Bush With a Better Vocabulary

Despite promises during the campaign that he would review certain of the most intrusive portions of the PATRIOT Act, President Barack Obama’s Justice Department today is calling for Congress to extend all three expiring provisions.

[...]

Among those provisions the administration is seeking to extend is the infamous Section 215: the provision which allows law enforcement access to library and bookstore records, without probable cause, for “national security” reasons.

[...]

Another of the provisions the administration wants extended is the so-called “lone wolf” provision, which amends the FISA definition of “agent of a foreign power” to include people the government can’t establish as having any link to a foreign government or terrorist organization.

Finally they would extend the “roving wiretap” provision in Section 206, which allows the government to wiretap a person and all devices they come into contact with, rather than having to get a warrant to wiretap a given phone or device.

  Antiwar.com

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

Meanwhile in Afghanistan

US forces suffered one of their bloodiest days in eight years of war in Afghanistan with eight soldiers killed when their remote outposts were overrun by hundreds of Taliban militants, officials said on Sunday.

[...]

"Coalition forces effectively repelled the attack and inflicted heavy enemy casualties while eight ISAF and two ANSF (Afghan National Security Force) service members were killed," it said.

[...]

A Taliban spokesman claimed that 30 foreign and Afghan troops were killed and that they captured the police chief of Kamdesh district as well as 30 Afghan National Army soldiers.

[...]

NATO is battling to quell a deadly insurgency that is spreading across Afghanistan, nearly eight years after the hardline Islamist Taliban were ousted from power.

[...]

Security has worsened in the previously calm north and west and insurgent attacks increased before the August 20 presidential election.

Like in the south and the east, fighting between militants and international forces has now become a daily occurrence.

  Raw Story

So, yeah, this is a great time to attack Iran, as the war hawks are screaming.

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

Ooops

The nascent global recovery is dividing Latin America between economies that pay the price for ties with the United States and those that benefit from growing links with Asia, experts said.

[...]

In its economic forecasts published Thursday, the IMF said that Latin America had begun to recover from the global economic crisis and would post growth of 2.9 percent in 2010.

But there were wide disparities, with countries such as Mexico, which depends heavily on the United States, losing out and others like Brazil benefiting from rising exports to China.

  Raw Story

Another Taser Terror Tale

The police department in Pensacola, Florida, has suspended an officer who allegedly attempted to Taser a suspect from inside his squad car before running the man over, resulting in the suspect's death, news reports say.

  Raw Story

Christ. And it was a kid on a bicycle making an escape.

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

What About Iran

Please read Juan Cole's post: Top Things You Think You Know About Iran That Are Not True

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

The Word Is Out

Will the O-Man now get serious about dealing with our problems? Does he recognize now that we are adrift? Would it make a difference if he did?

Obama held out the enticing prospect of a Chicago games helping to reconnect the United States with the world after the presidency of George W. Bush, pledging that the "full force of the White House" would be applied so "visitors from all around the world feel welcome and will come away with a sense of the incredible diversity of the American people."

"Over the last several years, sometimes that fundamental truth about the United States has been lost," Obama said. "One of the legacies, I think, of this Olympic Games in Chicago would be a restoration of that understanding of what the United States is all about and the United States' recognition of how we are linked to the world."

  Yahoo

Apparently the fundamental truth about the United States has been well established and Mr. O doesn't have quite the star power that he imagined.

The race for the 2016 Olympics has came (sic - Yahoo or AP?) down to just Rio de Janeiro and Madrid, with the International Olympic Committee eliminating Chicago in a stunning first round of voting.

[…]

An uncomfortable moment for Chicago came when an IOC member from Pakistan, Syed Shahid Ali, noted that going through U.S. customs can be harrowing for foreigners.

Full scale attack on Pakistan, coming up.

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

What Is McChrystal Thinking?

I don't believe it's

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

Merrill-Lynch

What's with M-L? Are they pushing investment in U.S. swindlers?

At work we have a pretty nice investment package where the company matches our contributions up to 6% of our income. Yesterday we had a Merrill-Lynch rep come to go over our plans with us. I had chosen a plan that is less safe (no bonds) and included a large percentage of international companies. The rep suggested I include more "less risky" U.S. companies, and specifically recommended a package that included a number of banks and financial institutes. At the same time, she showed me the earnings this past year, which as you may guess, were far better for the international companies. I told her I was satisfied to continue betting on the ones I have.

And she kept saying that I was willing to take more risk than most people but calling me "risk averse."

I admit I probably could use advice in financial matters, because I know zilch. But I don't think she's the person I'd want to take advice from. I don't have enough money to worry about, and our plan provides that no matter what the stocks do, we cannot lose the actual money we put into the plan. So I figure whatever I gain is free money. Why not take the most risk? It's somebody else's money.

And I know that "risk averse" does not mean willing to take risks.

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

Got Change?

No. You've got Bush with a better vocabulary.

A key senior figure in a Bush administration covert Pentagon program, which used retired military analysts to produce positive wartime news coverage, remains in the same position today as a chief Obama Defense Department spokesman and the agency’s head of all media operations.

[...]

Barstow’s Times expose revealed a comprehensive, covert Pentagon campaign -- beginning during the lead-up to the Iraq War and continuing through 2008 -- that shaped network military analysts into what internal documents referred to as “message force multipliers” and “surrogates” who could be trusted to parrot Bush administration talking points “in the form of their own opinions.” Barstow’s reporting also detailed how most of the military analysts, traditionally viewed as authoritative and independent, had ties to defense contractors with a stake in the same war policies they were interpreting daily to the American public.

  Raw Story

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

Is This News?

The FBI’s release of portions of its internal manual for investigations is stoking fears among some civil liberties and Muslim organizations that the federal law enforcement agency is engaged in intrusive surveillance of political and religious groups with no connection to crime or terrorism.

  Politico

Not possible.

Pathetic, But Predictable

The Brits dropped some leaflets containing public guidance information in Afghanistan. Unfortunately, one box didn't separate in the air, and the whole box fell on an Afghan girl, killing her. I assume the next printing will contain information on taking cover when British flights are overhead.

The Brits are blaming the Afghan people, of course. The reason being that they took her to a local hospital. Apparently, they were supposed to contact the very Brits who dropped the bundle on the girl so she could be taken to a British facility, where, of course, her life would have been saved.

The girl is number 1,500 - give or take a few - in the list of innocent civilians killed so far just this year in Afghanistan.

“If her family request compensation, we will obviously give it consideration,” an official said.

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

Just a Possibility

Classified Bush-era documents on the administration's controversial interrogation and rendition programs are missing, according to a recent court filing submitted by the Obama Justice Department. But a Justice Department spokeswoman says the documents may not actually be gone; they may never have existed—even though Bush administration records say that they do. Welcome to the Case of the Disappearing Torture Documents. This is more than just a bureaucratic whodunit. There's a possibility that government officials purposely destroyed records pertaining to detainee abuse.

  Mother Jones

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