Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Economics:
Rep. Dennis Kucinich: An Appropriately Populist Anti-Bailout Rant
On the House floor, Sunday:
"...The $700 billion bailout for Wall Street, is driven by fear not fact. This is too much money in too a short a time going to too few people while too many questions remain unanswered. Why aren't we having hearings on the plan we have just received? Why aren't we questioning the underlying premise of the need for a bailout with taxpayers' money? Why have we not considered any alternatives other than to give $700 billion to Wall Street? Why aren't we asking Wall Street to clean up its own mess? Why aren't we passing new laws to stop the speculation, which triggered this? Why aren't we putting up new regulatory structures to protect investors? How do we even value the $700 billion in toxic assets?
Why aren't we helping homeowners directly with their debt burden? Why aren't we helping American families faced with bankruptcy. Why aren't we reducing debt for Main Street instead of Wall Street? Isn't it time for fundamental change in our debt based monetary system, so we can free ourselves from the manipulation of the Federal Reserve and the banks? Is this the United States Congress or the board of directors of Goldman Sachs? Wall Street is a place of bears and bulls. It is not smart to force taxpayers to dance with bears or to follow closely behind the bulls..."
Paul Krugman: The 3 A.M. Call
"The bailout plan released yesterday is a lot better than the proposal Henry Paulson first put out — sufficiently so to be worth passing. But it’s not what you’d actually call a good plan, and it won’t end the crisis. The odds are that the next president will have to deal with some major financial emergencies.
So what do we know about the readiness of the two men most likely to end up taking that call? Well, Barack Obama seems well informed and sensible about matters economic and financial. John McCain, on the other hand, scares me..."
Campaign 2008:
Michigan Messenger: Is front group for Israeli organization trying to influence November election?
"The Council for American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Muslim advocacy group with an office in Southfield, Mich., has asked the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) to investigate whether the distributor of millions of copies of an anti-terrorism DVD is a front for right-wing Israel-based groups trying to help Republican presidential candidate John McCain. If so, that could be a violation of campaign law, since foreign nations are not allowed to attempt to influence American elections..."
Finally Free To Say What He Thinks?
The Guardian (UK) - Olmert: Israel Must Hand Back Land for Peace with Palestinians and Syria
"The outgoing prime minister of Israel, Ehud Olmert, has said his country will have to withdraw from 'almost all' the land it captured in the 1967 war and divide Jerusalem in order to agree long-awaited peace deals with the Palestinians and Syria.
His comments, which were unusually far-reaching for an Israeli leader, came in an interview with an Israeli newspaper ahead of the Jewish new year and days after his resignation. He remains in his post in a caretaker capacity and is thought unlikely to be able to follow through with any of the proposals he has made..."
Rep. Dennis Kucinich: An Appropriately Populist Anti-Bailout Rant
On the House floor, Sunday:
"...The $700 billion bailout for Wall Street, is driven by fear not fact. This is too much money in too a short a time going to too few people while too many questions remain unanswered. Why aren't we having hearings on the plan we have just received? Why aren't we questioning the underlying premise of the need for a bailout with taxpayers' money? Why have we not considered any alternatives other than to give $700 billion to Wall Street? Why aren't we asking Wall Street to clean up its own mess? Why aren't we passing new laws to stop the speculation, which triggered this? Why aren't we putting up new regulatory structures to protect investors? How do we even value the $700 billion in toxic assets?
Why aren't we helping homeowners directly with their debt burden? Why aren't we helping American families faced with bankruptcy. Why aren't we reducing debt for Main Street instead of Wall Street? Isn't it time for fundamental change in our debt based monetary system, so we can free ourselves from the manipulation of the Federal Reserve and the banks? Is this the United States Congress or the board of directors of Goldman Sachs? Wall Street is a place of bears and bulls. It is not smart to force taxpayers to dance with bears or to follow closely behind the bulls..."
Paul Krugman: The 3 A.M. Call
"The bailout plan released yesterday is a lot better than the proposal Henry Paulson first put out — sufficiently so to be worth passing. But it’s not what you’d actually call a good plan, and it won’t end the crisis. The odds are that the next president will have to deal with some major financial emergencies.
So what do we know about the readiness of the two men most likely to end up taking that call? Well, Barack Obama seems well informed and sensible about matters economic and financial. John McCain, on the other hand, scares me..."
Campaign 2008:
Michigan Messenger: Is front group for Israeli organization trying to influence November election?
"The Council for American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Muslim advocacy group with an office in Southfield, Mich., has asked the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) to investigate whether the distributor of millions of copies of an anti-terrorism DVD is a front for right-wing Israel-based groups trying to help Republican presidential candidate John McCain. If so, that could be a violation of campaign law, since foreign nations are not allowed to attempt to influence American elections..."
Finally Free To Say What He Thinks?
The Guardian (UK) - Olmert: Israel Must Hand Back Land for Peace with Palestinians and Syria
"The outgoing prime minister of Israel, Ehud Olmert, has said his country will have to withdraw from 'almost all' the land it captured in the 1967 war and divide Jerusalem in order to agree long-awaited peace deals with the Palestinians and Syria.
His comments, which were unusually far-reaching for an Israeli leader, came in an interview with an Israeli newspaper ahead of the Jewish new year and days after his resignation. He remains in his post in a caretaker capacity and is thought unlikely to be able to follow through with any of the proposals he has made..."
Monday, September 29, 2008
Campaign 2008:
Newsweek: A Freddie Mac Money Trail Catches Up With McCain
"...'Rick is a friend, and I trust him,' McCain told NEWSWEEK last year.
Last week, though, McCain's trust in Davis was tested again amid disclosures that Freddie Mac, the troubled mortgage giant that was recently placed under federal conservatorship, paid his campaign manager's firm $15,000 a month between 2006 and August 2008. As the mortgage crisis has escalated, almost any association with Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae has become politically toxic. But the payments to Davis's firm, Davis Manafort, are especially problematic because he requested the consulting retainer in 2006 - and then did barely any work for the fees, according to two sources familiar with the arrangement who asked not to be identified discussing Freddie Mac business. Aside from attending a few breakfasts and a political-action-committee meeting with Democratic strategist Paul Begala (another Freddie consultant), Davis did 'zero' for the housing firm, one of the sources said. Freddie Mac also had no dealings with the lobbying firm beyond paying monthly invoices - but it agreed to the arrangement because of Davis's close relationship with McCain, the source said, which led top executives to conclude 'you couldn't say no,'..."
When the following bit of invonvenient truth in McCain's past was uttered by a guest on FoxNews' 'Fox & Friends' last week, a contributor quipped 'This isn't the History Channel,' while the producer could be heard saying 'Cut his mike'...
The Keating Five Scandal in 97 Seconds
Rosa Brooks: Keating Five Ring a Bell?
"...The contributions were generous: They came to about $200,000 in today's dollars, and on top of that there were several free vacations for the politician and his family, along with private jet trips and other perks. The politician voted repeatedly against congressional efforts to tighten regulation of S&Ls, and in 1987, when he learned that his constituent's S&L was the target of a federal investigation, he met with regulators in an effort to get them to back off.
That politician was John McCain, and his generous friend was Charles Keating, head of Lincoln Savings & Loan. While he was courting McCain and other senators and urging them to oppose tougher regulation of S&Ls, Keating was also investing his depositors' federally insured savings in risky ventures. When those lost money, Keating tried to hide the losses from regulators by inducing his customers to switch from insured accounts to uninsured (and worthless) bonds issued by Lincoln's near-bankrupt parent company. In 1989, it went belly up - and more than 20,000 Lincoln customers saw their savings vanish..."
Newsweek: A Freddie Mac Money Trail Catches Up With McCain
"...'Rick is a friend, and I trust him,' McCain told NEWSWEEK last year.
Last week, though, McCain's trust in Davis was tested again amid disclosures that Freddie Mac, the troubled mortgage giant that was recently placed under federal conservatorship, paid his campaign manager's firm $15,000 a month between 2006 and August 2008. As the mortgage crisis has escalated, almost any association with Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae has become politically toxic. But the payments to Davis's firm, Davis Manafort, are especially problematic because he requested the consulting retainer in 2006 - and then did barely any work for the fees, according to two sources familiar with the arrangement who asked not to be identified discussing Freddie Mac business. Aside from attending a few breakfasts and a political-action-committee meeting with Democratic strategist Paul Begala (another Freddie consultant), Davis did 'zero' for the housing firm, one of the sources said. Freddie Mac also had no dealings with the lobbying firm beyond paying monthly invoices - but it agreed to the arrangement because of Davis's close relationship with McCain, the source said, which led top executives to conclude 'you couldn't say no,'..."
When the following bit of invonvenient truth in McCain's past was uttered by a guest on FoxNews' 'Fox & Friends' last week, a contributor quipped 'This isn't the History Channel,' while the producer could be heard saying 'Cut his mike'...
The Keating Five Scandal in 97 Seconds
Rosa Brooks: Keating Five Ring a Bell?
"...The contributions were generous: They came to about $200,000 in today's dollars, and on top of that there were several free vacations for the politician and his family, along with private jet trips and other perks. The politician voted repeatedly against congressional efforts to tighten regulation of S&Ls, and in 1987, when he learned that his constituent's S&L was the target of a federal investigation, he met with regulators in an effort to get them to back off.
That politician was John McCain, and his generous friend was Charles Keating, head of Lincoln Savings & Loan. While he was courting McCain and other senators and urging them to oppose tougher regulation of S&Ls, Keating was also investing his depositors' federally insured savings in risky ventures. When those lost money, Keating tried to hide the losses from regulators by inducing his customers to switch from insured accounts to uninsured (and worthless) bonds issued by Lincoln's near-bankrupt parent company. In 1989, it went belly up - and more than 20,000 Lincoln customers saw their savings vanish..."
Sunday, September 28, 2008
The Economy:
Economists Against Bush's Bailout: Open Letter
"To the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President pro tempore of the Senate:
As economists, we want to express to Congress our great concern for the plan proposed by Treasury Secretary Paulson to deal with the financial crisis. We are well aware of the difficulty of the current financial situation and we agree with the need for bold action to ensure that the financial system continues to function. We see three fatal pitfalls in the currently proposed plan:
1) Its fairness. The plan is a subsidy to investors at taxpayers’ expense. Investors who took risks to earn profits must also bear the losses. Not every business failure carries systemic risk. The government can ensure a well-functioning financial industry, able to make new loans to creditworthy borrowers, without bailing out particular investors and institutions whose choices proved unwise.
2) Its ambiguity. Neither the mission of the new agency nor its oversight are clear. If taxpayers are to buy illiquid and opaque assets from troubled sellers, the terms, occasions, and methods of such purchases must be crystal clear ahead of time and carefully monitored afterwards.
3) Its long-term effects. If the plan is enacted, its effects will be with us for a generation. For all their recent troubles, America's dynamic and innovative private capital markets have brought the nation unparalleled prosperity. Fundamentally weakening those markets in order to calm short-run disruptions is desperately short-sighted..."
Economists Against Bush's Bailout: Open Letter
"To the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President pro tempore of the Senate:
As economists, we want to express to Congress our great concern for the plan proposed by Treasury Secretary Paulson to deal with the financial crisis. We are well aware of the difficulty of the current financial situation and we agree with the need for bold action to ensure that the financial system continues to function. We see three fatal pitfalls in the currently proposed plan:
1) Its fairness. The plan is a subsidy to investors at taxpayers’ expense. Investors who took risks to earn profits must also bear the losses. Not every business failure carries systemic risk. The government can ensure a well-functioning financial industry, able to make new loans to creditworthy borrowers, without bailing out particular investors and institutions whose choices proved unwise.
2) Its ambiguity. Neither the mission of the new agency nor its oversight are clear. If taxpayers are to buy illiquid and opaque assets from troubled sellers, the terms, occasions, and methods of such purchases must be crystal clear ahead of time and carefully monitored afterwards.
3) Its long-term effects. If the plan is enacted, its effects will be with us for a generation. For all their recent troubles, America's dynamic and innovative private capital markets have brought the nation unparalleled prosperity. Fundamentally weakening those markets in order to calm short-run disruptions is desperately short-sighted..."
Campaign 2008:
Frank Rich: McCain’s Suspension Bridge to Nowhere
"...For all the focus on Friday night’s deadlocked debate, it still can’t obscure what preceded it: When John McCain gratuitously parachuted into Washington on Thursday, he didn’t care if his grandstanding might precipitate an even deeper economic collapse. All he cared about was whether he might save his campaign. George Bush put more deliberation into invading Iraq than McCain did into his own reckless invasion of the delicate Congressional negotiations on the bailout plan.
By the time he arrived, there already was a bipartisan agreement in principle. It collapsed hours later at the meeting convened by the president in the Cabinet Room. Rather than help try to resuscitate Wall Street’s bloodied bulls, McCain was determined to be the bull in Washington’s legislative china shop, running around town and playing both sides of his divided party against Congress’s middle. Once others eventually forged a path out of the wreckage, he’d inflate, if not outright fictionalize, his own role in cleaning up the mess his mischief helped make. Or so he hoped, until his ignominious retreat..."
Frank Rich: McCain’s Suspension Bridge to Nowhere
"...For all the focus on Friday night’s deadlocked debate, it still can’t obscure what preceded it: When John McCain gratuitously parachuted into Washington on Thursday, he didn’t care if his grandstanding might precipitate an even deeper economic collapse. All he cared about was whether he might save his campaign. George Bush put more deliberation into invading Iraq than McCain did into his own reckless invasion of the delicate Congressional negotiations on the bailout plan.
By the time he arrived, there already was a bipartisan agreement in principle. It collapsed hours later at the meeting convened by the president in the Cabinet Room. Rather than help try to resuscitate Wall Street’s bloodied bulls, McCain was determined to be the bull in Washington’s legislative china shop, running around town and playing both sides of his divided party against Congress’s middle. Once others eventually forged a path out of the wreckage, he’d inflate, if not outright fictionalize, his own role in cleaning up the mess his mischief helped make. Or so he hoped, until his ignominious retreat..."
Friday, September 26, 2008
The Rule of Law: Wither Posse Comitatus?:
There ought to be a law, oh wait, there is...
Glenn Greenwald: Why Is a US Army Brigade Being Assigned to the 'Homeland'
"Several bloggers today have pointed to this obviously disturbing article from Army Times, which announces that 'beginning Oct. 1 for 12 months, the [1st Brigade Combat Team of the 3rd Infantry Division] will be under the day-to-day control of U.S. Army North' -- 'the first time an active unit has been given a dedicated assignment to NorthCom, a joint command established in 2002 to provide command and control for federal homeland defense efforts and coordinate defense support of civil authorities,'..."
The Economy:
The following author's book 'When Corporations Rule The World' is excellent reading. (Thanks Tad!)
David Korten: Main Street Before Wall Street
"...So what would a healthy financial system look like? Let's start with the relationship between Main Street and Wall Street. Main Street is the world of local businesses and working people engaged in producing and exchanging real goods and services-a world of real wealth. Wall Street as it now exists is a world of pure money in which the sole game is to use money to make money for people who have money-a world of speculative gains and unearned claims against the real wealth of Main Street.
Money, an essential medium of exchange, makes modern economic life possible. In our current money system, the money that Main Street depends on to facilitate productive economic exchange and investment is created when Wall Street's private banks issue loans. You might say that the business of Wall Street is creating money. This does not in itself create wealth. Money is only an accounting chit useful as a medium of exchange. Wealth creation is the business of Main Street. This suggests that the only legitimate reason for the existence of Wall Street is to provide an orderly flow of money to meet the needs of Main Street.
Wall Street performed its appropriate tasks reasonably well so long as public regulatory authorities put in place subsequent to the financial crash of 1929 held it accountable to Main Street interests. As it liberated itself from public oversight, however, Wall Street turned from serving Main Street to preying on it to generate outsized financial rewards for its biggest players. It created a mind boggling variety of 'heads I win, tails you lose' financial games..."
Robert Scheer: A Fox to Protect the Henhouse?
"Does it really matter which party is in charge when it comes to bailing out the Wall Street hustlers whose shenanigans have bankrupted so many ordinary folks? Not if the Democrats roll over and cede power to the former head of Goldman Sachs, the investment bank at the center of our economic meltdown.
What arrogance for Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson-who the year before President Bush appointed him treasury secretary was paid $16.4 million for heading the company that did as much as any to engineer this financial travesty-to now insist we must blindly trust him to solve the problem. Paulson is demanding the power to act with 'absolute impunity,' said Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., who admonished the treasury chief: 'After reading this proposal, it is not only our economy that is at risk, Mr. Secretary, but our Constitution as well.'
Clearly, it's a vast improvement to have Dodd in the chairman's seat of the Senate Banking Committee, asking the right questions, rather than his predecessor, Texas Republican Phil Gramm, who presided over the committee in the years when the American economy, long the envy of the world, was viciously sabotaged by radical deregulation legislation..."
There ought to be a law, oh wait, there is...
Glenn Greenwald: Why Is a US Army Brigade Being Assigned to the 'Homeland'
"Several bloggers today have pointed to this obviously disturbing article from Army Times, which announces that 'beginning Oct. 1 for 12 months, the [1st Brigade Combat Team of the 3rd Infantry Division] will be under the day-to-day control of U.S. Army North' -- 'the first time an active unit has been given a dedicated assignment to NorthCom, a joint command established in 2002 to provide command and control for federal homeland defense efforts and coordinate defense support of civil authorities,'..."
The Economy:
The following author's book 'When Corporations Rule The World' is excellent reading. (Thanks Tad!)
David Korten: Main Street Before Wall Street
"...So what would a healthy financial system look like? Let's start with the relationship between Main Street and Wall Street. Main Street is the world of local businesses and working people engaged in producing and exchanging real goods and services-a world of real wealth. Wall Street as it now exists is a world of pure money in which the sole game is to use money to make money for people who have money-a world of speculative gains and unearned claims against the real wealth of Main Street.
Money, an essential medium of exchange, makes modern economic life possible. In our current money system, the money that Main Street depends on to facilitate productive economic exchange and investment is created when Wall Street's private banks issue loans. You might say that the business of Wall Street is creating money. This does not in itself create wealth. Money is only an accounting chit useful as a medium of exchange. Wealth creation is the business of Main Street. This suggests that the only legitimate reason for the existence of Wall Street is to provide an orderly flow of money to meet the needs of Main Street.
Wall Street performed its appropriate tasks reasonably well so long as public regulatory authorities put in place subsequent to the financial crash of 1929 held it accountable to Main Street interests. As it liberated itself from public oversight, however, Wall Street turned from serving Main Street to preying on it to generate outsized financial rewards for its biggest players. It created a mind boggling variety of 'heads I win, tails you lose' financial games..."
Robert Scheer: A Fox to Protect the Henhouse?
"Does it really matter which party is in charge when it comes to bailing out the Wall Street hustlers whose shenanigans have bankrupted so many ordinary folks? Not if the Democrats roll over and cede power to the former head of Goldman Sachs, the investment bank at the center of our economic meltdown.
What arrogance for Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson-who the year before President Bush appointed him treasury secretary was paid $16.4 million for heading the company that did as much as any to engineer this financial travesty-to now insist we must blindly trust him to solve the problem. Paulson is demanding the power to act with 'absolute impunity,' said Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., who admonished the treasury chief: 'After reading this proposal, it is not only our economy that is at risk, Mr. Secretary, but our Constitution as well.'
Clearly, it's a vast improvement to have Dodd in the chairman's seat of the Senate Banking Committee, asking the right questions, rather than his predecessor, Texas Republican Phil Gramm, who presided over the committee in the years when the American economy, long the envy of the world, was viciously sabotaged by radical deregulation legislation..."
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
The Economy:
This morning ABCs 'Good Morning America' actually ran the Fed Charmain's Bernanke threat as a headline. Paraphrasing: 'Will your savings disappear if lawmakers don't approve the former Goldman Sachs head's (Treasury Sec. Paulson) plan to help his friends on Wall St. by the Friday deadline?' Amazing, but not surprising 'journalism' from ABC.
The item below was the subject of Democacy Now!'s first segment this morning.
Naomi Klein: Now is the Time to Resist Wall Street's Shock Doctrine
"I wrote The Shock Doctrine in the hopes that it would make us all better prepared for the next big shock. Well, that shock has certainly arrived, along with gloves-off attempts to use it to push through radical pro-corporate policies (which of course will further enrich the very players who created the market crisis in the first place...).
The best summary of how the right plans to use the economic crisis to push through their policy wish list comes from Former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich. On Sunday, Gingrich laid out 18 policy prescriptions for Congress to take in order to 'return to a Reagan-Thatcher policy of economic growth through fundamental reforms.' In the midst of this economic crisis, he is actually demanding the repeal of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which would lead to further deregulation of the financial industry. Gingrich is also calling for reforming the education system to allow 'competition' (a.k.a. vouchers), strengthening border enforcement, cutting corporate taxes and his signature move: allowing offshore drilling...
...What Gingrich's wish list tells us is that the dumping of private debt into the public coffers is only stage one of the current shock. The second comes when the debt crisis currently being created by this bailout becomes the excuse to privatize social security, lower corporate taxes and cut spending on the poor. A President McCain would embrace these policies willingly. A President Obama would come under huge pressure from the think tanks and the corporate media to abandon his campaign promises and embrace austerity and 'free-market stimulus.'
We have seen this many times before, in this country and around the world. But here's the thing: these opportunistic tactics can only work if we let them. They work when we respond to crisis by regressing, wanting to believe in 'strong leaders' - even if they are the same strong leaders who used the September 11 attacks to push through the Patriot Act and launch the illegal war in Iraq.So let's be absolutely clear: there are no saviors who are going to look out for us in this crisis. Certainly not Henry Paulson, former CEO of Goldman Sachs, one of the companies that will benefit most from his proposed bailout (which is actually a stick up). The only hope of preventing another dose of shock politics is loud, organized grassroots pressure on all political parties: they have to know right now that after seven years of Bush, Americans are becoming shock resistant..."
Paul Krugman: Cash for Trash
"Some skeptics are calling Henry Paulson’s $700 billion rescue plan for the U.S. financial system 'cash for trash.' Others are calling the proposed legislation the Authorization for Use of Financial Force, after the Authorization for Use of Military Force, the infamous bill that gave the Bush administration the green light to invade Iraq.
There’s justice in the gibes. Everyone agrees that something major must be done. But Mr. Paulson is demanding extraordinary power for himself — and for his successor — to deploy taxpayers’ money on behalf of a plan that, as far as I can see, doesn’t make sense.
Some are saying that we should simply trust Mr. Paulson, because he’s a smart guy who knows what he’s doing. But that’s only half true: he is a smart guy, but what, exactly, in the experience of the past year and a half — a period during which Mr. Paulson repeatedly declared the financial crisis 'contained,' and then offered a series of unsuccessful fixes — justifies the belief that he knows what he’s doing? He’s making it up as he goes along, just like the rest of us.
So let’s try to think this through for ourselves. I have a four-step view of the financial crisis..."
Law Enforcement Technology:
New Scientist: 'Pre-crime' detector shows promise
"Last year, New Scientist revealed that the US Department of Homeland Security is developing a system designed to detect 'hostile thoughts' in people walking through border posts, airports and public places. The DHS says recent tests prove it works.
Project Hostile Intent as it was called aimed to help security staff choose who to pull over for a gently probing interview - or more.
ommentators slated the idea that sensors could spot people up to no good from their pulse rate, breathing, skin temperature, or fleeting facial expressions. One likened it to the 'pre-crime' units that predict criminal behaviour in the movie Minority Report..."
This morning ABCs 'Good Morning America' actually ran the Fed Charmain's Bernanke threat as a headline. Paraphrasing: 'Will your savings disappear if lawmakers don't approve the former Goldman Sachs head's (Treasury Sec. Paulson) plan to help his friends on Wall St. by the Friday deadline?' Amazing, but not surprising 'journalism' from ABC.
The item below was the subject of Democacy Now!'s first segment this morning.
Naomi Klein: Now is the Time to Resist Wall Street's Shock Doctrine
"I wrote The Shock Doctrine in the hopes that it would make us all better prepared for the next big shock. Well, that shock has certainly arrived, along with gloves-off attempts to use it to push through radical pro-corporate policies (which of course will further enrich the very players who created the market crisis in the first place...).
The best summary of how the right plans to use the economic crisis to push through their policy wish list comes from Former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich. On Sunday, Gingrich laid out 18 policy prescriptions for Congress to take in order to 'return to a Reagan-Thatcher policy of economic growth through fundamental reforms.' In the midst of this economic crisis, he is actually demanding the repeal of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which would lead to further deregulation of the financial industry. Gingrich is also calling for reforming the education system to allow 'competition' (a.k.a. vouchers), strengthening border enforcement, cutting corporate taxes and his signature move: allowing offshore drilling...
...What Gingrich's wish list tells us is that the dumping of private debt into the public coffers is only stage one of the current shock. The second comes when the debt crisis currently being created by this bailout becomes the excuse to privatize social security, lower corporate taxes and cut spending on the poor. A President McCain would embrace these policies willingly. A President Obama would come under huge pressure from the think tanks and the corporate media to abandon his campaign promises and embrace austerity and 'free-market stimulus.'
We have seen this many times before, in this country and around the world. But here's the thing: these opportunistic tactics can only work if we let them. They work when we respond to crisis by regressing, wanting to believe in 'strong leaders' - even if they are the same strong leaders who used the September 11 attacks to push through the Patriot Act and launch the illegal war in Iraq.So let's be absolutely clear: there are no saviors who are going to look out for us in this crisis. Certainly not Henry Paulson, former CEO of Goldman Sachs, one of the companies that will benefit most from his proposed bailout (which is actually a stick up). The only hope of preventing another dose of shock politics is loud, organized grassroots pressure on all political parties: they have to know right now that after seven years of Bush, Americans are becoming shock resistant..."
Paul Krugman: Cash for Trash
"Some skeptics are calling Henry Paulson’s $700 billion rescue plan for the U.S. financial system 'cash for trash.' Others are calling the proposed legislation the Authorization for Use of Financial Force, after the Authorization for Use of Military Force, the infamous bill that gave the Bush administration the green light to invade Iraq.
There’s justice in the gibes. Everyone agrees that something major must be done. But Mr. Paulson is demanding extraordinary power for himself — and for his successor — to deploy taxpayers’ money on behalf of a plan that, as far as I can see, doesn’t make sense.
Some are saying that we should simply trust Mr. Paulson, because he’s a smart guy who knows what he’s doing. But that’s only half true: he is a smart guy, but what, exactly, in the experience of the past year and a half — a period during which Mr. Paulson repeatedly declared the financial crisis 'contained,' and then offered a series of unsuccessful fixes — justifies the belief that he knows what he’s doing? He’s making it up as he goes along, just like the rest of us.
So let’s try to think this through for ourselves. I have a four-step view of the financial crisis..."
Law Enforcement Technology:
New Scientist: 'Pre-crime' detector shows promise
"Last year, New Scientist revealed that the US Department of Homeland Security is developing a system designed to detect 'hostile thoughts' in people walking through border posts, airports and public places. The DHS says recent tests prove it works.
Project Hostile Intent as it was called aimed to help security staff choose who to pull over for a gently probing interview - or more.
ommentators slated the idea that sensors could spot people up to no good from their pulse rate, breathing, skin temperature, or fleeting facial expressions. One likened it to the 'pre-crime' units that predict criminal behaviour in the movie Minority Report..."
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Nukes:
Harvey Wasserman: The Senate's 'Drill Drill Drill' Bill Hides Nuke Power Mega-Theft
"The McCain/Palin push for endless oil drilling is being used as a smokescreen to gouge a half-trillion or more taxpayer dollars in subsidies and loan guarantees to build new atomic reactors. The mega-theft could be approved by the US Senate this week. Green activists throughout the nation are calling their Senators, as should you.
The atomic power industry can't get private financing to build new reactors. So while Wall Street plummets into catastrophe, it is using the 'drill drill drill' mantra to hide this latest raid on the depleted federal treasury.
The new Senate bill authorizes the oil industry to drill for oil virtually anywhere it wants, without meaningful environmental restraint. The enormous profits would stay in the hands of the petro-barons.
Hidden in the bill is a limitless blank check for loan guarantees to build new reactors. A year ago the industry tried to slip $50 billion in guarantees into a bill sponsored by Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM), nuke power's chief Congressional pusher. A national grassroots campaign, sparked in part by NukeFree.org and other national green groups, helped beat the bill. Not a single major environmental organization supported the reactor industry.
Now desperate reactor builders have upped the ante, demanding a wide range of financial give-aways and regulatory favors to jump-start a technology defined by fifty years of proven failure. The centerpiece is a loan guarantee plan to stick taxpayers with 100% of the liability for failed reactor construction projects. The GOP McCain/Palin ticket wants at least 45 new reactors for the US, with a price tag that could easily exceed $500 billion, all of which would be guaranteed by this bill..."
Afghanistan:
Robert Fisk: Why Does the US Think It Can Win in Afghanistan?
"...Obama and McCain really think they're going to win in Afghanistan - before, I suppose, rushing their soldiers back to Iraq when the Baghdad government collapses. What the British couldn't do in the 19th century and what the Russians couldn't do at the end of the 20th century, we're going to achieve at the start of the 21 century, taking our terrible war into nuclear-armed Pakistan just for good measure. Fantasy again.
Joseph Conrad, who understood the powerlessness of powerful nations, would surely have made something of this. Yes, we have lost after we won in Afghanistan and now we will lose as we try to win again..."
Harvey Wasserman: The Senate's 'Drill Drill Drill' Bill Hides Nuke Power Mega-Theft
"The McCain/Palin push for endless oil drilling is being used as a smokescreen to gouge a half-trillion or more taxpayer dollars in subsidies and loan guarantees to build new atomic reactors. The mega-theft could be approved by the US Senate this week. Green activists throughout the nation are calling their Senators, as should you.
The atomic power industry can't get private financing to build new reactors. So while Wall Street plummets into catastrophe, it is using the 'drill drill drill' mantra to hide this latest raid on the depleted federal treasury.
The new Senate bill authorizes the oil industry to drill for oil virtually anywhere it wants, without meaningful environmental restraint. The enormous profits would stay in the hands of the petro-barons.
Hidden in the bill is a limitless blank check for loan guarantees to build new reactors. A year ago the industry tried to slip $50 billion in guarantees into a bill sponsored by Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM), nuke power's chief Congressional pusher. A national grassroots campaign, sparked in part by NukeFree.org and other national green groups, helped beat the bill. Not a single major environmental organization supported the reactor industry.
Now desperate reactor builders have upped the ante, demanding a wide range of financial give-aways and regulatory favors to jump-start a technology defined by fifty years of proven failure. The centerpiece is a loan guarantee plan to stick taxpayers with 100% of the liability for failed reactor construction projects. The GOP McCain/Palin ticket wants at least 45 new reactors for the US, with a price tag that could easily exceed $500 billion, all of which would be guaranteed by this bill..."
Afghanistan:
Robert Fisk: Why Does the US Think It Can Win in Afghanistan?
"...Obama and McCain really think they're going to win in Afghanistan - before, I suppose, rushing their soldiers back to Iraq when the Baghdad government collapses. What the British couldn't do in the 19th century and what the Russians couldn't do at the end of the 20th century, we're going to achieve at the start of the 21 century, taking our terrible war into nuclear-armed Pakistan just for good measure. Fantasy again.
Joseph Conrad, who understood the powerlessness of powerful nations, would surely have made something of this. Yes, we have lost after we won in Afghanistan and now we will lose as we try to win again..."
Friday, September 19, 2008
The Economy As A Predictable Victim Of Deregulatory Zeal & Corp. Fraud:
James Moore: A Nation of Village Idiots
"Don't let them tell you this economic meltdown is a complicated mess. It's not. Our national financial crisis is readily understood by anyone who has seen greed and hypocrisy. But we are now witnessing them on a profound, monumental scale.
Conservative Republicans always want the government to stay out of business and avoid regulation as long as they are making lots of money. When their greed, however, gets them into a fix, they are the first to cry out for rules and laws and taxpayer money to bail out their businesses. Obviously, Republicans are socialists. The Bush administration has decided to socialize the debt of the big Wall Street Firms. Taxpayers didn't get to enjoy any of the big money profits on the phony financial instruments like derivatives or bundled sub-prime paper, but we get the privilege of paying for their debt and failures.
Let's just consider the money. The public bailout of insurance giant (becoming a dwarf) AIG is estimated at $85 billion. According to one report, that's more than the Bush administration spent on Aid to Families with Dependent Children during his entire time in office. That amount of money would also pay for health care for every man, woman, and child in America for at least six months.
How did we get here?
That's pretty easy to answer, too. His name is Phil Gramm. A few days after the Supreme Court made George W. Bush president in 2000, Gramm stuck something called the Commodity Futures Modernization Act into the budget bill. Nobody knew that the Texas senator was slipping America a 262 page poison pill. The Gramm Guts America Act was designed to keep regulators from controlling new financial tools described as credit 'swaps.' These are instruments like sub-prime mortgages bundled up and sold as securities. Under the Gramm law, neither the SEC nor the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) were able to examine financial institutions like hedge funds or investment banks to guarantee they had the assets necessary to cover losses they were guaranteeing. This isn't small beer we are talking about here. The market for these fancy financial instruments they don't expect us little people to understand is estimated at $60 trillion annually, which amounts to almost four times the entire US stock market.
And Senator Phil Gramm wanted it completely unregulated. So did Alan Greenspan, who supported the legislation and is now running around to the talk shows jabbering about the horror of it all. Before the highly paid lobbyists were done slinging their gold card guts about the halls of congress, every one from hedge funds to banks were playing with fire for fun and profit.
Gramm didn't just make a fairy tale world for Wall Street, though. He included in his bill a provision that prevented the regulation of energy trading markets, which led us to the Enron collapse. There was no collapse of the house of Gramm, however, because his wife Wendy, who once headed up the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, took a job on the Enron board that provided almost $2 million to their household kitty. And why not? Wendy got a CFTC rule passed that kept the federal government from regulating energy futures contracts at Enron...
...The S and L scandal, which may look precious when compared to our present cascade of problems, isn't hard to understand, either. But it is impossible to take John McCain seriously on our current financial Armageddon since he was dabbling in the historic collapse of 747 S&Ls that occurred during Ronald Reagan's era. In the early 80s under the Republican president, congress deregulated the savings and loan industry in much the same way that Gramm made sure there were no laws hindering our current financial malefactors on Wall Street. S&Ls simply lobbied until they had less regulation and then began making rampant, unsound investments..."
Robert Scheer: Earth to McCain: It’s a Crisis
"...Did you see that McCain-Palin ad promising 'tougher rules on Wall Street to protect your life savings, no special interest giveaways'? Just how dumb do they think we are?
Seriously, 20 minutes of Google searches should be sufficient to convince all but the dimwits among us that John McCain has been a master of the special-interest giveaways to Wall Street that enabled this meltdown. He voted for abolishing all of the significant rules put in place at the time of the Great Depression designed to prevent a repeat. The two main bills accomplishing that, bills which McCain enthusiastically supported, were the Commodity Futures Modernization Act and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. The Gramm is former Sen. Phil Gramm, who was chair of the Senate Banking Committee when he acted as chief sponsor of both pieces of legislation. The same Gramm that McCain picked to co-chair his presidential campaign..."
Campaign 2008:
Paul Krugman: Blizzard of Lies
"...Dishonesty is nothing new in politics. I spent much of 2000 — my first year at The Times — trying to alert readers to the blatant dishonesty of the Bush campaign’s claims about taxes, spending and Social Security.
But I can’t think of any precedent, at least in America, for the blizzard of lies since the Republican convention. The Bush campaign’s lies in 2000 were artful — you needed some grasp of arithmetic to realize that you were being conned. This year, however, the McCain campaign keeps making assertions that anyone with an Internet connection can disprove in a minute, and repeating these assertions over and over again..."
Democracy Now! - Sarah Palin and Global Warming: Alaska Prof. Says Palin Misrepresented State Findings on Endangered Polar Bears...and Tried to Cover It Up
"We speak with Rick Steiner, a marine conservation specialist and University of Alaska professor who has tried to uncover the scientific basis for Alaska governor and GOP vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s opposition to any new federal protections for polar bears under the Endangered Species Act. When he requested the assessment of state scientists who had examined the impact of global warming on polar bears, he was told he might have to pay close to half-a-million dollars for the request to be processed. Steiner finally obtained the documents through a federal records request and found that the state’s marine mammal scientists were actually at odds with Palin’s position...."
Gov. Palin supports aerial hunting...
Defenders Of Wildlife: Defenders of Wildlife Videos 2
"Alaska is truly our nation’s last frontier. It is also the last place in the U.S. where a few hunters still use aircraft to chase and kill wolves and other animals. They shoot these animals from the air or chase them to exhaustion before landing and shooting them point blank.
More than 30 years ago, Congress put an end to aerial hunting. But Alaska is exploiting a loophole in federal law to resume the practice. Other states could soon follow suit. It’s time to stop aerial hunting once and for all..."
Mr. Friedman is wrong on a great many things (globalization & a cheerleader for the Iraq War & 'Troop Surge'), but on energy policy he is making decent arguments...
Thomas Friedman: Making America Stupid
"...Why would Republicans, the party of business, want to focus our country on breathing life into a 19th-century technology — fossil fuels — rather than giving birth to a 21st-century technology — renewable energy? As I have argued before, it reminds me of someone who, on the eve of the I.T. revolution — on the eve of PCs and the Internet — is pounding the table for America to make more I.B.M. typewriters and carbon paper. 'Typewriters, baby, typewriters.'
Of course, we’re going to need oil for many years, but instead of exalting that — with 'drill, baby, drill' — why not throw all our energy into innovating a whole new industry of clean power with the mantra 'invent, baby, invent?' That is what a party committed to 'change' would really be doing. As they say in Texas: 'If all you ever do is all you’ve ever done, then all you’ll ever get is all you ever got.'
I dwell on this issue because it is symbolic of the campaign that John McCain has decided to run. It’s a campaign now built on turning everything possible into a cultural wedge issue — including even energy policy, no matter how stupid it makes the voters and no matter how much it might weaken America.
I respected McCain’s willingness to support the troop surge in Iraq, even if it was going to cost him the Republican nomination. Now the same guy, who would not sell his soul to win his party’s nomination, is ready to sell every piece of his soul to win the presidency..."
The Iraq War and The Milirary Industrial Complex:
Patrick Cockburn: Iraq: Violence is down – but not because of America's 'surge'
"...The perception in the US that the tide has turned in Iraq is in part because of a change in the attitude of the foreign, largely American, media. The war in Iraq has now been going on for five years, longer than the First World War, and the world is bored with it. US television networks maintain expensive bureaux in Baghdad, but little of what they produce gets on the air. When it does, viewers turn off. US newspaper bureaux are being cut in size. The result of all this is that the American voter hears less of violence in Iraq and can suppose that America's military adventure there is finally coming good...
...The surge only achieved the degree of success it did because Iran, which played a central role in getting Nouri al-Maliki appointed Prime Minister in 2006, decided to back his government fully. It negotiated a ceasefire between the Iraqi government and the powerful movement of Muqtada al-Sadr in Basra, persuading the cleric to call his militiamen off the streets there, in March and again two months later in the Sadrist stronghold of Sadr City. It is very noticeable that in recent weeks the US has largely ceased its criticism of Iran. This is partly because of American preoccupation with Russia since the fighting began in Georgia in August, but it is also an implicit recognition that US security in Iraq is highly dependant on Iranian actions.
General Petraeus has had a measure of success in Iraq less because of his military skills than because he was one of the few American leaders to have some understanding of Iraqi politics. In January 2004, when he was commander of the 101st Airborne Division in Mosul, I asked him what was the most important piece of advice he could give to his successor. He said it was 'not to align too closely with one ethnic group, political party, tribe, religious group or social element'. But today the US has no alternative but to support Mr Maliki and his Shia government, and to wink at the role of Iran in Iraq. If McCain supposes the US has won a military victory, and as president acts as if this were true, then he is laying the groundwork for a new war."
Frida Berrigan: Military Industrial Complex 2.0
"...In fiscal year 2005 (the last year for which full data is available), the Pentagon spent more contracting for services with private companies than on supplies and equipment -- including major weapons systems. This figure has been steadily rising over the past 10 years. According to a recent Government Accountability Office report, in the last decade the amount the Pentagon has paid out to private companies for services has increased by 78% in real terms. In fiscal year 2006, those services contracts totaled more than $151 billion.
Ever more frequently, we hear generals and politicians alike bemoan the state of the military. Their conclusion: The wear and tear of the President's Global War on Terror has pushed the military to the breaking point. But private contractors are playing a different tune. Think of it this way: While the military cannot stay properly supplied, its suppliers are racking up contracts in the multi-billions. For them, it's a matter of letting the good times roll...
...To understand what privatization means in action at the Pentagon, consider just one modest example of the corruption that infects KBR and how it was addressed. In 2004, the company submitted requests for reimbursement on more than one billion dollars in charges that Army auditors deemed 'questionable,' in part because they weren't backed up by reliable records. Charles Smith, the Army official managing Pentagon contracts, refused to approve the payments and threatened to levy fines against the company if it did not get a better handle on its spending. Later, he told James Risen of the New York Times that KBR had 'a gigantic amount of costs they couldn't justify. Ultimately, the money that was going to KBR was money being taken away from the troops.'
Despite his 31 years with the Army, and without notice, Smith was transferred from his post, while the requested payments were subsequently sent to KBR. According to the New York Times, the Army argued that 'blocking the payments to KBR would have eroded basic services to the troops. They said that KBR had warned that if it was not paid, it would reduce payments to subcontractors, which in turn would cut back on services.'
In other words, the Pentagon -- in charge of hundreds of billions of dollars and more than a million personnel in and out of uniform -- was essentially held hostage by a company which threatened to withhold services that (just to be clear) had been pretty shoddy to begin with..."
James Moore: A Nation of Village Idiots
"Don't let them tell you this economic meltdown is a complicated mess. It's not. Our national financial crisis is readily understood by anyone who has seen greed and hypocrisy. But we are now witnessing them on a profound, monumental scale.
Conservative Republicans always want the government to stay out of business and avoid regulation as long as they are making lots of money. When their greed, however, gets them into a fix, they are the first to cry out for rules and laws and taxpayer money to bail out their businesses. Obviously, Republicans are socialists. The Bush administration has decided to socialize the debt of the big Wall Street Firms. Taxpayers didn't get to enjoy any of the big money profits on the phony financial instruments like derivatives or bundled sub-prime paper, but we get the privilege of paying for their debt and failures.
Let's just consider the money. The public bailout of insurance giant (becoming a dwarf) AIG is estimated at $85 billion. According to one report, that's more than the Bush administration spent on Aid to Families with Dependent Children during his entire time in office. That amount of money would also pay for health care for every man, woman, and child in America for at least six months.
How did we get here?
That's pretty easy to answer, too. His name is Phil Gramm. A few days after the Supreme Court made George W. Bush president in 2000, Gramm stuck something called the Commodity Futures Modernization Act into the budget bill. Nobody knew that the Texas senator was slipping America a 262 page poison pill. The Gramm Guts America Act was designed to keep regulators from controlling new financial tools described as credit 'swaps.' These are instruments like sub-prime mortgages bundled up and sold as securities. Under the Gramm law, neither the SEC nor the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) were able to examine financial institutions like hedge funds or investment banks to guarantee they had the assets necessary to cover losses they were guaranteeing. This isn't small beer we are talking about here. The market for these fancy financial instruments they don't expect us little people to understand is estimated at $60 trillion annually, which amounts to almost four times the entire US stock market.
And Senator Phil Gramm wanted it completely unregulated. So did Alan Greenspan, who supported the legislation and is now running around to the talk shows jabbering about the horror of it all. Before the highly paid lobbyists were done slinging their gold card guts about the halls of congress, every one from hedge funds to banks were playing with fire for fun and profit.
Gramm didn't just make a fairy tale world for Wall Street, though. He included in his bill a provision that prevented the regulation of energy trading markets, which led us to the Enron collapse. There was no collapse of the house of Gramm, however, because his wife Wendy, who once headed up the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, took a job on the Enron board that provided almost $2 million to their household kitty. And why not? Wendy got a CFTC rule passed that kept the federal government from regulating energy futures contracts at Enron...
...The S and L scandal, which may look precious when compared to our present cascade of problems, isn't hard to understand, either. But it is impossible to take John McCain seriously on our current financial Armageddon since he was dabbling in the historic collapse of 747 S&Ls that occurred during Ronald Reagan's era. In the early 80s under the Republican president, congress deregulated the savings and loan industry in much the same way that Gramm made sure there were no laws hindering our current financial malefactors on Wall Street. S&Ls simply lobbied until they had less regulation and then began making rampant, unsound investments..."
Robert Scheer: Earth to McCain: It’s a Crisis
"...Did you see that McCain-Palin ad promising 'tougher rules on Wall Street to protect your life savings, no special interest giveaways'? Just how dumb do they think we are?
Seriously, 20 minutes of Google searches should be sufficient to convince all but the dimwits among us that John McCain has been a master of the special-interest giveaways to Wall Street that enabled this meltdown. He voted for abolishing all of the significant rules put in place at the time of the Great Depression designed to prevent a repeat. The two main bills accomplishing that, bills which McCain enthusiastically supported, were the Commodity Futures Modernization Act and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. The Gramm is former Sen. Phil Gramm, who was chair of the Senate Banking Committee when he acted as chief sponsor of both pieces of legislation. The same Gramm that McCain picked to co-chair his presidential campaign..."
Campaign 2008:
Paul Krugman: Blizzard of Lies
"...Dishonesty is nothing new in politics. I spent much of 2000 — my first year at The Times — trying to alert readers to the blatant dishonesty of the Bush campaign’s claims about taxes, spending and Social Security.
But I can’t think of any precedent, at least in America, for the blizzard of lies since the Republican convention. The Bush campaign’s lies in 2000 were artful — you needed some grasp of arithmetic to realize that you were being conned. This year, however, the McCain campaign keeps making assertions that anyone with an Internet connection can disprove in a minute, and repeating these assertions over and over again..."
Democracy Now! - Sarah Palin and Global Warming: Alaska Prof. Says Palin Misrepresented State Findings on Endangered Polar Bears...and Tried to Cover It Up
"We speak with Rick Steiner, a marine conservation specialist and University of Alaska professor who has tried to uncover the scientific basis for Alaska governor and GOP vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s opposition to any new federal protections for polar bears under the Endangered Species Act. When he requested the assessment of state scientists who had examined the impact of global warming on polar bears, he was told he might have to pay close to half-a-million dollars for the request to be processed. Steiner finally obtained the documents through a federal records request and found that the state’s marine mammal scientists were actually at odds with Palin’s position...."
Gov. Palin supports aerial hunting...
Defenders Of Wildlife: Defenders of Wildlife Videos 2
"Alaska is truly our nation’s last frontier. It is also the last place in the U.S. where a few hunters still use aircraft to chase and kill wolves and other animals. They shoot these animals from the air or chase them to exhaustion before landing and shooting them point blank.
More than 30 years ago, Congress put an end to aerial hunting. But Alaska is exploiting a loophole in federal law to resume the practice. Other states could soon follow suit. It’s time to stop aerial hunting once and for all..."
Mr. Friedman is wrong on a great many things (globalization & a cheerleader for the Iraq War & 'Troop Surge'), but on energy policy he is making decent arguments...
Thomas Friedman: Making America Stupid
"...Why would Republicans, the party of business, want to focus our country on breathing life into a 19th-century technology — fossil fuels — rather than giving birth to a 21st-century technology — renewable energy? As I have argued before, it reminds me of someone who, on the eve of the I.T. revolution — on the eve of PCs and the Internet — is pounding the table for America to make more I.B.M. typewriters and carbon paper. 'Typewriters, baby, typewriters.'
Of course, we’re going to need oil for many years, but instead of exalting that — with 'drill, baby, drill' — why not throw all our energy into innovating a whole new industry of clean power with the mantra 'invent, baby, invent?' That is what a party committed to 'change' would really be doing. As they say in Texas: 'If all you ever do is all you’ve ever done, then all you’ll ever get is all you ever got.'
I dwell on this issue because it is symbolic of the campaign that John McCain has decided to run. It’s a campaign now built on turning everything possible into a cultural wedge issue — including even energy policy, no matter how stupid it makes the voters and no matter how much it might weaken America.
I respected McCain’s willingness to support the troop surge in Iraq, even if it was going to cost him the Republican nomination. Now the same guy, who would not sell his soul to win his party’s nomination, is ready to sell every piece of his soul to win the presidency..."
The Iraq War and The Milirary Industrial Complex:
Patrick Cockburn: Iraq: Violence is down – but not because of America's 'surge'
"...The perception in the US that the tide has turned in Iraq is in part because of a change in the attitude of the foreign, largely American, media. The war in Iraq has now been going on for five years, longer than the First World War, and the world is bored with it. US television networks maintain expensive bureaux in Baghdad, but little of what they produce gets on the air. When it does, viewers turn off. US newspaper bureaux are being cut in size. The result of all this is that the American voter hears less of violence in Iraq and can suppose that America's military adventure there is finally coming good...
...The surge only achieved the degree of success it did because Iran, which played a central role in getting Nouri al-Maliki appointed Prime Minister in 2006, decided to back his government fully. It negotiated a ceasefire between the Iraqi government and the powerful movement of Muqtada al-Sadr in Basra, persuading the cleric to call his militiamen off the streets there, in March and again two months later in the Sadrist stronghold of Sadr City. It is very noticeable that in recent weeks the US has largely ceased its criticism of Iran. This is partly because of American preoccupation with Russia since the fighting began in Georgia in August, but it is also an implicit recognition that US security in Iraq is highly dependant on Iranian actions.
General Petraeus has had a measure of success in Iraq less because of his military skills than because he was one of the few American leaders to have some understanding of Iraqi politics. In January 2004, when he was commander of the 101st Airborne Division in Mosul, I asked him what was the most important piece of advice he could give to his successor. He said it was 'not to align too closely with one ethnic group, political party, tribe, religious group or social element'. But today the US has no alternative but to support Mr Maliki and his Shia government, and to wink at the role of Iran in Iraq. If McCain supposes the US has won a military victory, and as president acts as if this were true, then he is laying the groundwork for a new war."
Frida Berrigan: Military Industrial Complex 2.0
"...In fiscal year 2005 (the last year for which full data is available), the Pentagon spent more contracting for services with private companies than on supplies and equipment -- including major weapons systems. This figure has been steadily rising over the past 10 years. According to a recent Government Accountability Office report, in the last decade the amount the Pentagon has paid out to private companies for services has increased by 78% in real terms. In fiscal year 2006, those services contracts totaled more than $151 billion.
Ever more frequently, we hear generals and politicians alike bemoan the state of the military. Their conclusion: The wear and tear of the President's Global War on Terror has pushed the military to the breaking point. But private contractors are playing a different tune. Think of it this way: While the military cannot stay properly supplied, its suppliers are racking up contracts in the multi-billions. For them, it's a matter of letting the good times roll...
...To understand what privatization means in action at the Pentagon, consider just one modest example of the corruption that infects KBR and how it was addressed. In 2004, the company submitted requests for reimbursement on more than one billion dollars in charges that Army auditors deemed 'questionable,' in part because they weren't backed up by reliable records. Charles Smith, the Army official managing Pentagon contracts, refused to approve the payments and threatened to levy fines against the company if it did not get a better handle on its spending. Later, he told James Risen of the New York Times that KBR had 'a gigantic amount of costs they couldn't justify. Ultimately, the money that was going to KBR was money being taken away from the troops.'
Despite his 31 years with the Army, and without notice, Smith was transferred from his post, while the requested payments were subsequently sent to KBR. According to the New York Times, the Army argued that 'blocking the payments to KBR would have eroded basic services to the troops. They said that KBR had warned that if it was not paid, it would reduce payments to subcontractors, which in turn would cut back on services.'
In other words, the Pentagon -- in charge of hundreds of billions of dollars and more than a million personnel in and out of uniform -- was essentially held hostage by a company which threatened to withhold services that (just to be clear) had been pretty shoddy to begin with..."
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Economics:
Joseph Stiglitz: The financial crisis is the fruit of dishonesty on the part of financial institutions
"Houses of cards, chickens coming home to roost - pick your cliche. The new low in the financial crisis, which has prompted comparisons with the 1929 Wall Street crash, is the fruit of a pattern of dishonesty on the part of financial institutions, and incompetence on the part of policymakers.
We had become accustomed to the hypocrisy. The banks reject any suggestion they should face regulation, rebuff any move towards anti-trust measures - yet when trouble strikes, all of a sudden they demand state intervention...: they must be bailed out; they are too big, too important to be allowed to fail...
...America's financial system failed in its two crucial responsibilities: managing risk and allocating capital. The industry as a whole has not been doing what it should be doing - for instance creating products that help Americans manage critical risks, such as staying in their homes when interest rates rise or house prices fall - and it must now face change in its regulatory structures. Regrettably, many of the worst elements of the US financial system - toxic mortgages and the practices that led to them - were exported to the rest of the world.
It was all done in the name of innovation, and any regulatory initiative was fought away with claims that it would suppress that innovation. They were innovating, all right, but not in ways that made the economy stronger. Some of America's best and brightest were devoting their talents to getting around standards and regulations designed to ensure the efficiency of the economy and the safety of the banking system. Unfortunately, they were far too successful, and we are all - homeowners, workers, investors, taxpayers - paying the price."
Joseph Stiglitz: The financial crisis is the fruit of dishonesty on the part of financial institutions
"Houses of cards, chickens coming home to roost - pick your cliche. The new low in the financial crisis, which has prompted comparisons with the 1929 Wall Street crash, is the fruit of a pattern of dishonesty on the part of financial institutions, and incompetence on the part of policymakers.
We had become accustomed to the hypocrisy. The banks reject any suggestion they should face regulation, rebuff any move towards anti-trust measures - yet when trouble strikes, all of a sudden they demand state intervention...: they must be bailed out; they are too big, too important to be allowed to fail...
...America's financial system failed in its two crucial responsibilities: managing risk and allocating capital. The industry as a whole has not been doing what it should be doing - for instance creating products that help Americans manage critical risks, such as staying in their homes when interest rates rise or house prices fall - and it must now face change in its regulatory structures. Regrettably, many of the worst elements of the US financial system - toxic mortgages and the practices that led to them - were exported to the rest of the world.
It was all done in the name of innovation, and any regulatory initiative was fought away with claims that it would suppress that innovation. They were innovating, all right, but not in ways that made the economy stronger. Some of America's best and brightest were devoting their talents to getting around standards and regulations designed to ensure the efficiency of the economy and the safety of the banking system. Unfortunately, they were far too successful, and we are all - homeowners, workers, investors, taxpayers - paying the price."
Sunday, September 14, 2008
The Fourth Estate, Seeking Ad Revenue, Turns to Fear Mongers:
I was deeply disappointed to find Neo-Con propaganda in my Sunday Daily Camera.
I will be contacting their office, and I urge you to do the same.
Remember, by law, 501(c)(3) organizations are not permitted to engage in political activity, endorse or oppose political candidates, or donate money or time to political campaigns.
Thus, the timing, market, and purpose of this information is highly suspect.
It's ironic that a film trying to conflate 'Radical Islam' and Nazism is in itself a propaganda tool only Goebbels could be proud of...
Editor And Publisher: Newspapers Deliver Millions of 'Terror' DVDs to Subscribers -- In 'Swing States'
"The arrival of tens of millions of DVDs of a controversial DVD on doorsteps around the nation -- but almost exclusively in election 'swing states' -- via newspaper home delivery continues this weekend, with explanatory articles and subscriber feedback appearing on some of the papers' Web sites.
The DVDs of the 60-minute film, made in 2005, and titled 'Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West' arrived today with, among other papers, the Charlotte Observer and the News & Observer in Raleigh, with delivery with the Miami Herald and other papers set for Sunday. (To watch a clip see link below.)
Despite some protests from Muslim and liberal activists, the newspapers -- all hard hit by drops in ad revenue in recent months -- have explained that the DVD does not violate their usual standards; see our exchange with The New York Times below. A spokesperson there said the Times last Sunday inserted 145,000 DVDs in its papers delivered in the following markets: Denver, Miami/Palm Beach, Tampa, Orlando, Detroit, Kansas City, St Louis, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee/Madison. Note: These are all in swing states...
...It was shown on Fox News just before the 2006 mid-term elections, and conservative activist David Horowitz screened the film on college campuses during 2007. An article at the group's site, www.radicalislam.org, all but endorsed John McCain this past week, then was pulled down..."
I was deeply disappointed to find Neo-Con propaganda in my Sunday Daily Camera.
I will be contacting their office, and I urge you to do the same.
Remember, by law, 501(c)(3) organizations are not permitted to engage in political activity, endorse or oppose political candidates, or donate money or time to political campaigns.
Thus, the timing, market, and purpose of this information is highly suspect.
It's ironic that a film trying to conflate 'Radical Islam' and Nazism is in itself a propaganda tool only Goebbels could be proud of...
Editor And Publisher: Newspapers Deliver Millions of 'Terror' DVDs to Subscribers -- In 'Swing States'
"The arrival of tens of millions of DVDs of a controversial DVD on doorsteps around the nation -- but almost exclusively in election 'swing states' -- via newspaper home delivery continues this weekend, with explanatory articles and subscriber feedback appearing on some of the papers' Web sites.
The DVDs of the 60-minute film, made in 2005, and titled 'Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West' arrived today with, among other papers, the Charlotte Observer and the News & Observer in Raleigh, with delivery with the Miami Herald and other papers set for Sunday. (To watch a clip see link below.)
Despite some protests from Muslim and liberal activists, the newspapers -- all hard hit by drops in ad revenue in recent months -- have explained that the DVD does not violate their usual standards; see our exchange with The New York Times below. A spokesperson there said the Times last Sunday inserted 145,000 DVDs in its papers delivered in the following markets: Denver, Miami/Palm Beach, Tampa, Orlando, Detroit, Kansas City, St Louis, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee/Madison. Note: These are all in swing states...
...It was shown on Fox News just before the 2006 mid-term elections, and conservative activist David Horowitz screened the film on college campuses during 2007. An article at the group's site, www.radicalislam.org, all but endorsed John McCain this past week, then was pulled down..."
Friday, September 12, 2008
The Oil Companies and Bush's Interior Dept. Literally and Figuratively In Bed:
NY Times: Wide-Ranging Ethics Scandal Emerges at Interior Deptartment
"As Congress prepares to debate expansion of drilling in taxpayer-owned coastal waters, the Interior Department agency that collects oil and gas royalties has been caught up in a wide-ranging ethics scandal — including allegations of financial self-dealing, accepting gifts from energy companies, cocaine use and sexual misconduct.
In three reports delivered to Congress on Wednesday, the department's inspector general, Earl E. Devaney, found wrongdoing by a dozen current and former employees of the Minerals Management Service, which collects about $10 billion in royalties annually and is one of the government's largest sources of revenue other than taxes..."
Energy Efficiency:
Of course, none of these vehicles, offering 37 ~ 49 MPG are available in the U.S.
With all the talk about 'energy independence,' one wonders how fleet-efficiency can be utterly ignored. The loudest voices for such independence are those on the right, with their more-of-the-same oil-drilling supply-side solutions.
If we're actually interested in no longer financing Middle East despots, isn't it clear that we ought to reduce our demand by the amount we buy from them? It seems that we're only willing to tinker with the status quo at the margins, rather than making significant changes. Are there forces preventing America from moving into a position to be able to buy significantly less (say 30%) fuel? Those forces were quite happy for much of the last decade, when the Ford F150 (15-19 MPG) was the best-selling overall vehicle (outselling cars like the Toyota Camry).
AutoBlogGreen: Fuel-sipping diesel European minivans - is one right for you? - AutoblogGreen
"Minivans tend to be heavier than sedan counterparts, not only because of size, but because they have the latest security additions available. But can you keep your mileage high while driving such vehicles and reduce your emissions? For European minivans, the keys include keeping the vehicles compact, developing them from compact cars and using diesel powertrains..."
NY Times: Wide-Ranging Ethics Scandal Emerges at Interior Deptartment
"As Congress prepares to debate expansion of drilling in taxpayer-owned coastal waters, the Interior Department agency that collects oil and gas royalties has been caught up in a wide-ranging ethics scandal — including allegations of financial self-dealing, accepting gifts from energy companies, cocaine use and sexual misconduct.
In three reports delivered to Congress on Wednesday, the department's inspector general, Earl E. Devaney, found wrongdoing by a dozen current and former employees of the Minerals Management Service, which collects about $10 billion in royalties annually and is one of the government's largest sources of revenue other than taxes..."
Energy Efficiency:
Of course, none of these vehicles, offering 37 ~ 49 MPG are available in the U.S.
With all the talk about 'energy independence,' one wonders how fleet-efficiency can be utterly ignored. The loudest voices for such independence are those on the right, with their more-of-the-same oil-drilling supply-side solutions.
If we're actually interested in no longer financing Middle East despots, isn't it clear that we ought to reduce our demand by the amount we buy from them? It seems that we're only willing to tinker with the status quo at the margins, rather than making significant changes. Are there forces preventing America from moving into a position to be able to buy significantly less (say 30%) fuel? Those forces were quite happy for much of the last decade, when the Ford F150 (15-19 MPG) was the best-selling overall vehicle (outselling cars like the Toyota Camry).
AutoBlogGreen: Fuel-sipping diesel European minivans - is one right for you? - AutoblogGreen
"Minivans tend to be heavier than sedan counterparts, not only because of size, but because they have the latest security additions available. But can you keep your mileage high while driving such vehicles and reduce your emissions? For European minivans, the keys include keeping the vehicles compact, developing them from compact cars and using diesel powertrains..."
Thursday, September 11, 2008
The Bush Legacy of Failure: Iraq
The only people who could say that Iraq has been a 'success' are a) the Pentagon contractors who have benefitted from untold Billions borrowed from the next generation, and b) the wealthiest 1% of Americans who received a huge tax-cut, in advance of Bush's pre-planned war of choice, making paying for the war something the most able would cynically not be asked to contribute toward.
James Denselow: James Denselow: Does anyone actually believe Iraq has been a success?
"President Bush gave his last major foreign policy speech on Tuesday at the National Defence University (NDU) in which he rearticulated his perception of leaving office with Iraq as a success story..."
Georgian 'Democracy'
Reuters: Stuffed ballots, biased campaign tainted Georgia vote: OSCE
"Ballot-box stuffing, beatings of opposition activists, biased news coverage and government officials campaigning for President Mikheil Saakashvili's party tainted Georgia's parliamentary elections this year, Europe's main election watchdog said on Tuesday.
The United States praised Georgia as a 'courageous young democracy' after its brief war with Russia last month; but the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's (OSCE) ODIHR arm said there were many significant shortcomings in a May 21 election, when Saakashvili's party won a big majority..."
The only people who could say that Iraq has been a 'success' are a) the Pentagon contractors who have benefitted from untold Billions borrowed from the next generation, and b) the wealthiest 1% of Americans who received a huge tax-cut, in advance of Bush's pre-planned war of choice, making paying for the war something the most able would cynically not be asked to contribute toward.
James Denselow: James Denselow: Does anyone actually believe Iraq has been a success?
"President Bush gave his last major foreign policy speech on Tuesday at the National Defence University (NDU) in which he rearticulated his perception of leaving office with Iraq as a success story..."
Georgian 'Democracy'
Reuters: Stuffed ballots, biased campaign tainted Georgia vote: OSCE
"Ballot-box stuffing, beatings of opposition activists, biased news coverage and government officials campaigning for President Mikheil Saakashvili's party tainted Georgia's parliamentary elections this year, Europe's main election watchdog said on Tuesday.
The United States praised Georgia as a 'courageous young democracy' after its brief war with Russia last month; but the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's (OSCE) ODIHR arm said there were many significant shortcomings in a May 21 election, when Saakashvili's party won a big majority..."
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
US authorities hire top lawyer to prepare antitrust case against Google | Business | guardian.co.uk
The Rule Of Law:
The Guardian (UK)- US authorities hire top lawyer to prepare antitrust case against Google
"The US justice department has hired a top Washington lawyer to head up a possible antitrust investigation into the activities of Google.
Sanford Litvack, the well-known litigator, will be advising the government as it prepares a case challenging a recent advertising deal between Google and its Silicon Valley rival, Yahoo.
The arrangement, which was made in June and lets Google sell advertising on Yahoo's site in return for a share of profits, has been widely criticised for handing even more power to the dominant force in internet advertising. One analysis suggests that it could result in Google having control of more than 80% of the American online advertising market.
In a statement, Google said that it believed the impact would be much less drastic than predicted, and hoped that government officials would not kill the deal..."
The Guardian (UK)- US authorities hire top lawyer to prepare antitrust case against Google
"The US justice department has hired a top Washington lawyer to head up a possible antitrust investigation into the activities of Google.
Sanford Litvack, the well-known litigator, will be advising the government as it prepares a case challenging a recent advertising deal between Google and its Silicon Valley rival, Yahoo.
The arrangement, which was made in June and lets Google sell advertising on Yahoo's site in return for a share of profits, has been widely criticised for handing even more power to the dominant force in internet advertising. One analysis suggests that it could result in Google having control of more than 80% of the American online advertising market.
In a statement, Google said that it believed the impact would be much less drastic than predicted, and hoped that government officials would not kill the deal..."
Monday, September 08, 2008
Iraq:
Maya Schenwar: US-Iraq Agreement Leaked
"A leaked version of last month's draft of the proposed US-Iraq status of forces agreement (SOFA) suggests that the Iraqi parliament may not be consulted before it is signed, despite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's promises to do so. The pact would govern the future US presence in Iraq. The draft indicates no intent to set a deadline for withdrawal of 'noncombat' troops from Iraq. It also grants immunity from Iraqi law to US military personnel, no matter where they are located..."
Campaign 2008, Civil Liberties and The (Bullied) Fourth Estate:
Chris Hedges: Tyranny on Display at the Republican Convention
"St. Paul is a window into our future. It is a future where, as one protester told me by phone, 'people have been pepper-gassed, thrown on the ground by police who had drawn their weapons, had their documents seized and their tattoos photographed before being taken away to jail.' It is a future where illegal house raids are carried out. It is a future where vans containing heavily armed paramilitary units circle and film protesters. It is a future where, as the protester said, 'people have been pulled from cars because their license plates were on a database and handcuffed, thrown in the back of a squad car and then watched as their vehicles were ransacked and their personal possessions from computers to literature seized.' It is a future where constitutional rights mean nothing and where lawful dissent is branded a form of terrorism.
The rise of the corporate state means the rise of the surveillance state. The Janus-like face of America swings from packaged and canned spectacles, from nationalist slogans, from seas of flags and Christian crosses, from professions of faith and patriotism, to widespread surveillance, illegal mass detentions, informants, provocateurs and crude acts of repression and violence. We barrel toward a world filled with stupendous lies and blood...
...A few of those arrested in St. Paul, including eight leaders of the RNC Welcoming Committee -- one of the groups organizing protests at the GOP convention in St. Paul -- now face terrorism-related charges. Monica Bicking, Eryn Trimmer, Luce Guillen Givins, Erik Oseland, Nathanael Secor, Robert Czernik, Garrett Fitzgerald and Max Spector could get up to seven and a half years in prison under the terrorism enhancement charge, which allows for a 50 percent increase in the maximum penalty. This is the first time criminal charges have been filed under the 2002 Minnesota version of the federal Patriot Act.
The Patriot Act, which was put in place as much to silence domestic opposition as to ferret out real terrorists, has largely lain dormant. It has authorized the government to monitor our phone conversations, e-mails, meetings and political opinions. It has authorized the government to shut down anti-war groups and lock up innocents as terrorists. It has abolished habeas corpus. But until now we have not grasped its full implications for our open society. We catch glimpses, as in St. Paul or in our offshore penal colonies where we torture detainees, of its awful destructive power..."
GlenGreenwald: The Right Dictates MSNBC's Programming Decisions
"MSNBC's announcement that it is replacing Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews with David Gregory as anchors for its main political events (the upcoming presidential debates and election) vividly illustrates several long-obvious facts. First, nothing changes the behavior of our media corporations more easily than vocal demands and complaints from the Right, which petrify media executives and cause them to snap into line. From today's New York Times article identifying some of the causes for MSNBC's decision:
Energy Efficiency:
AutoBlogGreen: VW shows off 74 mpg Golf BlueMotion Concept
"...When run through the standard European testing procedures, the Golf BlueMotion Concept manages to eke 74 miles from a single gallon of fuel and emits just 99g/km of CO2. It should be noted that it wouldn't score that well in the States, but it would definitely be a certified hybrid hunter. Equipped with VW's 1.6-liter TDI engine with 105-horsepower and 184 lbs.-ft. of torque at a 2,000 rpm, the car also benefits from low resistance tires, minor aero tweaks and new gearing in the five speed transmission to help its low consumption cause..."
Nuclear Proliferation:
DailKos: NY Times confirms US involvement in Nuclear Black Market
"In last Monday's New York Times, David Sanger and William Broad wrote a front-page article about the CIA's involvement in the nuclear black market.
The article demonstrates (again) that the New York Times, Sanger & Broad in particular, has simply become a mouthpiece for the government (see my previous articles 1, 2, 3) but they did let one fact slip through to the readership. I can only presume that the slip was accidental, because they don't appear to have understood the ramifications of what they reported:
The US Government is covering up the fact that US citizens and entities are involved in the nuclear black market..."
Maya Schenwar: US-Iraq Agreement Leaked
"A leaked version of last month's draft of the proposed US-Iraq status of forces agreement (SOFA) suggests that the Iraqi parliament may not be consulted before it is signed, despite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's promises to do so. The pact would govern the future US presence in Iraq. The draft indicates no intent to set a deadline for withdrawal of 'noncombat' troops from Iraq. It also grants immunity from Iraqi law to US military personnel, no matter where they are located..."
Campaign 2008, Civil Liberties and The (Bullied) Fourth Estate:
Chris Hedges: Tyranny on Display at the Republican Convention
"St. Paul is a window into our future. It is a future where, as one protester told me by phone, 'people have been pepper-gassed, thrown on the ground by police who had drawn their weapons, had their documents seized and their tattoos photographed before being taken away to jail.' It is a future where illegal house raids are carried out. It is a future where vans containing heavily armed paramilitary units circle and film protesters. It is a future where, as the protester said, 'people have been pulled from cars because their license plates were on a database and handcuffed, thrown in the back of a squad car and then watched as their vehicles were ransacked and their personal possessions from computers to literature seized.' It is a future where constitutional rights mean nothing and where lawful dissent is branded a form of terrorism.
The rise of the corporate state means the rise of the surveillance state. The Janus-like face of America swings from packaged and canned spectacles, from nationalist slogans, from seas of flags and Christian crosses, from professions of faith and patriotism, to widespread surveillance, illegal mass detentions, informants, provocateurs and crude acts of repression and violence. We barrel toward a world filled with stupendous lies and blood...
...A few of those arrested in St. Paul, including eight leaders of the RNC Welcoming Committee -- one of the groups organizing protests at the GOP convention in St. Paul -- now face terrorism-related charges. Monica Bicking, Eryn Trimmer, Luce Guillen Givins, Erik Oseland, Nathanael Secor, Robert Czernik, Garrett Fitzgerald and Max Spector could get up to seven and a half years in prison under the terrorism enhancement charge, which allows for a 50 percent increase in the maximum penalty. This is the first time criminal charges have been filed under the 2002 Minnesota version of the federal Patriot Act.
The Patriot Act, which was put in place as much to silence domestic opposition as to ferret out real terrorists, has largely lain dormant. It has authorized the government to monitor our phone conversations, e-mails, meetings and political opinions. It has authorized the government to shut down anti-war groups and lock up innocents as terrorists. It has abolished habeas corpus. But until now we have not grasped its full implications for our open society. We catch glimpses, as in St. Paul or in our offshore penal colonies where we torture detainees, of its awful destructive power..."
GlenGreenwald: The Right Dictates MSNBC's Programming Decisions
"MSNBC's announcement that it is replacing Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews with David Gregory as anchors for its main political events (the upcoming presidential debates and election) vividly illustrates several long-obvious facts. First, nothing changes the behavior of our media corporations more easily than vocal demands and complaints from the Right, which petrify media executives and cause them to snap into line. From today's New York Times article identifying some of the causes for MSNBC's decision:
The change -- which comes in the home stretch of the long election cycle -- is a direct result of tensions associated with the channel's perceived shift to the political left. . . . When the vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin lamented media bias during her speech, attendees of the Republican convention loudly chanted 'NBC' . . . . Mr. Olbermann, a 49-year-old former sportscaster, has become the face of the more aggressive MSNBC, and the lightning rod for much of the criticism. . . . The McCain campaign has filed letters of complaint to the news division about its coverage and openly tied MSNBC to it. . . . Al Hunt, the executive Washington bureau chief of Bloomberg News, said that the entire news division was being singled out by Republicans because of the work of partisans like Mr. Olbermann..."
Energy Efficiency:
AutoBlogGreen: VW shows off 74 mpg Golf BlueMotion Concept
"...When run through the standard European testing procedures, the Golf BlueMotion Concept manages to eke 74 miles from a single gallon of fuel and emits just 99g/km of CO2. It should be noted that it wouldn't score that well in the States, but it would definitely be a certified hybrid hunter. Equipped with VW's 1.6-liter TDI engine with 105-horsepower and 184 lbs.-ft. of torque at a 2,000 rpm, the car also benefits from low resistance tires, minor aero tweaks and new gearing in the five speed transmission to help its low consumption cause..."
Nuclear Proliferation:
DailKos: NY Times confirms US involvement in Nuclear Black Market
"In last Monday's New York Times, David Sanger and William Broad wrote a front-page article about the CIA's involvement in the nuclear black market.
The article demonstrates (again) that the New York Times, Sanger & Broad in particular, has simply become a mouthpiece for the government (see my previous articles 1, 2, 3) but they did let one fact slip through to the readership. I can only presume that the slip was accidental, because they don't appear to have understood the ramifications of what they reported:
The US Government is covering up the fact that US citizens and entities are involved in the nuclear black market..."
Saturday, September 06, 2008
Campaign 2008:
Daily Kos: Two Cents from Somone who Knows Sarah
"...So many people have asked me about what I know about Sarah Palin in the
last 2 days that I decided to write something up . . .
...ABOUT SARAH PALIN
I am a resident of Wasilla, Alaska..."
Read it in full at the link above. There is very interesting information here that the CorpMedia won't share with the electorate. The comments were posted on the Washington Independent The Reform Candidate?
John Seery: Sarah Palin: The Face of Ugly Americanism
"...Palin and McCain want the United States to consume more and more of the planet's energy resources--in the names of God, country, and industry. Palin believes that the Iraq War was God's will, even though she admits that she hasn't been paying close attention to that war (oh my Lord!). She believes that drilling in Alaska's natural splendor is blessed with Providential Approval. She promotes policies based on her unshakable belief that she herself has a direct pipeline (no pun intended) to the Almighty's intentions...
...She hasn't traveled anywhere in the world, except one place. She presents herself as an all-American gal, but does she genuinely understand--beyond her own PTA-to-Juneau story--our country's rich and varied and complex history? She recently confessed that she doesn't even understand what the Vice President of the United States does, and her admirers heartily approve of her perversely willful ignorance.
Yes, she can bring a bunch of white people to their feet chanting USA, USA, USA. Good for her. But true leadership in these difficult times will require actual knowledge, not just personality. This world of ours, the past hundred years, has too frequently witnessed the dangers--nay, the evils--of compensatory nativism. Citizens in our own country should have learned one of the major lessons of these last eight years, namely that conviction should not serve as a trump card over competence..."
Daily Kos: Two Cents from Somone who Knows Sarah
"...So many people have asked me about what I know about Sarah Palin in the
last 2 days that I decided to write something up . . .
...ABOUT SARAH PALIN
I am a resident of Wasilla, Alaska..."
Read it in full at the link above. There is very interesting information here that the CorpMedia won't share with the electorate. The comments were posted on the Washington Independent The Reform Candidate?
John Seery: Sarah Palin: The Face of Ugly Americanism
"...Palin and McCain want the United States to consume more and more of the planet's energy resources--in the names of God, country, and industry. Palin believes that the Iraq War was God's will, even though she admits that she hasn't been paying close attention to that war (oh my Lord!). She believes that drilling in Alaska's natural splendor is blessed with Providential Approval. She promotes policies based on her unshakable belief that she herself has a direct pipeline (no pun intended) to the Almighty's intentions...
...She hasn't traveled anywhere in the world, except one place. She presents herself as an all-American gal, but does she genuinely understand--beyond her own PTA-to-Juneau story--our country's rich and varied and complex history? She recently confessed that she doesn't even understand what the Vice President of the United States does, and her admirers heartily approve of her perversely willful ignorance.
Yes, she can bring a bunch of white people to their feet chanting USA, USA, USA. Good for her. But true leadership in these difficult times will require actual knowledge, not just personality. This world of ours, the past hundred years, has too frequently witnessed the dangers--nay, the evils--of compensatory nativism. Citizens in our own country should have learned one of the major lessons of these last eight years, namely that conviction should not serve as a trump card over competence..."
Friday, September 05, 2008
Corporate Corruption:
The Independent (UK) - Cheney colleague admits bribery in Halliburton oil deals
"A former colleague of the US Vice-President, Dick Cheney, has pleaded guilty to funnelling millions of dollars in bribes to win lucrative contracts in Nigeria for Halliburton, during the period in the Nineties when Mr Cheney ran the giant oil and gas services company.
Albert Stanley, who was appointed by Mr Cheney as chief executive of Halliburton's subsidiary KBR, admitted using a north London lawyer to channel payments to Nigerian officials as part of a bribery scheme that landed some $6bn of work in the country over a decade..."
'Legal' Corruption:
If We The People tolerate, or rather fail to see what is wrong with money equating speech (and corporations being 'people'), then we at least in some sense deserve the corruption it enables. A properly-functioning Fourth Estate would bring this to the attention of The People, but its loudest voices are corporatist apologists wholly uninterested in spreading the 'improper' information..
Robert Reich: Corporations and the Conventions
"At the Democratic convention last week, I kept bumping into two different kinds of corporate professionals. Most have headed over to the Republican convention this week. One type says its job is 'public affairs;' the other, 'government affairs.' They sound similar but the jobs are quite different.
The 'public affairs' types are at the conventions to bring attention to their companies' commitments to social responsibility. Many of them have hand-outs and fancy brochures touting all the good things their firms do. The 'government affairs' types are at the conventions to build their companies' political influence. They're the ones in the sky boxes with cocktails and hors d'oeuvres.
The two types often work for the same big companies but they seem to operate at cross purposes. For example, I met a public affairs person who talked about the great strides his company was making in green technologies. But the government affairs people from the same company have been actively lobbying against environmental laws and regulations.
Another public affairs person was touting her companies' dedication to its communities - gifts to local schools and playgrounds, for example. But in the sky boxes were lobbyists from the same firm that have been demanding tax abatements from those same communities, as a condition for keeping jobs there. And those tax abatements have meant less revenues for local schools and playgrounds.
Other public affairs people told me how much their firms value their employees, giving them more flexible work schedules and extra days off. But the same firms have been lobbying against paid family leave..."
Energy:
'Good' for Alaska, but 'bad' for the nation? Bad for his patrons, the oil companies, McCain should say. And this is the man has the gall to look into the television camera, speaking to voters, and says 'I work for you.'
Robert Sheer: Palin’s Alaska Reaps the Windfall Profits McCain Decries
"Welcome to the People's Republic of Alaska, where every resident this year will get a $3,200 payout, thanks in no small measure to the efforts of Sarah Palin, the state's Republican governor. That's $22,400 for a family of seven, like Palin's. Since 1982, the Alaska Permanent Fund, which invests oil revenues from state lands, has paid out a dividend on invested oil loot to everyone who has been in the state for a year. But Palin upped the ante by joining with Democrats and some recalcitrant Republican state legislators to share in oil company windfall profits, further fattening state tax revenue and permitting an additional payout in tax funds to residents.
No wonder she is popular with voters in a state whose residents pay no income or sales taxes but are blessed with state coffers rolling in cash at a time when all other states are suffering. Indeed, when the oil companies pay more taxes to the state of Alaska, they get to write that off against their federal tax obligation, leaving the rest of us to make up the shortfall.
The state of Alaska owns most of the oil-producing land and was getting upward of 85 percent of its budget from the oil companies that lease the fields, even before Palin helped increase the state's cut. While other states fire schoolteachers because of the economic downturn, Alaska has, as Palin indicated in accepting John McCain's offer to join him on the GOP ticket, more money than it knows what to do with. In a display of plucky arrogance at her coming-out press conference, Palin boasted deceptively that if Alaskans wanted that infamous bridge to nowhere, 'we'd build it ourselves.'
She originally had supported having U.S. taxpayers finance that boondoggle, before McCain and others in Congress blasted it.
Not that I blame Palin for wrangling for her state a bigger cut of oil company windfall profits; it's just not an option that will work wonders for states without oil. Of course we can remedy that by having a federal windfall profits tax of the sort that Barack Obama dared propose, and which McCain and his fellow congressional Republicans have managed to quash. Their argument, rejected quite pointedly by Palin for Alaska, is that it would discourage oil companies from investing in boosting oil field yields..."
Exposing Rank Hypocricy Left To A Comedy Show?
This also, of course, belongs in any serious newspaper or news broadcast.
The question is, why don't we see, hear or read it?
The Raw Story: Daily Show skewers right wing hypocrisy following Palin nomination
"So here's a news flash: political talking heads will say whatever they need to advance the case for their candidate and disparage the opposing candidate -- if the sky needs to be green for John McCain to get elected, Karl Rove will go on Fox News preaching to anyone who will listen about the emerald hue above.
Naturally, this should come as no surprise. But the rank hypocrisy on display over the last few weeks has been so blatant -- as conservatives backtrack from months of harping against inexperience, claims of misogyny and the evils of teen pregnancy in the wake of Sarah Palin becoming their vice presidential nominee -- that Daily Show host Jon Stewart couldn't resist a package lampooning the doublespeak Wednesday night..."
Fourth Amendment? What Fourth Amendment?
Amy Goodman: Why We Were Falsely Arrested
"Government crackdowns on journalists are a true threat to democracy. As the Republican National Convention meets in St. Paul, Minn., this week, police are systematically targeting journalists. I was arrested with my two colleagues, 'Democracy Now!' producers Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar, while reporting on the first day of the RNC. I have been wrongly charged with a misdemeanor. My co-workers, who were simply reporting, may be charged with felony riot.
The Democratic and Republican national conventions have become very expensive and protracted acts of political theater, essentially four-day-long advertisements for the major presidential candidates. Outside the fences, they have become major gatherings for grass-roots movements - for people to come, amidst the banners, bunting, flags and confetti, to express the rights enumerated in the Constitution's First Amendment: 'Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.'
Behind all the patriotic hyperbole that accompanies the conventions, and the thousands of journalists and media workers who arrive to cover the staged events, there are serious violations of the basic right of freedom of the press. Here on the streets of St. Paul, the press is free to report on the official proceedings of the RNC, but not to report on the police violence and mass arrests directed at those who have come to petition their government, to protest...
...I was at the Xcel Center on the convention floor, interviewing delegates. I had just made it to the Minnesota delegation when I got a call on my cell phone with news that Sharif and Nicole were being bloody arrested, in every sense. Filmmaker Rick Rowley of Big Noise Films and I raced on foot to the scene. Out of breath, we arrived at the parking lot. I went up to the line of riot police and asked to speak to a commanding officer, saying that they had arrested accredited journalists.
Within seconds, they grabbed me, pulled me behind the police line and forcibly twisted my arms behind my back and handcuffed me, the rigid plastic cuffs digging into my wrists. I saw Sharif, his arm bloody, his credentials hanging from his neck. I repeated we were accredited journalists, whereupon a Secret Service agent came over and ripped my convention credential from my neck. I was taken to the St. Paul police garage where cages were set up for protesters. I was charged with obstruction of a peace officer. Nicole and Sharif were taken to jail, facing riot charges..."
The Independent (UK) - Cheney colleague admits bribery in Halliburton oil deals
"A former colleague of the US Vice-President, Dick Cheney, has pleaded guilty to funnelling millions of dollars in bribes to win lucrative contracts in Nigeria for Halliburton, during the period in the Nineties when Mr Cheney ran the giant oil and gas services company.
Albert Stanley, who was appointed by Mr Cheney as chief executive of Halliburton's subsidiary KBR, admitted using a north London lawyer to channel payments to Nigerian officials as part of a bribery scheme that landed some $6bn of work in the country over a decade..."
'Legal' Corruption:
If We The People tolerate, or rather fail to see what is wrong with money equating speech (and corporations being 'people'), then we at least in some sense deserve the corruption it enables. A properly-functioning Fourth Estate would bring this to the attention of The People, but its loudest voices are corporatist apologists wholly uninterested in spreading the 'improper' information..
Robert Reich: Corporations and the Conventions
"At the Democratic convention last week, I kept bumping into two different kinds of corporate professionals. Most have headed over to the Republican convention this week. One type says its job is 'public affairs;' the other, 'government affairs.' They sound similar but the jobs are quite different.
The 'public affairs' types are at the conventions to bring attention to their companies' commitments to social responsibility. Many of them have hand-outs and fancy brochures touting all the good things their firms do. The 'government affairs' types are at the conventions to build their companies' political influence. They're the ones in the sky boxes with cocktails and hors d'oeuvres.
The two types often work for the same big companies but they seem to operate at cross purposes. For example, I met a public affairs person who talked about the great strides his company was making in green technologies. But the government affairs people from the same company have been actively lobbying against environmental laws and regulations.
Another public affairs person was touting her companies' dedication to its communities - gifts to local schools and playgrounds, for example. But in the sky boxes were lobbyists from the same firm that have been demanding tax abatements from those same communities, as a condition for keeping jobs there. And those tax abatements have meant less revenues for local schools and playgrounds.
Other public affairs people told me how much their firms value their employees, giving them more flexible work schedules and extra days off. But the same firms have been lobbying against paid family leave..."
Energy:
'Good' for Alaska, but 'bad' for the nation? Bad for his patrons, the oil companies, McCain should say. And this is the man has the gall to look into the television camera, speaking to voters, and says 'I work for you.'
Robert Sheer: Palin’s Alaska Reaps the Windfall Profits McCain Decries
"Welcome to the People's Republic of Alaska, where every resident this year will get a $3,200 payout, thanks in no small measure to the efforts of Sarah Palin, the state's Republican governor. That's $22,400 for a family of seven, like Palin's. Since 1982, the Alaska Permanent Fund, which invests oil revenues from state lands, has paid out a dividend on invested oil loot to everyone who has been in the state for a year. But Palin upped the ante by joining with Democrats and some recalcitrant Republican state legislators to share in oil company windfall profits, further fattening state tax revenue and permitting an additional payout in tax funds to residents.
No wonder she is popular with voters in a state whose residents pay no income or sales taxes but are blessed with state coffers rolling in cash at a time when all other states are suffering. Indeed, when the oil companies pay more taxes to the state of Alaska, they get to write that off against their federal tax obligation, leaving the rest of us to make up the shortfall.
The state of Alaska owns most of the oil-producing land and was getting upward of 85 percent of its budget from the oil companies that lease the fields, even before Palin helped increase the state's cut. While other states fire schoolteachers because of the economic downturn, Alaska has, as Palin indicated in accepting John McCain's offer to join him on the GOP ticket, more money than it knows what to do with. In a display of plucky arrogance at her coming-out press conference, Palin boasted deceptively that if Alaskans wanted that infamous bridge to nowhere, 'we'd build it ourselves.'
She originally had supported having U.S. taxpayers finance that boondoggle, before McCain and others in Congress blasted it.
Not that I blame Palin for wrangling for her state a bigger cut of oil company windfall profits; it's just not an option that will work wonders for states without oil. Of course we can remedy that by having a federal windfall profits tax of the sort that Barack Obama dared propose, and which McCain and his fellow congressional Republicans have managed to quash. Their argument, rejected quite pointedly by Palin for Alaska, is that it would discourage oil companies from investing in boosting oil field yields..."
Exposing Rank Hypocricy Left To A Comedy Show?
This also, of course, belongs in any serious newspaper or news broadcast.
The question is, why don't we see, hear or read it?
The Raw Story: Daily Show skewers right wing hypocrisy following Palin nomination
"So here's a news flash: political talking heads will say whatever they need to advance the case for their candidate and disparage the opposing candidate -- if the sky needs to be green for John McCain to get elected, Karl Rove will go on Fox News preaching to anyone who will listen about the emerald hue above.
Naturally, this should come as no surprise. But the rank hypocrisy on display over the last few weeks has been so blatant -- as conservatives backtrack from months of harping against inexperience, claims of misogyny and the evils of teen pregnancy in the wake of Sarah Palin becoming their vice presidential nominee -- that Daily Show host Jon Stewart couldn't resist a package lampooning the doublespeak Wednesday night..."
Fourth Amendment? What Fourth Amendment?
Amy Goodman: Why We Were Falsely Arrested
"Government crackdowns on journalists are a true threat to democracy. As the Republican National Convention meets in St. Paul, Minn., this week, police are systematically targeting journalists. I was arrested with my two colleagues, 'Democracy Now!' producers Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar, while reporting on the first day of the RNC. I have been wrongly charged with a misdemeanor. My co-workers, who were simply reporting, may be charged with felony riot.
The Democratic and Republican national conventions have become very expensive and protracted acts of political theater, essentially four-day-long advertisements for the major presidential candidates. Outside the fences, they have become major gatherings for grass-roots movements - for people to come, amidst the banners, bunting, flags and confetti, to express the rights enumerated in the Constitution's First Amendment: 'Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.'
Behind all the patriotic hyperbole that accompanies the conventions, and the thousands of journalists and media workers who arrive to cover the staged events, there are serious violations of the basic right of freedom of the press. Here on the streets of St. Paul, the press is free to report on the official proceedings of the RNC, but not to report on the police violence and mass arrests directed at those who have come to petition their government, to protest...
...I was at the Xcel Center on the convention floor, interviewing delegates. I had just made it to the Minnesota delegation when I got a call on my cell phone with news that Sharif and Nicole were being bloody arrested, in every sense. Filmmaker Rick Rowley of Big Noise Films and I raced on foot to the scene. Out of breath, we arrived at the parking lot. I went up to the line of riot police and asked to speak to a commanding officer, saying that they had arrested accredited journalists.
Within seconds, they grabbed me, pulled me behind the police line and forcibly twisted my arms behind my back and handcuffed me, the rigid plastic cuffs digging into my wrists. I saw Sharif, his arm bloody, his credentials hanging from his neck. I repeated we were accredited journalists, whereupon a Secret Service agent came over and ripped my convention credential from my neck. I was taken to the St. Paul police garage where cages were set up for protesters. I was charged with obstruction of a peace officer. Nicole and Sharif were taken to jail, facing riot charges..."
Thursday, September 04, 2008
Campaign 2008:
AP: Attacks, praise stretch truth at GOP convention
"Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and her Republican supporters held back little Wednesday as they issued dismissive attacks on Barack Obama and flattering praise on her credentials to be vice president. In some cases, the reproach and the praise stretched the truth.
Some examples:
PALIN: 'I have protected the taxpayers by vetoing wasteful spending ... and championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. I told the Congress 'thanks but no thanks' for that Bridge to Nowhere.'
THE FACTS: As mayor of Wasilla, Palin hired a lobbyist and traveled to Washington annually to support earmarks for the town totaling $27 million. In her two years as governor, Alaska has requested nearly $750 million in special federal spending, by far the largest per-capita request in the nation. While Palin notes she rejected plans to build a $398 million bridge from Ketchikan to an island with 50 residents and an airport, that opposition came only after the plan was ridiculed nationally as a 'bridge to nowhere,'..."
LA Times: McCain had criticized earmarks from Palin
"Three times in recent years, the Arizona senator's lists of 'objectionable' pork spending have included earmarks requested by his new running mate..."
AP: Attacks, praise stretch truth at GOP convention
"Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and her Republican supporters held back little Wednesday as they issued dismissive attacks on Barack Obama and flattering praise on her credentials to be vice president. In some cases, the reproach and the praise stretched the truth.
Some examples:
PALIN: 'I have protected the taxpayers by vetoing wasteful spending ... and championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. I told the Congress 'thanks but no thanks' for that Bridge to Nowhere.'
THE FACTS: As mayor of Wasilla, Palin hired a lobbyist and traveled to Washington annually to support earmarks for the town totaling $27 million. In her two years as governor, Alaska has requested nearly $750 million in special federal spending, by far the largest per-capita request in the nation. While Palin notes she rejected plans to build a $398 million bridge from Ketchikan to an island with 50 residents and an airport, that opposition came only after the plan was ridiculed nationally as a 'bridge to nowhere,'..."
LA Times: McCain had criticized earmarks from Palin
"Three times in recent years, the Arizona senator's lists of 'objectionable' pork spending have included earmarks requested by his new running mate..."
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
William River Pitt: The Hollow Man
"...There are several very good reasons why McCain would like to keep all debate and discussion in this presidential race right there with him in that slow lane. First and foremost is the simple truth that the man basically has nowhere else to go. His dilemma brings to mind that old maxim trial lawyers have lived and died by since time out of mind: when the law is with you, pound on the law; when the facts are with you, pound on the facts; if neither the facts nor the law are with you, pound on the table. That is John McCain's entire political reality in a nutshell.
The facts reveal that Mr. McCain has thrown his support behind just about every asinine and idiotic decision made by the single most unpopular and unsuccessful American president there ever was and, God willing, ever will be. The facts reveal that he has boomeranged away from so many policy positions he once espoused, going so far as to denounce a whole sheaf of legislation he had personally authored, because the Republican base despised those issues; but since he needed their support if he ever wanted to have a chance of winning, it was whiplash be damned and the Devil take the hindmost...
...By choosing Palin to be his running mate, McCain stapled his entire campaign to a woman whose shiny right-wing Christian credentials cannot obscure the fact that she has slightly less foreign policy or executive experience than a ham sandwich in the pantry of Air Force One. In other words, that one good club might as well have been thrown into a furnace six hundred and sixty one days ago for all the good it will do him now. Bluntly, this Palin choice not only failed to prop up his outsider credentials, but has also raised serious concerns about whether his basic judgment and understanding of simple reality can be relied on under any circumstances..."
"...There are several very good reasons why McCain would like to keep all debate and discussion in this presidential race right there with him in that slow lane. First and foremost is the simple truth that the man basically has nowhere else to go. His dilemma brings to mind that old maxim trial lawyers have lived and died by since time out of mind: when the law is with you, pound on the law; when the facts are with you, pound on the facts; if neither the facts nor the law are with you, pound on the table. That is John McCain's entire political reality in a nutshell.
The facts reveal that Mr. McCain has thrown his support behind just about every asinine and idiotic decision made by the single most unpopular and unsuccessful American president there ever was and, God willing, ever will be. The facts reveal that he has boomeranged away from so many policy positions he once espoused, going so far as to denounce a whole sheaf of legislation he had personally authored, because the Republican base despised those issues; but since he needed their support if he ever wanted to have a chance of winning, it was whiplash be damned and the Devil take the hindmost...
...By choosing Palin to be his running mate, McCain stapled his entire campaign to a woman whose shiny right-wing Christian credentials cannot obscure the fact that she has slightly less foreign policy or executive experience than a ham sandwich in the pantry of Air Force One. In other words, that one good club might as well have been thrown into a furnace six hundred and sixty one days ago for all the good it will do him now. Bluntly, this Palin choice not only failed to prop up his outsider credentials, but has also raised serious concerns about whether his basic judgment and understanding of simple reality can be relied on under any circumstances..."
The Rule Of Law:
AP: Gonzales Mishandled Terrorism and Spying Documents
"While serving as attorney general, Alberto Gonzales mishandled top secret documents, risking the release of classified information about two of the Bush administration's most sensitive counterterrorism efforts - a surveillance program and detainee interrogations.
Mishandling classified materials violates Justice Department regulations and removing them from special secure facilities without proper authorization is a crime. But a report issued Tuesday by the Justice Department's inspector general says the agency decided not to press charges against Gonzales, who resigned under fire last year..."
As a friend of mine commented today "Ooooops, sorry, I didn't mean to," suffices as an excuse when GOP appoitees investigate GOP appointees.
Former Clinton National Sec. Advisor Sandy Berger was investigated for unauthorized removal of classified documents from the National Archives in 2004. He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor, was fined $50,000, was sentenced to two years of probation & 100 hours of community service, and lost his security clearance for 3 years.
AP: Gonzales Mishandled Terrorism and Spying Documents
"While serving as attorney general, Alberto Gonzales mishandled top secret documents, risking the release of classified information about two of the Bush administration's most sensitive counterterrorism efforts - a surveillance program and detainee interrogations.
Mishandling classified materials violates Justice Department regulations and removing them from special secure facilities without proper authorization is a crime. But a report issued Tuesday by the Justice Department's inspector general says the agency decided not to press charges against Gonzales, who resigned under fire last year..."
As a friend of mine commented today "Ooooops, sorry, I didn't mean to," suffices as an excuse when GOP appoitees investigate GOP appointees.
Former Clinton National Sec. Advisor Sandy Berger was investigated for unauthorized removal of classified documents from the National Archives in 2004. He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor, was fined $50,000, was sentenced to two years of probation & 100 hours of community service, and lost his security clearance for 3 years.
Journalism In A Democracy?
Marjorie Cohn: Pre-Emptive Strikes Against Protest at RNC
"In the months leading up to the Republican National Convention, the FBI-led Minneapolis Joint Terrorist Task Force actively recruited people to infiltrate vegan groups and other leftist organizations and report back about their activities. On May 21, the Minneapolis City Pages ran a recruiting story called 'Moles Wanted.' Law enforcement sought to pre-empt lawful protest against the policies of the Bush administration during the convention.
Since Friday, local police and sheriffs, working with the FBI, conducted pre-emptive searches, seizures and arrests. Glenn Greenwald described the targeting of protesters by 'teams of 25-30 officers in riot gear, with semi-automatic weapons drawn, entering homes of those suspected of planning protests, handcuffing and forcing them to lay on the floor, while law enforcement officers searched the homes, seizing computers, journals, and political pamphlets.' Journalists were detained at gunpoint and lawyers representing detainees were handcuffed at the scene...
...'So here we have a massive assault led by Federal Government law enforcement agencies on left-wing dissidents and protesters who have committed no acts of violence or illegality whatsoever, preceded by months-long espionage efforts to track what they do,' Greenwald wrote on Salon.
Preventive detention violates the Fourth Amendment, which requires that warrants be supported by probable cause. protesters were charged with 'conspiracy to commit riot,' a rarely-used statute that is so vague, it is probably unconstitutional. Nestor said it 'basically criminalizes political advocacy,'..."
Pakistan:
It's been over seven and a half years since the U.S. invaded Afghanistan.
McClatchy Newspapers: Al-Qaeda Has Free Movement in Pakistan, Top Official Concedes
"Pakistan's top security official Monday admitted that al Qaida's leadership moved freely in and out of the country and vowed that 'no mercy' would be shown to extremists based in its tribal territory that borders Afghanistan...
...Pakistani authorities previously sought to draw a sharp distinction between homegrown militants and al Qaida, which is led by Arabs. But the interior ministry official declared that al Qaida had morphed into Pakistan's Taliban movement, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban, which is a copy of Afghanistan's Taliban guerrillas..."
Marjorie Cohn: Pre-Emptive Strikes Against Protest at RNC
"In the months leading up to the Republican National Convention, the FBI-led Minneapolis Joint Terrorist Task Force actively recruited people to infiltrate vegan groups and other leftist organizations and report back about their activities. On May 21, the Minneapolis City Pages ran a recruiting story called 'Moles Wanted.' Law enforcement sought to pre-empt lawful protest against the policies of the Bush administration during the convention.
Since Friday, local police and sheriffs, working with the FBI, conducted pre-emptive searches, seizures and arrests. Glenn Greenwald described the targeting of protesters by 'teams of 25-30 officers in riot gear, with semi-automatic weapons drawn, entering homes of those suspected of planning protests, handcuffing and forcing them to lay on the floor, while law enforcement officers searched the homes, seizing computers, journals, and political pamphlets.' Journalists were detained at gunpoint and lawyers representing detainees were handcuffed at the scene...
...'So here we have a massive assault led by Federal Government law enforcement agencies on left-wing dissidents and protesters who have committed no acts of violence or illegality whatsoever, preceded by months-long espionage efforts to track what they do,' Greenwald wrote on Salon.
Preventive detention violates the Fourth Amendment, which requires that warrants be supported by probable cause. protesters were charged with 'conspiracy to commit riot,' a rarely-used statute that is so vague, it is probably unconstitutional. Nestor said it 'basically criminalizes political advocacy,'..."
Pakistan:
It's been over seven and a half years since the U.S. invaded Afghanistan.
McClatchy Newspapers: Al-Qaeda Has Free Movement in Pakistan, Top Official Concedes
"Pakistan's top security official Monday admitted that al Qaida's leadership moved freely in and out of the country and vowed that 'no mercy' would be shown to extremists based in its tribal territory that borders Afghanistan...
...Pakistani authorities previously sought to draw a sharp distinction between homegrown militants and al Qaida, which is led by Arabs. But the interior ministry official declared that al Qaida had morphed into Pakistan's Taliban movement, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban, which is a copy of Afghanistan's Taliban guerrillas..."
