Andy’s whereIstand Blog

It sounds like the CIA is issuing a waver that it’s signing for all its retirees. It’s nice that the CIA is backing the bad guys in this case - Bush, Cheney, etc:

The Central Intelligence Agency has warned former employees not to have unapproved contacts with reporters, as part of a mounting campaign by the administration to crack down on officials who leak information on national security issues.

A former official said the CIA recently warned several retired employees who have consulting contracts with the agency that they could lose their pensions by talking to reporters without permission. He added that while the threats might be legally "hollow," they were having a chilling effect on former employees.

The CIA called the allegations "rubbish". Jennifer Millerwise Dyke, spokeswoman for CIA director Porter Goss, said former employees with consulting deals could lose their contracts for violating the CIA secrecy agreement by having unauthorised conversations with reporters. But she stressed that under current law, "termination of a contract does not affect pensions".

You still get your money, but Rove will be messing with you:

Top White House aide Karl Rove made his fifth grand jury appearance in the Valerie Plame affair Wednesday, undergoing several hours of questioning about a new issue that has come to light since the last time he testified.

Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald declined to comment at the conclusion of the grand jury session. Rove appeared at ease as he left the U.S. courthouse, joking to journalists to "move to the back" as the White House aide, his lawyers and several reporters entered an elevator to leave the building.

A week ago, Rove, the architect of Bush’s election victories, gave up his policy duties at the White House. He is returning to a full-time focus on politics with Republicans facing major problems in the upcoming midterm elections.

Wednesday’s session is believed to be only the second time Fitzgerald has met with a new grand jury examining questions left unanswered in the leaking of Plame’s CIA identity. The only other time Fitzgerald was seen going before the new panel was Dec. 7.

Maybe he’s messing himself a little bit.

This has been Andy D.

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• [Open Thread]

It seems they already are taking a few steps, and where ever you fall on the immigration debate, I’m stoked that it something is finally taking priority over the War in Iraq:

The Senate voted Wednesday to divert some of the money President Bush requested for the war in Iraq to instead increase patrols against illegal immigrants on the nation’s borders and provide the Coast Guard with new boats and helicopters.

An amendment cutting Bush’s Iraq request by $1.9 billion to pay for new aircraft, patrol boats and other vehicles, as well as border checkpoints and a fence along the Mexico border crossing near San Diego widely used by illegal immigrants was adopted on 59-39 vote.

Later, the Senate voted by a veto-proof 72-26 margin to kill an attempt by conservatives to cut the overall bill back to Bush’s request — just a day after the White House issued a toughly worded promise to veto the $106.5 billion bill unless it is cut back to below $95 billion.

Oooooh, Bush Corp, the neo-Whig veto something? Doubt it.

This has been Andy D.

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• Will Congress pass immigration reform legislation this year?

Well at least the right hasn’t gone completely bonkers with the deportation schemes:

President Bush had a blunt message Monday for fellow Republicans focusing only on get-tough immigration policies: He said sending all the nation’s estimated 11 million illegal immigrants back to their home countries is not the answer.

"Massive deportation of the people here is unrealistic - it’s just not going to work," Bush said. "You know, you can hear people out there hollering it’s going to work. It’s not going to work."

With Congress coming back from a two-week spring recess to a long election-year to-do list and tensions flaring nationwide over immigration, Bush urged lawmakers to adopt a middle-ground policy. He called a Senate bill, which creates a way for illegal immigrants to work legally in the United States and for many to eventually become citizens, an "important approach."

"It’s just an interesting concept that people need to think through," Bush said of the bill sponsored by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., which stalled before the congressional break.

As for Bush’s comment on deportation, a Time magazine poll in January found 50 percent of the country favored deporting all illegal immigrants. But even Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., one of Congress’ most outspoken advocates for tougher immigration laws, does not advocate mass deportation.

Well aware that November elections could end GOP control of Congress, Bush is walking a fine line on the emotional immigration issue, between his party’s conservative base which wants a clampdown on illegal immigration and business leaders who believe the economy needs immigrants to fill jobs.

Though if it illegal becomes more illegal by being a felony, then I imagine some deportation or "detention" will be happening - and no doubt more protests.

This has been Andy D.

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• [open thread]

It’s just a shot away. No I don’t mean to advocate assassinating the president, just quoting one of my favorite Rolling Stones’ songs in honor of Mick Jagger not bowing to the whims of Bush Corp:

PRESIDENT George Bush can’t get no satisfaction — after Mick Jagger grabbed his hotel room.

The Rolling Stone splashed out £3,600 a night for the suite days before the US leader tried to book it.

Now Mick, 62, who has been a fierce critic of the Bush-led war in Iraq, is refusing to give it up.

The veteran rocker hired the luxury Royal Suite at the five-star Imperial Hotel in Vienna, Austria, for June when the Stones are due to play a gig in the city.

Bush’s aides then tried to book it to tie in with a summit meeting.

But Mick put his foot down and insisted he was keeping the booking.

A source close to the millionaire singer said last night: “White House officials had wanted to reserve the suite and all the other rooms on the first floor.

“But Mick and the Stones had already booked every one of them."

“Bush’s people seemed to be under the impression that they would just hand over the suites but there was no way Mick was going to do that.”

Deal with it Bush, rock n’ roll wins. I guess every little protest counts even if it’s over a hotel room that most rich people will never even think about seeing.

This has been Andy D.

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• [Open Thread]

I care for the health and strength of the left, and for this reason, i don’t understand the investment of the Dems in Hillary Clinton. She’s not that strong of a leader, nor much of a representative. Sure she’s good for a "you shmuck" head shake during a televised State of the Union, but where is she on everything else? A day late and a couple trillion dollars short:

Apart from a well-chosen warning about criminalizing Jesus, Sen. Hillary Clinton hasn’t waded too deeply into the details of the immigration mess. Until now.
In an interview Friday, she cited specific goals that could, and hopefully will, become the heart of bipartisan legislation that might actually fix this national crisis.

A fence or a wall? She’s for it.

A two-step process, where our borders are secured before the 11 million illegal immigrants already here begin to get legalized? She’s for that, too.

The sudden crackdown by Washington on employers who hire illegal immigrants? She welcomes it.

The work and school boycott advocacy groups are planning for May 1? She’s against it.

And she said she favors a "carrot-and-stick" approach with Mexico to provide that government and its "oligarchs" the incentives to give Mexicans more and better jobs in their own country.

"A country that cannot control its borders is failing at one of its fundamental obligations," she said of America’s "broken system." She also said that "we do need an earned path to citizenship" for illegal immigrants here.

Because she is effectively embracing both conservative and liberal goals, and because she attaches a caveat to each, she will be accused of Clintonesque parsing and wanting it both ways. She may well be guilty, but, on the basis of two conversations with her, I’m persuaded she believes in both border security and firm, practical measures to deal with those already here.

Sure I don’t expect any moderate Dems to really champion illegal immigration, but they could be taking this time to define themselves against the right back-lash to the protests and really reach out to those citizens in the minority with friends and family here illegally. If nothing else, then those votes from legalized immigrants would go to the party that was most sympathetic to their cause.

This has been Andy D.

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Prince Harry demands that he be sent to war and treated like every other military academy graduate:

Prince Harry is threatening to quit the British army if he is not allowed to join fellow soldiers in harm’s way, the Mail on Sunday newspaper reported.

“If I am not allowed to join my unit in a war zone, I will hand in my uniform,” he was quoted as telling senior officers before his passing-out from Sandhurst military academy, southwest of London, on April 12.

Harry, 21, third in line to the throne now occupied by his grandmother Queen Elizabeth, who turned 80 on Friday, will now join the Blues and Royals of the Household Cavalry regiment, serving in an armoured reconnaissance unit.

As 2nd Lieutenant Harry Wales, he is to become a troop commander, in charge of 11 enlisted men and four light tanks — a task that could see him sent to Iraq or Afghanistan in the coming year.

The Mail on Sunday, quoting senior army sources, said there is concern in the Ministry of Defence that Harry could become a “trophy target” for insurgents — endangering not only him, but also the troops at his side.

“He will go bananas if he is given special treatment,” an unnamed source close to the prince was quoted as saying. “He doesn’t want to let the rest of the lads and lasses down by opting out.”

It’s not like the guy was ever enlisted as a grunt. Officers mostly just sit at the tops of hills while the infantry gets shit on with bombs - we’ve all seen the movies. I still don’t understand how a royal family persists into the 21st century, some rich figure heads born into privilege beyond their massive fortunes. It’s like the divine right of kings never went out of style. Let the guy fight, and drive his four tanks around the damn desert if he wants to.

This has been Andy D.

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• [Open Thread]

Yeah the 2nd Amendment people are freaking out on the Mexicans. Talk about great foreign relations, or public relations for that matter:

If the government doesn’t build security fencing along the Mexico border, Minuteman border watch leader Chris Simcox says he and his supporters will.

Simcox, whose civilian watch group opposes illegal immigration, said Wednesday he was sending an ultimatum to President Bush to deploy military reserves to the Arizona border by May 25 or his supporters will break ground for their own building project.

"We’re going to show the federal government how easy it is to build these security fences, how inexpensively they can be built when built by private people and free enterprise," Simcox said.

Congress has been debating immigration reform for several months. One bill, approved by the U.S. House in December, calls for nearly 700 miles of fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border. The fence proposal has angered Mexicans, with President Vicente Fox calling it "shameful."

Berlin Wall, people. I mean it’s ironic enough that Israel would emulate Germany and build a wall to separate Palestine, but to have a nation founded on immigrants to be building fences, well, that’s just too much.

This has been Andy D.

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• How should the federal government approach legal immigration?

So I’ve been dropping a few comments on this debate so far, but I think it time to properly weigh-in on the immigration protests. Here’s the story from today’s NYT article "Demonstrations on Immigration Harden a Divide:"

As lawmakers set aside the debate on immigration legislation for their spring recess, the protests by millions around the nation have escalated the policy debate into a much broader battle over the status of the country’s 11 million illegal immigrants. While the marches have galvanized Hispanic voters, they have also energized those who support a crackdown on illegal immigration.

"The size and magnitude of the demonstrations had some kind of backfire effect," said John McLaughlin, a Republican pollster who said he was working for 26 House members and seven senators seeking re-election. "The Republicans that are tough on immigration are doing well right now."

Mr. Hayworth said, "I see an incredible backlash." He has become one of the House’s most vocal opponents of illegal immigration and is one of dozens of Republicans who have vowed to block the temporary-worker measure that stalled in the Senate.

Representative Steve King, an Iowa Republican from another district, said his office had been flooded with angry calls about the recent marches. "It is one thing to see an abstract number of 12 million illegal immigrants," Mr. King said. "It is another thing to see more than a million marching through the streets demanding benefits as if it were a birthright." He added, "I think people resent that."

But Mr. King, who supported a House bill to restrict illegal immigrants without creating a guest-worker program, said he was also feeling new heat from the thousands of Hispanics in his district, many of whom worked in its meatpacking plants. Responding to a survey by his office, some Hispanics called him a racist for asking questions about building a wall with Mexico, or suggested a wall with Canada, he said.

Well, let’s see. I start with the premise that we are a nation of immigrants - either forced or voluntary - and their descendents. It’s all over our symbols. For example - the Statue of Liberty - that accompanying inscription about giving her your tired, your poor, etc.

The fact is that when "millions go marching through the streets demanding benefits as if it were a birthright," it’s probably because IT IS a birthright: these truths are self-evident that ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL. These are human rights we are talking about - our country is founded on the premise that EVERYONE is equal, not differently entitled based on what side of an imaginary line they are born.

I’m all for getting rid of borders, and while I know that is retardedly idealistic of me to believe this, I’m not advocating getting rid of them all at once, nor even altogether necessarily, just that we really examine why these borders exist and why they mean anything - why certain people want to be on certain sides of them and why others would prefer to see some people stay where they are or where they came from.

The right is using Terrorism to crack down on border patrol, but the reality is that danger comes from within our borders as well as from without - Timothy McVey was a US citizen and Hurricane Katrina didn’t respect State nor country borders when it devastated the gulf coast, and while people born here in America were off protecting borders a world away, their families were drowning because the national guard of the gulf states was not their to defend the border we are getting so keen on defending right now.

This seems absurd if I think about it too much, though I know it is very serious, deadly serious. And just as the redistricting of Omaha school corp is destroying race relations, and enforcing race as a social construct, building another Berlin Wall between us and Mexico, would damage so much more.

This as been Andy D.

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• [open thread]
• Are race and class linked?

About time the Dems join the thousands of dissenting voices of their protesting constituency:

"What America saw during the last few weeks did not happen overnight," said Solis, the daughter of Mexican and Nicaraguan immigrants. "The Republican Party set out to scapegoat immigrants in order to divide voters and win elections long ago, just as they did in the past elections on issues such as gay marriage."

Solis also criticized legislation passed by the House in December that would make it a felony to help an illegal immigrant, calling it part of an "assault" on immigrants by the GOP. She said the bill would make it a crime for a priest to offer communion to an undocumented worker.

Republicans are "alienating Americans of every background" with such a punitive approach, Solis said.

"The American people want change," she said, "not more of the same ineffective immigration proposals that scapegoat immigrants."

Minorities and working class families are supposed to be the bread-and-butter base of the Democratic party, and they have let the GOP crap on their base, while galvanizing their own religious right. Then playing on the religious sympathies of the catholic and religious black leaders coupling their rhetoric with the idea of "well what has the Democratic party done for you lately" - and the sad part is, they aren’t wrong.

This has been Andy D.

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• How should the federal government approach legal immigration?

I was walking down Canal St. after work and the cops wouldn’t let me continue on my path because of a rally going on. I had to take a weird detour through Soho. I’m still all about the Mexicans unleashing the fury on our government though:

Waving American flags and blue banners that read "We Are America," throngs of cheering, chanting immigrants and their supporters converged on the nation’s capital and in scores of other cities on Monday calling on Congress to offer legal status and citizenship to millions of illegal immigrants.

The demonstrators marched under mostly clear blue skies with Spanish-language music blaring, street vendors selling ice cream and parents clinging to mischievous toddlers and the banners of their homelands.

The rallies, whose mood was largely festive rather than angry, were the latest in recent weeks in response to a bill passed in the House that would speed up deportations, tighten border security and criminalize illegal immigrants. A proposal that would have given most illegal immigrants a chance to become citizens collapsed in the Senate last week.

But Monday’s gathering of tens of thousands of demonstrators in New York; Atlanta; Houston; Madison, Wis., and other cities also suggested that the millions of immigrants who have quietly poured into this country over the past 16 years, most of them Hispanic, may be emerging as a potent political force.

Even if they can’t vote, their kids will be able to one day.

This has been Andy D.

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