I recently received one of those emails encouraging me to view a YouTube video with lots of photos of our courageous men and women in uniform.
We need to do more than remember the troops and their significant sacrifices.
Here is how I replied to that message and video.
Remember them? That’s it. Just remember them. For how long? Just long enough to watch a youtube video?
Remember them? Have we lost them? Are they missing? No, but they are in harm’s way! These American warriors are in the middle of a civil war in a part of the world where they aren’t wanted by most locals. They are risking their lives while we continue to shop, eat whatever we want, drive our SUVs out to end of the driveway to get the mail or wait for the school bus, watch TV in our plush recliners, spend money we don’t have on things we don’t need, play pretend war games on the internet, go to jobs that are far less stressful and harmful to our future and sleep soundly with both eyes closed in our air conditioned homes!
We have a lot of nerve asking our troops to make the ultimate sacrifice when most of us are sacrificing absolutely nothing? We aren’t even paying to support our troops – we are borrowing from the Chinese and Japanese to pay for this occupation of Iraq. Our unrecognized selfishness is disgusting.
Our troops are living in miserable conditions and still being killed, and all we can come up with is remember them?
How about we bring them home so their parents can hug them and they can enjoy what we are enjoying? How about we give them the medical care they need after surviving Iraq? How about we give them a GI bill like the one that was provided to The Greatest Generation? How about we pay our debt to our troops?
Why aren’t we buying ‘GI Recovery Bonds?’
US Rep. John Murtha calling for troops to pull out of Iraq
Officials Monitor Thousands of Letters Without Warrants – The US postal service approves more than 10,000 requests from US law enforcement each year to record names, addresses and other information from the outside of packages every year, according to information released through a Freedom of Information Act request. The warrantless surveillance mail program — as it is known — requires only the approval of the US Postal Inspection Service Director, and not a judge.
FBI Head Says Give Telcos Immunity Even if They Acted in Bad Faith – At the heart of President Bush’s plea to give telecommunications companies legal immunity is the contention that these companies were merely being patriotic corporate citizens when they facilitated the warrantless wiretapping of Americans. FBI Director Robert Mueller undercut that argument Wednesday, telling Congress that the ‘good faith’ argument should have nothing to do with whether or not they are let off the hook in dozens of pending court cases.
MSNBC Host and Reporter Says Protester Should be Tased and Taken to a Secret Prison – On MSNBC’s ‘Morning Joe,’ field reported Willie Geist reported the following: “President Clinton was campaigning for his wife in Corpus Christi, Texas, yesterday when an idiot started waving a sign that claimed 9/11 was an inside job. Wah, wah, shut up.” Geist’s associates, including Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, jeered aloud as the video showed the screaming man being removed by security. “What’s Rosie O’Donnell doing in Corpus Christi?” shouted Scarborough. Continued Geist, “As Clinton was working the crowd after the speech, the man got close to the former president and started yelling at him. You don’t do that, y’see, ’cause that’s when the Secret Service steps in.” Scarborough quipped aloud, “Where’s the taser? Tase him, bro!” “The man led away in handcuffs,” Geist wrapped, “and hopefully taken to one of those secret prisons in eastern Europe, never to be heard from again. We can only hope.” As Scarborough pleaded, “Please leave Bill Clinton alone,” Geist added, “I hope we have a special prison for 9/11 conspiracy theorists. They deserve to be together.”
Bush Administration Says Congress (and Thus the People) Get No Say in How Long We Stay in Iraq – The Bush administration yesterday advanced a new argument for why it does not require congressional approval to strike a long-term security agreement with Iraq, stating that Congress had already endorsed such an initiative through its 2002 resolution authorizing the use of force against Saddam Hussein. The 2002 measure, along with the congressional resolution passed one week after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks authorizing military action “to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States,” permits indefinite combat operations in Iraq, according to a statement by the State Department’s Bureau of Legislative Affairs.
More FBI Privacy Violations – The FBI acknowledged Wednesday it improperly accessed Americans’ telephone records, credit reports and Internet traffic in 2006, the fourth straight year of privacy abuses resulting from investigations aimed at tracking terrorists and spies. An audit by the inspector general last year found the FBI demanded personal records without official authorization or otherwise collected more data than allowed in dozens of cases between 2003 and 2005. Additionally, last year’s audit found that the FBI had underreported to Congress how many national security letters were requested by more than 4,600.
On Glenn Beck’s Program, Jonah Goldberg Compared Obama and FDR to Hitler – On the February 22 Glenn Beck, National Review Online editor-at-large Jonah Goldberg said: “I think one of the things that is decidedly fascistic, or at least just a bad idea, is looking for silver bullets. You know, when [Sen.] Barack Obama campaigns, he’s basically saying, ‘I’m a silver bullet. I’m going to solve all your problems just by electing me.’ FDR, Hitler, all these guys, they basically said, ‘All your problems can be solved.’ ”
Glenn Beck Says, “If you’re an ugly woman, you’re probably a progressive as well” – On the February 14 edition of his nationally syndicated radio show, Glenn Beck said, “Ugly people, if you’re a guy, you can get past it. I don’t think you can as an ugly woman. I don’t — no, I don’t. If you’re an ugly woman, I apologize. Oh, you’ve got a double cross, because if you’re an ugly woman, you’re probably a progressive as well. Oh, jeez. I’m sorry. Today’s just not your day. But you know what? If you believed in God, you’d know that there’s going to be another chance for you. You don’t have to be ugly in heaven. You’re going to be your perfect self, and there will be another perfect somebody waiting for you on the other side.”
McCain Amendment Lays Groundwork for Outsourcing Production of American Military Equipment – Yesterday, John McCain defended the Air Force decision to overlook Wichita-based Boeing Co. for a $35 billion contract to build airborne refueling planes, saying he would not work to overturn the decision and saying that military decisions should not be about creating jobs. [McCain Town Hall Meeting, Waco TX, 3/3/08; AP, 3/3/08] Unfortunately for American workers, McCain has the record to back his statement up.
In 2003, Sen. McCain authored an amendment undermining “Buy American†rules requiring U.S. military equipment, defense systems and components to be manufactured in the United States. By allowing the Department of Defense to purchase American military equipment from foreign companies, the McCain amendment laid the groundwork for the Air Force’s decision to outsource the production of refueling tankers for the American military. The amendment passed along party lines with Kansas Senators Roberts and Brownback voting in its favor. [Vote 191, 5/21/03]
(Does it make any sense to have our military dependent on foreign companies for weapons, repair parts and technical support? – JLV)
The Bush White House tried to bully the House of Representatives on an important bill that affects your privacy. With cries of “soft on terrorism,†they insisted that the House pass a bill giving immunity to telecommunications companies that handed over the phone and email records of innocent Americans without a warrant.
Now the Bush administration is doing everything they can to force Congress to cave in to their demands. Tell the House to stand strong against such tactics.Â
Join me and tell the House to put “Facts Over Fear.†If you have not already done so, please, sign this petition. Â
Here what I had to added to this petition to Congress:
It is long past time to put a stop to the Unitary president, the neocon minions of the Administration and the other ‘Bushies’ that are destroying our government from within. Please ignore “The Shrub” and his “Noble Lies,” and take back your role of checks and balances and your responsibility for writing laws that maintain our Constitution – not destroy it.
Two 9/11 Hijackers Lived With Saudi Aviation Contractor in San Diego, in Contradiction with 9/11 Commission Report – Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar allegedly hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 and crashed it into the Pentagon. According to the 9/11 Commission report, they arrived in Los Angeles on Jan. 15 and “spent about two weeks there before moving to San Diego.†(9/11 Commission report, p. 215, chapter 7). But, according to the FBI timeline, the two men resided in Apartment 152 at Parkwood Apartments, San Diego, from Jan. 15 through Feb. 2, 2000. Omar al-Bayoumi, a Saudi defense contractor, lived at the same location. This strongly suggests that the hijackers already had a support network in Southern California before they arrived. The FBI maintains to this day that the hijackers never had any accomplices in the US. Much has been reported about Omar al-Bayoumi and his alleged relationship with the government of Saudi Arabia.
“Bayoumi seemed clearly to be working for some part of the Saudi government,†Phillip Shenon wrote on page 52 of his book, The Commission: The Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation. “He entered the United States as a business student and had lived San Diego since 1996. He was on the payroll of an aviation contractor to the Saudi government, paid about $2,800 a month, but apparently did no work for the company.†Newsweek points to another connection between Bayoumi and Bandar: “About two months after al-Bayoumi began aiding Alhazmi and Almihdhar, NEWSWEEK has learned, al-Bayoumi’s wife began receiving regular stipends, often monthly and usually around $2,000, totaling tens of thousands of dollars. The money came in the form of cashier’s checks, purchased from Washington’s Riggs Bank by Princess Haifa bint Faisal, the daughter of the late King Faisal and wife of Prince Bandar, the Saudi envoy who is a prominent Washington figure and personal friend of the Bush family.
According to Shenon, several staff members working under 9/11 Commission Senior Counsel Dieter Snell, “felt strongly that they had demonstrated a close Saudi government connection,†based on “explosive material†on al-Bayoumi and Fahad al-Thumairy, a “shadowy Saudi diplomat in Los Angeles.†Shenon recounts how Snell, in preparing his team’s account of the plot, purged almost all of the most serious allegations against the Saudi government and moved the “explosive†supporting evidence to the small print of the report’s footnotes. (The Commission, pp. 398-399).
Republican Congresswoman Labels Puerto Ricans as Foreign Citizens – Republican Florida Congresswoman Ginny Brown-Waite recently labeled Puerto Ricans as “foreign citizens,†and said they should not be eligible for tax rebates, even though they are Americans by law. That was just the beginning, her controversial remarks continued when she issued a press release suggesting that Puerto Ricans “cool off†by visiting the Weeki Wachi water park.
Chief Justice John Roberts Is Concerned That ExxonMobil Might Have to Pay Three Weeks’ Worth of Profits for Valdez Oil Spill – Yesterday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments on how much money ExxonMobil should be forced to pay as damages for its Exxon Valdez oil spill 19 years ago. What bothered Chief Justice John Roberts was that Exxon was being ordered to pay $2.5 billion — roughly three weeks’ worth of profits — for destroying a long swath of the Alaska coastline in the largest oil spill in American history. “So what can a corporation do to protect itself against punitive-damages awards such as this?” Roberts asked in court. The lawyer arguing for the Alaska fishermen affected by the spill, Jeffrey Fisher, had an idea. “Well,” he said, “it can hire fit and competent people.”
Military Citizenship Fast Track Now a Slow Lane – Despite a 2002 promise from President Bush to put citizenship applications for immigrant members of the U.S. military on a fast track, some are finding themselves waiting months, or even years, because of bureaucratic backlogs. About 7,200 service members or people who have been recently discharged have citizenship applications pending, but neither the Department of Defense nor Citizenship and Immigration Services keeps track of how long they have been waiting. Immigration lawyers and politicians say they have received a significant number of complaints about delays because of background checks, misplaced paperwork, confusion about deployments and other problems.
Troops Die While Bureaucrats Blunder – Overall, at least 2,000 veterans across the country are struggling to correct mistakes on their military records – mistakes that have cost some of them their jobs and their health care coverage. The wait to correct these errors can stretch for as long as three years. In the meantime, the veteran is not eligible for any of the services or benefits to which they are entitled.
Decline in Bloodshed in Iraq is Not Because of the Surge – The drop in violence has nothing to do with the addition of 30,000 U.S. troops. “The dramatic decline in bloodshed in Iraq… is largely due to Muqtada al-Sadr’s August 2007 unilateral ceasefire,” according to a new International Crisis Group report. The so-called “Sunni Awakening” is also a sham. We are, in effect, arming and bribing Sunnis to kill al-Qaeda in Iraq forces, not us or the Shiites. “The strategy of the surge seems simple: to buy off every Iraqi in sight,” writes Nir Rosen in Rolling Stone. In so doing, he adds, “the Americans are now arming both sides in the civil war.”
Sunnis Have Stopped Fighting al-Qaeda – U.S.-backed Sunni volunteer forces, which have played a vital role in reducing violence in Iraq, are increasingly frustrated with the American military and the Iraqi government over what they see as a lack of recognition of their growing political clout and insufficient U.S. support. Since Feb. 8, thousands of fighters in restive Diyala province have left their posts in order to pressure the government and its American backers to replace the province’s Shiite police chief. On Wednesday, their leaders warned that they would disband completely if their demands were not met. In Babil province, south of Baghdad, fighters have refused to man their checkpoints after U.S. soldiers killed several comrades in mid-February in circumstances that remain in dispute. “Now, there is no cooperation with the Americans,” said Haider Mustafa al-Kaisy, an Awakening commander in Baqubah, the capital of Diyala province, an insurgent stronghold that U.S. and Iraqi forces are still struggling to control. “We have stopped fighting al-Qaeda.”
Shoddy Kevlar in Troop Helmets – A company that allegedly produced sub-standard kevlar for battle helmets used by US troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan continues to receive lucrative government contracts, and Congressional oversight committees need to investigate if the company endangered servicemen and women, veterans’ and government ethics activists said Thursday.
Lie by Lie: The Mother Jones Iraq War Timeline – What did our leaders know and when did they know it? And, perhaps just as important, what red flags did we miss, and how could we have missed them? Covers details from 8/1/90 to 6/21/03.
Republican on Fox News Says He Has the Right to Smash His Dog’s Head Against a Brick Wall Because Animals Don’t Have Rights – On Fox News, Republican Jonathan Hoenig says about his dog Snacky, “Snacky dog is property. If I want to take Snacky’s head and smash it against a brick wall (I’d never do that to you) it’s my right to do it!”
FOX – Smashing Dog’s Head Is OK
Internal Revenue Service Investigating Church For Having Obama Speak About His Spiritual Journey – The Internal Revenue Service is investigating the United Church of Christ, saying the denomination may have threatened its tax-free status by allowing Sen. Barack Obama to speak before thousands of members at a church conference in June. A lawyer for the church denied that the denomination, or Sen. Obama, who is a member of the church, engaged in any political activity when he and others spoke before an audience of 10,000 at the church’s 50th anniversary celebration in Hartford, Conn. A spokesman for the Obama campaign, Tommy Vietor, said the candidate “spoke to his church’s convention about his personal spiritual journey…. This was not a campaign event.â€
While investigations of individual congregations are not uncommon, for the IRS to go after an entire 1.2 million-member denomination is rather extraordinary. Did Obama use his appearance as a campaign event? No. Did UCC officials use the opportunity to endorse his campaign? No. Did anything happen at the conference that amounted to “intervention†in a political campaign? Not as far as I can tell. If the IRS is prepared to argue that the UCC may have violated the law simply by giving Obama a platform for a non-partisan speech, should we also assume, then, that the agency will investigate the Southern Baptist Convention for inviting George W. Bush to give a non-partisan speech?
I keep hearing that the “surge†is succeeding. Really? There are still 600 attacks from insurgents every month. Those attacks kill 1000 Iraqis and 70 or more US soldiers every month.
This must be a definition of success with which I am not familiar.
In the Texas Democratic Primary debate Sen. Obama told a story related to him by an active duty Captain in Afghanistan. The Captain told Sen. Obama that on his first tour in Afghanistan his rifle platoon, usually 39 strong, was reduced to 24 because the others were deployed to Iraq. He further said that things were so bad his troops resorted to using weapons captured from the Taliban because US military supplies were not available. The Captain said that during one inspection by high command they took the functioning Russian machine gun off it’s mounts and replaced it with the non-functioning gun issued by the Army so as to not upset the General. The Pentagon immediately denied the story. The Captain, now a Major, speaking on anonymity (ya’ think?) confirmed to CNN news sources that the story was in all real respects true. Now Army chief of staff Gen. George Casey, testifying before the Senate confirms that “there is no reason to doubt†the story.
One of the signature issues for Sen. Joe Biden has been the upgrading of military hardware for our troops put in harms way in both Afghanistan and Iraq. He has repeatedly voted to fund both conflicts on the grounds that our soldiers needed it to provide, among other things, Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicles (MRAPs). The marines requested the new vehicles in 2005 and have yet to receive any of them. I’ve heard two excuses from the Pentagon: the expense of the new vehicles would interfere with other weapons projects and although the vehicles were available immediately from other countries the Military Brass wanted to wait for one developed in the United States. The civilian scientist (an ex Marine officer) assigned to research the delay has asked for whistle blower protection and the study has been canceled by the Marines. Not, however, before the Marines requested the DoD Inspector General investigate the boondoggle. Meanwhile, 700 Marines have died in IED attacks that the MRAP would have withstood.
The United States spends more on our military than the rest of the world combined. Half of all discretionary spending goes to the Pentagon. Yet our soldiers are under-armored, have difficulty getting replacement parts for weapons in the field and with 140,000 soldiers deployed to Iraq the Army is stretched so thin there are serious concerns over how much longer the Iraq and Afghanistan efforts can be maintained.
There is something seriously wrong here.
Military contractors like Blackwater get paid $75,000 a year to carry guns and protect military brass while the soldier standing next to them makes $23,000 a year to do the same thing and can’t count on the Veteran’s Administration to take care of him. We are paying to develop two next generation fighter planes but can’t provide armor plated MRAPs to protect our soldiers today. Ten Billion dollars a year is spent on missile defense which can be defeated with inflatable warhead dummies but soldiers in the field can’t keep their weapons functioning.
President Truman had a name for it: War Profiteering. Dick Cheney’s Halliburton stock value went from a few hundred thousand dollars to over $2 million between 2000 and today. KBR, a former division of Halliburton, reported record profits from construction and oil exploration in Iraq. The number of private contractors in Iraq equals the number of military personnel.
President Eisenhower had a name for it: The Military Industrial Complex. Companies like General Electric, Boeing, Blackwater and a host of other contractors selling to the Complex soak up half a trillion dollars in defense spending every year and we can’t win a war in a country that doesn’t even have an army.
I have a name for it. I will not speak it here.
I am not a religious man but if there is indeed a heaven and a hell, there is a special place for these people.
If you’ve enjoyed the last seven years, vote for McCain. Just like Bush but crazier.
John McCain Want to “Cut and Run” from public campaign finance. McCain used the promise of public funds as collateral to help secure a private loan. Once a candidate uses actual public funds in this manner, they have used those dollars, thus locking them into the program. This is key, not only in that it seems to bind him to the program but also in that McCain showed a clear willingness to capitalize on voluntary taxpayer money in order to help him raise more funds from special interest lobbyists (some of whom are at the upper echelons of his campaign staff).
Now that McCain is in the program and hasn’t been certified to pull out — an act that requires a vote of the FEC — it seems that he may have already gone over the spending limit in violation of the law. As of the last campaign finance filing deadline, McCain was already coming dangerously close to the $54 million threshold, and in the weeks since he might have already passed it.
John McCain Withheld Abramoff E-mail – On the stump, Sen. John McCain often cites his work tackling the excesses of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff as evidence of his sturdy ethical compass. A little-known document, however, shows that McCain may have taken steps to protect his Republican colleagues from the scope of his investigation. In the 2006 Senate report concerning Abramoff’s activities, which McCain spearheaded, the Arizona Republican conspicuously left out information detailing how Alabama Gov. Bob Riley was targeted by Abramoff’s influence peddling scheme. Despite the implications of the information, McCain and the Senate Indian Affairs Committee sat on the controversial portion of the email. According to an official familiar with the investigation, McCain also subsequently refused to make the email public after the report was released.
Senator McCain Gets a Zero – Two weeks ago John McCain was the only Senator to duck a crucial vote on the future of clean energy in America — dooming to failure the measure that would have helped make renewable energy more affordable and accessible. Now it turns out this missed vote is part of a pattern.
Last week, the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) released the 2007 National Environmental Scorecard giving Senator McCain a score of ZERO. According to the scorecard, McCain was the only member of Congress to skip all 15 crucial environmental votes scored by LCV.
John Ashcroft Gets a Multi-Million Dollar Non-Completive Contract From His Former Subordinate in the Justice Department – John Ashcroft is considered a key witness in the inquiry into lucrative federal monitoring contracts awarded by federal prosecutors to hand-picked monitors to oversee deferred prosecutions. The House hearing was prompted, in part, by complaints from two New Jersey congressmen after Christopher Christie, the U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, awarded a contract said to be worth $27 million or more to Ashcroft to monitor a medical device maker that had entered a deferred prosecution agreement with federal prosecutors. Christie was once Ashcroft’s subordinate. Ashcroft’s Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm, The Ashcroft Group LLC, stands to make from $27 million to $52 million over 18 months.
Earmarks Forced on the Military – So far this year, members of Congress have appropriated 12,881 earmarks for “pet projects,” some to be conducted by campaign contributors, which would cost taxpayers over $18 billion. If you look at a Department of Defense appropriations bill, you’ll not find very much pork in it. What you need to do is look at the committee report; 99% of the pork is in the committee report, not in the statute. The committee report for the 2007 appropriations bill contains 2,700 earmarks, worth around $12 billion.
Money was going towards manufacturing products that would never be used, or that nobody asked for to begin with. One such product was Microvision Corporation’s “Nomad,” a helmet with a mounted computer display, meant to flash maps and relevant data to a soldier in combat. In 2001, Senator Slade Gorton (R-WA), who would later join Microvision’s board, earmarked $8 million for the development of the “Nomad.” Democratic Senator Patty Murray, his successor, would appropriate a total of $11.5 million more to buy the helmets.
“Junk,” one Army commander called the helmets, which have never seen combat. Rockwell Collins was awarded the contract instead, but Senator Murray awarded Microvision $6 million for the purchase of their product anyway.
The Navy paid $4.5 million to build a boat they didn’t want because of Congressional earmarks. – But months before the hull ever touched water, the Navy gave the boat to the University of Washington. The school never found a use for it, either. Blame it on Sen. Patty Murray and Congressmen Norm Dicks and Brian Baird. All three exercised their political muscle to slip language into a 2002 spending bill to force the Navy to buy the boat from Edmonds shipbuilder Guardian Marine International. The congressional trio say they were helping Guardian Marine because it had a great product. But each has also received generous campaign donations from the company’s three executives, its sole employees: $14,277 to Baird, $15,000 to Murray, and $16,750 to Dicks.
The Right Wing’s War on Science – The article calls it the Bush Administration’s War on the Laboratory, but the right wing will try to keep it going after Bush is gone. For 2006, President Bush proposed an increase in spending on scientific research, but ninety-seven per cent of the increase will apply to just two areas: weapons development and space-exploration vehicles (not space science).
Republican Congressman Not Wearing a Flag Lapel Pin Criticizes Barack Obama for Not Wearing a Flag Lapel Pin – Friday night’s Real Time with Bill Maher was a riveting display of the dishonest attacks on Barack Obama by the wingnut paparazzi. Rep. Jack Kingston is in his usual wanker form and brings out the most ludicrous talking points to lead the way. Kingston was not wearing a lapel pin. So does this make Kingston unpatriotic, a hypocrite or just plain stupid?
John McCain Ignoring Campaign Finance Law – A few months ago, John McCain applied for and was approved to receive federal matching funds. Because he couldn’t find enough people to fund his campaign, he was also forced to apply for a $4 million line of credit, which he secured by using the federal matching funds as collateral. By taking the federal funding, he agreed to spend no more than $57 million until the Republican convention. But so far, his campaign has spent at least $49 million — leaving him with less than $10 million to campaign with through September.
Now that he’s won the nomination and has the support of the Republican lobbyist and special interest machine, he’s trying to ignore that the whole thing ever happened. He recently wrote a letter to the FEC telling them that he was backing out, even though the FEC is very clear that any request to withdraw from the agreement must be approved; you can’t just change your mind and take it back — legally, you have to be given permission.
McCain isn’t asking because he knows he’ll never be granted permission, and he doesn’t want to have to accept the funding restrictions he agreed to when he used the money as collateral for a loan. He’s ripping a page right from George Bush’s playbook: ignoring the laws when they aren’t convenient and hoping no one will notice.
Comcast blocking the Internet and Public Comments – There was a huge turnout at today’s public hearing in Boston on the future of the Internet. Hundreds of concerned citizens have arrived in droves to speak out on the importance of an open Intsernet. Many people have taken the day off work — standing in outside in the Boston chill — to see the FCC Commissioners. But when they reach the door, they’re told they can’t come in.
The huge crowd here in Boston is yet another example that the public doesn’t want giant corporations like Comcast and Verzion deciding what we can do and where we can go on the Internet. But will the FCC hear these voices? Probably not.
Comcast and Verizon reportedly packed the room with seat-fillers to keep the public out of the public hearing. There are even rumors that many of the seat-fillers were paid to sit there for the afternoon. (And many in the crowd had mysteriously matching yellow highlighters stuck in their lapels.) More than 100 people were turned away by campus police when the hearing room filled to capacity.
In this twenty-eighth survey of the web, The WAWG Index monthly average was down by 12.1 percent from January 2008. Of the fourteen categories tracked, 4 were up, 9 were down and one was unchanged. The largest decrease for February, 74 percent, was, again, protection of corporate power. The largest increase was for disdain and suppression of intellectuals at 50 percent.
Twelve Month Moving Average
Through February, the 12 month group moving average for all fourteen categories is down an additional 1.1 percent to -9.5 percent. Of the fourteen categories tracked, only one, media control, is still positive – but not as much as it was last month.
Karl Rove Pushed for Dirt on Alabama’s Governor – A former Republican campaign worker claims that President Bush’s former top political adviser, Karl Rove, asked her to find evidence that the Democratic governor of Alabama at the time was cheating on his wife
Republican Congressman Indicted for Extortion, Wire Fraud and Money Laundering – Republican Rep. Rick Renzi has been indicted for extortion, wire fraud, money laundering and other charges related to a land deal in Arizona. A 26-page federal indictment unsealed in Arizona accuses Renzi and two former business partners of conspiring to promote the sale of land that buyers could swap for property owned by the federal government. The sale netted one of Renzi’s former partners $4.5 million. Renzi is co-chair of John McCain’s Arizona Leadership Team.
At Gitmo, Even Acquittal May Not Set You Free – As the murky, quasi-legal staging of the Bush Administration’s military commissions unfolds, a key official has said that the trials are rigged from the start. According to Col. Morris Davis, former chief prosecutor for Guantánamo’s military commissions, the process has been manipulated by Administration appointees in an attempt to foreclose the possibility of acquittal. The terrible truth is that even if acquittals were possible, the government has declared that it can continue to detain anyone deemed an “enemy combatant” for the duration of hostilities–no matter the outcome of a trial.
John McCain Has a Close Relationship With Many Lobbyists – In McCain’s case, the fact that lobbyists are essentially running his presidential campaign — most of them as volunteers — seems to some people to be at odds with his anti-lobbying rhetoric. “He has a closer relationship with lobbyists than he lets on,†said Melanie Sloan of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. “The problem for McCain being so closely associated with lobbyists is that he’s the candidate most closely associated with attacking lobbyists.â€
Public Citizen, a group that monitors campaign fundraising, has found that McCain had more bundlers — people who gather checks from networks of friends and associates — from the lobbying community than any other presidential candidate from either party. By the group’s current count, McCain had at least 59 federal lobbyists raising money for his campaign, compared with 33 working for Republican Rudolph W. Giuliani and 19 working for Democrat Clinton.
Police at Obama Rally in Dallas Were Ordered Not to Screen for Weapons – Security details at Barack Obama’s rally Wednesday stopped screening people for weapons at the front gates more than an hour before the Democratic presidential candidate took the stage at Reunion Arena. The order to put down the metal detectors and stop checking purses and laptop bags came as a surprise to several Dallas police officers who said they believed it was a lapse in security. Dallas Deputy Police Chief T.W. Lawrence, head of the Police Department’s homeland security and special operations divisions, said the order — apparently made by the U.S. Secret Service — was meant to speed up the long lines outside and fill the arena’s vacant seats before Obama came on. Update to above story
The Preamble to our Constitution states that one of our highest duties as public officials is to “provide for the common defence.” As an elected Member of Congress, a senior Member of the House Armed Services Committee, and Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, I work everyday to ensure that our defense and intelligence capabilities remain strong in the face of serious threats to our national security.
Because I care so deeply about protecting our country, I take strong offense to your suggestion in recent days that the country will be vulnerable to terrorist attack unless Congress immediately enacts legislation giving you broader powers to conduct warrantless surveillance of Americans’ communications and provides legal immunity for telecommunications companies that participated in the Administration’s warrantless surveillance program.
Today, the National Security Agency (NSA) has authority to conduct surveillance in at least three different ways, all of which provide strong capability to monitor the communications of possible terrorists.
First, NSA can use its authority under Executive Order 12333 to conduct surveillance abroad of any known or suspected terrorist. There is no requirement for a warrant. There is no requirement for probable cause. Most of NSA’s collection occurs under this authority.
Second, NSA can use its authority under the Protect America Act, enacted last August, to conduct surveillance here in the U.S of any foreign target. This authority does not “expire” on Saturday, as you have stated. Under the PAA, orders authorizing surveillance may last for one year – until at least August 2008. These orders may cover every terrorist group without limitation. If a new member of the group is identified, or if a new phone number or email address is identified, the NSA may add it to the existing orders, and surveillance can begin immediately. We will not “go dark.”
Third, in the remote possibility that a new terrorist organization emerges that we have never previously identified, the NSA could use existing authority under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to monitor those communications. Since its establishment nearly 30 years ago, the FISA Court has approved nearly every application for a warrant from the Department of Justice. In an emergency, NSA or the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) may begin surveillance immediately, and a FISA Court order does not have to be obtained for three days. The former head of FISA operations for the Department of Justice has testified publicly that emergency authorization may be granted in a matter of minutes.
As you know, the 1978 FISA law, which has been modernized and updated numerous times since 9/11, was instrumental in disrupting the terrorist plot in Germany last summer. Those who say that FISA is outdated do not understand the strength of this important tool.
If our nation is left vulnerable in the coming months, it will not be because we don’t have enough domestic spying powers. It will be because your Administration has not done enough to defeat terrorist organizations – including al Qaeda — that have gained strength since 9/11. We do not have nearly enough linguists to translate the reams of information we currently collect. We do not have enough intelligence officers who can penetrate the hardest targets, such as al Qaeda. We have surged so many intelligence resources into Iraq that we have taken our eye off the ball in Afghanistan and Pakistan. As a result, you have allowed al Qaeda to reconstitute itself on your watch.
You have also suggested that Congress must grant retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies. As someone who has been briefed on our most sensitive intelligence programs, I can see no argument why the future security of our country depends on whether past actions of telecommunications companies are immunized.
The issue of telecom liability should be carefully considered based on a full review of the documents that your Administration withheld from Congress for eight months. However, it is an insult to the intelligence of the American people to say that we will be vulnerable unless we grant immunity for actions that happened years ago.
Congress has not been sitting on its hands. Last November, the House passed responsible legislation to authorize the NSA to conduct surveillance of foreign terrorists and to provide clarity and legal protection to our private sector partners who assist in that surveillance.
The proper course is now to conference the House bill with the Senate bill that was passed on Tuesday. There are significant differences between these two bills and a conference, in regular order, is the appropriate mechanism to resolve the differences between these two bills. I urge you, Mr. President, to put partisanship aside and allow Republicans in Congress to arrive at a compromise that will protect America and protect our Constitution.
I, for one, do not intend to back down – not to the terrorists and not to anyone, including a President, who wants Americans to cower in fear.
We are a strong nation. We cannot allow ourselves to be scared into suspending the Constitution. If we do that, we might as well call the terrorists and tell them that they have won.
Sincerely,
Silvestre Reyes
Member of Congress
Chairman, House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
It is not like putting burning coals on people’s bodies. The person is in no real danger. The impact is psychological.
Does he think that psychological cannot be permanent ? This country has tried and convicted Japanese soldiers for waterboarding our soldiers.
US Plans to Shoot Down Spy Satellite – The US plans to use a missile defense interceptor to shoot down a bus-sized spy satellite that will re-enter Earth’s atmosphere in the next week. The Russian Federation seems to be the first government to sound off on the mission. A report in RIA Novosti, a government-linked news service, showed Russian authorities not only worrying about the implications of the launch, but questioning the publicly stated justification of preventing poisonous rocket fuel from raining down on the planet. Two defense officials also cited disagreement within the administration over the action and said the decision appeared to have been strongly influenced by the White House,” according to a Friday morning report from Reuters. Concerns within the government may result from the debris that will be created by the strike, and what it could do to satellites, the International Space Station, and future work in space.
Musharraf Says ‘Pakistan is More Important Than Human Rights’ – Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf made clear that he does not respect western human right standards and would not make a priority of upholding them. “Pakistan is more important than human rights,” Musharraf said recently during a global economic forum in Sweden. “Human rights serves Pakistan; Pakistan does not serve Human rights.” “[Human rights] functions in accordance with our environment,” he said. “Now if somebody, whether he’s anybody, is trying to create such anarchy that maybe Pakistan’s integrity is at stake maybe our economy … will collapse. I don’t consider any human rights in such situations. We will deal with it, whatever it costs because Pakistan is more important than human rights.”
Telecom Lobbying Machines Declare War on Net Neutrality Bill – Telecommunications industry groups have attacked a new bill calling for government regulators to take a closer look at how broadband providers manage their networks. The Internet Freedom Preservation Act, introduced earlier this week by Rep. Ed Markey, the Democratic chairman of the House subcommittee on telecommunication and the Internet, could make it illegal for service providers to block or degrade traffic on their networks. Markey shrugged off concerns that the bill would hamper the activities of Internet companies. “There are some who may wish to assert that this bill regulates the Internet,” he said in a statement. “It does no such thing,” Markey added. “The bill contains no requirements for Internet regulation whatsoever.” However, the new legislation, co-sponsored by Chip Pickering (R-Miss.), aims to draft a broadband policy that would preserve the “open architecture” of the Internet, assuring that “content providers not be subjected to unreasonably discriminatory practices by broadband network providers.”
Andy Hailey