Daily Nonsense

It appears the the Iraqi governments decision to modify the laws which have enabled Blackwater employees to escape from prosecution for the war time (war-crime?) murders of 17 Iraqi civilians is causing a little bit of controversy. The question that will ultimately be answered here is whether or not the government that is currently in power in Iraq is a ‘real’ government or just a puppet government put in place by the Bush administration so they could effectively control the country and the oil.

With the US government still unsure as to the nature and level of immunity supposedly granted the Blackwater killers it’s time that the Iraqi government stood up for the rights of their citizens and against the oppressive and unfair occupation forces and took care of their own business. The real question is whether the US will allow them to start taking control of their destiny.

The morning LA Times has a good piece on the issue:

Justice in Iraq

Questionable offers of immunity to Blackwater guards may hinder a U.S. inquiry into the deaths of 17 Iraqis.

October 31, 2007

Conflicts of interest are bad. Private conflicts of interest that damage the national interest are inexcusable. And the news that State Department investigators — apparently acting without authority — promised immunity from prosecution to Blackwater USA contractors being interviewed about their role in the killings of 17 Iraqi civilians is nothing short of scandalous.

The Blackwater case is rightly viewed in Iraq as a test of national sovereignty. Either Iraq is a sovereign state that has the right to see that murders committed on its territory are prosecuted — no matter who the suspects work for — or it is an occupied nation subject to “victor’s justice.”

Washington has promised Baghdad a full and fair investigation of the September shootings, followed by prosecution, if warranted, of the contractors who opened fire. The contractors must be presumed innocent unless proved otherwise. But the appearance of fairness and the objectivity of the U.S. investigation have been badly compromised by the rogue grant of immunity to potential suspects by an arm of the State Department, the Bureau of Diplomatic Security. That bureau appears to have such a close relationship with the politically well-connected Blackwater firm that it should never have been allowed to conduct an investigation in the first place. Now FBI investigators, who were called in to take over from Diplomatic Security two weeks after the shootings, complain that promises of immunity offered to at least four Blackwater employees will make prosecutions more difficult.

Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Beverly Hills), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, demanded Tuesday that State Department officials appear on Friday to answer questions about the immunity grants. Congress should also begin investigating growing evidence of an overly cozy relationship between the Bureau of Diplomatic Security and Blackwater. It appears that the bureau hired the contractors, supervised their activities, allowed them to use deadly force, began to investigate the long-simmering allegations of excessive use of force only after the outcry over the September shootings, and then promised some contractors immunity without asking permission from the Justice Department. This behavior is more disturbing given reports that Blackwater has hired former State Department officials at high salaries, raising questions about whether the “revolving door” presented a conflict of interest for investigators. Certainly Blackwater seems to have unwarranted influence in Washington, as evidenced by the letter it procured from the State Department ordering it not to disclose information to Waxman’s committee. Who’s in charge here, the U.S. government or Blackwater?

The United States has held up its legal system as a model for the Iraqis to emulate. If the ill-conceived intertwining of public and private security functions in a war zone means that the U.S. cannot conduct a proper investigation or prosecution of contractors it licensed to kill, America’s vaunted justice will ring shamefully hollow.

In a move which brings to mind the old proverb ‘close-the-barn-door-after-the-horse-gets-out’, the Iraqi government has approved a draft law which will remove the ill-advised immunity that private security contractors (read Blackwater) currently enjoy.

With controversy surrounding the promise of immunity from prosecution supposedly granted to the guards after 17 Iraqi civilians were murdered in Baghdad just 6 weeks ago, the Iraqi courts might remain the last chance for justice. The State Department and the US Department of Justice are currently involved in a childish argument regarding who has the right to grant immunity to suspected murderers.

In this case it’s even more important that someone has the ability to prosecute since EVERY ONE OF THE SUSPECTS was offered immunity.

The BBC has the story:

Iraq to end contractor immunity

The Iraqi government has approved a draft law revoking the immunity from prosecution private security contractors enjoy under Iraqi law.

The law, which has been referred to parliament, would revoke an order set up after the US-led invasion in 2003.

The move comes six weeks after the fatal shooting of 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad by US firm Blackwater.

Earlier, reports said the US state department might have offered partial immunity to the guards involved.

The deals would protect the guards against prosecution for anything they might say in interviews as long as their statements were true.

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"If you build it, they will come." That line caused Kevin Costner to plow under some corn and build a ball field out in the Great American Heartland. But that was 18 years ago and the times have changed. All Kevin could look forward to if he built that ball field today is heat stroke and sunburns.

According to Julie Gerberding, CDC Director, "populations in Midwestern and Northeastern cities are expected to experience more heat-related illnesses as heat waves increase in frequency, severity, and duration." That line was part of a recent presentation made in front of the U.S. Senate that was redacted from the original 12 page document by White House censors. In fact, the original 12 pages became only 6 by the time the environmental ostriches were done with Dr. Gerberding’s report.

This is just one in a long list of edits which ignore Al Gore’s "Inconvenient Truth" and focus on allowing the American lawmakers and public access to only the information which is in line with the White House’s flawed official policy. If George ’Dumbya’ Bush doesn’t believe it’s true, then by God people in his employ are not going to contradict him in public.

Now with 50 percent less truth

October 29, 2007

WHEN THE top public health official of the United States addressed the Senate last Tuesday on the health impact of global warming in this country, the senators – and the public – had a right to expect Julie Gerberding’s full, unvarnished thoughts on this important issue. That’s not what they got. In another case of the White House censoring what the public learns about climate change, the administration cut her testimony in half.

As a result, Gerberding, who heads the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, did not tell senators, as she had planned to, that "the public health effects of climate change remain largely unaddressed." Nor did the senators learn that areas in the northern part of the country "will likely bear the brunt of increases in ground-level ozone and associated airborne pollutants. Populations in Midwestern and Northeastern cities are expected to experience more heat-related illnesses as heat waves increase in frequency, severity, and duration."

All of that information was included in the six pages stricken from Gerberding’s original draft of 12 pages. The White House says it made the deletions because the information "didn’t align" with a report this year from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. In response, Senator Barbara Boxer of California released a comparison of the UN report and phrases stricken from the Gerberding draft. Both raise the threat of heat stress on vulnerable populations, increased respiratory diseases, and more waterborne infectious diseases.

This is not the first time the White House has muzzled government researchers who have raised concerns about global warming or pointed the way to addressing it. After NASA scientist James E. Hansen said in 2005 that greenhouse gas emissions were creating "a different planet," his superiors tried to control his appearances and limit his interviews.

In 2002, the White House made the Environmental Protection Agency drop a chapter on the risks of climate change from an annual EPA report that for six years had included such information. In 2003, the EPA did its best to bury an analysis by staff members showing that a proposal to cap carbon dioxide emissions by Senators John McCain and Joseph Lieberman would not seriously damage the economy.

Recently, the Bush administration has been more willing to acknowledge the role of manmade emissions in the warming of the planet, while still shrinking from mandatory actions to deal with the problem. By watering down the views of a top official like Gerberding, the White House hopes to reduce pressure in the public and Congress for a carbon cap or tax that would force limits on emissions. But this is a case of what we don’t know can hurt us. The Senate should bring Gerberding back to give her full testimony.

[Thanks, Boston.com]

Additional Resources:

• Administration’s facts about global warming melting away @ dailyiowan.com
• (Still) Muzzling the Climate Scientists @ NYTimes.com
• Mass extinction? Just ignore it @ Cincinnati Post
• Censoring science @ The Houston Chronicle

"No task is so humble that it does not offer an outlet for individuality."

-William Feather

Lou Dobbs, CNN commentator, has lambasted George ‘Dumbya’ Bush in one of the most scathing commentaries I’ve had the pleasure to read in a while. 

We all know that this presidency will go down in history as a blight on the soul of our nation.  Even the staunchest of Republicans are finding it hard to justify this political nightmare we call G.W. Bush.

Calling for more money, arms and American youth to to throw away in a losing religious battle in the middle east, Bush has revived the downtrodden spirit this country suffered under during the Vietnam war.  There are so many of us who are no longer ‘Proud to be an American".   How Bush, Rice and the rest of the administration can even hold their heads up in public is beyond me.

Dobbs: Beware the lame duck

By Lou Dobbs
CNN

Lou Dobbs’ commentary appears weekly on CNN.com.

NEW YORK (CNN) — Diehard GOP faithful, the dwindling number of Bush loyalists and political pundits of every stripe and medium seem obsessed these days with defining or discerning the "legacy of George W. Bush."

Frankly, I spend more time worrying about whether or not the United States can survive the remaining 15 months of his ebbing presidency.

There is little mystery about what future historians will consider to be the legacy of the 43rd president of the United States. Those historians are certain to describe the first presidential administration of the 21st century with terms such as dissipation and perversion.

Bush campaigned for the Republican Party’s nomination eight years ago, styling himself as a compassionate conservative. He’s amply demonstrated that he is neither.

Although many conservatives refuse to accept the reality, George W. Bush is a one-world neo-liberal who drove budget and trade deficits to record heights while embracing faith-based economic policies that perversely require only blind allegiance to free markets and free trade, without regard for consequence.

This president pursues a war without demanding of his generals either success or victory and accepts the sacrifice of our brave young men and women in uniform while asking nothing of our people or the nation at a time of war.

Sadly, this president has diminished a great nation and may diminish it further.

[Thanks, CNN]

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Over at TechDirt there is an interesting commentary that discusses the recent differences between the actions of the MPAA and TorrentSpy.

The MPAA hired Robert Anderson, noted hacker, to attempt to gain access to information stored on TorrentSpy servers. Promising him money and power the MPAA received from Mr. Anderson confidential emails, other internal correspondence and even the source code for the site itself. This information, illegally obtained, was the basis for the copyright infringement case that the MPAA brought against TorrentSpy.

TorrentSpy, on the other hand, is so vehemently opposed to the idea of spying, that they have closed US access to the site rather than betray the trust of their users and pass customer information along as required by a recent court order.

In the face of these two examples, who really has the moral high ground here?

Other News:

• MPAA hacker comes clean @ AfterDawn
• Former TorrentSpy collaborator turns to MPAA @ TechSpot
• I was a hacker for the MPAA @ Wired
• Revisiting TorrentSpy vs MPAA: A Hacker Speaks @ Profy

In 1988, a scientist in the employ of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), testified before Congress and stated that he was 99% sure that Global Warming was here. That statement, made by James Hansen, has been subjected to enormous worldwide scrutiny ever since.

In the 19 years since then, has there been any indication that Mr. Hansen was fundamentally wrong with his assessment? Or, have recent warming trends shown us the error of our ways.

Al Gore’s conviction that something is amiss won him the spotlight and the prize at the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize Awards as he shared the honors with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). How right is he?

In a high court ruling in the UK school teachers are allowed to show the film, but only after discussing some inconvenient untruths contained in the documentary. The high court does agree that Mr Gore’s film was “broadly accurate” in its presentation of the causes and likely effects of climate change but said that some of the claims were wrong and had arisen in “the context of alarmism and exaggeration”.

A recent Seattle PI article suggests that the walrus population in Alaska could face hardships because the ice pack is so thin it makes travel to their traditional feeding ground almost impossible. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service identified a warming climate, and the resulting melting of sea ice, as the reason polar bears may be threatened as a species.

But in a more recent article, the NY times reports that the Great Lakes are shrinking. That seems at odds with the hundreds of scientist worldwide who talk about the shrinking polar ice caps.

So, as a firm believer in global warming and a belief in the fact that it’s due almost entirely to OUR misuse of the earths natural resources I wonder why an article like that might have been printed a week after the Nobel Award ceremonies.

My friends over at RentonFacts blog have come up with a cute (and truthful!) little lawn sign.  Is there anyone out there who would like to help subsidize the printing of this?  Just head over to RentonFacts  and volunteer your help!

Growing up the daughter of an Air Force Lieutenant Colonel and dreaming of nothing more than to serve her country, Valerie Plame Wilson received a rude awakening on the morning of 14 July, 2003. It was on that day that Robert Novak, a conservative American political commentator screwed the pooch and publicly identified Valerie Plame Wilson as a CIA operative.

It’s four years later and Valerie is out to settle some debts. Offering harsh criticism of President Bush, his administration and Karl Rove. the brain behind a man who doesn’t have one.

Wilson writes about the leak, the fallout, and the perjury trial of former White House aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby in her memoir, Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House. (n.b. Scooter is the only individual to have been tried for any part in the traitorous actions involving Mrs. Wilson, and he was tried and convicted of obstruction of justice, what a joke…)

Not surprisingly, her one of her harshest criticisms is that our president is not a man of his word (we all believe that nowadays). It’s a shame that only God and the devil will have the opportunity to judge George Dumbya Bush, Karl Rove, and Herr Cheney, although it’s the devil that will reap the long-standing benefits.

Read some of the articles:

• CBS News – Valerie Plame: Bush Didn’t Keep Word
• Seattle Times – Ex-CIA agent Valerie Plame settles scores in new memoir
• The Age – Ex-spy takes aim in new memoir
• The Raw Story – Valerie Plame: Damage from CIA leak was ’serious’

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A Saudi Arabian detainee at Guantánamo Bay Naval Base apparently committed suicide in his cell yesterday. This brings the known total of detainees to escape from Enhanced Interrogation at our hands to four.

The NY Times details our shame:

Detainee Found Dead in Guantánamo Cell

By WILLIAM GLABERSON

Published: May 31, 2007

A Guantánamo detainee apparently committed suicide yesterday, military officials said in a succinct announcement last night.

The announcement, which immediately brought new criticism of the administration’s detention practices, included few details. It stated only that the unidentified detainee was a Saudi Arabian and that he “was found unresponsive and not breathing in his cell by guards” early yesterday afternoon. It said lifesaving efforts were exhausted but did not make clear why the officials had concluded that the death was a suicide.

A spokesman at the naval station at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, where about 380 men are held, referred calls to the United States Southern Command in Miami, which posted the announcement on its Web site.

The death comes almost a year after three suicides at Guantánamo last June, which drew international attention. Some critics of the Bush administration said the suicides were testament to desperation in the detention camps. But the commander at the time, Rear Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr., asserted that “this was not an act of desperation, but an act of asymmetrical warfare waged against us.”

The death yesterday seemed to mark the end of a period of relative calm in which officials have appeared to take extraordinary steps to avoid detainee suicides, including force-feeding hunger strikers to assure they receive adequate nutrition.

Well, one of my worst fears is just one day away from coming true. Our crappy government is ready to grant immunity from prosecution to the phone companies that collaborated with the NSA in the recent domestic spying scandal. The Senate Intelligence Committee is reviewing the proposed legislation in a closed session today.

I have written and sent e-mail to my three elected officials in Washington. Senators Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray as well as my Congressman James McDermott. The text follows:

Dear Senator Cantwell,

I read an article this morning stating that the Senate Intelligence Committee “reached a tentative agreement… with the Bush administration” to provide immunity to the telephone carriers who colluded with the NSA during the domestic spying scandal.

I find it a reprehensible act on the part of my elected lawmakers to allow such a miscarriage of Justice. And to candy coat the insult by saying that the phone companies “..acted in good faith” is just rubbing salt on the wound. The phone companies in question pay millions of dollars a year for legal advice and should know better.

The arrogance of a government which can not only demand the collaboration from private companies in breaking the law but then follow through with providing judicial immunity is mind-boggling.

You and your colleagues have established some incredibly dangerous precedents in recent months but this particular case floats to the top like a ripe turd.

Stop warrant-less surveillance of ordinary Americans.
The Senate and Congress must stop the NSA’s domestic spying, repeal the “Protect America Act,” and ensure that whenever a U.S. person is the intended or unintended subject of surveillance, the government must first get a warrant.

Don’t let the phone companies off the hook. The Senate and Congress must allow the courts to rule on the president’s program by rejecting efforts to give private entities amnesty for illegally assisting the government’s spying.

Don’t legislate in the dark. Congress should oppose any expansion of spying authority until a full, thorough, and public investigation is complete.

You can, and should, take act TODAY. Stop this travesty of justice.

Respectfully Yours,

Bob Gately

Here are the links YOU can use to find and contact your elected officials in Washington:

Write Your Representative

Write Your Senator

NEW!!! Fax your letter via E-Mail – Learn how -> Here!

In September of 2002 the Massachusetts Institute of Technology started offering free course materials on the Internet for use by the common man. Currently, their on-line selection exceeds 1700 courses and covers everything from Aeronautics to courses from the Sloan School of Management.

The Grandfather of Them All 

• MIT Open Courseware
• University of California at Berkeley
• Stanford University via iTunes
• Columbia University
• University of Notre Dame

Wow, talk about seeing the future.  I was 100% positive that Karl Rove bailed on the S.S. Dumbya Bush so that he could be poised to step in during this next election period. 

Well, guess what?  Mr. Rove is back! 

And hanging out with the Bush family again.  I sure wish I could be in Virginia this October 26th.

A Karl Rove, Max Cleland face-off

Tuesday, October 16, 2007, 03:58 PM

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Let the following serve as a lesson to organizers of the current snoozers that somehow pass for presidential debates:

First, take a controversial learning institution. Say, Regents University in Virginia, founded by evangelical politician and broadcaster Pat Robertson.

Pick two pairs of debaters. Put former U.S. senator Max Cleland and retired Army general Barry McCaffery on one side. Set up ex-White House guru Karl Rove and former Florida governor Jeb Bush opposite them.

Toss in a question: “Should America bring democracy to the world?”

Then let the feathers fly, leaving the preservation of civilization to a single moderator, PBS journalist Charlie Rose.

This will happen on Oct. 26. Witnesses will be charged $40. Splatter sheets will be provided to occupants of the first three rows.

So far as we know, this will be the first time Rove and Cleland have met. Many supporters of Cleland believe that Rove — during Cleland’s unsuccessful re-election campaign — was behind the TV ad that paired the triple-amputeed, Vietnam veteran with an image of Osama bin Laden.

Rove was asked about it as he exited the White House last month. “We’ve got better things to do than write television ads in Senate campaigns in Georgia,” President Bush’s brain said.

As the RIAA continues to roll itself into a smaller and less impressive organization they keep making silly gestures that only reinforce my ’Oh-So-Low’ opinion of them. It seems that they have teamed up with some other backwards thinkers and created "The Copyright Alliance". Well, they had a little fete’ in DC this week that was sadly under-attended, even by scheduled speakers!

The good news is that Isaac Hayes, ex-voice of Chef and ex-singer, was able to get a little gig signing autographs at the event. With his career spiraling out of control Mr. Hayes probably relies on the nickels and dimes he gets from his album sales as well as these little opportunities to be trotted out by ’The Man’ and displayed as a ’happy’ RIAA client. But, I digress.

techdirt.com has a nice article that has lots and lots of links to even more RIAA and TCA fun-anigans.

RIAA Still Pretending It Represents Musicians

from the feed-a-musician,-support-those-who-ditch-the-RIAA dept

The somewhat redundant new copyright lobbying organization, The Copyright Alliance (who still doesn’t seem to actually understand copyright) held a little dog and pony show in Washington DC last week. It didn’t sound all that well attended from the News.com description, and even copyright’s best friend, Rep. Howard Berman skipped the show, despite being a scheduled speaker. Perhaps even Berman has noticed the shifting tide. However, other than a sad display of solidarity, perhaps the most ridiculous statement on the event came from the RIAA, who hung up a t-shirt saying "Feed a musician. Download legally." That suggests that the RIAA still wants people to believe it represents the best interests of musicians. Such a concept becomes more laughable every day, as musicians seem to be shoving each other aside to bail out on the record labels to take their chances making money without them. The RIAA has never represented the interests of musicians, and it’s sad that so many politicians act as if it does. The RIAA has always represented the interests of the recording industry — whose own interests have often involved treating musicians terribly. So if you want to feed a musician, you’re better off not paying money to the RIAA — but figuring out ways to pay for things where the money actually goes back to the musician.

[Thanks, techdirt]

Some good friends of ours purchased and moved to a beautiful home in Renton, Washington a few years ago. Renton is a cute little town nestled on the southern shore of Lake Washington just a few miles south of Seattle.

As a good neighbors do when they move into a small town, my friends started taking an interest in local affairs. From the Farmers Market to local restaurants and retailers, they have shown involvement in their adopted community and have become engaged in its growth and future.

An interest in politics led my friends to conduct a little research on the candidates for Renton City Council (Position 5). What they found is disturbing and insidious.

Cheryl Haskins, an African-American candidate, appears to have a secret agenda that promotes traditional marriage and is vehemently opposed to gay marriage in all its forms and iterations.

A new Blog has been established to bring this controversy into the light of day. Showcasing some of the financial shenanigans and highlighting some of her major contributors (none of which are from Renton?!?) it’s an interesting expose and demands a read (and maybe some action on your part, who knows!)

So, go read up on “a fundamentalist zealot who has devoted considerable energy to ensuring that gay & lesbian couples will never have any of the same rights, privileges, and protections as heterosexual couples.” Then take a moment to decide if that is the kind of extreme person you would want in your city council.

The link is here: -> Exposing Cheryl Haskins

There are many things that affect our environment, from global warming to the overgrazing of our pastures and prairies.  There are so many inter-connected variables that it’s hard to keep track.

Thankfully, someone over at Wikipedia is keeping track for me.  There are three great lists that bring some of the issues into clearer light and illuminate some issues for the first time (at least for me).  I mean, I never realized that there were environmental impacts to nanotechnology.  Be that as it may, here are the lists in question:

1. List of environmental issues
2. List of environment topics
3. List of conservation topics

So, let’s all pick something, that one thing, that we CAN do for our environment, our futures, our lives and let’s try to make a change.