‘100 Years McCain’ Absent From Debate Of Bush’s Signing Statement On Iraq

By- Suzie-Q @ 5:45 PM MST

Does John ‘100 Years’ McCain Agree With Bush’s Signing Statement On Iraq?

Earlier this week, when President Bush signed the 2008 National Defense Authorization Act, he issued a little-noticed signing statement, claiming that provisions in the law — including the barring of funds for permanent bases in Iraq — could be disregarded.

Democrats in Congress were quick to condemn Bush’s stealth measure. On the Senate floor, Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) called it “the clearest signal yet that the Administration wants to hold” the “option” of permanent bases “in reserve.” Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) said Congress expects Bush to “faithfully implement all of the provisions of the [act], not just the ones he happens to agree with.”

In a statement, Sen. Joe Biden, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called Bush’s signing statement “outrageous” and constitutionally questionable:

It is outrageous for the President to suggest that Congress cannot bar the use of funds — something clearly within the power of Congress under our Constitution — for the construction of permanent bases in Iraq.

Conspicuously absent from the debate over Bush’s signing statement is Sen. John McCain (R-AZ). In the past, McCain has spoken out aggressively against signing statements, saying they are “wrong” and that they “should not be done“:

“I would never issue a signing statement,” the Arizona senator said at a Rotary Club meeting in Nashua, adding that he “would only sign it or veto” any legislation that reached his desk as president.

Perhaps McCain is keeping silent because he shares Bush’s goal of an indefinite, long-term presence of American troops in Iraq. Last month, McCain said it would be “fine with” him “if we maintain a presence in” Iraq for “a hundred” years.

The question arises as to what’s more important to McCain: his anti-signing statement pledge or an indefinite presence in Iraq?

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Evening Jukebox… Make A Memory

By- Suzie-Q @ 5:30 PM MST

Bon Jovi – (You Want To) Make A Memory

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Cyber-Warfare~Will China Elect US President?

by Geezer Power …3:18 pm

Hat tip to Betmo for sending
this kewl article from
BlueBloggin

In May 2001, Chinese launched their Hack the USA campaign.

Posted on February 2nd, 2008 by bosskitty

Now its 2008, Web sites in China are being used heavily to target computer networks in the Defense Department and other U.S. agencies, successfully breaching hundreds of unclassified networks, according to several U.S. officials. Intel Brief by Rachel F Kesselman for ISN Security Watch tracks the Cyber-War timeline.

The scope of this thing is surprisingly big,” said one of four government officials who spoke separately about the incidents, which stretch back as far as two or three years and have been code-named Titan Rain by U.S. investigators.

Online Systems From Hackers, Spies And Terrorists Computer systems, vital to national defense, are under a growing assault from Internet hackers, cyber terrorists and foreign spies looking to steal secrets and disrupt government operations.

“All around the country, there are literally thousands of attacks every day,” Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. DHS, Departments of State and Commerce and DOD computer networks have already been compromised.

But, what about all the computers used for election purposes?

Continued

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Too Many Watchdogs?

By- Suzie-Q @ 1:50 PM MST

CIA Watchdog to Get Watchdog

As expected, the CIA announced the results of its probe of the CIA’s inspector general John Helgerson, who has raised hackles in the agency for his investigations into counterterrorism policy and detainee interrogations. Among the fixes:

[CIA Director Michael] Hayden said Helgerson has appointed an ombudsman to represent the interests of CIA officers under IG investigation. He agreed to make a “greater effort” to include the views of those officers in his final reports, and to allow officers to review draft reports. He also agreed to help officers find attorneys with security clearances to represent them if they choose. Officers will be told when interviews are being recorded, and investigations will be conducted more swiftly.Finally, Helgerson agreed to an internal watchdog of his own, a “quality-control manager” who will ensure that all exculpatory and mitigating information about the subjects of IG investigations is included in final reports.

Notes the AP, “The CIA has declined to specify why the IG review was undertaken. The results suggest CIA officers were concerned there was a presumption of guilt and they were not treated fairly by Helgerson’s team of investigators.”

We’ll keep you updated as to whether the watchdog’s watchdog will get a watchdog.

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TPMtv: Friday Clip Extravaganza: Episode #3

by Geezer Power …8:17 am

The website TPMMuckraker, which played an important role in providing information to the public concerning the U.S. Attorney scandal, revealed that it has recently been removed from DOJ’s press release email distribution list.. Who made this decision and why, and was there a change in policy in press release distribution?

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The IRS Could Not Show Wesley Snipes the Law!

GEF @ 8:08 AM MST

Snipes Acquitted of Tax Fraud

By Travis Reed,
Associated Press Writer

OCALA, Fla. (AP) — Action star Wesley Snipes was found not guilty of federal tax-fraud and conspiracy charges Friday, but was convicted on three misdemeanor counts of failing to file a tax return.

Snipes and two co-defendants, a delicensed accountant and a tax protest leader, were indicted in 2006. Snipes faced six additional counts of willful failure to file a tax return from 1999-2004, a period in which he signed two contracts for more than $10 million on sequels in the “Blade” trilogy.He was acquitted on three of those and convicted on the others. He could be sentenced to three years in prison after originally facing a possible 16 years.Defendants Eddie Ray Kahn, the founder of a tax protest group, and Douglas P. Rosile, a delicensed accountant, were convicted by the same jury of tax fraud and conspiracy.

Snipes, who starred in the “Blade” films and “White Men Can’t Jump,” is among the most famous targets of an IRS criminal investigation, and his prosecution was key for the government. The actor used tax protest arguments long rejected by courts but still continuing to find adherents.

For example, Snipes said the IRS’s own code meant no citizen had to pay taxes on income earned in this country, and the agency had no legal authority to collect wages anyway, because it is not a proper government entity.

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McCain: ‘By golly’ we’re ‘winning’ in Iraq

anthony @ 11:40 GMT

After crossing the picket line to appear on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno last night, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) took a moment to repeatedly declare that the U.S. is “winning” in Iraq:

We’re not gonna let them get defeated. We’re not gonna have them surrender. And they’re gonna win. And by golly, they are winning, my friends. They are winning. They are winning.

Hours later, two female suicide bombers in Baghdad set off explosions that killed at least 64 people, “the most lethal blasts since August 1.”

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U.S. casualties rise in Iraq after falling for 4 months

 Sudhan @12:30 CET

By Nancy A. Youssef | McClatchy Newspapers, January 31, 2008

View larger image

WASHINGTON — The U.S. death toll in Iraq increased in January, ending a four-month drop in casualties, and most of the deaths occurred outside Baghdad or the once-restive Anbar province, according to military statistics.

In all, 38 American service members had been reported killed in January by Thursday evening, compared with 23 in December. Of those, 33 died from hostile action, but only nine of them in Baghdad or Anbar.

A total of 3,942 American service members have been killed in Iraq as of Thursday, according to icasualties.org, an independent Web site that tracks the statistics.

U.S. officials in Iraq said the death toll had risen because the military was targeting armed groups that had been driven out of Baghdad and Anbar by the increase in American troops.

In January, the military launched a major offensive in northeastern Diyala province, where nine service members were killed. In addition, the U.S. moved troops to the northwestern Ninevah province, which has become an al Qaida in Iraq stronghold. Seven service members were killed there in January, compared with four in December.

The fact that more Americans have been killed in those provinces has some fretting that the U.S. is fighting another round of “whack-a-mole,” a term that Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., once used to describe chasing insurgents and terrorists from one part of Iraq to another.

Continued . . .

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Defeat Without End

Sudhan @12:20 CET

‘Why is our economy tanking? The war, the war, the war’

By ROBERT C. KOEHLER

Tribune Media Services, January 31, 2008

“Many in this chamber understand that America must not fail in Iraq, because you understand that the consequences of failure would be grievous and far-reaching . . .”

There it is again, that choking lie, so smoothly administered — with just enough fear to help America gag down all that righteousness.

President Bush told it again in his final State of the Union address the other night, of course. What choice did he have? The truth, coming from him at this point, would be . . . too weird, too offensive, impossible to comprehend.

But the truth is that we’ve already failed in Iraq, and throughout the Middle East and Central Asia — failed with consequences beyond reckoning. God knows someone will have to take a swig of political courage and acknowledge it one of these days, simply to stop the lie — the lies, a governmental cluster bomb of them — from doing further harm.

Keep rerading . . .

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Sally Anthony “So Long” Music Video

anthony @ 10:36 GMT

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