With 'Much still unknown about surveillance efforts,' Bruce Fein details his objections to FISA legislation introduced by House Democrats, including that it "does nothing with regard to trying to restrain the president's unfettered exercise of authority to gather foreign intelligence." Plus: 'Bush pushes for telecom immunity.'
You can read the reference articles from embedded links in the original posting of this quote at Cursor for October 11.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
The Marine Corps is pressing to remove its forces from Iraq and to send marines instead to Afghanistan, to take over the leading role in combat there, according to senior military and Pentagon officials.The idea by the Marine Corps commandant would effectively leave the Iraq war in the hands of the Army while giving the Marines a prominent new role in Afghanistan, under overall NATO command.
The suggestion was raised in a session last week convened by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates for the Joint Chiefs of Staff and regional war-fighting commanders.
[...]
It is not clear exactly how many of the marines in Iraq would be moved over. But the plan would require a major reshuffling, and it would make marines the dominant American force in Afghanistan, in a war that has broader public support than the one in Iraq.
One: Did they toss a coin to see who had to stay in Iraq? And, two: There are 25,000 Marines in Iraq. Would this count toward the 30,000 troops from the surge that they are talking about “reducing” the forces in Iraq with? I thought maybe those would be going to Iran, but then again, it wouldn’t take 30,000 to bomb the place to Hell.
It is not clear whether the Army would support the idea. But some officials sympathetic to the Army said that such a realignment would help ease some pressure on the Army, by allowing it to shift forces from Afghanistan into Iraq, and by simplifying planning for future troop rotations.The Marine proposal could also face resistance from the Air Force, whose current role in providing combat aircraft for Afghanistan could be squeezed if the overall mission was handed to the Marines. Unlike the Army, the Marines would bring a significant force of combat aircraft to that conflict.
And free up the Air Force for Iran.
....and hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
KAZIMIERZ DOLNY, Poland - Police evicted 65 rebellious ex-nuns Wednesday from a convent they illegally occupied for two years after defying a Vatican order to replace their mother superior, a charismatic leader who had religious visions.The defeated nuns walked out in their black habits — some carrying guitars, drums and tambourines — after a locksmith opened the gate to the walled compound and police in riot gear rushed in and arrested the mother superior.
[...]
About 150 police in riot gear went into the compound to find the ex-nuns defiantly singing religious songs and playing instruments
[...]
"Today's police intervention was a sort of act of desperate aid for people who for the past two years have lived in very unusual conditions, in a closed environment, in seclusion, in uncertainty, where various forms of thought take shape," the PAP news agency quoted Zycinski as saying.
"One could clearly see that tension and aggression during today's intervention."
…it being highly unlikely otherwise that anyone would react tensely and aggressively in the face of riot-geared police rushing them. The police were merely there to protect them from themselves.
"They were disobedient," said Mieczyslaw Puzewicz, a spokesman for the Lublin diocese of the Roman Catholic Church.
Bingo.
And since Ron Paul is not going to get any play from the national media, I’ll give him some here from The Raw Story - for all five of my readers. I’m not endorsing him, but I can appreciate some of the things he has to say, and it emphasizes the inequity of our system that only the “front runners” as designated by the powers that be are followed around and reported on widely, so who knows what he's saying elsewhere in his campaign.
"As long as we live beyond our means, we are destined to live beneath our means" Paul had said, citing the financing of an "extravagant" foreign policy and excessive domestic spending that was disproportionately impacting poorer Americans."Everybody doesn't suffer equally, or this wouldn't be so bad," Paul said.
[...]
As the debate's focus transitioned into foreign policy issues, moderator Chris Matthews asked the candidates whether any of them, as president, felt they would have to seek authorization from Congress prior to taking military action against Iran.
"You sit down with your attorneys and tell you what you have have to do," Mitt Romney said, adding that a president had to do whatever it took to protect the country.
Asked if President Bush had needed congressional authority to invade Iraq, Romney again invoked lawyers, saying "We're going to let the lawyers sort out what he needed to do and what he didn't need to do."
"This idea of going and talking to attorneys totally baffles me," Ron Paul shot back later. "Why don't we just open up the constitution and read it."
It’s a little dusty, Ron.
I did hear that clip on NPR, and from the sound of his voice when he said it, he must have been fairly hopping.
Huckabee and McCain said they’d go forth without Congressional approval, so I guess they're not interested in reading the Constitution.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
[Rove] offered up his observations while in Dallas for a meeting on the future Bush library. Besides helping build the library, his plans to write a book include this promise: "It will be vicious and slashing," he said.
In case you wondered.
As difficult as it is to believe, there are even varying degrees of loyalty to Bush within the 41 Bush Dogs. The following six Democrats not only voted for a blank check on Iraq, not only voted to continue warrant-less government spying on American citizens through FISA, but also voted against S-Chip:
Vital Stats on “The Ultimate Bush Dogs”
Member District PVI Term 2006 win % New Dem Blue Dog Boren OK-02 R +4.9 2nd 73% No Yes Ethridge NC-02 R +2.7 6th 66% Yes No Hill IN-09 R +7.1 1st / 4th* 50% Yes Yes Marshall GA-08 R +8 3rd 51% No Yes McIntyre NC-07 R +2.8 6th 73% Yes Yes Taylor MS-04 R +16.3 10th 80% No Yes
Blue Dog Democrats are a group of 47 moderate and conservative Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives. The Blue Dogs are a coalition seeking to promote what they see as fiscally responsible budget reforms and accountability for taxpayer dollars. Many members come from conservative districts, where liberal Democrats comprise a decided minority. In 2006, Blue Dog candidates such as Heath Shuler and Brad Ellsworth were elected in conservative-leaning districts, ending years of Republican dominance in these districts.The term is a reference to the "Blue Dog" paintings of Cajun artist George Rodrigue of Lafayette, Louisiana; the original members of the coalition would regularly meet in the offices of Louisiana representatives Billy Tauzin and Jimmy Hayes, both of whom had Rodrigue's paintings on their walls (and both of whom later switched to the Republican Party). It may also be meant as an ironic counterpoint to the traditional "Yellow Dog" label, which is applied to those Southern Democrats said to be so loyal to the party that they would vote for a yellow dog before voting for a Republican.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
Pentagon sources say [war secretary Robert] Gates is waging a subtle campaign to undermine the Cheney camp by encouraging the army's senior officers to speak frankly about the overstretch of forces, and the difficulty of fighting another war.Bruce Reidel, a former CIA Middle East officer, said: "Cheney's people know they can beat Condi. They have been doing it for six years. Bob Gates is a different kettle of fish. He doesn't owe the President anything. He is urging his officers to be completely honest, knowing what that means."
Yeah, good luck with that.
General George Casey, the army's new chief of staff, [...] told Congress the army was "out of balance" and added: "The demand for our forces exceeds the sustainable supply. We are consumed with meeting the demands of the current fight, and are unable to provide ready forces as rapidly as necessary for other potential contingencies."
I think we’ve got 30,000 just about ready to move. And it doesn’t take a lot of soldiers to drop megatons of obliterating missiles on a country. All it takes is another, perhaps bigger, 9/11.
One CIA insider said: "Bush understands that any increase in real military hostilities in Iran right now could have a negative effect. Bob Gates is the only one opposed to it. He's the single person in the US government who has any standing with the White House fighting it."
That’s not very good odds.
The intelligence community over the next few months is going to come out with three different reports on Iran about internal political problems of Iran, about the economy, and about their nuclear capability.Those are going to be key to decide what the Bush administration is going to do, and it’s the intelligence community I think trying to slow down what the president, most particularly the vice president, want to do in Iran.
Yeah, good luck with that.
Where the hell is Congress?
Oh yeah.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
U.S. intelligence officials will investigate allegations that the government improperly leaked a secretly obtained Osama bin Laden video, alerting al-Qaeda to a security gap in the terrorist group's internal communications network that it was able to shut, an intelligence spokesman said yesterday.Ross Feinstein, a spokesman for the director of national intelligence, said officials are looking into the leak allegation by the SITE Intelligence Group, which passed the video on to the White House and the director of national intelligence's office before its leak.
"At this point, we don't think there was a leak from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence or the National Counterterrorism Center," Feinstein said.
So who from the White House could it have been then? And why would they do that? Hmmmm?
SITE founder Rita Katz told The Post that her company covertly obtained an early copy of a bin Laden video message in early September, then shared the video with senior administration officials on Sept. 7 on the condition that it not be distributed or made public before its official release.Soon afterward, the video was downloaded by dozens of computers registered to government agencies. Within hours, SITE's copy of the video was leaked to television news networks and broadcast worldwide.
Gee, for some reason, we just can’t seem to catch that bin Laden fella.
SITE said in the Post article that it had obtained the video ahead of its planned al Qaeda release and given two senior Bush administration officials access to it on condition they not reveal they had it until the official release.[…]
"Techniques that took years to develop are now ineffective and worthless," SITE founder Rita Katz told the Post.
[...]
The White House denied it had leaked the video but said the issue was a cause for concern and an investigation would be needed to determine what happened.
Yeah, move over Scooter.
Two senior Bush administration officials. Will we get their names?
Update: Yes.
In a Thursday speech in South Carolina, McCain said he would like Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the Federal Reserve, to lead a review of the federal tax code.[...]
“If he’s alive or dead it doesn’t matter. If he’s dead, just prop him up and put some dark glasses on him like, like ‘Weekend at Bernie’s,’” McCain joked.
[...]
While joking about Greenspan this week, McCain also let slip that the violent spy-thriller "24" is one of his favorite shows.
He really should sit down and shut up. It's getting kind of sad.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
P.S. Here's an interesting Rolling Stone article on McCain: McCain's Last Stand.
It is rather amusing now, however, that Blackwater - the darling of the Bush Administration's State Department - is going to be connected in the public mind with Hillary Clinton. Because you know this is going to be headline news for a good while.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
Being a Fed chairman is a special, sensitive position — one of immense power, yet given to an unelected technocrat. As a result, there are some unwritten rules the chairman is supposed to observe: stay out of domestic politics while in office, and keep quiet for a while after you leave, to give your successor a chance to establish himself. Paul Volcker, Alan Greenspan’s predecessor, scrupulously observed these rules.But Greenspan is now 0 for 2.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
Corexit: More toxic than the oil
IVAW: Iraq Veterans Against the War
