{"id":2877,"date":"2011-04-14T22:25:18","date_gmt":"2011-04-15T06:25:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/?p=2877"},"modified":"2011-04-14T22:33:08","modified_gmt":"2011-04-15T06:33:08","slug":"rouge-forum-dispatch-april-15","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/rouge-forum-dispatch-april-15\/","title":{"rendered":"Rouge Forum Dispatch: Things Grow Perkier!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>We Say Fight Back!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Congratulation to Andrew Kolin on the publication of: <\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/Kolin-book.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2887\" title=\"Kolin book\" src=\"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/Kolin-book.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"240\" height=\"240\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/Kolin-book.jpg 240w, https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/Kolin-book-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 240px) 100vw, 240px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Little Red Schoolhouse:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/littlered-rosa1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2927\" title=\"littlered-rosa\" src=\"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/littlered-rosa1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/littlered-rosa1.jpg 640w, https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/littlered-rosa1-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Detroit Fed of Teachers Pres Likes Broad&#8217;s Puppet Bobb&#8217;s Attacks: <\/strong>Johnson said there are advantages to having Bobb remain on the job. \u201cHe knows me. I know him. He\u2019s come to understand the agreement between the DFT and DPS,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not like someone who would have to come in and learn the system.\u201d <a href=\"http:\/\/www.freep.com\/article\/20110408\/NEWS01\/110408032\/Bobb-would-consider-staying-helm-DPS-asked\" class=\"autohyperlink\" target=\"_blank\">www.freep.com\/article\/20110408\/NEWS01\/110408032\/Bobb-would-consider-staying-helm-DPS-asked<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Crowd Upends Detroit&#8217;s Broad Puppet Meeting: <\/strong> their most venomous wrath was directed at Emergency Manager Robert Bobb, the plan architect who mostly listened to the criticism in silence during the meeting at Kettering High School. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.detnews.com\/article\/20110413\/SCHOOLS\/104130367\/1026\/Crowd-lambastes-Detroit-school-closure-plan\" class=\"autohyperlink\" target=\"_blank\">www.detnews.com\/article\/20110413\/SCHOOLS\/104130367\/1026\/Crowd-lambastes-Detroit-school-closure-plan<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Delusional Resistance: Fake NEA Rallies in Cal Demand Taxes on Working Class: <\/strong>Dubbed the Day of Class Action, events were held on all 23 Cal State campuses, featuring speakers, workshops, gospel singers, guerrilla theater and, on one campus, a New Orleans-style &#8220;funeral&#8221; march.<br \/>\nThe protests were largely peaceful and there were no reports of disruptions, although student groups staged sit-ins in hallways outside the offices of presidents Jolene Koester at Cal State Northridge and James M. Rosser at Cal State L.A.<br \/>\nNo arrests were made, and students left the buildings by the end of the day. Peaceful sit-ins were also held at campuses in Pomona, San Francisco and the East Bay. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/news\/local\/la-me-college-protests-20110414,0,4092074.story?track=rss&#038;utm_source=feedburner&#038;utm_medium=feed&#038;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+latimes%2Fmostviewed+%28L.A.+Times+-+Most+Viewed+Stories%29\" class=\"autohyperlink\" target=\"_blank\">www.latimes.com\/news\/local\/la-me-college-protests-20110414,0,4092074.story?track=rss&#038;utm_source=feedburner&#038;utm_medium=feed&#038;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+latimes%2Fmostviewed+%28L.A.+Times+-+Most+Viewed+Stories%29<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>International Hot War of the Rich on the Poor<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Vietnam: American Holocaust - Bombing Vietnam\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4KIvAXPEcaE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>One Hundred Years of Air Strikes: <\/strong>The world\u2019s first aerial bombing mission took place 100 years ago, over Libya. It was an attack on Turkish positions in Tripoli. On 1 November 1911, Lieutenant Cavotti of the Italian Air Fleet dropped four two-kilogramme bombs, by hand, over the side of his aeroplane. In the days that followed, several more attacks took place on nearby Arab bases. Some of them, inaugurating a pattern all too familiar in the century since then, fell on a field hospital, at Ain Zara, provoking heated argument in the international press about the ethics of dropping bombs from the air, and what is now known as \u2018collateral damage\u2019. (In those days it was called \u2018frightfulness\u2019.) The Italians, however, were much cheered by the \u2018wonderful moral effect\u2019 of bombing, its capacity to demoralise and panic those on the receiving end.<\/p>\n<p>A hundred years on, as missiles rain down on Gaddafi\u2019s defences and sleeping Libyan soldiers are blasted and burned, we hear claims of a similar kind: the might of the western onslaught will dissipate all support for Gaddafi\u2019s regime and usher in a new golden age for everyone. Just as Shock and Awe were meant to in Iraq. Or bombing and defoliation were meant to in in Vietnam. Or as the London Blitz was meant to break Britain\u2019s spirit. Yet all the evidence suggests that dropping high explosive on places where people live increases their opposition, their solidarity and their resolve. <strong>Happy Anniversary<\/strong>. Ian Patterson<\/p>\n<p><strong>Taliban Takes over US Base In Pech Valley: Aljazeera Video: <\/strong>Pech River Valley in eastern Afghanistan, once considered by the Americans as being central to their strategy, is now under the control of the Taliban.<\/p>\n<p>The US troops pulled out after years of fighting for control of the area &#8211; a Taliban stronghold &#8211; that had led to mounting casualties. \u00a0http:\/\/english.aljazeera.net\/video\/asia\/2011\/04\/2011499027121809.html<\/p>\n<p><strong>Death From Above! Oops! Well, Sorry &#8217;bout that. <\/strong> <strong>Here&#8217;s Some $s. <\/strong>The Americans were using some of the most sophisticated tools in the history of war, technological marvels of surveillance and intelligence gathering that allowed them to see into once-inaccessible corners of the battlefield. But the high-tech wizardry would fail in its most elemental purpose: to tell the difference between friend and foe.<br \/>\nThis is the story of that episode. It is based on hundreds of pages of previously unreleased military documents, including transcripts of cockpit and radio conversations obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, the results of two Pentagon investigations and interviews with the officers involved as well as Afghans who were on the ground that day&#8230;.By the U.S. count, 15 or 16 men were killed and 12 people were wounded, including a woman and three children. Elders from the Afghans&#8217; home villages said in interviews that 23 had been killed, including two boys, Daoud, 3, and Murtaza, 4&#8230;.Several weeks after the attack, American officers travelled to the villages to apologize to survivors and the victims&#8217; families.<br \/>\nThey gave each survivor 140,000 afghanis, or about $2,900.<br \/>\nFamilies of the dead received $4,800.<a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/news\/nationworld\/world\/la-fg-afghanistan-drone-20110410,0,2818134,full.story\" class=\"autohyperlink\" target=\"_blank\">www.latimes.com\/news\/nationworld\/world\/la-fg-afghanistan-drone-20110410,0,2818134,full.story<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>CIA&#8217;s Libyan &#8220;rebels&#8221; Reject Peace Road Map: <\/strong>Libyan opposition leaders on Monday rejected an African Union &#8220;road map&#8221; for making peace with Moammar Gadhafi, saying that nothing short of the strongman&#8217;s immediate resignation would satisfy them.<br \/>\nThe proposal, which Gadhafi reportedly endorsed after meeting with the African delegation Sunday in Tripoli, called for a cease-fire in the nearly two-month-old conflict, suspension of the NATO airstrikes \u2014 which have slowed Gadhafi&#8217;s military campaign against the eastern-based rebels \u2014 and talks between the sides on political reforms.<a href=\"http:\/\/www.mcclatchydc.com\/2011\/04\/11\/111935\/libyan-rebels-hear-african-peace.html\" class=\"autohyperlink\" target=\"_blank\">www.mcclatchydc.com\/2011\/04\/11\/111935\/libyan-rebels-hear-african-peace.html<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>International Economic War of the Rich on the Poor<\/strong><\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/Corporate-tax-dodge.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2882\" title=\"Corporate tax dodge\" src=\"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/Corporate-tax-dodge.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"450\" height=\"966\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Joseph Stiglitz: &#8220;It&#8217;s Class War Full-Blown&#8221; <\/strong>It\u2019s no use pretending that what has obviously happened has not in fact happened. The upper 1 percent of Americans are now taking in nearly a quarter of the nation\u2019s income every year. In terms of wealth rather than income, the top 1 percent control<br \/>\n40 percent. Their lot in life has improved considerably. Twenty-five years ago, the corresponding figures were 12 percent and 33 percent. One response might be to celebrate the ingenuity and drive that brought good fortune to these people, and to contend that a rising tide lifts all boats. That response would be misguided. While the top 1 percent have seen their incomes rise 18 percent over the past decade, those in the middle have actually seen their incomes fall. For men with only high-school<br \/>\ndegrees, the decline has been precipitous\u201412 percent in the last quarter-century alone. All the growth in recent decades\u2014and<br \/>\nmore\u2014has gone to those at the top. In terms of income equality, America lags behind any country in the old, ossified Europe that President George W. Bush used to deride. Among our closest counterparts are Russia with its oligarchs and Iran. (Vanity Fair May 2011). <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vanityfair.com\/society\/features\/2011\/05\/top-one-percent-201105\" class=\"autohyperlink\" target=\"_blank\">www.vanityfair.com\/society\/features\/2011\/05\/top-one-percent-201105<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Why No Bailout Prosecutions? Because the Prosecutors did it: <\/strong> several years after the financial crisis, which was caused in large part by reckless lending and excessive risk taking by major financial institutions, no senior executives have been charged or imprisoned, and a collective government effort has not emerged. This stands in stark contrast to the failure of many savings and loan institutions in the late 1980s. In the wake of that debacle, special government task forces referred 1,100 cases to prosecutors, resulting in more than 800 bank officials going to jail. Among the best-known: Charles H. Keating Jr., of Lincoln Savings and Loan in Arizona, and David Paul, of Centrust Bank in Florida.<\/p>\n<p>Former prosecutors, lawyers, bankers and mortgage employees say that investigators and regulators ignored past lessons about how to crack financial fraud&#8230;\u201cWhen regulators don\u2019t believe in regulation and don\u2019t get what is going on at the companies they oversee, there can be no major white-collar crime prosecutions,\u201d said Henry N. Pontell, professor of criminology, law and society in the School of Social Ecology at the University of California, Irvine. \u201cIf they don\u2019t understand what we call collective embezzlement, where people are literally looting their own firms, then it\u2019s impossible to bring cases.\u201dhttp:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2011\/04\/14\/business\/14prosecute.html?_r=1&amp;nl=todaysheadlines&amp;emc=tha2&amp;pagewanted=all<\/p>\n<p><strong>All You Need to Know About Obamagogue&#8217;s Speech: &#8220;Listen Saps&#8221;:<\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/ObamaSmoking.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2920\" title=\"ObamaSmoking\" src=\"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/ObamaSmoking.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"361\" height=\"312\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/ObamaSmoking.jpg 361w, https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/ObamaSmoking-300x259.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 361px) 100vw, 361px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>E.U. Is All For Freedom Fighters, but not in the E.U. <\/strong>European Union interior ministers said they would not recognize the temporary permits that Italy had said it planned to issue to scores of immigrants who have arrived since January. The permits were intended to allow them free travel within Europe.<br \/>\nBut Europe is divided over whether the permits would be valid in the entire visa-free Schengen area, which covers most of Western Europe, and on Monday, France and Germany rejected Italy\u2019s plan. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2011\/04\/12\/world\/europe\/12italy.html?hpw\" class=\"autohyperlink\" target=\"_blank\">www.nytimes.com\/2011\/04\/12\/world\/europe\/12italy.html?hpw<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/toles04072011.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2909\" title=\"toles04072011\" src=\"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/toles04072011.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"296\" height=\"251\" \/><\/a><strong>Iceland Rejects Debt Slavery: <\/strong>&#8220;I know this will probably hurt us internationally, but it is worth taking a stance,&#8221; Thorgerdun Asgeirsdottir, a 28-year-old barista, said after casting a &#8220;no&#8221; vote.<\/p>\n<p>Svanhvit Ingibergs (33) who works at a rest home, said: &#8220;I had no part in causing those debts, and I don&#8217;t want our children to risk having to pay them. It would be better to settle this in a court.&#8221;<br \/>\nIceland is still pulling itself out of the recession which hit it after its bank crash, and policymakers and economists have said solving the Icesave issue would help the country get back into international financial markets. <a href=\"http:\/\/cromalternativemoney.org\/index.php\/en\/forum?func=view&#038;catid=6&#038;id=1806#1806\" class=\"autohyperlink\" target=\"_blank\">cromalternativemoney.org\/index.php\/en\/forum?func=view&#038;catid=6&#038;id=1806#1806<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Solidarity Forever<\/span><\/strong><strong> <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>The Bogus California Teachers Assn Emergency Plan:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.eiaonline.com\/CTAStateofEmergencyIdeas.pdf\" class=\"autohyperlink\" target=\"_blank\">www.eiaonline.com\/CTAStateofEmergencyIdeas.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Kaiser\/SEIU Corrupt Deal vs Workers Goes to Court: <\/strong>Administrative Law Judge William L. Schmidt found Kaiser guilty of violating the law when the corporation withheld scheduled raises, tuition reimbursements, and steward rights from Southern California professionals who voted in January 2010 &#8212; by overwhelming margins &#8212; to decertify SEIU and join NUHW. Kaiser\u2019s unilateral takeaways were &#8220;inherently destructive of the basic employee right to freely choose a bargaining representative,&#8221; Schmidt wrote <a href=\"http:\/\/www.inmotionmagazine.com\/hrcr11\/pr_trial2.html\" class=\"autohyperlink\" target=\"_blank\">www.inmotionmagazine.com\/hrcr11\/pr_trial2.html<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Spy Versus Spy<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/Christopher-Isham.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2880\" title=\"Christopher Isham\" src=\"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/Christopher-Isham.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"450\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/Christopher-Isham.jpg 450w, https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/Christopher-Isham-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><\/a><strong>Groups representing journalists say the alleged FBI use of reporters to collect information includes court cases where the FBI has tried to obtain confidential sources<\/strong>. In some cases, reporters have gone to jail for refusing to reveal such sources. (ABC&#8217;s Chris Isham, above, Says he was not a police spy) <a href=\"http:\/\/www.presstv.ir\/detail\/173579.html\" class=\"autohyperlink\" target=\"_blank\">www.presstv.ir\/detail\/173579.html<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Pakistan\/US Dispute Real or Pulling a Yemen? <\/strong> Pakistan has demanded that the United States steeply reduce the number of Central Intelligence Agency operatives and Special Operations forces working in Pakistan, and that it halt C.I.A. drone strikes aimed at militants in northwest Pakistan. The request was a sign of the near collapse of cooperation between the two testy allies&#8230;.\u00a0Pakistani and American officials said in interviews that the demand that the United States scale back its presence was the immediate fallout from the arrest in Pakistan of Raymond A. Davis, a C.I.A. security officer who killed two men in January during what he said was an attempt to rob him.<\/p>\n<p>In all, about 335 American personnel \u2014 C.I.A. officers and contractors and Special Operations forces \u2014 were being asked to leave the country, said a Pakistani official closely involved in the decision.<\/p>\n<p>It was not clear how many C.I.A. personnel that would leave behind; the total number in Pakistan has not been disclosed. But the cuts demanded by the Pakistanis amounted to 25 to 40 percent of United States Special Operations forces in the country, the officials said. The number also included the removal of all the American contractors used by the C.I.A. in Pakistan.<\/p>\n<p>The Pakistani Army firmly believes that Washington\u2019s real aim in Pakistan is to strip the nation of its prized nuclear arsenal, which is now on a path to becoming the world\u2019s fifth largest, said the Pakistani official closely involved in the decision on reducing the American presence.<\/p>\n<p>On the American side, frustration has built over the Pakistani Army\u2019s seeming inability to defeat a host of militant groups, including the Taliban and Al Qaeda, which have thrived in Pakistan\u2019s tribal areas despite more than $1 billion in American assistance a year to the Pakistani military. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2011\/04\/12\/world\/asia\/12pakistan.html?_r=1&#038;hp\" class=\"autohyperlink\" target=\"_blank\">www.nytimes.com\/2011\/04\/12\/world\/asia\/12pakistan.html?_r=1&#038;hp<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Interest in Failed Spy Raymond Davis (below)<\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/Ray-Davis-Hang.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2891\" title=\"Activists of the Pakistani fundamentalis\" src=\"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/Ray-Davis-Hang.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"420\" height=\"292\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/Ray-Davis-Hang.jpg 420w, https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/Ray-Davis-Hang-300x208.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 420px) 100vw, 420px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>CIA: &#8220;That isn&#8217;t a Drone. It&#8217;s Not Ours! They are Not Dead&#8221; <\/strong> C.I.A. drones fired two missiles at militants in Pakistan\u2019s tribal areas on Wednesday, two days after Pakistan\u2019s spy chief threatened to curtail the drone strikes and demanded more information about the Central Intelligence Agency\u2019s operations there&#8230;.The drone attack was widely interpreted by Pakistan\u2019s main spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence directorate, as a deliberate effort by Washington to embarrass the country. \u201cIf the message was that business will continue as usual, it was a crude way of sending it,\u201d a senior Pakistani intelligence official said&#8230;.<\/p>\n<p>Pakistan\u2019s military and civilian leaders have privately supported the drone strikes as a way to attack militants, particularly in North Waziristan, where the Pakistani Army has conducted few if any operations. In the past two years, however, the C.I.A. has developed its own network of covert Pakistani sources to help identify targets for drone strikes and no longer relies on the ISI for that type of assistance, American officials said.<\/p>\n<p>Pakistani officials have grown more alarmed at the frequency of the drone attacks \u2014 117 last year, more than all previous years combined \u2014 and the fact that the targets are now largely low-level fighters and junior commanders, not top operatives. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2011\/04\/14\/world\/asia\/14pakistan.html?emc=tnt&#038;tntemail1=y\" class=\"autohyperlink\" target=\"_blank\">www.nytimes.com\/2011\/04\/14\/world\/asia\/14pakistan.html?emc=tnt&#038;tntemail1=y<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Is the CIA Getting Dumber by the Year? <\/strong>In the decade since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, private intelligence firms and security consultants have peeled away veterans from the top reaches of the CIA, hiring scores of longtime officers in large part to gain access to the burgeoning world of intelligence contracting&#8230;At least 91 of the agency\u2019s upper-level managers have left for the private sector in the past 10 years, according to data compiled by The Washington Post. Several of the top positions have turned over multiple times in that period: In addition to three directors, the CIA has lost four of its deputy directors for operations, three directors of its counterterrorism center and all five of the division chiefs who were in place the day of the Sept. 11 attacks.<\/p>\n<p>In many quarters in Washington, government officials decamp for the private sector as a matter of course. Defense consultancies routinely hire generals retiring from the Pentagon; the city\u2019s lobbying firms are stacked with former members of Congress and administration officials.<\/p>\n<p>But the wave of departures from the CIA has marked an end to a decades-old culture of discretion and restraint in which retired officers, by and large, did not join contractors that perform intelligence work for the government. It has also raised questions about the impact of the losses incurred by the agency. Veteran officers leave with a wealth of institutional knowledge, extensive personal contacts and an understanding of world affairs afforded only to those working at the nation\u2019s preeminent repository of intelligence&#8230;.The Post estimated that of 854,000 people with top-secret clearances, 265,000 are contractors. Thirty percent of the workforce in the intelligence agencies is made up of contractors. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/world\/cias-brain-drain-since-911-some-top-officials-have-left-for-private-sector\/2011\/03\/25\/AF3Nw1RD_story.html\" class=\"autohyperlink\" target=\"_blank\">www.washingtonpost.com\/world\/cias-brain-drain-since-911-some-top-officials-have-left-for-private-sector\/2011\/03\/25\/AF3Nw1RD_story.html<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Emerging Fascism<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>The Militarization of the Border for the Bogus Drug War: <\/strong>Across the nearly 2,000-mile southwest boundary, Customs and Border Protection, Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement are joined by the Drug Enforcement Administration; Federal Bureau of Investigation; U.S. Coast Guard; U.S. Marshals; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and dozens of state and local agencies. Many of the agencies already had a presence along the border, but their activities intensified after 2006. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.signonsandiego.com\/news\/2011\/apr\/09\/border-has-become-main-battleground-in-drug-war\/\" class=\"autohyperlink\" target=\"_blank\">www.signonsandiego.com\/news\/2011\/apr\/09\/border-has-become-main-battleground-in-drug-war\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Obamagogue! Your Prof Wants Fair Treatment for Bradley: <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/Bradley-Manning-Rally-007.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2897\" title=\"Bradley-Manning-Rally-007\" src=\"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/Bradley-Manning-Rally-007.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"460\" height=\"276\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/Bradley-Manning-Rally-007.jpg 460w, https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/Bradley-Manning-Rally-007-300x180.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 460px) 100vw, 460px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>More than 250 of America&#8217;s most eminent legal scholars have signed a letter protesting against the treatment in military prison of the alleged WikiLeaks source Bradley Manning, contesting that his &#8220;degrading and inhumane conditions&#8221; are<strong> <\/strong>illegal, unconstitutional and could even amount to torture.<strong>The list of signatories includes Laurence Tribe, a Harvard professor who is considered to be America&#8217;s foremost liberal authority on constitutional law. He taught constitutional law to Barack Obama and was a key backer of his 2008 presidential campaign.<\/strong><strong><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong> <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Magical Mystery Tour<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=f715T_6b9MI\" class=\"autohyperlink\" target=\"_blank\">www.youtube.com\/watch?v=f715T_6b9MI<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Not a Parody: &#8220;Straight&#8221; Talk from the Catholic League: &#8220;<\/strong>The refrain that child rape is a reality in the Church is twice wrong: let&#8217;s get it straight&#8211;they weren&#8217;t children and they weren&#8217;t raped. We know from the John Jay study that most of the victims have been adolescents, and that the most common abuse has been inappropriate touching (inexcusable though this is, it is not rape). The Boston Globe correctly said of the John Jay report that &#8220;more than three-quarters of the victims were post pubescent, meaning the abuse did not meet the clinical definition of pedophilia.&#8221; In other words, the issue is homosexuality, not pedophilia.&#8221;\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.christiannewswire.com\/news\/6401616703.html\" class=\"autohyperlink\" target=\"_blank\">www.christiannewswire.com\/news\/6401616703.html<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>New Curricula Voodoo for the Church (teachers: notice this!): <\/strong>\u201cThe first time I saw some of the texts, I was shocked,\u201d said the Rev. Richard Hilgartner, who as executive director of the American bishops\u2019 Secretariat of Divine Worship is overseeing the introduction of the new missal in the United States. <strong><br \/>\n<\/strong><br \/>\n\u201cBut the more time I\u2019ve spent with it, the more comfortable I became with it,\u201d he said. \u201cThe new translation tries to be more faithful to the Scriptures, and a little more poetic and evocative in terms of imagery and metaphor.\u201d\u201cNo one is saying that it\u2019s improved the liturgy,\u201d he said in telephone interview, \u201cor that it\u2019s more prayerful or solemn. It would be great if it were. I\u2019d be the first to listen.<br \/>\n\u201cBut no one is putting up a fight any more,\u201d he said. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mercurynews.com\/news\/ci_17821919?source=rss&#038;nclick_check=1\" class=\"autohyperlink\" target=\"_blank\">www.mercurynews.com\/news\/ci_17821919?source=rss&#038;nclick_check=1<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>The Heavens Weep<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/Sun-god-crying-.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2907\" title=\"Sun god crying\" src=\"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/Sun-god-crying-.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"351\" height=\"470\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/Sun-god-crying-.jpg 351w, https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/Sun-god-crying--224x300.jpg 224w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 351px) 100vw, 351px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Japan and Tepco Lying for a Month say &#8220;Bad as Chernobyl&#8221; <\/strong>Japan is considering raising the severity level of its nuclear crisis to put it on a par with the Chernobyl accident 25 years ago, the worst atomic power disaster in history, Kyodo News Agency reported on Tuesday. (reuters)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Worst things in History of the World<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Idiot Virginia School Worker Holds Slave Auction: <\/strong>Trying to bring a Civil War history lesson to life, teacher Jessica Boyle turned her fourth grade Norfolk classroom into a slave auction: She ordered black and mixed race students to one side of the classroom. Then, the white students took turns buying them. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/local\/education\/va-teacher-holds-mock-slave-auction\/2011\/04\/11\/AFxZnsLD_story.html?hpid=z3\" class=\"autohyperlink\" target=\"_blank\">www.washingtonpost.com\/local\/education\/va-teacher-holds-mock-slave-auction\/2011\/04\/11\/AFxZnsLD_story.html?hpid=z3<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Padres (sic) Play in Camo (the baseball agenda=war agenda too)<\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/Padres-Camo-Outfit.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2889\" title=\"Padres Camo Outfit\" src=\"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/Padres-Camo-Outfit.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"500\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/Padres-Camo-Outfit.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/Padres-Camo-Outfit-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/Padres-Camo-Outfit-300x300.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><strong> <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Best and Worst Thing in History of the World<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/barry-bonds1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2922\" title=\"barry-bonds1\" src=\"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/barry-bonds1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"309\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/barry-bonds1.jpg 309w, https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/barry-bonds1-231x300.jpg 231w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 309px) 100vw, 309px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Best Things In History of the World:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=umY92y25DrA&#038;NR=1&#038;feature=fvwp\" class=\"autohyperlink\" target=\"_blank\">www.youtube.com\/watch?v=umY92y25DrA&#038;NR=1&#038;feature=fvwp<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=GQhwEGVVGS4\" class=\"autohyperlink\" target=\"_blank\">www.youtube.com\/watch?v=GQhwEGVVGS4<\/a><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"OK Go - This Too Shall Pass - Rube Goldberg Machine - Official Video\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qybUFnY7Y8w?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ILIA20AqA5I\" class=\"autohyperlink\" target=\"_blank\">www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ILIA20AqA5I<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>So Long, Again, Chalmers Johnson: <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"DECLINE of EMPIRES: The Signs of Decay\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Q2CCs-x9q9U?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>By Sheila K. Johnson<\/p>\n<p>In going through my husband\u2019s files, books, and papers after his death, I\u2019ve been forcibly struck by two things.  First, contrary to what many of his obituaries said, his writings and thoughts were remarkably consistent throughout his life. In other words, he was not a right-winger who became more liberal and outspoken as he got older. More than most people suspected, he was a radical all along, whose intellectual impulses were tempered only by his birth in the Depression year of 1931 and his determination to make a decent living without \u201cjoining the establishment.\u201d Second &#8212; and it was an unavoidable recollection &#8212; he worked with manic energy and maniacally hard all his life.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We Say Fight Back! Congratulation to Andrew Kolin on the publication of: Little Red Schoolhouse: Detroit Fed of Teachers Pres Likes Broad&#8217;s Puppet Bobb&#8217;s Attacks: Johnson said there are advantages to having Bobb remain on the job. \u201cHe knows me. I know him. He\u2019s come to understand the agreement between the DFT and DPS,\u201d he [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2877"}],"version-history":[{"count":44,"href":"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2877\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2932,"href":"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2877\/revisions\/2932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}