"Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are ruined.... O sir, we should have fine times, indeed, if to punish tyrants, it were only sufficient to assemble the people!" -- Patrick Henry - (1736-1799) US Founding Father
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Number of U.S. Military Personnel Sacrificed (Officially acknowledged) In America's War On Iraq: 4,745
icasualties.org/oif/
Number Of International Occupation Force Troops Slaughtered In Afghanistan : 2,274
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Detention Without Trial In Obama's Gulag
US Preparing to Hold Some Guantanamo Inmates 'Indefinitely'
By VOA
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John Pilger - The War You Don't See
Video Documentary
John Pilger says in the film: "We journalists... have to be brave enough to defy those who seek our collusion in selling their latest bloody adventure in someone else's country... In this age of endless imperial war, the lives of countless men, women and children depend on the truth or their blood is on us... Those whose job it is to keep the record straight ought to be the voice of people, not power."
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article27116.htm
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President Obama's Christmas Gift to AT&T (and Comcast and Verizon)
By Amy Goodman
Obama is clearly in the back seat, being driven by Internet giants like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast. With him is his appointed chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Julius Genachowski, his Harvard Law School classmate and basketball pal who just pushed through a rule on network neutrality that Internet activists consider disastrous.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article27114.htm
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Speaking Ill of 'the Best and the Brightest'
By Robert Scheer
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The Next Financial Meltdown
State Budgets: The Day of Reckoning
Must Watch Video
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Several Afghan troops killed in ambush:
Militants ambushed a military bus outside a main army recruitment center on the outskirts of Kabul, killing five and wounding nine.
http://bit.ly/hSXUd6
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British soldier killed by blast in Afghanistan:
The Ministry of Defense says a British soldier has died after his vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan.
http://bit.ly/gN9XfW
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Pentagon slammed for 'hyper-secret' $2bn Afghan fuel deals:
US Congress investigators have sharply criticised the Pentagon for allowing an "ultra-secretive" business group to control more than $2 billion in crucial Afghan fuel contracts, while turning a blind eye to the alleged elaborate fraud by which it sourced more than half a billion gallons of jet fuel from Russian refineries.
http://bit.ly/ev97Kb
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Iraqi soldier killed, four people wounded in Baghdad violence:
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Iraqis wary of new 'unity' leadership:
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Beleaguered Iraqi Christians Cancel Christmas Celebrations Across Iraq:
Iraqi Christian leaders have decided to cancel most evening worship services and forgo other festivities for Christmas.
http://bit.ly/eF1BG8
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'I didn't think of Iraqis as humans,' says U.S. soldier who raped 14-year-old girl before killing her and her family:
'I was crazy,' Green said in the exclusive telephone interview from federal prison in Tucson, Arizona. 'I was just all the way out there. I didn't think I was going to live.'
http://bit.ly/hVEiVW
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Cables Reveal Delicate Diplomacy After U.S. Soldier Killed Italian in Iraq:
The Italian report cited "inexperience and stress" among American troops as the cause of the shooting.
http://aol.it/f5pKh6
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Rape rampant in US military:
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Leaked US Cable Stirs Animosities Between Palestinian Factions:
The head of Israeli Shin Bet security service, Yuval Diskin, is quoted as saying that Fatah forces asked Israel to attack Hamas in Gaza and that the Palestinian Authority shared its intelligence with Israel.
http://nyti.ms/hV4tjc
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Bolivia formally recognizes Palestine as independent state:
Reports earlier this week indicated such a move was imminent; earlier this month, Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela have already recognized Palestine within 1967 borders and Venezuela plans to do so next year.
http://bit.ly/hPC7Fa
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Palestinian FM says Spain to recognize Palestinian state:
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Israel fears UK moving towards recognising Palestinian state:
The UK is preparing to confer diplomatic status on the Palestinian delegation in London for the first time, renewing fears in Israel that Europe is moving closer to recognising an independent Palestinian state.
http://bit.ly/gD1tSL
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U.S. congressman urges France to rethink missile sale to Lebanon:
Representative Steve Rothman tells Sarkozy that 'the stakes are too high' for such a deal, considering the 'grave danger' that the anti-tank missiles will be used against Israel.
http://bit.ly/fZQ7Gn
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U.S. criticized New Zealand for reaction to 2004 Israel spy affair, WikiLeaks cables reveal:
Ties between Israel and New Zealand grew strained after two Israelis, thought to be Mossad agents, were caught trying to illegally forge local passports.
http://bit.ly/guQyWV
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Cote d'Ivoire standoff deepens:
World Bank stops loans to West African nation as disputed president insists on asserting his leadership.
http://bit.ly/h14Tmr
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WikiLeaks Joins Forces With Lebedev's Moscow-Based Newspaper Novaya Gazeta:
Novaya Gazeta, the Moscow newspaper controlled by former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and billionaire Alexander Lebedev, said it agreed to join forces with WikiLeaks to expose corruption in Russia.
http://bit.ly/e45s0D
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Argentina to sentence ex-leader:
Charges concern Videla's role in the murder of at least 31 political prisoners during the 1970s' Dirty War.
http://bit.ly/e3Oclj
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Mass kidnapping of migrants alleged in Mexico:
El Salvador's foreign ministry said that around 50 immigrants of various nationalities, mostly women, had been kidnapped during the attack in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, also citing interviews with witnesses.
http://bit.ly/gN0b88
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Judge orders feds to pay $2.5M in wiretapping case:
U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker said the attorneys for the Ashland, Ore., chapter of the now-defunct Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation should receive $2.5 million for waging its nearly five-year legal challenge to the Bush administration's so-called Terrorist Surveillance Program.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_warrantless_wiretapping
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Government liabilities rose $2 trillion in FY 2010: Treasury:
The Financial Report of the United States, which applies corporate-style accrual accounting methods to Washington, showed the government's liabilities exceeded assets by $13.473 trillion. That compared with a $11.456 trillion gap a year earlier.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6BK6WC20101221
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Banks accused of illegally looting homes:
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11 Ways Bank of America Practices Hurt Americans:
Today's front page New York Times story about Bank of America illegally breaking into people's homes and taking their possessions is a painful reminder that many American families are spending the holiday season desperately trying to save their homes.
http://huff.to/fVz3XU
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51 million, mostly lower-income, will do worse under new tax law:
The federal tax bill passed by Congress yesterday includes some extras for the middle class and lots of goodies for the wealthy. But individuals making less than $20,000 and households making less than $40,000 a year will actually get less tax relief in 2011 than they got in 2010 and 2009.
http://bit.ly/fuMOo5
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"Let us be peace and joy"
Tom Feeley
