TODAY'S TOPICS: Videos, Dem Party Failings, IMF Exposed, Obama (does good), Coulter, Blackwater Action
VIDEO SECTION...
Let's start off the day with some seriously good comedy...the Daily Show does a piece on children's "political books"...very funny:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/10/04/daily-show-the-battle-for-the-soul-of-americas-children/
And two of my favorites, Olbermann and Maddow, discuss Rush's "war on reality" (and remember, he's the TOP RATED radio host in the country...let that sink in for a moment...):
http://alternet.org/blogs/video/64497/
Olbermann has John Dean on to discuss strategies the Dems should use to stop Bush’s gulag/torture complex…please listen to the man Dems!
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/10/04/john-dean-to-congress-extend-statute-of-limitations-on-torture-crimes/
Congressman Charles Rangel, usually good on issues, aside recently from his sellout on trade policy, does a good job here of debating another right wing nut job on normalizing relations with Cuba:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/10/04/rep-charlie-rangel-mixes-it-up-with-florida-wingnut-over-cuban-embargo/
Oboy…watch one of our own disgraceful Republican Congressman from California, Darrel Issa, get tooled by one of the “good ones”, Hammerin’ Hank Waxman…this during the Hearings on Blackwater (which Waxman called for):
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/10/04/rep-issa-makes-a-fool-of-himself-during-blackwater-hearing/
Watch families of the Utah miner’s that were killed due to regulatory neglect and corporate malfeasance speak out against scum bag, liar, and coal peddler, Bob Murray:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/10/04/utah-miner-families-speak-out-on-bob-murray-i-cant-stand-to-listen-to-the-man/
Killed US Soldier Warned Family: Investigate If I Die…in light of Pat Tillman, Blackwater, and to a lesser degree Jessica Lynch, we should all take notice of this story…watch:
http://alternet.org/blogs/video/64413/
“We Kill People for Money” – Watch the Daily Show cover our very own private, mercenary, evangelical corporate army: Blackwater!
http://alternet.org/blogs/video/64377/
I normally don't like to give Ann Coulter any press or attention, but its important to occasionally note the double standard and outright hypocrisy of our corporate media...as they continue to give her a megaphone for her biggoted, deceitful, and hateful views...yet give nothing to true progressive truth tellers....
This from Crooks and liars:
The TODAY Show does it part to help make Coulter into some sort of “voice of reason” for Conservatives once again. They had her open up the show yesterday to be a really serious person and analyze why Christian Conservatives should or would vote for Rudy Giuliani.
Coulter: ….and also he seems sort of crazy enough that he’d nuke Iran and that warms our hearts and at this point its been years since an ex-wife has appeared on Vagina Monologues.
Vieira just giggles at the monologue joke and forgets that Coultergeist wants to Nuke a country. I know Meredith isn’t that familiar with the interview role she plays yet, but why didn’t she yell: “Nuke Iran, are you kidding me! What about all the innocent people that would die?”
I guess there’s something that warms Annie’s heart after all. Coulter does her best to say and use the words of…umm….Jerry Falwell to defend a vote from the Dobson faction for him. All their priorities don’t matter as long as he attacks Iran…Good Lord…Why hasn’t the TODAY show invited on the NY Times best selling author—Glenn Greenwald as an analyst? (And this despicable post about Glenn would be approved material for Coulter.) Maybe even Rachel Maddow might get a shot? I hardly ever see any Progressive voices on. Can we get a little balance, Mr. Oppenhiem? (see my post on this Weekly Standard columnist)
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/10/03/coulter-on-giuliani-hes-crazy-enough-to-nuke-iran/
ARTICLE SECTION…"PROGRESSIVES" (NOT), IMF
DEM SELLOUTS..
One of my favorites, David Sirota, breaks down the various, and way too large, factions of the Democratic Party that continue to sell us, and the country for that matter, down the river. The actions of some of these so called “progressives” since winning back Congress is why I so rarely use the term in describing democrats. In reality, the Democratic party is broken up in at least 3, if not 4 factions, the corporate/republican Dems (Baucus, Nelson, etc.), the conservative Dems (Landrieu, Hillary…at least on war and trade anyway, Reid, etc.), the moderate Dems (Kerry, Durbin, Obama, Pelosi, etc.), and then ACTUAL progressives, like Feingold, Boxer (barely), Lee, Kucinich, Saunders (though Independent….he’s progressive), etc..
So, once you realize this, you can see how in particular, anywhere from 1 to 3 of these, and certainly nearly always 1 and maybe 2, sell us out when it matters most. This, combined with ALL the Republicans in one camp, on every issue, makes it obvious why we are not seeing the change that is necessary. Granted, on the vast majority of bills, we can count on 3 of those factions to vote correctly, but to really change things, and to stop the Right wing fascist takeover, we need, and must demand, better.
Sirota breaks it down:
Obey has also indicated that as chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, he will use his position to block any blank check war funding bill from coming to the floor of Congress. It shows a recognition of the Tyranny of the Tiny Minority that I outlined in my last syndicated column -- the tyranny that means that Congress will need to stop something, rather than pass something, in order to end the war. And stopping funding, incidentally, is an idea that the latest Washington Post poll shows the public supports. So, what has been the reaction of the most prominent Democrats and antiwar groups in Washington? Bobbing and weaving.
As soon as the war tax plan was floated, House and Senate Democratic leaders rushed to reporters to denounce it. Meanwhile, antiwar groups in Washington swiftly decided to dump tens of thousands of dollars into a brand new ad campaign not supporting the push to block funds, not applauding the effort to wedge the Republicans into deciding between war and taxes, not demanding Democrats go even further, but instead attacking Rush Limbaugh -- a person who certainly made a disgusting and deplorable comment but who has absolutely no power to end the war at all.
SNIP
That's right, the New Democratic Network -- trumped up in Matt Bai's silly book as a supposedly important piece of the progressive movement -- hosted U.S. Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) for a speech on trade. True to form, Baucus in that speech pleased K Street by implicitly attacking rank-and-file congressional Democrats who were elected in 2006 on a promise to reform America's trade policy and who are trying to fulfill their campaign promises by stopping the new package of NAFTAs. Baucus is now leading the fight to give a NAFTA to Colombia -- a country whose government actively colludes with paramilitary gangs to execute union organizers. With "allies" like Baucus and the people who promote him, who needs opponents?
http://alternet.org/workplace/64299/
THE IMF EXPOSED
The IMF - the planet’s other predatory lender (first being the World Bank) – gets a new managing directory…shocker, he’s another corporate, imperialist crony.
A few clips first, from the expose by Robert Weissman of the Multinational Monitor:
For decades, in various names, the IMF, along with the Bank, has imposed "structural adjustment" on developing countries - a set of corporate-oriented, market fundamentalist policies including slashing of government budgets, sale of government assets to local elites and foreign corporations ("privatization"), deregulation of the economy, and promoting exports and trade at the expense of local needs.
IMF policies have left shattered economies around the world, consigned untold millions to poverty, and directly and indirectly destroyed social welfare systems, including healthcare and education systems, throughout much of the developing world.
SNIP
Alongside this refusal to let countries spend aid for intended purposes, the IMF has capped countries' ability to spend more money on healthcare, including to hire more healthcare workers and pay them more. These are the key steps needed to address the healthcare infrastructure problem that almost everyone agrees is now the main impediment to further scaling up treating for people with HIV/AIDS and resuscitating countries' ability to deliver basic health services to all.
Underlying these restrictions on countries' ability to spend money to address pressing health needs is an IMF fixation on what it terms macroeconomic stability, by which it means very low inflation rates and no or limited deficit spending. Dressed up in the guise of technocratic economic advice, they are really policy decisions that restrain economic expansion, preventing countries from generating more resources for their own needs. They are also policies that take no account of the special circumstances of countries facing the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/100407D.shtml
Occasionally Obama still gives me hope, that if he can somehow beat Hillary (my first choice still being Edwards...and in a perfect world Kucinich), he has the potential to do some good things.
This from Brad Friedman:
Obama Blocks Vote on Von Spakovsky in Senate!
Stops Harry Reid's 'Deal' to Move Forward with GOP 'Voter Fraud' Zealot's FEC Nomination...
A Democrat does the right thing for a change! What are the odds these days? And will it hold?
Senator and Presidential Candidate Barack Obama (D-IL), had recently (and correctly) called on Bush to send up an "acceptable" nominee to the Federal Election Commission (FEC), instead of the anti-Democracy, anti-voter villain Hans von Spakovsky.
Bush didn't. Harry Reid then shamefully made a "deal" with Republicans to slide the evil von Spakovsy through, and Obama -- thankfully -- blocked it!...
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5132
From True Majority...take action (we need a veto proof majority)
House has voted to hold mercenaries responsible
Now it's up to the Senate to decide
After listening all week to the shocking abuses committed in Iraq by Blackwater, the House came together and overwhelmingly passed a bill that would bring some accountability to all armed private contractors working overseas.1
Now it's the Senate's turn to take action. But they must do it now by the same solid, veto-proof margin as the House, because the White House is opposed to accountability for these private contractors.
The White House said yesterday that it had 'grave concerns' about the bill, claiming that it would conflict with 'national security activities and operations'.2 The fact is that if we're going to preach the rule of law in Iraq, we can't be above it. An astounding 120,000 "private security contractors" are in Iraq, 48,000 of them working as combat soldiers.3 They get paid far more than real soldiers, their deaths are not included in the official casualty counts, and they are essentially accountable to no one. The Senate has a chance to change this, but they have to act swiftly. Tell your Senators to support accountability for these hired guns today.
Tell your Senators to act quickly and support accountability for these hired guns.
http://act.truemajorityaction.org/t/50/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=1194
ADMINISTRATION -- GAO CHARGES FCC WITH GIVING TIPS, ADVANTAGES TO BUSINESS INTERESTS: The Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report yesterday "on the process by which the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) gathers and releases information about important votes and other agency actions." Currently, the FCC circulates information internally roughly three weeks before a public meeting, concerning what is scheduled to be voted on at the public meeting. "FCC rules prohibit the disclosure of this information to anyone outside of FCC." The GAO charges that several stakeholders report hearing this information from FCC staff prior to the public meetings. "That advance word is critical because companies and consumer groups aren't allowed to lobby once an agenda for a vote is made public." The report "accuses the Federal Communications Commission of leaking tips to business interests before they're made public. It says the FCC has informed phone and cable lobbyists about items coming up for a vote in Congress. ... The Center for Responsive Politics says the FCC is closely intertwined with industry lobbyists -- almost as close as the White House and members of the House of Representatives. In fact, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin used to be one."
SOME VITAL QUESTIONS FOR MUKASEY (ATTORNEY GENERAL NOMINEE): In his letter yesterday, Leahy laid out a series of issues on which Mukasey would need to put himself on the record, ranging from his views on executive privilege to whom he will bring in to staff the Justice Department. Regarding executive privilege, Leahy wants to find out if Mukasey thinks "it extends to the actions and emails of political operatives in matters in which the President was not personally involved." Leahy also wants to know if, in Mukasey's view, "the President has authority to override legal requirements and immunize acts of torture." The question of torture is especially salient at the moment in light of revelations in The New York Times today that former Gonzales "approved" a secret "legal memorandum" that was "an expansive endorsement of the harshest interrogation techniques ever used by the Central Intelligence Agency." Mukasey has signaled to conservatives that he supports Bush's torture policy. Hoping to head off the excesses of Gonzales's tenure, Leahy also wants assurances that Mukasey will "ensure that legal advice from the Department's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) is independent and protected from political influence." The OLC under Bush has taken on an unprecedented "advocacy role" for the administration's legal positions.
Despite releasing a legal opinion in Dec. 2004 that declared torture is "abhorrent," the Alberto Gonzales-led Justice Department issued a secret opinion shortly after his arrival in Feb. 2005 that provided "an expansive endorsement of the harshest interrogation techniques ever used" by the CIA. A lengthy New York Times expose describes the Office of Legal Counsel, headed by Steven Bradbury, as having become a politicized tool for the Vice President's office.
There were "317,000 applications for unemployment benefits last week, an increase of 16,000 from the previous week," and the biggest jump in four months. Analysts believe the increase "could be a further sign that the labor market is slowing under the impact of the worst slump in housing in 16 years."
The administration's "Anbar strategy" holds the perilous possibility "that we just end up arming the Sunnis, who still hate the Shi'a...and that eventually the Sunni tribes end up fighting it out with the central government." Echoing this concern, the largest Shiite political coalition in Iraq urged the U.S. military to "abandon its recruitment of Sunni tribesmen into the Iraqi police."
After initial reports that the FBI agents investigating Blackwater in Iraq would be guarded by Blackwater, the agency announced last night that it won't use security guards employed by that company. The action was taken "to avoid even the appearance of any conflict."
The Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), a watchdog group, is arguing that U.S. troops are being force-fed Christianity. MRFF is planning to file a series of lawsuits "to show there is a pattern and practice of constitutionally impermissible promotions of religious beliefs within the Department of Defense."
3,315: Number of people in Iraq infected with cholera, according to the World Health Organization. Cases of cholera were first detected in Kirkuk on Aug. 14 and have now spread to all of Iraq's 18 provinces.
Friday, October 05, 2007
Wednesday, October 03, 2007
TODAY'S TOPICS: Cusack/Klein, Blackwater, Scheer, Dowd, E-Voting, the Social Security Lie, Wiretapping Revelations
I may be doing some short and quick posts for awhile, as there's so much work to catch up on after the move...so here you go:
"This masterful book is a measured but furious call to arms. Naomi Klein is Antigone before the King, the antidote to the feeling of inevitability that says that we must accept murder as a legitimate economic policy. She has the audacity and the courage to chronicle the human costs of an ideology in which worshiping the markets is not enough; you must actually kill to feed them. Klein is the vanguard, the fire, the resistance and she challenges us not to join the suicide club that enables corporate cannibalism. A spectacular triumph."
-- John Cusack
VIDEO SECTION
Watch director Robert Greenwald debate Blackwater with a neo-con…what a mismatch…and thank god we have Greenwald out there making documentaries, shorts, and speaking out:
http://alternet.org/blogs/video/64258/
From C&L:
Comedian and anti-troop, anti-veteran propagandist, Rush Limbaugh, gets another smackdown from VoteVets.org. Iraq veteran Brian McGough, who suffered a traumatic brain injury in Iraq after shrapnel lodged in his skull, sends a message directly to the draft-dodging Limbaugh, telling him to stop telling lies about his service. Vote Vets isn’t about to let up on the coward after his phony troop statement and I applaud them for keeping up the pressure. Will Rush ever accept Jon Soltz’s challenge to meet with him face to face? Figure the odds…
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/10/03/latest-vote-vets-ad-rush-say-it-to-my-face/
The Daily Show on the Republican no shows at the recent African American debate:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/10/03/the-daily-show-no-shows-at-the-gop-african-american-debate/
Olbermann's worst person in the world:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/10/02/countdown-worst-person-in-the-world-3/
And John Cusack interviews Naomi Klein on “the shock doctrine”:
http://alternet.org/blogs/video/64198/
Blackwater hearings…watch Kucinich grill evangelical killer and Blackwater CEO Erik Prince:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/10/02/liveblogging-of-blackwater-hearing/
More on Blackwater:
Though Blackwater USA CEO Erik Prince told a congressional committee yesterday that the company's guards opened fire on only 195 occasions in Iraq since 2005, "two former Blackwater security guards" stated they believe "employees fired more often than the company has disclosed. "The underreporting of shooting incidents was routine in Iraq," said one guard.
ARTICLE SECTION
SCHEER ON BLACKWATER
Let's continue with the expose of Blackwater...but more importantly, putting it in the proper context...which we all know our corporate, militarist media will not do.
Here's Robert Scheer:
How did it come to be that the ostensibly best-educated and most refined representatives of the United States in Iraq are guarded by gun-toting mercenaries who kill innocent civilians? More urgently, why did State Department employees and their bosses in Washington tolerate-and pay to conceal-the wanton murder conducted on their watch?
SNIP
...contractors operate outside of the restraints imposed on ordinary troops by law and by their own consciences. Many Blackwater contractors have been recruited from the U.S. military at much higher pay than direct service to their country afforded them. Whereas a top Army sergeant is paid $51,100 to $69,350 a year in salary, housing and other benefits, a Blackwater contractor (often a retired sergeant) receives six to nine times as much. The U.S. government pays Blackwater $1,222 per day for one Blackwater “Protective Security Specialist,” which, the congressional report notes, “amounts to $445,891 per contractor” per year. In an unusual display of disapproval aimed at Blackwater from the right side of the aisle, Rep. John J. Duncan Jr., R-Tenn., noted Tuesday that Army Gen. David H. Petraeus’ annual salary amounts to less than half of what some high-ranking Blackwater security officials in Iraq earn.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/10/03/4287/
DOWD ON BLACKWATER
And not to be outdone, Maureen Dowd really nails it on what the Blackwater scandal truly reveals about our hyper militarist society...and the abyss we are on the verge of falling into.
A few clips:
Besides having an army for hire, brave kids who are paid to fight so that most Americans are not personally touched by war, we have the real mercenaries. And they’re a spooky cadre, careening outside the laws of Iraq, the United States and the military. President Bush continues to preach that we must defeat the “dark ideology” of extremists with “a more hopeful vision.” But the compromises W. makes to slog on in Iraq, be it with warlords, dictators or out-of-control contractors, are spreading a dark stain on America’s image.
SNIP
But W. outsourced his presidency to Cheney and Rummy, and Cheney and Rummy went to war on the cheap and outsourced large chunks of the Iraq occupation to Halliburton and Blackwater. The American taxpayer got gouged, and so did the American reputation. The mercenaries inflame Iraqis even as Gen. David Petraeus tries to win their trust.
SNIP
Once there was the military-industrial complex. Now we have the mercenary-evangelical complex. Mr. Prince, a former intern to the first President Bush and a former Navy Seal, is from a well-to-do and well-connected Republican family from Michigan. He and his father both have close ties to conservative Christian groups. His sister was a Pioneer for W., raising $100,000 in 2004, and Erik Prince has given more than $225,000 to Republicans. Blackwater, in turn, has been the beneficiary of $1 billion in federal contracts, including a no-bid contract with the State Department worth hundreds of millions.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/10/03/4289/
THE SOCIAL SECURITY LIE
And yes, the big Social Security Lie is back...with over a year to go in Bush's reign of terror, it appears dismantling social security is back on the table. For this reason, let's begin to debunk all the distorted information yet again.
Dean Baker does us the honor...a few clips first:
The latest Bush story is the cry that Social Security is going bankrupt and will impose an unbearable burden on our children and grandchildren. Of course, this is not the first time President Bush has gone after Social Security. Immediately after the 2004 election, he tried to use his new political capital to privatize Social Security. As a result of a massive nationwide organizing campaign, the privatization drive soon hit a dead end. But Bush is not through with Social Security. In an apparent effort to lay the groundwork for a future president to privatize and/or cut the program, the Treasury Department is circulating a new set of Bush stories designed to convince the public the Social Security program must be changed.
SNIP
Suppose we use the numbers from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) instead of the Social Security trustees, since four of the six trustees are political appointees of the President. CBO tells us the projected shortfall over the next 75 years is equal to 0.4 percent of projected income. This is approximately 40 percent of the current spending on the war in Iraq and about one-fifth the size of President Bush’s tax cuts. In other words, if the projected Social Security shortfall has you worried, you should be absolutely terrified about the cost of the war in Iraq and paralyzed with fear by the revenue lost as a result of President Bush’s tax cuts.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/10/02/4254/
E-VOTING STUDY
Surprise surprise, we really can't know whether the e-voting machines in Florida's 13th actually malfunctioned or were rigged (of course they were...otherwise 18000 votes in a democratic stronghold wouldn't go missing)...which of course is the whole point with this technology!
Here's Brad Blog:
FL-13: GAO Says More Testing Needed of ES&S Voting Machines Used in Sarasota's November 2006 Congressional Election
Report Released Today Concludes Prior Tests Do NOT Offer 'Reasonable Assurance' That Touch-Screen Machines Were Not at Fault in Massive, Still Unexplained Undervote
One Year Later and Republican in Disputed Election Still Sitting, Voting in Congress...
As we near the one year mark since some 18,000 votes inexplicably disappeared in Sarasota County, Florida on the Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) touch-screen voting machines used in the U.S. House Election for the state's 13th Congressional District, more study is still needed to determine whether or not the voting machines were at fault, according to the report released today by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
Even with the additional testing, the GAO admits, it will be impossible to determine for certain whether the touch-screen machines caused the extraordinarily high undervote race in the election.
The GAO's report was presented to a Congressional task force investigating the challenge brought by Democratic candidate Christine Jennings, under the Federal Contested Elections Act, after the certified tally between her and her Republican opponent, Vern Buchanan, was reported by the state to be a slim 361 vote margin.
As well, reading past the summary section of the GAO report reveals another troubling disclosure by the nation's largest voting machine vendor...
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5125
ADMINISTRATION -- FORMER BUSH LAWYER CALLS SPY PROGRAM A 'LEGAL MESS': Jack Goldsmith, a former Bush administration attorney, told Congress yesterday that President Bush's warrantless wiretapping program was "the biggest legal mess [he] had ever encountered" and after leading an internal review, he "could not find a legal basis for some aspects of the program." Contradicting testimony by former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who said there were no "serious disagreements about the program" within the administration, Goldsmith stated, "There were enormous disagreements," with the internal fight culminating "in a threat by Goldsmith, [former Deputy Attorney General James] Comey, and others to resign en masse if the program were allowed to continue without changes." Goldsmith added that Vice President Cheney's counsel David Addington had "told him that his position might mean failure to halt a new terrorist attack that would leave him with the blood of thousands on his hands." Goldsmith's testimony also emphasized the reluctance of the White House to allow any oversight of its wiretapping program.
I may be doing some short and quick posts for awhile, as there's so much work to catch up on after the move...so here you go:
"This masterful book is a measured but furious call to arms. Naomi Klein is Antigone before the King, the antidote to the feeling of inevitability that says that we must accept murder as a legitimate economic policy. She has the audacity and the courage to chronicle the human costs of an ideology in which worshiping the markets is not enough; you must actually kill to feed them. Klein is the vanguard, the fire, the resistance and she challenges us not to join the suicide club that enables corporate cannibalism. A spectacular triumph."
-- John Cusack
VIDEO SECTION
Watch director Robert Greenwald debate Blackwater with a neo-con…what a mismatch…and thank god we have Greenwald out there making documentaries, shorts, and speaking out:
http://alternet.org/blogs/video/64258/
From C&L:
Comedian and anti-troop, anti-veteran propagandist, Rush Limbaugh, gets another smackdown from VoteVets.org. Iraq veteran Brian McGough, who suffered a traumatic brain injury in Iraq after shrapnel lodged in his skull, sends a message directly to the draft-dodging Limbaugh, telling him to stop telling lies about his service. Vote Vets isn’t about to let up on the coward after his phony troop statement and I applaud them for keeping up the pressure. Will Rush ever accept Jon Soltz’s challenge to meet with him face to face? Figure the odds…
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/10/03/latest-vote-vets-ad-rush-say-it-to-my-face/
The Daily Show on the Republican no shows at the recent African American debate:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/10/03/the-daily-show-no-shows-at-the-gop-african-american-debate/
Olbermann's worst person in the world:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/10/02/countdown-worst-person-in-the-world-3/
And John Cusack interviews Naomi Klein on “the shock doctrine”:
http://alternet.org/blogs/video/64198/
Blackwater hearings…watch Kucinich grill evangelical killer and Blackwater CEO Erik Prince:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/10/02/liveblogging-of-blackwater-hearing/
More on Blackwater:
Though Blackwater USA CEO Erik Prince told a congressional committee yesterday that the company's guards opened fire on only 195 occasions in Iraq since 2005, "two former Blackwater security guards" stated they believe "employees fired more often than the company has disclosed. "The underreporting of shooting incidents was routine in Iraq," said one guard.
ARTICLE SECTION
SCHEER ON BLACKWATER
Let's continue with the expose of Blackwater...but more importantly, putting it in the proper context...which we all know our corporate, militarist media will not do.
Here's Robert Scheer:
How did it come to be that the ostensibly best-educated and most refined representatives of the United States in Iraq are guarded by gun-toting mercenaries who kill innocent civilians? More urgently, why did State Department employees and their bosses in Washington tolerate-and pay to conceal-the wanton murder conducted on their watch?
SNIP
...contractors operate outside of the restraints imposed on ordinary troops by law and by their own consciences. Many Blackwater contractors have been recruited from the U.S. military at much higher pay than direct service to their country afforded them. Whereas a top Army sergeant is paid $51,100 to $69,350 a year in salary, housing and other benefits, a Blackwater contractor (often a retired sergeant) receives six to nine times as much. The U.S. government pays Blackwater $1,222 per day for one Blackwater “Protective Security Specialist,” which, the congressional report notes, “amounts to $445,891 per contractor” per year. In an unusual display of disapproval aimed at Blackwater from the right side of the aisle, Rep. John J. Duncan Jr., R-Tenn., noted Tuesday that Army Gen. David H. Petraeus’ annual salary amounts to less than half of what some high-ranking Blackwater security officials in Iraq earn.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/10/03/4287/
DOWD ON BLACKWATER
And not to be outdone, Maureen Dowd really nails it on what the Blackwater scandal truly reveals about our hyper militarist society...and the abyss we are on the verge of falling into.
A few clips:
Besides having an army for hire, brave kids who are paid to fight so that most Americans are not personally touched by war, we have the real mercenaries. And they’re a spooky cadre, careening outside the laws of Iraq, the United States and the military. President Bush continues to preach that we must defeat the “dark ideology” of extremists with “a more hopeful vision.” But the compromises W. makes to slog on in Iraq, be it with warlords, dictators or out-of-control contractors, are spreading a dark stain on America’s image.
SNIP
But W. outsourced his presidency to Cheney and Rummy, and Cheney and Rummy went to war on the cheap and outsourced large chunks of the Iraq occupation to Halliburton and Blackwater. The American taxpayer got gouged, and so did the American reputation. The mercenaries inflame Iraqis even as Gen. David Petraeus tries to win their trust.
SNIP
Once there was the military-industrial complex. Now we have the mercenary-evangelical complex. Mr. Prince, a former intern to the first President Bush and a former Navy Seal, is from a well-to-do and well-connected Republican family from Michigan. He and his father both have close ties to conservative Christian groups. His sister was a Pioneer for W., raising $100,000 in 2004, and Erik Prince has given more than $225,000 to Republicans. Blackwater, in turn, has been the beneficiary of $1 billion in federal contracts, including a no-bid contract with the State Department worth hundreds of millions.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/10/03/4289/
THE SOCIAL SECURITY LIE
And yes, the big Social Security Lie is back...with over a year to go in Bush's reign of terror, it appears dismantling social security is back on the table. For this reason, let's begin to debunk all the distorted information yet again.
Dean Baker does us the honor...a few clips first:
The latest Bush story is the cry that Social Security is going bankrupt and will impose an unbearable burden on our children and grandchildren. Of course, this is not the first time President Bush has gone after Social Security. Immediately after the 2004 election, he tried to use his new political capital to privatize Social Security. As a result of a massive nationwide organizing campaign, the privatization drive soon hit a dead end. But Bush is not through with Social Security. In an apparent effort to lay the groundwork for a future president to privatize and/or cut the program, the Treasury Department is circulating a new set of Bush stories designed to convince the public the Social Security program must be changed.
SNIP
Suppose we use the numbers from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) instead of the Social Security trustees, since four of the six trustees are political appointees of the President. CBO tells us the projected shortfall over the next 75 years is equal to 0.4 percent of projected income. This is approximately 40 percent of the current spending on the war in Iraq and about one-fifth the size of President Bush’s tax cuts. In other words, if the projected Social Security shortfall has you worried, you should be absolutely terrified about the cost of the war in Iraq and paralyzed with fear by the revenue lost as a result of President Bush’s tax cuts.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/10/02/4254/
E-VOTING STUDY
Surprise surprise, we really can't know whether the e-voting machines in Florida's 13th actually malfunctioned or were rigged (of course they were...otherwise 18000 votes in a democratic stronghold wouldn't go missing)...which of course is the whole point with this technology!
Here's Brad Blog:
FL-13: GAO Says More Testing Needed of ES&S Voting Machines Used in Sarasota's November 2006 Congressional Election
Report Released Today Concludes Prior Tests Do NOT Offer 'Reasonable Assurance' That Touch-Screen Machines Were Not at Fault in Massive, Still Unexplained Undervote
One Year Later and Republican in Disputed Election Still Sitting, Voting in Congress...
As we near the one year mark since some 18,000 votes inexplicably disappeared in Sarasota County, Florida on the Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) touch-screen voting machines used in the U.S. House Election for the state's 13th Congressional District, more study is still needed to determine whether or not the voting machines were at fault, according to the report released today by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
Even with the additional testing, the GAO admits, it will be impossible to determine for certain whether the touch-screen machines caused the extraordinarily high undervote race in the election.
The GAO's report was presented to a Congressional task force investigating the challenge brought by Democratic candidate Christine Jennings, under the Federal Contested Elections Act, after the certified tally between her and her Republican opponent, Vern Buchanan, was reported by the state to be a slim 361 vote margin.
As well, reading past the summary section of the GAO report reveals another troubling disclosure by the nation's largest voting machine vendor...
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5125
ADMINISTRATION -- FORMER BUSH LAWYER CALLS SPY PROGRAM A 'LEGAL MESS': Jack Goldsmith, a former Bush administration attorney, told Congress yesterday that President Bush's warrantless wiretapping program was "the biggest legal mess [he] had ever encountered" and after leading an internal review, he "could not find a legal basis for some aspects of the program." Contradicting testimony by former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who said there were no "serious disagreements about the program" within the administration, Goldsmith stated, "There were enormous disagreements," with the internal fight culminating "in a threat by Goldsmith, [former Deputy Attorney General James] Comey, and others to resign en masse if the program were allowed to continue without changes." Goldsmith added that Vice President Cheney's counsel David Addington had "told him that his position might mean failure to halt a new terrorist attack that would leave him with the blood of thousands on his hands." Goldsmith's testimony also emphasized the reluctance of the White House to allow any oversight of its wiretapping program.
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
TODAY'S SHORT POST: I'M DONE MOVING! VIDEOS AND FACTOIDS...
Note: Sorry for my absence...I've been packing and moving for the past 5 days and just couldn't get to this. I only have a few minutes right now, but these video clips should catch you up on a lot:
VIDEO SECTION
Sy Hersh on Olbermann...bombing of Iran coming???
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/10/01/sy-hersh-on-countdown-bush-moving-the-goal-posts-on-iran-again/
Stephen Colbert beats the war drums...which are getting louder by the day:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/10/01/the-w%c3%b8rd-colbert-on-beating-the-drums-for-war-in-iraq/
Harry Reid slams obese, drug addict, bigot, and liar, Rush Limbough:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/10/01/harry-reid-slams-limbaugh-over-phony-soldiers-remarks-with-updates/
Bill Maher and company discuss current affairs (with Rahm Emmanuel...poster child of what's wrong with the Democratic Party):
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/10/01/real-time-overtime-on-the-moveon-vote-iran-vs-saudi-arabia-and-getting-out-the-african-american-vote/
Bill Moyers latest piece...this one on those fallen in the war:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/09/29/bill-moyers-on-the-fallen-can-you-find-a-phony-in-the-bunch/
Moyers also covers what should be a front page story, day in and day out: the massive fraud and corruption that this war and its occupation has inspired:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/09/29/bill-moyers-journal-looks-at-fraud-in-iraq/
Isn't it refreshing to hear what a REAL democrat sounds like??? Or should anyway? Well, enjoy Mario Cuomo discuss the constitution, and the need to defend it...while it still exists:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/09/29/hardball-mario-cuomo-describes-congress-as-abdicating-their-constitutional-duties/
NEWS ROUNDUP FROM CENTER FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS
JUDICIARY -- SUPREME COURT TO OPEN NEW TERM WITH CONTROVERSIAL SLATE OF CASES: The Supreme Court today begins its term with "a socially and politically contentious docket." The issues "include the legal rights of Guantanamo detainees, the constitutionality of lethal injections for executions, photo identification cards for voters and investors' struggle to find accountability in cases of fraud." There is also a racial discrimination case that "could provide a vehicle for limiting remedies available under one of the country's oldest civil rights laws." In addition to those already scheduled, "the court could add a blockbuster case to its calendar if the justices opt to take a Second Amendment case from Washington, D.C., that would test limits on the right to own guns." The opening cases could "chart a course for whether the court is ideologically purely conservative or more balanced" this term. In its first term under Chief Justice John Roberts, conservative justices maintained a narrow but solid majority that consistently ruled in favor of conservative arguments. Last term, 23 cases divided the Court 5-4, with Bush appointees Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito voting together in 21 of those cases.
IRAQ -- PENTAGON ISSUES BLACKWATER USA A NEW $92 MILLION CONTRACT: Last month, Blackwater USA, a private security firm, was involved in the fatal shooting of 11 Iraqi civilians. While the Iraqi government swiftly condemned the contractor, the Bush administration has continued to back Blackwater's story that it was "defensive fire." Last Thursday, Gen. Peter Pace told reporters, "Blackwater has been a contractor in the past with the department and could certainly be in the future." The next day, that future arrived. The Pentagon issued a new list of contracts, including one worth $92 million to Presidential Airways, the "aviation unit of parent company Blackwater." "Presidential Airways, Inc., an aviation Worldwide Services company (d/b/a Blackwater Aviation), Moyock, M.C., is being awarded an indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) type contract for $92,000,000.00," reads a press release. Government officials have repeatedly ignored Blackwater's transgressions. Senior Iraqi officials have "repeatedly complained to U.S. officials" about Blackwater's "alleged involvement in the deaths of numerous Iraqis, but the Americans took little action to regulate the private security firm."
Blackwater contractors have alleged that a Sept. 16 deadly shooting in Iraq was initiated in response to hostile fire. But an "extensive evidence file" put together by the Iraqi National Police -- including documents, maps, sworn witness statements, and police video footage -- concludes that the Blackwater vehicles "opened fire crazily and randomly, without any reason."
"Congress again has extended funding for a core abstinence-education program, sparking protests from sex-education advocates who want Democrats to pull the plug on such programs."
"For the fifth time since 2001, Congress is raising the debt limit, increasing it by $850 billion to $9.815 trillion. The Senate approved the plan on a 53-42 vote Thursday night. The House of Representatives has already signed off on the plan, without a direct vote."
IRAQ -- BUSH SET ON WAR ONE MONTH BEFORE GOING TO U.N. IN 2003: A transcript of a conversation from February, 2003 between President Bush and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar published yesterday in the Spanish daily El Pais shows a president dead set on invading Iraq, promising his Spanish counterpart, "We will be in Baghdad by the end of March." Though Aznar asked Bush to "have a little patience," Bush insisted, "We must take him [Saddam Hussein] right now. We have shown an incredible degree of patience. There are two weeks left. In two weeks we will be militarily ready." But just days later, Bush pressed on, stating, "I've not made up my mind about military action" and assured that "[w]e are doing everything we can to avoid war in Iraq." Bush also told Aznar that Saddam discussed exile with the Egyptians "if they would let him take one billion dollars and all the information he wants on weapons of mass destruction." But Bush told Aznar, "He's a thief, a terrorist and a war crimina." Even today, Bush insists that "the United States did not choose war -- the choice was Saddam Hussein's."
ENVIRONMENT -- BUSH ADMINISTRATION PRAISES RESULTS OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROGRAMS IT OPPOSED: As President Bush opens talks on climate change and energy at a United Nations conference, the Washington Post reports today that the administration has been taking "unearned credit" for emissions reductions from programs it originally opposed. Those programs include "gas mileage standards for vehicles, efficiency standards for home appliances and state laws requiring utilities to increase their use of renewable energy sources." In many cases, the administration has "actively fought against" the implementation of these programs. For example, the administration "initially delayed plans to set improved energy-efficiency standards for 22 appliances, which led to a court battle with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)." "The White House also tried to reverse strict efficiency standards for central air conditioners upon Bush's taking office in 2001, a move the NRDC had reversed in a separate lawsuit." At the climate change talks, Bush will attempt to impose "voluntary" greenhouse gas emissions standards on the U.N. "We need to make commitments to each other, not just to ourselves," said the U.K.'s climate change representative said, rebuffing Bush.
A federal judge ruled yesterday that "two provisions of the USA Patriot Act are unconstitutional" because they allowed federal surveillance and searches of Americans without demonstrating probable cause.
Note: Sorry for my absence...I've been packing and moving for the past 5 days and just couldn't get to this. I only have a few minutes right now, but these video clips should catch you up on a lot:
VIDEO SECTION
Sy Hersh on Olbermann...bombing of Iran coming???
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/10/01/sy-hersh-on-countdown-bush-moving-the-goal-posts-on-iran-again/
Stephen Colbert beats the war drums...which are getting louder by the day:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/10/01/the-w%c3%b8rd-colbert-on-beating-the-drums-for-war-in-iraq/
Harry Reid slams obese, drug addict, bigot, and liar, Rush Limbough:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/10/01/harry-reid-slams-limbaugh-over-phony-soldiers-remarks-with-updates/
Bill Maher and company discuss current affairs (with Rahm Emmanuel...poster child of what's wrong with the Democratic Party):
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/10/01/real-time-overtime-on-the-moveon-vote-iran-vs-saudi-arabia-and-getting-out-the-african-american-vote/
Bill Moyers latest piece...this one on those fallen in the war:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/09/29/bill-moyers-on-the-fallen-can-you-find-a-phony-in-the-bunch/
Moyers also covers what should be a front page story, day in and day out: the massive fraud and corruption that this war and its occupation has inspired:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/09/29/bill-moyers-journal-looks-at-fraud-in-iraq/
Isn't it refreshing to hear what a REAL democrat sounds like??? Or should anyway? Well, enjoy Mario Cuomo discuss the constitution, and the need to defend it...while it still exists:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/09/29/hardball-mario-cuomo-describes-congress-as-abdicating-their-constitutional-duties/
NEWS ROUNDUP FROM CENTER FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS
JUDICIARY -- SUPREME COURT TO OPEN NEW TERM WITH CONTROVERSIAL SLATE OF CASES: The Supreme Court today begins its term with "a socially and politically contentious docket." The issues "include the legal rights of Guantanamo detainees, the constitutionality of lethal injections for executions, photo identification cards for voters and investors' struggle to find accountability in cases of fraud." There is also a racial discrimination case that "could provide a vehicle for limiting remedies available under one of the country's oldest civil rights laws." In addition to those already scheduled, "the court could add a blockbuster case to its calendar if the justices opt to take a Second Amendment case from Washington, D.C., that would test limits on the right to own guns." The opening cases could "chart a course for whether the court is ideologically purely conservative or more balanced" this term. In its first term under Chief Justice John Roberts, conservative justices maintained a narrow but solid majority that consistently ruled in favor of conservative arguments. Last term, 23 cases divided the Court 5-4, with Bush appointees Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito voting together in 21 of those cases.
IRAQ -- PENTAGON ISSUES BLACKWATER USA A NEW $92 MILLION CONTRACT: Last month, Blackwater USA, a private security firm, was involved in the fatal shooting of 11 Iraqi civilians. While the Iraqi government swiftly condemned the contractor, the Bush administration has continued to back Blackwater's story that it was "defensive fire." Last Thursday, Gen. Peter Pace told reporters, "Blackwater has been a contractor in the past with the department and could certainly be in the future." The next day, that future arrived. The Pentagon issued a new list of contracts, including one worth $92 million to Presidential Airways, the "aviation unit of parent company Blackwater." "Presidential Airways, Inc., an aviation Worldwide Services company (d/b/a Blackwater Aviation), Moyock, M.C., is being awarded an indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) type contract for $92,000,000.00," reads a press release. Government officials have repeatedly ignored Blackwater's transgressions. Senior Iraqi officials have "repeatedly complained to U.S. officials" about Blackwater's "alleged involvement in the deaths of numerous Iraqis, but the Americans took little action to regulate the private security firm."
Blackwater contractors have alleged that a Sept. 16 deadly shooting in Iraq was initiated in response to hostile fire. But an "extensive evidence file" put together by the Iraqi National Police -- including documents, maps, sworn witness statements, and police video footage -- concludes that the Blackwater vehicles "opened fire crazily and randomly, without any reason."
"Congress again has extended funding for a core abstinence-education program, sparking protests from sex-education advocates who want Democrats to pull the plug on such programs."
"For the fifth time since 2001, Congress is raising the debt limit, increasing it by $850 billion to $9.815 trillion. The Senate approved the plan on a 53-42 vote Thursday night. The House of Representatives has already signed off on the plan, without a direct vote."
IRAQ -- BUSH SET ON WAR ONE MONTH BEFORE GOING TO U.N. IN 2003: A transcript of a conversation from February, 2003 between President Bush and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar published yesterday in the Spanish daily El Pais shows a president dead set on invading Iraq, promising his Spanish counterpart, "We will be in Baghdad by the end of March." Though Aznar asked Bush to "have a little patience," Bush insisted, "We must take him [Saddam Hussein] right now. We have shown an incredible degree of patience. There are two weeks left. In two weeks we will be militarily ready." But just days later, Bush pressed on, stating, "I've not made up my mind about military action" and assured that "[w]e are doing everything we can to avoid war in Iraq." Bush also told Aznar that Saddam discussed exile with the Egyptians "if they would let him take one billion dollars and all the information he wants on weapons of mass destruction." But Bush told Aznar, "He's a thief, a terrorist and a war crimina." Even today, Bush insists that "the United States did not choose war -- the choice was Saddam Hussein's."
ENVIRONMENT -- BUSH ADMINISTRATION PRAISES RESULTS OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROGRAMS IT OPPOSED: As President Bush opens talks on climate change and energy at a United Nations conference, the Washington Post reports today that the administration has been taking "unearned credit" for emissions reductions from programs it originally opposed. Those programs include "gas mileage standards for vehicles, efficiency standards for home appliances and state laws requiring utilities to increase their use of renewable energy sources." In many cases, the administration has "actively fought against" the implementation of these programs. For example, the administration "initially delayed plans to set improved energy-efficiency standards for 22 appliances, which led to a court battle with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)." "The White House also tried to reverse strict efficiency standards for central air conditioners upon Bush's taking office in 2001, a move the NRDC had reversed in a separate lawsuit." At the climate change talks, Bush will attempt to impose "voluntary" greenhouse gas emissions standards on the U.N. "We need to make commitments to each other, not just to ourselves," said the U.K.'s climate change representative said, rebuffing Bush.
A federal judge ruled yesterday that "two provisions of the USA Patriot Act are unconstitutional" because they allowed federal surveillance and searches of Americans without demonstrating probable cause.
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