Was listening to the radio today when Ed Schultz said something to the effect that the minute the Dems got the Majority in Congress and Nancy Pelosi, House Majority Leader, announced that "impeachment is off the table" she and Stoney Hoyer as much as gave Bush/Cheney permission to do whatever the hell they wanted, break any laws, commit anything illegal, no punishment would be forthcoming.
Nice, huh? Even if I could vote for her, it would be a cold day before I would. I'd vote for a rock first. Be about as effective.
I am not happy with the Dems in Congress, and that's an understatement.
Wrap...
Friday, October 05, 2007
From CIA secret prisons to McCain's joke...
From American Progress:
Think Fast...
The CIA's secret overseas prison system "remains active and has held at least one al Qaeda militant" since first being revealed last year, says a U.S. official. "The official confirmed the detention as the White House" refused to say "whether the agency had resumed holding prisoners at secret sites and insisted that the United States does not torture."
In light of the revelation yesterday of secret opinions giving the CIA approval in 2005 for harsh interrogation techniques, Senate Intel Chairman John (D-WV) "wrote to the acting attorney general, Peter D. Keisler, asking for copies of all opinions on interrogation since 2004."
Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) has launched an online petition asking conservatives to "band together" and "stand with Rush Limbaugh against liberal attacks."
Alternet reports, "The truth of the matter is that only the presence of U.S. forces allows the group called 'al Qaeda in Iraq' (AQI) to survive and function, and setting a timetable for the occupation to end is the best way to beat them. You won't hear that perspective in Washington, but according to Iraqis with whom we spoke, it is the conventional wisdom in much of the country."
"Over and over, President Bush confidently promised to 'solve problems, not pass them on to future presidents and future generations.' As the clock runs out on his eight-year presidency, a tall stack of troubles remain and Bush's words ring hollow."
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has "closed the door to negotiations with President Bush on a vetoed children's health bill." "We're not going to compromise," Reid said. "If he's hoping for that, he better hope for something else, like getting our troops home from Iraq."
"A record number of floods, droughts and storms around the world this year amount to a climate change 'mega disaster', the United Nation's emergency relief coordinator, Sir John Holmes, has warned." He said "dire predictions about the impact of global warming on humanity were already coming true. "
And finally: Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) recycles jokes like it's 1999. Yesterday, he said that "as president he would appoint Alan Greenspan to lead a review of the nation's tax code." "If he's alive or dead it doesn't matter. If he's dead, just prop him up and put some dark glasses on him like, like 'Weekend at Bernie's,'" McCain joked. Funny joke...except that he's been telling it since 1999.
Wrap...
Think Fast...
The CIA's secret overseas prison system "remains active and has held at least one al Qaeda militant" since first being revealed last year, says a U.S. official. "The official confirmed the detention as the White House" refused to say "whether the agency had resumed holding prisoners at secret sites and insisted that the United States does not torture."
In light of the revelation yesterday of secret opinions giving the CIA approval in 2005 for harsh interrogation techniques, Senate Intel Chairman John (D-WV) "wrote to the acting attorney general, Peter D. Keisler, asking for copies of all opinions on interrogation since 2004."
Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) has launched an online petition asking conservatives to "band together" and "stand with Rush Limbaugh against liberal attacks."
Alternet reports, "The truth of the matter is that only the presence of U.S. forces allows the group called 'al Qaeda in Iraq' (AQI) to survive and function, and setting a timetable for the occupation to end is the best way to beat them. You won't hear that perspective in Washington, but according to Iraqis with whom we spoke, it is the conventional wisdom in much of the country."
"Over and over, President Bush confidently promised to 'solve problems, not pass them on to future presidents and future generations.' As the clock runs out on his eight-year presidency, a tall stack of troubles remain and Bush's words ring hollow."
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has "closed the door to negotiations with President Bush on a vetoed children's health bill." "We're not going to compromise," Reid said. "If he's hoping for that, he better hope for something else, like getting our troops home from Iraq."
"A record number of floods, droughts and storms around the world this year amount to a climate change 'mega disaster', the United Nation's emergency relief coordinator, Sir John Holmes, has warned." He said "dire predictions about the impact of global warming on humanity were already coming true. "
And finally: Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) recycles jokes like it's 1999. Yesterday, he said that "as president he would appoint Alan Greenspan to lead a review of the nation's tax code." "If he's alive or dead it doesn't matter. If he's dead, just prop him up and put some dark glasses on him like, like 'Weekend at Bernie's,'" McCain joked. Funny joke...except that he's been telling it since 1999.
Wrap...
White House lie? Depend upon it....
From truthout.org :
Did White House Lie About Loss of Five Million Emails?
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/100507O.shtml
Daemon Poeter, of the CMP Channel, reports: "when Congress asked about 5 million executive branch e-mails that went missing, a White House lawyer pointed the finger at an outside IT contractor. The only problem? No such IT contractor exists, according to sources close to the investigation of a possible violation of the Federal Records and Presidential Records acts."
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
Did White House Lie About Loss of Five Million Emails?
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/100507O.shtml
Daemon Poeter, of the CMP Channel, reports: "when Congress asked about 5 million executive branch e-mails that went missing, a White House lawyer pointed the finger at an outside IT contractor. The only problem? No such IT contractor exists, according to sources close to the investigation of a possible violation of the Federal Records and Presidential Records acts."
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
Thursday, October 04, 2007
A vote for Richardson is a vote for our troops...
From Information Clearing House:
Richardson calls for immediate pullout from Iraq:
Democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson criticized his rivals on Thursday for failing to support an immediate and complete U.S. troop pullout from Iraq, saying it is time to "get all our troops out
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N04330090.htm
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
Richardson calls for immediate pullout from Iraq:
Democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson criticized his rivals on Thursday for failing to support an immediate and complete U.S. troop pullout from Iraq, saying it is time to "get all our troops out
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N04330090.htm
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
From Sadist Gonzales to Bono's roses for Pelosi...
From American Progress:
Think Fast...
Despite releasing a legal opinion in Dec. 2004 that declared torture is "abhorrent," the Alberto Gonzales-led Justice Department issued a secret opinion shortly after his arrival in Feb. 2005 that provided "an expansive endorsement of the harshest interrogation techniques ever used" by the CIA. A lengthy New York Times expose describes the Office of Legal Counsel, headed by Steven Bradbury, as having become a politicized tool for the Vice President's office.
There were "317,000 applications for unemployment benefits last week, an increase of 16,000 from the previous week," and the biggest jump in four months. Analysts believe the increase "could be a further sign that the labor market is slowing under the impact of the worst slump in housing in 16 years."
President Bush's veto of SCHIP has divided conservatives. Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) said yesterday, "We've got to do what we can to try to override" the veto. "If we're truly compassionate, it seems to me, we'd want to endorse this program," added Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT).
The administration's "Anbar strategy" holds the perilous possibility "that we just end up arming the Sunnis, who still hate the Shi'a...and that eventually the Sunni tribes end up fighting it out with the central government." Echoing this concern, the largest Shiite political coalition in Iraq urged the U.S. military to "abandon its recruitment of Sunni tribesmen into the Iraqi police."
After initial reports that the FBI agents investigating Blackwater in Iraq would be guarded by Blackwater, the agency announced last night that it won't use security guards employed by that company. The action was taken "to avoid even the appearance of any conflict."
The Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), a watchdog group, is arguing that U.S. troops are being force-fed Christianity. MRFF is planning to file a series of lawsuits "to show there is a pattern and practice of constitutionally impermissible promotions of religious beliefs within the Department of Defense."
3,315: Number of people in Iraq infected with cholera, according to the World Health Organization. Cases of cholera were first detected in Kirkuk on Aug. 14 and have now spread to all of Iraq's 18 provinces.
Senate leaders "have developed a plan that would allow them to move the controversial nomination of Hans von Spakovsky to the FEC to the floor for a separate vote Thursday." Aides predict his nomination will pass, which would allow senators to "move to votes on the other three uncontested FEC nominees."
And finally: "U2 front man Bono strode through the U.S. Capitol bright and early Wednesday morning, carrying a large bouquet of white and pink long-stemmed roses." Sources report that he met with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) about "Africa, global AIDS funding, etc."
Wrap...
Think Fast...
Despite releasing a legal opinion in Dec. 2004 that declared torture is "abhorrent," the Alberto Gonzales-led Justice Department issued a secret opinion shortly after his arrival in Feb. 2005 that provided "an expansive endorsement of the harshest interrogation techniques ever used" by the CIA. A lengthy New York Times expose describes the Office of Legal Counsel, headed by Steven Bradbury, as having become a politicized tool for the Vice President's office.
There were "317,000 applications for unemployment benefits last week, an increase of 16,000 from the previous week," and the biggest jump in four months. Analysts believe the increase "could be a further sign that the labor market is slowing under the impact of the worst slump in housing in 16 years."
President Bush's veto of SCHIP has divided conservatives. Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) said yesterday, "We've got to do what we can to try to override" the veto. "If we're truly compassionate, it seems to me, we'd want to endorse this program," added Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT).
The administration's "Anbar strategy" holds the perilous possibility "that we just end up arming the Sunnis, who still hate the Shi'a...and that eventually the Sunni tribes end up fighting it out with the central government." Echoing this concern, the largest Shiite political coalition in Iraq urged the U.S. military to "abandon its recruitment of Sunni tribesmen into the Iraqi police."
After initial reports that the FBI agents investigating Blackwater in Iraq would be guarded by Blackwater, the agency announced last night that it won't use security guards employed by that company. The action was taken "to avoid even the appearance of any conflict."
The Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), a watchdog group, is arguing that U.S. troops are being force-fed Christianity. MRFF is planning to file a series of lawsuits "to show there is a pattern and practice of constitutionally impermissible promotions of religious beliefs within the Department of Defense."
3,315: Number of people in Iraq infected with cholera, according to the World Health Organization. Cases of cholera were first detected in Kirkuk on Aug. 14 and have now spread to all of Iraq's 18 provinces.
Senate leaders "have developed a plan that would allow them to move the controversial nomination of Hans von Spakovsky to the FEC to the floor for a separate vote Thursday." Aides predict his nomination will pass, which would allow senators to "move to votes on the other three uncontested FEC nominees."
And finally: "U2 front man Bono strode through the U.S. Capitol bright and early Wednesday morning, carrying a large bouquet of white and pink long-stemmed roses." Sources report that he met with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) about "Africa, global AIDS funding, etc."
Wrap...
Wednesday, October 03, 2007
Under BushCo, United States union falling apart...
From news.Yahoo.com :
Secessionists meeting in Tennessee By BILL POOVEY, Associated Press Writer
Wed Oct 3, 3:15 AM ET
In an unlikely marriage of desire to secede from the United States, two advocacy groups from opposite political traditions — New England and the South — are sitting down to talk.
Tired of foreign wars and what they consider right-wing courts, the Middlebury Institute wants liberal states like Vermont to be able to secede peacefully.
That sounds just fine to the League of the South, a conservative group that refuses to give up on Southern independence.
"We believe that an independent South, or Hawaii, Alaska, or Vermont would be better able to serve the interest of everybody, regardless of race or ethnicity," said Michael Hill of Killen, Ala., president of the League of the South.
Separated by hundreds of miles and divergent political philosophies, the Middlebury Institute and the League of the South are hosting a two-day Secessionist Convention starting Wednesday in Chattanooga.
They expect to attract supporters from California, Alaska and Hawaii, inviting anyone who wants to dissolve the Union so states can save themselves from an overbearing federal government.
If allowed to go their own way, New Englanders "probably would allow abortion and have gun control," Hill said, while Southerners "would probably crack down on illegal immigration harder than it is being now."
The U.S. Constitution does not explicitly prohibit secession, but few people think it is politically viable.
Vermont, one of the nation's most liberal states, has become a hotbed for liberal secessionists, a fringe movement that gained new traction because of the Iraq war, rising oil prices and the formation of several pro-secession groups.
Thomas Naylor, the founder of one of those groups, the Second Vermont Republic, said the friendly relationship with the League of the South doesn't mean everyone shares all the same beliefs.
But Naylor, a retired Duke University professor, said the League of the South shares his group's opposition to the federal government and the need to pursue secession.
"It doesn't matter if our next president is Condoleeza (Rice) or Hillary (Clinton), it is going to be grim," said Naylor, adding that there are secessionist movements in more than 25 states, including Hawaii, Alaska, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Texas.
The Middlebury Institute, based in Cold Spring, N.Y., was started in 2005. Its followers, disillusioned by the Iraq war and federal imperialism, share the idea of states becoming independent republics. They contend their movement is growing.
The first North American Separatist Convention was held last fall in Vermont, which, unlike most Southern states, supports civil unions. Voters there elected a socialist to the U.S. Senate.
Middlebury director Kirpatrick Sale said Hill offered to sponsor the second secessionist convention, but the co-sponsor arrangement was intended to show that "the folks up north regard you as legitimate colleagues."
"It bothers me that people have wrongly declared them to be racists," Sale said.
The League of the South says it is not racist, but proudly displays a Confederate Battle Flag on its banner.
Mark Potok, director of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Project, which monitors hate groups, said the League of the South "has been on our list close to a decade."
"What is remarkable and really astounding about this situation is we see people and institutions who are supposedly on the progressive left rubbing shoulders with bona fide white supremacists," Potok said.
Sale said the League of the South "has not done or said anything racist in its 14 years of existence," and that the Southern Poverty Law Center is not credible.
"They call everybody racists," Sale said. "There are, no doubt, racists in the League of the South, and there are, no doubt, racists everywhere."
Harry Watson, director of the Center For the Study of the American South and a history professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said it was a surprise to see The Middlebury Institute conferring with the League of the South, "an organization that's associated with a cause that many of us associate with the preservation of slavery."
He said the unlikely partnering "represents the far left and far right of American politics coming together."
Wrap...
Secessionists meeting in Tennessee By BILL POOVEY, Associated Press Writer
Wed Oct 3, 3:15 AM ET
In an unlikely marriage of desire to secede from the United States, two advocacy groups from opposite political traditions — New England and the South — are sitting down to talk.
Tired of foreign wars and what they consider right-wing courts, the Middlebury Institute wants liberal states like Vermont to be able to secede peacefully.
That sounds just fine to the League of the South, a conservative group that refuses to give up on Southern independence.
"We believe that an independent South, or Hawaii, Alaska, or Vermont would be better able to serve the interest of everybody, regardless of race or ethnicity," said Michael Hill of Killen, Ala., president of the League of the South.
Separated by hundreds of miles and divergent political philosophies, the Middlebury Institute and the League of the South are hosting a two-day Secessionist Convention starting Wednesday in Chattanooga.
They expect to attract supporters from California, Alaska and Hawaii, inviting anyone who wants to dissolve the Union so states can save themselves from an overbearing federal government.
If allowed to go their own way, New Englanders "probably would allow abortion and have gun control," Hill said, while Southerners "would probably crack down on illegal immigration harder than it is being now."
The U.S. Constitution does not explicitly prohibit secession, but few people think it is politically viable.
Vermont, one of the nation's most liberal states, has become a hotbed for liberal secessionists, a fringe movement that gained new traction because of the Iraq war, rising oil prices and the formation of several pro-secession groups.
Thomas Naylor, the founder of one of those groups, the Second Vermont Republic, said the friendly relationship with the League of the South doesn't mean everyone shares all the same beliefs.
But Naylor, a retired Duke University professor, said the League of the South shares his group's opposition to the federal government and the need to pursue secession.
"It doesn't matter if our next president is Condoleeza (Rice) or Hillary (Clinton), it is going to be grim," said Naylor, adding that there are secessionist movements in more than 25 states, including Hawaii, Alaska, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Texas.
The Middlebury Institute, based in Cold Spring, N.Y., was started in 2005. Its followers, disillusioned by the Iraq war and federal imperialism, share the idea of states becoming independent republics. They contend their movement is growing.
The first North American Separatist Convention was held last fall in Vermont, which, unlike most Southern states, supports civil unions. Voters there elected a socialist to the U.S. Senate.
Middlebury director Kirpatrick Sale said Hill offered to sponsor the second secessionist convention, but the co-sponsor arrangement was intended to show that "the folks up north regard you as legitimate colleagues."
"It bothers me that people have wrongly declared them to be racists," Sale said.
The League of the South says it is not racist, but proudly displays a Confederate Battle Flag on its banner.
Mark Potok, director of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Project, which monitors hate groups, said the League of the South "has been on our list close to a decade."
"What is remarkable and really astounding about this situation is we see people and institutions who are supposedly on the progressive left rubbing shoulders with bona fide white supremacists," Potok said.
Sale said the League of the South "has not done or said anything racist in its 14 years of existence," and that the Southern Poverty Law Center is not credible.
"They call everybody racists," Sale said. "There are, no doubt, racists in the League of the South, and there are, no doubt, racists everywhere."
Harry Watson, director of the Center For the Study of the American South and a history professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said it was a surprise to see The Middlebury Institute conferring with the League of the South, "an organization that's associated with a cause that many of us associate with the preservation of slavery."
He said the unlikely partnering "represents the far left and far right of American politics coming together."
Wrap...
Intelligence and Congressional Oversight...
From Secrecy News:
GAO SEEKS GREATER ROLE IN OVERSIGHT OF INTELLIGENCE
Congressional oversight of intelligence should be augmented by the
assistance of specially-cleared investigative teams from the Government
Accountability Office, say some congressional leaders, and GAO officials
appear eager to assume the task.
"The need for more effective oversight and accountability of our
intelligence community has never been greater," said Senator Daniel
Akaka (D-HI) earlier this year. "Yet the ability of Congress to ensure
that the intelligence community has sufficient resources and capability
of performing its mission has never been more in question."
Sen. Akaka introduced pending legislation (S. 82) that would reaffirm
the ability of the GAO to conduct audits and investigations of U.S.
intelligence agencies at the request of a congressional committee.
Similar legislation has been introduced in the House (H.R. 978).
Proponents say the legislation could receive favorable consideration
next year. (The 2008 intelligence authorization bill, passed in the
Senate today, does not address the matter.)
"I believe that there are many areas in which GAO can support the
intelligence committees in their oversight roles," said David M.
Walker, Comptroller General of the United States and head of the GAO.
Among the areas he identified are intelligence acquisition and contract
management, human capital management, information technology
architectures and systems, and business transformation efforts.
"We have significant knowledge and experience that can be of benefit to
the Intelligence Community in connection with a broad range of
transformation issues," he stated.
Mr. Walker expressed his support for the Akaka bill and for an enhanced
GAO role in intelligence oversight in a previously unpublished March 1,
2007 letter to the Senate Intelligence Committee.
http://www.fas.org/irp/gao/walker030107.pdf
But the idea of greater GAO involvement in intelligence oversight was
sharply discouraged by Director of National Intelligence J. Michael
McConnell, who argued that the GAO could damage delicate relations
between the intelligence agencies and the oversight committees.
"If not moderated, self-initiated action by the GAO or action on behalf
of non-oversight Committees could undermine the ability of Intelligence
Committee leadership to direct or stay abreast of oversight activities,
and could risk upsetting the historic balance struck between the two
branches of government in national security matters," DNI McConnell
wrote in a March 7 letter to the Senate Intelligence Committee.
http://www.fas.org/irp/gao/mcconnell030707.pdf
The DNI's concerns are groundless or else could be remedied by simple
modifications to the Akaka bill, responded Mr. Walker on March 16.
http://www.fas.org/irp/gao/walker031607.pdf
The GAO/DNI correspondence was entered into the record of a March 21,
2007 hearing of the Senate Homeland Security Committee which is soon to
be published. Copies were obtained in advance by Secrecy News.
The history of GAO attempts to engage in intelligence oversight dating
back to the 1950s was examined in depth by Frederick M. Kaiser in "GAO
Versus the CIA: Uphill Battles Against an Overpowering Force,"
International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence,
15:330-389, 2002.
[Use links above to read more]
Wrap...
GAO SEEKS GREATER ROLE IN OVERSIGHT OF INTELLIGENCE
Congressional oversight of intelligence should be augmented by the
assistance of specially-cleared investigative teams from the Government
Accountability Office, say some congressional leaders, and GAO officials
appear eager to assume the task.
"The need for more effective oversight and accountability of our
intelligence community has never been greater," said Senator Daniel
Akaka (D-HI) earlier this year. "Yet the ability of Congress to ensure
that the intelligence community has sufficient resources and capability
of performing its mission has never been more in question."
Sen. Akaka introduced pending legislation (S. 82) that would reaffirm
the ability of the GAO to conduct audits and investigations of U.S.
intelligence agencies at the request of a congressional committee.
Similar legislation has been introduced in the House (H.R. 978).
Proponents say the legislation could receive favorable consideration
next year. (The 2008 intelligence authorization bill, passed in the
Senate today, does not address the matter.)
"I believe that there are many areas in which GAO can support the
intelligence committees in their oversight roles," said David M.
Walker, Comptroller General of the United States and head of the GAO.
Among the areas he identified are intelligence acquisition and contract
management, human capital management, information technology
architectures and systems, and business transformation efforts.
"We have significant knowledge and experience that can be of benefit to
the Intelligence Community in connection with a broad range of
transformation issues," he stated.
Mr. Walker expressed his support for the Akaka bill and for an enhanced
GAO role in intelligence oversight in a previously unpublished March 1,
2007 letter to the Senate Intelligence Committee.
http://www.fas.org/irp/gao/walker030107.pdf
But the idea of greater GAO involvement in intelligence oversight was
sharply discouraged by Director of National Intelligence J. Michael
McConnell, who argued that the GAO could damage delicate relations
between the intelligence agencies and the oversight committees.
"If not moderated, self-initiated action by the GAO or action on behalf
of non-oversight Committees could undermine the ability of Intelligence
Committee leadership to direct or stay abreast of oversight activities,
and could risk upsetting the historic balance struck between the two
branches of government in national security matters," DNI McConnell
wrote in a March 7 letter to the Senate Intelligence Committee.
http://www.fas.org/irp/gao/mcconnell030707.pdf
The DNI's concerns are groundless or else could be remedied by simple
modifications to the Akaka bill, responded Mr. Walker on March 16.
http://www.fas.org/irp/gao/walker031607.pdf
The GAO/DNI correspondence was entered into the record of a March 21,
2007 hearing of the Senate Homeland Security Committee which is soon to
be published. Copies were obtained in advance by Secrecy News.
The history of GAO attempts to engage in intelligence oversight dating
back to the 1950s was examined in depth by Frederick M. Kaiser in "GAO
Versus the CIA: Uphill Battles Against an Overpowering Force,"
International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence,
15:330-389, 2002.
[Use links above to read more]
Wrap...
A really mixed selection of books upcoming....
From Publishers Lunch Weekly:
FICTION/DEBUT:
John Pipkin's WOODSBURNER chronicles the lives of a lovesick Norwegian immigrant farm hand, a struggling bookseller, a fire and brimstone preacher, and a pencil maker named Henry David Thoreau as their stories intersect over a fire Thoreau accidentally set which burned 800 acres near Walden Pond, to Janet Silver at Houghton Mifflin, in a pre-empt, by Marly Rusoff at Marly Rusoff & Associates (NA).
Professor of history at Brandeis Jane Kamensky and professor of history at Harvard University Jill Lepore's BLINDSPOT, an erotic romp about a fallen woman who disguises herself as a boy to serve as the apprentice to a portrait painter in Boston as the American Revolution is waged, to Cindy Spiegel at Spiegel & Grau, at auction, by Tina Bennett at Janklow & Nesbit (NA).
Nafisa Haji's THE WRITING ON MY FOREHEAD, the story of a free-spirited and rebellious Muslim-American of Indo-Pakistani descent who finds herself caught in a struggle between her family's traditions and her desire for independence, to Laurie Chittenden at William Morrow, by BJ Robbins at BJ Robbins Literary Agency (World).
BJRagency@aol.com Juliette.Shapland@harpercollins.com
MYSTERY/CRIME:
Tasha Alexander's TEARS OF PEARL, taking continuing heroine Lady Emily to Ottoman Constantinople where her visit is interrupted by the slaying of one of the sultan's harem girls, plunging her investigation into an alien world of luxury and deadly intrigue, to Andrew Martin and Charles Spicer at Minotaur, in a pre-empt, for two books, by Anne Hawkins at John Hawkins & Associates (world). ahawkins@jhalit.com
THRILLER:
NYT bestselling author and editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan, Kate White's three new thrillers, the first a stand-alone set in New York with a new lead character, moving to Kathy Schneider at Harper, with Marjorie Braman editing, for publication beginning in 2009, by Sandra Dijkstra of the Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency (world English).
UK:
INCENDIARY author Chris Cleave's LITTLE BEE, about a Nigerian girl who fled to the UK after her family was killed and her village destroyed and goes looking for the couple who saved her, to Suzie Doore at Hodder, in a two-book deal, for publication in August 2008, by Peter Straus at Rogers, Coleridge & White.
NON-FICTION/BIOGRAPHY:
Younger brother of William F. Buckley, Jr., Reid Buckley's THE BUCKLEYS, a look at the iconic American conservative family, to Anthony Ziccardi for Threshold Editions, by Alex Hoyt of Alexander Hoyt Associates.
HISTORY/POLITICS/CURRENT AFFAIRS:
NYT Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and author of bestselling LEGACY OF ASHES: The History of the CIA, Tim Weiner's two additional books "on the American struggle for national security in an open democracy," THE ENEMY WITHIN: The FBI and the Search for National Security, about the Bureau's long practice of sweeping up loyal Americans in its dragnets and the deep disorganization within its own ranks, and THE MOST POWERFUL FORCE ON EARTH: How the American Military Shaped the World will be a narrative history of our armed forces and their civilian leaders since the end of WWII, to Bob Loomis at Random House, by Kathy Robbins at The Robbins Office (NA).
NPR foreign correspondent Deborah Amos' THE ROAD TO DAMASCUS, about the millions of Iraqi refugees spilling over into neighboring countries, and the impact this displacement will have upon the region and the world, to Clive Priddle at Public Affairs, by Larry Weissman at Larry Weissman Literary (world English).
MEMOIR:
Army Chaplain Roger Benimoff's FAITH UNDER FIRE, with Newsweek writer Eve Conant, a memoir centered on his struggles with his faith and post-traumatic stress disorder during his second tour of duty in Iraq and while working at Walter Reed Hospital after he returned home, to Mary Choteborsky at Crown, in a pre-empt, by Alice Martell at Alice Martell Agency.
Doreen Orion's QUEEN OF THE ROAD, the true tale of 22,000 miles, 200 shoes, two cats, a poodle, a husband and a bus -- a humorous, heart-felt account of two married mid-40's psychiatrists who have it all until they decide to squeeze it all into a 340-square-foot bus, taking a year-long road trip across the country, to Stacy Creamer at Doubleday, in a pre-empt, in a very nice deal, at Mollie Glick at Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency.
REFERENCE:
Eric Hanson's A BOOK OF AGES, an idiosyncratic miscellany of biographical facts of the famous and infamous, including failures, rejections, dead ends, as well as early masterpieces, second chances and lifetime achievements, organized by ages one to one hundred, to Shaye Areheart at Harmony, at auction, by Marly Rusoff at Marly Rusoff & Associates (NA).
Wrap...
FICTION/DEBUT:
John Pipkin's WOODSBURNER chronicles the lives of a lovesick Norwegian immigrant farm hand, a struggling bookseller, a fire and brimstone preacher, and a pencil maker named Henry David Thoreau as their stories intersect over a fire Thoreau accidentally set which burned 800 acres near Walden Pond, to Janet Silver at Houghton Mifflin, in a pre-empt, by Marly Rusoff at Marly Rusoff & Associates (NA).
Professor of history at Brandeis Jane Kamensky and professor of history at Harvard University Jill Lepore's BLINDSPOT, an erotic romp about a fallen woman who disguises herself as a boy to serve as the apprentice to a portrait painter in Boston as the American Revolution is waged, to Cindy Spiegel at Spiegel & Grau, at auction, by Tina Bennett at Janklow & Nesbit (NA).
Nafisa Haji's THE WRITING ON MY FOREHEAD, the story of a free-spirited and rebellious Muslim-American of Indo-Pakistani descent who finds herself caught in a struggle between her family's traditions and her desire for independence, to Laurie Chittenden at William Morrow, by BJ Robbins at BJ Robbins Literary Agency (World).
BJRagency@aol.com Juliette.Shapland@harpercollins.com
MYSTERY/CRIME:
Tasha Alexander's TEARS OF PEARL, taking continuing heroine Lady Emily to Ottoman Constantinople where her visit is interrupted by the slaying of one of the sultan's harem girls, plunging her investigation into an alien world of luxury and deadly intrigue, to Andrew Martin and Charles Spicer at Minotaur, in a pre-empt, for two books, by Anne Hawkins at John Hawkins & Associates (world). ahawkins@jhalit.com
THRILLER:
NYT bestselling author and editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan, Kate White's three new thrillers, the first a stand-alone set in New York with a new lead character, moving to Kathy Schneider at Harper, with Marjorie Braman editing, for publication beginning in 2009, by Sandra Dijkstra of the Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency (world English).
UK:
INCENDIARY author Chris Cleave's LITTLE BEE, about a Nigerian girl who fled to the UK after her family was killed and her village destroyed and goes looking for the couple who saved her, to Suzie Doore at Hodder, in a two-book deal, for publication in August 2008, by Peter Straus at Rogers, Coleridge & White.
NON-FICTION/BIOGRAPHY:
Younger brother of William F. Buckley, Jr., Reid Buckley's THE BUCKLEYS, a look at the iconic American conservative family, to Anthony Ziccardi for Threshold Editions, by Alex Hoyt of Alexander Hoyt Associates.
HISTORY/POLITICS/CURRENT AFFAIRS:
NYT Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and author of bestselling LEGACY OF ASHES: The History of the CIA, Tim Weiner's two additional books "on the American struggle for national security in an open democracy," THE ENEMY WITHIN: The FBI and the Search for National Security, about the Bureau's long practice of sweeping up loyal Americans in its dragnets and the deep disorganization within its own ranks, and THE MOST POWERFUL FORCE ON EARTH: How the American Military Shaped the World will be a narrative history of our armed forces and their civilian leaders since the end of WWII, to Bob Loomis at Random House, by Kathy Robbins at The Robbins Office (NA).
NPR foreign correspondent Deborah Amos' THE ROAD TO DAMASCUS, about the millions of Iraqi refugees spilling over into neighboring countries, and the impact this displacement will have upon the region and the world, to Clive Priddle at Public Affairs, by Larry Weissman at Larry Weissman Literary (world English).
MEMOIR:
Army Chaplain Roger Benimoff's FAITH UNDER FIRE, with Newsweek writer Eve Conant, a memoir centered on his struggles with his faith and post-traumatic stress disorder during his second tour of duty in Iraq and while working at Walter Reed Hospital after he returned home, to Mary Choteborsky at Crown, in a pre-empt, by Alice Martell at Alice Martell Agency.
Doreen Orion's QUEEN OF THE ROAD, the true tale of 22,000 miles, 200 shoes, two cats, a poodle, a husband and a bus -- a humorous, heart-felt account of two married mid-40's psychiatrists who have it all until they decide to squeeze it all into a 340-square-foot bus, taking a year-long road trip across the country, to Stacy Creamer at Doubleday, in a pre-empt, in a very nice deal, at Mollie Glick at Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency.
REFERENCE:
Eric Hanson's A BOOK OF AGES, an idiosyncratic miscellany of biographical facts of the famous and infamous, including failures, rejections, dead ends, as well as early masterpieces, second chances and lifetime achievements, organized by ages one to one hundred, to Shaye Areheart at Harmony, at auction, by Marly Rusoff at Marly Rusoff & Associates (NA).
Wrap...
From Blackwater's Prince to Congress's Pelosi...
From American Progress:
Think Fast...
Though Blackwater USA CEO Erik Prince told a congressional committee yesterday that the company's guards opened fire on only 195 occasions in Iraq since 2005, "two former Blackwater security guards" stated they believe "employees fired more often than the company has disclosed. "The underreporting of shooting incidents was routine in Iraq," said one guard.
The Bush administration has made "seemingly inconsistent decisions" when releasing prisoners they deem "among America's most-hardened criminals" from Guantanamo Bay, according to Pentagon documents. "Human rights groups contend that the documents show" that the military panels are often "overridden by political expediency."
The State Department launched its own blog last week, called "Dipnote." People have already complained "that the white print on a black background makes it hard to read" Finally, "unbiased news directly from the federal government, a news source long noted for truthful, unbiased reporting," the Washington Post's Al Kamen mockingly writes.
The Army has met its stated recruiting goal of 80,000 new active-duty soldiers for FY2007. But to achieve this goal, "the Army rushed enlistees into its ranks more quickly than usual, depleting the number in the pipeline for next year to less than 7,000 -- the smallest in more than a decade."
The Polish ambassador to Iraq was wounded and a civilian was killed in a car bomb that went off in downtown Baghdad today. Approximately 900 Polish troops are currently stationed south of Baghdad training Iraqi personnel.
And finally: Final score: Boxer 3, Inhofe 0. Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) has repeatedly challenged Sen. Barbara Boxer's (D-CA) authority over the Senate environmental committee. During one hearing, she had to inform him, "You don't make the rules anymore." Yesterday, Boxer slammed down Inhofe's assertion that she couldn't invite sitting senators to the hearings, pointing out that in Sept. 2006, he invited Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN). "I don't mind if we have disagreements, but...let's get the facts right," she admonished him.
Wrap...
Think Fast...
Though Blackwater USA CEO Erik Prince told a congressional committee yesterday that the company's guards opened fire on only 195 occasions in Iraq since 2005, "two former Blackwater security guards" stated they believe "employees fired more often than the company has disclosed. "The underreporting of shooting incidents was routine in Iraq," said one guard.
The Bush administration has made "seemingly inconsistent decisions" when releasing prisoners they deem "among America's most-hardened criminals" from Guantanamo Bay, according to Pentagon documents. "Human rights groups contend that the documents show" that the military panels are often "overridden by political expediency."
The State Department launched its own blog last week, called "Dipnote." People have already complained "that the white print on a black background makes it hard to read" Finally, "unbiased news directly from the federal government, a news source long noted for truthful, unbiased reporting," the Washington Post's Al Kamen mockingly writes.
The Army has met its stated recruiting goal of 80,000 new active-duty soldiers for FY2007. But to achieve this goal, "the Army rushed enlistees into its ranks more quickly than usual, depleting the number in the pipeline for next year to less than 7,000 -- the smallest in more than a decade."
The Polish ambassador to Iraq was wounded and a civilian was killed in a car bomb that went off in downtown Baghdad today. Approximately 900 Polish troops are currently stationed south of Baghdad training Iraqi personnel.
And finally: Final score: Boxer 3, Inhofe 0. Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) has repeatedly challenged Sen. Barbara Boxer's (D-CA) authority over the Senate environmental committee. During one hearing, she had to inform him, "You don't make the rules anymore." Yesterday, Boxer slammed down Inhofe's assertion that she couldn't invite sitting senators to the hearings, pointing out that in Sept. 2006, he invited Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN). "I don't mind if we have disagreements, but...let's get the facts right," she admonished him.
Wrap...
Marines return from Iraq..not allowed in Oakland Airport!!!
From SFGate.com :
Oakland airport keeps Marines out of terminal in Oakland stopover
Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Marines arriving on a military charter flight on their way home from Iraq were barred from entering a passenger terminal at Oakland International Airport to greet family and friends because of security concerns, airport officials acknowledged Tuesday.
Airport authorities decided to keep the Marines at a remote location on the tarmac because the troops had not been screened and had their weapons on board when the plane landed about 1:30 p.m. Thursday, officials said.
Federal authorities, however, said the Marines had been screened when their flight out of Kuwait landed earlier in the day in New York.
"There was no disrespect that was intended," said Omar Benjamin, executive director of the Port of Oakland, which runs the airport. "There was confusion. There were mistakes that were made."
Some of the 200 Marines on board wanted to meet and greet family and friends at the Oakland passenger terminal before continuing on to their base in Hawaii, but that request wasn't made in advance by the military's charter airline, North American Airlines, or its ground handler, Hilltop Aviation, said airport spokeswoman Rosemary Barnes.
As a result, the Marines weren't allowed in the passenger terminal, although they were allowed to get out of the plane to smoke, stretch their legs or go to the restroom, said airport officials, who apologized for the incident. "With different information, there would have been a different outcome," Barnes said.
The incident has prompted outcry by conservative bloggers online who have questioned the airport's motives and patriotism.
"On the far-left coast (the Marines) were quarantined from civilians," John Gibson wrote on Theodore's World, a Web site that bills itself as "American first and conservative second."
"This smacks of the bad old days in the Bay Area when returning Vietnam vets were spat upon. Some high-ranking military person should make sure it never happens again. Our Iraq vets should be welcome anywhere and everywhere," Gibson wrote.
Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums, a former Marine, agreed, saying the country's troops "deserve only the utmost respect for their service to our country."
"I want to be very clear, the city of Oakland does not condone this type of treatment of our troops," Dellums said. "I have directed our port to look into these matters and work closely with airport personnel to ensure that this type of situation never happens again."
Steve Forsyth, North American Airlines spokesman, said it appears that neither the airport nor the airline did anything wrong. He said the plan from the beginning was for the Boeing 767 to make a short layover in Oakland before returning the troops to their base at Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii.
"Everything I've heard up to this point doesn't imply that there were any issues in the way it was handled, except apparently someone has complained," Forsyth said.
The airport said the Marines were not screened by Transportation Security Administration agents after they arrived in New York on a flight from Kuwait. That factored into the decision to exclude them from the passenger terminal, officials said. But the TSA said the Marines had been screened by U.S. Customs.
"At no time were servicemen and women prohibited from entering the sterile area of Oakland International Airport by TSA personnel or regulations," the federal agency said.
The plane left for Hawaii about two hours after landing in Oakland, Barnes said.
E-mail Henry K. Lee at hlee@sfchronicle.com.
Wrap...
Oakland airport keeps Marines out of terminal in Oakland stopover
Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Marines arriving on a military charter flight on their way home from Iraq were barred from entering a passenger terminal at Oakland International Airport to greet family and friends because of security concerns, airport officials acknowledged Tuesday.
Airport authorities decided to keep the Marines at a remote location on the tarmac because the troops had not been screened and had their weapons on board when the plane landed about 1:30 p.m. Thursday, officials said.
Federal authorities, however, said the Marines had been screened when their flight out of Kuwait landed earlier in the day in New York.
"There was no disrespect that was intended," said Omar Benjamin, executive director of the Port of Oakland, which runs the airport. "There was confusion. There were mistakes that were made."
Some of the 200 Marines on board wanted to meet and greet family and friends at the Oakland passenger terminal before continuing on to their base in Hawaii, but that request wasn't made in advance by the military's charter airline, North American Airlines, or its ground handler, Hilltop Aviation, said airport spokeswoman Rosemary Barnes.
As a result, the Marines weren't allowed in the passenger terminal, although they were allowed to get out of the plane to smoke, stretch their legs or go to the restroom, said airport officials, who apologized for the incident. "With different information, there would have been a different outcome," Barnes said.
The incident has prompted outcry by conservative bloggers online who have questioned the airport's motives and patriotism.
"On the far-left coast (the Marines) were quarantined from civilians," John Gibson wrote on Theodore's World, a Web site that bills itself as "American first and conservative second."
"This smacks of the bad old days in the Bay Area when returning Vietnam vets were spat upon. Some high-ranking military person should make sure it never happens again. Our Iraq vets should be welcome anywhere and everywhere," Gibson wrote.
Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums, a former Marine, agreed, saying the country's troops "deserve only the utmost respect for their service to our country."
"I want to be very clear, the city of Oakland does not condone this type of treatment of our troops," Dellums said. "I have directed our port to look into these matters and work closely with airport personnel to ensure that this type of situation never happens again."
Steve Forsyth, North American Airlines spokesman, said it appears that neither the airport nor the airline did anything wrong. He said the plan from the beginning was for the Boeing 767 to make a short layover in Oakland before returning the troops to their base at Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii.
"Everything I've heard up to this point doesn't imply that there were any issues in the way it was handled, except apparently someone has complained," Forsyth said.
The airport said the Marines were not screened by Transportation Security Administration agents after they arrived in New York on a flight from Kuwait. That factored into the decision to exclude them from the passenger terminal, officials said. But the TSA said the Marines had been screened by U.S. Customs.
"At no time were servicemen and women prohibited from entering the sterile area of Oakland International Airport by TSA personnel or regulations," the federal agency said.
The plane left for Hawaii about two hours after landing in Oakland, Barnes said.
E-mail Henry K. Lee at hlee@sfchronicle.com.
Wrap...
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
Guliani backers try to mess up CA's electoral system...
From San Francisco Chronicle via truthout.org :
Democrats Want Federal Probe of California Ballot Effort
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/100207T.shtml
The San Francisco Chronicle's Carla Marinucci writes: "Democratic Party activists said Monday that they have filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission charging connections between backers of Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani and a GOP-supported ballot measure that could have changed California's winner-take-all electoral college system to benefit Republican candidates."
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
Democrats Want Federal Probe of California Ballot Effort
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/100207T.shtml
The San Francisco Chronicle's Carla Marinucci writes: "Democratic Party activists said Monday that they have filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission charging connections between backers of Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani and a GOP-supported ballot measure that could have changed California's winner-take-all electoral college system to benefit Republican candidates."
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
Bush ignores laws at his pleasure...what else is new?
From Reuters via truthout.org :
Court Reverses Bush on Archive Secrecy
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/100207M.shtml
JoAnne Allen, of Reuters, writes: "a federal judge on Monday tossed out part of a 2001 order by President George W. Bush that lets former presidents keep some of their presidential papers secret indefinitely. US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly ruled that the U.S. Archivist's reliance on the executive order to delay release of the papers of former presidents is 'arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion and not in accordance with law.'"
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
Court Reverses Bush on Archive Secrecy
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/100207M.shtml
JoAnne Allen, of Reuters, writes: "a federal judge on Monday tossed out part of a 2001 order by President George W. Bush that lets former presidents keep some of their presidential papers secret indefinitely. US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly ruled that the U.S. Archivist's reliance on the executive order to delay release of the papers of former presidents is 'arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion and not in accordance with law.'"
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
Monday, October 01, 2007
From Blackwater to Sen Byrd's black eye...
From American Progress:
Think Fast...
Blackwater contractors have alleged that a Sept. 16 deadly shooting in Iraq was initiated in response to hostile fire. But an "extensive evidence file" put together by the Iraqi National Police -- including documents, maps, sworn witness statements, and police video footage -- concludes that the Blackwater vehicles "opened fire crazily and randomly, without any reason."
"Congress again has extended funding for a core abstinence-education program, sparking protests from sex-education advocates who want Democrats to pull the plug on such programs."
Gen. David Petraeus said the United States is prepared to "reciprocate" if Iran halts shipments of arms to Iraq's Shia Muslim militias. Meanwhile, Ali Larijani, head of the Supreme National Security Council, rejected accusations that Iran is providing weapons. He added that Iran is ready to work with the U.S. to "help them materialize" a withdrawal from Iraq.
"For the fifth time since 2001, Congress is raising the debt limit, increasing it by $850 billion to $9.815 trillion. The Senate approved the plan on a 53-42 vote Thursday night. The House of Representatives has already signed off on the plan, without a direct vote."
Defense Secretary Robert Gates "told a group of U.S. House Democratic lawmakers that the multinational mission in Afghanistan is suffering from a lack of resources, citing the war in Iraq and the reluctance of U.S. allies to contribute more troops, participants at the meeting said."
Yesterday, the U.S. Embassy in Iraq "criticized a Senate resolution that could lead to a division" of the country "into sectarian or ethnic territories, agreeing with a swath of Iraqi leaders in saying the proposal 'would produce extraordinary suffering and bloodshed.'"
"Out of a political stalemate over Iraq, domestic policy is surging to prominence on Capitol Hill" this week, with "Republicans and Democrats preparing for a time-honored clash over health care, tax policy, the scope of government and its role in America’s problems at home." According to the Washington Post, Republicans view the shift away from Iraq as "a relief."
Defense contractor Brent Wilkes goes on trial tomorrow "to fight federal charges that he funneled more than $700,000 in bribes" to former congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham "in the form of both cash and perks ranging from a Sea-Doo jet boat to the services of two prostitutes at a high-end Hawaiian resort."
And finally: Last week, Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) was seen sporting an "icky" "bloodshot eye." A Byrd spokesman confirmed to Roll Call that the injury was not the result of a scuffle with Vice President Cheney, but an "all-out battle" with his grandchildren, who "challenged their 89-year-old great-grandpa to a game of 'how long can you hold your breath' in a swimming pool."
Wrap...
Think Fast...
Blackwater contractors have alleged that a Sept. 16 deadly shooting in Iraq was initiated in response to hostile fire. But an "extensive evidence file" put together by the Iraqi National Police -- including documents, maps, sworn witness statements, and police video footage -- concludes that the Blackwater vehicles "opened fire crazily and randomly, without any reason."
"Congress again has extended funding for a core abstinence-education program, sparking protests from sex-education advocates who want Democrats to pull the plug on such programs."
Gen. David Petraeus said the United States is prepared to "reciprocate" if Iran halts shipments of arms to Iraq's Shia Muslim militias. Meanwhile, Ali Larijani, head of the Supreme National Security Council, rejected accusations that Iran is providing weapons. He added that Iran is ready to work with the U.S. to "help them materialize" a withdrawal from Iraq.
"For the fifth time since 2001, Congress is raising the debt limit, increasing it by $850 billion to $9.815 trillion. The Senate approved the plan on a 53-42 vote Thursday night. The House of Representatives has already signed off on the plan, without a direct vote."
Defense Secretary Robert Gates "told a group of U.S. House Democratic lawmakers that the multinational mission in Afghanistan is suffering from a lack of resources, citing the war in Iraq and the reluctance of U.S. allies to contribute more troops, participants at the meeting said."
Yesterday, the U.S. Embassy in Iraq "criticized a Senate resolution that could lead to a division" of the country "into sectarian or ethnic territories, agreeing with a swath of Iraqi leaders in saying the proposal 'would produce extraordinary suffering and bloodshed.'"
"Out of a political stalemate over Iraq, domestic policy is surging to prominence on Capitol Hill" this week, with "Republicans and Democrats preparing for a time-honored clash over health care, tax policy, the scope of government and its role in America’s problems at home." According to the Washington Post, Republicans view the shift away from Iraq as "a relief."
Defense contractor Brent Wilkes goes on trial tomorrow "to fight federal charges that he funneled more than $700,000 in bribes" to former congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham "in the form of both cash and perks ranging from a Sea-Doo jet boat to the services of two prostitutes at a high-end Hawaiian resort."
And finally: Last week, Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) was seen sporting an "icky" "bloodshot eye." A Byrd spokesman confirmed to Roll Call that the injury was not the result of a scuffle with Vice President Cheney, but an "all-out battle" with his grandchildren, who "challenged their 89-year-old great-grandpa to a game of 'how long can you hold your breath' in a swimming pool."
Wrap...
Illegally arrested at Repub Nat'l Conv....
From truthout.org :
Nick Turse | Fortress Big Apple, 2007
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/100107H.shtml
Nick Turse writes for TomDispatch.com: "I am one of the demonstrators who was illegally arrested by the New York City Police Department during the protests against the 2004 Republican National Convention. My crime had been -- in an effort to call attention to the human toll of America's wars -- to ride the subway, dressed in black with the pallor of death about me (thanks to cornstarch and cold cream), and an expression to match, sporting a placard around my neck that read: WAR DEAD."
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
Nick Turse | Fortress Big Apple, 2007
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/100107H.shtml
Nick Turse writes for TomDispatch.com: "I am one of the demonstrators who was illegally arrested by the New York City Police Department during the protests against the 2004 Republican National Convention. My crime had been -- in an effort to call attention to the human toll of America's wars -- to ride the subway, dressed in black with the pallor of death about me (thanks to cornstarch and cold cream), and an expression to match, sporting a placard around my neck that read: WAR DEAD."
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
Sunday, September 30, 2007
So the Iraqis tell us...
From Information Clearing House:
A Message (In English) From The Iraqi Resistance.
Must Watch Video and Transcript
To the American people we say, you have finally awakened and the millions of honorable people amongst you have now realized that the Iraqi people are not your enemies, and they are not responsible for your grief. It is your troops which occupied our country, and not us yours. The arrogant war criminal who rules in your name has humiliated your nation & military honor and we believe, that a democracy that is not willing to fight for its own freedom, is no better that a raw dictatorship.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18483.htm
[Use link above to continue]
Wrap...
A Message (In English) From The Iraqi Resistance.
Must Watch Video and Transcript
To the American people we say, you have finally awakened and the millions of honorable people amongst you have now realized that the Iraqi people are not your enemies, and they are not responsible for your grief. It is your troops which occupied our country, and not us yours. The arrogant war criminal who rules in your name has humiliated your nation & military honor and we believe, that a democracy that is not willing to fight for its own freedom, is no better that a raw dictatorship.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18483.htm
[Use link above to continue]
Wrap...
Damn it all to hell...this is not right!!!
From truthout.org :
Returning From Iraq, Wounded Vets Now Suffer Financial Woes
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/093007F.shtml
Jeff Donn and Kimberly Hefling, The Associated Press, write: "He was one of America's first defenders on September 11, 2001, a Marine who pulled burned bodies from the ruins of the Pentagon. He saw more horrors in Kuwait and Iraq. Today, he can't keep a job, pay his bills, or chase thoughts of suicide from his tortured brain."
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
Returning From Iraq, Wounded Vets Now Suffer Financial Woes
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/093007F.shtml
Jeff Donn and Kimberly Hefling, The Associated Press, write: "He was one of America's first defenders on September 11, 2001, a Marine who pulled burned bodies from the ruins of the Pentagon. He saw more horrors in Kuwait and Iraq. Today, he can't keep a job, pay his bills, or chase thoughts of suicide from his tortured brain."
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
Peggy Noonan...is absolutely right!
From The Wall Street Journal:
PEGGY NOONAN
Hear, Hear
Americans should not fear talking--and listening--to those whose views we loathe.
Friday, September 28, 2007 12:01 a.m.
You don't want to judge Christ by Christians, someone once said. He is perfect, they are not.
In a similar way you don't want to judge capitalism by capitalists, or the legitimacy of democracy by the Democrats, or the vitality of our republic by the Republicans. You have to take the thing pure and in itself, while allowing for the flaws and waywardness of its practitioners.
I say this because here in America we have reached a funny pass. People are doing and saying odd things as if they don't know the meaning of the thing they say they stand for. In particular I mean we used to be proud of whom we allowed to speak, and now are leaning toward defining ourselves by whom we don't speak to and will not allow to speak. This is not progress.
Conservatives on campus are shouted down. A crusader against illegal immigration is rushed off the stage at Columbia University. Great newspapers give ad breaks to groups with which they feel an ideological affinity, but turn away ads from those they do not, such as antiabortion groups. And they call this a business.
So much silencing. It seems so weak, so out of keeping with who we are. We love the tradition of free speech in America, but you don't want to judge its health by what we've done with it lately, or to it.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/pnoonan/
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
PEGGY NOONAN
Hear, Hear
Americans should not fear talking--and listening--to those whose views we loathe.
Friday, September 28, 2007 12:01 a.m.
You don't want to judge Christ by Christians, someone once said. He is perfect, they are not.
In a similar way you don't want to judge capitalism by capitalists, or the legitimacy of democracy by the Democrats, or the vitality of our republic by the Republicans. You have to take the thing pure and in itself, while allowing for the flaws and waywardness of its practitioners.
I say this because here in America we have reached a funny pass. People are doing and saying odd things as if they don't know the meaning of the thing they say they stand for. In particular I mean we used to be proud of whom we allowed to speak, and now are leaning toward defining ourselves by whom we don't speak to and will not allow to speak. This is not progress.
Conservatives on campus are shouted down. A crusader against illegal immigration is rushed off the stage at Columbia University. Great newspapers give ad breaks to groups with which they feel an ideological affinity, but turn away ads from those they do not, such as antiabortion groups. And they call this a business.
So much silencing. It seems so weak, so out of keeping with who we are. We love the tradition of free speech in America, but you don't want to judge its health by what we've done with it lately, or to it.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/pnoonan/
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
He did lie...Apologize to Move-On!!!
From LA Times via truthout.org :
FOCUS | Petraeus Now Admits to Rise in Iraq Violence
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/093007Z.shtml
Alexandra Zavis reported in the Los Angeles Times that General David Petraeus admitted that violence in Iraq has increased, contradicting his testimony before Congress earlier this month when he said that attacks between Sunni and Shiite factions fell dramatically since George W. Bush sent an additional 30,000 US troops into Iraq earlier this year.
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
FOCUS | Petraeus Now Admits to Rise in Iraq Violence
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/093007Z.shtml
Alexandra Zavis reported in the Los Angeles Times that General David Petraeus admitted that violence in Iraq has increased, contradicting his testimony before Congress earlier this month when he said that attacks between Sunni and Shiite factions fell dramatically since George W. Bush sent an additional 30,000 US troops into Iraq earlier this year.
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Remove "person" from all Corporations...
From UUWorld.org :
How Corporate Personhood Threatens Democracy
How Corporations Became 'Persons'
The amazing true story of a legal fiction that undermines American democracy.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Tom Stites
"Corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Corporations Special Issue
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Corporations 1, Citizens 0 by David Wolman and Heather Wax
Communities Fight Back by Jane Greer
A Prodemocracy Visionary by Kimberly French
Resources on Corporate Privilege by Jane Greer and Tom Stites
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sound like a protester railing against the World Trade Organization? Think again. These are the words of a successful corporate lawyer who represented railroads before becoming president of the United States. They resonate for many people in this Era of Enron, when huge hot-stock corporations have cooked deals with the aid of their auditors and Wall Street bankers to enrich executives at the expense of their employees and shareholders, when corporate lobbyists and campaign donors so often have their way despite the interests of the voters, and when Federal Reserve figures show that the top 1 percent of U.S. households controls 38 percent of the nation's wealth. But these words were written in an 1864 letter, by Abraham Lincoln.
Today, Lincoln's prophetic letter turns up more than 1,100 times in an Internet search, largely in writing that provides evidence that concern about corporate power is spreading rapidly—even though the issue is far from popular in our corporate-owned news media. The number of books on the topic is growing in number and quality. And a new breed of activists is winning converts to the idea that while vast corporations have helped fuel unprecedented prosperity they have also overpowered "government of the people, by the people, and for the people," to quote another memorable Lincoln phrase. Corporations' power over the government is at the root of a wide array of issues of deep concern to Unitarian Universalists, including campaign finance reform, the growing gap between rich and poor, environmental degradation, globalization, and whether democracy itself has been reduced to a mere charade or a sideshow in a global bazaar.
The debate about corporate power so far has cast it as a political issue. Yet, like all that is crucial, it is a religious concern as well. Any force that can overpower democracy is a threat not only to our nation's political system but also to the human spirit, to the right of conscience, and thus to human freedom.
http://www.uuworld.org/2003/03/feature1a.html
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
How Corporate Personhood Threatens Democracy
How Corporations Became 'Persons'
The amazing true story of a legal fiction that undermines American democracy.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Tom Stites
"Corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Corporations Special Issue
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Corporations 1, Citizens 0 by David Wolman and Heather Wax
Communities Fight Back by Jane Greer
A Prodemocracy Visionary by Kimberly French
Resources on Corporate Privilege by Jane Greer and Tom Stites
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sound like a protester railing against the World Trade Organization? Think again. These are the words of a successful corporate lawyer who represented railroads before becoming president of the United States. They resonate for many people in this Era of Enron, when huge hot-stock corporations have cooked deals with the aid of their auditors and Wall Street bankers to enrich executives at the expense of their employees and shareholders, when corporate lobbyists and campaign donors so often have their way despite the interests of the voters, and when Federal Reserve figures show that the top 1 percent of U.S. households controls 38 percent of the nation's wealth. But these words were written in an 1864 letter, by Abraham Lincoln.
Today, Lincoln's prophetic letter turns up more than 1,100 times in an Internet search, largely in writing that provides evidence that concern about corporate power is spreading rapidly—even though the issue is far from popular in our corporate-owned news media. The number of books on the topic is growing in number and quality. And a new breed of activists is winning converts to the idea that while vast corporations have helped fuel unprecedented prosperity they have also overpowered "government of the people, by the people, and for the people," to quote another memorable Lincoln phrase. Corporations' power over the government is at the root of a wide array of issues of deep concern to Unitarian Universalists, including campaign finance reform, the growing gap between rich and poor, environmental degradation, globalization, and whether democracy itself has been reduced to a mere charade or a sideshow in a global bazaar.
The debate about corporate power so far has cast it as a political issue. Yet, like all that is crucial, it is a religious concern as well. Any force that can overpower democracy is a threat not only to our nation's political system but also to the human spirit, to the right of conscience, and thus to human freedom.
http://www.uuworld.org/2003/03/feature1a.html
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
Friday, September 28, 2007
From GOP candidates to Scooter Libby's prison #...
From American Progress:
Think Fast...
The decision by the four leading frontrunners for the GOP presidential nomination to skip last night's debate that focused on issues related to people of color elicited outrage from the rest of the field. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said he was "embarrassed," and Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS) said the absence of the leading candidates was a "disgrace."
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki rejected a U.S. Senate proposal calling for the partitioning of Iraq. "Iraqis are eager for Iraq's unity. ... Dividing Iraq is a problem and a decision like that would be a catastrophe," he said.
One of members of the Jena 6 -- Mychal Bell -- "was released on bail on Thursday, a week after the case drew thousands of protesters to the small town in the central part of the state." The Jena district attorney announced that "he would not seek to maintain adult charges against the teenager."
An initial State Department report on a Sept. 16 shootout in Baghdad involving Blackwater USA says the private security contractors were "ambushed near the traffic circle and returned fire before fleeing the scene," a depiction of events that contradicts Iraqi findings. Separately, State has confirmed that Blackwater personnel have been involved in 56 shootings while guarding U.S. officials this past year.
The State Department said yesterday that "the first American oil contract in Iraq," between the Hunt Oil Company and the Kurdistan Regional Government," is counterproductive towards the U.S. goal of "strengthening the country's central government."
"Fourteen "high-value" terrorism suspects who were transferred to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, from secret CIA prisons last year have been formally offered the right to request lawyers, a move that could allow them to join other detainees in challenging their status as enemy combatants in a U.S. appellate court."
"It's a lonely U.S. Senate for Larry Craig, whose uncertain status has upset his social and political standing in the clubby chamber." McClatchy newspapers observed Craig's interactions with his colleagues: "[He] mostly moved stiffly through their ranks without engaging much in the easy jocularity and bipartisan banter that go on throughout the day."
And finally: Scooter Libby's prison pseudonym lives on. In the season premiere of NBC's My Name Is Earl last night, the show opened with Earl talking about his life in prison. He then mentioned that for the next two years, he'd be known as inmate 28301-016 -- the same number that the Bureau of Prisons issued to "Scooter" Libby.
Wrap...
Think Fast...
The decision by the four leading frontrunners for the GOP presidential nomination to skip last night's debate that focused on issues related to people of color elicited outrage from the rest of the field. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said he was "embarrassed," and Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS) said the absence of the leading candidates was a "disgrace."
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki rejected a U.S. Senate proposal calling for the partitioning of Iraq. "Iraqis are eager for Iraq's unity. ... Dividing Iraq is a problem and a decision like that would be a catastrophe," he said.
One of members of the Jena 6 -- Mychal Bell -- "was released on bail on Thursday, a week after the case drew thousands of protesters to the small town in the central part of the state." The Jena district attorney announced that "he would not seek to maintain adult charges against the teenager."
An initial State Department report on a Sept. 16 shootout in Baghdad involving Blackwater USA says the private security contractors were "ambushed near the traffic circle and returned fire before fleeing the scene," a depiction of events that contradicts Iraqi findings. Separately, State has confirmed that Blackwater personnel have been involved in 56 shootings while guarding U.S. officials this past year.
The State Department said yesterday that "the first American oil contract in Iraq," between the Hunt Oil Company and the Kurdistan Regional Government," is counterproductive towards the U.S. goal of "strengthening the country's central government."
"Fourteen "high-value" terrorism suspects who were transferred to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, from secret CIA prisons last year have been formally offered the right to request lawyers, a move that could allow them to join other detainees in challenging their status as enemy combatants in a U.S. appellate court."
"It's a lonely U.S. Senate for Larry Craig, whose uncertain status has upset his social and political standing in the clubby chamber." McClatchy newspapers observed Craig's interactions with his colleagues: "[He] mostly moved stiffly through their ranks without engaging much in the easy jocularity and bipartisan banter that go on throughout the day."
And finally: Scooter Libby's prison pseudonym lives on. In the season premiere of NBC's My Name Is Earl last night, the show opened with Earl talking about his life in prison. He then mentioned that for the next two years, he'd be known as inmate 28301-016 -- the same number that the Bureau of Prisons issued to "Scooter" Libby.
Wrap...
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Afghanistan news we don't get in US....
From BBC News:
Taleban 'could re-take territory'
Territory in Afghanistan captured in hard-fought battles by British troops may be re-taken by the Taleban, the Nato commander has warned.
Gen Dan McNeill said the alliance had made some important military gains over the past six months in Helmand.
But he expressed concern that Afghan security forces would not be able to hold on to the territory as the Taleban regroup over winter.
About 25 British troops have been killed there in the past six months.
Tactics in Helmand province, in the south of Afghanistan, over the past six months have been to push the Taleban out of the lush river valleys where the insurgents have had a stronghold.
The tactics have meant close-quarters fighting for British troops.
Exit strategy
Gen McNeill, in an interview with BBC correspondent Alastair Leithhead, said this had been a successful military strategy but that he was concerned the job of holding the ground would not be done effectively by Afghan national security forces.
He said some of the ground taken may have to be taken all over again next year if the Taleban regroup over the winter as he fears they will.
"I think there is some chance of that because the Afghan national security forces have not been as successful in holding as we would like them to be," he said.
"We are likely to have to do some of this work again.
"It would nice if the Afghan national security force could hold it, then there's less of a chance we'll have to do it again."
Training the Afghan army and police to a level where they can maintain Afghanistan security is the exit strategy for foreign forces.
Gen McNeill said the mission was on track and he was pleased with the military progress and ongoing reconstruction projects.
However, he said the third key pillar - improving governance - was not going well and more work would have to be done.
Wrap...
Taleban 'could re-take territory'
Territory in Afghanistan captured in hard-fought battles by British troops may be re-taken by the Taleban, the Nato commander has warned.
Gen Dan McNeill said the alliance had made some important military gains over the past six months in Helmand.
But he expressed concern that Afghan security forces would not be able to hold on to the territory as the Taleban regroup over winter.
About 25 British troops have been killed there in the past six months.
Tactics in Helmand province, in the south of Afghanistan, over the past six months have been to push the Taleban out of the lush river valleys where the insurgents have had a stronghold.
The tactics have meant close-quarters fighting for British troops.
Exit strategy
Gen McNeill, in an interview with BBC correspondent Alastair Leithhead, said this had been a successful military strategy but that he was concerned the job of holding the ground would not be done effectively by Afghan national security forces.
He said some of the ground taken may have to be taken all over again next year if the Taleban regroup over the winter as he fears they will.
"I think there is some chance of that because the Afghan national security forces have not been as successful in holding as we would like them to be," he said.
"We are likely to have to do some of this work again.
"It would nice if the Afghan national security force could hold it, then there's less of a chance we'll have to do it again."
Training the Afghan army and police to a level where they can maintain Afghanistan security is the exit strategy for foreign forces.
Gen McNeill said the mission was on track and he was pleased with the military progress and ongoing reconstruction projects.
However, he said the third key pillar - improving governance - was not going well and more work would have to be done.
Wrap...
Iran FIRST...Iraq now 2nd for Bush/Cheney...
From truthout.org :
Scott Ritter | Iraq Will Have to Wait
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/092707C.shtml
Scott Ritter writes for Truthdig.com: "While the antiwar movement focuses its limited resources on trying to leverage real congressional opposition to the war in Iraq, which simply will not happen before the 2008 election, the Bush administration and its Democratic opponents will outflank the antiwar movement on the issue of Iran, pushing forward an aggressive agenda in the face of light or nonexistent opposition. Of the two problems (the reality of Iraq, the potential of Iran), Iran is by far the more important."
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
Scott Ritter | Iraq Will Have to Wait
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/092707C.shtml
Scott Ritter writes for Truthdig.com: "While the antiwar movement focuses its limited resources on trying to leverage real congressional opposition to the war in Iraq, which simply will not happen before the 2008 election, the Bush administration and its Democratic opponents will outflank the antiwar movement on the issue of Iran, pushing forward an aggressive agenda in the face of light or nonexistent opposition. Of the two problems (the reality of Iraq, the potential of Iran), Iran is by far the more important."
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
From DOD vs Blackwater USA to Pig in bathroom stall...
From American Progress:
Think Fast...
U.S. military officials are pressing the State Department to "assert more control over" Blackwater USA, "which operates under the department's authority." "This is a nightmare," said a senior military official of the recent incident involving Blackwater. "This is going to hurt us badly. It may be worse than Abu Ghraib."
While expressing his support for international human rights yesterday at the U.N., "Bush didn't mention the U.S. prisons in Afghanistan or at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, the U.S. practice of holding detainees for years without legal charges or access to lawyers, or the CIA's 'rendition' kidnappings of suspects abroad, all issues of concern to human rights activists around the world."
Negotiators from the United Auto Workers union and General Motors reached a tentative agreement on a groundbreaking deal early Wednesday to end a two-day old strike by 73,000 workers. The agreement "includes a historic restructuring of GM's obligations for UAW retiree health care."
"Sunni Arab extremists have begun a systematic campaign to assassinate police chiefs, police officers, other Interior Ministry officials and tribal leaders throughout Iraq, staging at least 10 attacks in 48 hours." Iraqi officials said that the attacks might well have been intended to blunt the administration's message that "surge" has succeeded in establishing security.
More than 2,000 people in Iraq are suffering from cholera, which is spreading across the country, the World Health Organization said. The spread of the disease has been accelerated by chlorine restrictions imposed on Iraq due to security concerns.
"Senate Democrats moved Tuesday to add an expanded hate-crimes ban to the defense authorization, giving them more time to court GOP votes for a new Iraq withdrawal plan but dimming the must-pass bill's chances for passage this week."
House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) said he will "press the government for the release of a black teenager held in the 'Jena 6' case that spurred one of the biggest civil-rights demonstrations in years." "Our first responsibility is to get young Mychal Bell out of prison," he said.
And finally: The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine has released an ad showcasing the "disturbing relationship between agribusiness contributions" and pork-barrel funding projects. In the ad, a suited man walks into a men's room with a briefcase, begins tapping his foot, and is handed cash from underneath a neighboring stall. "The next stall occupant? A giant pig, squealing." Watch it here.
Wrap...
Think Fast...
U.S. military officials are pressing the State Department to "assert more control over" Blackwater USA, "which operates under the department's authority." "This is a nightmare," said a senior military official of the recent incident involving Blackwater. "This is going to hurt us badly. It may be worse than Abu Ghraib."
While expressing his support for international human rights yesterday at the U.N., "Bush didn't mention the U.S. prisons in Afghanistan or at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, the U.S. practice of holding detainees for years without legal charges or access to lawyers, or the CIA's 'rendition' kidnappings of suspects abroad, all issues of concern to human rights activists around the world."
Negotiators from the United Auto Workers union and General Motors reached a tentative agreement on a groundbreaking deal early Wednesday to end a two-day old strike by 73,000 workers. The agreement "includes a historic restructuring of GM's obligations for UAW retiree health care."
"Sunni Arab extremists have begun a systematic campaign to assassinate police chiefs, police officers, other Interior Ministry officials and tribal leaders throughout Iraq, staging at least 10 attacks in 48 hours." Iraqi officials said that the attacks might well have been intended to blunt the administration's message that "surge" has succeeded in establishing security.
More than 2,000 people in Iraq are suffering from cholera, which is spreading across the country, the World Health Organization said. The spread of the disease has been accelerated by chlorine restrictions imposed on Iraq due to security concerns.
"Senate Democrats moved Tuesday to add an expanded hate-crimes ban to the defense authorization, giving them more time to court GOP votes for a new Iraq withdrawal plan but dimming the must-pass bill's chances for passage this week."
House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) said he will "press the government for the release of a black teenager held in the 'Jena 6' case that spurred one of the biggest civil-rights demonstrations in years." "Our first responsibility is to get young Mychal Bell out of prison," he said.
And finally: The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine has released an ad showcasing the "disturbing relationship between agribusiness contributions" and pork-barrel funding projects. In the ad, a suited man walks into a men's room with a briefcase, begins tapping his foot, and is handed cash from underneath a neighboring stall. "The next stall occupant? A giant pig, squealing." Watch it here.
Wrap...
Some mighty interesting books...
From Publishers Lunch Weekly:
FICTION/DEBUT:
Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani's I DO NOT COME TO YOU BY CHANCE, the story of a Nigerian family descending into poverty -- focusing on an earnestly ambitious son and his prideful, cautious mother -- who are drawn into Nigeria's 419 email scam industry, with its implications on their personal lives and on Nigerian society at large, to Zareen Jaffrey at Hyperion, by Daniel Lazar at Writers House (NA).
Irete Lazo's THE ACCIDENTAL SANTERA, the story of a Latina scientist's unlikely journey into Santeria, the ancient and often-misunderstood religion brought to the New World by Yoruba slaves, to Toni Plummer at Thomas Dunne Books, by Zachary Shuster Harmsworth Literary Agency (World).
MYSTERY/CRIME:
Author of Dead Connection, Alafair Burke's LAST CALL, continuing with Detective Ellie Hatcher, pitting her against a serial killer targeting the Manhattan bar scene, moving with Jennifer Barth to Harper, for two books, for publication beginning in fall 2008, by Philip Spitzer at Philip Spitzer Literary Agency (world, excl. UK).
Translation rights: sandy.hodgman@harpercollins.com
Mehmet Murat Somer's THE KISS MURDER and THE PROPHET MURDERS, the first in a mystery series set in Istanbul starring a transvestite nightclub owner who is a Thai kickboxing expert, has a fondness for the chic style of Audrey Hepburn, and is drawn into solving crimes of passion, blackmail, and sexual intrigue, to Alexis Washam at Penguin, in a pre-empt, by George Lucas at Inkwell Management on behalf of Serpent's Tail (NA).
GENERAL/OTHER:
Thrity Umrigar's THE WEIGHT OF HEAVEN, the story of a young American couple who travel to India to heal from the grief of the death of their son and while there decide to adopt a child, but are forced to face with their own cultural imperialism, again to Claire Wachtel at Harper, by Marly Rusoff at Marly Rusoff & Associates (world; excl. Germany).
Seth Greenland's SHINING CITY, a satire of contemporary life, in which an average guy inherits a dry-cleaning business from his estranged brother, discovers it's a front for a call-girl service, and must come to terms with his new life as a pimp, to Colin Dickerman at Bloomsbury, by Henry Dunow at Dunow, Carlson & Lerner (NA).
CHILDREN'S/YOUNG ADULT:
Sarah Ockler's debut TWENTY BOY SUMMER, pitched as in the tradition of Ann Brashares and Sarah Dessen, following a sixteen-year-old girl with a life-shattering secret as she navigates the unfamiliar landscape of changing friendships, burgeoning sexuality, loss, and the meaning of true love, to Jennifer Hunt at Little, Brown, in a pre-empt, for two books, by Ted Malawer at Firebrand Literary.
ted@firebrandliterary.com
BUSINESS/INVESTING/FINANCE:
THE SMART COOKIES' GUIDE TO MAKING MORE DOUGH, recounting five women's personal stories of their financial mishaps and strategies for paying down debt as quickly and painlessly as possible, to Danielle Perez at Bantam Dell, and Canadian rights to Anne Collins at Random House Canada, by Pilar Queen and Richard Pine at Inkwell Management.
HEALTH:
Dr. Robert Kaplan's DO NO HARM: The Disturbing Phenomenon of Medical Murder, exploring the dark side of the doctor's compulsion to take responsibility for human life - the potential for unbalanced or sychopathic physicians to take responsibility for death, and how the medical system has often let them get away with it, to Peter Ginna at Bloomsbury, by Martin Kaplan (World).
HISTORY/POLITICS/CURRENT AFFAIRS:
Guardian China correspondent Jonathan Watts's WHEN A BILLION CHINESE JUMP, a ground-up exploration of the stark choice facing China: become either the world's first green superpower or an agent of global ecological disaster, to Colin Robinson at Scribner, and Henry Volans at Faber UK, by David Fugate at LaunchBooks Literary Agency.
david@launchbooks.com
Exiled former prime minister of Pakistan (back in the news for a possible return to power) Benazir Bhutto's RECONCILIATION: Islam, Democracy and the West, part memoir and part political book, offering a "look at the mistakes we've made in the region and what we can do to correct them - as well as what the consequences will be if we don't," to Tim Duggan at Harper, for publication in spring 2008, by Andrew Wylie at The Wylie Agency.
HUMOR:
GOLDIE'S LOX AND THE THREE BAGELS authors Jeffrey Dubinsky and Lila Dubinsky's A FISTFUL OF DREIDELS AND OTHER YIDDISH TALES OF THE OLD WEST, short western stories with a Jewish twist, such as Gunfight At The Oy Vey Corral; The Good, The Bad, and The Meshugah; Have Gelt, Will Travel; and My Darling Clemenstein, to Gary Goldstein at Citadel, in a nice deal, for publication in Fall 2008 (World).
MEMOIR:
Andy Taylor's WILD BOY: MY LIFE WITH DURAN DURAN, the memoir from the former member of Duran Duran that charts his 25 years in the music world and sheds light on its key players from the inside, and how his 20-plus year marriage has endured against all odds, to Karen Kosztolnyik at Grand Central, by Diane Banks of Diane Banks Associates (US).
Pulitzer Prize-winning music critic Tim Page's PARALLEL PLAY, a memoir based on his New Yorker article about growing up gifted and unknowingly struggling with Asperger's Syndrome, to Karyn Marcus at Doubleday, in a pre-empt, for publication in fall 2009, by Melanie Jackson at the Melanie Jackson Agency.
SCIENCE:
NBCC finalist Jason Roberts' EVERY LIVING THING, about the audacious, often-fatal program launched by scientist Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778), to compile a catalog of all life by sending acolytes to every corner of the globe (billed as "The Right Stuff of the 1700s"), to Starling Lawrence at Norton, in a pre-empt, for publication in 2009, by Michael Carlisle at Inkwell Management (US).
Canadian rights to Doubleday Canada, in a pre-empt.
Wrap...
FICTION/DEBUT:
Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani's I DO NOT COME TO YOU BY CHANCE, the story of a Nigerian family descending into poverty -- focusing on an earnestly ambitious son and his prideful, cautious mother -- who are drawn into Nigeria's 419 email scam industry, with its implications on their personal lives and on Nigerian society at large, to Zareen Jaffrey at Hyperion, by Daniel Lazar at Writers House (NA).
Irete Lazo's THE ACCIDENTAL SANTERA, the story of a Latina scientist's unlikely journey into Santeria, the ancient and often-misunderstood religion brought to the New World by Yoruba slaves, to Toni Plummer at Thomas Dunne Books, by Zachary Shuster Harmsworth Literary Agency (World).
MYSTERY/CRIME:
Author of Dead Connection, Alafair Burke's LAST CALL, continuing with Detective Ellie Hatcher, pitting her against a serial killer targeting the Manhattan bar scene, moving with Jennifer Barth to Harper, for two books, for publication beginning in fall 2008, by Philip Spitzer at Philip Spitzer Literary Agency (world, excl. UK).
Translation rights: sandy.hodgman@harpercollins.com
Mehmet Murat Somer's THE KISS MURDER and THE PROPHET MURDERS, the first in a mystery series set in Istanbul starring a transvestite nightclub owner who is a Thai kickboxing expert, has a fondness for the chic style of Audrey Hepburn, and is drawn into solving crimes of passion, blackmail, and sexual intrigue, to Alexis Washam at Penguin, in a pre-empt, by George Lucas at Inkwell Management on behalf of Serpent's Tail (NA).
GENERAL/OTHER:
Thrity Umrigar's THE WEIGHT OF HEAVEN, the story of a young American couple who travel to India to heal from the grief of the death of their son and while there decide to adopt a child, but are forced to face with their own cultural imperialism, again to Claire Wachtel at Harper, by Marly Rusoff at Marly Rusoff & Associates (world; excl. Germany).
Seth Greenland's SHINING CITY, a satire of contemporary life, in which an average guy inherits a dry-cleaning business from his estranged brother, discovers it's a front for a call-girl service, and must come to terms with his new life as a pimp, to Colin Dickerman at Bloomsbury, by Henry Dunow at Dunow, Carlson & Lerner (NA).
CHILDREN'S/YOUNG ADULT:
Sarah Ockler's debut TWENTY BOY SUMMER, pitched as in the tradition of Ann Brashares and Sarah Dessen, following a sixteen-year-old girl with a life-shattering secret as she navigates the unfamiliar landscape of changing friendships, burgeoning sexuality, loss, and the meaning of true love, to Jennifer Hunt at Little, Brown, in a pre-empt, for two books, by Ted Malawer at Firebrand Literary.
ted@firebrandliterary.com
BUSINESS/INVESTING/FINANCE:
THE SMART COOKIES' GUIDE TO MAKING MORE DOUGH, recounting five women's personal stories of their financial mishaps and strategies for paying down debt as quickly and painlessly as possible, to Danielle Perez at Bantam Dell, and Canadian rights to Anne Collins at Random House Canada, by Pilar Queen and Richard Pine at Inkwell Management.
HEALTH:
Dr. Robert Kaplan's DO NO HARM: The Disturbing Phenomenon of Medical Murder, exploring the dark side of the doctor's compulsion to take responsibility for human life - the potential for unbalanced or sychopathic physicians to take responsibility for death, and how the medical system has often let them get away with it, to Peter Ginna at Bloomsbury, by Martin Kaplan (World).
HISTORY/POLITICS/CURRENT AFFAIRS:
Guardian China correspondent Jonathan Watts's WHEN A BILLION CHINESE JUMP, a ground-up exploration of the stark choice facing China: become either the world's first green superpower or an agent of global ecological disaster, to Colin Robinson at Scribner, and Henry Volans at Faber UK, by David Fugate at LaunchBooks Literary Agency.
david@launchbooks.com
Exiled former prime minister of Pakistan (back in the news for a possible return to power) Benazir Bhutto's RECONCILIATION: Islam, Democracy and the West, part memoir and part political book, offering a "look at the mistakes we've made in the region and what we can do to correct them - as well as what the consequences will be if we don't," to Tim Duggan at Harper, for publication in spring 2008, by Andrew Wylie at The Wylie Agency.
HUMOR:
GOLDIE'S LOX AND THE THREE BAGELS authors Jeffrey Dubinsky and Lila Dubinsky's A FISTFUL OF DREIDELS AND OTHER YIDDISH TALES OF THE OLD WEST, short western stories with a Jewish twist, such as Gunfight At The Oy Vey Corral; The Good, The Bad, and The Meshugah; Have Gelt, Will Travel; and My Darling Clemenstein, to Gary Goldstein at Citadel, in a nice deal, for publication in Fall 2008 (World).
MEMOIR:
Andy Taylor's WILD BOY: MY LIFE WITH DURAN DURAN, the memoir from the former member of Duran Duran that charts his 25 years in the music world and sheds light on its key players from the inside, and how his 20-plus year marriage has endured against all odds, to Karen Kosztolnyik at Grand Central, by Diane Banks of Diane Banks Associates (US).
Pulitzer Prize-winning music critic Tim Page's PARALLEL PLAY, a memoir based on his New Yorker article about growing up gifted and unknowingly struggling with Asperger's Syndrome, to Karyn Marcus at Doubleday, in a pre-empt, for publication in fall 2009, by Melanie Jackson at the Melanie Jackson Agency.
SCIENCE:
NBCC finalist Jason Roberts' EVERY LIVING THING, about the audacious, often-fatal program launched by scientist Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778), to compile a catalog of all life by sending acolytes to every corner of the globe (billed as "The Right Stuff of the 1700s"), to Starling Lawrence at Norton, in a pre-empt, for publication in 2009, by Michael Carlisle at Inkwell Management (US).
Canadian rights to Doubleday Canada, in a pre-empt.
Wrap...
OK. Drinkers' turn in the barrel...for health/safety of course...
From NBCSanDiego.com :
Beer, Wine, Liquor Raise Breast Cancer Risk
Three Drinks A Day Like Pack Of Cigarettes
POSTED: 5:55 am PDT September 27, 2007
A woman who drinks alcohol -- whether it is beer, wine or liquor -- is more likely to get breast cancer, according to a new study.
The study by Kaiser Permanente looked at information from more than 70,000 women from 1978 to 1985. By 2004, more than 2,800 -- 4 percent -- had been diagnosed with breast cancer.
They found that women who had one or two drinks a day were 10 percent more likely to get breast cancer than light drinkers. Those who drank more had an even higher risk, leading researchers to say that it is the volume of alcohol consumed that increases the risk.
The researchers said the effect of having three or more drinks a day is the same as smoking a pack of cigarettes.
The results were the same across ethnic groups, researchers said.
Other studies, including research from the same authors, have shown light to moderate alcohol drinking can protect against heart attacks, according to a news release.
Wrap...
Beer, Wine, Liquor Raise Breast Cancer Risk
Three Drinks A Day Like Pack Of Cigarettes
POSTED: 5:55 am PDT September 27, 2007
A woman who drinks alcohol -- whether it is beer, wine or liquor -- is more likely to get breast cancer, according to a new study.
The study by Kaiser Permanente looked at information from more than 70,000 women from 1978 to 1985. By 2004, more than 2,800 -- 4 percent -- had been diagnosed with breast cancer.
They found that women who had one or two drinks a day were 10 percent more likely to get breast cancer than light drinkers. Those who drank more had an even higher risk, leading researchers to say that it is the volume of alcohol consumed that increases the risk.
The researchers said the effect of having three or more drinks a day is the same as smoking a pack of cigarettes.
The results were the same across ethnic groups, researchers said.
Other studies, including research from the same authors, have shown light to moderate alcohol drinking can protect against heart attacks, according to a news release.
Wrap...
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Daniel Ellsberg talks truth...
From Information Clearing House:
'A Coup Has Occurred'
By Daniel Ellsberg
If there's another 9/11 under this regime ... it means that they switch on full extent all the apparatus of a police state that has been patiently constructed, largely secretly at first but eventually leaked out and known and accepted by the Democratic people in Congress, by the Republicans and so forth.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18456.htm
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
'A Coup Has Occurred'
By Daniel Ellsberg
If there's another 9/11 under this regime ... it means that they switch on full extent all the apparatus of a police state that has been patiently constructed, largely secretly at first but eventually leaked out and known and accepted by the Democratic people in Congress, by the Republicans and so forth.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18456.htm
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
UN General Assembly...and espionage...
From Stratfor:
https://www.stratfor.com/services/freesignup.php
U.N. General Assembly: Security Challenges and Intelligence Opportunities
By Fred Burton and Scott Stewart
Autumn in the northern United States is a time when birds and other migratory creatures begin to head south in anticipation of the coming winter chill. This week in the early autumn also marks the high point in another migration, when leaders and intelligence officers from across the world flock to New York for the annual U.N. General Assembly (UNGA) session. This intricate annual ritual includes much pomp and politicking, demonstrations of power -- and a good deal of espionage.
Although many of the heads of state and foreign ministers participating in the UNGA's 62nd annual session are friendly to the United States, others are not. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in fact, is generally considered quite unsavory -- to the point that some Americans wish him ill. But when Ahmadinejad is in the United States, his safety is the responsibility of the U.S. government, which takes great pains to carry out its mandate. The visit of such a vocal, colorful and controversial leader as Ahmadinejad, however, creates tremendous security challenges for the U.S. Secret Service and the other agencies supporting its protective mission.
In addition to security headaches, such trips also give the U.S. government an outstanding opportunity to collect intelligence on a leader such as Ahmadinejad, who comes from a country where it is difficult for U.S. intelligence agencies to operate. Such intelligence not only aids in understanding what makes him tick, but also helps the U.S. government formulate strategy on how best to approach and negotiate with his government in the future.
Security Challenges
By its very nature, the annual UNGA session presents security problems. The concentration of so many world leaders in one place is a powerful magnet for the international press -- as well as protesters who seek to exploit the media presence to get their messages out to a worldwide audience. Moreover, the UNGA almost always discusses hot-button issues such as wars, human rights issues, climate change and territorial disputes, providing further fodder for the press and the protesters. In fact, several protests take place each day near the United Nations -- some that have permits and some that pop up spontaneously. One memorable spontaneous protest occurred during the UNGA meeting in 1991, when Haiti's military launched a coup that forced Haitian President Bertrand Aristide into exile. That night, tens of thousands of Haitians participated in a huge impromptu demonstration in front of the U.N. complex. The protesters, demanding U.N. action to reinstate Aristide, lit large bonfires in the center of First Avenue and then danced and sang around them until the wee hours of the morning.
Demonstrators sometimes will intentionally cross the line from peaceful protest to physical assault so their arrests will result in press coverage for their issue of choice. These illegal actions might have little or no direct correlation to the object of their protest. For example, in the late 1980s and early 1990s a group called the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES) came to the UNGA every year to protest the U.S. government's policy toward El Salvador, and members of the group sought to be arrested in order to publicize their cause. The activists, however, not only would target Salvadoran leaders, but also would jump on any target of opportunity that came by at the time they wanted to be arrested. In consecutive years CISPES members assaulted the unlucky motorcades of the Indian and Chinese foreign ministers to publicize their cause.
Into this general environment comes Ahmadinejad, whose position as the president of Iran, as well as his past rhetoric concerning the United States, Israel and the Holocaust, presents a large panorama of security challenges. During this latest trip to the United States, Ahmadinejad has been protested by a constellation of groups, including Iranian dissidents, Jews, human rights groups, women's rights groups and ordinary Americans.
Since the Iranian Revolution, Iranian dignitaries visiting the United Nations have consistently been met by hostile protesters. Some of the protesters are affiliated with groups such as the Mujahideen e-Khalq (MEK), the Iraq-based Iranian opposition group that the U.S. government has designated a foreign terrorist organization. MEK members and sympathizers have not conducted attacks in the United States, but they have assaulted Iranian officials during events such as UNGA -- especially lower-level members of the Iranian delegations not covered by U.S. protective details. The MEK, however, has on occasion attempted to impede, embarrass or assault Iranian dignitaries such as the president or foreign minister. In an incident a number of years ago, Iranian dissidents mistook the Cuban foreign minister for a similar-looking Iranian foreign minister and hurled eggs at his motorcade
In addition to the demonstration threat, the number of world leaders and the confluence of international press also raise concerns that militants will attempt to conduct an attack during the UNGA. During UNGA sessions, jihadists have surveilled dignitaries such as Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Egypt's then-Foreign Minister Amr Moussa and then-U.S. President Bill Clinton, going so far as to plan attacks against these officials as well as temporary diplomatic residences such as the Waldorf-Astoria and U.N. Plaza hotels.
But perhaps the most acute and least understood and appreciated threat is that posed by the mentally disturbed individual acting alone. This is especially true in the case of a high-profile protectee such as Ahmadinejad, whose position and rhetoric make him a magnet for such people. As demonstrated by attackers such as John Hinckley, Sirhan Sirhan and Mark David Chapman, mentally disturbed individuals have long posed a significant threat to high-profile figures in the United States.
Because of this general threat environment, the strong anti-Iranian sentiment and the Iranians' mistrust of Americans, the Iranians understandably send a large, armed protective detail with dignitaries such as Ahmadinejad. This not only creates security and protocol issues for the U.S. Secret Service and Diplomatic Security Service special agents as they haggle and jostle with foreign security officers over whose agents will be assigned where in the protective formation and motorcade, but it also a creates a condition in which the American protective detail feels the need to protect American citizens from the aggression of the foreign security officers, who will sometimes shove, point weapons at or otherwise intimidate people. Foreign security officers have been known not only to conduct themselves this way toward peaceful protesters exercising their First Amendment rights (most protesters are not violent) but also sometimes to act aggressively toward ordinary people on the street.
Intelligence Opportunities
This history of action directed against Iranian dignitaries has led to another interesting migratory phenomenon. Every year, a number of tough-looking Iranian-American "volunteers" travel to New York from various places around the United States to provide additional security for the Iranian delegates. It speaks volumes that these men, who identify themselves as medical doctors and university students, are trusted by a foreign government with such a sensitive assignment. This group is one the MEK would love to infiltrate. This role is especially significant because Iranian intelligence officers assigned to or visiting the United Nations are restricted to a 25-mile radius from U.N. Headquarters. Eager to collect intelligence outside of that 25-mile zone, the Iranians also call on these U.S. citizens -- whose movements are not restricted, of course -- to carry out the work. These security and intelligence-collection duties bring them to the attention of U.S. agents, who then investigate them and monitor their activities even after they return to their home cities. Moreover, auxiliary Iranian intelligence and security officers can be quite aggressive in their efforts to collect intelligence on anti-Iranian demonstrators during the UNGA, and some of them have been assaulted while attempting to infiltrate the demonstrations. These skirmishes give the U.S. agents watching the crowd further insight into these people.
Iranian intelligence officers are not the only ones who have had their collection efforts hampered by the break in diplomatic relations that followed the 1979 revolution in Iran and the storming of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. Not having an embassy in Tehran has made it very difficult for the United States to participate in the standard embassy-based espionage that every country practices. The U.S. government can and does use case officers who operate in Iran under nonofficial cover. It also recruits Iranians from outside of the country -- to supply information from outside or to return home as spies. Those methods, however, do not provide the same flow of intelligence on a country's leadership as does having an embassy in the capital and meeting regularly with government officials.
Because of this, Ahmadinejad's trip to New York has given the U.S. government a unique window of opportunity to gather intelligence. Of course, whom he meets and what they discuss is carefully scrutinized, but even seemingly small bits of information such as his sleeping habits, shopping purchases, diet and any medications he takes or books he reads also are pored over by psychologists, psychiatrists, medical doctors and leadership analysis experts at the CIA and elsewhere. This leadership analysis is done in an effort to understand his current behavior and to predict or anticipate his actions in future situations.
The opportunity to watch members of Ahmadinejad's entourage is another significant intelligence window. All eyes are naturally turned to Ahmadinejad himself, but a significant amount of intelligence also can be gained by watching the lesser-known straphangers -- especially those who are confirmed or suspected intelligence officers. Such individuals usually view attendance at the UNGA sessions as an opportunity to travel to New York and pursue their own agenda, and they frequently can be seen attempting to slip away for meetings on the side. Identifying these people, discovering who they are meeting and why can be a significant intelligence coup. In some ways, monitoring these individuals is more critical than watching Ahmadinejad himself.
Ahmadinejad is but one of the hundreds of dignitaries who will visit New York during the UNGA, though he is one of the relatively few who will be afforded a U.S. protective detail. This dramatic dance of dignitaries, media, protesters and espionage agents will be played out many times until the 62nd UNGA session ends Oct. 3.
Tell Fred and Scott what you think
Get your own copy
Distribution and Reprints
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Newsletter Subscription
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© Copyright 2007 Strategic Forecasting, Inc. All rights reserved.
Wrap...
https://www.stratfor.com/services/freesignup.php
U.N. General Assembly: Security Challenges and Intelligence Opportunities
By Fred Burton and Scott Stewart
Autumn in the northern United States is a time when birds and other migratory creatures begin to head south in anticipation of the coming winter chill. This week in the early autumn also marks the high point in another migration, when leaders and intelligence officers from across the world flock to New York for the annual U.N. General Assembly (UNGA) session. This intricate annual ritual includes much pomp and politicking, demonstrations of power -- and a good deal of espionage.
Although many of the heads of state and foreign ministers participating in the UNGA's 62nd annual session are friendly to the United States, others are not. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in fact, is generally considered quite unsavory -- to the point that some Americans wish him ill. But when Ahmadinejad is in the United States, his safety is the responsibility of the U.S. government, which takes great pains to carry out its mandate. The visit of such a vocal, colorful and controversial leader as Ahmadinejad, however, creates tremendous security challenges for the U.S. Secret Service and the other agencies supporting its protective mission.
In addition to security headaches, such trips also give the U.S. government an outstanding opportunity to collect intelligence on a leader such as Ahmadinejad, who comes from a country where it is difficult for U.S. intelligence agencies to operate. Such intelligence not only aids in understanding what makes him tick, but also helps the U.S. government formulate strategy on how best to approach and negotiate with his government in the future.
Security Challenges
By its very nature, the annual UNGA session presents security problems. The concentration of so many world leaders in one place is a powerful magnet for the international press -- as well as protesters who seek to exploit the media presence to get their messages out to a worldwide audience. Moreover, the UNGA almost always discusses hot-button issues such as wars, human rights issues, climate change and territorial disputes, providing further fodder for the press and the protesters. In fact, several protests take place each day near the United Nations -- some that have permits and some that pop up spontaneously. One memorable spontaneous protest occurred during the UNGA meeting in 1991, when Haiti's military launched a coup that forced Haitian President Bertrand Aristide into exile. That night, tens of thousands of Haitians participated in a huge impromptu demonstration in front of the U.N. complex. The protesters, demanding U.N. action to reinstate Aristide, lit large bonfires in the center of First Avenue and then danced and sang around them until the wee hours of the morning.
Demonstrators sometimes will intentionally cross the line from peaceful protest to physical assault so their arrests will result in press coverage for their issue of choice. These illegal actions might have little or no direct correlation to the object of their protest. For example, in the late 1980s and early 1990s a group called the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES) came to the UNGA every year to protest the U.S. government's policy toward El Salvador, and members of the group sought to be arrested in order to publicize their cause. The activists, however, not only would target Salvadoran leaders, but also would jump on any target of opportunity that came by at the time they wanted to be arrested. In consecutive years CISPES members assaulted the unlucky motorcades of the Indian and Chinese foreign ministers to publicize their cause.
Into this general environment comes Ahmadinejad, whose position as the president of Iran, as well as his past rhetoric concerning the United States, Israel and the Holocaust, presents a large panorama of security challenges. During this latest trip to the United States, Ahmadinejad has been protested by a constellation of groups, including Iranian dissidents, Jews, human rights groups, women's rights groups and ordinary Americans.
Since the Iranian Revolution, Iranian dignitaries visiting the United Nations have consistently been met by hostile protesters. Some of the protesters are affiliated with groups such as the Mujahideen e-Khalq (MEK), the Iraq-based Iranian opposition group that the U.S. government has designated a foreign terrorist organization. MEK members and sympathizers have not conducted attacks in the United States, but they have assaulted Iranian officials during events such as UNGA -- especially lower-level members of the Iranian delegations not covered by U.S. protective details. The MEK, however, has on occasion attempted to impede, embarrass or assault Iranian dignitaries such as the president or foreign minister. In an incident a number of years ago, Iranian dissidents mistook the Cuban foreign minister for a similar-looking Iranian foreign minister and hurled eggs at his motorcade
In addition to the demonstration threat, the number of world leaders and the confluence of international press also raise concerns that militants will attempt to conduct an attack during the UNGA. During UNGA sessions, jihadists have surveilled dignitaries such as Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Egypt's then-Foreign Minister Amr Moussa and then-U.S. President Bill Clinton, going so far as to plan attacks against these officials as well as temporary diplomatic residences such as the Waldorf-Astoria and U.N. Plaza hotels.
But perhaps the most acute and least understood and appreciated threat is that posed by the mentally disturbed individual acting alone. This is especially true in the case of a high-profile protectee such as Ahmadinejad, whose position and rhetoric make him a magnet for such people. As demonstrated by attackers such as John Hinckley, Sirhan Sirhan and Mark David Chapman, mentally disturbed individuals have long posed a significant threat to high-profile figures in the United States.
Because of this general threat environment, the strong anti-Iranian sentiment and the Iranians' mistrust of Americans, the Iranians understandably send a large, armed protective detail with dignitaries such as Ahmadinejad. This not only creates security and protocol issues for the U.S. Secret Service and Diplomatic Security Service special agents as they haggle and jostle with foreign security officers over whose agents will be assigned where in the protective formation and motorcade, but it also a creates a condition in which the American protective detail feels the need to protect American citizens from the aggression of the foreign security officers, who will sometimes shove, point weapons at or otherwise intimidate people. Foreign security officers have been known not only to conduct themselves this way toward peaceful protesters exercising their First Amendment rights (most protesters are not violent) but also sometimes to act aggressively toward ordinary people on the street.
Intelligence Opportunities
This history of action directed against Iranian dignitaries has led to another interesting migratory phenomenon. Every year, a number of tough-looking Iranian-American "volunteers" travel to New York from various places around the United States to provide additional security for the Iranian delegates. It speaks volumes that these men, who identify themselves as medical doctors and university students, are trusted by a foreign government with such a sensitive assignment. This group is one the MEK would love to infiltrate. This role is especially significant because Iranian intelligence officers assigned to or visiting the United Nations are restricted to a 25-mile radius from U.N. Headquarters. Eager to collect intelligence outside of that 25-mile zone, the Iranians also call on these U.S. citizens -- whose movements are not restricted, of course -- to carry out the work. These security and intelligence-collection duties bring them to the attention of U.S. agents, who then investigate them and monitor their activities even after they return to their home cities. Moreover, auxiliary Iranian intelligence and security officers can be quite aggressive in their efforts to collect intelligence on anti-Iranian demonstrators during the UNGA, and some of them have been assaulted while attempting to infiltrate the demonstrations. These skirmishes give the U.S. agents watching the crowd further insight into these people.
Iranian intelligence officers are not the only ones who have had their collection efforts hampered by the break in diplomatic relations that followed the 1979 revolution in Iran and the storming of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. Not having an embassy in Tehran has made it very difficult for the United States to participate in the standard embassy-based espionage that every country practices. The U.S. government can and does use case officers who operate in Iran under nonofficial cover. It also recruits Iranians from outside of the country -- to supply information from outside or to return home as spies. Those methods, however, do not provide the same flow of intelligence on a country's leadership as does having an embassy in the capital and meeting regularly with government officials.
Because of this, Ahmadinejad's trip to New York has given the U.S. government a unique window of opportunity to gather intelligence. Of course, whom he meets and what they discuss is carefully scrutinized, but even seemingly small bits of information such as his sleeping habits, shopping purchases, diet and any medications he takes or books he reads also are pored over by psychologists, psychiatrists, medical doctors and leadership analysis experts at the CIA and elsewhere. This leadership analysis is done in an effort to understand his current behavior and to predict or anticipate his actions in future situations.
The opportunity to watch members of Ahmadinejad's entourage is another significant intelligence window. All eyes are naturally turned to Ahmadinejad himself, but a significant amount of intelligence also can be gained by watching the lesser-known straphangers -- especially those who are confirmed or suspected intelligence officers. Such individuals usually view attendance at the UNGA sessions as an opportunity to travel to New York and pursue their own agenda, and they frequently can be seen attempting to slip away for meetings on the side. Identifying these people, discovering who they are meeting and why can be a significant intelligence coup. In some ways, monitoring these individuals is more critical than watching Ahmadinejad himself.
Ahmadinejad is but one of the hundreds of dignitaries who will visit New York during the UNGA, though he is one of the relatively few who will be afforded a U.S. protective detail. This dramatic dance of dignitaries, media, protesters and espionage agents will be played out many times until the 62nd UNGA session ends Oct. 3.
Tell Fred and Scott what you think
Get your own copy
Distribution and Reprints
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© Copyright 2007 Strategic Forecasting, Inc. All rights reserved.
Wrap...
Bush trying to make $$$ off New Orleans poor...
From Facing South:
BUSH ADMINISTRATION OKS DEMOLITION OF NEW ORLEANS PUBLIC HOUSING COMPLEXES:
Despite a severe shortage of affordable housing along the Gulf Coast, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has approved a plan to tear down four public housing complexes in New Orleans and replace them with mixed-income developments with less space for the poor.
U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) says HUD is pushing forward with the tear-downs at the same time Congress is considering legislation that would require replacement housing.
(Facing South, 9/24/2007)
Wrap...
BUSH ADMINISTRATION OKS DEMOLITION OF NEW ORLEANS PUBLIC HOUSING COMPLEXES:
Despite a severe shortage of affordable housing along the Gulf Coast, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has approved a plan to tear down four public housing complexes in New Orleans and replace them with mixed-income developments with less space for the poor.
U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) says HUD is pushing forward with the tear-downs at the same time Congress is considering legislation that would require replacement housing.
(Facing South, 9/24/2007)
Wrap...
FYI...Protest Blackwater USA at Portrero CA...
Citizens’ Oversight Projects
http://www.CitizensOversight.org
http://www.stopblackwater.net
CONTACT: Raymond Lutz, COPS Coordinator
raylutz@citizensoversight.org/ 619-820-5321
Carol Jahnkow, Peace Resource Center
760-390-0775 / info@prcsd.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
September 24, 2007
As Blackwater USA Comes Under Increasing Fire for Actions in Iraq,
So-Cal Locals Turn Up the Heat to Stop Blackwater West
Residents Organize Largest Protest to Date at the Gates of
Planned Blackwater West Site Near Tiny Border Town
Weekend of Saturday, October 6th – Sunday, October 7th
Special Guest Speakers TBA
SAN DIEGO COUNTY, CA (Sept. 24) – – As US Congress and Iraqi government officials probe recent killings of civilians by the notorious private contractors in Baghdad, local opponents to the expansion of Blackwater USA will stage a major rally and encampment at the gates of the proposed “Blackwater West” site in Potrero, a tiny town in east San Diego county on Saturday, October 6th - Sunday, October, 7th. The event will happen the same week Blackwater chairman Erik Prince is invited to testify before the US House Oversight Committe on October 2, 2007.
Blackwater USA plans to build a training facility “Blackwater West” in Potrero, California, a small community in San Diego County 45 miles east of the City of San Diego. Residents of Potrero and San Diego have been organizing and began fighting this facility earlier this year on a number of issues.
Opponents point to the environmental impacts which will be enormous and long-lasting, including loss of sensitive habitat, depletion of an already fragile and shrinking water table, groundwater pollution and more. In addition, people living in Potrero will be exposed to noise, traffic and disruption of their quiet way of life.
Blackwater USA, known as one of the most powerful and secretive forces to emerge from the U.S. military-industrial complex and one of the greatest beneficiaries of the “global war on terror,” is increasingly underfire for acting above the law. The recent killing and wounding of at least a dozen innocent Iraqi civilians underscores the dangers this company poses to the community.
“There is no place for companies like Blackwater in a democracy," said Carol Jahnkow, key organizer and Executive Director, Peace Resource Center of San Diego. “Destroying communities for profit at the expense of the environment must stop. Profiting from war and human suffering must stop!”
“The public is waking up to the atrocities attributed to Blackwater and to the private mercenary soldier industry now staring us in the face," said Raymond Lutz, coordinator of Citizens’ Oversight Projects (COPS) and StopBlackwater.net. “The intimidating nature of these mercenary boot camps has kept locals from speaking out but, the tides have changed, when Blackwater USA tried to put in a jungle training camp in the Philippines they has to pull out after fierce public outcry. We can do the same here in San Diego County, we are resisting the further expansion of corporate mercenary armies and unregulated training of U.S. Armed Forces in residential areas.”
The two-day educational encampment and walk to the gates of the site are expected to draw hundreds of opponents of the project and to the expansion of Blackwater West.
The event will start on Saturday, October 6th at 9am with a hike to visit the Hauser Wilderness which abuts the project site conducted by the Sierra Club. From 2-5pm, educational seminars will be conducted at the Potrero Regional Park (see locations details below) and then an evening of music and spoken word at the rally site from 7-9pm.
Attendees will camp at the Potrero Regional Park campground, and other lodging is available nearby.
On Sunday, the special guest keynote speakers will make their presentations starting at 1pm and then the rally will proceed to march to the gate of the site and to an viewpoint that overlooks the valley.
DETAILS OF THE EVENT:
DAY 1 – ENCAMPMENT AND EDUCATION DAY: Saturday, October 6th
Camping at Potrero Regional Park.
9AM – 2PM: Sierra Club-led Hauser Wilderness Hike – Begins at Potrero County Park.
2-5 PM: Educational Workshops and displays on the environment, Blackwater West impacts on Potrero and the San Diego region, Potrero area Wildlife, Militarization of the Border and more (Potrero Regional Park) Speakers include Raymond Lutz (COPS), Jeanette Hartman (Sierra Club) and Jan Hedlun (Sole member opponent on the Potrero Planning Group.)
7-9 PM: Music and spoken word gathering celebrating peace, the environment and safe, livable communities (will be held on private property at corner of Round Potrero Road & Yerba Santa. The “Rally Site.”)
DAY 2--RALLY AND MARCH, Sunday, October 7th
NOON: Music and gathering at the rally site.
1 PM: Special Keynote Speakers (to be announced)
2:30 PM. One Mile Walk to gates of proposed Blackwater site
Location of the Rally is on private property, (corner of Round Potrero Road & Yerba Santa;)
Sponsored by the Peace Resource Center of San Diego, the San Diego Coalition for Peace & Justice, Citizens' Oversight Projects (COPS), San Diego Veterans for Peace, Code Pink, Activist San Diego, San Diego SUN, San Diego Puppet Insurgency, North County Coalition for Peace & Justice, San Diego Renters Union, and endorsed by the Green Party, the Democratic Party of San Diego County, and the East County Democratic Club.
DIRECTIONS: Potrero Regional Park: From San Diego, East on 94. North on Potrero Valley Rd, Right on Potrero Park Rd. to the end. Rally Site: 23975 Yerba Santa Rd. From San Diego, East on 94. N on Potrero Valley Rd, Left on Round Potrero Rd. to 23975 Yerba Santa Rd.)
Wrap...
http://www.CitizensOversight.org
http://www.stopblackwater.net
CONTACT: Raymond Lutz, COPS Coordinator
raylutz@citizensoversight.org/ 619-820-5321
Carol Jahnkow, Peace Resource Center
760-390-0775 / info@prcsd.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
September 24, 2007
As Blackwater USA Comes Under Increasing Fire for Actions in Iraq,
So-Cal Locals Turn Up the Heat to Stop Blackwater West
Residents Organize Largest Protest to Date at the Gates of
Planned Blackwater West Site Near Tiny Border Town
Weekend of Saturday, October 6th – Sunday, October 7th
Special Guest Speakers TBA
SAN DIEGO COUNTY, CA (Sept. 24) – – As US Congress and Iraqi government officials probe recent killings of civilians by the notorious private contractors in Baghdad, local opponents to the expansion of Blackwater USA will stage a major rally and encampment at the gates of the proposed “Blackwater West” site in Potrero, a tiny town in east San Diego county on Saturday, October 6th - Sunday, October, 7th. The event will happen the same week Blackwater chairman Erik Prince is invited to testify before the US House Oversight Committe on October 2, 2007.
Blackwater USA plans to build a training facility “Blackwater West” in Potrero, California, a small community in San Diego County 45 miles east of the City of San Diego. Residents of Potrero and San Diego have been organizing and began fighting this facility earlier this year on a number of issues.
Opponents point to the environmental impacts which will be enormous and long-lasting, including loss of sensitive habitat, depletion of an already fragile and shrinking water table, groundwater pollution and more. In addition, people living in Potrero will be exposed to noise, traffic and disruption of their quiet way of life.
Blackwater USA, known as one of the most powerful and secretive forces to emerge from the U.S. military-industrial complex and one of the greatest beneficiaries of the “global war on terror,” is increasingly underfire for acting above the law. The recent killing and wounding of at least a dozen innocent Iraqi civilians underscores the dangers this company poses to the community.
“There is no place for companies like Blackwater in a democracy," said Carol Jahnkow, key organizer and Executive Director, Peace Resource Center of San Diego. “Destroying communities for profit at the expense of the environment must stop. Profiting from war and human suffering must stop!”
“The public is waking up to the atrocities attributed to Blackwater and to the private mercenary soldier industry now staring us in the face," said Raymond Lutz, coordinator of Citizens’ Oversight Projects (COPS) and StopBlackwater.net. “The intimidating nature of these mercenary boot camps has kept locals from speaking out but, the tides have changed, when Blackwater USA tried to put in a jungle training camp in the Philippines they has to pull out after fierce public outcry. We can do the same here in San Diego County, we are resisting the further expansion of corporate mercenary armies and unregulated training of U.S. Armed Forces in residential areas.”
The two-day educational encampment and walk to the gates of the site are expected to draw hundreds of opponents of the project and to the expansion of Blackwater West.
The event will start on Saturday, October 6th at 9am with a hike to visit the Hauser Wilderness which abuts the project site conducted by the Sierra Club. From 2-5pm, educational seminars will be conducted at the Potrero Regional Park (see locations details below) and then an evening of music and spoken word at the rally site from 7-9pm.
Attendees will camp at the Potrero Regional Park campground, and other lodging is available nearby.
On Sunday, the special guest keynote speakers will make their presentations starting at 1pm and then the rally will proceed to march to the gate of the site and to an viewpoint that overlooks the valley.
DETAILS OF THE EVENT:
DAY 1 – ENCAMPMENT AND EDUCATION DAY: Saturday, October 6th
Camping at Potrero Regional Park.
9AM – 2PM: Sierra Club-led Hauser Wilderness Hike – Begins at Potrero County Park.
2-5 PM: Educational Workshops and displays on the environment, Blackwater West impacts on Potrero and the San Diego region, Potrero area Wildlife, Militarization of the Border and more (Potrero Regional Park) Speakers include Raymond Lutz (COPS), Jeanette Hartman (Sierra Club) and Jan Hedlun (Sole member opponent on the Potrero Planning Group.)
7-9 PM: Music and spoken word gathering celebrating peace, the environment and safe, livable communities (will be held on private property at corner of Round Potrero Road & Yerba Santa. The “Rally Site.”)
DAY 2--RALLY AND MARCH, Sunday, October 7th
NOON: Music and gathering at the rally site.
1 PM: Special Keynote Speakers (to be announced)
2:30 PM. One Mile Walk to gates of proposed Blackwater site
Location of the Rally is on private property, (corner of Round Potrero Road & Yerba Santa;)
Sponsored by the Peace Resource Center of San Diego, the San Diego Coalition for Peace & Justice, Citizens' Oversight Projects (COPS), San Diego Veterans for Peace, Code Pink, Activist San Diego, San Diego SUN, San Diego Puppet Insurgency, North County Coalition for Peace & Justice, San Diego Renters Union, and endorsed by the Green Party, the Democratic Party of San Diego County, and the East County Democratic Club.
DIRECTIONS: Potrero Regional Park: From San Diego, East on 94. North on Potrero Valley Rd, Right on Potrero Park Rd. to the end. Rally Site: 23975 Yerba Santa Rd. From San Diego, East on 94. N on Potrero Valley Rd, Left on Round Potrero Rd. to 23975 Yerba Santa Rd.)
Wrap...
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
From violent crime to Bush's special WH fly swatters...
From American Progress:
Think Fast...
Violent crime rose nearly two percent last year, slightly more than expected, the FBI reported on Monday. "The number of big-city murders also increased, by 1.8 percent, the same rate as homicides nationwide."
In a victory for the Bush administration, a special military appeals court ruling "removed a legal hurdle that has derailed" trials for detainees at Guantanamo Bay. The ruling allows prosecutors to introduce new evidence that defendants labeled "enemy combatants" are actually "alien unlawful enemy combatants," as the law requires for them to be tried in military tribunals.
Following large protests last week supporting six African-American teenagers in Jena, LA, white supremacists have begun calling for retaliatory violence. The threats include the posting on a neo-Nazi website of the names, addresses and phone numbers of some of the six teenagers and their families. In an interview, the Mayor of Jena, Murphy McMillin, "praised efforts by pro-white groups to organize counter-demonstrations."
At a gala in Little Rock last night, former President Bill Clinton and other dignitaries honored the nine black students who integrated Little Rock Central High school fifty years ago while stressing "the country's continuing need for better race relations."
UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said of the autoworkers strike: "Job security is one of our primary concerns. ... We're talking about investment and we're talking about job creation" and preserving benefits, he said. Negotiators were to return Tuesday morning for their 22nd straight day of bargaining.
"The world's top leaders should meet every three months, starting next year, until a plan is drawn up to reduce emissions blamed for global warming, former U.S. Vice President Al Gore said on Monday."
A suicide bomber in Iraq blew himself up on Monday "at a banquet intended to be a reconciliation feast between provincial officials and former Sunni insurgents in Diyala Province, killing 16 people and wounding at least 28."
And finally: Fly Swatter-in-Chief. Former Press Secretary Tony Snow reports that President Bush chases "flies around the Oval Office. It drives him crazy when flies get in." Bush is so well known as a fly hunter among his White House staff, says Snow, that somebody "made him White House fly swatters."
Wrap...
Think Fast...
Violent crime rose nearly two percent last year, slightly more than expected, the FBI reported on Monday. "The number of big-city murders also increased, by 1.8 percent, the same rate as homicides nationwide."
In a victory for the Bush administration, a special military appeals court ruling "removed a legal hurdle that has derailed" trials for detainees at Guantanamo Bay. The ruling allows prosecutors to introduce new evidence that defendants labeled "enemy combatants" are actually "alien unlawful enemy combatants," as the law requires for them to be tried in military tribunals.
Following large protests last week supporting six African-American teenagers in Jena, LA, white supremacists have begun calling for retaliatory violence. The threats include the posting on a neo-Nazi website of the names, addresses and phone numbers of some of the six teenagers and their families. In an interview, the Mayor of Jena, Murphy McMillin, "praised efforts by pro-white groups to organize counter-demonstrations."
At a gala in Little Rock last night, former President Bill Clinton and other dignitaries honored the nine black students who integrated Little Rock Central High school fifty years ago while stressing "the country's continuing need for better race relations."
UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said of the autoworkers strike: "Job security is one of our primary concerns. ... We're talking about investment and we're talking about job creation" and preserving benefits, he said. Negotiators were to return Tuesday morning for their 22nd straight day of bargaining.
"The world's top leaders should meet every three months, starting next year, until a plan is drawn up to reduce emissions blamed for global warming, former U.S. Vice President Al Gore said on Monday."
A suicide bomber in Iraq blew himself up on Monday "at a banquet intended to be a reconciliation feast between provincial officials and former Sunni insurgents in Diyala Province, killing 16 people and wounding at least 28."
And finally: Fly Swatter-in-Chief. Former Press Secretary Tony Snow reports that President Bush chases "flies around the Oval Office. It drives him crazy when flies get in." Bush is so well known as a fly hunter among his White House staff, says Snow, that somebody "made him White House fly swatters."
Wrap...
Monday, September 24, 2007
Video interview after NY with Ahmadinejad...
From Information Clearing House:
Full Interview With Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Video - 60 Minutes - 09/23/07
Presstitute, Scott Pelley interviewed Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Tehran on Thursday. Ahmadinejad talks about his visit to New York, Iran's nuclear program and his views on Israel.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18452.htm
[Use link above to see video]
Wrap...
Full Interview With Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Video - 60 Minutes - 09/23/07
Presstitute, Scott Pelley interviewed Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Tehran on Thursday. Ahmadinejad talks about his visit to New York, Iran's nuclear program and his views on Israel.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18452.htm
[Use link above to see video]
Wrap...
From the Pope to pushing reporter down the stairs...
From American Progress:
Pope Benedict will use his first address to the United Nations to "deliver a powerful warning over climate change in a move to adopt protection of the environment as a 'moral' cause for the Catholic Church and its billion-strong following."
A classified Pentagon program has attempted to "bait" Iraqi insurgents by planting items such as detonation cords, plastic explosives and ammunition, and then killing Iraqis who pick them up. Experts worry that such a baiting program "raises troubling possibilities, such as what happens when civilians pick up the items."
The closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility looks "increasingly unlikely." President Bush, "who last year told German television that he 'would like to end Guantanamo,' is now threatening to veto any move to 'micromanage the detention of enemy combatants.'"
In the days after 9/11, Attorney General nominee Michael Mukasey dismissed concerns by a 21-year old Jordanian immigrant that he had been beaten while in U.S. custody, leaving bruises that were hidden beneath his orange prison jumpsuit. "As far as the claim that he was beaten, I will tell you that he looks fine to me," said Judge Mukasey.
"In the corruption trial of former [Alaska] House Speaker Pete Kott, a former Veco executive testified that the oil field services company routinely paid for all or parts of political polls -- usually at the request of candidates. The FBI is currently investigating Sen. Ted Stevens's (R-AK) ties to former Veco chairman Bill Allen.
"A coalition of prominent civil rights groups is making a last-ditch push to derail controversial Federal Election Commission nominee Hans von Spakovsky less than a week before he faces a crucial test in the Senate."
And finally: CBS reporter Mike Flannery was pushed by an aide to Rep. Jerry Weller (R-IL) when trying to ask the congressman questions about his "controversial Latin American land deals." "There's a large man, who begins shoving reporters around, including yours truly. ... There's an opening in the doorway, and I begin moving through that doorway, and he shoves me down the stairs," Flannery said. He later called the staffer a "goon." Watch a video HERE.
Wrap...
Pope Benedict will use his first address to the United Nations to "deliver a powerful warning over climate change in a move to adopt protection of the environment as a 'moral' cause for the Catholic Church and its billion-strong following."
A classified Pentagon program has attempted to "bait" Iraqi insurgents by planting items such as detonation cords, plastic explosives and ammunition, and then killing Iraqis who pick them up. Experts worry that such a baiting program "raises troubling possibilities, such as what happens when civilians pick up the items."
The closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility looks "increasingly unlikely." President Bush, "who last year told German television that he 'would like to end Guantanamo,' is now threatening to veto any move to 'micromanage the detention of enemy combatants.'"
In the days after 9/11, Attorney General nominee Michael Mukasey dismissed concerns by a 21-year old Jordanian immigrant that he had been beaten while in U.S. custody, leaving bruises that were hidden beneath his orange prison jumpsuit. "As far as the claim that he was beaten, I will tell you that he looks fine to me," said Judge Mukasey.
"In the corruption trial of former [Alaska] House Speaker Pete Kott, a former Veco executive testified that the oil field services company routinely paid for all or parts of political polls -- usually at the request of candidates. The FBI is currently investigating Sen. Ted Stevens's (R-AK) ties to former Veco chairman Bill Allen.
"A coalition of prominent civil rights groups is making a last-ditch push to derail controversial Federal Election Commission nominee Hans von Spakovsky less than a week before he faces a crucial test in the Senate."
And finally: CBS reporter Mike Flannery was pushed by an aide to Rep. Jerry Weller (R-IL) when trying to ask the congressman questions about his "controversial Latin American land deals." "There's a large man, who begins shoving reporters around, including yours truly. ... There's an opening in the doorway, and I begin moving through that doorway, and he shoves me down the stairs," Flannery said. He later called the staffer a "goon." Watch a video HERE.
Wrap...
Leiberman-Kyl...a pair of sick ones....
From The Pen:
CALL YOUR SENATORS RIGHT NOW AND DEMAND THEY VOTE DOWN THE
LIEBERMAN-KYL AMENDMENT
In case you thought it was just an aberrant moment of lunacy last
week when Lieberman pressed General Petraeus for an attack on Iran,
just before the weekend he introduced an amendment to the defense
bill to authorize exactly that.
No, we are not kidding. He has drafted language that any impartial
observer would interpret as a DECLARATION OF WAR against Iran, and he
is pressing for a vote as fast as possible.
ACTION PAGE: http://www.usalone.com/no_iran_war_declaration.php
Here is the language from the amendment:
(3) that it should be the policy of the United States to combat,
contain, and roll back the violent activities and destabilizing
influence inside Iraq of the Government of the Islamic Republic of
Iran, its foreign facilitators such as Lebanese Hezbollah, and its
indigenous Iraqi proxies;
(4) to support the prudent and calibrated use of all instruments of
United States national power in Iraq, including diplomatic, economic,
intelligence, and military instruments, in support of the policy
described in paragraph (3) with respect to the Government of the
Islamic Republic of Iran and its proxies.
The policy of the U.S should be to "combat" Iran with "all" "military
instruments"?!? You can be absolutely certain that those are the ONLY
words Dick Cheney and George Bush will see or care about.
ACTION PAGE: http://www.usalone.com/no_iran_war_declaration.php
We need every warm body we can muster to call and email their
senators RIGHT NOW, before they pull another fast one and sneak this
one through in the dead of the night. Call them toll free at 800
828-0498, 800 614 2803 or 866 340 9281, and the submit the action
form below to make sure your message gets through.
Just yesterday, Newsweek reported that Cheney had recently made
overtures to Israel to get them to launch an attack against Iran, to
try to provoke an all out conflagration. It seems every day there is
a new story leaked about their aggressive preparations for The
Debacle, Part 2. And just as in the lead up to the Iraq invasion,
they will keep lying, lying and lie some more about their intentions
until they've shot off every cruise missile in the military
inventory.
We need your voice, and the voices of everyone else you know, and we
them now. We need to absolutely flood the Capitol with phone calls
and email. Please believe your voice counts. Please believe that when
enough of us raise our voices together at one time they do have an
impact.
Cheney and his minions are absolutely not going to stop pushing for
an even bigger disaster unless we stop them by speaking out with a
louder voice. So we cannot let up ourselves even for an instant.
AND IF YOU LIKE KUCINICH ON THE ISSUES LET HIM KNOW
We would be remiss not to ask who other than Dennis Kucinich has
shown more courage to speak out against the Iraq disaster before it
even started? If you are asking yourself what you can do to encourage
Dennis to continue to stand strong on the ISSUES, why not make a
contribution, if you are so motivated.
DENNIS KUCINICH CONTRIBUTIONS:
http://www.usalone.com/donations_kucinich.php
Please take action NOW, so we can win all victories that are supposed
to be ours, and forward this message to everyone else you know.
If you would like to get alerts like these, you can do so at
http://www.usalone.com/in.htm
Or if you want to cease receiving our messages, just use the function
at http://www.usalone.com/out.htm
usalone118b:80375
[Use links above to continue reading]
Powered by The People's Email Network Copyright 2007, Patent pending,
All rights reserved
Wrap...
CALL YOUR SENATORS RIGHT NOW AND DEMAND THEY VOTE DOWN THE
LIEBERMAN-KYL AMENDMENT
In case you thought it was just an aberrant moment of lunacy last
week when Lieberman pressed General Petraeus for an attack on Iran,
just before the weekend he introduced an amendment to the defense
bill to authorize exactly that.
No, we are not kidding. He has drafted language that any impartial
observer would interpret as a DECLARATION OF WAR against Iran, and he
is pressing for a vote as fast as possible.
ACTION PAGE: http://www.usalone.com/no_iran_war_declaration.php
Here is the language from the amendment:
(3) that it should be the policy of the United States to combat,
contain, and roll back the violent activities and destabilizing
influence inside Iraq of the Government of the Islamic Republic of
Iran, its foreign facilitators such as Lebanese Hezbollah, and its
indigenous Iraqi proxies;
(4) to support the prudent and calibrated use of all instruments of
United States national power in Iraq, including diplomatic, economic,
intelligence, and military instruments, in support of the policy
described in paragraph (3) with respect to the Government of the
Islamic Republic of Iran and its proxies.
The policy of the U.S should be to "combat" Iran with "all" "military
instruments"?!? You can be absolutely certain that those are the ONLY
words Dick Cheney and George Bush will see or care about.
ACTION PAGE: http://www.usalone.com/no_iran_war_declaration.php
We need every warm body we can muster to call and email their
senators RIGHT NOW, before they pull another fast one and sneak this
one through in the dead of the night. Call them toll free at 800
828-0498, 800 614 2803 or 866 340 9281, and the submit the action
form below to make sure your message gets through.
Just yesterday, Newsweek reported that Cheney had recently made
overtures to Israel to get them to launch an attack against Iran, to
try to provoke an all out conflagration. It seems every day there is
a new story leaked about their aggressive preparations for The
Debacle, Part 2. And just as in the lead up to the Iraq invasion,
they will keep lying, lying and lie some more about their intentions
until they've shot off every cruise missile in the military
inventory.
We need your voice, and the voices of everyone else you know, and we
them now. We need to absolutely flood the Capitol with phone calls
and email. Please believe your voice counts. Please believe that when
enough of us raise our voices together at one time they do have an
impact.
Cheney and his minions are absolutely not going to stop pushing for
an even bigger disaster unless we stop them by speaking out with a
louder voice. So we cannot let up ourselves even for an instant.
AND IF YOU LIKE KUCINICH ON THE ISSUES LET HIM KNOW
We would be remiss not to ask who other than Dennis Kucinich has
shown more courage to speak out against the Iraq disaster before it
even started? If you are asking yourself what you can do to encourage
Dennis to continue to stand strong on the ISSUES, why not make a
contribution, if you are so motivated.
DENNIS KUCINICH CONTRIBUTIONS:
http://www.usalone.com/donations_kucinich.php
Please take action NOW, so we can win all victories that are supposed
to be ours, and forward this message to everyone else you know.
If you would like to get alerts like these, you can do so at
http://www.usalone.com/in.htm
Or if you want to cease receiving our messages, just use the function
at http://www.usalone.com/out.htm
usalone118b:80375
[Use links above to continue reading]
Powered by The People's Email Network Copyright 2007, Patent pending,
All rights reserved
Wrap...
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Abusive Bush...a fulltime bully....
From Information Clearing House:
Decadent perversity:
No matter the horrors of Iraq, Bush clings to his faith in victory, and a new biography discloses how he releases his anxiety by humiliating his aides.
http://snipurl.com/1r53d
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
Decadent perversity:
No matter the horrors of Iraq, Bush clings to his faith in victory, and a new biography discloses how he releases his anxiety by humiliating his aides.
http://snipurl.com/1r53d
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
Wealth creates poverty...Globalization is bad...
From Information Clearing House:
Mystery: How Wealth Creates Poverty in the World
By Michael Parenti
There is a "mystery" we must explain: How is it that as corporate investments and foreign aid and international loans to poor countries have increased dramatically throughout the world over the last half century, so has poverty? The number of people living in poverty is growing at a faster rate than the world's population. What do we make of this?
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17102.htm
===
In case you missed it:
Wealth Creates Poverty?
Must Watch Video: Dr. Michael Parenti:
"Terrorism, Globalization and Conspiracy"
Globalization is an attempt to extend corporate monopoly control over the whole globe. Over every national economy. Over every local economy Over every life.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11635.htm
[Use links above to continue reading]
Wrap...
Mystery: How Wealth Creates Poverty in the World
By Michael Parenti
There is a "mystery" we must explain: How is it that as corporate investments and foreign aid and international loans to poor countries have increased dramatically throughout the world over the last half century, so has poverty? The number of people living in poverty is growing at a faster rate than the world's population. What do we make of this?
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17102.htm
===
In case you missed it:
Wealth Creates Poverty?
Must Watch Video: Dr. Michael Parenti:
"Terrorism, Globalization and Conspiracy"
Globalization is an attempt to extend corporate monopoly control over the whole globe. Over every national economy. Over every local economy Over every life.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11635.htm
[Use links above to continue reading]
Wrap...
Judge denies attorneys access to Gitmo prisoners...
From truthout.org :
US Government Blocks Lawyer Access to Gitmo
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/092307F.shtml
Ben Fox, The Associated Press, writes: "Attorneys for at least 40 Guantanamo Bay prisoners have been barred from visiting or writing their clients because of a judge's order dismissing legal challenges to the men's confinement, the US Department of Justice said Friday."
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
US Government Blocks Lawyer Access to Gitmo
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/092307F.shtml
Ben Fox, The Associated Press, writes: "Attorneys for at least 40 Guantanamo Bay prisoners have been barred from visiting or writing their clients because of a judge's order dismissing legal challenges to the men's confinement, the US Department of Justice said Friday."
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
Saturday, September 22, 2007
Clear Channel kills progressive talk radio in San Diego...
From an anonymous commenter:
KLSD and the progressive talk will end its run in October. The new format starts on Oct. 15. Scot Tempesta has left the building, and that means Stacy Taylor will too.
Wrap...
KLSD and the progressive talk will end its run in October. The new format starts on Oct. 15. Scot Tempesta has left the building, and that means Stacy Taylor will too.
Wrap...
No okay from Homeland Sec, no American flies without their okay...not even in US...
From the Federal Register:
Buried in the September 5 issue of the Federal Register, was a notice that Thursday, September 20, the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) will hold public hearings on their so-called Secure Flight Plan.
http://dmses.dot.gov/docimages/p102/484384.pdf
Come with me into a nightmare world where American citizens will have to obtain permission from the government before they can travel by air in the U.S.
Your government (meaning the Department of Homeland Security) is up to no good.
Beginning in February 2008, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will implement their ?Advance Passenger Information System (APIS),? the gist of which is that you will need permission from the United States Government to travel on any air or sea vessel that goes to, from or through the U.S. The travel companies will not be able to issue a boarding pass until you are cleared by DHS. This applies to ALL passengers, US citizens and visitors alike. And how do you get said permission to travel? That?s for your government to know and you to never find out.
Now TSA proposes to do for domestic travel what APIS will do for international routes. That?s what I said: the new TSA rule would require that you obtain PERMISSION to travel within the U.S.
Here is the summary of their proposed rules, which seem so reasonable, couched as they are in the blandness of governmenteez [emphasis added].
The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act (IRTPA) requires the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to assume from aircraft operators the function of conducting pre-flight comparisons of airline passenger information to Federal Government watch lists for international and domestic flights.
[Use link below to continue reading]
http://www.unsecureflight.com/
Wrap...
Buried in the September 5 issue of the Federal Register, was a notice that Thursday, September 20, the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) will hold public hearings on their so-called Secure Flight Plan.
http://dmses.dot.gov/docimages/p102/484384.pdf
Come with me into a nightmare world where American citizens will have to obtain permission from the government before they can travel by air in the U.S.
Your government (meaning the Department of Homeland Security) is up to no good.
Beginning in February 2008, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will implement their ?Advance Passenger Information System (APIS),? the gist of which is that you will need permission from the United States Government to travel on any air or sea vessel that goes to, from or through the U.S. The travel companies will not be able to issue a boarding pass until you are cleared by DHS. This applies to ALL passengers, US citizens and visitors alike. And how do you get said permission to travel? That?s for your government to know and you to never find out.
Now TSA proposes to do for domestic travel what APIS will do for international routes. That?s what I said: the new TSA rule would require that you obtain PERMISSION to travel within the U.S.
Here is the summary of their proposed rules, which seem so reasonable, couched as they are in the blandness of governmenteez [emphasis added].
The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act (IRTPA) requires the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to assume from aircraft operators the function of conducting pre-flight comparisons of airline passenger information to Federal Government watch lists for international and domestic flights.
[Use link below to continue reading]
http://www.unsecureflight.com/
Wrap...
Friday, September 21, 2007
Spare us from the righteous who can make laws....
From The LA Times:
After City Hall is done targeting fast-food restaurants, maybe it can outlaw candy bars and gas stations.
By Laine T. Wagenseller
September 21, 2007
Iam feeling slightly overweight and out of shape. As I get older, my once exemplary metabolism has slowed down, and my thin frame has started taking on more bulk. At first I panicked. I made resolutions to eat better and to exercise more regularly. But then I spread out on the couch to watch "American Idol," and that feeling passed like a 24-hour flu. Later, after much reflection over a burrito and a cola, I came to my senses and realized that this was not a problem of discipline and exercise -- but one of zoning.
Yes, zoning. The problem, you see, was not that I made bad choices or neglected my health. The problem was that others had been allowed to build fast-food restaurants in my neighborhood. I was just a victim of bad zoning, unable to make decisions for myself.
The first step to recovery was to deal with my denial. I had been working out and eating the right foods. But it turned out that what I needed was an expert to guide me through the process of finding a better body. Friends made recommendations -- Billy Blanks, Jake (as in "Body By"), the Dalai Lama. I scoffed at their simplistic, unenlightened views. I needed a real expert. I needed a politician. I needed Jan Perry.
I felt if only Perry could take away everyone's freedom in the name of a noble cause, I would be on my way to a more svelte body in no time.
Perry is the Los Angeles city councilwoman who has proposed a two-year moratorium on new fast-food restaurants in South Los Angeles. Under her plan, the City Council would be the arbiters of whether a restaurant is healthy enough to open in her district.
I suppose that city councilperson training makes one qualified to determine which restaurants should be allowed, by the grace of government, to be opened in certain neighborhoods. I knew that her unchecked power was necessary to fix the free market and the out-of-control liberties that allowed people to choose where they eat.
My next step was to decide on a strategy that Perry could implement. Luckily, there are plenty of models for her to follow.
The L.A. City Council in 2004 had already essentially outlawed Wal-Mart in my neighborhood. Now that residents, by bureaucratic fiat, are freed from the evils of "always low prices," they can subsidize union box boys at $17.50 an hour while waiting in line at an inefficient, union-controlled supermarket to buy overpriced groceries.
Smoking had already been outlawed inside, outside and around most buildings. But smoking was a freedom I could do without, so its absence did not bother me much.
I know there are also efforts to limit liquor stores. I was not enlightened enough before to know that my light beer was apparently not light enough. I am also pretty certain that milk will clog my arteries, but I feel confident that the City Council will zone away milk when it has the time.
When zoning the proposed building that is taking over my downtown parking lot at work, rather than more replacement parking, we'd have fewer spaces. The theory behind this enlightened zoning policy is that the lack of parking spaces will force the unenlightened to walk or use mass transit instead of cars. I do wonder, though, which bus goes to the Orange County courthouse, and how many days it takes to get there.
All of this is healthy, but we can do better. I'm going to suggest to Perry that we zone gas stations out of existence. I think it will encourage more mass transit while also cutting down on pollution. Besides, the candy bars that they sell in the mini-marts go straight to my thighs.
While I initially hesitated at the thought of more government control at the expense of personal freedom, I simply repeated those warm and fuzzy words that always accompany attempts to limit our freedom: "It's for the children." I can already feel the pounds melting away.
Laine T. Wagenseller is an attorney in Los Angeles.
Wrap...
After City Hall is done targeting fast-food restaurants, maybe it can outlaw candy bars and gas stations.
By Laine T. Wagenseller
September 21, 2007
Iam feeling slightly overweight and out of shape. As I get older, my once exemplary metabolism has slowed down, and my thin frame has started taking on more bulk. At first I panicked. I made resolutions to eat better and to exercise more regularly. But then I spread out on the couch to watch "American Idol," and that feeling passed like a 24-hour flu. Later, after much reflection over a burrito and a cola, I came to my senses and realized that this was not a problem of discipline and exercise -- but one of zoning.
Yes, zoning. The problem, you see, was not that I made bad choices or neglected my health. The problem was that others had been allowed to build fast-food restaurants in my neighborhood. I was just a victim of bad zoning, unable to make decisions for myself.
The first step to recovery was to deal with my denial. I had been working out and eating the right foods. But it turned out that what I needed was an expert to guide me through the process of finding a better body. Friends made recommendations -- Billy Blanks, Jake (as in "Body By"), the Dalai Lama. I scoffed at their simplistic, unenlightened views. I needed a real expert. I needed a politician. I needed Jan Perry.
I felt if only Perry could take away everyone's freedom in the name of a noble cause, I would be on my way to a more svelte body in no time.
Perry is the Los Angeles city councilwoman who has proposed a two-year moratorium on new fast-food restaurants in South Los Angeles. Under her plan, the City Council would be the arbiters of whether a restaurant is healthy enough to open in her district.
I suppose that city councilperson training makes one qualified to determine which restaurants should be allowed, by the grace of government, to be opened in certain neighborhoods. I knew that her unchecked power was necessary to fix the free market and the out-of-control liberties that allowed people to choose where they eat.
My next step was to decide on a strategy that Perry could implement. Luckily, there are plenty of models for her to follow.
The L.A. City Council in 2004 had already essentially outlawed Wal-Mart in my neighborhood. Now that residents, by bureaucratic fiat, are freed from the evils of "always low prices," they can subsidize union box boys at $17.50 an hour while waiting in line at an inefficient, union-controlled supermarket to buy overpriced groceries.
Smoking had already been outlawed inside, outside and around most buildings. But smoking was a freedom I could do without, so its absence did not bother me much.
I know there are also efforts to limit liquor stores. I was not enlightened enough before to know that my light beer was apparently not light enough. I am also pretty certain that milk will clog my arteries, but I feel confident that the City Council will zone away milk when it has the time.
When zoning the proposed building that is taking over my downtown parking lot at work, rather than more replacement parking, we'd have fewer spaces. The theory behind this enlightened zoning policy is that the lack of parking spaces will force the unenlightened to walk or use mass transit instead of cars. I do wonder, though, which bus goes to the Orange County courthouse, and how many days it takes to get there.
All of this is healthy, but we can do better. I'm going to suggest to Perry that we zone gas stations out of existence. I think it will encourage more mass transit while also cutting down on pollution. Besides, the candy bars that they sell in the mini-marts go straight to my thighs.
While I initially hesitated at the thought of more government control at the expense of personal freedom, I simply repeated those warm and fuzzy words that always accompany attempts to limit our freedom: "It's for the children." I can already feel the pounds melting away.
Laine T. Wagenseller is an attorney in Los Angeles.
Wrap...
From Bush vetoing kids' ins. to Abe Lincoln flying Delta...
From American Progress:
Think Fast...
"Republicans reacted angrily yesterday" to Bush's pledge to veto increased funding for children's health insurance. "I'm disappointed by the president's comments," said Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA). "I'm very, very disappointed," echoed Sen. Gordon Smith (R-OR).
89.6 million: The number of Americans under the age of 65 who "had no health insurance for some or all of 2006 and 2007, according to a study released Thursday by Families USA, an advocacy group for the uninsured. The number is "almost double the number of uninsured reported by the Census Bureau for 2006."
The appointment of Donald Rumsfeld as a "distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution is drawing fierce protests from faculty members and students at Stanford University." "Some 2,100 professors, staff members, students and alumni have signed" a petition protesting his appointment.
Rep. Peter King (R-NY), who recently said "there are too many mosques" in America, continues to advise former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign. Giuliani "chuckled" at the suggestion of dumping King. "I've known Pete for 41 years, so I'm not about to do that," he said.
The United States "corroborated" Israeli intelligence that formed the basis for Israel's decision to attack a site inside Syria on Sept. 6. While some reports indicate it was a suspected nuclear site, others report it was "missiles and/or weapons parts." Bush refused to make any comment on the matter yesterday.
Attorney General nominee Michael Mukasey assured Senators yesterday "that he would limit contacts between the Justice Department and the White House to halt any political meddling with ongoing investigations." The Senate Judiciary Committee also approved a bill, introduced by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), which will limit communications between the Justice Department and the White House regarding ongoing investigations.
In the first comprehensive account of Sunday's shootout in Baghdad involving Blackwater contractors, the Iraqi Interior Ministry concluded the guards fired "an unprovoked barrage" on Iraqis in their cars in midday traffic. The report recommends that "the dozens of foreign security companies" in Iraq "should be replaced by Iraqi companies, and that a law that has given the companies immunity for years be scrapped."
And finally: The famous wax museum Madame Tussauds "flew its wax statue of Abraham Lincoln to D.C. on a Delta Shuttle flight on Thursday. Abe rode in the coach section with regular, non-presidential passengers."
Wrap...
Think Fast...
"Republicans reacted angrily yesterday" to Bush's pledge to veto increased funding for children's health insurance. "I'm disappointed by the president's comments," said Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA). "I'm very, very disappointed," echoed Sen. Gordon Smith (R-OR).
89.6 million: The number of Americans under the age of 65 who "had no health insurance for some or all of 2006 and 2007, according to a study released Thursday by Families USA, an advocacy group for the uninsured. The number is "almost double the number of uninsured reported by the Census Bureau for 2006."
The appointment of Donald Rumsfeld as a "distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution is drawing fierce protests from faculty members and students at Stanford University." "Some 2,100 professors, staff members, students and alumni have signed" a petition protesting his appointment.
Rep. Peter King (R-NY), who recently said "there are too many mosques" in America, continues to advise former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign. Giuliani "chuckled" at the suggestion of dumping King. "I've known Pete for 41 years, so I'm not about to do that," he said.
The United States "corroborated" Israeli intelligence that formed the basis for Israel's decision to attack a site inside Syria on Sept. 6. While some reports indicate it was a suspected nuclear site, others report it was "missiles and/or weapons parts." Bush refused to make any comment on the matter yesterday.
Attorney General nominee Michael Mukasey assured Senators yesterday "that he would limit contacts between the Justice Department and the White House to halt any political meddling with ongoing investigations." The Senate Judiciary Committee also approved a bill, introduced by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), which will limit communications between the Justice Department and the White House regarding ongoing investigations.
In the first comprehensive account of Sunday's shootout in Baghdad involving Blackwater contractors, the Iraqi Interior Ministry concluded the guards fired "an unprovoked barrage" on Iraqis in their cars in midday traffic. The report recommends that "the dozens of foreign security companies" in Iraq "should be replaced by Iraqi companies, and that a law that has given the companies immunity for years be scrapped."
And finally: The famous wax museum Madame Tussauds "flew its wax statue of Abraham Lincoln to D.C. on a Delta Shuttle flight on Thursday. Abe rode in the coach section with regular, non-presidential passengers."
Wrap...
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Sanders: San Diego's honorable Mayor...
From Voice of San Diego.org:
Politics, Personal Life Tugged at Sanders
Surrounded by a slew of TV cameras and joined by his wife, his bodyguard, and his top aides, Mayor Jerry Sanders reversed his position on same-sex marriage Wednesday.
By EVAN McLAUGHLIN Voice Staff Writer
Thursday, Sept. 20, 2007 | With his wife by his side, Mayor Jerry Sanders fought back tears to explain Wednesday why he would no longer veto a measure endorsing same-sex marriage because the rights of his daughter and other gays and lesbians were more important than a campaign promise.
"The arrival of the resolution in my office late last night forced me to reflect and search my soul for the right thing to do," Sanders said. "I have decided to lead with my heart, to do what I think is right, and to take a stand on behalf of equality and social justice."
The announcement came as a surprise, as Sanders vowed a day earlier to veto the controversial proposal. The legislation, which the City Council approved Tuesday, directs the City Attorney's Office to send a legal brief endorsing same-sex marriage to the state Supreme Court, which is considering multiple lawsuits seeking to overturn a ban on the marriage of gay and lesbian couples.
The Mayor's Office announced initially Sanders would veto the council's decision in order to remain consistent with campaign statements he made during the 2005 mayoral election.
But Sanders said he changed his mind in the meantime. "I have personally wrestled with that position ever since," he said. "My opinion on this issue has evolved significantly, as I think have the opinions of millions of Americans from all walks of life."
Many people close to him, in his family and his mayoral administration, are gay and he couldn't deny them the rights that he enjoys with his wife, Sanders said.
"I want their relationships to be protected equally under the law," he said. "I could not look any of them in the face and tell them that their relationships -- their very lives -- were any less meaningful than the marriage that I share with my wife Rana."
The "friend of the court" letter that Councilwoman Toni Atkins proposed was an opportunity for city officials to sound off on a social issue that local governments don't normally grapple with as a practical matter. By a 5-3 vote, the council decided to sign on to the same-sex lawsuit on San Diego's behalf, which mirrored moves taken by many other municipalities around the state, including Los Angeles, San Francisco and Oakland.
As mayor, Sanders has the opportunity to either sign the legislation, veto it, or -- as is the case with many City Hall proposals -- do nothing and allow it to be unceremoniously codified into law 10 days after passing at council.
Sanders' spokesman Fred Sainz said on Tuesday that Sanders would veto it because of his prior commitment against same-sex marriage. Sainz said the mayor wanted the city to focus on restoring its financial health instead of dealing with a social issue. He also argued that California voters already spoke on the matter, banning it in 2000 with the passage of Proposition 22. In San Diego, that ballot measure was approved by 62 percent of the voters.
Sanders' was a position that some members of the gay and lesbian community could live with.
"While I'm disappointed and wished he would have changed his mind in support, he is being consistent in what he has told our community," said Nicole Murray-Ramirez, the chairman of the city's Human Relations Commission and a prominent gay activist, in an interview before Sanders changed his mind.
Sanders is largely viewed in the gay and lesbian community as an ally. He's ridden in gay pride parades since serving as the city's police chief and is moderate on other social issues, such as supporting a clean-needle exchange program in San Diego.
Sanders undoubtedly felt the political tug to stick to his veto, as his stiffest competition will likely come from Steve Francis, his probable competitor in next year's mayor's race and a Republican who opposes same-sex marriage. Francis has forced Sanders to the right before, most notably in the 2005 campaign when Sanders matched Francis' pledge to not raise taxes to deal with the city's massive funding shortfalls.
Sanders said his feelings got the best of his political sense.
"I acknowledge that not all members of our community will agree or perhaps even understand my decision today," he said. "All I can offer them is that I am trying to do what I believe is right."
Sanders appeared overwhelmed during the speech. A spokesman estimated that it would take him about a minute and a half to read prepared remarks to the flock of reporters and cameras assembled in City Hall's press gallery. Instead, Sanders' speech lasted several minutes, as he frequently broke from reading to swig water, breathe deeply and brush away tears.
Critical to the speech was Sanders's revelation that his daughter, Lisa, was a lesbian -- a fact that Sanders said he knew about for three or four years but that had been largely shielded from the public eye.
But Sanders downplayed that as his overriding factor, instead saying that he had been a visible supporter of the gay and lesbian community for a decade and noting that he surrounded himself with several members of that constituency in his professional life.
Included in that list are his spokesmen Fred Sainz and George Biagi, fire Chief Tracy Jarman, and District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis, a close political ally.
Sanders' decision comes a day after the City Council heard three hours of testimony on the issue. Besides Atkins, council members Scott Peters, Donna Frye, Jim Madaffer and Ben Hueso voted for it. Councilmen Kevin Faulconer, Tony Young and Brian Maienschein voted against it.
Madaffer, another Republican who crossed the party's typically hard line against same-sex marriage, applauded the mayor.
"I commend the mayor for leading with his heart and making a decision on what he believes and not what politics dictate," he said in a statement.
City Attorney Mike Aguirre also applauded Sanders' change of heart, but said it showed the mayor was a better leader when he sided with instinct over politics.
"It really shows that when Jerry does what's in his heart, he's a good person. He really has the right instincts," Aguirre said. "When he personally gets involved, he makes the right decisions. When he listens to political advisers, he makes wrong decisions."
Wrap...
Politics, Personal Life Tugged at Sanders
Surrounded by a slew of TV cameras and joined by his wife, his bodyguard, and his top aides, Mayor Jerry Sanders reversed his position on same-sex marriage Wednesday.
By EVAN McLAUGHLIN Voice Staff Writer
Thursday, Sept. 20, 2007 | With his wife by his side, Mayor Jerry Sanders fought back tears to explain Wednesday why he would no longer veto a measure endorsing same-sex marriage because the rights of his daughter and other gays and lesbians were more important than a campaign promise.
"The arrival of the resolution in my office late last night forced me to reflect and search my soul for the right thing to do," Sanders said. "I have decided to lead with my heart, to do what I think is right, and to take a stand on behalf of equality and social justice."
The announcement came as a surprise, as Sanders vowed a day earlier to veto the controversial proposal. The legislation, which the City Council approved Tuesday, directs the City Attorney's Office to send a legal brief endorsing same-sex marriage to the state Supreme Court, which is considering multiple lawsuits seeking to overturn a ban on the marriage of gay and lesbian couples.
The Mayor's Office announced initially Sanders would veto the council's decision in order to remain consistent with campaign statements he made during the 2005 mayoral election.
But Sanders said he changed his mind in the meantime. "I have personally wrestled with that position ever since," he said. "My opinion on this issue has evolved significantly, as I think have the opinions of millions of Americans from all walks of life."
Many people close to him, in his family and his mayoral administration, are gay and he couldn't deny them the rights that he enjoys with his wife, Sanders said.
"I want their relationships to be protected equally under the law," he said. "I could not look any of them in the face and tell them that their relationships -- their very lives -- were any less meaningful than the marriage that I share with my wife Rana."
The "friend of the court" letter that Councilwoman Toni Atkins proposed was an opportunity for city officials to sound off on a social issue that local governments don't normally grapple with as a practical matter. By a 5-3 vote, the council decided to sign on to the same-sex lawsuit on San Diego's behalf, which mirrored moves taken by many other municipalities around the state, including Los Angeles, San Francisco and Oakland.
As mayor, Sanders has the opportunity to either sign the legislation, veto it, or -- as is the case with many City Hall proposals -- do nothing and allow it to be unceremoniously codified into law 10 days after passing at council.
Sanders' spokesman Fred Sainz said on Tuesday that Sanders would veto it because of his prior commitment against same-sex marriage. Sainz said the mayor wanted the city to focus on restoring its financial health instead of dealing with a social issue. He also argued that California voters already spoke on the matter, banning it in 2000 with the passage of Proposition 22. In San Diego, that ballot measure was approved by 62 percent of the voters.
Sanders' was a position that some members of the gay and lesbian community could live with.
"While I'm disappointed and wished he would have changed his mind in support, he is being consistent in what he has told our community," said Nicole Murray-Ramirez, the chairman of the city's Human Relations Commission and a prominent gay activist, in an interview before Sanders changed his mind.
Sanders is largely viewed in the gay and lesbian community as an ally. He's ridden in gay pride parades since serving as the city's police chief and is moderate on other social issues, such as supporting a clean-needle exchange program in San Diego.
Sanders undoubtedly felt the political tug to stick to his veto, as his stiffest competition will likely come from Steve Francis, his probable competitor in next year's mayor's race and a Republican who opposes same-sex marriage. Francis has forced Sanders to the right before, most notably in the 2005 campaign when Sanders matched Francis' pledge to not raise taxes to deal with the city's massive funding shortfalls.
Sanders said his feelings got the best of his political sense.
"I acknowledge that not all members of our community will agree or perhaps even understand my decision today," he said. "All I can offer them is that I am trying to do what I believe is right."
Sanders appeared overwhelmed during the speech. A spokesman estimated that it would take him about a minute and a half to read prepared remarks to the flock of reporters and cameras assembled in City Hall's press gallery. Instead, Sanders' speech lasted several minutes, as he frequently broke from reading to swig water, breathe deeply and brush away tears.
Critical to the speech was Sanders's revelation that his daughter, Lisa, was a lesbian -- a fact that Sanders said he knew about for three or four years but that had been largely shielded from the public eye.
But Sanders downplayed that as his overriding factor, instead saying that he had been a visible supporter of the gay and lesbian community for a decade and noting that he surrounded himself with several members of that constituency in his professional life.
Included in that list are his spokesmen Fred Sainz and George Biagi, fire Chief Tracy Jarman, and District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis, a close political ally.
Sanders' decision comes a day after the City Council heard three hours of testimony on the issue. Besides Atkins, council members Scott Peters, Donna Frye, Jim Madaffer and Ben Hueso voted for it. Councilmen Kevin Faulconer, Tony Young and Brian Maienschein voted against it.
Madaffer, another Republican who crossed the party's typically hard line against same-sex marriage, applauded the mayor.
"I commend the mayor for leading with his heart and making a decision on what he believes and not what politics dictate," he said in a statement.
City Attorney Mike Aguirre also applauded Sanders' change of heart, but said it showed the mayor was a better leader when he sided with instinct over politics.
"It really shows that when Jerry does what's in his heart, he's a good person. He really has the right instincts," Aguirre said. "When he personally gets involved, he makes the right decisions. When he listens to political advisers, he makes wrong decisions."
Wrap...
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