Race And Religion: Blackout And Brownout

JUDICIARY — SUPREME COURT TO OPEN NEW TERM WITH CONTROVERSIAL SLATE OF CASES:  The Supreme Court today begins its term with “a socially and politically contentious docket.” The issues “include the legal rights of Guantanamo detainees, the constitutionality of lethal injections for executions, photo identification cards for voters and investors’ struggle to find accountability in cases of fraud.” There is also a racial discrimination case that “could provide a vehicle for limiting remedies available under one of the country’s oldest civil rights laws.” In addition to those already scheduled, “the court could add a blockbuster case to its calendar if the justices opt to take a Second Amendment case from Washington, D.C., that would test limits on the right to own guns.” The opening cases could “chart a course for whether the court is ideologically purely conservative or more balanced” this term. In its first term under Chief Justice John Roberts, conservative justices maintained a narrow but solid majority that consistently ruled in favor of conservative arguments. Last term, 23 cases divided the Court 5-4, with Bush appointees Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito voting together in 21 of those cases.

IRAQ — PENTAGON ISSUES BLACKWATER USA A NEW $92 MILLION CONTRACT: Last month, Blackwater USA, a private security firm, was involved in the fatal shooting of 11 Iraqi civilians. While the Iraqi government swiftly condemned the contractor, the Bush administration has continued to back Blackwater’s story that it was “defensive fire.” Last Thursday, Gen. Peter Pace told reporters, “Blackwater has been a contractor in the past with the department and could certainly be in the future.” The next day, that future arrived. The Pentagon issued a new list of contracts, including one worth $92 million to Presidential Airways, the “aviation unit of parent company Blackwater.” “Presidential Airways, Inc., an aviation Worldwide Services company (d/b/a Blackwater Aviation), Moyock, M.C., is being awarded an indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) type contract for $92,000,000.00,” reads a press release. Government officials have repeatedly ignored Blackwater’s transgressions. Senior Iraqi officials have “repeatedly complained to U.S. officials” about Blackwater’s “alleged involvement in the deaths of numerous Iraqis, but the Americans took little action to regulate the private security firm.”

ADMINISTRATION — BUSH’S CASE FOR HITTING IRAN HAS ‘SHIFTED,’ NOW FOCUSED ON ‘SURGICAL STRIKES’: In a new article for The New Yorker called “Shifting Targets,” Pulitzer-prize winning journalist Seymour Hersh writes that there has been “a significant increase in the tempo of attack planning” for war with Iran within the Bush administration. Hersh, who has been warning for months that the White House has been planning for war with Iran, writes that President Bush’s focus has shifted from a broad bombing attack against Iran’s nuclear facilities to “surgical” strikes against Revolutionary Guard Corps facilities throughout the country. Hersh explained on CNN yesterday that this new rationale would “sell” better, stating, “You can say to people…we’re only hitting those people that we think are trying to hit our boys and the coalition forces” in Iraq. Hersh maintains that the Iranians are “nowhere” in the process of making a nuclear weapon and that “there isn’t enough evidence to justify a bombing raid.” When asked how the drumbeat for war with Iran compares to the Vietnam War or to the months preceding the U.S. attack on Iraq in 2003, Hersh replied, “You’d think in this country with so many smart people, that we can’t possibly do the same dumb thing again. I have this theory in life that there is no learning. There is no learning curve.”

Blackwater contractors have alleged that a Sept. 16 deadly shooting in Iraq was initiated in response to hostile fire. But an “extensive evidence file” put together by the Iraqi National Police — including documents, maps, sworn witness statements, and police video footage — concludes that the Blackwater vehicles “opened fire crazily and randomly, without any reason.”

“Congress again has extended funding for a core abstinence-education program, sparking protests from sex-education advocates who want Democrats to pull the plug on such programs.”

Gen. David Petraeus said the United States is prepared to “reciprocate” if Iran halts shipments of arms to Iraq’s Shia Muslim militias. Meanwhile, Ali Larijani, head of the Supreme National Security Council, rejected accusations that Iran is providing weapons. He added that Iran is ready to work with the U.S. to “help them materialize” a withdrawal from Iraq.

“For the fifth time since 2001, Congress is raising the debt limit, increasing it by $850 billion to $9.815 trillion. The Senate approved the plan on a 53-42 vote Thursday night. The House of Representatives has already signed off on the plan, without a direct vote.” 

Defense Secretary Robert Gates “told a group of U.S. House Democratic lawmakers that the multinational mission in Afghanistan is suffering from a lack of resources, citing the war in Iraq and the reluctance of U.S. allies to contribute more troops, participants at the meeting said.”

Yesterday, the U.S. Embassy in Iraq “criticized a Senate resolution that could lead to a division” of the country “into sectarian or ethnic territories, agreeing with a swath of Iraqi leaders in saying the proposal ‘would produce extraordinary suffering and bloodshed.'”

“Out of a political stalemate over Iraq, domestic policy is surging to prominence on Capitol Hill” this week, with “Republicans and Democrats preparing for a time-honored clash over health care, tax policy, the scope of government and its role in America’s problems at home.” According to the Washington Post, Republicans view the shift away from Iraq as “a relief.”

Defense contractor Brent Wilkes goes on trial tomorrow “to fight federal charges that he funneled more than $700,000 in bribes” to former congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham “in the form of both cash and perks ranging from a Sea-Doo jet boat to the services of two prostitutes at a high-end Hawaiian resort.”

And finally: Last week, Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) was seen sporting an “icky” “bloodshot eye.” A Byrd spokesman confirmed to Roll Call that the injury was not the result of a scuffle with Vice President Cheney, but an “all-out battle” with his grandchildren, who “challenged their 89-year-old great-grandpa to a game of ‘how long can you hold your breath‘ in a swimming pool.”