News & Current Events

[tonydude]

  Oh, well.  Just another day in the mind-boggling indifference of Americans to the loss of their civil liberties, and the new President's conciliatory refusal to pursue.  On Huffington Post, there's a running blog by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and Brendan DeMelle, and, today, I finally got around to reading their latest, that the whistleblower Russell Tice has said the NSA monitored phone calls of all U.S. journalists, but also:  all Americans.  In domestic calls.
  Clearly we aren't talking about traditional wiretaps here as that is so primitive and would require hundreds of thousands of feds, snooping.  Tice could not explain how it's done, but, frankly, it is the nation's biggest secret-which-isn't-a-secret:  the supercomputers that can monitor all telecommunications, and process them picking out what is of interest by "flag" words and phonemes (in linguistics, the smallest sound units with meaning).
 Not a secret because 10-12 years ago, France threatened to take the U.S. to the World Court over abuse of this technological breakthrough, claiming we were using it to eavesdrop on business deals, giving the advantage to U.S. firms.  At that time, the supercomputer was identified as the Echelon computer, which, if you enjoy conspiracy theories, type that one in for a search, and you find every crackpot around has discredited any real discussion of the issue by their wild, and unfounded, allegations.
 That was over a decade ago, and we can be sure there have been handy-dandy upgrades.  At any rate, the technology is mind-boggling (and expensive) and is of real value to our national security.  But, once again, no real oversight and no accountability apparently led to the smug decisions of Bush/Cheney to border on politicizing this capability.  Which is.....an extreme threat to our way of life as we know it.  Or, knew it.
  And there really IS no hope for congressional hearings, for the simple reason, explained so sweetly by Cheney recently, that the administration kept the Democrats on the intelligence committees informed.  Those Democrats (including Nancy Pelosi), did not object as the last thing they wanted was the Bushies to nail them for any terrorist attack that might occur.  So the Democratic majority, that was finally attained, doesn't dare DO anything.  Nor does the President.
  Wiretaps are what we read about in the news.  They went the way of the dinosaur.  What we have now is technology critical to our defense, but easily abused.  And the article on this? Well, it was stale news and was dropped, today, although going to  their blog and mousing Russell Tice will bring up some information.
 Just another day where something that should be fixed, isn't, because it's inconvenient.  Back to peanut butter recalls, Wall Street bonuses, and huge ice storms.  And we can only hope, the President sees the danger, and discretely institutes reforms.  That's if he sees the danger.  He has, so far, made his strongest asset, a temperament preferring reconciliation, into, potentially, his greatest weakness.
  We need reform.  The next political swing towards the right wing may bring in a crew that makes Bush/Cheney look like moderates.

[michaelflanagansf]

This policy was originally enacted by Ronald Reagan in 1985 and upheld by Bush Sr.  It was overturned by Bill Clinton and put back into effect by Bush Jr.  Regardless of what you think of abortion the implications of this policy on the AIDS crisis in Africa has been devastating:

America abortion debate reaches into African slums
  By KATHARINE HOURELD, Associated Press Writer Katharine Houreld, Associated Press Writer   – 2 hrs 51 mins ago

NAIROBI, Kenya – Nairobi's sprawling Kibera slum is far from America but not from America's battle over abortion.

Aid workers and experts say President Barack Obama's decision to allow aid money to flow again to international groups that offer abortion counseling will help restart programs desperately needed in Africa, the continent hardest hit by a so-called "gag rule."

Dr. Walter Odhiambo, the country director for Marie Stopes Kenya, said his family planning organization had been limping along on European aid because of the U.S. rule Obama overturned on Jan. 23 in one of his first presidential acts. Now, Odhiambo said, he would be applying for U.S. funds he hoped to use to expand counseling and other services, particularly in rural Kenya.

"Family planning was not given the prominence it needs," Odhiambo said.

The policy banned U.S. government money from going to international family planning groups that either offer abortions or provide information, counseling or referrals about abortion. Its critics call it the "global gag rule," because it prohibits funding for groups that lobby to legalize abortion or promote it as a family planning method. That can affect a range of services provided by private groups on a continent where governments can meet few of their citizens' health needs.

"The biggest impact has been in sub-Saharan Africa," said Wendy Turnbull, a researcher for Washington-based Population Action International, which lobbies on family planning issues and applauded Obama's move.

Turnbull applauded the Bush administration for spending millions to fight AIDS and other health threats in Africa, but said the gag rule undermined that effort.

For instance, she said, groups that could have helped distribute the condoms the U.S. was supplying to fight AIDS were denied funding because of their stance on abortion.

"When you are making rules, it's not right to just look at the immediate effects," said Nkandu Luo, a Zambian former minister of health who currently heads her country's independent Society for Women and AIDS. "It's important to look at the long-term implications."

A study by the Washington-based Center for Reproductive Rights said the policy hit hardest in Africa, the fastest growing and poorest continent. Latin Americans and Asians were more likely to accept the ban and keep funding, either because they embraced its intent or relied more on U.S. money, the study concluded.

Clinics serving over 1.5 million women closed in Kenya, homeland of Obama's father, said Marie Stopes Kenya and Family Health Options Kenya. Contraceptive availability in Zambia was reduced. AIDS programs run by family planning groups in Ethiopia were affected.

Even without the U.S. policy, abortions would be controversial here. They are illegal in almost all African countries, many of which have conservative Christian or Muslim populations — one of the reasons women interviewed about their abortions declined to give their full names.

But the laws have simply pushed abortions into back rooms instead of ending the practice.

Marie Stopes Kenya, which does not offer abortions, closed two slum clinics after losing its USAID funding because of its association with Marie Stopes International, one of the world's largest family planning organizations.

continues:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090131/ap_on_re_af/af_africa_obama_abortion

[WhenPigsFly]

  Oh, well.  Just another day in the mind-boggling indifference of Americans to the loss of their civil liberties, and the new President's conciliatory refusal to pursue.  On Huffington Post, there's a running blog by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and Brendan DeMelle, and, today, I finally got around to reading their latest, that the whistleblower Russell Tice has said the NSA monitored phone calls of all U.S. journalists, but also:  all Americans.  In domestic calls.

Tony:  Hearings! Heck! With the exception of Olbermann and Maddow, we can't get the corporate media to even notice the Tice bombshell.  Even after the NYTimes knows for a fact that one of its own was targeted.  Wonder why?

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2009/01/ta_012909.html
Think Again: Spying on Journalists? Why the Silence?
By Eric Alterman, George Zornick | January 29, 2009

[. . .]

Surprise, surprise: Fewer than 24 hours after the end of the Bush presidency, a former analyst at the National Security Agency revealed on MSNBC’s “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” that Bush’s National Security Agency “monitored all communications” of Americans and that U.S. news organizations and individual journalists were specifically targeted.

Former analyst Russell Tice told Olbermann that, “The National Security Agency had access to all Americans’ communications—faxes, phone calls, and their computer communications. And it didn’t matter whether you were in Kansas, in the middle of the country, and you never made any foreign communications at all.”

Tice went on to explain that, in fact, particular journalists were targeted, just as they were during the bad old days of Watergate. When Olbermann asked if there was “a file somewhere full of every e-mail sent by all the reporters at the New York Times?” or if “there [is] a recording somewhere of every conversation I had with my little nephew in upstate New York? Is it like that?” Tice responded that, indeed, “if it was involved in this specific avenue of collection, it would be everything. Yes. It would be everything.”

Within days, New York Times reporter James Risen also appeared on Olbermann and said that he suspects he was a victim of such surveillance: “What I know for a fact is that the Bush administration got my phone records. Whether that was obtained by the FBI or the NSA, my lawyers and I have been trying to investigate that.”

Risen and Tice have some history together—in 2005, Risen, along with Eric Lichtblau, wrote an article in The New York Times exposing the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping program for the first time. Tice was one of their sources. Risen and Lichtblau won Pulitzer Prizes for their reporting—something that Dick Cheney noted during his farewell round of interviews “always aggravated him.”

The Bush administration was aggravated as soon as the story was printed and attempted to identify Risen’s sources within the federal government. The New York Times reported in April that government officials called before a grand jury were confronted with phone records documenting their calls with Risen. Notably, neither Risen nor The New York Times received a subpoena for those records. This is why Risen believes he was targeted under the surveillance now described by Tice.

So, how did The New York Times cover Tice’s revelations that ordinary American citizens, journalists in general, and possibly one of their own reporters in particular, had their communications monitored without a warrant? As far as we can tell, not at all.

Neither Tice nor his charges were discussed in the Times, either in print or online. This was standard across much of the mainstream media—The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, and Associated Press have all remained completely silent about Tice’s allegations. And in one of his many, many “legacy” interviews, Bush told Fox’s Brett Baier in December that they were simply “listening to a phone call from a known terrorist.” He was not challenged on this point during that interview, nor any other of which we are aware.

Of course, this is hardly the first time that the mainstream media has looked the other way toward NSA spying. The NSA’s surveillance of U.N. diplomats in New York before the invasion of Iraq didn’t get much mainstream attention when the story broke (in Britain), nor since. But one might imagine that the direct spying on journalists themselves would excite more attention, particularly given the self-interested aspects of the question and the constitutional complications it raises. Tice’s tantalizing tip was mentioned again on Rachel Maddow’s show, as well on Chris Matthews’, and Michael Calderone blogged about it on the Politico. But that’s it.

Clearly something deeply disturbing lurks beneath these revelations, and with Bush gone from office, it’s hard to understand just what is preventing journalists from seeking the truth about this program more energetically. The only thing they have to fear is fear itself.

[tonydude]

Tony:  Hearings! Heck! With the exception of Olbermann and Maddow, we can't get the corporate media to even notice the Tice bombshell.  Even after the NYTimes knows for a fact that one of its own was targeted.  Wonder why?

  Dear JD - thanks for taking my post seriously, and for your own attention to a very serious subject.  As to why the media are not pursuing, I am, myself, puzzled.  But I think some of the following might be in play:

-  the new technology for monitoring domestic calls is so advanced, there is a credibility problem.  Wiretaps, people understand.  Super-computers that can process trillions of phonemes (linguistic units), flag those of interest, and zero in on them, people can't.  Technically speaking, ALL calls are monitored, by this technique, and those chosen for specific eavesdropping are those that either were discovered (which is of great value to national security) or those decided on in advance (a help to security but also, a temptation to political abuse).
  Again, the only computer named openly has been the Echelon computer, and, owing to the whacko's and New World Order conspiracy theorists, serious discussion of what is admitted to be in use, is tainted.

- fear of reprisal.  Journalists and publishers have sex scandals, too, along with tax-returns that might not be so perfect. 

- again, the method of monitoring calls is known, but, owing to whatever odds and ends the government can bring into play, they can still claim, the information is classified, and so, newspapers can't publish.  That's bull crap, of course, since the big secret is no secret, but this works for suppressing information about abuse.

   Then again, maybe it's the over-all climate:  the media has tested the waters with some stories and found we don't seem to give a damn.  That would be the worst explanation of all.             

[michaelflanagansf]

  Oh, well.  Just another day in the mind-boggling indifference of Americans to the loss of their civil liberties, and the new President's conciliatory refusal to pursue.  On Huffington Post, there's a running blog by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and Brendan DeMelle, and, today, I finally got around to reading their latest, that the whistleblower Russell Tice has said the NSA monitored phone calls of all U.S. journalists, but also:  all Americans.  In domestic calls.

Tony:  Hearings! Heck! With the exception of Olbermann and Maddow, we can't get the corporate media to even notice the Tice bombshell.  Even after the NYTimes knows for a fact that one of its own was targeted.  Wonder why?

Okay, here's a question for you both.  What is the difference between what has been reported about the NSA by Olbermann and Maddow and this:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/11/07/MNIST7NS9.DTL&hw=phone+records+NSA&sn=005&sc=775

Or this:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/07/09/INGIVJQ75N1.DTL&hw=phone+records+NSA&sn=008&sc=479

Or this:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/07/09/INGIVJQ75N1.DTL&hw=phone+records+NSA&sn=008&sc=479

It seems clear that for years now phone companies have been willing to break their own rules regarding privacy:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/05/12/BUGICIQA461.DTL&hw=phone+records+NSA&sn=014&sc=330

Aside from the Electronic Frontier Foundation I haven't heard of many people fighting against this sort of thing that has been going on for years now:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/05/23/MNGIOJ0G7L1.DTL&hw=phone+records+NSA&sn=017&sc=264

And if you want to go back even further you can see that even before companies gave their tacit approval to wiretaps, it was little or no challenge for the government to tap anyone's phone - it is rarely, if ever, challenged:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/e/a/1995/11/12/NEWS12447.dtl&hw=phone+company+wiretapping&sn=002&sc=606

So I guess I would wonder why you would expect outrage now?  This has been going on for decades - in both Democratic and Republican administrations.  I know people think they voted for change - but they didn't vote in a new political party. 

I tend to agree with the last point in tonydude's last post - the media has written about this in the past - but there is no traction among the public.  And unless the public gets outraged, you can't expect the politicos to do anything.

[brokebacktom]

I guess Bailed out banks paid millions on Super Bowl Festivities. Who didn't see this coming? I did. They are nothing more than Criminals.


http://www.abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=6782719&page=1

[tonydude]

So I guess I would wonder why you would expect outrage now?  This has been going on for decades - in both Democratic and Republican administrations.  I know people think they voted for change - but they didn't vote in a new political party. 

I tend to agree with the last point in tonydude's last post - the media has written about this in the past - but there is no traction among the public.  And unless the public gets outraged, you can't expect the politicos to do anything

   Dear Mike - thanks for the links, which were the core of your post, above.  They shook me up more than a little.  I tend to feel isolated in my worries about the ever-expanding abuse of our privacy and civil liberties, but clearly, many people are, in fact, tracking this.  And, as usual, I am always amazed at your incredible ability to rustle up appropriate links to so many issues. 
  There is one aspect to all of this that is, however, not getting through to our leaders:  the abuse of civil liberties, oddly enough, exactly coincides with a lessening of our safety from attack. Why? Because the arrogance and incompetence that lead to abuses are the same personality traits that have us rummaging around and spending resources in the wrong areas, leaving us ever more vulnerable.
  Am not saying the technological breakthroughs have no value.  They do.  But attitude is everything.  And the same power-crazed attitudes that lead to these expensive programs, clearly illegal, generated the casual flipping off of two warnings from FBI field agents prior to 9/11 that terrorist suspects were training, in this country, how to fly large planes, but not how to land them.
  We need reform, and urgently, in the areas of accountability and oversight.  But, as you also noted, the traction isn't there.  And while the NSA is cheerfully monitoring everybody, no one seems to notice, they aren't producing any results that would really make us safer, and they have created a climate where anything could happen, because of over-confidence in the dubious results of massive eavesdropping.

[brokebacktom]

It doesn't take rocket science. Employed Americans spend money. Put all monies into shovel-ready jobs and establishing new jobs. The faster Americans are employed, the faster the economy will turn around. Leave bank bailouts out of the equation. Put the money DIRECTLY into businesses who provide directly to the community and have laid employees off. For example, Caterpillar can rehire employees if Caterpillar get the intrastructure jobs that are shovel-ready such as state-wide road and bridge projects, transit system improvement, etc. In other words, invest the money from "ground up" instead of the "top down" like it has been done for past 8 years and did not work.

[brokebacktom]

A recent poll shows that most GOP want a Palin like Party. - One fiull ingnorant, uneducated, hatefull people. GOOD, they'll loose even more seats.



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/02/poll-majority-of-republic_n_163166.html

[pattieono]

  Sorry if it'd been mentioned, but.........
      The release of Prop 8 donor's list;  is there the same kind list for the Florida Amnt. 2 ?

[BayCityJohn]

Religious Right Watch: Making it illegal to be gay

Religious right rhetoric on traditional marriage is often framed as concern about preserving the institution as a bond between one man and one woman, but an international flap over an anti-gay marriage law in Nigeria has revealed the true intent of “traditional marriage” groups: the imprisonment of gays and lesbians for their sexual orientation.

Last week the Nigerian House of Representatives voted to approve a measure that would impose a jail sentence on gays and lesbians who live together and on those who assist them. The bill says it’s illegal for “the coming together of persons of the same sex with the purpose of living together as husband and wife or for other purposes of same sexual relationship.” Violators could be imprisoned for up to three years. People who “witness, abet and aid the solemnization of a same gender marriage” face up to five years in prison.

International human rights groups and members of the European Union are calling for a suspension of international aid to Nigeria because the law violates international human rights agreements. That has America’s religious right leaders and media outlets upset.

“The European Union has certainly been infiltrated by homo-fascists. There’s just no doubt about it,” said Matt Barber of Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University School of Law and Liberty Counsel. “They are using that body to essentially try to push the international homosexual agenda down the throats of countries that respect traditional values relative to sexual morality.

“We have the Defense of Marriage Act on the books [in the United States]; why aren’t they coming after the U.S.? Well, because what bullies do is they pick on someone that is weaker than they are,” he continued. “So the European Union is trying to make an example out of Nigeria because they are in a position of influence and power, yet they will not pick the same fight with the United States because they know it would be to no avail.”

Imagine that Alabama passed a law that arrested people of the same sex who lived together on suspicion of “sodomy” and the state began imprisoning the friends and family of  gays and lesbians for buying them housewarming gifts. That’s exactly what Barber is defending.

The defense of imprisoning gays and lesbians is not new for the religious right. Right here in Minnesota, the “pro-family” group Minnesota Family Council was founded to defend sodomy laws, laws that police used for decades to arrest gays and lesbians on the street, raid and shut down gay and lesbian bars, and imprison same-sex couples.

http://minnesotaindependent.com/25276/religious-right-watch-making-it-illegal-to-be-gay

[jack]

judd gregg nominated for commerce secretary.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/washingtondc/la-na-gregg4-2009feb04,0,3404616.story

look for some embarrassing revelations about his prior statements on the commerce department while in the senate.

(and i still don't see how this guy is so good he gets to tell the president his "conditions" for accepting the nod.  republicans certainly have healthy egos.)

[Lyle (Mooska)]

I know Obama wants to "play nice" with others, but he
had better have a line to draw in the sand when necessary.
I don't see the Repubicans really interested in anything but
getting their own way.

[WhenPigsFly]

Here's some change we can believe in!

On Monday, the Justice Department undid a small part of the damage that top officials caused in a scandal of politicized hiring and firing during the Bush administration. The department rehired an attorney who was improperly removed from her job because she was rumored to be a lesbian.

Complete  story here:  http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100147494&sc=emaf
 

[BayCityJohn]

Bailed-out Wells Fargo plans Vegas casino junkets

Wells Fargo & Co., which received $25 billion in taxpayer bailout money, is planning a series of corporate junkets to Las Vegas casinos this month.

Wells Fargo, once among the nation's top writers of subprime mortgages, has booked 12 nights at the Wynn Las Vegas and its sister hotel, the Encore Las Vegas beginning Friday, said Wynn spokeswoman Michelle Loosbrock. The hotels will host the annual conference for company's top mortgage officers.

The conference is a Wells Fargo tradition. Previous years have included all-expense-paid helicopter rides, wine tasting, horseback riding in Puerto Rico and a private Jimmy Buffett concert in the Bahamas for more than 1,000 employees and guests.

"I was amazed with just how lavish it was," said Debra Rickard, a former Wells Fargo mortgage employee from Colorado who attended the events regularly until she left the company in 2004. "We stayed in top hotels, the entertainment was just unbelievable, and there were awards — you got plaques or trophies."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/02/03/national/w115748S75.DTL&tsp=1