Wednesday, December 10, 2003
What’s Happening, Washington:
(1) Rummy’s Latest- Outsourcing. James Ridgeway of the Village Voice has Rumsfeld’s latest modernization’ scheme for the military. He calls it outsourcing.” Ridgeway notes that the process is already well underway.
Rumsfeld has already outsourced much of the logistics and supply functions of the military to private firms, especially to Cheney's old employer Halliburton. There are now 90-odd companies competing to provide private soldiers from places like Fiji and Nepal to work as machine-gun-toting guards in Iraq.
It's hard to gauge the full effect of Rummy's outsourcing, but one estimate puts gross revenues of renting private armies at $100 billion a year. That compares with the total defense budget of around $400 billion.
Private contractors are appealing for other reasons too. Carrying machineguns in the field, contract soldiers look like a regular army, but they wear no name tags, and when asked questions, they refuse to say anything at all. Dead private army soldiers don't get included in casualty reports. Laws that require government officials to disclose war information to Congress don't pertain to the executives in corporate suites. According to a recent investigative article by the Associated Press, as these companies grow in size, they are getting involved in politics, making campaign contributions and engaging in corporate lobbying.
The armed soldier-bodyguards surrounding Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai and occupation honcho L. Paul Bremer are not U.S. military soldiers but private contractors.
Much of the U.S. military logistics has been farmed out to private companies, the most prominent of which is Cheney's Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root, which does everything from putting up tents, building toilets, getting rid of mosquitoes, and importing cheap cooks from Bangladesh and India http://villagevoice.com/issues/0350/mondo5.php
(2)Baker Moves In:
The appointment of James Baker is rather noteworthy. Although described as working on Iraqi debt refinancing, Baker has opposed much of the current Iraq policy so one can see this as a possible turning away from the current, “star” foreign policy team, or a turn to Junior’s dad.
Just Say No to Home Depot
Subjective 'Pet Peeve': big, chain stores (and Starbucks) Home Depot is especially problematic as it is a major Bush Administration campaign contributor as well as one of ‘those’ that hurt small, hometown businesses. Bush had a campaign stop there this week, the founder Bernard Marcus has given over $321,000 in hard money and $273,000 in soft money and the company’s political action committee has pitched in with $31,000. Plus, Home Depot has had an alarming increase in OSHA violations this past year. Of course the Bush budget proposed to cut OSHA’s budget.
So, I recommend that you avoid the mega stores and if you gotta, go to Lowe’s.-. http://hoffmania.blogspot.com/ http://www.misleader.org/daily_mislead/Read.asp?fn=df12092003.html
What’s Happening, Iraq
Major papers headlined our contract leveraging, saying we will now let companies from those countries that supported the invasion compete for the spoils. The language of this announcement conveyed that punishment will extend into the future if these countries don’t shape up.
Limiting competition for prime contracts will encourage the expansion of international cooperation in Iraq and in future efforts.
Coalition partners share in the US vision of a free and stable Iraq. The limitation of sources for prime contractors from those countries should encourage the continued cooperation of coalition members.
Touch-screen voting machines
A report on the problem area from the Palm Beach Post (George Bennett) notes that Florida is ignoring California’s decision to require its touch screen voting machines provide paper printouts of each ballot that is cast.
But (Secretary of State Glenda) Hood said making a paper trail a statewide requirement is not necessary because Florida has multiple safeguards to assure the accuracy and security of touch screens, which are used in Palm Beach County and 14 other counties.
"Florida has led the nation in providing security and certification," Hood said. "At this point in time, with the satisfaction that the supervisors continue to show... and the fact that we haven't had complaints from voters, I have a high confidence level."
With punch-card ballots falling from favor after the 2000 election, paperless touch-screen systems have emerged as the leading new technology. A small but vocal group of computer scientists, Internet posters and other critics has charged that electronic voting machines are susceptible to errors and fraud and need a paper backup if questions arise about an election.
The criticisms gained attention in July with a Johns Hopkins University report claiming security problems with Diebold touch screens. This week, a report by the Ohio secretary of state's office found security flaws in touch screens made by all four of the nation's major manufacturers. http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/auto/epaper/editions/today/news_f31d85abb14d429c10b0.html
Bush Environmental Record, Revisited
Heck, they’ve already diluted the Clean Air Act; allowed increased pollution from expansions of existing plants without new emissions controls (“new source review” rules); reopened Yellowstone to snowmobiles; undercut national park haze regulations; denied public access to information about chemical plant accidents; okayed raw sewage discharges; dumped the prohibition against awarding federal contracts to companies that violate government regulations; rescinded rules that would permit the Secretary of Interior to block new mines on public land that would cause “substantial irreparable harm” to the environment; revoked rules requiring companies to clean up mining pollution and protect waterways; overturned rules banning destruction of seasonal creeks; allowed dumping of industrial waste in rivers; left 3 million pristine acres of the Tongass National Forest open to clearcut logging; sped up the process for granting mountaintop removal permits for mining operations; refused to accept that having 89% of public land open to oil and gas drilling is enough; put an indefinite hold on a report regarding carcinogenic dioxin in animal feed; failed to show up for the World Summit on Sustainable Development; blasted the Kyoto Treaty without suggesting an alternative; pushed an energy bill with mediocre conservation measures; or, passed a timber-industry-friendly “Healthy Forests” initiative under the guise of controlling wildfires.
So it’s not surprising to learn from a Knight Ridder report (Seth Borenstein) that found that the Bush Administration is “catching and punishing far fewer polluters than the two previous administrations, “ that enforcement efforts peaked under Junior’s father. http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/7445045.htm
U.S. and bin Laden:
Two reports: Ewen MacAskill of the Guardian notes that the “Jihad has worked- the world is split in two” – that
“Osama bin Laden, two years and three months after the New York and Washington attacks that were part of his jihad against America, appears to be winning. He has lost his base in Afghanistan, as well as many colleagues and fighters, and his communications and finances have been disrupted. He may be buried under rubble in Afghanistan or, as Washington and London assume, be hiding in Pakistan's tribal areas. But from Kandahar to Baghdad, from Istanbul to Riyadh, blood is being shed in the name of Bin Laden's jihad.” http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,4814245-103677,00.html
And, Robert Jay Lifton has an article based on his newest book, Superpower Syndrome: America's Apocalyptic Confrontation With the World, in the current Nation.
"The confrontation between Islamist and American versions of planetary excess has unfortunately tended to define a world in which the vast majority of people embrace neither. But apocalyptic excess needs no majority to dominate a landscape. All the more so when, in their mutual zealotry, Islamist and American leaders seem to act in concert. That is, each, in its excess, nurtures the apocalypticism of the other, resulting in a malignant synergy." http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20031222&s=lifton
What’s Happening, Afghanistan: 15 dead Afghan children this week, via 2 American bombings; so much for the ‘hearts and minds’...
Democratic Debate: Ted Koppel was a bit of a treasure. His appalling m.c.’ing of this week’s debate, especially his gambit of asking the other eight candidates, ‘Do you think Dean can beat Bush’- and their predictable and pathetic answer (no)- were deservedly condemned by several of the candidates, especially Dennis Kucinich, "We start talking about endorsements, now we're talking about polls, and then we're talking about money. Well, you know, when you do that, you don't have to talk about what's important to the American people."
Israel, the U.S. and Iraq: For many, the close relationship with Israel has had its disturbing elements. Now Julian Borger of the Guardian reports on Israeli “urban warfare specialists” being sent to Ft. Bragg (NC) to help train U.S. Special Forces personnel after, “according to two sources, Israeli military ‘consultants’ have also visited Iraq.” This comes on the heels of the razing of Iraqi dwellings by U.S. troops, an inveterate Israeli army practice. http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1102940,00.html
-R
(1) Rummy’s Latest- Outsourcing. James Ridgeway of the Village Voice has Rumsfeld’s latest modernization’ scheme for the military. He calls it outsourcing.” Ridgeway notes that the process is already well underway.
Rumsfeld has already outsourced much of the logistics and supply functions of the military to private firms, especially to Cheney's old employer Halliburton. There are now 90-odd companies competing to provide private soldiers from places like Fiji and Nepal to work as machine-gun-toting guards in Iraq.
It's hard to gauge the full effect of Rummy's outsourcing, but one estimate puts gross revenues of renting private armies at $100 billion a year. That compares with the total defense budget of around $400 billion.
Private contractors are appealing for other reasons too. Carrying machineguns in the field, contract soldiers look like a regular army, but they wear no name tags, and when asked questions, they refuse to say anything at all. Dead private army soldiers don't get included in casualty reports. Laws that require government officials to disclose war information to Congress don't pertain to the executives in corporate suites. According to a recent investigative article by the Associated Press, as these companies grow in size, they are getting involved in politics, making campaign contributions and engaging in corporate lobbying.
The armed soldier-bodyguards surrounding Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai and occupation honcho L. Paul Bremer are not U.S. military soldiers but private contractors.
Much of the U.S. military logistics has been farmed out to private companies, the most prominent of which is Cheney's Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root, which does everything from putting up tents, building toilets, getting rid of mosquitoes, and importing cheap cooks from Bangladesh and India http://villagevoice.com/issues/0350/mondo5.php
(2)Baker Moves In:
The appointment of James Baker is rather noteworthy. Although described as working on Iraqi debt refinancing, Baker has opposed much of the current Iraq policy so one can see this as a possible turning away from the current, “star” foreign policy team, or a turn to Junior’s dad.
Just Say No to Home Depot
Subjective 'Pet Peeve': big, chain stores (and Starbucks) Home Depot is especially problematic as it is a major Bush Administration campaign contributor as well as one of ‘those’ that hurt small, hometown businesses. Bush had a campaign stop there this week, the founder Bernard Marcus has given over $321,000 in hard money and $273,000 in soft money and the company’s political action committee has pitched in with $31,000. Plus, Home Depot has had an alarming increase in OSHA violations this past year. Of course the Bush budget proposed to cut OSHA’s budget.
So, I recommend that you avoid the mega stores and if you gotta, go to Lowe’s.-. http://hoffmania.blogspot.com/ http://www.misleader.org/daily_mislead/Read.asp?fn=df12092003.html
What’s Happening, Iraq
Major papers headlined our contract leveraging, saying we will now let companies from those countries that supported the invasion compete for the spoils. The language of this announcement conveyed that punishment will extend into the future if these countries don’t shape up.
Limiting competition for prime contracts will encourage the expansion of international cooperation in Iraq and in future efforts.
Coalition partners share in the US vision of a free and stable Iraq. The limitation of sources for prime contractors from those countries should encourage the continued cooperation of coalition members.
Touch-screen voting machines
A report on the problem area from the Palm Beach Post (George Bennett) notes that Florida is ignoring California’s decision to require its touch screen voting machines provide paper printouts of each ballot that is cast.
But (Secretary of State Glenda) Hood said making a paper trail a statewide requirement is not necessary because Florida has multiple safeguards to assure the accuracy and security of touch screens, which are used in Palm Beach County and 14 other counties.
"Florida has led the nation in providing security and certification," Hood said. "At this point in time, with the satisfaction that the supervisors continue to show... and the fact that we haven't had complaints from voters, I have a high confidence level."
With punch-card ballots falling from favor after the 2000 election, paperless touch-screen systems have emerged as the leading new technology. A small but vocal group of computer scientists, Internet posters and other critics has charged that electronic voting machines are susceptible to errors and fraud and need a paper backup if questions arise about an election.
The criticisms gained attention in July with a Johns Hopkins University report claiming security problems with Diebold touch screens. This week, a report by the Ohio secretary of state's office found security flaws in touch screens made by all four of the nation's major manufacturers. http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/auto/epaper/editions/today/news_f31d85abb14d429c10b0.html
Bush Environmental Record, Revisited
Heck, they’ve already diluted the Clean Air Act; allowed increased pollution from expansions of existing plants without new emissions controls (“new source review” rules); reopened Yellowstone to snowmobiles; undercut national park haze regulations; denied public access to information about chemical plant accidents; okayed raw sewage discharges; dumped the prohibition against awarding federal contracts to companies that violate government regulations; rescinded rules that would permit the Secretary of Interior to block new mines on public land that would cause “substantial irreparable harm” to the environment; revoked rules requiring companies to clean up mining pollution and protect waterways; overturned rules banning destruction of seasonal creeks; allowed dumping of industrial waste in rivers; left 3 million pristine acres of the Tongass National Forest open to clearcut logging; sped up the process for granting mountaintop removal permits for mining operations; refused to accept that having 89% of public land open to oil and gas drilling is enough; put an indefinite hold on a report regarding carcinogenic dioxin in animal feed; failed to show up for the World Summit on Sustainable Development; blasted the Kyoto Treaty without suggesting an alternative; pushed an energy bill with mediocre conservation measures; or, passed a timber-industry-friendly “Healthy Forests” initiative under the guise of controlling wildfires.
So it’s not surprising to learn from a Knight Ridder report (Seth Borenstein) that found that the Bush Administration is “catching and punishing far fewer polluters than the two previous administrations, “ that enforcement efforts peaked under Junior’s father. http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/7445045.htm
U.S. and bin Laden:
Two reports: Ewen MacAskill of the Guardian notes that the “Jihad has worked- the world is split in two” – that
“Osama bin Laden, two years and three months after the New York and Washington attacks that were part of his jihad against America, appears to be winning. He has lost his base in Afghanistan, as well as many colleagues and fighters, and his communications and finances have been disrupted. He may be buried under rubble in Afghanistan or, as Washington and London assume, be hiding in Pakistan's tribal areas. But from Kandahar to Baghdad, from Istanbul to Riyadh, blood is being shed in the name of Bin Laden's jihad.” http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,4814245-103677,00.html
And, Robert Jay Lifton has an article based on his newest book, Superpower Syndrome: America's Apocalyptic Confrontation With the World, in the current Nation.
"The confrontation between Islamist and American versions of planetary excess has unfortunately tended to define a world in which the vast majority of people embrace neither. But apocalyptic excess needs no majority to dominate a landscape. All the more so when, in their mutual zealotry, Islamist and American leaders seem to act in concert. That is, each, in its excess, nurtures the apocalypticism of the other, resulting in a malignant synergy." http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20031222&s=lifton
What’s Happening, Afghanistan: 15 dead Afghan children this week, via 2 American bombings; so much for the ‘hearts and minds’...
Democratic Debate: Ted Koppel was a bit of a treasure. His appalling m.c.’ing of this week’s debate, especially his gambit of asking the other eight candidates, ‘Do you think Dean can beat Bush’- and their predictable and pathetic answer (no)- were deservedly condemned by several of the candidates, especially Dennis Kucinich, "We start talking about endorsements, now we're talking about polls, and then we're talking about money. Well, you know, when you do that, you don't have to talk about what's important to the American people."
Israel, the U.S. and Iraq: For many, the close relationship with Israel has had its disturbing elements. Now Julian Borger of the Guardian reports on Israeli “urban warfare specialists” being sent to Ft. Bragg (NC) to help train U.S. Special Forces personnel after, “according to two sources, Israeli military ‘consultants’ have also visited Iraq.” This comes on the heels of the razing of Iraqi dwellings by U.S. troops, an inveterate Israeli army practice. http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1102940,00.html
-R
