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FAMILIES OF THE VICTIMS TORTURED BY CHICAGO DETECTIVES REJOICE AT FIRST ARREST By Liliana Segura, AlterNet A 25-year fight to bring Jon Burge and detectives who tortured at least 150 black men into confession to justice reaches a crucial stage. http://www.alternet.org/rights/104732/

at the Palin rally I watched earlier the ppl were chanting use your brain vote McCain and all I could think of was What? use your brain as a coaster?

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The following is an excerpted transcript from Michael Moore's appearance on CNN's Larry King Live Larry King: He is many things, but dull isn't one of them. Michael Moore, the academy winning documentary filmmaker. The latest film is "Slacker Uprising: A Look at the Youth Vote." His latest book is "Mike's Election Guide '08". He is a supporter, as you might imagine, of Barack Obama. He comes to us from Traverse City, Michigan. And I understand you have some friends with you tonight calling themselves Plumbers for Obama. You want to explain this? Where are you? Michael Moore: I'm in a senior citizens house here in Northern Michigan. These guys behind me, they don't just call themselves Plumbers for Obama, they actually are Plumbers for Obama. And they they're licensed plumbers and they're going around helping out people who are in need of plumbing help, who maybe are of modest income, modest means. And so they want to show that real plumbers are for Obama. The average, you know, plumber makes maybe $40,000 to $60,000 a year, if he's lucky. And they're all going to benefit greatly from the Obama tax break that they're going to get if Obama is elected. King: What do you make of the "Joe the Plumber" thing with McCain? Moore: Well, I think it's part of the same illusion that the Republicans have been presenting for the last eight years. They say one thing, but the reality is, you know, something else, whether it's weapons of mass destruction in Iraq or whether it's now playing up "Joe the Plumber." The Republicans, their whole tax plan is to punish the plumbers and everybody else who has a job like this in this country. And yet they somehow have taken this guy -- I feel kind of sorry for this guy, too. He probably didn't expect to be in the limelight like this. And but it's not really about him as an individual. And I don't think people should be getting down on him just because he isn't a licensed plumber or his name isn't Joe or anything else that's come out. I just think that that's kind of irrelevant. The only relevant thing is that McCain is going to make sure that the wealthy get another incredible tax break while everybody else suffers. And Obama is going to make sure that the guys like this who are working behind me tonight here in Northern Michigan, they're going to get a tax break. They're going to get relief. They're going to get help. King: What do you make of this, Michael? Moore: It's one of the tenants of John McCainism and George Bushism. I mean that's exactly what they've done in the last month. I mean the complete irony of this, that they have spread the wealth around to more wealthy people. They have bailed out wealthy people who were playing a high stakes game of risk and failed. They were using money that didn't exist, that wasn't theirs, to try to make more money. Actually, when these guys behind me here if they were to ever write a check for money that they didn't have in the bank and actually use that check to buy something with it, they'd be arrested. It's called check kiting. But that isn't what happens to Wall Street. That's not what happens to the CEOs and the hedge fund people. They get away with this. It's these people, McCain, his campaign, they stand for socialism for the rich. Obama and the Democrats stand for giving these guys and other people like them a break. King: Let's say Obama promises tax cuts for 95 percent of the people. How do you do that and solve health care and all the other problems that need to be paid for? Moore: Are you asking me if I were drawing up the next budget? OK. Here's what you do. You end the war in Iraq. That's $10 billion a month that we're spending that could be spent on repairing our roads, building bridges, building schools, increasing our workforce of nurses -- all the things that we really need in this country. We could start by taking the money away from this war and the money away from crazy Pentagon ideas that haven't done us any good and have only hurt us. That's one really good place to begin to find the money that needs to happen. 1 2 3 4 Next page » I thought Mike's Election guide was smart, honest, and funny when he got ranting about W and his buddies taking the perp walk. Slacker uprising just left me feeling even more frustrated over a 2nd W stolen election and more determine to make sure no more elections are swiped in this country.

I'm anti mandatory vaccination. I think the freedoms we have (or had before W) give us the right to choose if we want to gamble at being poisoned or not. I have never ever not once had a flu shot and never will. The only shot I keep up on is tetnus, but fuck it I'm done having kids. I've been leery of shots for years and the more I've learned the more pissed and paranoid I get. I look at the people in my age group and see all the fucked up mental disease, a by-product of the shots they gave our parents. I look at all the fucked up shit that resulted in my age group getting shots and what is wrong with our kids as a result. In my own family bi polar, ADD and autism. I can see with my own eyeballs the progression of the shit storm. My parents mostly okay, me my sis our cousins; not so okay and our kids defiantly not okay. My father was practically a pin cushion he had so many shots durring his military career. My parents don't smoke, didn't use substances, my mom never really drank and my dad gave up all alcohol after being diagnosed with diabetes. Their biggest carconigen intake comes from diet soda. My dad fought through prostrate cancer a few years ago and my mom has a form of lukemia. Did all of that come from Diet Pepsi?! I dunno about that

I'd like to see her mandated into the mental health system and someone should force her to compare the candidates side by side so she can see how ignorant she really is

some of what he says is pretty far out, some has the ring of truth. I like watching stuff like this and play amateur psychologist body language, voice patterns, how well different parts of the story are repeated verbatim from one lecture to the next; that kinda stuff. Some of the things he said I've heard so many other places (the DUMB's and rail cars) that one more person talking about it makes it all the more disturbing .... o.0 the fact that he was murdered after several attempts on his life is some pretty fucked up shit too. Makes me think that something he was talking about was true enough to get him killed....

freaky shit ne?

>.<

Bidding process for Palin's pipeline was flawed AP investigation shows terms benefited the winner: TransCanada Corp. ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Gov. Sarah Palin's signature accomplishment — a contract to build a 1,715-mile pipeline to bring natural gas from Alaska to the Lower 48 — emerged from a flawed bidding process that narrowed the field to a company with ties to her administration, an Associated Press investigation shows.Beginning at the Republican National Convention, the McCain-Palin ticket has touted the pipeline as an example of how it would help America achieve energy independence. "We're building a nearly $40 billion natural gas pipeline, which is North America's largest and most expensive infrastructure project ever, to flow those sources of energy into hungry markets," Palin said during the Oct. 2 vice presidential debate. Despite Palin's boast of a smart and fair bidding process, the AP found that her team crafted terms that favored only a few independent pipeline companies and ultimately benefited the winner, TransCanada Corp. And contrary to the ballyhoo, there's no guarantee the pipeline will ever be built; at a minimum, any project is years away, as TransCanada must first overcome major financial and regulatory hurdles. In interviews and a review of records, the AP found: Instead of creating a process that would attract many potential builders, Palin slanted the terms away from an important group — the global energy giants that own the rights to the gas. Despite promises and legal guidance not to talk directly with potential bidders, Palin had meetings or phone calls with nearly every major candidate, including TransCanada. The leader of Palin's pipeline team had been a partner at a lobbying firm where she worked on behalf of a TransCanada subsidiary. Also, that woman's former business partner at the lobbying firm was TransCanada's lead private lobbyist on the pipeline deal, interacting with legislators in the weeks before the vote to grant TransCanada the contract. Plus, a former TransCanada executive served as an outside consultant to Palin's pipeline team. Under a different set of rules four years earlier, TransCanada had offered to build the pipeline without a state subsidy; under Palin, the company could receive a maximum $500 million. "Gov. Palin held firmly to her fundamental belief that Alaska could best serve Alaskans and the nation's interests by pursuing a competitive approach to building a natural gas pipeline," said McCain-Palin spokesman Taylor Griffin. "There was an open and transparent process that subjected the decision to extensive public scrutiny and due diligence." Only one viable bidder There were never more than a few players that could execute such a complex undertaking — at least a million tons of steel stretching across some of Earth's most hostile and remote terrain. TransCanada estimates it will cost $26 billion; Palin's consultants estimate nearly $40 billion. The pipeline would run from Alaska's North Slope to Alberta in Canada; secondary supply lines would take the gas to various points in the United States and Canada. The pipeline would carry 4.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas daily, about 8 percent of the present U.S. market. Building such a pipeline had been a dream for decades. The rising cost and demand for energy injected new urgency into the proposal. So too did the depletion of Alaska's long-reliable reserves of oil, which are trapped in the same Arctic Circle reservoirs as clean-burning natural gas. Not only does that oil provide jobs, it pays for an annual dividend check to nearly every Alaska resident. This year's payment was $2,069, 25 percent higher than 2007 — plus a $1,200 bonus rebate to help offset higher energy costs. Palin was elected as governor two years ago in part because of her populist appeal. Promising "New Energy for Alaska," she vowed to take on Exxon Mobil Corp., ConocoPhillips and BP, the multinational energy companies that long dominated the state's biggest industry. Oil interests were particularly unpopular at that moment: Federal agents had recently raided the offices of six lawmakers in a Justice Department investigation into whether an Alaska oil services company paid bribes in exchange for promoting a new taxing formula that would ultimately further the multinationals' pipeline plans. Click for related content No guarantee gas pipeline will be built Palin ousted fellow Republican Gov. Frank Murkowski, who pushed a pipeline deal he negotiated in secret with the "Big Three" energy companies. That deal went nowhere. With Alaskans eager for progress and sour on Big Oil, Palin tackled the pipeline issue with gusto, meeting with representatives from all sides and assembling her own team of experts to draw up terms. Palin invited bidders to submit applications and offered the multimillion-dollar subsidy. Members of Palin's team say that without the incentive, it might not have received any bids for the risky undertaking. CONTINUED The ties that bind1 | 2 | Next >

N.J. policy is first in the nation to require the vaccine for small children Hilary Downing, left, of Readington, N.J., holds a sign as she stands in a large crowd in front of the statehouse in Trenton, N.J., during a rally for vaccination choice. updated 4:07 p.m. ET, Thurs., Oct. 16, 2008 As flu season approaches, many New Jersey parents are furious over a first-in-the-nation requirement that children get a flu shot in order to attend preschools and day-care centers. The decision should be the parents’, not the state’s, they contend. Hundreds of parents and other activists rallied outside the New Jersey Statehouse on Thursday, decrying the policy and voicing support for a bill that would allow parents to opt out of mandatory vaccinations for their children. “This is not an anti-vaccine rally — it’s a freedom of choice rally,” said one of the organizers, Louise Habakus. “This one-size-fits-all approach is really very anti-American.” New Jersey’s policy was approved last December by the state’s Public Health Council and is taking effect this fall. Children from 6 months to 5 years old who attend a child-care center or preschool have until Dec. 31 to receive the flu vaccine, along with a pneumococcal vaccine. The Health Council was acting on the recommendations of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which has depicted children under 5 as a group particularly in need of flu shots. But no other state has made the shots mandatory for children of any age. “Vaccines not only protect the child being vaccinated but also the general community and the most vulnerable individuals within the community,” New Jersey’s Health Department said in a statement. It has depicted young children as “particularly efficient” in transmitting the flu to others. 'Parents have a right to decide' Opposition to the policy is vehement. Assemblywoman Charlotte Vandervalk, one of the speakers at the rally, said she now has 34 co-sponsors for a bill that would allow for conscientious objections to mandatory vaccinations. “The right to informed consent is so basic,” she said in an interview. “Parents have a right to decide for their own children what is injected in their bodies.” State policy now allows for medical and religious exemptions to mandatory vaccinations, but Vandervalk said requests for medical exemptions often have been turned down by local health authorities. She said 19 other states allow conscientious exemptions like those envisioned in her bill. New Jersey’s health department has come out strongly against the legislation. “Broad exemptions to mandatory vaccination weaken the entire compliance and enforcement structure,” it said. The department also contends that New Jersey is particularly vulnerable to vaccine-preventable diseases — with a high population density, a mobile population and many recently arrived immigrants. “In light of New Jersey’s special traits, the highest number of children possible must receive vaccines to protect them and others,” the department said. Several hundred people attended Thursday’s rally, some with signs reading, “Mommy knows best.” Among the speakers was Robin Stavola of Colts Neck, N.J., who said her daughter, Holly, died in 2000 at age 5 less than two weeks after receiving eight different vaccines, including a booster shot. “I am not against vaccines, but I do believe there are too many,” she told the crowd. Divide over vaccine safety State health officials and the CDC insist the flu vaccine is safe and effective, but Vandervalk and the parent groups who support her bill contend there has been inadequate research into the vaccine’s impact on small children. Critics note that flu vaccines contain trace amounts of thimerosol, a mercury-based preservative; the CDC says there’s no convincing evidence these trace amounts cause harm. More generally, many of the parents mobilizing against the state policy believe various types of vaccine are being overused, resulting in more cases of autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and other neurological problems in children. “There’s not been a response from the government that is credible in terms of doing the scientific research that will screen out vulnerable children,” said Barbara Loe Fisher, a speaker at the rally. She is co-founder of the National Vaccine Information Center in Vienna, Va., an advocacy group skeptical of vaccination policies. “There’s an acknowledgment that prescription drugs can cause different reactions in people, but there’s a blanket statement by health authorities that we all have to vaccinate, all in the same way,” Fisher said. Fisher is a prominent player in a nationwide movement challenging the scope of vaccination programs. She was harshly critical last year when school officials in Maryland’s Prince George’s County threatened to impose jail terms and fines on parents whose children didn’t get required vaccinations. Many of the activists in New Jersey accept the need for mandatory vaccinations for certain highly dangerous diseases, such as polio, but argue that the state went too far in requiring flu shots. ******** Learn more about vaccinations. Protect yourself and your family from unnecessary poisoning.

Cartel's emergency meeting in Vienna fails to halt steep slide Crude tumbled Friday and the price for a gallon of gasoline fell below year-ago levels for the first time in 2008, even as OPEC announced a huge production cut in an attempt to halt the declines.In an emergency meeting Friday, OPEC said that it will slash oil production by 1.5 million barrels to stem the "dramatic collapse" of oil prices, but crude prices plunged anyway as financial markets spiraled downward across the globe. Demand for crude has evaporated and the supply levers held by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries appear to have little influence in the current economic climate. Crude prices have now fallen 56 percent from the highs reached in July, and more than $41 per barrel in just the last 30 days.Iran and Venezuela pushed for a cut of 2 million barrels a day, but there were concerns among other OPEC members that a more severe production cut would exacerbate a deteriorating economic crisis and further destroy demand. OPEC officials, however, signaled they were prepared to slice deeper quickly if crude continues its freefall. Light, sweet crude for December delivery fell $3.69 to settle at $64.15 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices had fallen as low as $62.85 earlier in the day. The failure of a big production cut by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to stem the slide in crude prices only cemented sentiments on the oil market. “All OPEC confirmed for the market is how weak demand is,” oil trader and analyst Stephen Schork said. Supporting that view was a report released Friday by the U.S. Department of Transportation that showed the largest monthly decline in miles driven in 66 years. Americans drove 5.6 percent less, or 15 billion fewer miles, in August 2008 compared with August 2007 — the biggest single monthly decline since the data was first collected regularly in 1942. Americans have drastically altered driving habits, if they are driving at all, amid a severe economic downturn. From November through August, Americans drove 78.1 billion fewer miles than they did over the same 10-month period a year earlier. The decline is most evident in rural interstate travel where travel is down more than 4 percent compared with a 2 percent decline in urban miles traveled, according to the agency. The latest weekly report from the U.S. Department of Energy shows that demand has fallen in 38 of the past 42 weeks. U.S. demand is down nearly 10 percent during the past four weeks year on year. The U.S. still consumes one out of every four barrels of oil produced. A gallon of regular gas fell another 4 cents overnight to a new national average of $2.78, according to auto club AAA, the Oil Price Information Service and Wright Express. That’s nearly a dollar less than what was paid last month and 4 cents below a year ago and the first time this year there was a decline compared with 2007 prices. Still, gas prices are off from their peak by about a third compared with the price of crude. But gasoline prices are all but certain to fall further. The world's biggest crude consumer immediately blasted OPEC. "It has always been our view that the value of commodities, including oil, should be determined in open, competitive markets, and not by these kinds of anti-market production decisions," White House deputy press secretary Tony Fratto said Friday. "The high oil prices from the past year contributed to the slowdown in demand and the subsequent downturn in the economy, and we would ask that everyone keep that in mind going forward." CONTINUED1 | 2 | Next > now that demand is low lets say fuck off to big oil and go green!!!!

Woman retracts allegation she was assaulted for supporting Republican updated 9:08 p.m. ET, Fri., Oct. 24, 2008 PITTSBURGH - A young campaign volunteer for John McCain made up a story of being robbed, pinned to the ground and having the letter "B" scratched on her face in what she had said was a politically inspired attack by a black man, police said Friday. Race has been a sensitive issue in the presidential campaign, as Democrat Barack Obama would be the first black U.S. president if he wins the Nov. 4 election. Ashley Todd, 20-year-old college student from Texas, admitted Friday that the story was false, including the claim that the "B" stood for "Barack," said Maurita Bryant, the assistant chief of the police department's investigations division. Todd was charged with making a false report to police, and Bryant said police doubted her story from the start. Dressed in an orange hooded sweat shirt, Todd left police headquarters in handcuffs late Friday and did not respond to questions from reporters. The mark on her face was faded and her left eye was slightly blackened when she arrived in district court. Todd was awaiting arraignment Friday on the misdemeanor false-report charge, which is punishable by up to two years in prison. 'Mental health issues' She will be housed in a mental health unit at the county jail for her safety and because of "her not insignificant mental health issues," prosecutor Mark Tranquilli said. Todd initially told investigators she was attempting to use a bank branch ATM on Wednesday night when a 6-foot-4 black man approached her from behind, put a knife blade to her throat and demanded money. She told police she handed the assailant $60 and walked away. Todd, who is white, told investigators she suspected the man then noticed a John McCain sticker on her car. She said the man punched her in the back of the head, knocked her to the ground and scratched a backward letter "B" into her face with a dull knife. Police said Todd claimed the man told her that he was going to "teach her a lesson" for supporting the Republican presidential candidate, and that she was going to become an Obama supporter. Video Volunteer attack a hoax Oct. 24: Pittsburgh police have confirmed that the story of a McCain campaign volunteer being attacked and was a hoax. MSNBC Todd told police she didn't seek medical attention, but instead went to a friend's apartment nearby and called police about 45 minutes later. Todd could provide no explanation for why she invented the story, police said. The woman told investigators she believes she cut the "B" onto her own cheek, but did not provide an explanation of how or why and said she doesn't remember doing so, police said. Police said that the woman reported suffering from "mental problems" in the past and that they do not believe anyone put her up to the act. Tranquilli said Todd will remain jailed over the weekend pending a psychiatric evaluation, which won't happen until Monday at the earliest. The Associated Press could not immediately locate Todd's family. Bryant said somebody charged with making a false report would typically be cited and sent a summons. But because police have concerns about Todd's mental health, they are consulting with the Allegheny County District Attorney. College Republican worker Todd worked in New York for the College Republican National Committee before moving two weeks ago to Pennsylvania, where her duties included recruiting college students, the committee's executive director, Ethan Eilon, has said. "We are as upset as anyone to learn of her deceit, Ashley must take full responsibility for her actions," College Republican National Committee spokeswoman Ashley Barbera said in a statement. Police reported Todd's claims Thursday, as a photo of her injuries made it onto numerous blogs and news sites. By Friday, police said they had found inconsistencies in Todd's story. They gave her a lie-detector test, but wouldn't release the polygraph results. Police interviewed Todd after she contacted police Wednesday night and again on Thursday, Bryant said. They asked her to come back Friday, ostensibly to help police put together a sketch of the man. Instead, detectives began interviewing her. "They just started talking to her and she just opened up and said she wanted to tell the truth," Bryant said. Police suspected all along that Todd might not be telling the truth, starting with the fact that the "B" was backward, Bryant said. "We have robbers here in Pittsburgh, but they don't generally mutilate someone's face like that," Bryant said. "They just take the money and run."

The Environmental Protection Agency is on the verge of approving a proposal that would allow coal-mining companies to dump mining waste directly into flowing streams, filling in the streams entirely and destroying all the life in them. Since 1983 the Stream Buffer Zone rule has prohibited mining within 100 feet of flowing streams, but now the Bush administration and the Office of Surface Mining are trying to push through an under-the-table, last-minute effort to remove this protection. If the EPA approves the repeal, it will be perfectly legal for coal companies to blow off the top of a mountain, then dump the waste straight into streams, killing the rare salamanders, fish, and other species that live in Appalachian waterways. EPA Administrator Johnson could make the decision at any moment, so time is critical. Please take a minute to tell the EPA not to approve the Stream Buffer Zone revision, and pass this alert along to as many of your friends as possible. ****************************************** Click here to take action: http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/2167/t/5243/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=26129

indeed it just gets worse every time she opens her mouth ppl who bomb family planning clinics are just as terroristic as Ayers was

THE LONG ROAD AHEAD -- ARE YOU READY FOR THE WORST THE ECONOMY HAS TO OFFER? By James Howard Kunstler, Kunstler.com Are we headed for a deflationary period followed by a tidal wave of inflation? http://www.alternet.org/environment/104059/ THE DEBT TRAP: HOW BANKS PUSH TROUBLED BORROWERS DEEPER INTO DEBT By Brad Stone, The New York Times Big Finance's pursuit of struggling American consumers is one of the overlooked causes of the debt boom and the resulting crisis. http://www.alternet.org/workplace/104338/

PALIN: 'I DON'T KNOW' IF ABORTION CLINIC BOMBERS ARE TERRORISTS By Jed L, Daily Kos Palin gives a wink and a nod to right-wing extremists, with whom she shares radical views about the reproductive rights of women. http://www.alternet.org/election08/104590/ MILITARY MOM: WHY I'M SOUR ABOUT SARAH PALIN By Pat Alviso, AlterNet After all, if my son can buck up and do yet another tour of duty in Iraq, I can face a crowd of Palin supporters. http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/104521/ WHY OBAMA HAS PULLED AHEAD ON TAXES AND ECONOMIC ISSUES By Mark Weisbrot, AlterNet Republicans push policies that redistribute income from working and middle-class Americans to the rich. No wonder people are turning to Obama. http://www.alternet.org/workplace/104541/

I'm not so sure posting the records, proposed policies, and media coverage of the candidates can be considered trashing republicans.The republican party has done the job of trashing themselves with their policies tactics speeches etc. Forwarded emails like the one above have become the typical republican scare tactics, yes friends the GOP is desperate and relying on disinformation to save their jobs. Obama is a Christian not a Muslim as was made very public during the whole Reverend Wright scandal during democratic primaries. Yes his father is Muslim, but so are the fathers of over 1.3 billion people on this planet. I wouldn't call Americans ready for serious changes in public policy religious either. We've seen things go from bad to worse to oh gawd these past eight years with a republican executive office. Just because ppl are sick of the status quo and are voting democratic doesn't give Obama "christ like" appeal. People want reform of government and they know they will not get it with a republican in the white house. Off Topic: In regards to Revelations of the New Testament, please give me a break. As with all religions if people want to believe that crap its their choice but keep in mind there are billions of people on earth that do NOT believe in Revelations at all and some just see it as a coded rant against Rome not prophecy. My own studies have led me to believe its history primarily directed at Rome written by an arguably insane hallucinating pissed off exile. End times dogma permeates many religions. I think of it as an out for desperate people that want to radically change the shitty world they're living in. Its pretty basic psychology to offer up a self fulfilling "prophecy" to the suffering masses that promises them something better. Religion has been used as a tool of control, both mental and physical, since the first thunderclap sent early man running into their caves. Its natural for any religion to point the finger at another religion/group as bringers of the end, after all they aren't on the same team. One of the reasons I have turned my back on traditional western religions is because they practice attrition while telling you to forgive and love thy neighbor. Its contradictory and in my opinion thusly nullifies the entire faith.