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Zebra 3 Report by Joe Anybody
Wednesday, 24 October 2007
How to use RSS or XML
Mood:
 energetic
Now Playing: This is an EASY and Effecient way to read Web-based News
Topic: MEDIA
  This little orange Icon lets you know the webpage url is ……..supported by an RSS feed (which many news websites are) The orange Icon is usually is on the left side and near the bottom of websites that have this feature. When ever I read a website I like I then look over the page for this little Icon, if its there I then know this website will work in my RSS reader client You click on the orange icon ….. then a new page will open ….. “Just copy that new page url address” and paste it into “your reader” And here is the “reader” that I am using its called Sharpreader (there are many other ones out there – and they all are FREE!!)http://www.sharpreader.net/ Just read the intro and download the installer – that would be “your RSS reader”This instruction on that page – for me …….. I just ignored the NET part reference I didn’t have to mess with NET Framework (But if you need to I think its simple to install) But first just try to install your reader and don’t worry about the NET issue ….. ……..unless you have problems – if you do then come back and install the NET…. Prior to running SharpReader, you will need to install the .NET Framework, version 2.0 or version 1.1 SP1. If you do not currently have the .NET Framework installed, you can get it at windowsupdate, or here. (If you can’t install Sharpreader then come back and do this NET Framework install) (PS - if your Microsoft window updates are current you probably already have the NET Framework installed already) ________ Once you have installed the Shapreader client your ready to hunt for url’s that are supporting RSS or XML feeds Copy past those url’s you find….. into your reader ……….at the top …………and then hit the “subscribe button” 
Above in the screenshot / picture is my Sharpreader ….. see the Subscribe button near the top (Pink Arrow)And see the Green Arrow point to where you will paste the url for website you want to put into your reader By double clicking on any article in your reader you open that original website, other wise scan headlines and read paragraphs all inside your reader client Using a RSS reader make it easy to skim many sites looking at the article titles then seeing a short paragraph or if you want more just Double Click to go to that website and see the complete page “outside of your reader” Here is a link to more info on RSS feeds http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS_(file_format) (Which stands for really simple syndication) Good Luck – Enjoy Reading All That News If perplexed just drop me an email
Posted by Joe Anybody
at 11:16 AM PDT
Updated: Wednesday, 24 October 2007 11:23 AM PDT
Monday, 22 October 2007
FAIR GAME - an article by Valerie Plame Wilson
Mood:
 don't ask
Now Playing: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House
Topic: CONSPIRACY
Valerie Plame, Telling the (Edited) Inside StoryThis was copied for the Zebra3 Report from the link below By Alan Cooperman senior editor for non-fiction at Book World
Monday, October 22, 2007; Page C01
FAIR GAME My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House By Valerie Plame Wilson Simon & Schuster. 411 pp. $26 Mothers who are spies, it turns out, face the same juggling act as other working moms. After a year at home following the birth of twins, Valerie Plame Wilson returned to work in April 2001 in the Iraq branch of the CIA's Counterproliferation Division. "When I had to deal with pressing operational issues I had no choice but to bring the toddlers into my office on a Saturday," she writes in her memoir, published this week. "Making decisions on how much money to offer a potential asset while handing crayons to my daughter who sat under my desk was strange indeed, but not without humor." Since senior administration officials whispered "Valerie Plame" and "CIA" in the same breath to half a dozen journalists in 2003, some people have not very subtly suggested that her work couldn't really have been all that hush-hush if she had an office job, not to mention blond hair and little kids. "She was not involved in clandestine activities," Robert D. Novak, the syndicated columnist who first published her name, wrote earlier this year in his dueling memoir. "Instead, each day she went to CIA headquarters in Langley where she worked on arms proliferation." There are lots of she said-he said moments in the Plame affair, matters on which an impartial observer can only conclude that, well, both sides have a point. But this is not one of them. Before her retirement in 2006, Wilson spent more than 20 years in the CIA, including six years, one month and 29 days of overseas service. We know this because the agency, in a bureaucratic blunder, put it in an unclassified letter about her pension eligibility that it later tried desperately to recall, and that she has included as an appendix to "Fair Game." We also know that she worked on the operations side, the part of the CIA that runs agents and covert activities, rather than on the analytical side, which tries to make sense of all the information flowing in. From her former CIA "classmates," we know that she went through the agency's elite Career Trainee program, including paramilitary training at the classified location known as the Farm, and was one of just three in her class of 50 who were chosen to be NOCs (pronounced "knocks"), or non-official cover officers, the most clandestine in the agency. And from her memoir, we now know how deeply secrecy was ingrained in her. Imagine when, in her mid-20s, after a first CIA tour in Greece under diplomatic cover as a junior State Department official, she gave up her diplomatic passport and any public affiliation with the U.S. government and switched to being a NOC. Part of the transition involved coming home to the United States, ostensibly jobless, and moving back into her parents' house while studying French. How many 20-somethings still living with Mom and Dad fantasize about saying, "Actually, I work for the CIA"? In young Valerie Plame's case, it was true -- and she apparently didn't tell a soul. When she became famous a decade later, her dearest friends were stunned, and she feared they might not forgive her for all those years of lying. True, the CIA recalled her from Europe in 1997, fearing that her name might have been passed to the Russians by the mole Aldrich Ames. But, she writes, she still took different routes to work each day, "traveled domestically and abroad using a variety of aliases" and continued to hope for another foreign posting. There is no reason to doubt that Wilson wrote "Fair Game" herself. To put it kindly, the memoir lacks the sheen of a ghostwriter's work and has the voice of an ordinary person caught up in extraordinary events. It doesn't help that the CIA redacted the manuscript heavily before approving it for publication. Each time she is about to launch into a juicy anecdote, it seems, lines are blacked out, sometimes for pages on end. The book is, however, greatly assisted by an afterword by Laura Rozen, a reporter for the American Prospect. Rozen faithfully echoes Wilson's point of view but fills in many of the censored dates, places and other details from published sources. Readers would be smart to turn to the afterword first, before tackling Wilson's disjointed narrative. The outlines of the story are familiar: In 2002, the CIA sent her husband, former U.S. ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, on an unpaid, eight-day fact-finding trip to Niger. Within hours of his return, he told eager CIA debriefers (while Valerie Wilson was ordering takeout Chinese food for them) that there was no evidence that Iraq had tried to buy yellowcake uranium from the African nation. When President Bush nevertheless included the uranium allegation in a State of the Union address, Joe Wilson wrote an op-ed for the New York Times accusing the administration of misleading the American people. Both of the Wilsons firmly believe that she was outed, in retaliation, by White House officials who sought to discredit him by telling reporters that his trip was arranged by his wife, who worked for the CIA. Tapped to investigate the leak of her name, special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald put that theory before a jury, which never got to the heart of the matter but did convict the vice president's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, of perjury and obstruction of justice. Bush then commuted Libby's 30-month prison sentence. The question remains: Was she behind her husband's trip to Niger? "Fair Game" gives a nuanced answer that is largely, but not entirely, in her favor. She says that when the vice president's office asked the CIA about the uranium allegation, a "midlevel reports officer" suggested in a hallway conversation that the agency could send Joe Wilson to investigate. The suggestion made sense because Wilson had served as an ambassador in Africa, was the top Africa expert on the National Security Council in the Clinton administration and made a previous trip to Niger at the CIA's request in 1999. She and the midlevel officer brought the idea to their boss, who liked it and asked her to send an e-mail up the chain of command. "My husband has good relations with both the PM [prime minister] and the former Minister of Mines (not to mention lots of French contacts), both of whom could possibly shed light on this sort of activity," she wrote. Thus, by her own account, Valerie Wilson neither came up with the idea nor approved it. But she did participate in the process and flogged her husband's credentials. When Joe Wilson learned about her e-mail years later, she says, he was "too upset to listen" to her explanations. "Fair Game" reveals some intimate details of the Wilsons' lives, including her battle with postpartum depression. Sudden fame and withering political attacks made Washington so "toxic" to them that they began fantasizing about moving to New Zealand and ultimately decamped to New Mexico. Relatives came forward, and, like Madeleine Albright, Valerie Wilson discovered she was part Jewish. But the book is less forthcoming about her politics; she does not mention, for example, that she made a $1,000 contribution to Al Gore's campaign in 1999. One other matter begs clarification. As Rozen notes in the afterword, there is "an undeniable irony to Valerie Wilson later being exposed by the White House in a subterranean tussle" over prewar intelligence because "Valerie was not one of the intelligence community dissidents arguing against the threat posed by Saddam Hussein." Quite the contrary: Wilson makes clear in "Fair Game" that she and her colleagues in the Counterproliferation Division were very worried that Iraq would use chemical or biological weapons on U.S. forces. They were dumbfounded when no weapons of mass destruction were found, and, in a telling passage, she says their spirits were "briefly buoyed" when coalition forces in northern Iraq discovered curious flatbed trailers that the CIA thought, at first, might be mobile bio-weapons labs. Yet, in one of the memoir's deeper insights, "Fair Game" suggests that if you knew what she knew at the time, you would have feared both that Saddam Hussein had WMDs and that the Bush administration was overstating the case for war. In the bowels of the CIA, she and her colleagues clustered around a TV as Secretary of State Colin Powell laid the evidence before the United Nations on Feb. 5, 2003. "It was a powerful presentation," she writes, "but I knew key parts of it were wrong."
Posted by Joe Anybody
at 12:06 PM PDT
Sunday, 21 October 2007
OCT 27 the March Route and Driving Directions - in Seattle
Mood:
 vegas lucky
Now Playing: heading to Seattle this next week end - this info will help
Topic: PROTEST!
THE MARCH ROUTE IS: MARCH ROUTE
from Judkins to Occidental From the west side of Judkins Park - west onto Nye Place;From Nye Place turn right onto 20th Ave, heading north;From 20th turn right onto Jackson, heading east;From Jackson turn left onto 23rd, heading north;From 23rd turn left onto Yesler, heading west;From Yesler turn left onto 14th, heading south;From 14th turn right onto Jackson, heading west;From Jackson turn right onto Occidental heading into Occidental Park.
For a larger Google Map of The March Route Click Here: Directions from the Interstate Freeways to the Judkins Park NOON Rally: From I-5 North: IF DRIVING FROM PORTLAND:
1. Head north on I-5 N -
2. Take exit 164A for Dearborn St/James St toward Madison St - 0.4 mi
3. Follow signs for Dearborn St - 0.1 mi
4. Turn right at S Dearborn St - 0.7 mi
5. S Dearborn St turns left and becomes 20th Pl S - 36 ft
Arrive at: Judkins Park
From I-5 South:
1. Head south on I-5 S - 0.1 mi
2. Take exit 164 for I-90 E/Dearborn St/Airport Way toward Bellevue/Spokane/4th Ave S - 0.8 mi
3. Keep right at the fork, follow signs for Dearborn St - 0.2 mi
4. Turn left at S Dearborn St - 0.8 mi
5. S Dearborn St turns left and becomes 20th Pl S - 36 ft
Arrive at: Judkins Park From I-90 East:
1. Head west on I-90 W toward Exit 3B - 1.0 mi
2. Take exit 3B for Rainier Ave N - 0.3 mi
3. Merge onto Rainier Ave S - 0.3 mi
4. Turn right at S Dearborn St - 0.3 mi
5. S Dearborn St turns left and becomes 20th Pl S - 36 ft
After the Demonstration there will be 8 buses an hour leaving Occidental Park (from 3rd Ave S & S MAIN) back to Judkins Park. Regular Fare: $ 1.25 Senior/Disabled Fare with Permit: $ 0.25 :: MORE INFO ON BUS SHUTTLES and THE MARCH ROUTE ::
Posted by Joe Anybody
at 4:30 AM PDT
Updated: Sunday, 21 October 2007 4:32 AM PDT
Wednesday, 17 October 2007
TSA & Airline Security = BULLSHIT
Mood:
 on fire
Now Playing: Terrorism my Ass - TSA is a joke that makes your daughters strip
Topic: FAILURE by the GOVERNMENT
Joe Anybody says "The TSA is BULLSHIT" ____________________ 
Waiting to Happen ____ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Waiting to Happen With overseas mechanics and overstretched inspectors, FAA oversight of the airlines is an accident... Jim Morris and Frank Koughan
July/August 2006 Issue The Following Article was copied from Mother Jones http://www.motherjones.com/cgi-bin/print_article.pl?url=http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2006/07/waiting_to_happen.html Mark Fetherolf knows, in excruciating detail, how his 16-year-old daughter, Tara, died. Tara was one of the 229 people on board Swissair Flight 111, which crashed into the Atlantic off the coast of Nova Scotia on September 2, 1998. He knows that the Boeing MD-11 caught fire about an hour into the New York-to-Geneva flight and tried to make an emergency landing in Halifax. He knows that the plane struck the water at an approximate speed of 350 mph, causing it, and the people inside, to be shredded into small pieces. And he knows that the faulty installation of an electronic gambling system that is believed to have caused the fire was overseen by a now-defunct California firm called Santa Barbara Aerospace, which was standing in for the Federal Aviation Administration as a so-called designee. This meant the company could certify the work was done to FAA standards. What Fetherolf doesn’t know is why the FAA, despite its own apparent misgivings before the accident, allowed Santa Barbara Aerospace to retain its designee status—a setup that amounts to industry self-regulation. His many inquiries proved fruitless, and he was dissatisfied with the FAA’s investigation into the matter. And so, when the 52-year-old software executive recently learned that the agency was about to give the aviation industry even greater freedom to self-regulate, he grew uneasy. "It scares me to death to think about a bunch of these fly-by-night companies being able to put even more distance between themselves and any real regulation," says Fetherolf, who lives in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. "There are just some people in the business who need scrutiny." That scrutiny is coming from fewer and fewer FAA inspectors and increasingly from the industry the FAA oversees. In a March 2004 speech, Nick Sabatini, the agency’s associate administrator for regulation and certification, said, "We must evolve from the traditional role of regulator and regulated." While the FAA "will always be the regulator," he said, the new mantra was "collaboration." He reaffirmed the concept at a meeting with FAA employees in January 2005, at which he said the agency "will continue to depend very heavily on designees." Sabatini calls it evolution. Others call it abdication. "It’s giving away the farm," says a veteran FAA inspector, who refused to be identified because he feared losing his job. "I don’t know that we’ve really learned the lesson we should have from Swissair 111." LAST YEAR, cash-short airlines increased their outsourcing of maintenance, creating an extra layer for overworked inspectors to penetrate. At the same time, the FAA’s Office of Aviation Safety, facing a $30 million shortfall, shed more than 250 inspectors and is itself outsourcing safety functions long performed by the government. In October, the agency transferred operation of 58 flight service stations—which relay weather and navigational information to small-aircraft pilots—to Lockheed Martin. Thirty-eight of the stations are to be closed. The same month, the FAA decreed that manufacturers like Boeing soon would be able to approve their own designs and modifications, a concession the industry had been seeking for years. Self-policing "puts us on a slippery slope," warned Jim Hall, former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). "The primary reason we’ve been able to build such a safe system is the structure we’ve had in place for years. The ultimate responsible party for safety is the government, and this new FAA policy essentially is trying to transfer that responsibility. It may work in the short term, but in the long term the public will see that what we have is a less safe system." The FAA has never been entirely comfortable with its regulatory role and, in fact, has spent much of its 48-year lifetime promoting the aviation industry. It’s been derided as a "tombstone agency," inflicting real pain on the industry only after a catastrophe. For all its faults, however, the FAA serves a purpose: It is charged with policing aviation, from the smallest propeller repair shop to Boeing’s vast assembly lines. It issues licenses to pilots and mechanics, approves aircraft designs, makes sure repairs are done correctly and parts aren’t counterfeit. It identifies safety lapses, orders companies to correct them, and punishes them when they don’t. Some of the violations it finds are relatively minor; others are anything but. In April 2005, for example, the FAA proposed a $600,000 penalty against American Eagle Airlines, saying it allowed a regional jet to fly 20 times even after learning the plane had a faulty rudder system. On January 19, 2004, American Eagle Flight 4649 left Bangor International Airport in Maine and had to return immediately because the plane’s rudder and rudder pedals had jammed. American Eagle "had prior knowledge of an aircraft vibration, yet continued to dispatch and operate the aircraft until actual rudder control rod failure at Bangor," the FAA said in a letter to the airline. (American Eagle says it has since changed its procedures in response to the episode.) And in June 2004, the FAA proposed a $1 million penalty against United Airlines, saying it had allowed a Boeing 777 with nonworking emergency escape slides to fly 263 times during six months of 2001. An FAA inspector in Denver discovered that all eight doors on the plane had pins installed in their "escape slide packs," rendering them useless. Boeing should have removed the pins before the plane left the factory, United said, and steps were taken to ensure that no further slipups occurred. Without that inspector’s diligence, how many thousands of passengers would have traveled on a dangerous aircraft, for how many more months? Would American Eagle and United have found and swiftly fixed these problems without the FAA breathing down their necks? There’s no way to know. But as Greg Feith, a former investigator for the NTSB, points out, "The FAA exists because someone needs to put boundaries" on airlines, pilots, and manufacturers. "If you don’t give them a rule book, they start making up their own rules." THE FAA’s ABILITY to maintain safe skies hinges on its relationships with its surrogates, known as designees, and on performing spot checks, if not full-scale investigations. In recent years, however, privatization has accelerated as the agency’s budget has been squeezed. Companies like Boeing, through their lobbying muscle and their presence on FAA advisory panels, have helped turn deregulatory dreams into rules, largely out of public view. "We’ve got an industry in crisis that needs more oversight and an administration that hates government," said Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), the senior Democrat on the House Aviation Subcommittee. "We’re skating on the edge here to save money, and it’s not right." As evidence that its new approach works, the FAA notes aviation’s exceptional safety record of late—a fatal accident rate of 1 per 7 million takeoffs, an all-time low. There has been no major domestic airline crash since November 2001, when American Airlines Flight 587 went down in New York, killing all 260 passengers and crew. The agency, which barred officials from talking to Mother Jones, said it has replaced its traditional "kicking tires" method of inspection in favor of a data-driven auditing system designed to spot disturbing patterns. This system, said a spokesman in a prepared statement, helps the FAA stay on top of the ever-expanding industry, even with fewer inspectors. The FAA is also "encouraging industry to increase use of designees," the spokesman said. "This enables the FAA to leverage its workforce by focusing its resources on safety-critical areas while providing industry with timely, technical expertise." Designees, however, are paid not by the FAA but by private industry. "To me, that’s giving somebody a loaded gun," said Randy Courtney, a retired 17-year FAA veteran. "If you were a designee working for Boeing and were threatened with firing for holding firm on a safety issue, what would you do? I was a damned good inspector, and I told people, ‘You’d better be thankful that there are people like me working in the FAA who care.’ I had no problem taking the responsibility and saying, ‘Bullshit. It’s not flying.’ There are inspectors now who won’t do that." And some aviation experts worry that the inspector workforce is already leveraged to the hilt. Consider the logistical challenges posed by maintenance outsourcing—the use of third-party repair stations to perform work historically done by the airlines. There are 4,305 FAA-approved repair stations and 3,081 FAA inspectors in this country, and another 687 stations abroad that are overseen by a mere 71 inspectors. According to the Department of Transportation’s inspector general, major airlines now contract out 53 percent of their maintenance work, up from 37 percent in 1996. The reason? It saves money. In theory, the 4,992 repair stations that service U.S. aircraft are no less reliable, from a safety standpoint, than the airlines’ own maintenance shops. The FAA has the right to inspect them, cite them for violations, and even shut them down. This assumes, however, that FAA inspectors can actually get to them—and in many cases they can’t. Lyle Alexander, a Singapore-based inspector, is responsible for one of the world’s largest repair stations, SIA Engineering Co., a subsidiary of Singapore Airlines. In the United States, an operation the size of SIA might have as many as four inspectors keeping watch. But Alexander must keep tabs on SIA by himself—and that’s only a small part of his workload. "I have about four repair stations of equivalent size, plus about 10 medium-size and 10 smaller repair stations scattered around Asia—one-third of the world—without any help or assistance," he said. "I can scratch the surface, and that’s about it." Since the fall of 2004, both the Department of Transportation’s inspector general and the Government Accountability Office (GAO), Congress’ watchdog agency, have jabbed at the FAA’s new regulatory strategy, questioning, among other things, whether the agency can maintain proper control of its sometimes-wayward designees and keep pace with the burgeoning number of contract repair stations. The FAA reacts defensively to such reports. In its written response to Mother Jones, for example, the agency challenged the accuracy of the inspector general’s figures on maintenance outsourcing and said, "The proportion of money spent on outsourced maintenance does not correlate to safety." It also stands by its data-intensive oversight system, which has gradually supplanted its old inspection strategy of combing through documents and interrogating workers. "With 3,152 inspectors," the FAA said, "we all recognize the futility of trying to police millions of flight operations and maintenance activities." LAST FALL, one of us tagged along as Mike Gonzales, a Scottsdale, Arizona-based inspector, dropped in on two of the nation’s biggest repair stations: TIMCO, at Phoenix-Goodyear Municipal Airport, and Evergreen Air Center in Marana, Arizona, about 90 miles southeast of Phoenix. "We’re being overwhelmed," said Gonzales, who, like other FAA inspectors quoted, would speak only as a representative of their primary union, Professional Airways Systems Specialists (PASS). At TIMCO on this 90-degree October day, it is easy to see what he means: Dozens of mechanics and other workers scurry about the 250,000-square-foot Hangar 52. An America West Airlines Boeing 737 sits in one quadrant, looking as if it has been left in a bad neighborhood—jacked up, stripped down, wheels missing, interior gutted, the entrails of its engines exposed. TIMCO mechanics have been performing scheduled heavy maintenance on this aircraft 24 hours a day for four weeks, and there are still 10 days to go. In another corner, behind floor-to-ceiling curtains, a Boeing 767 is being sanded and repainted. Preparations are being made to bring a third plane into the hangar, replacing one that has just left. Three hundred mechanics work three shifts here, fixing or replacing thousands of parts, following manuals thicker than the Phoenix Yellow Pages. Gonzales, a 54-year-old Air Force veteran in his 10th year with the FAA, scans the five-acre hangar and zeroes in on a pair of objects small enough to fit in his hands. "What do you see, real quick?" he asks, holding up two canisters used to supply oxygen masks. The canisters, both used, are nearly identical, save for the tags TIMCO has attached to them. One says "Discard," the other "Repairable." Gonzales shakes his head in disbelief. In the aviation maintenance business, if there’s a single word that has become shorthand for a worst-case screwup, it’s "ValuJet," the now-defunct low-cost carrier that outsourced its repair work to a firm called SabreTech. In the spring of 1996, SabreTech mechanics in Miami improperly handled—and mislabeled—dozens of oxygen canisters that ultimately found their way into the cargo hold of the DC-9 that would become ValuJet Flight 592. The canisters ignited, causing an onboard inferno that sent the plane, and its 110 occupants, to the bottom of the Everglades. Gonzales wants answers: Why has a canister that should have been discarded been deemed fixable? He questions a supervisor, who offers little explanation. "Damn, Mike," the man says, chuckling. "I gotta start making this harder for you." The supervisor promises to retag the mislabeled canister and find out what happened. He and Gonzales fall into amiable chitchat. Deep down, however, Gonzales is irritated. "That’s, like, high, visible bullshit," he says out of earshot of the supervisor. More disturbing than the actual mix-up, he explains, is what the incident says about TIMCO’s ability to follow rigid, complex maintenance procedures. "It’s an indicator that somebody doesn’t know what they’re doing," Gonzales says. Still, he considers the matter resolved, and as his visit is primarily to show a reporter around, he does not pursue a penalty against TIMCO. Enforcement actions, he says, are "terribly time-consuming," sucking in all manner of lawyers, managers, and technicians. Better to simply make one’s presence known, like a state trooper with a radar gun: "If you see a cop sitting there on the highway, what’s everybody doing? They’re hitting the brakes." But what if the cop’s rarely around? "If these repair stations are not up to the level where you can feel warm and fuzzy about them putting out an airworthy product, you’re going to want to spend more time there," Gonzales says. "But if you don’t have the time to spend, how do you do that?" On the drive back to the FAA’s Flight Standards District Office in Scottsdale, Gonzales reflects on what he’s seen at TIMCO that day. He can’t stop thinking about the oxygen canisters in Hangar 52. "I mean, that’s what got SabreTech," he says. "Have they learned anything? I don’t think so." At Evergreen the next day, some 200 planes are strewn about a 1,600-acre former Army Air Corps base that is larger than many Arizona towns. Driving across the complex is like driving the tarmac of a busy international airport: Ghana Airways, Philippines Air, China Airways, and Pakistan Air are all visible here. The facility has 550 employees and generates $62 million a year in business. Inside the control center, the brains of the operation, the walls are covered, floor to ceiling, with plastic file holders. Each holder contains the job card for a single repair task: a job description, some pages from the Boeing manual, and an easy-to-follow diagram, all color-coded and arranged by sections of the plane. The mechanic’s notes, detailing the completion of each step, are off to the side. Next to them, a supervisor’s stamp indicates the job has been signed off. The entire room, containing at least 1,000 files, is dedicated to a single aircraft—the 767 sitting 30 feet away. Because there is no way an inspector can oversee the turning of every screw in every aircraft, the control center is an essential stop. "I usually just grab a few files and head out to the plane to see if they’ve been done," Gonzales says. He’s seeking reassurance that tasks are being performed by the book and carefully documented. "Is there any real method? No. Something will just grab your eye, and I can’t explain what it is." Mike Michels, Evergreen’s chief quality officer, laughs. "Safety inspectors have an uncanny knack for finding the thing that doesn’t look right," he says. "You could have 2,000 cards in here, and they’ll come in and pull the one that doesn’t have a signature." Although he’s not here to conduct an official inspection, Gonzales declares that he’s generally pleased with what he sees. "Do I feel comfortable…? Yeah, I really do, because they have a very valid quality-control system in play." Airlines don’t send their planes to Evergreen strictly for the fine craftsmanship, however. Cost is a huge factor. Michels explains that for airlines, "payroll is your largest single expense, and if your payroll is two to three times that of a repair station, you see where the economics of that would severely impact your profitability." Driving back to Scottsdale, Gonzales says he doesn’t lose much sleep worrying about Evergreen. He does fret, however, over the airlines’ perpetual quest to trim maintenance costs. "You have an entity here that does millions of dollars in business," he says of Evergreen. "They have resources. But when these entities start operating in the red, it’s guaranteed they’re going to start taking shortcuts." AS ACCIDENT INVESTIGATORS know all too well, even the smallest act or oversight—an insufficiently torqued bolt, an improperly tested engine—can cause a catastrophe. In the case of ValuJet, it was the mislabeled oxygen canisters. In the case of US Airways Express Flight 5481, which crashed in Charlotte, North Carolina, on January 8, 2003, it was the improper rigging of the plane’s elevator control system, which—along with a weight-related imbalance—caused the Beechcraft 1900D to plunge nose-first into the ground seconds after takeoff, killing all aboard. The NTSB found that the plane’s elevator control cables had been misadjusted days before the accident at a repair station operated by Raytheon Aerospace in Huntington, West Virginia. The work had been done by a mechanic employed by Structural Modification and Repair Technicians Inc. (SMART), a labor supplier used by Raytheon. According to the NTSB, "The mechanic skipped nine applicable steps in the Beechcraft 1900D elevator control system rigging procedure." Had just one of the missed steps—identified by the board as "step u"—been performed, the crash might have been avoided. The SMART mechanic had been working under the supervision of a Raytheon quality assurance inspector. But the board found that the inspector, too, was at fault: He "was aware that the mechanic was selectively performing steps from the rigging procedure…. In fact, the inspector stated, during a postaccident interview, that he did not think the [aircraft] manufacturer intended for mechanics to follow the entire rigging procedure…." In short, both the mechanic and the inspector were freelancing. Twenty-one people died as a result. The Department of Transportation’s inspector general reported in December that "non-certificated" repair stations like Raytheon, which once performed only minor services, are now doing the same sort of critical work as FAA-certificated operations, without the same level of oversight. "It’s physically impossible for us to get to some of these repair stations," said Linda Goodrich, a PASS vice president and a maintenance inspector. "We’re totally dependent on airlines to tell us that they’ve done oversight on contractors." The problem is most acute for inspectors, like James Webb, who oversee foreign stations. "There’s me and my partner, two of us, for Taiwan," Webb said. He said he has identified a worrisome trend: Carriers are giving repair stations an increasingly free hand in creating their own maintenance routines. Federal regulations require the carrier, not the maintenance contractor, to develop detailed, FAA-approved "task cards" mapping out the procedures a mechanic is to follow when working on a plane. The task cards highlight the airline’s "required inspection items"—those items it believes too important to be allowed to fail. Unlike other components, these must be inspected and approved by a licensed supervisor after the work has been completed. "The air carriers are saying now they don’t want to spend the money to develop the task card system, so they let the repair stations do it," Webb said. "To me, that’s wrong, because they’re not approved by the FAA. The FAA never looks at it." Webb sees this most often in "off wing" maintenance, where critical components like engines are removed from planes and sent out for repairs. During a recent inspection of Taiwan’s Evergreen Aviation Technologies (commonly known as EGAT; no relation to Evergreen in Arizona), Webb found mechanics working without carrier task cards on an engine belonging to Delta Air Lines—a practice he has seen at other repair stations. "Everything we have says they can’t do it, but they are, and I’m having a hell of a time trying to stop it," he said. "These air carriers are not little, and they have a lot of money and a lot of influence. I’m just a stupid little inspector." Webb told EGAT he would cite it for the violation. The company protested, Webb remembered, arguing that everybody does it. Webb urged EGAT to file a written complaint with his superiors, a move he hopes will force the FAA to clarify the policy. "I told them, ‘You can get more attention from the people in Washington than I can.’" The FAA, after all, refers to EGAT and other repair stations as its "customers," Webb said unhappily. "I think the flying public is my customer." Webb’s angst is shared by other FAA field inspectors, who said they find the agency’s elimination of hundreds of jobs and its acquiescence to industry deeply troubling. Before Robert McCallister joined the FAA as a safety engineer 18 years ago, he was a designee. "At that time, we did the more mundane things," said McCallister, a Fort Worth-based representative of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. "We were limited in what we could do and what we could approve." No more. Under the new self-certification system, McCallister said, aircraft modifiers can install everything from toilets to sophisticated flight control systems, with nominal FAA supervision. Manufacturers like Boeing "will, in effect, approve their own designs with absolutely no second check." Boeing downplays the risks. "They’re giving us permission to do part of their job," a company spokeswoman, Liz Verdier, said of the FAA. "They still very much oversee us. There is a huge burden on us, in that we still have to provide the same compliance, but we can use our own efficiencies and processes to get that done." STILL, THE CRASH OF SWISSAIR FLIGHT 111, which killed 229 people, including Tara Fetherolf, should serve as a cautionary tale. The source of the fire that caused the crash is believed to have been an in-flight entertainment system that allowed first- and business-class passengers on Swissair’s long-haul flights to gamble. The installation of that system was overseen by an FAA designee, Santa Barbara Aerospace. The installation process did not go smoothly. Postcrash investigations by Canadian and U.S. authorities revealed that it was hurried and ill conceived. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada concluded that the fire aboard Flight 111 most likely started with a "wire arcing event"—a continuous spark—precipitated by the inappropriate connection of the system to an electrical "bus" typically reserved for the plane’s navigational equipment and other essential avionics. The board also rebuked the FAA, saying, in effect, that the agency had given its designee too much authority. Nine months after the crash, an FAA review team reported that Santa Barbara Aerospace did not follow proper certification procedures in "many instances," submitted data that were "inadequate or inaccurate," and, because the FAA did not require it, failed to tell the FAA about changes in the project’s scope. But even during the installation, the FAA had doubts about the company. On December 12, 1996, having concluded that the firm "does not provide adequate personnel who can perform, supervise, and inspect the work for which it is rated," the FAA issued an "emergency order of suspension" to Santa Barbara Aerospace. Certificate No. S3BR755J was immediately pulled. And then, inexplicably, it was reinstated five days later. The FAA told Mother Jones it no longer has all the records but that "legal action was initiated in error because the company took corrective measures prior to" the suspension. In February 2004, Mark Fetherolf, who has filed upward of 75 Freedom of Information Act requests with the FAA in an attempt to learn what happened, wrote to two Republican congressmen from Florida, where he then lived, seeking answers to these questions: Why was the firm’s designee status suspended in 1996, and why was it reinstated? The lawmakers—John Mica, who chairs the House Aviation Subcommittee, and E. Clay Shaw Jr.—asked the FAA to explain itself. The response came on March 12, 2004, from the FAA’s deputy chief counsel, James Whitlow: "The FAA’s decision not to pursue the enforcement action against Santa Barbara Aerospace was based on the conclusion that the agency lacked sufficient evidence at that time to sustain our burden of proof." Fetherolf dismissed Whitlow’s response. "They had to have some reason for taking action against Santa Barbara Aerospace in the first place," he said. "It’s one of the most blatant cases of obfuscation I’ve ever seen." THE FAA INISISTS THAT the Swissair accident was an anomaly and has pressed on with plans to give the industry more power to self-regulate. The latest incarnation of what the FAA calls collaboration was solidified in October 2005, when a program was established to permit companies like Boeing to self-certify, with the FAA auditing to make sure certain processes are followed. The rule change came after years of closed meetings among members of an FAA working group created to reduce the cost of airline certification. The group, chaired by Webster Heath, Boeing’s senior manager of technical affairs, transmitted its final recommendations to the FAA in 1998, asking for the "earliest possible issuance" of a rule to expand delEGATion authority. These recommendations were sent to Thomas McSweeny, then the FAA’s associate administrator for regulation and certification and now a lobbyist for Boeing. The FAA issued its proposed rule in January 2004, and Boeing hailed it as "an important building block toward increased delegation throughout the aviation industry." The Aerospace Industries Association remarked that it was "very close in content to the final product" put out by the working group. Despite union objections, the final rule was adopted. Supporters say it will free up the resource-starved FAA to focus on the most important safety issues and leave the "common, everyday functions" to the industry. But already, the parties disagree on what constitutes a "common, everyday" task. The GAO has raised questions about the FAA’s ability to manage the 13,600 companies and individuals in the designee program. In an October 2004 report, GAO auditors found "inconsistent oversight" by the FAA, brought about by incomplete databases, heavy inspector workloads, and widely varying standards among field offices. And they found that "FAA offices do not always identify and remove inactive or poor performing designees expeditiously, which may be due to reluctance on the part of managers, engineers, and inspectors to take disciplinary action." THE FAA’s REJIGGERED REGULATORY scheme will be tested in Everett, Washington, the final assembly point for Boeing’s next-generation jet, the 787 Dreamliner. Locked in a war with Airbus for domination of the commercial aircraft market, Boeing wants to put the sleek 250-passenger plane into service by 2008. About half of its body will be made of lightweight carbon-fiber composite materials—a higher proportion than in today’s mostly aluminum aircraft. Composites are popular with airlines because they save fuel and, therefore, money. But they also behave differently than aluminum, require a different method of testing for flaws, and have not been used for as many flight-critical components—the "wing boxes," for example—as they will be in the 787 or Airbus’ behemoth-in-development, the 555-passenger A380. "Do you really trust Boeing to have the integrity and the character and the sense of public stewardship to resist the schedule pressures of a program that is late, overbudget, overweight, or if there are serious technical issues that we don’t have solutions for?" asks Stan Sorscher, a Seattle-based representative of the Boeing engineers’ union. "All those problems exist in the 787 program. This is a time to be watching very carefully." Jim Morris is a project manager with the Center for Public Integrity in Washington, D.C. Long interested in regulatory agencies, he began covering aviation safety six years ago for U.S. News & World Report.
Frank Koughan is a New York-based investigative reporter and television producer. His work has been featured on Frontline and 60 Minutes.
Posted by Joe Anybody
at 2:03 PM PDT
Updated: Wednesday, 17 October 2007 2:09 PM PDT
UN Head of Operations for Somalia Food Agency - 60 armed officers seize him
Mood:
 loud
Now Playing: UN Food Agency in Somalia raisded by covernment security officers
Topic: HUMANITY
U.N. food program officer seized, jailed in Somalia MOGADISHU, Somalia 
The head of U.N. food agency operations in the violence-wracked Somali capital was taken away Wednesday by 50 to 60 heavily armed government security officers who stormed the U.N. compound, the agency said. http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/africa/10/17/somalia.ap/ MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) -- The head of U.N. food agency operations in the violence-wracked Somali capital was taken away Wednesday by 50 to 60 heavily armed government security officers who stormed the U.N. compound, the agency said. The World Food Program suspended aid distribution in Mogadishu in response. Interior Minister Mohamed Mohamoud Guled denied government officers carried out any operation at the U.N. compound. But he added that the WFP last month distributed food aid without consulting the government, a reason that the government has in recent months used to block distributions to areas perceived to be against the government. The detention followed some of the heaviest fighting in weeks in the capital. Overnight, at least eight civilians and one policeman died during an hours-long battle between Islamic insurgents and policemen, said residents and the police on Wednesday. WFP's Idris Osman was being held in a cell at the National Security Service headquarters and the World Food Program has not received any explanation for the action, the agency said in a statement, adding his detention violated international law. "In the light of Mr. Osman's detention and in view of WFP's duty to safeguard its staff, WFP is forced immediately to suspend these distributions and the loading of WFP food from our warehouses in the Somali capital," the statement said. ___________________________ Don't Miss Report: African wars cost billions Somali radio station under fire Two journalists killed in Somalia ___________________________ No shots were fired when the officers stormed the U.N. compound in Mogadishu, the statement said. The civilians killed during the late Tuesday battle died when mortars crashed into their houses during fighting that began when 100 insurgents blasted a police station in the south of Mogadishu with heavy machine-guns and rocket propelled grenades, residents said. "Buildings shuddered and weapons exchanged by the two sides illuminated the sky of the city," said Abdullahi Hussein Mohamud, who also said some mortars landed near his home that is some distance away from where the battle took place. Abdi Haji Nur, a businessman, said that the insurgents captured the station, forcing about 30 policemen to flee. Gen. Yusuf Osman Hussein, director of police operations in Mogadishu, denied the insurgents seized the station, saying policemen repelled "elements of peace-haters" and lost one of their colleagues during the fighting. Mogadishu has been plagued by fighting since government troops and their Ethiopian allies chased out the Council of Islamic Courts in December. For six months, the Islamic group controlled much of southern Somalia and remnants have vowed to fight an Iraq-style insurgency. Thousands of civilians have been killed in the fighting this year so far. Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991, when rival warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned on each other.
Posted by Joe Anybody
at 10:41 AM PDT
Updated: Wednesday, 17 October 2007 10:54 AM PDT
Tuesday, 16 October 2007
ALL Lies and ALL SPIN - The Big Mouth Bill O'Reilly
Mood:
 cheeky
Now Playing: What a crock of shit - This man encourages murder & occupation
Topic: MEDIA
This guy is causing trouble while he promotes murder and the occupation TALK ABOUT A SPIN DOCTOR 
Is the Press Killing American Military People?Speaking last week to journalists in Washington, retired General Ricardo Sanchez, former commander in Iraq, hammered the Bush administration for its poor war planning and then issued a shocking accusation against the press: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,302117,00.html Tuesday, October 16, 2007 By Bill O'Reilly 
LT. GEN. RICARDO SANCHEZ (RET.), FMR. COMMANDER IN IRAQ: What is clear to me is that you are perpetuating the corrosive partisan politics that is destroying our country and killing our service members who are at war. For some of you just like some of our politicians, the truth is of little to no value if it does not fit your own preconceived notions, biases, or agendas. Wow. Now the general, I believe, is talking about liberal media outlets like The New York Times and NBC News, both of which trumpeted the general's criticism of the Bush war plan, but ignored his media attack. Now last Friday on the Brian Williams broadcast, NBC News spent about 25 percent of the entire program on Al Gore's Nobel Peace Prize and then did another story on Sanchez's negative assessment of the war. The New York Times also gave the Sanchez war view and Mr. Gore extensive coverage, but completely ignored medal of honor winner Navy Seal Michael Murphy, who was killed in Afghanistan. Now since Lieutenant Murphy lived on Long Island —in The Times' coverage area — it is simply hard to believe the paper would not mention this incredible honor. Also, The Times initially reported on murder accusations against two Green Berets in Afghanistan, but ignored the conclusion of the story as the men were acquitted of any wrongdoing. Come on, this is bull! Now we asked Times editor Bill Keller for a comment. As usual, he wouldn't appear, but a spokesperson says the paper will mention Lieutenant Murphy later. Great. In yesterday's Washington Post, an article documents the improvement in Iraq ran on page one. In that article, statistics were printed that show a dramatic downturn in American military casualties and big losses for Al Qaeda in Iraq. It is very possible that Iraq is turning around for the USA, but will the left-wing media report that? Who knows? What "Talking Points" does know is that hatred of the Bush administration has skewed much of the reporting on Iraq and Afghanistan. And the American people no longer are getting honest reporting from some news agencies. Any improvement in Iraq, of course, helps the Republicans. And that is anathema to the left. General Sanchez was right on both counts: The Bush administration relied far too heavily on Iraqi cooperation. And when it didn't come, there was no Plan B. And at this point in history, the U.S. media is full of corrupt ideologues who put their world view above honest information. This is not only putting our military in danger, ladies and gentlemen, it puts all of us in danger. And that's "The Memo." Pinheads and Patriots The brand new Fox News Business Network — just FOX Business Channel, no "News" in there — debuted today. Headed up by Neil Cavuto, the 24-hour service hopes to dominate cable business, like FOX News Channel dominates cable news. We believe this will happen, but of course, we are biased in this area. However, Cavuto is a patriot, and even if he were a pinhead, you couldn't tell but for all that hair. On the pinhead front: Governors Bill Richardson of New Mexico and Elliot Spitzer in New York continue to believe that giving driver's licenses to people in this country illegally is a good idea. Neither governor is willing to debate the issue with us, which makes them both pinheads, but maybe smart pinheads, because their position is indefensible. Video's Of The Spin Doctors Crap
Posted by Joe Anybody
at 1:41 PM PDT
Updated: Tuesday, 16 October 2007 2:25 PM PDT
Sunday, 14 October 2007
Bush / Military try to use Double Jeopardy on Lt. Watada
Mood:
loud
Now Playing: Lt Watada Tril Oct 19 - Is this Double Jeopardy ?
Topic: PROTEST!
Watada's Double Jeopardy by JEREMY BRECHER & BRENDAN SMITH [posted online on October 12, 2007] http://www.thenation.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20071029&s=brecher_smith The double jeopardy clause of the US Constitution ensures that no American can be tried twice for the same offense. But at a time when our civil liberties are rapidly eroding, a drama is unfolding in Washington State over whether that constitutional protection applies to a US soldier. After his February court-martial ended in a mistrial, Lt. Ehren Watada, the first commissioned officer to refuse to serve in Iraq, seemed certain to face a second court-martial on October 9 at Fort Lewis, an Army base near Tacoma. Three military courts had rejected Watada's claim of double jeopardy, finding no abuse of discretion by the military judge in declaring a mistrial. But in an unusual civilian intervention in a military legal process, US District Court Judge Benjamin Settle issued a last-minute stay October 5 in Tacoma, temporarily blocking the trial. Settle will hear Watada's double jeopardy claim October 19 Nationwide Iraq Moratorium protests are scheduled for that day, many of which will feature Watada's case and his stand against the war. Watada has consistently maintained that the Iraq War is illegal under international law and the US Constitution, and that to participate in it would make him guilty of a war crime. At the video press conference on June 7, 2006, in which he first announced his refusal to go to Iraq, he explained, "It is my conclusion as an officer of the armed forces that the war in Iraq is not only morally wrong but a horrible breach of American law." Watada was tried in a military court in February for failing to deploy and conduct unbecoming an officer for his statements opposing the war. After the prosecution had completed its case, the military judge, Lt. Col. John Head, intervened, declared a mistrial and ordered Watada to be retried. [See our report on that trial here.] The Fifth Amendment to the Constitution states that no person shall be "subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb." As the Supreme Court explained in a seminal 1978 double jeopardy case, United States v. Scott, "The underlying idea, one that is deeply ingrained in at least the Anglo-American system of jurisprudence, is that the State with all its resources and power should not be allowed to make repeated attempts to convict an individual for an alleged offence." Like the erosion of the right to habeas corpus, the denial of the protection against double jeopardy represents one more Bush-era encroachment of the all-powerful state on basic human rights and the rule of law. While the legal arguments about double jeopardy are quite complicated, Watada's lawyers are convinced their arguments are strong. They wrote in their emergency motion, "This is a remarkably clear case of an egregious violation of the double-jeopardy clause." Judge Settle's opinion states, "The Court has not been presented any evidence showing that Petitioner's double jeopardy claim lacks merit. On the contrary, the record indicates that Petitioner's double jeopardy claim is meritorious." Growing Support Watada's term of military service was scheduled to expire on December 4, 2006. He has not been discharged, however, because of the pending court-martial charges against him. If convicted, he could face up to six years in prison. In an October 4 editorial, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer declared, "However the defense appeals turn out, we think there is a case for letting Watada leave the Army without further ado." There's no evidence yet that the Army is listening. But Judge Settle's ruling has energized Watada's supporters. They have formed a new national steering committee with representatives from regions around the country. Michael Wong, a military resister during the Vietnam era who took much of the initiative to mobilize the current wave of support, explained in an interview, "We have three demands. The first is to bar the Army from trying Ehren Watada again. The second is to drop all charges against him. The third is to let him leave with an honorable discharge." Wong asks peace groups to incorporate Watada's defense in local and national demonstrations and encourages individuals to write letters to the editor and articles to educate the public about the case. "They had a chance to try him once. They blew it. The prosecution's case was so weak that declaring a mistrial may have been the only way that Judge Head could save the Army from humiliation and defeat," he said. "They should just drop the charges and let him go." San Francisco organizer and lawyer Bill Simpich has been active in both the Iraq Moratorium and the Watada defense. He is working to make Watada's stand against the war a central theme of the monthly Iraq Moratorium Day October 19. "The Iraq Moratorium and the Watada Support Campaign are moving tightly with plans to get the word out to stop the war now so soldiers like Lieutenant Watada aren't forced to choose between supporting the Constitution and going to prison," he said. Simpich said the signature event of the Iraq Moratorium Day in the Bay Area will be a dramatic end-of-workday event outside the downtown office of Senator Dianne Feinstein, co-sponsored by the Iraq Moratorium and the Watada Support Committee. Community events and leafleting at transportation hubs such as BART and CalTrain will also link the Moratorium and the Watada case. In Washington, activists plan demonstrations and a counterrecruiting effort outside a Seattle-area recruitment center. "The US government and military is waging two illegal wars and is actively planning for a third," said organizer Gerry Condon, referring to increasing hostilities between the United States and Iran. "It is more important than ever that we support GIs who follow their own consciences and obey international law." The Watada case is also drawing international attention. Amnesty International issued a statement October 5 warning that a guilty verdict would make Watada "a prisoner of conscience who should be immediately and unconditionally released." Watada's case is different from typical conscientious objector cases because the US military recognizes as conscientious objectors only those who oppose war in any form. Watada did not apply for conscientious objector status because he said as a soldier he would be willing to fight in a war--unlike Iraq--that was necessary, legal and just. Amnesty International argues in its statement that the right to refuse to perform military service for reasons of conscience, thought or religion is protected under international human rights standards, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)--treaties that have been ratified by the United States. Watada's Impact The Watada case has presented a serious challenge to the military. As Daniel Ellsberg put it, "Lt. Ehren Watada--who still faces trial for refusing to obey orders to deploy to Iraq, which he correctly perceives to be an unconstitutional and aggressive war--is the single officer in the United States armed services who is taking seriously...his oath." Despite strong traditions in the military against publicly criticizing the government, more than twenty retired US generals have criticized the Commander in Chief about Iraq or spoken out against the war. In 2005, five retired military panelists discussed the war at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia. Retired Brig. Gen. John Johns told the San Diego Union-Tribune, "Four out of five of us retired military panelists there said it was a moral duty for us to speak out in a democracy against policies which you think are unwise." One of the participants, retired Lt. Gen. Robert Gard, said, "When you feel the country--to its extreme detriment--is going in the wrong direction, and that your views might have some impact, you have a duty to speak out." In a video press conference announcing his refusal to deploy to Iraq, Watada noted, "Although I have tried to resign out of protest, I am forced to participate in a war that is manifestly illegal. As the order to take part in an illegal act is ultimately unlawful as well, I must as an officer of honor and integrity refuse that order." While evidence of the war's illegality was barred in Watada's court-martial, his position is grounded in military law and doctrine. At a National Press Club luncheon February 17, 2006, just a year before Watada's court-martial, Gen. Peter Pace, then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was asked, "Should people in the US military disobey orders they believe are illegal?" Pace's response: "It is the absolute responsibility of everybody in uniform to disobey an order that is either illegal or immoral." The Army wants to sentence Ehren Watada to six years in the brig for the crime of trying to fulfill that absolute responsibility. 
Posted by Joe Anybody
at 2:07 PM PDT
Friday, 12 October 2007
Defendant knocks Web illiterate juror in RIAA case
Mood:
 not sure
Now Playing: Inept jurry decides a case ....... NOT!
Topic: TECHNOLOGY
October 10, 2007 11:23 AM PDT Defendant knocks Web illiterate juror in RIAA case
Posted by Greg Sandoval
Jammie Thomas is hard to rattle. She doesn't raise her voice or get angry when a reporter asks her to read a story where she is called a "liar" by a member of the jury that found her guilty of copyright violations and ordered her to pay the recording industry $220,000 in damages. She calmly reads the quotes by juror Michael Hegg, from Duluth, Minn., that appeared Tuesday in a story by Wired.com. She then draws a bead on where Hegg said he is a father, former snowmobile racer and has never been on the Internet. "I don't need to say too much, obviously," Thomas told CNET News.com on Wednesday. "They admit that they are computer illiterate. This person (Hegg) has never been on the Internet, so how can he say whether my story is possible? I've been contacted by Internet security experts who said that spoofing my address would have been trivial. Internet illiterate people are not going to be able to understand that." Thomas was sued by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for sharing 24 songs online and infringing on intellectual property. Instead of settling for a few thousands dollars like most of those sued by the group, Thomas is the first to take her case to a jury. In the interview with Wired's David Kravets, Hegg, a steelworker, said that during deliberations, the jury concluded after only five minutes that Thomas was guilty. He said that they spent five hours trying to decide what to award the recording industry. Hegg, 38, said the jurors did not believe her story that someone spoofed her IP address. "She should have settled out of court for a few thousand dollars," Hegg told Wired. "Spoofing? We're thinking, 'Oh my God, you got to be kidding.' She's a liar." Thomas, 30, has announced that she intends to appeal the case brought against her by the RIAA, She said she is seeking to argue her case before someone who is more tech-savvy. But if Thomas can produce experts that can at least prove its possible her IP was spoofed, why didn't she present them in court? "We didn't have the money to put those experts on the stand," Thomas said. "(Hegg) can say my story is not true, but at the same time you're talking about a person with no technology background whatsoever. He said his wife is an Internet guru, but his wife wasn't on the jury." Thomas also was disappointed that the jury may have been punishing her for crimes committed by others. "We wanted to send a message," Hegg said in the Wired interview, "that you don't do this, that you have been warned." Thomas doesn't believe the law allows that. The jury "saw those feeds that showed 2 million people shared using (file-sharing service) Kazaa and they want to hold me responsible for that," Thomas said. "The law states that you can't hold me responsible for the actions of another. This is one of the reasons why I'm appealing." On a separate issue, a Web site created to accept donations from supporters has crashed after receiving more than 500,000 visitors, Thomas said. Freejammie.com is being moved to a new host server and should reappear in a few days. Thomas said the site has raised more than $9,000 and the money will go to pay her legal bills.
Posted by Joe Anybody
at 5:07 PM PDT
Grad student suspended after pro-gun-rights e-mail
Mood:
 irritated
Now Playing: Conservative(sic) Gun Rights Advocate "suspended"
Topic: CIVIL RIGHTS
October 10, 2007 7:56 PM PDT Grad student suspended after pro-gun-rights e-mailA Minnesota university has suspended one of its graduate students who sent two e-mail messages to school officials supporting gun rights. Hamline University also said that master's student Troy Scheffler, who owns a firearm, would be barred from campus and must receive a mandatory "mental health evaluation" after he sent an e-mail message arguing that law-abiding students should be able to carry firearms on campus for self-defense. Hamline spokesman Jacqueline Getty declined on Wednesday to answer questions about the suspension, saying that federal privacy laws prohibited the school from commenting. Scheffler had previously waived his privacy rights in a letter to Hamline University President Linda Hanson. The nonpartisan civil liberties group FIRE, which stands for the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, has taken up Scheffler's case, but with no luck so far. In a letter to FIRE on September 28, Hamline's attorneys said the school would not reconsider Scheffler's punishment Scheffler had sent the pair of e-mail messages after Hamline offered students counseling after the Virginia Tech shooting in April, which took place half a continent away. His response was that, if administrators were truly concerned about safety on campus, they should "lift a ridiculous conceal carry campus ban and let the students worry about their own 'security.'" Scheffler is licensed under Minnesota law to carry a concealed sidearm, which requires a background check and specific training. In May, after word got out about Scheffler's punishment but before FIRE became involved, conservative blogs rallied to his defense. A psychologist in Tennessee called it a case of university officials learning that "a conservative is on the loose on campus." Captain's Quarters interviewed Scheffler about so-called gun-free zones and concluded he was a "nice guy caught up in the academic manifestations of political correctness." That's the high-level summary. Some of the details are important, though. Angry e-mails: One point is that while Scheffler's e-mails were not threatening, they were angry and had sexist and racist overtones. Read them for yourself: The first, to Vice President of Student Affairs David Stern, said: "I myself am tired of having to pay my own extremely overpriced tuition to make up for minorities not paying theirs. On top of that, I am sick of seeing them held to a different standard than the white students (Of course its a lower and more lenient standard)." The second message, to President Linda Hanson, said: "For a 'Christian' university, I am very disappointed in Hamline. With the motif of the curriculum, the atheist professors, jewish and other non-Christian staff, I would charge the school with wanton misrepresentation...3 out of 3 students just in my class that are 'minorities' are planning on returning to Africa and all 3 are getting a free education ON MY DOLLAR." (Hamline is affiliated with the United Methodist Church and claims to promote "the ethics and values of the United Methodist tradition.") Even some libertarians who think Scheffler was ill-treated have criticized his grammar and approach. A professor at Brooklyn College who believes the suspension was unjustified said he was nevertheless "dismayed that (Scheffler) has progressed to the master's degree level without having mastered some aspects of basic grammar." "Privacy" rights: What's odd is that Hamline initially claimed the e-mail messages were "threatening" and placed Scheffler on an indefinite suspension that required him to undergo a mental health evaluation, a possible "treatment plan," an interview with the dean of students, and so on. The possibility of "further" internal discipline was also mentioned. But then, after FIRE pointed out being suspended for expressing political views violated the school's freedom of expression policy, President Hanson retreated to a fallback position. Hanson said that the suspension was also based on "critical input from various members of the Hamline community." The bizarre thing is that to this day, Hamline has never informed Scheffler what those anonymous allegations were (or who his anonymous accusers are). It claims that Scheffler's formal waiver of his rights under federal privacy law is insufficient because it has to "protect the privacy rights and interests of these other individuals." FIRE's Harvey Silverglate quipped: "Confidentiality is so protected at American colleges and universities that they don't even let the students know what the charges are!" Hamline's response: I spoke with Hamline spokesman Jacqueline Getty on the phone on Wednesday and exchanged six e-mail messages with her, but never actually got an answer to why the school wouldn't answer general questions about student free speech rights and due process. All she gave me was this statement: Hamline has never suspended a student for advocating for gun rights, nor for advocating for any other rights...As we have already informed FIRE, federal privacy laws that protect the rights of that student actually prevent the university from correcting each item of misinformation on FIRE's press release and from articulating in detail what may have transpired with this student. This misses the point. If there are serious allegations against Scheffler, he has a right under the student code to hear them and be able to respond. It's hardly appropriate to base a suspension and mandatory psychological evaluation on anonymous and undefined allegations that may not even exist. It's also inappropriate, especially in light of the Cleveland shooting on Wednesday, to try to squelch discussion of whether holders of concealed carry permits should be able to bring their sidearms on campus. It's already legal at the University of Utah and other states are considering the idea of eliminating victim disarmament zones. That may be a good idea; it may not. But universities should try to encourage debate rather than punish students for poorly written rants broaching the topic.
Posted by Joe Anybody
at 5:04 PM PDT
Wednesday, 10 October 2007
Catholics support GI resistance, initiate call to refuse
Mood:
 incredulous
Now Playing: Copird from Courage To Resist Website
Topic: WAR
Catholics support GI resistance, Initiate call to refuse | |
"Refuse to kill. Refuse the order to go to war ... We know your resistance to war will be difficult and require great courage." By Jonah House and Dorothy Day Catholic Worker. September 28, 2007 http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/content/view/443/1/ Brothers and sisters in the military: "Refuse to fight! Refuse to kill!" You are being ordered to war in the footsteps of veterans, who, more than 10 years ago, were sent to fight the first Gulf War. Many of those vets returned with severe and unacknowledged illnesses. Many gave birth to severely deformed children. All were abandoned by the Veterans Administration. You are being ordered to war by the most powerful nation on earth. You are being ordered to war by a nation with the most destructive weapons ever conceived, developed, deployed or used. You are being ordered to war by a nation whose self-acknowledged posture is that of world domination, mastery, control. This nation can have no moral justification for war. We, the undersigned, are convinced that war is the greatest evil on earth. We believe that humankind must end war, or war will end humankind, and, in fact, all of creation. Our convictions have driven us time and again to the Pentagon, White House and Congress in acts of civil resistance to war. Now, we bring our plea to you, sisters and brothers, in the armed forces. - Refuse to kill.
- Refuse the order to go to war.
- Leave the military before it is too late.
We know your resistance to war will be difficult and require great courage. But please reflect: - Is it more difficult than fighting in war?
- Is it more difficult than being a pawn of corporate greed?
- Is it more difficult than living with a violated conscience?
- Is it more difficult than living with the poisons of war in your body and spirit?
Wrong is easy. Right is difficult and long. Do what your heart says is right. We knowingly and willingly make this plea to you in violation of 18 USC Sec. 1381 and 2387 (see below). We knowingly and willingly embrace some of your risk by urging you to refuse duty in the U.S. military. We plead with you, as Bishop Oscar Romero pleaded with Salvadoran troops: "When you hear the words of a man telling you to kill, remember instead the words of God: 'Thou shalt not kill!' No soldier is obliged to obey an order contrary to the law of God?In the name of God, in the name of our tormented people who have suffered so much and whose laments cry out to heaven, I beseech you, I beg you, I order you in the name of God, stop the repression!'" If you choose to leave the military, please know that our hearts and homes are open to you.
As of September 28, 2007, Signed by: Abbot Bishop John-Anthony, O.S.C., Benedictine, Victoria, B.C. * Briana Adato * David Agee * Gwendolyn Albert * Jackie Allen * Jeanne Allen * Dorothy N. Anderson, Tucson, AZ * Frances Annemarie Ostensen * Amy Antonucci * Mary Beth Appel * David Arthur * Gary Ashbeck, Jonah House * Alice Bach * Mary Ann Bacon * Elizabeth Bain, S.S.N.D. * Katherine & Clinton Bamberger * Sara Bania-Dobyns * Sr. Diane Bardol, G.N.S.H. * Ellen Barfield, Veterans for Peace * Steve Barrett * Dotti Freed Baumgarten * Harvey Baylis * Mike Beckman * Suzanne Belote * Karin Bennett * Barbara Benton * Daniel Berrigan, S.J. * Frida Berrigan * Johanna Berrigan, House of Grace * Kate Berrigan, Oberlin College * Dr. Rosalie Bertell, G.N.S.H. * Jacqueline Berry * Sharon Browning, Philadelphia PA * Lauren Biehl * Pat Birnie * Mary Ellen Blackwell, S.F.C.C. * Gregory Boertje-Obed * Kathy Boylan, Dorothy Day Catholic Worker * Tim Boylan * Bob Bossie, S.C.J. * Roy Bourgeois, M.M. * Rev. Bill Brisotti * Joan Brown, O.S.F. * Rev. David & Marion Atwood Brown * Bunny Bryant, West Chester, PA * Danny Burns * David Busch * Bernard J. Bush, S.J. * Catherine Bush * Fran Cahill * Lauren C. Cannon, Voices in the Wilderness * Jesse Carr, Oberlin College * Joan Cavanagh * Edith T. Cheney * Carolyn Chernoff, Philadelphia, PA * Jen Clapham * Thomas Cleary * Ronald F. Coburn, MD, Prof of Physiology and Medicine at University of Pennsylvania * Andy Collins * Frank Corcoran, Veterans for Peace * Tom Cordaro * Corienne Carey * Oscar Castro, AFSC, National Youth and Military Program * Chloe Cola * Marlene Colbeck, NJ * Mark & Luz Colville, Amistad Catholic Worker * Catia Confotini * Fr. Frank Cordaro, Des Moines Catholic Worker * Susan Crane, Jonah House * Gary & Jennifer Culp * Rob Currie, S.J. Nicaragua * Amy Dalton * Murphy Davis, Open Door, Atlanta, GA * John Dear, S.J. * Stephen Dear * Joseph G. DeBenedictis, B.F.C.C. * D.C. Anti-war Network Gwendolyn Debrow * Michelina & Vinton Deming, Philadelphia, PA * Peter DeMott * Marie DeMott Grady * Des Moines Catholic Workers * Mary Pat Dewey, O.P. * Susan Chase Dietrich * Gretchen Ditschle * Keith Dodge * Rev. William Dohman, J.C.L. * Sean Donahue * Mary & Mike Donnelly, ME * Sean Donovan, Catholic father * Dorothy Day Catholic Worker, DC * Chris Doucot * Jackie Downing * Terrence Doyle * Gwen Dubois, MD * Edward Dyer * Bob Earnest * Ruth Gagnon Eastbrook * Alice Edgerton * Stephen Edgerton * Susan C. Edwards, Delaware County Wage Peace and Justice * Ann Ehrich * Vincent Scotti Eirene * Barbara & Richard Epstein * Leonor Esguerra * Marjorie Eulmer, Brandywine Peace Community * Every Church a Peace Church * Anne C. Ewing * Sr. Jacinda Fernandes, OSB * Joe Ferrara, Chicago IL * Renaye Fewless * David Fife, Tucson, AZ * Lloyd Fillion * Michael Fitzpatrick * Ana Grady Flores * Elizabeth Flower, Quaker, Philadelphia, PA * Rev. Frank Fortkamp * Constance M. Fox * Paul Frazier * Magdalene Carole Francis-Lohmar, Sanctuary of Hope Solitude * Jason Fults * Marcia Gagliardi * Stephanie Gail * Finnian Gallagher, Belfast, No. Ireland * Tory Gates * Dr. Peter Gathje * Carol Gilbert, O.P. * Jack Gilroy * Ted Glick * Neil Golder * Stella Marie Goodpasture, O.P. * Thomas Gordon * Ellen Grady * Oona Grady DeFlaun * Grand Rapids Chapter of Don't Waste Michigan * Fr. John Grathwohl * Vince Green * Bruce Grimes, Sumneytown, PA * Lisa Guido * Stephen M. Gulick, Philadelphia, PA * Bishop Tom Gumbleton * Jean & Joe Gump * Evelyn Haas * Bill Hagel * Robert Hain * Mary Ann Hain * Mary Hankins * Clare Hanrahan * John Harris, Hartford Catholic Worker * Judith A. Heffernan, M.Div * John Heid * Jane Heil * Cassie Heino * Libby Heino * Gwen L. Hennessey, O.S.F * Robert Herbstritt * Mary Hess, WILPF, Hartford, CT * Cynthia Hirni * Barbara Hirshkowitz * Mary Sean Hodges, O.P. * Lee Hoefer * House of Grace Catholic Worker * Jane Hosking * Donna Howard * Barbara Huber, S.C. * Reggie Hutchins * Ralph Hutchinson * Ithaca Catholic Worker Community * Iraq Pledge of Resistance, Tucson,AZ * Allan Irving, Prof Social Work, Widener University * Joe Izzo, Quaker * Tom Jackson * Lana & Steve Jacobs * Ron Jacobs, Vermont * Melissa Jameson, War Resisters League * Christopher Jones * Edythe M. Jones, Esq. * Chuck Johnson * Jonah House, Baltimore MD * Mary Juette, Woodbury, MN * Jackie Hudson, O.P * Brian Karabinos. * Barb Kass * Barb Katt * Chuck Kausman * George & Maureen Kehoe-Ostensen * Joergen Kehoe-Ostensen * Carol Marie Kelly, O.S.F. * Stephen Kelly, S.J. * Kathleen R. Kennedy * Megan Kennedy * Scott Kennedy, Resource Center for Nonviolence * Betty Kenny, O.S.F., Rochester, MN * Robert G. Ketron, Baltimore, MD * Ken & Mary Kiernan, Rockaway Beach, NY * Harry C. Kiely * Joel Kilgour, Loaves and Fishes Catholic Worker * Ed Kinane * Richard John Kinane * Betty King, Catholic mother * Rev. Steven M. King * Margaret Knapke * Stephen Kobasa * Bob & Tess Koenig * Gary G. Kohls * Harris Kornstein * Samuel Krakow, Drexel Hill, PA * Robert Krall * Shawn Kraemer * Katherine Krolczyk * Rev. George J. Kuhn * Art Laffin, Dorothy Day Catholic Worker * John LaForge * George Lakey * Maura Leahy, Pendle Hill, PA * Jonathan Leavitt * Rev. Dexter Lanctot, * Kathleen Lanctot, Epiphany House, * Pat Landsel * Eric LeCompte, Pax Christi USA * Karen B. Lenz, Philadelphia, Catholic Worker * Bronwyn Lepore * Thomas Lewis, Emma House Catholic Worker * Ed Loring, Open Door, Atlanta, GA * Robert Ludwig * Eileen T. Lundy * Elizabeth Marx, Temple Univerity * Margaret McKenna, M.M.S. * Lissa McLeod * Elmer Maas * Joan MacIntyre, CA * Kitty Madden, Casa Materna de Matagalpa * Andy Mager * Paul Magno, Peter Maurin Center, DC * Rev. Susan Manning, Pebble Hill Church * Linda Manzo, Brandywine Peace Community * Kristan Markey * Dolly J. Marshall * Reba & Scott Mathern-Jacobson * Monica McAghon * Elizabeth McAlister, Jonah House * Colleen McCarthy * Kathryn E. McClanen * Maureen McDonnell, O.P. * Rick McDowell * James F. McGovern, Jr. * Laura McIlvain, PA * Joyce McLean, Los Gatos, CA * Skip Mendler, North Branch Friends Meeting * Dave McReynolds * Hannah Mermelstein * Karol & Glen Miller, Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action * Will Mische * Emma Miles * Mike Miles * Ollie Miles * Philip Miles * Susan Miller * Esther Mohler-Ho * Dr. Pamela Monaco * Jeff Monjack * Anne Montgomery R.S.C.J. * Ceylon Mooney * Maureen Morello, NJ * ichael Morrill, PA * Patricia Morrison, Tucson, AZ * Joe Morton * John Mote * Rev. Sebastian Muccilli * Tom Mullian, Brandywine Peace Community * Luci Murphy * Retta Murphy * Margaret M. Murtha * Tom & Carole Murtha, Haddon Heights, NJ * Ched Myers * David Naar * Michele Naar-Obed * Hattie Nestle * Bob Neveln, Assoc. Prof of Computer Science and Math * Ruth O'Neil * Martha Ni h'Uailaighe * Kathleen & Michael Niece, Coastside Catholic Worker, CA * Sara Nissley * Anthony Nicotera, IL, SOA Watch/Chicago Peace Response * Karl & Trisha Novak * Max Obuszewski * Dick Ochs * Stephen Oldham * Gil Ott * Paula & Frank Panzarella * Jonathan Parfrey * Jerry Park * Lavender Parke * Carol Parker * David Partridge, Co-chair, Clergy Against Nuclear Attack (CANA) * Andy Peifer * Melanie Persche, O.L.V.M., Huntington, IN * Walter Pietsch, ARISE, NY * Ardeth Platte, O.P. * Russ Plywaczynski, Loyola Univ. Chicago * Bill & Gaile Pohlhaus, Wayne, PA * Laurie Pollack, PA * Beth Preheim, Marian, SD * Doris Pulone, Mt. Holly, NJ * Bill Quigly, Law Professor, Loyola Univ. New Orleans * Elizabeth Raasch-Gilman * Robert Raines * Susan Ravitz, LEPOCO * Kimberly Redigan, Catholic Mother and Teacher * Barbara Reed * Margaret Mary Reher * Paul Rehm * Ken Reichstein * Jerry Reitman * Mary T. Rice * Richa * Rosalie Riegle * Grace Ritter * Jon Robb * Patricia Rogan, S.B.S. * Gene Roman, N.Y. * Lin Romano * Leo Romo * Kurt Rosenberg, Swarthmore, PA * Ellen Rubin * Elsa Russell-Lichtenberg * Dick & Gladys Rustay, Open Door Community, Atlanta, GA * Francis Maria Salvato, S.R.I., ThD, Minister General Sodales Franciscani Immaculatae * Leo Sandy * Marlene Santoyo, Germantown Monthly Meeting * Rev. Finley Schaef * Claire & Scott Schaeffer-Duffy * Betty Schroeder * Leslie Schultz * Carol Seeley * Lois Seeligsohn * Rev. Robert R. Schulze * Brayton Shanley * Donna Sharer * Marsette Sloan * Robert M. Smith, Brandywine Peace Community * David Smith-Ferri, CA * Anne Somsel * Joseph C. Spina, O.S.F. * Michael Sprong, Marion, SD * St. Francis Catholic Worker * St. Isaac of Nineveh Gift of Tears Catholic Worker * Rev. Amy Stapleton * Lesley Stearns, Philadelphia, PA * Gail Steiner * Audrey Stewart * Jessica Stewart * Tricia Sullivan, Ground Zero Community, Poulsbo, WA * Cy & Lois Swartz, Grandparents for Peace in the Middle East, PA * Michelle Syverson, Catholic Peace Activist * Mary & Carl Tann * Ann Tiffany * Linda H. Traver-Neeld, West Chester, PA * Brian Terrell, Catholic Peace Ministry, IA * William & Ellen Thomas, Peace Park Anti-nuclear Vigil, DC * Ray Torres, First United Methodist Church of Germantown, PA * Bonnie Urfer * Marge Van Cleef * Claire Vogel * Voices in the Wilderness * Brendan Walsh * Elizabeth Walters, I.H.M. * Jamie Walters * Michael Wehle * Dr. Fred Wilcox * Bonnie Willdorf * Sara Willi * Lillian & George Willoughby * Teresa F. Wilson * Bonnie & Mike Wisniewski, Los Angeles Catholic Worker * William R. Woodward WWII Veterans for Peace * John Wurth * Rev. Bill Wylie-Kellermann * Fr. Jerry Zawada Contact Jonah House (410-233-6238) or Dorothy Day Catholic Worker (202-882-9649) for more information.
18 USC (United States Code) Section 1381. Enticing desertion and harboring deserters, Whoever entices or procures, or attempts or endeavors to entice or procure any person in the Armed Forces of the United States, or who has been recruited for service therein, to desert therefrom, or aids any such person in deserting or in attempting to desert from such service; or Whoever harbors, conceals, protects, or assists any such person who may have deserted from such service, knowing him to have deserted therefrom, or refuses to give up and deliver such person on the demand of any officer authorized to receive him - Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both. Section 2387. Activities affecting armed forces generally (a) Whoever, with intent to interfere with, impair, or influence the loyalty, morale, or discipline of the military or naval forces of the United States: (1) advises, counsels, urges, or in any manner causes or attempts to cause insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny, or refusal of duty by any member of the military or naval forces of the United States; or (2) distributes or attempts to distribute any written or printed matter which advises, counsels, or urges insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny, or refusal of duty by any member of the military or naval forces of the United States - Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both, and shall be ineligible for employment by the United States or any department or agency thereof, for the five years next following his conviction. (b) For the purposes of this section, the term "military or naval forces of the United States" includes the Army of the United States, the Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, Naval Reserve, Marine Corps Reserve, and Coast Guard Reserve of the United States; and, when any merchant vessel is commissioned in the Navy or is in the service of the Army or the Navy, includes the master, officers, and crew of such vessel. |
Posted by Joe Anybody
at 11:07 AM PDT
Updated: Wednesday, 10 October 2007 11:09 AM PDT
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