A 'Concerted Effort' to Discredit Bush Critic: "As he drew back the curtain this week on the evidence against Vice President Cheney's former top aide, Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald for the first time described a 'concerted action' by 'multiple people in the White House' -- using classified information -- to 'discredit, punish or seek revenge against' a critic of President Bush's war in Iraq.

Bluntly and repeatedly, Fitzgerald placed Cheney at the center of that campaign. Citing grand jury testimony from the vice president's former chief of staff, I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby, Fitzgerald fingered Cheney as the first to voice a line of attack that at least three White House officials would soon deploy against former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV."

(Via Washington Post.)

AlterNet: Blogs: Echo Chamber: "Well, Bill, quite frankly I don't know, and I'm embarassed that more democrats haven't lined up on this. I mean, for crying out loud, the republicans, they can see fit to impeach… IMPEACH a president, Bill Clinton for lying about having an extramarital affair. But they won't stand for a censure. The democrats don't have the guts to stand up to censure a president who misled us, who lied to the American people, who broke the law and violated the Constitution of the United States in spying on the American people. I tell you, we've got to get some more backbone to a lot of democrats. We need to hear from people. We need to hear from people. The American people need to know, and to show support for this resolution."

(Via AlterNet.)

Salon.com | News Wires: "Vice President Dick Cheney's former top aide told prosecutors President Bush authorized the leak of sensitive intelligence information about Iraq, according to court papers filed by prosecutors in the CIA leak case.

Before his indictment, I. Lewis Libby testified to the grand jury investigating the CIA leak that Cheney told him to pass on information and that it was Bush who authorized the disclosure, the court papers say. According to the documents, the authorization led to the July 8, 2003, conversation between Libby and New York Times reporter Judith Miller.

There was no indication in the filing that either Bush or Cheney authorized Libby to disclose Valerie Plame's CIA identity."

(Via Salon.)

New Palestinian Govt. wishes good relations with Israel: "The new Hamas-led Palestinian government has told the UN it wants to live in 'freedom and independence side by side with our neighbours'. The message came in the first official letter from new Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar to United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

...

Hamas has consistently refused to recognise Israel's right to exist. Mr Zahar said Israel's policies would diminish hopes for the achievement of peace based on a two-state solution.

The road map for peace, drawn up by the US, the UN, the EU and Russia, collectively known as the Quartet, refers to a two-state solution meaning an Israeli and a Palestinian state existing side by side in peace. 

The letter from the new Palestinian foreign minister to the UN secretary general was the first contact between the two since the new Hamas cabinet was sworn in. The minister, Mr Zahar, wrote that he hoped to work with the international community to enable Palestinians to attain what he termed 'their rights to a fully independent state'."

(Via International Reporter.)

Document Verification: "According to The New York Times:

Undercover Congressional investigators successfully smuggled into the United States enough radioactive material to make two dirty bombs, even after it set off alarms on radiation detectors installed at border checkpoints, a new report says.

The reason is interesting:

The alarms went off in both locations, and the investigators were pulled aside for questioning. In both cases, they showed the agents from the Customs and Border Protection agency forged import licenses from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, based on an image of the real document they found on the Internet.

The problem, the report says, is that the border agents have no routine way to confirm the validity of import licenses."

(Via Schneier on Security.)

Protesting is not terrorism | AfterDowningStreet.org: "Protesting is not terrorism

So why is the FBI policing democracy as if it is?

Terrorism is defined as the use of violence against civilian targets for political aims: the Oklahoma federal building bombing of 1995, the 9/11 attacks, suicide bombings against civilian targets in Israel and Iraq. Protesting is not terrorism, thinking about protesting even less so. In fact, protesting is recognized in the First Amendment as 'the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.' The FBI must not be reading that far down into the 45-word amendment.

Even before the 9/11 attacks, the FBI changed its definition of terrorism to include the violent potential of protesters in the United States, and not just any kind of protester: Mainly, those who oppose government policy -- on globalism, on the war in Iraq -- or the government itself: anti-Bush protesters are barred from voicing their opinion within a half mile of the president, ostensibly as a security measure. The implicit message to those protesters is that they could be violent, therefore they could be terrorists, therefore they can be barred from expressing their First Amendment rights. How that explains the FBI's eye for gay activists, too, isn't clear, although agency files pried open in the 1990s showed consistent surveillance of gay groups petitioning for attention during the AIDS epidemic."

(Via AfterDowningStreet.org.)

Over 3 Million protest, French Govt. considering to repeal the law?: "-Over 3 million people took part in protest demonstrations against the new labor law in France yesterday, the organizers feel that the result of upcoming negotiations are still uncertain even though the govt. has invited them.

 

About 800,000 people took part in the anti-CPE protest in Paris and 300,000 in Marseille. However, the police estimate that the figure was lower, at the same time, the demonstration is counted serious and well organized and has submitted their report to their govt. grading the 'situation as grave'.

The massive turnout for a second week has shaken the government, the parliamentarians feel convinced that the law must change or be dropped otherwise there is an apprehension of a civil war, an MP said in anonymity.

The govt. is more serious than before to negotiate and set their mistake rectified as per their latest trend. "

(Via AlterNet.)

Climate of hope | Salon.com : "Global warming is the worst news of our time. But pessimism saps our will. It's time to embrace the challenge, and call boldly on Americans to win the fight of a lifetime."

...

"With these and similar steps, we will eliminate our reliance on foreign oil within 10 years. Not reduce -- like going halfway to the moon -- but eliminate. It may sound absurdly ambitious, but it isn't. Technologically, it's an easier target than John Kennedy's claim that we would reach the moon by the end of the '60s. When it comes to our lifestyles, it requires fewer sacrifices than Americans made during World War II. Previous generations have stretched; now it's our turn."

(Via Salon.)

DeLay Prepared to Quit Race, Associates Say - New York Times: "Representative Tom DeLay will announce on Tuesday that he will not seek re-election and will leave Congress within months, Congressional aides said Monday.

The aides said Mr. DeLay, a Texas Republican who has been swept into an election-year lobbying scandal, was calling Congressional leaders Monday night to inform them of his plans."

(Via NY Times.)

AlterNet: ¡Sí, Se Puede!: "New Yorkers' most popular rallying cry during Saturday's pro-immigrant demonstration was the buoyant ¡Sí, Se Puede! (Yes, we can!). From the Brooklyn Bridge all the way to Manhattan's Federal Plaza, the enthusiastic call was chanted to the beat of drums and punctuated by the trill of whistles. While the motto ¡Sí, Se Puede! has been appropriated from Cesar Chavez's United Farm Workers union (which was against illegal immigration), the optimistic phrase has proven an apt mantra in the call for compassionate immigration reform."

(Via AlterNet.)

Labor Shortage in China May Lead to Trade Shift - New York Times: "Persistent labor shortages at hundreds of Chinese factories have led experts to conclude that the economy is undergoing a profound change that will ripple through the global market for manufactured goods.

The shortage of workers is pushing up wages and swelling the ranks of the country's middle class, and it could make Chinese-made products less of a bargain worldwide. International manufacturers are already talking about moving factories to lower-cost countries like Vietnam."

(Via NY Times.)

Independent Media Center | www.indymedia.org | ((( i ))): "Between 500,000 and 1 million people filled the streets of downtown Los Angeles on March 25th, 2006 to protest the anti-immigrant bill HR4437, which would make all 12 million undocumented people in the United States into felons as well as anyone who aids undocumented people in anyway. Families, labor, civic, religious and political groups came out strong in a mostly Latino demonstration, overwhelming all the organizers' expectations. City officials are saying it is the largest demonstration they have ever seen. Both the Mayor and the Chief of police attended the demonstration and voiced opposition to the proposed anti-lmmigrant law which is to be debated in the Senate being debated right now. This march came in the wave of many other large demonstrations against this bill taking place in Chicago, Washington DC, Arizona, and and Missouri."

(Via IndyMedia.)