Heads Up, Kids
Along with relief over the outcome of Tuesday’s election comes a sense of foreboding: will exposure stop the tyrannical threats to liberty by the current administration? I fear that exposure will not be sufficient to stem the enormous and pathological greed that seems to be a compulsion of this “administration” as much as murder is a compulsion for serial killers, and it seems that the criminals running our country from the White House these days have about as much compassion as the average serial murderer.
I fear that these criminals will create yet another 9-11, and I am not too sure that they didn’t manufacture that event in order to further their own Machiavellian ends. Nothing, at this point in our history, would surprise me. The fact that the current administration in Washington, D.C. are trying to privatize (and then steal) Amtrak is as undeniable a signal that business continues as usual as could exist. The potential impulsion* to ‘get as much as possible while the gettin’s good’ might make this gang of shysters even more of a threat to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.
Any act of terrorism occurring in this country at this time must be examined microscopically for signs that Bush and Cronies have their dirty little hands in it: it might protect the citizens of this country if this idea were made public before an event occurs that might re-focus our attentions elsewhere than the current administration and their criminal activities.
Heads up, Kids.
* im•pul•sion :
An urge to perform certain actions without regard for internal or social constraints.
__________________________________________________________________
November 10, 2005
Editorial
A Disgraceful Signal at Amtrak
The sudden firing by the Amtrak board of David Gunn, the best president in years of the nation's only passenger railroad, was a body blow to anybody who cares about long-range passenger trains.
Mr. Gunn has done a masterly job in the last three years of holding down costs without dismantling the railroad. That, apparently, was his problem. Mr. Gunn was trying to save Amtrak, but the Bush administration wants to privatize it, bit by bit.
The battle between Mr. Gunn and Amtrak board members - all of them appointed by President Bush - intensified in recent weeks when the board took steps to break off the more profitable Northeast Corridor, putting it into its own division and sharing its control and costs with the states. Senator Frank Lautenberg, Democrat of New Jersey, called it a "fire sale" intended to break up the nation's railroad system.
So last week Senator Lautenberg and Senator Trent Lott, Republican of Mississippi, managed to get a 93-to-6 vote to authorize $11.6 billion for passenger rail service in the next six years - as close to an all-out endorsement of Amtrak as you can get.
But while senators were trying to help Amtrak move forward, its board took a step backward. It complained yesterday that Mr. Gunn - who has greatly increased ridership, improved management and upgraded equipment - was moving too slowly. After his firing, Mr. Gunn said, "Obviously what their goal is, and it's been their goal from the beginning, is to liquidate the company."
For Amtrak's 25 million passengers, this should be a call to arms. Amtrak should be a public transportation trust. It will never be self-sufficient, nor show a conventional profit, any more than the airline industry can fly without federal help. The Bush administration long ago threatened to disassemble Amtrak. Yesterday it began at the executive suite.
Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company
___________________________________________________________________
washingtonpost.com
Rising Support Cited for Limits On Patriot Act
By Dan EggenWashington Post Staff WriterThursday, November 10, 2005; A03
Congress edged closer yesterday to limiting some of the sweeping surveillance and search powers it granted to the federal government under the USA Patriot Act in 2001, including a provision that would allow judicial oversight of a central tool of the FBI's counterterrorism efforts, according to Senate and House aides.
Under the terms of a tentative deal worked out by congressional staff members in recent weeks, a conference committee set to begin meeting today would probably adhere to the outlines of a Senate bill that sets new restrictions on the government, aides close to the negotiations said. The agreement would not include additional subpoena powers sought by the Justice Department and some Republicans, the aides said.
The House also approved by voice vote a nonbinding resolution that calls for a four-year extension of some Patriot Act provisions rather than the 10-year deadlines included in House legislation earlier this year. Overall, 16 provisions of the law are set to expire at the end of this year unless Congress renews them.
If these and other compromise measures are approved, it would mark another significant setback for the weakened Bush administration as it battles the GOP-controlled Congress over the limits of its powers related to terrorism and the Iraq war. Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and other Bush officials have argued for months in favor of the more administration-friendly House version of the Patriot bill, but the Senate version appears to have more momentum.
Administration officials led by Vice President Cheney are also lobbying to exempt the CIA from legislation sponsored by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), which would ban cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment of prisoners.
The Patriot Act negotiations come amid new revelations of the FBI's use of "national security letters," which require companies to provide private information about their customers and to keep the request secret. Aided by loosened restrictions under the law, the FBI issues more than 30,000 such letters annually, compared with about 300 a year before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, sources told The Washington Post.
The House and Senate versions added a level of judicial review for such letters, which now can be approved by any of about 60 senior FBI officials and which receive no routine scrutiny from the courts. The Senate version included broader language than the House, but it was unclear yesterday which version was likely to prevail.
Another key limitation would be included in the tentative deal worked out by House and Senate staff members, according to one Republican aide: The FBI would be required to destroy or return records obtained with secret intelligence warrants if the subjects turn out not to be connected to terrorism or some other crime.
Jeff Lungren, a spokesman for House Judiciary Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), acknowledged that staff members had been negotiating over the Patriot Act but cautioned that lawmakers have not signed off on a final agreement.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which is part of an unusual coalition of liberal, conservative and business groups opposed to some of the surveillance and search powers contained in the Patriot Act, praised the proposed Senate restrictions but said stronger limits are needed on the use of national security letters.
Staff writer Charles Babington contributed to this report.
© 2005 The Washington Post Company
__________________________________________________________________
November 10, 2005
Editorial
The Return of Ahmad Chalabi
It might have been awkward for President Bush to have told Ahmad Chalabi, a deputy prime minister in Iraq, that he would receive no official welcome in Washington this week. Mr. Chalabi does not easily take no for an answer, and he seems to have no inhibitions about embarrassing his former friends with impolitic remarks, especially if they help him in next month's Iraqi elections. But it is disgraceful to hand this multiply discredited schemer the prestige he will surely milk from his meetings with Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the national security adviser, Stephen Hadley.
Mr. Chalabi is not just any political opportunist. He, more than any other Iraqi, is responsible for encouraging the Bush administration to make two disastrous mistakes about the Iraq intervention: basing its justification for war on the false premise that Saddam Hussein had active unconventional-weapons programs, and falsely imagining that the Iraqi people would greet the invasion with undiluted joy.
Nor did Mr. Chalabi's destructive influence stop there. After the invasion, he played a leading role in persuading American occupation authorities to issue a blanket decree against former Baath Party members, sweeping aside the lawyers, doctors, teachers and other professionals who had preserved their careers by joining the lower ranks of Mr. Hussein's party. That exclusion helped cement the disastrous estrangement of the Sunni Arab middle class. Mr. Chalabi personally took charge of enforcing this purge, and he still resists efforts by the United States and less divisive Iraqi parties to rein it in for the sake of national unity.
As if all that weren't enough, Mr. Chalabi is suspected by United States government investigators of tipping off Iran that American spy agencies had broken its codes and were covertly reading its international messages, a charge he vehemently denies.
Mr. Chalabi's record as a double-dealer and unreliable source stretches back for decades. He has long been distrusted by those in the State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency who know Iraq best. But during the crucial months that the Bush administration was planning the invasion and occupation, Mr. Chalabi became a favorite of pro-war Pentagon and White House officials, largely by telling them what they wanted to hear. It is alarming that the administration is still willing to reward him with such a high-ranking official audience.
Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company
I fear that these criminals will create yet another 9-11, and I am not too sure that they didn’t manufacture that event in order to further their own Machiavellian ends. Nothing, at this point in our history, would surprise me. The fact that the current administration in Washington, D.C. are trying to privatize (and then steal) Amtrak is as undeniable a signal that business continues as usual as could exist. The potential impulsion* to ‘get as much as possible while the gettin’s good’ might make this gang of shysters even more of a threat to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.
Any act of terrorism occurring in this country at this time must be examined microscopically for signs that Bush and Cronies have their dirty little hands in it: it might protect the citizens of this country if this idea were made public before an event occurs that might re-focus our attentions elsewhere than the current administration and their criminal activities.
Heads up, Kids.
* im•pul•sion :
An urge to perform certain actions without regard for internal or social constraints.
__________________________________________________________________
November 10, 2005
Editorial
A Disgraceful Signal at Amtrak
The sudden firing by the Amtrak board of David Gunn, the best president in years of the nation's only passenger railroad, was a body blow to anybody who cares about long-range passenger trains.
Mr. Gunn has done a masterly job in the last three years of holding down costs without dismantling the railroad. That, apparently, was his problem. Mr. Gunn was trying to save Amtrak, but the Bush administration wants to privatize it, bit by bit.
The battle between Mr. Gunn and Amtrak board members - all of them appointed by President Bush - intensified in recent weeks when the board took steps to break off the more profitable Northeast Corridor, putting it into its own division and sharing its control and costs with the states. Senator Frank Lautenberg, Democrat of New Jersey, called it a "fire sale" intended to break up the nation's railroad system.
So last week Senator Lautenberg and Senator Trent Lott, Republican of Mississippi, managed to get a 93-to-6 vote to authorize $11.6 billion for passenger rail service in the next six years - as close to an all-out endorsement of Amtrak as you can get.
But while senators were trying to help Amtrak move forward, its board took a step backward. It complained yesterday that Mr. Gunn - who has greatly increased ridership, improved management and upgraded equipment - was moving too slowly. After his firing, Mr. Gunn said, "Obviously what their goal is, and it's been their goal from the beginning, is to liquidate the company."
For Amtrak's 25 million passengers, this should be a call to arms. Amtrak should be a public transportation trust. It will never be self-sufficient, nor show a conventional profit, any more than the airline industry can fly without federal help. The Bush administration long ago threatened to disassemble Amtrak. Yesterday it began at the executive suite.
Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company
___________________________________________________________________
washingtonpost.com
Rising Support Cited for Limits On Patriot Act
By Dan EggenWashington Post Staff WriterThursday, November 10, 2005; A03
Congress edged closer yesterday to limiting some of the sweeping surveillance and search powers it granted to the federal government under the USA Patriot Act in 2001, including a provision that would allow judicial oversight of a central tool of the FBI's counterterrorism efforts, according to Senate and House aides.
Under the terms of a tentative deal worked out by congressional staff members in recent weeks, a conference committee set to begin meeting today would probably adhere to the outlines of a Senate bill that sets new restrictions on the government, aides close to the negotiations said. The agreement would not include additional subpoena powers sought by the Justice Department and some Republicans, the aides said.
The House also approved by voice vote a nonbinding resolution that calls for a four-year extension of some Patriot Act provisions rather than the 10-year deadlines included in House legislation earlier this year. Overall, 16 provisions of the law are set to expire at the end of this year unless Congress renews them.
If these and other compromise measures are approved, it would mark another significant setback for the weakened Bush administration as it battles the GOP-controlled Congress over the limits of its powers related to terrorism and the Iraq war. Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and other Bush officials have argued for months in favor of the more administration-friendly House version of the Patriot bill, but the Senate version appears to have more momentum.
Administration officials led by Vice President Cheney are also lobbying to exempt the CIA from legislation sponsored by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), which would ban cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment of prisoners.
The Patriot Act negotiations come amid new revelations of the FBI's use of "national security letters," which require companies to provide private information about their customers and to keep the request secret. Aided by loosened restrictions under the law, the FBI issues more than 30,000 such letters annually, compared with about 300 a year before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, sources told The Washington Post.
The House and Senate versions added a level of judicial review for such letters, which now can be approved by any of about 60 senior FBI officials and which receive no routine scrutiny from the courts. The Senate version included broader language than the House, but it was unclear yesterday which version was likely to prevail.
Another key limitation would be included in the tentative deal worked out by House and Senate staff members, according to one Republican aide: The FBI would be required to destroy or return records obtained with secret intelligence warrants if the subjects turn out not to be connected to terrorism or some other crime.
Jeff Lungren, a spokesman for House Judiciary Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), acknowledged that staff members had been negotiating over the Patriot Act but cautioned that lawmakers have not signed off on a final agreement.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which is part of an unusual coalition of liberal, conservative and business groups opposed to some of the surveillance and search powers contained in the Patriot Act, praised the proposed Senate restrictions but said stronger limits are needed on the use of national security letters.
Staff writer Charles Babington contributed to this report.
© 2005 The Washington Post Company
__________________________________________________________________
November 10, 2005
Editorial
The Return of Ahmad Chalabi
It might have been awkward for President Bush to have told Ahmad Chalabi, a deputy prime minister in Iraq, that he would receive no official welcome in Washington this week. Mr. Chalabi does not easily take no for an answer, and he seems to have no inhibitions about embarrassing his former friends with impolitic remarks, especially if they help him in next month's Iraqi elections. But it is disgraceful to hand this multiply discredited schemer the prestige he will surely milk from his meetings with Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the national security adviser, Stephen Hadley.
Mr. Chalabi is not just any political opportunist. He, more than any other Iraqi, is responsible for encouraging the Bush administration to make two disastrous mistakes about the Iraq intervention: basing its justification for war on the false premise that Saddam Hussein had active unconventional-weapons programs, and falsely imagining that the Iraqi people would greet the invasion with undiluted joy.
Nor did Mr. Chalabi's destructive influence stop there. After the invasion, he played a leading role in persuading American occupation authorities to issue a blanket decree against former Baath Party members, sweeping aside the lawyers, doctors, teachers and other professionals who had preserved their careers by joining the lower ranks of Mr. Hussein's party. That exclusion helped cement the disastrous estrangement of the Sunni Arab middle class. Mr. Chalabi personally took charge of enforcing this purge, and he still resists efforts by the United States and less divisive Iraqi parties to rein it in for the sake of national unity.
As if all that weren't enough, Mr. Chalabi is suspected by United States government investigators of tipping off Iran that American spy agencies had broken its codes and were covertly reading its international messages, a charge he vehemently denies.
Mr. Chalabi's record as a double-dealer and unreliable source stretches back for decades. He has long been distrusted by those in the State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency who know Iraq best. But during the crucial months that the Bush administration was planning the invasion and occupation, Mr. Chalabi became a favorite of pro-war Pentagon and White House officials, largely by telling them what they wanted to hear. It is alarming that the administration is still willing to reward him with such a high-ranking official audience.
Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company
posted by FancyRage at 10:46 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home