Jesse Jackson Jr. under investigation for ethics
violations

post from Let's Talk Honestly on 08 April 2009 08:24:43 PM. © Let's Talk Honestly

Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) acknowledged Wednesday that he is the subject of an outside ethics investigation into his maneuvering for the Senate seat vacated by President Barack Obama. Read the entire story here: http://www.letstalkhonestly.com/blacknewsblackviews.htmlPosted in Barack Obama, Illinois, politics, scandal, US Senate Tagged: Barack Obama, Gov. Rod Blagojevich, Illinois, Jesse Jackson Jr, political scandal, politics, [...]

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http://glciii.wordpress.com/2009/04/09/jesse-jackson-jr-under-investigation-for-e
thics-violations/

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If guns are outlawed, only outlaws will go on
killing sprees

post from Jesus' General on 08 April 2009 08:09:00 PM. © Jesus' General

In the last month, over 50 people have been killed in mass shooting incidents:

March 10 - Alabaman shoots mother, grandmother and eight others.
March 31 - Shooter kills six in Silicone Valley
March 29 - North Carolinian shoots eight in nursing home.
April 3 - Fourteen shot in Binghamton New York.
April 4 - Glenn Beck fan murders three cops.
April 4 - Security guard shoots his five children then commits suicide.
April 7 - Floridian shoots wife, daughter, two others, and self.
April 8 - Catholic volunteer wounds four, kills one.

That's a lot of killing. It's more than our combat losses for the same time period in Iraq and Afghanistan combined. It's no wonder people are starting to wonder what should be done about it. Thankfully, our leaders have the right answer. Make guns even more available.

Read The Full Article:
http://patriotboy.blogspot.com/2009/04/if-guns-are-outlawed-only-outlaws-will.htm
l

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CA-32: Introducing Judy Chu For Congress

post from MyDD on 08 April 2009 08:08:20 PM. © MyDD

(disclaimer: I am doing blog outreach for the Judy Chu for Congress campaign) On Tuesday, May 19, as all Californians go back to the polls to vote on a series of ballot initiatives, voters in the 32nd district (which stretches throughout the San Gabriel[...]

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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/mydd/~3/i5FMo84da5g/14693

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This video just made me terribly happy before
bedtime

post from AMERICAblog News| A great nation deserves the truth on 08 April 2009 08:07:00 PM. © AMERICAblog News| A great nation deserves the truth

This is in the central station of Antwerpen, Belgium.

video details and more

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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Americablog/~3/Tn8a6QMCVTQ/this-video-just-made-me
-terribly-happy.html

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Late Afternoon/Early Evening Open Thread

post from Daily Kos on 08 April 2009 08:02:03 PM. © Daily Kos

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Evening-Open-Thread

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Rachel Maddow: CIA Black Sites Exposed by Red
Cross Report Never Meant for the Public

post from Crooks and Liars on 08 April 2009 08:00:10 PM. © Crooks and Liars

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Rachel Maddow follows up on her reporting with Mark Danner who obtained a Red Cross report on the torture that occurred at GITMO and made it public at The New York Review of Books. Rachel asks Danner whether he's concerned about the report being made public and if it will affect the Red Cross having access to prisoners in the future. Mr. Danner felt that the public's right to know about what happened outweighed that concern. From the article:

When it comes to torture, it is not what we did but what we are doing. It is not what happened but what is happening and what will happen. In our politics, torture is not about whether or not our polity can "let the past be past"?whether or not we can "get beyond it and look forward." Torture, for Dick Cheney and for President Bush and a significant portion of the American people, is more than a repugnant series of "procedures" applied to a few hundred prisoners in American custody during the last half-dozen or so years?procedures that are described with chilling and patient particularity in this authoritative report by the International Committee of the Red Cross.[2] Torture is more than the specific techniques?the forced nudity, sleep deprivation, long-term standing, and suffocation by water," among others?that were applied to those fourteen "high-value detainees" and likely many more at the "black site" prisons secretly maintained by the CIA on three continents.
Torture, as the former vice-president's words suggest, is a critical issue in the present of our politics?and not only because of ongoing investigations by Senate committees, or because of calls for an independent inquiry by congressional leaders, or for a "truth commission" by a leading Senate Democrat, or because of demands for a criminal investigation by the ACLU and other human rights organizations, and now undertaken in Spain, the United Kingdom, and Poland.[3] For many in the United States, torture still stands as a marker of political commitment?of a willingness to "do anything to protect the American people," a manly readiness to know when to abstain from "coddling terrorists" and do what needs to be done. Torture's powerful symbolic role, like many ugly, shameful facts, is left unacknowledged and undiscussed. But that doesn't make it any less real. On the contrary.
Torture is at the heart of the deadly politics of national security. The former vice-president, as able and ruthless a politician as the country has yet produced, appears convinced of this. For if torture really was a necessary evil in what Mr. Cheney calls the "tough, mean, dirty, nasty business" of "keeping the country safe," then it follows that its abolition at the hands of the Obama administration will put the country once more at risk. It was Barack Obama, after all, who on his first full day as president issued a series of historic executive orders that closed the "black site" secret prisons and halted the use of "enhanced interrogation techniques" that had been practiced there, and that provided that the offshore prison at Guantánamo would be closed within a year.

The rest of his article as linked above can be read here.

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http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/rachel-maddow-cia-black-sites-exposed
-red-cross

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The Latest State Secrets Claim

post from Firedoglake on 08 April 2009 07:55:22 PM. © Firedoglake

The Obama Administration threw a desperate new tactic into the warrantless wiretap suits: absolute immunity. It appears to be a probably futile attempt to keep all the cases before Judge Walker from collapsing onto each other.[...]

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http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/04/07/the-latest-state-secrets-claim/

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Thousands Protest IHEC in Diyala

BAGHDAD - On Wednesday, political blocs in Diyala province held a large public protest against the Independent High Electoral Committee (IHEC).

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http://www.iraqslogger.com/index.php/post/7482

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Marriage Equality States Double While Obama is
Away

Maybe President Obama needs to travel more often -- his overseas excursions certainly do great things for marriage equality![...]

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http://oxdown.firedoglake.com/diary/4658

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Media conservatives: Obama's goal is to be
"liked" by allies

Numerous conservative media figures have suggested that President Obama's actions during his recent trip to Europe and the Middle East were motivated by a desire to be liked, rather than by a desire to promote the best interests of the U.S. For example, discussing Obama's April 3 speech in Strasbourg, France, on the April 7 edition of CNN Newsroom, Hill columnist and Republican strategist Cheri Jacobus said, "I think he's more concerned with his personal popularity and being personally liked --[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/mediamatters/latest/~3/ZkFi5WDdJpo/200904080030

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