This and that from the recent past:

From my regular contributor, Jon:
Just Amazing!
NY-born twin friars die on same day at age 92 - Yahoo! News (6/5/11).
Study: Man's Best Friend Is Also a Mind Reader - Yahoo! News (6/13/11).
Speaking of Excess . . .
What Does a $500 Million Golf Course Look Like? - Yahoo! Travel (6/19/11).
The American Police State is the 'New Normal' - Yahoo! News (6/26/11).
Texas tidbits:
The Cracks in Rick Perry’s Job-Growth Record - Swampland at Time (6/27/11).
Texas debt growing at faster rate than Federal government's - Ft. Worth Star-Telegram (7/13/11)

Jon adds, "I would like to hear little Ricky explain this."

And from Diane of Nevada:
 Growing vegetables in your yard against the law? - Natural News Alert (6/17/11).Thanks, as always.

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This month's little gems from my regular contributor, Jon.

Texas' Headlines -
Texas Governor Rick Perry says he will consider running for president (5/27/11), is from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
A Texas Log Cabin for $4 Million is from Yahoo! Real Estate (4/25/11).
Guest column from the Texas Tribune: Don't mess with my district, (4/25/11).
Pier 1 and Radio Shack: Which is on better footing for the future? (4/23/11) is from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Headlines from elsewhere -
Blackbeard's anchor is recovered off the North Carolina coast (5/27/11), is from Yahoo! News.

Activist Post: 10 Indications the United States Is a Dictatorship, (5/10/11).
War Dog - A Photo Essay by Rebecca Frankel, from Foreign Policy Magazine (5/4/11).
Officials: A popular cop in Alaska is an illegal immigrant (4/23/11) is from Yahoo! News.
Poll: Americans strongly oppose some deficit proposals (4/20/11) is from the Washington Post.
The super rich see their federal taxes drop dramatically (4/18/11), from Yahoo! News.

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More dibs and dabs to digest

An article that should disgust you -- A California Orange County (tea party activist) Republican allegedly sent an offensive Obama email (depicting the President as an ape) - from Yahoo! News.  The County Republican Chairman, Scott Baugh was quoted as saying,

. . . that he wants an ethics investigation into the incident.
"It's just highly inappropriate, it's a despicable message, it drips with racism and I think she should step down from the committee," said Baugh.

If you live in an area where there is a lot of drilling for natural gas, this recent study found that fracking for natural gas is more hazardous than burning coal - according to Yahoo! News.And finally, you will be amazed by the following three items:

1. Safes, cash washed up on Japan shores after the tsunami -according to an April 10 story from Yahoo! News. 
2.  We learn of a World War Two era German Dornier 17 bomber that was found intact underwater - from Yahoo! News Photos.
3. "The Little Things In Life" is the title of a set of 20 amazing photos from Live Science.  Immense magnification is the secret technique.

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News to amuse and amaze:

Today's "In" box revealed a number  of items of general interest, as well as the following intriguing bits of news.  The links were brought of obscurity by my regular contributor, Jon.
Heroics -- These stories have to do with heroism shown by people involved in hazardous travel in the air and on the sea.
A WWII pilot who forever repaid rescuers dies at 94.  As it turned out, the rescued pilot spent much of the rest of his life raising money and giving service to the south Pacific's New Britain islanders who has saved his life.

Teenagers adrift in the Pacific for 50 days reached land.  These three boys from Figi were very skillful and also somewhat lucky.  To quote:

. . . the boys reported having just two coconuts with them when they set out. During their ordeal, they drank rainwater that collected in the boat and ate fish they had caught. Once, they managed to grab a bird that landed on the boat and they devoured that . . .

The rescue came not a moment too soon: . . . they had begun to drink sea water because it hadn't rained in the past few nights.

Human ingenuity saved the day for a plane in crisis back in November.  When a whole bunch of things went wrong at once, an Airbus 380 Australian crew was able to override automation in order to save the plane and passengers.  In conclusion,

All the experts were agreed on one point.

"It must have been an exciting time on that flight deck," Barr said dryly. "It's not something you'd ever want to try again."

Fortunate Finds:   These stories are about amazing finds of old things -- some very, very old.Buried Alive: 34,000-Year-Old Organisms Found.  Living in a kind of suspended animation in salt crystals the organisms were eventually able to "wake up."  A few even reproduced.  The story begins,

Scientists bring back ancient salt crystals, dug up from deep below Death Valley for climate research. The sparkling crystals are carefully packed away until, years later, a young, unknown researcher takes a second look at the 34,000-year-old crystals and discovers, trapped inside, something strange. Something ... alive.

A View from the top of the de-watered Niagara Falls in 1969 in New York, was unearthed after 41 years by American Russ Glasson.  The photos were taken by his mother and father in law and show when the famous waterfall was turned off for almost six months.
Houston museum unearths the next big creature feature: The bones lie everywhere, fragments of 300 million-year-old ribs and vertebrae - spread across the hillsides, amid cactus, mesquite and red earth. They sat on the surface, next to pieces of clay and caliche rock, when paleontologists and volunteers began chiseling, scratching and brushing their way, millimeter by millimeter, toward the discovery awaiting them below.

Finders, Keepers:  
As too often is the case, Egyptian antiquities may reside not in their country of origin.  Jon related to me that he actually saw this bust as an Army family school kid living in Berlin.  Egypt asks Berlin to return  a Nefertiti bust, to no avail.  To quote:

Egypt's top archaeologist has formally requested the return of the 3,300-year-old bust of Queen Nefertiti that has been in a Berlin museum for decades, the latest move in his eight-year-old campaign to bring home ancient artifacts spirited out of the country during colonial times.

By Carol Gee
Author of:
Southwest Postings, a political blog

Make Good Mondays, a personal blog

Member of Twitter, a social network

Posted via email from Southwest Postings

Tweet writers shine again.

"Feeling grateful that high school Student Council prepared me to be governed by overambitious weirdos." (9/18/10) By PourMeCoffee

 

John Dickerson wrote this,"Sometimes the theories to explain Obama start to sound like refrigerator magnet poetry." (Sept. 18th).

 

Joseph Cirincione reports: "Just got off a call with 40+ NGOs, all working very hard to ensure a strong, bipartisan vote for New START this week." (Sept. 14th)

 

"And Obama offered up his familiar Slurpee riff: Dems digging economy out of a ditch while Republicans watch, just "sipping a Slurpee," was written by my favorite White House reporter, Mark Knoller on Sept. 18th.

 

ProPublica tweeted on Sept. 18th, "Watchdogs: Gov’t Spent $196 Keeping Secrets For Every $1 Spent Declassifying Documents, http://bit.ly/c5paFE"

 

Katrina [vanden Heuvel], Editor of Nation Magazine says, "Happiness= having purposeful life & meaningful work," July 8th.

 

John Dickerson, again (May 25th): "With this oil leak, the entire country is on the line and BP is tech help."

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Strange and unsettling roundup of items in the news last month

"Beloit College Mindset List#," is from Beloit.edu (8/15/10).

"When Japan's debt bubble bursts – watch out#," is from Yahoo! News (8/12/10).

"The Cholesterol Myth That Could Be Harming Your Health#," is from Yahoo! News (8/12/10).

"Gitmo Judge Admits Confession Extracted By Rape Threat#," is from Think Progress (8/11/10).

"Spinal-Fluid Test Is Found to Predict Alzheimer’s," is from the New York Times (8/9/10).

"Dog chews off Michigan man's toe, saves his life#," is from Yahoo! News (8/4/10).

"Military dog comes home from Iraq traumatized#," is from Yahoo! News (8/3/10).

"11 Technologies in Danger of Going Extinct#," is from Yahoo! News (8/3/10).  Jon laments, "We're moving too fast for me!"

"De Niro, Brooklyn, India on last Kodachrome roll#," is from Yahoo! News (8/2/10).

Hat tip to my regular contributor, Jon#, for all these interesting links

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Here is some news Progressives can use.

What is happening with Congress?  The United States Senate's left on summer vacation, but the U.S. House reconvenes next week to pass the most recent state assistance spending bill, saving thousands of teacher jobs just before school starts.
 

What's happening with people in the news?  President Obama recently met with Congressional Republicans holding up his nominees for a number of vacant appointments. There have been a couple of notable exceptions.  Elena Kagan and James Clapper have now confirmed by the Senate. Kagan will become the newest Justice on the Supreme Court.  She gained several Republican votes, but lost Nebraska Democratic Senator Ben Nelson's.  Marine General Clapper will become the Director of National Intelligence.  General Clapper's predecessors have had enormous challenges.  Most recently Admiral Dennis Blair tended to be a bit abrasive and impulsive.  Admiral Mike McConnell was doing a revolving door with private industry, and John Negroponte, the first DNI, was often just feeling his way along.

What's happening with legislation in limbo?  Proposed bills include: green jobs/climate change/cap and trade, immigration reform, tax and deficit policy, and fixing the filibuster rule.  Politics seems to be crowding out these reform measures, after some big pieces of legislation are not the law of the land.

We can celebrate Financial Reform and Health Care Reform as significant victories. The New York Times has said that the Progressive agenda remade DC.

Related links, sent to me by my regular progressive contributor, Jon:

• "Enough right-wing propaganda#," is by Op-Ed columnist E.J. Dionne Jr. at the Washington Post (7/26/10).
• "Why Being Liberal Really Is Better Than Being Conservative#," is from AlterNet (6/10/10). Summary: Liberals and conservatives don't just disagree about specific issues -- we disagree about core ethical values. Can a case be made that liberal values really are better?
• "How Obama Haters May Help Democrats in Midterm Elections#," is by Mark Halperin from Yahoo! News (6/2/10).
• "About 2,300 running for Congress, most in decades#," is from Yahoo! News (6/2/10).

By Carol Gee - 8/6/10

Author of:
Southwest Postings, a political blog

Make Good Mondays, a personal blog

Member of Twitter, a social network

Posted via email from Southwest Postings

Friday Roundup of News Progressives Can Use

At the end of a week that was full of bad news, it might be useful to stand back, gain some perspective and addsome balance to the current political reality. The Democratic Strategist is a great newsletter for Progressives.  Here are a couple of their recent articles, for example.

1. Move Right and Lose : Evidence from the 2000-2008 U.S. Senate Elections, byAlan Abramowitz
2. More Madness from the Palmetto State , by Ed Kilgore. Regards South Carolina elections.

(Hat tip my my regular contributor Jon for the following links.)

Religious Right Wing's Influence -- AlterNet blogger Mike Lux asks why are so many Christians Conservative ?  An added question -- How can people who claim to be followers of Jesus be political conservatives?

Republican scandal - Texas   State Board of Education had a big fight within its ranks about what Texas school books should say about a number of important national and historical figures.  A group of right wingers on the authorizing committee have made national headlines with outrageous recommendations for "balance." To quote the Fort Worth Star-Telegram :

. . . exiting board member Don McLeroy is arguing that Anthony's progressive-era-reformer "tone" needs to be "balanced" against other more optimistic and less critical voices of her time.

. . . McLeroy, a Bryan dentist and a Gov. Rick Perry appointee as chairman who also thinks the world is only 6,000 years old, has included Anthony with other critical "muckrakers and reform leaders" who should be studied only in contrast with contemporaries who worshipped the status quo and glorified what was then a very limited American dream.

In a long list of suggested changes for Texas social studies lessons . . . McLeroy also wants to uphold the honor of Commie-hunting Sen. Joseph McCarthy, add lessons about the "threats of global government" and have students discuss whether the Founders really meant what Thomas Jefferson wrote about a "wall of separation" between religion and government.

Fine. That's all part of the religious brand of right-wing political correctness that dominates Texas these days, where Perry appears as a special guest on Glenn Beck shows and politicians race to pass immigration laws that would make Texas more like Arizona or Oklahoma.

Read more: http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/05/18/2199626/state-board-of-education-member.html#ixzz0pENjCXQ8

Republican scandal - Indiana Rep. Souder says he'll resign over his affair.  The news came earlier this month.  Souder joins line of family-values backers gone astray , according to Yahoo! News.  The list includes:http://bit.ly/9l2b8s">

• http://bit.ly/avmEfV">Ted Haggard
  
• http://bit.ly/avmEfV">George Alan Rekers   http://bit.ly/a4OSXy">
• http://bit.ly/a4OSXy">Mark Sanford   http://bit.ly/dBSyS8">
• http://bit.ly/dBSyS8">Robert Bauman   http://bit.ly/8XSqQs">
• http://bit.ly/8XSqQs">David Vitter

Bonus Reference Link:   Save the Internet.com asks, "Will Dirty Politics Kill the Internet?"

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KILLER Apps - Pros and Cons

People who have computers and spend time surfing the web develop a favorite set of applications to which we happily turn.  Today's post is about some of my old favorites among "killer apps," applications that run well, effectively do what we need to do, are beautifully designed and that are user friendly.  For me it also means they are all free. . . as well as mostly "bug free."  If you subscribe to the C Net newsletter, I have found that whatever apps they recommend are safe to download.

Browser - www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/features/">Mozilla Firefox

***** features a stable and robust platform, with tons of add-ons for easy customization. I have added a bookmarks toolbar, as well as the other standards.

Email - My ATT.NET**** is powered by Yahoo! I have separate addresses for: 1) friends and family,  2) general web contacts,   and 3) social network contacts.   I also use Gmail** for regular newsletters and saved articles.

Pictures on the web - Yahoo! hosts my Flickr pics**** my web albums are hosted by Google's Picasa***.

Search - Google***** just cannot be beaten.  A healthy percentage of my readers find my blog posts as a result of Google searches.

Social Media -  FaceBook**** connects me to personal friends and family, as well as web friends.  HootSuite**** organizes the lists of people and sources I follow on Twitter***** for quick and easy news headline gathering, status updates,  or well-written views.  Any included links will get me to the full story.


Group blogs - RedGage*** pays money for all kinds of content from contributors, , but it can be a bit "clunky" at times.  The blog TPM Cafe***** attracts some of the brightest and most interesting thinkers on the web to its fascinating posts and comment threads.

Blogging hosts -  Blogger**** is my primary blogging "home" where I post regularly to South by Southwest (political), and Making Good Mondays (personal/creative).  Posterous***** and Amplify*** are quicker and easier to use, and they "broadcast" to any of my other sites I wish to specify#.

Aggregator - Bloglines**** is my favorite gatherer of feeds from a wide variety of websites.  I sort them into categories for reading or saving.  It is also very quick and easy to mail articles to my Gmail address for use in blogs, or just to read later.  I have used it for many years, and am thus habituated to it.

Organizers - Digsby**** loads when I first boot up, having collected all my IMs and unread Emails for scanning, reading, deleting, etc.  Evernote***** is a wonderful and powerful host site for my notebook collections of info to keep from my hard drive, archived blogposts, my daily journal, to-do lists, etc.  And Note Mania** is a great little organizer and sticky-note app that I just recently discovered.  Be careful of the RSS feed tool, however, as it might just shower you with little link notes.

Utilities -WinUtilities**** is an excellent maintenance tool for my computer, though its defragmenter is pretty slow.

DSL Modem - ATandT  Motorola**** is reasonably priced, easily installed, and with good support service.


#y Other Blogs: My general purpose/southwest focus blog is at Southwest Progressive. And Carol Gee - Online Universe is the all-in-one home page for my websites.

Technorati tags: technology internet blogging

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Monday's business news is rich with possibilities for interesting reading.

Business is not always dull and boring.  When you depend on the best writers and resources it can be as engaging as political news is for the activist.

"The fight for financial reform," by Katrina Vanden Heuvel at The Nation Magazine (10/3/09) focuses on the big picture when it comes to reforming the regulations guiding the financial industry, particularly Elizabeth Warren's proposed new Consumer Financial Protection Agency.  Quoting this fine editor, pundit and writer:

The needed reforms are clear: affordable health care for all; a targeted jobs program and a humane, effective way to quell the tsunami of foreclosures; and a reorganized, re-regulated Wall Street that gets back to the essential business of investing in the real economy.

. . . One crucial debate is over the proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA)--akin to the fight over the public option as part of health care reform. . . The need for a CFPA couldn't be more clear. . . Elizabeth Warren, a Harvard Law Professor who also chairs the Congressional Oversight Panel, first developed the idea for a CFPA. . . Warren describes the benefits of the CFPA as bringing "existing federal consumer regulation under one roof", and creating "a home in Washington for people who care about whether families are playing on a level field when they buy financial products.... It will focus on one, driving question: Are consumer financial products explained in a way that consumers can understand and that allows the market to work?"

. . . Even more threatening to reform efforts are the financial industries' deep pockets: McClatchy Newspapers reports, "The [US] Chamber [of Commerce] said it's spending about $2 million on ads, educational efforts and a grassroots campaign to kill the agency. It said that the grassroots effort has led to more than 23,000 letters sent to Congress to date."

"Inside the crisis: Larry Summers and the White House Economic team," is by Ryan Lizza at The New Yorker (10/12/09).  If you could only read one article to get the big picture of President Obama's fiscal approach, read this piece.  It is well worth the time.  The read is actually pretty effortless.  HT to Marc Ambinder for his tweet linking to this very important and terrifically readable article (even for us seriously non-economist types).  Lizza rightly concludes, "Obama and his team have pulled the economy back from the abyss, but they will get credit only when it has been rebuilt."

"A new Supreme Court term hints at views on regulating business," is by Adam Liptak from the New York Times (10/4/09). Remember also to watch C-SPAN's fine series all this week that focuses on the SCOTUS.  Last night's premier episode was just excellent. To quote Liptak:

The new Supreme Court term that begins Monday will be dominated by cases concerning corporations, compensation and the financial markets that could signal the justices’ attitude toward regulatory constraints at a time of extraordinary government intervention in the economy.

. . . By the time the justices left for their summer break in June, a majority of the cases they had agreed to hear — 24 of 45 — concerned business issues, according to a tally by the National Chamber Litigation Center of the United States Chamber of Commerce. The corresponding numbers last year were 16 of 42.

"Three Americans share the 2009 Nobel medicine prize," according to the New York Times (10/5/09). Selfishly, because I am a cancer survivor and a ripe old 72 years of age, I am pleased that their research has implications specifically for me. Quoting from the story, the winners are:

Elizabeth Blackburn, Carol Greider and Jack Szostak were named winners of the 2009 Nobel Prize in medicine on Monday for research that has implications for cancer and aging research.

The trio solved a big problem in biology: how chromosomes can be ''copied in a complete way during cell divisions and how they are protected against degradation,'' the citation said.

"Is the Internet's next frontier news for your neighborhood?" asks Matthew Lasar at Ars Technica (10/2/09).  This is a timely article for those of us who watched a panel on the Knight Commission's work last evening.  Here is a summary: "The Internet has made it easy to connect with anyone anywhere—but it's still tough to know what's going on down the block, in local schools, or at City Hall. One foundation has a plan to change this." HT to Jay Rosen who tweets that "Ars Technica summarizes the big Knight Commission report on serving the news needs of local communities, with links to the PDF."

There is reason to celebrate this year's Nobel laureates, reason to credit the Obama administration for its bold and intelligent approach to the financial crisis, reason to be curious as the Supreme Court begins its current term, and reason to be worried about the future of print journalism as you read the lates stories of the demise of another paper or the firing of another bunch of reporters.  The nation cannot afford to lose a viable and professional Fourth Estate that is in the business of original reporting.

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Behind the Links: Friday - Rants and Raves to Decry or Celebrate

Friday - Rants and Raves

Image via Wikipedia

Today's links are to items to decry or to celebrate.

Things to celebrate --

"Sen. Graham Calls Beck 'A Cynic' And Birthers 'Crazy'#," is by Sam Stein from The Huffington Post (10/1/09).

"The Red Rock Wilderness Act: Our Chance to Be Present at the Creation~," is by Robert Redford at The Huffington Post (9/30/09).

Decry These --

"TO DEMOCRATS WHO VOTED TO "DEFUND ACORN": WHERE'S THE DEFUND BLACKWATER ACT?~," is from AlterNet (10/1/09). Summary: The witch hunt against ACORN has moved forward while the Obama administration continues to contract with Blackwater, a firm whose criminal conduct is now legendary.

"Why Right-Wing Demagogues Are Trying to Peddle Ludicrous Conspiracy Theories#," is from AlterNet (10/1/09). Summary: Even before Obama was sworn in as the 44th President, the internet was seething with lurid theories exposing his alleged subversion and treachery.

"The War Against Free Thought~," is by "the best of the web's" Peter Chamberlin from Signs of the Times (9/30/09).

"Uninsured 22-Year-Old Boehner Constituent Dies From Swine Flu#," is from Think Progress (9/25/09).

"Want to read all about it online? It may cost you~," is from the Associated Press at PhysOrg Mobile (9/20/09). Diane says, "This is a superb article!"

"Mediasaurus~," is from Wired Magazine for September/October. Diane assures us that this "is a superb article." Summary: Today's mass media is tomorrow's fossil fuel. Michael Crichton is mad as hell, and he's not going to take it anymore.

Hat Tip Key: Regular contributors of links to leads are Betmo*, Diane~ and Jon#.

Blogs: My news and political blog is at South by Southwest. My general purpose/southwest focus blog is at Southwest Progressive. And Carol Gee - Online Universe is the all-in-one home page for my websites.

via behindthelinks.blogspot.com

Diane and Jon's contributions helped out a lot with this post.

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Labor Day Links

"Labor Day sales you can't afford to miss," is the pitch of U.S. News and World Report. The lead reads, "In the sluggish economy, retailers lure shoppers with big discounts." Reuters' Rolfe Winkler writes his own "Labor Day Links," mostly focused of financial and economic news bits. The New York Times presented a slide show titled, "Faces of the Uncounted Unemployed," which is a study of the people who are too discouraged to continue to look for work. The Washington Post's Harold Meyerson posted "Unhappy Labor Day." His conclusion, unhappily, is a viewpoint with which I agree:

The Reaganite ideology of the past 30 years insisted that if Americans were freed from the constraints of government and unions and made responsible for their own economic security, a golden age would come. Sure enough, American businesses have eluded regulation and cast off their unions -- but they've left their workers in the lurch. If we fail to enact universal health care and laws that truly make it possible for workers to form unions again, each of our Labor Days will be grimmer than the last.

The image illustrating today's post is from Wordle.net. I chose it because it reflects how much of the past still influences my feelings about Labor Day and the situation in which we find ourselves today. I am not in a celebratory mood, nor are many of my friends and news sources in the blogosphere. Bankers are pulling down big bonuses, unemployment nears double digits, and the body politic is rent with insanity on its right wing and discouragement on its left wing. The center is soft.

"Happy Labor Day Banana Republic Day. . . There is little to celebrate," wrote (O)CT(O)PUS at The Reaction. Presenting the facts, the author suggested we call Labor Day by its real name "National Banana Republic day." He had a point. You would have thought that the lessons learned from the economic downturn would have taught us that the corporatocracy will not take good care of the American people, left on its own.

Another blog friend, Spadoman of Round Circle, wrote a powerful piece that helped me understand some of what has been driving my down mood. It began and ended,

I don't really want to rant about it, but the proclamation of labor Day and all it means these days has me depressed somewhat. In the past, when I was in the labor force as a Teamster, Labor day seemed to mean something. Maybe it's because I'm not working for wages any longer that I don't see the honor in being a working person. But maybe it's the way corporate America has taken the life away from so many, as those high on the food chain of American life use the backs of labor to make their millions.

. . . Remember the working class. Use your own definition of who that might be. I know it must vary as to when labor cuts off and management begins. Look at the fast food industry. Get hired as a manager and you have to work all the hours of every shift from time to time to cover the shifts of those that quit and call in, and that means weekends and holidays like Labor Day. In my book, the fast food manager is still labor, with a different moniker, a ploy, no doubt, dreamed up by those who will actually have the day off and profit from the fruits of that labor.

"I sit and look out," by Walt Whitman, was posted by my friend Betmo earlier this month, presaging Labor Day for me. Whitman's silent, and so am I. So I linked to others who can speak better for me. To quote the poem's ending:

. . . I observe the slights and degradations cast by arrogant
persons upon laborers, the poor, and upon negroes,
and the like;
All these--all the meanness and agony without end I sitting
look out upon,
See, hear, and am silent.

(Cross posted at Sirens Chronicles) [9/8/09]

See also Behind the Links, for further info on this subject.

Blogs: My general purpose/southwest focus blog is at Southwest Progressive. My creative website is at Making Good Mondays. And Carol Gee - Online Universe is the all-in-one home page for all my websites.

Technorati tags: news news and politics economy labor day links

Intelligence bytes --

Intelligence refers to being smart, to finding out things that protect the national security of the U.S. and its allies, as well as - in my book - to operating under the rule of law, as the Constitution requires. The Obama administration has had a difficult time moving away from the previous administration's lack of intelligence regarding national security matters. There are still far too many secrets. We are increasingly mired down in Afghanistan. We are still too dependent on civilian contractors for war fighting. And the intelligence services are still in need of more diversity. But some things are in a state of flux. Today's post gives a few bytes about the latest. (Image credit: Von Rosen)

American Civil Liberties Union fights an important intelligence document transparency battle -- Even though Attorney General Eric Holder has started an investigation of the C.I.A.'s abuses involved in the Bush administration's so-called "enhanced interrogation" programs, the Obama administration's lawyers are still trying to avoid revealing important classified documents in court related to the highly questionable programs. The petitioner, the ACLU is going to ask that the documents be declassified similarly to the documents opened last week by the current administration.

Afghanistan loses an important Intelligence official -- With some questioning the wisdom of U.S. presence in Afghanistan and others questioning the validity of its presidential election, the Taliban continue to target Afghanistan officials cooperating with the United States. In Mehterlam in an eastern province of Afghanistan considered to be relatively safe, the second in command of the Intelligence services for the country, Dr. Abdullah Laghmani, has been assassinated by a suicide bomber outside of a mosque. At least 23 people were killed in the Taliban attack and it will be a big blow to the Afghani government, according to Al Jazeera.

Important CRS report cites vulnerability because of the lack of intelligence shown by this trend -- According to the New York Times, contractors outnumber U.S. troops in Afghanistan. And when they are not properly managed you have a setup for another Abu Ghraib or Blackwater murder of civilians. This also means that it is the highest contractor to military ratio in the history of any war in the history of the U.S. Over the past two years it has averaged 65%, according to the Congressional Research Service report cited.

Importance of diversity spotlighted by Director of National Intelligence, Dennis Blair -- On a more positive note, C-SPAN rebroadcast an appearance Tuesday by former Admiral Dennis Blair, Director of National Intelligence, before a gathering of representatives of Historically Black Colleges. The event was to announce grants and give recognition to partnerships with minority educational institutions who have recruitment and training programs in national intelligence work. Multi million grants were announced. along with awards for participation in the Intelligence Community's Centers of Academic Excellence program. (See Blair's and others' remarks, pdf-10 p.)

National Intelligence, long an area of focus for this blog, is challenging, maddening, confusing and occasionally heartening. Today brings some bad news and a bit of good. Stay tuned.

[Post date - September 2, 2009]

See also Behind the Links, for further info on this subject.

Blogs: My general purpose/southwest focus blog is at Southwest Progressive. My creative website is at Making Good Mondays. And Carol Gee - Online Universe is the all-in-one home page for all my websites.

Technorati tags: news news and politics national intelligence obama administration