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Longwood Gardens. May, 2013. Photo by: joanneleon
Longwood Gardens. May, 2013. Photo by: joanneleon
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Old Crow Medicine Show - I Hear Them All
News & Opinion
Some of the news today (and lately) is so horrific that I'd rather just ignore it. I anticipate the president announcing to the country in today's speech that we are in Forever War, and that he must be given the war powers of a dictator so that the current president of this country and all who follow will be able to wage war anywhere in the planet whenever they themselves determine that someone is a terrorist, or an "associated forces" or an "adherent", whatever that is, just another vague definition of "associated". All of this is in preparation for changes to the AUMF and, in my opinion, to retroactively legalize war crimes and waging war illegally. These changes to the Forever War laws won't convince the rest of the world nor will they change international law. The question is, will they convince the country? As long as the vast majority of people don't have to go fight themselves, and we increasingly use mercenaries, and keep it all out of the news except when the populace needs a fresh dose of fearmongering, I think it will just sail right past them. Shock doctrine theory would predict that just weeks after a horrific bombing on US soil is a good time to grab some more power and cancel out some more civil liberties.
Sam Seder takes Josh Marshall to task for his nonsensical defensive stance in light of the latest assault on the freedom of the press. Note that someone from NPR tweeted that he spotted Marshall, Jonathan Capehart, Ezra Klein and some unnamed other "lefty columnists" going into the White House as a group the other day. I guess the cavalry has been called. Again. I wonder who the other "lefty columnists" were.
Why You Should Care That The DOJ Targeted a Fox News Reporter
Fox News' Washington reporter James Rosen is being targeted by the DOJ over the leak of sensitive information. If you care for a free press and investigative journalism, this should bother you regardless of the fact that Rosen works for Fox...
This guy,
Boyadee, witnessed the horrific machete attack on a UK soldier on the street in London yesterday. The tweets are not all that graphic but they are upsetting. The story is like something out of... I don't know. Cameron and Millibrand came rushing back to London. They are classifying it as a terrorist attack. It's a bizarre story and the aftermath perhaps even more bizarre while they waited 20 minutes for armed law enforcement to come.
Woolwich killing: meat cleaver, knife and jihadist claims filmed on mobile
• British soldier dead in suspected terror attack in London
• Knife attack near barracks 'an eye for an eye', says suspect
• Killing in street is 'absolutely sickening' says prime minister
Yeah, this is just unbelievable. I don't have any idea whether it could get through the Senate. Is this something that the president would like to happen?
Keystone pipeline: House votes to bypass Obama for approval
Representatives approve bill declaring that controversial oil pipeline from Canada does not need president's permission
Congress has voted to shut Barack Obama out of the biggest environmental decision of his presidency – the fate of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline – and claimed the authority to approve the project.
The vote to approve the pipeline, which passed 241-175 in the Republican-controlled house, was pure political theatre.
The measure would dispense with additional environmental reviews of the pipeline and would allow only 60 days for legal challenges.
Yes, the administration has finally admitted to blowing up four Americans, though they claim that three of them were not specifically targeted. We don't know if this means they were killed by a signature strike or if it was a mistake. The Holder letter creates more questions than it answers, and they of course act like the thousands of other innocents killed by our drones didn't even happen.
Obama’s Forgotten Victims
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — WHEN Barack Obama ran for president of the United States in 2008, his message of hope and change gave us, the citizens of lesser republics, hope that he would close Guantánamo and shut down programs where extrajudicial killing or bribing foreign heads of state with American taxpayer dollars had become standard practice.
Instead, a few days after his inaugural address, a C.I.A.-operated drone dropped Hellfire missiles on Fahim Qureishi’s home in North Waziristan, killing seven of his family members and severely injuring Fahim. He was just 13 years old and left with only one eye, and shrapnel in his stomach.
There was no militant present. A recent book revealed that Mr. Obama was informed about the erroneous target but still did not offer any form of redress, because in 2009, the United States did not acknowledge the existence of its own drone program in Pakistan. [...]
Marcy traces through the ways our Forever War laws have progressed. You'll have to read the post to see the previous iterations. A lot of us had hoped that the AUMF would be repealed. Instead this administration wants to expand it for this president and all future presidents, who will be more like dictators with war powers like these.
We Have Always Been at War with Eastasia Adherents
Here’s how, on Monday, the White House described the speech Obama will make tomorrow on counterterrorism.
On May 23, the President will give a speech at the National Defense University on the Administration’s counterterrorism policy. In his speech, the President will discuss our broad counter-terrorism policy, including our military, diplomatic, intelligence and legal efforts. He will review the state of the threats we face, particularly as al Qaeda core has weakened but new dangers have emerged; he will discuss the policy and legal framework under which we take action against terrorist threats, including the use of drones; he will review our detention policy and efforts to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay; and he will frame the future of our efforts against Al Qaeda, its affiliates and adherents. [my emphasis]
[...]
But if I’m not mistaken, tomorrow will mark the most detailed discussion in which the President describes this war that no one declared against adherents. And given that Congress has shown newfound interest in the scope of the AUMF that includes neither adherents nor associated forces, it will be interesting to see how the President describes this expanded war.
Scahill tweets a link to this article from April, just as a refresher before today's speech.
Inside America's Dirty Wars
How three US citizens were killed by their own government in the space of one month in 2011.
The families of people killed on 9/11 spoke of bin Laden’s death bringing closure. But the Al Qaeda leader’s demise breathed new life into Washington’s global “war on terror.” The elite Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), once shrouded in secrecy, became a household name overnight. The Disney Corporation tried to trademark the term “SEAL Team Six,” and Zero Dark Thirty, a high-profile Hollywood film, was hastily rewritten to focus on the operation; the filmmakers were even given access to sensitive material.
While the battle over leaks concerning the operation—as well as the various contradictory stories on how bin Laden was killed—raged in the media, the White House was deeply immersed in planning more lethal operations against so-called “High Value Targets.” Chief among these was Anwar al-Awlaki, an American citizen of Yemeni descent born in Las Cruces, New Mexico.
Three days after Obama’s news conference on bin Laden, the president’s counterterrorism team presented him with an urgent intelligence update on Awlaki. Along with signals intercepts by JSOC and the CIA and “vital details of Awlaki’s whereabouts” from Yemeni intelligence, the White House now had what it believed was its best shot to date at killing the radical cleric, whose fiery speeches denouncing the United States—and praising attacks on Americans—had placed him in the cross-hairs of the US counterterrorism apparatus.
Read more: http://www.thenation.com/...
Action
First, a message from Cornel West, one of the many prominent intellectuals, artists, musicians, and voices of conscience who signed the Close Guantanamo ad:
“I am so glad to join with my dear brothers and sisters in calling for Guantanamo to be closed, and for the brothers on hunger strike to receive justice so long denied them.”
Thanks to the hundreds of you who donated for, signed, circulated, and are helping make this ad in The New York Times happen this week (click to download final version).
World Can't Wait, with 500+ donors, succeeded in getting the Close Guantanamo ad sent to The Times. We hope that it is printed Thursday morning in the national section just as Obama is about to make his national security speech about Guantanamo and drones.
We borrowed $6,000 to get the ad to The Times quickly so that you could send this message to 4 million readers of The New York Times across the world.
$5 to $500 YOU can make the difference. Please donate now.
To Those Who Have Supported My Coverage of Bradley Manning’s Court Martial (So Far)
Every dollar donated to help fund coverage of Bradley Manning has helped transform me into a foremost journalist on one of the biggest cases in military justice history.
Every post of mine shared on Facebook or Twitter has helped amplify critical coverage that is keeping the world informed of how the government is prosecuting Manning as if he is a traitor that aided terrorists.
[...]
I hope you will keep sharing my reporting with family, friends or those in your social network, and, when possible, make donations so I can remain a fixture in the press pool at Meade and keep up my coverage of the Manning case.
With gratitude,
Kevin Gosztola
Firedoglake.com Journalist
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Blog Posts and Tweets of Interest
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Old Crow Medicine Show - Tell It To Me