Posts from — January 2006

[Edited for spelling to reflect impact.]

“I’m mindful of your civil liberties, and so I had all kinds of lawyers review the process. We briefed members of the United States Congress … about this program.”

The only lawyer that was asked about this was the then White House counsel, Alberto Gonzales. Only 8 of 535 members of Congress were told about the program and they were sworn to secrecy. Only the senior judge on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court was told of the program and she was sworn to secrecy.

There was no discussion. These people were presented with a fait accompli and were put under penalty of law not to discuss it. Their restrictions were taken to heart by those that were briefed, as Jay Rockefeller’s hand-written letter makes evident.

They came up with this stupid idea, implemented it, had Gonzales create “legal” cover, told 9 people outside the executive branch, and went on their merry way to trash the rights of the citizens of the United States.

They have been doing this for four years and Osama still hasn’t had his “show” cancelled. It certainly didn’t help Madrid, London, or Amman.

If you are still sitting on the fence, perhaps Mark Fiore’s latest opus will convince you of what we are facing.

The only security these people care about is job security for themselves and their cronies. The Republicans are going to need sympathetic judges as their members are caught with their hands in the US Treasury.

As Avedon Carol of The Sideshow points out, Ms. Howell still hasn’t completely corrected the error. I would question the wisdom of putting her in current position when her analytical abilities are so obviously deficient. Ms. Howell fails to appreciate that the facts are in the public record and available to the multitude on the Internet. An analysis of the political contributions of the affected tribes before and after they hired Abramoff is not complicated and requires no higher mathematics. The records show a reduction in funding to Democrats and an increase in funding for Republicans after a tribe hired Abramoff. It is no great leap to say that Abramoff was bad for Democrats and good for Republicans. Of all news organizations in the country, I would think that the Washington Post would know to “follow the money”.

Steve Gilliard of The News Blog makes the point, somewhat forcibly, that not complaining about errors in fact is not a strategy for success. The media ignores accuracy complaints that are reasonable and factual. If the media would like to raise the tenor of the interaction, they should ignore those who scream and deal with those who present polite requests for accuracy. By bending over backwards to mollify the screamers, the media has forced people to scream to be heard.

Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake has agreed to attend a conference being set up by the Washington Post to discuss the issues surrounding this eruption of discontent. I would hope she stresses that all people were asking for was accuracy. When a blogger makes an outrageous statement, the first thing that happens is a request for a link to verify the statement. If this is standard operation procedure on blogs, one would wonder why as much can’t be expected from a major media outlet? One could conclude that there are higher standards on the blogs.

PSotD is a bit annoyed that Ms. Howell was apparently unaware of the duties of the ombudsman. I, too, would question her understanding, as she appears to have assumed that she was writing a media column, not dealing with reader complaints. I won’t blame Ms. Howell for this problem, but the individual who gave her the position. You don’t give someone a new job without explaining what is expected of them. She does seem to be a bit naïve about the security provided by her two-year contract as I feel certain there is a clause or ten that makes it possible for the newspaper to fire her at anytime.

Finally, Ms. Carol cautions about the effect of swearing in any heated debate. I agree that it is often used as an excuse to avoid the real issues, and readers may have noticed that I rarely swear because of this.

I would like to point out that having been in the military and law enforcement, it is not because I don’t have the vocabulary. I have a choice collection of words and phrases in multiple languages that are quite capable of starting a fight across much of the world. You don’t want to be at a loss for words when a Greek taxi driver is attempting extort money from you, or to rid yourself of annoying vendors in Bangkok. In addition to words, it is wise to study gestures, if for no other reason than to avoid offending people who may have guns and badges. These are a form of weapon to be utilized when effective, and not wasted on the mundane.

I would also caution against confusing ignorance, which is correctable, with mental deficiency, which is not. I would point out that it is much easier to explain your view to those of low achievement than the willfully ignorant, especially if they consider themselves “a professional”.

I prefer to start affable and escalate. About response five I admit I make it rather obvious that I have a major store of words not heard in Disney movies.

First of all the FBI is already overtaxed chasing down take-out orders to Middle East delis given to them by NSA, so they don’t need this output to suck up even more time from the real threats to the country.

Someone needs to explain “Google bombs” to the Justice Department, and why you can’t go to court with any stats from searches. If they would hire a few database professionals they would find out why what they want to do won’t work.

The best they could do is hire a hundred temps, put them on computers that have filters installed, and log the sites that get through. Neither the filters, nor their law is going to totally shield a determined teenager from ‘Net porn, but with so many sites outside the US, the filters have a better shot at it, and the filters are getting better.

Pandering to the Religious Reich’s prudery does not make the country safer.

Update: MSNBC has a Newsweek article that provides more background on what Justice is doing. This was not well thought out on the part of the Justice Department.

How can the American people have a decent wallow in the muck of a political scandal that is sexless? What were these guys taking all this money for if there were no eighteen-year-old blonds involved?

I mean, just because Robert Kagan is a co-founder of the Project for the New American Century, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a Senior Associate with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, who has written on foreign relations for The New Republic, Policy Review, the Washington Post, and the Weekly Standard, who lives in Brussels, Belgium because his wife is the US Permanent Representative to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and he is paid extremely well for his “expertise”, he shouldn’t necessarily be expected to know that Canberra, not Sydney is the capital of Australia.

He could have been sick for that episode of Carmen Sandiego and his kids weren’t available to find it on the Internet. He should at least get partial credit for spelling Sydney correctly.

Born on the 25th of June, 1903 in Motihari, India where his father was in the British civil service, he would be educated at Eton, and then fight in the Spanish Civil War. He probably contracted the disease that eventually killed while fighting in Spain.

He was a member of the BBC World Service, on the India desk. During the war he developed a deep dislike for the censorship caused by the war, and used that experience as the background for his last novel.

If you have listened to much of the output from the Bush administration you may have invoked Mr. Blair’s novel. Of course, you probably know him by his pen name: George Orwell.

Tristero at Hullabaloo is really annoyed with the framing, seeing it as a type of “have you stopped beating your wife” proposition.

Shakespeare’s Sister chose it as her Question of the Day, but doesn’t like knowingly killing innocent people.

PZ Myers of Pharyngula shares that view, and thinks it is important to respond to the question, no matter what Tristero may think.

Bob Geiger also opposes this use of force, and questions why we didn’t send in a team to pick-up these people.

One of the things I failed to mention, but is germane to this incident was that this attack came during the Eid ul-Adha celebration which guaranteed there would be innocent people at the feast. There is a religious obligation to ensure that everyone takes part in the feast celebrating the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice Isaac and G-d providing the substitute ram.

Wonderful way to win “hearts and minds” in the Islamic world.

Update: I read Archy too early today, as John McKay doesn’t approve of the question or the conclusion.

The annoying behavior you see from some people using cell phones is not the result of a brain tumor caused by the radiation – they’re just rude.

Remember when the government talks about the “core inflation rate” that excludes the “volatile” energy sector, because how much effect could the cost of transporting everything and your utility bill have on the economy.

Remember how the DOW crawled back up to 11,000 after only 4½ years of the Shrubbery, it didn’t last.

He has that “magic touch”.

Keith at The Invisible Library has had to go on hiatus. A new job in a new city isn’t condusive to blogging.

Riggsveda, who was read at It’s My Country, Too, The American Street, and Corrente, is taking a hiatus.

The American Street is undergoing server problems. They know that they are going to be forced to move, so don’t give up on them.

Karen who has been hanging out with Len and Brock at Dark Bilious Vapors, has opened her own place at Peripetia.

Mickey of 3 Old Men has moved his political commentary to 1 Boring Old Man.

™ ^{[Kevin Drum]}

Festus

What are you up to?

[Editor: Festus has a limp and her tale hangs at an angle as the result of an accident when she was a yearling. She is a pretty cat, but really skittish. She often “babysits” for the other cats.]

Friday Ark

So, if the innocent to guilty death ratio is less than 5:1, Kevin thinks it’s okay. If 10 terrorists were holed up in Disneyland, Kevin wouldn’t be disturbed if less than 50 bystanders were killed when the Anaheim PD called in an air strike on Cinderella’s castle?

Unfair, you say? Not the same thing at all? No, if you aren’t willing to kill your own people, then you have no right to visit a death sentence on people in other countries. Even if they look different, have a different religion, or a different language, all innocent people are equal and should be valued equally. There are people who view a bombing attack that kills citizens of a friendly country as a causa belli. I don’t remember a declaration of war against Pakistan.

In case people have forgotten, Pakistan has nuclear weapons. If the current government is replaced, it will probably be with allies of al Qaeda and the Taliban. This attack has put the current government in Pakistan at risk.

As for the stories of the dead al Qaeda leaders, consider the source. There is no proof yet offered that anyone other than innocent villagers were killed. Statements from the Pakistani government should be given the same respect as statements from Scott McClellan.