Okay everyone, one, two three...
Hi George!MercuryNews.com 01/19/2006 Feds after Google data: "Feds after Google dataBy Howard MintzMercury NewsThe Bush administration on Wednesday asked a federal judge to order Google to turn over a broad range of material from its closely guarded databases.The move is part of a government effort to revive an Internet child protection law struck down two years ago by the U.S. Supreme Court. The law was meant to punish online pornography sites that make their content accessible to minors. The government contends it needs the Google data to determine how often pornography shows up in online searches.In court papers filed in U.S. District Court in San Jose, Justice Department lawyers revealed that Google has refused to comply with a subpoena issued last year for the records, which include a request for 1 million random Web addresses and records of all Google searches from any one-week period.The Mountain View-based search and advertising giant opposes releasing the information on a variety of grounds, saying it would violate the privacy rights of its users and reveal company trade secrets, according to court documents.Nicole Wong, an associate general counsel for Google, said the company will fight the government's effort ``vigorously.''``Google is not a party to this lawsuit, and the demand for the information is overreaching,'' Wong said.The case worries privacy advocates, given the vast amount of information Google and other search engines know about their users.``This is exactly the kind of case that privacy advocates have long feared,'' said Ray Everett-Church, a South Bay privacy consultant. ``The idea that these massive databases are being thrown open to anyone with a court document is the worst-case scenario. If they lose this fight, consumers will think twice about letting Google deep into their lives.''Everett-Church, who has consult"
Now here's some good planning: a new Ottoman empire
Things to do today:
- become president
- allow 9/11 to happen
- use it as a pretext to invade Iraq
- oops, no WMD
- oops, no 9/11 connection
- So.... we'll bring democracy to Iraq.
- After three years of occupation and brutality, Iraqis voted for a shiite theocracy? Go figure.
- Now that we've set up an Iran-friendly Iraq, let's attack Iran.
World Peace Herald
Do they work at being stupid or does it come naturally? They're making us safe by uniting Tehran and Baghdad into a new Otttoman empire, focused on us.
I am not a Male Nanny
Very good article from the perspective of a stay-at-home dad.
http://lifestyle.msn.com/FamilyandParenting/RaisingKids/Article.aspx?cp-documentid=133134>1=7461
Okay, now it's a conspiracy.
The Washington Post yesterday published an article indicating that Assistant Managing Editor Bob Woodward was informed of Plame's identity in Mid-June 2003. Raw Story identifies the source of this leak as National Security adviser Stephen Hadley.
This is a big deal.
Why? Because It provides iron-clad proof of conspiracy among top administration officials. These smart guys didn't all decide to do something as stupid as this independently. They wouldn't have done it unless they were ordered to do so by someone really vindictive and dumb.
The Raw Story National Security Adviser was Woodward's source, attorneys sayCheney and Rove, they're coming for you.
The timelineThe Wayne Madsen Report has published a compelling explanation of why there was such an overreaction to Wilson's OP-ed.
November 11, 2005 -- New aspect of Valerie Plame/Brewster Jennings exposure revealed. According to U.S. intelligence sources, the White House exposure of Valerie Plame and her Brewster Jennings & Associates was intended to retaliate against the CIA's work in limiting the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. WMR has reported in the past on this aspect of the scandal. In addition to identifying the involvement of individuals in the White House who were close to key players in nuclear proliferation, the CIA Counter-Proliferation Division prevented the shipment of binary VX nerve gas from Turkey into Iraq in November 2002. The Brewster Jennings network in Turkey was able to intercept this shipment which was intended to be hidden in Iraq and later used as evidence that Saddam Hussein was in possession of weapons of mass destruction. U.S. intelligence sources revealed that this was a major reason the Bush White House targeted Plame and her network.
In fact, U.S. intelligence sources report that the first shipment of VX nerve gas to Saddam Hussein was carried out between 1988 and 1989. The gas was shipped to Iraq by a U.S. company that was established in 1987 -- The Carlyle Group.
Plame was outed for the purpose of shutting down Brewster-Jennings because they intercepted the WMD that was intended to be the smoking gun in Iraq.
Why the Iraq quagmire is no Vietnam
From Asia Times.Iraq is a mess, but not because the opposition is well-organized.
HANOI - Is Iraq another Vietnam? Tran Dac Loi should know. The secretary general of the Vietnam Peace and Development Foundation grew up in Hanoi dodging bombs dropped by the United States Air Force, while his father fought in the successful guerrilla war in the country's Central Highlands.
Three decades later, Tran, now an important figure in the ideological wing of Vietnam's communist government, has some thoughts on the Iraqi resistance.
"Our struggle was well organized," Tran said in an IPS interview. "We had an address and official contacts, but with Iraq you never know who the resistance is and what their objectives are."
Pointing to what he sees as a serious flaw in the Iraqi resistance, he added, "Sure, the fighters all want the Americans out, but there's no unifying political program."
This lack of an organized resistance is a good thing for the US, but it certainly doesn't help the process of nation building.
Tran thinks that the lack of a pan-ethnic political program can cause minority groups to ally with the occupier in order to ensure that their cultural rights are protected. In Iraq, this has caused the Kurds, and their more than 100,000 guerrillas, to side with the US.
"The absence of a clear political program is in the interest of the US," Tran said. "Then, they [the US] can go above you and pretend like they're solving the problems between you, when really they're lording over you."
While the occupying forces took care to ban the secularist Ba'ath Party - which continues to function through independent cells within Iraq and through exiles in Syria and Jordan - the party has not been able to earn the trust of minority groups.
It is a classic case of divide and rule. Indeed, from the start of the occupation, the US government actively encouraged the Iraqi people to organize themselves along sectarian lines. The US administration even hired a company, Research Triangle Institute (RTI), and charged it with selecting local governments based solely on the ethnic make-up in each of Iraq's regions. In March 2003, RTI was awarded a contract worth US$466 million to create 180 local and provincial governments in Iraq and obtain wide public participation in a new political process, but government auditors pointed out irregularities.
So, early on, the choice was to bring democracy to Iraq, or to encourage and retain splintered factions.
Implicit in that choice was early-on decision the that we're not going home.
The Daily World letter: where's our outrage?
Whe're's our sense of outrage.:
"The last five years have desensitized Americans. In 2000, few believed that the United States was vulnerable to systematic vote theft. However, it was later (quietly) determined that Al Gore did in fact get more votes than George W. Bush in Florida — as he did nationwide. Further, the Government Accountability Office has determined that we “rely on voting systems that were not developed, acquired, tested, operated or managed in accordance with rigorous security and reliability standards.” The vulnerability of these systems “affect the reliability of elections.”
Chalk two up for the conspiracy theorists.
In 2002, war critics were ridiculed for suggesting that Bush was illegitimately picking a fight with Iraq. Later, when rumors surfaced of widespread use of torture, the conspiracy theorists again took abuse.
History vindicates them too.
Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, a captured al-Qaida official, was a ( maybe the) primary source of intelligence that Saddam was training al-Qaida terrorists in the use of Iraq’s (obviously nonexistent) Weapons of Mass Destruction. According to the New York Times, in February 2002, U.S. interrogators informed the administration that al-Libi was a “fabricator” and that his story was not credible.
Nevertheless, Bush subsequently used al-Libi’s stories as the cornerstone of his claims that al-Qaida and Saddam were linked.
Incredibly enough, there’s more to the story. According to Newsweek, al-Libi was one of the first subjects of Dick Cheney’s CIA-run global torture network. Intelligence gained through torture is unreliable? Go figure.
Bush ran for office on a promise to “return honor and dignity to the White House.” What did we get?
Bush used the office to sell an unnecessary war on the basis of torture-induced confessions that he knew to be fabrications.
It’s a trifecta of evil. A bases-loaded home run of malevolence. A couple of years ago that was considered crazy talk, slanderous, treasonous, outrageous and dangerous conspiracy theories. Today, it’s a source of mild concern, perhaps even some modest disapproval, because it’s inescapably true.
My unofficial count is: Conspiracy theorists — 4, Bush apologists — 0.
On Monday, George Bush stated unequivocally that “We do not torture.” Simultaneously, his vice president is twisting arms to coerce Congress into defeating a law that forbids torture.
My suggestion to the press is to use the accurate verb for this kind of misstatement and the appropriate noun to describe one who says it: “lie” and “liar.”
What happened to American outrage? Our tolerance level is far too high.
U.S. Newswire : Releases : "Veterans Lash Out at Loss of Voice on Capitol Hill"
Happy Veterans Day, from your friendly Republican party.
WASHINGTON, Nov. 10 /U.S. Newswire/ -- A proposal to end the long-standing practice of veterans groups addressing a joint session of the House and Senate Veterans' Affairs Committees is an insult to all who have fought, sacrificed and died to defend the Constitution, according to the Disabled American Veterans (DAV). And in a strongly worded letter to House Veterans' Affairs Committee Chairman Steve Buyer (R-Ind.), the DAV has urged him to continue the joint hearings as an invaluable tool in formulating public policy toward America's veterans.
Chairman Buyer recently announced that veterans service organizations will no longer have the opportunity to present testimony before a joint hearing of the House and Senate Veterans' Affairs Committees.
"The tradition of legislative presentations by veterans service organizations dates back to at least the 1950s. And the timing of this announcement -- just before Veterans Day -- could not have been worse," said DAV National Commander Paul W. Jackson.
My dad belonged to the DAV for 50 years. American veterans are not just another special interest group, and the very least our elected officals can do is to listen to them.
Iran war already begun? Scott Ritter speaks.
According to Aljazeera, Scott Ritter is claiming that the US is conducting manned and unmanned overflights of Iran, and has enlisted the help of the Saddam's former intelligence services (MEK) to conduct a series of terrorist bombings in Iran.
Aljazeera.Net - The US war with Iran has already begun
