A number of you have been asking for my intro of Russ Feingold last Thursday. Here it is. Now that I’ve had a chance to see it I realize I had a number of misstatements (and a number of places where I glossed necessary detail–I guess I speak like I blog, for better or worse).
Wow, Marcy – what a good hair day! You look awesome.
Now to view (at work) . . . . .
Thanks for posting!
Great introduction. (BTW, you might appreciate reading my last two comments on the bmaz post on War Powers and read what Russ Feingold wrote in 2002.)
OT – Josh Gerstein of Politico has a piece up on:
The motion filed by his legal team is here (59 page PDF) and an accompanying affidavit by Risen is here (22 page PDF).
I just got back and have some things I have to do today (including an air conditioner that went out while gone and it’s a 113 or so here today – good thing we have two). Also have a court appearance I must make. But, maybe tonight, I would like to get into the depths of the Risen filings. For now I will note, this is the same judge and issue in which Risen already beat the government on a subpoena. Sooo…
Take your time bro. We’ll be here.
In case it helps your Risen posting, Steven Aftergood over at Secrecy News in his piece on the Risen motion has a bunch more of the filings associated with Risen motion including “hundreds of pages of exhibits and attachments” (360 page PDF).
The local Pacifica radio yesterday played part of Feingold*s speech to Netroots Nation. I guess the US Supreme court*s Citizens United decision is something Feingold wants Obama*s campaign to accentuate; I thought Feingold found a more balanced way of describing CU*s effects than Obama*s State of the Union address did last January.
Footnote: ?So, what was rapporteur Judith Miller formerly of the NY Times, so right about?
OBTW, and off topic, they’re rounding up Anonymous in Britain and Spain.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/22/world/europe/22hacking.html
ondelette,
according to my geek street sources (in this case, ZDNet), the person arrested was associated with Lulz, which has a reputation for cockiness and bravado. IOW, this is one of the loud-mouth braggarts who drew excessive attention to themselves. Unlike the NYT, they did not seem to think much of the connection with Anonymous.
Bob in AZ
One of the articles I read said the guy had recently pissed off the group and they had published all of his personal info (name, birth date, address, etc..) Not much detective work on the part of the authorities there.
They are committing destructive acts against government entities and corporations around the world. And governments are going to go after them, and it is pretty hard to see why they wouldn’t.
bmaz,
In your comment, who is “they”? Lulz Security in particular, or Wikileaks in general?
I realize that Wikileaks is inviting retaliation from the governments whose documents have been publicized. And I suspect that there is a real cyberwar going on both by and against Wikileaks. However, I also think they are doing a public service, a la Daniel Ellsberg. This does not excuse or exonerate them, and what they are doing is not legal, but I still think that Thomas Paine would have loved what they are doing, and would do it himself (especially while the British were still trying to run things in eastern North America.
Bob in AZ
My comment had nothing whatsoever to do with Wikileaks.
Good. Thanks for the clarification.
Bob in AZ
5 WikiLeaks Revelations Exposing the Rapidly Growing Corporatism Dominating American Diplomacy Abroad
One of WikiLeaks’ greatest achievements has been to expose the exorbitant amount of influence that multinational corporations have over Washington’s diplomacy.
1. US officials work as salespeople for Boeing.
2. US diplomats by day — Monsanto henchmen by night.
3. Pharmaceuticals + US diplomats = best friends forever.
4. Washington ‘hearts’ abusive mining companies in Peru.
5. Diplomats as corporate spies.
In almost all of the cables, the US government interprets the enemies of corporate power as being enemies of the United States.
As a result, leftist activists and community organizers, particularly those who threaten corporate profits, are regularly targeted.
Unions, environmentalists and indigenous communities that challenge multinationals are consistently regarded with disdain and viewed as hostile villains.
The US government’s propensity at conflating threats to corporate interests as threats to US interests should alarm anyone who values democracy.
http://www.alternet.org/story/151370/5_wikileaks_revelations_exposing_the_rapidly_growing_corporatism_dominating_american_diplomacy_abroad/?page=entire
btw is it just us but has mainstream media ANYWHERE completely stopped reporting on any of the Wikileaks ????
It is good to know that the USG cyberwar against Wikileaks has not shut it down, even if Assange’s dick is on the chopping block. I interpret “freedom of the press” to include Wikileaks, and am sure that if Tom Paine were alive today, he’d be working with wikileaks.
Thanks for your report!
Bob in AZ
7:10 Rumors swirled last night that Barrett Brown, the writer often described as a “spokesman” for Anonymous until recently, had come up with a startling revelation that would appear today in the NYT and the Guardian and maybe elsewhere. I haven’t had time to check yet if anything has appeared in the media so far but this morning’s email (he says to only a dozen reporters) brings this intro from Brown: “The following document will be posted on the Project PM wiki, http://wiki.echelon2.org/wiki/Main_Page, within 24 hours; a shorter summary will go up on The Guardian’s website at some point afterward. This particular e-mail is going out to a dozen or so reporters who I believe to be equipped to run with it. The New York Times and a few other outlets were provided with this last night. Further details concerning the program described may be found by searching through the HBGary e-mails with this viewer: http://search.hbgary.anonleaks.ch/. Any outlet or individual is free to run this in whole or in part. If anyone has any questions, let me know.”
Here’s his opening: “For at least two years, the US has been conducting a secretive and immensely sophisticated campaign of mass surveillance and data mining against the Arab world, allowing the intelligence community to monitor the habits, conversations, and activity of millions of individuals at once. And with an upgrade scheduled for later this year, the top contender to win the federal contract and thus take over the program is a team of about a dozen companies which were brought together in large part by Aaron Barr – the same disgraced CEO who resigned from his own firm earlier this year after he was discovered to have planned a full-scale information war against political activists at the behest of corporate clients. The new revelation provides for a disturbing picture, particularly when viewed in a wider context.” He warns that this apparatus could be used within the US and elsewhere in the world. Details to come.
http://www.thenation.com/blog/161590/wikileaks-news-views-blog-wednesday-june-22#node-161590
US conducting ‘mass surveillance’ against Arab world: report
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/06/22/u-s-conducting-mass-surveillance-against-arab-world-report/
Barrett Brown Comment Is Free @ The Guardian UK
A sinister cyber-surveillance scheme exposed
Hacked emails from security contractor HBGary reveal a disturbing public-private partnership to spy on web users
In February 2011, the hackers’ collective Anonymous released 70,000 emails from security contractor HBGary, which revealed that CEO Aaron Barr had offered the firm’s services to mount cyber-attacks against WikiLeaks and others on behalf of corporate clients.
After having spent several months studying those emails and otherwise investigating the industry depicted therein, I have revealed my summary of a classified US intelligence programme known as Romas/COIN, as well as its upcoming replacement, known as Odyssey. The programme appears to allow for the large-scale monitoring of social networks by way of such things as natural language processing, semantic analysis, latent semantic indexing and IT intrusion. At the same time, it also entails the dissemination of some unknown degree of information to a given population through a variety of means – without any hint that the actual source is US intelligence.
Altogether, the existence and nature of Romas/COIN should confirm what many had already come to realise over the past few years, in particular: the US and other states have no intention of allowing populations to conduct their affairs without scrutiny.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/jun/22/hacking-anonymous
So, what can we do about this? Can someone stop this through court action? We have a neo-liberal President, a bought and paid for Congress (just extended the Patriot Act), and a radically conservative majority on the Supreme Court. I hate to say this, but I think the only way this will change direction is for the rest of the world to recognize what is happening and do something about it.
Ya beat me to it. Good!!
Related:
Europe concerned over legality of data storage deal with US
“Lawyers for the European Commission have announced that a proposed deal allowing the US to store for 15 years the personal data of passengers flying between Europe and the US is illegal.”
LINK.
Oh, and has anybody seen our 4th Amendment lately?
BTW, I hope Russ Feingold maintains his positions. Should we write in his name for President in 2012?
James Risen: USA Government Prying Into My Private Phone Records
writes Risen. “I have learned from an individual who testified before a grand jury… that the Government had shown this individual copies of telephone records relating to calls made to and from me.”
a senior law enforcement official said, “It’s time for you to get some new cell phones,” because phone calls of reporters were being tracked as part of a “widespread” CIA leak investigation.
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/james-risen-government-prying-private-phone-records/story?id=13897076
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/06/22/u-s-allegedly-spying-on-new-york-times-reporter-james-risen/
OT Negligent Homicide in Sweat Lodge Case
ew… :-)
OCC Gives Banks Another Blow Job
– Yves Smith, Naked Capitalism
a very good job indeed, ew.
your introduction was engaging and informative, with a nice thread of humor woven throughout. in particular, for me, it was informative with respect to sen. feingold’s impeccable sense of the public good on a large range of issues over a long time span.
i hope, like others before him, that once free of the senate’s sucking mud, feingold can return to public service in a format that multiplies his talents and vision rather than mutes them.
Michigan Residents File Lawsuit Challenging Emergency Law Installing Unelected City Managers; Democracy Now!; 6/23/11
Good! It’s about time someone challenged that law.
Thanks,
Bob in AZ
And nothing will be done about it.
Second Harlan Crow Connected Group Has A Perfect Litigation Record Before Justice Thomas
LINK.
Yes and no.
If enough of his compromising actions are publicized, it’ll turn into a drip-drip-drip.
Here’s hoping.
OK, I’ll keep looking for that drip-drip-drip, then.
Meanwhile, another nemesis has yet another moment in the spotlight, thanks to the O-Team, and he is going for all he can get.
John Yoo On Libya: Obama Reached Right End Through Wrong Means LINK.
Heh, TPM picked up on that from me and a Twitter comment I made early this morning.
Well, good on you! And thanks to you and Bob @ 33 & 34 for your comments on Thomas. Perked me up a bit and pulled me out of my one-rule-of-law-for-them/another-rule-of-law-for-us doldrums.
Well, that is the thing; the case IS really there to be made against Thomas, it is just that what is likely the best case is not the one getting all the buzz.
I am not surprised by the Yoo comment. Go read my last few comments and the documents I linked to in the bmaz post about Obama War Powers. Yoo made his comment to protect himself due to War Powers testimony he gave to defend Bush. (Seriously, go read his testimony I linked to.) Yoo is full of bull and just practicing CYA.
fatster, the two documents that I linked to are your kind of reading for the kind of research you appreciate.
Seriously, all this “conflict of interest” stuff is, quite unfortunately, going nowhere as to Thomas. It is simply settled by Scalia and his shrill little place marker in the Cheney energy task force mess. People can yammer all they want, but the best way to attack Clarence Thomas is on the criminally and civilly illegal disclosure violations from he and his wife’s tax reporting. Those offenses are crystal clear under the law and if they are not going to be pursued, clamoring about conflicts is going nowhere with a bullet. I wish it were different, but I just cannot see how it is.
Well, some are trying to do something about it. There are a number of petitions going around asking him to resign. That won’t happen, but some of the documented conflict of interest charges may be worthy of impeachment. Which is where bmaz’s comment leads us.
And some will say, “But there’s no chance that it will succeed,” to which I would reply, so what? I’m interested in the *public process,* at least, which will bring Thomas’s conflicted and illegal behavior to widespread public attention. To remain silent in the face of such abuses of power is to condone them. Thanks for not being silent and for bringing this to our attention.
Bob in AZ