Update 2:  It appears NPR corrected the record. It was a barge, not a tugboat. Not sure who else has corrected themselves.

Well, there was a reason for my questions, and while at the time it seemed to have been less important with relation to media than I thought, it WAS important with regard to the containment effort.

I realize there is an investigation going on with regard to the newest well leak, but should that boat have been in the water? Has anyone asked that question? Have journalists asked that question?

In my post on the subject there was this:

” … may require vessels to install and use specified navigation equipment, communications equipment, electronic relative motion analyzer equipment, or any electronic or other device necessary to comply with a vessel traffic service or which is necessary in the interests of vessel safety: Provided, That the Secretary shall not require fishing vessels under 300 gross tons as measured under section 14502 of title 46, United States Code, or an alternate tonnage measured under section 14302 of that title as prescribed by the Secretary under section 14104 of that title or recreational vessels 65 feet or less to possess or use the equipment or devices required by this subsection solely under the authority of this Act …”

Associated Press reports:  “The Coast Guard says a towboat was pushing the barge on Mud Lake when it hit the wellhead. The Coast Guard says the towboat captain told investigators the well was not lit as required.”

Questions (new questions added):

• What size was the vessel?
• Were there cleanup efforts in the area?
• Will there be charges brought?
• What are the requirements for sealing ‘abandoned’ oil wells? If there aren’t any, why aren’t there any?

Questions up there.

So asked and answered Jay Rosen.

“Ask yourself: Why didn’t Wikileaks just publish the Afghanistan war logs and let journalists ‘round the world have at them? Why hand them over to The New York Times, the Guardian and Der Spiegel first? Because as Julien Assange, founder of Wikileaks, explained last October, if a big story is available to everyone equally, journalists will pass on it.”

I can’t agree with that.

I truly believe that Wikileaks needed their help.  The news organizations that the organization leaked the data dump to have inside knowledge on terminology, and history, and ranks, and locations … all of which I think Wikileaks had no clue about – or a marginal understanding of it.

In the end, while many thought there were a few interesting details to be found, and even the Rachel Maddow Show said it thought that the statement that all the information was found during the Bush Administration’s time in office was a cop out, still failed to answer key questions that Wikileaks’ skills could have brought us. I think their skills could be put to better use.

We still have unanswered questions that Glenn Greenwald over at Salon.com brings up on a daily basis.

I’m waiting for the Wikileaks intel on these questions:

• What was the intel at the time of the Bush Administration and how was it manipulated?
  By whom was it manipulated and how?
• Where is the proof that I can see in my hands?
• Where are the emails and why can’t those be brought to light in their entirety rather than focusing on mundane details of war speak at a time of war?
• The Obama Administration may be taking on some previous administration policies, but in what way and what context?  What strategies have changed and why? Has the COIN agenda changed? If, ultimately, Petraeus rewrote the book, and we don’t want to follow the same strategies, why is Petraeus in charge again?
• At the time of Tillman’s death and subsequent award why was it not reported in the news media that McChrystal was accused of doing everything RIGHT according to the Department of Defense, and those who actually didn’t were let off with no questioning by the media?

• Why has not ONE media outlet read Petraeus’ COIN strategy and asked questions directly relating to it?
• Why does the news media continue to assume that a COIN strategy crafted directly by Petraeus belongs to McChrystal?
• Why has inquiry shifted from the man that the left called ‘Betray us’ to someone else?
• Why was no one reading the NYTs when it was reporting on all of the Wikileaks ‘new’ scandals?
• Why was no one doing this research as we headed off to war in both Afghanistan and Iraq?
• Why?

Maybe Wikileaks can answer my questions.

My very closest human friend took his life on Monday.

Here is what I remember:

● Embrace who you are and write it on your soul … or your body.
● Be kind, and be childlike in your approach to new things in life.
● Don’t yell.
● If you want to keep it, take care of it.
● Lace up boots must be meticulously laced and wrapped around the top so one can walk through the snow or rain — this takes about 10 minutes.
● Nature is beautiful, sacred, and too important to ignore.
● Your friends and family are the most important people in your life. forgive them their flaws and don’t give up on them.
● If you must have a cell phone, it must be small enough to carry in your front pocket, and must not be able to be felt thru your pants.
● Girls like it when you smell good.
● It’s not the tiny details themselves that matter, it’s what you learn from them.
● Don’t be shallow.
● The word ‘compass’ also must be spoken as ‘comp ASS.’
● ”This band, have you heard of them? ‘Cold Play’ (it must be said like that, just as if two separate words) They’re really good.”
● The Blues are incredible!
● Harmonica is awesome!
● Rock ‘n roll is awesome!
● ”i’ve never peed on the toilet seat.”
● Don’t judge people right away, and don’t give up immediately if you’re disappointed.
● Be adventurous: you never know who you’ll meet, what you’ll learn, or what you’ll see.
● It’s the little things that matter. A turkey feather given as a gift of abundance is more priceless than anything paid for.
● Travel light.
● If you don’t know what something means … ask without fear of seeming stupid.
● Everyone is interesting, everyone has something to say, and everyone is worth taking care of.
● Safety pins are probably not the best things to use to hold a duvet cover onto a duvet.
● If you put everything in the same spot every time, you’ll be sure to find it — even if you’re a messy person.
● Everything is worth investigating and there’s always something cool in there.
● Don’t ask ‘what’ if you didn’t understand something said. Instead, repeat back the jibberish you heard: ‘Frozen peas on the roof?’
● Girls like clean fingernails.

All of these things, I learned from my sweetest friend, Larry, who took his life on Monday… and these things are not sad.  These things are what makes him one of the best people who ever lived and who ever touched our lives.

You may have heard that the Library of Congress is now recording all public ‘tweets’ from twitter.  Larry Wayne Bessa didn’t grasp the concept of technology, but Larry and his memory (as I saw him) is now immortalized and saved for all time in United States History.  And, it has its own special tag, #bestofbessa.  Every time I think of something awesome he said, I will tweet it and it will be recorded for all time.

I hope you are at rest, my dearest friend.  I will miss you forever.

Billie

July 23, 2010

The proof is in not in the pseudo body language analysis that Bill O’ Reilly brings, but instead in ACTUAL body language. Also, who wants to talk about race when it’s hot outside and summertime?

Andrew Breitbart revealed himself in the second half of a segment that Think Progress caught.

At about the three minute mark in this video, Breitbart reveals himself for the fraud he is:

And I know this because I tweeted about it extensively last night.
You see, Google, amongst other things, are WONDERFUL tools for research for any journalist or reporter worth their salt.

So here is the very first post that I could find online about Ms. Sherrod and NAACP and USDA.

(Update for clarity) You see, if Sherrod gave the talk to NAACP members in March, and there’s no YouTube record of it until the weekend prior to the hullaballoo, and not only that there’s not a substantial web presence for her AT ALL, then:  in both parts one and two of of John King’s interview with Breitbart he’s pretty clear about receiving the video of Ms. Sherrod in MARCH – MARCH I tell you!

Then, committing an unprecedented act of journalism King follows up that line of questioning to confirm … that’s when Breitbart gives himself away.  While it’s POSSIBLE that Breitbart received a ‘tape’ he QUICKLY changes his story and all of a sudden he got it at a way later date.

That post – edited of course – was from two edited videos the weekend prior and was  from a guy who, specifically wrote in the text intro that this was filmed in March 2010 … works for Andrew Breitbart.  Breitbart said he GOT the video in ‘March of this year,’ but that video was uploaded by the freelancer, I guess, to appear on a Sunday, obviously edited, patently ridiculous, unchecked by the MSM, and unchallenged in any way.

‘Fair and balanced.’ ‘You be the judge.’ ‘No bias, no bull.’

Lying in action right in the video.

Three MAJOR news media outlets declined to pick up a phone, Monday, to ask Shirley Sherrod about what she spoke about at a NAACP meeting.

Still, bloggers, newsies, and Twitter alike continue to BLAME NAACP for not doing a fact check of more than 450,000 members of the organization to find out who owned the video (late addition: usually meetings of this kind are free and open to the public).

Nevermind that the media ITSELF is responsible for reporting such things.  NEVERMIND that even the WHITE HOUSE relies on accurate reporting.  I’m sorry, but there is no blaming Fox News for this as there are multiple news outlets reporting out there.  I’m sorry, but there is no need to blame NAACP for this as the group relies on CNN, MSNBC, and the others to report, investigate, make phone calls and do what they need to to figure out what the truth is.

Instead, the subjects of Sherrod’s speech to NAACP members were debunked by the citizens whose farm she helped save.

Here’s what the publications  reported:

Politico: “On Tuesday, the family of the Georgia farmer Sherrod was speaking of in the video came forward to defend her. Sherrod also went on CNN to defend herself and attack the NAACP for criticizing her without first calling her to confirm details. She also charged on CNN that the White House wanted her to resign – a claim the White House denies.”

New York Times: “Ms. Sherrod took to the airwaves, especially those of CNN, on Tuesday. She told the network that the N.A.A.C.P. was ‘“the reason why this happened.”‘  ‘They got into a fight with the Tea Party, and all of this came out as a result of that,’” she said.”

Washington Post: “But before all the facts were in, Sherrod lost her job. She told CNN that an undersecretary at agriculture told her that the White House wanted her out. The White House denies this. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the decision was his. Meanwhile, the wife of the now-deceased farmer told CNN that Sherrod saved their family farm.”

NOT A SINGLE ONE of these reports have AN ORIGINAL quote for their publication from Sherrod herself or the farmers she could have directed them to.

NAACP is NOT to blame … all of you are.  Shame on you.

Do better please.

I have to begin by saying: “I hate war.”

While I am not dogmatic about it, I truly believe there are some instances where intervention – in cases of human atrocities, etc. – may be the right thing to do.

On that note, we are in two wars.  Like it or not … we are there.

But, what is difficult for me to stomach is a profile, steeped in opinion,  unattributed, and with something as complex as war and its strategies – providing absolutely no complex comparisons.

While reading Hastings’ story “Runaway General” for the GAZILLIONTH time, it was not that easy to find things to fact check … as there weren’t that many facts.  However, let’s begin at the beginning.

“Taking the advice of both the Pentagon and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he also fired Gen. David McKiernan – then the U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan – and replaced him with a man he didn’t know and had met only briefly: Gen. Stanley McChrystal. It was the first time a top general had been relieved from duty during wartime in more than 50 years, since Harry Truman fired Gen. Douglas MacArthur at the height of the Korean War.”

• I could be misunderstanding this statement, but I thought Iraq was a war too, and I thought Gen. George Casey and Gen. John Abizaid were fired by George Bush.

“Even though he had voted for Obama, McChrystal and his new commander in chief failed from the outset to connect.”

• It is just kind of rude to consider including a political bent as per fact check request: “IMPORTANT — PLEASE DO NOT INCLUDE THIS — THIS IS PERSONAL AND PRIVATE INFORMATION AND UNREALTED [sic] TO HIS JOB. IT WOULD BE INAPPROPRIATE TO SHARE. MY REASON FOR THIS IS IT WOULD PRESENT AN UNDUE COMMAND INFLLUENCE [sic] ON JUNIOR OFFICERS OR SOLDIERS WHO SHOULD MAKE THEIR OWN POLITICAL DECISIONS. THERE ARE VERY STRICT RULES IN THE MILITARY ON SEPARATING CHURCH AND STATE ON THIS SORT OF STUFF – HAVE TO KEEP OUT OF POLITICAL PREFERENCE AND PERSONAL CHOICE.”

“From the start, McChrystal was determined to place his personal stamp on Afghanistan, to use it as a laboratory for a controversial military strategy known as counterinsurgency.”

• Well, that’s debatable as per Hastings’ own source:“If you go back to this report that General McChrystal submitted to the President – this is the one that was leaked imprudently as you’ll recollect – he didn’t write that report. “

“Spending hundreds of billions of dollars on the fifth-poorest country on earth has failed to win over the civilian population … “

• This may be nitpicking, but there’s no source for this.  International Monetary Fund in the current Wikipedia listing says the country is 13th poorest; the CIA says 10th.

” … it’s precisely the kind of gigantic, mind-numbing, multigenerational nation-building project he explicitly said he didn’t want.”

• Is it? “During his presidential campaign, Barack Obama spoke about using diplomacy, nation-building and other non-military approaches to promote U.S. interests abroad. According to this world view, advancing living standards abroad could enhance security at home.”

“The biggest military operation of the year – a ferocious offensive that began in February to retake the southern town of Marja – continues to drag on, prompting McChrystal himself to refer to it as a ‘bleeding ulcer.’”

• “Before McChrystal got into trouble for remarks made to a Rolling Stone magazine reporter, he raised eyebrows with a remark about a key NATO operation in the country’s south — to restore Afghan government control at Marjah. He said the effort had turned into ‘a bleeding ulcer.’  By that, he meant that ongoing clashes with Taliban fighters and mounting coalition casualties were making the initial success of the Marjah offensive look like a longer-term failure.”

• In the original story:  “The military shares the blame for generating great expectations about how fast the Marjah campaign could turn the tide against the Taliban , expectations that defense officials in Washington , speaking only on the condition of anonymity, said the Obama administration was eager to embrace.”

“McChrystal banned alcohol on base … “

• He didn’t. He extended the ban to NATO allies, and at his headquarters: “The ban on drinking in McChrystal’s headquarters is similar to a drinking ban that already applied to U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan for years.”

” … kicked out Burger King and other symbols of American excess … “

• Emphasizing that soldiers needed focus as it was not an ‘amusement park.’ Not much to do with ‘American excess.’

” … expanded the morning briefing to include thousands of officers and refashioned the command center into a Situational Awareness Room …”

• Again, not really as the person fact checked iterated:  “WHEN WE ARRIVED THE COMMANDERS MORNING BRIEF HAD BEEN RESERVED ONLY FOR SENIOR STAFF AT HEADQUARTERS – ABOUT 30 PEOPLE – HE MADE IT OPEN AND AVAILABLE TO ANYONE IN THEATER, AND IN THE UNITED STATES OR EMBASSIES ABROAD WHO WANTED TO DIAL IN. WE ESTIMATE NOW ABOUT 4000 + PEOPLE PARTICIPATE EACH MORNING”

“… a free-flowing information hub modeled after Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s offices in New York.”

• Nope, not really:  “WELL NOT MODELED AFTER BLOOMBERG’S CITY HALL – BECAUSE HE WAS DOING THIS AT JSOC BEFORE BLOOMBERG WAS MAYOR. YOU COULD SAY SIMILIAR [sic] TO BLOOMBERG’S OFFICE, OR A TRADING FLOOR, OR A NEWS ROOM. FLAT, FAST, EFFICIENT.”

“By far the most crucial – and strained – relationship is between McChrystal and Eikenberry, the U.S. ambassador. According to those close to the two men … “

• Just how surprising is this information?  Dec. 2009:  “Eikenberry won friends among professional diplomats for his easygoing manner and quick understanding of their problems – and for his open irritation at McChrystal’s imperious manner. ‘McChrystal came in and he just thought he was some kind of Roman proconsul, a [Douglas] MacArthur,’ an Eikenberry colleague notes. ‘He was going to run the whole thing. He didn’t need to consult with the State Department or civilians, let alone the ambassador. This was not only the military’s show, it was his show.’

“The job instead went to British Ambassador Mark Sedwill – a move that effectively increased McChrystal’s influence over diplomacy by shutting out a powerful rival. ‘In reality, that position needs to be filled by an American for it to have weight,’ says a U.S. official familiar with the negotiations. “

• Yet Eikenberry publicly praised the choice:  “With a multinational coalition like that in Afghanistan, Ambassador Eikenberry said, it is essential to have non-Americans in leadership posts. ‘That’s a very powerful signal that this is a true alliance,’ he said, adding that Mr. Sedwill was an ‘absolutely superb diplomat.’”

“Cadets repeatedly trashed the mess hall in food fights, and birthdays were celebrated with a tradition called “rat fucking … ‘”

• Nothing new. Ratfuck and Rat Fuck are Nixonian terms as well as military and more.

“In the late 1990s, McChrystal shrewdly improved his inside game, spending a year at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and then at the Council on Foreign Relations, where he co-authored a treatise on the merits and drawbacks of humanitarian interventionism.”

• Yes. He did.  It is here. And here’s a crucial bit:  “We must, however, remember images cut both ways.  As images of suffering or injustice call us to intervene, images such as Americans or Somalis dead in the streets of Mogadishu or the unintended civilian casualties that accompany every conflict act as powerful counterforces.  We must keep both images in mind, tempering our desire to help and willingness to sacrifice with realism born of experience.  We do well to remember that for every monument erected by the grateful citizens of a nation we have aided, there are countless graves in Arlington and other hallowed ground marking our sacrifices in failed and fruitless efforts.  Intervention is never easy and, regardless of the price paid, is ultimately futile.  Failure in ill-considered actions can produce their own images that drive us inward.  Those images can haunt future, more pressing tragedies, preventing our needed intervention.  There is fodder enough for those who would recoil from the terrible costs of intervening to help others.  We must use our maturity and judgment to prevent the power of images from controlling our policy … we must recognize that power in and of itself is amoral.  Applied recklessly or with too little forethought, it enables the powerful to do harm as well as good.  We possess unequaled potential to cause  death, damage, and unintended evil … Our actions, particularly interventions, can upset regions, nations, cultures, economies, and  peoples, however virtuous our purpose.”

• The GOP member who Obama supposedly echoed? Hastert.

Hastings didn’t get too far when reading the Wiki entry on counterinsurgency, he writes: “When it comes to Afghanistan, history is not on McChrystal’s side. The only foreign invader to have any success here was Genghis Khan – and he wasn’t hampered by things like human rights, economic development and press scrutiny. The COIN doctrine, bizarrely, draws inspiration from some of the biggest Western military embarrassments in recent memory: France’s nasty war in Algeria (lost in 1962) and the American misadventure in Vietnam (lost in 1975).”

• It’s almost verbatim compared to the very first Wiki summary of counterinsurgency strategy by B.H. Liddell Hart.  But, he didn’t get too far.  Some could follow “The Three Pillars of Counterinsurgency”, Dr. David J. Kilcullen.  Counterinsurgencies have worked – they just may not have come from the United States.

This last bit kinda gets to me:  “Whatever the nature of the new plan, the delay underscores the fundamental flaws of counterinsurgency. After nine years of war, the Taliban simply remains too strongly entrenched for the U.S. military to openly attack.”

• It has been contended for a long time that Taliban are not going anywhere, that those the military is after are Al Qaeda.  I don’t want kill the Taliban as an overall goal … and neither does the President … and neither does Afghanistan … and neither DID McChrystal: “Perhaps McChrystal’s most intriguing idea is his belief that he can persuade large numbers of Taliban to change sides. Coaxing insurgents back into the fold was, after all, one key to pulling Iraq back from the brink of apocalypse. Beginning in late 2006, tens of thousands of Sunni tribesmen, many of them former insurgents, agreed to stop fighting and to come onto the payroll, usually as policemen. Almost overnight, the Iraqi insurgency was reduced to Al Qaeda fanatics and a handful of others who could be targeted by McChrystal’s commandos in JSOC. This shaky — very shaky — arrangement is still keeping what peace there is in Iraq today.”
• I must note, that it is not a so-called ‘surge’ that seems to be keeping a measure of piece … it’s talking to the Taliban.
  

In Michael Hastings’ Rolling Stone piece that ousted Gen.  Stanley McChrystal, he cites internal disputes between civilians and military leadership.  One example:

“The entire COIN strategy is a fraud perpetuated on the American people,” says Douglas Macgregor.

Well it could be … but it wasn’t McChrystal’s idea according to him.  Fast forward to about the 2:30 mark:

If you go back to this report that General McChrystal submitted to the President – this is the one that was leaked imprudently as you’ll recollect – he didn’t write that report.  That report was put together for him by people in General Petraeus’ staff … All the generals have things written for them.  General Petraeus will tell you that he did not write this new counterinsurgency document, that he had a staff of officers who reviewed it, ultimately approved it and signed it, but that’s what four star generals do.  But, the point I’m trying to make is Petraeus’ staff, his supporters, the people who had been with him in Afghanistan promoting the war, they put together this very – in my judgment – strange plan that went well beyond any attacks on Al Qaeda, it went into nation building, institution building, dramatically expanded our resources … there was an interest in forcing the President into a decision.”

So, the guy who wrote the strategy for Afghanistan is running Afghanistan now.  The same guy, that helped lead to the ousting of the trash talker now has a new guy ‘rethinking’ whether or not it’s okay to kill civilians at random in air strikes and whatnot (Harris wrote: “In June, the death toll for U.S. troops passed 1,000, and the number of IEDs has doubled.”) … well, KUDOS to you Rolling Stone.  Not to mention, more casualties are expected, and THIS dude is Petraeus’ replacement?

Of course no one has asked the Army about all this, but here’s their take.