lrvelvel's Podcast

Mukasey - The Orthodox Jew Who Is A Disgrace To Our Religion- Again Protects Evil.

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 18:13:00 GMT

.... my deep concern for Israel and for Jews as a people lead me to revile those bastards because not only have they been a disaster for the United States itself, but they also seem to have gone far toward achieving the very opposite of what they wanted to achieve in behalf of Israel. By leading the U.S. down a terribly wrong path, they have caused many Americans -- with whom I agree about most other things -- to revile Israel, they have caused Arabs to hate Israel even more, and they have lessened, not increased, Israelâs security. Nice work, guys...

More Main Stream Media Malfeasance-The Conyers Hearing And Tom Brokaw's So-Called "Interview" Of Obama

Sun, 3 Aug 2008 15:52:00 GMT

... Never have I seen (Tom Brokaw) so obviously angry, so obviously antagonistic, as when interviewing Obama...

Forgetting The Fundamentals In Regard To Oil And Afghanistan

Fri, 1 Aug 2008 16:50:00 GMT

What do we need to do to ensure that the price the price of oil is not at some artificially high level set by a speculative futures market on which some financiers make killings while hundreds of millions of ordinary people get screwed at the gas pump?

Zbigniew Brzezinski, Lawrence Wilkerson, And Barack Obama On Afghanistan

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 01:53:00 GMT

Obama .. seems to be drinking the same Kool Aid that was drunk by, and destroyed the presidencies of, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon and George W. Bush. He is spouting apocalyptic visions combined with a possible need for unilateral warmaking....If Obama, as President, were to really follow the prescriptions he gave CBS News, it would destroy his Presidency almost as surely as Nam and Iraq destroyed Johnsonâs, Nixonâs and Bush IIâs. Britain and Russia, both at the height of empire, met disaster in Afghanistan, and so would Obama in all probability...

Evil Judges And Dumb Politicians

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 19:37:00 GMT

Surrounded by friends, allies and well wishers who, being politicians, are inevitably likely to press one bad idea after another on him, Obamaâs ability to think, to resist the bad, will be tested. It probably would serve him well... to find... a corps of people to turn to for advice who...are capable of high level thinking instead of merely the thoughtless, unperceptive reactions which...are the hallmark of most politicians and which many of his allies will press upon him.

Prosecuting Bush, Cheney et al For War Crimes

Thu, 3 Jul 2008 17:37:00 GMT

... today we not only have a years-long unwinnable war, but also torture, kidnappings and renderings to foreign countries for torture, many years of detention without trial of people who are innocent, the use of massive private armies to help carry out Executive policies, electronic spying on anyone and everyone the Executive wishes, suppression of the media far beyond anything experienced during Viet Nam, reducing Congress to an impotency exceeding that of Viet Nam, the use of Executive Branch lawyers to write professionally incompetent, secret memoranda giving clearance to awful policies, and the use of retired generals who are making a fortune from the Pentagon to spread its gospel on the mainstream media...
..what assurance is there that five or ten or twenty or thirty years down the road, when some militarists or reactionaries might again come to power, we will not get Iraq redux, just as Iraq was Viet Nam redux?...
Because domestic politics are obviously useless for holding the guilty accountable, we must try to do what was done in the 1940s to the leaders of nations who committed evil; we must try to do what was done to the German and Japanese leaders from top Nazis and Tojo right down to lawyers and judges. We must try to have them held accountable in courts of law. And we must insist on appropriate punishments, including, if guilt is found, the hangings visited upon top Germans and Japanese....

It is for all these reasons that I have called a conference to be held in Andover, MA on September 13 and 14, 2008. The conference is entitled Planning For The Prosecution Of High Level American War Criminals. The Conference is not intended to be only a discussion of violations of law that have occurred. Although discussions of ideas and facts showing violations of law will take place, library stacks and the internet are, as said, already bulging with materials showing violations (although in the last analysis decisions on violations will be made by judges if leaders are brought to justice). The Conference, rather, is intended to also be a planning conference, one at which plans will be laid, and necessary organizational structures will be set up, to pursue the guilty as long as necessary and to the ends of the earth in order to bring them before the bar of justice. The underlying law and facts will be discussed in the context of laying plans to pursue the guilty in courtrooms so that in future there may be no more Viet Nams, no more Iraqs...Both experts and the public are invited to the Conference.nyone who wants to attend the conference should contact my special assistant, Jeff Demers, at demers@mslaw.edu or at (978) 681-0800...

Alexander Pekelis And Drug Company Cases In Which Consumers Have Been Killed Or Injured.

Wed, 2 Jul 2008 19:33:00 GMT

...We know that thousands of people have been killed or injured because of defective and dangerous drugs and devices or inadequate warnings on labels. Unless everything the Times has written is a lie, we know that this disaster is in part due to the F.D.A.âs incompetence and its insufficient staff and money. We know that drug companies take advantage of the F.D.A.âs inadequacies to put defective products on the market, or products with insufficient warnings on their labels, and thereby also cause the deaths and injuries...

Eric Lichtblaus Unpersuasive Defense Of The New York Times

Mon, 2 Jun 2008 17:07:00 GMT

Eric Lichtblauâs Unpersuasive Defense Of The New York Timesâ Failure To Print His Story On The NSAâs Illegal Electronic Spying In October 2004

...The Times plainly failed the duty of the free press...to prevent the people from being sent to die from foreign shot and shell because of governmental misconduct...one is not happy to think that the newspaper that the country depends upon not only bears responsibility for facilitating the launching of the war, but also for facilitating the reelection of the disastrous people who launched and continued that disastrous policy and many others besides...

The Other Lesson Of Munich

Mon, 26 May 2008 16:02:00 GMT

...Most of the press was nothing but the tool of Chamberlain: it printed what he wanted it to say, did not print what the Government told it not to print, would not print articles or editorials that allegedly might inflame Hitler, in an English reprint of Mein Kampf, left out much -- apparently most -- of the most inflammatory things said by Hitler in that book, refused to say what Hitler was doing to the Jews, and, in general, acted as Chamberlainâs lapdog... Those of us who are Americans old enough to have lived through Viet Nam as adults, and now Iraq, have seen many of the same phenomena at work in the United States...

Dear Professor Goldman

Sun, 25 May 2008 19:47:00 GMT

...one would hope that the continuous scandals over executive misdeeds might cause even right wingers like Roberts, Thomas and Scalia to see the light. One could hope, but one doesnât expect. ...

Courts Should Insist That The Political Branches Do Their Jobs

Thu, 22 May 2008 15:04:00 GMT

...Congress enacts laws that most or even all legislators have not read, that Congresspeople and their staffs did not write (the laws were written by the executive or by private lobbyists), that have sometimes been procedurally manipulated in Congress so that legislators will not even have a chance to read them, let alone absorb and consider what they say. The Patriot Act exemplified this..

Prosecuting Guilty American Leaders For Torture

Wed, 21 May 2008 21:31:00 GMT

....The real truth is that torture was ordered from the top and the torture memos were meant to give legal cover to -- were meant to preclude criminal actions against -- the Bushes, Cheneys, Rices, Tenets, Rumsfelds, Ashcrofts, Addingtons, Haynes and Feiths who were committing serious crimes that could be punished by execution.... American officials have committed moral treason, if not legal treason. Legally, they are certainly guilty of crimes so serious that execution is a possible penalty...

There Is Little Charity In Wealthy Charitable Hospitals.

Mon, 19 May 2008 20:18:00 GMT

... One of the reasons supposedly charitable, supposedly nonprofit hospitals are amassing huge sums and paying CEOs amounts of compensation like three, four or five million per year or even more, is that the hospitals receive tax exemptions because they are providing charitable care -- free care or deeply discounted care -- for those who canât pay. The problem, though, is that thereâre not providing very much charitable care...But the percentage of charitable care Northwestern provides -- are you ready for this -- is âless than 2% of its revenues".,,

Of Mamet And Chicago. Of Obamas And Elections

Tue, 13 May 2008 19:08:00 GMT

But when Michelle Obama -- who, as an African American, has even more to be angry about than even the Jews of my generation -- uttered this truth by saying that her husbandâs candidacy and its reception were the first time she had ever been proud of America, she caught hell in the media and elsewhere.... Michelle Obamaâs problem is that she told it straight, told it as she feels about it, as she feels about it with much justification. Americaâs problem is that it does not want to discuss whether there is truth in what someone says, but instead wants to hear only bullshit that makes people thoughtlessly think well of what we do. Well, I say good for Michelle Obama.

Hypocrisy Holds High Carnival, Ferraro, Spitzer And Other Recent Travesties Of The Political/Media Complex

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 23:34:00 GMT

...This is a country which perpetrates, condones, and/or ignores the most awful conduct. We are fighting wars and killing people by the gross, but nobody with power gives enough of a damn to put an end to it... it is sometimes claimed the public cares less and less, and even left wingers profess that we cannot leave Iraq lest matters get worse ... The Republican candidate, McCain, would continue fighting for a hundred years -- of him it was recently said he never saw a country he did not want to bomb or invade, and that (being third generation Navy) he thinks war the natural state of affairs -- as, evilly, do so many of my generation. Nor do many stop to realize that war, about which people care so little because it is not them that go to it, contributes mightily to the horrendous economic situation that it is said they do care about...

Alexander Pekelis, Arthur S. Miller, And Todayâs Supreme Court

Sat, 22 Mar 2008 17:23:00 GMT

...what we have here is a Supreme Court decision that once again screws over the small man; does so without any basis in Congressional history or purpose, but, rather, contrary to that history and purpose; and screws him over on the basis of unsupported assumptions of what juries might do and with no regard for the recognized fact that the federal agency that is supposed to protect the small guy is incompetent and, apparently, is in the hip pocket of the big drug and device makers...

The Needed Mental Attributes Of A President

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 19:29:00 GMT

...this is the story of Bush. His amiable, good old boy persona reflects a certain kind of interpersonal intelligence, sometimes in high degree. But he is totally lacking in the kind of analytical, logical, thoughtful intelligence needed by a leader, much less a President. Americans, often being fools who vote for the more personally attractive guy, elected Bush twice. They have learned to rue the day they did so...

The Names Of The Washington Professional Sports Teams

Tue, 4 Mar 2008 18:05:00 GMT

Calling all the Washington sports teams âThe Moronsâ? would be superbly representative of the major âindustriesâ? of the city. Itâs just so perfect, isnât it...

The New York Times, Cable TV, And McCain

Sat, 1 Mar 2008 16:38:00 GMT

as for the McCain campaignâs high-flown-language response about serving the country, never violating the public trust and never doing favors for special interests or lobbyists ..this response is just more ... of the political style obnoxiousness of using fancy talk to evade, secrete, hide or lie.

Clarence Thomas, His Autobiography, And Related Matters Pertaining To America And The Supreme Court.

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 22:32:00 GMT

...This is the angriest book -- by far the angriest book -- that one has ever read. If Thomas were not a Justice, his book would be called a polemic, or a screed. To have written such a book sixteen years into the continuing honor of being a Justice of the Supreme Court is more than the word âamazingâ? can signify. There are, roughly speaking, about one million lawyers in this country. Nine of them, or one in about every 111,000 are on the Supreme Court. Thatâs less than one one-thousandth of one percent of them, if my arithmetic is right. There are 300 million people in this country, and only the same nine of them are Supreme Court Justices. Thatâs less than one three hundred thousandths of one percent, if my arithmetic is right. With an accomplishment like this, Thomas is angry? One thinks there must be something fundamentally wrong with this guy....

The Great Louis Terkel. You know him as Studs.

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 22:06:00 GMT

...We live in a time when millions upon millions of us think we donât count. Only the big money on Wall Street and in big business counts: Only the people who lie, cheat and steal unbelievable sums from scores of millions of small fry count. They, and only they, get what they want....

Two Matters: The Environmental Crisis As An Economic Opportunity, And John Edwards As An Angry Populist

Mon, 28 Jan 2008 16:59:00 GMT

Programs to clean up the environment are often resisted because they would be an expense, a very large one. But wouldnât they simultaneously be a fantastic investment opportunity that would work wonders for employment, incomes, return on capital, the economy in general?

Richard Levin: President of Yale And King Of Comedy

Sun, 27 Jan 2008 01:15:00 GMT

...Now, with an endowment of 22.5 billion dollars, Yale can spend 80 million dollars per year on student aid though it couldnât afford this with a puny endowment of 10, or 12 or 14 or 17 billion. Now that is funny.

Horse Race Rot, Cosmetic Crapola, And The Possible Need For Bloomberg

Wed, 16 Jan 2008 17:15:00 GMT

Our entire method of campaigning is insane, and has zero to do with showing the ability or wisdom to govern wisely...we are in need of a third party devoted to doing the right thing in the right way. It seems at least possible that Michael Bloomberg might be the person to lead that charge...

Halberstam and History: Part 2

Sat, 12 Jan 2008 20:09:00 GMT

...The constant, sometimes even continuous, failure of moral courage ...is a hallmark of American life.... There was a continuous failure of moral courage regarding civil rights during the 1940s, 1950s and up until the mid 1960s. A failure of moral courage caused us to get deeper and deeper into the disaster of Viet Nam, as the Democrats refused to act against âtheirâ? President, Lyndon Johnson, even though so many of them knew that we were in fact neck deep in disaster... A failure of moral courage has rendered the Democratic Party a nullity from the beginning in regard to Gulf II. It causes legislators, executive officials and judges to let big business get away with... the destruction of democracy as we once thought we knew it...

Halberstam and History: Part 1

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 23:22:00 GMT

...The ignoring of intelligence, the doctoring of truth, the lies, were one of those things weâve seen repeatedly from 1950 onwards: the Gulf of Tonkin in Viet Nam, body counts there, denials of escalation there, hiding of secret wars in Southeast Asia, WMDs in Iraq, denials of torture - - you name it, weâve had it. (General) MacArthur set the stage, if not the pattern....

This is the audio version of Dean Lawrence R. Velvel's blog, www.velvelonnationalaffairs.com
For more information on The Massachusetts School of Law, log on to www.mslaw.edu
And to hear (and see!) the history of MSL, please visit "Against the Tide" on www.podiobooks.com or in the podcast section of www.velvelonnationalaffairs.com
For more information on The Massachusetts School of Law, log on to www.mslaw.edu
And to hear (and see!) the history of MSL, please visit "Against the Tide" on www.podiobooks.com or in the podcast section of iTunes

Robert Novaks Prince of Darkness

Fri, 21 Dec 2007 22:44:00 GMT

...A few nights ago, I heard Lou Dobbs say on TV... that Americans do not want to vote for any of the people who currently are running for president. One thinks Dobbs right, and when you read Novakâs book you might also think that, in a system which is comprised so extensively, even almost exclusively, of the kinds of despicables whom Novak finds everywhere in Washington and the state capitols, such a horrible choice as we now have is only to be expected...

Arthur Sulzberger And Bill Keller On Bended Knee, Serf-Like

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 21:48:00 GMT

...The Times contributed greatly to getting us into the Iraq disaster in the first place by its credulous reporting on WMDs...and it then helped keep us in that disaster via contributing to Bushâs 2004 victory by kowtowing to Administration claims and withholding the story of the NSA spying...

Read 'Em And Weep For Harvard

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 21:38:00 GMT

Weep for Harvard. Weep for the academic world. Weep for an America where immoral fraudulence is so de rigueur that reports of it donât even raise an eyebrow among the powerful, but are instead regarded by them as simply the way everyday business is done.

Jacob Hale Russell's article A Million Little Authors, written for the November/December 2007 issue of Harvard's alumni magazine, 02138, is appended.

Gee, Gordon, That's Great

Tue, 27 Nov 2007 17:00:00 GMT

The Chronicle of Higher Education's annual Executive Compensation issue is out and boy do those president's make a lot of jack...though not compared to those invaluable football coaches don't you know...

The Longitudinal Lesson Of Paul Krugmanâs The Conscience Of A Liberal

Wed, 7 Nov 2007 22:35:00 GMT

...one has seen the transition from a society whose culture favored equality to a society whose culture favors truly vast inequality -- a country where it is regarded as appropriate for CEOs to make 300 and 400 times what the average workers in their companies make and for hedge fund managers to make 1.7 billion dollars a year and pay tax at only a 15 percent rate, a country where the salary of the average guy hasnât improved much, if at all, in constant dollars for 30 years, a country where all our politicians are owned by the rich as in the first Gilded Age and where the mass media is in thrall to the rich and powerful...

Jack Goldsmith Stands Convicted, part 3

Thu, 25 Oct 2007 20:58:00 GMT

There are.. some problems with Goldsmithâs little mea non culpa. What the CIA had been doing is torture pure and simple, and nothing that Levin said, or George Bush says, can change that fact. You can call the sky a floor if you want, but that wonât make it one, and you can call waterboarding a friendly gesture if you want, but that wonât make it something other than torture.

Jack Goldsmith Stands Convicted, part 2

Wed, 24 Oct 2007 15:53:00 GMT

... to not know that prisoners were being transferred for torture, Goldsmith would have had to be living under a rock during his time at DOD and must have completely failed to read pertinent OLC torture memos ...None of this seemed plausible and now, thanks to Goldsmithâs own book, we know he read and was horrified by torture memos after he was put in charge of OLC and long before he wrote the transfer memo.

Jack Goldsmith Stands Convicted, part 1

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 15:02:00 GMT

any lawyer in private practice who tortured law or ignored fact to give support and cover to a clientâs gravely illegal conduct would be subject to disbarment, subject to criminal prosecution, and disqualified from being on any respectable law school faculty. How or why it should be different for lawyers who did such things to facilitate the gravest governmental misconduct, conduct which involved torture and sometimes murder, is something that escapes me.

More Garbage About Iraq From The Pols And The Media, Plus Stupid Is As Stupid Does

Mon, 8 Oct 2007 22:53:00 GMT

It is also obvious that Bush is going to leave to his successor the awful question of what to do with terrorists whom weâve tortured, held incommunicado, detained indefinitely. These people canât be convicted in civilian courts...Then too it is again obvious that the Democrats arenât going to force Bush to bring home the troops by cutting off funds for the war. They have neither the brains nor the guts to cut our losses (the way a smart business cuts its losses).

With Its Defeat By Appalachian State, Michigan Finally Realizes Its Many, Many Decades Old Desire To Be The Harvard Of The West

Fri, 5 Oct 2007 21:05:00 GMT

Michigan has joined Harvard as the victims of what likely are the two greatest upsets in college football history. And now Michigan, as a fellow victim, has finally achieved its many, many decadesâ old desire to be the Harvard of the West.

Tell Me About Michael Bloomberg

Fri, 5 Oct 2007 00:47:00 GMT

Yesterday a posting here said we need a new kind of candidate instead of the typical amicable mediocrities who go from door to door or state to state for months or years on end in order to be elected...Today, by freak fortuity, I turned on CSpan II for a few minutes, and saw Bloomberg making a speech at Brookings on efforts to reduce poverty. To my personal amazement, he seemed to be the kind of person who met the vision offered in yesterdayâs posting.

We Desperately Need A New Electoral System, New Methods Of Campaigning, And New Types Of People Running For Office

Wed, 3 Oct 2007 20:24:00 GMT

It does not seem likely to me that one can comfortably rely on either of the current two major parties to overthrow the ultimately-disaster-producing national security state. ...Only a new party dedicated to fundamentally different ideas about America and the world will, in reality, be able to end the national security state. (Or do you really expect the Democrats to do it, if elected?)

The Federal Courts Bow Down, Abjectly, To The Secrecy Demands Of The National Security State

Thu, 30 Aug 2007 02:41:00 GMT

...secrecy, and the dishonesty it spawns, do little but create disaster...virtually every societal and economic disaster has gestated in secrecy. The Bay of Pigs, Viet Nam, the bombing of Cambodia, and Laos, the savings and loan debacle, the Enron debacle and the associated economic disaster -- all of these were hatched in secrecy and associated lies. For practical purposes, so was the current war in Iraq.

The Federal Judiciary, Aping The German Judges, Allows The Government To Force You To Die When You Are Sick.

Tue, 28 Aug 2007 19:11:00 GMT

Can the government stop someone who has no other options from trying to save his or her own life? According to a recent ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, the answer is no.

The Speech and Debate Clause and Honesty

Tue, 28 Aug 2007 15:53:00 GMT

...our entire government runs on bribery and dishonesty (and everyone in politics and the media knows it). This bribery and dishonesty are called campaign contributions....

The Access To Experimental Drugs Case.

Sun, 26 Aug 2007 15:28:00 GMT

Abigail Burroughs was only nineteen years old when she learned that she had head and neck cancer. Eighteen months of painful chemotherapy and radiation did nothing to stop its growth. Though there were drugs that could save her life, the Food and Drug Administration told Abigail she couldnât have them.

Jean Edward Smith And Joe Biden

Sun, 26 Aug 2007 00:07:00 GMT

Maybe electing Joe Biden would be a very good thing.... A third party could support Biden as its candidate too if he were to win the Democratic nomination.

and... a follow up observation about Jean Edward Smith and stacking the court...

Increasing The Size Of The Supreme Court

Mon, 6 Aug 2007 22:18:00 GMT

Should there not have been an increase in the size of the Court if absence of an increase would have resulted in pro slavery or anti union decisions in the midst of the Civil War? Should there not have been an increase if a lack of increase would have resulted in the continued vitality of a then recent decision outlawing paper money -- the kind of money we use today? Should Roosevelt not have attempted his court packing plan if the price of lack of attempt would have been, as so many think, continued evisceration of the New Deal by the Supreme Court?

Are We Rome? We Are Rome.

Sat, 4 Aug 2007 21:15:00 GMT

The Romans were arrogant. They considered themselves the center of the universe. They considered others to be inferior, didnât have good information on what others thought -- sometimes had exactly wrong information -- and seemed to believe the world existed for the benefit of Rome and that all should do as Rome did....
Velvel discourses on Cullen Murphy's new book Are We Rome? The Fall of Rome And The Fate Of America...

The High Price of Gasoline

Sat, 7 Jul 2007 16:38:00 GMT

..some think the futures markets have added 20 to 25 dollars to the price of a barrel of oil... this estimated additional amount would account for roughly 30 to 40 percent of the price per barrel...

New Installment of My Radio Show "What the Media Doesn't Tell You"

Thu, 5 Jul 2007 14:49:00 GMT

Salon blogger and author of "A Tragic Legacy", Glenn Greenwald,on the disaster of George Bushss presidency and on how George Bush became the Republican candidate in 2000. This is the audio version of Dean Lawrence R. Velvel's blog, www.velvelonnationalaffairs.com
Velvel's radio show can be heard at www.velvelonmedia.com For more information on The Massachusetts School of Law, log on to www.mslaw.edu
And to hear (and see!) the history of MSL, please visit "Against the Tide" on www.podiobooks.com or in the podcast section of iTunes

The Times' News Judgement in its Obits of June 7th

Tue, 26 Jun 2007 14:23:00 GMT

Jim Clark beat the living shit out of civil rights demonstrators. He viciously abused them physically in other ways. His actions were so terrible that they were instrumental in securing enactment of the Voting Rights Act....This is the fine individual who, the Times believed, deserved an obit twice the size of the highly accomplished Martin Meyersonâs and placement at the top of the page.

Central Points And The Frivolous News Judgments Of The News Media

Mon, 25 Jun 2007 14:06:00 GMT

...what is the effect on the rule of law, and on the entire question of honesty, if a member of the elite like Libby can deliberately lie to a grand jury and then, via pardon, get off scot free. The question is only the more acute because of the other criminals from elite walks of life who have been pardoned by Presidents....

The Current Intersection

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 00:02:00 GMT

If the right-wing wins permanent dominance, the country is for practical purposes finished....

The New Big Lie

Tue, 5 Jun 2007 18:23:00 GMT

...And as our men continue to die in Iraq A war by which Bush has managed our sworn enemiesâ number to vastly inflate, The lying, cowardly members of Congress we can be sure Will continue to do nothing effective, but will continue only to verbally masturbate...

Dr. Demento in the Oval Office

Fri, 25 May 2007 23:33:00 GMT

...more people get killed in Iraq every day, while the top cowardly lion who fled from service in Viet Nam pretends he is a brave Lincoln faced with the destruction of this country and refuses therefore to disengage from disaster while denying that disaster is occurring...

This is the audio version of Dean Lawrence R. Velvel's blog, www.velvelonnationalaffairs.com
For more information on The Massachusetts School of Law, log on to www.msl.edu
And to hear (and see!) the history of MSL, please visit "Against the Tide" on www.podiobooks.com or in the podcast section of iTunes

Article by Ray McGovern Regarding George Tenent

Tue, 22 May 2007 14:04:00 GMT

"Tenet should not be behind a microphone; he should be behind bars."
Velvel appends a "fantastically good article about George Tenet by Ray McGovern, a 27 year veteran of the CIA who for a period wrote the Presidentâs daily brief."
This is the audio version of Dean Lawrence R. Velvel's blog, www.velvelonnationalaffairs.com
For more information on The Massachusetts School of Law, log on to www.msl.edu
And to hear (and see!) the history of MSL, please visit "Against the Tide" on www.podiobooks.com or in the podcast section of iTunes

Let's Hear It For Hillary

Sun, 20 May 2007 15:19:00 GMT

...But seeking cover Hillary does pretend
That we should support a phony bill to end
The war. It enables her to circumvent the important question,
One the media collusively will not mention
Of a bill immediately cutting off all funds for the war
Except money needed to protect troops withdrawing from the blood effusing sore...
- a poem by Lawrence R. Velvel

This is the audio version of Dean Lawrence R. Velvel's blog, www.velvelonnationalaffairs.com
For more information on The Massachusetts School of Law, log on to www.msl.edu
And to hear (and see!) the history of MSL, please visit "Against the Tide" on www.podiobooks.com or in the podcast section of iTunes

Rupert Murdochâs Purchase Of The Wall Street Journal Would Be Another Large Wall Street Nail In The Coffin Of Competent America

Wed, 16 May 2007 14:38:00 GMT

...the sale of the Journal to Murdoch would be another, and very large, nail in the ever expanding Wall Streetization, and the consequently increasing incompetence, of American journalism. The concern, more specifically, is that the high quality straight journalism that often appears in the Journal will disappear as the paper becomes Murdochized -- as a desire for a high quality journalism gives way to the Wall Streetish desire for ever greater profits...

This is the audio version of Dean Lawrence R. Velvel's blog, www.velvelonnationalaffairs.com
For more information on The Massachusetts School of Law, log on to www.msl.edu
And to hear (and see!) the history of MSL, please visit "Against the Tide" on www.podiobooks.com or in the podcast section of iTunes

More Moral Meltdown In America.

Sat, 12 May 2007 18:26:00 GMT

The mania in this country for elite credentials makes a joke of the claim of social mobility that has always been so much a part of purported America. It is itself a form of moral meltdown.
On MIT, Wolfowitz, Iraq, the candidates...

This is the audio version of Dean Lawrence R. Velvel's blog, www.velvelonnationalaffairs.com
For more information on The Massachusetts School of Law, log on to www.msl.edu
And to hear (and see!) the history of MSL, please visit "Against the Tide" on www.podiobooks.com or in the podcast section of iTunes

On Being "Off The Air" Of The Internet For A Period, On Imus, On Blacksburg, And On Bill Moyer's Show About Mass Media

Wed, 9 May 2007 17:25:00 GMT

With regard to Imus, one does not bleed for him....Blacksburg? -- what can one say? People who have said some of what there is to say have been crucified... For they pointed out the societally inadmissible relationship between what happened at Blacksburg...on the one hand, and the violence which is approved by and endemic to American society and the American government on the other hand. ...

This is the audio version of Dean Lawrence R. Velvel's blog, www.velvelonnationalaffairs.com
For more information on The Massachusetts School of Law, log on to www.msl.edu
And to hear (and see!) the history of MSL, please visit "Against the Tide" on www.podiobooks.com or in the podcast section of iTunes

We Fight And Lose Wars In Which We Cannot, Dare Not, Use Our Major Advantages.

Tue, 1 May 2007 14:26:00 GMT

...In Korea the Chinese came in by the hundreds of thousands and,
though most Americans donât know it, Russian pilots were piloting the Mig.
There was no telling just how big
The war could have become
Had we insisted on putting in more men until we won,
If we indeed did win. There was a fear that we might easily
Have triggered World War III.
And in Viet Nam had we put in a million or a million and a half men,
We would have risked World War III again...

This is the audio version of Dean Lawrence R. Velvel's blog, www.velvelonnationalaffairs.com
For more information on The Massachusetts School of Law, log on to www.msl.edu
And to hear (and see!) the history of MSL, please visit "Against the Tide" on www.podiobooks.com or in the podcast section of iTunes

Remarks On Torture And Secrecy By The Redoubtable Scott Horton

Fri, 27 Apr 2007 19:06:00 GMT

"The practice of secret courts. The use of torture to secure confessions. The receipt of secret evidence. The exclusion of the public from proceedings. The offering of evidence in the form of summaries delivered to the judges, without the defendant being able to confront the evidence or conduct a cross-examination. These practices were the definition of tyrannical injustice to the Puritan fathers and the Founding Fathers. We thought them long banished, indeed, a hundred years and more before our own revolution. And now suddenly here they are again."
-from remarks' made by Scott Horton at the NYU Law School.

Reactionary Federal Appellate Judges, And What Can Be Done About Them.

Tue, 24 Apr 2007 15:16:00 GMT

...From the media one may receive this explanation
For why names of judges it does not mention:
A court of appeals is a unitary body,
So it matters not who speaks, or whether her logic is brilliant or shoddy,
Her words are not hers but of the court anent
(Unless, I guess, spoken in concurrence or dissent).
And this though the judges usually are but three
Of a court of seven or twelve or even twenty.
Need one say the idea is preposterous
And serves only to insure ignorance among us
Of who is liberal and who reactionary,
Of who uses life tenure to push views of the nineteenth century?...
a poem by Lawrence R Velvel

The Presidency Has Become A Great Business Opportunity

Thu, 12 Apr 2007 19:03:00 GMT

Itâs no longer just the desire to be first,
Or to live forever in a great sunburst
Of historical fame.
No. Now its for gain,
For riches, for wealth, for dollars by the million
That the greedy dance at the presidential cotillion,
Since it has now become clear for all to see
That to be President is a business opportunity
Of terrific dimension....
- a poem

This is the audio version of Dean Lawrence R. Velvel's blog, www.velvelonnationalaffairs.com
For more information on The Massachusetts School of Law, log on to www.msl.edu
And to hear (and see!) the history of MSL, please visit "Against the Tide" on www.podiobooks.com or in the podcast section of iTunes

Birmingham And Baghdad; The South In 1963 And The United States in 2007

Wed, 4 Apr 2007 16:45:00 GMT

In 1963, Gene Patterson wrote a now famous column in The Atlanta Constitution in response to the Birmingham Church bombing.
...If you substitute the words"United States" for the word "South", the word "American" for the word "Southerner", the name "Iraq" for the name "Birmingham", and make some other necessary verbal substitutions...then what Patterson wrote is in many unfortunate respects as applicable to the entire United States today as it was to the South in 1963.

Comment on "If You Want To Know Why We Keep Fighting Wars, Look No Further Than The South"

Sun, 1 Apr 2007 18:51:00 GMT

For all its professed Christianity, the South today still has not adopted the philosophy of the Sermon on The Mount in its world outlook.... Sherwood Ross responds to Velvel's previous post...

If You Want To Know Why We Keep Fighting Wars, Look No Further Than The South.

Fri, 30 Mar 2007 18:35:00 GMT

The most famous Southern writer, Faulkner, said the past is not dead, it is not even past. This would seem true of the Southern attitude towards war. War has regularly been a Southern policy of choice...The South wanted the War of 1812, it wanted war with Mexico, it wanted the Civil War, it wanted to invade and take over Cuba and parts of Central America. Woodrow Wilson, a Southerner, got us into World War I after saying he kept us out of war. Even Harry Truman, who took us into Korea without Congressional authorization and thereby set the stage for a militarized nation and Viet Nam, was in effect a southerner -- Missouri was a rebel leaning border state with lots of Southern feeling (and guerrillas) where Truman grew up not long after the Civil War... Lyndon Johnson was a Southerner, and so was Dean Rusk. So is the current George Bush.

Why There Was No Indictment On The Underlying Crime Of Outing Valerie Plame

Thu, 29 Mar 2007 18:26:00 GMT

...The press prates of freedom and liberty
But doesnât grasp that to continue free
It cannot allow the President to be
A king...
Why There Was No Indictment On The Underlying Crime Of Outing Valerie Plame- a poem by Lawrence R. Velvel

This is the audio version of Dean Lawrence R. Velvel's blog, www.velvelonnationalaffairs.com
For more information on The Massachusetts School of Law, log on to www.msl.edu
And to hear (and see!) the history of MSL, please visit "Against the Tide" on www.podiobooks.com or in the podcast section of iTunes

Article by A Lieutenant Colonel who served time in Iraq

Thu, 15 Mar 2007 23:46:00 GMT

It is not the insurgency, with its roadside bombs, or criminals engaging in mass kidnappings that are defeating the U.S. mission. It is the fact that our civilian leadership has cast victory in Iraq as a stable, democratic government. Building the parameters for mission success upon values and goals that the Iraqis themselves do not care for is potentially leading us toward a political defeat, despite our strength of arms...writes the Lieutenant Colonel...

This is the audio version of Dean Lawrence R. Velvel's blog, www.velvelonnationalaffairs.com
For more information on The Massachusetts School of Law, log on to www.msl.edu
And to hear (and see!) the history of MSL, please visit "Against the Tide" on www.podiobooks.com or in the podcast section of iTunes

The Long Line- a poem

Tue, 13 Mar 2007 22:25:00 GMT

Is a huge misdeed,
Yet not momentous
Nor portentous.
For itÃïïs only the latest in the line
Of serial crime
That has victimized men
When theyÃïïre home again
From the wars....