Global Human Rights Groups Protest Slaughter in Gaza
by Stephen Lendman

On June 16, 2008, noted Israeli historian Ilan Pappe explained "The Israeli Recipe for 2008: Genocide in Gaza, Ethnic Cleaning in the West Bank." He wrote:

"Not long ago, I claimed that Israel is employing genocidal policies in the Gaza Strip." After re-thinking this highly-charged term, he "concluded with even stronger conviction: it is the only appropriate way to describe what the Israeli army is doing in Gaza" because of its repeated atrocities now greater than ever.

"It's Hell in Here" "They are Bombing 1.5 million People in a Cage" by Juan Cole | Informed Consent.com | Submitted by Michael Munk | www.MichaelMunk.com

CBS News broadcasts an interview with a Norwegian physician on the scene in Gaza. More

While I want the thing eliminated, at least the CIA may now be run by someone with an inclination to obey the law, at least on torture:

"A CIA director who has denounced torture, advocated intelligence cuts, and backed greater congressional control of covert operations--that would be....different." READ MORE.

And how about a head of the Office of Legal Counsel who says this:

"we must regain our ability to feel outrage whenever our government acts lawlessly and devises bogus constitutional arguments for outlandishly expansive presidential power."

and this:

"We must avoid any temptation simply to move on. We must instead be honest with ourselves and the world as we condemn our nation's past transgressions and reject Bush's corruption of our American ideals." READ REST.

United States' Nuremburg Chief Prosecutor Benjamin Ferencz Speaks Out on Iraq
by Gene Cappa | OpEdNews.com

United States Chief Prosecutor Benjamin Ferencz, was only 26 years old when he successfully prosecuted 24 Nazis SS officers for war crimes, at the infamous "Einsatzgruppen (Nazis Death Squads) Trials", including SS General Dr Otto Ohlendorf who pleaded not guilty due to self-defense in the murders of over 1,000,000 jews.

By David Swanson

How did a Democratic challenger defeat a Republican incumbent in an enormous rural district in southern Virginia? A Democratic group in Charlottesville called Left of Center organized a forum on that topic Monday night. Speakers included three staffers on Tom Perriello's victorious campaign: Brian Bills, his personal assistant; Kelli Palmer, who registered African American voters in the southern most part of Virginia's Fifth District; and Rachel Klarman, lead field organizer for the southern counties. Also speaking were two newspaper reporters, Will Goldsmith of the C'ville Weekly and Lindsay Barnes of the Hook. And providing some historical context was Fred Hudson, chair of the Fifth District Democratic Committee.

Understanding the Gaza Catastrophe
by Richard Falk, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories | HuffingtonPost.com | Submitted by Michael Munk | www.MichaelMunk.com

Understanding the Gaza Catastrophe
For eighteen months the entire 1.5 million people of Gaza experienced a punishing blockade imposed by Israel, and a variety of traumatizing challenges to the normalcy of daily life. A flicker of hope emerged some six months ago when an Egyptian arranged truce produced an effective ceasefire that cut Israeli casualties to zero despite the cross-border periodic firing of homemade rockets that fell harmlessly on nearby Israeli territory, and undoubtedly caused anxiety in the border town of Sderot. During the ceasefire the Hamas leadership in Gaza repeatedly offered to extend the truce, even proposing a ten-year period and claimed a receptivity to a political solution based on acceptance of Israel's 1967 borders. Israel ignored these diplomatic initiatives, and failed to carry out its side of the ceasefire agreement that involved some easing of the blockade that had been restricting the entry to Gaza of food, medicine, and fuel to a trickle.

From Molly Gibbs

The Iraq Memorial to Life (IMtL) is being born because your organization—and so many other organizations like yours—have been working hard for peace.

A powerful visual image of gravestones, on the National Mall in DC, will move Americans to end senseless death!

Thousands of memorial markers, carefully arranged will powerfully bring home the full extent of Iraqi deaths to the American public and its legislators. The grieving that has long been a daily part of Iraqi life will be memorialized in your town, and spread outward, community by community, as the display moves across the country. Reactions to both regional and national displays will bring attention to the human suffering caused by the Iraq war.

Tomgram: Body Count Nation
The Ponzi Scheme Presidency
Bush's Legacy of Destruction
By Tom Engelhardt | TomDispatch.com

It wasn't, of course, that no one had been counting. The President, as we know from Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward, had long been keeping "'his own personal scorecard for the [global] war [on terror]' in the form of photographs with brief biographies and personality sketches of those judged to be the world's most dangerous terrorists -- each ready to be crossed out by the President as his forces took them down." And the military had been counting bodies as well, but as the possibility of victory disappeared into the charnel houses of Iraq and Afghanistan, the Pentagon and the president finally gave in. While this did not stoke an antiwar movement, it represented a tacit admission of policy collapse, a kind of surrender. It was as close as an administration which never owned up to error could come to admitting that two more disastrous wars had been added to a string of military failures in the truncated American Century.

From Rocky Anderson

Over the last two weeks, High Road for Human Rights has collected thousands of signatures on our letter to every member of Congress and the President-elect calling for an end to torture and a restoration of the rule of law.

As we prepare the letter for mailing, you have another opportunity to add your name, alongside the names of thousands of other American citizens, in calling for prompt, meaningful and deliberate change to American policy.

When someone asks "What did you do?," what will you say? Will you look back and regret not taking a stand? Click here to add your name to this important call for accountability and responsible governance.

HELP RESTORE WHAT IS BEST ABOUT THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
Help restore our Constitution.
Help restore the rule of law. [1]
Help restore our nation’s system of checks and balances.
Help restore our nation’s commitment to our long-term treaty obligations,

By Sasha Issenberg, Boston Globe

Elena Kagan, Harvard law school's dean, will be the new solicitor general, President-elect Barack Obama's transition office announced.

She will be Obama's voice at the US Supreme Court, and she has been considered a potential Democratic appointee to the Court itself.

"I have accepted this nomination because it offers me the opportunity, working under the leadership of the President-elect and his nominee for Attorney General, Eric Holder, to help advance this nation’s commitment to the rule of law at what I think is a critical time in our history," Kagan wrote in an email to the law school community.

Strange speculation from Bill Blum HERE.

By Gareth Porter, IPS

WASHINGTON, Jan 5 (IPS) - Until mid-2007, there was a serious political obstacle to a massive conventional war by Israel against Hamas in Gaza: the fact that Hamas had won free and fair elections for the Palestinian parliament and was still the leading faction in a fully legitimate government.

But the George W. Bush administration helped Israel eliminate that obstacle by deliberately provoking Hamas to seize power in Gaza. That plan was aimed at getting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to dissolve the democratically elected Hamas government -- something Bush had tried unsuccessfully to do for many months.

Blaming the Victims - The Dominant Media Vilify Hamas
by Stephen Lendman

The blame game - no one plays it better than the dominant media, and they're at it again over Gaza. Expect no comments below in their spaces, yet honest journalism would headline them.

After Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Franklin Roosevelt addressed Congress - with an appropriating updating for Gaza:

December 27 "will live in infamy." The people of Gaza were "suddenly and deliberately attacked by....air forces of the" State of Israel. The "attack was deliberately planned many (months) ago. During the intervening time (Israel) deliberately sought to deceive (Palestinians) by false statements and expressions of hope for" the peace process.

"The (weekend and continued) attack(s) caused severe damage to" property throughout Gaza. In addition, "many (Palestinian) lives have been lost. The facts (on the ground) speak for themselves....this "unprovoked and dastardly attack" must not go unanswered.

By Mike Ferner

Chicago -- Standing outside for five days in the Windy City under skies of lead and the thermometer below freezing provides an opportunity to make certain observations. Standing three blocks from the home of the next president of the United States the day he leaves for a new home in Washington, D.C….well you can’t help but observe certain things.

Hyde Park, where the Obama family lives(d) on Chicago’s south side, is a study in contrasts. Victorian and turn-of-the-century estates, broad tree-lined boulevards and the University of Chicago occupy one end of the spectrum; vacant commercial lots and takeaway restaurants that don’t sell coffee to better discourage the homeless from hanging out, occupy the other. More women wore fur coats -- some pristine and some clearly threadbare -- than I’ve ever seen.

College Students: Host the Backbone Campaign's Procession for the Future on Your Campus this Spring!

The Backbone Campaign's Procession for the Future parade consists of over 20 giant puppets, icons and colorful banners. The Procession stands out and communicates that We the People are taking the lead, that progressive solutions are attainable for a beautiful future, and that being part of the movement is loads of fun.

The draft Spring '09 tour schedule is:
Tempe, AZ Feb. 28 - March 1
Albuquerque, NM - March 3
Boulder, CO- March 5-8
Austin, TX - March 12-14
?Gainesville, FL - March 18-21?
Atlanta, GA -March 25-28
Raleigh-Durham, NC - April 1-4
New York, NY - April 8-11
Hartford, CT - April 13-14
Boston, MA - April 16-18
Amherst, MA - April 22-25
Madison, WI - April 29-May 1
Chicago, IL - or - Minneapolis-St Paul - May 6-9

GENEVA (AFP) — Israel deliberately targeted Hamas-run media installations in its bombing campaign on Gaza and is practising media censorship, a journalist rights group said Monday.

The installations in question include Al-Aqsa television, Al-Resalah newspaper and Sawt Al-Aqsa radio, which the Israeli army bombed on December 28 and over the weekend respectively, the Geneva-based Press Emblem Campaign said in a statement, citing a Palestinian media non-governmental group.

The press group, which fights for better protection of journalists in conflict zones, also condemned the recent deaths of two journalists as a result of Israeli attacks.

"Two Palestinian journalists were killed one in previous attacks by Israel, photographer Hamza Shahin,who died on 26 December 2008, and another during the current military round on 3 January, Omar Silawi.

Iranian TV newsman arrested for reporting on IDF's entry into Gaza
By Jonathan Lis and Gili Izikovich | Haaretz

An Iranian television reporter was arrested by Israeli authorities on Monday for a dispatch which broadcast news of the Israel Defense Forces' entry into the Gaza Strip.

The journalist is alleged to have violated military censorship laws which forbade the news media from releasing information during the initial stages of the ground incursion.

By Ron Moore, DC Special Interests Examiner

Opponents of the Employee Free Choice Act can take solace in the fact that the U.S. liberation of the Iraqi people did not include the freedom to organize. Since 2003, dozens of union activists trying to build a new labor movement for Iraq have been kidnapped and killed. The most infamous instance was the brutal murder of union leader Hadi Saleh, gunned down in Baghdad in January 2005. He had just returned with other Iraqi labor leaders from the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) World Congress in Miyazaki, Japan, the first time Iraqi unions had ever participated in this gathering of the world’s trade unions. These assassinations and kidnappings are ongoing. No Iraqi labor federation is immune, and no Iraqi workplace is safe.

Now the General Federation of Workers' Councils and Unions in Iraq is planning to hold an International Labor Conference in Iraq February 13-14, 2009.READ THE REST.