December 19, 2015

This will get resolved one way or the other. The damage is done in my mind, though.

It's like the full colors of the DNC and the Hillary campaign and its surrogates just unfurled clearly.

My mind is made up about supporting Bernie Sanders. Nothing they say or do will change that.

It's strange how small and petty this whole event seems. I was furious at first, but now whatever more they do just doesn't mean a thing.

I will keep donating and supporting Bernie, and whatever other decisions that must be made can wait until the primary is over.

It's like we just got a very disturbing look at the man behind the curtain, playing with the controls, being in command.

I don't think any of this will harm Bernie or his campaign. We will have to wait until next year to determine whether any of this will harm the party itself or other candidates.

December 19, 2015

Debbie Wasserman Schultz Is Acting Just Like the Villain Bernie Sanders Says She Is

From Slate today:

Debbie Wasserman Schultz Is Acting Just Like the Villain Bernie Sanders Says She Is

Subtitle:

The DNC’s heavy-handed response to the data breach is just its most recent sign of incompetence.

Sen. Bernie Sanders had been having a lovely little week. He scored the endorsements of both the Communications Workers of America union and the progressive grass-roots group Democracy for America. On Thursday, his campaign announced that it had received more than 2 million donations. “We are enormously proud,” Sanders said in a statement, “that we have received more individual contributions at this point in the campaign than any candidate who is not an incumbent president.” The campaign said on Thursday that it had raised more than $3 million in contributions since Monday.

But by Friday morning, the Sanders campaign found itself locked out of the Democratic National Committee’s 50-state voter file and its own proprietary voter information that it maintains on the DNC’s platform.

The DNC suspended the campaign from access after a software glitch on the system, run by the vendor NGP VAN, broke down the “firewalls” between each campaign’s information and some number of Sanders campaign tech employees breached and downloaded some of Hillary Clinton’s campaign’s data. The Sanders campaign fired its national data director on the spot and is doing an internal investigation of its staffers’ activities.

The Sanders campaign is reacting to the DNC’s incredibly punitive response as another instance of Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s DNC treating all non-Clinton presidential campaigns unfairly and generally making a mess of the primary process. This shouldn’t excuse the members of the Sanders campaign who did, in fact, screw up. The campaign should come fully clean about what proprietary Clinton campaign information they do or don’t have.

But do they have a case that Wasserman Schultz’s DNC has generally facilitated the Clinton campaign throughout the cycle? Oh God, yes, and it’s no shock that the Sanders campaign and its supporters are treating this as a declaration of war.

December 18, 2015

Video: Bernie Sanders Campaign Files Federal Lawsuit Against DNC for Withholding Voter Data

December 18, 2015

Good for DFA! Statement: DNC attacks campaign rather than vendor.

From The Hill:

Sanders campaign told DNC of data issue months ago

Democracy for America, the major progressive group that endorsed Sanders on Thursday, panned the DNC’s decision in a statement.

"The Democratic National Committee's decision to attack the campaign that figured out the problem, rather than go after the vendor that made the mistake, is profoundly damaging to the party's Democratic process,” Charles Chamberlain, the executive director for Democracy for America, said.

“DNC leaders should immediately reverse this disturbing decision before the committee does even more to bring its neutrality in the race for President into question.

December 18, 2015

Bernie campaign months ago alerted the DNC that data was available to other campaigns. Wow.

Sanders' communications head said NGP VAN has failed before

Speaking to BuzzFeed News, Michael Briggs — communications aide for the Sanders campaign — turned the blame on NGP VAN. "Sadly, the vendor who runs the DNC's voter file program continues to make serious errors," he said, referring to "more than one occasion" when Democratic campaigns were inadvertently able to access each others' data. "Our campaign months ago alerted the DNC to the fact that campaign data was being made available to other campaigns," he said. "At that time our campaign did not run to the media, relying instead on assurances from the vendor."

Again:

"Our campaign months ago alerted the DNC to the fact that campaign data was being made available to other campaigns," he said. "At that time our campaign did not run to the media, relying instead on assurances from the vendor."

The DNC said it was "short in duration"....yet they were notified months ago??

Luis Miranda, the DNC's communications director, said the committee was "working with our campaigns and the vendor to have full clarity on the extent of the breach, ensure that this isolated incident does not happen again, and to enable our campaigns to continue engaging voters on the issues that matter most to them and their families." Stu Trevelyan, head of NGP VAN, downplayed the incident, saying it was "fairly short in duration," and that "by lunchtime, it was resolved."

I smell something fishy somewhere.

December 18, 2015

DNC vendor mistakenly allowed access to voter database. DNC denies Bernie access to database..

DNC blames Bernie Sanders campaign and refuses to let them use the database for now.

Yet the vendor admitted to allowing the access while updating.

Frankly I am getting very tired of the way the party leaders are shutting out Bernie's campaign.

I entered the primaries with a completely open mind about both candidates while still preferring Bernie. I am remembering now how the party managed to shut out any leaders who supported Howard Dean in 2004, and how our local party effectively shut us up.

Not feeling so good about things now.

The article has already been posted here with a subject line accusing Bernie of hacking. From the Washington Post

The DNC maintains the master list and rents it to national and state campaigns, which then add their own, proprietary information gathered by field workers and volunteers. Firewalls are supposed to prevent campaigns from viewing data gathered by their rivals.

NGP VAN, the vendor that handles the master file, said the incident occurred Wednesday while a patch was being applied to the software. The process briefly opened a window into proprietary information from other campaigns, said the company’s chief, Stu Trevelyan. He said a full audit will be conducted.

The DNC has told the Sanders campaign that it will not be allowed access to the data again until it provides an explanation as well as assurances that all Clinton data has been destroyed.

Hell that could have been an accidental event with the window opened that should not have been.

I have a feeling the DNC leaders and other party leaders are heading toward the same lack of respect for the left, the populists, the liberals of the party.

December 18, 2015

Third Way's new anti-populist message. Bernie's populism builds crowds, but can't win.

They are really spinning this one. They have made populism the boogey man for years now. And they are not winning elections with that message.

This was written by three Third Way leaders.

William M. Daley was White House Chief of Staff for President Obama and is on the Board of Trustees of Third Way, where Jonathan Cowan serves as President and Lanae Erickson Hatalsky serves as Vice President for Social Policy & Politics.

From Politico this month:

Why Bernie Sanders Can’t Win

Subtitle:

We’ve looked at the numbers: Populism might build crowds, but it can't deliver victories for Democrats.

By William M. Daley, Jonathan Cowan, and Lanae Erickson Hatalsky

December 08, 2015

They talk about Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders in the same paragraph. They talk about Bernie as if they were not aware he is a Democratic candidate. It's insulting.

Politics is polarized and a full-throated, angry populism seems to be burning all of the oxygen in the 2016 race. On the right, Donald Trump’s campaign is feeding on rage directed at government, immigrants, and a perceived loss of status in a quickly changing country. On the left, populist standard-bearer Bernie Sanders is packing auditoriums with vitriolic speeches about a “rigged” economic system and the greed of the 1 percent.

Populism can certainly build crowds and sell hats, but can it deliver electoral victories? We’ll leave the GOP to its intramural squabble. We’re focused on whether it could build Democrats majorities up and down the ballot.

We think the answer is “no.”

They say there's no revolution coming. They say people blame the politicians in DC, NOT the billionaires and moneyed interest. That's some real spin there.

But from what we’ve seen in our data, that revolution isn’t coming. That’s not because voters aren’t angry—they are. In fact, in our research, voter anger was dialed up to 11. But it wasn’t a rigged economy they were frothing over. It was politicians, government, campaigns, and Congress that they viewed with contempt. “The political system is rigged,” said a Democratic primary voter in Pittsburgh. And insofar as voters saw a stacked deck in America, the crooked dealer was Washington. “The U.S. Constitution is the most beautiful document ever written, but politics keeps it from working,” lamented another Democratic primary voter from Denver. This sentiment was everywhere in our focus groups.

They say Democrats may be burning down their own house by such populist talk.

So there is anger out there, but it’s directed at Washington, not so much at the 1%. And while rage is a powerful force in politics, its implications are starkly different for each party. For Trump, Senator Ted Cruz, and the anti-government Tea Partiers, fomenting hatred of government may, unfortunately, be a winning political strategy. But Democrats are the party of government, both in voters’ minds and our own. So by stoking this anti-government anger and feeding the populist fire, Democrats could in time be burning down our own house.

I had to read that several times, and it still doesn't resonate with me.

My own view is that I blame the politicians for taking the money from the billionaires and moneyed interests....and voting however they say to vote.

Go Bernie, talk populist.

December 12, 2015

We have Trump. Canada at hashtag #welcometoCanada puts us to shame.

Justin Trudeau personally welcomes them. Read some of the tweets...they are amazing. #welcometocanada is trending now.

https://twitter.com/hashtag/WelcomeToCanada?src=tren

CBC Toronto Verified account ?@CBCToronto 7h7 hours ago

'We feel as if we got out of hell and we came to paradise' http://bit.ly/1Z4hGrT #WelcomeToCanada

The Globe and Mail Verified account ?@globeandmail 18h18 hours ago

'We came to paradise,' weary refugees tell PM after arriving in Canada http://trib.al/u20sxUQ #WelcometoCanada

A couple more interesting comments:

Julie-Anne Mauno ?@julieannemauno Dec 11

So proud to be Canadian! First refugees have arrived. I live in a country that is choosing compassion over fear. Amazing! #WelcomeToCanada

Shaun King Verified account ?@ShaunKing 14h14 hours ago

Absolutely love the warmth, love, and compassion I see being shown toward weary Syrian refugees in Canada. #WelcomeToCanada is so powerful!

December 12, 2015

The Iraq War: The root of Europe's refugee crisis.

Those who voted for, approved the war, refused to speak out against it....of course would deny this.

We talked so much about it back then in the early 2000's. We were ignored. If we spoke out too much against the war we became less than patriotic.

It was a nightmarish time.

From Al Jazeera in September this year.

The Iraq war: The root of Europe's refugee crisis

Subtitle:

Al Jazeera correspondent Imran Khan looks at the conflicts that led to millions fleeing their homes in the Middle East.

It's the kind of tired neither a holiday nor a rest will cure. It's the kind of tired that comes with living in temporary accommodations for years. The kind of tired that comes with constantly battling heat and dust and looking after her children. The kind of tired that comes after you have been forced to flee for your life and carry your belongings in your hand to a strange place.

...What no one talks about is the invasion and occupation of Iraq.

March 2003 was the pivotal point. Based on controversial evidence that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction (WMD), the war drums beat loudly

Suddenly the radical groups had found a new cause and a new fight.

They learned new tactics. They became hardened fighters. They dreamed of a caliphate that would spread across the Arab and Muslim world.

Angry that the US had invaded another Muslim country, money and weapons were donated in huge number from Muslim countries by individuals who might never have thought about donating to a cause that was violent in nature.

Once irrelevant, al-Qaeda became a threat again, and for the first time the group found a foothold in Iraq.

Recently I posted some words from Riverbend's Baghdad Burning blog. One section in particular showed the utter hopelessness they felt.

It's a bit discouraging to watch the current government so uncoordinated. It's like they don't even communicate with each other. It's also somewhat disturbing to know that they can't seem to decide who is a criminal and who isn't. Isn't there some "idiots guide to being a good Vichy government"?

They say communications are going to be cut off very soon. Telephones are often cut off and the mobile network is sometimes inaccessible for days at a time but we heard there also might not be web access. Students have a mid-year vacation right now but no one is going anywhere. Almost everyone is trapped at home because the security situation is quite bad and no one wants to be caught in an area where an explosion might occur. If the bomb doesn't kill you, the Iraqi security forces or the Americans might and if no one kills you then you risk getting a bag over the head and a trip to Abu Ghraib.

There's an almost palpable anxiety in the air these last couple of weeks and it's beginning to wear on people- fuel shortages, water shortages and a lack of electricity. It's like the first days of the war all over again.

Juan Cole has a "The Speech Bush SHOULD have Given" and it's quite good. In my opinion, during this year's inaugral Bush could have summed it up with the following: "Ha! I can't believe you people actually re-elected me! Unbelievable! Some people just loooove the abuse!"

This paragraph stood out from Juan Cole's writing:

So why do I want to go to war? Look, folks, I’m just not going to tell you. I don’t have to tell you. There is little transparency about these things in the executive, because we’re running a kind of rump empire out of the president’s office. After 20 or 30 years it will all leak out. Until then, you’ll just have to trust me.

When you force people out of their country with no place to go, they get angry. Riverbend had a way of putting things bluntly and clearly.

Leaving Home

I got tears.

t happened almost overnight. My aunt called with the exciting news that one of her neighbors was going to leave for Syria in 48 hours because their son was being threatened and they wanted another family on the road with them in another car- like gazelles in the jungle, it’s safer to travel in groups. It was a flurry of activity for two days. We checked to make sure everything we could possibly need was prepared and packed. We arranged for a distant cousin of my moms who was to stay in our house with his family to come the night before we left (we can’t leave the house empty because someone might take it).

It was a tearful farewell as we left the house. One of my other aunts and an uncle came to say goodbye the morning of the trip. It was a solemn morning and I’d been preparing myself for the last two days not to cry. You won’t cry, I kept saying, because you’re coming back. You won’t cry because it’s just a little trip like the ones you used to take to Mosul or Basrah before the war. In spite of my assurances to myself of a safe and happy return, I spent several hours before leaving with a huge lump lodged firmly in my throat. My eyes burned and my nose ran in spite of me. I told myself it was an allergy.

The last few hours in the house were a blur. It was time to go and I went from room to room saying goodbye to everything. I said goodbye to my desk- the one I’d used all through high school and college. I said goodbye to the curtains and the bed and the couch. I said goodbye to the armchair E. and I broke when we were younger. I said goodbye to the big table over which we’d gathered for meals and to do homework. I said goodbye to the ghosts of the framed pictures that once hung on the walls, because the pictures have long since been taken down and stored away- but I knew just what hung where. I said goodbye to the silly board games we inevitably fought over- the Arabic Monopoly with the missing cards and money that no one had the heart to throw away.

We were all refugees- rich or poor. And refugees all look the same- there’s a unique expression you’ll find on their faces- relief, mixed with sorrow, tinged with apprehension. The faces almost all look the same.

December 10, 2015

Call me jaded. I see propaganda all over the place. Our media is pathetic.

I don't believe much in our media these days. Remember Jessica Lynch, Pat Tillman?

War with ISIS is on the horizon, and the media outlets are already interfering in our political campaigns, pushing candidates to sound more militant. I don't trust much of the reporting, I don't even believe the polls right now.

Just when I think I might be over-reacting, I remember how our media outlets made up stories about Jessica Lynch and Pat Tillman. There were other examples but these were the most outrageous. It shows the news spokesmen will say and do anything required to get results desired by their owners.

They needed to glorify and defend a bogged down Iraq war.

Jessica Lynch had her say in a 2007 congressional hearing.

'Little girl Rambo' decries US propaganda

The former US private Jessica Lynch today condemned what she said were Pentagon efforts to turn her into a "little girl Rambo", and accused military chiefs of using "elaborate tales" to try to make her into a hero of the Iraq war.

Speaking at a congressional hearing on the use of misleading information, an emotional Ms Lynch described how she suffered horrific injuries when her vehicle was hit by a rocket near the Iraqi town of Nasiriya in March 2003, killing several of her companions.

She was angry they tried to make her into a hero, she said the real heroes were those who rescued her.

Initial reports also suggested that Ms Lynch had been abused after she came round in the hospital. She said the reports were lies: she had been treated well and the Iraqis had tried to return her to US forces.

"The nurses tried to soothe me and return me," she told the hearing, adding that she objected to the way in which the US military had portrayed her.

"American people don't need to be told elaborate tales" about US forces, she said

So true. We don't need to be told lies about anything.

More about Jessica from journalist Greg Mitchell:

When Media Promoted Jessica Lynch 'Propaganda'

It wasn't until early May 2003 that the story really fell apart, thanks largely to a Toronto Star reporter named Mitch Potter, whose sources told him that actually Lynch had been well cared for at the hospital, that her captors had left up to two days before the raid and that actually fire from U.S. forces had prevented hospital staffers from loading her in an ambulance. The BBC soon confirmed much of this scenario.

The Post corrective appeared a few weeks later. On June 20, 2003, Nicholas Kristof in his New York Times column wrote:

"Pfc. Jessica Lynch did not mow down Iraqis until her ammo ran out, was not shot and apparently was not plucked from behind enemy lines by U.S. commandos braving a firefight. It looks as if the first accounts of the rescue were embellished, like the imminent threat from W.M.D., and like wartime pronouncements about an uprising in Basra and imminent defections of generals. There's a pattern: we were misled...

"Ms. Lynch is still a hero in my book, and it was unnecessary for officials to try to turn her into a Hollywood caricature. As a citizen, I deeply resent my government trying to spin me like a Ping-Pong ball....

And Pat Tillman couldn't speak for himself, but his irate family did so very effectively.

From Mother Jones 2010:

Pat Tillman's War

Pat Tillman's family says "fuck" a lot. And who can blame them? Pat's youngest brother, at the memorial service for the fallen NFL-star-turned-soldier, follows Maria Shriver's "Pat is with God now" rhetoric with, "Pat would want me to say this: He's not with God, he's fucking dead." A year later, Pat Tillman Sr. writes a blistering letter to the military brass who continued to stonewall the investigation into his son's death signed, "Fuck you…and yours." Such is the seething flavor of director Amir Bar-Lev's The Tillman Story (open today at select theaters), which paints a striking portrait of Pat Tillman's devoted and outraged family's search for the truth behind his death in eastern Afghanistan in April 2004.

....The documentary gives us what we the public want when it comes to heroes—a deeper look at someone who was so instantly an icon of war. Though he was deified in death under false pretenses and for political gain—and he specifically told the military he didn't want a military burial or any military involvement in his death—he, and his family, turned out to be exactly what America needed, because they take absolutely no bullshit, from Shriver, Donald Rumsfeld, anyone. And Tillman's last words? The soldier with him at the time poignantly recalls how Tillman saved his life even while his screams couldn't spare his own. To his buddies but 40 yards away who were unloading artillery into his chest and head he screamed, "I'm fucking Pat Tillman, why are you shooting at me? I'm fucking Pat Tillman!"

We don't have to swallow the propaganda, but all too often we do. I found this statement in a report from Stanford.

Propaganda in War Reporting on the U.S. War in Iraq

...A government cannot have power if it does not have the support of the public. In order to gain support of the public propaganda is used to promote the government and the ideals behind it. The issues concerning propaganda are complex and numerous but it is known that propaganda can be one of the main weapons used in psychological warfare and can significantly affect the outcome of a war. Propaganda can influence people to believe a certain ideology whether that ideology is right or wrong...

And I will never forget how we shock and awe bombed Iraq on TV, and yet the only real truth-telling we saw on the impact....was not from our news stations who whitewashed it all.

It was from the courageous and intelligent Iraqi bloggers

I remember Baghdad before the war- one could live anywhere. We didn't know what our neighbors were- we didn't care. No one asked about religion or sect. No one bothered with what was considered a trivial topic: are you Sunni or Shia? You only asked something like that if you were uncouth and backward. Our lives revolve around it now. Our existence depends on hiding it or highlighting it- depending on the group of masked men who stop you or raid your home in the middle of the night.

On a personal note, we've finally decided to leave. I guess I've known we would be leaving for a while now. We discussed it as a family dozens of times. At first, someone would suggest it tentatively because, it was just a preposterous idea- leaving ones home and extended family- leaving ones country- and to what? To where?