FISA: The Coming Battle
As I am minding the store while mom is away tilting kilts, I was party to a group discussion among several notable powers that be in the blogosphere early this afternoon, and the various blogs, all of which you are intimately familiar with, will be rolling out over the next few days somewhat of a battle plan on FISA/immunity. Nothing particularly new or shocking really, just a reminder to folks of the stakes involved and where the pressure points are that we need to address.
I wish I could say that there is some new brilliant, sexy and effective tact that we have lit upon to wipe this all away; but that, alas, is not the case. It will be back to the grindstone of calling, faxing and otherwise communicating with the key representatives etc. One thing I think will be critical is to offer plenty of carrots, with gentle reminders of the sticks. As you will recall, we got a surprisingly good response, and result, from the House Democrats in the last go round. We want to build, grow and reinforce that effort and result. The gathering proximity of the election is a double edged sword however. It is a chance for us to remind them of how favorably we view the last effort, but it is clearly also another opportunity for the Bushies to roll out the fear/security card and threaten the weak, and weakly situated, elements (read mostly Blue Dogs) of the Democratic coalition. It is going to be critical for those of us that actually live in districts represented by one of these souls to work them hard.
I have some things that will divide most of my attention for a few hours; although I will check in periodically as I can. In the meantime, use this space to discuss anything you feel important, but please start putting all the collective talent together to suggest ways and means for fighting the next stage of the FISA battle. My post from yesterday morning pretty much gives the lay of the land as it is understood at this moment; there are no real new baseline facts since then. Thanks.
One of the perjorative signs at this juncture is that whatever initatives are going on, are going on far from the disinfectant of sunlight. It’s hard to counter secret FISA initiatives and the reason they are keeping them secret is they don’t want any pressure as they kiss the Telcos and Comcos collective asses.
yep. the secrecy stinks.
Glenn Greenwald 5/2/08 What backroom conniving are Steny Hoyer and the Chris Carney Blue Dogs up to on FISA?
re: carrots.
imo, the first batch of carrots should go to rush holt and those in the progressive caucus who blocked the v1 restore act last fall and may have helped block the paa renewal this winter.
bmaz – any chance of inviting rush holt to visit? in addition to being, apparently, a hard core civil libertarian, he’s probably the most knowledgeable person in congress (with regards to the technical aspects and intelligence aspects) – it would be great to have him to explain and answer our tech and policy questions. especially as there are commenters here with an understanding of the telco issues. and i can think of at least a couple commenters who might enjoy talking shop with an ex-physicist from princeton.
and an invite – even if he declined (although i hope he would not) – would give us all an opportunity to say thank you, or at least to let him know that his efforts have not gone unnoticed and that we appreciate everything he has been doing.
p.s. his chief of staff is very cool too.
Rush Holt (New Jersey) has also led a lonely fight for a much needed paper trail law for voting machines to transform this country out of its Bannana Republic voting mode.
yes, but i am less familiar with holt’s work on that, so i have no judgement on his efforts there. but i have been watching him on fisa (at least since he submitted the alternative house bill – alternative, that is, to the restore act).
re: phone calls and faxing.
bmaz – what’s the time frame on this? last fall i put together vCards with phone, fax, address contact info for the entire senate and house of representatives (specifically for the fisa actions). they are, i think, especially useful for faxing. if people would find them useful again, i could update them.
The problem with the secrecy is it’s designed to keep you out of the equation so you don’t know what the hell the government you pay for the ones who have creme de la creme health care and free luxury car leases are doing because they are hiding it from you–not just the bitch slap needing Republican liars on FISA but the Blue Dog spineless Dems as well. I’d say the time factor is yesterday. The reason this is secret is to hose you and promote the ravenous, unfettered wiretapping.
I’m surprised there aren’t cameras that monitor you in every room in your home and office because we are getting more like China and North Korea in that respect and in the totalitarian tone of this government every day.
imo, if the congressional leadership wasn’t 1) planning to fuck us over and 2) planning on hiding that fact from us, then there would be no need for all the secrecy.
as i said in a previous thread – without even a formal conference committee, we don’t know who the leadership has chosen to bring into (and exclude) from the negotiations. not good.
Yep Selise. I’m usually with you all the way, and I think that’s obvious here. One of the hallmarks of frustration is when you have the insight that something so wrong is happening and you wonder if you can make any impact.
But given the corner turning impact that happened when FISA last reared its head in the house, everyone should by all means take advantage of the lists that are no doubt going to spring up here and FDL because if there was ever a time to be heard on something with profound implications not only for retroactive immunity but to make clear that people are fighting mad about the prospect of immunity and protecting their privacy, this is it.
here’s what i DO know: if we DON’T act, then for sure we will have NO impact.
this is the issue that sucked me in over 2 years ago. and i’m ready to go another 2 years.
Me too selise. I have my dialing fingers ready to go. Let’s make a difference!
Completely agree. The only way to make a difference is to take action.
OT- Col. Pat Lang gives his considered estimation of GWB & DR in a post on his blog this a.m.:
A Tale of Two Incompetents (Bush & Rumsfeld)
My daughter is getting married today. Relatives in from out of town, the whole nine yds. It’s a lovely spring day here, perfect for a wedding & outdoor reception.
Got to get back on it- read you all later.
It is a perfect day for a wedding, Marie! Congratulations.
I’m told the expression “the whole nine yards” refers to a truckload of cement which if full carried nine yards of material
Yep agreed. There is no down side and every compelling reason to hit the lists that have been supplied and create a loud bunch of pressure as several threads have mapped out in the past few weeks with contact links.
Hey folks. Back for a second, keep in mind that when the chips were last on the table, the target people did, on the whole, conduct themselves well with their stance an/or vote. In the first instance here, we want to positively reinforce the thanks and respect for that “courage” or whatever you want to term it. Do you think that a reference (although maybe not emphasis yet) of the Donna Edwards plus/Al Wynn loss bit is appropriate to make part of the initial message? I will also later track down a list of the vote status of the 47-50 fulcrum representatives.
bmaz – please speak for yourself. don’t necessarily disagree, just have this anti-authoritarian button that is easy to set off.
i’m pretty sure it wasn’t courage at first. if you recall, in february, the house members were pissed off at the senate trying to ram their bill down the house’s throat and then in march they got pissed off about that “secret” session. the Rs acting like assholes probably helped a lot.
and i’m not thanking anyone for the stupid paa extension vote, except for holt and the progressives who voted against it.
however, if you mean the vote on 3/14 (213 to 197), i’d be happy to kiss the feet of every blue dog who voted for it.
and the procedural moves that the leadership played were, i think, very important – so the leadership deserves some thanks too.
here’s an idea… how about a series of very short youtube clips from 3/14 (or thereabouts)? – to remind our congress critters of their glorious past? help them feel proud and courageous and wanting to do it all over again? iirc, even some of the blue dogs made very good statements on the house floor on 3/14. (i may have ripped good quality c-span video from this day, but if even that’s not available, decent lesser quality clips can always be made from the c-span archives).
maybe together we could come up with a list of good statements to highlight (with youtube clips) and say thanks for?
for example, pelosi’s “the president is wrong and i think he knows it.” i just loved hearing the speaker of the house of representatives call the president a liar. on the house floor. that one had me cheering. and, iirc, she did it several times.
here’s c-span’s archive of (most) house floor statements for 3/14 – it’s not as complete as the full, uninterrupted c-span archive, but it’s much easier to use. there is a time line with each speaker’s name, and if you click on the name, there is also a transcript from the congressional record. so folks on dial up aren’t excluded from the hunt for good statements to use.
well, that’s my idea to contribute….
The most emphatic, “The President is wrong, and he knows it.” This after a reporter asks if Pelosi is calling Bush a liar.
that’s a great one, thanks! – just the kind of thing i was thinking of.
Heh heh, I wasn’t even necessarily speaking for myself when I said that, simply repeating what the consensus was of the group I participated in yesterday; although, in this instance, I do agree pretty much. If I was indelicate in the way I phrased things, I apologize. Quite frankly, the “community organizer” is a new role for me; heh, I am more used to clients paying me a lot of money to tell them what to say and how to act. And if they don’t listen, things can get out of hand pretty quickly. See, for instance, Clemens, Roger, as Bay State Librul has so dutifully pointed out. So, bottom line, pay no attention to me, I am kind of a blunderbuss at heart….
love you bmaz- would only ignore you if that wasn’t the case. *g*
there’s nothing for you to apologize for – fact is, i really appreciate you not just blowing me off.
…. here’s a hint from the small bit of community organizing i’ve done. an organizer helps and facilitates the group do what they are already motivated to do but don’t know how. inherently a bottoms up process. sorta requires checking in with the group to find out what they want to do before informing them of what has already been decided by an opaque group and an opaque process.
an organizer is a very different from the role of a leader which is more of a top down process – good leaders attempt to inspire, bad leaders may attempt to manipulate. but very, very few people can do both lead and organize. it’s a real gift and extremely rare.
this is entirely unfair to you bmaz – and my complaint is not directed at you (or marcy). some days, especially lately, i get frustrated because us peons are not without ideas (you can say mine are all bad ideas, but that’s not true of every commenter) and that, i thought, was supposed to be one of the strengths of blogs and online organizing… that it was a way for more people to be brought into the process and to participate as more than pawns. if i’m going to be a pawn, i might as well go volunteer to stuff envelopes or something for a dem party pol. blech.
/rant
see what you get for being such a nice guy? i suppose that’ll teach you to just blow me off next time.
Here’s an interesting post from someone who’s been deeply involved in organizing. It’s not a pretty picture of her peers. Though it has the possibility of being ’sour grapes’, I see that as fairly slim.
it’s very sad to see anyone so disillusioned. but i don’t call the work they did grassroots organizing – and really, neither do they – “managing communities”
more and more i’ve been thinking that we’re nuts if we thing we can build progressive institutions without progressive values – of transparency, openness and inclusiveness.
i’m afraid i’ve taken bmaz’s thread way too far off topic. which is especially stupid of me, since it’s a topic of great interest to me…. sigh.
Actually, my purpose stated at the end of the post was:
So, it’s all good.
Yes, by all means mention the Donna Edwards saga. It may well be the ONLY argument to get thru.
Thanks Bmaz . Thanks Selise. Calling, e-mailing
Calling has been effective, so far, but, like anything else, even Our Dems will get de-sensitized to it if All we do is Call.
The idea behind the Calling was to get them to hear US saying, “No Telecom Amnesty!,” which We thought would then Lead to the Dems Using Our Majority to Block any Plays for Immunity/Amnesty by Bushco. Our expectation Has Been, for several iterations now, that This Issue is Closed.
But that’s not what’s happening.
Instead, Our Dems keep coming back to Try and Sneak Through Amnesty with Lame “How did this happen!” Kabuki!
Somebody in Our Huddle is Playing for the Other Team.
What we’ve done, so far, seems to have worked somewhat, but not good enough to Put this FISA Hydra Down.
I propose We specifically Identify the Dems who are Aiding Bush and the Telecoms by watching them like hawks!
Get them On-Record every step of the way, make them give Active Declarative Position Statements going in to Every Meeting.
Make Them Lead. Or, let’s Move Them Out of the Way.
One way or the other – and, this next time We may Lose the Legislation to a Determined Sell-Out – but, at least We’ll Know Whom Our Strong Leaders are, and Whom are Our Traitors.
Make FISA a Test of Principles, and let’s See who Runs Away from the Fight for Our Rights.
Semi-OT, though you did say ’tilting kilts’ above. Has anyone else seen the ad on TV of the stunning model type ogling the handsome executive with great military bearing as she’s coming down an escalator and he’s ascending toward her on the X-crossing upward escalator? After suitable eye-batting and ‘knowing smiles’ in return, camera shifts to top of his escalator to show him stepping off in full kilt regalia.
My one-quarter scottish (well yeah, ’scotch’ too) blood is tellin’ me I missed a bet lo these many years.
Often have the elders and friends admonished me of the secret merits of “new brilliant, sexy and effective tact”.
emptywheel had an important insight yesterday in the simple bean counting part of the neoFisa law’s construct. I read a study in the nsl abuse debacle that described an fbi warehouse containing >400 million reports, searches of which were decidedly difficult in the early days of the ethnic roundup; and nsls escalated beyond 5,000, as I recall; but these numbers are my approximates after a late night reading project without notetaking. It even seemed to me that some nsl letters issued to save the red tape of approaching fisa and economize on personHours required to search for communities of interest in that physical warehouse. Somewhere else I remember the figure of 20,000 fisa wiretap requests in 2005. Then there is the metadata algorithmic search filtering. I would ask, as well, given the lax oversight of advertising company spyware, whether the collections of searchstrings the government pried from all the principal internet companies generated yet further search capacity.
The gist, to me, is the fisa update is part of the same plan as the administration deployed in summer 2007. Perhaps I will research this with the best crs librarian sites, as I think a lot of the raw data about fisa’s workload and the vagaries of nsl implementation the past 7+ years may reside at crs, as well. But I think the internet providers are being evasive about what they did and how they design the government’s vacuuming of data into prototypes of their own proprietary software. Then there is the, for me, still unanswered question of what exactly existed in a fairly preternatural form on the Quantico circuit that would have been more difficult to mine elsewhere on the topology.
IANAL but I thought this might be helpful. Scott Horton says it might be relevant that US argued in ‘Yugoslavia’ that senior political officials seeking immunization against prosecution was not only ineffective but was evidence of a broader conspiracy in underlying crimes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiFpT3RBKnM
Indeed, Hoyer seemed to ‘get it’, which makes this latest news all the more disturbing. Confusing.
Late friday… when’s the news dump coming?
Writing from a Soviet gulag in Siberia in the 1950’s Daniel L. Andreev saw the tendency to what unfolds now:
The Rose of the World, p. 9. Andreev died in 1959. As for lines around the block to purchase GTAIV: bread and circuses, circuses and bread. The formula is not new for cloaking the structural realities of the imperium. Nor is the impulse for total surveillance. That Congress does not see that it is surrendering to a cruel inevitability that can only be stopped if checked is part and parcel of the lack of a sense of the tragic. It is out of a sense of the tragic from which noble human action arises. The moral dimensions of the issue of immunity are vast. Does Congress not see who they are becoming and down what path they lead us. This administration has all the earmarks of modern tyranny delineated by a prisoner of Soviet totalitarianism. Its power in governance arise from what Andreev calls,
Rose, p. 9.
When will the line be drawn with respect to the limits of executive prerogative? The blocking of FISA renewal over the issue of immunity has stood as a symbol of this line. Where will the stand for accountability be made? Perhaps it is naive to appeal to a sense of the wisdom in the self-imposed limitations of self-governance. A rough beast slouches toward Bethlehem.
bravo! bravo! So well put
I’ve already contacted my house critter by email and telephone and I was assured that she(Hirono) was adamantly against immunity…
The Hill is reporting the Carney is being targeted by the House Goopers…!
when you consider that the premise for the decision to circumvent fisa stems from the olc “opinions” that have been exposed to be worthless junk,it seems to me that none of their arguments for immunity have any basis at all.These decisions were kept secret until recently and had the effect of a smoke screen to enable the admin to keep from answering to anyone.These teleco lawsuits are the perfect instrument to expose everything.Everthing and anything must be done bring this about.If the dems concede on this it will take 50 years before the truth comes out
I would like to understand Sen. Whitehouse’s position on ‘telecom immunity’. Do I recall signs that he may be in favor of such? If so, doesn’t that seem to conflict with his interest in oversight, accountability, the rule of law, and good government in general?
If someone were to be invited to explain their thinking, I would suggest it be him. It might also be that a clear position coming from him would provide some very good lines to spread around to other Congress-critters.
Just FYI; I left a hypothesis at end of previous thread.
Shorter: in many situations where Roberts Rules are in force, you realize a crap law/statute is going to pass and you don’t have the votes to stop it. You can dig in your heels, fight for principle, and throw your body on a pyre of futile ranting.
Or you can plug your nose and vote with the majority.
As someone ‘voting in the majority’ you then have the authority to later ‘bring it back for reconsideration’ at a later time, when you have more ammo and more votes.
No idea whether this explains Whitehouses’s actions.
Just a surmise.
don’t think so. he voted in committee against taking immunity out of the intelligence committee’s bill as well as voting the entire bill out of committee.
when i called his office on it (to ask why), the first two days the person answering the phone didn’t believe he’d done it (he wouldn’t do that – you must have it wrong) until they 1) read the report on line and 2) checked with a legislative aide. sounded like his office wasn’t all that happy about it either.
It’s enough to have to deal with a corrupt,politicised,secret fisa court that is free to interpret the fisa laws without any oversight,let alone the thought of this doj serving “justice” to these thugs.
I think it would be really helpful if we could reach out to the Southern Blue Dogs. My Congressman, Jim Cooper, has no reason whatsoever to vote with the Blue Dogs. He is the son of a Democrat former governor of Tennessee, was a Morehead scholar, a very prestigious award for smarts, at Univ of North Carolina, a Rhodes Scholar, and a JD from Harvard. He was a congressman from a district south of Nashville, quit to run for Al Gore’s Senatorial seat in 1994, got thwacked by the ignorant and indolent Fred Thompson, moved to Nashville, and took the house seat in 2002 when another son of, Little Bob Clement, quit to run for the Senate seat Thompson vacated out of sheer laziness. He has the seat as long as he wants it.
Cooper’s interest is in fiscal responsibility. He is involved in the Concord Coalition, and authored a bill to require federal agencies to report their receipts and expenditures on a GAAP basis (I have an autographed copy, it’s really interesting.)
The thing is that as smart and charming as he is, his affiliation with the blue dogs is going to kill his potential in this House. People need to point this out to him. People in Nashville.
John Tanner is another Blue Dog, one of its founders. There are rumors he wants to run for governor when our current guy quits. There is nothing in the Blue Dog charter that has the first thing to do with telecom immunity. The group is big on “national security”, and that might have justified the group in taking a position on the Protect America Act, but that won’t be relevant to an up or down vote on telcomm immunity. People all over Tennessee can make that point to Tanner, pointing out that he needn’t look for statewide office as a Democrat if he cannot vote with Democrats, and instead votes with the likes of Van Hilleary and the odious Marcia Blackburn.
We need this kind of analysis on all of the potential Dems who might vote with the repubs, so the calls will work. That requires a lot more than my amateur analysis. What can we get from some of the serious wonk sites on these people?
Just for whatever it is worth, the fact that the FISA discussion keeps coming back is a sign that several somebodies are pretty scared — to the point that their collective rectums are puckering up… So, they are trying to sell our right to know, our right to an open government, to protect them from their misdeeds AGAINST US. Put another way, maybe they are sensing, or even know, that people are really pissed off at them and there is a price to be paid.
The same holds true for the idiots who buy the crap they are selling. Those who sell out are probably shaking their individual heads and saying, “There but for the grace of God…”
As for me, more and more, I have a dream… a dream that Chimpy and Dickhead will be led off to prison in chains — and I can be around to see it. I am going to make some phone calls and write some letters, but, since I live in Texas and most of the elected officials are beholden to Bush, I am not sure what good it will do.
Dick Cheney in prison chains… YES!
Haven’t been able to read up yet, but can’t help wondering: Is Chris Dodd in a position to lead again this time? Are there any members who are on the edge who expressed admiration for Dodd at the time? There was a wonderful, personal quality about Dodd’s bearing at the time that I think really touched many people, and it would be good to build on that now. If possible.
Also recall the considerable money that Dodd raised as a direct result of his leadership. Reluctant as I am to be that crass, maybe that potential upside could be brought to the attention of any waverers in the, uh, House.
i don’t know… looks like the action will once again be in the house to block it. but i’m usually wrong when it comes to predicting this stuff, so who knows.
the other thing is that while dodd did a lot to help bring attention to the issue (and i don’t regret sending him $ – the only presidential candidate i contributed to), in the end he didn’t filibuster – he agreed to that damn UC on, i think 1/31 (?) which was his only chance (even if slim) to block it in the senate.
I think it’s important to remind everyone of a very sound principle in Intelligence circles, and it is
Hawks Kick Celtic Ass Score to Follow–Put a Fork in the Celtics tonight.
“Dem fighting words….”
Too much Za-Za…
“Rivers has continually said that, 66 regular-season wins notwithstanding, these guys are unproven as a playoff unit and have yet to win anything.
Boy, was he right.” Ryan, Globule
The Celt’s green shoemaker ain’t giving away our crock of hidden treasure, just yet.
Doc will deliver his knock-out meds.
Hawks force Game 7 with #1 Seed Sunday 1PM 103-100
Imvho, the best way to Win Over All the Multitudes in Our Own Party – and to Attract All the Good Goopers looking for something *Genuinely Better* is to Hold Our Own Dem Leadership to the Standard of Principled Excellence.
The Goopers already know what Compromised Governance looks like, and they aren’t going to ‘cross-over’ for more of the same from Nancy, or Harry, either.
In all honesty, Our Biggest Liabilities right now are Our Dem Leaders – they have yet to come through the Fire of Principled Test with any perceptible Mettle.
For crying out loud – we’re still fucking around with FISA!
Taking Impeachment Off the Table could Actually have been either a Strong Move or a Weak Move, however with Back Room Steny and Jello Jay working to Sell US Out – again – it’s getting Clearer All the Time Who Isn’t Leading from Principled Strength.
We shouldn’t let Our Dem Leaders get away with being LINOs…
The Greatest Hope the Goopers have for Ever resurrecting their Failed Party is through Principled Leadership.
The Greatest Risk the Dems have for becoming a Failed Party is through Lack of Principled Leadership.
I fear Our Dem Leaders aren’t strong enough, and will fumble away any advantage that Our Patient Endurance of Bushco’s Corruption Implosion may have brought…
…so, let’s find out – as soon as possible – We’ll want the Best Possible, Honorable Leaders in the House and Senate for Our incoming Dem President.
i agree. and i don’t know why we’re not doing that, especially with regard to pelosi.
Just found this tool for contacting lots of Congressional office quickly. Maybe it could be adapted?
Although the privacy issues of FISA are important to me, the economic implications (for the Bushies getting away with money laundering, as well as the potential for economic blackmail) are at least as ominous.
Well I dusted off my hillbilly protesters toolkit.. And have one quick reminder / suggestion.. It’s hammer time on pushing both Obama and Clinton on this issue.
OT
Will round one go to MacNamee?
Defaming ‘lying sack of shit’s reputation?
Hardly…
“That’s always a decision the client has to make. That’s not the lawyer’s decision,” Hardin said. “I’ve never seen somebody get beat up like this. In some ways, I think we’re on uncharted ground.”
Unchartered waters? Beat up and bloodied? Roger’s a fucking bully.
Where was Rusty during Bubba’s impeachment?
I write this whenever we are talking about wireless wiretaps
here is something that everyone is missing about these “wireless wiretaps” and “retroactive immunity”
it goes much deeper then “protecting our constitutional rights” or “invading our privacy”
we need protections against this type of behavior from government officials to protect the information we are most proud, not really to guard the information we are most embarrassed
without these protections a government “official” using the cover of his office can steal your patent ideas, plagiarize your manuscripts, find out your business sources, what you pay for product and who you buy, what you are willing to pay, who you sell to at what price.
in other words, without these protections “officials” can steal from you and they can do it legally
those are only some of the reasons, the reasons are legion
democrats and progressives need to frame this debate along those lines, this is a much more forceful point to be made and it strikes at the republican brand;
“why do you want someone who works for the government given the legal authority to steal from you?”
you see this?…that is the most effective method of convincing those that think “if you’ve done nothing wrong you have nothing to hide”
“the only people that have nothing to hide are failures”
now, if we allow “retroactive immunity” that means any information criminals have gathered, no matter what intellectual property they have stolen, they can keep and there will be no redress
these are the proper methods for discussion this issue
OT Here’s the whole nine yards on the whole nine yards.
All love and blessings, MarieRoget, to you and your family!
Louisiana Democrat Takes House Seat
Used to live in that district when I taught in Baton Rouge. It’s been bright red there forever-amazing that a Dem can now win it. Cazayoux seems to have a good rep locally as a member of the LA House & former prosecutor. This is great news, & hopefully a harbinger of changing times in the fall.
Thanks so much for all the good wishes upthread re: my daughter’s wedding. It went off w/out any problems, bride & groom were beaming & left for a short honeymoon @ Lake Tahoe, my very Repub ex & my Kiwi bf didn’t have their usual arguments about US politics, & Mom here only got misty a few times during the ceremony, but no actual tears were spilled. All in all, a wedding success.
Another powerful tool is a simply written comment addressed to the people, focusing on the history of hard won rights and how this legislation diminishes the people’s rights personally, which is printed in each congressman’s local home papers. It’s my experience that people want to engage such issues if they understand how it relates to their lives. A well written comment (better two or three in successive weeks) will stir up debate and local action. A congressman will hear from ‘the people’.
Oh, and good morning everybody.
Morning, bmaz. I’m assuming everyone has seen Whitehouse speaking to the EPA mess?
in re: OT: Here is a picture of fairly rapid progress on rebuilding the bridge which collapsed and captured the news cycle as YkConference ended August 2007 as PAA passed with a sunset clause calibrated for 6 months. The project is expected to complete before spring 2009. The top photo in the link is a clear closeup of construction. NTSB has yet to issue the final report of how loading increases implemented over two decades passed muster, nor is there definitive elaboration of gusset size calculations, though MN government is working with CAD modeling experts at a SUNY mechanical engineering department on the latter, and with a DC-MN businesslawfirm on the former.
If FISA is crucial to this democracy, and we all believe it is then:
Why am I seeing wall to wall Reverand Wright on TV and in the print media and NO FISA?
Last week Eric Lichtblau was at FDL and not one of the gushing accolade depositors dared to ask him what Glenn Geenwald devoted entier blogs to. Why did the Times hold reporting on illegal wiretapping for 3 years? Why did it hold it on the eve of the 2004 election? What did NYT konw and when did they know it? Those are some FISA questions for you.
Why am I seeing wall to wall Reverand Wright on my TV and not one Dover Coffin–because after being deployed in Iraq Seven times David McDowell, a decorated ranger was killed last week in Iraq.
Since there are 3 Senators vying for my vote in November (actually in September at the earliest moment I can absentee vote so I don’t wait in line with people stupid enough to blieve there is an advantage in a $28 pandering colossally stupid as Super Delegate Bloomberg said “gas tax pimp.” And this would be contingent on rushing to the Senate where the candidates are never seen, and getting a tax passed against big oil companies when one party has a 51 vote majority. Pigs will fly in a cold day in hell first. This on the very day that the state of Minnesota finished a settlement for $38 million because a bridge collapsed that never should have and killed 14 people and badly injured 120 of them.
One thing for sure–nobody is doin’ nothin’ to lower your price at the pump–and nobody is drivin’ less, so maybe those gas efficient little cars will trump the big ass SUVs that make you fell like a real bad mothah when you roar down the street to the PTA or whatever.
I see a couple constants on the horizon–more Dover coffins as a stready import from Iraq and gas prices concomittantly rising dollar by dollar that have little impact on driving for most people who film commericals on BP looking for solutions and then hop into their big SUVs parked off the set.
Why did Flagpin Stephanopolis hardly touch Iraq in the Debate and why will he hardly touch it in his Mickey Mouse interview tomorrow morning? I bet he doesn’t touch the looming Black vote hemorrhage now being called the Blacklash, for the Democrats, particulary in the South that would definitely sink them in November. Bet he doesn’t ask how you pass a tax on big oil with a 51 vote Democratic majority before summer to save $28. Not a lot of Apple Macs or decnt PC laptops cost $28.
As Bob Herbert says, when closing the deal is at issue, the deal that can’t be closed is in Afghanistan and I might add in Iraq for the rest of your lives.
Overkill and Short Shrift
A Blacklash
I wonder if the Ky. Derby was a prophetic omen?
Germane to the FISA rewrite, AL did a fairly expansive review of the exclusivity concept in this August 7, 2007 post during the PAA evasion of scrutiny by FISC.
I appreciate the link John. I have often wondered though, although we follow FISA through it’s byzantine labyrinthes extensively here if I interview
1000 MDs
1000 JDs
1000 CEOs of midlevel or major enterprises (with the exception of major Telcom legal staffs, many of whom did stints at NSA, CIA, and DOJ’s Intelligence Division)
1000 PhDs in Political Science
1000 people all occupations who have graduated from college
1000 people who have an advanced graduate degree
in any large metro location in the U.S. you name
how many of the 1000 in my arbitrary groups are going to be able to name or define the names of the various provisions of the proposed FISA bills like
a) Exclusivity
b) Minimization
c) Targeting Procedures
d) Reverse Targeting Procedures
e) Certification
f) Directives
g) Judicial Review or the lack thereof
h) Feingold’s “significant purpose” amendment
i) Provisions used by Kenneth L. Wainstein, Assistant Attorney General for National Security, and his collegues along with members of SSCI and members of SJC, Addington et. al have been using to play 3 card Monte and take major advantage of the unsuspecting public
vs.
people in all the above groups who think the
$28 Gas Guzzler Gambit for Idiots is Going to happen or enhance their driving?
Just wanted to say, “thank you.” to all who have been stopping by and contributing to this thread in a somewhat organic thought process. Pretty wonderful when opening a space to share dialog on FISA and other important bits receives 19 diggs — I like that! Thanks for encouraging the process bmaz.
O/T
selise …thought you might find this interesting…
The other day when we were writing about the need to “re-brand” the Dems something odd happened later that day. I received a call from a large “branding” PR firm which happens to also do political polling. I was asked if I would participate in a Dem poll.
The next day, J. Carter was in an interview and he “strongly” put his backing to Obama and then H. Thomas, Jr. announced his switching of his superdel support to Obama while mentioning the “branding” of the party needing to change…
My husband and I wrote a letter to Obama and encouraged him in his efforts to address Rev. Wright and that it takes courage to confront the behavior of a friend and mentor. Especially, when the matter of race ends up in the middle of everything. Mentioned Washington and the US citizens could have benefited from our current leadership standing up to friends and leading public interventions that would address divisive attitudes.
Anyway…thought you would appreciate the polling story. Interesting timing…
I think that the metastasis of airheaded Reverand Wright stories that now blanket Cable stations like CNN=Politics and MSNBC=Politics (they’re claim not mine) is a colossal disservice to the American electorate and has successfully diverted and blocked their attention from the real issues.
This is precisely what the Republican party, Republican Wing Nut Talk Radio, McCain and one of the other Senators whose campaigning can hardly be distinguished from McCain’s wants.
It’s the same phenomenon that obsession with flagpins or whether someone would lead a pledge of allegiance to a flag has done to the electorate. It has pandered to their collective ignorance, and their penchant to focus away from analyzing the real issues that are dragging this country down.
It will be interesting to try to analyze how much Reverand Wright and the Gas Guzzling Gambit for pure bred idiots will impact the voters in Indiana and Michigan.
I asked my mom who suported one of Obama’s Superdelegates by working on his successful Congressional campaign last November, if she could get her friends to vote Obama in a couple weeks. She informed me that she couldn’t possibly because all her friends say they are voting for Clinton “because of Reverand Wright.”
I asked her if they could distinguish Reverand Wright who is not running and will have zero input into President Obama’s administration as to his inflammatory and blatantly false ideas, HIV used as a genocide weapon by the US government to target African Americans, embracing Farrakhan’s ideology, that the US deserved 911, from Barak Obama.
She said “they aren’t going to change their minds, and now Clinton is all over the state telling them that she’s going to make their gas much cheaper. They say it’s all over TV”
[So it must be true for them then]
I said, “none of that is true. Clinton is betting that your friends are (I chose my word carefully) very, very gullible and that they can barely read and won’t read anything objective.
She said it wouldn’t matter and that I couldn’t change their minds–they’ve been seeing it on the TV.
Probably short a brain transplant, I’m sure she’s right–no puns, but she’s Wright as well.
Festival of Wrights H/T Jon Stewart.
To the degree you believe Pat Buchanan and Morning Cup O’ Joe who was removed by the judge from the one criminal case he tried to litigate, you may have total Betz cell atrophy.
CNN=politics
MSNBC=politics
their claim, not mine
RebramdomgDems: Superdelegate Migration Update
Missing Health Records McCain and Missing Financial Records Clinton; Editorial from the Paper That Endorsed Clinton 5/4/08:
I see that several of us have commented on this torture thread at Balkanization. Marty Lederman offers a half hearted defense of John Yoo, as if there was nothing that will ever happen, so why bother.
Just don’t take the bait from the resident troll over there (Bart DePalma).
Looks like you drew his bubbilicious wrath :).
I’m speculating…
McCain is being paraded around like a pinata – spray-painted ‘McBush’ on one side, and ‘McSame’ on the other.
I don’t think he’s their Candidate. Instead, he’s just tromping around carrying Bush’s Cross. He’ll go as far as he can, generating cover for Bush.
But, at some point, the Goopers will have a ‘Palace Coup’ – all pre-planned, of course, because the Goopers don’t trust each other, either – and The New “Principled” Republican Party will un-cloak itself and banish Bush with Disavowal of his Policies.
Then, the New Goopers will make a show of decrying Torture and Closing Gitmo. Proclaiming loudly the sanctity of our Civil Rights and dashing any FISA Revisions, because “the Old FISA was good enough.”
After that, they’ll start clubbing our Weak Dems into submission from the Minority position.
Otoh, if Our Dem Leaders were Strong Principled Leaders, then they’d Take the High Moral Ground, Across the Board, ASAP.
Then, closing Gitmo looks more like the Goopers are Hypocritically Covering for Themselves – We shouldn’t let them close Gitmo until there have been Proper Investigations – We should Seriously Debate in Congress the need for Preserving Gitmo as Evidence.
On FISA, we simply slam the door shut to Amnesty, and Make Bush Produce valid legal arguments to support His Prior Actions, Their Consequences, and The Liability he’s presently asking US to assume, sight unseen.
If Our Strong Principled Dem Leaders show up like that, then the Goopers will immediately burst the McCain pinata – and Get Serious about Doing the Right Thing.
Otherwise, the Goopers will bide their time and start whispering the ’secret plan’ to each other – and, as usual, the Immoral Hypocrisy of it all will escape them in their Blind Determination to ‘Win.’
So, if Our Dem Leaders are Weak and Asleep at the Wheel, then we should expect the Goopers to pick a time of their choosing to throw-away their straw dog McCain, and Shock Our Dems into Submission with their New Model Bootheel.
That’s the Gooper Plan. It’s called “Meet the New boss…”
All Our Dems have to do for the Goopers to Pull It Off is to Play Along in the Low Ground of Gooper Bright Shiny Objects.
The GOP Scumbags in the Senate like McConnell and Chamblis will always be the GOP scumbats. There is no right thing they will be doing.
McCain’s Preacher
Shoot this off to Reid and Pelosi.
LOL Loo Hoo. What optimism. You still have faith in anything that’s going to ever come from Reid and Pelosi. I’d try Bonnie and Clyde. The odds are better. *g*
Seems like a different kinda sitiation coming up. It’s possible that our elected representatives are interested in listening to their voters.
I’m all ears. There is nothing I could tell you about FISA that you haven’t been able to follow for nearly a year, but I really had my fill of the egregious beyond the pale lying that the Republicans did, including the West Wing and how easily McCasey, CIA Director Hayden, and National Security Director McConnel were coopted to lie to the public about FISA and the metaphorical yawning that the media has done with it.
I noticed that not one person questioned Eric Lichtblau the other day when he was online at FDL as to how he had skimmed the surface on it, and I know Glenn Greenwald nailed his superficial distortions in the NYT and Lichtblau muttered to Glenn that he “ran out of space.” That’s pure crap and frustrated the hell out of me.
I know critical “endgame action” to use the media and the Beltway’s stupid stilted phrase is happening with FISA and there’s not a damn thing in the media or anywhere else because it’s all being handled secretly to ensure no participation by votes and no listening to voters on this by elected representatives.
If I’m missing something here, I’m sure you won’t be shy about educating me.
Mike McConnell (how consonant careless of me).
More on Philippe Sands who is to testify Tuesday (maybe House Judiciary Comm.)
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/t…..866947.ece
“He shared dinner with these monkeys, sank beers with them, allowed them to express themselves without censure – afforded them the opportunity to hang themselves, I suppose. That is why this is such a good book, and why a film may follow. It is also why Sands will find himself facing the US Congress on Tuesday, when he will be asked to spill yet more beans.”
Pete – In the Roman Civil War, Julius Caesar faced-off against his fellow Countryman, Pompeii.
They were both at the heads of Armies of Legions that Knew Each Other.
Long story short, Caesar chased Pompeii all over Italy – always offering battle and deploying his men – and then, instead of attacking, Caesar’s men would Call Out to their Friends on the Other Side and try to convince them to ‘cross-over.’
At first, there was little response to the tactic, but over time the combination of Caesar’s aggressiveness and regular sharp deployment began to Win Over Converts – and then more and more showed up each night – they came for His Leadership.
By the time Pompeii finally took-up the fight, at Brindisi, he had suffered great loss of his best, most principled men, and was decisively defeated.
That’s what We should be doing right now – Chasing the Goopers all over America and Offering Them Principled Discussion to get them to cross-over.
I have a lot of ‘Good’ Gooper friends who have no problem doing the right thing, but none of them believe that Nancy or Harry or Hillary are Strong Principled Leaders worthy of crossing-over for – it turns out, Our Weak Dem Leaders are what’s keeping the Goopers from Reforming Themselves – they don’t have to Worry About Defections.
May be. I wish you luck. The ones I talk to are full of the Fox talking, cliches and the kind of crap that appears in RNC emails–the same points as the so-called conservative were on that panel Marcy appeared on the other day who seemed to think yelling out the name “Bill Ayres” is deep analytical thinking and comparative ideological analysis.
Indiana, a Quintissential Showcase of America’s Ignorance and Racial, Cultural
Bias
“Mah Frieunnnds” You can bet this will not be touched on the morning talk shows where Obama, Clinton, and Dean (Fox) make hour long appearances. However Reverand Jerimiah Wright Wright Wright Wright Wall to Wall Festival of Wrights will be front and center as will the delusional gas tax gambit.
Despite Alerts of No Grounding since 2004 Flawed Wiring Electrocutes Scores of GIs 2004 through 2008
McCain says this Iraq Fiasco will get enough oil for all the gas guzzlers so that there will never have to be another war to get oil (and succesful reduction of dependence on foreign oil due to the Iraq conflict has caused prices at the pump to plumet which is why 2/3 US Senators are pimping the delusional gas tax gambit which is not only systemically stupid, but would never pass Congress anyway).
I just wanna say that LA-06, MS-01, IL-11 and MD-04 should be in the talking points.
Especially MD-04.
LOL I knew it. The Senator with the pandering gas tax gambit won’t answer one tough question at all. Georgie Flag Pin just skewered her with the gas tax gambit–no economist supports it but she answers that it’s the answer for the “working class” to the “elites.”
Strategy: Use the word elite every other breath. Don’t answer any tough questions. Just push on–they’re scared of Wright Wright Wright–he’s the boogey man that will keep this filly from breaking both ankles Tuesday.
Although the gas tax holiday is basically symbolic, the excess profit
tax on big oil is a winnah…
What Congress in what country do you see that passing though not to mention that the gas tax would deplete $9 billion in road improvement money because the one we have here has hung up FISA for nearly a year, and its 51-50 and the oil companies own most of them including her in reality?
Granted we’re spending more than the annual road improvement budget that the feds kick into the states every month in Iraq but you and I could make a “Hugh’s List” of comparisons as to what we should spend money on and what we are spending money on not to mention the breaks for Big Oil, etc.
I’ll just say Georgie Flagpin damn well knows what the tough questions are, because he used to be paid to deflect them for Bill Clinton or to frame answers to them, and he’s being careful not to ask one of thme. He doesn’t dare ask about her 2007 taxes or the Library contributions she’s been determined to hide, or any of the other tough questions the Republicans are dying to have her to bring up in the fall.
The commercial for ABC Six Weeks is Connoco-Phillips “We believe in what we pass on…We Believe in Teaching” [translation] “We’re passing on Environmental Armageddon to your Children and Grandchildren”
The Gas-Guzzler Gambit
Princeton Economist Paul Krugman Steady Clinton Supporter Rips her on Gas Tax 4/29/08 “Gas Tax Follies”
Another tidbit of ‘where are they now’? http://thinkprogress.org/
“Bush loyalist Fran Townsend joining CNN.
Last month, President Bush appointed his former Homeland Security Adviser Fran Townsend to the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board. Now, Townsend is picking up another job. Politico’s Mike Allen reports today that Townsend will be joining for Bush Press Secretary Tony Snow as a CNN contributor.”
Kspena and you understand well why CNN is whoring itself to the right. Around here where a lot of CNNers live, we call ‘em Baby Fox Wannabes. When Phil Kent took over as President of CNN, and Johnathan Klien took over as President of CNN News/US the slogan became “Whores R Us Whatever to Catch Fox News.”
Fox News has over a million viewers at any one time, and CNN (the team on TV where you get the same crap no matter what month or year it is) and MSNBC have about 350,000 viewers at any one time.
That dictates having idiots like Nancy Grace who was part of the only state Supreme Court decision that ripped a prosecutor’s ass for blatant misconduct (Nancy, despised for her rule breaking, not her prowess by almost every lawyer, never talks about that case) or Glenn Beck.
It’s da numbers. And the numbers show there are more stupid well educated Americas or poorly educated Americans, or less than optimally educated Americans who watch Fox far and away than who watch CNN or MSNBC.
The numbers are these and Blogging Stocks agrees with the NYT’s Bill Carter and most other meida watch mavens:
Battle of the Brands: CNN vs. Fox (and MSNBC too):
CNN and MSNBC are getting a little boost against Fox News during primary Tuesdays, but there are only a few more of those left during May:
MAY 2008
3 Guam caucuses
6 Indiana and North Carolina primaries
13 West Virginia Democratic primary
West Virginia GOP primary (1/3 selected)
20 Kentucky and Oregon primaries
27 Idaho Republican primary
JUNE 2008
1 Puerto Rico Democratic primary
3 Montana Democratic primary
New Mexico Republican primary
South Dakota primary
AUGUST 2008
25-28 Democratic National Convention in Denver
SEPTEMBER 2008
1-4 Republican National Convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul
26 Presidential debate in Oxford, Miss.
OCTOBER 2008
2 Vice Presidential debate in St. Louis, Mo.
7 Presidential debate in Nashville, Tenn.
15 Presidential debate in Hempstead, N.Y.
NOVEMBER 2008
4 Election Day
Go Hawks in Boston Game 7 in 10 minutes on ABC–much free booze–FISA depends on this game.
The Hawks Celtics game 7 didn’t work out too well for you Pete but how about this? The horse Hillary Clinton picked to win the Kentucky Derby yesterday – Eight Belles – came in 2nd. Then had to be euthanized.
I love animals so I don’t want to sound crass and I’m afraid to myself anyway I say this does, but I see the filly there as an omen for Hillary–immediately any woman could say you’re hoping all women break their ankles and have to be euthanized (hardly) or Hillary does (nope) and rarely does that ever happen in the Derby and it was very sad.
The Hawks were terrible in evevy way and the Celtics played a superb game; Celtics defense caused turnovers; they hardly fouled; they got good percentage shots in the paint. The hawks lost the ball a good deal when it wasn’t even taken away; they got rare followup shots at the offensive basket; many of their shots were forced–shots from the top of the key when no one was keeping them from going half way to the free throw line; Hawks averaged 30 free throws a game previously and hardly got any this whole game.
Celtics won big and they deserved it; now onto the Jazz for them.
Kobe Bryant shows up in a GQ suit and tie to every game; I’d probably be showing up in a Tshirt and shorts.
Real or Not? Kobe Jumps Astin Martin going 50mph
The Celtics played the most dominant game I’ve seen them play this year but there was no pressure against them after the first 5 minutes of the second half. They are no lock for the finals but they are good and they can be great. The question is: Can they be great CONSISTENTLY?
They play the Cavs and LeBron James in the next round Tuesday night in then Gahden.
Utah lost game 1 to the firedog Lakers today, a contest until the last two minutes of the 4th quarter.
The Amherst Rugby Alumnae played the Amherst Women Rugby Club Friday. I don’t know the outcome.
Yes I should have said onto the Cavs and they picked a sad game for me to near perfection.
That body slam was no accident and could have been very dangerous C-Spine or head wise. It was a nasty deliberate move in the light of day, and it would have brought some teams’ bench out but Doc had their eye correctly on the prize.
I tried to tell emptywheel a couple threads back to bet the auspiciously named “Denis of Cork” (”Beamish” being from there) to be in the money. He made a predictable late run and clunked up for an unsurprising third at a very generous 27-1, for a trifecta payout of $3400 on a $2 bet, or almost 5-1 on a show bet. It’s just a shame I didn’t play him that way.
O/T: Guantanamo prisoner 345, Sami al-Hajj, a cameraman-reporter for Al Jazeera, was returned to Sudan on Friday along with two other Sudanese inmates from Guantanamo. For background on this case, which has been followed closely by Reporters without Borders, see this fine article from the Columbia Journalism Review last summer. Just a taste:
Notice that the first comment on that article is from Scott Horton.
I have a couple of good links about al-Hajj’s return to Khartoum (one a YouTube), but they are from Al Jazeera, and I’m not sure that EW and/or bmaz would want me to do that here. Al-Hajj is one of the prisoners who has been on hunger strike and then force-fed for some time. He is noticeably aged (arrested at age 32, released at age 39), but he sounds lucid to me.
All I know about force-feeding I learned from reading reports of what was done to British suffragettes on prison hunger strikes a century ago. That in itself sounds like a form of torture to me, although I’m sure it’s done with greater precision nowadays.
Kristof has a column on this guy today. Forced feeding more precise today? No:
Yeah — I wonder too. I have been intubated, and it is hellish even when you know there’s a good reason and they give you Demerol. The problem is that there’s a point, when the tube gets to the back of your throat, when it may go down your esophagus but then again it may go down your airways (or it may just pop out of your mouth, which is what I kept doing). If it goes into your lungs and the medics start pouring food supplements in, you will drown, of course, and that has happened — usually when the medics involved hated you in the first place and weren’t being too careful about what they were doing.
Um, um why precisely was DOJ and DOD holding Sami al-Hajj? I’m no fan of Al Jazeera but what is this crap with no charges and no attorneys that the US seems to think is appropriate? How ’bout that Alice Fisher you scumbag witch? Whazzup with that Alice? a How ’bout that scumbag Mike Mukasey whazzup with that?
Gitmo has very few differences to distinguish it (I can find none) in procedures in fact than from the way that the DOJ (that’s Christy Smith’s and LHP’s old workplace in fact) operates “Administrative Seg(regation)” in every single prison in the U.S. The DOJsters (AUSAs and USAs) and their hundreds of policy makers at EOUSA at Main Justice are not only indifferent but will litigate you over it if you sue for a client until the cows come home.
Medical care in the DOJ is reprehensibel; their docs/PAs are poorly trained, their formulary is limited and an imbecile reviewing their charts for litigation can find piss poor care and “deliberate indifference” in about .2 nanoseconds. The protean case for litigation against the BOP/DOJ is Estelle v. Gamble , 429 U.S. 97 (1976) DOJ is the mommy and daddy agency of BOP. They report to Jan Reno, John Ashcroft, no federal litigation experience Fredo the Fredo Gonzales, and currently Mike Mukasey.
People are held in administrative seg or “the hole” as it’s known on the street for months without reading material, without heat, and with their neighbor screaming at some imagined delusion as a matter of course.
Forced feeding goes on a lot more at Gitmo because there are many more hunger strikes; prisoners who are denied attorneys and held without charges for years tend to do that.
As to scabies; it is replete in the DOJ facilities and no one gives a shit. If they get scabies, and they’re in the hole, they may not get Rx for weeks.
As a rule when someone is intubated, you make sure you have direct visulization of the vocal cords, but at times it’s necessary to use blind NT (nasotracheal) intubation.
You can use sedation if you have time and it’s not contraindicated, and you can use local anesthesia on the nasal mucosa with Afrin or 4% Cocaine. You should be able to hear breath sounds bilaterally so you know you’re not in the esophagus and confirm tube placement with an X-Ray.
When you place an NGT (nasogastric tube, you use plenty of lubricant, and can use something like topical atomized 4% lidocaine in the naso/oropharynx to anesthetize.
No one in their right mind is putting food supplements or anything else down an NG tube without checking to see that it is positioned in the stomach and not in a bronchus or airway. You can hear the gastric sounds with a stethoscope or for that matter putting your ear to the stomach area, especially in small kids, and attaching a syringe filled with 2cc of air to the tube and listening for the swoosh.
Hopefully no medics or anyone else doing this “hates” their patient because that gets into the realm of torture, tort, and injury. At Gitmo administered by the US DOJ all bets are truly off, and we get into Bonehead Professor Yoo who is currently trying to fend off subpoenas for his cowardly behavior. Yoo never expected his ridiculous memo that LHP nailed quickly over at FDL that left the on point case law out, to see the light of day.
There was talk of Bush wanting to bomb Al Jazeera early on.
The Nation.
Salon.
And CNN, calling it “outlandish”.
What do you mean wanting to…???
http://www.guardian.co.uk/medi…..fghanistan
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2…..-a09.shtml
Mercy.
This is the documentary, “Control Room”. It runs about 20 minutes.
http://www.informationclearing…..eo1001.htm
“Control Room” runs 1 hour 20 minutes….
Merci aussi to Loo Hoo and to kspena for those links. I remember those attacks well. They remind me also of the shelling and bombing of a well-marked and well-known UN observation post in southern Lebanon in July 2006, an attack that was sustained over many hours, during which a senior Irish officer nearby repeatedly warned the Israelis that their only immediate targets were UN personnel. A bomb finally killed the four UN observers, one each from Austria, Finland, China, and Canada.
Kofi Annan called the bombing deliberate. The governments of Ireland, Austria, Finland, and China protested. And the PM of Canada … fell all over himself to make excuses for Israel, an astonishingly crude and cruel thing to do to the widow and family of the Canadian officer who was killed. Heckuva job supporting our soldiers and their families, Mr Harper.
there is bmaz, there really is
every single person, republican, neo-con, ultra right wing, it does not matter;
whenever I use the term;
“why do you want them to be allowed to keep what they have stolen?”
every single person raises their eybrow, asks me what I mean, I explain what they can take, what they can keep with retroactive immunity and their face goes stone cold
they have no come back, they don’t even dare suggest officials or telecoms would not steal from us, they realise at once the administration and the corporations certainly would steal from us
and every single one changes their mind about this “retro active immunity”
there is an answer, there is a method to get even the neo-cons on our side
So, for those who wonder about the economy, here’s some unpleasant pessimism from Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism. He says what I think: what the heck is the engine that will pull us out of this mess? It sure as heck won’t be financial arbitrage capitalism, focussed of making money from money rather than from investment in the real economy. My old Senior Partner, the man who introduced me to the business world, would surely hate this stuff.
The completion of Phase II of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence was mentioned on C-Span’s Washington Journal this morning. It was mentioned how sections of the investigation including the Office of Special Plans had not been completed.
Tim Starks of the Congressional Quarterly discussing U.S. Intelligence issues. He talked about the incomplete Phase II of the SSCI
http://www.c-span.org/homepage…..iveDays=30
Also on C-Span on the same program a mention of how the MSM has not touched the investigation of the Aipac/Rosen espionage trial. Worth the listen
I Called the United States Court Eastern District of Virginia/Alexandria division this morning (703-299-2102) spoke with Kathy about the U.S. vs.Rosen/Weissman case #05CR225) she said there were two motions today having to do with that case. She believed the public could attend today at 5:22 and 5:29 p.m. at 401 Courthouse square Alexandria Virginia.
We know the MSM has barely whispered anything about this investigation or trial. Chris Matthews once whispered that the trial had been delayed once again. According to several people at the Courthouse a trial date will more than likely be set at some point.
Wonder if the MSM will ever turn their spotlight on this critical investigation and trial. The American public are completely in the dark about this
I don’t want to be banal or trite, but MSM, even the most talented, is going to do little but skim the surface for the most part on most every issue that is a thread on an EW/and for a while Bmaz blog.
A great example is that the investigative reporter, Eric Lichtblau, obviously talented who covers DOJ and Terrorism issues out of their Wahsington Bureau has skimmed the suface on FISA and left out key elements of the blatantly dishonest manipulating and pandering on the part of the Republican Senate, some Blue Dog Dems, and the Intelligence Community and DOJ–turf he knows well as to FISA. This is all the more ironic because Lichtblau and Risen broke the warrantless wiretapping story in the first place after sitting on it with the NYT board since they knew about it in 2004:
How long did the Times hold its news of Warrantless Wiretapping?
A few members of MSM write helpful books, but most of the print media does a pathetic job of covering key issues.
The blogs here (and others) and the comments like yours above are where I get substantive info on issues. Thanks for the link.
TV is infinitely worse amd MSM print media is pathetic at a baseline. If you were to turn on Fox (Faux) with about 1.2 million average viewers, or MSNBC or CNN with about 350,000 average viewers these self congratulating, nauseatingly repetative airheads who call themselves “the best political team(s) in televison” are running basically two themes 24X7 and all today:
1) Reverand Wright Wright Wright Wright Wright and more Wright and more Wright
2) Clinton bullshitting at a gas pump (that she doesn’t even know how to work–does it get any dumber?) with the gas tax gambit that she couldn’t get passed to save her life in this Congress(she’s actually sponsered two viable pieces of legislation after 7 years in the Senate, that if she could get passed would save 28 cents a day or $28 a month on average, would deplete the federal road improvement budgets (think “it’s no fun to fall to my death through a Minnesota interstate bridge’s road collapse, and would do nothing to help anyone.
Let’s see: If I graduated Yale Law school, I’m deploying 8 Chevy Suburbans to film some commerical purporting how to save people money at the gas pump–should I, can I learn in a few minutes how to pull the hose off the pump, and raise the lever to make sure it will pump gas–do they teach that at Yale law school, hmmmmmm…….
It’s not a “short term fix”–it’s what you see on the 11th Avenue near the bridge in NYC when the working girls knock on your car window.
There isn’t even the honesty that she couldn’t get it passed in the Senate chamber whose door she hasn’t darkened in a year and did not show up for the FISA vote even though her SUV driver was 10 miles from the Capitol building on the day it was last taken in the Senate.
You would think that when she’s layin’ on that pillow, Andrea Mrs. Greenspan could ask ole Al to show her all the ways that the gas tax proposal is consummately stupid instead of wasting TV air time for days on end.
I have an idea: Andrea Mrs. Greenspan can interview Mr. Andrea Mitchell and ask him just how stupid and disingenuous the gas tax plan is. After all, Al got an 8.5 million dollar advance on his book on economics. He should be able to shut her up.