Good Morning!
Longwood Gardens. May, 2013. Photo by: joanneleon
Longwood Gardens. May, 2013. Photo by: joanneleon
Tunes
JOHN LENNON - "GIMME SOME TRUTH"
News & Opinion
A search for survivors in Oklahoma
(Reuters) - Pre-dawn emergency workers searched feverishly for survivors in the rubble of homes, primary schools and an hospital in an Oklahoma City suburb ravaged by a massive Monday afternoon tornado feared to have killed up to 91 people and injured well over 200 residents.
[...]
The White House said Obama would make a statement on the Oklahoma tornado at 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT). It said the president was brieved overnight on the tornado tragedy.
I am almost certain that members of Congress and the people from New York and New Jersey will not hold a grudge about this, and the disaster aid will be voted for and provided immediately and without hesitation for the people of Oklahoma (unlike what happened to us) but none of us will forget it. Trust me, we will not forget how we were treated when our people were devastated by Hurricane Sandy.
NYPD messages to Muslim informant: 'Get pictures'
NEW YORK (AP) — A New York Police Department detective told a federal judge that he's seen no evidence that one of his informants brought up the subject of jihad as a way to bait Muslims into making incriminating remarks. But text messages obtained by The Associated Press show otherwise.
Eugene Robinson does a good job of boiling it all down. A must read.
Obama administration mistakes journalism for espionage
This heavy-handed business isn’t chilling, it’s just plain cold. [...] It also may well be unconstitutional. [...]
[...]
Obviously, the government has a duty to protect genuine secrets. But the problem is that every administration, without exception, tends to misuse the “top secret” stamp — sometimes from an overabundance of caution, sometimes to keep inconvenient or embarrassing information from coming to light.
That’s where journalists come in. Our job, simply, is to find out what the government doesn’t want you to know.
[...]
Prosecutors examined Rosen’s phone records, read his e-mails and, using the electronic record left by his security badge, even tracked when he entered and left the State Department building. How did officials justify such snooping? By asserting in an FBI affidavit, according to The Post, that Rosen broke the law “at the very least, either as an aider, abettor and/or co-conspirator.”
In other words, since there is no law that makes publishing this classified information illegal, the Justice Department claims that obtaining the information was a violation of the Espionage Act.
Do any of these warning signs apply to you or any of your best friends at dkos? Walt notes the similarities between the neocons and hyperpartisan neoliberals that we have noticed and commented about many times.
Top 10 warning signs of 'liberal imperialism'
Are you a liberal imperialist? Liberal imperialists are like kinder, gentler neoconservatives: Like neocons, they believe it's America's responsibility to right political and humanitarian wrongs around the world, and they're comfortable with the idea of the United States deciding who will run countries such as Libya, Syria, or Afghanistan. Unlike neocons, liberal imperialists embrace and support international institutions (like the United Nations), and they are driven more by concern for human rights than they are by blind nationalism or protecting the U.S.-Israel special relationship. Still, like the neocons, liberal imperialists are eager proponents for using American hard power, even in situations where it might easily do more harm than good. The odd-bedfellow combination of their idealism with neocons' ideology has given us a lot of bad foreign policy over the past decade, especially the decisions to intervene militarily in Iraq or nation-build in Afghanistan, and today's drumbeat to do the same in Syria.
[...]
So while I often sympathize with their intentions, I'm tempted to send all liberal imperialists a sampler cross-stitched with: "The road to hell is paved with good intentions." At a minimum, that warning might help them be just a bit more skeptical about the wisdom of their advice. But I'm lousy at needlepoint, so instead today I offer my "10 Warning Signs that You Are a Liberal Imperialist."
The James Rosen Situation
This looks pretty ghastly, no two ways around it. It doesn't matter whether Rosen worked for Fox News or the Daily Worker. This is way out of bounds.
It's made all the worse, if you ask me, when you read Rosen's report, the one that got him in this trouble. [...]
Most of the coverage yesterday was about James Rosen from Fox News. Isikoff goes back to revisit the AP case and finds it was worse than initially reported.
Think the IRS Was Bad? Try the Spying on Occupy Activists
With all the hullabaloo over the IRS’s special scrutiny of Tea Party groups, a far worse case of political meddling and governmental overreach has been going on: The spying on leftwing activists in the Occupy movement.
Thousands of documents obtained by DBA Press and the Center for Media and Democracy show how Homeland Security and local law enforcement were obsessed with the Occupy movement and other activists.
They treated Occupy activists as potential terrorists.
[...]
And they shared information and coordinated planning with some of the very financial institutions that Occupy was protesting.
[Emphasis added]
This is tragic.
Guatemala ex-dictator's genocide conviction overturned
GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Guatemala's top court has thrown another curve into the genocide case of former dictator Efrain Rios Montt, overturning his conviction and ordering that the trial be taken back to the middle of the proceedings.
The ruling late Monday threw into disarray a process that had been hailed as historic for delivering the first guilty verdict for genocide against a former Latin American leader.
Constitutional Court secretary Martin Guzman said the trial needs to go back to where it stood on April 19 to solve several appeal issues.
Julian Assange: UK Spy Messages Suggest He is Being Framed
Speaking during an interview with Spanish television program Salvados, which aired on Sunday, WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange said that he has received a series of unclassified instant message exchanges from UK intelligence officials suggesting that he is being framed.
Assange filed a 'Special Access Request' under the UK's Data Protection Act asking the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) for copies of all unclassified documents referencing Assange.
[...]
"They are trying to arrest him on suspicion of XYZ, it's definitely a fit-up though. Their timings are too convenient right after Cablegate."
"This is what their spies are discussing among themselves," Assange added.
(CD Editors note: UsingEnglish.com defines "fit-up" as meaning: "To frame someone - make them look guilty of something they haven't done."
Action
Kevin Gosztola soliciting funds to help continue his excellent and tireless reporting on the Manning trial. Remember, he was virtually the only one reporting on it at times. I hope he is well funded for the court martial trial. He deserves a Pulitzer for his journalism on this. It will be interesting to see if the media does a turnaround on Manning and Assange now that they have had their epiphany and a taste of the whistleblower witch hunt. But unlike the MSM, Kevin needs the funding from his readers to keep going. Without Kevin and some others like Alexa O'Brien, the government would have succeeded in keeping most of the Manning situation in the dark.
To Those Who Have Supported My Coverage of Bradley Manning’s Court Martial (So Far)
Every dollar donated to help fund coverage of Bradley Manning has helped transform me into a foremost journalist on one of the biggest cases in military justice history.
Every post of mine shared on Facebook or Twitter has helped amplify critical coverage that is keeping the world informed of how the government is prosecuting Manning as if he is a traitor that aided terrorists.
[...]
I hope you will keep sharing my reporting with family, friends or those in your social network, and, when possible, make donations so I can remain a fixture in the press pool at Meade and keep up my coverage of the Manning case.
With gratitude,
Kevin Gosztola
Firedoglake.com Journalist
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Blog Posts and Tweets of Interest
Evening Blues
The Carbon Bomb & Industry Doublespeak
More Tunes
Power To The People (1970) John Lennon dans son album "Plastic Ono Band"