Politics, Everyday, All day... morning, noon and night....II

[littleflower]

here are numbers up to spetember '09. the numbers haven't changed much ... and imports from iraq are down, not up.

http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/petr ... mport.html

[gyre]

They are supposed to be current as of august.

The EU percentage from the gulf is closer to 45% though.

[DVD Burner]

Deal announced on missing e-mails


Groups sued to press Bush administration on recordkeeping


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 03710.html

By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, December 15, 2009

The White House and two nonprofit groups announced a settlement Monday in a long-running lawsuit over more than 22 million e-mails that were missing during the Bush administration because of poor labeling and other technical problems.

The National Security Archive, a historical records group, and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a watchdog organization, sued the Executive Office of the President in 2007. They alleged that millions of White House e-mails were missing from March 2003 to October 2005, in violation of laws requiring their preservation.

The George W. Bush White House, which initially denied that e-mails were missing, eventually found more than 22 million messages that had been mislabeled, according to court records filed by the government the day after Bush left office.

But the two advocacy groups said spotty electronic recordkeeping suggested that many more e-mails might still be missing, leading them to continue pressing their legal case.

"This settlement means that the Obama administration is trying to clean up the mess that the Bush administration left behind," said Meredith Fuchs, counsel for the archives group. "They want to move on; they don't intend to have this kind of problem."

Earlier this year, officials said, White House contractors restored 61 days of missing e-mails -- an expensive process that involves resurrecting lost messages from backup tapes. The administration has promised to restore an additional 33 days of e-mail records as part of its legal settlement with the groups.

The selections of restored e-mails include dates that were randomly chosen, flagged for unusually low message activity or centered on important events such as the run-up to the Iraq war. The White House has developed a new system for preserving electronic records that should prevent the problems that emerged during both the Bush and Bill Clinton years, officials said.

Scott Stanzel, a former Bush White House spokesman, said that CREW "has consistently tried to create a spooky conspiracy out of standard [information technology] issues. Their misleading statements about our work demonstrates their continued anti-Bush agenda, nearly a year after a new president was sworn in."

Melanie Sloan, CREW's executive director, said that documents produced during the legal battle show that the Bush administration did not follow through on plans that would have helped solve chronic e-mail archiving problems.

"There are laws requiring these e-mails to be preserved, so people violated the law," Sloan said. "They figured out there was a problem, but the policy people rejected a plan to retrieve them."

It is unclear how many e-mails will be released publicly, however. Any restored e-mails will become part of the Bush collection at the National Archives and Records Administration, and officials said many will probably be withheld for security reasons or because they are considered presidential records not covered by the Freedom of Information Act.

Research director Lucy Shackelford contributed to this report.

[DVD Burner]

Why do a certain group of people have a hard time just saying BUSH IS A LIAR?

Pretty fuckin simple.

[ygmir]

probably the same reason people can't call obama a liar.......or clinton, reagan, carter.....etc, etc.........

they love their candidate/leader, and, overlook his issues, but, spear someone else for the same thing.......

that darn human nature gets in the way........

[gyre]

From the ALBA Summit, countries usually called left wing have condemned Obama as having revealed himself to be to the far right, by his actions.

[ygmir]

From the ALBA Summit, countries usually called left wing have condemned Obama as having revealed himself to be to the far right, by his actions.

left and right are subjective, and IIRC, europe uses them differently than we do..........

but, it is interesting, how, he waffles back and forth.........his war stance and such don't seem left, but, his healthcare and firing any republicans in appointed federal offices sure does.........

I'd still give him a "far left" score.............not as far as Mao or Stalin.....but, they knew what they were doing and wanted to go...........

[DVD Burner]

probably the same reason people can't call obama a liar.......or clinton, reagan, carter.....etc, etc.........

they love their candidate/leader, and, overlook his issues, but, spear someone else for the same thing.......

that darn human nature gets in the way........

Wait, what did I miss? We know about the Clinton lie but what did Carter and Obama lie about?

[gyre]

I think ALBA is mostly south american though I wouldn't swear to it.


http://www.usmlo.org/arch2009/2009-11/VR091102.htm
http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/a- ... 00192.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8413275.stm
I can't find a definitive site for the summit.

[DVD Burner]

Prince Charles and Gordon Brown take separate jets… to lecture the world on global warming


http://www.prisonplanet.com/the-green-h ... rming.html

By REBECCA ENGLISH and DAVID DERBYSHIRE
Last updated at 8:31 AM on 16th December 2009

Prince Charles and Gordon Brown were accused last night of ‘green hypocrisy’ after jetting into Copenhagen to lecture the world about global warming.
Charles used the £1,019-an-hour Queen’s Flight so he could deliver a keynote speech to the climate change conference, flying back after less than three hours.
The Prime Minister chartered a 185-seat Airbus to take him and 20 aides to Denmark for their four-day trip.
Among Mr Brown’s team was his senior adviser on climate change, Michael Jacobs, who was at the summit at the weekend but flew back to London to join his boss on the flight.
By using private planes, both Charles and Mr Brown produced more carbon emissions – which is blamed for global warming – than would have been generated by taking a scheduled flight.
Hampshire-based Carbon Footprint Limited said the prince’s round trip would have produced around 6.4tons of carbon dioxide – 5.2tons more than if he had used a commercial flight.
They also estimated that the amount of CO2 generated by Mr Brown’s flight is likely to be double that of the prince’s.
Last night, a source insisted the Prime Minister’s office ‘couldn’t find enough seats’ on any of the 16 scheduled flights from London yesterday.
A Downing Street spokesman said the carbon produced by Mr Brown’s plane would be ‘offset’.

A spokesman for Charles – who yesterday warned that global warming was a bigger threat to mankind than terrorism and poverty – insisted the prince had no choice but the Queen’s Flight.
The HS 125 twin-engined jet is used by senior members of the Royal Family as well as ministers.
It seats seven and took Charles, plus an entourage of aides and bodyguards.
‘Flying scheduled was not possible due to the need to guarantee arrival on time,’ the spokesman said.
‘A key issue was timings. His Royal Highness had a meeting this morning and there was no British Airways flight after it ended that could get him to Copenhagen in time.'

Like the Prime Minister, the prince does offset his air travel. The trip will cost him around £70 – the price of planting six trees.
Liberal Democrat MP Norman Baker last night accused both the Government and the Prince of ‘green hypocrisy’.
‘It is unbelievable that those who lecture us on climate change set such a poor example,’ he said.
‘Prince Charles, over the last four years, has been travelling the world on a private jet lecturing us about carbon emissions.
‘As for Gordon Brown, I find it astonishing that he and his office could not find scheduled flights to suit them. If not, then maybe they should have followed the example of so many other delegates and gone by train.’
Yesterday, Charles, who was invited to attend the talks by the Danish government, warned leaders they have just seven years to avert a global catastrophe.
‘Reducing poverty, increasing food production, terrorism and sustaining economic development are all vital priorities, but it is increasingly clear how rapid climate change will make them more difficult to address,’ he said.
‘For the grim reality is our planet has reached a point of crisis and we have only seven years before we lose the levers of control.’

[Oldguy]

Is Joe Lieberman on a senatorial powertrip, or does he really care for American 's health?

[gyre]

You have to wonder.

[gyre]

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/spyfactory/police.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/spyfactory/

Everyone who still wants to live in a democracy, especially this one, should read Bamford's books.

The new Nova episode, The Spy Factory has details of the new taps into all internet traffic, and the loss of privacy and security introduced during the last regime.



The New Thought Police:
The NSA Wants to Know How You Think—
Maybe Even What You Think
by James Bamford

The National Security Agency (NSA) is developing a tool that George Orwell's Thought Police might have found useful: an artificial intelligence system designed to gain insight into what people are thinking.

With the entire Internet and thousands of databases for a brain, the device will be able to respond almost instantaneously to complex questions posed by intelligence analysts. As more and more data is collected—through phone calls, credit card receipts, social networks like Facebook and MySpace, GPS tracks, cell phone geolocation, Internet searches, Amazon book purchases, even E-Z Pass toll records—it may one day be possible to know not just where people are and what they are doing, but what and how they think.

The system is so potentially intrusive that at least one researcher has quit, citing concerns over the dangers in placing such a powerful weapon in the hands of a top-secret agency with little accountability.
Getting Aquaint

Known as Aquaint, which stands for "Advanced QUestion Answering for INTelligence," the project was run for many years by John Prange, an NSA scientist at the Advanced Research and Development Activity. Headquartered in Room 12A69 in the NSA's Research and Engineering Building at 1 National Business Park, ARDA was set up by the agency to serve as a sort of intelligence community DARPA, the place where former Reagan national security advisor John Poindexter's infamous Total Information Awareness project was born. [Editor's note: TIA was a short-lived project founded in 2002 to apply information technology to counter terrorist and other threats to national security.] Later named the Disruptive Technology Office, ARDA has now morphed into the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA).

A sort of national laboratory for eavesdropping and other spycraft, IARPA will move into its new 120,000-square-foot home in 2009. The building will be part of the new M Square Research Park in College Park, Maryland. A mammoth two million-square-foot, 128-acre complex, it is operated in collaboration with the University of Maryland. "Their budget is classified, but I understand it's very well funded," said Brian Darmody, the University of Maryland's assistant vice president of research and economic development, referring to IARPA. "They'll be in their own building here, and they're going to grow. Their mission is expanding."

If IARPA is the spy world's DARPA, Aquaint may be the reincarnation of Poindexter's TIA. After a briefing by NSA Director Michael Hayden, Vice President Dick Cheney, and CIA Director George Tenet of some of the NSA's data mining programs in July 2003, Senator Jay Rockefeller IV, the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, wrote a concerned letter to Cheney. "As I reflected on the meeting today," he said, "John Poindexter's TIA project sprung to mind, exacerbating my concern regarding the direction the administration is moving with regard to security, technology, and surveillance."
Building "Hal"

The original goal of Aquaint, which dates back to the 1990s, was simply to develop a sophisticated method of picking the right needles out of a vast haystack of information and coming up with the answer to a question. As with TIA, many universities were invited to contribute brainpower to the project. But in the aftermath of the attacks on 9/11, with the creation of the NSA's secret warrantless eavesdropping program and the buildup of massive databases, the project began taking on a more urgent tone.

"Think of 2001: A Space Odyssey and the most memorable character, HAL 9000. We are building HAL."

In a 2004 pilot project, a mass of data was gathered from news stories taken from the New York Times, the AP news wire, and the English portion of the Chinese Xinhua news wire covering 1998 to 2000. Then, 13 U.S. military intelligence analysts searched the data and came up with a number of scenarios based on the material. Finally, using those scenarios, an NSA analyst developed 50 topics, and in each of those topics created a series of questions for Aquaint's computerized brain to answer. "Will the Japanese use force to defend the Senkakus?" was one. "What types of disputes or conflict between the PLA [People's Liberation Army] and Hong Kong residents have been reported?" was another. And "Who were the participants in this spy ring, and how are they related to each other?" was a third. Since then, the NSA has attempted to build both on the complexity of the system—more essay-like answers rather than yes or no—and on attacking greater volumes of data.

"The technology behaves like a robot, understanding and answering complex questions," said a former Aquaint researcher. "Think of 2001: A Space Odyssey and the most memorable character, HAL 9000, having a conversation with David. We are essentially building this system. We are building HAL." A naturalized U.S. citizen who received her Ph.D. from Columbia, the researcher worked on the program for several years but eventually left due to moral concerns. "The system can answer the question, 'What does X think about Y?'" she said. "Working for the government is great, but I don't like looking into other people's secrets. I am interested in helping people and helping physicians and patients for the quality of people's lives." The researcher now focuses on developing similar search techniques for the medical community.
Thought policeman

A supersmart search engine, capable of answering complex questions such as "What were the major issues in the last 10 presidential elections?" would be very useful for the public. But that same capability in the hands of an agency like the NSA—absolutely secret, often above the law, resistant to oversight, and with access to petabytes of private information about Americans—could be a privacy and civil liberties nightmare. "We must not forget that the ultimate goal is to transfer research results into operational use," said Aquaint project leader John Prange, in charge of information exploitation for IARPA.

Once up and running, the database of old newspapers could quickly be expanded to include an inland sea of personal information scooped up by the agency's warrantless data suction hoses. Unregulated, they could ask it to determine which Americans might likely pose a security risk—or have sympathies toward a particular cause, such as the antiwar movement, as was done during the 1960s and 1970s. The Aquaint robospy might then base its decision on the type of books a person purchased online, or chat room talk, or websites visited—or a similar combination of data. Such a system would have an enormous chilling effect on everyone's everyday activities—what will the Aquaint computer think if I buy this book, or go to that website, or make this comment? Will I be suspected of being a terrorist or a spy or a subversive?
Controlling brain waves

Collecting information, however, has always been far less of a problem for the NSA than understanding it, and that means knowing the language. To expand its linguistic capabilities, the agency established another new organization, the Center for Advanced Study of Language (CASL), and housed it in a building near IARPA at the M Square Research Park. But far from simply learning the meaning of foreign words, CASL, like Aquaint, attempts to find ways to get into someone's mind and understand what he or she is thinking.

One area of study is to attempt to determine if people are lying simply by watching their behavior and listening to them speak. According to one CASL document, "Many deception cues are difficult to identify, particularly when they are subtle, such as changes in verb tense or extremely brief facial expressions. CASL researchers are studying these cues in detail with advanced measurement and statistical analysis techniques in order to recommend ways to identify deceptive cue combinations."

Like something out of a B-grade sci-fi movie, CASL is even training employees to control their own brain waves.

Another area of focus explores the "growing need to work with foreign text that is incomplete," such as partly deciphered messages or a corrupted hard drive or the intercept of only one side of a conversation. The center is thus attempting to find ways to prod the agency's cipher-brains to fill in the missing blanks. "In response," says the report, "CASL's cognitive neuroscience team has been studying the cognitive basis of working memory's capacity for filling in incomplete areas of text. They have made significant headway in this research by using a powerful high-density electroencephalogram (EEG) machine acquired in 2006." The effort is apparently directed at discovering what parts of the brain are used when very good cryptanalysts are able to guess correctly the missing words and phrases in a message.

Like something out of a B-grade sci-fi movie, CASL is even trying to turn dull minds into creative geniuses by training employees to control their own brain waves: "The cognitive neuroscience team has also been researching divergent thinking: creative, innovative and flexible thinking valuable for language work. They are exploring ways to improve divergent thinking using the EEG and neurobiological feedback. A change in brain-wave activity is believed to be critical for generating creative ideas, so the team trains its subjects to change their brain-wave activity."


James Bamford

James Bamford is the author of three books on the National Security Agency, including the 2008 The Shadow Factory: The Ultra-Secret NSA From 9/11 to the Eavesdropping on America, from which this article was adapted with kind permission of Doubleday. Bamford coproduced, with Scott Willis, NOVA's "The Spy Factory," which was based on this book. [/size]

[ygmir]

Prince Charles and Gordon Brown take separate jets… to lecture the world on global warming

’

Like obama flitting over to europe, or, sending the mrs. shopping in london on her planes?
Or pelosi having the bigger 727 and flying back and forth to S.F. weekly?

yup, they are very good as spending our money, and, telling us to be green.........

[DVD Burner]

Prince Charles and Gordon Brown take separate jets… to lecture the world on global warming

’

Like obama flitting over to europe, or, sending the mrs. shopping in london on her planes?
Or pelosi having the bigger 727 and flying back and forth to S.F. weekly?

yup, they are very good as spending our money, and, telling us to be green.........

You got a point there.

But then again, any suggestions of how more efficiently in a short amount of time they can get to these places that would be not only cost effective but also more green?

[gyre]

Bike, of course.


If it's good enough for a hot, ultra dry, low oxygen desert...

[ygmir]

Prince Charles and Gordon Brown take separate jets… to lecture the world on global warming

’

Like obama flitting over to europe, or, sending the mrs. shopping in london on her planes?
Or pelosi having the bigger 727 and flying back and forth to S.F. weekly?

yup, they are very good as spending our money, and, telling us to be green.........

You got a point there.

But then again, any suggestions of how more efficiently in a short amount of time they can get to these places that would be not only cost effective but also more green?

well, my thoughts would be not go............why "pop over" to accept a nobel prize?
make an appearance at the olympic committee meeting
etc, etc.........and, send your wife on a shopping junket with friends, on IIRC, more than one huge jet........

Or, demand twice as large a plane to "commute" from S.F. to D.C. so often..........

And, I have no bias that way.......they all do it, and, have done it........for years.......just pure waste, IMHO, with the attitude of "we deserve it, and, 'cause we can"...........


I do agree, at least for the prez. that, all security and national interest concerns be addressed, when he travels........I just think, at the HUGE cost of their travel and entourage, they shouldn't go as much.........
I understand, that, in relation to the "budget", it literally a "drop in a bucket", but, as a leader.....well, the example, to me, is in poor taste.

[DVD Burner]

oh and hey, just so you know, it was a republican that brought to my attention about the Prince Charles and Gordon Brown thingie.

[Ugly Dougly]

Let's see, they all fly private jets when they are NOT lecturing on climate change.

So, if they rode bicycles (or whatever you suggest) exclusively for climate meetings, then they would be hypocrites wouldn't they?

And if you have 10 million dollars, tell me wouldn't fly a private jet?

[ygmir]

oh and hey, just so you know, it was a republican that brought to my attention about the Prince Charles and Gordon Brown thingie.

I'm a non-partisan anarchist.........(with my own ideas)..........I just like to see it "spread around".........there is usually enough blame and wrong doing to cover both sides........IMHO......

[ygmir]

Let's see, they all fly private jets when they are NOT lecturing on climate change.

So, if they rode bicycles (or whatever you suggest) exclusively for climate meetings, then they would be hypocrites wouldn't they?

And if you have 10 million dollars, tell me wouldn't fly a private jet?

yeah, or, lecturing CEO's about flying their private jets.........

[DVD Burner]

oh and hey, just so you know, it was a republican that brought to my attention about the Prince Charles and Gordon Brown thingie.

I'm a non-partisan anarchist.........(with my own ideas)..........I just like to see it "spread around".........there is usually enough blame and wrong doing to cover both sides........IMHO......

agreed.


ok, so we agree about Clinton and Obama.....still cant figure Carter.

Where is the lie?

[ygmir]

in my cynical world, anyone who gets to be or has been prez has lied to get there, or, lied while there..........
I'm sure if I do research, I can find specifics.........
I don't trust any of them, or, what they say.

Of course, some will argue the "level" of a lie.........calling one worse than another............

I call em all liars........probably the position and power demand it, even.

*edit to note many hits on googling "Jimmy Carter lies"*

[DVD Burner]

Well that's three for three.

cant argue with you on any of those points.


Well ever since I've been on this board I have advocated that politics and religion is for suckers.

And there are the few that ask why I hang in the politics thread, I hang to prove my point and to have a good laugh at the suckers.

Cheers and Happy Holidays!

[ygmir]

and, happy holidays to you, too.......

*walks off feeling like I hit the lottery, or the stars aligned, or something, no one ever agrees with 3 in a row with me.......*

[Ugly Dougly]

Ygmir, you'll full of it.

Happy now?

[ygmir]

huh?...........

[Ugly Dougly]

Just so you feel more normal.

Did you expect something rational out of me?

[ygmir]

Just so you feel more normal.

Did you expect something rational out of me?

hahaha, normal, is not where I want to be.......thanks, though.

well, not that I'd expect rational, but, perhaps rash.......

[can't sit still]

Now, for the laugh of the day.

The winner of the most appropriate definition of a contemporary term, fresh from Texas A & M.

The Term: Political Correctness

The Definition: Political correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible...to pick up a turd by the clean end.