Some Dare Call it - Treason!

Yesterday in a rec'd diary I discussed the not terribly surprising revelation by Senator Rockefeller that Dick Cheney had been yanking Sen Roberts leash and blocking completely the Senates Phase II Investigation for over two years.

Never mind Impeachment, in that diary I said the T-Word.

Treason

On that point a few comments were skeptical, and it is that point which I wish to address today. Former CIA Operative Larry C Johnson, who worked side by side with Valerie Wilson has stated the following last August.

There was nothing on the public record or in any public document identifying Valerie Plame Wilson as a CIA operative. That information was classified. Sending Joe on a mission to Africa does not point the finger at her. Moreover, she did not make the decision to send him.

Johnson continued.

Regardless of Armitage's role as an initial source for Novak, we are still left with the fact that Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, and Scooter Libby abused their power and were actively engaged in a coordinated effort to discredit Joe Wilson for his behind the scene efforts to alert the public to the falsehoods in the President's State of the Union address.

While Richard Armitage may have had no malicious intent, the same cannot be said for Cheney, Libby and Rove. They knew exactly what they were doing. According to The Washington Post, during the week of July 6, 2003, "two top White House officials disclosed Plame's identity to at least six Washington journalists." Sometime after Novak's column appeared, Rove called Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC's "Hardball" and told him that Mr. Wilson's wife was "fair game."

Although the Libby Trial is ongoing and has yet to reach a verdict - can there by anyone who truly believes that the VP's Office wasn't directly involved in the leaking of Valerie Plame-Wilson's CIA identity to the press?

Even if you believe Libby's claims that "he heard her name from Tim Russert" or other members of the media - the question remains, who told them?

Although the issue of Plame's CIA status has been left out of this trial, it is an issue we should not ignore.

In my previous diary I quoted from the testimony of the Vice Presidents CIA briefer (who told him that Plame was associated with the agency) in June 2003.

"I thought there was a very grave danger to leaking the name of a CIA officer," the briefer from Langley, Craig Schmall, said he told Messrs. Cheney and Libby during a morning session at the vice president's residence. "Foreign intelligence services where she served now have the opportunity to investigate everyone whom she had come in contact with. They could be arrested, tortured, or killed."

Update Please note that this information was given directly to Cheney and Libby which means they were told that Valerie's position was sensitive and secret (and should have been told this from the start or else someone else in the chain screwed the pooch - arguably the information may have been planted in the INR memo (pdf) without mentioning Plame's status to "sanitize" it - but the INR info itself was Still Classified).

My point yesterday was that this proves that revelation of Plame's identity by Robert Novak and his subsequent revelation that Plame's cover job working for Brewter-Jennings was a CIA Front Agency (which was intent on preventing Iran from going Nuclear) - were both immensely damaging to our intelligence efforts and did aid and comfort our enemies.

Anyone remember that crazy trapeze scene from the first Mission Impossible movie - where Tom Cruise steals the "NOC List"? That list is real, it hold the names and identities of each of the CIA Deep (Non-Official) Cover agents. Well Valerie Plame-Wilson was a NOC.


One skeptical commenter yesterday responded with...

No it doesn't. Treason is a specific crime (1+ / 0-)

in the United States that consists solely of providing aid and comfort to the enemy. Outing a CIA agent is not providing aid and comfort to the enemy because we were not officially at war with anybody when it was done. And unfortunately, if it was done by the Vice President, the executive branch has enormous leeway in declassifying information, so they probably get a pass.

Yes, we were at War, the Iraq War Resolution had been passed and signed the previous October. Bush claims to be a 'War President" doesn't he?

Yes, the Vice President does have the ability to declassify information due to an executive order from March 25th, which was just a few weeks after Joe Wilson's second interview on CNN where he criticized the Administration Iraq-Nuclear claims.

However, the Vice President did not unilaterally declassify Plame's status. Declassification is a very specific procedure, which requires the affecting agencies to be notified and all relevant documents to be updated and remarked.

I should know, I worked in a classified environment for a dozen years at Northrop-Grumman where the B2 Bomber was secretly developed and built during the 80's. At the time I had a Top Secret SAR (Special Access Required) Clearance which is equivelent to that required by those currently working on the "Terrorist Surveillance Program". SAR is used to compartmentalize information - simple having a TS clearance itself isn't enough, you have to be cleared for that specfic program.

From the above mentioned Executive Order.

(b) It is presumed that information that continues to meet the classification requirements under this order requires continued protection. In some exceptional cases, however, the need to protect such information may be outweighed by the public interest in disclosure of the information, and in these cases the information should be declassified. When such questions arise, they shall be referred to the agency head or the senior agency official. That official will determine, as an exercise of discretion, whether the public interest in disclosure outweighs the damage to the national security that might reasonably be expected from disclosure.

All Secret Material must be marked with a caveat denoting the level of clearance required, and project id, either at the top or sides of the document. This would be true of any documents mentioning Plame's Status with CIA, and if that information were to be declassifed - all those documents would have to be changed.

That didn't happen with Valerie Wilson's status prior to Novak's column - despite Bush's cryptic claims otherwise.

Just like Rove, Libby and Cheney in 1982 I signed a Classified Information Non-Disclosure Agreement.

Which states that an person who has been trusted with classified information not confirm or deny the validity of that information even with members of the press.

Question 19: If information that a signer of the SF 312 knows to have been classified appears in a public source, for example, in a newspaper article, may the signer assume that the information has been declassified and disseminate it elsewhere?

Answer: No. Information remains classified until it has been officially declassified. Its disclosure in a public source does not declassify the information. Of course, merely quoting the public source in the abstract is not a second unauthorized disclosure. However, before disseminating the information elsewhere or confirming the accuracy of what appears in the public source, the signer of the SF 312 must confirm through an authorized official that the information has, in fact, been declassified. If it has not, further dissemination of the information or confirmation of its accuracy is also an unauthorized disclosure.

Under this agreement and the law, classified information can not be shared with anyone who does not have the appropriate clearance to receive the infomation.

Sometime around June 2003, Cheney's CIA briefer told him that Plame worked for the agency - it would have also been incumbent upon the briefer to let Cheney know the classification level of this information. (That info should have been SAR level at least IMO, but since I've never worked directly with CIA data I could be mistaken on this detail)

Either way Cheney couldn't possibly share it with anyone else without a clearance or declassifying it before hand. Libby had a clearance, Rove had a clearance - but Robert Novak and Judith Miller did not.

Let's get back to the point, anyone sharing classified information with the specific intent of doing harm to this nation and/or aiding our enemies - is guilty of Treason

18 USC § 2381.

Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.

It can not be doubted that revealing the identity of NOC and her front agency working an Nuclear Proliferation does give aid and comfort to our enemies particularly Iran and North Korea - who both happen to now have very strong Nuclear programs, something that some members of the Bush Administration have been secretly rooting for.

This astonishing revelation was buried in the middle of a Washington Post story published yesterday. Glenn Kessler reports from Moscow as he accompanies Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice:

Before North Korea announced it had detonated a nuclear device, some senior officials even said they were quietly rooting for a test, believing that would finally clarify the debate within the administration.

Until now, no U.S. official in any administration has ever advocated the testing of nuclear weapons by another country, even by allies such as the United Kingdom and France.

This is clear indication of intent - this is motive for the crime.

Hiding the fact that this information has been illegally shared as Sen Roberts did is Misprision of treason Treason...

18 USC § 2382

Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States and having knowledge of the commission of any treason against them, conceals and does not, as soon as may be, disclose and make known the same to the President or to some judge of the United States, or to the governor or to some judge or justice of a particular State, is guilty of misprision of treason and shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than seven years, or both.

In 1953 Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed for Espionage after they revealed Nuclear Secrets to Russia.

If you want an example of taking this view too far, last June Rep Peter King has argued that the New York Times Staff should be tried under the Espionage Act for revealing information about the secret tracking of Banking Transactions. Never mind the fact that this information had already been released by the government itself, and the fact that the Espionage Act would apply to the government employees who revealed the information - not the Times who was cleared to receive it in the first place.

In the 80's one co-worker of mine at Northrop named Thomas Cavanaugh (although I didn't know him) was sentenced to two life sentences for attempting to smuggle classified information to Russian agents in order to help pay off his enourmous credit card debt.

How can we hold Government Agents such as Rove, Libby and Cheney to a lower standard than we held the Rosenbergs or Cavanagh?

Clearly what they have done - is Treason.

It's well past time we started calling this situation exactly what it is - if only to start -opening- moving the Overton Window a crack.

Vyan

Rockefeller: Roberts Cover-Up Committe Took Order from Cheney

Posted this morning on Thinkprogress.

In an interview with McClatchy Newspapers, Sen. John Rockefeller (D-WV) said that Vice President Dick Cheney exerted “constant” pressure on the former chairman, Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS), to stall an investigation into the Bush administration’s use of false intelligence on Iraq. The so-called Phase II report on the administration’s use of pre-war intelligence was delayed for over two years. Two of its five portions were finally released in Sept. 2006.

This means that just as he had directly interfered with the analysis and gathering of intelligence, particular regarding Joe Wilson and the Niger claims - Darth Cheney's been manipulating the Intelligence Committee for the past 3 years.

As I diaried last month, what we already know about the Bush Adminstrations blatant Intelligence Fraud is highly damning.

We already know - despite Robert's stonewalling - that they paid more attention to Curveball, and Ibn Sheik al-Libi (both of whom were known liars) than they did to Iraqi Foreign Minister Sabri, The State Dept, The French (who owned the Uranium Mines in Niger), the Germans (Who had custody of "Curveball" and didn't trust him), Saddam's own written declaration and the UN Inspectors who all said that Bush's WMD and Nuclear claims were bogus.

The CIA was kept out of the loop and in the dark.

They lied to Congress.

They revealed the identity of a Covert Agent in order to smear her Husband who had begun to expose thier BS, in the process putting her and her entire operation at grave risk.

A CIA employee who gave regular intelligence briefings to Vice President Cheney and his chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby Jr., testified yesterday that shortly after the leak of a CIA operative's identity, the pair was given a stark warning that the leak could lead to the deaths of people who aided American intelligence gathering abroad.

"I thought there was a very grave danger to leaking the name of a CIA officer," the briefer from Langley, Craig Schmall, said he told Messrs. Cheney and Libby during a morning session at the vice president's residence. "Foreign intelligence services where she served now have the opportunity to investigate everyone whom she had come in contact with. They could be arrested, tortured, or killed."

Hello everyone - That's Treason. And it appears that it was directed out of the Vice President's Office.

Now, the last thing Bush and Cheney need is for the Senate to confirm all the above, or worse yet - dig up something even far more damaging.

Here's a little more from Rockefeller on Roberts.

Rockefeller said that he knew Cheney attended regular policy meetings in which he conveyed White House directions to conservative Capitol Hill staffers. They “just had to go along with the administration,” he said. Here are examples of Roberts’ vacillations on the Phase II investigation per White House orders:

“We’ll proceed with Phase II. It is a priority. I made my commitment and it will get done.” [Press conference, 7/9/04]

“I don’t know if we can get it done before the election.” [Meet the Press, 7/11/04]

“That [the Phase II report] is basically on the back burner.” [UPI, 3/10/05]

“I don’t think there should be any doubt that we have now heard it all regarding prewar intelligence. I think that it would be a monumental waste of time to replow this ground any further.” [U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, 3/31/05]

“To go though that exercise, it seems to me, in a post-election environment - we didn’t see how we could do that and achieve any possible progress. I think everybody pretty well gets it.” [U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, 3/31/05]

“I’m perfectly willing to do it, and that’s what we agreed to do, and that door is still open.” [Meet the Press, 4/10/05]

“It isn’t like it’s been delayed. As a matter of fact, it’s been ongoing. As a matter of fact, we have been doing our work on Phase II.” [Senate Floor Speech, 11/1/05]

“I don’t know the relevancy of that.” [CNN, 11/1/05]

“We’ve been working on that. We will finish it. We had it scheduled for this week.” [Face the Nation, 11/6/05]

All of it - Bullshit. Roberts was swinging from Cheney's Dick the entire time.

But that time is over, and soon it'll be Cheney's turn to pucker up.

Vyan

Quick Truths

From Randi Rhodes:

Meanwhile, many Dems are still somewhat skeptical of the presidential hopefuls to date; hence the draft Gore movement gains more and more steam.

Speaking of Gore, ultra-conservative Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia says “get over it” to critics of the Unconstitutional selection of Bush in 2000.

VIDEO: It’s another creepy, surreal media appearance by Nosferatu Cheney

VIDEO: Republican Senator Chuck Hagel blasted his gutless colleagues yesterday for failing to stand up against Bush’s Iraq escalation.

Also from Hagel, a stunning revelation that Bush’s original “use of force” resolution for Iraq actually covered the entire Middle East (page 3).

As General Petraeus prepares to carry out Bush’s BS escalation, one must wonder why he’s so optimistic given that it goes against everything he said needed to be done.

With more blood and treasure being dumped into Iraq, the handful of forces struggling in Afghanistan receive their stop-loss orders.

Vietnam and Iraq headlines…déjà vu all over again.

Bush has created 1.6 million new veterans, but that’s not anything he’s particularly interested in dealing with.

On the TreasonGate front, a CIA briefer testified about how outing Plame could result in the arrest, torture and killing of anyone she came in contact with.

And we learned that Libby gushed over meeting Tom Cruise to discuss the plight of Scientologists in Germany. Just another way Scooter was soooo busy defending the nation that he couldn’t possibly remember a little thing like outing an undercover CIA operative who worked on matters of WMD.

Senate Repugs insist on giving billions to the rich as a condition to not block the minimum wage increase. Getting a 60+ seat majority in 2008 is almost as important as taking back the White House.

India’s getting nuclear gifts from both sides. First Bush gives away oversight-free nuke technology in exchange for mangos and now Russia will give India 4 more reactors.

Bush’s State of the Union forgets that Louisiana and Mississippi are states in the union.

And it’s MLK Day Texas style: afro wigs, fried chicken, etc. That meshes nicely with Limbaugh’s latest racist Obama slur. Geez.

Meanwhile, Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) actually upstages the president’s State of the Union speech with the Democratic response.

Little wonder given the pile focus-grouped happy talk Bush spewed last night. Watching Pelosi and Cheney bob up and down was the most entertaining part of the evening. Randi will handle debunking the BS.

VIDEO: Bush’s SOTU Speech

VIDEO: Webb’s Response

VIDEO: Did Grandpa McCain fall asleep?

Also, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee gives a thumbs-down to Bush’s Iraq escalation.

A brief look at cronyism and war.

Five American contractors are killed in Iraq when their helicopter either crashed or was shot down. 4 of the 5 were shot in the back of the head.

Scooter Libby claims that he’s just a patsy and the White House set him up.

House Dems push though a bill that would cut pensions for felonious Members of Congress.

And John Kerry is to announce today that he is NOT running for president in 2008.

And ThinkProgress

Senate conservatives yesterday blocked legislation to raise the federal minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25, “insisting it include new tax breaks for restaurants and other businesses.”

The Congressional Budget Office reported yesterday that President Bush “can balance the budget within five years, or he can get Congress to extend his tax cuts beyond their scheduled expiration — but he can’t do both.”

In the Scooter Libby trial yesterday, former Associate CIA Deputy Director Robert Grenier testified that — pursuant to a request — he told Libby that Valerie Plame worked at the CIA in June 2003, a month before Libby claimed to have learned that information from NBC’s Tim Russert. Another CIA employee said he delivered a stark warning that the Bush administration’s leak “could lead to the deaths of people who aided American intelligence gathering abroad.”

Christine Todd Whitman, the former head of the Environmental Protection Agency under George W. Bush, said the president “missed the ‘perfect opening’ to call for a cap on greenhouse gas emissions in his State of the Union address Tuesday night

Vyan

Quick Truths

From Randi Rhodes

Among the crucial stories that the Corporate Media has ignored over the past few days is Torture Czar Alberto Gonzales proclaiming that Constitution does not guarantee habeas corpus! He did this using logic that would also render the Bill of Rights moot.

The same day Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), now chairman of the Judiciary Committee, blew his top over Gonzales’ stonewalling about sending an innocent Canadian to Syria to be tortured. Randi has the clips.

At least 27 US troops were killed in Iraq over the weekend. Saturday was the third deadliest day since the invasion.

Support the anti-escalation resolution. Contact your senators and have your friends do the same.

POLLING: Americans do not want an escalation in Iraq if Congress passes the resolution.

VIDEO: Republican Chuck Hagel answers Cheney’s BS charge that the anti-escalation resolution undercuts the troops.

VIDEO: Project for a New American Century leader Bill Kristol goes after Congressional Dems for being “irresponsible.”

The Pentagon has pulled the plug on case workers for the wounded.

The Iraqi death toll climes ever higher. And more bombs are going off as I type.

Surplus US Military parts that made it to Iran and China have been traced back to the Pentagon.

One of the biggest Shiite militia leaders decides to make a show of playing nice. And why not, Americans are on the way to kill the Sunnis for him. A pretty good deal if you’re Sadr, Iran, Maliki or Osama.

As the Taliban re-constitutes in Afghanistan, they now are ready to begin offering social services, like their own brand of schools. Just another Bush “Mission Accomplished”.

3,000 more Americans arrive in Baghdad. Keep in mind Bush can keep moving around money that he already has in order to thwart the will of the people. We’ve already seen him under-equip our troops and under-fund our wounded.

On the eve of his State of the Union address, Chimpy is more unpopular than any president since Nixon.

Clinton pulls ahead of McCain in presidential polling and Bill Richardson also enters the 2008 fray.

High grade cocaine is pouring into the country thanks to an over-stretched, broken military.

And Lance Armstrong speaks out on Bush cutting cancer research for the second year in a row.

Libby Trial: Opening Statements

And it's he said: he said...

With Patrick Fitzgerald claiming that Libby "wiped out" a memo of Cheney's.

Fitzgerald said Cheney told his chief of staff, “Scooter” Libby, in 2003 that the wife of Iraq critic and former ambassador Joseph Wilson worked for the CIA, and that Libby spread that information to reporters. When that information got out, it triggered a federal investigation.

“But when the FBI and grand jury asked about what the defendant did,” Fitzgerald said, “he made up a story.” Fitzgerald alleged that Libby in September 2003 “wiped out” a Cheney note just before Libby's first FBI interview when he said he learned about Wilson and his wife, CIA operative Valerie Plame, from reporters, not the vice president.

Meanwhile Libby's attorney Theodore Well's claims that Libby isn't the villain of this story - Karl Rove is.

Attorney Theodore Wells said Libby went to Cheney in 2003 and complained that the White House was subtly blaming him for leaking Plame’s identity to columnist Robert Novak.

“They’re trying to set me up. They want me to be the sacrificial lamb,” Wells said, recalling the alleged conversation between Libby and Cheney. “I will not be sacrificed so Karl Rove can be protected.”

Yet apparently he was sacrificed and will soon be on the witness stand claiming faulty memory when he was asked by the FBI about his conversations with various reporters.

It should make for an interesting month.

Vyan

Our Greatest Looming Threat : The Impending Death of the Rainforest

As the Escalator-in-Chief makes final preparations for his next pack of lies Address to the Nation, there is a subject that needs to be addressed even more vitally than our steadily deteriorating situation in Iraq and the GWOT (Global War on Terror).

That issue is Climate Change.

Just like on "24", the clock is ticking, and I fear that if we don't take significant action this year it just might be too late.

You don't have to be an alarmist or a scientist to see the signs, they're literally everywhere.

From Thinkprogress June 26th.

"Climate experts have started to worry that the ice cap is disappearing in ways that computer models had not predicted." Greenland’s glaciers are melting twice as fast as they were five years ago. Should all of the ice sheet thaw, sea levels could rise by 21 feet and swamp the world’s coastal cities.

From August 11th.

Greenland’s icecap "is melting faster than ever before on record, and the pace is speeding year by year," new data shows. "The consequence is already evident in a small but ominous rise in sea levels around the world, a pace that is also accelerating."

December 12th

"Ice is melting so fast in the Arctic that the North Pole will be in the open sea in 30 years," a team of NASA-funded scientists found. "Researchers assessing the impact of carbon emissions on the world’s climate have calculated that late summer in the Arctic will be ice-free by 2040 or earlier - well within a lifetime."

Even a few in the Bush Administration seems to have warmed to the idea. On December 27th.

"The Bush administration has decided to propose listing the polar bear as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, putting the U.S. government on record as saying that global warming could drive one of the world’s most recognizable animals out of existence."

On December 30th we saw an enormous section of the Canadian Ice Sheet have been to melt and sheer off creating an Iceberg larger than Manhattan.

"A chunk of ice bigger than the area of Manhattan broke from an ice shelf in Canada’s far north and could wreak havoc if it starts to float westward toward oil-drilling regions and shipping lanes next summer." It was the "largest such break in nearly three decades," and global warming "likely played a role."

Today January 23rd.

The new report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to be released next week will show that "[h]uman-caused global warming is here — visible in the air, water and melting ice — and is destined to get much worse in the future." "This isn’t a smoking gun; climate is a battalion of intergalactic smoking missiles," said Andrew Weaver, a study co-author.

But this is the kicker from a peice I originally wrote last year on the how the Electric Car was wiped out in California.

The recent Discovery Channel Primer on Global Warming covers a great deal of the subject in depth.

In 2005, scientists announced major discoveries about Earth’s climate. Multiple Greenland glaciers suddenly leaped into retreat, spilling larger and larger amounts of ice into the sea. A similar pattern has been seen on the Antarctic Peninsula. Studies of the past 50 years of hurricanes were made public and revealed the storms have been steadily getting more intense and destructive. Hurricane Katrina brought that point home to the U.S. by nearly wiping New Orleans off the map. Scientists also announced the record retreat in Arctic sea ice, and a measurable slowing of the thermohaline circulation in the Atlantic – the deep ocean current that drives the Gulf Stream, moderates temperatures worldwide, and keeps Europe from having a climate like that of Alaska.

All of these changes are modifying our weather in a variety of ways, larges swaths of former farmland in China have turned into desert. But most frighteningly, the Amazon Rainforest appears to be in extremely grave danger after suffering the worst drought in decades. After years of extensive deforestation - and stealth logging - the shifting patterns of precipitation have left much of the forest in drought for the past two years. Some studies indicate that a majority of this forest would be able to survive much more of this.

Amazon rainforest could become a desert And that could speed up global warming with 'incalculable consequences', says alarming new research. Studies by the blue-chip Woods Hole Research Centre, carried out in Amazonia, have concluded that the forest cannot withstand more than two consecutive years of drought without breaking down. And that process, which would be irreversible, could begin as early as next year.

Next year begins the third consecutive year of drought in the Amazon. Tests run by some concerned scientist have shown that during the second year of drought, the tree dig deep roots in search of moisture - this has already occured in much of the forest -- in the third year - the trees begin to die.

By the end of the year the trees had released more than two-thirds of the carbon dioxide they have stored during their lives, helping to act as a break on global warming. Instead they began accelerating the climate change.

... the Amazon now appears to be entering its second successive year of drought, raising the possibility that it could start dying next year. The immense forest contains 90 billion tons of carbon, enough in itself to increase the rate of global warming by 50 per cent.

If the rainforest begins to die, it could arguaby begin an irreversable cascade effect which would dramatically accelerate the current rate of climate change to a catastrophic degree. All of the negative effects we've already seen, from flooding to wildfires and increasing powerful oceans storms would grow worse and more deadly.

This is serious people, deadly serious.

Folks, THIS IS NEXT YEAR - right here, right now!

The time for talk and discussion is long past, it's time for action.

Today Red State Rebel described the latest version of Al Gore's slideshow, as shown in his Academy Award Nominated film.

To the skeptics, he shows evidence of glacial earthquakes in Greenland - seven in 1993, quadruple that in 2005. He shows studies that revealed how, of 928 peer-reviewed scientific studies, none disputed global warming - but 53% of 636 articles in the popular press did so (including this morning's Page 1 story in the Idaho Statesman). He also roundly debunks the false choices between a vibrant economy and a healthy environment, noting how growing legions of CEOs are embracing the idea that we can have both.

The Corporate World is indeed ready to address this issue, as they understand the financial benefit of holding the patents to the future.

Corporate giants urge Bush to address climate crisis.
"The growing consensus to take national action against climate change received a major boost Monday when 10 leading U.S. corporations — including General Electric, Alcoa, DuPont and Pacific Gas & Electric — launched a coalition with four environmental groups to push for mandatory federal emissions controls." The corporate leaders pledged to work "for specific targets and timetables to reduce current levels of carbon dioxide and airborne pollutants by 60 to 80 percent" by 2050. Details on the partnership HERE.

The Development of Alternative Fuels and Clean Energy must become mandatory for America. We produce the vast majority of Green house gases and have to take responsibility for that by aggressively reversing the trends I note above.

We No Longer Have the Luxury of Waiting 5 or Ten Years.

We already have the technology - all we have to do is implement it. And we have to do it now.

Fortunately Congress has begun to act.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is moving to create a special House panel to address global warming, headed by climate champion Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA). The decision, "to some degree, would sidestep" some powerful committee chairmen, specifically energy chairman John Dingell (D-MI), who is less aggressive on global warming issues.

But not so fortunately, the Senate is less likely to be so bold.

"Sen. John Warner (R-Va.) dropped his bid yesterday for the ranking member spot on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, leaving the door open for Sen. James Inhofe (Okla.) to claim the position without opposition." The position will give Inhofe a platform to continue claiming global warming is the "greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people."

Contact Congress Now at their Switchboard : (202) 224-3121 Tell them you support swift and serious action on this issue. (You can reach any Senator or Congressman thru this number)

Vyan

Brownie: Politics Affected Response to Katrina

FROM KPLC TV Lake Charles.

NEW YORK Former FEMA director Michael Brown says politics were a factor in decisions over whether to take federal control of areas affected by Hurricane Katrina.
Brown, in a lecture in New York, says some in the White House suggested only Louisiana should be federalized because it was run by a Democrat, Governor Kathleen Blanco. He says he recommended that all affected areas be federalized. That would have put the federal government in charge of all agencies responding to the disaster.

Brown says someone at the White House said Blanco's "a white, female Democratic governor and we have a chance to rub her nose in it." He didn't identify the person.

Bad Brains - Rise

Rise - Bad Brains

Sen. Warner Set to Introduce Anti-Escalation Resolution

And just in time for the Escalator-in-Chief's latest -open lying session- State of the Union Address. From Thinkprogress.

Sen. John Warner (R-VA) will introduce a resolution today “making clear that he does not support the President on increasing the troop levels in Iraq” and calling escalation “a mistake,” CNN’s Dana Bash reports. Warner’s resolution will be cosponsored by Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Ben Nelson (D-NE).

Warner, the former Armed Services Committee chairman, is a “very influential voice when it comes to military matters,” Bash reports, and until this fall had been “whole-heartedly behind the president and the war.” His new resolution “certainly...is not going to sit well with the White House.”

Warner said last week that Congress must move swiftly to address President Bush’s new strategy. “Each of us are pained by the casualties that we are taking. We cannot dither around on it.” Warner’s bill is viewed as a less confrontational alternative to the Iraq resolution backed by Sens. Joe Biden (D-DE), Chuck Hagel (R-NE) and Carl Levin (D-MI).

So isn't it about time to ask what the Republican Solution to Iraq is?

Oh and just for the record - the Iraqi Prime Minister doesn't want The Surge either.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had a surprise for President Bush when they sat down with their aides in the Four Seasons Hotel in Amman, Jordan. Firing up a PowerPoint presentation, Maliki and his national security adviser proposed that U.S. troops withdraw to the outskirts of Baghdad and let Iraqis take over security in the strife-torn capital. Maliki said he did not want any more U.S. troops at all, just more authority.

The president listened intently to the unexpected proposal at their Nov. 30 meeting, according to accounts from several administration officials. Bush seemed impressed that Maliki had taken the initiative, but it did not take him long to reject the idea.

Attaboy Bushie - that'll teach those uppity Iraqis what for. Thinking they can handle their own security - phhhffffTTt!

But his ignoring the request of Maliki - whose like y'know, only the current head of state for Iraq - isn't all that surprising. Bush didn't need no stinking NIE either to make his decision to escalate and prolong the War until well into primary season. We wouldn't want any facts to cloud his decidering or nothin'.

And on the extreme Right - leaning even more over the rails of delusion than Bush - we have Senator McCain who is still opting for the Super Surge plan.

On NBC’s Meet the Press, McCain said, “I would have liked to have seen more” troops sent to Iraq. He added, “If it had been up to me,” more U.S. troops would be on their way into Baghdad.

Thank God, Allah and Buddah that it's not up to him.

Oh please - let it never be up to him.

Unfortunately it is still up to Bush, but with prominent and powerful Republicans like Warner beginning to jump off this runaway train - we just might see and end to this War before Bushie slips out the back door of his Presidency yet.

Vyan