Miami police this morning arrested Justin Bieber for drunk driving, resisting arrest and not having a valid driver’s license. Bieber is not an American citizen. If he were Latino and not Canadian would he be deported? For more on this we are joined by Michael Kaufman who is an attorney with the ACLU and he joins us from Los Angeles.
Ever since President Reagan spoke of a Star Wars defense system, the pentagon has been pursuing a nuclear shield to protect us from incoming missiles. As Iran and North Korea continue to develop long range nuclear weapons that could strike the United States, nearly thirty years and one trillion dollars after President Reagan set America on a course towards an anti missile defense what is our anti ballistic missile capability? Can we even shoot a missile out of the sky? For more on this we talked with Hayes Brown who covers national security issues for ThinkProgress.org.
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David: Where does it stand in the multilateral negotiations with North Korea vis-a-vis their nuclear weaponry?
Hayes: Not great. The six party talks have been frozen for years now. The US wants the six party talks, they want the multilateral system with Russia, China, Japan, South Korea backing them up, whereas North Korea wants direct talks with the US as an equal and that’s not just something that we’re willing to go for.
Mutual Assured Destruction was the subject of Director Sidney Lumet’s 1964 classic “Fail Safe” starring Henry Fonda.
David: And is China helping us now? Or where do they fit in in all of this?
Hayes: China is interesting. China doesn’t want North Korea to collapse because that’s a couple of million starving North Koreans on their border, but at the same time it’s kind of nice to have this buffer between them and South Korea as well as having a gnat in the United States’ face. So they keep them going, but we have seen them smack them around a little bit when they step out of line too far, like you see them agree to more and harsher sanctions on North Korea, for example, after the last missile test back in the December of 2012.
On March 23, 1983 President Reagan unveiled SDI, the strategic defense initiative, which some say bankrupted the Soviet Union.
David: North Korea claims to be building an ICBM that could reach Alaska. How close are they to building an ICBM that could actually hit us?
Hayes: Good question. It depends on how much you believe what they say. According to North Korea, they’re really close, but many of the models of the design that would be the ICBM to reach us are actually fake. The ones they tout around and parade, they’re not actually real. They’re very, very clever models. So it’s a toss-up and that’s, again, one of the scariest things about North Korea. It’s so hard to know what’s real and what’s not.
David: Well, it’s also hard to know what’s real and what’s not with the United States. Because I read now that President Obama is installing his anti-ballistic missile system in the Pacific to shoot a North Korean ICBM out of the sky, but I’ve never read of America having an anti-ballistic system that can shoot a North Korean missile out of the sky. I always hear that we’re testing these rockets that can shoot other rockets out of the sky, but they never seem to work. But most Americans assume we have an anti-ballistic missile system, but we don’t.
Hayes: Not a true anti-ballistic missile system in the sense of like the SDI and Star Wars and all that Reagan promised us. We do have a system called THAD, T-H-A-D, which helps you try and shoot down those missiles that they moved to Guam during the last North Korea scare last year. While they wouldn’t be able to shoot down a big boy missile, they are helpful in helping protect some of our assets in the region.
The Missile Defense Agency was establish during the Reagan administration.
David: ‘Helpful in protecting our assets in the region.’ Because I always read about how moving our ABM system from Eastern Europe to the Persian Gulf and now to Guam and I keep looking for proof that we actually have the capability to shoot a missile out of the sky. I don’t see it. I know Israel has Iron Dome which works sometimes, but doesn’t really, and I remember in 1991 reading about Israel’s capabilities to shoot Saddam Hussein’s Scud missiles out of the sky, but then Bill Safire from the New York Times did some great reporting on this. He reported on the Patriot missiles. The Patriot missiles supposedly could shoot Scud missiles out of the sky and it turns out they did nothing during the First Gulf War.
Patriot missiles are designed to shoot incoming missiles out of the sky and are made by Raytheon. During the first Gulf War we were told they protected Israel from Iraq’s Scud missiles, but later reporting by the New York Times says otherwise.
Hayes: A good part of warfare is trying to make sure the other side thinks you’re tougher than you are. On the other hand, some of these smaller systems like on the Aegis ships, which were also moved into the region during the last North Korea scare, have had some success in actually proving themselves to be a good defense system, not against the larger ICBMs, but against short and mid-ranged missiles, they have proven themselves to be pretty decent at what they do.
David: Some people have even questioned my patriotism for questioning our anti-ballistic missile defense system, because it’s telling the enemy that we’re vulnerable. But the people who were patriotic in the run-up to World War II, the French said they had a Maginot Line that was impenetrable and to question it would be unpatriotic. The French were convinced they had what amounted to an iron dome to protect them from the Nazis and Hitler said, ‘Yes, our tanks cannot penetrate the Maginot Line so we’ll just fly over it,’ which they did.
Hayes: Or go around them.
David: Yeah, they flew over it. So a false sense of security can be pretty dangerous. Do you think it’s unpatriotic to question whether or not we have an anti-ballistic missile system?
Hayes: No, not at all. I actually don’t think it’s unpatriotic to question whether they’re worth the cost. Actually they tend to be expensive systems and they do tend to require a lot of testing before they’re proven to be accurate. I’m not saying we should cut all missile defense, I’m saying that we should spend our money wisely on it.
David: Up until Reagan, we lived under ‘mutual assured destruction’ and Reagan didn’t like that idea. I don’t think anybody did. But I don’t think there’s any evidence to suggest that we can do anything after a country has nuclear capability. Once they have missiles I think it’s a stalemate.
The Patriot missile is manufactured by the American defense contractor Raytheon.
Hayes: For the most part, until there’s either a change of government or there’s a change of heart. I mean there have been instances in the past where governments have given up the bomb. South Africa gave up the bomb, Brazil was close and they stopped all pursuit of it after their right-wing dictatorship fell. So it’s entirely possible to see some future where North Korea is able to give up it’s nuclear weapons, but that time is not in the near future unfortunately.
David: Right. But I’m talking about the efficiency of our alleged anti-ballistic missiles. If we had anti-ballistic missiles that worked, then we wouldn’t be so afraid of Iran enriching uranium.
Hayes: Right. Our missile-defense systems aren’t necessarily designed to be anti-ballistic missiles. The big threat is the long-range, the intercontinental ones that Iran doesn’t have capability of yet, North Korea does not have the capability of yet. So what we do have though is the ability to shoot down some of these smaller short and mid range missile systems and that’s what we’re really seeing moved into place and what we see Russia getting all up into arms in eastern Europe and what we see moving into position whenever North Korea raises their hackles.
Israel claims that their Iron Dome missile shield has 90% accuracy.
David: Okay. I would love to see any proof of that because I follow what goes on in Israel and the Iron Dome and those rockets that Hamas fires from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel . . .
Hayes: Right, no one thinks that any defense system is ever going to have a 100% success rate, but compared to what the damage would have been without Iron Dome, I think it’s doing its job pretty decently. And I think that’s the theory with most of these defense systems that we see in place regarding North Korea, that 100% stoppage is not possible, but it’s better than 0% and I think we’re above that point.
David: Right. The Patriot missiles, during the First Gulf War, had 0% accuracy according to Bill Safire of the New York Times. They achieved absolutely nothing, but we were fed a lie that our Patriot missiles had come to Israel’s rescue when Saddam Hussein was lobbing the Scuds there and we later learned that the Patriot missiles don’t work, but there was a lot of money to be made.
Hayes: I haven’t read that Safire piece, so you know more than me on this one.
David: Well, I find that really interesting, and I’m not trying to be arrogant here.
New York Times Columnist Bill Safire, seen here getting the Presidential Medal of Freedom, wrote a series of articles questioning whether or not the Patriot missiles actually did what they were supposed to during the first Gulf War.
Hayes: No, it’s fine.
David: Because nobody has. But I remember the Gulf War, I remember Benjamin Netanyahu wearing a gas mask, he was the spokesman for Israel at the time. He was praising America for saving Israel and how great the Patriot missile was that was shooting these evil Scuds out of the sky. And then a couple of months later, Bill Safire, a conservative, looked into it and said the Patriot missile did absolutely nothing to prevent the Scud missiles from landing on Israel and that story kind of got buried. It’s even hard to Google and find. If you look for it, kind of hard to find. And I wonder, so there’s misinformation coming from North Korea and there’s misinformation coming from the United States when it comes to these missile programs. And I say this as a patriot, not as an investor in the Patriot missile, but I do say this as somebody who loves America and knows that the Maginot Line, that false sense of security, can be very dangerous.
Hayes Brown covers national security issues for ThinkProgress.org.
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What do you think? Can America shoot missiles out of the sky? Is this a capability we should pursue, no matter what the cost is? I’d like to hear your ideas. Please make your voice heard by leaving your comments below.
Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Republican Congressman Buck McKeon, representing California’s 25th District, announced today that he would not be seeking a 12th term. Here to give us a look back at the 75 year old’s illustrious past is Buck McKeon’s biggest Champion, the founder and treasurer of the Blue America Pac which raises money for progressive candidates around the country, Howie Klein.
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David: Howie.
Howie Klein: Yes.
The House Armed Services Committee’s ranking Republican Rep. Howard McKeon, R-Calif. is the most corrupt politician in Washington, according to our guest Howie Klein.
David: You must be devastated by this news because for years you have written on your ‘Down with Tyranny’ blog that Congressman Buck McKeon is a degenerate gambler who owes money to Las Vegas potentate Sheldon Adelson. You accused Congressman Buck McKeon’s family of reaping a fortune lobbying for the defense industry while their dad sits atop the powerful Armed Services Committee. So, as you choke back tears, tell me is Buck McKeon not running for re-election for personal reasons? Is he cashing in to go be a lobbyist for the defense industry? Or is he afraid he just can’t win?
Howie: Yes, yes, yes yes. Everything that you just said is yes.
He is the single-most corrupt person in Congress and he’ll be joining his family lobbying firm, he’ll deny that, just the way he denied that he was going to be resigning. I’ve been writing he would be resigning for almost a year now.
David: Why is he stepping down?
Howie: The demographic in the district is changing drastically. It’s much, much bluer now, it’s much more Hispanic now, and it’s much younger now. And Buck McKeon doesn’t fit in there.
He’s an old white Mormon, he’s like a fossil of some kind.
So, he probably couldn’t have won again and he has done very, very badly for himself financially. He’s in debt, he loses homes. His business went bankrupt. His personal financial life is a disaster. He’ll be 76 when he gets out of Congress and he knows he’s got to make some money now. And he can.
He has very, very good connections with the military industrial complex. He is the founder and the chairman of the Drone caucus. Those people have given him more money than any other member of congress and they will continue doing that as he’s lobbying.
He’s picking the guy who will be succeeding him as the Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. Other people will fight him but he’s trying to pick Mac Thornberry from Texas, to succeed him and Thornberry is as big a shill as he is to those interests.
David: He’ll be able to lobby him for the defense industry.
Howie: Right, which is what he plans to do. He’ll deny that but that’s exactly what’s going to happen.
Howie Klein reports that McKeon is a degenerate gambler who owes money to Casino Magnate Sheldon Adelson, pictured here.
David: You’ve written for several months that he owes money to Sheldon Adelson because he’s a degenerate gambler. Do we know if he’s paid back those bets?
Howie: No, he denies that he owes any money to Sheldon Adelson. But I know that he does from a number of sources. I expect that maybe it will start coming out now. But we’ll see what happens. It would be illegal for him to owe that kind of money to Sheldon Adelson and not report it.
My theory is that he was giving Sheldon Adelson inside information.
Remember Buck McKeon gets up in the morning and he gets the same National Security Briefing that the President of the United States gets. Sheldon Adelson, none of his money is coming from Las Vegas. He loses in Las Vegas. His money comes from Macau. He is completely indebted for his fortune to China and they are very interested in the stuff that McKeon hears every morning so I’m sure that Adeslson is not squeezing Buck McKeon to pay back the money.
David: You write on your ‘Down With Tyranny’ blog that there is now a civil war within the Republican Party for Buck McKeon’s seat. Who’s running?
Howie: McKeon is trying to bring in his own successor.
This guy Tony Strickland, former State legislator, but the republicans in that district detest Strickland. They see him as a carpetbagger and also as a very, very corrupt guy.
So, they recruited their own candidate, State Senator Steve Knight. The problem with Steve Knight is he is the single most right wing politician in the State of California. There is nothing more right-wing than this guy, it’s frightening. So, here we have a very very corrupt Republican backed by McKeon who’s also very right wing, and then the most right-wing California politician, who’s not backed by McKeon, and they’re already going at each other in a big, big way. There’s a huge civil war going on which is going to amp up in a very big way.
David: And who’s going to win the primary?
Howie: Between those two it’s very, very hard to say. I mean, who would win between a shark and an alligator?
Howie is supporting Dr. Lee Rogers the democrat who almost beat McKeon in the last election cycle.
David: You’re supporting, Lee Rogers, Dr. Lee Rogers on the Democratic side.
Howie: Lee Rogers, who was the National Spokesperson for the American Diabetes Association, he runs like 8 hospital programs. He is a renowned surgeon who goes all over the world giving lectures about how to save people’s limbs who have diabetes so they don’t have to amputate their limbs. That’s his specialty and he’s known as the foremost expert in the whole world on that. And he’s running for Congress. He’s someone who wants to actually go in there and fix the Affordable Care Act in a way that’s going to make some sense. Very, very sensible guy.
David: And that’s California’s 25th District no democratic primary challenge there.
Howie: Remember we have that jungle primary now so everybody jumps in together. So, there’s will be a number of Republican and a number of Democratic all running together. But the three names that we just talked about, Strickland, Lee Rogers, and Knight those are the three people that are in it for real. There are other joke candidates, people running because it will help them and their career in the comedy industry for example. like some girl literally ran last time because she thought it would help her sell tickets because she’s a stand-up comedienne.
David: I got to go file my papers to run for office. Howie Klein, thank you very much.
Howie: My pleasure, it was fun.
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Howie Klein is founder and treasurer of the Blue America PAC and writes the Down With Tyranny blog.
Three hundred thousand West Virginia residents were left without water for 6 days after 7,500 gallons of a coal cleaning chemical known as ‘Crude MCHM’ leaked into the Elk River. The spill took place a mile and a half upstream, from where parts of West Virginia get its drinking water. For more on this, we are joined by meteorologist Mark Thompson.
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David: Mark 300,000 residents were told not to drink their tap water. Was this just a precautionary step?
Mark Thompson: Absolutely not. There’s actual video on YouTube of West Virginia residents getting water from the tap, and then literally setting it on fire. And by the way, boiling the tap water doesn’t make it any safer.
Elk River in West Virginia, the site of the recent chemical spill.
David: I would think boiling the tap water is even more dangerous. I’m not so sure you want it anywhere near a flame.
Mark Thompson: This is really serious; 700 people were reported sick. This stuff is also being found in the air, not just the water. This chemical release is widespread. The big thing about this chemical is that we don’t really know a lot about it. It was grandfathered into the original regulations governing toxic chemicals and their use.
David: This chemical, MCHM, which by the way is also my rap name, MCHM . . .
Mark Thompson: [laughs] I missed that album.
David: Yeah. MCHM is my rap name. Can I sue the manufacturers, just for copyright infringement? I’m kidding. This is . . .
Mark Thompson: Why not? They’ll be getting a lot of lawsuits in the meantime, why not add your name? The company is Liberty.
David: Okay. So this MCHM is used to clean coal?
Mark Thompson: That’s exactly right. It’s used to separate the stuff that’s usable fuel from the stuff’s that not.
David: Coal is dirty. We’re told natural gas is cleaner, but natural gas requires fracking, which involves pumping millions of gallons of chemicals into the ground. These chemicals are known carcinogens. The fracking industry assures us there’s nothing to worry about, because they do a ‘terrific job policing themselves.’ How good a job did the chemical industry in West Virginia do policing themselves?
Parts of West Virginia most impacted by the spill.
Mark Thompson: The chemical industry, the oil industry, the natural gas industry, none of them do a job at all, in terms of policing themselves. They use whatever chemicals they want for these toxic brews which separate the usable oil. And fracking, because you mentioned it, is an identical scenario to what’s going on right now in West Virginia. It’s a terrific parallel, because it’s another way in which chemicals we know nothing about are shot into the ground and then end up leaching into the tap water.
Sadly federal regulations are so relaxed, that the EPA doesn’t even require many of the fracking companies to reveal the substances that are mixed into the water that’s shot down to get that oil out of the ground.
David: Tell me about the Toxic Substances Control Act.
Mark Thompson: That is the main umbrella safety act designed to regulate the chemicals used, in all industry, really, but in this scenario in West Virginia. But it doesn’t even specify the use of this chemical, which is poisoning all these people. Meaning it first went into effect in the 70’s and MCHM was just grandfathered in with no vetting. So this ‘self-policing’ that’s suggested is a bankrupt notion. It doesn’t happen. There’s a toxic brew going down that is being watched and policed by no one.
David: MCHM was grandfathered in? Never vetted?
Mark Thompson: That’s correct.
300,000 residents were told not to drink their tap water, as well as wash their clothes or bathe in it.
David: Did the residents of West Virginia even know that that chemical was sitting there?
Mark Thompson: Well, I think they’re two things they didn’t know. First of all, they didn’t know how dangerous MCHM is because there’s little or no safety data on it. And number two, did anyone ever say, ‘Oh, by the way, all of your water could be contaminated, should this ever get into the water supply.’ I mean, had residents known that, would they have been okay with it? If you know and must use this chemical, and I suggest that it shouldn’t be used at all, but if it must be used in this horribly dirty process of getting coal energy out of the ground and cleaned, well then at lease provide for safety measures such that those chemicals don’t contaminate water supplies.
David: Republicans repeatedly say they want to eliminate the Environmental Protection Agency. If the Environmental Protection Agency were eliminated, who from the government would be looking into the effects of these chemicals?
Mark Thompson: Exactly. I mean, the Environmental Protection Agency has already been gutted, and Barrack Obama, even as a democrat, because you talk about the republicans, certainly both parties are dismantling those programs. And they’ve already done it quite effectively.
I mean, the Environmental Protection Agency is asleep at the switch. They have to provide evidence that the chemical can pose a risk to begin with, and they don’t have any safety data on it. So in other words, this chemical was grandfathered in. They are closing the barn door after the horses are out. This Toxic Substances Control Act has to be overhauled. It has to provide information about these chemicals that are used in so many different dirty energy operations, because you’re going to see more and more of this.
And by the way, you’re already seeing more and more of it. Arkansas residents are still suffering from the situation involving that tar sands spill that happened over the summer. That just happened. Only a few weeks ago, in North Dakota, 400,000 gallons of crude oil spilled during that train crash. And after it spilled, it exploded. It sent a toxic plume into the sky. They had to evacuate 1,400 residents because of the health threat.
So this self-policing energy policy that we have, the presumption that any of these companies are going to self-police is ridiculous. And unfortunately, we’re seeing the disastrous results played out month after month.
David: Mark Thompson, thank you for joining us.
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What do you think about the dangers of fracking? I’d like to hear. Please share your comments below.
Down With Tyranny’s Howie Klein says Republican Congressman Gary Miller is easy pickings for the Dems in 2014 but once again they’re probably going to blow it by running a conservative who lies about his resume.
Michael Snyder, our resident film critic, stops by every once in a while to tell us what documentaries we should be catching. Today, he has two.
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David: Hello Mr. Snyder. First up, The Act of Killing.
Michael: Well, this is a fascinating, disturbing and wildly original documentary by a director named Joshua Oppenheimer, who decided to do something about the mass extermination of people in Indonesia in 1965 that was initiated by a military coup.
People in charge gathered together a bunch of gangsters and set them out to basically cleanse the country of what they said were Communists, and the Communists could be anything from farmers to poor people to genuine dissidents.
Michael: This film goes back to Indonesia and finds these now elderly killers and asks them to explain the how and the why of the murders that they committed and also to reenact them for the camera.
Michael: These guys, apparently, a number of them really love the American movies, and they’re given an opportunity to play act these incidents of killing and torture, and basically try to justify what they did when they did it and express very little remorse. Some of these guys killed hundreds of people, literally hundreds of people, each individually. One guy in particular, Anwar Congo, has bad dreams, and a lot of it must be guilt.
The Act of Killing according to Michael Snyder is “amazing.”
David: Does he know that he’s guilty?
Michael: Oh, absolutely. But it doesn’t change the fact that they did it and they tried to justify what they did. Even today, people are frightened of them as we see in the course of their filming and interacting with actual citizens of the northern Sumatra area.
It’s pretty astonishing stuff.
David: After Suharto fell in 1998 did Indonesia have any truth in reconciliation? Did any of these guys go to prison for these atrocities?
Michael: No. No, absolutely not. They walk the streets, they’re still feared and/or admired or cowed before. It’s a phenomenal film, and it’s surreal in places. There’s one particular kind of production number involving the music from the film Born Free with dancing girls and what looks like a gigantic fish. I can’t even – it is like nothing I’ve seen before. It’s disturbing, it’s phenomenal. It’s as if somehow, the Nazis were given a pass and were still around today and were kind of basically strutting down their street in their hometown and nobody gave a damn.
David: Maybe it’s time for another documentary where Henry Kissinger reenacts all the murders he’s committed in Indonesia’s East Timor and Cambodia.
Michael: There’s enough horror on the screen with these old Indonesian gangsters. You’ll be stunned, honestly.
David: And they’re proud of it?
Michael: Oh, yeah, absolutely. And one guy is just happy that he got away with it, another guy is somewhat tormented, some say you just can’t allow yourself to embrace any guilt in the issue. And there’s one guy, he was the stepson of a Communist whose stepfather just disappeared. They took him away. And what’s really remarkable about this is the palpable fear he still has in the presence of these old gangsters.
David: And ‘gangsters’ is the word for them?
Michael: Yeah. They actually wear it proudly.
David: And they live well, right?
Michael: I don’t know how standards of living are over there, but yes, fairly comfortably.
There’s also a very perverse moment when Anwar is with what appears to be grandchildren and he’s being gentle about a wounded duck, and meanwhile, completely callous about the people that he killed. One guy talks about walking through the city and encountering Chinese Communists, or people he perceived of as Chinese Communists, and just stabbing them one after another, just going on a tear.
David: President Obama lived in Indonesia for a while, didn’t he?
Michael: He may not have known these guys.
Running From Crazy is another doc Michael says we should all catch.
David: Maybe he’s responsible for this. OK, Running From Crazy.
Michael: Well, it’s basically a documentary about Mariel Hemingway and her fear of the emotional, psychological and genetic legacy that has led to at least two suicides in her family and a mentally disturbed elder sister. Mariel’s sister, Margaux, who was an actress and a model, took her own life and was a lovely, vibrant woman.
Mariel seems to have her head screwed on straight and she’s trying to keep her life together, and the camera follows her through her life and she talks about the past. There’s video footage shot by Margaux, and there’s a lot of discussion of the entire family, including Mariel and Margaux’s grandfather, the great author Ernest Hemingway, who had plenty of problems of his own.
Running From Crazy is directed by award winning Director Barbara Kopple,
Michael: The director is Barbara Kopple, who did Harlan County, USA, American Dream, and a lot of other pretty renowned, award-winning documentaries. It appears to have been partially financed I think by OWN, or has been shown on OWN, Oprah’s network. But it’s a beautiful depiction of someone basically plowing forward with her life, making sure she’s going to do the very best she can to keep it together. She’s wonderful in that.
David: And she’s turned to yoga and eating properly, and she has either a boyfriend or a husband?
Michael: She seems like a good person. She seems like someone who has her head screwed on. But it’s interesting to hear her reflect on her family and see the footage from the past, and realize that she’s grappled with tragedy and a fear of her own mind crumbling for much of her adult life. And it’s powerful in its own way. Reflecting on the past can actually prepare you for the future or completely turn your life around. This movie is about family bravery in the face of what could be destiny, genetic destiny, if you will.
David: Great. Michael Snyder, thank you for joining us.
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