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8.31.2005 "New Rules Could Allow Power Plants to Pollute More" By Juliet Eilperin, Washington Post Staff Writer
8.31.2005 Day-After Pill Decision Prompts a Resignation By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
A high-ranking Food and Drug Administration official resigned Wednesday in protest over the agency's refusal to allow over-the-counter sales of emergency contraception.8.30.2005 "Iraq blowback: Follow the money, then thank Bush for the unnatural disaster in New Orleans" CorrenteSusan Wood, director of FDA's Office of Women's Health, announced her resignation in an e-mail to colleagues at the agency. The e-mail was released by contraception advocates.
..."I can no longer serve as staff when scientific and clinical evidence, fully evaluated and recommended for approval by the professional staff here, has been overruled," wrote Wood, who also was assistant commissioner for women's health. "The recent decision announced by the Commissioner about emergency contraception, which continues to limit women's access to a product that would reduce unintended pregnancies and reduce abortions, is contrary to my core commitment to improving and advancing women's health."
It appears that the money has been moved in the president’s budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that’s the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can’t be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us.See also: Editor and Publisher:-- Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, Louisiana; New Orleans Times-Picayune, June 8, 2004
"Did New Orleans Catastrophe Have to Happen? 'Times-Picayune' Had Repeatedly Raised Federal Spending Issues", By Will Bunch8.31.2005 Bob Cesca:
I swore I wasn't going to get into the politicization of this crisis, but the "strumming and smirking" photo shocked me into it.8.29.2005 Army Contract Official Critical of Halliburton Pact Is Demoted
A top US Army contracting official who criticized a large, noncompetitive contract with the Halliburton Company for work in Iraq has been demoted for what the Army called poor job performance, The New York Times reported.8.28.2005 "THE MORAL-HAZARD MYTH -- The bad idea behind our failed health-care system." by MALCOLM GLADWELLHalliburton's $20 million going-away present to Dick Cheney turns out to have been a great investment. Not only does Halliburton get hugely profitable no-bid contracts to screw up Iraq, anyone in the Pentagon who objects gets demoted.If we had a Congress instead of a doormat, this sort of thing would simply not be tolerated.
Americans spend $5,267 per capita on health care every year, almost two and half times the industrialized world’s median of $2,193; the extra spending comes to hundreds of billions of dollars a year. What does that extra spending buy us? Americans have fewer doctors per capita than most Western countries. We go to the doctor less than people in other Western countries. We get admitted to the hospital less frequently than people in other Western countries. We are less satisfied with our health care than our counterparts in other countries. American life expectancy is lower than the Western average. Childhood-immunization rates in the United States are lower than average. Infant-mortality rates are in the nineteenth percentile of industrialized nations. Doctors here perform more high-end medical procedures, such as coronary angioplasties, than in other countries, but most of the wealthier Western countries have more CT scanners than the United States does, and Switzerland, Japan, Austria, and Finland all have more MRI machines per capita. Nor is our system more efficient. The United States spends more than a thousand dollars per capita per year—or close to four hundred billion dollars—on health-care-related paperwork and administration, whereas Canada, for example, spends only about three hundred dollars per capita. And, of course, every other country in the industrialized world insures all its citizens; despite those extra hundreds of billions of dollars we spend each year, we leave forty-five million people without any insurance. A country that displays an almost ruthless commitment to efficiency and performance in every aspect of its economy—a country that switched to Japanese cars the moment they were more reliable, and to Chinese T-shirts the moment they were five cents cheaper—has loyally stuck with a health-care system that leaves its citizenry pulling out their teeth with pliers.8.28.2005 "Christian Schools Bring Suit Against UC-- Civil rights action says the system's admissions policy discriminates against students who are taught creationism and religious viewpoints."
According to the lawsuit, UC's board of admissions also advised the school that it would not approve biology and science courses that relied primarily on textbooks published by Bob Jones University Press and A Beka Books, two Christian publishers.8.27.2005 "Marijuana Pipe Dreams" By JOHN TIERNEYInstead, the board instructed the schools to "submit for UC approval a secular science curriculum with a text and course outline that addresses course content/knowledge generally accepted in the scientific community."
D.E.A. officials have already shown they're quite capable of persecuting someone who uses marijuana to deal with AIDS, and they may well be even more eager to go after someone who encourages research into their least favorite drug. When it comes to marijuana research, the federal policy is "Just Say Know-Nothing."8.27.2005 "Leaked Document Exposes Bolton’s Reforming Genius" Arianna
8.26.2005 "Improper Advances - Talking dream jobs with the judge out of court."
Read the whole thing and then read again.
Four days before President Bush nominated John G. Roberts to the Supreme Court on July 19, an appeals court panel of three judges, including Judge Roberts, handed the Bush administration a big victory in a hotly contested challenge to the president's military commissions. The challenge was brought by Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a Guantanamo detainee. President Bush was a defendant in the case because he had personally, in writing, found "reason to believe" that Hamdan was a terrorist subject to military tribunals. The appeals court upheld the rules the president had authorized for these military commissions, and it rejected Hamdan's human rights claims—including claims for protection under the Geneva Conventions.See also: "BREAKING: “Independent” Ethicist Defending Roberts Actually A Pentagon Consultant" via Armando
... At the time, the close proximity of the court's decision and the Roberts nomination suggested no appearance of impropriety. Roberts had been assigned to hear the appeal back in December, and it was argued on April 7. Surely he had decided the case long before the administration first approached him about replacing Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who had announced her retirement on July 1. As it turns out, however, the timing was not so simple.
... A further complication here is that Roberts' vote was not a mere add-on. His vote was decisive on a key question of presidential power that now confronts the nation. Although all three judges reached the same bottom line in the case, they were divided on whether the Geneva Conventions grant basic human rights to prisoners like Hamdan who don't qualify for other Geneva protections. The lower court had held that some provisions do. Judge Roberts and a second judge rejected that view. The third judge said Geneva did apply, but found it premature to resolve the issues it raised. Hamdan has since asked the Supreme Court to hear the case.Roberts did not have to sit out every case involving the government, no matter how routine, while he was being interviewed for the Supreme Court position. The government litigates too many cases for that to make any sense. But Hamdan was not merely suing the government. He was suing the president, who had authorized the military commissions and who had personally designated Hamdan for a commission trial, explaining that "there is reason to believe that [Hamdan] was … involved in terrorism."
Moreover, the Hamdan appeal is the polar opposite of routine for at least two reasons. First, its issues are central to the much-disputed claims of broad presidential power in the war on terror. Second, the court's decision on the Geneva Conventions has a spillover effect on the legality of controversial interrogation techniques used by the government at Guantanamo and elsewhere. That is because the same provision of the Geneva Conventions that would protect Hamdan from unfair trials also protects detainees from cruel, humiliating, or degrading treatment. The D.C. Circuit's decision rejecting the Geneva Conventions' trial protections—a decision that hinged on Roberts' vote—also strips away an important legal safeguard against cruel and humiliating treatment that may fall just short of torture.
and the WSJ: "The White House responded by marshaling two legal experts, including one who recently completed a term as a Defense Department adviser on the military commissions, George Mason University Prof. Ronald Rotunda."
8.26.2005 Dan Eggen: "Library Challenges FBI Request - Patriot Act Prohibits Details of Lawsuit From Being Released"
The suit, originally filed under seal in Connecticut on Aug. 9, focuses on the FBI's use of a document called a "national security letter" (NSL), which allows investigators to demand records without the approval of a judge and to prohibit companies or institutions from disclosing the request. Restrictions on the FBI's use of NSLs were loosened under the Patriot Act.8.26.05 Digby, Quoting Spencer Ackerman: "For the administration, its expansion of executive power is synonymous with victory in the war--regardless of the real-world costs to the war effort."
... Gonzales said at the time that the FBI had never asked for records under a provision of the Patriot Act known by critics as the "library provision," which allows the government to demand records from a range of businesses, including libraries, in intelligence probes.But that provision is separate from the one that governs the kind of letter used in the Connecticut case. Justice and FBI officials have repeatedly declined to say how many times such letters have been served on any kind of institution, including libraries.
8.26.05 Billmon:
Whoevever is making policy decisions for the Cheney administration these days clearly has decided that backing the "moderate" Shi'a fundamentalists is the way to go (or, as I put it a few months back, "sink or swim with Abdelaziz Hakim"), even if means most of southern Iraq is eventually hacked off and turned into an Iranian satellite state. Sunni nationalism, on the other hand, clearly has been marked for crushing, with the Sunni Triangle left as a kind of an eastern version of the West Bank -- an impoverished rump state devoid of resources, and occupied by a hostile "national" army primarily made up of vengeful Kurdish peshmerga and Shi'a militia.8.26.05 Steve Clemons: "But my guess is that Bolton is drawing his energy and position from Karl Rove and Dick Cheney and only flirts part time with Bob Zoellick and Condi Rice."
8.26.05 Kos- seesdifferent: "Rove's stealth plan for enacting privatization of SS"
Let me walk thru this one more time:8.26.05 Russell Shaw: "What's Really Bothering Pat Robertson About Chavez"
- Step one: Senate Committee generates any any old bill that has to do with retirement or social security, but DOESN'T include privatization. Senate passes it.
- Step two: House passes a bill with privatization.
- Step three: Repubs send the two bills to conference, from which they come up with a bill which includes privatization, but didn't have to get through the Senate Committee.
- Step four: They will still, I believe, have to pass it on the Senate floor. But at that point they do their blackmail, bribing, nuclear option, whatever to get it passed. Anybody on the fence can later say they did or didn't vote for it, and be technically correct. There are rules against playing fast and loose with SS bills, called the Byrd Amendment. However, I have no doubt that Rove/Cheney would pull a nuclear option if they thought they could get away with it.
8.26.05 Deepak Chopra: "Getting off the Skyhook: A Reply to Michael Shermer"
The relationship between the brain and the mind is open to dual interpretation. One can see the brain as our only proof of mind, in which case the current bent of neurology, to equate consciousness with neural function, makes perfect sense. But to me this is like saying that a radio playing a Beethoven symphony is also creating the symphony. Evidence for mind outside the brain isn't trivial, stupid, or religiously motivated. Activity in the synaptic gap, the whole field of memory, and the philosophical area of epistemology all raise the possibility, as the eminent British neurologist Sir John Eccles once said, that God could be in the gap, not in the molecule8.25.05 No More Mister Nice Blog:
Oh, this ought to work out just great:On the other hand, this might make sense. Take a look at: The Coming Great PandemicThe head of the Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday that his agency --- and not the federal health establishment --- would manage the nation's response if a deadly new strain of bird flu evolved into a human pandemic....
8.21.05 - 8.24.05
Digby: Iraqi women have enjoyed secular, western-style equality for more than 40 years. Most females have no memory of living any other way. In order to meet an arbitrary deadline for domestic political reasons, we have capitulated to theocrats on the single most important constitutional issue facing the average Iraqi woman --- which means that we have now officially failed more than half of the Iraqis we supposedly came to help. We have "liberated" millions of people from rights they have had all their lives.Carpetbagger: Alarm over the legal rights of Iraqi women worsened over the weekend when conservative analyst Reuel Marc Gerecht said on Meet the Press that he's "not terribly worried" about how women's rights would be protected under the law, adding, "[W]omen's social rights are not critical to the evolution of democracy."
So, what does the president think about all this?
Q: If [the Iraqi constitution is] rooted in Islam, as it seems it will be, is that still - is there still the possibility of honoring the rights of women?That clears things up, right? Bush "talked to Condi," Iraqi women "have got rights," and then there's something about religious law in there, but we shouldn't worry about it.Bush: I talked to Condi, and there is not - as I understand it, the way the constitution is written is that women have got rights, inherent rights recognized in the constitution, and that the constitution talks about not "the religion," but "a religion."
I'm sure women throughout Iraq feel better all ready.
"I'm so out of here" Kevin K at Catch.com who cites Dexter Filkens at the New York Times via Atrios
"This is the future of the new Iraqi government - it will be in the hands of the clerics," said Dr. Raja Kuzai, a secular Shiite member of the Assembly. "I wanted Iraqi women to be free, to be able to talk freely and to able to move around."8.22.05 Billmon:"I am not going to stay here," said Dr. Kuzai, an obstetrician and women's leader who met President Bush in the White House in November 2003.
But, after today's squeeze play, it's hard to see how the end result can possibly be beneficial for Iraq or for Cheney administration. Either enough Sunni voters will go to the polls to defeat the constitution (in which case the political process will return to deadlock or break down entirely) or they won't -- in which case the constitution will go into effect and the insurgency will escalate. Beyond that point, the resistance -- and support for it in the broader Sunni community -- is likely to be even more united than it was before the constitutional charade began.8.24.05 Armando at Kos: "Originalism and Unenumerated Rights" This is an accessible exposition of an important topic.From Al Qaeda's point of view, both results are good, but the latter is clearly better, since it would lead to even more sectarian violence in Iraq and fuel even more paranoia in neighboring Sunni-dominated countries about the rise of Shi'a power. So I guess we can expect to see a wave of terror attacks aimed at voter registration stations, political organizers and -- when the time comes -- at polling places all across Sunni Iraq. This could leave U.S. troops in the rather hopeless position of fighting, and dying, to defend an election that ultimately will result in an even fiercer insurgency, no matter which side wins.
8.24.05 By Annalee Newitz, AlterNet
What Google Earth really shows us in stark relief is how many parts of the world are still invisible to people in the United States, where Google generates its Earth.8.24.05 Deepak Chopra "Intelligent Design Without the Bible"I don't know who will bother to read all these points, which I have had to truncate. But if you think the answers are in safe hands among the ranks of evolutionary biologists, think again. No credible scientific theory has answered these dilemmas, and progress is being discouraged, I imagine, thanks to fundamentalist Christians. By hijacking the whole notion of intelligent design, they have tarred genuine scientific issues with the stain of religious prejudice.April, 2005 "The Spoils of War" By MICHAEL SHNAYERSONHalliburton subsidiary KBR got $12 billion worth of exclusive contracts for work in Iraq. But even more shocking is how KBR spent some of the money. Former U.S. Army Corps of Engineers official Bunnatine Greenhouse is blowing the whistle on the Dick Cheney linked company's profits of war8.23.05 Professor Robert Pape:Since 1990, the United States has stationed tens of thousands of ground troops on the Arabian Peninsula, and that is the main mobilization appeal of Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda. People who make the argument that it is a good thing to have them attacking us over there are missing that suicide terrorism is not a supply-limited phenomenon where there are just a few hundred around the world willing to do it because they are religious fanatics. It is a demand-driven phenomenon. That is, it is driven by the presence of foreign forces on the territory that the terrorists view as their homeland. The operation in Iraq has stimulated suicide terrorism and has given suicide terrorism a new lease on life.8.23.05 "Second Officer Says 9/11 Leader Was Named Before Attacks" By PHILIP SHENON
... In the 1970s and the 1980s, the United States secured its interest in oil without stationing a single combat soldier on the Arabian Peninsula. Instead, we formed an alliance with Iraq and Saudi Arabia, which we can now do again. We relied on numerous aircraft carriers off the coast of the Arabian Peninsula, and naval air power now is more effective not less. We also built numerous military bases so that we could move large numbers of ground forces to the region quickly if a crisis emerged.
That strategy, called “offshore balancing,” worked splendidly against Saddam Hussein in 1990 and is again our best strategy to secure our interest in oil while preventing the rise of more suicide terrorists.With his comments on Monday, Captain Phillpott acknowledged that he was the officer who had briefed the commission last year. "I will not discuss the issues outside of my chain of command and the Department of Defense," he said. "But my story is consistent. Atta was identified by Able Danger by January-February of 2000. I have nothing else to say."8.21.05 "What Fearless White Men Are Afraid of" Dan KahanAs should be clear, it would be wrong to suggest that white hierarchical or individualistic men are the only ones whose risk perceptions are shaped by status anxieties. Indeed, we found that status concerns also help to explain interesting variations in risk perception among women relating to the dangers of obtaining an abortion. Hierarchical women but not individualistic or egalitarian ones perceive obtaining an abortion to be very dangerous to a woman’s health. Sociologist Kristin Luker depicts abortion as the symbolic focal point in a status conflict between two groups of women: those who subscribe to hierarchical norms that confer esteem upon women who occupy domestic roles such as motherhood; and those who adhere to individualistic and egalitarian norms that confer esteem upon women and men alike for successfully occupying professional roles. It is thus status protective for the former group of women to accept the asserted health risks of abortion and for the latter to reject these asserted risks.8.21.05 Cindy Sheehan:
... But knowing that peoples’ risk perceptions are rooted in cultural cognition does tell us something important about the prospects for communication of sound risk information. It probably doesn’t make sense, in particular, to assume that the “truth” will win out in the market place of ideas when it comes to political debates over risk. The natural tendency of persons (all persons, of all worldviews and demographic characteristics) to protect the status of their cultural group operates as a distorting influence on in the public’s processing of sound information.Why are our young people fighting, dying, and killing in Iraq? What is this noble cause you are sending our young people to Iraq for? What do you hope to accomplish there? Why did you tell us there were WMDs and ties to Al Qaeda when you knew there weren't? Why did you lie to us? Why did you lie to the American people? Why did you lie to the world? Why are our nation's children still in harm's way and dying everyday when we all know you lied? Why do you continually say we have to "complete the mission" when you know damn well you have no idea what that mission is and you can change it at will like you change your cowboy shirts??8.21.05 "The Swift Boating of Cindy Sheehan" By FRANK RICHWhen the Bush mob attacks critics like Ms. Sheehan, its highest priority is to change the subject. If we talk about Richard Clarke's character, then we stop talking about the administration's pre-9/11 inattentiveness to terrorism. If Thomas Wilson is trashed as an insubordinate plant of the "liberal media," we forget the Pentagon's abysmal failure to give our troops adequate armor (a failure that persists today, eight months after he spoke up). If we focus on Joseph Wilson's wife, we lose the big picture of how the administration twisted intelligence to gin up the threat of Saddam's nonexistent W.M.D.'s.
... THIS summer in Crawford, the White House went to this playbook once too often. When Mr. Bush's motorcade left a grieving mother in the dust to speed on to a fund-raiser, that was one fat-cat party too far. The strategy of fighting a war without shared national sacrifice has at last backfired, just as the strategy of Swift Boating the war's critics has reached its Waterloo before Patrick Fitzgerald's grand jury in Washington. The 24/7 cable and Web attack dogs can keep on sliming Cindy Sheehan. The president can keep trying to ration the photos of flag-draped caskets. But this White House no longer has any more control over the insurgency at home than it does over the one in Iraq.8.20.05 Farewell, Hunter
8.20.05 Billmon: "I predicted a few days ago that the American proconsul in Baghdad would soon find it expedient to throw President Bush's high-flown promises to the women of Iraq off the constitutional train. And, according to Reuters, that moment now seems to have arrived:"
8.20.05 Joshua Holland: "But for now, what strikes me, ... is that what divides us might be much more a function of our credulity--or skepticism--than our ideology."
8.20.05 Paul Waldman:
If setting a date for withdrawl would lead the insurgents to "wait us out," exactly how does that differ from what they're doing now?8.20.05 JUAN FORERO:
It's not as though they've only got a hundred IEDs left between them, and they're trying to figure out whether to use them now or use them later."Three years ago the Bush administration began prodding countries to shield Americans from the fledgling International Criminal Court in The Hague, which was intended to be the first permanent tribunal for prosecuting crimes like genocide.8.20.05 Juan Cole:
The United States has since cut aid to some two dozen nations that refused to sign immunity agreements that American officials say are intended to protect American soldiers and policy makers from politically motivated prosecutions.
... Most of the penalties, outlined in a law that went into effect in 2003, have been in the form of cuts in military training and other security aid. But a budget bill passed in December also permits new cuts in social and health-care programs, like AIDS education and peacekeeping, refugee assistance and judicial reforms.If you try to "profile" the terrorist using such social markers as class or ethnicity, maybe even religious background, you will go badly astray.8.19.05 Media MattersMemo to NY Post, et al: So-called Gorelick "wall" could not have been responsible for military failure to share alleged Atta intelSee also: DAMMIT, WHERE DID I PUT THAT SMOKING GUN?In the past week, conservative media -- including two New York Post columnists and two Post editorials -- have falsely suggested that information obtained by military intelligence purportedly identifying lead 9-11 hijacker Mohammed Atta may have been withheld from law enforcement officials because of a 1995 memo written by then-Clinton deputy attorney general Jamie Gorelick. But the Gorelick memo and ensuing guidelines, which conservatives claim created a "wall" between intelligence agencies and law enforcement officials, had nothing to do with military intelligence -- those documents addressed communications only among divisions within the Department of Justice. Moreover, as Media Matters for America has previously noted, the "wall" that conservatives accuse Gorelick of enacting had been operative well before Gorelick -- or Clinton -- took office.
See also: Digby
From Steve Soto I learned that the whole "roll-out" of the story was pre-approved by Dennis Hastert, Pete Hoekstra and most amazingly, Steven Cambone at the Pentagon. I'm sure they were all just showing their deep respect for whistleblowers. (Too bad Bunatine Greenhouse didn't get pre-approved.)8.19.05 "all the president's secrets" Chris Lombardi:I watched All the President's Men last night, for the first time in 20 years. What struck me was not just the less-obeisant Washington press, or a still-cute Dustin Hoffman: it was how relatively innocent the Nixon's administration's abuses seemed to me -- even its abuse of counter-intelligence, when compared to how deeply these guys are working to embed such practices into the "normal" range of executive power. ... to these guys, when the law goes against them it's time to change the law.8.19.05 "Court Upholds Restrictions on Pentagon Coverage of Abortions -- The medical plan won't pay for a sailor's wife's procedure. Her fetus had a fatal birth defect."8.18.05 "VATICAN CITY -- Lawyers for Pope Benedict XVI have asked President Bush to declare the pontiff immune from liability in a lawsuit that accuses him of conspiring to cover up the molestation of three boys by a seminarian in Texas, court records show" AP
8.16.05 Update in ACLU Torture FOIA Lawsuit
"Following a two-hour closed hearing in New York on August 15, a federal judge ordered the government to reveal blacked-out portions of its legal papers arguing against the release of images depicting abuse of detainees at Abu Ghraib. The government has until August 18 to make the currently redacted statements public, or to appeal the decision."8.18.05 "The invasion/liberation of Iraq is a disaster, the trade deficit and oil prices are skyrocketing, numbers and facts have been altered and corporate lobbyists now swarm over and through our government like rats over an untended salad bar..." Adam McKayHilzoy: "But I can't see how we can interpret the law to allow policy-makers to allow appalling abuses in the knowledge that the very outrageousness of what they allow will prevent its disclosure."
8.18.05 "Prewar Memo Warned of Gaps in Iraq Plans -- State Dept. Officials Voiced Concerns About Post-Invasion Security, Humanitarian Aid" By Bradley Graham, Washington Post Staff Writer
8.16.05
"Bob Dole Backs Judith Miller, Shield Law" By E&P Staff Times Op-Ed here8.17.05 Colonel: "9/11 warning ignored -- Military team IDd hijack leader, but info refused, he says" Philip Shenon, New York TimesDavid Corn: "Rove Scandal: Dole Disinforms"
It leads me to wonder: who wrote this piece for Dole? One does not have to be a CIA veteran to see that Dole is fronting for someone. It would have been rather informative if the Times had listed Dole's ghostwriter on the byline, for it is probably this person who is most responsible for the disinformation being transmitted to the public via this article. If Dole wants us to take his article seriously, then he should tell us who his source is. David Corn:A military intelligence team repeatedly contacted the FBI in 2000 to warn about the existence of a U.S.-based terrorist cell that included the ringleader of the Sept. 11 attacks, according to a veteran Army intelligence officer who said he has decided to risk his career by discussing the information publicly.8.17.05 Judicial Watch.org April 20, 2005:The officer, Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer, said military lawyers later blocked the team from sharing any of its information with the FBI.
Shaffer said the small, highly classified intelligence program known as Able Danger had identified the terrorist ringleader, Mohammed Atta, as well three of the other future hijackers by name by mid-2000, and had tried to arrange a meeting that summer with agents of the FBI's Washington field office to share its information.
But he said military lawyers forced members of the intelligence program to cancel three scheduled meetings with the FBI at the last minute, which left the bureau without information that Shaffer said might have led to Atta and the other terrorists while the Sept. 11 plot was still being planned.
"I was at the point of near insubordination over the fact that this was something important, that this was something that should have been pursued," Shaffer said of his efforts to get the evidence from the intelligence program to the FBI in 2000 and early 2001. More
Timesherald.com According to Shaffer, Stephen A. Cambone, the Pentagon's Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence, is heading up the "Able Danger" review, and said Cambone "wants to get to the bottom of this.""FBI PROTECTS OSAMA BIN LADEN'S "RIGHT TO PRIVACY" IN DOCUMENT RELEASE -- Judicial Watch Investigation Uncovers FBI Documents Concerning Bin Laden Family and Post-9/11 Flights"8.16.05 Yessssssssss!!Ratings For Political Blogs...8.15.05 Billmon: "Viewer Discretion Advised"Progressive:
Daily Kos: 3,836,836
Democratic Underground: 1,563,608
Raw Story: 1, 053,974Conservative:
Free Republic: Undisclosed
Instapundit: 916,976
Little Green Footballs: 744,717Staff, Gen. Richard Myers, has asked a federal judge to block the opening of the Abu Ghraib Film Festival of the Damned:8.15.05 "Permanent U.S. Bases in Iraq? Experts See a Political Minefield"
... Gen. Myers might have been a little more careful if he'd known his words would make the New York Times. But the goverrnment originally filed his statement -- and all the other paperwork associated with its most recent attempt to block the release of the images -- under seal. This in turn forced the ACLU to file its countermotion under seal.Left unchecked, this procedure would have resulted in secret litigation to decide whether secret videos should be kept secret. Hank Gonzales's idea of the perfect trial, in other words.
But Judge Hellerstein -- whose legal lap this horror show has landed in -- apparently has some old-fashioned ideas about the public's right to know. He unsealed the papers, giving us this chance to see Gen. Myers talk out of both sides of his mouth.
In May, the Washington Post reported that military planning did not envision permanent bases in Iraq but rather stationing troops in nearby Kuwait. But the report noted that the Pentagon was also planning to consolidate U.S. troops in Iraq into four large fortified bases.See also: Arthur Silber
On the theory that concrete speaks louder than words, critics see such work as a sign the administration is planning to stay longer than it has acknowledged.
John E. Pike, a defense analyst at GlobalSecurity.org, points to another indication. Although the United States is systematically training Iraqis to fight the insurgents, he notes, the Pentagon has not taken key steps — like making plans for acquiring tanks or aircraft — to build an Iraqi military capable of defending the country against its neighbors.I have said repeatedly for a couple of years now that the reason we never had an "exit strategy" for Iraq is a very simple one: we aren't leaving.8.15.05 Mark Tapscott, townhall.comReagan expressed the GOP’s soul when he said “it is my intention to curb the size and influence of the federal establishment and to demand recognition of the distinction between the powers granted to the federal government and those reserved to the states or to the people.” Progress was slow and sometimes reversed, but Reagan kept up the pressure.8.15.05 Murray Waas:Reagan’s GOP heirs are wasting his legacy.
What has not been previously reported until now (a blog breaks news!?), is that not only could Rove not remember the name of the journalist who purportedly might have told him of Plame's CIA employment, but he also claimed to remember virtually nothing about the circumstances of the purported conversation. He could not even recall whether the conversation took place on the phone or in person.8.14.05 Mark A. Kleiman: Roberts and the abortion briefEugene Volokh points out that the Court, by 6-3, upheld the position in the brief, and argues that therefore the brief can't be said to have been outside the mainstream of legal thinking. Fair enough.8.14.05 Kushwant Singh:But that brief had political as well as legal meanings. Operation Rescue was then engaged in a violent, and largely successful, attempt to deny access to abortion to as many women as possible by closing down the clinics. The attorneys general of Virginia and New York both filed amici arguing that their states lacked the capacity to fight off Operation Rescue's efforts.
The Solicitor General's office was under no obligation to file an amicus in a civil lawsuit. Ask yourself whether the SG's office would have intervened similarly in a case involving violent protesters against U.S. support of the Contras, or Earth First, or the Animal Liberation Front, or Al Sharpton's shake-down crew, whatever the legal merits. No, I don't think so either.
A few salutary lessons that the experience has taught us should be kept in mind by our leaders.The most important is to understand that crimes unpunished breed criminals. Another equally important thing to bear in mind is that the State must never abdicate its monopoly of punishing criminals, if it overlooks its duty or delays dispensing justice beyond limits of endurance, it encourages aggrieved parties to take the law in their own hands and settle scores with those who wronged them. If we do not learn these lessons now, we will have more holocausts in the years to come.8.14.05 Frank Rich:Someone Tell the President the War Is OverSee also:
... Thus the president's claim on Thursday that "no decision has been made yet" about withdrawing troops from Iraq can be taken exactly as seriously as the vice president's preceding fantasy that the insurgency is in its "last throes." The country has already made the decision for Mr. Bush. We're outta there. Now comes the hard task of identifying the leaders who can pick up the pieces of the fiasco that has made us more vulnerable, not less, to the terrorists who struck us four years ago next month.U.S. Lowers Sights On What Can Be Achieved in Iraq8.14.05 "Roberts Repeated Pro-Klan Arguments of Yore" Nathan Newman
... "What we expected to achieve was never realistic given the timetable or what unfolded on the ground," said a senior official involved in policy since the 2003 invasion. "We are in a process of absorbing the factors of the situation we're in and shedding the unreality that dominated at the beginning." Rumsfeld? (search for "absorb")But in Bray, Roberts wanted to continue a century of crabbed, limited understanding of those Reconstruction statutes and limit them to race-based violence, even though nowhere in the Reconstruction statutes was the federal power to restrict private violence limited to race-based violence.8.14.05 Political Capital: "We didn't calculate the depths of feeling in both the Kurdish and Shiite communities for a winner-take-all attitude," said Judith S. Yaphe, a former CIA Iraq analyst at the National Defense University."
... So for those who might think the NARAL ads are inaccurate, their only problem is that they aren't harsh enough, since in historical context, Roberts position is the same ones made by defenders of the Klan for over a century.8.12.05 " THE BAD MAGICIAN VISITS A TREE TWO MILES FROM A PARTICULAR RANCH IN CRAWFORD, TEXAS"
8.11.05 "A Bad Day For Corruption; A Good Day For The Country" Hilzoy
8.11.05 "Side Issue in the Plame Case: Who Sent Her Spouse to Africa?" By Walter Pincus. And Here's why that's important.
8.11.05 "Audit: Iraq fraud drained $1 billion" By Hannah Allam, Knight Ridder Newspapers
Iraqi investigators have uncovered widespread fraud and waste in more than $1 billion worth of weapons deals arranged by middlemen who reneged or took huge kickbacks on contracts to arm Iraq's fledgling military, according to a confidential report and interviews with U.S. and Iraqi officials.8.10.05 "Four-star general fired; officials cite sexual misconduct" Washington TimesRetired officers, who asked not to be named, said Gen. Byrnes had been under investigation for some time and had been in the throes of a divorce.8.10.05 "The American Turkish Council: US Association Helps Create New World Order" by John Stanton This should be read together with the article about Sybel Edmonds in the current issue of Vanity Fair.
They expressed dismay at Gen. Byrnes, for whom a number of officers went to bat in 2002 when Mr. Rumsfeld threatened to end his career at lieutenant general.
Mr. Rumsfeld was upset at Gen. Byrnes for fighting proposed troop cuts being outlined by the defense secretary's aide, Stephen Cambone.8.10.05 Arianna:
Here in California, Nicole Parra, a State Assembly member, has introduced legislation that could be a model across the country. It authorizes judges to refer veterans diagnosed with post-traumatic stress and convicted of a crime -- including drug offenses -- to treatment programs instead of jail. The legislation itself simply extends a 1982 law designed to help Vietnam vets to include soldiers who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan.8.10.05 "9/11 Panel Seeks Inquiry on New Atta Report"
... It’s a rationale that could serve as the starting point for a new way of approaching not just our Iraq vets but the entire war on drugs.Members of the independent commission that investigated the Sept. 11 terror attacks called on Congress to determine whether the Pentagon withheld intelligence information showing that a secret American military unit had identified Mohammed Atta and three other hijackers as potential threats more than a year before the attacks.8.10.05 "Tom, Jack, and Friends" Josh Marshall
... A spokesman for the Pentagon, Lt. Col. Christopher Conway, said later that "there were a number of intelligence operations prior to the attacks of 9/11" but that "it would be irresponsible for us to provide details in a way in which those who wish to do us harm would find beneficial."8.9.05 "Drug researchers leak secrets to Wall St."
8.9.05 "Bush's EPA loses rat poison case" Carpetbagger
In 2001, Bush's EPA reversed course and announced a "mutual agreement" with rodenticide makers that killed the regulations. How offensive was the administration's work? The Natural Resources Defense Council obtained documents showing that Bush's EPA not only worked hand-in-hand with the industry in rewriting the rules, but also complied when manufacturers wanted the risks associated with rat poison downplayed in EPA assessments.8.9.05 Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: Vaccines and Autism: Looking for the Truth? Study the Amish8.9.05 Simon Baron-Cohen is the director of the autism research center at Cambridge University and the author of "The Essential Difference: The Truth About the Male and Female Brain." " ... my hypothesis is that autism is the genetic result of "assortative mating" between parents who are both strong systemizers."
8.8.05
"Inquiry Into Lobbyist Sputters After Demotion"8.8.05 Laurie David: "Gale Norton, Secretary of the Interior, has gone so far as to prohibit federal employees of Glacier National Park from mentioning global warming as a possible cause when tourists ask about the ever-shrinking snowcaps."A U.S. grand jury in Guam opened an investigation of controversial lobbyist Jack Abramoff more than two years ago, but President Bush removed the supervising federal prosecutor and the inquiry ended soon after.."Leak Investigation: An Oversight Issue?"Newsweek Aug. 15, 2005 issue - The departure this week of Deputy Attorney General James Comey, who has accepted the post of general counsel at Lockheed Martin, leaves a question mark in the probe into who leaked the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame. Comey was the only official overseeing special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald's leak investigation. With Attorney General Alberto Gonzales recused, department officials say they are still trying to resolve whom Fitzgerald will now report to. Associate Attorney General Robert McCallum is "likely" to be named as acting deputy A.G., a DOJ official who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter tells NEWSWEEK. But McCallum may be seen as having his own conflicts: he is an old friend of President Bush's and a member of his Skull and Bones class at Yale. One question: how much authority Comey's successor will have over Fitzgerald. When Comey appointed Fitzgerald in 2003, the deputy granted him extraordinary powers to act however he saw fit—but noted he still had the right to revoke Fitzgerald's authority. The questions are pertinent because lawyers close to the case believe the probe is in its final stages.8.7.05 "Judith Miller's Tale Under Scrutiny--At Her Own Paper"
... in his eye-opening internal review of July 28, the paper's intelligence reporter in Washington, Doug Jehl, revealed: "Bill Keller, the executive editor of The New York Times declined to address written questions about whether Ms. Miller was assigned to report about Mr. Wilson's trip, whether she tried to write a story about it, or whether she ever told editors or colleagues at the newspaper that she had obtained information about the role played by Ms. Wilson."8.7.05 "9/11 Group Says White House Has Not Provided Files"8.7.05
"Fighting Fire On the Right"8.4.05 "Writers Group Won't Give Judith Miller 'Conscience in Media' Award After All"
... The Southern Poverty Law Center's estimates that 762 extremist right-wing hate groups were active in the United States last year, up slightly from the 751 groups tallied the year before.
... Last April, a strategy paper on domestic and international terrorism threats prepared by the Department of Homeland Security was leaked to the press. The paper listed radical leftist groups, such as the Animal Liberation Front and the Earth Liberation Front, but there wasn't a single word about right-wing militia or extremist groups. Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, the ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Homeland Security, says the DHS must focus more intently on right-wing groups. "The department's responsibility includes protecting the homeland from domestic terrorists," Thompson says. "And that should mean all domestic terrorists, not just some of them."8.1.05 "Two Prosecutors Faulted Trials for Detainees" By NEIL A. LEWIS, The New York Times
As the Pentagon was making its final preparations to begin war crimes trials against four detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, two senior prosecutors complained in confidential messages last year that the trial system had been secretly arranged to improve the chance of conviction and to deprive defendants of material that could prove their innocence.
... The rules, which in essence constitute a new body of law distinct from military and civilian law, allow, for example, witnesses to testify anonymously for the prosecution. Also, any information may be admitted into evidence if the presiding officer judges it to be "probative to a reasonable person," a new standard far more favorable to the prosecution than anything in civilian law or military law. It is unclear whether information that may have been obtained under coercion or torture can be admissible.
... The trials of the first four defendants began last August in a secure courtroom in a converted dental clinic at the naval base at Guantánamo. Before they could start in earnest, the trials were abruptly halted in November when a federal judge ruled they violated both military law and the United States' obligations to comply with the Geneva Conventions.But a three-judge appeals court panel that included Judge John G. Roberts, President Bush's Supreme Court nominee, unanimously reversed that ruling on July 15.
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