South by Southwest (via Mowser)

Saturday, July 19, 2008

What about The Mikes?

Just catching up with the three Mikes who have put their signature on the Bush administration --

The Director of National Intelligence, Mike McConnell, should be sitting pretty right now. He and the Bush Administration got the FISA revamped in a way that compromised civil liberties. Robert Davey at The Huffington Post says it was "for nothing." To quote:

Now President Bush has the law he and Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell set out, more than a year ago, to manipulate Congress and the media into giving them, perhaps it's time to consider once again the role played by Spc. Alex Jimenez. Jimenez was abducted by Iraqi insurgents in mid-May 2007 and probably killed very soon after.

But he provided a convenient peg on which McConnell and the rest could hang their specious claims about the flaws in FISA, claims that were believed by the Senate Intelligence Committee and by the New York Times. On May 1 last year McConnell, speaking at a session of the Senate Intelligence Committee, asserted four or five times that intelligence officials wanting to intercept communications between two foreign terrorist suspects outside the United States in some circumstances needed to get a warrant from the FISA court. This requirement, never envisaged by the authors of FISA, was apparently slowing down intelligence collection at a time when the United States needed to be on constant alert lest a new terrorist attack should escape detection.

Within two weeks came the abduction of Jimenez, and some time after that we learned the awful truth -- that FISA requirements had delayed surveillance on his captors, wasting precious hours while National Security Agency lawyers worked their way through a bureaucratic maze to ensure that foreign terrorists' Fourth Amendment rights were respected! How that must have gone over with talk radio audiences! But it was never true. The FISA never required a warrant before intercepting communications between two non-U.S. persons (meaning those who are neither U.S. citizens nor permanent residents) in a foreign country.

Mike Hayden, Director of the CIA -- The Washington Post wrote this piece on Michael V. Hayden, CIA Director, not long ago. To quote:

Soon after accepting the post of CIA director two years ago, Michael V. Hayden set an unusual goal for his scandal-beset agency: virtual invisibility.

"CIA needs to get out of the news as source or subject," he said in an internal memo to his staff in 2006.

Two years later, that goal is far from met, as Hayden has tacitly acknowledged. In a retirement
ceremony last month marking the end of his military career, the Air Force general stressed the need for the agency to "stay in the shadows" while ignoring what he called the "sometimes shrill and uninformed voices of criticism."

The comment reflected the difficulties that Hayden's CIA faces in trying to turn the corner on six years of controversy at the same time that it attempts sweeping internal changes. While the agency's leadership has sought a return to normal and has launched initiatives intended to improve ties with lawmakers and foreign allies, it finds itself in the cross hairs of a Congress determined to force a reckoning over the agency's past intelligence failures and its conduct in the fight against terrorism.

Mike Mukasey, Attorney General -- The Washington Post wrote this on Michael Mukasey, Attorney General, who "rejected calls to appoint a special counsel to investigate Bush administration officials who approved the use of coercive interrogation techniques against terrorism suspects." To quote further,

In a letter sent yesterday to House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.), Mukasey said opening a criminal investigation would be "unfair" and "seriously short-sighted."

"I am aware of no basis for appointing a special counsel to investigate the policymakers who approved the CIA interrogation program or the national security lawyers who concluded that the program was lawful," he wrote to Conyers and nearly five dozen other Democrats.

Critics of the administration's policy have likened the questioning tactics to torture and have called for senior policymakers to be held accountable. Justice's Office of Professional Responsibility, which probes ethics complaints against department lawyers, is conducting its own investigation of Justice memos that blessed controversial techniques including simulated drowning and sleep deprivation.

The people to replace these people cannot come too soon for my taste.

View my current slide show about the Bush years -- "Millennium" -- at the bottom of this column.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Activists' Digest of Awfulness --

Blogging is an activist tactic that many of use to try to make a difference in the world. Activists also write letters to the editors of newspapers, call the offices of government officials and even take to the streets. We want something to change, because there is something awfully wrong happening. And activists often work together for change. The blogosphere does this through exchanging e-mails, as well as posting to blogs. I get regular e-mails from my fellow blogger friends "betmo," of life's journey and from "Dan'l," who writes The Future was Yesterday.

*from betmo --

FYI, Republicans & Big Business-- Blogger "betmo" often titles the subject of the e-mail, "fyi." This link came in on 6/26/08: from Afterdowningstreet.com, the story discusses some awful campaign tactics by Republicans. It reads "Justice for Sale: How Big Tobacco and the GOP teamed up to crush Democrats in the South." On 7/8/08 betmo asked, "huh?" The tomflocco.com headline read: "JOHN MCCAIN’S WIFE HIDING WAR PROFITS, UNTAXED OFF-SHORE ACCOUNTS? Federal agents: Cindy McCain’s full tax returns will show war profits, pre-9/11 insider trading, secret off-shore accounts linked to 1241 Class C Nevada corporation payoffs and bribes." It is awful that voters might let John McCain (through his wife) get away with this. And make no mistake, Senator McCain is no different than George W. Bush.

FYI, the FBI -- The Bush Republicans have held the White House for far too long for many reasons, not the least of which is their massive assault on Fourth Amendment civil liberties privacy protection. On 7/5/08: KDFA, News Channel 10, Amarillo, TX reveals that the "FBI Could Investigate You." And there does not need to be much of any excuse. "Strains of Wagner!" is what came to betmo's mind about this awful news. On 7/9/08: betmo warned, "and so it begins." Secrecy News Headlined, "FBI Headquarters Not Cleared for Classified Intelligence," the atory continues to reveal that federal standards for secure classified storage cannot be met by the FBI. In a related linked story, the FBI said that this does not mean that classified information is not secure.

"Fyi," Under Republicans -- 7/16/08's McClatchy Newspapers headline reveals that "Results are in: California's San Joaquin Valley is the worst." To quote: "Poverty, poor health and plenty of school dropouts have put the San Joaquin Valley's 20th Congressional District dead last in a new national scorecard that ranks the overall well-being of residents."

"FYI: interesting site -- Pattrice Jone’s Bravebirds.Org", 7/8/08. This is an interesting view of the values surrounding not eating meat. I am not a vegetarian, so please understand that I will not be marching on this subject. Not that I ever march, actually. I write. I am including all the paragraphs that betmo sent me. To quote:

“As often as Herman had witnessed the slaughter of animals and fish, he always had the same thought: in their behavior toward creatures, all men were Nazis. The smugness with which man could do with other species as he pleased exemplified the most extreme racist theories, the principle that might is right.”

In this passage, Nobel laureate Isaac Bashevis Singer gets right to the heart of the connection between violence against animals and violence among people: the principle that might makes right. Even people who are pacifist in every other aspect of life will condone violence against animals with no better justification than “because we want to and we can.”

Killing in self-defense is one thing; killing for pleasure is another. As every happy vegan demonstrates, people do not need to eat meat to be healthy. As long as one has access to other sources of protein, then one cannot claim to be killing in self-defense when one eats meat.

In the United States, families consume far more meat than could ever be considered necessary by any reasonable standard. Indeed, many meat items are snack foods rather than meals. In the
United States, we also have an epidemic of violence among young people.

When we encourage our children to eat the wings of dead birds as a snack, we are teaching them that that it is okay to kill for pleasure. Is it any wonder that some children put that lesson into action in the classroom?

When we torture and kill animals so that we can have snack foods, we are doing something to the body of a non-consenting creature in order to obtain pleasure for ourselves. The same dynamic is involved in the sexual abuse of children. In both cases, the wishes of the victim are ignored while the desires of the perpetrator are paramount. In both cases, the only “justification” is that might makes right.

A different, more subtle, form of child abuse occurs every time a child’s natural empathy for animals is supressed by parents or care givers who demand that the child eat meat. When the crying child who does not want to eat a cow or a pig is forced to swallow those tears along with
the dinner, real damage is done. Psychologist Alice Miller has shown that children who have been taught not to feel empathy grow up to be adults who can follow the orders of Nazis. Thus, in forcing children to participate in violence against animals, parents endanger not only their children but the world.”

KFC’s killing your brain cells and you’re too dumb to see it. They feed you good tasting, bad food, filling your body with sugar-coated strychnine, a body led to the medical slaughterhouse, cared for by detached Mengele’s.

The same man who owns Mickey D’s owns the pharmaceuticals, owns the surgical supplier, owns the politicians - like Obama - who won’t do anything to stop the “nutricide”/genocide/homicide that is being visited on our people.

When will we see the unity of oppression, see how the treatment of animals is mimicked by the inhuman treatment of so-called human beings. The brutality visited upon animals by kindergarten sadists always finds expression through domestic battery, child abuse, police brutality and war. And those kindergarten sadists aren’t born - they are made, produced, cultivated, nurtured
and rolled off of the cultural assembly line. When will we see that when all life is respected, all life is respected and when some lives are not respected…Abu Ghraib’s happen, Holocausts happen, slavery happens, reservations happen, incarcerations, rapes and torture happens.

**From "Dan'l" --

Surprise Surprise - NOT! on 7/12/08. This is like a lot of other awful stories about Cheney and also about Halliburton. To quote waronyou:

According to journalist Jason Leopold, sources at former Cheney company Halliburton allege that, as recently as January of 2005, Halliburton sold key components for a nuclear reactor to an Iranian oil development company. Leopold says his Halliburton sources have intimate knowledge of the business dealings of both Halliburton and Oriental Oil Kish, one of Iran's largest private oil
companies.

Don't be surprised when this happens -- As of this moment I am exercising free speech, lawfully. I feel that it would be awful to enlist ISP's as policing agents for the unlawful theft of intellectual property. That is the job of law enforcement. According to ABC News, 7/4/08: "This is a well disguised step . . .

closer to what the video and music industry really want - to hold ISP's accountable for files sent by users. Ultimately, this could easily result in the Web and it's contents being controlled by Corporations and Courts, which has been a Republican dream since the web came to be."

Or when this awful thing happens -- To close, betmo sent me this. The story says that "corporados want to completely monetize the internet." The story begins with an awful situation in Canada, but the scenario is entirely possible in the USA. Hold on to your hats folks. The free Internet is continually under threat.

View my current slide show about the Bush years -- "Millennium" -- at the bottom of this column.

Monday, July 14, 2008

Monday,Monday is the song

The meadowlark is the State Bird of Wyoming. The photo is by Karen Hollingsworth.

I am visiting my family of origin in Wyoming. Therefore blog posting has sometimes been sporadic. But I have been tuned in to the web as much as possible, given technology and circumstances. I was "off" for the weekend, due to Blogger problems, which I was able to remedy this morning. And I return today to posting, revived a bit by an outdoor cookout. The event, hosted by my brother who makes a dynamite potato salad, was complete with his resident meadowlark moving from fence post to fence post.

My time here is dwindling fast. Soon I will be singing the blues because I am leaving my mom and three siblings, these bright blue skies, the clear rushing water, the blue snow-topped mountains, and the town where I was born that I love so much.

Gasoline prices are currently running between $4.12 and $4.22 per gallon. The roads are filled with big hunky motorcycles of all makes and vintages, as singles and couples filter in to Wyoming prior to heading for Sturgis, South Dakota. All the small towns are full of tourists, a surprising number utilizing a recreational vehicle. The alfalfa hay is being cut and baled in the irrigated fields, and the grain crops are getting some height. Perennial flower borders are a signature of this lovely town, along with huge old trees and long hiking and biking paths.

Wyoming politics have been a bit hard to deduce. Phil Roberts at The Wyoming Almanac debunks a few myths, however. My sisters are Democrats; my mom and brother are Republicans. Therefore political discussions vary, depending on the company. My mom worked at elections in years past, and my sisters attended this year's caucuses.

Today I am off to another town, and another computer, to visit my sister. Wish me luck.

View my current slide show about the Bush years -- "Millennium" -- at the bottom of this column.

(Cross-posted at The Reaction.)

My “creativity and dreaming” post today is at Making Good Mondays.

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