A Message From Keith Olbermann

Countdown with Keith Olbermann, the much-anticipated week-nightly commentary show featuring the return of one of journalism’s most outspoken voices, will return on independently-owned Current TV on Monday, June 20 at 8/7c.

For the Countdown interactive experience, visit Current.com/Countdown

Why Is It So Hard to Bring Rapists to Justice?

A new documentary about a real life Special Victims Unit shows how tough it is to make rapists pay for their crime.
June 19, 2011

Devoted fans of the popular cop show can probably recite it in their sleep: "In the criminal justice system, sexually based offenses are considered especially heinous. In New York City, the dedicated detectives who investigate these vicious felonies are members of an elite squad known as the Special Victims Unit. These are their stories."

Those stories on Law & Order: SVU are fiction (although they frequently echo tabloid headlines), but these statistics are not: Every two minutes someone in the United States is sexually assaulted. One out of six American women will be sexually assaulted in her lifetime. But only forty percent of these crimes will be reported. Only six percent of rapists spend a day in jail.

These devastating numbers are at the very soul of a new documentary that offers an inside look at a real-life SVU -- the sex crimes prosecution unit of the New York District Attorney's office, the first of its kind in the country. Produced by Lisa F. Jackson, Sex Crimes Unit premieres on HBO, Monday, June 20, at 8 p.m. ET/PT, and will be repeated throughout the rest of the month and into July. Look for it.
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Keith Olbermann Returns to TV Tonight: What To Expect

New freedom from a new channel means Olbermann's "Olbermann-ness" is going to skyrocket -- great news for progressives.
June 19, 2011

Keith Olbermann is the kind of person who is unfailingly himself at all times. Whether on television or in interviews, he never seems like he's putting us on, and he's gained a huge, dedicated fanbase for being an unwavering, concise, passionate, intense and sometimes outrageous person.

But when "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" returns to the small screen tonight, the show will be more “Olbermann” than ever. Armed with the new freedom that comes from broadcasting on an independent station like Al Gore’s Current TV, Olbermann will be able to more comfortably express himself. Which is not to say he was hemmed in too much at MSNBC. Earlier this month, he told Rolling Stone that they never censored him. (“What were they going to do about it? It was live,” said Olbermann. “I will say this. Nobody ever said: If you say this, you're going to be fired.")

But a quick glance at his new roster of contributors hints that the resurrected "Countdown" is stretching out in its newly broad boundaries. For one, comedian Richard Lewis -- the acerbic Brooklynite known for his all-black outfits and sniping sarcasm -- is scheduled to be a regular on the show. “Comedians,” Olbermann told Rolling Stone, “are the only ones paid to tell the truth in public discourse. Everybody else—politicians, news broadcasters, religious figures—we're all paid to be oracles, when in fact we are like a good public-relations man. A good public-relations man keeps you away from the public, and if you have relations, he keeps that hidden.”
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Mind Games: Are Cyberspace and Psychiatric Drugs Messing with Our Heads?

We rely more and more on psychiatric drugs to keep us level and technology to keep us informed. But over-reliance could be changing our very reality.
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Bill Maher: If You Think the GOP Field Now Is Bad, Look at Rick Perry

Bill Maher: If You Think the GOP Field Now Is Bad, Look at Rick Perry

The presence of two conservatives on his panel last night didn't stop Bill Maher from being his fiery self last night.

He took particular glee in slamming the right wing in his New Rules segment, in which he singled out uber-religious, uber know-nothing Texas Governor Rick Perry for the Maher treatment. And with good reason, as AlterNet's Josh Holland recently noted: Texas is a mess thanks to his stewardship.

Watch below, via Crooks and Liars.

Justice Thomas Caught Up In Yet Another Ethical Tangle

The New York Times reports on Justice Clarence Thomas’ longstanding — and highly fruitful — relationship with a leading conservative donor named Harlan Crow. Crow has donated nearly $5 million to Republican candidates and conservative organizations, including $100,000 to the anti-John Kerry Swift Boat Veterans for Truth — and he has also been very generous to the Thomas family:

The two men met in the mid-1990s, a few years after Justice Thomas joined the court. Since then, Mr. Crow has done many favors for the justice and his wife, Virginia, helping finance a Savannah library project dedicated to Justice Thomas, presenting him with a Bible that belonged to Frederick Douglass and reportedly providing $500,000 for Ms. Thomas to start a Tea Party-related group. They have also spent time together at gatherings of prominent Republicans and businesspeople at Mr. Crow’s Adirondacks estate and his camp in East Texas. [...]
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Too Big to Fail Banks Got Caught…Not Surprized!

The Too Big To Fail banks have been waiting with trepidation for a ruling from the Supreme Judicial Court of the State of Massachusetts on the case titled US Bank National Association (as trustee) vs. Antonio Ibanez. They were right to be fearful. The state supreme court has ruled against the banks and upheld a lower court order that nullified foreclosures by US Bancorp and Wells Fargo, on the grounds that neither bank had the legal right under Massachusetts law to foreclose. Today’s ruling has far-reaching consequences for the banks and the housing market in general, as it throws into serious question the legal soundness of millions of mortgages in the US if, as expected, courts in other states come to similar conclusions as the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts.

This recent case adds weight to the other lawsuits going on around the country .

So what does all the really mean for homeowners?

Bottom line is this…if the bank holding your mortgage note can’t prove who actually owns your note (today or in the previous “assignment chain”), then they have no legal right to demand that you are obligated to continue making payments or repay a loan to them, since its unclear if they actually ever legally owned it.

So the opportunity for borrowers who want a shot a voiding their mortgage is quickly becoming a reality nationwide. Over a dozen cases has shown that the banks may not even own your loan anymore, and unless they can produce proof that they have no valid claim – IN MANY CASES THERE IS NO PROOF!

This is particularly interesting for homeowners struggling to make payments or even those who are current, but want to have a go at making their mortgage go away FOREVER.

Now the question is, how do you get them to provide this information and how do you prove your case and VOID YOUR MORTGAGE?

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