carapace – Not your father's america

TechnoLawyer BlawgWorld 2007

 

TechnoLawyer BlawgWorld 2007: “BlawgWorld 2007 is the best way to explore and discover legal blogs (blawgs). It features 77 remarkable essays from 77 of the most influential blawgs. Each blogger handpicked their best essay of the year for inclusion in the eBook. The 2007 TechnoLawyer Problem/Solution Guide is a revolutionary new way to find Solutions to Problems your law firm is experiencing. Specifically, it contains 185 Problems and corresponding Solutions. Each Problem is written in the form of a question from the point of view of a law firm and organized by topic. Topics include case management, depositions, discovery, document management, legal research, time-billing, and many more — 58 topics in all.” (366 pages, PDF)

At:

http://www.technolawyer.com/r.asp?L11601&M1

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BILL O’REILLY ATTACKS…HIMSELF!

By Cliff Schecter

O’Reilly says without irony, “Corruption in the US media is harming this country. There’s more propaganda than truth floating around.”

At:

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/60517/

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Media reports on Freedom’s Watch advertisements don’t note misinformation

Media outlets including CNN, NBC, The New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times reported on a recent advertisement buy in support of the war in Iraq but ignored that two of the four advertisements link the Iraq war to 9-11.

 Read more

http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200708240001?src=other

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Powerhouse GOP firm working to undermine Iraqi PM

Aug 23 2007

A powerhouse Republican lobbying firm with close ties to the White House has begun a public campaign to undermine the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, CNN has confirmed. A senior Bush administration official told CNN the White House is aware of the lobbying campaign by Barbour Griffith & Rogers because the firm is “blasting e-mails all over town” criticizing al-Maliki and promoting the firm’s client, former interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, as an alternative to al-Maliki. ['Iraq's' oil law not passed yet... another Bush coup is surely on the way.]

At:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/08/23/anti.maliki.compaign/index.html

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Private Security Contractor behavior in Iraq is detrimental and unacceptable By Marshall Adame

Aug 22 2007

If you were Iraqi; what would you do? Really…… What would you do? …If you were an Iraqi, and you could see what they see, I am wondering what you would be thinking about the Occupation by American Forces. The Iraqi population makes no distinction between “Private” mercenaries and U.S. Forces. To the Average Iraqi, they are the same. The numbers I have been told are about 170,000 U.S. Military personnel in Iraq. There are also about 160,000 Private security contractors in Iraq either directly or indirectly on the U.S. Government payroll. American taxpayers are bankrolling 160,000 of the greatest recruiting tools for the Iraqi insurgencies.

At:

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=35753

 

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No let up in finger-pointing

THE INDEPENDENT
EDITORIAL COMMENTARY

August 22, 2007

How many scapegoats will the U.S. administration run through before it finally takes responsibility for the catastrophe that is Iraq?

Sundry low-level Pentagon officials of the neo-conservative tendency were replaced at the start of President Bush’s second term. Donald Rumsfeld fell on his sword, not altogether graciously, after the debacle of last year’s mid-term congressional elections. Karl Rove, Bush’s “brain,” announced his departure rather stealthily in the middle of this year’s summer break.

Now the chairman of the U.S. Senate Armed Forces Committee, Democrat Carl Levin, has found someone else to blame. After a three-day trip to Iraq and Jordan, Levin has urged the Iraqi parliament to replace the prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, and his cabinet, with a government that is “less sectarian and more unifying.”

…

Complete article at:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/328655_iraq23.html

The Independent is published in Britain.

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With no sign of torture on a prisoner, then it didn’t happen, right?

by Nat Hentoff

August 21st, 2007 7:24 PM

Bush to CIA: ‘Leave No Marks’

On July 20, George W. Bush issued an executive order authorizing the CIA to use “enhanced” techniques (as the president likes to call them) in its terror interrogation program—including in the CIA’s secret prisons, known internationally as “black sites.” CIA director Michael Hayden assures us that “now our mission and authorities [to conduct that mission] are clearly defined.” Adds national intelligence director Michael McConnell: “We now have a clear legal basis” for the CIA’s crucial national-security responsibilities.

The new Bush directive claims to forbid torture and cruel and inhuman treatment, as required by the Supreme Court’s 2006 Hamdan v. Rumsfeld decision and the Geneva Conventions. However, under the Military Commissions Act of 2006, only the president can interpret the meaning of the Geneva Conventions.

And under his executive order, Bush refuses to list the specific techniques that the CIA can use. All are still classified.

Therefore, “given [this administration's] record,” says Jennifer Daskal, the U.S. program advocacy director at Human Rights Watch, where she focuses on counterterrorism policy, “there is absolutely no reason to take the Bush administration’s word on trust.” For example, Bush has repeatedly insisted that, “We do not torture,” despite, as I and others have documented, a mountain range of evidence to the contrary. (See Jane Mayer’s “The Black Sites: A rare look into the CIA’s secret interrogation programs,” The New Yorker, August 13.)

Why are these special powers of extreme persuasion—exclusively permitted for the CIA—classified? Because, says McConnell, we don’t want future inmates of the “black sites” to figure out how to resist these “enhanced” techniques for extracting information.

…

Complete article at:

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0734,hentoff,77589,2.html

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HIGH CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS ON THE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN TRAIL

By John Gorenfeld, AlterNet

No GOP presidential race is complete without criminal activity: The latest on McCain’s bathroom blowjob hypocrite, Romney’s cop-imitating director of operations, Giuliani’s coke hound, possibly Fred Thompson himself, and much more.

At:

http://www.alternet.org/stories/60573/

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Pentagon to scrap controversial anti-terror database 

By Andrew Noyes, National Journal’s Technology Daily

The Defense Department will close its controversial anti-terrorism database known as TALON and preserve the data collected in accordance with intelligence oversight requirements, officials said Tuesday.

The five-year-old system, whose acronym stands for Threat and Local Observation Notices, was established by then-Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz to gather and assess possible threats to the U.S. military and civilian workers at military bases domestically and overseas.

TALON will be closed effective Sept. 17 because reporting to the system had declined significantly and it was determined to no longer be of analytical value, Army Col. Gary Keck told the American Forces Press Service.

Full story:

http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=37821&dcn=e_gvet

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three thousand words

David Horsey: that’s no suprise is it?

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/dayart/20070824/cartoon20070824.gif

Ted Rall: forced sterilization. it’s the only way

http://images.ucomics.com/comics/tr/2007/tr070823.gif

Slowpoke(Jen Sorensen): The Puppy Principle

http://www.slowpokecomics.com/strips/puppyprinciple.gif

The Politico

This online news site has “the mission of covering the politics of Capitol Hill and of the presidential campaign, and the business of Washington lobbying and advocacy.” Includes news, opinion pieces, photos, blogs, and other material about Congress, politicians, the 2008 presidential election, and other political topics. From the publishers of the free Politico print newspaper available in the Washington, D.C., area.

At:

URL: http://www.politico.com

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Limbaugh revived concept of Clinton’s “testicle lockbox”

On the August 21 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Rush Limbaugh played audio clips from Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s (D-NY) August 20 speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) and labeled her position on Iraq “the ‘no onions’ strategy from the woman with the testicle lockbox.” As Media Matters for America documented, Limbaugh has used the expression “testicle lockbox” on numerous occasions while discussing Clinton.

Read more

http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200708220012?src=other

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Western oil group eyes assets in Iraq

Aug 22 2007

A large western oil company has offered $700m for oil assets in Iraqi Kurdistan owned by DNO, the small Norwegian oil company. The offer signals that international oil companies are willing to put significant amounts of money into Iraq in spite of the security problems and lack of a legal framework. DNO refused to name the company, but industry executives speculated that Royal Dutch Shell was a possible bidder.

At:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20397920/

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Connect the Dots: Karl Rove’s Politics Über Alles Strategy and the Utah Mine Disaster

By Arianna Huffington

Aug 21 2007

Coal mining interests have donated more than $12 million to federal candidates since the Bush-era began with the 2000 election cycle, with 88% of that money — $10.6 million — going to Republicans… Exhibit A is Bush’s “mine safety” czar, Richard Stickler, whose agency both approved the controversial mining technique used at the Crandall Canyon Mine before the collapse, and oversaw the rescue operation. Stickler is a former coal company manager with such a lousy safety record at the companies he’d run that his nomination as head of the Mine Safety and Health Administration was twice rejected by Senators from both parties, forcing Bush to sneak him in the back door with a recess appointment.

At:

http://www.alternet.org/columnists/story/60389/

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AMERICAN LEGION AND VFW LAUNCH PRO-WAR LOBBY & PR CAMPAIGNS

http://www.prwatch.org/node/6358

The Boston Globe reports “the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the nation’s oldest and most influential veterans’ organizations, have broken their relative silence on the merits of the Iraq war, joining some of the staunchest war supporters to lobby Congress and the public…  Both organizations, which the White House has aggressively courted” are “recruiting members to argue for the surge strategy at town hall meetings, and have made their leaders available to the national media to declare that victory is still within reach.  …  ‘They have been speaking out more strongly than in the past,’ said Pete Hegseth, an Iraq veteran who heads Vets for Freedom, which supports the surge.”  Clifford D. May, president of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a think tank “that helps coordinate pro-war groups” told the Globe, ‘we need to work very hard to educate both members of Congress and the general public.’ “  May is also active in Committee on the Present Danger, the Project for the New American Century, and was the Republican National Committee’s Director of Communications. SourceWatch now contains a new article on the pro-war lobby.

SOURCE: Boston Globe, August 16, 2007

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Housing Bubble Fallout

DOUG HENWOOD, dhenwood@panix.com,

http://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Turmoil.html,

http://www.WallStreetTheBook.com

Henwood is editor of Left Business Observer and author of the book “Wall Street.” He said today: “Recent turmoil in the financial market is the entirely predictable result of the bursting of the U.S. housing bubble (and the exotic securities that Wall Street invented to finance it), whose very existence was repeatedly denied by experts from Alan Greenspan on down. As with most financial manias, it was a product of simple greed, malignant optimism, and outright criminality; the sad fact is that many people will lose the houses that they were tricked or seduced into buying. Beyond that, we just don’t know yet whether this will remain a localized crisis or will spread to have broad economic effects. But given how the expansion of the bubble powered about half of U.S. economic growth in recent years, the bubble’s demise is at the very least likely to drag down an already weak economy.”

In 2005, Henwood wrote an article titled “Frothing at the House,” stating: “Alan Greenspan, who spent much of the late 1990s denying the existence of a stock bubble, has spent much of the last couple of
years denying that housing was getting pumped up. He coyly argued in a May 6 speech, ‘nominal house prices in the aggregate have rarely fallen and certainly not by very much,’ which sounds reassuring. …
[However,] large chunks of Greenspan’s analysis don’t survive fact-checking.”

Henwood’s 2005 article in which he examines various indicators of the housing bubble is available at:

http://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Housing.html

From: Institute for Public Accuracy

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TWO YEARS AFTER KATRINA, BILLIONS IN RELIEF FUNDS ARE MISSING

By Jeffrey Buchanan, Chris Kromm, AlterNet

The federal government has promised more than $116 billion in recovery aid, but residents of the still-devastated Gulf Coast wonder whether the check bounced.

At:

http://www.alternet.org/rights/60494/

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Taxpayers for Common Sense: Katrina’s Rough Road

KATRINA’S ROUGH RIDE

Volume XII No. 22 – August 23, 2007

Without a doubt, Hurricane Katrina was the most devastating hurricane to ever hit U.S. shores. Hurricane Camille was stronger and the Galveston hurricane was more deadly, but Katrina did more than damage property and take lives.  It shook the nation’s confidence in the state of our infrastructure and revealed a stunning incompetence in our disaster preparedness, recovery and reconstruction.

Now, with the two-year anniversary of this disaster just a few days away, the nation is again suffering the collective emotional hangover from yet another infrastructure tragedy – the I-35 bridge collapse in Minneapolis. And once again, politicians have clamored for a clichéd response: more money will solve our problems. It is as if there is a sign in the Capitol: “In Case of Emergency Grab Cash.” But levees aren’t built with bags of money and you can’t construct a bridge with bricks of gold, as evidenced by the fact that much of the money initially provided after Katrina has not been spent. As we’ve learned time and again, getting the money is easy; rebuilding smarter and better is not.

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/070520/28neworleans.htm

Several factors have combined to reduce the effectiveness of the money spent rebuilding in the Gulf.  One major problem is that reconstruction efforts have been sullied by too many examples of waste, fraud, and abuse to enumerate. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) provided several of the most famous examples of these problems.  In the days and weeks after Katrina, FEMA spent millions shipping thousands of pounds of excess ice back and forth across the nation, then stored it for nearly two years, before finally getting rid of it last month when it was determined the ice was contaminated and couldn’t be used again anyway. FEMA also purchased far too many travel trailers to use as temporary homes, some of which had to be left in storage in Arkansas because they weren’t suitable for use in the Gulf Coast environment. Some of the extra trailers are now being dumped on the market returning pennies on the dollar to taxpayers.

Federal efforts to benefit local economies by directing reconstruction contracts to local firms have also been undercut.  National firms have used all kinds of tricks to pull down these lucrative contracts, sometimes turning to the local firms who lost out in the bidding to be subcontractors. In many instances, the federal government hires a large prime contractor who hires a subcontractor who in turn hires a subcontractor, with taxpayers losing money all the way down the line and the final subcontractor who actually hammers the nail receiving a pittance of what the initial contractor was paid for the job.

Cronyism has significantly impacted what and who benefits from Katrina aid. Just last week, a Bloomberg News investigation found that Governor Haley Barbour’s (R-MS) family has earned hundreds of thousands of dollars from Katrina-related work, including a nephew who made a pirate’s booty in  lobbying fees  after his uncle Governor appointed him to a Katrina reconstruction panel

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601070&sid=aG1fHyzJA56A&refer=home

Finally, Congress continues to have its own problems prioritizing how our nation’s infrastructure dollars should be spent.  Twice since Katrina, lawmakers have rejected attempts to prioritize water infrastructure funding to ensure that the most critical projects—like increased flood and storm protection in populated areas—get to the front of the line. And earlier this year, Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) attempted to add more than $600 million to the Iraq emergency spending bill to build a new boondoggle navigation lock on New Orleans’s Industrial Canal. This project was vehemently opposed by the residents of the Lower Ninth Ward because their homes were flooded when the levee lining the same Industrial Canal failed in the wake of Katrina.

The 2007 hurricane season is well upon us, with Hurricane Dean recently ripping through the Caribbean and across Mexico, indicating that an active season may still be in store. No matter what form they take, more disasters – natural and man-made – will hit the United States in the future. If lawmakers and agency officials can’t get the policies and priorities straight to help the nation prepare and respond, we will continue to turn national disasters into fiscal disasters as well.

Going on at Taxpayer.net This Week

Check out TCS’s Complete Coverage of FY08 Spending Bills

http://www.taxpayer.net/budget/fy08appropschart.html

TCS in the News

TCS was featured in a Bill Moyers Journal Piece about Earmarks.

Click Here to Watch.

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/07272007/watch.html

Federal No-Bid Contracts on Rise (Washington Post)
Second Lawmaker Sought Earmark for Lobbying Firm (Congressional Quarterly)
1 in 6371: The Young Earmark Caper (TPMmuckraker)
Congress warms to climate-change initiatives (Los Angeles Times)
State could lose powerful ally if Stevens steps down (Seattle Times)
Senate buddies Inouye, Stevens staying tight through corruption probe (Honolulu Advertiser)
Pence gets least in delegation’s earmarked project requests (Gannett News Service)
Bridge Disaster Fuels Push to Raise Tax for Repairs (Bloomberg)
Indiana’s delegates take care of donors (Indianapolis Star)
Florida rejects earmark (Anchorage Daily News)
Fla. County Says ‘No Thanks’ to $10 million Earmark (Washington Post)
Only 3 SC lawmakers announce earmarks (The State, South Carolina)

Notable Quote

“It is a joke…It was supposed to be about getting people … to put housing in New Orleans, Louisiana, or Biloxi, Mississippi. It was not about condos in Tuscaloosa.”

–Tuscaloosa developer Stan Pate, on GO Zone program dollars to build condos far away from the areas that need it most.

From:  weekly wastebasket at www.taxpayer.net

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New CRS Report Totals GWOT Costs

With FY 2008 Request, Total Iraq Appropriations to Hit $567 Billion

By WINSLOW WHEELER

At:

http://www.iraqslogger.com/downloads/CRS_on_Wars_Costs_July.pdf

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three thousand words

Matt Davies: another spurious histroical war victory story is just around the corner …

http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoons/DavieM/2007/DavieM20070823_low.jpg

Trouble Town (Lloyd Dangle): rove’s enduring legacy

http://troubletown.com/cartoons/cartoons/ttown.874.gif

Slowpoke(Jen Sorensen):The Blame America First Crowd

http://www.slowpokecomics.com/strips/politics101.gif

Science Tracer Bullet: Nuclear Weapons

This bibliography provides an overview of reference and research materials on Nuclear Weapons, with an emphasis on materials available in the Library of Congress and the World Wide Web

At:

http://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/tracer-bullets/nuclearweaponstb.html

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Limbaugh: Other candidates don’t criticize Clinton because “you can’t hit the girl”

On the August 20 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, discussing comments made by White House senior adviser Karl Rove about Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (NY), Rush Limbaugh claimed that “nobody criticizes Hillary. … Well, you might say, ‘No, Michelle Obama and Mrs. Edwards are out there criticizing her,’ but, see, I finally figured this one out, too. You can’t hit the girl. You just — you can’t hit the girl.” He continued: “And for [Democratic presidential candidates John] Edwards and [Sen. Barack] Obama (IL) to go out there and criticize Hillary would — she would — she plays the victim better than anybody does, and she could make real hay out of that. So they’ve got their wives out there ripping her.” He added: “But the drive-bys” — a term Limbaugh uses to denote the mainstream media — “aren’t taking that seriously, because Hillary’s the inevitable candidate.”

Read more

http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200708210002?src=other

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Small oil firms in Iraq becoming buyout targets –Canadian firm WesternZagros up for grabs

Aug 21 2007

When Iraq approves a new [Washington-backed] oil law, the smaller firms that took the risk to start up early despite insecurity and the lack of a legal framework will become buyout targets and are already being sized up by larger competitors.

At:

http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/financialpost/story.html?id=9165e532-2157-468c-ac07-7e9c80042999

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The Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America

By Si Contino

Aug 20 2007

An integral part of globalization is deregulation from publicly controlled institutions. For multinational corporations, globalism has fostered a sense of dictatorial corporate collectivism; where multinationals coalesce behind the communal self-interest of a singular core philosophy; arresting regulatory oversight from sovereign nations for the unfettered acquisition of corporate wealth. As for American citizens, they’ve been nothing but regulated: The Patriot Act, the Total Information Awareness Act, the Domestic Wiretapping Program, etc., etc… Therefore, my closing admonition to you is this: When the political class in America speaks about globalization having created freedom in China; that’s code for freedom from corporate regulation.

At:

http://www.bestcyrano.org/THOMASPAINE/?p=222

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Pentagon-Media Collusion?

JEFF COHEN, jeffco@hvc.rr.com

Cohen, a media critic and the author of “Cable News Confidential,” said today: “I’ve questioned media managers about their over-reliance on military brass for years and debated the topic on CNN 13 years ago. The public has often been misled, as in the run-up to the Iraq invasion. If TV networks covered labor issues by such heavy reliance on lifelong union officials who’d retired from the labor movement in good standing, it would be seen as biased and incomplete. But it’s considered A-OK if it’s high-ranked Pentagon alumni.”

From: Institute for Public Accuracy

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Crandall Canyon Mine Collapse Implicates MSHA Procedures 

The Aug. 6 mine collapse at the Crandall Canyon coal mine in Utah, which trapped six coal miners and led to the deaths of three rescue workers, again calls into question the effectiveness of the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA). The mine operators were working under a plan approved by MSHA in June, just months after serious structural problems forced the operators to abandon a work area only 900 feet from where the miners are trapped.

In March, miners were engaged in “retreat mining” — cutting out the pillars of coal supporting the mountain above the main tunnel and allowing the roof to collapse — when the northern tunnel experienced a shift of the ground, a “bump,” that caused severe damage, according to an Aug. 12 article by The Salt Lake Tribune. Mine operators often use retreat mining to extract the last substantial deposits of coal before abandoning a mine area altogether.

According to a memo obtained by The Tribune, the mine operators knew the pressures from the 2,100 feet of mountain above the mine created the roof problems that caused them to abandon the northern tunnel. The operators, UtahAmerican Energy, Inc., hired a Colorado mining engineering firm, Agapito Associates, Inc., to help the operators determine a safer way of retreat mining the southern tunnel. The southern tunnel area is where the men are now trapped. Rescue efforts were suspended late Aug. 16 after three rescue workers were killed and six others injured by another collapse.

…

Complete artcle at:

http://www.ombwatch.org/article/articleview/3954/

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BUSH APPOINTED MINE SAFETY OFFICIAL’S CREDENTIALS QUESTIONED

By Adam Howard

Stickler used to be a mining executive who ran mines which had several fatalities and “an incident rate that was often twice the national average.”

At:

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/60331/

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CONNECT THE DOTS: KARL ROVE’S POLITICS ÜBER ALLES STRATEGY AND THE UTAH MINE DISASTER

By Arianna Huffington, HuffingtonPost.com

Karl Rove may be on his way out the door, but the destructive legacy of his politicization of the federal government will be with us for many years to come.

At:

http://www.alternet.org/stories/60389/

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U.S. catastrophic ignorance continues 

August 21, 2007

Derrick Z. Jackson, syndicated columnist:

The oil lobby tells us to ignore the swamping of our planet. In New Orleans, we are building to be swamped again. America apparently needs a more direct hit than even Katrina to wake up to ignorance.

…

Complete artcle at:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/328492_jackson22.html

Derrick Z. Jackson writes for The Boston Globe.

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Housing Bubble Fallout

DEAN BAKER, barber@cepr.net,

http://www.cepr.net

Co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, Baker said today: “There is a simple and direct way in which the federal government can help out millions of moderate-income families struggling to keep their homes: They can simply change the rules on foreclosure to allow moderate-income homeowners the option to remain in their homes indefinitely as renters, paying the fair market rent.

… In contrast, the politicians are lining up with plans that ostensibly protect homeowners, but would most immediately benefit the mortgage holders who speculated in predatory mortgage debt.”

Baker said on an IPA release on June 30, 2004: “Just as he allowed a stock bubble to inflate to dangerous proportions in the late nineties, Alan Greenspan has allowed, and arguably promoted, the development of a housing bubble in the last four years. For the first time in the post-war period, home prices have substantially outpaced the overall rate of inflation, creating nearly $4 trillion in bubble wealth. While the collapse of this bubble will almost certainly lead to a recession, the problem is only made worse by delaying the inevitable.”

For more IPA releases on the housing bubble going back to 2002,see:

http://www.accuracy.org/newsrelease.php?articleId=605

http://www.accuracy.org/newsrelease.php?articleId=281

http://www.accuracy.org/newsrelease.php?articleId=497

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Borowitz Report – Rove Steroid Shocker

Rove’s Legacy Tainted by Steroids

‘Bush’s Brain’ Was Juicing, Experts Say

To many, he was “Bush’s Brain,” the master tactician who would stop at nothing to advance the political agenda of George W. Bush.

But to a growing number of experts within the Beltway and beyond, a more sinister portrait is emerging of former White House political advisor Karl Rove: a man who achieved his record-shattering results only by using steroids.

“The question isn’t whether or not Karl Rove was juicing,” says Davis Logsdon, a University of Minnesota professor who studies steroid use among White House political advisors. “The question is, exactly how much was he juicing?”

In building his case that Mr. Rove used performance-enhancing drugs during his years in the Bush White House, Mr. Logsdon compares his record in Texas, where he was an above-average political advisor, to his tenure in Washington, where he became a pumped-up superstar.

“In Texas, Rove only succeeded in getting a governor elected, but in Washington, he organized the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, staged the ‘Mission Accomplished’ photo-op, and outed a CIA agent,” Mr. Logsdon says. “There’s only one way to explain the surge in performance: steroids.”

And Mr. Logsdon suspects that steroids may have also played a role in the 2000 presidential election, in which Mr. Rove engineered a victory for Mr. Bush even though he received fewer votes than former Vice President Al Gore.

“If Rove was using steroids during all that, then the 2000 election has to go down in the record books with an asterisk,” he says.

Elsewhere, bowing to safety concerns, a Chinese manufacturer recalled 14 million “Poison Me Elmo” toys. 

Andy in Seattle – Labor Day Weekend!
Andy brings “Next Week’s News” to Seattle’s Bumbershoot festival for three performances over Labor Day weekend. See Andy at the Charlotte Martin Theater, 201 Thomas Street, at 4:30 PM on September 1, 2, and 3. Tickets available at www.bumbershoot.org .

http://www.borowitzreport.com/

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three thousand words

This Modern World: In 1969, a group of radicals hatched a secret plan…

http://www.workingforchange.com/webgraphics/WFC/TMW08-22-07colorlowres.jpg

Sandy Huffaker: hurricane fred

http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoons/HuffaS/2007/HuffaS20070821_low.jpg

Mike Peters: unusual ways to attack inside the u.s.

http://www.grimmy.com/images/MP_Archive/MP_2007/MP0816.gif

TD Bank Financial Group – The Grey Anatomy of the Current Credit Crunch 

At:

http://www.td.com/economics/special/rk0807_grey.pdf

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Two months after giving Iraqis “two more months” to pass oil bill, O’Reilly silent on their failure to do so

On his radio show on June 20, Bill O’Reilly asserted, “I’m gonna tell you that the big picture is, the Iraqis have two more months. They’ve got two more months. And if they don’t step up and help more than they’re helping” on oil legislation and security, “in two months, it’s over. Come September and October, we’re pulling back, and that’s the truth.” August 20 marks the end of the two-month period, but O’Reilly is yet to mention the Iraqi government’s failure to reach an agreement on oil legislation or his claims about the need for improvements by the Iraqi Security Forces.

Read more

http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200708200009?src=other

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GLENN BECK: I LIVE IN CONNECTICUT BECAUSE “IT’S OUT OF REACH OF A NUCLEAR EXPLOSION IN MANHATTAN”

By Amanda Terkel

The mainstream media continues to reward Beck for his hateful, divisive rhetoric.

At:

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/60269/

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What Unites Iraqis: Blocking Western Petroleum Companies From Seizing Control of Their Oil –Despite the ethnic bloodshed in Iraq, majorities of Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds are united in their disapproval of the proposed oil laws that Washington and Big Oil are pushing.

By Joshua Holland

Aug 09 2007

If passed, the Bush administration’s long-sought “hydrocarbons framework” law would give Big Oil access to Iraq’s vast energy reserves on the most advantageous terms and with virtually no regulation. Meanwhile, a parallel law carving up the country’s oil revenues threatens to set off a fresh wave of conflict in the shell-shocked country. Subhi al-Badri, head of the Iraqi Federation of Union Councils, said last month that the “law is a bomb that may kill everyone.”

At:

http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/59318/

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‘Karl Rove was at the center of the germination and actual commission of every major crime of the Bush presidency.’ Karl Rove: Off to Another Criminal Mission

By Glen Ford

Aug 19 2007

U.S. corporate media cannot accurately cover the crimes of Karl Rove, nor his exit from the White House, because Rove’s career is a pure extension of the most ancient machinations of white supremacists. The Republican Party, heirs to the Dixiecrat legacy, needs Karl Rove to continue his work in the vineyards of racist political manipulation, suppression of non-white voters, and the production of lies by the ton… Rove will be putting his powers at the service of Republicans everywhere in 2008… He’ll do what has always done, this time for the Republican Party at large: rev up the racism, spin out reams of lies, and advise on the best way to exclude Blacks and browns from the polls, in 2008.

At:

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0708/S00255.htm

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Pentagon-Media Collusion?

Last week a former top CNN official defended his visits to the Pentagon for a “thumbs-up” on retired generals who were prospective CNN news analysts before the cable network hired them to provide on-air assessments of the Iraq war.

Former CNN news chief Eason Jordan — quoted in an article on the IraqSlogger.com site, owned by Jordan’s company Praedict — said that he was merely checking on expertise with the Pentagon on the eve of the invasion of Iraq.

<http://www.iraqslogger.com/index.php/post/3919/War_Made_Easy_Makes_Easy_Viewing>

But critics say that Jordan’s explanation last week is an attempt to justify improper collaboration between the Pentagon and TV news management.

Initially, during an appearance on CNN (April 20, 2003), Jordan stated: “I think it’s important to have experts explain the war and to describe the military hardware, describe the tactics, talk about the strategy behind the conflict. I went to the Pentagon myself several times before the war started and met with important people there and said, for instance — ‘At CNN, here are the generals we’re thinking of retaining to advise us on the air and off about the war’ — and we got a big thumbs-up on all of them. That was important.”

Jordan’s appearance is now on YouTube:

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRKU6l6xyto>

The explanation from Jordan last week came in response to a new documentary film, “War Made Easy,” which includes a critique of his seeking a “thumbs-up” from the Pentagon on potential CNN hires. The
documentary is based on a book of the same title by Norman Solomon, executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy.

From: Institute for Public Accuracy

                          ==========

Congressman Ron Paul’s column for the week of August 20th – High Risk Credit

August 20, 2007

As markets went on a rollercoaster ride last week, our economy is coming close to a day of reckoning for loose credit policies being followed by the Federal Reserve Bank. Simply, foreign banks we have been relying on to buy our debt are waking up to the reality of much higher default rates than predicted, and many mortgage backed securities have been reduced to “junk” ratings. Wall Street fears the possibility of tightening credit and the tightening of America’s belts. Why, they say, “if Americans spend only what they can afford, think of the ripple effects throughout the economy!” This is the cry, as the call comes for the fed to cut rates and bail out companies in trouble.

More inflation is, however, never the answer to inflation.

The truth is that business involves risk, and businesses that miscalculate risk should be liquidated, so their assets can be reallocated to businesses that correctly judge risk and make profits. Instead, the Fed has injected $64 billion into the jittery markets, effectively amounting to a bailout that keeps these malinvestments afloat, but eventually they will become the undoing of our economy.

In addition to the negative reactions in financial markets, many Americans have taken on too much personal debt owing to exotic mortgage products and artificially low interest rates. Unfortunately, these families are now in the position of losing their homes in unprecedented numbers as the teaser rates expire and the real bills are coming due.

The real answers are, and always have been, found in the principles of the free market. Let the market set the interest rates. If we had been functioning under a true and transparent free market system, we would not be in the mess we are in today. Government, like the American household, needs to live within its means to get back on stable fiscal ground.

We’ve been headed in the wrong direction since 1971. This week marks the 36th anniversary of Nixon’s decision to close the gold window, which convinced me to seek public office to call attention to the runaway money train that would come in the aftermath of that decision. The temptation to print and spend money with impunity, like the temptation to max out lines of credit, is too strong to for government to resist. While Nixon brokered exclusivity deals with OPEC to prop up demand for the tidal wave of green pieces of paper the Fed pumped into the markets, the world is tiring of marching to the beat of our drum in order to secure their energy needs. The house of cards Nixon built is now on the verge of collapsing on our heads, and on our children’s heads.

As the dollar weakens, it becomes ever clearer that we need a return to sound, commodity-based money for a secure future.  Money based on real value, not empty promises and secretive backroom machinations, is the way to get out of the current calamity without causing even bigger problems.

From:

http://www.house.gov/paul/tst/tst2007/tst082007.htm

                          ==========

In Value-Driven Health Care Purchasing: Four States That Are Ahead of the Curve,

researchers Sharon Silow-Carroll and Tanya Alteras of Health Management Associates offer an in-depth look into dynamic public/private partnerships in Massachusetts, Minnesota, Washington, and Wisconsin. As discussed in an overview report and four individual case studies, these states are setting the bar higher for health care providers and plans by building into their purchasing contracts requirements for data collection, evidence-based medicine, performance incentives, and new information technologies.

At:

http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/publications_show.htm?doc_id=515778&#doc515778

                          ==========

U.S. Life Expectancy Below That of 41 Other Nations

Access this story and related links online:

http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=46838

Life expectancy in the U.S. has reached its highest point ever, but it is exceeded by the rates in 41 other countries, the AP/Arizona Daily Star reports. The U.S. has been slipping for decades in international rankings of life expectancies as other countries are improving health care, nutrition and lifestyles, according to the AP/Daily Star. Countries that rank above the U.S. include Japan, most of Europe, Jordan and the Cayman Islands. A U.S. resident born in 2004 has a life expectancy of 77.9 years, placing the U.S. in 42nd place, down from 11th place two decades ago. Researchers say the lower U.S. ranking is attributed to the high uninsured rate among the population, in addition to rising obesity rates and racial disparities in life expectancy. Black U.S. residents have a shorter life span, at 73.3 years, than whites. The U.S. also has a high infant mortality rate compared with other industrialized nations, with 40 countries having lower infant mortality rates than the U.S. in 2004. The country with the longest life expectancy is Andorra at 83.5 years. Swaziland is last at 34.1 years, attributed to sub-Saharan Africa’s high rate of HIV and AIDS, as well as famine and civil strife.

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three thousand words

Ted Rall: how we got here

http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/uc/20070820/ltr070820.gif

Steve Greenberg: Heathcare claims denials

http://blogs.venturacountystar.com/vcs/greenberg/archives/qqxsgHealthClaim%20Denial.jpg

RJ Matson: DORA THE IMPORTER

http://www.rjmatson.com/images/cartoons/STL488.jpg

LOUIS – the Library Of Unified Information Sources

Welcome to the first phase of LOUIS – the Library Of Unified Information Sources, a project of the Sunlight Foundation, and an effort, to paraphrase Justice Louis Brandeis, to illuminate the workings of the federal government. Our ultimate goal is to create a comprehensive, completely indexed and cross-referenced depository of federal documents from the executive and legislative branches of government. We are not there yet, but we can now offer these documents organized in a user-friendly interface, with a powerful search engine.

At:

http://www.louisdb.org/

                          ==========

CNN’s King failed to challenge Thompson on his apparent abortion flip-flop

During the August 17 edition of CNN’s The Situation Room, former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-TN), a potential Republican presidential candidate, asserted, “I think Roe vs. Wade was a bad decision,” and added, “You don’t just get up one day and overturn the entire history of the country with regard major social policy without any action by Congress, without any action by the American people or a constitutional amendment. And that’s what happened. It shouldn’t have happened. It ought to be reversed.” National correspondent John King did not note that Thompson’s statement contradicted comments Thompson reportedly made in 1993 to the Memphis Commercial Appeal. As Media Matters for America has documented, a July 29, 1993, article in the Commercial Appeal reported that Thompson said in an interview that he “supports the Supreme Court’s Roe vs. Wade decision that established a constitutional right to abortion.”

 Read more

http://mediamatters.org/items/200708190002?src=other

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British forces useless in Basra, say officials

Aug 19 2007

In Britain, Gordon Brown’s government has tried to depict a quiet process of handover to Iraqi troops in Basra, which will see the remaining forces in the city withdraw to the airport in November… One US official said that recent US military intelligence reports sent to the White House had concluded that Britain had “lost” Basra, and that Pentagon war games were predicting a virtual civil war in the South once British troops left. He said: “When the White House makes the case for continuing the surge on the Hill they will say: ‘Look what happened in Basra when the Brits went back to their barracks. We can’t pull out now. Give us more time to get it right’.”

At:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/08/19/wiraq119.xml

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The War as We Saw It By Buddhika Jayamaha, Wesley D. Smith, Jeremy Roebuck, Omar Mora, Edward Sandmeier, Yance T. Gray and Jeremy A. Murphy

19 Aug 2007

The claim that we are increasingly in control of the battlefields in Iraq is an assessment arrived at through a flawed, American-centered framework. Yes, we are militarily superior, but our successes are offset by failures elsewhere… This situation is made more complex by the questionable loyalties and Janus-faced role of the Iraqi police and Iraqi Army, which have been trained and armed at United States taxpayers’ expense… Four years into our occupation, we have failed on every promise, while we have substituted Baath Party tyranny with a tyranny of Islamist, militia and criminal violence.

At:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/19/opinion/19jayamaha.html

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The WasteBasket: A Bulletin on Wasteful Government Spending – RAISING CANE IN CONGRESS

by Taxpayers for Common Sense
www.taxpayer.net

RAISING CANE IN CONGRESS
Volume XII No. 21 – August 17, 2007

Florida’s sugar barons, the Fanjul family, who have made their millions off of federal sugar subsidies, are a bit miffed about a new TV series on CBS starting this fall. Starring Jimmy Smits, “Cane” is a not-so flattering portrayal of the trials and tribulations of a powerful fictitious family in the Florida sugar and rum industry.

But that’s not the only attention sugar interests are getting lately. In the fine print of its recently-passed farm bill, the U.S. House of Representatives increased subsidies for sugar, including an increase in payment guarantees. Combined with existing import restrictions and price controls, these make the sugar industry one of the most heavily subsidized in the country.

Sugar comes from two sources – sugarbeets and sugarcane. Beets are grown in 11 states, while cane is grown in just four. The Fanjul sugar processing empire is based in Florida, and includes ownership of Domino, C&H, and Florida Crystals sugar brands, as well as large holdings in the Dominican Republic, one of the few countries from which the U.S. imports sugar.

The House farm bill (H.R. 2419) also introduces King Corn to King Sugar. In the bill, the ultimate sugar daddy, Uncle Sam, would subsidize the use of sugar for ethanol production. By increasing production of sugar through subsidies for the bioenergy program, the Farm Bill increases the cost to taxpayers by $3.1 billion over ten years. On the other side of the ledger, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that this provision would also save the sugar program $240 million over ten years. That doesn’t seem like a very good deal for taxpayers.

Even worse, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) says that U.S. sugar – in any form – costs more to turn into ethanol than almost anything else. Hence the need for construction incentives – here’s some money to build production facilities that are not economically viable.

The sugar industry and Congressional supporters of sugar subsidies like to say that the sugar program poses “no cost” to taxpayers. That’s just a fancy and misleading way to obscure the fact that Uncle Sam has completely controls the cost of domestic sugar production to help line the pockets of sugar producers. In reality, according to the Congressional Research Service, U.S. Government Accountability Office, and others, the U.S. sugar program costs consumers between $400 million and $1.9 billion annually through increased costs to various sectors of the economy, and has led to job losses across sugar using industries. Domestic sugar protectionism keeps U.S. sugar prices two to three times higher than world sugar market prices.

Back at home, while the Fanjuls fret over their treatment in a fictitious TV show, taxpayers should be fretting over the dollars they are giving to sugar industry giants. Due largely to the efforts and millions of dollars of people like Dwayne Andreas and Archers Daniels Midland (ADM), Congress has decided the U.S. should grow its way out of energy dependency with corn-based ethanol. And now big sugar is getting a taste of that Kool-Aid. We can’t wait for the episode of “Cane” where Jimmy Smits is waiting by the mail box for his subsidy check from Uncle Sam.

Going on at Taxpayer.net This Week

Check out TCS’s Complete Coverage of FY08 Spending Bills
http://capwiz.com/taxpayer/utr/1/JCPJHNLFZX/DSFQHNLGFA/1360148976

The Associated Press released a story highlighting Alaska’s Pork, using TCS data
http://capwiz.com/taxpayer/utr/1/JCPJHNLFZX/BVSGHNLGFB/1360148976

Florida Community Rejects Don Young Earmark as “Tainted”
http://capwiz.com/taxpayer/utr/1/JCPJHNLFZX/AXYWHNLGFC/1360148976

Notable Quote

“A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.” – George Bernard Shaw

INFO ABOUT TCS: info@taxpayer.net or
http://capwiz.com/taxpayer/utr/1/JCPJHNLFZX/KWOUHNLGFE/1360148976

                          ==========

Biofuel revolution will drive up food prices … and more

Stuff.co.nz – Wellington,New Zealand

Accordingly, ethanol plants are being built all over the Midwest, with corn as the feed stock. About 25% of the US corn crop will go to biofuel this year, …

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/4153271a6445.html

Ethanol no panacea for rising energy demands

Contra Costa Times – Walnut Creek,CA,USA

The energy bill currently pending in Congress would mandate the production of 36 billion gallons of ethanol per year by the year 2022. …

http://www.contracostatimes.com/opinion/ci_6550244

Push for ethanol has ripple effect across economy

Fort Worth Star Telegram – Fort Worth,TX,USA

Prices on these items and others are rising, all in the quest to produce more ethanol, the corn-based product touted as a way to reduce dependence on …

http://www.star-telegram.com/national_news/story/191952.html

The grand ethanol illusion!

The Herald Argus – LaPorte,IN,USA

I was going to write a column on the ongoing ethanol travesty being spoon-fed by the McNews Media upon the American public. As with most issues, …

http://heraldargus.com/archives/ha/sections.cgi?prcss=display&id=383051

Bad tidings for ethanol

CNNMoney.com – USA

This week’s USDA report could be a precursor to another runup in corn prices, spelling bad times for an ethanol industry looking to get off the ground. …

http://money.cnn.com/2007/08/07/news/economy/usda_ethanol/?postversion=2007080715

Expert warns state about ethanol pollution

WQAD – Moline,IL,USA

AP – August 8, 2007 9:04 PM ET DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – An environmental expert is warning the state that the ethanol boom may pollute streams in the coming …

http://www.wqad.com/Global/story.asp?S=6906950&nav=1sW7

Ethanol Follies

American Thinker – Berkeley,AZ,USA

There are few better examples today of special interest pork than the government’s ethanol policies. Born out of a desire to raise the price of corn for …

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2007/08/ethanol_follies.html

The fools who pushed ethanol

Arizona Republic – Phoenix,AZ,USA

The New York Sun reports: “The production of ethanol, which is made from corn, is one major reason classic cuts of prime beef are becoming more and more …

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/0817frilets173.html

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Energy Derivatives:  Preliminary Views on Energy Derivatives

Trading and CFTC Oversight, by Orice M. Williams, director, financial markets and community investment, before the Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities and Risk Management, House Committee on Agriculture.

GAO-07-1095T, July 12.

http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-07-1095T

Highlights – http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d071095thigh.pdf

                          ==========

HIGH PLAINS WATER CRISIS WILL FORCE FARMERS TO THINK LIKE ENVIRONMENTALISTS

By Julene Blair, CounterPunch

If Midwest farmers continue pumping water at current rates, they’ll be forced to revert to dry-land agriculture and livestock grazing within decades  — they could change their habits now and make the High Plains sustainable for the future.

At:

http://www.alternet.org/environment/58244/

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New Chicago Fed Letter Information posted

The September 2007 Chicago Fed Letter (Number 242a) “Transitions: The State of the Automotive Industry – A Summary” by William A. Strauss, Emily A. Engel

The United States automotive industry has been undergoing tremendous changes in recent years. Speakers at a recent Chicago Fed conference explored these changes and considered the road to the future for the auto industry.

Simply click on the following link to review it.

http://tracker.ease.lsoft.com/trk/click?ref=znwrbbrs9_2-2b28x11026x&

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three thousand words

Drew Sheneman: spelling out the problem

http://blog.nj.com/njv_shenemans_sketchpad/2007/08/guns.gif

Cartoon du Jour – By Khalil: compassionate conservative budget

http://www.bendib.com/newones/2007/august/small/8-18-Bridges.jpg

Steve Benson: who’ll get there first…?

http://azcentral.com/sshow/News/Benson/4976_85637.jpg

Answers for the 9/11 Families” house parties

Date: Fri Aug 17, 2007

Dear Activist,

From September 7th – 16th, Democrats.com will join a coalition of organizations to help host “Answers For 9/11 Families” week.  Thousands of Americans will come together at house parties across the country to screen the acclaimed film featuring the September 11th families, “9/11 Press For Truth.”

This stunning movie exposes the government’s and the media’s failure to answer the many important questions of the 9/11 Family Steering Committee, a group of twelve victim’s relatives who tenaciously fought the White House to force the creation of the 9/11 Commission.  Six of them tell their story first-hand in the movie, revealing for the first time that “70% of our questions” were not answered by the Final Report.  The movie stitches together rare overlooked news clips, buried stories, and government press conferences to clearly detail a pattern of deception by U.S. officials.

Congressman Dennis Kucinich will be holding new hearings into 9/11 beginning in September because “the 9/11 Commission… never resolved some conflicting facts.”  Please join the effort to encourage Congress to support investigating until all remaining Family Steering Committee questions are answered.

Send a “Press For Truth Pack” to your Congressman

http://action.downsizedc.org/wyc.php?cid=74

and sign up today to host or attend a 9/11 Press For Truth house party in your community.

http://pressfortruth.bravenewtheaters.com/

(NOTE: Simple instructions on how to make your house party film screening a success will be emailed to everyone who signs up to host a party. Please order your DVD immediately after signing up in order to ensure it arrives in time for your house party.)

“We thought the country was at risk from terrorists and from incompetence,” says Jersey widow Lorie Van Auken in the movie, “and maybe worse.”  Fellow ‘Jersey Girl’ Patty Casazza puts it more succinctly: “They lied. They all lied.”  With an election year looming, it is more important than ever that we demand Congressional hearings that will finally provide the answers these families have devoted over five years of their lives toward.

Help make it happen.

Send a “Press For Truth Pack” to your Congressman today.

http://action.downsizedc.org/wyc.php?cid=74

And we hope you’ll join us in September. Open your house to family, friends and neighbors – or join them at a house party nearby — to watch this movie and support the Kucinich subcommittee investigation until all remaining Family Steering Committee questions are answered.

http://pressfortruth.bravenewtheaters.com/

Thank you so much for you support.

Sincerely,

Bob Fertik
Democrats.com

                          ==========

Olbermann named O’Reilly “Worst Person” for misrepresenting poll on gay rights group endorsements

On Countdown, Keith Olbermann named Bill O’Reilly the “winner” in his nightly “Worst Person in the World” segment for falsely asserting, as Media Matters for America documented, that a poll by “Pew Research or something like that” “says that most Americans won’t vote for you if you get an endorsement by a gay rights group.”

 Read more

http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200708170010?src=other

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Texan oilman pleads guilty in oil-for-food case

Aug 17 2007

Texas oilman David Chalmers and two companies he owns pleaded guilty on Friday to paying millions of dollars in secret kickbacks to Iraq in connection with the United Nations oil-for-food program. Chalmers, 53, pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, just weeks before he was due to go on trial with Texas oil tycoon Oscar Wyatt.

At:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070817/wl_nm/un_iraq_trial_dc

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Mexican trucks may get full access to U.S. highways

Aug 17 2007

Some Mexican trucks will be allowed to carry cargo anywhere in the United States as soon as a federal inspector general certifies ‘safety’ and inspection plans, the Bush administration announced today. The latest step toward implementing a controversial provision of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement drew instant condemnation from labor and driver-owner groups that fear the program will erode highway safety and eliminate U.S. jobs.

At:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/5064120.html

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Canadians Completely Unaware of Looming North American Union – Bush and Calderon to Visit Canada

by Kevin Parkinson

Global Research, July 17, 2007
GlobalResearch.ca 

In just over a month’s time, on August 20, the most powerful president in the world will be arriving in Montebello, Quebec for a two-day conference. President George W. Bush will be meeting with Stephen Harper and their Mexican counterpart, Felipe Calderon. So far, the silence from the Canadian and American media has been deafening.

Talk to 90% of people on the street and they won’t know about this upcoming conference, and if by a slim chance they do, they won’t know the purpose of the meeting or why the leaders of Canada, United States and Mexico are meeting in the dog days of summer under what amounts to a veil of secrecy.

So, what’s this upcoming conference all about, and why are the newspapers, radio and television keeping silent about it?

The purpose of the upcoming conference is to ratify the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, which was initiated by Bush, Martin and Fox in 2005 in Waco, Texas. Essentially, this so-called ‘partnership’ will result in what the politicians refer to as ‘continental integration’-newspeak for a North American Union- and basically a harmonization of 100’s of regulations, policies and laws.

In layman’s terms, it means that once this ‘partnership’ has been ratified which is a fait accompli; we will be following in the footsteps of the European Union. It will mean that Canada will become part of the North American Union by 2010, and that our resources, agricultural, health and environment issues, to name a few, will be controlled not by Canada, but by the government of the North American Union.

A huge ‘NAFTA’ highway, one quarter of a mile wide, is already being built in Texas, where private land is being expropriated, and will eventually reach the Manitoba border.

Water will be the ‘issue’ of this century, as more than 25 states in the U.S. are currently in desperate need. Where do you think they will get the water they need?

…

Complete article at:

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=6346

From: www.GlobalResearch.ca

                          ==========

Organize the mines! (The Militant)

Sep 03 2007

The collapse of the Crandall Canyon coal mine in central Utah, which has trapped six workers 1,500 feet underground since August 6, highlights one fact above all. The only effective way miners can fight for control over job conditions is to organize a union and use workers’ collective power to enforce safety. Coal mine disasters are not due to “acts of God” as Murray Energy Corp. claims. Dangerous job conditions are the result of decisions by bosses to squeeze maximum profits out of our labor, including by seeing how much they can get away with cutting corners on safety and health. That’s how capitalism works… In March, two sections of the Crandall Canyon mine collapsed. Instead of closing the mine, “operators moved to another section and continued chipping away,” the Associated Press reported. That’s what can happen when workers lack a union to enforce basic safety conditions.

At:

http://www.themilitant.com/2007/7131/713102.html

                          ==========

Defense contractor openly using God to sell war in Iraq

Submitted by Adam Thomas on Sat, 2007-08-18 16:16.
A major defense contractor for the military and Homeland Security claimed that the United States is morally obliged to maintain a permanent presence in Iraq for the sake of God.

“If we stay and rebuild Iraq, we will demonstrate to the world that we remain the best force for good in the world,” Charles Patricoff, Sr. Contract Manager for Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp, said. “More importantly, we as Christians can better influence that region for the Kingdom of God.”

Patricoff pointed out that the American Civil War was more unpopular than the current war in Iraq and 630,000 men died during the fight to end slavery and gain liberty for African-Americans.

“Look at how we helped rebuild Germany and Japan after World War II,” he added. “Because of the good we did there and are doing in Iraq, I don’t believe we should ever leave Iraq.”

Ball Aerospace, based in Boulder, Colorado, manufactures spacecraft, lasers, tactical instruments & sensors, and other components is part of the team that supports the missile defense system initiated by President George W. Bush.

The defense contractor reported 2006 sales of $6.6 billion and employs 15,500 people.

From:

http://pressesc.com/news/1121/18082007/defense-contractor-openly-using-god-sell-war-iraq

                          ==========

AMERICA SUPPORTS YOU WITH APOCALYPTIC RHETORIC?

http://www.prwatch.org/node/6341

In a July 2005 PR Watch post, Laura Miller asked whether the U.S. Defense Department’s “America Supports You” campaign was an attempt “to boost public support for war and distract … from criticisms.” Turns out, it’s even more problematic. As Max Blumenthal reports, the “evangelical entertainment troupe” Operation Straight Up (OSU), which “actively proselytizes among active-duty members of the US military,” is an official arm of America Supports You. OSU “plans to mail copies of the controversial apocalyptic video game, Left Behind: Eternal Forces to soldiers serving in Iraq.” The game is based on the Tim LaHaye/Jerry Jenkins books, and players must “kill or convert … non-believers left behind after the rapture.” They’re also mailing English and Arabic versions of the evangelical book More Than A Carpenter, “ostensibly intended for proselytizing efforts among Iraqi civilians.” OSU will head to the Mideast for a “Military Crusade in Iraq.” As OSU leader Jonathan Spinks explains: “At no greater time is our military acceptant of the principles of God and prayer, than when under extreme danger and concerned about their loved ones at home.”

SOURCE: The Nation blog, August 7, 2007

                          ==========

What’s Brewin’: Inside the world of defense information technology 

By Bob Brewin

Defense Net Attacks Should Be Countered With “Disproportionate Response”

That’s the advice contained in a little-noticed report, “The Defense Science Board (DSB) 2006 Summer Study on Information Management for Net-Centric Operations,” which was released in April.

“Adversaries need to be assured that their attacks against U.S. information systems will be detected, that U.S. functionality will be restored,” according to the report. “… and an adversary needs to know that the U.S. possesses powerful hard and soft-kill (cyberwarfare) means for attacking adversary information and command and support systems at all levels.”

Attacks against U.S. information systems should be countered with “disproportionate response,” the report said, adding that “every potential adversary, from nation states to rogue individuals, could be targets of an integrated offensive capability.”

Full story:

http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0707/072707bb1.htm

                          ==========

Cybercrime:  Public and Private Entities Face Challenges in Addressing Cyber Threats. 

GAO-07-705, June 22.

http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-07-705

Highlights – http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d07705high.pdf

                          ==========

three thousand words

Tom Toles: the american people need to understand…

http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/uc/20070817/ltt070817.gif

Rob Rogers: Big Bad Lender

http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoons/RogerR/2007/RogerR20070819_low.jpg

Barry Deutsch: why we don’t have universal health care

http://www.zmag.org/cartoons/toons//2354.jpg