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When Did Torture Become Part of the American Way?
Posted by ZP Heller, Amnesty International on December 4, 2008 at 8:18 AM.

Amnesty International USA just launched its Protect the Human campaign to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  They've got a fantastic site up where you can view Amnesty's films and photos, learn about human rights issues, read up on the UDHR, tell your story using an interactive Google map, and take action on these issues.

Check out the Protect the Human campaign now, and then sign Brave New Films' open letter calling on President-elect Obama to close Gitmo and ban unconstitutional military commissions. 

'The End of America,' Liberty: Use It or Lose It
Posted by Staff, AlterNet on December 3, 2008 at 10:51 AM.

The "End of America," a compelling new documentary by award-winning filmmakers Annie Sundberg and Ricki Stern in collaboration with best-selling author Naomi Wolf received some love today in the New York Times:

The pointedly inflammatory film, adapted from Naomi Wolf's book "The End of America: A Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot," compares the Bush administration's attempts to discourage dissent and to wield increasingly unchecked power to the events preceding the establishment of 20th-century dictatorships in Germany, Italy, Chile and elsewhere. Without explicitly invoking the word, it implies that since 2001 the United States has drifted toward fascism in the name of fighting terror.

Tightly constructed and fiercely one-sided, "The End of America," directed by Annie Sundberg and Ricki Stern ("The Devil Came on Horseback"), interweaves excerpts from a lecture in New York given by Ms. Wolf with film clips and interviews illustrating her contention that the rise of those dictatorships created a "blueprint" that the Bush administration, consciously or not, has followed.

Read the whole article here.

Click here to learn more about "The End of America," the movie.

Click here to learn more about Naomi Wolf, and her book The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot.

'Prop 8: The Musical' Starring Jack Black, John C. Reilly, and More
Posted by Staff, Funny or Die on December 3, 2008 at 9:02 AM.

The hilarious people at "Funny of Die" have put out a new video, "Prop 8 - The Musical." The star-studded participants include Jack Black, Neil Patrick Harris, Margaret Cho, John C. Reilly, Maya Rudolph and many more familiar faces. 

Get involved at http://jointheimpact.com/

The Election of Obama and the White Supremacist Threat
Posted by Davin Hutchins, American News Project on December 2, 2008 at 3:45 PM.

It's the taboo subject you're not supposed to talk about -- Barack Obama's safety in light of the rise of white supremacists in America. American News Project investigates in Memphis, Tennessee, where our cameras infiltrate the Stormfront.org Euro Conference. We probe the minds of the Anti-Defamation League, the Racist Skinhead Project and David Duke to assess legitimate threats to the next U.S. presidency.

10 Ways the Corporate Media Tried to Make You Think Obama Was a Liberal
Posted by Jane Hamsher, Firedoglake on December 2, 2008 at 3:19 PM.

1. Cherry picked a 2007 National Journal ranking which concluded that Obama was the most liberal Senator. This despite the fact that it was an outlier with a deeply flawed methodology that no other ranking confirmed, and only a true nitwit would swallow credulously the notion that Obama was more liberal than Russ Feingold or Bernie Sanders.

2. Nodded approvingly as Clinton campaign pushed "Obama is too liberal" meme. Ignored the fact that even in the National Journal ranking, of the 267 issues on which they both cast votes in 2007, they differed by only 10 votes. "The policy differences between Clinton and Obama are so slight they are almost nonexistent to the average voter," said Rutgers University political scientist Richard Lau.

3. Turned into complete bobbleheads as McCain campaign and a woman who excised the letter "g" from the alphabet endlessly repeat the same.

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

The Daily Show: MSNBC Is Replacing Fox News
Posted by Staff, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on December 2, 2008 at 2:24 PM.

 Since Fox News won't be the mouthpiece of this new administration, MSNBC is stepping up to fill the gap (and it's surprising how well it does). But don't worry Fox News fans, Fox is still in the fight with ads like the one summarized here by Jon Stewart:

"Stay with Fox News: we will protect you from raging fire, Iranian nut jobs, angry gay lovers, and the Jew whispering to the black man."

Watch it:

Why Didn't War Mom Deborah Johns Jump Down Neil Cavuto's Throat for Falsely Claiming Her Son Died in Iraq?
Posted by Staff, Brave New Films on December 2, 2008 at 12:00 PM.

Deborah Johns, a "Blue Star" mom and a ferocious Iraq war proponent has been a frequent guest on Your World w/Neil Cavuto for years. She made her most recent appearance last Friday as a representative of "Our Country Deserves Better" (also known as OurCountryPAC.org), the PAC that recently released an ad thanking Sarah Palin for being Sarah Palin. (Here are some of their other commercials, and here's the ad -- Johns is the blond woman in the blue top.)

During her Friday appearance, Cavuto said,

I always feel -- this is an unpleasant thing to raise, but you are so forceful and focused on it -- you lost a son in Iraq. And now we have a new president coming in who wants to get us out of Iraq sooner rather than later. Um, he hasn't tipped his hand as to when that might be but he's got what his aides are calling an aggressive timetable. How do you feel about that?

Johns went on to talk about "the need to support our troops"; the "victories" in Fallujah and the "free markets" that are working in Iraq. She didn't say a thing -- nothing -- about her son, who is alive and well and back home!

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

SPLC Wins Fight Against Kentucky Klansmen Who Attacked Teen
Posted by Staff, Truth in Immigration on December 2, 2008 at 10:45 AM.

We congratulate the Southern Poverty Law Center for a court victory in Kentucky that awarded $2.5 million to a teenager who was assaulted by Klansmen because they thought he was an "illegal spic." Like the SPLC, we hope this verdict will spell the end of the Imperial Klans of America.

The following video clip comes from CNN's "Issues" with Jane Velez-Mitchell. The show was filmed two days before the jury ordered the IKA to pay the $2.5 million in compensatory and punitive damages.

For more information on the Kentucky case, click here.

Chris Bowers to Matthews: Obama Said He Would Govern in Bi-Partisan Fashion
Posted by Staff on December 2, 2008 at 7:25 AM.

From Hardball Dec. 1, 2008 when asking if the left should feel betrayed by Obama's appointments Chris Bowers from OpenLeft responds to Matthews by saying:

I don't think he's betraying it. I think, I mean first of all he hasn't become President so it's difficult to see how he's failed to deliver on any campaign promises so far but he, he didn't say he was going to govern from the left during his campaign. He had some progressive rhetoric, but he said he was going to govern in a bi-partisan fashion. He repeatedly said that throughout 2007 and 2008, so I don't feel betrayed.

Matthews moves on and changes the subject. It's always nice to see someone knock him off of his talking points if only for a moment. Matthews is desperate for a fight where there is none yet and Chris Bowers is right, it is difficult to see how Obama has failed to deliver on any promises since he's not President yet. Can we at least wait until he's sworn in and see how he governs before having this conversation Chris Matthews? The Villagers are just chomping at the bit to skewer bloggers and the progressive wing of the Democratic party at every opportunity.

Dealing with the Taliban to End the Afghanistan War
Posted by ZP Heller, Brave New Films on December 1, 2008 at 12:20 PM.

Right now in Afghanistan we're witnessing the worst violence since U.S.-led forces overthrew the Taliban in 2001.  Over 4,000 people have been killed this year alone, nearly a third of which were civilians.  The Taliban grows stronger by the day, gaining local support with each misguided U.S. bombing that adds to the Afghani civilian death toll and each time NATO sets foot in the Kashmir region in pursuit of militants.  Clearly, the current strategy in Afghanistan -- eerily similar to the tactics the Bush administration has employed in Iraq for the last couple of years -- is not working.  Hopefully, President-elect Obama recognizes the vast differences between these two countries, which Noah Feldman highlighted in yesterday's NY Times.  And hopefully, Obama will not simply commit more troops to the region in an Iraq-style surge. 

Yes, Obama just announced Robert Gates will stay on as Defense Secretary.  Gates is well known as a hawkish Iraq war loyalist and a cheerleader of the failed strategy in Afghanistan.  His nomination for this position sparked a great deal of protest among liberals, particularly in the blogosphere.  But as British journalist Patrick Seale noted today, it was actually Gates who told al Jazeera back in October that the U.S. would be willing to negotiate with the Taliban in order to achieve peace. 

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

Wal-Mart Shoppers Trample and Kill Employee Jdimytai Damour, Keep Shopping
Posted by Baratunde Thurston, Jack & Jill Politics on December 1, 2008 at 7:24 AM.

I’m used to reading about the high price of U.S. consumerism in the form of environmental devastation or economic inequality, but those ideas remain rather abstract and are measured in charts, graphs and lengthy academic articles. Last Friday, however, we saw the price paid in the much more intimate, familiar and tragic terms of a human life: Jdimytai Damour.

From New York’s Newsday newspaper:

A stampede of shoppers in a Valley Stream Wal-Mart on Friday morning left one worker dead and at least three patrons injured after an impatient crowd broke down the store doors and trampled the seasonal employee, Nassau police said.

Jdimytai Damour of Jamaica, Queens, was pushed to the ground by the 2,000-plus crowd just before 5 a.m. as management was preparing to open the store, which is located across from the main Green Acres Mall building. Hundreds stepped over, around and on the 34-year-old worker as they rushed into the store.

Being Haitian, Damour’s family has probably seen its share of tragedy expressed through violent mobs, but how do you explain to this man’s parents that their son died because a reasonably healthy and well-fed (by global standards) Long Island mob just couldn’t wait to get its hands on a $69 Samsung digital camera?

The murder of Damour is a failure of values at the largest and smallest scales of society.

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

Toby Keith's Holiday Message for Liberals
Posted by PZ Myers, Pharyngula on November 28, 2008 at 6:33 AM.

I'm pretty sure this is satire.I'm not a fan of Toby Keith at all, but I'll make an exception for this one time.

Obama's Thanksgiving Weekend Message
Posted by Steve Benen, Washington Monthly on November 27, 2008 at 10:38 PM.

I noted yesterday that Barack Obama and his transition team, after seeing the markets reach new lows last Thursday, began a full-court press, emphasizing a new economic message/development every day since. It led, among other things, to three press conferences in three days.

I figured there wasn't too much the president-elect would do Thanksgiving, but lo and behold, the streak continued with a new Obama message this morning, recognizing the holiday, and at the same time, reminding Americans that our economic conditions will improve in time.

"Nearly 150 years ago, in one of the darkest years of our nation's history, President Abraham Lincoln set aside the last Thursday in November as a day of Thanksgiving," Obama said. "America was split by Civil War. But Lincoln said in his first Thanksgiving decree that difficult times made it even more appropriate for our blessings to be -- and I quote -- 'gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American people.'

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

Conversations with Chavez and Castro
Posted by Sean Penn, The Nation on November 26, 2008 at 2:13 PM.

Soon to be Vice President-elect Joe Biden was rallying the troops: "We can no longer be energy dependent on Saudi Arabia or a Venezuela dictator." Well, I know what Saudi Arabia is. But having been to Venezuela in 2006, touring slums, mixing with the wealthy opposition and spending days and hours at its president's side, I wondered, without wondering, to whom Senator Biden was referring. Hugo Chávez Frías is the democratically elected president of Venezuela (and by democratically elected I mean that he has repeatedly stood before the voters in internationally sanctioned elections and won large majorities, in a system that, despite flaws and irregularities, has allowed his opponents to defeat him and win office, both in a countrywide referendum last year and in regional elections in November). And Biden's words were the kind of rhetoric that had recently led us into a life-losing and monetarily costly war, which, while toppling a shmuck in Iraq, had also toppled the most dynamic principles upon which the United States was founded, enhanced recruitment for Al Qaeda and deconstructed the US military.

By now, October 2008, I had digested my earlier visits to Venezuela and Cuba and time spent with Chávez and Fidel Castro. I had grown increasingly intolerant of the propaganda. Though Chávez himself has a penchant for rhetoric, never has it been a cause for war. In hopes of demythologizing this "dictator," I decided to pay him another visit. By this time I had come to say to friends in private, "It's true, Chávez may not be a good man. But he may well be a great one."

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

Liberal Bloggers Keep Torture Supporter Brennan Out of the CIA
Posted by ZP Heller, AlterNet on November 26, 2008 at 6:00 AM.

In what Glenn Greenwald is calling the best political news he's heard since the election, John Brennan has taken himself out of the running for an intelligence post in the Obama administration.  Brennan has been Obama's top intelligence adviser, but he is also closely connected with Former CIA Director George Tenet and was a staunch proponent of the Bush administration's controversial policies on torture, rendition, detainment, and warrantless wiretapping. 

Perhaps the best part is, the reason cited for Brennan withdrawing his name was that liberal bloggers had "raised a firestorm" about his nomination recently.  Kudos to Greenwald, Digby, Cenk, Andrew Sullivan, Jane Hamsher, and other bloggers who took this on, not to mention the 200 psychologists who wrote to President-elect Obama protesting Brennan's possible appointment.  It's great to know that we have the power to effect change like this in Washington, particularly now when it's so critical for Obama to move away from Bush's legacy of torture and human rights violations.  (Now let's turn our attention to the Gates appointment, especially if it has repercussions for Afghanistan.)

You can support Obama in closing Gitmo and ending unconstitutional military commissions by signing our petition here.