The REAL "Enemies List"

Rupert Murdoch's cabloid Orcs--Hannity, O'Reilly, & Beck, e.g.--are all in a snit because the Obama regime is calling 'em out as the seditious assholes they are. Stung apparently by the criticism, the Orcs of Faux Nooz are accusing Obama of reviving that old Nixonian trick, the "enemies list." (Intriguing, innit, that when the Cretino-fascists need to revile someone, they compare the object of their derision with a criminal, despised, discreditied GOPuke? Just askin'.)

But the REAL "enemies" of the State are not the morons dribbling bile and resentment at Faux Nooz. Not at all. The REAL enemies are these guys:

Hank Paulson, Tim Geithner, Ben Bernanke, Robert Rubin, Larry Summers, Alan Greenspan, Lloyd Blankfein, Jamie Dimon, John Mack, Vikram Pandit, John Thain, Hank Greenberg, Ken Lewis.

Any or all of them, of course, could perish or disappear tomorrow and any and all would/could be instantaneously replaced from the ranks ot the loyal CorpoRats. It is not people who perpetuate institutions, benign or corrupt; each has its own internal grammar and syntax by which the intentionality of the beast is perpetuated (cf., e.g., Foucault, in The Archeology of Knowledge, on the making and maintenance of "discursive formations" and their relations with 'power.')

According to a piece today up on The Public Record, the men named herein constituted a "Wall Street Economic Hit Squad," targeting democracy-supporting regulation of the financial "markets":

These men ‘presided over the largest transfer of wealth in history, from the working class to the flamboyant super rich.’ What these men have done is obscene. After crashing the economy, trillions, literally trillions of dollars have been funneled into the pockets of a select few, in secrecy, while billions of people suffer in poverty, billions suffer to survive. This small tight-knit Wall Street cadre has committed a crime against humanity.

": Since 1980, this crew of vultures has presided over the destruction of the "...the American middle class, once the only effective counter weight to Wall Street greed...Over 25 million people, in what was the US middle class, are now in full-blown crisis mode and urgently need to increase their income."

The problems began, of course, when the GOP/Regan(stet) regime determined it would be more cheaper and profitable--and more encumbering upon the people--to provide workers with easier access to credit than to raise the wages of American workers, whose shopping fueled the American--and the World's--economy. So, while Murkin workers pumped up the productivity curve to heights never before imagined, they were effectively becoming more and more indentured to the CorpoRat State.

"Some men rob you with a pistol, some with a fountain pen."

Justice of the Peace Keith Bardwell, Hammond, LA

They lost that "Loving" feeling; it's "gone, gone, gone" ...

# Story Highlights

# Louisiana officials criticize justice of peace for denying license to interracial couple
# Keith Bardwell told newspaper he's not racist, claims interracial marriages don't last
# Couple received marriage license from another justice, considers taking legal action

Watch CBS News Videos Online

Health Insurance Parasites: "Called 'Em Out!"

Even Politico caught the trick:

"PriceWaterhouseCoopers, the authors of AHIP's report, put out a statement last night that basically said, 'Hey, we weren't paid to evaluate the effects of the entire bill, but rather a small slice of it.' The statement only seems to reinforce critics' view that the report is skewed precisely because it doesn't take into account the totality of reform. PwC's report estimates that insurance premiums will rise faster under the proposed reforms than under the current system. The last, and key, line from the statement: 'If other provisions in health care reform are successful in lowering costs over the long term, those improvements would offset some of the impacts we have estimated.' In other words, PwC is saying if reform's cost containment measures work, their estimate could be wrong." [Politico, 10/13/09]

"Rape Nuts": The 30 Objectively "Pro-Rape" Senators...

Here they are, the 30 brave Senators who apparently believe it's perfectly acceptable to endorse rape, if the right people do it: Alexander (R-TN), Barrasso (R-WY), Bond (R-MO), Brownback (R-KS), Bunning (R-KY), Burr (R-NC), Chambliss (R-GA), Coburn (R-OK), Cochran (R-MS), Corker (R-TN), Cornyn (R-TX), Crapo (R-ID), DeMint (R-SC), Ensign (R-NV), Enzi (R-WY), Graham (R-SC), Gregg (R-NH), Inhofe (R-OK), Isakson (R-GA), Johanns (R-NE), Kyl (R-AZ), McCain (R-AZ), McConnell (R-KY), Risch (R-ID), Roberts (R-KS), Sessions (R-AL), Shelby (R-AL), Thune (R-SD), Vitter (R-LA), and Wicker (R-MS).

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Rape-Nuts
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Ron Paul Interview

Rick "Good-Hair" Perry Sent Innocent Mant To Death

The worst thing about it was the guy was white.

Really. Texas has a long and bloody history of executions, both legal and para-military. It's usually okay to execute blacks, mexicans, asians, Indians, immigrants, and other undesireables. But they draw the line when the innocent victim is white. Hence the case of Cameron Todd Willingham, who was apparently executed mostly for having threatening tattoos, thereby mimicking an undesirable and ensuring his fate...

At Alternet, today:

By now you've probably heard of Cameron Todd Willingham, the Texas man who was executed in 2004 for supposedly setting a fire that killed his three young daughters. His conviction was based on junk science, prejudice, and wild allegations about his homicidal tendencies based on his tattoos (really). The arson investigation that sent Willingham to the death chamber has been thoroughly debunked by no fewer than six arson experts, leading to one inevitable conclusion: Texas killed an innocent man.

Not surprisingly, Texas Governor Pick Perry, who signed off on Willingham's execution despite alarming proof of his innocence, has gone to great length to suppress this story. In the past two weeks, Perry fired four members of the state Forensic Science Commission -- including its chairman -- 48 hours before it was scheduled to hold a critical hearing on the Willingham case. He has appointed a new Commissioner, John Bradley, a district attorney and "one of the state's most notorious tough-on-crime advocates," according to the Texas Observer. The investigation is now stalled until further notice.

Perry's moves reek of desperation, particularly given his upcoming bid for re-election. His top challenger, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, has seized on the Willingham case, simultaneously using it to discredit her opponent while reaffirming her own pro-death penalty stance. (She accuses Perry of providing "liberals" with ammunition against capital punishment.)

CNN and MSNBC have now picked up on the Willingham case, echoing some of the questions being raised by the local press. "Only the governor knows whether his motives were political, but these recent episodes have produced a pungent smell of politicization," wrote the Fort Worth Star-Telegram this week. "And the odor is nauseating."

Most recently, Perry has gone beyond backroom machinations to publicly restate his own belief in Willingham's guilt. "Willingham was a monster," he told reporters this week. He claims that there is "clear and compelling, overwhelming evidence that he was in fact the murderer of his children," even if their was no proof that the fire that killed them was set on purpose. But as Bob Moser recently wrote, "That makes so sense. If there was no arson, there was no crime, and Willingham was, by definition, innocent." (That, however, makes no difference as a matter of principal to the US Supreme Court. W.)

Rick Perry is running scared. But he can't hide. After signing off on more than 200 executions during his term -- a figure that makes one wonder how he sleeps at night -- it looks like one of them will be coming back to haunt him.

The last two Governors of Texas, between them, have sent more than 350 individuals (the Chimp killed 152, Perry more than 200) to their state-sponsored assassinations.

Anti-Abortionists: Rubbers --Not Laws-- Prevent Pregnancies

Via the Ear-To-The-Ground column at Truthdig, nobody would EVER have guessed that making condoms more accessible would reduce the number of abortions.

Really!

This isn’t going to sound all that shocking, but remember that this country is still wrapping its head around evolution: Criminalizing abortion does not reduce the number of abortions; it reduces the number of safe abortions. Contraception, however, does reduce abortions, according to an epic study of 197 countries.

The research was carried out by a pro-choice think tank, but you don’t have to be biased or even particularly clever to figure out that birth control prevents unwanted pregnancies and, therefore, abortions.

Guess what country, according to the BBC’s report on the study, has an abortion rate “among the highest in the developed world”? Hint: abstinence-only education. —PZS (From the BBC):

...Western Europe is held up as an example of what access to contraceptive services can achieve, and the Netherlands - with just 10 abortions per 1,000 women compared to the world's 29 per 1,000 - is held up as the gold standard.

Here, young people report using two forms of contraception as standard.

Even the UK, which has a relatively high rate, fares well in comparison to the US, where the number of abortions is among the highest in the developed world. The institute says this rate is in part explained by inconsistencies in insurance coverage of contraceptive supplies.

In much of eastern Europe, where abortion was treated as a form of birth control, abortion rates have dropped by 50% in the past decade as contraceptives have become more widely available.

And globally, the number of married women of childbearing age with access to contraception has increased from 54% in 1990 to 63% in 2003, with gains also seen among single, sexually active women.

But there were still significant unmet contraception needs, and a lack of interest among pharmaceutical companies in developing new forms of birth control that provide top protection on demand, the institute said.

Abortion: On Demand, no questions asked. The USer 'insurance reform' package is meaningless without provision to supply condoms and/or abortion-referral services...

Cops. All of them.

But especially those who want to engage the civilian population as spies against "terrorists."

Talk about an invitation to abuse! One of the reasons I support more regulation on ownership and possession of firearms is because I do not/cannot trust the vast majority of my fellow citizens not to be crazed, fearful, fully-armed assholes, instead of just loud, annoying, crazed and fearful un-armed assholes.

But the cops ALWAYS want more leverage over the people, and will do anything to gain more advantage. They claim additional police powers are no threat to freedom and democracy, but that is just patent, sparkling bullshit. From David Lindorff, via The Public Record:

Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton and other big city cops are calling for a new system of “citizen watch” programs, allegedly to help them spot hidden terrorists. I view this new call for a nation of private spies with a deep suspicion born of experience with the LAPD and its historic penchant for spying on law-abiding residents of that city.

Back in the late 1970s, together with a band of other doughty journalists, including Tommy Thompson, Ron Ridenour, Ben Pleasants, I co-founded and ran a spunky little news weekly called the LA Vanguard. In the course of just one year, we broke stories about secret “security offices” run by local phone companies (Pacific Telephone and GTE) which provided unlisted numbers and credit information to police and other government agencies without requiring a warrant, about the killing of unarmed citizens by police, about the LAPD’s “shoot to kill” gun use policy, about judges in landlord-tenant cases who were slumlords themselves, and many other stories that were being ignored by the LA Times and the rest of the local establishment media.

For our efforts, we found out years later, we were targeted by the LAPD’s “red squad,” known at the time as the Public Disorder Intelligence Division (PDID), for an intensive program of spying that including planting a young cop, Connie Milazzo, as a member of our editorial collective. We only learned of Milazzo’s real identity years later when she admitted disclosed it herself to a judge in a public hearing (she wanted to avoid being sent to the county lockup along with a group of activists she had “joined” undercover who had all been arrested during a protest and who were refusing to provide their identities to the court).

A subsequent lawsuit filed with the help of the ACLU of Southern California, eventually settled for a payment of $1.8 million by the City of Los Angeles, disclosed that the PDID had for years been using as many as 20 undercover cops to infiltrate and spy on over 200 legal political and activist organizations in the Los Angeles area, gathering rooms full of files on everyone from members of the National Organization for Women to the staffs of certain members of the city council.

We also learned that the LAPD was providing those files to a shadowy private outfit in San Francisco called Western Goals, which had links to the ultra-right John Birch Society. Western Goals was apparently seeking to serve as a private repository of dossiers on leftists and political activists collected by local police all around the country in a kind of end run around the restrictions on domestic spying by the FBI that had been imposed after the post-Watergate revelations about the abuses of the COINTELPRO era.

This is why Bratton’s idea stinks. Local police, because they are local, are even more prone to rogue activities that will never be exposed or monitored than are federal police.