Song Of The Day #081

Our gospel tune today is Let's Go To Church Next Sunday Morning, recorded in 1950 by Jimmy Wakely & Margaret Whiting.

It's available on their 32 track CD Till We Meet Again.

Report: Bush-era surveillance went beyond wiretaps

The Bush administration's post-Sept. 11 surveillance efforts went beyond the widely publicized warrantless wiretapping program, a government report disclosed Friday, encompassing additional secretive activities that created "unprecedented" spying powers. The report also raised new questions about how the Bush White House kept key Justice Department officials in the dark as it launched the surveillance program. In a move that it described as "extraordinary and inappropriate," the report said the White House relied on a single, lower-level attorney in the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel for assessments about the programs' legality. The report was compiled at the request of Congress by five government agency watchdogs: the inspectors general of the Justice Department, Pentagon, CIA, Directorate of National Intelligence and National Security Agency. It represents the most detailed public disclosure of the existence of secret surveillance efforts beyond the warrantless wiretapping program, saying the overall package of efforts came to be known in the Bush administration as the "President's Surveillance Program." However, the report did not describe the other programs or explain how they worked...LATimes

'Inappropriate' Secrecy Hurt Surveillance Effort, Report Says

"Extraordinary and inappropriate" secrecy about a warrantless eavesdropping program undermined its effectiveness as a terrorism-fighting tool, government watchdogs have concluded in the first examination of one of the most contentious episodes of the Bush administration. A report by inspectors general from five intelligence agencies said the administration's tight control over who learned of the program also contributed to flawed legal arguments that nearly prompted mass resignations in the Justice Department five years ago. The program "may have" contributed to successful counterterrorism efforts, some intelligence officials told the investigators. But too few CIA personnel knew of the highly classified program to use it for intelligence work, the report stated, while at the FBI, the program "played a limited role," with "most . . . leads . . . determined not to have any connection to terrorism."...WPost

"most . . . leads . . . determined not to have any connection to terrorism."

This confirms what I and others have been saying all along. It has more to do with federal law enforcement gaining additional powers than with combating terrorism (see this post). Even those additional powers granted by Congress were not limited to terrorists.

The federal law enforcement agencies utilize whatever crisis is at hand, be it drugs, the OKC bombing, terrorism, etc. to grab more power and lessen our civil liberties.

And they are well on their way, via the purse, to "federalizing" local and state law enforcement.

Bush’s Secret NSA Spying May Have Tainted Prosecutions, Report Warns

The Justice Department needs to investigate whether the secretiveness of Bush’s warrantless wiretapping program tainted terrorism prosecutions by hiding exculpatory evidence from defendants, an oversight report from five inspectors general warned Friday. The report (.pdf), mandated by Congress, also warned that President’ Bush’s post-9/11 extrajudicial intelligence programs involved unprecedented collection of communications, and that the government needs to be careful about storing and using that data. The government has only admitted to eavesdropping on calls and e-mails where one end was overseas and one person was suspected to be a terrorist. It has never officially confirmed that it sucked in the telephone records of millions of Americans or eavesdropped wholesale on the internet, despite repeated media reports and confirmations from Congress members. But the report makes clear that there were more intelligence programs that the so-called “Terrorist Surveillance Program” that the administration acknowledged after the New York Times revealed in December 2005...Wired

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The new Report on illegal spying is not a real investigation

We had a law in place for 30 years that made it a felony punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a $10,000 fine for each offense to do exactly that which Bush got caught doing: eavesdropping on the communications of American citizens without warrants from the FISA court. The Inspectors General report (.pdf) on Bush's NSA activities released on Friday afternoon -- one that was mandated by the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 in lieu of a real investigation -- highlights how rampant and blatant was the lawlessness that pervaded the Bush administration. Nonetheless, because the Obama administration is actively blocking any real investigation -- Obama opposes all Congressional investigations into Bush-era crimes and, worse, is engaged in extraordinary efforts to block courts from adjudicating the legality of Bush's surveillance activities by claiming that even long-obsolete and clearly criminal programs are "state secrets" -- it is quite likely, despite how blatant is the lawbreaking, that there will be no consequences for any of it. In a Look-to-the-Future-Not-the-Past political culture, it's irrelevant how severe is the lawbreaking by high government officials. They know they will face no consequences even when, as here, they deliberately commit felonies -- which is precisely why criminality is so rampant in our political class...GlennGreenwald

Cheney Is Linked to Concealment of C.I.A. Project

The Central Intelligence Agency withheld information about a secret counterterrorism program from Congress for eight years on direct orders from former Vice President Dick Cheney, the agency’s director, Leon E. Panetta, has told the Senate and House intelligence committees, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said Saturday. The report that Mr. Cheney was behind the decision to conceal the still-unidentified program from Congress deepened the mystery surrounding it, suggesting that the Bush administration had put a high priority on the program and its secrecy. Mr. Panetta, who ended the program when he first learned of its existence from subordinates on June 23, briefed the two intelligence committees about it in separate closed sessions the next day. The law requires the president to make sure the intelligence committees “are kept fully and currently informed of the intelligence activities of the United States, including any significant anticipated intelligence activity.” But the language of the statute, the amended National Security Act of 1947, leaves some leeway for judgment, saying such briefings should be done “to the extent consistent with due regard for the protection from unauthorized disclosure of classified information relating to sensitive intelligence sources and methods or other exceptionally sensitive matters.” In addition, for covert action programs, a particularly secret category in which the role of the United States is hidden, the law says that briefings can be limited to the so-called Gang of Eight, consisting of the Republican and Democratic leaders of both houses of Congress and of their intelligence committees...NYTimes

Hayden Says He Informed Congress of Surveillance Program

Former CIA Director Gen. Michael Hayden angrily struck back Saturday at assertions the Bush administration's post-9/11 surveillance program was more far-reaching than imagined and was largely concealed from congressional overseers. In an interview with The Associated Press, Hayden maintained that top members of Congress were kept well-informed all along the way, notwithstanding protests from some that they were kept in the dark. "At the political level this had support," said the one-time CIA chief, jumping foursquare into an escalating controversy that has caused deep political divisions and lingering debate on the counterterrorism policies of an administration now out of power. Hayden, who in 2001 designed and carried out the secret program, told The AP he is distressed by suggestions that Congress was not fully informed. He said that he personally briefed top lawmakers on the entire surveillance operation and said he felt that they supported it...AP

Congress Blasts 'Outrageous' Security Breaches at Nation's Federal Buildings

Members of Congress on Wednesday blasted "disturbing" and "outrageous" security failures in the nation's federal buildings after government investigators smuggled bomb-making materials past the police agency charged with protecting those buildings. The Government Accountability Office released a report detailing how investigators carried liquid bomb-making materials past security at 10 federal buildings in 10 cities -- a shocking exposure lawmakers said shows the country's vulnerability eight years after the attacks on the World Trade Center and 14 years after the bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City. The undisclosed buildings at the center of the probe were all labeled "Security Level IV," or high-risk. The GAO found other problems with guard training and reported that in one check of security, investigators found a guard asleep on the job after taking the painkiller Percocet. In another, they found that a guard failed to recognize or did not properly X-ray a box carrying handguns at the loading dock of a facility. Gary Schenkel, director of the Federal Protective Service, said in prepared testimony that when he arrived at the agency in April 2007 "it was apparent FPS was experiencing some serious challenges." Earlier government investigations have raised similar concerns about the quality of security provided to federal buildings. FPS currently has a budget of about $1 billion, 1,200 full-time employees and about 13,000 contract security guards...FoxNews

FPS - Federal Protective Service, former local and private sector employees "federalized" compliments of George W. Bush.

Federal Court Hearing Update - NEPA & CEs

From: Caren
Sent: Friday, July 10, 2009 4:22 PM
Subject: Federal Court Hearing Update

Yesterday (7.9.09) the lawsuit filed by the WildEarth Guardians against the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) challenging the use of categorical exclusions (CEs) to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) for permit renewal was heard in Federal District Court in Albuquerque. The case included a request for an injunction to remove grazing if the WildEarth Guardians prevail in their claim that the USFS abused the NEPA process in the use of the CEs.

While it appeared that the Judge has a good grasp of the fact that Congress has repeated provided safety for allotment owners whose allotments have not received NEPA analysis in a timely fashion, there is no ruling expected on the case until August or September.

In a departure from the original suit and its’ opening briefs, the WildEarth Guardians focused their argument on potential harm of grazing on the reintroduced Mexican wolves. The USFS attorney did a good job of pointing this out, as well as defending the process used by the agency to renew term grazing permits with CEs.

Interveners in the case were the New Mexico Cattle Growers’ Association and the Arizona/New Mexico Coalition of Counties. Their attorney Karen Budd-Falen did an excellent job of pointing out the harm that could come to the allotment owners, many of them in the court room, if the WildEarth Guardians prevailed on the suit and its’ requested injunction.

Special thanks to all the folks who attended the hearing from Catron, Sierra, Santa Fe, Rio Arriba, Lincoln, and Valencia counties!

Ann Mills appointed as USDA Deputy Undersecretary for Natural Resources & Environment

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced the appointment of Ann Mills as USDA Deputy Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment (NRE). In this position, Mills will have responsibility for the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), the federal agency with primary responsibility for working with private landowners in conserving, maintaining and improving their natural resources. The NRE mission area includes NRCS and the U.S. Forest Service, which manages 193 million acres of National Forest System lands and provides assistance to the more than 10 million family-forest landowners in this country. Most recently, as a senior executive at American Rivers - the nation's leading river conservation organization - Mills directed day-to-day operations, led the expansion of regional offices and directed a team of senior policy staff. She led the implementation of programs to develop sustainable solutions for flood and drought mitigation and water quality improvement across the country including urban and rural watersheds in Northern California's Sierras and Bay Delta; the Columbia, Missouri and Mississippi river basins; the Great Lakes; and the Chesapeake Bay...Press Release

G-8 leaders set broad goals to reduce global warming

President Obama and leaders of seven other world economic powers agreed Wednesday to broad goals for reducing global warming, but they stopped well short of measures that environmentalists call critical to stopping the problem and also failed to get developing nations such as China and India to go along. The Group of Eight industrial democracies agreed to a statement setting the goal of holding global warming to an increase of 2 degrees Celsius — 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit — by 2020, as measured since the dawn of the industrial age in 1900. They also set a long-range target of cutting emissions of greenhouse gases that cause warming by 50 percent worldwide and by 80 percent among industrialized nations by 2050. Obama and the other leaders, however, didn't discuss prominent proposals urging a timetable for quicker emission cuts by 2020...McClatchy

Senate Ag Panel's Members Look to Stake Major Claim in Climate Bill

Powerful members of the Senate Agriculture Committee are angling to include even more farm and ethanol-friendly provisions to their chamber's energy and climate legislation than the House added to its bill last month. Chairman Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and other members of his panel say they want to ensure any effort at wide-ranging climate legislation in the Senate will include all of the provisions that House Agriculture Chairman Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) brokered for the House cap-and-trade bill, H.R. 2454 (pdf). With the hard-fought Peterson deal as their starting point, the farm state lawmakers could have leverage to capture additional benefits for farmers and ranchers. As Senate leadership aims to advance the bill this fall, agricultural interests could form a formidable coalition. Several key fence-sitters on the bill sit on the Agriculture Committee, and farm interests have wide appeal in the Senate. Each senator has some farm interests in his or her state -- unlike the House, which has more representatives from urban and suburban areas...NYTimes

Official supports rights to wind

Coloradans used to owning their homes, but not necessarily the water and mineral rights associated with them, may have another commodity to call their own in the future. State Rep. Cory Gardner, R-Yuma, has asked the nonpartisan staff at the Capitol to help research a measure that would create a "wind right." The bill would be introduced when lawmakers return to work in January. "By creating a new wind right in Colorado, we'll give people a new private property; . . . an economically viable opportunity to sell some of their property and promote the environment by developing that wind right into wind energy," Gardner said. Gardner said some lawyers on the Eastern Plains are drawing up contracts between developers and some ranchers and farm owners to lease land for wind energy, but they have concerns over whether state courts would recognize the deals. Some environmentalists are hesitant to embrace the idea, which is being discussed in Texas, California, Montana and South Dakota. They ask whether the state wants to add wind to historically contentious legal fights over such things as water and mineral rights...DenverPost

Livestock groups denounce "cash-for-grass" offer

State and national livestock groups are denouncing an effort by wildlife groups to pay ranchers not to graze cattle on the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge. The World Wildlife Fund and National Wildlife Federation have set aside between $300,000 and $600,000 to buy out grazing rights. The groups say they want to end conflict between nesting birds and elk and foraging cattle. The Montana Stockgrowers Association, the Montana Association of Grazing Districts and both the Montana and National Public Lands Council on Thursday call the grazing buyout effort "a giant step backward in finding ways for agriculture and wildlife groups to work together." The livestock groups argue that sage grouse and elk can live in harmony with grazing cattle. Errol Rice, executive vice president of the MSGA, says a better solution would be to seek balance between conservation and producer needs. AP

States ready for first open wolf hunts

Montana and Idaho are moving to host the first open gray wolf hunts in the lower 48 states after the animal's removal from the endangered list across much of the Northern Rockies. Montana wildlife commissioners voted Wednesday to let hunters throughout the state shoot 75 wolves, or 15 percent of Montana's population, beginning in mid-September. In Idaho, commissioners meet later this month to set their quota. A prior plan called for hunting almost 250 wolves. Legal challenges to the hunts are certain as environmentalists argue wolves could again be driven toward extinction. Experts, however, said wiping out wolves would be difficult. And state wildlife managers said the quotas are crucial to keep the fast-breeding predators in check and limit attacks on domestic sheep and calves. Government wildlife agents and ranchers protecting livestock killed 264 wolves in the Northern Rockies in 2008, including 21 entire packs, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service...AP

Hunters, ranchers, farmers fed up with mountain lion laws

A revolt is brewing on the rangelands of San Benito and Monterey counties over state game laws that protect mountain lions. Hunters, ranchers and farmers appear to be fed up with what they see as depredations on deer and livestock by an out-of-control mountain lion population. They are resentful of regulations they say were imposed on them by big-city voters who never saw one of the big cats outside of a television program or a zoo, and distrustful of state Department of Fish and Game enforcement. And they seem to be waging their own guerrilla warfare against the specially protected predators in the Gabilan range. Wednesday, the San Benito County Fish and Game Advisory Commission held a public forum in Hollister on mountain lions. Officials from neighboring counties, state legislators' aides and mountain lion supporters attended to talk about the issue. San Benito County has asked the state to survey the area's mountain lion population to determine what farmers and ranchers are dealing with, said Supervisor Anthony Botelho. He said his constituents are seeing evidence of a greatly increased lion presence and worry about being prosecuted if they can't justify shooting a mountain lion on their property to an investigating game warden...TheHerald

Leaders Seek to Finish Trade Deal by 2010

Leaders of rich and developing nations want to finish a long-delayed world trade deal in 2010 and head off trade wars that could hit world economies as they struggle to emerge from the recession, according to a draft of a joint declaration obtained by the Associated Press. Completing the so-called Doha round of talks has risen up the agenda due to fears that the economic crisis will lead to an upsurge in protectionist policies like the ones that helped cause the Great Depression of the 1930s. The global trade talks, which were initially to conclude in 2004, have been beset by difficulties and at a standstill for months. A deal would cut goods tariffs and subsidies around the world. The leaders asked trade ministers to meet prior to the Group of 20 meeting of developing and rich countries in September in Pittsburgh, according to the draft. The final document is to be released later in the day...WSJ

First big fencing job was on the Laureles

Before barbed wire — what cowboys called Texas silk — Mifflin Kenedy built a 36-mile fence of pine boards and cypress posts. Kenedy’s fence stretched across a peninsula, from the Oso to Laureles Creek, which closed the Laureles Ranch in 1868. Capt. Andrew Anderson recalled that when the fence was being built, he hauled “a million feet of lumber” to the Laureles aboard the schooner Flour Bluff. Isom H. Thomas, caporal of Laureles, said Kenedy took a lively interest as the fence went up. “He would look down a long line and if he saw the slightest deviation from a straight line, the kink had to be straightened out before he would pass it.” A year later, Kenedy’s friend and former partner Richard King began to fence King Ranch. Like Kenedy, he used planks and cypress posts treated with creosote. Within three years, by 1874, King had 70,000 acres fenced. The Coleman, Mathis and Fulton Pasture Co. began fencing in 1871. One fence was north of Fulton and one stretched from Puerto Bay to Corpus Christi Bay. After a bad drought and severe winter in 1873, ranchers in South Texas lost thousands of head of cattle. They starved and froze to death, helped along by their weakened condition. Mifflin Kenedy, with his grass protected on the fenced-in Laureles, didn’t lose a single head. Other cattlemen took notice. The following year, patents for barbed wire and a machine for making it were granted to Joseph Farwell Glidden of De Kalb, Ill. Barbed-wire fences soon stretched across the land. But not in South Texas. Ranchers distrusted anything from the North; barbed wire had another strike against it, being invented by an Illinois farmer. They also feared the “thorny wire” would wound cattle and give entry to the deadly screw worm. So barbed wire was slow to catch on in South Texas...Caller-Times

"Rambo" author has new novel based on Marfa lights

The author whose first book sparked the "Rambo" phenomenon is releasing his 30th novel today. David Morrell, a former University of Iowa English professor, says his new work of fiction, "The Shimmer," is based on the real-life mystery of bright colorful lights that are seen near the tiny town of Marfa, Texas. Morrell says there are reports of the unexplained lights dating back to 1889 when a rancher first spotted them darting in the darkness. "He saw the lights and he thought they were campfires from marauders from Mexico," Morrell says. "The problem is, campfires don't move around and don't go up and down, go sideways and change colors. He was terrified enough that he and the ranch hands got out their rifles and guarded the cattle and then the next morning, they went out to look but they found nothing." The basis for the original Rambo movie was Morrell's first book, "First Blood," which was published in 1972, when Morrell was in his second of 18 years of teaching English at the U-of-I. Morrell is now 66 and lives in New Mexico. He has more than 18-million copies of his books in print in 26 languages...RadioIowaNews

Horse logger/poet Dufour launches new book

Most folks know Lorne Dufour best as a horse logger, or maybe as a poet. He’s spent a lifetime in the woods, raising his family there and using his big teams of Clydesdale horses to harvest trees gently and carefully from the land, working with the forces of nature to make a living in a slowed down manner. Lorne is a great storyteller. He has written about his experiences over the last 35 years in both prose and verse, publishing two books of poetry describing his big beautiful horses and backwoods lifestyle. Spit On Wishes came out first in 1983, then Starting From Promise in 2001. He has also published a number of other poems and articles in anthologies like Lived Experience - A Journal From the Mountains of BC, and regularly posts his work on the bulletin board in the Gecko Tree Restaurant for all to see. This month Lorne is set to launch his latest book, Jacob’s Prayer, published by Caitlin Press of Halfmoon Bay. Here Lorne combines his story telling prowess with his poetry to recount a poignant moment in the rich literary history of the Cariboo Chilcotin. His story recounts a tragic incident that occurred on Halloween night in 1975 when Lorne was a school teacher in the village of Esket. That night two prominent men, school principal John Rathjen, and rancher Martin Reidemann, lost their lives in Alkali Lake. A third man, author, Lorne Dufour, was saved by a friend, Jacob Roper...WilliamsLakeTribune