US Politics


NSA Hearing Scope Too Narrow?

Orin Kerr picks up on something that’s been nagging at me today as I listened to the judicial committee hearings. There is a lot more going on than the particular program that seemed to be the focus of today’s hearings:

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the AG’s testimony is his suggestion, made at various places, that there are other classified telecommunications surveillance programs beyond FISA and the NSA program.

If these focus at all on domestic surveillance without warrants then they need to be brought out into the light of day.

Oh yea, wasn’t gonzalez adept at saying nothing! But did anyone expect anything different?


Defending the Indefensible

rice seems to be defending rendtion and secret prisons as she:

…chastised Europe leaders today, saying that before they complain about secret jails for terror suspects in European nations, they should realize that interrogations of these suspects have produced information that helped “save European lives.”

Really, some specifics would be helpful here.

…Ms. Rice repeatedly emphasized that the United States does not countenance the torture of terrorism suspects, at the hands of either American or foreign captors.

What exactly does she mean by torture? We know the bushites think about it a bit differently than many of the rest of us.
Reaching for justification and admitting that it is happening she goes on to say:

“We must bring terrorists to justice wherever possible,” she said. “But there have been many cases where the local government cannot detain or prosecute a suspect, and traditional extradition is not a good option.”

Why not? Please condi some details are in order here.

“In those cases,” she added, “the local government can make the sovereign choice to cooperate in the transfer of a suspect to a third country, which is known as a rendition.
“Sometimes, these efforts are misunderstood,” she said.

Echidne responds:

I want to hear a lot more about “the efforts being misunderstood”, a lot more. Like in what way are we misunderstanding them, exactly? Is it that the European interrogation centers were just chosen because they had excellent food and beer?

So much for the transparency the bushies seem to demand from everyone else. For instance, on November 10th stephen hadley said the following:

In terms of intelligence, you know, one of the problems, in dealing with a closed society such as North Korea, is you don’t know what you don’t know, and what you do know tends to be fairly limited. And as you know, we don’t know as much about their enrichment program as we would like. And that’s one of the reasons why, as part of the six-party talks, it will be very interesting to have — and very important to have a declaration, to have dismantlement procedures and verification measures so we can be sure that in a otherwise fairly non — extremely non-transparent society, these commitments to give up nuclear weapons and nuclear programs are carried out.

This is all well and good and we can agree with hadley. However, let’s revise his statement just a bit (italics):

In terms of intelligence, you know, one of the problems, in dealing with a closed administration such as bush’s, is you don’t know what you don’t know, and what you do know tends to be fairly limited. And as you know, we don’t know as much about their rendition program as we would like. And that’s one of the reasons why, as part of the six-party talks, it will be very interesting to have — and very important to have a declaration, to have disclosure procedures and verification measures so we can be sure that in a otherwise fairly non — extremely non-transparent administraton, these commitments to give up torture, rendition and secret prisons are carried out.

Yep, they need to look into the mirror a little more often and we should remember that whenever the bushies decide to accuse an opponent of some foul behavior it is often, if not always, a behavior that one or more of the bushies is trying to hide.
Update: Also see the heretik.


Leavin’ New Orleans

A few days ago I was one of the smug ones mentioned below but from what I’ve seen, heard and learned since Katrina wreaked its destruction this is about right:

Look at the reporters who are “incensed” by the rampant looting. Look at the smugness from those distant from the situation who chastise the dumb southerners for not evacuating when they had the chance. It blows their minds how many idiots stayed to wait it out. It makes them shake their heads and make “tsk-tsk” noises into their shiny microphones.
Well, fuck the lot of them.
New Orleans and Biloxi are not rich cities. They are poor southern cities disproportionately filled with poor southern people — people who may not have reliable transportation, people who live hand-to-mouth, people who have nowhere else to go, even if they had the means to get there.

Read the rest.
Via Making Light.


Who Needs a Draft?

With recruiting techniques like this?
This young man’s experience with military recruiters started while he was still in high school. Perhaps this is one of those areas where a parental consent law might make some sense especially to those who value life. Something along the lines of:

No representative of a military organization or any other organization that trains people to kill may contact any individual below the age of 21 without written permission of the individual’s parents. No individual below the age of 21 may join or enlist in the above referenced organization without written approval of their parents.

Yes, in answer to your first questions. The above does say parents which is plural which means both parents must sign. Second, I picked 21 and not 18 as individuals in the US have been restrained from the full execution of their rights (alcohol consumption for example) until they are 21.


Morford Has 2nd Thoughts on Real ID

Mark Morford tries a glass half full view of Real ID:

Ah, but maybe I’m wrong. Maybe this is just rampant paranoia talking and it’s just a silly piece of harmless legislation and Real ID is overall a genuinely good and useful idea that will ultimately make us safer and more secure. You think?
Because hasn’t BushCo proven to be reliable and honest and just reeking with integrity about privacy and security issues so far? Hasn’t the USA Patriot Act been just a wondrous boon to police and CIA and our sense that we are trusted and cared for by our government? Aren’t we all feeling just so much safer with this most secretive, least accountable administration at the helm?
After all, why not trust the government on this? Why not put our faith in the goodly Homeland Security Department? Maybe Real ID really is patriotic and constructive and it will be a smooth and secure and completely inviolable system, one that protects citizens while giving them a new sense of freedom to move about the country with carefree flag-waving ease, safe in the knowledge that their big, snarling gummint is watching over them like a protective mother bear — as opposed to, say, a female praying mantis, who greedily screws her lover, and then, of course, eats him alive.

Really, this raving bit of incompetence by congress and the president is adequate reason to toss them all out of office. This is really one party no one should attend and if it means boycotting the airlines until they scream in anguished pain to get this stuff stricken from what passes for law then so be it.