by Danny Schechter 

 

As the words fly, and the war winds on, the debate has taken an even more absurd direction with the President blasting the Congress for opposing the plan he claims was forged by General Petracus who the Congress supported ad the New Commander. Joe Biden shot back on CNN that Generals don’t make plans and that this one was created by the White House. And so it goes, back and forth, message points in collision, the same partisan rancor that the public is tiring of. Selling or opposing the the war as an affirmative proposition is harder than ever, so all sides revert to negativity to trash hypocrisy and avoid tough policy choices.

NY TIMES: The Senate will convene in an unusual Saturday session to vote on the same resolution under debate in the House

Robert Dreyfuss argues on TomPaine.com that there has been a “ Breakdown At The Iraq Lie Factory”

Bush is discovering that boldly lying about Iran isn't enough. He needs his chorus of liars behind him ... and they're gone.

ga3.org

But note, as the debate continues, the Democrats opposed to the escalation of the war are not necessarily opposing the war itself as David Swanson points out:

Murtha Only Intends to Undo the Escalation

In a video interview with Tom Andrews posted at
www.afterdowningstreet.org

Congressman Jack Murtha makes clear that the limitations on additional war money that he intends to include in the forthcoming "emergency" supplemental bill are aimed only at undoing the recent escalation (a.k.a. "surge"), not at ending the war.


AND HOW IS THE MEDIA PLAYING THIS?

Fool me twice? -- NY Times, CBS, NBC report Bush allegations about Iran without context, skepticism...

In reporting on the Bush administration's allegations about Iran's role in Iraq, media outlets have covered the matter in a muddled, incomplete manner, omitting any skeptical or critical analysis of these allegations, which suggests, in the words of washingtonpost.com's Dan Froomkin, that "the lessons we should have learned from Iraq may not have been learned at all."

Special Investigation: Dick Cheney's Dangerous Son-in-Law


ON GUANTANAMO
“Interrogations Behind Barbed Wire.”
www.inthesetimes.com

NUCLEAR POLITICS: NORTH KOREA VS THE US - PETER HAYES

The Beijing deal is a breakthrough, say its supporters; 1994 all over again, say the critics. Both are wrong
venus.opendemocracy.net

DISMEMBERMENT OF DONALD RUMSFELD
direland.typepad.com

DEBT WATCH: EXPOSING VULTURE FUNDS IN THIRD WORLD

Matt Pascarella writes:

I wanted to share with you the latest Palast report I researched and co-produced for BBC.It led the news last night on BBC Newsnight and has been syndicated internationally on BBC24 and is currently a headline story on World Service.

www.democracynow.org

AND HERE AT HOME:

Foreclosure filings soar in Brooklyn, Queens

A rapid rise in foreclosure rates could cost thousands of mostly low- and middle-income New Yorkers their homes.

The number of homes in foreclosure rose 18% in the last six months of 2006 compared with the same period of 2005, according to data from RealtyTrac.

More worrisome is the fact that filings tabulated by Profiles Publications show that 100 homes in both Brooklyn and Queens are entering the foreclosure process each week -- double the numbers of a year ago.

newyorkbusiness.com

THIS IS PART OF THE LARGER HOUSING CRUNCH

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The number of U.S. homes entering the foreclosure process because of nonpayment on mortgages rose to 130,511 in January, 25% more than in January 2006, according to data released Monday by Realtytrac Inc. The foreclosure rate was one for every 886 U.S. households. The 130,511 foreclosures is the highest monthly total since the firm began tracking national foreclosures two years ago. Foreclosures were up 19% compared with December.

biz.yahoo.com

The Wall Street Journal reported on the way this crisis is rippling through Wall Street:

Mortgage Hot Potatoes

Merrill demanded in December that ResMae Mortgage Corp. -- which in 2006 sold it $3.5 billion in subprime mortgage loans, or loans to borrowers with poor credit records -- buy back $308 million of loans whose borrowers had defaulted. In a filing this week for bankruptcy law protection, ResMae said those demands "crippled" its operations. The Brea, Calif., company said that repurchase requests were "severe and unexpected."

As more subprime lenders face losses or bankruptcy, big banks also face another problem: Many lent money to small firms like ResMae so that those firms could make more mortgage loans to borrowers. It isn't clear how much of these loans will be paid back to the banks. Wall Street firms also are increasing their own internal generation of subprime loans by acquiring smaller mortgage loan originators or processing companies.

In 2005 and 2006, banks such as HSBC and brokerage firms like Merrill Lynch went on a buying spree, snapping up subprime loans from typically small mortgage banks that had lent money to homebuyers. At the same time, many lenders were loosening their credit standards and making riskier loans.

HSBC kept many of the loans, while Wall Street firms chopped the loans into pools sold to investors as mortgage-backed securities.

In recent months, as home-price appreciation fell and borrowers faced rising interest rates, more people defaulted on their mortgages. That prompted Merrill Lynch and others to exercise their contractual right to demand the sellers buy back the loans. Under mortgage contracts, mortgage originators must often repurchase loans that default very early in their term or that come with underwriting mistakes, such as flawed property appraisals.

"Following early payment defaults, we exercised our contractual rights to return loans to ResMae and protect our financial interests," a Merrill spokesman said. HSBC declined to comment. J.P. Morgan declined to comment.

articles.news.aol.com

BBC: Legislators from around the world reach an agreement that could break the political deadlock on climate change


Court Stops NYPD TV; Libby Trial

WE MEDIA -ZOGBY POLL: Most Americans say bloggers and citizen reporters will play a vital role in journalism's future. Online survey finds general public, media conference attendees agree that traditional news outlets could do a better job.

NEW STUDY: www.hypergene.net]

NYPD POLICE TV CURBED IN NYC

The NY Civil Liberties Union reports:In Victory for Free Speech, Judge Bars NYPD from Routinely Videotaping Lawful Protesters

February 15, 2007 -- The NYCLU today applauded a federal judge's decision to stop the New York City Police Department from routinely videotaping individuals engaged in lawful political protest.

"The NYPD had transformed the atmosphere for political dissent in New York City with its omnipresent videotaping of every demonstration, regardless of the likelihood or suspicion of criminal activity," said Donna Lieberman, NYCLU Executive Director. "This decision should restore the expectation that New Yorkers can participate in lawful demonstrations without fear of being placed in political dossiers."

DAVID TERESCHUK ON LIDDY TRIAL

THE NATION'S CAPITAL, THOUGH, COULDN'T REMAIN far from the minds of the news-hounds among us, and former Washington Post-er Carl Bernstein, my table companion along with his wife Christine Kuehbeck and my wife Melissa Bellinelli, later fell to discussing the Lewis "Scooter" Libby perjury trial, and what it has exposed about the deep embeddedness of DC journalists within the Bush White House.

Bernstein was amused at the expunging of familiar, friendly expletives during the courtroom replay of the taped phone-call between his former Watergate-cracking cohort Bob Woodward and ex-Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage. The much less plodding half of the "Woodstein" investigative duo agreed with me that his old partner's line of questioning sounded a little slow on the uptake. On the tape, Armitage is heard taking three tries to sell Woodward the Administration's smeary line about CIA operative Valerie Plame (Courtesy of the Associated Press, we can all hear the evidence or read the transcript.) The Neo-Cons' propaganda machine, embracing even a relatively tame "believer" like Armitage as well as hard-core "Vulcans" like Dick Cheney and Libby himself, was clearly spinning in the highest gear possible, almost out of control.

But the trial's revelations took us back to Lincoln again - and the hope offered by Honest Abe's (possibly apocryphal) reassurance, supposedly given during an 1858 speech in Clinton, Illinois, that ... rather indisputably ...

"you may fool all of the people some the time; you may even fool some of the people all of the time; but you cannot fool all of the people all the time".

Sidney Blumenthal: Libby's cynical defense

In the courtroom, I watched Libby's lawyers grill Bob Woodward and Robert Novak, trying and failing to obscure the charges against the vice president's man.

_http://www.salon.com/opinion/blumenthal/2007/02/15/libby_trial/print.html_
(www.salon.com)

Viacom to Move Cable Channels Downtown

Viacom plans to move its MTV Networks Entertainment Group, which includes Comedy Central, Spike TV and TV Land, into offices on Hudson Street as part of it cost-cutting efforts. The move could be the initial stage of Viacom's relocation out of its pricy Times Square headquarters.

OLBERMANN REUPS WITH MSNBC

Jerry Policoff notes:

By the way, last February Olbermann averaged 163,000 Adults 25-54 per night. So far in February 2007 he is averaging 284,000 per night, an increase of 74%. Any wonder that MSNBC did not want to let him get away? This also demonstrates that when journalists stand up to the Bush administration and speak truth to power, the viewers respond. Given his current growth trend, Olbermann could pass O’Reilly this year. O’Reilly averaged 500,000 Adults 25-54 in January which might seem like a lot unless you compare it to his earlier audience which peaked at 1,750,000 Adults 25-54 per night in April 2003. That represents an audience erosion of nearly 70% for Bill’O in the past four years. Olbermann was in fourth place in the time period among thefour cable news/talk networks just a little over a year ago, and he is now a very strong number two, having passed both Paula Zahn and Nancy Grace. His is also by far and away the most watched program on MSNBC.

Ex-BBC reporter Rageh Omaar on the 'Scud Stud' label, switching to Al-Jazeera, and why he's fallen in love with Iran

www.guardian.co.uk

FOX PRODUCERS OF 24 REJECT HUMAN RIGHTS GROUP PROTESTS BUT CUT BACK ON TORTURE ANYWAY (Philly.com)

It wasn't protests that carried the day, but the programmers' belief that torture had gotten "trite."

Fox's 24 will become less torturous, but not because the U.S. military, human rights groups and children's advocates want it to.

So says Howard Gordon, an executive producer of the hit thriller starring Emmy winner Kiefer Sutherland as secret anti-terrorist operative Jack Bauer, whose interrogation tactics make oatmeal of the Geneva Conventions.

Our hero routinely shoots, suffocates, drugs and/or electrocutes suspects. One of them, his treacherous brother, Graem, died in last week's episode. (Their evil father, played by James Cromwell, actually did the deed, although Jack is convinced that he was responsible.)

The decision to cut back on torture is driven by creativity, not criticism, according to Gordon. In its sixth season, 24 has become so torture-heavy that it borders on cliche, he says.