Michael Moore in Denver on "SiCKO"

Check out my "local" blog, DenverDirect, for videos of Michael Moore on healthcare in the U.S. and his new movie "SiCKO".

Abolish the Federal Reserve

Actual art work (Barrels of Money) hanging at the Federal Reserve Building in D.C.

Ron Paul has sponsored a bill that would abolish the Federal (Private) Reserve (None) Bank (Cabal). This would return the power to issue currency to Congress, where it is supposed to reside (Constitution).

Everything would change.

H.R. 2755 to Abolish the Federal Reserve

Pink Boys in Hell (Coming Soon)

Special Counsel Probe Into Rove’s Politicization Of Government Advances

The Office of Special Counsel, which has already recommended that GSA chief Lurita Doan be suspended or fired for participating in partisan activities while on the job, is now moving forward with its investigation of nearly 20 other administration agencies.

Eighteen agencies have been asked by the Office of Special Counsel to preserve electronic information dating back to January 2001 as part of its governmentwide investigation into alleged violations of the law that limits political activity in federal agencies.

The OSC task force investigating the claims has asked agencies, including the General Services Administration, to preserve all e-mail records, calendar information, phone logs and hard drives going back to the beginning of the Bush administration. The task force is headed by deputy OSC special counsel James Byrne.

The White House has admitted that roughly 20 agencies have received a PowerPoint briefing created by Karl Rove’s office “that included slides listing Democratic and Republican seats the White House viewed as vulnerable in 2008, a map of contested Senate seats and other information on 2008 election strategy.”

Politicization of the federal government has been illegal for decades. The 1939 Hatch Act specifically prohibits partisan campaign or electoral activities on federal government property, including federal agencies.

Ed and Elaine Brown (update)

Remember Randy Weaver at Ruby Hill?



He's on his way to visit the Browns

Plainfield

Ruby Ridge figure coming to Browns
Standoff survivor to advise tax protesters

By Margot Sanger-Katz
Monitor staff

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
June 16. 2007 9:30AM


Plainfield, meet Ruby Ridge.

Randy Weaver, who survived a standoff with U.S. marshals in Idaho that claimed the lives of his wife and son, is driving to New Hampshire this weekend to advise Ed and Elaine Brown on how to manage their own conflict with the marshal service.

"If it helps, I'm more than willing to do it," Weaver said on an internet radio show this week.

The Browns, who have been holed up in their Plainfield home for nearly five months, say that any attempt to arrest them will result in bloodshed. The couple has been sentenced to more than five years in prison for a series of crimes related to their nonpayment of federal income taxes. (continue reading)

Just Foreign Policy News

Would you like to get an email everyday with a concise wrap-up of foreign policy news like this?

U.S./Top News
1) The top American military commander for the Middle East warned Iraq's prime minister that the Iraqi government needs to make tangible political progress - including passage of the controversial oil law - by next month to counter the growing tide of opposition to the war in Congress, the New York Times reports.

2) Despite the recent U.S. military buildup in Baghdad, "civilian casualties continue to mount" in Iraq, according to a report released Monday by U.N. Secretary General Ban, the Washington Post reports.

3) US officials in Baghdad and Washington are floating the idea of permanent U.S. bases in Iraq, notes Howard LaFranchi in the Christian Science Monitor. But many Iraq and Middle East experts warn that any plan for permanent bases would cement the US image in Iraq and the region as that of an occupying force.

4) Once support for a war is lost, it is gone for good; there is no example of a modern democracy having changed its mind once it turned against a war, writes Christopher Fettweis of the U.S. Naval War College in an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times. So we ought to start coming to grips with the meaning of losing in Iraq.

5) Adm. Mullen, the Bush administration's nominee for chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, "probably would seek political solutions to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan," the Washington Post reports.

6) Senator Lieberman's call for cross-border raids into Iran, reigniting the let's-bomb-Iran discussions, is undercutting the recently initiated U.S.-Iran talks over Iraq, writes Trita Parsi of NIAC.

7) Male U.S. veterans are twice as likely to commit suicide as men with no military service, the Washington Post reports.

Iran
8) IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei, warned Iran and the U.S. their yearlong stalemate over Iran's nuclear activities was turning into a "brewing confrontation" that he said "urgently needs to be defused," the New York Times reports.

9) NATO's top general said Iran "might be" aiding the Taliban, AP reports. [The Philadelphia Inqurier ran the AP article under the headline, "NATO General Says Iran Secretly Aiding Taliban," although, according to the article, that's not what he said. -JFP]

Iraq
10) The Iraqi Parliament approved a resolution forcing the resignation of the speaker, the New York Times reports.

11) Muqtada al-Sadr is reasserting authority over his movement, McClatchy News reports. A top Sadr aide said Sadr had replaced 11 local leaders of his movement.

12) The buildup of U.S. troops in Baghdad is failing, according to a report by UN Secretary-General Ban, Bloomberg reports.

Egypt
13) Egyptian security forces barred voters from entering polling centers in opposition areas during national elections, the Washington Post reports. In areas loyal to President Mubarak's National Democratic Party, voters surged into polling sites, including some who appeared to be underage.

Ethiopia
14) An Ethiopian court found 38 prisoners guilty of charges ranging from "outrage against the constitution" to aggravated high treason in a trial international human rights groups have roundly condemned, the Washington Post reports. Relatives of the prisoners accused the U.S. of failing to pressure the Ethiopian government on behalf of the prisoners because of the Ethiopian government's support for U.S. policy in Somalia.

Latin America
15) Last month Bolivia, Venezuela, and Nicaragua announced they would withdraw from the World Bank's international arbitration body, the International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes, notes Just Foreign Policy president Mark Weisbrot in International Business Times. Bolivia's position is that ICSID can not be an impartial arbitrator so long as it is part of the World Bank.

Go here for this excellent free service.

Oh No - I Just Blew Away My Old Template

Sorry about the mess. I'll be re-building some of the old features as time permits.

How to Opt Out of Yahoo's Web Beacons

Apparently Yahoo has a new way of keeping track of us - Web Beacons. I followed the instructions and Opted Out.

Ed and Elaine Brown (update)

Two good video interviews from the Ed Brown myspace page.

Flash!

Ed and Elaine Brown, New Hampshire tax resisters, have been surrounded by Federal, State and local police swat teams. Alex Jones claims the Revolution has started.

Starting to be covered by local press, but they are being kept away.

Previous Fox report.

Ballot Blox

from Greg Palast by way of Smirking Chimp..

President Bush carried Ohio, Iowa, and New Mexico in 2004 because vast numbers of ballots cast by minorities for John Kerry in those states were never counted, an investigative reporter says.

In New Mexico, which Bush won by 5,988 votes, 33,981 ballots were not counted; in Iowa, which Bush won by 10,059 votes, 36,811 ballots were not counted; and in Ohio, which Bush won by 118,599 votes, a whopping 239,127 ballots were not counted.

...

As for absentee ballots, in Arapahoe County, Colorado, three times more absentee ballots mailed to Democrats "failed to return" as compared to Republican ballots. As for those that were returned, a total of 526,426 absentee ballots from around the nation were received but not counted, Palast said. And guess what? In strong Kerry precincts, "voters were 265% more likely to have their absentee ballots tossed out than voters in Bush-majority precincts."

(Click on title for full story)

Worse Than You Think

Have you noticed that when you think something is bad, and then you find out more about it later, it's always worse than you think?

Friends of his from Texas were shocked recently to find him nearly wild-eyed, thumping himself on the chest three times while he repeated "I am the president!" He also made it clear he was setting Iraq up so his successor could not get out of "our country's destiny." from DallasNews.com (click title)