“America’s spy agencies want to read your blog posts, keep track of your Twitter updates — even check out your book reviews on Amazon.
“In-Q-Tel, the investment arm of the CIA and the wider intelligence community, is putting cash into Visible Technologies, a software firm that specializes in monitoring social media. It’s part of a larger movement within the spy services to get better at using ”open source intelligence” — information that’s publicly available, but often hidden in the flood of TV shows, newspaper articles, blog posts, online videos and radio reports generated every day.” ….
The waiting is the hardest part, Salon, October 21, 2009, by Mike Madden: “Don’t worry, Senate Democrats and the White House say, healthcare negotiations will be done soon enough.”
Democrats Hold Lead in Political Ballot, Taegan Goddards Political Wire, October 20, 2009, by Taegan Goddard: “Greg Sargeant digs through the internals of the new Washington Post/ABC News poll and finds the GOP is ‘in the same position as it was heading into the 2008 and 2006 elections, both of which resulted in crippling landslide losses for the Republican Party.’”
Costs of the Freak Show, Talking Points Memo Editor’s Blog, October 19, 2009, by Josh Marshall: “The Secret Service is getting tasked with investigating so many different threats to President Obama’s life that it lacks the budget and staff to keep up with them all.”
Update: Pentagon gives 3,500 Iowa troops orders to Afghanistan, The DesMoines Register, October 20, 2009: “About 3,500 Iowa National Guard soldiers from 31 communities are scheduled to be sent to Afghanistan later next year for a deployment that will touch families, employers and many other people statewide, military officials said today.”
“A preliminary analysis from CBO may have sealed the deal. Speaker Nancy Pelosi is preparing to move ahead with a ‘robust’ public option–one that reimburses hospitals and providers at Medicare rates, plus five percent–in the House’s health care bill. She is briefing her caucus about the plan’s savings tonight, and, pending the approval of a sufficient majority of members, will adopt the measure as part of the complete reform package.
“The analysis finds the reconstituted House proposal to be deficit neutral, and require about $870 billion in new spending, over ten years.
“The bill remains nominally more expensive than the Senate Finance Committee proposal, but would cover 96 percent of all Americans, providing greater bang for each federal dollar spent. And, aides note, the bill that comes to the floor of the Senate will be a hybrid of the Finance and more expensive HELP Committee bills, so the price is expected to rise.
“The move is sure to make progressives ecstatic, and puts Senate leaders, who have been unable to reach any decisions about a public option in their own bill, in an uncomfortable position.” ….
See Nelson: Public Option May Be Popular, But Opt-Outs Are Really Popular, Talking Points Memo, October 20, 2009, by Brian Beutler: Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE): “‘Well, there are different kinds of public options…. What was interesting in the poll numbers that I saw, that while there’s support for public option generally, generically, when you start talking about it specifically as it relates to states being able to opt out or opt in, have their own, the support overwhelmingly goes up to 76 percent.’”
COMMENT by Paul Evans: While opt-outs by states are popular, at least these don’t represent the false non-options comprised by Co-ops or triggers. If that is absolutely necessary to get this bill passed with SOME kind of a public option in the Senate, I guess we would have to live with that. Then let the Neanderthals in the Repuglican states vote the option down for their individual states. Stupid idiots — if they’re too stupid to support it in their states, I guess they’ll have to live without it. Mind you, the Pelosi House bill is NOT going to have opt outs in it. The problem is the Senate (there are five Blue Dog Democrats in the Senate who don’t seem to be able to convince themselves to support any public option. And Harry Reid isn’t helping matters: he’s playing coy and trying to smell what way the wind is blowing. The man doesn’t have half the backbone that Nancy Pelosi does!
Let’s say “HI” to Senator Reid, shall we, and give him a friendly little shove in the right direction: Phone: 202-224-3542 Fax: 202-224-7327
“While Americans stood around their televisions late week following the ‘balloon boy’ saga, which proved fake, pranksters in Washington plotted a hoax of their own, this time targeting the nation’s business community.
“At an official-looking event staged at the National Press Club, an environmental activist calling himself “Hingo Sembra” pretended to be a representative of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Monday. He announced the organization was pulling an about-face and supporting climate-change legislation before Congress.
“Eric Wohlschlegel, a spokesman for the real Chamber of Commerce, interrupted the press conference attended by both real and fake reporters, stormed the podium and demanded to see the activist’s business card, to which the man known as Mr. Sembra replied, ‘Can I see yours?’
“‘This guy is a fraud, he’s lying,’ Mr. Wohlschlegel told those assembled. ‘This is a stunt I’ve never seen before.’
“But by the time the Chamber reacted, it was too late. Reuters had already filed a story based on a fake press release. The news appeared on several websites and was announced on live television; an anchor for the Fox Business Network retracted the news within seconds of reporting it. Reuters quickly issued a correction.
“The prank was staged by the Yes Men, an activist group well-known for posing as corporate executives and related shenanigans. In 2004, Jacques Servin, the same man apparently posing as Mr. Sembra, tricked the BBC into thinking he worked for Dow Chemical. In an interview with the broadcaster, he said Dow would pay US$12-million to the victims of India’s Bhopal gas disaster. By the time that stunt was exposed a few hours later, the company’s stock had plunged by US$2-billion.
“The activists have also printed thousands of fake copies of the New York Times and New York Post, and once stormed the Calgary Gas and Oil Exposition with fake identities, touting the benefits of a fake energy source supposedly made of dead people.” ….
“Several weeks into office, as it pushed its wide-reaching stimulus package through Congress, the Obama administration found itself the beneficiary of an unlikely ally. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce declared that the $800 billion proposal was a necessary ‘defibrillator’ for a struggling economy and in doing so, gave the president a needed bit of political capital on his signature piece of legislation.
“The endorsement also produced a strange-bedfellows partnership between a White House whose remaining domestic priorities ruffled big business and the world’s largest lobbying entity for those same businesses. The detente seemed both unusual and limited. It was.
“Nine months after the Chamber helped the White House pass the stimulus and then the bank bailout, the relationship between the two has grown — as one business insider put it — ‘frosty.’ The Chamber has come out forcefully against several key planks of the Obama agenda and promised to throw hefty resources behind their opposition.
“The frustration is mutual. Inside the administration there is a growing distrust of the Chamber’s standing and motives. The defection of several major Chamber members over the group’s position on climate change legislation has, as one Obama adviser put it, ‘given us pause.’ As has their new $100 million ‘free enterprise’ campaign, which is being pitched as a way to create jobs but is aiming mainly to defeat regulatory reform. More than anything else, there is a widespread belief among White House officials that the Chamber is becoming a relic of the past — too tied to antiquated policy proposals and removed from the apex of political power it has historically enjoyed.
“‘I do think that the Chamber’s approach is somewhat old school,’ Valerie Jarrett, a senior Obama adviser and the president’s liaison to the business community, told the Huffington Post. ‘I think that the strategy of running a negative ad campaign instead of having constructive dialogue seems wasteful, wasteful of an opportunity and wasteful of money.’
“‘We were hoping to have a constructive dialogue with the Chamber,’ Jarrett added, ‘and it is regrettable that they decided to spend a huge amount of money launching this campaign.’
“Such words shouldn’t be taken lightly. Over its 90-year history, the Chamber has proven to be a scale-tipping player in many major legislative battles. Widely regarded as a entryway to the business community, it is the object of intense courtship or fear, depending on the administration.
“The Obama administration has been different. While the president gladly accepted the Chamber’s help on the stimulus and TARP, both he and his advisers have developed a business community outreach strategy that circumvents the organization. Since this summer, senior administration officials have held at least 11 meetings with CEOs and executives from more than 55 companies, according to data provided by the White House. The sessions usually involve half-a-dozen attendees representing companies in all different fields, from finance to pharmaceutical, soft drinks and real estate. Among the topics discussed: job creation, tax policy, climate change and health care reform.
“‘The intent there is simply to make sure we are getting accurate, timely feedback from the wide cross-section of the private sector and that we aren’t going to therefore rely solely on the Chamber or any other group,’ explained Jarrett. ‘[These CEOs] are like ambassadors to other businesses.’
“Instead of letting the Chamber serve as the gateway to business leaders, the administration is building its own bridges. It is a potentially huge structural shift for the nexus of politics and business.
“The Chamber, naturally, sees the administration’s gambit as more bluster than bite. In an interview with the Huffington Post, the group’s executive vice president of government affairs, Bruce Josten, argued that — far from forging its own alliances with major businesses — the Obama administration was really a wolf amid the sheep.” ….
“Here’s what the White House is up against as it tries to cut the legs out from underneath the powerful U.S. Chamber of Commerce: $34.7 million.
“That’s the jaw-dropping amount the Chamber shelled out to influence the federal government in the third quarter of 2009, according to a report filed with the Senate on Monday.
“The figure is greater than the sum of the next 18 highest filers so far, including the Chamber’s separate Institute for Legal Reform, which combined to spend $30.9 million. Many third-quarter reports will not be filed until tomorrow, when they are due.
“The big-dollar expenditure is a stark illustration of the high stakes battle between the White House and Republican-leaning business groups over proposed new regimes in the fields of finance, health care an energy.” …
COMMENT by Paul Evans: While the name “Chamber of Commerce” evokes Rockefeller Republicans in small towns all over the U.S., the group has been hijacked by the right wing and is essentially a lobbying and progoganda arm of the GOP. That’s too bad: This ain’t your father’s Chamber of Commerce any more.
President Obama appeared likely to surge 40,000 troops into Afghanistan, thus adopting the key military tactic that the Bush Administration defined as successful in Iraq. In Afghanistan, a country with no duly elected president, citizens were turning to Taliban “shadow courts” for justice, and, in a series of unannounced government actions, an additional 13,000 U.S. military engineers, medical personnel, military police, and intelligence officers were already deploying. The Pakistani military embarked on its own escalation, sending 28,000 troops into South Waziristan in a failed attempt to defeat entrenched Taliban militants.
The White House was at war with the FOX News Channel. Rush Limbaugh, who was deemed too racist to own a professional football franchise, publicly thanked the Lord for his enemies. A Baptist Church in North Carolina was scheduling a Bible-burning for Halloween, and Ellen van Wolde, a noted Old Testament scholar, confirmed that the Bible had been mistranslated and that God did not create the Earth.
Health-care lobbying efforts entered a “new, more frenzied stage” with the passage of a reform bill by the Senate Finance Committee. “This is now roller derby. It’s very fast, lots of elbows, and people are playing for keeps,” said Nancy LeaMond, an executive vice president of the AARP. It was reported that some people in North Carolina liked John Edwards, some didn’t, and others were indifferent, and that politicians weren’t actually cursing in public more often but media outlets have become more likely to quote them doing so.
Conservative protestors in Burlington, New Jersey, heckled eight-year-old schoolchildren as they sang a tune in praise of President Obama, and Steve Wynn, a casino and resort owner in Las Vegas, said that Obama has allowed the financial crisis to persist because he hasn’t cut taxes enough. The Dow “flirted” with 10,000 points, comforting the rich. Goldman Sachs reported earnings of $3.19 billion in the third quarter of this year, donated $200 million to its educational foundation, put aside $5.35 billion for salaries, bonuses, and employee benefits, and promised a 35-cent per share dividend to holders of its common stock. The salaries of American workers were being cut at a rate not seen since the Great Depression.
A woman dressed as a rasher of bacon harassed Muslim food vendors in Manhattan. “Don’t you like bacon?” she asked. “Bacon is so good. Do you ever put bacon on these hot dogs? ‘Cause they’d taste really good wrapped up in delicious bacon. Maybe sprinkled with bacon. Or stuffed with bacon. Come on, don’t you love bacon?” Adrian Bulli, a molecular gastronomist in Spain, was accused of using poisonous additives to flavor the food at his restaurant El Bulli, and sports bars were passing off deep-fried chicken-breast chunks as “boneless chicken wings.”
Researchers in Amsterdam confirmed that living near grass is good for your health. A program to plant 1,000,000 trees in New York City continued despite the objections of local residents. “I don’t want it,” said a woman who was forced to accept a ginkgo. “I don’t like it. It can stay there and die for all I care.” Bunnies culled from public parks in Stockholm were being used to fire a Swedish heating plant, and the Hanford nuclear reservation in Washington state was found to be peppered with radioactive rabbit droppings, all of which must be scooped.
Reverend and “True Parent of all Mankind” Sun Myung Moon married 10,000 couples in Seoul, in what is believed to be his final expression of “trans-religion, trans-national, trans-racial” harmony. A Mayan religious leader declared that the world will not end in 2012, that his religion didnot claim that it would, and that he was “fed up” with being asked about it.
Two thousand box jellyfish swarmed Hawaii’s Waikiki Beach, stinging nearly 200 people, and fishermen off the coast of Jersey netted a rare parasitic isopodal louse that attacks a fish, eats its tongue, then lives on in the fish’s mouth. William Wayne Justice, a federal judge in Texas, known as “the law east of the Pecos,” whose rulings integrated public schools, reformed prisons, and helped educate illegal immigrants, died at age 89. A justice of the peace in Hammond, Louisiana, refused to issue a marriage license to an inter-racial couple. China created a small black hole, and a glowing halo was spotted in the skies over Moscow.
A major obstacle to progress in Afghanistan has finally been removed. As many of you know, the election in Afghanistan in August was very troubled and fraud plagued. A U.N. backed panel had come out yesterday and said “it had clear evidence of fraud”, and that, in fact, Karzai had received less than 50% of the vote, which would be needed to avoid a runoff. Without a legitimate government, there was no way President Obama could proceed one way or the other in the prosecution of this war, as one of the major components to an effective counterinsurgency strategy is to have a real government that the people think is legitimate. As Rahm Emanuel and John Kerry said on Sunday, it would be “irresponsible” to send in more troops without a legitimate government in place. Find out what changed today:
When I went to bed last night, it appeared that Karzai was being very stubborn and not willing to acknowledge that his “election” was a joke to everyone in the world, including the U.N. and the Obama Administration. McClatchy nicely captured the mood there in a speculative post called “Where’s Dick” exploring why “Special Representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan” Richard Holbrooke had not talked to the press in over a month:
Three administration officials, who asked not to be identified by agency, told us that, while Holbrooke is laboring away hard behind the scenes, he’s received direct orders from the White House to cool it publicly while Washington desperately tries to unscramble the Afghan electoral mess between President Hamid Karzai and his main challenger, Abdullah Abdullah.
“This process is so sensitive. He’d love to deal with this. The White House thinks … it’s not the time for him” to be out front, one of the officials said of Holbrooke.
Perhaps it was that reported shouting match in Kabul a few weeks back between Karzai and Holbrooke?
Instead, it’s Sen. John Kerry – a man not known for shouting – who has been in the Afghan capital, dickering with Karzai in the hopes of getting him to accept a run-off, or a compromise with Abdullah.
Shouting matches? That did not sound good. I also didn’t get a warm feeling when I read last night that John Kerry, who had gone on to Pakistan after speaking with President Karzai in Afghanistan, had returned to Kabul yesterday to talk some more.. Meanwhile, Bush’s man former US ambassador to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad was in talks with opposition leader Abdullah Abdullah. There were two options that would end the impasse: a runoff election or a power sharing agreement. And given all the players involved, this was an all hands on deck operation by the Obama Administration.
U.S. officials expect Afghan President Hamid Karzai to concede on Tuesday that he fell short of the 50 percent vote share in August’s election that he needed to win outright.
I am going to go out on a limb, and say that Senator John Kerry is responsible for this breakthrough, and major kudos needs to be given to his diplomatic skills here. Apparently, “not shouting” is actually a good way to get things done. In a news conference today, President Karzai said the following:
“This is not the right time to discuss investigations, this is the time to move forward to stability and national unity,” Mr Karzai said.
“I call upon our nation to change this into an opportunity to strengthen our resolve and determination, to move our country forward and to participate in the new round of elections.”
The runoff election will take place on November 7th, which will be somewhat difficult due to weather concerns, but according to Administration officials, doable. President Obama was clearly pleased by this development:
I welcome President Karzai’s statement today accepting the Independent Electoral Commission’s certification of the August 20 election results, and agreeing to participate in a second round of the election. This is an important step forward in ensuring a credible process for the Afghan people which results in a government that reflects their will.
While this election could have remained unresolved to the detriment of the country, President Karzai’s constructive actions established an important precedent for Afghanistan’s new democracy. The Afghan Constitution and laws are strengthened by President Karzai’s decision, which is in the best interests of the Afghan people.
…
It is now vital that all elements of Afghan society continue to come together to advance democracy, peace and justice. We look forward to a second round of voting, and the completion of the process to choose the President of Afghanistan. In that effort, the United States and the international community are committed to partnering with the Afghan people.
What this will mean in regards to whether more troops will go to Afghanistan is anyone’s guess. But clearly, the Afghan people deserve to have their vote count, and on that score, they did win a major victory today.
Flanked at a news conference in Kabul by Senator John Kerry, the head of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Kai Eide, the top United Nations official in Afghanistan, Mr. Karzai said he would accept the findings of an international audit that stripped him of nearly one third of his votes in the first round, leaving him below the 50 percent threshold that would have allowed him to avoid a runoff and declare victory over his main rival, Abdullah Abdullah.
During a hastily arranged two-hour meeting with Senator Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts and a top foreign policy ally of Mr. Obama, and the United States ambassador, Lt. Gen. Karl W. Eikenberry, at the presidential palace in Kabul on Monday, Mr. Karzai, after initially hesitating, agreed to accept the findings, American and European officials said.
…
The United States, this official said, is sympathetic to Mr. Karzai’s concerns, but Hillary Rodham Clinton, the American secretary of state, urged him in calls over the last few days to be a “statesman” and accept the results.
…
Besides Mr. Kerry and General Eikenberry, Mr. Karzai was pushed hard by Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain during a telephone call on Monday, European officials said. The British ambassador to Afghanistan joined the American and United Nations officials at Mr. Karzai’s Tuesday news conference.
Everyone in bold deserves a kudos as well, especially the Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton.
Also, an excellent video at NECN of the actual press conference featuring Senator Kerry and President Karzai. (h/t Karenc)
Update 2
For those interested in reading the tea leaves, Marc Ambinder has an interesting report. It is hard to know from these anonymously sourced articles, but this is illuminating:
President Obama won’t decide whether to send more troops to Afghanistan until the country’s political disputes settle down, senior administration officials said. On the advice of several key members of his war council, including National Security Advisor Gen. James Jones and Vice President Joe Biden, Obama plans to wait until Afghanistan holds a run-off presidential election on November 7, these officials said. Speaking to reporters late yesterday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that the new administration strategy couldn’t wait on a new Afghan government because the political situation might not be resolved for months, according to the Associated Press.
But an administration official said that one key question would be answered relatively soon, and said it would effect Obama’s decision: whether the Taliban’s disruption of the first Afghanistan election was a “one-off.”
See the New York Times video, Bloggingheads: Abandon Afghanistan?: Robert Wright of Bloggingheads.tv and journalist Ann Marlowe debate leaving Afghanistan to the Taliban – 6:18
*****
Obama on Afghan Runoff: Karzai and Other Candidates Have ‘Interests of the Afghan People at Heart’
“When Bernie speaks, he speaks the TRUTH (capital TRUTH)
“And though his words are not sugar coated he says five words that every American should hear Loud and Clear.
“The Middle Class is Collapsing”
*****
“For Wall Street it is the Roaring 20′s. For everyone else it is the Great Depression 2.0. Between the two you have the Great Recession (brought to you by Reagan/Bush/Clinton/BushJr).
“In the real world, what is goingon is the middle class is collapsing. Unemployment is through the roof, consumers are STILL nt consuming on the whole and wages are shrinking for 95% of Americans. But Wall St is going to enjoy huge subsidized.bonuses while everyone else is struggling to get by with less in this ‘jobless recovery’.
“What is recovering is the system that eats EVERYTHING produced by society and hands it over to the Vampire financial sector. Wall St may be Too Big To Fail in theory, but Main Street IS FAILING, HAS FAILED and NEEDS JOBS NOW, and it is NOT going to come from investors, who have gone back to the same slot machine they were playing before the economy went kablooey and reverted America to a 1930′s kind of statistical anomoly where things are worse than they have been in the last 80 years, but not all that bad for some reason.
“It is because there is a WORKING Depression now. It WORS for some, the few, the priveledged, the super rich. Everyone else is FAILABLE, being not Too Big enough To Care about.
“I take what Sen. Sanders says here as a clarion call we should heed, because it s not only powerful, it is absolutely true.
“One of the thing’s we have to place on the table, as progressives, is to say there is something profoundly and morally wrong when the top 1% earns more income than the bottom 50%, when the top 1% owns more wealth than the bottom 90%, when CEOs of large corporations earn 400 times what their workers make. This is NOT what America is supposed to be.” ~snip~
“Please, do not forget about what is happening to tens of millions of our brothers and our sisters, who our struggling hard to keep their heads above water.”
“Say on! Brother Bernie. The TRUTH shall set you free.
“And if you can’t point out the problem, yu CAN NOT begin to fix it.
“If you haven’t done so yet, visit sandersunfiltered.com, where Bernie does a weekly video. This is a REAL Progressive, and I suggest we heed his words. He is NOT bought off, and we need more like him.”
