See also "Sen. Whitehouse: ‘I Call On Administrator Johnson To Resign"

7.30.08 Fusion Centers: Mysteries Wrapped in Enigmas of Horrible, Horrible Privacy Risks

Fusion centers — also known as one-stop shopping for identity thieves — were brought about in a post-9/11 effort to get federal and local law enforcement talking to each other.
...
Here’s the creepiest part. Fusion centers aren’t just a mystery to us, they’re a mystery to the people running them, the people working in them and the people’s whose information is stored within them. Forget about the left hand, the right hand doesn’t know what any other part of the body is doing. There needs to be strict oversight. There need to be structured, uniform and comprehensive guidelines that protect our sensitive information. Or we’ll likely find it in a storage locker in Manassas. (See below)
ACLU Blog

Marine Gunnery Sgt. Gary Maziarz said patriotism motivated him to join a spy ring, smuggle secret files from Camp Pendleton and give them to law enforcement officers for anti-terrorism work in Southern California.

He knew his group was violating national security laws. But he said bureaucratic walls erected by the military and civilian agencies were hampering intelligence sharing and coordination, making the nation more vulnerable to terrorists.
SignOnSanDiego.com

The EPA has issued a gag order to its employees, according to an internal e-mail released by the Union of Concerned Scientists [UCS]. The e-mail instructs staffers to refuse to speak with reporters, investigators, and the agency's inspector general, and to refer questions to designated officials. A UCS spokesman said that, with evidence that "retaliation is widespread" at the EPA, "it's critical that...employees are able to speak confidentially."
Think Progress

7.29.08 McCain's confusion on Iraq

What McCain omits is that if he himself had been right all the times before 2007 that he said things were going fine, no surge would have been needed. He's like a weatherman who forecasts clear skies every day and, when the rain finally lets up after a week, expects a standing ovation for his accuracy.
...
The refugee crisis is just one of the results of a war that McCain has supported all along.

The surge didn't provide a remedy to that or the many other afflictions that plague Iraq.

For good or ill, though, we have probably achieved about all we can with the means available.

That's obvious to most Americans and most Iraqis. Once in a while, the realization even dawns on John McCain. But he lies down until it passes.

Steve Chapman:chicagotribune.com

7.21.08 Nathan Robinson: Close Encounters With My Congressman: Learning to Loathe Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-FL)

Then we met Vern, and tried to convince him that he should oppose wiretapping, prisoner abuse, and discrimination against immigrants.

He indicated that he was in favor of those things.
HuffPo

... The worst thing about FOX is not its bias, but the "panic mode" that it seems to live in. Everything is a catastrophe. Immigrants will get you. Lightbulbs will get you. Wildfires will get you. Jesse Jackson will cut your nuts off.

Greta Van Susteren introduced one of her news stories this way: "It's real, it's terrifying. All the horrible details coming up next." And I think that captures the FOX philosophy fairly well. The message of the network seems to be "It's a scary world out there. You're going to need a gun and some deep-seated prejudice if you're going to make it out alive."

Think Progress remembers that Perle "resigned from his position on the Defense Policy Board in an attempt to 'defuse a controversy over charges he stood to profit from the war in Iraq.'"
HuffPo

...
When players walk into Army sponsored tournaments, the government knows more about them then they may suppose. The game records players' data and statistics in a massive database called Andromeda, which records every move a player makes and links the information to their screen name. With this information tracking system, gameplay serves as a military aptitude tester, tracking overall kills, kills per hour, a player's virtual career path, and other statistics. According to Colonel Wardynski, players who play for a long time and do extremely well may "just get an e-mail seeing if [they'd] like any additional information on the Army." The "America's Army" web site, however, is quick to point out that the Army respects players' privacy. The Army claims that player information is not linked to a person's real world identity unless that person volunteers their identity to a recruiter. But it is not clear that recruiters have to give any sort of discloser that a voluntary relinquishing of one's name is also an invitation to a player's statistical information. Answering seemingly innocent questions from recruiters in "America's Army" chat rooms or at state fairs about one's screen name may divulge personal information without intending to.(7)
...
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has found that Army use of the game, and its recruiting practice in general, violate international law. In May, the ACLU published a report that found the armed services "regularly target children under 17 for military recruitment. Department of Defense instruction to recruiters, the US military's collection of information of hundreds of thousands of 16-year-olds, and military training corps for children as young as 11 reveal that students are targeted for recruitment as early as possible. By exposing children under 17 to military recruitment, the United States military violates the Optional Protocol." The Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict, ratified by the Senate in December 2002, protects the rights of children under 16 from military recruitment and deployment to war. The US subsequently entered a binding declaration that raised the minimum age to 17, meaning any recruitment activity targeted at those under 17 years old is not allowed in the United States. The ACLU report goes on to highlight the role of "America's Army," saying the Army uses the game to "attract young potential recruits ... train them to use weapons, and engage in virtual combat and other military missions," adding that the game "explicitly targets boys 13 and older." In June, at the 48th session of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, the Committee noted US violations of the Protocol and urged the United States to "ensure that its policy and practice on deployment is consistent with the provisions of the Protocol."(11)
...
"America's Army" is not a game; it is a recruitment and training tool that the Army uses in violation of international law. While soldiers and civilians continue to kill and die in Iraq and Afghanistan, private corporations like Ubisoft reap handsome profits from the Army's project to train and recruit children. Military game developers are very open about this role, as Colonel Wardynski proudly proclaims in article after article, "We want kids to come into the Army and feel like they've already been there."
Michael B. Reagan, t r u t h o u t | Perspective

7.26.08 "Breaking the First Rule of Fight Club" MJS - Report to the General

7.26.08 "All rogues lead to Rove"

7.26.08 To defeat Obama, conservatives take the initiative

Essentially, the strategy is a reprise of one Karl Rove used to push George W. Bush to victory in 2004, when he helped place measures banning same-sex marriage on the ballot in 11 key states. The Republican incumbent carried them all as religious conservatives — particularly evangelical Protestants — flocked to the polls to support the initiatives. This time around, similar measures denying marriage to gay and lesbian couples will be on the ballot in California, Florida and Arizona.
...
So, in key states across the country, this election may come down to a contest between the economic voters' dissatisfaction and the values voters' old-time political religion.
Tim Rutten:LA Times

Even military leaders involved in last year's troop escalation agree that the prospect of U.S. withdrawal is the main reason violence has ebbed.
...
When there isn't anybody left to kill, the murder statistics tend to improve.
Salon

7.26.08 Time to Sweat the Small Stuff - Nanotech Needs FDA Oversight (But They Knew That Already)

Of course, we can hope that there is no particular risk to these products. We can hope that the slides presented to FDA advisors by Darin Furgeson of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who is doing research on nanotoxicity, were misleading as they showed little laboratory fish developing abnormally after being raised in water spiked with small amounts of nanoparticles. “Some changes begin to occur,” Furgeson told the FDA advisors with nonjudgmental equanimity. Among his observations: “Their eyes began to get different shapes.” “Excess fluid around the heart.” “Even the number of vertebrae changes,” changing the curvature of the spine.
Science Progress

Boxer and her aides were allowed to take "reasonable notes" on the original proposal, which had concluded that greenhouse gases endanger public welfare. Among the points in the e-mail:
Read full report WaPo

On Wednesday, the Tax Policy Center released a report finding large disparities between Sen. John McCain's (R-AZ) public economic proposals and his advisers' private assurances. After comparing McCain's public economic policies with the "measured options outlined by his campaign," the center concluded that McCain's public proposals "would cost an additional $2.8 trillion over ten years" above what the campaign's stated policies would cost.
The Progress Report

... The true complexity arises when we must defend these values in a world that does not universally embrace them -- when we reach the place where we must be intolerant in order to defend tolerance, or unkind in order to defend kindness, or hateful in order to defend what we love.
ANDREW KLAVAN:WSJ

Or illegal to defend the law?

Well, I agree that Spider-Man stands for values like morality, faith, self-sacrifice and the nobility of fighting for the right, I disagree that those values are Conservative. Also, I read that whole column and the guy has badly misinterpreted The Dark Knight. Batman never "has to push the boundaries of civil rights to deal with an emergency, certain that he will re-establish those boundaries when the emergency is past." His enemy, the Joker, is the one who's philosophy is that rules are something people only follow when everything is going according to plan. Batman never "kills to preserve life." Batman never kills period. The whole point of his character is that he's the ultimate incorruptible force of justice, whereas Joker is the ultimate force of corruption, chaos, and anarchy. Much of the movie Batman doesn't sacrifice his principles in order to preserve those principles for a later time. If he does that, the Joker wins.

Batman doesn't become hated because he bends the values of a Democratic society like the author claims. He becomes hated because he accepts the blame for murders committed by the city's DA, because the guy was a beacon of hope for the city and if the people knew he had become corrupted (going from a lawyer who fought criminals in court to a maniac who confronted his enemies on the street and flipped a coin to decide whether or not to shoot them) then they would lose hope and give up on cleaning up their city.

None of the movies he mentioned have anything to do with conservative values. This is more a matter of the author trying to position the Republicans as the party of truth, justice, and the American way, but really those concepts don't belong to either party. Both sides want to do the right thing, they just have different ideas of what "right" is.

As for Spider-Man, I think he's historically been a fairly liberal character, at least in the comics. He openly criticized racial inequality and the Vietnam war back in the 60s and 70s when those were hot issues. After 9/11, Spider-Man suggested that the terrorist attacks were the result of America not listening to "the burdens of distant peoples." More recently, he fought against an act that required all citizens with super powers to register with the government and be subject to a super-human draft or else be locked in a prison in another dimension without a trial.

Bush sold himself as a sort of McCain type --- a cocky, individualistic, maverick flyboy ( just like in Top Gun only without all the oiled abs ---or maybe there were....) Bush, of course, was a total phony, down to his Chuck Yeager accent, while McCain was closer to the real thing 40 years ago. But it doesn't matter whether it's real or fake. This type of personality can be brave but they aren't leaders. In fact, they are temperamentally completely unsuited to be leaders. The fact that both of these men feel the need to baldly that they "know how to lead" should be a tip-off. That's something people can sense and see and it doesn't need to be articulated.

McCain is just like George W. Bush, only old.
Hullabaloo

The ultimate problem here is that Mukasey is not paying attention to the matter. Instead he is relying on political flaks at the Justice Department to prepare answers on his behalf, trodding down the same path that destroyed the careers of Alberto Gonzales and Paul McNulty. He has allowed himself to be roped into a series of incorrect statements about specific aspects of the Siegelman investigation. Michael Mukasey needs to recognize that he has brought his tenure at the Justice Department to the edge of a precipice.
Harper's

7.25.08 Bush Cronies Tried To Redefine 'Carbon Dioxide' To Save Power Plants From Emissions Regulations

" I must say that it was sometimes somewhat embarrassing,” Burnett admitted, “for me to return to EPA and ask for my colleagues to explain yet again that CO2 is a molecule and there is no scientific way of differentiating between CO2 from car and a power plant.”
Think Progress

7.22.08 emptywheel:

Iglesias is right. My gripe with the "official duties" claim is that, in the Siegelman case (which was explicitly named in Rove's subpoena), Rove's actions might be legal, so long as they weren't "official duties" (because then they'd become a massive violation of the Hatch Act). But in Iglesias' case, the actions are, by themselves, probably obstruction of justice (not to mention another massive violation of the Hatch Act). The actions are, by themselves, probably illegal.

Yet, strictly by deeming those activities part of Rove's "official duties"--with no sanction or review from DOJ--Fielding claims Bush can grant Rove Absolute Immunity from testifying before Congress.

That is a dangerous precedent indeed.

Very few voters are aware of Mr. Addington's existence, much less what he stands for. But he was the legal linchpin of the administration's Marquis de Sade approach to battling terrorism. In the view of Mr. Addington and his acolytes, anything and everything that the president authorized in the fight against terror - regardless of what the Constitution or Congress or the Geneva Conventions might say - was all right. That included torture, rendition, warrantless wiretapping, the suspension of habeas corpus, you name it.

This is the mind-set that gave us Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo and the C.I.A.'s secret prisons, known as "black sites."
Bob Herbert, The New York Times

FINEMAN: If you’re in this White House, you want another Republican administration to follow. You don’t want a Democratic administration coming in there while the evidence is still fresh, so to speak. To look at it the way…

MATTHEWS: With the subpoena power…

FINEMAN: With the subpoena power and looking through all the records and looking at all the decisions that were made. You want to cover over your two terms with a third term the way Ronald Reagan did with George HW Bush.
Crooks and Liars

Our system of borrowing, lending, and financing investments by both businesses and households is a national treasure, one which we have squandered in recent years. Excessive deregulation has thwarted the transparency that is integral to creating appropriate price signals. Risk has been consistently underpriced, contributing to bad underwriting, negligent risk management, and deeply damaging bubbles. When policy makers ignore these dynamics, as they have in recent years, our economy is put at great risk.
HuffPo

6.22.08 Jon Ponder: Closing Enron Loophole Would Drop Oil Prices 25% - 50% Overnight Brad Blog

7.20.08 Records sought at McCain advisor's bank

On June 19, 2008, former UBS banker Bradley Birkenfeld pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud the IRS by assisting UBS clients in avoiding U.S. reporting requirements on income in Swiss bank accounts. According to Birkenfeld's court statement, UBS employees assisted wealthy U.S. clients in concealing their ownership of assets held offshore by creating sham entities and then filing IRS forms falsely claiming that the entities were the owners of the accounts.

The John Doe summons, if approved, will direct UBS to produce records identifying U.S. taxpayers with accounts at UBS in Switzerland who elected to have their accounts remain hidden from the IRS. In his court statement, Birkenfeld claims UBS had approximately $20 billion of assets under management in "undeclared" accounts for U.S. taxpayers.
The Swamp

Here's a prime example of a media smear of McCain--a big headline about how someone who talks to McCain (Phil Gramm) is a VP of the American branch of a Swiss bank, which bank is being asked to provide information about US taxpayers who MAY HAVE used the bank.

Is that thin or what?

See also: Phil Gramm's UBS Problem

Of course, being a senior employee of a bank at a time when it was destroying shareholder value, screwing over customers, and having run-ins with federal prosecutors shouldn't preclude one from serving in the Cabinet. Apply that standard across the board, and—given the pervasive incompetence and mendacity on Wall Street in this decade and last—the next president, Obama or McCain, will have to look to a tiny credit union in Kansas for a treasury secretary.
Daniel Gross:Slate

The term flip-flopping doesn’t do justice to Mr. McCain’s self-contradictory economic pronouncements because that implies there’s some rational, if hypocritical, logic at work. What he serves up instead is plain old incoherence, as if he were compulsively consulting one of those old Magic 8 Balls. In a single 24-hour period in April, Mr. McCain went from saying there’s been “great economic progress” during the Bush presidency to saying “Americans are not better off than they were eight years ago.” He reversed his initial condemnation of mortgage bailouts in just two weeks.
...
Ms. Fiorina, the ubiquitous new public face of McCain economic policy, adds nothing to the mix beyond her incessant display of corporate jargon, from “trend lines” to “start-ups.” Before she was fired at Hewlett-Packard, its stock had declined 50 percent during her five-plus years in charge. She missed earning projections — by 23 percent in one quarter — much as she now misrepresents both the Obama and McCain records. This month she said Mr. McCain wanted to require insurance plans to cover birth control medications along with Viagra, when in fact he had voted against it.
NYT

7.18.08 Break the law. Change it later.

... But during questioning, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., pointed out that the abuse of Zubaydah had reportedly begun weeks, if not months, earlier. "Did you offer legal approval of interrogation methods used at that time ... prior to August 2002?"

"I have no recollection of doing that at all," Ashcroft responded. He added that he did not remember anyone else at the Justice Department doing so either. He said later in the hearing that Zubaydah's interrogation "was done without the opinion that was issued on the first of August." (Link)

The Administration will attempt to argue the Department of Justice memos shield those that inflict and authorize torture from prosecution. This Ashcroft testimony, if true, negates that argument
Progressive Politics Examiner

7.16.08 "Day of Reckoning? Super Rich Tax Cheats Outed by Bank Clerk" ABC News

7.16.08 "Abortion Proposal Sets Condition on Aid " NYT

See also: Cecile Richards

This proposed rule will put women's access to birth control and the information they need to make health care decisions at risk. It radically redefines abortion to include some of the most common and effective methods of birth control. As a result, women's ability to manage their own health care is at risk of being compromised by politics and ideology. And it will limit the rights of patients to receive complete and accurate health information and services.

This rule also will leave women unprotected in an emergency. Women will be rolling the dice when they walk into a hospital or clinic about the type of care the will receive. A rape victim going to an ER could be refused emergency contraception because the attending doctor doesn't believe in it. Health care clinics could refuse to provide contraceptive services.
HuffPo

Q: But do you go on line for yourself?

Mr. McCain: They go on for me. I am learning to get online myself, and I will have that down fairly soon, getting on myself. [Here]

That’s why the Bush White House’s corruption in the end surpasses Nixon’s. We can no longer take cold comfort in the Watergate maxim that the cover-up was worse than the crime. This time the crime is worse than the cover-up, and the punishment could rain down on us all.
NYT