PENTAGON SHUTTING DOWN SOLDIERS' BLOGS: more censorship

[rodeodance]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject:Progress Report: Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely
Date:Wed, 04 Jan 2006 07:54:39 -0800
From: American Progress Action Fund <[e-mail]>
Reply-To: [e-mail]
To: xxxx




MILITARY -- PENTAGON SHUTTING DOWN SOLDIERS' BLOGS: Military blogs are increasingly being shut down by the U.S. military. These blogs "get shut down almost as fast as they're set up," said New York Army National Guard Spc. Jason Christopher Hartley whose blog was shut down and was fined $1,000 and demoted from sergeant. In November, the Pentagon issued an advisory titled "Loose blogs may blow up BCTs ." But, the Pentagon has decided to endorse blogs that promote the military's positions. "The ones that stay up are completely patriotic and innocuous, and they're fine if you want to read the flag-waving and how everything's peachy keen in Iraq," added Hartley.

HOMELAND SECURITY -- GOVERNMENT PLAN FOR 'DIRTY BOMB' CLEANUP LEAVES AMERICANS AT RISK: For use in the aftermath of a potential terrorist attack using a crude nuclear device or "dirty bomb," the Department of Homeland Security yesterday issued cleanup guidelines that "would expose people returning to such a site to high cancer risk" and are significantly more relaxed than standards set by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. These new regulations "would allow cleanup standards that in some cases would be far less stringent than what is required for Superfund sites, commercial nuclear power plants and nuclear waste dumps." Two opponents of nuclear power -- the Committee to Bridge the Gap and the Nuclear Information and Resource Service -- said that the guidelines' radiation exposure allowances, which are as high as 10,000 millirems a year, "would produce cancer or leukemia in one person in four who was exposed to that amount annually for a total of 30 years."

HOMELAND SECURITY -- BUSH HOLDS PHOTO OP TO PROMOTE THE PATRIOT ACT: Congress's one-month extension of the USA Patriot Act is set to run out on Feb. 3. Yesterday, Bush -- with his "voice rising in apparent irritation" -- told lawmakers to put aside "partisan reasons" and permanently reauthorize the Patriot Act. Yesterday's remarks and his appearance with 19 U.S. attorneys are part of the President's "stepped-up White House campaign to make permanent the antiterrorism law" and combat the criticism he has received from recent reports on the government's secret warantless spying on American citizens. But the federal prosecutors were "all Bush appointees summoned to Washington by the Justice Department, echoed Mr. Bush when they appeared en masse in front of television cameras." Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) criticized the President, saying he should spend more time on compromising a Patriot Act deal and less time on "staged meetings with hand-picked participants" at the White House.

[FloridaPat]

1. But I thought we brought Democracy to Iraq?

Onlyh if you're an Iraqi then?