Release of Heavily Redacted CIA Torture Report Delayed

The Senate Intelligence Committee (SIC) has investigated the Bush Administration’s use of torture and is trying to get the executive summary released from the White House where it is being screened for classification purposes.  The report itself is 6,300 pages and has taken 5 years to prepare. Sen Feinstein, the chairperson of the SIC has returned the summary to the WH indicating that the heavy redaction has significantly effected the results of the document.

Making things more complicated is that a report was recently released by General David Buckley, CIA Inspector General that indicated CIA employees improperly accessed the database used by the SIC staff while they were working on the investigative report.  The Director of the CIA, Brennan denies that any snooping took place.  However, Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) on Thursday said, in a statement, "The CIA unconstitutionally spied on Congress by hacking into Senate Intelligence Committee computers. This grave misconduct not only is illegal, but it violates the U.S. Constitution’s requirement of separation of powers.”

This puts President Obama between a rock, the SIC and a hard place, the very powerful CIA/NSA organization.  Last week he had a press conference where he attempted to explain what is going on.  Some are saying that he stumbled badly as he said:

"In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, we did some things that were wrong.  We did a whole lot of things that were right, but we tortured some folks. We did some things that were contrary to our values.”

He also said,

“And there was enormous pressure on our law enforcement and our national security teams to try to deal with this, and it’s important for us not to feel too sanctimonious in retrospect about the tough job that those folks had and a lot of those folks were working hard under enormous pressure and are real patriots.” 

These statements appear to be attempts to rationalize and minimize the horrible torture that occurred under the Bush Admin.  Some "folks" have held out hope for the last six years of silence from the President, that he would eventually either prosecute the offenders or at least issue a very strong statement condemning the torture. The weak wording of this speech dashed those hopes. It's very doubtful that he will strongly condemn the actions of Bush/Cheney regarding torture in the future. 

It should be noted that two very powerful people, General Clapper, Director of National Intelligence lies to Congress and John Brennan spies on Congress don't get fired.  Either President Obama doesn't want to fire them or he hasn't enough power to fire them.  Either way is not good for our country.

Sources for the above and good further reading:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/31/cia-john-brennan-mark-udall_n_5638585.html

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/local-news/20140801-obama-concedes-cia-torture-stands-by-embattled-director.ece

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/06/opinion/stop-the-cia-spin-on-the-senate-torture-report.html

The Robot/Computer Singularity is Predicted for 2040 – 2045, But Will The Human Race Kill Itself Off Before Then?

Most humans that don’t have their heads in the sand or other places where the sun doesn’t shine, understand that the robot singularity is when robots/computers become smart enough that they will no longer have to rely on humans.  Humans will most likely be expendable.  

The prediction for when this will happen, at the current rate of development, is 2040 – 2045.*  

But I see a problem with that figure.  With climate change coming at a significantly faster pace than a glacier, will the human species even exist in 2040?   

Wouldn’t it be ironic if humans kill themselves off a few years before the robots can take over?  

Who would be getting the last laugh?

* http://www.businessinsider.com/louis-del-monte-interview-on-the-singularity-2014-7

See the movie “Her” if you haven’t already.  

The Republican Conspiracy to Bring American Government To It’s Knees

On inauguration day in 2009, while America was rejoicing with the election of Barrack Obama, top Republicans were conspiring to bring the government to a standstill. 

Robert Draper discusses the meeting held by top Republicans in his book, “Do Not Ask What Good We Do: Inside the US House of Representatives.”   The plan was to make the government so ineffective that the American people would return the presidency to the Republicans in 2012.  Although Barrack Obama was reelected in 2012 the damage done by the Republican Party seriously hurt America. 

While eliminating free school lunches for children and cutting off unemployment benefits because of budget concerns, the Republicans were spending tens of millions of dollars on more than 50 attempts to derail the ACA (Obamacare).  They also used the threat of government shutdown to cripple the government and unnecessary and expensive investigations like the failed attempt to use the Benghazi tragedy to bring disgrace to the President. The list is long and obvious unless you were asleep for the last six years. 

Now the hapless Republicans are trying to make the President’s use of executive orders an issue.  They want us to ignore the fact that President Obama has averaged 37 executive orders per year while the average for the last 20 presidents is 44. 

The current Republican dominated House of Representatives has passed only 58 bills in their first year as compared to the previous “worst Congress ever” of 1948 which passed 395. 

The Republicans in the Senate have done their part to severely damage American government.  By abusing the filibuster, they have hamstrung the various departments of government by not allowing the President to make appointments to fill vacancies.  This same tactic has been used to keep the President from appointing judges and passing vital legislation. 

Possibly the worse part of all this is the American media’s complicity in not reporting about the damage being done to the American government and people.

Read more from Ewen MacAskill in the Guardian UK   http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/apr/26/democrats-gop-plot-obstruct-obama and recently covered in Vanity Fair:  "The Conspiracy to Commit Legislative Constipation" by James Wolcott  http://www.vanityfair.com/online/wolcott/2012/03/The-Conspiracy-to-Commit-Legislative-Constipation

The Bowe Bergdahl Timeline

The following dates are from the Rachel Maddow Show on 6/5/14. (See it on the YouTubes)

Between Dec. 2011 and Feb. 2012 information was leaked and covered by CNN and the Washington Post that the US government was negotiating a prisoner exchange for five specific Taliban prisoners being held in Guantanamo prison in Cuba. Those in Congress that are now claiming that they were unaware of this exchange apparently don’t follow the news.

May 2012 – The Bergdahl family, apparently disappointed with the lack of progress went public and identified their son, Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl as the American included in the prisoner exchange discussions for the five Taliban prisoners. The New York Times corroborated this information stating they were aware Sgt. Bergdahl was part of the exchange deal but didn’t disclose it until the information was released by the Bergdahl family.

As of May 2012, everyone in the world had access to the knowledge of who was included in this prisoner exchange being discussed. In fact, many on the Right were posting and tweeting that Pres Obama should carry thru with the exchange and disparaging him for not.

Feb. 2014 – Senator John McCain, in an aired interview, stated that he approved of the prisoner exchange. Later he will claim he wasn’t aware of who the Taliban prisoners were that were part of the exchange when he made that statement although it was public knowledge and he, thru his committees, had access to that knowledge.

June 2014 – The White House successfully carries out the prisoner exchange and brings home the last POW of the Afghanistan War. The initial outcry from the Right, including a number of Congress-people was of happiness for the Sergeant and his family.

In apparent orchestration, 3 – 4 days after the release of Sgt. Bergdahl, the Right Wing flip-flopped their reactions from joy to hate. Taking down their positive tweets and posts and posting negative ones. Hate, not only for the Sergeant but also towards his family.

This week on CNN, Sen McCain said that he doesn’t like the exchange because he wasn’t aware that it included the five designated Taliban prisoners. The same five Taliban prisoners that were discussed in public as far back as Dec. 2011. Senator McCain, can you spell hypocrite?

The following is General Martin Dempsey, Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff statement.
(https://finance.yahoo.com/news/americas-top-military-official-gave-143649501.html)

"In response to those of you interested in my personal judgments about the recovery of SGT Bowe Bergdahl, the questions about this particular soldier’s conduct are separate from our effort to recover ANY U.S. service member in enemy captivity. This was likely the last, best opportunity to free him. As for the circumstances of his capture, when he is able to provide them, we'll learn the facts. Like any American, he is innocent until proven guilty. Our Army's leaders will not look away from misconduct if it occurred. In the meantime, we will continue to care for him and his family. Finally, I want to thank those who for almost five years worked to find him, prepared to rescue him, and ultimately put themselves at risk to recover him."

I hope that Democratic candidates will not be afraid to make this fiasco of the Right a campaign issue.

Snowden on NBC

Snowden was recently interviewed by Brian Williams of NBC.  The interview lasted about three hours and NBC aired an edited hour of it.  They did make the complete interview available.  In part of the interview that NBC didn’t air, Snowden pointed out that the large amount of data the NSA had available prior to 9/11/01, wasn’t used to prevent this disaster.  It seems they had enough data but didnt "put it together".  Subsequently the NSA wants to use their failure as a reason to gather even more data.  Snowden, and others have expressed the idea that the answer isn’t to gather more data but to improve the methods of handling the data they have.  

Some want to excuse the NSA for the failure, claiming it was Pres Bush’s fault.  For that to be possible, the NSA/CIA would have had to present Bush with the data indicating the attack was going to happen and the President then chose to ignore it.  Now that is a Conspiracy Theory.  We have seen no evidence indicating that the NSA was aware of the impending attacks.  

I find the attacks on the person of Snowden very interesting.  Snowden basically told the American public that there were things about the NSA/CIA that we needed to look closer at and he isnt alone making that statement.  It doesnt matter what his character is like to recognize that there are things about the NSA/CIA that we need to know better.  They work for us.  Ok, so why the personal attacks on Snowden himself?  He only pointed at the NSA.  Do those that are personally attacking him want us to forget what he said and pretend it never happened?  Why?  What would it hurt to investigate the allegations and see if there is anything we need to know about the NSA/CIA.  

I can only think of two reasons people would try to divert attention away from the NSA/CIA and their possible Constitution violations.  One, they want to live in ignorant bliss, or two, they worship the authoritarian power of the NSA/CIA. 

Authoritarianism - And How to Live and Love the NSA

The NSA/CIA Group is the AUTHORITY and the authoritarians demand we allow them carte blanche to lead us, protect us, and control us.   And if you are looking for the easy way, that's it. Well, you may have some mandatory cool aid drinking and allow cams to be installed in your home, but hey. 

Authoritarians hate being identified as such, but if you worship authority, you are an authoritarian by definition.  Authoritarians of course would hate whistle-blowers, investigative journalists, protestors and all that dare question those in authority.

Some of us are taught from childhood to never, ever question authority. Not parents, not teachers, not priests, not Boy Scout leaders, and not even creepy uncle Jerald.  The reason for this is that it is sooo much easier for the authoritarians to control.  If you encourage people to think for themselves, you are opening a can of worms.

What I find crazy is that some of these authoritarians call themselves liberals.  Yes they may believe in same sex marriage and legal marijuana, but blind allegiance to anyone is not in the definition of "liberal", at least IMO.

Can We Save Net Neutrality?

From an article written by John Nichols for The Nation Magazine (May 14, 2014) writes:

“Cable and telecommunications companies stand to reap billions if the Internet’s guarantee of equal protection for all communications is scrapped. Without net neutrality protections, they would be freed to create a pay-to-play Internet where they could charge corporations and special-interest groups to provide high-speed service, while consigning websites without benefactors to a digital dirt road.”

In the article he quotes the ACLU:

“The Internet has become so much a part of the lives of most Americans that it is easy to imagine that it will always remain the free and open medium it is now. We'd like to believe it will remain a place where you can always access any lawful content you want, and where the folks delivering that content can't play favorites because they disagree with the message being delivered or want to charge more money for faster delivery.”

Nichols continues:

“FCC chair Tom Wheeler, a former industry lobbyist appointed last fall to a Democratic seat by President Obama, created a firestorm when he proposed to establish an Internet fast lane that would favor free-spending corporations and special-interest groups, while discriminating against those who cannot pay to play. Wheeler’s assault on net neutrality, has been met with determined opposition from Americans who want to maintain honest competition and a democratic discourse in the digital era.”

There is a call to action to all Americans that want the internet to remain free from the control of the Corptocracy.  Go to FCC.gov and let the FCC know that they are supposed to represent We The People and not big corps.

The ACLU answers some key questions here:  https://www.aclu.org/net-neutrality