Bloggers deserve kudos for their good work

Much discomfort remains connected to the issue of what to do about Bush administration leftovers. Many progressives are still actively advocating for investigation, truth-telling, accountability and reform. Therefore, we rely on the hard news sources as well as the blogosphere to keep us well informed. I use a news aggregator. I have a section in my Bloglines aggregator called “Investigative faves.” Let me show you why you, too should be reading them. The list is in reverse chronological order:

1. TPM Muckraker for “Report: Top Gossling Pushed to Declassify Info to ‘Embarrass the Democrats’,” by Zachary Roth (5/6/09). The story refers to former Rep. Peter Goss, who served for a time (not very well) at the CIA. Did any of the associated Goss underlings leak the story about Rep Jane Harman and AIPAC? Just below this story is one titled, “Zelikow: I Think Cheney Tried to Destroy My Torture Memo, ” by Zachary Roth (5/6/09). The title is self-explanatory.
2. Firedoglake.com’s emptywheel is mostly written by Marcy Wheeler, who writes today asking “The OPR Report Why No Sanctions for Bradbury?“This post cites the original WaPo story and asks a number of very important questions regarding what should happen to the torture memo lawyers. Yesterday’s post was closely related: “Dougie Feith’s Little Shop of Tortures?” For this she researched Doug Feith’s 2003 testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee, and made some fine deductions. Wheeler does perhaps the best investigation online. Blogger bmaz explains (5/5/09):
   

   We started this discussion in earnest a little over two weeks ago when Marcy Wheeler scooped the world by revealing that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed Was Waterboarded 183 Times in One Month and Abu-Zubaydah 83 times. Marcy didn’t get handed the information by a governmental press flack and she didn’t print it as a result of a leak from some coddled and conflicted secret source with an agenda. Nope, she did it the old fashioned way, she earned it by doing the tedious grunt work of reading the memos and documents. The very work the traditional press shirked.

3. ACLU Blog of Rights posted a piece titled, “Guantanamo Bay, U.S.A.?” The (5/6/09) story concerns the possibility that the Obama administration will go back to the use of military commissions for some of its detainees. Another big story asks whether the “DOJ Ethics Report [is] coming soon? (5/5/09)
4. Glenn Greenwald at Salon.com wrote, “Someone needs to give Jane Harman an award for this,” (5/4/09). Regarding Harman’s appearance at the AIPAC conference, crusading against domestic surveillance. Another fine post is titled, “UAE ‘torture’ scandal and cover-up sparks outrage in the U.S.,” (4/3/09). You may have seen this disturbing video on television recently.
5. Secrecy News is written by Steven Aftergood. He recently posted that the “Govt Seeks Dismissal of AIPAC Case,” (5/1/09). This is another article connected to the Harman AIPAC episode. On April 29, Aftergood wrote, “Appeals Court Curbs Use of State Secrets Privilege.” This regards the ACLU vs. Jeppesen DataPlan lawsuit.
6. Spy Talk at CQ Politics is written by Jeff Stein. On May 4 his headline read, “Rice: ‘We were deaf, dumb and blind’ on al Qaeda on Sept. 11, 2001.” The /11.post discusses Rice’s penchant for helping little kids understand what was going on with the grown-ups on 9/11. His question for the April 28 post asked,”What did top spook Blair really say about Harman and the NSA?.” This refers to Adm. Dennis Blair, the Director of National Intelligence.
7. Wired: Threat Level by Kim Zetter: “DOJ Faulted for Failing to Follow Surveillance Reporting Requirements, ” (4/30/09). To quote:
   

   Following the release of an annual report this week about wiretaps requested by state and federal law enforcement agencies comes a complaint from the Electronic Privacy Information Center that the government has been derelict in its duty to report other surveillance statistics having to do with “pen register” and “trap and trace” orders.

   In a letter (.pdf) sent Wednesday to Senator Patrick Leahy (D – Vermont), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, EPIC noted that the Justice Department had failed to report the use of such surveillance as required by federal law.

8. About.com-Civil Liberties is written by Tom Head. Here is an example of his work: “Sympathy for the Devil,” (4/22/09). It begins, “According to memos released by the Obama administration last week, the CIA under the Bush administration tortured Khalid Sheikh Mohammed 183 times in March 2003 alone.”

Those of us who are expecting that these questions and problems are not going to disappear soon, want to see the truth get out. We want justice done and the rule of law return full force to the current administration. We can settle for no less.

[Original post date at S/SW: 5/6/09]

See also Behind the Links, for further info on this subject.

Carol Gee – Online Universe is the all-in-one home page for all my websites.

Technorati tags: news news and politics politics national intelligence blog news torture APAIC jane harman

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what do we stand for anymore? do we even know?

there have been innumerable assaults on the constitution- pretty much from its inception. the john adams contingent has not been pleased that ‘the great unwashed’ was given any say whatsoever in their own governance. those descendants we see today splashed all over fox noise, hate radio, state and local governments, tea parties, and now….. million militia marches. guess that’s why they are stock piling all that ammo.

but i just don’t know what to say about the torture issue. i have been a strident voice for years- pushing and pushing for people to realize that free societies take the risk of being ‘less secure’ in order to remain free. pushing for people to realize that we, the people, were losing the document that gave us our freedoms- legally- in america. and people were afraid. they were afraid of muslim extremists who may bomb our cities or unleash biological terror in ‘the homeland.’

but the people were wrong. the terrorists lived amongst us- called themselves americans. and willfully and gleefully stripped civil liberties away at a rate unprecedented in our history. and always my question was- why? why are they doing this? when is enough money and power enough? and i didn’t have a good, tangible answer. i still don’t. the closest i get is simply- because they could.

because they knew going in what they wanted to do- they created 9/11 to shock america into swallowing their lines of bullshit about the country being vulnerable. they created the crisis in order to go into war mode- special presidential war powers indefinitely. they manufactured reasons to go to war with iraq and decimated and tortured people and ruined the lives of millions of people.

because they could.

torture is arguably the worst thing you can do to a person. it effects them physically- and mentally- and if they survive- it effects them for the rest of their lives. and their families and neighbors and fellow countrymen- and it does not work for information. and americans authorized this- and carried it out. now, i realize that we have been doing this for years- at the very least training operatives on how to carry it out. but these folks planned to torture other folks to send a message loud and clear- that they were in charge and that’s it.

over the last 8 years or so, folks like me have been called traitors, conspiracy theorists, crazy, etc.- and while it generally came from the right, much came from the left too. folks simply didn’t want to believe that fellow americans could carry out what bushco and the rubber stamp legislative and judicial branches did. this couldn’t happen in america- we are the land of the free. but it did.

and i guess what my purpose in writing this post is- to say simply this- the people on the right are wrong. period. they are the traitors and the unpatriotic people. i don’t consider them americans at all. the people on the left who have been complicit and who have gone along with the right- in the name of power or blackmail or whatever- and didn’t stand up- same thing. there is nothing patriotic about stripping civil liberties away from a democratic republic in the name of security. there is nothing noble or patriotic or brave in advocating torturing another human being. these people are cowards.

for all of the grandstanding and pretending to give a damn about the founding fathers and the constitution- and apparently, the boston tea party- these folks have not actually read the documents. they didn’t listen to saint ronnie about america being an example to the world- ‘a shining city’ and blah, blah, blah- we were set up as the beacon of hope to the world- and we have no right to the title. so, it is time to let the people who claim to be americans know- you aren’t. the rest of us are going to have to grow a set- because if we want any semblance of the country we believed in- we are going to have to fight for it. the right is arming itself- and if you pooh pooh that off- well, you may end up in a detention facility right here in the us of a.

sorry shep- we do torture- did torture- probably still do torture. the next question is- will be hold onto our principles and hold folks accountable? or perhaps the better question is- do we have any principles left?

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News Digest: Bush admin OLC memos released in early March

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• Obama releases internal Bush Justice Department memos (cnn.com)
• John ‘Torture’ Yoo now says he’ll be honest (crooksandliars.com)
• Inching toward the Truth (dailykos.com)
• Obama’s OLC nominee: ‘We must regain our ability to feel outrage whenever our government acts lawlessly.’ (thinkprogress.org)

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Help the Judiciary Comm. IMPEACH CHENEY

ny texan at Bluebloggin has a very detailed post up today, about what many of us want for Xmas. And how we can make it happen. Yes Virginia there is a Santa “clause” The post on BB has the same title as this one. It is a must read. – lots of case details, excepts etc. Now is absolutely the time for us to come to the aid of our Country.Henry Wexler, Tammy Baldwin and others at this time have over 89,000 signatures, on the on line petition. The House Judiciary Committee wanted to run op eds in major newspapers, across the country and were turned down ! ! ! – some free press eh ?
I remind everyone that Impeachment is not a constitutional crisis. NO , it is the only “medicine” built into the Constitution, for a constitutional crisis. Having a secret government, “a unitary executive” being lied into war, the loss of Habeas Corpus, The Patriot Act. – have subverted the foundations of our “great experiment” , our democracy.

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Top 10 Ethics Scandals for 2007

Courtesy of CREW, Citizens for Responsibilty and Ethics in Washington has released their year end report. They note at the top of the page that despite the Democrat’s election vow to institute more checks and balances on Congressional ethics, not a damn thing has changed in that regard. No new enforcement regulations were put into law in the 110th Congress, and a group of fuckwits tasked with providing a report as to what needed to be done has yet to issue said report. Now, on to the scandals!

Ted “Bridge to Nowhere” Stevens

Teddy Stevens had his house in Alaska raided by the FBI and IRS this year. “Stevens is under federal investigation for his dealings with Bill Allen, founder of VECO Corp., an Alaska-based oil field services and engineering company that has been awarded tens of millions of dollars in federal contracts. Allen has admitted to paying for an addition to Sen. Stevens’ home.”

Senator Larry Craig

Larry has a penchant for airport restrooms and blowjobs , which caught the attention of most of the U.S. when he plead guilty to soliciting an undercover cop in a MN airport restroom. The Senate Ethics committee is *cough* investigating whether Craig violated the Senate rule prohibiting members from engaging in “improper conduct which reflects upon the Senate.”

Senator David “Diaper” Vitter

Vitter had a penchant for hookers and diapers evidently but the Senate isn’t investigating him for violating the Senate rule prohibiting members from engaging in “improper conduct which reflects upon the Senate”. But they are investigating Larry Craig..Go figure.

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I love this cartoon!

Hayden in close-door session today.

CIA boss Michael Hayden is in a closed door session with the House Intel committee. Since its a private session, I doubt we will get much info out of the participants. He is trying to explain the CIA’s destruction of the ‘torture tapes’ . From The Progress Report:

After testifying to the Senate Intelligence Committee yesterday, Hayden told reporters he had laid out “the narrative, the history of why the tapes were destroyed.” But since the interrogations were first videotaped under George Tenet in 2002, and later destroyed under Porter Goss in 2005, Hayden was either unable or unwilling to provide full answers. “Other people in the agency know about this far better than I,” said Hayden. Committee Chairman John Rockefeller (D-WV) called the 90-minute session “a useful and not yet complete hearing.” Still remaining unanswered is “who authorized destruction of the tapes, and why Congress wasn’t told about it.”

All I know is..someone needs to be held responsible for this snafu. Kudo’s to the NYT for breaking the story. These fascists should not be given a free pass on this issue. Remember..Pelosi, Rockefeller and other Democratic leaders who feign disgust knew about the existence of these tapes and did or said nothing until the story broke about their destruction.

crossposted at The Revolt Blog

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THE FAHRENHEIT 451 SOCIETY

By ABE and BIBLE BELTED

Does anyone remember a science fiction book titled Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury? We do. When some of us were growing up we read a lot of Bradbury and we feel that this particular book is especially prophetic.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the plot line, it takes place in a futuristic society in which books have been banned, the written word has virtually been stamped out. So we’re talking about a society in which not only offensive or controversial literature has been eradicated, but a totalitarian regime in which ALL written material has been effectively banned. In this regime, the individuals responsible for “maintaining order” as it were are the firemen, who hunt down and burn surviving books from the past. That’s right. You read us correctly. The firemen in this society, often operating on anonymous tips, are the preservers of repression as they go about burning books to preserve the stability of their insane world.

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Rocky’s Speech

With presidential elections a year away, the tabloids and news outlets are spinning anything and everything they can to get the candidate they back a leg up. More money is being spent than ever before. It always mystifies me, that someone would spend so many millions of dollars to get elected to a thankless job that pays around $400,000 per year. Most CEO’s of Fortune 500 companies make in the millions of dollars per year along with stock options that can turn their income from their “job” into a billion dollars. Why is being President so sought after and so much money spent to be elected when to be the top dog, you don’t actually bring home that much bling in the scheme of things? The lowest salary for most professional players in the NBA, MLB, NFL and NHL is over $800,000 per year. And that’s to be on the team. You hear about Alex Rodriguez who just signed a 10 year baseball contract for 275.5 million dollars, and he didn’t have to campaign or spend a dime to get that. Just paid his agent a percentage. Hell, the presidential hopefuls would be better off financially to be professional sports players agents based on that salary tidbit.

In the end, in 2004, over 3.5 Billion dollars was spent on the presidential election. It is determined that the 2012 election will cost the victor 1 Billion dollars. This being even partially true, and I got my information from a reliable source, the money spent to make $400,000 per year and be bludgeoned by the press and a zillion people and organizations that don’t agree with your policies doesn’t seem worth it.

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The Times, They are a’ Changin’

The Roman Senate

There are certainly enough issues out there right now. Overwhelming, actually, that we’re pulled in so many directions trying to do the right things on every front. Each of us may take up our own favorite cause, and some of us try to respond and put out all the fires at once. On some blogs, there is a new story each day, and sometimes multiple stories on the same day, and each should require your whole and immediate attention. I tend to read about most of them, but I don’t get to take action on everything. I just can’t. Overwhelming perhaps? Yes, perhaps, but I believe we need to find our niche and fight for the right things.

My main concern has been the war in Iraq. I want our country to pull out, Now! We stayed in Vietnam for the same political and financial gains, then when public outcry finally became unbearable to the leaders and they had to do something, they pulled out of Vietnam. Hanoi took over Saigon and literally renamed it over night to Ho Chi Minh City. We, as a country and powerful proud Nation, lived through it. It can even be said that we “lost” that war. Let me tell you a little secret. War is a lose lose situation every time.

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Rendition and torture, it’s the American way?

The European newspaper, the TimesOnline had an interesting article this past Sunday. What bothers me that I can’t find anything similar in the US media. I googled the main phrase ‘flight logs, cia’ and only got the European write-ups, with the exception of a two-year old CommonDreams article reprinted from a French news media outlet. Pathetic wouldn’t you say?

Back to the Times article, which is the second write-up they have done on the CIA’s rendition of individuals. The second paragraph caught my attention:

Despite widespread criticism of alleged human rights abuses and torture at the US base in Cuba, a Sunday Times investigation has shown that at least five European countries gave the United States permission to fly nearly 700 terrorist suspects across their territory. (emphasis mine)

Seven Hundred suspects is quite the load of terrorists isn’t it? Considering the fact that over 400 prisoners have been released over the last few years from Gitmo, more than half the total number incarcerated since the opening days of the war on terror, it gives one pause to think about how many of the secretly kidnapped suspects never made it to Gitmo and what actually happened to them…but I digress.

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peace protesters and free speech

In a conversation the other day about the Peace Vigil that takes place once per week here in Ashland, we wondered why we didn’t hear much, overall, about protests, either that they are held, or that they had anyone in attendance. Not about the small gathering here in Ashland, but on the National level, in bigger cities where thousands are in attendance. Seems like the colleges in and around Minneapolis/St. Paul, for example, don’t have anything going on and this war has been on for almost five years.One of my friends says it’s the draft and lack of it. “If there was a draft like when the Vietnam war was going on, you’d see the college students in the streets.” I believe there is some truth to that. I also do not ever want to see a Kent State massacre again.

I have also seen the reports about the way government handles protesters at rallies and events and keeps them out of sight and earshot. Creating holding pens where the protesters, with proper legal permits, can congregate and hold their signs. If found out of these temporary perimeters, they are arrested. This happened to Cindy Sheehan more than once. In fact, Mrs’ Spadoman, on a trip to Crawford with Cindy and Code Pink, found herself being held in a containment area when she was waiting for the release of someone who was arrested.

Daniel Ellsberg, of the Pentagon Papers fame, was arrested along with a few others for going into a ditch along side the road that the police said the protesters couldn’t go in to. Barb volunteered, as one of the few who had a car on site, to wait at the Crawford Court House to drive any of the arrested people back to their motel or vehicle. She had to wait in a designated area. She was not allowed to wait at large in the town.

We have been holding the Peace Vigil in Ashland for almost a year. We have had a small turnout. We discussed why this was so. In a small town, it is harder than a large city. Some people don’t want to be seen there, even though they support the theme of Peace. Some work. Some don’t think about coming and being a part of it. We get a lot of support in other ways, but also a lot of apathy.

Mrs. Spadoman has been marching forever it seems. Longer than I. When we lived in St. Paul, she went every Wednesday morning to a protest at Alliant Techsystems Inc., or ATK, the parent company that makes Depleted Uranium munitions. Through the internet, an e-mail from Alliant Action came and had a reference to a blog with an great article about protesters and the upcoming Republican National Convention, or RNC, that will take place in Minneapolis next September. Minneapolis, being in a very liberal part of the country, has many peace and protest groups of their own, and many chapters of National organizations. They have started early to assemble and plan an orderly large scale protest to take place during the RNC.

The article deals with what the FBI and Federal Government is doing at massive protests and is quite interesting. It is written by Charley Underwood. I am not sure of Mr. Underwoods background, but he seems to be one of the writers of the mnblue blog. MNblue is a great find for anyone, even if you don’t live in Minnesota. It covers Minnesota politicians, but also National issues. It is a unique perspective from the heartland. You can go HERE to read the article. I have also printed it below. It is entitled “The Republican Convention and the Illusion of Free Speech”

Peace to All, Here’s the article from mnblue:

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resistance is not futile

i have tooled around the internets over the weekend to see what i could see. i have been on a self imposed news blackout for quite some time- which means i scan the headlines only instead of seeking out more. i don’t need to see much more. don’t get me wrong- i think that it is imperative that the journalists do their jobs and hopefully bring back some investigative journalism- even if it has to be freelance. i doubt seriously that the fourth estate will ever recover. anyway, that isn’t my thought trail this time. i get the feeling that folks are in a quandary over what the hell to do about the current and future state of affairs we find ourselves in. i know i am. everyday, more and more corruption is exposed with little to no accountability- and it’s maddening. of course, we know in our deepest spots of the mind what we will have to do eventually- but what to do in the meantime? how does a country wrest back it’s democracy from the hands of the rich and the corporations? how does one take on city hall and win? yeah. i know. me too. no clue. i have no desire to end up on the subversives list and get carted off to a detention center. i mean first meter readers and now firefighters- on top of the cell phone tracking and warrantless wiretapping- what’s next- tasering motorists and protesters? oh wait. since we are now in a police state- with the police being trained like military- how are we going to fight back? conventional methods used in the past- protesting en masse, voting- have not worked. what can we, the people, in order to form a more perfect union, possibly do to end this march towards fascism?

“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”

hmmmmm………

tags:democracy, civil liberties, america

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Valerie Plame talks to Jason Leopold, part 2

The second and last installment of the Valerie Plame convo with Jason Leopold of TruthOut.

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It’s Waterboarding, Not Apple Bobbing

Another fine photoshop and post from Lulu Maude. Check out her blog here.

You have to admire Michael Mukasey’s academic integrity on the question of whether waterboarding can be defined as a form of torture.

Mukasey has dodged the questions of the Senate Judiciary Committee on the practice, saying that he doesn’t have the security clearance for making an informed statement. That’s telling ‘em, Mike!

Sometimes I wonder how people like Patrick Leahy keep from exploding during confirmation hearings. The issue of waterboarding, after all, starts at the top, like every other assault on the Constitution, Geneva Conventions, and human decency. Asking these questions must be the height of absurdity.

Dubya wasn’t going to select a Petraeus who wasn’t going to bullshit Congress, nor a Mukasey who won’t play along with the assembled chickenhawks.

If Mukasey wants to buy a little credibility for a whiz-bang finish to the hearings, he ought to head down to Guantanimo and experience a little waterboarding for himself. Then he can lay the question of whether or not it’s torture to rest on an experiential basis.

Actually, since our Commander-in-Chief has such cojones grandes, we should probably start with him. I’m sure it wouldn’t faze him a bit. He and El Cheney could go on a field trip.

Now there’s something that definitely should start at the top.

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