Friday, June 30, 2006
The Environment:
I'd like to see how Conservatives spin this finding. What part of the so-called 'free market' mechanism gives an incentive to pollute less? Rising fuel prices cause some people to drive less, and consider a more fuel efficient vehicle for their next purchase. The result of decades of low fuel prices is the large number of oversized 'light trucks' (masquerading as passenger vehicles under U.S. law) in the fleet. These have actually replaced some of the more-efficient cars that used to comprise the fleet. The unwillingness to aggresively manage such a large fleet's impact on fuel demand is nothing short of irresponsible.
Or 'brilliant,' if the intent is to only serve very narrow economic interests of those who write the fattest checks to elected offials...
LA Times: U.S. Emits Half of Car-Caused Greenhouse Gas, Study Says
"American cars and pickup trucks are responsible for nearly half of the greenhouse gases emitted by automobiles globally, even though the nation's vehicles make up just 30% of the nearly 700 million cars in use, according to a new report by Environmental Defense.
Cars in the U.S. are driven more miles, face lower fuel economy standards and use fuel with more carbon than many of those driven in other countries, the authors found..."
I'd like to see how Conservatives spin this finding. What part of the so-called 'free market' mechanism gives an incentive to pollute less? Rising fuel prices cause some people to drive less, and consider a more fuel efficient vehicle for their next purchase. The result of decades of low fuel prices is the large number of oversized 'light trucks' (masquerading as passenger vehicles under U.S. law) in the fleet. These have actually replaced some of the more-efficient cars that used to comprise the fleet. The unwillingness to aggresively manage such a large fleet's impact on fuel demand is nothing short of irresponsible.
Or 'brilliant,' if the intent is to only serve very narrow economic interests of those who write the fattest checks to elected offials...
LA Times: U.S. Emits Half of Car-Caused Greenhouse Gas, Study Says
"American cars and pickup trucks are responsible for nearly half of the greenhouse gases emitted by automobiles globally, even though the nation's vehicles make up just 30% of the nearly 700 million cars in use, according to a new report by Environmental Defense.
Cars in the U.S. are driven more miles, face lower fuel economy standards and use fuel with more carbon than many of those driven in other countries, the authors found..."
Thursday, June 29, 2006
The Rule of Law and the So-Called War On Terror:
New York Times Editorial: A Victory for the Rule of Law
"The Supreme Court's decision striking down the military tribunals set up to try the detainees being held in Guantánamo Bay is far more than a narrow ruling on the issue of military courts. It is an important and welcome reaffirmation that even in times of war, the law is what the Constitution, the statute books and the Geneva Conventions say it is — not what the president wants it to be...
...The message of this ruling is that the executive branch cannot continue in its remarkable insistence that because there is a war on terror, it no longer needs to follow established procedures that would subject it to scrutiny by another branch of government. The justices rejected the administration's constant refrain — made in everything from its 'enemy combatant' policies to its defense of the National Security Agency's domestic spying — that the authority Congress granted the president to use force after Sept. 11, the exigencies of wartime, or simply the inherent powers of the presidency allow President Bush to trample on existing laws as he sees fit..."
New York Times Editorial: A Victory for the Rule of Law
"The Supreme Court's decision striking down the military tribunals set up to try the detainees being held in Guantánamo Bay is far more than a narrow ruling on the issue of military courts. It is an important and welcome reaffirmation that even in times of war, the law is what the Constitution, the statute books and the Geneva Conventions say it is — not what the president wants it to be...
...The message of this ruling is that the executive branch cannot continue in its remarkable insistence that because there is a war on terror, it no longer needs to follow established procedures that would subject it to scrutiny by another branch of government. The justices rejected the administration's constant refrain — made in everything from its 'enemy combatant' policies to its defense of the National Security Agency's domestic spying — that the authority Congress granted the president to use force after Sept. 11, the exigencies of wartime, or simply the inherent powers of the presidency allow President Bush to trample on existing laws as he sees fit..."
The Right To Vote:
The Brennan Center For Justice: Press Release
"The Brennan Center Task Force on Voting System Security, an initiative of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, today released a report and policy proposals concluding that all three of the nation’s most commonly purchased electronic voting systems are vulnerable to software attacks that could threaten the integrity of a state or national election..."
The Brennan Center For Justice: Press Release
"The Brennan Center Task Force on Voting System Security, an initiative of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, today released a report and policy proposals concluding that all three of the nation’s most commonly purchased electronic voting systems are vulnerable to software attacks that could threaten the integrity of a state or national election..."
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
Conservative 'Success'
George Lakoff, Marc Ettlinger and Sam Ferguson: Rockridge Institute - Bush Is Not Incompetent
"Progressives have fallen into a trap. Emboldened by President Bush’s plummeting approval ratings, progressives increasingly point to Bush’s 'failures' and label him and his administration as incompetent. Self-satisfying as this criticism may be, it misses the bigger point. Bush’s disasters — Katrina, the Iraq War, the budget deficit — are not so much a testament to his incompetence or a failure of execution. Rather, they are the natural, even inevitable result of his conservative governing philosophy. It is conservatism itself, carried out according to plan, that is at fault..."
George Lakoff, Marc Ettlinger and Sam Ferguson: Rockridge Institute - Bush Is Not Incompetent
"Progressives have fallen into a trap. Emboldened by President Bush’s plummeting approval ratings, progressives increasingly point to Bush’s 'failures' and label him and his administration as incompetent. Self-satisfying as this criticism may be, it misses the bigger point. Bush’s disasters — Katrina, the Iraq War, the budget deficit — are not so much a testament to his incompetence or a failure of execution. Rather, they are the natural, even inevitable result of his conservative governing philosophy. It is conservatism itself, carried out according to plan, that is at fault..."
Energy Politics:
Does Mr. Kerry have the political will to act on his statements? Does he have the will to call to account those who stand in the way of real change?
John Kerry: Our Energy Challenge
Does Mr. Kerry have the political will to act on his statements? Does he have the will to call to account those who stand in the way of real change?
John Kerry: Our Energy Challenge
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Our (Fleeting) Right To Privacy:
Jonathan Turley; 'Big Brother' Bush and connecting the data dots
"...Civil liberty-minded citizens may recall the president's plan to create the Total Information Awareness program, a massive databank with the ability to follow citizens in real time by their check-card purchases, bank transactions, medical bills and other electronic means. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, was assigned this task, but after its work was made public, Congress put a stop to it in September 2003 as a danger to privacy and civil liberties.
However, when Congress disbanded the Total Information Awareness program, it did not prohibit further research on such databanks, or even the use of individual databanks.
And, according to a recent study by the National Journal, the Bush administration used that loophole to break the program into smaller parts, transferring some parts to the National Security Agency, classifying the work and renaming parts of it as the Research Development and Experimental Collaboration program.
It was long suspected that Total Information Awareness survived, and the disclosure this week of another massive databank operation has only reinforced that fear. The spawn of DARPA seem to be turning up in secret programs spread throughout agencies.
The administration learned that it could not create a network of databanks in one comprehensive system, but it could achieve the same results by creating smaller systems that could be easily daisy-chained at a later date into the same kind of massive computer bank that Congress thought it had shut down. It is DARPA, albeit with assembly required for the ultimate user.
Consider some of the recent disclosures:
• A domestic surveillance program operated without warrants involving thousands of calls that are isolated by computers at the NSA.
• A massive databank that contains information on hundreds of millions of telephone calls of Americans that is described as the world's largest database.
• Access to information in a massive databank that carries 12.7 million messages each day on international financial transactions.
• Use of massive private databanks with access to an array of information on citizens, including at least 199 data-mining projects.
• Quiet support for a national registered-traveler program in which citizens voluntarily submit private information and subject themselves to background checks for faster passage through airport security. (The information would then be housed in a computer system accessible to the government.)
These computer databanks and programs are technically separate but collectively could exceed the dimensions of the DARPA program killed in 2003...
...For most of our history, one of the greatest protections for civil liberties has been the practical inability of the government to surveil a large number of citizens at one time. In the last couple of decades, those technological barriers have fallen away.
In the meantime, the Supreme Court has removed legal barriers to the government's acquisition of personal information by allowing it to obtain the records of banks, telephone companies and other businesses without a warrant. This combination of legal and technological changes has laid the foundation for a fishbowl society in which citizens can be objects of continual surveillance.
Americans have long been defined by our privacy values. We have fiercely defended what Justice Louis Brandeis called 'our right to be left alone.' It is only in the assurance of privacy that free thoughts and free exercise of rights can be truly exercised. Such privacy evaporates with doubt; it is why the Constitution seeks to avoid the chilling effect of uncertainty in government searches and seizures.
Yet, the problem has been that these programs have been revealed and analyzed in isolation. Each insular program has been defended in insular terms. It is just domestic telephone numbers or just international transactions. Citizens have become accustomed to a steady stream of secret programs and new forms of government monitoring. It is something that our fiercely independent ancestors would have never imagined.
Privacy is dying in America — not with a fight but a yawn."
First, Do No Harm:
...oh nevermind, that's just for Doctors of Medicine.
The Guardian (UK) - Drug Firms a Danger to Health
"Drug companies are accused today of endangering public health through widescale marketing malpractices, ranging from covertly attempting to persuade consumers that they are ill to bribing doctors and misrepresenting the results of safety and efficacy tests on their products.
In a report that charts the scale of illicit practices by drug companies in the UK and across Europe, Consumers International - the world federation of consumer organisations - says people are not being given facts about the medicines they take because the companies hide the marketing tactics on which they spend billions..."
Propaganda:
When the government is behind the news, one necessarily calls it propaganda.
Center for Media and Democracy: Pro-War 'Vets for Freedom' Tied to Bush's PR Team
"Citizen journalists on SourceWatch have been investigating and exposing the many Republican connections and the partisan pro-war political agenda behind Vets for Freedom, a new organization with mysterious funding and a flashy website designed by Campaign Solutions, part of the Donatelli Group. Vets for Freedom's hollow claim of 'non-partisanship' took another blow Sunday, June 25, when the Buffalo News published a front page story by Jerry Zremski, their Washington correspondent, linking Vets for Freedom to the Bush White House.
Describing Vets for Freedom as a 'pro-war group with deep Republican ties,' the Buffalo News revealed that Taylor Gross, who until last year worked as a spokesman for President Bush under White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan, is conducting PR work for Veterans for Freedom. Gross attempted to convince the Buffalo News and other papers that two decorated military veterans with the group, Wade Zirkle and David Bellavia, could report cheaply for the newspapers from Iraq while embedded with the US military.
While pitching Zirkle and Bellavia to the Buffalo News and other papers as 'balanced and credible' reporters, Taylor Gross neglected to identify himself as a Republican operative who had done PR work in the White House press office until just last year. Gross left his White House job to form the Republican public relations firm the Herald Group with his political cohorts Matt Well and Doug McGinn.
The revelations in the Buffalo News of Vets for Freedom's ties to the Bush public relations team come just days after the The New York Times reported that Republicans are strongly embracing the Bush Administration's war in Iraq as a keystone of their political strategy for the November elections..."
Nukes:
Here we go...
AP: US Grants First License for Major Nuclear Plant in 30 Years
"The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued its first license for a major commercial nuclear facility in 30 years, allowing an international consortium to build what will be the nation's first private fuel source for commercial nuclear power plants.
Construction of the $1.5 billion National Enrichment Facility, under review for the past 2 1/2 years, could begin in August, and the plant could be ready to sell enriched uranium by early 2009, said James Ferland, president of the consortium of nuclear companies, Louisiana Energy Services.
The plant, licensed on Friday, will be built near the small southeastern New Mexico community of Eunice, where support for the project is strong. Critics say it will pollute the environment, guzzle scarce water and leave the town with tons of radioactive waste and nowhere to put it..."
Jonathan Turley; 'Big Brother' Bush and connecting the data dots
"...Civil liberty-minded citizens may recall the president's plan to create the Total Information Awareness program, a massive databank with the ability to follow citizens in real time by their check-card purchases, bank transactions, medical bills and other electronic means. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, was assigned this task, but after its work was made public, Congress put a stop to it in September 2003 as a danger to privacy and civil liberties.
However, when Congress disbanded the Total Information Awareness program, it did not prohibit further research on such databanks, or even the use of individual databanks.
And, according to a recent study by the National Journal, the Bush administration used that loophole to break the program into smaller parts, transferring some parts to the National Security Agency, classifying the work and renaming parts of it as the Research Development and Experimental Collaboration program.
It was long suspected that Total Information Awareness survived, and the disclosure this week of another massive databank operation has only reinforced that fear. The spawn of DARPA seem to be turning up in secret programs spread throughout agencies.
The administration learned that it could not create a network of databanks in one comprehensive system, but it could achieve the same results by creating smaller systems that could be easily daisy-chained at a later date into the same kind of massive computer bank that Congress thought it had shut down. It is DARPA, albeit with assembly required for the ultimate user.
Consider some of the recent disclosures:
• A domestic surveillance program operated without warrants involving thousands of calls that are isolated by computers at the NSA.
• A massive databank that contains information on hundreds of millions of telephone calls of Americans that is described as the world's largest database.
• Access to information in a massive databank that carries 12.7 million messages each day on international financial transactions.
• Use of massive private databanks with access to an array of information on citizens, including at least 199 data-mining projects.
• Quiet support for a national registered-traveler program in which citizens voluntarily submit private information and subject themselves to background checks for faster passage through airport security. (The information would then be housed in a computer system accessible to the government.)
These computer databanks and programs are technically separate but collectively could exceed the dimensions of the DARPA program killed in 2003...
...For most of our history, one of the greatest protections for civil liberties has been the practical inability of the government to surveil a large number of citizens at one time. In the last couple of decades, those technological barriers have fallen away.
In the meantime, the Supreme Court has removed legal barriers to the government's acquisition of personal information by allowing it to obtain the records of banks, telephone companies and other businesses without a warrant. This combination of legal and technological changes has laid the foundation for a fishbowl society in which citizens can be objects of continual surveillance.
Americans have long been defined by our privacy values. We have fiercely defended what Justice Louis Brandeis called 'our right to be left alone.' It is only in the assurance of privacy that free thoughts and free exercise of rights can be truly exercised. Such privacy evaporates with doubt; it is why the Constitution seeks to avoid the chilling effect of uncertainty in government searches and seizures.
Yet, the problem has been that these programs have been revealed and analyzed in isolation. Each insular program has been defended in insular terms. It is just domestic telephone numbers or just international transactions. Citizens have become accustomed to a steady stream of secret programs and new forms of government monitoring. It is something that our fiercely independent ancestors would have never imagined.
Privacy is dying in America — not with a fight but a yawn."
First, Do No Harm:
...oh nevermind, that's just for Doctors of Medicine.
The Guardian (UK) - Drug Firms a Danger to Health
"Drug companies are accused today of endangering public health through widescale marketing malpractices, ranging from covertly attempting to persuade consumers that they are ill to bribing doctors and misrepresenting the results of safety and efficacy tests on their products.
In a report that charts the scale of illicit practices by drug companies in the UK and across Europe, Consumers International - the world federation of consumer organisations - says people are not being given facts about the medicines they take because the companies hide the marketing tactics on which they spend billions..."
Propaganda:
When the government is behind the news, one necessarily calls it propaganda.
Center for Media and Democracy: Pro-War 'Vets for Freedom' Tied to Bush's PR Team
"Citizen journalists on SourceWatch have been investigating and exposing the many Republican connections and the partisan pro-war political agenda behind Vets for Freedom, a new organization with mysterious funding and a flashy website designed by Campaign Solutions, part of the Donatelli Group. Vets for Freedom's hollow claim of 'non-partisanship' took another blow Sunday, June 25, when the Buffalo News published a front page story by Jerry Zremski, their Washington correspondent, linking Vets for Freedom to the Bush White House.
Describing Vets for Freedom as a 'pro-war group with deep Republican ties,' the Buffalo News revealed that Taylor Gross, who until last year worked as a spokesman for President Bush under White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan, is conducting PR work for Veterans for Freedom. Gross attempted to convince the Buffalo News and other papers that two decorated military veterans with the group, Wade Zirkle and David Bellavia, could report cheaply for the newspapers from Iraq while embedded with the US military.
While pitching Zirkle and Bellavia to the Buffalo News and other papers as 'balanced and credible' reporters, Taylor Gross neglected to identify himself as a Republican operative who had done PR work in the White House press office until just last year. Gross left his White House job to form the Republican public relations firm the Herald Group with his political cohorts Matt Well and Doug McGinn.
The revelations in the Buffalo News of Vets for Freedom's ties to the Bush public relations team come just days after the The New York Times reported that Republicans are strongly embracing the Bush Administration's war in Iraq as a keystone of their political strategy for the November elections..."
Nukes:
Here we go...
AP: US Grants First License for Major Nuclear Plant in 30 Years
"The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued its first license for a major commercial nuclear facility in 30 years, allowing an international consortium to build what will be the nation's first private fuel source for commercial nuclear power plants.
Construction of the $1.5 billion National Enrichment Facility, under review for the past 2 1/2 years, could begin in August, and the plant could be ready to sell enriched uranium by early 2009, said James Ferland, president of the consortium of nuclear companies, Louisiana Energy Services.
The plant, licensed on Friday, will be built near the small southeastern New Mexico community of Eunice, where support for the project is strong. Critics say it will pollute the environment, guzzle scarce water and leave the town with tons of radioactive waste and nowhere to put it..."
Sunday, June 25, 2006
The Corrupt Status-Quo:
Frank Rich: The Road From K Street to Yusufiya
"...Privates Tucker and Menchaca made the ultimate sacrifice. Their bodies were so mutilated that they could be identified only by DNA. Mr. Safavian, by contrast, can be readily identified by smell. His idea of wartime sacrifice overseas was to chew over government business with the Jack Abramoff gang while on a golfing junket in Scotland. But what's most indicative of Mr. Safavian's public service is not his felonies in the Abramoff-Tom DeLay axis of scandal, but his legal activities before his arrest. In his DNA you get a snapshot of the governmental philosophy that has guided the war effort both in Iraq and at home (that would be the Department of Homeland Security) and doomed it to failure.
Mr. Safavian, a former lobbyist, had a hand in federal spending, first as chief of staff of the General Services Administration and then as the White House's chief procurement officer, overseeing a kitty of some $300 billion (plus $62 billion designated for Katrina relief). He arrived to help enforce a Bush management initiative called 'competitive sourcing.' Simply put, this was a plan to outsource as much of government as possible by forcing federal agencies to compete with private contractors and their K Street lobbyists for huge and lucrative assignments. The initiative's objective, as the C.E.O. administration officially put it, was to deliver 'high-quality services to our citizens at the lowest cost.'
The result was low-quality services at high cost: the creation of a shadow government of private companies rife with both incompetence and corruption. Last week Representative Henry Waxman, the California Democrat who commissioned the first comprehensive study of Bush administration contracting, revealed that the federal procurement spending supervised for a time by Mr. Safavian had increased by $175 billion between 2000 and 2005. (Halliburton contracts alone, unsurprisingly, went up more than 600 percent.) Nearly 40 cents of every dollar in federal discretionary spending now goes to private companies..."
BushGreenwatch.org - White House, Republicans Plan to Wipe Out All Federal Protections
"Apparently rushing to lock in a long-sought goal before the fall elections, GOP congressional leaders may bring to a vote within weeks a proposal that could literally wipe out any federal program that protects public health or the environment - or for that matter civil rights, poverty programs, auto safety, education, affordable housing, Head Start, workplace safety or any other activity targeted by anti-regulatory forces.
With strong support from the Bush White House and the Republican Study Committee, the proposal would create a 'sunset commission' - an unelected body with the power to recommend whether a program lives or dies, and then move its recommendations through Congress on a fast-track basis with limited debate and no amendments.
Three leading proposals have been introduced and are being winnowed into a final version. They would give the White House some - or total - authority to nominate members to the commission. House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) has confirmed that his office is coordinating development of a final version for prompt floor action.
Sunset commissions have been proposed, and defeated, before. But public interest veterans say the current situation is unlike any in the past, because the House Republican Study Committee, which includes some of the most anti-regulatory members of Congress, has secured guaranteed floor consideration of a sunset bill.
If such a bill should become law, the sunset commission could be packed with industry lobbyists and representatives from industry-funded think tanks, and could conduct its business in secrecy. Two of the sunset proposals under consideration would mandate that programs die after they are reviewed, unless Congress takes action to save them..."
Frank Rich: The Road From K Street to Yusufiya
"...Privates Tucker and Menchaca made the ultimate sacrifice. Their bodies were so mutilated that they could be identified only by DNA. Mr. Safavian, by contrast, can be readily identified by smell. His idea of wartime sacrifice overseas was to chew over government business with the Jack Abramoff gang while on a golfing junket in Scotland. But what's most indicative of Mr. Safavian's public service is not his felonies in the Abramoff-Tom DeLay axis of scandal, but his legal activities before his arrest. In his DNA you get a snapshot of the governmental philosophy that has guided the war effort both in Iraq and at home (that would be the Department of Homeland Security) and doomed it to failure.
Mr. Safavian, a former lobbyist, had a hand in federal spending, first as chief of staff of the General Services Administration and then as the White House's chief procurement officer, overseeing a kitty of some $300 billion (plus $62 billion designated for Katrina relief). He arrived to help enforce a Bush management initiative called 'competitive sourcing.' Simply put, this was a plan to outsource as much of government as possible by forcing federal agencies to compete with private contractors and their K Street lobbyists for huge and lucrative assignments. The initiative's objective, as the C.E.O. administration officially put it, was to deliver 'high-quality services to our citizens at the lowest cost.'
The result was low-quality services at high cost: the creation of a shadow government of private companies rife with both incompetence and corruption. Last week Representative Henry Waxman, the California Democrat who commissioned the first comprehensive study of Bush administration contracting, revealed that the federal procurement spending supervised for a time by Mr. Safavian had increased by $175 billion between 2000 and 2005. (Halliburton contracts alone, unsurprisingly, went up more than 600 percent.) Nearly 40 cents of every dollar in federal discretionary spending now goes to private companies..."
BushGreenwatch.org - White House, Republicans Plan to Wipe Out All Federal Protections
"Apparently rushing to lock in a long-sought goal before the fall elections, GOP congressional leaders may bring to a vote within weeks a proposal that could literally wipe out any federal program that protects public health or the environment - or for that matter civil rights, poverty programs, auto safety, education, affordable housing, Head Start, workplace safety or any other activity targeted by anti-regulatory forces.
With strong support from the Bush White House and the Republican Study Committee, the proposal would create a 'sunset commission' - an unelected body with the power to recommend whether a program lives or dies, and then move its recommendations through Congress on a fast-track basis with limited debate and no amendments.
Three leading proposals have been introduced and are being winnowed into a final version. They would give the White House some - or total - authority to nominate members to the commission. House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) has confirmed that his office is coordinating development of a final version for prompt floor action.
Sunset commissions have been proposed, and defeated, before. But public interest veterans say the current situation is unlike any in the past, because the House Republican Study Committee, which includes some of the most anti-regulatory members of Congress, has secured guaranteed floor consideration of a sunset bill.
If such a bill should become law, the sunset commission could be packed with industry lobbyists and representatives from industry-funded think tanks, and could conduct its business in secrecy. Two of the sunset proposals under consideration would mandate that programs die after they are reviewed, unless Congress takes action to save them..."
Saturday, June 24, 2006
GOP Desperation On Iraq:
Larry C. Johnson: So-Called Iraqi WMD
"...Degraded weapons buried in the desert were not the bill of goods sold to the American people to justify invading Iraq. We were warned of imminent mushroom clouds and unmanned aerial vehicles spritzing amusement parks with deadly biological agents. Santorum's pathetic attempt to misrepresent the truth about Iraq's weapon systems in order to win political support must be rebuffed in the strongest possible terms..."
GOP Deck-Stacking Tactics For 2008
Greag Palast: Voting Rights Act Nailed To Burning Cross Greg Palast
"Don’t kid yourself. The Republican Party’s decision yesterday to 'delay' the renewal of the Voting Rights Act has not a darn thing to do with objections of the Republican’s White Sheets Caucus.
Complaints by a couple of Good Ol’ Boys to legislation has never stopped the GOP leadership from rolling over dissenters.
This is a strategic stall — meant to de-criminalize the Republican Party’s new game of challenging voters of color by the hundreds of thousands.
In the 2004 Presidential race, the GOP ran a massive multi-state, multi-million-dollar operation to challenge the legitimacy of Black, Hispanic and Native-American voters. The methods used broke the law — the Voting Rights Act. And while the Bush Administration’s Civil Rights Division grinned and looked the other way, civil rights lawyers are circling, preparing to sue to stop the violations of the Act before the 2008 race.
Therefore, Republicans have promised to no longer break the law — not by going legit… but by eliminating the law..."
Birch Blog in the 'The New American': Yes, It’s About Oil
"...Greg Palast, in his new book Armed Madhouse, offers a pretty plausible answer to this question: Why did the US invade Iraq?
Short answer: It’s the oil, stupid — and the point is not to sell it, but to control it.
This may seem like taking the long way around to an obvious conclusion, but Palast finds what I’d consider to be formidable–if not incontestable–support for his conclusions in pre-war reports about Iraq issued by the Council on Foreign Relations.
In December 2000, while Bush and Gore were both trying to cheat their way to victory in the protracted presidential election, the CFR and the Houston-based James A. Baker III Institute at Rice University convened a Joint Task Force on Petroleum.
The final report of that body, produced with 'the generous support of Khalid al-Turki' of Saudi Arabia, and published in April 2001, concluded that 'Iraq has become a key ’swing’ producer [of petroleum], posing a difficult situation for the US government...Saddam is a ‘destabilizing influence...to the flow of oil to international markets from the Middle East.'
Therefore, concluded the CFR report, the US 'should conduct an immediate policy review toward Iraq, including military, energy, economic, and political/diplomatic assessments.'
That report–according to Palast, who cites individuals who participated in its composition– 'was handed directly to Vice President Dick Cheney. Cheney met secretly with CFR task force members and other energy industry comrades to go over the maps of Iraq’s oil fields. That, apparently, sealed it,'..."
Larry C. Johnson: So-Called Iraqi WMD
"...Degraded weapons buried in the desert were not the bill of goods sold to the American people to justify invading Iraq. We were warned of imminent mushroom clouds and unmanned aerial vehicles spritzing amusement parks with deadly biological agents. Santorum's pathetic attempt to misrepresent the truth about Iraq's weapon systems in order to win political support must be rebuffed in the strongest possible terms..."
GOP Deck-Stacking Tactics For 2008
Greag Palast: Voting Rights Act Nailed To Burning Cross Greg Palast
"Don’t kid yourself. The Republican Party’s decision yesterday to 'delay' the renewal of the Voting Rights Act has not a darn thing to do with objections of the Republican’s White Sheets Caucus.
Complaints by a couple of Good Ol’ Boys to legislation has never stopped the GOP leadership from rolling over dissenters.
This is a strategic stall — meant to de-criminalize the Republican Party’s new game of challenging voters of color by the hundreds of thousands.
In the 2004 Presidential race, the GOP ran a massive multi-state, multi-million-dollar operation to challenge the legitimacy of Black, Hispanic and Native-American voters. The methods used broke the law — the Voting Rights Act. And while the Bush Administration’s Civil Rights Division grinned and looked the other way, civil rights lawyers are circling, preparing to sue to stop the violations of the Act before the 2008 race.
Therefore, Republicans have promised to no longer break the law — not by going legit… but by eliminating the law..."
Birch Blog in the 'The New American': Yes, It’s About Oil
"...Greg Palast, in his new book Armed Madhouse, offers a pretty plausible answer to this question: Why did the US invade Iraq?
Short answer: It’s the oil, stupid — and the point is not to sell it, but to control it.
This may seem like taking the long way around to an obvious conclusion, but Palast finds what I’d consider to be formidable–if not incontestable–support for his conclusions in pre-war reports about Iraq issued by the Council on Foreign Relations.
In December 2000, while Bush and Gore were both trying to cheat their way to victory in the protracted presidential election, the CFR and the Houston-based James A. Baker III Institute at Rice University convened a Joint Task Force on Petroleum.
The final report of that body, produced with 'the generous support of Khalid al-Turki' of Saudi Arabia, and published in April 2001, concluded that 'Iraq has become a key ’swing’ producer [of petroleum], posing a difficult situation for the US government...Saddam is a ‘destabilizing influence...to the flow of oil to international markets from the Middle East.'
Therefore, concluded the CFR report, the US 'should conduct an immediate policy review toward Iraq, including military, energy, economic, and political/diplomatic assessments.'
That report–according to Palast, who cites individuals who participated in its composition– 'was handed directly to Vice President Dick Cheney. Cheney met secretly with CFR task force members and other energy industry comrades to go over the maps of Iraq’s oil fields. That, apparently, sealed it,'..."
Monday, June 19, 2006
Democracy Now! - Headlines for June 19, 2006
"Pentagon Report Reveals New Iraqi Detainee Abuse
A newly released Pentagon study reveals that U.S. forces held Iraqi detainees for up to seven days at a time in cells so tiny that they could neither stand nor lie down. The cells measured four feet high, four feet long and twenty inches wide. One Iraqi detainee alleged his captors duct-taped his mouth and nose before placing him in the box-like cell. The Pentagon investigation also determined some Iraqi detainees were fed only bread and water for up to seventeen days during which time they were chained to the floor of their cells. Other Iraqis were stripped naked, deprived of sleep and assailed with loud music. The Pentagon report was completed in November 2004 but only made public last week in response to a Freedom of Information request from the American Civil Liberties Union. The report’s author, Army Brigadier General Richard Formica, determined the troops used unauthorized interrogation methods that violated the Geneva Conventions. But he recommended that no U.S. troops be disciplined for abusing Iraqis.
U.S. Embassy Memo Reveals Dire Situation in Baghdad
An internal memo from the US embassy in Baghdad leaked to the Washington Post reveals that the situation in the Iraqi capital is far more dire than portrayed by the Bush administration. The memo mentions that one Arab newspaper editor is preparing an extensive study of how ethnic cleansing is now occurring in almost every Iraqi province. One Iraqi employee of the embassy said that he attends a funeral every evening. Neighborhoods in Baghdad are now mostly controlled by militias. Islamic groups are enforcing strict social codes. Women are increasingly being pressured to cover their faces. It is also now considered dangerous for men and children to wear shorts outside. Iraqis working in the U.S. embassy must now keep their place of work a secret even from their own family because anti-American sentiment is so high. For the past six months the embassy has been unable to call Iraqi workers at home or use them as translators for on-camera press events for their own safety. The memo from the U.S. embassy was sent to Washington last week ahead of President Bush’s visit to Baghdad..."
"Pentagon Report Reveals New Iraqi Detainee Abuse
A newly released Pentagon study reveals that U.S. forces held Iraqi detainees for up to seven days at a time in cells so tiny that they could neither stand nor lie down. The cells measured four feet high, four feet long and twenty inches wide. One Iraqi detainee alleged his captors duct-taped his mouth and nose before placing him in the box-like cell. The Pentagon investigation also determined some Iraqi detainees were fed only bread and water for up to seventeen days during which time they were chained to the floor of their cells. Other Iraqis were stripped naked, deprived of sleep and assailed with loud music. The Pentagon report was completed in November 2004 but only made public last week in response to a Freedom of Information request from the American Civil Liberties Union. The report’s author, Army Brigadier General Richard Formica, determined the troops used unauthorized interrogation methods that violated the Geneva Conventions. But he recommended that no U.S. troops be disciplined for abusing Iraqis.
U.S. Embassy Memo Reveals Dire Situation in Baghdad
An internal memo from the US embassy in Baghdad leaked to the Washington Post reveals that the situation in the Iraqi capital is far more dire than portrayed by the Bush administration. The memo mentions that one Arab newspaper editor is preparing an extensive study of how ethnic cleansing is now occurring in almost every Iraqi province. One Iraqi employee of the embassy said that he attends a funeral every evening. Neighborhoods in Baghdad are now mostly controlled by militias. Islamic groups are enforcing strict social codes. Women are increasingly being pressured to cover their faces. It is also now considered dangerous for men and children to wear shorts outside. Iraqis working in the U.S. embassy must now keep their place of work a secret even from their own family because anti-American sentiment is so high. For the past six months the embassy has been unable to call Iraqi workers at home or use them as translators for on-camera press events for their own safety. The memo from the U.S. embassy was sent to Washington last week ahead of President Bush’s visit to Baghdad..."
Saturday, June 17, 2006
An Assault On The Right Not To Be Intruded Upon In One's Nightclothes:
Letter To The NY Times Editor: When the Police Are at Your Door
"To the Editor:
Well, we finally have the government we asked for: an executive branch that calls itself above the law, a law-making body that wavers between impotence and inaction, and a judiciary that asserts the value of improper police home invasion over notions of privacy and precedent.
In short, we have a government with tyrannical powers, democratically elected on the promise that we would be made 'safe.'
Let us rejoice, and be proud.
Joyce Adams
Portland, Ore., June 16, 2006"
Supreme Court Justice Breyer, with whom Justice Stevens, Justice Souter, and Justice Ginsburg join, dissenting writes convincingly.
Letter To The NY Times Editor: When the Police Are at Your Door
"To the Editor:
Well, we finally have the government we asked for: an executive branch that calls itself above the law, a law-making body that wavers between impotence and inaction, and a judiciary that asserts the value of improper police home invasion over notions of privacy and precedent.
In short, we have a government with tyrannical powers, democratically elected on the promise that we would be made 'safe.'
Let us rejoice, and be proud.
Joyce Adams
Portland, Ore., June 16, 2006"
Supreme Court Justice Breyer, with whom Justice Stevens, Justice Souter, and Justice Ginsburg join, dissenting writes convincingly.
Friday, June 16, 2006
Billions Contracted With No Bid:
Judicial Watch: Documents May Link Cheney to Halliburton No-Bid Iraq Contract "Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that the Department of the Army, per order of U.S. District Court Judge Ricardo M. Urbina, has released to Judicial Watch approximately 100 pages of documents which detail the multi-billion dollar, no-bid contract awarded in 2003 by the Army to Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR), a subsidiary of Halliburton Co. One document uncovered by Judicial Watch suggests the United States Army Corp of Engineers (USACE) may have publicly lied regarding the involvement of the Vice President's office in awarding the contract.
In an email dated April 22, 2003, Carol Sanders of the USACE, writes, 'Mr. Robert Andersen, Chief Counsel, USACE, participated in a 60 Minutes interview today in New York regarding the sole source award of the oil response contract to Kellogg, Brown and Root.... Mr. Andersen ... was able to make many of the points we had planned.' Sanders subsequently provided sound bites from the interview, including, 'There was no contact whatsoever (with the VP office).'
This directly contradicts another email uncovered by Judicial Watch in 2004. The email, dated March 5, 2003, sent by an official of the Army Corps of Engineers whose name was redacted, stated, 'We anticipate no issue [with the KBR deal] since the action has been coordinated w VP's office.'
The newly released documents also prove the Department of the Army abused the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) process by improperly invoking exemptions. One document, for example, includes a frank admission by an Army Corps of Engineer official: 'I am copying you on this crap since I honestly believe the competitive procurement will never happen.' The Army attempted to withhold this embarrassing document even though no appropriate exemption applied. It took the intervention of a federal district judge to force the Army to release the document.
'These new documents raise questions about the involvement of the Vice President's office in the controversial KBR deal. One has to wonder whether the Army was being forthright about the issue,' said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.
Noting Vice President Cheney's prior relationship to Halliburton, Judicial Watch filed its FOIA request to obtain documents pertaining to the lucrative no-bid contract. The vice president's associations with Halliburton 'raise concerns about the appearance of a conflict of interest or favoritism,' Judicial Watch argued, 'particularly since the contract was awarded to KBR without a bidding process and because the contract was not announced to the public until after it was approved.'"
Suppress The Vote:
Greg Palast: African-American Voters Scrubbed by Secret GOP Hit List
"...The Republican National Committee has a special offer for African-American soldiers: Go to Baghdad, lose your vote.
A confidential campaign directed by GOP party chiefs in October 2004 sought to challenge the ballots of tens of thousands of voters in the last presidential election, virtually all of them cast by residents of Black-majority precincts.
Files from the secret vote-blocking campaign were obtained by BBC Television Newsnight, London. They were attached to emails accidentally sent by Republican operatives to a non-party website.
One group of voters wrongly identified by the Republicans as registering to vote from false addresses: servicemen and women sent overseas..."
Qui Pro Quo On Capitol Hill:
Chicago Tribune: Records Reveal Hastert's Hand in Land Deal
"Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert and two partners turned a profit of more than $3 million on property they accumulated and sold in just over three years near the route of a proposed controversial freeway on the western fringe of suburban Chicago, according to land records and financial disclosure reports released Wednesday.
Hastert spokesman Ron Bonjean rejected the notion that the land, located 5 1/2 miles from the proposed Prairie Parkway route, rose in value because of the highway project. The speaker long has been an aggressive proponent of the highway and helped secure more than $200 million in federal funding through an earmark in federal transportation legislation..."
Evangelizing Agianst The New Deal:
Dean Baker: Fiction on the Social Security Trust Fund
"Public opinion polls consistently show that Social Security is the most popular government program. With almost 50 million current beneficiaries, nearly everyone either receives Social Security themselves or knows someone who is currently dependent on the program.
In many ways Social Security is a model program in that does exactly what it was designed to do. It provides a core retirement income that ensures retirees a decent standard of living. In addition, it provides insurance for workers and their families in the event of disability or early death. There is very little fraud in the program, and the administrative costs of Social Security are less than 1/20th as high as the cost of private insurers.
This background is crucial because it explains the Social Security 'crisis.' The public fully appreciates what Social Security does and would never support efforts to privatize the program if they believed that Social Security was fundamentally sound. Therefore, proponents of privatization have undertaken a massive effort over the last quarter-century to convince the public that Social Security is going bankrupt..."
Judicial Watch: Documents May Link Cheney to Halliburton No-Bid Iraq Contract "Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that the Department of the Army, per order of U.S. District Court Judge Ricardo M. Urbina, has released to Judicial Watch approximately 100 pages of documents which detail the multi-billion dollar, no-bid contract awarded in 2003 by the Army to Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR), a subsidiary of Halliburton Co. One document uncovered by Judicial Watch suggests the United States Army Corp of Engineers (USACE) may have publicly lied regarding the involvement of the Vice President's office in awarding the contract.
In an email dated April 22, 2003, Carol Sanders of the USACE, writes, 'Mr. Robert Andersen, Chief Counsel, USACE, participated in a 60 Minutes interview today in New York regarding the sole source award of the oil response contract to Kellogg, Brown and Root.... Mr. Andersen ... was able to make many of the points we had planned.' Sanders subsequently provided sound bites from the interview, including, 'There was no contact whatsoever (with the VP office).'
This directly contradicts another email uncovered by Judicial Watch in 2004. The email, dated March 5, 2003, sent by an official of the Army Corps of Engineers whose name was redacted, stated, 'We anticipate no issue [with the KBR deal] since the action has been coordinated w VP's office.'
The newly released documents also prove the Department of the Army abused the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) process by improperly invoking exemptions. One document, for example, includes a frank admission by an Army Corps of Engineer official: 'I am copying you on this crap since I honestly believe the competitive procurement will never happen.' The Army attempted to withhold this embarrassing document even though no appropriate exemption applied. It took the intervention of a federal district judge to force the Army to release the document.
'These new documents raise questions about the involvement of the Vice President's office in the controversial KBR deal. One has to wonder whether the Army was being forthright about the issue,' said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.
Noting Vice President Cheney's prior relationship to Halliburton, Judicial Watch filed its FOIA request to obtain documents pertaining to the lucrative no-bid contract. The vice president's associations with Halliburton 'raise concerns about the appearance of a conflict of interest or favoritism,' Judicial Watch argued, 'particularly since the contract was awarded to KBR without a bidding process and because the contract was not announced to the public until after it was approved.'"
Suppress The Vote:
Greg Palast: African-American Voters Scrubbed by Secret GOP Hit List
"...The Republican National Committee has a special offer for African-American soldiers: Go to Baghdad, lose your vote.
A confidential campaign directed by GOP party chiefs in October 2004 sought to challenge the ballots of tens of thousands of voters in the last presidential election, virtually all of them cast by residents of Black-majority precincts.
Files from the secret vote-blocking campaign were obtained by BBC Television Newsnight, London. They were attached to emails accidentally sent by Republican operatives to a non-party website.
One group of voters wrongly identified by the Republicans as registering to vote from false addresses: servicemen and women sent overseas..."
Qui Pro Quo On Capitol Hill:
Chicago Tribune: Records Reveal Hastert's Hand in Land Deal
"Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert and two partners turned a profit of more than $3 million on property they accumulated and sold in just over three years near the route of a proposed controversial freeway on the western fringe of suburban Chicago, according to land records and financial disclosure reports released Wednesday.
Hastert spokesman Ron Bonjean rejected the notion that the land, located 5 1/2 miles from the proposed Prairie Parkway route, rose in value because of the highway project. The speaker long has been an aggressive proponent of the highway and helped secure more than $200 million in federal funding through an earmark in federal transportation legislation..."
Evangelizing Agianst The New Deal:
Dean Baker: Fiction on the Social Security Trust Fund
"Public opinion polls consistently show that Social Security is the most popular government program. With almost 50 million current beneficiaries, nearly everyone either receives Social Security themselves or knows someone who is currently dependent on the program.
In many ways Social Security is a model program in that does exactly what it was designed to do. It provides a core retirement income that ensures retirees a decent standard of living. In addition, it provides insurance for workers and their families in the event of disability or early death. There is very little fraud in the program, and the administrative costs of Social Security are less than 1/20th as high as the cost of private insurers.
This background is crucial because it explains the Social Security 'crisis.' The public fully appreciates what Social Security does and would never support efforts to privatize the program if they believed that Social Security was fundamentally sound. Therefore, proponents of privatization have undertaken a massive effort over the last quarter-century to convince the public that Social Security is going bankrupt..."
The So-Called Iraq 'Debate'
ABC News: Amid Iraq Debate, a Document Mystery
"Going into Thursday's Iraq debate in Congress, both sides had news points to bolster their arguments — for war supporters, it was recent the killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and the completion of the Iraqi cabinet; for war critics, the fact that U.S. deaths in Iraq today hit 2,500.
Both also went into the debate armed with political talking points. The most unusual came via a document sent out by Office of the Secretary of Defense to an assortment of congressional aides, as well as to the Iraqi Embassy and the U.S. Ambassador to Belgium. The 74-page document is an exhaustive rebuttal of criticisms of the war and a defense of the administration's conduct of the war.
The document, labeled 'Iraq floor debate prep book,' was emailed on Wednesday afternoon to a handful of Democrats as well as Republicans — and was then abruptly recalled. Thursday afternoon, Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) sent a letter to Rumsfeld complaining that his office had spent 'taxpayer dollars to produce partisan political documents.' Lautenberg also suggested that the document may have violated laws prohibiting the Executive Branch from using taxpayer dollars for lobbying and propaganda activities.
The Pentagon later said the document was produced by the National Security Council — but did not offer an explanation as to why it was sent out by the Office of the Secretary of Defense.
Republicans on the Hill were not happy that the document was sent to Democrats — or that it was produced at all. 'I've never seen anything like it,' said one Republican aide, noting that the document went well beyond a Statement of Administration Policy. 'I mean,'a 74-page document — are you kidding me?' The aide added: 'It did more harm than good for the Republican cause,'..."
ABC News: Amid Iraq Debate, a Document Mystery
"Going into Thursday's Iraq debate in Congress, both sides had news points to bolster their arguments — for war supporters, it was recent the killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and the completion of the Iraqi cabinet; for war critics, the fact that U.S. deaths in Iraq today hit 2,500.
Both also went into the debate armed with political talking points. The most unusual came via a document sent out by Office of the Secretary of Defense to an assortment of congressional aides, as well as to the Iraqi Embassy and the U.S. Ambassador to Belgium. The 74-page document is an exhaustive rebuttal of criticisms of the war and a defense of the administration's conduct of the war.
The document, labeled 'Iraq floor debate prep book,' was emailed on Wednesday afternoon to a handful of Democrats as well as Republicans — and was then abruptly recalled. Thursday afternoon, Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) sent a letter to Rumsfeld complaining that his office had spent 'taxpayer dollars to produce partisan political documents.' Lautenberg also suggested that the document may have violated laws prohibiting the Executive Branch from using taxpayer dollars for lobbying and propaganda activities.
The Pentagon later said the document was produced by the National Security Council — but did not offer an explanation as to why it was sent out by the Office of the Secretary of Defense.
Republicans on the Hill were not happy that the document was sent to Democrats — or that it was produced at all. 'I've never seen anything like it,' said one Republican aide, noting that the document went well beyond a Statement of Administration Policy. 'I mean,'a 74-page document — are you kidding me?' The aide added: 'It did more harm than good for the Republican cause,'..."
The Alito-Roberts Effect:
AP: High Court Backs Police No-Knock Searches
"The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that police armed with a warrant can barge into homes and seize evidence even if they don't knock, a huge government victory that was decided by President Bush's new justices.
The 5-4 ruling signals the court's conservative shift following the departure of moderate Sandra Day O'Connor.
Dissenting justices predicted that police will now feel free to ignore previous court rulings that officers with search warrants must knock and announce themselves or run afoul of the Constitution's Fourth Amendment ban on unreasonable searches.
Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the majority, said Detroit police acknowledge violating that rule when they called out their presence at a man's door, failed to knock, then went inside three seconds to five seconds later. The court has endorsed longer waits, of 15 seconds to 20 seconds.
'Whether that preliminary misstep had occurred or not, the police would have executed the warrant they had obtained, and would have discovered the gun and drugs inside the house,' Scalia wrote.
Suppressing evidence is too high of a penalty, Scalia said, for errors by police in failing to properly announce themselves.
The outcome might have been different if O'Connor were still on the bench. She seemed ready, when the case was first argued.."
Qui Pro Quo Seems To Be A Matter Of Course On Capitol Hill:
LA Times: A Mountain of Riches on Capitol Hill
"A top aide to House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis (R-Redlands) reported Wednesday that he received more money than he previously disclosed from a lobbying firm that has come under scrutiny for its ties to Lewis.
The aide, Jeffrey Shockey, corrected his financial disclosure reports to reveal that his salary in 2004 from Copeland Lowery Jacquez Denton & White totaled about $500,000 more than he had reported.
He also collected nearly $2 million from the firm as a payout when he left to return to work for Lewis in 2005.
The firm, whose partners include former Rep. Bill Lowery (R-San Diego), a longtime Lewis friend, is being examined as part of a federal investigation into the practice among lawmakers of slipping federal money for special-interest projects into spending bills.
Lowery's firm represents a number of cities, institutions and businesses in Lewis' district that have received federal funds. The firm also has helped Lewis raise tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions, which helped his drive to gain the Appropriations Committee chairmanship in 2005.
On Friday, Shockey released advance copies of his disclosure report showing that he had received far more than had generally been known - $1.96 million - as a payout from the lobbying firm. On Wednesday, Shockey disclosed that in addition to that payment, he received a higher salary from the firm than previously reported, up from $1.5 million to over $2 million.
Lawyers for Shockey, who also had worked for Lewis before he joined the lobbying firm, said in a letter that the $1.5-million figure was his salary in 2003. They said the error involving his 2004 salary was discovered this week during a review of his financial accounts.
Shockey's high level of compensation - as he moved from Capitol Hill to the lobbying world and back again - shows the value corporate and other interests place on obtaining help in getting federal spending directives, known as earmarks, put onto federal spending bills.
Lewis and Shockey, through his lawyers, say they have done nothing wrong in the roles they have played in the earmarking process and have not been contacted by investigators. Shockey's lawyers point out that their client asked the Ethics Committee to review his compensation from the lobbying firm at the time he returned to public service..."
Energy Politics:
Star Tribune (MN): A risk to radar? New wind farms may be delayed
"More than $500 million in wind farm developments in Minnesota face potential delays because of a federal directive to study the effects of wind turbines on military radar installations.
At least four wind projects in the state -- and more than a dozen elsewhere in the Upper Midwest -- have been temporarily denied safety permits from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Instead, the FAA has sent notices of 'presumed hazard' that effectively prohibit construction until the wind farm proposals are reviewed further, or until the Department of Defense completes a study ordered by Congress earlier this year..."
The Environment:
The Raw Story: EPA quietly attempts to radically change pollution rules
"During the cleanup after Hurricane Katrina, local officials and the Environmental Protection Agency depended on one source to find hotspots of toxic chemicals: a database known as the Toxic Release Inventory.
'This was the only information they had to identify toxic chemicals of any kind in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina,' says Clayton Northouse, an information policy analyst at OMB Watch, a nonprofit government accountability group.
Until a few weeks ago, the inventory was to be slashed to comply with the Federal Paperwork Reduction Act. The EPA said they were gutting the 20-year-old database to save paper. What they didn't say was that the decision would dramatically reduce pressure on polluters..."
AP: High Court Backs Police No-Knock Searches
"The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that police armed with a warrant can barge into homes and seize evidence even if they don't knock, a huge government victory that was decided by President Bush's new justices.
The 5-4 ruling signals the court's conservative shift following the departure of moderate Sandra Day O'Connor.
Dissenting justices predicted that police will now feel free to ignore previous court rulings that officers with search warrants must knock and announce themselves or run afoul of the Constitution's Fourth Amendment ban on unreasonable searches.
Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the majority, said Detroit police acknowledge violating that rule when they called out their presence at a man's door, failed to knock, then went inside three seconds to five seconds later. The court has endorsed longer waits, of 15 seconds to 20 seconds.
'Whether that preliminary misstep had occurred or not, the police would have executed the warrant they had obtained, and would have discovered the gun and drugs inside the house,' Scalia wrote.
Suppressing evidence is too high of a penalty, Scalia said, for errors by police in failing to properly announce themselves.
The outcome might have been different if O'Connor were still on the bench. She seemed ready, when the case was first argued.."
Qui Pro Quo Seems To Be A Matter Of Course On Capitol Hill:
LA Times: A Mountain of Riches on Capitol Hill
"A top aide to House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis (R-Redlands) reported Wednesday that he received more money than he previously disclosed from a lobbying firm that has come under scrutiny for its ties to Lewis.
The aide, Jeffrey Shockey, corrected his financial disclosure reports to reveal that his salary in 2004 from Copeland Lowery Jacquez Denton & White totaled about $500,000 more than he had reported.
He also collected nearly $2 million from the firm as a payout when he left to return to work for Lewis in 2005.
The firm, whose partners include former Rep. Bill Lowery (R-San Diego), a longtime Lewis friend, is being examined as part of a federal investigation into the practice among lawmakers of slipping federal money for special-interest projects into spending bills.
Lowery's firm represents a number of cities, institutions and businesses in Lewis' district that have received federal funds. The firm also has helped Lewis raise tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions, which helped his drive to gain the Appropriations Committee chairmanship in 2005.
On Friday, Shockey released advance copies of his disclosure report showing that he had received far more than had generally been known - $1.96 million - as a payout from the lobbying firm. On Wednesday, Shockey disclosed that in addition to that payment, he received a higher salary from the firm than previously reported, up from $1.5 million to over $2 million.
Lawyers for Shockey, who also had worked for Lewis before he joined the lobbying firm, said in a letter that the $1.5-million figure was his salary in 2003. They said the error involving his 2004 salary was discovered this week during a review of his financial accounts.
Shockey's high level of compensation - as he moved from Capitol Hill to the lobbying world and back again - shows the value corporate and other interests place on obtaining help in getting federal spending directives, known as earmarks, put onto federal spending bills.
Lewis and Shockey, through his lawyers, say they have done nothing wrong in the roles they have played in the earmarking process and have not been contacted by investigators. Shockey's lawyers point out that their client asked the Ethics Committee to review his compensation from the lobbying firm at the time he returned to public service..."
Energy Politics:
Star Tribune (MN): A risk to radar? New wind farms may be delayed
"More than $500 million in wind farm developments in Minnesota face potential delays because of a federal directive to study the effects of wind turbines on military radar installations.
At least four wind projects in the state -- and more than a dozen elsewhere in the Upper Midwest -- have been temporarily denied safety permits from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Instead, the FAA has sent notices of 'presumed hazard' that effectively prohibit construction until the wind farm proposals are reviewed further, or until the Department of Defense completes a study ordered by Congress earlier this year..."
The Environment:
The Raw Story: EPA quietly attempts to radically change pollution rules
"During the cleanup after Hurricane Katrina, local officials and the Environmental Protection Agency depended on one source to find hotspots of toxic chemicals: a database known as the Toxic Release Inventory.
'This was the only information they had to identify toxic chemicals of any kind in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina,' says Clayton Northouse, an information policy analyst at OMB Watch, a nonprofit government accountability group.
Until a few weeks ago, the inventory was to be slashed to comply with the Federal Paperwork Reduction Act. The EPA said they were gutting the 20-year-old database to save paper. What they didn't say was that the decision would dramatically reduce pressure on polluters..."
Monday, June 12, 2006
Blowing the Whistle on Bush:
Daniel Ellsberg: Iraq's Pentagon Papers
"...Today, there must be, at the very least, hundreds of civilian and military officials in the Pentagon, CIA, State Department, National Security Agency and White House who have in their safes and computers comparable documentation of intense internal debates - so far carefully concealed from Congress and the public - about prospective or actual war crimes, reckless policies and domestic crimes: the Pentagon Papers of Iraq, Iran or the ongoing war on U.S. liberties. Some of those officials, I hope, will choose to accept the personal risks of revealing the truth - earlier than I did - before more lives are lost or a new war is launched.
Haditha holds a mirror up not just to American troops in the field, but to our whole society. Not just to the liars in government but to those who believe them too easily. And to all of us in the public, in the administration, in Congress and the media who dissent so far ineffectively or who stand by as murder is being done and do nothing to stop it or expose it.
It is past time for Americans to summon the civil courage to face what is being done in their name and to refuse to be accomplices. We must force Congress and this president, or their successors if necessary, to act upon the moral proposition that the U.S. must stop killing men, women and children in Iraq, and must not begin to do so in Iran.
Neither the lives we have lost, nor the lives we have taken, give the U.S. any right to determine by fire and airpower who shall govern or who shall die in countries we have wrongly attacked."
Daniel Ellsberg: Iraq's Pentagon Papers
"...Today, there must be, at the very least, hundreds of civilian and military officials in the Pentagon, CIA, State Department, National Security Agency and White House who have in their safes and computers comparable documentation of intense internal debates - so far carefully concealed from Congress and the public - about prospective or actual war crimes, reckless policies and domestic crimes: the Pentagon Papers of Iraq, Iran or the ongoing war on U.S. liberties. Some of those officials, I hope, will choose to accept the personal risks of revealing the truth - earlier than I did - before more lives are lost or a new war is launched.
Haditha holds a mirror up not just to American troops in the field, but to our whole society. Not just to the liars in government but to those who believe them too easily. And to all of us in the public, in the administration, in Congress and the media who dissent so far ineffectively or who stand by as murder is being done and do nothing to stop it or expose it.
It is past time for Americans to summon the civil courage to face what is being done in their name and to refuse to be accomplices. We must force Congress and this president, or their successors if necessary, to act upon the moral proposition that the U.S. must stop killing men, women and children in Iraq, and must not begin to do so in Iran.
Neither the lives we have lost, nor the lives we have taken, give the U.S. any right to determine by fire and airpower who shall govern or who shall die in countries we have wrongly attacked."
Is The Constitution Just A Piece of Paper, Fit For the Executive to Ignore?
NY Times Editorial: Blind Man's Bluff
"For more than six months, a few senators have been fumbling around in the dark, trying to write laws covering a domestic wiretapping operation that remains a mystery to most of them. Their ideas are far from radical; some just want to bring the White House back under the rule of law by making the spying retroactively legal. But Vice President Dick Cheney, who is in charge of both overseeing the spying and covering it up, has now made it crystal clear that the White House does not intend to let anything happen. It's time for the Senate to stop rolling over and start focusing on uncovering the extent of the spying and enforcing the law.
A good place to start is by compelling the executives of the major telecommunications companies to testify about reports that they have turned over data on the phone calls of millions of Americans without a court order. Those reports were a reminder that this is not a debate about whether the government should spy on terrorists by tapping their phone calls. President Bush wants Americans to believe that critics of the program oppose that, but nobody does. The real issue is that Mr. Bush does not want to bother with legal niceties like getting a warrant or to acknowledge Congress's power by accounting for his actions...
...We're baffled by Mr. Specter's continuing efforts to appease the White House. Last week, Mr. Cheney organized a coup in the Judiciary Committee to kill Mr. Specter's plan to subpoena telecommunications executives and ask them about the USA Today report that their companies are turning over phone records without a court order. Mr. Cheney told the panel's Republicans to oppose subpoenas and said the executives had been ordered not to testify because they could expose 'extremely sensitive classified information.' That's odd, given that the phone companies keep denying the report.
Mr. Specter — who last week was bemoaning the fact that Mr. Cheney watched him pass by twice at a Senate buffet lunch without mentioning that he had just stabbed him in the back — still thinks it's a good sign that the vice president's office offered to review his legislation and suggest changes. Mr. Cheney and his underlings are the problem, not the solution, and Mr. Specter should realize that by now. Mr. Specter has the votes to subpoena the executives. All he has to do is drop his idea of meeting behind closed doors, and side with the panel's Democrats, who want to have the hearing in full view of the Americans whose rights are being violated."
Energy:
Automotive News: You don't need a hybrid for great fuel economy
"Looking for a vehicle that'll do a day trip on just one tank of gas? This diverse group of cars and one SUV produced some surprising results...
...
JEEP COMMANDER
* 20.3 gallons of premium gas at $2.699
* 17.2 mpg vs. EPA highway rating of 18 mpg
CHEVY CORVETTE
* 12.8 gallons of premium gas at $2.699
* 27.3 mpg vs. EPA highway rating of 27 mpg
HONDA ACCORD V-6 HYBRID
* 10.3 gallons of regular gas at $2.599
* 33.9 mpg vs. EPA highway rating of 34 mpg
TOYOTA PRIUS
* 8.3 gallons of regular gas at $2.599
* 42 mpg vs. EPA highway rating of 51 mpg
VW JETTA TDI
* 7.0 gallons of B20 biodiesel at $2.749
* 49.9 mpg vs. EPA highway rating of 42 mpg..."
Green Car Congress: Ricardo, QinetiQ and PSA Peugeot Citroën Reveal Efficient-C Low-Carbon Diesel-Electric Parallel Hybrid
"Ricardo, QinetiQ and PSA Peugeot Citroën today presented the results of their Efficient-C two-year collaborative research project: a parallel hybrid-electric diesel demonstrator vehicle emitting just 99 g/km CO2 (equivalent to 3.75 liters per 100km or more than 63 mpg US) based on a fully featured Citroën Berlingo Multispace family car.
This represents an improvement of 30% in fuel economy and concomitant reductions in carbon dioxide emissions when compared to the equivalent diesel production vehicle. The same diesel hybrid powertrain fitted in a C-segment 5-door sedan would also only emit 90g tank-to-wheel CO2..."
NY Times Editorial: Blind Man's Bluff
"For more than six months, a few senators have been fumbling around in the dark, trying to write laws covering a domestic wiretapping operation that remains a mystery to most of them. Their ideas are far from radical; some just want to bring the White House back under the rule of law by making the spying retroactively legal. But Vice President Dick Cheney, who is in charge of both overseeing the spying and covering it up, has now made it crystal clear that the White House does not intend to let anything happen. It's time for the Senate to stop rolling over and start focusing on uncovering the extent of the spying and enforcing the law.
A good place to start is by compelling the executives of the major telecommunications companies to testify about reports that they have turned over data on the phone calls of millions of Americans without a court order. Those reports were a reminder that this is not a debate about whether the government should spy on terrorists by tapping their phone calls. President Bush wants Americans to believe that critics of the program oppose that, but nobody does. The real issue is that Mr. Bush does not want to bother with legal niceties like getting a warrant or to acknowledge Congress's power by accounting for his actions...
...We're baffled by Mr. Specter's continuing efforts to appease the White House. Last week, Mr. Cheney organized a coup in the Judiciary Committee to kill Mr. Specter's plan to subpoena telecommunications executives and ask them about the USA Today report that their companies are turning over phone records without a court order. Mr. Cheney told the panel's Republicans to oppose subpoenas and said the executives had been ordered not to testify because they could expose 'extremely sensitive classified information.' That's odd, given that the phone companies keep denying the report.
Mr. Specter — who last week was bemoaning the fact that Mr. Cheney watched him pass by twice at a Senate buffet lunch without mentioning that he had just stabbed him in the back — still thinks it's a good sign that the vice president's office offered to review his legislation and suggest changes. Mr. Cheney and his underlings are the problem, not the solution, and Mr. Specter should realize that by now. Mr. Specter has the votes to subpoena the executives. All he has to do is drop his idea of meeting behind closed doors, and side with the panel's Democrats, who want to have the hearing in full view of the Americans whose rights are being violated."
Energy:
Automotive News: You don't need a hybrid for great fuel economy
"Looking for a vehicle that'll do a day trip on just one tank of gas? This diverse group of cars and one SUV produced some surprising results...
...
JEEP COMMANDER
* 20.3 gallons of premium gas at $2.699
* 17.2 mpg vs. EPA highway rating of 18 mpg
CHEVY CORVETTE
* 12.8 gallons of premium gas at $2.699
* 27.3 mpg vs. EPA highway rating of 27 mpg
HONDA ACCORD V-6 HYBRID
* 10.3 gallons of regular gas at $2.599
* 33.9 mpg vs. EPA highway rating of 34 mpg
TOYOTA PRIUS
* 8.3 gallons of regular gas at $2.599
* 42 mpg vs. EPA highway rating of 51 mpg
VW JETTA TDI
* 7.0 gallons of B20 biodiesel at $2.749
* 49.9 mpg vs. EPA highway rating of 42 mpg..."
Green Car Congress: Ricardo, QinetiQ and PSA Peugeot Citroën Reveal Efficient-C Low-Carbon Diesel-Electric Parallel Hybrid
"Ricardo, QinetiQ and PSA Peugeot Citroën today presented the results of their Efficient-C two-year collaborative research project: a parallel hybrid-electric diesel demonstrator vehicle emitting just 99 g/km CO2 (equivalent to 3.75 liters per 100km or more than 63 mpg US) based on a fully featured Citroën Berlingo Multispace family car.
This represents an improvement of 30% in fuel economy and concomitant reductions in carbon dioxide emissions when compared to the equivalent diesel production vehicle. The same diesel hybrid powertrain fitted in a C-segment 5-door sedan would also only emit 90g tank-to-wheel CO2..."
Saturday, June 10, 2006
Fuel For The Iraqi Insurgency?
Reuters: Provision To Ban Permanent US Bases In Iraq Pulled From Bill
"Congressional Republicans killed a provision in an Iraq war funding bill that would have put the United States on record against the permanent basing of U.S. military facilities in that country, a lawmaker and congressional aides said on Friday.
The $94.5 billion emergency spending bill, which includes $65.8 billion to continue waging wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, is expected to be approved by Congress next week and sent to President George W. Bush for signing into law.
As originally passed by the House of Representatives, the Pentagon would have been prohibited from spending any of the funds for entering into a military basing rights agreement with Iraq.
A similar amendment passed by the Senate said the Pentagon could not use the next round of war funding to 'establish permanent United States military bases in Iraq, or to exercise United States control over the oil infrastructure or oil resources of Iraq.'
The Bush administration has said it does not want to place any artificial timelines on a U.S. presence in Iraq and that it wants to begin withdrawing troops when Iraqi security forces are better able to protect the country. But it has not ruled out permanent bases in Iraq..."
Reuters: Provision To Ban Permanent US Bases In Iraq Pulled From Bill
"Congressional Republicans killed a provision in an Iraq war funding bill that would have put the United States on record against the permanent basing of U.S. military facilities in that country, a lawmaker and congressional aides said on Friday.
The $94.5 billion emergency spending bill, which includes $65.8 billion to continue waging wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, is expected to be approved by Congress next week and sent to President George W. Bush for signing into law.
As originally passed by the House of Representatives, the Pentagon would have been prohibited from spending any of the funds for entering into a military basing rights agreement with Iraq.
A similar amendment passed by the Senate said the Pentagon could not use the next round of war funding to 'establish permanent United States military bases in Iraq, or to exercise United States control over the oil infrastructure or oil resources of Iraq.'
The Bush administration has said it does not want to place any artificial timelines on a U.S. presence in Iraq and that it wants to begin withdrawing troops when Iraqi security forces are better able to protect the country. But it has not ruled out permanent bases in Iraq..."
Wednesday, June 07, 2006
Qui Pro Quo:
How twisted a view of reality must one have to think that these 'favors' done for Congress do not have any effect on the legislative process? It was very disheartening to hear a legislator say on CSPAN that the reason lobbyist are listened to by Congress is due to no other advice being available. This shows the breadth of the problem. If Congress is to write legislation on a matter, then it is crucial to the public interest that some publicly funded entitiy exist to perform the impartial gathering of information for use by Congress in its consideration of said legislation.
NY Times: Congress's Free Trips Add Up to Almost $50 Million
"Congressional aides took $30 million in trips paid for by private groups from 2000 through mid-2005, surpassing the privately sponsored travel of their bosses by nearly $10 million over the same time, according to a new analysis of publicly disclosed travel expenses.
Together, aides and members of the House and Senate filed 23,000 public disclosure forms on their individual trips, the survey found, for an estimated price tag of about $50 million. Among the most popular destinations were Paris (at least 200 times), Hawaii (150) and Italy (140).
Congressional travel paid for by outside organizations like trade groups and corporations has been under intense scrutiny following scandals involving the lobbyist Jack Abramoff. While much attention has been focused on elected officials and corporate jet travel with lobbyists, the new study, conducted by the Center for Public Integrity, Medill News Service of Northwestern University and American Public Media programs, is the most extensive in recent years because it tallied the costs, purpose and destinations of trips by Congressional aides and politicians..."
The So-Called 'War on Drugs':
Jeremy Bigwood: Drug Warriors Push Eye-Eating Fungus
"On April 16, the New York Times ran a full-page ad from contact lens producer Bausch and Lomb, announcing the recall of its 'ReNu with MoistureLoc' rewetting solution, and warning the 30 million American wearers of soft contact lenses about Fusarium keratitis. This infection, first detected in Asia, has rapidly spread across the United States. It is caused by a mold-like fungus that can penetrate the cornea of soft contact lens wearers, causing redness and pain that can lead to blindness - requiring a corneal replacement.
That same week, the House of Representatives passed a provision to a bill requiring that the very same fungus be sprayed in 'a major drug-producing country,' such as Colombia. The bill's sponsor was Rep. Mark Souder (R-Ind.) and its most vocal supporter was his colleague Dan Burton (R-Ind.), who has been promoting the fungus for almost a decade as key to winning the drug war.
The Colombian government has come out against it. And those entities of the US government that have studied the use of Fusarium for more than 30 years don't recommend it either: The Office of National Drug Control Policy, also known as the Drug Czar's office, CIA, DEA, the State Department and the USDA have all concluded that the fungus is unsafe for humans and the environment..."
How twisted a view of reality must one have to think that these 'favors' done for Congress do not have any effect on the legislative process? It was very disheartening to hear a legislator say on CSPAN that the reason lobbyist are listened to by Congress is due to no other advice being available. This shows the breadth of the problem. If Congress is to write legislation on a matter, then it is crucial to the public interest that some publicly funded entitiy exist to perform the impartial gathering of information for use by Congress in its consideration of said legislation.
NY Times: Congress's Free Trips Add Up to Almost $50 Million
"Congressional aides took $30 million in trips paid for by private groups from 2000 through mid-2005, surpassing the privately sponsored travel of their bosses by nearly $10 million over the same time, according to a new analysis of publicly disclosed travel expenses.
Together, aides and members of the House and Senate filed 23,000 public disclosure forms on their individual trips, the survey found, for an estimated price tag of about $50 million. Among the most popular destinations were Paris (at least 200 times), Hawaii (150) and Italy (140).
Congressional travel paid for by outside organizations like trade groups and corporations has been under intense scrutiny following scandals involving the lobbyist Jack Abramoff. While much attention has been focused on elected officials and corporate jet travel with lobbyists, the new study, conducted by the Center for Public Integrity, Medill News Service of Northwestern University and American Public Media programs, is the most extensive in recent years because it tallied the costs, purpose and destinations of trips by Congressional aides and politicians..."
The So-Called 'War on Drugs':
Jeremy Bigwood: Drug Warriors Push Eye-Eating Fungus
"On April 16, the New York Times ran a full-page ad from contact lens producer Bausch and Lomb, announcing the recall of its 'ReNu with MoistureLoc' rewetting solution, and warning the 30 million American wearers of soft contact lenses about Fusarium keratitis. This infection, first detected in Asia, has rapidly spread across the United States. It is caused by a mold-like fungus that can penetrate the cornea of soft contact lens wearers, causing redness and pain that can lead to blindness - requiring a corneal replacement.
That same week, the House of Representatives passed a provision to a bill requiring that the very same fungus be sprayed in 'a major drug-producing country,' such as Colombia. The bill's sponsor was Rep. Mark Souder (R-Ind.) and its most vocal supporter was his colleague Dan Burton (R-Ind.), who has been promoting the fungus for almost a decade as key to winning the drug war.
The Colombian government has come out against it. And those entities of the US government that have studied the use of Fusarium for more than 30 years don't recommend it either: The Office of National Drug Control Policy, also known as the Drug Czar's office, CIA, DEA, the State Department and the USDA have all concluded that the fungus is unsafe for humans and the environment..."
Monday, June 05, 2006
Privacy:
Wil Harris; Why Web 2.0 will end your privacy
"...My firm belief is that the net effect of the Web 2.0 movement will be a marked loss of privacy on the internet, one which leads to big business knowing more about you than it ever did before. This is why..."
Wil Harris; Why Web 2.0 will end your privacy
"...My firm belief is that the net effect of the Web 2.0 movement will be a marked loss of privacy on the internet, one which leads to big business knowing more about you than it ever did before. This is why..."
Currency Markets:
It's getting difficult to find affordable manufactured goods that are not made in China...
BBC News: Why the dollar is falling so fast
"The US dollar is plunging in world currency markets - and bringing down share prices in its wake.
But why is the dollar under pressure - and what would be the consequences for the US economy if it continues to fall?
Behind the problems of the dollar lies the huge and growing US trade deficit, and the large Federal budget deficit.
A fall in the greenback could hit Asian countries whose governments hold huge foreign currency reserves in dollars..."
It's getting difficult to find affordable manufactured goods that are not made in China...
BBC News: Why the dollar is falling so fast
"The US dollar is plunging in world currency markets - and bringing down share prices in its wake.
But why is the dollar under pressure - and what would be the consequences for the US economy if it continues to fall?
Behind the problems of the dollar lies the huge and growing US trade deficit, and the large Federal budget deficit.
A fall in the greenback could hit Asian countries whose governments hold huge foreign currency reserves in dollars..."
Electioneering:
As if on cue, Bush is focusing on yet another divisive social issue to divert the attention of voters from his failed Iraq, healthcare, and monumentally unconservative spending/debt policies. The only people who could cynically consider them a 'success' are those in the top income bracket who get to keep far more of their income than they used to. They, after all, are not likely to have a son or daughter in Iraq, so everything is just wonderful.
But this is America, and the number of people who are not benefitting economically the way Bush's 'base'(read: the rich) is, but who support him for his stances on abortion and gay rights, is still surprisingly large. Some of them actually believe that his saying that he is a Christian is all the evidence they need to lend their steadfast support. His actions in Iraq seem not even to merit serious parsing. Neither does his disaster of an environmental policy. Will enough people see through this?
NY Times Editoial On the Low Road
"Republicans are trying to rally their far-right base for the fall elections with a mean-spirited sideshow threatening to the Constitution: a ban on same-sex marriage.
The Senate Judiciary Committee has endorsed the amendment, which would write bigotry into the nation's charter, by a 10-to-8 vote along party lines, and the full Senate is expected to take it up soon. Since the measure's language covers not only marriage but the 'legal incidents' of marriage, its approval could jeopardize civil unions, domestic partnerships and other legal protections that many state and local governments now provide for same-sex couples and their children.
No one, including the G.O.P. strategists urging its fast-tracking, expects the amendment to get the two-thirds Congressional approval needed to send it to the states for consideration. Two years ago, when Republicans staged a Senate vote on the same dismal amendment just before the Democratic convention, it ran into unexpectedly broad opposition. Some conservatives correctly opposed grabbing power from the states by suddenly federalizing marriage law. Supporters of the amendment could muster only 48 votes, well shy of the 60 required to cut off debate and avoid a filibuster.
Plainly, the real purpose of this rerun is to provide red meat to social conservatives, and fodder for commericals aimed at senators who vote to block the atrocious amendment.
It is sad that Senator Arlen Specter, the Republican chairman of the Judiciary Committee, who personally opposes the measure, chose to lend his gavel and vote to speed it to the floor. He got angry when Senator Russell Feingold, the Wisconsin Democrat, objected in forceful terms to both the amendment and the politically motivated scheduling. Mr. Specter and the other members of his committee who approved the amendment have no reason to be angry - just ashamed."
As if on cue, Bush is focusing on yet another divisive social issue to divert the attention of voters from his failed Iraq, healthcare, and monumentally unconservative spending/debt policies. The only people who could cynically consider them a 'success' are those in the top income bracket who get to keep far more of their income than they used to. They, after all, are not likely to have a son or daughter in Iraq, so everything is just wonderful.
But this is America, and the number of people who are not benefitting economically the way Bush's 'base'(read: the rich) is, but who support him for his stances on abortion and gay rights, is still surprisingly large. Some of them actually believe that his saying that he is a Christian is all the evidence they need to lend their steadfast support. His actions in Iraq seem not even to merit serious parsing. Neither does his disaster of an environmental policy. Will enough people see through this?
NY Times Editoial On the Low Road
"Republicans are trying to rally their far-right base for the fall elections with a mean-spirited sideshow threatening to the Constitution: a ban on same-sex marriage.
The Senate Judiciary Committee has endorsed the amendment, which would write bigotry into the nation's charter, by a 10-to-8 vote along party lines, and the full Senate is expected to take it up soon. Since the measure's language covers not only marriage but the 'legal incidents' of marriage, its approval could jeopardize civil unions, domestic partnerships and other legal protections that many state and local governments now provide for same-sex couples and their children.
No one, including the G.O.P. strategists urging its fast-tracking, expects the amendment to get the two-thirds Congressional approval needed to send it to the states for consideration. Two years ago, when Republicans staged a Senate vote on the same dismal amendment just before the Democratic convention, it ran into unexpectedly broad opposition. Some conservatives correctly opposed grabbing power from the states by suddenly federalizing marriage law. Supporters of the amendment could muster only 48 votes, well shy of the 60 required to cut off debate and avoid a filibuster.
Plainly, the real purpose of this rerun is to provide red meat to social conservatives, and fodder for commericals aimed at senators who vote to block the atrocious amendment.
It is sad that Senator Arlen Specter, the Republican chairman of the Judiciary Committee, who personally opposes the measure, chose to lend his gavel and vote to speed it to the floor. He got angry when Senator Russell Feingold, the Wisconsin Democrat, objected in forceful terms to both the amendment and the politically motivated scheduling. Mr. Specter and the other members of his committee who approved the amendment have no reason to be angry - just ashamed."
Thursday, June 01, 2006
Iraq:
The sad truth is that such incidents would not be dramatic news if the corporate media would make an effort to put an accurate picture of the Iraqi reality on their news programs. These sorts of incidents are simply not new. The situation is a very messy guerilla war of the US's own creation. Team Bush made a major miscalculation in estimating the resistance Iraqis would mount, through their support of the insurgency, against any changes to their country's laws, as were carried through by the friendly man from Kissinger & Assoc., L. Paul Bremer of the Coalition Provisional Authority.
Another Administration miscalculation was in judging the patience and proclivity to goodwill of the Shia, Sunni & Kurds. Gen. Jay Garner said elections should be held in 90 days when he arrived in Iraq after the fall of the old regime, upon which he was told he was fired. Immense quantities of goodwill were squandered that day by this move of US imperial hubris. Allowing foreign companies to export 100% of their profits is hardly something the US would codify into its body of law. Apparently Iraqis are to be held to a different standard, and so Bremer illegally rewrote many laws of Iraq. The US could help in reducing the violence in Iraq by stating unequivocally that it will withdraw by a certain date, that it has no desire to have a permanent military presence in Iraq and that it has no designs on the Iraqi oil industry. This is very unlikely to come to pass as all three propositions are contrary to the goals of Team Bush. Profits for the corporations with the right connections is what Iraq has always been about. It was the refusal to contract with Bechtel for infrastructure development that caused Saddam to fall out of favor with the US in the later 1980's. A look
at who's connected to Bechtel is instructive to its influence. So, this nightmare will go on until Bush and the GOP majority are replaced, if that is still possible via the rigged ballot boxes many thousands have to use.
BBC News: New 'Iraq massacre' tape emerges
"The BBC has uncovered new video evidence that US forces may have been responsible for the deliberate killing of 11 innocent Iraqi civilians.
The video appears to challenge the US military's account of events that took place in the town of Ishaqi in March.
The US said at the time four people died during a military operation, but Iraqi police claimed that US troops had deliberately shot the 11 people.
A spokesman for US forces in Iraq told the BBC an inquiry was under way..."
The sad truth is that such incidents would not be dramatic news if the corporate media would make an effort to put an accurate picture of the Iraqi reality on their news programs. These sorts of incidents are simply not new. The situation is a very messy guerilla war of the US's own creation. Team Bush made a major miscalculation in estimating the resistance Iraqis would mount, through their support of the insurgency, against any changes to their country's laws, as were carried through by the friendly man from Kissinger & Assoc., L. Paul Bremer of the Coalition Provisional Authority.
Another Administration miscalculation was in judging the patience and proclivity to goodwill of the Shia, Sunni & Kurds. Gen. Jay Garner said elections should be held in 90 days when he arrived in Iraq after the fall of the old regime, upon which he was told he was fired. Immense quantities of goodwill were squandered that day by this move of US imperial hubris. Allowing foreign companies to export 100% of their profits is hardly something the US would codify into its body of law. Apparently Iraqis are to be held to a different standard, and so Bremer illegally rewrote many laws of Iraq. The US could help in reducing the violence in Iraq by stating unequivocally that it will withdraw by a certain date, that it has no desire to have a permanent military presence in Iraq and that it has no designs on the Iraqi oil industry. This is very unlikely to come to pass as all three propositions are contrary to the goals of Team Bush. Profits for the corporations with the right connections is what Iraq has always been about. It was the refusal to contract with Bechtel for infrastructure development that caused Saddam to fall out of favor with the US in the later 1980's. A look
at who's connected to Bechtel is instructive to its influence. So, this nightmare will go on until Bush and the GOP majority are replaced, if that is still possible via the rigged ballot boxes many thousands have to use.
BBC News: New 'Iraq massacre' tape emerges
"The BBC has uncovered new video evidence that US forces may have been responsible for the deliberate killing of 11 innocent Iraqi civilians.
The video appears to challenge the US military's account of events that took place in the town of Ishaqi in March.
The US said at the time four people died during a military operation, but Iraqi police claimed that US troops had deliberately shot the 11 people.
A spokesman for US forces in Iraq told the BBC an inquiry was under way..."
Disenfranchised in 2004?
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: Was the 2004 Election Stolen?
"Like many Americans, I spent the evening of the 2004 election watching the returns on television and wondering how the exit polls, which predicted an overwhelming victory for John Kerry, had gotten it so wrong. By midnight, the official tallies showed a decisive lead for George Bush -- and the next day, lacking enough legal evidence to contest the results, Kerry conceded. Republicans derided anyone who expressed doubts about Bush's victory as nut cases in 'tinfoil hats,' while the national media, with few exceptions, did little to question the validity of the election. The Washington Post immediately dismissed allegations of fraud as 'conspiracy theories,'(1) and The New York Times declared that 'there is no evidence of vote theft or errors on a large scale.'(2)
But despite the media blackout, indications continued to emerge that something deeply troubling had taken place in 2004. Nearly half of the 6 million American voters living abroad(3) never received their ballots -- or received them too late to vote(4) -- after the Pentagon unaccountably shut down a state-of-the-art Web site used to file overseas registrations.(5) A consulting firm called Sproul & Associates, which was hired by the Republican National Committee to register voters in six battleground states,(6) was discovered shredding Democratic registrations.(7) In New Mexico, which was decided by 5,988 votes,(8) malfunctioning machines mysteriously failed to properly register a presidential vote on more than 20,000 ballots.(9) Nationwide, according to the federal commission charged with implementing election reforms, as many as 1 million ballots were spoiled by faulty voting equipment -- roughly one for every 100 cast.(10)..."
Turdblossom: The King Of Dirty Politics
Saul Landau: Progreso Weekly
"Karl Rove or his White House troglodytes shape discussion around themes that distract the public from the issues and place the incompetent and corrupt Bush Administration in a patriotic light. The current subterfuge deals with the Administration’s 'security need' to monitor telephone calls – vital intelligence. 'If Al-Qaeda phones the U.S., we want to know about it,' said Bush, defending the constitutionally dubious and very massive eavesdropping program..."
Lowest Priority: Mass Transit
NY Times Editorial: Railroading Amtrak
"...Washington power brokers like to say that Amtrak is mismanaged, but calling for better management of a system where the wires and steel are eroding is simply dodging the question. It is time to drop the old bromides and recognize that for the United States to be an advanced nation with a mobile work force, the American government needs to maintain a clean, efficient national railroad. Amtrak does not need to make a profit, but it does need to work. The government directs billions of dollars to roads and bridges. Airports get plenty of help, but somehow very little trickles down to the rails..."
Media Consolidation:
The Raw Story: FCC plans relaxation of media ownership rules, watchdogs say
"The Federal Communications Commission is poised to propose new media ownership rules that will allow media companies to own newspapers, television and radio stations in the same city, according to media watchdog groups.
The proposed rule would dissolve a longstanding policy that prohibited corporations from owning a television station and a daily newspaper in the same market. The 'cross ownership' rule, promulgated in 1975, was enacted to ensure media diversity.
Individuals close to the Commission say the FCC will propose relaxing media ownership rules, possibly as soon as June 15 when the Commission next meets, the media watchdog Center for Media and Democracy says..."
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: Was the 2004 Election Stolen?
"Like many Americans, I spent the evening of the 2004 election watching the returns on television and wondering how the exit polls, which predicted an overwhelming victory for John Kerry, had gotten it so wrong. By midnight, the official tallies showed a decisive lead for George Bush -- and the next day, lacking enough legal evidence to contest the results, Kerry conceded. Republicans derided anyone who expressed doubts about Bush's victory as nut cases in 'tinfoil hats,' while the national media, with few exceptions, did little to question the validity of the election. The Washington Post immediately dismissed allegations of fraud as 'conspiracy theories,'(1) and The New York Times declared that 'there is no evidence of vote theft or errors on a large scale.'(2)
But despite the media blackout, indications continued to emerge that something deeply troubling had taken place in 2004. Nearly half of the 6 million American voters living abroad(3) never received their ballots -- or received them too late to vote(4) -- after the Pentagon unaccountably shut down a state-of-the-art Web site used to file overseas registrations.(5) A consulting firm called Sproul & Associates, which was hired by the Republican National Committee to register voters in six battleground states,(6) was discovered shredding Democratic registrations.(7) In New Mexico, which was decided by 5,988 votes,(8) malfunctioning machines mysteriously failed to properly register a presidential vote on more than 20,000 ballots.(9) Nationwide, according to the federal commission charged with implementing election reforms, as many as 1 million ballots were spoiled by faulty voting equipment -- roughly one for every 100 cast.(10)..."
Turdblossom: The King Of Dirty Politics
Saul Landau: Progreso Weekly
"Karl Rove or his White House troglodytes shape discussion around themes that distract the public from the issues and place the incompetent and corrupt Bush Administration in a patriotic light. The current subterfuge deals with the Administration’s 'security need' to monitor telephone calls – vital intelligence. 'If Al-Qaeda phones the U.S., we want to know about it,' said Bush, defending the constitutionally dubious and very massive eavesdropping program..."
Lowest Priority: Mass Transit
NY Times Editorial: Railroading Amtrak
"...Washington power brokers like to say that Amtrak is mismanaged, but calling for better management of a system where the wires and steel are eroding is simply dodging the question. It is time to drop the old bromides and recognize that for the United States to be an advanced nation with a mobile work force, the American government needs to maintain a clean, efficient national railroad. Amtrak does not need to make a profit, but it does need to work. The government directs billions of dollars to roads and bridges. Airports get plenty of help, but somehow very little trickles down to the rails..."
Media Consolidation:
The Raw Story: FCC plans relaxation of media ownership rules, watchdogs say
"The Federal Communications Commission is poised to propose new media ownership rules that will allow media companies to own newspapers, television and radio stations in the same city, according to media watchdog groups.
The proposed rule would dissolve a longstanding policy that prohibited corporations from owning a television station and a daily newspaper in the same market. The 'cross ownership' rule, promulgated in 1975, was enacted to ensure media diversity.
Individuals close to the Commission say the FCC will propose relaxing media ownership rules, possibly as soon as June 15 when the Commission next meets, the media watchdog Center for Media and Democracy says..."
