Whistleblower Warns That If Congress Isn’t Briefed on Anti-Terrorism Plans Earlier, Such Plans Can't Be Leaked to Press in Time to Stop Them

Washington, D.C.--To support widely discredited claims by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi that she was not briefed on an enhanced terrorist interrogation program she later criticized, Democrats held hearings yesterday to show the CIA failed to disclose to Congress one anti-terrorism program to kill terrorists that was just an idea and hadn't yet reached the implementation stage.

A whistleblower known only as "a high ranking terrorist leader," testifying anonymously behind a screen to protect his identity, told the committee "If Congress isn't briefed on every idea for anti-terrorism programs -- even before they reach the implementation stage -- it may be too late to leak those programs to the media so terrorists can be tipped off in time to avoid being killed."

The whistleblower revealed to a stunned audience that "I myself would be a target under one such program."

When one Member of Congress pointed out the allegedly "secret" plan to target certain terrorist leaders was originally reported in the New York Times in 2002, the whistleblower responded, "By 2002, I could have already been killed."

Associated articles: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/07/13/cia-secret-al-qaeda-plan/;
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/15/international/15INTE.html; http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZjYxMzEyMmFmYzZkOWY1Y2NiNWU3YWM3NTNkNjEwMjk=; http://edition.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/07/13/cheney.surveillance/index.html?eref=edition; http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/13/AR2009071302589.html; http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1910670,00.html; http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20090723/editorial23_st.art.htm; http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-08-18/spy-agency-fiasco/

Whistleblower Warns That If Congress Isn’t Briefed on Anti-Terrorism Plans Earlier, Such Plans Can't Be Leaked to Press in Time to Stop Them

Washington, D.C.--To support widely discredited claims by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi that she was not briefed on an enhanced terrorist interrogation program she later criticized, Democrats held hearings yesterday to show the CIA failed to disclose to Congress one anti-terrorism program to kill terrorists that was just an idea and hadn't yet reached the implementation stage.

A whistleblower known only as "a high ranking terrorist leader," testifying anonymously behind a screen to protect his identity, told the committee "If Congress isn't briefed on every idea for anti-terrorism programs -- even before they reach the implementation stage -- it may be too late to leak those programs to the media so terrorists can be tipped off in time to avoid being killed."

The whistleblower revealed to a stunned audience that "I myself would be a target under one such program."

When one Member of Congress pointed out the allegedly "secret" plan to target certain terrorist leaders was originally reported in the New York Times in 2002, the whistleblower responded, "By 2002, I could have already been killed."

Associated articles: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/07/13/cia-secret-al-qaeda-plan/;
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/15/international/15INTE.html; http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZjYxMzEyMmFmYzZkOWY1Y2NiNWU3YWM3NTNkNjEwMjk=; http://edition.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/07/13/cheney.surveillance/index.html?eref=edition; http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/13/AR2009071302589.html; http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1910670,00.html; http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20090723/editorial23_st.art.htm; http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-08-18/spy-agency-fiasco/

From Thy Bounty

I just love dual-purpose trees. They shade us from the scorching sun. Yet, they're doubly dandy if they provide a perfect snack.

How much more perfect a snack can a child have than to climb a tree, sit atop a limb, and delight in a fruit they select and pluck freshly from a nearby branch?



Glorious figs!


Now in season in a neighbor's tree.

It's just not safe to have one family consume a whole tree's worth. Lucky for us, its owners like to spread them around!

Not only is the fruit sensational, but I also adore the fig's leaves. They are just so grand.

They can be used for fanning.


In a pinch, they may also be used as a cloaking device.


They make exquisitely detailed rubbings as well.


(I think we've been watching too many VeggieTales videos, because these figs remind me of the squash guys.)


More figs at home.


Our biggest fig lover.


We can hardly wait for the fall pecan gathering from our tree.

Is there anything bountiful in your (or your neighbor's) yard?

Movie Review -- “Return of the Living Constitution” (Spoiler alert!)

The next zombie-themed blockbuster horror flick is set for release the first Monday in October, but this reviewer received an advance screening of what’s shaping up to be one apocalyptic zombie tale set in the not-too-distant future.

“Return of the Living Constitution” begins at a prestigious law school, where Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia delivers a lecture on the role of a judge, properly understood, which he says is to apply technical interpretive tools to discern what voters or their elected representatives intended by their use of terms ratified as part of the Constitution or enacted into law.

“If the terms of the law are not largely fixed by their meaning as understood when the law was enacted,” says Scalia, “there can be no rule of law, because people will not be subject to rules commonly understood in advance, but rather to the whims of life-tenured judges that are impossible to predict in advance.”

As Scalia speaks, his academic audience, increasingly uneasy with his dry judicial vision, finds itself animated by a raw desire to go beyond the mere application of the law and impose their will on democratic majorities. This hunger quickly mutates into an insatiable lust to impose their political views through constitutional interpretation.

As the questions directed at Scalia grow increasingly unintelligible, and the audience begins to jerkily amble toward him, arms outstretched, Scalia escapes through a window. He gathers his originalist colleagues on the Supreme Court before vast hordes of law students, professors, and advocacy attorneys fill the streets, overturning mail boxes, lamp posts, and popularly enacted statutes that do not clearly violate the Constitution.

The zombies find leaders in the more activist Supreme Court Justices, who command them to overrun Congress and then head for the National Archives, where they intend to devour the U.S. Constitution, which they consider a “living, breathing” document.

Scalia and his originalist colleagues barricade the Archives doors with stacks of Founding-era documents, but the zombies tear through them. It soon becomes apparent that, unlike traditional zombies, these undead can only be killed by a blow to their “gut,” and not their head, as they’re motivated by empathy and “gut feeling” rather than thought.

Just as the swelling zombie hordes are about to reach our nation's founding document, Scalia distracts them with books compiling foreign legal precedents. Waving such volumes as “The Collected Decisions of Zimbabwe,” he temporarily diverts the advancing throngs with a tantalizing new source of interpretive power.

With the zombies otherwise occupied, Scalia grabs the sword from the hands of a nearby statute of “Lady Justice” and begins hacking undead guts in the same biting manner he pens his dissents.

The movie is campy fun for the most part. But by the end I couldn’t help feeling a real sense of dread.

Association article: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124753085258335815.html; associated video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6601447644448962468&ei=-WihSZXDGpHEqQL1xI3YDw&q=scalia&hl=en; see also http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3117897142973835232&ei=iGmhSdOOOILorgLrjY3YDw&q=scalia&hl=en&emb=1

Movie Review -- “Return of the Living Constitution” (Spoiler alert!)

The next zombie-themed blockbuster horror flick is set for release the first Monday in October, but this reviewer received an advance screening of what’s shaping up to be one apocalyptic zombie tale set in the not-too-distant future.

“Return of the Living Constitution” begins at a prestigious law school, where Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia delivers a lecture on the role of a judge, properly understood, which he says is to apply technical interpretive tools to discern what voters or their elected representatives intended by their use of terms ratified as part of the Constitution or enacted into law.

“If the terms of the law are not largely fixed by their meaning as understood when the law was enacted,” says Scalia, “there can be no rule of law, because people will not be subject to rules commonly understood in advance, but rather to the whims of life-tenured judges that are impossible to predict in advance.”

As Scalia speaks, his academic audience, increasingly uneasy with his dry judicial vision, finds itself animated by a raw desire to go beyond the mere application of the law and impose their will on democratic majorities. This hunger quickly mutates into an insatiable lust to impose their political views through constitutional interpretation.

As the questions directed at Scalia grow increasingly unintelligible, and the audience begins to jerkily amble toward him, arms outstretched, Scalia escapes through a window. He gathers his originalist colleagues on the Supreme Court before vast hordes of law students, professors, and advocacy attorneys fill the streets, overturning mail boxes, lamp posts, and popularly enacted statutes that do not clearly violate the Constitution.

The zombies find leaders in the more activist Supreme Court Justices, who command them to overrun Congress and then head for the National Archives, where they intend to devour the U.S. Constitution, which they consider a “living, breathing” document.

Scalia and his originalist colleagues barricade the Archives doors with stacks of Founding-era documents, but the zombies tear through them. It soon becomes apparent that, unlike traditional zombies, these undead can only be killed by a blow to their “gut,” and not their head, as they’re motivated by empathy and “gut feeling” rather than thought.

Just as the swelling zombie hordes are about to reach our nation's founding document, Scalia distracts them with books compiling foreign legal precedents. Waving such volumes as “The Collected Decisions of Zimbabwe,” he temporarily diverts the advancing throngs with a tantalizing new source of interpretive power.

With the zombies otherwise occupied, Scalia grabs the sword from the hands of a nearby statute of “Lady Justice” and begins hacking undead guts in the same biting manner he pens his dissents.

The movie is campy fun for the most part. But by the end I couldn’t help feeling a real sense of dread.

Association article: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124753085258335815.html; associated video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6601447644448962468&ei=-WihSZXDGpHEqQL1xI3YDw&q=scalia&hl=en; see also http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3117897142973835232&ei=iGmhSdOOOILorgLrjY3YDw&q=scalia&hl=en&emb=1

Unorthodox

How I might find Jimmer studying his math facts:


Hmmm...somewhat similar to the way Kathleen used to prefer doing her spelling tests--hanging upside down in her school chair (head on the floor under the table, feet over the back of the chair) while spelling orally.

There's a picture of that pose around here somewhere. Must find.

White House Furthers Its “Commitment to Transparency” By Requiring That Official Meeting Records Be Written on Plastic Wrap, with Invisible Ink

Washington, D.C.--Following a report in the New York Times that Obama White House “climate czar” Carol Browner instructed auto industry executives “to put nothing in writing, ever” regarding the deliberations that occurred at official energy policy meetings, concerns were raised that such instructions might violate a federal law that requires the preservation of documents concerning significant policy decisions.

As a result, Browner issued new orders that any records of what occurs at policy meetings “be written on plastic wrap, with invisible ink.”

At a press conference, Browner defended her new instructions, saying she was merely “following this Administration’s strong commitment to transparency.” To demonstrate, she held up what she claimed to be a large stack of official meeting minutes, saying “Look, you can see right through them. It's like they're invisible. It doesn’t get more transparent than that.”

The policy change followed other news that Administration officials suppressed a study by an EPA economist that warned of the damaging economic consequences that would befall small businesses if carbon dioxide gases were regulated as illegal emissions under the Clean Air Act.

Browner added that, in the future, all studies casting doubt on Administration proposals “will also be subject to the new translucent records policy.”

Associated articles: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Put-nothing-in-writing-Browner-told-auto-execs-on-secret-White-House-CAFE-talks-50260677.html; Politico