Stephen Lendman

(12) Mysterious Death of Mike Connell - Karl Rove's Election Thief

As Karl Rove's chief IT consultant, Connell was a key figure in the theft of the 2004 election for George Bush. Under subpoena to testify on his role in Ohio, he died mysteriously in a December 19, 2008 plane crash.

IT expert Stephen Spoonamore, a conservative Republican, explained how Connell's vote tabulation system worked. It "allowed (for) the introduction of an additional single computer between computer A and computer B (called a) man in the middle" attack. The subsequent centralized collection of all incoming statewide tabulations made it easy for a single operator, or a preprogrammed 'force balancing computer' to change the results in any way desired by the team controlling Computer C."

Spoonamore explained that Connell's system exists solely for one purpose - to commit crime. Clear evidence of the 2004 electoral theft confirms that's precisely what happened.

(13) Katrina's Hidden Race War

After Hurricane Katrina, a Nation magazine report explained that "white vigilante groups patrolled the streets of New Orleans....shooting at least eleven African American men." Falsely portrayed as looters and thugs, they were gunned down in cold blood by "gun-toting white males," yet city police didn't intervene or investigate the crimes.

In addition, Blackwater mercenaries were deployed in New Orleans right after the storm. In full battle gear, they terrorized black residents, removed them from choice areas for development, and assured they didn't return. Protected by immunity, they were licensed to kill if disobeyed.

(14) Congress Invested in Defense Contracts

According to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, over 151 congressional members have invested up to $195 million in major defense contractors, thus profiting from America's imperial wars.

Major investors include:

-- Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ) - $49.1 million;

-- Senator John Kerry (D-MA) - $38.2 million;

-- Rep. Robin Hayes (R-NC) - $37.1 million;

-- Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI) - $8.4 million;

-- Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) - $7.6 million;

-- Rep. Jane Harmon (D-CA) - $6.3 million;

-- Rep. Tom Petri (R-WI) - $5.8 million; and

-- Rep. John Carter (R-TX) - $5 million.

(15) World Bank's Carbon Trade Fiasco

On the pretext of environmental protection, "the World Bank is brokering carbon emission trading arrangements that destroy indigenous farmlands around the world" and do nothing to cut pollution or reduce the threat of climate change.

The scheme is similar to Obama's cap and trade bill (HR 2454: American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009) that lets corporate polluters reap huge windfall profits by charging consumers more for energy and fuel. It also facilitates new carbon trading derivatives speculation, yet does nothing to address environmental issues. On June 26, HR 2454 passed the House, but so far it's stalled in the Senate.

(16) US Repression of Haiti Continues

Two months after the Bush administration forcibly deposed President Jean-Bertrand Aristide on February 29, 2004, the UN Security Council authorized Blue Helmet peacekeepers to occupy the country. It was likely the first time ever to support and enforce a coup d'etat against a democratically elected president. To this day, Haitians have been denied their freedom under a repressive UN occupation. The Obama administration continues to endorse it.

(17) The ICC Facilitates US Covert War in Sudan

Huge potential oil reserves explain the significance of Darfur. Washington's genocide claim is a hoax. It's part of America's chess game with China for control of the region's resources, something both nations covet. Beijing already gets up to 30% of its oil from Africa by offering no-strings attached dollar credits compared to exploitive IMF and World Bank terms, and America's usual one-way kinds.

Under cover from the ICC's fraudulent indictment of Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir for war crimes and other contrived reasons, America has exploited the region militarily for geopolitical advantage. The ICC stands exposed as an imperial tool, not the independent body it should be.

(18) Ecuador's Constitutional Rights of Nature

"In September 2008, Ecuador became the first country (ever) to declare constitutional rights to nature, thus codifying a new system of environmental protection."

Its Constitution declares nature:

"has the right to exist, persist, maintain and regenerate its vital cycles, structure, functions and its processes in evolution. (This right) is independent of the obligation on natural and juridical persons or the State to indemnify the people that depend on the natural systems."

This redefinition affirms that nature must receive equal parity by law and not just be a resource for exploitation. Yet these Rights of Nature contain flaws because President Rafael Correa refused to let communities protect their own ecosystems. As a result, corporate predators can exploit the loophole and are expert at taking advantage. The new Mining Law already permits large-scale, open pit metal mining in the Andean highlands and Amazon rainforest.

Nonetheless, Ecuador's Rights of Nature hold hope that other nations may adopt them and start a process to more fully protect the environment.

(19) Bank Bailout Recipients Spent to Defeat Labor

After receiving $25 billion in federal bailout funds, Bank of America organized opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) - legislation to guarantee workers the right to bargain more fairly and collectively with management than since passage of the landmark 1935 National Labor Relations (Wagner) Act.

Business is firmly opposed. On March 10, S. 560: Employee Free Choice Act of 2009 was introduced in the Senate. It was referred to the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee where it's pending. Given the Obama administration's opposition, its passage looks doubtful.

(20) Secret Control of the Presidential Debates

Since 1987, the Republican and Democrat-controlled Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) has run the process, dictates terms, and excludes unwanted participants. During the 2008 presidential cycle, the Obama and McCain teams secretly cut a deal on who could participate, permissible topics, and the debate format structure.

Since independent candidate Ross Perot participated in 1992, the exercise has been pre-scripted theater without disturbing questions, shielding major party candidates from unwanted criticism, and excluding independent ones, like Ralph Nader, from participating. Before he died, Walter Cronkite called the CPD an "unconscionable fraud."

(20) Recession Causes States to Cut Welfare

Faced with huge budget shortfalls and little help from Washington, states have been forced to make major expenditure cuts, many affecting vital social services, including health care, education, and welfare.

Yet cutting Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) began prior to the present crisis so funds could be redirected to other priorities. Nationally, welfare rolls dropped over 40% between 2001 and June 2008, and in some states, like Georgia, up to 90%.

By allotting states fixed block grant amounts regardless of need and setting a five year limit for recipients, the 1997 law was deeply flawed as a way to free states and Washington from their obligation to provide welfare to the needy. As a result, America's social safety net is fast disappearing.

(22) Obama's Trilateral Commission Team

In 1973, David Rockefeller founded the Trilateral Commission (TC) to counter a threat of too much democracy. Jimmy Carter was a charter member. Current and past ones include nearly all presidential candidates of both parties; leading senators and congressmen; key members of the media; top intelligence officials; key government agency ones from Treasury, Defense, State, Commerce, and the Judiciary; numerous top business executives, and others from academia, labor, and various NGOs.

Eleven TC members are in the Obama administration, including Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, UN Ambassador Susan Rice, National Security Advisor Gen. James Jones, National Intelligence Director Adm. Dennis Blair, Paul Volker, and five top State Department officials, including Richard Holbrooke and Dennis Ross.

Along with Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) members, they're the dominant forces in America. They decide who's elected to high office, appointed to key government positions, how the country will be run, and for whose benefit.

(23) Activists Slam World Water Forum as a Corporate-Driven Fraud

Organized every three years since 1997, the corporate-controlled World Water Forum (WWF)'s main goal is the global privatization of water in coordination with the World Water Council (WWC), dominated by two of the world's largest water companies, Suez and Veolia, as well as the World Bank and corporate segments of the UN.

WWC "promotes extraordinarily expensive and destructive dam and water diversion projects" as well as an agenda to put water services in private hands through the establishment of Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs). Operating in countries like Argentina, Bolivia, El Salvador and America, the result has been "huge price hikes, water pollution, depletion and cut-offs (that) deny people the right to water" if they can't pay the exorbitant cost.

Activists like Maude Barlow ask "Is water a commodity (to be sold) to the highest bidder or part of our commons, a public trust and a human right?" The global struggle is committed for the latter.

(24) Dollar Glut Finances US Military Expansion

Economist/author Michael Hudson first addressed this topic in his 1972 book, "Super Imperialism," updated in a 2003 edition. He then revisited it in his award-winning article explaining the "inter-related dynamics" of:

-- "surplus (US) dollars pouring into the rest of the world for yet further financial speculation and corporate takeovers;"

-- global central banks "recyl(ing) these dollar inflows (into) US Treasury bonds to finance the federal US budget deficit; and most important (but suppressed in the US media),

-- the military character of the US payments deficit and the domestic federal budget deficit."

The net result is that the global dollar glut finances US corporate takeovers, speculative excesses, reckless spending, foreign wars, hundreds of worldwide bases, and a culture of militarism and belligerence at the expense of democratic freedom, beneficial social change, and human and civil rights.

Today, the world's largest "free lunch....is the ability of the US Treasury to issue (trillions of dollars) in exchange for foreign exports, the sale of foreign companies and real estate to US buyers, (and) US military purchases abroad." They comprise the balance-of-payments deficit that's "free to the extent that foreign central banks recycle (their) surplus dollars into Treasury bonds and other US securities...."

(25) Fast Track Oil Exploitation in Western Amazon

Home to the world's "most biodiverse and intact rainforest," the Western Amazon "may soon be covered with oilrigs and pipelines" since vast parts of it will be opened for oil and gas exploration, "putting some of the planet's most pristine and biodiverse forests at risk, conservationists have warned." Five nations are threatened, including Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Western Brazil, in areas called "the lungs of the planet," where the lives of indigenous people are also threatened.

2010 Honorable Mentions

-- Demining Stops in Lebanon - to clear over one million Israeli-dropped cluster bombs during the last days of its 2006 war;

-- Cuba Years Ahead in Eat Local Movement - the result of thousands of urban cooperative gardens replacing expensive imported food;

-- Military Corporate Legacy of the New Secretary of Education - Arne Duncan privatized and militarized education as CEO of Chicago's public schools;

-- Latin American Leaders Refute US Drug War - they propose a new paradigm to replace America's failed one;

-- Guantanamo Worsens Since Obama - after promising to close Guantanamo and end torture, prison conditions there are as bad or worse than before;

-- Fault Lines Intersect Nuke Plant Near NYC - sitting atop newly identified fault lines shows New York is more at risk than previously imagined;

-- Battle for the Future of SEIU - it pits rank-and-file members against the failure and power aspirations of its leadership;

-- Constitution-Free Zone for Two-Thirds of US Population - more evidence of DHS abusing its authority at the expense of constitutionally-guaranteed rights;

-- Coal vs. Wind in West Virginia - An energy battle may result;

-- Father Roy Excommunicated? - Roy Bourgeois has been threatened by the Vatican unless he recants his support for ordaining women in the priesthood;

-- Air Force Embraces Coal - as a result, the transportation fuel of the future may be coal-based;

-- Terrorizing Dissenters at the RNC - St. Paul, MN, the site of the 2008 Republican Convention, was turned into a police state for the event;

-- UN Negligence is Killing Child Refugees in Kosovo - three UN-established refugee camps sit atop a toxic waste dump killing dozens and causing 50 miscarriages because of suspected lead poisoning; and

-- Secret US Forces Carried Out Assassinations - under Dick Cheney, the Bush administration ran an "executive assassination ring" in Iraq, Afghanistan, Latin America, and other parts of the world.

An Entire Section is devoted to updating previous PC Stories, including the top one for 2009 on "More than One Million Killed in Iraq." Occupation and violence keep elevating and depriving Iraqis of their freedom.

Infotainment Society: Junk Food News and News Abuse for 2008/2009

In 1984, PC Director Carl Jensen called it a "Twinkie, not very nourishing for the consumer." He now says it's a "major problem in journalism and corporate media, particularly on today's cable and television news." The late Communications Professor George Gerbner (1919 - 2005) once said "they have everything to sell and nothing to tell." And famed comedian Ernie Kovacs (1919 - 1962) once explained why television is called a medium - "because it's neither rare or well done."

PC's Former Associate Director Mickey Huff and Frances Capell discuss the Top Ten Junk Food News Stories and Top Five News Abuse Stories for 2008 and 2009. In quoting a Chinese proverb, they conclude: "Unless we change direction, we are likely to end up where we are headed."

Stories of Hope and Change

PC examines "strategies that appear to be improving the health of the community, whether local or global" at a time when real solutions more than ever are needed. Examples covered include "events or programs that are actually working for people and that increase the healthy functioning of governments, economies, the environment and the human condition."

It proves that organized people can beat organized money for constructive change as effectively as when famed Chicago community organizer/activist Saul Alinsky (1909 - 1972) once explained it.

Examples include:

-- citizen groups in all 18 Iraqi provinces successfully promoting peaceful elections;

-- New York grassroots organizers and volunteers using the state's fusion voting laws to win over citizens for higher wages, fair taxes, affordable housing, civil rights, and campaign finance reform;

-- 1,500 campaign donors pledging "not to donate to any federal candidate unless they support legislation making congressional elections citizen-funded, not special-interest funded;"

-- pro-Israeli groups like Americans for Peace Now (APN) and J Street calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead last December and January;

-- Senator Daniel Akaka (D-HI) introducing a bill to strengthen federal whistleblower protections;

-- Canada's Stephen Harper-led government apologizing for the treatment of native peoples;

-- a successful democracy movement in Brazil;

-- a European-led "revolution in chemical regulation" requiring thousands of chemicals to be assessed for potential toxicity;

-- a federal appeals court telling the EPA that its pollutants standards are "contrary to law and unsupported by adequately reasoned decision making;"

-- a New York Times/CBS poll showing that the majority of Americans want Washington to provide universal single-payer health coverage, and most physicians back it, including 17,000 doctors, medical students, and health professional members of Physicians for a National Health Program;

-- brain research on Buddhist monks revealing the benefits of meditation;

-- evidence that the human brain is hardwired to reward caring, cooperation, and service;

-- at a time of agribusiness dominance and rising prices, urban farms have become an important resource for providing cheap, local amounts of food for growing numbers of people;

-- these gardens have proliferated in Cuba, an idea that could become a world model for "localized food sovereignty and sustainability;"

-- communities are making food a matter of local interest;

-- grassroots efforts are achieving good food policies in America;

-- community stewardship of water is reclaiming a tradition of local control;

-- Bangladesh's successful model of fair water governance;

-- the US Conference of Mayors voting to encourage municipal water use over high-cost corporate-controlled sources;

-- sustainability efforts by a central Appalachian Network for a low-carbon regional economy;

-- successful holistic range management methods for more productive ranches, healthy ecosystems, biodiversity, healthy water, mineral cycles and land;

-- Canadian native communities gaining power over regional resources;

-- Congress approving a massive public lands bill to protect two million acres of wilderness in nine states and 1,000 miles of rivers;

-- Ireland and British Columbia, Canada banning uranium mining;

-- Brazil pledging to reduce deforestation by 70% over the next decade;

-- the first US Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) requiring that Northeast power plants buy permits for carbon emissions;

-- soil being used to reduce CO2;

-- America becoming the world's largest wind-energy producer;

-- Portugal building the world's largest solar photovoltaic farm to supply enough electricity for 30,000 homes;

-- rising investment levels being made in renewable energy;

-- community banks functioning as an alternative to Wall Street giants;

-- the Common Good Bank model distributing profits back to the community and making all lending and spending decisions through participatory democracy;

-- cooperatives turning wage slaves into worker-owners;

-- calls increasing for a minimum corporate tax that could raise billions of dollars to stimulate economic growth;

-- Ecuador questioning the legitimacy of foreign debt;

-- Washington possibly losing its right to appoint future World Bank presidents;

-- Net Neutrality hopes for passage increasing, but not without stiff corporate opposition against it;

-- community land trust solutions offering hope for the foreclosure crisis; also, in Landmark National Bank v. Kesler (August 2009), the Kansas Supreme Court ruled unanimously against Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems' (MERS) right to bring a foreclosure action; over half of all new residential mortgages are registered with MERS; the ruling applies to other mortgage holders in Kansas, but it sets a precedent that other states may follow;

-- the Pathway to Housing program calling for a "housing first" approach to address the problem of chronic homelessness;

-- in opposition to America's war on drugs, a Latin American Commission on Drugs calling for a new paradigm; and

-- Ecuador becoming the first country to declare constitutional rights for nature.

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