McClatchy honors its motto

particularly in light of the pandering headlines generated by other media outlets (see previous post), perhaps mcclatchy takes journalism and its pledge, "truth to power," seriously...

Top Story
New Iraq plan recalls strategies past
By Nancy A. Youssef | McClatchy Newspapers

The President declared success and said troops were coming home despite a range of government reports that says Iraqi civilian casualties remain high and that Iraqi security forces remain incapable of taking control.

[...]

There was no mention of a range of government reports, from a National Intelligence Estimate to a Government Accountability Office report and even the testimony this week of U.S. Iraq commander Army Gen. David Petraeus, that has said Iraqi civilian casualties remain high and that it will be years before Iraqi security forces can take control.

Other reports have stressed that Iraqis continue to flee their homes looking for safety at unprecedented rates and that Shiite militias continue to force Sunni Muslims from their homes. Baghdad residents complain that their city has become even more segregated than before the surge, divided now by hastily erected concrete walls to keep rival sects separate.

good on mcclatchy...

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Here's another shock.......

This the day after the GAO report, even after the White house made them revise it, said the Iraqi gov't has only met 3 of 18 goals.
For generations to come, we are guaranteed to have waves of hate filled Iraqis trying to kill us at every opportunity.
We must stop the NeoCons before they get everybody, everywhere killed.
From the AP.

Advisers Tell Bush to Stand Pat on Iraq

By MATTHEW LEE and ANNE GEARAN
Associated Press Writers

Advisers Tell Bush to Stand Pat on Iraq

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush's senior advisers on Iraq have recommended he stand by his current war strategy, and he is unlikely to order more than a symbolic cut in troops before the end of the year, administration officials told The Associated Press Tuesday.

The recommendations from the military commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker come despite independent government findings Tuesday that Baghdad has not met most of the political, military and economic markers set by Congress.
[...]

You need to read the rest for yourself. This drives me insane with rage.
Pelosi and Reid better get their butts in gear, hell, the whole damn Congress better get their butts in gear and kick these bastards out, NOW!
Otherwise, I think we need to kick ALL of them out.

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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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More on the National Guard and emergency preparedness

a follow-on to an earlier post about the problems of emergency preparedness following the tornadoes in kansas...

since hurricane katrina, i have been convinced that the bush administration has deliberately disrupted and obstructed our country's capability to respond to natural disasters... the strength of my cynicism leads me to believe it is part of a purposeful strategy to convince us that our government is not either equipped, willing or able to provide anything in the way of comprehensive assistance in time of citizen need... it's all part of the socially-darwinian, on-your-ownership society and the on-going dismemberment of any type of implied or explicit social contract... they are QUITE capable, however, of telling you what you talked about on the phone last night with aunt jane...

According to a recent report by a congressional commission, nearly “90 percent of Army National Guard units in the United States are rated ‘not ready,” largely “as a result of shortfalls in billions of dollars’ worth of equipment.” A January Government Accountability Office analysis found that the Pentagon “does not adequately track National Guard equipment needs for domestic missions” and as a consequence, “state National Guards may be hampered in their ability to plan for responding to large-scale domestic events.”

if that indeed is the strategy, it's working quite nicely...

(thanks to think progress...)

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Meanwhile, the government continues to violate our right to privacy

well, gee whiz... it looks like the total information awareness program that was killed by congress back in 2003 wasn't dead after all...

The Department of Homeland Security is testing a data-mining program that would attempt to spot terrorists by combing vast amounts of information about average Americans, such as flight and hotel reservations. Similar to a Pentagon program killed by Congress in 2003 over concerns about civil liberties, the new program could take effect as soon as next year.

ah, but we don't have to wait until next year...

But researchers testing the system are likely to already have violated privacy laws by reviewing real information, instead of fake data, according to a source familiar with a congressional investigation into the $42.5 million program.

and, in point of fact, the tia program never completely shut down...

ADVISE [Analysis, Dissemination, Visualization, Insight and Semantic Enhancement] has progressed further than the program killed by Congress in 2003, Total Information Awareness, which was being developed at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Yet it was partly ADVISE's resemblance to Total Information Awareness that led lawmakers last year to request that the GAO review the program. Though Total Information Awareness never got beyond an early research phase, unspecified subcomponents of the program were allowed to be funded under the Pentagon's classified budget, which deal largely with foreigners' data.

oh, but wait... there isn't just ONE program, there's TWO...

The Disruptive Technology Office, a research arm of the intelligence community, is working on another program that would sift through massive amounts of data, such as intelligence reports and communications records, to detect hidden patterns. The program focuses on foreigners. Officials declined to elaborate because it is classified.

omg... the "disruptive technology office..." whoever dreamed THAT one up created an instant classic...

The Disruptive Technology Office, or DTO, is a funding agency within the United States Intelligence Community. It was until recently known as Advanced Research and Development Activity (ARDA).

ARDA was created in 1998 after the model of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) by the Director of Central Intelligence and the Department of Defense, and took responsibility for funding some of DARPA's projects. ARDA evaluates proposals and funds speculative research, particularly in the fields of data mining, video processing, and quantum computing.

There has been speculation that the DTO is continuing research efforts started under the Total Information Awareness program (TIA) in DARPA's Information Awareness Office (IAO). [1] Data-mining activities within the U.S. Department of Defense are controversial and have met with public and congressional disapproval.

Although ARDA's budget is presumably classified as part of the intelligence budget, the New York Times quoted an unnamed former government official saying the agency spent about $100 million a year in 2003. The Associated Press reports that ARDA had a staff of only eight in 2004. Neither report can be verified and are only speculation.

i learn something every day...

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