Hell House - Rightwing Cultic Brainwashing for Hallow'een

This from The Independent - read it before it disappears behind the pay-per-view wall.

And remember, these evil fuckers are the folks who support Alito the most:

It's called Hell House, which sounds ordinary enough. What makes it peculiar is that it is run by a right-wing evangelical church, and its aim is, quite literally, to scare the bejesus out of impressionable teenagers and shock them into signing up for a life in the service of Christ.

We've already endured scenes of assault, abortion, murder and suicide, complete with ear-piercing gunfire, strobe lights, thumpingly loud music and buckets of theatrical blood. We've seen a teenage girl punished for entertaining a single brief thought about meeting a guy on spring break - a thought that leads directly to her being viciously gang-raped. We've seen how homosexual temptation can lead to lies, betrayal and violent death. We've seen people become evil under the influence of pornography.

And now we are plunged into sudden darkness. Out of no-where, actors in devil costumes grab us by the shoulders and throw us into upright coffins. The doors slam shut and won't open. Someone is cowering next to me in my coffin, but it's too dark to see who it is. The heavy-metal soundtrack is cranked up to maximum volume, the devils start beating the coffins with sticks and laugh manically that we are on the way to eternal damnation.

Some of my fellow Hell Housers lose it completely. "Get me out of here! Get me out of here!" screams a girl a couple of coffins down.

This is evil, nasty sicko-cult brainwashing at its very worst.

Things started getting particularly gruesome, in a Hammer horror sort of way, in the abortion scene, when cold, heartless doctor characters used an outsize pair of tweezers to pull unidentified bloody animal parts out from between a teenage girl's legs. (This trick, incidentally, is straight out of Keenan Roberts' outreach kit.) Having extracted the foetus - "America's version of the Holocaust," the devil narrators tell us - the doctors then manage to let the girl die too, through inattention. They act like it's just another day at the office.

In the show's most overwrought scene, an alcoholic, adulterous, porn-addicted litigation lawyer who has just secured freedom for a known paedophile stabs his wife rather than have her discover he has been molesting their daughter. The daughter then shoots her father, retreats to her room and slits her wrists, spilling fake blood over the floor, next to her bible.

To take 13 and 14 year olds, already awash with hormones, and subject them to the kind of flood of neurochemicals this would induce would produce a tabula rasa - an almost clean slate upon which anything could be written. Its a process well understood by psychologists and unscrupulous cults. Its also almost certainly assault, even if the people went there voluntarily, and it should be something for which a rape charge would be made in court. Does any police department or prosecutor have the guts to shut places like this down?

There - that's a real Hallow'een horror story for you. Blessed be.

Double Standard -Syria Gets Threats, Pakistan Gets Jet Fighters

The UN Security Council voted unanimously on Monday for a resolution demanding Syria cooperate fully with a U.N. probe into the death of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri or face possible "further action." The further action would almost certainly be economic sanctions - as France and America had originally wanted the resolution to state but caved when Russia, China, and Algeria threatened abstention.

Condi Rice told the UN council that:

"We have affirmed our just demands of the Syrian government -- and made it clear that failure to comply with these demands will lead to serious consequences from the international community."

She told them that Syria had isolated itself and accused Damascus of false statements, support for terrorism and, interference in the region and "destabilizing behavior in the Middle East."

I'm utterly in agreement with the Security Council and Condi on this one and given that agreement have a question that must be asked...

Where's the resolution against Pakistan, Condi?"

Today, India is saying that Pakistan is linked to the weekend bomb blasts in Delhi. An obscure Kashmiri militant group, Islami Inqilabi Mahaz (Islamic Revolutionary Group), claimed responsibility on Sunday for the attacks. Indian security officials and analysts said the group was probably a front for Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (Force of the Pure), which is among several Islamist militant groups fighting Indian rule in Kashmir.

Lashkar-e-Taiba is also suspected of involvement in the December 13, 2001 attack on India’s Parliament in New Delhi (possibly as a diversion allowing Osama BinLaden to escape Tora Bora). The US Secretary of State Colin Powell in a notification on December 26, 2001 designated the outfit as a foreign terrorist organistation. This group has strong ties reaching back to the Afghan/Russian war with Pakistan's external intelligence agency, the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) as well as with the Taliban and AlQaida. Their reach extends in Iraq too, where Lashkar-e-Taiba cadre provided much of the backbone and expertise to Zarqawi's AlQaida group.

Here we have a nuclear-armed nation backing terrorists who have attempted political assasination and callous attacks on civilians. They have consistently lied and prevaricated about their backing for these terrorists. Pakistan fits exactly Condi's words - yet there is no threat of sanctions, nor UN resolution. President Musharraf is a friend of Bush. Pakistan gets F-16 fighters instead of sanctions.

This double standard is undermining every effort made by the US, UN and the West. It should end and and decisively.

Its Alito - Run Dick, while they aren't looking!

Well, Bushie-boy has picked Scali...oops, Judge Samuel Alito for the Supreme Court. This is one of those issues where, again, I plan to restrict myself to blogging the major events rather than the minutiae. I've no intention of hogging bandwidth which could be used by someone who understands the minutiae and the implications better.

Suffice it to say that Alito hold views repugnant to everyone who doesn't think Adam and Eve rode to Bible School on a dinosaur. He is a pander to Bush's most virulent, nasty, anti-democratic, paranoiac, zenophobic, pro-life but pro-death-penalty, God-loves-the-rich-or-they-wouldn't-be-rich base. As such, he is sure to get wide support from the wingnut Right.

He is also, and let's not beat around the President here, a distraction from last week's indictment. Its cynical, manipulative and utterly expected. If you listen carefully, you can hear Alito saying, very quietly, "Run, Dick, Run and hide!"

I wonder if anyone in the Senate will ask him if he considers perjury a serious crime?

Should Cheney Be Worried?

From Andrew Sullivan writing for the Sunday Times of London tomorrow (tomorrow is already today in the UK).

Legal jeopardy still hangs over Rove. Libby will face a trial in which the vice-president may have to testify under oath. Political questions remain. The obvious question that still lingers is a simple one. Why did Libby lie? Why did such a smart and meticulous man put himself at risk of 30 years in jail if he had done nothing wrong in the first place?

We know from the indictment text that Libby got the classified information about Valerie Plame from Vice-President Dick Cheney, who got it from that part of the CIA that employs undercover agents. But Libby told the FBI and the grand jury that he got the information first from reporters. Why the discrepancy? If Libby had done nothing illegal why didn’t he just tell the truth?

It’s clear to me that Fitzgerald believes that there was a bigger reason for those little lies, a rationale for the coverup, a larger premise that makes sense of all of this.

Part of that premise has to involve the actions and motivations of Cheney. Fitzgerald and his team know this. They have not finished their inquiry and have an important potential source of new information facing a trial under a judge known for hefty sentences. Some kind of plea deal by Libby — a shorter sentence in return for naming names in the underlying case? — is not inconceivable.

If I were Cheney, I’d be sweating a little.

The Sunday Times is owned by Rupert Murdoch, who also own FOX News and is notorious for the strong editorial control he exercises over his media outlets.

Sanders Calls For Hearings On Oil Co. Price Gouging

This one goes out to Newshog's pet conservative and oil company apologist, Allan@Aberdeen. Friend of the people and shoo-in for the Senate, Rep.Bernie Sanders (I-Vt), is fighting the good fight yet again.

Today Exxon Mobil announced a 3rd quarter profit of nearly $10 billion, the largest corporate quarterly profit ever, and more than $4 billion dollars more than the company brought in during the 3rd quarter of last year. All of the other major oil companies experienced record-breaking profits as well. These staggering profits come at a time when consumers are faced with skyrocketing prices for gas and home heating oil.

In response to these announcements, Congressman Sanders is calling for the Government Reform Committee on which he sits to hold a hearing immediately with the CEOs of the major oil companies to investigate their price gouging practices. Sanders requested this hearing today in a letter to Government Reform Committee Chairman Tom Davis.

Sanders said, “It is absolutely outrageous for oil companies like Exxon Mobil to be raking in obscene profits while millions of Americans are struggling to pay skyrocketing gas and home heating oil prices. Let’s be clear. Senior citizens will go cold this winter, and workers will lose a significant part of their pay checks if we do not stop this price gouging.”

The record-breaking profits posted by the big oil companies come at a time when the price of heating oil is already 56 cents a gallon higher than a year ago and the price of gasoline is over $1 higher than just two years ago. The nearly $10 billion profit reported by Exxon Mobil today represents only the profits earned in the last three months of the year. This means that Exxon Mobil’s 3rd quarter profits would be more than Coca-Cola Co., Intel Corp. and Time Warner Inc. earn in an entire year. Similarly BP reported a $6.53 billion third-quarter profit, up from $4.87 billion in the same period last year; ConocoPhillips Co. 3rd quarter profits increased by 89% from last year’s level, going from $2 billion last year to $3.8 billion this year; Royal Dutch Shell’s profits increased by 68%; and Marathon Oil’s profits more than tripled.

Sanders said, “At a time when millions of Americans are hurting financially, they should not be forced to pay outrageously high prices for gas and home heating oil. We owe it to the American people to do everything we can to stop big oil companies from ripping-off American consumers."

Go Bernie, Go!

Its Scooter For Fitzmas, Maybe More To Come

I'm not going to do much on this - lots of better pundits will do more than I ever could. In any case, just blogging the big stories everyone else is following just isn't my style. However it should be noted for the record:

The vice president's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter"d Libby Jr., was indicted Friday on charges of obstruction of justice, perjury and making false statements in the CIA leak investigation, a politically charged case that will throw a spotlight on President Bush's push to war.

Libby, 55, resigned and left the White House.

Karl Rove, Bush's closest adviser, escaped indictment Friday but remained under investigation, his legal status casting a dark cloud over a White House already in trouble.
...
The grand jury indictment charged Libby with one count of obstruction of justice, two of perjury and two false statement counts. If convicted on all five, he could face as much as 30 years in prison and $1.25 million in fines.

Vice President Dick Cheney was mentioned by name in the 22-page indictment and several officials were identified by title, but no one besides Libby was charged.

In each of the counts, the basic allegation against Libby is that he lied to investigators or Fitzgerald's grand jury about his conversations with reporters. He is not accused of purposely revealing the identity of a covert officer, the potential charge that Fitzgerald was initially appointed to investigate.

Fitzgerald said in a statement, "When citizens testify before grand juries they are required to tell the truth. Without the truth, our criminal justice system cannot serve our nation or its citizens. The requirement to tell the truth applies equally to all citizens, including persons who hold high positions in government."

Any trial would dig into the secret deliberations of Bush and his team as they built the case for war against Iraq.

Investigations continue. Neither Rove nor Cheney can breathe easily just yet.

Why Does Congress Not Want The Poor To Vote?

From The New Standard:

The Federal Housing Finance Reform Act of 2005, which passed the House of Representatives yesterday by a vote of 331-90, contains a provision that establishes a national fund for developing affordable housing, by skimming 5 percent off the profits of the government-sponsored home-finance companies Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.

The funding would be a boon to the nonprofit housing sector – worth up to an estimated $1 billion within two years – but it comes with strings attached: nonprofit organizations would not be able to tap into the fund if they have recently engaged in activities that encourage people to vote.

Yes, you read that right.

The amendment, a product of negotiations between a faction of conservative legislators and the House Financial Services Committee leadership:

bars nonprofits receiving the government money from spending their own private funds, raised from non-federal sources, on any election-related activity. For instance, grantees could not help people register to vote or host a polling site at a housing facility.

The legislation also restricts grantees from associating with groups engaged in such activities -- a caveat critics fear could break up mutually supportive nonprofit networks through guilt by association. According to a legislative analysis by the government watchdog group OMB Watch, "affiliation" could be defined as funding support that constitutes over 20 percent of a group’s yearly budget, overlapping board members, or even a shared computer server.

The restrictions would apply during the term of any grants and would also be required for a year prior to any grant. For-profit companies, which already enjoy relatively few limitations on political activities under existing federal statutes would not have to conform to these requirements

When the National Voter Registration Act was passed in 1993, nonprofits across the United State were required to provide voter registration services in order to receive housing and other social services money. As a direct result in 2002, nonprofits registered millions of new voters, many of whom were low-income. The amendment is therefore probably unconstitutional because it attempts to limit rights of affiliation; is in conflict with existing federal law (and State law in places like Minnesota where state law actually mandates that nonprofits receiving state support "shall provide voter registration services for employees and the public."); will increase disenfranchisement among the poor and is, in fact, an attempt to criminalize democracy

Its easy, of course, to see why Republicans want this provision in the bill:

In a letter dated May 25 to former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas), obtained by The NewStandard, members of the Republican Study Committee warned, "[T]he money from this fund could be used to finance third-party advocacy groups that have agendas… that are antagonistic to the free-market principles we value."

An unsigned memorandum recently circulated among House members contended that the bill "would require the government sponsored enterprises to pump billions into left-wing organizations."

BUT, there are only 231 Republicans in Congress, out of a total of 435 Reps. That means one hundred Democrats voted for this amendment - more than all those who voted against it! WTF???

Sheila Crowley, president of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, says "You’re left to conclude that people don’t want low-income people to vote."

I want to know who these 100 Democrat traitors are. I want to hear them try to justify themselves. I will do my best to find out who they are and when I do I will name and shame every single one here on Newshog.

Update

A Violently Executed Blog has the roll of Democrats who voted for the bill, with links. See your own Rep. there? Ask him or her why they voted for this bill.

Here is the roll-call for the amendment to prevent democracy. Notice two Dems actually voted to include this amendment? Farr and Taylor (MS). Let's remember them in 2006 especially. Thirteen Republicans with backbones and consciences voted against the amendment. Maybe they should cross the floor...

Here is the roll call for the vote on the bill including the amendment. Sanders, Pelosi, Conyers, Kucinich, hell even Tom Tancredo, all voted against the bill. Notables that voted for it include the League of Corrupt Gentlemen - DeLay, Pombo, Sensenbrenner, Dreier et al - and one Sherrod Brown (OH) along with Democrats like Cuellar, Schwartz (PA), and Obey.

Time to start finding out the whys and wherefores.

Exxon Prove Its All About The Oil...Money

From the BBC:

US oil giant Exxon Mobil has posted a quarterly profit of $9.9bn (£5.55bn), the largest in US corporate history, on the back of record oil and gas prices.
Profit was up 75% and revenue rose 32% to more than $100bn.

But the results were short of analyst forecasts due to production damage from Hurricanes Rita and Katrina, and lower profit at its chemicals division.

In other words, if it hadn't been for the pesky hurricanes then profits from high oil prices due to the war in Iraq would have been even higher.

That's why prices shot up after Katrina - to try to make back the profits of the original estimate.

Yet the GOP continue to aid the oil moguls in their deceptions as Dennis Hastert calls for the oil companies to use their huge profits to build more refineries.

That isn't what is going to reduce the price of gas. Has anyone heard that the nation's pumps are running out of gas on a day to day basis yet? It isn't about supply and demand - its about making the maximum buck by falsely claiming restricted supply. Its profit gouging, pure and simple.

Maybe Hastert the Horrible needs reminding of this story from May:

Oil giant Exxon Mobil has been ordered to pay damages to more than 10,000 petrol station owners for overcharging on the cost of its fuel.
The ruling by a federal court judge in Miami could set the US company back more than $1.3bn.

Exxon was told it would have to pay damages to dealers who bought supplies from it between 1983 and 1994.

A spokeswoman for Exxon, the world's largest listed oil company, said it planned to appeal against the decision.

They've just found a legal way to do it on a national scale, is all.

Insta-Hoglets Oct 27th.

There's blog coverage galore of Harriet Miers and dozens speculating on "Fitzmas" so here at Newshog I figure you don't want more of the same regurgitated punditry. Here's some stuff that flew in under the radar.

Much as Republicans like to drivel on about how the Left is bereft of ideas and how socialism is so weak that opposing it is the political equivalent of shooting fish in a barrel - actions speak louder than words.

Which is why I find it so very, very funny that the GOP is having a hel of a trouble in getting someone to oppose Bernie Sanders in his Senate run. The top two choices, Governor Douglas and Lt. Gov. Dubie have both declined the honor of running against the US' favourite socialist. The Hotline says:

Many Republicans in DC believe that VT Gov. Jim Douglas (R) is the only Republican who'd have a real chance at beating Indepdendent Bernie Sanders in the general. Douglas refused that race a while ago. So Senate GOPers tried to get Dubie in the race (as did WH CoS Andy Card.) Other VT GOPers want Dubie to run for Sanders' house seat, but that prospect is unlikely.
Dubie's departure means that wealthy software magnate Richard Tarrant will likely get the GOP nomination. In early Oct., he wrote a $550K check to an exploratory account.
Go Bernie!

Following on from my post the other day about WalMart backing an increase in the minimum wage, all is revealed as smoke and mirrors while WallieWorld pursues an aggressive business philosophy of screwing everyone and anyone over in search of profit. A leaked internal memo calls for Wal-Mart saving money by forcing more employees into part-time work without benefits and discriminating against the unhealthy and disabled. Nathan Newman has the goods.

Under pressure from Democrats, moderate pro-labor Republicans and some religious figues, Bush is forced to reinstate Davis-Bacon rules requiring that companies awarded federal contracts for Hurricane Katrina pay prevailing wages, usually an amount close to the pay scales in local union contracts. Bush was forced to admit that the suspension of the wage law was not saving the government money on billions of dollars in Katrina contracts and the rules will come back into full force on Nov. 8th.

Note - One of the most interesting parts of this story is the co-operation between unions and the Republican pro-labor caucus. Its an innovation, a crack in the Right's automatic denigration of anything pro-labor, that will bear watching carefully.

Corruption Watch - From The Washington Times newswire:

The departure of a U.S. Food and Drug Administration official may be linked to stock deals involving companies regulated by the agency. Dr. Lester Crawford resigned as FDA commissioner last month, two months after taking over the agency's top spot. He had been with the FDA for 3 1/2 years overall.

It seems we are talking about $100,000's in stock transactions by Crawford and his wife over his 3 year tenure, all stocks of companies over which the FDA serves as a watchdog.

Question: Can anyone find a Bush appointee who doesn't have his or her fingers illegally in pies?

FEMA and a Governor screw the pooch yet again -

MIAMI -- Frustrated victims of Hurricane Wilma lined up again Wednesday for gas, water, ice and food, as Gov. Jeb Bush admitted that the state should have done a better job of funneling supplies to South Florida.

Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Alvarez called the relief process "flawed," adding that he was "frustrated, disappointed, angered" with the delivery of supplies.

Increasingly perturbed residents agreed.

"We can't get food, water, power," said Gail McDonald of Coral Springs. "It's going to be a mess like this for months. This is a national disaster, and FEMA should help us."

But Bush said the Federal Emergency Management Agency wasn't at fault.

"Don't blame FEMA. This is our responsibility," Bush said. "If anyone wants to blame anybody, blame me."

See the budget cut? Watch the budget cut!...now, Congress does the old shell-game and....guess which bill the budget cut reappears under, now with an even higher price tag?

If you guessed that perennial favourite the Emergency War Bill then you win a solid gold no-prize.

(Thanks to regular Kirkrrt for this must read insight into the funding shell-game.)

Miers Withdraws

Its just broken on the aggregators that Harriet Miers has withdrawn her name from consideration for the US Supreme Court. Bush is reported as accepting her withdrawal "reluctantly". I'll bet.

Expect screeds to be written about this event today - but not here. I never thought it was all that worth the screeds already written which is why you've seen nothing here.

Rightwinger Captain Ed says:

The face-saving withdrawal option presented by Sam Brownback and Linsday Graham took only a matter of days to get recognized by the White House. Good for them. It won't save them from some criticism, but it will make this into the nine-day wonder it should always have been.

Now can we nominate a candidate whose qualities and track record presumes we control the Senate?

After the kerfuffle settles down and Bush nominates another candidate...then is when it will get interesting. The question is really can Humpty Bush put his party together again after so many of his former cheerleaders washed their hands of him and his administration?

More Sacrifices Will Be Required...

More human sacrifices, that is. Steve Bell illustrates the "Cult of BushCo" perfectly:

If We Ruled The World (Wingnut Edition)

Thirty eight prominent rightwing bloggers recently voted on who they would like to rule the world. Here are the results, in reverse order.

15) Paul Wolfowitz: Former US Deputy Secretary of Defense. World Bank President (4)
15) Arnold Schwarzenegger: Governor of California (4)
15) Rush Limbaugh: Talk radio host (4)
15) Junichiro Koizumi: Prime Minister of Japan (4)
15) Christopher Hitchens: Pundit (4)
15) Bill Gates: Founder of Microsoft (4)
15) Tommy Franks: Former US General (4)
15) Dick Cheney: US Vice President (4)
15) George W. Bush: US President (4)
15) Tony Blair: British Prime Minister (4)
12) Donald Rumsfeld: US Secretary of Defense (5)
12) Václav Havel: Former President of Czechoslovakia (5)
12) Pope Benedict XVI: Pope (5)
10) Mark Steyn: Pundit (6)
10) Victor Davis Hanson: Pundit (6)
7) Thomas Sowell: Pundit (7)
7) Antonin Scalia: US Supreme Court Justice (7)
7) Ann Coulter: Pundit (7)
4) Natan Sharansky: Soviet dissident, former Israeli cabinet member (8)
4) Rudy Giuliani: Former Mayor of New York City (8)
4) Milton Friedman: Economist (8)
2) Margaret Thatcher: Former British Prime Minister (10)
2) John Howard: Australian Prime Minister (10)
1) Condoleeza Rice: US Secretary of State (14)

Scary...but isn't it funny that King George lost out, even amongst his staunchest cheerleaders, to the moronic likes of Mark Steyn and Ann Coulter? If it quacks like a duck...

Iraq Constitution Vote Not A Cure-All

The Iraqi constitution has been passed by a vote of 78% "yes". However, the raw statistic is misleading in the extreme. Many Sunnis have a firm belief that the vote in Nineveh province was rigged to provide a vote that would fail to reach the needed two thirds saying "no" - it returned a 55.08% "no" vote. Two other provinces rejected the constitution by huge "no" votes of 96.9% and 81.75%.

Sunni figures talked of widespread fraud after hearing the final results.

Saleh al-Mutlaq, part of a Sunni Arab team that negotiated the constitution, called the referendum a "farce" and accused government forces of stealing ballot boxes to reduce the size of the "No" vote.

...A senior United Nations official in Iraq, Carina Perelli, said the election had been conducted to the highest standard.

"It has been audited, controlled - it has been done really in a very professional way," she said.

"The result is accurate. It has been checked according to the processes that we all follow when we have elections."

Laith Kubba, spokesman for Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari, told the BBC the results were a "victory for the political process".

"We have to deal with them as results that decided this matter and move on to the next stage," he said.

US President George W Bush welcomed news of the result as fresh proof that Iraqis meant to "build a democracy united against extremism and violence".

Delivering a speech to military wives in Washington, he said American troops in Iraq should "complete the mission and lay the foundation of peace by spreading freedom".

Although not as incendiary as having the constitution defeated in three provinces would have been, anyone thinking this vote will have solved problems should look at this map. This will create more problems than it solves and helps polarise Iraq even further.

Incompetent Crony Watch -This Time Its Safety At Work

BushCo has yet again proven its utter inability to moninate people of quality for important administration positions.

First up, Edwin G. Foulke, nominee to be assistant secretary of labor for occupational safety and health. Foulke has always watched out for corporate interests -

As a partner with Jackson Lewis, a South Carolina law firm specializing in business law, Foulke penned several items challenging workplace safety regulations, including a five-page essay published by the South Carolina Bar trashing federal ergonomics standards that had been in the making since the late 1980s and were put into place at the end of the Clinton presidency.

Though Foulke is his law firm’s head of Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) compliance, organized labor considers Jackson Lewis a union-busting law practice. Among the more notorious anti-labor activities the firm has been involved in were an attempt to undermine negotiations at a Borders book store and two separate lengthy, expensive union-busting campaigns against nursing home and home health care workers in New York facilities.

The law firm was also involved in helping the battery company EnerSys stave off union representation. EnerSys was eventually cited for a number of labor law violations and subsequently sued Jackson Lewis for allegedly giving it advice to take illegal actions against workers. Jackson Lewis denied the claims.

Yeah, he will make everyone's jobs safer...

Next, Richard Stickler for the parallel mine safety and health assistant secretary slot.

According to the Charleston Gazette, the United Mine Workers opposed his nomination to head Pennsylvania’s Bureau of Deep Mine Safety in 1997 over what they cited as a poor track record in more than 30 years as a company manager with Bethenergy Mines. The Mine Workers have yet to take an official position on the pending appointment.

In a 1997 letter to then-governor of Pennsylvania Tom Ridge, UMW Safety Director Joe Main noted that mines managed by Stickler showed a "very poor compliance record" and cited government numbers demonstrating that one such operation, Eagle’s Nest in Boone county, West Virginia, reported injuries at double the national average, the Gazette reported.

Again, he inspires confidence...

A man who made his livelihood knocking down safety standards and a man who ran a mine with twice the national average of injuries. Foulke-d up and a Stickler for nothing.

Yup, that's the BushCo way. If you can't drown 'em, bury them.

Pentagon Makes Profiteering Easy, Parks New Humvees in Texas

According to Knight Ridder (Mercury News - registration required) the Pentagon is still pandering to private businesses profiteering from your tax dollars.

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon paid $20 apiece for plastic ice cube trays that once cost it 85 cents. It paid a supplier more than $81 apiece for coffee makers that it bought for years for just $29 from the manufacturer.

That is because instead of getting competitive bids or buying directly from manufacturers as it used to, the Pentagon is using middlemen who set their own prices. It is the equivalent of shopping for weekly groceries at a convenience store.

And it is costing taxpayers 20 percent more than the old system, a Knight Ridder investigation found.

The higher prices are the result of a Defense Department purchasing program called prime vendor, which favors a handful of firms. Run by the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), the program is based on a military procurement strategy to speed delivery of supplies such as bananas and bolts to troops in the field.

Military bases still have the option of getting competitive bids, but the Pentagon has encouraged them to use the prime vendor system. At the DLA's main purchasing center in Philadelphia, prime vendor sales increased from $2.3 billion in 2002 to $7.4 billion in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30.

The Defense Department touts the program as one of its ``best practices'' and credits it with timely deliveries that have eliminated the need for expensive inventories and warehousing. For purchases under the food prime-vendor program, DLA claimed a savings of $250 million in five years.

But those savings would have happened even without turning to the prime vendor program, competing suppliers say. For years, most suppliers have offered goods on an as-needed basis so that the military does not need to store them in warehouses.

Taxpayers for Common Sense describe the program as "nothing prime...in fact,it's very expensive".

In thousands of purchases of food service equipment items, Knight Ridder found massive markups. The case of a special 7-foot refrigerator-freezer for airplanes illustrates the problem.

MGR Equipment of Inwood, N.Y., which makes the unit, charged DLA $17,267 in 2003 for each one. That is the price that MGR President Gerald Ross said he charges everyone.

In September 2004, prime vendor Lankford Sysco Food Services Inc. sold the government nine MGR refrigerators for $32,642.50 apiece -- a markup of 89 percent. The government paid $138,445 extra, when all prices were adjusted for inflation into 2005 dollars.

I just thought you would like to know.

But even that helping hand to profit-gouging in time of "war" pales into insignificance compared with what Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) and his staff found on a visit to Fort Hood in Texas. 824 brand new Hummers with the very latest armor are sitting in parking lots there and in Kuwait while one in four US casualties in Iraq die from bombs that the new armor is designed to defeat.

"Let’s not have them in parking lots. Let’s move them up to Baghdad, let’s move them up with the 3rd ID or move them over to the Marines, who’ve taken 50 percent of the hits yet have roughly 6 to 7 percent of the" uparmored "Humvees," said Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., who chairs the House Armed Services Committee.
...
The Army repeatedly has said it has enough top-of-the-line, armored Humvees in Iraq. But Hunter said the 3rd Infantry Division, which has suffered most of the Army casualties in Iraq, has only 20 percent of the vehicles it requires. The Marines have requested 2,814 such Humvees but have received only 744.

The Army told Rep. Hunter that it intends keeping the vehicles out of Iraq until the 3rd Infantry Division’s replacements, the 4th Infantry Division, arrive at the end of the year.

It beggars belief.

Put The Fallen Heroes On The Front Page!

Paul Rieckhoff writes -

More than 2000 American Troops have now been killed in Iraq. As we pass this grim milestone, the media has briefly turned their attention away from celebrity gossip and fad diets, and on to the human cost of the war.

But for over two years, the media have failed to adequately honor the sacrifice of America’s Servicemembers. Putting the names of the fallen on Page A-10 is an insult to America’s Troops and to the families of the fallen, and is yet another example of poor media coverage of the war.

As Veterans of this war, we are asking you to please write to your local newspaper now, and urge them to honor the sacrifice of America’s Troops by publishing daily casualty reports on Page One. It takes only three clicks to send a letter with our easy-to-use tool. You can do it in less than a minute.

Your email will do more than just help sway newspaper editors. The “Letters to the Editor” are one of the most widely-read sections of the newspaper, and are often watched by elected officials. Politicians need to hear that you consider the war a priority issue.

Thank you for REALLY supporting the Troops,

Paul

Paul Rieckhoff, OIF Veteran
Executive Director
Operation Truth
www.operationtruth.com

Pass it on. If the casualties were on every front page every day would the Bush Junta still be so blithe about "staying the course?"

WalMart Speaks Up For Minimum Wage Hike

As the pigs fly past my window here in the highest room of the highest tower of Castle Cernig I hear news that WalMart has "pledged to more closely monitor suppliers' factories for labor abuses, improve health benefits for employees and support an increase in the federal minimum wage".

Chief Executive H. Lee Scott Jr told reporters:

Wal-Mart would support an increase in the federal minimum wage from the current $5.15 an hour. On average, the company says, it pays full-time U.S. associates $9.68, so a higher minimum wage would have a much tougher effect on Wal-Mart's smaller rivals.

"While it is unusual for us to take a public position on a public policy issue of this kind," he said, "we simply believe it is time for Congress to take a responsible look at the minimum wage and other legislation that may help working families."

Good news even if it is an attempt to penetrate the coastal areas where WallyWorld has always had shorter shrift by accomodating more progressive business thinking. I'm sure that in time they will accept that better business practises lead to more profitable business. Best news of all is that the company will implement an independent monitoring program, which global labor experts maintain is crucial to proper oversight - which means it will be harder for them to backslide on their pledge.

It just goes to show, progressives have more of an impact than they sometimes give themselves credit for. I bet WalMart would now support Universal Healthcare too - if the costs could be kept in line with their new plan for their employees.

(Hat tip- Nathan Newman)

An Insta-Hoglets Healthcare Special

With a fanfare, Insta-hoglets - punchposts with a sometimes snarky bent - return!

My two posts from February on the Private vs Public healthcare debate have consistently been my two best read posts since they were published, with most of the readers coming via search engines and coming from universities, hospitals, medical specialists and think-tanks and so I've been following with some interest the recent resurgence in interest in the topic of universal healthcare from various liberal pundits. I think healthcare is going to be one of the biggest talking points of the 2006 and 2008 elections and it may be a good idea for the Left to get its act together and start to agree the shape of the kind of policy it would like. With that in mind, here's some of the best items I've been reading as a stimulant to that debate.

Scott Shields at MyDDthinks healthcare is one of the big issues too:

when it comes to debating Republican healthcare proposals versus Democratic solutions, I think we've got a good chance of getting our agenda passed. After all, universal healthcare has been a Democratic cause for well over fifty years. The failings of the private market in this area are now obvious to everyone paying attention -- even to much of the market itself.

And has some great links to back up his argument.

Certainly the opinion poll numbers look good:

Medicare (health insurance for the elderly and disabled). Fully 96 percent of adults support Medicare, including 92 percent or more of all religious categories.

Medicaid (health insurance for people with very low incomes) is supported by 91 percent of all adults, including 88 percent of all religious categories.

Universal health insurance is favored by 75 percent of all adults, including 63 percent or more of all religious groups.

Brad Plummer asks "why doesn't the current patent system—which allows drug companies to sell their little pills for 300-400 percent above the competitive market price in order to recoup their "research" investment—work very well?" and calls for the gradual socialization of drug research. This would involve getting the pharma corps to open up their books, break their hold on the FDA and making the approval of new drugs contingent on improvements over existing drugs (right now, new drugs merely need to be better than placebos to be approved). At the same time, more government money could be directed into the development and testing of new drugs.

Kate at epiphanies blog has charts illustrating the remarkable difference in administrative costs between Medicare and Private administrative costs. Private costs (11.5%) are more than 3 times those of Medicare (3.6%). It's not only due to the lower administrative costs, but to the huge bargaining power of the government, and the efficacy of government regulation. She says:

The real question, however, is why are we using the failed private market to reign in costs when the government is obviously doing a superior job? And as the system prices more and more people out of their employer sponsored (or lack of) insurance, why are we pretending that the same ineffectual system is a magic antidote?

Up in Michigan Democratic lawmakers think some large companies are not paying enough for their employees' health care costs and leaving taxpayers with a higher Medicaid bill.

State Senate Democrats on Monday will promote a plan that would require businesses with 10,000 or more workers to devote at least 8 percent of their payroll to health insurance or reimburse the state for the difference.

Of course, WalMart and the Republicans are wailing about the plan making businesses uncompetitive. What they haven't realised yet is that combining employers' payments with employees' own healthcare premiums and government healthcare costs the US spends more than 15% of its GDP on healthcare and still not everyone is covered while a universal system would cover everyone for an estimated 11.5% to 15% of GDP. If the US moved to a universal system no-one would pay more, everyone would get coverage and businesses would be more competitive on the international market.

Kevin at Lean Left draws some of these posts together with other information, including some excellent work from Ezra Klien, and concludes:

That’s right, not only does this mess of a system lose in the marketplace to our next door neighbor’s, not only does it over-charge US taxpayers for drugs those taxpayers largely paid to develop, not only does it not cover everyone in the country, not only does it produce results worse than most industrialized nations, it guts our economic competitiveness in the process.

What a wonderful system we have here.

I would also like to throw my own thoughts from February into the mix so please, have a read at those posts too. Public vs. Private Healthcare. Part One - Getting to the Facts and Part Two - Counting the Costs (and Savings). Please give them a read - and there's a lot more informative links referenced at the bottom of each post. I think I conclusively show that a move to a universal healthcare system would be cheaper, deliver at least as good levels of care and would be welcomed by almost every sector of industry as increasing their international competitiveness.

Its time and past time to debate this amongst ourselves and get a consensus plan - a detailed plan - for universal healthcare which can be a major part of a real liberal policy platform. What's the easiest way to fund it? Would it just be medicare/medicaid extended to cover everyone or would other areas need coverage? Whats the best way to manage a changeover? What possible blocking points will we have to answer and what are the best answers in terms of a clear and strong message? Let's get our thinking caps on, folks. Drop a comment, link your own post or send me a mail at newshog [AT] gmal [DOT] com. I'm hoping to gather together everything, take the best of the best and produce an American Solidarity 'position paper' for further discussion sometime soon.

The Purpose Of The Democratic Party...

Kevin Drum has an interesting look today at "What Democrats Stand For", recounting the tale of another blogger, seemingly well in with the in crowd, who recently sat in on "a focus group of (Ivy League) Democratic activists who were asked what the party stands for". The blogger, David Adesnik of Oxblog, reported:

...Almost every answer was exactly the same. The purpose of the Democratic party is to help the poor and the disadvantaged.

....The organizer's response to this unexpected consensus was both sympathetic and devastating. On the one hand, this consensus suggested that there is a foundational commitment on which Democrats can build. On the other hand, if the purpose of the Democratic party is to help the disadvantaged, what can the party possibly offer to the overwhelming majority of Americans who see themeslves as middle class?

Now Kevin's answer to that question is spot on:

To a growing extent, the type of gnawing stress and uncertainty that has always afflicted the daily life of the poor is increasingly afflicting the working and middle classes as well: stagnant wages, booms and busts in income from year to year, disappearing pensions, predatory lending, unreliable healthcare, and the constant, everpresent background fear of being laid off and falling into a hole you can never dig yourself out of.

This growing instability affects a huge swath of workers in the United States, and it's something the Democratic Party should dedicate itself to addressing.

And he has some great graphs to prove it.

But "The purpose of the Democratic party is to help the poor and the disadvantaged."?

This is satire, right? Like saying the Republicans are for small government?

If not, why did Biden and others vote for the Bankruptcy Bill? Why is there no Dem leader willing to speak up for universal healthcare? Why did so many Dems vote for CAFTA? Where's the plan for electoral reform to place the onus for voter registration on the State instead of the individual and to make it easier to register while they are at it? Where's the plan to reform welfare so that people don't starve because they dont meet thresholds which are utterly out of touch with reality? Where's the plan to give education for all for as far as they can take it, not just to High School level? Where's the plan (and this is a biggy) to limit the power of corporate lobbyists through campaign finance and actually return representation to the people? How many Senators are on record as saying they would repeal Bush's tax giveaways to the rich?

The Democrat leadership are so far from having a platform aimed at helping the poor and disadvantaged its scary. Instead they pursue a course of "any policy we think will get us elected" while making damn sure they don't lose their corporate dollars.

Here's a novel thought for you - whatever the rank-and-file may say or think is largely irrelevant as long as the Leadership don't say the same things. The people of America will judge both parties primarily by the folks they put up for election to the House, the Senate and the White House. If the Democratic Party wants to be for anything at all, then the public faces of the Party must be publicly working for the same things.

How can the rank and file of the Democratic Party ensure that the leadership of the Party are truly representative of the base's convictions?

Daniel And The Lions

Via Matt at Tattered Coat and misty guesting at Shakespeare's Sister comes the tawdry story of Emerald City clampdown on a milblogger's free speech. Daniel Goetz has for some time been a great blogger, telling it like it is about Iraq. No longer. The cowardly lions of Oz have decreed it.

Matt tells the tale:

Daniel has been silenced, against his will. And not only has he been silenced — he has been forced to publicly declare himself “a supporter of the administration and of her policies.”

A stop-lossed soldier angry that he is still serving in Iraq, seven months beyond his original enlistment agreement, Daniel is no longer free to post on his blog. Though he had taken care to adhere to the code of conduct to which he is bound, it is likely that a post of his on the Operation Truth website brought his views to the attention of military officials.

Daniel’s final post is heart-breaking; the single most chilling thing about it, if you know your Orwell, is its title: Double Plus Ungood.

Daniel's final post is eloquent in what it does not say:

I thank all of you who have been so supportive recently. I have never before received so much positive feedback, and it was very heart-warming to know that so many people out there care. Having said that, it breaks my heart to say that this will be my last post on this blog. I wish I could just stop there, but I can not. The following also needs to be said:

For the record, I am officially a supporter of the administration and of her policies. I am a proponent for the war against terror and I believe in the mission in Iraq. I understand my role in that mission, and I accept it. I understand that I signed the contract which makes stop loss legal, and I retract any statements I made in the past that contradict this one. Furthermore, I have the utmost confidence in the leadership of my chain of command, including (but not limited to) the president George Bush and the honorable secretary of defense Rumsfeld. If I have ever written anything on this site or on others that lead the reader to believe otherwise, please consider this a full and complete retraction.

I apologize for any misunderstandings that might understandably arise from this. Should you continue to have questions, please feel free to contact me through e-mail. I promise to respond personally to each, but it may take some time; my internet access has become restricted.

That sucks! There's no way you could read Daniel's work and believe the BS they made him write in this post. Its a huge pity his work for OpTruth seems to have brought this about - OpTruth are probably the most effective advocates Stateside that the common soldiers have and deserve our support.

You may want to check out Daniel's platoon-mate, Zachary Scott-Singley who writes the A Soldier's Thoughts blog.

Here he is on Sept. 28th:

Iraq is the new frontier of poor foreign policy and poor planning. Even the soldiers can see it. Why do you think nobody is re-enlisting? They don't want to keep leaving their families to go fight a loosing battle and to die for an empty promise. The promise that somehow staying in Iraq makes America safer.

We have created a martyr factory here, and we are beginning to wade through the next Vietnam. How wrong do you want to be before you close down shop and send the troops home? 2,000 dead? Is that wrong enough? How about 10,000?

I've mentioned Zachary before. Give him some traffic and ask him to tell Daniel "nil illegitium carrborandum" - don't let the bastards grind you down!

Huge majority of Iraqis want coalition to go

Just to put the final period on my last post, here's a report from the Guardian. According to a poll commissioned by the British Ministry of Defence and leaked to the UK press:

fewer than one in 100 respondents felt the presence of American, British and other allied troops was improving security in the country.

Forty-five per cent countrywide were said to believe that the attacks on the troops were justified - a figure that rose to 65 per cent in the Maysan, one of the provinces policed by the British. No fewer than 82 per cent, according to the report, declared themselves 'strongly opposed' to the presence of coalition troops.

Britain's rightwing Conservative Party's defence spokesman had this to say:

"if British soldiers are putting their lives on the line for a cause which is not supported by the Iraqi people, then we have to ask the question "What are we doing there?"

No, the question to be asked is: "What's the best way to leave?"

I Change My Mind On Iraq

Larry Johnson on Iraq:

The delusional happiness reflected in Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice's remarks this week to Congress about the so-called progress in Iraq ignores hard facts that point to a debacle. The international media appears to be finally catching on that the Washington spin about the purple thumb as a sign of democratic progress is pure nonsense. It is true that more people in Iraq voted in this election than last January. What Rice and other folks out of touch with reality ignore is that the increased number of Sunnis who voted came out to defeat the constitution. Unfortunately, the fix was in. Vote fraud was rampant. U.S. TV crews caught one Shia on tape casting seven yes votes. That's sort of an old style American politics a la Chicago's Daley machine--you know, vote early, vote often. And, results are now, once again, being withheld to "investigate" the irregularities.

Here is a bold prediction: The Constitution will pass and Shia politicians will have a lock on the new Government of Iraq. Consequently, the civil war currently underway will escalate. As the Iraqi Army grows, comprised mostly of Shia and Kurds, attacks against Sunnis will also increase. And that will put the United States in an impossible situation. If we allow the Shia Army and militias to attack Sunni targets we will continue to be the target of Sunni insurgents. If we intervene to try to aid the Sunnis, the Shia's will turn on us.

Johnson knows what he is talking about. His bio describes him as CEO of a company that "helps corporations and governments manage threats posed by terrorism and money laundering. Mr. Johnson works with US military commands in scripting terrorism exercises, briefs foreign governments on a regular basis on terrorist trends, and conducts undercover investigations on product counterfeiting and smuggling."

I cannot find any reason to argue with Mr. Johnson's assessment. Even though I disagreed with the invasion,I've been an advocate of finding better ways to do things in Iraq (my "Twin Wars" posts, links on the sidebar)in the hope of actually ending up with something worthwhile from the debacle created by the Bush cabal. I've written often about the possibilities for new tactics and strategies to turn things around. I ascribed to the "you broke it, you fix it" concept.

But I have to say, I think it is now too late. I have worried over what will happen to the Iraqi people without coalition troops in place as their civil war will undoubtably then heat up. I have wracked my brains for some way to avoid that bloodshed and admit myself stymied. However, when I read that US troops are blowing up important infrastructure, bridges across the Euphrates, to deny them to the enemy I know that the colaition cannot win this war in Iraq. The war is already lost. Staying will mean the difference for the Iraqi people of being in a wok or a slo-cooker...either way they will end up cooked. Meanwhile, more Americans and Brits will die to prevent nothing and accomplish nothing.

The rightwinger and father of the 4th generational warfare concept,William Lind, wrote recently:

The danger sign in America is not a hot national debate over the war in Iraq and its course, but precisely the absence of such a debate — which, as former Senator Gary Hart has pointed out, is largely due to a lack of courage on the part of the Democrats. Far from ensuring a united nation, what such a lack of debate and absence of alternatives makes probable is a bitter fracturing of the American body politic once the loss of the war becomes evident to the public. The public will feel itself betrayed, not merely by one political party, but by the whole political system.

The primum mobile of Fourth Generation war is a crisis of legitimacy of the state. If the absence of a loyal opposition and alternative courses of action further delegitimizes the American state in the eye of the public, the forces of the Fourth Generation will have won a victory of far greater proportions than anything that could happen on the ground in Iraq. The Soviet Union’s defeat in Afghanistan played a central role in the collapse of the Soviet state. Could the American defeat in Iraq have similar consequences here? The chance is far greater than Washington elites can imagine.

Again, I find myself agreeing.

Lind says that the only thing left to do which has not yet been done is to talk to the Sunni insurgents:

the one thing that might allow us to avoid total defeat in Iraq, namely split the Ba'athist resistance from the Islamic resistance. The Ba'ath is still strong enough among the Sunnis that is could probably clean up al-Qa'ida in short order. At present, unfortunately, our policies push the two together, despite the fact that they hate each other’s guts.

We need a deal with the Ba'ath, and the Ba'ath might be open to a deal with us. They need us to stop targeting them while they go after al-Qa'ida, and they need our help on the political level (the draft constitution outlaws them).

Can anyone in Washington or Baghdad’s Emerald City see this opportunity? Are we talking with the Ba'athist resistance? Or is both our political and military leadership so locked in to a failed strategy that opportunities for political maneuver are meaningless?

Unfortunately, Lind wrote the above passage back in September, before the referendum and its fixed result. The opportunity has passed.

I hate what withdrawal will do to the Iraqi people but I have slowly come to the realisation that staying in Iraq will do the same carnage a little more slowly, will continue to create new reasons for conflict and will cost the lives of coalition servicemen.

Its time to begin the process of bringing the troops home. The debate should not be about whether we should do so but about how we do so while minimising bloodshed and disruption for both the present and the future.

So That's The "Liberal" Media, Huh?

Today, local newspapers across America all, as one, channeled simultaneously and in complete harmony, the Bush administration line for cutting wages for workers rebuilding the Gulf Coast. Chris Kromm at Facing South has done an excellent job and I will let him bring you the rest of the story:

All of them are unsigned editorials, which makes it look like they're original opinion pieces for each paper. (The Colorado Gazette even says it's "our view.")

And they all happen to say exactly the same thing, beginning with this paragraph:

"One of the smartest things President Bush did to reduce recovery costs in the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita was to suspend Davis-Bacon Act rules in the hardest hit states. But Congress is frantically trying to overrule the president, which would add billions of dollars to the already staggering recovery costs."

Go read, its very worth it.

We have a word for people like this in Scots - sleekit - which means, according to the Scots Dictionary, "sly, hypocritical or smooth". I would add unashamedly underhanded and showing contempt for the intelligence of others. Pretty much a description of every Republican bigwig and talking head from Bush and DeLay on down.

Punchposts 21st Oct.

Stuff I saw in the early morning after being woken by a happy toddler.

Am I the only one who thinks this headline doesn't bode well for Kentucky Dems? "Democrats bank on Biden to raise money".

Likewise in the category of cut-my-own-throat comes this:

Tom DeLay's fate could hinge on a Stetson-wearing defense attorney who not only represented Waco cult leader David Koresh and helped a cross-dressing millionaire beat a murder rap, but is also a Democrat. WTF???

Rove and Libby have been told they are in "serious legal jeopardy". Charges of perjury, obstruction of justice and false statement are being considered by Fitzgerald, according to lawyers in the case. Those same charges would fit anyone in the Bush administration for everything from Iraq to the economy. Maybe that should be Fitzgerald's next case.

A lawyer for Saddam Hussain who was abducted after representing one of Saddam Hussein’s co-defendants has been found dead in Baghdad.

"Seven senior Syrian officials, including President Bashar al-Assad's brother and brother-in-law, are suspects in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, United Nations investigators said in a report likely to increase tensions between the U.S. and Syria." (Bloomberg) How's that for journalistic understatement? Its liable to blow the fricking roof off Lebanon! Want to bet there's a whole bunch of wannabe-Chalabis waiting in the Lebanese and Syrian wings just egging the U.S. on to intervene?

Largely forgotten by the blogosphere already, but not gone - The United Nations said yesterday the earthquake in Pakistan was a worse disaster than last year's tsunami but it has received just a fraction of the $312m pledged to its emergency appeal, in contrast with 80% of pledges at the same stage after the south Asian disaster. The death toll is already almost 80,000 and 3 million face harsh winter cold without homes. That US blogs have largely dropped this story should be a matter of shame for us all. You can donate here.

The British Army Has Recruitment Woes Too

From the Guardian:

The army is facing a recruitment crisis triggered partly by its operations in Iraq, senior officers admitted yesterday. They are so concerned they are launching the first campaign in 10 years to attract young officers. "We are beginning to see the warning signs," one officer who asked not to be named said. "Once you start tipping off over the cliff, it is difficult to stop."

The shortfall in the total number of soldiers has risen by more than 300% this year to more than 2,000, according to the latest Ministry of Defence figures. Though figures do not yet show a shortage in the number of officers, they reveal that more are leaving the army early...

Brigadier Andrew Jackson, commander of the Army Recruiting Group, told the Guardian: "We cannot pretend Iraq isn't a factor. It is reasonable to assume that the officer community might have thought more deeply about the wider implications of the army's role in Iraq."...

General Sir Michael Walker, the chief of defence staff, recently conceded that the army's ability to attract recruits was suffering because people saw the armed forces as "guilty by association" with Tony Blair's decision to invade Iraq.

I wonder if the word "Duh!" has any meaning for these Army bigwigs?

Pombo, The Eagle and the Racket

Yesterday I talked about the shady connections between Rep. Pombo and several groups that are not exactly on any endangered species Christmas Card list, including Red Lobster restaurants. A commenter at AlterNet, where the story was picked up, said that it was like talking about one car in a traffic jam. That isn't exactly true. While there are many more Republican vehicles in the corruption jam, Rep. Pombo is singularly placed to not only harm the future of America but also to give huge payouts to special interest groups like developers and the fur trade while doing so. Let me explain.

Richard Pombo is behind a proposed amendment to the Endangered Species Act which will gut that act of much of its ability to force private landowners' hands in favor of wildlife with no votes. His amendment was passed by the House 229-193 and now passes to the Senate.

Criticism of the ESA centers around the bald figures that:

since the act was adopted, more than 1,300 species have been listed as endangered or threatened, and only seven of those have been removed from the list because of recovery. Another 20 or so were taken off because they became extinct or it was determined that they had been improperly listed due to data errors.

Obviously, say critics, only seven "saved" species is not enough to justify the huge cost of the Act (about $3.5 billion a year) and the incalculable effect of costs imposed on private citizens, which could be ten times that amount. However, what they fail to realise is the number of extinctions would have been far higher, with no "saved" species at all, without the ESA. For a surety, the bald eagle would not now be found outside zoos.

Pombo is up front about his amendment, called The Endangered Species Recovery Act (TESRA), saying "the act “has been a failure at recovering species — we have to put the focus on recovery and protection of private property owners". In order to accomplish this TESRA requires the Secretary of the Interior to compensate qualified property owners for lost value for the portion of their land affected by the Endangered Species Act. The new bill would therefore pay landowners and developers to protect endangered species found on their property. It's an expensive proposition and, according to an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office, would double the cost of conserving fish and wildlife to $2.7 billion over the next five years. That would almost certainly mean, in today's budget-conscious climate, less money for actual conservation.

The head of Wisconsin's endangered species programs says proposed changes to the federal Endangered Species Act could do considerable damage to state and national efforts to protect rare plants and animals.

Signe Holtz, director of the Bureau of Endangered Resources for the state Department of Natural Resources, says a rewrite of the law recently passed by the House of Representatives would make it more difficult to save threatened and endangered wildlife. She says the proposed changes would divert money from recovery efforts to reimburse private landowners and developers, and eliminate protection of habitats that are crucial to saving many species.
In other words, the "Pay up or the woodpecker gets it" approach."

The new bill would also end one of the most important safeguards for endangered wildlife. Among the most controversial parts of the existing law are those that call for setting aside "critical habitat" for an endangered species and restricting changes a private landowner can make on land with such a designation.

Pombo's bill, rather than change that part of the law, simply removed it.

The bill is backed by the Realtors Association and of course, Red Lobster and its friends in the whaling and trapping industries, not surprisingly -

"Not only does this bill gut the Endangered Species Act, but it creates a government giveaway program to greedy developers," said Rodger Schlickeisen, president of the Defenders of Wildlife

Republican Senator Mike Crapo and Democrat Blanche Lincoln are also trying to put forward an alternative bill. An competing bill to Pombo's presented by House Democrats, which included incentives for landowners who protect species and provisions that made it easier for states to take the lead on species protection, narrowly lost, 216-206. Those two issues, along with increased emphasis on recovering species instead of just listing them, are at the center of reform efforts and expected to be part of Crapo's bill. However, it has much less chance of passing than the bill put forward by the Congressman for Red Lobster because he and Senate Environment and Public Works Chairman Sen. James Inhofe - two long-time critics of the act - are in the key positions for controlling what legislation will move.

So you see, the good Congressman isn't so much one of the cars in the jam as one of the key car-wrecks at the head of the queue. His actions are almost always set with the pattern of Republican corruption we have become so familiar with, as noted by YubaNet today. He has acted as the spokesperson in Congress for Chevron in its bid against China for Unocal, taken money from Alaskan donors just before he continued to push to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling.

In an event called "Pombo Palooza," Abramoff offered $5,000 seats at last year's all-star baseball game to tribes that want power plants on their lands without any environmental oversight. Later the same week Pombo demanded that the House Senate Conference on the 2005 Energy Bill allow power plants without any environmental oversight on tribal lands.

And of course he has his connections to Jack Abramoff, who used to be his biggest contributor. Pombo is still milking his Abramoff connections too:

"The Saginaw Chippewa tribe of Michigan plans to spend more than $300,000 on political donations in the 2006 fiscal year, according to the Sept. 27 memo, a sum somewhat less than in the tribe's years with Abramoff - in which it made several large donations to questionable nonprofits - but still sufficient to wield substantial political influence. Those receiving the largest donations on the list are House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo (R-Calif.) and Reps. J.D. Hayworth (R-Ariz.), Dave Camp (R-Mich.), Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.) and Dale Kildee (D-Mich.), with $7,000 contributions." noted Josephine Hearn, a writer for The Hill http://www.thehill.com, a Congressional newspaper.

Its no wonder his Democratic challenger, Jerry McNerney, is calling for an investigation:

"It is time for a congressional investigation of House Resource Committee Chairman Pombo's activities. They cannot be swept under the carpet and overlooked by his cronies on the Ethics Committee anymore."

McNerney continued, "When taken as a whole, the record is a picture of persistent corruption. The latest story is that he took two expensive trips paid for by anti-environmental groups with legislation before his committee." McNerney connects the dots: "The Congressman uses his chairmanship to help other Congressmen garner donations from those who want influence with the Resources Committee. That is why Tom DeLay appointed him chairman over more senior Republicans; DeLay knew Pombo was not only corrupt but that he would help DeLay corrupt others.

I say again, a key car in the wreckage at the head of the queue.

Pentagon Auditors Left Iraq Quietly A Year Ago

Well, that explains a lot:

The chief Pentagon agency in charge of investigating and reporting fraud and waste in Defense Department spending in Iraq quietly pulled out of the war zone a year ago -- leaving what experts say are gaps in the oversight of how more than $140 billion is being spent.

The Defense Department's inspector general sent auditors into Iraq when the war started more than two years ago to ensure that taxpayers were getting their money's worth for everything from bullets to meals-ready-to-eat.

The auditors were withdrawn in fall 2004 because other agencies were watching spending, too. But experts say those other agencies do not have the expertise, access and broad mandate that the inspector general has -- and do not make their reports public.

That means that the bulk of money being spent in Iraq does not get public scrutiny, leaving the door open for possible waste, fraud and abuse, experts said.

U.S. spending in Iraq falls into two big categories -- fighting the war and rebuilding the country. A Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction has a 45-person staff in Baghdad to monitor $18.4 billion in contracts.

In contrast, the Defense Department inspector general, whose responsibility includes reviewing the $142 billion earmarked for the military, does not have a single auditor or accountant in Iraq tracking spending, Knight Ridder has found.


It perhaps explains, for instance, how Iraqi ministerial officials who were installed by Paul Bremmer could so easily steal the entire Iraqi defense procurement budget - over $1 billion dollars. Or how Halliburton subsiduary KBR could get away for ages with charging the DoD to move convoys of empty trucks across central Iraq

Talk about paving the path for your corporate pals' corruption.

(Meanwhile the administrations' bloggie cheerleaders are calling for a measly $35 million in "pork" cuts that include funding for essential anti-poverty measures.)

My ghast is officially flabbered.

Ron Paul (R-TX) Says Bush Wants Martial Law

Acoording to Reason magazine's libertarian blog Hit and Run, the good Congressman was on a recent radio show blasting Bush's plans to do an end-run around Posse Comitatus using bird-flu as an excuse.

"If we don't change our ways we will go the way of Rome and I see that as rather sad.....the worst things happen when you get the so-called Republican conservatives in charge from Nixon on down, big government flourishes under Republicans."

Now for a U.S. Congressman, and a Republican at that, to invoke Rome and thus the circumstances that led to the changeover from Republic to Empire as well as the decline and fall of that Empire is pretty serious stuff, I would say.

So here's the big tinfoil hat of a question.

If George doesn't feel like stepping down in 2008, what do you think the odds are on his trying to keep power militarily?

(Bear in mind that a hell of a lot of the Christian Right think these are the End Times and predicted as far back as 2001 that Bush would be the last ever President of the USA.)

UK To Buy Enough Flu Vaccine For All

The UK government plans to buy enough flu vaccine to cover all 60 million or so inhabitants of the country in event of a bird-flu pandemic.

Chief Medical Officer Sir Liam Donaldson said 120 million doses would be needed - two for everyone...

Sir Liam said that offering these "sleeping contracts" now should mean manufacturers can develop enough capacity to make a vaccine.

The CMO added that thousands of information packs were being sent to GPs, including information which can be given to patients.

Sir Liam said: "We cannot prevent a flu pandemic, but we can reduce its impact.

"One of the most effective counter-measures we can take against a flu pandemic is to make sure we develop and manufacture a vaccine as quickly as possible.

"We will use this vaccine to immunise the UK population and reduce the impact of a pandemic on society."

As part of their detailed contingency plan, the UK already has a stockpile of 2.5 million courses of anti-viral drugs - the same as the USA with three times the population - and has plans to purchase a total of 14.6 courses. Sir Liam said that Roche, which manufactures the drug, had originally agreed to deliver the full order by March 2007, but under government pressure, it had agreed to bring the deadline forward to next September.

What will those cunning socialists think of next?

The Congressman For Red Lobster (R)

More Republican corruption -

WASHINGTON, October 18, 2005 — A powerful member of Congress may have broken the law by not paying taxes on foreign trips paid for by a shadowy private foundation in large part bankrolled by the parent company of the Red Lobster and Olive Garden restaurant chains, the Center for Public Integrity has discovered.

Rep. Richard Pombo, a California Republican who is chairman of the House Resources Committee, has taken at least two foreign trips costing more than $23,000 that were paid for by the nonprofit International Foundation for the Conservation of Natural Resources.

Experts on tax issues said the law requires Pombo to return the costs of the foreign trips to the foundation. If not, both the foundation and the member of Congress could face stiff penalties from the IRS.

...Pombo said he did not pay taxes on his foreign trips. IFCNR does not indicate that it paid taxes on the trips anywhere on its publicly available tax documents. In fact, IFCNR checked a box on all its tax forms from 2000 through 2004 saying it did not "provide a grant to an individual for travel, study, or other similar purposes."

The ironically names International Foundation for the Conservation of Natural Resources features articles on its website attacking animal right's groups and defend corporations such as Darden and Monsanto.

A three-part series defending Monsanto's biotechnology business promises to examine "the public crucifixion of a corporate name, Monsanto, and the mutation of environmental and animal advocacy."

The Humane Society of the United States is singled out for some of the harshest criticism on the Web site. The group's push to end Canadian seal hunts has included a snow crab boycott effort that in recent months focused on Red Lobster. One article on the Web site attacking the Humane Society over the boycott effort is titled "Target Red Lobster: A Lesson for Corporations & Others."

Humane Society spokesman Michael Markarian said he is not surprised that IFCNR has criticized his group.

"As far as we can tell, they are committed to coming out against any sort of humane treatment of animals," said Markarian. "They are for commercial whaling. They are for trapping. They include cock fighters as a resource management group."

IFCNR's big funders are the Darden Group which includes Red Lobster and Olive Garden. Darden has given a total of $574,000 to IFCNR from 2000 through 2004, which was more than a third of its total support. Other funders to the foundation include Monsanto Corp., the Japan Whaling Association, the International Fur Trade Association, the National Trappers Association, the Maryland Trappers Association, Caspian Star Caviar, Sysco Corp., Smithfield Foods, Strauss Veal Co. and the University of Southern Mississippi's Gulf Coast Research Laboratory.

Rep. Pombo, you may recall, is the man who pushed legislation that critics claim will gut the Endangered Species Act. His staffers have also drafted a working document that suggests some 16 national parks be sold off for development to close the budget gap. The trips funded by IFCNR were to whaling conferences.

Yet again, a Republican has been caught taking what amount to bribes to work the will of lobbyists instead of the will of the people.

Update 20th Oct.

More on Rep. Pombo, his "pay up or the wildlife gets it" approach and also his connections to Abramoff, Alaskan Drilling and the Chinese bid for Unocal here.

Punchposts 19th Oct.

Stuff I meant to write more about but didn't.

Noam Chomsky has been voted the world's leading living intellectual in a poll run by Prospect magazine. Umberto Eco, the Italian novelist and philosopher, was second and Richard Dawkins, the Oxford scientist and outspoken critic of organised religion was third. Chris Hitchens, by virtue of a self-serving blog-post managed to come fifth. Sorry, Chris. You're a bright bugger but you don't belong in that company.

Hitchens does, however, have a really interesting essay at Slate on the tribal rather than religious variations of Iraq. Although he is right that tribal loyalties play a far greater role than Western pundits normally give credit for, he misses the point as usual. Yes indeed, the three normal groups of Sunni, Shia and Kurd are two apples and an orange - but then again so would characterising mainland UK as Catholic, Protestant and Scottish be two apples and an orange, yet that's a distinction that has relevance because many Scots see themselves as Scottish first. So too with the Kurds.

Rightwing pundit Bruce Bartlett has been fired by the National Center for Policy Analysis, a conservative research group based in Dallas. His crime? Telling the masses that Bush isn't a conservative. Luckily for those who like a laugh, Bartlett is still waxing strong over at Townhall.com. Read his latest entitled "The Final Straw" and be sure to quote BIG chunks of it to BushCo asskissers like Hugh Hewitt. I'm looking forward to Bartlett's book, the cause for his firing, "The Impostor: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy." Should be fun.

The always-informative New Standard has a story which speculates on why parts of the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans remain off-limits to residents. None of the official excuses are workeable or even agree with the other reasons and residents are sure the real reason is they want to make an industrial park of the area - which had the highest rate of black home-ownership in the city.

Nathan Newman cuts to the chase on the much talked about David Sirota article "Partisan War Syndrome", arguing that, Democratic Party hacks aside, focus on electoral strategies and "framing" is pretty much secondary. Instead, liberals should make the ideological case for progressive values to undecided voters. "Activists need to rediscover a basic lesson of the abolitionists, feminist, civil rights and labor movements: pragmatism is what you do when you cut the deal, but you build support through passionate commitment to moral values and ideas."

Style over substance is the modus operandi of today's Republican Party - and their lawyers - "U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay's chief lawyer says he has no evidence that Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle participated in grand jury deliberations, despite having made that allegation in motions to dismiss DeLay's indictments".

Some idiot by the name of Todd Manzi , writing for the conservative Human Events Online magazine, is hoping to excuse Bill Bennett's ridiculous black baby abortion comments by saying that few of his listeners were offended (well yeah, they are probably racists too) and that it didn't actually begin to offend thousands until the "vast liberal media conspiracy" (TM) broke the story. Well yeah...and if no non-Jew in the USA was ever told about the Nazi holocaust it wouldn't be such a bad thing either? C'mon Todd, pull the other one, it has bells on it.

Iraqis Probe Possible Vote Rigging

This is SO not going to help -

Iraq's election commission announced Monday that officials were investigating "unusually high" numbers of "yes" votes in about a dozen provinces during Iraq's landmark referendum on a new constitution, raising questions about irregularities in the balloting.

Word of the review came as Sunni Arab leaders repeated accusations of fraud after initial reports from the provinces suggested the constitution had passed. Among the Sunni allegations are that police took ballot boxes from heavily "no" districts, and that some "yes" areas had more votes than registered voters.

In some Kurdish and Shia areas the "yes" vote has been 97 or 98% while in other areas the vote seems too highly "yes" compared with original estimates.

A prominent Sunni Arab politician, Saleh al-Mutlaq, claimed Diyala in particular had seen vote rigging. He said he was told by the manager of a polling station in a Kurdish district of Diyala that 39,000 votes were cast although only 36,000 voters were registered there.

Al-Mutlaq said soldiers broke into a polling station in a Sunni district of the Diyala city of Baqouba and took ballot boxes heavy with "no" votes and that later results showed a "yes" majority. His claims could not be independently verified.

"Bottom line, we can say that the whole operation witnessed interference from government forces," he said.

Al-Mutlaq and Sunni Arab parliament member Meshaan al-Jubouri said polling officials in Ninevah had informed them that the provincial capital, Mosul, voted predominantly "no" — as high as 80 percent — while the Electoral Commission reported a 50-50 split.

Somehow though, I am singularly unsurprised by this. I doubt anyone left of Rush Limbaugh is. The Iraqi power-players have proven adept students of the Bush/DeLay method of government after all - right the way down to their ability to steal their own country blind whilst in positions of power.

Update 18th Oct.

McSwain posted in comments that he is monitoring the fresh reports and bloggie analysis as they come in. He has the numbers for Nineveh which show a remarkable jump from an originally reported "no" of 21% now up to an estimated no of 57% "which still achieves the goal of the electoral officials of saving the Constitution from veto."
And notes:

However, given the now obviously fraudulent initial numbers, who is going to believe the election officials? Who is not going to believe that they are simply looking for a more sophisticated lie?

Indeed.

Condi Says No To Prez Run

If it wasn't so sad and scary how rightwingers can happily live in entire alternate dimensions of reality then it would be funny. Even after she's said it a dozen times the reality-defficient still keep on keeping on with their delusions.

"It's not what I want to do with my life, it's not what I'm going to do with my life," Rice said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press"...

"I'm not somebody who wants to run for office. I haven't ever run for anything," Rice told NBC. "I think I'm doing what I need to do, which is to try and promote American foreign policy, American interests, the president's democracy agenda at an extraordinary time."

Pressed by host Tim Russert, Rice said, "I don't know how may ways to say no."

"So," asked Russert, "no ...?"

A few seconds of silence followed. "Tim," Rice said, "I don't know how many ways to tell people that I have no interest in being a candidate for anything. ... No."

And still they will believe what they want to instead of what is real...

BushCo STILL Hates The Troops - Part 23

Rant Warning. They're at it again.

No sooner is the BushCo Pentagon finally forced to reimburse troops for their having to purchase their own body armor and other equipment (although no cheques have yet arrived...) than along comes this:

The Pentagon has reneged on its offer to pay a $15,000 bonus to members of the National Guard and Army Reserve who agree to extend their enlistments by six years, according to Sen. Patty Murray (D-Seattle).

The bonuses were offered in January to Active Guard and Reserve and military technician soldiers who were serving overseas. In April, the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs ordered the bonuses stopped, Murray said.

“This is outrageous,” the senator said in a telephone interview. “It makes me angry that this administration has broken another promise to our troops.”

Yeah, it makes me angry too. Fuckers. Every promise a quibble, every statement a lie.

Pentagon spokeswoman, Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke, confirmed the bonuses had been canceled, saying they violated Pentagon policies because they duplicated other programs. She said Guard and Reserve members would be eligible for other bonuses.

Notice the spokes-fucker doesn't say the other bonuses will be anything like comparable - they won't be.

In a two-paragraph reply to Murray, Donna Warren, the National Guard Bureau’s congressional liaison, said the bonus program had been scrubbed by order of the Office of Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs. Warren said it had been discovered that Defense Department regulations prohibited such bonuses, but she offered no elaboration.

Incompetent, lying fuckers then.

Murray said Warren’s response was inadequate. Earlier this month she wrote Thomas Hall, assistant secretary of defense for reserve affairs. Murray asked not only for a further explanation, but also asked Hall to reverse himself and reinstate the bonus program.

Krenke said the Pentagon would have no comment on Murray’s letter to Hall.

Because the lying fuckers don't care.

I hope and pray that every single one of them from Georgie on down one day has a reason to truly, truly need the personal helping intervention of U.S. soldiers - and that the soldiers turn their backs on them and walk away.

The Heretik On Haiti

If you've been following the mess in Haiti - where "technical difficulties" in the run-up to the election seems to be a euphamism for political assasination" - then you could do worse than read The Heretik's latest update on the situation there.

If you've not been keeping up on developments there (and I have to admit I haven't until now) then what are you waiting for? Go read.

Bush's New Nanny State For The Rich

You want re-framing? Here's a thought born of a sunny Sunday morning -

If the Right's constant whingeing about the "nanny state" and "entitlement" has any vailidity (and they believe it does) then the principle must hold true for all levels.

Why have American corporations ceased to be innovative? Why are so many - from car manufacturers and airline companies to blue-sky researchers - failed to create stable, long-term growth or been forced into offshoring or restrictive practises to make a profit? Why are they failing Americans while at the same time lining the pockets of their executives?

Blame Bush's tax cuts.

America's richest need no longer work harder and longer than their employees to increase their wealth. They need no longer re-invest in the companies that made their family fortunes to keep their income nor worry about research and development which will keep their competitive edge. They don't really have to work for their money anymore.

All they need to do is sit back and wait for the Bush-created Nanny State for the Rich to hand them money in the form of tax cuts and handouts which they can then dump in offshore trusts or use to buy foreign luxuries. They can also rely on the massive profit-margins enabled by an administration that worries more about those executives continuing on easy-street than on the price of gas at the pumps.

Bush has created a sense of entitlement which leads to sloth, corruption and lack of initiative for the richest. A true nanny state and one which is actually more harmful to the nation than any Rightwinger's worst-nightmare scenario for liberal social programs. True conservatives should be appalled at this stifling of what made America great and working hard to reverse this situation.

There you go. Try that one on your favourite wingnut today and see them turn first red then green. Because they will know in their heart of hearts that its true.