It’s official – there are serious flaws in the US intelligence community.  Why this is breaking news is anybody’s guess, as the Bush Crime Family did everything inside (and often outside) its power after 9-11 to contort agencies to serve the Family’s goals of global manipulation and domination.  How often have we scratched our collective craniums over the need, purpose, or directives of the massive, expensive, ill-defined and fascistically-named Department of Homeland Security?

After 9-11 and the Bush propaganda blitz that followed, the American people were so thoroughly and systematically terrified they were willing to agree to any “enhanced” intel gathering if it promised even a hint of security. Even if our new policies and bad practices ultimately made the public less safe in the long run by antagonizing the Muslim communities of the world and serving as recruiting posters for al Qaeda.  If our best agents cannot locate a six-foot-tall Arab hopping from cave to cave while tethered to a dialysis machine, what do we expect? Unless, of course, we’re not trying to find him at all - which is a separate discussion altogether.

According to a blockbuster article “Top Secret America” in today’s Washington Post, the collective US intelligence community is “so large, so unwieldy and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs, how many programs exist within it or exactly how many agencies do the same work” with its effectiveness “impossible to determine.” The conclusions of the two-year report are particularly disturbing in light of the recent scandal involving Iranian nuclear scientist cum CIA-secret agent/defector/kidnap victim Sharam Amiri’s claims that the US intelligence agency paid him tens of millions of dollars for his cooperation in Iranian nuclear intel gathering efforts.  Which, as far as we know, shed no light whatsoever on the state of Iran’s nuclear programs.

Your tax dollars at work, Truthseekers!

And increasingly, those monies are being paid out to private contractors (think Blackwater/Xe) who do not follow even the flimsy Bush-era-eroded standards of conduct expected from employees of the CIA, NIA, or Homeland Security. Thanks to this great piece of investigative work by journalists Dana Priest and William Arkin, the curtain has been pulled back on exactly how much of our money is being funneled into these suspect private businesses. The report includes a searchable database and nine pages of agencies and contractors involved in so-called “satellite” services.  Finally, we can peep on the peepers!

It really comes as no surprise that the system is bloated, ineffective and fraught with abuse, redundancy and waste; and that it continues to expand – unregulated – with little oversight.  Remember all that claptrap Raisin Brain spouted after 9-11 about our intelligence agencies failing to “connect the dots” that would have prevented that attack?  That was the justification for the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, so the efforts of all the separate intel agencies could be unified and monitored.  Wellll . . . . . not so much.

The investigation found what amounts to an “alternative geography of the United States, a top secret America hidden from public view and lacking in thorough oversight.” The report said some 1,271 government organizations and 1,931 private companies work on programs related to counterterrorism, homeland security and intelligence in about 10,000 locations across the United States, with an estimated 854,000 people holding top-secret security clearances.  And that doesn’t count Dick Cheney’s personal army of private spies.

Yet another mess the Bush Crime Family left scattered around for someone else to clean up.  The Obama administration says it’s aware of the shortcomings and (in its spare time) is making efforts to improve the system, but according to behind-the-scene reports, administration officials are panicked about the public revelations of the problem.

Just this morning, Obama’s Acting Director of National Intelligence David Gompert released a wimpy response to the report:

“The (Washington Post) reporting does not reflect the Intelligence Community we know. We accept that we operate in an environment that limits the amount of information we can share. However, the fact is, the men and women of the Intelligence Community have improved our operations, thwarted attacks, and are achieving untold successes every day. . . . We will continue to scrutinize our own operations, seek ways to improve and adapt, and work with Congress on its crucial oversight and reform efforts. We can always do better, and we will. And the importance of our mission and our commitment to keeping America safe will remain steadfast, whether they are reflected in the day’s news or not.”

“Untold successes,” indeed . . . .

If nothing else, this article should make for interesting an confirmation hearing for James Clapper, Obama’s pick for the next director of National Intelligence.  Of course, if Clapper had his way, all surveillance would be left to that ultimate eye in the sky – God himself. “There’s only one entity in the entire universe that has visibility on all SAPs – that’s God,” Clapper is quoted in the article as saying about the hundreds of “Special Access Programs” the various departments have running at the same time.

May He help us all.

Welcome, Truthseekers!

Will BP’s latest new, new and improved, really – it’s much better, this-time-we-got-it-right, seriously-we’re-not-kidding - tighter oil cap stop the poisonous geyser of death from spewing into the Gulf?  ”Top Hat 10,” (sounds like a Fred Astaire dance number from one of those weird 30s flicks) if successful, (cough) promises to seal the volcano and funnel the gushing oil into pipes that lead to vessels on the surface, which will collect the oil . . . . where it likely will be sold on the open market.  Why not?  Disaster capitalism, baby.  Gotta make some dough to pay all those hefty lawsuits now being put together in white shoe law firms across the South

And score one for equal rights!  U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Tauro of Massachusettes could find no legitimate reasons to deny a gay couple the right to marry and enjoy the same legal rights and privileges granted to heterosexual couples. “To further divide the class of married individuals into those with spouses of the same sex and those with spouses of the opposite sex is to create a distinction without a meaning…. As irrational prejudice plainly never constitutes a legitimate government interest, this court must hold that Section 3 of DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act) as applied to Plaintiffs violates the equal protection principles embodied in the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution.” Take that,Teabaggers!  Wanna another lump in your black oolong?

Declaring Section 3 of Prop 8 unconstitutional is a reason to break out the rainbow flags and pride pins, secure the wedding planners, reserve the best venues, phone your favorite florist, book your bakery, lose the love handles,  and get ready for the Wedding March . . . unless the Justice Department wants to challenge the ruling.  Eric Holder’s Department could appeal the Tauro ruling to the Appellate division, as most administrations make an attempt to uphold the nation’s laws, even when they officially oppose them on principle.  Either way, the case will doubtlessly make a long, cautious journey to the US Supreme Court, where anything could happen.  C’mon Elena Kagan! I’ll take you out for Peking Duck on Christmas myself. Just get confirmed!

The Obama Administration is making Democratic politicians get all pale and sweaty (even more than usual) over his brave lawsuit against the State of Arizona’s medieval immigration laws.  Gov. Phil Bredesen of Tennessee, Gov. Brian Schweitzer of Montana, and Gov. Bill Ritter Jr. of Colorado were among the Democratic Governors who met with Obama privately during the National Governor’s Association summer meeting last week, where they twisted their remaining hairs and tugged at their tighty whities and whined that the lawsuit was going to cost them votes in November . . . .and would hurt Congressional Democrats seeking reelection as well.

Obama is dammed if he does, dammed if he doesn’t – yet again.  Does he kowtow to the pink tutu (ht/ Bartcop) perpetually shaky Democrats who want him to skew as far right as possible so they can remain in their Big Comfy Chairs?  Or does he actually stand on principle and take aggressive, appropriate action against a barbaric law in what is becoming a rogue State? What else would you call a State where it’s now legal to carry concealed guns into preschools, churches, bars, grocery stores or anywhere else; where they re-paint the ethnic kids’ faces on a school mural to make them all white; and that outlaws the teaching of ethnic/multicultural studies in schools?  Sarah “Quit Bull” Palin recently screeched “We’re All Arizonians Now!” at a Teabagger rally.  ‘Course in her case she could’ve just been renaming an offspring.

Of the assembled Democratic Governors who trembled at the thought of being too far “left” on immigration, only Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico – a former presidential candidate himself – praised the Justice Department’s lawsuit and called the weak-kneed Democrats’ concerns “misguided”: “Policy-wise it makes sense and Obama is popular with Hispanic voters and this is going to be a popular move with them nationally,” he opined.

Despite that reassurance, the White House is nervous about the changing political winds heading into November.  Press Secretary Robert Gibbs’ recent shocking statement on Meet The Press could be seen as an attempt to fire up the Democratic base, or as a frank admission that Team Obama is not counting on victory this Fall: “There’s no doubt there are enough seats in play that could cause Republicans to gain control,” Gibbs said on NBC’s Meet The Press.  Ouch! Take that band-aid off a little slower next time, would ‘ya, Robbie?

Let’s hope the Democrats can out drone the Teabaggers and point out that it takes a village, or an army, to undo all the economic, foreign policy, environmental, security, social services, deregulation, war-making, constitution-destroying policies the Bush Crime Family, under Cheney’s masterful direction, hammered into place during its 8-year reign of terror.

Or should Obama throw up his hands and give the NeoCons the keys?  Let them experience for themselves the hideous mess he was left to manage?

We’ll discuss these and all other news items of interest on the program tonight!

That seems to be the attitude from BP and our own government regarding the residents of Gulf Coast communities soon to be decimated by the biggest oil disaster in history. Local communities are being left to their own devices to come up with plans to protect their fragile seashores and marshlands from the deadly black ooze. While the President and BP executives talk about clean-up efforts and their respective dedication to protecting the Gulf Coast from complete contamination, very little actually is being done. The disaster continues its inexorable and unstoppable approach to the marshes, the beaches, the estuaries.

Over the last few days we’ve seen Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal operating a makeshift “oil vacuum” from a motorboat, trying to personally suck up the muck off the murky water. Former fishermen have been hired (although many have yet to be paid) by BP to clean up the oily mess that has ruined their livelihoods and their lives. They dress in heavy canvas suits (but no respirators) and suffer sweltering heat to literally wipe down blades of marsh grass with the equivalent of sturdy . . . paper towels. Or they lay miles of lightweight boom, which – according to this article in The Guardian – are virtually useless: “The ocean’s winds and currents have made a mockery of the lightweight booms BP has laid out to absorb the oil. ‘We told them,’ said Byron Encalade, the president of the Louisiana Oysters Association. ‘The oil’s gonna go over the booms or underneath the bottom.’ Indeed it did. The marine biologist Rick Steiner, who has been following the clean up closely, estimates that “70% or 80% of the booms are doing absolutely nothing at all.” BP officials give lip service to taking responsibility for the clean-up, but have largely abandoned actual efforts and left them to the communities themselves.

Sure would be appropriate to see Tony Hayward in a wetsuit with a skimmer off the coast of Alabama instead of on a yacht at a swanky boat race in England. Seems he’s getting his life back after all.

Hayward, the BP CEO with a PhD in Geology, was unable to explain to Congress how this “unthinkable” accident occurred, could have been prevented, or can now be stopped.  It’s just a mystery to him. But, he did subtly blame Obama’s MMS for approving all his company’s safety shortcuts and ill-advised drilling methods.  We now know they had no real plan to manage a blowout if their ”money saving” shortcuts caused the well to fail, no plan to “plug the hole,” no plan to clean up the spillage (which they claimed would have no environmental impact), and no plan to undo the unseen damage caused by the chemical disbursements BP dumped into the Gulf in a vain attempt to cover up it’s crime.  Ultimately, these toxins could poison as many marine species as the oil itself.  Then there are the methane plumes that BP denies, despite valid scientific proof that they are spreading out in giant, lethal floating islands thousands of feet underwater, destroying the oxygen and therefore the plankton and other tiny organisms that form the basis of the marine food chain.  How do you clean that up?  These are the invisible killers that BP executives, in their total lack of humility, stare into the cameras and arrogantly deny even exist?

Gone are the attempts to plug the “damn hole” and many experts now suggest that further attempts to “kill” the well could cause a massive  methane explosion that could provoke an even more deadly tsunami.  The relief wells are the last hope, and even they may not work.  There is a growing possibility that the oil will continue to gush until the well runs out, many decades from now. Read this from Rob Kall, who has been in contact with a BP insider, and you won’t have any doubts about the horrific gravity of the situation.

So, where do we go from here? President Obama and BP worked out a $20 billion escrow fund for compensation to potential victims of the disaster, but the payout details are unclear.  “If you or your business has suffered economic loss as a result of this spill you will be able to file a claim,” the president said last week.  But what will it really cost to repay the residents of  seven states for the loss of their homes, their businesses, and their lifetime earnings?  And what about medical payments for the petroleum-exposure claims that are likely to flood in over the next decade?

Even with an annual estimated profit of $20 billion, BP might be bankrupted by this disaster long before all the victims are compensated.  And mere cash will do nothing to erase the trauma every American is going to experience, as well as the devastation coming to Gulf marine life now suspended between life and encroaching extinction.  No matter who’s ass he kicks, Obama cannot order dolphins not to die or compensate the entire Gulf Coast region for the total loss of its cultural heritage, repair the delicate chemistry of the ecosystem and once-legendary shoreline, or mandate that brown pelicans don’t go extinct.  Watching President Obama last week promise that the clean-up will “leave the Gulf coast in better shape than it was before”, and that he was “making sure” it “comes back even stronger than it was before this crisis” was painfully insulting, delusional, and undermines his authority to comment legitimately on this catastrophe.  Once the raw petroleum has killed the marsh grasses, and the shoreline slowly submerges into the black water, permanently eliminating large sections of the Gulf Coast, how, exactly, will it become whole again?  Or stronger than before?  Stop it, Mr. President.  It is ridiculous to suggest such a thing.

The people of the Gulf region are pissed.  All Americans should be outraged, and so should the rest of the world. It seems there is no stopping American corporations from raping the world, and it’s only a matter of time before some toxin is released, some man-made chemical by-product, some nuclear reactor waste, some ozone-killing gas, affects all life on the planet.

I cannot share Obama’s panicked optimism about making the Gulf better than before, but I do hope that our representatives in Washington and their corporate masters abandon their mindless greed and stop regarding the Earth as their own, an endless supply of resources waiting to be torn and gouged from the planet for corporate profit. If this realization does not replace the greed, our home will soon be too ravaged to sustain any life.

- Kathy Malloy