Black Bush, just not as funny
http://www.vanityfair.com/society/features/2011/05/top-one-percent-201105?printable=true
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/27/us/27wiretap.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&hp
http://digitaljournal.com/article/295320
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/...ticles/a-hidden-world-growing-beyond-control/
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/05/23/110523fa_fact_mayer?currentPage=all
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/15/opinion/drones-alone-are-not-the-answer.html?_r=1&ref=opinionv
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/01/obama-war-funding-veto-threat_n_633156.html
http://www.vanityfair.com/society/features/2011/05/top-one-percent-201105?printable=true
http://open.salon.com/blog/kevin_go...loys_bush_administration_tactic_blocks_photosVirtually all U.S. senators, and most of the representatives in the House, are members of the top 1 percent when they arrive, are kept in office by money from the top 1 percent, and know that if they serve the top 1 percent well they will be rewarded by the top 1 percent when they leave office. By and large, the key executive-branch policymakers on trade and economic policy also come from the top 1 percent. ... It should not make jaws drop that a tax bill cannot emerge from Congress unless big tax cuts are put in place for the wealthy. Given the power of the top 1 percent, this is the way you would expect the system to work.
On Wednesday, Obama said he “would try to block the court-ordered release of photos showing U.S. troops abusing prisoners.” The release, which was to be the result of a Freedom of Information Act request made by the ACLU, had been reasonable in the final weeks of April, but today, Obama chose to come out against the release.
According to the Associated Press, “out of concern [that] the pictures would "further inflame anti-American opinion" and endanger U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan” Obama planned to block them.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/27/us/27wiretap.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&hp
Essentially, officials want Congress to require all services that enable communications — including encrypted e-mail transmitters like BlackBerry, social networking Web sites like Facebook and software that allows direct “peer to peer” messaging like Skype — to be technically capable of complying if served with a wiretap order. The mandate would include being able to intercept and unscramble encrypted messages.
The bill, which the Obama administration plans to submit to lawmakers next year, raises fresh questions about how to balance security needs with protecting privacy and fostering innovation. And because security services around the world face the same problem, it could set an example that is copied globally.
http://digitaljournal.com/article/295320
The White House is seeking to change wording of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), giving more power to the FBI in requesting Internet service providers turn over individual customers’ activities it considers related to terrorism or intelligence investigations.
At issue is the addition of a mere four words -- “electronic communication transactional records” -- added to a a list the law states the FBI can demand without court order. According to a report in the Washington Post, government lawyers say the revised list of information in this category would include addresses to which Internet users send their emails; dates and times the messages were sent and received; and possible browser history of the users.
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/...ticles/a-hidden-world-growing-beyond-control/
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/05/23/110523fa_fact_mayer?currentPage=all
When President Barack Obama took office, in 2009, he championed the cause of government transparency, and spoke admiringly of whistle-blowers, whom he described as “often the best source of information about waste, fraud, and abuse in government.” But the Obama Administration has pursued leak prosecutions with a surprising relentlessness. Including the Drake case, it has been using the Espionage Act to press criminal charges in five alleged instances of national-security leaks—more such prosecutions than have occurred in all previous Administrations combined. The Drake case is one of two that Obama’s Justice Department has carried over from the Bush years.
Gabriel Schoenfeld, a conservative political scientist at the Hudson Institute, who, in his book “Necessary Secrets” (2010), argues for more stringent protection of classified information, says, “Ironically, Obama has presided over the most draconian crackdown on leaks in our history—even more so than Nixon.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/15/opinion/drones-alone-are-not-the-answer.html?_r=1&ref=opinionv
OVER the past two years, America has narrowed its goals in Afghanistan and Pakistan to a single-minded focus on eliminating Al Qaeda. Public support for a counterinsurgency campaign in Afghanistan has waned. American officials dealing with Pakistan now spend most of their time haggling over our military and intelligence activities, when they should instead be pursuing the sort of comprehensive social, diplomatic and economic reforms that Pakistan desperately needs and that would advance America’s long-term interests.
In Pakistan, no issue is more controversial than American drone attacks in Pakistani territory along the Afghan border. The Obama administration contends that using drones to kill 10 or 20 more Qaeda leaders would eliminate the organization. This is wishful thinking.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/01/obama-war-funding-veto-threat_n_633156.html
http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/foreign-policy/7801-obama-steps-up-secret-us-war-in-yemenWASHINGTON — Despite pessimism that the war in Afghanistan is turning out to be a quagmire, Democrats controlling the House muscled through a plan Thursday to finance President Barack Obama's troop surge, but only after sweetening the measure with last-ditch moves to salvage their faltering jobs agenda.
Long delayed, the approximately $80 billion bill was passed amid building pressure on Democrats to act before their weeklong Fourth of July break begins. But the Senate approved a significantly slimmer measure in May and it'll take additional weeks to reconcile the differences between the two battling chambers.
The Obama administration is intensifying its illegal secret war in Yemen as armed rebellions against the U.S.-government-backed dictatorship of Ali Abdullah Saleh (left) threaten to overthrow the regime. But while the mainstream press has been cheering on the unlawful military campaign, experts warned that it could easily backfire.
Witnesses said multiple civilians were killed in an American air strike late last week supposedly targeting suspected militants — an unavoidable consequence of jet fighter and drone attacks that will almost certainly stir up more anti-U.S. sentiment. And the secret bombing campaign has actually been stepped up in recent weeks on orders from the White House, according to military officials cited in various news reports.