Wednesday, December 15, 2004
What’s Happening, Iraq:
“Force Protection”: Rumsfeld was not surprised by the GI last week. The following is from a May 13 visit to Iraq. Rumsfeld didn’t answer, but stood next to General Myers, who said the following.
Q How you doing, sir? (Inaudible.) I have force protection questions, sir.
SEC. RUMSFELD: You have what?
Q Force protection.
SEC. RUMSFELD: General Myers. (Laughter.)
Q Sir, my unit, the 2nd Brigade -- (inaudible) -- Cav, we have five out of the six red zones in this country. And with the up- armored humvees, the new -- (off mike) -- humvees they're bringing over with the -- (inaudible) -- those doors are not as good as the ones on the up-armored humvees -- (inaudible). We even lost quite -- we lost some soldiers due to them, and we're trying to make a change -- (inaudible). The question is, are we going to get more up-armored humvees?
Production is ramping up this month. I think it's around 220, 225 per month. We've gathered them from all other services that had them except for a few we held back for a nuclear security role back in the United States. The rest of them shipped over here. We're trying to get them to you as fast as we can http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/2004/tr20040513-secdef0747.html
Casualties: Apart from the Iraqis…
1,440 allied killed1,294 U.S. killed2.27 killed per day9,766 U.S. wounded in action http://icasualties.org/oif/
Hired Help in Iraq: Colombians please apply
A US company has recruited 25 retired Colombian police and army officers to provide security for oil infrastructure in Iraq, according to the newspaper El Tiempo.
The officers met in northern Bogota on December 2 with a Colombian colonel, who, on behalf of “Halliburton Latin America,” offered them monthly salaries of 7,000 dollars to provide security for oil workers and infrastructure in several Iraqi cities, according to one of the men, who spoke on condition of anonymity. http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/focusoniraq/2004/December/focusoniraq_December105.xml§ion=focusoniraq
Spain: Bush’s Model? They’re not only secretive, but the ousted Aznar regime (which, you’ll recall, blamed last March’s bombing on the Basque separatists, fearing a backlash against their support of the Iraq invasion) has destroyed all of its documents from those days, and then charged the cost to the government.
Socialists claim that Señor Aznar deliberately withheld from the public evidence of an Islamic link, fearing a backlash against his support for the American-led war in Iraq. Those claims have been denied by Señor Aznar.
Yesterday Señor Zapatero said that it had been impossible to establish the truth because computer records had been destroyed.
Giving evidence under oath he said: “In the Prime Minister’s office we did not have a single document or any data on computer because the whole Cabinet of the previous Government carried out a massive erasure.
“That means that we have nothing about what happened, information that might have been received, meetings or decisions that were taken from March 11 until March 14.”
Señor Zapatero confirmed a report in El País, the left- of-centre daily newspaper, that a wide range of policy documents covering the eight years of Señor Aznar’s administration was missing.
The newspaper said that Señor Aznar’s Government had paid a private company €12,000 (£8,000) to destroy the documents. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1402824,00.html
Social Security: The first details emerge. The b______d’s want to kill the principal program that provides our social glue. Again, minor tweaking is all that is needed. The system is fine until at least 2042, perhaps 10 more years and even then… Anyway, Medicare is much more of a problem, but we should shiver at the prospect of the Bushies dealing with it.
As President Bush gears up for a major public push to overhaul Social Security, he has focused almost all his rhetorical energy on the need to let people divert some of their taxes to private retirement accounts.
But nearly every leading Republican proposal on Capitol Hill acknowledges that private accounts by themselves do little to solve the system's projected shortfall of at least $3.5 trillion. Instead, those proposals rely on deep cuts in benefits to future retirees.
That uncomfortable political truth was driven home on Monday by the head of the investigative arm of Congress.
"The creation of private accounts for Social Security will not deal with the solvency and sustainability of the Social Security fund," that official, David M. Walker, comptroller general of the Government Accountability Office, said in a speech on Monday.
Or, as Thomas Saving, a Republican-appointed trustee to the Social Security trust fund put it last week: "Fundamentally, if you don't reduce the benefits, you don't reduce the debt."
Some of the Republican proposals would raise the age when people can start to receive benefits. Others would reduce payments to beneficiaries to account for longer life expectancies. Still others would reduce payments to married couples and scale back the annual increases that are made to keep pace with inflation. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/14/politics/14social.html?pagewanted=print&position=
Electoral Cheating… in the NY Times, page A23. It remains a very long shot, but at least…
The ranking Democratic member of the House Judiciary Committee, Representative John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, plans to ask the Federal Bureau of Investigation and a county prosecutor in Ohio today to explore "inappropriate and likely illegal election tampering" in at least one and perhaps several Ohio counties.
The request for an investigation, made in a letter that was also provided to The New York Times, includes accounts from at least two county employees, but is based largely on a sworn affidavit provided by the Hocking County deputy director of elections, Sherole Eaton.
Among other things, Ms. Eaton says in her affidavit that a representative of Triad Governmental Systems, the Ohio firm that created and maintains the vote-counting software in dozens of Ohio counties, made several adjustments to the Hocking County tabulator last Friday, in advance of the state's recount, which is taking place this week. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/15/politics/15ohio.html?oref=login&pagewanted=print&position=
U.S. vs the World: Upshot
The leaders of India, Russia and China are planning to hold a summit next year aimed at countering the dominance of the United States in international affairs, a newspaper reported on Saturday. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh discussed the possibility of a three-way dialogue at a meeting in New Delhi on Friday, the Asian Age newspaper reported. http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_5-12-2004_pg4_16
Frist and the ‘Nuclear Option’: Will he or won’t he? This refers to eliminating the filibuster.
As speculation mounts that Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist will step down from the Supreme Court soon because of thyroid cancer, Senate Republican leaders are preparing for a showdown to keep Democrats from blocking President Bush's judicial nominations, including a replacement for Rehnquist.
Republicans say that Democrats have abused the filibuster by blocking 10 of the president's 229 judicial nominees in his first term -- although confirmation of Bush nominees exceeds in most cases the first-term experience of presidents dating to Ronald Reagan. Describing the filibusters as intolerable, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) has hinted he may resort to an unusual parliamentary maneuver, dubbed the "nuclear option," to thwart such filibusters.
"One way or another, the filibuster of judicial nominees must end," he said in a speech to the Federalist Society last month, labeling the use of filibusters against judicial nominees a "formula for tyranny by the minority."
So far, at least, Democrats are refusing to forgo filibusters and say they will fight any effort by Frist to act unilaterally to end them for judicial nominations. They warn that it could poison the well for bipartisan cooperation on other issues in the upcoming Congress.
"If they, for whatever reason, decide to do this, it's not only wrong, they will rue the day they did it, because we will do whatever we can do to strike back," incoming Senate Democratic leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.) said last week. "I know procedures around here. And I know that there will still be Senate business conducted. But I will, for lack of a better word, screw things up." http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A59877-2004Dec12?language=printer
-R
“Force Protection”: Rumsfeld was not surprised by the GI last week. The following is from a May 13 visit to Iraq. Rumsfeld didn’t answer, but stood next to General Myers, who said the following.
Q How you doing, sir? (Inaudible.) I have force protection questions, sir.
SEC. RUMSFELD: You have what?
Q Force protection.
SEC. RUMSFELD: General Myers. (Laughter.)
Q Sir, my unit, the 2nd Brigade -- (inaudible) -- Cav, we have five out of the six red zones in this country. And with the up- armored humvees, the new -- (off mike) -- humvees they're bringing over with the -- (inaudible) -- those doors are not as good as the ones on the up-armored humvees -- (inaudible). We even lost quite -- we lost some soldiers due to them, and we're trying to make a change -- (inaudible). The question is, are we going to get more up-armored humvees?
Production is ramping up this month. I think it's around 220, 225 per month. We've gathered them from all other services that had them except for a few we held back for a nuclear security role back in the United States. The rest of them shipped over here. We're trying to get them to you as fast as we can http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/2004/tr20040513-secdef0747.html
Casualties: Apart from the Iraqis…
1,440 allied killed1,294 U.S. killed2.27 killed per day9,766 U.S. wounded in action http://icasualties.org/oif/
Hired Help in Iraq: Colombians please apply
A US company has recruited 25 retired Colombian police and army officers to provide security for oil infrastructure in Iraq, according to the newspaper El Tiempo.
The officers met in northern Bogota on December 2 with a Colombian colonel, who, on behalf of “Halliburton Latin America,” offered them monthly salaries of 7,000 dollars to provide security for oil workers and infrastructure in several Iraqi cities, according to one of the men, who spoke on condition of anonymity. http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/focusoniraq/2004/December/focusoniraq_December105.xml§ion=focusoniraq
Spain: Bush’s Model? They’re not only secretive, but the ousted Aznar regime (which, you’ll recall, blamed last March’s bombing on the Basque separatists, fearing a backlash against their support of the Iraq invasion) has destroyed all of its documents from those days, and then charged the cost to the government.
Socialists claim that Señor Aznar deliberately withheld from the public evidence of an Islamic link, fearing a backlash against his support for the American-led war in Iraq. Those claims have been denied by Señor Aznar.
Yesterday Señor Zapatero said that it had been impossible to establish the truth because computer records had been destroyed.
Giving evidence under oath he said: “In the Prime Minister’s office we did not have a single document or any data on computer because the whole Cabinet of the previous Government carried out a massive erasure.
“That means that we have nothing about what happened, information that might have been received, meetings or decisions that were taken from March 11 until March 14.”
Señor Zapatero confirmed a report in El País, the left- of-centre daily newspaper, that a wide range of policy documents covering the eight years of Señor Aznar’s administration was missing.
The newspaper said that Señor Aznar’s Government had paid a private company €12,000 (£8,000) to destroy the documents. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1402824,00.html
Social Security: The first details emerge. The b______d’s want to kill the principal program that provides our social glue. Again, minor tweaking is all that is needed. The system is fine until at least 2042, perhaps 10 more years and even then… Anyway, Medicare is much more of a problem, but we should shiver at the prospect of the Bushies dealing with it.
As President Bush gears up for a major public push to overhaul Social Security, he has focused almost all his rhetorical energy on the need to let people divert some of their taxes to private retirement accounts.
But nearly every leading Republican proposal on Capitol Hill acknowledges that private accounts by themselves do little to solve the system's projected shortfall of at least $3.5 trillion. Instead, those proposals rely on deep cuts in benefits to future retirees.
That uncomfortable political truth was driven home on Monday by the head of the investigative arm of Congress.
"The creation of private accounts for Social Security will not deal with the solvency and sustainability of the Social Security fund," that official, David M. Walker, comptroller general of the Government Accountability Office, said in a speech on Monday.
Or, as Thomas Saving, a Republican-appointed trustee to the Social Security trust fund put it last week: "Fundamentally, if you don't reduce the benefits, you don't reduce the debt."
Some of the Republican proposals would raise the age when people can start to receive benefits. Others would reduce payments to beneficiaries to account for longer life expectancies. Still others would reduce payments to married couples and scale back the annual increases that are made to keep pace with inflation. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/14/politics/14social.html?pagewanted=print&position=
Electoral Cheating… in the NY Times, page A23. It remains a very long shot, but at least…
The ranking Democratic member of the House Judiciary Committee, Representative John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, plans to ask the Federal Bureau of Investigation and a county prosecutor in Ohio today to explore "inappropriate and likely illegal election tampering" in at least one and perhaps several Ohio counties.
The request for an investigation, made in a letter that was also provided to The New York Times, includes accounts from at least two county employees, but is based largely on a sworn affidavit provided by the Hocking County deputy director of elections, Sherole Eaton.
Among other things, Ms. Eaton says in her affidavit that a representative of Triad Governmental Systems, the Ohio firm that created and maintains the vote-counting software in dozens of Ohio counties, made several adjustments to the Hocking County tabulator last Friday, in advance of the state's recount, which is taking place this week. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/15/politics/15ohio.html?oref=login&pagewanted=print&position=
U.S. vs the World: Upshot
The leaders of India, Russia and China are planning to hold a summit next year aimed at countering the dominance of the United States in international affairs, a newspaper reported on Saturday. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh discussed the possibility of a three-way dialogue at a meeting in New Delhi on Friday, the Asian Age newspaper reported. http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_5-12-2004_pg4_16
Frist and the ‘Nuclear Option’: Will he or won’t he? This refers to eliminating the filibuster.
As speculation mounts that Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist will step down from the Supreme Court soon because of thyroid cancer, Senate Republican leaders are preparing for a showdown to keep Democrats from blocking President Bush's judicial nominations, including a replacement for Rehnquist.
Republicans say that Democrats have abused the filibuster by blocking 10 of the president's 229 judicial nominees in his first term -- although confirmation of Bush nominees exceeds in most cases the first-term experience of presidents dating to Ronald Reagan. Describing the filibusters as intolerable, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) has hinted he may resort to an unusual parliamentary maneuver, dubbed the "nuclear option," to thwart such filibusters.
"One way or another, the filibuster of judicial nominees must end," he said in a speech to the Federalist Society last month, labeling the use of filibusters against judicial nominees a "formula for tyranny by the minority."
So far, at least, Democrats are refusing to forgo filibusters and say they will fight any effort by Frist to act unilaterally to end them for judicial nominations. They warn that it could poison the well for bipartisan cooperation on other issues in the upcoming Congress.
"If they, for whatever reason, decide to do this, it's not only wrong, they will rue the day they did it, because we will do whatever we can do to strike back," incoming Senate Democratic leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.) said last week. "I know procedures around here. And I know that there will still be Senate business conducted. But I will, for lack of a better word, screw things up." http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A59877-2004Dec12?language=printer
-R
