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Howard "Cookie" Krongard: Likely A Liar
2007-11-15 02:23:00
Today’s Government Oversight and Reform Committee hearing revealed that the State Department Inspector General, Howard “Cookie ” Krongard, is likely just another dirty Bush Administration guy. One of the two most dramatic revelations of the day was that Howard “Cookie” Krongard’s brother, Alvin “Buzzy” Krongard, is currently serving on Blackwater’s advisory board. The obvious conflict of interest that arises from the Inspector General of the State Department having a family member working for Blackwater, a company his job involves overseeing, is bad enough. But what was most revealing, and disturbing, is the way the Committee confirmed this information.When Alvin "Buzzy" Krongard's relationship with Blackwater was first mentioned in the beginning of the hearing today, Howard "Cookie" Krongard flat-out denied his brother had anything to do with Blackwater. He went out of his way to say, “One thing just came up that really does bother me and that was an alleg...
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Coming Soon...
2007-11-14 00:23:00
I'm not going to be writing today, but I have two things on deck.Tomorrow I will be watching the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing (7am PST on CSPAN-3) during which Howard Krongrad will be testifying. He is the Bush Administration's State Department Inspector General and lower level employees have said that he interfered with investigations into "contracting fraud" (otherwise known as "war profiteering") in Iraq and Afghanistan. According to the Washington Post, here is a list of the dirty deeds Howard Krongrad has been accused of:Refusing to send investigators to Iraq and Afghanistan to investigate $3 billion worth of State Department contracts. Preventing his investigators from cooperating with a Justice Department probe into waste and fraud in the construction of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. Using "highly irregular" procedures to personally exonerate the embassy's prime contractor of labor abuses.Interfering in the investigation of a close friend of form...

Articles of Impeachment Filed Successfully Against Cheney
2007-11-12 18:29:00
This headline is not a joke. Last week, Dennis Kucinich introduced articles of impeachment against Dick Cheney on the floor of the House of Representatives and it passed.It was the most exciting CSPAN event surely of my lifetime. The vote started out like everyone would expect. Some Democrats were voting 'yes'. The clueless Democrats and all Republicans were voting 'no'. All of a sudden, in a move that I can't quite wrap my head around, the Republicans started switching their votes to 'yes'. Here's a good summary of what happened from Jonathon Kaplan at The Hill:The vote to kill Kucinch’s privileged resolution began as a largely party-line affair, but halfway through the vote, Rep. John Shadegg (R-Ariz.) persuaded Republican leaders to get rank-and-file GOP lawmakers to change their votes to force the debate.At one point, the vote to table the motion stood at 246-165. Once Republicans began switching their votes, momentum swung the other way. When the vote stood at 205-20...
More About: Articles , Impeachment

Straight Talk About the Dollar Crisis
2007-11-09 17:37:00
Yesterday, I happened to turn on CSPAN-3 during the Joint Economic Committee's hearing on the U.S. Economic Outlook. They were questioning Ben Bernanke, the Bush Administration appointee as the Chairman of the Federal Reserve. I wasn't going to watch it, because I'm not a fan of being bored, but there was something about the body language of the committee members that made me stay on that channel.Other CSPAN junkies will attest that, even in the most gnarly hearings (like the Alberto Gonzales hearings), the Senators and Congressman all are interested but generally pretty relaxed. But this boring old economic hearing was different. The Senators and Congressman (it's a mixed committee) were sitting straight up during their turns to question the Chairman of the Fed, their backs not touching the leather chairs. Some of their voices were shaking. Ben Bernanke was, at some points, kind of stuttering, definitely shaking, and even had a moment where I swear he looked like he might cry.I...
More About: Dollar , Talk , Straight , Crisis , TRAI

Musharraf Used Bush's NSPD-51To Delcare Martial Law
2007-11-07 22:44:00
This past weekend, Pervez Musharraf , the president of Pakistan that took over the country in 1999 in a military coup and has since promised a return to democracy, declared martial law and took complete control of Pakistan’s government. Americans in the United States should be concerned about this development, not only because the Pakistani people are suffering, but because the lead up to and implementation of martial law taken by Pervez Musharraf has disturbing similarities to changes made by the Bush Administration to our own United States government. Pervez Musharraf was able to suspend the Pakistani Constitution and impose martial law by declaring “emergency rule.” After declaring “emergency rule”, Pervez Musharraf deployed troops to patrol city streets, forcibly shut down the media, and arrested thousands of lawyers, human rights activists, protestors, journalists, and protesting citizens. The phrase “emergency rule” is strikingly similar to the phrase “c...
More About: Martial Law , Martial

Writer's Strike Takes Sanity Off-The-Air
2007-11-06 01:06:00
Ok, so I'm going to be upfront with you. I know next to nothing about the Hollywood writer's strike that started today. I don't know the reasons behind the strike and I have not read any articles for or against it. To be honest, I don't really care about the details.The strike itself, however, has me concerned. While this strike goes on, these shows and people will be off-the-air effective immediately:The Daily Show with Jon StewartThe Colbert Report with Steven ColbertThe Tonight Show with Jay LenoThe Late Show with David LettermanThe Late Late Show with Craig FergusonLate Night with Conan O'BrienMy knee-jerk reaction is to love that someone is standing up to the big media corporations, regardless of their reasons. And it doesn't surprise me, or disappoint me, that these names are on the list of people involved in the standing up.But in order for the Hollywood writers to exercise their democratic rights, which is good for all of us, they are hurting our country by taking thes...
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Diane Feinstein: Vote No on Mukasey (Open Email)
2007-11-01 22:48:00
Senator Feinstein ,I've been paying close attention to the developments regarding Micheal Mukasey and his confirmation hearing. After watching both days of the hearing in full and reading his clarification letter to the Judiciary Committee, I'm terrified of him becoming the next Attorney General. The waterboarding thing is bad enough, but please don't forget that he also said he would not recommend that the President grant habeas corpus rights, which basically throws the 4th, 5th, 6th and 8th amendments to the Constitution out the window.While, based on your voting record, you may agree with him on the intelligence issues (which I personally do not), the physical abuse he condones inflicting upon other human beings and the disregard for the Constitution is more than enough reason to stop his confirmation to be the top lawyer for the United States.I know that you are on the Judiciary Committee and your vote is going to be crucial in the matter of whether or not his confirmation wil...
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Top US Military Officials Dedicated to Shutting People Up
2007-11-01 02:24:00
* To get the full picture, be sure to go back and read the links… Earlier this year, 23 year old Army soldier Scott Thomas Beauchamp agreed to write a diary and publish some entries for The New Republic while he served in Iraq. On July 13th, The New Republic published this article (under the pseudonym Scott Thomas) in which Scott examines the effects war has on a soldier's humanity. To demonstrate, he told a few stories. One of his stories took place in a mess hall where he and some buddies were sitting near a girl that had half of her face melted off by an IED. Scott ends up making fun of her, right in front of her, and examines his own motivations and guilt for doing so. His next story was of a Saddam-era mass grave that the soldiers found while digging to construct a construction outpost. The bones they found in the grave were mostly those of children, and one of the soldiers, known for being a prankster, found the remnants of a child’s skull that was still intac...
More About: People , Military , US Military , Dedicated

"Generation Screwed" to the Baby Boomers: Go to Hell
2007-10-30 23:32:00
Peter Smith, over at the Huffington Post, wrote a post today which argued that the money being spent on the Iraq war is coming from my generation, which he dubbed "Generation Screwed ", and he says we need to step up and do something about it. He concludes:To date, Generation Screwed has been fairly passive. It's only natural. They are young, and getting established in life. But from protests to caucuses and polling places, the time has come for them to join politically active Gen Y, X, and Baby Boomers in opposing the policies that will leave them (and the generations of Americans who will follow them) poorer and less competitive in a global economy. Hey, Generation Screwed. Let's go.Another self-righteous Baby Boomer. I'm so tired of this line. I am a member of "Generation Screwed", and I can tell you that we are well aware and plenty pissed that our future is being squandered right now. And the thing that really gets me is that articles like this have the audacity to tell us...
More About: Hell , Baby Boomers

FEMA's CA Fire Response and Press Conference: Both Were Total Frauds
2007-10-30 03:53:00
Last week, FEMA came to California a few days after the wildfires started. By the time they got here, firefighters had been coordinated and sent to fight more than 14 wildfires burning simultaneously throughout Southern California. Extra firefighters were called in from Arizona and Nevada to help fight the blazes. Qualcomm stadium was housing fire evacuees who had cots, food, water, games, and coffee. Rest areas with tents, food, water, and bathrooms were set up for firefighters in various spots in San Diego, Orange, and Los Angeles counties. Everyone was sheltered, fed, and as comfortable as possible. Thanks to California, who had all this done before FEMA arrived. Late to the party, FEMA officials came strolling in, looked around, liked what they saw, and decided to take credit for it. To take the credit, they set up a fake press conference in Washington DC. To make sure they wouldn’t have any pesky reporters reminding viewers that FEMA didn’t do anything, FEMA put ...
More About: Press , Press Conference , Fire , Total , Frauds

Mitch McConnell Giving Our Taxes to Dirty Contractor
2007-10-27 21:21:00
From Think Progress:Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is pushing “$25 million in earmarked federal funds for a British defense contractor that is under criminal investigation by the U.S. Justice Department and suspected by American diplomats of a ‘longstanding, widespread pattern of bribery allegations.’” McConnell has taken at least $53,000 in campaign donations from the contractor’s political action committees and employees since his 2002 re-election. McConnell spokesman Don Stewart did not respond to repeated requests for comment.Oh really now?*UPDATE*The British defense contracting company under investigation by the Justice Department, and getting our tax dollars from Mitch McConnell, is called BAE Systems.In June, BAE confirmed that the Justice Department is investigating possible corruption in its Saudi Arabian deals. According to British media reports, BAE set up a slush fund with hundreds of millions of dollars in a Washington, D.C. bank to bribe Saudi ...
More About: Taxes , Dirty , Giving , Contractor

Southeast US Quickly Running Out of Water
2007-10-27 19:54:00
Everyone knows that California has a water shortage, considering our state damn near burned down last week. But lesser known are the severe water shortages in the American Southeast .According to the New York Times, "for the first time in more than 100 years, much of the Southeast has reached the most severe category of drought... creating an emergency so serious that some cities are just months away from running out of water."Cities in North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Florida are in real danger of having no water left very soon. Estimates have their water resources running dry before 90 -121 days. You know things are bad when the timeline is measured in days.Residents of these states are being ordered to cut their water usage by 50%, with the penalty of having their water shut off if they don't comply. Water ing of lawns has also been outlawed.The water shortages have also led to lawsuits over water rights. Georgia is suing the Army Corps of Engineers demanding that they stop s...
More About: Running , Thea

Slave Labor Used In US Embassy Construction
2007-10-25 23:20:00
The Telegraph of London reported earlier this month that the Department of Justice has begun an investigation into slave labor being used to construct the 104 acre US Embassy in Iraq.Disaffected employees have alleged that workers from Asia and West Africa were deceived in Kuwait into flying to Baghdad by being given boarding passes that said Dubai for chartered flights to Iraq.Once on the ground, an unspecified number of labourers had their passports seized, effectively trapping the workers in Iraq for the duration of their contracts.The allegations have been dismissed by the State Department, but partially supported by auditors in the Defense Department.Congress is also aware of the situation. On July 26, 2007 Rory Mayberry, an EMT who was hired by First Kuwaiti (a company in charge of construction of the US Embassy), testified that he had personally witnessed 51 Filipino nationals be tricked into flying to Baghdad and then brought to work on the US Embassy under dangerous working...
More About: Construction , Labor , Slave

Terrorist Watch List Has 755,000 Names
2007-10-25 19:28:00
The Government Accountability Office reports that the terrorist watch list has grown from 158,374 names in June 2004 to over 755,000 today. The list has grown by a approximately 200,000 names per year.I have to wonder if a list this large is anything more than useless.
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Donald Rumsfeld "Personally Involved" in Guantanamo Abuse
2007-10-25 01:31:00
In a new book titled Administration of Torture: A Documentary Record from Washington to Abu Ghraib and Beyond,two ACLU investigators reveal their findings on a year-long search into 100,000 government documents turned over to them by the Bush Administration regarding Guantanamo Bay.Highlights from Raw Story:"[T]he documents show unambiguously that the administration has adopted some of the methods of the most tyrannical regimes," write Jameel Jaffer and Amrit Singh. "Documents from Guantanamo describe prisoners shackled in excruciating 'stress positions,' held in freezing-cold cells, forcibly stripped, hooded, terrorized with military dogs, and deprived of human contact for months." ...Drawing almost exclusively from the documents, the authors say there is a stark contrast between the public statements of President Bush and then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and the policies those and others in the administration were advocating behind the scenes. ...The ACLU also found th...
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Venezuela's President Trying to Expand His Power
2007-10-24 21:49:00
Taking a page right out of the Bush Administration playbook, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is trying to amend their Constitution to expand his own powers, BBC News reports.Among other proposed changes, if the Constitution were amended in the manner proposed, Hugo Chavez would be "allowed to bypass legal controls on the executive during a state of emergency."NSPD-51 anyone?One difference, however, between the Hugo Chavez power grab and the George W. Bush power grab is that if the proposed measures pass in Venezuela, "all the measures will be put to a popular referendum in December."The proposals have been met with violent protest in Venezuela. But hey... at least they get a vote.
More About: Power , Resident

CA Firefight Slowed by Absence of CA National Guard
2007-10-24 18:47:00
According to Lt. Col. John Siepmann, in a San Francisco Chronicle article, 50% of California's National Guard equipment is either in Iraq or in some other part of the world, causing the fire fights to be that much harder due to their absence.Some examples of the approximately $1 billion worth of missing equipment include all 39 CA National Guard diesel generators and all 1,410 GPS devices.California could have also benefited from the approximately 1,500 National Guard personnel that are deployed in Iraq.

Satellite Image of California Wildfires
2007-10-24 08:03:00
Picture courtesy of Pichaus:
More About: California , Satellite , Image , Wildfires , Calif

Open Email to KCAL 9 in Los Angeles
2007-10-23 04:31:00
KCAL 9, Thank you for your great coverage of the fires today. I have lived in Southern California most my life and have a number of friends and family with property around the affected areas. I think you guys are doing a great job, especially considering the unprecedented magnitude of today’s fires and how much information you have to report. One suggestion on your coverage: Please be more diligent about labeling the locations of the fire footage. At this point, each of those pictures could be from almost anywhere in Southern California. You can imagine that a viewer watching for developments on the Malibu fire has some tense moments when they turn on your channel to see a blanket of fire, and then have to wait to find out which fire they’re watching. Keep up the great work!
More About: Email , Los Angeles , Open , Angeles

CIA "Terroist-Buster" Logo
2007-10-22 23:24:00
The CIA has just rolled out this new "Terrorist Buster " logo. This is not a joke.Are we over this foolishness yet?
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Rush Limbaugh Blackmailed A Journalist
2007-10-22 06:39:00
On the October 15th episode of his radio show, Rush Limb augh admitted that he blackmailed an unnamed journalist with threats of defamation in order to get the journalist to change a story.From Media Matters:Limbaugh said his target was a reporter, whose name he said he would not "mention," who was writing "a cover story on me coming out of one of the big news magazines, and it was going to totally mischaracterize me and what I do and how I do it." Limbaugh continued: "[W]e found out who was writing it and made a couple phone calls to the person writing it. And we said, 'You know what? We're going to find out where your kids go to school. We're going to find out who you knocked up in high school. We're going to find out what drugs you used. We're going to find out where you go to drink and do -- we're gonna find out how you paid for your house. We're going to do -- and we're going to do exact -- and we're going to say that, you know what? You are no different than Al Goldst...
More About: Rush Limbaugh , Journalist

Bush Started Wiretapping Americans Before 9/11
2007-10-21 20:11:00
Joseph Nacchio, the former CEO of Qwest, testified that the Bush administration, via the NSA, "had asked Qwest to participate in a warrantless spying program more than six months before the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, citing court documents unsealed in Denver"."According to Nacchio's account, the surveillance proposal was made at a meeting on Feb. 27, 2001, the report said."Qwest refused to participate, believing the request to be illegal. "Qwest's decision not to participate in the surveillance program prompted the government to cancel a separate NSA contract", which effectively hurt the struggling company.So much for "9/11 changed everything". Seems to me that 9/11 just shifted the Bush administration's already formed plans into overdrive.
More About: Americans , Wiretapping

Verizon Wiretapped Over 94,000 People Since '05
2007-10-21 20:07:00
A Washington Post article published last week revealed that Verizon gave the government information on 94,000 people with a court order and 720 people with no court order since 2005.If you do the math, that's 117 people per day since January 2005."Verizon also disclosed that the FBI, using administrative subpoenas, sought information identifying not just a person making a call, but all the people that customer called, as well as the people those people called.""The information was used for a range of criminal investigations, including kidnapping and child-predator cases and counter-terrorism investigations.""Carriers are facing a raft of lawsuits from individuals and privacy advocates, such as the EFF and the American Civil Liberties Union, for allegedly violating Americans' privacy by aiding the NSA's warrantless surveillance program." "The federal government has intervened, arguing that to continue the case would divulge "state secrets," jeopardizing national security." More l...
More About: People , Izon

Michael Mukasey: Not The Constitution's Friend
2007-10-19 03:48:00
Katherine at Obsidian Wings wrote an interesting post yesterday regarding President Bush's Attorney General nominee Michael Mukasey . After watching the confirmation hearing, she concluded:None of the statements that I’ve read today give me any real information or reassurance about what he will do as Attorney General. ...The statements that “I categorically denounce torture,” “the United States doesn’t torture,” “torture is antithetical to our values”—they are meaningless from members of this administration.While she is absolutely right that his blanket statements are meaningless, I have to disagree that we didn't learn any real information about what Michael Mukasey would do as Attorney General. Quite the opposite actually. We learned quite a bit, but from different statements.The mindset Mukasey exhibited, via the following examples, and the conclusions that can be drawn, paint a disturbing picture.During his confirmation hearing:1) Michael Mukasey made excuse...
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Blackwater Held American Troops at Gunpoint
2007-10-16 20:12:00
From the October 15th issue of Newsweek:The colonel was furious. "Can you believe it? They actually drew their weapons on U.S. soldiers." He was describing a 2006 car accident, in which an SUV full of Blackwater operatives had crashed into a U.S. Army Humvee on a street in Baghdad's Green Zone. The colonel, who was involved in a follow-up investigation and spoke on the condition he not be named, said the Blackwater guards disarmed the U.S. Army soldiers and made them lie on the ground at gunpoint until they could disentangle the SUV. His account was confirmed by the head of another private security company. Asked to address this and other allegations in this story, Blackwater spokesperson Anne Tyrrell said, "This type of gossip has led to many soap operas in the press.First of all, how is holding American soldiers at gunpoint in a war zone not treason? I have a suspicion that it is.You know what else is treasonous? The fact that these private contractor guys now have more power in ...
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Private Company Controls Access to Congressional Hearing Transcripts
2007-10-12 23:00:00
Most Congressional hearing transcripts are available online somewhere between 2 months and 2 years after they take place. As you can imagine, when you want the exact words used during a conversation taking place today on CSPAN, that's a long time to wait.Federal News Network is a service that transcribes government hearings, speeches and press conferences within 24 hours. Although I personally believe that there should be a few full-time government positions doing this as a public service for the American people, in our current reality, this service sounds perfect for a journalist, right?Until you read the fine print. Tell me if this sounds strange to you..."FNS may refuse or deny access to anyone, using only our reasonable discretion.""None of the FNS Content may be copied or otherwise exploited without the prior written consent of a duly authorized representative of FNS, and you may not copy or paste FNS Content into any other web sites.""Use of The Site constitutes consent to FN...
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Al Gore Wins the Nobel Peace Prize!
2007-10-12 17:20:00
Now hopefully he'll run for President.Sign the petition here.
More About: Peace , Al Gore , Gore , Nobel Peace Prize , Wins

Countdown with Keith Olbermann (Reveiw)
2007-10-11 22:28:00
Turns out there's some been some actual news lately being broadcast by MSNBC. 90% of it has been on Countdown with Keith Olbermann .It's a nice find. As of right now, it's definitely my favorite television news hour. That said, however, it doesn't make the situation good. I'll be a bit generous and say that this show is news about 50% of the time.The first 15-20 minutes are topics #5 and #4, and they are usually great. Olbermann and his guests often discuss the wars and Congressional hearings. He also interviews members of the military and Constitutional scholars (note the "discuss" part of that. It's not a shouting match).After that, the middle of the show is a little hit or miss. Sometimes the show keeps going strong. Other times, topics #3 and #2 will be "he said/she said" Democrat vs. Republican stories, which are complete wastes of time. If you care, he's a pretty reasonable guy, which lately means he's been siding more with the Democrats. Topics #3 and #2 are also where...

Chris Matthews on The Daily Show
2007-10-10 21:11:00
Chris Matthews on The Daily Show was a fascinating example of what's wrong with the television media in the United States.First of all, watch the video.Ok, so here's the thing. Plenty of people have wacky ideas about how to get ahead in life. I take issue with Chris Matthews, as I think Jon Stewart does too, because this man is a member of the mainstream media. He's in the business of being respected for his words and he gets an hour on MSNBC every day to control the messages being sent out on that news channel. Jon Stewart is concerned (to put it lightly) with his message and how he seems to turn vice into virtue.I, however, am equally concerned with the way he makes his point. Here are some Chris Matthews quotes from this interview: "Do you want to succeed?" "Do you want to have friends?" "Do you have a reputation?"Instead of working with logic and common sense, he went for what he perceived to be every person's weak points. The desire to be successful, have friends and h...
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Congress Left In The Dark About NSPD-51
2007-10-10 06:52:00
The Bush administration has refused to give Congress the classified details of NSPD-51 (the presidential directive giving full control of the country to the Executive branch).
More About: Dark , Left , The Dark