This link works (if the other one doesn't):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YYfn32yRlM

Lindsey Graham’s comments about Osama getting Miranda rights on some rubble out-crop in Pakistan are absurd. First of all, the Miranda ruling does not, ”give” any rights. What the Supreme Court in that case determined was that cops, once they have conducted a custodial arrest, must warn the person arrested that they have certain rights. Those rights include the right not to talk, (confess), the right to have a lawyer present before you talk, (confess), and if you give up the right not to talk, (CONFESS), what you say, (YOUR CONFESSION), will be used against you in court. Many times in my practice I have clients proudly tell me that their case was going to be easy because, “They didn’t read me my rights.” My question to them is usually, “So what did you tell them?” The answer is, usually, “Well nothing, they didn’t ask me anything.” So, nothing can be used against them in court. That is the remedy when Miranda is violated by the cops. What was said cannot be used against the defendant in criminal proceedings.

My concern with bringing these cases to the Federal Court is a little different. On MSNBC the other day I was listening to whore monger Elliot Spitzer interviewed about the evidence gathered by torture. It was his opinion that what would probably happen would be that the judge would consider the evidence, allow the jury to hear it but then instruct them that they should only give it the weight it deserves because it was coerced. The old weight versus admissibility argument relied on by the state to squeeze in heretofore inadmissible evidence. Tragically, Spitzer might well be correct. Judges will be loathe to exclude evidence in a case like this and if evidence gathered as a result of torture is admissible against these defendant’s based on an instruction from the judge that the jury must only give it the, “weight it deserves” pandora’s box will be opened for law enforcement to do exactly the same thing to you and me.

Friday a new meme launched, about email stolen from CRU 'proving' global warming is a hoax. The meme is debunked here: http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2009/11/the-cru-hack/

The Great Eight

I need to share with you a dream I had. President Obama had sent his secret service staff to take me to Washington, D.C. I was taken to Camp David in the mountains of Maryland. The president said to me when we met that he had read some of my comments and he wants me to put together a team to share information with him in helping our world move forward, especially the United States. I could not leave Camp David until I had a list of names to be on my team.

I have many names for the list but I wanted to keep the team small enough to be a workable team. Here are the names for the team – Bishop Thomas Gumbleton (a peace activist cleric), Thom Hartmann, Paul Craig Roberts, Ray McGovern, Stephen Lendman, Rachel Maddow, Karen Kwiatkowski (a retired military officer), and Joan Walsh (writer and editor for Salon magazine). These eight are the core for my team.

I have four names to be called in as consultants – Doug Soderstrom, to offer inspirational words, Ed Schultz, to offer passionate pep talks on various subjects, Robert Reich, to share his economic information, and John Perkins, to keep us informed as to the United States’ predatory ways to take control over a country’s human and natural resources.

At the start of each meeting we would read the lyrics from John Lennon’s song, “Imagine.” Some words may be altered to meet current times but the central theme of his song will evident to all who read the words.

The date, time, and place were not set because my wife in her melodic voice asked me a question that awakened me from my dream, “Jerry, what time is it?”

Thom,

1) Yesterday Sen. Kent Conrad stated that countries like France, Germany and Japan have employer-based health care systems with not-for-profit insurance intermediaries. He thinks they are the best systems in the world. (Dylan Ratigan disagreed with him that these were NOT employer-based systems, but Conrad insisted they ARE.) (Approx. Min. 6:12 to end of video):

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/34039699#34039699

Ft. Hood...named for a "traitor" ...Confederate General John Bell Hood...Didn't he pledge to support and defend the Constitution of the UNITED STATES against all enemies, foreign and DOMESTIC?

Health Reform? Some should return to "Reform School"...The late Wayne Morse pointed out "The problem with 'half a loaf' is that it kills the appetite for change."

I am a thyroid cancer survivor. I am not a zealous breast cancer test advocate, but I do believe in early and regular screening. (Both my mother AND mother-in-law's breast cancers were detected early through mammogram screening.)

Cancer seems to be ubiquitous in contemporary life. My belief is that many of us have been poisoned by environmental pollutants and are, therefore, in more need of therapy. Yes, there may be corporate health care leeches taking advantage of this situation, but that, to me, doesn't negate the need for more screening.

Anything goes Friday!

Here is another reason to leave Afghanistan.

http://news.antiwar.com/2009/11/17/afghanistan-about-as-corrupt-as-they-...

Thom mentions the placement of solar panels for homes to create jobs and saves energy.

I also believe that that we mass transit in our country. Mass transportation would create numerous jobs for Americans.

Upgrading of our roads and bridges would also create jobs.

The problems are not where are the jobs; the problem is the will to create these jobs.

If Americans love Americans, they have the ingenuity to create these jobs with answers.

What with Sarah Palin out and about, it’s time for all Americans to think more seriously about her message, especially when it comes to the socialist menace. Palin began using the S word to refer to Obama back during the campaign, and in June she sadly told Sean Hannity that socialism is “where we are headed” under the new administration.

But the Palin’s warnings may have come too late, since the nation had meandered far down the pink path long before she raised the alarm. Socialism has already wormed its way into the national fabric, hastening its rot. In Maine, home of the simple, taciturn, penny pinching, shrewd yankee of yore, Sam Smith, a veteran blogger with an independent streak, has pulled together a chilling list of socialistic enterprises you may unwittingly be helping to support. If we’re really going to deep six socialism, here’s how Sam thinks we should start:

http://unsilentgeneration.com/2009/11/17/join-sarah-palin-stamp-out-soci...

Meanwhile, on the Women's Cancer front, ACOG is also recoommending later and less frequent Pap Smears, essentially for the same reasons as their earlier recommendations regarding mammograms -

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/19/AR200911...

I've also heard that since September, 10 girls who'd received an injection of Gardicil (which allegedly provides imunity to some forms of HPV, which MAY cause cervical cancer) have died.

http://houseofpolitics.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3971

They wanted to be "one less" - now their mothers have one less daughter. :(