Anti Cars Podcasts

Do you consider yourself patriotic? Yes or no, you will want to listen to this. Protesting is one of the most patriotic things you can do, especially considering the way Congress is giving away our rights on a weekly basis, all to buy a little so-called safety. That's the excuse for the wars we are in too, but it's a false sense of safety. These military exercises just drag on and on. It's time to end these optional for-profit wars, and bring the soldiers home. Check out U.S. House Res. 362 -- Sanctions on Iran, is being fast-tracked and these are severe sanctions, including a possible blockade. A blockade is especially serious since it is considered an Act of War. This won't win us any help at the negotiating table when we finally sit down with Iran after Bush is done damaging the process as much as possible. House Resolution 362 is really a scary thing to consider. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will hold a hearing on "Meeting the Iranian Challenge" on Tuesday, July 8, 2008. The Honorable William J. Burns is the only witness announced so far. It has been endorsed by 146 cosponsors and has momentum with reportedly 43 cosponsors jumping on the last two days. Gareth Porter says that US House Res. 362 suggests the use of force with new bill. See his video explaining this at the link above. The following groups will be involved in the March on the RNC in September: United for Peace and Justice ANSWER Troops out Now Coalition September 2nd: Poor People's economic Human Rights campaign Big Concert on the 2nd being planned, so far for the state capitol: Anti-Flag and Michael Franti Protest RNC 2008.org -- A clearinghouse for every protest group going to the March on the RNC, the site is good for info. on what will be happening all four days. If you want to get the real inside info on the March for the RNC, listen to my Interview about the big anti-war march scheduled in St. Paul September 1st, 2008, at the Republican National Convention with Katrina P. from MarchonRNC.org

Gutting the 4th Amendment? The Congress is seemingly paid off to sell our 4th Amendment rights. Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer lead the charge with the most money received to them directly from the telecoms and they are the most enthusiastic in fighting for them. The Senate then voted for cloture and the FISA vote may now be delayed to July. The true heroes of this saga: Chris Dodd and Russ Feingold. Where is Obama on our 4th amendment rights? Nowhere to be seen. Instead, he released a statement that said he supports the compromise. Supreme Court Exxon decision here. The Physician's for Human Rights report called Broken Laws, Broken Lives can be found here. Major General Antonio Taguba, USA, Preface to Broken Laws, Broken Lives JUSTICE is on the table -- via Lawrence Velvel: Law School to Plan Bush War Crimes Prosecution "A conference to plan the prosecution of President Bush and other high administration officials for war crimes will be held September 13-14 at the Massachusetts School of Law at Andover . "This is not intended to be a mere discussion of violations of law that have occurred," said convener Lawrence Velvel, dean and cofounder of the school. "It is, rather, intended to be a planning conference at which plans will be laid and necessary organizational structures set up, to pursue the guilty as long as necessary and, if need be, to the ends of the Earth." "We must try to hold Bush administration leaders accountable in courts of justice," Velvel said. "And we must insist on appropriate punishments, including, if guilt is found, the hangings visited upon top German and Japanese war-criminals in the 1940s." John McCain gave an energy speech that contradicts his own habits! The cars he drives are not energy efficient at all. How about 13 mpg? Air Force Summary -- the fuel we are using for war is insane. As for the FISA compromise: Nancy Pelosi is not upholding the constitution and should be impeached. FISA compromise bill is here. (Download pdf)

Blackwater is back in the news, winning a lawsuit to set up a war zone near San Diego. The Courage Center sponsored a conference call with author Jeremy Scahill and I got to ask him a question about Blackwater. Habeas Corpus has been restored to the country and John McCain called it with the worst decision the Supreme court has made in his aged memory, which apparently isn't too good, because the worst decision the Supreme Court ever made by far was when they installed King George as our president. Here's a funny Gordon Brown and Bush story The recent Supreme Court decision on Habeas Corpus restored prisoners rights and even though John McCain was once a prisoner (we think) he doesn't want them to have their day in court or even know what the charges against them are. What a hypocrite! Worse, the way we have treated prisoners at GITMO has created more terrorists out of regular people that happened to end up in our "enemy combatant" system. For more reading, here is the McClatchy story: Guantanamo prisoners More on how torture came "from the top" here. Oh yes, there are hearings going on about this. Bush won't be able to squirm his way out of responsibility for prisoner abuse forever. But the big question is: Why is the right-wing mindset so violent and arrogant? The newest breed of Republican is unapologetic, like ultra-violent children on steroids, throwing tantrums that kill. To them, the means always justifies the end, even when the end is elusive, repulsive, deadly, or even impossible, like victory in iraq. This arrogance and callousness is pervasive in the new right-wingers, from their talk show hosts (like Michael Reagan) all the way on up to their top politicians, as they plot more wars that will kill even more people. They also trash the environment and it's justified by calling it energy independence. Their unapologetic mind-set even extends to the state department, which can't even celebrate the recent peace agreement in Gaza. Yes, the Bush administration is already trying to ruin the Egypt Hamas-Israel ceasefire. To add to the fun, Bush's last lame duck trip to Europe culminated in an astonishing interview with Sky News. I play a good portion of it in this episode, but you must see it to fully appreciate its arrogant and dream-like quality. From Sky News, link to video is here. Afghanistan is not doing too well at the moment and president Karzai is ready for war with Pakistan. Bush remains oblivious and unconcerned. Blackwater interview done by the Courage Campaign. Jeremy Scahill's latest article, Washington Ordered destruction of Guantanomo interrogation records, story here. Why drill offshore? We aren't even drilling on land we have set aside for that purpose, so Democrats are pointing this out. Hillary Clinton has called for an investigation regarding KBR and possibly $1 billion in inappropriate charges to the Army. Read her letter to Carl Levin here.

The state of American corporate media is in bad shape. The state of independent media is good and getting better! I attended the National Conference on Media Reform last weekend and tell you about it in this podcast. It was fantastic, and I'm so grateful I got to go. You can read more about it here, and you can find my photos here and a link to more in a blog entry below this, and find more audio and video from the conference at Freepress.net/tune-in I play a speech and panel talk I heard in this podcast, and will be playing more in the next one. Media reform is essential to our democracy as more and more of our media is being bought out by corporations that are interested in only one thing: profits!! Fortunately, we can all be a part of the media. Podcasting, blogging, making videos, writing stories, communicating information in all ways that is shared IS media. Be your own media, share what you know and get active in the media reform movement. People from all around the country, regular people and media professionals, shared their stories and methods for creating media and supporting independent media at this conference. Independent media is the future because corporate media has lost its integrity. I also cover some news: Iraq, Afghanistan, the treaty Bush is trying to force on the Iraqis that they don't want that would take away their autonomy, and what is happening to an LA news magazine. Also, a man handing out RNC protest information in the form of a piece of paper was arrested on June 5th outside the very convention hall where Republicans will meet to plot in September! But this is important: Dennis Kucinich has introduced articles of impeachment. It's now been sent to the Judiciary Commmittee. His main co-sponsor is Robert Wexler. Call his office, call the Judiciary Committee, call Nancy Pelosi and tell them to impeach George W. Bush! 202 225-3121 It's important that everyone call Nancy Pelosi's office and also John Conyer's office -- I just did. It's easy. Ask for Speaker Pelosi's comment line. You can then demand she put impeachment back on the table. Watch the video of O'Reilly calling us crazy and fascists! Music played: Andy Pratt, Masters of War

It looks like the Democrats finally have their nominee. Obama unofficially gets the nomination for the Democrats; Hillary and Obama give gracious, inspiring speeches after the last primaries finally end, and both of them would be better than McCain so let's get them to run together. Seriously. Then the plan is: Get progressives to fill Congress. The day of Republican rule is over. Now that he has the clout, Obama should fix what the Rules and Bylaws Committee did on 5/31 -- they took votes from one person and gave them, arbitrarily, to another person. It was a backroom deal, away from the public and the cameras. No matter what you think of either candidate, this was wrong, and probably illegal. You can read the details I have gotten from another writer who know the rules better than I do here. On Monday, McCain gave a frightening, misinformed and misleading AIPAC speech. Obama and Hillary are sure to give similar pro-Israel speeches on Wednesday but they will probably lack the highly paranoid tone of McCain's speech. Paranoia combined with a war-glorifying tendency is much worse than just plain old tough talk. The Lieberman-Warner climate change bill is being debated this week in the Senate with a vote next week. Call your Congressman! Dumb Army scientist story here. Iran gets a new speaker for its parliament. Supposedly, he's a moderating force. The Ayatollah calls Bush a few choice words. There is little love lost between us and Iran at the moment, thanks to the Bush administration. Next up, a possible report from the Media Reform Conference. Don't expect much! When I get back there will be more to it, but I may attempt something low-quality while I am there this weekend. Blackwater gets a new fighter jet from Brazil and gives it to its new subsidiary, EP Aviation. Along with its new armed helicopters, Blackwater seems to be building its own private Air Force, -- I wonder why?