Washington seeks better screening of food imports or How the right wing have forced us to have beg Corporations for our safety

[...]

"With respect to the safety of imported food, no one is arguing that we need to do nothing," said Stuart M. Pape, a Washington lawyer who represents the major food industry trade group.

"There was a consensus within the industry that something needed to be done," Pape said. "And if you consider a more prescriptive regulatory environment, or a system in which the industry takes on added responsibility, I think the latter struck (the industry) as more attractive."

U.S. Spy Chief: 9/11 'Could Have Been Prevented'

[...]
Director of National Intelligence, Michael McConnell, told members of the House Judiciary Committee Tuesday that "it was an issue of connecting information that was available."
[...]

Ah yes, the Reich Wing has made the government so dysfunctional, it didn't function! How is this news?

[...]

Given the vast resources of the intelligence community, along with the FBI's and CIA's knowledge that al Qaeda had an interest in flight training, and had sent 9/11 hijackers Khalid al Mihdhar and Nawaf al Hazmi and terrorism suspect Zacarias Moussaoui to undertake such training in the United States, McConnell said, "For whatever reason, we didn't connect the dots."

A federal judge in Virginia sentenced Moussaoui, the only person indicted in connection with the 9/11 attacks, to life in prison without the possibility of parole, in May 2006. He is serving his time at a super-maximum security federal facility in Florence, Colo.

[...]

Republican Child Molester and Former Congressman Mark Foley Likely to Face No charges Just Like REpublican Traitor Libby Faces no prison Time

But as of now, the end of Foley's political career may be the most severe consequence the former congressman faces for the revelations that stunned his longtime supporters and prompted his immediate resignation, just weeks before the 2006 election. The Fort Pierce Republican represented parts of St. Lucie, Martin, Okeechobee and Palm Beach counties.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement said this week the investigation should be completed within the next several days.

Sources close to the investigation told Scripps to date there has been no criminal finding against Foley. Once the investigation is completed, it will be turned over to prosecutors in Pensacola. Pensacola has jurisdiction in the case because that is where Foley was when one of the explicit messages was sent.

Income Inequality in Bush Fucked America

FDA Money Goes to Managers (political operatives), Not Scientists Coveted by Drug Firms

Before paying $48,823 in cash bonuses to its chief of regulatory affairs in 2005, the Food and Drug Administration asked her to sign a simple declaration: "If I am unable to receive a retention allowance, I am likely to leave the federal government for a higher paying position in the private sector," wrote Margaret O'K. Glavin.

Glavin's statement did not detail a specific job offer, but that did not impede the payment. Over the past 4 1/2 years, she has collected more than $178,000 in cash bonuses -- on top of her $159,840 annual salary.

[...]

The bonuses were paid during a rough patch at the FDA, encompassing a shortage of flu vaccine and embarrassing recalls of the pain-relieving drug Vioxx and malfunctioning heart defibrillators. Throughout, the agency repeatedly insisted that it lacked the resources to conduct adequate food and drug inspections.

The payments, which have attracted bipartisan criticism from lawmakers, offer an unusually detailed look at how the administration has implemented a cash bonus program that Congress expanded in 2004 to attract and retain talented federal employees.

Lawmakers say that at the FDA, many of the bonuses went to the highest-paid officials rather than the scientists, inspectors and doctors most at risk of jumping to the private sector. To critics, the payments bore little relationship to the agency's performance and reputation or to the likelihood that someone might depart. Agency officials disagree and call the program a success.

Decaying Bridges Span Nation

A Federal Highway Administration inventory of bridges estimates that about 73,000 bridges are structurally deficient and an additional 80,000 are "functionally obsolete," meaning they are carrying more traffic than they are designed for. According to FHA, there are 756 steel deck truss bridges similar to the one in Minneapolis. On Aug. 2, the U.S. Department of Transportation ordered that states inspect them all.

"What happened in Minnesota is simply unacceptable," said Transportation Secretary Mary Peters. "We must have a top-to-bottom review of the bridge inspection program to make sure that everything is being done to keep this kind of tragedy from occurring again." Peters pledged an immediate $5 million "to help restore the traffic flow, to clear the debris, to set up detours and to begin the repair work." She also asked the DOT inspector general to examine the highway administration's national bridge inspection program for any lapses.

In a previous audit, the inspector general's office found that more than 6,300 of the 114,000 national highway system bridges are "structurally deficient," defining "deficient" as "major deterioration, cracks or other deficiencies in their decks, structure or foundations." But the same report found that while bridge inspections in three states that it analyzed--Massachusetts, Texas and New York--proved adequate, inspectors made mistakes in calculating the load that 12 of the 33 bridges examined could bear. As structural problems develop, the report said, transportation officials need to do a better job of limiting the weight of vehicles using decaying bridges.

Broken Bridges, Lost Levees and a Brutal Culture of Neglect

Who Profits?

Some More Deadly Results Conservative Ideology

Typical Religion: An excuse for Violence and Misogyny

PHOENIX - Officers responding to a report of an exorcism on a young girl found her grandfather choking her and used stun guns to subdue the man, who later died, authorities said Sunday.

The 3-year-old girl and her mother, who was also in the room during the struggle between 49-year-old Ronald Marquez and officers, were hospitalized, police said. Their condition was unavailable.

The relative who called police said an exorcism had also been attempted Thursday.

"The purpose was to release demons from this very young child," said Sgt. Joel Tranter.

Officers arrived at the house Saturday and entered when they heard screaming coming from a bedroom, Tranter said.

A bed had been pushed up against the door; the officers pushed it open a few inches and saw Marquez choking his bloodied granddaughter, who was crying in pain and gasping, Tranter said.

A bloody, naked 19-year-old woman who police later determined to be Marquez's daughter and the girl's mother was in the room, chanting "something that was religious in nature," Tranter said.

[...]

How Dick Cheney Views Himself and his Presidency

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.

Larijani: US claim on missile shield project 'joke of the year'

Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Ali Larijani said Sunday the US claim that their missile shield project in Europe is intended to safeguard Europe against Iranian missiles should be called the "Joke of the year" since Iranian missiles cannot reach Europe.

Speaking to IRNA, Larijani said, "Nowadays, Americans tell jokes like this very often."

American men make 12.5 percent less than their fathers 30 years ago, report on mobility says

That's a 12.5 percent drop between 1974 and 2004, according to data from the Pew Charitable Trusts' Economic Mobility Project.

To be sure, household incomes rose during the same period although the main reason is because there are more full-time working women, a new report on the project said.

While income is not the only measure of economic mobility, the findings challenge the historical presumption that each successive generation will be wealthier, said John E. Morton, the report's co-author.

“Today's data suggest that during a 30-year period of economic expansion, a rising tide did not lift all boats,” Morton said in a release accompanying the report, “Economic Mobility: Is the American Dream Alive and Well?”

Of course, the men who run American companies don't have too much to complain about. CEO pay increased to 262 times the average worker's pay in 2005 from 35 times in 1978, according to the report's analysis of Congressional Budget Office statistics.