General lies under oath to Congress

Gollywillickers that's still considered bad? (just barely, but not for long, now that we live in Rove's America)

General contradicted Abu Ghraib testimony

WASHINGTON -- An Army general who has been criticized for his role in the treatment of prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay detention center and Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq has contradicted his sworn congressional testimony about contacts with senior Pentagon officials.

Gen. Geoffrey Miller told the Senate Armed Services Committee in May 2004 that he had only filed a report on a recent visit to Abu Ghraib, and did not talk to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld or his top aides about the fact-finding trip.

But in a recorded statement to attorneys three months later, Miller said he gave two of Rumfeld's most senior aides-- then-Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and Undersecretary for Intelligence Steve Cambone--a briefing on his visit and his subsequent recommendations.

Wolfowitz loves to hear about the torture... it helps him go to sleep with a broad smile.

- rob 6:09 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Krugman: Karl Rove's America

John Gibson of Fox News says that Karl Rove should be given a medal. I agree: Mr. Rove should receive a medal from the American Political Science Association for his pioneering discoveries about modern American politics. The medal can, if necessary, be delivered to his prison cell.

What Mr. Rove understood, long before the rest of us, is that we're not living in the America of the past, where even partisans sometimes changed their views when faced with the facts. Instead, we're living in a country in which there is no longer such a thing as nonpolitical truth. In particular, there are now few, if any, limits to what conservative politicians can get away with: the faithful will follow the twists and turns of the party line with a loyalty that would have pleased the Comintern.
...
Mr. Rove has been much criticized for saying that liberals responded to the attack by wanting to offer the terrorists therapy - but what he said about conservatives, that they "saw the savagery of 9/11 and the attacks and prepared for war," is equally false. What many of them actually saw was a domestic political opportunity - and none more so than Mr. Rove.

A less insightful political strategist might have hesitated right after 9/11 before using it to cast the Democrats as weak on national security. After all, there were no facts to support that accusation.

But Mr. Rove understood that the facts were irrelevant. For one thing, he knew he could count on the administration's supporters to obediently accept a changing story line. Read the before-and-after columns by pro-administration pundits about Iraq: before the war they castigated the C.I.A. for understating the threat posed by Saddam's W.M.D.; after the war they castigated the C.I.A. for exaggerating the very same threat.

Mr. Rove also understands, better than anyone else in American politics, the power of smear tactics. Attacks on someone who contradicts the official line don't have to be true, or even plausible, to undermine that person's effectiveness. All they have to do is get a lot of media play, and they'll create the sense that there must be something wrong with the guy.
...
Ultimately, this isn't just about Mr. Rove. It's also about Mr. Bush, who has always known that his trusted political adviser - a disciple of the late Lee Atwater, whose smear tactics helped President Bush's father win the 1988 election - is a thug, and obviously made no attempt to find out if he was the leaker.

Most of all, it's about what has happened to America. How did our political system get to this point?

I'll tell you it got to this point because of Clinton and Monica - gosh its just so obvious, before that horrible time in the nineties there was no crime in America, never was a voice raised in anger. No child went to bed hungry. No terrorist ever used a bomb. No baby was born to an unwed mother. Oh those were the days.

- rob 6:06 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Stating it like it is: Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall:

No presidential advisor should ever disclose the identity of a covert agent at the CIA. That doesn't require elaboration.

If it's done knowingly, it's a felony. Joe Wilson could be the biggest hack in the world. Plame could have cooked the whole trip idea up to damage the president -- as some GOP loopsters are now claiming -- and it wouldn't matter.

She worked on Weapons of Mass destruction folks. Leaking her identity out right damaged us in our war against terror. Remember outing her outed others (who worked for the same CIA front company), it outed their associates, it ruined the trust some sources the CIA may have had that it was save for them to work with the CIA.

The only reason I can think for all this defense of Rove is that many in the GOP and their followers are worried that Rove actually is "Bush's Brain" and that a lobotomy wouldn't be a pretty thing.

- rob 6:01 PM - [PermaLink] -

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"Even though I'm a tranquil guy now at this stage of my life, I have nothing but contempt and anger for those who betray the trust by exposing the name of our sources. They are, in my view, the most insidious, of traitors."
-George H. W. Bush


thanks to Daily Kos: State of the Nation for the quote.

- rob 5:51 PM - [PermaLink] -

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After reading the post below and going to AMERICAblog, read this then go back to AMERICAblog to read this one: AMERICAblog: "All's well that ends well" is not the appropriate response to the London bombings

Note Ridge's incorrect assertion that as a result of the leak and the overall US bungling there was in essence no harm, no foul as a result - i.e., everything worked out okay anyway. Wonder if the Bush administration is going to retract that now. From the US Embassy Web site in Britain:

QUESTION: Richard Norton-Taylor of The Guardian. Could I follow up that question, and some concern has been expressed probably normally privately here about the amount of information America.... people say maybe the Americans say too much, phrases like crying wolf were mentioned and so on. I just wondered if you had any comment on that?

SECRETARY RIDGE: Well, I believe you're referring, probably, to some background information that was shared, no-one really knows the source. But I know there was the regrettable disclosure of information that British officials would have much preferred to remain confidential, at least during the time of apprehension and the decision-making as to whether or not they should be held and then charged. And I assure you it wasn't part of any public pronouncement relative to raising the threat level from the Department of Homeland Security. And there was clearly an insensitivity by the individual who disclosed that information to the process and to the demands on our friends who are co-operating with us in terms of their own legal process. So the expression of displeasure based on the leak or that source of that information being made public, and the potential to complicate the life of the authorities in Great Britain, frankly, was an appropriate expression of disappointment and displeasure. I have no argument with that.

There is a different process here. We need to be respectful of the legal and the constitutional means by which we conduct our business and I'd hate to see that kind of that situation recur with the frequency or the severity that would impair the extraordinary collaborative relationship we have. So I can say, from my perspective, the public expression of disappointment and displeasure was appropriate. As it turned out, all's well that ends well, but understanding the restrictions and the conditions under which your law enforcement community operates in this country, we should do everything we can to avoid compromising or undermining it, period.

- rob 5:51 PM - [PermaLink] -

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We have said it before: The Bush Administration is willing to put our National Security at risk just to play politics

but I never realized how that wasn't enough for them:

AMERICAblog: Bush admin may be responsible for botching effort to thwart London bombing

ABC News just reported that the British authorities say they have evidence that the London attacks last week were an operation planned by Al Qaeda for the last two years. This was an operation the Brits thought they caught and stopped in time, but they were wrong. The piece of the puzzle ABC missed is that this is an operation the Bush administration helped botch last year.

I.e., last year Bush botched the effort to thwart the London subway attacks.

1. The London bombers, per ABC, are connected to an Al Qaeda plot planned two years ago in Lahore, Pakistan.

2. Pakistani authorities recovered the laptop of a captured Al Qaeda leader, Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan, on July 13, 2004. On that laptop, they found plans for a coordinated series of attacks on the London subway. According to an expert interviewed by ABC, "there is absolutely no doubt that Khan was part of a worldwide Al Qaeda operation, not just in the United States but also in Great Britain and throughout the west."

Also important, but not reported by ABC this evening, after his arrest Khan started working for our side - sending emails to his other Al Qaeda buddies, working as our mole.

3. ABC reports that names in Khan's computer matched a suspected cell of British citizens of Pakistani decent, many of who lived near the town of Luton, England - Luton is the same town where, not coincidentally, last week's London bombing terrorists began their day. According to ABC, authorities thought they had stopped the subway plot with the arrest of more than a dozen people last year associated with Khan. Obviously, they hadn't.

4. Those arrests were the arrests that the Bush administration botched by announcing a heightened security alert the week of the Democratic Convention. The alert was raised because of information found on Khan's computer (this is in the public record already, see below). In its effort to either prove that the alert was serious, or to try and scare people during the Dem Convention, the administration gave the press too much information about WHY they raised the alert. This put the media on the trail of Khan - they found him, and they published his name.

Because the US let the cat out of the bag, the media got a hold of Khan's name and published the fact that he had been captured - his Al Qaeda contacts thus found out their "buddy" was actually a mole, and they fled. Our sole source inside Al Qaeda was destroyed. As a result, the Brits had to have a high speed chase to catch some of Khan's Al Qaeda associates as they fled, and, according to press reports, the Brits and Pakistanis both fear that some slipped away.

Again, these were guys connected to the plot to blow up the London subway last week. Some may have escaped because of Bush administration negligence involving a leak. And in fact, ABC News' terrorism consultant says the group that bombed London was likely activated just after the arrests:

"It is very likely this group was activated last year after the other group was arrested," Debat said.

My apologies to Americablog for lifting so much from their site, but just in case people don't bother to click the link to read the full thing (and please do, we'll be here when you get back - we promise), I wanted to get enough here so people really understand this isn't just some raving Blog paranoia. It is a statement: Playing Politics with Intelligence can (and MAY have) lead to death.

Bush has not been fighting a war on terror, he has been fighting a war to stay in power using war and death and our troops as props. Does it get more appalling?

- rob 5:47 PM - [PermaLink] -

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The Independent Blogger, as in me (I am based at The Office of the Independent Blogger) considers himself a bit of an expert on the problems in North Korea.

We're going back to the negotiating table with the North Koreans, but I predict they'll end pretty soon, with the United States telling North Korea to go to its room for being a bad girl, prompting the Koreans to pout and leave the house, off to brood in the loving arms of their significant other (the Chinese). Before I get to why I believe these talks will fail, there's a simple question to ask: How did we get back to the table, after all the fussing and the feuding that went on? Fred Kaplan has the scoop.

Verification issues will plague this Administration, if they can work out a deal. But as Kaplan points out, the Clinton Administration's Agreed Framework took fifty meetings to hammer out. Will the Bushes have that level of patience? I don't look at Condoleezza Rice and see a woman that's willing to negotiate: I see a hawk of the worst kind.

The Bush White House is taking some good first steps, apparently offering massive energy aid and dropping its "hostile policy." Bush recently referred to Jung as "Mr. Kim Jung Il", and Rice has stopped referring to that country as an "outpost of tyranny," which is something incredibly important in Asian diplomacy: Respect. They'll have to go further, however. Kim Jung wants us to establish full Diplomatic relations with him as well as to give him abundant supplies of food and energy. Will Bush do that, alienating his base in the process?

When President Clinton signed the Agreed Framework he never delivered on his promises of aid or diplomatic status because the Republicans in Congress blocked him, angry at him for "giving away the farm." Given that experience -- promises that never materialized -- the North Koreans will be even more hesitant to trust America, which means that Bush may have to blindly trust North Korea, which means that he may have to give them extra food and energy supplies before receiving anything in return, something that I don't see George W. Bush as likely to do.

Then what will the Koreans do, if we don't? Mistrust us more and assume that his promises, our deal, won't mean anything, like Clinton's, which would probably cause them to increase their weapons program covertly or even overtly. I'm optimistic about the possibility of putting this nuclear genie back into its radioactive bottle, but I do worry that it may just be too late. If it is, I think the best we can hope for is to open North Korea to the world like Nixon did China.

- ThePoliticalPenguin 1:11 PM - [PermaLink] -

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The news media has largely ignored Secretary of State Rice's trip to Asia last week, a trip on which her first stop is in China. Why's she there? To work with the Asian countries on bringing North Korea back to the table, something that they've today declared their willingness to do. That's good news, to the extent that talking to them is what we ought to be doing but the goodness of this development is diminished by the fact that we should also be holding bilateral negotiations, and I'm saddened by the lack of press coverage this has gotten. I wouldn't have noticed it had it not been for Google News -- a website that I thank God for. Though there was one thing in the news story that I read which I disagreed with.

China, as the principal source for food and energy aid to North Korea, has more leverage over its neighbor than do other parties in the talks.

Kim Jung wants assurances that his country isn't going to be attacked and that he will be taken seriously; not food or energy. (Or, rather, the latter is a secondary concern to him compared to the former.) China does not have the most leverage in the talks. China can not reasonably say to Kim, "Hey, give the Americans what they want or we'll cut off food aid." You know why? Not because they're Commie Buddies, though they have retained their Cold War friendship, but because, if China pulled back from the North Koreans and North Korea's economy fell apart even worse, the Chinese would be hit with thousands of immigrants that they don't want and can't afford.

Talking to Kim Jung is America's responsibility, and we're the only ones who can calm that beast of a man.

- ThePoliticalPenguin 12:39 PM - [PermaLink] -

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"The function of free speech under our system of government is to invite dispute. It may indeed best serve its high purpose when it invites a condition of unrest, creates dissatisfaction with conditions as they are, or even stirs people to anger."
- William Orville Douglas (Supreme Court Justice for 36 years)

- rob 2:55 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Wilson: The president should "fire Karl Rove"

Gangel: Do you think even though what Karl Rove did may not have broken a law — do you think from what you know he should be fired?

Wilson: Absolutely. Absolutely. The president said in — in the middle of 2004 that he would fire anybody who was caught leaking in this matter. Karl Rove has now been caught. The president has said repeatedly, I am a man of my word. The president really should stand up and prove to the American people that his word is his bond and fire Karl Rove.

- rob 2:37 PM - [PermaLink] -

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You want a scandal that involves both parties (the primarily the GOP), that consists of a Congressman crowning a man who has said "Woman's sexual organ is like the open mouth of a snake filled with poison. Man's sexual organ is like the head of a snake. If you think of fallen love action in these terms you feel disgusted and so you should. It is poison to humanity." in a government building?

Then Where in Washington, D.C. is Sun Myung Moon? is always an entertaining and frightening read:

POTENTIAL PROBLEMS
...Current Moonie involvement with government officials, contractors and grantees could create a major scandal. If their activities and role become public knowledge, it will unite both the left and the right in attacking the administration [...]

If efforts are not taken to stop their growing influence and weed out current Moonie involvement in government, the president stands a good chance of being portrayed in the media as a poor, naive incompetent who is strong on ideology and weak on common sense...The likelihood of a reporter or a Democratic staff member piecing the total picture together is too great to be neglected. Any thought that this festering problem will go away if ignored is foolish.

Pentagon memo obtained by the Washington Post
"CIA, Moonies Cooperate in Sandinista War"
August 16,1984

- rob 2:23 PM - [PermaLink] -

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DeLay and Rove have become heros to many future Republicans.

They truly are the "Next Generation" of arrogant inept eogotists:

Young Republicans suffer setback

Nevada's chapter of the Young Republicans has basically imploded, leaving its chairman with up to $25,000 in personal debt and allegations that he mishandled money.

All but three people have resigned from the statewide group, but the fallout could prove increasingly embarrassing to the entire state Republican Party.
...
"I've got bills at the hotel I can't pay," said Taylor, a 29-year-old political science senior at UNR who said he had to quit his food service job and drop classes to plan the convention.

Taylor estimates that the convention, attended by about 600 people from around the nation, is at least $10,000 -- and up to $25,000 -- in the red.

As the chairman, he said he'll personally have to cough up the cash.

"It's a really sad day when my congressmen and my senator, who are sitting on millions, can't cut me a check for $25,000," Taylor said. "I don't think I'm asking for much."
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Taylor has proved a colorful character in state Republican politics, even appearing this week in the New York Post's Page Six gossip column.

"Apprentice" winner Kelly Perdew was scheduled to attend a Saturday night dinner at the national convention, but Taylor told the paper he canceled the date because Perdew requested too many perks.
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Last spring, members of the club's state board filed a complaint with Reno police about Taylor, asking them to investigate where $25,000 in money meant to plan the national convention went.

Kriston Whiteside, president of the UNR College Republicans, filed a letter saying Taylor asked her to write a check to his cousin to repay a personal loan.

And from the East Coast we get This great email exchange between The Chairman of the NJ College Republicans and The NJ State GOP Chairman (and others).

Steve Damion - Chair of NJ College Republicans:

I would be more than happy to give that information to you and the
> Forrester Campaign, but I am looking at you to help us out as well. We
> all know Forrester is set financially, I mean it's not every guy that
> contributes 2,000 to campaigns around the state like it's nothing. I
> would like your campaign to cut the NJ College Republicans a nice check,
...
If you we able
> to knock Schroeder for a 2,500 check I figure that Forrester should be
> able to at least match that. I mean the 100 dollars he gave to us is
> really drops in the bucket. I have local candidates for assembly that
> are cutting us checks for 250. See where I am coming from?
...
> Keep me posted on this. If there is a 3,000 dollar check waiting for me
> I am coming running and the campaign will have total access to our
> resources at all times, no problem.

Email from Tom Wilson NJ State GOP Chairman:

> Steve,
>
> The Forrester campaign forwarded to me the email below which appears to come from you..
>
> If it's not from you, skip the rest of this email.
>
> If it is from you, we have a serious problem that requires immediate attention. Let me suggest that you need to re-read what you wrote, think about the people your working with, and spend this weekend thinking about the reasons I shouldn't share your email with every legislator and county chairman in the state (I can promise you that if I do, the few dollars you've raised will be the last you see from any Republican organization or candidate) and then contact the national CR office to have your ass removed.
> Your approach is 100% out of line - not to mention quite possibly illegal.
...
> The first thing you'll do is get Sean exactly what he asked you for first thing Monday AM with your apology and assurance that he will have from you complete and unqualified cooperation from now on.
>
> Next, you'll prepare the plan and budget that I told you was a prerequisite to getting any funding from anyone. Here's a little bit of info for you - the state party and Forrester campaign are really the same entity for your purposes. No plan, no money. I want it by July 1. Now that I see what you're all about, I'd also like by then a complete accounting for the CR account for the past 2 years. I want to know where every dollar came from and every penny went. I'd also like a monthly report from you detailing the same info. After that we'll see if it's necessary for us to put a co-signer on the CR account to make sure that funds are spent in accordance with the mission of the group.
...
> You're off on the wrong foot and need to earn our collective trust and respect by demonstrating that you are not at all what your email suggests you are. The good news for you is that should you decide to adjust your attitude, we don't have time to hold this unfortunate episode against you. Do the right thing and we'll forget this ever happened. I'm think you're smart enough to see the opportunity you're being given.
>
> See where I'm coming from?

I probably don't agree with Tom politically (do you think?), but he really sounds like he does have his head on right. So how does the State Chair of the NJ College Republicans respond? Inanely.

Steve:

What I do know is this, I did talk to Sean verbally about the possibly of a contribution from the Forrester campaign in the past, but nothing in grave detail to the account below. I also know that Sean has a lot of remorse against me for a lot of reasons. One being that I was given the job he wanted with Bill Spadea's last campaign for Congress and I earned the title of NJ College Republican Chairman respectively, a title that Sean had his sights set on from last year. He tried every trick in the book to step over me to winning this title of Chairman, but fortunately was unsuccessful. I even was fortunate to hear the after I had earned this positon Sean made a public statement that went somewhere along the lines of this, "Steve may have won the title, but I'll still be controlling the College Republicans."
...
At this point I am going to cut off all communication ties with Sean and will hope you can believe what I am saying is true. If not and if I can't accpet your trust in knowing what I am saying holds water then I am going to step down as Chairman of this organization. I am not going to be hastled by Sean with proposturous false accounts against me and stand by and take it. I have already had my fair share of negativity with Sean and simply am not going to be controlled by a man of this statute.

If you can't see where it is I am coming from than we are going to be at a standstill as far as working together on a united front. I can't see our organization being babied by our state party.

Well let's just jump to the end of this shall we?

Steve Damion's Letter of Resignation:

> New Jersey College Republicans and State Leaders:
>
> Due to slandering and false pretenses I have decided to resign as Chairman
> of the NJCR organization. I can not lead an organization whose members
> have decided to be so divided on issues that couldn't be farther from the
> truth. I do not feel it is appropriate, in this case, to defend myself
> due to the fact that I have not done anything wrong. I think it is so sad
> that people have disclosed themselves to only listening to one and only
> one side and accepting it as the truth.

You can almost hear Rove and DeLay singing: "Teach your children well..." (oh, and can I just say that Steve's command of the English language is well... as bad as mine... not good).

Links to these articles from Atrios and Daily Kos. (thanks)

- rob 2:07 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Earlier this week it was Monday (you might not have noticed)

The Top Ten Conservative Idiots, No. 205 - Democratic Underground
Idiotic Like a Fox Edition

3. Brian Kilmeade
Then of course there was Fox News host Brian Kilmeade, who was simply delighted that stupid issues like global warming and African poverty would be pushed to the back burner at the G8 summit in Scotland.

"This is his [Tony Blair's] second address in the last hour," gushed Kilmeade. "First to the people of London, and now at the G8 summit, where their topic Number 1 - believe it or not - was global warming, the second was African aid. And that was the first time since 9-11 when they should know, and they do know now, that terrorism should be Number 1."

Well certainly, Brian, terrorism is a very important issue. But what's your personal opinion of the London attacks?

"I think that works to our advantage, in the Western world's advantage, for people to experience something like this together, just 500 miles from where the attacks have happened."

Excuse me: works to our advantage? Perhaps Brian and Brit should get together and form Enormous Assholes Anonymous.

4. John Gibson
Or how about Fox News anchor John Gibson, who the day before the attacks said, according to News Hounds, that "he wished Paris would have gotten the 2012 Olympics because it would have been a treat to watch them deal with terrorist threats." How nice. It always warms my heart to see a news anchor wishing a terrorist attack on someone.

So did Gibson feel any remorse for his prescient remarks when London was attacked just one day later? Not a chance.

"If they had picked France instead of London to hold the Olympics," said he, "it would have been the one time we could look forward to where we didn't worry about terrorism. They'd blow up Paris, and who cares?"

Yeah, what a bummer. The terrorist attacks didn't happen in France. Oh well, better luck next time, eh. By the way John, there's a new organization you might be interested in called "Enormous Assholes Anonymous." I think you'd be a perfect fit.

- rob 12:56 PM - [PermaLink] -

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450 Sheep Jump to Their Deaths in Turkey

ISTANBUL, Turkey Jul 8, 2005 — First one sheep jumped to its death. Then stunned Turkish shepherds, who had left the herd to graze while they had breakfast, watched as nearly 1,500 others followed, each leaping off the same cliff, Turkish media reported.

In the end, 450 dead animals lay on top of one another in a billowy white pile, the Aksam newspaper said. Those who jumped later were saved as the pile got higher and the fall more cushioned, Aksam reported.

(I don't know who created the above image, but thanks - it worked great for this actually really sad news piece - which I cruely turned into a joke)

- rob 12:49 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Fox News gets envious of Fox Sports "money making lying to the audience plan", and realizes they should expand thier "lying to the audience on behalf of the GOP plan" to include advertisers.

Next on Fox News: Would Volvos make our troops in Iraq safer.

Next on Fox News: Drinking Snapple, does it really reduce your chances of getting cancer? The exciting new findings after this commercial break
(and yet the commercial continues 24/7)

Actually news agencies already get paid by advertisers to make segments like this, they're called "Video News Releases." But they don't (at least not yet) get paid to air them, the news shows just air them because their too lazy to report any news. For more on this read: The death of Freedom of speech.

And here's what brings this up:

Fox deceives millions during national pastime

Fox Sports and Chevy teamed yesterday to deceive millions of people during the Major League Baseball All-Star game. They did such a good job of it that many of you viewing probably didn't even notice.

As Fox came back from a commercial break in the bottom half of the third inning, many viewers caught sight of a very long, flashy banner draped over an equally ostentatious advertisement picturing a yellow Corvette. The banner read HHRYA.com with the letters done in pseudo Asian design - clearly the work of professionals. However, the Fox Sports broadcasters Joe Buck and Tim McCarver played off the ad like it was the work of a goofy sports fan, dangling his banner in the hopes of securing a moment of TV glory.
...
I don't know what that sign means, but 'hooray' is the first thing that comes to my mind."

Funny you should mention that, Tim. Hooray is exactly the sound Fox executives made as they cashed their checks from the largest advertiser of the day. Chevy, the sponsor, must have been disappointed as it failed to prepare its HHRYA.com website for the traffic it expected to receive. Visitors to the site were unable to reach the page for about thirty minutes after the "I don't know what that is" ad appeared.
...
Is this a huge deal? Well, in the big scheme of things, maybe not.

It is, however, one of the most blatant examples of companies trying to pass off an advertisement as reality. Anyone watching the game would have sworn that Buck and McCarver really seemed not to know what was going on. But their ruse was easily discovered once you realized that Fox would never hold its camera on an unknown website and read the URL on air.

- rob 12:46 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Put your E-beam weapons on stun

Sure these weapons sound great, but I think we might reconsider when our soldiers start wearing red shirts.

Military's Energy-Beam Weapons Delayed

ARLINGTON, Va. - For years, the U.S. military has explored a new kind of firepower that is instantaneous, precise and virtually inexhaustible: beams of electromagnetic energy. "Directed-energy" pulses can be throttled up or down depending on the situation, much like the phasers on "Star Trek" could be set to kill or merely stun.
...
The hallmark of all directed-energy weapons is that the target — whether a human or a mechanical object — has no chance to avoid the shot because it moves at the speed of light. At some frequencies, it can penetrate walls.

Since the ammunition is merely light or radio waves, directed-energy weapons are limited only by the supply of electricity. And they don't involve chemicals or projectiles that can be inaccurate, accidentally cause injury or violate international treaties.

"When you're dealing with people whose full intent is to die, you can't give people a choice of whether to comply," said George Gibbs, a systems engineer for the Marine Expeditionary Rifle Squad Program who oversees directed-energy projects. "What I'm looking for is a way to shoot everybody, and they're all OK."

To help development on the EBeam weapon, the military his trying to reanimate the corpse of Nikola Tesla.

- rob 12:33 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Read

Daily Kos: Gen. Clark on Winning The War on Terror

- rob 5:16 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Lord Voldemort, Lucius Malfoy, and now The Pope



Poor young Potter

Pope Opposes Harry Potter Novels - Signed Letters from Cardinal Ratzinger Now Online

In March 2003, a month after the English press throughout the world falsely proclaimed that Pope John Paul II approved of Harry Potter, the man who was to become his successor sent a letter to a Gabriele Kuby outlining his agreement with her opposition to J.K. Rowling's offerings. (See below for links to scanned copies of the letters signed by Cardinal Ratzinger.)

As the sixth issue of Rowling's Harry Potter series - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - is about to be released, the news that Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger expressed serious reservations about the novels is now finally being revealed to the English-speaking world still under the impression the Vatican approves the Potter novels.

In a letter dated March 7, 2003 Cardinal Ratzinger thanked Kuby for her "instructive" book Harry Potter - gut oder böse (Harry Potter- good or evil?), in which Kuby says the Potter books corrupt the hearts of the young, preventing them from developing a properly ordered sense of good and evil, thus harming their relationship with God while that relationship is still in its infancy.

"It is good, that you enlighten people about Harry Potter, because those are subtle seductions, which act unnoticed and by this deeply distort Christianity in the soul, before it can grow properly," wrote Cardinal Ratzinger.

The true danger Potter holds for young Americans is that they'll start saying "Brilliant" at odd times. Other dangers will be calling cookies "biscuits," a baby's diapers a "nappy," or saying bizarre things like "I've got to run off to the loo" and "just put your luggage in the boot."

- rob 4:45 PM - [PermaLink] -

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It is official: Fox News considers making Bush look good is of higher importance then our national security.

Mr. Willis even has the video: Oliver Willis - Fox News: Anti National Security

FOX News anchor John Gibson just said onair that he thought Karl Rove deserves a medal if he outed Valerie Plame. Let me repeat: John Gibson, anchor at the FOX News Channel, says he believes that we ought to expose our covert government agents and harm national security… as long as it benefits Republicans.

- rob 1:30 PM - [PermaLink] -

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First off, Bush defenders have to stop with this whole "Plame wasn't a covert agent" nonsense.

I guess they wisely reached that conclusion by noting that she likes her martinis stirred and not shaken, and that her fountain pen does not convert into a laser. Heck she probably doesn't even have a license to kill (and what a killer it is to get one of those, and I thought I needed a lot of forms of ID to get my driver's license renewed).

If you asked Plame where she worked she would have named the consulting firm she "officially" worked at. There you go- that is covert. Pretty damn basic. If she was "overt" which many CIA employees are, they would say "CIA." I'm sure there are super secret uberagents that battle the illuminati, so I'll grant you she is not one of those.

"Rove was just letting a reporter know the truth." Is another incredibly lame argument. Yes, outing the name of a CIA agent is "the truth." And I am a big supporter of the truth. But even not being a supporter of Bush's war antics, I know that some "truths" are better left unsaid. If I knew the location of Navy Seals in Baghdad who were about to raid an insurgent bomb factory, guess what, I wouldn't tell anyone. Why? Because I don't want Americans to be killed. I want them to be successful, even if I don't like us being in Iraq. Yes dear Bush worshippers, as President Bush himself has said not all things are black and white (of course he was talking about the accounting of his old employer when he was on the board).

"But she was using her real name." Why yes she was, is your point that she should have been calling her self "Bibi Dahl" or "Miss Mary Goodnight?"

"Everyone knew she was married to ambassador Wilson" Why yes she is. I really don't get that. So, wouldn't a person who had no personal life be a bit more suspicious. Heck wouldn't being married to an Ambassador be an advantage to a spy? She was a real person and known to exist in the real world. Yep - great argument. She was also known to work for a consulting firm (and the consulting firm's initials were not CIA).

The consulting firm she worked for was a CIA front. By the outing of Plame the entire staff of that firm have been outed as CIA agents, and invariably people they have worked with in different countries will also now be viewed with suspicion by those governments.

So in a time of war senior officials at the white house out a CIA agent (and by so doing many others) who was working on weapons of mass destruction. That, by the definition of former President George H. W. Bush, is an act of treason. One of those "senior officials" is Karl Rove.

I'm sure the White House will react strongly to having a traitor in their midst.

White House: Bush Has Confidence in Rove

WASHINGTON -- Amid calls for Karl Rove's dismissal, President Bush is standing by his top political adviser, whose role in the leak of a CIA officer's identity has plunged the White House into controversy.

The defense follows the disclosure that Rove talked about the officer in a July 11, 2003, conversation with Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper.

The president ignored a question Tuesday about whether he would fire Rove, and White House spokesman Scott McClellan said later that "any individual who works here at the White House has the confidence of the president." McClellan said that includes Rove.

Rove's lawyer, Robert Luskin, said Rove did not disclose Valerie Plame's name, a point that Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., called a distinction without a difference.

"The fact that he didn't give her name, but identified the ambassador's wife ... Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out who that is," Biden said on CNN's "Inside Politics." "If that occurred, at a minimum, that was incredibly bad judgment, warranting him being asked to leave."

In September and October 2003, McClellan said he had spoken to Rove about the Plame matter and that Rove wasn't involved in the leak. McClellan refused for a second day to discuss the White House denials of two years ago, saying that to do so would impinge on the ongoing criminal investigation of the leak.

In fact the GOP is rising to Rove's defense (being a little soft on treachery).

Republican National Committee chairman Ken Mehlman said Rove was the victim of partisan political attacks by Democrats.

Makes you yearn for the heady days of 2003 when the RNC was patriotic enough to believe America's security was important: Daily Kos: RNC: Gillespie vs. Mehlman

Previous RNC Chairman Ed Gillespie on MSNBC's Hardball, Sept. 30th, 2003:

CHRIS MATTHEWS: Don't you think it's more serious than Watergate, when you think about it?

RNC CHAIRMAN ED GILLESPIE: I think if the allegation is true, to reveal the identity of an undercover CIA operative -- it's abhorrent, and it should be a crime, and it is a crime.

CHRIS MATTHEWS: It'd be worse than Watergate, wouldn't it?

GILLESPIE: It's -- Yeah, I suppose in terms of the real world implications of it. It's not just politics.

- rob 1:18 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Two if by sea

Back in the late eighties and early nineties when New York City was averaging 7 or so murders a day, my roommate and I used to joke that the safest place in New York City was wherever the crime that got the biggest press just occurred.

For the first few weeks after the terrible Central Park jogger attack you could walk through the woods naked with cash in your hair and you'd be safe. Every police officer in New York was there. Until they all ran off to where the next crime that got press had occurred.

They were reactionary. Only.

The came the nineties. The NYPD returned to having beat cops, minor infractions were enforced, the baby boomers finally grew up, the economy improved, and crack went out of style. Multiple factors lined up to reduce New York city's crime rate down to 903 murders in 1999 (less than 3 a day), despite its population having grown by almost a million people. (vehicle theft is below 1965 numbers - I mean even thieves can't afford gas these days). It was a combination of many things that lead to the amazing reduction in crime. One main contributor was the NYPD stopped being reactionary.

America was attacked by plane. Now you've got to strip down and cough to board a plane (not that that really ads any real security - the drugs still seem to be coming in by plane).

But besides talk nothing else was really done (unless you call setting up a terrorist recruiting office in Iraq as "doing something").

Now with the London bombings America may finally look to see if there are improvements to be made in transit safety.

But is anyone watching the steeple at the Old North Church? You know "one if by land, two if by sea, three if by plane" (I updated a bit to keep current).

What if two lanterns are lit?

I guess nothing. Not until after something happens.

Update: Prior to the tsunami, when Indonesians were polled about their opinion about America it was horribly unfavorable. When they saw American soldiers helping with the insured and helping with the debris, when they saw American doctors and nurses working day and night to save lives, when they saw that America isn't just bombing Iraq their opinion of our nation soared. Terrorists lost recruits by us doing the right thing. In the above analogy think of it as an improving economy, aging baby boomers, and the end of the crack boom combined. Doing the right thing is that powerful. It can't all be security.

And we need allies too. Washington loved the French.

- rob 1:27 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Miller's Use of State Funds Questioned

ATLANTA -- Experts are voicing concerns about how and why former Gov. Zell Miller departed the Governor's Mansion with over $60,000 in taxpayer dollars.

Every living Georgia governor, including Jimmy Carter, says they would not have kept the money or considered that it belongs to them.

Miller is busy promoting his new book, "A Deficit in Decency."
...
The issue goes back to 1999 when Miller retired.

He packed his track and in his words was, "Headed for the mountains."

He also left with the mansion allowance, an account provided by Georgia taxpayers, which had ballooned to an estimated $61,000.

That can buy a lot of spitballs.

- rob 1:08 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Will Bush have to lobotomize himself?

White House mum on Rove's role in CIA leak

WASHINGTON - The White House scrambled Monday to reconcile President Bush's vow to fire anyone who leaked information about an undercover CIA operative with revelations that top political aide Karl Rove spoke to a reporter about the agent.

Under a barrage of questions from reporters, White House spokesman Scott McClellan, who earlier had said that Rove and other Bush officials never were involved in "leaking classified information," switched gears and said he couldn't talk about the criminal investigation into the leaks.
...
Rove has worked with the Bush family for decades and was a chief engineer of the GOP takeover of elected state offices in Texas. Bush has warmly referred to him as the architect of his re-election in November.

You've read it all - all over the place. But this finally could be a story that sticks (lying about going to war - no big whoop I guess).

And this is interesting:


First-Draft: The Condi Conundrum

Reader Molly points out that in the July 11, 2003 press briefing Condoleezza Rice was urging the press to ask the CIA about Joe Wilson's trip to Africa, and sounding a bit disappointed when there was no follow-up.

DR. RICE: The IAEA reported it I believe in March. But I will tell you that, for instance, on Ambassador Wilson's going out to Niger, I learned of that when I was sitting on whatever TV show it was, because that mission was not known to anybody in the White House. And you should ask the Agency at what level it was known in the Agency.

[Emphasis mine]

Let's not forget this all started because in a constitutionaly required act - The State of the Union Address - Bush told a lie, and though Bush might not have known (wow stupidity is an assume shield), Rice probably did (her direct reports certainly did).

- rob 1:05 PM - [PermaLink] -

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To Follow up an earlier post via Doug:

Study contends malpractice insurers gouging

Medical malpractice insurers in recent years have reaped a windfall in premiums that have far outstripped their claim payouts, a report issued by consumer groups said Thursday.

The report, written by former Missouri Insurance Commissioner Jay Angoff, contends that the amount of premiums collected by 15 major medical malpractice insurers has more than doubled over the past five years. At the same time, the report found that the companies’ claim payouts have remained essentially flat.

Health insurance in America is making us sick. Literally. Doctors cram in a score of patients a day - they do follow ups via phone (if that - no money in follow ups for some insurance carriers). Rates go up anually because golf memberships are getting more expensive.

Bush complains about the lawyers - but they aren't at fault (except by Bush's point of view in that they haven't donated enough). The largest part of the problem, the insurance companies, are also the big donors... so they get a free ride in every discussion of health care reform.

Meanwhile people just get sick of all the crap and forms they have to go through to see the doctor, often they'd just rather be good old fashioned sick.

- rob 12:38 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Go read a brilliant Tom the Dancing Bug

- rob 12:14 PM - [PermaLink] -

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A majority held in restraint by constitutional checks and limitations, and always changing easily with deliberate changes of popular opinions and sentiments, is the only true sovereign of a free people.
- Abraham Lincoln

- rob 12:13 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Try These Fun Hoaxes

Convince the leaders of the world's only superpower that a Middle Eastern nation is loaded to the gills with weapons of mass destruction. Tell them that some broken-down old vans there are "mobile weapons labs," and persuade them to spend billions of dollars on an invasion and an occupation. After they scour the country for the weapons and come up empty, shrug your shoulders sympathetically and take over the oil ministry.

- from Shouts & Murmurs "Try These Fun Hoaxes" by Andy Borowitz - The New Yorker - May 16, 2005

- rob 9:46 AM - [PermaLink] -

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Krugman: Un-Spin the Budget

To understand where the budget deficit came from, you can't do better than the Jan. 18, 2001, issue of the satirical newspaper The Onion, which predicted the future with eerie precision. "We must squander our nation's hard-won budget surplus on tax breaks for the wealthiest 15 percent," the magazine's spoof had the president-elect declare. "And, on the foreign front, we must find an enemy and defeat it."

And so it has turned out. President Bush has presided over the transformation of a budget surplus into a large deficit, which threatens the government's long-run solvency. The principal cause of that reversal was Mr. Bush's unprecedented decision to cut taxes, especially on the wealthiest Americans, while taking the nation into an expensive war.

Let's revisit that Onion article: Bush: 'Our Long National Nightmare of Peace and Prosperity Is Finally Over' It was a hilarious article written on January 18, 2001. Here's a bit of it:

Bush swore to do "everything in [his] power" to undo the damage wrought by Clinton's two terms in office, including selling off the national parks to developers, going into massive debt to develop expensive and impractical weapons technologies, and passing sweeping budget cuts that drive the mentally ill out of hospitals and onto the street.

During the 40-minute speech, Bush also promised to bring an end to the severe war drought that plagued the nation under Clinton, assuring citizens that the U.S. will engage in at least one Gulf War-level armed conflict in the next four years.

"You better believe we're going to mix it up with somebody at some point during my administration," said Bush, who plans a 250 percent boost in military spending. "Unlike my predecessor, I am fully committed to putting soldiers in battle situations. Otherwise, what is the point of even having a military?"

It is eerily accurate. Go read it. The version I'm linking to is annotated with articles of fact that have happened since. Humor can be scary.

- rob 5:50 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Finally a Reporter Gets It and Says It

Karl Rove -- soft on terror

To paraphrase Mr. Rove, liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers; conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 and the attacks and prepared to ruin the career of one of the country’s spies tracking terrorist efforts to gain weapons of mass destruction -- for political gain.

Politics first, counter-terrorism second -- it’s as simple as that.

It is as simple as that, and Olbermann says it out right. Finally.

And while Olbermann has been alone for a while on many issues, maybe he won't be this time:

Did you hear the questions?

- rob 5:36 PM - [PermaLink] -

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London Attacks a "wake up call"

Who the hell is hitting snooze?

For every damn politician or pundit who reverses every policy/statement/liberty that existed prior to 9/11 under the "9/11 changed everything" mantra is in fact stating - "Prior to 9/11 I was an idiot with no understanding of the world I lived in. Now I'm an idiot and an opportunist."

Okay, let's just say IRA bombings and bombings in Spain, Israel, and pretty much everywhere were beyond the understanding of American politicians... even with giving them that out they sure like to sleep.

There were approximately 130 bombings in the seventies and the eighties primarily in New York and Chicago in connection with the Puerto Rico freedom movement.

That wasn't even a wake up call.

On April 18, 1983 the American embassy in Lebanon was bombed. Reagan slept through that one.

On Feb 26, 1993 the World Trade Center was bombed.
We hit the Snooze button

On April 19, 1995 Oklahoma City was bombed (looky here - white folk do it too)
We hit the Snooze button

On April 17, 1998 the African Embassy was bombed
We hit the Snooze button

On October 12, 2000 the USS Cole was bombed
We hit the Snooze button

Then September 11, 2001 happened and we stayed up all night for weeks hyped up on crack and crystal meth breaking furniture - then we crashed and dozed for months while watching Survivor, the Michael Jackson trial, and some kind of election or war or something.... It's all a blur really.

On March 11, 2004 the Madrid bombings happened
We would have hit the Snooze button, but it was all happening in Spanish so we weren't sure if we were even supposed to wake up. Besides who has the energy... hey a white girl is missing!

So now London is bombed and while some hit snooze others go back to the crack.

This stuff won't stop. It'll come, it'll go. We've got to plan, be ready, and stop making some nasty mistakes (Iraq, friendship with bin Laden in the eighties, present support for Uzbekitty, and other things) that make it easy for wacko's to come up with rationalizations used to convince poor saps to sacrifice their lives and souls. They'll still be unibombers and occasional other organizations, but Bush and others are just helping these guys recruit. There is a state between sleeping and hyped up on crack - and its called thinking.

komo news | London Attacks A Local Wake-Up Call (this is just an example of headlines from last week - not to pick on Seattle especially).

- rob 5:22 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Scott finally shuts up

White House Won't Comment on Rove, Leak

WASHINGTON - For two years, the White House has insisted that presidential adviser Karl Rove had nothing to do with the leak of a CIA officer's identity. And President Bush said the leaker would be fired.

But Bush's spokesman wouldn't repeat any of those assertions Monday in the face of Rove's own lawyer saying his client spoke with at least one reporter about Valerie Plame's role at the CIA before she was identified in a newspaper column.

Could Bush actually fire his own brain?

- rob 4:41 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Hiking Journal

Ahh It's a beautiful day
Here it is on December 21, 2012 and I am on top of the world
The mosquitoes up here are vicious
Luckily my Sherpa Guide warned me and we brought plenty of Off
I was embarrassed at first to have hired a guide now that there is no snow up here
but as I see the sun burned blisters of those coming down I am quite happy to have done so
I though at first he was crazy to make me where long sleeve shirts and hats when it eighty degrees even at the top

Hillary Issues Call to Save Mt. Everest

Himalayan lakes are swelling from the runoff of melting glaciers, environmental campaigners warned as the 29th session of the U.N. Environmental, Scientific and Cultural Organization's World Heritage Committee got under way Sunday in Durban. Many could burst, threatening the lives of thousands of people and destroying Everest's unique environment, they said.

"The warming of the environment of the Himalayas has increased noticeably over the last 50 years. This has caused several and severe floods from glacial lakes and much disruption to the environment and local people," Hillary said in a statement released Monday. "Draining the lakes before they get to a dangerous condition is the only way to stop disasters."

The New Zealander, who with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay first scaled the world's highest peak on May 29, 1953, is one of a collection of climbers and others who have joined environmental groups in calling for the inclusion of Nepal's Everest National Park on UNESCO's World Heritage in Danger List.

- rob 10:43 AM - [PermaLink] -

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