Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Man, the Image and the World: A Retrospective
A renowned photojournalist, he began his career in 1931 and purchased his first Leica in 1932. He was one of the first to shoot in the 35 mm format, and was an innovator of the “street photography” which was to influence generations of photographers.
The wallpaper is from a stock photo, but the style suggests a little Cartier-Bresson.
Cheney’s Claims Could Expose Him to Suit
Vice President Richard Cheney reversed his position last week when he asserted that he is not a member of our Executive Branch of Government. The Vice President, however, clearly took the position that he was a member of the Executive Branch in Cheney v. United States District Court for the District of Columbia, 542 U.S. 367 (2004) (involving disclosure of documents related to the Chaney led energy task force), and he benefited from that position when the Supreme Court decided to “give recognition to the paramount necessity of protecting the Executive Branch from vexatious litigation.” Id. at 382. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b)(3) offers a unique opportunity to test the Vice President’s conflicting (and possibly fraudulent) contentions in a court room.
The short version is that since Cheney won that suit based on his claim to executive privilege because, well he was part of the executive. His current and expedient claim that he is part of the legislature rather then the executive means that he will have committed fraud in the first case by maliciously misrepresenting his legal status to claim privilege. Check and mate Mr. Cheney, you are either fish or foul, but not both. Inside Bush’s decision to give Scooter Libby a pass.
He (Bush) was especially keen to know if there was compelling evidence that might contradict the jury’s verdict that Libby had lied to a federal grand jury about when—and from whom—he learned the identity of Valerie Plame Wilson, wife of Iraq War critic Joe Wilson. But Fielding, one of the advisers tells NEWSWEEK, reluctantly concluded that the jury had reached a reasonable verdict: the evidence was strong that Libby testified falsely about his role in the leak.
(emphasis mine)
As many will no doubt note. Bush and one of the most devious Republican lawyers in Washington could not find a single legal flaw in Libby’s conviction. In other words commuting Libby’s sentence was exactly what it appeared to be, a purely political end run around justice.
Whistle-Blower’s Fight For Pension Drags On
From a cramped motor home in a Montana campground where Internet access is as spotty as the trout, Richard Barlow wakes each morning to battle Washington.
Once a top intelligence officer at the Pentagon who helped uncover Pakistan’s efforts to acquire nuclear weapons, Barlow insisted on telling the truth, and it led to his undoing.
Another whistle-blower that not all Republicans, but certainly the far Right that dominates the Republican party hates just on general principle, but the story is unique. Remember that like the constantly repeated urban myths, America is supposed to believe that the Right are the highly adept swift minded tough acting professionals of national security. Manipulating America into MesO’potamia was supposed to make the world and especially the Middle-East more stable and safer. The reality based community is well aware how that turned out.
At the time, the government was poised to sell $1.4 billion worth of new F-16 fighter planes to Pakistan to help the mujaheddin fight the Soviets in Afghanistan. But Congress, through two laws passed in 1985, had forbidden the sale of any equipment that could be used to deliver nuclear bombs.
Barlow wrote an analysis for then-Secretary Dick Cheney that concluded the planned F-16 sale violated this law. Drawing on detailed, classified studies, Barlow wrote about Pakistan’s ability, intentions and activities to deliver nuclear bombs using F-16s it had acquired before the law was passed.
Barlow discovered later that someone rewrote his analysis so that it endorsed the sale of the F-16s.
Barlow intelligence states that selling aircraft to an unpredictable military dictatorship capable of delivering a nuclear payload is probably unwise and against the law. Coincidently four deferments Richard Cheney the supposed Conservative expert on all things military is in charge while a report is mysteriously rewritten and the writer of the original report career is is suddenly in ruins. As Eric Alterman once said there is no secret right-wing conspiracy most of their vile and more often then not, unamerican behavior is out there to see for anyone that wants to make a slight effort to see it. ( Hat-tip to Buzzflash for that story)
Military killed ‘key al Qaeda leader’ twice. This is not the Pentagon’s fault. They work for a Decider-in-Chief that governs according to little supernatural voices he hears in his head so the possibility that you can kill someone twice fits in with a mindset that the Bushies have cultivated.
Yuri Orlov: Some of the most successful relationships are based on lies and deceit. Since that’s where they usually end up anyway, it’s a logical place to start.
Lord of War (2005)
The Long Goodbye 
