I have to wonder how an agency who is suppose to protect our presidents, vice presidents, foreign heads of state of all nationalities and religious beliefs, can be trusted. How can the Secret Service perform their jobs when supervisors write and send racist emails to one another regarding interracial sex, killing Jessie Jackson and his wife and ridiculing African American slang.

In a previous post regarding the Secret Service’s behavior, you really have to wonder if the first African American nominee is safe. Safe, not from the nuts who run around this country, but safe from the men and women who are suppose to protect him.

Racism in the Secret Service was brought to light in a lawsuit was filed in 2000 by African American agents who complained of discrimination during promotions. After years of stonewalling by the Secret Service, Magistrate Judge Deborah A. Robinson recently ordered the Secret Service to produce documents and emails. This document production exposed racism at the highest levels of the agency.

According to a NYTimes article

The filing includes 10 e-mail messages that were among documents the agency recently turned over to lawyers for the black agents as part of an increasingly bitter discrimination lawsuit. The messages were written mainly from 2003 through 2005, and were sent to and from e-mail accounts of at least 20 Secret Service supervisors.

• In some of the court documents, the senders of the e-mail messages are identified only by the jobs they currently occupy and the rank they held when the messages were sent. For example, an Oct. 9, 2003, message referring to a “Harlem Spelling Bee,” ridiculing black slang, was sent by Thomas Grupski, then assistant director for protective operations, who, according to the filing, now heads the Office of Government Liaison and Public Affairs.

• A March 3, 2003, message describing Mr. Jackson as the “Righteous Reverend” was passed among several Secret Service supervisors. The message, about a missile striking an airplane in which Mr. Jackson and his wife were traveling, concludes, it “certainly wouldn’t be a great loss and it probably wouldn’t be an accident either.”

• Another message contains what one Secret Service official said was a joke referring to interracial sex. The joke circulated in February and March 2003. It was sent, according to the lawsuit, by Donald White, who heads the Presidential Protective Detail, to Kurt Douglass, an agent in charge of the Secret Service office in Cincinnati.

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ISLAMABAD, May 8: The United States has agreed not to post the controversial ex-Guantanamo Bay prison chief, Maj-Gen Jay W. Hood, in Pakistan after a public uproar in the country against his appointment.

“The US government has taken note of the sensitivities of Pakistan government and the public regarding the posting of Gen Hood and it (the posting) would not materialise now,” a diplomatic source told Dawn on Thursday.

Gen Hood, whose tenure as the commanding general of Guantanamo Bay prison was marred by scandals of sacrilege of Holy Quran and human rights violations of the inmates during detention and interrogation, was posted by Pentagon in March as the chief of office of the US Defence Representative in Pakistan, a division of the US embassy.

The US government had claimed that Gen Hood’s nomination was a reflection of the continued US interest in cooperating with the Pakistani armed forces. No particular reasons were given by the US government for posting such a person in Pakistan where religious sentiments run high, except for that he was a senior military officer.

His appointment came under intense public and media criticism in Pakistan and frequent references were made to his conduct as the chief of Guantanamo Bay prison where hundreds of Muslim prisoners, many of them Pakistanis, have been held without charge.Equally, the government was also criticised for not having refused his nomination and remaining silent over the issue despite public sensitivities.

In reply to a question about the posting, Foreign Office Spokesman Mohammad Sadiq said at his weekly press briefing on Thursday that the government was addressing the issue keeping in view the sentiments and sensitivities of the public.

Our reputation precedes us …

Pentagon withdraws controversial ‘Guantánamo Bay’ Gen Hood from Pak posting

Washington, May 9 : The Bush administration is learnt to have withdrawn the appointment of Maj. Gen. Jay W. Hood as a senior American officer based in Pakistan to fight Al Qaeda and the Taliban in tribal areas, reflecting the widening shadow that the military prison at Guantánamo Bay was still casting over American foreign policy.

The US State Department must be smokin’ something nasty. How concerned should we be? Is American Foreign Policy so clueless that we offer up a controversial Bush clone with dirty hands to represent us to Pakistan? The whole concept of a “diplomat” is the employment of tact to gain strategic advantage, one set of tools being the phrasing of statements in a non-confrontational, or polite manner.

“Diplomacy is the art and practice of conducting negotiations between representatives of groups or states. It usually refers to international diplomacy, the conduct of international relations through the intercession of professional diplomats with regard to issues of peace-making, trade, war, economics and culture. International treaties politicians.” are usually negotiated by diplomats prior to endorsement by national

“Diplomacy is the art of saying “Nice doggie” until you can find a rock.” Will Rogers quotes

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Of course Bush and the GOP say that the bill will help lenders. It didn’t seem to bother the gang of crooks and thieves when business was booming and lenders where passing out loans to anyone who could sign their name.

It’s unfortunate that the average American homeowner is not a Wall Street business because we know Bush would pass that bill.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Strapped homeowners could refinance into government-backed mortgages and states would get money to deal with foreclosed property under Democrats’ housing aid plan.

The measures, slated for votes Thursday, constitute the most significant action Congress has taken to date to address the housing crisis that’s at the center of the nation’s economic woes.

President Bush has threatened to veto both measures, which he says reward lenders and speculators. Democrats counter that the bills will head off hundreds of thousands of foreclosures, stabilize the shaky housing market, and prevent neighborhood blight.

Those homeowners could refinance into new loans if their lenders agreed to take substantial losses on the original mortgages. Borrowers would have to show they could afford to make payments on the new loans. They would have to share with FHA at least half of their proceeds if they profited from selling or refinancing again.

The plan is projected to help roughly 500,000 borrowers at a cost of $2.7 billion over the next five years.

A separate bill by Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., would send $15 billion in loans and grants to states for the purchase and rehabilitation of foreclosed properties. Proponents say it will prevent blight in neighborhoods plagued by abandoned, foreclosed homes.

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• Last night’s results in the North Carolina and Indiana primaries have left Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton out of options. She ran a tough and spirited campaign that will be talked about for a generation. But it’s over.

• The time has come for Clinton to adopt a gracious and conciliatory tone, end her campaign and endorse Sen. Barack Obama for president.

• Tuesday night was, indeed, a game changer. Clinton suffered a drubbing in North Carolina — a “big” state, in her terminology — and barely squeaked out a win in Indiana. She needed a convincing win there and a strong finish in the Tar Heel state to convince voters and, more importantly, donors that she still had a chance to win over the dwindling number of uncommitted superdelegates.

• Unfortunately, all the talk of experience and competence was belied by a campaign rife with incompetence. From Bill Clinton’s ruinous (and arguably racist) campaign swing through South Carolina, to an obvious failure to craft a strategy past Super Tuesday, her campaign staff made so many miscalculations that Hillary went from a coronation to a shocking defeat.

• Hillary Clinton’s gay supporters should take a day to mourn her defeat and then join Obama’s cause. She’s resilient and will bounce back, probably as Senate majority leader, a job much more in line with her skills than that of president.

Full article

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In 2005, Scott Bloch was put in charge of the Office of Special Counsel which is suppose to protect the three million federal government employee against job discrimination, retaliation for whistle-blowing, political hackery,  secrecy, and partisanship. Unfortunately, Scott Bloch is a gay-hating, secretive, partisan, political hack.

During his tenure, Scott Bloch has blocked the ability of government employees to turn in their bosses for wrongdoing. I’m sure this conduct has pleased Bush; who has spent years replacing the government’s inspectors general for investigating whistleblower complaints against partisan hacks. Bloch’s agenda created more waste, more fraud, and more abuse of taxpayer dollars. It also means less accountability for Bush-administration appointees who pursue their own ideologically driven prejudices.

Bloch, a Bush loyalist, supposedly had big plans for a sweeping probe of the Bush administration and the activities Karl Rove and Alberto Gonzales. None have been investigated. What a freaking joke.

FBI spokesman Richard Kolko confirmed that agents with the FBI and White House Office of Personnel Management executed “a number of court authorized federal search warrants today” but declined further comment.

Jim Mitchell, communications director with the Office of the Special Counsel, confirmed the search of Bloch’s work area and computers. He said the office was cooperating with the investigation.

The raids mark the latest twist in what critics describe as Bloch’s bizarre tenure at the head of the federal agency responsible for protecting the rights of federal workers and ensuring that government whistle-blowers are not subjected to reprisals.

He has been on the hot seat since he took office in 2004, in part for closing hundreds of whistle-blower cases allegedly without investigating them.

“It’s like finding out that your town fire chief is an arsonist,” said Jeff Ruch, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Protection, a whistle-blower group.

“It’s just sort of jaw-dropping how bizarre this entire episode has been.”

A group of current and former Office of Special Counsel workers filed a complaint against Bloch in 2005, accusing him of retaliating against those who opposed with his policies through intimidation and involuntary transfers. The employees also accused Bloch of refusing to protect federal workers from discrimination based on sexual orientation.

A year later, in December 2006, Bloch paid $1,149 in taxpayer money to have an outside tech company, Geeks on Call, scrub his government laptop computer, according to transcripts of an interview he gave to House investigators in March. At that time, Bloch told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee staff that the data wipe was done to protect government and personal information on the computer, not to destroy it.

• Rep. Tom Davis of Virginia, the top Republican on the House panel, asked Democrats to subpoena Bloch for his sworn testimony and personal e-mails that could clarify what was destroyed. He suggested Bloch “misused his government computer for personal business.”

“The e-mails were essential in determining whether Mr. Bloch had used his computer for inappropriate purposes,” Davis wrote in a letter Tuesday to House Oversight Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif.

Tuesday’s raids were done in connection to a criminal investigation of whether Bloch obstructed justice and, potentially, lied to Congress, according to the law enforcement officials.

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Indiana is to early to call. Returns from 21 percent of the Indiana precincts showed Clinton with 57 percent of the vote to 43 percent for Obama.

The two states, with a combined 187 delegates to the August nominating convention at stake, were the biggest prizes left in the race to pick the party’s presidential candidate for November’s election. After Tuesday, only six contests remain.

A pair of losses would be disastrous for Clinton, the former first lady who is struggling to overtake Obama in the White House race.

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Easter Lemming couldn’t decide which of his fine posts was the best last week and so missed the round-up.

CouldBeTrue from South Texas Chisme notes Republican-run government favors crony money over Texans’ health. Asarco, a proven polluter, is given a permit to start polluting again and Abbott says lead poisoning landlords have a right to privacy.

John Coby at Bay Area Houston, thinks Bob Perry should go to Hell.

Doing My Part For The Left’s Refinish69 joins Austin high school students in Breaking the Silence.

WhosPlayin writes about the disturbing trend for hospitals to require payment up front for expensive services like chemotherapy. Even “non-profit” hospitals like U.T.’s M.D. Anderson are doing this, even while reducing free care and racking up huge surpluses.

Off the Kuff looks at the race for Harris County Sheriff and foresees immigration issues playing a big role.

The Texas Cloverleaf wonders why Governor 39% appointed a policy nerd to chair the Transportation Commission, rather than someone who knows anything about roads. Cronyism perhaps?

In the wake of the SCOTUS decision approving voter ID legislation last week, PDiddie of Brains and Eggs fact-checks the need for it.

North Texas Liberal’s Texas Toad takes a look at the new Republican culture war over something just as useless:
allowing guns in national parks. Thank you, John Cornyn.

WCNews at Eye On Williamson has this post on the Reaction To Perry’s TxDOT Appointments.

McBlogger take a moment to talk about the state of the TTC and Guv. 39%’s appointments to the Transportation Commission.

Lightseeker shares his opinion On Trusting Free Market to Regulate Government over at Texas Kaos.

Vince at Capitol Annex shows another example of Voter ID Idiocy, this time highlighting an editorial from the Texarkana Gazette’s pseudo-ivory-tower-intellectual editorial board and explains why such thinking is typical of suburban newspaper editors.

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Darth Hillary and Barack Skywalker

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Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad’s three-nation tour of Pakistan, Sri Lanka and India and the welter of agreements and understandings reached between Tehran and these governments serve notice beyond the mere issue of energy security and Iran’s expanding role in the sub-continent’s energy market; rather, these developments signify a new stage in Iran’s foreign policy that is best described as “pan-regionalism”.

   From the Persian Gulf to the Caspian region, the Caucasus, Central Asia, South Asia and beyond, thanks to its unique geographical location, Iran is in many ways an ideal connecting bridge that has not until now fully exploited its advantageous “equidistance” from India and Europe.

Straddled between the two energy hubs of the Persian Gulf and Caspian Sea, Iran is a suitable conduit for trade, energy and non-energy, between the Arab states of the Persian Gulf, which are members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), and the landlocked Central Asian states. The GCC comprises Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Also, with ambitious transportation links projected under the veneer of a “north-south corridor”, Iran, Russia and India have conceived new areas of cooperation that connect northern Europe to the Indian Ocean via Iran and the Russian Federation. Already, Iran is an energy exporter to Europe through Turkey, funneling through Turkmenistan’s gas and swapping oil with Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan.

Iran has plans not to lag behind the so-called new “Silk Road” project that involves China, India and the GCC states first and foremost and yet for every conceivable reason must be considered Iran-inclusive because of the country’s proximity, its expanding trade and economic cooperation with the GCC, and its own trade liberalization policies, reflected in the expansion of free-trade zones.

This is one reason why Iran is modernizing its Persian Gulf islands of Kish and Qeshm, hoping to turn them into tourist hotspots as well as hubs for trade and even finance in the near future.

The $7.6 billion Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline (IPI), meanwhile, has the potential more than any other existing Iranian project to extend the purview of Iran’s “pan-regional” approach, by organically connecting Iran to the sub-continent on a long-term basis and by providing a new Iran-Pakistan-India nexus that could in turn be used for addressing what is lacking so far, that is, more than paltry inter-regional trade.

The poor state of Iran’s trade with South Asia is reflected in the sub-optimal trade between Iran and Pakistan, as is the case between Iran and other members of the region’s 10-nation Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO).

Yet that may change, particularly if Iran (a) is inducted in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, at which it is presently an observer, and (b) the IPI project finally gets underway, in which case Iran’s greater integration into larger entities will bolster its attempt within the ECO to make this regional organization, which is headquartered in Tehran, more effective.

It is not far-fetched to think that Iran and Iraq will one day join the GCC states in a new regional cooperative framework.

Certainly, that is how Iran wants it today, as seen in the recent unveiling of Iranian plans for cooperative security and the like put forward at their hitherto recalcitrant GCC neighbors, perhaps better pitched as part of an Islamic common market.

For those not paying attention, the baby steps of a serious economic and political alliance within this huge region is unfolding. The keystone here is Russia. With the Sino-Russian Treaty that followed the 911 attacks, Russia and China sought to strengthen their geo-political positions out of concern for US reactions. They saw the US opportunity to expand its “sphere of influence” for security reasons. They were correct. This was the impetus for Trans-Siberia Pipeline which includes the Eastern Siberia-Pacific Pipeline. Enter the opportunity to embrace the Iranian economy and promote the IPI pipeline. Russia encourages Ahmadinejad to step up the diplomacy within the region. The Sino-Russia-Iranian empire will naturally include India, Pakistan and dip into the entire South East Asia region. We are looking at an economic alliance that will rival the EU and anything the US may do to unite the Western Hemisphere.

The next President of the United States will have to deal with a very powerful economic force. The rhetoric of attacking Iran because we are “pretty sure” they want nuclear weapons
because they hate Israel, threatens more than just Iran. The majority of the world population is not going to allow these threats to materialize without response. Much of this world is hungry and fears for its own future. The US has alienated many of these cultures. The hand of Ahmadinejad offers hope for sustenance in a shifting global economy.

America must choose its next president carefully. The arrogance that America’s way is the ONLY way will be its doom if the rhetoric and posturing continues. We must not forget that the Third World is much larger and more desperate than the First World.

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Thanks to Tina for sending this treasure.

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