Friday, May 13, 2005
5/13 It is, after all, a news digest, not a blog
Quotable Ike: Eisenhower in 1954. Looking better all the time…
Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are [a] few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid."
-- President Dwight D. Eisenhower, 11/8/54.
http://www.davidsirota.com/2005/05/ike-predicted-gop-demise-over-social.html
What’s Happening, Iraq: The Reality Ongoing bombings, and many, many U.S. casualties since last weekend, including the decimation of this unit.
Among the four Marines killed and 10 wounded when an explosive device erupted under their Amtrac on Wednesday were the last battle-ready members of a squad that four days earlier had battled foreign fighters holed up in a house in the town of Ubaydi. In that fight, two squad members were killed and five were wounded.
In 96 hours of fighting and ambushes in far western Iraq, the squad had ceased to be.
Every member of the squad -- one of three that make up the 1st Platoon of Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 25th Regiment -- had been killed or wounded.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/11/AR2005051101737.html
Meanwhile, more talk of civil war, a pardon for Chalabi, etc. etc.
What’s Happening, Afghanistan
Four protesters were killed and more than 60 injured Wednesday in the eastern city of Jalalabad as the police and troops struggled to contain the worst anti-American demonstrations in Afghanistan in the more than three years since the fall of the Taliban.
Government officials said the violence appeared to have been planned and that religious hard-liners and armed men had usurped what had started as a student protest.
At least a dozen buildings were ransacked and burned, including the governor's office, several other government buildings, the United Nations mission compound and a number of offices belonging to aid groups.
Afghan policemen and troops, together with some American forces, eventually quelled the riots, but not before opening fire on protesters, who numbered in the thousands, residents said. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/12/international/asia/12afghan.html?pagewanted=print
Why riot?
The source of anger was a brief report in the May 9 edition of Newsweek magazine that interrogators at Guantanamo Bay placed Korans on toilets in order to rattle suspects, and in at least one case “flushed a holy book down the toilet.”
Hardline Islamic parties in neighbouring Pakistan have called for protests on Friday. The Pakistani government said over the weekend it was “deeply dismayed” over the report, which Pentagon and White House officials said would be investigated.
Many of the 520 inmates in Guantanamo are Pakistanis and Afghans captured after the Sept. 11 attacks. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20050512.wafghan0512/EmailBNStory/International/
Morning reports are that the demonstrating-rioting was spreading across much of the country.
D.C. Alert: The news item summarizing the noon Wednesday ‘Red Alert’ was precious, that
‘the Capitol and the White House were evacuated; the latter included Cheney, Laura Bush, and Nancy Reagan who was visiting; Bush was bicycling in Maryland and was notified an hour later.’
Precious. Doing wheelies while thousands are evacuated; kind of reminds one of his reading My Pet Goat while the World Trade Center burned.
Non-partisan Fox News does its thing my trumpeting on its coverage, ‘RNC [Republican National Committee] Headquarters evacuated!’ http://mediamatters.org/items/200505120006
Republican Unity: Holds (sort of) re Bolton, as the nomination is sent to the Senate (though “without recommendation”, the first time in 12 years; Fred Kaplan of Slate notes it’s like Bolton received ‘a C-, but in a pass-fail course’), http://www.slate.com/id/2118601/
… but doesn’t hold re CAFTA, the Central American Free Trade Agreement. Opposition from key Republicans as well as Democrats over inadequate worker and environmental protections in the Latin American countries involved and potential economic harm to American workers has been cited.
President Bush will pursue his top trade initiative today as he welcomes six Latin American leaders to the White House, but the trade agreement Bush seeks faces serious trouble in Congress and could be defeated by his fellow Republicans.
With showdown votes just weeks away, the Central American Free Trade Agreement still lacks majority support in the Senate and the House, with a near-solid phalanx of Democrats lined up in opposition and key Republicans in open revolt. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-cafta12may12,0,3224235.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Ohio: via Jim Lampley who has been a sports broadcaster for the past 30 years, especially connected with HBO boxing. But, since the major media have dropped the story…
Oddsmakers consulted exit polling and knew what it meant and acknowledged in their oddsmaking at that moment that John Kerry was winning the election.
And he most certainly was, at least if the votes had been fairly and legally counted. What happened instead was the biggest crime in the history of the nation, and the collective media silence which has followed is the greatest fourth-estate failure ever on our soil.
Many of the participants in this blog have graduate school educations. It is damned near impossible to go to graduate school in any but the most artistic disciplines without having to learn about the basics of social research and its uncanny accuracy and validity. We know that professionally conceived samples simply do not yield results which vary six, eight, ten points from eventual data returns, thaty's why there are identifiable margins for error. We know that margins for error are valid, and that results have fallen within the error range for every Presidential election for the past fifty years prior to last fall. NEVER have exit polls varied by beyond-error margins in a single state, not since 1948 when this kind of polling began. In this past election it happened in ten states, all of them swing states, all of them in Bush's favor. Coincidence? Of course not.
Karl Rove isn't capable of conceiving and executing such a grandiose crime? Wake up. They did it. The silence of traditional media on this subject is enough to establish their newfound bankruptcy. The revolution will have to start here. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/theblog/archive/2005/05/biggest-story-of-our-live.html
-R
Quotable Ike: Eisenhower in 1954. Looking better all the time…
Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are [a] few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid."
-- President Dwight D. Eisenhower, 11/8/54.
http://www.davidsirota.com/2005/05/ike-predicted-gop-demise-over-social.html
What’s Happening, Iraq: The Reality Ongoing bombings, and many, many U.S. casualties since last weekend, including the decimation of this unit.
Among the four Marines killed and 10 wounded when an explosive device erupted under their Amtrac on Wednesday were the last battle-ready members of a squad that four days earlier had battled foreign fighters holed up in a house in the town of Ubaydi. In that fight, two squad members were killed and five were wounded.
In 96 hours of fighting and ambushes in far western Iraq, the squad had ceased to be.
Every member of the squad -- one of three that make up the 1st Platoon of Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 25th Regiment -- had been killed or wounded.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/11/AR2005051101737.html
Meanwhile, more talk of civil war, a pardon for Chalabi, etc. etc.
What’s Happening, Afghanistan
Four protesters were killed and more than 60 injured Wednesday in the eastern city of Jalalabad as the police and troops struggled to contain the worst anti-American demonstrations in Afghanistan in the more than three years since the fall of the Taliban.
Government officials said the violence appeared to have been planned and that religious hard-liners and armed men had usurped what had started as a student protest.
At least a dozen buildings were ransacked and burned, including the governor's office, several other government buildings, the United Nations mission compound and a number of offices belonging to aid groups.
Afghan policemen and troops, together with some American forces, eventually quelled the riots, but not before opening fire on protesters, who numbered in the thousands, residents said. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/12/international/asia/12afghan.html?pagewanted=print
Why riot?
The source of anger was a brief report in the May 9 edition of Newsweek magazine that interrogators at Guantanamo Bay placed Korans on toilets in order to rattle suspects, and in at least one case “flushed a holy book down the toilet.”
Hardline Islamic parties in neighbouring Pakistan have called for protests on Friday. The Pakistani government said over the weekend it was “deeply dismayed” over the report, which Pentagon and White House officials said would be investigated.
Many of the 520 inmates in Guantanamo are Pakistanis and Afghans captured after the Sept. 11 attacks. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20050512.wafghan0512/EmailBNStory/International/
Morning reports are that the demonstrating-rioting was spreading across much of the country.
D.C. Alert: The news item summarizing the noon Wednesday ‘Red Alert’ was precious, that
‘the Capitol and the White House were evacuated; the latter included Cheney, Laura Bush, and Nancy Reagan who was visiting; Bush was bicycling in Maryland and was notified an hour later.’
Precious. Doing wheelies while thousands are evacuated; kind of reminds one of his reading My Pet Goat while the World Trade Center burned.
Non-partisan Fox News does its thing my trumpeting on its coverage, ‘RNC [Republican National Committee] Headquarters evacuated!’ http://mediamatters.org/items/200505120006
Republican Unity: Holds (sort of) re Bolton, as the nomination is sent to the Senate (though “without recommendation”, the first time in 12 years; Fred Kaplan of Slate notes it’s like Bolton received ‘a C-, but in a pass-fail course’), http://www.slate.com/id/2118601/
… but doesn’t hold re CAFTA, the Central American Free Trade Agreement. Opposition from key Republicans as well as Democrats over inadequate worker and environmental protections in the Latin American countries involved and potential economic harm to American workers has been cited.
President Bush will pursue his top trade initiative today as he welcomes six Latin American leaders to the White House, but the trade agreement Bush seeks faces serious trouble in Congress and could be defeated by his fellow Republicans.
With showdown votes just weeks away, the Central American Free Trade Agreement still lacks majority support in the Senate and the House, with a near-solid phalanx of Democrats lined up in opposition and key Republicans in open revolt. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-cafta12may12,0,3224235.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Ohio: via Jim Lampley who has been a sports broadcaster for the past 30 years, especially connected with HBO boxing. But, since the major media have dropped the story…
Oddsmakers consulted exit polling and knew what it meant and acknowledged in their oddsmaking at that moment that John Kerry was winning the election.
And he most certainly was, at least if the votes had been fairly and legally counted. What happened instead was the biggest crime in the history of the nation, and the collective media silence which has followed is the greatest fourth-estate failure ever on our soil.
Many of the participants in this blog have graduate school educations. It is damned near impossible to go to graduate school in any but the most artistic disciplines without having to learn about the basics of social research and its uncanny accuracy and validity. We know that professionally conceived samples simply do not yield results which vary six, eight, ten points from eventual data returns, thaty's why there are identifiable margins for error. We know that margins for error are valid, and that results have fallen within the error range for every Presidential election for the past fifty years prior to last fall. NEVER have exit polls varied by beyond-error margins in a single state, not since 1948 when this kind of polling began. In this past election it happened in ten states, all of them swing states, all of them in Bush's favor. Coincidence? Of course not.
Karl Rove isn't capable of conceiving and executing such a grandiose crime? Wake up. They did it. The silence of traditional media on this subject is enough to establish their newfound bankruptcy. The revolution will have to start here. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/theblog/archive/2005/05/biggest-story-of-our-live.html
-R
Wednesday, May 11, 2005
Judicial “Compromise” Frist et al or pals at the Washington Times and the Wall Street Journal keep offering up so-called compromises. Each offers the Democrats time to debate followed by a majority vote. So, ‘nuclear option’ after a discussion. Some compromise. Next week is now seen as when Frist will push the issue. The chosen judge: Priscilla Owen.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist plans for Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Owen to be the judicial nomination on which he uses the "nuclear option" against Democratic filibusters later this month, according to Republicans familiar with his plans.
Justice Owen, first nominated to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals four years ago yesterday, has often been seen as the most likely nominee to be pushed though. And when Mr. Frist, Tennessee Republican, made his final offer to Democrats last month to avoid a showdown, he mentioned only one nominee: Justice Owen. http://www.washtimes.com/national/20050510-121748-5543r.htm
What’s Happening, Iraq: 3 bombs killed 60 or more this AM; $82 billion was approved for more War/Occupation, which will last till the next request, perhaps as soon as October.
And, Marines are fighting near the Syrian border. First it was reported that they were engaging “scores”; then, a claim of killing 100 “insurgents”. Apparently, whatever the number, these fighters were prepared, as some found to be wearing body armor. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/la-fg-offensive10may10,0,4399397,print.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Speaking of body armor, a Marine Corps Times reporter said that there are still equipment problems for marines
Proving that you don't have to be a major big city newspaper known for investigative scoops to get dramatic results, a probe by the Marine Corps Times apparently triggered the recall of more than 5,000 ballistic vests issued to Marines despite tests indicating they might be flawed.
Many of the vests were issued to Marines in Iraq. The reporter on the story told E&P today that officials tried to "steer" him away from the story. http://editorandpublisher.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=%27Marine+Corps+Times%27+Probe+Prompts+Recall+of+Faulty+Vests&expire=&urlID=14175088&fb=Y&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.editorandpublisher.com%2Feandp%2Fnews%2Farticle_display.
The Spread of Democracy: What it really means A review of William Arkin’s book on Code Names captures the growth of secrecy and the extent of pax Americana. Powerful.
Arkin tells us that King Abdullah II of Jordan permits American special forces to train and operate on Jordanian soil, American eavesdroppers to establish covert positions near the Iraqi and Syrian borders, American CIA officers to investigate Jordan's Iraqi population, and a secret American Army intelligence team (code name: Gray Fox) to operate inside the country. Before the war, the "overt side of US–Jordanian relations...provided cover for a quiet American buildup toward war against Iraq," Arkin observes. "The public problem associated with all of this was that like many of its Arab neighbors, the Amman government also had to cater to public sentiment that strongly opposed a US war against Iraq." Despite the obvious presence of American troops in Jordan the government continued to officially deny the existence of any alliance or agreement with the United States. So strenuous was the effort to keep everything under wraps that the two American air bases established in Jordan were code-named West Wing (as in west of Baghdad) in order to avoid referring to Jordan by name in any American planning or correspondence…
Arkin suggests that there are "dozens of Jordans around the globe." He cites more than twenty countries that provide bases or other facilities to the US military; seventy-six that have granted permission for US military planes to land on their soil; and eighty-nine that grant overflight rights to those planes. http://www.nybooks.com/articles/18001
Republican Media: The Washington Times does its patriotic thing
Entertaining note from the past, via the above source.
In 1998, the Washington Times revealed that the National Security Agency (NSA) could eavesdrop on Osama bin Laden's satellite telephone. No sooner had the story appeared than bin Laden stopped using the telephone, effectively disappearing from the radar screens of US intelligence.
What’s Happening, Airlines: United’s trouble, typical of the older carriers, features reduced pensions, if not an outright default. A bankruptcy judge relieved United by saying that the government would pick up the tab if default occurs, which would be the country’s largest in decades. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/11/business/11air.html?e
Environment: The innovative Swish contend with global warming
Alarmed by the retreat of its Alpine glacier, a Swiss ski resort on Tuesday wrapped part of the shrinking ice-cap in a giant blanket in a bid to reduce the summer melt.
If successful, officials at the Gemsstock resort above Andermatt in central Switzerland expect the example to be followed elsewhere in the Alps, where scientists say glaciers are under threat from global warming.
"We think it will become common practice to cover parts of the glaciers," Urs Elmiger, a board member of Andermatt Gotthard Sportbahnen, the cable car operator behind the project, told Reuters. http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L10260973.htm
Follow-up: Sibel Edmonds The FBI whistle blower keeps trying
An FBI contract employee who was fired after alleging national security breaches within the bureau's translation service plans to appeal to the Supreme Court to lift a gag order that she has been under for almost three years.
Sibel Edmonds lost her latest court battle on Friday when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld a lower court's ruling that dismissed her lawsuit against the Justice Department. Edmonds alleges there were security breaches, mismanagement and possible espionage within the FBI's translation service in late 2001 and early 2002. She says the information she knows would lead to criminal prosecutions if aggressively pursued.
"We are going to the Supreme Court, that's for sure," Edmonds said Monday.
Edmonds, who worked under contract in the FBI's Washington field office, sued the Justice Department after being fired in 2002. The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed her lawsuit last summer after former Attorney General John Ashcroft invoked the state secrets privilege, which allows the government to withhold information to safeguard national security. http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=31212&printerfriendlyVers=1&
Follow-up: Voter Fraud John Conyers apparently is following this and Common Cause continues, but it sure feels like it’s again slipped away. http://www.commoncause.org/site/pp.asp?c=dkLNK1MQIwG&b=196480
Follow-up: Yalta Even though this is from February, 1945, Bush’s script has re-invoked an old Right wing yell, that FDR sold out to Stalin, paving the way for the Cold War. Here’s one counter- thrust.
After World War I, the political right in Germany developed a myth called the "stab in the back" theory to explain its people's defeat. Though military leaders had helped negotiate the war's end, they fixed blame on civilian leaders—especially Jews, socialists, and liberals—for "betraying" the brave German fighting men. This nasty piece of propaganda was later picked up by Hitler and the Nazis to stoke the populist resentment that fueled their rise to power.
America has had its own "stab in the back" myths. Last year, George W. Bush endorsed a revanchist view of the Vietnam War: that our political leaders undermined our military and denied us victory. Now, on his Baltic tour, he has endorsed a similar view of the Yalta accords, that great bugaboo of the old right. ..
Hardly blind to Stalin's evil, they nonetheless knew that Soviet forces were indispensable in defeating the Axis powers. "It is permitted in time of grave danger to walk with the devil until you have crossed the bridge," FDR said, quoting an old Bulgarian proverb. He and Churchill understood that Stalin would be helping to set war aims and to plan for its aftermath. Victory, after all, carried a price. http://slate.msn.com/id/2118394/
Update: Social Security New lingo from Cheney:
"We will replace empty promises to younger workers with real money, not just IOU's," Cheney said. "Personal property accounts will turn every worker into an owner."
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/4467633/detail.html
Update; Stem cell Bush position getting more unpopular; now a majority of Republicans are opposed.
The survey, taken among 800 Republican voters nationwide, showed 90 percent job approval for President Bush and 88 percent favorable support for Republicans in the House. Both levels far exceed recent results of surveys taken of voters of all political persuasions.
At the same time, 57 percent of those surveyed in the Republican-only poll said they favored embryonic stem cell research, with 40 percent opposed. On a follow-up question, 54 percent said it was more of a research issue, while 40 percent said it was more of an abortion issue. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/10/AR2005051000132.html
Sports: Steve Nash Why sports? Nash, a Canadian, just was named the most valuable player in the National Basketball Association. He’s a (political) good guy. From Counterpunch:
Nash was the first high profile athlete to come out against Dick Cheney's "war of a generation" showing up at the 2003 All-Star game in 2003 wearing a T-shirt that read, "Shoot baskets not people." When questioned on his incendiary attire, Nash said, "I think that war is wrong in 99.9 percent of all cases. I think [Operation Iraqi Freedom] has much more to do with oil or some sort of distraction, because I don't feel as though we should be worrying about Iraq." He also showed far more prescience than Bush, Cheney, Colin Powell or Condoleeza Rice saying, "I think that Saddam Hussein is a crazy dictator but I don't think he's threatening us at this point in time. We haven't found any nuclear weapons -- no matter what anyone says -- and that process is still under way. Until that's finished and decided I don't think that war is acceptable." He then reiterated his position that, "Unfortunately, this is more about oil than it is about nuclear weapons." http://www.counterpunch.com/zirin05102005.html
-R
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist plans for Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Owen to be the judicial nomination on which he uses the "nuclear option" against Democratic filibusters later this month, according to Republicans familiar with his plans.
Justice Owen, first nominated to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals four years ago yesterday, has often been seen as the most likely nominee to be pushed though. And when Mr. Frist, Tennessee Republican, made his final offer to Democrats last month to avoid a showdown, he mentioned only one nominee: Justice Owen. http://www.washtimes.com/national/20050510-121748-5543r.htm
What’s Happening, Iraq: 3 bombs killed 60 or more this AM; $82 billion was approved for more War/Occupation, which will last till the next request, perhaps as soon as October.
And, Marines are fighting near the Syrian border. First it was reported that they were engaging “scores”; then, a claim of killing 100 “insurgents”. Apparently, whatever the number, these fighters were prepared, as some found to be wearing body armor. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/la-fg-offensive10may10,0,4399397,print.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Speaking of body armor, a Marine Corps Times reporter said that there are still equipment problems for marines
Proving that you don't have to be a major big city newspaper known for investigative scoops to get dramatic results, a probe by the Marine Corps Times apparently triggered the recall of more than 5,000 ballistic vests issued to Marines despite tests indicating they might be flawed.
Many of the vests were issued to Marines in Iraq. The reporter on the story told E&P today that officials tried to "steer" him away from the story. http://editorandpublisher.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=%27Marine+Corps+Times%27+Probe+Prompts+Recall+of+Faulty+Vests&expire=&urlID=14175088&fb=Y&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.editorandpublisher.com%2Feandp%2Fnews%2Farticle_display.
The Spread of Democracy: What it really means A review of William Arkin’s book on Code Names captures the growth of secrecy and the extent of pax Americana. Powerful.
Arkin tells us that King Abdullah II of Jordan permits American special forces to train and operate on Jordanian soil, American eavesdroppers to establish covert positions near the Iraqi and Syrian borders, American CIA officers to investigate Jordan's Iraqi population, and a secret American Army intelligence team (code name: Gray Fox) to operate inside the country. Before the war, the "overt side of US–Jordanian relations...provided cover for a quiet American buildup toward war against Iraq," Arkin observes. "The public problem associated with all of this was that like many of its Arab neighbors, the Amman government also had to cater to public sentiment that strongly opposed a US war against Iraq." Despite the obvious presence of American troops in Jordan the government continued to officially deny the existence of any alliance or agreement with the United States. So strenuous was the effort to keep everything under wraps that the two American air bases established in Jordan were code-named West Wing (as in west of Baghdad) in order to avoid referring to Jordan by name in any American planning or correspondence…
Arkin suggests that there are "dozens of Jordans around the globe." He cites more than twenty countries that provide bases or other facilities to the US military; seventy-six that have granted permission for US military planes to land on their soil; and eighty-nine that grant overflight rights to those planes. http://www.nybooks.com/articles/18001
Republican Media: The Washington Times does its patriotic thing
Entertaining note from the past, via the above source.
In 1998, the Washington Times revealed that the National Security Agency (NSA) could eavesdrop on Osama bin Laden's satellite telephone. No sooner had the story appeared than bin Laden stopped using the telephone, effectively disappearing from the radar screens of US intelligence.
What’s Happening, Airlines: United’s trouble, typical of the older carriers, features reduced pensions, if not an outright default. A bankruptcy judge relieved United by saying that the government would pick up the tab if default occurs, which would be the country’s largest in decades. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/11/business/11air.html?e
Environment: The innovative Swish contend with global warming
Alarmed by the retreat of its Alpine glacier, a Swiss ski resort on Tuesday wrapped part of the shrinking ice-cap in a giant blanket in a bid to reduce the summer melt.
If successful, officials at the Gemsstock resort above Andermatt in central Switzerland expect the example to be followed elsewhere in the Alps, where scientists say glaciers are under threat from global warming.
"We think it will become common practice to cover parts of the glaciers," Urs Elmiger, a board member of Andermatt Gotthard Sportbahnen, the cable car operator behind the project, told Reuters. http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L10260973.htm
Follow-up: Sibel Edmonds The FBI whistle blower keeps trying
An FBI contract employee who was fired after alleging national security breaches within the bureau's translation service plans to appeal to the Supreme Court to lift a gag order that she has been under for almost three years.
Sibel Edmonds lost her latest court battle on Friday when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld a lower court's ruling that dismissed her lawsuit against the Justice Department. Edmonds alleges there were security breaches, mismanagement and possible espionage within the FBI's translation service in late 2001 and early 2002. She says the information she knows would lead to criminal prosecutions if aggressively pursued.
"We are going to the Supreme Court, that's for sure," Edmonds said Monday.
Edmonds, who worked under contract in the FBI's Washington field office, sued the Justice Department after being fired in 2002. The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed her lawsuit last summer after former Attorney General John Ashcroft invoked the state secrets privilege, which allows the government to withhold information to safeguard national security. http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=31212&printerfriendlyVers=1&
Follow-up: Voter Fraud John Conyers apparently is following this and Common Cause continues, but it sure feels like it’s again slipped away. http://www.commoncause.org/site/pp.asp?c=dkLNK1MQIwG&b=196480
Follow-up: Yalta Even though this is from February, 1945, Bush’s script has re-invoked an old Right wing yell, that FDR sold out to Stalin, paving the way for the Cold War. Here’s one counter- thrust.
After World War I, the political right in Germany developed a myth called the "stab in the back" theory to explain its people's defeat. Though military leaders had helped negotiate the war's end, they fixed blame on civilian leaders—especially Jews, socialists, and liberals—for "betraying" the brave German fighting men. This nasty piece of propaganda was later picked up by Hitler and the Nazis to stoke the populist resentment that fueled their rise to power.
America has had its own "stab in the back" myths. Last year, George W. Bush endorsed a revanchist view of the Vietnam War: that our political leaders undermined our military and denied us victory. Now, on his Baltic tour, he has endorsed a similar view of the Yalta accords, that great bugaboo of the old right. ..
Hardly blind to Stalin's evil, they nonetheless knew that Soviet forces were indispensable in defeating the Axis powers. "It is permitted in time of grave danger to walk with the devil until you have crossed the bridge," FDR said, quoting an old Bulgarian proverb. He and Churchill understood that Stalin would be helping to set war aims and to plan for its aftermath. Victory, after all, carried a price. http://slate.msn.com/id/2118394/
Update: Social Security New lingo from Cheney:
"We will replace empty promises to younger workers with real money, not just IOU's," Cheney said. "Personal property accounts will turn every worker into an owner."
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/4467633/detail.html
Update; Stem cell Bush position getting more unpopular; now a majority of Republicans are opposed.
The survey, taken among 800 Republican voters nationwide, showed 90 percent job approval for President Bush and 88 percent favorable support for Republicans in the House. Both levels far exceed recent results of surveys taken of voters of all political persuasions.
At the same time, 57 percent of those surveyed in the Republican-only poll said they favored embryonic stem cell research, with 40 percent opposed. On a follow-up question, 54 percent said it was more of a research issue, while 40 percent said it was more of an abortion issue. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/10/AR2005051000132.html
Sports: Steve Nash Why sports? Nash, a Canadian, just was named the most valuable player in the National Basketball Association. He’s a (political) good guy. From Counterpunch:
Nash was the first high profile athlete to come out against Dick Cheney's "war of a generation" showing up at the 2003 All-Star game in 2003 wearing a T-shirt that read, "Shoot baskets not people." When questioned on his incendiary attire, Nash said, "I think that war is wrong in 99.9 percent of all cases. I think [Operation Iraqi Freedom] has much more to do with oil or some sort of distraction, because I don't feel as though we should be worrying about Iraq." He also showed far more prescience than Bush, Cheney, Colin Powell or Condoleeza Rice saying, "I think that Saddam Hussein is a crazy dictator but I don't think he's threatening us at this point in time. We haven't found any nuclear weapons -- no matter what anyone says -- and that process is still under way. Until that's finished and decided I don't think that war is acceptable." He then reiterated his position that, "Unfortunately, this is more about oil than it is about nuclear weapons." http://www.counterpunch.com/zirin05102005.html
-R
Monday, May 09, 2005
al-Qaeda Capture: The Wrong Guy? There have been reports
THE capture of a supposed Al-Qaeda kingpin by Pakistani agents last week was hailed by President George W Bush as “a critical victory in the war on terror”. According to European intelligence experts, however, Abu Faraj al-Libbi was not the terrorists’ third in command, as claimed, but a middle-ranker derided by one source as “among the flotsam and jetsam” of the organisation.
Al-Libbi’s arrest in Pakistan, announced last Wednesday, was described in the United States as “a major breakthrough” in the hunt for Osama Bin Laden. Bush called him a “top general” and “a major facilitator and chief planner for the Al- Qaeda network”. Condoleezza Rice, secretary of state, said he was “a very important figure”. Yet the backslapping in Washington and Islamabad has astonished European terrorism experts, who point out that the Libyan was neither on the FBI’s most wanted list, nor on that of the State Department “rewards for justice” programme. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-1602568,00.html
GOP Scandal in Ohio. Will it have “legs”? Rare coins (missing) and the Ohio Workers Compensation Fund. From the Toledo Blade, which performs the lost art of investigative reporting:
In the year since Tom Noe learned that 121 rare coins bought with Ohio money were missing and possibly stolen in Colorado, he has done several things.
- He fired the manager suspected of the theft.
- He asked a professional coin group to sanction the manager, which it did.
- He dispatched a partner to Colorado to seize other coins.
- He hired a forensic accountant to figure out how many coins were missing.
But there's one thing he hasn't done: Contacted law enforcement authorities.
And they're wondering why. http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050508/NEWS24/505080336
Media Continue to Ignore “Downing Street Memo” The one that reveals – once again- that Bush and Blair had agreed to oust Saddam in an invasion 8 months prior to the invasion.
The two broad US options were:
(a) Generated Start. A slow build-up of 250,000 US troops, a short (72 hour) air campaign, then a move up to Baghdad from the south. Lead time of 90 days (30 days preparation plus 60 days deployment to Kuwait).
(b) Running Start. Use forces already in theatre (3 x 6,000), continuous air campaign, initiated by an Iraqi casus belli. Total lead time of 60 days with the air campaign beginning even earlier. A hazardous option. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1593607,00.html
Speaking of lies, Naomi Klein urges progressives to push democracy, even if the Bushies bathe themselves in democracy/freedom, as this lie can be turned on them.
The administration says the war was about fighting for democracy. That was the big lie they resorted to when they were caught in the other lies. But it’s a different kind of a lie in the sense that it’s a useful lie. The lie that the United States invaded Iraq to bring freedom and democracy not just to Iraq but, as it turns out, to the whole world, is tremendously useful—because we can first expose it as a lie and then we can join with Iraqis to try to make it true. So it disturbs me that a lot of progressives are afraid to use the language of democracy now that George W. Bush is using it. We are somehow giving up on the most powerful emancipatory ideas ever created, of self-determination, liberation and democracy.
And it’s absolutely crucial not to let Bush get away with stealing and defaming these ideas—they are too important.
In looking at democracy in Iraq, we first need to make the distinction between elections and democracy. The reality is the Bush administration has fought democracy in Iraq at every turn.
Why? Because if genuine democracy ever came to Iraq, the real goals of the war—control over oil, support for Israel, the construction of enduring military bases, the privatization of the entire economy—would all be lost. Why? Because Iraqis don’t want them and they don’t agree with them. http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/2103/
What’s Happening, Iraq: U.S. Casualties. Now more than 1600.
Eight U.S. troops were killed in action during a 48-hour period as insurgent violence raged in the Sunni Arab heartland of western and central Iraq, the U.S. military reported Sunday.
The attacks came as Iraq's new, U.S.-backed government reached out to the disenfranchised Sunni Muslim minority, approving four more Sunnis to serve in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Ibrahim Jafari, a Shiite. But one Sunni appointee rejected the post offered to him, again underscoring sectarian divisions. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/la-fg-iraq9may09,0,7536929.story?coll=la-home-headlines
And, some U.S. troops head for the Syrian border.
A recent U.S. intelligence estimate also shows an increase last month in the flow of foreign fighters into Iraq, according to several officers familiar with it.
"There seems to be an increasing foreign element to the insurgency," said Army Gen. George Casey, the senior U.S. commander in Iraq. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/08/AR2005050800838_pf.html
What’s Happening, Venezuela: Chavez keeps up the pressure
President Hugo Chávez said Sunday that foreign oil companies working in the country must pay taxes he insists that they owe, or else leave.
During his Sunday television and radio show, Mr. Chávez said that many private companies had been evading taxes for years. Tax officials have said that many declare losses to avoid paying income tax.
The announcement appeared to be the latest move by Venezuela to put more pressure on foreign oil companies. Last month, the oil minister, Rafael Ramírez, announced that private oil companies operating in the country would have to convert to joint ventures with the government within six months, potentially bringing a substantial amount of new revenue to Venezuela. Mr. Ramírez also announced that the country's tax collection agency was investigating possible tax evasion by the companies, estimating that they may owe $2 billion in unpaid taxes since 2000. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/09/international/americas/09venez.html?pagewanted=print
Homeland Security: Airports: No better.
It turns out there was this flurry of activity to reassure the public- buying inferior machines for airports as well as ports and the mail. So, another $7 billion must be spent to upgrade.
Alarms occurred so frequently when the monitors were first installed that customs officials turned down their sensitivity. But that increased the risk that a real threat, like the highly enriched uranium used in nuclear bombs, could go undetected because it emits only a small amount of radiation or perhaps none if it is intentionally shielded.
"It was certainly a compromise in terms of absolute capacity to detect threats," said Mr. Milowic, the customs official.
The port's follow-up system, handheld devices that are supposed to determine what set off an alarm, is also seriously flawed. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/08/national/08screen.html?pagewanted=2
Homeland Security: Chemical Plants. Poor. Still. “The most dangerous two miles in America.” We (ex-) New Yorkers know it well.
It is the deadliest target in a swath of industrial northern New Jersey that terrorism experts call the most dangerous two miles in America: a chemical plant that processes chlorine gas, so close to Manhattan that the Empire State Building seems to rise up behind its storage tanks.
According to federal Environmental Protection Agency records, the plant poses a potentially lethal threat to 12 million people who live within a 14-mile radius.
Yet on a recent Friday afternoon, it remained loosely guarded and accessible. Dozens of trucks and cars drove by within 100 feet of the tanks. A reporter and photographer drove back and forth for five minutes, snapping photos with a camera the size of a large sidearm, then left without being approached. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/09/nyregion/09homeland.html?pagewanted=all
Reid Speaks Truth. Apologizes The Democrats have a ways to go
In the course of a discussion on filibusters and Senate rules, Washington's top Democrat gave the 60 juniors a lesson in partisan politics, particularly about the commander in chief. "The man's father is a wonderful human being," Reid said in response to a question about President Bush's policies. "I think this guy is a loser.
"I think President Bush is doing a bad job," he added to a handful of chuckles.
"He's driving this country into bankruptcy," Reid said, referring to the deficit. "He's got us in this intractable war in Iraq where we now have about 1,600 American soldiers dead and another 15,000 injured."
Republican National Communications Director Brian Jones issued a statement calling the senator's comments "a sad development but not surprising from the leader of a party devoid of optimism, ideas or solutions to the issues people care about most."
After the statement was released, Reid phoned the Review-Journal to acknowledge he thought he crossed the line.
"You know the president is in Europe, probably sleeping," Reid said in an interview this afternoon. "But I called (Karl) Rove and apologized for what I said."
http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2005/May-06-Fri-2005/news/reid.html
Krugman on Social Security: Another effective summary from Paul
...Let's consider the Bush tax cuts and the Bush benefit cuts as a package. Who gains? Who loses?
Suppose you're a full-time Wal-Mart employee, earning $17,000 a year. You probably didn't get any tax cut. But Mr. Bush says, generously, that he won't cut your Social Security benefits.
Suppose you're earning $60,000 a year. On average, Mr. Bush cut taxes for workers like you by about $1,000 per year. But by 2045 the Bush Social Security plan would cut benefits for workers like you by about $6,500 per year. Not a very good deal.
Suppose, finally, that you're making $1 million a year. You received a tax cut worth about $50,000 per year. By 2045 the Bush plan would reduce benefits for people like you by about $9,400 per year. We have a winner! http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/09/opinion/09krugman.html?hp
Week to Come:
(1) Nuclear Option. It may be as soon as this week, so good to see that occasional statement of integrity from a Republican:
"The Republicans' hands aren't clean on this either. What we did with Bill Clinton's nominees -- about 62 of them -- we just didn't give them votes in committee or we didn't bring them up."
-- Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE), on the judicial filibusters used by Democrats to block seven of President Bush nominees.
(2) Bolton Nomination: The White House won’t release documents- Condi terms it “chilling” for future White House discussions- and the ‘moderate’ Republicans are reported to be weakening. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/09/politics/09bolton.html
Bush on SS, Feb 4. In case you’ve forgotten that he doesn’t understand what he’s supposed to be selling:
Because the — all which is on the table begins to address the big cost drivers. For example, how benefits are calculate, for example, is on the table; whether or not benefits rise based upon wage increases or price increases. There's a series of parts of the formula that are being considered. And when you couple that, those different cost drivers, affecting those — changing those with personal accounts, the idea is to get what has been promised more likely to be—or closer delivered to what has been promised. Does that make any sense to you? It's kind of muddled. Look, there's a series of things that cause the — like, for example, benefits are calculated based upon the increase of wages, as opposed to the increase of prices. Some have suggested that we calculate — the benefits will rise based upon inflation, as opposed to wage increases. There is a reform that would help solve the red if that were put into effect. In other words, how fast benefits grow, how fast the promised benefits grow, if those — if that growth is affected, it will help on the red. http://slate.msn.com/id/2113276/
-R
THE capture of a supposed Al-Qaeda kingpin by Pakistani agents last week was hailed by President George W Bush as “a critical victory in the war on terror”. According to European intelligence experts, however, Abu Faraj al-Libbi was not the terrorists’ third in command, as claimed, but a middle-ranker derided by one source as “among the flotsam and jetsam” of the organisation.
Al-Libbi’s arrest in Pakistan, announced last Wednesday, was described in the United States as “a major breakthrough” in the hunt for Osama Bin Laden. Bush called him a “top general” and “a major facilitator and chief planner for the Al- Qaeda network”. Condoleezza Rice, secretary of state, said he was “a very important figure”. Yet the backslapping in Washington and Islamabad has astonished European terrorism experts, who point out that the Libyan was neither on the FBI’s most wanted list, nor on that of the State Department “rewards for justice” programme. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-1602568,00.html
GOP Scandal in Ohio. Will it have “legs”? Rare coins (missing) and the Ohio Workers Compensation Fund. From the Toledo Blade, which performs the lost art of investigative reporting:
In the year since Tom Noe learned that 121 rare coins bought with Ohio money were missing and possibly stolen in Colorado, he has done several things.
- He fired the manager suspected of the theft.
- He asked a professional coin group to sanction the manager, which it did.
- He dispatched a partner to Colorado to seize other coins.
- He hired a forensic accountant to figure out how many coins were missing.
But there's one thing he hasn't done: Contacted law enforcement authorities.
And they're wondering why. http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050508/NEWS24/505080336
Media Continue to Ignore “Downing Street Memo” The one that reveals – once again- that Bush and Blair had agreed to oust Saddam in an invasion 8 months prior to the invasion.
The two broad US options were:
(a) Generated Start. A slow build-up of 250,000 US troops, a short (72 hour) air campaign, then a move up to Baghdad from the south. Lead time of 90 days (30 days preparation plus 60 days deployment to Kuwait).
(b) Running Start. Use forces already in theatre (3 x 6,000), continuous air campaign, initiated by an Iraqi casus belli. Total lead time of 60 days with the air campaign beginning even earlier. A hazardous option. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1593607,00.html
Speaking of lies, Naomi Klein urges progressives to push democracy, even if the Bushies bathe themselves in democracy/freedom, as this lie can be turned on them.
The administration says the war was about fighting for democracy. That was the big lie they resorted to when they were caught in the other lies. But it’s a different kind of a lie in the sense that it’s a useful lie. The lie that the United States invaded Iraq to bring freedom and democracy not just to Iraq but, as it turns out, to the whole world, is tremendously useful—because we can first expose it as a lie and then we can join with Iraqis to try to make it true. So it disturbs me that a lot of progressives are afraid to use the language of democracy now that George W. Bush is using it. We are somehow giving up on the most powerful emancipatory ideas ever created, of self-determination, liberation and democracy.
And it’s absolutely crucial not to let Bush get away with stealing and defaming these ideas—they are too important.
In looking at democracy in Iraq, we first need to make the distinction between elections and democracy. The reality is the Bush administration has fought democracy in Iraq at every turn.
Why? Because if genuine democracy ever came to Iraq, the real goals of the war—control over oil, support for Israel, the construction of enduring military bases, the privatization of the entire economy—would all be lost. Why? Because Iraqis don’t want them and they don’t agree with them. http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/2103/
What’s Happening, Iraq: U.S. Casualties. Now more than 1600.
Eight U.S. troops were killed in action during a 48-hour period as insurgent violence raged in the Sunni Arab heartland of western and central Iraq, the U.S. military reported Sunday.
The attacks came as Iraq's new, U.S.-backed government reached out to the disenfranchised Sunni Muslim minority, approving four more Sunnis to serve in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Ibrahim Jafari, a Shiite. But one Sunni appointee rejected the post offered to him, again underscoring sectarian divisions. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/la-fg-iraq9may09,0,7536929.story?coll=la-home-headlines
And, some U.S. troops head for the Syrian border.
A recent U.S. intelligence estimate also shows an increase last month in the flow of foreign fighters into Iraq, according to several officers familiar with it.
"There seems to be an increasing foreign element to the insurgency," said Army Gen. George Casey, the senior U.S. commander in Iraq. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/08/AR2005050800838_pf.html
What’s Happening, Venezuela: Chavez keeps up the pressure
President Hugo Chávez said Sunday that foreign oil companies working in the country must pay taxes he insists that they owe, or else leave.
During his Sunday television and radio show, Mr. Chávez said that many private companies had been evading taxes for years. Tax officials have said that many declare losses to avoid paying income tax.
The announcement appeared to be the latest move by Venezuela to put more pressure on foreign oil companies. Last month, the oil minister, Rafael Ramírez, announced that private oil companies operating in the country would have to convert to joint ventures with the government within six months, potentially bringing a substantial amount of new revenue to Venezuela. Mr. Ramírez also announced that the country's tax collection agency was investigating possible tax evasion by the companies, estimating that they may owe $2 billion in unpaid taxes since 2000. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/09/international/americas/09venez.html?pagewanted=print
Homeland Security: Airports: No better.
It turns out there was this flurry of activity to reassure the public- buying inferior machines for airports as well as ports and the mail. So, another $7 billion must be spent to upgrade.
Alarms occurred so frequently when the monitors were first installed that customs officials turned down their sensitivity. But that increased the risk that a real threat, like the highly enriched uranium used in nuclear bombs, could go undetected because it emits only a small amount of radiation or perhaps none if it is intentionally shielded.
"It was certainly a compromise in terms of absolute capacity to detect threats," said Mr. Milowic, the customs official.
The port's follow-up system, handheld devices that are supposed to determine what set off an alarm, is also seriously flawed. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/08/national/08screen.html?pagewanted=2
Homeland Security: Chemical Plants. Poor. Still. “The most dangerous two miles in America.” We (ex-) New Yorkers know it well.
It is the deadliest target in a swath of industrial northern New Jersey that terrorism experts call the most dangerous two miles in America: a chemical plant that processes chlorine gas, so close to Manhattan that the Empire State Building seems to rise up behind its storage tanks.
According to federal Environmental Protection Agency records, the plant poses a potentially lethal threat to 12 million people who live within a 14-mile radius.
Yet on a recent Friday afternoon, it remained loosely guarded and accessible. Dozens of trucks and cars drove by within 100 feet of the tanks. A reporter and photographer drove back and forth for five minutes, snapping photos with a camera the size of a large sidearm, then left without being approached. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/09/nyregion/09homeland.html?pagewanted=all
Reid Speaks Truth. Apologizes The Democrats have a ways to go
In the course of a discussion on filibusters and Senate rules, Washington's top Democrat gave the 60 juniors a lesson in partisan politics, particularly about the commander in chief. "The man's father is a wonderful human being," Reid said in response to a question about President Bush's policies. "I think this guy is a loser.
"I think President Bush is doing a bad job," he added to a handful of chuckles.
"He's driving this country into bankruptcy," Reid said, referring to the deficit. "He's got us in this intractable war in Iraq where we now have about 1,600 American soldiers dead and another 15,000 injured."
Republican National Communications Director Brian Jones issued a statement calling the senator's comments "a sad development but not surprising from the leader of a party devoid of optimism, ideas or solutions to the issues people care about most."
After the statement was released, Reid phoned the Review-Journal to acknowledge he thought he crossed the line.
"You know the president is in Europe, probably sleeping," Reid said in an interview this afternoon. "But I called (Karl) Rove and apologized for what I said."
http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2005/May-06-Fri-2005/news/reid.html
Krugman on Social Security: Another effective summary from Paul
...Let's consider the Bush tax cuts and the Bush benefit cuts as a package. Who gains? Who loses?
Suppose you're a full-time Wal-Mart employee, earning $17,000 a year. You probably didn't get any tax cut. But Mr. Bush says, generously, that he won't cut your Social Security benefits.
Suppose you're earning $60,000 a year. On average, Mr. Bush cut taxes for workers like you by about $1,000 per year. But by 2045 the Bush Social Security plan would cut benefits for workers like you by about $6,500 per year. Not a very good deal.
Suppose, finally, that you're making $1 million a year. You received a tax cut worth about $50,000 per year. By 2045 the Bush plan would reduce benefits for people like you by about $9,400 per year. We have a winner! http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/09/opinion/09krugman.html?hp
Week to Come:
(1) Nuclear Option. It may be as soon as this week, so good to see that occasional statement of integrity from a Republican:
"The Republicans' hands aren't clean on this either. What we did with Bill Clinton's nominees -- about 62 of them -- we just didn't give them votes in committee or we didn't bring them up."
-- Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE), on the judicial filibusters used by Democrats to block seven of President Bush nominees.
(2) Bolton Nomination: The White House won’t release documents- Condi terms it “chilling” for future White House discussions- and the ‘moderate’ Republicans are reported to be weakening. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/09/politics/09bolton.html
Bush on SS, Feb 4. In case you’ve forgotten that he doesn’t understand what he’s supposed to be selling:
Because the — all which is on the table begins to address the big cost drivers. For example, how benefits are calculate, for example, is on the table; whether or not benefits rise based upon wage increases or price increases. There's a series of parts of the formula that are being considered. And when you couple that, those different cost drivers, affecting those — changing those with personal accounts, the idea is to get what has been promised more likely to be—or closer delivered to what has been promised. Does that make any sense to you? It's kind of muddled. Look, there's a series of things that cause the — like, for example, benefits are calculated based upon the increase of wages, as opposed to the increase of prices. Some have suggested that we calculate — the benefits will rise based upon inflation, as opposed to wage increases. There is a reform that would help solve the red if that were put into effect. In other words, how fast benefits grow, how fast the promised benefits grow, if those — if that growth is affected, it will help on the red. http://slate.msn.com/id/2113276/
-R
