Senate sticks it to Bush.. JUST KIDDING!

In a classic display of doublethink the AP reports on the Senate's passage of the spying bill, including an "aye" from appears-to-be President Obama:

Bowing to President Bush's demands, the Senate sent the White House a bill Wednesday overhauling bitterly disputed rules on secret government eavesdropping and shielding telecommunications companies from lawsuits complaining they helped the U.S. spy on Americans.

The relatively one-sided vote, 69-28, came only after a lengthy and heated debate that pitted privacy and civil liberties concerns against the desire to prevent terrorist attacks. It ended almost a year of wrangling over surveillance rules and the president's warrantless wiretapping program that was initiated after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The President's warrantless wiretapping program began before September 11. A fact that makes this immunity for telecommunications companies a special "F-U" to Americans.

Iran, here we come

Bush and the Democratic Congress are Preparing the Battlefield:

Late last year, Congress agreed to a request from President Bush to fund a major escalation of covert operations against Iran, according to current and former military, intelligence, and congressional sources. These operations, for which the President sought up to four hundred million dollars, were described in a Presidential Finding signed by Bush, and are designed to destabilize the country’s religious leadership. The covert activities involve support of the minority Ahwazi Arab and Baluchi groups and other dissident organizations. They also include gathering intelligence about Iran’s suspected nuclear-weapons program.

For those of you who don't know what a Presidential Finding is, Hersh explains:

Under federal law, a Presidential Finding, which is highly classified, must be issued when a covert intelligence operation gets under way and, at a minimum, must be made known to Democratic and Republican leaders in the House and the Senate and to the ranking members of their respective intelligence committees—the so-called Gang of Eight. Money for the operation can then be reprogrammed from previous appropriations, as needed, by the relevant congressional committees, which also can be briefed.

No more illusions, folks. This Congress and President are dead-set on setting their next sights on Iran. So far I haven't heard a comment from Presidential hopeful Barack Obama. Anyone ready for the War on Terror Round Three?

And you thought it was just police brutality

As if a 19-year old University of Oregon student activist being tasered repeatedly by the police at a rally in support of Lane County ending the practice of roadside pesticide spraying wasn't fucked up enough, it has now been discovered that it wasn't just the Eugene Police that were harassing peaceful demonstrators. In fact, it seems that police presence was demanded by the Department of Homeland Security. No joke.

Last month’s Tasering of a UO student was more than just the Eugene Police Department (EPD) overreacting to a peaceful protest. It was the result of the monitoring of an anti-pesticide group based in Lane County by the Department of Homeland Security, according to recent documents concerning the incident.
[snippity]

According to the police reports, Federal Protective Services (FPS), a division of the Department of Homeland Security, was made aware of the rally in support of Lane County’s no-roadside spray policy by the EPD on May 22. That is the day EW published an article on the planned rally, featuring a photo of Ian Van Ornum, one of the leaders of “Crazy People for Wild Places,” the student group that organized the rally. Van Ornum was Tasered twice and arrested with Owen and UO student (and Eagle Scout) Tony Farley.

The reports show that Homeland Security thought the rally was organized by the Pitchfork Rebellion, a group of rural Lane County residents who want to put a stop to pesticide spraying by large corporations (see EW cover stories 3/16/06 and 2/28/08). “That’s either a blatant lie or poor police work,” says Owen, who spoke at the event but did not organize it. The Pitchfork Rebellion, he says, has never been involved in “property damage or anything like that."

COINTELPRO returns! Every time a citizen is tasered for exercising their right to free speech, a radical is born. It's like they're begging for a social movement.

Quote of the Week

From an AP article on the Oregon Education Association's endorsement of Steve Novick:

"Novick fills a room the minute he walks into it," said Webb Thomas, a teacher from Beaverton. "That's what you need. Merkley is so out of central casting. If you took all the white, male, Democratic candidates and blended them together, then you'd have Jeff Merkley."

Kitzhaber backs Novick in Senate primary

Former Oregon Governor and health care reformer John Kitzhaber has endorsed Democratic candidate Steve Novick.

Kitzhaber, who once considered running for the Senate himself, said he's siding with Novick in the Democratic primary because of the Portland lawyer's willingness to "face the facts" about what's wrong with the country.
[snip]

Kitzhaber, who has been working on a national effort to radically change the way health care and insurance is organized, said Novick's plans for improving access to health care come closest to his own.

read more from the Oregonian | digg story

Steve Novick endorses Barack Obama

A reforming Edwards guy, Steve Novick has come out in support of Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton today.

As you may know, I’m running for the United States Senate in Oregon because I’m really worried about the direction of the country. We face an awe-inspiring quintuple challenge of ending the war, stopping global warming, combating runaway economic inequality, reforming the health care system, and preventing the national debt from soaring out of control. We need to get moving on all of those issues – and we needed to do so yesterday. To meet those challenges, we need political leaders who will be willing to take risks, willing to call for sacrifice, and be able to persuade the American people that their sacrifices will not be in vain.

That’s why I’m voting for Barack Obama.

Before any Clintonistas out there get rabbit, I suggest you read the full statement as Steve has very carefully thought out his choice and in fact has a lot of good stuff to say about Hillary Clinton and some of her policies. Sounds like Steve, like everyone else, has been highly conflicted with the seemingly generous crop of Democratic candidates this election and had a genuine challenge in figuring out who to endorse since Edwards dropped out of the race.

Still no justice in Exxon Valdez oil spill

Some five years after an alcohol-impaired captain ran the Exxon Valdez into the Bligh Reef, "officially" spilling more than 11 million gallons of crude oil into Prince William Sound, a federal jury awarded $5 billion in punitive damages be paid by Exxon to thousands of claimants from the still devastated Alaskan area. At the time, that $5 billion amounted to 1 years profits for Exxon. In the fourteen years since that jury's decision, Exxon has appealed the decision repeatedly and in 2006 and jury decreased the $5 billion to $2.5 billion. The case is now heading to the U.S. Supreme Court. It's been almost two decades after the oil spill and that $5 billion represents less than two months worth of profits for Exxon now and a study published last year found that over 26,000 gallons of oil still contaminates the shorelines of Prince William Sound and it's not leaving any time soon.