With the further suppression of the CIA IG Report, now seeming to move its release in a meaningful and timely fashion into the mythical realm of the return of Pterosaurs to Capistrano....
The Justice Department is declining to release Dick Cheney's interview with federal investigators looking into the Valerie Plame leak, arguing -- as it did under President Bush -- that doing so would discourage future high-level officials from cooperating with criminal investigations.
The good-government group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington had filed a lawsuit seeking to have the interview released.
CREW points out in a press release that Cheney was never promised confidentiality in the investigation. And its executive director, Melanie Sloan, notes:
It is astonishing that a top Department of Justice political appointee is suggesting other high-level appointees are unlikely to cooperate with legitimate law enforcement investigations. What is wrong with this picture?
Real News CEO Paul Jay talks with Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights about the Obama Administration doing everything they can do to "run away" from the whole issue of accountability for the premeditated, organized and institutionalized torture program of the Bush Administration, about the need for real transparency as opposed to the false claims of transparency from Obama while reports and information are held back or heavily redacted before release, and about demands now coming from UN human rights advocate Navi Pillay for holding accountable senior Bush Administration officials.
Since tomorrow is Independence Day and many folks will be displaying fireworks, I thought that this would be appropriate. Amateur use of fireworks sends many people to the Emergency Department every year, and if I can reduce the number of calls there my work is well done.
Many of you do not realize that I am a Certified Ammunition Handler, bestowed by the United States Army. I received that certification whilst I was directing the research and development of defensive and less than lethal pyrotechnic devices several years ago. I also understand the chemistry and physics of explosives.
There are two main classes of explosives, low explosives and high explosives. Most fireworks are in the former category, but there are exceptions.
I've always thought the system of "private" contributions to the campaigns of Congress and Senate candidates was ridiculously corrupt and presented a clear conflict of interest. Of course, those "private" contributions mostly consist of money from corporations and other special interests. It should be clear to even the most closed mind that the money from these lobbies is how a Congress and Senate member gets and remains elected. It also should be clear that the money received unduely influences the positions taken by these politicians, often without the best interests of the entire population considered.
The Bush years, combined with a period in my life where my major focus was on raising kids and finishing a career, almost made me forget the real problems. Then along came Obama and his words of hope and change. He almost had me for awhile. The contrast from Bush, who I grew to hate, the symbolism of the first black president, and the worldwide exuberance from the commons, had me caught up in the moment as well.
But five months later, there is the unmistakeable sign that everything is controlled by money. The system is such that lobbies are an accepted and major player in everything that goes on in the beltway.
America was built on lots of hard work. At the cost of untold blood, sweat and tears. So much so, that we take it for granted. We just assume that all the modern conveniences we enjoy -- will just always be there!
Well a team of super serious, civil engineers, is warning our careless assumptions here, could be in for a very rude awaking.
American Society of Civil Engineers, ASCE, has issued their 2009 Infrastructure Report Card, for America, and well, it's far from encouraging ...
Might as well listen to the tacit assessments of a one ton hunk of tentacled protoplasm. At least they're fairly intelligent creatures. Because you'll never find out what's really going on by heeding the corporate harlots squawking on the goggle box or the slatterns chattering from their Congressional cathouse where all the walls are papered green with lobbyist largess.
Elections have consequences we are told. Just check the box on your ballot with the capital 'D' beside it and change will be on the way. But when millions did just that in 2006 the Democrats immediately backtracked, telling us they didn't really mean 2006 would be the start of something different. Because well, they couldn't impeach the obviously criminal Republican in the bully pulpit because it would distract from all the important things that must be done, but because that same Republican president was still there they couldn't pass anything he wouldn't approve. So they spent their first two years in control of Congress rubber stamping the Bush agenda or simply doing nothing of substance at all. But all that would surely change in 2008 if we could just put a Democrat in the White House, maybe get a new Supreme or two, and then this nation would be altered like a Sunday school marm on an MDMA bender. This stodgy authoritarian gray dame of a country would be transformed into something fresh and new. We'd all get health care, better jobs, go green, stop the corruption and fraud, and end the wars that raged. There'd be shiny happy people everywhere. All the Whos would be singing and we'd all get roast beast.
Purity of Federal 'Organic' Label Is Questioned By Kimberly Kindy and Lyndsey Layton
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, July 3, 2009 Three years ago, U.S. Department of Agriculture employees determined that synthetic additives in organic baby formula violated federal standards and should be banned from a product carrying the federal organic label. Today the same additives, purported to boost brainpower and vision, can be found in 90 percent of organic baby formula.
The government's turnaround, from prohibition to permission, came after a USDA program manager was lobbied by the formula makers and overruled her staff. That decision and others by a handful of USDA employees, along with an advisory board's approval of a growing list of non-organic ingredients, have helped numerous companies win a coveted green-and-white "USDA Organic" seal on an array of products.
Head Scarf Emerges as Indonesia Political Symbol By NORIMITSU ONISHI
Published: July 2, 2009 JAKARTA, Indonesia - The three parties competing in Indonesia's presidential election next week have plastered this city with campaign billboards and posters depicting, predictably, their presidential and vice presidential choices looking self-confident.
But one party, Golkar, has also put up posters of the candidates' wives next to their husbands, posing demurely and wearing Muslim head scarves known here as jilbabs. The wives recently went on a jilbab shopping spree in one of Jakarta's largest markets, and published a book together titled "Devout Wives of Future Leaders."
Most polls suggest that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of the Democratic Party will be re-elected in next Wednesday's vote, after running a smooth campaign based on his economic policies and a popular anticorruption drive.
USA
U.S. Shifts Strategy on Illicit Work by Immigrants By JULIA PRESTON
Published: July 2, 2009 Immigration authorities had bad news this week for American Apparel, the T-shirt maker based in downtown Los Angeles: About 1,800 of its employees appeared to be illegal immigrants not authorized to work in the United States.
But in contrast to the high-profile raids that marked the enforcement approach of the Bush administration, no federal agents with criminal warrants stormed the company's factories and rounded up employees. Instead, the federal immigration agency sent American Apparel a written notice that it faced civil fines and would have to fire any workers confirmed to be unauthorized.
One change makes you larger,
And one change makes you small,
And the ones Obama gives you, don't do anything at all.
Go ask Geithner, when he's ten feet tall.
Bring a shovel with you, he's WAY down in that 10 trillion dollar rabbit hole no Obamabots want to talk about, he's down there with the Mad Hatters of Wall Street and the Cheshire Cats of the Fed, he's down there high-fiving his Goldman Sachs pals, they're on a roll, they've been raking in market bubble billions and cashing in when those bubbles have exploded ever since the 1920's.
Mad Hatters, Cheshire Cats, whacko wingnuts and Goldman Sachs.
" The only chance we have as a country right now is for Osama bin Laden to deploy and detonate a major weapon in the United States. "
If this was said by a Democrat, Progressive or Liberal, or even an independant or moderate, that person would have been publicly tarred and feathered and then ran out on a rail by Fox News and the rest of the Right Wing leaning corporate media.
But instead, it was said on Fox News airtime, during the Glenn Beck show, and not a the only major media outlet to say peep about it was John Stewart's Daily Show.
Jon Stewart flat out destroyed Beck and Sheuer for this, and I would hope you do the same, Keith Olbermann.
Never has so much accurate and impartial information been so thoroughly ignored by the general public as in the current econmic downturn. There are numerous sites on the Internet that have been accurately predicting the steady decline of the world economy while government cheerleaders and corrupt "journalists" have been encouraging the public to smoke green shoots. As a public service, I will post a few links that are the equivalent of the "red pill" in the Matrix.
If you have the least interest in understanding the magnitude and direction of the economic turmoil around us, you owe it to yourself to swallow the Red Pill and visit these sites. Otherwise, you will be trapped in a Matrix dream characterized by this ridiculous headline from today's New York Times business section:
"June Sales at Ford Fall Less Than G.M. or Chrysler"
By contrast, here is a quote from Cafe Americain that shows the attitude of the Red Pill blogs:
We are on the record in the opinion that the Obama economic team is ineffective, backward-thinking, compromised, and possibly corrupt. They are serving the corporate banks and not the people. They should be replaced starting with Larry Summers who is a Greenspan and Rubin crony and the core of failure on the team. Tim Geithner should follow to find better employment for his talents, possibly as a salesman of men's suits.
Insurgents have captured an American soldier in eastern Afghanistan, the U.S. military said Thursday.
Spokeswoman Capt. Elizabeth Mathias said the soldier went missing on Tuesday.
Will we demand that the Taliban treat our soldier well? Will we call for international oversight? Will we lecture about the use of torture? Will we have the gall to speak about human rights and dignity?
Well that was quick. A day after the U.S. announced a massive military operation in Afghanistan, the LA Times reports an American soldier is believed to have been captured in Afghanistan. Missing since Tuesday, a U.S. "soldier is believed to have been captured by insurgents in eastern Afghanistan".
Mullah Sangeen, a senior Taliban commander, claims the soldier "was captured this week as he left a base in Paktika province on patrol. If the reports are borne out and an American soldier was seized alive, it would be an unprecedented coup for the insurgents. They could exploit a capture for propaganda purposes or demand concessions such as a prisoner exchange."
The Guardian adds the U.S. soldier is first to be captured since the invasion began in 2001, adding that American forces are "frantically hunting" for the missing soldier. "The soldier, whose unit is based in eastern Paktika province, was not involved in the ongoing operation in the south of the country."
While in southern Afghanistan, the NY Times reports on Operation Khanjar where U.S. Marines try to retake an Afghan valley from the Taliban. "Almost 4,000 United States Marines, backed by helicopter gunships, pushed into the volatile Helmand River valley in southwestern Afghanistan on Thursday morning, reporting little resistance from Taliban fighters, whose control of poppy harvests and opium smuggling in the area provides major financing for the Afghan insurgency." The Taliban is withdrawing rather than fighting.
Back in eastern Afghanistan, the LA Times reports Change may be at hand on the Afghanistan frontier with Pakistan. At Forward Operating Base Salerno, the Taliban fires rockets at the Ameircans and then slip away to Pakistan just 20 miles away. "American commanders, however, believe a greater concentration of U.S. and Afghan troops in the border region is beginning to change the equation."
However, their "mandate to give chase to the insurgents, at least using Western ground troops, stops at the rugged, mountainous border."
Four at Four continues with secret CIA jails an issue in Guantánamo detainee trial, Iraq has highest civilian death toll in 11 months, and global overfishing despite promises.
I often compare politicians to weathervanes, with political pressures of various kinds and degrees as the winds that turn them.
But there is an interesting phenomenon to be observed with our national weathervanes. They only seem to turn to the right. Just as Obama said of McCain during the election, it must be a problem with their bearings. But whatever it is, it is definitely a problem. Perhaps the problem has to do with what kind of wind is blowing them.
Senator Dianne Feinstein recently came right out and said it:
Now Feinstein has hit back at the criticism from the left in an article about lefty groups targeting Dems for waffling on key components of health care reform:
She will not listen to the wind blowing from the Left.
It is apparent that right now, they are not being blown by the Will of The People.
It is apparent that right now, they are being blown by industry lobbyists.
And obviously, by definition, industry lobbyists are trained professionals when it comes to blowing politicians.
Even if we Lowly Citizens did have the access to the politicians that the lobbyists buy, we could not blow politicians as well they, with their experience and training and exotic tools of the trade. They have been in the business of blowing politicians for years, They know just how to stroke their....egos, and they obvious have a firm grip....on their work.
And as we all know, it is hard to get the attention of someone who is being so expertly blown. Something explosive will have to happen, methinks, before We The People have a chance to get their attention. Or maybe it is just the fact that we as an allegedly Free People are just uncomfortable kneeling before our employees in supplication, unlike the paid professionals in DC.
But The People HAVE spoken.
Along with the canard of "We don't have the votes," one of the favorite EXCUSES of the weathervane politicians is that The People 'get to lobby through elections.' While the lobbyists get to blow the pols every day... We The People only get to inform our politicians of the Will of the People every two years, our ONLY input, the ONLY pressure we get to apply, according to the pols who are being blown by the lobbyists daily, is through elections.
Well hey guys, we just HAD an election, and guess what? We The People SPOKE.
The Old Way doesn't work, We want Change.
Thje Republican Way doesn't work, We want Change.
The Way you are doing business....getting blown by lobbyists and ignoring your employers doesn't work for us anymore.
And if you keep ignoring the pressure from We The People, from your employers, We The People will fire you.
The lobbyists may control the money for your campaigns, but if you recall that money is only used for one thing....to buy our votes....during elections....
Which we just had....and used to send you a message.
And which are coming up again awfully damn soon.
So pull out of that meeting with the lobbyist and take a minute and think.
All the money and strokes they give you won't get you jackshit when you are voted out of office.
All it will get you is a lobbyist job.
And then YOU will be the one on your knees.
No More Excuses.
Give We The People what we want, what we elected you to give us, or we WILL fire you....and you will spend the rest of your careers not being the ones being blown, but being the ones doing the blowing.
The People have Spoken. Clearly. You now have 60 votes.
Sometimes people can be too smart for their own good.
According to recent news stories (see Spencer Ackerman's article in the Washington Independent), the Obama administration task force on interrogations is likely to recommend "small, mixed-agency teams for interviewing the most important terrorist targets." Moreover, according to former Deputy Attorney General and Intelligence Science Board member Philip Heymann:
... interrogators from across the military, CIA, and FBI, would be charged with creating a "syllabus" of best interrogation practices that fall within the boundaries of the U.S. Army Field Manual on Interrogations, which complies with the Geneva Conventions.
ACTION: Contact HHS and The White House to let them know that if there is a No Robust Public Option, there is NO REFORM! Contact Information provided below.
Al Hunt: "You've said, all right, you are willing to compromise on your notion of a public plan, you are willing to compromise on the employer mandate, you are willing to compromise on taxing benefits. What's non-negotiable?"
Sec HHS Kathleen Sebelius: " Uh, the, the bill at the end of the day has to have a comprehensive approach that lowers cost. That's just non-negotiable. The status quo is unacceptable. . . "
AH: "Most congressional watchers say any chance of any really bi-partisan bill is dead. No Republicans in the House seem to be signed up, in the Senate your talking about a hand full of Republicans, maybe four or five. Isn't really any notion of a bi-partisan health care bill pretty much off the table?"
KS: "Well, I certainly hope not, and I hope, that, um, the Senate Republicans who have been working hard on this issue are genuinely interested in participating in the solution."
AH: "How many Senate Republican votes do you think you can get?"
KS: "You know, I don't know. Um, I, I would love to see them all."
AH: "But how many realistically? Can you get to double digits? You know how to count."
KS: "I, I know how to count. I think it depends on, you know, what, what we have, but I think there are 5-10 who may well be there for the final vote. I am encouraged by the number of people who say we need to do something. The status quo doesn't work, and I think people know that. In the early nineties, again, not doing anything won at the end of the day. People thought that was an acceptable place to land. I don't think anybody thinks not doing anything is acceptable for our current situation."
While Democrats in Congress and the President's cabinet carry water for the Republicans, real Americans are dying. They are dying from disease that can be prevented. They are dying from lack of emergency care. They are dying because it is more profitable to let them die than it is to cover their insurance. It is that simple.
And as the Democrats do all the heavy lifting for the Republicans in putting up road blocks to a Robust Public Option, the Republicans return the favor by attacking the Democratic President, the Democratic Congress and the entire Democratic agenda.
On Monday 29th June the workers at Lindsey agreed to return to work with heads held high.It was a magnificent result and all those involved deserve a great round of applause. The dispute began when 51 scaffolders were sacked at Lindsey and refused employment with another contractor on the site. They were regarded as troublemakers by management.The rest of the workers immediately downed tools in support of them.
I read a comment to a diary last Saturday that spoke of the forces that have been suppressed by the Iranian government. There remains a deep resentment in many of the people of Iran for both the way the election was handled as well as the way the demonstrators were dispatched from the streets.
Their sense of disappointment will simmer below the surface for a long time, much like the feelings many in America felt over the past eight years. We were able to vent and rage and rant in ways that will not be tolerated in Iran.
All of this got me thinking about a poem I wrote in the early eighties. I want to share that poem with you, so hop in a barrel and follow me over the fa-a-a-a-alls...
