership paid $3.8 billion to lease the Indiana Toll Road. An Australian company bought a 99-year lease on Virginia's Pocahontas Parkway, and Texas officials decided to let a Spanish-American partnership build and run a toll road from Austin to Seguin for 50 years.

Few people know that the tolls from the U.S. side of the tunnel between Detroit and Windsor, Canada, go to a subsidiary of an Australian company — which also owns a bridge in Alabama.

Some experts welcome the trend. Robert Poole, transportation director for the conservative think tank Reason Foundation, said private investors can raise more money than politicians to build new roads because these kind of owners are willing to raise tolls.

"They depoliticize the tolling decision," Poole said. Besides, he said, foreign companies have purchased infrastructure in Europe for years; only now are U.S. companies beginning to get into the business of buying roads and bridges.

Gas taxes and user fees have fueled the expansion of the nation's highway system. Thousands of miles of roads built since the 1950s changed the landscape, accelerating the growth of suburbia and creating a reliance on motor vehicles to move freight, get to work and take vacations.

In 1956, President Eisenhower pushed to create the interstate highway system for a different: to move troops and tanks and evacuate civilians.

The Bush administration's plan to let a foreign company manage U.S. ports met a storm of protest in February. But plans to sell or lease highways to companies outside the United States have not met such resistance.

John Foote, senior fellow at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, said the government can take over a highway in an emergency. But he objects to selling roads to raise cash.

But that is just what Chicago has done.

Last year, the city sold a 99-year lease on the eight-mile Chicago Skyway for $1.83 billion. The buyer was the same consortium that leased the Indiana Toll Road — Macquarie Infrastructure Group of Sydney, Australia, and Cintra Concesiones de Infraestructuras de Transporte of Madrid, Spain.

Chicago used the money to pay off debt and fund road projects. Skyway tolls rose 50 cents, to $2.50; By 2017, they will reach $5.

The Indiana Toll Road lease is a better deal, Foote thinks, because the proceeds will pay for urgent projects such as road and bridge improvements.

That need is precisely why cities and states have begun to look to foreign investors.

Between 1980 and 2004, people drove 94 percent more highway miles, according to Federal Highway Administration statistics. But the number of new highway lane miles rose by only 6 percent.

Washington is not likely to produce more money to build roads. The federal highway fund — which will have a balance of about $16 billion by the end of 2006 — will run out in 2009 or 2010, according to White House and congressional estimates.

About half the states now let companies build and operate roads. Many changed their laws recently to do so.

So Illinois lawmakers are examining privatizing the Illinois Tollway, New Jersey lawmakers are considering selling 49 percent of the state's two big toll roads and a gubernatorial candidate in Ohio wants to sell the turnpike.

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, who championed his state's toll road deal, now wants investors to build and operate a toll road from Indianapolis to Evansville.

Patrick Bauer, the Indiana House's Democratic leader, says such deals are taxpayer rip-offs.

Bauer believes Macquarie-Cintra could make $133 billion over the 75-year life of the Indiana Toll Road lease — for which Indiana got $3.8 billion.

"In five, maybe 10 years, all that money is gone, and the tolls keep rising and the money keeps flowing into the foreign coffers," Bauer said.

Orange County, Calif., got burned by a toll-road lease for a different reason.

The road, part of state Route 91, was built and run for $130 million by California Private Transportation Company, partly owned by France-based Compagnie Financiere et Industrielle des Autoroutes. The toll road opened in 1995.

Seven years later, Orange County was looking at gridlock. But it could not build more roads because of a provision in the lease. So it bought back the lease — for $207.5 million.

To encourage more domestic investment in highways, former Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta made a pitch to Wall Street on May 23.

"The time is now for United States investors — including our financial, construction and engineering institutions — to get involved in transportation investments," said Mineta, who left office July 7.

U.S. companies are getting the message.

San Antonio-based Zachry Construction Co., along with Cintra, received approval on June 29 for a 50-year lease to build and run a toll road from Austin to Seguin for $1.3 billion.

That is part of Texas Gov. Rick Perry's vision to attract more than $80 billion in private funds for roads by 2030. He wants a new tollway from Oklahoma to Mexico and the Gulf Coast, and one from Shreveport, La., and Texarkana to Mexico. Cintra-Zachry reached a $7.2 billion deal last year to develop the project's first phase. The announcement of a $1.3 billion deal in June was part of that $7.2 billion agreement, said Perry's spokesman, Robert Black.

"In Texas, our population is going to double in the next 40 years and our current infrastructure can't handle that growth," Black said.

Not everyone in Texas buys the idea. Harris County officials recently voted against selling three toll roads. Also, independent gubernatorial candidate Carole Keeton Strayhorn opposes Perry's toll road plan.

"Texas freeways belong to Texans, not foreign companies," she said.

Keep tuned into this one folks

Bono Sells Out Again

I didn't want to believe my favorite band was a sell out. But, in the past two years I have watched Bono suck up to leaders such as Bush and Blair. The very men that invaded Iraq and solely responsible for the killing of many innocent men, women and children in the Middle East. These men are liars. Now, I see Bono is just another capitalist whore. What brought me to this breaking point was a story I read today on MSNBC:

NEW YORK - A private equity firm that has U2 rock star Bono among its partners Thursday joined forces with two of North America's hottest video game developers, Pandemic Studios LLC and BioWare Corp., creating one of the world's largest independent game-development houses.
In its first investment, one-year-old Elevation Partners said it had created a holding company that owns Pandemic and BioWare but ensures the developers retain their identities and gives them the funds and time to build top-quality games.
The $300 million deal came after California-based Elevation earlier this year bid for British computer games maker Eidos Plc. , the firm behind "Tomb Raider," but was trumped by UK's SCI Entertainment Group Plc.
"The aim is to create bigger and better games and a company that the best talent will really want to work for," Elevation co-founder John Riccitiello told Reuters in an interview.
Analysts said the deal was interesting as it sidestepped the traditional relationship in which developers were dependent on firms that publish their games for funding.
Riccitiello declined to break down the combined investment of $300 million in the joint venture, BioWare/Pandemic Studios, or the shareholdings of each of the three parties, but said Elevation would be the majority stakeholder.
Edmonton, Canada-based BioWare is a celebrated developer of story- and character-based role-playing games such as "Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic" and "Jade Empire."
Pandemic is newer, with offices in Los Angeles and Brisbane, Australia, but has won respect among game players for its big-selling action and adventure titles, such as "Full Spectrum Warrior" and "Destroy All Humans."
Elevation Partners' interest in investing in games has come as no surprise as Riccitiello is former president of video game publisher Electronic Arts Inc.
Riccitiello said the attraction of BioWare and Pandemic was the quality of their games, none of which have come under public fire for their violence despite their titles.
He said Bono, a passionate advocate on Third World debt and anti-poverty issues, was a big fan of Pandemic's games, particularly "Destroy All Humans," a quirky game in which the player is a Martian trying to destroy Earth.
Under the terms of the deal, both video game companies will retain their separate brands and creative teams and continue to operate in their respective cities. But the two co-founders of each company will become shareholders and senior executives in holding company BioWare/Pandemic Studios.
Riccitiello will be the new company's chief executive.
All 450 employees will be given stock in the business.
Ray Muzyka, joint CEO of BioWare, said the alliance would be a launch pad for exchanging ideas, technologies and talent.
"In a business where developers often must sell out to survive, this deal is refreshingly new: a partnership of equals," Muzyka said in a statement.
Analysts said the one reason for the alliance could be to pressure higher royalty rates from the firms publishing Pandemic and BioWare games Microsoft Corp. , George Lucas' privately owned Lucas Arts and THQ Inc.
"Video gaming is a pretty profitable industry, but the talent is unknown and the lion's share goes to the publisher. There is a move now to change this," said analyst Michael Pachter, from Wedbush Morgan.
"If this deal succeeds it could encourage more independent developers to do the same and encourage more venture capital firms to invest in this industry."
Riccitiello denied this was a reason for the deal and said the firms' relationships with current publishers remained.
Since Elevation was formed it has raised over $1.9 billion to invest in media and entertainment businesses.

This evidently is an older story from November, but it has just been brought to my attention. How can Bono try and sell us the "save Africa, make poverty history", then invest in video games that have no moral content. If you have the morals of a thug, prositute, and criminals I guess. How could Bono invest in games that have mercenaries and war? This world needs saved from ignorance and I think one of the main problems with society and children are these video games that promote violence, the abuse of women, and make people desensitized to war and killing. I think we have been hoodwinked. My heart is breaking, really just shattered. To think there were real people out there that were making a difference, but in actuality they speak out of both sides of their mouths. Bono is a capitalist. Now I know how he bought his new yacht. Wtg Bono!!! You have become the very person you told us to be aware of. I wish I could get the money back I paid for 10 concerts and countless cds and records. I should have seen the signs of what was to come when U2 started charging $40.00 a year to subscribe to their website. I made this man a very rich guy, so I guess I am the stupid one in this situation. It's a doggy dog world and now I have woken up from this dream. Everyone is out for themselves. Like I always say....the elite become richer, and the poor poorer. Be aware of false icons folks, they are among us.
Whether the Belfast Telegraph believes the controversy is a mistake or not, if you invest in companies and you are so "aware", you should keep track of your investments.
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=697665

Bono drawn into dispute over computer game
By Andrew Buncombe06 July 2006
The Irish rock star Bono has been unwittingly caught up in a row over a computer game that features a fictionalised invasion of Venezuela to counter a “power-hungry tyrant” who has seized control of the country and its oil.
The computer game is played from the perspective of a mercenary who is dispatched to Venezuela with the guidance: “If you see it you can buy it, steal it, or blow the living crap out of it.” Called Mercenaries 2: World in Flames, it is made by Pandemic Studios, based in Los Angeles, in which a private equity firm established by the U2 lead singer has invested $300m (£165m). It is one of the world’s largest independent games producers.
In Venezuela, political supporters of President Hugo Chavez have reacted angrily to news of the game – reportedly due for release next year – and called for it to be banned. Gabriela Ramirez, a member of the National Assembly, told the Associated Press that it incorrectly portrayed Mr Chavez as a tyrant and Venezuela as a country on the verge of chaos.
“It sends a message to Americans, ‘You have a danger next door, here in Latin America, and action must be taken’. It’s a justification for an imperialist aggression.”
In the US, activists are dismayed that a man who has campaigned on Aids and poverty should be linked, however unwittingly, to a product that makes entertainment from the destruction of an independent country.
Shirley Pate, of the Venezuelan Solidarity Network in Washington, said: “[The game shows] an attack on the entire city of Caracas, not just the government buildings but also the residential areas.”
Gunnar Gundersen, a member of the Bolivarian Circle movement in Oregon, said: “We have family and friends in Venezuela and many of us have walked and stayed in the places featured in the war game. To us, these are not just clever abstract pictures.”
Pandemic Studios has a reputation for the realism of its games. It has also produced Full Spectrum Warrior, a game that was initially made for the US Army to train soldiers in urban warfare techniques.
No one from Pandemic Studios or Elevation Investment was available for comment yesterday. A spokesperson for Bono failed to return calls.
However, on an online games forum, Scott Walker, the chief designer for the game, recently wrote: “[This] is a work of fictional entertainment. The story, characters and setting of the game should in no way be construed as negative towards the current Venezuelan government or the people of the country.
“One of the key reasons Venezuela was chosen for the setting of Mercenaries 2 is that is a fascinating and colourful country, full of wonderful architecture, geography and culture.”
Earlier this year, Mr Chavez started recruiting and training a people’s militia to help lead a “war of resistance” against what he claims was the threat of an invasion by the US. The US has repeatedly denied the allegation.
Mr Chavez, who was first elected in 1998, survived a short-lived coup in 2002. The US has given hundreds of thousands of dollars to his political opponents, including those who were involved in the coup.
His presidency has seen improvements in literacy and health care and a reduction in poverty, but he has also been accused of increasingly tightening his control of state institutions and introducing measures that could stifle the largely opposition-owned media..

Story from the Belfast Telegraph .


Bono created a company with his wife Ally to help the people in South America have equal trade, now I can only wonder if that was a smokescreen to cover up the fact of his other investments. He sure is learning alot from his neocon friends.