Last week the New York Times and others reported that the Bush Administration outsourced a portion of its anti-terror data mining operation to a Belgium-based banking consortium. The target: U.S. citizens and our financial transactions.

The response to this invasion of privacy - which I'm gonna go ahead and say is in violation of our rights to remain "secure in [our] persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures..." - has been fierce. But not from those in opposition to this high crime.

Indeed the most vehement response has come from the Administration and its functionaries. The President himself has called the disclosure of this illegal program to the American people "disgraceful." Vice president Cheney has deflected criticism by stating that this fast and loose interpretation of the Constitution is "absolutely essential" to America's success in the war on terror. Others have gone further.

Peter King (R-NY), Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, who called for individuals in the media responsible for implicating White House adviser Karl Rove in the Valarie Plame scandal "be shot," has requested the New York Times be investigated by the Department of Justice for treason under the Espionage Act of 1917.

I get the whole "protect America at any cost" argument, but this Administration is riding rough-shod over the Constitution; the only thing that separates the American democratic experiment from an American despotism.

Phone records, Internet histories, financial data, driving records, tax filings, and other data collected and indexed by our government may never be used against us, but no Administration - least of all this one - can guarantee that.

If we are to continue to maintain that ours is a nation of law, logic, and justice these transgressions must be investigated and, if found to have merit, punished. Any other course of action calls into question the status of the Constitution itself as the inviolable foundation of the American way of life.

It's either time to stop taking our rights as Americans seriously, or its time to start.

Labels: Peter King, tia, warrantless wiretaps

A week after one of his top aides was forced to resign for speaking to the press about plans for a possible amnesty for insurgents, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki announced his actual plan to establish a framework for peace in the war-torn nation: amnesty for insurgents.

Apparently the test balloon was well received.

Amnesty for Iraqi citizens who participated in acts of violence against Iraqi and Coalition forces is offered in hopes that such a program will marginalize foreign players in the conflict. Non-Iraqi combatants - long suspected of being the operational core of the insurgency - will become strangers in a strange land should this plan take root in the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people.

Therein lies the problem. Amnesty as a form of mediation in civil and ethnic conflict is not a new concept. It's been utilized successfully to resolve conflicts and avert devastating violence in some of the most extreme situations of recent human strife. But there is a catch. The success of any amnesty is entirely dependent on the capacity and willingness of the parties involved to forgive and move on.

Those who currently man the opposition of occupation forces and the democratic regime it helped establish are not political dissidents. They are people who feel they have been wronged. Individuals who have suffered the traumas of an Abu Ghraib interrogation, or who have lost family in botched check-point inspections or neighborhood raids are not fighting for or against an ideology. They are fighting for vengeance. Acceptance and forgiveness are not in their vernacular.

Not that it matters. Whether the individual players in the insurgency choose to stop fighting and collaborating with non-Iraqi fighters is moot. Either way a solution is fast at hand for American troops.

If the amnesty is accepted, Prime Minister al-Maliki will have to convince the Iraqis to "just get along." A gambit which, if successful, would lead to the reduction of American troop levels at the request of the Iraqi people; The pre-requisite of coalition disengagement.

If the amnesty is denied, the Iraqi government - and by extension their coalition partners - will have a full-blown civil war on their hands. Not exactly a solution, but it would be an official evolution of the situation. New options would be available to the coalition. Options such as declaring the civil war an internal problem of a sovereign nation and walking out with a deal to provide funding, arms, training, and logistical support. A slight departure from the "you break it, you buy it" paradigm true, but also a plausibly dignified step toward tactical disengagement.

On the other hand a denied amnesty could lead to perpetual American involvement in the region. Imagine a Vietnam-eqse theater of operations stretching from Israel to the Himalayas where terrorists and other enemies of the "forces of freedom" are hunted by thinly stretched American forces for a generation. This prospect is not really a solution, but it might force the rest of America to wake up and smell the quagmire sooner rather than later and demand this Administration lead us out of the war they led us into.

Here's hoping this hand of Texas hold'em doesn't go in the toilet.

Labels: Abu Ghraib, insurgency, iraq, Nuri al-Maliki

Arnold Schwarzenegger, Governor of the great state of California, and commander-in-chief of her formidable army, has denied a request by the Bush Administration for troops to be sent to the U.S.-Mexican border.

Money was an early concern, but Gov. Schwarzenegger took care of that. His people inked a deal with the Pentagon's people ensuring that funding for this immigrant jihad - an estimated $1.4 billion - will come from the national war chest not California's. Thanks Arnold, now my tax dollars are going towards this boondoggle too.

So if it wasn't money, why did the Governor balk? Simply put, he doesn't want to become the next Ray Nagin. Disaster looms large for California, and it's not a threat from the border-crossers who fuel the state's economic engine. It's much more serious than geography and paperwork. The Earth herself wants to drive Californians into the sea. Any combination of earthquakes, fires, drought, and rolling power outages could turn L.A. into Baghdad overnight, without warning. The Governor knows this, and he's not going to allow the Bush Administration to set the stage for the fall of California on his watch.

Schwarzenegger wants his troops trained to deal with Hollywood proportion catastrophe, not walking a fence.

That's all well and good for California, but was it worth snubbing our petulant, lame-duck, billionaire-boys-club president? Will the Governor choose anything else to publicly disagree with the president on? Will there be retribution? Why do I suddenly crave popcorn?

Labels: Arnold Schwarzenegger, George W. Bush, iraq, Ray Nagin

The The Toronto Star reports this week that "a group of academics, former officials and security experts are tabling a proposal [to create] an international rapid reaction force that could be deployed within 48 hours of a green light from the United Nations."

This idea was first proposed shortly following a period of Hell on Earth known as the first half of 20th century. Half of the West was living in near third world conditions. Even the U.S. struggled with high illiteracy, disease, and the "last throes" of a Civil War. Yet there we were, suddenly the leader of the free world. But, for whatever reason, the idea of a United Nations Global Peace Force was quickly shelved and not seriously re-examined until 1994 in the aftermath of the 100 day Rwandan Genocide during which 1,000,000 people were murdered.

The force proposed this week would operate with Security Council authorization not just to deal with future genocides, but to engage in preemptive operations to quell armed conflicts, protect civilians, and address humanitarian needs.

The resistance against this type of force is strong. Some nations worry about a U.S./Western led interventionalist force, but here in the U.S. the reasons for opposing a standing United Nations military are entirely unique.

First, U.S. citizens will pay for it. The U.S. foots the bill for the majority of U.N. operations in general, and the costs of this global, rapid response force would be no different. According to the Toronto Star, the proposed Global Peace Force could cost $2 billion to establish. And while U.S. citizens recently donated a record $260 billion to charitable organizations, the media - the conservative media - would characterize this pittance as a handout to the malcontents of the world too lazy, poor, or stupid to take charge of their own destinies.

Which leads me to the second reason Americans oppose a Global Peace Force: it's a God thing. This may come as a shock to many out there, but a large segment of the U.S. population believe that the establishment of such a body - or anything resembling a real world court for that matter - is tantamount to the end times. Literally.

Those people are idiots. Fortunately they're starting to lose thier grip on our nation.

I say create the Global Peace Force, and the world court too. And while we're at it, increase that budget by about 20 times. Shit, we just re-upped for Afghanistan and Iraq to the tune of $94.5 billion. It's the ninth time this Administration has come to tax payers since 2003 and asked for "emergency" funding. Did they forget the two-front, generational war they're waging? Again? We can afford $40 billion for the establishment of a Global Peace Force.

And since we're putting up the bread, I doubt the Security Council members would mind if we defined the authority of this force as being constrained to upholding the United Nations Charter which in part reads:

We the peoples of the United Nations determined

- to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and

- to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, and

- to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and

- to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom...

In short we can count on them - with Security Council approval - to take care of genocide, other religio-ethnic conflicts and natural disasters of biblical proportions.

And who should staff such a force? Volunteers. There are plenty of folks out there that want to serve a just and honorable cause. One that has the mandate of the people of the world. One that exists for the expressed purpose of making this world a better place for our children than it was for our parents.

Labels: Rwanda, UN

Last Wednesday, June 7, 2006, President Bush signed Executive Order 13404 authorizing a Task Force on New Americans.

The order calls for the creation of a body, chaired by the Secretary of Homeland Security and comprised of the following members: the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of Defense, the Attorney General, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Commerce, the Secretary of Labor, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and the Secretary of Education. Its purpose is to "help legal immigrants embrace the common core of American civic culture, learn our common language, and fully become Americans."

The focus of this drive to indoctrinate new Americans is mastery of the English language. This is apparently now a national security issue.

I disagree. The issue that endangers our national security is that most old Americans only know one language. The majority of our citizens are crippled in international markets, lack the skill to navigate basic social interactions in foreign languages, and have no concept of what this "globalization thing" really means for them as individuals. Our relative xenophobia is finally coming home to roost.

The world is at our doorstep. As increasingly complex global markets emerge every day our fate as economic prisoners of our own ignorance only becomes more clear. To avert this fate our President has effectively mandated a national language with this executive order following a less than decisive debate in Congress regarding the same issue last month.

Mandatory English lessons for immigrants is the wrong way to ensure all Americans recognize common core values and experience shared cultural identities. If the goal is to create a strong, cohesive nation then mandatory foreign language training for all Americans in our public schools along with English as a second language (ESL) for immigrants is the solution.

The war against American xenophobia in this age of globalization is a generational war. It will take time. But, if our nation is to survive globalization, then we must all first become global citizens.

Labels: economy, Executive Order 13404, Immigration, national language

The last manned mission to the moon was in 1972. They left a plaque on the moon's surface baring the signature of then U.S. President Richard M. Nixon - megalomaniac. Not to be out done, billionaire boys club president and Richie Rich protege George W. Bush wants to send Americans - or at least American outsourced - astronauts back to the moon by 2020, with the ultimate goal being a manned mission to Mars at some point before the Chinese have set up a casino resort on Icaria Planum.

To that end "NASA is canceling or delaying a number of satellites designed to give scientists critical information on the earth's changing climate and environment." Research programs designed to help earthbound weather forecasters detect severe weather patterns more quickly and accurately have been canceled to allow more funding for Bush's exploration initiatives. According to the Boston Globe, "Almost every planned earth studying mission, all that have some contribution to understanding global warming, has been affected."

Most significantly, the launch of the Deep Space Climate Observatory, a satellite intended to study Earth's climate, and make that data publicly available, has been shelved...again. The brainchild of former Vice President Al Gore, the satellite was researched, designed, and built years ago with American taxpayer dollars. It's just never been launched.

This is politics at its worst. There's no fear the satellite will find incontrovertible evidence of global climate change due to human activity. That already exists. The fear is that an idea dreamed up by Gore will be successful and thus call into question the "legacy" of this administration. Perish the thought!

I understand the drive to explore other worlds. I support that endeavor, but not if it means risking our own planet. We can not afford the hubris of this administration when it comes to the lives and well being of future generations of humanity.

Labels: Mars, NASA

Auckland, New Zealand Freelance journalist Tim Selwyn has been found guilty of sedition (audio). This is the first conviction for sedition in New Zealand in over 75 years. ~ via Wikinews

Sedition? Yikes. New Zealand is little brother to Autrailia, the evil Canada, but isn't this going too far?

The United States has sedition laws too. According to Wikipedia,

Sedition does not consist of levying war against a government nor of adhering to its enemies, giving enemies aid, and giving enemies comfort. Nor does it consist, in most representative democracies, of peaceful protest against a government, nor of attempting to change the government by democratic means (such as direct democracy or constitutional convention).

Mr. Selwyn, the gentleman from New Zealand, was convicted of making statements intended to "incite... or encourage violence, lawlessness, or disorder" when he distributed pamphlets asking like-minded New Zealanders to "engage in similar acts of civil disobedience" and "take similar action of their own" following a vandal's axe attack on the Prime Minister's electorate office. The crime is punishable by up to two year's jail.

If encouraging vandalism is sedition, then what exactly is this?

Labels: Civil Disobedience, New Zealand, Sedition

Feels more like Tuesday. But what do I know? Fortunately there are many wiser than myself to think ahead for the dark times to come. One such man is Jim Towey, Director of the White House Office of Faith-Based & Community Initiatives. Jim has served in this controversial position since 2002 shortly after President Bush announced his faith-based initiatives to fill in the widening gaps between philanthropy and the remains of the New Deal.

But on April 18th, 2006 Towey, former chief U.S. counsel to Mother Teresa (and hey, who didn't want to sue her boney ass?), resigned from his post as WHOFBCI Director. Two of his former colleagues - his predecessor in the office, John DiIulio, and a former aid, David Kuo, criticized the White House's handling of faith-based programs following their own departures. They've suggested the administration has been using the issue to whip-up support among religious voters while under-funding social services. He is expected to leave the office any day now.

Towey however resigned with a clear conscience, on March 7, 2006 President Bush signed Executive Oder 13397. Also known as Responsibilities of the Department of Homeland Security With Respect to Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, the order creates a Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives within DHS.

Section 1. (b) The Center shall be supervised by a Director appointed by Secretary. The Secretary shall consult with the Director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives (WHOFBCI Director) prior to making such appointment.

This designation places the new center on the same footing within the DHS hierarchy as Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, Citizenship and Immigration Services, the U.S. Coast Guard, and the U.S. Secret Service.

So who will lead this newly created directorate? That will be up to Homeland Security Secretary Michael "the most hated man in New York" Chertoff, the president, and whomever they anoint the new Director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. Oh...and God.

Labels: dhs, Executive Oder 13397, George W. Bush, Jim Towey, John DiIulio, Michael Chertoff, Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives

This week the most spectacular cover up in recent history was revealed. No it wasn't the massacre of innocent Iraqi civilians by U.S. troops who've forgotten what flag they wear...we've known about incidents like that(graphic images) for some time. The cover up I'm referring to was discovered in the Arctic by an international team of scientists who refused to give up until the TRUTH was known.

Core samples taken near the North Pole reveal a much higher average temperature in the region than the - for lack of a better word - arctic temperatures we know today. Scientists claim that approximately 55 million years ago the Arctic region of the globe was a balmy 65 degrees. Waterfront property for everyone! But that's not the cover up.

The real story is the massive release of greenhouse gases that followed shortly after this period which caused a spike in global temperature raising the already warm Arctic climate to 75 degrees.

Vast fields of permafrost methane slurry exist on the ocean floor today held in stasis by enormous pressure and low water temperature. So long as these two factors remain constant - pressure and temperature - we have no problem. However, ocean temperatures world-wide have been inching up for decades. This new research may hold the key to predicting when this frozen-green-belch-of-death will reach a critical stage. According to the National Science Foundation "the initial results also suggest that Earth's recovery to a "normal state" took as long as 100,000 years." Said one researcher of the findings:

"It far exceeds what has been estimated by models, assuming a release of 2,000 gigatons of methane."

Current theories predict that should a critical water temperature threshold be reached the methane trapped below the world's oceans will escape rapidly changing global climate far more drastically than current climate change models take into account. Why isn't this part of the story bigger news? That's the cover up.

When will we reach this threshold? Only They know for sure.

Labels: climate change, environmentalism, methane expulsion

It's true. The end times are upon us. The Bush Administration has opted to negotiate with Iran. Negotiate! And this comes just a couple of weeks after the shock and awe administration offered to return to the table with North Korea. The first seals have already broken, but it's not too late!

Some suspect the administration - which refused to denounce rumors of a planned pre-emptive strike on Iran even after British Foreign Minister Jack Straw called such plans "nuts" - is offering to negotiate now in expectation that Iran will balk at U.S. demands. Should this happen the U.S. will have the upper hand with Russia and China in future U.N. Security Council proceedings concerning Iran.

If indeed this whole "diplomacy" thing is a red herring to pressure the other Security Council members into acquiescing to a military strike on Iran we'll know that we're safe. Because the day this administration starts listening to the career analysts, intelligence professionals, and diplomatic corps regarding foreign policy instead of blindly pursuing a faith-drunk global strategy of benevolent dictatorship...on that day Hell itself will have frozen over.

Labels: iran, Jack Straw, North Korea