Archive for April, 2009
-
Congressional Republicans, led by House Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Peter Hoekstra (R-MI), came out swinging against President Barack Obama's apparent new-found willingness to entertain the possibility of prosecuting former Bush Administration officials for decisions made regarding enhanced interrogations. Hoekstra (R-MI), penned an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal declaring that if Democrats wanted to conduct an investigation, Republicans would make sure Congressional Democrats were the subjects of the probe right along with the Bush Administration.
-
California became the first state in the nation Thursday to mandate carbon-based reductions in transportation fuels in an attempt to cut the state's overall greenhouse gas emissions.
The California Air Resources Board approved a phased-in reduction starting in 2011, with a goal of shrinking carbon impacts 10 percent by 2020. Fuel producers could comply in different ways, such as providing a cleaner fuel portfolio, blending low-carbon ethanol with gasoline or purchasing credits from other clean-energy producers.
California's low-carbon fuel standard could lead to a national measure under President Barack Obama, as well as shape how the transportation sector evolves. But businesses and oil industry critics warned that the air board was moving too quickly and that its action would lead to higher costs for consumers in a recessionary economy.
-
Economic development officials in Hardin are looking at the soon-to-close detention facility in Guantanamo Bay as a possible fix for the jail sitting empty in Hardin.
President Barack Obama signed an executive order Jan. 22 to close the Guantanamo detention facilities in Cuba where hundreds of enemy combatants have been held since 2002. The closure is to occur in a year, during which time remaining detainees must be returned to their home countries or detained elsewhere.
Meanwhile, a 460-bed detention facility sits empty in Hardin. Built by Two Rivers Authority, the city's economic development arm, the facility was meant to bring economic development to Hardin by creating more than 100 high-paying jobs.
While leaders continue to look for contracts to open the jail, which was completed in 2007, people in Hardin have approached Two Rivers executive director Greg Smith saying they have the answer: Get the contract to hold those prisoners from Guantanamo.
-
First let's all acknowledge that even the "evil" Bush administration's notion of "torture" is a far cry from what most of us think when we hear that word. There are no beheadings — like terrorists did to Nicholas Berg and Daniel Pearl — no shooting people in kneecaps, and no cutting off fingers one-by-one by with rusty garden shears.
What we're really talking about here is waterboarding and, whether you are morally in favor of it or not, it's far from clear whether that technique qualifies under the law as "torture."
And that's the whole problem: What exactly is "torture"?
-
Several of the foreign leaders who heard the president's apology come from nations that have a documented history of employing the following "enhanced interrogation methods" : electrocution, starvation, dismemberment, genital mutilation, disembowelment, eye-gouging, and beheading. The NKVD, for one example, employed some of these methods not for purposes of interrogation, but for the sake of inflicting pain and destroying the humanity of the victim — thereby crushing the spirit of anyone allied with the victim.
In fact, some of these foreign leaders hail from countries where these "enhanced interrogation methods" aren't mere history, but current practice.
-
There has been a lot of debate on the potential prosecution of Bush Administration officials who offered legal opinions supporting waterboarding — with some even calling for investigations of high-ranking officials like Dick Cheney. However, one thing that hasn't been given the attention it deserves is the precedent it would set if we were to criminalize national security decisions. Hence, I've finally decided to test out the time machine I've been building in my basement – and you would be surprised what sort of things grew out of the current debacle.
-
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton cautioned Israel's right-wing government on Thursday that it risked losing Arab support for fighting any threats from Iran if it shuns Palestinian peace talks.
Signaling U.S. impatience with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's reticence over peace talks, Clinton said Arab nations had made clear to her that Israel must be committed to the Palestinian peace process if it wants help countering Iran.
-
The Treasury Department is preparing a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing for Chrysler that could come as soon as next week, people with direct knowledge of the action said Thursday.
The Treasury has an agreement in principle with the United Automobile Workers union, whose members’ pensions and retiree health care benefits would be protected as a condition of the bankruptcy filing, said these people, who asked for anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case.
-
Porter Goss, former CIA Director and past chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, blasted the Obama administration for releasing Justice Department memos on harsh interrogation techniques. “For the first time in my experience we’ve crossed the red line of properly protecting our national security in order to gain partisan political advantage,†Goss said in an interview.
Goss, a former CIA operative, has made few public comments since leaving his post as DCI in September 2006. In December 2007, he told a Washington Post reporter that members of Congress had been fully briefed on the CIA’s special interrogation program. “Among those being briefed, there was a pretty full understanding of what the CIA was doing,†Goss told the Post. “And the reaction in the room was not just approval, but encouragement.â€
-
But, since then, even while continuing to update his site constantly, Drudge has almost completely disappeared from public life. As far as I can tell, the Clinton event was his only public appearance of the past few years. In September 2007, he gave up his Sunday evening radio show, which had long been his most visible platform. Some of the politicos he once regularly contacted now say he is in touch less frequently. One source relays that, these days, the only media figures he talks to regularly are a select group that includes Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, and Andrew Breitbart, the conservative blogger who has helped run the Drudge Report on a part-time basis. (Also working on the site has been Kevin Lucido, who runs the Vienna, Virginia-based ad firm Intermarkets and sells Drudge's advertising.)
-
Mark down the date. Tuesday, April 21, 2009, is the moment that any chance of a new era of bipartisan respect in Washington ended. By inviting the prosecution of Bush officials for their antiterror legal advice, President Obama has injected a poison into our politics that he and the country will live to regret.
-
Many intelligence officials, including some opposed to the brutal methods, confirm that the program produced information of great value, including tips on early-stage schemes to attack tall buildings on the West Coast and buildings in New York’s financial district and Washington. Interrogation of one Qaeda operative led to tips on finding others, until the leadership of the organization was decimated. Removing from the scene such dedicated and skilled plotters as Mr. Mohammed, or the Indonesian terrorist known as Hambali, almost certainly prevented future attacks.
But which information came from which methods, and whether the same result might have been achieved without the political, legal and moral cost of the torture controversy, is hotly disputed, even inside the intelligence agency.
-
Bob Gainey is asking Montreal Canadiens fans to show some respect.
Less than 24 hours after the American national anthem was greeted by boos at the Bell Centre, the Montreal Canadiens general manager/coach is urging the crowd to avoid jeering the Star Spangled Banner prior to Game 4 of the Habs-Boston Bruins first-round series tomorrow night.
It was an embarrassing act, one that has happened far too often in the past during post-season games here in Montreal.
-
A new Public Policy Polling survey has some interesting findings concerning Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R): While 76% of Republican voters have a favorable opinion of her, 21% say they would rather vote for President Obama if she became the Republican party presidential nominee in 2012.
In a head-to-head match up, Obama would beat Palin, 53% to 41%.
The survey also shows Obama beating Mike Huckabee, 49% to 42%, Newt Gingrich, 52% to 39%, and Mitt Romney, 50% to 39%.
-
President Barack Obama has finished the second leg of his international confession tour. In less than 100 days, he has apologized on three continents for what he views as the sins of America and his predecessors.
Mr. Obama told the French (the French!) that America "has shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive" toward Europe. In Prague, he said America has "a moral responsibility to act" on arms control because only the U.S. had "used a nuclear weapon." In London, he said that decisions about the world financial system were no longer made by "just Roosevelt and Churchill sitting in a room with a brandy" — as if that were a bad thing. And in Latin America, he said the U.S. had not "pursued and sustained engagement with our neighbors" because we "failed to see that our own progress is tied directly to progress throughout the Americas."
-
Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair got it right last week when he noted how easy it is to condemn the enhanced interrogation program "on a bright sunny day in April 2009." Reactions to this former CIA program, which was used against senior al Qaeda suspects in 2002 and 2003, are demonstrating how little President Barack Obama and some Democratic members of Congress understand the dire threats to our nation.
George Tenet, who served as CIA director under Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, believes the enhanced interrogations program saved lives. He told CBS's "60 Minutes" in April 2007: "I know this program alone is worth more than the FBI, the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency put together have been able to tell us."
-
Releasing the Justice memos opened a door and the contents repulsed many people. But these were not evil men who drafted the memos. These were not evil people who carried out the methods authorized by them. They were our fellow citizens who were trying to protect us from the real evildoers.
The president has got a lot on his plate. If his fellow Democrats in Congress want to try to impeach a federal appeals court judge who oversaw the memos and interrogate or prosecute former Justice Department lawyers, an attorney general or two and maybe a former vice president, then the battle will be drawn in the courtroom and in the political arena.
The losers will be us. All of us.
-
When MSNBC's "The Rachel Maddow Show" debuted during the historic campaign of Barack Obama, the program's ratings soared and made its host a breakout star on cable.
But as the president's administration nears its 100-day milestone, Maddow's show — like most cable programs that traffic in political talk and chatter — has seen its numbers cool. March was the lowest-rated month so far for Maddow with her numbers falling from an average high of 1.9 million viewers to just slightly over 1.1 million.
The road to regain viewers would seem an especially challenging one for Maddow. Politics, not to mention television, thrives on conflict, but how much of that will there be with a left-leaning host in a time of a left-leaning president? Maddow isn't worried.
1 Comment »
ABC ‘View’ to co-host Meghan McCain Wants Cheney to ‘Go Away’
Flap wonders when her old man, Senator John McCain, is going to put a sock in her mouth. After all, Mac is being challenged for the first time in years in an an Arizona Republican Primary election. By the way, McCain is already fundraising with internet banner ads for this race.
Flap won’t be contributing.
Again, Meghan serves as a clueless tool of the LEFT while alienating the base of the Republican Party. And, insults her dad’s close friend Rudy Giuliani over his position on gay marriage who refused to run negative attack ads against her father. Real class, Meghan.
Let’s see if Meghan can insult any other Republicans. I think Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee may be the only ones left.
Technorati Tags: Meghan McCain, John McCain, Rudy Giuliani, Gay Marriage
Tags: Gay Marriage, John McCain, Meghan McCain, Rudy Giuliani
1 Comment »
Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was briefed on waterboarding or an enhanced interrogation technique in 2002.
Nancy Pelosi denies knowing U.S. officials used waterboarding — but GOP operatives are pointing to a 2007 Washington Post story which describes an hour-ong 2002 briefing in which Pelosi was told about enhanced interrogation techniques in graphic detail.
Two unnamed officials told the paper that Pelosi, then a member of the Democratic minority, didn’t raise substantial objections.
Joby Warrick and Dan Eggen wrote:
In September 2002, four members of Congress met in secret for a first look at a unique CIA program designed to wring vital information from reticent terrorism suspects in U.S. custody. For more than an hour, the bipartisan group, which included current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), was given a virtual tour of the CIA’s overseas detention sites and the harsh techniques interrogators had devised to try to make their prisoners talk.
Among the techniques described, said two officials present, was waterboarding, a practice that years later would be condemned as torture by Democrats and some Republicans on Capitol Hill. But on that day, no objections were raised. Instead, at least two lawmakers in the room asked the CIA to push harder, two U.S. officials said.
But, Speaker Pelosi today denied that she knew anything about waterboarding.
Pelosi says she was briefed by Bush administration officials on the legal justification for using waterboarding — but that they never followed through on promises to inform her when they actually began using “enhanced” interrogation techniques
“In that or any other briefing…we were not, and I repeat, we’re not told that waterboarding or any of these other enhanced interrogation techniques were used. What they did tell us is that they had some legislative counsel … opinions that they could be used,” she told reporters today.
Earlier, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) criticized Pelosi and other Democratic leaders for backing probes into the use of waterboarding — after failing to raise objections during briefings on its potential use.
“Well, yesterday I saw a partial list of the number of members of the House and Senate, Democrats and Republicans, who were briefed on these interrogation methods and not a word was raised at the time, not one word,” Boehner told reporters at his weekly news availability.
“And I think you’re going to hear more and more about the bigger picture here, that what — the war on terror after 9/11 was done in a bipartisan basis on lots of fronts. And that bigger story will be coming out,” he added.
So, California Democrat Representative Nancy Pelosi WAS present in “classified” briefings regarding waterbboarding and enhanced interrogation techniques and did NOT raise any objection.
Why?
Because she was not able to discuss the classified material with her staff? Or, she was “hamstrung” by confidentiality requirements?
Oh please!
This sounds like a pretty lame excuse. She acquiesced in the use of enhanced interrogation techniques because she as were others scared of another attack on the United States. Pelosi looked the other way lest she be blamed for another homeland attack.
Who is she trying to fool?
Technorati Tags: CIA, Nancy Pelosi, Waterboarding
Tags: CIA, Nancy Pelosi, Waterboarding
4 Comments »
Bill O’Reilly responds to Janeane Garofalo’s comments on teabaggers by blaming GE and NBC
Bill O’Reilly Show and Fox News Producer Jesse Waters ambush General Electric Executives at annual stockholder meeting again this year.
The hostility between Fox News Channel and MSNBC reached a fever pitch Wednesday when a Fox producer infiltrated the GE shareholders meeting.
Just before GE re-elected board members, company brass were hit with questions from shareholders critical of an alleged leftward political slant at MSNBC.
But one of those questions came from Jesse Waters, a producer on “The O’Reilly Factor” whose criticisms were cut short when his microphone was cut off, according to several attendees. Waters apparently did not publicly identify himself as a Fox employee.
Waters has built a reputation as an ambush interviewer, specializing in on-the-street confrontations. But this is arguably the boldest move by a Fox newsie to utilize the tactic inside their chief rival’s tent, as it were.
O’Reilly and MSNBC anchor Keith Olbermann have been involved in a running feud for several years, but the pissing match between the two has of late started to envelope other parts of the News Corp. and GE empires.
GE pointed out that Waters had Fox News cameras waiting outside the Orlando meeting.
Attendees who spoke to The Hollywood Reporter said shareholders asked about 10 politically charged questions concerning MSNBC as well as one about CNBC.
It should be noted that Jesse Waters is a shareholder of General Electric and asked questions last year at the annual meeting. Apparently, the shareholders were upset with MSNBC because of its leftward lean politically.
When he got the floor, Waters focused his question about MSNBC on Olbermann’s interview of actress Janeane Garofalo, who likened conservatives to racists and spoke of “the limbic brain inside a right-winger.”
“He (Waters) was complaining that Olbermann didn’t bother to challenge her,” another GE shareholder said.
Immelt told the assembled he takes a hands-off approach to what is reported on the company’s news networks, which prompted a shareholder to criticize him for not managing NBC Uni more effectively.
But, it is not just MSNBC’s talking heads that are ALL LEFT all of the time. The NBC News division both national and Los Angeles are filled with left-leaning stories, interviews and personalities.
So, are the GE shareholders worried about the sinking of the once mighty General Electric Corporation?
I wouldn’t own their stock.
Update:
Here is the audio of Jesse Water’s asking his question. Note the applause and the boos that follow Immelt’s response.
Technorati Tags: Bill O’Reilly, Jesse Waters, Fox News, MSNBC, Jeffery Immelt
Tags: Bill O'Reilly, Fox News, Jeffery Immelt, Jesse Waters, MSNBC
3 Comments »
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin greets supports before giving a speech at the Vanderburgh County Right to Life fundraising dinner in Evansville, Ind., Thursday, April 16, 2009
As Jim Geraghty remarks: How dare Sarah Palin give a speech in Indiana.
The Governor’s response:
The Office of the Governor today expressed outrage that yet another baseless ethics complaint has been filed as part of an alarming new development in Alaska politics.
“In the past several months, we have seen an orchestrated effort by the governor’s opponents to make differences of opinion and ideology almost criminal,†said Mike Nizich, the governor’s chief of staff. “Governor Palin has spent a considerable amount of time and money fighting ethics complaints – and no charge has been substantiated. I hope that the publicity-seekers will face a backlash from Alaskans who have a sense of fair play and proportion. I served six previous governors, and I’ve never seen anything like the attacks against Governor Palin.â€
The latest ethics complaint against the governor alleges that she entered into a “contract†outside of her official duties in regard to a political action committee and that her recent trip to Indiana also conflicted with those duties.
“These allegations are categorically false and ridiculous, and are an abuse of the Executive Ethics Act,†Nizich said.
“We are blessed to live in a democracy in which everyone has the right to free speech, to petition their lawmakers, to vote, to run for office and, yes, to allege misconduct by public officials,†said Bill McAllister, the governor’s communications director. “But obviously the purpose of this complaint and the previous ones is to distract the administration and the public, and to paralyze the Department of Law and the executive branch.
“There’s a core hypocrisy in nearly all of the ethics complaints brought against the governor, including this one. The ethics act clearly states that complaints, when filed, are to be confidential. Ms. Tompkins publicized her filing on several blogs, breaking the letter and the spirit of the law. While there are no penalties in the statute for this illegal behavior, Alaskans of all political persuasions should be appalled that the people who are alleging unethical behavior by the governor are repeatedly doing so unethically.â€
The relevant section of the ethics act follows:
“Sec. 39.52.340. Confidentiality. (a) Except as provided in AS 39.52.335, before the initiation of formal proceedings under AS 39.52.350, the complaint and all other documents and information regarding an investigation conducted under this chapter or obtained by the attorney general during the investigation are confidential and not subject to inspection by the public. In the case of a complaint concerning the governor, lieutenant governor, or attorney general, all meetings of the personnel board concerning the complaint and investigation before the determination of probable cause are closed to the public. … The attorney general and all persons contacted during the course of an investigation shall maintain confidentiality regarding the existence of the investigation.â€
Under the Legislative Ethics Act, publicizing an ethics complaint against a lawmaker would result in the automatic dismissal of that complaint. The Executive Ethics Act does not contain that provision.
While the latest complaint concerns 36 hours that the governor spent out of state this month, her opponents have spent months filing ethics complaints and records requests in a volume that constitutes a pattern of harassment and that has negatively impacted the Department of Law, McAllister said.
He noted that the governor left Alaska only twice during the recently completed legislative session — for a total of just four days, including travel time — and that during both trips she conducted state government business.
“Governor Palin hasn’t done anything that any other governor in the nation hasn’t done,†McAllister said. “I hope Alaskans can see through this stunt.â€
Folks are still going after her – six months after the election.
I guess this speaks volumes to Palin’s potential in and out of Alaska.
Technorati Tags: Sarah Palin
Tags: Sarah Palin
2 Comments »
The latest polling in unfavorable to the Obama Administration recently releasing previously classified CIA memos regarding enhanced interrogation techniques used during the Bush Administration.
Fifty-eight percent (58%) believe the Obama administration’s recent release of CIA memos about the harsh interrogation methods used on terrorism suspects endangers the national security of the United States. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 28% believe the release of the memos helps America’s image abroad.
Sizable majorities of Republicans and unaffiliated voters say the release of the CIA memos about the interrogations hurts national security. Democrats are evenly divided on whether the release hurt national security or helped the image of the United States abroad.
Seventy-seven percent (77%) of all voters say they have followed news reports about the release of the CIA memos detailing Bush administration interrogation techniques at least somewhat closely. Only six percent (6%) say they have not followed the reports at all.
On the subject of torture which underlines the issue of the CIA memos:
Among all voters, 42% say terrorism suspects were tortured by the United States, but 37% disagree. The number who believe America used torture is unchanged from October 2007.
Most Democrats (54%) and a plurality of unaffiliated voters (46%) believe the United States did torture terrorism suspects. Fifty-five percent (55%) of GOP voters do not believe torture was used.
Only 28% of U.S. voters think the Obama administration should do any further investigating of how the Bush administration treated terrorism suspects.
There appears to be considerable risk to the Obama Administration by releasing the CIA Memos. And, now, former Vice President Cheney and others are calling for a full declassification and release of CIA memos that show the success of the enhanced interrrogation methods.
A full and thorough public investigtion of the issues raised by the enhanced interrogation program would be the most appropriate here as well as an investigation as to whether President Obama has further endangered Americans national security during his Presidency.
Technorati Tags: Barack Obama, CIA, Enhanced Interrogation Techniques
Tags: Barack Obama, CIA, Enhanced Interrogation Techniques
10 Comments »
|
Entries (RSS)