The upper crust of neocon conservatism takes a shipboard holiday

i'm not even going to attempt to excerpt or summarize this incredible article from the uk independent except to say that it's an eye-opener of the first magnitude...

here's the teaser...

The Iraq war has been an amazing success, global warming is just a myth – and as for Guantanamo Bay, it's practically a holiday camp... The annual cruise organised by the 'National Review', mouthpiece of right-wing America, is a parallel universe populated by straight-talking, gun-toting, God-fearing Republicans.

(thanks to larisa...)

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Bruce Fein and John Nichols talk with Bill Moyers about impeachment

excellent viewing... in two parts...

Bill Moyers gets perspective on the role of impeachment in American political life from Constitutional scholar Bruce Fein, who wrote the first article of impeachment against President Bill Clinton, and THE NATION's John Nichols, author of THE GENIUS OF IMPEACHMENT.

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BooMan on the invocation of inherent contempt and the coming showdown

i posted briefly yesterday on larisa's post on john dean's thoughts about harriet miers' refusal to respond to the subpoena of the house judiciary committee... i commented at the time that i thought it was interesting that no mention was made of inherent contempt charges... well, stupid me, i hadn't bothered going to john dean's findlaw post to read the whole thing... my bad... booman obviously did and has this to say...

Congress hasn't used [the power of inherent contempt] since 1934 and it would be a spectacle. The Congress would have the sergeant-at-arms arrest Harriet Miers and then she would face a trial in the House. The Department of Justice would not be involved. Inherent Contempt can be invoked in either house of Congress, so the Senate could do the same thing to Sara Taylor if they so desired. In the 1934 case the Senate convicted the postmaster general to 10 days in prison. He appealed it all the way to the Supreme Court and lost.

This is the beginning point to impeaching the president. Bringing Inherent Contempt charges against Miers will provide the kind of exotic storyline that will crystallize the extreme crisis that we are in for the public.

john dean...

[I]f Miers is found in contempt, the House itself can take action against her at the bar of the House. (The Senate can similarly hold such proceedings.) Congress has the power to prosecute contumacious witnesses to require them to comply, and the Supreme Court has repeatedly reaffirmed this power. For example, in 1987, in Young v. U.S., Justice Antonin Scalia recognized "the narrow principle of necessity" or "self-defense" of the Congress in protecting its institutional prerogatives. Scalia said "the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial Branches must each possess those powers necessary to protect the functioning of its own processes, although those implicit powers may take a form that appears to be nonlegislative, nonexecutive, or nonjudicial, respectively."

When all is said and done the only way Congress can protect its prerogatives is to undertake its own contempt proceedings. The parliamentary precedents of the House provide such procedures, by which Congress can effectively protect itself.

[...]

Given the clear attitude of conservative presidents, who are doing all within their power to make Congress irrelevant, Congress should turn to these underemployed precedents and put them back to work. The House and Senate Judiciary Committees should take the lead in reviving these procedures, and the Democrats' leadership should announce that they are embracing them.

If they do not, Fred Fielding has it right: Officials are absolutely immune from compelled Congressional testimony. Bush can simply tell Congress to stop sending subpoenas to his appointees. However, if Congress does engage in a little self-help at this crucial juncture, it can be sure that not only Harriet Miers, but also George Bush, will be forced to pay attention to congressional subpoenas - for the bottom line is that Congress will not need the cooperation of the other branches to enable it to conduct proper oversight.

booman concludes with this...

It is only when the battle becomes clearly a battle, not between parties, but between branches of government, that the Republicans will stand up and remove a president that they really have no use for. They won't remove him for torture, or illegal spying, or kidnapping, or voter fraud, but they'll consider it for usurping the powers of Congress. And if the president is going to stay the course in Iraq, they may well compel him to turn over the documents that will seal his fate.

i'm waiting, and not very patiently either...

and, for the umpteenth time, lest we forget, these stakes were spelled out by the bush administration last october...

"In fact, when it comes to deploying its Executive power, which is dear to Bush's understanding of the presidency, the President's team has been planning for what one strategist describes as 'a cataclysmic fight to the death' over the balance between Congress and the White House if confronted with congressional subpoenas it deems inappropriate. The strategist says the Bush team is 'going to assert that power, and they're going to fight it all the way to the Supreme Court on every issue, every time, no compromise, no discussion, no negotiation.'"

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"All jobs take skill - and intelligence - and experience"

i've focused many of my professional efforts on enhancing, supporting and empowering the inherent dignity and worth of those who do the real work in our society... i've been increasingly drawn to the work of barbara ehrenreich as someone who shares the same values... here, thanks to the unknown candidate, is a clip from the recent documentary, the american ruling class...

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"The first week we were in Baghdad, we lost two guys in our battalion"

thanks to lithiumcola at daily kos...

The Guardian's award-winning photographer and filmmaker Sean Smith spent two months embedded with US troops in Baghdad and Anbar province. His harrowing documentary exposes the exhaustion and disillusionment of the soldiers.

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U.S. fights "lawful" enemy combatants in Iraq

how very interesting...

In a rare battle between American and uniformed Iraqi forces, United States troops backed by fighter jets killed six Iraqi policemen and seven gunmen during a predawn raid in which they captured a rogue police lieutenant, the military said Friday.

al qaeda wasn't mentioned a single time in the entire article... however...

They said the captured lieutenant was a “high ranking” leader of a cell they suspected of having links to the Quds Force, part of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

if you can't get away with blaming al qaeda, go with the next best thing...

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Important guidelines for maintaining the presidential bubble outside the White House

from the aclu via alternet via the progressive...

Presidential Advance Manual [PDF]

Office of Presidential Advance

October 2002

[...]

Preventing Demonstrators

All Presidential events must be ticketed or accessed by a name list. This is the best method for preventing demonstrators. People who are obviously going to try to disrupt the event can be denied entrance at least to the VIP area between the stage and the main camera platform. ... It is important to have your volunteers at a checkpoint before the Magnetometers in order to stop a demonstrator from getting into the event. Look for signs they may be carrying, and if need be, have volunteers check for folded cloth signs that demonstrators may be bringing.

[...]

Preparing for Demonstrators

As always, work with the Secret Service and have them ask the local police department to designate a protest area where demonstrators can be placed, preferably not in view of the event site or motorcade route.

[...]

Rally Squads

These squads should be instructed always to look for demonstrators. The rally squad's task is to use their signs and banners as shields between the demonstrators and the main press platform. If the demonstrators are yelling, rally squads can begin and lead supportive chants to drown out the protestors (USA!, USA!, USA!). As a last resort, security should remove the demonstrators from the event site.

[...]

The rally squads can include, but are not limited to, college/young republican organizations, local athletic teams, and fraternities/sororities.

kind of like on daily kos, there's a lot of talk about the free, open debate that is the hallmark of free, open societies, but walking that talk is a different story...

remember the denver three, barred from attending a bush speech on privatizing social security...?

Two people who sued a government employee after being ejected from a 2005 presidential appearance in Denver have requested action on their case, which has seen no action since March.

The two say they were ousted from President Bush's public speech in March 2005 solely because they arrived in a car with an anti-war bumper sticker.

Leslie Weise, 40, and Alex Young, 26, two of the three people ousted from the event, are suing Michael Casper, a General Services Administration manager, who worked the event as a volunteer.

They say Casper and his higher- ups violated their rights to free speech and protection from unreasonable search and seizure.

at the time, i wrote an open letter to bush in which i said, in part...

The cornerstone of a democracy is an informed and educated citizenry who can then select their leaders wisely. The corollary is that our leaders must insure that adequate means to obtain that information and education is available, accessible, factual, comprehensible, and utilized. This is the essence of good citizenship. To effectively silence opposing voices, as seems to be happening at your events, is to turn our beloved country into the very thing we claim to most thoroughly despise.

for all the damn good it did...

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Make sure the ones you're depriving have no means to fight back

from today's la times...

Gov. seeks to cut mental services for homeless
Schwarzenegger says ending the acclaimed program would save $55 million annually toward $3-billion budget gap.

A nationally lauded program that has helped thousands of mentally ill homeless men and women break the cycle of psychiatric hospitalization, jail time and street life is now on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's list of budget cuts.

The governor has proposed eliminating Integrated Services for Homeless Adults With Serious Mental Illness, which receives $55 million annually, as part of his attempt to close a budget gap estimated at more than $3 billion.

why, it all makes perfectly good sense... the homeless mentally ill have no lobbyists... as a source of campaign contributions, they're practically worthless... they don't have access to the media... they don't own property or stock... they're not affiliated with an ethnic group, religious organization or political party... they don't speak out on issues... they probably don't even vote... hell, when they talk at all, they don't even make sense half the time... what a perfect opportunity for a budget cut...

p.s. $55M is 1.9% of $3B...

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Watch this

(thanks to joe at americablog...)

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Larisa is alarmed, and even more alarmed that John Dean is alarmed

i've been alarmed for quite some time, but with the refusal of harriet miers to appear, my alarm has deepened significantly... i'm not alone...

larisa alexandrovna...

The formidable Mr. Dean raises some very disturbing questions in his latest article at FindLaw, I will skip to the disturbing parts, but I suggest you real the whole piece (emphasis mine):

"By not responding to the subpoena, the President and Ms. Miers all but invited the House Judiciary Committee and, in turn, the House of Representatives to vote to deem her in contempt of Congress. It was a defiant, in-your-face insult to Congress. No president would do this unless he was quite confident of the outcome. Clearly, Bush's White House and Justice Department lawyers believe that the solidly conservative federal judiciary will grant them a favorable ruling, and that, in the process, they will greatly weaken congressional oversight powers, to the advantage of the White House.

[...]

The Justice Department, then, must be assuring the White House that it will make this, in effect, the law, by refusing to prosecute such defiant officials under the criminal contempt statute if Congress refers the matter to them.

This is a very aggressive position. While it does not reflect the current state of the law, given the pro-presidential bias among so many of the conservative jurists who now dominate the federal judiciary, and particularly the Supreme Court, Bush may well succeed in defending this position if this matter goes to court

i am at a loss to explain why neither larisa nor john dean touched on the congressional power to declare harriet miers in inherent contempt (see here, here, and here...) it's been bandied about extensively, at least where i hang out in the blogosphere, and seems to me to be about the only option left to congress short of initiating impeachment proceedings...

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"We cannot and will not turn this country into a police state."

the post title is taken from the closing remarks of keith olbermann's special comment on michael chertoff last night...

crooks and liars has the video clip...

(thanks to casey...)

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The case for war crimes charges against Tony Blair

steve clemons has a post up about an upcoming bbc radio drama...

The BBC has a must-listen show on radio tomorrow titled Called to Account [Saturday, 14 July 2007, at 2:30 pm UK Time and at 9:30 am EST. This can be listened to over the web live or downloaded to a podcast for later listening] offering a theatrical version of Tony Blair's indictment for Iraq War-related crimes. This may inspire many on this side of the Atlantic pond to think about various strategies to hold America's current political leadership accountable for duplicity and mismanagement of America's national security portfolio -- and particularly for the Iraq War.

while i am in complete agreement with the need for accountability, i would certainly see it extending to much more than the "duplicity and mismanagement of America's national security portfolio -- and particularly for the Iraq War"... the failure to uphold the u.s. constitution, violation of fisa, the list is too long to enumerate here...

steve goes on...

If 'Democracy' is ever going to shed its bad name, accountability must be one of its fundamental pillars in any genuine system of checks and balances. There should be a price paid for serious errors by national leaders -- and an even higher price paid by those who wield power with impunity and who lie to their publics in so-called democracies.

again, "serious errors" is a serious understatement... "lying to the public" is a better description, but the "commission of deliberate and conscious crimes" i think says it best overall...

a few more thoughts...

if the u.s. isn't yet at a tipping point, we are getting damn close... the extension of executive privilege to include not only spurning a subpoena but also an outright refusal to appear (as in harriet miers no-show before the house judiciary committee yesterday) is an in-your-face demonstration of the stunning degree of lawlessness that is the hallmark of this presidential administration...

the first order of business, superseding anything else, is getting this crowd OUT of the white house before they can wreak more havoc... the second is undoing the outrages they have perpetrated against our constitutional framework BEFORE a new president takes office... the third requires that we hold these criminals accountable in the fullest possible sense and insure that the maximum consequences are imposed, and that needs to take place both domestically as well as on the world stage... our future as a nation, our future in the world of nations, and our ability to look ourselves in the mirror each morning depend on it...

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I refuse to support ANY candidate or ANY party that does not forcefully address our constitutional crisis

the various posts and comments here yesterday on cindy sheehan's banning from daily kos seem to have generated a fair amount of discussion on what i consider to be a very central issue, namely how can people concerned about the terrible state of our nation come together to do something about it without becoming mired in partisan politics...

commenter betmo...

i just got in a world of crap for pointing out the hypocrisies of the left. a fellow blogger got in a world of crap for pointing out that one particular blog uses similar propaganda techniques as the neo cons to promote fear. we both got raked over the coals hard. i don't care which side of the aisle you are on- if your interests lie with saving this country---and saving the planet- then we can fight side by side. if you are interested in promoting party politics as usual, you need not apply.

my thoughts in response...

i couldn't agree more... while i totally understand and to a large extent agree with those who believe that, unless the dems stick together, we might not be able to remove the criminals from the white house and congress, i have no desire to substitute those criminals with different criminals who are better at play-acting their concern for the commonwealth and the constitution... it's high time the american people got shoe-leather honest and recognized that by abdicating our rightful role in our country's governance, we've allowed the foxes to rule the henhouse and we simply can't tolerate that any longer...

hell, i don't want to see a nader spoiler open the door for another bush-type president, but i also realize that lock-step support of a one-party ticket is asking to be charmed into allowing ourselves to be robbed rather than being robbed by decree...

i'll tell ya what... i'm DELIGHTED to be having this kind of discussion because i believe it's PRECISELY the kind of discussion we ought to be having...

it's clear as hell to me that the bush administration's shredding of the fundamentals the united states was founded on only happens to be the most overt, brazen, and egregious in a series of presidential administrations that traveled the very same road, and all of them have done so with our implicit, if not conscious, consent... the cornerstones of our nation, as enshrined in the declaration of independence, the constitution, the bill of rights, and all the other constitutional amendments, supported by years of judicial precedent supporting those fundamentals, are our sine qua non... it is those combined principles, values and beliefs that embody any and all hope for our future as a nation, and they are systematically and deliberately being negated... i have now reached the point where i simply cannot support ANY candidate or ANY party that does not, cannot or will not stand up and forcefully address that crisis...

i'll re-post what i told a woman with the john edwards campaign when she called me for a donation in early june...

i said that i see the united states in the middle of the worst constitutional crisis of its history and that i am not hearing ANY candidate calling it for what it is... [...] i said that unless and until a presidential candidate stands up and calls it for what it is, and starts talking about what WE can do to set things right, he or she will NOT get my support... i asked her to please pass that along to edwards, which she assured me she would... then i said that, when edwards decides to step forward on that issue, to please feel free to get back with me...

they still haven't called me back...

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That Ole Gut Feeling

Wait..........Wait..........I think I'm feeling it too............. Ohhhhh, never mind.....musta been that chili I had for dinner.

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Good for you, BooMan

i'm obviously not alone in my viewpoint... always nice to know...

I don't support her threatened campaign against Speaker Pelosi but Cindy Sheehan is welcome to post her thoughts here [Booman Tribune]. Daily Kos seems to be incapable of co-existing with anyone on the left that doesn't automatically show fealty to the Democratic Party. It's becoming a nation of Paul Begalas.

and furthermore...

It's a mistake. Who cares if she wants to promote a third party campaign? Argue on the merits. Pelosi won her last election with 84% of the vote and I think the green did better than the Republican. Pelosi isn't going to notice anyway.

and even a lot FURTHER-more...

As for Sheehan, let me make two points.

1. She isn't going to even make Pelosi break a sweat. She should have picked on someone that might actually have to worry, like Ike Skelton or something. It doesn't matter whether she runs in the primary or the general. She'll have no effect on the outcome. And if she has any effect at all, it will be a positive effect.

2. Trashing her and forbidding her from discussing her campaign is just weakening your community and causing scads of people on the left to feel unwelcome.

Dumb and Dumber.

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Rudy Giuliani: Urban Legend

go take a look... truth is powerful stuff...

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I want to be associated with people who have strong positive beliefs and values that I share

and that doesn't mean they have to have a "D" stamped on their foreheads...

commenter paul...

The best thing you can do to someone who is trying to fracture your coalition (from the left) is to (1) take note of their complaints, because maybe some of your own supporters share them and then SQUASH THEM LIKE A BUG.

This is not a game, folks. Cindy has betrayed the Democratic party, and it's time to crush her - just in case she gets traction. I honestly doubt she will though.

right now, the very fabric of our country is being torn asunder... the principles of our constitution are under attack... that is not a republican issue, a democratic issue, a libertarian issue, a green party issue, an independent issue, an agnostic issue, a christian issue, a muslim issue, an african-american issue, or a latino issue... it is OUR issue...

when OUR country is going to hell in a handbasket, and there are nearly as many worthless and corrupt democratic politicians as there are republicans, we simply have to find a way to come together as a nation and get ourselves back on the track we jumped many years ago, well before the current gang of criminals took office... that doesn't mean centrism, that doesn't mean moderation, and it certainly doesn't mean that dreaded word "bipartisanship..." it means citizens, average citizens, citizens like you and me, reclaiming the power we have been given by our constitution to decide the legitimacy of our government and to guide and direct its actions... the elites of neither party are about to let that happen, and so we are faced with a dilemma...

cindy sheehan, in her bumbling, stumbling, spotlight-seeking, somewhat naive, somewhat self-pitying way, i think recognizes that, and for that, i give her credit... nancy pelosi, along with every other elected leader in this country, ought to be crying the alarm of our constitutional crisis from every county courthouse tower in every county seat in the nation, but she isn't and they aren't... unwavering and, imho, blind support of a democratic "coalition" isn't going to save us...

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Radical Christian activist terrorism

this is what happens when you have fundamentalist christian ideologues attempting to impose their religious beliefs on an entire nation, beliefs fueled by rigid dogmatism, bigotry, homophobia, and intolerance of other religious beliefs, all implicitly sanctioned by the presidential administration and the republican party... even though it's been overused and abused, the correct term here is indeed the "american taliban..."

Three Burleson men who belong to a "radical Christian activist group" were in the Johnson County Jail on Friday night after a church deacon caught two of them attempting to ignite an explosive device on Independence Day at a church under construction in north Burleson [Texas], authorities said Friday.

[...]

Cmdr. Chris Havens, the Police Department spokesman, said the suspects boasted about belonging to a leaderless group of 10 or 15 who share a belief that society has become too focused on self-improvement and self-gratification and has lost focus on the glorification of God.

"They admit to being Christian and being brought up Christian, but they believe there should be one denomination and one church, not multiple denominations," Havens said.

at least they're putting these twisted young men into the proper category...

"We put them in the category of a domestic terrorist group," Havens said. "We hope to discover the names of other individuals involved and if other devices have been prepared along with any plans they may be talking about to further their cause."

needless to say, had these been muslim young men, there would have been 24/7 national news coverage for at least the next three days...

(thanks to atrios...)

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""The same folks that are bombing innocent people in Iraq are the ones who attacked us on Sept. 11"

the man has truly lost his grip...

President Bush, defending his troop surge in Iraq, insisted Thursday that the insurgents attacking US troops in Iraq "are the same ones who attacked us on Sept. 11."

Bush was speaking at a White House press conference. Asked for proof of the connection between insurgents in Iraq and the 9/11 hijackers, Bush said both had pledged their allegiance to Osama bin Laden.

"The same folks that are bombing innocent people in Iraq are the ones who attacked us on Sept. 11," Bush said.

[...]

Bush also refused to rule out committing more troops to Iraq in the future, saying he would not publicly speculate about what he will do when Gen. David Petraeus delivers a final report on the surge's progress in September.

he's gotta go... cheney's gotta go... the cabinet's gotta go... resignation, impeachment, whatever...

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Banning Cindy Sheehan from Daily Kos because she's running for Congress as an Independent?

this is wrong...

I can't post here anymore because my potential run for Congress
is not on the Democratic ticket.

I have been deeply grateful for all of your support over the years.
Your love and kindness helped me through lots of sleepless nights
at Camp Casey '05.

If Speaker Pelosi does her constitutionally mandated duty and I don't run,
then I can come back and post.

I know a lot of you are hostile towards my candidacy. Please
understand that I am doing it for your children and grandchildren
(and my surviving ones.)

Love always,
Cindy

i carry no brief for cindy sheehan, pro or con, but, for a site like daily kos that prides itself on being an open community, to ban a long-time member because she chooses not to run on the democratic ticket, quite honestly gives me as many cold chills down the back as the bush/rove politicization of the justice department... i hope that this, if true, is rescinded... it's absolutely the wrong thing to do...

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The U.S. takes the lead among western industrialized nations

the last shall be first and the first last...

We are first among western industrialized nations when it comes to percentage of children living below the poverty line, murders of males between ages fifteen and twenty-four, in the number of handguns in the street used by people of all ages, the percentage of citizens incarcerated, energy consumption per capita, and in the emissions of air pollutants.

And, we are by far number one in the rate of people gunned down each year in street crimes and similar violent incidents. In America today, there are more African-American adult males in jail than in college.

but, despite the grim picture for health care in most of the u.s., there's at least one truly outstanding, extremely affordable, employer plan available, one that ranks right up there with the best any g8 country has to offer...

There is an employee/insurance deal in the U.S. that includes unlimited doctor office visits of your choosing; covers all accidents, routine exams, physical therapy, labs and X-rays; and the like; unlimited hospital visits and stays; certain chronic care and rehab; full prescription coverage; and unlimited specialty consultations. For the employee and the entire family. There are no deductibles, no co-pays, and only a $35 monthly fee taken from an annual salary of $158 thou. Thirty-five dollars!

The group awarded this insurance looks forward to a full pension and continued coverage until their deaths. Quite a few, most in fact, were millionaires before they took on their jobs that got them such a perk. Who gets this coverage? It would be nice if it were the underprivileged or the chronically ill and debilitated or our veterans.

But no. For starters, the 535 members of the U.S. Congress, and add to that the few hundred in the upper executive and judicial branches of government. They are also members of a demographic group where seven were arrested for shoplifting, nineteen for writing bad checks, and eighty-four for drunk driving. This bunch also has an overrepresentation of felony indictments, and a few ended up serving time.

as a consultant, a contractor, and a part-time professor, i receive no medical benefits nor can i afford to pay for my own, and i have zero desire to run for congress... as i've stated here previously, were it not for the truly excellent level of care i receive from the veterans administration by virtue of being a vietnam vet, i would be in a very precarious position regarding my health, and, as i get older, that vulnerability would only increase... eventually, i will become eligible for medicare, but one hell of a lot could happen between now and then...

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Nukes by mail

fissionable material delivered right to your front door...

Undercover congressional investigators posing as West Virginia businessmen obtained a license with almost no scrutiny from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that enabled them to buy enough radioactive material from U.S. suppliers to build a "dirty bomb," a new government report says.

The investigators obtained the license within 28 days from officials at the NRC, the federal agency that in addition to regulating nuclear power plants oversees radioactive materials used in health care and industry, the report by the Government Accountability Office says. NRC officials approved the request with a minimal background check that included no face-to-face interview or visit to the purported company to ensure it existed and complied with safety rules, the report says.

Using a post-office box at Mail Boxes Etc., a telephone and a fax machine, the undercover investigators from the GAO obtained the license "without ever leaving their desks," the report says.

the bush administration has never been serious about homeland security... in fact, they've taken quite the opposite posture, leaving enough loopholes and doors open, and stirring up enough rage in potential terrorists, that the likelihood of a terrorist incident has INCREASED rather than decreased... why would they want to do this...? think about it... jihad, terrorism, al qaeda, and terrorist attacks are truly this administration's best friend... without them, bushco loses the ability to brandish its most effective weapon for keeping the citizens in line - fear, fear, fear... and as long as he's still running around out there, osama can remain the poster boy for our government's endless war...

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Here's what SANE and CIVILIZED people do when faced with challenges that could tear them apart

they find ways to come together and to keep the forces of darkness at bay...

The terrorist attack that narrowly failed to inflict mass slaughter at Glasgow airport on 30 June 2007 has had a singular impact on Scotland's public life. A universal sense of shock was followed by vigorous official efforts to build bridges to the country's approximately 60,000 Muslims. A week later, on 6 July, the cream of Scotland's establishment gathered in George Square in the Glasgow's heart to offer them protection and reassurance. The institutions represented included the ruling Scottish National Party (SNP), the police, the Church of Scotland, the trade unions, and the vocal anti-war movement. Nobody wondered aloud about the religious dimensions of the violent ideology that had evidently motivated the would-be massacre. Indeed, Scotland's health minister and SNP deputy leader Nicola Sturgeon was explicit that "Islam is a religion of peace".

i find this one of the most heartening things i have read in a long, long time... THIS is the way genuine, well-intentioned human beings who are actually SERIOUS about living together in peace and harmony respond to potential catastrophe... but can't you just hear the nutcakes in this country commenting on this kind of reaching out...? i don't even want to speculate on the bile and viciousness that would greet such an effort...

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DOJ advises White House to ignore Congress

i am completely drop-jawed at the arrogance and total lawlessness of the presidential administration that purports to serve as our elected leadership... this is sounding more and more like zimbabwe under robert mugabe rather than the united states of america...

In a broadly worded legal opinion, the Justice Department has concluded that President Bush's former top lawyer, and possibly other senior White House officials, can ignore subpoenas from Congress to testify about the U.S. attorneys affair.

The three-page opinion raises questions about whether the Justice Department would prosecute senior administration officials if Congress voted to hold them in contempt for not cooperating with the investigation into the firing last year of eight top prosecutors.

[...]

Correspondence released by the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday showed that Miers, through her lawyer, had asked White House counsel Fred Fielding whether she had to attend the hearing to personally assert the privilege. After consulting the Justice Department, Fielding wrote back saying that Miers had "absolute immunity from compelled Congressional testimony" and that "the president has directed her not to appear."

The position prompted an angry response from House Judiciary Committee chairman Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., and Rep. Linda Sanchez, D-Calif., the chair of the commercial and administrative law subcommittee.

"We are aware of absolutely no court decision that supports the notion that a former White House official has the option of refusing to even appear in response to a Congressional subpoena," Conyers and Sanchez wrote to George Manning, Miers' lawyer. "A refusal to appear ... could subject Ms. Miers to contempt proceedings."

[...]

"The privilege does not entitle you to refuse to appear. The privilege entitles you to refuse to answer questions when you appear if those questions call for privileged information," said Stephen Gillers, a legal ethics professor at New York University law school. "No one can claim the privilege entitles you to ignore the body that subpoenas you."

unbelievable...

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Take the time to read this

seriously... opol (one pissed off liberal), one of my very favorite rant specialists, has a diary up at daily kos that captures the very essence of the critical pass we are at in the united states... he tells it like it is and anyone seriously concerned with our future direction in this country needs to pay close attention...

teaser...

And when the ‘authorities’ start reporting al Qaeda in the house, and Chertoff starts talking about his guts, for my money it’s time to start watching for the false flag. These miserable fucks are up to no good.

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Inherent contempt charges being considered for Harriet's refusal to appear

in the grasping-at-straws department, i find this to be a tad bit encouraging...

A refusal to appear before the Subcommittee tomorrow could subject Ms. Miers to contempt proceedings, including but not limited to proceedings under 2 U.S.C. § 194 and under the inherent contempt authority of the House of Representatives.

this has led kagro x to ponder on the "pardon-ability" of statutory contempt of congress charges vs. inherent contempt charges...

Our previous discussions of contempt of Congress procedures have allowed us to hash out the shortcomings of statutory contempt and the high-stakes game of inherent contempt. Chief among the statutory procedure's shortcomings: it depends for its enforcement on the non-partisan cooperation of the U.S. Attorney. And if we were guaranteed that, we wouldn't be here subpoenaing everybody, now would we?

Now, in light of the Scooter Libby pardon (and that's what it is, or at least what it will be), we have to consider another possible shortcoming: that statutory contempt of Congress may be pardonable by the president.

There was a time, of course, where such a pardon would have been considered so outrageous, and so utterly beyond the pale, that raising the concern would have gotten you laughed off The Hill. But no longer.

[...]

That, in turn, has led many to wonder whether inherent contempt is pardonable. The answer is: I don't know.

i'll make no secret of my wishes on the matter... i am positively foaming at the mouth with rage over this outlaw gang that has seized control of our government, and i believe the ONLY way to bring them to accountability is with the full force of whatever laws and procedures the constitution puts at our disposal... contempt of congress charges, inherent contempt, impeachment - nothing should be overlooked... by all rights, the entire congress should be marching en masse to the white house demanding the resignations of bush, cheney, and the entire cabinet... barring that, congress needs to come down on them like a ton of bricks... better yet, make make that TWO tons...

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SCOTUS 2007

jim commented on my earlier "not a good day" post, offering to cheer me up... the offer was much appreciated, so much, in fact, that i was moved to offer up this cartoon of our five, esteemed, wingnut supreme court justices...

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Misery & Madness

The price of war is hard to quantify for some.
Some find it hard to believe that there could be a good reason to bring the kids home. After all, they are fighting for "Democracy", right? Besides, how can we allow our oil supply to be interrupted?
Well, what if we didn't need the oil, or the Middle East, anymore.

Watch this, and think hard.
A video on Youtube.
Killing our warriors for oil is crime that we all must share blame for every time we drive our car when we could travel to our destination in some other way.
Better yet, lets keep our cars, but use a different fuel.
It can be done, now, not in 20 years.
The science is there and can be applied, if we have the will. Look at Brazil.

Maybe if we regain our national conscience, it could happen.

It's a shame this memorial isn't on the Capitol Plaza in DC, maybe then Congress would finally act with determination and courage.
Each cross represents determination and courage that we must never allow them to forget.

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Not a good day

i keep looking for things that grab me to post and all i'm seeing is more bad news... sara taylor, harriet miers, iraq, lieberman, bush's sorry performance at the opening of the new white house press briefing room, the doj bogus defense of gonzales' latest lies - all of it just makes me want to crawl in a hole and not come out until it's all over...

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Attacking "pornography" in children's books

sometimes i am so embarrassed for my country...

The drawings are harmless really. But a US publisher has decided not to publish a series by [German] children's book author Rotraut Susanne Berner. The problem? Cartoon breasts and a half-millimeter-long willy.

[...]

[T]here were a couple of changes that had to be made before the books could be unleashed on the America public. First off, smokers had to be removed from the illustrations. But that wasn't all. One image shows a scene from an art gallery -- and for realism's sake, there is a cartoonish nude hanging on the wall along with a tiny, seven-millimeter-tall statue of a naked man on a pedestal.

American kiddies, obviously, could never be expected to handle such a depiction of the human body.

[...]

For the author, any kind of self-censorship was completely out of the question. She said she could maybe have lived with putting black bars in front of the problem spots, but "invisible censorship" was out.

[...]

But the US publisher would have none of it -- after all, one hardly wants to call attention to one's own deletions. Meaning, that the Hildesheimer publishing house will have to forego the honor of being published in the US -- and American children are safe from shocking German sensibilities.

check out the truly offensive pornography...

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Sara Taylor's testimony

TPMmuckraker is staying abreast of sara taylor's appearance today before the senate judiciary committee... this about sums up how it's going...

[T]aylor has actually answered a number of questions that would seem to be covered by privilege, but not others. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) later remarked that Taylor's willingness to answer certain questions had "weakened" the White House's claim of privilege.

sounds to me like she's been coached...

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"Inattention" and being 'mistaken" vs. outright lying

it seems to me that the wapo is grossly disingenuous in claiming to "know" that alberto gonzales was "mistaken" when he spoke in march... now, given, it might be a bridge too far to ask them to claim that they "know" he was lying, but, given the circumstances, it would be entirely reasonable to suspect that to be the case...

Mr. Gonzales's Inattention
Once again, new information raises questions about statements by the attorney general.

"I never saw documents. We never had a discussion." Those were the words of Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales in March when trying to distance himself from the Justice Department's controversial decision to fire eight U.S. attorneys. The attorney general was, we now know, mistaken: E-mails and the testimony of former aides prove that he had been involved in that process -- and for nearly two years.

now, with evidence piled on evidence, to add "inattention," "dismissive" and "disengaged" to "mistaken" seems to suggest serious denial on the part of the wapo when the rationale for suspecting outright lying is almost overwhelming...

Mr. Gonzales either read the reports, dismissed them as irrelevant OR inconsequential, and failed to share them with lawmakers; OR he failed to read them and showed an alarming degree of disengagement in overseeing the use of one of the administration's most potent -- and potentially invasive -- tools against terrorism. [emphasis added]

OR...

HE IS LYING!

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De-funding the OVP produces Repub whining

i like it...

Senate Democrats moved Tuesday to cut off funding for U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney's office in a continuing battle over whether he must comply with national security disclosure rules.

A Senate appropriations panel chaired by Democratic Sen. Richard Durbin refused to fund $4.8 million in the vice president's budget until Cheney's office complies with parts of an executive order governing its handling of classified information.

when you're playing tackle football with a team of neighborhood bullies matched against a ragtag team of self-anointed losers, maybe it's time for the losers to pump up the jam*...

but, predictably...

Such a step, said Republican Sen. Sam Brownback would set a terrible precedent in relations between the executive and legislative branches of government, which have historically let each other set their own budgets.

"This is going to further erode any sort of working relationship back and forth," Brownback said. "This is a patently bad idea."

and this coming from the very same senator who tried holding up a federal district court judge nomination because the nominee had attended the same-sex commitment ceremony for a NEIGHBOR'S DAUGHTER......



sam brownback has no room to talk about erosion of working relationships...

fortunately, the senate decided that senator brownback was full of shit...

The Senate confirmed as a federal judge a woman who attended a same-sex commitment ceremony, overwhelmingly rejecting the concerns of a Republican senator running for the White House.

The vote was 83-4 in favor of elevating Michigan Court of Appeals Judge Janet Neff to federal district court.

Neff in 2002 attended a same-sex commitment ceremony for the daughter of longtime neighbors.

a blast from the (not-so-distant) past...

* Technotronic

Pump up the Jam

Pump up the jam
Pump it up
While your feet are stompin'
And the jam is pumpin'
Look at here the crowd is jumpin'

Pump it up a little more
Get the party going on the dance floor
Seek us that's where the party's at
And you'll find out if you're too bad

I don't want a place to stay
Get your boody on the floor tonight
Make my day
I don't want a place to stay
Get your boody on the floor tonight
Make my day

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More Iraq thoughts (and one on Iran too)

[BUMPED]

the only way anything is going to change in iraq is getting bush and his criminal compadres OUT of office... bush has dug us in so far, has served up so much kool-aid to the faithful, and painted himself into such a tight corner, there's just no way he will let us leave... any draw-down will be purely cosmetic political salve...

i also don't believe that it's bush's intention to "hand it over to his successor" to "clean up the mess..." i think it's his intention to make SURE the next president - assuming there IS a next president and bush doesn't remain in office after suspending the elections and declaring martial law in the face of a "national emergency" - will find it impossible to extricate the u.s. without creating an even bigger mess, something that igniting a conflagration with iran could certainly do... actually, a full-blown conflict with iran could serve a dual purpose... besides making an incredible mess exponentially bigger, it could also serve as the basis for declaring that national emergency...

[UPDATE]

but, hey...! it doesn't HAVE to be iran that serves as the flashpoint...

from juan cole...

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari (a Kurd) warned Monday that 140,000 Turkish troops were massed at the border with Iraq. Ankara accuses Iraqi Kurdistan of giving safe harbor to PKK terrorists who are blowing up soldiers and others in Turkey's eastern Anatolia. The Turkish government and military have threatened to engage in hot pursuit and to make border incursions if necessary to deal with the PKK threat. Last Sunday, thousands of Turks demonstrated in Ankara against the PKK, Iraqi Kurdistan and the United States, which they blame for allowing Iraq to become a terrorist base against Turkey.

[UPDATE II]

i finally found the article i was looking for earlier that backs up my comment above about iran possibly being the flashpoint...

The U.S. navy has sent a third aircraft carrier to its Fifth Fleet area of operations, which includes Gulf waters close to Iran, the navy said on Tuesday.

"Enterprise (aircraft carrier) provides navy power to counter the assertive, disruptive and coercive behaviour of some countries, as well as support our soldiers and marines in Iraq and Afghanistan," a U.S. Navy statement said.

[UPDATE III]

the pentagon 'splains it all for us...

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman denied that US Defense Secretary Robert Gates has decided to up the number of carriers to three, and said the deployment of the Enterprise was part of a "routine swap."

"Has the department made a decision for 3.0 carriers in the Gulf? No. They haven't," Whitman said. "What Secretary Gates has said is still the current guidance with respect to the level of effort in the Centcom area of responsibility."

yeah... ok... whatever...

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The technology behind NSA spying

i'm continuing to poke around kevin's cryptogon site, again thanks to mettle's pointing me in that direction, and i am increasingly impressed with the amount and quality of information he has available there... well, "impressed" isn't really the right word... "horrified" might be more apt...

here he's talking about the information the att whistleblower, mark klein, revealed about what he helped att install in one of their main network switching centers in san francisco...

This is arcane information. It will not be easy for laypeople to understand. But… For those of you who want names, model numbers, techniques, and locations all related to how, IN FACT, They are watching EVERYTHING we are doing online, this is it.

The only reason this is public is because Mark Klein, an ATT engineer who participated in building the secret NSA infrastructure, outed it. There can be no idiotic commentary about “conspiracy theories” or “paranoia” with this. These are court documents containing information provided under penalty of perjury by an eye witness and participant in the operation. The expert analysis provided by J. Scott Marcus–which was just unsealed today—is, quite literally, shocking. For those of us who just knew this was happening, but couldn’t put our fingers on how, well, now we know.

I’ve followed publicly available information on NSA for about fifteen years and I’ve never seen anything like this. The capabilities of this system are awesome and terrifying.

When you read J. Scott Marcus’ analysis, it will become very clear to you why NSA and ATT wanted that thing sealed. Oh my, that is a good one.

So, how does NSA do it?

A company called Narus has developed the NarusInsight Intercept Suite: a purpose built network surveillance system that is capable of analyzing (in real time) ALL of the data passing through the largest network nodes in existence. This system is capable of applying sophisticated targeting rules to the traffic, as well as recording entire, individual sessions for later analysis. According to the Narus website:

These capabilities include playback of streaming media (i.e. VoIP), rendering of web pages, examination of e-mail and the ability to analyze the payload/attachments of e-mail or file transfer protocols. Narus partner products offer the ability to quickly analyze information collected by the Directed Analysis or Lawful Intercept modules. When Narus partners’ powerful analytic tools are combined with the surgical targeting and real-time collection capabilities of Directed Analysis and Lawful Intercept modules, analysts or law enforcement agents are provided capabilities that have been unavailable thus far.

here's a screenshot from narus' website...



kevin is absolutely right... there's no tin-foil hat wearing here... this is real shit and validates what i've been saying for years...

i've assumed for years that every electronic transaction i conduct on any network not directly controlled by me is subject to sniffing (and further analysis if it contains significant words, phrases, or code strings)... recently, i've come to suspect that part of the purpose for getting us to do everything electronically is precisely so that it CAN be sniffed... there's damn little now that can't be obtained or tracked...

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Suspected terrorist handling codes

just in case you ever wanted to know, here's the "handling codes" our government uses (PDF) for terrorist watch lists...

TERRORIST SCREENING CENTER

The Terrorist Screening Center (TSC) consolidates multiple terrorist watch lists into a single comprehensive database. The TSC ensures that state and local law enforcement officers have ready access to the information they need when they encounter a known
or suspected terrorist within the United States or at US borders.

When one of these subjects is queried through NCIC, NCIC will return a “possible terrorist alert”. The terrorist alert response assigns one of four handling codes to each entry. The four handling codes are:

Handling Code 1: WARNING – APPROACH WITH CAUTION. Arrest this individual. This individual is associated with terrorism. Once this individual is arrested, immediately contact the Terrorist Screening Center at (866) 872-9001 for additional information and direction. If you are a border patrol officer immediately call the NTC [National Targeting Center].

Handling Code 2: WARNING – APPROACH WITH CAUTION. Please detain this individual for a
reasonable amount of time for questioning. This individual is of investigative interest to law enforcement regarding association with terrorism. Immediately contact the Terrorist Screening Center at (866) 872-9001 for additional direction. (As appropriate, the TSC will facilitate an immediate response from an FBI Joint
Terrorism Task Force [JTTF] or other appropriate law enforcement entity.) If you are a border patrol officer immediately call the NTC.

Handling Code 3: DO NOT ALERT THIS INDIVIDUAL TO THIS NOTICE. The person queried through this search may be an individual identified by intelligence information as having possible ties with terrorism. Contact the Terrorism Screening Center at (866) 872-9001 for additional identifying information available to assist you in making this determination. DO NOT ARREST THIS INDIVIDUAL UNLESS THERE IS EVIDENCE OF A VIOLATION OF FEDERAL, STATE OR LOCAL STATUTES. Conduct a logical investigation using techniques authorized in you jurisdiction and ask probing questions to determine if this individual is identical to the person of law enforcement interest. WARNING – APPROACH WITH CAUTION. If you are a border patrol officer immediately call the NTC.

Handling Code 4: DO NOT ALERT THIS INDIVIDUAL TO THIS NOTICE. The person queried through this search may be an individual identified by intelligence information as having possible ties with terrorism. DO NOT ARREST THIS INDIVIDUAL UNLESS THERE IS EVIDENCE OF A VIOLATION OF FEDERAL, STATE OR LOCAL STATUTES. Attempt to obtain sufficient identification information to positively identify this individual in a manner consistent with the techniques authorized in you jurisdiction. You may be contacted at a later date and asked to forward this information. Note: If your contact with this individual warrants further investigation based on circumstances consistent with terrorist activity, contact the Terrorist Screening Center at (866) 872-9001. WARNING – APPROACH WITH CAUTION. If you are a border patrol officer immediately call the NTC. It is imperative that the officer contacting the suspect carefully read the caveats and adhere to the NCIC instructions.

(thanks to kevin at cryptogon...)

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Identifying the thought criminals

commenter mettle pointed me to a post in a - new-to-me - online news resource that i almost wish i hadn't read...

kevin, the mind behind cryptogon, posts on Simulex Inc.’s Synthetic Environments for Analysis and Simulation system...

There’s really no way to know how many ways this system is already being used against us. I tried to think about it for a few minutes and it’s mind boggling. “How isn’t it being used?” is probably a more interesting question. If the Architect was interested in tools that could help him more effectively run the Matrix, he’d have Simulex reps on the phone ASAP.

[...]

We must assume that They are using the full spectrum of surveillance information to try to PREDICT HOW EACH OF US IS LIKELY TO BEHAVE ON A DAY TO DAY BASIS. Where we go. What we buy. Where we travel. Which routes we take. Etc. All of these things can be broken down into a kind of moving average that wiggles around between an upper band and a lower band, kind of like a standard deviation from a mean. Stay within the bands, and the Magic 8 Ball probably won’t bother to flag your profile for closer analysis by some genius at the Terrorist Screening Center.

Obviously, most of us aren’t worth the attention of a human analyst, and They know it. Most of the sheep just go with the herd. They do what they’re told, shop at WalMart, pay their taxes, go to church, the end. More educated sheep read Business Week or the New York Times, etc. Within a fairly wide range of activities, it’s no more complicated, for the vast majority of the people out there, than the way pool balls behave as they bounce around the table and each other.

This is a key point, so I’m going to emphasize it:

These systems would excel at finding the artifacts, the outliers, the people who haven’t internalized the programming, but continue to act “normal.”

It would identify the thought criminals.

this is part of the comment i posted on mettle's comment...

it's not that i haven't been on the same wavelength, albeit intuitively, for a long time, but it's another experience entirely to read someone who is so obviously intelligent and - seemingly - playing with a full deck, spell it out so clearly... i've got cold chills down my back...

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Looks like McCain's presidential bid may be history

or damn close to it...

John McCain's campaign manager and chief strategist quit Tuesday, the second major staff shake-up in a week for the Republican presidential candidate who trails his rivals in money and polls.

In a statement, the Arizona senator said Terry Nelson and John Weaver offered their resignations, "which I accepted with regret and deep gratitude for their dedication, hard work and friendship."

if he drops out, i won't be cryin'...

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Snow in Buenos Aires - REALLY!

i posted yesterday about the truly amazing snowfall in buenos aires... evidently, there was enough to actually stick... a friend emailed me this morning saying that, when he got up this morning, it was all over the trees and the cars... another friend, who flew in to buenos aires this morning from london, emailed to say that, when the aircraft broke out of the clouds on approach, all he could see was white...







supposedly, the last time buenos aires received snow was, are you ready...? 1917...

all photos courtesy of...

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Froomkin on Bush's "new phase" in Iraq

as dear leader prepares to announce his plan for a "post-surge phase" in iraq, dan froomkin offers us this...

[I]t's time to move the goalposts. Or, carrying the analogy further, to replace them with toothpicks.

meanwhile, as i said in the previous post, we ain't leavin'... you can bank on it...

A Bush administration report to Congress citing a lack of progress by the Baghdad government is "a look at the starting line" of the U.S. troop surge and shouldn't be used by critics to demand withdrawal, a White House spokesman said Tuesday.

"What Congress will get this week is a snapshot of the beginning of the retooling of the mission in Iraq," said Tony Snow, who defended the administration's war policy and argued that it's too soon to be talking about end-game strategies.

"Some of the benchmarks have been made, some of them haven't," he said. Snow confirmed the coming report would say that Iraq has not met all the benchmarks set for it. The nature of the report was revealed earlier to The Associated Press by a senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Rebuffing all such talk, President Bush said he won't succumb to political pressure. During a visit to Parma, Ohio on Tuesday, he reiterated that troop levels in Iraq "will be decided by our commanders on the ground, not by political figures in Washington, D.C."

ain't gonna happen...

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Pretending there's a real debate about staying or going in Iraq

i simply cannot believe that we are wasting our time once again with a big national discussion about how bad things are going in iraq and whether or not we should stay or go... case in point is this fresh post on think progress...

Last week, the Los Angeles Times reported that Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) was one of many conservatives breaking ranks with Bush’s Iraq policy.

“It should be clear to the president that there needs to be a new strategy,” said Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee. “Our policy in Iraq is drifting.”

This morning on CNN, Alexander undercut his own stated desire to change course. While announcing his support for an amendment that would adopt the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group, Alexander said, “The surge can be within this larger strategy of the Iraq Study Group.”

the bush administration has demonstrated in countless ways that they have no intention of leaving iraq, now or ever... yet, we still all get sucked up in talking about it, thinking they will somehow magically change their minds, glomming on to every repub that emits the faintest odor of dissent... forget it people... ain't gonna happen...

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Dealing with corrupt government officials by execution

see if you can spot the biggest understatement i have ever read in a news story...

China executed the former head of its food and drug watchdog on Tuesday for approving untested medicine in exchange for cash, the strongest signal yet from Beijing that it is serious about tackling its product safety crisis.

The execution of former State Food and Drug Administration director Zheng Xiaoyu was confirmed by state television and the official Xinhua News Agency.

During Zheng's tenure from 1998 to 2005, his agency approved six medicines that turned out to be fake, and the drug-makers used falsified documents to apply for approvals, according to previous state media reports. One antibiotic caused the deaths of at least 10 people.

"The few corrupt officials of the SFDA are the shame of the whole system and their scandals have revealed some very serious problems," agency spokeswoman Yan Jiangying said at a news conference held to highlight efforts to improve China's track record on food and drug safety.

yeah, without a doubt, PUTTING SOMEONE TO DEATH is a "strong signal..." they just don't come much stronger than that...

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Thinking of calling customer service? Think again.

check this...

"While we have worked to resolve your issues and questions to the best of our ability, the number of inquiries you have made to us during this time had led us to determine that we are unable to meet your current wireless needs," the letters said.

The customers were told their service agreements were being terminated, they wouldn't owe anything on their final bill, and the company would waive early termination fees. They also were told to switch to another wireless provider by July 30 if they want to keep their phone number.

In debate on the Internet, Sprint's move has attracted criticism that the company is penalizing consumers for trying to get what they paid for, or that the frequent calls are more a reflection of poor customer service by Sprint itself.

what would you have to do to get your cell phone provider so pissed off that they'd drop you...?

Singleton said the targeted subscribers each made an average of 40 to 50 calls a month to customer service. She wouldn't say how that compared with the overall number of calls logged by the customer service department in a given month.

[Sprint spokeswoman Roni Singleton] said the review also found that the subscribers often were calling about the same problems over and over after Sprint officials felt they had resolved the issue. She said some callers were repeatedly asking for information from other customers' accounts, which customer service workers aren't allowed to divulge.

"If the average person is calling less than once per month and these people are calling 40 or 50 times more, that takes away from customer service," Singleton said. "Our priority is to improve the customer experience."

i'll concede that 40-50 is excessive... personally, i can't imagine sitting around, holding the phone, waiting in queue for a customer service representative to finally answer... with 40-50 calls a month, that would mean spending virtually all your time on the phone either holding or talking... but, still... being told to go take a hike by your cell phone company has got to be a real kick in the pants...

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Gonzales: Lie First, Check Later

We can't forget about this crook and traitor, Gonzales. This report has been expected by all of us. Here is the latest from the AP.

Gonzales Knew of Violations, Paper Says
AP
Posted: 2007-07-10 05:53:34

WASHINGTON (July 10) - Attorney General Alberto Gonzales received reports detailing legal or procedural violations by FBI agents in the months before he told senators that no such abuses had occurred, The Washington post reported Tuesday.

In April 2005, while seeking renewal of the broad powers granted law enforcement under the USA Patriot Act, Gonzales said, "There has not been one verified case of civil liberties abuse" from the law enacted after the 9/11 terror attacks.

According to the Post, Gonzales had received a least half a dozen reports describing such violations in the three months before he made that statement. The newspaper obtained the internal FBI documents under the Freedom of Information Act.

The violations, the Post reported, included unauthorized surveillance and an illegal property search.

Justice officials said they did not know whether Gonzales had read the reports.(emphasis added)
[...]

The AG ignored the fundamental purpose of his position.
If he didn't read the reports, how could he testify under oath honestly before Congress?
If he did read the reports, he is guilty of perjury, since the FBI later admitted to exceeding their authority under the law.
The behavior of govt officials is so outrageous, I can't hardly believe it anymore.

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I don't care how many credentials this man has, he says incredibly stupid things

i posted about a fred kagan op-ed in the nyt back in early may... his op-ed was entitled, "Plan B? Let’s Give Plan A Some Time First"... my comment at the time was this...

these guys just never give up, do they...? not only don't they ever give up, it seems that, no matter how terribly wrong they are or discredited they become, there's always a newspaper willing to give them space to air their delusions...

[...]

since when, i'd like to know, does a (former) professor of military history with a focus in eastern europe and the former soviet union get to claim expertise in insurgencies and civil wars in the middle east...? it's kind of like a long-haul, 18-wheeler driver, thinking he can move over to motorcycle racing...

so, today, i see, via think progress, that he's shooting off his mouth yet again...

Today, the American Enterprise Institute, a neoconservative think tank, held a discussion entitled “Assessing the Surge in Iraq,” featuring prominent Iraq war proponents like Fred Kagan, Gen. Jack Keane, and James Miller of the Center for a New American Security.

and, he-e-e-e-e-eeere's freddy...!

The worst that can be said of [the escalation] at this point is that the results have been mixed. I frankly think the results are less mixed…We can argue about statistics, but at the end of the day, that argument is not going to get us anywhere right now. … Whatever you can say about the current strategy, it has not failed.

ok, i'm not one to poke fun at anyone because of their looks, because, believe me, i have no room to talk... but, honestly, would you want anybody advising you on military strategy who looks like THIS...?



seriously... would you...?

A military historian who has taught at West Point, AEI resident scholar Frederick Kagan specializes in defense issues and the American military. In particular he studies defense transformation, the defense budget, and defense strategy and warfare. He has also written about Russian and European military history.

Professional Experience

-Associate professor of military history, 2001-2005; assistant professor of military history, 1995-2001; United States Military Academy (West Point)

Education

B.A., Soviet and East European studies; Ph.D., Russian and Soviet military history, Yale University

besides that, quite some time ago, i ceased being impressed with credentials, particularly after meeting a number of 24-carat, harvard, yale, and dartmouth-educated assholes... my response to kagan is rude, crude, and succinct... BFD... (and if you want to know what that means, ask around...)

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Don't Miss This!

[update from profmarcus - here's the link to the video]

Try and catch Wolf Blitzer on the Situation Room trying to interview Michael Moore.
Moore goes absolutely APE SHIT on CNN and Main Stream Media.
He might be an extremist himself, but man did he do what we have all wanted to do for a long time, ask where the media has been hiding all these years.
I'm surprised they let him rant on, he attacked everybody in the Presidential race and continuously ripped Wolf and CNN.
Great Stuff!

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Oh. My. God.

this is something i thought i would never see...



for the fahrenheit-challenged...



check the time... this was current as of 4 p.m., argentina regional time... also check the wind chill... those people are dyin', i can tell ya...

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Up is down, black is white, dark is light, backward is forward, and shit doesn't stink

up...

nyt...

[I]nside the administration, debate is intensifying over whether Mr. Bush should try to prevent more defections by announcing his intention to begin a gradual withdrawal of American troops from the high-casualty neighborhoods of Baghdad and other cities.

down...

tony snow...

“There is no debate right now on withdrawing forces right now from Iraq,” Snow said.

black...

ruy teixeira...

Despite four months of a military surge in Iraq, 68 percent of the public either want to withdraw right away (25 percent) or begin bringing troops home within the next year (43 percent). Just 26 percent want to keep troops in Iraq “for as long as it takes to win the war.”

white...

karl rove...

Yesterday on NBC Nightly News, White House correspondent John Yang said that Bush’s senior political aide Karl Rove has apparently calculated that Iraq will not affect the 2008 elections. Rove, who spoke Sunday at the Aspen Ideas Festival, reportedly said “Iraq may not be a big issue in the next election because, he hopes, troops will be coming home by then.”

dark...

wapo...

n the Shiite Turkmen hamlet of Amerli, 50 miles south of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, grief and anger mixed with bewilderment in the aftermath of one of the single deadliest attacks on Iraqis since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. Almost everyone seemed to have lost relatives or friends, if not entire families.

The death toll rose to more than 140, but 20 people remain missing, police officials said Sunday. More than 270 people were injured, they added.

light...

tony snow...

The new levels of attacks “fit a pattern that we see throughout the region,” he said, “which is that when you see things moving towards success, or when you see signs of success, that there are acts of violence.”

poverty is wealth, repression is freedom, crony capitalism is free enterprise, fear-mongering is leadership, obstruction of justice is openness, pollution is clean water and air... geeez, i need a lexicon of special terms just to keep up...

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The Foreign Minister of Iraq's puppet government cites potential civil war if U.S. pulls out

will somebody please tell this guy that the civil war has been underway for quite some time now and that he needs somebody else to write him a new talking point...?

Iraq's foreign minister warned on Monday that a quick American military withdrawal from the country could lead to civil war and the collapse of the government, as pressure on the Bush administration for a pullout grows.

oh, btw, the government is pretty much ready to collapse anyway...

juan cole...

CBS News is reporting that on July 15, the Sunni Arab Iraqi Accord Front will call a vote of no confidence in the Iraqi parliament against prime minister Nuri al-Maliki. CBS says that Sunni vice president Tariq al-Hashimi, who is spear-heading this move, met with US VP Dick Cheney and that Cheney may have approved the move.

nonetheless, we have folks like the esteemed senator from south carolina, lindsey graham, still insisting on just how well things are going over there...

“The military part of the surge is working beyond my expectations,” Graham said. “We literally have the enemy on the run. The Sunni part of Iraq has really rejected al-Qaida all over the country. We’re getting more information about al-Qaida operations than we’ve ever received.”

just another day of fighting and dying...

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The UK's Serious Organized Crime Agency hasn't shared any info with Interpol about the recent failed terrorist attacks

WTF...?!?!

The head of Interpol said Monday that Britain's anti-terrorist efforts are "in the wrong century," pointing out that authorities in London had not shared any information from the investigation of three failed car bomb attacks and had not made good use of a passport database.

"We have received not one name, not one fingerprint, not one telephone number, not one address, nothing, from the UK, about the recent thwarted terrorist attacks," Ronald Noble, Interpol's secretary general, said in an interview with British Broadcasting Corp. television.

"My view is that the U.K.'s anti-terrorist effort is in the wrong century," Noble said.

eyeball THESE stats...

Noble said Britain — like most countries — has so far failed to take advantage of Interpol's list of 7 million lost or stolen passports. However, he said Britain was now testing systems to access the database, and said he hoped that would be working within months.

Switzerland, he said, checks the database 300,000 times per month, and typically gets 100 hits on stolen or lost passports.

Britain now checks the database about 30 times a month, and the United States use it 80 times per month, he said.

absolutely unbelievable... the uk is only NOW "testing systems to access the database...?!?!" and check out which uk government office is responsible for liaison with interpol...

[A] Home Office spokesman said the Serious Organized Crime Agency (SOCA) "as the U.K. arm of Interpol, consults Interpol databases and performs searches on behalf of U.K. law enforcement, in addition to which U.K. police forces have direct secure access to Interpol databases."

oh, yeah, they're SERIOUS, all right, about as serious as the u.s. who generates only 80 hits per month...

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New York City to adopt London's big brother surveillance tactics

every day brings another story about the erosion of privacy and the ever-increasing ways in which we're being watched as we go about our daily lives...

By the end of this year, police officials say, more than 100 cameras will have begun monitoring cars moving through Lower Manhattan, the beginning phase of a London-style surveillance system that would be the first in the United States.

The Lower Manhattan Security Initiative, as the plan is called, will resemble London’s so-called Ring of Steel, an extensive web of cameras and roadblocks designed to detect, track and deter terrorists. British officials said images captured by the cameras helped track suspects after the London subway bombings in 2005 and the car bomb plots last month.

i posted at the end of may on privacy international's huge and comprehensive study of the state of surveillance around the world (PDF)... this is taken from their report on the uk (PDF)...

There has been a proliferation of CCTV cameras in hundreds of towns and cities in Britain. It is now estimated that there are over four million cameras in Britain, one for every 14 residents, a 300 percent increase in just three years.5573 The camera networks can be operated by police, local authorities or private companies, and are partly funded by Home Office grants. Their original purpose was crime prevention and detection, though in recent years the cameras have become important tools for city center management and the control of "anti-social behavior." Many of the systems have been enhanced with technology for facial recognition but the jurisdictions that have installed the systems have admitted that the technology has yet to result in an arrest. In London, a system for "congestion charging" uses a sophisticated number plate recognition system to charge motorists who drive into central London during business hours. It was later revealed that the system was organized in cooperation with the intelligence services that use it with facial recognition systems to monitor the drivers of the cars. The government announced in January 2005 that it was expanding its pilot program of automatic number plate recognition nationwide.5575 Traffic cameras have also spread across the country.

and, as usual, nobody's connecting the dots... note that new york city is also planning a "congestion charging" system for manhattan which, no doubt, will involve technology similar to that being used in london...

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s plan to reduce traffic by charging people who drive into the busiest parts of Manhattan received significant support on Thursday as Gov. Eliot Spitzer endorsed the idea and the Bush administration indicated that New York stood to gain hundreds of millions of dollars if the plan were enacted.

If the measure is approved by the Legislature, New York will become the first city in the United States to impose a broad system of congestion pricing, which was introduced in London in 2003 and has been credited with reducing traffic there.

now, why do you think new york would stand "to gain hundreds of millions of dollars" from the bush administration if the plan were enacted...? hmmmmmmmm...? do you suppose it might have anything to do with the fact that it would provide an excellent new surveillance platform...? nah... i'm just being cynical again...

[UPDATE]

and in the very same nyt edition that reported on the "Lower Manhattan Surveillance Security Initiative," comes this op-ed...

There are legitimate concerns about exactly how congestion pricing would work. A commission can be appointed later to hammer out the details. But first, the state needs to sign off on a general plan, so New York does not let as much as $500 million in federal money needlessly slip away.

yep, hurry up and get that money so we can be spied on sooner...

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