For Immediate Release

November 20, 2008

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) today released its final report on the Sept. 11, 2001, collapse of the 47-story World Trade Center building 7 (WTC 7) in New York City. The final report is strengthened by clarifications and supplemental text suggested by organizations and individuals worldwide in response to the draft WTC 7 report, released for public comment on Aug. 21, but the revisions did not alter the investigation team's major findings and recommendations, which include identification of fire as the primary cause for the building's failure.

Whether it's relaxing pollution control standards for power plants or allowing loaded weapons into national parks, the Bush Administration is scrambling to approve or change as many federal rules as it can before it hands off power to President-elect Barack Obama. This surge of "midnight regulations" presents a thorny question for the next administration: What can it do to void rules it thinks should be undone?

An Obama spokesman told ProPublica that the transition team can't comment on the new administration's strategy yet. However, John Podesta, a leading member of the transition team, has said Obama will use his "executive authority without waiting for congressional action" to reverse many of Bush's policies.

But that authority has its limits.

October 13, 2008
by Philip Brewer
Wisebread.com

Financial panics used to be quite ordinary. In the century or two prior to the great depression, there was a panic every 15 or 20 years. Since the great depression we haven't had a classic financial panic, until now. There's a thing or two that we can learn from panics past to help us survive the current one.

To begin with, there's a reason why we haven't had financial panics for the past 75 years--fiat currency.

Panics and gold

Panics used to begin when people decided to get their hands on actual, physical gold. That could happen for a lot of different reasons. Often it was because there had been inflation--banks issuing bank notes far in excess of the gold they had on deposit--and people decided that they didn't trust their bank. Sometimes, though, it happened without any particular malpractice by the banks, simply because there was a demand for gold someplace else--an economic boom in Europe or South America could drain gold from the United States or vice versa.

November 12, 2008
from Georgewashington2.blogspot.com

Gerald Celente has been a leading trend forecaster for years:

"When CNN wants to know about the Top Trends, we ask Gerald Celente."
~ CNN Headline News

"A network of 25 experts whose range of specialties would rival many university faculties."
~ The Economist

"Gerald Celente has a knack for getting the zeitgeist right."
~ USA Today

"There's not a better trend forecaster than Gerald Celente. The man knows what he's talking about."
- CNBC

Privacy Advocates Expect Whistleblowers to Share Warrantless Wiretap Info After Inauguration Day

By RYAN SINGEL
Nov. 11, 2008

When Barack Obama takes the oath of office on January 20, Americans won't just get a new president; they might finally learn the full extent of George W. Bush's warrantless domestic wiretapping.

Since The New York Times first revealed in 2005 that the NSA was eavesdropping on citizens' overseas phone calls and e-mail, few additional details about the massive "Terrorist Surveillance Program" have emerged. That's because the Bush administration has stonewalled, misled and denied documents to Congress, and subpoenaed the phone records of the investigative reporters.

from IVAW.org
November 11, 2008

While it is fitting that our nation reserves a special day to honor the sacrifice and commitment of our warriors, it also serves to highlight how we, as a country, have fallen short of caring for our veterans, reintegrating them back into our communities, and demanding that our military be used responsibly and only as a last resort. Over 1.7 million men and women of the U.S. military have served in Iraq and Afghanistan, and many of them now struggle to cope with physical and emotional injuries, with family relationships strained because of prolonged separation, and with finding employment during an economic recession.

Members of Iraq Veterans Against the War know that in order to truly honor our veterans, we must listen to them, not just on Veterans Day, but on the other 364 days as well. It is for each other, our military brothers and sisters, and for our country that IVAW works every day to share our experiences, to challenge the predominant narrative of war as heroic and glorious, and to expose people to the brutal reality and true human costs of modern warfare.

DNC PROTEST

* Read the ACLU's letter to the Office of the Independant Monitor (PDF) .
* Watch video from the August, 2008 standoff between DNC protesters and police at 15th & Court in Downtown Denver.
* Watch video of protesters getting sprayed with pepper spray, from the August, 2008 standoff .

When a Jefferson County deputy deployed pepper spray into a crowd during the first night of the Democratic National Convention, he did not know that his targets were undercover Denver police officers.

During a melee that occurred Aug. 25 between protesters, police and bystanders near Civic Center Park, undercover Denver detectives staged a struggle with a police commander in order to get out of the crowd undetected.

++++ PRESS RELEASE - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ++++

November 4th 2008

A COPY OF ORWELL'S 'NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR' SENT TO EVERY MP

An Internet grass-roots campaign will this week deliver a copy of George Orwell's prophetic novel 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' to every Member of Parliament.

The books will be inscribed with the words, 'This book was a warning, not a blueprint', and will arrive at Parliament on or before November 5th -- a date of well known historical significance for that building.

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Outraged by the continual attack upon civil liberties within our nation, a fortnight ago the Libertarian Party proposed reminding those in Westminster who they were elected to serve, and in whose interests the laws that they pass are meant to function.

Spread purely by word of mouth, a campaign to send each Member of Parliament their own copy of Orwell's dystopian classic met with overwhelming support on the Internet, with many more books pledged than the 646 required to ensure that every one of our elected representatives receive a personal copy. The Libertarian Party contributed just 75 books itself, with the remainder coming (directly, or via campaign donations) from people of all political parties, and of none.

November 1, 2008
from Velvet Revolution blog

Yesterday, after a contentious three hour hearing in an Akron, Ohio federal court, the judge ordered Bush/Rove IT expert Michael Connell to submit to a two hour deposition less than 24 hours before the start of the 2008 election. The Court ruled that Ohio attorney Cliff Arnebeck can question Connell under oath about Man in the Middle computer manipulations, the use of Trojan horses to control election results from a remote location, and the role of Triad in election manipulations.

However, in a strange twist, the judge agreed with demands from Connell’s attorney to keep under seal any testimony about threats and intimidation of Connell by others including Karl Rove. This is seen as necessary to protect possible criminal charges against those who may have engaged in obstruction of justice in this case.

October 20, 2008

By ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR. & GREG PALAST

"I don't think the Democrats get it. All these new rules and games ... could flip the vote to the GOP in half a dozen states."

Rolling Stone Magazine is making this important investigative story available on the net in its entirety, free of charge.

Read this excerpt, then read it all on-line at RollingStone.com. Or download it all, with the Kennedy-Palast voter guide, Steal Back Your Vote, at StealBackYourVote.org.

Bacevich sees three crises looming in the United States today, as he explains in the introduction to THE LIMITS OF POWER.

The United States today finds itself threatened by three interlocking crises. The first of these crises is economic and cultural, the second political, and the third military. All three share this characteristic: They are of our own making. In assessing the predicament that results from these crises, THE LIMITS OF POWER employs what might be called a Niebuhrean perspective. Writing decades ago, Reinhold Niebuhr anticipated that predicament with uncanny accuracy and astonishing prescience. As such, perhaps more than any other figure in our recent history, he may help us discern a way out.