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marmar
marmar's Journal
marmar's Journal
January 3, 2013
Warrantless Wiretapping Wins Again
By Michelle Richardson, Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 12:23pm
It’s official. The Senate voted 72-23 last week to extend the FISA Amendments Act another five years, which President Obama signed Sunday. Unfortunately, the public discussion of George W. Bush’s warrantless wiretapping program may soon fade back into the shadows.
The heartbreak of another Senate vote in favor of dragnet collection of Americans’ communications, however, pales in comparison to the rejection of modest amendments in favor of more FISA transparency and accountability. These amendments would not have limited the government’s spying program in any way; they would have only compelled the government to tell the public what the law says and whether it protects us from government prying.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), a long-time member of the Intelligence Committee, valiantly fought for a year- and-a-half for basic information about how this surveillance program affects Americans and put a hold on the bill until a debate and amendment process was scheduled. He finally got a vote to force disclosure of whether the National Security Agency is vacuuming up wholly domestic communications or searching through FISA taps for Americans, yet it failed by a vote of 42-52. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) also went to the mattress over the secret FISA court opinions that determine whether we have constitutional rights to privacy in foreign intelligence investigations. He put the Senate to a vote on whether the administration should be forced to release the court opinions, supply unclassified summaries of them, or explain why they should be kept secret. That one went down 37-54. Simply put, if the public were to find out what the government is doing with our information, or how many of us are affected, the program would be “destroyed,” according to Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Dianne Feinstein (D-CA). ......................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.aclu.org/blog/national-security/warrantless-wiretapping-wins-again
ACLU: Warrantless Wiretapping Wins Again
Warrantless Wiretapping Wins Again
By Michelle Richardson, Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 12:23pm
It’s official. The Senate voted 72-23 last week to extend the FISA Amendments Act another five years, which President Obama signed Sunday. Unfortunately, the public discussion of George W. Bush’s warrantless wiretapping program may soon fade back into the shadows.
The heartbreak of another Senate vote in favor of dragnet collection of Americans’ communications, however, pales in comparison to the rejection of modest amendments in favor of more FISA transparency and accountability. These amendments would not have limited the government’s spying program in any way; they would have only compelled the government to tell the public what the law says and whether it protects us from government prying.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), a long-time member of the Intelligence Committee, valiantly fought for a year- and-a-half for basic information about how this surveillance program affects Americans and put a hold on the bill until a debate and amendment process was scheduled. He finally got a vote to force disclosure of whether the National Security Agency is vacuuming up wholly domestic communications or searching through FISA taps for Americans, yet it failed by a vote of 42-52. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) also went to the mattress over the secret FISA court opinions that determine whether we have constitutional rights to privacy in foreign intelligence investigations. He put the Senate to a vote on whether the administration should be forced to release the court opinions, supply unclassified summaries of them, or explain why they should be kept secret. That one went down 37-54. Simply put, if the public were to find out what the government is doing with our information, or how many of us are affected, the program would be “destroyed,” according to Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Dianne Feinstein (D-CA). ......................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.aclu.org/blog/national-security/warrantless-wiretapping-wins-again
January 3, 2013
from WaPo:
By Craig Whitlock,
The three European men with Somali roots were arrested on a murky pretext in August as they passed through the small African country of Djibouti. But the reason soon became clear when they were visited in their jail cells by a succession of American interrogators.
U.S. agents accused the men — two of them Swedes, the other a longtime resident of Britain — of supporting al-Shabab, an Islamist militia in Somalia that Washington considers a terrorist group. Two months after their arrest, the prisoners were secretly indicted by a federal grand jury in New York, then clandestinely taken into custody by the FBI and flown to the United States to face trial.
The secret arrests and detentions came to light Dec. 21 when the suspects made a brief appearance in a Brooklyn courtroom.
The men are the latest example of how the Obama administration has embraced rendition — the practice of holding and interrogating terrorism suspects in other countries without due process — despite widespread condemnation of the tactic in the years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. ......................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/renditions-continue-under-obama-despite-due-process-concerns/2013/01/01/4e593aa0-5102-11e2-984e-f1de82a7c98a_story.html?wpisrc=nl_headlines
Rendition Persists Despite Due Process Concerns
from WaPo:
By Craig Whitlock,
The three European men with Somali roots were arrested on a murky pretext in August as they passed through the small African country of Djibouti. But the reason soon became clear when they were visited in their jail cells by a succession of American interrogators.
U.S. agents accused the men — two of them Swedes, the other a longtime resident of Britain — of supporting al-Shabab, an Islamist militia in Somalia that Washington considers a terrorist group. Two months after their arrest, the prisoners were secretly indicted by a federal grand jury in New York, then clandestinely taken into custody by the FBI and flown to the United States to face trial.
The secret arrests and detentions came to light Dec. 21 when the suspects made a brief appearance in a Brooklyn courtroom.
The men are the latest example of how the Obama administration has embraced rendition — the practice of holding and interrogating terrorism suspects in other countries without due process — despite widespread condemnation of the tactic in the years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. ......................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/renditions-continue-under-obama-despite-due-process-concerns/2013/01/01/4e593aa0-5102-11e2-984e-f1de82a7c98a_story.html?wpisrc=nl_headlines
January 3, 2013
The Endless Cliff
Robert Kuttner
January 2, 2013
Going forward, Obama will have to stand his ground on spending cuts and the debt ceiling.
Beyond yesterday’s narrow escape from the dreaded fiscal cliff are … more cliffs. President Obama and Congress averted one fiscal calamity of tax-hikes-for-all only to face even steeper cliffs—the sequester, the debt ceiling, the Social Security shortfall, ad infinitum. It is a fiscal Wizard of Oz, an extended odyssey with perils on every side.
The question progressives are asking themselves this morning is whether President Obama settled for too little in the fiscal mini-deal, having traded away his best single piece of leverage—the automatic tax increase on all Americans scheduled to hit today unless Congress acted.
Some, like our colleague Robert Reich, have argued that it would have been better to “go over the cliff”—let tax hikes briefly take effect on everyone, thus increasing pressure on Republicans—rather than to make this agreement.
Mercifully, Obama backed off any “grand bargain.” The deal was a defeat not only for the Republicans but for the Fix the Debt corporate gang. It spared the economy cuts in Social Security or Medicare (for now). .................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://prospect.org/article/endless-cliff
The Endless Cliff
The Endless Cliff
Robert Kuttner
January 2, 2013
Going forward, Obama will have to stand his ground on spending cuts and the debt ceiling.
Beyond yesterday’s narrow escape from the dreaded fiscal cliff are … more cliffs. President Obama and Congress averted one fiscal calamity of tax-hikes-for-all only to face even steeper cliffs—the sequester, the debt ceiling, the Social Security shortfall, ad infinitum. It is a fiscal Wizard of Oz, an extended odyssey with perils on every side.
The question progressives are asking themselves this morning is whether President Obama settled for too little in the fiscal mini-deal, having traded away his best single piece of leverage—the automatic tax increase on all Americans scheduled to hit today unless Congress acted.
Some, like our colleague Robert Reich, have argued that it would have been better to “go over the cliff”—let tax hikes briefly take effect on everyone, thus increasing pressure on Republicans—rather than to make this agreement.
Mercifully, Obama backed off any “grand bargain.” The deal was a defeat not only for the Republicans but for the Fix the Debt corporate gang. It spared the economy cuts in Social Security or Medicare (for now). .................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://prospect.org/article/endless-cliff
January 2, 2013
AlterNet / By Russ Belville
Outrage: Texas Women Cavity Searched by Police Over Alleged Marijuana Smell
A civil liberties disaster.
January 2, 2013 |
So you say you don't smoke pot, so how could the War on Drugs affect me?
Watch that video. It's in Texas, but it could be anywhere in America... well, except now Washington and Colorado, because marijuana is not contraband there, and the smell of it in a car is not probable cause to search its driver and passengers.
In the video, reported by the UK Daily Mail and all over the national and international media, a trooper pulls over two women -- a woman and her niece -- for allegedly throwing a cigarette butt out of the car.
While talking to the women in the car over a littering charge, the trooper claims he smells marijuana. He then searches the car and finds no marijuana. He then administers a sobriety test, which the woman who was driving passed. No marijuana, no impaired driving, and the observation of a police officer that they might have littered from a car that smells like pot.
So, naturally, he calls a female trooper to the scene to search the women for any contraband marijuana they might have been hiding under their breasts, in their colons, or up their vaginas. Because sober littering driver pot smell drugs are bad, mmmkay? .......................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/drugs/outrage-texas-women-cavity-searched-police-over-alleged-marijuana-smell
Texas Women Cavity Searched by Police Over Alleged Marijuana Smell
AlterNet / By Russ Belville
Outrage: Texas Women Cavity Searched by Police Over Alleged Marijuana Smell
A civil liberties disaster.
January 2, 2013 |
So you say you don't smoke pot, so how could the War on Drugs affect me?
Watch that video. It's in Texas, but it could be anywhere in America... well, except now Washington and Colorado, because marijuana is not contraband there, and the smell of it in a car is not probable cause to search its driver and passengers.
In the video, reported by the UK Daily Mail and all over the national and international media, a trooper pulls over two women -- a woman and her niece -- for allegedly throwing a cigarette butt out of the car.
While talking to the women in the car over a littering charge, the trooper claims he smells marijuana. He then searches the car and finds no marijuana. He then administers a sobriety test, which the woman who was driving passed. No marijuana, no impaired driving, and the observation of a police officer that they might have littered from a car that smells like pot.
So, naturally, he calls a female trooper to the scene to search the women for any contraband marijuana they might have been hiding under their breasts, in their colons, or up their vaginas. Because sober littering driver pot smell drugs are bad, mmmkay? .......................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/drugs/outrage-texas-women-cavity-searched-police-over-alleged-marijuana-smell
January 2, 2013
JASPER, Ala. — A teen pilot killed along with two friends in an Alabama plane crash had his own key to the aircraft and had flown it many times, his mother said Wednesday, denying authorities' assertion that the plane had been taken without permission.
Sherrie Smith said her 17-year-old son Jordan Smith was the one flying the plane that went down in the Alabama woods Tuesday night. The Federal Aviation Administration said the Piper PA 30 crashed less than a mile from the Walker County Airport in Jasper, which is northwest of Birmingham.
Smith says the owner of the plane had let her son fly it many other times and had given him his own key. Her son was a high school junior who fell in love with flying at an early age and was one test short of earning his private pilot's license.
"He had used the plane many times before," she said. .................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://xfinity.comcast.net/articles/news-national/20130102/US.New.Year_s.Plane.Crash/
Mom: Boy didn't steal plane in crash
JASPER, Ala. — A teen pilot killed along with two friends in an Alabama plane crash had his own key to the aircraft and had flown it many times, his mother said Wednesday, denying authorities' assertion that the plane had been taken without permission.
Sherrie Smith said her 17-year-old son Jordan Smith was the one flying the plane that went down in the Alabama woods Tuesday night. The Federal Aviation Administration said the Piper PA 30 crashed less than a mile from the Walker County Airport in Jasper, which is northwest of Birmingham.
Smith says the owner of the plane had let her son fly it many other times and had given him his own key. Her son was a high school junior who fell in love with flying at an early age and was one test short of earning his private pilot's license.
"He had used the plane many times before," she said. .................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://xfinity.comcast.net/articles/news-national/20130102/US.New.Year_s.Plane.Crash/
January 2, 2013
from Der Spiegel:
Zoo gorillas have earned a reputation for doing a whole lot of nothing, often just sitting against a tree for hours at a time. But Kidogo, a silverback in the Krefeld Zoo, has earned sudden fame for his penchant for performing a number of tricks, including tightrope walking.
Expectations placed on Kidogo weren't particularly high. The 12-year-old silverback was brought to the Krefeld Zoo in April from his home in Denmark to serve as a male companion to Muna and Oya, two female gorillas. The hope is that the trio will expand, and that the zoo's lowland gorilla enclosure will soon be bustling with baby apes.
But King Kodo, as Kidogo has come to be known, appears to have developed a fondness for the spotlight as well. To the amazement of zoogoers, the gorilla has demonstrated an unusual degree of agility -- and has even taken up tightrope walking.
"He is unbelievably athletic and acrobatic," says Petra Schwinn, director of public relations at the zoo in western Germany. "He is still young and playful. He really demonstrates a strong degree of joie de vivre." ..............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/kidogo-the-gorilla-walks-a-tightrope-in-the-krefeld-zoo-in-germany-a-875398.html
Kidogo the Gorilla Amazes with Tightrope Act
from Der Spiegel:
Zoo gorillas have earned a reputation for doing a whole lot of nothing, often just sitting against a tree for hours at a time. But Kidogo, a silverback in the Krefeld Zoo, has earned sudden fame for his penchant for performing a number of tricks, including tightrope walking.
Expectations placed on Kidogo weren't particularly high. The 12-year-old silverback was brought to the Krefeld Zoo in April from his home in Denmark to serve as a male companion to Muna and Oya, two female gorillas. The hope is that the trio will expand, and that the zoo's lowland gorilla enclosure will soon be bustling with baby apes.
But King Kodo, as Kidogo has come to be known, appears to have developed a fondness for the spotlight as well. To the amazement of zoogoers, the gorilla has demonstrated an unusual degree of agility -- and has even taken up tightrope walking.
"He is unbelievably athletic and acrobatic," says Petra Schwinn, director of public relations at the zoo in western Germany. "He is still young and playful. He really demonstrates a strong degree of joie de vivre." ..............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/kidogo-the-gorilla-walks-a-tightrope-in-the-krefeld-zoo-in-germany-a-875398.html
January 2, 2013
from Consortium News:
The Fallacy of Arming Up
January 1, 2013
Easy civilian access to powerful weapons is a recipe for greater domestic violence, just as an over-emphasis on military force leads to more wars, a conundrum that requires a greater commitment to both arms control and systems for resolving disputes peacefully, observes Lawrence S. Wittner.
Lawrence S. Wittner
In a number of ways, gun control issues are remarkably similar to arms control issues. People who favor gun control argue that the availability of guns facilitates the use of these weapons for murderous purposes. Arms controllers make much the same case, asserting that weapons buildups lead to arms races and wars.
Both stress the imperative of weapons controls in an era of growing technological sophistication, pointing out that assault weapons sharply increase dangers domestically, just as nuclear, chemical and biological weapons increase the dangers of a holocaust globally.
Weapons enthusiasts have also adopted a common approach. The National Rifle Association insists that weapons are harmless. According to the NRA, “people” are the problem, which can be solved by “good guys” using guns to intimidate or kill “bad guys.”
Adopting much the same position, the military-industrial complex and its fans contend that the United States is the “good guy” and needs superior armaments to deter or destroy the “bad guys” or the “bad” countries. ...........(more)
The complete piece is at: http://consortiumnews.com/2013/01/01/the-fallacy-of-arming-up/
The Fallacy of Arming Up
from Consortium News:
The Fallacy of Arming Up
January 1, 2013
Easy civilian access to powerful weapons is a recipe for greater domestic violence, just as an over-emphasis on military force leads to more wars, a conundrum that requires a greater commitment to both arms control and systems for resolving disputes peacefully, observes Lawrence S. Wittner.
Lawrence S. Wittner
In a number of ways, gun control issues are remarkably similar to arms control issues. People who favor gun control argue that the availability of guns facilitates the use of these weapons for murderous purposes. Arms controllers make much the same case, asserting that weapons buildups lead to arms races and wars.
Both stress the imperative of weapons controls in an era of growing technological sophistication, pointing out that assault weapons sharply increase dangers domestically, just as nuclear, chemical and biological weapons increase the dangers of a holocaust globally.
Weapons enthusiasts have also adopted a common approach. The National Rifle Association insists that weapons are harmless. According to the NRA, “people” are the problem, which can be solved by “good guys” using guns to intimidate or kill “bad guys.”
Adopting much the same position, the military-industrial complex and its fans contend that the United States is the “good guy” and needs superior armaments to deter or destroy the “bad guys” or the “bad” countries. ...........(more)
The complete piece is at: http://consortiumnews.com/2013/01/01/the-fallacy-of-arming-up/
January 2, 2013
from OnTheCommons.org:
The Triumph of the Commons
An excerpt from 55 Theses For the Future
By Leland Maschmeyer
But before we can redesign society,
we must first learn to
see the world as a commons.
Thesis 01
Some people see the world as a battleground, while others see it as a commons.
Thesis 09
Those who see the world as a battleground strive to suppress surprise from others. “Loose cannons” are dangerous.
Thesis 10
Those who see the world as a battleground revel in what they’ve made impossible for others. Those who see the world as a commons revel in what they have made possible with others.
Thesis 14
As in battle, as in a market economy: for every plus there must be a minus. This is the essence of profit.
Thesis 51
He who sees the world as a battleground requires an opponent. Lacking an opponent, he lacks an identity. And a future for his past.
If the previous centuries were about protecting the world from the tragedy of the commons, then this century will be about redesigning society to promote their triumph.
The Triumph of the Commons
http://onthecommons.org/magazine/triumph-commonsfrom OnTheCommons.org:
The Triumph of the Commons
An excerpt from 55 Theses For the Future
By Leland Maschmeyer
But before we can redesign society,
we must first learn to
see the world as a commons.
Thesis 01
Some people see the world as a battleground, while others see it as a commons.
Thesis 09
Those who see the world as a battleground strive to suppress surprise from others. “Loose cannons” are dangerous.
Thesis 10
Those who see the world as a battleground revel in what they’ve made impossible for others. Those who see the world as a commons revel in what they have made possible with others.
Thesis 14
As in battle, as in a market economy: for every plus there must be a minus. This is the essence of profit.
Thesis 51
He who sees the world as a battleground requires an opponent. Lacking an opponent, he lacks an identity. And a future for his past.
If the previous centuries were about protecting the world from the tragedy of the commons, then this century will be about redesigning society to promote their triumph.
January 2, 2013
http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/the_fiscal_cliff_an_opportunity_for_a_deceptive_economic_theory_20130101/?ln
via truthdig:
The Fiscal Cliff: An Opportunity for a ‘Deceptive Economic Theory’
Posted on Jan 1, 2013
Economists predicted the fighting would last six months when World War I broke out in 1914. Wars were too expensive to be sustained, and the approaching fiscal cliffs would soon enough force the nations involved to negotiate a peace treaty. But they didn’t, because those governments simply printed more money, Michael Hudson writes in the first of a series at CounterPunch.
“Their economies did not buckle and there was no major inflation” says Hudson, a University of Missouri economist and president of The Institute for the Study of Long-Term Economic Trends (ISLET). “That would happen only after the war ended, as a result of Germany trying to pay reparations in foreign currency. This is what caused its exchange rate to plunge, raising import prices and hence domestic prices. The culprit was not government spending on the war itself (much less on social programs).”
But crucial lessons from that history has gone unremembered and untold in our current fiscal debates. The influence of the financial sector has encouraged mainstream economists to tell a story of economic limitations that suits the industry’s interests.
“Holding the bottom 99 percent in debt,” Hudson continues, “the top 1 percent are now in the process of subsidizing a deceptive economic theory to persuade voters to pursue policies that benefit the financial sector at the expense of labor, industry and democratic government as we know it.”
—Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly.
The Fiscal Cliff: An Opportunity for a ‘Deceptive Economic Theory’
http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/the_fiscal_cliff_an_opportunity_for_a_deceptive_economic_theory_20130101/?ln
via truthdig:
The Fiscal Cliff: An Opportunity for a ‘Deceptive Economic Theory’
Posted on Jan 1, 2013
Economists predicted the fighting would last six months when World War I broke out in 1914. Wars were too expensive to be sustained, and the approaching fiscal cliffs would soon enough force the nations involved to negotiate a peace treaty. But they didn’t, because those governments simply printed more money, Michael Hudson writes in the first of a series at CounterPunch.
“Their economies did not buckle and there was no major inflation” says Hudson, a University of Missouri economist and president of The Institute for the Study of Long-Term Economic Trends (ISLET). “That would happen only after the war ended, as a result of Germany trying to pay reparations in foreign currency. This is what caused its exchange rate to plunge, raising import prices and hence domestic prices. The culprit was not government spending on the war itself (much less on social programs).”
But crucial lessons from that history has gone unremembered and untold in our current fiscal debates. The influence of the financial sector has encouraged mainstream economists to tell a story of economic limitations that suits the industry’s interests.
“Holding the bottom 99 percent in debt,” Hudson continues, “the top 1 percent are now in the process of subsidizing a deceptive economic theory to persuade voters to pursue policies that benefit the financial sector at the expense of labor, industry and democratic government as we know it.”
—Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly.
Michael Hudson at CounterPunch:
Wall Street lobbyists blame unemployment and the loss of industrial competitiveness on government spending and budget deficits – especially on social programs – and labor’s demand to share in the economy’s rising productivity. The myth (perhaps we should call it junk economics) is that (1) governments should not run deficits (at least, not by printing their own money), because (2) public money creation and high taxes (at lest on the wealthy) cause prices to rise. The cure for economic malaise (which they themselves have caused), is said to be less public spending, along with more tax cuts for the wealthy, who euphemize themselves as “job creators.” Demanding budget surpluses, bank lobbyists promise that banks can provide the economy with enough purchasing power to grow. Then, when this ends in crisis, they insist that austerity can squeeze out enough income to enable private-sector debts to be paid.
The reality is that when banks load the economy down with debt, this leaves less to spend on domestic goods and services while driving up housing prices (and hence the cost of living) with reckless credit creation on looser lending terms. Yet on top of this debt deflation, bank lobbyists urge fiscal deflation: budget surpluses rather than pump-priming deficits. The effect is to further reduce private-sector market demand, shrinking markets and employment. Governments fall deeper into distress, and are told to sell off land and natural resources, public enterprises, and other assets. This creates a lucrative market for bank loans to finance privatization on credit. This explains why financial lobbyists back the new buyers’ right to raise the prices they charge for basic needs, creating a united front to endorse rent extraction. The effect is to enrich the financial sector owned by the 1% in ways that indebt and privatize the economy at large – individuals, business and the government itself.
Read more
January 2, 2013
WASHINGTON -- The Federal Aviation Administration is ordering $5 million in new inspections for Boeing 737s in response to a hole larger than a football that was torn in the roof of an aging Southwest Airlines plane during a flight in July 2009.
The order, which will be published Wednesday in the Federal Register, calls for repetitive inspections for cracking in the top of the fuselage of 109 planes in the 300, 400 and 500 series. Most of these models are flown by Southwest in the U.S.
The more-thorough inspections for those planes are projected to cost up to a total of $5.2 million, and additional repairs could cost $17,765 per plane, according to the FAA.
In a statement Monday, the FAA says the agency "always evaluates the effectiveness of our safety improvements." The latest directive is "to reduce risk further and assure continued safe operation," the agency says. ..............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.freep.com/usatoday/article/1800809?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|FRONTPAGE|s
FAA orders 737 inspections to prevent fuselage holes
WASHINGTON -- The Federal Aviation Administration is ordering $5 million in new inspections for Boeing 737s in response to a hole larger than a football that was torn in the roof of an aging Southwest Airlines plane during a flight in July 2009.
The order, which will be published Wednesday in the Federal Register, calls for repetitive inspections for cracking in the top of the fuselage of 109 planes in the 300, 400 and 500 series. Most of these models are flown by Southwest in the U.S.
The more-thorough inspections for those planes are projected to cost up to a total of $5.2 million, and additional repairs could cost $17,765 per plane, according to the FAA.
In a statement Monday, the FAA says the agency "always evaluates the effectiveness of our safety improvements." The latest directive is "to reduce risk further and assure continued safe operation," the agency says. ..............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.freep.com/usatoday/article/1800809?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|FRONTPAGE|s
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