http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQfpD3Mocs0
Wrap...:)))
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Breakin' the Law...
Just disgusted and angry with the Obama admin. They continually break or ignore the laws. And so underhanded. And what the hell are they doing, trading with Iran? They're mighty good at saying one thing and doing another. So is the DOJ doing anything? Hell no.
What's this business with jailing people whenever they want with no trial? Why are those Gitmo prisoners still down there?
What are they doing, paying the Taliban to let trucks cross into Afghanistan? Nice to finance the people we're fighting.
And how much are we giving Pakistan? Something like $900 million a year? So they can protect the Taliban hiding in their territory?
And on and on and on. Scared shitless about what Assange might leak about what? He's right...it's terrorism.
But Obama taught law. Glad I wasn't one of his students. Suppose he taught how to blantantly break the laws? Constitutional? Hell, he doesn't need to be in a classroom. All his students need to do is watch he and his administration in action.
And he gets people like Timmie G in his admin to deal with Wall Street when that s.o.b. was part of that despicable outfit. Really brillant.
Hope he just stays in Hawaii and disappears from our view.
What's this business with jailing people whenever they want with no trial? Why are those Gitmo prisoners still down there?
What are they doing, paying the Taliban to let trucks cross into Afghanistan? Nice to finance the people we're fighting.
And how much are we giving Pakistan? Something like $900 million a year? So they can protect the Taliban hiding in their territory?
And on and on and on. Scared shitless about what Assange might leak about what? He's right...it's terrorism.
But Obama taught law. Glad I wasn't one of his students. Suppose he taught how to blantantly break the laws? Constitutional? Hell, he doesn't need to be in a classroom. All his students need to do is watch he and his administration in action.
And he gets people like Timmie G in his admin to deal with Wall Street when that s.o.b. was part of that despicable outfit. Really brillant.
Hope he just stays in Hawaii and disappears from our view.
Sunday, December 05, 2010
Obama has got to go...
Never thought I'd say this, but Obama has got to go in 2012. I've had it with his bending over for Repub positions. He has no guts. And is not likely to get any either.
So who would be the best candidate to take his place? At this point, he's become so cowardly that almost any Dem would do. And that's all I have to say on the matter.
Wrap...
So who would be the best candidate to take his place? At this point, he's become so cowardly that almost any Dem would do. And that's all I have to say on the matter.
Wrap...
Saturday, December 04, 2010
Fascinating Books On the Way...
From Publishers Lunch Weekly:
FICTION
DEBUT...
Owen Laukkanen's THE PROFESSIONALS, pitched as comparable to the work of John Sandford and Thomas Perry, a state policeman is teamed with an FBI agent to track down four recent college graduates who, facing the worst job market in recent history, decide to create their own jobs as professional kidnappers, to Neil Nyren at Putnam, in a two-book deal, by Stacia Decker at the Donald Maass Literary Agency (World).
Patrick Flanery's THE CENSOR, set in contemporary South Africa, about the relationship between a renowned, elderly female author and the man she has selected to be her official biographer - and the powerful unspoken link between them in the author's daughter, an active member of the anti-apartheid movement, who disappeared without a trace many years ago, to Sarah McGrath at Riverhead, by George Lucas at Inkwell Management, on behalf of Victoria Hobbs at A M Heath (US).
MYSTERY/CRIME...
William Kent Krueger's two more books in the NYT bestselling Cork O'Connor crime series and the stand-alone ORDINARY GRACE, a coming-of-age story about a tragedy that strikes a Methodist minister in 1961 and what it does to his faith, his family, and the fabric of the small town in which he lives, told forty years later by the minister's son, to Sarah Branham at Atria, by Danielle Egan-Miller at Browne & Miller Literary Associates (World).
Film joel@ipglm.com
SCI-FI/FANTASY...
Julianna Baggott's PURE trilogy, a YA/adult crossover dystopian novel about a society of haves, who escaped an apocalypse in a futuristic dome-covered city, and have-nots, who survived the nearly destroyed outside world, to Jaime Levine at Grand Central, in a three-book deal, by Nat Sobel at Sobel Weber Associates (NA).
THRILLER...
Silver Dagger and Hammett winner Dan Fesperman's THE DOUBLE GAME, in which Cold War spy novels and other classic works of espionage become the clues to uncover a possible double agent, to Sonny Mehta at Knopf.
UK rights to Nick Cheetham at Corvus, by Jane Chelius at Jane Chelius Literary Agency.
GENERAL/OTHER...
Spanish novelist Víctor del Arbol's THE SAMARAI'S GRIEF, about multiple betrayals, personal and political, pitched as evocative of Le Carre's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Zafon's The Shadow of the Wind, and set alternately in the pro-Nazi Spain of 1941 -- when an aristocrat becomes involved in a plot to kill her Fascist husband, only to be betrayed by her lover -- and during the attempted Fascist coup of 1981, when a young lawyer is accused of plotting the prison escape of the man she successfully prosecuted for attempted murder five years earlier; with the Japanese sword of the title providing -- and ultimately severing -- the link between the two women's lives, to Aaron Schlechter at Holt, in a pre-empt, for publication in February 2011, by Thomas Colchie of The Colchie Agency, representing the Spanish publisher Alreves on behalf of principal agent Antonia Kerrigan in Barcelona (world English).
Rachel Hore's A PLACE OF SECRETS, when an auction house appraiser of old books and manuscripts, a woman struggling to come to terms with the death of her young husband, is asked to value a collection belonging to a reclusive 18th century astronomer, she jumps at the chance to escape London to be closer to her sister and niece and begin deciphering the mysteries of the astronomer's world, only to find all sorts of disturbing links with her own family's history, to Aaron Schlechter at Holt, for publication in February 2012, by Lisa Bankoff at ICM, on behalf of Sheila Crowley at Curtis Brown UK (NA).
CHILDREN'S YOUNG ADULT...
Debut author Marissa Meyer's four-book YA futuristic, fairy-tale inspired series, starting with CINDER, Cinderella is re-envisioned through teen heroine Cinder, part girl and part machine, who must piece together her mysterious past before she can fulfill her destiny and save the kingdom -- and the rest of planet Earth -- from an otherworldly enemy; as Cinder's quest continues through the series, she finds allies loosely based Little Red Riding Hood (SCARLET), Rapunzel (CRESS), and Snow White (WINTER) -- as they join forces to conquer evil and find their happily-ever-afters, to Jean Feiwel of Feiwel and Friends, at auction, by Jill Grinberg at Jill Grinberg Literary Management (NA).
BIOGRAPHY...
Coauthor of the Pulitzer Prize-winning AMERICAN PROMETHEUS Kai Bird's THE GOOD SPY, centering on the career and tragic death of CIA legend Robert Ames, whose passing marked a dramatic shift in foreign policy that still haunts America's relationship with the Muslim world, to Rick Horgan at Crown, in a pre-empt, for publication in 2013, by Gail Ross of the Ross Yoon Agency.
With the royal engagement news comes the pre-planned announcement of author of The Day Diana Died Christopher Andersen's WILLIAM AND KATE: The Love Story, about how Prince William and Kate Middleton "defied all odds to forge a storybook romance amidst the scandals, power struggles, tragedies, and general dysfunction that are the hallmarks of Britain's Royal Family," promising "intimate details of their celebrated courtship" and more, to Jennifer Bergstrom at Gallery, with Mitchell Ivers editing, for publication in February 2011, by Ellen Levine at Trident Media Group (NA).
Pulitzer Prize winner Eileen McNamara's untitled biography of Eunice Kennedy Shriver, telling the story of the often-overlooked Kennedy who founded the Special Olympics and left behind one of the family's most enduring civil rights legacies, to Priscilla Painton at Simon & Schuster, by Colleen Mohyde at the Doe Coover Agency (World).
MEMOIR...
Former CBS anchor Dan Rather's SUMMING UP, with the 79-year-old saying "the time had come for me to sum up my career in a candid memoir, and now I feel the time is right. Plus, with the changing climate -- and attitude -- about news and journalists, I feel I can give readers an honest perspective on the present, and, more important, on the future of news," to Rick Wolff at Grand Central, for publication in 2012, by Paul Fedorko at N.S. Bienstock.
NARRATIVE...
NYT bestselling and Emmy Award-winning DESPERADOS Elaine Shannon's LEFT OF BOOM, a narrative of the DEA's mission-critical operations in Afghanistan and what they portend for the future of war fighting, to Rick Horgan at Crown, in a pre-empt, for publication in early 2012, by Gail Ross of the Ross Yoon Agency (world).
SPORTS...
Major league catcher and winner of two World Series rings Bengie Molina's PAPI, an account of fathers, sons, and baseball that tells the story Molina's family and specifically his late father, Benjamin Molina Santana, who rose from poverty in Puerto Rico and worked in a factory for thirty years while coaching his three sons (Bengie, Jose, and Yadier) into the major leagues, where they became the first three brothers in history to all win World Series championships, written with Little Girls in Pretty Boxes author Joan Ryan, to Jofie Ferrari-Adler at Simon & Schuster, at auction, by Betsy Lerner at Dunow, Carlson & Lerner (World).
Wrap...
FICTION
DEBUT...
Owen Laukkanen's THE PROFESSIONALS, pitched as comparable to the work of John Sandford and Thomas Perry, a state policeman is teamed with an FBI agent to track down four recent college graduates who, facing the worst job market in recent history, decide to create their own jobs as professional kidnappers, to Neil Nyren at Putnam, in a two-book deal, by Stacia Decker at the Donald Maass Literary Agency (World).
Patrick Flanery's THE CENSOR, set in contemporary South Africa, about the relationship between a renowned, elderly female author and the man she has selected to be her official biographer - and the powerful unspoken link between them in the author's daughter, an active member of the anti-apartheid movement, who disappeared without a trace many years ago, to Sarah McGrath at Riverhead, by George Lucas at Inkwell Management, on behalf of Victoria Hobbs at A M Heath (US).
MYSTERY/CRIME...
William Kent Krueger's two more books in the NYT bestselling Cork O'Connor crime series and the stand-alone ORDINARY GRACE, a coming-of-age story about a tragedy that strikes a Methodist minister in 1961 and what it does to his faith, his family, and the fabric of the small town in which he lives, told forty years later by the minister's son, to Sarah Branham at Atria, by Danielle Egan-Miller at Browne & Miller Literary Associates (World).
Film joel@ipglm.com
SCI-FI/FANTASY...
Julianna Baggott's PURE trilogy, a YA/adult crossover dystopian novel about a society of haves, who escaped an apocalypse in a futuristic dome-covered city, and have-nots, who survived the nearly destroyed outside world, to Jaime Levine at Grand Central, in a three-book deal, by Nat Sobel at Sobel Weber Associates (NA).
THRILLER...
Silver Dagger and Hammett winner Dan Fesperman's THE DOUBLE GAME, in which Cold War spy novels and other classic works of espionage become the clues to uncover a possible double agent, to Sonny Mehta at Knopf.
UK rights to Nick Cheetham at Corvus, by Jane Chelius at Jane Chelius Literary Agency.
GENERAL/OTHER...
Spanish novelist Víctor del Arbol's THE SAMARAI'S GRIEF, about multiple betrayals, personal and political, pitched as evocative of Le Carre's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Zafon's The Shadow of the Wind, and set alternately in the pro-Nazi Spain of 1941 -- when an aristocrat becomes involved in a plot to kill her Fascist husband, only to be betrayed by her lover -- and during the attempted Fascist coup of 1981, when a young lawyer is accused of plotting the prison escape of the man she successfully prosecuted for attempted murder five years earlier; with the Japanese sword of the title providing -- and ultimately severing -- the link between the two women's lives, to Aaron Schlechter at Holt, in a pre-empt, for publication in February 2011, by Thomas Colchie of The Colchie Agency, representing the Spanish publisher Alreves on behalf of principal agent Antonia Kerrigan in Barcelona (world English).
Rachel Hore's A PLACE OF SECRETS, when an auction house appraiser of old books and manuscripts, a woman struggling to come to terms with the death of her young husband, is asked to value a collection belonging to a reclusive 18th century astronomer, she jumps at the chance to escape London to be closer to her sister and niece and begin deciphering the mysteries of the astronomer's world, only to find all sorts of disturbing links with her own family's history, to Aaron Schlechter at Holt, for publication in February 2012, by Lisa Bankoff at ICM, on behalf of Sheila Crowley at Curtis Brown UK (NA).
CHILDREN'S YOUNG ADULT...
Debut author Marissa Meyer's four-book YA futuristic, fairy-tale inspired series, starting with CINDER, Cinderella is re-envisioned through teen heroine Cinder, part girl and part machine, who must piece together her mysterious past before she can fulfill her destiny and save the kingdom -- and the rest of planet Earth -- from an otherworldly enemy; as Cinder's quest continues through the series, she finds allies loosely based Little Red Riding Hood (SCARLET), Rapunzel (CRESS), and Snow White (WINTER) -- as they join forces to conquer evil and find their happily-ever-afters, to Jean Feiwel of Feiwel and Friends, at auction, by Jill Grinberg at Jill Grinberg Literary Management (NA).
BIOGRAPHY...
Coauthor of the Pulitzer Prize-winning AMERICAN PROMETHEUS Kai Bird's THE GOOD SPY, centering on the career and tragic death of CIA legend Robert Ames, whose passing marked a dramatic shift in foreign policy that still haunts America's relationship with the Muslim world, to Rick Horgan at Crown, in a pre-empt, for publication in 2013, by Gail Ross of the Ross Yoon Agency.
With the royal engagement news comes the pre-planned announcement of author of The Day Diana Died Christopher Andersen's WILLIAM AND KATE: The Love Story, about how Prince William and Kate Middleton "defied all odds to forge a storybook romance amidst the scandals, power struggles, tragedies, and general dysfunction that are the hallmarks of Britain's Royal Family," promising "intimate details of their celebrated courtship" and more, to Jennifer Bergstrom at Gallery, with Mitchell Ivers editing, for publication in February 2011, by Ellen Levine at Trident Media Group (NA).
Pulitzer Prize winner Eileen McNamara's untitled biography of Eunice Kennedy Shriver, telling the story of the often-overlooked Kennedy who founded the Special Olympics and left behind one of the family's most enduring civil rights legacies, to Priscilla Painton at Simon & Schuster, by Colleen Mohyde at the Doe Coover Agency (World).
MEMOIR...
Former CBS anchor Dan Rather's SUMMING UP, with the 79-year-old saying "the time had come for me to sum up my career in a candid memoir, and now I feel the time is right. Plus, with the changing climate -- and attitude -- about news and journalists, I feel I can give readers an honest perspective on the present, and, more important, on the future of news," to Rick Wolff at Grand Central, for publication in 2012, by Paul Fedorko at N.S. Bienstock.
NARRATIVE...
NYT bestselling and Emmy Award-winning DESPERADOS Elaine Shannon's LEFT OF BOOM, a narrative of the DEA's mission-critical operations in Afghanistan and what they portend for the future of war fighting, to Rick Horgan at Crown, in a pre-empt, for publication in early 2012, by Gail Ross of the Ross Yoon Agency (world).
SPORTS...
Major league catcher and winner of two World Series rings Bengie Molina's PAPI, an account of fathers, sons, and baseball that tells the story Molina's family and specifically his late father, Benjamin Molina Santana, who rose from poverty in Puerto Rico and worked in a factory for thirty years while coaching his three sons (Bengie, Jose, and Yadier) into the major leagues, where they became the first three brothers in history to all win World Series championships, written with Little Girls in Pretty Boxes author Joan Ryan, to Jofie Ferrari-Adler at Simon & Schuster, at auction, by Betsy Lerner at Dunow, Carlson & Lerner (World).
Wrap...
Wednesday, December 01, 2010
About Wikileaks...
From Secrecy News...
Sifting Through the Fallout from Wikileaks
December 1st, 2010 by Steven Aftergood
The ongoing release of U.S. diplomatic communications by the Wikileaks organization is “embarrassing” and “awkward,” said Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates yesterday, but its consequences for U.S. foreign policy are likely to be “fairly modest.”
“I’ve heard the impact of these releases on our foreign policy described as a meltdown, as a game-changer, and so on. I think those descriptions are fairly significantly overwrought. The fact is, governments deal with the United States because it’s in their interest, not because they like us, not because they trust us, and not because they believe we can keep secrets… Other nations will continue to deal with us. They will continue to work with us. We will continue to share sensitive information with one another.”
Coming from the Secretary of Defense, that measured statement should help to deflate some of the more extreme reactions to the Wikileaks action.
The Obama Administration should “use all legal means necessary to shut down Wikileaks before it can do more damage by releasing additional cables,” said Sen. Joe Lieberman on November 28.
Wikileaks leader Julian Assange should be designated an enemy combatant, suggested Rep. Steve King (R-IA) on the House floor yesterday. Then he could be “moved over to a place offshore of the United States outside of the jurisdiction of the Federal courts…, and adjudicated under a military tribunal in a fashion that was designed by this Congress and directed by this Congress. That’s what I’m hopeful that we’ll be able to do.”
Such fantastic notions probably cannot survive the judgment of the U.S. Secretary of Defense that what is at stake is “embarrassment” and “awkwardness,” not the defense of the realm.
That does not mean that the policy consequences of the latest Wikileaks release will be insignificant. Information sharing within the government is already being curtailed, and avenues of public disclosure may be adversely affected by the Wikileaks controversy. In a November 28 email message to reporters, the Pentagon spelled out several security measures that have already been implemented to restrict and monitor the dissemination of classification information in DoD networks.
“Bottom line: It is now much more difficult for a determined actor to get access to and move information outside of authorized channels,” wrote Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman.
Meanwhile, the Office of Management and Budget ordered (pdf) each agency that handles classified information to perform a security review of its procedures and to reinforce the traditional “need to know” requirements that strictly limit individual access to classified information.
“Any failure by agencies to safeguard classified information pursuant to relevant laws, including but not limited to Executive Order 13526, Classified National Security Information (December 29, 2009), is unacceptable and will not be tolerated,” the OMB memo stated.
The possibility of prosecuting Wikileaks as a criminal enterprise is reportedly under consideration, and has been publicly urged by some members of Congress and others. The feasibility of such a prosecution is uncertain, and nothing quite like it has been attempted before. The most “promising” legal avenue of attack against Wikileaks would seem to be a charge of conspiracy to violate the Espionage Act (under 18 USC 793g), based on the allegation that Wikileaks encouraged and collaborated with others in violating the terms of the Act. But these are dangerous legal waters, fraught with undesirable consequences for other publishers of controversial information.
Wrap...
Sifting Through the Fallout from Wikileaks
December 1st, 2010 by Steven Aftergood
The ongoing release of U.S. diplomatic communications by the Wikileaks organization is “embarrassing” and “awkward,” said Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates yesterday, but its consequences for U.S. foreign policy are likely to be “fairly modest.”
“I’ve heard the impact of these releases on our foreign policy described as a meltdown, as a game-changer, and so on. I think those descriptions are fairly significantly overwrought. The fact is, governments deal with the United States because it’s in their interest, not because they like us, not because they trust us, and not because they believe we can keep secrets… Other nations will continue to deal with us. They will continue to work with us. We will continue to share sensitive information with one another.”
Coming from the Secretary of Defense, that measured statement should help to deflate some of the more extreme reactions to the Wikileaks action.
The Obama Administration should “use all legal means necessary to shut down Wikileaks before it can do more damage by releasing additional cables,” said Sen. Joe Lieberman on November 28.
Wikileaks leader Julian Assange should be designated an enemy combatant, suggested Rep. Steve King (R-IA) on the House floor yesterday. Then he could be “moved over to a place offshore of the United States outside of the jurisdiction of the Federal courts…, and adjudicated under a military tribunal in a fashion that was designed by this Congress and directed by this Congress. That’s what I’m hopeful that we’ll be able to do.”
Such fantastic notions probably cannot survive the judgment of the U.S. Secretary of Defense that what is at stake is “embarrassment” and “awkwardness,” not the defense of the realm.
That does not mean that the policy consequences of the latest Wikileaks release will be insignificant. Information sharing within the government is already being curtailed, and avenues of public disclosure may be adversely affected by the Wikileaks controversy. In a November 28 email message to reporters, the Pentagon spelled out several security measures that have already been implemented to restrict and monitor the dissemination of classification information in DoD networks.
“Bottom line: It is now much more difficult for a determined actor to get access to and move information outside of authorized channels,” wrote Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman.
Meanwhile, the Office of Management and Budget ordered (pdf) each agency that handles classified information to perform a security review of its procedures and to reinforce the traditional “need to know” requirements that strictly limit individual access to classified information.
“Any failure by agencies to safeguard classified information pursuant to relevant laws, including but not limited to Executive Order 13526, Classified National Security Information (December 29, 2009), is unacceptable and will not be tolerated,” the OMB memo stated.
The possibility of prosecuting Wikileaks as a criminal enterprise is reportedly under consideration, and has been publicly urged by some members of Congress and others. The feasibility of such a prosecution is uncertain, and nothing quite like it has been attempted before. The most “promising” legal avenue of attack against Wikileaks would seem to be a charge of conspiracy to violate the Espionage Act (under 18 USC 793g), based on the allegation that Wikileaks encouraged and collaborated with others in violating the terms of the Act. But these are dangerous legal waters, fraught with undesirable consequences for other publishers of controversial information.
Wrap...
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