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Oakley the Weimaraner Liked the Xmas Eve Profile of Lawrence Wilkerson
Share / Recommend - Comment - Print - Saturday, Dec 24 2005, 12:01PM
Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays!
Oakley and I wish you a fantastic holiday weekend. I'm working with my new Apple Powerbook and appreciate all of the advice from knowledgable Mac practitioners.
While Oakley has the blue ball, it seems that my powerbook does have the blue tooth -- so many things are possible.
And to cap off an interesting season of foreign policy work, the October 19th talk by Lawrence Wilkerson at the New America Foundation and Wilkerson's subsequent thoughtful and impassioned commentary on America's broken national security decision making "system" drew a great profile piece by Steve Weisman today in the New York Times.
Weisman writes:
"What I saw was a cabal between the vice president of the United States, Richard Cheney, and the secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld, on critical issues that made decisions that the bureaucracy did not know were being made," Mr. Wilkerson said in a well-publicized speech at the New America Foundation in October. "And you've got a president who is not versed in international relations and not too much interested in them either," he added in the speech.Mr. Wilkerson has also attacked the Bush administration for allegedly condoning torture and setting lax policies on treatment of detainees that led, he charges, to the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and the black eye they gave to the United States Army.
SINCE starting to speak out a few months ago, Mr. Wilkerson has become something of a Washington celebrity. He has given interviews and speeches, appeared on television, written op-ed articles and taken telephone calls from journalists and senators.
That talk Col. Wilkerson gave at New America was an event that "mattered", and my New Year's Resolution for 2006 is to make sure that we have more such occasions that "matter."
I salute Larry Wilkerson for what he has done these last few months with regard to getting this country's foreign policy back on track -- and I feel privileged to have worked with him and enjoyed make his speech a "well publicized" one as Weisman remarked.
Just a short note to Col. Wilkerson's wife, Barbara, who recently sent me some fantastic Christmas cookies. I had two of them -- and Oakley, the very crafty weimaraner, decided he deserved the rest.
Thanks on behalf of both of us for the cookies, and thanks from TWN's readers for supporting your husband during this complicated time.
Happy holidays to all -- and more soon.
-- Steve Clemons
P.S. Keep the Mac advice coming. I'm reading everything you post and send. Really appreciate it.
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Happy holidays, Steve, and congratulations on a great year.
The financial newsletter Barron's (published by the Wall St. Journal) says it's time to consider impeachment of Our Dear Leader. I can't enclose the link to the editorial, because it is a subscription-only site (darn capitalists!) The fact that the "I" word is entering mainstream political discourse seems to me a very big deal, and it's a wonderful holiday gift....!
pj
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AS THE YEAR WAS DRAWING TO A CLOSE, we picked up our New York Times and learned that the Bush administration has been fighting terrorism by intercepting communications in America without warrants. It was worrisome on its face, but in justifying their actions, officials have made a bad situation much worse: Administration lawyers and the president himself have tortured the Constitution and extracted a suspension of the separation of powers.
...
Surely the "strict constructionists" on the Supreme Court and the federal judiciary eventually will point out what a stretch this is. The most important presidential responsibility under Article II is that he must "take care that the laws be faithfully executed." That includes following the requirements of laws that limit executive power. There's not much fidelity in an executive who debates and lobbies Congress to shape a law to his liking and then goes beyond its writ.
Willful disregard of a law is potentially an impeachable offense. It is at least as impeachable as having a sexual escapade under the Oval Office desk and lying about it later. The members of the House Judiciary Committee who staged the impeachment of President Clinton ought to be as outraged at this situation. They ought to investigate it, consider it carefully and report either a bill that would change the wiretap laws to suit the president or a bill of impeachment.
It is important to be clear that an impeachment case, if it comes to that, would not be about wiretapping, or about a possible Constitutional right not to be wiretapped. It would be about the power of Congress to set wiretapping rules by law, and it is about the obligation of the president to follow the rules in the Acts that he and his predecessors signed into law.
Some ancillary responsibility, however, must be attached to those members of the House and Senate who were informed, inadequately, about the wiretapping and did nothing to regulate it. Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV, Democrat of West Virginia, told Vice President Dick Cheney in 2003 that he was "unable to fully evaluate, much less endorse these activities." But the senator was so respectful of the administration's injunction of secrecy that he wrote it out in longhand rather than give it to someone to type. Only last week, after the cat was out of the bag, did he do what he should have done in 2003 -- make his misgivings public and demand more information.
Published reports quote sources saying that 14 members of Congress were notified of the wiretapping. If some had misgivings, apparently they were scared of being called names, as the president did last week when he said: "It was a shameful act for someone to disclose this very important program in a time of war. The fact that we're discussing this program is helping the enemy."
Wrong. If we don't discuss the program and the lack of authority for it, we are meeting the enemy -- in the mirror.
I appreciate Wilkerson's recent revelations as much as anyone. But, really, why now and not four years ago? Let's restrain some of that effusive praise.
Merry Christmas Steve and Oakley!
Thanks for this great blog--I've been reading all year! Best wishes for a happy, healthy, accident-free, and productive New Year to you and the other readers.
Steve: I hope you recieve all the "leaks" you wish for next year.
Oakley: I wish you a comfy couch and lots of chewy slippers.
Dear Steve,
If you handle the Mac input with the thoroughness you handle WashingtonNote, we may soon have an interesting Mac blog run by you! :-)
I will be a continued devoted reader and contributor.
Someone said 17 years of virus free Mac computing - mine is 22 years of the same.
There is a good blogging software from iBlog which is good if you are running from your own server or using the .Mac server to host your blog.
Hello Steve
I also switched over to G4 Powerbook about a year ago. One piece of practical advice I can give is how its helped me with organizing my research. Safari allows you to save webpages into a web archive format. Usually I save pages from a newspaper in the print friendly form, so it doesn't take too much space (and so I get a whole article) I find its often really nice to have a hard copy of news articles on my hard drive when I need them for future reference, even if I have a subscription to the news outlet already.
I'm pretty sure that you've probably done something like this already. But what I really found helpful is the spotlight search function (on the top right corner) which I can just pop in a key word (like for example, Dana Priest and Terror flights) and it will bring the article up. It can even search within the body text of articles to find it. It certainly saved me plenty of time researching, and searching around, especially given I used to collect paper articles before, and have reams of papers sitting in my basement.
Happy Holidays
thanks, steve, for all your hard work on behalf of all of us... a very merry christmas and all the best for the new year... i am headed out with friends here in buenos aires in a few hours for asado, homemade empanandas and sidra followed by shooting off a ton of fireworks at midnight and trying not to lose my fingers or an arm... (all the best to oakley as well...)
Oakley has a blue ball, but he sure will never have blue balls since his balls were cut off. Merry Xmas, Oakley, Merry Xmas, fella.
Steve:
I am with Farinata X. The only reason to wait until after the elections is to prevent these revelations, such as they are, from possibly costing Dear Leader a second term. Whatever Wilkerson is enduring is hardly 27 years on Robben Island.
FROM JOHN CONYERS BLOG......
Now the Establishment Right is using the I Word?
Early Christmas present from Barrons
Today, the New York Times added another new disclosure -- the unauthorized wiretapping program involved mining and scanning massive amounts of domestic data and tapping into the networks of the leading telecommunications firms in the U.S. Our government even encouraged foreign calls to be routed though the U.S. to facilitate non-court approved surveillance.
This serves to add fuel to the flame of the impeachment debate. For many, many months, if not years, any mention of George W. Bush along with the term "impeachment," or the I word, was seen a politically toxic to the nth degree. But now, on the heals of the NSA scandal, the term has entered the popular lexicon -- as many of the below posts show. Today, that stalwart of the business right, Barrons (owned by Dow Jones -- the same folks who own the Wall Street Journal), weighed in with an editorial prominently using the I word. Among other things, the editorial board wrote:
"Willful disregard of a law is potentially an impeachable offense. It is at least as impeachable as having a sexual escapade under the Oval Office desk and lying about it later. The members of the House Judiciary Committee who staged the impeachment of President Clinton ought to be as outraged at this situation. They ought to investigate it, consider it carefully and report either a bill that would change the wiretap laws to suit the president or a bill of impeachment."
Well, the Democrats have asked Chairman Sensenbrenner for hearings on the spy scandal. 27 of us have filed a Resolution of Inquiry asking the Administration for the information. I have filed censure and investigative/impeachment resolutions, and am seeking support from citizens so that we can send a signal to the White House that the nation will not tolerate their misconduct any longer. Eventually, the people will be heard on this issue. If not this week, or next month, than next year or next election.
I wish all of my readers the happiest holiday season. We hit our nadir in November 04, but things will get better. Thank you.
Steve, do you intend to help Conyers' efforts by giving his efforts the exposure they so richly deserve????
(Yeah, I know, Steve never answers, but what the hell, at least I'm makin' my point.)
Who takes care of Oakley when you travel?
Steve, I love your site, and you've really opened my eyes to what goes on in Washington. Hope Santa's good to you and Oakley and the rest of the posters here.
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas, Steve and Oakley!
Thanks, Steve, for a great blog and for all your efforts trying to instill some sanity in our foreign policy. In an administration fixated on revenge, it isn't easy.
I suppose that next we will be hearing from the WH that establishing an Islamist religious state was the goal all along in Iraq and perhaps we will even get the admission that this is the noble cause for which Casey Sheehan gave his life.
Think Joe Sixpack will even notice?
Nice that you're so cozy with Wilkerson-- so how come you haven't asked him some of the hard questions?
I mean after all he sat on critical information far longer than the NYTimes. Loyalty to Powell? Let's see, did he swear an oath to protect Powell?
Has anyone gotten a straight answer from Wilkerson about his sudden conversion to opposition celebrity?
Well, actually credit appears to go to George Packer's book, Assassin's Gate.
You may be interested in a more critical review of Wilkerson and what he says about the Washington mindset by Lewis Lapham in latest Harpers.
Steve:
Happy Holidays! Thanks again for your wonderful blog and all the fantastic events you have organized over the years. You are the best!
Special kudos for the Wilkinson scoop. People underestimate how difficult it must have been for him to go public, especially in the repressive Bush climate. For an ex- military man, it is disloyal to speak against the hierarchy. By hosting the event in public and (I pressume) privately encouraging him to come forward, you have done a great service to this country.
Let's hope for the impeachment investigation!
Miriam
RE: your Mac. I recently had to switch back to PC; a few graphic programs are not available in MAC. A girlfriend suggested an external drive to handle large graphic files. I highly recommend it! The pluses: it automatically backs up all your files so you do not have to worry.It is ideal to store large files, articles, etc... without burdening your computer or having to keep track of zillions of CD's. In addition, you can give it to someone else to print, very useful if you are working on a book.
Again, keep up the excellent work.
Happy holidays! The right-wing-created war on Christmas is finally over!
Miriam - Macs aren't right for everyone, most particularly in the case of folks heavily reliant on Windows-only software. But I'm surprised to hear you say you're reliant on graphics programs not available on the Mac. Out of curiosity, what apps are you referring to?
Hello from Lisbon, Steve, and a very happy Christmas and New Year. Came across your blog a few months ago and I'm hooked. Keep up your fantastic work.
R
Steve, thanks for all your great work in 2005. It is good that you have a new toy. Hope you have fun with it. It seems like Mac owners all do. I'll nurse my Inspiron along, knowing I am not nearly as prolific as you. Have a satisfying 2006. Trust your instincts; they serve you (and us) well.
Merry Ho-Ho and Happy Hannukah to all today. To MT, yes, I accepted cookies from Barbara Wilkerson. They were great. The issue is not whether or not one accepts cookies -- but whether one is transparent about it. In any case, I'd be happy to accept cookies from any TWN readers. ;-)
Have a great new year all!
Steve
Well, so much for my Christmas wish that someone would give Powell a stocking full of integrity for Christmas.....
Powell: 'Nothing Wrong' With Eavesdropping
WASHINGTON - Former Secretary of State Colin Powell on Sunday supported government eavesdropping to prevent terrorism but said a major controversy over presidential powers could have been avoided by obtaining court warrants.
Powell said that when he was in the Cabinet, he was not told that President Bush authorized a warrantless National Security Agency surveillance operation after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
Appearing on ABC's "This Week" Powell said he sees "absolutely nothing wrong with the president authorizing these kinds of actions" to protect the nation.
But he added, "My own judgment is that it didn't seem to me, anyway, that it would have been that hard to go get the warrants. And even in the case of an emergency, you go and do it."
The New York Times reported on its Internet site Friday that the NSA has traced and analyzed large volumes of telephone and Internet communications flowing into and out of the United States. The program bypassed the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
Powell said Congress will need to judge whether Bush is correct in his assertion that he could approve eavesdropping without first obtaining court orders.
"And that's going to be a great debate," Powell said.
Powell, who also is a former chairman of the military Joint Chiefs of Staff, had no reservations when asked whether eavesdropping should continue.
"Of course it should continue," he said. "And nobody is suggesting that the president shouldn't do this."
mac/pc, the grand dialogue of the deaf. I don't care if you can get it done with a toaster.
We certainly need more Larry Wilkersons, who are willing to expose the propaganda and BS that the Bush administration continues to spew on a regular basis. Col. Wilkerson, despite what his neo-con naysayers and their apologists may say, is a true American whose primary concern is the welfare of the nation's integrity. Without integrity, we have nothing...or we might as well have nothing.
Awww, your Weim picture made me smile. We've only had Weims, til recently, after our 11 year old male died. Now we have a baby girl Vizsla, smaller than a Weim but just as smart and feisty.
Love your blog, Steve. Read it daily. I guess I found it during the Bolton nomination fracas, and got hooked. Thanks for all you do, and best of the season to you and the pup.
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