Well That's Just Great!

The federal government mistakenly made public a 266-page report, its pages marked “highly confidential,” that gives detailed information about hundreds of the nation’s civilian nuclear sites and programs, including maps showing the precise locations of stockpiles of fuel for nuclear weapons.

[...]

President Obama sent the document to Congress on May 5 for Congressional review and possible revision, and the Government Printing Office subsequently posted the draft declaration on its Web site.

[...]

[The document] presents what appears to be an exhaustive listing of the sites that make up the nation’s civilian nuclear complex, which stretches coast to coast and includes nuclear reactors and highly confidential sites at weapon laboratories.

[...]

Each page is marked across the top “Highly Confidential Safeguards Sensitive” in capital letters, with the exception of pages that detailed additional information like site maps.

  NYT

So how did they accidentally – or “mistakenly” – publish that on a website? They didn’t notice the page headings?

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Shut It Down

A Guantanamo detainee has died in what the military are calling an "apparent suicide" -- and civil liberties groups are calling for action.

[...]

Al-Hanashi, a Yemeni, had been held without charge at Gitmo since February 2002. Medical records released previously indicate that at one stage he joined a long-running hunger strike to protest his confinement. In December 2005, he weighed about 86 pounds.

  TPM

Prophets

"Our rulers will become corrupt, our people careless. … [We] shall be going down hill. It will not then be necessary to resort every moment to the people for support. They will be forgotten, therefore, and their rights disregarded. They will forget themselves but in the sole faculty of making money and will never think of uniting to effect a due respect for their rights. The shackles, therefore, ... will remain on us long, will be made heavier and heavier, till our rights shall revive or expire in a convulsion." -- Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia – 1784

"I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. … corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed." -- Abraham Lincoln 1864

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Why Does Obama Hate Democracy?

Obama wants Congress to change FOIA by retroactively narrowing its disclosure requirements, prevent a legal ruling by the courts, and vest himself with brand new secrecy powers under the law which, just as a factual matter, not even George Bush sought for himself.

The White House is actively supporting a new bill jointly sponsored by Sens. Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman -- called The Detainee Photographic Records Protection Act of 2009 -- that literally has no purpose other than to allow the government to suppress any "photograph taken between September 11, 2001 and January 22, 2009 relating to the treatment of individuals engaged, captured, or detained after September 11, 2001, by the Armed Forces of the United States in operations outside of the United States." As long as the Defense Secretary certifies -- with no review possible -- that disclosure would "endanger" American citizens or our troops, then the photographs can be suppressed even if FOIA requires disclosure.[...] The Senate passed the bill as an amendment last week.

[...]

[The] President who is demanding these new suppression powers is the same one who repeatedly vowed "to make his administration the most open and transparent in history."

[...]

Imagine if a foreign government were accused of systematically torturing and otherwise brutally abusing detainees in its custody for years, and there was ample photographic evidence proving the extent and brutality of the abuse. Further imagine that the country's judiciary -- applying decades-old transparency laws -- ruled that the government was legally required to make that evidence public. But in response, that country's President demanded that those transparency laws be retroactively changed for no reason other than to explicitly empower him to keep the photographic evidence suppressed, and a compliant Congress then immediately passed a new law empowering the President to suppress that evidence.

  Glenn Greenwald

No problem. If another country did it, it would be bad. It can’t be wrong, however, by definition, if we do it.

For decades, we had laws in place authorizing citizens to sue their telecommunication carriers if the telecoms allowed government spying on their communications in violation of the law, but when it was revealed that the telecoms did exactly this, the Congress simply changed the law retroactively so that it no longer applied. For decades, we had laws imposing civil and criminal liability on government officials who engaged in or authorized torture, but when it was revealed that our government did that, the Congress just retroactively changed the law to protect the torturers. And now that courts have ruled that our decades-old transparency law compels disclosure of this torture evidence, the Congress is just going to retroactively change the law -- again -- this time to empower the President to suppress that evidence anyway.

[...]

[W]hat's the point of having laws that purport to restrict what the Government can do if political officials just retroactively waive those laws whenever they want? What's the point of having a FOIA law if the Government will simply pass a new law exempting itself from FOIA's mandates any time it loses in court and wants to conceal evidence anyway?

What’s the point of having a Congress if it can’t retrofit laws?

Is there really anyone who wants to argue that defiance of a federal court's order and enacting a new law authorizing suppression of torture evidence -- the disclosure of which is compelled both by courts and FOIA -- are remotely consistent with anything Obama said he would do, or remotely consistent with what a healthy democratic government would do?

I think that’s what Eric Holder’s for.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

More War

Another bit from my adventure teaching English in Mexico:

Sunday, November 6, 2005

I came across one of the few English language children's books we have been provided for our classes, should we choose to make use of them. I wonder how it came to be part of the library. It's published in Nashville. Obviously, originally there was a toy (or toys) packaged with it.

Let's Protect

[Missing photo]

Let's start our mission!

The military tanks are lined up in a row. Ready to protect us, off to battle they go.

Time to roll!

[Missing photo]

Ther (sic) are small ones and big ones, with loud machine guns. Up and down the hills they climb, in the hot desert sun. (The punctuation and spelling may be Tennessee standard, I don't know, and I probably shouldn't criticize, since I myself lack a good editor.)

Across all kinds of terrain, the tanks roll out of sight. After a long day of battle, they continue to fight. Transporting the troops, they protect us from harm's way, so the soldiers can keep us safe day after day.

Mission Accomplished!"

The back cover says, "Warning! Choking Hazard!" Indeed, I almost choked when I read it.

I was surprised to see the publication date of 2002 and not 2003, but I guess it was one of those preparing the public (kids) for the invasion of Iraq. "Mission Accomplished." Maybe this is one of the few books the President read.

I was once asked if I had any ideas for a really scary reality TV show. I have one reality show that would really make your hair stand on end: "C-Students from Yale." --- Kurt Vonnegut Jr

[...]

Friday, November 11, 2005

Well, it's Veterans' Day. Support our white phosphorous using, civilian bombing, prisoner torturing troops, who are protecting us here by scorching the earth over there - none of which is news to people who have followed independent news sources on the internet since the beginning of the call to arms. So the latest is that somebody leaked to the Post, and there are pictures of actual victims of the napalm-like bombing of Iraqi civilians? Dahr Jamail published pictures and reports of it immediately following the attack on Falluja. We saw it. We knew it. Why didn't Congress? The same reason, I suppose, that Congress didn't know the documents purporting Iraq's attempt to buy yellowcake uranium were forgeries when they were being touted as the truth by the administration as justification for invasion of another country, and when those of us following the independent internet news already knew they were fakes. CIA secret gulag, rendition of prisoners to countries where torture is "legal" - news? Not if you've done even the most cursory Googling. My congressman doesn't have time to investigate. Or maybe he doesn't have a computer. I wonder what those aides are doing all day? Arranging junket schedules, perhaps.

As David said in class that one night: war is business. And business is good.

[...]

Monday (lunes), December 5, 2005

I haven't had a good night's sleep in a while. I'm not sure why, but I expect a combination of reasons. I've been slowly making my way through William Blum's account of all the U.S. military and CIA interventions around the globe (just since WWII) destroying democracy in the name of spreading it and in the process destroying entire foreign families, cities and cultures. I'm nearly done and I'm going to have to quit reading it at night. I get so sickened and depressed by the suffering and hell we bring to the world through the self-serving things that our government and its secret agents (or those interests manipulating it) have done over and over and over. Sometimes I wish it could be that this kind of ruthless, compassionless, cynical, sinister and horrific activity actually did belong to one set of people and could be eliminated by ridding the world of that one group (we never recognize ourselves - it's always some other time or some other culture that behaves so abominably). It's sickening to learn of the reality beneath the platitudes - and it would almost be hopeful now that the surface of CIA activity is being scratched in the 'gulag' exposure that Ms. Condi, for whatever was left of her soul, is willing to defend by saying renditions save lives, and the Bushistas are being exposed for just a few of their lies and crimes, except for the facts that 1) it truly is only the surface and the depths will never be plumbed, and that 2) there are years and years of documentary proof that this is nothing new, that none of the things that are 'shocking' people to learn about what's been happening with this administration are anything new at all, and that each time some similar revelation is made, people shake it off with no more thought than they give to a bad dream and go back to business as usual. And the beast goes back to work in the way that a beast does.

And then there is the further realization that they're totally and singularly human - the things we call inhuman - and they've been happening since the first man took a step on earth and will go on until the last man has disappeared.

More tequila, Sancho!

Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Mike, the doctor, was just at a physicians' convention in Mexico City, and he told me that there was a presentation on dementia, after which one of the Mexican doctors turned to him and asked, "So, do you think your president is demented?" Salvador asked me recently if Americans don't want to see the truth about their government. (As Bob said in his blog, Mexicans, at least, know their government is corrupt.) How do we answer the increasing questions from the rest of the world? Personally, I see us as the family of an alcoholic, perhaps not as much in denial as in wishful thinking that if we refuse to admit that dad is an alcoholic, other people will believe the facade we try to present. Or at least we can almost convince ourselves.

[...]

Time has really flown here in Mexico, although there were moments teaching in Peribán that I almost despaired of ever finishing. Five months in Peribán and two in Tepoztlán. I would have preferred it the other way around, and I'm sorry that I'm going to have to leave Tepoztlán. I'm also sorry to have to return to the U.S. at a time when the very people supposedly chosen to represent and manage our nation are now selling her to the highest bidder, are the very same people who were once implicated in money laundering, arms and drug sales, but who now are back in the highest offices of the land and apparently never gave up their nefarious and criminal practices. The same people who approve and defend torture and humiliation, endless war with carpet bombing and napalming of thousands of innocent men, women, children and babies; who interfere with the democratic elections in other countries while spouting on endlessly about the virtues of democracy; who cynically threaten the citizenry of their own country with interminable jail sentences without representation or recourse because of the sound of their names or for actively protesting government policy, while they themselves "leak" the identities of agents working to protect the national security. Needless to say, the very same people who are dismantling the social protections and insurances the country struggled for decades to attain. Is this the path we chose? What country am I returning to?

War

I’ve been reading my diaries from when I taught English to Mexicans in Michoacan. This seems appropriate for this time…Well, for all time, really.

Last night they were a little less reserved about America's foreign policy. Somebody asked about "Blowin' in the Wind" - what cannon balls were. I explained cannon and added that unless you consider tank guns to be cannons, I didn't think we use cannons any more. Somebody said, "Yes, the Americans use them - mortar." And somebody else said, "Well, the Americans don't use them in America - only in other countries." Right. I said I was really sorry, and David said, "No. Don't worry about it. War is a business." The plain truth, for which I was sorry all over again.

Credit Where Credit Is Due

Obama appears to be standing tall against Israeli incursions into Palestinian territory by means of "settlements". Good on him. Apparently, Israel's Netanyayhoo isn't too pleased.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Who Is David Petraeus?

I'll tell you who I think he is. I think he's a top commander who puts his job before his conscience. I think he's a man who leans whichever way the current Commander in Chief leans. He is now saying we violated Geneva Conventions.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Unreleased Abu Ghraib Photos

[President Obama] said the photos had already served their purpose in investigations of "a small number of individuals." Those cases were all concluded by 2004, and the president said "the individuals who were involved have been identified, and appropriate actions have been taken."

"I want to emphasize that these photos that were requested in this case are not particularly sensational, especially when compared to the painful images that we remember from Abu Ghraib."

[May 13, 2009]

  Yahoo

At least one picture shows an American soldier apparently raping a female prisoner while another is said to show a male translator raping a male detainee.

Further photographs are said to depict sexual assaults on prisoners with objects including a truncheon, wire and a phosphorescent tube.

Another apparently shows a female prisoner having her clothing forcibly removed to expose her breasts.

Detail of the content emerged from Major General Antonio Taguba, the former army officer who conducted an inquiry into the Abu Ghraib jail in Iraq.

  UK Telegraph

Not surprising Obama doesn't want these released.

Obama's lame excuse that it would jeopardize US forces is reminiscent of the pure BS we got from Bush and Cheney about keeping America safe. Has he really convinced himself that our enemies and friends are not quite sure of what we did? We were never surprised all that much at Bush's frequent journeys into reality-free zones but Obama was supposed to be different. Seems he's not.

  Comment at Drudge

He knows “our enemies and friends” know what we did. He’s trying to keep us from having to admit it to ourselves. We are apparently the weakest people in the world - we can't face ourselves in a mirror.

We are still the same country we were under Bush-Cheney: a dysfunctional, codependent family. We all belong in a 12-step program.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Mission Accomplished

Guerrillas have killed at least 20 US troops in May, compared to only 9 last March.

  Informed Comment

The daily Iraq violence report is compiled by McClatchy Newspapers Special Correspondents in Baghdad from police, military and medical reports. This is not a comprehensive list of all violence in Iraq, much of which goes unreported. It's posted without editing as transmitted to McClatchy's Washington Bureau.

  McClatchy

Iraq is on Thursday to ask Iran and Turkey to help it fend off potentially deadly thirst and heat this summer by supplying the water and electricity it needs, an electricity ministry official said.

  Yahoo

Nice.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

The Sotomayor Controversy

Republican poobah Newt Gingrich has lambasted Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor as a 'racist' because she implied that a Latina woman could empathize with certain situations as a judge better than a white male could, and so would come to sounder judgments.

Just so everyone remembers, this is Newt Gingrich's idea of the difference between the sexes:

'If combat means living in a ditch, females have biological problems staying in a ditch for 30 days because they get infections.... Males are biologically driven to go out and hunt giraffes.'

  Informed Comment

I hate to trivialize the posting of such an esteemed scholar as Juan Cole, but my immediate thought is:

If only Newt (and a number of his cohort) would go hunt giraffes. And let them do it in Greenland.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Meanwhile in Pakistan

Gunmen detonated a car bomb Wednesday near police and intelligence agency offices that collapsed one building and sheared the walls off others in one of the deadliest attacks in Pakistan this year. About 30 people were killed and at least 250 wounded.

  Yahoo