 |
 Latest |
 Greatest |
 Lobby |
 Journals |
 Search |
 Options |
 Help |
 Login |
 Advertise on more than 70 progressive blogs! |
Octafish's Journal - Archives
 Amy Goodman and Sy Hersh give us something important to think about: Seymour Hersh: Propaganda Used Ahead of Iraq War Is Now Being Reused over Iran’s Nuke Program While the United States, Britain and Canada are planning to announce a coordinated set of sanctions against Iran’s oil and petrochemical industry today, longtime investigative journalist Seymour Hersh questions the growing consensus on Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons program. International pressure has been mounting on Iran since the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency revealed in a report the "possible military dimensions" to Iran’s nuclear activities, citing "credible" evidence that "indicates that Iran has carried out activities relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device." In his latest article for The New Yorker blog, titled "Iran and the IAEA," Hersh argues the recent report is a "political document," not a scientific study. "They CONTINUED... http://www.democracynow.org/2011/11/21/sey... And to think some wonder why so many of my DU Friends are angry that Bush and Cheney remain free? When it comes to corruption in public office, don't forget Who's Who and What's What.
 Abramoff Confirms That He Helped Turn Alabama Into a Political Cesspool Legal Schnauzer Thursday, November 10, 2011 EXCERPT... But while withholding more evidence than he provides, Abramoff confirms our worst fears: He helped soil our democracy in a way that almost certainly is unprecedented--and Alabama was one of his prime playgrounds. How did he do it? Mainly by playing conservative Christians for fools. The book is called "Capitol Punishment: The Hard Truth About Washington Corruption from America's Most Notorious Lobbyist." And after reading it, even the least rational Alabamians are likely to understand the following:
* Don Siegelman, indeed, was targeted for a political prosecution--partly to assuage Abramoff's clients, the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians; * Milton McGregor was targeted for a political prosecution in the ongoing Alabama bingo case--again to protect the Mississippi Choctaws. CONTINUED w LINKS: http://legalschnauzer.blogspot.com/2011/11... Gee. An "exercise in political damage control...to protect Bob Riley and his henchmen in Alabama." That sounds like something Democrats in Congress should want to look into, even if the United States Department of Justice thought it unwise to investigate Bob Riley and his henchmen, wherever they may roam.  Here's what it was like inside the Control Room at Fukushima Daiichi: Testimony by workers on the site of stricken Fukushima I NPS "The moment I entered the reactor building, the soles of my shoes melted." The Demki Shimbun Nov. 15, 2011 Some statements are coming out from workers who tried to deal with the disaster at the Fukushima I nuclear power station (NPS) immediately after its occurrence. Zengo Aizawa, executive vice-president of Tokyo Electric Power Co., Inc. (TEPCO), disclosed them at a symposium held at the University of Tokyo on November 4. This testimony by on-site workers was the first to be disclosed, and threw the emergency response efforts under harsh conditions into sharp relief. The workers stayed in the main control room and tried to get instrumentation back into operation by putting together batteries from the cars they used for commuting (photo courtesy of TEPCO). SNIP... Because the system for pumping water into the reactor was also unavailable, TEPCO began using an alternative pump, but the plant continued to experience big aftershocks. One other worker remarked that every time they felt a big aftershock, the crew ran as fast as they could to high ground without removing the masks that covered the whole face. SNIP... In units 1-3, crews decided to vent radioactive steam by opening a containment vessel valve. Ordinarily, such venting can be done by manipulation from inside the main control room. But because the plant had lost all power, workers had to go to the site and operate the valve by hand. The reactor was at high temperatures because of the exposure of the fuel rods. The incredible heat was underscored by one worker, who said that, when he set a foot on the torus (scaffolding) inside the reactor building, the soles of his shoes instantly melted. CONTINUED... http://www.shimbun.denki.or.jp/en/news/201... While the owners and top management are less than nothings, the team on the scene are heroes. Press gain access to Fukushima plant Media get firsthand look at devastation caused by tsunami, hydrogen blasts Koichi Yasuda / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer (Nov. 15, 2011) FUKUSHIMA--Reactor buildings ripped apart by explosions at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. Facilities severely damaged by the March 11 tsumani. As a member of the press, I saw the crippled facilities firsthand on Saturday while battling my own fears of high radiation exposure. SNIP... We had to wear the masks to prevent internal radiation exposure, but I had difficulty breathing because the mask stuck to my face every time I inhaled. I imagined it would be quite hard to work in this clothing. SNIP... The No. 3 reactor building was hit by hydrogen explosions on March 14, and it is believed that hydrogen from the site also caused an explosion at the No. 4 reactor building. SNIP... Goshi Hosono, state minister in charge of the nuclear crisis, was on the press tour. "We've made it to this stage thanks to the great efforts the workers have made," he said to officials at the main building. "Let's achieve Step 2 by the end of the year," he added, referring to the stage stipulated in the road map TEPCO and the government compiled, whose targets include the cold shutdown of reactors. CONTINUED... http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T1111... Two important points to consider: First, TEPCO is trying to make the case to reporters and the world that it was the tsunami -- not the earthquake -- that caused the disaster. Perhaps it has something to do with their liability, although I don't know why since they were warned years ago about both possibilities. Second, TEPCO and the Government of Japan are trying to sell the idea that all the explosions were caused by leaking hydrogen. Arnie Gundersen believes it's possible the explosion at Reactor #3 was caused by the overheated fuel pool -- the one that contained spent MOX and its plutonium. If the fuel did go critical and explode, it's likely many more ears would prick up and take notice to the continuing nuclear danger. Yet, no charges were filed against the Republican congressman who sent sexually suggestive Instant Messages to an underage male page.
 In his official capacity, Foley established for himself a leadership role in protecting "Missing and Exploited Children" on Capitol Hill. Did Foley ever work with the Second Mile organization that Jerry Sandusky founded and used to find victims? If so, the connection may lead to unmasking some of the sickest of the sick. Foley was nationwide. It seems Sandusky was protected by officials at Penn State. What I've failed to find in all this is anyone with real authority working to protect children. Nixon testified. Obama wanted to keep it sealed.
 Personally, I don't think secret government works. Nixon's long-secret Watergate testimony coming out Nov 10, 6:39 AM EST WASHINGTON (AP) -- Richard Nixon's grand jury testimony about the Watergate scandal that destroyed his presidency is finally coming to light. Four months after a judge ordered the June 1975 records unsealed, the government's Nixon Presidential Library was making them available online and at the California facility Thursday. Historians dared hope that the testimony would form Nixon's most truthful and thorough account of the circumstances that led to his extraordinary resignation 10 months earlier under threat of impeachment. "This is Nixon unplugged," said historian Stanley Kutler, a principal figure in the lawsuit that pried open the records. Still, he said, "I have no illusions. Richard Nixon knew how to dodge questions with the best of them. I am sure that he danced, skipped, around a number of things." Nixon was interviewed near his California home for 11 hours over two days, when a pardon granted by his successor, Gerald Ford, protected him from prosecution for any past crimes. Despite that shield, he risked consequences for perjury if he lied under oath. It was the first time an ex-president had testified before a grand jury and it is rare for any grand jury testimony to be made public. Historians won public access to the transcript over the objections of the Obama administration, which argued in part that too many officials from that era are still alive for secret testimony involving them to be made public. The library is also releasing thousands of pages of other Watergate-era documents, several oral histories from that time and 45 minutes of recordings made by Nixon with a dictating machine. The recordings include his dictated recollections of an odd episode late one night in May 1970 when Nixon impulsively had the Secret Service take him to the Lincoln Memorial so he could meet anti-war protesters there. He lingered with the astonished crowd and, according to accounts of that time, asked the protesters to "keep it peaceful. Have a good time in Washington, and don't go away bitter." CONTINUED... http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_... Here's the chilling part: Secret Government is not history. And the current Administration also has little desire in sharing its workings with We the People. Nixon secret Watergate testimony unsealed Politico EXCERPT... One of the topics covered during the grand jury investigation was the infamous 18 1/2 minute gap in a tape recording between the president and his chief of staff three days after the break-in at Democratic Party offices at the Watergate. Although he had been granted a pardon by his successor, President Ford, Nixon was still liable for perjury if he lied during the testimony. The Nixon Presidential Library said it will make the records accessible online. Grand jury testimonies generally remain sealed and private. While the Obama administration argued that too many people mentioned in the testimony were still alive, the secret testimony was ordered to be released after a judge determined that its historical value trumped any privacy concerns. CONTINUED: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1111/... To preserve democracy in its republican form, The United States of America codified transparancy in government in writing: It's called the Constitution. Slides from around the world, courtesy of The Hindu
 One American OWS participant in San Juan, Puerto Rico. A story the bulk of Corporate McPravda is failing to report.
 Thank goodness someone in Washington believes in American concepts like Democracy and Justice. Bernie Sanders: The big banks rule the Fed, here's how to fix it The independent senator from Vermont is taking aim at the make-up of the Federal Reserve's board of directors, arguing it has too many bankers. By Nin-Hai Tseng, writer-reporter Fortune.CNN.com October 26, 2011: 11:07 AM ET EXCERPT... Does anything in the GAO report surprise you? No. In many ways what the GAO was telling us is what many of us already knew but the significance is that for the first time the GAO is telling it. You have representatives from the largest financial institutions in the country sitting on Fed board of directors ostensibly regulating their own banks. For many of us by definition that's a conflict of interest. The other point that the GAO made, which I think is significant, is it identified 18 former and current members of the Federal Reserve Board who are affiliated with banks and companies who received emergency loans from the Fed. That included General Electric (GE), JP Morgan Chase (JPM) and Lehman Brothers. SNIP... There's a lot of anger against Wall Street. What are your thoughts on the Occupy Wall Street movement? I think they're doing a good job in focusing attention on the greed of Wall Street and certainly pinpointing the reality that Wall Street is directly responsible for the terrible recession that we're in right now. And while millions of workers have lost their homes and their jobs and their life savings, many of the CEOs on Wall Street are doing better than they ever have before. So I think focusing attention on that is correct. And the other issue that they're focusing attention on, which I think is very appropriate, is income and wealth inequality in America. We now have the 400 wealthiest people owning more wealth than the bottom 150 million Americans. This gap between the very rich and everybody else is the widest that it has been since 1928. CONTINUED... http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2011/10/26/... Now, anybody know any good zombie killers on Wall Street.? No man. No trial. That also means no testimony and evidence.
 Especially in regards to What's What and Who's Who in all his megapetrodollar financed depravity. No wonder they killed Che. What is our government hiding? The truth about their
 New World Order Symphony by James Cianciaruso Wartime Contracting Panel Seals Records for Next 20 Years Noel Brinkerhoff AllGov.com Tuesday, October 25, 2011 Established by Congress to investigate and expose government waste, the Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan has decided to not reveal its volumes of materials to the public for another two decades. After three years of work, the commission officially shut down last week, having concluded that the U.S. misspent between $31 billion and $60 billion in contracting for services in Iraq and Afghanistan. But it won’t allow its records to be opened for public review at the National Archives until 2031, because some of the documents contain “sensitive information,” according to one official. Steven Aftergood, an expert on government secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists, told The Wall Street Journal that the 20-year term “seems like a long period of time, particularly for a commission whose whole purpose is to improve accountability and expose waste.” SOURCE w/lotsalinks: http://www.allgov.com/Controversies/ViewNe... No two ways about it: Secret Government is un-democratic and un-American. |
Visitor Tools
Use the tools below to keep track of updates to this Journal.
A few important things to know about the assassination of President Kennedy
President John F. Kennedy was proud to be a Liberal Democrat who worked every day he was in office to keep the peace and to make life better for all Americans. As President, Kennedy worked to make ours a stronger nation and this a better world. Many in the country opposed him for his Liberal perspective on civil rights. Kennedy ordered the integration of more than college campuses, he ordered the FBI and Secret Service to hire African American agents. Others opposed his Liberal policies towards other nations and regions. Kennedy favored economic development of the Third World, rather than the past approach of siding with a particular nation's strongman or oligarch to more economically steal the natural resources. In Africa, his policies were to help people learn to feed themselves, read to their kids, and take care of the sick and elderly. That policy, Kennedy believed, would make the United States longer and better allies. Most, if not all, of his successors returned to the traditional policy of stealing all that a nation had to offer. JFK also made enemies with the most frightening elements of the psychology that is the United States. The monied elite that owns the contracts and politicians that put the pork on the table for their sponsors are no strangers to violence. They make their biggest money off of the most horrible thing there is. So, for his less than three years as President, John F. Kennedy faced the War Party, the military-industrial-governmental complex that did all it could to make the Cold War Hot. Still, the War Party tried to have war over the Bay of Pigs. Kennedy said, "No. The War Party tried to have war over the Cuban Missile Crisis, Kennedy said, "No. The War Party tried to have war in Vietnam and southeast Asia. Then, as well, Kennedy said, "No." Of course, all along -- even when they pushed for nuclear war with the Soviet Union -- President Kennedy said, "No." The War Party presented Kennedy with Operation NORTHWOODS, a plan that suggested the US Government kill Americans and make it look like Cuba did it as a pretext for war with Cuba and the Soviet Union. Kennedy said, "No." And he fired the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who submitted it. Then came November 22, 1963 and Dallas. After President Kennedy was dead, the War Party made out like Lee Harvey Oswald did it. And the FBI, CIA and Warren Commission (as revealed through Dulles' "Mighty Wurlitzer") left a trail of "fixed" evidence to make it out Oswald was working for Cuba and its master, the Soviet Union. Yet, that is merely a falsehood perpetuated by the nation's political elite and mass media. For according to the records of the United States Government, Oswald worked for the United States. Do Good, ah? -- Fight Evil!
 Dear DUer and Reader, Thanks for stopping in to check out this journal. I'd also like to thank DU for making it possible. The reason it's here is to get people aware of what the Bush Transnational Criminal Enterprise does to destroy the United States of America; how they loot the nation's Treasury; impoverish We the People; cover our planet with war; work to enslave our children; and kill those who oppose them. My journal also is here to try and help prevent the world these pirates, slavemasters and warmongers work night and day to create. Please feel free to spread the information, opinions, ideas and links. Please let me know if I've made a mistake or if you disagree with me. Please also chip in to add to the evidence against these treasonous, warmongering, mass murdering, profiteering gangsters I refer to as the Bush Family Evil Empire. That name is a bit of a misnomer as they operate to enforce the will of a global ruling elite. To them, evil "is only business." - Octafish Greatest Threads
The ten most recommended threads posted
on the Democratic Underground Discussion Forums in the
last 24 hours. Solaristics
 Latest Threads
The ten most recent threads posted on
the Democratic Underground Discussion Forums. MadFloridian... By formercia FL GOP tries to close state pension system to new workers, yet take THEIR pension at 2X accrual rate By seafan FL GOP denies $51 billion federal Medicaid to poor, yet order cheap health care for themselves By seafan Happy Mother's Day By formercia I love DU2! By Enthusiast Florida Senate President Don Gaetz (R) ran company now accused of Medicaid fraud (Rick Scott redux) By seafan Mediterranean diet cuts risk of heart dis-ease By No Elephants Discussion Forums
Big Forums
More Forums
Today's Featured Forums
The Usual Suspects
|
