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Evans Liberal Politics, January 6, 2010, by Paul Evans
A total of four suspicious packages in Maryland government buildings, including two that burst into flames with a pop, sulphur smell, and minor fire, have raised nerves in that state.
The Guardian,specifies that “one was opened around 12.30 p.m. at the Jeffrey Building, located just blocks from the State House in downtown Annapolis” and that the second, very similar incident, occurred 20 blocks away and 15 minutes later.
Two workers were slightly injured with burned fingers.
150 employees were evacuated at the first building and 250 at the second. Moreover, with the FBI’s joint terrorism task force called in, two further suspicious packages were found, but the last was later found to be ink toner, according to MSNBC.
Several sources note that one of the “exploding” packages was addressed to Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley.
MSNBC also notes that:
Mailrooms at state offices across Maryland were being quarantined until it could be determined if any other packages had been sent.
Streets around the Clarence M. Mitchell Jr. Courthouse were cordoned off, and pedestrians were ordered to stay away.
In Other News: See Barack Obama appoints William Daley as chief of staff.
Watch King Missle – America Kicks Ass.
Watch Americans are NOT stupid – WITH SUBTITLES.
See U.N. to investigate treatment of Bradley Manning, Salon, December 23, 2010, by Glenn Greenwald.
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Evans Liberal Politics, September 28, 2010, compiled and with commentary by Paul Evans:
Lately there have been a lot of efforts by the government — all in the name of fine-sounding programs such as counter-terrorism or cybersecurity or protecting copyright holders’ rights — to limit the freedom of the internet, and decrease our privacy online. This really got going under Bush, but, sadly, the efforts have only increased under Barack Obama.
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Are you one of those people who are concerned with online privacy? I’m laughing at you and so is the government. I’ve found that, the more you get these privacy disclosure forms from various organizations – your bank, government agencies, etc. – the less privacy there actually is. The Patriot Act has taken away our fundamental freedoms here, at least in terms of privacy. I won’t bother going over what the NSA is doing, collecting ALL electronic communications and sorting them by keyword in a huge database, with certain keywords triggering human analysis. NSA isn’t the only one doing this, folks. Microsoft collects all your emails and stores them in a another huge datebase, sorted by keyword, and as far the F.B.I. is concerned, since 2006, everyone who has ever connected with the internet has an untouchable, untraceable F.B.I. ‘cookie’ stored on their computer, to track your activity. The F.B.I. has now also asked ISP’s to track your online browsing activity and store the records for two years (February, 2010).
Don’t look over your shoulder!
As for me, as a member of the press, thanks to the Patriot Act, ALL of my emails, internet activities and phone conversations, including cell phone conversations, are subject to human analysis by the NSA. I’m the proverbial little goldfish swimming around in the bowl and hoping I can get away with a few music torrent downloads…. I’m not actually asking for privacy, I no longer expect it in today’s world, (but it would have been nice, wouldn’t it?)
In my article, "Inspirational liberal political quotes & speeches," I provide a quotation by John Seabrook, a journalist working at the New Yorker, who speaks to the heart of the matter:
“The net poses a fundamental threat not only to the authority of the government, but to all authority, because it permits people to organize, think, and influence one another without any institutional supervision whatsoever.” — John Seabrook – American journalist, staff writer at The New Yorker since 1993 – Source: “My First Flame,” New Yorker, 6 June 1994
Even in 1994, when the internet was brand new and in its infancy, some people saw that there would be a fight about our freedom to use the internet as we wished, because it is a huge threat to entrenched power, providing as it does a way for all ordinary Americans to communicate and share information freely and without constraint. In the last few days we have seen further erosion of the freedom of the internet, and this is a sad, really terrible situation for all of us — for everyone who cherishes freedom and hopes for a better future for ordinary Americans. Without discussion, I am going to just post some of the latest horror stories:
Your Friends & Mine
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U.S. should be able to shut Internet, former CIA chief says, Reuters on The Los Angeles Times, September 26, 2010, by Reuters:
SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) – Cyberterrorism is such a threat that the U.S. president should have the authority to shut down the Internet in the event of an attack, Former CIA Director Michael Hayden said.
Hayden made the comments during a visit to San Antonio where he was meeting with military and civilian officials to discuss cyber security. The U.S. military has a new Cyber Command which is to begin operations on October 1.
Hayden said the president currently does not have the authority to shut down the Internet in an emergency.
“My personal view is that it is probably wise to legislate some authority to the President, to take emergency measures for limited periods of time, with clear reporting to Congress, when he feels as if he has to take these measures,” he said in an interview on the weekend.
“But I would put the bar really high as to when these kinds of authorities might take place,” he said.
He likened cyberwarfare to a “frontier.” ….
Government Seeks Back Door Into All Our Communications, Common Dreams.org, September 27, 2010, by Seth Schoen, Electronic Freedom Foundation:
The New York Times reported this morning on a Federal government plan to put government-mandated back doors in all communications systems, including all encryption software. The Times said the Obama administration is drafting a law that would impose a new “mandate” that all communications services be “able to intercept and unscramble encrypted messages” — including ordering “[d]evelopers of software that enables peer-to-peer communication [to] redesign their service to allow interception”.
Throughout the 1990s, EFF and others fought the “crypto wars” to ensure that the public would have the right to strong encryption tools that protect our privacy and security — with no back doors and no intentional weaknesses. We fought in court and in Congress to protect privacy rights and challenge restrictions on encryption, and to make sure the public could use encryption to protect itself. In a 1999 decision in the EFF-led Bernstein case, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals observed that
[w]hether we are surveilled by our government, by criminals, or by our neighbors, it is fair to say that never has our ability to shield our affairs from prying eyes been at such a low ebb. The availability and use of secure encryption may offer an opportunity to reclaim some portion of the privacy we have lost. Government efforts to control encryption thus may well implicate not only the First Amendment rights of cryptographers intent on pushing the boundaries of their science, but also the constitutional rights of each of us as potential recipients of encryption’s bounty.
For a decade, the government backed off of attempts to force encryption developers to weaken their products and include back doors, and the crypto wars seemed to have been won. (Indeed, journalist Steven Levy declared victory for the civil libertarian side in 2001.) In the past ten years, even as the U.S. government has sought (or simply taken) vastly expanded surveillance powers, it never attempted to ban the development and use of secure encryption.
Now the government is again proposing to do so, following in the footsteps of regimes like the United Arab Emirates that have recently said some privacy tools are too secure and must be kept out of civilian hands.
As the Internet security community explained years ago, intentionally weakening security and including back doors is a recipe for disaster. “Lawful intercept” systems built under current laws have already been abused for unlawful spying by governments and criminals. Trying to force technology developers to include back doors is a recipe for disaster for our already-fragile on-line security and privacy. And like the COICA Internet censorship bill, it takes a page from the world’s most repressive regimes’ Internet-control playbook. This is exactly the wrong message for the U.S. government to be sending to the rest of the world.
The crypto wars are back in full force, and it’s time for everyone who cares about privacy to stand up and defend it: no back doors and no bans on the tools that protect our communications.
UPDATE: See White House Wants to Wiretap Internet Communications, AFP on AlterNet, September 27, 2010, by Agence France-Presse: "The Obama administration is drawing up legislation to make it easier for US intelligence services to eavesdrop on the Internet, including email exchanges and social networks."
Recommended: The Obama administration’s war on privacy, Salon, September 27, 2010, by Glenn Greenwald.
Gonna move some money around? See Money transfers could face anti-terrorism scrutiny, The Washington Post, September 27, 2010, by Ellen Nakashima.
See U.S. Tries to Make It Easier to Wiretap the Internet, The New York Times, September 27, 2010, by Charlie Savage.
Many privacy resources and solutions are available at Privacy Solutions, Center for Internet Freedom.
You will find many helpful free downloads and solutions to common computer problems including issues related to PC security and privacy on my own Free Useful Software page. Check it out!
See U.S. mounting first test of cyber-blitz response plan, Reuters, September 28, 2010, by Jim Wolf:
(Reuters) – The United States is launching its first test of a new plan for responding to an enemy cyber-blitz, including any attack aimed at vital services such as power, water and banks.
Thousands of cyber-security personnel from across the government and industry are to take part in the Department of Homeland Security’s Cyber Storm III, a three- to four-day drill starting Tuesday.
The goals are to boost preparedness; examine incident response and enhance information-sharing among federal, state, international and private-sector partners.
“At its core, the exercise is about resiliency — testing the nation’s ability to cope with the loss or damage to basic aspects of modern life,” said a release made available at DHS’s National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center in Arlington.
The simulation tests the newly developed National Cyber Incident Response Plan, a coordinated framework ordered by President Barack Obama.
See The Fine Balance Between Cybersecurity and Internet Freedom, The Epoch Times, June 29, 2010, by Joshua Phillip.
See Censorship of the Internet Takes Center Stage in “Online Infringement” Bill, Electronic Freedom Foundation, September 21, 2010, by Richard Esguerra: this bill may directly affect Evans Liberal Politics ability to continue to bring our viewers free music to listen to on our Playlist of Rock and Pop Hits, now up to 195 tracks, completely free for our viewers, and a lot of fun.
Read GLOBAL INTERNET FREEDOM AND THE RULE OF LAW II, Testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee from March 2, 2010, by the Center for Democracy & Technology.
Visit the Center for Democracy & Technology: Keeping the Internet Open, Innovative and Free.
Read about the Electronic Freedom Foundation and visit their blog.
Visit Save the Internet.com and read about why internet neutrality is such an important issue for all of us.
Why aren’t I surprised: See Cheating Rampant on FBI Domestic Spying Test, Talking Points Memo, September 27, 2010, by Ryan J. Reilly.
Also in the news: See Are We Secretly Fighting a Cyberwar Against Iran?, AlterNet, September 27, 2010, by Robert Dreyfuss of The Nation: “Stuxnet, a virus (or ‘worm’) affecting Iran’s nuclear facilities, appears to be a case of sabotage. If the United States is behind it, then Obama is already at war with Iran.”
Don’t really care about all this stuff? Just want to watch the latest Lady GaGa video? Well, all the warning signs are here…. You know, history shows us that most of the time, we don’t really care enough to change the status quo — until they come for us, and then it’s too late, isn’t it? ~ Evans Liberal Politics owner Paul Evans.
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"Seagull:" Bad Company performs their thoughtful, haunting song live in 1976 — "Is this really the end of the world?" — 3:50
"These Times:" by Peter MacIntyre, from a nice guy who works at a camera shop in Arizona, and says, “this song is about the crazy times we live in, recession, depression, job loss, etc.”, © 2008. Have a listen! - 3:47
"They Call Us the Working Class:" blues rocker Walter Trout performs his hit “They Call Us the Working Class …but we ain’t workin’ any more. – a really great sound and a really great message. See Walter Trout mp3′s on Amazon.com
"Eye In the Sky:" The Alan Parsons Project performing their seminal hit live in 1995. If you haven’t heard this before, don’t get freaked! Put it together! Hey it’s on the dollar bill. The NSA thinks it’s the “eye in the sky”. But don’t you think the real Eye In the Sky is God? Who do you think really built the pyramids, anyway…. that might give you a clue. — 7:03
"Zoo Station:" U2 performs ‘Zoo Station,’ a song not so well known but sounding great, performed live on 08/16/1992 at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium – Washington, D.C. — 4:31
"The Sound of Silence:" Bob Dylan and Paul Simon team up live and unplugged in Portland, from 1999. Here’s a link to the video. — 7:07
"I Ran (So Far Away):" The late eighties group A Flock of Seagulls sings their biggest hit, which for me speaks of how far I ran from Christ’s love until I could not escape it. 5:12
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FBI raids six locations in Minneapolis as part of terrorism investigation, Michael Moore.com, September 26, 2010, by Mara H. Gottfried and David Hanners / Twin Cities Pioneer Press, quoted verbatim:
The FBI executed six search warrants in Minneapolis this morning, including homes of political activists, in connection to a terrorism investigation.
The warrants were “seeking evidence related to an ongoing Joint Terrorism Task Force investigation into activities concerning the material support of terrorism,” said FBI Special Agent Steve Warfield, spokesman in the Minneapolis office. “There is no imminent threat to the community and we’re not planning any arrests at this time.”
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One of the warrants was executed at the home of Mick Kelly, an anti-war organizer, according to his attorney Ted Dooley.
“I have no idea what all this is about,” Dooley said. “Mr. Kelly is an activist, he’s a socialist or perhaps a communist and has been forever. He never hides his political views. They’re fishing. They’re casting big nets into the sea of political activism.”
Before agents confiscated his cell phone, Kelly told the Associated Press: “The FBI is harassing anti-war organizers and leaders, folks who opposed U.S. intervention in the Middle East and Latin America.”
Warrants were also signed to search the homes of Jessica Sundin on Park Avenue and Meredith Aby in South Minneapolis, Dooley said.
Five of the warrants were executed at residences and one at an office, Warfield said.
Warfield said he couldn’t say much in response to the allegations of attorneys and the people searched. “It’s an ongoing criminal case and these warrants were signed off by a federal judge,” he said.
Kelly, Sundin and Aby were organizers of a mass march on the first day of the Republican National Convention in St. Paul two years ago. They recently appeared at a news conference to announce plans for another protest if Minneapolis is selected to hold the 2012 Democratic National Convention.
Police estimated the peaceful march drew 10,000 protesters; organizers put the figure at 30,000. Other protests were marked by destructive acts by anarchists. More than 800 people were arrested during the four days of the convention, including Sundin and Kelly.
Sundin said they’ve already sought permits for 2012, “something I don’t think terrorists would do.”
Sundin called the suggestion they were connected with terrorism “pretty hilarious and ridiculous.” She said she wasn’t certain exactly what kinds of information the FBI was after or who else had been searched in either city.
An FBI SWAT team entered first “and looked for pointy things. And then they left and the FBI agents came in and looked through everything in the house,” she said. The agents took “computers, several boxes of papers, everything related to data like discs,” Sundin said.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Susan Nelson signed the warrant at 3:30 p.m. Thursday authorizing entry and seizure at Kelly’s home on Riverside Avenue, Dooley said.
The warrant for Kelly’s home said that the items to be seized were evidence concerning the violation of a federal law that prohibits “providing, attempting, conspiring to provide material support to designated foreign terrorist organizations,” Dooley said.
It allowed for the following to be seized: “documents, files, books, photographs, videos, souvenirs, war relics, notebooks, address books, diaries, journals, maps, or other evidence, including evidence in electronic form relating to Kelly’s travels to and from and presence and activities in Minnesota and other foreign countries, to which Kelly has traveled as part of his work for FRSO (Freedom Road Socialist Organization),” Dooley said.
Also, the warrant was seeking information about Kelly’s “ability to pay for his own travel within the United States or to Palestine or Colombia from the year 2000 until today. And this has to do with any contact with FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia), PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine) and Hezbollah, all of which are FTOs (Foreign Terrorist Organizations),” Dooley said.
Asked whether Kelly had any contact with FTOs, Dooley said: “I have no idea. I guess it’s possible with six degrees of separation that he knows Obama.”
Dooley said the agents were also “looking for everything related to Kelly’s potential co-conspirators, including Kelly’s personal contacts in the United States and abroad, which means absolutely everybody that Kelly’s ever been in contact with, anywhere. I’d say it’s kind of unconstitutional and hideous, myself. It’s very broad. It’s disgusting.”
The warrants were executed about 7 a.m., with six carried out in Minneapolis and two in Chicago, Warfield said.
A SWAT team, accompanied by the FBI, knocked on Kelly’s door about 7 a.m. and Kelly’s partner answered, Dooley said.
“They said they had a search warrant,” he said. “She asked to see it, she couldn’t read it through the peephole, so they busted down the door. The door flew across the room and broke a fish tank. There are now eight FBI agents in the apartment, going through every piece of paper in there, and all the books.”
Dooley said he had information that a number of people were receiving subpoenas to a grand jury in Chicago on Oct. 12, and that simultaneous warrants being executed in North Carolina and upstate Michigan.
The FBI’s spokesman in Chicago, Ross Rice, would only say two searches were conducted today in Chicago and that there were no arrests. He declined further comment.
Asked about the reports, the U.S. Attorney’s office spokesman in Chicago, Randy Samborn, confirmed warrants were served in the city “in connection with a law enforcement investigation.” He also declined to provide details.
Attorney Bruce Nestor said he’s not representing any of the people whose homes were searched, but he has in the past.
“I’m really profoundly troubled by it,” he said of the searches. “Overwhelmingly they’re people who are doing public political organizing, so I think it’s shocking to have heavily armed federal agents show up at their homes. … It’s all people involved in anti-war activity and it appears to be focused largely on opposition to the U.S. policy in Colombia and Palestine.”
The federal law about material support of terrorism dates to 1996 and “has been interpreted so broadly to really endanger the rights of U.S. citizens to oppose the military and foreign policies of the United States,” Nestor said.
“This is a direct attack on people who are strong, dedicated advocates of freedom, of the right of people to be free from U.S. domination,” Nestor said. “It is an attack upon anybody who organizes against U.S. imperialism and U.S. militarism abroad.”
See UPDATED- Where’s the Change? FBI Raids Peace Activists, Confiscates MLK Photo, Daily Kos, September 26, 2010, by Tallahassee Lassie, excerpt quoted verbatim:
We thought we were done with this kind of government behavior when we elected Obama after Bush, but it seems to not have made a damned bit of difference. Incredibly, it has gotten worse. Even Bush did not claim the authority to a keep secret list of Americans to be assassinated without trial upon unilateral Executive branch declaration that you are a terrorist. But Obama has and does, made all the more unforgivable by the fact that he was a Constitutional law professor in a past life.
The FBI in the Twin Cities (video) did not arrest anyone nor charge anyone with a crime. They were just kind of poking around looking for any “connections” to terror organizations.
See CIA seeks to gag critics of terror hit list, The Australian, September 27, 2010, by ‘The Times,’ excerpt quoted verbatim:
THE Obama Administration is trying to use national security laws to pre-empt an embarrassing court case over its targeted assassinations of terror suspects.
In papers filed over the weekend Leon Panetta, the head of the CIA, argued that American security would be breached if the lawsuit was heard in court.
“This case cannot be litigated without risking or requiring the disclosure of classified and privileged intelligence information that must not be disclosed,” he wrote.
Mr Panetta was responding to a lawsuit brought against the Government by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Centre for Constitutional Rights on behalf of Anwar al-Awlaki, a dual US-Yemeni citizen. His name was added to the counter-terrorism “kill list” after his alleged involvement in the failed Christmas Day airline bombing last year.
See Obama invokes ‘state secrets’ claim to dismiss suit against targeting of U.S. citizen al-Aulaqi, The Washington Post, September 25, 2010, by Spencer S. Hsu.
See Activists: FBI raids an ‘attempt to intimidate anti-war movement’, The Associated Press on The Raw Story, September 26, 2010, by AP.
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Discovery Channel hostage taker shot dead by police, Guardian.co.uk, September 1, 2010, by Adrian Gabbatt, photo of Jame Lee © WTOP.com, excerpt quoted verbatim:
Discovery Channel hostage taker shot dead by police. Link to video about this situation.
A man has been shot and killed by police after taking three people hostage in the headquarters of the Discovery Channel in the US.
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Police said all the hostages had escaped safely following the siege, which began when a man entered the building in Silver Spring, Maryland, waving a handgun and with canisters strapped to his chest.
Officers spent several hours negotiating with the man, who was reported to be unhappy with the network’s programming schedule.
According to The Associate Press on Yahoo News, the hostage taker is a James J. Lee. “Lee had said he hated the company’s shows such as ‘Kate Plus 8,’ claiming they promoted population growth. Lee said the environmental programming did little to save the planet.
“Manger said police planned to negotiate as long as necessary, but acted when officers believed the hostages were trying to escape.
“‘We saw some hand movements from hostages,’ Manger said. ‘We’re watching this and trying to keep the focus of the guy we’re talking to. We didn’t know if they were up to something or what they were doing. We are surmising they were making a break for it.’
“Manger called the hostages and the officers heroes.
“Lee repeatedly said he was ‘ready to die,’ the police chief said.
“‘I believe he was not intending to come out of there alive,’ Manger said.
“It wasn’t the first time Lee, a homeless man who previously lived in Californian, had targeted Discovery’s headquarters. In February 2008, he was charged with disorderly conduct for staging a ‘Save the Planet Protest.’ Lee threw fistfuls of cash in the air and paid homeless people to carry signs condemning the network. Police found his pockets stuffed with more than $20,000, according to court records.
“Lee served two weeks in jail after his arrest during which doctors evaluated his competency to stand trial. County State’s Attorney John McCarthy said Lee was ordered to stay 500 feet away from Discovery headquarters as part of his probation, which ended two weeks ago.
“In court and on his website, he had demanded an end to Discovery Communications LLC’s shows such as TLC’s ‘Kate Plus 8′ and ’19 Kids and Counting.’ He said the network should air ‘programs encouraging human sterilization and infertility.’
“‘Humans are the most destructive, filthy, pollutive creatures around and are wrecking what’s left of the planet with their false morals and breeding cultures,’ Lee wrote in a bitter manifesto on his website.
“Lee, 43, also objected to Discovery’s environmental programming. He wrote in 2008 that a show he called ‘Planet Green’ was ‘about more PRODUCTS to make MONEY, not actual solutions.’
“Police said he burst into the building about 1 p.m. and took hostages in the lobby. He had four crude explosive devices strapped to him. Two of them were green propane cylinders with pipes attached that contained shotgun shells. The other two were pipe bombs.
“One of the devices detonated when police shot him, Manger said. Authorities later sent in a robot to disarm a device on the gunman’s body.”
Montgomery County Police Chief, Thomas Manger, said an explosive device detonated on the gunman’s body when they shot him, and they were working to determine whether two boxes and two backpacks he also had with him were explosives.
The man, (likely James J. Lee), who is yet to be formally identified, entered the building at around 1pm local time.
Manger said officers were monitoring Lee on building security cameras and tactical officers moved in when they saw him pull out the handgun and point it at one of the hostages.
Police believe the 1,900 people who work in the building were able to get out safely.
…SNIP….
Visitors to Lee’s MySpace profile were invited to see “The idea I had to save the planet” by visiting a website apparently set up by the 43-year-old called savetheplanetprotest.com. It was unclear whether the length posting on the website was recent, but it railed against Discovery Communications at length, calling on it to broadcast “programs encouraging human sterilization and infertility”.
Discovery Communications operates cable and satellite networks in the US and elsewhere, including the Discovery Channel, TLC and Animal Planet.
Lee has a lengthy history of protesting against the Discovery Channel.
See Hostages Showed ‘Tremendous Courage’, WTOP.com, September 2, 2010.
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Why The Unfolding Disaster in Pakistan Should Concern You, Robert Reich.org, August 19, 2010, by Robert Reich, photo by permission of Steve Evans, used with permission, quoted verbatim:
The human tragedy unfolding in Pakistan right now demands our full attention.
Flooding there has already stranded 20 million people, more than 10 percent of the population. A fifth of the nation is underwater. More than 3.5 million children are in imminent danger of contracting cholera and acute diarrhea; millions more are in danger of starving if they don’t get help soon. More than 1,500 have already been killed by the floods.
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This is a human disaster.
It’s also a frightening opening for the Taliban.
Yet so far only a trickle of aid has gotten through. As of today (Thursday), the U.S. has pledged $150 million, along with 12 helicopters to take food and material to the victims. (Other rich nations have offered even less – the U.K., $48.5 million; Japan, $10 million, and France, a measly $1 million. Today (Thursday), Hillary Clinton is speaking at the UN, seeking more.)
This is bizarre and shameful. We’re spending over $100 billion this year on military maneuvers to defeat the Taliban in Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan. Over 200 helicopters are deployed in that effort. And we’re spending $2 billion in military aid to Pakistan.
More must be done for flood victims, immediately.
Beyond helping to prevent mass disease and starvation we’ll also need to help Pakistan rebuild. Half of the nation’s people depend on agriculture for their livelihood, and a large portion of the nation’s crops and agricultural land have been destroyed. Roads, bridges, railways, and irrigation systems have been wiped out.
Last year, Congress agreed to a $7.5 billion civilian aid package to Pakistan to build roads, bridges, and schools. That should be quadrupled.
While they’re at it, Congress should remove all tariffs on textiles and clothing from Pakistan. Textiles and clothing are half Pakistan’s exports. More than half of all Pakistanis are employed growing cotton, weaving it into cloth, or cutting and sewing it into clothing. In the months and years ahead, Pakistan will have to rely ever more on these exports.
Yet we impose a 17 percent tariff on textiles and clothing from Pakistan. If we removed it, Pakistan’s exports would surge $5 billion annually. That would boost the wages of millions there.
That tariff also artificially raises the price of the clothing and textiles you and I buy. How many American jobs do we protect by this absurdity? Almost none. Instead, we’ve been importing more textiles and clothing from China and other East Asian nations. China subsidizes its exports with an artificially-low currency.
If you’re not moved by the scale of the disaster and its aftermath, consider that our future security is inextricably bound up with the future for Pakistan. Of 175 million Pakistanis, some 100 million are under age 25. In the years ahead they’ll either opt for gainful employment or, in its absence, may choose Islamic extremism.
We are already in a war for their hearts and minds, as well as those of young people throughout the Muslim world.
Right now, Islamic insurgents are using the chaos as an opportunity, attacking police posts in Pakistan’s northwest while police have been occupied in rescue and relief work. Meanwhile, lacking help and losing hope, many Pakistanis are becoming increasingly hostile toward President Asif Ali Zardari.
And, of course, Pakistan has the bomb.
What can you do? Government efforts are important but so is private giving. Check the New York Times’s Lede blog for organizations providing disaster relief. The Oxfam website has lots of good information about who’s doing what, and how effectively.
See Pakistan says militants exploiting flood chaos, Los Angeles Times, August 20, 2010, by Alex Rodriguez: Militants are regrouping in the northwest, hardest hit by the monsoon floods, officials say. Sen. Kerry visits the area, increasing U.S. aid to $150 million.
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“Ground Zero Mosque” Is the New “Death Panels”, The Huffington Post, August 16, 2010, by Jeffrey Feldman, excerpt quoted verbatim:
By now, the right-wing political chop-shop has convinced an embarrassingly large chunk of the country that a “YMCA”-type project planned for lower Manhattan is the equivalent of Osama bin Laden landing on the shores of the Potomac.
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Mayor Bloomberg, to his credit, scoffed at this right-wing idiocy in an eloquent speech about religious freedom. President Obama followed suit.
But while Mayor and President had their hearts in the right place, the very idea that the Cordoba House hysteria is about “religion” is not really accurate. The fact that the public debate has been framed around a “Ground Zero mosque” flows not from the facts of the project, but from a cynical right-wing effort to turn a benign and welcome addition to lower Manhattan into something that could be viewed as threatening and sinister (a.k.a., a wedge issue).
“Ground Zero Mosque” is the new “death panels.” Or is it the new “gay marriage”? Take your pick — there’s plenty of right-wing wedge issues to go around and they all have one thing in common: their goal is to whip up enough fear to keep people from working together to solve the real problems we all face together.
The large issue at stake here, in other words is not freedom of religion, but mass hysteria. Rather than just wrap Cordoba House in the First Amendment, President Obama and Mayor Bloomberg might have done better if they had dusted off their dog-eared copies of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible.
Cordoba House is not some sudden and new issue, but the latest attempt by the Republican Party to displace meaningful political debate with pitch-fork-and-torches style mass hysteria.
The themes of these newest wave of delirium are familiar: Muslim conspiracy; infiltration by foreign terrorists; Liberal collusion.
Are we a nation ruled by mass hysteria — a nation that sees conspiracy behind every unfamiliar face? Or are we a nation that raises above the tyranny of the mob roused to rid the village of those in league with the Devil? Those are the questions that the Mayor and President should have asked, but nobody seems to be asking them.
When mass hysteria has been allowed in the past to drive public policy it lead inexorably to shameful results that destroyed lives and weakened democratic society.
Read the full article here.
Obama Reframes Mosque Debate, The Huffington Post, August 16, 2010, by Chris Weigant, excerpt quoted verbatim:
By now, the right-wing political chop-shop has convinced an embarrassingly large chunk of the country that a “YMCA”-type project planned for lower Manhattan is the equivalent of Osama bin Laden landing on the shores of the Potomac.
Mayor Bloomberg, to his credit, scoffed at this right-wing idiocy in an eloquent speech about religious freedom. President Obama followed suit.
But while Mayor and President had their hearts in the right place, the very idea that the Cordoba House hysteria is about “religion” is not really accurate. The fact that the public debate has been framed around a “Ground Zero mosque” flows not from the facts of the project, but from a cynical right-wing effort to turn a benign and welcome addition to lower Manhattan into something that could be viewed as threatening and sinister (a.k.a., a wedge issue).
“Ground Zero Mosque” is the new “death panels.” Or is it the new “gay marriage”? Take your pick — there’s plenty of right-wing wedge issues to go around and they all have one thing in common: their goal is to whip up enough fear to keep people from working together to solve the real problems we all face together.
UPDATE: See Hate Radio Host Mark Levin Attacks Gov. Chris Christie Over Mosque Comments: ‘Absolutely Dead Wrong’, Think Progress, August 17, 2010, 5:50 p.m., by George Zornick, excerpt quoted verbatim:
Yesterday, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) warned fellow Republicans to stop “overreacting” to the proposed Islamic cultural center near Ground Zero. He said that while some degree of “deference” must be shown to some 9/11 families who don’t want the center nearby, “it would be wrong to so overreact to that, that we paint Islam with a brush of radical Muslim extremists that just want to kill Americans because we are Americans.”
Even though Christie included obligatory digs at Democrats and President Obama for somehow “playing political football” with the issue, his comments were still apparently too much for right-wing hate radio host Mark Levin. He unleashed on Christie last night during his radio show, and called the governor “absolutely dead wrong” and questioned Christie’s conservative credentials.
See Mosque Debate is a Red Herring, The Washington Examiner, August 16, 2010, by Gene Healy.
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