March 7, 2014

Don't Forget: Rachel Maddow's "Why We Did It: Bush's Oil War" On Tonight MSNBC 9 PM ET

FYI

March 6, 2014

Rachel Maddow: CIA Spying on Congress 'is Death of the Republic Stuff'

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/03/05/rachel-maddow-cia-spying-on-congress-is-death-of-the-republic-stuff

Rachel Maddow: CIA spying on Congress ‘is death of the Republic stuff’

By Arturo Garcia
Wednesday, March 5, 2014 23:49 EST

A dispute between the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Senate Intelligence Committee may have spilled into dangerous territory, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow said on Wednesday, following a New York Times report that agency operatives gained access to the computers being used by lawmakers to investigate the agency.

“This is kind of death of the Republic kind of stuff,” Maddow said. “The whole separation of powers thing almost pales in comparison to the seriousness of the allegation that a nation’s own spy services have been turned against its’ own government. Particularly, where that government is supposed to be overseeing the spy services.”

The Times reported that the allegations exacerbated an ongoing rift between the agency and the committee over the CIA’s now-defunct interrogation program, which included waterboarding and other techniques in secret prisons located outside the U.S. Agency officials reportedly grew concerned that committee members had gained unauthorized access to CIA documents in the course of compiling the report, which is reportedly more than 6,000 pages long and highly critical of the agency. The program was shut down by President Barack Obama not long after he took office.

McClatchy Newspapers also reported that the agency’s inspector general has asked the Justice Department to open its own criminal investigation into the matter.

Sen. Mark Udall (D-UT) hinted at the allegation in a letter to President Barack Obama, Maddow said, alluding to “unprecedented action” taken by the CIA against the committee.

MORE & VIDEO AT LINK

March 4, 2014

Russia Test-Fires ICBM Amid Tension Over Ukraine

Source: Reuters

Russia test-fires ICBM amid tension over Ukraine

Reuters – 8 minutes ago

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia said it had successfully test-fired an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) on Tuesday, with tensions high over its seizure of control in the Crimea and its threat to send more forces to its neighbour Ukraine.

The Strategic Rocket Forces launched an RS-12M Topol missile from the southerly Astrakhan region near the Caspian Sea and the dummy warhead hit its target at a proving ground in Kazakhstan, the state-run news agency RIA cited Defence Ministry spokesman Igor Yegorov as saying.

(Writing by Steve Gutterman; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

Read more: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/russia-test-fires-icbm-amid-tension-over-ukraine-190802764--finance.html#vi0x6Oz

March 4, 2014

Slowpoke's Jen Sorensen is 2014 Herblock Prize Winner (First Woman Cartoonist to Win)

Source: Press Release

JEN SORENSEN, 2014 HERBLOCK PRIZE WINNER!
March 4, 2014
For Immediate Release

WASHINGTON, DC, March 4, 2014 – Jen Sorensen was named the winner of the 2014 Herblock Prize for editorial cartooning.Sorensen is the first female to win the Prize since it began in 2004.

Jen Sorensen’s cartoons appear in approximately twenty alternative newspapers, including her local weekly, The Austin Chronicle. They are also published regularly in The Nation, Ms. Magazine, The Progressive, Politico, and on a variety of websites, including Daily Kos and NPR.org. Sorensen serves on the Board of Directors of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists, as well as on the Advisory Board of the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum at Ohio State University.

The prize is awarded annually by The Herb Block Foundation for “distinguished examples of editorial cartooning that exemplify the courageous independent standard set by Herblock.” The winner receives a $15,000 after-tax cash prize and a sterling silver Tiffany trophy. Sorensen will receive the prize April 29th in a ceremony held at the Library of Congress.

Bob Woodward, associate editor of The Washington Post and prolific author, will deliver the annual Herblock Lecture at the awards ceremony. Previous speakers include: Ben Bradlee, then-Senator Barack Obama, Sandra Day O’Connor, Tom Brokaw, Tim Russert, Ted Koppel, George Stevens Jr., Jim Lehrer, Garry Trudeau and Gwen Ifill.

Read more: http://www.herbblockfoundation.org/press-release/1074

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March 4, 2014

U.S. Activist, CODEPINK Co-Founder Medea Benjamin Says Egypt Police Have Broken Her Arm in Jail

Source: CBS News

World
U.S. activist, CODEPINK co-founder Medea Benjamin says Egypt police have broken her arm in jail

TUCKER REALS /CBS NEWS
Mar 4, 2014 4:47 AM EST

LONDON -- American rights and peace activist Medea Benjamin said Tuesday that Egyptian police were holding her at an airport jail without explanation and that they had broken her arm.

"Help. They broke my arm. Egypt police," Benjamin, who co-founded the CODEPINK anti-war group, said on Twitter.

She said she was detained upon arrival in Cairo, where she was meant to join a delegation and then travel to for the Palestinian territory of Gaza for a women's conference.

Benjamin tweeted earlier that the jail cell was cold, the food given to her consisted of "dirty stale bread and dirty water," and that the guards refused to allow another woman in the cell to see a doctor despite the fact that she ill and "moaning all night."


Egypt's government has cracked down harshly in recent years on opposition members, arresting dozens of supporters of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi. Several international journalists have also been arrested and held on terror accusations for merely speaking to members of Morsi's now-banned Muslim Brotherhood.

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-activist-codepink-co-founder-medea-benjamin-says-egypt-police-have-broken-her-arm-in-jail/

March 4, 2014

GWB Scandal: Ex-Christie Campaign Manager Invokes Fifth Amendment in Challenging Subpoena

Source: The Record (NJ)

@maddow: "Gov Christie's former campaign manager appears to be a target of a federal criminal investigation, his lawyer says" http://t.co/JEHQvRt1UN

GWB scandal: Ex-Christie campaign manager invokes Fifth Amendment in challenging subpoena

Monday, March 3, 2014 Last updated: Monday March 3, 2014, 9:14 PM

BY SHAWN BOBURG
STAFF WRITER
The Record

Governor Christie’s former campaign manager Bill Stepien appears to be a target of a federal criminal investigation, his lawyer said in a court filing on Monday, describing recent unannounced visits and phone calls by federal agents who went so far as to ask Stepien’s landlord if he was a rowdy tenant and paid rent on time.

The revelations were another signal that federal prosecutors are looking closely into politically-motivated lane closures at the George Washington Bridge and whether they were ordered by officials who were once in the governor’s inner circle. Stepien’s attorney wrote that his client is innocent of any wrongdoing.

The court filing came in a civil case that will determine if Stepien must provide documents subpoenaed by a legislative committee conducting its own investigation into the lane closures. The case has forced Stepien’s lawyer into an awkward position: arguing that Stepien should not have to provide the documents to lawmakers because he is the subject of the federal probe.

Stepien has invoked his Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination in response to the legislative subpoena, and the dispute has gone before a state Superior Court judge in Mercer County who will hear arguments next Tuesday. The court case is the most significant test yet of the investigative power of state lawmakers who have subpoena power and are demanding documents against the backdrop of a high-stakes federal investigation.

The attorney for another central figure in the scandal, Christie’s former deputy chief of staff, Bridget Anne Kelly, said Monday that his client and her parents had also been approached by federal agents. Kelly and her family members declined to talk to them, said attorney Michael Critchley. Kelly, who wrote in an e-mail to a Port Authority executive, “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee,” weeks before local access lanes to the bridge were shut, is also fighting a legislative subpoena for documents.

Read more: http://www.northjersey.com/news/Lawyer_for_former_Christie_campaign_manager_files_brief_in_effort_to_fight_subpoena.html