10questions.com launches

The House has failed to override President Bush's veto of a bill expanding a children's health insurance program.

Monkey

I assume this is a demonstration of the famous Family Values.

Mukasey leaves door open for waterboarding
U.S. attorney general nominee declines to declare procedure torture

WASHINGTON - In an intense exchange Thursday with three Democrats, President Bush's nominee for attorney general left the door open for allowing a terrorism-era interrogation technique that simulates drowning.

Michael Mukasey, a retired federal judge, issued highly-conditioned statements that so-called waterboarding violates the Constitution only if it is defined as torture.

The answer is unclear.

In an executive order this summer, Bush allowed the use of some harsh interrogation techniques but his administration refused to say whether waterboarding was among them. Congress has banned waterboarding as part of a detainee treatment law.

Torture or not?
During Thursday's proceedings, Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin probed for Mukasey's opinion.

"I'm hoping that you can at least look at this one technique and say: that clearly constitutes torture, it should not be the policy of the United States to engage in waterboarding," said the Illinois Democrat.

"It is not constitutional for the United States to engage in torture in any form, be it waterboarding or anything else," Mukasey replied.

Under subsequent questioning by Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., Mukasey said the practice of waterboarding, if defined as torture, can't be permitted by the president.

"If it is torture as defined by the Constitution, or defined by constitutional standards, it can't be authorized," Mukasey said.

Judiciary Committee members, most lawyers themselves, have little tolerance for parsing after earlier hearings in which then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on dozens of occasions either did not answer questions or blamed a faulty memory for not answering them.

"Is waterboarding constitutional?" pressed Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I. "It either is or it isn't."

Mukasey again demurred, saying he doesn't know what's involved in the technique.

"If it amounts to torture, it is not constitutional," the nominee replied.

"I'm very disappointed in that answer," Whitehouse said. "I think it's purely semantics."

Mukasey uninformed?
The president himself has repeatedly said "We don't torture" and argued that intense interrogations are sometimes necessary to elicit information about terrorist plots.

The White House suggested Thursday that Mukasey's answers were vague because he does not know the specifics of the program.

"Judge Mukasey is not in a position to discuss interrogation techniques which are necessarily classified," said White House spokesman Tony Fratto. "He would only be read-in to classified programs after being confirmed."

more...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21364435/

I am at the Rayburn building, feeling ill after listening to Dana Rohrbacher spin torture and rendition as something akin to medical malpractice:

"Mistakes will happen."

Live blog here:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/10/18/142256/04

Background info:

http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/02/14/050214fa_fact6

US Army Advertises For Recruits On Gay Website
By Andrea Stone, USA TODAY
The Army, Navy and Air Force unwittingly advertised for recruits on a website for gays, who are barred from military service if they are open about their sexual orientation.
When informed Tuesday by USA TODAY that they were advertising on GLEE.com, a networking website for gay professionals, recruiters expressed surprise and said they would remove the job listings.

"This is the first I've heard about it," said Maj. Michael Baptista, advertising branch chief for the Army National Guard, which will spend $6.5 million on Internet recruiting this year. "We didn't knowingly advertise on that particular website," which he said does not "meet the moral standards" of the military.

Capt. Jack Hanzlik, a Navy recruiting spokesman, said his service ordered more than 8,000 ads taken off GLEE, which stands for Gay, Lesbian & Everyone Else. By late Wednesday, most were gone.

Marine Corps ads on GLEE were only for two civilian jobs not covered by the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy, which allows gays to serve in uniform only if they keep quiet about their sexual orientation.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-10-17-gayads_N.htm

Karen... Dana Rohrabacher makes me physically ill every time I look at him, and wehen he opens his pie-hole, I toss my cookies.

He's everything that's wrong with America, but what do I know, everything I said would happen since 2000 actually has, and worse.

Global warming
Rohrabacher does not believe that the current global warming is manmade. During a congressional hearing on climate change on February 8, 2007, Rohrabacher joked that previous warming cycles may have been caused by carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere by "dinosaur flatulence."

War in Iraq
Rohrabacher has taken a strong pro-war stance.

No Military Service
Rohrabacher was of draft age during Vietnam but avoided service. To help him earn a deferment he brought an X-ray of a hip he injured in high school football to his draft physical. Yet his own Website boasts of his continued surfing, when his crippled hip apparently gives him no trouble.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_Rohrabacher

from http://www.americanprogress.org

HEALTH CARE
The Anti-Family Planning Czar
On Monday, President Bush appointed Susan Orr Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Population Affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), a position that gives her oversight of federal family planning programs. Orr, who is currently directing HHS child welfare programs, was touted by the administration as "highly qualified." Before joining HHS, Orr served as senior director for marriage and family care at the conservative Family Research Council, which opposes family planning, and was an adjunct professor at Pat Robertson's Regent University. In her new role, Orr, who considers contraceptives part of the "culture of death," will be responsible for "HHS's $283 million reproductive-health program, a $30 million program that encourages abstinence among teenagers, and HHS's Office of Population Affairs, which funds birth control, pregnancy tests, counseling, and screenings for sexually transmitted diseases and HIV." Given Orr's record of opposition to comprehensive family planning services, women's rights and reproductive health advocates are speaking out strongly against her appointment. "We are appalled," said Mary Jane Gallagher, president of the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association. "While her resume suggests a commitment to child welfare and children, her professional credentials fail to demonstrate a commitment to comprehensive family planning services for all men and women in need." Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) called her appointment "absurd." Referring to her as "a virulently anti-family planning radical," Planned Parenthood has circulated a petition opposing Orr. Unfortunately, though, appointing Orr as an "acting" secretary allows the administration to sidestep the need for Senate confirmation.

A RECORD AGAINST FAMILY PLANNING: In 2001, Orr embraced a Bush administration proposal to "stop requiring all health insurance plans for federal employees" to cover a broad range of birth control. "We're quite pleased, because fertility is not a disease," said Orr. At the 2001 Conservative Political Action Conference, Orr cheered Bush's endorsement of former President Ronald Reagan's "Mexico City Policy," which required NGOs receiving federal funds to "neither perform nor actively promote abortion as a method of family planning in other nations." In a 2000 Weekly Standard article, Orr railed against requiring health insurance plans to cover contraceptives. "It's not about choice," said Orr. "It's not about health care. It's about making everyone collaborators with the culture of death." In 2000, she authored a paper titled, "Real Women Stay Married." In it, she wrote that women should "think about focusing our eyes, not upon ourselves, but upon the families we form through marriage." In 1999, Orr referred to child protection as "the most intrusive arm of social services." Her former employer, the Family Research Council, which championed her appointment yesterday, equates contraception with abortion.

BUSH'S PATTERN OF RADICAL APPOINTMENTS: Orr is the latest in a long line of Bush administration appointments promoting "a conservative political agenda" that often "runs counter to well-established science." In 2002, Bush appointed W. David Hager, an obstetrician-gynecologist considered "a leading conservative Christian voice on women's health and sexuality," to the Advisory Committee for Reproductive Health Drugs in the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In his position, Hager "played a key role" in convincing the FDA to overrule the advisory committee's recommendations and to initially reject allowing emergency contraception, known as Plan B, from being made available over the counter. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists called that decision a "dark stain on the reputation of an evidence-based agency like the FDA." In Nov. 2006, Bush appointed Eric Keroack to the same position Orr plans to fill. Before the appointment, Keroack was the medical director at A Woman's Concern, a Christian pregnancy counseling group that "supports sexual abstinence until marriage, opposes contraception and does not distribute information promoting birth control at its six centers in eastern Massachusetts." In March 2007, Keroack resigned from the position to defend himself from accusations of medical fraud.

CONSERVATIVE ASSAULT ON FAMILY PLANNING: These appointments are merely part of a larger conservative assault on family planning. In January, Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) introduced the Title X Family Planning Act, a bill to amend the Public Health Service Act, prohibiting family planning grants from being awarded to an entity that performs abortions, despite the fact that federal law already prohibits clinics from spending Title X money on abortion services. A similar restriction was attached to the House Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education spending bill, but the measure was soundly defeated. The House bill did include, however, an additional $28 million federal funding for abstinence-only education, which dictates discussing contraceptives only in terms of failure rates while often exaggerating them. The Bush administration recently launched a national ad campaign promoting abstinence-only education, despite a recent federal report concluded that such programs have had "no impacts on rates of sexual abstinence." In March, a new federal law "eliminated price breaks for many university student health centers, driving the cost of some birth-control products from less than $10 a month to $50 or more."

MORE FASCISM: Ann Wright and Medea Benjamin refused entry into Canada/ they are on the FBI watch list.

(BTW sadly, it looks like Ann Goodman, the interviewer, has had a stroke - the right side of her face is not moving)

Why does Senator Clinton have to laugh at very serious questions??

I left off the copyright / fair use reminder when I redid the website but perhaps I should put it back.

We put the DCP at risk when complete articles are posted in violation of fair use/copyright laws. Please summarize in your own words, select an excerpt that supports your point and include a link to the complete article.

Thanks

Sorry, Hill,

Here is another very well made video tracking your flip-flopping, triangulating, ever-shifting, changing and adapting positions (and also, BTW, completely ludicrous and indefensible ) on the war in Iraq to suit the current conditions in the American electorate. How any candidate with such an incoherent record and history could be the leading candidate and the odds on favorite to be the next president is truly shocking and almost unbelievable. The only explanation I have is your last name, "CLINTON".

Re: Dana Rohrbacher

He represents EVERYTHING that is wrong with Southern California values - especially the reactionary Orange County values.

Unfortunately, Orange is the second largest county in the state, by population. The Dems ignore Orange County at their own peril.

And at the risk of sounding like a broken record, I will emphasize that Orange County is reactionary, not DESPITE the large presence of Third World immigrants, but BECAUSE of them.

Lou Sheldon's Traditional Values Coalition, based in Anaheim, is heavily dependent on Latino homophobes.

The Orange County Republican Party is heavily dependent on Korean and Vietnamese immigrants.

And note the pathetic nationalities that still think George W. Bush's America is the greatest country on earth...

And just like Rohrbacher, we Californicators continue to buy Hummers en masse - and make sure to put any leftover "VIVA BUSH" bumper stickers and "NOT OF THIS WORLD" window decals on them.

You just have to love this reactionary filth of a half-state.

And don't EVEN tell me to support the troops when the branches of the military are so anti-LGBT.

You can accuse me of being anti-troops now. And I'm damn proud of it.

Privatizing Terror, Outsourcing Diplomacy

By Wajahat Ali

"Isn't it interesting that the same government individual, who has been reported by one investigative committee to have made the initial decision for Blackwater to get its first contract, is the brother of the current State Department Inspector General, who was found, by the same committee, to have intervened in preventing an investigation into Blackwater's illegal activity?"

http://www.counterpunch.org/ali10132007.html

Ralph
Thanks for the video on Ann Wright and Medea Benjamin being on an FBI list of convicted criminals. This is appalling. But the good thing is that these two women are far more gutsy and intelligence than the entire White House Administration, and the FBI itself. The more your government does this to people, the more people there are to mistrust and hate the current crop of High Profile Criminals hiding in the WH.

Ralph, can I also say that the videos with questions are mostly less than a minute long. Many less than 30 seconds. This is what they should be. Your 9+ minutes of Hillary in several videos, don't really belong there I didn't think. In fact, to get to the questions I skipped those ones completely.

I did enjoy, most of the videos with the questions. On the whole, very good questions. Hopefully the candidates will actually answer them.

Did Amy Goodman of "Democracy Now" have some kind of stroke? I was truly saddened to see this hard-working journalist have this very disfiguring problem. I noticed that her right eye did not blink and the lips on the right side of her mouth did not seem to be working.

With regard to questions of the candidates - Biden, Dodd, Hillary all have records in the Senate to judge their suitability to be the nominee. Kucinich has his record in the House - which is quite good, but, of course, too liberal....

Amy Goodman DID NOT have a stroke:

Best Answer - Chosen by Voters
On October 2, 2007, Goodman said on air that she had Bell's palsy, a temporary paralysis of the face.

* 6 days ago

Karen:

I think the torture question is the key question. It is the one question that puts the entire meaning of "the last best hope" right on the table -- face up. My position is that torture is wrong - period. Even if it saves lives. It's a matter of live free or die" as they used to say on New Hampshire license plates (as an aside, I always used to wonders if prisoners used to have to stamp those out). If some people, even me, get kiled because we refuse to torture, I say that is the price of liberty. That is what my ancestors fought and died for and that is what I would not forfeit. This is where moral values transcend the calculus of risk. It is a good place to make a stand.

It is non-partisan.

I hope that makes sense.

Chuck in Houston

Hey Ralpheh:

Thank's for the Hillary footage. I never get much of a chance to watch TV so on the DCP your videos give me a window into what I am missing. Boy, Senator Clinton is great! The more I see of her the more I like her. I used to be a bit ambivalent but thanks to people like you I am becoming a true believer. All my GOP friends at work have already resigned themselves to the fact that she may win, which I find very heartening.

Thanks and keep up the good work,

Chuck in Houston

Ralpheh:

I especially enjoy the laugh videos. I hope this is OK from the PC police POV, but, speaking as a heterosexual male (or however you spell that), I find smart women with a hearty laugh to be very sexy.
(Dear moderators -- I apologize if that remark is out of line -- it is intended as a atatement of fact witouht malice.)

Chuck in Houston

And without spell check

Bell's Palsy - it disfigured my face in Feb 2006, and hasn't completely gone away even now.

Chuck: DCP is much more tolerant of controversial remarks than, say, DU or Kos. DU and Kos won't even have my immigrant community truths, because it's not PC.

Chuck
There are alot of things I like about Bill and Hillary.

Chuck,

The Republicans in my immediate social circles do firmly believe that Hillary will win. The Republican candidate lot is not all that pretty, even to them.

Between an aging Cold War relic, a Mormon, and a womanizer, the choice isn't too appetizing.

HEY CHUCK,

Is Hillary a Democrat, or a Republican disguised as a Democrat...???

You got a bad case of HIllary LUV.. and many in this forum had a bad case of Kerry LUV.. and you no what happened there...

Couple more stories on military high schools:
http://silencedmajority.blogs.com/silenced_majority_portal/2007/10/addendumupdate-.html

Nyc rocks for putting up the Clash video!!

This may help, for the election:

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

Hey Chuck,

I think laughing and cackling about war with Iran is really a breath of fresh air. NONE of the other candidates can cackle at the prospect of war Iran like Hillary - and do it so convincingly. And her cackling and laughing must re-assure the people in our military, the Iranians and the world generally that we, the USA, are mulling over the possibility of yet another military engagement. Her ability to laugh and cackle during national debates and interviews, by itself, makes her THE CHOICE for the oval office in 2009.

Ralph in Rustbelt

Hey Ralpheh:

Senator Clinton is a moderate democrat, same as me, as far as I can tell. And, truth be told, a moderate Republican, like, say, Chuck Hagel or Joe Biden, would not be too objectionable to me, if only because it meant that the core of the GOP apparatus was OK with reasonable compromise.

On the Kerry thing, I am sorry, but I drew a blank -- what do you mean "what happened there"? Do you mean why JK lost? If that is what you meant, do you mean that we should reject our principles in order to win? If that is not the case, which principles of John Kerry do you think caused our loss?

Chuck in Houston

Ralph:

Roger that. The whole concept of Iran confronting us is laughable. Russia is a different matter but we have a lot of experience with that one.

Chuck in Houston

Ralph, can I also say that the videos with questions are mostly less than a minute long. Many less than 30 seconds. This is what they should be. Your 9+ minutes of Hillary in several videos, don't really belong there I didn't think. In fact, to get to the questions I skipped those ones completely.

@@@@@@

At this point, I really don't care if they ask my question. I already know that Hillary is misleading and lying about her record. Nothing that she will say, can alter or change her vote in 2002, her support of Bush on Iraq in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005. The die has been cast by Hillary; and Hillary has failed the test of leadership....

Furthermore, Hillary will do her best to avoid answering questions on Iraq.

Just as George Bush does his utmost to avoid defining torture.

With my long videos, I am kind of like the kid who got tasered in Florida for asking 3 long questions.. LOL

Actually, belay that thought ... the situation is more nuanced than that in my opinion. I need to smoke on that and dad gum it I quit about a month ago. Bad on me.

Chuck in Houston

I hate not smoking

Chuck
Congrats on not smoking. My husband quit for awhile and started again in France because he got a sciatica attack and was in pain plus there were smokers everywhere. They can no longer smoke in the workplace but the thing about not smoking in cafes and bars hasn't hit yet. When he came home he went back on the patch and the sciatica is getting better. I know it's hard though - supposed to be harder than heroin or cocaine.

Ralpheh
I'll be seeing Hillary next Monday. Let me know if there is anything ou want me to ask for her but don't make it too long as I don't really relish getting tasered!

Ralpheh:

"Hillary will do her best to avoid answering questions on Iraq" -- well, whoop-dee-doo- where is the friggin' answer you want among the alternatives? And which one is giving it? And don't tell me "none-of-the-above" because there will be one-of-the-above. I can Gah-Ruhn-Tee you that, as they say in LA.

Chuck in Houston
(expat Oregonian)

Senator Clinton is a moderate democrat, same as me, as far as I can tell. And, truth be told, a moderate Republican, like, say, Chuck Hagel or Joe Biden, would not be too objectionable to me, if only because it meant that the core of the GOP apparatus was OK with reasonable compromise.

@@@@@@@@@@@@

I find her to be a moderate Republican, who will support a stupid war based lies.

In essence, she has aided and abetted George Bush in murder and war crimes.

She has no courage, principles or foresight!!!! JUST THE RIGHT CANDIDATE!!

NMP:

As Mark Twain said, there is nothig easier than quiting smoking. I've done it so many times I've lost count (or words to that effect).

Ralpheh:

I do not know the woman. I have learned to never judge anything categorically that I do not know from personal experience. I have learned that the hard way. From all I have seen, Senator Clinton, as Senator Kerry, as President Clinton, represent the direction I would like to see my country go in. I do not judge the personality of people I do not know from first hand experience. I have found that to be a good rule in life.

Chuck in Houston

Ralpheh
I'll be seeing Hillary next Monday. Let me know if there is anything ou want me to ask for her but don't make it too long as I don't really relish getting tasered!
October 19, 2007 12:47 AM

@@@@

Well isn't that special. You can do some observation work:

1) see how many times Hillary laughs inappropriately and artificially

2) see if Code Pink does a protest and how roughly and quickly Hillary's goons take them away

3) see how many lurking and positioning Republicans are in the audience, getting in with the "winner"

4) and wouldn't it be great if Bill made a surprise appearence.. wow... the ex-president and the future president, in the same room,
thrilling....

have fun... and pray for the troops - according to Hill, they will be there in Iraq until 2013

Chuck I agree totally on the torture question. To my mind, torture no matter what it's termed as, makes the torturers nation as bad as the enemy we are supposed to oppose. We can only stand up against true evil if we ourselves are beyond reproach.

Amnesty International has almost as many complaints against the US these days as they have against brutal regimes such as in Myanmar. And when Bush voices concern about the way civilians are treated elsewhere it would be laughable if he were truly serious. He has no regard whatsoever to the rights of the individual. Americans do not have democracy now. Nor do you have freedom. When people like Medea and Ann are prevented from entering a country and treated like convicted criminals, there is NO FREEDOM in the US.

Ralpheh:

I am sorry to be blunt, but everything you just posted above is irresponsible speculation. You cannot back up a single aspersion that you cast. Do you hate anyone but Senator Clinton in this life? I am just curious. I'd like to see some examples.

Chuck in Houton

Ralpheh:

Oh, excuse me, I forgot. You hate Senator Kerry too. And President Clinton.

Dukaksis?

Mondale?

I mean, I am a yellow-dog Democrat, so I wil never condemn someone for being partisan, but at least I admit it. That is called honesty where I come from.

Chuck in Houston

Woz:

Freedom is so just like another word for nothing left to loose. The USA is a very powerful country. The USA is more than that: it is the most powerful country in the world by several levels of magnitude. For exactly that reason we all need to take heed of what Lincoln said about the last best hope. All our asses are in this together, to be blunt. I do not see the way out. Everything I have seen leads me to be skeptical of any claim that the way out is clear. I am actually depressed, but I think that may be a consequence of the factr that I quit smoking.

Chuck in Houston

Tobacco that is

This here's a story 'bout a man named Jed
Poor country boy tryin' to keep his family fed
One day Jed was out shootin' at some food
When up came came a well of bubbling crude

Oil, that is

Texas Tea

Black Gold

Next thing you know now Jed's a millionaire
His kin-folk said "Jed -- move away from here.
"California is the place you ought to be."
So he packed up his kit and he moved to Beverly

Hills, that is...

I love Flatt and Scruggs

Criminal Probe Underway Into US Embassy Construction In Baghdad

WASHINGTON — A mortar shell smashed into the hulking new U.S. Embassy that's under construction in Baghdad last May, damaging a wall and causing minor injuries to people inside the building. It also exposed enormous problems in the management of what's become a $592 million government construction project.

The State Department contractor in charge of the project, James L. Golden, attempted to alter the scene of the blast, according to government officials familiar with the incident. The State Department inspector general prevented Department officials from investigating the incident, according to interviews and documents.

A congressional committee is examining whether the walls of the still-unfinished embassy complex, which are supposed to be blast-resistant, performed as they should have during the mortar attack.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/20676.html

Chuck
I identify with Mark Twain re quitting smoking being easy. I've had many hospitalisations (nothing to do with smoking). In one year I went to hospital 16 times for a week each time. I quit smoking when I went in and took it up again when I came home.

And finally it priced itself right out of my budget and that made it much easier. It simply wasn't an option any more. I've been off them since August 2002 and I rarely think of it now. However, around people who smoke, I could easily ask for one. But I don't.

Most fake bombs missed by screeners
Airport Screeners At LAX Missed 75 Percent Of Fake Bombs
By Thomas Frank, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — Security screeners at two of the nation's busiest airports failed to find fake bombs hidden on undercover agents posing as passengers in more than 60% of tests last year, according to a classified report obtained by USA TODAY.
Screeners at Los Angeles International Airport missed about 75% of simulated explosives and bomb parts that Transportation Security Administration testers hid under their clothes or in carry-on bags at checkpoints, the TSA report shows.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-10-17-airport-security_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip

rossi - I had a friend come down to Tassie from Brisbane a week ago. She booked her flight on the net and got her boarding pass. When she went to the airport she didn't have luggage so she just went straight through to board the plane. There are dogs and things down here at the airport. They don't care what you take out of Tasmania - they just don't want you to bring fruit and other things.

Security at Brisbane was pretty slack it seemed.

http://www.americanprogress.org/cartoons/2007/10/101807_football.html

I SO wish this didn't smack of reality.....

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/19/washington/19nsa.html
Panel Approves Eavesdropping Compromise
Excerpts:

House Democrats said Thursday that, unlike their counterparts on the Senate Intelligence Committee, they still had not been given access to classified internal documents related to the origins and framework of the N.S.A. program after months of requests. House officials made it clear in interviews that without access to those documents they would be unwilling even to consider immunity for the telecommunications companies.
~~~~~
Mr. Feingold, who had a staff member review the classified documents at a secure location earlier in the week, came away with a different impression. Mr. Feingold said, “The documents made available by the White House for the first time this week only further demonstrate that the program was illegal and that there is no basis for granting retroactive immunity to those who allegedly cooperated.”

Mr. Feingold and other Democrats said they would oppose any efforts to give immunity to the telecommunications companies. Mr. Dodd, announcing his hold on the proposed legislation, described the immunity proposal as “amnesty for telecommunications companies that enabled the president’s assault on the Constitution by providing personal information on their customers without judicial authorization.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

{{{The simplest thing possible is to allow the current (illegal) FISA fix expire in February and do nothing. Too simple a solution for our Congress Critters, I presume. They need to take a lesson from ol' Nancy RayGun when it comes to spoiled frat brat Georgie and his puppetmaster, Dickie: "Just say 'No!'"}}}

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/19/washington/19mukasey.html

Senators Clash With Nominee About Torture

Though Michael B. Mukasey had a rocky day Thursday, his confirmation was called probable.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 18 — President Bush’s nominee for attorney general, Michael B. Mukasey, declined Thursday to say if he considered harsh interrogation techniques like waterboarding, which simulates drowning, to constitute torture or to be illegal if used on terrorism suspects.

On the second day of confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Mr. Mukasey went further than he had the day before in arguing that the White House had constitutional authority to act beyond the limits of laws enacted by Congress, especially when it came to national defense.

He suggested that both the administration’s program of eavesdropping without warrants and its use of “enhanced” interrogation techniques for terrorism suspects, including waterboarding, might be acceptable under the Constitution even if they went beyond what the law technically allowed. Mr. Mukasey said the president’s authority as commander in chief might allow him to supersede laws written by Congress.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

{{{More, and worse, on link. WHY is this jerk's confirmation "probable" if he doesn't outright declare torture illegal or agree to abide by the Geneva Conventions and our own Constitution, and, worse, imply "the" president (meaning Georgie, of course) has dictatorial powers that go against the Constitution...? WHY, WHY, WHY, WHY, WHY?!? We all know full well that neither he nor any other AG nominee would say the same regarding any other person who was president... just this particular egocentric, dictatorial, psychopathic nincompoop who has all but declared himself the official dictator of this country (and dictator of the world wannabe) is allowed all these extralegal and unconstitutional "powers." WHY?!?}}}

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/10/19/6739/6897
Brits to investigate possible complicity in U.S. war crimes

The Kos diary refers to this Guardian story.....
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/foreignaffairs/story/0,,2194798,00.html
Claims of secret CIA jail for terror suspects on British island to be investigated

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

CNN Quick Vote Poll

Congressman Pete Stark accused Republicans of sending troops to Iraq to "get their heads blown off for the president's amusement." Should he apologize?

http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/american.morning/index.html

Yes 11% 414
No 89% 3314
Total Votes: 3728

Just think about the some of the terms being used these days when referencing the United States...

U.S. war crimes
torture
waterboarding
American invasion
eavesdropping
etc etc etc

Can you IMAGINE?

I love my country, but not this version. Sadly, I think we're tainted forever.

Monkey
I woke up, sat up in bed and said "curse the neocons who are emptying our treasury."

Ralpheh
Bill Clinton did a benefit for Jim McDermott's lawsuit by Boehner.
Backbone Campaign was outside and I hugged their leader.

I went to see Kerry and Cantwell and I knew some of the protesters and some hugged me.

I worked to have Kerry elected and one thing I did was sue Ralph Nader because we caught him pretending 10 days of streetside signature gathering was one "convention."

I also belonged to "One Voice for Change" which got Greens and other progressive to vote pragmatically Democrat. The main person I worked with was a Socialist who believed this country now has to come back from the right in small incremental steps or never will.

I spent many Sundays with Vets for Peace and others at Green Lake holding vigil against the war BEFORE the war and I even protested in the street going into Afghanistan, not just Iraq!

Yet I worked pragmatically for Democrats who are moderate (in running not always in record) and would/will do it again, because American is a right-leaning, polarized country where my youthful idealism is still latent but alone will NOT bring change.

I donate to the ACLU, NARAL even Greenpeace but also help some entities they do not fully agree with on all issues.

Life is complex. As Einstein said, "Everything should be made as simple as possible but not simpler."

I also gave money to Kucinich and I like it that he and Gravel are running, Ron Paul on the other side too (though flat tax is dumb).

Am I schizophrenic? No, my sister is though, and healthcare is an important issue.

I have also had Deaniacs a) spit in my face, b) call me a Zombie, c) slam the door on my hand. Yet I like Howard Dean and have shook his hand a couple of times. I knew that he was a symbolic healthcare candidate (he admitted it in US News and World Report) convinced by Trippi to run and try to use the nascent internet (which didn't work and still doesn't, though it helps). Now Trippi has a new "talent." We'll see - he's the populist in the race (the leading one) but the number of unions is going down (also in Europe), and in general, with globalization. A Democrat will have to use business to win, and that is the unfortunate truth.

At YearlyKos, one Deaniac went into the Clinton talk because he couldn't stand her but she was from his home state. He came out a believer and convinced, and that didn't even happen to me. I went in with an open mind and came out with an open mind.

My mind is so open maybe my brain will fall out. That would be nice.

This has been said before but I think it is time to repeat it again.

One of the unwritten rules here is that we all agree to disagree respectfully and with courtesy. We know that the people who post and simply read the DCP blog and participate in the community come from a broad range of viewpoints. That's one of the things that allows us to educate ourselves and expand our understanding.

If a particular person is not comfortable with that approach, they are welcome to find another community that more suits their approach. This one will remain one that accepts disagreements on specifics with graciousness and courtesy.

I will add that repeatedly failing to observe this guideline is grounds for banning from the community.
 

Please consider reading and commenting on todays' front page header and if you want to, rec and comment on the same story, here:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/10/19/101722/35

Thank you for amplifying the message that democracy is a good thing, but better when we actually work it.

Chuck said:

Ralpheh:

Oh, excuse me, I forgot. You hate Senator Kerry too. And President Clinton.

Dukaksis?

@@@@

When Democratic candidates take the same lousy, immoral positions on war that the Republicans take, I tend not to like them or support them.

My position on Hillary and JK - they make great and wonderful SENATORS!!!!

Hi yall. Did you miss me?

HAHA!

NMP, So far Rossi has one of the best galleries of my work so far.

Here

http://rossiannsretreat.blogspot.com/2007/10/christy-doing-what-she-loves-to-do-good.html

And here

http://rossiannsretreat.blogspot.com/2007/10/beautiful-mystery-and-sunshine-christys.html

Thank you Rossi. I have no idea what I would do without you. I'll be on messenger later darlin. I'm car sick right now though.

Her funeral procession was almost two miles long.

I have to go fix this commission before the post office lady flips out. I suck this week, but next week should be ok.

Hey Woz, is she looking directly at you right now?

HAHAHA!

Wow. Just in a few days the news just seems to get worser and worser.

KARACHI, Pakistan — Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, her return from exile shattered by a suicide attack that killed up to 136 people, blamed militants Friday for trying to kill her and said she would not "surrender our great nation" to them.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20071019/pakistan/

Hey Christy...

It's not the same art that you produce, but finishing up the poster for the next monkeyball... should make a good poster/tshirt, whatcha think?

http://tinyurl.com/2fv9tr

The American inquisition?
From Where I Stand by Joan Chittister, OSB

There are some things that being born in the United States simply does not prepare a person to imagine. One of them is a headline on the front page of a local newspaper reporting a "debate" going on in Congress on the use of torture as a part of U.S. military policy. A debate? What's to debate about it? Unless, of course you, were working for the court of Philip IV in 14th century France.

But, no, it's here now. In the United States. In our generation. In fact, they're now making movies about it.

This column, be assured, is not a film review. Others closer to the industry will do that very well once the film is released Oct. 19. But film quality is not the issue at hand. Content is the problem.

"Rendition" is a film dealing with the newly refined U.S. practice of outsourcing U.S. military prisoners to other countries for incarceration and "questioning." (I use the word loosely.) "Enhanced questioning," the President calls it. "Torture," the rest of the world is calling it.

That such a thing can happen here, by us, with little public response to it, is almost impossible to believe if you grew up bathed in the honor, integrity and high moral ground of this country. In fact, to say otherwise -- to say almost anything about maintaining traditional national standards -- is to be accused of "blaming America first." So much for "removing the speck in your neighbor's eye and ignoring the log in your own." Let alone "freedom and justice for all." But what a log it is. And what an injustice it can create. Which makes you wonder who are the real conservatives here.

http://ncrcafe.org/node/1385

Darn I blew it

[edited: Actually you were close. Here's what you had.

<img src="http://i213.photobucket.com/albums/cc90/rossitheaussi/swithorag.jpgalt="picture title" width="300" border="0" style="float: right; padding: 5px 0 5px 9px;" />

Here's what you needed:   a quote mark and a space after the .jpg and before the alt

<img src="http://i213.photobucket.com/albums/cc90/rossitheaussi/swithorag.jpg" alt="picture title" width="300" border="0" style="float: right; padding: 5px 0 5px 9px;" />

You'll have it next time. Use the preview feature. It will let you see the comment before iit's actually posted so you can catch a typo like that. dw ]

Good one monkey

NYC Rejects Listing Worker as 9/11 Death
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/101907N.shtml
The Associated Press reports: "James Zadroga, the 34-year-old retired police detective who died of respiratory failure after working hundreds of hours at the World Trade Center site, was often cited by those advocates as a 'sentinel case' -- the first health-related casualty linked to ground zero, suggesting there would be more to follow. The city's medical examiner stunned that community this week in a letter declaring that Zadroga's death had nothing to do with the toxic air he breathed while working at ground zero."

Dwah you are a living doll, thank you, much appreciated, that is what the finished article was supposed to look like.

"The Moment Has Come to Get Rid of Saddam": Bush's Faith Run Over by History

The only thing that worries me about you is your optimism.
- Spanish Prime Minister José María Aznar to President Bush, from the Crawford Transcript of February 22, 2003

Mark Danner, writing for TomDispatch.com, says, "Surely one of the agonizing attributes of our post-September 11 age is the unending need to reaffirm realities that have been proved, and proved again, but just as doggedly denied by those in power, forcing us to live trapped between two narratives of present history, the one gaining life and color and vigor as more facts become known, the other growing ever paler, brittler, more desiccated, barely sustained by the life support of official power."
http://www.truthout.org:80/docs_2006/101807C.shtml

Watch and pass along, please.

Especially to those in Congress:

http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/65513/

Report: Blackwater Took Iraqi Military Planes, Refused To Give Them Back
AP Richard Lardner October 19, 2007 05:06 PM
Blackwater USA tried to take at least two Iraqi military aircraft out of Iraq two years ago and refused to give the planes back when Iraqi officials sought to reclaim them, according to a congressional committee investigating the private security contractor.
Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, wants the company to provide all documents related to the attempted shipment and to explain where the aircraft are now
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20071019/blackwater-iraq/

CNN Poll: 88% say Rep. Stark should not apologize
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/CNN_Poll_88_say_Rep._Stark_1019.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsGaNR9dVPM

NMP said

I also belonged to "One Voice for Change" which got Greens and other progressive to vote pragmatically Democrat. The main person I worked with was a Socialist who believed this country now has to come back from the right in small incremental steps or never will.

@@@@@@@@@@@

Wow, you have nice Greens where you live. In Michigan whenever I encounter a Green person and tell them I am a Democrat, they get this ugly look on their face and they look like they are going to spit on me. They call me I am sell-out; a collaborator with Bush and Cheney; that the Democrats didn't do enough to stop the war; they tell me there isn't a dime's worth of difference between the two parties; that I am perpetuater of the corrupt two party system etc..

Rep. PETE STARK:

He used the words "lie" and "lies" in conjunction with George Bush - this is a violation of Pelosi's prohibition against using the word "lie" in conjuntion with the President (or I assume with the Vice President or the Secretary of State or the Former Attorney General Gonzales).

From Christy:
Hey Woz, is she looking directly at you right now?

HAHAHA!

>>>>>>

Yes she is - And I'm looking between the computer and the monitor at her. She is actually facing the wall to my left but is still looking at me!

Ahhh dwahzon - good advice.

"Use the preview feature. It will let you see the comment before iit's actually posted so you can catch a typo like that. dw"

Thankyou.

Clinton Rakes in Cash From the Arms Industry

Clinton bucks the trend and rakes in cash from the US weapons industry
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article3075691.ece

Ron Paul, Barack Obama Lead in Military Contributions

Paul leads in donations from military voters, with Obama next
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/politics/5223477.html

Friday: 2 GIs, 22 Iraqis Killed; 15 Iraqis Wounded
Thursday: 1 GI, 39 Iraqis Killed; 58 Iraqis Wounded
Wednesday: 1 GI, 37 Iraqis Killed, 28 Wounded
Tuesday: 56 Iraqis Killed, 144 Wounded
Monday: 2 GIs, 46 Iraqis Killed; 76 Iraqis Wounded
Sunday: 2 GIs, 69 Iraqis Killed; 74 Iraqis Wounded
Saturday: 4 GIs, 58 Iraqis Killed; 22 Iraqis Wounded
Friday: 1 GI, 1 Georgian, 16 Iraqis Killed; 38 Iraqis Wounded

Hell Yeah, I previewed Dwah. thanks again.

The Syrian ‘Nuke’ Hoax

http://www.antiwar.com/blog/2007/10/19/the-syrian-nuke-hoax/

A Soldiers Battle
Lt. Ehren Watada: ‘Experience Makes You Stronger’
http://www.asianweek.com/2007/10/12/lt-ehren-watada-experience-makes-you-stronger/

I am posting an e-mail (without the addresses) with hopes that some of you may pass this important information on to others:

Subject: Who said a "naughty" word?.......This is no joke

I am editing what those cliche e-mails tell you with hopes that you might read this IMPORTANT e-mail. Imagine your right to private communications on your cell phone being monitored by corporate communications giants. Verizon and ATT want to control what people write via their cell phones.

Unless we speak out to our members of Congress they could move to allow large telephone and cable companies to control what you do, where you go and what you watch online.

Visit the URL below to check out what's at stake and send a loud message directly to the Congress:

www.savetheinternet.com

oncall said:
I am posting an e-mail (without the addresses) with hopes that some of you may pass this important information on to others:
*******
Posted Oncall
Save the Internet!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWt0XUocViE

Sign the Petition -- Don't Let Congress Ruin the Internet
http://action.freepress.net/campaign/savethenet/step1

Way to go Valerie!!!

Ex-spy takes aim in new memoir
Anne Davies, Washington
October 20, 2007

IT'S the spy scandal that continues to dog the White House even though many of its key players are already fading into history.

Four years after her CIA cover was blown in a newspaper column — allegedly at the behest of the White House — Valerie Plame, America's "Jane Bond", is about to get even.

On Monday her memoir will be released and the White House can expect to be in the firing line. She takes aim at staffers — notably President George Bush's former political adviser Karl Rove, and Vice-President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff Scooter Libby, as well as the journalists involved in leaking her name into the public domain.

The title says it all: Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House. Like other book releases, there's been a leak or two.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/exspy-takes-aim-in-new-memoir/2007/10/19/1192301044189.html

I just read Karen's header on the DCP page again, but I think my questions belong here.

I'm wondering why there are so many people being paid in all levels of government in the US, when only one opinion is actually needed. It seems that nothing that is passed will ever see light of day. All of the people who are receiving payment of salaries from the people who employ them, shouldn't be. If the president vetoes every single decision that's made, why go through the sham of discussion, argument and killing time unil the veto.

That's not earning a healthy salary in my book. That's bludging off the people.

of course there are many who are actually working their hearts out trying to make the difference that needs to be made. But others let these great people down, day after damn day.

On Micheal Moores site, he has a big pic of georgie and pelosi standing together with one giant word for the header. It says

"TOOL"

Glad to know we are not the only ones that noticed.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/

To all those still left who just love pelosi so much you equate loyalty to her with loyalty to our entire party, I would like to know...

Now that georgie has all the money he needs for war, immunity for spying, and dumped 7 million kids from health care... When exactly will you fall out of love with Mz. Pelosi?

Please do feel free to do so now. And do hurry before she takes the ENTIRE US Constitution off the table.

Christy

Speaker of the House represents the whole party not just San Francisco. Dems got control in 2006 partly on the backs of the moderate and conservative Dems. That's the only explanation I know.

She was the most liberal when she represented her district only. My representative was and is the second most liberal (McDermott). I doubt he would ever be Speaker, in fact Boehner's suit would love to evict him.
I do contribute to his legal case.

Funny things are turning out about how I expected with the House. I have lived in this country a loooooong time. When Clinton was in office there was a Republican majority. It provides some balance.

The only time I really panicked was when the Republicans had control of all three branches of government, which they almost still do. The only chance we have is to get the lame duck out and replaced and to get a bigger hold on Congress and Senate.

Then it's still not going to make alot of progressive Dems happy because it'll still be kind of a moderate, bipartisan, small-baby-steps back-to-center scenario and we will probably still be at war in the middle east and globalizing the planet, on Chinese credit.

So yes I do feel outraged sometimes but never really surprised, and I certainly don't feel empowered as I am not a multinational corporation. Those who say the two parties aren't that different are neither completely correct nor completely wrong.

I have liked Michael Moore since his first movie and he is a good critic. I don't see an alternative political party making it in this country and the leading contender right now is high up in the DLC. Iowa could make a dent in that but not a mortal wound.

If labor were stronger in this country, it would help the labor candidates more. Michael Moore is a strong advocate of the worker and the common man (job security, decent living wage, health care) but with globalization, the work force isn't even IN the United States anymore, other than the service and high tech sectors and even alot of that has been outsourced or mechanized.

None of that presents a solution.

Christy,
I enjoyed seeing the painting on Rossi's site, which I couldn't see from work due to the firewall. I'd like to put some up on my site before long, with a little bio and maybe some poetry, thoughts. Thanks!

NewsMax sez Jeb Bush's son will be the South Florida Chair for the Young Republicans for Giuliani. Isn't that special?!

Well, depressing editorial, "With Democrats Like These.." - nothing you haven't heard. The one-party system continues.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/20/opinion/20sat1.html?ref=opinion

I read another article that maintained that the only group more demoralized than the Democrats are the Republicans.

I'm wondering why there are so many people being paid in all levels of government in the US, when only one opinion is actually needed. It seems that nothing that is passed will ever see light of day. All of the people who are receiving payment of salaries from the people who employ them, shouldn't be. If the president vetoes every single decision that's made, why go through the sham of discussion, argument and killing time unil the veto.

@@@@@

If Dubya vetoes everything thing that the Democratic Congress passes, then what is the risk in beginning an impeachment inquiry in the House of Representatives particularly in regard to the WMD lies, the outing of Plame, the planning of the Iraq war etc...???

It pretty much looks like there will be gridlock between Congress and Dubya until Jan. 2009

Ralpheh
We would still need to get a Democrat in the Executive Office. Would impeachment proceedings distract from that? I don't know .. no one is going to do anything political controversial when they are running for office and many of them are.

I actually just got a money pitch from the LOCAL (state of WA) Dems in the State Senate. First thing they did was dissociate themselves from the NATIONAL Dems ini the National Senate. They intimated that UNLIKE those Dems, the LOCAL dems had worked passed good legislation, which they detailed. I have never had this happen. Of course, they have a strong majority in this state, so have encountered less "roadblock Republicans."

Someone told me Kenneth Starr is lawyer for Blackwater. Anyone know?

NMP,

I would write out a biography from you and just let you pick and choose the quote, but, I have no idea what to say.

I was born. I grew up... Sometimes, I suck.

Why don't you email me some questions and I will provide lengthy answers? Will that work.

As for poetry, that I can do. And I have a few more works to get pics of, friends who got them for gifts, I have to go and get them out of their houses to photograph. but I always warned them I would be back to do just that. Sometimes I go over to relatives houses and see my works I totally forgot I had done all displayed, it is always a neat surprise to see them again.

As far as Pelosi goes, political positioning is the exact opposite of what she is suppossed to do, as layed out in the US Constitution. Her duties should have been upheld regardless of my opinion or yours, the evidence alone SHOULD have compelled her to enact impeachment upon the freak show occupying the White House.

The evidence laying there for us to see is not just compelling it is almost certainly exactly as it appears to be. A central conspiracy that spawned 10,000 more like mini tornados spinning off one monster at its core.

That central conspiracy has taken us into an illegal multinational conflict where WAR CRIMES are being committed in the name of our freedom and our safety. The whole damn conspiracy is a WAR CRIME. For war profits.

If she is not part of the conspiracy, then I see no reason for her to hesitate in fufilling her Constitutional obligation and stopping this bullshit NOW, not tommorrow or next November sometime FREAKING NOW. People are dying, OUR people are dying.

Not only does she not enact impeachment, she sweeps very large and important pieces of the United States Constitution 'off the table'. The one thing that could stop this and ultimately hold him ACCOUNTABLE, and she refuses, out right REFUSES to do her damn job.

Her reasons for doing so are conflicting and nonsense. Her refusal makes no sense. The evidence alone should compell her.

Again, if she is not part of the conspiracy....

If Nancy truly wanted to sweep in all dems next election, all she has to do is IMPEACH and lay bare to the world what the republicans have been up to.

But it isn't about dem and republicans anymore, is it? Right and wrong is all we have left.

And nancy is DEAD WRONG. Mistaken. Confused. Lying. Stalling. Excusing. Whatever. It all results in the same thing, us still sitting here BEGGING for a war criminal to have mercy on our own sick kids.

It is f*cking disgusting. And Nancy Pelosi is the problem at the moment. Not the solution.

She is our 'leader' as a party? Why isn't she LEADING then? I don't like the path she is leading me down. I refuse to follow it.

She seems more worried about making republicans happy then she does ANYBODY ELSE including democrats.

Way in the future when freedom of the press is allowed again, they will write all this crap down, and maybe they will be able to find out why Nancy Pelosi did what she is doing now.

It is up to her if she wants to be remembered for saving an empire, but as of right now, she is refusing. Wether she likes it or not, she will go down in the history books with him, her choice on what they say happened next.

From Whitewater to Blackwater: Ken Starr, the Mercenaries' New Lawyer
by Jeremy Scahill and Garrett Ordower

Blackwater USA, the private military contractor in the Bush Administration's "war on terror," has a new lawyer working to defend it against a ground-breaking wrongful death lawsuit brought by the families of four of its contractors killed in Iraq. The new "counsel of record" for the North Carolina-based company is none other than former Whitewater investigator, Kenneth Starr--the independent counsel in the 1999 impeachment of President Bill Clinton over the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal. Starr was brought in last week by Blackwater to file motions in front of the US Supreme Court in a case stemming from the killing of four Blackwater contractors in the Iraqi city of Fallujah on March 31, 2004.

"I think that Blackwater has brought in Kenneth Starr to somehow leverage a political connection to help them succeed in a case where they can't win on the merits," says Marc Miles, an attorney for the families of the Blackwater contractors. Starr takes over from Blackwater's previous counsel, Greenberg Traurig, the influential Washington law firm that once employed lobbyist Jack Abramoff. "They bring in all these big time lawyers from nationwide firms with hundreds of attorneys. Blackwater is really painting this David and Goliath picture themselves."

In the lawsuit, originally filed in January 2005 in state court in North Carolina, the families of the men argue that Blackwater cut corners in the interest of profits, sent the men into Fallujah without proper personnel, armored vehicles and adequate weapons. The men were ambushed, their vehicles burned and their charred bodies hung from a bridge. The incident sparked the first US siege of Fallujah that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of Iraqis and the destruction of the city.

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1027-26.htm

Kangaroo
That's not as bad - Starr is working for the families killed not for Blackwater himself. Could go either way. It' skind of wierd that the old lawyer was from the firm that once employed Abramoff. The whole thing makes my skin crawl - Blackwater, the highpower attorneys, & the ambushers - all three. It's too creepy even to make a good adventure thriller and unfortunately, is apparently real. I say "apparently" because it's very hard to tell nowdays.

.. I don't know ..

Neil Young .. All Along the Watchtower

nmp, that photo with the pope says a lot. To me it looks like he doesn't know how it is possible for Bush to be forgiven. It looks as though this one person is the biggest nightmare this world has. And he's right.

Woz

From a Buddhist monk who used to be an investment banker:

“Two men born on the same day, George Bush and the Dalai Lama.

“One who forgoes all thoughts of self to set the Wheel of the Dharma in motion, dedicates his existence to saving all life from suffering.

“The other, seemingly ethically mute to thoughts of peace and the fortunes of mankind; acts as an axis around which evil conspires.

“Kharma abounds in this contrast. It is prophetic, a struggle of such proportions that Christianity and Islam are reduced to bit players, themselves alternating between good and evil in the ‘all’ of the cosmos, in the all of time.

“Something strikes me as poetically divine that our President would more than likely just mangle the word sentient, as in saving all sentient beings from suffering, the Buddha’s goal.

“I still believe in man and our inherent goodness. I think we have a leg up.”

“The alternative is beyond my visceral ken.”

http://themoderatevoice.com/religion/13921/you-could-have-knocked-me-over/

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/10192007/watch.html
October 19, 2007
Bill Moyers talks with journalist Jeremy Scahill

There are two videos on this link, first and second half of the last Moyers Journal show having to do with Blackwater - Scahill wrote a book about them. The role of Blackwater in New Orleans after Katrina is also talked about. Blackwater arrived in NOLA before FEMA...!

This is creepy beyond words, which is why it's so necessary to pay attention...!

Kangaroo
That's not as bad - Starr is working for the families killed not for Blackwater himself.?

The new "counsel of record" for the North Carolina-based company is none other than former Whitewater investigator, Kenneth Starr--
Starr was brought in last week by Blackwater to file motions in front of the US Supreme Court in a case stemming from the killing of four Blackwater contractors in the Iraqi city of Fallujah on March 31, 2004.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071020/ap_on_re_us/pows_torture
Ex-POWS struggle with torture debate
~~~~~~~~~~

WHY is there even a "debate" about torture? There are very few "issues" that have any absolutes and torture is one of them. Torture is wrong on all legal, moral, ethical grounds. People who do torture - or order or sanction or permit torture - must be tried in a court of law and then jailed for the rest of their lives. There is no way to have a "debate" about torture because it's just wrong. There are no 'shades of gray' to the 'issue' of torture, so I don't know why some are trying to make it seem that there may be more than the stance of right or wrong. It's wrong. So why is there any "debate" about this and why have a few old guys who are intimately acquainted with torture and being prisoners of war only now, all these years later, being heard from? Why didn't Lamestream Media interview these old guys years ago when we first heard about Abu Ghraib and the news of the other horrors with Gitmo and renditions and the black hole and floating prisons and so on started making the news? There is a serious disconnect with reality to falsely promote the idea that there are shades of gray or degrees of torture that are acceptable. Torture is wrong, wrong, wrong, and illegal and immoral and unethical and ought never be permitted, ever, under any circumstances (although if this propagandistic public attitude keeps up in Lamestream Media, even being mirrored in TV shows, I may change my mind and decide it would be acceptable to torture Georgie and Dickie and Yoo and Gonzales and anyone else who approves of torture so they can know what the people who have been tortured, thanks to their immoral and unethical and illegal decrees, have gone through, and they can walk in the shoes of the people who have been tortured in their names).

For the record, I once worked with a fellow who was in a Japanese POW camp starting about a month after he got to the Pacific as a young marine. He was on a 'death march' - not the famous one on Bataan, but this second I can't remember the name of the death march he survived and the island where he was held prisoner (he had a history book with him that he read on lunch/coffee breaks about the group he was with, but that was more than 30 years ago and I no longer remember the title). He said sometimes the prisoners were able to kill a monkey to have for meat, and that once the skin was removed he and some of the other fellows almost couldn't eat it because a skinned dead monkey hanging upside down on a tree branch looks very much like a human baby... his words. They did eat the monkey meat; they were starving, but the meat didn't go down well. The place where he was held prisoner had a mine, they were worked to death unless they had a valid medical reason not to be in the mine. Someone put a foot on one of the tracks for the mining carts so it would crush his foot, and a pebble was on the track just at that point so the cart jumped over his foot after it hit the pebble. To get him some much-needed rest for medical reasons, another prisoner smashed his hand so he couldn't work the mines (the hand crushed was not his dominant hand). The fellow I was working with was so close to death a grave marker was made for him; he said as far as he knew, the grave marker was still there. The fellow I worked with told me these stories as I was training him for dispatch duties because he couldn't be on the road any longer as a police officer after his entire spine was fused. Yes, the reason for the spinal fusion was because he was so mistreated as a POW, and then later at one point in his early law enforcement career he'd further damaged his back when he lifted a car off of a person who'd been in a traffic accident. He was a wonderful person, just as kind and gentle as the day is long, he had a delightful sense of humor, and to hear those stories about the POW camp, what he and the other men he was with went through, just made the hair on the back of one's neck stand out.

So, if I'm intolerant about the whole "issue" of torture, much of it is because I heard first-hand accounts of a person who went through all that as a POW and I saw what pain he was in (physically, emotionally, mentally) years after the fact. For me, there is no "issue" to "debate." Torture was, is, and will continue to be wrong on every possible level I can think of because it takes away our essential humanity, and it sows the seeds of our own destruction as a species to continue to foster the whole notion that 'sometimes' it's okay, when it's been proven repeatedly that only false information can be garnered from the process. People figured that out long ago, and what was true centuries ago during the inquisition and the witchcraft trials and other horrors is still true today.

Torture is wrong. Period.

Woz

From a Buddhist monk who used to be an investment banker:

“Two men born on the same day, George Bush and the Dalai Lama.

“One who forgoes all thoughts of self to set the Wheel of the Dharma in motion, dedicates his existence to saving all life from suffering.

“The other, seemingly ethically mute to thoughts of peace and the fortunes of mankind; acts as an axis around which evil conspires.

@@@@@@@@@@@

If the Dalai Lama had some guts he would have refused to meet with War Monger Bu$h....

Bu$h who has caused so much suffering....

Ralpeh
Yeah I thought about that .. the whole timing of the Dalai Lama thing and the Armenia thing in light of the messed up relations with China and Turkey .. is pretty strange. Especially when the "moralist" who is holier than thou is mixed up in some pretty unholy stuff himself.

US forces in Iraq find explosives cache
October 21, 2007 - 9:33AM

US forces in Iraq discovered nearly 19 tonnes of explosives in a weapons cache north of Baghdad this week, one of the biggest finds of its kind, the US military said.

The cache was discovered west of Tarmiya, about 30 km north-west of the capital Baghdad, in Salahuddin province where Sunni Arab militants have a strong presence.

The find was made up of 18.6 tonnes of ammonium nitrate and 35 mortar bombs. US forces destroyed the cache.

"It's a crippling blow against the enemy, it's really huge," said Peggy Kageleiry, a spokeswoman for US forces in northern Iraq.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/World/US-forces-in-Iraq-find-explosives-cache/2007/10/21/1192301122197.html

(image from Bhudydharma)

Ralpheh,

Maybe the Dalai Lama was fed the same propaganda that we fed the Koreans - that the Republican Party and George W. Bush will defend democracy anywhere in the world.

I don't have any other explanation as to why he mangled his peacenik reputation and met with W. I mean, W has been generally supportive of China's communist-capitalist regime, because it cranked out many low-wage workers for US corporations to exploit.

NMP,

Thanks for that quote about W and dictatorship.

I share that with as many people as possible.

Ralpheh,

Maybe the Dalai Lama was fed the same propaganda that we fed the Koreans - that the Republican Party and George W. Bush will defend democracy anywhere in the world.

@@@@@@@

The Dalai Lama gets fed information?? He doesn't have a mind of his own? I thought he was just awarded a medal by Congress... There are going to be a lot of pissed off Buddhists - who I thought, as a group, were anti-war.

Christy girl,

I just read that La. just elected a republican governor.

How the heck did that happen?

And have you started drinking yet???

Sorry for you all.

Ally, Ralpheh

Interesting questions - notice Bush and his wife try to be "friends of Burma" (the monks and those seeking democracy) yet let oil companies stay there and rip off their natural gas (just like fellow Buddhist Thailand, who are dependent on it for their gas-guzzlers).

I've been to that part of the world and most of the people are young (the demographics are far different than US, Japan and Western Europe, who are aging and have had smaller families for quite some time). They want the technology and lifestyle we've become accustomed to.

Bush talks out two sides of his mouth. Dalai Lama can also get an easy slap at China by defying them and coming here, since he went into exile because of them. There are at least four minority groups in China that are oppressed. Some are cave dwellers!

Meanwhile, the rest of China races on, trying to move from the country to the city (which will be unsustainable), modernizing, building infrastructure, developing Africa for petroleum (like the colonizers of Western Europe before them did for spices and jewels), and geometrically multiplying the number of millionaires and even billionaires!

There was a good article at Docudharma - I'll see if it's up. It's about what we can do.

http://www.docudharma.com/showDiary.do;jsessionid=5CB767D73ADC80E3146B11DAD0191D7D?diaryId=1580

Excerpt:

like the tumbling of the greek gods, the pantheon of powerful in this world need to be neutralized and left to twiddle their thumbs amid the ruins of their failed policies and lies.
it is time to face up to some facts on the ground. we, the people of this planet, are on our own. this isn't about I/P or east against west, or iran/russia against america.

there are only two sides. most of the 6.5-7 billion of us against the relatively few wielding power over us.

period.

and that might is right thing is dragging us all down the perilous road of destruction. destruction of our environment, of our health, sanity, the ability to reproduce, and the torture and speciocide of our fellow creatures.

why... so we can drive a car to sit in traffic for hours? so we can fill our homes with toxic plastics? so we can have the convenience to poison ourselves with fast food and backyard pesticides (for the perfect lawn?)...

we live in a world where people sell tainted products based on risk assessments. where control of resources has resulted in the death of hundreds of millions of people... all objectified and defiled, as we are as expendable as the dolphins or gorillas or any other species we slaughter at will and without so much as a thank you.

Bobby Jindal can eat my blank.

How? Fearmongering. I am telling you his campaign commercials were in a whole class of their own. Oh yeah, and it was most likely rigged, again. It has been rigged ever since 'The War Of Northern Aggression' spawned the carpetbaggers.

And no drinking yet, but if that will take away this God awful motion sickness I will be most happy to stay drunk. I feel drunk anyway. 1500 miles in 3 days for a person who never leaves a 10 mile radius around me, I still feel like everything is moving around me. It's awful.

You know why Jindal was REALLY elected? Because the smear campaign against Blanco after Katrina worked. She was fighting like hell a quiet war to keep him from FEDERALIZING the entire state while evacuating 99.6% of New Orleans, yet she was painted as a failure. Incompetent. Weak. At fault, to blame.

And so the saying goes, see, I told you democrats will ruin everything, and take yer GUNS! Hence, a republican replaces her.

I am 100% in agreement with Ally. The strangle hold that republicans have down here did not happen in spite of the presence of strong dems, it happened because there is a total lack of them.

I thought Blanco was a hero for facing down bush AND the storm from hell. But the fact is she always catered more to republicans than to democrats. Down here the democrats mostly vote along the lines of moderate republican. That is not opposition, that is... compromise. These people can not be reasoned with. You think racial issues are bad down here, don't even mention homosexuals or everyone goes batshit insane. I am not kidding.

I just realized something. You know I always said Louisiana is beautiful, but she has a disease that is rotting her soul? I realized it can be summed up in one word.

The racial tension, the homophobia, God fearing fire and brimstone, the democrats will take our guns...It is fear.

I have never seen a region so full of people who are afraid. I just now realized I never really saw it so clearly before. It is fear. A whole region of fear. Fear of everything.

But then again, there are cops down here that protect serial killers and help destroy evidence of their crimes, but it is not like I can really talk about it anymore.

Me, too. Sometimes I am afraid. I dream of being murdered in my own garden by men wearing badges. There is a reason people stay out of local politics here and I am one of them. I monitor it but screw being vocal or even visable. I love Louisiana, but I can not live in fear.

When I first heard the MLK speech 'I have A Dream', the words that hit me the hardest was this... "I have a dream that one day, justice will return to the south." Those words still make me cry. Me too, I have the same dream.

The shooter was to blame, but, it was our nation that killed him. The way we are, what we let ourselves become, the rampant problems we just try to ignore and pray it just goes away.

That will not work anymore. Our kids are taunting each other with nooses. New Orleans is still in grave danger. And we have the least informed population in the country.

It is a dangerous brew that is highly explosive. Political education and a liberal presence is desperately needed to temper the warmongering and political deviousness of the republicans.

We have a state Senator wearing diapers and getting beaten by hookers, all while using his family as human shields and campaign props, but as long as everyone says he is all about 'family values', we can't get rid of him. The good christians would still rather have that than the 'incompetent dems who mess up everything'.

Besides, his crimes are barely covered so it must mean it is not important. By the way did I mention what a 'failure' Blanco was?

It is like talking to people who have been brainwashed, and instead of a thought, they produce talking points. Very freaking wierd.

Even my mom still spouts out the most incredible republican logic sometimes, and I just groan and try to talk her out of it.

I think they really are using nazi mindbending tricks, psycological warfare, on our own people. Bobby Jindals campaign commercial about the 'Katrina Gun Grab' was a perfect example of how they use fear to deliver a message.

It worked, too. He is now the governor, and on second thought I think I will go get drunk.

No one listened.

Christy

I heard on NPR that it would hurt Blanco that alot of New Orleans black voters who vote Democrat never were able to return to New Orleans, since that is urban therefore a big "blue" block.

Do you think that was a component?

Why would a native American be a Republican is kind of like
Why would a Buddhist meet with Bush?

NMP,

It absolutely was a component.

What yall see happening in New Orleans is basically the political and social ethnic cleansing of one of the prime port locations in the nation.

Katrina gave them the opportunity to do what they have been wanting to do for a century, but could not do it without a string of mass murders.

It is ethnic clensing, without the blood. A mass looting of resources that does not belong to them, but the people they take it from, they know are too weak and poor to fight back.

There is no one anywhere that seems to be able to stop it. Jindal certainly won't.

Christy
You are not exaggerating. I went there twice for conventions and it was very clear - the racism and classism, the social tiers.

I think it could happen anywhere, if the right people got their way. In the north, it's more like the "white flight" to the suburbs for "better schools," but then their kids "gentify" the city by populating the condos ("starter homes") that replace affordable housing.

Starving artists and poor people are pushed to the margins - the industrial areas, the dangerous places, to the streets and under bridges. My son and his friends crowd into apartments or live (like he does) in rooms and efficiencies in the still-cheapest areas like Chinatown.

Class warfare and racism - all over the country, all over the world. Saw it in Europe and in Asia - sweatshops, who has to work the streets, where drugs end up, etc.

Actually, those kids shouldn't have to do that. They are educated and they are in their mid-twenties. It's part of the "shrinking of the middle class" that we hear about. They are too old to be on our (shrinking) insurance plans & there are not enough jobs for them that have benefits. They are part of an expendable labor force of temporaries, part-timers, seasonal work - and that is with some training and experience and willingness to work. When I talk to them they are afraid to marry, have kids and that they won't ever be able to buy a house.

We get so many mixed messages. The "growing" economy - what is growing is the income disparity between the upper and lower classes and the shrinking of the middle classes. You can Google around and see that CEO pay has gone up astronomically and there are more and richer billionaires, but that in today's dollars (adjusted for inflation), the status of most of us has gone below that of our parents.

One reason it doesn't look like it is because of the generous credit we have been offered, following the example of our in-debt government. Now that is going bye-bye, thanks to the credit crunch and housing market implosion. On a national level, it isn't a joke that China and Saudi Arabia could pull the plug on us. & alot of our country has literally been sold to foreigners and our jobs have been shipped out.

It is like when the Marcos' couple robbed the Phillipines treasury and she had thousands of pairs of shoes.

I just realized something. You know I always said Louisiana is beautiful, but she has a disease that is rotting her soul? I realized it can be summed up in one word.

The racial tension, the homophobia, God fearing fire and brimstone, the democrats will take our guns...It is fear.

I have never seen a region so full of people who are afraid. I just now realized I never really saw it so clearly before. It is fear. A whole region of fear. Fear of everything.

@@@@@@@@@@

We have the same problems in the North. The Rightwing demogogues control the radio waves and the churches; rightwing thinking also controls the military, the national guard and the police force.

I live in a racial diverse city and there is much tension, distrust and hatred between the races. Regularly, I see racial slurs being posted on the internet....

Our country is rotting....

I got carried away and research how The World and The Palms Sultan from Dubai is buying up Las Vegas and is cahoots with Neil Bush. I learned all about both of them and put it up in detail. The home page story is about Vegas. The sleaze is very thick. You may know all about it but I didn't it and it is unbelievable.

Remember Barbara Bush donated money for New Orleans but it had to go for Neil's reading program where "hunter warrior" children can learn?

Click here and wait and you can see an example of the Neil Bush learning program - it's like a really stupid version of MTV.

http://www.ignitelearning.com/curriculum/instructional_design_strategies.html

Christy,

The Louisiana election proves beyond all doubt that immigrants are NOT a safe Democratic demographic.

In fact, Asians, with possible exceptions of some Chinese- and Japanese-American old-timers, are solid Republican bloc.

Ralpheh,

Buddhists = antiwar? That doesn't explain the fighting monks of Shaolin Temple in China.

Moreover, the Koreans are converting from Buddhism to Christianity because Buddhism is so primitive in that country. Never mind that their Christianity is the same primitive, hateful version that we Americans believe in.

Ralpheh and Christy,

Southern California is just as evil as your regions, if not worse.

We've got white supremacists and immigrant demographics (and West Hollywood gays and Orange County evangelicals) right in each other's face, hence lots of open hostility.

The worst scums are immigrants who do the bidding of white supremacists.

Ralpheh et al,

I must stress once again that the white liberal version of Buddhism, as practiced in the West, is NOT the same religion as the one practiced in conservative East and Southeast Asian countries.

Western Buddhism incorporates the Western live and let live attitude, while Eastern Buddhism certainly does NOT - in fact, many harmful teachings, including those of Confucianism, have seeped in in places like China and Korea.

Speaking of New Orleans, these cities may be sinking according to Seattle Times: (reading in hard copy which shows Buddhist monks being almost-submerged, as their temple is on the Chao Priya river during monsoon season)

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/text/2003964979_thailand21.html

Dhaka, Bangladesh
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Shanghai, China
Alexandria, Egypt
Mumbai, India
Jakarta, Indonesia
Tokyo, Osaka & Kobe Japan
Lagos, Nigeria
Karachi, Pakistan
Bangko, Thailand
New York & Las Angeles, US

There are lots of other places built in dangerous places, like Amsterdam and Venice. Bangkok was once "the Venice of the East" and the Klongs (canals) that provided natural drainage, were mostly filled in and made into roads.

Yet there are still people contesting the idea of global warming and rising sea levels as vehemently as they can!

NMP,

Los Angeles is in denial. It deserves to sink.

Ally
Supporting your contention that some immigrants just don't blend smoothly into a melting pot but take up with the most obnoxious elements of the greater society, here is the story of some mostly Latvian creepo homophobes who came here. They advocate violent confrontations with gays and lesbians. It was Russians who beat one guy to within an inch of his life a few years back. (Ironically, he was son of a Fundamentalist Evangelical homophobe!)

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003964723_webwatchmen20m.html

I intended to go to this and forgot but I am not going to miss the onslaught of the Zombies onto Fremont neighborhood today at 2:45!! They meet at the Fremont Troll and will bring their "undead" into local businessplaces and pubs. I new about it through MySpace.

I also became aware of http://www.improveverywhere.com and have joined the FaceBook version. On their site you can see where 111 men of various body types met in Central Park and then converged on Abercrombie and Finch in NYC. The videos are hilarious!

There is nothing like street theater!

By the way, someone just sent me an e-card where a bat is flashing people, like his wings are an overcoat. They scream and are terrified, a few laugh. At the end he turns around and flashes the viewer and it is a picture of Hillary Clinton. We are due for a bunch of so-called "humor" about all the candidates. Hopefully some of it will be at least funny.

Then I see in the paper that Giuliani is trying to convince conservatives that he presents no danger. That has to be coded language that he won't do anything to upset them in the social domain (wedge issues) but he won't come right out and say it or he might lose his moderates. Hypocrites all.

Speaking of Buddhist monks, they aren't supposed to touch women and one at the Bangkok Zoo kept trying to grope me!

They're a mixed bag, like with other religions. By & large, they're peaceful though. I guess the Knights Templar were a bunch of marauding monks too.

More on Watchmen on the Walls:
http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/10/watchmen_on_the_walls_in_their_own_words

NMP

I am pretty sure these "New Europe" immigrants have been welcomed with open arms by the W regime, to support its own drive of homophobia.

Nicaraguans and Koreans came to the US in the 1980s for the same reasons, under Reagan.

NMP

Giuliani is a total scum.

And he will continue to bring in Jamaicans and other homophobic nationalities, so that they can murder the nation's transgender population for him, the way they did in NYC.

This won't stop until Mann Coulter, or Giuliani himself cross-dressed, gets assaulted by some Jamaican thug on the streets of NYC.

Christy and NMP are right...

This nation is rotten from within and probably beyond hope, when even the immigration policy is twisted to pit groups against one another, and to make some reactionary ideologue happy.

Nation of immigrants? Only immigrants that fit the Republican agenda.

And as Christy says of Louisiana, Democratic influence is totally lacking across the nation, and certainly here in Southern California, a supposed "blue state" that's anything but. The Dems are comatose at best.

Ally
I put a story up about it - click on my name - feel free to contribute.
I feel very open to all people normally but not when they profess to believe in the Golden Rule and practice the opposite.

Christy said
Bobby Jindals campaign commercial about the 'Katrina Gun Grab' was a perfect example of how they use fear to deliver a message.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Did you watch the Bill Moyers interview with the fellow who wrote a book about Blackwater?

Uniformed and armed, Blackwater mercenaries were in in NOLA after Katrina BEFORE FEMA even arrived. They had no contract to go to NOLA; they just went, and then later got a government contract to be there.

So, who was grabbing guns after Katrina...? Blackwater mercenaries without any authority to even be there, or people who had the authority to keep armed thugs off the street...?

When there are private mercenary armies paid for with our tax dollars running around in this country (Blackwater isn't the only one; it's just the most famous this instant), let alone over in Iraq or Afghanistan or wherever else, we're in DEEP doo-doo....

Speaking of Blackwater:

Moyer's has another must see program, Jeremy Scahill on Blackwater. This 45 mins will make your skin crawl and ranks right behind "Bruce Fein on Impeachment". Scahill says that "Blackwater has built the world's most powerful mercenary Army, that could easily defeat any National Guard Unit." This well-funded, well-equipped latest and greatest private army is completely funded by our taxpayer dollars. Accountability? They can run a renege outfit, where our soldiers, rather than re-up, "go Blackwater". When he was in New Orleans for Hurricane Katrina's aftermath, Blackwater was already there. "It was Baghdad on the Bayou."

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/10192007/profile.html

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15571835

Rice Orders New Oversight for Contractors

New Measures for Contractors

See the report to the State Department with new recommendations for oversight of private contractors

All Things Considered, October 23, 2007 · Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has ordered improved government oversight of independent contractors.

The new measures would affect companies, such as Blackwater USA, that protect U.S. diplomats in Iraq.

The measures include increased training and the creation of "go teams," which would investigate incidents in which weapons were fired.

Related NPR Stories
Prince: Too Soon to Judge Blackwater
U.S. Contractors in Iraq Rely on Third-World Labor
U.S. Embassy Security Practices in Iraq Overhauled
Contractors Working Overseas Subject to U.S. Law
Private Contractors Vital for War
Pentagon Launches Probe of Security Contractors
The Pitfalls of Sub-Contracting Security
Security Firms Work in Legal No-Man's Land in Iraq
The Role of Private Contractors in Iraq

Ambassador Patrick Kennedy has finally delivered his assessment of the State Department's relationship with security contractors in Iraq to Condoleezza Rice. Behind closed doors yesterday, the ambassador, who was tasked with making a comprehensive review of State's contractors following the Nisour Square shooting, told the secretary of state that there were serious problems "with virtually every aspect of the department’s security practices, especially in and around Baghdad, where Blackwater has responsibility," reports The New York Times.

Combined with today's report from Stuart Bowen, the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, that finds "waste and fraud" in rival DynCorp's $1.2 billion Iraq contract, it's easy to see why one State Department official told the paper that the department's contracting process is caught in "a perfect storm of bad events."

Among Kennedy's recommendations is to create a "special coordination center" with the U.S. military to ensure that contractor movements within a military commander's area of operations don't conflict with the commander's orders. It's unclear whether that means the military would actually control contractor operations, as Defense Secretary Bob Gates is reportedly considering, but it would move Blackwater, DynCorp and Triple Canopy contractors out of the exclusive control of the State Department for the first time.

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004526.php