Government Response to CNN Investigation on Problems in Air Marshall Program is to Investigate Whistle Blowers – Federal officers charged with keeping terrorists off planes are now searching their own ranks for staff who told CNN about problems in the air marshal program. An e-mail discussing plans to expose corruption in the air marshal service was written by an air marshal who asked that his identity be concealed for fear of retribution by the Transportation Security Administration.
The marshal said he sent the e-mail because for six years, his colleagues have been trying to alert Congress about continuing problems in the air marshal service. Many have left, he said, because of low morale and complaints about management.
A May 2008 report from the Department of Homeland Security Office of the Inspector General said that the agency “currently experiences a 17% voluntary attrition rate and low employee morale.”
“Congress doesn’t want to hear it,” the marshal said. “They stick their heads in the sand. We tell them about the corruption. We give them examples and proof and I think they are scared of what they see. And they don’t want to deal with it.”
50 Percent of Sequoia Voting Machines Are Flawed – New York state is in the process of replacing its lever voting machines with new voting equipment, but the state revealed recently that it has found problems with 50 percent of the roughly 1,500 ImageCast optical-scan machines (shown in the video above) that Sequoia Voting Systems has delivered to the state so far — machines that are slated to be used by dozens of counties in the state’s September 9 primary and November 4 presidential election.
Republican Jewish Coalition Official Spends Day Lying To Reporters About Obama – Suzanne Kurtz, communications director for the Republican Jewish Coalition, spent her afternoon knowingly misleading — if not downright lying — to reporters. On Monday, the RJC blasted out a press release calling on Barack Obama to “disinvite” Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) from his upcoming trip to Israel.
The problem: Hagel isn’t going to Israel with Obama. He and Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI) are flying with the Illinois Senator to Iraq and Afghanistan, but not to Israel or Europe. The RJC should have known this, as it was already public knowledge as the UK Telegraph (among other outlets) reported.
And yet, throughout the afternoon, the RJC continued to propagate what was, at best, something they couldn’t confirm and, at worst, a lie. Contacted by the Huffington Post at 2PM ET, Kurtz stumbled and nervously laughed away questions about whether or not she knew her organization’s statement to be false. She would not answer whether the RJC would retract it, saying only, “if we retract it, it will be evident.”
Breaking the Law, Bush Administration Fails to Declassify 30-Year-Old Files – The State Department is again going to miss a mandatory three-decade legal deadline to publish an accounting of its foreign relations activities. Compliance with the 30 year deadline is not optional; it is a binding legal requirement.
Super-Rich Tax Cheaters – Hundreds of super-rich American tax cheats have, in effect, turned themselves in to the IRS after a bank computer technician in the tiny European country of Liechtenstein came forward with the names of US citizens who had set up secret accounts there, according to Washington lawyers investigating the scheme. The bank clerk, Heinrich Kieber, has been branded a thief by the government of Liechtenstein for violating the country’s bank secrecy laws.
Aides for committee chairman Carl Levin (D-MI) are scheduled to provide reporters with a background briefing later this morning in Washington on the committee’s investigation of tax haven banks in Liechtenstein and Switzerland. The names of the US citizens are now in the hands of the IRS and Senate investigators.
McCain Defends Czechoslovakia, A Non-Existent Country — Again – At a press availability today, John McCain expressed concern about relations between Russia and a country that hasn’t existed for quite some time. According to a rough pool report transcript, he said:
“I was concerned about a couple of steps that the Russian government took in the last several days. One was reducing the energy supplies to Czechoslovakia.”
Czechoslovakia, of course, split into two separate countries in 1993. McCain made the same mistake again today during a town hall meeting in New Mexico.
Regards,
Jim
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Brick,
Thanks for commenting.
Fearful - Yes, I try to stay with just the facts, but I guess my fear of the future hoped for by the neocons has me really worried and describing it is scary. Wait until you read my fact-based fantasy for August 2008.
One side of the brain - Are you aware of the studies by George Lakoff on how the progressive and conservative mind sets come about? There are a couple of hour long YouTube videos worth watching and he has published several books. Yes, they do perceive the world with a different strict-parent set of "frames" that progressives, with a nurtured set of frames, can't agree with and have trouble understanding.
Neocons as Flawed Americans - I have to disagree here. Evil doers can also be very intelligent - just in a different frame of reference. Look at GWB and all his flaws - and he's our President. How did we let this happen? A lot of intelligent progressives weren't interested enough to vote in the last two elections.
Neocons as Failure destined - Yes they failed under Nixon's leadership. However, they learned from their mistakes and, with a huge assist from Osama bin Laden and planning by Karl Rove, they have come a lot closer to their dream than ever before.
I have referenced the FDR coup here.
Well, I just dropped by and started to read this piece, and I had already read the one from August 2007, and, I gotta tell you, fella, I thought the NeoCons were supposed to be the Masters of Fear, but you gotta be right up there with 'em, Andy! Geesh! Are you sure you don't work for Bush's Boss, Dick Cheney?
One thing you seem to be forgetting. When a group of these authoritarianist zealots get together, what do they see when they look at each other? Well, one thing they see is other authoritarian Conservatives who are perceiving reality with ONE Side of their Brain! We all know that they Refuse to consider any issue as a two-dimensional affair. They only know ONE side of an issue...the side that they fervently believe in! True?
What I'm getting at is this: These are NOT the sharpest pencils in America's Box. Gangsters can't attract the Very Best and Brightest! Why? Because the Best and Brightest is content to find homes with truly standard American values...Kids, mortgage, wife, church, etc. Why? Because the Very Most of US are NORMAL! Authoritarians are NOT NORMAL! They even Revel in that notion...they don't Want to be Normal. All of them, every one of them, has some great internal issue unseen by the rest of us. They are Flawed! And Flawed Americans do NOT rise to the Top of Any Heap in America! It just doesn't happen!
If you look around you can seem to perceive that not much is being done to "Rein These Thugs In", right? Well, how about if you're Wrong? How about if you end up being truly surprised to find that some very serious, very sharp people are concurrently tabulating the exact cost of the damages the Cheney/Bush Team has done to the Federal Government? Have you never heard the expression, "Give a Man enough Rope to Hang Himself?" Come on, People like this FAIL EVERY SINGLE TIME THEY ATTEMPT THIS KIND OF CORRUPTION! And about the 'Insanity' thing? About trying the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result? Try to remember the '33-'34 Fascist Takeover Attempt on FDR and his 'New Deal' Policies! Google it!
Brick