Hi all--

The news of Blackwater's contract renewal has once again raised concerns about the lack of oversight on private military firms.  Whether regarding the contract employees themselves, or the companies who pay them, there has been little success is creating legal mechanisms to govern the growing number of private military personnel.  

This diary is some research I did on the matter addressing oversight efforts on the international, regional, and state levels. It was written about a year ago but little has changed.  So I hope it provides you with a little more history, context, and understanding of what has and hasn't been tried.

(Warning: it's LONG -- but I recommend at least reading the bibliography, which I'll post immediately after since the formatting kills my footnotes anyway.  Hopefully someone still comes to Kos for something other than pithy candidate diaries...)

On September 15, the International ANSWER coalition is leading an anti-war demo in DC.  Reading the comments on other diaries, it seems that many people are reluctant to attend because of ANSWER itself, their leadership style, and the politics of other potential attendees.  Frankly I don't care for ANSWER -- (I had a Trotskyist phase about 3 years ago and it's done now.)  But there is no excuse, moral or practical, to skip out on these events.  And here's why:

The Crandall Canyon disaster was not an accident.  The situation makes a tidy exemplum of "governance" under the Republican worldview: corrupt, hyperpoliticized, knee-jerk anti-regulatory, and "pro-business" to the extent of risking of human life.  So a little story, which I urge you to pass on -- especially to friends who aren't already on "our side" of the issues:

So you're President of some banana republic.  Your brother runs the military, your college roommate is Minister of Mining, and the cash keeps flowing into the palace and out to your Swiss account.  Tragically, pesky human rights activists are hurting your image in the free world.  How best to polish your reputation for the decisionmakers of American aid and military assistance?

The answer begins on K Street.  Despots across the globe are paying millions to Washington lobbyists to butter up American politicians and gloss over nasty records of brutality and corruption.  While the Abramoff and Jefferson scandals brought lobbying abuses to the front pages of the papers, perfectly legal arrangements keep dictators in the good graces of Congress, the White House, and the State Department.

********************

I am a third-generation Russian-Jewish American.  My grandparents grew up speaking Yiddish, came to America, fought the Nazis, and were hounded by the McCarthyites.  My mother never felt a part of their world, (they didn't teach her Yiddish), nor was she comfortable in the "no coloreds allowed" America of her childhood.  It was someone else's country.

And so to spare her kids the same identity crisis she raised us to believe we were Americans.  We certainly weren't Russians, and an anomalous hostility towards Zionism limited our sense of belonging among the Jewish community.  So we were Americans.  Not flag-wavers, very uncomfortable with excessive expressions of patriotism, really the Paul Robeson singing "What is America to me?" variety, but nonetheless Americans.

Below is something on identity and patriotism that I wrote while chewing on recent events.  The format is essentially a rip from Allen Ginsburg's "America," so I claim very little credit for the style (sorry, but the "bad poets steal" thing is true...)  Hopefully though, it speaks to at least one of you...

A brief look at Chris Matthews' "Hardball", circa Moscow 1930...
(Alternately titled "Lady Dowd of the Mtsensk District," or "Quiet Flows the Potomac.")

After 9/11, there was a brief and well-intentioned effort by the National Football League to tone down the language of the game. For those of you not really familiar with NFL terminology, words like "blitz," "shotgun," and "bomb," are commonplace terms in the game, and broadcasters often use militaristic phrasing about how "the game is war", etc. In the weeks following 9/11, announcers tried to take it down a notch.

First qualification for a job in the Bush inner circle:

Being a total dick.

It's one thing to use a fake ID to sneak into a bar. OK well how about the Department of Homeland Security headquarters?

There aren't enough diaries on Kos about gentrification. I don't know where you all live, but in my neck of the woods, (Shaw/Mount Vernon Square, Washington, DC,) you can't talk about anything without factoring for race, class, and the gentrification question; and I mean ANYTHING, from baseball to church parking.  Below I've painted a picture of the debates in my neighborhood, which will hopefully prompt some chatter on a question that seems to get lost in the shuffle of Daily Republican Scandal.  Please please please discuss; and don't forget to tip liberally, liberals!

A brief diary on a small matter that seems illustrative:

Once in a while it's worth a diversion from the bad news (and good news) of the day for a look at a bit of forgotten leftist history. For the beginning of the baseball season, it's appropriate time to have a look at a fascinating piece of Americana that most sports fans (let alone non-fans) know anything about-- the role of the Communist Party (CP-USA) in the integration of major league baseball.  

At a time when the mainstream (white) media was actively ignoring black atheletes, and the black press was working hard to end Jim Crow in sports but had little to no white readership, the Communist Daily Worker pushed strongly in New York for the integration of major league baseball. Below the fold, please find my overview of the role of the CP-USA in Brooklyn, a fascinating read for sports fans, New Yorkers, and leftists alike!  (More below)

(be kind--haven't diaried before, and it gets contrarian!)

This morning I nearly spit my east-coast secularist liberal breakfast of hemp cereal and the blood of Christians out onto a Vietnam veteran when I found myself agreeing with Krauthammer in today's Post.

Even if he only means it as a cheap slam of Democrats, Neo-Con Head Cheerleader #1 (Go Team Go!) has a point about the nature of civilian control over the military.  More broadly, the article touches on the question of how the military relates to society. So yes, even a busted-ass neo-con is right twice a day! (More below...)