Clipmarks | masbury's clips

Jt Chiefs Chairman warns against striking Iran

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 02:20:10 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Scholar adds that such a strike "could be a political bonanza for Iran" "Just as Hezbollah became so popular [in the aftermath of the war between Hezbollah and Israel in the summer of 2006], Iran could gain credibility in the Arab street."

Clip Source: www.chicagotribune.com

WASHINGTON — The words Wednesday from Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, were notable for their blunt pragmatism: An Israeli airstrike on Iran would be high-risk and could further destabilize the region, leading to political and economic chaos.

Mullen's words of caution underscored the Pentagon's belief that a move against Iran—by the U.S. or one of its allies—would have an undeniable effect on the ongoing U.S. missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Opening up a third front right now would be extremely stressful on us,"

An Israeli airstrike on its nuclear reactor sites might not be as damaging for Iran as it would be to the United States and Israel, said Vali Nasr, a professor of international politics at Tufts University.

"The upside could be a political bonanza for Iran," Nasr said. "Just as Hezbollah became so popular [in the aftermath of the war between Hezbollah and Israel in the summer of 2006], Iran could gain credibility in the Arab street."

Tags: iran

"Global disruption" better than "Global warming"

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 23:00:08 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: John Holdren, professor of environmental policy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He is the director of the Woods Hole Research Center and just completed a term as board chair of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Clip Source: www.democracynow.org

“Global Disruption” More Accurately Describes Climate Change, Not “Global Warming”–Leading Scientist John Holdren

Leading scientist John Holdren says “global warming” is not the correct term to use; he prefers “global disruption.” “‘Global warming’ [is] misleading. It implies something that’s mainly about temperature, that’s gradual, and that’s uniform across the planet,” says Holdren. “In fact, temperature is only one of the things that’s changing. It’s a sort of an index of the state of the climate. The whole climate is changing: the winds, the ocean currents, the storm patterns, snow packs, snowmelt, flooding, droughts. Temperature is just a bit of it.” [includes rush transcript]

Tags: environment

MN judge finds against WalMart in 2 MILLION labor violations

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 06:14:55 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Will WalMart ever stop leeching American workers?

Clip Source: www.truthdig.com

Wal-Mart may face up to $2 billion in fines after a Minnesota state judge found a total of 2 million contractual violations by the retail giant.

The judge also ruled on Monday that Wal-Mart owed $6.5 million to 56,000 current and former employees because of contractual violations, including a failure to give workers promised rest breaks at least 1.5 million times. The judge also found that Wal-Mart managers in Minnesota had systematically broken the law by having employees take in-house training while off the clock.

“It’s only through a decision like this that Wal-Mart can be held to its contractual agreements and to complying with Minnesota law.”

Tags: walmart

Lawyers file suit against politicking DOJ

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 06:04:05 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: After internal Justice report maintains DOJ officials illegally screened applicants

Clip Source: tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com

Class Action Lawsuit Filed Against the DOJ

The class action by Sean Gerlich -- filed yesterday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia -- is the first suit resulting from an internal Justice report issued last week that says two former Justice officials illegally screened applicants to the honors and summer intern programs.

Gerlich's suit says the department politicized the selection process, mishandled the applications and failed to maintain the records, all in violation of the Privacy Act, the Civil Service Reform Act and the Federal Records Act. In addition, the suit claims violations of the First and 14th Amendments.

Tags: bush, politics

More Bushco connections to Iraq oil deals

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 05:57:26 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Perks for Hunt Oil, whose owner gave $35M to the Bush library.

Clip Source: thinkprogress.org

Oversight Committee: Despite Denials, Administration Knew About Bush Donor’s Oil Contracts»

The Bush administration has repeatedly claimed that it plays no part in contract negotiations between Western oil companies and Iraq. But the New York Times reported last week that the State Department actually had an “integral role” in the awarding of no-bid contracts to develop Iraq’s oil fields.

Today, the administration received another blow to its credibility, as the House Oversight Committee released documents further connecting it to Iraqi oil deals, this time through Dallas-based Hunt Oil. Hunt Oil is owned by Ray L. Hunt, a former Halliburton board member who has donated $35 million to the Bush presidential library.

“This is a serious matter because of the widespread suspicion in Iraq and other nations that the United States went to war to gain access to Iraqi oil,” the committee wrote.

Tags: iraq, oil

ACLU: Massive Pentagon effort conceals human costs of war

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 05:53:04 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: ACLU charges unprecedented effort to "control and suppress information about the human cost" of the wars

Clip Source: thinkprogress.org

The ACLU today released documents regarding Navy investigations of civilians killed by coalition troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. The report notes that the administration has gone to “unprecedented lengths to control and suppress information about the human cost” of the wars. Some of the key findings:

– Banning photographers on U.S. military bases from covering the arrival of caskets containing the remains of U.S. soldiers killed overseas

– Paying Iraqi journalists to write positive accounts of the U.S. war effort

– Inviting U.S. journalists to “embed” with military units but requiring them to submit their stories for pre-publication review

– Erasing journalists’ footage of civilian deaths in Afghanistan

– Refusing to disclose statistics on civilian casualties.

The New York Times revealed in April that the Pentagon also had used a domestic propaganda program to paint a rosy portrait of the war effort. See the documents here.

Tags: war on terror

Bush: those who disagree with him "slander America"

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 05:47:12 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: How very, very cheap - taking those who disagree with HIM and labeling them slanderers of AMERICA. He attempts to manipulate people who want to be patriotic into sitting down, shutting up, and asking no questions about his abuse of power, so he can do whatever he wants with their money.

Clip Source: thinkprogress.org

BOULTON: There are those who would say look, lets take Guantanamo Bay, and Abu Ghraib, and rendition and all those things and to them that is the complete opposite of freedom.

BUSH: Of course, if you want to slander America.

a short — but by no means exhaustive — list of those who have

slandered America:

– The United States Supreme Court: The Court ruled last week that “terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay have a right to seek their release in federal court” saying that Bush’s policy compromised “the Constitution’s guarantee of liberty.”

– McClatchy Newspapers:

the U.S. has wrongfully imprisoned “perhaps hundreds” of men “in Afghanistan, Cuba and elsewhere on the basis of flimsy or fabricated evidence, old personal scores or bounty payments.”

– The Federal Bureau of Investigation:

according to its agents, “[m]ilitary officials at Guantanamo Bay used some aggressive techniques before they were approved, possibly in violation of Defense Department policy and U.S. law.”

Tags: bush, gitmo, war on terror

Limbaugh: I am defender of Corporate America

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 05:40:43 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: An unashamed cadre of the corporatocracy

Clip Source: thinkprogress.org

Limbaugh: ‘I consider myself a defender of corporate America.’»

right-wing radio talker Rush Limbaugh declares himself “the intellectual engine of the conservative movement.” Described by reporter Zev Chafets as “less a theoretician than a popularizer”

“I consider myself a defender of corporate America.” Limbaugh’s claim is supported by the aggressive manner in which he acts as a “pitchman” for products on his show:

Some simply run their usual ads. Others use Limbaugh as their pitchman, which costs them a premium and a long-term commitment. And lately he has created a new option. At a much higher rate he will weave a product into his monologue (To a caller who said he took two showers after voting for Clinton in Operation Chaos, Limbaugh responded: “If you had followed my advice and gotten a Rinnai tankless water heater, you wouldn’t have needed to take two showers. And I’ll tell you why. . . .”)

Tags: limbaugh, media

Dems who gripe at Big Oil but hold stock in it

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 05:28:41 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Is your Rep listed here? 14 Dems in House and Senate profit from policies they oppose

Clip Source: thehill.com

Dems willing to criticize oil despite holding stock

At least 14 Democratic members of the House and one senator have holdings ranging from several thousand dollars to hundreds of thousands of dollars in companies such as Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. or partnerships such as Schlumberger and Hornbeck Offshore Services.

Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.)

Sen. John Kerry (Mass.)

Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.)

Tyson Slocum, director of Public Citizen’s energy program, said it was inconsistent for Democrats to criticize companies but also invest in them.

Clip Source: thehill.com

Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.)

Rep. Charlie Wilson (D-Ohio)

Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas)

Rep. David Price (D-N.C.)

Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.)

Democratic Reps. Patrick Kennedy (R.I.), Carolyn McCarthy (N.Y.), Heath Shuler (N.C.), and Howard Berman (Calif.)

Rep. Jim Oberstar (D-Minn.)

Rep. Zoe Lofgren’s (D-Calif.)

Rep. Ron Klein (D-Fla.)

Reps. Rubén Hinojosa (D-Texas) and Charlie Melancon (D-La.)

Tags: politics, environment, oil

Gitmo torture training based on Korea-era Chinese torture

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 21:06:09 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Used on US prisoners during Korean conflict

Clip Source: www.democracynow.org

Gitmo Trainers Based Interrogations on Chinese Techniques

The New York Times has revealed military trainers at Guantanamo Bay based an entire interrogation class on Chinese techniques used on US prisoners during the Korean War. The techniques have long been considered forms of torture, including “sleep deprivation,” “prolonged constraint,” “exposure,” “semi-starvation," “exploitation of wounds.” Some of the intended effects include “Makes Victim Dependent on Interrogator,” “Weakens Mental and Physical Ability to Resist” and “Reduces Prisoner to ‘Animal Level’ Concerns.” The methods were also seen as widely ineffective, having obtained mostly false confessions. The techniques were outlined in a chart from a 1957 Air Force study entitled “Communist Attempts to Elicit False Confessions from Air Force Prisoners of War.” Some of the methods were used on Guantanamo prisoners until Congress banned the use of coercion in 2005.

Tags: torture

Uighur prisoners at Gitmo as favor to China

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 20:54:51 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Fled to Afghanistan, Chinese mad; never took up arms against USA

Clip Source: www.dailykos.com

The administration's maltreatment of the Uighur prisoners is notorious. They fled to Afghanistan in 2001 to escape Chinese oppression. Though nobody disputes that they've never taken up arms against the US, Bush agreed to salt the Uighurs away at Gitmo as a favor to China at a time he was seeking Chinese support for the invasion of Iraq. Secret (very likely Chinese) allegations that the Uighurs support al Qaeda served as the basis for imprisoning them. So it's highly fitting that the first, devastating ~~habeas~~ habeas-like challenge to Bush's CSRTs should come from a Uighur prisoner.

Tags: uighur

Habeas panel: produce evidence or release Gitmo prisoner

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 20:17:23 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Compares gov't case to fantasy of Lewis Carroll. Detainee held on hearsay; no proof offered. Orders Govt to release detainee or provide evidence justifying detention.

Clip Source: www.dailykos.com

A panel of the Appeals Court in the DC Circuit on Monday released the first ever ruling on a ~~habeas~~ habeas-like review for a Guantanamo prisoner under the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 (PDF). It's devastating to the Bush administration. The unanimous opinion even mocks Bush & Co.'s argument, comparing it to a nonsense poem by Lewis Carroll.

"The documents repeatedly describe those activities and relationships as having "reportedly" occurred, as being "said to" or "reported to" have happened, and as things that "may" be true or are "suspected of" having taken place

"The government insists that the statements made in the documents are reliable because the State and Defense Departments would not have put them in intelligence documents were that not the case. This comes perilously close to suggesting that whatever the government says must be treated as true, thus rendering superfluous both the role of the Tribunal and the role that Congress assigned to this Court."

Tags: gitmo, habeas corpus

New clues in last mass lynching of African-Americans

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 19:43:48 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: 2 black couples shot hundreds of times; investigators trying to close files of 60-year old unsolved case.

Clip Source: cnnwire.blogs.cnn.com

FBI search in last U.S. mass lynching

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) — State and federal investigators on Tuesday said they spent the past two days gathering evidence in the last documented mass lynching in the United States — a grisly slaying of four people that has remained unsolved for more than six decades.

On July 25, 1946, two black sharecropper couples were shot hundreds of times and the unborn baby of one of the women cut out with a knife at the Moore’s Ford Bridge. One of the men had been accused of stabbing a white man 11 days earlier and was bailed out of jail by a former Ku Klux Klan member and known bootlegger who drove him, his wife, her brother and his wife to the bridge.

The FBI statement said investigators were following up on information recently received in the case — one of several the agency has revived in an effort to close decades-old cases from the civil rights era and before.

rural Walton County, Georgia

Tags: racism

McCain tax cuts give Corporations $175B/year windfall

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 03:11:57 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: And guess who will make up the difference?

Clip Source: www.democracynow.org

Report: McCain Tax Cuts to Save Corporations $175 Billion/Year

In campaign news, a new report is estimating Republican presidential candidate John McCain’s proposed tax plan will produce a windfall for corporate America. The Center For American Progress estimates McCain’s plan would save corporations $175 billion per year. The country’s largest 200 corporations alone would save $45 billion.

Tags: politics, economy

CIA accused of falsifying Iran nuclear intel

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 03:07:58 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Motion filed in fed court; claims agent ordered to falsify reports on Iran nuclear weapons development

Clip Source: www.democracynow.org

Ex-CIA Operative Accuses Agency of Suppressing Intel on Iran

A former CIA operative has accused the CIA of deliberately suppressing evidence that showed Iran had suspended work on developing nuclear weapons. In a motion filed in federal court, the onetime undercover agent asked the government to declassify documents related to Iran’s nuclear program. Before his firing in 2004, the former operative says he was repeatedly ordered to either falsify his reporting on WMDs in the Middle East or not to file his reports at all.

Tags: cia, war on terror