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Good morning everybody! And how are you all this fine Saturday morning?
Our favorite neo-Christian neo-fascist Praetorian Guard wannabees, Blackwater, have been in the news quite a bit lately because of, among other things, their rather quick trigger fingers when it comes to Iraqi civilians. But Blackwater doesn't just operate overseas: They prowled the streets of post-Katrina New Orleans, as I've been reminded recently. And they are one of five companies in the running for $15 billion of taxpayer loot in the War on Some Drugs.
In fact, according to some of the scuttlebutt going around town, it looks like that they might be the security force of choice for the GOP during next summer's Republican National Convention in Saint Paul.
The really interesting thing about this is that for some time now, various right-wing bloggers and their favorite meme transmitters in the "respectable" broadcast and print media (transmitters such as StarTribune columnist Katherine Kersten, who claimed that violence at a recent Critical Mass bicyclist event was a harbinger of things to come) have been trying to stir up their followers with lurid tales of the horrible, hideous violence that will be inflicted by Evil Scurvy Lefty Protesters at the sacred RNC Convention next year -- unless Something Is Done To Stop Them.
Could it be that the groundwork is being laid for outfits like Blackwater to pre-emptively attack anyone who dares harsh the GOP's collective mellow next summer in Saint Paul? One does wonder.
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zed?
PW,
Zed?
Yikes!
PW!!!
Hey Phoenix Woman!
a mercenary zed, eh? oohhhkaaay.
lemme go git ma coffee. Gonna need it…
Y’know a mercenary army in Minnesota just does NOT sound right.
This Blackwater story has as much “legs” as the Abu Graib story… Private mercenaries, corruption, partisanship, Hell… several of Hugh’s list apply here.
PW!
Calling Sen Feingold - militia clean-up on Filibuster Aisle.
Waxman’s letter on the GOPers bullying their own:
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.c.....age=3&
You MUST read this letter. It is the GOP playbook, leaning on Inspector General investigators to impede an investigation.
This has plenty of legs.
If there’s a “private security army” in Minnesota next summer, I predict that there will be some gale force winds at the same time due to the bodies of Hubert Humphreys and Eugene McCarthy spinning in their graves.
The thuggery at the 2004 Republican convention
at Ground Zeroin New York was bad enough.The Night of the Long Knives, anyone?
In other words, the fascists have their own army.
Here’s an account, just up today, about experiencing Blackwater folks on the streets of Baghdad:
by Laith. (print only)
It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to visualize one day being pulled over by a Blackwater patrol unit on some highway in Anytown, U.S.A. and being issued a speeding ticket
Apologies, but Kerst*n sounds like an idgit!
A stormtrooper mentality connected to an itchy trigger finger, in St Paul?!?
Someone’s on the verge of doing something horribly stoopid. I hope they reconsider.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 15
It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to visualize one day being pulled over by a Blackwater patrol unit and being hauled away to an undisclosed location.
kirk murphy @ 10
!!!
Jeremy Scahill’s book on Blackwater is awesome and he’s been making the news rounds lately. He’s clear, concise, knows his facts and has been saying that this was inevitable.
Here’s a link with a great interview regarding Blackwater’s plan for an 800 acre “training camp” near San Diego. Some believe it’s actually going to be a detention center and not just for illegal immigrants. Martial law anyone?
http://www.democracynow.org/ar.....19/1349211
I find the swastika building story disturbing. The media has tried to explain it away by saying that no one could have realized it looked like a swastika, because one could only notice it from the air…and it was just an architectural accident. Well…come on….architects always prepare a table-top, mock-up of a project. Just standing 2 feet above this would immediately tell you what it looked like….something stinks in Denmark on this one.
Here’s the link with the picture of it, in case you haven’t seen it:
http://rawstory.com//news/2007....._0926.html
This Blackwater dust up going to be problematical for The Party. I suspect they will have to keep the Blackshirts in the background and on a tight leash at the convention. They are too easy a target now for provocation. Then again The Party might want to encourage a true confrontation and a final comming out of Blackwater as their acknowledged paramilitary wing, as opposed to the current de facto status.. With Black himself in Rudy’s camp it might come down to where Rudy stands at convention time. If he’s the guy then it stands to reason that Blackwater will be there to back him up.
egregious @ 5
Good Morning!
Sorry I’m late — anybody got coffee?
The War on Some Drugs
aka “Gettin’ Rid of The Competition”?
kirk murphy @ 10
Heh!
Some might argue that it doesn’t matter whether one is killed by a ‘public bullet’ or a ‘private bullet’, you are just as dead. I would argue there is a difference.
jayt @ 23
Yeah. In most cases, the far-less-harmful competition.
rapier @ 21
Cofer Black, vice chairman of Blackwater, is Mitt Romney’s “terrorism” advisor.
ReneND @ 7
Seriously PW, others, wouldn’t the good folks of St. Paul have SOME say in this? It’s nuts! And YES, GROSSLY out of place!
St. Paul? C’mon folks!?!
Would they turn Mall of America into a detention facility and put it under lockdown? Would they mine the 10,000 lakes? or just fence each and every one?
Hallooooo repubbles? Anyone home? Puleeze put on your little thinking caps, sit a spell, and cogitate for a moment.
This doesn’t have to do with Blackwater (I hope) but what has me equally worried is Operation Falcon where there are massive sweeps of so-called felons. It may instead be massive sweeps of minorities. Just another means to stop minority voting. It may be the reason the repubs are so unconcerned about snubbing certain communities.
IIRC, Blackwater CEO-Fuehrer Erik Prince is to testify before Congress next week, no?
Blackwater will replace the National Guard, if they are not outlawed. They must be denied government contracts.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 25
Yup.
Considering what Bloomberg did to Critical Mass in New York City just before the last Republican Convention, and the cost and mess it caused, I think we can expect more of the same. In that operation, NYPD arrested hundreds of bicylists and held them in an old warehouse at Pier 67. I think there was a suit afterwards which the City lost. http://nyc.indymedia.org/newswire/display/109937/
Hi PW -
Great post (didn’t want to write so much I’d miss the decile….)
The progressives in your area are probably all over this angle….
If MN Rethugs want to bring in Blackwater, what are the regulatory steps required for Blackwater to obtain the required licenses, etc? Do the regulatory steps (if any) require public hearings - or allow public input? Are moral turptitude or negligence relevant in the licensing process?
If not, what might be done in the way of seeking temporary injunctive relief?
Of course, all these steps with lots, lots, lots of public notice.
The authoritarian Rethugs think they’re the only ones who can creat Pavlovian associations.
Wrong.
Nine months is more than ample time for local progressives and faith-based communities to make Blackwater = serial killers sucking off the public teat.
Lots of real gory pictures of Blackwater’s civilian victims in Iraq (and Katrina, if the pics can be found) plastered on lightpoles - with a big fat “BLACKWATER IS COMING?” in motorist readable type fonts will help make the visceral link between mercenaries and murder, what with nausea being such a strong reflex and all.
If the public licensing process has any real teeth - or requires local elected officals’ buy-in - starting early on the Pavlovian conditions will help.
The Rethugs have already started with theirs.
Good hunting.
Looking forward to seeing the good people of MN spit the mercenaries out of our political life.
yikes is right.
well, blackwater needs to be confronted, and it’s easier for us to do it here in the states (for a whole bunch of reasons). not looking forward to it though…
BobbyG @ 30
Last I read, Waxman had invited or subpoeaned Prince but that the State Department would use the “executive privilege” farce to prevent the testimony.
LS @ 27
From May 8 2005 Meet the Press, Cofer Black’s MO:
MR. RUSSERT: On September 1, 2001, you began a 90-day phaseout retiring from the CIA. Then came the horrific day of 8:46 AM, September 11, 2001. All our lives changed. You were asked to stay on at the CIA. On September 13th, you were summoned to the office of Cofer Black, the head of counterterrorism for the CIA. What did he tell you? What was your mission?
MR. SCHROEN: The mission was to–the first part of it was to go in and link up with the Northern Alliance, formerly headed by Ahmed Al-Massoud, and to win their confidence and their agreement to cooperate militarily with us. They were the only armed force on the ground in Afghanistan opposing the Taliban. The second part of it was, once the Taliban were broken, to attack the al-Qaeda organization, find bin Laden and his senior lieutenants and kill them.
MR. RUSSERT: Kill them?
MR. SCHROEN: Kill them.
MR. RUSSERT: Wasn’t it illegal for us to kill foreign leaders?
MR. SCHROEN: I don’t think at that point that the–I think the administration had gotten to the point where bin Laden and his guys were fair game.
MR. RUSSERT: As part of war?
MR. SCHROEN: As part of war.
MR. RUSSERT: Mr. Black gave you specific instructions on what he wanted you to bring home.
MR. SCHROEN: That’s true. He did ask that once we got bin Laden and killed him, that we send his head back in a cardboard box on dry ice so that he could take it down and show the president.
MR. RUSSERT: Where would you find the dry ice in Afghanistan?
MR. SCHROEN: That’s what I mentioned to him. I said, “Cofer, I think that I can come up with pikes to put the heads of the lieutenants on,” which is the second part of what he wanted done. “Dry ice, we’ll have to improvise.”
jeebus:
starting real early on the Pavlovian conditioning
must.not.type.before.coffee
PW, thanks for an as per usual, great post. I am shocked and dumbfounded that Blackwater is allowed to operate on US soil. How do they get carry permits in the states? Congress has to nip this fast and extend the Posse Comitatus Act to apply to any “Federally” funded force.
“The Posse Comitatus Act is a United States federal law (18 U.S.C. § 1385) passed on June 16, 1878 after the end of Reconstruction. The Act was intended to prohibit Federal troops from supervising elections in former Confederate states. It generally prohibits Federal military personnel and units of the United States National Guard under Federal authority from acting in a law enforcement capacity within the United States, except where expressly authorized by the Constitution or Congress. The Posse Comitatus Act and the Insurrection Act substantially limit the powers of the Federal government to use the military for law enforcement.[…]”
OT, the GOP talks tough on national defense, but they refuse to bring back the draft. The Democratic presidential and senatorial candidates can’t call for a draft, but someone has to point out this massive GOP contradiction.
Just FYI, and not to dilute the threat that Blackwater and its competitors can be; iirc, emptywheel said most of Blackwater’s Iraq contracts came from the U.S. State Department. Rumsfeld didn’t want to protect State Department officials in Iraq, so State had to hire Blackwater.
It seems the obvious solution is a preemptive
warclass action lawsuit (thanks for the precedent, Bush!) against the gathering threat of Blackwater and the GOP. Think of it as a bond to guarantee that no one’s civil rights will be abused at the convention. Just off the top of my head, I think we could set it at, oh, let’s say $100 Million.If no one is hurt and there are no viable claims of civil rights abuse, Blackwater and the GOP will get their money back - minus a reasonable service charge, of course.
All this hand-wringing talk about “armed militias” / “private armies” etc in Iraq and Afghanistan, LOL. What the fuck else is Blackwater here in Bu’ushistan?
So … what country are we all moving to? This one’s toast.
Rumsfeld didn’t want to protect State Department officials in Iraq, so State had to hire Blackwater.
God forbid the military be used to protect US citizens!
O/T -
To Clarence The Martyr Thomas. Cry me a friggin’ tsunami, you heliumweight.
God, what a whiner!
Q: Can we track Blackwater IPs lurking here?
behindthefall @ 42
the monks in burma / myanmar aren’t leaving.
Interesting that Blackwater was established in 1997…just in time to be positioned for major no bid security contracts following 9/11.
and i thought our regular paramilitary police were bad enough (see pic from 2003 ftaa protest)
selise @ 48
Notice the Bu’ush Think Tank Branch Office in the pic, foreground right.
BobbyG @ 45
Shouldn’t this be:
Can our IP addresses be tracked by Blackwater lurkers here?
Wait a second, someone’s knocking at my door…
BobbyG @ 49
LOL!
Maybe when we take our country back again, we could ship all of them off on a permanent, no-bid mandatory exile contract to their new “Homeland”, Paraguay.
Thanks for the information on Minneapolis bike riders, Phoenix Woman. And I’d always imagined Minneapolis was a nice place, like an overgrown Lake Wobegon or something. You’d think a place as flat as Minneapolis would be bike riders’ heaven.
A libertarian friend who is so anti-government that he used to advocate privatizing the Trident Missile Submarine force, recently came around, particularly as he’s been starting to follow the misdeeds of Blackwater, abroad and at home.
Myhomelandamar
Blackwater reminds of a tax or campaign finance loophole. Only in thie case, Blackwater appears to be a fascist Republican method of circumventing the Posse Comitatus Act.
If you want to see what the “training camp” in CA looks like… here it is on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0MIYEwG1lQ
yeah, slightly scary.
Those guys are mad on power.
I posted this last night:
New contract awarded yesterday:
Presidential Airways, Inc., an aviation Worldwide Services company (d/b/a Blackwater Aviation), Moyock, N.C., is being awarded an indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) type contract for $92,000,000.00. The contractor is to provide all fixed-wing aircraft, personnel, equipment, tools, material, maintenance and supervision necessary to perform passenger, cargo and combi Short Take-Off and Landing air transportation services between locations in the Area of Responsibility of Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan. This contract was competitively procured and two timely offers were received. The performance period is from 1 October 2007 to 30 September 2011.
I am so weary of the lawlwssness of the Bush empire, and of my party’s (especially the front-runners) dereliction of duty in speaking out and in bringing them to heel. The Democrats should be screaming their heads off about Blackwater and what this group might portend. “Off the table”, indeed.
Imagine! A political party with their very own army.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 55
It’s all part of a piece. The privatization of everything the Bu’ushies can farm out is intended to circumvent the Constitution.
e.g., it is by now long-established via case law that you have no 4th Amendment protection from intrusive acts by private sector entities. Your only potential remedy would be tort action, but, as we are seeing, Bu’ush wants to (retroactively, even) indemnify violators (like telecoms) from legal action. We’ve even seen the arrogant declaration by private contractors such as Cheneyburton — supported by the Bu’ushies — that their federal contract expense records constitute “proprietary information” not subject to public scritiny.
We are heading sanguinely toward a suffocating, iron-fisted Oligarchy, Dollar Daze Shoppers.
I have been harping on this theme for months.
America has armed militias… just like in the ME
America has warlords… just like in the ME
Blackwater IS no different from any paramilitary death squad in Central America.
They are sanctioned by the right and do their bidding and are protected by them.
Fascism is here.
And Blackwater is only one of many… Triple Canopy, DynCorp Caci… The trigger happy join up to scratch their power itches and shoot to kill.
This is appalling.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 58
Couldn’t have said it better. Weary. Feeling very much like Charlie Brown. I had such high hopes last November.
Why do they need an airship?
ccmask @ 57
Sounds like rendition and opium and gun smuggling routes to me but my tin foil hat wears off a little after a second cup of coffee..)
Private outsourcing of US military related operations should be unlawful.
What corporations can provide is material. END OF STORY
Blackwater IS no different from any paramilitary death squad in Central America.
Of course. Look who is running the government: Negroponte, Elliot Abrahms. I am somewhat astounded that Poindexter and Ollie North haven’t been given cabinet-level appointments.
Forgive this comment, but Blackwater/Stars and Stripes/GOP” and “Good Morning” are incompatible thoughts!
Logging off. Tired of fighting a losing battle.
Mercs in new york already! Being used to guard buildings in Wall Street area. Dressed exactly like NY Cops. Except that they have small patch that says T&M.
Go Google T&M Security folks! I haven’t dug to see if T&M is related to Blackwater. Wouldn’t
be too surprised if there is a relationship.
LS @ 64
Tin foil time.
Read Sibel Edmonds and learn about how the opium and heroin industry is so huge in Afghanistan that it requires operations at the scale that ONLY the US military or Turkish military can provide.
Shorter: US and Turkey are in the narcotics business.
Who is making the big bucks?
Eureka Springs @ 64
Hmmmm…sounds like that to me too. Must be W/Dick’s “final solution” scheme to provide a place with “security” for all them terrorists.
LS @ 20
It should be easy enough for an enterprising grad student or journalist to look into the commission, the architectural firm, design changes etc. Unless this is all put into the newly deepened “state secrets” file category.
PW, this might sound very arrogant (if it helps, I’ll probably be at the damn RNC - with the FDL affinity group or the demo medics, should the re be no FDL group….)
If y’all were in Dixie - or Denver - I wouldn’t be as optimistic…..
Bringing a private army of trigger-happy incompetent murderous religious fanatics into a progressive metro area with strong public employee unions…in order to displace well-trained locals…
that’s starting to look several bridges too far, even for the hubris of the Authoritarian Reich-Wing.
The Rethug fascist wanna-bees will keep trying to bring in the private army they need to complete the coup.
The Twin Cities give our side a great opportunity to defeat the mercenary movement - with lots of guaranteed publicity to amplify our messaging.
This seems like an opportunity for stategic progressive funders and luminaries (Al Franken, how are you this AM?) to make the GOP’s love affair with mercenaries the story of the RNC convention.
The Rethugs already market their mailed fist image to their knuckle-dragging core - so the message won’t help the GOP: they already have the proto-fascist vote.
For the Americans who still think democracy happens at the GOP/RNC conventions, the image of private armies in the shadows…or the arclights…of the party’s Presidential choice frames the matter for voters who don’t have our awareness of Naomi Klein’s work and Blackwater’s Dominionist mission.
Stategic funding for messaging, injunctions, and local/state government regulation may help to keep Blackwater out of MN - and the fight to do so will help with national efforts to extend Posse Comitatus and to ban private armies on US soil.
Blackwater is the Wal Martization of Iran Contras.
billjpa @ 69
We dug into them pretty well the other day. They are not related to Blackwater, but they are part of a group of companies being bought up and given contracts by an Ex-Homeland Security “ICE” head. See Valiant Systems, Huron:
http://www.huroncapital.com/ne.....e=02/06/07
I would imagine that Congress could put something in place that would prohibit outsourcing of security to private companies that do not have a clear (and approved) system in place of public accounability for the actions of its employees. And, they also could insist that relief and help for natural and other disasters in the U.S. be exclusively undertaken by National Guard troops (which also would serve to require that the units come home).
I guess the Bushies will use Blackwater to protect them when they announce that they aren’t leaving office or when they declare martial law. /s
Richmond @ 77
I would have imagined that the congress would have done a lot of things, but….
I don’t want my tax dollars used to pay for Blackwater and its activities, here or abroad.
In fact, according to some of the scuttlebutt going around town, it looks like that they might be the security force of choice for the GOP during next summer’s Republican National Convention in Saint Paul.
A truly scary prospect.
For the Republicans, par for the course. Their present philosophy can be boiled down to:
If the Democrats don’t like it, do it.
There are more of us than there are of them.
Richmond @ 77
Congress won’t fight FISA violations or Iranian war escalation due to complicity or fear of being called weak. Why on earth would one think Congress would pull back vital national security instruments like the protections private security firms provide? /dry snark
Adie @ 28
A lot would depend on whether Blackwater was licensed — or able to be licensed — to operate in the state as a private security firm.
Boo Radley @ 39
IIRC, Posse Comitatus has been weakened significantly through some combination of the Patriot Acts and Military Commissions Act
LS @ 82
They are probably better shots though.
ReneND @ 86
Nah.
Phoenix Woman @ 84
And I would imagine that Gov. Good ‘n Pawlenty will do all he can to assure they can be licensed.
good morning good people.
Front page of the WaPo today, top headline: Clarence Thomas revisiting his, um, “lynching” at the ‘91 confirmation hearings.
Second “top” story: Jenna Bush, Lady of Letters
Scrunched on the bottom, massacre in Burma.
Did Murdick buy the Post and someone not tell me??
SanderO @ 71
Read Sibel Edmonds and learn about how the opium and heroin industry is so huge in Afghanistan that it requires operations at the scale that ONLY the US military or Turkish military can provide.
Shorter: US and Turkey are in the narcotics business.
Who is making the big bucks?
Feith, Perle, Cheney and Denny Hastert.
EPU’d from earlier:
Bushies trying to avoid Blackwater investigation by bullying their own:
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.c.....age=3&
OT - anybody feel like freeping a poll?
Who do you prefer, Mike Pence or Barry Welsh?
Upper right-hand corner.
www.munciefreepress.com
thanks.
I’m liking the sound of this. Kucinich may force impeach Cheeeneee vote, tying in march to war with Iran:
http://rawstory.com//news/2007....._0928.html
dakine01 at 9:44, much appreciated.
But isn’t Blackwater suppose to be getting some big contract to FIGHT drugs? I’m a gettin’ dizzy here.
Richmond @ 77
Wish in one hand, shit in the other. See which one fills up faster. Congressional stones to date are not reassuring in this regard. Bu’ush just plays the Terrah card and everyone pees their legislative britches, bends over, and cries en masse “Thank you SIR, may I have ANOTHER!!?”
This is good Blackwater news, I think. Prince canceling NC land deal:
http://dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/9/29/101453/026
ReneND @ 95
But isn’t Blackwater suppose to be getting some big contract to FIGHT drugs? I’m a gettin’ dizzy here.
depends on whose drugs you’re talking about.
ReneND @ 95
Air America Redux, they are.
jayt @ 90
Feith, Perle, Cheney and Denny Hastert.
Iran-Contra II–the characters haven’t changed and neither has the plot.
Learn about those phony soldiers in Iraq first hand
http://armyofdude.blogspot.com.....-deal.html
Blackwater == Patriots
US Military == Phonies
Now I get it…
ccmask @ 57
To me (emphasis provided), it appears they’ve hired Blackwater to fly the Ospreys which are death traps that the pentagon didn’t want. Who knows how it will come out, but this could be a smart move by the pentagon (in a very, very stupid game).
Bait and switch. Wouldn’t be the first time.
Nice.
Indeed, the only actual “drug” they crack down on is meth.
The most benign of all intoxicants, marijuana, is listed as a Class A narcotic, along with two drugs Bush doesn’t “war” on until it hits the streets — heroin and cocaine.
We need to pressure our Congress-types to de-classify marijuana.
Hmmm…here are some strange dots to connect regarding Blackwater:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyo.....194244/293
Is it not LS @ 105
Ms MONEYPENNY!!!! Small google footprint…..
Shades of 007 gather round me. THis is all getting too weird.
More Blackwater revelations…the Iraqi army almost got them, but the US Army saved them:
http://dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/9/28/19954/8340
Photo of Rush Limbaugh’s house.
Hey, I can dream.
Laura Doty @ 106
You just can’t make this stuff up.
(Pulling blanket over head)
I’m going back to bed now.
LS @ 109
Actually, I’m beginning to sense that’s EXACTLY what’s happening…
As we speak, they are lobbying at least seven states, including Calif. for contracts as emergency security. Security that once was provided by Nat’l Guard.
These guys are bad news. Those photos from NOLA during Katrina of BW operatives left a chill in me thats still there.
kirk murphy @ 34
Hi, Kirk!
This is the state agency that would be licensing Blackwater, if they did indeed come to our fair state: http://www.dps.state.mn.us/pdb/
It will be interesting to see what happens.
moondancer @ 112
That just flipped my stomach.
this is just the tip of a very big iceberg.
See *Disaster Capitalism* in this month’s Harper’s, if you want to read about some serious fun.
The buccaneers have taken over, folks, and it’s going to take something not too short of a revolution to stop them.
Hi PW -
Thanks for the lever. (Finding that’s always the hard part.)
Now to move the world!
chas @ 115
There are more of us, than there are of them.
LS @ 117
That’s the flip talk of people who’ve never lived amid bomb rubble. The point is to not let it get to that point. Lose/lose on steroids.
300,000,000 minus RNC, Blackwater and other mercs, neocons…
We outnumber them by a couple hundred million.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 55
I thought I remembered Congress doing something to “adjust” (and I use that term loosely) Posse Comitatus, so I looked it up and here is what wiki has to say:
BobbyG @ 118
I grew up in bomb rubble.
Cliff Varnell @ 105
WSJ = powder cocaine
Fox News = crack cocaine
Weekly Standard = Kristol meth
LS @ 121
Then you don’t want to be advocating flippant mano a mano stuff implying bloodshed in our streets against the likes of Blackwater et al. Yeah, if it came to that, we’d have no choice, but let’s not romanticize what it would be like.
As I put it to Senator Gary Hart, ‘What does
Bush have to do to warrant Impeachment?’
The question stands, answered in a most pathetic and unsatisfactory fashion, essentially ignored.
If HRC wishes, wants and absolutely intends to become President, then she had better show some leadership now. Courage and honestly are necessary NOW!
Blackwater represents an odious, murderous future that chills the very marrow of my bones.
What person worth a damn cannot ‘get’ what that ‘future’ implies?
Of course HRC and her friends are ’safe’ aren’t they, regardless of what happens?
Well PW, you’ve done it again. Frightening but very real. Keep it up!
BobbyG @ 123
Good grief. I’m not romanticizing it, I’m responding to some suggestions that it could get that far. I will do everything in my power to prevent such a situation from ever happening. The writing is on the wall these days, and we have to read it. I’m a pacifist, but I’m realistic too.
LS @ 72
Wouldn’t be surprised if alot of the profits went into the Rethug & related coffers (a la Iran Contra).
LS @ 125
Look, all us Firepups are on the same side, but when you start the swagger talk (even if just being flip) about how we “outnumber them,” I gotta object.
Peace.
The combination of a private army owned by a fanatic reactionary billionaire and the current administration makes me very nervous.
These guys have shot to the top o’ the chart for me in threats to my liberty.
I didn’t read everything but here’s a little something.
http://www.antiwar.com/ips/gha.....leid=11690
Jo6pac
And I’m guessing that 1/2 the population (republicans) will think that Blackwater is just dandy. We’ll be fighting the same political battle as always.
BobbyG @ 127
i’m with you on the “swagger talk” but numbers do matter, if we use them wisely. it means if we stand together, refuse to be intimidated and refuse to comply - they can’t control us.
BobbyG @ 127
I’m sorry you took it that way. I was trying to point out that we are not at the mercy of these people, if that makes sense. I refuse to be frightened into submission and ultimately let people walk all over me, and I believe a majority of others probably feel that way too. I want my country back.
Peace to you too.
PW–Thank you for another great post.
BobbyG–we DO outnumber them. We don’t outgun them.
The challenge will be holding to nonviolent resistance in the face of people known to be violent.
Well, I’m off to demonstrate for the monks of Burma.
Peace, everyone.
Just for the record. I, in no way, was suggesting “outnumber” meaning violence. I’m referring to thought, willpower, not guns.
selise @ 131
And “wisely” means relentless concerted peaceful action so that it never comes to getting ruthlessly mowed down en masse by Blackwater types in our streets. “Numbers” won’t mean shit against the heavily armed and ruthless should civil process fail.
ReneND @ 130
that’s where nonviolent political jujitsu comes in.
LS @ 134
That’s exactly how I heard you.
GordonM @ 102
Thanks Gordon. For those not familiar with Osprey.
BobbyG @ 127
It’s not swagger talk. It’s a question of scale. Blackwater has 21,000 people they can call on. They can possibly control one mid-size American city.
The Stasi had 2% of the population on their payroll, and those were just the informers.
It probably would take at least 10 million professionals to actually do a take over of this country, and that doesn’t take into account the 2nd amendment. (Or the fact that the economy - already shaky - would drop through the floor as Europe and Asia stop propping it up, and then you’d have 10 million armed madmen not getting paid. In 6 months it would no longer be takeover, it would be anarchy.)
Yeah, Blackwater is scary, and they should be stopped before they can start anything, but the scale just does not work.
LS @ 117
LS, you are absolutely right!
Thanks for helping me think ecologically (I need to hike more if I’m losing that..)
The progressive I know don’t have a whole lotta guns - and armed struggle has no place here.
The mercenaries’ power is the power of intimidation - in a nation armed to the teeth.
I don’t see UFPJ or the Pagan Cluster taking on the following….
and I wouldn’t personally want to.
But every organism has its place.
In America’s political ecology, Blackwater is still evil - but they’re not directly competing for our political niche.
To put it another way, Blackwater isn’t the policy and discussion and public activism crowd.
In their political niche, brute violent force is the normative transaction.
Hmm….a political niche already - er - blessed with an abundance of 2nd Amendment “activists” fearing One World Guv’ment.
The ones I meet camping are usually affable and pleased to see my EarthFirst! journals.
And the more they talk the more rapidly I learn they are every bit as clinically paranoid as many of the people I treat in clinic, simply more affluent and more conventionally dressed.
This is the demographic - often driving $70,000 rigs - that hates the Blackwater types. [From what I can see, we progressives fear the mercs without viscerally hating them.]
I don’t know how to reach them as a group, but their counter-demos against Blackwater would close down the RNC better than any blockade I’ve seen.
And I don’t know what local laws on carrying rifles/shotguns (unloaded) in public may be, but a demo of 2nd Amendment/OWG marching their treasures around the Blackwater “World Government” mercs would just be too sweet to miss.
Hi Phoenix Woman. Good afternoon pups. Blackwater is a company in need of some serious investigation and should lose all of its govt contracts.
They are very much like the “strikebusters” from Pinkerton and others back in the last gilded era. Make them a political liability, and they fade away.
Kirk, you can damn near carry a loaded uzi in the streets of Texas.
ReneND @ 130
Any polls around about this? Is the public well-enough informed to even have an opinion?
TexBetsy @ 144
Don’t know. But you can be sure they will be framed (politically)as the good guys. The ones keeping us safe from terra.
ReneND @ 145
And who is keeping us safe from them? (BESIDES the blogosphere and liberal radio.)
Off to the Free Burma demos myself….
Glad we’re protesting at the Chinese Consulate - China is levelling Burma’s forests and the proceeds support the junta.
IIRC, the two other largest single foreign currency sources for the Burmese Generals are:
Totale gas (France)
Chevron (US - right across the bay).
Feels like a boycott coming on….
TexBetsy @ 146
Oh, the MSM will keep us safe and informed. No worries there.
This is not my concept of justice.
AP - A military panel on Saturday sentenced an Army sniper to five months in prison, a reduction in rank and forfeiture of pay for planting evidence in connection with the deaths of two Iraqi civilians.
Citizens in NOLA weren’t too happy with them it seems to me. I don’t think that having to pass through some armed merc checkpoint on the way to the mall or Disneyworld would go over too well. I hope it never comes to that.
BobbyG @ 135
i don’t think the risk can be managed away comletely… but, part of the action is preparing the civil infrastruction to support the action.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 149
Don’t skip the part where they were found not-guilty of the actual shooting.
laura and kirk and all who protest in support of the monks of Burma - blessings on you and your actions.
TexBetsy @ 143
If the NRA and the Republics are correct about “more guns/less crime”, Texas should be a crime free paradise.
Thugs always have the stomach for mayhem.
Only courage AND intelligence stand a chance of countering those deficient in conscience.
Their view is, essentially, confined to ‘expendable expediency.’
Ours must be to live and act as if everything matters, because otherwise, nothing will matter.
The WAR is not just coming home; IT IS HERE!
Good morning Phoenix Woman. Yesterday was a long day. Southeast Asia has a special place in my heart and I am deeply concerned over the horrific violence by the Burmese military junta.
Last night and this morning my mail box was filled with contacts from Brazil, Afghanistan, Philippines and parts of the US. I believe small NGOs have greater access and versatility in developing networks in countries under violent rule. These groups are brainstorming, gathering news and monitoring the situation very closely.
These are all nonviolent groups who bring humanitarian assistance to the people. From those I know personally, they are more descriptive in their faith in US diplomacy (discussions on sanctions pure BS). In the meantime, the Burmese people are standing defiant in the face of the military. Today the Burmese government newspapers said the demostrations are quelled and peace and order are restored. News from the people is the opposite.
Europe is more mobilized and ready to take peaceful action to bring pressure upon China and India. Human Rights Watch contacted me strongly suggesting writing and calling the Chinese Embassy and Consulates around the country.
This is what I’ve done thus far and perhaps others can take up the banner if so inclined. 1. I contacted all my congress people so they know citizens are watching and want immediate action other than a chat around a table; 2. I wrote a letter to the Consul General in San Francisco and contacted the Chinese Embassy in D.C.; 3. contacted AFSC and Human Rights Watch so they too can act immediately and give guidance to people who wish to bring attention to this matter; 4. Contacted small NGOs who work with Burma bringing in humanitarian assistance to the people and pressure upon governments.
I am still waiting to hear from Free Burma Rangers in Thailand.
Personally, I think the most effective thing to do is to contact the Chinese Consuls and Embassy. They have the greatest power to bring about change and pressure the Burmese government to stop the violence and bloodshed against the monks and people. The US is nothing more than an empty suit at the table. We have little power. We also have little will.
Forgive me for this long message but I understand the importance of immediate attention in the face of deadly danger. It dwarfs everything else. If ever I and my family are in such a situation, I pray my cry for help is heeded.
albert fall @ 11
I hope you are right that this story has legs. However, I am not as sanguine as you are. Too many stories that deserved to be major, impeachment producing scandals, turned out to be merely a fart in a windstorm.
“McClatchy Newspapers reported last week that two Blackwater employees have pleaded guilty in Greenville, N.C., to weapons charges and are cooperating with federal officials.
Blackwater, which has received roughly $835 million in State Department contracts, mostly to guard U.S. civilians in Iraq, is under intense scrutiny after a series of violent incidents involving its contractors. In the most recent, Blackwater teams were involved in a shooting at a busy Baghdad traffic circle Sept.16 that killed 11 Iraqis.
According to an e-mail obtained by Waxman’s committee, Krongard intervened when federal prosecutors asked for help from his office in investigating the Blackwater arms-smuggling allegations.
The investigations division of the inspector general’s office “is directed to stop IMMEDIATELY any work on these contracts until I receive a briefing from the (assistant U.S. attorney) regarding the details of this investigation. SA Militana, ASAIC Rubendall and any others involved are to be directed by you not to proceed in any manner until the briefing takes place,” Krongard wrote to a subordinate July 11.”
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/iraq/story/20100.html
BigMitch @ 157
I strongly second this concern. Waxman must be a very polite man. We shall see if he a courageous man as well.
Howie has Larry Kissell in Blue America upstairs.
allan_in_upstate @ 122
High Larious!
LS @ 31
Curious little item buried deep in the first section of this morning’s Vanouver Sun. Seems that the Canadian Forces have a contract or two with Blackwater, for training in such things as evasive driving. Not big, but the camel’s nose is in the tent, and where the nose goes, the rest of the body is likely to follow.
Great post, PW! ;)
One of the themes that we in St. Paul have been seeing over and over is that the St. Paul City Council (particularly Dave Thune) are so overly concerned with the rights of the protesters that they don’t care about the safety of delegates. This is a new meme, and I think that combined with the pearl clutching about violence by the left - and the attempt to hold everyone to the left of Romney accountable for it - is setting the stage for private security at the convention.
The chest-thumping right wingers in the state have been on this “control your own, you leftist scum” schtick since the convention was announced. Because the Democrats in town insist that all nonviolent protesters be given some modicum of constitutional rights, it’s said that we’re coddling the violent ones. So you see, it’s a logical step to proclaim that Blackwater is needed because the City isn’t doing enough to protect delegates from the riff raff.
For the Repub national convention, dress them up in blackshirts to go with the Blackwater thing, and make sure they wear elephant armbands, so people know they belong to the Bush SS.
I read Blackwater, but I see Orcs.
http://www.patriotresource.com...../orcs.html
Good morning, PW. Thanks for this. So, does anyone wonder if this “lefties attack” the poor poor pitiful Webubwicans meme was on the agenda at the RedState WhiteHouse bloggers blunch? Let’s play catapult the propaganda, shall we?
“Our favorite neo-Christian neo-fascist Praetorian Guard wannabees”
“Republican Guard” seems appropriate, in so many ways.
did anyone else flash on Kent state when discussing Blackwater guarding the the RNC?
scary.
When dealing with mercenaries, I don’t believe that “concerted peaceful action” will necessarily keep you from being “ruthlessly mowed down en masse”. Might just make it a hell of a lot easier to kill you.
Laura Doty @ 17
Oh boy. There’d be a “problem” with me in these instances. I don’t recognize Blackwater’s (or any other private thug group’s) legitimacy as a “law enforcement” organization. They are brownshirts as far as I’m concerned and have EXACTLY the same legitimacy.
With the shit coming down on Blackwater at the moment, one can hope that they are gutted before the GOP convention. It would be so great to see them in receivership over their murdering and abuse. Their crap is unacceptable in Iraq but it is TRIPLY unacceptable here in the USA.
BobbyG @ 135
Erm…The Burmese have been engaged in mass non-violent protest…and they are nonetheless mowed down. The whole non-violent protest/Gandhi schtick works only when your opposite force is not MORE than willing to mow you down en masse. A nonviolent mass protest by Jews against Nazis in 1920-30s Germany would have failed miserably as the opponent, the Nazis, would have been more than happy to gun down every last single peaceful protester.
I’m just saying…
Wouldn’t it be nice if nobody showed up to the RNC convention? There seem to be less and less of them these days.
Laura Doty @ 100
No wonder they had to get rid of the pesky Taliban religious zealots in Afghanistan. Now they can grow all the poppies they want.
Praedor Atrebates @ 170
A gang like the crips and bloods has a code of conduct, colors, leaders and guns. Blackwater is like that too. The police and federal government tries to put the crips & bloods out of business.
So far this gang of thugs has been using a fairly simple psychological technique to get acquiescence or even assistance from people. They find a goal that someone or a group want and they pretend to adopt it to get that groups support.
For example, on 9/11 the Rockefellers and others got rid of the WTC towers. Did they realize they were also acquiescing to all the other junk the Bush mafia was going to do?
When the Bush mafia said they’d spend us into debt to keep the evil Liberals from creating more social programs like health care reform I’m certain they got a lot of support from groups which hated health care reform or other Liberal programs. Did those folks also acquiesce to the weakening of the federal government in the face of a need to rebuild the military after this Afghan-Iraq adventure?
I suspect the reason some people are acquiescing on the loss of Constitutional rights is they’ve been sold a bill of goods. They want the current government to fail, so they can have a new Continental Congress to create a new Constitution. Why? Maybe it’s religious groups who see this Liberal government as a failure that is letting America’s Values be debased with drugs licentiousness and the like. Did those folks also buy into all this other destructiveness, Blackwater and possibly a dictatorship?
I suspect a lot of folks are truly afraid after 9/11 and really do want a McCarthy-esque domestic spying program to keep us safe from terrorists and sympathizers. So, they would easily by into the NSA spying program. Did they also acquiesce to Bushies using information gained to blackmail people and to keep an eye on political opposition?
What if, in the name of ‘cleaning out the vipers nest’ or of dispersing Blacks who tend to vote Democratic, some people bought into the idea that Washington DC is the problem and that the quickest way to solve that ‘problem’ and to get on with creating a newer better capital which is perhaps safer placed inland, the Bushies are going to be allowed to destroy Washington? Would those who want that, in the name of having a safe capital (or fewer concentrated populations of Dem-voting Blacks) far inland, also acquiesce to hundreds of thousands being killed?
People are being manipulated!
Better get ready, there’s a storm a comin’.
Fight election fraud!
Elect strong independent leaders!
Know what your Values are and fight for them.
MarkH @ 173
Funny how Feith, Perle, Cheney and Hastert have receded into the background.
Praedor Atrebates @ 171
the purpose of nonviolent protest is NOT to avoid harm. it is to act in support of some purpose you are willing to risk harm FOR. in that respect it is similar to violent resistance. another similarity is that there are no guarantees of success. good planning, intelligence, organization and training are important in nonviolent resistance just as in violent resistance. the big difference (not the only one) is that in nonviolence one attempts to avoid DOING harm.
and please get your history right - nonviolent resistance was, on occassion, used successfuly against the nazis.
i am so sick of people making claims about nonviolence that only show their ignorance of both nonviolence and history.
Someone who is clever should put “Aguasegras” as one word (”aguas negras” - black waters in Spanish, the word for what flows along open sewers in many third world countries - you get the pictue) under the elephant. It would nicely balance the delightful metaphor.