Thom Hartmann masterfully explains the historical events that created
the latest nightmare in Paris. The Bush Crime Family has been involved
every step of the way.
Beginning with John Maynard Keynes' prediction that the sanctions put
on Germany after World War I would lead to a second world war, through
the massacre at Charlie Hebdo, Thom Hartmann clearly explains the
blunders of the Bush Administration(s) and their associates that created
the powder keg in the middle east. That powder keg cannot be contained
to the middle east as Muslims will never lack motivation to avenge the
brutality of Western powers.
Prescott
Bush, the Connecticut senator and grandfather of the current president,
had some German corporate ties at the outbreak of World War II, but the
better yardstick of his connections was his directorships of companies
involved in U.S. war production. Dresser Industries, for example,
produced the incendiary bombs dropped on Tokyo and made gaseous
diffusion pumps for the atomic bomb project. George H.W. Bush later
worked for Dresser's oil-services businesses. Then, as CIA director,
vice president and president, one of his priorities was the U.S. weapons
trade and secret arms deals with Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the mujaheddin in Afghanistan.
What are the events that led to Charlie Hebdo? It began more
recently with "Charlie Wilson's War," where Reagan helped a Wahabbist
named Osama Bin Laden and funded him so well, the Soviets pulled out of
Afghanistan and America appeared to win the Cold War. His hatred of
Saddam Hussein for being too secular led to Saudi involvement in the
first Gulf War and the establishment of an American Air Base in his home
country. This in turn led to the rise of this Saudi extremist who
developed an intense hatred for all things secular and Western,
especially the United States. During the Clinton Presidency,
Neo-conservatives saw an opening to create a culture of perpetual war.
This led to the creation of The Project for the New American Century.
(PNAC) is a Washington-based neo-conservative think-tank founded in
1997 to "rally support for American global leadership." PNAC's agenda
runs far deeper than regime change in Iraq. Its statement of principles
begins with the assertion that "American foreign and defense policy is
adrift" and calls for "a Reaganite policy of military strength and moral
clarity."
While their tone is high-minded, their proposal is unilateral
military intervention to protect against threats to America's status as
the lone global superpower. The statement is signed by such influential
figures as Dick Cheney, Jeb Bush, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Dan Quayle,
Donald Rumsfeld, and Paul Wolfowitz. PNAC is not alone, nor did it arise from new wells of power. Most
of the founding members of PNAC held posts in the Reagan or elder Bush
administration and other neo-conservative think-tanks, publications, and
advocacy groups.
Hartmann explains that Jeb Bush's PNAC recommended an invasion, a "small
war" like Reagan's Grenada, Bush 41's Kuwait, and this led to the Iraq
($2 trillion) War. This conflict created more hatred for the U.S. by the
world's Muslims. European Muslims have been highly motivated, ever
since, to train with Jihadist Extremists and inflict terror on the
Western World.
The Bush family, in one way or another, has been involved with Middle Eastern hegemony.
Armaments and arms deals seem to have been in the Bushes' blood for nearly a century,
and their bellicose dealings have dire consequences that will continue
to plague us for decades to come. France must not overreact and feed
the beast that is the Military Industrial Complex, or they'll end up
with a perpetually un-winnable War on Terror.
Well check out what you may have missed and Happy New Year. We wish you love, peace and health and along with that a true cfw for PS3, PS4 and PSVita. That will do it right?
3. PS3Hax went past 300,000 members mark (April)
That was a golden day, wasn’t it? PS3Hax now have over 338,535 member, a few trolls, over 732,988 posts and hellsing9 http://www.ps3hax.net/2014/04/300000-members-d/
4. ODE killer also known as 4.60 released by Sony (June)
Changelog was System software stability during use of some features has been improved. but no, this update disabled ODE’s almost forever and now no one was able to run backups without Swap Discs and DMC modules , it was hard for normal users to deal with thus 2 out of 3 ODE makers shut their doors including 3key and E3 ODE. http://www.ps3hax.net/2014/06/update-4-60-ofw-is-now-live/
5. 4k Model Dumped for CFW (August)
After so many years someone was finally able to make some progress on a project that may had lead to CFW for newer ps3 models.
The project is still WIP and only time will tell where this will go http://www.ps3hax.net/2014/08/wipps3-4k-model-dumped-by-modrobert-for-cfw/
7. Lizard Squad Hacked XBox Live and PSN (December)
Lizard squad promised to hack XBox live on christmas. some considered it as a joke but to prove their power they took one step forward and also took PSN down. while you may call it just a ddos attack but they were able to successfully ruin christmas for gamers all across the world. http://www.ps3hax.net/2014/12/lizard-squad-getting-ready-to-shut-down-xbox-live-forever-on-christmas/
9. PS3xport released by Kakaroto. (December)
Well second last but not the least, Developer Kakaroto finally released something that can make the PS3 scene running again and will have a great impact on PS3 scene in 2015. PS3xport, a tool that can can let u edit your PS3 backup and manipulate it. http://www.ps3hax.net/2014/12/ps3xportlong-awaited-and-much-anticipated-tool-by-kakaroto-released/
10. PeXploit. The first tool that will let you install packages on OFW with the help of PS3xport.(December)
While this is still a WIP and it was just released but will still counted as one of the biggest releases . Anyone can now finally install anything with so much ease on any PS3 http://www.ps3hax.net/2014/12/pexploit-beta-by-darkprogramer/
More than a Third of Social Security Beneficiaries are
Disabled Americans and Other Non-Retirees. House Rule Released Today
Would Prevent Clean Reallocations of Social Security to Fund Social
Security Disability Insurance (SSDI)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) condemned
a dangerous new rule in the House of Representatives that would
undermine Social Security by attacking Social Security Disability
Insurance (SSDI). The unprecedented rule change would prevent the House
of Representatives from passing clean reallocations of the Social
Security Trust Fund.
“Today, House Republicans are trying to change rules that have been in place for decades as a way to attack social insurance,” Brown
said. “Rather than solve the short-term problems facing the Social
Security Disability program as we have in the past, Republicans want to
set the stage to cut benefits for seniors and disabled Americans.”
Reallocation is a simple procedure used by Congress to rebalance how
Social Security payroll tax revenues are apportioned between the two
trust funds - the equivalent of transferring money from a checking to a
savings account. Reallocation is commonsense, bipartisan policy that
has been utilized by both parties 11 times since 1957– most recently in
1994. At that time, it was projected that reallocation would keep the
trust fund solvent until 2016.
“Reallocation has never been controversial, but detractors working to
privatize Social Security will do anything to manufacture a crisis out
of a routine administrative function,” Brown continued.
“Reallocation is a routine housekeeping matter that has been used 11
times, including four times under Ronald Reagan. Modest reallocation of
payroll taxes would ensure solvency of both trust funds until 2033. But
if House Republicans block reallocation, insurance for disabled
Americans, veterans, and children could face severe cuts once the trust
fund is exhausted in 2016.”
In July, Brown attended a Senate Finance Committee hearing to examine
SSDI and its importance to the entire Social Security system. The
hearing was entitled “Social Security: A Fresh Look at Workers’ Disability Insurance.”
That same month, Brown delivered a keynote speech on SSDI at the Center
for American Progress (CAP) where he outlined future threats that
Social Security faces from those who seek to privatize and cut the
program. Brown warned how undermining SSDI represents an effort to
siphon public support from the entire Social Security program and urged
Social Security advocates to organize to prevent detractors from
“dividing and conquering” the program.
With more than a third of Social Security beneficiaries being
non-retirees, SSDI now more than ever needs to be protected. SSDI is one
of our nation’s most successful insurance programs and helps millions
of disabled Americans, children, and veterans. Further, SSDI is the sole
source of income for one in every three beneficiaries. Without SSDI,
half of all beneficiaries would be below the poverty line.
In December, Brown announced that he will introduce the Strengthening Social Security Act –
championed by retired U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA). The bill would
extend the solvency of the Social Security Trust Fund, which nearly two
in three Americans rely on for at least half of their income in old age.
Brown’s prepared opening remarks from the July hearing on SSDI can be found below.
Senator Brown Prepared Opening Remarks for Finance Subcommittee Hearing on “Social Security Disability Insurance”
Thursday, July 24, 2014
I want to begin today’s hearing on Social Security Disability
Insurance (SSDI) by talking about 52-year-old Sheila in Youngstown.
Sheila works in a steel factory along the Mahoning River. She
punches a time clock each day on her way into the factory and again on
her way out – the same routine every day for the last 18 years.
Sheila has no union strong enough to demand a defined pension,
retirement savings account, or even a fair wage, and it’s a grueling job
– standing on her feet all day.
But in a town that’s seen far too many factory gates closed and
more plants shuttered than most will ever see in a lifetime, Sheila
knows that she is fortunate.
One day before heading out the door to work, Sheila decides to throw a load of laundry in the washer before her shift.
She hoists the laundry basket onto her hip and opens the basement
door with the other hand. But as she reaches to turn on the lights,
Sheila loses her footing and falls down the hard, wooden steps to the
concrete floor.
The accident leaves her permanently paralyzed.
Sheila can no longer work.
She doesn’t know how she is going to pay her mounting medical
bills, let alone her regular bills now that she has lost her income.
Then, Sheila finds out that she has been paying into Social Security
Disability Insurance (SSDI) her entire working life.
This insurance is now Sheila’s lifeline.
She always thought Social Security would be there for her once she retired, but now – Social Security is all she has.
She is now one of the nearly one-third of Social Security beneficiaries who are not retirees.
Nearly nine million disabled workers are SSDI beneficiaries – and 4.4 million children also receive assistance.
One in five SSDI beneficiaries lives in poverty, and nearly half of disabled workers younger than 50 are poor or near poor.
Social Security – as a whole – is a plan that offers working
families a bundle of insurance products: retirement, life, and
disability insurance – social insurance that most working families
couldn’t afford to buy on their own.
That’s why most Americans do not support making cuts to Social
Security. In fact, overwhelming majorities are willing to pay more to
preserve this program.
Detractors of Social Security know this so they seek backdoor ways to dismantle the program.
That backdoor?
SSDI.
Detractors divide Social Security into “good Social Security” and “bad Social Security.”
They say “bad Social Security” is disability insurance and that
the program is bankrupt and rife with fraud, which in turn, undermines
Social Security as a whole.
We will address these claims in today’s hearing.
Disability insurance is not bankrupt. The disability trust fund simply needs to be reallocated.
Reallocation is commonsense, bipartisan policy. Since 1957, it has been done 11 times– most recently in 1994.
At that time, it was projected that reallocation would keep the trust fund solvent until 2016 – which it did.
Rebalancing the fund ensures there is adequate funding so that SSDI is there for all of us, if the worst should happen.
Many in this town claim to sympathize with low-income workers.
But when it comes to supporting disability insurance – a program
that provides a modest safety-net to the most vulnerable Americans –
they dismiss beneficiaries as lazy scammers looking to game the system.
They’re wrong.
Keep in mind, the average SSDI check is about $300 a week.
In my home state of Ohio, the typical annual SSDI benefit for a disabled worker was $11,988 in 2012.
That’s barely over the federal poverty level for an individual.
Go back to Sheila. She worked 18 years in a factory, standing on her feet all day.
More than half of disability insurance beneficiaries are like her – they too worked in jobs that demanded physical labor.
To call people like Sheila lazy – to prey upon the most vulnerable in society – is wrong and unacceptable.
Where fraud exists, we can address it to maintain the protections that SSDI affords us all.
But to divide Social Security into good parts and bad parts is not how we will solve this issue.
I want to share a letter with you from the grandfather of one of my staff.
He received this letter from his employer, the Pennsylvania Gas and Electric Company, on December 24, 1936.
The letter reads:
“On August 14, 1935, Congress passed the Social Security Act.
Under the provision of this Act, the company is required to deduct 1% of
your wage beginning on January 1, 1937. These deductions, which are
matched by your company, are designed to provide for a retirement at age
65.”
Imagine receiving this letter and being told your wages would
start being taken away, and that you would get it back when you reached
the age of 65.
This was a time when most people didn’t know anyone who lived to
65, so to receive a letter telling you this was controversial to say the
least.
When Social Security began, it was an untested idea that was met with a great deal of misunderstanding and resistance.
Today, it is woven into the fabric of our country.
A few years ago, the idea that we would expand Social Security
seemed unlikely. All of the conventional Washington wisdom was that we
would have to cut the program.
Today, not only are cuts to Social Security deeply unpopular, we
are now debating how much we need to expand Social Security to make sure
the program continues to be there for all of us.
In today’s hearing, we will examine ways to strengthen Social Security by protecting disability insurance.
We will examine why reallocation is a simple and commonsense administrative function.
And, we will examine the need to cut fraud so the program continues to safeguard against fraud.
Bob McDonnell arrives at a courthouse in Richmond for
sentencing on Tuesday. (Jay Westcott/Reuters)
It's not often that two years in prison is a win. Then again,
it's not often that a former Virginia governor is found guilty of
corruption. Bob McDonnell is the first holder of that office to be
convicted on such charges, and he'll pay for it with 24 months in prison
and then another 24 months of supervised release.
That's far short of what prosecutors had hoped for. Citing the
gravity of the crimes and charging McDonnell with remorselessness since
his conviction, they sought 10 to 12 years, in line with their construal
of federal recommendations. (Defense attorneys successfully persuaded
Judge James Spencer that the upper limit should be more like eight
years.) But it's also way more than what McDonnell's team had asked for:
a breathtaking 6,000 hours of community service, with no jail time.
(It's hard to find an example of any sentence like that. Junk-bond king
Michael Milken had to serve 5,400 hours, but only after a decade in
lockup; the captain of the Exxon Valdez got 1,000.) McDonnell is expected to appeal the ruling.
One lament about this case—aired in this space by Amitai Etzioni,
but also elsewhere—is that the real scandal is what's legal, and that
we should be dismayed but not too rattled by McDonnell's case since
there's far worse bribery that's sanctioned under law. The Republican
was convicted of 11 counts of corruption for accepting $165,000 in gifts
and loans from businessman Johnnie Williams, in exchange for official
government favors.
But it's possible to be worried about the corrupting effects
of legal money on politics and still view this as a triumph for justice.
McDonnell was caught, tried, and convicted, and now he'll do his time.
The justice system worked—and with a healthy assist from the Fourth
Estate, and especially The Washington Post's Rosalind Helderman, which dug into McDonnell's transgressions. That's how American democracy is supposed to function.
The case was always surprising. First, McDonnell seemed squeaky-clean
right up to the moment when it was clear he wasn't, and he was on list
after list of Republican rising stars. He was destined for the national
spotlight, perhaps as a vice-presidential candidate. Second, Virginia
has for many years had relatively loose ethics rules, trusting
(anachronistically, it's now clear) that its elected officials were
gentlemen in the mold of Jefferson who would never sully themselves. As a
result, the prosecution was a shock to the Old Dominion's old
establishment.
Spencer in part agreed in his comments during sentencing. “No one wants to see a former governor of this great commonwealth in this kind of trouble,” he said, according to ThePost.
And he acknowledged the outpouring of support on McDonnell's behalf,
even while imposing the sentence.
“The jury by its verdict found an
intent to defraud. That is a serious offense that all the grace and
mercy that I can muster, it can’t cover it all.” Spencer also said that
the longer jail term sought by the prosecution "would be unfair, it
would be ridiculous, under these facts.”
The
two-year term is on the short end of the sentences given to some
politicians in recent corruption cases, though apples-to-apples
comparisons are tricky. The flamboyantly unapologetic Louisiana Democrat Edwin Edwards
served a decade in jail. Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, a
Democrat, was convicted of more serious offenses including trying to
sell a Senate seat and received 14 years in federal prison.
His predecessor, Republican George Ryan, went to jail for more than six
years on corruption charges. Former Connecticut Governor John Rowland, a
Republican, was convicted of a single corruption count and served 10
months.
Much of McDonnell's defense hinged on blaming his wife Maureen, who
was close with Williams. The strategy turned the trial into a painful
can't-watch-can't-look-away spectacle, as the McDonnells laid bare their
clearly troubled marriage in a court of law, under oath. Before
sentencing, one of their daughters wrote to the judge,
asking for leniency for her father and blaming her mother for the
trouble. (Prosecutors, in turn, said this proved he was not contrite.)
Spencer seemed to buy this, but only in part: "While Mrs. McDonnell may
have allowed the serpent into the mansion, the governor knowingly let
him into his personal and business affairs," he said.
Maureen McDonnell, however, will not be sentenced until February 20.
The former governor asked on Tuesday the judge to be merciful with
her—and perhaps this late gesture on her behalf, after the rather sordid
trial, will be better than none at all.
If there's one thing you can count on from our cable "news" hosts, it's
that Republicans will never be called out for their false equivalencies
and endless game of 'bothsiderism.'
We expect this over at Fox "news" where they've been reflexively repeating the false equivalence
that somehow the Rev. Jeremiah Wright is somehow the same or even worse
than former Grand Wizard of the KKK David Duke and that President Obama
sitting in Wright's church for years is supposedly more offensive than
Rep. Steve Scalise paling around with some white supremacists since the
day the Scalise scandal broke.
If anyone thought this was confined only to Faux "news" they'd be
sadly mistaken. As our friend Driftglass pointed out, we've got former
Cheney sycophant Ron Christie polluting his corner over at The Daily Beast
with this same nonsense. And then there's Face the Nation host Bob
Schieffer, who sat there like a potted plant this Sunday while one
disgraced former House Speaker Newton Leroy Gingrich pulled the same
stunt: Gingrich on Steve Scalise: Obama Got a Pass on Reverend Wright:
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich defended embattled
House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) by bringing up President
Barack Obama‘s association with Rev. Jeremiah Wright and questioning why
Obama got a “pass.”
“The president explained he didn’t hear any of [Wright's
controversial remarks about America], and we all gave him a pass,”
Gingrich told Bob Scieffer on Face the Nation, adding Obama made a
“great speech” in Philadelphia as a candidate when he attempted to
distance himself from Wright.
Gingrich also invoked former Sen. Robert Byrd, a Democrat who was a
former member of the Ku Klux Klan. He also brought up words of support
from Rep.-Elect Mia Love (R-Utah), who stood by Scalise, and Rep. Cedric
Richmond (D-La.), who said Scalise does not have a “racist bone” in his
body.
“For a 12-year-old speech to be blown up into a national story, I
think, is frankly one more example of a one-sided view of reality,” he
added.
Yes, it's so one-sided alright. One sided that there's no one on that
set to call you out for pretending that you can remotely compare the
two.
And here's more from your supposedly "liberal" MSNBC, with host Steve
Kornacki allowing former Rep. Nan Hayworth to do the same thing.
Kornacki didn't so much as blink an eye and was just ready to move onto
the next segment and more useless handicapping of the next presidential
race.
I would like for one of these talking heads to please explain to me
just what it is that Rev. Wright supposedly said that is "hateful" about
America, or not true for that matter. Roland Martin did a very nice job
back in 2008 of putting Wright's speech in context and it's worth a
read again today. It would be nice if a few of these hosts took the time
to read it as well before they allow another Republican to appear on
one of their shows and claim that black liberation theology is exactly
the same as white supremacy.
As this whole sordid episode regarding the sermons of the
Rev. Jeremiah Wright has played out over the last week, I wanted to
understand what he ACTUALLY said in this speech. I've been saying all
week on CNN that context is important, and I just wanted to know what
the heck is going on.
I have now actually listened to the sermon Rev. Wright gave after
September 11 titled, "The Day of Jerusalem's Fall." It was delivered on
Sept. 16, 2001.
One of the most controversial statements in this sermon was when he
mentioned "chickens coming home to roost." He was actually quoting
Edward Peck, former U.S. Ambassador to Iraq and deputy director of
President Reagan's terrorism task force, who was speaking on FOX News.
That's what he told the congregation.
He was quoting Peck as saying that America's foreign policy has put the nation in peril:
"I heard Ambassador Peck on an interview yesterday did
anybody else see or hear him? He was on FOX News, this is a white man,
and he was upsetting the FOX News commentators to no end, he pointed
out, a white man, an ambassador, he pointed out that what Malcolm X said
when he was silenced by Elijah Mohammad was in fact true, he said
Americas chickens, are coming home to roost.”
"We took this country by terror away from the Sioux, the Apache,
Arikara, the Comanche, the Arapaho, the Navajo. Terrorism. "We took
Africans away from their country to build our way of ease and kept them
enslaved and living in fear. Terrorism.
"We bombed Grenada and killed innocent civilians, babies, non-military personnel.
"We bombed the black civilian community of Panama with stealth
bombers and killed unarmed teenage and toddlers, pregnant mothers and
hard working fathers.
"We bombed Qaddafi's home, and killed his child. Blessed are they who bash your children's head against the rock.
"We bombed Iraq. We killed unarmed civilians trying to make a
living. We bombed a plant in Sudan to pay back for the attack on our
embassy, killed hundreds of hard working people, mothers and fathers
who left home to go that day not knowing that they'd never get back
home.
"We bombed Hiroshima. We bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than
the thousands in New York and the Pentagon and we never batted an eye.
"Kids playing in the playground. Mothers picking up children after
school. Civilians, not soldiers, people just trying to make it day by
day.
"We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and
black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff that
we have done overseas is now brought right back into our own front
yards. America's chickens are coming home to roost.
"Violence begets violence. Hatred begets hatred. And terrorism
begets terrorism. A white ambassador said that y'all, not a black
militant. Not a reverend who preaches about racism. An ambassador whose
eyes are wide open and who is trying to get us to wake up and move
away from this dangerous precipice upon which we are now poised. The
ambassador said the people we have wounded don't have the military
capability we have. But they do have individuals who are willing to die
and take thousands with them. And we need to come to grips with that."
He went on to describe seeing the photos of the aftermath of 9/11
because he was in Newark, N.J., when the planes struck. After turning on
the TV and seeing the second plane slam into one of the twin towers,
he spoke passionately about what if you never got a chance to say hello
to your family again.
"What is the state of your family?" he asked.
And then he told his congregation that he loved them and asked the church to tell each other they loved themselves.
His sermon thesis:
1. This is a time for self-examination of ourselves and our families.
2. This is a time for social transformation (then he went on to say
they won't put me on PBS or national cable for what I'm about to say.
Talk about prophetic!)
"We have got to change the way we have been doing things as a society," he said.
Wright then said we can't stop messing over people and thinking they
can't touch us. He said we may need to declare war on racism,
injustice, and greed, instead of war on other countries.
Copy of one of the receipts given to the table
CBS DFW
One group of friends in Pantego, Texas, closed out their year in
shock after discovering that their server had labeled each of their
receipts with the word “nigga,” CBS DFW reports.
The group from North Texas wanted to celebrate New Year’s Eve at
Shatila, a Lebanese restaurant, and had a good time, but when it came
time to pay the bill, things took an unpleasant turn. Every ticket for
the table had the n-word on it, marked by the server, followed by a
number to separate the individual orders.
According to the news station, when the friends realized what had
happened, they checked other tables to see if it was some sort of
misunderstanding and if anyone had similar notes. However, no other
receipts did—the racial slur had apparently been used only to describe
their table, the group told the news station.
“It’s sad that it’s still occurring,” one of the customers, Ta’les
Russell, told CBS DFW. “We are here in the new year, starting fresh,
celebrating with family and friends. This is the worst way to start,
with everything going on in our society, in Ferguson [in Missouri]. It’s
sad that we have to experience this still today in 2015.”
CBS DFW reports that the manager did apologize and offered them a
free meal and that the server has been fired. The manager, however, also
“downplayed” the incident, according to the website, and said that “the
server was new and didn’t mean any harm.”
That’s where the group took issue.
“We’re forgiving people. We’ve accepted their apology,” Justyce Hill
told the news station. “But it’s more about allowing it to happen in the
first place. It wasn’t something that should have been tolerated.
Should have been noticed right then and there.”
“They need to emphasize it to their staff,” Jasmine Tucker said.
“They can let go our waiter, but what if the rest of their waiters are
doing the same thing? They need to emphasize this is not OK.”
This is what I remember about the first time I met Steve Scalise
nearly 20 years ago: He told me he was like David Duke without the
baggage.
I was a new reporter covering Jefferson Parish, and Scalise, now the
majority whip in the U.S. House of Representatives, was just starting
out in the Louisiana Legislature (I’m going from memory, but the
exchange obviously stuck with me). It would be several years before I
would fully decode just what he meant by the sentiment, which is similar
to statements he would later make to at least one Washington news outlet, and what it said about Jefferson Parish and Louisiana politics.
The “baggage,” of course, was Duke’s past, his racist and
anti-Semitic views and his former role as a KKK grand wizard. Scalise
disavowed Duke then, as he did once again this week, when blogger Lamar White Jr. revealed that Scalise had spoken in 2002 at a meeting hosted by a Duke-founded white nationalist group.
But the other part of the sentence, the part about their similarity,
was the rub. Scalise may have been naïve about how to express himself
to a newcomer, but he was already a savvy politician who knew that, even
though Duke had lost the governor’s race a few years earlier, Duke
voters were still around. And those Duke voters also were potential
Scalise voters.
This is, in effect, a dirty little secret of Louisiana politics, and
the context in which Scalise made the fateful decision to show up at
the EURO conference in 2002. The truth, as Scalise suggested that day,
was that the actual governmental philosophy Duke espoused isn’t far off
from what was becoming mainstream conservative thought, what with its
suspicion of taxes, set-asides and safety net programs such as welfare.
The problem in his view was the messenger, not the message.
Does Scalise endorse the racist goals of the European-American Unity and Rights Organization, a group so bigoted that the Southern Poverty Law Center has
labeled it a hate group? I’ve never seen anything to suggest so,
although there were times, like when he opposed establishing a holiday
honoring Martin Luther King Jr., when he certainly could have shown more
cultural sensitivity. I’ve watched him work closely with his fellow
state legislator and now congressional colleague Cedric Richmond, who
has defended him, and have seen him at campaign events in support of
Richmond and other African-American colleagues, party and ideological
differences notwithstanding.
But I also get how the invitation wouldn’t have set off alarm bells,
given that Scalise had long since made his awkward peace with the
situation.
In fact, by 2002, Scalise may have been so used to the idea of
dealing with Duke voters that he really considered EURO just another
part of his constituency, even if it was a distasteful one. Maybe not so
different in his mind from the League of Women Voters,
which he cited in an interview with The Times-Picayune as another group
he’d addressed despite the fact that they didn’t agree on everything —
an insulting comparison that suggests he still doesn’t fully grasp how
bad this all looks from the outside.
Scalise claims he didn’t know the group’s origins, which is pretty
implausible given how prominent Duke and his associates were in
Jefferson political circles.
Instead, the most charitable explanation is that he chose not to
think about it, that he opted instead to focus on areas of agreement.
Indeed, sketchy reports of his speech suggest he talked not about race
or religion but the legislative slush funds then allotted to urban
lawmakers, which were indeed often abused, but which also would have
validated stereotypes held by this particular group.
He’d hardly be the only politician to
make such a deal with himself. In 1996, commentator and presidential
candidate Pat Buchanan disavowed an endorsement from Duke, even as he
fielded a Louisiana delegate slate with at least one former Duke
campaign official. Former Gov. Mike Foster paid Duke for a valuable
voter contact list, then failed to disclose it, explaining once word got
out that it wasn’t “cool” to be associated with him.
No, it’s not. But like robbers drawn to banks because that’s where
the money is, politicians go where the voters are. And they, I guess,
tell themselves what they need to hear in order to sleep at night.
Stephanie Grace can be contacted at sgrace@theadvocate.com. Read her blog at http://blogs.theadvocate.com/gracenotes. Follow her on Twitter, @stephgracenola
Guess we know how those kids' parents are spending the holiday -- looking for another school!
Once
again, a Philadelphia charter school is closing unexpectedly, leaving
students and parents in the lurch and screwing the school district out
of $1.5 million illegally gotten:
The fallout from the abrupt closing of the Walter D. Palmer Leadership Learning Partners Charter School spreads.
Teachers say they fear they won't be paid money they're owed for
working in December.
And amid rumors that the charter's flagship
building in Northern Liberties would be liquidated to pay creditors,
several teachers decided to retrieve personal items from the building on
Monday - and were initially thwarted by security.
Frustrated parents held a protest.
"It's unfair to receive notification over the weekend that the school
will be closed," said Jihan Pauling, a parent who organized a rally
outside the charter's main campus.
Citing insurmountable financial obstacles, the Palmer charter sent
letters to families and staff on Friday informing them that the school
would close permanently Wednesday.
The move sent teachers on quests for new jobs and information about
filing for unemployment and left families of the school's 675 students
in kindergarten through eighth grade scrambling for new schools.
The younger students were based in Northern Liberties. The fifth
through eighth graders had attended classes in the former St.
Bartholomew Catholic school on Harbison Avenue in Frankford.
John L. Pund Jr., the financial consultant hired by the Palmer
charter's board to handle the liquidation, said the board had no
alternative to closing after the Philadelphia School District said it
would require the charter to begin making monthly payments of $250,000.
That money was to repay the $1.5 million that the courts had ruled
that the charter had collected for students it was not entitled to have.
Don't kid yourself that this "reform" is only happening to "bad
schools" in urban centers. Once they're done taking over the cities,
they're coming for your local schools.
There are the basic things you can do to protect your data and
your phone, like avoiding public Wi-Fi networks, enabling built-in tools
like "Find My iPhone," and using a good password. Both iOS and Android
phones offer options for turning off "location services,"
so apps can't track your coordinates. But in an age of cyberattacks
from renegade hackers, non-state actors, and government spies, it's not a
terrible idea to arm your phone with apps that provide encrypted
communication, anonymous browsing, and theft protection. Below, a tour
of some of the best ones out there.
TextSecure, like its name suggests, secures your text messages. It's the easiest to use open source end-to-end encrypted messaging
app out there. It can act as a full replacement for your default
texting app or a standalone Wi-Fi/data messaging app like WhatsApp—or
both. When messaging other TextSecure users, your messages are
automatically encrypted on the fly, though both parties need to have
TextSecure installed to benefit from its encrypted messaging. TextSecure
handles all of the necessary key exchanges in the background. The app
can be set to send messages only over the Internet or only SMS or to
just use whichever is available.
TextSecure has two modes: It can handle all of your text messages or
it can be used only for texts between TextSecure users. You might think
that there's no reason to use TextSecure as your default texting app
since the encrypted messaging only works with other TextSecure users.
However, there's another privacy benefit to using TextSecure: All of the
messages stored locally on your phone are kept in a password-protected
encrypted database. So if your phone is ever lost or stolen, your texts
can't be accessed by someone who otherwise compromises your phone.
WhatsApp recently integrated
TextSecure's code for encrypted messaging. So WhatsApp users are
already benefiting from TextSecure's work on messaging security. But to
best ensure your privacy, opt for TextSecure because it's fully open
source, with code that can be publicly audited.
RedPhone and its iOS equivalent Signal come from the makers of
TextSecure and boasts the same ease of use not commonly found in
encryption apps that aren't peddling snake oil. What TextSecure does for
texting, these apps do for phone calls. (You remember phone calls,
right?) Simply install the Android or iOS app and call a friend who also
has one of the apps and your calls will be automatically encrypted. The
apps are interoperable, so people who use RedPhone can call Signal
users and vice versa.
If you're worried that you won't know who of your friends has one of
these apps installed, don't worry, the developers have you covered. When
you first launch RedPhone or Signal, you'll be prompted to register
your phone in their database. That way, when you open your app, you'll
instantly see who in your phone's address book is using RedPhone or
Signal.
RedPhone comes with one feature boast over Signal. On Android, if you
try to place a regular phone call to someone whose number is registered
with either app, RedPhone will prompt you to ask if you want to upgrade
to an encrypted call. Signal doesn't have that same functionality,
presumably because Apple won't allow for the normal phone call user
experience to be interrupted.
If you pay any attention to the world of digital privacy, you've most
likely heard of Tor, the traffic routing software that makes it harder
(but not impossible) for your web browsing to be tracked. Orbot brings
Tor to Android. It allows other applications to connect to the Internet
through Tor, which can help anonymize your traffic and also circumvent
bans on websites that have been blocked by repressive governments.
Any app that can use specify proxy settings can route its traffic
through Orbot. That includes the default Twitter app, so that you can
tweet anonymously on the fly. But the most practical use case is
probably for your general web browsing. Orweb is a mobile web browser
that is built to work with Orbot out of the box.
ChatSecure is also made by The Guardian Project, the same
people who created Orweb. So naturally, you can run ChatSecure through
Orbot to get the same benefits of traffic anonymization and firewall
circumvention.
But you don't need Orbot to use ChatSecure (which is good for iOS
users who don't have access to Orbot). Even if it doesn't anonymize your
traffic through Tor, ChatSecure can still act as an encryption layer
for messages you're already using to talk to your friends like Facebook
chat. Using ChatSecure is a great middle ground to talk more securely
with friends who aren't ready to take the leap off of precipices like
Google or Facebook chat.
Prey is billed as an anti-theft tool. If your phone is lost or
stolen, your online Prey account lets you track your phone using its
GPS. It also lets you remotely lock your phone, sound a loud alarm, and
display a message on your phone to whomever is looking at it. While your
device is missing, Prey will send you email reports every five minutes
(less frequently, if you'd prefer) that include your phone's location
and a picture taken with your phone's camera, which might help you
identify where exactly it is or who took it.
If everything goes to hell, Prey is also your nuclear security
option. You can use it to remotely wipe your phone so that whoever stole
it can't access your personal files and settings. There are lots of
comparable anti-theft apps out there. But because you're giving
permission to an app to remotely access your camera and location, it's
important that you be able to trust that app. Because Prey's client software
is open source, independent coders can verify that the app isn't doing
anything it shouldn't be doing. Prey versions also exist for your
Windows, Mac, and Linux laptops.
Nearly 50 million Americans, (49.7 Million), are
living below the poverty line, with 80% of the entire U.S. population
living near poverty or below it.
All
too true. It always amazes me to see people on my TV singing the
praises of the growing new economy, and I think to myself: Don't you
know any normal people? Via Political Blindspot:
If you live in the United States, there is a good chance
that you are now living in poverty or near poverty. Nearly 50 million
Americans, (49.7 Million), are living below the poverty line, with 80%
of the entire U.S. population living near poverty or below it.
That near poverty statistic is perhaps more startling than the 50
million Americans below the poverty line, because it translates to a
full 80% of the population struggling with joblessness, near-poverty or
reliance on government assistance to help make ends meet.
In September, the Associated Press pointed to survey data that told
of an increasingly widening gap between rich and poor, as well as the
loss of good-paying manufacturing jobs that used to provide
opportunities for the “Working Class” to explain an increasing trend
towards poverty in the U.S.
But the numbers of those below the poverty line does not merely
reflect the number of jobless Americans. Instead, according to a revised
census measure released Wednesday, the number – 3 million higher than
what the official government numbers imagine – are also due to
out-of-pocket medical costs and work-related expenses.
The new measure is generally “considered more reliable by social
scientists because it factors in living expenses as well as the effects
of government aid, such as food stamps and tax credits,” according to
Hope Yen reporting for the Associated Press.
Some other findings revealed that food stamps helped 5 million people
barely reach above the poverty line. That means that the actual poverty
rate is even higher, as without such aid, poverty rate would rise from
16 percent to 17.6 percent.
Latino and Asian Americans saw an increase in poverty, rising to 27.8
percent and 16.7 percent respectively, from 25.8 percent and 11.8
percent under official government numbers. African-Americans, however,
saw a very small decrease, from 27.3 percent to 25.8 percent which the
study documents is due to government assistance programs.
Non-Hispanic
whites too rose from 9.8 percent to 10.7 percent in poverty.
“The primary reason that poverty remains so high,” Sheldon Danziger, a University of Michigan economist said, “is that the
benefits of a growing economy are no longer being shared by all workers
as they were in the quarter-century following the end of World War II.”
“Actor James Woods appears to have gone full crackpot on Twitter this
morning, blaming the shooting deaths of two NYPD officers on Al Sharpton
and Mayor Bill deBlasio. The series of tweets are from his verified
Twitter account @RealJamesWoods.
The 67 year old Ghost of Mississippi actor has called on police
officers to turn their backs on the mayor and “PigSharpton” with the
hashtag #BlueLivesMatter #TurnYourBacks on #RaceHucksters.”
A black teen was fatally shot by an officer on Tuesday night just two miles from Ferguson, Mo., police said.
Antonio Martin, 18, was shot
at a Mobil gas station in Berkeley, Mo., the St. Louis Post-Dispatch
reports. The alleged victim's mother, Toni Martin, spoke to The Dispatch
and confirmed that her son had been shot by police.
It was
originally reported that the shooting occurred early Wednesday. However,
according to The Associated Press, the incident actually took place late Tuesday:
County
police spokesman Sgt. Brian Schellman says a Berkeley police officer
was conducting a routine business check at a gas station around 11:15
p.m. Tuesday when he saw two men and approached them.
Schellman
says one of the men pulled a handgun and pointed it at the officer. The
officer fired several shots, striking and fatally wounding the man.
Schellman says that the second person fled and that the deceased man's
handgun has been recovered.
"At
this time, we cannot confirm the identity of the deceased subject. The
investigation is on-going and further details will be provided as the
investigation proceeds," the Facebook notice said.
The hashtag #AntonioMartin is trending on social media.
Those at the scene, along with The Dispatch, report approximately 60 to
100 people gathered around the gas station where the shooting took
place.
Livestreams at the scene
show residents verbally clashing with police. A woman identified as
Martin's mother could be heard sobbing "That's my baby!" on the feed.
Mother of Antonio Martin, 18, says her son shot and killed by police at Berkeley Mobil station. pic.twitter.com/yyArlrqZmM
— Valerie Schremp Hahn (@valeriehahn) December 24, 2014
The
gas station appears to have security cameras trained on the parking
lot, the Dispatch reported, so there may be a video of the incident.
CORRECTION:A
previous version of this story included an interview with a man
claiming to have been at the scene of the shooting and friends with the
deceased. As police have released statements saying the second person
involved in the incident has fled the scene, the source is now
suggesting he was never there.
HARRISBURG, PA - 'Tis the season to be . . . hoppy.
Consider it a holiday gift of sorts from the Pennsylvania Liquor Control
Board, which has made it officially legal to get a six-pack - or two -
delivered to your front door when ordering food.
The LCB, with little fanfare, issued an advisory opinion this month
clarifying that restaurants, grocery stores, pizza and sub shops, and
other outlets that serve food and beer can also deliver up to two
six-packs of beer.
This being Pennsylvania, which has some of the strictest alcohol
regulations in the country, there are catches. For instance, customers
ordering beer must pay by credit card over the phone, rather than
handing cash to the delivery person.
Still, Amy Christie is calling it progress.
"Overall, this is a great win," said Christie, executive director of the
Pennsylvania Licensed Beverage and Tavern Association, which represents
bars, taverns, restaurants, and alcohol retailers. "I would say there
are a couple thousand places that could take advantage of this and use
it to improve their business."
Stacy Kriedeman, the LCB's spokeswoman, stressed that the change is not a
result of new laws but a legal opinion clarifying existing regulations.
Here's how it works: A business that sells malt-brewed beverages can
apply for a "transporter-for-hire" license, which costs about $1,000,
depending on the type of establishment. Anyone with that license can
transport up to 192 ounces - or just over two six-packs - of beer.
Kriedeman said the license has been around for a long time, and the
advisory opinion simply clarified that establishments selling food and
beer can take advantage of it. In fact, a customer could call a licensed
sub or pizza shop and just order beer, she said.
Most shoppers know that buying six-packs at bars, delis or restaurants -
as opposed to cases at beer distributors, which also deliver to
residences - usually involves a stiff markup.
Pete Gaeth, a Western Pennsylvania tavern owner whose letter to the LCB
sparked the advisory opinion, said he was initially interested in
delivering some of his establishment's long list of craft beers to
people out-of-state - but may now take advantage of doing so in-state as
well.
"That is definitely something we will be looking into," said Gaeth,
co-owner of Roff School Tavern and an investor in Voodoo Brewery, both
in Meadville.
Still, there are safety considerations. Topping the list is ensuring that minors don't take advantage of the change.
"Our takeout beer program hasn't really been a huge draw," Mosmen said.
"Most diners that are drawn to our beer list want to drink it here."
Delivering beer also poses liability issues, even if employees use a
mobile scanner to check licenses to avoid selling to minors. "When you
evaluate risk and reward, it doesn't seem like something that we would
be necessarily interested in offering," Mosmen said.
Industry officials counter that restaurants, bars, and other places that
sell alcohol have trained staff to seek proper identification and will
not serve (or in this case, hand over) beer to people who cannot verify
their age.
"You protect against [abuses] the exact same way you do inside your
establishment," said John Longacre, who owns three businesses, including
the South Philadelphia Tap Room.
Longacre, who is also president of the Philadelphia Tavern Owners
Association, said people in his industry have been asking for the change
for years - and said the real winner is the consumer.
"It's about convenience," said Longacre. "And it's a great way to make all sides happy."
In Washington, D.C., as in many cities undergoing extreme urban
makeovers, if you miss a week of moving about in certain neighborhoods,
you’ll miss a whole heck of a lot. Sad times for you if you’re a
landmark driver like I am, when even a short trip on familiar streets
can induce a fog of confusion. Buildings go down and buildings go up on
blocks so quickly, you can be a whole mile out of your way before you
realize you’ve been waiting to hook a left at a corner store that is no
more.
Besides creating in me a deep regret for not going to college to enjoy
what seems like an inevitably profitable career in real estate
development, gentrification has impressed me with its swiftness. I don’t
pretend or profess to understand the complete politics of it—I’m
certain that money is the bottom line and power is the impetus—but I
know the bastions of urban-conquer waste no time claiming an area as “up
and coming” and then following that up with epic levels of
condo-and-coffeehouse building.
What that essentially means: The people already living there are fittin’
to be economically priced out and residentially pushed out. That I’ve
learned. In the meantime, there’s a shift to accommodate the newcomers,
rarely an effort by the newcomers to adjust to the existing dynamic of a
community. The boundless, ceaseless imagination of privilege does it
again and again.
Georgia Avenue, the stretch of street that hugs the campus of Howard
University, used to be quintessential D.C., full of contagious energy
and all-black everything: barbershops and beauty salons, mom-and-pop
stores, insurance agencies, restaurants. But you know how it goes:
Powers discover that an area is gold, see its potential, put it in their
construction crosshairs and start plucking off anything, one by one,
that doesn’t fit into the blueprint for their new, improved iteration.
Anyone resilient or fortunate enough to remain needs to adjust in order to survive. Such is the case of Fish in the ’Hood,
a beloved institution for college students and local lovers of soulful
dining that, in 2012, was christened with a new storefront sign
indicative of the changing surroundings: Fish in the Neighborhood. A new name on a 15 year old restaurant is telltale, but there are more indicators that change is gonna come:
1. Neighborhood boundary lines will be strategically
reconfigured, and your new redistricted area will be outfitted with
catchy, cutesy names.
Sign for NoMa, a quirky name for North of Massachusetts Avenue, a newly renovated neighborhood in Washington, D.C.
Janelle Harris
2. Lighting will crop up. Y’all lived for years in
near-apocalyptic darkness as existing street lights went long
malfunctioning. Now the block is lit up like a night game at FedExField.
Magical.
Lighted street sign in Washington, D.C.
KAREN BLEIER/AFP/Getty Images
3. “Liquor stores” will be euphemistically renamed “wine and spirits shops.”
Wine and spirits shop in a gentrified area of D.C.
Janelle Harris
4. Cops will dutifully patrol your neighborhood in non-emergency situations. On foot, bike and vehicle patrols, sometimes even horses. No one has to call them. They’re already there.
Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Officer Tyrone Gross (left)
writes a warning ticket for a motorist who was talking on her cellphone.
Mark Wilson/Getty Images
5. You find out that the way you’ve been living is no longer “current.”
Real estate ad banner for a mixed-use development
Janelle Harris
6. You get a store that stays open 24 hours. Up
until now, you had to scream your pump number and request for soda and
sunflower seeds through three layers of Plexiglas at the neighborhood
gas station. Now doors are allowed to stay open 24-7.
A 7-Eleven store
Janelle Harris
7. These show up, along with allocated lanes to ride them in the streets. It’s always a sign when people trust the community to borrow stuff and bring it back. (See also: Zipcar.)
Bike-sharing kiosk
Janelle Harris
8. Your block is equipped with speed bumps. Amazingly, they are much more effective than your disapproving scowl in slowing drivers down.
Speed bump
Janelle Harris
9. Parking starts getting real exclusive, and you’ll be
needing an advanced degree in urban planning to understand when and
where you can do it. Also, violations will become more expensive and more frequent.
11. White people will show up. At first a pioneering
few will forage the land, and once the signal goes up, that trickle
will become a full-on influx. I have seen folks who would have taken
terror steps through my neighborhood just a few months ago now
frolicking in it. At night.
Generic image
Thinkstock
Dressed up in prettier terms like “redevelopment” and “renewal,”
gentrification moves with the swiftness of a swarm of locusts and the
ferocity of a band of gangsters. It comes with community upgrades that,
in many cases, are long overdue. Not that they’re not good things. It’s
just that they come at the expense of people who aren’t intended to
enjoy them.
Writer and editor Janelle Harris resides in Washington, D.C., frequents Twitter and lives on Facebook.
If you need a good laugh, and I mean 'can't breathe, stomach hurts'
belly laugh, listen to the worst rendition of Oh Holy Night ever.
Warning, put all drinks down and take a few deep breaths first so you
don't suffocate from laughter. It starts out as sounding like a merely
poor rendition of the song, but just wait.
On Friday, the FBI announced that it "now
has enough information to conclude that the North Korean government is
responsible" for the Sony hacks that leaked a trove of private data,
launched a thousand thinkpieces, and, following some threats, ultimately preempted the release of The Interview.
Speaking in a press conference later in the day, President Obama weighed in, characterizing Sony's decision to pull The Interview as
"a mistake." He also said that the United States would "will respond
proportionally, and we'll respond in a place and time and manner that we
choose."
So what does this very vague promise of retaliation mean for North Korea? As Reuters points out,
Washington may not have a lot of options. Despite decades of sanctions
against the isolated communist regime, "the U.S. Treasury has so far
directly sanctioned only 41 companies and entities and 22 individuals."
Compare that to Russia or Iran, whose economies have been laid low
by a strenuous sanctions regime across several industries and against
countless companies and individuals. Part of it is that North Korea
doesn't have much of an economy to punish. According to CIA figures, the country ranks
198 out of 228 in gross domestic product with just 1.3 percent growth
in 2012. Reuters also pointed to Pyongyang's aversion to traditional
banks, saying that the country has "become expert in hiding its often criminal money-raising activities."
But there's much more to it than that. Scott Snyder, a Senior
Fellow for Korea Studies and Director of the Program on U.S.-Korea
Policy at the Council for Foreign Relations, has his own take on l'affaire Sony.
He explained that part of why it's difficult to sanction and
further isolate North Korea is that Pyongyang "isn't integrated with the
rest of the world." That has made the country difficult to sanction or
punish in the past as well. As Snyder reminds us, this isn't the first
time we've had trouble with North Korea.
Historically, I think that North Korea has a record of having
engaged in provocations that have international ramifications with
relative impunity. So if we go back and look at the record of
controversial provocations, we see the difficulty and the challenge of
holding them to account. It goes back decades.
Those transgressions have included, at least recently, the holding of American hostages, the (alleged) sinking of a South Korean boat in 2010, along with the bombardment
of a South Korean island.
Given that the United States has now named
North Korea in the Sony hacks and given what's already happened, Snyder
says we shouldn't expect much to come of it.
"All of these are examples of cases that have resulted in behavior or
responses that are pretty exceptional compared to the way that other
countries have been dealt with in similar circumstances," Snyder
explains.
He adds that what makes this ordeal much more difficult to move away quietly from is Sony's decision to pull The Interview from theaters, a move that naturally begs a response from the United States.
"I do think that decision put the administration into a much
more difficult circumstance," he said, adding that Sony's actions have
created more pressure for the administration to respond. Essentially,
Obama has to figure out a way to ensure The Interview cancellation hasn't convinced America's enemies that "these kinds of threats actually may be working."
Journalist Glenn Greenwald did not mince words on Thursday when asked
to respond to comments made by former vice president Dick Cheney when
he appeared on NBC's Meet The Press last Sunday.
"The reason why Dick Cheney is able to go on 'Meet The Press' instead
of being where he should be—which is in the dock at The Hague or in a
federal prison—is because President Obama and his administration made
the decision not to prosecute any of the people who implemented this
torture regime despite the fact that it was illegal and criminal,"
Greenwald said in an interview with HuffPost Live's Alyona Minkovski.
In Sunday's interview with host Chuck Todd, Cheney claimed that CIA
torture "worked" and announced he would "do it again in a minute" if
given the opportunity.
As human rights advocates and international law experts have renewed their call for prosecutions
against former Bush administration officials who ordered the CIA to
torture detained terrorism suspects in the aftermath of 9/11, Greenwald
said that whether tortured "worked" is irrelevant—"nobody should be
interested in that"—and argued that much of the blame for the fact that
Cheney still has the liberty to go on national television and brag about
violating domestic and international laws should be placed at the feet
of President Obama.
"When you send the signal, as the Obama administration did, that
torture is not a crime that ought to be punished, it's just a policy
dispute that you argue about on Sunday shows, of course it emboldens
torturers like Dick Cheney to go around and say, 'What I did was
absolutely right,'" Greenwald said.
