Saving Big Bird

Karen - you go girl!

Thanks for leading us in this fight! Love the photos - if the Republicans are the party of "Family Values" how could they possibly ignore this?

From Common Dreams:

http://www.commondreams.org/cgi-bin/print.cgi?file=/views05/0516-25.htm

Buy Your Gas at Citgo: Join the BUY-cott!
by Jeff Cohen

Looking for an easy way to protest Bush foreign policy week after week? And an easy way to help alleviate global poverty? Buy your gasoline at Citgo stations.
And tell your friends.

Of the top oil producing countries in the world, only one is a democracy with a president who was elected on a platform of using his nation's oil revenue to benefit the poor. The country is Venezuela. The President is Hugo Chavez. Call him "the Anti-Bush."
Citgo is a U.S. refining and marketing firm that is a wholly owned subsidiary of Venezuela's state-owned oil company. Money you pay to Citgo goes primarily to Venezuela -- not Saudi Arabia or the Middle East. There are 14,000 Citgo gas stations in the US. (Click here http://www.citgo.com/CITGOLocator/StoreLocator.jsp to find one near you.)

By buying your gasoline at Citgo, you are contributing to the billions of dollars that Venezuela's democratic government is using to provide health care, literacy and education, and subsidized food for the majority of Venezuelans.

Instead of using government to help the rich and the corporate, as Bush does, Chavez is using the resources and oil revenue of his government to help the poor in Venezuela. A country with so much oil wealth shouldn't have 60 percent of its people living in poverty, earning less than $2 per day. With a mass movement behind him, Chavez is confronting poverty in Venezuela. That's why large majorities have consistently backed him in democratic elections. And why the Bush administration supported an attempted military coup in 2002 that sought to overthrow Chavez.

So this is the opposite of a boycott. Call it a BUYcott. Spread the word.

Of course, if you can take mass transit or bike or walk to your job, you should do so. And we should all work for political changes that move our country toward a cleaner environment based on renewable energy. The BUYcott is for those of us who don't have a practical alternative to filling up our cars.

So get your gas at Citgo. And help fuel a democratic revolution in Venezuela.

Jeff Cohen is an author and media critic (www.jeffcohen.org)

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20050620/a_moral_transaction.php
A Moral Transaction
Bill Moyers

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20050621/public_televisions_mystery_mann.php
Public Television's Mystery Mann
Michael Winship

What North Dakota Sen. Byron Dorgan revealed yesterday on the Senate floor will offend anyone who values a free press.
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20050621/pbs_public_or_pravda.php
PBS: Public Or Pravda?

Next on the agenda: Get rid of Tomlinson for participating in censorship per the White House....

College loan interest rates to more than double in 2 weeks from 2.27% to 4.77%

16 senators call for ouster of public broadcasting chief

RAW STORY

From a release sent out by Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), along with the following photograph:

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/16_senators_call_for_ouster_of_public_broadcasting_chi_0621.html

U.S. Senators Charles E. Schumer (D-NY), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and fourteen other Senators urged President George W. Bush to call for the removal of the Chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Kenneth Tomlinson. In a letter today, sixteen Senators stated that Mr. Tomlinson has spent a great deal of time and the public’s money undermining public television in his new post and making the CPB weaker than before he took over the chairmanship. Public broadcasting, in particular the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) is an invaluable resource for our TV-watching public. Congress created this not-for-profit entity in 1967, and it has become one of the most relied upon sources of news and educational programs for all Americans, and especially their children.

The Senators wrote, “We strongly disagree with your Administration’s decision to appoint an individual to head a not-for-profit corporation such as public broadcasting who is actively undermining, under-funding, and ultimately undoing its mission.

Mr. Tomlinson has made a series of decisions that call into question his commitment to public television:
- He hid polls from the public that show that public support for PBS is around 80 percent of Americans believe that public television is “fair and balanced;”
- He has spent unnecessary funds to investigate individual news programs for bias; - He adjusted programming to cut news programs because of perceived bias; - He didn’t speak out publicly against cuts to massive cuts to public television by the House Appropriations Committee; - He hired expensive lobbyists to strategize about how to encourage senators to oppose a bill that would have allowed individual public television stations to have more representations on the board of the CPB; and - He has recommended Patricia Harrison, a former Republican Party co-chair, to be the new CPB President.

The Republican leadership in the House has cut nearly $200 million for CPB’s budget – and has slashed the “Ready to Learn” shows such as Reading Rainbow and Sesame Street by $23 million in the House Appropriations Committee.

“We urge you to immediately replace Mr. Tomlinson with an executive who takes his or her responsibility to the public television system seriously, not one who so seriously undermines the credibility and mission of public television,” their letter concluded.

Senators who signed the letter are: Schumer, Lautenberg, Feinstein, Leahy, Stabenow, Nelson (FL), Durbin, Kennedy, Harkin, Corzine, Cantwell, Biden, Boxer, Mikulski, Wyden, and Lieberman.

[Can't keep up with the breaking news stories]

Contract that spawned Guantanamo prisons awarded to Halliburton during Cheney's tenure as CEO

John Byrne

Experts say firm may have built secret camps

A contract awarded to a Halliburton subsidiary in June 2000 while Vice President Dick Cheney was still at the helm of the firm spawned the detention centers at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, RAW STORY has discovered.

The contract, which allocated funds for “emergency construction capabilities” at “worldwide locations,” authorized the Defense Department to award Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root any number of specific naval construction deals abroad.

much more~
http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Contract_that_spawned_Guantanamo_prisons_awarded_to_Halliburton_during_Cheneys_tenur_0621.html

A Field Poll released Monday showed Schwarzenegger's popularity has dipped precipitously since January, when he launched his bid for his "reform" agenda and a special election.
The Republican governor now gets approving marks from only 37 percent of registered voters, down from 55 percent in February. Moreover, less than a third said he is negotiating in good faith with the Legislature, while a majority (52 percent) said he is more interested in confrontation.

37%.
Anold is making Californians yearn for the days of Gov. Davis.

Falwell says religious right has sights set on beating Clinton in '08

NASHVILLE, Tenn. Conservative religious leader Reverend Jerry Falwell is giving evangelicals credit for putting President George Bush in office last year.

The Lynchburg minister told the Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Nashville yesterday that the Christian group now has its eye on defeating Hillary Clinton if she runs in the next presidential election.

Falwell said "the church" won the 2004 elections, and the 2008 race poses a bigger challenge.

The 71-year-old Falwell said he's "too old to care or be intimidated" by those who oppose him.

Copyright 2005 Associated Press.

Fantastic pics, Karen!

This is such a no-brainer cause. My kids are watching PBS right now. They love Cyberchase, Maya & Miguel, and Zoom especially! There are such great shows on. Shows that are non-violent, shows that get them to think.

Thank you to all the senators and representatives standing up for PBS!

~best commentary I've read today, on Americablog:

I'm sorry
by John in DC -

Cheney wants an apology to the military and to our vets for those of us who have the audacity to criticize the brutal abuse of international and US law taking place at Gitmo.
And Cheney's right, we do owe everyone an apology. Here's mine:

- I'm sorry Bush told us there were WMD when there weren't.
- I'm sorry Bush told us Saddam had ties to Al Qaeda, and didn't.
- I'm sorry Cheney told us that Saddam's agents had met with Mohammad Atta in Prague, when he didn't.
- I'm sorry Colin Powell became so spineless that he threw his principles out the window and lied before the entire UN.
- I'm sorry over 1700 US servicemembers are dead in a war that was based on a lie.
- I'm sorry our soldiers are being told their own parents have to pay for their body armor, because the US military won't.
- I'm sorry the Bush administration lied about what really happened to Pat Tillman, and then lied to his parents.
- I'm sorry Bush demanded Saddam comply with UN inspections, then when Saddam did comply, Bush invaded anyway.
- I'm sorry Bush told us Mission Accomplished nearly 2 years ago, and the bloodshed continues.
- I'm sorry Bush told us the few incidents at Abu Ghraib were only isolated incidents, when they weren't.
- I'm sorry Bush told us 7 months before the Iraq war that he hadn't yet decided to invade, when he had.
- I'm sorry Bush keeps telling us the over 500 prisoners at Gitmo are such bad terrorists that they simply can never be released, but then Bush can't even come up with enough evidence to charge even one of them with jaywalking.
There's my apology. Wonder if Cheney and the GOP will sign on?

http://americablog.blogspot.com/2005/06/im-sorry.html

thank you! great post, and such an important issue.

umm. can i use one of your pictures, if i link it to you?

The Future:

After reading parts of the previous thread and looking at the pictures at the start of this thread, I am reminded precisely why I have become so concerned and active in the effort to help America. I look at those pictures and I see the future. I see the day that I am no longer a member of the human race, and the children have become the leaders of tomorrow's America and the world beyond our borders. I see the day that children who have learned to treat each other as humans should-with care, concern and humility. If today's children are deprived of the messages delivered by the shows on PBS, we will have squandered yet another opportunity to make the world a better place. Certainly television is not the only way for children to hear and learn the message, but it is one of the most readily available, equitable and secular. We can't let tomorrow's leaders become the victims of today's political prejudices.

Because we are right, we will continue to fight for tomorrow's leaders-our children, and we will win.

I asked my eight year old daughter, who rarely watches the children's shows on PBS anymore, how she would feel if the children's shows were no longer broadcast. "I would feel bad for the younger kids, 'cuz they would be kinda messed up."

Jami,

You need to send your specific request to either info@democracycellproject.net or karen@democracycellproject.net

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050621/ap_on_go_co/guantanamo_durbin
Sen. Durbin Apologizes for Gitmo Remarks

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050621/ap_on_re_us/attacks_museum_opposition
Some 9/11 Kin Want Freedom Museum Canceled

Nonny,

I read the link about Durbin's apology. First of all, I do not feel he had anything at all to apologize for. However, if he had read only the FBI description and not made any reference to prior despotic regimes, do you think the Right wing would have still gone ballistic and demanded an apology?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/20/AR2005062000468.html?nav=rss_politics
Rice Criticizes Allies In Call for Democracy
Egypt, Saudi Arabia Challenged to Embrace Rights
Excerpt:
"Throughout the Middle East, the fear of free choices can no longer justify the denial of liberty," Rice told an invitation-only audience of government officials, academics and diplomats at the American University in Cairo. "It is time to abandon the excuses that are made to avoid the hard work of democracy."

Notice the "invitation only"???

These NeoCons are so afraid of genuine democracy they can't even stand to have a mixed audience where people may express differing opinions. Everything must be lock-step in line with the official propaganda coming from Bu$hCo.....

They are cowards, all......

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050621/ap_on_go_co/guantanamo_durbin
Sen. Durbin Apologizes for Gitmo Remarks

Oh, no. He has NOTHING to apologzie for. NOTHING. Those who attacked him for his remarks should apologize for not caring that our soldiers are admired and that our reputation is good. I hope Durbin knows that many Americans respect him and are greatful for his efforts to make the US the best it can be, and for him telling the truth.

Posted by: oncall at June 21, 2005 07:47 PM

I don't know, oc... Seems ANY opinion that differs from the official propaganda calls for some kind of retribution from Bu$hCo. Anyone speaking the truth to power comes under heavy scrutiny from the Bu$hCo administration, and they are censured heavily.

IMHO, I agree; Durbin had nothing to apologize for. We have all known that what is going on at Gitmo (and elsewhere) isn't any different from what happened in concentration camps and POW camps in Germany in WWII. Or, maybe some people have never read what happened at the concentration camps and they just do not know that torture then and now is still the same: torture.

We were far more civilized about POWs in WWII than what is being done in Gitmo and wherever else the prisoners are taken. Actually, I didn't even know there were German prisoners on American soil during WWII until I had a hospice client who had been interred at a camp in the deep south, and then recently a local PBS produced show told how the POWs were hired to work farm fields in the spring and fall within this state, and they ate at the kitchen table with the rest of the family and friends. They were just here, no fences even (at least not on the one most talked about on the show), and they were not abused. Some POWs even made things for the farm families they worked for. The former hospice client I had said the reason he emigrated after WWII was because he had been treated well in the POW camp.

I think some people in this nation are no longer civilized and do not see the difference between humane treatment of prisoners and do not quite understand that what's being done at Gitmo and wherever else prisoners are sent is just not moral, ethical, humane, or civilized in any way.

Posted by: NativeTexan4Kerry at June 21, 2005 08:00 PM

There was an email address for Durbin at the end of that article if you wish to write to him and let him know your opinion......

Daily DeLay --

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050621/ap_on_go_co/delay_tribal_donations_1

It just keeps rolling on....

"Throughout the Middle East, the fear of free choices can no longer justify the denial of liberty," Rice told an invitation-only audience of government officials, academics and diplomats at the American University in Cairo. "It is time to abandon the excuses that are made to avoid the hard work of democracy."
======================================
Would that be excuses like refusing to address the Saudi practice of banning women from driving "to respect cultural issues?"

That kind of excuse?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8298445/
Eleanor Mondale begins battle with brain cancer
By Neal Justin / Star Tribune
startribune.com
The daughter of former Vice President Walter Mondale confirmed Monday morning that she is suffering from the life-threatening disease, less than a week after her marriage to local rock star Chan Poling and just a few hours before her first session of radiation and chemotherapy at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester.

[Eleanor Mondale has two cancerous tumors in the frontal lobe of her brain. For more on the story, click on the link. She's quite a woman!]

I'm sorry that our soldiers have been brainwashed into committing the acts that they have done at Gitmo, but the soldiers who committed these acts should have gone to the news media and to their superior officers and protested. Without the action of one brave soldier at Abu Gharib, we would not known of the activities that took place there. I'm proud of our American military, but I am not proud of anyone, no matter what uniform he wears, who does not respect the human rights of others. Our soldiers should know the rules of the Geneva Convention, and they should abide by them, even to the point of disobedience if necessary. It's the fault of the administration, the orders do come from above. But the perpetrators are also responsible, from the Marine or Army corporals and privates on up the line. I'm not a military person, but many who have been (Wes Clark and John McCain, for two), have said that it would be the duty of a soldier to disobey an illegal order and to report it to a more superior officer if necessary. And they would and could find someone to listen, if they seriously wanted to. No, our whole military is not to blame, but SOME of our soldiers are to blame, and they need to be weeded out and punished. We can blame George W Bush, and his statements are what have caused this shameful behavior. The buck does stop at the top. But the guys down below deserve some of the blame too, no matter what uniform they wear. Because they're staining the uniforms of everyone around them, and quite frankly, some of them are taking pleasure out of perpetrating these acts. The old saying is that Clothes don't make the Man- Not even a US Marine Uniform can do that. Durbin was right the first time, and no apologies were necessary.

Reminder to CDP bloggers:

Frontline: Private Warriors, which talks about a Halliburton "private security agency" that hires mercenaries to go to Iraq will be on tonight. Don't know what time in your local markets, but it will be on at 8 p.m. (in about half an hour) on my local PBS station, and I'm taping it.

It will be interesting to find out the slant of the piece, now that the NeoCons have a stranglehold on PBS....

Posted by: NonnyO at June 21, 2005 08:07 PM

Thanks, Nonny, I did write Durbin. He's a great senator.

One more post of links; heavy news day... then will catch Frontline....

http://news.yahoo.com/fc/science/anthropology_and_archaeology
Iraq on list of world's endangered cultural sites
Reuters - Tue Jun 21, 3:09 PM ET
NEW YORK - The entire country of Iraq, often called the cradle of civilization, made the list of most endangered cultural sites on Tuesday, joining others from 55 countries that include a Modernist building in New York and a hut in Antarctica. The list of 100 at-risk sites, issued by the privately financed World Monuments Fund every two years, is chosen from nominations made by a broad array of experts in archeology and the arts.

[Gee, thank you, Georgie, you uneducated cretin who has no interest in anything ancient and cultural...!!! I just wonder how many treasures from antiquity have been destroyed, thanks to American bombs and bullets and other people just like you who have no respect for tradition, art, or cultures beyond your nitwit brain....

U.S. Moral Authority in 'Free Fall', Senators Warn
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0621-01.htm
Quotes from various legislators about Gitmo included.

Republicans Take Aim at Their Small-Screen Enemies
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0621-02.htm
[Pix of Tomlinson...]

ACLU Says Bush Is Restricting Science
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0621-08.htm
US has 'Lots of Secrets to Hide' Regarding Saddam: Iraqi Justice Minister
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0621-03.htm
No Climate Change in Energy Bill - Domenici
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0621-04.htm
Amnesty International: Amnesty International Applauds Waxman Bill to Establish Independent Commission to Investigate Detainee Abuses
http://www.commondreams.org/news2005/0621-23.htm

U.S. was big spender in days before Iraq handover

By Sue Pleming
Jume 21, 2005

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States handed out nearly $20 billion of Iraq's funds, with a rush to spend billions in the final days before transferring power to the Iraqis nearly a year ago, a report said on Tuesday.

A report by Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman (news, bio, voting record) of California, said in the week before the hand-over on June 28, 2004, the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority ordered the urgent delivery of more than $4 billion in Iraqi funds from the U.S. Federal Reserve in New York.

One single shipment amounted to $2.4 billion -- the largest movement of cash in the bank's history, said Waxman.

Most of these funds came from frozen and seized assets and from the Development Fund for Iraq, which succeeded the U.N.'s oil-for-food program. After the U.S. invasion, the U.N. directed this money should be used by the CPA for the benefit of the Iraqi people.

Cash was loaded onto giant pallets for shipment by plane to Iraq, and paid out to contractors who carried it away in duffel bags.

The report, released at a House of Representatives committee hearing, said despite the huge amount of money, there was little U.S. scrutiny in how these assets were managed.

"The disbursement of these funds was characterized by significant waste, fraud and abuse," said Waxman.

An audit by the U.S. Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction said U.S. auditors could not account for nearly $8.8 billion in Iraqi funds and the United States had not provided adequate controls for this money.

"The CPA's management of Iraqi money was an important responsibility that, in my view, required more diligent accountability, pursuant to its assigned mandate, than we found," said chief inspector Stuart Bowen in testimony.

Read more... http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050621/ts_nm/iraq_cash_dc_1

Chuck in Houston for All:

The PBS issue, as the NPR issue, really strikes home. I don't suppose I would be as worried about this sort of thing at all if I didn't have a six-year-old. I say "strikes home" for another reason, namely, as I recall, this DCP was set up explicitly to deal with issues of, for lack of a bette word, empirical media, and campaign finance, which issues are, of course, closely related. At one level, I struggle with the issue of how it might be possible to codify or even administer a public media, just as with campaign financing, while keeping them out of the current power calculus, whatever that calculus may be at a given time. Likewise public school ciriculae. Any ideas?

Chuck in Houston

Chuck,

Your question is important and was considered in the 1960's when the corporation for public broadcasting (CPB) was created. My understanding is that it was created to act as an INDEPENDENT body in order to provide guidance and distribute government funds to PBS and NPR. Now, we have seen Bushco Propaganda dig its claws into CPB so they can control the message as they see fit.

Please see the link to CPB to get a better understanding of it mission and role in public media. http://www.cpb.org/

Mountain Time and Pacific Time Bloggers:

Please try to watch PBS' Frontline. I think you will find it enlightning..... SIX MONTHS BEFORE the pResident ordered the attack on Iraq, Halliburton's KBR was moving supplies into the region..... With contractors and sub-contractors and more sub-contractors, Halliburton must be taking in money by the truckload, metaphorically speaking.....

Chuck in Houston for Oncall:

Thank you! downloaded the pdf file of the actual act from:

http://www.cpb.org/about/history/cpb_statute.pdf

I'll peruse it latter. I've run into similar issues at work when reconciling the provisions of the SEC Acts and the SOX amendments to company procedures. The common underlying theme seems to me to be how to "codify" "good will" or "best efforts" or "good faith" or is it even possible, in which case the correct course is sheer partisan politics -- in other words doing your utmost, within the constraints of ethical and legal behavior, to make sure the side you agree with wins. Thanks again fpr that link. My goodness but the internet can empower citizens of a democracy!

Chuck in Houston

Today, I took a picture of Senator Clinton, Clifford the Big Red Dog and the other important people standing behind the microphones. In front of them were those impressive stacks of paper that contained one million signitures.

I sent this to everyone I knew who signed on-line petitions and those I knew who thought they were a waste of time. My sister in Montana has a hard time understanding how her Internet signiture can make a difference. Sometime we need to nudge those who aren't sure how to help.

One of the camera men today said his film may end up on the cutting room floor, and my pictures may actualy be seen by more people. I thought it was a weird comment, but it inspired me to send a photo to all those who couldn't be there. Several people have passed the note and photo on, so who know how many may see it.

Those of who attend events, not just in DC, should make sure and send emails and photos to help others see how they, too, can make a difference. I think there are more people out there who just don't know what to do!

Christine in Virginia

(A simular picture is on this web site)

Oops -- the sense of the above should be that if it is NOT possible to codify good will, etc., then the alternative is to pursue partisan agendas instead. Sorry!

Chuck in Houston

Beyond the history lesson, I would like to see the CPB perform as originally intended. I liken it to a GAO for public media. We need a strong and vibrant public media in our country. Especially when we have seen mega corporations expanding their influence in the daily media they throw at us. Perhaps we should have realized it would be only a matter of time before PBS and NPR would become government tools.

Chuck in Houston for NonnyO:

Frontline has always been good journalism. I rembember back in aftermath of the first Gulf war, or perhaps to be more technically correct Round 1 (as the UN action was ended by a true, not a final settlement), Frontline ran a brilliant peice on Saddam Hussein's biography and personality. Prior to seeing that, I, as a person that had studied the USSR in depth at school and professionally, had always been struck by what seemed to me to be a conscious effeort on Hussein's behalf to model himself on Stalin. Thanks to Frontline, and thanks only to Frontline, I found out that serious researchers agreed that that was indeed the case, even though Hussein (like Stalin, come to think of it), murdered most native Communists. On the Halliburton thing, though, a word of caution. It would seem to be prudent once the option of renewing the Gulf war was on the table to begin positioning the logistics. From an operational point of view, such positioning can't really be challeneged. The challenge, to me, is whether or not we initiated military actions as a last resort for national security considerations or for some other reasons. The Halliburtons of the world have always and will always get contracts to pre-position a contingency, and for all the blame that may be place on individual corporations for corrupting federal contracting procedures, the mere fact that a company got a contract that fulfilled a reasonable contingency does not in and of itself implicate the managment of the company or those dealing with it from the federal side in any wrong-doing.

Chuck in Houston

Frontline was incredible. This is a private war. We the taxpayers are paying private companies, because no one would volunteer to clean latrines and cook in an all volunteer army. The finances are apparently opaque--no Freedom of Information Act to lead to accountability in how the billions of dollars are being spent.

Of course, I understand this now so much better because it was on Frontline--a PBS show. Will Frontline be canceled soon, with the new conservative leadership at PBS?

Below is a link to the Frontline story's web page. While they couldn't get many of the interviews they'd hae liked, it's a tremendous piece of telejournalism.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/warriors/

Chuck in Houston for Oncall:

You wrote "it would be only a matter of time before PBS and NPR would become government tools." Interesting point -- my only reprise would be that "government" should be the exclusive tool of popular sovereignty, constrained by the constitutional protection of minority rights, or as I prefer, individual liberties. You see my point -- how does one audit auditors? Ultimately, the "stakeholders" have to judge and make any such judgements effective. I'll keep cogitating on this....

Chuck in Houston

PS: I'm not as pedantic as I sound here. I am honestly perplexed by some of these issues and distressed by the lack of consensus here in the states that I find after having been abroad so long. I guess it's when the consensus breaks down that new defintions have to be put forth and discussed.

A report directly from DiAnne,

"Hi everyone!

I am in North Dakota now. Today I went to the Rotary with my mom, where she plays the piano. I am doing what all the other North Dakotans do. I joined in at the Rotary and sang "Glory Hallelujah", and "The Star Spangled Banner". I don't eat beef but today I had a hamburger for lunch, then we went to Wal-Mart. My accent is coming back. (Yah, you betcha!)

I got to see all kinds of friends in Minneapolis, that was really neat. Now that I am in North Dakota I am running around everywhere taking pictures. The pace is slower here, so I am relaxing."

Chuck in Houston for Beth C.:

Your post raised two very good points -- the first being challenging the very concept of "outsourcing" logistical issues that are inherent to military actions, and the second being the transparency of any processes whereby such issues are "outsourced." Very good catch!

Chuck in Houston

Chuck in Houston to All:

Funny how all of this somehow falls under the heading of "Saving Big Bird." Personally, I have always been partial to Baby Bear, or "Baby Bayuh" as he would have it. I like Elmo but you have to admit he can be a bit of a prima donna sometimes....

Chuck in Houston

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2005/06/16/DI2005061601172.html

Live chat with Martin Smsith from Frontline, 11 p.m. ET

Chuck in Houston for Oncall:

Just VERY quickly perused the provisions of the Act, and, from that quick glance, the only operative terms from a point of view of content seem to be "excellence" and "diversity" -- which as we say in the contracting world leaves a great deal of "creative ambiguity."

BABY BEAR: "Now kids, Newton and Galileo may have seemed to have demostwated an empirical welationship between welative mass and the accelewation of what we caww gwavity -- but couldn't it all be ascwibed to the unseen will of a hiyuh poweh? Isn't aww this gobbewy-gook just anothew dowdge by those seeking to pwomulgate powiticow cowwectness?"

Or maybe that should have been in the voice of one of my favowites, Ewmuh Fudd, courtesy of Looney Tunes.

Chuck in Houston

Chuck - But at those salaries??? I'll have to watch the tape again, but it was something like $400-600/DAY the mercenaries are making. Most have no military training, either, but all have to carry guns and use them. One person interviewed referred to them as "cowboys" if memory serves. No communication between US military and the "private security forces" - aka mercenaries - who are carrying guns..... What a nightmare! Not all the private contractors are the people who clean latrines and cook gourmet meals, in other words (did you see the photos of the food they get and prepare for themselves and for some of the US military? - and one of the biggest financial question was about money spent on food vs. food actually made), not to mention flat screen TVs, fast food concessions (Subway was featured prominently on a sign), etc. Check the background of some of the film footage.

Beth C. - I certainly hope Frontline is not cancelled. However, since they gave us facts, no spin, I'm sure it will fall under Tomlinson's axe of "unbalanced" reporting. Too many details in the show reflected badly on the v-pResident's previous company, Halliburton.

Yes, it is a private army. Reminded me of the Dark and Middle Ages when the popes had their own armies and dictated where armies from various countries were to go to fight their wars.....

Posted by: jami at June 21, 2005 05:39 PM

Jami, thanks for the link. I went to watch what I thought was a news program tonight on a major network, only to find it was Robertson's 700 Club. (What on EARTH has that man been smoking?)

For those of you who are sickened by what the American Taliban is trying to do to America,
be encouraged and have a laugh: For General J.C. Christian, Patriot, and "Torture Is Not a Family Value", Bush is Lord (3 more years of healing), and more,

http://patriotboy.blogspot.com/2005_06_19_patriotboy_archive.html

~ ~ ~ * * ~ ~ ~

The 'religious left' gets a little bigger

via The Carpet Bagger : I admit from the outset that I know literally nothing about this group or who's behind it, but for those who believe the "religious left" should do more to take on the "religious right," it appears there's a new organization committed to doing just that...read on

I sure hope this takes off. Men like Dobson and Robertson have taken hold of religion by the neck and tried to turn it into an "ownership society." They hold the mortgage. I was talking to a friend of mine who is an incredible flutist with the LA Philharmonic and an Evangelical. She told me how upsetting it is for her to see these guys on TV trying to define what she should believe in. "There are more than two issues that make me a Chrisitian, " she said.

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2005/06/21.html

Chuck in Houston for NonnyO:

Truth be told, 400-600 per day is a low dayrate in, for example, the oil field for expatriate postings in unstable regions. The issue of civilian subcontractors carrying guns or indeed even carrying out any functions required by military operations that may have immediate battlefield implications is somewhat different and VERY troubling to me. More importantly, in my view, war must be a last resort and must be understood as such and agreed upon by the sovereign people acting through their elected representatives. Any actions or representations by persons in authority that intentionally mislead the view of the sovereign people as to the nature of any threat that requires a warlike response seems to me to be criminal negligence at best.

Chuck in Houston

Posted by: Chuck at June 21, 2005 11:14 PM

All "private contractors" filmed (except cooks) were carrying guns, or had handguns in holsters on their waists, wore helmets, and some had bulletproof vests on. Now I'm wondering just who needed the bulletproof vests people said they had to buy for their relatives/friends in Iraq? The "private security contractors"? Or the mercenaries???

Didn't you see that on the film???

Chuck in Houston for Truth Shall Prevail:

Speaking as an agnostic diest (I suppose) that has tackled the Christian New Testament more than once, and concentrated on the words in red, all I can say is that any self-professed Christian that espouses the "ownership society" is a hypocrite at best. There are lots of red words to support that one. I almost can't conceive of a pose less characteristic of the values set forth in the New Testament than the "ownership society." My goodness but render unto Caeser doesn't mean become Caesar! Or, "I got mine so to heck with you!"

Allegorically yours,

Chuck in Houston

Posted by: NonnyO at June 21, 2005 10:07 PM

Just saw your post about Frontline, NonnyO. I bet I missed it, I am on Central (are you?). Do you get PBS out of Minneapolis?

Posted by: Chuck at June 21, 2005 11:38 PM

CHUCK IN HOUSTON WHO IS NOW OFFICIALLY A TEXAS RESIDENT:

I agree. And you are being totally too polite, but since this is public, I too will reserve my private sentiments on the subject. :)

Chuck in Houston for NoonyO:

I don't have a TV! And yet, all my prior oaths notwithstanding, I'll have one by the end of the week....

Anyhow, the idea of actual mercenaries, that is, civilians contracted by the Pentagon to carry out frontline (no pun intended) duties and bearing arms to boot, is absolutely inapropriate for the United States of America. That is a bit too close to a Praetorian Guard for my tastes. I am merely trying to caution that we don't carelessly lump together normal contracting functions -- e.g. building a port or a camp -- with perverse subcontracting, such as true mercenaries. The latter phenomenon is very troubling to me and seem symptomatic of an administration attempting to build fire-walls or to remove itself from direct responsibilities for the actions it supports and sanctions, on the one hand, but refuses to account for, on the other. That to me is poison to American democracy.

Chuck in Houston

Posted by: Chuck at June 21, 2005 10:26 PM

Chuck,

Your point is well taken. I remember one of our greatests Presidents said ( an Illinoisan I may proudly add), Government of the people and by the people....he also said, "you can fool some of the people all the time and you can fool all the people some of the time, but you can't fool all the people all the time."

It is precisely those points that illustrate the conflict of a representative federal government. When the representation neglects those with the least power to speak out against government policy, and becomes a tool for those with extraordinary wealth and influence, government agencies become the tools of the priviledged few. It is the people who have themselves to blame when they have been fooled by those working to create a government of neglect. But over time, people will not allow it to continue. Do we have a government "of the people, by the people and for the people"? My answer is no. Do Americans have the capablility to change this? Yes we do. True Americans had no desire to dismantle the CPB. It is only the right wing conservatives who want to destroy the principles of excellence and diversity on the public airwaves because those principles don't have anything to do with their agenda.

Chuck in Houston to Oncall:

Amen to that. We'll get them. Honest Abe was right. My favorite aphorism of his is something to the effect that a smart person never finds themselves in a position where they have to tell a lie. To me, the collective writings of Abraham Lincoln and Grant's (Galena, Illinois, if memeor serves) autobiography are two of the things that make me so proud of my country. By the way, all my dad's folks are from Chicago.

Truth Shall Prevail:

Thank you, that was very kind. My mother would be very happy to know that someone somewhere onetime characterized anything I did as polite! But we will catch more flies with honey than with vinegar! Also, as to Texas, it is a bit of a gear change for me, but I've lived here before and I've worked in the oil patch for well over a decade now. And Texas is the state of, arguably, the most effective fighter of racism in America since Honest Abe -- LBJ. Plus it has these great signs on the highways -- "Drive Friendly" -- which the more I think on it is a great commentary on public discourse.

Well, an Agnostic Diests Blessings on All and GOTV 2006! I'm turning in soon.

Chuck in Houston

Posted by: Chuck at June 21, 2005 11:46 PM

No TV... oh, okay, now I understand.

The full transcript of what was said on the show, plus what are apparently full transcripts (reading the bottom of the screen during the show) of what didn't make the cut to be on air are found on the PBS Frontline web site.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/warriors/

That should be able to describe what I was talking about better than I can until I look at the tape again.

In a rush transcript for this web site http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/06/21/1335238 the following quote:

AMY GOODMAN: Martin Smith, who carries the guns?

MARTIN SMITH: Well, there are -- and the numbers vary widely -- anywhere from 6,000 to 20,000 private security guards who are over there, as I mentioned before, protecting General Bostic of the Army Corp of Engineers, General Patreas, who’s in charge of training the Iraqi armed forces and the U.S. ambassadors and all State Department officials. These guys carry the guns. There are probably 60 companies or so, many of them are established companies. But many of them started up just as the war started, and you had a kind of Baghdad bubble, if you will. A lot of companies rushed in. A lot of money on the table. They armed up and started protecting people.

[IMHO, carrying a gun - and using it - qualifies for the label "mercenary."]

[IMHO, carrying a gun - and using it - qualifies for the label "mercenary."]

Let me clarify: IMHO, carrying a gun in Iraq and being paid by a "private security firm" - and then using that gun under fire from military combatants - qualifies for the label "mercenary."

Posted by: Truth Shall Prevail at June 21, 2005 11:39 PM

No, TSP, I don't have cable so I don't get it from MSP, but from a local feed farther north, and yes, in Central Time. Usually they rebroadcast these shows after midnight, but not the Frontline show (I checked the schedule in advance). So, yes, if your local PBS station aired it at the 8 p.m. time, you did miss it. I refer you to above links to the transcripts of the show.

They Died So Republicans Could Take the Senate
Freedom wasn't the goal of George W. Bush or his neoconservative Republican colleagues. It was political power. And they were willing to lie us into a war to achieve it.
by Thom Hartmann
It was a war for political power. That had to be first. Everything else - oil, profits, ongoing PATRIOT Act powers, easy manipulation of the media - all could only come if political power was seized and held through at least two decisive election cycles. The Bush administration lied us into an invasion to get and keep political power.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9217.htm

Jack Dalton: Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid—Something Evil This Way is Coming!:
Bush told the world that, “I am a war president…I make all my decisions with war in mind…” For Bush, his road to immortality and greatness was, and still is, thru war; and not just one war, but continuous war.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9216.htm
Excerpt (Now this can send a thrill of terror down one's spine! Check the date! Has anyone else heard of this having been done already??? Read full article for perspective.):
Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to repeal the 22nd amendment to the Constitution. (Introduced in House)
HJ 24 IH
109th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. J. RES. 24
Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to repeal the 22nd amendment to the Constitution.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
February 17, 2005
Mr. HOYER (for himself, Mr. BERMAN, Mr. SENSENBRENNER, Mr. SABO, and Mr. PALLONE) introduced the following joint resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary
JOINT RESOLUTION
Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to repeal the 22nd amendment to the Constitution.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in the White House:
The Bush administration is coming under increasing criticism for its handling of so-called "illegal combatants." The president may soon be forced to find the key he threw away so long ago.
http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,361461,00.html

Bush administration is basing its Middle East policy on newspaper articles:
The United States is, once again, depending on news reports leaked by its own intelligence, to justify its policies.
http://snipurl.com/fqhu

Iraq Oil Sales Concern Security Council
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/062105M.shtml
[Presumably this is one of the kinds of problems Bu$h wants Bolton to cover up for him at the UN... er... that is, clean up... er... straighten out... er... you know what I mean....]

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/gate/archive/2005/06/22/notes062205.DTL&nl=fix

Downing Street Is For Liars
Why isn't the media screaming about the latest proofs of Bush's war scams? Don't you know?
- By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist
Wednesday, June 22, 2005

This is the white-hot question right now gushing forth from the Far Left, from progressive blogs and liberal patriots and blue staters and angry anti-Bushers alike, and it is like a plea, a rallying call, an indignant stomp of deep frustration. It is this:

Why is the major American media not swarming all over the Downing Street Memos thing? Why is the entire nation not just appalled and disgusted and aghast at finding seemingly irrefutable proofs about what we all already knew, which is that BushCo planned to invade Iraq long before 9/11 and needed to find a way to justify it?

And, we now know, he was even willing to go so far as to rig the intelligence and "fix the facts" and screw the U.S. economy and screw any sort of exit strategy and screw the potential for lost lives and let's just blindly stomp on in there and bomb the living crap outta Saddam despite the undeniable pre-Iraq evidence that Saddam had zero WMDs and that his nuclear program was "effectively frozen," and despite how BushCo and the CIA and FBI and DOD and the Clinton administration and your grandma all knew it?

This is what the infamous Downing Street Memos allegedly contain, more undeniable proofs in the form of meeting notes with higher-ups in Britain and the U.S., talking about the supposedly "dire" threat of WMDs and nailing Iraq well before Bush was handed the tragic and morose political gift of 9/11 to leverage and whore and turn into his own personal Jesus.

And to be sure, the outcry from the Left is healthy and good and appropriate and only now are a handful of newspapers and magazines (you go, Newsweek) taking up the Downing Street Memo debacle, asking slightly more inflamed questions of BushCo.

So then, why isn't the media roaring more angrily about this? Why aren't the major players up in arms and trumpeting banner headlines and screaming for Bush to answer for his obvious and plentiful crimes against the nation and the Earth and peace?

Answer: Because it's not really news. Not anymore.

Because, to be honest, what the memos actually reveal is not quite as much as the extreme Left wishes they did, and while they certainly do reveal that Bush is a noted liar and distorter of fact and that we can easily deduce that his snarling war hawks torqued the Brits into complicity and mangled the U.N. laws and misled the American people into war perhaps more deviously and violently than any administration in recent American history, well, there is not a single thing in the words you just read that most of us did not already know.

It's true. There is, unfortunately, nothing here that not already been trumpeted to death by the Left, and therefore to try to trumpet it all again as some sort of irrefutable revelation that should change the face and temperament of the nation is sort of like beating a dead horse we all knew was already dead but that is only now taking on a new dimension of stink.
~~~~~~~~

So then, the question is not merely when will the stack of lies, of abuses become so high, so unstable, so inexcusable that the entire nation finally takes notice and the whole house of cards comes crashing to the ground in a big nasty soul-jarring spirit-cleansing patriotism-redefining whoomp and smothers the whole lot of them, but rather, can it be soon enough?

And to that question, we all know the answer.

Bush Rejects Detainee Abuse Commission

June 21, 2005

WASHINGTON - The White House on Tuesday rejected the proposed creation of an independent commission to investigate abuses of detainees held at the U.S. military prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and elsewhere.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the Pentagon has launched 10 major investigations into allegations of abuse, and that system was working well.

"People are being held to account," he said. "And we think that's the way to go about this."

McClellan said the Defense Department would continue to investigate any new allegations. And he noted that the Pentagon has appointed outsiders to some of its investigations.

The Pentagon considered a probe into the Abu Ghraib prison scandal in Iraq as independent. The investigation was headed by former Defense Secretary James Schlesinger, but its members were appointed by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who has been criticized in the scandal.

Democrats on Capitol Hill have increasingly called for an independent commission to look into detainee abuses. On Tuesday, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said a commission is crucial to answering questions about the atmosphere that permitted abuses, troop training and the length of detentions at Guantanamo.

"These questions are important because the safety of our country depends on our reputation and how we are viewed, especially in the Muslim world," she said.

There are about 540 detainees at Guantanamo Bay. Some have been there more than three years without being charged with a crime. Most were captured on the battlefields of Afghanistan in 2001 and 2002 and were sent to Guantanamo Bay in hope of extracting useful intelligence about the al-Qaida terrorist network.

A recent Pentagon report detailed incidents in which U.S. guards at Guantanamo mishandled prisoners' copies of the Quran, the Muslim holy book. Last month, Amnesty International called the detention center for alleged terrorists "the gulag of our time," a charge Rumsfeld dismissed as "reprehensible."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050621/ap_on_go_pr_wh/prisoner_abuse_commission_2

From Rawstory...

Tuesday, June 21

Executive Order 13292
The Bush administration is still stonewalling on information concerning John Bolton. Democrat Sen. have been asking for records pertaining his actions/service in the State Department. These requests have been issued months ago when the nomination process first started and are the main reason why Democrats and a fair number of Republican Senators are blocking the confirmation vote.

I’d like to remind President Bush of his Executive Order 13292:

In no case shall information be classified in order to: (1) conceal violations of law, inefficiency, or administrative error; (2) prevent embarrassment to a person, organization, or agency.

George W. Bush, Executive Order 13292, March 25, 2003.

So what’s the holdup?

Link to Executive Order --> http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/03/20030325-11.html

Posted by: monkey at June 22, 2005 07:21 AM

Oh, but he meant that for OTHER people.... In his nitwit mind, he's above the law and his own executive orders.... He'll weasel out of that as he's weaseled out of everything else; he wears teflon and nothing illegal, immoral, or unethical he ever does comes back to bite him in the ass or harm his "family values" reputation..... He will create an infotainment news diversion (or a 'terra' threat), and slip in the Bolton appointment under the radar and no one will find out until after the fact, no matter what Frist said.... if not over the 4th holiday, then later when Congress goes into recess.....

He Knows How To Rally The Troops (just the wrong one's)...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush on Tuesday told the Southern Baptist Convention a compassionate society would rely more on religious groups to provide social services and oppose expanded embryonic stem cell research.

Bush renewed his call for Congress to pass a law that would allow religious groups with federal contracts to consider questions of faith when making employment decisions.

With such legislation long stalled, the president has bypassed Congress and made more money available to such groups through executive orders and regulations.

"Congress needs to pass charitable choice legislation to forever guarantee equal treatment for our faith-based organizations when they compete for federal funds," Bush told the Baptists meeting in Nashville, Tennessee, via satellite.

Quoting the hymn "Great Is Thy Faithfulness," Bush said, "Thy compassions, they fail not."

On "culture of life" issues such as stem cells, the president said, "A compassionate society protects and defends its most vulnerable members at every stage of life."

Bush opposes a House-passed bill that would lift his 2001 restrictions on public funding for research on newly developed embryonic stem cell lines. The Senate is now considering the matter.

Bush also reiterated his intention to nominate conservative jurists to the federal bench.

Washington Post: GOP rule makes lobbying big business

The Road to Riches Is Called K Street
Lobbying Firms Hire More, Pay More, Charge More to Influence Government

By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 22, 2005; Page A01

To the great growth industries of America such as health care and home building add one more: influence peddling.

The number of registered lobbyists in Washington has more than doubled since 2000 to more than 34,750 while the amount that lobbyists charge their new clients has increased by as much as 100 percent. Only a few other businesses have enjoyed greater prosperity in an otherwise fitful economy.

The lobbying boom has been caused by three factors, experts say: rapid growth in government, Republican control of both the White House and Congress, and wide acceptance among corporations that they need to hire professional lobbyists to secure their share of federal benefits.

"There's unlimited business out there for us," said Robert L. Livingston, a Republican former chairman of the House Appropriations Committee and now president of a thriving six-year-old lobbying firm. "Companies need lobbying help."

Lobbying firms can't hire people fast enough. Starting salaries have risen to about $300,000 a year for the best-connected aides eager to "move downtown" from Capitol Hill or the Bush administration. Once considered a distasteful post-government vocation, big-bucks lobbying is luring nearly half of all lawmakers who return to the private sector when they leave Congress, according to a forthcoming study by Public Citizen's Congress Watch.

Political historians don't see these as positive developments for democracy. "We've got a problem here," said Allan Cigler, a political scientist at the University of Kansas. "The growth of lobbying makes even worse than it is already the balance between those with resources and those without resources."

The Republicans in charge aren't just pro-business, they are also pro-government. Federal outlays increased nearly 30 percent from 2000 to 2004, to $2.29 trillion. And despite the budget deficit, federal spending is set to increase again this year, especially in programs that are prime lobbying targets such as defense, homeland security and medical coverage.

Read more... http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/21/AR2005062101632.html

My Republican relatives are here right now quoting me how Bush told us that he prepared the country for a long difficult war and that his statement on the battleship about major combat activities being over was accurate. and that the 16 words in the state of the union were twisted by progresive.

Does anyone here have a link or Bush's exact quotes regarding being welcomed as liberators and how easy the Iraq would be saved?

Thanks for posting this important information! We really do appreciate it. Keep up the fight!

-Karl
Louise Slaughter's Office

Rush says I am not going to talk about the Downing Street Memo b/c 'I am just not interested in it'. He then goes on to wrongly state that the originals were destoyed. In fact the originals were returned and xerox copies of the original were kept. The facts were being fixed around the policies from the MI6 in meetings with Jack Strong.

Something I have learned this week from conservatives which I really find annoying. They quite often start their conversations by saying you know I was once a Democrat. Certainly there is no way to disprove that but I find it to be so disenguous at best and a phrase the right loves to repeat. Any others here experience that comment?

Bush also reiterated his intention to nominate conservative jurists to the federal bench.

Posted by: monkey at June 22, 2005 08:08 AM

I DISTINCTLY remember Bush saying in one of the three debates in 2004 with Senator Kerry, when asked what his criteria is and will be when nominating jurists to the federal bench, "That they follow the law". It was a lie, like all the other lies. Sorry folks, I no longer buy the point of view I held before, that Dumbya was simply that. In my thinking, after seeing him talk out of both sides of his mouth once again, I believe he KNOWS EXACTLY WHAT HE IS DOING, and he doesn't give a rat's behind. He's using religion to play politics, and reaching out to the wingnut base again. He's no choir boy being led by the wrong crowd.