Staying Informed

EPA Unlikely to Limit A Component of Rocket Fuel in Tap Water


From DemocracyNow!
The Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a lawsuit against the NSA, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, challenging the legality of the administration's electronic surveillance program. The class-action lawsuit was filed on behalf of all residential AT&T customers and alleges that the NSA is conducting mass surveillance on US residents in violation of their First and Fourth Amendment rights. (Luckily for AT&T, Congress and the Bush Admin signed Telecom immunity against such civil lawsuits!)
A new book by award-winning journalist Barton Gellman reveals that the Vice President played a crucial role in maintaining this program of warrantless spying, even after Justice department officials began to doubt its legality in 2004. The book is called Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency.
Washington Post editorial on the subject

AMY GOODMAN: By the way, this is just a side story, but Cheney has the White House email all blindly going to him, so everyone who writes to each other in the White House, Cheney gets that email?

BARTON GELLMAN: Early on in the administration, he made arrangements that he and his office would be copied with all the significant paperwork in the White House on issues. Now, it was not true that if you wrote to the person in the cubicle next door, he was going to get a blind copy. But if you sent to the working group on Asia or on arms control, you would see that it was going to your colleagues in the White House in the appropriate directorates; you would not see that it was also going to Cheney. And there were people who made the mistake of giving very frank advice and making very frank statements about the positions of the Vice President's Office without knowing that they were being read right over there.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/26728520
Palin's record portrays several Bush & Rovian tactics:

strict press silence/secrecy

conducting official biz through personal emails to deflect public records requests & subpoenas

vast cronyism

and a distinct disinterest in foreign affairs

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/26764294
3 minutes in: McCain looking retarded when asked about how to fix the economy
McCain: "I'd like to tell you that I did anticipate [the banking crash], but I have to give you straight-talk. I did not."
Also admits that he was surprised at the dot-com collapse.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/26764592
Irony: Elite class maven, Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild finds Obama to be "an elitist."
(A day later, it was released that she finds him elitist because he called "rednecks" bitter. Yes, this daughter of the Rothschild banking dynasty said "rednecks.")

3 Minutes in: Palin's ugly record on women's issues.


http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/09/17/palin_mayor/
As Wasilla's mayor, Palin "spent more than $50,000 in city funds to redecorate her office, without the council's authorization."


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/26763824
McCain campaign interfering in & stalling the Alaska investigation on Palin's trooper scandal.
(They now call the investigation partisan, though the council is comprised of 3 Rs & 2 Dems.)


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/26764014
Issue: "Lose Your House, Lose Your Vote"
"Caging lists" have been a regular tactic of the GOP.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/3956129.stm

http://www.gnn.tv/articles/3078/Do_Rove_s_Missing_Emails_Prove_Illegal_Caging

http://www.cnn.com/video//video/politics/2008/09/19/obama.protests.kkk.cnn
What's wrong w/ these idiots?
Black people who believe Obama is supported by the KKK


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/26780079
3:09 in: I love Chuck Hagel!
8 minutes in: Why I love Chris Matthews


Get ready for another hike: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/26782485
But be prepared: GA Office of Consumer Affairs

Informative reading:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FISA_Amendments_Act_of_2008
Extended research on the "compromises" in the new FISA Act approved by Congress.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/18/AR2008091803914.html?nav=rss_world

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/20/AR2008092002144.html?nav=rss_politics

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/09/19/large-hadron-collider.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7626944.stm

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/09/19/plants-stress-aspirin.html

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=egyptian-fossil-discovery

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4a336662-8636-11dd-959e-0000779fd18c.html

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/fad66726-8640-11dd-959e-0000779fd18c.html