.Common Sense
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Argh! New Parenting Advice? Follow the Dog Whisperer

11-27-09 3:56 A GMT-08
Because you want to have to support and control your kids all their lives like you do your dog. So don't explain things, just control. So much missing in this article. I'm wondering where that rolled up newspaper is hidden. You can't just get kids to obey without question without something to back your up. That back up is usually the threat of punishment or previous bouts of explanation lacking in dog handling because they don't understand us.

Rightwing uproar over Best Buy’s ‘Happy Eid al-Adha’ wish to Muslims

11-27-09 3:49 A GMT-08
RWNJs furious that store celebrates November Muslim holiday instead of December Christian one, RIGHT NOW! Oh dudes? What about Chanukah? Christians don't care as long as they can impose their will.

Sandra Tsing Loh:

11-27-09 3:36 A GMT-08

Thanksgiving Held After Massacre of Pequot Indiians

11-27-09 3:33 A GMT-08
@blogdiva linked to her blog post about a thanksgiving feast held after a massacre of Indians in 1637, after which a day of Thanksgiving was proclaimed. I'm pretty sure that there was an earlier one, but the 1637 incident shows how negligent in feeling white Christian societies have been towards others.

The Nation: Why Not Tax Wall Street?

11-26-09 9:06 P GMT-08
Proposals to reign in Wall Street start to emerge says William Grieder. I certainly hope something in that direction is accomplished before the fever fades.

9 Insider Secrets to Getting Hired

11-24-09 7:07 P GMT-08
I don't know if these tips work, but this US News report at yahoo.com sounds like the extra effort will pay off. Good luck if you're out there searching for a new job. I'm going to put a copy in a personal spot, in case I even need these hints.

WP: Hasan Had More Contacts with American-Yemeni Iman al-Aulaqi (al-Awlaki)

11-21-09 8:04 P GMT-08
Report says the Major and the cleric discussed money transfers and other actions (that has Sen Levin calling the Ft. Hood shooting spree a terrorist action.) Still, there were two terrorists in Massachusetts who never acted because MA has strict gun laws. Texas has very lax codes. Another factor is the lack of full and complete checks of anyone who buys the most dangerous types of guns, like the cop killer that Hasan used.

Lies about ACORN set off Twitter Mob with #acornfacts

11-20-09 5:36 P GMT-08
Twitter is the most fun when the Tweeps start a big mob action themselves. And this one was glorious. Actually better than the Swine Flue mob that erupted last spring.

Washington Post- ABC News Poll President's Numbers Mostly Positive

11-20-09 5:05 A GMT-08
Seeing all the lies told about him, just staying in the plus column is a major victory.
Tags:      

Goldmans Sachs to Give "A Good Trading Day's Haul" Back to American Public

11-19-09 9:33 A GMT-08
$100m for each of 5 years, or 2.3 percent of 2009 bonuses will be "tithed" out to small businesses over the period.

Poll: Americans Want a Surcharge on the HIghest Earners in US To Help Fund Health Care Reform

11-19-09 9:02 A GMT-08
Oh that's a poll that has to be redone so that Mainstream news can use the second, doctored one as proof that this one was wrong.

Too Many Breast Cancers Diagnosed by Mammograms?

11-18-09 8:08 P GMT-08
LA Lady: I've seen this in my own family. My sister found a series of "lumps" by self examination as promoted in the 80s. Each one caused extreme stress and expensive medical bills as it was removed and examined though we haven't had breast cancer in our immediate family whether post or pre-menopausal type. Luckily, she had good employer based insurance for it. So I'm for the new guidelines. Why get women into unnecessary "pre-existing condition" problems for lumps, even cancerous ones that disappear rapidly. Eat lots of fruit, veggies, whole grains, and other whole foods you can find at a local farmer's market.

The Nation: Newsweek Taps Bush Aide For Obama Reporting

11-18-09 6:53 A GMT-08
If it seems like Republicans are pushing the news, that's because they are.
Tags:  

Alert Net at Reuters: Why boosting food output is not enough to beat hunger

11-18-09 6:36 A GMT-08
Inequality, not lack of supply creates hunger as food is priced out of the reach of the poor according to report. Thanks to @Liam_Fox at Twitter.com

Huffington Post: 18 Biggest Falsehoods in Sarah Palin's book

11-18-09 5:55 A GMT-08
You can also vote to tell them which whoppers you think are the worst.

Palingate: So how many abortions do these people claim Sarah had?

11-18-09 2:47 A GMT-08
I get lost in the long winding narrative. But they seem to imply that Trig is a rent a baby. But if a woman has an abortion why rent a baby about the time hers was to be born?

Exxon Gets their Iraqi Oil Field Deal

11-16-09 12:45 A GMT-08
Exxon gets 80% of "one of the largest" oil fields "in the oil rich south" according to the UK Telegraph. I know this is old news to some, but I just wanted a record here of the fact, and to inform anyone who hadn't heard yet. It did happen as we said it would. bTW, Telegraph, isn't the name of the largest partner usually first in news about a partnership? WTF?

Jenny Sanford Endorses Opponent to Husband For Next Year's Governor's Race

11-12-09 6:12 P GMT-08
Mrs. Sanford is no political lightweight either. This could send ol' Mark off to Argent... Oh wait. The pretty journalist isn't going to need a washed up old pol. Well maybe he can pitch a tent on the Appalachian trail, or join the soup lines with the rest of the unemployed homeless, the folks that Republicans usually ignore.

Massachusetts Man Says He Was Fired for Telling Colleague Her Gay Marriage Is Wrong

11-11-09 8:08 P GMT-08
Link goes to Fox News. Just wanted to make a comment. I've been there. You're taught by the fundie church that by standing up to "the infidel" you're going to win brownie points with God and get ya closer to the big man on that sea of glass when you die. And in the meantimes you're earning creds with your Christian buddies, a war story to tell and make yourself look good. Or maybe you know you're a tool for the Christian dominionists. Don't play martyr, now. I'ts just makes you look like a fool.

Examiner.com -- Robert Taylor: The Fort Hood massacre: more blowback from America's interventionist foreign policy

11-10-09 9:17 A GMT-08
Good piece. Agrees with the Bible that They who live by the sword will die by the sword.

Health Care Around the World: Why American Health Care for Uninsured is Like that Of 3rd World Nations

11-07-09 7:39 P GMT-08
Interview with TR Reid on the 4 methods of health care in the world and the types of insurance and other bundled medical programs in the developed world found in the nations of the world.

Neda's Mother: She Was Like an Angel

11-07-09 7:16 P GMT-08
Her mom, talks about Neda's life. New: Neda found it impossible to get work because she was divorced.

Why negative thinking makes the world a better place

11-07-09 5:32 P GMT-08
Writer's brush with positive thinking program illustrates how focusing on a positive outlook can hurt in the long run. 'come to think of it, positive thinking started out as a busineess ploy, didn't it? A ploy by already powerful and rich white men to ingnore the harm their business practices have on the world. Maybe they should go back to the EST scam. Oh yeah.that was for underlings. h/t @R_A_W at Twitter.com

Jake Tapper Interviews Roland Hedley Jr. On Twitter

11-07-09 7:03 A GMT-08
Over his new book based on his Twitter posts. (Has to be a first.) The Insufferably sufferable journalist opens up to the ABc's Political Punch columnist, or not. Now I know what I want for Christmas.

Focusing on Ft. Hood Killer's Beliefs Are an Easy Out to Avoid the Deeper Reasons for the Massacre

11-06-09 9:19 P GMT-08
Fort Hood and it's vicinity have have a lot of problems with killings and low morale. The fact that Hasan did not act until the day before he was to be deployed shows his actions were more about being denied his right to avoid war than because of his religious beliefs. Hat tip @ontd_political at Twitter.com for link

New book tells how Right Wing and business push mainstream news media into a right wing bias.

11-05-09 4:18 A GMT-08
Calls liberal bias of news media "and urban legend" and shows how the right forces news media to back up their own propaganda. Hat tip Twitter colleagues, probably either @maafa or @mparent77772

Meg Whitman's radio whoppers

11-02-09 5:04 P GMT-08
Right Now Ms. Whitman is a California concern, but such things go on in your state as well, and it's good to see some reporting on them which we do this far from the election. Beside should she win the governor's seat she's likely to be running for president by 2016 at the latest.

ROFLMAO Slate Imagines Barack Obama's Facebook Wall

11-02-09 4:26 A GMT-08
Must read. No registration required.

The Above Linkblogs Might Contain "Borrowed" links.

Linkblogs do not substantially contribute traffic to my blog that I can discover. They all go offsite, and are often accessed from my blog. It's possible to access them from the RSS according to my settings. Still, even if I were to get ads clicking on a linkblog from the RSS won't drive more people to my blog than otherwise because they leave my resources. (Note to self, do more posts, less LBs with sources I find). I explain because I sometimes borrow links from people at Twitter, and often forget who put them up. (To fellow Twitterers: If you have a link to your blog, I will point it there, but Twitter, being impermanent, cannot hold your link for people to discover from there. I only 'borrow' them to get news out to as many people as I can who might not have seen the reports and videos found by the smart people I follow at Twitter or find in search rooms.

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Is Obama Breaking His Word? Will People Still Be Dragged off to Foreign Prisons for Torture?

posted 02-02-09

One point I'd like to make before we start about the LA Times report on Obama supposedly keeping rendition and torture as a tool in the war on terror is that  The Clinton administration used rendition, and using Hilzoy's definition of extraordinary rendition, they used extraordinary rendition when they "snatched" the bomber of the CIA headquarters from Pakistan.  (When Clinton was unsure whether to go into Pak and grab the man without permission VP Gore told him to "Snatch his ass!" which the FBI proceeded to do.  See Richard A. Clarke's "Against All Enemies"). There is a difference between rendition, even extraordinary rendition, and delivering people to be countries with the understanding that they will be tortured.  The new orders linked below from the Obama administration expressly ban sending people to other nations that may torture them.  

Now about the Obama administration and the continuance of "rendition":

A report by Greg Miller at Sam Zell's LA Times "" insinuates that Barack Obama has a dark side and he's keeping on Dick Cheney's evil rendition program. 

It's amazing how lots of words and sly winks can make a report on nefarious deeds mostly out of thin air.

But all you had to do was read the order by our new president on what is allowed and what is not allowed in the Obama administration.  It was linked right in the web version of the LA Times report, but from what I'm seeing most people going hyper aren't reading the order or doing so very perfunctorily. Here is a link for you: " .  

I was going to report on it last night, but got busy on other projects and by late night someone had found that the Political Animal at the Washington Monthly had done a pretty good job of it in "".

 Now I wish like the insightful Hilzoy I could believe in the mainstream news, but I don't.   The analyst writes:

So what accounts for the LA Times' story? The Times cites "Current and former U.S. intelligence officials" in support of its thesis. I don't take the statements of former administration officials as evidence of anything in this regard, since they would not be privy to the Obama administration's thinking. Moreover, there have been a whole lot of "former administration officials" wandering around saying that once Obama got into office and saw how tough things really were, he would be forced to adopt their policies, only to discover that -- surprise, surprise! -- he doesn't. I don't see much reason to take their opinions as probative this time.

Obama officials, of course, are a different story: they would know, and they have no vested interest in believing that the previous administration's policies are somehow inevitable. The Times quotes only one official, who says: "The legal advisors working on this looked at rendition. (...) if done within certain parameters, it is an acceptable practice." It's important, here, to note that extraordinary rendition is not the same as rendition proper. Rendition is just moving people from one jurisdiction (in the cases at hand, one country) to another; includes all sorts of perfectly normal things, like extradition, which are not problematic legally. Extraordinary rendition is rendition outside these established legal processes: e.g., kidnapping someone abroad so that s/he can be brought to the US to stand trial, or delivering someone to another country to be tortured.

Hilzoy has too much faith in our government.  In fact we have had other problems with 'career' administration folk.  Remember someone named Linda Tripp?   

Oh, I'm not trying to equate this with a sad woman who tried to game a president by spying on a young lady who had relations with the big cheese.

But behind Ms. Tripp was Lucianne Goldberg, the mother of right wing political commentator Jonah Goldberg and a person with political activism under her belt, which, since the 70s was clearly was for the right wing. Some of what she did, even in the early years, would be considered political spying.

According to Media Matters' David Brock and other sources the Republican party excels in making up stories for the news media and passing them through anyone they can to get them into mainstream and 'career' people in the White House  are just as likely or, right now even more likely since the Bush administration broke the law to favor their own kind for hiring.

There has been admissions before that lots of dirty tricks news is fed to the mainstream and other "journalists".  If Greg Miller wanted to do a real story he could do one on how he got scammed by the Republicans, again.

 But that would be an Inconvenient Truth for the political people with money, with Sam Zell's heart, and with the power to make any journalist's career better or worse.

I have found reports showing that the Republicans have an entire systems to get news that would embarrass Democrats or support Republicans.  Lazy reporters use them quite often.  And as we see here, the facts don't even have to line up.  It doesn't even have to be the truth!  Just use what they give you to make a scenario where it makes the president look bad.  Our nation is in a world of trouble, and we have the Repulicans still playing war games against the other half of our government (whether in or out of power both parties are actually part of our government).

Looking around for a short while I see

Glenn Greenwald " "

The Brad Blog

Andrew Sullivan-- The Daily Dish:

Greg Miller has done other reports, two I know of on Valerie Plame in which the CIA buddies he thinks are his friends and honest brokers (I get the feeling he thinks he's Bob Woodward to their Deep Throat skulking around parking garages getting secrets) tell him that Valerie Plame NOC was not that important.  The one I was able to find to day is (at this moment) still currently available at the Baltimore Sun.  In this one his CIA friends have told him that, because Ms. Plame had visited headquarters.

Excerpt Baltimore Sun "":

Current and former U.S. intelligence officials said it's unlikely that Plame is in any danger as a result of being identified. And an internal review at the CIA concluded that her exposure caused minimal damage, mainly because she had been working at headquarters for years, former officials familiar with the review said. 

Still, other comments from Miller do show that CIA ops in that report were very upset at the exposure.

I can't find the other report by Miller on Plame in 2007 or 2008  in which he said his CIA sources had told him that the NOC program that Ms. Plame worked for had been dismanteled years earlier and therefore her NOC was useless.  No harm.  No foul. And I know that Libby was convicted on lying during the investigation, but I'm sure Fitzpatrick did not create a huge investigation for the outer of a CIA agent who's cover had been was useless before being outed.

But whether Miller has been a good reporter or is looking for sensational reports that he knows will spread his name and become a huge hit with the right wing commentators, I think he needs to be more careful about his sources.  They are not serving him well.

Okay I went to yahoo to hopefully find the other Miller report the mitigated Plame's outing and found a blog post by an weird old blogger, but at least the link from his blog still works to get to the Miller report.

See .Common Sense ""

In the older post I wrote that what I took away from Greg Miller's Feb 2008 report was that Cheney and Libby:

They didn't just out NOC CIA agent, Valerie Plame.   They presciently closed down a CIA covert organization in a program that the Bush administration later decided wasn't working.  

(That is if you don't believe that the Bush administration makes up news to feed to mainstream and conservative journalists, like, um, they fed Valerie Plame's name to various reporters before finding one vile enough to actually blow her cover in front of the world.)

I went on to excoriate Miller, and I still think he's not as upright as he could be in his reporting or maybe he's just a stooge. 

Here's the link to Miller's 2008 report (in archive called simply "Archive for "

Originally the title was "CIA's ambitious spy plan falters".

 

 

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