Month: August 2013

Stop living in the past. J. Edgar Hoover is dead.

by digby

The president has said many times that we should be comfortable with secret government surveillance because the people who run the programs are serious professionals whose only mission is to keep the nation safe from its enemies.

And then there’s this:

The celebrated writer William Vollmann has revealed that the FBI once thought he might be the Unabomber, the anthrax mailer and a terrorist training with the Afghan mujahideen.

In the September issue of Harper’s magazine, Vollmann describes the alarming and ludicrous contents of his 785-page secret government file, 294 pages of which he obtained after suing the FBI and CIA under the Freedom of Information Act. Spiked with sarcasm directed at what he sees as the agencies’ arrogance, presumptuousness and ineptitude, his Harper’s essay, “Life As a Terrorist,” is inflamed with moral outrage at the systemic violation of his privacy. “I begin to see how government haters are made,” he writes.

A winner of the National Book Award and a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, Vollmann is considered one of the most insightful writers in the world on the subject of violence and war. 

[…]“Reading one’s FBI file is rarely pleasant,” Vollmann writes. He discovered that someone — Vollmann gives him the codename “Ratfink” — turned him in to the authorities as a possible Unabomber suspect because of the content of his fiction. His file claims that “anti-growth and anti-progress themes persist throughout each VOLLMANN work.” In this case, his accuser was referring to “Fathers and Crows,” a novel “set mostly in Canada in the seventeenth century.” Even more conclusive, the FBI observed ominously that “UNABOMBER, not unlike VOLLMANN has pride of authorship and insists his book be published without editing.”

What more evidence do we need!?

It’s hard to decide if we should be more concerned about what he describes as the agency’s nefariousness or its stupidity. Vollmann notes that the FBI couldn’t determine his Social Security number because it spelled his name wrong. His file incorrectly claims that he owns a flamethrower. (“I would love to own a flamethrower,” he writes.) It erroneously records him traveling to Beirut. In 1995, he was labeled “ARMED AND DANGEROUS.”

He makes hand-made art books.

After 9/11 they suspected him of being the anthrax killer too.

I suppose it’s always possible that the “culture” of the NSA is so totally different than the FBI that his could never happen with their information.  Or, it’s also possible that when the FBI comes to the NSA with “suspicions” of terrorism, the NSA and the FISA court are only to happy to help them out by dipping into the vast stores of personal data they’re collecting on — everyone.

Either way, the point is that we already have citizens being stalked by the US government on the most specious grounds. And now we have given them exceptional technical abilities to do even more of it all under the guise of counter-terrorism.  To just “trust” them, when they have a track record like what we see above is completely daft. 

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Dinner with Alexander the Great

by digby

Here’s a fascinating piece from a noted civil liberties lawyer Jennifer Granick who had dinner with General Keith Alexander. They broke bread and chatted and handled each other’s cell phones:

I have no doubt that Gen. Alexander loves this country as much as I do, or that his primary motivation is to protect our nation from terrorist attacks. “Never again,” he said over dinner. But it may be that our deep differences stem from a fundamental disagreement about human nature. I think Gen. Alexander believes that history is made by great individuals standing against evil. I believe that brave people can make a difference, but that larger inexorable forces are often more important: history, economics, political and social systems, the environment. So I believe that power corrupts and that good people will do bad things when a system is poorly designed, no matter how well-intentioned they may be. More than once, my dinner companions felt the need to reassure the DIRNSA that none of us thought he was a bad man, but that we thought the surveillance policies and practices were bad, and that eventually, inevitably, those policies and practices would lead to abuse.

Nothing Gen. Alexander said at dinner differed from what I’d heard him say publicly before. He was a bit exasperated with me for disagreeing with him about the FISA Amendments Act’s impact on Americans, which was unexpected. He repeated that old saw about the NSA does not “target” Americans, and when I explained I knew about the contorted definition the NSA gives to that word, all he responded was “That’s wrong.”

The author is very polite in her descriptions of Alexander. And I can understand that. he did agree to meet and have dinner with a bunch of civil liberties lawyers.

But he’s an asshole:

The General seemed convinced that if only I knew what he knew, I would agree with him. He urged me to visit Pakistan, so that I would better understand the dangers America faces. I responded that one of my longest-standing friends has relatives there and visits regularly, maybe she would take me. I did not miss his point, and he did not miss mine. At one point he incredulously identified me as being “to the left of Senator Wyden”.

That is the kind of characterization you hear from people who watch Fox News. Normal people don’t think Senator Wyden is a raging far left loon. He’s not. He’s a civil libertarian, which isn’t really a matter of left and right. That Alexander thinks it is says it all about where he’s really coming from. Those are the words of a very political person.

Everything I read about this guy makes me think he’s a megalomaniac and dramatically unsuited to the role he’s in. He’s in love with his technology and himself. And there is no limit to the amount of power he thinks he needs to “do his job” — which in his mind, is to save the world. That’s not good.

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Another day in post-racial America

by David Atkins

Tea Partiers are very eager to point out that they’re just patriots concerned about the size of government, not racists with an agenda to destroy the safety net in order primarily to hurt minority communities. Someone might want to pass that memo along to the folks at Tea Party Nation, who created this doctored photo:

Charming.

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Doubling down on stupid

by digby

The Heritage Foundation Obamascare travelling revival show continues:

Former U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina organized an evening town hall meeting, which called for defunding the federal health care law. More than 300 people attended the event.
[…]
Opponents of the law warn that health care premiums will increase and businesses will cut jobs because they can’t afford to offer health coverage to employees. Proponents say that won’t happen and that Republicans are using scare tactics to derail President Obama.

“They just want it to go back to the way it was,” said Brad Woodhouse, president of Americans United For Change, a liberal group that says the new law should not be defunded.

Tampa is one of many stops on a nine-state tour organized by Heritage Action, a conservative group that’s focused on repealing the Affordable Care Act.

DeMint said opponents don’t have much time to try to make changes to the law before a March 2014 deadline for people to enroll. Benefits will kick in Jan. 1 for those who enroll earlier.

“This might be that last off-ramp to stop Obamacare before it becomes more enmeshed in our culture,” he said. “This is not about getting better health care.”

DeMint said uninsured Americans “will get better health care just going to the emergency room.”

The biggest applause of the night went to Rafael Cruz the father of U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas. The elder Cruz, a Cuban immigrant, gave the invocation and spoke out against the health care act.

Some conservatives have threatened to close the government temporarily this fall — by refusing to fund federal operations beyond Sept. 30 — if that’s the only way to cut off money for President Obama’s signature health care law. Other Republicans have dismissed the tactic as counterproductive and even dangerous for Republicans seeking re-election next year.

It’s hard to believe that anybody’s out there making the case for using the emergency room for all their health care needs, but there you have it. Heckuva job Minty.

Meanwhile, we have the brilliant political strategist Erick Erickson with this:

Ted Cruz has not proposed shutting down the government.

Mike Lee has not proposed shutting down the government.

Congressman Meadows has not proposed shutting down the government.

In fact, everyone who supports defunding Obamacare has been very clear that they’ll vote for a continuing resolution, just not for Obamacare funding. If the government shuts down over that, it would be Barack Obama insisting his health care plan nobody wants gets funded.

It’s possible they’ll be able to convince every member of their hardcore Tea Party base to interpret events in exactly that way. But I have a sneaking suspicion that the leadership of the party, even the rightwingers, understand that normal people will see that it’s the Republicans shutting down the government. Because — reality.

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Whose identity is it anyway?

by digby

Some of the stuff I’m reading on twitter and elsewhere about Private Manning’s change from Bradley to Chelsea is just depressing Honestly, I do not understand why people care so much about this stuff. She’s a human being. That’s all anyone needs to know. If she sees herself as a woman, then that’s what she is. Human beings own their own bodies and their identities. Period.

I can’t help but be reminded of this, when I read all this stuff today about what a cowardly weirdo Chelsea Manning is:

Monday, June 03, 2013

 
Here’s a truly heroic Navy SEAL

Now this is an amazing story:

The 2011 repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” ended the military’s official policy of discriminating against gays and lesbians in the armed services, but a ban on transgender service members remains in place, meaning that trans men and women are still barred from serving.

But some advocates say that may change, or may come closer than ever before to changing, with the release of a new memoir from a former Navy SEAL. Kristen Beck (formerly Chris Beck) was a SEAL for 20 years — and member of SEAL Team 6, the unit that killed Osama bin Laden — before retiring, coming out as transgender and beginning her transition from male to female in 2011.

And with all the ugliness in the world one could expect a huge backlash, especially among her former colleagues in the military. And there may be some.

But it isn’t across the board:

Soon, the responses from SEALs stationed all around the world suddenly started pouring in: “Brother, I am with you … being a SEAL is hard, this looks harder. Peace” * “I can’t say I understand the decision but I respect the courage. Peace and happiness be upon you…Jim” * ” … I just wanted to drop you a note and tell you that Kris has all the support and respect from me that Chris had … and quite possibly more. While I’m definitely surprised, I’m also in amazement at the strength you possess and the courage necessary to combat the strangers and ‘friends’ that I’m guessing have reared their ugly heads prior to and since your announcement. …”

I can only say hooyah! to that.

This woman is the same person who was member of Seal Team 6. Whatever “he” could do, she can do. Maybe this will make the military — hell, everybody — stop and think a little bit about gender roles and how essentially meaningless they really are.

Good for Kristen. She’s a real hero.

I admire Manning for a lot of reasons and this is up there. Anyone who says she’s weak and cowardly is an idiot.

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Good news ‘o the day

by digby

Via Salon:

Americans are living longer—which means we’re all going to be stuck with ever-increasing medical bills for the growing ranks of the elderly, right? Though many analysts think so, a new study says that may not be the case. A new working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research concludes that disease rates are being “compressed” into the last year or two before death. That means we’re living longer, but also living healthier in our advanced years up until the last year of life. If that’s true, then the aging of the baby boomers may not be the Medicare budget-buster that many fear.

And it’s good news for humans as well as budgets. One thing I’ve learned in the past few years of dealing with aging parents and starting to look more closely at the abyss of my so-called golden years myself, the whole process is completely different if you can manage to stay healthy up until the very end. People who are lucky enough to have that can have an amazingly rich and rewarding final few decades of life, filled with wisdom and freedom and good times. It’s nice to know that more of us are getting to have that experience.

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Getting comfortable with Big Brother


by digby

This is rich.  President Obama has appointed Cass Sunstein to the new “oversight” board of the NSA. It’s rich because of this, courtesy Emptywheel:

As Glenn Greenwald (yeah — that Glenn; did they really think no one would raise this point?) reported back in 2010, Sunstein wrote a paper in 2008 advocating very creepy stealth measures against “conspiracy theories.”

In 2008, while at Harvard Law School, Sunstein co-wrote a truly pernicious paper proposing that the U.S. Government employ teams of covert agents and pseudo-”independent” advocates to “cognitively infiltrate” online groups and websites — as well as other activist groups — which advocate views that Sunstein deems “false conspiracy theories” about the Government. This would be designed to increase citizens’ faith in government officials and undermine the credibility of conspiracists. The paper’s abstract can be read, and the full paper downloaded, here.

Sunstein advocates that the Government’s stealth infiltration should be accomplished by sending covert agents into “chat rooms, online social networks, or even real-space groups.” He also proposes that the Government make secret payments to so-called “independent” credible voices to bolster the Government’s messaging (on the ground that those who don’t believe government sources will be more inclined to listen to those who appear independent while secretly acting on behalf of the Government). This program would target those advocating false “conspiracy theories,” which they define to mean: “an attempt to explain an event or practice by reference to the machinations of powerful people, who have also managed to conceal their role.”

And remember, a big mandate for this committee is not to review the programs to see if we can make them more privacy-protective, but simply to increase our trust in them. Which goes to the core of what Sunstein was talking about in his paper: using covert government propaganda to, in this case, better sell covert government spying.

It’s just too perfect.

Marcy Wheeler is also skeptical of Richard Clarke’s appointment because he’s a big cyber-security hawk and she suspects that a lot of the NSA programs are actually targeted at hacking rather than terrorism which, after reading her posts, I think is a pretty good guess. So, I don’t know exactly how Clarke will perform in this role.

However, he did write this immediately after the Snowden revelations:

My concerns are twofold. First, the law under which President George W. Bush and now President Obama have acted was not intended to give the government records of all telephone calls. If that had been the intent, the law would have said that. It didn’t. Rather, the law envisioned the administration coming to a special court on a case-by-case basis to explain why it needed to have specific records.

I am troubled by the precedent of stretching a law on domestic surveillance almost to the breaking point. On issues so fundamental to our civil liberties, elected leaders should not be so needlessly secretive.

The argument that this sweeping search must be kept secret from the terrorists is laughable. Terrorists already assume this sort of thing is being done. Only law-abiding American citizens were blissfully ignorant of what their government was doing.

Secondly, we should worry about this program because government agencies, particularly the Federal Bureau of Investigation, have a well-established track record of overreaching, exceeding their authority and abusing the law. The FBI has used provisions of the Patriot Act, intended to combat terrorism, for purposes that greatly exceed congressional intent.

At least he has a record of speaking truth to power, which should be the requirement of every person on that board.

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“Moderate” California Republican legislator Jeff Gorell mocks concern over unpaid interns

by David Atkins

Republican California Assemblymember Jeff Gorell (AD44) is considered a moderate in his caucus, due primarily to slightly-less-than-barbaric stances on immigration and choice. But down beneath the moderate exterior of most Republican lawmakers lies the callous social darwinism of Ayn Rand.

In response to the furor over unpaid internships, Assemblymember Gorell tweeted last night:

There was a time in America when adversity and struggle were character building. And I ate ramen to keep alive: http://t.co/jt1n1Yfo5U— Jeff Gorell (@JeffGorell) August 22, 2013

There are two key problems with this, beyond the faux tough notion that being an unpaid lackey for large, well-funded organizations is somewhat character building rather than abuse.

The first and most obvious is that Mr. Gorell and his fellow travelers miss the main point of the unpaid internship critique: that only the well heeled can afford to take the positions. This is particularly true of plum positions like White House intern, which is the subject of the article Mr. Gorell linked to. Among the interns at the White House are the son of Larry Summers, Hugh Summers, as well as children of various high-level staffers and big donors. One fifth went to Ivy League schools. Few of them are likely eating ramen to gut their way through these unpaid internships.

The second point, of course, is that attempting to hold down a paying job at the same time as a worthwhile internship is brutal. More often than not, interns simply live off parents or off debt in the hope of landing a job later. Those who cannot afford to do so don’t take internships. It’s hard to live off ramen when there isn’t even money to pay rent.

But aside from all that, why would Mr. Gorell want young people ambitious enough to take on decent internships to forced to eat ramen? In a country with as much wealth as the United States, why is it more important for billionaires to have low tax rates than for struggling young people to get paid even minimum wage? What sort of twisted moral compass does it take to be believe that multimillionaire CEOs are overburdened producers, but that young people with massive student debt are coddled parasites for asking $10/hr to do menial tasks?

We don’t just have a partisan divide in this country. We have a serious moral, ethical and empathetic divide as well. Nor are so-called “moderates” like Jeff Gorell much better than their hyperconservative brethren when it comes to basic ethical decency.

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An America of the puppy, by the puppy and for the puppy

by digby

Heckuva job Obambi

by digby

There’s been a lot of talk over the past few years about epistemic closure and the like.  But this isn’t a matter of living in two different media environments or seeing the world from another perspective. This is just straight up stupid:

A significant chunk of Louisiana Republicans evidently believe that President Barack Obama is to blame for the poor response to the hurricane that ravaged their state more than three years before he took office.

The latest survey from Democratic-leaning Public Policy Polling, provided exclusively to TPM, showed an eye-popping divide among Republicans in the Bayou State when it comes to accountability for the government’s post-Katrina blunders.

Twenty-eight percent said they think former President George W. Bush, who was in office at the time, was more responsible for the poor federal response while 29 percent said Obama, who was still a freshman U.S. Senator when the storm battered the Gulf Coast in 2005, was more responsible. Nearly half of Louisiana Republicans — 44 percent — said they aren’t sure who to blame.

Not that I’m surprised, but honestly, this isn’t ancient history.

I feel sorry for them actually. How hard must it be for them to read a map or a recipe? This level of cognitive handicap has to make life in the modern world very stressful.

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