Leaving his Wife, for Baghdad,



As most of you know I am a photographer, I work in the studio during the week and do weddings on weekends. This picture is from a wedding I did last week.

When I do military weddings I tend to get emotional. Not because of anything that is said, or any ceremony or anything else. There's just something in the room. This is one of the few weddings where I actually saw the emotion in the room and captured it on film.

Check out some more stuff at Flickr , there are a few more of this couple dancing, and a bunch of other stuff.

For the past 3 days I have had an odd collection playing in winamp

1) Frank Sinatra - My Way the best of
2) Bruce Springsteen - The Seeger Sessions (bluegrass)
3) Bad Religion - The Process of Belief (Punk Rock)

What an odd snapshot of my musical tastes. Basically I like anything good, genre doesn't matter.

The Bush administration is incompotent. How come nobody has ever faulted them for not stopping the 911 attacks? They are treated as fearless leaders, whose opinions are as reliable as Jesus' ghospel. And for what? They're the ones who fucked up in the first place and let 911 happen. Now ABC and Fox 'News' blame Clinton? Yea right, you jackofs were the ones in office! We're supposed to forget.

Below in this news article we find out a few things.
Condoleezza Rice was directly warned by the Director of the FBI George Tenet that he was concerned about imminent danger of terrorist attacks inside the US. The meeting happened on July 10, 2001 Months before the attack. they "came away from the meeting feeling that Ms. Rice had not taken the warnings seriously."

The 911 commission had no knowledge of this meeting untill this week when Bob Woodward's new book came out "State of Denial" Commissioners are suggesting a coverup. A serious crime.

Also "Mr. Woodward writes that in the weeks before the Sept. 11 attacks, Mr. Tenet believed that Mr. Rumsfeld was impeding the effort to develop a coherent strategy to capture or kill Osama bin Laden," That's a bad sign.

See the entire article at Raw Story
They keep updating the article at the end as news breaks about this.

a 911 Commissioner speaks out here at Think Progress


State of Denial: Two months before 9/11, Rice gave the 'brush-off' to 'impending terrorist attack' warning


(Update: Former Counsel to the 9/11 Commission suggests that "[v]ery possibly, someone committed a crime" by engaging in a "cover-up" of the warning)

According to a new book written by Washington Post investigative reporter Bob Woodward, two months before the September 11 attacks, then National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice gave the "brush-off" to an "impending terrorist attack" warning by former C.I.A. director George J. Tenet and his counterterrorism coordinator.

An article in Friday's New York Times first mentioned the warning, and a front page book review of Woodward's State of Denial in Saturday's edition provides more details.

"On July 10, 2001, the book says, Mr. Tenet and his counterterrorism chief, J. Cofer Black, met with Ms. Rice at the White House to impress upon her the seriousness of the intelligence the agency was collecting about an impending attack," David E. Sanger reported on Friday. "But both men came away from the meeting feeling that Ms. Rice had not taken the warnings seriously."

Sanger also reported that Tenet told Woodward that before 9/11, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was "impeding" efforts to catch Osama bin Laden.

"Mr. Woodward writes that in the weeks before the Sept. 11 attacks, Mr. Tenet believed that Mr. Rumsfeld was impeding the effort to develop a coherent strategy to capture or kill Osama bin Laden," wrote Sanger. "Mr. Rumsfeld questioned the electronic signals from terrorism suspects that the National Security Agency had been intercepting, wondering whether they might be part of an elaborate deception plan by Al Qaeda."

Saturday's New York Times review claims that in Woodward's book, Rice "is depicted as a presidential enabler, ineffectual at her job of coordinating interagency strategy and planning."

"For instance, Mr. Woodward writes that on July 10, 2001, Mr. Tenet and his counterterrorism coordinator, J. Cofer Black, met with Ms. Rice to warn her of mounting intelligence about an impending terrorist attack, but came away feeling they'd been given 'the brush-off' - a revealing encounter, given Ms. Rice's recent comments, rebutting former President Bill Clinton's allegations that the Bush administration had failed to pursue counterterrorism measures aggressively before 9/11," writes Michiko Kakutani.

Saturday's Washington Post has more details regarding the meeting.

"The book also reports that then-CIA Director George J. Tenet and his counterterrorism chief, J. Cofer Black, grew so concerned in the summer of 2001 about a possible al-Qaeda attack that they drove straight to the White House to get high-level attention," Peter Baker reports for the Post.

"Tenet called Rice, then the national security adviser, from his car to ask to see her, in hopes that the surprise appearance would make an impression. But the meeting on July 10, 2001, left Tenet and Black frustrated and feeling brushed off, Woodward reported," the article continues. "Rice, they thought, did not seem to feel the same sense of urgency about the threat and was content to wait for an ongoing policy review."

I'm being Blunt today, and I don't have time for a well reasoned and eloquent post, maybe in the next few days.

I'm totally distraught by what is happening in this country. It's getting bad, real fucking bad, real fucking quick. And I'm afraid 90% of America is totally ignorant of what is happening to us.

How many of you know that over the past week America lost it's soul?

No really it's that bad,

Some may think I'm being alarmist, but there are no checks against the executive's power to designate anyone they want as a enemy combatant and hold them forever without trial and torture them. And congress just said that's ok. Why? because the Republicans are foaming at the mouth to call Democrats "Soft on Terrorism" before the November elections.

I'm working on a more thoughtful article about this, here are some of my notes on the topic so far.

Themes of the argument:
War is the biggest test of a democracy.

Populations can be whipped into a fervor when they are in fear of an enemy.

Politicians are manipulating fear of terrorism to win elections.

Those in government are profiting from this war, what incentive do they have to stop it.

Rulers would love to spy on the public and put people in jail without asking for permission or just cause, that's why we are supposed to be ruled by laws, instead of the will of men.

Those in power wish to keep that power, and increase it, this is not good for the survival of the nation or the welfare of its people, that's why we have checks against the power of the government.

It is only logical for a ruler to want more power and more control, America was designed to guard against the lust for power.

The most basic foundation of a justice system is that the accused must be proven guilty.

September 28 2006, was the day that a person in detention has no right to know why they are there or attempt to prove their innocence.

Modern democracies grew out of opposition to Kings and Monarchs who arbitrarily detained anyone they didn't like. Rulers must have a reason to put someone in jail, and that person has a right to prove that they are innocent of that charge. Not in America.

Torture does not work, you get bad intelligence, and interrogators become demoralized, good people will leave, and interrogations are handled by hateful thugs.
______________________________

And Since I can't find the time or energy to be eloquent here are some people who Have.

Ny Times:


Democracy Now:

Aziz Huq:

Bush lobbies Congress on terror suspects

Ok, I need to know, Where does president Bush get off claiming that he alone knows how to interrogate terrorism suspects? He has never been in Combat, neither have any of his close advisers. But now he truly believes, with all the passion he's shown in press conferences, that his way and only his way, will make us safer. With a track record like Bush's? I'd rather trust American Law, International law, and Colon Powell.

Colon Powell was the Secretary of State when 911 happened, he knows everything the president knows, he's been in combat and commanded troops on the battlefield. Unlike the President, Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld and everyone else who avoided the Vietnam Draft.

Powell has spoken strongly against this proposal, so has John McCain, John Warner and Lindsey Grahm, all republican senators on the Armed Services Committee.
Powell's letter to McCain:
"The world is beginning to doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism. To redefine Common Article 3 would add to those doubts. Furthermore, it would put our own troops at risk."

If our troops are tortured we will have no basis to demand their torturers be punished. We will be breaking the verry law that protects our soldiers.

Bush wants to allow things like "waterboarding" that's where you drown someone until they inhale water and pass out, then they are resuscitated. From testimony, it is excruciating to inhale water into your lungs and sinuses, you pass out from the pain above all else.

That's torture, the United States does not stand for such things, these are evil and sinister acts. just because Bush happens to be president for 6 years doesn't mean he can soil the constitution and remove the honorable standards that make America a proud nation.

Bush's proposal aims to 'clarify' the Geneva conventions. Ooooooh, ok. But the Geneva Conventions were signed by 47 other countries. We agreed upon them at that time, and it has been the bedrock or international legitimacy. Now the US is going to be the first to chip away at it.

Offering our own interpretations of the laws of war. That sounds like a terrible thing for any country to do, offer their own interpretation of the laws of war. Especially during a time of war. Isn't that the whole point of laws in the first place? Isn't that the whole point of checks and balances? This is not a nation ruled by the passions of men, we are ruled by time tested Laws. That's the whole point of the constitution. And it's what makes a democracy last.

International law is the only way that peace can exist today. Without law your only option is violence and war. I do not want to leave my children with a world that has no trust in international standards of law. There will be no peace in such a world.

We follow the law, that's what makes us the good guys and them the bad guys.