Big Dan's Big News Jan 2, 2008

· Why McClatchy Newspapers "Get It Right" Compared To Other Newspapers; When it comes to covering the war in Iraq, McClatchy Newspapers has always done things a bit differently. The third-largest newspaper company in the US, it owns thirty-one daily papers, including The Miami Herald, The Sacramento Bee, The Kansas City Star, and The Charlotte Observer. (It became the owner of some of these papers after buying Knight Ridder newspapers in 2006.) McClatchy has a large bureau in Washington, but without a paper either in the capital or in New York, it operates outside the glare of the nation's political and media elite, and this has freed it to follow its own path. In the months leading up to the Iraq war, when most news organizations were dutifully relaying the Bush administration's claims about the threat posed by Iraq, Knight Ridder/McClatchy ran several stories questioning their accuracy.

· McClatchy's "Inside Iraq" is a blog updated by Iraqi journalists working for McClatchy Newspapers. They are based in Baghdad and outlying provinces. These are firsthand accounts of their experiences. Their complete names are withheld for security purposes.

· Returning Iraqis face lack of services, property disputes; Millions of Iraqis who fled the bombs and ambushes in 2006 and 2007 are choosing between the rising costs of displacement and the painful memories of home. For 2008, those choices will become even more difficult as Iraqi officials work to woo them back to their neighborhoods, whether services and security are ready or not.

· Oil Ends Year 57% Higher Than At Start Of Year

· Bush has claimed an intense interest and outrage at the situation in Sudan, going so far as to call killings in Darfur “genocide” in 2005. Yet his signature on the legislation yesterday was accompanied by a signing statement, in which he reserved the right to “overrule” divestment decisions if they conflict with administration foreign policy. The New York Times notes:

· Spokesman: Fox News may have bias against Ron Paul

· Journalist Tells Congress About Suicide Epidemic Among Vets; Health and Wellness: A testimony at congressional hearings in response to increasingly ominous reports of soldier and veteran suicides.

· Dozens Burned Alive As Post-Election Violence Continues In Kenya

· Obama, Cozy with Corporate Lobbyists, Risks Much with Edwards Attack; Election 2008: Obama, all-too-cozy with corporate lobbyists, is wading into dangerous erritory.

· Kucinich urges supporters to back Obama on second Iowa ballot

· Last Minute Moves In Iowa - Kucinich Urges Supporters To Back Obama, Nader Supports Edwards

I Told You So...Again! What is the RIAA really up to?

I'm doing a lot of "remember when I posted this?" lately. But, remember when I posted this? I said, what's the real reason behind the RIAA suing people for downloading music?

Well, in a Washington Post article, check this out:

Now, in an unusual case in which an Arizona recipient of an RIAA letter has fought back in court rather than write a check to avoid hefty legal fees, the industry is taking its argument against music sharing one step further: In legal documents in its federal case against Jeffrey Howell, a Scottsdale, Ariz., man who kept a collection of about 2,000 music recordings on his personal computer, the industry maintains that it is illegal for someone who has legally purchased a CD to transfer that music into his computer.

Did you get that? The RIAA is now twisting their downloading cases into not letting anyone who legally purchased music make copies for themselves! So, if you don't write them a blackmail check and you fight back, you won't be able to copy your legally purchased songs to your PC, either! Did I "tell you so"??? The suing for downloading is a "red herring" for the RIAA's real plans!

I have a question, too: If you are not downloading music, but have songs on your computer from copying your legally purchased CD's, how can they tell the difference? And how did they know you had that music on your computer, if you're not downloading? Is the RIAA illegally invading your privacy???

Big Dan's Big News Jan 1, 2008, Happy New Year!!!

2008

(thanks for all the pictures all year, deedee)

· 'Accountability' at Year's (and Wit's) End; Gonzales Still Under Fire, ACVR Still Off Scot-Free, Along With the White House, the DoJ, John Tanner, Ann Coulter and Everyone Else the Democrats Have Utterly Failed to Properly Bring to Justice...

· New Des Moines Register Poll: Obama Widens Lead Over Clinton (bd: why do they keep telling us Hillary is winning???)

· GOP Mess in Iowa: Romney Stalls, Giuliani's Flailing, Huckabee Scares the DC Establishment; Heading into the Iowa caucuses, the Republican field is in historic disarray with no obvious contender to take on the Democratic nominee.

· Election Integrity Concerns in the Iowa Democratic and Republican Caucuses; Watchdog Group Calls for 'Citizen Army' to Monitor, Document Less-Than-Transparent Tallying Procedures of Both Parties...

· 'Asses of Evil' buttons top seller at Iowa Dem campaign stops

· The National Interest and 2008; Gary Hart; The national interest cannot be achieved by settling old scores, vengeance for past wrongs, and demonization of those with whom we disagree. (bd: This guy is great!)

· All Americans are now imprisoned in a world of lies and deception created by the Bush Regime and the two complicit parties of Congress, by federal judges too timid or ignorant to recognize a rogue regime running roughshod over the Constitution, by a bought and paid for media that serves as propagandists for a regime of war criminals, and by a public who have forsaken their Founding Fathers.

· Old Man With Gigantic Hat Says Gay Love Is Threat To Peace

· Computer heist puts voter IDs in danger; Davidson will issue identity theft alert to all county voters; The names, addresses and complete Social Security numbers of more than 337,000 Davidson County voters may be in the hands of thieves, Metro election officials said Friday.

· Diebold Dives at Year's End, Stock Price Falls 43% Since August; Company Share Prices Hit New 7-Year Low, Lucky Corporate Officers Who Sold at Year's High Avoid Insider Trading Charges (So Far)

· A suicide bomber detonated an explosive vest among mourners at a funeral in eastern Baghdad on Tuesday, killing at least nine people and wounding 21, police said.

· RAID is a tool for semi-automated generation of enemy estimates. Its job is to anticipate the upcoming actions of the enemy, and do so not just before, but also during the unfolding battle, in near real-time. In a way, one may say the purpose of RAID is to read the mind of the enemy.

· A $200-billion plan to remake the largest war machine in history unfolds in one small way on a quiet country road in the Chihuahuan Desert.

· Thousands Exposed to Poison by Government's Aerial Spraying; Sometimes bad dreams do come true. My bad dream was that the government issued quarantine, and forced everybody to be vaccinated for some fake disease. In my dream, I took my family, and fled to the hills to avoid being vaccinated. Now, nine months later, this dream has come true. In an emergency, I relinquished my rental contract and moved my pregnant partner and three and a half year old daughter out of Santa Cruz, CA, to avoid being exposed to potentially deadly chemicals. The chemicals, known by their trade names as Checkmate OLR-F and Checkmate LBAM-F, have been sprayed via state owned airplanes in September and October in Monterey County California. These same aerial chemicals, despite their known health risks, were sprayed on two nights (11-8, 11-9) over the people of Santa Cruz County. The purpose of this spray is to control the mating habits of the light brown apple moth (LBAM). The reason the moth needs to be controlled is due to the possibility of 100 million dollars of damage (Realize that this figure is not a fact, but based on a government guess).

· Individual privacy is under threat in the United States and across the European Union as governments introduce sweeping surveillance and information-gathering measures in the name of security and controlling borders, an international rights group has said in a report.

· Top 10 Scientific Breakthroughs of 2007

· BD: Check out "Privacy.org", let me know what you think of it…(click here)

Right before our eyes, we see the media and governments lying to us left & right about the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, it's ridiculous!!! Everyday, different stories!!! Below, are the daily changing Bhutto assassination stories:

· The day she was assassinated last Thursday, Benazir Bhutto had planned to reveal new evidence alleging the involvement of Pakistan's intelligence agencies in rigging the country's upcoming elections, an aide said Monday.

· Pakistan backtracks on claim sunroof killed Bhutto

· Video further batters Pakistani government's credibility; The credibility of the U.S.-backed Pakistani government was battered again Monday when video footage appeared to contradict its version of Benazir Bhutto's death and supported assertions by her husband and others that she had been shot leaving a campaign rally.

· Doctors Who Tried To Resuscitate Benazir Bhutto Were Pressured To Keep Quiet: Here's Their Report

· Bhutto 'blocked from hiring US bodyguards'

· If we are to believe the New York Times — you know, the propaganda sheet in large part responsible for selling the “war” in Iraq, that is to say the plan to mass murder of more than a million Iraqis — the contrived terrorist scare crow al-Qaeda has “clearly expanded their ranks and turned to a direct confrontation with the Pakistani security forces while also aiming at political figures like Ms. Bhutto,” never mind there is absolutely no evidence of this and never mind as well al-Qaeda was in fact created by Pakistan’s ISI, with a large infusion of CIA cash and directives.