Open Thread–6/17/2013

 Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 172013
 

I’m writing early, as usual.  Day two is proving more difficult.  In spite of the Chantix and a 21 mg. patch, I’m Jonesing big time.  nevertheless, I remain committed.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:20 (average 4:47).  To do it. click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Alternet: Military contractor Booz Allen Hamilton of McLean, Virginia, has shot into the news recently over two of its former employees:  Edward Snowden, the whistleblower who has just revealed the extent of  US global spying on electronic data of ordinary citizens around the world, and James Clapper, US director of national intelligence.

Clapper has  come out vocally to condemn Snowden as a traitor to the public interest and the country, yet a review of Booz Allen’s own history suggests that the government should be investigating his former employer, rather than the whistleblower.

Clapper worked as vice-president at Booz Allen from 1997 to 1998, while Snowden  did a three-month stint at their offices in Hawaii in spring 2013 as a low-level contract employee. Both worked on intelligence contracts, which are estimated to make up almost a quarter of the company’s $5.86bn in annual income. This past weekend, Clapper condemned Snowden’s leak…

I’m going to disagree with this author, in part. Because Snowden, by his own admission has leaked US sources and methods to China regarding electronic surveillance of that nation, he should certainly be investigated, and in all probability prosecuted. However, I agree with the author that Booze Allen Hamilton should be investigated for criminal negligence, and Clapper should be fired and criminally investigated for corruption.

From Common Dreams: An interactive database allowing users to search more than 100,000 secret companies, trusts and funds created in offshore tax havens including the British Virgin Islands has gone online.

The data, part of a cache of 2.5m leaked files that has already led to a series of exposes of the offshore financial sector by the Guardian and other global media organisations, has been launched by the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).

The ICIJ, a non-profit organisation that has analysed the files with more than 100 journalists in dozens of countries and is continuing to do so, hopes the Offshore Leaks web app will trigger further investigations and revelations by making the information more widely available.

 

This resource may be difficult to use, but I consider it an extremely valuable tool to ferret out the 1% vulture capitalists that the Republican Party represent exclusively.  Major kudos to the ICIJ!!

From Huffington Post: Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) criticized President Barack Obama while speaking at the annual meeting of the Faith and Freedom Coalition Saturday, saying the United States should not intervene in Syria while he’s in office.

“Until we have a commander in chief who knows what he is doing… let Allah sort it out!” Palin told the conservative crowd, according to The Hill.

 

God forbid that I I should ever be perceived as agreeing with Blood Libel Barbie, aka Drill Baby Dingbat, aka Mooseolini. I think intervention in Syria is a mistake for different reasons, and it should be noted, the ones who are pushing hardest for it are Republicans, but Obama painted himself into a corner when he threatened increased US involvement if Assad was proven to have used chemical weapons.

Cartoon:

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Don’t tell Republicans it’s from France, or they’ll send it back!!

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Open Thread–6/10/2013

 Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 102013
 

I’m writing early again, because it is hotter than expected.  I still feel out of it, so I’m pretty sure it us the Chantix.  That should go away, but tomorrow, I double the dosage.  We’ll see about distributing links after midnight.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 5:19 (average 5:47). To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Reuters: Jury selection begins on Monday in the murder trial of George Zimmerman, who shot and killed unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin in 2012 and then famously walked free for 44 days, triggering nationwide protests and calls for his arrest.

Lawyers estimate the long-awaited trial will last four to eight weeks. Much of that time is expected to be spent picking a six-person jury that can be open-minded despite extensive publicity about some of the explosive issues, including racial profiling and self-defense, surrounding the case.

"They’re going to have a tough time picking a jury. At this point who doesn’t know who Trayvon Martin is and who George Zimmerman is," said David Weinstein, a former state prosecutor and criminal defense lawyer.

I plead guilty. Like just about every other political pundit, not to mention the racist hatemongers from the Republican Ministry of Propaganda. Faux Noise, I have written extensively about this case. To do otherwise would be to permit Republican lies to go unchallenged. But once again, we face the great flaw in the US justice system, other than judges appointed by Republicans. This jury will consist of people who have already been influenced about the case, even if they believe they have not. Many other nations impose a gag order on all criminal cases, keeping them out of the press until after the trial is complete. Networks would sell much less soap, but trials would be much more fair.  Even Zimmerman deserves a fair trial.

From Raw Story: In a statement [Goose-stepper delinked] released Saturday, Senator Jim Inhofe (R-OK) said closing the Guantanamo Bay prison facility would be a victory for terrorists.

The conservative senator warned that terrorists “would spread violent extremism from within our borders” if the the current push to close the controversial prison was successful.

“It appears to me this latest push to close GITMO is because the terrorists have begun a hunger strike,” Inhofe said. “Specifically, the far left has used this as a rallying cry to revive their continuing obsession with closing the base despite strong support from Congress to keep GITMO open. But this misses the fundamental point. Is this hunger strike not a political act designed to attempt to change American policy? My question to the far left is: if you close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay are you not letting the terrorists win?”

The reasons that the Guantanamo Bay Prison, aka the GOP Gulag, remains open have nothing to do with Barack Obama. Lets reserve getting pissed off at him for scenarios in which he deserves it, like transparency.

From Huffington Post: Rep. John Yarmuth (D-Ky.) had some harsh words for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) while speaking at an event for the Jefferson County Democratic Party in Kentucky.

"I can be really brief tonight and just say, Mitch McConnell sucks,” Yarmuth said Thursday, according to the Washington Post.

I have to admit it. I could not have described Bought Bitch Mitch better.

Cartoon:

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Republicans want to bring back that textbook, despite this irrevocable proof of the Theory of DEVOLUTION.

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A Snoop Too Far

 Politics
Jun 082013
 

The news of the Verizon Wiretaps and PRIS presents us with highly complex issues, not given to knee-jerk reactions without careful consideration.  In my opinion, these programs, as currently constituted, are bad for America, but not to the extent that the anti-Obama folks on both sides of the aisle would have us believe.

wiretapPresident Obama on Friday defended a pair of recently disclosed surveillance programs as striking the “right balance” between national security and civil liberties following a speech Friday in California.

“You can’t have 100 percent security and also have 100 percent privacy and zero inconvenience. We’re going to have to make some choices as a government,” Obama said.

“You can complain about big brother and how this is a potential program run amok, but when you actually look at the details I think we’ve struck the right balance.”

8TIAThe administration acknowledged Thursday that the National Security Agency had monitored domestic telephone data and international internet traffic from tech companies like Google, Microsoft, and Facebook.

Obama stressed that every member of Congress had been briefed on the phone monitoring program and that the relevant Intelligence committees were aware of PRISM — the system by which the NSA accessed internet traffic. He also noted that federal judges had to sign off on data gathering requests… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <The Hill>

Obama said there are safeguards in place, and while that may well be what her intends, that intent has not carried forward into practice.

Chris Hayes revealed the character of the judge who signed the order.

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This Republican judge was appointed to the FISA Court long before Obama was elected.  FISA is the safeguard the law intended, so technically that safeguard is in place.  However, having FISA in place has no effect whatsoever, when such men abuse their power to circumvent the law. Chris also interviewed Jeff Merkley (D-OR), but that part of the video is missing. Of course, Jeff is on our side, fighting for oversight and accountability.

Rachel Maddow discussed congressional complicity.

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Note that Ron Wyden (D-OR) is a leader in opposition.  Once again, Oregon is leading the way.

Are there sufficient safeguards in place?  The real problem here is that we have no way to know, because even the limits on these programs are classified.  Only the Gang of Eight (the top Democrat and Republican in the House and Senate and on the House and Senate Intelligence  Committees) are so informed, and they may tell nobody else, rendering them incapable of doing anything about it, without committing an act of criminal sedition.

Having classified limits does not work.  Obama may well have other limits that he has imposed about how the data so gathered is used.  I hope he does and wish I knew.  But I know for a certainty that during the Bush/GOP regime, national security devolved into Murder, Inc.  If, God forbid, another Republican ever infests the White House, proper checks and balances had better be in place.

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Obama Promises to Veto Class Warfare

 Politics
Jun 042013
 

As most of you know, we are suffering under a Republican sequester now because Republicans refused to stop terrorizing America with a government shutdown, unless Obama agreed to massive cuts to discretionally spending (spending for the general welfare of 99%), before any negotiations took place.  Instead Obama demanded that half those cuts come from defense spending.  What Republicans had proposed was a sequester.  Obama just called it that.  Then Republicans refused to negotiate at all, causing the sequester to take effect.  Frankly, Obama gave them too good a deal, albeit under extreme duress.  Now Republicans are using the budget to welch on that deal.

4VetoThe White House stepped in Monday with a veto threat against a House GOP plan to advance a round of 2014 spending bills that would ease sequester-imposed cuts on the Pentagon while forcing even deeper cuts on non-defense programs.

Those cuts would come in areas like education, energy and water development and foreign aid.

In a statement, the White House budget office said the cuts called for in the GOP plan would force thousands of poor children off of Head Start, harm special education, cut federal law enforcement and dent medical research grants to thousands of scientists. It called on the Democratic Senate and GOP House to reach a broader agreement on the budget before advancing spending bills…

…The statement promised a veto of every spending bill until Washington reaches a bargain on "an overall budget framework that supports our recovery and enables sufficient investments in education, infrastructure, innovation and national security for our economy to compete in the future."… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <ABC>

Republicans will lead with increases to defense spending and an increase in 3.5% increase in spending for veterans.  They are anticipating the veto so they can claim that Obama blocked spending on veterans.  Obama would agree to the increase for vets in a hot minute, if this were a stand-alone measure, but it is not.  It is just one piece of the budget.The standard practice is for parties to agree on the overall framework of the budget before hammering out the details, but Republicans refuse to negotiate on framework.  Therefore Obama is correct to veto all individual measures until such a framework is in place.  Of course this shows, once again, that Republicans’ word is without value.  Now, when the screaming starts about Obama refusing to fund veterans, you’ll know why that is a lie.

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A Breath of Fresh Air

 Editorial, Politics
May 242013
 

24OSpeech

Photo credit: Rolling Stone

My expectations for Barack Obama’s speech yesterday were guarded at best, given the deficits in his transparency to date.  I was pleasantly surprised.  To begin, here is the complete video of the speech, or, if you prefer, the complete text of the speech is here.

On the use of drones, I mostly agree with him.  While innocent people have been killed in drone strikes, the odds are very high that more innocent people would be killed in a strike with conventional bombs or a ground attack by infantry.  I support requiring a court to authorize drone strikes.  I also support transferring control of drone operations from the CIA to the military.  Frankly, the CIA spends far too much effort in field operations.  The more of their resources they spend on operations, the less effective they have become at their main purpose, intelligence gathering.  That puts us all at greater risk.

On Guantanamo Bay, I think these steps are all he can do without Congress.  The prison there would have been closed years ago, had Congress not intervened to prevent it.

Chris Hayes discussed the speech with Keith Ellison (D-MN).

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

I particularly liked Obama’s willingness to give back power. I do not remember seeing any other President do so.

I found Medea Benjamin from Code Pink both rude and offensive.  Her tactics were worthy of the Republican Party.  She used a technique called piling on or dump trucking.  It involves evading honest communication with a barrage of so many different complaints and accusations that the other person cab not reasonably answer all at once.  I am very familiar with it, because it is one of the ‘criminal thinking errors’ that I teach prisoners to recognize and avoid using.  I have never seen a President stop to give a protester an opportunity to have an honest dialogue in the middle of a major speech.   She blew it! She was not interested in that, and that is a shame.

All things considered, I thought it was one of Obama’s most effective speeches ever.  How those ideas are transformed to action remains to be seen.  Of one thing we can be sure.  The Republican Party will do everything possible to sabotage his efforts.

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Open Thread–5/23/2013

 Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 232013
 

Yesterday I got some rest so I have another article for you today.  I’m still on light duty, but hope to gain strength as time goes on.  I am disappointed, because today is a prison volunteer day, and I’m not up to it yet.  Have a fantastic day.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:46 (average 4:54).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Raw Story: Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) on Friday declared that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) would have murdered the participants of the original 1773 Boston Tea Party and and would have “killed off” half of the Founding Fathers who signed the Declaration of Independence.

In a 30-minute floor speech to express his outrage over a report in The Daily Caller [propaganda delinked] that said the Department of Homeland Security was “protecting the free speech rights of pro-Shariah Muslim supremacists,” Gohmert noted that President Barack Obama’s administration had a number of other problems like the recent news that the IRS had scrutinized the tax-exempt status of tea party and other conservative groups.

“Homeland Security has had reports warning their employees about the dangers of people that may be involved in such heinous activity as being classified as evangelical Christians or as being concerned about the Constitution and that people should be following the Constitution, and concerned about people who may have tea party in their name,” he explained…

On the other hand, had Gohmert been alive in 1776, he would have been in an asylum. That he is in Congress, instead of an asylum, today, if there is a difference, is a sad commentary on American voters.

From The New Yorker: In a dramatic departure from existing White House procedures, President Obama requested today that his staff start cc’ing him on stuff.

“Look, I know a lot of you think I’m really busy and you don’t want to bother me,” the President reportedly told his staff in an Oval Office meeting. “But cc me anyway. It’s good for me to keep up on what’s going on around here.”

“It’s not good when I turn on the news and they’re talking about something at the White House and I’m like, whoa, when did that happen?” Mr. Obama added. “I think cc’ing me would go a long way toward fixing that.”

“Maybe put a Post-It note on your computer saying, ‘CC POTUS,’ so you don’t forget,” he said as the meeting broke up…

Humor aside, I do think it would behoove Obama to be a bit more inclined to direct his staff, instead of his tendency to allow them complete independence.

From NY Times: Throughout months of Republican “investigation” into the tragedy in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11 last year, the Central Intelligence Agency has escaped the scrutiny and partisan bashing aimed at the State Department and the White House. But we now know that the C.I.A., and not the State Department or the White House, originated the talking points that Republicans (wrongly) insisted were proof of a scandal. It was more central to the American presence in Benghazi than the State Department, and more responsible for security there.

The C.I.A.’s role needs to be examined to understand what happened and how to better protect Americans…

I fully agree, but understand that Republicans have a supremely important reason for ignoring the CIA and focusing on the State Department. Hillary is not in charge of the CIA.

Cartoon:

23Cartoon

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Open Thread–5/19/2013

 Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 192013
 

Yesterday I did more here to organize my recovery, but rested most of the day.  Today I have one more article and will distribute the link on only one of the sites I haunt.  I’ll go day by day from there.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:18 (average 4:32).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From NY Times: And for one problem in particular: “the backlog,” the huge and probably still growing inventory of claims for disability compensation filed by wounded or ill veterans. As of Monday, just under 600,000 claims qualified as backlogged, meaning they had been pending for over 125 days.

Though the numbers have grown, delays in processing disability claims are nothing new, and neither are complaints about the backlog. Just last year, some veterans advocates tried to make the backlog a presidential campaign issue. They failed. But this year, something changed: the criticism grew louder and perhaps more partisan, and began reaching a wider audience.

This should not be a partisan issue, as Republicans scurry to blame Obama for the backlog. This, as usual, is Republican projection, because they have opposed veterans’ spending. Even worse, Republicans have actually tried to cut benefits for disabled veterans.

From Crooks and Liars: Jim DeMint’s Heritage Foundation is busy at work figuring out how to make sure Republicans are completely marginalized in 2014. As their faux scandals fall apart as rapidly as they’re concocted, DeMint’s minions are instructing Eric Cantor and John Boehner to please, please just keep attacking the president and forget about governing altogether.

If I understand this, he is telling them to make this four years like the last four years.

From Washington Post: President Obama will deliver a speech Thursday at the National Defense University in which he will address how he intends to bring his counterterrorism policies, including the drone program and the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in line with the legal framework he promised after taking office.

A White House official, speaking Saturday on the condition of anonymity to describe the speech in advance, said Obama will “discuss our broad counterterrorism policy, including our military, diplomatic, intelligence and legal efforts.”

“He will review the state of the threats we face, particularly as the al-Qaeda core has weakened but new dangers have emerged,” the official said. “He will discuss the policy and legal framework under which we take action against terrorist threats, including the use of drones. And he will review our detention policy and efforts to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay.”

I have been a little less critical of Obama’s performance in these areas. I expect to disagree with much of what he will have to say, but knowing this speech was coming, I thought it better to wait until I hear what he has to say and have something currently concrete with which to disagree. That said, remember this. As much as we would like President Bernie Sanders, we can not have him. On his worst day, Barack Obama is infinitely better than Little Lord Willard would have been on his best day.

Cartoon:

19iCartoon

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