Calling All Wingnuts

Just a random thought...

IF the National Intelligence Estimate done on Iran, which basically says that they abandoned their nuclear weapons program in 2003 and don't pose the kind of threat that has been talked about repeatedly by the Bush Administration, is flawed and "political" and "wrong"

THEN it stands to reason...

We should NOT allow the intelligence agencies to have access to United States telecommunications traffic, NOR CAN WE trust that the warrantless wiretaps that they have done have done anything to protect America since 9/11

AND THAT

they are incompetent, can't do their jobs, can't protect American citizens from harm and we should therefore expect that the Congress should oversee their efforts, refuse to fund them if they cannot get their act together, and change their fundamental makeup.

And, ALSO, we should expect that, in the wake of this NIE, that DNI McConnell, DCI Hayden, and all the heads of the various intelligence agencies should thus resign immediately so that NEW BLOOD can be brought into these organizations in order to

PROTECT AMERICA.

Am I missing something, or is there a disconnect? The people who need to trample our privacy rights sure fucked up when they failed to reinforce a prejudice about Iran, didn't they?

Wounded Vets Still Caught in Limbo While Congress Wrings Their Hands

A few weeks ago, the blogosphere went ballistic when the story about wounded veterans being ordered to repay enlistment/reenlistment/retention bonuses when they are injured or wounded and unable to complete their enlistment contract got picked up briefly by the M$M.

Congress immediately set about paying bipartisan lip service to the problem, with Senator Jeff Sessions (R, AL) and Congressman Jason Altmire (D, PA) both penning legislation to rectify the injustice. On Friday the Senate bill passed, and the House version is expected to pass today, but meek efforts at best have been made to work out compromise legislation before Congress heads out of town for three weeks for the holiday recess. Congress is planning on wrapping up all pending legislation by late Wednesday or early Thursday.

Aides to both Sessions and Altmire have said no direct talks to work out compromise legislation have taken place, in fact, Altmire aides said that they hope the Senate will pass the Altmire version without changes.

The main difference in the two bills involves retroactive payments to anyone who did not get their full bonus since 12 September 2001 when a combat injury was the reason for separation or discharge. The Senate bill, S 2400, the Wounded Warrior Bonus Equity Act, has the retroactive provision, and the House version, HR 3793, the Veterans Guaranteed Bonus Act, does not allow for any retroactive payment of bonuses.

Currently, the Pentagon leaves decisions about bonuses to the individual branches of service, “DoD does not preclude the services from paying out unpaid portions of bonuses when the service member is separated for no fault of their own,” said Pentagon spokesman Army Lt. Colonel Jonathan Withington. Withington said that unpaid “portions are paid out in full in the event of a death” and that members separated for disability “would receive a lump-sum payment of their unearned portions of any bonus.”

Sessions maintains that he is not convinced the services are following those guidelines and that is why the bonus guarantees should be set in law and should provide retroactive coverage.

I agree with Sessions on this one - his bill is the one that gives coverage to the wounded veterans that we went nuts about. Not covering the veterans who were the reason behind the legislation seems like locking the barn door after the horse has escaped, dontcha think?

The CIA torture-tape case isn't going away

In a terse, one-sentence order issued Tuesday, Federal Judge Henry H. Kennedy rejected the Justice Department's appeal to let DoJ cover up investigate the destruction of videotapes that showed the torture interrogation of terrorism suspects.

Instead of rolling over and playing dead for the DoJ, Kennedy ordered the attorneys to appear before him at 11:00 a.m. Friday. He offered no hint at what he might ask the attorneys, or why the order was issued.

Judge Kennedy is not likely to be too inclined toward sympathy for the administrations position, however - in 2005, he personally issued the order to the administration to maintain "all evidence and information regarding the torture, mistreatment, and abuse of detainees now at the United States Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay."

Five months after Kennedy's original order was issued, the CIA destroyed the videos anyway, and DoJ threw up a feeble smokescreen, asserting that the videos weren't covered, since the interrogation didn't take place at Guantanamo, but instead was conducted at a secret CIA "black site" in Thailand.

So now we have one pissed-off Federal Judge, and pressure mounting for a Special Prosecutor to look into the matter. And an issue that is not going to go away any time soon.

White House visitors logs are public records

A Federal Judge on Monday dealt a blow to the pathologically-secretive Bush administration and ruled that the visitors logs created and maintained by the Secret Service are public records. Turns out that the people have a right to know who is dropping by to call on the president and vice president. Those records have traditionally been reviewed by the media and watchdog organizations to keep tabs on who is bending the president's ear. Leaders of the so-called "Christian right" like Gary Bauer, James Dobson and Jerry Falwell were among the visitors the judge ordered be revealed yesterday.

The case stemmed from the Abramoff corruption scandal. Recall that aWol tried to deny he knew the super-lobbyist; then moved to classify the records that would show how many visits Jack A. had paid to the peoples house.

To that end, the current cabal tried to float the ludicrous notion that the visitors logs were "presidential records" and thus are not available under the Freedom of Information Act.

U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth rejected this argument, saying the records qualify as "agency records" subject to disclosure. He also rejected the claim that the records should be kept secret to preserve the confidentiality of presidential and vice presidential deliberations, noting that even a Cheney aide testified that the purpose of the visits is not apparent from the documents.

"Knowledge of these visitors would not disclose presidential communications or shine a light on the President's or Vice President's policy deliberations," Lamberth wrote in his opinion.

Melanie Sloan, Executive Director for CREW (Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington) issued the following statement: "CREW is pleased that the judge saw through the White House's transparent attempts to hide public documents from the American people. We look forward to sharing the documents we obtain through this lawsuit."

The White House, meantime, isn't ready to comply. In a 'circling the wagons' email message sent out right after the ruling, Tony Fratto predictably wrote "We are reviewing the decisions by the U.S. District Court in the cases and will discuss our options with counsel. As these issues remain in litigation, we will not comment further at this time."

It is likely that the White House will appeal the ruling. The grounds on which they will appeal won't likely move the ball down the field, but it will serve to run some time off the clock. And isn't that the likely legacy of this administration? Limping to the finish and running out the clock?

I wonder if George saw a hint of this when he looked into Pootie-Poot's soul?

The Bush administration lost a big one on Monday when Russia announced that it had delivered a shipment of nuclear fuel rods to Iran to be used in a reactor that is to be used for power generation. Russia stressed that the fuel rods are in Iran, but will be under the control of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) , the United Nations agency that monitors nuclear material across the globe.

Back in Washington, aWol nearly strained something as he struggled mightily to construct a sentence and make a comment that wouldn't do any further damage to the fragile relationship the United States currently has with Russia. He managed to not only tamp down his urge to criticize, but also to offer something along the lines of praise...“If the Russians are willing to do that, which I support, then the Iranians do not need to learn how to enrich,” President Bush said Monday. “If the Iranians accept that uranium for a civilian nuclear power plant, then there’s no need for them to learn how to enrich.”

The timing could not have been worse. Just two weeks ago, the intelligence shops released their NIE that revealed that the Iranians stopped their weapons program in 2003. That NIE cut the legs from under aWol and Cheney, and has dampened the call for war with Iran.

Even thought the administration has moved to keep the pressure on the Iranian government, the release of the NIE has served to embolden Iran, and it has made it highly unlikely that China and Russia will be on board for the next round of sanctions by the United Nations Security Council.

The delivery of the fuel rods to the Iranian facility will certainly embolden them further.

As for Bush administration officials, their public comments were one thing, and their private comments were another thing entirely. “There is no doubt that Russia and the rest of the world want to keep Iran from getting a nuclear weapon,” was the public comment made by White House spokesman, Gordon D. Johndroe. “And today’s announcement provides one more avenue for the Iranians to make a strategic choice to suspend enrichment.”

In private, however, they lamented the fact that the Russians didn't stall on the delivery, and project an image of a united front that was hanging together and toeing a hard line. “We for many years tried to stop it, and for the last year we’ve known there was no way to stop it, and that it was coming, and we held our breath on the timing,” a senior administration official said.

All that breath-holding was for naught.

Two weeks ago, Russia alerted the Bush administration that the details had been worked out, including the placement of safeguards that would allow for greater international inspections at Bushehr, and that the shipment would proceed.

The U.S. had already agreed, in principle, that Russia could provide the fuel rods, so long as safeguards were in place to handle the spent fuel. With that position clarified, there was no choice for the U.S. to make - the Bush administration had to accept that they had no grounds to keep pressuring Russia to delay the shipment.

So the shipment went forward. Now the question remains - was it purely economics? Or was there a subtle, hidden message? Is this muscle flexing by Russia routine, or something that we should be concerned about?

I'm gonna hazard a guess, and say it's probably the latter.

Heckuva job, there, George. Heckuva job.