General Hayden, former Director of both the National Security Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency has ignorantly claimed that the President of the United States has endangered national security, because the memoranda that were just released were marked “Top Secret”. Information in that category would cause “exceptionally grave damage” to national security.

That definition is contained in EXECUTIVE ORDER 13292 of March 25, 2003, which covers classification. It is an executive order of the Office of President of the United States, who is the ultimate arbiter of security classification. If the President declassifies something, as happened in this case, it is no longer “Top Secret”. Nothing remains classified forever, and these memos should have already been reduced from “Top Secret” to “Secret” based on the normal schedule.

Further, General Hayden should study Sec. 1.7. Classification Prohibitions and Limitations. which says:

(a) In no case shall information be classified in order to:

(1) conceal violations of law, inefficiency, or administrative error;
(2) prevent embarrassment to a person, organization, or agency;

These memos were classified to avoid US laws that prohibit torture. The fact that agencies of the US government were torturing people would at a minimum be embarrassing.

Even ill-informed people like Gloria Borger, who wants A little outrage, please, Mr. President

Case in point: When Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad used the podium at the United Nations conference in Geneva on Monday to call Israel a “cruel and repressive racist regime,” we might have said something.

What might we have said, that the ultranationalist Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, leader of the Yisrael Beiteinu party, is just kidding when he calls for the expulsion of Arabs from Israel? Do you read any Israeli newspapers other than the Jerusalem Post, do you know what the Israeli government does, even when it isn’t actively bombing the Palestinians?

Do you have no idea why Hugo Chavez hates the US? Are you unaware that the Bush White House was wide open to the people who led a coup against Chavez? Have you missed all of the threats directed at Chavez by the Bush administration?

FYI: Obama has since labeled the Ahmadinejad comments as “appalling”, but has nothing to say about Lieberman’s plan to institute apartheid in Israel.

It is a bad time to be a public employee in Okaloosa County. People are starting to ask questions and look at the books.

The Local Puppy Trainer reports that the FWB golf course director forced to retire

Jim Frazier, director of golf at the Fort Walton Beach Golf Course, has been forced to retire.

The action comes as city officials say they’ve found evidence Frazier has given away at least 20,000 free rounds of golf since 2005.

City Manager Bob Mearns said the reason Frazier was facing termination was for insubordination. He was allowed to retire at his own request, Mearns said.

In a letter he forwarded to the Fort Walton Beach mayor and City Council, Frazier called Mearns’ hounding him about complimentary golf rounds a “witch hunt.” He accused former City Councilman Mike Minich, who records indicate played about 40 free rounds, of sicking [sic] Mearns on him.

Frazier works for the city. Mearns is the City Manager. Mearns is Frazier’s boss, but Mearns is new, while Frazier is not.

Frazier claims it is a “computer error”.  The “error”, as Frazier explains it, does overstate the number of free rounds, but it also would overstate the total number of rounds played, and make the golf course seem busier than it actually was.  You have to wonder: is that a bug or a feature?

The city recently spent a lot of money upgrading the golf course, based on the use figures supplied by Frazier and it still loses money.

The Pensacola News Journal has a fashion tip for mothers picking up their children at school: Trench coat, guns, knife

A woman wearing a trench coat outside Gulf Breeze High School was arrested Monday after police found she had brought two guns and a knife to campus.

Judy Hall’s arrest came on the 10-year anniversary of the Columbine High School shootings that left 12 students and a teacher dead in suburban Denver. The two students who carried out the massacre were dressed in trench coats.

Police are not sure why Hall, 61, brought the guns to campus on the anniversary of the Columbine shootings.

“The mother did not identify that she was trying to make a connection to Columbine,” Gulf Breeze Police Chief Peter Paulding said. “But it did involve a trench coat and guns, and this is the 10th anniversary.”

Hall of Finch Drive in Gulf Breeze was booked into Santa Rosa County Jail on Monday on charges of carrying a concealed gun, bringing a gun to a school, and resisting arrest without violence. She still was in custody Monday night.

I don’t remember June packing heat to pick up Wally, even if he was with Eddie Haskell. Well, it was only 77° yesterday with a few clouds, so she probably thought a rain coat was necessary, and she did bring two guns, so maybe it was going to be a parent/child bonding experience.

There are still people who wonder why the St. Petersburg Times has a separate section called: Bizarre Florida.