BBC News : Campbell on ‘failure’ in Iraq
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell has said that staying in Iraq would just prolong the ‘failure’ of the military campaign.

straight from NL
mg

Firedoglake

Congratulations on swallowing Bob Murray’s cuddly patriarch act so easily. Now three others have died and it’s apparent that maybe you should have been asking questions from the start about Murray’s history as a union-hating loon and whether his concern for the safety of the mineworkers was quite the priority it should have been.

Digby recommends, watch Harlan County, USA.

New York Times

WASHINGTON, Aug. 18 — Broad new surveillance powers approved by Congress this month could allow the Bush administration to conduct spy operations that go well beyond wiretapping to include — without court approval — certain types of physical searches on American soil and the collection of Americans’ business records, Democratic Congressional officials and other experts said.

Administration officials acknowledged that they had heard such concerns from Democrats in Congress recently, and that there was a continuing debate over the meaning of the legislative language. But they said the Democrats were simply raising theoretical questions based on a harsh interpretation of the legislation.

They also emphasized that there would be strict rules in place to minimize the extent to which Americans would be caught up in the surveillance.

The dispute illustrates how lawmakers, in a frenetic, end-of-session scramble, passed legislation they may not have fully understood and may have given the administration more surveillance powers than it sought.

It also offers a case study in how changing a few words in a complex piece of legislation has the potential to fundamentally alter the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a landmark national security law. The new legislation is set to expire in less than six months; two weeks after it was signed into law, there is still heated debate over how much power Congress gave to the president.
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Secret Court Orders to Be Released to the Public
In an unprecedented order, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court ordered the Bush Administration to respond to a request it received last week by the American Civil Liberties Union for orders and legal papers discussing the scope of the government’s authority to engage in the secret wiretapping of Americans, according to an ACLU press release late Friday.

The release follows:

According to the FISC’s order, the ACLU’s request “warrants further briefing,” and the government must respond to it by August 31. The court has said that any reply by the ACLU must be filed by September 14.

“Disclosure of these court orders and legal papers is essential to the ongoing debate about government surveillance,” said Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director of the ACLU. “We desperately need greater transparency and public scrutiny. We’re extremely encouraged by today’s development because it means that, at long last, the government will be required to defend its contention that the orders should not be released.”

The ACLU filed the request with the FISC following Congress’ recent passage of the so-called “Protect America Act,” a law that vastly expands the Bush administration’s authority to conduct warrantless wiretapping of Americans’ international phone calls and e-mails. In their aggressive push to justify passing this ill-advised legislation, the administration and members of Congress made repeated and veiled references to orders issued by the FISC earlier this year. The legislation is set to expire in six months unless it is renewed.

“These court orders relate to the circumstances in which the government should be permitted to use its profoundly intrusive surveillance powers to intercept the communications of U.S. citizens and residents,” said Jameel Jaffer, Director of the ACLU’s National Security Project. “The debate about this issue should not take place in a vacuum. It’s imperative that the public have access to basic information about what the administration has proposed and what the intelligence court has authorized.”

FISC orders have played a critical role in the evolution of the government’s surveillance activities over the past six years. After September 11, President Bush authorized the National Security Agency (NSA) to inaugurate a program of warrantless wiretapping inside the United States. In January 2007, however, just days before an appeals court was to hear the government’s appeal from a judicial ruling that had found the NSA program to be illegal in a case brought by the ACLU, Attorney General Gonzales announced that the NSA program would be discontinued. Gonzales explained that the change was made possible by FISC orders issued on January 10, 2007, which he characterized as “complex” and “innovative.” Those orders are among the documents requested by the ACLU.
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By Marisa Taylor and Kevin G. Hall, McClatchy Newspapers

Washington - Top Commerce and Treasury Departments officials appeared with Republican candidates and doled out millions in federal money in battleground congressional districts and states after receiving White House political briefings detailing GOP election strategy.

Political appointees in the Treasury Department received at least 10 political briefings from July 2001 to August 2006, officials familiar with the meetings said. Their counterparts at the Commerce Department received at least four briefings - all in the election years of 2002, 2004 and 2006.

The House Oversight Committee is investigating whether the White House’s political briefings to at least 15 agencies, including to the Justice Department, the General Services Administration and the State Department, violated a ban on the use of government resources for campaign activities.

Under the Hatch Act, Cabinet members are permitted to attend political briefings and appear with members of Congress. But Cabinet members and other political appointees aren’t permitted to spend taxpayer money with the aim of benefiting candidates.

During the briefings at Treasury and Commerce, then-Bush administration political director Ken Mehlman and other White House aides detailed competitive congressional districts, battleground election states and key media markets and outlined GOP strategy for getting out the vote.

Commerce and Treasury political appointees later made numerous public appearances and grant announcements that often correlated with GOP interests, according to a review of the events by McClatchy Newspapers. The pattern raises the possibility that the events were arranged with the White House’s political guidance in mind.

The briefings are part of the legacy of White House political adviser Karl Rove, who announced this week that he’s stepping down at the end of the month to spend more time with his family. Despite Rove’s departure, investigations into the briefings are expected to continue.
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Metro Times Detroit
by Larry Gabriel

Real opportunities to nationalize health insurance in the United States only come around once in a while. The last time was in 1993, when a plan by then-first lady Hillary Clinton was trashed by corporate opposition.

Now is the best chance since then. Most Americans agree that the system doesn’t work; our industries are crippled with ever-increasing health costs; and, with a presidential campaign looming over the political landscape, activists need to seize the moment.

That’s why the United Auto Workers union should use its national contract negotiations to get General Motors, Ford and Chrysler to join the fight in earnest.

About four years ago UAW President Ron Gettelfinger called a press conference at the union’s Detroit headquarters to talk about our health care crisis: Costs were spiraling out of control, 45 million Americans were uninsured. Gettelfinger proposed a national single-payer health insurance program as the solution.

“Nobody’s talking about that,” said a reporter from one of the daily papers. Actually, a lot of people were talking about it back then. The mainstream press just wasn’t paying much attention to them.

Today, even a head-in-the-sand corporate reporter couldn’t help but notice the conversation on health care reform — from the nearly two-thirds of Americans who support the idea of a national single-payer plan to Congress where Rep. John Conyers is getting attention for the National Health Insurance Act, H.R. 676, which he introduced in 2003.

Health care is the top domestic issue in the United States, and the No. 1 issue in the 2007 national contract negotiations between the UAW and GM. In fact, health care costs have been the most contentious issue at the bargaining table for most contract negotiations in recent years. Unfortunately it’s usually an attempt by the Big Three to dump their costs onto workers.
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By Nick Juliano

Local and federal agencies are to have vastly expanded access to information gathered from spy satellites in the U.S., the Wall Street Journal reports.

Information from “some of the U.S.’s most powerful intelligence-gathering tools” will soon be at the disposal of a wide array of law enforcement agencies at all levels of government, reports Robert Block in the Journal Wednesday. Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell decided to increase access to the spy data earlier this year and asked Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to facilitate access to the spy data by civilian agencies and law enforcement.

Previously, access to only the most basic spy-sattelite data was limited to a handful of federal civilian agencies, such as NASA and the US Geological Survey, which used the images for scientific and environmental study.

The move to turn spy satellites on American citizens raises legal questions because the use of such data for law enforcement is “largely uncharted territory.” Even the officials behind the move were unsure of its legal implications, the Journal reports.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
April 1, 2005

Media Contact:
Carly Miller
Director of Public Relations, Clothing of the American Mind
http://www.cotam.org / http://www.clothingoftheamericanmind.com
Carly@cotam.org / +1.310.459.0988 direct

Clothing of the American Mind Celebrates 1st Birthday

Los Angeles, California – “Fashion is an extremely effective billboard for spreading a message,” says Caitlin Blue, the film/television set decorator and founder of Clothing of the American Mind.  “Our clothing is a way for people to voice their dissent in a stylish way while instigating a dialogue for change.”

Clothing of the American Mind, the renowned grassroots apparel company dedicated to stylishly promoting, supporting and articulating progressive values through fashion, is proud to announce the launch of its new website, an innovative line of new t-shirts and exciting collaborations with like-minded national organizations. Wearing Clothing of the American Mind products is a simple form of everyday activism for even the busiest person.  The new Spring line is highlighted by slogans such as “Electoral College Dropout,” “United States of Halliburton,” “This Child Left Behind,” “Vote 08” and a humorous redesign of the popular “My Bush is Pro-Choice” t-shirt.  All of the company’s designs are presented on sweatshop-free products manufactured in America.

The company’s new website, http://www.cotam.org, showcases a fresh design more conducive to customer browsing and purchasing; it’s also now a hub for media, events and other happenings in the national progressive arena.  The ‘News’ section will feature three new articles each week from AlterNet, a leading independent news source, all of which will be archived and be made available to browsers.  In addition, customer contests and giveaways will soon be offered.

Clothing of the American Mind is also hard at work establishing partnerships to raise awareness and funds for organizations such as Progressive Democrats of America, Democracy for America, The Progressive Majority, AlterNet, The Rockridge Institute, MoveOn and others.  Currently, Clothing of the American Mind is creating several collaborative t-shirts with the San Francisco-based political committee think BLUE, proceeds from which will go to MoveOnPAC.org and BuyBlue.org.  These new shirts will be available in April from COTAM.org and thinkBLUEdems.com.

March 19th, the second anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, marked the first birthday for Clothing of the American Mind.  “Here in Los Angeles, we marched in solidarity with peace activists around the world who participated in the global day of action,” Blue says.  “We hope that all the coordinated protests and rallies on and around March 19th sent a message to the Bush administration that the best way to support our troops is to bring them home now.”  At the March 19th event in Hollywood, Clothing of the American Mind introduced five new pro-peace/anti-war shirts for men, women and children.  Blue and her team of dedicated volunteers sold more than 100 shirts in just a few short hours.  “Our sales at events such as these indicates activists’ desire to integrate spreading progressive messages into their everyday lives,” says Blue.  “Dissent is the foundation of democracy and our shirts allow people to survive the next four years by voicing their dissent in style.”

Clothing of the American Mind was born in March 2004 amid the outpouring of popular discontent spawned by the massive mishandling of the war in Iraq and has rapidly become the official clothier of the politically disgruntled around the globe.  Leading up to the 2004 presidential election, the company raised more than $15,000 for progressive political groups including MoveOn, The Progressive Majority, Amnesty International, Progressive Democrats of America, Peace Action, the Democratic National Committee and the Kerry/Edwards campaign.  Clothing of the American Mind should also be praised for its voter outreach and education efforts, which registered thousands of new voters during a month-long, 14-state cross-country campaign that culminated at the Democratic National Convention in Boston.

Among Clothing of the American Mind’s supporters are many high-profile activists and celebrities, including David Arquette & Courteney Cox Arquette, Patricia Arquette, Ed Asner, Sheryl Crow, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kristin Davis, Ellen DeGeneres, Gina Gershon, Arianna Huffington, Ashley Judd, Debra Messing, Susan Sarandon, Fisher Stevens, Hilary Swank, Renee Zellwegger and countless others.  Clothing of the American Mind has been featured in Elle (American, French and South African), Entertainment Weekly, Glamour, InStyle, The New York Times, People as well as on Good Morning America.

For more details on Clothing of the American Mind, its new line and upcoming products and collaborative efforts, please contact Carly Miller at (310) 459-0988 or via email at Carly@cotam.org.  General information can be found at www.COTAM.org.

Pinky wants some answers: Is the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Iraq legal or illegal? Do any of the charges of illegality we’ve been hearing about have any legal basis at all? And why should we even care about international law anyway? Pinky and friends do the research and then tell you all the answers!

John Edwards Breaks Out at Yearly Kos

The Talking Points Memo will be posting video from the various candidate breakout sessions that took place on August 4, 2007 in Chicago at the Yearly Kos.