Monday night round-up

Peace activist confronts Israeli PM

Gaza explored from The New Yorker

Berlin Wall 20 years later from NY Times multimedia

EFF: Government finally turning over some telecom lobbying docs

6 progressive complaints about House health bill from The Nation

Net neutrality red herrings and how to combat them

Editorial: Who’s afraid of the big, bad Fairness Doctrine?

The Podestas turn change into dollars from HuffPo

Politico’s Ben Smith admits Obama camp fed him Edwards $400 haircut story

Dig trenches for broadband fiber when constructing new roads from The Hill

Weekend news wrap-up

7 of the most inspiring videos on the web from Mashable

Low-Power radio and what the media won’t tell you

Cuban bloggers abducted and beaten from CPJ

Comcast-NBC deal: Equivalent of Godzilla swallowing 30 Rock

Child protection or censorship in Kentucky?

Media Democracy Day: Independent media’s moment

Hillary’s dope deal from At Largely

Colorado lawmakers ready bills to curb medical marijuana

Solutions in search of a medical marijuana problem

Jayson Blair address Journalism Ethics Institute

Alleged Bin Laden aide to be freed

A man accused by the Pentagon of being Osama bin Laden’s logistics chief may soon be released after nearly eight years of incarceration at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, according to published reports.

Fouad al Rabiah, who remains accused before a military commission of providing material support for a terrorist organization and conspiracy, has been moved to the minimum-security wing of the detention center. According to McClatchy Newspapers, the move to Camp Iguana is a sign that he will be released. Prisoners in minimum security can order food from Pizza Hut or McDonald’s and use the Internet.

Rabiah’s civilian lawyer, David Cynamon says his client was tortured by his American interrogators at Guantanamo and has sent letters to the Senate Armed Forces Committee, the Defense Department and the Justice Department. In his letters, Cynamon notes that U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly’s ruling in September included “a detailed description of the abusive and coercive tactics used by interrogators to extract patently false confessions.”

Judge Kollar-Kotelly ordered Rabiah released, saying there was no credible evidence he had aided bin Laden. An unnamed intelligence analyst concluded the government witnesses weren’t believable, she said. Supreme Court reporter Lyle Denniston of SCOTUSblog.com called her ruling “the most critical assessment of government evidence” yet.

According to Judge Kollar-Kotelly, frustrated interrogators “began using abusive techniques that violated the Army Field Manual and the 1949 Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War.” The Guantanamo testimony was contaminated by a sleep deprivation program, and a confession that came only after Rabiah had been advised he needed to be convicted to go free.

Rabiah, a 50-year old Kuwaiti Airways engineer and father of four, claimed his trip to Afghanistan was for humanitarian purposes. Thirty-one release orders have been issued in response to habeas corpus petitions by Guantanamo prisoners.

The Obama administration was faced with a dilemma in Rabiah’s case. It had the option of appealing the order dictating his release, after the Judge said, “If there exists a basis for al Rabiah’s indefinite detention, it most certainly has not been presented to this court.”

Or set free a man accused of war crimes. The notification required to transfer Guantanamo detainees to a third country is classified. Cynamon told McClatchy he didn’t know if it had been made.

McClatchy has spent much of the past few years investigating related stories in a series called Guantanamo: Beyond the Law.

This article by Gavin Dahl originally appeared on The Raw Story.

Friday highlights

EPA demands attorneys remove video critical of Cap and Trade from Grist

MySpace traffic drop costs News Corp $100M from Wired

Charter’s unfair treatment of community TV

Legalize It from CounterPunch

I am an America hating terror-enabler from At Largely

Sen. Bernie Sanders tackels ‘too big to fail’ in 2 pages

News from the 5th of November

Glenn Beck’s hotline to nowhere by Thomas Frank

Pentagon pursuing new investigation into domestic propaganda

Israel preparing public for new Gaza war from Haaretz

State Dept fumbles Blackwater Iraq ouster from Newsweek

Guy Fawkes protesters finally celebrate right way by Allison Kilkenny

Obama’s negotiators collude with big business on copyright treaty

Utility regulators challenge Frontier-Verizon deal

Wednesday night news round-up

more about “Daily Show: Dick’s memory“, posted with vodpod

 

TOP 4
Free Radio, Spokane

Google CEO envisions the news consumer of the future from Nieman Lab

Ex-ambassador: CIA tortured for confessions in Uzbekistan

Italy convicts former CIA agents in renditions trial

OPINION

The tortured logic continues by Amy Goodman

House shames itself on Goldstone Report by Matthew Rothschild

US in Afghanistan: Familiar role propping up a dictator by Robert Fisk

Time to hang up the teabags? from The Hill

Will Obama ever become president? from Fox News

ANTI-COUNTERFEITING TRADE AGREEMENT

ACTA talks continue amid leak controversy from Broadband Census

ACTA: Time to walk away? from Excess Copyright

ACTA negotiations, day two by Michael Geist

Global treaty could throw file-sharers off Internet after ‘3 strikes’

MORE NEWS

Gore denies he is a carbon billionaire from The Independent

Rep. Baird: Goldstone report not ‘accurately characterized’ by House

Colleges stop giving student email accounts from E-School News

Overnight success: Fake AP Stylebook from Media Shift

Spokane, WA considers community bill of rights from Yes! Magazine

Three’s a crowd, GOP presidential front runner Huckabee warns

Tuesday night news wrap-up

John Dean: Why Cheney pushed so hard to get a pardon for Libby

TOP 4

House passes resolution 344-36 calling Gaza war crimes report ‘unworthy’

EDITORIAL: Some sense on defense spending by NY Times

Elizabeth Warren wields plan in fight over credit rules

YIKES: Project Censored round-up of the British police state

POLICY

Pro-net neutrality professors say FCC’s proposal is ambiguous

Andy Schwartzman on the upcoming FCC ownership review

One Economy proposes Digital Literacy Initiative broadband plan

Future of Music Coalition wants FCC to become radio data central

Copyright Alliance & music publishers support IP czar Victoria Espinel

Victoria Espinel qualified, but likely powerless from Excess Copyright

MEDIA

EU eyes ‘digital divide’ after DTV transition by Matthew Lasar

Nielsen: Radio reaches 77% of adults daily (5 city study)

FCC lowers the plank for Florida pirate, $2500 settlement

HEALTH

Sit-in for single-payer at Rep. Pelosi’s office from Dollars and Sense

Rep. Kucinich: Not giving up on state single payer

28 male anti-choice Dems are stalling health reform

GOP bill would allow insurers to ignore consumer protections

Gore controversy, advocate & investor

Federal prosecutor: Medical marijuana raids won’t stop

Colorado health department changes ‘caregiver’ rule for marijuana

TECH & PRESS & OPINION

Shield law would protect student journalists from SPLC

Editorial: Pass shield law quickly from NY Times

Virginia’s elections are unconstitutional from Project Censored

Newsosaur: Pay walls mixed with free access

Pesticide industry rep. picked for trade post draws fire

Droid vs. iPhone really about Verizon vs. AT&T

O’Reilly to Hume: You don’t have a conservative viewpoint

Monday night news to read

Media Democracy Coalition’s Hannah Miller rallies against blocked political speech

Supreme Court likely to allow more corporate money in politics

Administration uses ‘State Secrets’ clause to block warrantless wiretap cases

Court rules victim of extraordinary rendition can’t sue from Raw Story

Pirate Cat Radio fined $10,000: East-Bay Express and SF Weekly

Is global warming a corporate fraud? from Project Censored

Real reason climate bill is going to suck from Grist

Palestinians criticize US u-turn on settlements

Detroit Free Press takes editorial cues from advertisers

Congress should not reject the Goldstone Report from Common Dreams

Where are the anti-war demonstrators? from Common Dreams

What Obama is up against from Truthout

MPAA piracy facts unchecked on 60 Minutes

MPAA press release urges FCC to protect content

Bit Torrent’s new peer-to-peer software throttles itself

Nielsen says DTV switch was successful

Paramount says National Broadband Plan should stop Star Trek pirates

Jerry Brown’s spokesman resigns after taping calls

AP admits Cheney equivocated to the FBI

We need a Son of Sam law for coporations from True/Slant

Comcast close to gaining NBC Universal

Brazil encourages competing hackers to crack e-voting terminals

Sen. Cantwell not sure why Geithner still has a job

Service providers in UK ’should have legal obligation on rural broadband’

Three’s company by Ross Douthat

News from the weekend

Phyllis Bennis on GritTV: Israel discourse has changed

Karzai rival ending Afghan campaign & Clinton says runoff is legit anyway!

Rep. Kucinich: Bill a bailout for insurers & Will we stand for the people?

Mountaintop removal protests going national

Rep. Markey warns about right-wing net neutrality misinformation

New kind of global marketplace by Kalle Lasn

College media & the future of journalism by Josh Stearns

The only journalism subsidy we need is in bandwidth

Hawaii cuts 17 days from public school schedule

Breckinridge, CO voters to decide marijuana, paraphernalia legality

Netflix CEO sees at least 5 years before digital divide is bridged

Saturday evening reading

Clean up Ecuador campaign

Campaign for Chevron justice in Ecuador

Dems strip single-payer proposal from health care overhaul

Crowdsourcing AT&T’s anti-net neutrality campaign by Art Brodsky

US Chamber shuts off TheYesMen.org and 400 other activist sites

White House, Senate agree on media shield law; Vote likely Nov. 5th

Questions surrounding Dobbs’ gunfire incident cast doubt on CNN credibility

Haitian Prime Minister fired by Senate from Media Hacker

Yes, journalists deserve subsidies too by Bob McChesney & John Nichols

What women really want from Save the Internet

Obama: Send condolence letters to parents of soldier suicides by Amy Goodman

Leaked: Dozens of members of Congress under investigation

ACORN scandal: Conservatives’ 25-year goal of de-funding the left revealed

News Hunt ‘bad journalism’ results

Netflix accused of hurting Hollywood’s profits from Public Knowledge

Comcast, GE deal getting closer

Online focus is working for CS Monitor from Poynter

NY Times’ coming Jihad against HuffPo

CNN now in horse race with HuffPo and Daily Beast

Colorado Court of Appeals: Caregivers must do more than just grow marijuana

Telco-funded Phoenix Center flip flops on net neutrality

2010 SXSW Interactive panels announced

Michael Moore on CNN: ‘We need to leave’ Afghanistan

Capitalism: A Love Story

Filmmaker Michael Moore told CNN’s Larry King that it’s time for President Barack Obama to wind down the war in Afghanistan. “It’s unwinnable. It’s immoral. It’s illegal. It’s wrong,” he said. “We need to leave.”

Moore appeared on the program Thursday along with another war critic, Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas).

“It is my sincere hope that he decides to wind down and end this war, at least our part of this war, in Afghanistan,” Moore said. “Initially, the idea of going and trying to capture the criminals who committed a mass murder on 9/11, that was a good idea. But we never did that.

“There is no middle ground,” he stated emphatically. “You’re either going to go all out and fight a big war that can’t be won, or you’re going to bring the troops home and focus on the problems that we have right now — huge unemployment, global warming, a health care mess, all these things, our educational system, everything.”

Moved by Obama’s attendance at the transfer of bodies at Dover Air Force Base, something President George W. Bush infamously didn’t do, Moore offered hope that Obama might end the war in Afghanistan.”I’m going to trust in all my heart that he’s going to make the right decision,” he opined.

Yet earlier this month a senior administration official told the press, “What is not on the table, in any sense, is leaving Afghanistan or so narrowly defining our mission as to be the equivalent of leaving Afghanistan.” (After Moore’s appearance, Rep. Paul told King, “I don’t think he’s quite willing to criticize Obama like Bush, but I am.”)

And although King didn’t comment, Moore hammered on the scandal of CIA involvement with the opium trade there. “Yesterday, Larry, that story in The New York Times about how the brother of the president of Afghanistan, the brother of Karzai, is suspected of being involved in the opium trade, which funds the Taliban, and our CIA pays this man. So we’re paying the guy who’s helping to create the money that’s funding the Taliban that’s killing our soldiers. Are we, like, an insane country? When is this going to stop? I want this ended. I want these troops home.”

Moore’s latest film Capitalism: A Love Story has grossed $13 million in five weeks of release. He has now directed four of the eight highest grossing documentaries in U.S. history.

See the video by clicking HERE. This story was originally published on RawStory.com. My Dad wrote a response, see below:

Friday morning reading

Sorry Twitter pumpkin over capacity

Twitter serves up ideas from users from NY Times

ACLU: Obama signs bill allowing defense dept. to block FOIA requests

Pentagon won’t confirm domestic propaganda program ended from Raw Story

Israel targeting grassroots nonviolent Palestine activists from Antiwar.com

Illustrated view of world without net neutrality rules from WA Post

Climate change effect on North Sea now apparent from Wired

Netanyahu unsure how to contain Gaza fallout from Antiwar.com

Web to be truly worldwide at last from BBC News

Medical marijuana institutes crop up in Denver from Westword

Marijuana legalization expected to be on CA ballot

Beliefnet evangelist will be senior adviser to FCC chief Dr. J?

Brad Will’s murderer held in Mexico believed to be scapegoat

http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2009/10/29-7

Matthew Hoh resignation letter

US Foreign Service Officer Matthew P. Hoh,
Senior Civilian Representative, Afghanistan

“I have lost understanding of and confidence in the strategic purposes of the United States’ presence in Afghanistan. I have doubts and reservations about our current strategy and planned future strategy, but my resignation is based not upon how we are pursuing this war, but why and to what end. To put simply: I fail to see the value or the worth in continued US casualties or expenditures of resources in support of the Afghan government in what is, truly, a 35-year old civil war.”

Historic hate crimes bill, bloated defense budget

President Barack Obama signed into law a historic and contentious defense spending bill Wednesday that includes a broad expansion of hate-crimes legislation to include crimes committed against people because of their sexual orientation.

After passing out of the Senate 68-29 last week, the defense appropriations bill included hate-crimes language deemed too important for Obama to follow up on his threatened veto over concerns about military spending.

“I promised Judy Shepard when she saw me in the Oval Office that this day would come,” Obama told the crowd at the signing of the 2010 National Defense Authorization Act. Shepard’s son, Matthew was tortured and murdered in Laramie, Wyoming in 1998, because he was gay. According to the FBI, more than 77,000 hate-crime incidents were reported between 1998 and 2007.

Many conservatives worry the law will be used to criminalize speech. During recent floor debate, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) asked, “Can priests, pastors and rabbis be sure their preaching will not be prosecuted if it says certain things are right and wrong?”

Firebrand libertarian broadcaster Alex Jones urged opponents of the president to write letters this week promising to vote out Democrats if he signs “the freedom-destroying hate crimes bill.” However, Attorney General Eric Holder has said the law will only be used to prosecute acts of violence.

The new ‘hate crimes bill’ expands the 1969 United States federal hate-crime law to include crimes motivated by a victim’s actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability. It is the first law in the history of the federal government to extend legal protections to transgender persons, requiring the FBI to track statistics on hate crimes against them for the first time.

The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act also removes the current prerequisite that a victim be engaged in voting, going to school or other federally-protected activity. Federal authorities will be able to engage in hate crimes investigations that local authorities choose not to pursue, with extra funding for prosecution available to all.

At the signing, Obama also touched on the problem of billions of dollars in cost overruns for military projects, pointing out that funding for F-22 fighters was removed from 2010 defense spending. He had threatened to veto the spending bill during summer negotiations with Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Critics have warned the defense bill nevertheless contains $100B in unnecessary spending on other equipment, including F-35 jet engines. Obama today called for further “fundamental” reforms in how the government and Pentagon do business, according to CNN.

Thirty-year Government Accountability Office veteran Winslow T. Wheeler warned earlier this year not to trust talk of defense spending reform. “For decades, the media have taken their descriptions of the size of the defense budget straight from the Pentagon’s annual press release,” he wrote. “Its business as usual, pure and simple.”

This writeup was originally published on RawStory.com.

Newspaper circulation declines, 350, crowdsourcing

2 decades of news circulation

Most creative 350 photos

Shocking print circulation declines from E&P

Q&A: Mother Jones on crowdsourcing journalism

CIA may have misled Congress repeatedly

Beware virtual NY Times, Pentagon Afghan coup

Prosecutors attack Innocence Project students

8 reasons Fox is not a news organization

Season of false starts for news organizations

Clean energy is an easy choice from Grist

Obama promises $3B for ’smart grid’

USA Today: We’re still #1

What problems does Google Wave solve?

Nader deserves more respect than he gets

Bong water is an illegal drug in Minnesota

Wisconsin to enact new e-waste bill

EFF to Chamber of Commerce: get over Yes Men

Hyperlocal: Printcasting bridges digital divide

15 things you can do right now by Michael Moore

Will coal help Kentucky phenom John Wall play basketball?

John Wall at practice last week.

TV news host Rachel Maddow invited sports writer Dave Zirin on her show to talk about the funding behind the basketball program. Read more about the political economy of sports by clicking each of these links. Wall’s eligibility is in question, as reported by AP. Meanwhile, donors want to fund a $7M dorm for student-athletes called the Wildcat Coal Lodge sponsored by coal interests. Read about it and watch the video at RawStory.com.

My Dad wrote back about the story:

Something is just weird about this story–black lung and basketball in the same floor plan. Not to mention minority stardom in basketball against the non-presence of minorities in the coal industry elite, mid-elite, high salaried labor, and all the way down the line. What do coal miners and college basketball players have in common? (knock/knock):   Exploitation.

Saturday headlines

Goldstone dares US on Gaza report

Presidential power has gone way too far by David Swanson

Shoes fly as Dubya tells Canadian audience ‘I did not sell my soul’

Can the peace movement reach Obama? from Common Dreams

Obama: in favor of lesser coverage? pressuring Reid to drop public option?

What controlling the media really means by Glenn Greenwald

FCC postpones non-commerical, educational radio license application window

AUDIO: UN renews Haiti peacekeeping mission from Media Hacker

House probe targets big mortgage lenders

Obama’s consumer agency no sure deal

AT&T on iPhone exclusivity, dropped calls, net neutrality

MPAA revamping antipiracy strategy

Obama sees consensus growing on climate change bill

Senators seek bipartisan consensus on warming, energy

Conservative Dems signal they won’t block public option

Recession: Middle class families grow medical marijuana to cope

Thursday reading

Chronic case of denial

Pentagon used psyops on US public from Raw Story

Musicians demand info on their music used for torture

AT&T staff told to complain about net neutrality to FCC

Oops: Sequoia reveals e-voting code from Tech Dirt

Rep. Polis narrowly avoids net neutrality disaster

Broadband stimulus has failed to date from App Rising

Rachel Maddow challenges Liz Cheney: be on my show

New public media models examined from Media Shift

Infinite Dial calls Absolute Radio UK ‘most innovative in the world’

First public white spaces broadband network trial launch in Virginia: 1 2

FBI can continue to gag recipient of National Security Letter

Propaganda now on sale at AT&T store from Public Knowledge

AT&T boss asks employees to fake it from Save the Internet

Over 200,000 calls to Congress in favor of health reform in 1 day

Google partners with iLike and Lala for new music service

Pentagon instructs officials to cancel nonexistent ACORN contracts

Adam Carolla podcast credited for new radio content trend

Denver Westword hiring marijuana critic is national news!

Medical marijuana applicants in Colorado increasing

Hemp: Legalize it and I will industrialize it from Huff Po

New article on ACORN in Boise Weekly

Click over to the Boise Weekly news department to read my latest article. ACORN couldn’t raise enough funds to stay in Idaho. There was a lot of material that couldn’t fit in print. Should have a blog coming out later this week. If you’re in Boise, grab me a newsprint copy. I love newsprint.

Wednesday updates

US spies buy stake in firm that monitors blogs, Twitter from Wired

Secret Service overwhelmed with unprecedented death threats

‘Blue Bell’ Dems must fix net neutrality mistake from Daily Kos

Obama issues new medical marijuana guidelines from NORML