Author: Trish

Are You on the Terror List? 509,000 People Are

Trish

The FBI watch list of suspected terrorists is so long, it would be easier to tell you who they’re not monitoring than who they are.

Privacy and civil liberties advocates say the list is growing uncontrollably, threatening its usefulness in the war on terror.

The bureau says the number of names on its terrorist watch list is classified.

You can check the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control list of suspected money launderers yourself

A portion of the FBI’s unclassified 2008 budget request posted to the Department of Justice Web site, however, refers to “the entire watch list of 509,000 names,” which is utilized by its Foreign Terrorist Tracking Task Force…

“It grows seemingly without control or limitation,” said ACLU senior legislative counsel Tim Sparapani of the terrorism watch list. Sparapani called the 509,000 figure “stunning.”

“If we have 509,000 names on that list, the watch list is virtually useless,” he told ABC News. “You’ll be capturing innocent individuals with no connection to crime or terror.”

“Useless” is probably accurate.

U.S. lawmakers and their spouses have been detained because their names were on the watch list.

Reporters who have reviewed versions of the list found it included the names of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, at the time he was alive but in custody in Iraq; imprisoned al Qaeda plotter Zacarias Moussaoui; and 14 of the 19 Sept. 11, 2001 hijackers, all of whom perished in the attacks.

The same can be said for the OFAC list, which all financial institutions must check before opening a new account. That’s right, before you can open a checking account, some poor teller has to look to see if you’re there.

But unlike the FBI’s “secret” list, you can check the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control list of suspected money launderers yourself by simply going here.

After you get through the A’s, which all start with “Al-” something, the list gets more interesting. But like the FBI’s, it still contains this entry, under a couple of different spellings:

HUSSAIN, Saddam (a.k.a. ABU ALI; a.k.a. AL-TIKRITI, Saddam Hussein;
a.k.a. HUSAYN, Saddam; a.k.a. HUSSEIN, Saddam); DOB 28 Apr 1937;
POB al-Awja, near Tikrit, Iraq; nationality Iraq; named in UNSCR
1483; President since 1979 (individual) [IRAQ2]

Is it any wonder Americans don’t want to hand over their civil liberties in exchange for the “security” offered by our government?

Republican Candidates to Boycott Latino Convention

Trish

I hate going to Disneyworld too, so I understand every major Republican presidential candidate wanting to stay away. But…staging what amounts to a virtual boycott of what is known as the Latino political convention doesn’t seem like a smart move.

Especially when, according to a June 11 press release, all the Democrats will be there.

Do they take the votes of this demographic as a given, or are they writing them off as going Democrat?

Los Angeles, CA – The Democratic contenders in the 2008 presidential campaign will participate in a candidate forum hosted by the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) in Orlando on June 30…

The participating candidates will include, in alphabetical order, Senator Joe Biden (DE), Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (NY), Senator Chris Dodd (CT), former Senator John Edwards (NC), Representative Dennis Kucinich (OH), Senator Barack Obama (IL) and Governor Bill Richardson (NM).

NALEO extended identical invitations to the Republican presidential candidates to participate in a separate forum. All have declined to date.

So the question is, why do the Republicans think they can snub Latinos? Do they take the votes of this demographic as a given, or are they writing them off as going Democrat?

…several factors put the Hispanic vote in play. Among them: Non-Cubans aren’t as likely to have historical ties to the Republican Party as Cuban-Americans.

“Living in Weston, I see it just walking around the neighborhood. There are people from Colombia, Venezuela and Peru. They don’t have the same preconditioning to vote Republican,” said Weston resident Andrew Torres, president of the new Broward chapter of the state Democratic Party’s Hispanic Caucus…

Florida U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson said once Castro is gone, “you will see Cuban-Americans shift to the Democratic Party.”

…Torres said the increasing numbers of younger voters and people from countries other than Cuba make this a good time to capitalize on trends favoring Democrats.

The explanation could be simple, of course.

National and state Republican officials did not comment on why GOP hopefuls will not participate in the conference, but the campaigns of Sen. John McCain and Mitt Romney cited scheduling conflicts.

Those durn scheduling conflicts. Funny how they never crop up when it’s time to come to South Florida and fund-raise. And no matter how you slice it, boycotting the convention of their fellow elected officials can’t win many friends. Not to mention there are two other groups piggybacking off the event — the National Hispana Leadership Institute and the Orlando Chamber of Commerce’s Hispanic Summit.

Maybe there really is a simple reason. Republicans might just want to distance themselves from immigrants — and please their xenophobic base — as much as possible.

State Approves Using Taxpayer Computers for Wiki Whitewash of Republican Florida Lt. Gov.

Trish

Is it vandalism or is it the way of the wiki?
Either way, Republican Florida Gov. Charlie Crist’s administration says it’s O.K. to do it on the taxpayer’s dime. Um, as long as whatever you’re doing is favorable to his folks.

The Florida Progressive Coalition knew something was up when almost all the bad
stuff in their wiki on Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp was replaced with good. Most of the changes concerned stories about the state having to pay $50,000 in an age discrimination suit brought after Kottkamp fired an older state worker. See actual examples of the vandalism/editing. Oddly, references to Kottkamp’s support of flying the Confederate flag, long before Charlie picked him as his running mate, were left in.

As you know (but evidently no one in the White House or Justice Department does), computers can be identified. Tracing the IP address of the computer improving Kottkamp’s wiki info showed it belonged to the Florida Department of Management Services. Further checking placed the computer on the desk of Larry Ringers, the Lieutenant Governor’s chief of staff.

After weeks of demanding an explanation of how this does not violate the state’s own policy concerning the proper use of taxpayer-funded time and equipment, FPC received a reply on June 8 from Crystal Armstrong, the deputy secretary for Enterprise Information Technology Services at the Florida Department of Management Services.

Mr. Harper,

Modifications were made to the Lt. Governor’s biographical information. Changes were made from the computer of Larry Ringers who works for the Lt. Governor. By nature, and as referenced in your correspondence, wiki pages are publicly editable.

Thank You,

Crystal Armstrong

I guess we can take that as a “Yeah, we did it. So what?”

Before You Leave for the Weekend…Important Friday News Dump

Trish

It’s coming hot and heavy:

Gen. Pace is out as chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff. Gates blames it on Congress; says Pace wouldn’t have been able to be reconfirmed when his current term is up in September.

Gonzales will face “no confidence” vote in the Senate on Monday. Bush says he’s doing a heckuva job and the vote is simply “political thee-AY-ter.”

The CIA denies claims by more than 30 current and former intelligence officers here and in Romania and Poland that it abducted and tortured people at secret prisons in Europe. The fully documented report, filed by the European Parliament, is “biased and distorted,” the CIA said.

Cheney needs his pacemaker replaced. The batteries are going dead, and he could presumably follow. Nuff said.

Bush is over his hangover. “The president already was dressed when he began feeling ill in the morning, [Spokestool Dan] Bartlett said. He stayed in bed for several hours to rest and recuperate, missing one session with African leaders and another with leaders from China, India, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa, all developing nations not G-8 members. Bush returned to the talks in time for the closing lunch, where he engaged in extensive conversation with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Paris Hilton is back in jail. And reportedly just thrilled to be there.

Houston Chronicle: Jail Libby Now

Trish

A call for immediate imprisonment of convicted liar Lewis Libby has come from a surprising source: the biggest newspaper in one of the biggest cities in the president’s home state.

Houston Chronicle:

Libby’s lawyers and supporters want Libby to stay out of prison while he appeals, which could take more than a year. [U.S. District Judge Reggie] Walton seems disinclined to go along, noting that people in Libby’s position, “where they have the welfare and security of the nation in their hands,” have a special obligation to be truthful. Libby failed to meet that obligation, stands little chance of having his conviction overturned and should start serving his sentence now.

Libby’s conviction and sentence is a fair outcome to a troubling chapter that afforded Americans a rare glimpse into the machinations of a secretive White House determined to go to war and to undermine its critics by whatever means available, even at the risk of putting covert operatives and their contacts in harm’s way.

O’Reilly Attacks an Evangelical – And Converts Me

Trish

Bill O’Reilly has done the impossible. He’s got me cheering for an evangelist who says homosexuals and people who don’t accept Jesus Christ as their personal savior are going to hell. Through the magic of O’Reilly’s utter foulness, I am now on the same team as Bill Keller, who according to the Tampa Tribune, “writes a daily devotional published on his Web site and e-mailed to more than 2 million subscribers. His live, call-in program is televised weeknights at 1 a.m. in the Tampa market.”

Keller: Going on O’Reilly “requires you are really prayed up surrendered”

Keller recently appeared on The O’Reilly Factor, taking the usual abuse and sanctimonious hot air from Bill, who tried to appear to be the voice of reason. The topic was Mitt Romney, whose faith Keller has consistently referred to as a cult (go Rev.!). His charge that a vote for Romney is a vote for Satan has Americans United for the Separation of Church and State asking the IRS to revoke Keller’s tax exemption.

Keller posted his reaction to being beaten up by O’Reilly on his web site, www.liveprayer.com. And he makes some good points. FOX, O’Reilly, and most of their viewers, he says, only pretend they love Jesus and the flag.

As “conservative friendly” and “Christian friendly” as FOX News tries to portray itself, it is still very much part of the world…Anyone who goes into that environment taking a Biblical position on the issues and telling people Jesus is the only way to be saved, immediately comes under intense fire. The world for the most part may believe in God, but they don’t honor Him, they clearly reject His Truth, and very few have really committed their hearts and lives to Jesus Christ.

In addition to speaking to an audience that for the most part rejects Biblical Truth, I was also dealing with exposing a satanically inspired cult that has done a masterful public relationship job of getting people, including many Christians, to believe they are “just another Christian church.” As I have stated often, the teachings and theology of the Mormon cult are completely inconsistent with Biblical Christianity…

[…]

Libby Shouldn’t Have Asked Judge to ‘Consider His Whole Life’

Trish

Just before the judge sentenced I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby for his role in the revenge exposure of a CIA agent by the Bush administration, Libby asked him to look at the big picture.

Libby did not admit to any mistakes, but said, “I ask that you consider my whole life.”

And maybe the judge did, which is why Libby is now facing a total of 30 months in jail and a $250,000 fine.

John Dean, in his book, “Conservatives Without Conscience” uses Libby as an illustration of an “uberneoconservative” and an “exemplary authoritarian.” He points to an American Progress backgrounder that does in fact, consider Libby’s whole life.

Dean: Libby was outraged and believed that by claiming Wilson’s wife had been involved in sending her husband to Niger, the trip would be perceived as some kind of boondoggle. In fact, she was not involved, but Libby leaked her covert identity to members of the news media anyway

It was Libby – along with Paul Wolfowitz, Doug Feith, and a handful of other top aides at the Pentagon and White House – who convinced the president that the U.S. should go to war in Iraq. It was Libby who pushed Cheney to publicly argue that Saddam Hussein had ties to al Qaeda and 9/11.

It was also Libby who prodded former Secretary of State Colin Powell to include specious reports about an alleged meeting between 9/11 terrorist Mohammed Atta and an Iraqi intelligence official in Powell’s February 2003 speech to the United Nations. Libby and his staff reportedly badgered Powell’s speech writers for weeks, culminating in a meeting where Libby presented information in a manner that, according to those who were there, was aggressive and over the top…

Within the Bush administration, what has touched Cheney has also reached Libby and vice versa. Libby’s role in the awarding of at least one no-bid, multi-million dollar contract to Halliburton is a case in point.

For months, the vice president’s office denied that it played any role in the selection of the company once headed by Cheney to repair Iraq’s oil fields. But, as the Washington Post reported [in 2004], it turns out that Libby had been briefed by Pentagon officials before the contract was awarded – raising questions of impropriety at best, and corruption at worst.

So much for the big picture. Libby is dirty, and Dean has no trouble keeping the facts straight.

[…]

GOP Debate: White Guys in Black Suits

Trish

In what promises to be a quadri-annual event, a group of white guys ranging in age all the way from their 50s to their 70s met recently in Manchester, N.H. to model black suits and determine which tie color — red or red patterned — works best with a white shirt.

The men claimed to typify the entire country — even females and non-Caucasians — yet hailed from mostly Western and Midwestern states, including Colorado, Kansas, Arizona, Arkansas, California, and Texas. Eastern seaboard states including Virginia, Massachutahmormonland, and New York were also represented.

Although no clear winner was declared, the consensus was that the wide diversity of white guys in black suits offered a fresh direction for white guys in black suits throughout the entire country, even those who don’t belong to the club or play golf.

Addicted to Bush Fatique? Vote for Fred Thompson

Trish

Lest anyone be pining for an angry white pretender to sanctification because somehow Dick Cheney, George Bush, and Karl Rover just aren’t enough…there’s always Fred Thompson.

Yes, if you were afraid you would be leaving behind the shoot from the hip (and into the face) policies of the world’s worst, yet angriest, bumblers you should back Fred “The Lobbyist” Thompson for president. It’s the best way to ensure more of the same.

Talk about great ideas! Remember this ad beating the drums for war with Iraq back in 2003? As if from Cheney’s own mouth comes the final note of fear mongering: “And when people ask, ‘What has Saddam done to us?’ I ask, ‘What had the 9/11 hijackers done to us…before 9/11?'”

Oooooh, scary stuff.

Celebrating Anita Bryant: The Mother of Gay Rights

Trish

You’d have to call Anita Bryant, the former beauty queen gone anti-gay zealot gone born again Christian gone divorced gone bankrupt orange juice spokesperson, a reluctant hero. But a new exhibit in South Florida does just that, commemorating the 30-year anniversary of her crusade and its monumental unintended affects.

Anita Bryant in 1977: “I know that homosexuals cannot biologically reproduce children; therefore, they must recruit our children”

In 1977, singer Anita Bryant successfully campaigned to repeal a Dade County ordinance banning discrimination against gay men and lesbians. [The recently called home Rev. Jerry] Falwell came to South Florida in support and two years later created the Moral Majority. Jim Bakker, Pat Robertson and Phyllis Schlafly quickly joined Falwell in becoming outspoken opponents of gay rights.

“This is where they all had their stage debut,” said Jack Rutland, executive director of the Stonewall Library & Archives and organizer of the exhibit “Days Without Sunshine: Anita Bryant’s Anti-Gay Crusade…”

“In a completely unintended way, Anita Bryant was about the best thing to happen to the gay rights movement,” said John Coppola, exhibit curator and former head of exhibits at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. “She and her cohorts were so over the top that it just completely galvanized the gay rights movement.”

Rutland goes so far as to call Bryant the mother of the gay rights movement…

Bryant, now 67, declined to comment when contacted at her Anita Bryant Ministries International Inc. in Oklahoma City.

That’s probably because Anita herself hasn’t fared so well.

Singing from the age of two, Bryant became Miss Oklahoma in 1958 and was a second runner-up in the 1959 Miss America beauty pageant. She had three big pop hits: “‘Til There Was You” (1959); “Paper Roses” (1960); and “In My Little Corner of the World” (1960). In 1960, she married Bob Green, a Miami disc jockey, with whom she eventually raised four children. She became a spokeswoman for the Florida Citrus Commission in 1969, and nationally televised commercials featured her singing “Come to the Florida Sunshine tree”, and opining that “A day without orange juice is like a day without sunshine”.

…concerns over homosexual recruitment of children inspired the name of Bryant’s political organization, Save Our Children. Among Bryant’s assertions during the campaign were “As a mother, I know that homosexuals cannot biologically reproduce children; therefore, they must recruit our children” and “If gays are granted rights, next we’ll have to give rights to prostitutes and to people who sleep with St. Bernards and to nailbiters.”

Bryant was also a pioneer on the receiving side of getting “pied,” as the YouTube video above shows. Before she took that pie in the face during an anti-gay press junket, such tactics were rare. So anyone who enjoyed seeing Ann Coulter pied should really thank Anita for leading the way.

But Anita’s fortunes took a dive after she spoke out.

Her contract with the Florida Citrus Commission also was allowed to lapse because of the negative publicity generated by her political campaigns, the resulting boycott of Florida orange juice, and, at least reportedly, because of her divorce.

Her marriage to Bob Green failed at that time and in 1980 she divorced him. She married her second husband, Charlie Hobson Dry, in 1990, and they have tried to reestablish her career in a series of small venues. Commercial success has been elusive, and they have left behind them a series of unpaid employees and creditors. They filed for bankruptcy in Arkansas (1997) and in Tennessee (2001).

Who knows? Without Anita’s St. Bernard analogies and parental paranoia, gay people might still be in the closet. At the very least, she was fun to make fun of. Actually, she still is.