Thursday, December 09, 2004
Air America Thriving. Now in DC
Air America, the liberal radio network that had a rocky takeoff last spring, has struck a deal to land in Washington.
The arrangement with WRC-AM comes as the fledgling network is gaining altitude, announcing yesterday that it has re-signed star personality Al Franken to a multiyear contract, raised $13 million in new financing and named Rob Glaser, chief executive of RealNetworks, as its chairman.
WRC (1260) plans to drop its syndicated sports talk programming in favor of Franken and some of the rest of Air America's left-leaning lineup while adding other liberal commentators, say people familiar with the matter. This would give WRC's owner, Clear Channel Communications, a "blue state" station to balance its "red state" programs on WTNT (570), which includes conservative hosts Laura Ingraham, G. Gordon Liddy and Michael Savage. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A49905-2004Dec8?language=printer
Latest Rummy Flap The video was priceless.
“Why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to up-armor our vehicles?'' - Army Specialist Thomas Wilson, drawing cheers from about 2,000 troops at Cam Buehring, Kuwait, in an exchange broadcast on Cable News Network. ``You have to go to war with the Army you have,'' – Rumsfeld
Then, razzing of Rummy, to which he hesitatingly replied, ‘Hey, c’mon, I’m an old man, it’s early in the day, I’m collecting my thoughts…’
It Doesn’t Have to Be This Way. Seems like the Pentagon hasn’t asked for a speed-up of the armor. Developing consensus is that since 27% of the vehicles there STILL don’t have proper protection, it is reasonable to estimate that 20% of the fatalities would not have occurred, i.e. 200 Americans died from this ill-preparedness.
Armor Holdings Inc., the sole supplier of protective plates for the Humvee military vehicles used in Iraq, said it could increase output by as much as 22 percent per month with no investment and is awaiting an order from the Army.
U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said yesterday the Army was working as fast as it can and supply is dictated by ``a matter of physics, not a matter of money.''
Jacksonville, Florida-based Armor Holdings last month told the Army it could add armor to as many as 550 of the trucks a month, up from 450 vehicles now, Robert Mecredy, president of the company's aerospace and defense group said in a telephone interview today.
``We're prepared to build 50 to 100 vehicles more per month,'' Mecredy said in the interview. ``I've told the customer that and I stand ready to do that.''
Insurgent attacks on the vehicles with homemade bombs and rocket-propelled grenades are accounting for as much as half of the more than 1,000 U.S. deaths and 9,000 U.S. wounded in Iraq, according to Congressional estimates.
President George W. Bush said concerns raised by soldiers in questions to Rumsfeld yesterday in Kuwait are being addressed,'' Bush said in response to a reporter's question. ``We expect our troops to have the best possible equipment. If I were a soldier overseas wanting to defend my country I'd want to ask the Secretary of Defense the same question, and that is are we getting the best'' equipment, he said. ``They deserve the best.''
`Hillbilly Armor'
U.S. troops preparing for deployment to Iraq told Rumsfeld yesterday they are salvaging armor from landfills to install ``hillbilly armor'' on their Humvees. Rumsfeld replied that ``you have to go to war with the Army you have.'' http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000006&sid=aMGdbQCSwiRg&refer=home
Fate of the Whistle Blower:
On June 15, 2003, Sgt. Frank "Greg" Ford, a counterintelligence agent in the California National Guard's 223rd Military Intelligence (M.I.) Battalion stationed in Samarra, Iraq, told his commanding officer, Capt. Victor Artiga, that he had witnessed five incidents of torture and abuse of Iraqi detainees at his base, and requested a formal investigation. Thirty-six hours later, Ford, a 49-year-old with over 30 years of military service in the Coast Guard, Army and Navy, was ordered by U.S. Army medical personnel to lie down on a gurney, was then strapped down, loaded onto a military plane and medevac'd to a military medical center outside the country.
Although no "medevac" order appears to have been written, in violation of Army policy, Ford was clearly shipped out because of a diagnosis that he was suffering from combat stress. After Ford raised the torture allegations, Artiga immediately said Ford was "delusional" and ordered a psychiatric examination. http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/12/08/coverup/index_np.html?x
Russ Feingold, in the Senate:
Where is this going? Who is in charge? Who knows? No one ever seems to be held accountable for the blunders, the failures, the wildly inaccurate presentations and projections or the painfully ineffective initiatives. Congress cannot simply accept more of the same, keep our heads down and hope that somehow we will muddle through. The stakes are far too high. Our national security, the stability of the world that our children will inherit, our troops — even our country's honor — are on the line. Congress has an obligation, not to oppose every administration effort, but to reassert our role in helping to steer the ship of state wisely rather than recklessly. I look at our foreign policy over the past four years, and I know that America is so much better than this. http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/20680/
Conservative Wackos at work:
· Reid a racist. As the new majority leader said he’d support Scalia but not Clarence Thomas as Chief Justice, the Right has begun to call him “racist.” Love it.
· Olbermann should be fired. “Grass roots” Right web sites are encouraging his firing, since he’s covering the Ohio saga, nightly on MSNBC, 8 - 9PM.
Election Fraud:
Jesse Jackson, Jr., of Illinois, to the chair of the ad hoc committee, John Conyers, of Michigan, “If the votes are not tallied in the state of Ohio by the appropriate time, is there any thought being given that the committee might consider an objection to the proceeding of the Ohio Electors until such time (as they are tallied)?”
Conyers replied, in his overly deliberate way: “We are now.”
But later, Conyers clarified, “We will wait for someone else,” in preference to drawing congress into a legal battle.
CIA fella speaks out. Amidst the cleansing…a voice
A senior CIA operative who handled sensitive informants in Iraq asserts that CIA managers asked him to falsify his reporting on weapons of mass destruction and retaliated against him after he refused.
The operative, who remains under cover, asserts in a lawsuit made public yesterday that a co-worker warned him in 2001 "that CIA management planned to 'get him' for his role in reporting intelligence contrary to official CIA dogma."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49647-2004Dec8.html
Attention, Consumers: Are you donating your money to a party that holds the opposite of your political views?
Special mention should go to Choose The Blue for their incredibly easy to use page. Choose a shopping category, and their crossed reference menu shows you where your money is going.For example, GM splits their donations 60/40 GOP/Dem; Ford is 71/29. Toyota was the only Blue manufacturer at 74%. Progressive Insurance was 91% Blue (no surprise there), while State Farm was 81% Red.
Tech firms were surprisingly Blue (Sun, Cisco, HP and IBM), with Siebel, Intuit and Activision the Red exceptions. http://bigpicture.typepad.com/comments/2004/12/_politics_shopp.html
Class Warfare: David Sirota argues for some:
If patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels, crying "class warfare" is the last refuge of wealthy elitists. Yet, inexplicably, this red herring emasculates Democrats in Washington. Every time pro-middle-class legislation is offered, Republicans berate it as class warfare. Worse, they get help from corporate factions within the Democratic Party itself.
But as countless examples show, progressives are making inroads into culturally conservative areas by talking about economic class. This is not the traditional (and often condescending) Democratic pandering about the need for a nanny government to provide for the masses. It is us-versus-them red meat, straight talk about how the system is working against ordinary Americans.
http://www.alternet.org/module/printversion/20702
For those still in denial…yes, him too
TV legend Dick Clark, recovering in a local hospital after suffering a mild stroke this week, plans to return to work in time to anchor two ABC specials New Year's Eve, his publicist said Wednesday.
Clark, who turned 75 on Nov. 30, was reported to be recuperating at an undisclosed hospital. Few details on his condition were released.
"The doctors tell me I should be back in the swing of things before too long, so I'm hopeful to be able to make it to Times Square to help lead the country in ringing in the New Year once again," Clark said in a statement issued by his longtime publicist, Paul Shefrin. http://www.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,200~20954~2585104,00.html
-R
Air America, the liberal radio network that had a rocky takeoff last spring, has struck a deal to land in Washington.
The arrangement with WRC-AM comes as the fledgling network is gaining altitude, announcing yesterday that it has re-signed star personality Al Franken to a multiyear contract, raised $13 million in new financing and named Rob Glaser, chief executive of RealNetworks, as its chairman.
WRC (1260) plans to drop its syndicated sports talk programming in favor of Franken and some of the rest of Air America's left-leaning lineup while adding other liberal commentators, say people familiar with the matter. This would give WRC's owner, Clear Channel Communications, a "blue state" station to balance its "red state" programs on WTNT (570), which includes conservative hosts Laura Ingraham, G. Gordon Liddy and Michael Savage. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A49905-2004Dec8?language=printer
Latest Rummy Flap The video was priceless.
“Why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to up-armor our vehicles?'' - Army Specialist Thomas Wilson, drawing cheers from about 2,000 troops at Cam Buehring, Kuwait, in an exchange broadcast on Cable News Network. ``You have to go to war with the Army you have,'' – Rumsfeld
Then, razzing of Rummy, to which he hesitatingly replied, ‘Hey, c’mon, I’m an old man, it’s early in the day, I’m collecting my thoughts…’
It Doesn’t Have to Be This Way. Seems like the Pentagon hasn’t asked for a speed-up of the armor. Developing consensus is that since 27% of the vehicles there STILL don’t have proper protection, it is reasonable to estimate that 20% of the fatalities would not have occurred, i.e. 200 Americans died from this ill-preparedness.
Armor Holdings Inc., the sole supplier of protective plates for the Humvee military vehicles used in Iraq, said it could increase output by as much as 22 percent per month with no investment and is awaiting an order from the Army.
U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said yesterday the Army was working as fast as it can and supply is dictated by ``a matter of physics, not a matter of money.''
Jacksonville, Florida-based Armor Holdings last month told the Army it could add armor to as many as 550 of the trucks a month, up from 450 vehicles now, Robert Mecredy, president of the company's aerospace and defense group said in a telephone interview today.
``We're prepared to build 50 to 100 vehicles more per month,'' Mecredy said in the interview. ``I've told the customer that and I stand ready to do that.''
Insurgent attacks on the vehicles with homemade bombs and rocket-propelled grenades are accounting for as much as half of the more than 1,000 U.S. deaths and 9,000 U.S. wounded in Iraq, according to Congressional estimates.
President George W. Bush said concerns raised by soldiers in questions to Rumsfeld yesterday in Kuwait are being addressed,'' Bush said in response to a reporter's question. ``We expect our troops to have the best possible equipment. If I were a soldier overseas wanting to defend my country I'd want to ask the Secretary of Defense the same question, and that is are we getting the best'' equipment, he said. ``They deserve the best.''
`Hillbilly Armor'
U.S. troops preparing for deployment to Iraq told Rumsfeld yesterday they are salvaging armor from landfills to install ``hillbilly armor'' on their Humvees. Rumsfeld replied that ``you have to go to war with the Army you have.'' http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000006&sid=aMGdbQCSwiRg&refer=home
Fate of the Whistle Blower:
On June 15, 2003, Sgt. Frank "Greg" Ford, a counterintelligence agent in the California National Guard's 223rd Military Intelligence (M.I.) Battalion stationed in Samarra, Iraq, told his commanding officer, Capt. Victor Artiga, that he had witnessed five incidents of torture and abuse of Iraqi detainees at his base, and requested a formal investigation. Thirty-six hours later, Ford, a 49-year-old with over 30 years of military service in the Coast Guard, Army and Navy, was ordered by U.S. Army medical personnel to lie down on a gurney, was then strapped down, loaded onto a military plane and medevac'd to a military medical center outside the country.
Although no "medevac" order appears to have been written, in violation of Army policy, Ford was clearly shipped out because of a diagnosis that he was suffering from combat stress. After Ford raised the torture allegations, Artiga immediately said Ford was "delusional" and ordered a psychiatric examination. http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/12/08/coverup/index_np.html?x
Russ Feingold, in the Senate:
Where is this going? Who is in charge? Who knows? No one ever seems to be held accountable for the blunders, the failures, the wildly inaccurate presentations and projections or the painfully ineffective initiatives. Congress cannot simply accept more of the same, keep our heads down and hope that somehow we will muddle through. The stakes are far too high. Our national security, the stability of the world that our children will inherit, our troops — even our country's honor — are on the line. Congress has an obligation, not to oppose every administration effort, but to reassert our role in helping to steer the ship of state wisely rather than recklessly. I look at our foreign policy over the past four years, and I know that America is so much better than this. http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/20680/
Conservative Wackos at work:
· Reid a racist. As the new majority leader said he’d support Scalia but not Clarence Thomas as Chief Justice, the Right has begun to call him “racist.” Love it.
· Olbermann should be fired. “Grass roots” Right web sites are encouraging his firing, since he’s covering the Ohio saga, nightly on MSNBC, 8 - 9PM.
Election Fraud:
Jesse Jackson, Jr., of Illinois, to the chair of the ad hoc committee, John Conyers, of Michigan, “If the votes are not tallied in the state of Ohio by the appropriate time, is there any thought being given that the committee might consider an objection to the proceeding of the Ohio Electors until such time (as they are tallied)?”
Conyers replied, in his overly deliberate way: “We are now.”
But later, Conyers clarified, “We will wait for someone else,” in preference to drawing congress into a legal battle.
CIA fella speaks out. Amidst the cleansing…a voice
A senior CIA operative who handled sensitive informants in Iraq asserts that CIA managers asked him to falsify his reporting on weapons of mass destruction and retaliated against him after he refused.
The operative, who remains under cover, asserts in a lawsuit made public yesterday that a co-worker warned him in 2001 "that CIA management planned to 'get him' for his role in reporting intelligence contrary to official CIA dogma."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49647-2004Dec8.html
Attention, Consumers: Are you donating your money to a party that holds the opposite of your political views?
Special mention should go to Choose The Blue for their incredibly easy to use page. Choose a shopping category, and their crossed reference menu shows you where your money is going.For example, GM splits their donations 60/40 GOP/Dem; Ford is 71/29. Toyota was the only Blue manufacturer at 74%. Progressive Insurance was 91% Blue (no surprise there), while State Farm was 81% Red.
Tech firms were surprisingly Blue (Sun, Cisco, HP and IBM), with Siebel, Intuit and Activision the Red exceptions. http://bigpicture.typepad.com/comments/2004/12/_politics_shopp.html
Class Warfare: David Sirota argues for some:
If patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels, crying "class warfare" is the last refuge of wealthy elitists. Yet, inexplicably, this red herring emasculates Democrats in Washington. Every time pro-middle-class legislation is offered, Republicans berate it as class warfare. Worse, they get help from corporate factions within the Democratic Party itself.
But as countless examples show, progressives are making inroads into culturally conservative areas by talking about economic class. This is not the traditional (and often condescending) Democratic pandering about the need for a nanny government to provide for the masses. It is us-versus-them red meat, straight talk about how the system is working against ordinary Americans.
http://www.alternet.org/module/printversion/20702
For those still in denial…yes, him too
TV legend Dick Clark, recovering in a local hospital after suffering a mild stroke this week, plans to return to work in time to anchor two ABC specials New Year's Eve, his publicist said Wednesday.
Clark, who turned 75 on Nov. 30, was reported to be recuperating at an undisclosed hospital. Few details on his condition were released.
"The doctors tell me I should be back in the swing of things before too long, so I'm hopeful to be able to make it to Times Square to help lead the country in ringing in the New Year once again," Clark said in a statement issued by his longtime publicist, Paul Shefrin. http://www.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,200~20954~2585104,00.html
-R
Tuesday, December 07, 2004
The Dollar: 3 commentaries from subversive rags- The Financial Times, The Economist, The International Herald Tribune. Yes, we should be concerned.
Oil exporters have sharply reduced their exposure to the US dollar over the past three years, according to data from the Bank for International Settlements. Members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries have cut the proportion of deposits held in dollars from 75 per cent in the third quarter of 2001 to 61.5 per cent.
Middle Eastern central banks have reportedly switched reserves from dollars to euros and sterling to avoid incurring losses as the dollar has fallen and prepare for a shift away from pricing oil exports in dollars alone.
Private Middle East investors are believed to be worried about the prospect of US-held assets being frozen as part of the war on terror, leading to accelerated dollar-selling after the re-election of President George W. Bush. http://news.ft.com/cms/s/67f88f7c-47cb-11d9-a0fd-00000e2511c8.html
America's current-account deficit is at the heart of these global concerns. The OECD's latest Economic Outlook predicts that the deficit will rise to $825 billion by 2006 (6.4% of America's GDP) assuming unchanged exchange rates. Optimists argue that foreigners will keep financing the deficit because American assets offer high returns and a haven from risk. In fact, private investors have already turned away from dollar assets: the returns on investments in America have recently been lower than in Europe or Japan. And can a currency that has been sliding against the world's next two biggest currencies for 30 years be regarded as “safe”?
The dollar's loss of reserve-currency status would lead America's creditors to start cashing those cheques—and what an awful lot of cheques there are to cash. As that process gathered pace, the dollar could tumble further and further. American bond yields (long-term interest rates) would soar, quite likely causing a deep recession. Americans who favour a weak dollar should be careful what they wish for. Cutting the budget deficit looks cheap at the price. http://economist.com/opinion/displayStory.cfm?story_id=3446249
Aslim Tadjuddin, deputy governor for monetary policy at Indonesia's central bank, dropped that bombshell in a recent Bloomberg interview.Indonesia's was merely the latest central bank to suggest that it may sell some U.S. Treasuries if the dollar continues to decline. Days earlier, Russia's central bank rocked currency markets by suggesting it might switch from dollar-denominated assets to euro assets.China Business News also raised eyebrows late last month after it reported that Beijing had cut its U.S. debt holdings. The news shook markets because China, with $174 billion of Treasuries, is the second-biggest holder after Japan. While a Chinese central bank official said the report was "distorted," markets fear the worst.Taiwan, the third-largest holder of foreign-exchange reserves, had to deny reports that it planned to reduce U.S. debt holdings as the dollar slides. Such a move by the island, which has $57 billion of Treasuries, would surely bolster U.S. debt yields. http://www.iht.com/bin/print_ipub.php?file=/articles/2004/12/06/bloomberg/sxpesek.html
3 from other communist periodicals- the New York Post, the Moonie-owned Washington Times, and CNN
More on Bernie Kerik new head for “Homeland Security”:
In prepared remarks praising the new nominee last week, President Bush ranged across the whole of Kerik's career, from his days as a beat cop in Times Square, to his hands-on work at Ground Zero on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001.
Yet the President was oddly — and utterly — silent on Kerik's work in Baghdad, and perhaps for good reason. Though Kerik presided over the hiring of thousands of recruits for the reconstituted Iraqi police force, most were hired without background checks, and many turned out to be hardened criminals. As a result, some 30,000 of them, or roughly 25 percent of the entire force, are now reportedly being let go, with the U.S. footing the bill for $60 million in severance payments. http://www.nypost.com/business/35781.htm
Iraqi Vets
Veterans of the war in Iraq are starting to show up at homeless shelters, experts say. "When we already have people from Iraq on the streets, my God," said Linda Boone, executive director of the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans. "I have talked to enough (shelters) to know we are getting them. It is happening and this nation is not prepared for that."
Some homeless-veteran advocates fear that similar combat experiences in Vietnam and Iraq mean that these first few homeless veterans from Iraq are the crest of a wave not seen since the Vietnam era. http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20041207-015431-3807r.htm
Harry Reid: The Good and the Bad
When asked to comment on Thomas as a possible replacement for Chief Justice William Rehnquist, Reid told NBC's "Meet the Press": "I think that he has been an embarrassment to the Supreme Court.
"I think that his opinions are poorly written. I just don't think that he's done a good job as a Supreme Court justice.
But the Nevada Democrat said that he could support Thomas' fellow conservative, Justice Antonin Scalia, if he were nominated. Citing a hunting trip Scalia took with Dick Cheney before hearing a case involving the commission the vice president set up to work on an energy bill, Reid said the justice has some ethics problems."So we have to get over this," he said. http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/12/05/judges.reid.frist/index.html
Election Fraud: Making the rounds, courtesy of Brad Friedman. Legs?
In stunning revelations set to rock the vote from Tallahassee to Capitol Hill -- and perhaps even a bit further up Pennsylvania Avenue -- a Florida computer programmer has now made remarkable claims in a detailed sworn affidavit, signed this morning and obtained exclusively by The BRAD BLOG
http://www.BradBlog.com.http://www.rawstory.com/images/pdfs/CC_Affidavit_120604.pdf> (Generously hosted by Raw Story !)The programmer claims that he designed and built a "vote rigging" software program at the behest of then Florida Congressman, now U.S. Congressman, Republican Tom Feeney http://www.tomfeeney.com/ of Florida's 24th Congressional District.Clint Curtis, 46, claims that he built the software for Feeney in 2000 while working at a sofware design and engineering company in Oviedo, Florida (Feeney's home district).Curtis, in his affidavit, says that as technical advisor and programmer at Yang Enterprises, Inc. (YEI) he was present at company meetings where Feeney was present "on at least a dozen occasions".Feeney, who had run in 1994 as Jeb Bush's running-mate in his initial unsuccessful bid for Florida Governor, was serving as both corporate counsel and registered lobbyist for YEI during the period that Curtis worked at the company. Feeney was also concurrently serving as a Florida state congressman while performing those services for YEI. Feeney would eventually become Speaker of the Florida House before being elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2002. He is now a member of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee. http://www.bradfriedman.com/BRADBLOG/
Olbermann on Ohio
Kenneth Blackwell this afternoon made the November 2 vote official. With provisionals, absentees, and corrections, it turned out to be not a 136,000 vote margin for President Bush, but rather one of 119,000. The certification was almost immediately greeted by two protests, the prospect of a third, and the details of a fourth.
Green Party presidential candidate David Cobb today scheduled a news conference for Tuesday afternoon in Columbus at which the re-count request from he and Libertarian Party presidential candidate Michael Badnarik will be formalized.
Still delayed, a long, long, long-shot bid - spearheaded by attorney Cliff Arnebeck - to have an Ohio Supreme Court Justice contest the actual election — holding off making the first count official until voting irregularities are reviewed. Mr. Arnebeck told us this afternoon that it now may be Wednesday before his suit is filed.
But the protests are not just from the fringes any more. Citing the long lines, shortages of ballots, voting machine meltdowns, and spoiled ballots, Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe announced his party would spend "whatever it takes" to conduct what it calls "a comprehensive investigative study" of the vote in Ohio, one to be completed some time next year
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6533008/#041202a
Newest Marriage: Clear Channel and Fox News
The country's largest radio station operator, Clear Channel Communications Inc., the country’s largest radio station operator, has chosen Fox News Radio to provide its national news for the majority of its news / talk stations. Clear Channel, owner of over 1200 stations, is owned by Tom and R. Steven Hicks, the brothers who have notable ties to Junior Bush. While R. Steven, is a Bush Pioneer, Tom bought Bush’s shares of the Texas Rangers (most of which were given to Bush in other quid pro quos), and has a slew of crony-capitalist ties to Bush. S’nuff said. www.freepress.net/news/5634
Civil Rights Commission (Follow-up)
Today’s news detailed the formal discharge of Mary Frances Berry, the too outspoken (and critical) chair of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission. The replacement is thought to be Gerald Reynolds, a corporate attorney/regulator who’s on record as detesting affirmative action.
President Bush on Monday moved to replace Mary Frances Berry, the outspoken chairwoman of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission who has argued with every president since Jimmy Carter appointed her to the panel a quarter century ago.
But Berry balked at leaving now, arguing through a spokesman that she and vice chairman Cruz Reynoso, who also is being replaced, have terms that run until midnight Jan. 21, 2005. The White House maintained that their six-year terms expired Sunday and that Berry and Reynoso had been replaced.
The eight-member panel investigates civil rights complaints and publicizes its findings. It has no enforcement power. Four years ago, Berry and the commission were heavily critical of Florida Gov. Jeb Bush for his administration's handling of the disputed presidential election won by his brother.http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A41494-2004Dec6?language=printer
Pat Tillman, the Reality. The feel good story is, sadly, another myth. The former NFLer (that’s football, for those not in the know) was lionized for his giving up his millions to enlist post 2001 and saw action in Afghanistan and Iraq. Now, the Washington Post reports:
It was also a distorted and incomplete narrative, according to dozens of internal Army documents obtained by The Washington Post that describe Tillman's death by fratricide after a chain of botched communications, a misguided order to divide his platoon over the objection of its leader and undisciplined firing by fellow Rangers.
The Army's public release made no mention of friendly fire, even though at the time it was issued, investigators in Afghanistan had already taken at least 14 sworn statements from Tillman's platoon members that made clear the true causes of his death. The statements included a searing account from the Ranger nearest Tillman during the firefight, who quoted him as shouting "Cease fire! Friendlies!" with his last breaths.
Army records show Tillman fought bravely during his final battle. He followed orders, never wavered and at one stage proposed discarding his heavy body armor, apparently because he wanted to charge a distant ridge occupied by the enemy, an idea his immediate superior rejected, witness statements show.
But the Army's published account not only withheld all evidence of fratricide, but also exaggerated Tillman's role and stripped his actions of their context. Tillman was not one of the senior commanders on the scene -- he directed only himself, one other Ranger and an Afghan militiaman, under supervision from others. And witness statements in the Army's files at the time of the news release describe Tillman's voice ringing out on the battlefield mainly in a desperate effort, joined by other Rangers on his ridge, to warn comrades to stop shooting at their own men.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A37679-2004Dec5.html
What’s Happening, Iraq: The intensifying “war” has, once again, intensified. Newest CIA report admits our position is “deteriorating”. www.nytimes.com/2004/12/07/international/middleeast/07intell.html
Beware habituation. This CAN’T be tolerated.
Krugman interrupts vacation. On target, as usual.
There's no honest way anyone can hold both these positions, but very little about the privatizers' position is honest. They come to bury Social Security, not to save it. They aren't sincerely concerned about the possibility that the system will someday fail; they're disturbed by the system's historic success.
For Social Security is a government program that works, a demonstration that a modest amount of taxing and spending can make people's lives better and more secure. And that's why the right wants to destroy it. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/07/opinion/07krugman.html?oref=login&oref=login
Dr. Frist, candidate in 2008. In case you missed it.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Okay, let me switch to another subject. There was a bit of an uproar in Washington this week about this issue of these abstinence programs that are funded by the Federal government, the funding has doubled over the last four years but there was a report by the minority staff at the House Government Affairs Committee that showed that 11 of 13 of these programs are giving out false information. I want to show some of the claims they identified in the curricula. One of them was, one of the programs taught that "The actual ability of condoms to prevent the transmission of HIV/AIDS, even if the product is intact, is not definitively known." Another, "The popular claim that condoms help prevent the spread of STDs is not supported by the data." A third suggested that tears and sweat could transmit HIV and AIDS. Now, you're a doctor. Do you believe that tears and sweat can transmit HIV?
FRIST: I don't know. I can tell you ...
STEPHANOPOULOS: You don't know?
FRIST: I can tell you things like, like ...
STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, wait, let me stop you, you don't know that, you believe that tears and sweat might be able to transmit AIDS?
FRIST: Yeah, no, I can tell you that HIV is not very transmissible as an element like, compared to smallpox, compared to the flu. It is not, but the first slide, because I think it's dangerous to show that and then sort of walk away.
http://www.prospect.org/weblog/archives/2004/12/index.html#004945
-R
Oil exporters have sharply reduced their exposure to the US dollar over the past three years, according to data from the Bank for International Settlements. Members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries have cut the proportion of deposits held in dollars from 75 per cent in the third quarter of 2001 to 61.5 per cent.
Middle Eastern central banks have reportedly switched reserves from dollars to euros and sterling to avoid incurring losses as the dollar has fallen and prepare for a shift away from pricing oil exports in dollars alone.
Private Middle East investors are believed to be worried about the prospect of US-held assets being frozen as part of the war on terror, leading to accelerated dollar-selling after the re-election of President George W. Bush. http://news.ft.com/cms/s/67f88f7c-47cb-11d9-a0fd-00000e2511c8.html
America's current-account deficit is at the heart of these global concerns. The OECD's latest Economic Outlook predicts that the deficit will rise to $825 billion by 2006 (6.4% of America's GDP) assuming unchanged exchange rates. Optimists argue that foreigners will keep financing the deficit because American assets offer high returns and a haven from risk. In fact, private investors have already turned away from dollar assets: the returns on investments in America have recently been lower than in Europe or Japan. And can a currency that has been sliding against the world's next two biggest currencies for 30 years be regarded as “safe”?
The dollar's loss of reserve-currency status would lead America's creditors to start cashing those cheques—and what an awful lot of cheques there are to cash. As that process gathered pace, the dollar could tumble further and further. American bond yields (long-term interest rates) would soar, quite likely causing a deep recession. Americans who favour a weak dollar should be careful what they wish for. Cutting the budget deficit looks cheap at the price. http://economist.com/opinion/displayStory.cfm?story_id=3446249
Aslim Tadjuddin, deputy governor for monetary policy at Indonesia's central bank, dropped that bombshell in a recent Bloomberg interview.Indonesia's was merely the latest central bank to suggest that it may sell some U.S. Treasuries if the dollar continues to decline. Days earlier, Russia's central bank rocked currency markets by suggesting it might switch from dollar-denominated assets to euro assets.China Business News also raised eyebrows late last month after it reported that Beijing had cut its U.S. debt holdings. The news shook markets because China, with $174 billion of Treasuries, is the second-biggest holder after Japan. While a Chinese central bank official said the report was "distorted," markets fear the worst.Taiwan, the third-largest holder of foreign-exchange reserves, had to deny reports that it planned to reduce U.S. debt holdings as the dollar slides. Such a move by the island, which has $57 billion of Treasuries, would surely bolster U.S. debt yields. http://www.iht.com/bin/print_ipub.php?file=/articles/2004/12/06/bloomberg/sxpesek.html
3 from other communist periodicals- the New York Post, the Moonie-owned Washington Times, and CNN
More on Bernie Kerik new head for “Homeland Security”:
In prepared remarks praising the new nominee last week, President Bush ranged across the whole of Kerik's career, from his days as a beat cop in Times Square, to his hands-on work at Ground Zero on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001.
Yet the President was oddly — and utterly — silent on Kerik's work in Baghdad, and perhaps for good reason. Though Kerik presided over the hiring of thousands of recruits for the reconstituted Iraqi police force, most were hired without background checks, and many turned out to be hardened criminals. As a result, some 30,000 of them, or roughly 25 percent of the entire force, are now reportedly being let go, with the U.S. footing the bill for $60 million in severance payments. http://www.nypost.com/business/35781.htm
Iraqi Vets
Veterans of the war in Iraq are starting to show up at homeless shelters, experts say. "When we already have people from Iraq on the streets, my God," said Linda Boone, executive director of the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans. "I have talked to enough (shelters) to know we are getting them. It is happening and this nation is not prepared for that."
Some homeless-veteran advocates fear that similar combat experiences in Vietnam and Iraq mean that these first few homeless veterans from Iraq are the crest of a wave not seen since the Vietnam era. http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20041207-015431-3807r.htm
Harry Reid: The Good and the Bad
When asked to comment on Thomas as a possible replacement for Chief Justice William Rehnquist, Reid told NBC's "Meet the Press": "I think that he has been an embarrassment to the Supreme Court.
"I think that his opinions are poorly written. I just don't think that he's done a good job as a Supreme Court justice.
But the Nevada Democrat said that he could support Thomas' fellow conservative, Justice Antonin Scalia, if he were nominated. Citing a hunting trip Scalia took with Dick Cheney before hearing a case involving the commission the vice president set up to work on an energy bill, Reid said the justice has some ethics problems."So we have to get over this," he said. http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/12/05/judges.reid.frist/index.html
Election Fraud: Making the rounds, courtesy of Brad Friedman. Legs?
In stunning revelations set to rock the vote from Tallahassee to Capitol Hill -- and perhaps even a bit further up Pennsylvania Avenue -- a Florida computer programmer has now made remarkable claims in a detailed sworn affidavit, signed this morning and obtained exclusively by The BRAD BLOG
http://www.BradBlog.com.http://www.rawstory.com/images/pdfs/CC_Affidavit_120604.pdf> (Generously hosted by Raw Story
Olbermann on Ohio
Kenneth Blackwell this afternoon made the November 2 vote official. With provisionals, absentees, and corrections, it turned out to be not a 136,000 vote margin for President Bush, but rather one of 119,000. The certification was almost immediately greeted by two protests, the prospect of a third, and the details of a fourth.
Green Party presidential candidate David Cobb today scheduled a news conference for Tuesday afternoon in Columbus at which the re-count request from he and Libertarian Party presidential candidate Michael Badnarik will be formalized.
Still delayed, a long, long, long-shot bid - spearheaded by attorney Cliff Arnebeck - to have an Ohio Supreme Court Justice contest the actual election — holding off making the first count official until voting irregularities are reviewed. Mr. Arnebeck told us this afternoon that it now may be Wednesday before his suit is filed.
But the protests are not just from the fringes any more. Citing the long lines, shortages of ballots, voting machine meltdowns, and spoiled ballots, Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe announced his party would spend "whatever it takes" to conduct what it calls "a comprehensive investigative study" of the vote in Ohio, one to be completed some time next year
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6533008/#041202a
Newest Marriage: Clear Channel and Fox News
The country's largest radio station operator, Clear Channel Communications Inc., the country’s largest radio station operator, has chosen Fox News Radio to provide its national news for the majority of its news / talk stations. Clear Channel, owner of over 1200 stations, is owned by Tom and R. Steven Hicks, the brothers who have notable ties to Junior Bush. While R. Steven, is a Bush Pioneer, Tom bought Bush’s shares of the Texas Rangers (most of which were given to Bush in other quid pro quos), and has a slew of crony-capitalist ties to Bush. S’nuff said. www.freepress.net/news/5634
Civil Rights Commission (Follow-up)
Today’s news detailed the formal discharge of Mary Frances Berry, the too outspoken (and critical) chair of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission. The replacement is thought to be Gerald Reynolds, a corporate attorney/regulator who’s on record as detesting affirmative action.
President Bush on Monday moved to replace Mary Frances Berry, the outspoken chairwoman of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission who has argued with every president since Jimmy Carter appointed her to the panel a quarter century ago.
But Berry balked at leaving now, arguing through a spokesman that she and vice chairman Cruz Reynoso, who also is being replaced, have terms that run until midnight Jan. 21, 2005. The White House maintained that their six-year terms expired Sunday and that Berry and Reynoso had been replaced.
The eight-member panel investigates civil rights complaints and publicizes its findings. It has no enforcement power. Four years ago, Berry and the commission were heavily critical of Florida Gov. Jeb Bush for his administration's handling of the disputed presidential election won by his brother.http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A41494-2004Dec6?language=printer
Pat Tillman, the Reality. The feel good story is, sadly, another myth. The former NFLer (that’s football, for those not in the know) was lionized for his giving up his millions to enlist post 2001 and saw action in Afghanistan and Iraq. Now, the Washington Post reports:
It was also a distorted and incomplete narrative, according to dozens of internal Army documents obtained by The Washington Post that describe Tillman's death by fratricide after a chain of botched communications, a misguided order to divide his platoon over the objection of its leader and undisciplined firing by fellow Rangers.
The Army's public release made no mention of friendly fire, even though at the time it was issued, investigators in Afghanistan had already taken at least 14 sworn statements from Tillman's platoon members that made clear the true causes of his death. The statements included a searing account from the Ranger nearest Tillman during the firefight, who quoted him as shouting "Cease fire! Friendlies!" with his last breaths.
Army records show Tillman fought bravely during his final battle. He followed orders, never wavered and at one stage proposed discarding his heavy body armor, apparently because he wanted to charge a distant ridge occupied by the enemy, an idea his immediate superior rejected, witness statements show.
But the Army's published account not only withheld all evidence of fratricide, but also exaggerated Tillman's role and stripped his actions of their context. Tillman was not one of the senior commanders on the scene -- he directed only himself, one other Ranger and an Afghan militiaman, under supervision from others. And witness statements in the Army's files at the time of the news release describe Tillman's voice ringing out on the battlefield mainly in a desperate effort, joined by other Rangers on his ridge, to warn comrades to stop shooting at their own men.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A37679-2004Dec5.html
What’s Happening, Iraq: The intensifying “war” has, once again, intensified. Newest CIA report admits our position is “deteriorating”. www.nytimes.com/2004/12/07/international/middleeast/07intell.html
Beware habituation. This CAN’T be tolerated.
Krugman interrupts vacation. On target, as usual.
There's no honest way anyone can hold both these positions, but very little about the privatizers' position is honest. They come to bury Social Security, not to save it. They aren't sincerely concerned about the possibility that the system will someday fail; they're disturbed by the system's historic success.
For Social Security is a government program that works, a demonstration that a modest amount of taxing and spending can make people's lives better and more secure. And that's why the right wants to destroy it. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/07/opinion/07krugman.html?oref=login&oref=login
Dr. Frist, candidate in 2008. In case you missed it.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Okay, let me switch to another subject. There was a bit of an uproar in Washington this week about this issue of these abstinence programs that are funded by the Federal government, the funding has doubled over the last four years but there was a report by the minority staff at the House Government Affairs Committee that showed that 11 of 13 of these programs are giving out false information. I want to show some of the claims they identified in the curricula. One of them was, one of the programs taught that "The actual ability of condoms to prevent the transmission of HIV/AIDS, even if the product is intact, is not definitively known." Another, "The popular claim that condoms help prevent the spread of STDs is not supported by the data." A third suggested that tears and sweat could transmit HIV and AIDS. Now, you're a doctor. Do you believe that tears and sweat can transmit HIV?
FRIST: I don't know. I can tell you ...
STEPHANOPOULOS: You don't know?
FRIST: I can tell you things like, like ...
STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, wait, let me stop you, you don't know that, you believe that tears and sweat might be able to transmit AIDS?
FRIST: Yeah, no, I can tell you that HIV is not very transmissible as an element like, compared to smallpox, compared to the flu. It is not, but the first slide, because I think it's dangerous to show that and then sort of walk away.
http://www.prospect.org/weblog/archives/2004/12/index.html#004945
-R
Sunday, December 05, 2004
What’s Happening, Iraq: More troops, more deaths, Fallujah isn’t secure, plus increasing acknowledgement of the possibility of “civil war.”
But the original problem persists: US forces sweep through one neighborhood after another, only to find insurgents popping up in "cleared" areas.
The battle Monday killed one marine and wounded three others - a high cost against three insurgents, who had moved into a house 50 feet across the street from a newly established marine position at a Fallujah fire station. That house and several others nearby had been cleared just two days earlier. http://csmonitor.com/2004/1203/p06s02-woiq.html
Insurgents opened fire on a bus full of civilians and drove a car bomb into a national guard checkpoint in northern Iraq this morning, killing 20 Iraqis in the latest of a wave of attacks that has claimed more than 80 lives here since Friday.
The three-day surge in violence, aimed mostly at Iraqi security officers and others working with American authorities, has also elevated tensions between the Sunni Arabs who dominate the insurgency and their Shiite and Kurdish political rivals. On Saturday, dozens were killed in a bloody battle between a Shiite militia and Sunni rebels south of Baghdad, shortly after car bomb attacks on a Shiite mosque and a busload of Kurdish militiamen.
The attacks today came as leaders of mostly Sunni political groups met in Baghdad and added their voices to a growing movement to delay the national and provincial elections, now scheduled for Jan. 30, until the violence subsides. Leaders of Iraq's majority Shiite community have responded to earlier calls by insisting that the elections go forward as planned, and President Bush said Thursday that they must not be postponed.
But the leaders gathered here today, representing about 40 political parties and individuals, said that any elections held in the current climate would be viewed as illegitimate and would provoke further civil conflict.
"I warn the two sides that the situation is very serious," said Tawfik al Yassri, a member of Iraq's interim parliament and a leader of the Iraqi National Coalition party. "It will be the first seed of civil war." http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/05/international/middleeast/05cnd-iraq.html?hp&ex=1102309200&en=8258b46f45eb37a8&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Prison Scandal Revisited: Washington Post editorial: Nothing has changed, as the Red Cross issues another stinging rebuke.
Yet the worst aspect of the Abu Ghraib scandal is this: The system survived its public exposure. The Bush administration is vigorously prosecuting the lowly reservists depicted in the Abu Ghraib photos, while brazenly defending the larger process it established for extracting intelligence from prisoners. No senior officers have acknowledged fault for authorizing harsh interrogation techniques or been held accountable by prosecutors or Congress. An official investigation into how the interrogation policies were drawn up and used, which was completed months ago, has never been released. No alteration has been made in the policies governing the system, including an extremely permissive definition of torture prepared under the direction of Mr. Gonzales, or a set of harsh techniques for interrogating prisoners approved by Mr. Rumsfeld.
By now it should be clear that Mr. Bush will perpetuate this systematic violation of human rights, and fundamental American values, unless checked by one of the other branches of government. The federal courts have begun to explore the handling of prisoners at Guantanamo; last week a federal judge in Washington elicited from a Pentagon official the admission that information obtained through torture could be used by the tribunals the administration has established in Guantanamo to judge whether detainees are "enemy combatants." Yet Congress has shirked its responsibility.
No hearings have been held on the prisoner abuse scandal in three months; no legislation has corrected the administration's twisted interpretation of torture or the Geneva Conventions. Mr. Rumsfeld, Gen. Sanchez and Mr. Gonzales have never been required to answer for their policy decisions. As long as such passivity continues, you can expect more disturbing reviews from the Red Cross. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A36061-2004Dec4.html
More Prison Abuse Photos: There’s more to cover up…
The U.S. military has launched a criminal investigation into photographs that appear to show Navy SEALs in Iraq sitting on hooded and handcuffed detainees, and photos of what appear to be bloodied prisoners, one with a gun to his head.
Some of the photos have date stamps suggesting they were taken in May 2003, which could make them the earliest evidence of possible abuse of prisoners in Iraq. The far more brutal practices photographed in Abu Ghraib prison occurred months later. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&e=3&u=/ap/20041203/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/seals_prisoner_photos
[Nuclear] Security. Global Inquiry into Nuclear Black Market Sales Stalls (LA Times) Good thing the Republicans were kept in office. They’ll keep us safe, especially since they do so well at forging international cooperation.
The global investigation into Abdul Qadeer Khan's black market trade in nuclear technology has stalled in a clash of national interests that threatens a full accounting of his secret partners and clients, according to interviews with diplomats and officials from several countries.International authorities fear the full scope of the Pakistani scientist's ring may never be known.Senior investigators said they were especially worried that dangerous elements of the illicit network of manufacturers and suppliers would remain undetected and capable of resuming operations once international pressures eased.Investigators also said that records obtained in Libya and elsewhere showed that some nuclear equipment purchased or manufactured by the network had yet to be found, raising the possibility that it was diverted to still unidentified customers. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-network5dec05,0,4762745,print.story?coll=la-home-headlines
“Middle Class” Pain. Despite the federal tax cuts…
While fuel prices may be starting to skid, there's another expense closer to home that is upsetting many Americans: rising property taxes.
From Madison, Wis., to Bucks County, Pa., the local tax assessor is dipping deeper into homeowners' pockets as real estate prices rise and states share less of their tax revenue with local governments.
With people starting to receive their 2005 tax bills, the levies are squeezing the middle class and senior citizens - leaving them less to spend on everything from restaurants to roof repair. There is also concern the taxes could particularly hurt the home-buying chances of the young or civil servants such as firefighters. States such as New Jersey now have grass-roots efforts - verging on revolts - for reform. http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/1203/p01s01-usec.html
Tommy Thompson exits. What to make of this?
Tommy G. Thompson, the secretary of health and human services, announced Friday that he was resigning, and he expressed grave concern about the threat of a global flu epidemic and the possibility of a terrorist attack on the nation's food supply.
"For the life of me," he said, "I cannot understand why the terrorists have not attacked our food supply because it is so easy to do…We are importing a lot of food from the Middle East and it would be easy to tamper with that," he said. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/04/politics/04health.html?oref=login&hp&ex=1102222800&en=119916d35da95708&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Makes one hesitate to pick up the hoummos…
Why is the Right Attacking Kofi Annan?
The Right has been consistently maligning the UN. Ostensibly it’s about “corruption” with the Oil for Food program and with Kofi Annan’s son who enjoyed a lucrative, conflict-ridden consulting contract with Cotecna, a Swiss firm accused of abetting Saddam's abuse of the oil deals. That has purportedly prompted Sen. Norm Coleman, (R-Minn), who chairs a Senate committee investigating the scandal, to urge Annan to quit. That demand is now echoing around Congress with the conservative media- from the Wall Street Journal to Fox News to the cover of the National Review- leading the charge. We know it’s purely ideological. Joe Conason provides perspective.
Behind the attacks on Annan lies the broader purpose of bringing down the U.N. itself. Once praised by the likes of former Sen. Jesse Helms for implementing fiscal reform, the secretary general provoked deep enmity on the right by opposing the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and by criticizing its illegality again last September during the U.S. presidential campaign. Worse yet, U.N. inspectors made the terrible mistake of being correct about the nonexistent "weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq.
For the Bush administration and its conservative allies, the U.N. represents embarrassment and obstruction. Seeing no value in debating and discussing world problems with lesser nations, they regard the U.N. as nothing but an unworthy obstacle to the exercise of American power. To them, the world body symbolizes all that they hate about multilateralism and diplomacy.
Certain starry-eyed neoconservatives broach the idea of a new global organzation that would only admit "legitimate" democratic governments (as defined, perhaps, by the Heritage Foundation or the Wall Street Journal editorial board). In the neocon scenario, the U.N. would be hollowed into a meaningless, impoverished shell, and left to such pariahs as Kim Jong Il and the Iranian mullahs. http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2004/12/03/u_n/index.html
“Homeland Security”: From Ridge to Rambo. Bernie Kirek
With the former mayor having turned down the job, Bush took Giuliani’s police chief, pronouncing him ideally suited for the administrative job. Why? Let’s count the ways. 1) Kirek was in NYC for 9/11; 2) he did security work for the Saudi Royal Family; 3) he left the NYC police department as hundreds of retirements loomed and the city’s finances tightened; 4) he trained Iraqi police, and that’s gone just swell; 5) he was a fierce partisan for Bush in the swing states.
Really. That’s it…and Guiliani turned it down, then recommended Kirek, calling in a chit.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20041202-115310-9067r.htm
Olbermann on Ohio:
Blackwell gets to wait until Monday to certify the state’s vote, even though all 88 counties in the Buckeye State have finished their own confirmations. Data is still sketchy, but it turns out election officials accepted about 77% of the provisional ballots — about 121,000 of them. No statewide count of the provisionals yet, though results reported by one county — Franklin (that's Columbus), indicated that Senator Kerry had gotten nearly 7,700 of the more-than 12,000 provisional votes counted.
But of all the developments out of Ohio, the most provocative, clearly, is still stalled under the weight of its own paperwork. The Alliance for Democracy is not quite ready with its challenge to the vote yet. Lawyer Cliff Arnebeck, with who else but Reverend Jackson by his side today on the steps of the Ohio Supreme Court, said that the group hopes to file its election challenge tomorrow — if not, Monday — but it’s not guaranteeing anything. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6533008/#041202a
Rummy Stays: In view of all else, it makes sense. Long live accountability!
-R
But the original problem persists: US forces sweep through one neighborhood after another, only to find insurgents popping up in "cleared" areas.
The battle Monday killed one marine and wounded three others - a high cost against three insurgents, who had moved into a house 50 feet across the street from a newly established marine position at a Fallujah fire station. That house and several others nearby had been cleared just two days earlier. http://csmonitor.com/2004/1203/p06s02-woiq.html
Insurgents opened fire on a bus full of civilians and drove a car bomb into a national guard checkpoint in northern Iraq this morning, killing 20 Iraqis in the latest of a wave of attacks that has claimed more than 80 lives here since Friday.
The three-day surge in violence, aimed mostly at Iraqi security officers and others working with American authorities, has also elevated tensions between the Sunni Arabs who dominate the insurgency and their Shiite and Kurdish political rivals. On Saturday, dozens were killed in a bloody battle between a Shiite militia and Sunni rebels south of Baghdad, shortly after car bomb attacks on a Shiite mosque and a busload of Kurdish militiamen.
The attacks today came as leaders of mostly Sunni political groups met in Baghdad and added their voices to a growing movement to delay the national and provincial elections, now scheduled for Jan. 30, until the violence subsides. Leaders of Iraq's majority Shiite community have responded to earlier calls by insisting that the elections go forward as planned, and President Bush said Thursday that they must not be postponed.
But the leaders gathered here today, representing about 40 political parties and individuals, said that any elections held in the current climate would be viewed as illegitimate and would provoke further civil conflict.
"I warn the two sides that the situation is very serious," said Tawfik al Yassri, a member of Iraq's interim parliament and a leader of the Iraqi National Coalition party. "It will be the first seed of civil war." http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/05/international/middleeast/05cnd-iraq.html?hp&ex=1102309200&en=8258b46f45eb37a8&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Prison Scandal Revisited: Washington Post editorial: Nothing has changed, as the Red Cross issues another stinging rebuke.
Yet the worst aspect of the Abu Ghraib scandal is this: The system survived its public exposure. The Bush administration is vigorously prosecuting the lowly reservists depicted in the Abu Ghraib photos, while brazenly defending the larger process it established for extracting intelligence from prisoners. No senior officers have acknowledged fault for authorizing harsh interrogation techniques or been held accountable by prosecutors or Congress. An official investigation into how the interrogation policies were drawn up and used, which was completed months ago, has never been released. No alteration has been made in the policies governing the system, including an extremely permissive definition of torture prepared under the direction of Mr. Gonzales, or a set of harsh techniques for interrogating prisoners approved by Mr. Rumsfeld.
By now it should be clear that Mr. Bush will perpetuate this systematic violation of human rights, and fundamental American values, unless checked by one of the other branches of government. The federal courts have begun to explore the handling of prisoners at Guantanamo; last week a federal judge in Washington elicited from a Pentagon official the admission that information obtained through torture could be used by the tribunals the administration has established in Guantanamo to judge whether detainees are "enemy combatants." Yet Congress has shirked its responsibility.
No hearings have been held on the prisoner abuse scandal in three months; no legislation has corrected the administration's twisted interpretation of torture or the Geneva Conventions. Mr. Rumsfeld, Gen. Sanchez and Mr. Gonzales have never been required to answer for their policy decisions. As long as such passivity continues, you can expect more disturbing reviews from the Red Cross. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A36061-2004Dec4.html
More Prison Abuse Photos: There’s more to cover up…
The U.S. military has launched a criminal investigation into photographs that appear to show Navy SEALs in Iraq sitting on hooded and handcuffed detainees, and photos of what appear to be bloodied prisoners, one with a gun to his head.
Some of the photos have date stamps suggesting they were taken in May 2003, which could make them the earliest evidence of possible abuse of prisoners in Iraq. The far more brutal practices photographed in Abu Ghraib prison occurred months later. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&e=3&u=/ap/20041203/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/seals_prisoner_photos
[Nuclear] Security. Global Inquiry into Nuclear Black Market Sales Stalls (LA Times) Good thing the Republicans were kept in office. They’ll keep us safe, especially since they do so well at forging international cooperation.
The global investigation into Abdul Qadeer Khan's black market trade in nuclear technology has stalled in a clash of national interests that threatens a full accounting of his secret partners and clients, according to interviews with diplomats and officials from several countries.International authorities fear the full scope of the Pakistani scientist's ring may never be known.Senior investigators said they were especially worried that dangerous elements of the illicit network of manufacturers and suppliers would remain undetected and capable of resuming operations once international pressures eased.Investigators also said that records obtained in Libya and elsewhere showed that some nuclear equipment purchased or manufactured by the network had yet to be found, raising the possibility that it was diverted to still unidentified customers. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-network5dec05,0,4762745,print.story?coll=la-home-headlines
“Middle Class” Pain. Despite the federal tax cuts…
While fuel prices may be starting to skid, there's another expense closer to home that is upsetting many Americans: rising property taxes.
From Madison, Wis., to Bucks County, Pa., the local tax assessor is dipping deeper into homeowners' pockets as real estate prices rise and states share less of their tax revenue with local governments.
With people starting to receive their 2005 tax bills, the levies are squeezing the middle class and senior citizens - leaving them less to spend on everything from restaurants to roof repair. There is also concern the taxes could particularly hurt the home-buying chances of the young or civil servants such as firefighters. States such as New Jersey now have grass-roots efforts - verging on revolts - for reform. http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/1203/p01s01-usec.html
Tommy Thompson exits. What to make of this?
Tommy G. Thompson, the secretary of health and human services, announced Friday that he was resigning, and he expressed grave concern about the threat of a global flu epidemic and the possibility of a terrorist attack on the nation's food supply.
"For the life of me," he said, "I cannot understand why the terrorists have not attacked our food supply because it is so easy to do…We are importing a lot of food from the Middle East and it would be easy to tamper with that," he said. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/04/politics/04health.html?oref=login&hp&ex=1102222800&en=119916d35da95708&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Makes one hesitate to pick up the hoummos…
Why is the Right Attacking Kofi Annan?
The Right has been consistently maligning the UN. Ostensibly it’s about “corruption” with the Oil for Food program and with Kofi Annan’s son who enjoyed a lucrative, conflict-ridden consulting contract with Cotecna, a Swiss firm accused of abetting Saddam's abuse of the oil deals. That has purportedly prompted Sen. Norm Coleman, (R-Minn), who chairs a Senate committee investigating the scandal, to urge Annan to quit. That demand is now echoing around Congress with the conservative media- from the Wall Street Journal to Fox News to the cover of the National Review- leading the charge. We know it’s purely ideological. Joe Conason provides perspective.
Behind the attacks on Annan lies the broader purpose of bringing down the U.N. itself. Once praised by the likes of former Sen. Jesse Helms for implementing fiscal reform, the secretary general provoked deep enmity on the right by opposing the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and by criticizing its illegality again last September during the U.S. presidential campaign. Worse yet, U.N. inspectors made the terrible mistake of being correct about the nonexistent "weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq.
For the Bush administration and its conservative allies, the U.N. represents embarrassment and obstruction. Seeing no value in debating and discussing world problems with lesser nations, they regard the U.N. as nothing but an unworthy obstacle to the exercise of American power. To them, the world body symbolizes all that they hate about multilateralism and diplomacy.
Certain starry-eyed neoconservatives broach the idea of a new global organzation that would only admit "legitimate" democratic governments (as defined, perhaps, by the Heritage Foundation or the Wall Street Journal editorial board). In the neocon scenario, the U.N. would be hollowed into a meaningless, impoverished shell, and left to such pariahs as Kim Jong Il and the Iranian mullahs. http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2004/12/03/u_n/index.html
“Homeland Security”: From Ridge to Rambo. Bernie Kirek
With the former mayor having turned down the job, Bush took Giuliani’s police chief, pronouncing him ideally suited for the administrative job. Why? Let’s count the ways. 1) Kirek was in NYC for 9/11; 2) he did security work for the Saudi Royal Family; 3) he left the NYC police department as hundreds of retirements loomed and the city’s finances tightened; 4) he trained Iraqi police, and that’s gone just swell; 5) he was a fierce partisan for Bush in the swing states.
Really. That’s it…and Guiliani turned it down, then recommended Kirek, calling in a chit.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20041202-115310-9067r.htm
Olbermann on Ohio:
Blackwell gets to wait until Monday to certify the state’s vote, even though all 88 counties in the Buckeye State have finished their own confirmations. Data is still sketchy, but it turns out election officials accepted about 77% of the provisional ballots — about 121,000 of them. No statewide count of the provisionals yet, though results reported by one county — Franklin (that's Columbus), indicated that Senator Kerry had gotten nearly 7,700 of the more-than 12,000 provisional votes counted.
But of all the developments out of Ohio, the most provocative, clearly, is still stalled under the weight of its own paperwork. The Alliance for Democracy is not quite ready with its challenge to the vote yet. Lawyer Cliff Arnebeck, with who else but Reverend Jackson by his side today on the steps of the Ohio Supreme Court, said that the group hopes to file its election challenge tomorrow — if not, Monday — but it’s not guaranteeing anything. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6533008/#041202a
Rummy Stays: In view of all else, it makes sense. Long live accountability!
-R
