New US-free Americas bloc planned

Latin American and Caribbean nations have agreed to set up a new regional body without the US and Canada, Mexican President Felipe Calderon has said.

The new bloc would be an alternative to the Organisation of American States (OAS), the main forum for regional affairs in the past 50 years.

Mexico is hosting a regional summit in the beach resort of Cancun.

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“The Patriot Act and related legislation do have the effect of legalizing most of the actual crimes against me by Nixon. Sneak-and-peek entries and burglaries of a doctor’s office, in search of information to use against a “terrorist suspect”? (i.e., someone like me who opposes and resists a president’s terrorism). Legal, now. Warrantless wiretaps? Legal. Use of CIA against an American citizen? Legal.”

More Ellsberg:
The Pentagon Papers and John Dean, Then and Now
SAVE AS FAVORITE
VIEW FAVORITES
By Joan Brunwasser

My guest today is “the most dangerous man* in America”–whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg.

When you released the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times, you knew that you could be facing life in prison. Luckily, that turned out not to be the case. But, if you were to have done comparable actions since the passage of the Patriot Act, they would have tossed you in prison and thrown away the key. That’s a sobering, concrete example of where we are almost forty years later. Do you ever think about that?

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Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth Press Conference Video

http://world911truth.org/ae911truth-press-conference-video/

Schools must teach what not to say, too
By Jonathan Zimmerman

Let’s suppose a student walks through the halls of her high school carrying a big banner denouncing one of her teachers. I’d be OK with the school confiscating the banner, and I bet you would be, too.

So should we let her post similar remarks on the Internet?

Last week, a Florida judge said yes. And, unlike most of my fellow liberals, I think he was wrong.

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Times Public Editor Won’t Urge Retraction for Multiple Erroneous Reports on False ACORN ‘Pimp’ Story
by Brad Friedman

Despite repeated confirmation that the ‘paper of record’ was wrong, Clark Hoyt declines to recommend retractions

Describes O’Keefe as ‘journalistically unethical’, but recommends only that editors avoid ‘dressed as pimp’ language in future coverage…

The New York Times’ independent Public Editor, Clark Hoyt, after sending me an email originally standing by the paper’s misreporting of the James O’Keefe ACORN ‘pimp’ story, now describes the rightwing activists misrepresentation of his highly-edited and heavily-overdubbed hit videos as “journalistically unethical”.

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Is Harvard Prof Advocating Palestinian Genocide?
MJ Rosenberg
Senior Fellow Media Matters Action Network

This has to be seen to be believed.

[WATCH THE VIDEO AT HUFFPOST SITE]

Dr. Martin Kramer, a fellow at Harvard’s National Security Studies Program, has posted a speech he delivered two weeks ago in Israel in which he urged solving the Palestinian refugee problem by population control i.e “stopping pro-natal subsidies to Palestinians with refugee status.” In other words, starve the Palestinians so they don’t have babies and, he seems to be saying, starving the babies so they don’t grow up.

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Visiting a Modern-Day Slave Plantation
Monday 22 February 2010
by: Angola 3 News, t r u t h o u t | Interview

An Interview With Nancy A. Heitzeg.

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STOP $54 BILLION NUCLEAR GIVEAWAY

YOUR ACTIONS MATTER!

February 22, 2010

Dear Friends,

President Obama wants to triple the loan program for construction of new nuclear reactors, to $54 billion.

As we pointed out last week, these are not loan “guarantees”–they are direct taxpayer loans to wealthy nuclear utilities from the government’s Federal Financing Bank. And this is just a proposal–it’s not a done deal.

We won’t let him get away with it.

*If you haven’t written your House member yet (and most of you haven’t!), please do so here now.

*We have a new letter for your Senators. Write them here, now.

*On Thursday, February 25, join National Call-Congress Day and call your Representatives and your Senators. Tell them to stop the tripling of the nuclear loan program. You can reach all of your Congressmembers at 202-224-3121. Or, note that when you write your Senators and Representative, the direct phone numbers for most of them pop up. Just write those numbers down.

Note: The date for the Call-Congress Day has changed to Thursday so as not to conflict with a healthcare call-in day on Wednesday sponsored by MoveOn.org and other groups.

Some quick talking points for your calls on Thursday:

*The American people are tired of corporate bailouts. In this case, taxpayers would provide the loans and take all the risk. The large utilities would take any profits, and taxpayers would pay for all losses. That is fundamentally unfair to the American people.

*Congress should wait and see how the current loans (to the Vogtle reactors in Georgia and likely one or two more reactors) fare before risking even more taxpayer money on nuclear loans.

*Nuclear power remains dirty and dangerous, as demonstrated by the recent toxic tritium leaks at the Vermont Yankee reactor and elsewhere.

*It would be folly to repeat the mistakes of the past and encourage new reactor construction when we still don’t know how to handle the radioactive waste from existing reactors.

*We need to address the climate crisis with the fastest, cheapest, cleanest and safest means possible of reducing carbon emissions. Nuclear power is the slowest, most expensive, dirtiest and most dangerous technology available. And nuclear power is not carbon-free: its carbon footprint is about six times that of wind, 2-3 times greater than solar, and many times greater than energy efficiency.

*Our goal should be to attain a nuclear-free, carbon-free energy future. Anyone who believes this isn’t possible just isn’t paying attention.

This battle won’t be won overnight. We don’t know when Congress may vote on Obama’s proposal (or even if it will receive a floor vote). But with the nuclear industry and the administration pushing for it right now, we need to push back now with as many of your voices as we can.

*So please, if you haven’t yet send a letter to your House member, do so here.

*Please send a letter to your Senators here.

*Please call your Congressmembers on Thursday, February 25, with the simple message: no more radioactive loans! Let’s keep those phones ringing all day long!

Thank you to the more than 600 new people who have sent in letters since Friday! And thank you to everyone who has posted on your blogs and Facebook pages and forwarded to your friends! Please keep it up! Help spread the word!

Your actions matter. We won this battle twice last year: with your help, we can do it again.
Thanks for all you do,

Michael Mariotte
Executive Director
Nuclear Information and Resource Service
nirsnet@nirs.org
www.nirs.org

Girl’s arrest for doodling raises concerns about zero tolerance
By Stephanie Chen, CNN

(CNN) — There was no profanity, no hate. Just the words, “I love my friends Abby and Faith. Lex was here 2/1/10 :)” scrawled on the classroom desk with a green marker.

Alexa Gonzalez, an outgoing 12-year-old who likes to dance and draw, expected a lecture or maybe detention for her doodles earlier this month. Instead, the principal of the Junior High School in Forest Hills, New York, called police, and the seventh-grader was taken across the street to the police precinct.

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