The world of extreme militias

Via the ever-helpful Scott Horton, we found this in Time magazine, something I rarely read these days. It's a surprising discovery — "The Secret World of Extreme Militias" by Barton Gellman (author of the Cheney book Angler). And it's the cover story no less.

After describing a training exercise — a two-pronged assault on a "neo-Islamic command post" by the "Ohio Defense Force" — Gellman quotes one of the participants (my emphasis):

"I don't know who the redcoats are," says Brian Vandersall, 37, who designed the exercise and tried to tamp down talk of politics among the men. "It could be U.N. troops. It could be federal troops. It could be Blackwater, which was used in Katrina. It could be Mexican troops who are crossing the border."

Or it could be, as it was for this year's exercise, an Islamic army marauding unchecked because a hypothetical pro-Muslim President has ordered U.S. forces to leave them alone. But as the drill played out, the designated opponents bore little resemblance to terrorists. The scenario described them as a platoon-size unit, in uniform, with "military-grade hardware, communications, encryption capability and vehicle support." The militia was training for combat against the spitting image of a tactical force from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), FBI or National Guard. "Whoever they are," Vandersall says, "we have to be ready."

As militias go, the Ohio Defense Force is on the moderate side. Scores of armed antigovernment groups, some of them far more radical, have formed or been revived during the Obama years, according to law-enforcement agencies and outside watchdogs.

Here are the details that make it certain our guess about these groups is right. There's the story of James von Brunn, the guy who killed the guard at the National Holocaust Museum last year; his "other" target was David Alexrod. Or the tale of James Cummings, shot to death by her abused spouse Amber, who was assembling a dirty bomb:

"His intentions were to construct a dirty bomb and take it to Washington to kill President Obama," Amber Cummings says. "He was planning to hide it in the undercarriage of our motor home." She says her husband had practiced crossing checkpoints with dangerous materials aboard, taking her and their daughter along for an image of innocence.

He was smart, and he'd moved the project rather far along. And there's more. Horton calls this "essential reading":

Gellman has brought solid, nuts-and-bolts investigative journalism back to Time magazine. This piece is an eye-opener.

Which brings me to the second story in this story. What's going on at Time? Have they decided to "commit journalism," to borrow Maddow's phrase? Newsweek is looking thinner and thinner, a kind of text-filled Penny Saver. If Time is bucking the trends — towards small and more Right — this is welcome news. I even found this in one of their teaser click-aways:

(Watch TIME"s video "WikiLeaks Founder on History's Top Leaks.")

Where's the spitting vilification we've come to expect? If real journalism is emerging in the Print Bigs in this country, it's a trend worth watching.

GP Read the rest of this post...

FDIC preparing lawsuits against failed bank execs

A very good move but please, let's see more and let's see the big names included as well.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has authorized lawsuits against more than 50 officers and directors of failed banks as the agency aims to recoup more than $1 billion in losses stemming from the credit crisis.

The lawsuits were authorized during closed sessions of the FDIC board and haven't been made public. The agency, which has shuttered 294 lenders since the start of 2008, has held off court action while conducting settlement talks with executives whose actions may have led to bank collapses, Richard Osterman, the FDIC's acting general counsel, said in an interview.

"We're ready to go," Osterman said. "We could walk into court tomorrow and file the lawsuits."

Read the rest of this post...

Deconstructing America — Killing the 2nd rail tunnel to Manhattan

Paul Krugman has the goods:

The Erie Canal. Hoover Dam. The Interstate Highway System. Visionary public projects are part of the American tradition, and have been a major driver of our economic development.

Yes, but that was so pre–Billionaires' Coup. Krugman again:

But American politics these days is anything but rational. Republicans bitterly opposed even the modest infrastructure spending contained in the Obama stimulus plan. And, on Thursday, Chris Christie, the governor of New Jersey, canceled America’s most important current public works project, the long-planned and much-needed second rail tunnel under the Hudson River. ... We are no longer the nation that used to amaze the world with its visionary projects. We have become, instead, a nation whose politicians seem to compete over who can show the least vision, the least concern about the future and the greatest willingness to pander to short-term, narrow-minded selfishness.

Krugman's bottom line:

And why not? After all, this seems to be a winning electoral strategy. All vision of a better future seems to have been lost, replaced with a refusal to look beyond the narrowest, most shortsighted notion of self-interest.

The Professor is one dot shy of a connected path. The causal trail includes ideology and a "winning electoral strategy," but it doesn't end there. That winning electoral strategy is more importantly the path to personal riches and aggrandizement on the part of the Right's political retainers (our highly propaganda-supported "elected politicians").

And who will supply those riches? The Barons of the New America, of course, the billionaires who are financing the coup that will win them their robes and crown. Politicians like Gov. Christie are retainers, a means to an end, not much more.

Or in Emperor Tiberius' immortal words, speaking of the obsequious Roman Senate of his day: "These are men fit to be ..." Well, I'll let you complete the quote.

GP Read the rest of this post...

When it's budget cutting time, maybe GOP whip Cantor can start with the $7000 chocolates

Seriously. $7,451 on chocolate. Read the rest of this post...

Media Matters: US domestic terror suspect is a big fan of Glenn Beck

Well isn't that surprising.

This past summer, as the SF Chronicle reported at the time, a convicted felon named Byron Williams "loaded up his mother's Toyota Tundra with guns, strapped on his body armor and headed to San Francisco...with one thing in mind: to kill workers" at the ACLU and the Tides Foundation, hoping to "start a revolution."

MEDIA MATTERS: When you talk about how conservative values have been lost in this country you were talking before about the liberal media. You were saying maybe Fox was the exception. You think Fox is worthwhile?

BYRON WILLIAMS: Well, I'm not gonna say anyone is worthwhile. But [unintelligible] I would've never started watching Fox if it wasn't for the fact that Beck was on there. And it was the things that he did, it was the things he exposed that blew my mind. I said, well, nobody does this.

Read the rest of this post...

Reid calls on lenders to halt foreclosures in all states

Wash Post:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) called on major lenders to halt foreclosures across the country Friday following Bank of America's announcement that it will suspend all such proceedings until a review of possible paperwork problems is completed.

Read the rest of this post...

Bank of America to halt foreclosures in all 50 states

It's pathetic that the others are only stopping foreclosures in the states that regulate, but hey, that's the modern finance industry for you. Will this industry ever really learn?

Potential flaws in foreclosure documents are threatening to throw the real estate industry into a full-blown crisis, as Bank of America on Friday became the first bank to stop sales of foreclosed homes in all 50 states.

The move, along with another decision on foreclosures by PNC Financial Services Inc., adds to growing concerns that mortgage lenders have been evicting homeowners using flawed court papers.

Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America Corp., the nation's largest bank, said Friday it would stop sales of foreclosed homes in all 50 states as it reviews potential flaws in foreclosure documents. A week earlier, the company had said it would only stop such sales in the 23 states where foreclosures must be approved by a judge.

Read the rest of this post...

Rove's Republic, a billionaire's playground

This is a Citizens United story, and I think we're clearly in Phase 2.

Phase 1 included the toe-in-the-waters testing by Target, Best Buy, and MN Forward in the Minnesota governors race; such blatant acts as News Corp handing over $1 million to the Republican Governors Association (in exchange for what?); and the carpet-bombing of selected House races like Pete DeFazio's in Oregon (by an externally funded Christian Reconstructionist with no chance of winning).

But it's all starting to coalesce. And who would be at the essence of the coalesence, but our old friend Karl Rove. As Chris in Paris noted in September, Rove's "American Crossroads" group is turning into a very big deal. Politico:

In August, American Crossroads raised $2,639,052. Fully $2.4 million of that -- or 91 percent -- came in the form of gifts from just three billionaires.

I'd memorize that name — American Crossroads. It's starting to look like one of the go-to money-laundering shops for the whacked out Billionaries' Coup (and by "whacked out" I mean dangerous). Like I said, Phase 2 has begun.

With that intro, here's Keith Olbermann in a stunning Countdown segment:



Note especially the foreign spending. This issue was raised when Citizens United was first decided. And now it appears to be coming true. John has an excellent thoughtful post about it — "Is foreign money influencing the Senate race in Missouri?" which details the activities of that other money-laundering shop, the Chamber of Commerce.

I don't think people get what happens when foreign money, especially from creditor nations, influences elections. That's the definition of a client state. The vision of crazed Tea Baggers in Colonial drag leading the way to billionaire-controlled America as a client state of ... China? Germany? India? ... is as close to comedy as tragedy can get. American Crossroads indeed.

Rove's Republic. Thanks, Karl; you're doing the retainer thing well. Satan's mouth for you.


If you haven't read Dante lately, here's a clue.

GP Read the rest of this post...

How do you say 'no más' in gay?

Kind of had it.

Here is the Human Rights Campaign's reaction to the announcement that senior White House adviser Valerie Jarrett is going to be speaking at their annual dinner tomorrow:

“Valerie Jarrett is a tremendous addition to the event and we look forward to hearing from one of the President’s closest advisors,” said HRC President Joe Solmonese. “She and President Obama both care deeply about equality and are strong supporters of those of us fighting for LGBT rights.”

Care deeply? Strong supporters? Seriously? The folks who screwed up any chance whatsoever to repeal DADT, pass ENDA, and pretty much blew off DOMA from the beginning (since the President is, after all, now opposed to gay marriage, even for he was for it before he decided to run for national office). This is what qualifies as strong support?

For a dinner entitled "No Excuses," these sure sound like excuses from HRC.

Read the rest of this post...

GOP Senate candidate, anti-masturbation activist, former witch, near Hare Krishna refuses to say if Palin qualified to be Prez

That would be Delaware's own, Christine O'Donnell. Read the rest of this post...

GOP CA Gov candidate Meg Whitman gets tough on undocumented immigration

Read the rest of this post...

2010 Nobel Peace Prize goes to Chinese human rights dissident Liu Xiaobo

Perhaps now China will release him from prison. CNN:

The 2010 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Liu Xiaobo, a leading Chinese dissident who is serving an 11-year prison term.

Liu was sentenced in 2009 for inciting subversion of state power. He's the co-author of Charter 08, a call for political reform and human rights, and was an adviser to the student protesters at Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Norwegian Nobel Committee head Geir Lundestad said 199 individuals and 38 organizations had been nominated for this year's prize.

The Chinese government "warned" the Nobel committee that they'd better not dare give Liu the prize.

The Chinese foreign ministry had previously warned the Nobel committee not to give Liu the prize, as they said that it would be against Nobel principles.

The state-run Xinhua News Agency later carried a report saying that awarding Liu Xiaobo the prize blaspheme (褻瀆) Alfred Nobel's purpose of creating this prize and "may harm China-Norway relations". The spokeperson added that Liu had broken Chinese law and his "actions run contrary to the purpose of the Nobel Peace Prize." News of the award was censored in China, with television reports carrying the ceremony going black and a media blackout across Chinese media. Despite being blocked to discuss the news in forums based in the Mainland China, the term blaspheme has stirred up an internet meme in China and has been used to satirize the government's response.

More from Wikipedia:

Liu Xiaobo (simplified Chinese: 刘晓波; traditional Chinese: 劉曉波; pinyin: Liú Xiǎobō; born December 28, 1955) is a Chinese intellectual, anti-communist and human rights activist in China.

He has served as President of the Independent Chinese PEN Center since 2003. On December 8, 2008, Liu was detained in response to his participation with Charter 08. He was formally arrested on June 23, 2009, on suspicion of "inciting subversion of state power." He was tried on the same charges on December 23, 2009, and sentenced to eleven years' imprisonment and two years' deprivation of political rights on December 25, 2009.

During his 4th prison term from 2009 to 2020, he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and, subsequently was informed by his lawyer , that on October 8, 2010, he was named the winner of the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize.

Liu Xiaobo is a human rights activist who has called on the Chinese government to be accountable for its actions. He has been detained, arrested, and sentenced repeatedly for his peaceful political activities, beginning with his participation in the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 and on four other occasions since.

UPDATE from Joe: Matt Browner Hamlin has an excellent post at Huffington about the significance of this award:

Today is a great day in the cause of freedom and human rights. People often ask me whether or not freedom can ever come for Tibetans. I've always believed that for change to occur in Tibet, there must be change in China first. Liu Xiaobo is one of the leading advocates for democracy in China whose work makes the very possibility of a resolution to the Tibet question a likelihood. It is dissidents like Liu, Wang Lixiong, and blogger Han Han who are going to bring meaningful political change in China, a likely precondition to freedom in Tibet. I can't think of anyone more deserving of the Nobel Peace Prize than Liu Xiaobo, a truly courageous man of principle whose belief in democracy and freedom has the power to shake one of the largest countries in the world to its core.

Read the rest of this post...

Unemployment stays at 9.6%. Job loss 'far worse than economists had been predicting'

Not exactly the best economic news today:

The economy shed 95,000 nonfarm jobs in September, the Labor Department reported Friday, with most of the decline the result of the layoffs by local governments and of temporary decennial Census workers.

The steep drop was far worse than economists had been predicting.

While total government jobs fell by 159,000, private sector companies added 64,000 jobs last month. The unemployment rate, which measures the percentage of workers who are actively looking for but unable to find jobs, stayed flat at 9.6 percent.

The recovery that officially began in June 2009 has slowed considerably in recent months, raising concerns about the long slog the country will have to endure before the economy finally starts to feel healthy again. Private payrolls have been growing throughout 2009, but at a rate too sluggish to make much of a dent in unemployment. The outlook for the rest of the year is equally discouraging, economists say.

Very discouraging.

Congress has to pass an extension of unemployment benefits during the lame duck. Congress should do it, but it won't be easy. Read the rest of this post...

Friday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

This morning, we'll learn the unemployment rate and jobs numbers for September. The President will be commenting on those numbers at an event on the economy in Bladensburg, Maryland. Those unemployment numbers have probably been the biggest drag on Democrats this year. Too bad Obama listened to the wrong people on the stimulus spending. He should have heeded the advice of Krugman and Stiglitz, but they're only Nobel Prize winners.

Today, the Veep starts his day in Seattle. He's doing an event for Denny Heck, the congressional candidate running for the open seat vacated by Brian Baird. Then, he's got an event for Senator Patty Murray.

If you're in DC, there's a fundraiser for the Trevor Project tonight at the Duplex Diner. Details here.

Nothing should surprise me, but I'm still stunned that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce may be using foreign funds to pay for election ads against Democrats. So dirty.

We'll post the unemployment numbers once they're out. Read the rest of this post...

Europe, Pakistan claim terror threat more about US election

After the Bush years of regular threats, alerts and fear 24/7, one would hope this is completely wrong. The Guardian:

The non-specific US warning, which despite its vagueness led Britain, France and other countries to raise their overseas terror alert levels, was an attempt to justify a recent escalation in US drone and helicopter attacks inside Pakistan that have "set the country on fire", said Wajid Shamsul Hasan, the high commissioner to Britain.

Hasan, a veteran diplomat who is close to Pakistan's president, suggested the Obama administration was playing politics with the terror threat before next month's midterm congressional elections, in which the Republicans are expected to make big gains.

He also claimed President Obama was reacting to pressure to demonstrate that his Afghan war strategy and this year's troop surge, which are unpopular with the American public, were necessary.

Read the rest of this post...

Senate Report: US security contractors in Afghanistan help fun Taliban

More corruption and failed policies in Afghanistan. At this point, nobody is going to be surprised that US security forces have ties to warlords or even the Taliban. BBC:

Heavy US reliance on private security in Afghanistan has helped to line the pockets of the Taliban, a US Senate report says.

The study by the Senate Armed Services Committee says this is because contractors often fail to vet local recruits and end up hiring warlords.

The report demands "immediate and aggressive steps" to improve the vetting and oversight process.

Read the rest of this post...