Rolling Stone.....Wanna see my picture on the cover
Rolling Stone......Wanna buy five copies for my mother
Rolling Stone......Wanna see my smilin' face
On the cover of the Rolling Stone
Rep. Brad Miller might not have actually made the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine, but he was interviewed for and quoted in an article about the unchecked power of the Bush administration and the politicization of the Inspectors General.
If you haven't read the article yet, please head on over and read it. Here is the opening:
IN OCTOBER, WITH OSAMA BIN LADEN still at large, the Central Intelligence Agency announced the creation of a new spy unit. Headed by a top deputy and staffed with a select corps of agents, the operation was charged with gathering intelligence on a single man — a foe who was threatening to undermine the president's War on Terror.The CIA's new target? John Helgerson, the man appointed by President Bush to expose wrongdoing at the CIA. As inspector general of the agency, Helgerson came under attack from his superiors simply for trying to do his job: He was aggressively investigating torture at the CIA's secret prisons.
Bush doesn't want watchdogs. He wants pawns. He wants yes men. It makes you wonder exactly how many laws he's breaking with his cronies in place to cover it up for him.
"The IGs have been politicized and dumbed down," said Rep. Brad Miller, oversight chair of the House science committee.Rather than root out wrongdoing, Bush's appointees — men with nicknames like Moose and Cookie — have actually helped the White House cover up corrupt defense contracts, conceal the theft of sensitive rocket technology and whitewash a host of scandals from Abu Ghraib to Medicare prescription drugs. "Not only has this administration been aided in avoiding scrutiny by a compliant Republican Congress, they installed inspectors general who were not going to use their positions aggressively — if at all," says Rep. Henry Waxman, chairman of the House Oversight Committee.
This article is an eye opener. It's what we all suspected was going on, but seeing it confirmed and in print is sickening.
We're all proud that Rep. Miller is in Washington with subpoena power. We know that holding Bush accountable will not be easy work since he has so many layers of protection in place. It will be easy to get impatient. I'm not sure what we can do to help, but maybe we can check with the good Congressman from NC to see.
Again, please go read this article. It will give you a good idea of what the good guys are up against.
Comments
OK....so I put Brad Miller on the cover
I'm sure he is better than the person who actually made the cover.
Robin Hayes lied. Nobody died, but thousands of folks lost their jobs.
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Vote Democratic! The ass you save may be your own.
You fooled me.
One of the pitfalls of childhood is that one doesn't have to understand something to feel it. - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Jesus Swept ticked me off. Too short. I loved the characters and then POOF it was over.
-me
I think he makes quite the coverboy...don't you :)
Robin Hayes lied. Nobody died, but thousands of folks lost their jobs.
***************************
Vote Democratic! The ass you save may be your own.
Whoo!
He's a Rock Star! A rock star with subpeona power. That, um, rocks.:)
Be the change you wish to see in the world. --Gandhi
I've been in the Washington Post...
and the Wall Street Journal a fair amount lately about predatory lending. But being in Rolling Stone is way cooler.
I keep seeing your name
It's all pretty cool if you ask me.
Robin Hayes lied. Nobody died, but thousands of folks lost their jobs.
***************************
Vote Democratic! The ass you save may be your own.
Representative Miller,
Rolling Stone is truly way, way cooler. The WSJ is droll and staid. I prefer you rock the House.
Please keep us the great work you are doing for America. So few of you and I'm so proud of you.
North Carolina. Turning the South Blue!
North Carolina. Turning the South Blue!
Question for Rep. Miller
Rep Miller – I have a question pertaining to a vote you made this past session. In June, you voted no on the McGovern Amendment to HR 2764 which would have cut funding to the School of the Americas/Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. I would like to know why. Thanks.
You can make it up to us by co-sponsoring HR1707 (Latin America Military Training Review Act of 2007)
"jump in where you can and hang on"
Briscoe Darling to Sheriff Andy
The SOA had a sordid history...
ot teaching authoritarian tactics, including torture, and graduates of the School were involved in atrocities and other human rights abuses. But no society can function without trained security forces to maintain the rule of law. So I voted against closing the latest incarnation of the SOA, but I agree we need to be vigilant to keep the new school from falling back into the old practices.
I asked about all of this at a Foreign Affairs Committee hearing earlier this year: http://www.house.gov/bradmiller/prvid20070619.html
(Unfortunately, I can't decipher your system for posting links, but that address should get you there).
In any case, the forces we train will likely be involved in human rights abuses regardless what we teach them, just as the Iraqi police and military that we have trained and equipped have been enthusiastic participants in the Iraqi civil war, using our training and equipment against innocent Iraqi civilians.
And thats a good thing
So basically the logic here is that they are going to do it anyway so why don't we help them out.
We wouldn't want them to use torture techniques they might learn in a back alley somewhere. We need them to learn them from the best.
"jump in where you can and hang on"
Briscoe Darling to Sheriff Andy
Ouch.
I'm not sure that's fair, and I'm not sure that's what Rep. Miller said, though obviously you inferred it.
He said, basically, we can't expect to have order in society without people to police that society, so we have to train them, but we have make sure that we're policing the people who are training the police, and hold them accountable for what they teach. (As I read it, anyhow.) You assumed he mean same shit, different day.
Did I misread?
Be the change you wish to see in the world. --Gandhi
I read it the same way you did, Linda
Robin Hayes lied. Nobody died, but thousands of folks lost their jobs.
***************************
Vote Democratic! The ass you save may be your own.
You asked me to explain my vote,
and I did.
Is there any explanation I could have offered that you would not have found morally infirm? Is there any other position you hold with which you think reasonable, well-informed people might in good faith disagree?
Go Brad...
good response!!
Stan Bozarth
Brad, something to think about before
the next attempt to defund WHINSEC (SOA):
When a U.S. soldier successfully completes a block of instruction and graduates from a U.S. military school, his or her future behavior reflects direcly upon both the school and the United States itself. It doesn't matter if that person was already a sociopath, or became one at a much later date. When you teach somebody methods and doctrine that involve the possible use of lethal force and/or discretionary tactics to subdue/suppress/oppress an "unlawful" populace, you own a part of their deeds forever.
That doesn't change if that person is not a U.S. citizen.
Much of the instruction given at the SOA is normal, law enforcement-oriented stuff. But there's some other stuff, too. They teach a thing called the MOOTW (Military Operations Other Than War) Doctrine, which is strongly suggestive of the liberal usage of small-unit military attacks or raids during "peacetime", as a method to (supposedly) avert a possible larger future conflict. I know what you're thinking, and you're correct. It's state-sponsored terrorism, but we teach it as a legitimate use of "legal" force.
Hell, we can't even do it properly without continually violating the human rights of those we're trying to protect. And we expect someone with little or no background in civil and human rights to do the right thing?
We need to do what the U.N. and other Human Rights organizations have been demanding for many years—stop putting our stamp of approval on the bringers of death and oppression.
Dang it ... too long for a comment again.
Okay, so I'm posting my reaction (rant fest) to this article in it's own diary. Thanks for posting it, Betsy. Rep. Miller ought to be on that cover. Something has to start making people who are not gray-haired and retired (not that there's anything wrong with that) to pay attention.
I forwarded the article to some friends in an email. My appreciation for those who love and tolerate me despite my tendency to sit and write for far too long some days goes very deep. :)
[Aren't y'all glad I work? Otherwise this is what you'd get all the time .... not just when I'm home on vacation.]
"They took all the trees and put them in a tree museum Then they charged the people a dollar 'n a half just to see 'em. Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've got till it's gone? They paved paradise and put up a parking lot."
I'd rather you be here all the time
but that's just me being selfish
Robin Hayes lied. Nobody died, but thousands of folks lost their jobs.
***************************
Vote Democratic! The ass you save may be your own.
You're very sweet and kind
but I'm not so sure about the selfish part. ;)
"They took all the trees and put them in a tree museum Then they charged the people a dollar 'n a half just to see 'em. Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've got till it's gone? They paved paradise and put up a parking lot."