For 13 hours, he'll lie on a couch in the airplane, drink pomegranate-flavored water and watch reruns of Texas Rangers games from the glory days of Nolan Ryan and Jose Canseco
Eventually, he'll land in Beijing, China, for the 2008 Summer Olympics. He'll pose and smile for photos with great Chinese leaders.
You'll definitely read about it in the newspaper, and so will people just like you all over the world; and you'll probably feel pretty good when you do. Like a bottle of cheap gin the whole globe can pass around, the Olympics somehow make it okay to forget for a little while.
This is helpful for most of us, but somewhat unfortunate for the Tibetan people, whose struggle against occupation has gone on for nearly 60 years
In 1951, the Chinese government annexed Tibet and declared it part of China. In 1959, an uprising resulted in the expulsion of the Dalai Lama; since that time he has run a "government in exile" based in India and become a martyr for global political rights.
On March 10, in honor of the 49th anniversary of China's great experiment in the abuse of state sovereignty, Tibetan monks began to protest en masse the continued demonization of the Dalai Lama and China's efforts to ethnically cleanse Tibetans.
China, for its part, pledged to "resolutely crush" those people. Within days, it launched a fresh military campaign in the region. It kicked out journalists and declared no quarter on religious figures.
Anyway, a generation later, as a reward for Chinese progress and a concession that China has established itself as a modern global player, it gets to host the Olympics!
Irony in such high doses should be fatal.
There IS a Marlboro Man, after all: Gov. Brian Schweitzer (D) of Montana. Montana Governor Urges REAL ID Rebellion In a letter (pdf) to the governors of 17 states, Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer asked them to band together to reject the REAL ID national identification system. "Today, I am asking you to join with me in resisting the DHS coercion to comply with the provisions of REAL ID," Gov. Schweitzer wrote. "I would like us to speak with one, unified voice and demand the Congress step in and fix this mess." On January 11, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff released the agency's final regulations for REAL ID. The proposal has drawn sharp criticism from state governments, members of Congress, civil liberties advocates, and security experts (pdf). EPIC has called the scheme "a real danger to security and civil rights." See EPIC's National ID Cards and REAL ID Act page. (Jan. 21)
Here's the list of honor. I salute the following states: their governors, legislatures, and people. Uncle Sam would be proud of you.
Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Maine, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Washington state.
3/6/2008
MEMO: No Answers, Just Attacks
To: Interested Parties
From: The Clinton Campaign
Date: Thursday, March 06, 2008
RE: No Answers, Just Attacks
Senator Obama lost Ohio and Texas because voters had doubts about his ability to serve as Commander-in-Chief and steward of the economy. But instead of addressing those concerns, how is Senator Obama responding? By attacking Senator Clinton.
With one of his top foreign policy advisers acknowledging yesterday that he is not ready to take the 3am call and one of his principal supporters in Texas unable to name a single legislative accomplishment, Senator Obama’s time would be better spent making the case for why he can do the most important job in the world just three years out of the state senate.
Sen. Obama’s decision to go explicitly negative suggests that he is unable to make an affirmative case for his candidacy beyond ad hominem attacks. Why isn’t he discussing the hearings that he held on the Foreign Affairs subcommittee that he chairs? Why isn’t he talking about his travel through Latin America? Why isn’t he briefing the public on his comprehensive plan to address the foreclosure crisis now? Why isn’t he stumping on his universal plan health care plan? Because he can’t and so he is advancing a campaign strategy premised on process and personal attacks.
The Obama campaign’s negative strategy builds on one it already had in place. In Ohio and Texas, Senator Obama outspent us by a 2 to 1 margin and engaged in a negative campaign for weeks in advance on the March 4 elections. He sent negative mail that was declared misleading and false by top news organizations and ran radio ads that attacked Sen. Clinton on national security. At the same time, Senator Obama and his surrogates unleashed a barrage of negative and misleading attacks on Sen. Clinton focusing on a variety of issues.
Apparently, the Obama campaign’s idea of new politics is to recycle the same old Republican attacks on Senator Clinton that have failed for years. Imitating Ken Starr is not the way to win the Democratic nomination.
The reality is that after spending $16.6 million on television and radio in the four states that voted on Tuesday and $47 million overall, Senator Obama has still not passed the commander in chief and steward of the economy tests. And no amount of false attacks on Senator Clinton is going to change that fact.
hmmmm. I'm sure nobody here has ever been a little late paying the phone bill, but evidently the FBI has a problem. The phone companies have disconnected some of their wiretaps.
FBI Assistant Director Jim Miller has a good line. I think I'll use it next time I need to postpone a payment:
the FBI "will not tolerate financial mismanagement"
has a nice ring, don't you think? If the phone company calls me up, I'll shout "What!?!?!!? This is INTOLERABLE!. We will not tolerate financial mismanagement!
"It sounds as though the telecoms believe it when the FBI says the warrant is in the mail, but not when they say the check is in the mail," said German, a former FBI agent.
Perhaps this is one reason the FBI resorted to NSLs instead. Hey, there's no judicial oversight, you get all the info you need, and scare the poo out of anyone at will. A real bargain at 41 cents.
Robert Mueller, Director of the FBI, testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee that the FBI abused the National Security Letters.
Inspector General Glenn A. Fine reported a year ago that the FBI used such letters -- which are not subject to a court's review -- to improperly obtain telephone logs, banking records and other personal records of thousands of Americans from 2003 to 2005. An internal FBI audit also found that the bureau potentially violated laws or agency rules more than 1,000 times in such cases.
What's a Security Letter?
A National Security Letter (NSL) is a form of administrative subpoena used by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation and reportedly by other U.S. Government Agencies including the Central Intelligence Agency and the Department of Defense. It is a demand letter issued to a particular entity or organization to turn over various record and data pertaining to individuals. They require no probable cause or judicial oversight. They also contain a gag order, preventing the recipient of the letter from disclosing that the letter was ever issued. --wiki
Why all the sudden publicity about NSL? Is it 'over'? I don't think so. Congress had a chance to do something, but they somehow missed that opportunity. The FBI wants to set up an office to internally police it. You gotta laugh. Everybody in Government wants to police themselves.
"Just trust us!", they say.
I say, " Forget it, Jack."
As the sign says, " In God We Trust -all others pay cash" (and get warrants).
I hope this gives some of us focus and stop with the Hillary can win the swing states and Obama cant win the red states anyway.
Obama is respected among Republicans and I can say that because being more of a middle-of-the-road kind of Democrat, I have many McCain supporting friends( i'm working on them) who tell me they like Obama because he does not go negative.
In the Illinois Legislature his opinions where always respected by the Republican leadership and they have been quoted in saying so. Point being--Obama has the best chance in turning the sort of purple states to a brighter shade of blue.
And that is a win for all of us in the Democratic Party.
www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/election/countymaplinearlarge.png
Please support HR 5353, the Internet Freedom Preservation Act.
The bill is co-sponsored by Ed Markey (D-MA), Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet , and Chip Pickering (R-MS).
Section 12 Paragraph 1 sums it up pretty well:
`(1) to maintain the freedom to use for lawful purposes broadband telecommunications networks, including the Internet, without unreasonable interference from or discrimination by network operators, as has been the policy and history of the Internet and the basis of user expectations since its inception;
If you want to maintain free and open access to the internet, the time to act is now. Comcast is already using a technique perfected by the Red Chinese to slow down and drop applications it doesn't want to support on its network. China is famous for having the most severely repressive internet censorship in the world.
The results of our tests have agreed with AP's. Comcast is forging TCP RST packets which cause connections to drop (a technique also used by Internet censorship systems in China). These packets cause software at both ends to believe, mistakenly, that the software on the other side doesn't want to continue communicating.
...Much of it focused on cable operator Comcast's Internet filtering activities. Comcast has admitted that it delays certain kinds of traffic traveling across its networks. And multiple tests run separately by the Associated Press and the Electronic Frontier Foundation confirm that Comcast is using a traffic forging technique to delay the activities of certain kinds of applications running across its networks. The EFF has said that this kind of behavior is discriminatory because the technique only focuses on file-sharing applications...
Visit SaveTheInternet now to sign a petition supporting Net Neutrality and to contact your Congressman.
The Chinese now share in Project Echelon, a mass spying program conducted by the NSA, and now that they have AT&T fully onboard, the prospect of a Chinese-style censorship regime is completely realistic. Let's not forget Room 641-A ^o^
Room 641A is an alleged intercept facility operated by AT&T for the U.S. National Security Agency, beginning in 2003. Room 641A is located in the SBC Communications building at 611 Folsom Street, San Francisco, three floors of which were occupied by AT&T before SBC purchased AT&T and changed its name to AT&T. The room was referred to in internal AT&T documents as the SG3 [Study Group 3] Secure Room. It is fed by fiber optic lines from beam splitters installed in fiber optic trunks carrying Internet backbone traffic and, therefore, presumably has access to all Internet traffic that passes through the building.
--Wiki
Another major project is identified as P415. This enhancement is intended to allow NSA to track civilian communications well into the 21st century. This project involves the traditional members of UKUSA as well as Germany, Japan, and the People's Republic of China.
Please support HR 5353, the Internet Freedom Preservation Act.
The bill is co-sponsored by Ed Markey (D-MA), Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet , and Chip Pickering (R-MS).
Section 12 Paragraph 1 sums it up pretty well:
`(1) to maintain the freedom to use for lawful purposes broadband telecommunications networks, including the Internet, without unreasonable interference from or discrimination by network operators, as has been the policy and history of the Internet and the basis of user expectations since its inception;
If you want to maintain free and open access to the internet, the time to act is now. Comcast is already using a technique perfected by the Red Chinese to slow down and drop applications it doesn't want to support on its network. China is famous for having the most severely repressive internet censorship in the world.
The results of our tests have agreed with AP's. Comcast is forging TCP RST packets which cause connections to drop (a technique also used by Internet censorship systems in China). These packets cause software at both ends to believe, mistakenly, that the software on the other side doesn't want to continue communicating.
...Much of it focused on cable operator Comcast's Internet filtering activities. Comcast has admitted that it delays certain kinds of traffic traveling across its networks. And multiple tests run separately by the Associated Press and the Electronic Frontier Foundation confirm that Comcast is using a traffic forging technique to delay the activities of certain kinds of applications running across its networks. The EFF has said that this kind of behavior is discriminatory because the technique only focuses on file-sharing applications...
Visit SaveTheInternet now to sign a petition supporting Net Neutrality and to contact your Congressman.
The Chinese now share in Project Echelon, a mass spying program conducted by the NSA, and now that they have AT&T fully onboard, the prospect of a Chinese-style censorship regime is completely realistic. Let's not forget Room 641-A ^o^
Room 641A is an alleged intercept facility operated by AT&T for the U.S. National Security Agency, beginning in 2003. Room 641A is located in the SBC Communications building at 611 Folsom Street, San Francisco, three floors of which were occupied by AT&T before SBC purchased AT&T and changed its name to AT&T. The room was referred to in internal AT&T documents as the SG3 [Study Group 3] Secure Room. It is fed by fiber optic lines from beam splitters installed in fiber optic trunks carrying Internet backbone traffic and, therefore, presumably has access to all Internet traffic that passes through the building.
--Wiki
Another major project is identified as P415. This enhancement is intended to allow NSA to track civilian communications well into the 21st century. This project involves the traditional members of UKUSA as well as Germany, Japan, and the People's Republic of China.
It should be people like Mark Penn, Terry McAuliffe, Joel Ferguson, and the other architects of Clinton's abysmal, atrocious and sometimes outright offensive presidential campaign. Read More »
In its latest major invasion of our privacy on the behalf of corporate data-miners, the Administration has decided that tax preparers can sell or give your tax returns to anyone. No restrictions on use. No restrictions, period.
Be very careful indeed what you sign or initial this year, or you could well find all your personal details published on the internet (or worse), complete with SSN.
Think Progress has the story.
The new proposal allows the tax preparers –- from your local accountant to giants such as H&R Block –- to get your signature and then give or sell the full tax return to data brokers, to your boss, to anyone. And there are absolutely no restrictions about what recipients do with the returns. The rule lets recipients post the full return to the Internet if they want.
Globalization And Democracy: Some Basics By Michael Parenti 05/27/07 "ICH" ---
-- The goal of the transnational corporation is to become truly transnational, poised above the sovereign power of any particular nation, while being served by the sovereign powers of all nations. Cyril Siewert, chief financial officer of Colgate Palmolive Company, could have been speaking for all transnationals when he remarked, “The United States doesn’t have an automatic call on our [corporation’s] resources. There is no mindset that puts this country first.”[i]
Came across this article last night, and it was so well written I wanted to share it with our group here. Not long, and very much worth the time.
The FISA travesty, to my mind at least, is part and parcel of a much bigger and more ominous picture - globalization. Coopting Industry into the most sensitive inner workings of our government seems to show yet again that our Government has ABDICATED its responsibility to the People in favor of privatization, or in other words, a 'bloodless coup' of epic proportions has been taking place right under our noses for many years. It's time to rise up and draw the line in the sand. (Before there's a 'No Trespassing' sign on the sand)
The FBI definition of white collar crime is this:
"those illegal acts which are characterized by deceit, concealment, or violation of trust and which are not dependent upon the application or threat of physical force or violence"
The Telecoms, by this definition, are guilty as charged! The Administration, which persuaded them to commit such an egregious violation, is the prime conspirator. Two thirds of Congress, the FBI, the NSA, and the Executive are all working overtime to protect Ma Bell...who is working overtime for US?
I am making a proposal here to have a nationwide 'Telecom Strike'. After the sad, sad support the FISA Bill got in the Senate, I feel the only voice left is that of the people themselves.
If we have ONE day where all computers shut down, all phones cease, even ATM and credit transactions stop - we can effectively look AT&T in the eye and say,
"Up yours, Jack".
NO MORE SPYING
No MORE IMMUNITY FOR CRIMINAL ACTS.
This retroactive immunity ploy effectively gives ANY Executive the power to do ANYTHING he likes in the future - because then he can grant all his henchmen 'immunity' after the fact. Please sign the petition at Firedoglake.
It isn't over. We are pushing members of the House to stand firm against telecom immunity -- please take a little time to sign the petition here. Have you called your Representative today?
The plan is to dump the Yahoo group with something less intrusive once campaign finances warrant it. In the meantime, you can also sign up by going to my web site: http://www.lanestartin.org/ Read More »
In 1877, Chief Tulhuulhulsuit of the Nez Perce, one of the Native American tribes of Idaho, said, "The Earth is part of my body, and I never gave up the Earth. I belong to the land out of which I came. The Earth is my mother."
I'm not Native American myself, but I realize the ancient "don't tread on me, or anyone else" philosophy shared by many Native American tribes across the country still loudly resonates in the 21st Century as intelligent public policy. Read More »
Further, apart from a group of maybe five individuals, there's no one who can contest a major race. At least six more need to step up. In the absence of action elsewhere, I'm making the effort to do just that. If more Idaho Democrats in better positions than I am choose to step up with me, then I'll reassess my reasoning for this at that point.
Read More »I'm considering a run for Governor of Idaho in 2010. I'm doing this knowing full well there are several precedents against me.
Idaho hasn't elected a Democratic governor since 1990, and hasn't elected a Democrat over a Republican incumbent since 1970 (Cecil Andrus in both cases). Read More »
From the complaint issued by the campaign (full article by David Swanson here): http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/30251)
The CNN criteria specifically exclude the diverse and anti-war voice of Mr. Kucinich and his grass-roots supporters, according to the complaint. The exclusion of Mr. Kucinich undermines the purpose of the (Federal Communications) Act and is a blatant violation of the Act, including its equal time provisions.
Also, Mr. Kucinich is a successful candidate because of his anti-war message and strong criticism of the American healthcare system, issues that are not championed by his presidential primary opponents. In these and other policy issues, his opponents share very similar policy platforms that differ from Mr. Kucinich.
Breaking the Sound Barrier: Democracy Now! Re-Hosts NBC Las Vegas Debate to Include Kucinich After NBC Wins Appeal to Exclude Him
Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich was missing from the stage at last night’s Democratic debate hosted by MSNBC in Las Vegas after he lost a last-minute legal fight with the network over his participation.
Last week, NBC told Kucinich that he had met the criteria for the debate. Then, less than two days later, the network changed the criteria and declared that Kucinich was no longer qualified. On Monday, a Nevada judge ordered NBC to include Kucinich, but then NBC appealed the ruling and actively fought to keep him off the stage. On Tuesday night, less than an hour before the debate, the Nevada Supreme Court sided with NBC. Democracy Now! decided to break the sound barrier and give Kucinich a chance to take part. In an exclusive broadcast, we re-broadcast excerpts of the debate and give the Ohio Congressman a chance to answer the questions he might have faced if he hadn’t been silenced.
Dennis is still fighting his corner, and it's instructive to watch all the mainstream corporate media fight just as hard to render him invisible. I'm not sure what they think they stand to lose by including him, but it must be something important. I'm sick of Super Delegates, and Corporate Media, and hackable voting machines, and Corporate lobbyists running Washington and buying Presidential candidates, and all the other aspects of American 'elections'. Dennis Kucinich is the most interesting Democrat left - he has good things to say, and whether you agree with him or not he certainly influences the Democratic Platform in a meaningful way.
As long as he's a Presidential candidate and wants to debate, I see no reason why he should be prevented from doing so by General Electric (NBC) and Disney Corporation (ABC). Evidently, quite a few judges agreed, even though Dennis was once again ultimately silenced in the media. You can hear his views, if you're interested, by using the link.
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