SOME TRUTH & LIBERAL NEWS TO START YOUR WEEKEND

PROSPERITY IN GEORGE BUSH'S ECONOMY
Joshua Holland, AlterNet
Why are folks so pessimistic about our boom-boom American economy? Because for most of us, it's painful to live in.
http://www.alternet.org/story/30447/

DEMS AND PRIVACY POLITICS
Cliff Schecter, AlterNet
Americans will vote Democrat to protect their privacy – by huge margins, even in red Republican states.
http://www.alternet.org/story/30391/

THE OPPOSITE OF GOOD IS APATHY
Commentary by Cindy Sheehan
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0106-35.htm

EIGHTIES SURVEILLANCE REVIVAL
Peter Dale Scott, Pacific News Service
Illegal eavesdropping may have grown from a secret program in the 1980s that planned to suspend the U.S. Constitution in the event of a national emergency.
http://www.alternet.org/rights/30434/

IS BUSH SPYING ON CNN?
In PEEK, Evan Derkacz notes a mysterious omission from an NBC transcript, about whether Bush was spying on CNN'S Christiane Amanpour.
http://alternet.org/blogs/peek/30417/

[DUCHESS NOTE -- Check out the latest "commentary" over at FRIENDS OF FRIDAY FORUM -- Website listed under "favorite links" in leftside column -- Peace & Justice!]

ASHCROFT SHOPS FOR SOUTH KOREA
Jonathan E. Kaplan, The Hill
What do you get when you combine John Ashcroft, Israel,
the South Korean military and Boeing? A troubling weapons deal.
http://www.alternet.org/story/30441/

BEYOND THE BALLOT
Noam Chomsky, Khaleej Times
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0106-34.htm

THE GOP CORRUPTION MACHINE
Katrina vanden Heuvel, TheNation.com
The corruption doesn't just stem from Abramoff and cronies, but from virtually every level of the Republican-dominated Congress.
http://www.alternet.org/story/30458/

GIVING AWAY ABRAMOFF'S MONEY
Arianna Huffington, AlterNet
Politicians donating Abramoff's dirty money to charity are doing the right thing for the wrong reasons.
http://www.alternet.org/columnists/story/30448/

RACISM AND COACHING IN THE NFL
Dave Zirin, AlterNet
It's time for the National Football League to take the 'whites-only' sign off the clubhouse door and hire more African-American coaches.
http://www.alternet.org/story/30460/

Nonpartisan Congressional Research Group Finds Domestic Spying Illegal Congressional Research Service (CRS) Says Court Would Not Uphold Bush Spying Program
Washington -- On December 18, 2005, Congressman Kucinich requested the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service (CRS) prepare a memo on the legal authority of the president to conduct electronic surveillance without a warrant. In the conclusion CRS states,

"...it appears unlikely that a court would hold that Congress hasexpressly or impliedly authorized the NSA electronic surveillanceoperations here under discussion, and it would likewise appear that, tothe extent that those surveillances fall within the definition of"electronic surveillance" within the meaning of FISA or any activityregulated under Title III, Congress intended to cover the entire fieldwith these statutes." -CRS Report p. 44

Kucinich issued the following statement on the CRS report:

"The President broke the law. That's the definitive finding of theCongressional Research Service (CRS), nonpartisan experts. Congress didnot authorize the warrantless wiretaps of Americans and the law doesn'tpermit the President to sidestep Congress."

http://kucinich.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=38307