Top US Military Officials Dedicated to Shutting People Up

* To get the full picture, be sure to go back and read the links…

Earlier this year, 23 year old Army soldier Scott Thomas Beauchamp agreed to write a diary and publish some entries for The New Republic while he served in Iraq. On July 13^th, The New Republic published this article (under the pseudonym Scott Thomas) in which Scott examines the effects war has on a soldier's humanity. To demonstrate, he told a few stories.

One of his stories took place in a mess hall where he and some buddies were sitting near a girl that had half of her face melted off by an IED. Scott ends up making fun of her, right in front of her, and examines his own motivations and guilt for doing so.

His next story was of a Saddam-era mass grave that the soldiers found while digging to construct a construction outpost. The bones they found in the grave were mostly those of children, and one of the soldiers, known for being a prankster, found the remnants of a child’s skull that was still intact. He took the skull, put it on his head, and found out it was a perfect fit. The soldier wore the skull for the rest of the day and night, even wore it under his helmet on a mission.

His third story was about dogs. I’ve heard from some friends serving in Iraq that there are stray dogs all over the place, and in Scott’s story, there was a private he knew that would purposely run them over. Then everyone would laugh as the dogs twitched and died. The driver even kept a notebook tallying his kills.

His point in telling these stories was to point out that he knew that none of this was funny, "But many of my friends were laughing anyway. That is how war works: It degrades every part of you, and your sense of humor is no exception.”

It was a moving article about the hidden costs of war. The New Republic corroborated all of his stories with the other guys that were there.

After the story was published, The New Republic reported that the Army was launching an official investigation into the stories Scott told. The New Republic also announced that although they already fact-checked the story, they would go back and do it again in order to double-back-up their evidence for those who questioned the details.

Meanwhile, the Army finished its investigation and concluded that Scott Thomas Beauchamp lied about everything he said. But some things were fishy. The New Republic, who had plenty of evidence to suggest Scott Thomas Beauchamp’s story was true, asked for the documents from the Army investigation to check them out for themselves. They were given the run-around. While they struggled with the Army, portions of the investigation documents were then leaked to right-wing propaganda distribution officer Matt Drudge at The Drudge Report, who briefly posted them on his website (they’ve been since taken down – I don’t know why). Scott Thomas Beauchamp was then trashed by people like Michelle Malkin and the writers at The Weekly Standard using the hand-picked selections that the Army leaked. (Michelle Malkin and The Weekly Standard writers are scary Bush people for those of you who are not “in the know”).

The New Republic is still waiting to see the documents.

In defense of their magazine and Scott Thomas Beauchamp, The New Republic published a follow up article that detailed how they corroborated Beauchamp’s story. Read it. It seemed pretty thorough to me. In this article, they admit that one fact had needed to be corrected. Turns out the “big lie” was that Scott Thomas Beauchamp had confused which mess hall he was in when he embarrassed the disfigured girl. He was in a mess hall in Kuwait, not the one in Iraq.

Everything else still appeared to be true.

After following The New Republic's ordeal with the Army, a writer named Glenn Greenwald wrote an article related to this story at Salon called “The Growing Link Between the US Military and Right-Wing Media and Blogs”. In this article, Greenwald concludes that the Beauchamp incident, and the way it was handled by the Army, could indicate that “the behavior of our "apolitical military" in Iraq is becoming indistinguishable from every other arm of the Bush/Cheney right-wing noise machine.”

In response to this article, Greenwald received an unexpected nasty email from Army Colonel Steven Boylan, the spokesman for General Petraeus in Iraq.

Here’s the text. Tell me if this email sounds childishly defensive and devoid of any actual information or arguments to you:

The issues of accuracy, context, and proper characterization is something that perhaps you could do a little research and would assume you are aware of as a trained lawyer.

I do enjoy reading your diatribes as they provide comic relief here in Iraq. The amount of pure fiction is incredible. Since a great deal of this post is just opinion and everyone is entitled to their opinions, I will not address those even though they are shall we say -- based on few if any facts. That does surprise me with your training as a lawyer, but we will leave those jokes to another day. . . .

You are either too lazy to do the research on the topics to gain the facts, or you are providing purposeful misinformation -- much like a propagandist. . . .

Sorry to burst your bubble, but a little actual research on your part would have shown that [Cheney P.R. aide Steve Schmidt] is actually not here, but that would contradict your conspiracy theory. . . . .

I am curious as to when you think the media relations or operations changed here in Iraq. I in fact do know exactly the day and time that it changed and want to see if you are even in the same ballpark as reality. . . .

For the third matter concerning the Beauchamp investigation and the documents that were leaked -- it is very unfortunate that they were -- but the documents are not secret or classified. So, there is your third major error in fact. Good thing you are not a journalist. . . .

As for working in secret with only certain media is laughable. The wide swatch of media engagements is by far the most diverse it could be. But you might not think it that way since we chose not to do an interview with you. You are not a journalist nor do you have any journalistic ethical standards as we found out from the last time I engaged with you.

As we quickly found out, you published our email conversation without asking, without permission -- just another case in point to illustrate your lack of standards and ethics. You may recall that a 30-minute interview was conducted with the program that you claim to be a contributor. So instead of doing the interview with you, we went with the real talent, Alan Colmes. . . .

I invite you to come see for yourself and go anywhere in Iraq you want, go see what our forces are doing, go see what the other coalition forces are doing, go hang out with the reporters outside the International Zone since that is where they live and work and see for yourself what ground truth is so that you can be better informed. But that would take something you probably don't have.

Steve

Steven A. Boylan

Colonel, US Army

Public Affairs Officer

Two days ago, we found out that Army Colonel Steven Boylan wrote the same type of emails to Greg Mitchell at Editor and Publisher Magazine, for a column he wrote pointing out a ‘misleading statement’ (or a lie?) told by General Petraeus to the Associated Press annual meeting in New York City in May 2007.

I don’t know what is more disturbing: That a soldier who spoke to the American people about his experience in Iraq has been trashed by his own commanding officers, that our top Army officials are involved in a misinformation campaign with the American scary fringe, or that that the top officials in the military are using their time at CENTCOM in Baghdad to intimidate reporters.

Either way, I’m feeling very Orwellian today. And as a blogger, I’m feeling pretty scared.

But I guess that was the point.

"Generation Screwed" to the Baby Boomers: Go to Hell

Peter Smith, over at the Huffington Post, wrote a post today which argued that the money being spent on the Iraq war is coming from my generation, which he dubbed "Generation Screwed", and he says we need to step up and do something about it. He concludes:

To date, Generation Screwed has been fairly passive. It's only natural. They are young, and getting established in life.

But from protests to caucuses and polling places, the time has come for them to join politically active Gen Y, X, and Baby Boomers in opposing the policies that will leave them (and the generations of Americans who will follow them) poorer and less competitive in a global economy.

Hey, Generation Screwed. Let's go.

Another self-righteous Baby Boomer. I'm so tired of this line. I am a member of "Generation Screwed", and I can tell you that we are well aware and plenty pissed that our future is being squandered right now. And the thing that really gets me is that articles like this have the audacity to tell us to get off our asses and join the Baby Boomers in fighting.

Hey, Baby Boomers - Go to hell!

I don't know how this has escaped your attention, but YOU are the one's in power right now. George W. Bush- Baby Boomer. This pathetic excuse for a Congress overwhelmingly consists of Baby Boomers. Baby Boomers, not the young, have enough money to donate to campaigns to influence elections. The media - Limbaugh, Scarborough, Dobbs, Abrams, Huffington, Olbermann, O'Reilly - Boomers, Boomers, Boomers.

And what are you doing to stop the madness? Damn near nothing! In Congress, on TV, in newspapers are Baby Boomers fighting with each other. Democrats and Republicans - bickering like school children. My generation doesn't have the power yet to stop the madness - and you do. But you continue the cycle, and look to us for someone to blame.

Instead of bitching about the young, how about you guys use the power and influence you have in this world and get your peers to knock it off? Peer pressure is a powerful thing and if warmongers and greedy CEOs felt like social pariahs, they might behave differently.

But I, for one, am angry. Very, very angry. And it is very clear to me, and my peers, that much of this is the Baby Boomer's fault. And guess what- if you want your social security checks, I suggest you stop screwing us. Right now. Because if you think for one second we are going to let you retire like Kings reigning on golf courses while we pay off Baby Boomer George W. Bush's wars (which we're dying in, by the way) you've got a serious shock coming. "Generation Screwed" may not have power right now... but we will. And payback is a bitch.

FEMA's CA Fire Response and Press Conference: Both Were Total Frauds

Last week, FEMA came to California a few days after the wildfires started. By the time they got here, firefighters had been coordinated and sent to fight more than 14 wildfires burning simultaneously throughout Southern California. Extra firefighters were called in from Arizona and Nevada to help fight the blazes. Qualcomm stadium was housing fire evacuees who had cots, food, water, games, and coffee. Rest areas with tents, food, water, and bathrooms were set up for firefighters in various spots in San Diego, Orange, and Los Angeles counties. Everyone was sheltered, fed, and as comfortable as possible.

Thanks to California, who had all this done before FEMA arrived.

Late to the party, FEMA officials came strolling in, looked around, liked what they saw, and decided to take credit for it. To take the credit, they set up a fake press conference in Washington DC. To make sure they wouldn’t have any pesky reporters reminding viewers that FEMA didn’t do anything, FEMA put their own employees in the audience to ask the questions.

Here’s how they did it. FEMA announced they would be having a ‘press conference’ to DC reporters 15 minutes before it was scheduled to start, which wasn’t nearly enough time for any reporters to actually make it there. FEMA started the ‘press conference’ right on time with the cameras focused only on the spokesman, Deputy Director Harvey Johnson. When the reporters called to say they wouldn’t be able to make it on time, FEMA told them they could listen in on a one-way phone line, but they wouldn’t be able to ask any questions. While the real reporters listened, the FEMA employees in the audience threw soft balls like, “Are you happy with FEMA’s response so far?” The spokesman was then able to ramble on about FEMA's greatness completely unopposed.

But the real reporters listening in on the phone realized that the names of the ‘reporters’ in the press conference matched the names of FEMA employees. Oops. Shouldn’t have addressed anyone by saying their names out loud. FEMA got caught.

But here’s the thing: while we are all focusing on this disgusting fake press conference and who’s head we’re going to get for it (which is apparently going to be Pat Philbin's, FEMA’s head PR guy) the most important thing is still being ignored. The fact that FEMA is taking credit for a job they didn’t do.

All available signs says that FEMA is probably no better today than they were during Katrina. For example, Malibu, Santa Clarita, and Castaic started burning on the morning of Sunday, October 21^st. FEMA set up shop in Malibu, Santa Clarita, and Castaic on Wednesday, October 24^th. If that lady whose castle burned down didn’t have enough money to live in a freakin’ castle, she would have been sleeping in her car for 3 days until FEMA arrived.

If California didn’t have an army of volunteer firefighters, a reverse 911 evacuation call system up and running, a Governor with enough sense to immediately recruit other states for help, and citizens that made sure they were prepared, we would have lost many more homes and many more lives in those 3 days before help arrived. We could have done a lot better with more manpower and resources, but overall this was a victory for California.

But we as a nation should be very concerned.

I may sound like a California elitist (and I don’t care because what I’m about to say is true) but a lot of other states in this country have not prepared themselves for their natural disasters the way Southern California has prepared for our fires, and as we saw in Louisiana, FEMA can not be counted on in its current form. That organization is being run by the same guy, Michael Chertoff, who was in charge of Katrina, and the only lesson they seem to have taken away from that experience is that the press needs to be effectively manipulated and controlled. After all, they sure didn’t show up much earlier to our disaster, and no one knows how they would have performed after arrival because California already had everything done.

We, as a nation, cannot take comfort in the fact that things went relatively well out here last week. Our federal defenses in the War of Mother Nature, in the hands of Michael Chertoff and the rest of the Bush Administration and their "If you can't win it, then spin it" mentalities, are tragically weak. And our enemy is getting stronger and less predictable every day due to our rapidly changing climates. We need new national leadership whose first priority is getting help to the people, not managing the media messages, or the next less-than-self-sufficient-state to get hit is going to pay dearly in life, property, and faith in our country.

But since we can't get new leadership for over a year, every state should begin work right now to be sure they can fend for themselves.

Mitch McConnell Giving Our Taxes to Dirty Contractor

From Think Progress:

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is pushing “$25 million in earmarked federal funds for a British defense contractor that is under criminal investigation by the U.S. Justice Department and suspected by American diplomats of a ‘longstanding, widespread pattern of bribery allegations.’” McConnell has taken at least $53,000 in campaign donations from the contractor’s political action committees and employees since his 2002 re-election. McConnell spokesman Don Stewart did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Oh really now?

*UPDATE*

The British defense contracting company under investigation by the Justice Department, and getting our tax dollars from Mitch McConnell, is called BAE Systems.

In June, BAE confirmed that the Justice Department is investigating possible corruption in its Saudi Arabian deals. According to British media reports, BAE set up a slush fund with hundreds of millions of dollars in a Washington, D.C. bank to bribe Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan in order to win weapons contracts. [...]

The British Serious Fraud Office later opened its own investigation of BAE's Saudi deals. But Prime Minister Tony Blair ordered the case closed last year, citing potential damage to British-Saudi relations and possible disclosure of military secrets. (source)

(The source for the above quote has since been taken down from kentucky.com's website, a news source in McConnell's home state. However the same, and actually some better, information can be found here from Forbes).

Saudi Arabia. Go figure.

Isn't it interesting that Tony Blair, George W. Bush's best partner-in-war, shut down the investigation of a dirty weapons-related money deal and Saudia Arabia?

(Random thought...why does the Bush Administration want to bomb Iran?)

The $25 million dollar bundle of cash ('earmark') that Mitch McConnell is giving to BAE Systems is in the current Defense Appropriations Bill, which is almost ready to go to the President for his binding signature.

The defense appropriations bill awaits action by a Senate-House conference committee that will iron out differences between bills from the two chambers before sending one bill to President Bush for his signature. Members of the conference have not been chosen, but McConnell sits on the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that controls defense spending. (source)

Congressional To Do List

1. Keep Mitch McConnell out of that conference committee.
   
2. Get McConnell's 'earmark'...'bribe fulfillment'... 'favor'...'whatever'... to BAE "Bribing And Earning" Systems out of the Defense Appropriations bill.
3. Launch a Congressional investigation into Mitch McConnell's ethics violations (like giving $25 million of our tax dollars to his campaign contributor).
   
4. Get Mitch McConnell out of the Senate Minority Leader position, if not the Senate itself.
   

Southeast US Quickly Running Out of Water

Everyone knows that California has a water shortage, considering our state damn near burned down last week. But lesser known are the severe water shortages in the American Southeast.

According to the New York Times, "for the first time in more than 100 years, much of the Southeast has reached the most severe category of drought... creating an emergency so serious that some cities are just months away from running out of water."

Cities in North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Florida are in real danger of having no water left very soon. Estimates have their water resources running dry before 90 -121 days. You know things are bad when the timeline is measured in days.

Residents of these states are being ordered to cut their water usage by 50%, with the penalty of having their water shut off if they don't comply. Watering of lawns has also been outlawed.

The water shortages have also led to lawsuits over water rights. Georgia is suing the Army Corps of Engineers demanding that they stop sending so much of the water to neighboring states. This has angered Florida, who depends on the water that flows downstream from Georgia. I can only imagine that this interstate fighting will only get worse.

The danger now facing the Southwest should serve as a lesson for the rest of the country, especially the American west. As exhibited by the header of this website and in this post, Lake Mead is running dry. 90% of Las Vega's water comes from Lake Mead. This body of water, along with the drying Lake Powell and Colorado river, also serves the residents of California. Despite the overwhelming evidence that we are in danger of being of soon being in the same situation as the Southeast, we continue to water our perfect green lawns and refill our huge swimming pools.

Day after day, we keep ignoring the problem, expecting it to magically go away. Guess what neighbors. It won't. Look to the Southeast. That's our future.

Do we really want to let it get to the point that we are told we have 90 days left to find more water? Is our vanity really worth our survival?

And just a reminder: we not only need water for drinking, cooking, and bathing. We also need it to fight fires. We need a lot of it to fight fires.

Don't you think that our lawns and pools (especially now that we are heading into the winter) are a small price to pay for the ability to keep living here? Might now be the time to start conserving for real?

Slave Labor Used In US Embassy Construction

The Telegraph of London reported earlier this month that the Department of Justice has begun an investigation into slave labor being used to construct the 104 acre US Embassy in Iraq.

Disaffected employees have alleged that workers from Asia and West Africa were deceived in Kuwait into flying to Baghdad by being given boarding passes that said Dubai for chartered flights to Iraq.

Once on the ground, an unspecified number of labourers had their passports seized, effectively trapping the workers in Iraq for the duration of their contracts.

The allegations have been dismissed by the State Department, but partially supported by auditors in the Defense Department.

Congress is also aware of the situation. On July 26, 2007 Rory Mayberry, an EMT who was hired by First Kuwaiti (a company in charge of construction of the US Embassy), testified that he had personally witnessed 51 Filipino nationals be tricked into flying to Baghdad and then brought to work on the US Embassy under dangerous working conditions.



Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was questioned today in a House Oversight Committee hearing about the construction of the US embassy in Iraq. The only notable thing about today's hearing was that this issue was not addressed.

Terrorist Watch List Has 755,000 Names

The Government Accountability Office reports that the terrorist watch list has grown from 158,374 names in June 2004 to over 755,000 today. The list has grown by a approximately 200,000 names per year.

I have to wonder if a list this large is anything more than useless.

Donald Rumsfeld "Personally Involved" in Guantanamo Abuse

In a new book titled Administration of Torture: A Documentary Record from Washington to Abu Ghraib and Beyond,two ACLU investigators reveal their findings on a year-long search into 100,000 government documents turned over to them by the Bush Administration regarding Guantanamo Bay.

Highlights from Raw Story:

"[T]he documents show unambiguously that the administration has adopted some of the methods of the most tyrannical regimes," write Jameel Jaffer and Amrit Singh. "Documents from Guantanamo describe prisoners shackled in excruciating 'stress positions,' held in freezing-cold cells, forcibly stripped, hooded, terrorized with military dogs, and deprived of human contact for months." [...]

Drawing almost exclusively from the documents, the authors say there is a stark contrast between the public statements of President Bush and then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and the policies those and others in the administration were advocating behind the scenes. [...]

The ACLU also found that an Army investigator reported Rumsfeld was "personally involved" in overseeing the interrogation of a Guantanamo prisoner Mohammed al Qahtani. The prisoner was forced to parade naked in front of female interrogators wearing women's underwear on his head and was led around on a leash while being forced to perform dog tricks.

Maybe we should prosecute Donald Rumsfeld along with Alberto Gonzales. They can share a cell...

Venezuela's President Trying to Expand His Power

Taking a page right out of the Bush Administration playbook, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is trying to amend their Constitution to expand his own powers, BBC News reports.

Among other proposed changes, if the Constitution were amended in the manner proposed, Hugo Chavez would be "allowed to bypass legal controls on the executive during a state of emergency."

NSPD-51 anyone?

One difference, however, between the Hugo Chavez power grab and the George W. Bush power grab is that if the proposed measures pass in Venezuela, "all the measures will be put to a popular referendum in December."

The proposals have been met with violent protest in Venezuela. But hey... at least they get a vote.

CA Firefight Slowed by Absence of CA National Guard

According to Lt. Col. John Siepmann, in a San Francisco Chronicle article, 50% of California's National Guard equipment is either in Iraq or in some other part of the world, causing the fire fights to be that much harder due to their absence.

Some examples of the approximately $1 billion worth of missing equipment include all 39 CA National Guard diesel generators and all 1,410 GPS devices.

California could have also benefited from the approximately 1,500 National Guard personnel that are deployed in Iraq.

Satellite Image of California Wildfires

Picture courtesy of Pichaus:

Confused in Arkansas

Open Email to KCAL 9 in Los Angeles

KCAL 9,

Thank you for your great coverage of the fires today. I have lived in Southern California most my life and have a number of friends and family with property around the affected areas. I think you guys are doing a great job, especially considering the unprecedented magnitude of today’s fires and how much information you have to report.

One suggestion on your coverage: Please be more diligent about labeling the locations of the fire footage. At this point, each of those pictures could be from almost anywhere in Southern California. You can imagine that a viewer watching for developments on the Malibu fire has some tense moments when they turn on your channel to see a blanket of fire, and then have to wait to find out which fire they’re watching.

Keep up the great work!

CIA "Terroist-Buster" Logo

The CIA has just rolled out this new "Terrorist Buster" logo. This is not a joke.




Are we over this foolishness yet?

Rush Limbaugh Blackmailed A Journalist

On the October 15th episode of his radio show, Rush Limbaugh admitted that he blackmailed an unnamed journalist with threats of defamation in order to get the journalist to change a story.

From Media Matters:

Limbaugh said his target was a reporter, whose name he said he would not "mention," who was writing "a cover story on me coming out of one of the big news magazines, and it was going to totally mischaracterize me and what I do and how I do it." Limbaugh continued: "[W]e found out who was writing it and made a couple phone calls to the person writing it. And we said, 'You know what? We're going to find out where your kids go to school. We're going to find out who you knocked up in high school. We're going to find out what drugs you used. We're going to find out where you go to drink and do -- we're gonna find out how you paid for your house. We're going to do -- and we're going to do exact -- and we're going to say that, you know what? You are no different than Al Goldstein. You both masturbate.' " Limbaugh then claimed: "And the guy started screaming on the phone, just went -- 'You can't do that.' We said, 'Watch us.' And it changed the tone of the story by about 60 percent, I would say, from what it was going to be.

The worst part is the pride Limbaugh exhibits in his shameful and illegal actions. He has no doubt that there will be no repercussions. Why else would he be so comfortable announcing that he committed a crime on national radio?

Bush Started Wiretapping Americans Before 9/11

Joseph Nacchio, the former CEO of Qwest, testified that the Bush administration, via the NSA, "had asked Qwest to participate in a warrantless spying program more than six months before the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, citing court documents unsealed in Denver".

"According to Nacchio's account, the surveillance proposal was made at a meeting on Feb. 27, 2001, the report said."

Qwest refused to participate, believing the request to be illegal. "Qwest's decision not to participate in the surveillance program prompted the government to cancel a separate NSA contract", which effectively hurt the struggling company.

So much for "9/11 changed everything". Seems to me that 9/11 just shifted the Bush administration's already formed plans into overdrive.

Verizon Wiretapped Over 94,000 People Since '05

A Washington Post article published last week revealed that Verizon gave the government information on 94,000 people with a court order and 720 people with no court order since 2005.

If you do the math, that's 117 people per day since January 2005.

"Verizon also disclosed that the FBI, using administrative subpoenas, sought information identifying not just a person making a call, but all the people that customer called, as well as the people those people called."

"The information was used for a range of criminal investigations, including kidnapping and child-predator cases and counter-terrorism investigations."

"Carriers are facing a raft of lawsuits from individuals and privacy advocates, such as the EFF and the American Civil Liberties Union, for allegedly violating Americans' privacy by aiding the NSA's warrantless surveillance program."

"The federal government has intervened, arguing that to continue the case would divulge "state secrets," jeopardizing national security."

More like continuing the case would divulge even more about how much they're spying on us.

This has got to throw immunity out the window at least until we find out what the other companies have done.

Michael Mukasey: Not The Constitution's Friend

Katherine at Obsidian Wings wrote an interesting post yesterday regarding President Bush's Attorney General nominee Michael Mukasey. After watching the confirmation hearing, she concluded:

None of the statements that I’ve read today give me any real information or reassurance about what he will do as Attorney General. [...]The statements that “I categorically denounce torture,” “the United States doesn’t torture,” “torture is antithetical to our values”—they are meaningless from members of this administration.

While she is absolutely right that his blanket statements are meaningless, I have to disagree that we didn't learn any real information about what Michael Mukasey would do as Attorney General. Quite the opposite actually. We learned quite a bit, but from different statements.

The mindset Mukasey exhibited, via the following examples, and the conclusions that can be drawn, paint a disturbing picture.

During his confirmation hearing:

1) Michael Mukasey made excuses for President Bush's violations of FISA.

SENATOR ARLEN SPECTER: We're talking about the 'terrorist surveillance program',which has warrantless wiretaps, contrasted with FISA which says the exclusive procedure to have a wiretap is to get a warrant. Now, what the President did violates FISA. Is it justifiable under his Article 2 powers?

MICHAEL MUKASEY: As I understand it, the President believed, and still believes, that FISA was not the only applicable statute. That he was acting with authorization under the authorization for the use of military force. I understand that there's more than one view on it.

SENATOR ARLEN SPECTER: Judge Mukasey, I don't think anybody ever really seriously contended that our resolution of September 14 authorizing the use of force encompassed a violation of FISA.

Conclusion: As Attorney General, Michael Mukasey will not stop President Bush from breaking the FISA law.

2) Michael Mukasey said he would not advise the President to grant detainees habeas corpus rights.

SENATOR LINDSAY GRAHAM: Would you advise the President of the United States to allow unlawful enemy combatants to have habeas corpus rights at Guantanamo Bay?

MICHAEL MUKASEY: I would not advise the President to grant rights beyond those that they already have...

Conclusion: If Michael Mukasey becomes Attorney General, habeas corpus, and therefore the 6th Amendment to the Constitution, will not be enforced by the Justice Department.

3) Michael Mukasey expressed concern that the media shield law would make it harder to change the rules of the Justice Department to fit requests for subpoenas of reporters.

MICHAEL MUKASEY: It bears some mention… that there are within the Department very elaborate procedures before anyone is permitted to subpoena a reporter. Some AUSA with a subpoena and a typewriter doesn’t decide whether to subpoena a reporter. There are many levels of approval that have to be gotten, in main Justice, not just the assistant’s own office before a subpoena can be issued to a reporter. It was my own view, and I obviously don’t know all of the cases, that the system worked passably well, up until now. But one thing about internal procedures is that if you need to change them, they are relatively easy to change. You can adjust the regulation, you can adjust the procedures, you can put more levels in, you could change standards. It’s relatively easy to do. It becomes much harder when it’s etched in stone, in the form of legislation, and that is part of the reason for my unease.

Conclusion: As Attorney General, if rules or laws prohibit something he wants, Michael Mukasey would be willing to change the rules or laws.

4) Michael Mukasey confirmed that he believes due process is less important than gathering information.

SENATOR LINDSAY GRAHAM: There's no better way for America to lead the world when it comes to the war on terror than take an enemy who has done us terrible harm and treat them in line with our values. Give them lawyers when they would give us none. Have a process where a civilian court could review the military work product and let the world know that whatever happened to the enemy combatant wasn't the result of religious prejudice, anger, or revenge, but was the result of due process of law. Don't you think that's the best way to fight this war?

MICHAEL MUKASEY: I do, but I'm reluctant to add a footnote, but I have to, and that is so long as we don't compromise our ability to gather intelligence as we do that.

Conclusion: With Michael Mukasey as Attorney General, gathering information will be more important to the Justice Department than ensuring Constitutional rights.

The problem with Michael Mukasey is summarized by this statement:

MICHAEL MUKASEY: The law emphatically includes the Constitution.

He fails to recognize that, in the United States, the Constitution is the law. All other laws are only valid if they are constitutional. Among other revelations, we learned that Michael Mukasey will not stop President Bush from spying without a warrant (a violation of the 4th Amendment) and will not grant habeas corpus rights to prisoners (a violation of the 6th Amendment), and therefore does not intend to uphold and defend the Constitution, believing other laws and principles to be more important.

This country might not be able to handle another Attorney General with limited respect for the Constitution. Michael Mukasey is not the guy to turn the Justice Department around.

For the Constitution's sake, he should not be confirmed.

Blackwater Held American Troops at Gunpoint

From the October 15th issue of Newsweek:

The colonel was furious. "Can you believe it? They actually drew their weapons on U.S. soldiers." He was describing a 2006 car accident, in which an SUV full of Blackwater operatives had crashed into a U.S. Army Humvee on a street in Baghdad's Green Zone. The colonel, who was involved in a follow-up investigation and spoke on the condition he not be named, said the Blackwater guards disarmed the U.S. Army soldiers and made them lie on the ground at gunpoint until they could disentangle the SUV. His account was confirmed by the head of another private security company. Asked to address this and other allegations in this story, Blackwater spokesperson Anne Tyrrell said, "This type of gossip has led to many soap operas in the press.

First of all, how is holding American soldiers at gunpoint in a war zone not treason? I have a suspicion that it is.

You know what else is treasonous? The fact that these private contractor guys now have more power in Iraq than our military. Face it. It's true. Private guys don't have laws holding them back. Our guys do. There are 180,000 private guys in Iraq. There are 160,000 of us. When private guys clash with our military guys, the military guys are held back at gunpoint.

We are in serious danger of having our military replaced by a new... force. We don't know what it is really. We're not allowed to know. We also don't know who controls this force. Is it the State Department? Who in the State Department? Is it the White House? Who in the White House?

Does anyone have control over them?

We don't know.

The thing we do know, however, is that these private military companies (aka: war profiteers) and their growing financing and power has escalated to the point that they are now a direct threat to the United States military.

What do we do about it? I'm not entirely sure. A good first step though, would be to impeach the Commander in Chief, who is currently playing on both sides.

Private Company Controls Access to Congressional Hearing Transcripts

Most Congressional hearing transcripts are available online somewhere between 2 months and 2 years after they take place. As you can imagine, when you want the exact words used during a conversation taking place today on CSPAN, that's a long time to wait.

Federal News Network is a service that transcribes government hearings, speeches and press conferences within 24 hours. Although I personally believe that there should be a few full-time government positions doing this as a public service for the American people, in our current reality, this service sounds perfect for a journalist, right?

Until you read the fine print. Tell me if this sounds strange to you...

"FNS may refuse or deny access to anyone, using only our reasonable discretion."

"None of the FNS Content may be copied or otherwise exploited without the prior written consent of a duly authorized representative of FNS, and you may not copy or paste FNS Content into any other web sites."

"Use of The Site constitutes consent to FNS to monitor your use of the The Site and FNS reserves the right to consent to a valid law enforcement request to review activity of all users of The Site and its network to obtain evidence of criminal activity."

Am I the only one who has a creepy Big Brother feeling? The Federal News Service's only products are government documents. What kind of crime can I commit with an unclassified government document, other than thought crime? Why should any company get to claim copyright on the words of our Congressional representatives?

Providing documents is not the only service Federal News Service provides to people who are allowed to be subscribers...

"FNS has added two complementary media relations services to satisfy this need - a national Broadcast News Monitoring Service and an electronic media monitoring service called NewsClips Online. The FNS Broadcast News Monitoring Service can provide clients with a daily report on what stories were broadcast about them on network, local, and cable news shows in more than 100 markets, and can often provide the actual videotape news story in a matter of hours. FNS NewsClips Online scans and indexes more than 5,000 media websites daily to provide our clients with stories about them and their interests."

All fine and dandy until I realize that their customers are...

"The FNS customer base... now includes most major U.S. and foreign newspapers and news services, world-wide broadcast media, U.S. government agencies, foreign embassies, U.S. embassies worldwide, corporations, lobbyists, universities, and associations."

Since there was no printed information, I called and asked if individuals are even allowed to be members. A Federal News Service staffer said very few of their clients are individual journalists, but that there are a few. She then asked for my phone number so that someone else could call me back about a subscription.

I politely refused for now.

I really want access to those transcripts to make my life easier (transcribing a long paragraph from Tivo is a truly painful experience). But I'm not sure I want to have anything to do with this company. I'm not sure I feel safe if I'm on their radar. They scare me, but I don't yet have the words to explain why.

The only way I can put it right now is that it feels like I'm being forced to pick a side. A United States government side or a private side (for lack of a better term). It didn't used to be like this. The private side was part of our government. But now... it's like the government is being taken over. I feel the government I always thought I had disappearing bit by bit, and it's the Federal News Service's customer base that's doing it.

I'm not a part of that private club. And I don't want to be.

And I'm scared that sometime way too soon, I may not have that choice.

Al Gore Wins the Nobel Peace Prize!

Now hopefully he'll run for President.

Sign the petition here.

Countdown with Keith Olbermann (Reveiw)

Turns out there's some been some actual news lately being broadcast by MSNBC. 90% of it has been on Countdown with Keith Olbermann.

It's a nice find. As of right now, it's definitely my favorite television news hour. That said, however, it doesn't make the situation good. I'll be a bit generous and say that this show is news about 50% of the time.

The first 15-20 minutes are topics #5 and #4, and they are usually great. Olbermann and his guests often discuss the wars and Congressional hearings. He also interviews members of the military and Constitutional scholars (note the "discuss" part of that. It's not a shouting match).

After that, the middle of the show is a little hit or miss. Sometimes the show keeps going strong. Other times, topics #3 and #2 will be "he said/she said" Democrat vs. Republican stories, which are complete wastes of time. If you care, he's a pretty reasonable guy, which lately means he's been siding more with the Democrats. Topics #3 and #2 are also where you would find an OJ case or a JonBenet Ramsey revelation.

Then there's Oddball, which is absolutely not newsworthy, but is really fun to watch. This is where the strange Japanese game show challenges, dumb kids running into stuff, and sports mascots gone wild hang out, and I must admit, I throughly enjoy these.

The Worst Person in the World segment is towards the end of the show and is usually good for the exposure of some blatant hypocrisies. Bill O'Reilly is a frequent winner.

But the last 10-15 minutes or so, the #1 in the Countdown, is always total garbage. It's irrelevant, high school, "Mean Girls" garbage. This is where you get your Brittney Spears, Paris Hilton, and Lindsay Lohan updates, complete with the shredding of these girls to pieces. They cover American frickin' Idol almost daily for months at a time. And guests at the end of the show are often just mean people. It's painful for the soul to watch sometimes. This segment is occasionally good for a "laugh at others because you don't like yourself" type of laugh, but in general, you're better off changing the channel.

The show would be solid if they changed the topic of #1 to sports.

Overall, the first half hour of the show is worth watching daily, but consider back up programming towards the end. This is also a good strategy for completely avoiding Dan Abrams, whose show is on after Countdown with Keith Olbermann. Avoiding him is essential to maintaining sanity.

Chris Matthews on The Daily Show

Chris Matthews on The Daily Show was a fascinating example of what's wrong with the television media in the United States.

First of all, watch the video.



Ok, so here's the thing. Plenty of people have wacky ideas about how to get ahead in life. I take issue with Chris Matthews, as I think Jon Stewart does too, because this man is a member of the mainstream media. He's in the business of being respected for his words and he gets an hour on MSNBC every day to control the messages being sent out on that news channel. Jon Stewart is concerned (to put it lightly) with his message and how he seems to turn vice into virtue.

I, however, am equally concerned with the way he makes his point. Here are some Chris Matthews quotes from this interview:

"Do you want to succeed?"

"Do you want to have friends?"

"Do you have a reputation?"

Instead of working with logic and common sense, he went for what he perceived to be every person's weak points. The desire to be successful, have friends and have a good reputation are all powerful motivators. Unfortunately for Matthews in this interview, Jon Stewart is pretty secure in his success and friends and is not threatened by these lines.

"Boy, you're a hard sell."

There's his motivation right there. Not to inform, but to sell. But Jon Stewart wasn't buying and Matthews doesn't control the microphones on The Daily Show. So here comes the freak out:

"I thought you were so big that you weren't afraid of me. You're so big and you're afraid of this book. This book scares you. There's something in here that you fear."

"You fear power."

You're afraid of me? You fear my power?

Oh my God. This guy is giving us our news?

Chris Matthews, and many television media hacks like him, are taken seriously every day as journalists by millions of people. Yet they are not journalists. Journalists don't sell anything. Journalists don't take pride in making people afraid. Journalists, at least good ones, don't admire and emulate the powerful. They're supposed to keep the powerful in line.

This is why we are in trouble.

The good news: these television "newscasters" are too stupid to keep from exposing themselves as ignorant, arrogant, propaganda salesmen. Sooner or later, this country has to catch on.

Congress Left In The Dark About NSPD-51

The Bush administration has refused to give Congress the classified details of NSPD-51 (the presidential directive giving full control of the country to the Executive branch).

Four Presdential Candidates Pull Out of Michigan Primary

Barack Obama, John Edwards, Bill Richardson, and Joe Biden have pulled out of the Michigan primary. Michigan's original primary date was February 9th, but they decided to hold their primary on January 15th instead. The candidates are angry about this because that would make Michigan's primary occur before Iowa and New Hampshire's.

Yes, it's unfair that Michigan is trying to cut in the front of the line. My state was one of the first to try to do it and I must admit, it felt a little dirty. But here's the thing...

Where in the Constitution does it say that Iowa and New Hampshire need to go first?

Here's a hint... it's not in there. Primary dates are a political party thing.

The reason these candidates are angry is that Michigan's primary move screws with their campaign strategies. This would hurt the guys that have invested the most money in Iowa and New Hampshire. The candidates have already started running ads there. Also, no one's been polling residents of Michigan the way they've been polling Iowa and New Hampshire for the past...well, forever. Now they have to start paying attention to Michigan out of nowhere! Their voter statistics couldn't be nearly as accurate. It would, basically, make it much harder to plan and execute their campaigns in the same traditional way.

(The partisan political reason for their outrage ...because there always seems to be one... stems from the fact that the Republicans have ignored the RNC's unenforced rule that says the candidates cannot campaign in Michigan or Florida unless the primary dates are returned to where the RNC and DNC want them. While the Democrats have avoided those two states, the Republicans have visited "frequently".)

For this, Edwards, Obama, Biden, and Richardson are willing to stand together, united, and hold hostage the votes of 10 million people in Michigan.

My question is, while the front-runner candidates are upset, why should any of us peasant Americans care? I mean, honestly, who can say that they really love any of these media darling candidates on either side of the aisle? Everyone I've talked to is just trying to figure out which one is the least disturbing.

I actually think the move could be good for us. I wouldn't mind if the candidates didn't have perfect statistical voting data to manipulate us with. I wouldn't be upset if a state with more non-white people had a bigger effect on this election (after all, look at what Iowa and New Hampshire have helped give us lately). I also doubt it would be bad thing to see the candidates thrown off their scripts a little (or a lot) and expose a few extra flashes of unrehearsed honesty.

The easy fix for this would be to say that since so many primary dates have changed, let's just simplify the issue and have them all on the same day. It's easy. It's fair. Let's move on. After all, the date of the primaries is not a Constitutional issue.

However, the loss of our habeas corpus rights, the spying and eavesdropping of the Executive branch, and the build up of a lawless private military certainly are. We also started an illegal war. And the Executive branch is trying to start another.

Which brings up another important point: Shouldn't our current Senators, Governors, and future Presidents of the United States be fighting these injustices right now?

Where is that united outrage for the sake of the Constitution, that piece of paper that they have all, at one point, took an oath to protect?

Fired Blackwater Killer Hired by Another Company and Sent Back to Iraq

During the House Oversight Committee hearing on October 2nd (watch it on C-SPAN) the founder of Blackwater, Erik Prince, discussed a shooting that took place in December 2006. It was Christmas Eve and a Blackwater mercenary soldier (let's be honest -that's what he is) got hammered. In his drunken stupor, Andrew Moonan ended up shooting and killing a body guard of the Iraqi Vice President. During the testimony, Erik Prince told the committee that the murdering employee was fired, but he was not prosecuted by either the Iraqi or United States government, although the Justice Department was investigating the incident.

Turns out the State Department (who has a contract with Blackwater) didn't inform the Department of Defense that this guy was a murderer. A little over two months later, in February 2007, another private military firm whose contract is with the Department of Defense hired the ex-Blackwater killer and sent him back overseas until August 2007. During this time, in April of 2007, the Department of Defense also tried to tried to call Moonan, an ex-Army soldier, back to active duty but found out he was already in the Middle East.

And so much for that Justice Department investigation. Doesn't look like they were all that concerned since the guy was given another gun and sent back to the scene of his crime.

Henry Waxman has demanded all documents related to this murder and it's aftermath by this Friday, October 12th. Read his letter, for more information, here.

Code Pink Founder On FBI Watch List

Medea Benjamin, the founder of Code Pink (the womans anti-war group) and retired Colonel/diplomat Ann Wright were denied access to Canada this weekend. They were at the Buffalo/Niagara Falls Bridge entrance and were detained, questioned, and denied access because they had been arrested in acts of non-violent civil disobedience.

The border guards singled out these two ladies because their names appeared on a FBI watch list.

Dissent is officially a criminal offense. It starts with the leaders...

My Apologies....

I took a "computer/information" holiday. Ignorance sure was bliss.

But now I'm back...

The Surtax: The Price of Patriotism

We are having a struggle in this country about what lesson we should have learned from The Greatest Generation. As millions of us have learned while watching Ken Burn's The War, Americans came together in WWII and collectively sacrificed to be victorious.

In the Bush administration's view, we were willing to sacrifice because Americans didn't question the war. They rallied around what the President ordered and that is why we flourished. The key is in the lack of questioning. To get us to support their wars, they must come up with reasons that are good enough to make it embarrassing to question.

The other view is that we were willing to sacrifice because the war was worth it and American's didn't need to be told why. We felt it. The United States, as a country, thrived afterwards and was able to help rebuild the world because she had sacrificed during the war and had money to spare.

That brings me to the "surtax". The "surtax" is an idea being proposed by 3 House Democrats (David Obey, Jack Murtha, and Jim McGovern) as a way to raise between $140 and $150 billion a year to pay for the Iraq War. The tax rate will range between 2% for low income Americans and 15% for the rich

There are a few ways to look at this.

First, what I'll call the patriotic way. We are a country at war. Other than those people who have dealt with the prolonged anxiety associated with having a loved one leave for long stretches of time to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan, who other than the actual military guys can honestly say that their lives have changed one bit because of these wars? If we want to be patriots, and support our military by sharing their sacrifice, then we must all be willing to give up a bit of money for the common good.

Too preachy of a reason? Fine.

Let's look at economics. Every year since these wars started, we've heard about the huge cost. The numbers thrown around, like the $190 billion for next year, are so large that they are incomprehensible. Simultaneously, for the most part, our lifestyles are exactly the same today as they were 5 years ago. Because we haven't felt it, we haven't really bothered to try to comprehend that debt.

We need to comprehend that debt. These huge dollar numbers are being borrowed. We are paying for this war with a credit card, and the paycheck we give ourselves hasn't gotten any larger to pay back that debt. In fact, rich people (and I mean the really rich people, like the CEO's profiting from this war) have made our collective paycheck even smaller because the Bush administration gave them tax cuts.

At some point, the bill collectors are going to come knocking on the door.

Unless we start paying off some of that debt now, or at least stop the bleeding and start paying as we go, after these rich white guys live their insanely rich lifestyles and die, the people left in this country will have to sacrifice a lot to pay off the debt, which will just get even larger.

The people who will have to pay for this war are in our 20's and 30's today. Do we really want to spend our whole lives paying off our greedy parent's debts?

And to the baby boomers that are pissed about my last statement, whether you choose to admit it now or not, your generation is taking the blame for the Bush years. He's one of you. Our Congressional representatives, who allowed the Bush administration to rule with no oversight, are in your generation. At no time in American history have politicians so blatantly put their own paychecks and jobs over their oaths of office. Your generation has funded their campaigns. You are currently in power. You can stop this. Whether you choose to admit it now or not, your generation is failing your kids.

Enacting the "surtax", and beginning to pay for Iraq as we go from here, is a fair way to stop the bleeding. The 20 and 30 somethings need to protect our futures. The baby boomers owe it to us to fix this mess.

The patriotic and economic reasons are more than enough to warrant supporting this tax. But there is one possible consequence of paying a "surtax" that will make about 70% of us happy.

It could end the war.

The truth is that Americans are questioning this war because most of us fear that this war isn't worth it. We feel it. So far, with most American's having made no sacrifice, we have been willing to just go along and live our daily lives. But when Americans feel the war in their wallets, and their lives get a little worse, they will probably be more willing to stand up and pressure their Congressional representatives to shut down the Bush administration's war.

It's not a flattering statement about Americans, that we won't stand up for what's right until it affects us personally, but it is a truth we have learned about ourselves in the past few years.

Hopefully, the first two reasons will be enough for everyone to support the surtax. After all, the best reason for the surtax is that it is fair. But I for one, will not be upset if the surtax leads to the required American rage needed to end this war. I want my friends to come home for good. I want the anxiety to go away. That's just me. Support the surtax for whatever reason you choose. But support it. It's the right thing to do.

Score One Congress! National Applications Office On Hold

In a shocking display of a backbone, members of the House Homeland Security Committee asked the Department of Homeland Security to block the funding for the National Applications Office until Congress could properly review it's procedures for protecting our civil liberties.

As a result, the grand opening of the Office for Using Spy Satellites on Americans will not be today. It has been postponed.

Thank God.


For the back-story on this post, start here