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POPSLawyers accuse judge of lying, bungling Roman Polanski case The famous film director Roman Polanski fled the US in 1977 because he was charged for statutory rape. Twenty years later, Polanski's lawyer and prosecutors made a deal that would have allowed Polanski to return to the US. Polanski refused the deal because the judge wanted the proceedings televised. Fast forward to now, when HBO releases its Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired documentary which contains this little tidbit. The judge calls the story completely fabricated. Both the defense and prosecuting attorney go on the record calling the judge a liar.
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POPSUSA: Drowning in Pretend Patriotism? Any doubts as to this later governing impulse of our imperial ambitions were shattered with the recent news that U.S. advisers to our puppet government in the Green Zone of occupied Iraq have worked out agreements for American oil companies to gain control of Iraqi oil fields. But, then again, what did we expect when we elected a Texas oil hustler, and a failed one at that , to be our president? ... AlterNet
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POPSAirman May Receive Medal of Honor The 2009 defense authorization bill contains a section that would authorize Etchberger’s Medal of Honor. It passed in the House of Representatives in May, but still must be passed by the Senate before Bush can sign it into law. This September a monument will be dedicated at Barksdale Air Force Base, La., to Etchberger and the 13 other men who died at Lima Site 85 in Laos.
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POPSThe U.S. Is Drowning in Pretend Patriotism Washington's "Farewell Address" to the new nation was a warning about the threat of American imperial ambitions and a declaration of his high expectations for a republic of free men: "In offering to you, my countrymen, these counsels of an old and affectionate friend, I dare not hope they will make the strong and lasting impression I could wish; that they will control the usual current of the passions, or prevent our nation from running the course which has hitherto marked the destiny of nations. But, if I may even flatter myself, that they may be productive of some partial benefit, some occasional good; that they may now and then recur to moderate the fury of party spirit, to warn against the mischiefs of foreign intrigue, to guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism. ..."
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POPSNext Stop, Iran? Iran's conventional forces include an army of 540,000 men and 300,000 reserves, including 120,000 Iranian Guards especially trained in unconventional warfare. It has more than 1,600 main battle tanks and 21,000 other armored combat vehicles. It has 3,200 artillery pieces, three submarines, 59 surface warships and 10 amphibious ships. It's been receiving help in arming itself from China, North Korea and Russia. Unlike Iraq, Iran's forces have not been worn down with bombing, wars and sanctions. It also has a new anti-aircraft defense system from Russia that I've heard is pretty snazzy. So, if you think we or Israel can attack Iran and not expect retaliation, I'd have to say with regret that you are a moron. If you think we could easily handle Iran in an all-out war, I'd have to promote you to idiot. Attacking Iran would be folly, but we seem to be living in the Age of Folly. (read more at source)
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POPSGamenode Large online games collection, daily updated with the newest and best games.
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POPSMcCain Flips at Legit Question
McCain's response? "Please," he said, recoiling back in his seat in distaste at the very question. Uh uh. That's not good enough. You would assume that given all the whining over General Clark's legitimate point, that John McCain had some obvious answer to the question. Instead, he refused to answer the question, and let Joe Lieberman and Lindsay Graham come to his defense, babbling to the reporter about character, but not a word about qualifications. The fact of the matter is that General Clark was absolutely right. McCain's service, while heroic and honorable, is not very relevant when it comes to preparing him to be the military's ultimate commander. His experience didn't involve executive decision making in the military, or global strategy. Very few candidates for the presidency have had the experience in life that prepares them for that role. In fact, McCain said it himself in 2003, that some of our best Commanders in Chief had no military experience at all.
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POPSGoogling American Values Great story -- gotta read through to the kicker. I wonder if they read about this court case and decided to write about it immediately, or only committed to the story once somebody came up with that pun.
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POPS"My Guantanamo Diary" All About Naive
And this is how Mahvish Rukhsana Kahn,assesses every one of her clients. She accepts without question detainee stories of widespread torture, brutal interrogation, commonplace Quran desecration and illegal confinement. But she never bothers to reference al Qaeda's "Manchester Manual," that instructs its members to allege torture and abuse as part of their defense against Western legal systems. Besides her sympathies for the "innocent" Afghans, Kahn grew openly contemptuous of the American military men and women serving there. She describes mocking a posted "Soldier's Creed" to a guard and how she had to learn "the military's sneaky speak" - her description of terms commonly used in the detention process. She refers to one female guard repeatedly as "Rodent Face," and repeats one detainee's story about how he found the guards "androgynous" and that "we can find no sign of manhood in this army." If she was bothered by these attitudes, she doesn't mention it.
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POPSBush: those who disagree with him "slander America" How very, very cheap - taking those who disagree with HIM and labeling them slanderers of AMERICA. He attempts to manipulate people who want to be patriotic into sitting down, shutting up, and asking no questions about his abuse of power, so he can do whatever he wants with their money.
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POPSBetancourt: Rescue in Colombia was 'impeccable' The Americans — Marc Gonsalves, Thomas Howes and Keith Stansell — were flying directly to the United States to reunite with their families, Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos said. They had been the longest-held American hostages in the world.
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POPSFARC Hostage Ingrid Betancourt Freed But in becoming so famous, the 46-year-old Ms. Betancourt also became more valuable to the FARC, which was feeling the heat from the government under U.S.-ally President Álvaro Uribe (who, it so happened, hosted Sen. John McCain on Tuesday). FARC funds itself largely through drug trafficking and kidnapping, but despite such activities had found a friend in Hugo Chávez. The Venezuelan president and FARC had sought to use the selective release of hostages to get governments allied with him, such as Ecuador and Nicaragua, to grant the group diplomatic recognition -- a move that, if followed by other countries in the region, would undermine the Colombian government's offensive against the FARC and by extension U.S. influence in the region. Mr. Chavez had declared his motives to be purely humanitarian; but, in any event, it is the Colombian military that has now done the selective releasing.
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POPSMcCain vs. Obama On National Security
that espouses the destruction of the State of Israel as its fondest wish and pledges undying enmity to the United States to possess the weapons to advance their malevolent ambitions." He also rejects "unconditional dialogues" with Iran. Obama has delivered messages on Iran that were more mixed. But that only makes diplomacy more important. If we must use military force, we are more likely to succeed, and will have far greater support at home and abroad, if we have exhausted our diplomatic efforts." In the same speech, however, Obama promised: "aggressive, principled diplomacy without self-defeating preconditions....Obama missed a vote on a controversial amendment offered by Sen. Jon Kyl and Lieberman that proposed labeling Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization . Obama called the amendment a repeat of the mistakes that led to war in Iraq; however, he had cosponsored an earlier bill declaring the Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization
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POPSPentagon to EPA: You and What Army? Refuse to clean up If it were a private polluter and not the Pentagon, the EPA would most likely go to court to force compliance, but an executive branch policy prevents federal agencies from suing one another. Other agencies, including NASA and the Department of Energy, have complied with the EPA’s Superfund cleanup orders without protest. This is the second time in a week that it’s been revealed that the EPA’s authority has been ignored by others in the government. The New York Times reported last Wednesday that, when the EPA sent an e-mail to the White House concluding that greenhouse gasses can be regulated by the Clean Air Act, the White House simply refused to open it, successfully getting the EPA to backtrack.
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POPSVeterans Respond to General Clark's Comments The bottom line is this: If Democrats tuck tail and run from Republicans in this instance, we run the risk of ceding authority on military issues to John McCain for the rest of the campaign. Whether you like Clark or not, everyone has an interest in defending him vigorously in this case. We cannot allow the Right and the media to get away with trashing the first guy to come out in prime time to slam McCain's military "expertise." If our organizations don't defend Clark as being right in this case, we give in to the idea that Republicans are the parents in terms of national defense, and Democrats are the children--something those on the Right will be more than happy to reinforce. This idea that we can't question someone's expertise on military matters simply because they served could very easily become the next "whoever is against the war is unpatriotic" mantra. And that's not something I'm prepared to accept.
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POPSCongress Blinds The FBI These predictive models get better as the quality of the information going into them improves. As more terrorists are captured and interrogated, and their computers and data is translated, the predictions become more accurate. No one harasses researchers for using data mining, or makes fun of building supercomputers with graphics processors (often the same ones found in video game consoles, making super-fast computers cheap enough to be used in a combat zone to make life saving predictions), when it saves troops from getting killed. The FBI has been unable to make this point to Congress, mainly because some key legislators are ideologically opposed to data mining, and refuse to acknowledge the widespread success of the technique in civilians and military sectors.
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POPSRemember this About where the moneys going, More of sending the few into Multiple Tours and Stoploss! More of Not Taking Care of those sent when They Return! As long as most of them don't have to Sacrifice and can continue to call themselves a Party of Moral Americans! I never heard an APOLOGY to the few who Serve and are Awarded Purple Hearts, America's Highest Honor, for Dying and being Maimed in America's Wars, Wars mostly of Choice not Need!
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