Airports STILL Can't check passengers against terrorist watch lists?

"Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said Tuesday that the government is moving quickly to create a computerized screening system that will check airline passengers against lists of suspected terrorists," per USA Today.

Moving quickly??????

Blame falls on Clinton and Bush Sr. and Reagan and Carter and back into the mists of time. But this is ridiculous. I thought it was absurd when I found after 9/11 that airports couldn't check against updated terrorist watch lists. Three years after that attack on our soil, I find it frightening and infuriating. I know there are difficult technical issues. But three years? That's absurd.
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Just my rant

Sorry -- this isn't the typical posting but I just have to do this.

Some of you may know I've recently moved to Kentucky and I'm new to the mindset here. I work out of my new home. We're getting a lot of work done on the house.

A few weeks ago, my wife called the guy who installed some tile flooring in our bathroom to ask if he knew any contractors in the area. "I sure do," he said. "He's local and he does good work. But I should let you know he's a colored guy -- is that a problem?"

We were floored.

A couple of days later I read in the Lexington Herald Leader a story about a cross burning just north of here. The suspects were apprehended -- and then released into the custody of their grandparents.

Just a few minutes ago we got a call from the woman who's leading the crew painting our house. She wanted to let us know there's a new guy coming on the crew tonight. She tells my wife, "He's dark."

My wife didn't know what that meant. "Well, he's black. But I've known him since I was 19 and I can vouch for him. He's a great guy."

Again, floored. Apparently there's a need to warn me there will be a black person in my house. And apparently there are enough people in my neighborhood who would have a problem with that.

What is going on here? Anyone?
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Is Bill Gates on the international inspector team?

Thanks to the blog readers who wanted to hear more about this.

Utah issued an RFP for electronic voting systems -- and only got two bidders. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel owns a good chunk of one of them.

This is a problem on so many levels. First, there won't be a paper record of your vote. Second, there are so few companies doing this work that we may see the corruption that monopolies with close ties to incumbents can breed. Third, with the kinds of dirty tricks we're hearing about in Ohio -- and I mean this is real evil stuff -- you could be removed from a voter list without even knowing it, all without a paper trail. Fourth, these first-generation electronic systems will probably be as reliable as the beta version of Windows 98.

This is downright eerie and more people need to know about it. Where are the journalists?

I don't know about you, but I'm calling the city clerk and making sure I'm still on the list.
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He's baaaaack...

Ahmad Chalabi has returned to Iraq, after a brief respite in Iran, to face counterfeiting charges.

Counterfeiting Iraqi dinars? Heck, that's not too bad. It's not like he got to take hundreds of thousands of US dollars, give false intelligence to our armed forces, and sell our secrets to Iran, all while scoring a seat in the First Lady's box during the state of the union address...

...oh, right, never mind.

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Halliburton: the hits just keep on comin'

A Pentagon audit says Halliburton and its now-bankrupt subsidiary Kellog Brown & Root did not account for $1.8 billion it made in Kuwait and Iraq. Of course, the Pentagon hasn't stopped paying them, but what's a billion here or there?

The audit, part of a report dated Aug. 4 that has yet to be made public, found that KBR's "internal control policies" are "inadequate for providing verifiable, supportable, and documented cost estimates that are acceptable for negotiating a fair and reasonable price." Pentagon officials told the newspaper that that no defense contractor has had its estimating system ruled "inadequate" in years.

Of course, the wicked pissa smaht people at KBR dont' think this is a problem:

"The fact that we have negotiated and continue to negotiate proposals proves that our estimating system is valid," an unidentified KBR official was quoted as saying. "This is the same system that the company has used for more than 10 years."

Ten years? When Cheney was CEO? Of course, since DoD can't account for over $2 billion worth of equipment it sent to Iraq, I guess they're not in a position to criticize.

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Bigots for Bush

The author of the latest Kerry bash-fest has this annoying little problem of his own hatred for just about everyone. But now he'd prefer it if you would just ignore those little public comments he made about Catholics, Muslims, and anyone else he offended.

Jerry Corsi, author of a p.o.s. called "Unfit for Command" and a self-proclaimed "devout Catholic" now says he doesn't stand by previoius comments like calling the pope senile.

Of course, the Bush campaign won't distance itself appropriately from Corsi. They've got this nice little racket now where someone else levels blatantly false yet damning charges against Kerry, but they won't endorse them. It's a clever balance between the frothing-at-the-mouth hatemongers in the GOP and the rest of us. In fact, they even invent charges against Kerry for claiming the Bush campaign is being dirty.

What's the over-under for how many hatemongering liars you can choose not to condemn before it actually hurts you?
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Remember, you're paying for this

You asked for it, you got it. Here's the latest on how your tax dollars are being used with no regard for the Constitution or civil rights.

The Office of Faith Based Initiatives at Camp 1600 is taking real pleasure in telling you they've spent $31 million in 50 new grants for abstinence-only education programs. Of course, they're giving that money to groups who don't have to follow the civil rights laws that everyone else does.

In Portland, Maine, this is a bit of a problem with the locals -- but the White House doesn't want to hear about it. Apparently Portland had the audacity to pass a domestic partnerships ordinance. The city won't give Catholic Charities federal funds that pass through the city unless the group offers some benefits to same-sex couples -- just like everyone else in the city.

Jim Towey, the head of Camp 1600's inquisi... er... office of faith-based initiatives went straight to Maine to help Catholic Charities fight the city.

"Sometimes you see local governments that bully faith-based organizations and basically tell them that they have to compromise their religious beliefs and tenets if they want to partner with government," Jim Towey said.

Of course, Portland City Councillor James Cloutier has a slightly different viewpoint:

"We don't have to be concerned about the fairness with which we treat religious and religiously sponsored organizations," Cloutier said. "That's because we have one rule that applies to everybody: You can't practice discrimination."

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Porter Goss: Foot Soldier For Bush

This is Bush's nominee for the C.I.A. and his savvy, un biased analysis of North Korea's nuclear proliferation:

"On June 1, Goss took part in a Bush-Cheney conference call with reporters to critique Kerry's first national security speech [reports The Washington Post]. He described one of Kerry's nonproliferation proposals as 'naive,' and answered 'clearly yes,' to a question about whether Bush's policy toward North Korea was producing results. North Korea, he said, is 'no longer making the progress they were making at Yongbyon [their key nuclear production site] and other places because we have called their bluff.'

"In fact, since the Bush administration confronted the Pyongyang government, North Korea has thrown out inspectors, removed nuclear fuel from internationally monitored storage, and may have increased the size of its nuclear arsenal, according to U.S. intelligence."

The article further details Bush's reasons for nominating Goss, getting its scoop from Republican insiders. Bush's thinking has a lot to do with polls, trying to hurt the Dems politically, catching up with Kerry and so on but very little to do with Goss's fitness for the role. Ain't it sad that even Republicans don't offer up as reason number one that they believe Goss would be the best person for the job?

Maybe "foot soldier" should be changed to lapdog. Another Washington Post article today details Goss's recent transformation into a Bush water carrier, along with his "part of the problem" attitude towards the dysfunctional C.I.A.

"Over the past month, Goss, 65, exhibited little enthusiasm for the broad intelligence changes proposed by the Sept. 11 commission, urging caution instead and proposing legislation to expand the power and budget of his old agency.

"'It's regrettable that he's as close to the agency as he is,' said Frank J. Gaffney Jr., president of the Center for Security Policy, a conservative Washington think tank. 'He's been implicated in the dysfunctional congressional oversight that the 9/11 commission documented. I don't know that those things are disqualifying, but there may be other candidates that are better.'"


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Rummy's Rules

The Atlantic Monthly (one of the best magazines around) points out in its current September issue that when Donald Rumsfeld became Sec. of Defense, the Department of Defense web site posted "Rumsfeld's Rules" for "government, business and life." Since only subscribers can access AM's website, I've posted the rules they republished below.

"Establish good relations between the departments of Defense and State, the National Security Council, CIA and the Office of Management and Budget."

"Don't divide the world into 'them' and 'us.' Avoid infatuation with or resentment of the press, the Congress, rivals, or opponents. Accept them as facts. They have their jobs and you have yours."

"Don't do or say things you would not like to see on the front page of the Washington Post."

"If you foul up, tell the president and correct it fast. Delay only compounds mistakes."

"Be able to resign. It will improve your value to the president and do wonders for your performance."

"Your performance depends on your people. Select the best, train them, and back them. When errors occur, give sharper guidance. If errors persist or if the fit feels wrong, help them move on."

"It is easier to get into something than to get out of it."

Yep, the irony comes fast and furious.
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Home Movies for Bin Laden?

Just a reminder -- as if we needed one -- that this is deadly serious.

"The federal authorities, on heightened alert over the prospect of another Al Qaeda attack, are conducting a terrorism investigation into an illegal immigrant from Pakistan found with videotapes of downtown buildings and transit systems in four Southern states and of a dam in Texas, officials said on Tuesday.

"Officials acknowledged that they had no direct evidence linking the suspect, a former Queens resident named Kamran Shaikh, to terrorism. But they said they remained keenly interested in determining why he made the extensive videos, which included narratives in Arabic."
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Alan Keyes: A Man For No Seasons

Here's that New York Times editorial ripping into Alan Keyes. And yes, Andrew, that opening line is a doozy:

"In the noble tradition of the Marquis de Lafayette, the Seven Samurai, Mighty Mouse and Obi-Wan Kenobi, Alan Keyes is leaving home to go to the aid of a pitiable band of outgunned, hopeless supplicants: the Illinois Republican Party."
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Porter Goss: A Closer Look

The New York Times looks at the political and intelligence ramifications of nominating Porter Goss. Republicans are already trying to paint any Democrats who oppose Porter as endangering national security; Democrats are already backing off. It's pretty simple: at the heart of the C.I.A.'s problem seems to have been a politicization of intelligence (Cheney stepping in and demanding he get unfiltered data; Bush making a decision to invade and then demanding the intelligence be cut to fit; Tenet telling Bush what he wanted to hear rather than asking the hard questions; the C.I.A. giving briefings to Congress that avoided grey areas and presented faulty or even contrary evidence in black and white.) The head of the C.I.A. is historically non-partisan (as opposed to the Attorney General, which often is). Bush chose a nominee that is extremely partisan that he knew top Democrats objected to. But instead of coming out swinging and saying Bush is endangering national security by choosing a nominee he knows doesn't have broad bipartisan support, they are already heading for cover.
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