ampb report #81

Dear Readers,
The holidays are rolling around and there are lots of things to
distract us from the real issues at hand. I don't know how many of y'all
bother to send out Christmas cards, but someone has made the following
suggestion: When you are making out your Christmas card list this year,
please include a card to the following:
A Recovering American soldier c/o Walter Reed Army Medical Center
6900 Georgia Avenue,NW Washington,D.C. 20307-5001

Like most folks, I hate the war and want it to end but these men and women
in the hospital could use some cheering up. They didn't start the war, but
have been hurt in it, so send some love their way if you can, ok? On the
radio front, the FCC tried to pull a fast one and announce on very very
short notice a "public" hearing on the subject of what they like to call
"media de-regulation". Well the good citizens of Seattle showed up in a
big way and gave the FCC Commisioners a real earful of reality. The audio
for some of this spectacle is available online at http://www.kpfa.org. Go to
"archives" and select November 9, 2007. If you happen to be in the San
Francisco Bay Area (also known as sludgeville) on November 30th, please
check out the benefit for Berkeley Liberation Radio 104.1 FM. Onstage will
be the Barry Melton Band and the Nick Gravenites Band with lots of special
guests. The venue is the Ashkenaz, 1317 San Pablo Avenue in Berkeley.
Music starts at 9:00 PM.

STATION ALERT
Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act Raises Fears of New Government Crackdown
on Dissent
AMY GOODMAN: A little-noticed anti-terrorism bill, quietly making its way
through Congress is raising fears of the new affront on activism and
constitutional rights. The Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism
Prevention Act was passed in an overwhelming 400-6 House vote last month.
Critics say it could herald a new government crackdown on dissent and
infiltration of universities under the guise of fighting terrorism. The
bill would establish two government-appointed bodies to study, monitor, and
propose ways of curbing what it calls homegrown terrorism and extremism in
the United States.
JESSICA LEE: I would first like to point out the two definitions that many
people I interviewed had problems with. The first is "violent
radicalization". This term means "the process of adapting or promoting an
extremist belief system for the purpose of facilitating ideologically-based
violence to advance political, religious, or social change". The second
definition, which is "homegrown terrorism", talks about the planned use,
threatened use, of force or violence by a group to intimidate or coerce the
government of the United States.
KAMAU FRANKLIN: Somewhere, as Jessica stated, the broad definitions allow
for new laws that can be passed. that can basically equate social justice
activism and civil disobedience to terrorism in some ways. So its the
broad based-ness, the breadth, the scope of the inquiry, which is really
threatening for potential activists, people concerned with social justice
issues and civil libertarians, something people should really be concerned
about.
JESSICA LEE: When I started to look into this bill, what I found was a
great influence by the Rand Corporation, which is a government affiliated
think tank. Twice, Brian Michael Jenkins, who is an expert on terrorism,
gave testimony in the House on this bill. They largely tried to push this
bill through on this idea there are these extreme political Islamists in
our country and they did not do a very good job stating the actual threat.
But when you look through the Rand Corporation's other reports in 2005,
they had a report called "Trends in Terrorism". And they had one chapter
called "Homegrown Terrorism Threats". When you look in that chapter,
there's nothing about political Islamists. In fact, its all about anti-
globalization people on the right and left side of the spectrum. The animal
rights and the environmental movements; and anarchists. And to me I found
that very interesting that that testimony was not mentioned at all when
this bill was passed. That this legislation is not just gonna look at
so-called violent, religious people, but also people who have been very
strong opinions against this administration.
KAMAU FRANKLIN: I just wanted to add that Brian Michael Jenkins wrote in
his own book, "in their international campaign, the Jihadist will seek
common ground with leftist, anti-American and anti-globalization forces who
will in turn seek radical Islam comrades against a mutual foe." So I think
what Jessica's talking about, is that, the breadth of it is not focused in
on supposed terrorists who are threatening the United States, but folks who
have real concerns about where this country is heading, folks who express
dissent in various different ways including demonstrations and marches.
These are the folks who this bill potentially could target.
AMY GOODMAN: Jessica Lee, the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown
Terrorism Prevention Act was passed in the house 400-6. That is a very big
margin.
JESSICA LEE: Correct. It was actually passed under what is called the
"Suspension of the Rules", which is a provision the House uses to pass
bills very quickly and these are usually bills deemed uncontroversial and
do not need more debate. So we saw a quick vote. Six people voted against.
One was presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich. He was unavailable for
comment unfortunately. So what we're seeing not only the Republican
congress giving the Bush administration swath of powers to confront the war
on terrorism, but we are also seeing the democratically-led congress also
extending these powers.
AMY GOODMAN: Kamau Franklin, what are you doing about this?
KAMAU FRANKLIN: On our website, we have a lot more information about what
this bill is. In fact, we have the different versions for people to start
to view. We're gonna call for some actions in the next couple of weeks. We
probably agree that at this stage the Senate is also going to pass their
version of the bill. We think the real fight will be in the grassroots. We
want to provide as much information as we can on who should be the target
of some of this work that will have to be done. So when people go to the
website ccrjustice.org, they'll start to find this information.
(This discussion was loosely edited from the transcript of the November
20th broadcast of Democracy Now!)

The Art of Mental Warfare Opening Statement: Let The Media War Begin
For my opening statement I am going to say some things that are obvious to
those of us who spend the majority of our time researching and analyzing
power politics. We have come to understand that the mainstream media is an
elaborate and sophisticated propaganda apparatus that is designed and
utilized to deceive, manipulate, dumb down, distract and marginalize the
American public. We realize that the mainstream media is not giving us the
vital information that we need to develop informed opinions and participate
in this so-called democracy. However, the average US citizen still does not
understand this. They are too busy working hard trying to make ends meet,
trying to provide for their families, trying to pay off their homes, credit
cards and debt. They donit have the time to spend hours everyday
researching issues that the mainstream media doesnit even mention or
discuss. In fact, with hundreds of television channels, radio stations,
magazines, newspapers and movies, the average citizen thinks the amount of
viewpoints in the media are overwhelming and diverse. They donit realize
that the vast majority of media companies are controlled by a handful of
the worldis most powerful interrelated corporate interests They donit
realize that over the past 25 years we have experienced a scandalous
concentration in media ownership and an all out attack on public TV and
radio. The number of corporations dominating the US mainstream media: 1983
= 50, 1993= 14, 2007 = 5
Government spending on public broadcasting per person:
Germany $85, UK $83, US $1.54
The US has the lowest per capita funding of public
broadcasting in the industrialized world. Never before has censorship been
so perfect. The censorship most prevalent today is the most dangerous form.
Not the censorship of explicit words, sex or violence, but the censorship
of any thoughts outside of elite corporate ideology. Any views that lead to
critical thought on the prevailing elite market dominance are not allowed
to enter into public consciousness (the mass media). The media's the most
powerful entity on earth. The press is so powerful in its image-making
role, it can make a criminal look like he's the victim and make the victim
look like he's the criminal. If you aren't careful, the newspapers will
have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people
who are doing the oppressing. - Malcolm X
The Imperial War
Since Cheney and Bush began their disastrous "War on Terror", terrorism
incidents have increased over 600%. The invasion and occupation of Iraq has
created worldwide hatred toward America on an unprecedented scale. If we
had a critical and informative media system, the Bush administration would
have never been able to launch a war built on lies, distortion and
misinformation - a war that has already claimed the lives of over 750,000
Iraqi civilians, and killed, wounded or maimed over 30,000 US soldiers. As
costs continue to escalate, the war will cost the US taxpayer well over a
trillion dollars - with billions of tax dollars stolen and unaccounted for!
For those of us who have researched and read the strategy papers that have
driven the Bush administrationis foreign policy - all written before 9/11 -
specifically the Strategy of the Silk Route, James Baker's and the Council
on Foreign Relations' Strategic Energy Policy, the Project for a New
American Century's Forces and Resources For a New Century and other crucial
documents, we know that these documents clearly demonstrate that the war on
terror is mostly a front for a geo-strategic imperial war designed to
control the majority of the earthis remaining oil supply. And the fact that
this subject is almost never seriously discussed in the mainstream press is
an edifying example of just how scandalous the mass media system has
become. This imperial war for resources brings us to the next urgent crisis
of our time, the current and coming environmental catastrophe.
Environmental Crisis
The earth's resources are being quickly depleted. As the three billion
people in China and India become more modernized and begin living and
polluting like the modern US consumer, the earth's resources and fragile
balance will become undone. Billions of people, literally billions of
people, will die - from the lack of food and water that will lead to mass
starvation, to the lack of medicine for treatable diseases and the spread
of infectious diseases.Half of the world's population now lives on $2 per
day or less.Global warming is quickly making these numbers grow and we are
already facing a crisis unprecedented in human history. The past three
years have been the hottest three years ever recorded. In the early
nineties leading scientists and organizations tried to inform us. In 1992,
long before Hurricane Katrina and Al Goreis Inconvenient Truth, 1700 of the
world's top scientists signed an official document, a Warning To Humanity,
stating: Human beings and the natural world are on a collision course.
Human activities inflict harsh and often irreversible damage on the
environment and on critical resources. If not checked, many of our current
practicesput at serious risk the future that we wish for human society and
the plant and animal kingdoms, and may so alter the living world that it
will be unable to sustain life in the manner that we know. Fundamental
changes are urgent if we are to avoid the collision our present course will
bring about. In 1997, the World Watch Institute reported that storms would
be, imore frequent, more intense, and more destructive. Yet these dire
warnings went unheard. If you thought the recent upsurge in catastrophic
hurricanes, tornados, heat waves, droughts and other climatic disasters
have been bad, you need to understand that this was only the opening act,
only a warning shot as to what lies ahead.
This opening statement is an adapted excerpt from David
Vincent's book, The Art of Mental Warfare.

A Financial System under Siege
By Prof. Rodrigue Tremblay
"If these items [promised benefits in Social Security, Medicare, Veterans
Administration and other entitlement programs] are factored in, the total
[debt] burden in present value dollars is estimated to be about $53
trillion. Stated differently, the estimated current total burden for every
American is nearly $175,000; and every day that burden becomes larger."
David Walker, comptroller general of the United States
"The economic forces driving the global saving-investment balance have been
unfolding over the course of the past decade, so the steepness of the
recent decline in long-term dollar yields and the associated distant
forward rates suggests that something more may have been at work." Alan
Greenspan, former Fed Chairman, July 20, 2005
"The subprime black hole is appearing deeper, darker and scarier than they
[the banks] thought. Theyive worked through ... about 40 percent of the
backlog of the leveraged loan side, and thereis definitely some signs of
thaw there." Tony James, president and CEO of Blackstone Group LP
The global dollar-based financial system is in crisis and is threatening
the prosperity and stability of many economies. Financial excesses of all
kinds have undermined its legitimacy and its efficiency. The U.S. dollar is
losing its preeminence as the main international reserve currency while
many banks are caught in the turmoil of the subprime credit crisis. The
overall background is the unprecedented real estate bubble that took place
worldwide, from 1995 to 2005. In the United States, for example,
owner-occupied home prices increased annually by an average of about 9
percent. The market value of the stock of owner-occupied homes in the U.S.
rose from slightly less than $8 trillion in 1995 to slightly more than $18
trillion in 2005. It has been contracting ever since, confirming the
working of the 18-year Kuznets realestate cycle, which has gone from the
top of 1987 to the 2005 top. What makes this period especially dangerous is
the fact that the average 54-year long inflation-disinflation-deflation
Kondratieff cycle is also at play, having begun in 1949 after prices were
unfrozen. World inflation then rose for twenty years, until 1980, which was
followed by a period of disinflation under the Volcker Fed. The entry of
China into the World Trade Organization (WTO) on December 11, 2001, with
its abundant labor and low wages, unleashed strong deflationary forces
worldwide. This in turn led to lower inflation expectations paving the way
for the Greenspan Fed to keep interest rates abnormally low. Persistent low
interest rates and low inflation expectations led to a binge in borrowing
and to a vast increase in market valuation, not only in real estate but
also in stocks and bonds. Banks and other mortgage lending institutions
took advantage of the opportunity to introduce some financial innovations
in order to finance the exploding mortgage market. These innovations
resulted in the severing of the traditional direct link between borrower
and lender and the reduction in the lending risk normally associated with
mortgage loans. Thus, with the connivance of the rating agencies and of
the Federal Reserve System, large banks invented new financial products
under various names such as "Collateralized Bond Obligations" (CBOs),
"Collateralized Debt Obligations" (CDOs), also called "Structured
Investment Vehicles" (SIVs), which had the characteristics of unfunded
short term commercial paper. In the residential mortgage market, for
example, mortgage brokers and retail lenders would sell their mortgage
loans to banks, which in turn would package them together and slice them
into different classes of mortgage-backed securities (RMBS), carrying
different levels of risk and return, before selling them to investors.
Indeed, these new financial instruments were the end result of a process of
"asset securitization" and were slices of bundles of loans, not only of
mortgage loans but also of credit cards debts, car loans, student loans and
other receivables. Each slice carried a different risk load and a different
yield. With the blessing of rating agencies, banks went even one step
further, and they began pooling the more risky financial slices into more
risky bundles and divided them again to be sold to investors in search of
high yields. By selling these new debt instruments to investors in search
of high yields and higher yields, including hedged funds and pension funds,
banks were doubly rewarded. First, they collected handsome managing fees
for their efforts. But second, and more importantly, they unloaded the risk
of lending to the unsuspected buyer of such securities, because in case of
default on the original loans, the banks would be scot-free. They had
already been paid and had been released from the risk of default and
foreclosure on the original loans. The banks' residual role was to collect
and distribute interest, as long as borrowers made their interest payments.
But if payments stopped, the capital losses incurred because of the decline
in the value of unperforming loans would instead be carried by the
investors in CBOs and CDOs. The banks themselves would suffer no losses and
would be free to use their capital bases to engage in additional profitable
lending. In fact, the end of the line investors became the real mortgage
lenders (without reaping all the rewards of such risky loans) and the banks
could reuse their capital to pyramid upward their loan operations. These
were the best of times for banks and they gorged themselves without
restraint. Some of them paid their employees tens of billions of dollars in
year-end bonuses. Indeed, and it is here that the Fed and other regulatory
agencies failed, first line mortgage lenders became more and more
aggressive in their lending, with the full knowledge that they could
profitably unload the risk downstream. This explains the expansion of the
"subprime" mortgage market where borrowing was done with no down payment,
no interest payments for a while and no questions asked as to the income
and creditworthiness of the borrower. These were not normal lending
practices. Such Ponzi schemes could not last forever. And when housing
prices started to decline, foreclosures also increased, thus shaking the
new financial house of cards to its foundations. Banks became the reluctant
owners of some of the foreclosed properties at very discounted values. Why
then are so many banks in financial difficulties, if the lending risk was
transferred to unsuspecting investors? Essentially, because when the
housing boom burst, the banks' inventory of unsold "asset-backed
securities" was unusually high. When the piper stopped playing and
investors stopped buying the newly created risky investments, their value
plummeted overnight and banks were left with huge losses still not fully
reflected in their financial balance sheets. Indeed, banks that did not
unload their stocks of packaged mortgages were forced to accept ownership
of foreclose properties at very discounted values. With little or no
collateral behind the loans, bad-debt losses became unavoidable. Since
noboby knows for sure the value of something which is not traded, it will
take months before banks come to terms with the total losses they have
suffered in their stocks of unsold pre-packaged "asset-based securities".
It is more than a normal "liquidity crisis" or "credit crunch" (which
results when banks borrow short term and invest in illiquid long term
assets); it is more like a "solvency crisis" if the banks' capital base is
overtaken by the disclosure of huge financial losses incurred when the
banks are forced to sell mortgaged assets in a depressed real estateich is unfolding under
our very eyes and which is threatening the American and international
financial system. There are four classes of losers. First, the homebuyers
who bought properties at inflated prices with little or no down payment and
who now face foreclosure. Second, the investors who bought illiquid
mortgage-backed commercial paper and who stand to lose part or all of their
investments. Third, the holders of bank stocks who profited when the system
worked smoothly but who now face declining stock values. And, finally,
anybody who stands to fall victim, directly or indirectly, to the coming
economic slowdown. Rodrigue Tremblay is a Canadian economist who lives in
Montreal; he can be reached at rodrigue.tremblay [at] yahoo.com

AMPB WEBLINK
Medical Tyranny in Maryland: Parents Threatened With Jail Time for Not
Vaccinating Children
http://www.newstarget.com/index.html

AMPB RECORD CHART FOR THE WEEK ENDING 11/24/07
# TITLE - ARTIST - LABEL
1 VOODOO LOVE INNA CHAMPETA LAND-VAROUS-RIVERBOAT
2 LIGHT YOUR LIGHT-TOOTS AND THE MAYTALS-CONCORD
3 ROUGH GUIDE TO NORTH AFRICAN CAFE-WORLD MUSIC NET
4 FOUR ON THE FLOOR-OLD BLIND DOGS-COMPASS
5 FOREVER-WAYNE WONDER-VP
6 ZEITGEIST-SMASHING PUMPKINS-MARTHA'S MUSIC
7 BREATHING UNDER WATER-SHANKAR / KALE-MANHATTAN
8 TRANSFORMERS SOUNDTRACK-VARIOUS-WARNER
9 LIVE-MEM SHANNON-NORTHERN BLUES
10 PUTUMAYO PRESENTS ISRAEL-PUTUMAYO
11 SOFA KING BADASS-MASON CASEY-NORTHERN BLUES
12 DJIN DJIN-ANGELIQUE KIDJO-RAZOR & TIE
13 RISE-SAMANTHA JAMES-OM
14 ROUGH GUIDE TO BRAZIL-WORLD MUSIC NET
15 KILL TO GET CRIMSON-MARK KNOPFLER-WARNER BROS.
16 DRIVE-THE CRYSTAL METHOD-TINY
17 LIBRARY BOOK OF THE WORLD-DANBERT NOBACON-BLOODSHOT
18 LIVING LIKE A REFUGEE-REFUGEE ALL STARS-ANTI
19 INSTANT KARMA-THE CAMPAIGN TO SAVE DARFUR-WARNER
20 SONGS OF THE AFRICAN COAST-A.S. ALBERTS-YARNGO
21 BECOMING A CLICHE-ADRIAN SHERWOOD-REAL WORLD
22 THE CHILL-JOHN "JUKE" LOGAN-MOCOMBO
23 NIGHTS FROM THE ALHAMBRA-LOREENA McKENNITT-VERVE
24 DIWAN 2-RACHID TAHA-WRASSE
25 BRING ENOUGH TO SPILL SOME-CHUCK LOVE-OM
26 PUTUMAYO PRESENTS NEW ORLEANS BRASS-PUTUMAYO
27 UNGLAMOROUS-LORI MCKENNA-WARNER
28 MI SUENO-IBRAHIM FERRER-WORLD CIRCUIT
29 ESSENTIAL DUB-VARIOUS ARTISTS-ROIR
30 LA RADIOLINA-MANU CHAO-NACIONAL
31 GLOBAL DRUM PROJECT-MICKEY HART, ETC.-SHOUTFACTORY
32 EVERYTHING REPRISE VOLUME TWO-REPRISE
33 INTOXICATION-SHAGGY-VP
34 LIVE-R.E.M.-WARNER
35 DON'T TELL COLUMBUS-GRAHAM PARKER-BLOODSHOT
36 PUSH-COLLETTE-OM
37 COMPLETE CLAPTON-ERIC CLAPTON-REPRISE
38 HOW YOU SELL SOUL TO...-PUBLIC ENEMY-SLAMJAMZ
39 BOOK OF LIFE-I WAYNE-VP
40 PUTUMAYO PRESENTS TANGO AROUND THE WORLD-PUTUMAYO
HEY RADIO PROMO PEOPLE: IF YOU DON'T SEE YOUR LATEST RELEASE ON THIS
CHART, IT'S PROBABLY BECAUSE YOU DIDN'T SEND US A COPY!

CAPTAIN FRED'S WORLD CRUISE #75
(this show is downloadable from http://www.radio4all.net)
Mini Kusuto-Colombiafrica
It's Time-The Crystal Method
Rani-Rachid Taha
Forgive Yourself-Adrian Sherwood
Mi Buenos Aires Querido-Hugo Diaz
Pat Malonthone-Refugee All-Stars
Aguaxire/Saleromi-Carlinhos Brown
Gimme Shelter-Angelique Kidjo
Slither-Anoushka Shankar & Karsh Kale
Love So Strong-Toots & The Maytals
No Such Thing-Mem Shannon
Let Me In-Mason Casey
Terror Time-Old Blind Dogs
Dinah-Preservation Hall Hot 4
Politik Kills-Manu Chao
Mad Mad World-Shaggy
Can You Hear Me Now-Public Enemy
I'm Gonna DJ-R.E.M.
Under One Groove-Global Drum Project

AMPB PMB 22
2018 SHATTUCK AVE.
BERKELEY, CA 94704

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