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Warning: Big Brother is Logging You
Here's something that we're witnessing way too much of these days, but one that we can take a proactively Position One stance on by empowering ourselves to take immediate action to resolve it.
The following is excerpted from a detailed and disturbing report on a top-notch independent media website called The Seminal (with a hat tip to this dKos diary that brought it to our attention).
The original story by Josh Nelson includes a number of useful live links and a truly impressive list of direct email contact addresses for members of the MSM, so we encourage you to go to The Seminal's article page and take advantage of their extra information to make your voices heard on this critical issue right away.
A bill introduced last week by Representative Lamar Smith (R-TX) is beginning to raise eyebrows.
[It] would require ISPs to record all users’ surfing activity, IM conversations and email traffic indefinitely. The bill, dubbed the Safety Act by sponsor Lamar Smith, a republican congressman from Texas, would impose fines and a prison term of one year on ISPs which failed to keep full records.
This is a terrifying development and it must be stopped before it gains any significant momentum.
Under the guise of reducing child pornography, the SAFETY (Stopping Adults Facilitating the Exploitation of Today’s Youth) Act is currently the gravest threat to digital privacy rights on the Internet. Given the increasing tendency of people, especially young people, to use the Internet as a primary means of communication, this measure would affect nearly all Americans in ways we are only beginning to understand. Also, given the fact that the Act requires all Internet Service Providers to record the web surfing activity of all Internet users, this amounts to the warrantless wiretapping of the entire Internet.
Amazingly, although the bill was introduced and referred to the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday Feb. 6, it has been virtually ignored by both the corporate media and major blogs alike. By combining such draconian legislation with several child pornography measures, Smith is trying to pull a fast one on the Judiciary Committee and on the democratically controlled Congress as a whole. [Josh says] we don’t let this happen. So, first, a little background information. Then below, [he's] outlined a few actions you can take if you’d like to spread the word on this.
Background:
The original SAFETY Act, introduced in June of 2006 by Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ), was shot down due to free speech concerns over aspects of the bill other than the ones [Josh has] focused on here. At the time, the Center for Democracy and Technology wrote that the bill “would undermine First Amendment free speech protections and do nothing to protect children on the Internet.”
So what was Lamar Smith’s response, you ask? He added the misguided measures discussed above in an attempt to fulfill the demands of the FBI. In an October 2006 conference of police chiefs, FBI Director Robert Mueller made the following statement:
"Terrorists coordinate their plans cloaked in the anonymity of the Internet, as do violent sexual predators prowling chat rooms. All too often, we find that before we can catch these offenders, Internet service providers have unwittingly deleted the very records that would help us identify these offenders and protect future victims."
Mueller was signaling to Congress that he would like to see measures put in place that would require ISPs to store records of all Internet usage so he could access it when he felt it was neccessary. But, as has been pointed out:
"The thing about retention laws is that they require all data to be maintained, not simply the data from child pornographers and terrorists. This means that such laws are usually favored by other, unrelated groups who would like access to such log files. Groups like the music labels. In Europe, where retention rules are already in place, the entertainment industry has already stated its belief that the data should be available for use in the investigation of any crime, even copyright infringement."
Action:
There are two ways to make members of Congress listen to your concerns.
1. Inundate them with phone calls and emails.
2. Get negative media coverage of what they are trying to accomplish.
Please contact any or all of the people and organizations listed [on The Seminal website here]. Let them know that the SAFETY ACT, as it is written, is not acceptable.
Sponsor:
Rep. Lamar Smith, 202-225-4236
Cosponsors:
Rep. Steve Chabot, (202) 225-2216
Rep. Tom Feeney, (202) 225-2706
Rep. J. Randy Forbes, (202) 225-6365
Rep. Trent Franks, (202) 225-4576
Rep. Elton Gallegly, (202) 225-5811
Rep. Dan Lungren, (202) 225-5716
Rep. Mike Pence, (202) 225-3021
House Judiciary Committee Chair:
Rep. John Conyers, (202) 225-5126
[Additional web contact forms and email addresses are embedded in original article here]
We here at the DCP heartily second Josh's call to action on this critical issue of personal privacy. Those who would monitor our every move and censor our thoughts and words as well as control our activities keep trying to push overarching Internet initiatives like this, and we must be ever watchful to ensure that they can't get away with taking away our rights like this.
Unbelievable.
I will certainly be calling as soon as I'm off work!
Thanks for the link and for pointing this out to your readers. It is a very important issue and it is the work of people like you that help to spread the word.
Keep up the great work!
Josh Nelson
This is such a moment in time--we have the opportunity to provide a better world for our children but the dangers are also greater--and then something like this bill comes in under the radar and we have to take a break from the environment and war concerns, healthcare, education and verything else this administration is trying to screw with, and take on this issue. It is COMPLETELY counter to the Constitution.
Sigh. Will add this one to the targets for my quiver of arrows this week.
Thanks Josh and Rick.
Posted by Rick Albertson at February 12, 2007 01:14 AM
When I first read about this proposal and because of my concerns about net neutrality a couple of months ago, I called my ISP.
I think this must work differently for different ISPs. Perhaps big companies like AOL or Comcast or the like can do this sort of thing rather easily if someone uses their web site for their home page...??? I know for a fact that IMs can be recorded on Messenger's server, so that's an issue that people who use it must be concerned with (but if pornographers and criminals already know that, why on earth would they be dumb enough to use IMs? - That didn't stop Foley, however...).
My ISP is a local company, however - local people answer the phone, if I have a problem they come to me or I take my computer to their office, it's a cooperative so I get money back at some point, they have a spam filter (to which I can add addresses if something manages to slip by the spam filter), and they have an antiviral program, so consequently, between theirs and mine, every piece of incoming and out going email gets scanned twice by different antiviral programs.
However, my ISP can't track where I go on the internet (how can they when I use the search engine from my computer, not theirs?). I was also assured that they do nothing with information about their clients in any way, shape, or form until/unless someone shows up at their office with a search warrant in hand.
There are sting operations to catch child predators and that's already being used by law enforcement. They don't need ISPs to retain anything to catch them; all law enforcement officials need to do is set up a sting operation.
Nevertheless... I will be calling my rep about this bill.
See my post on the last thread with the copy of the letter I sent to the author of that LA Times article about the mercenaries who got medals at a private ceremony:
Posted by: NonnyO at February 12, 2007 05:23 AM
I almost passed out from surprise when I got this note in response (and it seems he's pulling a typical neoCon trick to make me feel guilty because families of mercenaries lost loved ones):
~~~~~
Thanks for your letter. I'd be happy to forward your comments on to the mothers and fathers who have lost their children. Perhaps you'd care to discuss your strong feelings with them? Just let me know.
Best
t
[His full name is T. Christian Miller, and he's listed as a Times Staff Writer at the head of the column.]
~~~~~
This is my reply to Miller in response to his above note (So, okay; I'm taking advantage of the fact that someone actually replied to a letter of mine for a change, so I just can't resist the temptation to respond, given his momentary attention span - if he replies to this, you may not hear from me for a while because I'll end up in ER being treated for shock....):
Thanks for your reply, but you can't guilt me into a neoconservative trap the way Bush and Cheney do when they accuse people of being unpatriotic when they don't blindly follow their dictates or listen to their lies. I have questions....
What about the families of over 3100 US military personnel who have been killed for the sake of lies for oil? Their loved ones certainly never participated in Bu$hCo's war for the sake of money, and the US military personnel most certainly do not receive a five-figure monthly income. Bush & Cheney and their corporate cronies are using a public army to gain control of the oil fields for the sake of private gain (oil corporations have made obscene record profits in the last few years), and Bush and Cheney, et al., are adding to our national shame by also using private mercenaries who do not have the same standards or code of conduct required of US military personnel. What about the families of the 665,000+ dead civilians in Iraq, all thanks to Bush's ordering the illegal invasion of Iraq based on lies for oil? What about the families of those who are being held and tortured at Gitmo, or who have been renditioned to other countries for torture, all sanctioned by Bush, Cheney, and their administration (in our names, no less, even though those of us who have a conscience do not approve the torture of anyone, anywhere, at any time)? Did you approve of the fact that Bush sanctioned torture in your name? What about the other employees of the LA Times? Did they approve of torture being committed in their names?
As far as I'm concerned, there's nothing to "discuss" about the mercenaries, or with their families. There is no way to have an intelligent, dispassionate, fact-based "discussion" when people refuse to see reality, or with people who have not kept themselves informed about the politics of this country (I pay attention to details and I deconstruct the lies). If I had a family member who was a mercenary, I'd delete him/her from my genealogy program and disown that individual. I'd never be able to stand the shame of having a mercenary in the family who engaged in war for profit. I have ancestors and relatives who have honorably fought (some died) in every war since the Revolutionary War, and as I noted in my first letter to you, I have a nephew currently with a guard unit in Afghanistan. I want all US guard and reserve troops on the next military transport planes out of both Iraq and Afghanistan, and within a month after that regular military redeployed out of the cross-fire of the civil war in Iraq (the reasons for which go back at least 1500 years and which we don't understand anyway because we don't understand their culture). The mercenaries are in Iraq and in Afghanistan for profit; if they weren't greedy and selfish individuals they would never have knowingly left their families and risked their lives by consenting to be employed by mercenary corporations or to getting rich off of our taxpayer dollars.
The war in Iraq is illegal, unconstitutional (AUMF does NOT grant a president war powers which belong only to Congress), unjustified (based entirely on lies for oil, and we all know it now, although some of us knew during the presidential debates in 2000 that when Bush said he would not do any 'nation building' that he was lying; I journaled that night that he was lying and that he'd start a war in Iraq to finish his daddy's war if this country was dumb enough to believe such an obviously unintelligent creature), unethical, immoral, dishonorable, and a war crime. Those of us with moral values and a conscience have been hanging our heads in shame since media and politicians jumped on the warmongering bandwagon as a result of lying propaganda from the White House and the Pentagon. Those of us with an IQ higher than a rock knew the war was based on a pack of lies from the get-go, yet media swallowed the lies, without question, hook, line, and sinker... and kept repeating the lies even after they knew Bush and Cheney and their administration lied, more's the shame. The first AUMF granted Bush authority to go after Osama Bin Laden; I notice he's still not been caught, not even mentioned for months on end, and still Osama Been Forgotten....
Have you read the US Constitution? Have you read the Geneva Conventions? Have you read the Bill of Rights? Have you read US law (specifically, Title 18 having to do with war crimes)? Have you read the Nuremberg judgment upon which the Geneva Conventions are based? Have you studied those documents thoroughly? All of those documents are written in elegant, elementary English, and they are easily understood. Do you realize that the invasion of Iraq was a war crime? Do you realize that the torture and imprisonment of people who have never been charged with any crimes at Gitmo is a war crime? Mercenaries participated in the torture at Abu Ghraib (and they are likely part of the group torturing people at the US military base at Gitmo, too). They are committing war crimes! How that kind of criminal behavior deserves medals for any mercenaries is beyond my kenning!
The Military Commissions Act of 2006 took away habeas corpus (something that's been with us since June 1215, and it's been taken for granted that we would always have habeas corpus, per the US Constitution) gave Bush dictatorial powers, and made Bush and his criminal cohorts exempt from being charged with war crimes, all counter to the US Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Geneva Conventions, and US law. That insult from the 109th Congress in October 2006 was after the monstrous injury of the Patriot Acts and other nefarious legislation that has eroded our rights and privileges granted under the Constitution since Bush was given his office by the SCOTUS decision in December 2000. (The 'theory of the unitary executive' originated with Carl Schmitt and is part of why Hitler gained dictatorial power.)
Right-wing neoconservative media has been part and parcel of the war crimes of Bu$hCo by parroting only their propaganda and printing the lame explanations given by Bu$hCo for their crimes without ever questioning them. When will media people start asking tough questions - and demanding straight answers - of Bush, Cheney, and their administration, as well as the corporations who have so blatantly inserted themselves into governmental processes? When you mix corporations with government you get fascism. Have you read the fourteen signs of fascism? All of that has been taking place in the US since Bush was installed.
Media moguls have been good little girls and boys to faithfully print or air all this vaguely-worded stuff that Iran maybe, possibly, might be providing arms to Iraq... but no one's asked for proof, and no one's asked about what happened to the Iraq stockpiles of arms that disappeared when US military didn't seize them at the initial invasion (they could have ended up in Iran or Syria or wherever), but they were in a headlong rush to protect and defend the oil wells in Iraq. Shamefully, they didn't bother to protect the artifacts from thousands of years ago in museums.
Pictures mean diddly-squat. They can be photo-shopped, and for that matter, they might be the weapons used against the Iraqis by the US military, not imported from Iran. The US was selling arms to both Iran and Iraq not too many years ago (and were likely in those stockpiles of weapons that disappeared). What about what Halliburton has been selling to Iran all along, in spite of boycotts...? How does anyone know weapons have serial numbers on them unless the weapons came from manufacturing companies in the US? An IED wouldn't have a serial number on it because it's made from things at hand, not made by a corporation (that's why it's called an "improvised explosive device"). What about the tons of cash handed out in Iraq ($8.8 billion unaccounted for!)? Did anyone use that money to buy arms from anywhere in the world, including from the US sold to other countries? For that matter, are mercenary companies like Halliburton's KBR, DynCorp, or Blackwater supplying weapons to Iran, or staging "incidents" that implicate Iran but not committed by anyone in Iran?
Any number of questions that should be asked by media people and are not being asked. Media is, once again, taking the word of people in the administration known to have lied us into one illegal and unconstitutional war; are you in media going to fall for almost the same identical lies - again?!? Even if mercenaries are combined with regular US miltary personnel (regular military and guard and reserves), there simply are not enough people to fight a second illegal, unjustified war with Iran (and it would be another war crime to invade Iran). It would be insane to illegally invade another country, yet that is precisely the direction in which Bush is taking this country. I've not seen anything where anyone in any mainstream media outlet has questioned the administration in detail about their vague assertions regarding Iran. Right-wing mainstream media is just going along with all the usual BS the administration is dishing out, repeating their claims like robots without question (again!).
Depending on which polls one is reading (including polls taken among US military personnel), numbers vary, but the vast majority of the people of this nation want the war in Iraq stopped immediately, the troops brought home ASAP, torture stopped, Gitmo closed, our rights and privileges restored, and Bush/Cheney impeached, and the vast majority favor diplomatic talks with Iran, not yet another war!
Is anyone in mainstream media repeating that information daily? Is Congress listening to "We The People?"
Thank you.
Sincerely,
It's not a big stretch to assume that the smear went out through more than one leaker... it's a smear machine
~~~~~~~~~
'Post' reporter identifies Fleischer as source for CIA leak
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-02-12-libby-trial_x.htm?csp=34
~snip~
State Department official Richard Armitage told Woodward about Plame on June 13, 2003, Woodward said. Pincus said former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer told him about Plame on July 12, 2003.
~snip~
The testimony also appeared to support the defense's claim that Libby was not part of an organized plan to reveal Plame's identity to punish her husband. Their testimony also showed that others in the Bush administration who were not charged with a crime leaked the CIA officer's name.
~snip~
Well, um, er... if you recall a threader from 12/2/06 titled "Of Duty, Death, and Dollars", then you already know that the blatant and ever-increasing use of mercenaries by our military mavens are something of a sore point with me, too.
Moral and ethical issues notwithstanding -- though imho moral and ethical issues should *never* be notwithstanding -- it's a really crappy way to treat all the people who actually are there out of patriotism and duty instead of hiring themselves out to the highest bidders.
From the Thread Header:
[It] would require ISPs to record all users’ surfing activity, IM conversations and email traffic indefinitely. The bill, dubbed the Safety Act by sponsor Lamar Smith, a republican congressman from Texas, would impose fines and a prison term of one year on ISPs which failed to keep full records.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I don't think even the Chinese go that far, though things may have changed since the last time I read about it...
I really don't want to pull focus off the subject of the current threader, because what it's talking about there is seriously important stuff.
But I've still got a cricket in my craw about what NonnyO was talking about. And, well, on this paw you've got your Tin Lizzy; and on the other paw, you've got your Razor.
Either way, though, how come we end up posting pop-culture song lyrics just to get our point across about this kind of evil stuff?
Any way you look at it, this is just all kinds of wrong.
----------
A soldier of fortune came home from war
And wondered what he was fighting for
This sad-eyed soldier, he broke down and cried
Oh he was so broke up inside
When will it end
When will it end
The bells toll
For those about to die
The battles over the war is won
But this soldier of fortune he will carry on
He will carry on when all hope is gone
He will carry on
Hes trained to kill and kill he will
As we march along
Singing just another soldier song
Just another soldier song
I am a soldier of fortune
Destined to keep on marching
I can hear the pipers calling
I am a soldier of fortune
Destined to keep on marching
I can hear the pipers calling
---------------
Give me the weapons, I'll finish the job
I do what I have to, to win
Killing the weak if they're not on my side
I don't know the meaning of sin
Under command if you're paying my price
I'm paying you back with my skill
A hit man who deeds out the violence with ease
Emotionless, customized kill
Take aim: open fire
I've still got drive and I've still got the desire
Survivor of torture, disturber of peace
Fighting for reasons unknown
Really don't care if I'm good or I'm bad
You pay me and I set the tone
Like a cancerous cell infesting your blood
They still haven't found me a cure
Victim of circumstance, driven by greed
Believe me, my hatred is pure
Soldier of fortune, lives to be claimed
Living in trenches and barrens untamed
Soldier of fortune, treasonous crimes
Motives uncertain a sign of the times
Killing machine, evil regime
Sinister dream, listen for screams,
Paying my price, rolling the dice
Should've thought twice
Your neck I will slice
Take aim: open fire
I've still got the drive and I've still got the desire
Take aim: you'll pay
I've still got the will and I've still got the power to stay
-------------------
and this is the level to which BushCo has chosen to sink,
Otter
Posted by: Otter at February 12, 2007 04:05 PM
I don't blame you, my furry friend! I have fish bones stuck in my craw about the same issue.
I *highly* suspect the mercenaries (connected with Chinkster's Halliburton one way or another) are the ones fudging "incidents" near the Iran border to spark something to give the naked emperor an excuse to nuke 'em, possibly from planes from ships - and I more than *highly* suspect photo-shopped images of the "proof" they're trying to invent (I remember those aluminum tubes, y'see, plus all the other lies too numerous to mention - again). I don't know. But the hackles are standing up on my neck and I'm wondering what will set Twitchy off to push the wrong buttons and start a conflagration throughout the Mideast. (Seriously. If he does, then who the heck will want to go to the Mideast for any amount of money and work in the sands filled with nuclear fallout while they dig oil wells for the corporate dastards...? Bet they haven't thought that far ahead yet.)
Still, we can multi-task, and we're adept at that by now (I have half a dozen things going as I write). I called my rep's local office about this internet spying for no good reason, got the answering machine, so I'll start calling back right away tomorrow morning until the guy answers and I can relay my message in person. If he doesn't answer right away, I'll send the local guy an email, and then go to my rep's web site and send him the same thing.
Have I mentioned recently: I want the bam dastards IMPEACHED so badly I can taste it?!? I keep crunching down on my tongue in frustration... it's bleeding.
OK, I can see where this bill from another crazy Texan is another example of how screwed up things are. However, the (amateur) techie in me wonders the following:
- How the hell are they going to be able to store all that data?
- Even if there is enough storage capability, how the hell are they going to parse that data to find the little nuggets they want?
The ineptness of the government to even keep track of criminal records & combined databases for much more menial information they need is proof that this stupid bill will never be able to be implemented.
I'm all for calling the reps and telling them how stupid this is, if it is indeed an afront to our privacy. But most of the stupidity lies in the inability to actually do design, build, & implement it. Waste of time. Waste of money.
Well, there ya go. Not only is it illegal, immoral, ill-advised, and insane on the face of it... but it's also impossible to achieve on the back end anyway.
Why, how very BushCovian.
Hell, if those are the applicable criteria for a new initiative,then we might as well go and invade a few more Middle Eastern countries while we're at it.
Oh, wait -- we already have. Never mind.
America is like a car: to go backward put in it R, to go forward put it in D,
Otter
America is like a car: to go backward put in it R, to go forward put it in D,
Otter
Posted by: Otter at February 12, 2007 04:36 PM
Good one, Otter!
Waste of time. Waste of money.
Posted by: madame defarge at February 12, 2007 04:29 PM
Have y'all noticed that in the last eight years, the majority of the time crooked men, usually politicians or corporate cronies (usually oil) of the head twits, who do crooked things have come from Texas and they manage to waste all kinds of time and money, or they steal money that doesn't belong to them...?
I find that really curious. True, there are other crooked men from other states, but there are so MANY from Texas.... Is it something in the water? Or is it all the oil? Or is the magnetic field in that state causing mental derangement?
People really ought to have listened to Molly Ivins. Molly knew....!
- Even if there is enough storage capability, how the hell are they going to parse that data to find the little nuggets they want?
Posted by: madame defarge at February 12, 2007 04:29 PM
Now that would need one hell of a "Google".
Posted by: Otter at February 12, 2007 04:36 PM
Love it.
(Even though we are NOT partisan here! We are critical of all nincompoops and participate fully as citizens of a democracy!)
Richard and I are off to a Washington event; a debut of Rory Kennedy's documentary on Abu Ghraib. A light film, over gruyere and Pinot, no doubt.
I'm just a witness; I'm just a witness...
America is like a car: to go backward put in it R, to go forward put it in D,
Otter
Posted by: Otter at February 12, 2007 04:36 PM
This is good!
America is like a car: to go backward put in it R, to go forward put it in D,
Otter
*snort*
Whadda ya wanna be? Progressive?
An off-topic news article you might be interested in....
US Army base in Japan rocked by blast
February 13, 2007 - 7:35AM
An explosion was heard near a US Army base south of Tokyo late yesterday local time, with police later finding two steel pipes suspected of having been used in an attempted attack on the base.
Residents heard a late-night explosion near Camp Zama, about 25km south-west of Tokyo, after which police found two steel cylinders, a police spokesman said.
Kyodo News, quoting police, said one metal tube could have been used to launch a rocket from a park near the base in Kanagawa prefecture.
Cont. .....
http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/us-army-base-in-japan-rocked-by-blast/2007/02/13/1171128932297.html
Saw this cartoon, thought immediately of song lyrics I sang as part of a cast many, many years ago....
http://www.americanprogress.org/cartoons/2007/02/021207_iran.html
Bush's Toy Soldiers
One Tin Soldier (The Legend of Billy Jack)
by Lambert-Potter, sung by Coven
Listen, children, to a story
That was written long ago,
'Bout a kingdom on a mountain
And the valley-folk below.
On the mountain was a treasure
Buried deep beneath the stone,
And the valley-people swore
They'd have it for their very own.
Go ahead and hate your neighbor,
Go ahead and cheat a friend.
Do it in the name of Heaven,
You can justify it in the end.
There won't be any trumpets blowing
Come the judgement day,
On the bloody morning after....
One tin soldier rides away.
So the people of the valley
Sent a message up the hill,
Asking for the buried treasure,
Tons of gold for which they'd kill.
Came an answer from the kingdom,
"With our brothers we will share
All the secrets of our mountain,
All the riches buried there."
Go ahead and hate your neighbor,
Go ahead and cheat a friend.
Do it in the name of Heaven,
You can justify it in the end.
There won't be any trumpets blowing
Come the judgement day,
On the bloody morning after....
One tin soldier rides away.
Now the valley cried with anger,
"Mount your horses! Draw your sword!"
And they killed the mountain-people,
So they won their just reward.
Now they stood beside the treasure,
On the mountain, dark and red.
Turned the stone and looked beneath it...
"Peace on Earth" was all it said.
Go ahead and hate your neighbor,
Go ahead and cheat a friend.
Do it in the name of Heaven,
You can justify it in the end.
There won't be any trumpets blowing
Come the judgement day,
On the bloody morning after....
One tin soldier rides away.
Go ahead and hate your neighbor,
Go ahead and cheat a friend.
Do it in the name of Heaven,
You can justify it in the end.
There won't be any trumpets blowing
Come the judgement day,
On the bloody morning after....
One tin soldier rides away.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070212/ap_on_bi_ge/oil_prices
Oil prices fall as supply worries ease
{Hmmmmm.....}
Jason Leopold | Wolfowitz Emerges as Key Figure in Intel Manipulation
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/021207A.shtml
Paul Wolfowitz, former under secretary of defense, has been identified in recently released grand jury transcripts as being involved in a White House smear campaign against Joseph Wilson, the former US ambassador who accused the Bush administration of manipulating intelligence in the run-up to the Iraq War.
Report: Cheney Snubbing Japan Official Over Anti-War Remarks
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/021207C.shtml
Vice President Dick Cheney will not meet with Japan's defense minister during his trip to the country next week, a decision Japanese media characterized as a snub over the official calling the US-led invasion of Iraq a "mistake."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/11/AR2007021101157.html
A Renewed Call to Televise High Court
With Supreme Court justices becoming increasingly comfortable in the spotlight, Sen. Arlen Specter says it might finally be time for their close-ups.
Spector (Pa.), joined by two other Republican and three Democratic senators, has refiled his legislation to require the court to televise its proceedings. Although getting the rest of Congress to agree still seems very much a long shot, Specter said there is a big difference between now and last year, when the bill did not reach the Senate floor.
{More on link.}
I'm glad this thread header is up. I saw that story at Daily Kos this morning and put the list of media contacts at our site. Click on my name to see how it looks & then comes Dictators & Politicians, which is just some kind of cartooning around (may need to Refresh your browser as I had to correct my URL).
Posted by: NonnyO at February 12, 2007 05:11 PM
Texas... AFAIK it was ruined by W, who is not even a native Texan. It was W who used oil to build friendships and alliances that brainwashed the population and destroyed the once-fine state.
And as far as W was concerned, he wasn't even a good businessman, which makes his political skills even more extraordinary.
Of course, the brain-dead state-level Democratic Party also shoulders the blame. It's a whole bunch of cowards who now don't even want to push for nondiscrimination laws.
Iranian president denies arming Iraqis
February 13, 2007 - 10:08AM
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad denied on Monday that Iran is supplying sophisticated weapons to Iraqi militants and said peace would return to Iraq only when US and other foreign forces leave.
"The US administration and (US President George W) Bush are used to accusing others," Ahmadinejad said in an interview with US television network ABC.
Cont. .....
http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/iranian-president-denies-arming-iraqis/2007/02/13/1171128936344.html
Ally
I tried to corrupt some visiting Republicans from Irvine - down at the Pike Place Market. It was fun. I'll have some Valentine photos up in a bit.
I tried to corrupt some visiting Republicans from Irvine - down at the Pike Place Market. It was fun. I'll have some Valentine photos up in a bit.
Posted by: DiAnne at February 12, 2007 07:12 PM
Sounds great! Irvine is an archetypal Orange County town of immigrant conservatives, so it's not easy to corrupt them...
Looking forward to your photo essay as always.
At the risk of standing on sensibilities here, why does it worry anyone that the administration is planning to try and read every single scrap of information that goes through your computer? Hell, they've been doing it to your phones for years, your letters for however long and now the computers. I agree with Mme Defarge - they'll never find what they're looking for.
Unless, of course, they employ over a million illegal immigrants on slave rations to google it on a minute by minute basis.
This latest announcement of legally stealing your privacy is another distraction. Iran is firmly within your administration's sights and it doesn't want tedious questions about *proof* to be asked. What's a perpetual hot potato for people to get agitated about? Surveillance!
The administration wants to scare you - all of you who know that this US government is hell-bent on establishing itself firmly at the head of all of the middle-east's oil fields. It wants to silence you. Scare you into not using your internet freely. And it's working. It's got you distracted. Please, keep on dissipating every little bit of information you have.
Your government needs no warrant to search your home, your car, your bank accounts, your business, your computer, your life. It can incarcerate you for any length of time on the grounds that they have discovered a 30 year old photo of you having a conversation with a cousin five-hundred-removed of the sixty-fourth in command of a finger extension of a somewhat unknown terrorist organisation swanning around in the Bahamas.
Same as here - we learn from you - there's not much information the administration doesn't already have about you or me. Big Brother has been logging us for ever. Governments like the US absolutely hate that they don't actually have ownership - and control - over the entire internet. The truth of what they are actually up to is exposed to the world before they even know about it themselves. They hate it. And you must be punished for participating in it.
I did a google search on myself and found some pretty insulting stuff I've written in blogs and things here. I must try to remember not to use my actual name and street address! Still, I figure anyone so silly as me in this situation can't have a whole lot to hide. People who exploit children - well, I couldn't care what is done to them - give them to the guantanamo establishment - they'll be no loss.
They are not the reason for this bit of law fiddling. The real reason for this announcement is to distract you.
IMHO of course.
They're supposed to have something more powerful than Carnivore. Well there is no jail that can hold us all & we aren't doing anything wrong.
Posted by: madame defarge at February 12, 2007 04:29 PM
Exactly! And that's exactly the response I used last xmas when someone was telling tapping our phones was fine.
Anyone still up, please check this diary out: it's about tonight's event:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/2/13/03657/8625
Thank you.
Oh my! Karen, that is so hard to swallow. All of it. Especially the lack of passionate response and anger about these atrocities. Why aren't those who gave the orders called upon to pay? I don't know how you and Richard continue in your work. Thankyou. Thankyou. And please - nurture each other and yourselves. This would have been an incredibly hard film to watch. You need to stay healthy in body and mind for the brilliant work that you do for this very sick planet.
We need people to see this documentary and be absolutely sickened and enraged by it. But, still it will be the underdogs who are called upon to pay the price while the orchestrators of the evil are regaled with pomp and ceremony to redirect the medals from the real heroes to their own monstrous forms.
These utterly contemptible creatures masquerading as humans in uniformed authority, spit on the medals that have been valiantly earned by the real heroes of war.
Donald Rumsfeld should spend the rest of his life with no access to sunshine and with every moment of every day and night under the bright fluorescent lighting of his cell, where he gets to stand for however long he boasts of doing every single day for the rest of his life. Not a word to him from anyone. Never a word of love from family. Just loud heavy metal music 24 hours a day - or - in sterile silence should he be kept. Forever.
No combs or other instruments of grooming. Just as he dictated for others, so should he live. And in terms of "what goes around, comes around" Donald Rumsfeld will need to live under these conditions for at least the next 250 years to come close to paying the price for the deaths and tortured minds and souls that he is responsible for.
PM's barracking has US bloggers seething
Renee Switzer
February 13, 2007 - 5:26PM
Australian Prime Minister John Howard's stoush with US presidential hopeful Barack Obama has US political bloggers seething
"Good to see that we're not the only ones stuck with an insane war monger as a `leader'," reads a post at Dailykos.com "Aussies will have their chance to get rid of Bush's other poodle later this year."
"Amazing, ain't it?" wrote another."Bush says he isn't even concerned about bin Laden any more, even though he once promised to smoke him out and punish the evil doers. And yet Howard has the f***ing gall to whine that Obama's strategy would be a gift to Al Qaeda? Sounds like his head is really down under."
{{Is it ever!!}}
Cont. .....
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2007/02/13/1171128939906.html
Guantanamo changes 'too little, too late'
February 13, 2007 - 7:57AM
New US rules for war crimes tribunals at Guantanamo fail to correct fundamental flaws that are undermining Western efforts to defeat global terrorism, the British government's top lawyer said on Monday.
"The changes made are too little and too late," Lord Goldsmith, Britain's attorney general and a longtime critic of the Guantanamo detention operation, told a meeting of the American Bar Association in Miami.
The US Congress revised the tribunal system to try foreign suspected terrorists at Guantanamo last year after the US Supreme Court struck down the original system created by President George W Bush.
Cont. .....
http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/nine-die-in-lebanon-bus-blasts/2007/02/13/1171128967900.html
C-SPAN 1
House debate on the non-binding resolution against the escalation in Iraq.
They just got done reading the rules, debate is about to begin.
We are back on line! It was actually sort of a relief NOT to be. :(
(because the news is so often bad)