"Please Remove Your Shoes" Uncovers T.S.A. Theater

Anyone with the ability to fire a few neurons in their head can see the farce of the T.S.A. Taking off shoes, wanding old ladies and as of recent looking at people through their clothes are all tactics utilized by glorified security agents. Now we finally have a film to expose what is going on at the agency and where the lapses are. Check this out and remember it when you fly and are forced to foolishly take your shoes off under the guise of safety.

Bloomberg Mocks FOIA Request For Term Limit Extension Emails

In an open and transparent democracy, it is the representatives of the people who are beholden to those that elect them. For Mayor Bloomberg though, he does not believe that principle applies to himself. Going around the backs of New Yorkers who voted for term limits, he had the city council reverse the will of the people and extend term limits so that he and other two-termers could run for another four years.

What the Mayor engineered was an outrage to say the least. In response, at least one person at the NY Times (not to mention outside groups) file a Freedom of Information request to see how it all went down. Sadly though, in the same spirit that Bloomberg spit on the will of the voters who enacted term limits, he did the same to that request for information.

From The NY Times:

“Many thanks.”

In the middle of the pitched battle over Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s plan to re-engineer the city’s term-limits laws, those are the only two words that the first deputy mayor, Patricia E. Harris, wrote about the topic.

Or at least those are the only two words that City Hall will allow the public to see.

On Friday, six months after The New York Times requested copies of all e-mail messages about term limits sent or received by six top aides to the mayor under the Freedom of Information Act, the Bloomberg administration released 66 pages of correspondence. (Also available as PDF.)

Much of what the city released amounted to fan mail for the mayor, from businesspeople, friends of his aides or ordinary citizens.

There was absolutely nothing in there that had any of what the principle architects of this political maneuver had written to each other. Nothing about the logistics and nothing about anything of importance was included. Of course, the information is there, somewhere. Bloomberg and his aides however, do not respect the public enough to let them see what or how things went down. Instead, their fear of the public keeps them from disseminating the information that would expose them for the power-hungry politicos that they are.

McCain Bristles At P.O.W. Question

John McCain gave Wesley Clark a lot of heat so far this week when he said that being a P.O.W. doesn't qualify you to be President. McCain and much of the media spun that common sense statement into disparaging McCain's military record, which he did nothing of the sort. So when one reporter from ABC sees what Clark said and tries to get McCain to answer the question....well, watch out for the fire breathing dragon.

From Digby:

An ABC reporter gave John McCain the opportunity to discuss Wes Clark's comment - the ACTUAL remarks - and McCain went apeshit.

McCain became visibly angry when I asked him to explain how his Vietnam experience prepared him for the Presidency.



“Please,” he said, recoiling back in his seat in distaste at the very question.

McCain allies Sen. Lindsey Graham stepped in to rescue him. Graham expressed admiration for McCain’s stance on the treatment of detainees in US custody.

(That would be the stance that he flipped on by voting against a ban on torture in the Senate just this year.)

Yes, that would be one of his many flip-flops. The truth is, McCain's position on anything can change with wind. When push comes to shove though, Johnny boy will do whatever is best for the right wing and their fervent supporters, especially those with lots of money. If torture is good for business, then so be it.

Now back to the issue at hand. If the media got to see this little outburst, wait till the get a load of the real McCain when the pressure of the campaign really gets to him. A friend of mine predicted tonight that either Obama or McCain will win with a wide margin come November. With enough outbursts, we might just see that epic blowout for Obama on the horizon even before election day.

FCC's Martin Abuses His Power? Nahhh

Kevin Martin is starting to look like he'll be visiting Congress soon, and not about any particular media related bill. Legislators are beginning to look into possible charges that he abuses his power as chair of the Federal Communications Commission. What a shock, someone appointed by the Bush Administration abusing their power, who woulda thunk it?

From The LA Times:

"Given several events and proceedings over the past year, I am rapidly losing confidence that the commission has been conducting its affairs in an appropriate manner," Rep. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.), chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, wrote to FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin.

Dingell said he was concerned that the FCC had not made the full text of proposed rules available to the public before it voted on them, and that Martin often had not given other commissioners details of proposals until it was too late for them to fully analyze them.

Martin, a Republican, has faced criticism from lawmakers and fellow commissioners recently for how he has approached the contentious issues of re-regulating the cable TV industry and easing rules on the ownership of newspaper and TV stations in the same city.

Martin is going to start squirming. For several years the Republican leadership abdicated it's responsibility to hold Federal agencies accountable for their actions. Not surprisingly, rampant corruption and abuses of power ensued.

As for Martin, being the head of the FCC allowed his buddies in the telecommunication and media industries to take advantage of the public by consolidating and having much more freedom to restrict the flow of information. In turn, companies can own multiple television stations, newspapers and for telecoms, increase their share of cable and broadband users by being one of two or three companies in a market. In New York, the only places to get internet is Verizon and Time Warner. So these companies can charge whatever they want. In the age where the digital divide is increasing, these practices restrict information to the wealthier among us and hurt America as a whole.

Senate Dems Take Action Over Sam Fox

Usually when someone goes behind your back and does something you expressly said not to, I would be pissed off. When it happens between the U.S. Senate and the President over an appointment to be the ambassador of Belgium, it might just be illegal as well.

Sam Fox lost out in the Senate confirmation process. Perhaps something with his massive fundraising efforts for the 'Swift Boats' group had something to do with it in addition to being a great friend to Republican coffers. When John Kerry grilled him over the highly personal issue, Mr. Fox was reduced to nothing. Now that the Senate is in recess, President Bush took the back door option and installed Sam as Ambassador anyways. However, the Democrats of 2007 are not taking this laying down.

More from The Huffington Post:

WASHINGTON — Democrats called for an investigation Thursday into whether President Bush acted illegally in appointing Sam Fox ambassador to Belgium.

A day earlier, Bush named Republican fundraiser Fox to the post as a recess appointment _ a maneuver that allowed him to bypass Congress, where Democrats had derailed his nomination.

"We view the recess appointment of Mr. Fox as a clear abuse of the President's recess appointment power," three Democratic senators wrote in a letter to the Government Accountability Office, Congress' auditing agency.

President Bush's abuses of power is nothing new. He has been left mostly unchecked by a Republican rubber-stamp Congress for six years. Now that the tables have turned and the Democratic party is in the majority the attitude is vastly different. This investigation is now added to the list of 'potential' crimes King George has committed. The only trick of course, is to prosecute him for those crimes.