NEWS DISSECTOR March 4, 2008

The Votes Of Texas Are Upon Us. Why-o Ohio? What's At Stake?

OH HOW I ONCE LIKEDTHIS SONG BUT NEVER SAW THIS VERSION:

Dylan also has a Hava version:

PENTAGON BOMBS/MISSILES AFRICAN COUNTRY
SURGE NOT WORKING, AFGHAN CAMPAIGN STUCK
FORECLOSURES INCREASE MORE THAN HOUSE SALES

The political wars are starting to wear me down. Where is the politics I can believe in? All the candidates are forced to posture and preen, to show how tough they are, how ready to handle crises even in the middle of the night and what god they worship. They are all playing to the public through a media that expects this type of discourse. Who can even remember the primaries in years gone by?

Will any of this even make a retrospective greatest hits reel? These horse races are begining to feel like a sports event. The Big Game. Who's ahead? Who's behind? Pick the winner. What are the odds? It feels almost recreational, a spectator sport except in the states where primaries or caucuses are being held.

And yet each word spoken by the candidates is parsed as if it is weighted with gravitas, great significance, because no one can afford to make a mistake or admit a vulnerability. Yes the big primaries tomorrow may tell us something but probably not be that decisive.. Hillary is fighting to fight another day. Barack is pushing out his Jesus freak side to combat the Muslim bashers and American pin wearing patriots who don't have a clue. And John McCain, the over the hill perennial candidate. is hanging in there hoping that the Democratic duo will kill each other off.

How pathetic. And now predictions of the outcome are being made on the basis of which candidate's web site gets the most searches. Supposedly, Obama is ahead.

There is a lot of competiveness out there and some of it may not be so cool

"The Dallas Morning News is reporting that Clinton campaign training materials regarding Tuesday night's caucuses ominously advise supporters to take control of caucus sign-in sheets and vote tallies especially "if our supporters are outnumbered."

[Clinton caucus training material] goes on to say, "If our supporters are outnumbered, ask the Temporary Chair if one of our supporters can serves as the Secretary, in the interest of fairness.

"The control of the sign-in sheets and the announcement of the delegates allotted to each candidate are the critical functions of the Chair and Secretary. This is why it is so important that Hillary supporters hold these positions."

Comments Mark Crispin Miller: Now there can be only one purpose in trying to control the tally of votes under circumstances in which a campaign knows it's outnumbered, that it will lose an honest counting of the votes: to alter the true vote. To cheat. To steal. To suppress the votes of Texas caucus attendees and subvert the caucus process.

The phrase, "if our supporters are outnumbered," means, in simpler language, "If we lose the vote, take control of the vote tally and change the numbers."

Place this alongside the Clinton campaign threats to challenge the Texas caucuses and you get a full picture of what Clinton is up to: disrupt the caucuses at all costs. Steal votes, delay the reporting of honest vote totals, throw the process into chaos, do whatever it takes."

THE OTHER WARS IN THE BACKGROUND

And while we are mesmerized by these "battles" for air time and delegates, real wars are underway for the most part outside the glare of media attention.

First, frustrated by their failures in Afganistan, the Pentagon decided to attack an African country in pursuit of that white whale called Al Qaeda. No details were released to the public that pays for these war games. Imagine using the Navy to try to assassinate one person.

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Navy fired at least one missile at a "known al-Qaida terrorist" in southern Somalia, defense officials said Monday.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters that the attack was launched on Sunday, local time, but he declined to provide any details, including whether the targeted individual was hit or whether there were any other casualties.

Another defense official told The Associated Press that the strike used one or more Tomahawk cruise missiles fired from a U.S. naval submarine off the coast of Somalia. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to discuss details.

AFGHANISTAN

Meanwhile one returning "hero" from the Afghan front is beginning to draw domestic fire-a story reported by the French New agency AFP which reported on reports by the British press:

Prince Harry coverage criticised as 'propaganda'

LONDON (AFP) - There were increasing claims on Monday that media coverage of Prince Harry's 10-week tour in Afghanistan had been "propaganda" and overlooked a failed military strategy there.

Meanwhile, newspapers reported that the 23-year-old was set to get a promotion following his time fighting the Taliban in the restive Helmand province in southern Afghanistan, cut short when a US website blew his cover Thursday, forcing the military to withdraw him.

According to The Times and The Sun tabloid on Monday, Harry is guaranteed a promotion next month, having completed two years in the army, along with a 5,000-pound annual pay …
The prince returned to Britain on Saturday to a hero's welcome, and vowed to return to the frontline as soon as possible, though military chiefs have said that prospect is unlikely for 18 months or so.

But dissenting voices are now beginning to be heard above the widespread praise for the young prince, in part because the western air war there is failing to do more than kill civilians and move rocks around."

IRAQ

In Iraq meanwhile, the surge is working crowd will now have to refute a strong piece in Rolling Stone that says, duh, the surge is NOT working

"The Myth of the Surge"

"Hoping to turn enemies into allies, U.S. forces are arming Iraqis who fought with the insurgents. But it's already starting to backfire. A report from the front lines of the new Iraq"

WAR CLOUDS OVER IRAN?

No sooner did Iran's president call for the US to leave Iraq than the UN imposed new sanctions on iran.

TENSION IN THE DEEP SOUTH

And at the same time, a new war may be breaking out in South America where Ecuador and Venezuela are charging aggression by the US backed government in Columbia.

Umm.

SOUTH AMERICA

Here's a report by Anthony Boynton

Things are moving very fast. President Correa of Ecuador was just on TV. The Colombian Ambassador has been expelled from Ecuador, and
Ecuador is militarizing the border.

The evidence is very clear that Colombia assassinated Raul Reyes and 15 others who were with him at a camp 2 kilometers inside of Ecuador at 12:45 AM. The FARC camp was
first bombed, then Colombian soldiers arrived in helicpters and shot the survivors int he back. TV footage of the wrecakage and bodies left behind after the Colombians left has been shown all over Latin America.

The President, Vice President, Minister of Defense, and Foreign
Minister of Colombia have all obviously lied to the press, and to the
President of Ecuador. Equally obvious is the fact that the Colombian
government deliberately, and in a planned way, violated the
sovereignty of Ecuador to assassinate Reyes.

Miraculously, two or three of the FARc guerrillas survived, and are
now in Quito hospitals.

Ominously, the Colombian military claims to have taken three
computers from the FARc camp with files which show that Ecuador's
president Correa had some sort of special relation with the FARC.

A war pitting Colombia against its neighbors to the East and South
seemed impossible a month ago, now it seems very possilbe.

Such a war would touch the whole South American continent. Colombian
electricity, for example, is exported to Ecuador, and through Ecuador
to Peru and Chile.

Correa has been in touch with the Presidents of most of the countries
of Latin America, and has called for emegency meetings of the
Organizaiton of American States, the Andean Nations, and is taking
his protest to the United Nations.

Correa has also repeatedly stated that Colombia carried out its
attack in Ecuador with the aid of a "foreign power", by which
everyone understands him to mean the USA.

BACK FROM THE DARK SIDE?

Back in Washington, I was struck by an article in The Washington Diplomat by former Bush functionary and ex Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage? John Shaw reports he's sounding more and more like Barrack Obama"

Richard L. Armitage, former deputy secretary of state under President Bush, advocates sweeping changes to current U.S. foreign policy, arguing that the country needs to replace his former boss's almost exclusive focus on fighting terrorism with a broader-and more hopeful-agenda.

"We've been exporting our fear and anger after 9/11, rather than the more traditional export of hope and optimism and opportunity," he said in an interview with The Washington Diplomat."The U.S. has to be involved across the full breadth of our foreign policy tool box and not so heavily weighed toward the military as we are now," he said. "Since 9/11, we've been so focused on the prosecution of the war on terror we've forgotten we have so many more tools. Perhaps the most useful is the power of our ideas."

AND WHY WERE THOSE ATTORNEY GENERALS CANNED?

Meanwhile Jayne Stahl reports from the Capital of Political Chicanery that those Attorney Generals fired by the Bush Justice Department were axed for political reasons:

"Our investigation into the firing of United States Attorneys revealed an Administration and a Justice Department that seemed to put politics first, and today's decision to shelve the contempt process, in violation of a federal statute, shows that the White House will go to any lengths to keep its role in the US Attorney firings hidden. In the face of such extraordinary actions, we have no choice but to proceed with a lawsuit to enforce the Committee's subpoenas," said Rep. John Conyers regarding Attorney General Mukasay's stalwart refusal to enforce Miers and Bolton subpoenas.

Everybody is getting caught up in the contempt citations, but nobody is talking about the core issues of racism, and voter suffrage, which need closer examination by Justice, and both political parties.

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When Warren Buffet Speaks, I listen. He says RECESSION!

Oil Hit a new high yesterday. Higher prices coming.

More and more people in the know are now saying that, yes, Virginia, we are in a recession. Financial guru Warren Buffet says it plain: weakness in retail, housing constitute recession 'by any commonsense definition.''

Thanks for the candor Warren.

Meanwhile on the housing front. The International Herald Tribune reports that housing foreclosures are rising faster than house sales. In Monteray, Caliifornia, the local paper says that renters woes climb with foreclosures.

More and more mortgage deals are being made to keep people in their homes reports Housing Wire:

"Workouts included 758,000 repayment plans initiated and 278,000 loan modifications, the group said… The result of the rate-freeze program thus far has been a dramatic jump in loan modifications, according to the data. In January, for the first time, subprime modifications are almost equal to the number repayment plans: 45,320 loan modification were recorded, against 48,155 repayment plans. Given the danger that can arise from a strong reliance on repayment plans, a rise in loan modifications should be seen as a net positive according to various sources that spoke with HW.''

Financialsense.com notes a shift of attitude among bank execs:

"As losses from bad mortgages and mortgage-backed securities climb past $200 billion, talk among banking executives for an epic government rescue plan is suddenly coming into fashion. A confidential proposal that Bank of America circulated to members of Congress this month provides a stunning glimpse of how quickly the industry has reversed its laissez-faire disdain for second-guessing by the government - now that it is in trouble.'

Financial ARMageddon notes that commercial real estate is feeling the squeeze.

After suffering a beating from their exposure to home loans, banks and securities firms are about to take their lumps from office towers, hotels and other commercial real estate. And the losses could last longer than those from the subprime shakeout.

Approx. 80% of subprime loans were securitized. Because those loans 'trade' they are subject to mark-to-market rules, meaning banks have to recognize losses more quickly. Only 28% of commercial real estate loans were securitized. Many probably won't be written down until loss events like foreclosure actually occur.

PORTSIDE: AND SPEAKING OF HOMES, HANG OUR HEADS IN SHAME!

Half New Orleans Poor Permanently Displaced: Failure or
Success?

By Bill Quigley

Government reports confirm that half of the working
poor, elderly and disabled who lived in New Orleans
before Katrina have not returned. Because of critical
shortages in low cost housing, few now expect tens of
thousands of poor and working people to ever be able to
return home.

The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals (DHH)
reports Medicaid, medical assistance for aged, blind,
disabled and low-wage working families, is down 46%
from pre-Katrina levels. DHH reports before Katrina
there were 134,249 people in New Orleans on Medicaid.
February 2008 reports show participation down to 72,211
(a loss of 62,038 since Katrina). Medicaid is down
dramatically in every category: by 50% for the aged,
53% for blind, 48% for the disabled and 52% for
children.

The Social Security Administration documents that fewer
than half the elderly are back. New Orleans was home
to 37,805 retired workers who received Social Security
before Katrina, now there are 18,940 - a 50% reduction.
Before Katrina, there were 12,870 disabled workers
receiving Social Security Disability in New Orleans,
now there are 5350 - 59% less. Before there were 9425
widowers in New Orleans receiving Social Security
survivor's benefits, now there are less than half,
4140.

Children of working class families have not returned.
Public school enrollment in New Orleans was 66,372
before Katrina. Latest figures are 32,149 - a 52%
reduction.

Public transit numbers are down 75% since Katrina.
Prior to Katrina there were frequently over 3 million
rides per month. In January 2008, there were 732,000
rides. The Regional Transit Authority says the
reduction reflects that New Orleans has far fewer
poorer, transit dependent residents.

Figures from the Louisiana Department of Social
Services show the number of families receiving food
stamps in New Orleans has dropped from 46,551 in June
of 2005 to 22,768 in January 2008. Welfare numbers
are also down. The Louisiana Families Independence
Temporary Assistance Program was down from 5764
recipients (mostly children) in July 2005 to 1412 in
the latest report.

While there are no precise figures on the racial
breakdown of the poor and working people still
displaced, indications strongly suggest they are
overwhelmingly African American. The black population
of New Orleans has plummeted by 57 percent, while white
population fell 36 percent, according to census data.
The areas which are fully recovering are more affluent
and predominately white. New Orleans, which was 67
percent black before Katrina, is estimated to be no
higher than 58 percent black now.

AND WHAT IS OUR CONGRESS DOING ABOUT THE DEBT CRISIS? NOT MUCH!

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Little is being done in Congress or the Bush administration to repair a collapse of trust in private securitized debt markets that is threatening sectors beyond its origin in the subprime mortgage crisis.

Student loans are being hit as are the auction-rate bond markets used widely by municipal governments to help finance vital everyday projects such as roads, schools and parks.

Capital freezing up in these markets and possibly others could cause long-term damage to the financial system and the economy, some economists and lawmakers say.

While Congress and the White House focus on short-term steps to shield Americans from rising foreclosures and crack down on mortgage brokers, no major legislation is on offer to deal explicitly with the dysfunction spreading though the capital markets.

Once again folks, hate to say it but this is a bi-partisan disaster.

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MEDIA: BLACK BEHIND BARS, MEDIA MISSING ECONOMY STORY

PLEASE TAKE THIS CELL, MR. BLACK

Deposed media tycoon Conrad Black Started his jail sentence in the US. 6 1/2 years in Florida. Three counts of fraud and one of obstructing justice. He owes the US $6.1 million. He is in a low security prison. He has filed an appeal.

MEDIA FAILURE

The Trends Institute reports:

RHINEBECK, NY, 3 March 2008 - The United States' economy is in meltdown mode. The Panic of '08, the beginning of the worst financial crisis to ever have hit modern America, is under way.

But despite the daily doses of dire economic data pointing to disaster, the media doesn't report how bad it really is (if they report it at all), while Wall Street and Washington deny a recession is coming … or proclaim that should one arrive, the economic landing will be gentle.

For all those needing more proof of just how bad it is or how bad it will get, the evidence is clear and the outcome is predictable.

FOX NEWS ADMITS

NewsHounds: Fox admits that John McCain throws F-bombs around Congress.

The Rejected

First in a series of posts by a CJR reporter embedded with American forces in Iraq
By Paul McLeary

FROM AHRC NEWS: HELP-WEBSITE UNDER ATTACK

We need your help convincing Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and ACLU to help defend AHRC from attempts to close down the ahrc,com website.

A California Superior Court gave CAI foreclosure lawyers for Palacio del Mar Homeowners Association (an HOA Elizabeth and Arnold formerly lived in) a sanction judgement of $40,000. because Arnold filed a SLAPP suit in defense of a fraudulent lawsuit by Palacio del Mar that is on appeal. Arnold had sought and received Judge Brooks' permission to file this SLAPP motion, which he promptly filed, but at the hearing of the motion, Judge Brooks reversed his position, claimed that it was untimely filed, and imposed sanctions to be paid to Peters & Freedman.

Judge Brooks, who had been colluding with Peters & Freedman, denying McMahons any discovery and forcing the McMahons ot pay thousands in sanctions and private rental judge referee fees at the r equest of Peters & Freedman, was issued a Public Admonishment by the Council on Judicial Performance after Arnold filed a complaint against him. ( Before the issuance of the Public Admonishment, Judge Brooks had recused himself from the McMahon case after publicity in the local papers about his racist remarks on several cases involving Hispanics, Middle Easterners and immigrants.)

Judge Smith took over the case and exhibited the same bias and ignored a recusal filing. He signed a $40,000. lawyer (Peters & Freedman) fees sanction judgment for Palacio del Mar Homeowners Association. Peters & freedman who took over Palacio del Mar Homeowners Association in 1993 has been using Palacio del Mar to front their extortion scams and their attempts to shut down homeowners from exposing their foreclosure and litigation fraud activities , So Peters & Freedman asked the judge to sign an order to transfer ownership of the ahrc.com domain to Palacio del Mar Homeowners Association. (See attached brief from them)

Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and ACLU defend these sort of First Amendment cases (See EFF's mission statement below and attachment). A week ago we asked EFF attorney Matt Zimmerman to help with the defense of ahrc.com. He asked us to send the filings on this case. We sent a brief background and the Peters & Freeman brief asking the court give them ahrc.com (See attached.) for their lawyer fee sanctions against Arnold. (Arnold is not the owner of ahrc.com)

A few days later on February 26, 2008 we received a press release and brief from EFF. AHRC is on their media release list and we publish their press releases that are of interest to homeowners e.g. recently we published their releases about their cases against the telecommunications companies and their lobby activities in Congress to stop legislation giving telecommunications companies immunity for warrantless tapping of telephone calls ) The press release stated that EFF and ACLU had jointly intervened on a similar case on behalf of wikileaks.org. (See attached) On February 29, 2008 we received another EFF press release saying that the judge had dissolved the wikileaks.org injunction.(See attached)

Our case is similar to the wikileaks.org case. Wikileaks permits third parties to post corporate and government documents that they believe expose wrongdoing. In the case of wikileaks, a Swiss bank was trying to shut wikileaks down allegedly for posting "leaked documents regarding personal banking transactions of their customers."

AHRC.com permits homeowners, public officials, media and businesses to publish public news of interest to homeowners, Homeowners also published stories about their experiences in homeowner associations , the legislature and the courts. Shining the light on the activities of the politicians, lawyers and judges and the foreclosure industry has made ahrc.com a target for shut down. Peters & Freedman and CAI lawyers and judges have been working together for years to shut down all home foreclosure fraud news that homeowners have been exposing to the world.

We need need your help to get both EFF and the ACLU to help protect the first amendment and freedom of speech rights of all homeowners. This is an issue affecting not only the 55 million homeowners who live in homeowner associations and their families but also millions of other homeowners who have been losing their life savings, family assets and homes to mortgage and securities scams.

MEDIA: UNFAIR TO NADER

Kevin Howley: "In the weeks and months ahead, the corporate media will use this frame - Nader is a spoiler and his run for the presidency is little more than vanity and self-indulgence -whenever it deigns to even mention Nader in campaign press coverage.

Sad to say, even some progressive media outlets are dismissing Nader's entry into the presidential race. As a result, we can expect little, if any, substantive reporting about the Nader campaign, his goals and objectives, and the glaring differences between his policy positions and those of the Republican and Democratic candidates.

The purposeful mixture of silence and condescension that characterizes press coverage of the Nader campaign reveals the democratic deficit that is at the core of our electoral process. It also makes a mockery of this campaign season's clarion call for "change."

Indeed, for all their talk of change, the major party candidates operate in that netherworld of centrist politics that is loath to challenge the status quo. Obama, Clinton, and McCain understand full well that corporate interests are the real third-rail of American politics. None of these "mavericks" or "agents of change" come close to Nader's record for taking on corporate power."

FINALLY, A MEDIA FREEBIE

Tony Sutton, the brilliant designer and editor, writes to announce that the new issue of the ColdType.Net Reader is available for free download. One of my articles is in it.

Subscribe to: The ColdType Reader - in two big sections this month

Main section: 64 pages, stories include: dogs as food, oil and the economy, pill-popping, US foreign policy, people power in Gaza, a day of rage, demolishing the new Berlin walls, the Winograd commission, Israel and emails, the pacification of Mosul, war against intolerance, media distortion, the trouble with NATO, death of the noble idea, vacations for criminals, New Orleans and basketball, a butt-kicking for Gitmo.

EXTRA: 24-page excerpt from Flat Earth News, a new book by investigative journalist Nick Davies that is causing a stir in the British media. The Blinded Observer tells how Britain's leading liberal Sunday newspaper was manipulated by Downing Street and various intelligence services into supporting Bush's war on Iraq.

DOWNLOAD IT HERE: http://www.coldtype.net

BURN, BABY, BURN

Finally, back to the housing crisis. I have told you about people walking away from homes they couldn't afford. I have told you about some folks trashing their own homes after they defaulted to protest suprime/subcrime loans that proved unaffordable. But now, there's something new-from Seatte: a violent attack on luxury homes by environmental militants. The Seattle Times reports:

Officials are blaming "domestic terrorism" for fires early today that destroyed three multi-million-dollar homes and damaged a fourth which were built as part of last year's Seattle Street of Dreams in the Maltby area of Snohomish County.

Damage was estimated at $7 million.

Early reports indicated that explosive devices were found inside the homes. And nearby, a spray-painted sign bearing the initials of the Earth Liberation Front, challenged builders' assertion that the homes featured environmentally responsible construction methods.

A KING-5 video showed the sign, which read: "Built Green? Nope black! McMansions in RCDs r not green. ELF" The initials "RCD" refers to "rural cluster development."

Again, this area was called "The Street of Dreams."

That's it from me on this second day back on the job after my 19 1/2 nervous breakdown/computer breakdown.

Comments encouraged as usual to Dissector@mediachannel.org

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