This article is well worth reading to the finish. Eye-opening information in virtually every paragraph.
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
A tangential point that doesn't get much play (if any) is that the traditional press has a stake in seeing Manning prosecuted and Wikileaks ruined, since Wikileaks was becoming a big competitor. For the traditional press, it's not that Manning leaked information - for them, it's that he leaked it to Wikileaks. They should be very careful going down that road, for reasons set out in this article. Although, the traditional press being a propaganda arm of the US government in this era, maybe they don't worry, since the likelihood of them publishing anything with a large negative impact on the government is growing slimmer and slimmer.
Saturday, March 2, 2013
Politics at Its Finest
The US State Department suggested Friday that a $7 billion Canada-to-Texas oil pipeline would have no major impact on the environment, but stopped short of recommending it be approved.
Raw Story
Raw Story
Nicely played, John. Nicely played.
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
Friday, March 1, 2013
Snip, Snip, Snip
The White House has issued a new memo guiding agencies on how to implement the $85 billion budget sequester that goes into effect on Friday.
Congress has left Washington, guaranteeing that the sequester will go into effect at least temporarily.
The memo dated Wednesday from Office of Management and Budget Controller Danny Werfel says that OMB now estimates a 9 percent cut to affected domestic agency budgets and a 13 percent cut to defense.
[...]
For the first time, OMB emphasizes that agencies should look to restrict hiring, employee bonuses and travel to meet the budget goals.
The Hill
Congress has left Washington, guaranteeing that the sequester will go into effect at least temporarily.
The memo dated Wednesday from Office of Management and Budget Controller Danny Werfel says that OMB now estimates a 9 percent cut to affected domestic agency budgets and a 13 percent cut to defense.
[...]
For the first time, OMB emphasizes that agencies should look to restrict hiring, employee bonuses and travel to meet the budget goals.
The Hill
Federal employees get bonuses? For what? Out of what money? Where are the profits to share?
Off to a Great Start
..
The leaders of the panels that cover foreign policy told The Hill they weren't briefed ahead of Secretary of State John Kerry's announcement Thursday that America would be sending $60 million worth of food and medicine directly to the rebels battling Syrian President Bashar Assad.
[...]
Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that Kerry used to chair, said his staff were talking to the State Department until 8 p.m. Wednesday to get a sense of what might be discussed at Thursday's meeting in Rome with the Syrian opposition. They were told nothing.
“So, we're going to have a little discussion with them about that,” he said. “I mean, look, we probably support the policy. But we were a little disappointed that no head's up was given. It's not a good way to start out and we want to make sure it does not happen again.”
Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he wasn't briefed, either.
The Hill
[...]
Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that Kerry used to chair, said his staff were talking to the State Department until 8 p.m. Wednesday to get a sense of what might be discussed at Thursday's meeting in Rome with the Syrian opposition. They were told nothing.
“So, we're going to have a little discussion with them about that,” he said. “I mean, look, we probably support the policy. But we were a little disappointed that no head's up was given. It's not a good way to start out and we want to make sure it does not happen again.”
Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he wasn't briefed, either.
The Hill
Off to a Great Start
A school employee in east Texas was shot on Wednesday during a district-sponsored handgun safety training class that was designed to get more guns in public schools.
The Tyler Morning Telegraph on Thursday reported that Van Independent School District school board member Leslie Goode confirmed that “there was an accident involving one of the employees today.”
According to KLTV, multiple sources identified the employee as Glenn Geddie, a maintenance worker for the district.
“At the conclusion of the CHL training on February 27, 2013, one certified person stayed for private instruction with the instructor and had a mechanical malfunction with his weapon,” Van Independent School District said in a statement. “With the assistance of the instructor, the malfunction was addressed, but the gun misfired and the bullet ricocheted coming back to strike the VISD employee in the left leg.”
Raw Story
The Tyler Morning Telegraph on Thursday reported that Van Independent School District school board member Leslie Goode confirmed that “there was an accident involving one of the employees today.”
According to KLTV, multiple sources identified the employee as Glenn Geddie, a maintenance worker for the district.
“At the conclusion of the CHL training on February 27, 2013, one certified person stayed for private instruction with the instructor and had a mechanical malfunction with his weapon,” Van Independent School District said in a statement. “With the assistance of the instructor, the malfunction was addressed, but the gun misfired and the bullet ricocheted coming back to strike the VISD employee in the left leg.”
Raw Story
Manning Update
Private First Class Bradley Manning, 25, entered the pleas on Thursday prior to his court martial, which is set to begin on June 3, in a case that centres on the biggest leak of government secrets in US history.
"I believe that if the general public ... had access to the information ... this could spark a domestic debate as to the role of the military and foreign policy in general," Manning, dressed in full military uniform, testified calmly.
The US soldier pleaded not guilty to the most serious charge, aiding the enemy, through his attorney.
Manning, who has been jailed at Quantico Marine Base in Virginia for more than 1,000 days, could face life imprisonment if convicted of that charge.
He pleaded guilty to a series of 10 lesser charges that he misused classified information at the hearing before military judge Colonel Denise Lind.
He faces a maximum of 20 years in prison for those charges.
alJazeera
"I believe that if the general public ... had access to the information ... this could spark a domestic debate as to the role of the military and foreign policy in general," Manning, dressed in full military uniform, testified calmly.
The US soldier pleaded not guilty to the most serious charge, aiding the enemy, through his attorney.
Manning, who has been jailed at Quantico Marine Base in Virginia for more than 1,000 days, could face life imprisonment if convicted of that charge.
He pleaded guilty to a series of 10 lesser charges that he misused classified information at the hearing before military judge Colonel Denise Lind.
He faces a maximum of 20 years in prison for those charges.
alJazeera
Thursday, February 28, 2013
If Only
Whatever happens tomorrow, the utter failure of sequestration to do what it is designed to do is of a piece with the previous failures of the Gang Of Six, the Gang Of 12, and the king of all revered utter failures, Simpson-Bowles, which still has most of official Washington feeding Vaal at every turn in service to a commission that couldn't even muster a majority of its own membership, Whatever happens tomorrow, the utter failure of sequestration to do what it was supposed to do — namely, to be so utterly horrifying that it would force a deal — should bring an end to government by gimmick
Charlie Pierce
Charlie Pierce
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Of Course They Did
The Obama justice department succeeded in convincing the five right-wing Supreme Court justices to dismiss a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the 2008 law, the FISA Amendments Act, which vastly expanded the government's authority to eavesdrop on Americans without warrants. In the case of Clapper v. Amnesty International, Justice Samuel Alito wrote the opinion, released today, which adopted the argument of the Obama DOJ, while the Court's four less conservative justices (Ginsberg, Breyer, Sotomayor and Kagan) all dissented. This means that the lawsuit is dismissed without any ruling on whether the US government's new eavesdropping powers violate core constitutional rights.
UK Guardian
UK Guardian
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
That and the Nobel Peace Prize
Now meaningless.
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
President Barack Obama accepted an award for making the government more open and transparent – presented to him behind closed doors with no media coverage or public access allowed.
The discrepancy between the honor and the circumstances under which it was delivered bothered open-government advocates in attendance, they said Thursday. They were even more perturbed when they discovered later that the meeting hadn't even been listed on Obama's public schedule, so there was no way for anyone to know about it.
"To have such a meeting not be transparent is the height of irony. How absurd can that be?" said one participant.
Huffington Post
The discrepancy between the honor and the circumstances under which it was delivered bothered open-government advocates in attendance, they said Thursday. They were even more perturbed when they discovered later that the meeting hadn't even been listed on Obama's public schedule, so there was no way for anyone to know about it.
"To have such a meeting not be transparent is the height of irony. How absurd can that be?" said one participant.
Huffington Post
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
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