Read the New York Times – Sunday edition..
The NYT will tomorrow run a new Lichblau piece exposing how the FBI spied on not only terror suspects within the United States, but also apparently anyone they happened to come in contact with: The F.B.I. cast a much wider net in its terrorism investigations than it has previously acknowledged by relying on telecommunications companies to [...]
Tags: Domestic Spying, Terror Suspects
Categories: Uncategorized
Just in case you’ve been away from any media contact today, here’s a quick update on the big story..
A suicide car bomber detonated his explosives-packed Mercedes near a row of stores in the Shiite militia stronghold of Sadr City on Saturday, killing at least 15 people, police and hospital officials said. The attack in the eastern Baghdad enclave came as at least 36 other people were killed or [...]
Tags: Suicide Bomber, Sadr City, Iraq Bombings
Categories: Uncategorized
This story is actually a few months old. I heard Thom Hartmann read parts of it on his radio show this morning. The event actually happened around Memorial Day. Still, it’s a classic story you’ll likely want to share..
Tags: KKK, Ku Klux Klan
Categories: Uncategorized
This is real reporting. Teams of reporters on the street, talking with the people living the story. Good work, New York Times..
BAGHDAD, Sept. 8 – Seven months after the American-led troop "surge" began, Baghdad has experienced modest security gains that have neither reversed the city’s underlying sectarian dynamic nor created a unified and trusted national government. Improvements have been [...]
Tags: Iraq War, Baghdad, New York Times
Categories: Uncategorized
One of those stories that may not be completely told for years. It may take a Watergate-type investigation to come up with a "Deep Throat" who knows and is willing to say. For now, it remains one of the great mysteries..
Fred Kaplan raises an fascinating point in his new article about the disbanding of the Saddam-era Iraqi Army. We know Paul Bremer didn’t come up with the idea. But who did? I’m not sure I realized this. But I guess [...]
Tags: Iraqi Army, Paul Bremer, Iraq War
Categories: Uncategorized
First of all, forget what I said in a post down below about the heat. I just ran a couple of errands and, I’m afraid, it’s like walking into a humid furnace out there. I know it’s not as hot as in recent weeks, but the humidity is horrible. I think it’s indoor chores for the remainder of the afternoon…
The New York Times reports today that “General Petraeus arrived quietly on Tuesday night” in military housing in Ft. Myer, VA, “with a small team that included his brain trust.” “He has spent long hours in those quarters studying three large binders of classified statistics, maps and analysis, and will head to the Pentagon on [...]
Categories: Uncategorized
Ah, from the past comes new research..
It seems there was an attempt to reconvene the Iraq Study Group. You remember it. The somewhat bipartisan group that last December, after nine months of work, offered 79 recommendations to the Cheney-Bush Administration for changing Iraq Policy. Almost all of which were ignored. But, writes Robin Wright in the Washington Post today, Mister Bush kept the reconvening from occurring by dissuading James Baker III from participating. So, the U.S. Institute for Peace did a go-around and got together many of the experts from the ISG, "two dozen former U.S. officials and ambassadors, former CIA analysts, and Iraq specialists from think tanks and universities" who drafted another set of recommendations under the scintillating title "Iraq: A Time for Change." The panel’s report will be released tomorrow. Among other things, it calls for [...]
Tags: Iraq Study Group
Categories: Uncategorized
Advice is okay, but this is really going too far.
Talk2Action: It’s easy for some to assume that Bush’s nods to the religious right are a matter of lip service over substance. But on matters of Supreme Court nominees, for one, it is clear that the President did more than that. From evangelism at the Pentagon to the selection of judicial [...]
Tags: Pat Robertson, John Roberts, Bush Administration, Supreme Court
Categories: Uncategorized
Another Republican Senator is quitting. Opening the door for a Democrat to have a good shot at picking up the seat. But, beyond that, there are other implications to think about…
With news that Sen. Chuck Hagel is calling it quits, I’m reminded of just how far the Republicans have traveled down the road of perfidy. Without Hagel, do you know who the second ranking member of the Foreign Relations committee is? It’s former Chattanooga mayor, Bob Corker. That’s right…if Lugar gets sick or retires, a freshman know-nothing senator from Tennessee will be in charge of overseeing the State Department and foreign relations for the GOP. It’s hard to drop further in stature and experience than Lugar-to-Corker. But that’s the way [...]
And, a few additional thoughts..
So Chuck Hagel is out. That’s too bad. He’s a Republican so needless to say I didn’t agree with every vote he made, but he was an early and courageous critic of the occupation and he always struck me as an honorable man who acted more on conscience and principle than on politics — a rarity in the current political class. We need Republicans like him in office. I’m sorry to see him go but [...]
Tags: Hagel Retiring, Lugar, Corker, Foreign Relations Committee
Categories: Uncategorized
Read the New York Times – Sunday edition..
The NYT will tomorrow run a new Lichblau piece exposing how the FBI spied on not only terror suspects within the United States, but also apparently anyone they happened to come in contact with: The F.B.I. cast a much wider net in its terrorism investigations than it has previously acknowledged by relying on telecommunications companies to [...]
Tags: Domestic Spying, Terror Suspects
Categories: Uncategorized
Saturday rolls on. Football on TV, fresh gulf shrimp in the refrigerator, beautiful peppers from the market – they’ll go on the grill tonight to accompany the shrimp..and it’s just a tad bit cooler outside. Not nice enough yet for lengthy walks, but certainly better than the 100 degree stuff that acted like it had taken up permanent residence around here.
From my email, a link to a fascinating, but frightening, followup to that strange case where a B-52 with live nuclear warheads was flown from North Dakota to Louisiana recently.
Was a Covert Attempt to Bomb Iran with Nuclear Weapons foiled by a Military Leak?
Three key questions emerge over the B-52 incident. First, why did Air Force personnel at Minot AFB not spot the ‘error’ earlier given the elaborate security procedures in place to prevent such mistakes from occurring? Many military analysts have commented on the stringent security procedures in place to prevent this sort of mistake from occurring. Multiple officers are routinely involved in [...]
Tags: B-52, Nuclear Weapons, Iran Attack
Categories: Uncategorized
Just in case you’ve been away from any media contact today, here’s a quick update on the big story..
A suicide car bomber detonated his explosives-packed Mercedes near a row of stores in the Shiite militia stronghold of Sadr City on Saturday, killing at least 15 people, police and hospital officials said. The attack in the eastern Baghdad enclave came as at least 36 other people were killed or [...]
Tags: Suicide Bomber, Sadr City, Iraq Bombings
Categories: Uncategorized
This story is actually a few months old. I heard Thom Hartmann read parts of it on his radio show this morning. The event actually happened around Memorial Day. Still, it’s a classic story you’ll likely want to share..
Tags: KKK, Ku Klux Klan
Categories: Uncategorized
This is real reporting. Teams of reporters on the street, talking with the people living the story. Good work, New York Times..
BAGHDAD, Sept. 8 – Seven months after the American-led troop "surge" began, Baghdad has experienced modest security gains that have neither reversed the city’s underlying sectarian dynamic nor created a unified and trusted national government. Improvements have been [...]
Tags: Iraq War, Baghdad, New York Times
Categories: Uncategorized
Yeah, try to explain this without accepting global warming. Just try. We woke up this morning, turned on the TV and this was the first story we heard. Almost dropped my cup of coffee…
Here’s something to chew on over night. In less than 50 years, 43 actually, most polar bears will be wiped out. Gone: "Two-thirds of the world’s polar bears will disappear by 2050, even under moderate projections for shrinking summer sea ice caused by greenhouse gases in [...]
Tags: Polar Bears, Global Warming, Greenhouse Gases
Categories: Uncategorized
One of those stories that may not be completely told for years. It may take a Watergate-type investigation to come up with a "Deep Throat" who knows and is willing to say. For now, it remains one of the great mysteries..
Fred Kaplan raises an fascinating point in his new article about the disbanding of the Saddam-era Iraqi Army. We know Paul Bremer didn’t come up with the idea. But who did? I’m not sure I realized this. But I guess [...]
Tags: Iraqi Army, Paul Bremer, Iraq War
Categories: Uncategorized
First of all, forget what I said in a post down below about the heat. I just ran a couple of errands and, I’m afraid, it’s like walking into a humid furnace out there. I know it’s not as hot as in recent weeks, but the humidity is horrible. I think it’s indoor chores for the remainder of the afternoon…
The New York Times reports today that “General Petraeus arrived quietly on Tuesday night” in military housing in Ft. Myer, VA, “with a small team that included his brain trust.” “He has spent long hours in those quarters studying three large binders of classified statistics, maps and analysis, and will head to the Pentagon on [...]
Categories: Uncategorized
The ratings battle between Keith Olbermann and Bill O’Reilly is generating a lot of chatter, particularly on the media blogs. It gets a bit "insider" in nature, but some of you will find it interesting. Make sure you read the comments in the post below…
TVNewser writes that Countdown came close to beating The O’Reilly Factor last night and broke out quarter hour numbers as evidence. I’m not convinced of the persuasiveness of this entry. Using quarter hours as a benchmark seems like shaky methodology to me at best. O’Reilly still won the hour so it really doesn’t matter what [...]
By the way, welcome to Saturday. We’ll see how much time I can carve out, but posts may be a bit light. However, on the upside, this doesn’t look as crazy as last weekend!
Tags: Olbermann, O’Reilly, TV Ratings
Categories: Uncategorized
Advice is okay, but this is really going too far.
Talk2Action: It’s easy for some to assume that Bush’s nods to the religious right are a matter of lip service over substance. But on matters of Supreme Court nominees, for one, it is clear that the President did more than that. From evangelism at the Pentagon to the selection of judicial [...]
Tags: Pat Robertson, John Roberts, Bush Administration, Supreme Court
Categories: Uncategorized
Another Republican Senator is quitting. Opening the door for a Democrat to have a good shot at picking up the seat. But, beyond that, there are other implications to think about…
With news that Sen. Chuck Hagel is calling it quits, I’m reminded of just how far the Republicans have traveled down the road of perfidy. Without Hagel, do you know who the second ranking member of the Foreign Relations committee is? It’s former Chattanooga mayor, Bob Corker. That’s right…if Lugar gets sick or retires, a freshman know-nothing senator from Tennessee will be in charge of overseeing the State Department and foreign relations for the GOP. It’s hard to drop further in stature and experience than Lugar-to-Corker. But that’s the way [...]
And, a few additional thoughts..
So Chuck Hagel is out. That’s too bad. He’s a Republican so needless to say I didn’t agree with every vote he made, but he was an early and courageous critic of the occupation and he always struck me as an honorable man who acted more on conscience and principle than on politics — a rarity in the current political class. We need Republicans like him in office. I’m sorry to see him go but [...]
Tags: Hagel Retiring, Lugar, Corker, Foreign Relations Committee
Categories: Uncategorized
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