As Murder And Mayhem Skyrocket, Chicagoland Police Partner Up With 'Anti-Violence' Group CeaseFire

from suntimes.com: “The Interrupters,” the acclaimed documentary about the Chicago-based anti-violence group CeaseFire, caught Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s attention. Worried about the city’s rising tide of bloodshed, Emanuel was impressed with CeaseFire’s strategy of sending ex-felons into the streets to mediate gang conflicts and stop shootings.

The mayor decided to put his police superintendent, Garry McCarthy, and CeaseFire founder Gary Slutkin in the same room a few months ago to discuss a possible partnership, according to City Hall sources. The negotiations were anything but smooth.

Behind the scenes, McCarthy complained about having to deal with an organization full of ex-felons that refuses to share information with the police department about brewing conflicts. And CeaseFire initially balked at demands the police department placed on the group before they could become partners.

But on Tuesday, police officials and CeaseFire announced they had forged a deal. CeaseFire will receive $1 million in city money to put 20 workers each in the Grand-Crossing District on the South Side and the Ogden District on the West Side, both of which have seen recent spikes in gang-related killings. The pilot program will begin July 13.

#satire: year in review 2011

from theonion.com: This week, The Onion Review takes a look back at some of the most important news stories that shaped our lives in 2011.

warwhores: veteran's day edition

10 hard truths about veterans day*
veteran's day - war profiteers say thanks to the pawns*
bombs away: afghan air war peaks with 1,000 strikes in october*
no charges over destruction of cia interrogation tapes*
torture tapes destruction, another crime unpunished*
US to boost military aid to israel*
denouncing the insanity of permanent war*
no antiwar views expressed on pbs news*
why must we look to the past for antiwar songs?*
video flashback: t.s.o.l. 'suppose they gave a war & no one comes'*

media/memes: greenwash, lou dobbs & immortal technique

doj asked for indymedia.us' visitor lists*
npr, pbs & the national security state*
media, money & the moonies*
shakeup at rev. moon's washington times*
nbc enlists prime-time programs in green message*
video: lou dobbs resigns from cnn*
thought police drive lou dobbs off cnn*
lawsuit claims rampant sex harassment, race discrimination at new york post*
video: russia today interviews immortal technique*

econocrash: problem, reaction, solution

obama received a $101,332 bonus from aig
from examiner: Senator Barack Obama received a $101,332 bonus from American International Group in the form of political contributions according to Opensecrets.org. The two biggest Congressional recipients of bonuses from the A.I.G. are - Senators Chris Dodd and Senator Barack Obama. The A.I.G. Financial Products affiliate of A.I.G. gave out $136,928, the most of any AIG affiliate, in the 2008 cycle. I would note that A.I.G.’s financial products division is the unit that wrote trillions of dollars’ worth of credit-default swaps and "misjudged" the risk. The Washington Post reports a "mob effect" at A.I.G financial products division... With the anger and rage that is being exhibited against A.I.G., perhaps the bonuses Obama received from A.I.G. explain Obama's A.I.G crocodile tears. Now that the Wall street Journal has revealed that A.I.G. paid bonuses of $1 million or more to 73 employees, it's time to ask if recipients of A.I.G. "bonuses," including President Obama, will give what now ought to be taxpayer money back?

rage at aig swells as bonuses go out & some aig workers offer to return incendiary bonuses

misdirected 'bailout rage' sets stage for new financial world order
from steve watson: A so called "bailout backlash", a huge rise in public antagonism toward banks and Wall Street, is set to provide the Obama administration and the governments of the G20 nations a pretext to usher in a new era of international centralization and control over financial practices and institutions. The backlash or "bailout rage" as others have dubbed it, has been further heightened by revelations regarding AIG’s squandering of almost $100 billion in taxpayer rescue funding - which it siphoned off to Goldman Sachs and a number of European banks - in addition to the company’s plan to continue issuing massive bonuses to the people in the very division that were responsible for it’s spiraling derivative-driven downturn. The intention to use such practices to push for increased authoritative regulation is clear. "Mr. Obama’s advisers argued that to at least some extent, this was a sentiment they could tap to push through his measures in Congress," reported The New York Times yesterday. However, the Times article also highlights the fine line that Obama and other heads of state must tread in utilizing such backlash for their own gain. "The danger, aides said, is that if he were to become identified as an advocate for the banks and Wall Street, people could take out their anger on him." This is the stumbling block that must be overcome in order to uncover the real solutions to the induced global financial collapse. While the practices of those at AIG, Goldman Sachs and their ilk are abhorrent, they represent a mere drop in the ocean compared to the actions of our governments and their central bank bedfellows, who have provided for such circumstances in the first instance anyway.

let's confiscate hank greenberg's wealth

experts: financial crisis threatens security
from army times: The global economic crisis is putting a three-sided squeeze on the defense budget that could leave the nation at greater risk, U.S. intelligence analysts and outside experts warn Congress. In testimony before the House and Senate Armed Services committees, witnesses warned that the world, in many cases, will become a more dangerous place at the same time that many nations will have less to spend on their national security programs. This puts a greater burden on the U.S. military, which also is going to face pressure to cut expenses.

US could use crisis to wage 'financial warfare'

kremlin to pitch new currency at g20
from moscow times: The Kremlin published its priorities Monday for an upcoming meeting of the G20, calling for the creation of a supranational reserve currency to be issued by international institutions as part of a reform of the global financial system. The International Monetary Fund should investigate the possible creation of a new reserve currency, widening the list of reserve currencies or using its already existing Special Drawing Rights, or SDRs, as a "superreserve currency accepted by the whole of the international community," the Kremlin said in a statement issued on its web site.

volcker & the mother of all financial crises

gary franchi exposes federal reserve on pbs

9/11 updates: nsa, money trail, insider trading & drills

nsa could have prevented 9/11 hijackings
from raw story: The super-secretive National Security Agency has been quietly monitoring, decrypting, and interpreting foreign communications for decades, starting long before it came under criticism as a result of recent revelations about the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping program. Now a forthcoming PBS documentary asks whether the NSA could have prevented 9/11 if it had been more willing to share its data with other agencies.


terrorists working for western countries
from nafeez ahmed: It came to my attention that a senior correspondent, Kristin Aalen, working for a national Norwegian broadsheet - Stavanger Aftenbladet (Stavanger Evening News) - just recently printed a detailed article in the newspaper on Western covert operations sponsoring al-Qaeda after the Cold War... based almost entirely on my research in The War on Truth: 9/11, Disinformation and the Anatomy of Terrorism. Entitled "Terrorists Working for Western Countries" (24.11.08), it even gives a country-by-country summary breakdown complete with a handy geopolitical world map of the wide arc of these operations. It's a very useful piece from a mainstream national European paper that very effectively summarizes the thrust of my research into this unpalatable subject. A shame that the British press is so reticent about such issues. There are some caveats. Kristin sometimes oversimplifies my geopolitical explanations, and this can lead to serious misinterpretations, such as her rendition of my examination of Pentagon sponsorship of al-Qaeda fighters in the Balkans - she says that the US and NATO helped the Bosnian Muslims against the Serbs, provoking them, and thus preventing peace. This is caricature of my argument, which is more fully fleshed out in The London Bombings: An Independent Inquiry.

'rogue' trader highlights possible 9/11 & 7/7 insider trading
from steve watson: According to an article in The London Times today, Société Générale rogue trader Jérôme Kerviel profited enormously on the day of the 7/7 London bombings. He has also revealed how his company made huge profits on September 11th 2001, prompting some to return to questions over insider foreknowledge of both terrorist attacks: “The best trading day in the history of Société Générale was September 11, 2001... At least, that’s what one of my managers told me. It seems that profits were colossal that day... I had a similar experience during the London attacks in July 2005.” Kerviel was charged almost exactly one year ago in the Société Générale trading loss incident which cost the financial services company an estimated €4.9 billion. Until the Bernard Madoff fraud incident last month, it was reported to be the largest fraud in banking history.

yet another military exercise occurring on 9/11 uncovered
from 9/11 blogger: When it seems impossible to discover additional shady military exercises occurring Sept. 11, 2001, there comes along yet another investigator uncovering secret documents pointing to unprecedented military actions happening the same day.

National Security Archive senior fellow Jeffrey T. Richelson is reporting in his new book, "Defusing Armageddon: Inside NEST, America's Secret Nuclear Bomb Squad," that the U.S. nuclear bomb squad, known as the Nuclear Emergency Search Team, was out of the country on its first foreign deployment since 1998, at a British air base in the Cotswolds, on Sept. 11 as part of Operation Jackal Cave.

According to the book, the exercise involved more than 500 personnel, 62 aircraft, 420 short tons of cargo, the CIA and a special operations force that would seize a mock nuclear device that the NEST squad would disable.

The after-action report from the deployment, ""DOE EXERCISE 03-01 JACKAL CAVE" notes the early termination of the exercise because of the attacks, but finds useful "strengths and weaknesses" including the need to "[i]ssue secure international cell phones to control members and team leaders."

The heavily redacted report created in 2003 and prepared for the Department of Energy's Office of Emergency Response by the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education gives only hints of the exercise, including continuing training and exercises between the Department of Energy's Joint Technical Operations Teams (JTOT) and the Army's 21st Ordnance Company (EOD) to "enhance command and control relationships."

A Sept. 13, 2001 report by the BBC News Online quotes British Squadron Leader John Morris of Royal Air Force station Fairford that U.S. planes were flying to the station after being recalled from their participation in Operation Jackal Cave.

Morris is also quoted in a story printed in the Swindon Advertiser in South West England in an article dated Aug. 30, 2001 in which he describes RAF Fairford, a former wartime base, hosting a major United States European Command sponsored training exercise between September 5 and 18. Morris said Fairford would be used as a transit point for the exercise.

rehearsing 9/11: how training exercises foretold the attacks
from 9/11 blogger: In the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks, senior U.S. government and military officials repeatedly claimed that what happened that day was unexpected. In May 2002, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said, "I don't think anybody could have predicted that these people would take an airplane and slam it into the World Trade Center, take another one and slam it into the Pentagon; that they would try to use an airplane as a missile, a hijacked airplane as a missile." [1] Two years later, President Bush stated, "Nobody in our government, at least, and I don't think the prior government, could envision flying airplanes into buildings on such a massive scale." [2] General Ralph Eberhart, the commander of NORAD on September 11, said, "Regrettably, the tragic events of 9/11 were never anticipated or exercised." [3]

Yet these claims were untrue. Not only had the U.S. military and other government agencies discussed the possibility of such attacks, they also conducted numerous training exercises in the year or two before September 11 based around scenarios remarkably similar to what occurred on 9/11. As John Arquilla, a professor of defense analysis at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, said, "No one knew specifically that 20 people would hijack four airliners and use them for suicide attacks against major buildings ... but the idea of such an attack was well known [and] had been wargamed as a possibility in exercises before September 11." [4]

The existence of these training exercises proves that official claims that the events of September 11 were unimaginable have been false. However, future investigations of 9/11 will need to determine whether these exercises served a more nefarious purpose. For example, might they have been intended as a smokescreen for rogue individuals working within the military and other government agencies who were involved in planning the attacks? Thus, if colleagues overheard these individuals discussing matters such as planes hitting the World Trade Center or crashing into the Pentagon, they could have claimed they were simply talking about a forthcoming training exercise.

our political mis-leaders latest bad moves

video: congress ends 9/11 workers’ health care bill
from ny1: Congress has abandoned legislation to provide billions of dollars in health care for September 11th recovery workers. The program would have provided long term care for workers who were at the World Trade Center on or shortly after September 11, 2001 at an estimated cost of at least $5 billion. Mayor Michael Bloomberg strongly objected to a part of the bill that would have forced the city to pay for 10 percent of the program, saying it would place an undue burden on city taxpayers. In addition, the legislation would have reopened the federal September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, adding around $6 billion to the plan.

and speaking of bloomberg...

bloomberg plans to seek re-election by rewriting term limit law
from thinkprogress: On Thursday, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg reportedly plans to announce that he will be seeking a third term, arguing that “the financial crisis unfolding in New York City demands his steady hand and proven business acumen.” The New York Times reports: "The move represents an about-face for Mr. Bloomberg, who has repeatedly said he supports term limits and once called an effort to revise the law 'disgusting.' He will apparently try to do so through legislation in the City Council, rather than the ballot box. Mr. Bloomberg’s gambit carries significant political risk. The city’s term limits law was passed twice by voters, in 1993 and 1996, and several polls show widespread popular support for keeping it in place. Under the plan Mr. Bloomberg has outlined to associates, those voters will have no say in the matter, raising the possibility of a backlash." After 9/11, Rudy Giuliani also considered running for a third term, citing national security concerns. The Albany Project has more.

and then, there's mike's nazi-friend arnold...

schwarzenegger vetoes bill honoring harvey milk
from thinkprogress: Yesterday, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill that “would have made the birthday of gay political icon Harvey Milk a statewide ‘day of significance.’” Schwarzenegger, who opposes efforts to ban same-sex marriage in the state, explained his veto by saying that he believes Milk should “be recognized at the local level.” But the AP notes that conservative groups had lobbied the governor to oppose the measure: "In his veto message issued Tuesday, the governor said that while he respected the measure’s intent, he thinks Milk’s “contributions should continue to be recognized at the local level. Conservative groups had lobbied Schwarzenegger not to sign the legislation, sponsored by Assemblyman Mark Leno of San Francisco." Milk, who was the first openly gay man to hold a prominent political office in America, was assassinated in 1978. Watch the trailer of Gus Van Sant’s upcoming biopic of Milk.

and speaking of california corruption...

pelosi paid husband with pac funds
from washington times: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has directed nearly $100,000 from her political action committee to her husband's real estate and investment firm over the past decade, a practice of paying a spouse with political donations that she supported banning last year. Financial Leasing Services Inc. (FLS), owned by Paul F. Pelosi, has received $99,000 in rent, utilities and accounting fees from the speaker's "PAC to the Future" over the PAC's nine-year history. The payments have quadrupled since Mr. Pelosi took over as treasurer of his wife's committee in 2007, Federal Election Commission records show. FLS is on track to take in $48,000 in payments this year alone - eight times as much as it received annually from 2000 to 2005, when the committee was run by another treasurer. Lawmakers' frequent use of campaign donations to pay relatives emerged as an issue in the 2006 election campaigns, when the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal gave Democrats fodder to criticize Republicans such as former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas and Rep. John T. Doolittle of California for putting their wives on their campaign and PAC payrolls for fundraising work.

mccain: 'i always aspire to be a dictator'

from paul joseph watson: During an interview with the Des Moines Register editorial board yesterday, John McCain - presumably making an attempt at humor - said with a completely straight face that he aspired to be a dictator, while decrying the Congressional rejection of the bailout bill. “I just want to make a comment about the obvious issue and that is the failure of Congress to act yesterday. Its just not acceptable,” said McCain. “This is just a not acceptable situation. I’m not saying this is the perfect answer. If I were dictator, which I always aspire to be, I would write it a little bit differently.” McCain has urged the Bush administration to bypass the will of Congress and invoke executive orders to pass the bailout bill, along with a further $1 trillion dollar spend on buying up bad mortgage debt.

fbi prevents agents from telling 'truth' about 9/11 on pbs
from cq politics: The FBI has blocked two of its veteran counterterrorism agents from going public with accusations that the CIA deliberately withheld crucial intelligence before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. FBI Special Agents Mark Rossini and Douglas Miller have asked for permission to appear in an upcoming public television documentary, scheduled to air in January, on pre-9/11 rivalries between the CIA, FBI and National Security Agency. The program is a spin-off from The Shadow Factory: The Ultra-Secret NSA from 9/11 to the Eavesdropping on America, by acclaimed investigative reporter James Bamford, due out in a matter of days. The FBI denied Rossini and Miller permission to participate in the book or the PBS "NOVA" documentary, which is also being written and produced by Bamford, on grounds that the FBI "doesn't want to stir up old conflicts with the CIA," according to multiple reliable sources. Bamford, contacted by phone, said he could not comment because his publisher has embargoed his new book for release around Oct. 10.

the ron paul revolution is on!

keep your seatbelts fastened, ron paulians
from lew rockwell: After the huge Tea Party fundraising today, and all the other signs of rEVOLution, not to speak of Ron's coming success in the early caucuses and primaries, we can expect smears... the lying smears will bounce off him. The elites have never dealt with a man and a movement like this. They called Reagan the teflon candidate. Ron Paul, for reasons of reality rather than PR, will be untouchable. Neocons and all the rest, gnash your teeth but get used to it. You'll have eight years to do so.

video: a closer look at the ron paul revolution
from pbs: NOW takes a closer look at the Ron Paul Revolution. The following video is from PBS’s NOW, broadcast on November 14, 2007.

video: ron paul tv special to air in iowa

video: ron paul tea party in los angeles
from freedomcorp: Ron Paul Tea Party in Los Angeles. 12/16/07 - 1,000 Ron Paul supporters take over the Santa Monica Pier for a Tea Party L.A. style.

video: ron paul on glenn beck - complete 40min interview

video: jack cafferty covers ron paul’s money bomb on cnn
from truthnews: Jack Cafferty asks if Ron Paul can pull in $6.2 million dollars in a single day, following a $4. million a previous day, how come he's not higher in the polls?

video: ron paul on morning joe on dec18

the apostles of ron paul
from mother jones: How does a 72-year-old conservative Texas congressman become the hottest thing in online politics? Ask the techies, hippies, tax haters, and war protesters who believe that only Ron Paul can save America from itself.

austin is a stronghold for ron paul campaign
from austin american statesman: Famously, flagrantly liberal Austin has almost overnight become a crucial redoubt in a campaign to elect as president a libertarian Republican congressman from Lake Jackson. The strength of Ron Paul here is just another surprise in a campaign built almost entirely on the unexpected, delighting the candidate and confounding the experts.

update: paul raises $6 million in 24-hour effort
from ap: Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul's supporters raised over $6 million Sunday to boost the 10-term Texas congressman's campaign for the White House.

video: international ron paul support at strasbourg teaparty
from europe 4 ron paul: On December 16th, international Ron Paul Supporters gathered together to celebrate a Teaparty in front of the Parliament of Europe.

bloomberg really aims at ron paul
from free market news: Though nobody will say so, Bloomberg’s candidacy, if it comes to pass, would likely be aimed - to begin with, anyway (certainly if momentum builds) at Ron Paul. The more successful Ron Paul is, the more desperate his opponents are to stop him. Even if it means hauling in a Wall Street business mogul to spend up to $2 billion of his own funds to do so.

paul raises 5 million in 24 hours
from time: Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul's supporters raised over $5 million Sunday to boost the 10-term Texas congressman's campaign for the White House.

ron paul white house bid raises $4.5 million
from reuters: Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul, an anti-war libertarian who has clashed with his rivals over Iraq, raised a record $4.5 million in a one-day Internet fund-raising event on Sunday, his campaign said in a statement.

paul raises millions in 24-hour effort
from ap: Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul's supporters were hoping Sunday for another fundraising bonanza to boost the 10-term Texas congressman's campaign for the White House.

again, ron paul supporters pour millions into campaign coffers
from monsters & critics: At the risk of being accused of fluffery or bias by Clintonistas, Oprah's Obama army, Romney and Huckabeebots, we are still obliged to report the fact that Ron Paul supporters are on their way to beating the November 5th Guy Fawkes $4.2 million dollar raise, and are at a reported $4 million currently. Fact: No other candidate on either camp has achieved this grass roots donation level from Jane and John Q. Public.

paul: americans embrace reform
from press tv: US Presidential hopeful Ron Paul says the recent increase in the number of his supporters proves that Americans are ready for reform.

ron paul beats own fundraising record
from washington post: Rep. Ron Paul, whose rock star status on the Internet has singlehandedly fueled his campaign, broke another online fundraising record. His very own.

paul: bush no authority to rule world
from press tv: Presidential hopeful Ron Paul says President Bush has started empire-building by invading Iraq and Afghanistan and beating the drums of war with Iran.

video: 'they are loyal to the party, I am loyal to the constitution'
from raw replay: CNN’s Wolf Blitzer is joined by Congressman Ron Paul ‘post’ Iowa Republican Debate... video is from CNN’s The Situation Room, broadcast on December 12, 2007.

cusack: coffin photo ban 'most cowardly political act'

from raw story: When the Bush administration began enforcing a controversial policy banning photographs of military caskets returning from Iraq, the move provoked outrage - and now, a film - from actor John Cusack, who calls the media ban "one of the most cowardly political acts" of his lifetime.

Appearing on PBS with host Tavis Smiley, Cusack explained that his new movie, Grace is Gone, is the result of a storytelling interest largely inspired by the Bush photo policy.

ron paul & the pbs debate

from paul4prez: The other top tier Republican candidates decided not to address the concerns of African American and Latino voters for a prime time national audience, but Ron Paul never passes up an opportunity to talk about freedom to any audience. Host Tavis Smiley and a distinguished panel of minority journalists asked a wide array of questions, focused more on domestic issues than any of the previous debates were.

All candidates were given equal time to answer the questions, and equal opportunities to go first, a format that CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, and ABC would do well to learn from. Empty podiums on the stage represented Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, Fred Thompson, and John McCain, who apparently needed the time to attend fundraisers, while Ron Paul's supporters continued to fuel up his surging campaign with online contributions.

news on the march

giuliani invokes 9/11 in latest SC visit
from the state: Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani met with firefighters and police officers in Spartanburg on Wednesday, using the forum to discuss the Sept. 11 terror attacks that earned him national attention.

“The first people that arrive on the scene of the bombing or the anthrax attack ... it’s going to be one of your brothers or your sisters or you that gets to do it,” the former New York City mayor told a crowd of about 200 emergency workers. “Your ability to do it well will once again determine if we save lives — save America.”

pbs piece on terrorist surveillance program
from cryptogon: Your email and conversation is monitored.


mcveigh had high-level help
from salt lake tribune: Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols says a high-ranking FBI official "apparently" was directing Timothy McVeigh in the plot to blow up a government building and might have changed the original target of the attack, according to a new affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Utah.

The official and other conspirators are being protected by the federal government "in a cover-up to escape its responsibility for the loss of life in Oklahoma," Nichols claims in a Feb. 9 affidavit.


children's tv 'is linked to cancer, autism, dementia'
from scotsman: It has long been blamed for creating a nation of couch potatoes. But a new report today claims that Britain's love affair with television is causing far more damage - both physically and psychologically - than previously thought...

"It is the number of hours and the age at which they start which produces the biological effects. It is because of the medium, not the message, that these effects are occurring."