Archive for February 28th, 2007
(Cross-posted at Vagabond Scholar)
This Doonesbury strip, reprinted on 4/5/06, is one of my favorites from Trudeau in the past two years. Even among terrorists such as Al-Qaeda, while there are aspects of American culture they hate, it’s not so much that they hate our “freedom,” they hate our foreign policy. Furthermore, in Iraq, even the Pentagon estimates that Al-Qaeda comprises a mere sliver of the population. The majority of the Iraqi populace wants us out, they may want their faction to be dominant, and most of them probably want to be able to live their lives and raise their families in relative peace and prosperity. It’s not as if the entire populace of Iraq, let alone a significant percentage, has the will, interest, training or resources to travel to America, trick customs, gather dangerous materials and fashion a plot to attack the Mall of America.
The Soprano Summit Reunion Band
The Soprano Summit Reunion Band at the 1995 Bern Jazz Festival.
The 1970s, an era best known in jazz as the “fusion years,” seemed like a very unlikely time to form a classic jazz/mainstream group. At Dick Gibson’s annual Colorado Jazz Party in 1972, Bob Wilber and Kenny Davern so enjoyed playing together during one song that within a short time Soprano Summit was formed. Wilber and Davern both doubled on sopranos and clarinets, and were originally joined by pianist Dick Hyman, guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli, bassist George Duvivier, and drummer Bobby Rosengarden, cutting their first two sets for the World Jazz label. By 1976, when the group really hit its stride, Wilber and Davern were teaming up with acoustic guitarist/vocalist Marty Grosz and a variety of bassists and drummers. The band featured passionate versions of pre-bop standards and obscurities, and the interplay between the co-leaders was often quite intense and consistently exciting. Before their breakup in 1979, Soprano Summit had recorded gems for Chiaroscuro, Jazzology, Concord, and Fat Cat’s Jazz, in addition to a third album for World Jazz. In 1986, Davern (who was now exclusively playing clarinet) and Wilbur had an informal get-together, and they have played together on an occasional basis since, making recordings as Soprano Reunion with the original rhythm section (with Milt Hinton filling in for the late Duvivier) in 1990 and 1992and here in 1995.
Pianist Johnny Varro, drummer Jake Hanna, guitarist Marty Grosz and it should be noted that bassist Milt Hinton is 85 years old at this festival and still plays with the best in the world.
H/T to Youtuber ilbofilms for this video and commentary!
NBC Report on Army underrating soldiers disabilities
MIAMI — A federal judge who must decide whether alleged al-Qaida operative Jose Padilla is mentally fit for trial said Wednesday that the former Chicago gang member hasn’t behaved strangely but may not be cooperating with his attorneys.
“I think everyone would agree that Mr. Padilla is almost polite to a fault,” U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke said on the fourth and final day of competency hearings.
Cooke said that one psychologist had found Padilla “gracious,” and she said he had not demonstrated any odd behavior or outbursts in the courtroom or while in custody.
But she also questioned prosecutors about defense lawyers’ claims that the 36-year-old U.S. citizen had refused to discuss many aspects of his case. Defense attorneys say Padilla suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from isolation and interrogation during 3½ years as an enemy combatant at a Navy brig.
“By refusing to discuss vast sections of his case _ is that not in and of itself an inability to assist counsel?” Cooke asked.
Read more at the Sun Sentinel
This just keeps getting worse and worse. HELLLOOOOOO….CONGRESS…..WAKE THE HELL UP AND DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS!!!
By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Feb 28, 2007 10:42:37 EST
Soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center’s Medical Hold Unit say they have been told they will wake up at 6 a.m. every morning and have their rooms ready for inspection at 7 a.m., and that they must not speak to the media.
“Some soldiers believe this is a form of punishment for the trouble soldiers caused by talking to the media,” one Medical Hold Unit soldier said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
It is unusual for soldiers to have daily inspections after Basic Training.
Soldiers say their sergeant major gathered troops at 6 p.m. Monday to tell them they must follow their chain of command when asking for help with their medical evaluation paperwork, or when they spot mold, mice or other problems in their quarters.
They were also told they would be moving out of Building 18 to Building 14 within the next couple of weeks. Building 14 is a barracks that houses the administrative offices for the Medical Hold Unit and was renovated in 2006. It’s also located on the Walter Reed Campus, where reporters must be escorted by public affairs personnel. Building 18 is located just off campus and is easy to access.
The soldiers said they were also told their first sergeant has been relieved of duty, and that all of their platoon sergeants have been moved to other positions at Walter Reed. And 120 permanent-duty soldiers are expected to arrive by mid-March to take control of the Medical Hold Unit, the soldiers said.
As of Tuesday afternoon, Army public affairs did not respond to a request sent Sunday evening to verify the personnel changes.
The Pentagon also clamped down on media coverage of any and all Defense Department medical facilities, to include suspending planned projects by CNN and the Discovery Channel, saying in an e-mail to spokespeople: “It will be in most cases not appropriate to engage the media while this review takes place,” referring to an investigation of the problems at Walter Reed.
Source: ArmyTimes
Welcoming our troops home. A real tear-jerker.
(H/T QuestionGirl)
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - Lawmakers outraged by allegations of sexual abuse of juvenile inmates and a coverup within the Texas Youth Commission promised to hold officials accountable and hinted they might try to take over the troubled agency.
“We’re going to get to the bottom of this,” said Sen. John Whitmire, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee. “There are no untouchables. We will not rest until this agency is shaken up from top to bottom.”
Lawmakers held an emotional hearing Tuesday in which they questioned agency staff about investigations that found high-ranking officials at the West Texas State School in Pyote had repeated sexual contact with inmates.
The Texas Youth Commission houses offenders ages 10 to 21 who are considered the most dangerous, incorrigible or chronic. The West Texas State School at the heart of the controversy houses 250 male inmates.
Read more here
I don’t like the sounds of this……..
WASHINGTON - The nation’s new spy chief is replacing Norman Bailey as the intelligence community’s point man on Cuba and Venezuela just three months after Bailey took the job, The Miami Herald has learned.
Bailey’s departure came as Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell told a Senate panel that Fidel Castro’s domination over Cuba would end this year and that his brother Raúl was consolidating his position in power.
There was no immediate word on how Bailey’s departure will affect U.S. intelligence gathering and analysis on Cuba at a sensitive time, when the ailing leader Fidel Castro, 80, has been ”temporarily” replaced by Raúl Castro.
Bailey told friends about the decision in an e-mail Sunday, a copy of which was obtained by The Miami Herald. It said McConnell was overhauling the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and eliminating the three country ”mission managers” who supervise intelligence gathering in critical countries like North Korea and Iran.
Intelligence officials denied Bailey’s version, saying that the Cuba and Venezuela position will be retained and that several candidates already were being considered for the post.
”It’s not unusual for changes in leadership to be followed by changes in personnel,” said a senior intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in accordance with government rules.
He gave no specific reason for Bailey’s dismissal.
”But mission managers will continue to be a critical component of the ODNI to ensure the best intelligence community collaboration against many of our top priorities, including Cuba and Venezuela,” the official added.
Read more at the Miami Herald
I’m glad somebody in congress isn’t satisfied!
Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) said yesterday that he is not satisfied with the Bush administration’s response to his inquiries on whether the White House believes its signing statement accompanying the 2002 Iraq war authorization gives the president authority to attack Iran.
Webb first wrote to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and newly confirmed deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte last month after a Rice appearance before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. During questioning by Webb, Rice did not clearly state whether President Bush believes he can pursue action against Iran under his 2002 signing statement, which interprets the war authorization as a broad mandate to defend “threats to national interests.”
Webb said yesterday that he has heard from Rice and Negroponte, but that their responses were “lengthy and not to the point,” adding that he intends to pursue a clarification of presidential authority to use force in Iran in the near future.
Source: The Hill
On his last day in CIA custody, Marwan Jabour, an accused al-Qaeda paymaster, was stripped naked, seated in a chair and videotaped by agency officers. Afterward, he was shackled and blindfolded, headphones were put over his ears, and he was given an injection that made him groggy. Jabour, 30, was laid down in the back of a van, driven to an airstrip and put on a plane with at least one other prisoner.
His release from a secret facility in Afghanistan on June 30, 2006, was a surprise to Jabour — and came just after the Supreme Court rejected the Bush administration’s assertion that the Geneva Conventions do not apply to prisoners like him.
Jabour had spent two years in “black sites” — a network of secret internment facilities the CIA operated around the world. His account of life in that system, which he described in three interviews with The Washington Post, offers an inside view of a clandestine world that held far more prisoners than the 14 men President Bush acknowledged and had transferred out of CIA custody in September.
“There are now no terrorists in the CIA program,” the president said, adding that after the prisoners held were determined to have “little or no additional intelligence value, many of them have been returned to their home countries for prosecution or detention by their governments.”
But Jabour’s experience — also chronicled by Human Rights Watch, which yesterday issued a report on the fate of former “black site” detainees — often does not accord with the portrait the administration has offered of the CIA system, such as the number of people it held and the threat detainees posed. Although 14 detainees were publicly moved from CIA custody to the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, scores more have not been publicly identified by the U.S. government, and their whereabouts remain secret. Nor has the administration acknowledged that detainees such as Jabour, considered so dangerous and valuable that their detentions were kept secret, were freed.
Read more at the Washington Post
If you didn’t catch Bob Woodruff’s “To Iraq and Back” last night, I hope they re-air it. A must see. According to James Nicholson, the Secretary of Veteran’s Affairs, the Iraq and Afghanistan wounded numbers are around 200,000……not 23,000. According to him, they were just not prepared for this. Gee, what a surprise…..this administration isn’t much prepared for anything that happens regarding their “war on terror.” At what point does this excuse not hold up any longer???? They interviewed soldiers with head injuries who, when sent home, could not receive proper care because there aren’t any facilities in the areas where they live. It was just so sad. The oversight and investigations subcommittee of the House Veterans- Affairs Committee is holding hearings tomorrow regarding the data breaches in the VA department. Maybe they need to look into the care of veterans and the misleading Pentagon numbers of wounded as well!!!
Three deaths and new rule violations prompted action; VA may cut $7 million in funding.
State inspectors said Tuesday that three men died at the Minneapolis Veterans Home after neglect or medication errors last month, and Gov. Tim Pawlenty promptly ordered the Minnesota Department of Health to begin monitoring day-to-day operations of the state-owned nursing home.
The governor’s action was prompted by the deaths, two years of “not so good” inspections that found scores of infractions, and the threat by federal officials on Friday to cut off about $7 million in payments for the care of veterans at the Minneapolis facility, said Health Commissioner Dianne Mandernach.
Two of the men who died were in hospice care; one was given penicillin and the other morphine sulfate when they were allergic to the drugs. Investigators said they did not determine whether the medication errors caused the deaths.
Read more about this case here
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