Ex-Clinton Official Draws Higher-Than-Expected Fine

WASHINGTON, Sept. 8 - Samuel R. Berger, an influential adviser to former President Bill Clinton who helped shape American foreign policy through the 1990's, was ordered Thursday to pay a higher-than-expected fine of $50,000 but received no jail time for removing and destroying copies of classified documents from the National Archives.

...
Mr. Berger spent hundreds of hours in 2003 reviewing the Clinton administration's record on terrorism in his capacity as the administration's official liaison to the Sept. 11 commission, which investigated the terrorist attacks of 2001.

In preparing for his testimony to the commission on three visits to the archives, he came across several versions of a highly classified memorandum that he had ordered written in 2000 regarding the administration's response to the so-called millennium terror plots in December 1999, according to the court filings, and he improperly removed several sets of copies. He later destroyed some of the copies and lied to archive officials when confronted about the missing documents, the court filings said.

...
Prosecutors for the Justice Department, in their own memorandum to the judge, offered no evidence to suggest any ulterior motive by Mr. Berger. On the contrary, prosecutors noted that the Sept. 11 commission reviewed copies of all the documents that Mr. Berger took and that there was "no evidence that any unique document was destroyed or lost."

-NY Times

Worst Disaster

(no subject)

Project Censored presents the 10 stories the mainstream media ignored over the past year


ALSO:
Bush announces September 16th to be day of prayer

So disturbing

What makes Katrina so devastating isn't the storm itself, it's the government's response to it. Looking over all the links I've posted in the past two weeks, I can't help but feel like there was no single aspect that went right with it. FEMA flopped and had no idea what it was doing, because the positions were handed out like consolation prizes for being friend in college. The same goes for President Bush - as if waiting 4 days to show you care as the national leader wasn't enough, the White House PR spin makes him look even worse.

I hadn't seen this before, but last Wednesday, when President Bush went on national tv from the disaster area, he had 50 fire fighters with him. Fifty. Fifty life savers were asked to leave their duties in order to walk with the President down the street in order to make a photo op.

All of these heartless comments coming from everyone in charge... all the dodging. When asked if Bush was happy with FEMA's response, reporters were told they were trying to play the "blame game". As Jon Stewart noted, usually when someone constantly says they don't want to play the blame game, that's because they know they're to blame.

It's devastating how much has gone down. I thought about making an entry that lists everything that went wrong with this, but there's so much that it would take me hours. I still might, if I get bored. (Check out this timeline ... worth the read)

I think that finally Bush might be held accountable for something. Sure, they already booted the FEMA director, but it's deeper than that. Don't you think we should be asking why he was put in a position he couldn't handle? Four days to respond? He says that their goal is search and rescue, yet you keep 50 rescuers to yourself for a photo op? Heck, you even made sure to wait until your vacation was over.

FEMA was called in the first few days of the storm and told that they would need to set up a tent city, to which the director said "Americans don't sleep in tents." No, not even when an entire fucking city is drowning and a majority of the city was poor and devastated economically in the first place. Tents would be so barbaric compared to shoving everyone into stadiums that many have compared to concentration camps (just imagine armed soldiers... everywhere... there to look tough and shoot people out of line).

Does anyone else feel like enough has happened to warrant impeachment?

If only he would play cigar with an intern, then maybe people might want to hold him accountable.

I leave you with an excerpt of a Swift Report entry on Tuesday:

A tour of devastated estates planned

WASHINGTON, DC—President Bush is encouraging members of Congress not to delay in their efforts to improve the fortunes of some of the worst suffering Americans: those devastated by the estate tax. Mr. Bush said that repealing the tax could aid tens, even dozens of Americans.

President Bush plans to visit Bridgehampton, NY, Aspen, CO and Rancho Santa Fe, CA later this week, where he will tour the mansions of some of the Americans hardest hit by the tax. Aides to the President say that he will first survey the properties from the air in an effort to assess the impact of the estate tax on landscaping, pool maintenance and fleets of cars.

What happened to priorities and accountability?

This administration has paid so much attention to what's going on in other countries that it's virtually made Americans second rate. Why can we get choppers in Iraq on a whim but take 4 days to respond to a disaster on our own soil, allowing thousands to die?

:-/

Censored

The NFL announced that it will be instituting a 10-second tape delay for the network broadcast of its Opening Kickoff 2005, the concert-event-multisponsor-clusterfuck slated to be broadcast this year from Giants stadium. Among the performers will be Green Day, which casitgates President Bush's "redneck agenda" on American Idiot; the Rolling Stones, which calls our leader "a crock of shit" on A Bigger Bang; and Kanye West, who questions the sincerity of Bush's compassionate conservatism for the other-than-white complexioned. The West and Rolling Stones performances will be taped, in any event, so what this appears to boil down to is that the leaders of America's most proudly macho sports pastime are afraid of what Billie Joe Armstrong might say. This leaves us wondering a couple of things. Aren't the Dixie Chicks and Janet Jackson now owed a big apology from some girly-man or other? And which is now more officially dead: Punk rock or pro football? -- HOLLY MARTINS

NFL Ready to Kick Off Political Statements [USA Today]

-Wonkette

this is interesting

Go here:

http://www.legos.com

George Bush Doesn't Care About Black People

Kanye West's single "Gold Digger" has been remixed by The Legendary K.O., featuring words by Big Mon and Damien:

Five days in this motherfucking attic
I can't use the cellphone I keep getting static
Dying 'cause they lying instead of telling us the truth (...)
Screwed 'cause they say they're coming back for us, too
but that was three days ago and I don't see no rescue(...)

Swam to the store, tryin' to look for food
Corner store's kinda flooded so I broke my way through
Got what I could but before I got through
News say the police shot a black man trying to loot

George Bush Don't Care About Black People (mp3, 8.7MB)

Details
Radio Edit

DeLay pulls a Barbara Bush

While on the tour with top administration officials from Washington, including U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao and U.S. Treasury Secretary John W. Snow, DeLay stopped to chat with three young boys resting on cots. The congressman likened their stay to being at camp and asked, "Now tell me the truth boys, is this kind of fun?"

They nodded yes, but looked perplexed.

(...) "You are becoming famous all over this country and even the world," he said.

-link

MORE KATRINA:
- authorities are now shooting homeless, ownerless dogs
- Houston wants to get rid of survivors before first Houston Texans' game
- Bush signs lift of wage rules for Katrina
- GOP sees opportunities in paying out to conservative causes
- Katrina and Global Warming on Bill Maher
- "We had Wal-mart deliver three trucks of water. Trailer trucks of water. Fema turned them back, said we didn't need them." The Calvary's coming! (video, 9/4)

Son? Is somebody coming? And he said yeah. Mama. Somebody's coming to get you.. Somebody's coming to get you on Tuesday. Somebody's coming to get you on Wednesday. Somebody's coming to get you on Thursday. Somebody's coming to get you on Friday. And she drowned Friday night. And she drowned Friday night. Nobody's coming to get us. Nobody's coming to get us. The Secretary has promised. Everybody's promised. They've had press conferences. I'm sick of the press conferences. For god's sakes, just shut up and send us somebody.

(no subject)

Armed with assault rifles, contractors from private security firm Blackwater are patrolling the black-water-flooded streets of New Orleans.

Meanwhile, unnarmed Red Cross workers toting food and medicine have been unable to enter the city for days.

The name Blackwater may ring a bell for those who've been following that other Gulf warzone -- Iraq. The highly trained private security contractors support US military operations there, and in Afghanistan, typically earning far more pay than enlisted personnel.

Kathryn Cramer blogs more on Blackwater's presence in Katrina's wake here. (still more at Making Light)

More in this New York Times article on the forced confiscation of weapons from civilians -- but not from guns-for-hire -- in New Orleans. Snip:

Waters were receding across this flood-beaten city today as police officers began confiscating weapons, including legally registered firearms, from civilians in preparation for a mass forced evacuation of the residents still living here. No civilians in New Orleans will be allowed to carry pistols, shotguns or other firearms, said P. Edwin Compass III, the superintendent of police. "Only law enforcement are allowed to have weapons," he said.

But that order apparently does not apply to hundreds of security guards hired by businesses and some wealthy individuals to protect property. The guards, employees of private security companies like Blackwater, openly carry M-16's and other assault rifles. Mr. Compass said that he was aware of the private guards, but that the police had no plans to make them give up their weapons.

Entire post from BoingBoing.