U.S. Military spied on Planned Parenthood and other domestic groups during the Bush years

According to a recently declassified military document obtained by a prominent civil liberties group the United States military spied on Planned Parenthood and other domestic groups as part of US security preparations for the 2002 winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

The document, drafted by a Pentagon Deputy Inspector General, was included in more than 800 pages released to the Electronic Frontier Foundation as part of a Freedom of Information Act Request. They include reports from the Pentagon's Intelligence Oversight Board that were submitted to the Defense Secretary from 2001 to 2007.

The document contained information on organizations and their involvement in protests and literature distribution.  The whole body of documents released to the Electronic Frontier Foundation showed that military intelligence spied on numerous domestic groups including Planned Parenthood and the anti-war group Alaskans for Peace and Justice. The released documents give no indication as to how or why the Pentagon spied on these groups.

A spokesperson for EFF said that much of the allegedly illegal activity consisted of intelligence gathering on so-called “U.S. Persons,” including citizens, permanent residents and U.S.-based organizations. Defense agencies  as a rule are prohibited from collecting such information (except as part of foreign intelligence or counter-intelligence activity). Based on the un-redacted reports released to EFF these military agencies continued to spy domestically, in spite of the widely known prohibitions on such activities.

A copy of the Pentagon's Intelligence Oversight Board report can be viewed here:  http://www.eff.org/files/filenode/intel_oversight/20100202_dod_PT1.pdf

Conservatives question whether Sarah Palin is smart enough to be president

Both a former Republican Governor from Florida and a conservative host from Fox recently questioned whether Sarah Palin has the intellect to occupy the oval office.

In a recent Newsmax interview, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush was asked whether he thought Sarah Palin, the former less than one-term Governor of Alaska, was a viable candidate for president. Bush said he believes that Palin certainly has charisma but “her success depends on her willingness to add a depth of understanding of the complexity of life we're living in today to her rhetoric”. He said that public leaders need to have intellectual curiosity.

Fox News on-air personality Bill O'Reilly was asked about Palin’s prospects for a presidential run in an interview today with George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s Good Morning America show. O'Reilly said that Palin wants to run but she needs to go to college, a world-affairs college first.

These comments suggest that Republican Party power brokers might be questioning Sarah’s intellectual heft and her capacity to handle complex issues.

More Republican Hypocrisy in the U.S. Senate on the jobs bill.

On Monday the Senate voted to end debate on the $15 Billion jobs bill put forth by the Democrats. This cloture vote passed 62-30 along party lines, with all the no votes coming from Republicans. Today the Senate took up the bill itself which resulted in a final vote of 70-28 to secure its passage. On this tally every no vote but one also came from Republicans.

The $15 Billion jobs bill mainly comprises of payroll tax breaks for businesses that hire new full-time employees, and business tax credits for each new hire who is retained for one year.

What is confounding is that six of the Republican Senators who first voted against ending debate, a now much frequently used republican means of stalling legislation, then switched their votes on the bill’s final passage.

What changed? Once these “principled” Senators determined they couldn’t stop the bill, did they realize that their constituents would finally recognize them for what Republicans have shown themselves to be, obstructors to America's economic recovery?  

The Republican vote switchers are as follows:

Lamar Alexander (R-TN) 
Thad Cochran (R-MS) 
James Inhofe (R-OK)
George LeMieux (R-FL) 
Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)
Roger Wicker (R-MS)

Congressman Frank calls McCain cowardly for claiming he was misled on TARP

Rep. Barney Frank (D. Ma) called Sen. McCain (R-Ariz.) “cowardly” on MSNBC Monday evening in response to a recent Arizona Republic newspaper story that McCain claims he was misled by then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to secure his support for the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program.

In a story published Monday McCain told The Arizona Republic that he was told the TARP funds would only be used to address the meltdown in the housing industry.

But, the Arizona senator, who is facing a strong primary challenge from former Rep. J.D. Hayworth, told the newspaper, "obviously that didn't happen."

When MSNBC's Rachel Maddow asked about McCain's claim, Frank said it was a "pathetically, obviously untrue statement."

The Massachusetts Democrat said he has gone beyond being disappointed for John McCain to feeling sorry for him.

"For him to blame Paulson or Bernanke is cowardly," Frank continued, "This was Bush, Paulson and Bernanke were acting for former President George W. Bush"; suggesting that it was Bush, not Paulson nor Bernanke, who ultimately determined how the TARP funds were disbursed.

Frank went on to say that McCain has got a very conservative primary opponent. He said McCain voted for the TARP money, he clearly supported it, and he's now just trying to reinvent history. Rep. Frank said it was unseemly for a man like that to blame other people, because he changed his mind for political reasons.

Watch the interview here: 

 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#35531558

(the Rep. Frank-McCain segment starts at about 3::22) 

Sarah Palin's grandson exposed to "Death Panels" with his socialized health care coverage

According to Shannyn Moore, a local news broadcaster from Anchorage, Alaska, Sarah Palin’s grandson has "socialized" health care coverage through a local Native Health Services Center.

Palin, the former less than one-term Governor of Alaska, is grandmother to Tripp Palin Johnston, whose parents are Sarah’s daughter Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston.

Pre-trial motion papers recently filed in Alaska concerning the custody battle for Tripp indicate that his health care is currently provided for by the Indian Health Services and the Alaska Native Medical Center as an enrolled member of the Curyung Trial Council within the Bristol Bay Native Association consortium.

About six months ago Sarah Palin informed all of America via Face book to the threat of “Death Panels” that would certainly come with the adoption of national health care plans that were being proposed by congressional democrats. 

Sarah may not be aware, but the current and immensely popular public health care plans which cover tens of millions of Americans, Medicare, Medicaid, and the Veterans Administration health care system, don’t appear to have any of the sinister death panels she alarmingly warned us of.

See page 8 of Pre-trial motion child support papers papers for Tripp Palin

Gallup poll shows 20% of American workers are either out of work or under-employed

The Gallup polling organization conducted a survey in January to independently gauge the overall U.S. employment situation. The survey results showed a much grimmer picture than official U.S. data indicates. The survey was conducted from January second to January thirty-fist, with more than 20,000 U.S. adults participating.

Their findings estimate that about 30 million Americans are underemployed; either being jobless or able to find only part-time work.

The survey comes at a time when voter anger over the slow economic recovery is running high and President Obama's efforts at increasing employment through government programs have been obstructed by republican stone-walling in Congress.

The results showed that underemployed people spent 36 percent less on household purchases than fully employed workers. Six in of 10 of those were not hopeful about their chances of finding adequate work in the coming month.

Gallup found that 55 percent of underemployed Americans approve of president Obama’s performance, as compared to 49 percent of the overall public. Could this be why republicans don’t want to help these people and get the economy moving again?

Gallup’s January findings estimate that 19.9 percent of American workers were either without employment or worked part-time because of suppressed economic conditions. The Labor Department posts the figure at16.5 percent.

Republican Senator Brown suggests plane attack pilot's big government frustrations were similar to those of the voters who elected him

In a Fox News interview a few days ago, newly-elected Republican Senator Scott Brown from Massachusetts was asked about the recent plane attack on a building that housed IRS offices in Austin, Texas. Senator Brown quickly associated the plane attack to the kind of voter dissatisfaction from which he was elected. 

 Brown said his support came from those voters who, like the Austin pilot, are enormously disturbed by the size of government and higher taxes. He continued that they voiced their frustration by voting against the "establishment" candidate Martha Coakley and electing him. 

Senator Brown may not recall that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act passed in 2009 cut $ 237 Billion in taxes for all Americans making $250,000 or less per year, when he highlighted voter concerns for higher taxes in the interview.

In the Austin plane attack Joseph Stack conveyed his aggravation by crashing his plane into an IRS building. Many are pointing to Brown's comments to show that he not ready for prime time, since only recently serving as back-bench state senator.

Throughout the special election campaign Brown had been very critical of the Obama administration's response to the underwear bomber.  Brown accused the administration of not reacting quickly enough and being too soft on terrorism.  Now others are similarly accusing Brown of being soft on terrorists as it relates to the Austin plane attack.

In a related story Rep. Steve King (R-IA) told a crowd at CPAC on Saturday that he could "empathize" with the suicide bomber who last week attacked an IRS office in Austin, and encouraged his listeners to "implode" other IRS offices, according to a staffer from Media Matters covering the event.

See the interview here:

http://article.wn.com/view/2010/02/19/Video_Scott_Brown_equates_Joseph_Stacks_Austin_plane_attack_/

Former Sec. of State Powell says Cheney is wrong about Obama's national security strategy

Appearing Sunday on CBS’s Face the Nation former Secretary of State Colin Powell voiced support for President Obama's national security strategy. Referencing former Vice President Dick Cheney's recent attacks on the President’s strategy, Secretary Powell indicated they were not borne out by the facts.

In discussing the issue with host Bob Schieffer, Powell expressed doubt on what have become Cheney’s continual attempts to undercut the national security efforts of President Obama. He also defended the president on the war in Afghanistan and continuing support for Pakistan's government, and the use of federal courts to prosecute suspected terrorists, instead of the military commission process.

The Secretary said that in eight years the military commissions have put only three people on trial; and two of them served relatively short sentences and are now free. He further added that the federal courts, the Article 3 regular legal court system, had put dozens of terrorists in jail, and that they we’re fully capable of handling these cases. Powell didn’t believe that military commission was the way to handle suspected terrorist base on recent history of the military commission.

Powell had previously served as George W. Bush's secretary of state and was instrumental in easing concerns of many elder statesmen just prior to the launch the Iraq war in 2003. He had appeared before the United Nations and presented many assertions on supposed Iraqi nuclear capabilities that later proved to be false.

Watch the interview here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qN3mObA9InE&feature=player_embedded

New poll shows 87% of Tea Party activists support Republicans, which contradicts their own claims of being independents

According to a national poll conducted in February by CNN/Opinion Research Corp, a significant majority of Americans think that government is broken.  The pollsters interviewed 1023 adult Americans by telephone, 954 were registered voters. The poll showed that 86% of people questioned said that the system of government was broken, an 8% increase from 2006; with 14 percent saying no.

Of the 86% who believed it’s broken, 81% of those say that the government can be fixed; only 5% say was beyond repair.

The poll indicated that the increase in those who believe government was broken is highest among higher-income Americans and people who live in rural areas, a bulk of those are groups that make up a large part of the Tea Party activists.

The Poll revealed that 64% of all Americans say they like the idea of a third party to run against the Democrats and Republicans. 124 of the poll respondents said they had donated money or attended rallies in support of the so called “Tea Party”.

Respondents were asked who they would support if the elections for Congress were being held today. 45% would support a Democrat, 47% would support a Republican. When asked the same question in a poll conducted in October 2009, 50% favored a Democrat and 44% favored a Republican.

Of those who identified with the so called “Tea Party” 4% identified themselves as Democrats, 52% as independents, and 44% as Republicans.

When asked who they would support for congress, 5% would support a Democrat, and 87% would support a Republican.           

The overwhelming support for Republicans by those affiliated with the “Tea Party” indicated in this poll appears to contradict the independent affiliation that the majority identified themselves with.     

Republican California Governor labels his Republican colleagues as Hypocrites on the Stimulus Bill

Today Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-Calif.) appeared on ABC’s This Week with host Terry Moran where the Governor labeled his Republican colleagues in Washington as patent hypocrites on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, more commonly known as the stimulus package. When asked by Mr. Moran if railing against the stimulus bill in public while taking credit for stimulus-related projects and ceremonies in their home districts was hypocritical, the Governor responded “Exactly”, referring that it was.

The Governor noted that he thought it interesting to have all those Republicans running around pushing back on the stimulus money, saying that it doesn’t create any new jobs; and yet go out and do photo ops in their districts and say: 'Isn't this great, look at the kind of money I've provided for the state and this is money to create jobs, and this has created 10,000 new jobs, this has created 20,000 new jobs”.

Schwarzenegger said that his Republican colleagues should be asking themselves on how they can support president in order to stimulate the economy back to good health, instead of solely focusing on trying to gain political advantage for the next election'

The governor laid down a marker to all those who allege that the stimulus hasn't created a job. He said they should talk to the 150,000 people getting jobs in California from both the private sector and the public sector.


See interview here:
http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenote/2010/02/schwarzenegger-rendell-republicans-playing-politics-on-stimulus.html