As promised: The copy I planned to read but forfeited the time because, Who The Fuck Wouldn't with live guests like Jesselyn Raddack, Director of the Homeland Security Division of the Government Accountability Project and Whisleblower.org. And George Rishmawi at the International Middle East Media Center is back to talk about the 2011 Freedom Flotilla that is - even as we speak - making its way toward beseiged Gaza.www.imemc.org/article/61322
The Bush administration likes to say they're fighting the "war on terror" there, so we don't have to fight it here. The reality, as Jesselyn Radack makes clear, is that they actually are conducting a war of terror against American citizens here. Like Ambassador Joe Wilson and FBI translator Sybil Edmonds, Jesselyn Radack was targeted by the administration as an enemy of the people. Her offense was simply that she advised the Justice Department about the ethical restraints that applied to their pursuit of "the bad guys." Radack was doing her job, but the John Ashcrofts of the world wouldn't allow that. They feared Radack couldn't be trusted to throw ethics to the wind and keep quiet. She was forced out and given no choice but to blow the whistle on administration lies about the first American citizen nabbed in the "war on terror" -- John Walker Lindh. Lindh was also the first high profile case of "aggressive interrogation." www.whistleblower.org/
It happened in 2001. She's still paying the price to this day.
Yesterday Portland Police Chief Mike Reese testified against whistleblower Erin Lewis . In yesterday's Oregonian Reese specifically laid out her concerns. And yet today the Big O reports that Lewis was "evasive" in her description of the incidents she very clearly laid out as recently as last Wednesday. Reese was in U.S. District Court testifying about his handling of Lewis's concerns about officer misconduct under his watch when he was Central Precinct commander.
City called Reese as their first witness as they defend the police bureau in a federal whistleblower trial, a day after a former recruit gave a blistering account of how she had been afraid of reporting officer misconduct she observed in Central Precinct when Reese was precinct commander.
Reese testified that once he learned from a training division officer that police recruit Erin Lewis had raised concerns regarding several Central Precinct officers' use of force, he said he arranged to meet with her at a Starbucks. And after that the police chief's story begins to unwind. But that won't matter because in the current climate of reprisals against whistleblowers Portland can rest assured that Erin Lewis's very credible testimony will be discredited.
Anti-death penalty activists plan to channel public pressure on the governor to halt the planned execution of death-row inmate Gary Haugen this summer.
Oregonians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, a Portland-based coalition that counts religious leaders, lawyers and others in its membership, may also pursue legal action to derail the execution. Haugen insists he just wants to get it over with. But then after sitting on death row for all those years with nothing else to think about, it isn't surprising that he would opt for the ultimate answer.
Haugen waived further appeals of his conviction and death sentence earlier this month. Tom O'Connor, a board member and spokesman for Alternatives to the Death Penalty says that Haugen's mental state remains an open question even though the judge found the inmate competent to decide his fate. But the group's main belief is that putting someone to death is not a moral state action. Marion County Circuit Judge Joseph Guimond set an execution date of Aug. 16. It would be the first execution in Oregon since 1997. Now it's up to Governor Kitzhaber. And the Guv hasn't said what he plans to do.
As Oregon prepares to execute Gary Haugen, the state contemplates a law that would make it even more difficult for the terminally ill suffering great pain to put an end to the suffering. A bill seeking to tighten Oregon law barring people from helping others commit suicide cleared the House Judiciary Committee of the state Legislature yesterday. This, just one day after the Southern California home of the only known distributor in the United States of so-called helium hood suicide kits was raided by FBI agents.
With a plan to reduce the size of Oregon's popular and unique "kicker" tax rebates languishing in the state Senate, House Democrats released two proposals aimed at saving money from kicker checks to be used during economic downturns. One proposal would allow individual taxpayers to receive up to $500 from their kicker, with the rest going into a rainy day fund. The other proposal would cap it at $250. Both of them would require approval from voters.Democrats say their plans would allow most people to continue getting their full kicker checks.House Republicans lead by Kevin Cameron denounced the proposal as a tax increase that picks winners and losers. He said Oregonians want lawmakers to balance the budget using existing revenue. Right and existing revenue currewntly comes from working class people who pay their taxes instead of dodging them.
Yesterday Congress approved a four-year extension of provisions in the USA Patriot Act that allow law enforcement to track suspected terrorists with roving wiretaps. From afar President Barack Obama signed into law.
Ironically Obama was in France - where the American revolution can philosophically be said to have begun - for meetings of the Group of Eight nations. from Freedom Fries to Freedom Spies… The new law continues the surveillance powers until June 1, 2015. The bill's roving-wiretap section allows federal agents to obtain a single warrant to monitor telephone calls of suspects using a series of mobile phones.
Other provisions allow authorities to obtain business and library records, and to target so-called "lone wolf" suspects who aren't affiliated with any terrorist group.
Senator Rand Paul, a bill opponent, tried to delay the Senate vote, pressing for the bill to be amended. The Kentucky Republican said the legislation goes too far in violating privacy rights to keep the U.S. secure.
- KBOO