Thursday, June 13, 2013

Do the same laws for the government apply to NSA contractors?

National Iraqi News Agency reports a Mosul roadside bombing has injured three police officers.  They also report mass arrests in Hamrin Hills (near Baquba, 5 people), and in Diwaniyah Province (25).



Part of the reason I'm so sick of being online is my friends who have my phone numbers.  And they call and, in fairness, they're raising important issues and wanting them addressed.  Some are journalists who are shot down by their outlet but can try to use something on the web to argue, "We better cover it, looks like it might come out somewhere else."  Some are attorneys who want me to play out a case with them and when I point out a flaw in an argument, they demand that I write about that online.  Then there are the friends with noble intentions who are doing something for veterans or have a friend who's doing something or know about a report or did a report on veterans issues and they want that noted.

I'm sorry to complain but I should be offline already. Instead I've now been online for two and a half hours and that's why I hate doing this website.  It's one thing for community members to ask for an issue that's important to them be addressed.  That's what this site is here for.  But phone call after phone call from friends?  Making requests when some of them have outlets they could do something with?

And I'm tossing that out there because in July I will decide whether I continue for six more months or finally get to close down as was the plan for November 2008.

An NPR friend wants Brent Martin's report (Nebraska Network Radio) on Senator Mike Johanns (audio and text) noted.  His argument is 1) Martin's doing a Congressional report and that's rare on NPR (it really is rare, he's not lying) and 2) it will back up the point Ava was making in her report last night (I hope so, I haven't listened to Martin's report).

An attorney called regarding the idiotic nonsense by the Boston Globe's editorial board.  Myself, I wouldn't worry.  Those people are most likely going to have to find real jobs real soon because NYT has its own money problems and can't afford to carry that paper (which no one seems to want to purchase) much longer.   "Is Snowden a whistleblower? Only if NSA broke the law" is the title of the idiotic editorial.

Linda Tripp exposed gossip in my opinion (Lewinsky giving Bill blow jobs).  But some people consider her a whistel-blower.  I'm not interested in arguing with Joy Behar about that, it really doesn't matter in my life.  If that's what someone wants to believe, more power to them.  (Behar believes Tripp is not a whistle-blower and believes that everyone must believe what she believes.)
The editorial board is writing a complete falsehood with that title alone.  A whistle-blower can expose, for example, code violations.  Code violations aren't considered criminal law.  A whistle-blower is someone who exposes wrong doing which does -- please note -- include abuse of power.  That can be nepotism, that can be favoritism, that can any number of things.  Learn the law before you try to cite it. 

At some point in the editorial -- it was read to me as I was working on the previous entry (like Martha Stewart, I just want to focus on my salad but apparently that's not to be) -- I said, "One question that needs to be answered by the Senate is why are contractors used?  They're not cheaper in the long run and is this an attempt by the government to step around restrictions that would apply to government employees but wouldn't necessarily apply to contractors?"

That's such an important question.  Really?  I don't see it that way at all.  I think it's a basic question and I'm sure some people have dealt with it.  And whatever passage from there that was read to me made me think of USA's Covert Affairs and how Annie walks off for a second and the Mossad agent tells the man he will talk about his brother because he (Mossad) isn't a US government agent and isn't bound by US regulations against torture.

They may have no leeway, contractors doing intel work for the US government, but that needs to be addressed.  That needs to be part of the conversation.  In case it hasn't been, we'll make it the title of this online scream.


(Covert Affairs premiers its new season July 16th.  And I'll note that because a friend's on the program -- but that friend never asked for a link to their show. Nor ever complained when Ava and I trashed the show in our reviews -- I believe we've trashed it three times now.)


A CBS friend asked that we note  CBS This Morning has a video report from Seth Doane on whistle-blower Ed Snowden's remarks about the US spying on China (Elaine noted this development last night). Doane quotes Snowden stating,  "I'm neither traitor nor hero, I'm an American."


Indian Country Today Media Network reports:

 The Cherokee Nation honored three veterans, including renowned Indian artist Donald Vann and two Iraq War veterans, with the Cherokee Medal of Patriotism at its June Tribal Council meeting.
Vann and Jake Andrew Stopp, 30, both of Tahlequah, Oklahoma, and Steven Morales, 28, of Dermott, Arkansas, received a medal and plaque from Principal Chief Bill John Baker and Deputy Chief Joe Crittenden June 10, acknowledging their service to the country.



A friend who's a Native American activist called about that and how ICTMN rarely gets noted by non-Native American outlets and a link would mean so much.  I'm not arguing with that.  Those friends got their requests.  But there are other things that I'm not noting.  And that's going to upset some friends -- some of whom will be surprised.  A US veteran was kidnapped in Mexico?  I'm sorry.  But I don't have time to research it and we don't cover -- or pretend to -- every veteran story.  An Iraq War veteran was recently shot dead by his toddler son.  We didn't cover it.  Why would we?  It's a horrific accident and I'm sure the family's still reeling from the pain.  To be honest, I would never put up the toddler's name.  Years from now, when he's an adult, his name will still be all over the internet.  He didn't mean to kill his father, he wasn't trying to.  It was a horrible accident.  The fact that the father was an Iraq War veteran didn't mean we had to cover it.  There are hundreds of stories we never touch on because there isn't time or because there isn't space.


This Monday, we were supposed to have covered The Drone War.  It's Thursday, it still hasn't happened.  I told a friend with a studio that we'd cover their movie.  I thought on Tuesday.  It still hasn't happened.  The scandals of this administration do not go away.  There are so many of them.  Every day is a new one.

I would like to never again attend a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing.  I've only attended two in the current Congress.  Two was more than enough.  See Ava's "Shut up, Senator Barbara Mikulski" and "shut up" is the phrase I don't use in my personal life.  I believe I've shared this online before, in the 70s I broke up with a guy because he kept screaming "Shut up!" at my dog.  My dog was barking for a reason -- and in the backyard, he wasn't a house dog.  I said, "Don't ever tell him that again."  And a day later, he did it again so I told him to pack his stuff and get out of my home.  I don't scream "shut up" at people, I don't say it to people, I don't say it to animals.  Others can do as they please (except to my children or to my animals).



But, yes, Ava is correct that Mikulski never stops talking.  No other Committee Chair does that.

She makes her opening statement, she has her first round of questioning and still she talks.  She cuts off Committee members while they're speaking, in the middle of questions, to editorialize, to tell jokes, to share.  After a senator has a round of questioning, she wants to speak some more before the next senator can speak. 

It is unprofessional and it is appalling to watch. She's an embarrassment for all women with her behavior as Committee Chair.

That Ava's the first to note it goes to how much indulgence is given when you're over the Committee handing out the money.

I'm sitting in a committee hearing right now.  Opening statements are going on (I have those in hard copy).  I'm getting so tired of DC and committee hearings and everything else.

This is my 'scream' and my explanation of why I may not be renewing for six more months.

This should be the piece on Iraq this morning.  That's not happening.  I'm sitting in a committee hearing where I can't scream out loud though that's what I feel like doing from all the pressure of  'you must include this!'  We already include a great deal.  It seems to me that instead of repeatedly requesting things from me others who don't do anything day after day online (except maybe repeat White House talking points) could be pressed into service.

I am at my breaking point.  And I'm making myself sick about what we're not including -- I've thrown up all week stressing over the snapshots after they're dictated.  It's not worth it to me to make myself physically sick.   If this doesn't stop, the site will go dark.  The other alternative is that on a morning like today when I'm slammed with non-stop phone calls asking for this and for that (almost all of it good intentioned), I'll just do one morning entry and then later a snapshot. 

We'll cover Iraq in the snapshot today.  We did have it in the other entry but I had to pull it because it was too much for that entry, it took away from what NPR was doing.  (And I'm sure the NPR friend I was speaking to during some of that is furious with me but we will take on the nonsense of Pacifica Radio in the snapshot, that's a promise.  Because it allows us to again note that Barack has sent US troops back into Iraq.  Community wide, our sites seem to be the only ones who can note that. Why we're expected to note everything else is beyond me.)

The opening statements are almost over so I need to get ready to take notes. Therefore, as Kat says, it is what it is.


The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.






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