Friday, September 21
Among Fascism's Best Hits of the Week
All along the watch tower, just beyond reach of the Empire's know-nothing television lights....
U.S. Airports Screeners are Watching What You Read
By Ryan Singel 09.20.07 2:00 AM
International travelers concerned about being labeled a terrorist or drug runner by secret Homeland Security algorithms may want to be careful what books they read on the plane. Newly revealed records show the government is storing such information for years.
Privacy advocates obtained database records showing that the government routinely records the race of people pulled aside for extra screening as they enter the country, along with cursory answers given to U.S. border inspectors about their purpose in traveling. In one case, the records note Electronic Frontier Foundation co-founder John Gilmore's choice of reading material, and worry over the number of small flashlights he'd packed for the trip.
The breadth of the information obtained by the Gilmore-funded Identity Project (using a Privacy Act request) shows the government's screening program at the border is actually a "surveillance dragnet," according to the group's spokesman Bill Scannell.... Read more
The Police State Is Right Here, Right Now
By Carolyn BakerAs nightfall does not come all at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there is a twilight when everything remains seemingly unchanged. And it is in such a twilight that we all must be aware of change in the air-however slight-lest we become unwilling victims of the darkness. ~Justice William O. Douglas~ In April, 2007 I was pleasantly surprised to find Naomi Wolf's article, "Fascist America, In 10 Easy Steps" posted in several places online. I have been a fan of Wolf for many years, greatly appreciating her works and especially her 1991 book, The Beauty Myth. I had been looking for a list-or more specifically, an encyclopedia of the losses of civil liberties in the United States that might clarify for my history students the extent to which America has become a fascist empire. Wolf's "10 Easy Steps" was perfect, but her just-published book, The End Of America: Letter Of Warning To A Young Patriot, from which the 10 easy steps was compiled, offers an even fuller picture-a succinct and engaging explanation of how our civil liberties have been hijacked in the past decade. It is the most poignant, powerful, genuinely patriotic piece of literature I have encountered since Thomas Paine's Common Sense. No wonder then, that the book's cover greatly resembles that 46-page tract by Paine written in 1775-as well it should.... Read more
Alan Greenspan: The Fraud
Alan Greenspan attempts to save face in his new book by revising history.
By William Greider
Alan Greenspan has come back from the tomb of history to correct the record. He did not make any mistakes in his eighteen-year tenure as Federal Reserve chairman. He did not endorse the regressive Bush tax cuts of 2001 that pumped up the federal deficits and aggravated inequalities. He did not cause the housing bubble that is now in collapse. He did not ignore the stock market bubble that subsequently melted away and cost investors $6 trillion. He did not say the Iraq War is "largely about oil."
Check the record. These are all lies.
Greenspan's testimony endorsing the Bush tax cuts was extremely influential but now he wants to run away from it.In the instance of Iraq, Greenspan is actually correcting his own memoir, The Age of Turbulence, which just came out. This weekend, newspapers reported provocative snippets from the book, including this: "I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what every everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil."....Read more
Use of Taser to subdue autistic teen questioned in California
TUSTIN, Calif. — Sheriff's officials defended their use of a Taser stun gun to subdue an autistic teenager who left a social services center where he was being treated."It was necessary," sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino said in defense of the use of a Taser stun gun to subdue 15-year-old Taylor Karras.He said the teen is lucky to be alive."If that were your son, would you want him Tased or hit by a car?" Amormino asked....Read more
Related note: In case you missed this week's story on the tased University of Florida student for "inciting a riot" by asking Senator John Kerry if he is a member of Yale University's Skull and Bones, you owe yourself this one. Watch how cool Kerry is and the faux-protest he puts up to UF campus police when there surround the man and escort him away from the microphone. Fascist message to college students: "Look at what curioristy can do for you."
Denver Sheriff's Office Helps Private Companies Take Blood And Saliva At Checkpoints
A Sheriff's office in Denver has been blasted by drivers after it engaged in the operation of what appeared to be DUI checkpoints but were in fact stops being carried out by a private non-profit research group.
The Gilpin County Sheriff's Office was hit with complaints earlier this week from motorists who say they were not properly informed of the nature of the stops and felt that they were non-voluntary. One Undersheriff even described the procedure as "like a telemarketer that you couldn't hang up on,".
The Denver post reported on the incident earlier this week:
Had enough? Click here for some relief.
U.S. Airports Screeners are Watching What You Read
By Ryan Singel 09.20.07 2:00 AM
International travelers concerned about being labeled a terrorist or drug runner by secret Homeland Security algorithms may want to be careful what books they read on the plane. Newly revealed records show the government is storing such information for years.
Privacy advocates obtained database records showing that the government routinely records the race of people pulled aside for extra screening as they enter the country, along with cursory answers given to U.S. border inspectors about their purpose in traveling. In one case, the records note Electronic Frontier Foundation co-founder John Gilmore's choice of reading material, and worry over the number of small flashlights he'd packed for the trip.
The breadth of the information obtained by the Gilmore-funded Identity Project (using a Privacy Act request) shows the government's screening program at the border is actually a "surveillance dragnet," according to the group's spokesman Bill Scannell.... Read more
The Police State Is Right Here, Right Now
By Carolyn BakerAs nightfall does not come all at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there is a twilight when everything remains seemingly unchanged. And it is in such a twilight that we all must be aware of change in the air-however slight-lest we become unwilling victims of the darkness. ~Justice William O. Douglas~ In April, 2007 I was pleasantly surprised to find Naomi Wolf's article, "Fascist America, In 10 Easy Steps" posted in several places online. I have been a fan of Wolf for many years, greatly appreciating her works and especially her 1991 book, The Beauty Myth. I had been looking for a list-or more specifically, an encyclopedia of the losses of civil liberties in the United States that might clarify for my history students the extent to which America has become a fascist empire. Wolf's "10 Easy Steps" was perfect, but her just-published book, The End Of America: Letter Of Warning To A Young Patriot, from which the 10 easy steps was compiled, offers an even fuller picture-a succinct and engaging explanation of how our civil liberties have been hijacked in the past decade. It is the most poignant, powerful, genuinely patriotic piece of literature I have encountered since Thomas Paine's Common Sense. No wonder then, that the book's cover greatly resembles that 46-page tract by Paine written in 1775-as well it should.... Read more
Alan Greenspan: The Fraud
Alan Greenspan attempts to save face in his new book by revising history.
By William Greider
Alan Greenspan has come back from the tomb of history to correct the record. He did not make any mistakes in his eighteen-year tenure as Federal Reserve chairman. He did not endorse the regressive Bush tax cuts of 2001 that pumped up the federal deficits and aggravated inequalities. He did not cause the housing bubble that is now in collapse. He did not ignore the stock market bubble that subsequently melted away and cost investors $6 trillion. He did not say the Iraq War is "largely about oil."
Check the record. These are all lies.
Greenspan's testimony endorsing the Bush tax cuts was extremely influential but now he wants to run away from it.In the instance of Iraq, Greenspan is actually correcting his own memoir, The Age of Turbulence, which just came out. This weekend, newspapers reported provocative snippets from the book, including this: "I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what every everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil."....Read more
Use of Taser to subdue autistic teen questioned in California
TUSTIN, Calif. — Sheriff's officials defended their use of a Taser stun gun to subdue an autistic teenager who left a social services center where he was being treated."It was necessary," sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino said in defense of the use of a Taser stun gun to subdue 15-year-old Taylor Karras.He said the teen is lucky to be alive."If that were your son, would you want him Tased or hit by a car?" Amormino asked....Read more
Related note: In case you missed this week's story on the tased University of Florida student for "inciting a riot" by asking Senator John Kerry if he is a member of Yale University's Skull and Bones, you owe yourself this one. Watch how cool Kerry is and the faux-protest he puts up to UF campus police when there surround the man and escort him away from the microphone. Fascist message to college students: "Look at what curioristy can do for you."
Denver Sheriff's Office Helps Private Companies Take Blood And Saliva At Checkpoints
A Sheriff's office in Denver has been blasted by drivers after it engaged in the operation of what appeared to be DUI checkpoints but were in fact stops being carried out by a private non-profit research group.
The Gilpin County Sheriff's Office was hit with complaints earlier this week from motorists who say they were not properly informed of the nature of the stops and felt that they were non-voluntary. One Undersheriff even described the procedure as "like a telemarketer that you couldn't hang up on,".
The Denver post reported on the incident earlier this week:
Sgt. Bob Enney said deputies assisted the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation in stopping motorists at five sites along Colorado 119 for surveys on any drug and alcohol use. Surveyors then asked the motorists to voluntarily submit to tests of their breath, blood and saliva. At least 200 drivers were tested, Enney said. About five motorists later complained, he said.Read more....
Had enough? Click here for some relief.
Thursday, September 20
Borat Skewers U.S. Heartland's Passive Fascists
Since devising his patented line of comedy to give American cultural stupidity its due, British comedian "Borat" of "Kysitstan" has made a small fortune poking fun at Yankish icons like sports stars and baseball.
We Heartland Amerikans richly deserve the pointed end of Borat's sharp satirical wit, which may have taken in as many of us as have four generations of scams and scandals from the Bush family.
Watch the comedian received applause from rodeo fans in Virginia by claiming he and his country support Amerika's "war of terror," followed by "May George Bush drink the blood of every single man, woman and child of Iraq" and launching into our faux- version of our Star Spangled Banner with lyrics changed to.... Well, watch and listen.
We Heartland Amerikans richly deserve the pointed end of Borat's sharp satirical wit, which may have taken in as many of us as have four generations of scams and scandals from the Bush family.
Watch the comedian received applause from rodeo fans in Virginia by claiming he and his country support Amerika's "war of terror," followed by "May George Bush drink the blood of every single man, woman and child of Iraq" and launching into our faux- version of our Star Spangled Banner with lyrics changed to.... Well, watch and listen.
Der Un-Fascist
Like the criminal Bush White House cabal, Milkhouse Mouse should focus more on the good and beautiful that still remain among us. Watching the clip below may make the heart take flight like the dolphins in the open sea, playfully leaping ahead of a German ship cruising along at eight knots.
You can download the clip here.
You can download the clip here.
Tuesday, September 18
Blackwater's Iraqi-Killing License in Jeopardy While Congress Protects Company's American-Killing Rights
Today the left-leaning Center for American Progress's daily email newsletter reported the Iraqi government was cancelling Iraqi operations of Blackwater USA, the Bush White House's security company of choice operating within and outside Baghad's Green Zone.
It's about time the Bush White House's handpicked Iraqi government finally considered their civilians long enough to toss the criminal profiteering mercenaries out of their country. How will White House spinmiesters tweak this little "war" bump for public consumption in the U.S.?
Still, let the following episode serve as the metaphor for Blackwater's black operational history in Iraq.
On 10 May 2007, Robert Greenwald was scheduled to speak before a House committee at the inviation of Rep. Jim Doran about his incendiary documentary film Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers. Having obiously acquainted themselves with Greenwald's claims of criminal-like profiteering in Iraq, Republicans objected to his showing this 4-minute clip from the film to committee members; Democrats accomodated their request.
Though the episode was not included in the clip for the U.S. House, the Republicans had to be frantic that Greenwald might air in Congress Blackwater contracting abuses that led to the death of four U.S. mercs, some former members of U.S. special forces, on 31 March 2004 during the U.S. military's savaging of Fallujaha.
Family members of the killed for-hire soliders filled a lawsuit against the company for negligence after Blackwater refused to provide them any information about their deaths. On 7 February 2007, the four mothers of the deceased men were invited to testify (3:34 minute clip here) before the Hosue Committee on Oversight and Government Report in its hearing into Blackwater contracting irregularities in Iraq.
Here is an excerpt (pdf) from the 8-page testimony submitted by Kathryn Helvenston-Wettengel, Rhonda, Teague, Donna Zovko and Kristal Batalona:
In any event, below I have excerpted in its entirity the Center for American Progress's 18 September email update on Blackwater.
==
IRAQ
License to Kill? License Revoked.
Yesterday, the Interior Ministry of Iraq announced that it was revoking the license of Blackwater USA, a private American company that provides security to government and private officials in Iraq such as Amb. Ryan Crocker. Employees of the firm were involved in Baghdad shootout that killed at least nine civilians, including a mother and her child. Details of the shootout are murky. The shooting began after a car bomb exploded near a State Department motorcade in central Baghdad. Blackwater and U.S. officials say the security contractors then exchanged fire with armed attackers, but "three people who claimed to have witnessed the shooting" told McClatchy that "only the Blackwater guards were firing." Regardless, the incident has sent shockwaves through Iraq. "We have canceled the license of Blackwater and prevented them from working all over Iraqi territory," said Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul-Karim Khalaf. "We will also refer those involved to Iraqi judicial authorities." A senior Iraqi official, however, told Time that "as far as the license being permanently revoked, 'it's not a done deal yet.'" Additionally, it is unlikely that Iraqi courts would have the legal ability to hold the contractors accountable. While Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called Iraqi Prime Minister Mouri al-Maliki yesterday to offer condolences and the promise of a "fair and transparent investigation," one American official in Baghdad told The New York Times that "this incident will be the true test of diplomacy between the State Department and the government of Iraq."
THE FALLOUT: Approximately 1,000 Blackwater employees are currently operating in Iraq. If the Iraqi government is able to successfully kick Blackwater out of the country, the move would deal "a blow to U.S. government operations in Iraq by stripping" many "diplomats, engineers, reconstruction officials and others of their security protection." "There is simply no way at all that the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security could ever have enough full-time personnel to staff the security function in Iraq. There is no alternative except through contracts," said Crocker in his Senate testimony last week. The Iraqi government has also said that it will "review the status of all private security firms operating in the country" to "determine whether such contractors were operating in compliance with Iraqi law." The total number of private contractors in Iraq is estimated between 126,000 and 180,000, which includes 20,000 to 50,000 private security guards. The expulsion of Blackwater from Iraq would be a boon for Iraqi politicians as "newspapers in Iraq on Tuesday trumpeted the government's decision." Maliki is expected to "gain political capital from the move against unpopular foreign security contractors" while the national government as a whole would be given a political "boost."
PRIVATE CONTRACTOR'S DARK PAST: "Visible, aggressive" private contractors have "angered many Iraqis, who consider them a mercenary force that runs roughshod over people in their own country." At Abu Ghraib, "the U.S. Army found that contractors were involved in 36 percent of proven abuse incidents," but "not a single private contractor named in the Army's investigation report has been charged, prosecuted or punished." Though many other private security firms are operating in Iraq, Blackwater is perhaps the most visible. On March 31, 2004, four contractors working for Blackwater were brutally killed in Fallujah. After images of their mutilated bodies were shown hanging from a bridge, the American military laid siege to the city, resulting in some of the most intense fighting of the war. In Dec. 2006, a Blackwater employee allegedly drunkenly killed a guard for the Iraqi Vice President. Instead of being held accountable in Iraq, the contractor was smuggled out of the country and fired by the company. This past May, "Blackwater guards were involved in shooting incidents on consecutive days in Baghdad." In total, Interior Ministry officials say they have "received reports of at least a half-dozen incidents in which Blackwater guards allegedly shot civilians, far more than any other company."
LEGAL GREY AREA: "A Blackwater employee is not going to be subject to Iraqi courts," says Scott Silliman, director of the Center on Law, Ethics, and National Security at Duke University. The day before the Coalition Provisional Authority ceased to exist, L. Paul Bremer, the chief American envoy in Iraq, issued CPA Order 17, which "granted American private security contractors immunity from prosecution in Iraqi courts." Though "the Iraqi government has contested the continued application of this order," they are restrained from "changing or revoking CPA orders," so the order is still in effect. It is unclear what U.S. laws would govern the actions of private security contractors operating in a foreign country. Though "uniformed military personnel are subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and 'persons serving with or accompanying an armed force in the field' are technically subject as well," the application of the UCMJ to these private contractors would likely face constitutional challenges. The Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act of 2000 covers civilians working for the Department of Defense, but even this would be insufficient to cover Blackwater employees involved in Sunday's shootout, since they are actually employed by the State Department.
CONGRESS NEEDS TO ACT: Yesterday, House Oversight Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) announced that "the Oversight Committee will be holding hearings to understand what has happened and the extent of the damage to U.S. security interests." In addition to investigating this specific incident, action needs to be taken that explicitly clarifies what laws govern private contractors and how they can officially be held accountable for their actions. In fall 2006, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) added a clause to the 2007 Defense bill that "changed the law defining UCMJ to cover civilians not just in times of declared war but also contingency operations." But "no Pentagon guidance has been issued on how this clause might be used by JAGs in the field." Graham's clause also didn't not extend to contractors not working for the Defense Department. Rep. David E. Price (D-NC) "has proposed legislation that would make all contractors, whether they work for the State Department or the Defense Department, to be subject to prosecution under U.S. law."
It's about time the Bush White House's handpicked Iraqi government finally considered their civilians long enough to toss the criminal profiteering mercenaries out of their country. How will White House spinmiesters tweak this little "war" bump for public consumption in the U.S.?
Still, let the following episode serve as the metaphor for Blackwater's black operational history in Iraq.
On 10 May 2007, Robert Greenwald was scheduled to speak before a House committee at the inviation of Rep. Jim Doran about his incendiary documentary film Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers. Having obiously acquainted themselves with Greenwald's claims of criminal-like profiteering in Iraq, Republicans objected to his showing this 4-minute clip from the film to committee members; Democrats accomodated their request.
Though the episode was not included in the clip for the U.S. House, the Republicans had to be frantic that Greenwald might air in Congress Blackwater contracting abuses that led to the death of four U.S. mercs, some former members of U.S. special forces, on 31 March 2004 during the U.S. military's savaging of Fallujaha.
Family members of the killed for-hire soliders filled a lawsuit against the company for negligence after Blackwater refused to provide them any information about their deaths. On 7 February 2007, the four mothers of the deceased men were invited to testify (3:34 minute clip here) before the Hosue Committee on Oversight and Government Report in its hearing into Blackwater contracting irregularities in Iraq.
Here is an excerpt (pdf) from the 8-page testimony submitted by Kathryn Helvenston-Wettengel, Rhonda, Teague, Donna Zovko and Kristal Batalona:
Blackwater, however, finally responded, in January, by cynically filing a $10 million countersuit against the plaintiffs, "arguing, of all things, breach of contract." Go figure.There is no accountability for the tens of thousands of contractors working in Iraq andabroad. Private contractors like Blackwater work outside the scope of the military’s chain ofcommand and can literally do whatever they please without any liability or accountability fromthe U.S. government. They also work in countries like Iraq, which are not currently capable ofenforcing the law and prosecuting wrongful conduct, such as murder. Therefore, Blackwater cancontinue accepting hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer money from the government,without having to answer a single question about how its security operators are killed. It is ourunderstanding that Blackwater has lost more operators than any other U.S. security company working in Iraq....
Although Blackwater told the families that they would have to file a lawsuit to obtain a copy of the incident report, Blackwater has done everything possible to prevent the disclosure of any information. During the past two years that the lawsuit has been pending, Blackwater has not answered a single question or produced a single document. Instead, Blackwater has appealed every single ruling all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court.
After we obtained a court order to take the deposition of a key witness, Blackwater senthim out of the country just days before his deposition. When he recently returned to the UnitedStates after working for Blackwater for the past two years, we obtained another court order totake his deposition. Blackwater has now appealed that order as well.
Thus far in our legal quest, Blackwater has hired five different law firms to fight us,including such politically connected lawyers as Fred Fielding (now White House counsel) and Kenneth Starr [GOP Special Prosecutor who found nothing in the Clintons' Watergate real estate probe]. It appears that Blackwater will go to any lengths to prevent us from finding out why our men were killed and to avoid any accountability for its actions....
In any event, below I have excerpted in its entirity the Center for American Progress's 18 September email update on Blackwater.
==
IRAQ
License to Kill? License Revoked.
Yesterday, the Interior Ministry of Iraq announced that it was revoking the license of Blackwater USA, a private American company that provides security to government and private officials in Iraq such as Amb. Ryan Crocker. Employees of the firm were involved in Baghdad shootout that killed at least nine civilians, including a mother and her child. Details of the shootout are murky. The shooting began after a car bomb exploded near a State Department motorcade in central Baghdad. Blackwater and U.S. officials say the security contractors then exchanged fire with armed attackers, but "three people who claimed to have witnessed the shooting" told McClatchy that "only the Blackwater guards were firing." Regardless, the incident has sent shockwaves through Iraq. "We have canceled the license of Blackwater and prevented them from working all over Iraqi territory," said Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul-Karim Khalaf. "We will also refer those involved to Iraqi judicial authorities." A senior Iraqi official, however, told Time that "as far as the license being permanently revoked, 'it's not a done deal yet.'" Additionally, it is unlikely that Iraqi courts would have the legal ability to hold the contractors accountable. While Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called Iraqi Prime Minister Mouri al-Maliki yesterday to offer condolences and the promise of a "fair and transparent investigation," one American official in Baghdad told The New York Times that "this incident will be the true test of diplomacy between the State Department and the government of Iraq."
THE FALLOUT: Approximately 1,000 Blackwater employees are currently operating in Iraq. If the Iraqi government is able to successfully kick Blackwater out of the country, the move would deal "a blow to U.S. government operations in Iraq by stripping" many "diplomats, engineers, reconstruction officials and others of their security protection." "There is simply no way at all that the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security could ever have enough full-time personnel to staff the security function in Iraq. There is no alternative except through contracts," said Crocker in his Senate testimony last week. The Iraqi government has also said that it will "review the status of all private security firms operating in the country" to "determine whether such contractors were operating in compliance with Iraqi law." The total number of private contractors in Iraq is estimated between 126,000 and 180,000, which includes 20,000 to 50,000 private security guards. The expulsion of Blackwater from Iraq would be a boon for Iraqi politicians as "newspapers in Iraq on Tuesday trumpeted the government's decision." Maliki is expected to "gain political capital from the move against unpopular foreign security contractors" while the national government as a whole would be given a political "boost."
PRIVATE CONTRACTOR'S DARK PAST: "Visible, aggressive" private contractors have "angered many Iraqis, who consider them a mercenary force that runs roughshod over people in their own country." At Abu Ghraib, "the U.S. Army found that contractors were involved in 36 percent of proven abuse incidents," but "not a single private contractor named in the Army's investigation report has been charged, prosecuted or punished." Though many other private security firms are operating in Iraq, Blackwater is perhaps the most visible. On March 31, 2004, four contractors working for Blackwater were brutally killed in Fallujah. After images of their mutilated bodies were shown hanging from a bridge, the American military laid siege to the city, resulting in some of the most intense fighting of the war. In Dec. 2006, a Blackwater employee allegedly drunkenly killed a guard for the Iraqi Vice President. Instead of being held accountable in Iraq, the contractor was smuggled out of the country and fired by the company. This past May, "Blackwater guards were involved in shooting incidents on consecutive days in Baghdad." In total, Interior Ministry officials say they have "received reports of at least a half-dozen incidents in which Blackwater guards allegedly shot civilians, far more than any other company."
LEGAL GREY AREA: "A Blackwater employee is not going to be subject to Iraqi courts," says Scott Silliman, director of the Center on Law, Ethics, and National Security at Duke University. The day before the Coalition Provisional Authority ceased to exist, L. Paul Bremer, the chief American envoy in Iraq, issued CPA Order 17, which "granted American private security contractors immunity from prosecution in Iraqi courts." Though "the Iraqi government has contested the continued application of this order," they are restrained from "changing or revoking CPA orders," so the order is still in effect. It is unclear what U.S. laws would govern the actions of private security contractors operating in a foreign country. Though "uniformed military personnel are subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and 'persons serving with or accompanying an armed force in the field' are technically subject as well," the application of the UCMJ to these private contractors would likely face constitutional challenges. The Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act of 2000 covers civilians working for the Department of Defense, but even this would be insufficient to cover Blackwater employees involved in Sunday's shootout, since they are actually employed by the State Department.
CONGRESS NEEDS TO ACT: Yesterday, House Oversight Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) announced that "the Oversight Committee will be holding hearings to understand what has happened and the extent of the damage to U.S. security interests." In addition to investigating this specific incident, action needs to be taken that explicitly clarifies what laws govern private contractors and how they can officially be held accountable for their actions. In fall 2006, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) added a clause to the 2007 Defense bill that "changed the law defining UCMJ to cover civilians not just in times of declared war but also contingency operations." But "no Pentagon guidance has been issued on how this clause might be used by JAGs in the field." Graham's clause also didn't not extend to contractors not working for the Defense Department. Rep. David E. Price (D-NC) "has proposed legislation that would make all contractors, whether they work for the State Department or the Defense Department, to be subject to prosecution under U.S. law."
Monday, September 17
Emperor Bush's Imperial Nakedness in Iraq Obvious to Foreign Press
Out of Alberta, the home province to Bush pal and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, we read the term "phoney" used to characterize King George II's recent television announcement of changing U.S. troop levels in Iraq. But the GOP's successful public lynching of former CBS News anchor Dan Rather in 2004-2005 after he risked similar truth-telling journalism may have permanently killed investigative reporting in the U.S.
Last Friday (14 September), the Edmond Journal called a spade a spade.
In its headline for CanWest News Service's Sheldon Albert's story on Bush's projected troop cuts he told America on TV--the primary source of news for two over every three Americans--the paper's online version read "Troop cuts phoney, Bush critics say."
Though I doubt the story made it into the paper's hard copy edition, the online assessment nonetheless demonstrates more integrity and courage--and truthfulness--than that routinely pursued by U.S. mainstream newspapers.
American editors and journalist are more "timid and frightened" when probing the Bush White House. That's what former CBS News anchor Dan Rather told the British Broadcasting Corporation in May 2002, months after the White House via the Patriot Act took unprecedented measures to stifle voices that questioned its version of the terrorist attacks on America.
Of course, Rather's U.S. news colleagues hadn't by 2004 resolved their own chronic historical amnesia nor recovered from post-9/11 cowardice to ask the difficult questions then needed of Thornburg's fitness to investigate CBS.
In 1989, with Iran-Contra still under congressional scrutiny, Thornburg refused to appear before or hand over files subpoenaed by a Democrat-controlled House Judiciary panel investigating the Justice Department's egregious prosecution of a murder in West Virgnia linked to sensitive but powerful criminal tracking software (Inslaw) that its developer Bill Hamilton claimed Thornburg's DoJ lawyers were using without compensation.
Washington Post columnist Mary McGrory was among a handful of reporters brave enough to question Thornburg's intransigence--and his refusal to appoint an independent prosecutor; his stance, some aver, served to insulate then-President Bush Sr. from further Iran-Contra recriminations, since John Kerry (and Bush's fellow Yale Bonesman) was still whitewashing--I mean "probing"--that scandal in the Senate. (1)
Instead of an example of responsible journalism, Dan Rather's efforts were reduced to a dark parable for any journalist who believes a Pulitzer Prize awaits them at the end of a probe into more White House phoniness.
==Notes==
1. Coterminous in the U.S. House, intelligence committee panel chair Democrat Lee Hamilton of Indiana assisted GOP ranking member Rep. Dick Cheney in derailing the Iran-Contra arms-for-drugs probe there. Fondly remembering Hamilton's service to his country when he became Bush II's vice president in 2000, Cheney recruited Hamilton to reprise his Iran-Contra theatrical performance as 9/11 Independent Commission co-chair, thus insulating Bush Jr. et al. from those 2001 "terrorist attacks". "In a late 1980s interview aired on PBS 'Frontline,' Hamilton said that he did not think it would have been 'good for the country' to put the public through another impeachment trial" with Nixon's banishment in 1973-74 still scaring the nation. Does any of this sound remotely familiar?
Last Friday (14 September), the Edmond Journal called a spade a spade.
In its headline for CanWest News Service's Sheldon Albert's story on Bush's projected troop cuts he told America on TV--the primary source of news for two over every three Americans--the paper's online version read "Troop cuts phoney, Bush critics say."
Though I doubt the story made it into the paper's hard copy edition, the online assessment nonetheless demonstrates more integrity and courage--and truthfulness--than that routinely pursued by U.S. mainstream newspapers.
American editors and journalist are more "timid and frightened" when probing the Bush White House. That's what former CBS News anchor Dan Rather told the British Broadcasting Corporation in May 2002, months after the White House via the Patriot Act took unprecedented measures to stifle voices that questioned its version of the terrorist attacks on America.
"It is an obscene comparison--you know, I am not sure I like it--but you know there was a time in South Africa that people would put flaming tires around people's necks if they dissented. And in some ways the fear is that you will be necklaced [in America], you will have a flaming tire of lack of patriotism put around your neck.The weepy Rather did, however, eventually find his ass and courage long enough during the 2004 presidential campaign to ask difficult questions still lingering over Bush's Vietnam War-era military service. But GOP activists and bloggers made him pay for his risk; they exploited CBS's coverage of allegedly false document to appoint former President Bush I's U.S. Attorney General Dick Thornbough (1989-1991) to investigate the matter, a move that culminated in the firing of a top producer and Rather's subsequent "retirement" from the evening news desk.Now it is that fear that keeps journalists from asking the toughest of the tough questions, and to continue to bore in on the tough questions so often. And again, I am humbled to say, I do not except myself from this criticism...."
Of course, Rather's U.S. news colleagues hadn't by 2004 resolved their own chronic historical amnesia nor recovered from post-9/11 cowardice to ask the difficult questions then needed of Thornburg's fitness to investigate CBS.
In 1989, with Iran-Contra still under congressional scrutiny, Thornburg refused to appear before or hand over files subpoenaed by a Democrat-controlled House Judiciary panel investigating the Justice Department's egregious prosecution of a murder in West Virgnia linked to sensitive but powerful criminal tracking software (Inslaw) that its developer Bill Hamilton claimed Thornburg's DoJ lawyers were using without compensation.
Washington Post columnist Mary McGrory was among a handful of reporters brave enough to question Thornburg's intransigence--and his refusal to appoint an independent prosecutor; his stance, some aver, served to insulate then-President Bush Sr. from further Iran-Contra recriminations, since John Kerry (and Bush's fellow Yale Bonesman) was still whitewashing--I mean "probing"--that scandal in the Senate. (1)
The man who could have resolved the Inslaw case, Dick Thornburgh, resigned as attorney general on the day the West Virginia police came forward with their autopsy on Casolaro. Excess was the hallmark of the Thornburgh's farewell ceremony: an honor guard, a trooping of the colors, superlatives from subordinates. William P. Barr, his deputy and possible successor, spoke of Thornburgh's "leadership, integrity, professionalism and fairness"--none of which Thornburgh displayed in his handling of Inslaw. What was merely sinister has now turned deadly. Thornburgh calls Inslaw "a little contract dispute" and refused to testify about it to the House Judiciary Committee. [Former Nixon Counsel Eliot] Richardson thinks it could be "dirtier than Watergate," and, as a victim of the scandal, he should know. Thornburgh's conduct is the most powerful reason for believing that Danny Casolaro really saw an Octopus [an allusion to the U.S.'s Secret Government's ongoing global criminal enterprises] before he died.By 2007, Canadian journalists realize the imperial White House's policies in Iraq are "phoney" and reported, perhaps belatedly, it that way. But the situation is quite different in the U.S. Buy by this late date, ladies and gentlemen, those among us with IQs above room temperature realize few things sought by DC politicos in the name of "the American people" are not phoney.
Instead of an example of responsible journalism, Dan Rather's efforts were reduced to a dark parable for any journalist who believes a Pulitzer Prize awaits them at the end of a probe into more White House phoniness.
==Notes==
1. Coterminous in the U.S. House, intelligence committee panel chair Democrat Lee Hamilton of Indiana assisted GOP ranking member Rep. Dick Cheney in derailing the Iran-Contra arms-for-drugs probe there. Fondly remembering Hamilton's service to his country when he became Bush II's vice president in 2000, Cheney recruited Hamilton to reprise his Iran-Contra theatrical performance as 9/11 Independent Commission co-chair, thus insulating Bush Jr. et al. from those 2001 "terrorist attacks". "In a late 1980s interview aired on PBS 'Frontline,' Hamilton said that he did not think it would have been 'good for the country' to put the public through another impeachment trial" with Nixon's banishment in 1973-74 still scaring the nation. Does any of this sound remotely familiar?
WaPo Wag, Florida Court Say Fox News Can "Misinform Our Society"
The popular Canadian documentary The Corporation featured a censored news reporters Jane Akre and Steve Wilson and their five-year legal battle in Florida over a story linking milk to cancer. Watch the 7:30-minute YouTube segment below.
Consider this mid-week newsbyte, cast to the bottom of mainstream media's throwaway new dregs bin; it's comes to us courtesty of the Washington Post and CNN on the network's Resident Fascist Glenn Beck's program.
In this 1-minute exchange, WaPo print lackey Howard Kutze avers the kettle's right to blacken the news at its pleasure. The following narrative accompanies the clip:
However, Kurtz is, sadly, correct; Fox is indeed "entitled" to distort the news any way it wishes. An appeals court in First Brother Jeb Bush country ruled in 2003 the network had the right to do just that.
Got Milk?
In 1998, Fox News lawyers vetted a news story for broacast by veteran reporters Jane Akre and Steven Wilson on Tampa affilate WTVT-13 Fox TV. The husband-and-wife team had found that Flordia's milk supply, heavily laced since 1993 with the synthetic bovine growth hormone (BGH) farmers inject into cows to bolster their productivity, is linked to cancer.
When agriculture giant Monsanto, the manufacturer of BGH, learned about Fox's impending story, company lawyers threatened the network with a lawsuit; WTVT opted to pull it.
Confident their research was solid, Akre and Wilson resisted rewriting their story to Fox lawyers' 83 different verisons of their original story; they subsequently were fired by the Tampa affiliate. They then filed a whistleblower lawsuit against Fox in April 1998, claiming they were pressured by network officials to dilute their facts to the point that BHG's danger to consumers was not at all apparent.
To promote their story and lawsuit, the couple put up the website foxBGHsuit.com, where they posted this excerpt:
From foxBGHsuit.com:
Consider this mid-week newsbyte, cast to the bottom of mainstream media's throwaway new dregs bin; it's comes to us courtesty of the Washington Post and CNN on the network's Resident Fascist Glenn Beck's program.
In this 1-minute exchange, WaPo print lackey Howard Kutze avers the kettle's right to blacken the news at its pleasure. The following narrative accompanies the clip:
Wednesday [12 September], during an appearance on Glenn Beck’s CNN Headline News show, Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz said that Fox News is “entitled” to be “a cheerleader for the Bush administration” that is “misinforming our society.” Kurtz’s comments came in the context of dismissing the criticisms of MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann, who routinely mocks the cable news network.You may recall a poll by the University of Maryland in October 2003--seven months after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq--revealed that regular Fox News consumers were the most misinformed about erroneous White House claims that Saddam Hussein had nuclear weapons that posed a threat to the U.S. and allies, and had aided the 9/11 al-Queada hijackers.
However, Kurtz is, sadly, correct; Fox is indeed "entitled" to distort the news any way it wishes. An appeals court in First Brother Jeb Bush country ruled in 2003 the network had the right to do just that.
Got Milk?
In 1998, Fox News lawyers vetted a news story for broacast by veteran reporters Jane Akre and Steven Wilson on Tampa affilate WTVT-13 Fox TV. The husband-and-wife team had found that Flordia's milk supply, heavily laced since 1993 with the synthetic bovine growth hormone (BGH) farmers inject into cows to bolster their productivity, is linked to cancer.
When agriculture giant Monsanto, the manufacturer of BGH, learned about Fox's impending story, company lawyers threatened the network with a lawsuit; WTVT opted to pull it.
Confident their research was solid, Akre and Wilson resisted rewriting their story to Fox lawyers' 83 different verisons of their original story; they subsequently were fired by the Tampa affiliate. They then filed a whistleblower lawsuit against Fox in April 1998, claiming they were pressured by network officials to dilute their facts to the point that BHG's danger to consumers was not at all apparent.
To promote their story and lawsuit, the couple put up the website foxBGHsuit.com, where they posted this excerpt:
...No labeling law in Florida requires milk producers to tell consumers when their milk or other dairy products come from cows treated with the controversial hormone. In fact, Monsanto has fought efforts by dairies that do not use the product from saying so on their labels. Ben and Jerry’s ice cream, which buys only from farmers who do not inject their cows with BGH, just won a legal victory in Illinois to allow them to label their products artificial-BGH-free.Three lower-court juries ruled in favor of Akre and Wilson. But Robert Murdoch's deep-pocketed Fox News Network appealed those judgments. In 2003, Fox preservered in Hillsboro County, Florida's Second Court of Appeal, the Honorable Judge Ralph Steinberg presiding.
In Wisconsin, Vermont, and elsewhere, consumers have demanded grocers stop carrying BGH milk or at least give shoppers a choice at the dairy case.
"This is precisely what this is all about," said reporter Akre. "Yes, I’m an investigative reporter but I’m also a mother. I and every other mother and consumer deserve to hear all that is known about what I pour on my daughter’s cereal every morning. Only then can any of us decide for ourselves if there is any risk and whether it rises to a level we are willing to take."
From foxBGHsuit.com:
After a five-week trial and six hours of deliberation which ended August 18, 2000, a Florida state court jury unanimously determined that Fox "acted intentionally and deliberately to falsify or distort the plaintiffs' news reporting on BGH." In that decision, the jury also found that Jane's threat to blow the whistle on Fox's misconduct to the FCC was the sole reason for the termination... and the jury awarded $425,000 in damages which makes her eligible to apply for reimbursement for all court costs, expenses and legal fees.Steinberg's six-page ruling (pdf) "reversed and remanded" a lower court's decision that had awarded the couple $425,000 in damages on a technicality:
Fox appealed and prevailed February 14, 2003 when an appeals court issued a ruling reversing the jury, accepting a defense argument that had been rejected by three other judges on at least six separate occasions.
....Because the FCC’s news distortion policy is not a “law, rule, or regulation”under section 448.102, Akre has failed to state a claim under the whistle-blower's statute. Accordingly, we reverse the judgment in her favor and remand for entry of a judgment in favor of WTVT. (page 6)Below is YouTube's tenth of 14 segments the videop service has up of The Corporation documentary. While the piece last 11 minutes, Akre and Wilson's story is the first 7.5 minutes of the clip.
Sunday, September 16
Missouri's Gift to Amerikan Fascism
From TheNewspaper.com ("A journal of the politics of driving") we learn of this development in homegrown fascism from Missouri, the state that gave Amerika former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft--editor.
==
Cop Website Contained Apparent Death Threat Against Video Vigilante
Unofficial website popular with Saint Louis, Missouri police contained a death threat against Brett Darrow three months before his recent encounter.
When stopped by an out-of-control St. George, Missouri police officer last Friday, motorist Brett Darrow feared for his life (view story and video). It turns out, he had legitimate reason for concern. Three months ago, participants in an online forum frequented by Saint Louis law enforcement personnel threatened to harass -- and even physically harm -- Darrow.
The messages appeared on St. Louis CopTalk, a site that describes itself as a site "for the use of law enforcement officers employed by the St. Louis Police Department and their supporters in the St. Louis Metropolitan area." While it has no official ties to the city, it does allow officers to log into official police email accounts from the front page. In June of this year, Darrow had sparked outrage among the forum's members after he videotaped a disputed traffic stop involving what Darrow argued was a perfectly legal turn and what a Saint Louis police officer said was not.
In the course of researching the incident, TheNewspaper learned from an inside source about a CopTalk posting dated June 29, 2007. A user calling himself "STL_FINEST" wrote the following item, presented unedited and in full:
in reply to "Who is this terd?"I hope this little POS punk bastard tries his little video stunt with me when I pull him over alone- and I WILL pull him over - because I will see "his gun" and place a hunk of hot lead right where it belongs.
We verified the existence of the post which, until some time around July, was publicly available here. It has been deleted. Because the CopTalk forum allows anonymous posting, only the site's administrator has the ability to confirm the identity of a poster or his status as a law enforcement official. When contacted by TheNewspaper this week, the forum owner had no comment beyond, "Sorry, the posting log I have access to only contains the most recent 300 messages, and that particular message cycled off some time ago."
Still, participants did not disavow the posting. Instead, another added, "I'm going to his house to check for parking violations." We informed Darrow of the existence of the messages, but withheld publication not wishing to interfere with an expected investigation into officers' behavior at the well-publicized traffic stops. To our knowledge, no such investigation was ever made.
CopTalk now bans discussion of Darrow's videos. A message dated September 10 reads: "We are already very much aware of Mr. Darrow and his antics. There is no need to post any of his award-winning videography here." Still, discussions of last Friday's St. George traffic stop made their way onto the site for a few hours before being removed by the administrator. One poster expressed contempt for Darrow:
Other than CYA and a heads up why do we give this [expletive] any thought? He lives for this type of [expletive].
"Another CopTalk user referred to a discussion on the online forum AR15.com by saying:"
I have a discussion going on another board where someone is basicly [sic] calling me a liar. The retards have even invited Brett to join to tell his side of what he does."
The firearms enthusiast forum began discussing Darrow's video on September 10. At least one other message from a self-identified Saint Louis area police officer appears to condone official harassment of the twenty-year-old motorist. "
Take the kid to jail... today... tommorrow... the next day... everytime you see him out and he commits a traffic violation... tow his car and take him to jail... period. No arguing, no yelling.....nothing but the sound of cash leaving his wallet from impound fees and fines." (view thread, view saved image of full post)
Unlike the CopTalk forum, however, neither this user nor any others in a sampling we made of the nearly 2000 messages posted on the AR15.com message thread supported the actions of St. George Police Sergeant James Kuehnlein. A number immediately condemned the self-identified officer's remarks.
The evidence shows that law enforcement problems extend far beyond the tiny geographic boundaries of 1300 resident city and that Darrow's video may have wide-reaching effects. The young driver's encounters with Saint Louis area police began in March 2005 when an intoxicated, off-duty police officer threatened to kill him. Darrow escaped only to find himself arrested hours later. The city agreed to drop all charges against him on the condition that he waive his right to sue over the incident. The following year, a Saint Louis officer at a DUI roadblock said he would, "find a reason to lock you up tonight" (view video and story). This is in addition to Sergeant Kuehnlein's videotaped threat that, "we will ruin your career and life and everything else you have coming before you."
The videotape from Kuehnlein's police cruiser is currently missing and the sergeant is currently on unpaid leave. St. George Police Chief Scott Uhrig is also being investigated by city officials who say he may have failed to inform them that the State of Missouri Administrative Hearing Commission concluded that, "Uhrig's unwelcome sexual advances to a teenager, while on duty and under the guise of enforcing the laws, indicate an especially egregious mental state, show that he cannot enforce the law, and are cause for discipline."
==
Cop Website Contained Apparent Death Threat Against Video Vigilante
Unofficial website popular with Saint Louis, Missouri police contained a death threat against Brett Darrow three months before his recent encounter.
When stopped by an out-of-control St. George, Missouri police officer last Friday, motorist Brett Darrow feared for his life (view story and video). It turns out, he had legitimate reason for concern. Three months ago, participants in an online forum frequented by Saint Louis law enforcement personnel threatened to harass -- and even physically harm -- Darrow.
The messages appeared on St. Louis CopTalk, a site that describes itself as a site "for the use of law enforcement officers employed by the St. Louis Police Department and their supporters in the St. Louis Metropolitan area." While it has no official ties to the city, it does allow officers to log into official police email accounts from the front page. In June of this year, Darrow had sparked outrage among the forum's members after he videotaped a disputed traffic stop involving what Darrow argued was a perfectly legal turn and what a Saint Louis police officer said was not.
In the course of researching the incident, TheNewspaper learned from an inside source about a CopTalk posting dated June 29, 2007. A user calling himself "STL_FINEST" wrote the following item, presented unedited and in full:
in reply to "Who is this terd?"I hope this little POS punk bastard tries his little video stunt with me when I pull him over alone- and I WILL pull him over - because I will see "his gun" and place a hunk of hot lead right where it belongs.
We verified the existence of the post which, until some time around July, was publicly available here. It has been deleted. Because the CopTalk forum allows anonymous posting, only the site's administrator has the ability to confirm the identity of a poster or his status as a law enforcement official. When contacted by TheNewspaper this week, the forum owner had no comment beyond, "Sorry, the posting log I have access to only contains the most recent 300 messages, and that particular message cycled off some time ago."
Still, participants did not disavow the posting. Instead, another added, "I'm going to his house to check for parking violations." We informed Darrow of the existence of the messages, but withheld publication not wishing to interfere with an expected investigation into officers' behavior at the well-publicized traffic stops. To our knowledge, no such investigation was ever made.
CopTalk now bans discussion of Darrow's videos. A message dated September 10 reads: "We are already very much aware of Mr. Darrow and his antics. There is no need to post any of his award-winning videography here." Still, discussions of last Friday's St. George traffic stop made their way onto the site for a few hours before being removed by the administrator. One poster expressed contempt for Darrow:
Other than CYA and a heads up why do we give this [expletive] any thought? He lives for this type of [expletive].
"Another CopTalk user referred to a discussion on the online forum AR15.com by saying:"
I have a discussion going on another board where someone is basicly [sic] calling me a liar. The retards have even invited Brett to join to tell his side of what he does."
The firearms enthusiast forum began discussing Darrow's video on September 10. At least one other message from a self-identified Saint Louis area police officer appears to condone official harassment of the twenty-year-old motorist. "
Take the kid to jail... today... tommorrow... the next day... everytime you see him out and he commits a traffic violation... tow his car and take him to jail... period. No arguing, no yelling.....nothing but the sound of cash leaving his wallet from impound fees and fines." (view thread, view saved image of full post)
Unlike the CopTalk forum, however, neither this user nor any others in a sampling we made of the nearly 2000 messages posted on the AR15.com message thread supported the actions of St. George Police Sergeant James Kuehnlein. A number immediately condemned the self-identified officer's remarks.
The evidence shows that law enforcement problems extend far beyond the tiny geographic boundaries of 1300 resident city and that Darrow's video may have wide-reaching effects. The young driver's encounters with Saint Louis area police began in March 2005 when an intoxicated, off-duty police officer threatened to kill him. Darrow escaped only to find himself arrested hours later. The city agreed to drop all charges against him on the condition that he waive his right to sue over the incident. The following year, a Saint Louis officer at a DUI roadblock said he would, "find a reason to lock you up tonight" (view video and story). This is in addition to Sergeant Kuehnlein's videotaped threat that, "we will ruin your career and life and everything else you have coming before you."
The videotape from Kuehnlein's police cruiser is currently missing and the sergeant is currently on unpaid leave. St. George Police Chief Scott Uhrig is also being investigated by city officials who say he may have failed to inform them that the State of Missouri Administrative Hearing Commission concluded that, "Uhrig's unwelcome sexual advances to a teenager, while on duty and under the guise of enforcing the laws, indicate an especially egregious mental state, show that he cannot enforce the law, and are cause for discipline."
Washington Post Says Fox News "Entitled" to "Misinform Our Society"
The popular Canadian documentary The Corporation featured a censored news reporters Jane Akre and Steve Wilson and their five-year legal battle in Florida over a story linking milk to cancer. Watch the 7:30-minute YouTube segment below.
Consider this mid-week newsbyte, cast to the bottom of mainstream media's throwaway new dregs bin; it's comes to us courtesty of the Washington Post and CNN on the network's Resident Fascist Glenn Beck's program.
In this 1-minute exchange, WaPo print lackey Howard Kutze avers the kettle's right to blacken the news at its pleasure. The following narrative accompanies the clip:
However, Kurtz is, sadly, correct; Fox is indeed "entitled" to distort the news any way it wishes. An appeals court in First Brother Jeb Bush country ruled in 2003 the network had the right to do just that.
Got Milk?
In 1998, Fox News lawyers vetted a news story for broacast by veteran reporters Jane Akre and Steven Wilson on Tampa affilate WTVT-13 Fox TV. The husband-and-wife team had found that Flordia's milk supply, heavily laced since 1993 with the synthetic bovine growth hormone (BGH) farmers inject into cows to bolster their productivity, is linked to cancer.
When agriculture giant Monsanto, the manufacturer of BGH, learned about Fox's impending story, company lawyers threatened the network with a lawsuit; WTVT opted to pull it.
Confident their research was solid, Akre and Wilson resisted rewriting their story to Fox lawyers' 83 different verisons of their original story; they subsequently were fired by the Tampa affiliate. They then filed a whistleblower lawsuit against Fox in April 1998, claiming they were pressured by network officials to dilute their facts to the point that BHG's danger to consumers was not at all apparent.
To promote their story and lawsuit, the couple put up the website foxBGHsuit.com, where they posted this excerpt:
From foxBGHsuit.com:
Consider this mid-week newsbyte, cast to the bottom of mainstream media's throwaway new dregs bin; it's comes to us courtesty of the Washington Post and CNN on the network's Resident Fascist Glenn Beck's program.
In this 1-minute exchange, WaPo print lackey Howard Kutze avers the kettle's right to blacken the news at its pleasure. The following narrative accompanies the clip:
Wednesday [12 September], during an appearance on Glenn Beck’s CNN Headline News show, Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz said that Fox News is “entitled” to be “a cheerleader for the Bush administration” that is “misinforming our society.” Kurtz’s comments came in the context of dismissing the criticisms of MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann, who routinely mocks the cable news network.You may recall a poll by the University of Maryland in October 2003--seven months after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq--revealed that regular Fox News consumers were the most misinformed about erroneous White House claims that Saddam Hussein had nuclear weapons that posed a threat to the U.S. and allies, and had aided the 9/11 al-Queada hijackers.
However, Kurtz is, sadly, correct; Fox is indeed "entitled" to distort the news any way it wishes. An appeals court in First Brother Jeb Bush country ruled in 2003 the network had the right to do just that.
Got Milk?
In 1998, Fox News lawyers vetted a news story for broacast by veteran reporters Jane Akre and Steven Wilson on Tampa affilate WTVT-13 Fox TV. The husband-and-wife team had found that Flordia's milk supply, heavily laced since 1993 with the synthetic bovine growth hormone (BGH) farmers inject into cows to bolster their productivity, is linked to cancer.
When agriculture giant Monsanto, the manufacturer of BGH, learned about Fox's impending story, company lawyers threatened the network with a lawsuit; WTVT opted to pull it.
Confident their research was solid, Akre and Wilson resisted rewriting their story to Fox lawyers' 83 different verisons of their original story; they subsequently were fired by the Tampa affiliate. They then filed a whistleblower lawsuit against Fox in April 1998, claiming they were pressured by network officials to dilute their facts to the point that BHG's danger to consumers was not at all apparent.
To promote their story and lawsuit, the couple put up the website foxBGHsuit.com, where they posted this excerpt:
...No labeling law in Florida requires milk producers to tell consumers when their milk or other dairy products come from cows treated with the controversial hormone. In fact, Monsanto has fought efforts by dairies that do not use the product from saying so on their labels. Ben and Jerry’s ice cream, which buys only from farmers who do not inject their cows with BGH, just won a legal victory in Illinois to allow them to label their products artificial-BGH-free.Three lower-court juries ruled in favor of Akre and Wilson. But Robert Murdoch's deep-pocketed Fox News Network appealed those judgments. In 2003, Fox preservered in Hillsboro County, Florida's Second Court of Appeal, the Honorable Judge Ralph Steinberg presiding.
In Wisconsin, Vermont, and elsewhere, consumers have demanded grocers stop carrying BGH milk or at least give shoppers a choice at the dairy case.
"This is precisely what this is all about," said reporter Akre. "Yes, I’m an investigative reporter but I’m also a mother. I and every other mother and consumer deserve to hear all that is known about what I pour on my daughter’s cereal every morning. Only then can any of us decide for ourselves if there is any risk and whether it rises to a level we are willing to take."
From foxBGHsuit.com:
After a five-week trial and six hours of deliberation which ended August 18, 2000, a Florida state court jury unanimously determined that Fox "acted intentionally and deliberately to falsify or distort the plaintiffs' news reporting on BGH." In that decision, the jury also found that Jane's threat to blow the whistle on Fox's misconduct to the FCC was the sole reason for the termination... and the jury awarded $425,000 in damages which makes her eligible to apply for reimbursement for all court costs, expenses and legal fees.Steinberg's six-page ruling (pdf) "reversed and remanded" a lower court's decision that had awarded the couple $425,000 in damages on a technicality:
Fox appealed and prevailed February 14, 2003 when an appeals court issued a ruling reversing the jury, accepting a defense argument that had been rejected by three other judges on at least six separate occasions.
....Because the FCC’s news distortion policy is not a “law, rule, or regulation”under section 448.102, Akre has failed to state a claim under the whistle-blower's statute. Accordingly, we reverse the judgment in her favor and remand for entry of a judgment in favor of WTVT. (page 6)Below is YouTube's tenth of 14 segments the videop service has up of The Corporation documentary. While the piece last 11 minutes, Akre and Wilson's story is the first 7.5 minutes of the clip.
Friday, September 14
UnCurious George: Harvard's "Up Your New England Nose" Outcast
"I remember seeing Georgie at the Harvard Business School but he looked so lost and forlorn I didn't have the heart to say hello."-- Torbert MacDonald, Harvard classmate of George W. Bush
An inveterate chronicler of Hollywood schlock, author Kitty Kelly has made $millions$ from feeding the American sheeple's addiction to celebrity weirdness, kinkiness and perversity. Kelly, a doyenne in New York publishing circles, is celebrated for bestselling paperbacks on Jackie Kennedy-Onassis, Elizabeth Taylor, Frank Sanatra, Nancy Reagan and inbred British royals--which, interestingly, isn't sold in the UK.
Then in 2004 Kelly's taste in pop icons inexplicably tilted toward the politically perverse and kinky, though she, without question, chose America's foremost post-World War II power-hungry (and secretive) agent-proxies for U.S. elite bluenose families. In The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty (2005, Random House, pp. 737), Kelly peeks past the Bushes' finely honed public mythology to take an unflinching look at some of their skeletons long padlocked in the clans' mausoleum.
Though "the darling of the American Bar Association" (p. xix) since the 1980s for myriad lawsuits that her "unauthorized" biographies of the living has spawned, Kelly reports her four-year efforts at sorting out Bush myths from reality transported her to even more threatening terrain. In the "Author's Note," she confirms troubling concerns of some of her sources.
Harvard's Smokeless Tobacco "Rebel"
After Georgie went AWOL from the Texas Air National Guard, he resurfaced in 1975 to begin a painful tenure at Harvard Business School in 1975; Kelly's details this period in George II's life in The Family.
An inveterate chronicler of Hollywood schlock, author Kitty Kelly has made $millions$ from feeding the American sheeple's addiction to celebrity weirdness, kinkiness and perversity. Kelly, a doyenne in New York publishing circles, is celebrated for bestselling paperbacks on Jackie Kennedy-Onassis, Elizabeth Taylor, Frank Sanatra, Nancy Reagan and inbred British royals--which, interestingly, isn't sold in the UK.Then in 2004 Kelly's taste in pop icons inexplicably tilted toward the politically perverse and kinky, though she, without question, chose America's foremost post-World War II power-hungry (and secretive) agent-proxies for U.S. elite bluenose families. In The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty (2005, Random House, pp. 737), Kelly peeks past the Bushes' finely honed public mythology to take an unflinching look at some of their skeletons long padlocked in the clans' mausoleum.
Though "the darling of the American Bar Association" (p. xix) since the 1980s for myriad lawsuits that her "unauthorized" biographies of the living has spawned, Kelly reports her four-year efforts at sorting out Bush myths from reality transported her to even more threatening terrain. In the "Author's Note," she confirms troubling concerns of some of her sources.
With every book I've written, I've encountered a certain amount of hesitancy on the part of potential sources, because they are understandably reluctant to talk about powerful people, either for fear of retribution or for fear of being socially ostracized. The amount of trepidation I encountered in writing this book was unprecedented, but perhaps that's what comes from writing about a sitting President whose family has a long reach....Many sources were reluctant to tell their stories on the record, and much as I dislike using unnamed sources, in some cases I had no choice. Many people who know the Bushes--friends, former employees, classmates, business associates, and even a few family members--were skittish about speaking for attribution. I heard an endless stream of excuses and apologies, some comical, others disconcerting. 'You don't know that family...If they think I've talked to you, they'll never speak to me again." "This town is too small to rile the Bushes." "I want to live to see my grandchildren." One man said, "You can't use my name. They'll come after me. The Bushes are thugs." (p. xx)Kelly further claimed Bush Sr. "did all he could to close every door I opened" (p. xxi), citing as reasons (1) the former president's empathetic affront at Nancy Reagan's anger at the author's biographical characterization of her and (2) Bush's own 25 July 1991 vacuously self-serving entry in All the Best, George Bush: My Life in Letters and Other Writings:
Have you ever had one of of those days when it just isn't too good...Just one of those days when you want to say forget it. Oh, yes, the President of Paramount that owns one of the big book companies called in to say that Kitty Kelly wants to write a book either about the Bushes or the Royals and he turned it down. That's nice--a book by Kitty Kelly with everything else I've got on my mind...I can't see her ever writing anything nice.What Poppy Bush was alluding to at the time by "everything else...on my mind" was his p.r.-contrived "desert holocaust" in Iraq, an documented slaughter of innocents replete with war crimes and crimes against humanity. But a competitive impulse shared among Bush alpha males that Kelly documents in The Family inclined Prez George Jr. a dozen years later contrived new barbarisms for a still suffering Iraqi populace.
Harvard's Smokeless Tobacco "Rebel"
After Georgie went AWOL from the Texas Air National Guard, he resurfaced in 1975 to begin a painful tenure at Harvard Business School in 1975; Kelly's details this period in George II's life in The Family.
When George arrived at Harvard to join the class of 1975, his father was running the Republican National Committee for Richard Nixon at the height of Watergate. George, who espoused this father's politics, found himself in a hostile political environment where Nixon was considered the Antichrist.
"Cambridge was a miserable place then to be a Republican," recalled George's aunt Nan Bush Ellis, who lived in Massachusetts, a state known as a Democratic stronghold. In the environs of the town that surrounded Harvard, only four hundred people were registered Republicans, George spend many weekends with his aunt and her family outside of Boston, lambasting Harvard's "smug guilt-ridden affected liberals."
"I remember seeing Georgie at the Harvard Business School," Torbert Macdonald, his classmate from Andover, "but he looked so lost and forlon I didn't have the heart to say hello."
Most of the class of 1975 at the B-school knew they were headed for Wall Street, but not George. "He was trying to figure out what to do with his life," said his classmate Al Hubbard. "He was there to get prepared, but he didn't know for what."
Other classmates were not quite as generous in assessing George's attitude. "He was remarkably inarticulate," said Steve Arbeit. "God, so inarticulate if was frightening. The reason I say that he is dumber than dumb is not that I saw his test scores of his grades' it's the comments he made in the classes we had together that scared me...He was totally unimpressive in an atmosphere where you were judged completely on your class participation.
"There's always a layer of kids who are in the school because their parents are somebody. It's almost a legacy sort of thing. Most of them acted like everybody else, except for George, who would not say hello to someone like me if we passed in the hall...I'm not the same social class. My father is not chairman of something...So unlike most of the people who try to pretend you-don't-know-who-my-dad-is type of thing, George was the opposite."
Ruth Owades, chairman of Calyx and Corolla, a flower catalog company, and a member of George's class, remembered people pointing him out. "At a place like Harvard Business School, you always knew who the sons or daughters of famous people were--but mostly the sons. And then these were the rest of us."
Alf Nucifora, another classmate, recalled George as a "nonentity with a rich boy's attitude who obviously got into school because of the divine right of kings...You did not see a great future for this man. There's no way that any sane individual could ever have made such a prediction."
During his first year George came to the attention of Yoski Tsunumi when the macroeconomics professor announced his plan to show the film The Grapes of Wrath, based on John Steinbecks's book about the poverty and a sense of historical empathy," Tsurumi explained. "George Bush came up to me and said, 'Why are you going to show us that Commie movie?'
"I laughed because I thought he was kidding, but he wasn't. After we viewed the film, I called on him to discuss the Depression and how he thought it affected people. He said, "Look. People are poor because they are lazy.' A number of the students pounced on him and demanded that he support his statement with facts and statistics. He quickly backed down because he could not sustain his broadside."
Professor Tsurumi continued: "His strong prejudices soon set him apart from the rest of the students. This has nothing to do with politics, because most business students are conservative, but they are not inhumane or unprincipled. Unlike most of the others in class, George Bush came across as totally lacking compassion, with no sense of history, completely devoid of social responsibility, and unconcerned with the welfare of others. Even among Republicans his kind was rare. He had no shame about his views, and that's when the rest of the class started treating him like a clown--not someone funny, but someone whose views ere not worthy of consideration...I did not judge him to be stupid, just spoiled and undisciplined...I gave him a 'low pass.' Of the one hundred students in that class, George Bush was in the bottom 10 percent. He was so abysmal that I once asked him how he ever got accepted in the first place. He said, 'I had lots of help.' I laughed, and then inquired about his military service. He said he had been in the Texas National Guard. I said he was very lucky not to have had to go to Vietnam. He said, 'My dad fixed it so that I got into the Guard. I got an early discharge to come here'."
From the eight hundred people in the class of 1975, George stood out, and not because of who his father was. "I don't remember if he was one of the Texans who had Aggie horns on the front of his big American-made car--most of them did--but I can still see him in his cowboy boots and leather flight jacket walking into macroeconomics," recalled one classmate. "He sat in the back of the class, chewing tobacco and spitting it into a dirty paper cup...He was one red-assed Texan who made sure he was in your Yankee face and up your New England nose." (pp. 307-310)
Thursday, September 13
America's Primier Post-9/11 Global Crime Writer Left US in 1970
I happened on the brief synopsis below of writer/author extradinare Jeffery Robinson, who apparently wrote the definitive books on money laundering and the oil cartel, here.--editor
Jeffrey Robinson (born 1945) is a native New Yorker who has lived in Europe since 1970. Robinson is a recognized expert on organized crime and money laundering and has been labeled, by the British Bankers' Association, “the world’s most important financial crime journalist.”
Background
Robinson is a graduate of Temple University in Philadelphia (1967). While still at school, he wrote for television and radio, including a popular weekly children’s show and was on the writing staff of The Mike Douglas Show, a nationally televised daily talk show. He continued working in the media during his four year stint as an officer in the United States Air Force. Charged with running a press and public relations office for five generals at the height of the Vietnam War, he hosted a weekly talk show, scripted and directed several film projects, wrote short stories for national magazines and moonlighted as a disc jockey on local radio.
When his military obligation was completed at the end of 1970, he took up residence in a small village in the south of France. Using that as his base, he vagabonded around the world, writing articles and short stories for leading North American and British periodicals. His magazine credits include Playboy, McCalls, Barrons, Gourmet, True, Ambassador, Mademoiselle, Reader’s Digest and TV Guide; his newspaper credits include The Washington Post, The San Francisco Examiner, The Christian Science Monitor and The International Herald Tribune (for which he was a major contributor of features during the 1970s). In Britain his feature journalism has appeared in The Times, The Sunday Times, The Sunday Telegraph, The Sunday Independent and the Mail on Sunday, among others.
He came to the UK in 1982, with more than 600 published stories and articles to his credit, to concentrate on writing books.
NON-FICTION
Robinson is internationally known for his 1995 investigative tour de force, "The Laundrymen," in which he uncovered the true extent of global money laundering. The book reveals how hundreds of billions of dirty dollars are derived mainly from the drug trade, then reinvested throughout the world by otherwise legitimate businessmen, lawyers, accountants and bankers. Considered the definitive book on the subject, and now used in universities and law schools as a text, Business Week described it as, “An indictment of governments and banks.”
A headline-maker in 14 countries around the world, Robinson scripted and hosted several television documentaries on the back of The Laundrymen, including one for the BBC, and another for Arte in France and Germany. Both have been shown in the United States.
In 1998, he published a sequel to "The Laundrymen," titled "The Merger - How Organized Crime is Taking Over The World." In it, Robinson revealed the shocking and disturbing lengths that transnational organized criminals go in order to build multi-national corporations; explained why organized crime is the major beneficiary of globalization; and illustrated how transnational organized criminals have become the most powerful special interest group on the planet.
Five years later he published yet another book in this series: "The Sink," exposing crime, terrorism and dirty money in the offshore world.
Between 1986-1994, he published three major best-selling biographies: "Yamani - The Inside Story," described by the Wall Street Journal as the best book ever written about the oil industry; "Rainier & Grace," the only legitimate biography ever written about, and with the cooperation of, Monaco’s sovereign family; and "Bardot - Two Lives," also unique in that it was written with the cooperation of French icon Brigitte Bardot.
His other non-fiction titles include: "The Risk Takers" (his first UK best seller) which highlighted the high-flyers of City finance, recounting their tales of money, ego and power; "The Minus Millionaires," the off-beat sequel to "The Risk Takers," in which he told stories about ‘risk takers’ who had lost fortunes; "The End of the American Century," for which Robinson gained access to secret archives in the former Soviet Union to reveal the hidden agendas of the Cold War; "The Hotel," stories gathered over five months as a fly on the wall in what is, arguably, the best hotel in the world; "The Manipulators - A Conspiracy to Make Us Buy," exposing the marketing world’s “hidden persuaders” 40 years after Vance Packard; and "Prescription Games," a damning insider’s view of the global pharmaceutical industry, where science and marketing are deliberately kept apart and where, all too often, profit dictates who lives and who dies.....
Read more
Jeffrey Robinson (born 1945) is a native New Yorker who has lived in Europe since 1970. Robinson is a recognized expert on organized crime and money laundering and has been labeled, by the British Bankers' Association, “the world’s most important financial crime journalist.”
Background
Robinson is a graduate of Temple University in Philadelphia (1967). While still at school, he wrote for television and radio, including a popular weekly children’s show and was on the writing staff of The Mike Douglas Show, a nationally televised daily talk show. He continued working in the media during his four year stint as an officer in the United States Air Force. Charged with running a press and public relations office for five generals at the height of the Vietnam War, he hosted a weekly talk show, scripted and directed several film projects, wrote short stories for national magazines and moonlighted as a disc jockey on local radio.
When his military obligation was completed at the end of 1970, he took up residence in a small village in the south of France. Using that as his base, he vagabonded around the world, writing articles and short stories for leading North American and British periodicals. His magazine credits include Playboy, McCalls, Barrons, Gourmet, True, Ambassador, Mademoiselle, Reader’s Digest and TV Guide; his newspaper credits include The Washington Post, The San Francisco Examiner, The Christian Science Monitor and The International Herald Tribune (for which he was a major contributor of features during the 1970s). In Britain his feature journalism has appeared in The Times, The Sunday Times, The Sunday Telegraph, The Sunday Independent and the Mail on Sunday, among others.
He came to the UK in 1982, with more than 600 published stories and articles to his credit, to concentrate on writing books.
NON-FICTION
Robinson is internationally known for his 1995 investigative tour de force, "The Laundrymen," in which he uncovered the true extent of global money laundering. The book reveals how hundreds of billions of dirty dollars are derived mainly from the drug trade, then reinvested throughout the world by otherwise legitimate businessmen, lawyers, accountants and bankers. Considered the definitive book on the subject, and now used in universities and law schools as a text, Business Week described it as, “An indictment of governments and banks.”
A headline-maker in 14 countries around the world, Robinson scripted and hosted several television documentaries on the back of The Laundrymen, including one for the BBC, and another for Arte in France and Germany. Both have been shown in the United States.
In 1998, he published a sequel to "The Laundrymen," titled "The Merger - How Organized Crime is Taking Over The World." In it, Robinson revealed the shocking and disturbing lengths that transnational organized criminals go in order to build multi-national corporations; explained why organized crime is the major beneficiary of globalization; and illustrated how transnational organized criminals have become the most powerful special interest group on the planet.
Five years later he published yet another book in this series: "The Sink," exposing crime, terrorism and dirty money in the offshore world.
Between 1986-1994, he published three major best-selling biographies: "Yamani - The Inside Story," described by the Wall Street Journal as the best book ever written about the oil industry; "Rainier & Grace," the only legitimate biography ever written about, and with the cooperation of, Monaco’s sovereign family; and "Bardot - Two Lives," also unique in that it was written with the cooperation of French icon Brigitte Bardot.
His other non-fiction titles include: "The Risk Takers" (his first UK best seller) which highlighted the high-flyers of City finance, recounting their tales of money, ego and power; "The Minus Millionaires," the off-beat sequel to "The Risk Takers," in which he told stories about ‘risk takers’ who had lost fortunes; "The End of the American Century," for which Robinson gained access to secret archives in the former Soviet Union to reveal the hidden agendas of the Cold War; "The Hotel," stories gathered over five months as a fly on the wall in what is, arguably, the best hotel in the world; "The Manipulators - A Conspiracy to Make Us Buy," exposing the marketing world’s “hidden persuaders” 40 years after Vance Packard; and "Prescription Games," a damning insider’s view of the global pharmaceutical industry, where science and marketing are deliberately kept apart and where, all too often, profit dictates who lives and who dies.....
Read more
Monday, September 3
It's Labor Day: Why Am I Not Feeling Energized?
by Rev. Peter Laarman
CubaNow.--There he was, too pale and much too chubby to pass as an old salt but nonetheless perched proudly on the foredeck of his sparkling new Newport yacht, the aptly-named Numbers: one Daniel M. Meyers, a founder of First Marblehead Corp. and one of the leading players in the $20 billion student loan industry.
CubaNow.--There he was, too pale and much too chubby to pass as an old salt but nonetheless perched proudly on the foredeck of his sparkling new Newport yacht, the aptly-named Numbers: one Daniel M. Meyers, a founder of First Marblehead Corp. and one of the leading players in the $20 billion student loan industry.
Why should I begin a Labor Day post with this sorry image from Sunday's New York Times business section? Because the piece reports casually, in the context of charting the spectacular profits of companies like Meyers', that the average debt level carried by newly-minted college graduates has more than doubled over the past decade.
The Times piece on the student loan business also reports that this lucrative racket could end up looking a lot like the subprime mortgage racket: i.e., the sharks move in, they feast themselves, and they swim away before their victims quite realize they have limbs missing and before various Congressional sock puppets (happy for now to take money from the sharks) start clearing their exquisite throats to deplore the sorry mess.
It's the borrowers I am most interested in. They are the ones who, most often with their economically-stressed parents' concurrence, take the big gamble and go deeply into hock in the expectation that their dearly-purchased degrees will allow them not only to pay off their college debt but also achieve a comfortable middle-class life within just a few years....more
Sunday, September 2
Bush Executive Order 13443 Just in Time for Hunting Season
Cryptome's 21 August 2007 headline for the presidential EO Bush signed five days earlier was "Prez Expands Sport to Kill-Maim Americans."
Hmmmmm.....But seriously, folks; what could those fascists be up to with such a strange order?
==
[Federal Register: August 20, 2007 (Volume 72, Number 160)][Presidential Documents]
[Page 46535-46538]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr20au07-121]
[[Page 46535]]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Part II
The President
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Executive Order 13443--Facilitation of Hunting Heritage and Wildlife
Conservation
Presidential Documents
___________________________________________________________________
Title 3--
The President
[[Page 46537]]
Executive Order 13443 of August 16, 2007
Facilitation of Hunting Heritage and Wildlife
Conservation
By the authority vested in me as President by the
Constitution and the laws of the United States of
America, it is hereby ordered as follows:
Section 1. Purpose. The purpose of this order is to
direct Federal agencies that have programs and
activities that have a measurable effect on public land
management, outdoor recreation, and wildlife
management, including the Department of the Interior
and the Department of Agriculture, to facilitate the
expansion and enhancement of hunting opportunities and
the management of game species and their habitat.
Sec. 2. Federal Activities. Federal agencies shall,
consistent with agency missions:
(a) Evaluate the effect of agency actions on trends in
hunting participation and, where appropriate to address
declining trends, implement actions that expand and
enhance hunting opportunities for the public;
(b) Consider the economic and recreational values of
hunting in agency actions, as appropriate;
(c) Manage wildlife and wildlife habitats on public
lands in a manner that expands and enhances hunting
opportunities, including through the use of hunting in
wildlife management planning;
(d) Work collaboratively with State governments to
manage and conserve game species and their habitats in
a manner that respects private property rights and
State management authority over wildlife resources;
(e) Establish short and long term goals, in cooperation
with State and tribal governments, and consistent with
agency missions, to foster healthy and productive
populations of game species and appropriate
opportunities for the public to hunt those species;
(f) Ensure that agency plans and actions consider
programs and recommendations of comprehensive planning
efforts such as State Wildlife Action Plans, the North
American Waterfowl Management Plan, and other range-
wide management plans for big game and upland game
birds;
(g) Seek the advice of State and tribal fish and
wildlife agencies, and, as appropriate, consult with
the Sporting Conservation Council and other
organizations, with respect to the foregoing Federal
activities.
Sec. 3. North American Wildlife Policy Conference. The
Chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality
(Chairman) shall, in coordination with the appropriate
Federal agencies and in consultation with the Sporting
Conservation Council and in cooperation with State and
tribal fish and wildlife agencies and the public,
convene not later than 1 year after the date of this
order, and periodically thereafter at such times as the
Chairman deems appropriate, a White House Conference on
North American Wildlife Policy (Conference) to
facilitate the exchange of information and advice
relating to the means for achieving the goals of this
order.
Sec. 4. Recreational Hunting and Wildlife Resource
Conservation Plan. The Chairman shall prepare,
consistent with applicable law and subject to the
availability of appropriations, in coordination with
the appropriate Federal agencies and in consultation
with the Sporting Conservation Council, and in
cooperation with State and tribal fish and wildlife
agencies, not later
[[Page 46538]]
than 1 year following the conclusion of the Conference,
a comprehensive Recreational Hunting and Wildlife
Conservation Plan that incorporates existing and
ongoing activities and sets forth a 10-year agenda for
fulfilling the actions identified in section 2 of this
order.
Sec. 5. Judicial Review. This order is not intended to,
and does not, create any right, benefit, trust
responsibility, or privilege, substantive or
procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any
party against the United States, its departments,
agencies, instrumentalities, or entities, its officers
or employees, or any other person.
(Presidential Sig.)
THE WHITE HOUSE,
August 16, 2007.
[FR Doc. 07-4115
Filed 8-17-07; 10:46 am]
Billing code 3195-01-P
Hmmmmm.....But seriously, folks; what could those fascists be up to with such a strange order?
==
[Federal Register: August 20, 2007 (Volume 72, Number 160)][Presidential Documents]
[Page 46535-46538]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr20au07-121]
[[Page 46535]]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Part II
The President
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Executive Order 13443--Facilitation of Hunting Heritage and Wildlife
Conservation
Presidential Documents
___________________________________________________________________
Title 3--
The President
[[Page 46537]]
Executive Order 13443 of August 16, 2007
Facilitation of Hunting Heritage and Wildlife
Conservation
By the authority vested in me as President by the
Constitution and the laws of the United States of
America, it is hereby ordered as follows:
Section 1. Purpose. The purpose of this order is to
direct Federal agencies that have programs and
activities that have a measurable effect on public land
management, outdoor recreation, and wildlife
management, including the Department of the Interior
and the Department of Agriculture, to facilitate the
expansion and enhancement of hunting opportunities and
the management of game species and their habitat.
Sec. 2. Federal Activities. Federal agencies shall,
consistent with agency missions:
(a) Evaluate the effect of agency actions on trends in
hunting participation and, where appropriate to address
declining trends, implement actions that expand and
enhance hunting opportunities for the public;
(b) Consider the economic and recreational values of
hunting in agency actions, as appropriate;
(c) Manage wildlife and wildlife habitats on public
lands in a manner that expands and enhances hunting
opportunities, including through the use of hunting in
wildlife management planning;
(d) Work collaboratively with State governments to
manage and conserve game species and their habitats in
a manner that respects private property rights and
State management authority over wildlife resources;
(e) Establish short and long term goals, in cooperation
with State and tribal governments, and consistent with
agency missions, to foster healthy and productive
populations of game species and appropriate
opportunities for the public to hunt those species;
(f) Ensure that agency plans and actions consider
programs and recommendations of comprehensive planning
efforts such as State Wildlife Action Plans, the North
American Waterfowl Management Plan, and other range-
wide management plans for big game and upland game
birds;
(g) Seek the advice of State and tribal fish and
wildlife agencies, and, as appropriate, consult with
the Sporting Conservation Council and other
organizations, with respect to the foregoing Federal
activities.
Sec. 3. North American Wildlife Policy Conference. The
Chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality
(Chairman) shall, in coordination with the appropriate
Federal agencies and in consultation with the Sporting
Conservation Council and in cooperation with State and
tribal fish and wildlife agencies and the public,
convene not later than 1 year after the date of this
order, and periodically thereafter at such times as the
Chairman deems appropriate, a White House Conference on
North American Wildlife Policy (Conference) to
facilitate the exchange of information and advice
relating to the means for achieving the goals of this
order.
Sec. 4. Recreational Hunting and Wildlife Resource
Conservation Plan. The Chairman shall prepare,
consistent with applicable law and subject to the
availability of appropriations, in coordination with
the appropriate Federal agencies and in consultation
with the Sporting Conservation Council, and in
cooperation with State and tribal fish and wildlife
agencies, not later
[[Page 46538]]
than 1 year following the conclusion of the Conference,
a comprehensive Recreational Hunting and Wildlife
Conservation Plan that incorporates existing and
ongoing activities and sets forth a 10-year agenda for
fulfilling the actions identified in section 2 of this
order.
Sec. 5. Judicial Review. This order is not intended to,
and does not, create any right, benefit, trust
responsibility, or privilege, substantive or
procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any
party against the United States, its departments,
agencies, instrumentalities, or entities, its officers
or employees, or any other person.
(Presidential Sig.)
THE WHITE HOUSE,
August 16, 2007.
[FR Doc. 07-4115
Filed 8-17-07; 10:46 am]
Billing code 3195-01-P
