International

Another Day, Another RNC Fail: RNC To Hold Fundraiser At Blackwater Compound

Posted on by Democrashield

That’s the same Blackwater which has been accused of murder, illegal weapons smuggling, bribery, fraud (including using taxpayer money to buy strippers and prostitutes) and stealing weapons from the US military, among many other serious crimes.

You know that if the DNC held a fundraiser at, say, an ACORN office then heads would roll, careers would end and the right-wing media would launch a massive weeks-long national outcry.

And yet, almost nobody in the media is making a fuss over the RNC getting into bed with Blackwater.

And to think, ACORN was only accused of was giving bad tax advice.

Double standards much?

Winter Olympics Update

Posted on by Democrashield

One week into the 2010 Winter Olympics and Team USA is kicking ass:

And there are 9 days left in the competition.

To put this in perspective, the US walked away from the 2006 Winter Olympics with a total of 25 medals.

Go Team USA. And remember:

The Party Of No (Ideas) (UPDATED X2)

Posted on by Democrashield

So, I had a post all set to go about the GOP’s Mount Vernon Statement, which is supposed to be the political blueprint for Republican success in November.

I was going to examine the 1994 Contract with America and point out how much of it the Republican Congress failed to pass, demonstrating how the GOP is long on making big election-year promises but short on delivering.

Problem is, I couldn’t do that. Why? Well, here’s the most substantive portion of the Mount Vernon Statement, which advocates:

A Constitutional conservatism based on first principles provides the framework for a consistent and meaningful policy agenda.
  • It applies the principle of limited government based on the
    rule of law to every proposal.
  • It honors the central place of individual liberty in American
    politics and life.
  • It encourages free enterprise, the individual entrepreneur, and
    economic reforms grounded in market solutions.
  • It supports America’s national interest in advancing freedom
    and opposing tyranny in the world and prudently considers what we can and should do to that
    end.
  • It informs conservatism’s firm defense of family, neighborhood,
    community, and faith.

Yup, there’s the much-hyped Mount Vernon Statement–a list of cliched talking points without a single concrete proposal.

Are they serious? They want us to vote for them based on nothing more than vague notions like “the central place of individual liberty” and “the individual entrepreneur?”

Concerned about health care? On one side we have President Obama and the Democrats, who worked for more than 6 months and put together a health care reform bill that will reduce the deficit, help middle-class families buy good insurance and cover 31 million uninsured Americans.

On the other side you have Republicans, who didn’t even think health care was important enough to include in their little manifesto.

Care about jobs and the economy? President Obama and the Democrats passed the recovery act, creating 1.6 million jobs (with another million on the way). They’re also working right now on a jobs bill that will put millions more Americans back to work.

The Republicans are offering nothing but talking points about “free enterprise,” “the individual entrepreneur” and “economic reforms grounded in market solutions,” whatever those mean. If you ask them what they’ve actually done to fix the economy and create jobs, you’ll get silence.

Read More

All You Need To Know About DADT

Posted on by Democrashield

Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, supports repealing it.

As does General Colin Powell, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

As do 104 retired military brass, including a former head of the Naval Academy in Annapolis.

In other words, the commanders on the ground are telling us that repealing ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’ is the right way to go.

The right may continue slandering our soldiers by claiming that–despite going through the best training in the world and being deployed to some of the most dangerous battlefields out there–American soldiers just couldn’t handle having gay compatriots.

But most people–including an increasing number of military commanders–know that, if American soldiers can handle Al-Qaeda then they can certainly handle having some openly gay colleagues.

17 years of DADT is enough–it’s high time we let all of America’s patriots serve openly.

State Of The Union Liveblog (UPDATED CONTINUOUSLY)

Posted on by Democrashield

Let’s get it started–the President has entered the chamber.

UPDATE: The speech begins:

President Obama starts off talking about America’s trials and tribulations–Bull Run, the Great Depression, Bloody Sunday, etc. But, despite our hesitations and fears, America prevailed because we moved forward as one nation, one people.

One year ago, I took office amid two wars, an economic collapse and a country in severe debt. Experts warned that, without action, we faced a second Great Depression. We acted–one year later, the worst has passed.

But the devastation remains–many Americans can’t find work, houses are shuttered, and life has become that much harder. The recession has compounded the burdens America’s families have dealt with for decades–savings, retirements, college, etc.

UPDATE II: These struggles aren’t new–they are the reason I ran for President. For suffering Americans, change can’t come fast enough. And people can’t understand why bad behavior on Wall St. is rewarded while good behavior on Main St. warrants nothing.

People are tired of the partisanship and of the shouting and division–what the American people deserve is for all of us, Democrats and Republicans, to work through our differences and overcome the weight of our politics. The anxieties we all face are the same, our aspirations are shared.

The American people share a resilience in the face of adversity. In one of the most difficult years in our history, the American people remain busy.  One woman wrote to me ‘we are strained but hopeful, struggling but encouraged.’ It is because of this spirit that I have never been more hopeful about America’s future than I am tonight.

[Applause]

Read More

Major Earthquake Strikes Haitian Capital; Thousands Feared Dead (UPDATED X7)

Posted on by Democrashield

The BBC reports:

Haitian President Rene Preval has said thousands of people are feared dead following a huge quake which has devastated the country’s capital.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon said the head of the UN mission in Haiti and his deputy were among more than 100 staff missing.

The 7.0-magnitude quake, Haiti’s worst in two centuries, struck south of Port-au-Prince, on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive told US network CNN he believed more than 100,000 people had died.

The Red Cross says up to three million people are affected.

Donate to The Red Cross.

Donate to Doctors Without Borders.

Find other organizations currently providing humanitarian aid in Haiti.

UPDATE: Here are some pictures of the disaster from Daniel Morel via Twitpic:

UPDATE II: Here are more pics, this time from Lisandro Suero via Twitpic:

UPDATE III: Here is President Obama’s response to the disaster:

UPDATE IV: CBS brings us some raw footage of the earthquake’s aftermath:

CNN also has a list of organizations currently doing humanitarian aid in Haiti.

UPDATE V: Here’s a quick and easy way you can help out:

The State Department said those interested in helping immediately may text ‘HAITI’ to ‘90999’ and a donation of $10 will be made automatically to the Red Cross for relief efforts. The donation will be charged to your cellphone bill.

UPDATE VI: The UN Dispatch has more on Haiti’s coming challenges:

Once you’ve survived the earthquake, what happens? Haitians now face a daunting set of health challenges, including typhoid, dengue fever, malaria, and getting treatment for serious injuries.

While health information coming out of Haiti is still very sparse, data from previous earthquakes gives us a clear impression of what to expect in terms of health. The initial impact of an earthquake is catastrophic injuries – broken bones, crush injuries, dust inhalation, and burns predominate.

[…]

Social unrest often comes after earthquakes. People get angry with the government’s inability to respond, and fear and helplessness turns easily to violence. There are reports of looting in Haiti. That’s going to mean more injuries by violence.

After the injuries comes sickness. If stringent controls are not put in place, the combination of displaced people and damaged infrastructure will lead directly to epidemics of diarrheal disease over the next few months. In the case of Haiti, the risk is typhoid. It’s already present in the country, and it could spread rapidly if people are crowded together drinking contaminated water. We could also see spikes in dengue fever and malaria if people are living in temporary shelters with little protection from mosquitoes.

This is where disaster relief efforts make a huge difference. By the time the international teams get in, it’s too late to help the severely injured.

UPDATE VII: CBS brings us more raw footage, this time of a rescue attempt from a toppled building:

[All emphasis mine]

BREAKING: Alleged Flight 253 Bomber Indicted (UPDATED)

Posted on by Democrashield

The Huffington Post reports:

A grand jury indicted a Nigerian man on Wednesday on charges accusing him of attempting to blow up a Detroit-bound Northwest Airlines plane on Christmas Day by trying to use a weapon of mass destruction.

The federal grand jury also charged Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab with attempted murder, possession of a firearm and other counts.

[…]

There is no specific mention of terrorism in the seven-page indictment, but President Barack Obama considers the incident a failed strike against the United States by an affiliate of al-Qaida.

Abdulmutallab has told U.S. investigators he received training and instructions from al-Qaida operatives in Yemen.

More on the specific charges against Abdulmutallab:

Abdulmutallab was charged with six counts: attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction, attempted murder within the special aircraft jurisdiction of the United States, willful attempt to destroy and wreck an aircraft within the special aircraft jurisdiction of the United States, willfully placing a destructive device on an aircraft and two counts possession of a destructive device in furtherance of a crime of violence.

Nobody Is Running The TSA

Posted on by Democrashield

That’s right–in the wake of a thwarted terrorist attack we learn that the top spot at the Transportation Security Administration is empty.

And it’s all thanks to Republican Senator Jim DeMint:

An attempt to blow up a trans-Atlantic flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day would be all-consuming for the administrator of the Transportation Security Administration — if there were one.

The post remains vacant because Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., has held up President Barack Obama’s nominee in opposition to the prospect of TSA workers joining a labor union.

As al Qaida claimed responsibility Monday for the thwarted attack and President Barack Obama made a public statement about it, Democrats urged DeMint to drop his objection and allow quick confirmation of nominee Erroll Southers, a counterterrorism expert, when the Senate reconvenes in three weeks.

[…]

Southers, a former FBI special agent, is the Los Angeles World Airports Police Department assistant chief for homeland security and intelligence. He also is the associate director of the University of Southern California’s Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events, and he served as a deputy director of homeland security for California Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Two Senate committees have given Southers their bipartisan blessing.

[Emphasis mine]

So a Republican Senator is blocking the appointment of someone to head the TSA for purely partisan political purposes.

We almost had a deadly terrorist attack–one that wold have killed an airplane full of people–but the GOP is leaving the TSA headless because they hate labor unions and don’t want a government agency to unionize.

Why is the GOP putting politics ahead of American lives?

BREAKING: Second Investigaton Finds That ACORN Broke No Laws (UPDATED)

Posted on by Democrashield

A little more than two weeks after the Harshbarger commission concluded that ACORN broke no laws , another investigation–this time by the Congressional Research Service–came to the same conclusion:

A Congressional Research Service report commissioned by the House Judiciary Committee says ACORN hasn’t violated any federal regulations the last five years.

The report, released by Judiciary Chairman John Conyers’ (D-Mich.) staff Tuesday evening, also reports that the undercover filmmakers that allegedly caught employees of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now breaking the law may have violated state law in their filming operation.

[Emphasis mine]

So not only did ACORN not break any laws, but the conservative filmmakers who went undercover to try and find ACORN breaking the law actually broke the law themselves.

And isn’t it funny how the so-called liberal media breathlessly covered those undercover ACORN tapes, yet have given almost no coverage to the two investigations which found that the community organizing group did nothing illegal? Or to the fact that the undercover filmmakers themselves seem to have broken a number of wiretapping laws across several states?

Then again, I guess that double standard shouldn’t be surprising–just look at how much coverage ACORN’s bad tax advice has received in comparison to, say, Blackwater’s murder charges, illegal arms smuggling and bribery using taxpayer money.

For some inexplicable reason, some taxpayer-funded organizations seem to be held to a higher standard than others–giving bad tax advice warrants wall-to-wall coverage while murder, arms smuggling and bribery is barely worth mentioning.

Priorities!

UPDATE: Congress rushed to cut off funding to ACORN in the wake of their possibly-fabricated scandal.

So when are they going to do the same for Blackwater (now known as Xe)?

A Xe official told the Commission on Wartime Contracting Friday that the company has contracts for security as well as for training Afghan police and a “drug interdiction unit.” Xe is also in the running for more work in Afghanistan. The comments of Xe Vice President Fred Roitz were first reported by the Virginia Pilot.

[…]

Xe also is one of five pre-qualified companies competing for a new Defense Department contract to train the Afghan national police.

[Emphasis mine]

The Right Gives Up On Consistency

Posted on by Democrashield

Remember how Republicans complained that the health care reform bill was too long?

Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX) griped that it was “longer than War and Peace.”

House Minority Leader John Boehnert (R-OH) said “[a]ll you need to know is there are 1,990 pages. That should tell you everything.”

In an op-ed on the bill, Boehnert decried “[m]assive bills unveiled in the dark of night and rushed to a vote before anyone in America could possibly know the details.”

Well, now Senator Mike Enzi (R-WY) is complaining that the health care reform bill isn’t long enough:

And we talk about 2,074 pages, which seem like a lot, and it would be for a normal bill that you could debate in a limited period of time, which is what we’re being asked to do. But 2,074 pages isn’t nearly enough to cover health care for America. So why is it only 2,074 pages?

So, which is it? Is the health care reform bill too long, or not long enough? And why did the GOP change their tune?

Read More

More On The ‘Climategate’ Nontroversy (UPDATED)

Posted on by Democrashield

From George Monbiot at The Guardian:

The denial industry, which has no interest in establishing the truth about global warming, insists that these emails, which concern three or four scientists and just one or two lines of evidence, destroy the entire canon of climate science.

Even if you were to exclude every line of evidence that could possibly be disputed – the proxy records, the computer models, the complex science of clouds and ocean currents – the evidence for man-made global warming would still be unequivocal. You can see it in the measured temperature record, which goes back to 1850; in the shrinkage of glaciers and the thinning of sea ice; in the responses of wild animals and plants and the rapidly changing crop zones.

No other explanation for these shifts makes sense. Solar cycles have been out of synch with the temperature record for 40 years. The Milankovic cycle, which describes variations in the Earth’s orbit, doesn’t explain it either. But the warming trend is closely correlated with the accumulation of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere. The impact of these gases can be demonstrated in the laboratory. To assert that they do not have the same effect in the atmosphere, a novel and radical theory would be required. No such theory exists. The science is not fixed – no science ever is – but it is as firm as science can be. The evidence for man-made global warming remains as strong as the evidence linking smoking to lung cancer or HIV to Aids.

Read More

The ‘Climategate’ Nontroversy

Posted on by Democrashield

I wrote a little bit about the so-called ‘climategate’ story earlier, but I figure I should tackle it head-on.

Background: several thousand emails were stolen from the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit. A number of right-wingers and global warming skeptics went through the emails and cherry-picked parts that made it seem like some climate scientists were manipulating data to make the case for global warming.

Was that the case? Well, not entirely:

Read More

Urgency In Copenhagen

Posted on by Democrashield

This week’s climate change conference in Copenhagen takes on a new urgency in the wake of scientific findings that the first decade of this century will probably be the warmest in recorded history:

The decade of the 2000s is very likely the warmest decade in the modern record, dating back 150 years, according to a provisional summary of climate conditions near the end of 2009, the [World Meteorological Organization] said.

The period from 2000 through 2009 has been “warmer than the 1990s, which were warmer than the 1980s and so on,” said Michel Jarraud, the secretary general of the international weather agency, speaking at a news conference at the climate talks in Copenhagen.

The international assessment largely meshes with interim analysis by the National Climatic Data Center and NASA in the United States, both of which independently estimate global and regional temperature and other weather trends.

Mr. Jarraud also said that 2009, with some uncertainty because several weeks remain, appears to be the fifth warmest year on record.

This news comes just one day after the Environmental Protection agency officially declared carbon dioxide a public danger.

And despite the right-wing hullabaloo over those stolen emails from the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit, there are a multitude of separate, independent analyses all providing significant, incontrovertible evidence that human-caused global warming exists.

From the article above:

Addressing questions raised about the reliability of climate data after the unauthorized release of e-mail messages and files from a British climate research unit that provides data to the global weather group, he said there was no evidence that the various independent estimates showing a warming world were in doubt.

Read More

On Afghanistan

Posted on by Democrashield

Thinking about President Obama’s Afghanistan escalation, I’m not sure it can work. I’m not sure that years of Bush’s neglect and mismanagement can be reversed at this point. It’s possible that Afghanistan is so corrupt and divided by now that no military or diplomatic maneuvers by the United States can fix it.

I vehemently opposed the surge in Iraq, for a variety of reasons. Iraq was a highly-unstable country deeply divided along sectarian lines; the war there had nothing to do with 9/11 and wasn’t intrinsically linked to our national security; the enemy there lacked the means to attack the United States; escalation threatened to further strengthen Iran.

Afghanistan is different. Even though they are divided and violent, they are far less so than Iraq was overall; Afghanistan had everything to do with 9/11; eliminating violent extremism there is directly related to—and beneficial for—the national security of the United States; I don’t think I need to make the case that the enemy in Afghanistan does pose the ability to harm the United States; failure in Afghanistan would pose to destabilize nuclear Pakistan.

Read More

President Obama’s War Plan

Posted on by Democrashield

Details of the President’s Afghanistan strategy are emerging ahead of his primetime  speech at West Point tonight:

President Barack Obama plans to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan over six months, an accelerated timetable – with an endgame built in – that would have the first Marines there as early as Christmas, a senior administration official told The Associated Press.

With the full complement of new troops expected to be in Afghanistan by next summer, the heightened pace of Obama’s military deployment in the 8-year-old war appears to mimic the 2007 troop surge in Iraq, a 20,000-strong force addition under former President George W. Bush. Similar in strategy to that mission, Obama’s Afghan surge aims to reverse gains by Taliban insurgents and to secure population centers in the volatile south and east parts of the country.

[…]

Read More

Obama On Track To Have Best First Year Since FDR

Posted on by Democrashield

According to Jacob Weisberg:

[The] conventional wisdom about Obama’s first year isn’t just premature—it’s sure to be flipped on its head by the anniversary of his inauguration on Jan. 20. If, as seems increasingly likely, Obama wins passage of a health care reform a bill by that date, he will deliver his first State of the Union address having accomplished more than any other postwar American president at a comparable point in his presidency. This isn’t an ideological point or one that depends on agreement with his policies. It’s a neutral assessment of his emerging record—how many big, transformational things Obama is likely to have made happen in his first 12 months in office.

[…]

Read More

34,000

Posted on by Democrashield

That’s how many additional troops President Obama will send to Afghanistan over the next year:

President Barack Obama met Monday evening with his national security team to finalize a plan to dispatch some 34,000 additional U.S. troops over the next year to what he’s called “a war of necessity” in Afghanistan, U.S. officials told McClatchy.

Obama is expected to announce his long-awaited decision on Dec. 1, followed by meetings on Capitol Hill aimed at winning congressional support amid opposition by some Democrats who are worried about the strain on the U.S. Treasury and whether Afghanistan has become a quagmire, the officials said.

[…]

As it now stands, the plan calls for the deployment over a nine-month period beginning in March of three Army brigades from the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Ky., and the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum, N.Y., and a Marine brigade from Camp Lejeune, N.C., for as many as 23,000 additional combat and support troops.

In addition, a 7,000-strong division headquarters would be sent to take command of U.S.-led NATO forces in southern Afghanistan — to which the U.S. has long been committed — and 4,000 U.S. military trainers would be dispatched to help accelerate an expansion of the Afghan army and police.

[…]

The administration’s plan contains “off-ramps,” points starting next June at which Obama could decide to continue the flow of troops, halt the deployments and adopt a more limited strategy or “begin looking very quickly at exiting” the country, depending on political and military progress, one defense official said.

“We have to start showing progress within six months on the political side or military side or that’s it,” the U.S. defense official said.

It’s “not just how we get people there, but what’s the strategy for getting them out,” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Monday.

And Justice For All: Why The KSM Trial Isn’t Unprecedented (UPDATED)

Posted on by Democrashield

Zacharias Moussaoui is a die-hard, well-trained Al-Qaeda militant. He was slated to be the 20th 9/11 hijacker and was only prevented from taking part in the mass murder of 3,000 innocent people by a chance arrest on immigration charges in August, 2001.

In the wake of 9/11, Moussaoui was charged, tried, found guilty and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole by a federal court. Today–and for the rest of his life–Moussaoui resides in the supermax prison facility in Florence, Colorado.

The truth is, a lot of terrorists–domestic and international–have been successfully tried in the United States.  Currently, 355 terrorists reside within the American prison system.

And yet, neither Moussaoui’s trial nor any of the other terror trials caused very much controversy, certainly not as much as the impending trial of 9/11 pl0tter Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

The only major difference between the two trials appears to be who was inhabiting the White House at the time.

The Bush administration put one dangerous 9/11 plotter on trial and caused nearly no outcry from the right; the Obama administration puts another dangerous 9/11 plotter on trial and the right is causing an uproar.

Sadly, I guess even terrorism isn’t off-limits when there are political points to be scored.

But the Moussaoui trial taught us that a dangerous Al-Qaeda terrorist and 9/11 plotter can successfully be put on trial. As the AP wrote:

Read More

President Obama’s Bow & Right-Wing Fauxtrage (UPDATED)

Posted on by Democrashield

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again–conservatives really are just looking for any excuse to attack President Obama. Sometimes, the extent to which they’re willing to deny reality is simply stunning.

As part of his ongoing trip to Asia, President Obama met with Japan’s Emperor Akihito. When greeting Akihito, as a gesture of politeness, Obama gave him a bow and a handshake.

Cue the right-wingers, screaming that the President’s polite greeting of a foreign leader was a gesture of weakness (or something like that). Conservatives, puffing out their chests and wrapping their flags more tightly about their shoulders, defiantly declared that “Americans do not bow” and attacked the President’s “subservient” pose.

Here’s a reality check:

Read More

And Justice For All: 9/11 Suspects To Be Put On Trial, Pt. II

Posted on by Democrashield

One of the more idiotic talking points I’ve heard on the Obama administration’s decision to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and several other 9/11 suspects in criminal court is that, by doing so, the administration is somehow granting those individuals rights they otherwise wouldn’t be entitled to.

But it doesn’t take a constitutional scholar to know that constitutional rights are not always reserved only for American citizens.

Read More