Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/01/21-4

This isn't a future you can, or should, face alone. How to make sure you don't have to. "I don't believe the economy is getting better," says Billy R., a member of a mutual aid group in Oregon that he jokingly calls "my reality support group." "All around me I'm surrounded by media and advertising urging me to keep borrowing, buying, and sleepwalking. I love meeting with others who are staring down the potential risks and challenges of the future."

Link: http://oilandgasleaks.wordpress.com/2011/01/21/in-honor-of-dr-thomas-b-manton-a-true-modern-american-hero/

A BP Gulf Oil Spill HERO is railroaded through the Florida Criminal Justice System, then dies after being assaulted in the Florida State Prison System. Dr. Thomas B. Manton passed away on Wednesday, January 19th, after suffering an assault at Liberty Correctional Facility in Bristol, Florida. He was serving an unlawful 15-year prison sentence, after being wrongfully convicted of a crime he did not commit. Tom was the former President/CEO of the International Oil Spill Control Corporation which was one of the very first oil spill control companies in the world formed outside of the rubric of the Oil & Gas Industry. In this capacity he helped create many of the protocols and establish many of the standards that are still in use today throughout the realm of oil spill control. He became an increasingly vocal critic of the BP response to the Gulf Oil Spill, and wrote five searing articles in that regard. He was particularly distressed that the US Federal Government allowed BP to completely take charge of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster area, as his experience taught him that the offending oil company should never be given command over the oil spill response.

Link: http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/?id=446877&t=breaking%3A_keith_olbermann_announces_abrupt_departure_from_msnbc%3B_%22countdown%22_to_end/

More detail will no doubt follow, but for now all we know is that Olbermann announced his departure on tonight's show. He didn't give any reason. MSNBC announced Friday night that its marquee "Countdown" anchor and talk show host Keith Olbermann was out. The network did not provide a reason for his abrupt departure. "MSNBC and Keith Olbermann have ended their contract. The last broadcast of "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" will be this evening.

Link: http://www.infowars.com/bilderberg-owned-publication-the-economist-yes-powerful-%E2%80%9Cglobocrat%E2%80%9D-elites-are-running-things-it%E2%80%99s-not-a-conspiracy/

Agenda for global centralized control system is public and out in the open. Bilderberg Owned Publication The Economist: Yes, Powerful Globocrat Elites Are Running Things, Its Not A Conspiracy 040610bb4 We have referred many times to the push for a centralized world government control system as the “open conspiracy”. Groups such as Bilderberg, The Trilateral Commission and The Council on Foreign Relations are kingpins of this agenda, shaping the policies of the politicians and power brokers that they have effectively bought.

Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/01/20111207625905959.html

Residents and fishermen outraged as BP's compensation fund administrator denies 'loss of income' claims. Gulf Coast businesses are closing down as they fail to secure compensation payouts. "I just got off the phone with Feinberg's people and I'm really upset," says seafood merchant Michelle Chauncey from Barataria, Louisiana. Her business, which sells wholesale and retail crabs, has not provided her with an income since the end of May, and her home is being foreclosed.

Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2011/01/2011121135536636376.html

Criticism follows report that Obama administration might lift its ban on military trials at the US prison. The prospect of the United States charging Guantanamo Bay detainees before new military tribunals has unleashed a torrent of protests from human-rights groups. The New York Times reported on Wednesday that Robert Gates, US defence secretary, would soon lift an order blocking new cases from being initiated against detainees in special courts known as military commissions, a ban Barack Obama, US president, had ordered on his first day in office.

Link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1348915/Tarok-Kolache-Afghan-village-wiped-map-25-tons-coalition-bombs.html

The impact of coalition operations in Afghanistan is often bogged down in statistics and political manoeuvring. But these photos of a devastated village in the Arghandad River Valley show the horror of war in stark reality. Tarok Kolache, a small settlement in Kandahar, has been completely erased from the map after an offensive by the U.S. army. Before and aftermath: The picture on the left shows the village of Tarok Kolache in the Arghandab River Valley. The picture on the right is the same location following allied air strikes, which completely obliterated the village. The war in Afghanistan has nothing to do with bringing democracy, freedom, and a better way of life to the people of Afghanistan, as the corporate media endlessly tells Americans. The war in Afghanistan is about oil pipelines, military industrial banking war profits, and the domination of the Middle East. The people of Afghanistan will never willingly give their country over to America. They will fight the invaders just as any country would. America is doing what it has always done throughout its genocidal 200 year history; the extermination of a population while stealing their resources. America brings to the world a democracy of looting, depleted uranium bombs, torture, and mass death.

Link: http://ogaden.com/hornnews/ogaden/1059-torture-and-extrajudicial-killings-continue-unabated-in-the-ogaden.html

Reports coming to the Ogaden Online Service Desk confirmed that four women were arbitrarily detained and tortured in two separate incidents by the Ethiopian Armed Forces. The incidents took place in the town of Sagag where Ina (The daughter of) Sheikh Mahamud Sheikh Abdillahi and Halima Badal Sam-Sam Abiib were subjected to extreme forms of torture while under the custody of the Ethiopian Armed Forces.

Link: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/01/obama-taps-ge-chairman-lead-economic-council/

President Barack Obama announced Friday that General Electric (GE) Chairman and CEO Jeffrey Immelt will chair the President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. The new council was to replace the Economic Recovery Advisory Board headed by Paul Volcker.

Link: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/01/assange-attorney-palin-prosecuted-inciting-violence-visits-australia/

Palin to be prosecuted for inciting violence if she visits Australia, attorney says Sarah Palin better watch out. Under Australian law, inciting violence is a serious crime: an offense which could even trigger the prosecution of members of the US political class and mainstream media who called for the assassination of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, according to his attorney.

Link: http://www.truth-out.org/zygmunt-bauman-does-democracy-still-mean-anything-and-case-it-does-what-is-it66923

We fought our battle of words and did not see that the familiar words had lost their bearing and pointed in the wrong directions. We said "democracy" solemnly as in a prayer, and soon afterwards the greatest nation of Europe voted, by perfectly democratic methods, its assassins into power. We worshipped the will of The Masses, and their will turned out to be death and self-destruction… The social progress for which we fought became a progress towards the slave labour camp; our liberalism made us accomplices of tyrants and oppressors; our love for peace invited aggression and led to war.

Link: http://www.truth-out.org/lawsuit-federal-prisoners-with-unpopular-political-beliefs-isolated-abused66991

If you are unlucky enough to be doing time at one of the federal government's two "experimental prisons" - which it calls Communications Management Units (CMUs) - you are categorically banned from any physical contact with visiting friends and family, including babies, infants and minor children. You may not hug, touch or embrace your children or spouses during visits.

Link: http://www.rense.com/general92/worl.htm

One writes hastily to get the ideas out. Once doesn't go back because when a nation is falling before your eyes, such niceties as spelling and grammar and turn of phrase don't really matter very much.

Link: http://www.truth-out.org/gops-state-union-responder-would-set-higher-taxes-middle-class-than-millionaires67070

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) was announced today as the Republican who will be responding to President Obama’s State of the Union address next week. Ryan has gained a (largely unearned) reputation as a fiscal hawk due to his radical Roadmap for America’s Future, under which the U.S. budget will eventually be balanced (after federal debt surpasses 100 percent of GDP), mostly via privatizing Social Security and Medicare. Instead of robbing the American people of their modest health care and retirement stop giving the international banks twenty five trillion dollars each year in bailouts and end America's endless wars which are costing trillions of dollars each year. Why is it that politicians especially republicans like Paul Ryan, can only find solutions which further rob the people into poverty. Hey people, stop voting for him.

Link: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article27316.htm

While pointing to Tunisia, America, under the direction of Obama and his messenger, Hillary Clinton, are telling the Arab world to reform and to close the gap between the rich and the poor—while at the same time, the gap between the rich, the ultra rich and the common man in America is growing at an alarming rate so much so that the “middle class” is all but destroyed! So why is America so smug? Perhaps it’s because it is easier to point the finger at others than to examine our own situation.

Link: http://bellaciao.org/en/spip.php?article20496

Over the last two thousand years, there have been literally dozens of proposed dates upon which the world was expected to end. Around 30 CE, Jesus is reported to have said “Judgement Day” would come within the lifetimes of his audience. This is the failed prophecy on which all the others were based. However, for hundreds of years before this, the Hebrew people had a tradition of prophecy. Prophets such as Ezekiel and Daniel had predicted that one day the dead would come out of their graves. This concept is preserved in Christianity and Islam, who also expect a Day of Judgement, also known as Yawm al-Ba’th, the day of Rising From the Grave.

Link: http://www.democracynow.org/2011/1/21/vermont_governor_peter_shumlin_moves_to

As the House votes to repeal President Obama’s healthcare reform bill, the state of Vermont is taking matters into its own hands. We speak with Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin, who is leading efforts to create a single-payer healthcare system in the state. He was voted into office after making single payer a cornerstone of his campaign. "If Vermont can get this right, the other states will follow," Shumlin says. [includes rush transcript]

Link: http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn01212011.html

It’s too soon to say of course, but it really does look as though though the Tucson shooter has done Sarah Palin serious damage. A Gallup poll run at the end of last week gives her a 53 per cent unfavorable rating, the lowest level she's sunk to in public esteem since she was first lofted to national prominence as John McCain's vice presidential pick in 2008.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/01/21-11

More than 70 percent of Americans say big bonuses should be banned this year at Wall Street firms that took taxpayer bailouts, a Bloomberg National Poll shows.