From Facing South:
Bills target "left-wing indoctrination" at Southern universities
Today's issue of Stateside Dispatch, a publication of the Progressive States Network, takes a critical look at conservative efforts to squelch dissent on college campuses. In the right's latest attempt to discourage viewpoints it deems politically unpalatable, the American Council of Trustees and Alumni -- an organization founded in 1995 by Dick Cheney's wife, Lynne -- is promoting what it calls "Intellectual Diversity" legislation.
Based on the concern that academics are overwhelmingly left-leaning, the legislation mandates that professors remain ideologically neutral in the classroom and creates state councils to monitor views being presented.
According to PSN, such bills have been introduced this year in 10 states, with half of those in the South: Virginia, Georgia, Mississippi, West Virginia and Louisiana. The version introduced in Virginia -- which was scaled back somewhat from the model legislation and passed the state House unanimously -- requires schools to report to the state council on higher education and the legislature on efforts to promote the free exchange of ideas.
Interestingly, at least one state that's looked into whether there are problems with the free exchange of ideas in the academy due to left-wing bias have found none. Several years ago, Pennsylvania's Republican-controlled state House created a special legislative committee to investigate whether students who hold unpopular views need protection. In November 2006, the committee issued a report that said it found no evidence of widespread problems.
The "Intellectual Diversity" legislation is based on the controversial ideas of left-wing radical-turned-right-wing radical David Horowitz, author of The Professors: The 100 Most Dangerous Academics in America, which targets professors from Southern schools including Baylor, Duke, Emory, North Carolina State, Texas A&M, University of Kentucky, University of South Florida, and the University of Texas. One of the academics Horowitz has singled out, UT-Austin Communication Studies Professor Dana Cloud, has written of the hate mail, physical threats and other harassment she's experienced as a result of being targeted by Horowitz, whose tactics she's likened to McCarthyism. She also reports how students in the Horowitz-founded Students for Academic Freedom keep a watch list and encourage the reporting of professors who exhibit "bias":
... which could mean anything from telling a Bush joke to encouraging students to think critically about gender; but NEVER means talking about capitalism in the business school or celebrating corporate culture in the advertising department ...
Wrap...
Friday, February 15, 2008
Establishment wants a Prez Bloomberg...
From TomPaine.com:
The Permanent Will
CAF STAFF
By David Sirota
February 15th, 2008 - 9:09am ET
Our media love to tell us just how much Americans are pining for an independent presidential candidacy, and specifically, just how much potential support there is for a Mike Bloomberg for President campaign. But as I show in my new nationally syndicated newspaper column out today, both assertions are fiction. That begs a simple question - one that ties into my upcoming book: Why is the Establishment so adamant about jamming a candidacy down our throat that we so clearly do not want? Why is the political elite so insistent on crushing what has become a full-fledged uprising in 2008?
The latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll shows that Bloomberg is extremely unpopular on the national stage. Gallup reports that "the American public does not appear to believe it is important or necessary for an independent candidate outside of the traditional two major parties to step into the race in order to save the nation." And America clearly isn't interested in an independent candidacy who, as Glenn Greenwald notes, holds extremist views on major issues like Iraq (sidenote: As part of my ongoing efforts to use the column to promote fellow progressives, Glenn is featured in the column).
And yet the Bloomberg bandwagon in the media continues to grow ever larger. Barely a day goes by without some fawning story speculating about Bloomberg's potential run for president - implying that he has some sort of huge mass constituency and political monopoly on so-called "competence" and "bipartisanship."
The disconnect between what Americans actually want and what the Establishment wants America to want reflects just how petrified the elite are right now. They look at both parties' potential nominees and realize that they each potentially represent some form of fundamental change - and that scares them. And so they are desperate for someone - anyone! - to suppress what Alexander Hamilton called the "popular passions" and champion the status quo's "permanent will."
To be sure, Bloomberg's egomania is driving him ever closer to jumping into the race. The Associated Press reports this week on his potential plans to get on 15 state ballots in the coming weeks. But as the media speculation around this billionaire increases, remember that the most important dynamic at play here is not the machinations of one prima donna, but the desperation of the Establishment. It is a powerful force.
http://ourfuture.org/blog-entry/permanent-will
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
The Permanent Will
CAF STAFF
By David Sirota
February 15th, 2008 - 9:09am ET
Our media love to tell us just how much Americans are pining for an independent presidential candidacy, and specifically, just how much potential support there is for a Mike Bloomberg for President campaign. But as I show in my new nationally syndicated newspaper column out today, both assertions are fiction. That begs a simple question - one that ties into my upcoming book: Why is the Establishment so adamant about jamming a candidacy down our throat that we so clearly do not want? Why is the political elite so insistent on crushing what has become a full-fledged uprising in 2008?
The latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll shows that Bloomberg is extremely unpopular on the national stage. Gallup reports that "the American public does not appear to believe it is important or necessary for an independent candidate outside of the traditional two major parties to step into the race in order to save the nation." And America clearly isn't interested in an independent candidacy who, as Glenn Greenwald notes, holds extremist views on major issues like Iraq (sidenote: As part of my ongoing efforts to use the column to promote fellow progressives, Glenn is featured in the column).
And yet the Bloomberg bandwagon in the media continues to grow ever larger. Barely a day goes by without some fawning story speculating about Bloomberg's potential run for president - implying that he has some sort of huge mass constituency and political monopoly on so-called "competence" and "bipartisanship."
The disconnect between what Americans actually want and what the Establishment wants America to want reflects just how petrified the elite are right now. They look at both parties' potential nominees and realize that they each potentially represent some form of fundamental change - and that scares them. And so they are desperate for someone - anyone! - to suppress what Alexander Hamilton called the "popular passions" and champion the status quo's "permanent will."
To be sure, Bloomberg's egomania is driving him ever closer to jumping into the race. The Associated Press reports this week on his potential plans to get on 15 state ballots in the coming weeks. But as the media speculation around this billionaire increases, remember that the most important dynamic at play here is not the machinations of one prima donna, but the desperation of the Establishment. It is a powerful force.
http://ourfuture.org/blog-entry/permanent-will
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
Kristol: War in Iraq will be good....
From truthout.org:
Jonathan Schwarz
The Lost Kristol Tapes: What the New York Times Bought
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/021508E.shtml
Political commentator Jonathan Schwarz, talking about William Kristol, says: "You loved it when Bill said invading Iraq was going to have 'terrifically good effects throughout the Middle East'? You have the original recording of him explaining the war would make us 'respected around the world' and his classic statement that there's 'almost no evidence' of Iraq experiencing Sunni-Shia conflict? Well, I've got something that will blow your mind!"
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
Jonathan Schwarz
The Lost Kristol Tapes: What the New York Times Bought
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/021508E.shtml
Political commentator Jonathan Schwarz, talking about William Kristol, says: "You loved it when Bill said invading Iraq was going to have 'terrifically good effects throughout the Middle East'? You have the original recording of him explaining the war would make us 'respected around the world' and his classic statement that there's 'almost no evidence' of Iraq experiencing Sunni-Shia conflict? Well, I've got something that will blow your mind!"
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
Thursday, February 14, 2008
From The Washington Post via truthout.org :
Eliot Spitzer Predatory Lenders' Partner in Crime
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/021408C.shtml
New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, writing in The Washington Post, says: "Even though predatory lending was becoming a national problem, the Bush administration looked the other way and did nothing to protect American homeowners.
In fact, the government chose instead to align itself with the banks that were victimizing consumers."
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
Eliot Spitzer Predatory Lenders' Partner in Crime
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/021408C.shtml
New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, writing in The Washington Post, says: "Even though predatory lending was becoming a national problem, the Bush administration looked the other way and did nothing to protect American homeowners.
In fact, the government chose instead to align itself with the banks that were victimizing consumers."
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
Blackwater to Eli Manning...books on the way....
From Publishers Lunch Weekly:
FICTION/DEBUT:
Tanya Egan Gibson's A BOOK FOR CARLEY, pitched as sharing the playful wit and precocity of SPECIAL TOPICS IN CALAMITY PHYSICS, the story of a young girl living in the insular community of Long Island's North Shore, as she struggles between her unrequited love for her best friend and burgeoning young alcoholic and her parents' decision to buy her A Love of Reading by commissioning a desperate novelist to write a book especially for Carley's 16th birthday, to Trena Keating at Dutton, by Susan Golomb at the Susan Golomb Agency (NA).
Michener graduate Brendan Short's DREAM CITY, set in Depression-era Chicago, about a young boy's obsession with comic book heroes and his life long attempt to both recapture and escape his childhood, to Kate Nitze at MacAdam/Cage, by Kim Witherspoon at Inkwell Management (NA).
SCI-FI/FANTASY:
Robert V S Redick's debut trilogy, chronicling the last voyage of a ship on its way to make peace with a foreign empire, and the conspiracy discovered aboard, starting with THE RED WOLF CONSPIRACY, to Betsy Mitchell at Del Rey, at auction, in a three-book deal, by Gollancz/Orion.
THRILLER:
Pierre Davis's SIRIUS RISING, following a Gulf War veteran and former city cop employed as the lone detective in the public safety department at a massive medical campus, in his search for a missing dog that's no ordinary lab animal, landing him at the heart of a corrupt and ambitious scheme that literally circles the globe, to Kate Miciak at Bantam Dell, by Richard Pine at Inkwell Management (NA).
Simon Lewis's BAD TRAFFIC, dubbed "an eastern Western," featuring a Chinese cop who arrives on English shores searching for his daughter -- without knowing a word of the language -- and who winds up completely dependent on a Chinese migrant worker to help him bring down a ruthless smuggling ring, to Anna deVries at Scribner, in a two-book deal, by George Lucas at Inkwell Management on behalf of Sort Of Books (NA).
GENERAL/OTHER:
Singer/songwriter and #1 NYT bestselling author Jimmy Buffett's SWINE NOT?, a colorful novel about a Southern family determined to hide their pet pig in a four-star hotel in New York City while a meat-loving chef is sharpening his carving knife downstairs, with illustrations by Helen Bransford, to Michael Pietsch at Little, Brown, by Amy Rennert at the Amy Rennert Agency.
David Allan Cates's FREEMAN WALKER, pitched as calling to mind Gould's Book of Fish by Richard Flanagan; the story of one man with an indomitable spirit, spanning the Civil War and the exploration of America's West, using the lens of one life to examine the lines between us, between us and nature, between civilization and barbarity, and the way it feels to dare to live beyond lines, to Greg Michalson at Unbridled Books, for publication in Fall 2008, by Emilie Stewart at Emilie Stewart Literary Agency (NA).
BUSINESS/INVESTING/FINANCE:
Reclusive CEO of Blackwater Worldwide Erik Prince's WE ARE BLACKWATER, an insider's account of the controversial company that has supplied bodyguards and support-and-rescue personnel to hot spots around the world, including the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq, promising to "refute criticisms of the company, and take the reader on thrilling missions into hostile territory," to Regnery.
HEALTH:
Physicians Stephanie McClellan, M.D. and Beth Hamilton, M.D.'s SO STRESSED, with Diane Reverand, revealing the science behind stress's effects on women's health, the problems stress causes in every system, and their tested, breakthrough methods for stress relief, to Leslie Meredith at Free Press, in a pre-empt, by David Vigliano and Kirsten Neuhaus at Vigliano Associates (world).
[Note: Vigliano is a good agent.]
HISTORY/POLITICS/CURRENT AFFAIRS:
Pulitzer winner for Washington's Crossing, David Hackett Fischer's CHAMPLAIN'S DREAM, about Samuel de Champlain's exploration and settlement of Quebec, to Bob Bender at Simon & Schuster, at auction, for publication in October 2008, by Scott Moyers at The Wylie Agency (US).Knopf Canada also has rights.
ILLUSTRATED/ART:
Writer Elvis Mitchell and photographer Timothy Greenfield Sanders's THE BLACK LIST, a book of portraits and interviews, in which twenty-five prominent African Americans of various professions, disciplines and backgrounds, including Toni Morrison, Chris Rock, Slash and Zane, offer their own stories and insights on the struggles, triumphs and joys of black life in this country and manage to re-define "blacklist" for a new century, to be released with the film from HBO in fall 2008, to Peter Borland at Atria, at auction, by Scott Waxman at Waxman Literary Agency.
NARRATIVE:
Columbia-Presbyterian anesthesiologist and The Underwear Drawer blogger Michelle Au's SCUTMONKEY, a meditation on life as a medical resident, wife and mother, to Emily Griffin at Grand Central, by Sharon Bowers at The Miller Agency (World).
SPORTS:
New York Daily News reporter Ralph Vacchiano's THE MAKING OF A QUARTERBACK: The Turbulent Triumph of Eli Manning and the New York Giants, to Mark Weinstein at Skyhorse, for publication in Fall 2008, by Shari Wenk at SLW Literary Agency.
Wrap...
FICTION/DEBUT:
Tanya Egan Gibson's A BOOK FOR CARLEY, pitched as sharing the playful wit and precocity of SPECIAL TOPICS IN CALAMITY PHYSICS, the story of a young girl living in the insular community of Long Island's North Shore, as she struggles between her unrequited love for her best friend and burgeoning young alcoholic and her parents' decision to buy her A Love of Reading by commissioning a desperate novelist to write a book especially for Carley's 16th birthday, to Trena Keating at Dutton, by Susan Golomb at the Susan Golomb Agency (NA).
Michener graduate Brendan Short's DREAM CITY, set in Depression-era Chicago, about a young boy's obsession with comic book heroes and his life long attempt to both recapture and escape his childhood, to Kate Nitze at MacAdam/Cage, by Kim Witherspoon at Inkwell Management (NA).
SCI-FI/FANTASY:
Robert V S Redick's debut trilogy, chronicling the last voyage of a ship on its way to make peace with a foreign empire, and the conspiracy discovered aboard, starting with THE RED WOLF CONSPIRACY, to Betsy Mitchell at Del Rey, at auction, in a three-book deal, by Gollancz/Orion.
THRILLER:
Pierre Davis's SIRIUS RISING, following a Gulf War veteran and former city cop employed as the lone detective in the public safety department at a massive medical campus, in his search for a missing dog that's no ordinary lab animal, landing him at the heart of a corrupt and ambitious scheme that literally circles the globe, to Kate Miciak at Bantam Dell, by Richard Pine at Inkwell Management (NA).
Simon Lewis's BAD TRAFFIC, dubbed "an eastern Western," featuring a Chinese cop who arrives on English shores searching for his daughter -- without knowing a word of the language -- and who winds up completely dependent on a Chinese migrant worker to help him bring down a ruthless smuggling ring, to Anna deVries at Scribner, in a two-book deal, by George Lucas at Inkwell Management on behalf of Sort Of Books (NA).
GENERAL/OTHER:
Singer/songwriter and #1 NYT bestselling author Jimmy Buffett's SWINE NOT?, a colorful novel about a Southern family determined to hide their pet pig in a four-star hotel in New York City while a meat-loving chef is sharpening his carving knife downstairs, with illustrations by Helen Bransford, to Michael Pietsch at Little, Brown, by Amy Rennert at the Amy Rennert Agency.
David Allan Cates's FREEMAN WALKER, pitched as calling to mind Gould's Book of Fish by Richard Flanagan; the story of one man with an indomitable spirit, spanning the Civil War and the exploration of America's West, using the lens of one life to examine the lines between us, between us and nature, between civilization and barbarity, and the way it feels to dare to live beyond lines, to Greg Michalson at Unbridled Books, for publication in Fall 2008, by Emilie Stewart at Emilie Stewart Literary Agency (NA).
BUSINESS/INVESTING/FINANCE:
Reclusive CEO of Blackwater Worldwide Erik Prince's WE ARE BLACKWATER, an insider's account of the controversial company that has supplied bodyguards and support-and-rescue personnel to hot spots around the world, including the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq, promising to "refute criticisms of the company, and take the reader on thrilling missions into hostile territory," to Regnery.
HEALTH:
Physicians Stephanie McClellan, M.D. and Beth Hamilton, M.D.'s SO STRESSED, with Diane Reverand, revealing the science behind stress's effects on women's health, the problems stress causes in every system, and their tested, breakthrough methods for stress relief, to Leslie Meredith at Free Press, in a pre-empt, by David Vigliano and Kirsten Neuhaus at Vigliano Associates (world).
[Note: Vigliano is a good agent.]
HISTORY/POLITICS/CURRENT AFFAIRS:
Pulitzer winner for Washington's Crossing, David Hackett Fischer's CHAMPLAIN'S DREAM, about Samuel de Champlain's exploration and settlement of Quebec, to Bob Bender at Simon & Schuster, at auction, for publication in October 2008, by Scott Moyers at The Wylie Agency (US).Knopf Canada also has rights.
ILLUSTRATED/ART:
Writer Elvis Mitchell and photographer Timothy Greenfield Sanders's THE BLACK LIST, a book of portraits and interviews, in which twenty-five prominent African Americans of various professions, disciplines and backgrounds, including Toni Morrison, Chris Rock, Slash and Zane, offer their own stories and insights on the struggles, triumphs and joys of black life in this country and manage to re-define "blacklist" for a new century, to be released with the film from HBO in fall 2008, to Peter Borland at Atria, at auction, by Scott Waxman at Waxman Literary Agency.
NARRATIVE:
Columbia-Presbyterian anesthesiologist and The Underwear Drawer blogger Michelle Au's SCUTMONKEY, a meditation on life as a medical resident, wife and mother, to Emily Griffin at Grand Central, by Sharon Bowers at The Miller Agency (World).
SPORTS:
New York Daily News reporter Ralph Vacchiano's THE MAKING OF A QUARTERBACK: The Turbulent Triumph of Eli Manning and the New York Giants, to Mark Weinstein at Skyhorse, for publication in Fall 2008, by Shari Wenk at SLW Literary Agency.
Wrap...
Counting California's ballots...and counting and counting...
From the Sacramento Bee via email:
1 million votes still untallied in California
By Dorothy Korber - dkorber@sacbee.com
Last Updated 6:07 am PST Thursday, February 14, 2008
Story appeared in MAIN NEWS section, Page A22
Leticia Valdez, 19, processes mailed-in ballots for counting Wednesday at the Sacramento County elections office. One of 100 temporary workers brought in for the count, Valdez said she was surprised at how rigorous the process is. "I didn't know there were so many steps," she said. "I figured we marked a ballot, it went through a machine, and that was it."
Super Tuesday seems long gone as the nation turns its hungry eyes to the next round of presidential primaries – but for nearly a million Californians, the votes they cast in the presidential primary are yet to be counted.
This mountain of absentee and provisional ballots – 960,000 of them by one estimate – equals the total number of Democratic votes cast in Virginia this week and far exceeds Maryland and the District of Columbia.
"In California, we're sitting on almost a million votes still to be tallied – and meanwhile the pundits are going on and on about states that don't have a million votes, total," said Steve Weir, who keeps a running tally of "unprocessed ballots" in his role as president of the California Association of Clerks and Election Officials.
California's slow count is the product of a couple of factors: the state's growing love affair with absentee ballots paired with a high-voltage primary that drew inexperienced voters who were enthusiastic but sometimes careless.
In Sacramento County, 90,000 ballots remain unprocessed, while 277,000 had been counted as of Wednesday afternoon.
Los Angeles County has 200,000 unprocessed ballots – and that's not counting the 50,000 presidential votes it discarded because a quarter of the decline-to-state voters improperly marked the county's ballots.
Statewide, Weir said, most of the uncounted votes – about 600,000 – are absentee ballots turned in on election day. Still to be vetted, he reckons, are 400,000 provisional ballots, which typically are valid about 85 percent of the time.
He estimates 10,000 more uncounted ballots are damaged: shredded in the mail, mutilated in vote-counting machines, or gummed up by sloppy voters who dribbled coffee or ketchup on their absentee ballots. Election workers must pry them open, try to figure out the voter's intention, and then create a fresh ballot to feed into the machine.
No matter the obstacle, they're looking at a deadline of March 4 to have the results of the more than 7.1 million ballots cast in the state's presidential primary to California's secretary of state.
A question almost as big as the pile of ballots is what difference they might make in the national presidential race.
"It's not over till all the votes are counted," said Robert Stern, head of the nonpartisan Center for Governmental Studies based in Los Angeles. "To have a million votes not counted a week after the election is extraordinary, especially in an election when people wanted so much for their vote to count."
Stern has been keeping a sharp eye on the evolving situation in California. In the great hunt for Democratic Party delegates, he figures, all those uncounted California ballots probably will translate into a mere handful of the state's 370 delegates that are pledged to primary results – seven at most, in districts that were close to begin with (none of them in the Sacramento region).
But, with Hillary Rodham Clinton (who garnered 2.3 million votes in California) and Barack Obama (with 1.9 million votes) still battling for their party's nomination, every delegate is hard-fought. On Wednesday, the Associated Press calculated that Obama's delegate total stands at 1,275 to Clinton's 1,220.
Stern believes the uncounted votes won't change results for state propositions. Nor will they affect Republican primary results in California, since Mitt Romney's decision to drop out made John McCain the clear winner.
The national political scene is fluid and exciting, but down in the trenches, California election workers are slogging through a herculean task.
At Sacramento County election headquarters Wednesday, dozens of workers diligently dealt with the details: checking and double-checking signatures on absentee envelopes, validating write-in candidates (few were valid), deciphering mutilated ballots and carefully substituting clean ones.
Every ballot sent to a precinct must be accounted for. Even the empty absentee ballot envelopes – more than 80,000 of them – are documented, filed and saved for at least 22 months.
Nineteen-year-old Leticia Valdez sat at a big table, patiently checking mailed-in ballots to make sure precinct numbers were recorded correctly. She sorted out damaged ballots, including those with stray pen marks. She put write-ins in a separate pile, to be checked by teams of other workers.
Valdez, one of 100 temporary workers brought in for the count, said she was surprised to learn how rigorous this process is.
"I didn't know there were so many steps," she said. "I figured we marked a ballot, it went through a machine, and that was it."
Wrap...
1 million votes still untallied in California
By Dorothy Korber - dkorber@sacbee.com
Last Updated 6:07 am PST Thursday, February 14, 2008
Story appeared in MAIN NEWS section, Page A22
Leticia Valdez, 19, processes mailed-in ballots for counting Wednesday at the Sacramento County elections office. One of 100 temporary workers brought in for the count, Valdez said she was surprised at how rigorous the process is. "I didn't know there were so many steps," she said. "I figured we marked a ballot, it went through a machine, and that was it."
Super Tuesday seems long gone as the nation turns its hungry eyes to the next round of presidential primaries – but for nearly a million Californians, the votes they cast in the presidential primary are yet to be counted.
This mountain of absentee and provisional ballots – 960,000 of them by one estimate – equals the total number of Democratic votes cast in Virginia this week and far exceeds Maryland and the District of Columbia.
"In California, we're sitting on almost a million votes still to be tallied – and meanwhile the pundits are going on and on about states that don't have a million votes, total," said Steve Weir, who keeps a running tally of "unprocessed ballots" in his role as president of the California Association of Clerks and Election Officials.
California's slow count is the product of a couple of factors: the state's growing love affair with absentee ballots paired with a high-voltage primary that drew inexperienced voters who were enthusiastic but sometimes careless.
In Sacramento County, 90,000 ballots remain unprocessed, while 277,000 had been counted as of Wednesday afternoon.
Los Angeles County has 200,000 unprocessed ballots – and that's not counting the 50,000 presidential votes it discarded because a quarter of the decline-to-state voters improperly marked the county's ballots.
Statewide, Weir said, most of the uncounted votes – about 600,000 – are absentee ballots turned in on election day. Still to be vetted, he reckons, are 400,000 provisional ballots, which typically are valid about 85 percent of the time.
He estimates 10,000 more uncounted ballots are damaged: shredded in the mail, mutilated in vote-counting machines, or gummed up by sloppy voters who dribbled coffee or ketchup on their absentee ballots. Election workers must pry them open, try to figure out the voter's intention, and then create a fresh ballot to feed into the machine.
No matter the obstacle, they're looking at a deadline of March 4 to have the results of the more than 7.1 million ballots cast in the state's presidential primary to California's secretary of state.
A question almost as big as the pile of ballots is what difference they might make in the national presidential race.
"It's not over till all the votes are counted," said Robert Stern, head of the nonpartisan Center for Governmental Studies based in Los Angeles. "To have a million votes not counted a week after the election is extraordinary, especially in an election when people wanted so much for their vote to count."
Stern has been keeping a sharp eye on the evolving situation in California. In the great hunt for Democratic Party delegates, he figures, all those uncounted California ballots probably will translate into a mere handful of the state's 370 delegates that are pledged to primary results – seven at most, in districts that were close to begin with (none of them in the Sacramento region).
But, with Hillary Rodham Clinton (who garnered 2.3 million votes in California) and Barack Obama (with 1.9 million votes) still battling for their party's nomination, every delegate is hard-fought. On Wednesday, the Associated Press calculated that Obama's delegate total stands at 1,275 to Clinton's 1,220.
Stern believes the uncounted votes won't change results for state propositions. Nor will they affect Republican primary results in California, since Mitt Romney's decision to drop out made John McCain the clear winner.
The national political scene is fluid and exciting, but down in the trenches, California election workers are slogging through a herculean task.
At Sacramento County election headquarters Wednesday, dozens of workers diligently dealt with the details: checking and double-checking signatures on absentee envelopes, validating write-in candidates (few were valid), deciphering mutilated ballots and carefully substituting clean ones.
Every ballot sent to a precinct must be accounted for. Even the empty absentee ballot envelopes – more than 80,000 of them – are documented, filed and saved for at least 22 months.
Nineteen-year-old Leticia Valdez sat at a big table, patiently checking mailed-in ballots to make sure precinct numbers were recorded correctly. She sorted out damaged ballots, including those with stray pen marks. She put write-ins in a separate pile, to be checked by teams of other workers.
Valdez, one of 100 temporary workers brought in for the count, said she was surprised to learn how rigorous this process is.
"I didn't know there were so many steps," she said. "I figured we marked a ballot, it went through a machine, and that was it."
Wrap...
Clinton...losing to Obama...
From AP via Political Wire:
The Associated Press reports that "top Democrats, including some inside Hillary Clinton's campaign, say many party leaders -- the so-called superdelegates -- won't hesitate to ditch the former New York senator for Barack Obama if her political problems persist. Their loyalty to the first couple is built on shaky ground."
"The fear inside the Clinton camp is that Obama will win Hawaii and Wisconsin next week and head into the March 4 contests for Ohio and Texas with a 10-race winning streak. Her poll numbers will drop in Texas and Ohio, Clinton aides fear, and party leaders will start hankering for an end to the fight."
Possible last ditch strategy: "Two senior Clinton advisers, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the race candidly, said the campaign feels the New York senator needs to quickly change the dynamic by forcing Obama into a poor debate performance, going negative or encouraging the media to attack Obama.
They're grasping at straws, but the advisers said they can't see any other way that her campaign will be sustainable after losing 10 in a row."
Wrap...
The Associated Press reports that "top Democrats, including some inside Hillary Clinton's campaign, say many party leaders -- the so-called superdelegates -- won't hesitate to ditch the former New York senator for Barack Obama if her political problems persist. Their loyalty to the first couple is built on shaky ground."
"The fear inside the Clinton camp is that Obama will win Hawaii and Wisconsin next week and head into the March 4 contests for Ohio and Texas with a 10-race winning streak. Her poll numbers will drop in Texas and Ohio, Clinton aides fear, and party leaders will start hankering for an end to the fight."
Possible last ditch strategy: "Two senior Clinton advisers, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the race candidly, said the campaign feels the New York senator needs to quickly change the dynamic by forcing Obama into a poor debate performance, going negative or encouraging the media to attack Obama.
They're grasping at straws, but the advisers said they can't see any other way that her campaign will be sustainable after losing 10 in a row."
Wrap...
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
So now produce a fair trial....
From The Washington Post via truthout.org:
Rules for Lawyers of Detainees Are Called Onerous
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/021308M.shtml
Josh White, Walter Pincus and Julie Tate report for The Washington Post:
"The cadre of civilian lawyers representing terrorism suspects held by the military at Guantanamo Bay are not allowed to meet their clients in private, without video surveillance.
All their mail and notes must be turned over to the military.
Classified information cannot be shared with their clients.
They are not entitled to everything the government knows about their clients."
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
Rules for Lawyers of Detainees Are Called Onerous
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/021308M.shtml
Josh White, Walter Pincus and Julie Tate report for The Washington Post:
"The cadre of civilian lawyers representing terrorism suspects held by the military at Guantanamo Bay are not allowed to meet their clients in private, without video surveillance.
All their mail and notes must be turned over to the military.
Classified information cannot be shared with their clients.
They are not entitled to everything the government knows about their clients."
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
Don't mess up your website....
From Jim Hance Graphic Communications:
By Jim Hance, Graphic Designer
Choosing a color is one of the first things I consider when designing a logo, or any kind of graphic communication. The psychological effect colors have on people has been studied and documented, and it has been found that people commonly respond to colors in certain ways.
With thousands of color tints and hues to choose from, the
"exceptions to the rule" dominate. But just for fun, here are the primary colors and what authorities say they mean to people.
Yellow. Bright yellow produces feelings of warmth, energy, light, and the sun. The eye is drawn to yellow first. It is lively, cheery, and stimulating. It increases energy.
Red. Bright red is hot, passionate, bold and begs for attention. It has been shown to boost the body's metabolism and raise blood pressure. Red is empowering, motivating, energetic and dramatic. It's also best as an accent color as too much of it can be agitating.
Blue. Blue is viewed as calming, strong, intelligent, and relaxing in most cultures throughout the world. It produces feelings of tranquility and peacefulness. It is thought to connotate trust, and is regarded as therapeutic.
Violet (Purple). Purple is thought of as mysterious, royal, individual, sexy and sophisticated. It is comforting. Purple is often a favorite of artists and people considered to be less conventional. On the down side, it is the color of mourning in six Asian countries and isn't recommended in large doses for that market.
Orange. Orange is a combination of sunny yellow and bold red. It cheers and commands. It's a color enjoyed by the young and is commonly used to show affordability to the consumer. It is enthusiastic, good natured and joyous. It has been shown to stimulate the appetite.
Green. Green can be both fresh and clean or it can represent nature, environment and ecology. Green balances, refreshes and normalizes. It is one of the colors favored by the trend-setter market. Yellow-green is favored by youth but not adults.
Note: Jim Hance is one of San Diego's best graphic designers. To see his website, go to:
www.wowpromotions.com
Wrap...
By Jim Hance, Graphic Designer
Choosing a color is one of the first things I consider when designing a logo, or any kind of graphic communication. The psychological effect colors have on people has been studied and documented, and it has been found that people commonly respond to colors in certain ways.
With thousands of color tints and hues to choose from, the
"exceptions to the rule" dominate. But just for fun, here are the primary colors and what authorities say they mean to people.
Yellow. Bright yellow produces feelings of warmth, energy, light, and the sun. The eye is drawn to yellow first. It is lively, cheery, and stimulating. It increases energy.
Red. Bright red is hot, passionate, bold and begs for attention. It has been shown to boost the body's metabolism and raise blood pressure. Red is empowering, motivating, energetic and dramatic. It's also best as an accent color as too much of it can be agitating.
Blue. Blue is viewed as calming, strong, intelligent, and relaxing in most cultures throughout the world. It produces feelings of tranquility and peacefulness. It is thought to connotate trust, and is regarded as therapeutic.
Violet (Purple). Purple is thought of as mysterious, royal, individual, sexy and sophisticated. It is comforting. Purple is often a favorite of artists and people considered to be less conventional. On the down side, it is the color of mourning in six Asian countries and isn't recommended in large doses for that market.
Orange. Orange is a combination of sunny yellow and bold red. It cheers and commands. It's a color enjoyed by the young and is commonly used to show affordability to the consumer. It is enthusiastic, good natured and joyous. It has been shown to stimulate the appetite.
Green. Green can be both fresh and clean or it can represent nature, environment and ecology. Green balances, refreshes and normalizes. It is one of the colors favored by the trend-setter market. Yellow-green is favored by youth but not adults.
Note: Jim Hance is one of San Diego's best graphic designers. To see his website, go to:
www.wowpromotions.com
Wrap...
That is a war crime says DOD...
From Secrecy News:
DOD ON DETAINEE OPERATIONS
The Department of Defense has released the final version of its controversial doctrine on "detainee operations," which defines the class of unlawful enemy combatants and prescribes their treatment."
US forces must be prepared to properly control, maintain, protect, and account for all categories of detainees in accordance with applicable domestic law, international law, and policy," the new publication explains.
Among the categories of detainees are those designated as "unlawful enemy combatants" who, the DoD states, do not enjoy the ordinary protections of lawful combatants. "Unlawful ECs are persons not entitled to combatant immunity, who engage in acts against the United States or its coalition partners in violation of the laws and customs of war during an armed conflict or who support such acts.
For purposes of the war on terrorism, the term unlawful EC is defined to include, but is not limited to, an individual who is or was part of or supporting Taliban or al Qaeda forces or associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners. "At the same time, however, even unlawful enemy combatants must be treated humanely, the document says, and to do otherwise is a war crime."
Common Article 3 to the Geneva Conventions of 1949, as construed and applied by US law, establishes minimum standards for the humane treatment of all persons detained by the United States and coalition and allied forces. It is a war crime to undercut or violate these standards.
Common Article 3 prohibits at any time and in any place: 'violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture; taking of hostages; outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment; the passing of sentences and the carrying out of executions without previous judgment pronounced by a regularly constituted court, affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples'."
See "Detainee Operations," Joint Publication JP 3-63, February 6, 2008: http://www.fas.org/irp/doddir/dod/jp3_63.pdf
Wrap...
DOD ON DETAINEE OPERATIONS
The Department of Defense has released the final version of its controversial doctrine on "detainee operations," which defines the class of unlawful enemy combatants and prescribes their treatment."
US forces must be prepared to properly control, maintain, protect, and account for all categories of detainees in accordance with applicable domestic law, international law, and policy," the new publication explains.
Among the categories of detainees are those designated as "unlawful enemy combatants" who, the DoD states, do not enjoy the ordinary protections of lawful combatants. "Unlawful ECs are persons not entitled to combatant immunity, who engage in acts against the United States or its coalition partners in violation of the laws and customs of war during an armed conflict or who support such acts.
For purposes of the war on terrorism, the term unlawful EC is defined to include, but is not limited to, an individual who is or was part of or supporting Taliban or al Qaeda forces or associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners. "At the same time, however, even unlawful enemy combatants must be treated humanely, the document says, and to do otherwise is a war crime."
Common Article 3 to the Geneva Conventions of 1949, as construed and applied by US law, establishes minimum standards for the humane treatment of all persons detained by the United States and coalition and allied forces. It is a war crime to undercut or violate these standards.
Common Article 3 prohibits at any time and in any place: 'violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture; taking of hostages; outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment; the passing of sentences and the carrying out of executions without previous judgment pronounced by a regularly constituted court, affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples'."
See "Detainee Operations," Joint Publication JP 3-63, February 6, 2008: http://www.fas.org/irp/doddir/dod/jp3_63.pdf
Wrap...
No justice here....
From The New York Times via truthout.org:
The New York Times
Unnecessary Harm
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/021308D.shtml
The New York Times's editorial team comments: "The Bush administration's decision to put six detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on trial before military tribunals and to seek the death penalty is both a betrayal of American ideals and simply bad strategy.
Instead of being what they could and should be - a model of justice dispensed impartially, surely and dispassionately - the trials will proceed under deeply flawed procedures that violate this country's basic fairness. The intense negative attention they will receive will do enormous damage to what is left of America's standing in world opinion."
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
The New York Times
Unnecessary Harm
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/021308D.shtml
The New York Times's editorial team comments: "The Bush administration's decision to put six detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on trial before military tribunals and to seek the death penalty is both a betrayal of American ideals and simply bad strategy.
Instead of being what they could and should be - a model of justice dispensed impartially, surely and dispassionately - the trials will proceed under deeply flawed procedures that violate this country's basic fairness. The intense negative attention they will receive will do enormous damage to what is left of America's standing in world opinion."
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
Obama: Angry about NAFTA .....
From David Sirota via email:
http://www.credoaction.com/sirota/2008/02/smart_move_barack_obama_goes_p.html
Smart Move: Obama Goes Populist In the Home Stretch
By David Sirota
Credo Action, 2/13/08
In my nationally syndicated newspaper column last week entitled "TheDemocrats' Class War," I outlined some of the difficult terrain Barack Obama has in trying to both court working-class voters and avoid the media's racist characterization of power-challenging African-American leaders as race-centric radicals. This is a very,very difficult thing to do, and I sympathize with Obama in moving carefully up to this point.
But with the next round of states over representing for the constituencies Obama has done most poorly among - working-classwhites and Latinos - he knows he has to try to thread the needle. He has to try to offer up more full-throated, class-based populism. And indeed, that's what he's doing.
In his victory speech last night, Obama hammered the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), previewing a major economic speech today. Here are some excerpts of that speech:
"It's a Washington where decades of trade deals like NAFTA and China have been signed with plenty of protections for corporations and their profits, but none for our environment or our workers who've seen factories shut their doors and millions of jobs disappear; workers whose right to organize and unionize has been under assault for the last eight years...So today, I'm laying out a comprehensive agenda to reclaim our dream and restore our prosperity. It's an agenda that focuses on three broad economic challenges that the next President must address - the current housing crisis; the cost crisis facing the middle-class and those struggling to join it; and the need to create millions of good jobs right here in America- jobs that can't be outsourced and won't disappear. For our economy, our safety, and our workers, we have to rebuild America.
I'm proposing a National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank that will invest $60 billion over ten years. This investment will multiply into almost half a trillion dollars of additional infrastructure spending and generate nearly two million new jobs -many of them in the construction industry that's been hard hit by this housing crisis. The repairs will be determined not by politics, but by what will maximize our safety and homeland security; what will keep our environment clean and our economy strong. And we'll fund this bank by ending this war in Iraq.
It's time to stop spending billions of dollars a week trying to put Iraq back together and start spending the money on putting America back together instead...It's also time to look to the future and figure out how to make trade work for American workers. I won't stand here and tell you that we can- or should - stop free trade. We can't stop every job from going overseas. But I also won't stand here and accept an America where we do nothing to help American workers who have lost jobs and opportunities because of these trade agreements. And that's a position of mine that doesn't change based on who I'm talking to or the election I'm running in.
You know, in the years after her husband signed NAFTA, Senator Clinton would go around talking about how great it was and how many benefits it would bring. Now that she's running for President, she says we need a time-out on trade. No one knows when this time-out will end. Maybe after the election. I don't know about a time-out, but I do know this - when I am President, I will not sign another trade agreement unless it has protections for our environment and protections for American workers. And I'll pass the Patriot Employer Act that I've been fighting forever since I ran for the Senate - we will end the tax breaks for companies who ship our jobs overseas, and we will give those breaks to companies who create good jobs with decent wages right here in America."
This is really terrific stuff, and I say that as someone who has been critical of Obama in the past for his timidity on issues like trade -issues that make the Establishment particularly uncomfortable. Politically, the benefits to Obama of voicing a populist message on trade are obvious. Recent polls in the Wall Street Journal and Fortune Magazine show that Americans are overwhelmingly opposed to America's current lobbyist-written trade policy. While this trade policy may be popular on K Street, it ain't popular on Main Street.
And as it relates to Obama's message of reconfiguring the political map and attracting Republican voters, a populist line on trade is perhaps the single most powerful tool to do just that. A post-2006 election poll for the Democracy Corps and Campaign for America's Future showed that among Republican voters who considered voting Democratic that year, the GOP's support for unfair trade deals was the top reason they considered switching. While Clinton is now on record saying many "red states" Obama won are unimportant because they supposedly can't be won by a Democrat on election day, these numbers suggest a populist message on trade against a "free" trader like John McCain (R) could profoundly change the map.
Substantively, though Obama certainly hasn't been as aggressive as many would like on trade, it's fair to say he understands the real-world impact of this issue. This is a person who represents Illinois and who talks about working in the shadows of shuttered steel mills.
With the departure of John Edwards, Obama is a candidate whose top economic adviser, Austan Goolsbee, is the only remaining top presidential economic guru who acknowledges that our current trade deals are horrifying - rather than wonderful. And though we've seen people like Bill Clinton promise as candidates to get tough on trade and then as president do exactly the opposite, this is a different candidate in a different era - with a much more angry public.
Sure, there's some opportunism here. Obama is likely trying to walk down the path John Edwards first courageously blazed in this race. He is looking out at the next cluster of primary states and knows that these are the ones that have been hit hard by NAFTA and other rigged trade deals. He looks at Ohio and sees Sen. Sherrod Brown (D) - a man who was elected in 2006 based largely on his opposition to our current trade policy. He also sees the New York Times report that former President Bill Clinton is going to be campaigning in Ohio - and knows that the best way to make that boomerang against his opponent is to remind Ohio voters that it was Bill and Hillary Clinton who jammed NAFTA down the Buckeye State's throat.
But opportunism isn't bad. If Obama sees his opportunity in voicing a progressive, populist message on trade, then that's a good thing. That means that we have a leading presidential candidate who sees being a populist and a progressive as a major opportunity. For the progressive movement, that's what success looks like. Obama is sure to be berated by national pundits for going populist -it's precisely the kind of message that drives well-heeled Establishment propagandists across the partisan spectrum crazy.
From Joe Klein to David Broder to David Brooks, questioning the economic elite is seen as the ultimate blasphemy. As Sherrod Brown told the Nation this week, when he ran in 2006, "I got one newspaper endorsement in the state of the big nine papers." Most opposed him because he dared to challenge the economic orthodoxy that says we must have trade deals that encourage corporations to eliminate jobs, destroy the environment and exploit workers, while legislating protectionism for patents, intellectual property, copyrights and other corporate profit shields. But Brown didn't cater to elite opinion - he was talking directly to voters. If Obama can withstand the inevitable onslaught of scorn from the Punditburo, his new populism may deliver him the presidency.
Wrap...
http://www.credoaction.com/sirota/2008/02/smart_move_barack_obama_goes_p.html
Smart Move: Obama Goes Populist In the Home Stretch
By David Sirota
Credo Action, 2/13/08
In my nationally syndicated newspaper column last week entitled "TheDemocrats' Class War," I outlined some of the difficult terrain Barack Obama has in trying to both court working-class voters and avoid the media's racist characterization of power-challenging African-American leaders as race-centric radicals. This is a very,very difficult thing to do, and I sympathize with Obama in moving carefully up to this point.
But with the next round of states over representing for the constituencies Obama has done most poorly among - working-classwhites and Latinos - he knows he has to try to thread the needle. He has to try to offer up more full-throated, class-based populism. And indeed, that's what he's doing.
In his victory speech last night, Obama hammered the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), previewing a major economic speech today. Here are some excerpts of that speech:
"It's a Washington where decades of trade deals like NAFTA and China have been signed with plenty of protections for corporations and their profits, but none for our environment or our workers who've seen factories shut their doors and millions of jobs disappear; workers whose right to organize and unionize has been under assault for the last eight years...So today, I'm laying out a comprehensive agenda to reclaim our dream and restore our prosperity. It's an agenda that focuses on three broad economic challenges that the next President must address - the current housing crisis; the cost crisis facing the middle-class and those struggling to join it; and the need to create millions of good jobs right here in America- jobs that can't be outsourced and won't disappear. For our economy, our safety, and our workers, we have to rebuild America.
I'm proposing a National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank that will invest $60 billion over ten years. This investment will multiply into almost half a trillion dollars of additional infrastructure spending and generate nearly two million new jobs -many of them in the construction industry that's been hard hit by this housing crisis. The repairs will be determined not by politics, but by what will maximize our safety and homeland security; what will keep our environment clean and our economy strong. And we'll fund this bank by ending this war in Iraq.
It's time to stop spending billions of dollars a week trying to put Iraq back together and start spending the money on putting America back together instead...It's also time to look to the future and figure out how to make trade work for American workers. I won't stand here and tell you that we can- or should - stop free trade. We can't stop every job from going overseas. But I also won't stand here and accept an America where we do nothing to help American workers who have lost jobs and opportunities because of these trade agreements. And that's a position of mine that doesn't change based on who I'm talking to or the election I'm running in.
You know, in the years after her husband signed NAFTA, Senator Clinton would go around talking about how great it was and how many benefits it would bring. Now that she's running for President, she says we need a time-out on trade. No one knows when this time-out will end. Maybe after the election. I don't know about a time-out, but I do know this - when I am President, I will not sign another trade agreement unless it has protections for our environment and protections for American workers. And I'll pass the Patriot Employer Act that I've been fighting forever since I ran for the Senate - we will end the tax breaks for companies who ship our jobs overseas, and we will give those breaks to companies who create good jobs with decent wages right here in America."
This is really terrific stuff, and I say that as someone who has been critical of Obama in the past for his timidity on issues like trade -issues that make the Establishment particularly uncomfortable. Politically, the benefits to Obama of voicing a populist message on trade are obvious. Recent polls in the Wall Street Journal and Fortune Magazine show that Americans are overwhelmingly opposed to America's current lobbyist-written trade policy. While this trade policy may be popular on K Street, it ain't popular on Main Street.
And as it relates to Obama's message of reconfiguring the political map and attracting Republican voters, a populist line on trade is perhaps the single most powerful tool to do just that. A post-2006 election poll for the Democracy Corps and Campaign for America's Future showed that among Republican voters who considered voting Democratic that year, the GOP's support for unfair trade deals was the top reason they considered switching. While Clinton is now on record saying many "red states" Obama won are unimportant because they supposedly can't be won by a Democrat on election day, these numbers suggest a populist message on trade against a "free" trader like John McCain (R) could profoundly change the map.
Substantively, though Obama certainly hasn't been as aggressive as many would like on trade, it's fair to say he understands the real-world impact of this issue. This is a person who represents Illinois and who talks about working in the shadows of shuttered steel mills.
With the departure of John Edwards, Obama is a candidate whose top economic adviser, Austan Goolsbee, is the only remaining top presidential economic guru who acknowledges that our current trade deals are horrifying - rather than wonderful. And though we've seen people like Bill Clinton promise as candidates to get tough on trade and then as president do exactly the opposite, this is a different candidate in a different era - with a much more angry public.
Sure, there's some opportunism here. Obama is likely trying to walk down the path John Edwards first courageously blazed in this race. He is looking out at the next cluster of primary states and knows that these are the ones that have been hit hard by NAFTA and other rigged trade deals. He looks at Ohio and sees Sen. Sherrod Brown (D) - a man who was elected in 2006 based largely on his opposition to our current trade policy. He also sees the New York Times report that former President Bill Clinton is going to be campaigning in Ohio - and knows that the best way to make that boomerang against his opponent is to remind Ohio voters that it was Bill and Hillary Clinton who jammed NAFTA down the Buckeye State's throat.
But opportunism isn't bad. If Obama sees his opportunity in voicing a progressive, populist message on trade, then that's a good thing. That means that we have a leading presidential candidate who sees being a populist and a progressive as a major opportunity. For the progressive movement, that's what success looks like. Obama is sure to be berated by national pundits for going populist -it's precisely the kind of message that drives well-heeled Establishment propagandists across the partisan spectrum crazy.
From Joe Klein to David Broder to David Brooks, questioning the economic elite is seen as the ultimate blasphemy. As Sherrod Brown told the Nation this week, when he ran in 2006, "I got one newspaper endorsement in the state of the big nine papers." Most opposed him because he dared to challenge the economic orthodoxy that says we must have trade deals that encourage corporations to eliminate jobs, destroy the environment and exploit workers, while legislating protectionism for patents, intellectual property, copyrights and other corporate profit shields. But Brown didn't cater to elite opinion - he was talking directly to voters. If Obama can withstand the inevitable onslaught of scorn from the Punditburo, his new populism may deliver him the presidency.
Wrap...
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
From veterans to Sen Byrd's "Make way for Liberty!"
From American Progress:
Think Fast...
A Department of Veterans Affairs analysis finds that "National Guard and Reserve troops who have fought in Iraq and Afghanistan make up more than half of veterans who committed suicide after returning home from those wars." In 2006, the Army's suicide rate was 17.3 per 100,000 troops, "the highest level in 26 years of record-keeping."
According to a Rand Corp. report, the U.S. military is seriously deficient in meeting "the threat of Islamist insurgencies." The report states that "U.S. military intervention and occupation in the Muslim world" is "at best inadequate, at worst counter-productive, and, on the whole, infeasible."
"As home prices fall and banks tighten lending standards, people with good, or prime, credit histories are falling behind on their payments for home loans, auto loans and credit cards at a quickening pace, according to industry data and economists."
Six major U.S. banks -- Bank of America, Citigroup, Countrywide Financial, JP Morgan Chase, Washington Mutual, and Wells Fargo -- have announced that they will be taking part in "Project Lifeline," which will give homeowners an extra 30 days to renegotiate their mortgage payments.
Two CBS journalists have gone missing in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, the network said in statement yesterday. Iraqi police say "the abductees were a reporter and a translator, and that they were taken away in what appeared to be official police vehicles." "All efforts are under way to find them," said CBS in a statement.
Former Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH), who went to jail in 2007 for corruption charges connected to Jack Abramoff, "may soon be moved from his federal prison in Morgantown, W.Va., to a 'halfway house,'" according to his attorney. "Ney's overall projected release date is Aug. 16, 2008."
Due to a backlog of immigration cases, "the Bush administration will grant permanent residency to tens of thousands of legal U.S. immigrants without first completing required background checks against the FBI's investigative files." Only immigrants "whose cases are otherwise complete but whose FBI checks have been pending for more than six months" will be affected.
The king penguin, which "rebounded from near-extinction over the last century, could be wiped out in coming decades due to global warming."
And finally: Don't get in the way of Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV). Last week, the 90-year old senator "made quite a scene" as he "made his way from the Senate Chamber to the elevators after a vote." Walking with "two canes and an entourage of staffers," Byrd yelled, "Make way for liberty!" Roll Call reports, "With that, the elevator doors opened, and 'liberty' disappeared."
Wrap...
Think Fast...
A Department of Veterans Affairs analysis finds that "National Guard and Reserve troops who have fought in Iraq and Afghanistan make up more than half of veterans who committed suicide after returning home from those wars." In 2006, the Army's suicide rate was 17.3 per 100,000 troops, "the highest level in 26 years of record-keeping."
According to a Rand Corp. report, the U.S. military is seriously deficient in meeting "the threat of Islamist insurgencies." The report states that "U.S. military intervention and occupation in the Muslim world" is "at best inadequate, at worst counter-productive, and, on the whole, infeasible."
"As home prices fall and banks tighten lending standards, people with good, or prime, credit histories are falling behind on their payments for home loans, auto loans and credit cards at a quickening pace, according to industry data and economists."
Six major U.S. banks -- Bank of America, Citigroup, Countrywide Financial, JP Morgan Chase, Washington Mutual, and Wells Fargo -- have announced that they will be taking part in "Project Lifeline," which will give homeowners an extra 30 days to renegotiate their mortgage payments.
Two CBS journalists have gone missing in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, the network said in statement yesterday. Iraqi police say "the abductees were a reporter and a translator, and that they were taken away in what appeared to be official police vehicles." "All efforts are under way to find them," said CBS in a statement.
Former Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH), who went to jail in 2007 for corruption charges connected to Jack Abramoff, "may soon be moved from his federal prison in Morgantown, W.Va., to a 'halfway house,'" according to his attorney. "Ney's overall projected release date is Aug. 16, 2008."
Due to a backlog of immigration cases, "the Bush administration will grant permanent residency to tens of thousands of legal U.S. immigrants without first completing required background checks against the FBI's investigative files." Only immigrants "whose cases are otherwise complete but whose FBI checks have been pending for more than six months" will be affected.
The king penguin, which "rebounded from near-extinction over the last century, could be wiped out in coming decades due to global warming."
And finally: Don't get in the way of Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV). Last week, the 90-year old senator "made quite a scene" as he "made his way from the Senate Chamber to the elevators after a vote." Walking with "two canes and an entourage of staffers," Byrd yelled, "Make way for liberty!" Roll Call reports, "With that, the elevator doors opened, and 'liberty' disappeared."
Wrap...
Clinton, Obama Interviews...
From ABC.com :
Clinton Accuses Obama of Cutting Deals With Contributor
Democratic Rivals Throw Elbows in Separate Washington TV Interviews
On the issue of superdelegates and the possibility that party insiders might determine the Democratic nominee if pledged delegates end up split after the voting ends, Obama cautioned that the Democratic Party should follow the will of the voters. "We've got to make sure that whomever wins the most votes, the most states, the most delegate, that they are the nominee. I think it would be problematic if either Senator Clinton or myself came in with having won the most support from voters and that was somehow overturned by party insiders," he said.
Obama attributed the huge disparity between him and Clinton among Hispanic voters to a lack of information, refusing to acknowledge there's tension between blacks and Hispanics. "That's been a very damaging myth that's been perpetrated during the course of this campaign," he said. "In mayors' races, in legislature races, you've seen Latinos support African American candidates but they need to know who those candidates are."
Clinton also questioned Senator Obama's dealings with Anthony Rezko. "Our financial situation has probably been more investigated than anyone who has been in public life in America. We still don't have a lot of answers about Senator Obama and his dealings with Mr. Rezko."
Clinton and her campaign have complained in the past that they do not receive the same scrutiny as the Obama campaign does, and she reiterated this complaint Monday. "I find it unfair that we have questions going to the other side as well and I don't think that is happening; we have been on the front line of full disclosure ,we have been examined one side up and the other side down."
Clinton also pointed out that Obama has never had negative ads run against him in the past. However, Clinton herself ran negative radio ads against Obama in South Carolina.
Clinton declined to answer whether or not if she thought it was fair that the results in Michigan be counted, despite her opponent's name not being on the ballot. "Well, Leon, both Michigan and Florida should count because these are two states we have to carry; this is not about so much as the ins and outs of the Democratic National Committee as to whether the Democrats are going to win in the Fall."
In his interview, Obama said it wouldn't be fair to allocate voters based on a non-campaign.
In an unusual moment, Clinton stressed that there will be no new scandals from her husband Bill Clinton but qualified her answer, saying that there's no way to predict the future.
At the end of Clinton's interview she was asked about her affinity towards hot peppers. "I'm so glad we are finally talking about an issue that I have some first hand experience with," Clinton said, after fielding questions about various different topics. Clinton went on to explain the peppers she likes "Jalapeños, banana peppers, any kind of hot pepper, I eat them raw, I eat them cooked, I don't know if it works for everybody but it works for me."
Obama was asked if he's been successful in his effort to quit smoking. "It has been tough but that Nicorette gum sure has worked out," he said smiling.
Wrap...
Clinton Accuses Obama of Cutting Deals With Contributor
Democratic Rivals Throw Elbows in Separate Washington TV Interviews
On the issue of superdelegates and the possibility that party insiders might determine the Democratic nominee if pledged delegates end up split after the voting ends, Obama cautioned that the Democratic Party should follow the will of the voters. "We've got to make sure that whomever wins the most votes, the most states, the most delegate, that they are the nominee. I think it would be problematic if either Senator Clinton or myself came in with having won the most support from voters and that was somehow overturned by party insiders," he said.
Obama attributed the huge disparity between him and Clinton among Hispanic voters to a lack of information, refusing to acknowledge there's tension between blacks and Hispanics. "That's been a very damaging myth that's been perpetrated during the course of this campaign," he said. "In mayors' races, in legislature races, you've seen Latinos support African American candidates but they need to know who those candidates are."
Clinton also questioned Senator Obama's dealings with Anthony Rezko. "Our financial situation has probably been more investigated than anyone who has been in public life in America. We still don't have a lot of answers about Senator Obama and his dealings with Mr. Rezko."
Clinton and her campaign have complained in the past that they do not receive the same scrutiny as the Obama campaign does, and she reiterated this complaint Monday. "I find it unfair that we have questions going to the other side as well and I don't think that is happening; we have been on the front line of full disclosure ,we have been examined one side up and the other side down."
Clinton also pointed out that Obama has never had negative ads run against him in the past. However, Clinton herself ran negative radio ads against Obama in South Carolina.
Clinton declined to answer whether or not if she thought it was fair that the results in Michigan be counted, despite her opponent's name not being on the ballot. "Well, Leon, both Michigan and Florida should count because these are two states we have to carry; this is not about so much as the ins and outs of the Democratic National Committee as to whether the Democrats are going to win in the Fall."
In his interview, Obama said it wouldn't be fair to allocate voters based on a non-campaign.
In an unusual moment, Clinton stressed that there will be no new scandals from her husband Bill Clinton but qualified her answer, saying that there's no way to predict the future.
At the end of Clinton's interview she was asked about her affinity towards hot peppers. "I'm so glad we are finally talking about an issue that I have some first hand experience with," Clinton said, after fielding questions about various different topics. Clinton went on to explain the peppers she likes "Jalapeños, banana peppers, any kind of hot pepper, I eat them raw, I eat them cooked, I don't know if it works for everybody but it works for me."
Obama was asked if he's been successful in his effort to quit smoking. "It has been tough but that Nicorette gum sure has worked out," he said smiling.
Wrap...
Monday, February 11, 2008
BlackBerry phones out...really out....
BlackBerry Service Out in N. America
Last Updated:02-11-08 at 3:08PM
NEW YORK -- BlackBerry smart phones have lost service across the United States, wireless carriers said Monday.
In a statement, AT&T spokesman Fletcher Cook said the disruption is affecting all wireless carriers. Cook said the company first learned about the problem from BlackBerry maker Research in Motion about 3:30 p.m. EST.
There was no word on the cause or how widespread the outage was.
And some users reported being able to access their service Monday afternoon.
"This is not an issue with AT&T's wireless network," Cook said. "Customers could experience difficulties using their BlackBerry devices. RIM has not given us an estimated time of when this problem would be fixed."
Verizon Wireless spokeswoman Brenda Raney said RIM also confirmed the outage to the company.
Research in Motion did not immediately return a phone call.
Wrap...
Last Updated:02-11-08 at 3:08PM
NEW YORK -- BlackBerry smart phones have lost service across the United States, wireless carriers said Monday.
In a statement, AT&T spokesman Fletcher Cook said the disruption is affecting all wireless carriers. Cook said the company first learned about the problem from BlackBerry maker Research in Motion about 3:30 p.m. EST.
There was no word on the cause or how widespread the outage was.
And some users reported being able to access their service Monday afternoon.
"This is not an issue with AT&T's wireless network," Cook said. "Customers could experience difficulties using their BlackBerry devices. RIM has not given us an estimated time of when this problem would be fixed."
Verizon Wireless spokeswoman Brenda Raney said RIM also confirmed the outage to the company.
Research in Motion did not immediately return a phone call.
Wrap...
NATO military shrinking....
From The NY Times via truthout.org:
Where Have All the Soldiers Gone?
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/021108P.shtml
Geoffrey Wheatcroft reviews James J. Sheehan's "Where Have All the Soldiers Gone? The Transformation of Modern Europe," for The New York Times, writing: "At the time of the World Cup the summer before last, there was a nice cartoon in the papers by Oliphant, with two panels.
One showed 'Soccer as seen by Americans,' a group of dainty chaps prancing lightly across the grass with purses dangling from their limp wrists, and the other, 'American football as seen by Europeans,' a heap of brutally moronic humanoids using severed limbs to batter each others' brains out."
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
Where Have All the Soldiers Gone?
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/021108P.shtml
Geoffrey Wheatcroft reviews James J. Sheehan's "Where Have All the Soldiers Gone? The Transformation of Modern Europe," for The New York Times, writing: "At the time of the World Cup the summer before last, there was a nice cartoon in the papers by Oliphant, with two panels.
One showed 'Soccer as seen by Americans,' a group of dainty chaps prancing lightly across the grass with purses dangling from their limp wrists, and the other, 'American football as seen by Europeans,' a heap of brutally moronic humanoids using severed limbs to batter each others' brains out."
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
From SecDef Gates to CPAC signs....
From American Progress:
Think Fast...
In Baghdad today, Defense Secretary Robert Gates "publicly endorsed the concept of ordering a pause in troop withdrawals from Iraq this summer" after the removal of five brigades returns the number of deployed troops to pre-surge levels. "A brief period of consolidation and evaluation probably does make sense," said Gates after meeting with Gen. David Petraeus.
The Decider failed to decide. A Rand Corp. study of post-war failures in Iraq -- which the Army attempted to bury -- chided President Bush for failing to make key decisions prior to the war. "Throughout the planning process, tensions between the Defense Department and the State Department were never mediated by the president or his staff," the report said.
Vice President Cheney is trying to "block the release of video depositions by White House aides" in a lawsuit "by a man who was arrested after he allegedly touched Cheney at a Colorado shopping mall in 2006." Cheney's lawyers expressed concern that the videos could "embarrass and even humiliate" the aides if posted to YouTube.
"The media have been barred from covering" Karl Rove's speech to students at Choate Rosemary Hall, a prestigious prep school, today. Rove and the school's headmaster "decided mutually to exclude the media." Rove was originally set to speak at the school's commencement, but his speech was moved to today after student protests.
President Bush will give "Congress a fresh assessment of the troubled economy as he prepares to sign a $168 billion stimulus package into law." Yesterday, Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said the "U.S.'s economic growth rate is expected to slow in the first half of 2008, but it is likely to recover to an acceptable rate in the second quarter of the year."
Coal utilities and the Bush administration "suffered another setback with a federal appeals court decision," which "slap[ped] down the Environmental Protection Agency's decision to 'delist' mercury from a list of pollutants it is required to control at each power plant."
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez threatened to cut off oil sales to the United States in an "economic war" if Exxon Mobil Corp. wins court judgments to seize billions of dollars in Venezuelan assets.
"Despite the political minefields that surround the issue," House Democrats are drafting stopgap immigration reform legislation that would likely include "five-year visas for illegal immigrants who pay fines and pass criminal background checks."
And finally: Last week's Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) was, as always, "full of colorful characters and even more colorful posters, t-shirts and signs." The DC Examiner photographed the top 10 CPAC signs here.
Wrap...
Think Fast...
In Baghdad today, Defense Secretary Robert Gates "publicly endorsed the concept of ordering a pause in troop withdrawals from Iraq this summer" after the removal of five brigades returns the number of deployed troops to pre-surge levels. "A brief period of consolidation and evaluation probably does make sense," said Gates after meeting with Gen. David Petraeus.
The Decider failed to decide. A Rand Corp. study of post-war failures in Iraq -- which the Army attempted to bury -- chided President Bush for failing to make key decisions prior to the war. "Throughout the planning process, tensions between the Defense Department and the State Department were never mediated by the president or his staff," the report said.
Vice President Cheney is trying to "block the release of video depositions by White House aides" in a lawsuit "by a man who was arrested after he allegedly touched Cheney at a Colorado shopping mall in 2006." Cheney's lawyers expressed concern that the videos could "embarrass and even humiliate" the aides if posted to YouTube.
"The media have been barred from covering" Karl Rove's speech to students at Choate Rosemary Hall, a prestigious prep school, today. Rove and the school's headmaster "decided mutually to exclude the media." Rove was originally set to speak at the school's commencement, but his speech was moved to today after student protests.
President Bush will give "Congress a fresh assessment of the troubled economy as he prepares to sign a $168 billion stimulus package into law." Yesterday, Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said the "U.S.'s economic growth rate is expected to slow in the first half of 2008, but it is likely to recover to an acceptable rate in the second quarter of the year."
Coal utilities and the Bush administration "suffered another setback with a federal appeals court decision," which "slap[ped] down the Environmental Protection Agency's decision to 'delist' mercury from a list of pollutants it is required to control at each power plant."
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez threatened to cut off oil sales to the United States in an "economic war" if Exxon Mobil Corp. wins court judgments to seize billions of dollars in Venezuelan assets.
"Despite the political minefields that surround the issue," House Democrats are drafting stopgap immigration reform legislation that would likely include "five-year visas for illegal immigrants who pay fines and pass criminal background checks."
And finally: Last week's Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) was, as always, "full of colorful characters and even more colorful posters, t-shirts and signs." The DC Examiner photographed the top 10 CPAC signs here.
Wrap...
9/11...hashing it out...
From Secrecy News:
INSIDE THE 9/11 COMMISSION
"Senior investigators on the 9/11 Commission believed their work was being manipulated by the executive director to minimize criticism of the Bush Administration," according to a new book on the Commission. "Investigative staffers at the Commission believe [executive director] Philip Zelikow repeatedly sought to minimize the administration's intelligence failures in the months leading up to 9/11, which had the effect of helping to ensure President Bush's re-election in 2004," no less.
That is the sensational thesis of "The Commission: The Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation" by New York Times reporter Philip Shenon: http://www.thecommissionbook.com
The claim was immediately disputed by the former Commissioners and by former staff.
"The author is mistaken in his criticism of the role of Executive Director Philip Zelikow. The proper standard for judgment is the quality of the report, and there is no basis for the allegations of bias he asserts," according to a February 8 statement issued jointly by the Commissioners (except White House counsel Fred Fielding). http://www.fas.org/irp/news/2008/02/911comm.pdf
Michael Hurley, a Commission staff member who led the team on counterterrorism policy, concurred in an email message to Secrecy News.
"The Shenon book depicts Philip Zelikow as a manager who bullied the 9/11 Commission staff. He didn't bully the staff. Zelikow assembled a stellar group of independent-minded professionals, many of whom had substantial and distinguished careers in their fields. They were not the sort who could be bullied or manipulated," said Mr. Hurley, a former CIA operations officer who served in Afghanistan after September 11.
"No piece of evidence, no matter how damning to Bush, Rice, or Richard Clarke got left on the cutting room floor," he added.
Mr. Shenon's engaging book provides new details on the efforts of former national security adviser Sandy Berger to destroy documents at the National Archive; the discovery of a highly classified Memorandum of Notification authorizing the killing of Osama bin Laden that was signed by President Clinton on December 24, 1998 then modified a few months later for reasons that remain obscure; John Ashcroft's attempt to embarrass Commissioner Jamie Gorelick, which had the unintended effect of unifying the Commission; and lots of interesting, gossipy details about the internal dynamics of the Commission, some of which, as noted, have been disputed.
Last week, Mr. Shenon posted his extensive email exchanges with Mr. Zelikow on the book's web site (www.thecommissionbook.com).
Mr. Zelikow also released almost the identical material, in slightly different format and with a bit of material not included by Mr. Shenon (such as a memo sent to Walter Pincus of the Washington Post regarding a paper by Paul Pillar). The Zelikow release is here: http://www.fas.org/irp/news/2008/02/zelikow.pdf
In either version, Zelikow's detailed messages, which are neither defensive nor vindictive, tend to deflate the more breathless allegations of his critics, and add a dimension of understanding to the Commission report and its public reception.
"One of the most neglected observations in the report was in our section comparing the Millenium period (end 1999) with the 'summer of threat' in 2001," Mr. Zelikow wrote to Mr. Shenon on September 20, 2007 in a passage that was not included in the book.
"We made the point there that the main driver in all the attention in the earlier period was the massive publicity surrounding the Ressam arrest. [Ahmed Ressam was convicted of plotting to bomb Los Angeles International Airport on New Year's Eve 1999.] We contrasted that with the muffling secrecy of Summer 2001."
"Imagine what might have happened if the Moussaoui arrest had gotten the kind of publicity and extended coverage that accompanied the Ressam arrest. We had evidence from [Khalid Sheikh Mohammed] that, had he known of the Moussaoui arrest, he might have cancelled the operation," Mr.Zelikow wrote.
Wrap...
INSIDE THE 9/11 COMMISSION
"Senior investigators on the 9/11 Commission believed their work was being manipulated by the executive director to minimize criticism of the Bush Administration," according to a new book on the Commission. "Investigative staffers at the Commission believe [executive director] Philip Zelikow repeatedly sought to minimize the administration's intelligence failures in the months leading up to 9/11, which had the effect of helping to ensure President Bush's re-election in 2004," no less.
That is the sensational thesis of "The Commission: The Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation" by New York Times reporter Philip Shenon: http://www.thecommissionbook.com
The claim was immediately disputed by the former Commissioners and by former staff.
"The author is mistaken in his criticism of the role of Executive Director Philip Zelikow. The proper standard for judgment is the quality of the report, and there is no basis for the allegations of bias he asserts," according to a February 8 statement issued jointly by the Commissioners (except White House counsel Fred Fielding). http://www.fas.org/irp/news/2008/02/911comm.pdf
Michael Hurley, a Commission staff member who led the team on counterterrorism policy, concurred in an email message to Secrecy News.
"The Shenon book depicts Philip Zelikow as a manager who bullied the 9/11 Commission staff. He didn't bully the staff. Zelikow assembled a stellar group of independent-minded professionals, many of whom had substantial and distinguished careers in their fields. They were not the sort who could be bullied or manipulated," said Mr. Hurley, a former CIA operations officer who served in Afghanistan after September 11.
"No piece of evidence, no matter how damning to Bush, Rice, or Richard Clarke got left on the cutting room floor," he added.
Mr. Shenon's engaging book provides new details on the efforts of former national security adviser Sandy Berger to destroy documents at the National Archive; the discovery of a highly classified Memorandum of Notification authorizing the killing of Osama bin Laden that was signed by President Clinton on December 24, 1998 then modified a few months later for reasons that remain obscure; John Ashcroft's attempt to embarrass Commissioner Jamie Gorelick, which had the unintended effect of unifying the Commission; and lots of interesting, gossipy details about the internal dynamics of the Commission, some of which, as noted, have been disputed.
Last week, Mr. Shenon posted his extensive email exchanges with Mr. Zelikow on the book's web site (www.thecommissionbook.com).
Mr. Zelikow also released almost the identical material, in slightly different format and with a bit of material not included by Mr. Shenon (such as a memo sent to Walter Pincus of the Washington Post regarding a paper by Paul Pillar). The Zelikow release is here: http://www.fas.org/irp/news/2008/02/zelikow.pdf
In either version, Zelikow's detailed messages, which are neither defensive nor vindictive, tend to deflate the more breathless allegations of his critics, and add a dimension of understanding to the Commission report and its public reception.
"One of the most neglected observations in the report was in our section comparing the Millenium period (end 1999) with the 'summer of threat' in 2001," Mr. Zelikow wrote to Mr. Shenon on September 20, 2007 in a passage that was not included in the book.
"We made the point there that the main driver in all the attention in the earlier period was the massive publicity surrounding the Ressam arrest. [Ahmed Ressam was convicted of plotting to bomb Los Angeles International Airport on New Year's Eve 1999.] We contrasted that with the muffling secrecy of Summer 2001."
"Imagine what might have happened if the Moussaoui arrest had gotten the kind of publicity and extended coverage that accompanied the Ressam arrest. We had evidence from [Khalid Sheikh Mohammed] that, had he known of the Moussaoui arrest, he might have cancelled the operation," Mr.Zelikow wrote.
Wrap...
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Edwards' difficult choice...Obama or Clinton....
From Political Wire.com :
Edwards Ponders Endorsement
John Edwards "met secretly" with Sen. Hillary Clinton and will meet with Sen. Barack Obama about a possible endorsement, FOX News reports.
Edwards has been 'in talks' with Clinton and Barack Obama 'for weeks' about an endorsement but has not yet said who he will endorse or when he will do it...
The former North Carolina senator met with Clinton on Thursday and will meet with Obama on Monday. The campaign official described him as 'very torn' in reaching a decision about which candidate to back."
At a party last night for supporters in Chapel Hill, Edwards gave no indication of who he would prefer -- if anyone.
Wrap...
Edwards Ponders Endorsement
John Edwards "met secretly" with Sen. Hillary Clinton and will meet with Sen. Barack Obama about a possible endorsement, FOX News reports.
Edwards has been 'in talks' with Clinton and Barack Obama 'for weeks' about an endorsement but has not yet said who he will endorse or when he will do it...
The former North Carolina senator met with Clinton on Thursday and will meet with Obama on Monday. The campaign official described him as 'very torn' in reaching a decision about which candidate to back."
At a party last night for supporters in Chapel Hill, Edwards gave no indication of who he would prefer -- if anyone.
Wrap...
Clinton advisors "panic"????
From www.telegraph.co.uk:
Hillary Clinton's advisers 'in a state of panic'
By Tim Shipman in Washington and Philip Sherwell in Chicago
Last Updated: 11:53am GMT 10/02/2008
Hillary Clinton's most senior advisers are in a state of "panic" about her presidential prospects and are plotting to enlist Democrat leaders in Congress to thwart her rival Barack Obama's ambitions.
Update: Obama extends lead over Hillary Clinton
Toby Harnden: Obama "didn't take enough drugs"
Philip Sherwell: Hillary blast over 'pimped out' jibe
The Clinton camp is braced for Mr Obama to win a series of primary elections over the next three weeks, which they fear could hand the Illinois senator unstoppable momentum in the race for the White House.
Hillary Clinton has to win Texas and Ohio
Mr Obama has begun calling those "super delegates" - 795 congressmen and senior party officials who could break a dead heat - who are committed to Mrs Clinton, asking them to change their minds and help him wrap up the nomination.
As of tonight, the two candidates were neck and neck but Mr Obama appeared to be gaining momentum.
"He's saying: 'Hey, I won your state and I won your congressional district, why are you supporting her?'" a Democrat strategist revealed.
The Clinton camp hopes to stop the Obama bandwagon by winning Texas and Ohio primaries on March 4, after which Mrs Clinton is planning to call on party grandees including Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House of Representatives and Harry Reid, the party's leader in the Senate, to persuade Mr Obama to stand down.
advertisement
Clinton aides have privately admitted that Mr Obama would only consider such a move if offered the position of vice presidential running mate, something Mrs Clinton has always been reluctant to consider.
Full US Elections coverage
Trail Mix: Huckabee won't go away
A senior Democrat who has discussed Clinton campaign thinking with a member of her inner circle said: "The Clintons are in a state of panic. She has to win both Texas and Ohio."
But he added that this might prove impossible if Mr Obama maintains his momentum and wins most, or all, of the nine contests which come before that.
Mr Obama won yesterday's primary elections held in Washington state and Nebraska, and is expected to do well in Louisiana.
He is also favourite to sweep Maryland, Virginia, and Washington DC, which all vote on Tuesday, as well as Wisconsin and Hawaii, where he once lived, on February 19.
Only in Maine is Mrs Clinton confident, though Virginia and Wisconsin may also go her way.
Asked about the upcoming states, Mr Obama's chief strategist David Axelrod told The Sunday Telegraph: "We feel comfortable with them. What was once inevitable is no longer inevitable. The momentum has switched in this race.
"We closed a 20 point gap in the national polls in the last two weeks. The more people are exposed to his message, the better he does."
Liz Hunt: Hillary Clinton's discovered her F Factor
Questions over Hillary and Bill Clinton's family wealth
In pictures: Michelle Obama
Trail Mix: Chelsea Clinton "pimped out"
But he added: "We are up against the Clinton machine. We are the perpetual underdog and will be throughout this process. We're ready to go all the way to the convention."
Clinton aides believe that if Mr Obama does not deliver a knock-out blow before March 4, the advantage will swing back to her and she will argue for a deal in which uncommitted super-delegates unite behind her, to preserve party unity.
But the prospect of a deal behind closed doors, that could brush aside the views of voters in the primaries, is already creating fury in the party.
Donna Brazile, an African American strategist, said last week: "If 795 of my colleagues decide this election, I will quit the Democratic Party."
But the Clinton camp fears that a failure to engineer a deal could lead to bitter battles at the Democrat convention in Denver in late August, which could even end with Al Gore, the former vice president, emerging as a compromise candidate.
"There's a five per cent chance of that happening, but that's five percent too high," the Clinton source said.
Mrs Clinton is also under financial pressure.
Contests to come: Click to enlarge
She claimed that she received $7.5m in donations after admitting lending her campaign $5m last week.
But the source claimed that her campaign is actually in far worse financial trouble than they are letting on.
There will be no proof of how much she raised for three months, when the totals are formally declared to election watchdogs.
The one thing the Clinton and Obama camps can agree on is that John McCain, who is popular with independents and moderate Democrats, is their "worst nightmare".
They now fear that he could pick Colin Powell or former congressman JC Watts, both of whom are African American, as his running mate.
But Mr McCain still has to shore up his conservative base and is actively looking at the Governors of Minnesota, South Carolina, Indiana, Mississippi, Florida and Texas: Tim Pawlenty, Mark Sandford, Mitch Daniels, Haley Barbour, Charlie Crist and Rick Perry.
Allies of President Bush are making the case for Rob Portman, a former White House Budget office director and Ohio congressman.
Wrap...
Hillary Clinton's advisers 'in a state of panic'
By Tim Shipman in Washington and Philip Sherwell in Chicago
Last Updated: 11:53am GMT 10/02/2008
Hillary Clinton's most senior advisers are in a state of "panic" about her presidential prospects and are plotting to enlist Democrat leaders in Congress to thwart her rival Barack Obama's ambitions.
Update: Obama extends lead over Hillary Clinton
Toby Harnden: Obama "didn't take enough drugs"
Philip Sherwell: Hillary blast over 'pimped out' jibe
The Clinton camp is braced for Mr Obama to win a series of primary elections over the next three weeks, which they fear could hand the Illinois senator unstoppable momentum in the race for the White House.
Hillary Clinton has to win Texas and Ohio
Mr Obama has begun calling those "super delegates" - 795 congressmen and senior party officials who could break a dead heat - who are committed to Mrs Clinton, asking them to change their minds and help him wrap up the nomination.
As of tonight, the two candidates were neck and neck but Mr Obama appeared to be gaining momentum.
"He's saying: 'Hey, I won your state and I won your congressional district, why are you supporting her?'" a Democrat strategist revealed.
The Clinton camp hopes to stop the Obama bandwagon by winning Texas and Ohio primaries on March 4, after which Mrs Clinton is planning to call on party grandees including Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House of Representatives and Harry Reid, the party's leader in the Senate, to persuade Mr Obama to stand down.
advertisement
Clinton aides have privately admitted that Mr Obama would only consider such a move if offered the position of vice presidential running mate, something Mrs Clinton has always been reluctant to consider.
Full US Elections coverage
Trail Mix: Huckabee won't go away
A senior Democrat who has discussed Clinton campaign thinking with a member of her inner circle said: "The Clintons are in a state of panic. She has to win both Texas and Ohio."
But he added that this might prove impossible if Mr Obama maintains his momentum and wins most, or all, of the nine contests which come before that.
Mr Obama won yesterday's primary elections held in Washington state and Nebraska, and is expected to do well in Louisiana.
He is also favourite to sweep Maryland, Virginia, and Washington DC, which all vote on Tuesday, as well as Wisconsin and Hawaii, where he once lived, on February 19.
Only in Maine is Mrs Clinton confident, though Virginia and Wisconsin may also go her way.
Asked about the upcoming states, Mr Obama's chief strategist David Axelrod told The Sunday Telegraph: "We feel comfortable with them. What was once inevitable is no longer inevitable. The momentum has switched in this race.
"We closed a 20 point gap in the national polls in the last two weeks. The more people are exposed to his message, the better he does."
Liz Hunt: Hillary Clinton's discovered her F Factor
Questions over Hillary and Bill Clinton's family wealth
In pictures: Michelle Obama
Trail Mix: Chelsea Clinton "pimped out"
But he added: "We are up against the Clinton machine. We are the perpetual underdog and will be throughout this process. We're ready to go all the way to the convention."
Clinton aides believe that if Mr Obama does not deliver a knock-out blow before March 4, the advantage will swing back to her and she will argue for a deal in which uncommitted super-delegates unite behind her, to preserve party unity.
But the prospect of a deal behind closed doors, that could brush aside the views of voters in the primaries, is already creating fury in the party.
Donna Brazile, an African American strategist, said last week: "If 795 of my colleagues decide this election, I will quit the Democratic Party."
But the Clinton camp fears that a failure to engineer a deal could lead to bitter battles at the Democrat convention in Denver in late August, which could even end with Al Gore, the former vice president, emerging as a compromise candidate.
"There's a five per cent chance of that happening, but that's five percent too high," the Clinton source said.
Mrs Clinton is also under financial pressure.
Contests to come: Click to enlarge
She claimed that she received $7.5m in donations after admitting lending her campaign $5m last week.
But the source claimed that her campaign is actually in far worse financial trouble than they are letting on.
There will be no proof of how much she raised for three months, when the totals are formally declared to election watchdogs.
The one thing the Clinton and Obama camps can agree on is that John McCain, who is popular with independents and moderate Democrats, is their "worst nightmare".
They now fear that he could pick Colin Powell or former congressman JC Watts, both of whom are African American, as his running mate.
But Mr McCain still has to shore up his conservative base and is actively looking at the Governors of Minnesota, South Carolina, Indiana, Mississippi, Florida and Texas: Tim Pawlenty, Mark Sandford, Mitch Daniels, Haley Barbour, Charlie Crist and Rick Perry.
Allies of President Bush are making the case for Rob Portman, a former White House Budget office director and Ohio congressman.
Wrap...
Saturday, February 09, 2008
Writers and writing...A new blog...
For those interested in writing and writers, the Southern California Writers' Conference has now started a blog.
Feel free to visit at http://scwc.wordpress.com/
There are posts from various writers on news, writing workshops, and so forth. Enjoy!
Wrap...
Feel free to visit at http://scwc.wordpress.com/
There are posts from various writers on news, writing workshops, and so forth. Enjoy!
Wrap...
Friday, February 08, 2008
Public can't stand Bush to Obama Girl & ads...
From American Progress:
Think Fast...
The American public "can barely stand the thought of President Bush" anymore. His approval rating is now at just 30 percent, according to a new AP-Ipsos poll, "including an all-time low in his support by Republicans." Congress's approval also dropped to 22 percent.
Military authorities at Guantanamo Bay have lost a year's worth of records detailing the confinement of Salim Hamdan, Osama bin Laden's driver. Hamdan's lawyers say the records would "support their argument that prolonged isolation and harassment at the Guantanamo prison have mentally impaired him."
Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) said in a statement yesterday that Immigrations and Customs Enforcement head Julie Myers "deserved to be confirmed," but added that he is "concerned about the Department's response to the incident" after the release of controversial photos of Myers.
Yesterday, Attorney General Michael Mukasey refused to answer the question of whether or not he had been instructed by the President not to enforce the subpoenas of Harriet Miers and Josh Bolten.
While John McCain is superior to Bush on climate change, he is still not the type of leader the world requires. "He is a conservative who happens to be on the only intellectually defensible side of the climate change debate," writes Joe Romm, "but he is still a conservative, and the vast majority of the solutions to global warming are progressive in nature -- they require strong government action, including major federal efforts to spur clean technology."
Legislation to update the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act "is headed toward Senate passage early next week" after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) "pushed back key votes." The telecom immunity measure would also "likely be put off until next week."
And finally: "The State Department is defeating terrorism one 'strong, engaging' online video at a time." The State Department's Office of Public Diplomacy is "looking for an extra $36 million in 2009," in order to boost its Video Production Team" and create "strong, engaging web-based video that communicates key U.S. values and counters terrorist ideologies." Want an example of the office's work? Watch its "video report" on Obama Girl and the "Hillary 1984" ad here.
Wrap...
Think Fast...
The American public "can barely stand the thought of President Bush" anymore. His approval rating is now at just 30 percent, according to a new AP-Ipsos poll, "including an all-time low in his support by Republicans." Congress's approval also dropped to 22 percent.
Military authorities at Guantanamo Bay have lost a year's worth of records detailing the confinement of Salim Hamdan, Osama bin Laden's driver. Hamdan's lawyers say the records would "support their argument that prolonged isolation and harassment at the Guantanamo prison have mentally impaired him."
Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) said in a statement yesterday that Immigrations and Customs Enforcement head Julie Myers "deserved to be confirmed," but added that he is "concerned about the Department's response to the incident" after the release of controversial photos of Myers.
Yesterday, Attorney General Michael Mukasey refused to answer the question of whether or not he had been instructed by the President not to enforce the subpoenas of Harriet Miers and Josh Bolten.
While John McCain is superior to Bush on climate change, he is still not the type of leader the world requires. "He is a conservative who happens to be on the only intellectually defensible side of the climate change debate," writes Joe Romm, "but he is still a conservative, and the vast majority of the solutions to global warming are progressive in nature -- they require strong government action, including major federal efforts to spur clean technology."
Legislation to update the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act "is headed toward Senate passage early next week" after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) "pushed back key votes." The telecom immunity measure would also "likely be put off until next week."
And finally: "The State Department is defeating terrorism one 'strong, engaging' online video at a time." The State Department's Office of Public Diplomacy is "looking for an extra $36 million in 2009," in order to boost its Video Production Team" and create "strong, engaging web-based video that communicates key U.S. values and counters terrorist ideologies." Want an example of the office's work? Watch its "video report" on Obama Girl and the "Hillary 1984" ad here.
Wrap...
Who decides? Delegates or Super Delegates?....
From ABC New Sr Nat'l Correspondent Jake Tapper via email:
Power, pop, and probings from ABC News Senior National Correspondent Jake Tapper
(and Other Messes)
February 08, 2008 9:48 AM
Greetings from Seattle. And yes, I'm sleepless.
78 delegates are up for grabs here in tomorrow's Washington State Caucus as are 19 SUPER-DELEGATES.
Read more about that -- as well as Clinton's insinuation that Obama's rhetoric is meaningless -- HERE.
Could it be that this race comes down to the roughly 800 party insiders anointed as "super-delegates"?
They comprise roughly 20% of the delegate total, and if Obama and Clinton continue to split the vote count roughly 50-50, how they vote could be crucial -- which is why Chelsea and Bill Clinton, and reps for Obama, are calling them and wooing them.
Super-delegates were created after the insurgent outsider campaigns of then Sen. George McGovern, D-SD, and former Gov. Jimmy Carter of Georgia, secured the Democratic party nominations in 1972 and 1976, respectively. The idea was to return some power to party officials. Political scientist Rhodes Cook has said super-delegates were created as a "firewall to blunt any party outsider that built up a head of steam in the primaries."
With her vast institutional advantages, Clinton took a lead in super-delegates long ago.
Here in Washington she has Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell -- though ABC News has learned that Democratic Gov. Christine Gregoire will endorse Obama.
Obama this week warned Super-delegates to vote the way their states have voted, "if this contest comes down to super-delegates, we are going to be able to say we have more pledged delegates, which means the Democratic voters have spoken. Those super-delegates, those party insiders would have to think long and hard how they would approach the nomination." Obama suggested "the argument we would be making to super-delegates is, if we come into the convention with more pledged delegates then I think we can make a very strong argument that our constituencies have spoken and I think that's going to be pretty important when it comes to the general election."
Does that mean his super-delegates in Massachusetts -- Sens. Kerry and Kennedy, Gov Patrick -- should defect to Clinton?
Said Super-delegate Donna Brazile to CNN, "If 795 of my colleagues decide this election, I will quit the Democratic Party. I feel very strongly about this."
Wrap....
Power, pop, and probings from ABC News Senior National Correspondent Jake Tapper
(and Other Messes)
February 08, 2008 9:48 AM
Greetings from Seattle. And yes, I'm sleepless.
78 delegates are up for grabs here in tomorrow's Washington State Caucus as are 19 SUPER-DELEGATES.
Read more about that -- as well as Clinton's insinuation that Obama's rhetoric is meaningless -- HERE.
Could it be that this race comes down to the roughly 800 party insiders anointed as "super-delegates"?
They comprise roughly 20% of the delegate total, and if Obama and Clinton continue to split the vote count roughly 50-50, how they vote could be crucial -- which is why Chelsea and Bill Clinton, and reps for Obama, are calling them and wooing them.
Super-delegates were created after the insurgent outsider campaigns of then Sen. George McGovern, D-SD, and former Gov. Jimmy Carter of Georgia, secured the Democratic party nominations in 1972 and 1976, respectively. The idea was to return some power to party officials. Political scientist Rhodes Cook has said super-delegates were created as a "firewall to blunt any party outsider that built up a head of steam in the primaries."
With her vast institutional advantages, Clinton took a lead in super-delegates long ago.
Here in Washington she has Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell -- though ABC News has learned that Democratic Gov. Christine Gregoire will endorse Obama.
Obama this week warned Super-delegates to vote the way their states have voted, "if this contest comes down to super-delegates, we are going to be able to say we have more pledged delegates, which means the Democratic voters have spoken. Those super-delegates, those party insiders would have to think long and hard how they would approach the nomination." Obama suggested "the argument we would be making to super-delegates is, if we come into the convention with more pledged delegates then I think we can make a very strong argument that our constituencies have spoken and I think that's going to be pretty important when it comes to the general election."
Does that mean his super-delegates in Massachusetts -- Sens. Kerry and Kennedy, Gov Patrick -- should defect to Clinton?
Said Super-delegate Donna Brazile to CNN, "If 795 of my colleagues decide this election, I will quit the Democratic Party. I feel very strongly about this."
Wrap....
Thursday, February 07, 2008
al-Sadr's 6 mo. ceasefire & Patriots' "Spygate"....
From American Progress:
Think Fast...
Influential Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has ordered his Mahdi Army "to maintain its six-month ceasefire as members of the militia clashed with U.S. and Iraqi soldiers in Baghdad." "Some members of Sadr's bloc are pressuring him not to extend" the ceasefire, "which expires later this month and has been vital to cutting violence in Iraq."
Top Pentagon officials yesterday testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee "that the Bush administration's plan to withdraw some 20,000 U.S. troops from Iraq this summer will do little to relieve the stress on the Army and Marine Corps."$170 billion: Cost of the Iraq war in fiscal year 2009, according to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. Gates added that the price tag "will inevitably be wrong, and perhaps significantly so."
The U.S. Forest Service "has approved a permit allowing a British mining company to explore for uranium just outside" the Grand Canyon. "If the exploration finds rich uranium deposits, it could lead to the first mines near the canyon" in nearly two decades.
"U.S. drivers could enjoy a drop of up to 50 cents per gallon in gasoline prices by this spring as high fuel prices and the threat of a recession force them to conserve, experts said on Wednesday."
"The crime wave that hit New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina shows little sign of abating, more than two years after city officials said taming the outbreak was among their top priorities."
And finally: "Sen. Arlen Specter's (R-PA) one-senator war against the New England Patriots has a big problem: The three-time Super Bowl-winning team has its own Senate patron in Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy." Specter has been pushing an investigation of "Spygate," the Patriots' "surreptitious videotaping of opponents' signals on the field." Leahy, a die-hard Patriots fan, so far doesn't seem to be "giving much credence" to the probe, but promises to "do whatever is correct regardless."
Wrap...
Think Fast...
Influential Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has ordered his Mahdi Army "to maintain its six-month ceasefire as members of the militia clashed with U.S. and Iraqi soldiers in Baghdad." "Some members of Sadr's bloc are pressuring him not to extend" the ceasefire, "which expires later this month and has been vital to cutting violence in Iraq."
Top Pentagon officials yesterday testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee "that the Bush administration's plan to withdraw some 20,000 U.S. troops from Iraq this summer will do little to relieve the stress on the Army and Marine Corps."$170 billion: Cost of the Iraq war in fiscal year 2009, according to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. Gates added that the price tag "will inevitably be wrong, and perhaps significantly so."
The U.S. Forest Service "has approved a permit allowing a British mining company to explore for uranium just outside" the Grand Canyon. "If the exploration finds rich uranium deposits, it could lead to the first mines near the canyon" in nearly two decades.
"U.S. drivers could enjoy a drop of up to 50 cents per gallon in gasoline prices by this spring as high fuel prices and the threat of a recession force them to conserve, experts said on Wednesday."
"The crime wave that hit New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina shows little sign of abating, more than two years after city officials said taming the outbreak was among their top priorities."
And finally: "Sen. Arlen Specter's (R-PA) one-senator war against the New England Patriots has a big problem: The three-time Super Bowl-winning team has its own Senate patron in Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy." Specter has been pushing an investigation of "Spygate," the Patriots' "surreptitious videotaping of opponents' signals on the field." Leahy, a die-hard Patriots fan, so far doesn't seem to be "giving much credence" to the probe, but promises to "do whatever is correct regardless."
Wrap...
Knowledge gained in war...
From Reuters via truthout.org :
US Soldiers Help in War Against Rebels in Colombia
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/020708O.shtml
Reuters reports: "when spies spotted a guerrilla chief camped on a jungle riverbank one afternoon late last year, Colombia's army quickly turned to US soldiers to help plan his capture.
Fresh from Afghanistan and Iraq and versed in the latest counter-insurgency tactics, the Americans said they analyzed everything from enemy troop strength to river levels and the moon cycle to forecast visibility."
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
US Soldiers Help in War Against Rebels in Colombia
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/020708O.shtml
Reuters reports: "when spies spotted a guerrilla chief camped on a jungle riverbank one afternoon late last year, Colombia's army quickly turned to US soldiers to help plan his capture.
Fresh from Afghanistan and Iraq and versed in the latest counter-insurgency tactics, the Americans said they analyzed everything from enemy troop strength to river levels and the moon cycle to forecast visibility."
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
Wednesday, February 06, 2008
Torture survivors living in San Diego...
From Voice of San Diego.com:
Surviving:
Eleven years ago, Survivors of Torture, International opened its doors. At that time, people were always surprised to find out there was a need for such services. Torture seemed like such a medieval and faraway concept -- a horrific act that occurred in the dungeons of European castles.
Our staff spent a lot of time explaining that yes, torture is a reality -- politically motivated torture is practiced in at least 100 countries and yes, survivors live here. The federal government estimates that at least 400,000 survivors of torture live in the United States. We estimate that there are at least 11,000 just here in San Diego County.
Now, the idea of torture is much more prevalent in the media, probably due to the abuses at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, but its portrayal remains less than accurate. The organization Human Rights First found that there were 123 scenes of torture on primetime network television in 2005. Pre 9/11 in 2000, there were just 42. These scenes usually depict the victims as worthless bad guys -- serious criminals or people who have top-secret, life-threatening plans that they’re hiding.
Unfortunately the survivors are not just characters on television but real people like the individuals we serve in our office. They endured some of the most terrifying experiences imaginable and have come to San Diego for safety from this persecution. SURVIVORS’ clients have come from more than 50 countries, including Sudan, Somalia, Mexico and El Salvador.
Repressive governments often use torture as a tool against democracy by targeting teachers, journalists, community leaders, or members of certain religious or ethnic groups.
To save their lives, survivors often have no choice but to flee and continue their lives in a new country -- even if it means that they have to leave their family, friends, careers, and homes behind.
I’m grateful when voiceofsandiego.org and other news outlets give our organization the opportunity to raise awareness about this invisible population that lives in our community. I’m happy to answer any questions you have about the work we do.
-- KATHI ANDERSON
Wednesday, February 6 -- 7:00 pm
Wrap...
Surviving:
Eleven years ago, Survivors of Torture, International opened its doors. At that time, people were always surprised to find out there was a need for such services. Torture seemed like such a medieval and faraway concept -- a horrific act that occurred in the dungeons of European castles.
Our staff spent a lot of time explaining that yes, torture is a reality -- politically motivated torture is practiced in at least 100 countries and yes, survivors live here. The federal government estimates that at least 400,000 survivors of torture live in the United States. We estimate that there are at least 11,000 just here in San Diego County.
Now, the idea of torture is much more prevalent in the media, probably due to the abuses at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, but its portrayal remains less than accurate. The organization Human Rights First found that there were 123 scenes of torture on primetime network television in 2005. Pre 9/11 in 2000, there were just 42. These scenes usually depict the victims as worthless bad guys -- serious criminals or people who have top-secret, life-threatening plans that they’re hiding.
Unfortunately the survivors are not just characters on television but real people like the individuals we serve in our office. They endured some of the most terrifying experiences imaginable and have come to San Diego for safety from this persecution. SURVIVORS’ clients have come from more than 50 countries, including Sudan, Somalia, Mexico and El Salvador.
Repressive governments often use torture as a tool against democracy by targeting teachers, journalists, community leaders, or members of certain religious or ethnic groups.
To save their lives, survivors often have no choice but to flee and continue their lives in a new country -- even if it means that they have to leave their family, friends, careers, and homes behind.
I’m grateful when voiceofsandiego.org and other news outlets give our organization the opportunity to raise awareness about this invisible population that lives in our community. I’m happy to answer any questions you have about the work we do.
-- KATHI ANDERSON
Wednesday, February 6 -- 7:00 pm
Wrap...
Undersea cable cutting is an act of war....
From Information Clearing House:
Connecting The Many Undersea Cut Cable Dots :
The last week has seen a spate of unexplained, cut, undersea communications cables that has severely disrupted communications in many countries in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia.
As I shall show, the total numbers of cut cables remain in question, but likely number as many as eight, and maybe nine or more.
http://www.cyberspaceorbit.com/ConnectingTheDots.htm
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
Connecting The Many Undersea Cut Cable Dots :
The last week has seen a spate of unexplained, cut, undersea communications cables that has severely disrupted communications in many countries in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia.
As I shall show, the total numbers of cut cables remain in question, but likely number as many as eight, and maybe nine or more.
http://www.cyberspaceorbit.com/ConnectingTheDots.htm
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
An Unusual Mix of Books....
From Publishers Lunch Weekly:
FICTION/DEBUT:
Eugenia Kim's NAJIN, following a young woman through the turbulent years of Korea's subjugation by the Japanese and its emergence into the modern world in the first half of the 20th century, to Helen Atsma at Holt, in a very nice deal, for publication in April 2009, by Judith Weber at Sobel Weber Associates (NA).
THRILLER:
Mark Sullivan's TRIPLE CROSS, in which world political and financial stability is threatened when an exclusive Montana ski resort and gated community for the super-rich is attacked and taken hostage on New Year's Eve, to Keith Kahla at St. Martin's, in a two-book deal, by David Hale Smith at DHS Literary (NA).German rights to Fischer Verlag, by Danny Baror at Baror International, on behalf of DHS Literary.barorint@aol.comdavid@dhsliterary.com
GENERAL/OTHER:
Carter Beats the Devil author Glen David Gold's SUNNYSIDE, in which Charlie Chaplin and Co. collide with World War I in an epic about the rise of Hollywood, celebrity and the American empire, to Sonny Mehta at Knopf, by Susan Golomb at the Susan Golomb Agency.
Poet Bernardine Evaristo's BLONDE ROOTS, turning the history of the transatlantic slave trade on its head, to Megan Lynch at Riverhead, in a pre-empt, by Kate Lee at ICM (NA).UK rights: Simon Prosser at Hamish Hamilton
NON-FICTION
BUSINESS/INVESTING/FINANCE:
Stanford University professor Byron Reeves and venture capitalist Leighton Read's GAMES@WORK, how virtual reality and sophisticated computer games will transform the workplace and fundamentally change the way we work, to Jacqueline Murphy at Harvard Business School Press, in a good deal, by Penny Nelson at Manus & Associates (world).
COOKING:
Dylan Lauren's DYLAN'S CANDY BAR BOOK, a goody bag in book form that celebrates sweets, offering games and ways to entertain with candy; recipes for sugary and chocolate treats; coverage of rare, beloved, and celebrity-favorite candies; and more, to Aliza Fogelson at Clarkson Potter, at auction, by Andy McNicol at William Morris Agency (world).
MEMOIR:
Justine van der Leun's GOODBYE, COLLELUNGO, about leaving her job with a major NY-based magazine to move to Collelungo, Italy, population: 200, where she sets up house with a handsome Italian gardener she'd met on vacation and discovers that village life and love are radically different than anything she might have imagined, to Shannon Welch at Modern Times, by Patricia van der Leun (World).Amanda Pressner, Jennifer Baggett and Holly Corbett's THE
LOST GIRLS, about three 20-something women who quit their Manhattan media jobs and traveled around the world with backpacks and on a budget in search of answers, inspiration and enlightenment, to Serena Jones at Collins, in a pre-empt, by Kenneth Wright at Writers House (NA).
NARRATIVE:
Ilana Ozernoy's ON PATRIARCHS' PONDS, a chronicle of the interior lives of ordinary Russians in the Putin era intertwined with the author's personal story as the daughter of Soviet dissidents, presenting a portrait of modern Russia - a country that has tasted and lost new freedoms, but that wants to reclaim its status as a world superpower and may be willing to sacrifice personal freedom in order to do so, to Supurna Banerjee at Holt, by Robert Guinsler at Sterling Lord Literistic (NA). claire.mckinney@hholt.com
Washington Post South America bureau chief Monte Reel's THE LAST OF THE TRIBE, a non-fiction account of the race by Indiana Jones-like cultural anthropologists in Brazil to save an indigenous Indian, the last living member of his tribe, before he's murdered by ranchers, exploring the conflict between preservation and development, the cultural and environmental impact of deforestation, and the mystery and allure of one man surviving alone on the brink of extinction, to Samantha Martin at Scribner, by Larry Weissman at Larry Weissman Literary (World English).
Today Show Travel editor and NYT bestselling author of THE COMPLETE TRAVEL DETECTIVE BIBLE Peter Greenberg's DON'T GO THERE: A Must Miss Guide to the World, offering guidance on where not to go, when and why, essential reading for those who don't want their next dream vacation to become their worst nightmare, again to Leigh Haber at Rodale, for publication in October 2008, by Amy Rennert at the Amy Rennert Agency.
REFERENCE:
NYT deputy editor Francis Flaherty's THE ELEMENTS OF STORY, a Strunk & White-like manual/memoir for writing narrative, rather than for grammar and usage, that lays out 50-odd insightful principles, along with illuminating examples derived from the author's years of work as the paper's "story doctor," to guide today's writer and anyone who loves the written word, to Serena Jones at Collins, in a pre-empt, by Larry Weissman at Larry Weissman Literary (NA).
SCIENCE:
Co-winner of the 2007 Nobel Peace prize as a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and professor emeritus at University of Michigan, Dr. Henry Pollack's MELTDOWN: A World Without Ice, a book about ice and people on Earth, revealing the importance of ice to our planet and population through time; explaining the science of the current meltdown; and imagining future scenarios resulting from its disappearance; with a foreword by Al Gore, to Jeff Galas at Avery, at auction, by Gillian MacKenzie at the Gillian MacKenzie Agency (NA).gmackenzie@gillianmackenzieagency.com
Wrap...
FICTION/DEBUT:
Eugenia Kim's NAJIN, following a young woman through the turbulent years of Korea's subjugation by the Japanese and its emergence into the modern world in the first half of the 20th century, to Helen Atsma at Holt, in a very nice deal, for publication in April 2009, by Judith Weber at Sobel Weber Associates (NA).
THRILLER:
Mark Sullivan's TRIPLE CROSS, in which world political and financial stability is threatened when an exclusive Montana ski resort and gated community for the super-rich is attacked and taken hostage on New Year's Eve, to Keith Kahla at St. Martin's, in a two-book deal, by David Hale Smith at DHS Literary (NA).German rights to Fischer Verlag, by Danny Baror at Baror International, on behalf of DHS Literary.barorint@aol.comdavid@dhsliterary.com
GENERAL/OTHER:
Carter Beats the Devil author Glen David Gold's SUNNYSIDE, in which Charlie Chaplin and Co. collide with World War I in an epic about the rise of Hollywood, celebrity and the American empire, to Sonny Mehta at Knopf, by Susan Golomb at the Susan Golomb Agency.
Poet Bernardine Evaristo's BLONDE ROOTS, turning the history of the transatlantic slave trade on its head, to Megan Lynch at Riverhead, in a pre-empt, by Kate Lee at ICM (NA).UK rights: Simon Prosser at Hamish Hamilton
NON-FICTION
BUSINESS/INVESTING/FINANCE:
Stanford University professor Byron Reeves and venture capitalist Leighton Read's GAMES@WORK, how virtual reality and sophisticated computer games will transform the workplace and fundamentally change the way we work, to Jacqueline Murphy at Harvard Business School Press, in a good deal, by Penny Nelson at Manus & Associates (world).
COOKING:
Dylan Lauren's DYLAN'S CANDY BAR BOOK, a goody bag in book form that celebrates sweets, offering games and ways to entertain with candy; recipes for sugary and chocolate treats; coverage of rare, beloved, and celebrity-favorite candies; and more, to Aliza Fogelson at Clarkson Potter, at auction, by Andy McNicol at William Morris Agency (world).
MEMOIR:
Justine van der Leun's GOODBYE, COLLELUNGO, about leaving her job with a major NY-based magazine to move to Collelungo, Italy, population: 200, where she sets up house with a handsome Italian gardener she'd met on vacation and discovers that village life and love are radically different than anything she might have imagined, to Shannon Welch at Modern Times, by Patricia van der Leun (World).Amanda Pressner, Jennifer Baggett and Holly Corbett's THE
LOST GIRLS, about three 20-something women who quit their Manhattan media jobs and traveled around the world with backpacks and on a budget in search of answers, inspiration and enlightenment, to Serena Jones at Collins, in a pre-empt, by Kenneth Wright at Writers House (NA).
NARRATIVE:
Ilana Ozernoy's ON PATRIARCHS' PONDS, a chronicle of the interior lives of ordinary Russians in the Putin era intertwined with the author's personal story as the daughter of Soviet dissidents, presenting a portrait of modern Russia - a country that has tasted and lost new freedoms, but that wants to reclaim its status as a world superpower and may be willing to sacrifice personal freedom in order to do so, to Supurna Banerjee at Holt, by Robert Guinsler at Sterling Lord Literistic (NA). claire.mckinney@hholt.com
Washington Post South America bureau chief Monte Reel's THE LAST OF THE TRIBE, a non-fiction account of the race by Indiana Jones-like cultural anthropologists in Brazil to save an indigenous Indian, the last living member of his tribe, before he's murdered by ranchers, exploring the conflict between preservation and development, the cultural and environmental impact of deforestation, and the mystery and allure of one man surviving alone on the brink of extinction, to Samantha Martin at Scribner, by Larry Weissman at Larry Weissman Literary (World English).
Today Show Travel editor and NYT bestselling author of THE COMPLETE TRAVEL DETECTIVE BIBLE Peter Greenberg's DON'T GO THERE: A Must Miss Guide to the World, offering guidance on where not to go, when and why, essential reading for those who don't want their next dream vacation to become their worst nightmare, again to Leigh Haber at Rodale, for publication in October 2008, by Amy Rennert at the Amy Rennert Agency.
REFERENCE:
NYT deputy editor Francis Flaherty's THE ELEMENTS OF STORY, a Strunk & White-like manual/memoir for writing narrative, rather than for grammar and usage, that lays out 50-odd insightful principles, along with illuminating examples derived from the author's years of work as the paper's "story doctor," to guide today's writer and anyone who loves the written word, to Serena Jones at Collins, in a pre-empt, by Larry Weissman at Larry Weissman Literary (NA).
SCIENCE:
Co-winner of the 2007 Nobel Peace prize as a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and professor emeritus at University of Michigan, Dr. Henry Pollack's MELTDOWN: A World Without Ice, a book about ice and people on Earth, revealing the importance of ice to our planet and population through time; explaining the science of the current meltdown; and imagining future scenarios resulting from its disappearance; with a foreword by Al Gore, to Jeff Galas at Avery, at auction, by Gillian MacKenzie at the Gillian MacKenzie Agency (NA).gmackenzie@gillianmackenzieagency.com
Wrap...
Who won Tues? to Olbermann vs Beck....
From American Progress:
Think Fast...
In the "biggest day of U.S. presidential voting before the November 4 election to succeed President George W. Bush," Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) won 13 states and Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) took eight. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) "won nine contests, including victories in California and the Northeast, to take a commanding lead in the Republican race." See the results here.
Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell testified yesterday that a failure to provide legal immunity in FISA legislation to telecom companies "will have far-reaching consequences" and "severely degrade the capabilities" of intelligence agencies to protect the country.
Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell said yesterday that "Al Qaeda is gaining in strength from its refuge in Pakistan and is steadily improving its ability to recruit, train and position operatives capable of carrying out attacks inside the United States."
In prepared testimony, Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, "says U.S. forces are "significantly stressed' by fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan." "The pace of ongoing operations," says Mullen, "impacts our ability to be ready to counter future threats."
Facing a "draconian" budget that would "cut in half the $400 million allocated in advance by Congress for fiscal year 2009 and cut $220 million from the $420 million already planned for 2010," public broadcasters are "scrambling" to secure federal funding for their programs.
The subprime crisis has brought "boarded-up homes and broken dreams to thousands of minority families inner cities." Reuters reports that urban renewal will need to be at the top of the next president's "to do" list.
Cases of racial harassment filed with the EEOC increased 24 percent last year, "a time of racial turmoil that included the Jena Six controversy and an outbreak of noose displays." The number of filings increased from 5,646 in 2006 to 6,977 in 2007 while "the annual figure has more than doubled since 1991."
The AFL-CIO has filed a lawsuit against Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, claiming that new Labor Department disclosure rules "should be held unlawful and set aside." In a report last year, Center for American Progress Senior Fellow Scott Lilly described how the new rules are part of an effort "to undermine the reputation of the labor union movement."
Republican leaders continue to squabble about how to deal with earmarks. The Hill notes that Reps. John Boehner (R-OH), Adam Putnam (R-FL) and Eric Cantor (R-VA) are "the only Republican leaders who have voted for more than half of the anti-earmark amendments offered on the House floor since the 2006 election."
And finally: Right-wing pundit Glenn Beck took a shot at Keith Olbermann, stating, "If I saw Olbermann standing on the subway [platform], I might think for a moment about pushing him, but I wouldn't." Olbermann responded: "The subway remark summarizes who Glenn is. If he (or anybody else) fell in front of a train, I hope I'd have the courage to emulate Wesley Autry and try to save him."
Wrap...
Think Fast...
In the "biggest day of U.S. presidential voting before the November 4 election to succeed President George W. Bush," Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) won 13 states and Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) took eight. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) "won nine contests, including victories in California and the Northeast, to take a commanding lead in the Republican race." See the results here.
Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell testified yesterday that a failure to provide legal immunity in FISA legislation to telecom companies "will have far-reaching consequences" and "severely degrade the capabilities" of intelligence agencies to protect the country.
Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell said yesterday that "Al Qaeda is gaining in strength from its refuge in Pakistan and is steadily improving its ability to recruit, train and position operatives capable of carrying out attacks inside the United States."
In prepared testimony, Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, "says U.S. forces are "significantly stressed' by fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan." "The pace of ongoing operations," says Mullen, "impacts our ability to be ready to counter future threats."
Facing a "draconian" budget that would "cut in half the $400 million allocated in advance by Congress for fiscal year 2009 and cut $220 million from the $420 million already planned for 2010," public broadcasters are "scrambling" to secure federal funding for their programs.
The subprime crisis has brought "boarded-up homes and broken dreams to thousands of minority families inner cities." Reuters reports that urban renewal will need to be at the top of the next president's "to do" list.
Cases of racial harassment filed with the EEOC increased 24 percent last year, "a time of racial turmoil that included the Jena Six controversy and an outbreak of noose displays." The number of filings increased from 5,646 in 2006 to 6,977 in 2007 while "the annual figure has more than doubled since 1991."
The AFL-CIO has filed a lawsuit against Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, claiming that new Labor Department disclosure rules "should be held unlawful and set aside." In a report last year, Center for American Progress Senior Fellow Scott Lilly described how the new rules are part of an effort "to undermine the reputation of the labor union movement."
Republican leaders continue to squabble about how to deal with earmarks. The Hill notes that Reps. John Boehner (R-OH), Adam Putnam (R-FL) and Eric Cantor (R-VA) are "the only Republican leaders who have voted for more than half of the anti-earmark amendments offered on the House floor since the 2006 election."
And finally: Right-wing pundit Glenn Beck took a shot at Keith Olbermann, stating, "If I saw Olbermann standing on the subway [platform], I might think for a moment about pushing him, but I wouldn't." Olbermann responded: "The subway remark summarizes who Glenn is. If he (or anybody else) fell in front of a train, I hope I'd have the courage to emulate Wesley Autry and try to save him."
Wrap...
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
Gathering the intel secrets....
From Secrecy News:
OPEN SOURCE INTELLIGENCE ADVANCES
The DNI Open Source Center, which gathers, translates, analyzes, and distributes unclassified open source intelligence from around the world, is steadily growing in capability and impact, according to Doug Naquin, the Center's Director.
The Open Source Center, which replaced the CIA's Foreign Broadcast Information Service, is doing more analysis and outreach than its predecessor and is also exploring new media, said Mr. Naquin in a recent speech. "We're looking now at YouTube, which carries some unique and honest-to-goodness intelligence," he said. "We have groups looking at what they call 'Citizens Media': people taking pictures with their cell phones and posting them on the Internet. Then there's Social Media, phenomena like MySpace and blogs....
A couple years back we identified Iranian blogs as a phenomenon worthy of more attention, about six months ahead of anybody else." "But we still have an education problem ... both with the folks who are proponents of open source but perhaps don't know exactly why, and folks internally who are still wondering why I am sitting at the same table they are."
"All of us have heard the statement by [intelligence community] leaders at one time or another that 'Our business is stealing secrets.' Or 'Our business is espionage.' While I deeply respect that, and I understand where that's coming from, from my Open Source perspective, I'm thinking that's like a football coach saying, 'Our mission is to pass the ball.' Or 'Our mission is to run the ball.' Well, not exactly. It's to win football games."
Mr. Naquin addressed the Central Intelligence Retirees' Association on October 3, 2007. The text of his remarks is available here: http://www.fas.org/irp/eprint/naquin.pdf
While the Open Source Center may be thriving, its net value to the general public has actually declined. That is because only a small fraction of its product is normally made publicly available (for a substantial subscription fee), while alternative means of public access to international information sources continue to multiply.
Wrap...
OPEN SOURCE INTELLIGENCE ADVANCES
The DNI Open Source Center, which gathers, translates, analyzes, and distributes unclassified open source intelligence from around the world, is steadily growing in capability and impact, according to Doug Naquin, the Center's Director.
The Open Source Center, which replaced the CIA's Foreign Broadcast Information Service, is doing more analysis and outreach than its predecessor and is also exploring new media, said Mr. Naquin in a recent speech. "We're looking now at YouTube, which carries some unique and honest-to-goodness intelligence," he said. "We have groups looking at what they call 'Citizens Media': people taking pictures with their cell phones and posting them on the Internet. Then there's Social Media, phenomena like MySpace and blogs....
A couple years back we identified Iranian blogs as a phenomenon worthy of more attention, about six months ahead of anybody else." "But we still have an education problem ... both with the folks who are proponents of open source but perhaps don't know exactly why, and folks internally who are still wondering why I am sitting at the same table they are."
"All of us have heard the statement by [intelligence community] leaders at one time or another that 'Our business is stealing secrets.' Or 'Our business is espionage.' While I deeply respect that, and I understand where that's coming from, from my Open Source perspective, I'm thinking that's like a football coach saying, 'Our mission is to pass the ball.' Or 'Our mission is to run the ball.' Well, not exactly. It's to win football games."
Mr. Naquin addressed the Central Intelligence Retirees' Association on October 3, 2007. The text of his remarks is available here: http://www.fas.org/irp/eprint/naquin.pdf
While the Open Source Center may be thriving, its net value to the general public has actually declined. That is because only a small fraction of its product is normally made publicly available (for a substantial subscription fee), while alternative means of public access to international information sources continue to multiply.
Wrap...
Monday, February 04, 2008
Sun Shows need asterisks & Super Bowl ad....
From American Progress:
Think Fast...
The New York Times writes that the Sunday morning public affairs shows "are careless about bias." Their "experts are supposed to be impartial, but it is left to viewers to parse their complicated pedigrees and entwined political obligations. It's not that they have nothing to say, it's that what they say is not accompanied by an asterisk."
60 percent: Americans who "think the economy's already in a recession," while "two-thirds doubt that a government stimulus package will soften the blow," according to a new ABC News/Washington Post poll. In total, 81 percent believe the economy is in bad shape, the most since 1993."
The White House will release its FY 2009 budget today. CQ reports that the document is "expected to project a deficit in the $400 billion range for fiscal 2008 and 2009. That would be more than double the $163 billion in red ink from fiscal 2007."
"The cost of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars combined could rise to just under $900 billion by next spring and could near the $1 trillion mark by the end of 2009." Congress has authorized $691 billion in war spending since 2001.
Speaking to a crowd in Florida over the weekend, Karl Rove admitted that he was a "bit of a hothead" while working for President Bush. Rove also compared Bush to President Lincoln in his ability to "get to the nub of the thing."
Three of Wall Street's biggest investment banks -- Citigroup, JP Morgan, and Morgan Stanley -- will announce today that they are "imposing new environmental standards that will make it harder for companies to get financing to build coal-fired power plants in the U.S."
Housing Secretary Alphonso Jackson allegedly retaliated against the Philadelphia Housing Authority after it refused to "transfer a $2 million public property to a developer" who is a business friend of Jacksons "at a substantial discount." The authoritys director says he received "dozens" of "menacing" threats from Jackson's aides over an 11-month period.
American forces "accidentally killed nine Iraqi civilians and wounded three" in a strike aimed at Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia. The attack "appeared to be one of the deadliest cases of mistaken identity in recent weeks." Some victims had "contracted with the American military to fight Al Qaeda."
And finally: Yesterday, the "Patriots' streak was broken, but Anheuser-Busch's was not." It "aired the best-liked Super Bowl ad for a record 10th-consecutive year," with a commercial featuring a Dalmatian training a Clydesdale to make the beer wagon team. (Watch the ad here.)
Wrap...
Think Fast...
The New York Times writes that the Sunday morning public affairs shows "are careless about bias." Their "experts are supposed to be impartial, but it is left to viewers to parse their complicated pedigrees and entwined political obligations. It's not that they have nothing to say, it's that what they say is not accompanied by an asterisk."
60 percent: Americans who "think the economy's already in a recession," while "two-thirds doubt that a government stimulus package will soften the blow," according to a new ABC News/Washington Post poll. In total, 81 percent believe the economy is in bad shape, the most since 1993."
The White House will release its FY 2009 budget today. CQ reports that the document is "expected to project a deficit in the $400 billion range for fiscal 2008 and 2009. That would be more than double the $163 billion in red ink from fiscal 2007."
"The cost of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars combined could rise to just under $900 billion by next spring and could near the $1 trillion mark by the end of 2009." Congress has authorized $691 billion in war spending since 2001.
Speaking to a crowd in Florida over the weekend, Karl Rove admitted that he was a "bit of a hothead" while working for President Bush. Rove also compared Bush to President Lincoln in his ability to "get to the nub of the thing."
Three of Wall Street's biggest investment banks -- Citigroup, JP Morgan, and Morgan Stanley -- will announce today that they are "imposing new environmental standards that will make it harder for companies to get financing to build coal-fired power plants in the U.S."
Housing Secretary Alphonso Jackson allegedly retaliated against the Philadelphia Housing Authority after it refused to "transfer a $2 million public property to a developer" who is a business friend of Jacksons "at a substantial discount." The authoritys director says he received "dozens" of "menacing" threats from Jackson's aides over an 11-month period.
American forces "accidentally killed nine Iraqi civilians and wounded three" in a strike aimed at Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia. The attack "appeared to be one of the deadliest cases of mistaken identity in recent weeks." Some victims had "contracted with the American military to fight Al Qaeda."
And finally: Yesterday, the "Patriots' streak was broken, but Anheuser-Busch's was not." It "aired the best-liked Super Bowl ad for a record 10th-consecutive year," with a commercial featuring a Dalmatian training a Clydesdale to make the beer wagon team. (Watch the ad here.)
Wrap...
Sunday, February 03, 2008
Navy SEALs...The mind rules the body....
From Los Angeles Times Magazine:
Sink or Swim
Think you can perform like a Navy SEAL? Think again.
By Jessica Gelt, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
If you tend to call your La-Z-Boy home, watch your back. The Navy SEALs are dropping anchor at UCLA on Feb. 9 and 10 to test your mettle with their fitness challenge. Your mission? Virtually the same physical screening test for SEAL hopefuls: a 500-yard swim, then push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups and a 10-mile run.
We got the skinny from Navy SEALs Ed Rohrbach and David Goggins.
How did the Navy SEAL Fitness Challenge come to be?
Rohrbach: We took the SEAL physical screening test and gave it to some high schoolers in San Diego, and they did really well. The first national event went down in Boston in June of 2007. Our goal is to promote physical fitness. You can actually see where you would rank against a Navy SEAL.
What is most satisfying about the fitness challenge?
Goggins: Everybody hits walls in life, but they don’t understand that every wall has a door. In these challenges people start to realize, “Yeah, I’m hitting a wall at mile one, but I have another half-mile to go.” And they find that door and go through it.
How often do civilians put in SEAL-worthy performances?
Rohrbach: About 30% to 50% pass the minimum standards to get into training.
How many competitors are expected in L.A.?
Rohrbach: Because L.A. is such a physically fit place, and people are motivated to do things that are outside the ordinary, we expect between 400 and 800 people to show up.
What exercises can an office worker do at her desk?
Rohrbach: Push on the armrests of your chair and try to lift your body with just your arm strength. Or move your bottom to the edge of the chair and do leg lifts.
Goggins: Set your watch on a timer and knock out 10 push-ups every 10 minutes.
Warn your pod mates. Or head to the challenge.UCLA SAC Pool and Drake Stadium, 220 Westwood Plaza; www.sealfitness challenge.com
Wrap...
Sink or Swim
Think you can perform like a Navy SEAL? Think again.
By Jessica Gelt, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
If you tend to call your La-Z-Boy home, watch your back. The Navy SEALs are dropping anchor at UCLA on Feb. 9 and 10 to test your mettle with their fitness challenge. Your mission? Virtually the same physical screening test for SEAL hopefuls: a 500-yard swim, then push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups and a 10-mile run.
We got the skinny from Navy SEALs Ed Rohrbach and David Goggins.
How did the Navy SEAL Fitness Challenge come to be?
Rohrbach: We took the SEAL physical screening test and gave it to some high schoolers in San Diego, and they did really well. The first national event went down in Boston in June of 2007. Our goal is to promote physical fitness. You can actually see where you would rank against a Navy SEAL.
What is most satisfying about the fitness challenge?
Goggins: Everybody hits walls in life, but they don’t understand that every wall has a door. In these challenges people start to realize, “Yeah, I’m hitting a wall at mile one, but I have another half-mile to go.” And they find that door and go through it.
How often do civilians put in SEAL-worthy performances?
Rohrbach: About 30% to 50% pass the minimum standards to get into training.
How many competitors are expected in L.A.?
Rohrbach: Because L.A. is such a physically fit place, and people are motivated to do things that are outside the ordinary, we expect between 400 and 800 people to show up.
What exercises can an office worker do at her desk?
Rohrbach: Push on the armrests of your chair and try to lift your body with just your arm strength. Or move your bottom to the edge of the chair and do leg lifts.
Goggins: Set your watch on a timer and knock out 10 push-ups every 10 minutes.
Warn your pod mates. Or head to the challenge.UCLA SAC Pool and Drake Stadium, 220 Westwood Plaza; www.sealfitness challenge.com
Wrap...
Clarke looks at Bush's State of the Union....
From The Philadelphia Inquirer via truthout.org:
Richard Clarke: Setting a Standard in Fear-Mongering
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/020308Z.shtml
Richard A. Clarke writes in The Philadelphia Inquirer: "When I left the Bush administration in 2003, it was clear to me that its strategy for defeating terrorism was leaving our nation more vulnerable and our people in a perilous place.... the president also employed misleading and reckless rhetoric to perpetuate his agenda. This week's State of the Union proved nothing has changed."
[Note: Don't miss Clarke's latest novel, now out in paperback: "Break Point". It's very true that a writer can say truths in fiction that they can't say in non-fiction.]
Wrap....
Richard Clarke: Setting a Standard in Fear-Mongering
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/020308Z.shtml
Richard A. Clarke writes in The Philadelphia Inquirer: "When I left the Bush administration in 2003, it was clear to me that its strategy for defeating terrorism was leaving our nation more vulnerable and our people in a perilous place.... the president also employed misleading and reckless rhetoric to perpetuate his agenda. This week's State of the Union proved nothing has changed."
[Note: Don't miss Clarke's latest novel, now out in paperback: "Break Point". It's very true that a writer can say truths in fiction that they can't say in non-fiction.]
Wrap....
Saturday, February 02, 2008
Bush...still doing bad things to good things....
From AP via truthout.org:
Bush Cuts Domestic Programs
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/020208B.shtml
Andrew Taylor, The Associated Press, reports: "President Bush wants to cut funding for teaching hospitals and freeze medical research in a $3 trillion budget for 2009 that is still likely to generate a record deficit once war costs are tallied up."
Wrap...
Bush Cuts Domestic Programs
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/020208B.shtml
Andrew Taylor, The Associated Press, reports: "President Bush wants to cut funding for teaching hospitals and freeze medical research in a $3 trillion budget for 2009 that is still likely to generate a record deficit once war costs are tallied up."
Wrap...
BushCo terror scams....
From Rolling Stone via Buzzflash:
Truth or Terrorism? The Real Story Behind Five Years of High Alerts
A history of the Bush administration's most dubious terror scares — and the headlines they buried
TIM DICKINSON
Posted Jan 22, 2008 7:55 AM
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
"Sometimes we disagreed with the intelligence assessment. There were times when some people in the administration were really aggressive about raising the threat level, and we said, 'For that?!'" — Former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, May 2005
The Bush administration has never shied from playing the fear card to distract the American public from scandal or goad them into supporting a deeply flawed foreign policy. Here a history of the administration's most-dubious terror alerts — including three consecutive Memorial Day scare-a-thons — all of which proved far less terrifying than the screamer headlines they inspired.
February 12, 2002
The Threat: Yemenite terrorist set to attack U.S. — today! "I want, to encourage... all Americans everywhere to be on the highest state of alert," warns Attorney General John Ashcroft.
The Reality: The threat hadn't been corroborated by U.S. intelligence agencies — and the evidence actually pointed to an attack not in the U.S., but in Yemen.
The Real News: Announced the same day that Enron CEO Ken Lay appeared before Congress, and a week after the White House was instructed not to destroy its Enron-related documents.
www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/18056504/truth_or_terrorism_the_real_story_behind_five_years_of_high_alerts
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
Truth or Terrorism? The Real Story Behind Five Years of High Alerts
A history of the Bush administration's most dubious terror scares — and the headlines they buried
TIM DICKINSON
Posted Jan 22, 2008 7:55 AM
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
"Sometimes we disagreed with the intelligence assessment. There were times when some people in the administration were really aggressive about raising the threat level, and we said, 'For that?!'" — Former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, May 2005
The Bush administration has never shied from playing the fear card to distract the American public from scandal or goad them into supporting a deeply flawed foreign policy. Here a history of the administration's most-dubious terror alerts — including three consecutive Memorial Day scare-a-thons — all of which proved far less terrifying than the screamer headlines they inspired.
February 12, 2002
The Threat: Yemenite terrorist set to attack U.S. — today! "I want, to encourage... all Americans everywhere to be on the highest state of alert," warns Attorney General John Ashcroft.
The Reality: The threat hadn't been corroborated by U.S. intelligence agencies — and the evidence actually pointed to an attack not in the U.S., but in Yemen.
The Real News: Announced the same day that Enron CEO Ken Lay appeared before Congress, and a week after the White House was instructed not to destroy its Enron-related documents.
www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/18056504/truth_or_terrorism_the_real_story_behind_five_years_of_high_alerts
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
Friday, February 01, 2008
Bush breaks bank again & Rambo banned in Burma...
From American Progress:
Think Fast...
President Bush's 2009 budget "will total more than $3 trillion, the first time that barrier has been broken." "The budget plan projects big increases in federal budget deficits, to about $400 billion for both fiscal 2008 and fiscal 2009." Bush's "trail of deficits and debt" will "sharply constrain his successor."
Two female suicide bombers struck separate pet markets in central Baghdad on Friday, killing at least 64 people and wounding dozens. The attacks were the deadliest in the Iraqi capital since the U.S. troop surge last spring.
A U.S. missile strike in Pakistan's northwestern tribal areas killed Abu Laith al-Libi, a top commander of al Qaeda who had been involved in planning attacks on U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan.
"Long lines, a shortage of poll workers and unprecedented numbers of mail-in ballots could delay vote counts in the biggest-ever Super Tuesday in American politics," a day on which voters in 24 states will cast ballots.
President Bush signed a 15-day extension for a temporary surveillance law. The delay marked a partial concession to Senate Democrats who wanted to continue deliberations over whether to immunize telephone companies from lawsuits for helping the government conduct warrantless wiretaps.
Germany has rejected Defense Secretary Robert Gates's "urgent" request to send more troops to Afghanistan. Germany's response was in reply to an "unusually stern" letter from Gates last month, demanding combat troops, helicopters, and paratroopers.
And finally: Rambo is banned in Burma. Reuters reports, "Police in Myanmar have given DVD hawkers strict orders not to stock the new Rambo movie, which features a fictional Vietnam War veteran taking on the former Burma's ruling military junta." Nevertheless, pirated copies are widely available and people are reportedly "going crazy" for the movie's tagline, "Live for nothing, die for something."
Wrap...
Think Fast...
President Bush's 2009 budget "will total more than $3 trillion, the first time that barrier has been broken." "The budget plan projects big increases in federal budget deficits, to about $400 billion for both fiscal 2008 and fiscal 2009." Bush's "trail of deficits and debt" will "sharply constrain his successor."
Two female suicide bombers struck separate pet markets in central Baghdad on Friday, killing at least 64 people and wounding dozens. The attacks were the deadliest in the Iraqi capital since the U.S. troop surge last spring.
A U.S. missile strike in Pakistan's northwestern tribal areas killed Abu Laith al-Libi, a top commander of al Qaeda who had been involved in planning attacks on U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan.
"Long lines, a shortage of poll workers and unprecedented numbers of mail-in ballots could delay vote counts in the biggest-ever Super Tuesday in American politics," a day on which voters in 24 states will cast ballots.
President Bush signed a 15-day extension for a temporary surveillance law. The delay marked a partial concession to Senate Democrats who wanted to continue deliberations over whether to immunize telephone companies from lawsuits for helping the government conduct warrantless wiretaps.
Germany has rejected Defense Secretary Robert Gates's "urgent" request to send more troops to Afghanistan. Germany's response was in reply to an "unusually stern" letter from Gates last month, demanding combat troops, helicopters, and paratroopers.
And finally: Rambo is banned in Burma. Reuters reports, "Police in Myanmar have given DVD hawkers strict orders not to stock the new Rambo movie, which features a fictional Vietnam War veteran taking on the former Burma's ruling military junta." Nevertheless, pirated copies are widely available and people are reportedly "going crazy" for the movie's tagline, "Live for nothing, die for something."
Wrap...
Bush did something right!!!!!
From Air Force Times, Gannett News Service via truthout.org:
Report Says 88 Percent of National Guard Units Unprepared
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/020108G.shtml
William H. McMichael reports for Air Force Times on the final report of the Commission on the National Guard and Reserve, "which went beyond its original charter to review the structure and management of the reserve components by also recommending an overhaul of personnel policies for active members."
Meanwhile, Erin Kelly, writing for Gannett News Service, reports, "President Bush signed legislation pushed by Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont this week repealing a controversial law that had made it easier for the White House to take over control of the National Guard from governors."
Wrap...
Report Says 88 Percent of National Guard Units Unprepared
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/020108G.shtml
William H. McMichael reports for Air Force Times on the final report of the Commission on the National Guard and Reserve, "which went beyond its original charter to review the structure and management of the reserve components by also recommending an overhaul of personnel policies for active members."
Meanwhile, Erin Kelly, writing for Gannett News Service, reports, "President Bush signed legislation pushed by Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont this week repealing a controversial law that had made it easier for the White House to take over control of the National Guard from governors."
Wrap...
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