Lincoln Group - Funding the Insurgents?

Ok... Who or what, exactly, are "Sunni Religious Scholars":

Lincoln Group - SourceWatch:
"Hiring Sunni Religious Scholars, Working with AEI's Michael Rubin

The New York Times reported January 2, 2006, that the Lincoln Group 'has been compensating Sunni religious scholars in Iraq in return for assistance with its propaganda works ... [T]he company's ties to religious leaders and dozens of other prominent Iraqis is aimed also at enabling it to exercise influence in Iraqi communities on behalf of clients, including the military. ... Lincoln has also turned to American scholars and political consultants for advice on the content of the propaganda campaign in Iraq, records indicate. Michael Rubin, a Middle East scholar at the American Enterprise Institute ... said he had reviewed materials produced by the company.' [24] Rubin was political adviser for the Coalition Provisional Authority (Baghdad), 2003-2004, following two years (2002-2004) as staff assistant on Iran and Iraq in the Office of Special Plans in the Office of the Secretary of Defense."

Can you read "Fundementalist Clerics"... And why the fuck would the Lincoln propoganda team have been funding these "Sunni Religious Scholars" (a plan supported by AEI) when many of these "Scholars" are the ones that are the most responsible for all of the exploding Iraqis everywhere?

Are they trying to feed the fire and tilt Iraq further into the chaos of Civil War? Just WTF kindof crack are these assholes smoking?

Sell propaganda to the US government to help spread peace in Iraq... Meanwhile fund the insurgents that help create more chaos there.... Sell more propaganda to the US government to help spread peace in Iraq... Meanwhile fund the insurgents that help create more chaos there...

Rinse and repeat.
Rinse and repeat.
Rinse and repeat.
Rinse and repeat.
Rinse and repeat.

Without heroes like the Lincoln group the Shia wouldn't have such a well funded insurgency to to attempt to ethnically cleanse.

And, right now, Mr. Bush and his insane clown posse is trying to spin to you that it is Iran that is supporting much of the chaos?

But even our feeble knowledge here at TPM is enough to tell us that when we start hearing catch-alls like 'Iranian-trained' for anything that happened in southern Iraq, we're dealing with meaninglessly vague words meant to bamboozle and hoodwink. Remember too this incident occurred in Karbala, where the Badr Brigade is headquartered.

To be clear, I'm not saying the Badr Brigade was behind this, only that in the context of paramilitaries in southern Iraq, 'Iranian-trained' is a meaninglessly broad category.

Really? Spin, Spin, Spin! What a fuckin' racket...

WAR is a racket. It always has been.

It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.

A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small "inside" group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes.

I smell an early House election campaign in California

Hypocrisy in action in CA-42:

Gary Miller (not to be confused with George Miller, D, CA-7) was first elected to the House in 1998. In 2006, he ran for election unopposed. His growing seniority has garnered him an appointment as Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Investigations on the House Financial Services Committee. (And under investigation as a tax cheat! Yikes!!)

snip

LUCRATIVE LAND DEAL
Dennis Hastert cleared a cool million for land he sold for a highway development he slipped into an earmark. And the Pombo family in California apparently benefitted from a similar highway related deal. So this kind of thing is not unheard of. But Miller’s real estate windfall was an order of magnitude greater than Hastert’s. A cool ten million! CREW filed a IRS complaint against the Congressman last summer:

In 2002, Rep. Miller sold 165 acres to the city of Monrovia, California, making a profit of approximately $10 million. In 2004, Rep. Miller reinvested the proceeds of the sale in land and building purchases in Fontana, California, and Rancho Cucamonga, California. Rep. Miller again claimed IRC 1033 exemption when he sold some of his Fontana land and building acquisitions in April and June of 2005. He used proceeds from this sale to purchase additional land in Fontana, which he subsequently sold to the city in 2006 for $50,000 more than his original purchase price.

So, ten million profit in a land deal. And federal earmarks for improvements that increased the property value. This has been business-as-usual for entirely too many Republicans in Tom Delay's short-lived "Permanenet Majority." Sigh.

The Democratic party out west might want to start think about lining up a candidate for this one ASAP... Whether Miller manages to hang around until 2008 or not, the campaign is on. The sooner there is a candidate to oppose him the better. Get that "name/face recognition" spinning in the media now.

As a side note: I may not write much the next couple of days... I am trying to do a bit of research to help out ePluribusMedia and it involves WAY TOO MUCH reading! lol

One possible source of Krayeske's illegal treatment

I am not saying that this is how Ken Krayeske ended up on "THE LIST" but it is definately a possibility.

FBI turns to broad new wiretap method:
"The FBI appears to have adopted an invasive Internet surveillance technique that collects far more data on innocent Americans than previously has been disclosed.

Instead of recording only what a particular suspect is doing, agents conducting investigations appear to be assembling the activities of thousands of Internet users at a time into massive databases, according to current and former officials. That database can subsequently be queried for names, e-mail addresses or keywords.

Such a technique is broader and potentially more intrusive than the FBI's Carnivore surveillance system, later renamed DCS1000. It raises concerns similar to those stirred by widespread Internet monitoring that the National Security Agency is said to have done, according to documents that have surfaced in one federal lawsuit, and may stretch the bounds of what's legally permissible."

For those of you that are unfamiliar with Carnivore:

Carnivore Redux:
In late 1999, Corn-Revere, a partner at the Davis Wright Tremaine law firm, had been fighting on EarthLink's behalf to keep a government surveillance device off the company's network. A short while later, though, a federal magistrate judge sided with the FBI against the Atlanta-based Internet provider.

Worried about the privacy impact, Corn-Revere revealed the existence of Carnivore in testimony before a House of Representatives subcommittee on April 6, 2000. "They were using a technology called Etherpeek, which was off the shelf," Corn-Revere told me last Friday. "When we challenged it, they said, 'We're not using that. That would be wrong. We have our own software developed. It's called Carnivore.'" (Etherpeek is a Windows surveillance utility from WildPackets that can decode protocols used with e-mail, Web browsing and instant messaging.)

Now history is repeating itself. A flurry of press reports this month noted that the FBI has ceased using Carnivore, which had been renamed DCS1000. But not all of them mentioned that the government is hardly calling a halt to Internet wiretaps--instead, it's simply buying its surveillance tools from private companies again.

A review of the government's self-reported wiretap statistics from 2000 to 2003, the most recent data available, shows that the total number of "electronic" wiretaps has stayed between 4 percent and 8 percent of all reported wiretaps each year. (In 2003, for instance, there were 1,442 reported non-terrorism wiretaps in total that intercepted 4.3 million communications or conversations.)

snip

...those numbers don't include "pen register" and "trap and trace" devices, which tend to be about five to six times as popular as traditional wiretaps. Those awkward names, which hail from the days of analog phone taps, refer to capturing only the addresses of Web sites visited and the IDs of e-mail and instant-messaging correspondents rather than the complete content of the communication.

Translated: The concept of Carnivore isn't going away. If anything, police surveillance of the Internet is increasing over time.

There is a possibility that this sort of software is what may have brought Krayeske to the FBI and CTIC's attention since it would track and find sources of comments on Blogs. IMHO it is highly likely.

If this sort of illegal surveillance is what brought Krayeske to their attention, it still would not explain the human error of actually taking anything Krayeske has said, written, or done in the past as a sign that he should be on "The List"... Anyone that actually read the full comments refered to as reasons for the abuse of his rights would see that he is just a photo-journalist/blogger/peaceful political activist.

Are there any CT politicians that could ask for the original source of these Federal agencies monitoring Ken Krayeke? My guess is that question will lead back to software controlled "wiretaps" that are inherrantly illegal because of the wide net they cast in surveillance of the internet without any probable cause.

Given the subject matter of this diary... They are probably reading this! What a fuckin' waste of taxpayers' money.

You are what you eat?

Is this a case of "you are what you eat" or was the author making a political statement after the fact?



The book was written by the White House pastry chef. The author wrote the book before being hired to work at the White House so they must have hired the chef based on his ability to cater to the current White House occupants' needs...

Revolution in DC - Out of Iraq

out of Iraq and into
PEACE!

America Wants Congress to Cut Bush Off

A Newsweek poll that is up at the moment:

Should Congress try to stop President Bush from deploying more U.S. troops in Iraq? 32622 responses
	Yes 80%
	No 16%
	Not sure 4.1%

America seems to want Congress to cut Bush off...

C-Ya! Wouldn't wanna B-Ya!

The longer the GOP talking point clown is gone the better off the NewsTimes readers will be:

News Times Live Online Editor: "(Political reporter/blogger Fred Lucas, by the way, moved onto greener pastures. He's covering the feds down in Washington, D.C. His blog is on hiatus for the moment.)"

Fred Lucas has to be one of the worst abusers of the written word in the local area. As long as he is gone it frees up a lot of Blogging time that was previously wasted correcting his second rate Rovian spin.

It is safe to assume that Lucas is in Washington to get his lips closer to the Bush ass that continuously refills his koolaide dispenser. Suck it up Freddie! But you are already full of it.

This is THE Healthcare Plan YOU Have Asked For

The United States National Health Insurance Act

H.R. 676

("Expanded & Improved Medicare For All")

*introduced by Reps. John Conyers, Dennis Kucinich, Jim McDermott and Donna Christensen

"National health insurance is not only the best answer,

it is the only answer to eliminating health disparities."

Representative John Conyers, Jr., State of the Black Union 2005

Via SarahLee's dKos diary:

If you want to read the bill, H.R. 676, just go to Thomas.gov, click in Conyers' name and scroll down to 676 - right now it says that the bill has not yet been received from the GPO.

NEW CO-SPONSORS LIST:


(Three are not yet listed yet, so I am not sure who they are).

Rep Abercrombie, Neil [HI-1] - 1/24/2007


Rep Baldwin, Tammy [WI-2] - 1/24/2007


Rep Carson, Julia [IN-7] - 1/24/2007


Rep Christensen, Donna M. [VI] - 1/24/2007


Rep Clay, Wm. Lacy [MO-1] - 1/24/2007

Rep Cummings, Elijah E. [MD-7] - 1/24/2007


Rep Davis, Danny K. [IL-7] - 1/24/2007


Rep Ellison, Keith [MN-5] - 1/24/2007


Rep Engel, Eliot L. [NY-17] - 1/24/2007


Rep Farr, Sam [CA-17] - 1/24/2007


Rep Fattah, Chaka [PA-2] - 1/24/2007


Rep Filner, Bob [CA-51] - 1/24/2007


Rep Green, Al [TX-9] - 1/24/2007


Rep Grijalva, Raul M. [AZ-7] - 1/24/2007


Rep Gutierrez, Luis V. [IL-4] - 1/24/2007


Rep Hinchey, Maurice D. [NY-22] - 1/24/2007


Rep Honda, Michael M. [CA-15] - 1/24/2007


Rep Jackson, Jesse L., Jr. [IL-2] - 1/24/2007


Rep Jackson-Lee, Sheila [TX-18] - 1/24/2007


Rep Johnson, Eddie Bernice [TX-30] - 1/24/2007


Rep Kilpatrick, Carolyn C. [MI-13] - 1/24/2007


Rep Kucinich, Dennis J. [OH-10] - 1/24/2007

Rep Lee, Barbara [CA-9] - 1/24/2007


Rep Lewis, John [GA-5] - 1/24/2007


Rep Loebsack, David [IA-2] - 1/24/2007


Rep McDermott, Jim [WA-7] - 1/24/2007


Rep McGovern, James P. [MA-3] - 1/24/2007


Rep McNulty, Michael R. [NY-21] - 1/24/2007


Rep Meehan, Martin T. [MA-5] - 1/24/2007


Rep Miller, George [CA-7] - 1/24/2007


Rep Moore, Gwen [WI-4] - 1/24/2007


Rep Pastor, Ed [AZ-4] - 1/24/2007


Rep Payne, Donald M. [NJ-10] - 1/24/2007


Rep Rangel, Charles B. [NY-15] - 1/24/2007


Rep Roybal-Allard, Lucille [CA-34] - 1/24/2007


Rep Scott, Robert C. [VA-3] - 1/24/2007


Rep Towns, Edolphus [NY-10] - 1/24/2007


Rep Watson, Diane E. [CA-33] - 1/24/2007


Rep Weiner, Anthony D. [NY-9] - 1/24/2007

Rep Wexler, Robert [FL-19] - 1/24/2007


Rep Woolsey, Lynn C. [CA-6] - 1/24/2007


Rep Wynn, Albert Russell [MD-4] - 1/24/2007

HMMM? I believe that there may be some CT Reps missing from that list...

Write Your Rep... <<< :)

(x-posted at MLN)

Kennedy Tears the Corrupt Ones a New One

Kennedy tears the corrupt Republicans a new one over their refusal to allow a vote on minimum wage.



Via C&l:

What is it with Republicans and their refusal to help the working class?

"Do you have such disdain for hard-working Americans that you want to pile all your amendments on this? Why don’t you just hold your amendments until other pieces of legislation? Why this volume of amendments on just the issue to try and raise the minimum wage? What is it about it that drives you Republicans crazy? What is it? Something. Something! What is the price that the workers have to pay to get an increase? What is it about working men and women that you find so offensive?"

U.S. Military Spied on Hundreds of Antiwar Demonstrattions

Just waiting for that next Ken Krayeske moment:

U.S. Military Spied on Hundreds of Antiwar Demos:
"At least 186 antiwar protests in the United States have been monitored by the Pentagon's domestic surveillance program, according to documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which also found that the Defense Department collected more than 2,800 reports involving Americans in a single anti-terrorism database.

snip

"It cannot be an accident or coincidence that nearly 200 antiwar protests ended up in a Pentagon threat database," Ann Beeson, associate legal director of the ACLU, said in a statement. "This unchecked surveillance is part of a broad pattern of the Bush administration using 'national security' as an excuse to run roughshod over the privacy and free speech rights of Americans."

The internal Defense Department documents show it is monitoring the activities of a wide swath of peace groups, including Veterans for Peace,
Iraq Veterans Against the War, Military Families Speak Out, Code Pink, the American Friends Service Committee, the War Resisters League, and the umbrella group United for Peace and Justice, which is spearheading what organizers hope will be a massive march on Washington this Saturday.

This Ken Krayeske moment was brought to you by your Constitution hating republicans everywhere, in conjunction with our highly paranoid Governor Jodi Rell.

I wouldn't be surprised if some quaint wiretapping or mail opening was involved in this repeated Constitutional rape of Americans' rights...

Bill Moyers, the respected TV journalist, analyzes the threats to constitutional government posed by an illegitimate network operating from within the government but using secrecy to set itself up outside of the government / peoples oversight. All this back in 1987. This documentary gives a fascinating overview of what has actually happened in the last 50 years regarding the CIA and the Cold War (including Iran, Guatamala, Cuba, Vietnam and Chile). The foundation for the massive push towards greater secrecy in government going on today.

Not like anyone really cares, right? Right? Well... Not anyone that is Republican.

Building a Better Community (continued)

I am stealing a comment made by liza in a MyDD diary that explains what everyone on the left needs to do more of, and more often:

Repugs look at blogs, more so than static sites, as real estate. Linking to one another creates a tightly knit community and lowers the barrier for locking sites in with their message. It works brilliantly for framing attacks and going for the kill.

Look at how from Drudge and the Freeper site information is passed down at lighting speed into the red blogosphere. Once you have 10-15 sites hitting the same topic, Google does it's job. And if those 10-15 sites happen to be repugblogs, then they've won.

This is not rocket science. This is the law of links and Google ranking. That blue bloggers don't get it begs the question, why are they doing this in the first place. Do get a book deal and then bail? If this is really a movement, then we have to think tactically. How do you do so?

-- encourage building not just blogs but community blogs with platforms like Drupal, CivicSpace or Scoop. There is great potential in those MySQL databases.

-- Link and link generously. If possible, run an RSS aggregator on your site and invite people to add their feeds; making it easy for people to comment on other networked blogger's posts.

-- use the "nofollow" tag only sparingly; maybe for the sites you're fisking

-- METAs & FOAF still work. Use it.

-- Categories are a good thing. Use them widely. Tag, tag and tag some more. And if possible, ecourage the use of folksonomies in your blogs, diaries and comments. And allow live links on your comments as well.

-- Then link, quote and link some more.

It's not rocket science. It's just good blog networking.

I challenge every single one of you on the left to try and increase the visability of everyone else on the left by using the basic rule of LINKING. And I mean gratuitous links. Any reason you can find to link, in any post, to any site on "OUR SIDE" that you can find.

If everyone on the left works a little harder on this we can turn the tides on on the Google Wars and win. We have already made a lot of inroads since this 2004 picture:

The graphs represent the aggregate linkage going on leading up to the 2004 election. Reds (them) are the Republican bloggers, and Blues (us) are the Democratic bloggers. The full expanation of the graphs particulars are on page 9 of the PDF paper. Basically, the first graph connects dots (blogs) when there is strong linkage between them (+25 during the period), the second one where there is less stronger linkage (+5), and they've a 3rd map that includes all linkage that I've not included.

Between blogs then (not taking into consideration that diaries on #8DailyKos and #17MyDD serve to allow massive coordiantion and spreading of message), there's just a lot more coordination through linking among Republican than there has been with Democratic bloggers, at least on the surface of particular URL's. The other interesting thing I noted was that the blog by George Bush's campaign didn't even make the top 40-- now that's pitiful.

We were less coordinated in '04. But in '06 we did little things a little better. I am sure the more recent graphs would look a lot better. But you know that we can still keep on improving on this.

Remember that every time you link to any site you are, over time, creating a kind of GOOGLEBOMB effect on that site when it comes to site rankings, search results, etc.. Tagging and choice of words that are used to link are important in these cumulitive effects as well.

So link... Link often. To diaries on your own blog, diaries on your friends' blogs, diaries from everyone on the entire left side of the Blogosphere. And consider expanding your Blogroll when you come across any site that is covering similar issues that you want to see pushed up in search results.

As far as Tagging and the words you use to link: Try and chose many varieties of words over time and it will draw more, and different readers in. Also use certain key words repetitively to make sites "look" more authoritative to search engines. IE: This Joe Lieberman link just helped make MLN an authority on Joe lieberman. Or this Krayeske link just helped make ConnecticutBLOG an authority on all things Krayeske. Easy, eh? You might be surprised at just how many visits this fucking link might send to a site... Now multiply this effect by a dozen links and they become even more relevant in searches on those subjects.

The words you choose to link (and tag) with can be just as important as where those links end up on on the other end.

There are a lot of lessons and tips that can be shared, but linking and tags are the first, and easiest, for everyone to begin to use. And we all need to use these weapons if we are going to beat the right in the Google War.

NPR’s Rehm: Delayed Iraq NIE Will Undermine Case For Escalation

Think Progress explains the NIE delay:

NPR’s Rehm:
Delayed Iraq NIE Will Undermine Case For Escalation:
"Yesterday, NPR host Diane Rehm may have revealed why the NIE remains so politically sensitive. On her national radio show, Rehm said:

It’s my understanding that the National Intelligence Estimate…is going to suggest that adding troops is the wrong way to go, that it’s not going to improve the situation.

Yesterday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), and the House and Senate intelligence committee chairmen wrote President Bush “urging prompt completion of a national intelligence estimate (NIE) on Iraq first requested by Congress six months ago.” Read the full letter HERE."

Well, Golly gee! I wonder what Joe Neocon Lieberman and his partner in crime John Sleepyhead McCain have to say about this?

The Judiciary Committee is "Up and Running" - John Conyers

A Little message courtesy of the Chairman of the Judidciary Committee:

We are Up and Running | Rep. John Conyers :
"I am pleased to report that the Judiciary Committee held its first organizational meeting today and we are up and running. It was the first Committee activity in which I was the Chair and I felt humbled and honored by the experience.

We also announced our first hearing, an oversight hearing, a week from today at 10:15a entitled: 'Presidential Signing Statements under the Bush Administration: A Threat to Checks and Balances and the Rule of Law?'
I am looking forward to it."

Impeach!
Sorry... Just practicing! :)

TWO OHIO ELECTION OFFICIALS CONVICTED FOR RIGGING 2004 PRESIDENTIAL RECOUNT!

If only...

The BRAD BLOG : TWO OHIO ELECTION OFFICIALS CONVICTED FOR RIGGING 2004 PRESIDENTIAL RECOUNT!:

Will be Questioned by Special Prosecutor Before Sentencing to Learn if Higher Ups Involved"

If only Kerry had done what he said he was going to do and make sure every vote was counted... My wife and myself gave him money specifically for that purpose, and he turned his back on the millions of us that just wanted to be sure that EVERY FUCKING VOTE WAS COUNTED CORRECTLY AND LEGALLY!

Instead it was left to the Green Party and the Libertarian party and their limited resources raised on the internet to do what Kerry and the Democratic party should have been doing with full force and using all of that 15 million bucks he was given for this specific purpose.

I may be an unafiliated "little i" indie... But I know there are a lot of Democratic party members and supporters that are just as pissed as I am about shit like this.

The Activist Weather Forecast

The weekend weather and activity report for those of you that may be going to Washington for the weekend. Via Afterdowiningstreet.org:

The Weather Channel is predicting 48 degrees for Saturday, and the National Weather Service is saying 50 degrees!! No rain, no winds ... the weather should be great for the Jan. 27th mobilization.

We'll be gathering on the National Mall for the pre-march rally from 11 am to 1 pm. Because there might be some precipitation in Washington, DC, before Saturday, there is a possibility that the Mall could be a little muddy. With that in mind, we suggest you wear boots, or at least bring an extra pair of socks.

It's terrific that the weather will be good, but we'll be raising a storm of protest on Saturday. In addition to the massive numbers of people coming from literally every corner of the country, here are some of the folks who will be speaking at the rally:

• Mayor Rocky Anderson, Salt Lake City
• Moriah Arnold, 12-year-old sixth-grader from Harvard, MA
• Carlos Arredondo, Gold Star Families for Peace
• Medea Benjamin, founder of CodePink
• Leslie Cagan, National Coordinator, United for Peace and Justice
• Eve Ensler, playwright
• Jane Fonda, actress, author
• Kim Gandy, President of the National Organization for Women
• Danny Glover, actor/activist
• Reverend Graylon Hagler, Plymouth Congregational Church, Washington, DC
• Reverend Jesse Jackson, RainbowPUSH Coalition
• Jonathon Hutto, active-duty member of the U.S. Navy
• Representative Dennis Kucinich (D-OH)
• Rabbi Michael Lerner, Tikkun Magazine
• Kevin Martin, Executive Director, Peace Action
• Tim Robbins, actor/activist
• Susan Sarandon, actor/activist
• Bob Watada, father of Lt. Ehren Watada, first officer to refuse deployment to Iraq
• Representative Maxine Waters (D-CA)
• Representative Lynn Woolsey (D-CA)
• Ann Wright, retired Army Colonel, former State Dept. diplomat

What You Should Bring to Washington

• Signs and banners -- and be sure to include your city or organization
• Noise-makers -- let's be loud!
• Copies of the petition to Congress signed by people who can't make the trip.
• White roses to leave as part of a memorial we'll be creating.
• Shoes, especially children's shoes, for the CodePink "Walk in Their Shoes" Installation

There are other activities throughout the weekend -- including our Congressional Lobby Day on Monday -- so if you can stay in town that would be wonderful!

See you on the streets of Washington as we send our message to Congress: It's time to end the war in Iraq and bring the troops home!!

I wish I could go! But I can't... :(