JOIN THE “PEACE SURGE”–From the Nation.com

The National Weather Service is predicting fifty degrees and sunny this Saturday, January 27, in Washington, DC. With no expected chance of precipitation, it’ll be a beautiful day to come out for what is expected to be one of the largest mobilizations against the Iraq war since the US invasion in 2003.

The idea is to show Congress that America wants a peace surge, not a troop surge, and to push legislators to listen to the voters, not President Bush, and bring the war to a close.

But as you march, bear in mind that the the White House is not the only target in this fight, and not the only subject of concern. We need to stand in solidarity with the suffering people of Iraq, with the dead and wounded civilians and soldiers on all sides and from so many countries, and protest all the equivocating politicians, complicit companies and still collusive media companies that deny access to the voices of the anti-war movement and continue to frame this debate so narrowly with little reference to new wars (and other old ones) underway. (The US is now targeting Iranians in Iraq with Iran the next likely target.)

And, please anti-war movement, do not let our media off the hook. If you don’t remember its criminal complicity, see my book When News Lies and film WMD. (http://www.wmdthefilm.com)

Bush is not the only problem worthy of protest. Tell the media to tell the truth.

SENATE COMMITTEE FAULTS CREDIT CARD ABUSES
CHENEY TALKS TOO MUCH
THE PERSECUTION OF JUDITH REGAN

How fascinating to read about the American Debt squeeze in the Guardian of London. Lou Dobbs tried to talk about the war on the middle class last night on the Colbert Report but all the good natured fun kind of obscured the message except for Colbert’s view that the “middle” is a bad thing and disappearing.

Here’s a report on a key hearing. Unmentioned is testimony by Dr. Robert Manning, author of Credit Card Nation who also appears in my film IN DEBT WE TRUST.

Here’s what the Guardian reported:

WASHINGTON (AP) - Democratic lawmakers challenged credit card executives Thursday over rising late fees and other penalties and marketing practices they portrayed as predatory.

The credit card industry and its practices came under scrutiny at a session of the Senate Banking Committee. Several Democratic members of the panel are proposing legislation to require companies to provide more details to consumers on how long it will take them to pay off their debts if they make minimum monthly payments, and to rein in solicitations of college students.

Credit cards have become a ubiquitous and indispensable part of the culture, with an estimated 640 million cards in Americans’ wallets and more than $1.8 trillion charged on them in 2005. Many depend on them to pay their bills and buy groceries or gasoline. But consumer groups and other critics say fees are excessive and information provided to consumers is confusing.

The banking industry maintains that credit cards are an essential element of the economy, providing convenience to consumers - at flexible interest rates according to the risk of the holder. Industry officials have acknowledged that the disclosure material provided to consumers could be improved.

“I would like to put the credit card industry … on notice,'’ said Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., the committee’s chairman. “If you currently engage in any business practice that you would be ashamed to discuss before this committee, I would strongly encourage you to cease and desist that practice.'’

Banks and other credit card issuers “should take a long, hard look at how you treat your customers,'’ he said.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,,-6371309,00.html

FOR MORE READ OUR NEW DEBT BLOG AT:
http://www.newsdissector.com/idwt/

CHENEY UNFILTERED

The Washington Post reports:

Vice President Cheney said yesterday that the administration has achieved “enormous successes” in Iraq but complained that critics and the media “are so eager to write off this effort or declare it a failure” that they are undermining U.S. troops in a war zone, striking a far more combative tone…

NY TIMES

Cathie Martin, the vice president’s former spokeswoman, said that I. Lewis Libby Jr. had learned about a C.I.A. operative days before he said he had.”

CURFEW IN BEIRUT

BBC: Lebanon’s army imposes a curfew after students from rival factions clash in Beirut, leaving four people dead….AL Jazeera: 7 Billion pledged for Lebanon’s reconstruction….

PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST DISCUSSED IN DAVOS

AlJazeera reports:

Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, and Tzipi Livni, the Israeli foreign minister, have shared hopes for a revived Middle East peace process at a meeting of business and political leaders in Davos.

“The time has come for us .. to make peace a reality,” Abbas told an audience at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland.

Sharing a stage with Livni and Shimon Peres, the Israeli deputy prime minister, Abbas said: “We are ready, as of now, to start serious negotiations with our Israeli neighbours.”

“The Palestinian state is not an illusion, its feasible, it’s there, it’s achievable,” Livni said.

The Israeli foreign minister said “the establishment of a Palestinian state and homeland for the Palestinians is the answer, the national answer to the Palestinians wherever they are”.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/D443FB38-3E80-4259-89CA-8FA329B1AA0A.htm

WAR WITH IRAN SEEMS ON THE HORIZON

Daan de Wit The Coming War Against Iran

Given the presence of four American submarines off the coast of Iran, Eduard Baltin, former commander of the Russian fleet, reasons that the U.S. is planning to attack Iran.

http://www.ichblog.eu/content/view/108/2/

Daniel M Pourkesali: Poking his stick in a hornet’s nest

In a speech reminiscent of the one delivered in January 2003 when he portrayed Iraq as the most imminent threat to the security of the United States, Mr. Bush named Iran no less than 5 times as the new “determined enemy”

http://www.ichblog.eu/content/view/105/2/

THE SIX YEAR PLAN FOR WAR WITH IRAN
http://www.rawstory.com/news/2007/Iran_The_Road_to_Confrontation_0123.html

IAEA chief says attack on Iran would be catastrophe - Yahoo! News

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070125/wl_nm/davos_iran_dc

CALLING FLASH GORDON: NEW U.S.“PEOPLE ZAPPING” WEAPONS
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2565312,00.html

CIVIL RIGHTS WATCH: KLANSMAN SAYS ITS NOT HIM

Down in Madison Country Mississippi, where I spent a frightening month back in 1964 as part of the civil rights movement, an old case is now a new one with a former sheriff denying he murdered two black men. CNN reports

A reputed Ku Klux Klansman and former sheriff’s deputy pleaded not guilty today to charges in the deaths of two black hitchhikers, four decades after their decomposed remains were found in the Mississippi River. James Seale — previously believed to be dead — is charged with kidnap and conspiracy to kidnap Charles Moore and Henry Dee.

Meanwhile, movement veterans mourn the passing of Mendy Samstein who was beaten and bombed in the summer of l964 in the voting rights campaign. He was a full time SNCC organizer and one of the white activists fully accepted in the largely black freedom movement. I met Mendy on many occasions and he was inspirational figure in the fight against what he called a “reign of terror” in the deep South. He was part of the reason that Abbie Hoffman went South and one of the leaders that gave the civil rights movement there its enduring moral force.

IRAQ: Latest Death Count: 28

Zia Mian writes about the several US armies in Iraq:

The Iraq War is coming up on its fourth anniversary. Increasingly embattled, even desperate, President Bush has decided to send another 21,500 American troops into the fight. They will join over 150,000 US soldiers already deployed in Iraq.

American forces in Iraq are still far short of the military deployment the United States had in Vietnam. U.S. troop numbers in Vietnam increased from less than 20,000 in early 1964 to more than half a million by 1969. But the difference between the force levels – and the two situations — is a lot less than most people think. There is, after all, not just one U.S. army in Iraq.

Rebuffing months of U.S. pressure, Afghan President Hamid Karzai decided against a Colombia-style program to spray this country’s heroin-producing poppies after the Cabinet worried herbicide would hurt legitimate crops, animals and humans, officials said Thursday.

The decision, reportedly made Sunday, dashes U.S. hopes for mounting a campaign using ground sprayers to poison poppy plants to help combat Afghanistan’s opium trade after a record crop in 2006.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Afghan-Drugs.html?_r=1&oref=s

MORE MONEY SOUGHT FOR WAR AND “REBUILDING

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) — President Bush will ask Congress for $10.6 billion to help Afghanistan strengthen its security forces and rebuild from years of war, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday.

The money would be on top of $14.2 billion in aid the United States has already given to Afghanistan since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001 that toppled the repressive Taliban. The request, which Bush will make formally next month, comes after a year in which Taliban forces launched surprisingly fierce attacks across the country. U.S. and NATO forces in the country are bracing for a renewed offensive by Taliban fighters in the spring