Motley Moose – Archive

Welcome to The Moose Pond! The Welcomings diaries give the Moose, old and new, a place to visit and share words about the weather, life, the world at large and the small parts of Moosylvania that we each inhabit.

A look at a favorite TV show from my mis-spent youth – with an amazing back-story, especially as it relates to the Holocaust – after the jump ….

The President’s Weekly Address post is also an Open News Thread. Feel free to share other news stories in the comments.

From the White House – Weekly Address

In this week’s address, the President thanked the men and women in uniform who serve and sacrifice to protect the freedom, prosperity, and security that we all enjoy as Americans. On Monday the President will visit troops at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey and voice his appreciation in person for their incredible service.

These troops, as well as the many who are still overseas, have met every mission they have been tasked with, from bringing a responsible end to our war in Afghanistan, to working to degrade and ultimately destroy ISIL, to saving lives by fighting to contain the spread of Ebola. During this holiday season, a time of blessings and gratitude, the President reminded everyone to find a way to thank and serve the members of the military who serve us every day.

I post a weekly diary of historical notes, arts & science items, foreign news (often receiving little notice in the US) and whimsical pieces from the outside world that I often feature in “Cheers & Jeers”.

OK, you’ve been warned – here is this week’s tomfoolery material that I posted.

Found on the Internets …

UPDATE: Link to the report Senate Intelligence Committee Report on CIA Torture Techniques

… the CIA’s interrogation techniques never yielded any intelligence about imminent terrorist attacks”

Senate Expected To Release Long-Held CIA ‘Torture Report’

Later this morning, the Senate Intelligence Committee will release an executive summary of what’s come to be known as its “torture report.”

The report is expected to be the most comprehensive public accounting the interrogation techniques used by the Central Intelligence Agency after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

What’s in it is so sensitive and controversial that the report’s release has sparked public spats between the CIA and Senate lawmakers.

It all came to a dramatic head on the floor of the Senate in March. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the Democratic chairwoman of the Senate intelligence panel, accused the CIA of trying to thwart her committee’s work by deleting files and later by illegally spying on Senate computers. The CIA – which eventually apologized to the Senate – had accused Feinstein and her committee of improperly removing classified documents from a government network.

The Senate is expected to release a 460 page executive summary today.

Dick Cheney Was Lying About Torture

It’s official: torture doesn’t work. Waterboarding Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of 9/11, did not in fact “produce the intelligence that allowed us to get Osama bin Laden,” as former Vice President Dick Cheney asserted in 2011. Those are among the central findings of the Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA interrogation and detention after 9/11.

The report’s executive summary is expected to be released Tuesday. After reviewing thousands of the CIA’s own documents, the committee has concluded that torture was ineffective as an intelligence-gathering technique. Torture produced little information of value, and what little it did produce could’ve been gained through humane, legal methods that uphold American ideals.

More …

Welcome to The Moose Pond! The Welcomings diaries give the Moose, old and new, a place to visit and share words about the weather, life, the world at large and the small parts of Moosylvania that we each inhabit.

The President’s Weekly Address post is also an Open News Thread. Feel free to share other news stories in the comments.

From the White House – Weekly Address

In this week’s address, the President highlighted the good news in Friday’s jobs report – that American businesses added 314,000 new jobs this past month, making November the tenth month in a row that the private sector has added at least 200,000 new jobs. Even with a full month to go, 2014 has already been the best year of job creation since the 1990s. This number brings total private-sector job creation to 10.9 million over 57 consecutive months – the longest streak on record.

But even with this real, tangible evidence of our progress, there is always more that can be done. Congress needs to pass a budget and keep the government from a Christmas shutdown. We have an opportunity to work together to support the continued growth of higher-paying jobs by investing in infrastructure, reforming the business tax code, expanding markets for America’s goods and services, making common-sense reforms to the immigration system, and increasing the minimum wage.

Taking care of unfinished business: a visit with my high school chaplain (forty years later) after the jump …..

You’ve seen all of the major national news outlets covering Ferguson, and the events surrounding the murder of Mike Brown through their own lens, especially focused on demonizing both Brown, and the people protesting. There were hundreds of reporters assigned to cover “violence” in Ferguson, “looters” etc. It’s telling how many aren’t covering the ongoing protests and strategies being enacted by people committed to long term change. Try searching the headlines for what is going on right now. Where did the cameras go?

From the White House:

From the transcript

… I think Ferguson laid bare a problem that is not unique to St. Louis or that area, and is not unique to our time, and that is a simmering distrust that exists between too many police departments and too many communities of color.  The sense that in a country where one of our basic principles, perhaps the most important principle, is equality under the law, that too many individuals, particularly young people of color, do not feel as if they are being treated fairly.

And as I said last week, when any part of the American family does not feel like it is being treated fairly, that’s a problem for all of us.  It’s not just a problem for some.  It’s not just a problem for a particular community or a particular demographic.  […]

It was a cautionary note I think from everybody here that there have been commissions before, there have been task forces, there have been conversations, and nothing happens.  What I try to describe to people is why this time will be different.  And part of the reason this time will be different is because the President of the United States is deeply invested in making sure this time is different.  When I hear the young people around this table talk about their experiences, it violates my belief in what America can be to hear young people feeling marginalized and distrustful, even after they’ve done everything right.  That’s not who we are. And I don’t think that’s who the overwhelming majority of Americans want us to be.

Chuck Ramsey, the Commissioner of the Philadelphia Police Department and Laurie Robinson, a professor of criminology, law and society at George Mason University, and a former assistant attorney general will be chairing the task force.

[The task force] is not only going to reach out and listen to law enforcement, and community activists and other stakeholders, but is going to report to me specifically in 90 days with concrete recommendations, including best practices for communities where law enforcement and neighborhoods are working well together — how do they create accountability; how do they create transparency; how do they create trust; and how can we at the federal level work with the state and local communities to make sure that some of those best practices get institutionalized.

He will also be changing some rules related to reporting the use of military equipment local law enforcement acquires via the 1033 program, “proposing some new community policing initiatives that will significantly expand funding and training for local law enforcement, including up to 50,000 additional body-worn cameras for law enforcement agencies”, some of which will require Congressional action, and sending Attorney General Eric Holder to convene meetings such as this one in various parts of the country. Attorney General Holder will start with a trip to Atlanta.

Full remarks below …