Chimpy McFlightsuit Claims Israel is a Good Model for Iraq

US President George W Bush has appealed for people to give his strategy in Iraq a chance - holding up Israel as a model for defining success there. He said America would like to see Iraq function as a democracy while dealing with violence - just as Israel does.

Bush War has Driven the Police hunt Iraqi on run after double bomb plot in London

Powell Tells Of Dysfunctional White House, ‘We Weren’t Aware Of The Advice Cheney Was Giving’

How Dick Cheney Views Himself and his Presidency

Dimocrap and Repiglikkkan Senatorial Scum who voted to Confirm Grand Wizard and Chief Injustice John Roberts

Nomination Description: John G. Roberts, Jr., of Maryland, to be Chief Justice of the United States
Vote Counts: YEAs 78
NAYs 22

Grouped By Vote Position
YEAs ---78
Alexander (R-TN)
Allard (R-CO)
Allen (R-VA)
Baucus (D-MT0
Bennett (R-UT)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Bond (R-MO)
Brownback (R-KS)
Bunning (R-KY)
Burns (R-MT)
Burr (R-NC)
Byrd (D-WV)
Carper (D-DE)
Chafee (R-RI)
Chambliss (R-GA)
Coburn (R-OK)
Cochran (R-MS)
Coleman (R-MN)
Collins (R-ME)
Conrad (D-ND)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Craig (R-ID)
Crapo (R-ID)
DeMint (R-SC)
DeWine (R-OH)
Dodd (D-CT)!!!!!!!!!
Dole (R-NC)
Domenici (R-NM)
Dorgan (D-ND)
Ensign (R-NV)
Enzi (R-WY)
Feingold (D-WI)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Frist (R-TN)
Graham (R-SC)
Grassley (R-IA)
Gregg (R-NH)
Hagel (R-NE)
Hatch (R-UT)
Hutchison (R-TX)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Isakson (R-GA)
Jeffords (I-VT)
Johnson (D-SD)
Kohl (D-WI)
Kyl (R-AZ)
Landrieu (D-LA)
Leahy (D-VT)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Levin (D-MI)
Lieberman (D-CT)
Lincoln (D-AR)
Lott (R-MS)
Lugar (R-IN)
Martinez (R-FL)
McCain (R-AZ)
McConnell (R-KY)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Murray (D-WA)
Nelson (D-FL)
Nelson (D-NE)
Pryor (D-AR)
Roberts (R-KS)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Salazar (D-CO)
Santorum (R-PA)
Sessions (R-AL)
Shelby (R-AL)
Smith (R-OR)
Snowe (R-ME)
Specter (R-PA)
Stevens (R-AK)
Sununu (R-NH)
Talent (R-MO)
Thomas (R-WY)
Thune (R-SD)
Vitter (R-LA)
Voinovich (R-OH)
Warner (R-VA)
Wyden (D-OR)

Pictured: The Supreme Court of the United States of Amerikkka

A Message of Hope and Deliverance to white Christian America from the supreme court

True or False: U.S.'s Broadband Penetration Is Lower Than Even Estonia's

Although President George W. Bush promised during his re-election campaign that all Americans would have access to affordable broadband by 2007, many rural Americans have no way to connect. It's impossible to tell how many, in part because of the bizarre way the FCC measures the issue: if just a single building in an entire ZIP code is connected—a library, a school, a business—then all people in the area are counted as having access, even if there's no cable and their phone company won't give them DSL. (Because the signal deteriorates over distance, the telcos find it prohibitively expensive to offer the service to customers in far-flung areas.) Many rural homes can theoretically get broadband by satellite dish, but the cost is high and the service not as fast as other alternatives. In any case, a new study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project reports that fewer than one in four rural Americans has high-speed connections at home, compared with about 40 percent of suburban and urban dwellers. (A more recent survey pegs total U.S. penetration at 50 percent; South Korea's is 90 percent.)

So Much for Stare Decisis: The Klan Court Takes a Stand on Race

The Incredible Inedible Indigestible Nepotism of the Bush Regime Regime

Whitman is related by marriage to the Bush family; her brother, Webster B. Todd, married Sheila O'Keefe, the stepdaughter of James Wear Walker, whose sister Dorothy Walker Bush was the mother of George H.W. Bush and grandmother of George W. Bush.

New-Home Sales Falling, Prices Decreasing

Meanwhile, U.S. consumer confidence fell in June to its weakest reading since August, with both the present situation and expectations components declining, according to a report released Tuesday.

Greedy Oil Company Fucks Demand all the Profit

Two major oil companies – Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips – have rejected a deal to continue operations in Venezuela's oil-rich Orinoco belt with a reduced stake.
[...]

Four other companies – America's Chevron, Norway's Statoil, Britain's BP and France's Total – have reportedly agreed to the partial takeover.

They plan to sign an accord that will keep them in the massive Orinoco oil reserve projects, a government official said.
[...]

The president has used of billions of dollars in oil revenues to finance social programmes.

U.S. to Fingerprint E.U. Visitors

Colombia finds remains of 760 paramilitary victims

Colombian officials have found the remains of 760 victims killed by right-wing paramilitary groups, and have leads on another 4 000 bodies, a state prosecutor said, according to news reports on Tuesday.

Alito Champions Business Causes in First Full High-Court Term

A common thread in those rulings was an unwillingness to let cases go before a jury, said Jeffrey Robert White, a lawyer at the Center for Constitutional Litigation, a Washington group that challenges laws it believes impede access to justice. White filed a brief at the court on behalf of a trial-lawyer trade group in the shareholder case.

The court is saying, ``we'll trust the executive branch, we'll trust Congress a little bit, but we really don't trust the American people to do what's right when they sit in the jury box,'' White said.

CIA DECLASSIFIES ITS UNDERCOVER OPERATIONS IN CHILE

Schneider was head of the Chilean military when Allende’s government won elections in 1970, and although opposed to Allende, he strictly opposed any military involvement in Chile’s political process, as was desired by many right wing groups. Schneider was killed in a botched abduction attempt in October, 1970, creating a somber atmosphere just days before Allende assumed power.

Colby also told Ford in the meeting, “We have another rather dirty problem: after Congress investigated ITT, they said our testimony was not clean. I don’t think we did anything chargeable, but we did skirt the abyss on some cases. There’s an old rule that dictates those who protect their sources can bend the rules.”

Colby was referring to the CIA hiding information about its financial support of leading anti-Allende forces during the 70s.

The document has been kept secret since 1973 despite the leaking of information about domestic spying in a 1974 New York Times article by journalist Seymour Hersh. It includes information on espionage programs, interrogation techniques and assassination plots on enemies.

Who Killed the Electric Car?

GM Shifts Engineers to Speed Creation of Electric Car

Transferring fuel-cell engineers to the production side of the company means GM can focus all efforts, from all different propulsion types, toward getting the Volt to the market, Burns said.

GM also said today it would shift 100 engineers to its global product development organization to work on integrating fuel cells into other future vehicles. The automaker said 150 scientists and program support staff will remain at GM's research and development center to research hydrogen storage and ``program commercialization.''

The biggest obstacle for the Volt's plug-in technology is building a lithium ion battery that can last at least a decade and have the reliability carmakers expect from current gasoline models, Vice Chairman Bob Lutz and other executives have said.

``We've run the fuel-cell program as a skunk works up until now,'' Burns said. ``Now we need to tap in to the production and marketing expertise of the company to get this developed as quickly as possible. We have our A Team on this.''

An advisory board including Burns, Lutz and other key executives for the Volt is meeting every two weeks, Burns said.

Sign of Progress

Signaling progress on the Volt, Wagoner said last week GM awarded battery-research contracts to Michigan-based Compact Power Inc., a subsidiary of South Korea's LG Chem Ltd. and another to Continental Automotive Systems, a Continental AG unit. Burns said 13 companies bid for the two contracts.

The Volt would be superior to GM's last electric car, the EV-1, because the onboard engine can be tapped for long trips, giving it a maximum range of about 640 miles, Lutz said earlier this year. The EV-1 traveled about 60 miles to 90 miles before it needed to be plugged in and recharged.

GM invested more than $1 billion on the EV-1 a decade ago. It abandoned the technology because of the car's expense and need for frequent recharging. GM has already invested $1 billion on fuel cells and plans to invest another $1 billion.

Biofuels to blame as beer prices soar 40 per cent in Germany

Joke of a Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Bush Constitutional Violations

By a 5-4 vote, the high court's conservative majority sided with the Bush administration by ruling that a Wisconsin group called the Freedom from Religion Foundation and three of its members had no legal right to bring the lawsuit in the first place. The ruling only addressed whether taxpayers can bring such challenges, not whether the program itself violated the U.S. Constitution's requirement on the separation of church and state. The majority opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito, who was appointed to the high court by President George W. Bush, overturned a lower-court ruling that allowed the lawsuit to proceed.

Rupert Murdoch, Owner of Fox Propaganda Network, is a law breaking scum

Lawmakers question Boeing on delays of border fence

The first phase of the project involves building nine towers that are dotted along 28 miles of the Arizona-Mexico border, and bracket the Sasabe, Ariz., port of entry.

Boeing, the world's largest aerospace company, in September won a three-year, $67 million contract to install the fence, the initial step in a multibillion-dollar plan to reduce illegal entry along 6,000 miles of U.S. borders with Canada and Mexico.

At the hearing on June 7, no problems or delays on so-called Project 28 were mentioned. But the next day Homeland Security officials notified congressional staff of a one-week lag caused by radar problems, according to a letter questioning how and when Congress was informed.

The letter was sent Tuesday to Homeland Secretary Michael Chertoff by House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and Rep. Loretta Sanchez, D-Calif., chairwoman of the subcommittee that held the hearing.

"It is unacceptable that the department chose to disclose this information via telephone to committee staff, rather than providing a thorough assessment of the project's status directly to committee members at the hearing," the letter says.

Homeland spokesman Russ Knocke said Boeing did not tell the department about the radar issues, which were identified on the day of the subcommittee hearing, until June 8 when the information was promptly passed to the committee.

Monsanto must prove ‘no negatives’ claim in advertisement

CAPE TOWN – Biotech crops giant Monsanto has been ordered to withdraw an advertising claim that no negative reactions have ever been reported to genetically modified foods.

The Advertising Standards Authority made the ruling this week in response to a consumer complaint lodged against a Monsanto South Africa print ad referring to GM grain products.

The ASA added however that it would reconsider its ruling if Monsanto came up with substantiation of its claim.

The ad, which ran in the February edition of You magazine, carried the heading: “Is your food SAFE?” and contained an image of a woman with two children in a kitchen looking at a cake.

Below the sub-heading: “Biotechnology -- the true facts” it said: “This is one of the most extensively tested and controlled types of food, and no negative reactions have ever been reported.”

The ASA said the complainant, a Mark Lewis, said the “no negative reactions” claim was false, and cited a scientific study on “the dangerous effects of these products”.
[...]

More on Privatization and Vance Security

To date, more than 4,300 private security officers have been put to work at 50 Army installations in the United States, according to Army documents obtained by The Times.

The work was awarded to four firms — two of which got the contracts without having to bid competitively. The contracts are worth as much as $1.24 billion.

[...]

Two five-year contracts worth as much as $1 billion went to two small Alaska Native firms with little previous security experience. The firms, which operate under special contracting laws enabling them to avoid competitive bidding, subcontracted part of the work to two of the country's largest security firms: Wackenhut Services Inc. and Vance Federal Security Services.

Thirty-six bases are covered by the Alaska Native contracts — including three in California: Ft. Irwin, the Sierra Army Depot and the Presidio of Monterey.

"I'm concerned about the protection of our military facilities," said Rep. Lane Evans, an Illinois Democrat who serves on the House Armed Services Committee and has called for hearings on the contracts.

"Some of these installations house chemical weapons and intelligence materials and should not be compromised with questionable contracting processes and poor security."

Democrats, watchdog groups and independent contracting experts said that the Army's contracting arrangement with the Alaska Native firms amounted to a back-door deal to send taxpayer dollars to Wackenhut and Vance, which lost out the only time they faced open competition against other companies for the security contracts.

"It's a total abuse of the intent of the law," said Danielle Brian, the executive director of the Program on Government Oversight, a watchdog group. "The law was designed to benefit companies that need a special boost. At the end of the day, if Wackenhut is benefiting, it's just a blatant abuse of the system."

[...]

"The overall performance of the [security guard program] has been excellent and to the standards of the contract," the Army said in a written response to questions from The Times.

The private security firms also dismissed the complaints.

Wackenhut said the criticisms were part of a labor battle against the company involving one of the country's largest service unions, Service Employees International Union, which wanted to unionize Wackenhut guards.

Alutiiq said its performance rating justified the Army's decision.

The firm's previous security experience consisted of fielding a 120-man private police force for Kwajalein Atoll, a missile test site in the South Pacific.

"We are paying [our guards] a little higher. But we're getting quality performance as a result. You get what you pay for," said Bruce Swagler, the head of Alutiiq's security program. "Quality-wise and performance-wise, as far as the government is concerned, we're doing a great job."

[...]

Security Guard from Outsourced Company opens fire at Walter Reed while having argument and temper fit

An armed security guard fired at least 10 shots at another guard during an argument outside a busy entrance to Walter Reed Army Medical Center early Wednesday, police said. No one was hurt.
[...]
The guards worked for Vance Federal Security Services, said Joe Gavaghan, a spokesman for the company, which contracts with Walter Reed. Vance is "cooperating with authorities investigating this incident," said Gavaghan, adding that the company could not provide additional details.

The hospital is the Army's premier center for treating injured soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Separated at Birth Skeletor and Giuliani

Happy Summer Solstice

Frederik Pohl

Pentagon Spends $78 Billion a Year that we know of on Weapons and Space Research, Some of it Whacky, All of it a waste

"With large stocks of plutonium, Pakistan can build a new generation of lighter, more powerful weapons that can more easily be launched via missiles and can cause far more damage," said David Albright, the president of the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), which, along with DigitalGlobe, provided the satellite image to ABC News.

The image, taken on June 3, indicates the new reactor is a replica of a second heavy water reactor, also under construction, at Khushab, approximately 109 miles south of Islamabad, Pakistan's capital.

While Chimpy McFlightsuit Fiddles New Photos Show Secret Pakistan Plutonium Plant; Fear of More Weapons Being Made

"With large stocks of plutonium, Pakistan can build a new generation of lighter, more powerful weapons that can more easily be launched via missiles and can cause far more damage," said David Albright, the president of the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), which, along with DigitalGlobe, provided the satellite image to ABC News.

The image, taken on June 3, indicates the new reactor is a replica of a second heavy water reactor, also under construction, at Khushab, approximately 109 miles south of Islamabad, Pakistan's capital.

ATT offers $10 DSL, but tells no one about it

Republicans blocked a $32 billion package of tax breaks for renewable energy that would have been financed mostly by taxes on oil companies

Senate Republicans on Thursday blocked a $32 billion package of tax breaks for renewable energy that would have been financed mostly by new taxes on major oil companies.

Democrats came three votes short of overcoming a threatened GOP filibuster that was keeping the measure from being attached to a broader energy bill. Republican senators argued that the nearly $29 billion in additional taxes on major oil companies would have led to reduced production and higher gasoline prices.

Because of Republican opposition, Democrats needed 60 votes to allow the package to come up for a vote, but fell short, 57-36. With a number of senators not voting, Democrats could resurrect the measure later, though there was no immediate indication of that.

[..]

Oil companies earned $111 billion in profits last year and at that rate stand to earn $1 trillion over the 10 years covered by the tax package, said Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., rejecting suggestions that "this is an undue burden" on oil companies.

Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., whose Finance Committee crafted the tax package, said the incentives for renewable and alternative fuels "will help wean ourselves away from OPEC ... from these very high gas prices."

The tax changes would have channeled $11 billion over 10 years into development of renewable fuels such as ethanol, biodiesel and power from wind turbines. It provides an additional $18 billion in other tax breaks — from tax credits to clean and renewable energy bonds — to support improvements in energy efficiency, clean coal technology, development of gas-electric hybrid cars that could be plugged into the national power grid and other alternative energy programs.

[...]

The Right Wing Domination Of Talk Radio And How To End It

The new report — entitled “The Structural Imbalance of Political Talk Radio” — raises serious questions about whether the companies licensed to broadcast over the public radio airwaves are serving the listening needs of all Americans.
[...]

Two common myths are frequently offered to explain the imbalance of talk radio: 1) the 1987 repeal of the Fairness Doctrine (which required broadcasters to devote airtime to contrasting views), and 2) simple consumer demand. Each of these fails to adequately explain the root cause of the problem. The report explains:

Our conclusion is that the gap between conservative and progressive talk radio is the result of multiple structural problems in the U.S. regulatory system, particularly the complete breakdown of the public trustee concept of broadcast, the elimination of clear public interest requirements for broadcasting, and the relaxation of ownership rules including the requirement of local participation in management. […]

Ultimately, these results suggest that increasing ownership diversity, both in terms of the race/ethnicity and gender of owners, as well as the number of independent local owners, will lead to more diverse programming, more choices for listeners, and more owners who are responsive to their local communities and serve the public interest.

Along with other ideas, the report recommends that national radio ownership not be allowed to exceed 5 percent of the total number of AM and FM broadcast stations, and local ownership should not exceed more than 10 percent of the total commercial radio stations in a given market.

Britain must stay in Afghanistan for decades-envoy

The Best Quotes From Drew Curtis' 'How Mass Media Tries to Pass Off Crap As News.'

"Take 9/11. After the shock wore off, Congress, the media, and pretty much every other interest group out there demanded to know how the U.S. government had let it happen. Today no one remembers that on 9/10/2001 no one gave a crap about terrorism. We all thought it couldn't happen in the United States. We'll be right back to that attitude in a short while if no more attacks occur, assuming we're not there already." -- P.55

"If bird flu had killed 1.7 million people last year, everyone would panic. We'd have 72-point-font headlines screaming about the end of the world, riots in the streets, and general societal collapse if Mass Media is to be believed, given its dire bird flu predictions. It turns out that 1.7 million happens to be the number of people killed by tuberculosis in 2004. Three million people would be even worse, right? That's how many people died from AIDS worldwide in 2004. Nobody is panicking." -- P.56

Fred Thompson’s Campaign Confuses Home State Icon Davy Crockett with Daniel Boone

Congressional Corruption

Seventy-two members of the House of Representatives spent $5.1 million in campaign funds to pay relatives or their relatives' companies or employers during the past six years, a liberal watchdog group says in a report to be released Monday.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) found nearly $3.5 million in campaign payments to relatives during the past three election cycles, from 2001 to 2006. Campaigns paid about $1.6 million to firms owned by or employing the lawmakers or their relatives, the group found.

FBI informant imprisoned and treated like an insurgent for 97 days

For Donald Vance, a 29-year-old veteran and an American citizen, the desire to play a small part in a big event would lead to the scariest experience of his life. While in Iraq, he was neither a victim of a roadside bomb nor taken prisoner by insurgents. Instead, he was held captive by the U.S. government — detained in a secret military prison.
[...]
Vance says the charges against him were false and mirror exactly the allegations he had been making against his own company to the FBI.

"I'm basically saying to them: 'What are you talking about? I've been telling you for seven months now that this stuff is going on. You're detaining me but not the actual people that are doing it!'"

A military panel, which reviews charges against detainees, eventually questioned Vance and Ertel. Both men were given a document that said, "You do not have the right to legal counsel." The men say they could not see all the evidence used against them and did not have the legal protections typically afforded Americans.

But they were eventually allowed very infrequent phone calls, which were very frustrating for Vance and his fiancée.

Build a Wall around Washigton DC!

If you look closely at this photo whenever you hear Chimpy McFlightsuit or his Devil Toads you can see Orwell rolling over

Business Booming for Offense Industries

Recent concerns about the rising cost of corporate borrowing haven't deterred Honeywell CEO Dave Cote from looking for fresh acquisition targets for the Fortune 500 company, but market consolidation is getting harder, he warned.

"We're always going to be on the lookout for things that can create great positions in good industries," Cote, told "Squawk Box Europe" at the Paris air show.

Glen Greenwald's New book

News reporters need protection from corporate parents

Congress is considering legislation that would protect news reporters from interference from federal investigators.

At a hearing last week on a law that would provide a legal shield for news reporters, Rep. John Conyers, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, advocated the right of journalists to maintain confidential sources. He noted, however, that media is becoming increasingly consolidated and under the control of large corporations, which makes it easier for those in positions power to intimidate reporters.

Conyers chaired a hearing on the “Free Flow of Information Act,” introduced in the House by Reps. Mike Pence, R-IN, and Rick Boucher, D-VA. It would protect reporters from having to reveal confidential sources in criminal and civil court proceedings and would stipulate when courts, special prosecutors and grand juries can compel reporters to testify about secret sources.

Airport boss snared by no-fly list in U.S.

CNN Disinformation Effort

Exclusive: Suicide Bomb Teams Sent to U.S., Europe

Protecting the Homeland for Fascism, Chimpy Declares Himself King of Amerikkka

Federal agencies ignored 30 percent of the laws Bush objected to in signing statements last year, according to a report released today by the Government Accountability Office. In 2006, President Bush issued signing statements for 11 out of the 12 appropriations bills passed by Congress, claiming a right to bypass a total of 160 provisions in them.

In a sample set of 19 provisions, the GAO found that “10 provisions were executed as written, 6 were not, and 3 were not triggered and so there was no agency action to examine.”

The report, which was requested by House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) and Senate President Pro Tempore Robert Byrd (D-WV), gives the first indication of the impact that President Bush’s signing statements have had on the enforcement of laws passed by Congress.

In a statement, Byrd said the report shows the Bush administration’s desire to grab as much power as possible:

The White House cannot pick and choose which laws it follows and which it ignores. When a president signs a bill into law, the president signs the entire bill. The Administration cannot be in the business of cherry picking the laws it likes and the laws it doesn’t. This GAO opinion underscores the fact that the Bush White House is constantly grabbing for more power, seeking to drive the people’s branch of government to the sidelines….We must continue to demand accountability and openness from this White House to counter this power grab.

Since taking office in 2001, President Bush has issued signing statements challenging over 1,100 laws, claiming that he has the right to bypass them if they interfere with his alleged presidential powers. Though signing statements have been utilized by most presidents, Bush has used them to object to more laws than all previous presidents combined.

Here are a few of the laws Bush has controversially issued signing statements about:

- In 2005, after Congress passed a law outlawing the torture of detainees, Bush issued a signing statement saying that he would “construe [the law] in a manner consistent with the constitutional authority of the President . . . as Commander in Chief,” which experts say means Bush believes he can waive the restrictions.

- In 2006, Congress passed a law requiring minimum qualifications for future heads of the Federal Emergency Management Administration in response to FEMA’s poor handling of Hurricane Katrina. When Bush signed the law, he issued a statement saying he could ignore the new restrictions and appoint a FEMA chief based on whatever qualifications he wanted.

- In 2006, Bush signed a statement saying he would view a ban on “the transfer of nuclear technology to India if it violates international non proliferation guidelines” as “advisory.” Indian newspapers reported that the government of India took note of Bush’s statement, “raising the possibility it would not take the ban seriously.”

The GAO report makes a point of noting that although “the agencies did not execute the provisions as enacted,” it cannot necessarily be concluded that “agency noncompliance was the result of the President’s signing statements.” It does, however, provide creedence to claims that confusion created by differing congressional and presidential interpretations of laws could lead increased laxity in the proper enforcement of the law.

UPDATE: “We expect to continue to use statements where appropriate, on a bill-by-bill basis,” White House spokesman Tony Fratto said.

Separated at Birth: Tony Snow and Man Coulter

Tony "Joseph Goebbels" Snow

Democracy Now

- U.S. Lifts Embargo on Palestinian Authority
- Report: Israel Planning Invasion of Gaza
- 10,000 U.S. Troops Launch New Offensive in Iraq
- U.S. Values Iraqi Life At $2,500
- Hundreds of Thousands of White House Emails Destroyed
- Vietnamese Agent Orange Victims Argue Case In NYC Court
- Lebanese Gov't Accused of Torturing Palestinian Detainees
- Cuba's First Lady, Vilma Espinn, 77, Dies

Damn Good News!

In an October 2006 interview with The Ottawa Citizen, Mitchell "revealed she's recording her first collection of new songs in nearly a decade," but gave few other details.^[7] Four months later, in an interview with The New York Times, Joni said that the forthcoming album, Shine, was inspired by the war in Iraq and "something her grandson had said while listening to family fighting: 'Bad dreams are good--in the great plan.'"^[10] Early media reports characterized the album as having "a minimal feel....that harks back to [Mitchell's] early work," and a focus on political and environmental issues.^[9] The album will be released in Fall 2007.^[11]

Fleeing gunfire and further pursuit by ''white men,'' a group of previously unknown indigenous people arrived in a small western Brazilian town

Oil Industry Wages Economic Terrorism

A push from Congress and the White House for huge increases in biofuels, such as ethanol, is prompting the oil industry to scale back its plans for refinery expansions. That could keep gasoline prices high, possibly for years to come.

[...]

Democrats Press Plan to Channel Billions in Oil Subsidies to Renewable Fuels

Oil executives are protesting loudly, saying that the proposed changes would take money away from exploring and drilling in the United States and increase the nation’s dependence on imported foreign oil.
[...]
The oil industry has ample reason to worry. With consumers seething about gasoline prices increasing to more than $3 a gallon and oil profits reaching record highs, oil companies would be short of friends in Congress regardless of the party in power.
[...]

A reminder. Bechtel DISCLOSED Contributions to Republicans

Bechtel Crime Family Compromise Your Safety Again

A similar managerial consortium -- one that is also dominated by UC and Bechtel -- was selected May 8 to manage the nation's other nuclear weapons design lab, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore.

According to the Associated Press, the breach at Los Alamos occurred when a consultant to the Los Alamos National Security board sent an e-mail containing highly classified, non-encrypted nuclear weapons information to several board members, who forwarded it to other members.

The news agency identified the consultant as Harold Smith. A spokeswoman for the National Nuclear Security Administration, which oversees the nation's nuclear weapons labs, would not confirm that, but said a person had been issued an infraction. Two more infractions during the calendar year, she said, would lead to an unspecified personnel action.

Spokesmen Chris Harrington of UC and Jeff Berger of Los Alamos declined comment.

Lab critics jumped on the news of the latest security breach.

"The UC-Bechtel consortium at Los Alamos has taken what was a bad managerial situation and made it a lot worse," said Marylia Kelley, head of Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment, which is based in Livermore. "As long as the United States continues to design and develop new nuclear weapons, some of that information can and will leak out. ... Better management cannot solve that deeper problem."

After the news leaked out, Dingell and Stupak wrote Bodman demanding to know why the breach wasn't reported to Congress for six months, even though an unidentified UC official informed the National Nuclear Security Administration of the breach on Jan. 19.

The timing delay raises the question of whether another scandal is being covered up -- in effect, the possibility that authorities dragged their feet for almost six months investigating the security breach so that UC and Bechtel could win their joint bid for the Livermore contract without suffering any taint of scandal. Dingell is well known for initiating congressional investigations into such federal malfeasance.

"Livermore laboratory has lost numerous keys to classified areas, and some of those keys have gone missing for many, many months before their loss was reported to upper management," Kelley said. "In another instance, one of the main laboratory gates was left unlocked over a holiday period -- and I'm not talking about a little gate, I'm talking about (a gate with) two lanes in and two lanes out."

Amazon toxic waste case may set a legal precedent

According to Amazon Watch, an environmental and human rights organisation based in San Francisco, “of 45 oil production sites inspected by court-appointed technical experts, many of which were part of an earlier remediation, several show concentrations of carcinogenic chemicals at hundreds and sometimes thousands of times higher than US norms.”
In November 1993, a class-action lawsuit on behalf of residents of the rain forest area known as ‘Oriente’ was launched in a US District Court in New York.
Although the plaintiffs wanted the case to be tried in New York, a federal appeals court in New York ruled that it should be conducted in Ecuador. But in a significant decision, the court also stated that any judgment against the oil company would be enforced in the US.
US courts will also reassert jurisdiction if Chevron refuses to co-operate with the litigation in Ecuador.
The suit charges that Texaco dumped nearly 70mn liters of toxic waste into hundreds of unlined open pits, and from there the waste seeped into estuaries and rivers thus exposing residents to carcinogenic pollutants.

Angry Reaction To Selection of Lockheed To Replace Canada's Aging Transports

Canada will spend $3.2 billion to acquire 17 C-130Js, as well as on infrastructure, training, and other related project expenses.
[...]
Not only can the C-27J perform most of the same missions of the Lockheed craft at a third of the purchase price and a fifth of the maintenance cost, Giordo added -- it can also be used to replace Canada's aging search-and-rescue aircraft, saving even more money.
[...]

The FSS Mess, Privatization and the Lack of Personal Responsibility

Somewhere, somehow, Marion Blakey and her Administration seem to have lost sight of their mandate to provide for the safety of American citizens who travel by air. Perhaps it was when she made the decision to get rid of those pesky general aviation aircraft by starting the user-fee juggernaut. Perhaps it was earlier, when someone saw that one of the portions of the FAA, the Flight Service Station system, was carrying out its designated function rapidly, accurately, safely, and generally working in a nearly flawless manner. Naturally the reaction was that such a situation was intolerable. Because ongoing competence in the field of safe aviation could not be allowed to continue, the FAA went through a grueling and expensive process to fix it. In October of 2005, ostensibly to save the taxpayers money, it entered into a $1.7 billion contract to "privatize" (is that really a verb?) a portion of the FAA that worked well. I know, children ... one would think that if private industry could do a government function better than the government, then the FAA would have privatized one of the parts of the FAA that doesn't work. Children, such a thought would require us to apply that evil concept, logic, to the operation of political machinery. Children, you know very well that logic should never be used when traveling through the looking glass into privatization land.

The $1.7 billion contract with Lockheed-Martin was to save 20% off the cost of having the work done by FAA personnel, who apparently were evil, money-grubbing government employees who had committed the mortal sin of competence. Of course, there were those sticks-in-the-mud who felt that the numbers didn't add up. After all, you have to pay enough to hire the kind of talent needed to staff the Flight Service Stations, located where the briefers could have detailed local knowledge of the prevailing weather patterns, and equip them with the latest computers, and finally allow for the kind of profit that shareholders will demand (on the order of 8-15%). How can Lockheed-Martin do this for less than the folks who have been doing it so very well for so many years without the cost of a return to the stockholding mutual funds?

Well, those who were skeptical were told to close their eyes, click their heels together and get with the program. Even when the FAA's own internal investigative folks looked at the contract and pronounced that there were grave doubts as to whether Lockheed-Martin could pull it off, Marion Blakey and her friends decided that such talk was defeatist and shouldn't be considered. Besides, Lockheed-Martin contributed nicely to the appropriate politicians, so a politically appointed sort doesn't want to make waves, even if she is in a job involving air safety. Nevertheless, for people whose sole purpose in employment is air safety, to shrug off an objective report by one's own agency that indicates that a critical safety function is imperiled is, at least in my opinion, reckless and irresponsible in handling our money. If someone dies as a result, it may become criminal.

Man Calls for Emergency Medical Help and gets Tasered

The 52-year-old partially disabled man - who also suffers from rheumatoid arthritis - was having a diabetic seizure during the early morning hours of April 28 when his girlfriend, Josie Edwards, called 911 to request paramedics.

“I respect the law and police but on this day I was a shooting target for them when I needed help,” Nelms said in his May 3 written complaint to the police department.

The couple’s statements indicate an officer came to the residence on Perry Avenue and inquired as to what was going on - and then called for backup.

Nelms told the Daily Light that he was in his bed in the couple’s bedroom when officers burst in with their guns drawn and yelling at him to get on the floor.

He said he told them he needed medical help, not the police, but officers continued yelling at him to get on the floor. He said he went to roll over to his right, with photographs indicating he was struck by Taser barbs on his left side, his back and his shoulder. He said he was handcuffed, with paramedics intervening when the officers began trying to yank the Taser barbs from his skin.

Paramedics removed the Taser barbs and then checked his blood sugar, with officers then releasing him from the handcuffs.

In her statement, Edwards, who has Lou Gehrig’s disease and is on oxygen, said an officer came to the door and asked her what was the matter before calling for backup and the paramedics.

Greed Driven Cheats Who Run Phone Companies Want a Piece of Lucrative Cable TV Market in Illinois

The measure hammered out by state lawmakers and the attorney general's office would try to make it easier for telephone giants AT&T and Verizon to compete with cable kings Comcast Corp. and Insight Communications for consumers' phone, Internet and cable needs.

It cleared the House 113-0 two weeks ago and awaits expected approval in the Senate.

That's a long way from just a few weeks ago, when opposition from city mayors, public access channels and powerful cable companies seemed to have doomed the idea.

But protections included in the negotiations prompted opponents to drop their opposition, although Verizon criticizes the proposal as making it more difficult to enter Illinois' market. Even the cable companies are officially neutral on the measure and say they're willing to see if it works.

"It obviously didn't please everybody," said Gary Mack, spokesman for the Illinois Cable Television and Communications Association. "There are elements of it that nobody's completely happy with."

The new measure eases concerns about the loss of public access channels, known as PEGs, by protecting funding and potentially creating channels in places that don't have them now.

PEG advocates say that's a vast improvement over what's happened elsewhere.

"In a number of states, PEG access is dead," said Barbara Popovic of Keep Us Connected, a coalition of cities, nonprofit groups and public access channels. "This really does give PEG access a new hope."

Communities still will get their franchise fees. They'll also have the final say over permits for cable equipment and some enforcement power if service is flawed. Mayors throughout the state had warned that stripping them of franchising power could jeopardize customer service and cause a revenue shortfall in local government.

Water and Resistance

League of Conservation Voters: Where the Candidates Currently Stand

Twenty Things You Should Know About Corporate Crime

The Best Coverage of Current Situation in Palestine

[...]

ALI ABUNIMAH: Yes. What we've seen is really a direct result of the Bush doctrine. Since January 2006 when Hamas won the legislative election fair and square, the United States refused the election result and it has been arming several Palestinian militias, particularly those controlled by the Gaza warlord, Mohammed Declan. This is a repeat strategy of the contras. These are Palestinian contras. And the architect of this policy is none other than Elliott Abrams, the deputy national security advisor, who was convicted for lying to congress in the Iran-contra scandal. And Alvaro de Soto, the UN Reporter that you mentioned in the introduction, Amy, confirms in detail the extent of the conspiracy that the United States has been undertaking to overthrow the election result and destroy Hamas. And just a few days before this round of fighting started on June 7, Haaretz, the Israeli newspaper reported that senior Fatah commanders in the Gaza Strip had asked Israel for millions of rounds of ammunition, RPG's, hand grenades and armored cars to use against Hamas. So I think what we've seen is Hamas taking a last resort move to put an end to what it describes as a coup intended to overthrow the election result. It's a major blow for the United States and for the Bush doctrine, although it's very hard to see how it helps Palestinians very much considering that Israel and the United States are likely to tighten the siege of Gaza and to continue to fund the militias. We've already seen Condoleezza Rice throwing her support behind Abbas and no sign of a letup in US interference and armed intervention in Palestinian affairs.

AMY GOODMAN: How did the weapons get to both sides? And does that aid that Condoleezza Rice is talking about include weapons?

ALI ABUNIMAH: Yes. The weapons that have been delivered to the Fatah militias to the Palestinian contras of Mohammed Declan, come via Egypt and are delivered with the direct coordination of Israel. The Fatah commanders make requests to Israel and Israel coordinates the delivery of the weapons to Egypt. Hamas gets its weapons. There are reports that Hamas receives funding from Iran. Hamas also gets weapons from Egypt. What's notable is that many of the weapons that Israel delivers to Fatah for use against Hamas are then sold on by corrupt Fatah commanders to the highest bidders, so recently Israel has been actually turning down Fatah requests for weapons because they say to the Fatah commanders you just turn around and sell the weapons to Hamas. So Gaza is absolutely awash with weapons and nobody seems to have any difficulty getting hold of them.

[....]

Nigeria has filed charges against the pharmaceutical company Pfizer, accusing it of carrying out improper trials for an anti-meningitis drug in 1996.

Families were urged to take their sick children to Kano's infectious diseases hospital to receive treatment.

This is where Pfizer was testing a new antibiotic, Trovan, which was given to some of the sick children.

About 200 children died and more developed deformities.

The Nigerian government says these were caused by Trovan and says Pfizer did not get authorisation before giving out the drug. It wants $7bn in compensation.

Pfizer denied this, says the trials were carried out according to local and international law and that Trovan helped save lives during the meningitis outbreak.

Trovan has since been licensed for use by adults in the US but not Nigeria.

Chris Matthews, Idiot and Pig or Why Cable TV News is a waste of time and not news, not ever

Dear Chris,

Horny cockroaches from one end of Florida to the other want to mate with Fred Thompson. They're just hoping to pry you off first.

XO
The FG

Remember the Kitten Killer, Frist? Why health care costs are out of control in the US

Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) is the largest private operator of health care facilities in the world. It is based in Nashville, Tennessee, United States and is widely considered to be the single largest factor in making that city a hotspot for healthcare enterprise.

The founders included two members of the Frist family, which became very wealthy as a result. The former majority leader of the U.S. Senate, Bill Frist is a member of the family and has a substantial stake in the company. Most of his $20 million (or more) personal fortune was made through his holdings in HCA. Jack O. Bovender, Jr., is the Chief Executive Officer of HCA.

During the 1970s-1980s the corporation went through a tremendous growth period acquiring hundreds of hospitals across the United States which numbered 255 owned and 208 which HCA managed.

In the late-1990s, after a merger with Louisville-based Columbia Hospital Corporation which formed Columbia/HCA, the company was investigated by the government for Medicare and Medicaid fraud and paid a settlement of $1.7 billion, the largest fraud settlement in US history at the time. Then-CEO Rick Scott resigned but no criminal prosecutions resulted.

The name subsequently reverted to "Hospital Corporation of America." HCA abandoned the use of its name in its home market and instead promotes its Nashville hospitals under the TriStar brand.

On June 13, 2005, Senator Frist reportedly instructed the trustee managing his HCA shares to sell all of his stock. The sale took place in July, two weeks before disappointing earnings sent the stock on a 15-point plunge. In November 2006 HCA was acquired by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Bain Capital and Merrill Lynch Global Private Equity in what was, at the time, the largest leveraged buyout (LBO) in history, adjusted for inflation.

Prison Privatization. Your Tax Dollars Stolen by Shady Government Officials and their corporate Masters

WASHINGTON — Nashville attorney G.A. "Gus" Puryear IV, who worked for Sens. Fred Thompson and Bill Frist, was nominated Wednesday to be a judge in the U.S. District Court for Middle Tennessee.

Puryear, 39, is general counsel for Corrections Corporation of America Inc. and is credited with helping untangle the private prison operator from some of its troubles.

...

Puryear served as legislative director for Frist from 1998 to 2001. Before that, he was recruited to Washington, D.C., to work for Thompson on the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee investigation of campaign finance wrongdoing during the 1996 campaign.

He also helped prepare Vice President Dick Cheney for debates during the 2000 campaign.

Puryear has given $13,450 to federal and state Republican campaign committees since 2001, according to reports filed with the Tennessee Secretary of State and the Federal Election Commission. He gave $3,000 to the campaign of Sen. Bob Corker.

Puryear would replace Judge Robert Echols, who took senior judge status in March.

Rudy Giuliani: First Amendment Terrorist

Josh Wolf, 24, has spent almost six months in jail. More time than any journalist in US history for protecting his sources.

Wolf had sold some of the footage to the nightly news as well as posted some on his website. The news broadcast attracted the attention of local and federal law enforcement agents who were investigating clashes between the police and demonstrators at the protest. They later served Wolf a federal subpoena requiring he turn over his unpublished video footage as well as testify about the protesters seen on the tape. When Wolf refused to comply, he was charged with contempt of court and incarcerated.

Wolf’s imprisonment has prompted outcries by advocates for freedom of the press who say it is out of proportion to the scale of the investigation. Lucie Morrillon of Reporters without Borders has stated ''this is one more example of the increasing attacks on confidentiality of sources in the United States, one more blow to investigative journalism and, eventually, to the right for American people to be informed. This is a bad signal sent to the rest of the world.''

Bush administration attacks 'shield' for bloggers

{...}

Some Republicans said they opposed the bill more broadly because they believed it would give undue protection to anyone who publishes false or irresponsible information. Former Judiciary Committee chairman Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) cited a New York Times story last year about a government computer system to track money laundering by terrorists as an example of a situation in which a news outlet harmed American national security interests.

{...}

killing the demon in woman's vagina

Republikkkan Evangelical Theme Park Waiting room

Fred Thompson's Record

Angelina Jolie blocks Fox News

She's Awesome!

More Taxpayer support of religious groups

In theory, it was simple: Congress gave two decommissioned Coast Guard cutters to a faith-based group in California, directing that the ships be used only to provide medical services to islands in the South Pacific.

Coast Guard records show that the ships have been providing those services in the South Pacific since the medical mission took possession of them in 1999.

In reality, the ships never got any closer to the South Pacific islands than the San Francisco Bay. The mission group quickly sold one to a maritime equipment company, which sold it for substantially more to a pig farmer who uses it as a commercial ferry off Nicaragua. The group sold the other ship to a Bay Area couple who rent it for eco-tours and marine research.

The gift of the two cutters was one of almost 900 grants Congress has made to faith-based organizations since 1987 through the use of provisions, called earmarks, that are tucked into bills to bypass normal government review and bidding procedures.

America, the Undeveloping Nation

Several times a day, Roger Thacker hauls 5-gallon buckets of water about 50 yards uphill to his mobile home so his family can bathe and do laundry.

It's a grueling daily chore that keeps local families like Thacker's trapped in a 19th century time warp, years after the rest of the country stopped considering running water a modern convenience.

About 85 households along an 8-mile stretch called Ridgeline Road have electricity and phone lines but lack running water. The wells many once relied on for clean water are no longer usable, local residents say, because they have dried up or been contaminated by nearby coal mining.

Some Common Birds Not So Common Anymore

The populations of nearly two dozen common American birds -- the fence-sitting meadowlark, the frenetic Rufous hummingbird and the whippoorwill with its haunting call -- are half what they were 40 years ago, a new analysis found.
[...]
Compared to 1967, there are 432 million fewer of these bird species, including the northern pintail, greater scaup, boreal chickadee, common tern, loggerhead shrike, field sparrow, grasshopper sparrow, snow bunting, black-throated sparrow, lark sparrow, common grackle, American bittern, horned lark, little blue heron and ruffed grouse.

"Things we all think of as familiar backyard birds ... they appear in books and children's stories and suddenly some of them are way less familiar than they should be," said John Fitzpatrick, director of the Cornell ornithology lab, who was not part of the study.

The northern bobwhite had the biggest drop among common birds. In 1967, there were 31 million of the plump ground-loving bird. Now they number closer to 5.5 million.

Senior UN and EU officials consider possible deployment of international forces in Gaza

Court Ruling Strikes Down Evangelical Prison Ministry Program with Connections to the Religious Right in West Michigan

Colson’s Prison Fellowship Ministries is heavily funded by a variety of prominent conservative foundations based in West Michigan. The Holland-based DeWitt Families Conduit Foundation—funded by money from the Bil Mar slaughterhouse operations—contributed to $12,000 to the organization from 2002 to 2004 while the Cook Charitable Foundation, based in Grand Rapids and founded by Peter C. Cook, founder of Great Lakes Mazda, contributed $10,000 in 2003. However, it is two of the area’s wealthiest and most right-leaning families—the Grand Rapids area DeVos family and Holland’s Prince family—that have made the most substantial contributions to the organization. The Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation—established by Amway (Alticor) co-founder Richard DeVos—contributed $1,000,000 annually to the organization from 2002-2004. Additionally, the Dick and Betsy DeVos Foundation—established by Richard “Dick” DeVos, Junior (and Republican candidate for governor this year)—contributed $50,000 in 2002 and 2003 to Prison Fellowship Ministries. Holland’s Prince family—which made money in the auto parts industry—contributed $680,000 from 2001 through two family foundations, the Edgar and Elsa Prince Foundation ($30,000 in 2003, $50,000 in 2004, $50,000 in 2005) and the Freiheit Foundation—established by Erik Prince, brother of Betsy DeVos and founder of the security contractor Blackwater.

Lunatic Extremist, Crook and CEO of multimillion dollar evangelical groupColson Railing about Islam

[...]

At one point, Colson said "Islam is a vicious, evil ... " and then before finishing the sentence, said, "Islamo-fascism is evil incarnate."

"Islamists," Colson said, "are very different. We will die for what we believe. They will kill for what they believe."

"The problem isn't terrorism," Colson said. "The problem is an ideology that is mixed with fascism ... We are in a long war, a long struggle."

Comments about Islam have generated controversy at past Southern Baptist meetings. In 2002, a former Southern Baptist Convention president, the Rev. Jerry Vines, called Muhammad, the Muslim prophet, a "demon-possessed pedophile."

The second threat, Colson said, was evident in the popularity of several best-selling books espousing atheism by Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and others.

"This is a virulent strain of atheism which seeks to destroy our belief system," Colson said.

[...]

Who Would Jesus Bomb? The Brookings Insitution according to watergate felon and Evangelical hot pack Chuck Colson

n its cover story earlier this year, Time, a publication that cast doubts about Colson's post-Watergate/pre-prison religious conversion three decades ago, named him one of "The 25 Most Influential Evangelicals In America." Under the headline, "Reborn and Rehabilitated," Time pointed out that Colson, the man who once advocated bombing the Brookings Institution, had found religion and founded Prison Fellowship Ministries "a $50 million organization that operates in all 50 states and 110 countries." The magazine also noted that Colson's "campaign for humane prison conditions helped define compassionate conservatism and served as a model for the faith-based initiatives that Bush favors."

On May 19, the Grand Rapids, Michigan-based Calvin Theological Seminary announced the Charles W. Colson Presidential Chair, which will fund the president's office of the Christian Reformed Church seminary for 10 years. According to the Grand Rapids Press, the $1.5 needed for the endowment came from a grant by the Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation. While neither the Devos Foundation nor the seminary would divulge the exact amount given, the Rev. Cornelius Planting Jr., the seminary's president, told the local newspaper that it was the largest single gift the seminary had ever been given.

NATIONAL SECURITY PRESIDENTIAL DIRECTIVE/NSPD 51 or How Chimpy Plans to Become Dictator

US warned over backing for Musharraf

When Boucher comes, the US must make a strong statement demanding the return of democracy. It’s not possible for the US to continue justifying a uniformed president heading a democracy. It’s a joke on democracy.”

Although this week’s searing heat, at times topping 50°C (122°F) in Lahore, has kept the crowds off the streets, the government remains shaken by the scale of recent protests against Gen Musharraf’s March 9 suspension of Iftikhar Chaudhary, the chief justice.

Analysts have warned that any signal from Washington of unconditional support could encourage Gen Musharraf to impose a state of emergency.

“Should this happen, Pakistanis would perceive the US as an impediment to, rather than a supporter of, democracy, and it would lose all remaining vestiges of credibility in the country,” the International Crisis Group, an advocacy group, warned.

FBI Terrorsit Watch list Swells to Level of Useless

Nuremberg prosecutor says Guantanamo trials unfair

"I think Robert Jackson, who's the architect of Nuremberg, would turn over in his grave if he knew what was going on at Guantanamo," Nuremberg prosecutor Henry King Jr. told Reuters in a telephone interview.

"It violates the Nuremberg principles, what they're doing, as well as the spirit of the Geneva Conventions of 1949."

King, 88, served under Jackson, the U.S. Supreme Court justice who was the chief prosecutor at the trials created by the Allied powers to try Nazi military and political leaders after World War Two in Nuremberg, Germany.

"The concept of a fair trial is part of our tradition, our heritage," King said from Ohio, where he lives. "That's what made Nuremberg so immortal -- fairness, a presumption of innocence, adequate defense counsel, opportunities to see the documents that they're being tried with."

King, who interrogated Nuremberg defendant Albert Speer, was incredulous that the Guantanamo rules left open the possibility of using evidence obtained through coercion.

ndia escapes U.S. list of worst human traffickers

The annual Trafficking in Persons report, released Tuesday, says that as many as 800,000 people -- largely women and children -- are trafficked across borders each year. Many are forced into prostitution, sweatshops, domestic labor, farming and child armies. (Watch why India isn't on Tier 3 )

U.S. officials told CNN the question of India's ranking caused a heated debate between Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte.

Negroponte wanted India listed as a Tier 3 country, or worst offender. Rice overruled him out of concern about alienating the Indian government. India is on the Tier 2 watch list.

Find political will to end ‘disgrace’ of child labor, Indian bishops urge

In a June 12 message, ”Protect children and serve the nation” issued on the day of the observance of No Child Labor Day, Bishop Joshua Mar Ignathios of Mavelikara, chairman of Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India Commission for Labor, called child labor “one of the oldest evils” and a “disgrace” that reduces underage workers to the status of “things” rather than human beings.

“Child labor exists because it is very profitable and convenient for the beneficiaries who are included the elite in the society as also high ranking lawmen,” the bishop said, noting that, while the issue has been studied and discussed for years, “it not only remains unchanged but is spreading rapidly by way of child trafficking.”

Supreme Court Assaults Home Health Care Workers

The court unanimously upheld a 1975 regulation from the U.S. Department of Labor that such workers are excluded from the Fair Labor Standards Act's wage and overtime provisions. There currently are about 1 million such workers nationwide.

See Chimpy Get His Watch Stolen

Wall Street, Iraq and the Declining Dollar

[...]

US oil and gas production peaked in the early '70s, and we are now by far the world's largest energy importer. The largest oilfields in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iran, Syria, Yemen and Oman are in decline, as are most oilfields in the former Soviet Union, Canada, Central and South America, and on-shore Africa. New fields will be discovered and new technologies brought to bear, but costs of production will be higher than in the past and will require more expensive investments in equipment and technology.

Even as existing fields age, the new economies of India and China require more and more oil to fuel their impressive growth. Although a worldwide depression might result in a temporary drop in the price of oil and other commodities, the long-term imbalance between growing demand and declining supply will eventually reassert itself, creating price increases over time.

Contemporaneously with the supply/demand imbalance in oil and other hard commodities, the Bush Administration's response to 9/11 has weakened the position of the dollar in the world. The President's request that Americans continue to spend has struck an all-too-sympathetic chord with the American people. The trade deficits caused by that spending have created a current account deficit equal to 6.2 percent of GDP, sending trillions of dollars into the hands of foreigners.

While we continue to import goods of much greater value than those we export, thus flooding the world with dollars, Bush has pursued a policy of what some have dubbed "military Keynesianism"--that is, the combination of low taxes and high military expenditures. This dynamic forces the Federal Reserve to print money and foster easy credit policies, which will eventually result in higher interest rates, inflation or both.

So the printing presses are spewing out more dollars, which are being collected by China, Japan and others. And those countries are showing signs of concern that they have too much of their foreign exchange reserves tied up in our currency. Likewise, certain other nations are evidencing a declining interest in accepting the dollar as a medium of exchange. It was in October 2000 that Saddam insisted that Iraq's oil be paid for in euros. But now Russia wants payment for the energy it exports in rubles. Venezuela and Iran insist on euros. Kuwait has recently unpegged its dinar from the dollar in favor of a basket of currencies.

The dollar has indeed shown symptoms of its decline in popularity during the Bush years. The dollar has weakened against the euro, gold, copper and other hard assets and currencies. When Bush came in to office, for example, you could get .987 euros for every dollar. Now you can only get .75. You could say that at $65 per barrel, oil is getting more valuable... or you could say the value of the dollar has declined as measured by oil.

Mainstream economists seem to agree that best-case, the dollar will continue a stately decline, but in a world where the United States has lost so much respect, where we continue to flood the world with dollars and borrow to finance our consumer habit, we could find that one of those sharp, depression-inducing discontinuities occurs--like, say, a run on the dollar.

We are continuing to import 60 percent of the 20.6 million barrels of oil we use daily. And though the size and stability of our economy is likely to insure a demand for the dollar at some level, oil that anyone can buy for hard currency may be getting scarcer. Governments have begun to do deals aimed at taking oil off the market for their own account--deals like the ones China has done with Angola, Brazil, Iran, Nigeria, Venezuela and Sudan. South Korea has just announced it will follow suit.

[...]

Wikipedia Entry for GOP 'Voter Fraud' Front Group Co-Founder, Thor Hearne, Scrubbed of References to ACVR

changing the ROMs of a Nedap e-voting computer in 60 seconds

Homelessness in Amerikkka (Kinder Gentler Nation: Bush Crime Family Legacy)

Police believe both of the Jansens, who had recently become homeless, had gone to sleep in a recycling container in south St. Louis County before the container's contents were emptied into a truck and compacted.

Chinua Achebe

Nigerian author Chinua Achebe has won the Man Booker International Prize in honour of his literary career.

Achebe is best known for his 1958 debut novel Things Fall Apart, which sold more than 10 million copies.

The 76-year-old, who was paralysed from the waist down after a car accident in 1990, beat writers including Ian McEwan and Salman Rushdie to the honour.

The £60,000 prize, awarded every two years, will be presented to Achebe at a ceremony in Oxford on 28 June.

WMDs found at last!

David Huckabeast, Son of 2008 Presidential Contender Mike Huckabeast

"In 1998, a teenage Huckabee (he's now 26) was fired from his job at a Boy Scout camp for his reported involvement in an incident where a stray dog was brutally killed. While an elected student leader in college, his questionable private business dealings with a student organization created a local controversy that resulted in Huckabee bitterly paying for business licenses with over 6,000 pennies."

Farm Subsidy Scam

The database includes about 358,000 beneficiaries who received $9.8 billion in crop subsidy benefits between 2003 and 2005.

That includes Texas oil billionaire Lee M. Bass, who qualified to receive $242,787 in subsidies from 2003-2005. Former NBA star Scottie Pippen received $78,945 over the same period in conservation subsidies for land he controls in Arkansas. And Washington uber-lobbyist Gerald Cassidy got $10,540 for maintaining a portion of his Dorchester County, Md., farm as wetlands.

The current farm bill, which expires Sept. 30, limits farmers to $360,000 in subsidies per year, but that ceiling is filled with loopholes that allow many farms to exceed it.

The Bush administration has proposed closing the loopholes and halting subsidies to anyone making more than $200,000 in adjusted gross income. Last month, Sens. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., and Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, introduced legislation that would cap individual farm payments at $250,000.

Those changes would target people like Maurice Wilder, a Clearwater, Fla., developer listed on the new EWG database as the nation's top beneficiary of farm payments in 2005, the most recent year for which information is available.

Wilder received nearly $1.8 million in farm subsidy benefits that year, according to the database. He owns a corporation worth $400 million and controls about 180,000 acres of farm and ranch land in more than a half dozen states.

Women in Art

Condi Rice, 2 legged venereal wart

DePaul University, the Nazi School

[...]
Mr. Finkelstein’s work, accusing Jews of exploiting the Holocaust for monetary gain and attacking Israel for oppressing the Palestinians, has made Mr. Finkelstein many enemies over the years. One of the most dogged has been Alan Dershowitz, the attorney and Harvard law professor whose impassioned defense of Israel has led to frequent and often venomous conflicts with Mr. Finkelstein.

In a full-court press against Mr. Finkelstein, Mr. Dershowitz lobbied professors, alumni and the administration of DePaul, a Roman Catholic university in Chicago, to deny him tenure. Many faculty members at DePaul and elsewhere decried what they called Mr. Dershowitz’s heavy-handed tactics.
[...]

108 Die in Bangladesh Mudslides, Floods

The heaviest recorded rainfall levels in seven years have also inundated parts of the capital, Dhaka, and other regions.

Bangladesh, a low-lying delta nation of 150 million people, is buffeted by cyclones and floods that kill hundreds each year. A powerful cyclone in 1991 killed 139,000 people.

Densely populated and grindingly poor, the country is filled with slums that are particularly vulnerable -- the one hit in Chittagong was home to 700 people, most of them migrant workers and their families who lived in clusters of straw-and-bamboo or mud-and-tin shanties built on the slope of hill, survivors said.

Dulu Mia Munshi, a rickshaw puller, said he lost five family members, including his wife and two young sons.

"There was a sudden rush of mud and water, and our home was swept away," Munshi told The Associated Press by telephone from his hospital bed. Five other neighboring shanties on a slope were also washed away.

2008 Republikkkan Contender for President Sam Brownback Supports Forced Pregnancy

"Rape is terrible. Rape is awful. Is it made any better by killing an innocent child? Does it solve the problem for the woman that's been raped?" Brownback said, according to an AP report.

Yes, Pig. It does.

George Bush Presidential Library by Ward Harkavy

Sudan is secret partner of U.S.

Condyloma Rice, AKA Aunt Jemima, Hints at Libby Pardon

Mike Huckabee Polls Well in the Latest New Hampshire Poll

Mike Huckabee Wacko Contender for 2008 Repiglikkkan presidential nomination believes Gitmo should stay Open

Homophobic Pigs at Pentagon Sought To Build A 'Gay Bomb'

I'd love to have a gay bomb. What fun! But I'd have to explode it in the asses of the pious.

Decidedly Not Progressive Barack Obama Seeks Colin Powells Advice

More Ecoli in the increasingly centralized and unregulated food supply.

The recalled products were shipped to stores in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. They were sold under the brand names Moran's All Natural, Miller Meat Company, Stater Bros., Trader Joe's Butcher Shop, Inter-American Products Inc. and Basha's.

The affected grocery stores included Albertson's, Basha's, Grocery Outlet, Fry's, "R" Ranch Markets, Save-A-Lot, Save-Mart, Scolari's Wholesale Markets, Smart and Final, Smith's, Stater Bros. and Superior Warehouse.

The Real Cost of Offshoring

[...]
But new evidence suggests that shifting production overseas has inflicted worse damage on the U.S. economy than the numbers show. BusinessWeek has learned of a gaping flaw in the way statistics treat offshoring, with serious economic and political implications. Top government statisticians now acknowledge that the problem exists, and say it could prove to be significant.

The short explanation is that the growth of domestic manufacturing has been substantially overstated in recent years. That means productivity gains and overall economic growth have been overstated as well. And that raises questions about U.S. competitiveness and "helps explain why wage growth for most American workers has been weak," says Susan N. Houseman, an economist at the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research who identifies the distorting effects of offshoring in a soon-to-be-published paper.
[....]

Ideal Republikkkan Office Holder

GOP Candidates Refuse to Rule Out Nuking Iran

GOP Candidates Refuse to Rule Out Nuking Iran
In New Hampshire, the Republican presidential candidates met for their third debate last night. Issues discussed included the war in Iraq, immigration and the U.S.-Iranian relations. Former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani refused to rule out attacking Iran with nuclear weapons.

• Rudolph Giuliani: "I think it could be done with conventional weapons but you shouldn't take any options off the table. And during the debate the other night the Democrats seemed like they were back in the 1990s. They don't seem to have got beyond the cold war. Iran is a nuclear threat and not just because they can deliver a nuclear warhead with missiles, they are a threat because they are the biggest state sponsor of terrorism and they can handle and they can hand nuclear material to terrorists."

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney also refused to rule out a nuclear strike against Iran.

• Mitt Romney: "You don't take options off the table, what you do is standback and say 'what's going on here', you see what's happening in Sudan and Afghanistan and Iraq and Iran and all over the world you see what's happening and that is people are testing the United States of America and what we have to make them understand we're not arrogant, we have resolve and the strength to protect our interests and protect people who love liberty."

During the Republican debate, President Bush was repeatedly criticized. The audience applauded when Congressman Tom Tancredo said Bush would never darken the doorstep of his White House. Meanwhile Senator John McCain expressed his continued support for President Bush's escalation of the war in Iraq.

• Sen. John McCain: "I think this strategy needs a chance to succeed. We haven't given it barely got the fifth brigade over there which is part of this strategy. I am convinced that if we fail they will follow us home and it will be a base for Al Qaeda and we will be facing greater challenges and greater sacrifices."

Chimpy McFlightsuit Rejects Greenhouse Gas Cuts

Bush aiming to fondle the front fo Merkel this year.

Why critics believe the cost of G8 outweighs its value

In all, 16,000 German police have been deployed to watch over the thousands of environmentalists, anti-poverty campaigners, and anarchists who are massing around the summit: water cannons were used for the first time yesterday afternoon, as police estimated that 10,000 protesters had reached the fence.

The German authorities estimate security spending alone will exceed £61 million but they may be getting off lightly compared to British taxpayers. Protecting the G8 summit at Gleneagles in 2005 cost the Scottish Executive £72 million. The meeting itself, from booking the hotel to feeding thousands of officials and journalists, cost the Foreign Office another £12.7 million.

Thunder? It's the sound of Greenland melting

Swiss-born Steffen is one of dozens of scientists who have peppered the Greenland ice cap with instruments to measure temperature, snowfall and the movement, thickness and melting of the ice.

Since 1990, Steffen has spent two months a year at Swiss Camp, a wind-swept outpost of tents on the ice cap, where he and other researchers brave temperatures of minus 30 Celsius (minus 22 Fahrenheit) to scrutinize Greenland's climate change clues.

The more the surface melts, the faster the ice sheet moves towards the ocean. The glacier Swiss Camp rests on has doubled its speed to about 15 km (9 miles) a year in the last 12 years, just as its tongue retreated 10 km into the fjord.

"It is scary," said Steffen. "This is only Greenland. But Antarctica and glaciers around the world are responding as well."

Hundreds of millions of livelihoods will be affected by declining snow and ice cover as a result of global warming, a UN report has warned.

The study warns of a range of threats that could destabilise ecosystems around the world, with potentially devastating consequences for hundreds of millions of people.

Melting glaciers in Asia's mountains could affect an estimated 40% of the world's population, who rely on ice melt for crop irrigation and drinking water.

It added that rising temperatures were already resulting in the thawing of permafrost in places such as Siberia. This was leading to the release into the atmosphere of methane, a potent greenhouse gas.

The fate of the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets, which hold almost all of the planet's freshwater ice, needed to be better understood, the UN publication urged.
It said that if emissions of greenhouse gases continued unabated, the massive ice sheets were likely to become unstable as the world continued to warm.

Without taking measures to mitigate sea level rise, an estimated 145 million people, primarily in Asia, would be exposed to the risk of flooding.