Howard Zinn - Dramatic presentation of the People's History of the United States on the History Channel

Hi All:
Bill Moyers interviewed Howard Zinn and NASA Unlocking Secrets of the Universe,

Bill Moyers interviewed Howard Zinn, historian emeritus of Boston University, on PBS last night about the History Channel's presentation this Sunday night from 8:00 to 10:00 pm. They played clips from the program and it looks fabulous. Thought you would like to know.

For any of you not familiar with Zinn, his history is written from the point of view of ordinary people rather than from that of the powerful - a radical approach to history.

Mary White

NASA's "Alien Eyes" - Unlocking Secrets of the Universe

"Our personal window on the Universe is terribly small within a stunnng range of wavelengths. With our eyes we see wavelengths between 0.00004 and 0.00008 of a centimeter (where, not so oddly, the Sun and stars emit most of their energy). The human visual spectrum from violet to red is but one octave on an imaginary electromagnetic piano with a keyboard hundreds of kilometers long."

James Kaler, astronomer and author of "Heavens Gate: From Killer Stars to the Seeds of Life, How We are Connected to the Universe."

The image below is an infrared photo of M82 is a remarkable galaxy of peculiar type in constellation Ursa Major. It is usually classified as irregular, though probably a distorted disk galaxy, and famous for its heavy star-forming activity, thus a prototype member of the class of starbursting galaxies. In the infrared light, M82 is the brightest galaxy in the sky; it exhibits a so-called infrared excess, being much brighter at infrared wavelengths than in the visible part of the spectrum. Over 100 young globular clusters have been discovered in M82 with the Hubble Space Telescope. Their formation is probably another effect triggered by a tidal encounter with M81 between 50 and several 100 million years ago.

Much of what you see above is outside our human visual band, our eyes cannot register wave photons no matter how powerful they may be. Longer that the visual wavelength limit -up to about a millimeter-lies the infrared. At the short end is violet, with orange, yellow, green, blue and hundreds of overlapping shades. Longer waves, into kilometer-wavelengths toward the unknown end are what we call "radio." 

Shorter than the visual limit are the ultrviolet -all running in the vacuum at the speed of light. At less than a percent of the wavelength of visual light are X rays, and at a factor of 100 smaller are the deadly gamma rays.

One of the great achievements of modern astronomy is the entersion of "human sight" -opening the electromagnetic spectrum to our view and discovery beginning in the 1930s with radio estronomy and ending with NASA's great fleet of space observatories and the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (FGST, formerly GLAST), working to unveil the mysteries of the high-energy universe. Launched into orbit on June 11, FGST studies the most energetic particles of light, observing physical processes far beyond the capabilities of earthbound laboratories..

A composite of our Milky Way's core is compsed of images from the Hubble Space Telescope in near-infrared light, the Spitzer Space Telescope in infrared light, and the Chandra X-ray Observatory in X-ray light. A mosaic of vast star fields is visible, along with dense star clusters, long filaments of gas and dust, expanding supernova remnants, and the energetic surroundings of what likely is our Galaxy's central black hole. 

Casey Kazan

Source: NASA/Hubble

Remember Pearl Harbor & Don't Forget Our 3 Navy Seals !

If Pearl Harbor was not a travesty of justice enough,intelligence
officials identified one al-Quaida operative by the name of
Ahmed Hashim Abed who is the master-mind behind the murder and
maimings of four American Blackwater security agents. After 5
years of searching three Navy Seals,Special Warfare Operators
2nd Class Matthew McCabe and Jonathan Keefe and Special
Warfare Operator 1st Class Julio Huertas captured this
terrorist.

These 3 Navy heros will now be dragged into a criminal court
marshal,charged with delivering a punch to the terrorist! So
tell me,you Navy lawyer scumbags, how do capture a terrorist?
with a plastic bag? with whispering in his ear? How is it
humanly possible to capture a terrorist without some mild
form of physical restraint? You put an extra blanket around
him when he's sleeping and then ask him to put his slippers
before a little sit-down interview? The three Navy Seals
were charged based on slanderous accusations of one of the
most-wanted terrorists on the Joint Terrorist Task Force's
Watch List.

As Michele McPhee pointed out so well in her article :
"Reminder: Don't Trust Terrorists in the Opinion column
of Metro.us,"When does the word of a man who has declared
war on the United States count more than statements made
by our military? The real testimony to their professionalism
and restraint, frankly,is the fact that Abed was captured
without gunshot wounds or broken bones by these trained
commandos. Still,two of the three Seals find themselves
in a criminal courtroom today. The third will be arraigned
at a later date."

"Last week Congress held a hearing on the White House
party crashers", Michaela and Tareq Salahi which I
consider justified. Now THE CONGRESS NEEDS to HOLD a
HEARING on WHY THESE 3 NAVY SEALS are IN CRIMINAL
COURT BECAUSE OF LIES A TERRORIST TOLD !!! And if they
were not lies,how does anyone catch a terrorists without
some kind of force? I WANT EVERYONE TO CALL THEIR
CONGRESSMAN and their TWO SENATORS and TELL THEM TO HAVE
CONGRESSIONAL HEARINGS TO STOP THIS STUPIDITY!!
By the way,I'm a Democrat with 16 years in
the military and whoever is in charge of Naval Attorneys
NEEDS TO GET A GRIP ON REALITY. Have they been reading
al-Quaeda law? Or was ACORN involved in this decision?

It is much more likely that Elin Nordegren smashed Tiger
Wood's in the mouth with his golf club when she found out
he had been doing 4 bimbos and Tiger was running away
in his car like a girly-man than these 3 oustanding Navy
heros did anything wrong by possibly using a little
force to capture a terrorist !!

Support our troops or the terrorists will be in your
backyard !! Call your Senators and your
Congressma/Woman NOW!!

Taken from http://logisticsmonster.com/2009/12/07/december-7th-attack-on-pearl-harbor-and-navy-seals-arraignment/

" THE U.S. NAVY SEAL/WARRIOR LEGAL DEFENSE FUND
is ready to accept donations.
Please send donations to U.S. Navy SEAL/Warrior Defense Fund,
Acct. #435020290711 c/o Bank of America P.O. Box F Ft. Eustis, VA 23604

DONATIONS CAN ALSO BE MADE AT ANY BANK OF AMERICA with the Fund name and account number.
Donations will be used to defray legal costs and expenses of the 3 Navy SEALs charged with abusing the mastermind of the March 2004 torture and mutilation of the security guards (former SEALs and Army Rangers) in Falluja. We will continue to maintain this fund and accept donations to be used for any SEAL or special operator charged with combat-related infractions of the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

Floor Speech From Congressman Ted Poe (R-TX) on 12.01.09:

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR NAVY SEALS

Washington, Dec 1 -

Mr. Speaker, the Navy SEALs are the United States Navy’s elite commandos. And last week we learned that they captured one of the most wanted terrorists in all of Iraq. Ahmed Hashim Abed was behind the murder and mutilation of four Blackwater USA security guards in Fallujah in the year 2004. This ringleader of this ambush planned the murder of these four Americans in Fallujah. And these four Blackwater security guards, what they were doing was transporting supplies from one place to another.

So he had planned, Abed had planned an ambush against these individuals. They are ambushed. They are murdered. The bodies of these four murdered Americans were then dragged through the streets, burned and hung from a bridge in Fallujah. Mr. Speaker, I’ve been to that very bridge in the year 2005, and you still have an eerie feeling knowing that four Americans were hung there in public view. The U.S. military, by the way, has put a plaque on that bridge in honor of those security guards.

And so congratulations are in order to the Navy SEALs who captured the mastermind behind this ambush and the murder of these four Americans. We should be celebrating this achievement, and these Navy SEALs should be getting medals for their work doing what we’ve asked them to do. But that’s not what is happening, Mr. Speaker. The military has decided to court-martial the Navy SEALs. It seems that this terrorist, Abed, claimed that he was punched in the mouth by the Navy SEALs, and he wants justice. He wants American justice.

You know, it’s the same mouth that preaches hate in the name of religion, the same mouth that demands death to America, the same big mouth that ordered the murder of the four Americans. So the SEALs must answer to this accusation by a terrorist that they captured. After all, the terrorist must have some of that American justice. Next thing we know, we’ll be giving these terrorists on the battlefield their Miranda warnings. Oh, we already do that.

Well, then after that, they’re going to want to be tried in civilian courts in the United States. But we’re already doing that as well. Have we gone a bit too far with the kid glove treatment that we treat these madmen, these terrorists, these people who kill Americans?

The nation is at war, Mr. Speaker. You know, punching occurs in war. Shooting also occurs in war. Instead of a court-martial, the SEALs should be dispatched to go and capture another terrorist. But that’s not happening. They are going to be court-martialed because some terrorist supposedly got a bruised mouth.

The SEALs in question are Matthew McCabe, he’s a special operations petty officer second class; Petty Officer Jonathan Keefe; and Petty Officer Julio Huertas. They are going to be court-martialed because some terrorist alleges they got punched in the mouth.

It’s ironic, Mr. Speaker, that the SEALs will be arraigned next Monday, December 7. December 7, everybody in the United States Navy remembers that day. See, it’s been 68 years since the Navy and America was attacked on December the 7th at Pearl Harbor. And now these individuals, ironically, will be arraigned that day.

Mr. Speaker, can you imagine someone in World War II, a soldier, a marine, somebody in the United States Navy, being tried for punching an enemy combatant in the mouth during World War II? You know, we should be commending the Navy SEALs for doing the job that we’ve asked them to do. They’re the best that we have in this country. We’ve asked them to do tough assignments, and we should be supporting them. The terrorists ought to be on trial for murdering Americans. And the Navy SEALs ought to be getting medals for doing what we have asked them to do. And I say congratulations to the Navy SEALs for a job well done.

And that’s just the way it is."

Health Care Negotiations in the Senate

Right now, Senate Democrats are locked in round-the-clock negotiations that could decide the fate of the public health insurance option.1 A deal could come within days.2

But while a handful of conservatives are making headlines with proposals to gut the public option, just one or two senators could upset the balance of power by refusing to give up on it. That's why all of us need to speak out right away—before a deal is cut.

Senator Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia has been a vocal supporter of the public option, and he could be the health care hero we need to win this fight. We don't usually ask you to call senators from other states, but in a moment like this, he needs to hear from progressives across the country who are counting on him to save the public option.

Can you call Sen. Rockefeller? Tell him you're a progressive who wants him to save the public option from being negotiated away, and ask that he support the health care bill only if a real public option is included.

Here's where to call:

Senator Jay Rockefeller
202-224-6472

Then, please report your call by clicking here

Conservative Democrats like Ben Nelson and Joe Lieberman have gotten a lot of attention by threatening to block health care reform over the public option.3 But progressive senators are also included in these negotiations, and Majority Leader Harry Reid needs the support of every Democrat for the bill—including Jay Rockefeller.4
That's why we've got to make sure Sen. Rockefeller knows that grassroots progressives across the country are counting on him to save the public health insurance option—and that we'll remember his leadership in the future.

To influence the outcome of these negotiations, Sen. Rockefeller needs to be crystal clear with Sen. Reid that he will support the health care bill only if it includes a real public health insurance option that's available immediately.

Can you call Sen. Rockefeller right now?

Here's where to call:

Senator Jay Rockefeller
202-224-6472

Then, please report your call by clicking here:

Thanks for all you do.

–Kat, Joan, Michael, Marika, and the rest of the team

Sources:

1. "With Health Reform At Stake, Senators Scramble To Reach Public Option Compromise," Talking Points Memo, December 3, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=85509&id=18154-15018975-83auAox&t=4

2. "Landrieu floats public option alternative," Politico, December 3, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=85541&id=18154-15018975-83auAox&t=5

3. "Lieberman: Sure, I'd Filibuster A Health Care Reform Bill With A Public Option," Talking Points Memo, October 27, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=85376&id=18154-15018975-83auAox&t=6

"Lieberman: More Dems could join public option filibuster," The Hill, November 19, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=85377&id=18154-15018975-83auAox&t=7

"Ben Nelson threatens filibuster," Politico, November 19, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=85378&id=18154-15018975-83auAox&t=8

4. "With Health Reform At Stake, Senators Scramble To Reach Public Option Compromise," Talking Points Memo, December 3, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=85509&id=18154-15018975-83auAox&t=9

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Tell Your Senators to Support Medicare-for-All

The Senate is picking up the health care reform debate where the House left off. Make sure your senators hear from you and not just insurance industry lobbyists.
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Take action right now!Email your senators and ask them to support single-payer, "Medicare-for-All" reform.

Tell 10 friends how to take action, too.

Today, 120 Americans will die because they lack health insurance. That's 45,000 Americans every year. America is a pay or die country. If you can't afford to pay ever-rising insurance premiums, you could die.

It doesn't have to be this way.

But the legislation working its way through Congress will do little to change it. The best-case scenario will leave millions of Americans uninsured, costs will continue to spiral out of control, and insurance corporations will continue to generate obscene profits by denying coverage to the sick and injured.

Single-payer, "Medicare-for-All" reform will break the stranglehold insurance companies have on you and your family. It will cover everyone. Everybody in, nobody out.

We have to act now!

Email your senators and ask them to support single-payer, "Medicare-for-All" reform.

Tell 10 friends how to take action, too.

We just can't wait any longer. The body count is rising.

Together, we can win this fight.

Onward to "Medicare-for-All"!

Angela, Glenn & Rick
Your advocates at Public Citizen
feedback@citizen.org

Stay informed and speak out when it counts.
Sign up for the Public Citizen Action Network or other online announcement

Great Depression History:“The name Richard Norris Williams II might not ring a bell to you,” Jim Nelson wrote

“The name Richard Norris Williams II might not ring a bell to you,” Jim Nelson wrote to his Lifetime Income Report readers yesterday. “But in the 1920s, everyone knew who he was. In 1912, 21-year-old Williams gained fame as a survivor of the sinking of the RMS Titanic. Later that year, he went on to earn his first U.S. mixed tennis championship. Now a member of the International Tennis Hall of Fame, there wasn’t much Williams didn’t win. He was a 1924 Olympic gold medalist, Wimbledon champion and a five-time U.S. tennis champion.

“On top of all his accomplishments, he was also a highly successful investment broker. He became a partner in an investment firm called C. Clothier Jones & Co. in 1929. His business partners in the small $5 million ($61.5 million today) firm were some of the brightest, most successful investors in the world.

“Of course, after the stock market hit the skids in 1929, the company took a hit. But thanks to the rally in first half of 1930, C. Clothier Jones & Co. was in better shape than ever. He was on top of the world in the spring of 1930. But just like the year before, market speculators pushed stocks higher than they were worth. By late summer, the rally turned into another massive sell-off.

“When October came around, Williams and his partners were doing everything they could to stay in business. Their investments turned to dust, and they were so incredibly overleveraged the only course for them was to fudge some numbers and blatantly lie to shareholders. Williams left the country in mid-October to get married in Europe. By the time he returned, he was a wanted man, for market manipulation. Four of his colleagues and large investors in the company had ended their own lives in that single week…

“We’re fortunate to have history lessons when trying to figure out the market. But there are certain aspects of today’s market that just weren’t there in 1930. Some, like emerging economies, give us a serious advantage over our forefathers. Even if the average investor of 1930 were aware of a possible second downturn, his options would be incredibly limited. Only a millionaire in 1930 could invest in other, safer economies.

“Today, it’s as effortless as buying an ADR through your online broker. We’ve ramped up our portfolio to reflect our favorites: Asia, Africa and Latin America.” For these emerging market income opportunities, read Jim’s Lifetime Income Report.

"Obama pay cuts a good start, but more is needed" says Public Citizen

October 22, 2009 by Robert Weissman

For the first time, the government appears to be set to take some meaningful action against business fat cats who a) run companies that exist only because of billions of dollars of taxpayer supports and b) still see fit to pay themselves obscene salaries.

The New York Times and other outlets report that Obama administration pay czar Kenneth Feinberg will require executives and top employees at the most bailed-out firms to cut back on salary by 50 percent. If these reports are true, Mr. Feinberg and the Obama administration deserve applause – with one big caveat.

Until now, there has been no systemic mechanism of accountability imposed on top-paid executives and employees at the bailed-out firms. They destroyed their own businesses, not to mention the national economy, but felt entitled nonetheless to hyper-compensation. And the government has done little to discipline them. Now, it appears Feinberg is prepared to do that – for a narrow category of bailout recipients.

Notably, Feinberg reportedly will cap salary and bonuses at AIG Financial Products, the division that brought down a giant multinational and led the government to shovel tens of billions of dollars into AIG, at $200,000. This is an extraordinarily high salary for most people in America, but by the standards of Wall Street it is modest to the point of humbling.

Feinberg has authority only to limit pay at seven bailed-out companies. However, Wall Street itself would likely be out of business but for the trillions of dollars of federal supports it has received, including an array of ongoing supports from the Federal Reserve.

Wall Street firms outside of the Feinberg Seven apparently have no compunction about returning to the outrageous pay practices that helped create the financial crisis. Wall Street is on track to pay an obscene $140 billion in bonuses and compensation, according to Wall Street Journal calculations.

Congress and the administration have demanded no reciprocity for saving the financial system from the financiers outside of the Feinberg Seven. Now is the time to start.

Congress should act immediately to impose a windfall bonus and profits tax on Wall Street. Some substantial portion of the funds that Wall Street aims to pocket as bonus payments and profit-taking should be returned to the public treasury.

Hyper-pay for executives and top traders is not just a symbolic issue. Crazy bonuses linked to this year’s performance helped incentivize dangerous, short-term betting – making it rational to bet on the housing bubble to continue to inflate, even in the face of certainty that it would eventually pop with devastating effects for financial firms (not to mention homeowners, communities and the national and global economy). Separate from addressing the scale of bonus compensation, it is imperative that Congress mandate that bonus payments be based on long-term performance over the course of a business cycle – ideally 10 years, but not less than seven.

Robert Weissman is president of Public Citizen.

Ten Years After Seattle, It's Time For a WTO Turnaround!

Ten years ago next month, 50,000 global activists shut down the World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial in Seattle. Public Citizen played a key role, going so far as to open up a temporary Seattle office to help organize the protests. History was made when a devastating plan to expand the WTO's reign of corporate globalization was derailed.

On November 30, 2009 - ten years to the day of the Seattle protests - trade ministers and their corporate allies will meet in Geneva to try once again to expand the WTO, in spite of the global economic disaster caused by their failed policies. We can't let that happen. Instead, we must join activists worldwide in demanding that the existing damaging WTO regime be fundamentally transformed!

That's why we're launching a new WTO Turnaround campaign today. We must remind President Obama that true change requires him to deliver on his campaign commitments to create a new American trade model and to fix the old agreements now causing so much harm. Visit the campaign website WTOturnaround.org and sign the petition to President Obama.

Public Citizen started working on "trade" when we realized that agreements like the WTO weren't about tariffs and quotas anymore, but instead were a backdoor attack on key public interest policies. From imported food and product safety to environmental protection and financial services regulation, the WTO places limits on what we can do to solve these problems.

Following the historic events in Seattle in 1999, our work to expose the current globalization model gained widespread prominence and acceptance. We can once again harness the spirit of Seattle to remind our friends and neighbors, as well as President Obama, that the existing WTO terms still are having a devastating impact on our jobs, economic security, food safety and the environment. Rather than expand the WTO's corporate agenda, we must change the existing rules.

To deliver on just about every important issue of our day, from solving the climate crisis to reregulating the financial industry, President Obama will need to repair existing WTO rules to make sure the WTO doesn't get in the way of fixing these urgent problems.

Tell President Obama we're ready to fight for a WTO turnaround plan and to work with him to create rules for a global economy that, as he put it, works for all of us not just large corporate interests. Then, ask your friends to join us.
Support Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch

Thanks for all that you do,
Lori Wallach
Director, Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch division

P.S. Over the next few weeks, you'll hear more about our WTOturnaround.org efforts. We'll be organizing house parties to view the film Battle in Seattle, grassroots rallies and more. But first, you can sign our petition to Obama and urge your friends to do so as well.