If 911 had not been an inside job, it would have been investigated! The cover up that followed has only one purpose: the protection of the guilty! It is not only the absurd, alleged conspiracy of 19 Arab hijackers, a cover story for which there is absolutely no convincing or admissible evidence, it is the fact that the events that day were deliberately covered up and access to evidence denied investigators.

Let's be clear on one thing: since the 1970s, the federal grand jury system where the prosecutor reigns supreme, has been an instrument wielded by the secret state to target dissent and to ensnare left-wing government critics in open-ended "investigations" whose sole purpose is to harass if not prosecute alleged "troublemakers." -- Today, with antiwar groups, anarchists, socialists, animal rights and environmental activists clearly focused in the secret state's cross hairs, one can speculate that the DOJ's reticence to reveal what "crime" they were allegedly investigating in all probability related to information surreptitiously obtained by a paid informant or provocateur. --- --- The lesson here? -- When the state comes knocking, the first and best line of defense is to seek competent legal advice from the relevant civil liberties' organization. - Handing over information that the government is not legally entitled to, or indeed, answering questions posed by federal investigators trained in subtle interview techniques without an attorney present can -- and has -- resulted in "obstruction of justice" or a "lying to federal government agents" indictment, a crime under Title 18, United States Code, § 1001. Silence is always an option. A good place to start learning how to fight back against electronic spying practices is a working familiarity with EFF's excellent handbook "Surveillance Self-Defense."

There were not many people packed in to the Los Angeles "town hall" meeting who had heard of the foreign woman with the unfamiliar title who had come to listen to their tales of plight. But many took it as a good sign that she had worried the last American government enough for it to keep her out of the country. Deanne Weakly was among the first to the microphone. The 51-year-old estate agent told how a couple of years ago she was pulling in $80,000 (£48,000) a year from commissions selling homes in LA's booming property market. When the bottom fell out of the business with the foreclosure crisis, she lost her own house and ended up living on the streets in a city with more homeless than any other in America. She was sexually assaulted, harassed by the police and in despair. She turned to the city and California state governments for help. "No one wanted to listen. They blame you for being homeless in the first place," she said.

Jonathan Cole PE: "The 2009 AIA "Architecture Exchange" (ArchEX) East convention held in Richmond, VA, November 5-6 had more than 110 exhibitors, most representing building products and services. AE911Truth's 950 A/E petition signers were quite well represented in our booth by the volunteer team I assembled for the event. We were doing what we do best: disseminating scientific information and facts about the destruction of the three World Trade Center skyscrapers on 9/11. ... we outlined why the official story fails to explain key evidence and conflicts with fundamental laws of physics. NIST failed to even address the implications of the acceleration rate of the three building's descents, the energy necessary for the pulverization of concrete and the high-speed horizontal ejections of steel, the heat needed to create the iron spheroids, and of course failed to explain the nanothermite found in the dust — having refused to even look for it or any other explosive residues. One architect said the outer walls of WTC 1 and WTC 2 peeled away like a banana and the "collapse" looked "normal" to him.... One of the architects who signed the petition was very familiar with the Twin Towers, having "worked on original drawings for towers as a student in the 60's.... 25 saw enough evidence to sign the petition right then and there, including five degreed and licensed architects.""

"A Rhode Island woman is suing Citibank, claiming the financial giant is trying to squeeze money out of its credit-card customers in advance of changes in federal law due to take place in February 2010. The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court earlier this week by Providence lawyer Peter N. Wasylyk on behalf of Portsmouth resident Michol K. Murphy states that Citibank has violated the terms of her credit-card agreement by jacking up the annual percentage rate on her account without cause. Wasylyk is asking the court to certify the case as a class-action lawsuit."

Instead of drawing on this excellent, time-tested model, President Obama and the Democrats in Congress have pretended Medicare doesn't exist. Obama went so far as to say on several occasions, including in his address to Congress on health care reform, that while single-payer plans such as those in Canada and France might work well in those countries (indeed they do, and at much less cost than our insane "system" here!), introducing such a system here would mean "starting from scratch." Come again Barack? From scratch? Those countries modeled their systems, in part, on Medicare, which we had here first! And Medicare is actually a bigger program than the entire Canadian health care system!

We need to stop being behind the 8 ball. Not only are we slow in acknowledging, much less opposing Obama's war hype against Iran, we are even further behind recognizing Obama's efforts to prepare for new wars in South America. "When it comes to Latin America, there is a difference between the Obama and Bush administrations. Bush huffed and puff and blustered while committing aggression against Latin neighbors; Obama smiles and mouths words of peace, and then commits much the same crimes. He is preparing Latin America as the next theater of war. ... The “new” face of Barack Obama’s diplomacy in Latin American has become apparent, in the unfolding saga of the coup in Honduras and continuing U.S. militarization of Colombia.... The lesson here is, the U.S. under President Obama is no less determined than President Bush to dominate the peoples of Latin America by brute force. ... In Colombia, which is the fourth biggest recipient of U.S. military aid, behind Israel, Egypt and Pakistan, the Obama Administration concluded an agreement to allow unfettered freedom of movement of U.S. troops within the country, and to use Colombian military bases to project American power elsewhere in Latin America. In addition to giving the Americans use of seven military bases and access to civilian airports, the agreement gives American troops immunity from prosecution for crimes they commit on Colombian soil. "

We supported your candidacy because we viewed you as the best chance for ending the wars of the Bush era. We applauded your rejection of the rhetoric of fear and division that was the stock in trade of Bush and Cheney. -- We are alarmed by the way that rhetoric has crept into your public pronouncements since your August address in Phoenix. -- Your decision on Afghanistan will represent the decisive turning point of your presidency. - If you turn away from war, you will provide a profile in courage that will solidify your support and open up a new perspective for progressive reforms in our country. You will honor the spirit of John F. Kennedy, who was searching for an exit strategy from the Vietnam war. - If you opt for a wider war, the resulting heavy casualties will destroy confidence in your leadership among your own most devoted advocates. Hundreds of billions of dollars will be poured down a rat hole, and will no longer be available for any reform and renovation of American society, which will increasingly fall behind the economic strength of other countries. Your domestic agenda will be halted, in the same way your predecessor Lyndon B. Johnson was crippled by the Vietnam war. Escalation of the Afghan war, in short, would be an act of political suicide for you, and of national suicide for our country. --- We are keenly aware of the difficulties and animosities you face, and we have long done everything possible to give your administration the benefit of the doubt, even in the face of repeated disappointments. -- But we now approach the moment of truth: will you be a great progressive president, or will you prove too weak to turn away from the bankrupt policies institutionalized and entrenched under Bush and Cheney.

In his Washington Post column today, E.J. Dionne claimed that pro-choice lawmakers and advocates are overstating how detrimental the Stupak amendment would be to women’s access to abortion:

"Here's my simple and semi-obvious idea: what if Washington D.C. had taken the same $30 million, and instead of killing a single remorseless criminal, created upwards of 600 full-ride college scholarships for lower-income or minority students, at 50 grand each. In other words, for every criminal a given state is seeking to execute -- like, for example, the Fort Hood killer, who they say might well be eligible for the death penalty -- we take the same tens of millions in taxpayer dollars and send hundreds of kids through college instead, kids who otherwise would never have been able to afford it and in fact might've ended up on the streets or in prison."

A sea of ancient water tainted by the Cold War is creeping deep under the volcanic peaks, dry lake beds and pinyon pine forests covering a vast tract of Nevada.Over 41 years, the federal government detonated 921 nuclear warheads underground at the Nevada Test Site, 75 miles northeast of Las Vegas. Each explosion deposited a toxic load of radioactivity into the ground and, in some cases, directly into aquifers.During the era of weapons testing, Nevada embraced its role almost like a patriotic duty. There seemed to be no better use for an empty desert. But today, as Nevada faces a water crisis and a population boom, state officials are taking a new measure of the damage."It is one of the largest resource losses in the country," said Thomas S. Buqo, a Nevada hydrogeologist. "Nobody thought to say, 'You are destroying a natural resource.' "

Always the political instrument of moneyed elites, and a retrograde societal force, the GOP today is more negatively impactful than ever. Its agenda, if fully implemented, would prove catastrophic...While there are certainly Democrats who've yet to show spine in furtherance of vital change, let's be absolutely clear about the unmitigated disaster that would follow if Republicans, in their present ultra-rightist incarnation, ruled our country exactly as they wickedly wished. Here's what an unfettered Republican Party would do "for" America:

Earlier this year President Obama canceled the federal government's plans to store high-level radioactive waste from nuclear power plants and weapons facilities at the controversial Yucca Mountain site in Nevada -- but now there are concerns that South Carolina could become a permanent dumping ground for the dangerous waste. That state is home to the Savannah River Site, a nuclear materials processing center along the Savannah River 25 miles southeast of Augusta, Ga. Built during the 1950s to refine nuclear material for weapons, the site no longer has any operating nuclear reactors and is engaged in cleanup activities.

Lou won't become Senator Lou. He won't join Hannity, Beck and O'Reilly at Fox. He certainly won't bury himself in a conservative think tank. No, he wants to out-Rush Rush.

In the Senate, both the chairman of the Banking Committee, Christopher Dodd, and the ranking Republican, Richard Shelby, think putting the Federal Reserve in charge of regulators would be a mistake. On November 10 Dodd unveiled a draft bill that strips the central bank of its regulatory function and creates a new overarching regulatory administration that pre-empts existing agencies. Shelby argues further that the Fed should be reorganized to eliminate the role of private bankers in making internal decisions at the twelve regional Federal Reserve banks (Dodd would require Senate confirmation for presidents of those banks). "I believe this is an inherent conflict," Shelby said, "because the banks decide who will be their regulator. I don't think that's a healthy thing." Senator Bernie Sanders, always the point man for big ideas, proposes that the Treasury be required to identify and dismantle banks that are too big to fail. Amid the usual cast of characters, a strong new voice showed up this season to advise Congress--Richard Trumka, the new president of the AFL-CIO. "Our members were not invited to Wall Street's party," Trumka told the House Financial Services Committee, "but we have paid for it with devastated pension funds, lost jobs and public bailouts of private-sector losses. Our goal is a financial system that is...the servant of the real economy rather than its master."

The leaked World Food Summit draft declaration falls short of a UN goal of eradicating hunger by 2025. Instead, leaders are expected to to sign a watered down declaration in Rome next week that calls for vague increases in aid for farmers in poor countries but sets no targets or deadlines for action. Leaders are expected to reaffirm their commitment to the UN's Millennium Development Goal of halving the number of hungry people by 2015 - a target that is unlikely to be reached. "The declaration is just a rehash of old platitudes," said Francisco Sarmento, food rights coordinator for ActionAid.

Consider, for a moment, a tale of two countries: the United States, where stocks are up, G.D.P. is rising, but the terrible employment situation just keeps getting worse; and Germany, which took a hit to its G.D.P. when world trade collapsed, but has been remarkably successful at avoiding mass job losses. Here in America, we don’t really have a jobs policy: we have a G.D.P. policy -- that by stimulating overall spending we can make G.D.P. grow faster, and this will induce companies to stop firing and resume hiring. The alternative would be policies that address the job issue more directly [like] New-Deal-style employment programs -- perhaps politically impossible now. Alternatively, or in addition, we could have policies that support private-sector employment. And that’s what the Germans have done. Since [a large enough conventional stimulus] doesn’t seem to be in the cards, we need to talk about cheaper alternatives that address the job problem directly: an employment tax credit; the German-style job-sharing subsidy. The point is that we need to start doing something more than, and different from, what we’re already doing. And the experience of other countries suggests that it’s time for a policy that explicitly and directly targets job creation.

Water quality in the Clinch River is already impaired, and the river cannot withstand additional pollution. Since 2002, the Clinch River has been identified by the EPA as having unacceptably high levels of mercury, chlorane and other toxins. The river's condition is even worse after the coal ash disaster last year. Nevertheless, TDEC is not requiring TVA to limit the amount of mercury, selenium or other metals that will be discharged from its new scrubber system. Under the Clean Water Act TVA should be required to help restore water quality and at a minimum to install the best available treatment technology for its wastewater. Instead, TVA is dumping essentially untreated wastewater into the Clinch River.

On Saturday 7 November the residents of Iraq Burin, a small village outside Nablus, once again had their weekend disrupted by settlers and the Israeli army. During the day settlers from the nearby illegal settlement came down close to the village in a provocative act. The scenario that followed was the same as the previous two Saturdays – settler attack followed by an army invasion. During the invasion that lasted about one hour, the army shot teargas and live ammunition inside the village.

It is a considerable jolt to return to our colorless, petty contemporary politics after feeling the heat and vitality of La Follette's courage. But we can look at Dennis Kucinich, who offers an illustration of the same principle on a lesser scale. Kucinich has written an explanation of his vote on the "health care" bill: "Why I Voted No." Here are some excerpts:--- Kucinich has written an explanation of his vote on the "health care" bill: "Why I Voted No." Here are some excerpts:--- Dennis Kucinich would be rare in any field of human endeavor. In politics, an individual like Kucinich is almost unheard of: he is a principled man. Is he perfect? Of course not; none of us is. And he works in a thoroughly corrupt system, which means that not only his principles, but principles as such, are under assault every second of every day. Given that, Kucinich's record is unusual in the extreme. His repeated willingness to act in accordance with his declared convictions is extraordinary. One further aspect of Kucinich's record demands mention: on the "health care" vote, as on Kucinich's consistent refusal to vote for funding for America's criminal and illegal wars and occupations, Kucinich is supremely right. Very few people appreciate or even acknowledge the overwhelming significance of that fact, which is ultimately the most important fact of all. Those of us who do should highlight it at every opportunity -- and we should offer our grateful thanks.