By Dave Lindorff

Next time you see a junkie sprawled at the curb in the downtown of
your nearest city, or read about someone who died of a heroin overdose,
just imagine a big yellow sign posted next to him or her saying: “Your
Federal Tax Dollars at Work.”

Kudos to the New York Times, and to reporters Dexter Filkins, Mark Mazzetti and James Risen, for their lead article
today reporting that Ahmed Wali Karzai, brother of Afghanistan’s
stunningly corrupt President Hamid Karzai, a leading drug lord in the
world’s major opium-producing nation, has for eight years been on the
CIA payroll.

By David Swanson

While 50 ACORN members were in the Illinois Republican Party headquarters, the phone rang, and an ACORN member answered it "ACORN, Can I help you?"

On the other end, they said, "What, ACORN? Wait a minute, this is the Republican Party in D.C. calling the Republican Party in Illinois."

The ACORN member said, "ACORN has taken over the Republican Party in Illinois. Can I help you?"

The response: "Oh my God."

The winter of 2003 was a cold one and my third year working as communications coordinator at ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. One afternoon in January three elderly women out of a group of 50 protesters were arrested in Illinois Republican Party headquarters in Chicago where they had settled in with blankets and declared that they were spending the night.

Why would they do such a thing? Why reform Now, and not reform When It's Convenient?

By David Swanson

Of course, I'm going to argue no, that Andrew Sullivan is no more the king of America than is Barack Obama or George Tenet or Eric Holder or any of hundreds of other people claiming to be. But nobody other than the king or queen of the USA could overrule the Constitution and place particular people and categories of people above the law while keeping everybody else under it. Let's take a look at Sullivan's recent Atlantic article:

Americans want, and need, to move on from the debate over torture in Iraq and Afghanistan and close this tragic chapter in our nation’s history. Prosecuting those responsible could tear apart a country at war. Instead, the best way to confront the crimes of the past is for the man who authorized them to take full responsibility. An open letter to President George W. Bush.

By Andrew Sullivan

Dear President Bush,

"Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union" has spent its first four days in publication ranked in the top 10 politics books on Amazon.com. You can keep it there and in the #1 spot by buying a copy for yourself, one for your congress member, two for your senators, and some for your local libraries: http://tr.im/xBt3

Two great websites plan to publish excerpts of the book. Voters for Peace will be posting an article adapted from a section of the book on the power of war. Watch for it: http://votersforpeace.us

And Alternet will have something else entirely: the power of Dick Cheney: http://www.alternet.org

In the meantime, here are two videos that are up and available for viewing right away:

David Swanson discusses the power of war and chapter 2 of "Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union" on September 3, 2009, in Charlottesville, VA.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bW0G53NiEc

David Swanson answers questions about the power of war and chapter 2 of "Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union" on September 3, 2009, in Charlottesville, Va.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SI_T3LmoCI

And here's some audio to watch for. Last night I was on Air America for a full hour with superstar radio host Nicole Sandler. She usually posts the audio on her blog:
http://radioornot.blogspot.com

Also yesterday I was on the radio with Danny Schechter and Gareth Porter discussing Afghanistan. Danny will post the audio here:
http://schechter.progressiveradionetwork.org

This morning I recorded an interview that will be played today on KPFA in Los Angeles: http://kpfa.org

And today from 1 to 2 p.m. PT I'll be on another California radio station: KZYX & Z: http://www.kzyx.org

Oh, and please buy a copy for your local radio station :-)
http://tr.im/xBt3

By David Swanson

Hurricane Katrina is not as sexy as torture, but has killed more people and ruined more lives, and -- like many non-natural disasters in recent years -- has a chief culprit who has now settled in at 10141 Daria Place, Dallas, Texas, where he clears very little brush and where -- to my knowledge -- not a single politician or journalist or author has sought his wisdom on the affairs of the past seven months. George W. Bush, who should face nonviolent protest every minute of his life while he remains at liberty, knowingly abandoned an American city and nearby towns to a predictable and predicted natural disaster four years ago this week, and for years refused to repair the damage.

Wednesday, September 9th, 2009, 7:00 – 9:00 PM.  Daybreak:  Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union.  David Swanson in person will be in Columbus to discuss his new book to be published soon by Seven  Stories Press.   David is a co-founder of AfterDowningStreet.org – see www.afterdowningstreet.org.  A real champion of democracy in our times!  More information on David Swanson, see www.davidswanson.org.  David Swanson is also the author of the introduction to “The 35 Articles of Impe

By Dave Lindorff

You see, here's the thing. When you hear about the sick, twisted
things that America's torturers have been doing, courtesy of President
George W. Bush and Vice President Darth Cheney, you have to remember
that the US military and the CIA were not really all that reliable when
it came to picking up the real terrorists. In fact, their batting
average was pretty lousy.

By Dave Lindorff

The Democrats in Congress have sold out their supporters in the
labor movement by giving up the so-called “card-check” feature of the
embattled Employee Free Choice Act, which makes the “reform”
legislation that has been billed as labor’s “number one issue” much
less of a reform. Instead of being hammered into line on this issue by
party leaders and by President Obama, who has long pledged to back
EFCA, conservative Democrats in the House and Senate were allowed to
join Republicans in opposing the measure, leading to its replacement
with a vague plan to require quicker secret-ballot elections in
union-organizing drives.

Crossposted from Hillbilly Report.

You know, one thing I get so sick of hearing from all the right-wing loons is how Progressives like myself and many of you are un-American. We have our patriotism questioned on a daily basis. Right-Wing idiots on the radio rail about how we do not believe in the Constitution and the values this country was founded on. Well, details that have emerged in the last couple of days show that the Bush Administration and their shameless enablers in the Republican Party and the former Republican Congress are the ones who really do not believe in the Constitution, or the freedoms granted by it.

By Dave Lindorff

If this were the democracy that the Founding Fathers thought they
were creating, word from CIA Director Leon Panetta that his agency had
lied to Congress and specifically that it had lied repeatedly from
9-11-2001 through the end of 2008 concerning an as-yet undisclosed
secret program, would have virtually every member of Congress in a
state of rebellion, demanding answers.

After all, the CIA is required by law to report to at least the
majority and minority leaders of the House and Senate Intelligence
Committees and to the majority and minority leaders of both houses of
Congress about such things.

But not only did the spy agency not report on what it was up to; it lied about what it was up to.