jfk 'sniper window' fetches $3m

from bbc: An item described as the window and frame from where Lee Harvey Oswald shot US President John F Kennedy in 1963 has been sold at auction on eBay.

A mystery bidder paid more than $3m (£1.5m) for the item, apparently from Oswald's shooter's nest at the Texas Schoolbook Depository.

The starting price was just $100,000 but bidding was brisk and the item eventually fetched $3,001,501.

The depository was owned by a local family that listed the item on eBay.

'Piece of history'

Caruth Byrd, a member of that family, says the window of the Dallas building was removed shortly after the assassination because people were stealing bits of it.

Mr Byrd said he was offering someone the chance to own a piece of history and included what he called a leather-bound booklet with all the documentation and contracts relating to the window and the frame's authenticity.

Aptly, given the subject matter, there are those who suggest that the bidders are being hoodwinked.

Conspiracy theorists claim that a man from Tennessee bought the building years ago and took the window with him when he left town.

news on the march

cia agents to stand trial for kidnapping
from reuters: A Milan judge on Friday ordered 26 Americans, most of them thought to be CIA agents, to stand trial with Italian spies for the 2003 kidnapping of a Muslim cleric, who says he was flown to Egypt and tortured there... The trial, set to begin on June 8, will be the first criminal case over "renditions" - one of the most controversial aspects of U.S. President George W. Bush's war on terrorism.

'doomsday' vault design unveiled
from bbc: The final design for a "doomsday" vault that will house seeds from all known varieties of food crops has been unveiled by the Norwegian government. The Svalbard International Seed Vault will be built into a mountainside on a remote island near the North Pole. The vault aims to safeguard the world's agriculture from future catastrophes, such as nuclear war, asteroid strikes and climate change...

armed US police could be on london streets
from telegraph: Armed foreign police could patrol the streets of London during the 2012 Olympics under an unprecedented scenario outlined by one of Scotland Yard’s most senior officers... Assistant Commissioner Tarique Ghaffur, the man in charge of security preparations for the Games and Britain’s most senior Muslim police officer, also raised the prospect of British troops being drafted in to help with the huge security challenges... “I don’t think we should shy away from that. In a global environment, a capital city, international policing is a global family.”

empire of oil: the hidden history of 9/11

from google video: Learn the secret history behind the events leading up to the September 11 attacks, seldom revealed to the public and who actually may have benefited the most from the attacks and why.

fbi caught running top nazi group
from orlando sentinel/total411: A paid FBI informant was the man behind a neo-Nazi march through the streets of Parramore that stirred up anxiety in Orlando's black community and fears of racial unrest that triggered a major police mobilization. That revelation came Wednesday in an unrelated federal court hearing and has prompted outrage from black leaders, some of whom demanded an investigation into whether the February 2006 march was, itself, an event staged by law-enforcement agencies.

media monarchy episode014

here is the latest podcast from
media monarchy...
episode 014 - february 16, 2007

media monarchy is originally broadcast on the portland radio authority every friday at 10am pst/1pm est... music, media & all the news that's fit to suppress!

plus, you can get podcasts of previous episodes here...
thanks to radio4all.net

auditors: billions squandered in iraq

from ap/yahoo: About $10 billion has been squandered by the U.S. government on Iraq reconstruction aid because of contractor overcharges and unsupported expenses, and federal investigators warned Thursday that significantly more taxpayer money is at risk.

The three top auditors overseeing work in Iraq told a House committee their review of $57 billion in Iraq contracts found that Defense and State department officials condoned or allowed repeated work delays, bloated expenses and payments for shoddy work or work never done.

More than one in six dollars charged by U.S. contractors were questionable or unsupported, nearly triple the amount of waste the Government Accountability Office estimated last fall.

"There is no accountability," said David M. Walker, who heads the auditing arm of Congress. "Organizations charged with overseeing contracts are not held accountable. Contractors are not held accountable. The individuals responsible are not held accountable."

aei: the root of bush’s right-wing ideology

from think progress: Today, President Bush delivered a speech on Afghanistan at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a conservative think tank in Washington, D.C. AEI and the Bush administration are deeply entwined, something Bush admitted during his speech. “I admire AEI a lot,” Bush said. “After all, I have been consistently borrowing some of your best people. More than 20 AEI scholars have worked in my administration.”

Below are a few examples of the people and ideas that AEI has shared - or tried to share - with the Bush White House over recent years:

– Escalation. President Bush’s escalation plan is based on a report by AEI scholar Frederick Kagan. CNN reporter Suzanne Malveaux said of AEI’s influence on Iraq policy: “One conservative policy group that has the president’s ear and is influencing his thinking is the American Enterprise Institute.”

– The Cheneys. Dick Cheney served as AEI Senior Fellow from 1993-1995, and his wife Lynn currently serves as Senior Fellow studying education and children. “Both Lynne and I have a long history with the American Enterprise Institute, and we value the association,” Vice President Cheney said in 2005.

– Bomb Iran. “We must bomb Iran,” AEI Resident Scholar Joshua Muravchik wrote in an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times. Muravchik called for an “air campaign against Tehran’s nuclear facilities”

– Richard Perle. Perle has been at AEI since 1987, and currently serves as a Resident Fellow. A leading neoconservative, Perle was a fierce proponent of regime change in Iraq. He served as Chairman of the Defense Policy Board from 2001 to 2003.

– John Bolton. Served as Senior Vice President of AEI before coming to the Bush administration. Bolton currently serves as a Senior Fellow at AEI. “There is no such thing as the United Nations,” Bolton said. “If the U.N. secretary building in New York lost 10 stories, it wouldn’t make a bit of difference.”

– Climate change inaction. AEI offered $10,000 to climate change deniers to speak out against the recent IPCC climate change study.

– Karl Zinsmeister. Worked for 12 years at the American Enterprise magazine. He became Bush’s top domestic policy adviser, but only after he admitted to padding his resume.

– Social Security privatization. AEI has long been a vocal supporter of Social Security privatization.

– Greg Mankiw. A visiting scholar at AEI, Mankiw served as Bush’s chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers from 2003 to 2005. In 2004, Mankiw said the outsourcing of U.S. jobs overseas was “probably a plus for the economy in the long run.”

– John Yoo. Currently a visiting scholar for AEI, and a former deputy assistant attorney general in the office of legal counsel of the Department of Justice. Yoo authored the infamous torture memo that argued interrogation techniques only constituted torture if they are “equivalent in intensity to… organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death.”

'living in this beautiful white house'

from iraq slogger: On MSNBC tonight, Newsweek correspondent Howard Fineman said his Republican sources "cringed" in response to this comment by President Bush during his news conference today:

REPORTER: Do you believe it's a civil war, sir?

BUSH: I can only tell me what people on the ground whose judgment - it's hard for me, you know, living in this beautiful White House, to give you a first-hand assessment. I haven't been there. You have. I haven't. But I do talk to people who are - and people whose judgment I trust - and they would not qualify it as that. There are others who think it is.

air force strips playboy poser of status

from yahoo/ap: An Air Force drill sergeant who posed nude for Playboy magazine has been removed from active duty, she and the Air Force said Wednesday. Michelle Manhart, who appeared in a six-page spread in Playboy's February issue, said she got word Friday that she was removed from "extended active duty" and was also told that she was demoted from staff sergeant to senior airman.

"I'm disappointed in our system," Manhart told The Associated Press on Wednesday. "They went too far with it." ...

or, as what really happened puts it: "Well then, if'n you are all sick of serving in a war built on lies and deceptions, the Air Force has just shown you the way out. Posing nude in a sex magazine just became the "get out of jail" card!"

news on the march

pig signals conflicts before new world order
from breitbart/afp: The world can expect a roller-coaster ride of conflict and unrest, natural disasters and a plunge in global stock markets once the Year of the Pig begins, Chinese soothsayers say... the last time such an arrangement appeared was in 2002, the year that followed the September 11 terrorist attacks... The Chinese calendar moves in 60-year cycles, meaning the world will experience in the new year events similar to those that took place in 1947.

fbi laptops & weapons continue to vanish
from kltv/abc: More than 300 laptop computers and guns were lost by the FBI in a nearly four-year period, according to a new Department of Justice inspector general's report. At least 10 of the 160 laptop computers reported lost or stolen in that period contained sensitive or classified information, the report found.

US prison population soars
from denver post: Prison populations will grow 13 percent in five years, triple the expected U.S. population growth rate during that time, and will cost an additional $27.5 billion, a report released Wednesday projected.

bernstein on bush's disinfo & misinfo
from editor & publisher: "I think what we're talking about with the Bush administration is a far different matter in which disinformation, misinformation and unwillingness to tell the truth - a willingness to lie both in the Oval Office, in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, in the office of the vice president, the vice president himself - is something that I have never witnessed before on this scale."

military accepting more ex-cons

from military.com: More recruits with criminal records, including felony convictions, are being allowed to join the U.S. Army and Marine Corps, as the armed services cope with a dwindling pool of volunteers during wartime.

The military routinely grants waivers to take in recruits who have criminal records, medical problems or low aptitude scores that would otherwise disqualify them from service. Most are moral waivers, which include some felonies, misdemeanors, and traffic and drug offenses.

Defense Department statistics show that the number of Army and Marine recruits needing waivers for felonies and serious misdemeanors, including minor drug offenses, has grown since 2003. Some recruits may get more than one waiver.

The Army granted more than double the number of waivers for felonies and misdemeanors in 2006 than in 2003...

"Our armed forces are under incredible strain, and the only way that they can fill their recruiting quotas is by lowering their standards," said Rep. Marty Meehan, a Massachusetts Democrat who has been working to get additional data from the Pentagon. "By lowering standards, we are endangering the rest of our armed forces and sending the wrong message to potential recruits across the country."

industrial hemp farming act introduced in congress

from raw story: An act to legitimize hemp farming has been introduced in Congress, according to a press release.

"For the second time since the federal government outlawed hemp farming in the United States," the release states, "a federal bill has been introduced that would remove restrictions on the cultivation of non-psychoactive industrial hemp."

Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), a maverick 2008 presidential candidate, is the chief sponsor behind the bill, H.R. 1009. Nine co-sponsors, including fellow White House hopeful Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) and Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), are all Democrats.

The bill "would give states the right to regulate farming of the versatile hemp crop," the release says.

"It is indefensible that the United States government prevents American farmers from growing this crop," the release quotes Rep. Paul. "The prohibition subsidizes farmers in countries from Canada to Romania by eliminating American competition and encourages jobs in industries such as food, auto parts and clothing that utilize industrial hemp to be located overseas instead of in the United States."

Paul states that the passing of the act would "help American farmers and reduce the trade deficit - all without spending a single taxpayer dollar."

The release cites fifteen states which have passed pro-hemp legislation, including seven (Hawaii, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Montana, North Dakota and West Virginia) which "have removed barriers to its production or research." Rep. Paul's bill would, the statement continues, "remove federal barriers and allow laws in these states regulating the growing and processing of industrial hemp to take effect."

A hemp activist leader, quoted in the release, asserts that "the DEA has taken the Controlled Substances Act's antiquated definition of marijuana out of context and used it as an excuse to ban industrial hemp farming" and says passage of the new act "will bring us back to more rational times when the government regulated marijuana, but told farmers they could go ahead and continue raising hemp just as they always had."

The press release is available in full at this site.

provoking a pretext

from raw story: A former top Bush administration official for Persian Gulf affairs has said in an interview this morning on CNN that the US may be trying to spark a conflict with Iran.

Hillary Mann is the former National Security Council Director for Iranian and Persian Gulf Affairs. She warned in the interview that the recent flare up between Iran and the US over the former's alleged assistance to Shi'a militias results from a US desire to provoke conflict with the Iranians.

"They're trying to push a provocative, accidental conflict," Mann said.

She added that the administration hopes to goad Iran into an overreaction so that it can have justification to carry out "limited strikes" against nuclear infrastructure and Revolutionary Guards headquarters buildings in Iran.

Last December, Mann was the co-author with Flynt Leverett, formerly the senior director for Middle East affairs on the National Security Council, of an op-ed that identified failings in the Bush administration's Iran policy. The Bush administration redacted large portions of the editorial, which the New York Times then published in partially blacked out form. RAW STORY published an attempt at a decoding of the contents of Mann and Leverett's op-ed.

lockerbie & the cia

SkyTV documentary that looks at the various scenarios surrounding the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie in December 1988. Was a CIA heroin trafficking operation compromised, allowing a bomb to be placed on board?

cheney on stand may be 'great theater'

from new york times: This week, as Libby's defense attorneys try to show that he did not intentionally lie about his role in leaking the identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame, Cheney is expected to make a historic appearance on the witness stand. It is an act of loyalty that carries considerable risk for Cheney...

But the first 10 days of testimony have already exposed some of the long-hidden workings of Cheney's vice presidency, revealing how deeply Cheney was engaged during 2003 in managing public relations as the Bush administration's case for war came under attack...

"This could be great theater," said Peter Shane, a law professor at Ohio State University. Anything Cheney says for the defense, Shane said, becomes "fair game" to be picked apart by the prosecution...

The trial is just the latest challenge for the vice president, who would enter the witness stand as one of the least popular leaders in recent history. Only 16 percent of respondents in the latest CBS News poll, released last month, said they had a favorable opinion of him.

putin pushes back against 'one single master'

from kurt nimmo: It displeased the neocons and their fellow travelers, including Robert “Iran-Contra” Gates, Joe Lieberman, John “Keating Five” McCain, and Lindsey Graham. Russia’s Vladimir Putin, in essence, told the neocons to back off and rethink their “unipolar world” rhetoric.

Predictably, the New York Times focused in on Robert Gates’ comments to Putin’s speech, at the expense of Putin’s remarks, and made a joke about “re-education” camps, a real enough prospect, considering the fascist tendencies of the neocons.

At any rate, regardless of the fact the corporate media here in Bushland have skipped over Putin’s speech almost entirely, it can be read in total on the Kremlin web site.

Download Tarpley’s radio show in MP3 format .

outside the box #88

here is the latest episode of "outside the box," hosted by alex ansary.
it was originally broadcast by portland community media on february 8, 2007.

from alex ansary: Alex discusses some of the top stories of the world ranging from the wargames that Iran is currently engaged in, to the latest developments with Avian bird flu. Later, he discusses the current level of surveillance at traffic intersections in Portland, Oregon.

news on the march

it's bush vs america - and bush wins
from jerusalem post: What's going on in Washington now is unbelievable - Bush is getting away with it... Nobody's stopping him, nobody's going to... You watch these clowns in Congress, these eunuchs who don't have the balls to even pass what a Bush ally laughed off as a "confetti resolution"

wolfowitz warned of 'surprise like pearl harbor'
from jones report: Video posted recently on Live Leak shows now World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz delivering a June 2001 West Point commencement speech wherein he focused on surprise attacks -- making heavy reference to Pearl Harbor... "Be prepared to be surprised. Have courage... You are about to embark on a great crusade."



things that go bump in the night and start wars
from kurt nimmo: “Unitl very recently,” [Jim] Webb states, “we never operated aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf, because number one the turning radius is pretty close, and number two, the chance of accidently bumping into something that would start a diplomatic situation is pretty high.” But then, of course, this sort of “accident” is precisely what the neocons are fishing for in order to start Phase II, Iran Attack.


an explosion of disbelief
from this is london: The official story of what happened on 9/11 never fails to shock... Yet today, more than five years on, this accepted version of what happened on 9/11 is being challenged... A recent poll by the respected New York Times revealed that three out of four Americans now suspect the U.S. government of not telling the truth about 9/11.

abc's the view plugs the resistance manifesto

from the resistance manifesto/you tube: Rosie O'Donnell and Christine Ebersole talk about John Conner crashing college campuses with 9/11 truth on ABC's The View, Feb 9th, 2007

flashback: actor james brolin questions 9/11 on abc's the view

wealth of nations

from laissez faire books/google video: This informative and entertaining video presentation explains exactly why capitalism has always brought prosperity and why socialism has always brought poverty and suffering. It's packed with the kind of facts you want at your fingertips when discussing these kinds of issues. For instance, did you know that...

* In the 20 years before the factory system was widely established in England, over 74% of London's children died before age 5, largely from starvation? And that after the factory system was widely established, that mortality rate dropped to less than 32%?

* The average income of the lowest 10% of those living in the 10 most capitalist nations is nearly two-and-a-half times as high as the average income in the 10 most socialist nations?

[Wealth of Nations] contains... chapters on the Early Colonists, Industrial Revolution, Inventions, Soviet Gardens, Immigration, Compassion for the Poor, Genocide Records, Socialism's Appeal, Democracy, the U.S. Constitution, and more.

The sections on democracy are particularly persuasive, arguing that democracy is much more compatible with socialism than it is with capitalism, and that the Founding Fathers feared democracy as a road to tyranny. It argues that the great contribution of the American political experience was not democracy but the concept of limited, enumerated powers -- an aspect of the U.S. Constitution that has not been enforced since Hugo Black joined the Supreme Court in 1937.

media monarchy episode013

here is the latest podcast from
media monarchy...
episode 013 - february 9, 2007

media monarchy is originally broadcast on the portland radio authority every friday at 10am pst/1pm est... music, media & all the news that's fit to suppress!

plus, you can get podcasts of previous episodes here...
thanks to radio4all.net

'dubious' douglas feith intel fueled push for war

from washington post: Intelligence provided by former undersecretary of defense Douglas J. Feith to buttress the White House case for invading Iraq included "reporting of dubious quality or reliability" that supported the political views of senior administration officials rather than the conclusions of the intelligence community, according to a report by the Pentagon's inspector general.

Feith's office "was predisposed to finding a significant relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda," according to portions of the report, released yesterday by Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.). The inspector general described Feith's activities as "an alternative intelligence assessment process."

An unclassified summary of the full document is scheduled for release today in a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee, which Levin chairs. In that summary, a copy of which was obtained from another source by The Washington Post, the inspector general concluded that Feith's assessment in 2002 that Iraq and al-Qaeda had a "mature symbiotic relationship" was not fully supported by available intelligence but was nonetheless used by policymakers.

At the time of Feith's reporting, the CIA had concluded only that there was an "evolving" association, "based on sources of varying reliability."

lou dobbs calls out elitist on north american union

from you tube/prison planet: Lou Dobbs calls out elitist Robert Pastor on the stealth movements towards a North American Union that are taking place in secret without Congressional or voter oversight.

'there's going to be some kind of impeachment talk'

from raw story: Several Republican lawmakers have sharply criticized the imprisonment of two border agents who were convicted of shooting a Mexican drug smuggler in the back and attempting to cover it up.

Appeals to President Bush to pardon the two men, Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, have increased since one was assaulted by fellow inmates in a federal prison last weekend.

Yesterday, two Repulican Congressmen had strong words to say about Bush, with one even threatening impeachment.

"Reps. Walter Jones, R-N.C., and Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., blasted President Bush for not intervening in the case, with Rohrabacher hinting that he would consider pressing for impeachment if either of the two agents was killed in prison," Dave Montgomery reports for McClatchy Newspapers.

"Now, I tell you, Mr. President, if these men - especially after this assault - are murdered in prison, or if one of them lose their lives, there's going to be some kind of impeachment talk in Capitol Hill," Rohrabacher said.

McClatchy quotes Jones as saying that "the president has lost my respect because he will not step forward and do what's right."

Montgomery notes that this "case has become a cause celebre among conservative groups, which contend that Ramos and Compean were railroaded by overzealous federal prosecutors who gave the drug smuggler immunity to testify against the two agents."

According to the conservative Cybercast News Service, Rohrabacher slammed Bush for his "arrogance."

"The president of the United States talks a lot about his Christian charity, and his religious beliefs," Rohrabacher said. "He now is showing a mean-spirited side to him, an arrogance, in which he will turn his back."

here is an audio clip of rohrabacher speaking on impeachment

iran claims 100 spies working for US & israel

from agence france-presse: Iran has said it had identified 100 spies working for the United States and Israel in border areas of the Islamic state.

"One hundred people who were directly working for the US and Israeli intelligence ... who were intending to collect political and military information were identified and are now in our intelligence net," Intelligence Minister Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejeie was quoted as saying.

The minister added that a number of Iranians who wanted to take part in spying courses abroad had also been arrested, the semi-official Fars news agency reported Thursday.

"We were able to identify and arrest all those who wanted to take part in espionage course abroad under the guise of taking part in educational courses," Mohseni Ejeie said, without elaborating.

Early last month, Iranian MP Ahmad Tavakoli said that Iran had arrested a spy working in parliament's research centre who had been passing information on its nuclear programme to outlawed armed opposition group, People's Mujahedeen.

Iranian authorities claim that the United States supports armed groups in the country's border provinces, whose population includes Kurd, Arab or Baluch ethnic minorities.

outside the box #87

here is the latest episode of "outside the box," hosted by alex ansary.
it was originally broadcast by portland community media on february 1, 2007.

from alex ansary: Alex discusses a few different ways that people sometimes self create who they are, based upon what they see and experience in their immediate environment. This point is important because once that realization is found, we can begin to understand diversity.

media monarchy's 666th post!

in honor of this glorious occassion, i'd like to show you this free, instructional video on Mind Control Made Easy: How to Become a Cult Leader



i would also like to thank concealed position, the talking dog, the man common, blagsta & dawn's world for their linkage.

who watches the watchers in surveillance society?

from information week: In some cities in Europe and the United States, a person can be videotaped by surveillance cameras hundreds of times a day, and it's safe to say that most of the time no one is actually watching.

But the advent of "intelligent video" - software that raises the alarm if something on camera appears amiss - means Big Brother will soon be able to keep a more constant watch, a prospect that is sure to heighten privacy concerns.

Combining motion detection technology with the learning capabilities of video game software, these new systems can detect people loitering, walking in circles or leaving a package.

New microphone technology can isolate the sound of a gunshot and direct the attached camera to swivel and zoom in on the source. Sensitivity may reach the point where microphones could pick out the word "explosives" spoken in a crowd.

"There's just not enough personnel to watch every single camera," said Chicago emergency operations chief Andrew Velasquez. "We are piloting analytic software right now ... where you can set that particular camera to watch for erratic behavior, or someone leaving a suitcase on the sidewalk."

Since the attacks on the United States of Sept. 11, 2001, sections of New York, Washington, Los Angeles, Chicago and even a few smaller U.S. towns have been blanketed with closed-circuit cameras. Privately owned cameras are also proliferating.

prodi & berlusconi won't testify over cia kidnap

from reuters: Prime Minister Romano Prodi and his predecessor Silvio Berlusconi will not be called to testify on behalf of Italy's former spy chief, who is accused of helping the CIA kidnap a terrorism suspect, a judge ruled on Tuesday.

Prosecutors want to try 26 Americans, most believed to be CIA agents, for grabbing Muslim cleric Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr off a Milan street in 2003 and flying him to Egypt, where he says he was tortured.

Italy's former spy chief Nicolo Pollari, who risks indictment on suspicion of aiding the CIA mission, wanted Prodi and Berlusconi to defend him at a preliminary hearing since he says information proving his innocence is classified.

But Judge Caterina Interlandi ruled that the men's testimony was not relevant to her decision on whether there is enough evidence to warrant a trial, legal sources said.

She further ruled that state secrecy rules did not apply to the kidnapping case, despite Pollari's claims to the contrary.

If she orders a trial, as looks increasingly likely after Tuesday's ruling, it would be the first criminal procedure over renditions - one of the most controversial aspects of U.S. President George W. Bush's global war on terrorism.

The case is being closely watched all over Europe, where judicial authorities in several countries are investigating accusations of CIA secret prisons and secret transfers of U.S. terrorism suspects.

A judge in Germany last week ordered the arrest of 13 people linked to the abduction of a German national who says he was kidnapped and tortured by the CIA.

kucinich: i am listening, present me the material on 9/11

from you tube: Justin A. Martell (founder of Student Scholars for 9/11 Truth) talking with '08 Presidential Candidate Dennis Kucinich about 9/11

lieberman: we need 'terror tax'

from reuters/alertnet: Sen. Joseph Lieberman said on Tuesday that Congress should consider a tax to fund the U.S.-declared war on terrorism and reduce the need to cut domestic programs to pay for security spending.

A former Democrat who supports the Iraq war and backs President George W. Bush's plan to send 21,500 additional troops to Iraq, Lieberman said the proposed increase in the Pentagon's budget for next fiscal year will squeeze funding for critical domestic programs.

"I think we have to start thinking about a war on terrorism tax," the independent Connecticut lawmaker said. "I mean people keep saying we're not asking a sacrifice of anybody but our military in this war and some civilians who are working on it."

"When you put together the (Pentagon) budget and the Homeland Security budgets, we need to ask people to help us in a way that they know when they pay more it will go for their security," he said during a Senate panel hearing on the defense budget request.

Bush on Monday asked Congress to approve $700 billion in new military spending and to curb many domestic programs. The request includes $245 billion for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars between now and late 2008.

If Congress approves the war funding, the United States will have spent $661.9 billion on combat in Iraq, Afghanistan and related activities.

Increased defense spending since 2001 has come amid tax cuts that the Bush administration says were critical to keeping the U.S. economy strong after the Sept. 11 attacks.

texas gov orders anti-cancer vaccine

from ap/reason: Bypassing the Legislature altogether, Republican Gov. Rick Perry issued an order Friday making Texas the first state to require that schoolgirls get vaccinated against the sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer...

Perry also directed state health authorities to make the vaccine available free to girls 9 to 18 who are uninsured or whose insurance does not cover vaccines. In addition, he ordered that Medicaid offer Gardasil to women ages 19 to 21...

Merck [which makes the vaccine] is bankrolling efforts to pass state laws across the country mandating Gardasil for girls as young as 11 or 12. It doubled its lobbying budget in Texas and has funneled money through Women in Government, an advocacy group made up of female state legislators around the country.

Perry has ties to Merck and Women in Government. One of the drug company's three lobbyists in Texas is Mike Toomey, Perry's former chief of staff. His current chief of staff's mother-in-law, Texas Republican state Rep. Dianne White Delisi, is a state director for Women in Government.

The governor also received $6,000 from Merck's political action committee during his re-election campaign.

The order is effective until Perry or a successor changes it, and the Legislature has no authority to repeal it, said Perry spokeswoman Krista Moody. Moody said the Texas Constitution permits the governor, as head of the executive branch, to order other members of the executive branch to adopt rules like this one.

update: latest absurd marketing scheme from merck

webster tarpley issues dire iran attack warning

from kurt nimmo: A concise, if chilling analysis of the impending Iran attack by the “neocon fascist madmen,” as Tarpley aptly characterizes Bush’s warmongering handlers... this is a must listen audio file if you are interested in the coming conflict that will, as Webster points out, change our lives forever. As well, it will serve to read John Pilger’s Iran: The war has already begun. Thanks to Conspiracy Central for offering the audio file as a torrent.

bill moyers: the secret government

from google video: For too long the full length 90 min. version of this documentary has been unavailable. Only a 20 minute version has been circulating. Here now as of January 10, 2007 this failure of access ends. Bill Moyers, the respected TV journalist, analyzes the threats to constitutional government posed by an illegitimate network operating from within the government but using secrecy to set itself up outside of the government/peoples oversight. All this back in 1987.

This documentary gives a fascinating overview of what has actually happened in the last 50 years regarding the CIA and the Cold War (including Iran, Guatemala, Cuba, Vietnam and Chile). The foundation for the massive push towards greater secrecy in government going on today. Posted by Robert Carrillo Cohen, producer of "HACKING DEMOCRACY."

news on the march

clinton sucks up to aipac with talk of iran war
from raw story: At a speech Friday to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee Friday, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) said "no option can be taken off the table" when dealing with Iran... Clinton tempered her remarks by saying she's advocated engagement with "our enemies and Israel's enemies"... AIPAC is widely believed to the most powerful lobbying group in Washington and routinely sees major politicians from both sides of the aisle -- also in attendance Friday was... Chuck Schumer (D-NY).

wash times: possible israeli strike plans for iran
from raw story: A newspaper column in Friday's Washington Times suggests possible plans for an Israeli strike on Iran. The unidentified "military source" [said] that Israeli officials are discussing the "how and when" of a possible pre-emptive strike on Iranian nuclear infrastructure.


muslim chief slams 'police state' britain
from afp: A Muslim leader has warned that Britain is moving towards a "police state," comparing the situation to Nazi Germany after the anti-terror raids in the city of Birmingham this week... "The country is moving toward a police state. That's not right. We have to change this," he said inside the mosque, where some 2,000 Muslims gathered for weekly Friday prayers.
update: Tony Blair has rejected claims that the UK is a "police state for Muslims" as "categorically wrong".

army officer court-martial tests free speech
from reuters: A U.S. Army officer, whose public refusal to go fight in Iraq made him a champion of the anti-war movement, faces a court-martial next week when a military panel could determine the limits of free-speech rights for officers.

First Lt. Ehren Watada faces up to four years in prison if convicted on a charge of missing movements and two charges of conduct unbecoming an officer when his court-martial starts on Monday at Fort Lewis, an Army base near Seattle.
update: A US military judge has declared a mistrial in the court martial of an officer who refused to fight in Iraq.

media monarchy episode012

here is the latest podcast from media monarchy...
episode 012 - february 2, 2007

media monarchy is originally broadcast on the portland radio authority every friday at 10am pst/1pm est... music, media & all the news that's fit to suppress!

plus, you can get podcasts of previous episodes here...
thanks to radio4all.net

9/11: the case isn't closed

from alternet/sander hicks: No matter what you believe about who was responsible for 9/11, and how it went down, we're all amazed at how much political capital the events of that day produced for this administration: A bipartisan consensus on torture; an era of permanent war; detentions without trial; "no fly" lists for activists; the Bill of Rights gone with the wind, and a cowed professional media willing to self-censor and suppress pertinent information. The 9/11 "America Attacked" story has distracted us from the natural outrage we should feel over illegal wiretaps, stolen elections, hundreds of billions of dollars missing at the Pentagon, war profiteering, Enron and Cheney's secret energy policy...

bush says US is a 'nation of prayer'

from upi: U.S. President George Bush extolled the value of prayer Thursday at the 55th National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, and said he appreciates prayer messages.

"In my travels, I often see hand-printed signs and personal messages from citizens that carry words of prayer," Bush said at the Hilton Washington Hotel. "The greatest gift a citizen of this country can give those of us entrusted with political office is to pray for us."

He said the United States is "an amazing country ... when people from all walks of life gather to recognize our dependence on an Almighty God, and to ask him for blessings in our life."

The breakfast was attended by members of Congress, along with some Cabinet members, whom Bush teased after the meal.

"Don't linger - you've got a job to do," he said.

US hands major weapons supplies to afghan army

from reuters/yahoo: The Unites States handed over thousands of weapons and hundreds of vehicles to Afghanistan's fledgling national army on Thursday as part of its strategy to boost local security forces in the fight against the Taliban.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai attended the handover of 800 High Mobility Multi-Purpose Wheeled Vehicles and other trucks, and 12,000 heavy and light arms in Kabul.

"This is the first time that we have received such major help for strengthening our army," Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Zahir Azimi said after the ceremony.

Karzai described the package as "part of the tip of the iceberg" of the long-term U.S. commitment to Afghanistan.

The U.S. government is asking Congress for an extra $10.6 billion for Afghanistan - $8.6 billion of that for helping the army and police - over two years.

attorney general promises to detail spying program

from npr: Attorney General Alberto Gonzales tells Congress that he will hand over some legal documents describing the Bush administration's domestic surveillance program. The pledge ends a two-week standoff between Congress and the White House.

Senators Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Arlen Specter (R-PA), the senior members on the panel, asked for more details about documents including a secret court's decision to approve the program — a decision that Gonzales announced two weeks ago...

Privacy advocates hope that the documents can begin to answer some of the questions that they've had. The one most often brought up: Did the court grant blanket authorization for the wiretapping program as a whole, or did it grant permission to wiretap specific individuals?

double the troops in the surge?

from defense tech: President Bush and his new military chiefs have been saying for nearly a month that they would "surge" an additional 21,500 troops to Iraq, in a last, grand push to quell the violence in Baghdad and in Anbar Province. But a new study by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office says the real troop increase could be as high as 48,000 - more than double the number the President initially said.

That's because the combat units that President Bush wants to send into hostile areas need to be backed up by support troops, "including personnel to staff headquarters, serve as military police, and provide communications, contracting, engineering, intelligence, medical, and other services," the CBO notes.

google: disabling the politically incorrect

from kurt nimmo: As Raw Story tells us, Google has finally addressed link bombs, attempts to influence the ranking of a given page in results returned by the Google search engine. Specifically, and apparently embarrassing for the corporation, entering “miserable failure” in the search engine returned George Bush. Vladimir Putin returned “enemy of the people,” a description not too far off the mark.

“While Google has known about link bombs for years, it had previously expressed reluctance to defuse them individually because it didn’t want to tinker with the objectivity of its Internet search model,” notes Raw Story. However, as we know, in the Bushzarro era, such objectivity is no longer acceptable. Indeed, for a profit-based corporation, it can be deadly.