The Agonist - USA

Real Independence for All Americans

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 10:23:13 -0700

I have been wondering of late where it is on the political spectrum that I would feel comfortable? There was a time when I considered myself to be a Democrat. This wasn’t because I believed in the party’s platform; it was because I disagreed with the Republican point of view. The last seven years have reinforced my view of Republicans, but at the same time my fondness for the Democrats has also waned. The truth is that frankly, I don’t see much of a difference between the two; both the Republicans and the Democrats are financed by the same entities.

Who are the people behind the curtain, so to speak? Well, they are basically the same people and organizations that have always ruled in this country (with periodic breaks from time to time). These are the captains of industry and the bankers that back them, and lately, religious groups (that pop-up occasionally). The government claim that the people are behind the government and they are responsible for electing their government is patently untrue. The only thing that the people are responsible for is rubber-stamping the candidates that are selected for us. The two political parties, the Republicans and Democrats, seem to be the only game in town, so to speak. While it is true that this nation has other political parties, in national elections, there are basically only two parties that matter.

Former Sen. Jesse Helms dies at 86

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 09:28:30 -0700

Washington | July 4

Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former Sen. Jesse Helms, a die-hard anti-communist firebrand who championed a wide range of conservative causes in his 30 years in the Senate, died early on Friday, aged 86, his foundation said.

A blunt-talking product of the Old South, the North Carolina lawmaker was known as "Senator No" for opposing just about anything that obstructed his conservative view of the world.

Helms died at 1:15 a.m. in Raleigh, North Carolina, according to a notice on the Web site of the Jesse Helms Center, a foundation established to promote his legacy.

The poster's original title has been changed and the post-script removed. This thread is locked.

Happy 4th of July!

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 06:01:38 -0700

Have Fun!

Race profiling eyed for terror probes

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 03:49:08 -0700

July 4

Raw Story - The Justice Department is considering letting the FBI investigate Americans without any evidence of wrongdoing, relying instead on a terrorist profile that could single out Muslims, Arabs or other racial and ethnic groups.

Currently, FBI agents need specific reasons — like evidence or allegations that a law probably has been violated — to investigate U.S. citizens and legal residents. The new policy, law enforcement officials told The Associated Press, would let agents open preliminary terrorism investigations after mining public records and intelligence to build a profile of traits that, taken together, were deemed suspicious.

Among the factors that could make someone subject of an investigation is travel to regions of the world known for terrorist activity, access to weapons or military training, along with the person's race or ethnicity.

Critics say the presumption of innocence is lost in the proposal. The FBI will be allowed to begin investigations simply "by assuming that everyone's a suspect, and then you weed out the innocent," said Caroline Fredrickson of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Damn I'm lucky I am whiter than Casper or McCain ;)

Rumsfeld As Airport Reading

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 00:37:12 -0700

So, while at the airport last week on my way to Singapore I lowered myself to buying a copy of the latest Atlantic Monthly. I had the great misfortune of reading Robert D. Kaplan's article on Rumsfeld, called, "What Rumsfeld Got Right." I really didn't need to read a 7,000 word encomium about how deep down Rumsfeld really meant well and all that. I could have written the article in one word: "nothing."

Seriously, I wasted several dollars on the whole issue which was pretty damn bad. I'll stick to the New York Review of Books and the London Review of Books and a few other choice outlets. Seems the Atlantic Monthly has sunk almost as low as the New Republic. What a shame. They both used to be so vital. Not any longer.

Commentary: How dare they rip the Fourth Amendment?

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 18:41:30 -0700

Joseph L. Galloway | McClatchy Newspapers

Early next week the U.S. Senate will vote on an extension of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, with a few small amendments intended to immunize telecommunications corporations that assisted our government in the warrantless and illegal wiretapping it has grown to love.

That such a gutting of the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution even made it out of committee is yet another stain on the gutless and seemingly powerless Democratic majority in both houses of Congress.

That a majority on both sides of the aisle — not least of them the presumptive nominees for president of both political parties — intend to vote for such a violation of Americans' right to privacy and of the sanctity of their personal communications is a stunning surrender to those who want us to live in fear forever.

We are living in a time when the right of habeas corpus — which simply put is your right to be brought before a proper court of law where the government is made to prove that there is good and legal reason to detain you — recently survived by a margin of only one vote at the U.S. Supreme Court.

Now these bad actors are prepared to set aside your right to privacy — written into the Constitution as a key part of our Bill of Rights — with hardly a nod in the direction of the true patriots who rebelled against an English king and his army to guarantee those rights.

Passport record system open to abuse, IG finds

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 18:38:32 -0700

Warren P. Strobel | Washington | July 4

McClatchy - A State Department passport record system that holds personal data on more than 120 million Americans is wide open to abuse and unable to prevent or detect unauthorized access, investigators said Thursday.

The review by the department's inspector general was ordered after revelations in March that State Department employees and contractors had accessed the files of presidential candidates Hillary Clinton, John McCain and Barack Obama.

The IG report found a much broader problem.

Investigators surveyed the records of 150 high-profile Americans, whose names were selected from Forbes and Sports Illustrated magazine lists and Internet search engine Google's most-searched names.

Of the 150 — who weren't named in the report — 127, or 85 percent, had had their passport files accessed a total of 4,148 times, strongly suggesting attempts at unauthorized access.

"The system is unable to protect itself," said one State Department official, who requested anonymity to speak more freely. "Anybody can go in."

US 'pregnant man' has baby girl

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 18:23:35 -0700

July 4

BBC -

An American man who was born female but underwent gender realignment surgery, has given birth to a female baby, US media have reported.

Thomas Beatie, 34, is legally male but kept his female reproductive organs after having breast surgery to remove glands and flatten his chest.

Both Mr Beatie and his daughter are reported to be doing well in a hospital in Bend, Oregon.

He was inseminated using sperm from an anonymous donor.

The birth was natural, a source at St Charles Medical Center in Bend told ABC News, and took place on Sunday.

Want to know if waterboarding is torture? Ask Christopher Hitchens

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 18:10:55 -0700

Jon Henley | July 4

The Guardian - Late last year, the writer, polemicist and fierce proponent of the US-led invasion of Iraq Christopher Hitchens attempted, in a piece for the online magazine Slate, to draw a distinction between what he called techniques of "extreme interrogation" and "outright torture".

From this, his foes inferred that since it was Hitchens' belief that America did not stoop to the latter, the practice of waterboarding - known to be perpetrated by US forces against certain "high-value clients" in Iraq and elsewhere - must fall under the former heading.

Enraged by what they saw as an exercise in elegant but offensive sophistry, some of the writer's critics suggested that Hitchens give waterboarding (which may sound like some kind of fun aquatic pastime, but is probably best summarised as enforced partial drowning) a whirl, just to see what it was like. Did the experience feel like torture?

Storm over Cape Cod

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 17:58:35 -0700

Leonard Doyle | Hyannis, Cape Cod | July 3

Independent -

Oyster Harbours is ground zero in a very uncivil war in which some of the wealthiest and most famous people in the country have joined forces with one of America's dirtiest businesses – the coal industry – to block an ambitious clean-energy project.

As Hyannis filled up with traffic ahead of the Independence Day holiday today, there was a whiff of cordite rather than fireworks in the air as both sides blasted away at each other.

So far, the opponents have spent more than $20m trying to kill off the project, which is known as Cape Wind and is planned for a location widely deemed ideal for offshore wind turbines.

During the summer, 130 slowly spinning windmills located five miles offshore should be invisible to the naked eye because of haze. On winter days, when the "snowbirds" (as the locals call summer visitors) have departed for Florida, the windmills will look like rotating matchsticks out on the horizon.

But a problem arises because the wind farm will at times be visible from some of the most expensive summer homes and private beaches in the US, most notably the Kennedy family compound in Hyannisport. And whether Obama Democrats or McCain Republicans, vulgar billionaires or old New England money, opponents of the project decided long ago to throw in their lot in with Big Coal to try and kill off Cape Wind. "This is like trying to put a wind farm in Yellowstone National Park as far as we're concerned," said former coal executive Glenn Wattley, who runs the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound.

Biofuels are prime cause of food crisis, says leaked report

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 12:47:12 -0700

Aditya Chakrabortty | July 3

The Guardian - Biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75% — far more than previously estimated — according to a confidential World Bank report obtained by the Guardian. The damning unpublished assessment is based on the most detailed analysis of the crisis so far, carried out by an internationally-respected economist at global financial body.

The figure emphatically contradicts the US government's claims that plant-derived fuels contribute less than 3% to food-price rises. It will add to pressure on governments in Washington and across Europe, which have turned to plant-derived fuels to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and reduce their dependence on imported oil.

Senior development sources believe the report, completed in April, has not been published to avoid embarrassing President George Bush. "It would put the World Bank in a political hot-spot with the White House," said one yesterday.

Georgia Residents Sue to Carry Firearms at Atlanta Airport

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 11:57:28 -0700

Impatient with increased air fares, frequent flight delays, reduced service, increased security and long lines at the airport? Does the thought of your equally exasperated fellow travelers packing heat at the world’s busiest airport make you feel better about the situation? We thought not. And yet Georgia gun rights activists are suing the city of Atlanta on Second Amendment grounds in federal court, arguing that it’s legal for them to bring guns to Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia.

India blows up a monsoon

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 06:10:04 -0700

M K Bhadrakumar | July 3

Asia Times - Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has made a very calculated political - and potentially dangerous - move to seal the much-delayed civilian nuclear accord with the United States. The deal, though, is only one piece on the chessboard of India's global ambitions that includes the key players of Pakistan, Iran and the United States. But it's the weather that could decide Manmohan's and the chess game's fate.

New drive to ban race preferences

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 06:04:49 -0700

Stacy Teicher Khadaroo | July 3

CSM - New drive to ban race preferences
Initiatives in three states would prohibit affirmative action in public realms.

Tensions are running high in the latest affirmative-action battlegrounds. In Arizona, Nebraska, and Colorado, supporters of ballot initiatives that would ban "preferential treatment" are counting up petition signatures – and opponents are scrutinizing their validity – to see if there's enough support to bring the issue to voters in November.

The American Civil Rights Institute (ACRI), led by Ward Connerly, is pushing the initiatives, which would change state constitutions to prohibit preferences based on race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the public realms of employment, education, and contracting. Similar ballot measures have succeeded in only three states: California in 1996 and later in Washington and Michigan.

Proponents of affirmative action learned from those votes not to wait until the fall election to make their case to the public. So they've been mustering volunteers now to wage "decline to sign" campaigns.

Working poor

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 06:01:24 -0700

McClatchy - "A mile in their shoes" is a yearlong series about four working poor families in Tarrant County, Texas, by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Meet the families, see in-depth multimedia reports, and try your hand at balancing the books of a single-income family with three kids for a month.