Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Bush Working To Make California Disaster The "Anti-Katrina". It was not quite 2:30 a.m. in Washington on Tuesday when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California asked President Bush to declare an emergency because of the wildfires raging in his state. An hour or so later, the request -- pre-approved by Mr. Bush before he left the Oval Office on Monday evening -- was granted. By the time most Californians awoke on Tuesday, the Pentagon had sent helicopters and troops to California and the homeland security secretary and head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency were on their way. By Tuesday evening, the White House announced that Mr. Bush himself would go on Thursday. He canceled a trip to St. Louis, planning to send Vice President Dick Cheney instead. [The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com] 10:07:41 PM    comment []

State Dept Censured For Handling Of Private Contractors. Over the past four years, the amount of money the State Department pays to private security and law enforcement contractors has soared to nearly $4 billion a year from $1 billion, administration officials said Tuesday, but they said that the department had added few new officials to oversee the contracts. It was the first time that the administration had outlined the ballooning scope of the contracts, and it provided a new indication of how the State Department's efforts to monitor private companies had not kept pace. Auditors and outside exerts say the results have been vast cost overruns, poor contract performance and, in some cases, violence that has so far gone unpunished. [The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com] 10:04:51 PM    comment []

News Groups Seek Access to Jena Six Case. Michael Kunzelman reports for The Associated Press, "A group of news organizations is seeking to open juvenile court proceedings for a black teenager charged with beating a white classmate in a case that sparked a huge civil rights demonstration in central Louisiana last month." [t r u t h o u t] 4:45:56 PM    comment []

Edwards Says He's Most Electable, but .... Peter Wallsten, reporting for The Los Angeles Times, writes: "For many Democrats, the 2008 presidential campaign is a celebration of those who once only dreamed of gaining power, with 'you go, girl' cheers for Hillary Rodham Clinton and black pride in Barack Obama. But as the top two candidates tap the excitement among Democrats over the prospects of a female or black president, a difficult question is confronting the field's No. 3 contender, John Edwards: What is a white man to do?" [t r u t h o u t] 4:45:19 PM    comment []

David Corn | Plamegate Finale: We Were Right; They Were Wrong. David Corn, writing his final column for The Nation, says: "So is anyone apologizing? For ruining Valerie Wilson's career? For perhaps endangering operations and agents? For lying about the leak? For misleading the public about Rove's role? For placing spin above the truth? Armitage did apologize (via a media interview) to the Wilsons. But no one else involved has. And no one - not Bush, not Cheney, not their aides, not their neocon confederates - has admitted any wrongdoing in this saga." [t r u t h o u t] 4:44:29 PM    comment []

Bush Has Publicly Threatened 46 Vetoes This Year. The Hill's Alexander Bolton reports: "President Bush has taken a much more personal role in opposing Congress in disagreements over legislation this year than any other year of his presidency, a tactic that government experts say is necessary because of his weakened approval ratings." [t r u t h o u t] 4:43:11 PM    comment []

Candidate Colbert on Gay Marriage. Pseudo-pundit and presidential candidate (!) Stephen Colbert paid a visit to NBC[base ']s [base "]Meet the Press[per thou] on Sunday to discuss his bid for the nation[base ']s highest office and to familiarize voters with his stance on key issues, such as gay marriage. As he tells host Tim Russert in this clip, [base "]I only got married as a taunt toward gay men because they couldn[base ']t.[per thou] READ THE WHOLE ITEM [Truthdig: Drilling Beneath the Headlines] 4:42:25 PM    comment []

Colbert Ahead of 3 Democrats in Presidential Poll. Stephen Colbert[base ']s presidential campaign [~]a compellingly postmodern play on identity and politics (or something like that)[~]is apparently being taken seriously enough by the polling firm Public Opinion Strategies to merit Colbert[base ']s inclusion in the lineup of candidates the firm is currently tracking. Here[base ']s how the TV comedian[~]who says he[base ']s running as both a Democrat and a Republican[~]is doing in the race for White House glory. The Fix: In the Democratic primary, Colbert takes 2.3 percent of the vote[~]good for fifth place behind Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (40 percent), Sen. Barack Obama (19 percent), former Sen. John Edwards (12 percent) and Sen. Joe Biden (2.7 percent). Colbert finished ahead of Gov. Bill Richardson (2.1 percent), Rep. Dennis Kucinich (2.1 percent) and former Sen. Mike Gravel (less than 1 percent). He was less lucky in the Republican field, where he took less than 1 percent of the vote behind even longshot candidates like Reps. Tom Tancredo and Ron Paul. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani led the Republican field with 29 percent, followed by former Gov. Mitt Romney at 12 percent, former Sen. Fred Thompson (11 percent) and Sen. John McCain (10 percent). [base "]It[base ']s clear that Colbert[base ']s truthiness image and [OE]I am America[base '] message has serious resonance among Democrats,[per thou] said Neil Newhouse, a POS partner. Read more READ THE WHOLE ITEM [Truthdig: Drilling Beneath the Headlines] 4:40:43 PM    comment []

Gravel Gets the Shaft. Former Sen. Mike Gravel[base ']s campaign released this video after the candidate was barred from NBC[base ']s upcoming debate in Philadelphia. Is it just a coincidence that the network is owned by GE, which has a profit incentive for war? Gravel doesn[base ']t seem to think so. READ THE WHOLE ITEM [Truthdig: Drilling Beneath the Headlines] 4:39:06 PM    comment []

Michael Gene Sullivan: Ignore the Noose? WTF?. So, the other day I'm driving along, my son in his kid seat in the back, and I'm looking out the window, thinking about how San Francisco has changed from a class conscious hotbed of Radicals to a bevy of buttheads who moved here to be cool -- not realizing all they did was bring their lack of coolness with them, infecting us with it, thereby lowering the cool average, and making The City just a little more like the intolerant, sexist, segregated pest hole they fled -- when I decided I needed to calm down. Son giggling in the backseat, beautiful day, no known infections -- I really needed to "chill," as my piercing bedecked brethren say. So I switched on NPR. It's not Air America, but sometimes even I get tired of unvarnished progressive talk, and just want to hear a story about how some old bluesman is finally getting remembered with a posthumous medal of honor and a commemorative recording of his songs, made by those who ripped him off his whole life before he was dumped into a paupers grave. You know, a feel good story. But no. I hear a commentary about the case of the Jena Six, and all the subsequent noose sightings around the country. In a nutshell the speaker, who was a Black man, was saying that the real problem wasn't the nooses, but the reaction to them. All this complaining, media attention, marches ... what should have happened was people just ignoring the incidents. By being concerned and angry, by reacting at all we are just giving the perpetrators of these rather minor acts of vandalism too much power, and the attention they want. Better to just get on with life. And there went my feel goodiness. What the fuck? ( read like William Shatner) A...Black...man...says...ignore ...the...noose...hanging...on...your...d oor... What the fuck!?! Somewhere W.E.B. DuBois is feverishly gluing hair to his head so he can tear it out in frustration, and Martin Luther King Jr. is limbering up so he can spin in his grave without throwing out a hip. Ignore it and they will go away. Because, as we all know, anyone who would hang a noose would never wonder, "Since no one kicked up a fuss about that, what else can we get away with?" No pushing the envelope, taking a chance, dragging you behind a pickup truck for these fellows. No, the very fact that they hung a noose on your door proves they have the kind of restraint rarely see in those so inbred. Oh, and he said if he saw one on his own door he would take it down, and forget it, because he had better things to worry about -- like redoing his kitchen. This isn't just lame ass, run-of-the-mill rhythm method stupid. This is crazy stupid. This is swim with sharks with a lamb chop necklace, screw your Boss's wife on his desk, I think I can make it even though the light turned red stupid. Okay, first off: having an appropriate reaction to threatening stimuli is not only survival adaptive, its part of not being batshit nuts. Let's say somebody pulls a knife on you. The correct response is to be wary, and take a defensive attitude. Maybe nothing will happen, but you want to be ready just in case D'Artagnan Jones makes a move. What if he doesn't pull a knife, but simply says "I'm going to stab you." It is still in the best interest of you and your insurance company that you take that seriously, especially if it seems the guy has taken a real dislike to something about you that you aren't going to change -- like your skin color. Ahhh... Now, what if you wake up and there is a only note on your front door - "I'm going to stab you." What kind of fool ignores that? Especially if you live in a country with a history of stabbing people like you? And remember, this is a threat to your whole family. I look at my son in the backseat and try to think of what Father wouldn't want to hunt the person down and make them eat their own feet. And as for giving power over to those that threaten you... Ignoring actual events, denying reality is what gives the perpetrator power -- the power to make you deny reality. And denying reality is a definition of crazy. Now that's power. They got you walking around trying to convince yourself this isn't happening. Got you saying your Mediterranean tiling is more worthy of discussion than a righteous reaction to Terrorism and the Politics of Fear. Ignoring the threat is a way to keep your power? What's next: Ignorance is Strength? When I was a wee barn, bouncing on my ma's knee, there were two things she said that I will never forget. "Michael, my boy," she said: "A: Capitalism is theft. Investor dividends always equal the added value created by the worker's labor, a worker who is by necessity underpaid and oppressed." ( Of course, she didn't say it like that - her version involved two bunnies, a box of cookies, and Warren G. Harding.) "B. Being Black should put you at the vanguard of the fight against injustice and oppression, which must be stomped out at the soonest opportunity. And if they pop up again, stomp again. Pop, stomp, pop, stomp. That is the dance of an alert citizenry -- and if Blacks are supposed to be such good dancers that's the dance we should to do doing." She had a way with words. These things cannot be ignored. And when I hear some guy argue how we should ignore racist, or sexist, or homophobic threats, I think about all the people who stood up to injustice so this guy can say we should lay down, raised their voices so he could ask us to keep quiet, gave their lives so this guy can worry more about remodeling his kitchen when not only did someone hang a noose on his door, they hung it on the door of his wife and children. What the fuck? And if you honestly believe that having a survival response, and the accompanying anger is somehow giving power over to you tormentor, here are some other tried and true reactions to so-called "threats:" Ignore the swastika carved into your steps. Just think of it as Nazi folk art. Besides, you didn't need all those pesky aunts and uncles, anyway. Burning cross on the lawn? Toasty on a cool night. Get marshmallows, and share them with the Klansmen. They love the color. And doesn't the word Klan just mean family? And nooses? How could they imply violence? Don't think of them as direct threats, think of them as Negro coat hooks -- just a place to hang spare Blacks when we're not in use. [The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com] 4:36:55 PM    comment []

Charlie Rose: My Conversation with the Director of the CIA. I had a long conversation with Gen. Michael Hayden, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency. He served as the first-ever deputy director of national intelligence and ran the National Security Agency from 1999 to 2005. He has overseen controversial national security programs like the NSA's warrantless wiretapping and the CIA's use of rendition and enhanced interrogation techniques. He talked about how the United States is in a state of war today, and explained how the CIA is vital in the battle - both day to day and for the long-term war of ideas. Gen. Hayden talked what he could do, as head of the CIA, when the agency finds someone intent on doing harm to American. He said he had three main courses of action. Here is a part of what he said: He also talked about why the NSA eavesdropping program functioned better without warrants. Here is part of what he said: The first part of our conversation ran for the hour last night. The conclusion will be broadcast tonight on your local PBS station. Or you can see the entire conversation on the Charlie Rose website starting tomorrow. [The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com] 4:30:56 PM    comment []

How Government Snoops Get a Direct Line to Consumer Data. Last week's revelation that Verizon readily opened its phone logs to the feds should come as no surprise. The firm is a standout example of the revolving door between government and the telecom industry. [MotherJones.com] 4:27:40 PM    comment []

Congressman: Blackwater Evaded Federal Income Taxes. The congressman leading an investigation into Blackwater said Monday that the embattled security company may have evaded tens of millions of dollars in federal taxes and was seeking to hide its tax practices. Rep. Henry Waxman, a California Democrat, said that Blackwater has avoided paying Social Security, Medicare and unemployment taxes by treating its armed guards [...] [CommonDreams.org » Headlines07] 12:12:14 PM    comment []

Speaking Truth to Nonsense. Triangulation aside, when it comes to the phony Social Security crisis, Hillary Clinton has stood up for the truth: There isn[base ']t one. READ THE WHOLE ITEM [Truthdig: Drilling Beneath the Headlines] 12:10:16 PM    comment []

The World Watches California Burn. Truthdig[base ']s hometown is surrounded by wildfires, and although we were closely observing the developing situation, we were surprised to see the world react with such intense interest. It seems everyone from Pravda to the BBC has tuned in to watch movie stars[base '] homes being threatened by the flames. In case you aren[base ']t already up to speed, seven Southern California counties are struggling against fierce and unpredictable blazes driven by dry, hot winds. On a personal note, our thanks go out to the firefighters who are battling this disaster and our thoughts are with the quarter of a million people who have been evacuated from their homes. BBC: California has evacuated a quarter of a million people as fierce winds fan wildfires in the Los Angeles region from San Diego up to Santa Barbara. At least one person has died and thousands of homes are at risk in seven counties where fires have scorched some 200,000 acres (81,000 hectares). About 1,500 National Guardsmen have been brought in to help fire-fighters. Read more READ THE WHOLE ITEM [Truthdig: Drilling Beneath the Headlines] 11:46:25 AM    comment []

General Claims Bush Pushed for Harsh Interrogation Tactics at Gitmo. A new book by two ACLU lawyers, [base "]Administration of Torture,[per thou] includes documents in which one Gen. Michael Dunlavey claims that President Bush gave him [base "]marching orders[per thou] to get the Pentagon[base ']s approval of more severe interrogation methods at Guantanamo. Also, it alleges that then Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was [base "]personally involved[per thou] in the interrogation of Mohammed al Qahtani. The Raw Story: [base "][T]he documents show unambiguously that the administration has adopted some of the methods of the most tyrannical regimes,[per thou] write Jameel Jaffer and Amrit Singh. [base "]Documents from Guantanamo describe prisoners shackled in excruciating [OE]stress positions,[base '] held in freezing-cold cells, forcibly stripped, hooded, terrorized with military dogs, and deprived of human contact for months.[per thou] Most of the documents on which Administration of Torture is based were obtained as a result of ongoing legal fights over a Freedom of Information Act request filed in October 2003 by the ACLU and other human rights and anti-war groups, the ACLU said in a news release. The documents show that prisoner abuse like that found at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq was hardly the isolated incident that the Bush administration or US military claimed it was. By the time the prisoner abuse story broke in mid-2004 the Army knew of at least 62 other allegations of abuse at different prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan, the authors report. Read more READ THE WHOLE ITEM [Truthdig: Drilling Beneath the Headlines] 11:45:01 AM    comment []

Castro: Bush Could Start WWIII. Joining in the exciting game of apocalyptic Mad Libs that President Bush kicked off with his recent pronouncement that a nuclear-equipped Iran could start World War III, Cuban leader Fidel Castro has swapped out [base "]Iran[per thou] for [base "]Bush[per thou] and turned Bush[base ']s accusation back at him in this latest round of doomsday fun. AP via Breitbart.com: [base "]The danger of a massive world famine is aggravated by Mr. Bush[base ']s recent initiative to transform foods into fuel,[per thou] Castro wrote in Cuban news media, referring to U.S. support for using corn and other food crops to produce gasoline substitutes. The brief essay titled [base "]Bush, Hunger and Death[per thou] also alleged that Bush [base "]threatens humanity with World War III, this time using atomic weapons.[per thou] Bush is expected to announce new strategies toward Cuba on Wednesday. White House spokesman Tony Fratto said last week that Bush would [base "]emphasize the importance of democracy for the Cuban people and the role the international community can play in Cuba[base ']s transition by insisting on free speech, free assembly, free and competitive elections and the release of all political prisoners.[per thou] Read more READ THE WHOLE ITEM [Truthdig: Drilling Beneath the Headlines] 11:44:10 AM    comment []