PEER wanted this press release circulated as widely as possible, so I've included it here in its entirety.

If you follow the link at the bottom, you'll go to the original containing access to other related documents PEER has assembled.

Washington, DC — The U.S. Forest Service has bought $600,000 worth of "Electronic Control Devices" without any training program, rules for use or even a written explanation as to why the devices are needed, according to agency records posted today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).

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After World War II, Paul Lazarsfeld, the great Nazi propagandist, came to the US and founded the Bureau of Applied Social Research.  His work broke new ground in the effects of mass media on public opinion.

Since the 1950s, the Pentagon and the Intelligence Services, including the NSA, have devoted untolled resources and time to make tremendous increases in the sophistication of the science of manipulating the public mind.

If there is anyone in America who hasn't caught on yet, this soliloquy by Chris Matthews should open your eyes to the ugly truth once and for all.  Think Progress reports that Matthews lauded Bush for three uninterrupted minutes after his press conference, in which the President pled ignorance and recalcitrantly denied documented allegations of torture,.

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Everybody wants independent media.  Now is the time to put your money where your mouth is.

This is going to be the model user supported news collective if it can just continue to grow and develop.

Support the New Standard.  Give today.

Did anybody else suspect this bru-ha-ha over the torture statutes and the Geneva conventions was a diversion in its own right to hold a quiet secret vote on the wiretap bill?

You were right.

See below:

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It is a groundbreaking news service.

They need a few thousand dollars in monthly pledges to stay in business after September 30.

Support independent media and journalism.  Give to The New Standard.

We busted our behinds in heat, rain, and gloom of night to get 40,000 signatures and put Jonathan Tasini on the ballot.

Now NY1 is telling him that he's not eligible to participate in their televised debate.

When did NY1 become the arbiter of whether or not voters can be informed about candidates?

Is this a move on the part of Clinton's media team to keep Tasini out of the public eye?

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Dear International Herald Tribune,

There is no, "Iraq War."

Just like the so-called, "Global War On Terror," the United States of America's war machine, funded by an annual budget of $500 billion, has created a conflict where none existed.

The oil companies, security contractors, weapons makers and defense industry war profiteers are raking in profits while the American people go bankrupt.

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She writes a column for the web, called, "Without Reservation"  It's worth a read.

Anybody who hates war and waste and loves progress wants to see the Bush Administration, especially Rumsfeld and the neocons in the Pentagon, get thrown out on their faces in disgrace and failure.

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Tell them to vote against cloture so that the Senators who are launching the filibuster can have an opportunity to:

cut through the veil of media coverage,

speak directly to the American people,

to wake them up to this critical juncture for our country,

so that the people can rally their Senators to vote "NO."

Why?

Help Give Bush the Recognition He Deserves

The Obvious Question number 1 is:  Who has this kind of money to give, and why would they give it?  The answer is, "Rich people," and the reason they give is to buy policies that favor the rich.

Today, the Royal Society in London is launching a report backed by 1360 scientists from 95 countries.  According to the Guardian,

The report, prepared in Washington under the supervision of a board chaired by Robert Watson, the British-born chief scientist at the World Bank and a former scientific adviser to the White House, will be launched today at the Royal Society in London. It warns that:

• Because of human demand for food, fresh water, timber, fibre and fuel, more land has been claimed for agriculture in the last 60 years than in the 18th and 19th centuries combined.


• An estimated 24% of the Earth's land surface is now cultivated.


• Water withdrawals from lakes and rivers has doubled in the last 40 years. Humans now use between 40% and 50% of all available freshwater running off the land.

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Today, Reuters says,

Opponents [emphasis added] say Bush's plan would increase the federal debt as money was shifted toward private accounts while benefits were paid to retirees and those accounts would do nothing to help the retirement fund's long-term prospects.

Dick Cheney has said the plan would require the government to borrow trillions.  Is he an "opponent?"

Lindsey Graham of South Carolina has said the private accounts do nothing to fix the long term insolvency of Social Security.  Is he an opponent?

Secondly, Bush has not submitted any plan to Congress or the American people.  Which PLAN, per se, is Reuters referring to in their article?  NONE.  Because there isn't one.  Bush has never submitted a plan through OMB or any other White House branch, and Congress is having to make this up as it goes along, just like Bush.

The Bush-Snow tag team is off on their 60 Stops in 60 Days Public (Re)education Spectacular.  It's a 60 round mugging of the American mind.

Just like all good muggers, the Bamboozlepalooza Brothers will cow their victims into handing over the goods without a fair fight.  But it's more of a reenactment of a WWF drubbing -- you know, the ones in which the good guys always lose -- because the bad guys get to mug their victims using all sorts of DIRTY TRICKS.

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Some of it came in the form of three Budgetary Perspectives, by Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Director.

In 2008, the leading edge of the baby-boom generation will become eligible for early retirement benefits. Shortly thereafter, the annual Social Security surplus --the amount by which the program's dedicated revenues exceed benefits paid-- will begin to diminish (see Figure 1). That trend will continue until about 2020, when Social Security's finances will reach a balance, with the revenues coming into the system from payroll taxes and taxes on benefits matching the benefit payments going out. Thereafter, outlays for benefits are projected to exceed the system's revenues.

The key message from those numbers is that some form of the program is, in fact, sustainable for the indefinite future. With benefits reduced annually to match  available revenue (as they will be under current law when the trust funds run out), the program can be continued or sustained forever.

Thank you, Director Holtz-Eakin.

Fox Promoted Cameron and Angle on Inauguration Day

On President George W. Bush's second Inauguration Day, FOX News managing editor and chief Washington correspondent Brit Hume announced that FOX News chairman and CEO Roger Ailes had promoted Carl Cameron from chief political correspondent to chief White House correspondent and Jim Angle from senior White House correspondent to chief Washington correspondent.

There is a great film at http://911busters.com/video/IQ1_20_END_OF_SUBURBIA_VIDEO_24.2_.html.

I heard about it on "Morning Sedition."

Of course, the problem has been explained for at least two decades already, to anybody who is interested, on sources such as Culture Change.  Those of us who voted for Barry Commoner, the Constitutional Party candidate in 1980, had the whole story early.  Our energy consumption is unsustainable.

FairVote.org is launching a Right to Vote Initiative along with a number of other grass roots, non-partisan, public activist organizations.  This is clearly the issue of the decade and will be -- as it has been for the last two months -- the main line of this writer's screed.  The FairVote initiative is originating under the auspices of Right to Vote Initiative, The Center for Voting and Democracy, contact Andrew Kirshenbaum at vote@fairvote.org / (301) 270-4616 /
www.fairvote.org.