Mark,

I’m an independent journalist and I live right by Walter Reed Medical Center in NW Washington, DC. Walter Reed is being relocated and the campus is being given over to the GSA, State Dept, and District gov’t.

The District has been holding a few community meetings. I went to the last one, and asked about the nuclear reactor on the campus (it had been buried in a WPost story). They said that it was decommissioned in 2002, and that the building that housed it has been given a clean bill of health. (Interestingly, it is Bldg 40, the one building on the site that is in private hands thanks to a 50-year lease).

Also, the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology is located on the Walter Reed campus and I’ve heard that they test anthrax and just about everything else. I’m curious to learn how they dispose of those samples. The chair of the local elected body (the Advisory Neighborhood Commission) requested that an independent soil analysis be done prior to the District building anything, but that didn’t go over too well with District officials.

Later he explained to me that, 7 or 8 years ago, men in orange jumpsuits were swarming all over the Walter Reed campus and the community never received any explanation of what was going on.

At the moment, it looks like I’m getting stonewalled by both Walter Reed and the District. If you know of anyone who might have some expertise in these areas, I’d love to get in touch with them, as this is all new to me.

Thanks,
Pete

Anything you tweet could be used against you…
by Matthew Power

On the afternoon of September 24, 2009, Pennsylvania State Troopers, their guns drawn, broke down the door of room 238 of the CareFree Inn on the outskirts of Pittsburgh. The troopers were acting on a search warrant related to protests planned for the G20 summit [1]-a meeting of the heads of state of the world’s major economies. Thousands of protesters had descended on the city, presenting demands ranging from curbs on carbon emissions to the outright abolition of capitalism.

Anticipating hordes of black-masked, Starbucks-smashing anarchists, the Pittsburgh police and the Secret Service coordinated nearly 4,000 law enforcement officers, outfitting them with the latest in riot-dispersal technology. Crowds marching on the summit were met with pepper spray, stun grenades, and-for the first time on US soil-acoustic cannons [2] that blast painful sounds as far as 1,000 feet. But the protesters had their own crowd-control methods, and that’s what had brought the state troopers to the CareFree Inn.

Read more.

Finance superstars talk about the massive fraud in our economic system
By Joe Costello, AlterNet

Last Wednesday, I attended a conference initiated by the Roosevelt Institute on the financial mess, called Make Markets Be Markets. The conference’s speakers included people with experience on Wall Street, the banking industry, government and academia; Nobel Prize-winning economist Joe Stiglitz, Elizabeth Warren, and other luminaries who have offered an alternative and reformist narrative to our recent financial crisis. At two and half hours, it was relatively short, giving each speaker the opportunity to make their points and providing a sharp focus. One underlying theme of the event was fraud, the great elephant in the room, that neither the press or our government officials acknowledge, though it is a fundamental element to the financial crisis and its solutions.

Read more.

From Californians For Democracy:

Dear friends,

Glenn Beck is so panicked about George Lakoff’s California Democracy

Act, that he is now attacking the Californians For Democracy campaign.

Here’s the 2 minute video (tip: to see the attack on Californians

For Democracy, click on the [I'm not on Facebook] button the first

time around, even if you have an account.)

http://beck.cnnbcvideo.com/?b=b|1259257-XGJ99xx&fv=b|1259228-qTyl1Fx&rc=homepage

While you are still outraged , keep in mind that California is falling

apart largely because a 1/3 minority of Glenn Becks in Sacramento

are gridlocking important votes on revenue and budget. You can

help Californians For Democracy place an initiative on the November

ballot.

Our proposition is simple – one sentence, 14 words:
“All legislative actions on revenue and budget must be determined by a majority vote.”

To restore a government that works for all Californians, you need to

download the attached petition, print it, fill it all out, sign it (twice),

and mail it in, today.

You can also download the petition from this web page: http://GrassrootsForDemocracy.com/petdownload.html.

For more information, go to www.CaliforniansForDemocracy.com.

and www.GrassrootsForDemocracy.com, Students should check

out www.CaliforniaDemocracyAct.com .

Finally, give your friends a laugh, and make a real statement to the

Glenn Becks of California. Forward this email on to everybody you

know, today.

Make it a great day for California’s future!

Thank you,

Californians For Democracy

support@grassrootsfordemocracy.org.

Six Democratic Senators Poised to Kill Student Loan Reform
by: Chris Kromm | Facing South

Graduating from college is a great feeling. Not so great: being saddled with $23,200 in student loans, the average debt owed by graduates of the class of 2008, according to the Project on Student Debt.

Reforming the for-profit student loan system, which allows finance giants like Virginia-based Sallie Mae to make virtually risk-free returns thanks to government subsidies, was a top priority of President Obama. His idea, supported by most Democrats, was to take out the middle-man: Instead of subsidizing private lenders, the feds would completely take over origination of student loans.

The result: The Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act, which the Office of Management and Budget estimated would save over $80 billion over 10 years (critics point out the number is inflated, because it didn’t include money lost from defaults; but that’s neither here nor there, because the government currently absorbs private losses anyway). Savings would be plowed back into Pell Grants — much easier on students on the long-term — and other higher education initiatives.

Read more.

Please join Janine Wedel and me at the McNally Jackson Bookstore, here in NYC, on 3/22.

(See excerpts from reviews of her eye-opening new book, Shadow Elite, below.)

MCM

Janine Wedel to speak about her new book, Shadow Elite: How the World’s New Power Brokers Undermine Democracy, Government, and the Free Market.

Hosted by Mark Crispin Miller

Professor author and activist Mark Crispin Miller hosts another in his ongoing series of events with books on political topics that deserve a bigger spotlight and broader readership.

This evening, Janine Wedel, professor at the School of Public Policy at George Mason University, joins us to talk about a new breed of leader, fully entrenched and maintained by their access to governments and financing at the highest levels. Yes, of course she’s talking about Russia, but more obviously, more alarmingly, about this phenomenon in our own country. These individuals are above scrutiny and punishment, make decisions that affect every one of us, and are gaining more power daily.

If it sounds outrageous, like mere scare-mongering, come hear Wedel name names and explain, with detail and authority, why outrage may be the only real option left to us.

Monday, March 22, 2010
7:00 p.m.
McNally Jackson Bookstore
52 Prince St. (b/t Lafayette & Mulberry)
NY, NY
212.274.1160

- Publishers Weekly gives Shadow Elite a starred review (read review)
“The serious study of global affairs is usually left to political scientists, economists, lawyers and journalists…Now, however, one anthropologist has turned the profession’s pith-helmeted gaze on the top-level politicians, bureaucrats and businessmen who make up the global elite in an attempt to document how well they do their jobs. It sounds like a stretch, but in fact there is something uniquely exhilarating about studying the White House or the International Monetary Fund using the same methods that one would study ritual incest among aboriginal Guyanans.”

- Financial Times (read review)
“Over the holidays I read a great book by Janine Wedel called Shadow Elite: How the World’s New Power Brokers Undermine Democracy, Government, and the Free Market. It’s a gripping, disquieting book that exposes and explains why it’s been so hard to bring about any real change in our country – why Washington no longer seems capable of addressing the problems our nation faces.”

- Los Angeles Times (read review)
“Wedel’s book is a clarion call against some insidious threats to a healthy democracy….Government and quasi-government form a much bigger and more complex tangle than ever before. Also, round-the-clock cable television and other new media create a demand for instant commentary that highly partisan voices can artfully fill…And lobbyists’ money is sloshing around Washington, looking for direct and indirect outlets.”

- The Washington Monthly (read review)
“Janine R. Wedel throws light on how power brokering by The Shadow Elite (Basic Books) undermines our government and democracy itself.”

- Vanity Fair features Shadow Elite in “Hot Type” (read review)
Shadow Elite … is a gripping, disquieting book.

- Chicago Tribune (read review)
“Any time you turn on the television these days, you’ll find pundits sounding off on the policy debate du jour….As Janine R. Wedel writes in her new book…the rise of a new breed of confidence men and women – think-tank members, government advisers, business consultants and television pundits – upend our democracy.”

- AlterNet (read review)
“For academics, activists, and policy makers engaged in strengthening government accountability and transparency, Wedel’s work makes for a necessary though at times sobering read….Written with journalistic clarity without sacrificing theoretical and analytic rigor, Shadow Elite sheds light on a phenomenon largely hidden from the public gaze. Good scholarship, as Wedel herself notes (p. 205), seeks to understand before changing the world. In this, the book succeeds admirably..”

- Global Integrity Commons (read review)
“Who is really in charge of our country? That’s the question Janine R. Wedel sets out to answer in Shadow Elite, and she points a finger squarely at Larry Summers, Timothy Geithner, Richard Perle, and Paul Wolfowitz, among others. This ’shadow elite’ looks unnervingly similar from one administration to the next, she writes, and a close examination also reveals that the division between public and private work is hard to discern. These power brokers have been safeguarded from standard ethics and even an obligation to the public they supposedly serve. Wedel traces the shadow elite from the Reagan era to the present day and draws the family tree of influence as it has been handed down.”

- The Daily Beast selects Shadow Elite as a “Hot Read” (read review)
“What makes Wedel’s book so valuable is that she doesn’t indulge in conspiracy theories that can’t be proven; she provides the facts and describes how this informal group of elitists is fluid in moving among the powerful institutions that control public policy, including government.”

- BuzzFlash (read review)
“Wedel presents a serious, thoughtful, and thorough examination of 21st-century political culture here, fully documented.ŠShadow Elite is a must-read for anyone who wants to learn the rules of the game, either for personal gain or for self-defense.”

- Curled up with a Good Book (read review)
“Reinventing America: Just End the Budget-Busting Shadow Government.”
- The Globalist (read review)

Here’s a piece on HuffPost’s disappearance of Jesse Ventura’s 9/11 article. It ran on Russian Television (RT) yesterday (America’s own mainstream press, as ever, choosing not to note the controversy):

http://www.youtube.com/user/RTAmerica#p/search/9/m14t8mJnw_E

Anastasia Churkina’s full interview with Gov. Ventura will air on Monday.

Here also is Raw Story’s piece:

Ventura: ‘You’re not allowed to ask’ about 9/11 | Raw Story

http://rawstory.com/2010/03/ventura-youre-allowed-ask-911/

YOU CAN BE TICKETED FOR BEING A DEMOCRAT IN ALABAMA
THE BOAT ROCKER
Mar 13, 2010

Yes, it’s true. I just encountered an experience that I wish upon no one, but that I’m sure happens
too often in America.

Read more.

… and that’s not all. Prepare to have your mind blown (if you have one).

MCM

http://tfninsider.org/2010/03/11/blogging-the-social-studies-debate-iv/

Siegelman Shines Spotlight on Obama’s Folly

Former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman knows the dangers of a dysfunctional justice department in a way that most Americans only can imagine.

So when Siegelman points out that the Barack Obama administration is acting irrationally on justice matters, citizens would be wise to pay attention.

Siegelman still is appealing unlawful convictions obtained against him under the George W. Bush DOJ, so he knows the harm that can come when federal prosecutors are allowed to run amok. Many progressives held high hopes for Obama on the justice front, but Siegelman says those hopes are far from realized.

Read more.