Chet Baker
My Funny Valentine

We are proud to welcome Brandon Mayfield as our first guest blogger at Project Hamad. His story is a cautionary one for anyone who thinks the suspension of habeas corpus, or the passage of the Patriot Act and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), have no implications for the civil rights and liberties of law-abiding citizens. A Kansas-born U.S. Citizen, a former Army Lieutenant, an attorney in Portland, Oregon, Brandon Mayfield was wrongly accused and incarcerated for the terrorist bombings in Madrid, Spain. Prior to his arrest the FBI had Mr. Mayfield and his family under warrantless surveillance and Mr. Mayfield is reasonably certain they broke into his house twice during this time period.

The FBI was positive they had a fingerprint match with one found on detonators in Spain. The fingerprint was described as a “100% match”, an “absolutely incontrovertible match” and a “bingo match.” On the other hand, when they sent Mayfield’s prints to the Spanish authorities they replied that his prints were “conclusively negative.” The FBI later admitted that Mayfield’s Muslim faith may have caused them to disregard the repeated reservations of the Spanish authorities regarding the fingerprint.

Continue reading here

She’s another one who gives me the creeps. Is she not creepy looking? A creepy, sleezy, slimey liar.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice misled the U.S. Congress when she said last week that she had not seen a 2003 Iranian proposal for talks with the United States, a former senior government official said on Wednesday.

Flynt Leverett, who worked on the National Security Council when it was headed by Rice, likened the proposal to the 1972 U.S. opening to China. He said he was confident it was seen by Rice and then-Secretary of State Colin Powell but “the administration rejected the overture.”

Speaking at a conference on Capitol Hill, Leverett said “this was a serious proposal, a serious effort” by Iran to lay out a comprehensive agenda for U.S.-Iranian rapprochement.

“The Bush administration up to and including Secretary Rice is misleading Congress and the American public about the Iran proposal,” he said.

Testifying before the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee last week, Rice told lawmakers who asked about Leverett’s previous public comments and writings on the Iranian proposal: “I don’t know what Flynt Leverett’s talking about.”

Read more at Reuters

I like the guy, but I can only listen to him for so long and then I can’t take anymore. I don’t know if it’s his voice or what….. all I know is I can take him in small doses on the radio. Good luck to him. He’s intelligent, well informed and truly loves his homestate of Minnesota and the people there.

MINNEAPOLIS — Comedian Al Franken said Wednesday he will run for U.S. Senate in 2008, confirming his long’suspected plans to seek the Democratic nomination to challenge Republican Sen. Norm Coleman.

Franken’s announcement came on the final day of his radio show on Air America. The former “Saturday Night Live” performer’s celebrity instantly makes him a heavyweight contender and brings national attention to the Minnesota race.

“Minnesotans have a right to be skeptical about whether I’m ready for this challenge, and to wonder how seriously I would take the responsibility that I’m asking you to give me,” Franken said in a video clip posted on his Web site.

Read more at the Washington Post

AUBURN HILLS, Michigan - In the next three years, 13,000 Chrysler workers will lose their jobs under a wrenching restructuring announced Wednesday that eventually may lead to a DaimlerChrysler divorce.

The Chrysler unit of the German-American automaker announced its long-awaited plan at its Auburn Hills headquarters, saying it would cut 16 percent of the U.S. division’s worldwide work force, a move it hoped would return its U.S. operations to profitability next year.

The plan was announced only hours after Chrysler’s parent, DaimlerChrysler AG, said it was considering “far-reaching strategic options with partners” for Chrysler and that “no option is being excluded” as it reported a 40 percent drop in companywide profit for the fourth quarter. DaimlerChrysler’s U.S. shares rose nearly 7 percent by early afternoon.
Read more at MSNBC

Nice, with the kids in the car. Personal recognizance bond. If it were you or I, we’d be sitting in a cell waiting for bail to be made while they took the kids to a foster home.

WHEATON, Illinois (AP) — Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s daughter was arrested this week and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol and child endangerment, officials said Wednesday.

Ann S. Banaszewski, 45, of Wheaton, was arrested Monday evening while driving away from a fast-food restaurant in the suburb 20 miles west of Chicago, police said.

Three children were inside Banaszewski’s van when someone called police to report a suspected intoxicated driver, said Deputy Chief Tom Meloni.

Meloni would not release Banaszewski’s blood-alcohol level. He also declined to give the children’s ages or say whether Banaszewski had a previous record.

She was released on a personal recognizance bond. The DuPage County Circuit Court had no information Wednesday about a whether a court appearance had been scheduled.

Read more at CNN

On the front page of the paper this morning….this happy happy joy joy Valentine’s story. Geezzzzz…..

Valentine’s Day: a sweet time for florists, chocolate makers, card sellers, restaurateurs — and private investigators.

On a day when romance is on the minds of many, some are filled with suspicion: Are their love interests of interest to anyone else?

Exposing trysts is good business for private investigators, especially around Valentine’s Day, when, marital experts say, infidelity and extramarital affairs reach a crescendo.

Some of South Florida’s 2,686 licensed sleuths may be spending the holiday hunched in their cars, blending in at restaurants, hurrying through hotel lobbies, legally bugging living rooms and ducking on the beaches to record their targets in the act of cheating.

“We’ve got everyone working,” said Brad Robinson, a former CIA agent whose Millennium Group in West Palm Beach employs six investigators.

Cheating is the side of Valentine’s Day that no one likes to talk about, even though millions of Americans are the victims of infidelity each year, said Ruth Houston, founder of infidelityadvice.com and author of Is He Cheating on You? 829 Telltale Signs.

More at the Sun Sentinel

A new UNICEF report on children’s well-being in rich countries found that the UK and the US are the worst places to grow up while northern European countries are the most children-friendly.

American and British youngsters have a more troublesome childhood than their European counterparts, according to a United Nations study presented in Berlin on Wednesday. They’re poorer, get on worse with their parents and take more risks. In comparison with children living in other rich countries, those growing up in the USA and the UK have the lowest quality of life, the study says.

The UNICEF report compared the level of children’s well-being in 21 economically advanced countries. Despite being among the richest, Britain and the USA occupied the last two places in the list, with the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark taking the top three slots.

The findings suggest that national wealth does not correspond directly to quality of childhood: the Czech Republic, for example, outranked richer countries like the USA, Japan or Germany.

The level of children’s well-being was assessed through measuring six factors: Material well-being; health and safety; education; peer and family relations; behaviors and risks; and self-perceived subjective well-being. Although northern European countries like the Netherlands did well on the overall score, “all countries have weaknesses that need to be addressed,” said David Bull, director of UNICEF UK. “No country features in the top third of the rankings for all six dimensions,” he said, referring to the factors considered.
Read more at Spiegel

I like Ed Henry, as reporters go.

White House spokesman Tony Snow’s press briefing turned “contentious” this afternoon, CNN reports, after correspondent Ed Henry asked if the Bush Administration and the US Military were both “on the same page” with regards to accusations that Iran is “meddling” in Iraq.

“You know, this past weekend, US Military officials in Baghdad laid out what they claim to be evidence of Iranian meddling in Iraq,” Henry reported on CNN. “Specifically, providing bomb-making materials to insurgents in Iraq who were, in turn, using those materials to kill US soldiers and Marines.”

Henry noted that the allegations were “being met with skepticism in part because so many claims the Bush administration made in advance of the Iraq war turned out to be false.”

“The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Pace, is now saying, in fact, while these explosive projectiles are, in fact, manufactured in Iran, ‘I would not say but that I know, that the Iranian Government clearly knows or is complicit,’” Henry continued. “It sounded to some, including me, that perhaps the US government is not on the same page here.”

So Henry said to Snow, “General Peter Pace is now saying that he was not aware that this briefing was going ahead in Baghdad where military officers were talking about Iran’s influence in Iraq, this past weekend. How could the chairman of the Joint Chiefs not know that military officers would be briefing in Baghdad?”

The White House press secretary said that he’d “refer that back to General Pace, frankly,” before accusing some in the media of trying to “whomp up” controversy.

“Let me tell you what — I think a lot of people are trying to whomp up a fight here that doesn’t exist,” Snow said. “I spoke with General Pace a bit this morning as well.”

Henry interjected, “With all due respect, it’s General Pace’s comments, not anyone’s else’s.”

Read more and watch video at RawStory

If you have a felony conviction you are not allowed to vote…..but you can join the military. Ok…..that makes sense. NOT The recruiting call has changed from “A few good men” to “A few good criminals.”

WASHINGTON — The Army and Marine Corps are letting in more recruits with criminal records, including some with felony convictions, reflecting the increased pressure of five years of war and its mounting casualties.

According to data compiled by the Defense Department, the number of Army and Marine recruits needing waivers for felonies and serious misdemeanors, including minor drug offenses, has grown since 2003. The Army granted more than double the number of waivers for felonies and misdemeanors in 2006 than it did in 2003. Some recruits may get more than one waiver.

The military routinely grants waivers to admit recruits who have criminal records, medical problems or low aptitude scores that would otherwise disqualify them from service. Overall the majority are moral waivers, which include some felonies, misdemeanors, and traffic and drug offenses.

The number of felony waivers granted by the Army grew from 411 in 2003 to 901 in 2006, according to the Pentagon, or about one in 10 of the moral waivers approved that year. Other misdemeanors, which could be petty theft, writing a bad check or some assaults, jumped from about 2,700 to more than 6,000 in 2006. The minor crimes represented more than three-quarters of the moral waivers granted by the Army in 2006, up from more than half in 2003.

Read more at Newsday