"State of War" The New Book

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Monday January 02, 2006 · 7:44 PM PST

2006/01/02 · 19:44

Time Magazine has a new article up, with some details about NY Times reporter James Risen's upcoming book about the NSA spy scandal.

The result is a brisk, if dispiriting, chronicle of how, since 9/11, the "most covert tools of national-security policy have been misused."

Risen writes that with the White House's anything-goes mandate in place, everything went. While the NSA began monitoring communications of some Americans suspected of links to al-Qaeda--snooping on "millions of telephone calls and e-mail messages on American soil" in the process--the CIA set up a network of secret prisons around the world in which interrogators employed techniques that violated established international norms.

Here's another small artcle about the book: New Book Reveals Secret War Operations
Read More

Bush was denied wiretaps, bypassed them

mmt006

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Tuesday December 27, 2005 · 8:57 AM PST

2005/12/27 · 08:57

Via UPI

WASHINGTON, Dec. 26 (UPI) -- U.S. President George Bush decided to skip seeking warrants for international wiretaps because the court was challenging him at an unprecedented rate.
A review of Justice Department reports to Congress by Heart newspapers shows the 26-year-old Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court modified more wiretap requests from the Bush administration than the four previous presidential administrations combined.

I guess King George doesn't like being challenged.

FEMA Disaster "Recovery Channel"

mmt006

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Thursday December 01, 2005 · 8:59 PM PST

2005/12/01 · 20:59

You have to love BushCo propaganda. Tonight on 360, Anderson Cooper had a report about the FEMA Recovery Channel, which is supposed to exist to get information to people in the midst of a crisis. Apparently, our tax dollars were being used to fund domestic propaganda. It seems lately, the channel has been all "happy talk" about Katrina, not acknowledging any problems, and praising our commander in chief.

The channel is available to DISH network customers and on the net by going here. Of course, now all you see is black screen with a "Stay Tuned for Programming Message." The channel probably didn't reach that many people, but I thought the timing, coming right on the heels of the L.A. Times about paying for pro military stories in the Iraqi press, was interesting.

Mo Do - The Autumn of the Patriarchy

mmt006

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Wednesday November 30, 2005 · 2:33 PM PST

2005/11/30 · 14:33

Mo Do is back, and has this brilliantly satirical piece about Vice:

He wasn't talking to the pictures on the wall, as Nixon did when he finally cracked. Vice doesn't trust those portraits anyway. The walls have ears. He was talking to the only reliable man in a city of dimwits, cowards, traitors and fools: himself.

Cheney/Nixon, perfect analogy! Read More

The Best Argument Against Intelligent Design

mmt006

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Wednesday November 23, 2005 · 6:19 AM PST

2005/11/23 · 06:19

All this talk about intelligent Design has me thinking. Who is the best argument against Intelligent Design? George Bush, just for being George Bush. Bill O'Reilly for his attack on San Francisco, among other perpetual wisdoms. Pat Robertson for his tirade about Dover, PA, and other Christian kindnesses. Or, lovely Jean Schmidt, for her attack on John Murtha and complete meltdown. (Visions of the melting scene in the Wizard of Oz are suddenly stirring in my head.) Personally, I'd split the award.

Time: Getting the Lowdown on Iraq

mmt006

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Monday November 21, 2005 · 10:58 AM PST

2005/11/21 · 10:58

Time Magazine has the story about a closed door meeting on Capitol Hill last week:

In an unusual closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill last week, Virginia's John Warner, joined by Democratic Senators Carl Levin of Michigan and Mark Dayton of Minnesota, sat across the table from 10 military officers chosen for their experience on the battlefield rather than in the political arena. Warner rounded up the battalion commanders to get at what the military calls "ground truth"--the unvarnished story of what's going on in Iraq.

About time! Read More

E. J. Dionne: Mr President, it won't work this time.

mmt006

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Monday November 14, 2005 · 11:20 PM PST

2005/11/14 · 23:20

E.J. Dionne, writing about W's latest Scare Tactics, says it won't fly this time:

Mr. President, it won't work this time.
With a Wall Street Journal/NBC News Poll finding 57 percent of Americans agreeing that George W. Bush "deliberately misled people to make the case for war with Iraq," the president clearly needs to tend to his credibility problems. But his partisan attacks on the administration's critics, in a Veterans Day speech last week and in Alaska yesterday, will only add to his troubles.

mmt006

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Wednesday September 14, 2005 · 1:33 PM PDT

2005/09/14 · 13:33

I don't know if this is going to break through with the other news events going ont, but it has been a particulary bad day in Iraq

Insurgents killed at least 160 people Wednesday in more than a dozen separate bombings and rocket attacks that made for one of Baghdad's deadliest days.

An insurgency in it's last throes?:

Insurgents mounted an even more intense attack on an American military convoy in the late afternoon, first hitting the convoy with a roadside bomb. As American forces gathered at the site and U.S. military helicopters hovered, a car bomb hit the convoy, witnesses said.

'No Photos, No Stories'

mmt006

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Tuesday September 13, 2005 · 2:01 PM PDT

2005/09/13 · 14:01

On Saturday, after being challenged in court by CNN, the Bush administration agreed not to prevent the news media from following the effort to recover the bodies of Hurricane Katrina victims.

but despite this "agreement," surprise, surprise, things on the ground have been otherwise:

But on Monday, in the Bywater district, that assurance wasn't being followed. The 82nd Airborne soldier told reporters the Army had a policy that requires media to be 300 meters -- more than three football fields in length -- away from the scene of body recoveries in New Orleans. If reporters wrote stories or took pictures of body recoveries, they would be reported and face consequences, he said, including a loss of access for up-close coverage of certain military operations.

Army Lt. Col. Richard Steele said the government's position as explained in court Saturday didn't represent a change in policy. Reporters can watch recovery efforts they come upon, but they won't be embedded with search teams.

mmt006

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Wednesday August 31, 2005 · 5:20 PM PDT

2005/08/31 · 17:20

Former Clinton Advisor Sidney Blumenthal has written an article about the lack of preparation and funding for Hurricane Katrina:

The New Orleans Times-Picayune, which before the hurricane published a series on the federal funding problem, and whose presses are now underwater, reported online: "No one can say they didn't see it coming ... Now in the wake of one of the worst storms ever, serious questions are being asked about the lack of preparation

He goes to talk about ideology trumping science in the weeks preceding the storm. He ends with this paragraph:

On the day the levees burst in New Orleans, Bush delivered a speech in Colorado comparing the Iraq war to World War II and himself to Franklin D. Roosevelt: "And he knew that the best way to bring peace and stability to the region was by bringing freedom to Japan." Bush had boarded his very own "Streetcar Named Desire."

Rolling Stones Rock Bush, Neo-Cons

mmt006

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Tuesday August 09, 2005 · 8:10 AM PDT

2005/08/09 · 08:10

The Rolling Stones new album, "A Bigger Bang" is surely starting out with one:

But the most searing moment, on a song called "Sweet Neo Con," isn't personal but political. "You call yourself a Christian, I call you a hypocrite/You call yourself a patriot, well I think you're full of s--t." "It is direct," Jagger says with a laugh. "Keith said [he breaks into a dead-on Keith imitation], 'It's not really metaphorical.' I think he's a bit worried because he lives in the U.S." Jagger smiles. "But I don't."

Ah, I've always love The Stones!

The NY Times On Rove

mmt006

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Monday July 11, 2005 · 8:36 PM PDT

2005/07/11 · 20:36

The New York Times has a hard hitting article on Karl Rove and the outing of Valerie Plame as an undercover CIA officer.

"The lesson of history for George Bush and Karl Rove is that the best way to help themselves is to bring out all the facts, on their own, quickly," Mr. Schumer said, citing the second-term scandals that have beset previous administrations.

I'm glad the democrats are finally bringing up those previous scandals.

Of course, we also have the typical "nothing to see here" remarks from the Repub side:

"She had a desk job in Langley," said Ms. Toensing, who also signed the supporting brief in the appeals court, referring to the C.I.A.'s headquarters. "When you want someone in deep cover, they don't go back and forth to Langley."

So, that makes it O.K. to leak her name, Victoria? What about the term "perjury", does that mean anything? Read More

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"State of War" The New Book

Bush was denied wiretaps, bypassed them

FEMA Disaster "Recovery Channel"

Mo Do - The Autumn of the Patriarchy

The Best Argument Against Intelligent Design

Time: Getting the Lowdown on Iraq

E. J. Dionne: Mr President, it won't work this time.

Series of Baghdad Attacks Kill At Least 160

'No Photos, No Stories'

Former Clinton Advisor "No One Can Say they Didn't See it Coming"

Rolling Stones Rock Bush, Neo-Cons

The NY Times On Rove