U.S. urged to do more to help Sudan: "WASHINGTON -- A bipartisan group of lawmakers yesterday called for a more forceful U.S. response to the genocide in Sudan, saying a failure to act would accelerate killings in the Darfur region where 70,000 have already died.

'We have to move quickly, or three years from now, we'll be sitting around saying, 'Gee, how did half a million people die in Sudan while we were sitting on the sidelines?' ' said Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash.

'I've seen a lot of things in my life, but nothing prepares you for what we saw in this rather rapid trip through Chad and Sudan,' McDermott said."

(Via Google News.)

The Globe and Mail: No celebration as target met in AIDS battle: "A bold United Nations plan to get three million people with HIV-AIDS treated with drug cocktails by the end of 2005, which has been widely dismissed as a pipe dream, is on target to meet its goal.

More than 700,000 people in developing countries are receiving treatment under the '3 by 5' plan, the milestone that had been set for the end of 2004. And with many programs now beginning in earnest, the numbers are growing rapidly."

...

"It costs about $2,000 a year to provide anti-retroviral drugs and related treatment to a person with HIV-AIDS in the developing world. Of that total cost, about $400 goes to acquiring the drugs.

Those drugs costs could fall even further. This week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a number of generic drugs by Aspen Pharmacare of South Africa. That means the U.S. part of the initiative can now purchase cheaper generic (rather than brand-name drugs) from big pharmaceutical companies."

(Via Google News.)

IraqWar: All about IraqWar. News from Iraq: IraqWar and politics, economy.: "01/26/05 'Asia Times' - History will salute it in kind: the US administration of George W Bush, parts 1 and 2, has introduced to the world the concept of election at gunpoint. The guinea pig: Iraq, on January 30. The rules: candidates must be anonymous (otherwise they will be killed). Voters cannot go out and vote (otherwise they may be killed). Even if they wanted to vote, they wouldn't know where, because the location of the polling stations will be known only the night before the election.

Of 1 million eligible expatriate voters, only 10% will actually vote. There are no Sunni Arab candidates (in part because the US military killed - or jailed - many Sunni party and tribal leaders). For any Iraqi in Jordan, Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia or Turkey, it will be impossible to cross the border and vote: borders will be closed for three days. Inside Iraq there will be curfews - and even traffic will be blocked. Half of all candidates have already withdrawn. And there will be no international monitors. As the names of the roughly 7,700 candidates on 80 party coalition lists are still unknown on the eve of polling day, no wonder the word on Baghdad's streets is that 'the Americans gave us the first secret elections in history'. "

(Via IraqWar.)

LewRockwell.com Blog: Bush Gives Evangelicals “The Cheney”: "But it appears that George Bush has had the last laugh. This morning, Air America chose inauguration day to ‘out’ Ken Mehlman, the new chairman of the RNC, as a homosexual. If this allegation is true, the symbolic message that Bush is sending to the millions of evangelical voters who made the difference for his reelection could not be clearer: ‘shove off.’ (Bush had already personally insisted on naming Joann Davidson, a member of the advisory board of Republicans for Choice, as the RNC co-chairman.)"

Now they know how we feel.

(Via Lew Rockwell.)

LewRockwell.com Blog: More evidence that US military is lying about downing of helicopter: "The correspondent for Mafkarat al-Islam reported eyewitnesses as saying that Iraqi Resistance forces fired a SAM7 rocket, bringing down a US helicopter over the city of ar-Rutbah, 460km west of Baghdad at 7am Wednesday. The helicopter had been on its way to the village of Makr adh-Dhib, which lies near the city. The correspondent explained that American forces habitually carry out helicopter-borne landings in that area to raid and search houses and arrest people. It is nearly impossible for them to go by land to the village because the Resistance controls the countryside, so they must resort to helicopter-born assaults."

(Via LewRockwell.com Blog.)

Boston.com / News / Nation / Rumsfeld adviser says he will step down: "WASHINGTON -- Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's top policy adviser said yesterday that he has informed Rumsfeld that he will leave his Pentagon position some time this summer.

Douglas J. Feith, the undersecretary of defense for policy and a driving force behind the Bush administration's strategy for fighting the global war on terrorism, said in an interview that he had decided it was time he devoted more time to his family. He has four children.

He offered no resignation date and said he was leaving on his own terms."

(Via The Boston Globe.)

What’s the Argument for Democracy? by David Gordon: "Though it is easy to characterize democracy, recent political theory has been marked by a conspicuous omission. Virtually no argument is ever offered to support the desirability of representative democracy, and the little that is available seems distressingly weak. Why ought democracy to be either instituted or promoted, let alone exported, as a recent book by Joshua Muravchik (Exporting Democracy) advocates? One would think that as important a question as that of the best political system would have generated an enormous literature. In point of fact, most writing on the subject simply takes for granted the desirability of democracy and inquires how existing democracies may be improved. The issue of whether democracy is a 'good thing' is not thought worth raising."

(Via Lew Rockwell.)

U.S. forces threatened defence personnel over prisoner abuse, memos show : SF Indymedia: "SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) - U.S. special forces accused of abusing prisoners in Iraq threatened Defence Intelligence Agency personnel who saw the mistreatment and once confiscated photos of a prisoner who had been punched in the face, according to U.S. government memos released Tuesday by the American Civil Liberties Union.

The special forces also monitored e-mails sent by defence personnel and ordered them 'not to talk to anyone' in the United States about what they saw, said one memo written by the DIA chief, Vice-Admiral Lowell Jacoby, who complained to his Pentagon bosses about the harassment.

Prisoners arriving at a detention centre in Baghdad had 'burn marks on their backs' as well as bruises and some complained of kidney pain, according to the June 25, 2004 memo. "

(Via IndyMedia.)

The New York Times > Washington > Senate Panel Approves Gonzales on a Party-Line Vote: "WASHINGTON, Jan. 26 - The Senate Judiciary Committee, divided along party lines over questions of torture and accountability, voted 10 to 8 on Wednesday in favor of Alberto R. Gonzales's nomination as the nation's 80th attorney general.

The vote was much closer than expected, as all eight Democrats on the panel voted against Mr. Gonzales. Several Democrats who had indicated their support for Mr. Gonzales when President Bush first nominated him in November called Mr. Gonzales on Tuesday to say they would oppose him."

Cons:

• Fuck.
• Double fuck.

Pros:

• At least the Dems are starting to hold their ground. Maybe only because they have nothing (else) to lose at this point...

(Via NY Times.)

US prepares for dealing with failed States- The Times of India: "WASHINGTON: The US has drafted terms for an ambitious reshaping of its forces that would put less emphasis on waging conventional warfare and more on dealing with insurgencies, terrorist networks, failed states and other non-traditional threats, American defence officials said.

The proposed shift in strategic focus stems partly from a recognition that US forces were inadequately prepared for the insurgency in Iraq and the wider hunt for terrorists around the world. But officials said it also grows out of a heightened perception of other potential threats. "

(Via The Times of India.)

ElBaradei to get Third Term: "Over the weekend, Dafna Linzer at the Washington Post reported that ‘all 15 countries approached by U.S. diplomats—including Britain, Canada and Australia—refused to support’ Washington’s efforts to deny Mohamad ElBaradei a third as IAEA Director General. ‘Everyone turned us down, even the Brits,’ one U.S. policymaker plaintively told The Post. Apparently, wiretaps and subtle racism just don’t go as far as they did when Nixon was president."

(Via ArmsControlWonk.com.)

Lying About Iraq. Again.: "The boys get their lies all worked out in advance.

Anyway, things I would add to Dave’s [here] article:

1. The Bush administration line that ‘Iraq had no weapons, but they had programs’ implies that Saddam was on the verge of churning out weapons. Dan Bartlett told Wolf Blitzer that Saddam ‘had the capabilities to produce weapons of mass destruction on a moment’s notice.’
Bull. shit. Read Dave’s summary of Duelfer Report (or my modest contribution was in ACT a few months back ). Suffice to say, Iraq had no nuclear or biological weapons programs, either. No weapons, no programs.
2. Little has been written about the ongoing monitoring and verification mechanisms that would have been remained on Iraq even were sanctions lifted. The idea that lifting sanctions would force us to trust Saddam is another lie. (We asked super-dove David Kay about this in an interview.)
3. Bush et al do not get to change the justification for the war without also admitting that they lied to the public about the jutification for war. Why? Because the decision to go the UN meant that Saddam would stay in power if he complied with the resolution, tyranny and all. Therefore, regime change and disarmament through the UN were mutually exclusive."

(Via ArmsControlWonk.com.)

Mame Reiley and Don Beyer Endorse Dean for DNC Chair: "Democracy for America announced tonight that Mame Reiley, chair of the DNC Women's Caucus and a DNC voting member from Virginia, has endorsed Howard Dean for DNC Chair."

(Via Democracy for Virginia.)

Shills, Paid and Unpaid by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.: "But if it doesn't turn out right, these paid intellectuals can always repudiate what they said or did: after all, they were paid to take the position they did. One is reminded of the interesting experiment in social psychology conducted by Festinger and Carlsmith in 1959. They found that the more people were paid to say things they don't believe, the more likely these people will be to repudiate the opinions later. On the other hand, those people who are induced to lie without personal benefit are more likely to stick to their opinions. In other words, it's not those who lie for money we should worry about it; it's those who lie for free who are the real danger.

Which raises a question more profound than why Gallaghar and Williams did what they did: what excuse do the rest of the Republican intellectuals have for their behavior? Day after day, they crank out the most absurd articles and treatises in defense of the indefensible so long as it is being pushed by the Bush administration. They wallow in their hatred of what they consider leftism even as they work to build a state with the size and power that hardly any leftist in the country would call for or even welcome. Those of us who were embarrassed by the slavish tendencies of the left in the 1990s to defend Clinton were unprepared to see the same behavior on the right, but with far more intensity."

(Via Lew Rockwell.)

HB2921: VA House Attempts to Ban Adoption by Gays and Lesbians: "In another example of the extraordinary extremist actions of some of the majority members of our Commonwealth's legislative bodies, last minute legislation has been introduced in the Virginia House to make adoption by gays and lesbians illegal in Virginia.  The text of the bill can be found by following this link:

HB 2921 Prohibits adoptions by homosexuals. http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?051+sum+HB2921

This not only applies to adoption applications by couples made jointly, but also by adoptions of new partners of parents that wish to complete their family legally through adoption. 

This should anger all of us, but it is particularly despicable to me as an adoptive parent.  It is absolutely unacceptable to think that I would be able to adopt while other qualified loving adults would not -- for a totally arbitrary reason.  This is outrageous and flies in the face of decency and common sense.  This is a hateful crowd that would rather see children not receive permanent homes than place them with a loving parent that happens to be a gay or lesbian."

(Via Democracy for Virginia.)

The Nation | Blog | The Daily Outrage | GOP TV | Ari Berman: "These two charts (here and here) by Media Matters deserve more attention, for they overwhelmingly refute the ridiculous notion of 'liberal media' dominance on cable TV news. Here are the explosive findings: During inauguration day coverage, Republicans and conservatives outnumbered progressives nineteen to seven on Fox, ten to one on CNN and thirteen to two on MSNBC. On prime-time, the trend continued. Conservatives outnumbered liberals twenty-five to four on Fox News, seven to one on CNN and nine to five on MSNBC. When the occasional Democrat did actually appear, he or she was usually paired against a rival Republican, whereas most conservatives appeared solo or with fellow ideologues. Even a panel discussion with CNN's Carlos Watson included four Republicans, and only one Democrat and one swing voter."

(Via The Nation Weblogs.)

Jan 26, 2005: Find a real solution: "Yesterday, George W. Bush called a 'select' group of African American leaders to the White House to discuss, among other things, Social Security reform. His goal: convince them that their Social Security plan would somehow make up for the fact that blacks have shorter life spans.

'African-American males have a have had a [sic] shorter life span than other sectors of America,' said White House press secretary Scott McClellan. 'And this will enable them to build a nest egg of their own and be able to pass that nest egg on to their survivors.'"

?? !!

(Via DNC: Kicking Ass.)

Taipei Times - US budget deficit pushes toward a record US$427bn: "Military costs in Afghanistan and Iraq are driving the deficit to a point that is unnerving economists, but the White House says it 'has a plan' "

A plan! Whew! I was worried there for a sec.

(Via Google News.)

ABC News: UK's Ex-Guantanamo Inmates Freed Without Charge: "LONDON (Reuters) - The last four Britons freed from the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay are to be reunited with their families on Wednesday after British police released them without charge.

A London police spokesman said the four Muslims held without trial at Guantanamo for three years %u2014 Feroz Abbasi, Moazzam Begg, Richard Belmar and Martin Mubanga %u2014 were freed after talks with public prosecutors.

The former detainees, their families and lawyers made no immediate comment on their release, but campaign groups said their arrest on their return to Britain was a gesture to appease the U.S. government."

(Via Google News.)

DoD News: DoD Announces Departure of Undersecretary Douglas Feith: "Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas J. Feith announced today that he would leave his position this summer. As he has informed Secretary Rumsfeld, Mr. Feith made his decision for personal and family reasons.

Managing an organization of approximately 1,500 persons, Mr. Feith also represents the Department in interagency policy making on national security affairs."

(Via Google News.)

CNN.com - Bush: Pundit payments will stop - Jan 26, 2005: "On Wednesday, Washington Post media critic and CNN host Howard Kurtz reported that in 2002 syndicated columnist Maggie Gallagher 'repeatedly defended President Bush's push for a $300 million initiative encouraging marriage as a way of strengthening families,' without mentioning she 'had a $21,500 contract with the Department of Health and Human Services to help promote the president's proposal.'"

(Via Google News.)

Iraq News and Links: "Bin Laden's intervention in Iraq was hamfisted and clumsy, and will benefit the United States and the Shiites enormously. Most Iraqi Muslims, Sunni or Shiite, dislike the Wahhabi branch of Islam prevalent in Saudi Arabia, and with which Bin Laden is associated. Nationalistic Iraqis will object to a foreigner interfering in their national affairs. Zarqawi is widely hated in Iraq because the operations of his group often kill innocent Iraqis as opposed to American troops. The Shiites in particular despise Zarqawi, and are aware of his hopes of provoking a Sunni-Shiite bloodbath in Iraq. (The muted Shiite response to the US assault on Fallujah in November and December derived in large part from a conviction that the city had become a base for Zarqawi and like-minded Salafi terrorists)."

(Via Iraq Enterprise: News and Links.)

The Globe and Mail: 'Will the world ever learn?': "In New York yesterday, author Elie Wiesel, one of a dwindling number of survivors of the Nazi death camps, was delivering the first major speech the United Nations had ever agreed to hear in commemoration of the deaths of six million Jews. His hopeful words were tempered by what he described as 'the silence and indifference of the world' through most of the past 60 years.

'But the question is,' he concluded, 'will the world ever learn?'

At about the same moment, in the German city of Dresden, a dozen members of the far-right NPD party stormed out of the state legislature. They were refusing to recognize a moment of silence that was being held to mark the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp by Soviet troops on Jan. 27, 1945.

As that was taking place, 20 parliamentarians from right-wing and Communist parties in Russia were issuing a press release calling for 'the prohibition in our country of all religious and ethnic Jewish organizations,' on the grounds that Jews are unpatriotic and responsible for a number of social ills, including anti-Semitism.

The world, it seemed, has not entirely learned."

(Via Google News.)

CNN: "The Washington Post reported on the unit Sunday. Members of the Senate Armed Services and Intelligence committees said they had not been aware of the unit's existence, and one Democrat on the Intelligence Committee called for hearings into the matter by that panel.

'According to the Washington Post, the Department of Defense is changing the guidelines with respect to oversight and notification of Congress by military intelligence. Is this true or false?' Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat, said in a written statement."

(Via Google News.)

Get'em While They're Young || kuro5hin.org: "Do kids really have a thorough enough grasp of the issues to be for Kerry? Is it not troublesome that Jerry Falwell is gleefully asserting that 'I am the Pied Piper', whilst proselytizing to hundreds of thousands of children via email lists, using addresses collected en masse from church youth groups? Nay, strap the children down, tape their eyes open, and let the enlightenment begin, for procrastination will lead to missed opportunities. Children ages 5-12 are at their ripest. These are the golden years when it comes to imbuing humans with value systems they are apt to carry for a life time, so stamp them out like so many coins on a press, for they will one day be your currency at the voting booths."

(Via k5.)

Defense Tech: BOSTON BIO-BOTCH: GET READY FOR MORE: "Boston was only the beginning. With so many biodefense labs being built across the country, you can expect to see more news like the weekend's revelation that three Boston University lab workers were infected with tularemia, or rabbit fever.

Since the 2001 anthrax attacks, the federal government has been pouring money into labs that research the deadliest of bioagents. 'Currently there are four [maximum security] Biosafety Level 4 laboratories nationwide, with six more planned,' the New York Times notes. '50 laboratories operate at Biosafety Level 3, sufficient to work with anthrax, and 19 more are planned at universities and government institutions, according to the Sunshine Project, a Texas group that is tracking the growth.'

With these labs flowering so quickly, 'hundreds of inexperienced researchers [are being drawn] into work with hazardous organisms,' the Times adds. Security is being compromised, as a result. "

...

"Now, all of this might be perfectly acceptable, if these labs were really helping to save lives. But that's a questionable proposition, at best. Because many of the agents being investigated at these labs are only marginal threats to public health."

(Via a DefenseTech.)

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists | Web Log: Australian nuke waste U.S.-bound: "As if the United States didn’t have enough of its own nuclear waste problems, late last year it agreed to become the dumping ground for some of Australia's high-level nuclear waste, according to the Australian.

U.S. officials agreed to store the spent-fuel rods produced at a new Australian nuclear research reactor during the next 10 years, according to the paper. Australia now operates one nuclear research reactor, but the Australian government is hoping to open a new reactor, and the U.S. deal could smooth the way to its licensing."

(Via Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists | Web Log.)

Bush's "dirty war" | thebulletin.org: "Apparently content with the theory that Bush's imperial screed would insulate them from future prosecution for violations of international humanitarian law, the president's men set about killing and capturing Al Qaeda and possibly other terrorists and stashing them in a clandestine network of lockups at various sites around the globe, where they could be aggressively interrogated using a range of 'counter-resistance' strategies. These reportedly included such techniques as prolonged isolation in bare dark cells, being kept naked, exposure to extreme heat and cold, prolonged hooding, sleep denial, stress positions, continuous loud music, sexual humiliation, diet manipulation (bread and water), the withholding of medications, and the manipulation of phobias, such as fear of dogs.

According to the May 13 New York Times, the interrogation of Khalid Sheik Mohammed, a CIA Al Qaeda detainee who is believed to have helped plan the 9/11 attacks, went further, including a technique known as 'water-boarding,' in which a prisoner is strapped down with his head hanging over the edge of a board, and the board pivoted in and out of a tank of water, thereby inducing intense feelings of suffocation and a fear of death by drowning. Other CIA 'ghost detainees' in Afghanistan and Iraq, never registered with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) as required under international law, were reportedly beaten to death during their interrogations. To avoid possible culpability under U.S. anti-torture statutes, the harshest interrogations are said to be accomplished through rendering detainees into the temporary custody of cooperative foreign intelligence services, such as those of Egypt and Saudi Arabia, with a record of employing torture."

(Via Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists)

Boston.com / News / World / Asia / India resists tsunami aid, reveals new identity: "'We can stand on our own feet,' the 47-year-old typist said as he gazed at a photograph of his wife and pregnant daughter, who were swept away in this disaster, among the nearly 7,000 people from this south India district who died."

...

"'Somehow, with the tsunami, India has come into its own,' said Imtiaz Ahmed, a political scientist at Jawaharlal Nehru University. 'Refusing government aid was an opportunity to show the world a new self-reliant, assertive India.'

By giving aid and sending naval relief ships to stricken nations, India put itself in a different slot, of being both victim and savior, the analysts said. Globally, the nation sought to make a transition from being a recipient into a donor.

'We may have hurt foreign governments by refusing aid, but it was a necessary rebuff,' said Swapan Dasgupta, a political commentator. 'India has to permanently relinquish its begging bowl and Third World image. We need to show that we can help ourselves as also others.'"

(Via The Boston Globe.)

The Cambone Operation: Covert Ops Redux: "Chris warns that further investigative reporting will reveal...

... covert operations sounding very much like the Phoenix Program of kidnappings (and perhaps also murder) of terrorist suspects in one country, and the transport of them to a third country where the actual torture interrogation is carried out presumably ‘free’ of even the presumed strictures imposed by Gonzales and his memo.

Calling the whole mess The Cambone Operation, Nelson reports that ‘the clandestine activities now coming to light may have been the result of decisions Secretary Rumsfeld made and set in motion, but that once in operation, Rumsfeld is kept clean of the details.’"

The whole post is good, I'm trying really hard not to copy it all..

(Via ArmsControlWonk.com.)

Hell Has Frozen Over || kuro5hin.org: "Palestinian Security Forces have been deployed to prevent attacks on Israel:

Between 2,000 and 3,000 security forces were to be deployed along the Gaza-Israeli border, Palestinian security sources said.

They're actually doing their job:

Witnesses said Palestinian security forces were stopping and inspecting vehicles near Erez and Karni junctions in northern Gaza.

Hamas might actually go along with it:

The Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz reported Friday it had obtained an internal document distributed by Hamas' leadership calling on the group to cooperate with Abbas.

and Israeli and Palestinian Security Forces are working together:

Maj. Gen. Moussa Arafat, in charge of the Palestinian security forces, said he wanted Israeli coordination so that Israeli troops would not mistake the Palestinian security forces for terrorists and open fire on them. Israel said Thursday that Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz had signed off on the Palestinian plan.

Here's to President Mahmoud Abbas. Not bad for your first week on the job."

(Via k5.)

AlterNet: Rights and Liberties: A Post-Roe Postcard: "With eight of nine U.S. Supreme Court Justices over 65 and one seriously ill with cancer, much of the country is understandably focused on the possibility that their soon-to-be-appointed replacements will overturn the decision upholding the right to abortion. But in Mississippi, in many ways, Roe has already fallen. Abortion is legal here, of course, as it must be throughout the country while the landmark ruling stands. Yet, for many women, the ability to terminate a pregnancy is out of reach, buried under state laws that make the process unnecessarily difficult, discouraged by a sense of shame enforced by practically every public authority, and inaccessible for many who lack money to pay for it."

...

"Such concern for the rights of fetuses does not appear to translate into a commitment to promoting the well-being of the children they may become. The uncomfortable irony for an opposition movement purportedly concerned with saving "innocent babies" is that restrictions on abortion are associated with worse outcomes for actual babies. Indeed, children fare terribly in Mississippi. The state with arguably the least access to abortion also has the second-highest rate of child poverty in the country, according to the Children's Defense Fund. Mississippi's infant mortality rate – a good indication of the health of both women and children – is the highest in the country. For every 1,000 live births, 10.5 infants under age 1 die in Mississippi."

(Via AlterNet.)

SpongeBob Squarepants accused of promoting homosexuality: "Vitagliano, the editor of the Mississippi-based American Family Association%u2019s Journal, has written in a detailed article, which claims that makers of 'SpongeBob Squarepants' are promoting homosexuality. "

And this is from Mississippi, land of tolerance throughout history.

(Via Google News.)

FT.com / World / US - Dollar at mercy of central banks: "In 2003, the most recent year with full international statistics, central banks financed 83 per cent of the US current account deficit, with Asian central banks accounting for 86 per cent of flows.

A similar picture is emerging for 2004. Despite a good start to the year, when the private sector was a large net purchaser of dollar assets, central banks came to the rescue again. The People's Bank of China has let it be known that China increased dollar reserves by $207bn (€159bn) in 2004, financing nearly a third of the US current account deficit, estimated at $650bn.

Self-interest has supported much of this flow of cash. The US has lapped up cheap finance to fund its unquenchable appetite to spend. Asian governments have until now been keen to oblige, in order to keep their currencies from appreciating. But all investors have their limits and they may start worrying about their degree of exposure.

If new official flows to the US were to be curtailed, the dollar would plunge, creating a huge hole in the accounts of central banks holding dollars."

(Via Google News.)

Covert Operations: "The Pentagon promptly denied the report, but the Post’s reporting seems to confirm recent allegations that the Bush Administration is heavily employing covert operations, run through the Defense Department to evade congressional oversight."

...

"Should the United States undertake operations that, if disclosed, endanger national security? Rarely, if ever, for two reasons:

• First, covert operations are almost certain to be disclosed. Covert operations violate the first rule of life in Washington: Don’t ever do anything that you wouldn’t want to see on the front page of the Washington Post. The story by Bart Gellman helps drive the point home that, more often than not, covert operations eventually become public knowledge.
• Second, covert operations often fail because they are covert. Shielding programs from Congressional oversight allows for small programs to devolve into gigantic, often bizarre, schemes that would never pass muster with Congress. Writing about the Iran-Contra affair, Gregory Treverton warned of the danger from centralizing White House control over covert operations. “Excluding the designated congressional overseers,” Treverton wrote, “also excluded one more ‘political scrub,’ one more source of advice about what the American people would find acceptable.”

Given that the challenge posed by AlQaeda is, largely, an ideological bid for the hearts and minds of millions of Muslims perhaps one more political scrub might not be such a bad idea."

(Via ArmsControlWonk.com.)

AlterNet: Why The Inglewood Cops Won: "Despite the Rampart scandal, and the long history of police abuse cases in L.A., it's still virtually impossible to convince many jurors that some police lie, beat, maim, and even kill unarmed suspects."

...

"Given the daunting, even towering obstacles, to taking punitive action against abusive officers, and making it stick, there's no guarantee that the money, time and effort, that Inglewood city officials must expend to fight the case will succeed, and there's every chance that it won't. Yet, they are duty bound to fight anyway. The verdict sent the horribly conflicted message that city officials and police officials tread on dangerous legal ground when they discipline officers, even those that clearly deserve it."

(Via AlterNet.)

580 CFRA - News Talk Radio: "For those of you who didn't have the privilege of experiencing Johnny first hand, the best I can say is that if he were around today, he wouldn't be hosting The Tonight Show. He'd be hosting The Daily Show. As much as Letterman and Leno continue to struggle to be the apparent heir to Johnny's throne, Jon Stewart is the one who has taken the spirit of Johnny Carson and given it a twist. Whereas Johnny took the day's events and made us laugh at them, The Daily Show takes the events that make us furrow our brow, and make us chuckle about them the next day. Johnny would be proud."

(Via Google News.)

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell: Farewell Remarks: "I remember the first day that I came into this lobby and was greeted with warmth and affection by all of you. That morning before I left to come down here, Alma said to me, 'Remember now, you're not in the Army anymore.' (Laughter.) 'And don't go down there and start acting as if it's an infantry battalion.' (Laughter.) And I said, 'Yes, dear.' (Laughter.) Then I immediately came down here and saw the crowd, and I started treating you like you were an infantry battalion. (Laughter.) Because you were my troops. You were America's troops. You are wonderful individuals. You are wonderful families. You are wonderful patriots who serve your nation as its troops in the far-flung outposts of American diplomacy. You are in the first line of offense of America's foreign policy."

(Via GlobalSecurity.org.)