World-News

Charles Babington of The Associated Press reports: "Democrats running Congress for the first time in more than a decade faltered at key points this year as they grudgingly passed important bills opposed by many, or even most, of their House members. When Republicans were in charge, they generally avoided a similar fate."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122207E.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=GOP

In "Truth and Consequences," Countdown MSNBC's Keith Olbermann "collects the best of his Special Comments, presented with additional observations and other new material."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122207D.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Olbermann

http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/26/26926/1.html

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FBI Prepares Vast Database of Biometrics

Ellen Nakashima, The Washington Post, reports: "The FBI is embarking on a $1 billion effort to build the world's largest computer database of peoples' physical characteristics, a project that would give the government unprecedented abilities to identify individuals in the United States and abroad."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122207A.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Biometrie
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=biometrics
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Ellen+Nakashima

In this ignoble chapter in the history of U.S. justice, the American military's own uniformed lawyers have stood out for their attempts to uphold the rule of law.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/12/20/opinion/edattorneys.php


From Information Clearing House

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122107J.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=evangelism
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Jason+Leopold

Citing conversations he had in Israel with officials in Mossad and the Israeli defense establishment, Riedel concluded that "Israel is not going to allow its nuclear monopoly to be threatened."

http://snipurl.com/1vod0



What Will Israel Do?

A unilateral military strike against Iran is much more likely following the latest intel report about Tehran's nuke program.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/81215/


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/topics/Is+Iran+next/
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Bruce+Riedel

Paul Craig Roberts and others talks about the ill health and possible demise of the dollar.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18934.htm



The Butcher's Apron

By Mike Whitney

Why do we keep throwing billions of dollars down a black hole just to maintain this pathetic charade that fools no one? Why not just load up the boxcars with pallets of crisp-new hundred dollar bills and ship them off to Crawford where they end up anyway. Let Bush worry about how to distribute the loot.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18935.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=dollar+weak
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Mike+Whitney
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Paul+Craig+Roberts

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x626AnWgxYQ


Informant: Frank



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=School+of+the+Americas

Pat Eiding and Ellen Slack for The Philadelphia Daily News write about the historic significance of December as the month that the UN General Assembly adopted in 1948 the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which includes the right to employment and economic well- being. Eiding and Slack write: "Sadly, the US, a nation that prides itself on being a world leader, has not been a leader in the area of workers' rights - that is, the right of workers to organize and bargain collectively."

http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/122107LA.shtml



Union Protests "Atmosphere of Fear" at FreshDirect

Sewell Chan, The New York Times: "Nearly two weeks after FreshDirect let go of scores of immigrant workers, political leaders, labor organizers and other supporters of the workers rallied outside the company's warehouse and headquarters in Long Island City, Queens, this afternoon, accusing the company of ousting the workers to foil a coming unionization vote."

http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/122107LB.shtml


Nightmare Before Christmas

Bob Herbert, writing for The New York Times, says, "I had a conversation the other day with Andrew Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union. He mentioned a poll of working families that had shown that their belief in that mythical dream that has sustained so many generations for so long is fading faster than sunlight on a December afternoon."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122207F.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=trade+unions
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Bob+Herbert

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN2229950520071222


Informant: John Calvert



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=videotapes

Article by Charley Reese
http://www.lewrockwell.com/reese/reese422.html



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=com/reese

says John Keller

Isolationism vs. Militarism
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig/keller20.html



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=isolationism
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=militarism

John M. Regan, Jr., on the subprime crisis and justice.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig5/regan-j4.html



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=subprime+crisis
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Ron+Paul

VILLAGERS battling to get a mobile phone mast removed from a North Yorkshire village will have their case raised in parliament.

Ryedale Tory MP John Greenway has written to villagers in Sheriff Hutton telling them he will be speaking to the House of Commons in January about a controversial phone mast in the village.

Read More...
http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/yorknews/display.var.1922127.0.mp_to_raise_controversy_over_phone_mast_in_parliament.php

http://www.truthnews.us/?p=1327


Informant: Scott Munson



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=National+Security+Agency
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Kurt+Nimmo

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/12/21/5945/

--------

The Vote for Endless War

Only 23 Democrats and one independent supported an amendment by Senator Feingold that would have required the safe redeployment of troops from Iraq. Here are the senators who voted to end the war:
http://snipurl.com/1vpm2


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=endless+war
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Feingold

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/12/21/5954/



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Big+Media

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/12/21/5940/



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=McGovern
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=impeach
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=impeach

Greg Gordon, reporting for McClatchy Newspapers, writes, "A former GOP political operative who ran an illegal election-day scheme to jam the phone lines of New Hampshire Democrats during the state's tight 2002 U.S. Senate election said in a new book and an interview that he believes the scandal reaches higher into the Republican Party."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122107C.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=rig+election
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=GOP
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Greg+Gordon

Jonathan S. Landay, writing for McClatchy Newspapers, reports, "The Department of Justice is investigating whether a former intelligence officer illegally disclosed classified information in interviews he gave on how the CIA interrogated a suspected senior al Qaida member."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122107B.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=torture
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=interrogation
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=waterboarding
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=videotapes
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Jonathan+S.+Landay

Eine Studie bestätigt die wachsende gesellschaftliche Ablehnung der "Überflüssigen".
http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/26/26917/1.html



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Langzeitarbeitslose
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Überflüssige

http://therealnews.com/web/index.php?thisdataswitch=0&thisid=710&thisview=item



http://freepage.twoday.net/topics/Is+Iran+next/

Leila Fadel reports for McClatchy Newspapers: "When Leila Nasser was six months pregnant, US soldiers burst into her house and wrestled away her husband, Mohammed Amin, who was asleep on the roof, trying to escape the summer heat....Now Amin was one of 15 detainees who'd be released as part of a reconciliation program that the US military's 1st Battalion, 28th Infantry Regiment put together in hopes of easing tensions in this divided neighborhood. But the release showed how far reconciliation has to go."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122107P.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Leila+Fadel

Steven Rosenfeld reports for AlterNet: "A series of court decisions this week supporting voting rights advocates in Florida and Arizona may bode well for more open and accountable elections in 2008. That is because the cases involve major trend-setting aspects of elections: whether you can block new laws that disenfranchise thousands of new voters because of errors in state databases, and whether you can catch partisans who alter electronic vote counts. In both instances, courts sided with voting rights advocates against state and local officials."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122107N.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=2008+election
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Steven+Rosenfeld

Brian Todd and Dugald McConnell report for CNN, "California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger plans to sue the federal government over its decision not to allow a California plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, he announced Thursday."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122107L.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=gas+emissions

Pamela Hess reports for The Associated Press, "The House Intelligence Committee issued a subpoena Thursday for Jose Rodriguez, the former CIA official who directed that secret interrogation videotapes of two suspected terrorists be destroyed."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122107K.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=subpoena
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Jose+Rodriguez
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=interrogation
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=videotapes
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Pamela+Hess

KATE SCOTTER

21 December 2007 15:00

A mobile phone company has been accused of trying to get planning permission for a mast in the city through the back door at Christmas.

Families living in the Colman Road area of Norwich are yet again fighting off a proposal for a phone mast.

Mobile phone company 02 wants to put up a 50ft mast near Colman Hospital but campaigners have objected, claiming it would be “intrusive, ugly and enormous”.

Read More...
http://tinyurl.com/34l5n5



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=mast+hospital
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Norwich

Dec 21, 5:21 am

A Donegal Councillor has highlighted the need for local authorities to be given the final say on the erection of mobile phone antenna on public buildings such as hotels or office blocks.

Read More...
http://www.oceanfm.ie/onair/donegalnews.php?articleid=000002217



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Donegal

Ab Januar werden die Kommunikationsdaten aller Deutschen für ein halbes Jahr gespeichert, auch ohne vorherigen Verdacht. Die Empörung ist groß: 70.000 beschweren sich beim Bundesverfassungsgericht - mit prominenter Unterstützung aus den Reihen der Liberalen.

Mehr unter...
http://www.tagesspiegel.de/politik/deutschland/Datenschutz;art122,2443489

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"Grundlegende Verfassungsrechte missachtet": Hirsch legt Verfassungsbeschwerde gegen Vorratsdatengesetz ein

Das Bundesverfassungsgericht wird sich mit dem Gesetz über die Vorratsdatenspeicherung befassen. Der FDP-Politiker Burkhard Hirsch kündigte am 20. Dezember an, im Namen weiterer prominenter Liberaler Verfassungsbeschwerde einzulegen. "Wir sind der Überzeugung, dass das angefochtene Gesetz grundlegende Verfassungsrechte in grober Weise missachtet, und sind nicht bereit, dem immer weitergehenden Abbau unserer Grundrechte tatenlos zuzusehen", so der frühere Bundestagsvizepräsident. Telekommunikationsunternehmen sind ab Januar verpflichtet, für sechs Monate alle Teilnehmer, Zeitpunkt und Dauer von Telefonaten auf Vorrat zu speichern. Bei Handytelefonaten muss der Anbieter zusätzlich die Funkzelle speichern, in der das Gerät zu Beginn der Verbindung angemeldet ist. Zugriff auf die Daten haben Polizei und Staatsanwaltschaft nach richterlichem Beschluss. Das ist oftmals reine Routinesache.

http://www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php?H=N&Nr=17164



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Vorratsdatenspeicherung
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Datenschutz

Tennessean
by Lewright B. Sikes

12/20/07

The Religious Political Right, which represents less than 30 percent of Americans according to any number of recent polls, continues to push its agenda in the public and political sphere. It does so by promoting creationism/intelligent design as a “science” and demanding special consideration and influence for ‘Christian’ prayer groups and organizations in public schools, insisting that political candidates, especially Republican presidential contenders, vie for who can be the most ‘Christian,’ etc. Tennesseans and Americans need to think carefully about where this ‘yellow brick road’ will actually take us. Perhaps there is no better time to do this than during the holiday season, when the religious concepts of new birth, rebirth and human redemption are especially present in our consciousness...

http://tinyurl.com/3b5jta


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Lewright+B.+Sikes

Pioneer Press
by Peter Ehrlinder

12/20/07

Under media radar, the Democrat-sponsored “Prevention of Violent Radicalism and Homegrown Terrorism” bill (H.R. 1955) passed the House at the end of October by a vote of 404 (including the entire Minnesota delegation) to 6. The bill was tagged as noncontroversial by the House leadership and is pending before the Senate. For those senators and citizens who remember history, the bill should be controversial, indeed.Promoted as a relatively innocuous public safety measure, the bill directs money to the Department of Homeland Security for research on homegrown terrorist-Americans in our midst. While this may seem to make sense, the way the bill describes the “hidden enemy,” and the powers inherent in the 10-member investigative commission it establishes, should raise concerns among Americans who remember history, no matter what their political leanings...

http://www.twincities.com/opinion/ci_7762617


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=H.R.+1955
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Homegrown+Terrorism+bill
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Homeland+Security

For perhaps as many as 27 million American adults, keeping warm this winter will mean borrowing money and 20 million will use credit cards to be able to afford their heating bills, according to a CreditCards.com poll.

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/71071/


From Information Clearing House

Fresh from a five-billion-dollar investment in Morgan Stanley, China's cashed-up government is set to go shopping for more bargains as it takes advantage of the financial turmoil in the United States.

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5immDpt8mE2RUwmWnSc_pzVGrlxyw


From Information Clearing House

White House involvement in the CIA's decision to destroy videotapes documenting severe interrogation techniques of suspected terrorists could constitute as many as six crimes, according to constitutional law expert Jonathan Turley.

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Turley_At_least_six_crimes_in_1219.html


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=videotapes
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=interrogation
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Jonathan+Turley

A recent decline in U.S. news coverage from Iraq coincides with improved public opinion about the war just as the 2008 presidential campaign heads to an early showdown, a study released on Wednesday said.

http://snipurl.com/1vmi8



Secret Air War Confirmed

The US has drastically escalated its aerial assault on Iraq and Afghanistan, below the radar of the corporate media.

http://leninology.blogspot.com/2007/12/secret-air-war-confirmed.html



The truth behind the Surge

The so-called 'Surge', and its alleged success, are based on two fundamental tactics: the first one is the so-called 'Redirection' which consists of buying off the Sunni resistance, including all those groups who only yesterday were called 'terrorists'; the second new tactic is massive increasing in the use of airpower.

http://vineyardsaker.blogspot.com/2007/12/truth-behind-surge.html


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=airpower
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=troop+surge

The Russian president said the Iraqi people, though a small population, are proud, and took the US-UK military occupation as a particular offense to their country, creating problems never seen in that country before.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=35687&sectionid=351020602


From Information Clearing House

According to a focus group conducted for the U.S. military last month, Iraqis of all sectarian and ethnic groups believe that the U.S. military invasion is the primary root of the violent differences among them, and see the departure of "occupying forces" as the key to national reconciliation.

http://snipurl.com/1vmi5


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=sectarian

By Joel S. Hirschhorn

We confront more than power elites. There is psychological resistance of millions of Americans to painful 9/11 truth - a shameful, "unthinkable" truth about their elected government.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18933.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=9/11
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=power+elites
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Joel+S.+Hirschhorn

Implications of the National Intelligence Estimate On Iran

By Stefan Simanowitz

To welcome this intelligence as wholly accurate is to concede the much disputed question of whether Iran has ever had a nuclear weapons programme.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18929.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=intelligence
http://freepage.twoday.net/topics/Is+Iran+next/

Reuters: "Australia will send a fisheries patrol ship to shadow Japan's whaling fleet near Antarctica and gather evidence for a possible international court challenge to halt the yearly slaughter, the government said on Wednesday."

http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/122007EC.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=whales

Juliette Anthony writes for Truthout about the growth of the corn ethanol industry: "The Federal Energy Bill, with its fivefold mandate to increase ethanol production, is headed for the president's desk without threat of veto, now that all requirements to support tax credits for solar and wind systems have been removed. The impact of the ethanol mandate promises to be particularly severe on California."

http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/122007EA.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=ethanol

Kimberly Hefling for The Associated Press, reports on the suicide of Pfc. Jason Scheuerman who, "nailed a suicide note to his barracks closet in Iraq, stepped inside and shot himself." Hefling reports on his family's battle with military bureaucracy to understand why their son died.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122007T.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=suicides
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Kimberly+Hefling

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig8/berger1.html

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Glenn Beck Interview with Ron Paul

http://www.chalcedon.edu/blog/2007/12/long-anticipated-glenn-beck-interview.php
http://disc.yourwebapps.com/discussion.cgi?disc=149495;article=116013



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Ron+Paul

http://griperblade.blogspot.com/2007/12/road-to-impeachment.html


Informant: John Stroebel



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=impeach
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=impeach