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(Obama’s neoliberal structural reforms panel is starting up, with a Clinton era “pro-business” democrat and an ex-Reaganite “deficit hawk” republican at the helm. and what do you think they are going after?)

Deficit Hawk Returns, Much to His Party’s Dismay – New York Times – “Slashing spending for earmarks, foreign aid and other unpopular appropriations would amount to “a sparrow’s belch in the midst of a typhoon,” relative to the debt projections, he said. And “when Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security suck up the entire revenue stream, we will be going to China and others to finance two wars, and that means borrowing it.”

(That’s right. All that money that SHOULD be spent on the massive Pentagon budget is being WASTED on taking care of our sick, disabled, and elderly people WHO PAID INTO THE SYSTEM THEIR ENTIRE LIVES… only to get tossed on the scrap heap now when they need it)

by Sahil Kapur, Raw Story

Senior Bush administration officials sternly cautioned the 9/11 Commission against probing too deeply into the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, according to a document recently obtained by the ACLU.

The notification came in a letter dated January 6, 2004, addressed by Attorney General John Ashcroft, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and CIA Director George J. Tenet. The ACLU described it as a fax sent by David Addington, then-counsel to former vice president Dick Cheney.

In the message, the officials denied the bipartisan commission’s request to question terrorist detainees, informing its two senior-most members that doing so would “cross” a “line” and obstruct the administration’s ability to protect the nation.

(The Obama administration just ignored the request.  Apparently the Obama administration figures we don’t have a right to know who they are killing in our name with weapons bought with our money.)

The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit after federal agencies neglected to answer a Freedom of Information Act request seeking documents pertaining to the legal basis for the military’s Predator drone program.

The request specifically seeks information as to how the program is governed, who can be targeted, along with when and where, and the data on civilian casualties caused by the remote-controlled weapons. 

It was originally filed on Jan. 13 with the departments of defense and justice, along with the Central Intelligence Agency, none of which replied, according to the non-profit.   Raw Story

(I received this just a few moments ago. I wanted to pass it on to you. Many of us are truly troubled by what is happening in Gaza, the West Bank, and Israel. Many of us do what we can. Rachel Corrie did more. She went to Palestine and stood beside mothers and fathers as they desperately tried to save their homes from demolition. She died for it. She died for what she believed in at the young age of 23. She just couldn’t stand aside. Take a moment and make the call.)

Dear scott,