The billion-dollar gravestone

The billion-dollar gravestone | Salon.com : "Instead of being a testament to the dead, the hubristic 9/11 memorial will remind viewers of the arrogant folly of Bush's America.

May 20, 2006 | Recently, a number -- 1 billion -- in the New York Times stopped me in my tracks. According to a report commissioned by the foundation charged with building Reflecting Absence, the memorial to the dead in the attack on the World Trade Center, its projected cost is now estimated at about a billion dollars and still rising. According to Oliver Burkeman of the British Guardian, 'Taking inflation into account, $1bn would be more than a quarter of the original cost of the twin towers that were destroyed in 2001.'"

(Via Salon.)

Bush insists: California must give up Spanish placenames

Martini Republic » Bush insists: California must give up Spanish placenames: "In an apparent attempt to shore up his appeal to his white-wing base, President Bush asked Congress in his Saturday morning radio address to push for legislation erasing large portions of California’s Latin legacy.

‘Now, we appreciate the state leading the way on the language issue, as California made English its own official language in 1986,’ the president said. ‘But look around. What good has that done? We’ve got to go further.’

‘San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Sacramento—ain’t it time these placenames were put in American English?’ the president sputtered."

(Via Martini Republic.)

When Will the Right Renounce Racism — And Mean It?

Feministe » When Will the Right Renounce Racism — And Mean It?: "Sure, there are some conservatives and wingnuts who aren’t racist. And there are absolutely many liberals who are quite racist. But you just don’t see liberal publications and talking heads preaching white superiority quite the same way that you do on the right side of things.

Take, for an easy example, right-wing poster-Barbie Ann Coulter, who asks ‘Where are the skinheads?’ and then the next week, essentially finds and supports them. Then we’ve got Bill O’Reilly, who laments the waning power of ‘white Christians’ in the face of a ‘rainbow coalition.’ Boo hoo. John Gibson tells white people to make more babies to counter all the brown people being born — and then follows it up by saying that Muslims are a problem, too. Rush Limbaugh bizarrely compares a letter written by the Iranian PM to activism to ‘liberal Hollywood Jewish people.’ Dick Cheney goes on his show the next week. The White House Press Secretary uses the term ‘tar baby’ in his first press briefing — albeit in an odd context."

(Via Salon.)

The 9/11 Story That Got Away

AlterNet: The 9/11 Story That Got Away: "In 2001, an anonymous White House source leaked top-secret NSA intelligence to reporter Judith Miller that Al Qaida was planning a major attack on the United States. But the story never made it into the paper."

(Via AlterNet.)

ABC uncovers ex-CIA executive director's seven-bedroom, 12 guest Hawaiian hideaway

The Raw Story | ABC uncovers ex-CIA executive director's seven-bedroom, 12 guest Hawaiian hideaway: "'Sources close to the widening probe of official corruption in Washington tell ABC News that investigators are studying travel records of expensive trips to Hawaii and Europe taken by top CIA official Dusty Foggo and San Diego defense contractor Brent Wilkes,' ABC News reports Wednesday.

The Hawaiian vacation property was first reported by the San Diego Union Tribune. ABC News was the first to report that the property was part of the government's inquiry into an ever-widening Washington corruption scandal.

ABC has also acquired the real estate photos of the site. The seven bedroom Honolulu property can accomodate 12 guests, according to the real estate listing."

(Via Crooks and Liars.)

The Pentagon's ghost investigation

The Pentagon's ghost investigation | Salon.com News: "In spite of a strong recommendation by a top Army general, the Pentagon has failed to investigate the military's role in handling 'ghost detainees,' prisoners secretly held and interrogated by the U.S. government at Abu Ghraib prison and elsewhere in Iraq. Nearly two years ago, in multiple meetings, Army Gen. Paul J. Kern briefed Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and top Army officials about the need for such a probe. In an interview with Salon, Kern, now retired, said he left those briefings with the expectation that an investigation would be carried out. According to a Department of Defense spokesman, however, no Pentagon investigation has taken place, nor is one planned.

Kern headed a major investigation in 2004 into detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib, known as the Fay-Jones report. 'When we finished the report, we felt there was an unfinished part that needed to be done with respect to ghost detainees,' Kern told Salon. Based on his findings, Kern concluded that the Pentagon needed to look into the arrangement, between the Army and the CIA, under which the military held prisoners in secret -- a violation of the Geneva Conventions."

(Via Salon.)

Net Neutrality

MoveOn.org Civic Action: Democracy in Action: "Do you buy books online, use Google, or download to an Ipod? These activities, plus MoveOn's online organizing ability, will be hurt if Congress passes a radical law that gives giant corporations more control over the Internet.

Internet providers like AT&T and Verizon are lobbying Congress hard to gut Network Neutrality, the Internet's First Amendment. Net Neutrality prevents AT&T from choosing which websites open most easily for you based on which site pays AT&T more. Amazon doesn't have to outbid Barnes & Noble for the right to work more properly on your computer.

If Net Neutrality is gutted, MoveOn either pays protection money to dominant Internet providers or risks that online activism tools don't work for members. Amazon and Google either pay protection money or risk that their websites process slowly on your computer. That why these high-tech pioneers are joining the fight to protect Network Neutrality[1]--and you can do your part today. "

(Via MoveOn.org.)

Karl and George's not-so-excellent adventure

Karl and George's not-so-excellent adventure | Salon.com : "When Karl Rove emerged from the White House Monday morning to speak at the American Enterprise Institute, the most ominous moment came during the introduction. Christopher DeMuth, the president of the conservative think tank, went out of his way to praise Rove's 'equanimity' in the face of 'sharks in the water.'

In Washington, when they are about to erect a statue in your honor, they praise your 'genius and vision.' When they are trying to decide whether to send a handwritten note in case of your indictment, they praise your 'calm and equanimity.'

...

But everything in the world of George W. Bush these days smacks of desperate improvisation. Apologizing that his purportedly long-standing date at AEI conflicted with the thematics of the president's Monday night television address, Rove said, 'I am so completely off message on a day that we're talking about immigration, I don't know if they'll let me back into the gates at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.'"

(Via Salon.)

The NSA is on the line -- all of them

The NSA is on the line -- all of them | Salon.com News: "An intelligence expert predicts we'll soon learn that cellphone and Internet companies also cooperated with the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on us.

...

Aid, a visiting fellow at George Washington University's National Security Archive, who has just completed the first book of a three-volume history of the NSA, knew the nation's bicentennial marked the year when secrets surrounding another NSA domestic surveillance program, code-named Project Shamrock, were exposed. As fireworks showered New York Harbor that year, the country was debating a three-decades-long agreement between Western Union and other telecommunications companies to surreptitiously supply the NSA, on a daily basis, with all telegrams sent to and from the United States. The similarity between that earlier program and the most recent one is remarkable, with one exception -- the NSA now owns vastly improved technology to sift through and mine massive amounts of data it has collected in what is being described as the world's single largest database of personal information. And, according to Aid, the mining goes far beyond our phone lines.

The controversy over Project Shamrock in 1976 ultimately led Congress to pass the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and other privacy and communication laws designed to prevent commercial companies from working in cahoots with the government to conduct wholesale secret surveillance on their customers. But as stories revealed last week, those safeguards had little effect in preventing at least three telecommunications companies from repeating history."

(Via Salon.)

Reporter Phone Records Being Used to Find Leaks

Slashdot | Reporter Phone Records Being Used to Find Leaks: "Brian Ross, Chief Investigative Correspondent for ABC news says a confidential source informed him that reporter's phone records are being used by the administration to track down leaks. Apparently reporters for the New York Times, ABC News, and the Washington Post are being scrutinized."

In normal English, "Leaks" are called "Whistleblowers."

(Via /.)