12.31.2006 Chris Hedges: America’s Holy Warriors

The drive by the Christian right to take control of military chaplaincies, which now sees radical Christians holding roughly 50 percent of chaplaincy appointments in the armed services and service academies, is part of a much larger effort to politicize the military and law enforcement. This effort signals the final and perhaps most deadly stage in the long campaign by the radical Christian right to dismantle America’s open society and build a theocratic state. A successful politicization of the military would signal the end of our democracy.

Watada's court appearance comes on the same day the new Democratic-controlled Congress returns to work and begins to investigate one of the lingering questions surrounding the nearly four-year-old war. It's the same question that Watada said led to his decision to publicly challenge the legality of the war and refuse deployment - whether the intelligence that led to the US-led invasion was cooked by Bush administration officials.
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In order to prove the charge of conduct unbecoming an officer, Captain Dan Kuecker, the Army prosecutor based at Fort Lewis, Washington, has subpoenaed Truthout contributing reporter Sarah Olson and Gregg Kakesako, a Honolulu Star-Bulletin reporter. Both reporters conducted interviews with Watada and published stories in June that the Army contends contained disparaging statements Watada made about the legality of the Iraq War.
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In an interview last month, Simpich, speaking on behalf of Gelzer, said that he will vigorously fight any attempt on behalf of the Army to subpoena her. He said doing so would turn the Fourth Estate into an arm of the government.

In case anyone's wondering what the implications of the US taking sides might be: See map (Here) To the Muslims in the light green portion of the map we seem to be siding with the Muslims in the dark green portion --- while at the same time making them hate us too. Excellent plan. Winning those hearts and minds one snuff film at a time.

12.31.2006 "Top 25 Censored Stories of 2007" (sic)

12.31.2006 John Dean

When Congress plays hardball, it gets the information it wants from the president. The Congressional Reference Service (CRS) has prepared a complete manual on oversight, which they updated recently. In the manual, CRS has laid out all Congress needs to know to crack any stonewall Bush and Cheney may erect to block their oversight efforts.

12.31.2006 While You Were at War . . . By Richard A. Clarke

As the president contemplates sending even more U.S. forces into the Iraqi sinkhole, he should consider not only the thousands of fatalities, the tens of thousands of casualties and the hundreds of billions of dollars already lost. He must also weigh the opportunity cost of taking his national security barons off all the other critical problems they should be addressing -- problems whose windows of opportunity are slamming shut, unheard over the wail of Baghdad sirens.

12.29.2006 "U.S. Official Overseeing Oil Program Faces Inquiry"

12.29.2006 " End of Another Year..." - Bagdhdad Burning

12.28.2006 Feds Can Keep MLB Drug Testing Records by TChris

This expanded search didn't bother the Ninth Circuit, which reversed (pdf) two lower court rulings favoring the Players Association that would have required the government to return any test results that weren't described in the warrants. The dissent offers an analysis that's more faithful to players' legitimiate expectations of privacy in their medical records. Here's the concluding paragraph:

In discussions of the alleged use of steroids by baseball players, much is made about “the integrity of the game.” Even more important is the integrity of our legal system. Perhaps baseball has become consumed by a “Game of Shadows,” but that is no reason for the government to engage in a "Prosecution of Shadows.” The district judges were entirely right to order the government to return the thousands of private medical records it wrongfully seized by use of pretext and artifice.

"Even staunch Republicans like MSNBC anchor Joe Scarborough, who supported the war and voted twice for Bush, (are) asking what's going on. On his December 20 show, Scarborough was appalled by Bush's statement, "I encourage you all to go shopping more." MSNBC analyst Mike Barnacle noted that "this President is isolated, delusional, and stubborn." [and "kind of paranoid"] Bush's "delusion," according to Barnacle, is going to result in the deaths and carnage of our troops and people throughout the Middle East. "I don't think [Bush] knows what he's saying . . . He is totally isolated from reality," Barnacle added. "The deaths of American soldiers now verges on the criminal."
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And it could get worse. Cheney-Bush has sent our battleships to the Persian Gulf to "warn" Iran that we mean business. And the White House blacked out parts of a New York Times op-ed on negotiating with Iran written by two former U.S. government advisors. This means, in all likelihood, that Cheney has decided it's time to pick off the next member of the Axis of Evil. They're following the same strategy they used on the way to Iraq: convince the American people that Iran is building weapons of mass destruction, notwithstanding overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Attacking Iran would cause a disaster of epic proportions.

... Washington policy-makers should read Daniel Goleman's work on social intelligence. Goleman points out that a good manager of a team in a corporation sets up a win/win framework for every member of the team. If you set it up on a win/lose basis, so that some are actively punished and others "triumph," you are asking for trouble. Conflict is natural. How you manage conflict is what matters. If you listen to employees' grievances and try to figure out how they can be resolved in such a way that everyone benefits, then you are a good manager.

Gerecht, it seems to me, sets up a win/lose model in Iraq. The Shiites and Kurds win it all, and the Sunni Arabs get screwed over. Practically speaking, the Bush policy has been Gerechtian, which in my view has caused all the problems. We shouldn't have thought of our goal as installing the Shiites in power. Of course, Bush hoped that those so installed would be "secular," and that is what Wolfowitz and Chalabi had promised him. Gerecht came up with the ex post facto justification that even the religious Shiites are moving toward democracy via Sistani. But democracy cannot be about one sectarian identity prevailing over, and marginalizing others.

12.28.2006 "Shooting the messenger is a war crime" By AMY GOODMAN

12.27.2006 Courts Side With NSA On Wiretaps By JOSEPH GOLDSTEIN

In at least 17 criminal cases, federal district judges nominated to the federal bench by presidents Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Clinton, and George W. Bush have ruled against requests to force the government to tell defendants, most accused of terrorism-related crimes, whether the NSA eavesdropped on them without a court warrant.

As Eisenhower warned: “We should take nothing for granted, only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together. ... We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow.”

Indeed, this is how the Justice lawyers describe the apocalyptic result of releasing Cheney's visitor logs: "Disclosure. . . could reveal an ever-expanding mosaic that would allow observers to chart the course of vice presidential contacts and deliberations in unprecedented fashion." A terrible, haunting vision, isn't it?

12.26.2006 Jeralyn Merritt: "One DOJ" : Another Wall Crumbles

This is just another example of how the Administration's excuse of a war on terror affects not those abroad, but those of us at home. It won't make us safer, only less free. WAPO article (Here)

Circuit Judge Judith Rogers, writing for the panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, said "EPA has failed to heed the restrictions on its discretion set forth in the Act." The court ordered the agency to come up with a new enforcement plan.
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Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., who in January becomes chairwoman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said she was pleased the court had "seen through EPAs transparent attempts to weaken" the clean air law. She promised the Democratic Congress would closely monitor the agency as it comes up with a new plan for reducing smog.

"Smog kills people, it increases asthma and other respiratory illnesses, and it remains a major public health threat in many areas of the country," she said. "Sadly, we have once again had to rely on the court to tell EPA how to read the text of the Clean Air Act in a way that protects people, not polluters."

Rather than talk about additional troops, it's time to begin redeploying troops out of Iraq immediately and engaging other governments and allies in crafting a diplomatic and political solution to the nightmare. That this administration could still think an escalated military option is a credible path to stability and democracy in Iraq is alarming, and indicative of how far removed from reality this president and his inner circle are. (Here)

More people in Britain think religion causes harm than believe it does good, according to a Guardian/ICM poll published today. It shows that an overwhelming majority see religion as a cause of division and tension - greatly outnumbering the smaller majority who also believe that it can be a force for good.

The poll also reveals that non-believers outnumber believers in Britain by almost two to one. It paints a picture of a sceptical nation with massive doubts about the effect religion has on society: 82% of those questioned say they see religion as a cause of division and tension between people. Only 16% disagree. The findings are at odds with attempts by some religious leaders to define the country as one made up of many faith communities. (Here)

Majority of Americans believe in angels (Here)

Mr. Gingerich should be reminded of Dwight Eisenhower, who knew a thing or two about defense spending. He said: "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket signifies a theft . . . from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hope of its children." (4/15/53 address to the American Society of Newspaper Editors)

12.22.2006 "NYT Runs "Classified" Op-Ed Covered With Blacked-Out Redactions" Author's original citations Here

12.20.2006 "Pot is called biggest cash crop"

12.19.2006 "Bush Signs India Nuke Bill, Sort Of" (Here)

12.15.2006 "Majority of Gitmo Detainees Freed in Other Countries" By Andrew O. Selsky (Here)

12.15.2006 New York Times Editorial

The Bush administration is trampling on the First Amendment and well-established criminal law by trying to use a subpoena to force the American Civil Liberties Union to hand over a classified document in its possession. The dispute is shrouded in secrecy, and very little has been made public about the document, but we do not need to know what’s in it to know what’s at stake: if the government prevails, it will have engaged in prior restraint ­ almost always a serious infringement on free speech ­ and it could start using subpoenas to block reporting on matters of vital public concern.

See Also: "U.S. Gets Subpoena to Force ACLU to Return Leaked Memo" (Here) The case is In re Grand Jury Subpoena Served on the ACLU, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York before presiding Judge Jed S. Rakoff. The ACLU is represented by Shapiro of the ACLU, Charles S. Sims and Emily Stern of Proskauer Rose LLP and Joshua L. Dratel and Erik B. Levin, of Joshua L. Dratel, P.C., all of New York. (Here)

12.14.2006 Jeralyn Merrit: Homeland Security’s immigration raids ran amok

I cannot accept a government that rounds people up on buses and takes them to undisclosed locations. Who is a winner here? With the exception of companies like Halliburton with federal contracts to build detention centers, I can’t think of any.

the Coast Guard, in an astonishing abdication of responsibility, gave two large military contractors, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, near total freedom to plan, supervise and deliver the new ships and helicopters.

See also "Billions Later, Plan to Remake the Coast Guard Fleet Stumbles" (Here)
See also "Close Friend Of Bush At Center Of Coast Guard Contract Fiasco"(Here)

12.13.2006 "FEC Fines Swift Boat Vets $300K"

12.11.2006 New York Times Editorial

The Environmental Protection Agency disclosed last week that it had revised ­ stood on their head is more like it ­ procedures it has used for 25 years to set standards for air pollutants like soot and lead. The administration said the change will streamline decision making. Perhaps it will. It will also have the further effect of decreasing the role of science in policy making while increasing the influence of the agency’s political appointees.

Landslide Denied: Exit Polls vs. Vote Count 2006

While the reported results of the 2006 election were certainly well-received by the Democratic party and were ballpark-consistent with public expectations, the unadjusted 2006 exit poll data indicates that what has been cast as a typical midterm setback for a president in his second term was something rather more remarkable – a landslide repudiation of historic proportions.

We believe that the degree of statistical distortion now required to force exit polls to match the official tally is the clearest possible warning that the ever-growing catalog of reported vulnerabilities in America’s electronic vote counting systems are not only possible to exploit, they are actually being exploited.

Any system so clearly at risk of interference and gross manipulation can not and should not be trusted to tally the votes in any future elections.

In the letter to Rumsfeld, Waxman insisted that the Pentagon immediately determine "how the Army intends to recover taxpayer funds paid to Halliburton and Blackwater for services prohibited under [Halliburton's] contract."

Washington, DC - In defiance of Congressional requests to immediately halt closures of library collections, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is purging records from its library websites, making them unavailable to both agency scientists and outside researchers, according to documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). At the same time, EPA is taking steps to prevent the re-opening of its shuttered libraries, including the hurried auctioning off of expensive bookcases, cabinets, microfiche readers and other equipment for less than a penny on the dollar.

12.8.2006 Laurie David: "Crooked Curriculum: Oil Company Money Scandal at Nat'l Science Teachers Association Deepens"

12.7.2006 "Habeas Corpus Restoration Act of 2006''

12.07.2006 "EPA may drop lead air pollution limits" via Carpetbagger

12.07.2006 Oil for Sale: Iraq Study Group Recommends Privatization

As previously drafted, the law opens Iraq’s nationalized oil sector to private foreign corporate investment, but stops short of full privatization. The ISG report, however, goes further, stating that “the United States should assist Iraqi leaders to reorganize the national oil industry as a commercial enterprise.” In addition, the current Constitution of Iraq is ambiguous as to whether control over Iraq’s oil should be shared among its regional provinces or held under the central government. The report specifically recommends the latter: “Oil revenues should accrue to the central government and be shared on the basis of population.” If these proposals are followed, Iraq’s national oil industry will be privatized and opened to foreign firms, and in control of all of Iraq’s oil wealth.

The time is fast arriving to ask the real questions of this war: how could corporate America and its executives make billions and billions while nearly 3,000 of our brave soldiers have been killed, while hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have died and all the while our national security deteriorates?

12.5.2006 Bridge to NowhereBy Matthew Yglesias

Political consensus isn't going to solve America's Iraq problem.

I believe the single most important feature of the Swiss model which allows for these most excellent qualities is that the Swiss themselves are empowered to make political decisions. Important changes to government policy must be put to the people before they can be enacted, and every year every Swiss citizen is invited to vote on numerous government proposals, even if they live abroad. No significant changes can be made without the people's consent. No one knows who the Swiss head of state is because he's almost an irrelevance; it's the Swiss people themselves who are in charge, not some elitist puppet representative of renegade corporations.

It's a hell of a lot easier and feels so much better to appeal to the reactionary aspects of human nature: the lizard brain fight or flight instincts we all have. It's easy, then, for American leaders to pursue and exact revenge, especially when our nation is the sole military superpower. "The people who knocked down these buildings will hear all of us soon," isn't the modern equivalent of "four score and seven years ago" or "a date which will live in infamy." It was a ham-fisted applause line. It was an easy statement of vengeance. And it was his finest moment.

12.3.2006 Oh God!! Scientist Fights Church Effort to Hide Museum's Pre-Human Fossils

Famed paleoanthropologist Richard Leakey is giving no quarter to powerful evangelical church leaders who are pressing Kenya's national museum to relegate to a back room its world-famous collection of hominid fossils showing the evolution of humans' early ancestors.
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"We have a responsibility to present all our artifacts in the best way that we can so that everyone who sees them can gain a full understanding of their significance," said Ali Chege, public relations manager for the National Museums of Kenya. "But things can get tricky when you have religious beliefs on one side, and intellectuals, scientists, or researchers on the other, saying the opposite."

Michael Lind: (By contrast, Bush's misguided authorization of torture, secret CIA prisons and illegal eavesdropping were at least directed at suspected terrorists, not at his personal and political opponents.) (Here)

Douglas Brinkly: I also believe that he is an honest man and that his administration has been largely void of widespread corruption. (Here)

No doubt -- "He's The Worst Ever" By Eric Foner

12.2.2006 "In West, Conservatives Emphasize the 'Conserve'" By Blaine Harden, Washington Post Staff Writer

12.1.2006 "Homeland Security assigns terror scores to travelers"

"It is simply incredible that the Bush administration is willing to share this sensitive information with foreign governments and even private employers, while refusing to allow U.S. citizens to see or challenge their own terror scores," Leahy said. This system "highlights the danger of government use of technology to conduct widespread surveillance of our daily lives without proper safeguards for privacy." (Here)

12.1.2006 Thomas Friedman:

I do not want my girls to live a world where the difference between a good day and bad day is whether Moktada al-Sadr lets Iraq’s prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, meet with the U.S. president or whether certain Arab regimes alter what their textbooks say about non-Muslims. I wish them all well, but I don’t want them impacting my life and I don’t want to be roiling theirs, and the only reason we are so intertwined now is O-I-L.