We all need some antidotes to the garbage put out by NewsMax and other right wing zealots with little concern for the truth.   The following do not pretend to report ALL the facts (or all the opinions),  just those you don't get from the managed, full-court press,  on our freedoms.   Item 4 references an issue that, no matter what your politics, will nauseate you.

Forwarded by a government lawyer who shall go unnamed for reasons he or she feels should be clear .

jer.  .


I'm alternately outraged and depressed by what's happening in the world.  We now have the most powerful, deceitful, arrogant, and belligerent administration in US history.  And almost everything they're doing is wrong.

Here's one example to illustrate the power of Emperor Bush. He can start a unilateral, preemptive, unprecedented war costing hundreds of billions of dollars.  His justification for it constantly changes, and is buttressed by a stream of lies.  Simultaneously he can demand and get from congress a huge tax cut for the rich, despite the fact that we're in a recession and there's a huge budget deficit.  And while doing all this outrageous stuff, he remains extremely popular.

I'm thinking about what I, an average Joe, can do to slow down this juggernaut.  One thing I did was put up this lighted sign outside of my house: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~sleator/pictures/no-war.jpg

But I think the real problem, and the reason for Bush's popularity, is that the American people basically don't have a clue about what's really happening.  The mainstream media are not communicating it.  Here are four examples to illustrate this point.
 

1. Remember the huge crowd of Iraqis cheering and pulling down a statue of Saddam?  It turns out that the crowd was very small and some (all?)  of the jubilant members of the crowd were actors.

  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article2842.htm

2. Remember the rampant looting of Baghdad?  Perhaps you knew that the US didn't lift a finger to stop it.  But did you know that it was encouraged by US troops as a photo op?

http://truthout.org/docs_03/041603D.shtml

3. Did you know that Richard Perle (a key author of the US's current Iraq policy) worked to undermine the Camp David accords in the summer of 2000?

 http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,342857,00.html

4. There's an outrageous, little-known part of NAFTA called chapter 11, which foreign corporate investors are using to challenge laws designed to protect public health, environmental regulations, and jury verdicts.  The cases are heard before a secret international trade tribunal.

http://www.citizen.org/publications/release.cfm?ID=7076

These are just a tiny sample to illustrate the problems of missing and/or misleading stories in the media.  This situation goes a long way toward explaining why the war is so much more popular in the US than it is everywhere else.  So I'm suggesting (to all the addresses in my inbox over the last few years) some good alternative sources of information that I've found.
 

A good place to start is http://www.truthout.org

They collect stories from reputable sources all over the world.  You can sign up for a daily mailing of stories of their suggested stories.  I've included one below.  Sign up for their mailings at: http://216.25.72.229/membership/sub_mgmt.php

http://www.fair.org is a media watchdog group.  They maintain a web site, and they let you sign up for sporadic mailings about media deceptions and bias.  They often have action alerts about specific outrages in the media.

Another very good organization is http://www.moveon.org  They email reminders when congress is considering important issues.  They make it easy to contact your congress person to voice your opinion.  They also run ads in mainstream publications and on TV.

I also highly recommend the book "What Liberal Media?" by Eric Alterman.  He explains in great detail all the ways in which the media system is broken, and how it got this way.

Here are some other great sites to take a look at:

http://www.consortiumnews.com
http://www.copvcia.com
http://www.democraticunderground.com
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info
http://www.tompaine.com
http://www.zmag.org/weluser.htm

I hope you find this mailing useful, and I apologize if you got this more than once.  Feel free to distribute this further.  One warning: If you keep up with these sites, your world view will start to diverge from the "standard" (i.e. false) world view.  You risk being viewed as a conspiracy theorist or a nut.

Danny Sleator
Professor of Computer Science
Carnegie Mellon University
Email: sleator@cmu.edu
 

  t r u t h o u t | 04.16

  Eagleburger: Bush Should be Impeached if He Attacks Syria GO
  Echoes of Empires Past GO
  Bomb Before You Buy GO
  US Troops Encouraged Ransacking GO
  Reflections on the Battle of Baghdad GO
  Bush-Hitler Remark Sinks Movie Exec GO
  'Fearless' Dean Wins Converts GO
  What About Private Lori? GO
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  t r u t h o u t | 04.15

 William Rivers Pitt | How America Lost the War GO
 Rout Proves Anti-War Point GO
 Aftermath: The Bush Doctrine GO
 Baghdad Seeths With Anger Toward U.S. GO
 Syria Could Be Next, Warns Washington GO
 America Targeted 14,000 Sites. So Where Are The WMDs? GO
 Scandal-Hit US Firm Wins Key Contracts GO
 Civilisation Torn To Pieces GO
 Mesopotamia. Babylon. The Tigris and Euphrates GO
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  t r u t h o u t | 04.14

War and Peace: Anarchy in the Streets GO
U.S. Marines Exchange Heavy Fire in Central Baghdad GO
Pillagers Strip Iraqi Museum of Its Treasure GO
Crime Against Humanity GO
Garner Waiting For "Last Shot" To Rule Baghdad GO
Vanishing Liberties -- Where's the Press? GO
Anthrax Source Probably Domestic GO
India Mulls 'Pre-Emptive' Pakistan Strike, Cites Iraq War Precedent GO
Outspoken Yellowstone Ranger Loses Job GO
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  t r u t h o u t | 04.13

Congressman Questions Iraq Work Given To Halliburton Subsidiary Without CompetitionGO
US Arms Group Heads for Lisbon GO
US Show of Force Galls Arab World GO
U.S. Govt Accused of War Crimes against Journalists GO
Ordinary People Fear Their Nation Could Be Next Target of 'Regime Change' GO
Northern Iraq Falls, Mobs Run Riot in Baghdad GO
The Future of Iraq's Oil GO
War Within A War A Real Possibility GO
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  t r u t h o u t | 04.12

Hans Blix: War Planned 'Long in Advance' GO
The Press and the War GO
Spoils of War GO
Suicide Bomber In Baghdad Injures Four Marines GO
Security Council Balks at Postwar Plans GO
Murdoch Adds to Empire With Control of DirecTV GO
Bush Offers Crooks And Warmongers To Lead Iraq GO
House Revives ANWAR Again GO
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 t r u t h o u t | 04.11

Despite Cheering Crowds, Army Unit Sees Urban Combat in Baghdad GO
In Search of Horror Weapons GO
Syria Now Top US Target for 'Regime Change' GO
Descent Into a Charnel-House Hospital Hell GO
Republicans Want Patriot Act Made Permanent GO
The Pentagon's 'Trainee,' Ahmad Chalabi GO
UNICEF Warns Of Worsening Situation For Children In Iraq GO
House Democrats Want Halliburton Probe GO
CPJ Condemns Journalists' Deaths In Iraq GO
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 t r u t h o u t | 04.10

William Rivers Pitt | The Longest Winter GO
Dark Day for Journalists in Iraq GO
Wailing Children, the Wounded, the Dead GO
The Taliban are Back in Southeast Afghanistan GO
War Out of Compassion GO
Iraqis In Basra Weigh Freedom's Cost GO
Oakland Cops Defend Use of Force Against Protesters GO
Coleman Apologizes For Remark About Wellstone GO
Saddam Hussein, "Chemical Ali" Apparently Survive Attacks GO
Economy on the Edge GO
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  t r u t h o u t | 04.09

Oakland Police Open Fire At Anti-War Protest GO
Iraqis Launch Urban Fightback in Baghdad GO
Simpson: 'This Is Like A Scene From Hell.' GO
Baghdad Hospitals Overwhelmed, No Longer Counting Casualties GO
"Smoking Gun" WMD Site in Iraq Turns Out to Contain Pesticide GO
'I Love My Country, But.' GO
Cronies Set To Make A Killing GO
William Rivers Pitt's New Book Now Available GO
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t r u t h o u t | 04.08

Surgeon Describes "Horrific Injuries," Sanitized War GO
Up to 3,000 Iraqi Fighters Dead in Show of Force GO
Red Cross: Iraq Wounded Too High to Count GO
U.S. Finds No Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq GO
Little Hope for Post-War Boom in US Economy GO
Carlyle Group Heads for Lisbon GO
Army Chaplain Offers Baptisms, Baths GO
Irish Anti-War Marchers to Confront Bush GO
Disarmament In Tatters GO
7-Year-Old Kurd: 'I Like War' GO
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  t r u t h o u t | 04.07

Thirsty Iraqis Must Be Baptized to Get Water GO
Near Baghdad, U.S. Troops Encounter 'Remarkable' Foe GO
Britain Admits There May Be No WMD's in Iraq GO
Forecasters Underrating Weakness of US Economy GO
US Marines Kill Seven Iraqis After Truck Fails to Stop (Again) GO
Baghdad Hospitals Stretched to their Limits GO
American Portrayal of War of Liberation Faltering Across Arab World GO
Blair and Friends Staring Into War's Political Abyss GO
Turf War Rages in Washington Over Who Will Rule Iraq GO
To Activists, Real Battles Are on Home Front GO
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 t r u t h o u t | 04.06

 Red Cross Horrified by Number of Dead Civilians GO
Samar's Story GO
At Umm Qasr, the "Secured" Port, "It's Chaos" GO
How the Dissidents Fooled the Washington Hawks GO
US Military Admits 'Suspicious' Powder is Explosive GO
Kerry Lashes Out at Republican Criticisms GO
Saddam Was Not Always Washington's 'Demon' GO
The War's Dirty Secret: It's About Changing United States, Not Iraq GO
Jobs Show Worse-Than-Expected Drop GO
Senate Won't Debate Alaska Oil Drilling GO
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