Saturday
Jun152013
The Commentariat -- June 16, 2013
Suzanne Goldenberg of the Guardian: "Al Gore has called on Barack Obama to veto the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, describing it as 'an atrocity'."
Glenn Greenwald, Short Version: Democrats are hypocrites. Also, "... we are very busy working on and writing the next series of stories that will begin appearing very shortly." CW: probably doesn't make the Obama administration too happy that someone as volatile as Greenwald is sitting on stuff that actually could compromise national security. ...
... Greenwald: "... the stories thus far published by the Guardian are already leading to concrete improvements in accountability and transparency." ...
... Paul Harris of the Guardian: "... the Age of Obama is not one of hope and change; it is the era of the National Security President." ...
... Meh. Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "A recent briefing by senior intelligence officials on surveillance programs failed to attract even half of the Senate, showing the lack of enthusiasm in Congress for learning about classified security programs. Many senators elected to leave Washington early Thursday afternoon instead of attending a briefing with James Clapper, the Director of National Intelligence, Keith Alexander, the head of the National Security Agency (NSA), and other officials." ...
... Dan Roberts & Spencer Ackerman of the Guardian: "The US intelligence community has written to Congress to confirm the existence of two sweeping surveillance programmes revealed by the Guardian, but defended their legality and usefulness in preventing terrorism. In the fullest official account yet of how the US gathers domestic telephone data and overseas internet traffic, the document sent on Saturday claims that both programmes were authorised by Congress under section 215 of the Patriot Act and section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act. This has been disputed by a number of senators and congressmen, including one of the authors of the Patriot Act, who say it is more sweeping than they envisaged, but the document details a number of internal checks put in place since that seek to minimise the exposure of private data obtained inadvertently from citizens who are not terrorist suspects." ...
... Kimberly Dozier of the AP: "Top U.S. intelligence officials said Saturday that information gleaned from two controversial data-collection programs run by the National Security Agency thwarted potential terrorist plots in the U.S. and more than 20 other countries -- and that gathered data is destroyed every five years. Last year, fewer than 300 phone numbers were checked against the database of millions of U.S. phone records gathered daily by the NSA in one of the programs, the intelligence officials said...." ...
... ** Barton Gellman of the Washington Post: "Foreigners, not Americans, are the NSA's 'targets,' as the law defines that term. But the programs are structured broadly enough that they touch nearly every American household in some way.... The White House, the NSA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined to comment on the record for this article. A senior intelligence official agreed to answer questions if not identified." ...
... ** Thom Hartmann: "Privatization enthusiasts praise contractors as efficient and responsible purveyors of public service, but corporations, by virtue of being corporations, are incompatible with the functions of representative government. The lack of accountability or transparency inherent to corporations isn't a huge deal if a company is making, say sneakers, but it is a problem if that company is in control of an essential part of the commons like national security." Thanks to contributor Tommy B. for the link. ...
... ** David Sanger & Nicole Perlroth of the New York Times: "... as Booz Allen profits handsomely from its worldwide expansion..., which sells itself as the gold standard in protecting classified computer systems and boasts that half its 25,000 employees have Top Secret clearances -- [it has] a lot of questions to answer. Among the questions: Why did Booz Allen assign a 29-year-old with scant experience to a sensitive N.S.A. site in Hawaii, where he was left loosely supervised as he downloaded highly classified documents about the government's monitoring of Internet and telephone communications, apparently loading them onto a portable memory stick barred by the agency?" ... Removing contractors from the classified world would be a wrenching change." The writes profile Mike McConnell, vice-chair of Booz Allen, & one of Dubya's NSA directors, who has passed through the revolving government/private sector door more than once. Oh, P.S. "A new job posting appeared on [Booz Allen's] Web site for a systems administrator in Hawaii, 'secret clearance required.'"
... John Broder & Scott Shane of the New York Times: Ed Snowden, high-school dropout, considers himself a "great mind." ...
... Carol Leonnig, et al., profile Snowden for the Washington Post. CW: I assume there are millions of video-game players who are not delusional sociopaths, but I must say that game geekiness is frequently prelude to outrageously destructive behavior. Inasmuch as a predilection to geekiness can produce a skills set of particular utility in cybersecurity work, I'd say we have a problem, Washington. ...
Karen DeYoung & Scott Wilson of the Washington Post: "President Obama's decision to begin arming the Syrian rebels followed more than a year of internal debate over whether it was worth the dual risks of involving the United States in another war and seeing U.S. weapons fall into the hands of extremist groups among the rebels. The White House said the final push came this week after U.S. intelligence agencies concluded with 'high certainty' that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces had used chemical weapons against the rebels. But U.S. officials said that the determination to send weapons had been made weeks ago and that the chemical weapons finding provided fresh justification to act." ...
... The Return of Obambi. The Post story came out Saturday morning in the town where MoDo lives. But apparently Dowd didn't read her local paper because in today's column, she credits Bill Clinton (with a hat-tip to John McCain) for getting Obama to send a few arms to Syrian rebel forces. Dowd even selectively read the Times story by Peter Baker, which she cites in her column. According to Baker, "While an aide said Mr. Obama's decision was made even before Mr. Clinton's comments this week endorsing more robust intervention, the president ended up satisfying neither side in the Syrian debate."...
... McCain's Former Sidekick Cannot See Syria from Her Back Porch. Erik Wasson of the Hill: "... Sarah Palin told a Washington audience Saturday that the U.S. should not get involved in the Syrian civil war.... 'Until we have a commander in chief who knows what he is doing....let Allah sort it out!' she told the Faith and Freedom Coalition. The statement shows how far Palin has drifted from former running mate Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who is the chief Senate proponent of U.S. military action to help the Syrian rebels."
... David Herszenhorn of the New York Times: "The Russian government on Saturday stepped up its attack on the accusation by the United States that Syria had used chemical weapons in its civil war, saying that evidence cited by the Americans was unreliable because the samples were not properly handled by experts until they reached a laboratory."
Josh Gerstein of Politico: "Deceased Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev came to the attention of the FBI on at least two occasions prior to a Russian government warning in March 2011 that said he appeared to be radicalizing, FBI Director Robert Mueller said in Congressional testimony this week. The earlier references have led some lawmakers to question whether the FBI acted too quickly in closing an assessment of Tsarnaev's potential ties to terrorism done in response to the Russian request."
A Reason for Immigration Reform. Immigrants are more fertile, and they love families, and they have more intact families, and they bring a younger population. Immigrants create an engine of economic prosperity. -- Jeb Bush
Local News
War on the Constitution. David Knowles of the New York Daily News: "Texas Gov. Rick Perry is fighting on the front lines in the so-called 'war on Christmas.' On Thursday, Perry signed what has been dubbed the 'Merry Christmas bill' into law. The measure allows schools to display religious symbols such as nativity scenes and Christmas trees so long as at least one other religious image or secular icon is also included. In addition, the new law allows staff members and students at the state's public schools to exchange traditional holiday greetings, such as 'Merry Christmas,' 'Happy Hanukkah' and 'happy holidays' without fear of reprisal.... At the Thursday signing ceremony for the new law, cheerleaders from Kountze High School wore t-shirts that read 'I cheer for Christ.' In May, a Texas judge ruled that the cheerleaders could continue to display signs at football games emblazoned with Bible verses." ...
... Oh, Crap. Virgin Mary Still Earns Only 77 Percent of Joseph's Pay. Igor Volsky of Think Progress: "Texas Governor Rick Perry (R) vetoed a bill on Friday that would have allowed women suffering wage discrimination to take legal action, alleging that the measure 'duplicates federal law, which already allows employees ... to file a claim with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.' ... Forty-two states have passed s[t]ate-based equal pay laws, recognizing that Lilly Ledbetter was not enough."
News Ledes
Reuters: "Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi said he had cut all diplomatic ties with Damascus on Saturday and backed a no-fly zone over Syria, pitching the most populous Arab state more firmly against President Bashar al-Assad. Addressing a rally called by Sunni Muslim clerics in Cairo, the Sunni Islamist head of state also warned Assad's ally, the Iranian-backed Lebanese Shi'ite militia Hezbollah, to pull back from fighting in Syria."
AP: "North Korea's top governing body on Sunday proposed high-level nuclear and security talks with the United States in an appeal sent just days after calling off talks with rival South Korea."
AP: "Turkish riot police on Sunday sprayed tear gas and water cannons at demonstrators who remained defiant after authorities evicted activists from an Istanbul park, making clear they are taking a hardline against attempts to rekindle protests that have shaken the country. Bulldozers cleared all that was left of a two-week sit-in and police sealed off the area to keep demonstrators away from the spot that has become the focus of the strongest challenge to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in his 10 years in office."
AP: "A solar-powered plane nearing the close of a cross-continental journey landed at Dulles International Airport outside the nation's capital early Sunday, only one short leg to New York remaining on a voyage that opened in May."
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Reader Comments (5)
OMG! I seem to agree with Palin. At least up to the "until" part. Now pardon me while I run to the bathroom.
Here is a good article about the privatization of national security:
http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/16991-who-will-watch-the-watchers
It voices just about every complaint I have had about this "privatization" scam that has been run on us for how many years now. It's a political version of the criminal world in which the Mafia guys want a piece of the action.
The justification for Perry's vetoing on women being able to take legal action re: wage discrimination is exactly the same as Scott Walker's who claimed, "We don't need it; we have the Lilly Ledbetter Act." Both these gentlemen apparently don't understand the law or they don't give a rat's ass about women getting their due. I'll mull that over for awhile since it's such a hard choice. And praise the lord for all that Xmas nonsense in Texas Christian country––when they think a god has something to do with winning teams, ("I cheer for Christ") then it makes for nice snuggly warm feelings all around.
Happy Papa's Day to all you Dads. Now there's something we can celebrate.
PD Pepe: Thanks for the Father's Day wishes...and for reminding me of a treasured moment in my much younger life, when I was more likely to blurt what was on my mind, social sense aside.
Was timing a JV football game between two high school teams with a stopwatch in pre-digital days, following the plays on the field from behind the huddles, where I could hear everything. The private, Christian school team scored again and again. As they approached to goal line one more time, one young man said loudly, "Let's get this one for Christ." On the next play, that same young man, a running back, dropped the ball and the team that was being pummeled recovered.
As Christ's own tailback walked back to the huddle, I did not have the good sense (on the field in an "official" capacity as I was and as someone who was supposed to be and act like an adult) to refrain: "Did the Devil make you do it?" I asked him. I had the momentary satisfaction of seeing him look confused, almost as if he were actually having a thought.
Later, I concluded he more likely wasn't, or if he was, he was just thinking I was a jerk.
Maybe I was...but I must not feel too guilty about it, because I still grin when I recall that Saturday morning. Like now. Thanks for the memory.
Mark Sumner of The Daily Kos:
“Let me say something that I don't think I've said before: Bill Clinton needs to shut his damn pie hole. I don't care how smart the man is, this time he's being an idiot. If we're really making o[u]r foreign policy decisions based on what looks most macho, we deserve to join the dodo. Maureen Dowd loves all this inter-administration bickering because... well, because she's Maureen Dowd, and she still thinks the government and sixth grade are the same thing.”