November 30, 2007
IMPEACHMENT TOOLKIT; Mukasey
There are currently over 1 million "hits" on google regarding Mukasey and TORTURE
http://www.google.ca/search?q=Mukasey+torture&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=
org.mozilla:en-GB:official&client=firefox-a
| Editorial: Torture and the Attorneys General Submitted by Sheila Samples | | |   |
My article on this is at this URL
http://www.opednews.com/articles/2/opedne_ladybroa_070917_mukasey_as_next_atto.htm
A list of other articles on Mukasey and Alberto Gonzales is at:
http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/showtags.php?tid=6704&tag=/Attorney+General
This is Congress's important letter about the FISA court (remember they are avoiding using any reference to the ICC and The Hague and note the signatories. if anyone knows who sees this, which of these signatories subsequently voted for WAR FUNDING!!
| Singed by Patrick Leahy and Arlen Specter PATRICKJ. LEAHY, VERMONT, CHAIRMAN Chief Counsel and Staff Director by ladybroadoak (13 articles, 115 comments) on Thursday, September 20, 2007 at 5:42:01 AM |
Kucinich hit for eyeing Paul as VP
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| Published: 11/27/2007 |
The National Jewish Democratic Council in a statement Tuesday slammed comments by Kucinich, a prohibitive underdog among the Democratic presidential
"Despite his views on the Iraq war, Rep. Paul no more belongs on a Democratic ticket than Dennis Kucinich on a Republican one," said NJDC Executive Director Ira Forman. "Any Jewish Democrats or independents that are tempted toward Rep. Paul because of his stance on the war should be reminded that this Republican representative has a terrible record on Middle East politics, is anti-choice and opposes stem cell research."
The NJDC also provided several anti-Israel quotations from Paul, whose presidential candidacy on the GOP side has attracted support from several neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups.
On Sunday, Kucinich told a crowd in New Hampshire that he was considering Paul as his running mate. Despite being from different parties, Kucinich said the joint ticket could "balance the energies in this country."
THE TREASURY'S MISSING MINUTES MYSTERY
See these links as well:
November 29, 2007 -- AFTER a year and a half of stalling, the US Treasury finally complied with The Post's requests for information about The President's Working Group on Financial Markets - by delivering 177 pages of crap.
In essence, the Treasury's Freedom of Information officials said that the Working Group - affectionately nicknamed the Plunge Protection Team - doesn't keep records of its meetings.
How interesting and convenient!
Included in the 177 pages that the Treasury said responded to our request on the actions of The President's Working Group were 53 pages on which something was redacted - blacked out so that the discussion was unreadable.
Many of those 53 pages contained no words at all - just a big black blob.
Starting in June of 2006 The Post asked for an accounting of the actions of The President's Working Group, which was formed under President Reagan. The Group seems to have the ill-defined task of keeping an eye on the financial markets. We also asked for e-mails related to our request through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
The Working Group operates out of the Treasury Department and includes the heads of the various exchanges in the US, as well as top-ranking government officials.
Hank Paulson, the Treasury Secretary, and Ben Bernanke, the head of the Federal Reserve, are the two most prominent members.
Back in August, Paulson said in a television interview that "we've reenergized The President's Working Group on Financial Markets."
The Wall Street Journal last year said that Paulson, upon becoming Treasury Secretary, was insisting that the Working Group meet every six weeks.
Whatever the schedule of meetings, one of those meetings occurred on Aug. 17 - the day the Federal Reserve surprised the financial markets with a cut in its discount rate.
According to records that someone else got from Bernanke's office through a FOIA request, there was an 11 a.m. conference call on Aug. 17 of the "PWG" - the President's Working Group.
Fed Governor Kevin Warsh and Patrick Parkinson, a Treasury staffer, took part in that call, according to Bernanke's phone log.
The day before - Aug. 16 - Bernanke and Paulson had lunch, but it isn't clear whether this was just two guys having a meal or if it, too, was related to The President's Working Group.Hours after that lunch, word got around on Wall Street that the Fed was about to make a move and the stock market staged a tremendous rally.
The next day those rumors of Fed action proved accurate.
So what's the Working Group up to?
I suspect the group is ready to come to the rescue of the financial markets - even equities - in the case of a meltdown.
And as I've said in the past, that would be a completely acceptable task as long as it remains a limited power that is used infrequently.
But who decides when a rescue is needed?
And if no records are kept, who is held accountable if The Working Group's power is abused?
George Stephanopoulos, a former top aide to President Clinton, tried to calm fears right after the terrorist attack in 2001 by explaining that The President's Working Group was at the ready to prop up the stock market.
I, too, had a similar conversation with a Fed official in Sept. 2001.
But the chance of abus ing this presi dential man date - even for personal gain - is great whenever an orga nization operates in secrecy.
And that's exactly how The President's Working Group is operating.
Included in the pile of manure we received from Treasury this week is an internal e-mail dated April 9, 2007 that Heidilynne Schultheiss, director of the Treasury's Office of Financial Market Policy, sent to six people.
The subject "Minutes of PWG Meetings?"
"Hi All, We received a FOIA request asking for minutes of meetings of the President's Working Group on Financial Markets (PWG). As far as we know, minutes are not (and never have been) kept . . . A search of our records turned up nothing," Schultheiss wrote.
That same day someone at Treasury named Mary Kertz e-mailed a bunch of folks "re: meeting notes from last PWG meeting on Financial Markets."
The e-mail said: "Thanks. Just spoke with Norman - he said the Fed Chairman had said he believed minutes were recorded for these meetings. Strange."
I don't know who Norman is. But I agree that having a powerful organization like this meet in secret is very, very strange.
PAULSON PLAYS WITH THE PLUNGE PROTECTORS
October 26, 2006 -- PAY attention!Someone - and I don't know who - wants us all to know that since July Henry Paulson, the new secretary of the U.S. Treasury, has spent a lot of time on a little known Washington operation called the President's Working Group on Financial Markets.
That was the major message in a prominent piece this past Monday in The Wall Street Journal.
The big mystery is why do these people want us to know this? And why now? I wrote about the Working Group on Financial Markets back in June when Paulson left Wall Street powerhouse Goldman Sachs to accept the top job at Treasury.
*SNIP*
Since the Federal Reserve is the group that would lower interest rates in an emergency, the Plunge Protectors would probably be the ones who'd fix the problem. In other words, they'd throw money at it.
Stocks have been moving steadily upward since July, when Paulson took over the Plunge Protection Team (and the Treasury). And one of the reasons could be that - as I mentioned back then - there is less risk in stocks if the government is providing a safety net.
Less risk, that is, until something bad happens.
ENTIRE the article here:
Information on this blog posted about the plunge protection team can be accessed by searching the links below.
Other bills pending in Congress ..
H1955: To prevent homegrown terrorism, and for other purposes [1 comment]
- Amends the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to add provisions concerning the prevention of homegrown terrorism (terrorism by individuals born, raised, or based and operating primarily in the United States).
- Directs the Secretary of Homeland Security to: (1) establish a grant program to prevent radicalization (use of an extremist belief system for facilitating ideologically-based violence) and homegrown terrorism in the United States; (2) establish or designate a university-based Center of Excellence for the Study of Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism in the United States; and (3) conduct a survey of methodologies implemented by foreign nations to prevent radicalization and homegrown terrorism.
- Prohibits the Department of Homeland Security's efforts to prevent ideologically-based violence and homegrown terrorism from violating the constitutional and civil rights, and civil liberties, of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents.
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(0 support, 15 oppose) 
- Habeas Corpus Restoration Act of 2007- Repeals provisions of the Military Commissions Act of 2006 that eliminated the jurisdiction of any court to hear or consider applications for a writ of habeas corpus filed by aliens who have been determined by the United States to have been properly detained as enemy combatants (or who are awaiting such determination) and actions against the United States relating to the detention of such aliens and to military commissions (thus restoring habeas corpus rights existing prior to the enactment of such Act).
- Allows courts to hear or consider legal challenges to military commissions only as provided by the Code of Military Justice or by a habeas corpus proceeding.
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- Amends the Communications Act of 1934 to establish certain Internet neutrality duties for broadband service providers (providers), including not interfering with, or discriminating against, the ability of any person to use broadband service in a lawful manner. Allows providers to engage in activities in furtherance of certain management and business-related practices, such as protecting network security and offering consumer protection services such as parental controls.
- Prohibits a provider from requiring a subscriber, as a condition on the purchase of broadband service, to purchase any cable service, telecommunications service, or IP-enabled voice service.
- Requires a report from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to specified congressional committees on provider delivery of broadband content, applications, and services.
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 | HJ22: Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States relating to marriage [6 comments] |
- Declares that marriage in the United States shall consist only of a legal union of a man and a woman.
- Prohibits any federal or state court from having jurisdiction to determine whether the U.S. Constitution or any state constitution requires the legal incidents of marriage to be conferred upon any union other than a legal union between one man and one woman.
- Provides that no state shall be required to give effect to any public act, record, or judicial proceeding of any other state concerning a union between persons of the same sex that is treated as a marriage, or as having the legal incidents of marriage, under the laws of such other state.
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| S356: A bill to ensure that women seeking an abortion are fully informed regarding the pain experienced by their unborn child [3 comments] |
- Amends the Public Health Service Act to require an abortion provider, before beginning any abortion of a pain-capable unborn child (defined as an unborn child who has reached a probable stage of development of 20 weeks after fertilization), to: (1) make a specified statement to the pregnant woman that Congress has determined that there is substantial evidence that the process will cause the unborn child pain, and that the mother has the option of having pain-reducing drugs administered directly to the child; (2) provide to the woman an Unborn Child Pain Awareness Brochure (unless she waives receipt) and an Unborn Child Pain Awareness Decision Form; and (3) obtain on the form the woman's signature and her explicit request for or refusal of the administration of drugs to the child.
- Creates an exception for certified medical emergencies.
- Establishes penalties for willfully failing to comply with this Act, including civil penalties, medical license suspension, or both. Authorizes: (1) specified officials to bring suit in federal court; and (2) private rights of action by a parent or guardian of a woman who is an unemancipated minor.
- [View bill for full summary]
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| H3: To amend the Public Health Service Act to provide for human embryonic stem cell research [7 comments] |
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- Amends the Clean Air Act to direct the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to promulgate: (1) targets for a 2% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions each year from 2010-2050; and (2) regulations requiring reductions to meet such targets, including by setting caps on emissions of sources and sectors with the largest emissions or the best opportunities to reduce them, by issuing and authorizing trading of emission allowances, and by imposing penalties for excess emissions.
- Requires relevant federal agencies to finalize a rule to carry out the National Academies' recommendations for regulatory action needed to reduce atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations or explain their reasons for declining to act.
- Requires the President to submit to Congress a plan for the distribution of emission allowances (including through auctions) and the use of proceeds (to be deposited in a Climate Reinvestment Fund) for specified goals, including mitigating the effects of energy cost increases and climate change.
- [View bill for full summary]
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| HJ12: Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States authorizing the Congress to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States [9 comments] |
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- Prohibits a state or political subdivision from exercising its power of eminent domain, or allowing the exercise of such power by delegation, over property to be used for economic development or over property that is used for economic development within seven years after that exercise, if the state or political subdivision receives federal economic development funds during any fiscal year in which the property is so used or intended to be used.
- Prohibits the federal government from exercising its power of eminent domain for economic development.
- Establishes a private cause of action for any private property owner or tenant who suffers injury as a result of a violation of this Act. Prohibits state immunity in federal or state court. Sets the statute of limitations at seven years.
- [View bill for full summary]
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