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Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Blackwater (& Military Contractors) But Were Afraid to Ask
Blackwater has been in the news once again, this time because of questionable circumstances in an event which resulted in death and wounding of civilians. In more recent news, they are also suspected of arms smuggling, which they are denying. This story has grown astronomically over the weekend, to where it is looking more like a crisis situation between Iraq and the US. Perhaps now the public will take more notice of the whole concept of private security contracting and whether there is oversight.
I first heard of Blackwater, like many people, when four of their members were ambushed in Fallujah and their corpses were dragged through the streets, then hung from a bridge over the Euphrates. I had also heard about Dyncorp, with members alleged to have been involved in rapes in Kosovo with no legal way to prosecute them, and that they were from Texas with conservative government ties. Prior to that, I had known about "mercenaries" or "soldiers of fortune" and generally thought of them as macho rightwing adventures with a thirst for blood. They are also known as "cowboys" or "hired guns."
More curious than ever, knowing that these contractors remain in Iraq in huge numbers yet are seldom mentioned when there is talk of a drawdown in forces in Iraq, I solicited questions from friends via email, and we came up with some basics. The links we collected are at the bottom of the thread and there will be many more by the time this is published.
Who are Blackwater?
They are the world's most powerful mercenary firm, and growing fast. They are a private army, a private military company, called "mercenaries" by some. They are paid for with tax dollars. On their website, their Vision is: To support security, peace, freedom, and democracy everywhere.
Who founded Blackwater?
Blackwater was founded by an extreme right-wing fundamentalist megamillionaire ex-Navy SEAL named Erik Prince. He is hereditarily wealthy and his family bankrolls right-wing causes. They are based in the wilderness of North Carolina, named Blackwater because of the region they are based in.
(keep reading for more)
What are they and other private military contractors supposed to do?
Their ostensible duty is to protect the top US officials. They are also capable of carrying out regime change anywhere in the world. They supply bodyguards for public officials (US and foreign), build detention camps (such as Guantanamo), pilot armed reconnaissance planes to destroy coca in Columbia, operate intelligence/communication at US Northern Commands in CO, and coordinate response for attack on the US.
Where are their operations?
Certainly Iraq, Afghanistan and a number of other foreign nations, and also inside the United States, as after Hurricane Katrina and in the mountains of Colorado. Blackwater has over 1000 employees just in Iraq, with a fleet of helicopters around the country. Besides the several American companies, there are a couple of large British ones as well.
What are their corporate structures like?
They are a for-profit business. Private military companies make over $100 million per year. The Center for Public Integrity reported that since 1994, the Defense Department entered into 3,601 contracts worth $300 billion with 12 U.S. based PMCs. The number of private security companies has proliferated to where some operate from laptops in small offices and hire as they acquire contracts, trying to compete with the larger companies. It is a profitable business, for sure.
Who are private military contractors licensed by?
They are licensed by the US State Department. As such, they also contract with foreign governments. They might train soldiers, reorganize militaries (as in Nigeria, Bulgaria, Taiwan, Equatorial Guinea). They are not supposed to engage in offense operations, merely defensive, but it's a huge gray area given the chaos that exists in military zones.
Has the number of private military contractors increased under our current President?
Yes, substantially. There are approximately 120,000 "private security contractors" are in Iraq, 48,000 of them working as combat soldiers. Their deaths are not included in the official casualty counts. Center for American Progress estimates The total number of private contractors in Iraq is estimated between 126,000 and 180,000, which includes 20,000 to 50,000 private security guards.
How are they recruited?
Entry level positions with the various companies can pay up to US$100,000 a year in some instances, or as high as US$1000 a day (most are deployed for a year and a half), which is 2-3 times more than what an average special forces soldier is paid. Some argue that these contracted "guns" are worth the money because they tend to be ex-Special Forces personnel such as Navy Seals. One criticism is that they are "quick on the trigger" and place the protection of those they are body-guarding over the safety of unarmed Iraqi civilians. Hence, they are not popular in Iraq.
Are private military contractors the same as defense contractors?
Not necessarily, but the 1949 Third Geneva Convention did not differentiate, but called them "supply contractors." Under a 1977 addition, if they engage in combat, they can be classified as mercenaries. If they are therefore unlawful combatants, they lose right to POW status. The US did not agree to this condition.
What are some of the things military contractors have done that have been controversial (other than increasing the number of Americans in military areas and muddying the waters as far as who is doing what)?
In 2003, employees of a private military company CACI were involved in the Iraq Abu Ghraib prison scandal.
In 2004, four American private contractors belonging to the company Blackwater USA were ambushed and killed by guerillas as they drove through Fallujah.
In 2005, 16 American contractors and three Iraqi aides were detained following two incidents in which they allegedly fired upon U.S. Marine checkpoint.
In 2005, a "trophy" video, complete with post-production Elvis music, appearing to show private military contractors in Baghdad shooting Iraqi civilians.
On September 17, 2007, the Iraqi government annouced it was revoking the license of the American security firm Blackwater USA. As of 9/1, they were going back to work as usual, though there is an investigation pending.
Can Blackwater be legally prosecuted?
No one seems to know, as they don't seem to be under anyone's jurisdiction. Even the State Department admits this. From Center for American Progress:"Visible, aggressive" private contractors have "angered many Iraqis, who consider them a mercenary force that runs roughshod over people in their own country." At Abu Ghraib, "the U.S. Army found that contractors were involved in 36 percent of proven abuse incidents," but "not a single private contractor named in the Army's investigation report has been charged, prosecuted or punished."
The founder and chairman of Blackwater USA, the private security contractor, has been told to appear next month before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. In a letter to Blackwater chairman Erik Prince, Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said the hearing would concentrate on "the mission and performance of Blackwater USA and its affiliated companies in Iraq and Afghanistan."
References for the Q/A above:
Congress Wants Testimony From Blackwater Boss
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/092107N.shtml
Maliki Blasts Blackwater Firm
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/092007A.shtml
Iraq Government Bans Blackwater
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/091707A.shtml
Feds Target Blackwater in Weapons Probe
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/092207Z.shtml
Blackwater: Above the Law
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004241.php
Iraqis Put the Heat on Blackwater
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004229.php
Who Watches US Security Firms in Iraq?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070919/ap_on_go_ot/us_iraq_contractors
Feds Probing Iraq Arms Smuggling By Blackwater Guards
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20070921/us-blackwater-probe/
Blackwater Denies Smuggling Weapons Into Iraq
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gBBlkVdxsOL5VU5LlP4p9wldauxg
In The (Black)water
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060605/scahill
The Deadly Game of Private Security
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/23/weekinreview/23burns.html
Security Firm Faces Criminal Charges in Iraq
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/23/world/middleeast/23blackwater.html?em&ex=1190606400&en=a5f8f56d54c292ba&ei=5087%0A
Iraq: Blackwater Fired Unprovoked
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6941512,00.html
Petition to pressure Condi Rice on this: http://act.truemajorityaction.org/o/2/t/21/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=21
From the petition from True Majority
This is still America. We can't hire mercenaries to fire on civilians with no accountability.
Tell Sec. Rice to put an end to it, and follow the Iraqi government's demand that Blackwater leave the country. This has to stop.
Update:
Iraq's Interior Ministry now is looking at other incidents involving Blackwater employees.
Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf said the Moyock, N.C.-based company has been implicated in six other incidents over the past seven months, including a Feb. 7 shooting outside Iraqi state television in Baghdad in which three building guards were fatally shot.
Now it looks like the excuse for keeping the contracted "guns" in place is that there will be a "security vacuum" if they are removed, ie. the system is dependent on them now as the US military is stretched to the gills and the Iraqi military is not ready. After 4-1/2 years, alot of money had been made from this system.
Rice, Al-Maliki Keep Distance at Meeting
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/22/AR2007092200776.html?hpid=topnews
Iraq unlikely to expel Blackwater for fear of 'security vacuum'
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/09/23/asia/iraq.php
Video Shows Blackwater Overreacted
http://www.abcnews.go.com/WN/IraqCoverage/story?id=3640457&page=1
Brilliant, DiAnne and I am grateful for your research work.
Filing it away...
And here is a repost from the last thread:
I opened my email this morning to the latest challenges to personal agency and my own sanity:
A Year Later, Spellings Report Still Makes Ripples
More colleges test students and share data
By PAUL BASKEN
Washington
A year ago, Charles Miller, a former chairman of the University of Texas' Board of Regents, walked into the U.S. Education Department here and dropped off a glossy 76-page document with a crisp red cover.
Its recipient, Secretary Margaret Spellings, promptly hailed the final report of her Commission on the Future of Higher Education as a turning point: It was the day, she hoped, when U.S. colleges reoriented their mission to provide the highest possible quality of education to the most students possible at the lowest possible cost.
Such epochal aspirations motivate many government commissions. One year later, however, there is accumulating evidence that the vision in this case might, at least in some key aspects, actually be realized.
"Something is changing out there," says Patrick M. Callan, president of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education. After initial criticisms of the Spellings commission and the sometimes caustic tone of its yearlong deliberations, many college leaders are recognizing common ground.
"This was not," Mr. Callan says, "some group of ideologues or people who had no respect for higher education or had an ax to grind."
Among recent key developments seen to stem from or be encouraged by the Spellings commission:
· Hundreds of U.S. colleges are using standardized student-achievement tests, allowing comparisons between institutions, while investigating options for creating more such tests.
· Several major college groups are set to outline in coming weeks projects in which their members will post to their Web sites specific performance-related data to allow direct comparisons between institutions.
· Congress, with broad bipartisan backing, this month approved the largest increase in federal student aid since the GI Bill in 1944.
"We're under way," Ms. Spellings said in an interview with The Chronicle last week. "Are we done? Heck no. We haven't even started."
.....
Yet the Spellings commission tackled college orthodoxies in ways that previous panels had not. Rather than urge more government funds or suggest some shifts in academic focus, the Spellings panel proposed a direct challenge to some deeply cherished and longstanding ways in which colleges operate, calling on higher education to shed some of its mystery and fundamentally prove the value it delivers.
That change should be accomplished, the commission said in its final report, by devising new "accountability measures" that allow comparisons of student performance. That means developing standardized tests and compiling and sharing more data on both "inputs" and "outcomes," including total student costs and college completion rates, it said...
http://chronicle.com/weekly/v54/i05/05a00101.htm
Here is why that article is infuriating:
Whether or not my graduate students are employed at a certain income level is not an indication of my success as an educator. Nor is it the case that graduate programs are, or should be, comparable in outcomes. We can all agree on baseline standards (and we have labored long to do so FOR OUR OWN FIELD) but to make those standards the goal for every program, and to measure achievement by economic indicators as a result of those baselines is to sell us short. Our baseline standards are common to the field, but our student outcomes are specific to the institution and our own hopes and dreams for our graduates.
Number of Buddhist monks protesting in Myanmar (Burma) has grown to a reported 100,000.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/burma/story/0,,2176165,00.html
From the BBC:
Are others joining in?
In the initial days of the protests, the public did not appear to be involved - commentators suggested that they were too scared of retaliation.
But this has gradually changed as the demonstrations have grown in size.
Footage of one protest showed people lining the route as the monks marched, forming a chain to protect them from any retaliation from soldiers.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7010202.stm
PhotoShow
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5ivO0AtyBkmFxEVb3xG3xpzLlpGIQ
Here is an example of people WANTING democracy, not having it imposed on them.
I don't think they have oil, so we don't say much, maybe.
The FAQ above focusses mostly on who Blackwater is and didn't delve into the particulars of the controvers(ies) in the news.
Here is more, however, on the video evidence
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004269.php
- could be kind of a "smoking gun"
Being "off the hook" with the US govt and people (no popular uprising) does not mean being "off the hook" with the Iraqi govt (such as it is) and people.
To them, this stuff is everyday life, not something in the newspapers.
NMP,
Wow. That's a tremendous thread header with so much research. I for one thank you because as soon as I'm caught up on my work stuff, I will be clicking those links like mad.
Karen,
That is utter b.s. because as anyone who has taught students know, or anyone who has managed other people know, each person comes to class (or work) and has their own assets, issues, and work ethics. We also come into the work place with different ideas of 'success' and we also know that often it's "Who you know" not "who you are" that gets you the job.
Now that I'm good and pissed off...back to my own job.
sparrow,
what Karen shared with us, evaluating the education in terms of the income of the graduates, is hypercapitalism at work. It boosts the likes of MBAs and other professions at the expense of the arts.
We need a bit of everything. Some people need to take those MBA courses and get filthy rich. Yet they also need the fine arts and entertainment - and graduates of those programs - to enrich their personal lives.
Other countries have it all figured out. Just not us.
National Geographic recently ran a show glorifying the work of these mercenaries in Iraq.
I've refused to watch that propaganda channel, nor read their magazine, ever since.
Seriously, when an "impartial" media outlet like the National Geographic is reduced to W's propaganda channel, we're in big trouble.
UAW is partially striking over at General Motors. I'm afraid that there will be major backlash. These days, it's impossible to even organize, much less strike...
Dems are going after the evangelical votes.
This is how to put the Republicans on the defensive.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20920353/site/newsweek/
Rotten Rudy's rhetoric has changed. In '97 appararantly he was more concerned about how far he would need to walk and considered 911 as a police action not anti terrorism.
Washington Post snip
"In 1997, the city decided to place an emergency command center for the agency on the 23rd floor of 7 World Trade Center, across from the twin towers. Several top officials argued for a lower-profile site, such as an office complex across the Manhattan Bridge in Brooklyn. "
snip
"But Giuliani was adamant about having a site within walking distance of City Hall, recalled Jerome Hauer, then the emergency management commissioner. Hauer left City Hall in 2000 and had a falling-out with Giuliani after Sept. 11 over Hauer's endorsement of a Democrat to replace the mayor."
snip
"Giuliani and his advisers have rejected criticism of the site selection, saying no one could have predicted the collapse of the towers. But Louis Anemone, a top-ranking police officer who has since retired, disagrees. The World Trade Center "was number one on our list of the most vulnerable and critical and symbolic locations in the city. The place had been attacked once before, and they had been threatening to bring those towers down again," Anemone said. "For those of us who lived and breathed this stuff day in and day out, it boggled the imagination."
For Christian and any other young ones who might be affected by recruiters.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x56843
Monkey.
Your package is enroute and will be there day after tommorrow.
A package from here can get to DC in 26 hours but it takes 48 to get to NC.
Go figure.
FBI: Violent crimes in U.S. near 5-year peak
Murders, robberies rise nearly 2 percent, a higher increase than expected
WASHINGTON - Violent crime rose nearly 2 percent last year, the FBI reported Monday in U.S. data that show a slightly higher increase than expected.
The number of big-city murders also increased, by 1.8 percent — the same rate as homicides in the U.S. Robberies and arson also rose in large population centers, but the number of rapes and car thefts dropped, FBI data show.
The new numbers confirm that crime rates continued on a two-year upward trend after a relative lull in violence between 2002 and 2004.
more...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20956036/
A package from here can get to DC in 26 hours but it takes 48 to get to NC.
Go figure.
Posted by: Christy at September 24, 2007 01:03 PM
gee, it usually takes longer to get things done in DC than the rest of the country.
Run-DNC
Posted by: sparrow at September 24, 2007 01:03 PM
I'm unbelievably offended by the recruiting efforts being made towards young children.
My son was playing a game online yesterday, and before it would start, it played a 30 commercial for the Army, complete with starry-eyed kids no more than 7-8 yrs old looking with adoration at soldiers as they walked by on a city street. Pissed me right the hell off.
See the same thing at the movie theatres, with free iTunes gift cards being distributed by the theatre with tickets, sponsored by the National Guard.
Republicans always bitch about keeping the governments hands (Dems in particular) outta their pockets...
So listen up scumbags, you keep your bloody hands off my/our kids.
Bush administration urges Social Security cuts
Report: Fix requires combination of benefit changes and tax increases
Breaking story
Updated: 7 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - (AP) The Bush administration said Monday the only way to permanently fix Social Security is through some combination of benefit cuts and tax increases.
That was one of the key findings in a new paper on Social Security released by the Treasury Department in an effort to achieve common ground on the politically explosive issue.
"Social Security can be made permanently solvent only by reducing the present value of scheduled benefits and/or increasing the present value of scheduled tax increases," the paper said. The Treasury paper said that while other changes to the giant benefit program might be desirable "only these changes can restore solvency permanently."
more...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20957376/
Posted by: monkey at September 24, 2007 01:16 PM
WTF kind of planet does he live on? I already know people on social security who can barely afford the roof over their head.
(Insert many, many swear words here) Now...let's see, how much more money has Bush, Cheney, and their co-horts of criminals made since 2000? And if they had been paying THEIR FAIR SHARE of the taxes and not had illegal wars started and gas hikes and so on...well how much more money would there be in social security?
Posted by: monkey at September 24, 2007 01:13 PM
It's amazing to me. They sell war. They lie about it. They glorify it. But then they won't allow their own kids to enlist, instead it's always someone elses.
(Oh, except for Dr. Laura whose kid enlisted but then again, I heard about his 'my space' page.)
sparrow... if ya thought you were peeved before...
Bush accuses Congress of delays on spending bills
(CNN) -- President Bush criticized Congress for dragging its feet on spending bills in a speech Monday before business leaders at the White House.
"The fiscal year ends in less than a week, yet Congress has not sent a single appropriations bill to my desk, not one," Bush said.
The president also criticized the Democratic majority for proposing to increase discretionary spending by billions more than he requested.
Senate Democrats were quick to respond that in the past five years, Bush has signed off on appropriation levels that exceeded his request. In 2006 alone, Bush signed appropriation levels $53 billion higher than what he requested, according to a statement released by Senate Democrats.
Bush urged Congress to finish the 12 spending bills that keep the day-to-day activities of the government going. Watch as Bush criticizes Congress on appropriations bills »
"Congress needs to pass these annual spending bills. And if they need more time, I urge them to pass a clean continuing resolution."
Under such a resolution, the government would continue to operate at current funding levels.
House Appropriations Chairman Dave Obey, D-Wisconsin, said he already had talked to the White House about such a resolution and accused the president of manufacturing "a disagreement when there is none."
"This is the time when we ought to be sitting down to work out reasonable compromises with each other instead of issuing phony challenges or posing for political holy pictures," Obey, the top House Democratic on budget issues, said in a statement.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, said after a meeting last month at the White House that the disparity in what Bush wants and Democrats propose is less than 1 percent of the $2 trillion budget.
Bush on Monday said his economic policies are working and the American economy is strong.
"Since August 2003, the economy has added more than 8.2 million jobs. Productivity is growing and that's translating into larger paychecks for American workers," the president said. "Unemployment is low, inflation is low and opportunity abounds. The entrepreneurial spirit is strong."
Bush said the Democratic majority in Congress has put forward a plan that includes an increase in discretionary spending nearly $22 billion more than his budget request. He said the only way to pay for increased spending is to increase taxes on the American people.
"At a time when families are working hard to pay their mortgages or pay for their children going to college, now is not the time to be taking money out of their pocket," the president said.
Democrats responded by attacking Bush's fiscal record.
A statement released by Senate Democrats said that under Bush's watch, federal spending has increased 50 percent to $2.78 trillion since 2001; the $236 billion surplus he inherited has been turned into the three largest deficits in U.S. history; and national debt has risen $3 trillion to $8.9 trillion.
"After running up $3 trillion in new debt -- including more than half a trillion dollars for his flawed Iraq policy -- it is astounding that the president is once again lecturing Congress about fiscal responsibility," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada.
"Democrats are investing in the priorities of America's middle class families, veterans and children, and are dedicated to fighting terror more effectively; President Bush wants to continue investing only in Iraq."
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/09/24/bush.budget/index.html
Iran's president: 'We don't have homosexuals'
Columbia University president Lee Bollinger slammed Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as he was introduced for a question and answer session with students. "Mr. President, you exhibit all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator," Bollinger said to applause from many of the 600 people in the room for a speech from the Iranian leader.
He cited the Iranian government's "brutal crackdown" on dissidents, public executions, executions of minors and other actions.
And Bollinger assailed Ahmadinejad's "denying" of the Holocaust as "ridiculous" and "dangerous propaganda." He called the Iranian leader either brazenly provocative "or astonishingly uneducated."
"The truth is that the Holocaust is the most documented event in human history," he said.
Asked about widely documented government abuse of women and homosexuals in his country, Ahmadinejad said, "We don't have homosexuals" in Iran, and that women did have freedoms.
more...
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/09/24/us.iran/index.html
Posted by: monkey at September 24, 2007 01:16 PM
Posted by: sparrow at September 24, 2007 02:00 PM
I'm thinking the only reason the insufferable moron wants "cuts" in Social Security is because that way no one may notice how he's already dipped into "our" money for his f***ing illegal war and he is unable to replace the money because no one is turning over whatever money is there to finance the stock market on a gamble with "our" SS money. I remeber a reference a while back about how he's dipped into SS funds, but don't remember where I read it (Did Congress Critters approve such idiocy? Or not? If so, why no screaming outrage from Dems? Or have deals been made away from the floors of the Senate or the House and never made public? Or..?). I'm assuming that after Georgie and Dickie leave office someone will find out that the whole SS fund is bankrupt and they and their corporate buddies have absconded with the funds.
~~~~~~~~~~
Posted by DiAnne Grieser at September 24, 2007 09:19 AM
DynCorp is/was a subsidiary of Halliburton. I first heard the name years ago when a mercenary from MN was mentioned as being in their employ - he was killed in Iraq. I Googled the name of the company after I heard that news report and found out the connection then. Later another mercenary who worked for DynCorp was killed in Iraq. Still later, a third mercenary was killed, but which outfit he worked for was not mentioned in the news. There's a fourth mercenary who was captured late last year, fate currently still unknown, and which mercenary organization he worked for was also not mentioned in news reports.
In any case, the three killed seem to have had connections to law enforcement (former cops), and the fourth one had also been a cop at some point, I tend to wonder if they are being recruited. Or, at least the misfits who didn't fit in with what are normally good law enforcement officers, since mini-bios included the word "former" police officer when they were mentioned. Hotshots with short tempers don't last all that long in normal police forces, so they likely make 'good' mercenaries.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I'm still in the mood to hear the word IMPEACH. It was mentioned after the Moyers show for a week or so, but it's not been mentioned since... or else I'm going deaf and don't know it, since the silence is deafening....
Posted by: monkey at September 24, 2007 03:13 PM
There are no homosexuals in Iran, because they have all been exterminated.
Ahmadinejad is just like W. W wants to exterminate American homosexuals.
EXTERMINATE MANN COULTER FIRST.
BBC America had "The Crying Game" on last night, and all I was thinking: Mann Coulter should've played that part.
W says his economic policies are working?
Give me a f'ing break.
Posted by: monkey at September 24, 2007 03:13 PM
Ahmadinejad is going to be on Charlie Rose tonight.
Too bad Ahmadinejad is such a loose cannon and wrong with his other views and denial of documented history. People would listen to him and take him seriously otherwise. Like Chavez, he was still right about Georgie in his UN speech.
Dems are going after the evangelical votes.
This is how to put the Republicans on the defensive.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20920353/site/newsweek/
Posted by: Ally McRepuke at September 24, 2007 11:48 AM
===========================================
That's great. Now how are they going to reach out to the Democratic base and Independents after caving on every issue we sent them to Washington to address?
Citizens for 1 Greater New Orleans Lends its Initiative and Support to Bring the Presidential Debate to New Orleans
https://secure2.convio.net/cgno/site/Advocacy?JServSessionIdr007=mstqhi0mi6.app8b&cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=211
A letter from an Indypendant
I would like to support having the Presidential Debate in New Orleans, Louisiana.
As the endless War rages in Iraq, our world economy flounders and the people of the Gulf Coast struggle daily to regain their lives, maintain their hope and desperately need to have their voices heard we ask for your help in bringing this ongoing failure of our government to the attention of the American people.
New Orleans and the Gulf Coast of Louisiana before Katrina produced 25% of the petroleum output of the United States as well as a full 1/3 of the Nation's seafood. Add to this a nationally and globally strategic and productive port that has consitantly been in the top three or four ports IN THE WORLD.
Though we would rather not make this humanitarian issue a political one, it seems the only way the people of the Gulf South will see federal assistance and retain the focus of the American people and the world is to hold such a forum here in New Orleans.
Our infrastructure is NOT rebuilt. Our lack of leadership starts locally and climbs all the way to the top in Washington, D.C.
Perhaps one good thing might be attained by holding the Presidential Debates in New Orleans...it may awaken the American people to the fact that our government is supposed to work for WE THE PEOPLE and that tragedies such as the aftermath of Katrina can and must be avoided in the future if America is to survive the Twenty-first century.
We look forward to showing you all the hospitality you deserve for rushing to our aid when even our government would not.
Thank you.
Posted by: Victoria Ellen at September 24, 2007 04:19 PM
My message to Pelosi, Reid, and Conyers is that until they end the war and start impeachment, I will not be donating to any Democratic candidate. I have also told them that I have withdrawn my party membership. I also tell them that I am a "Reformed Republican" turned Democrat. Let them think about that before they mess up again!
Now how are they going to reach out to the Democratic base and Independents after caving on every issue we sent them to Washington to address?
Posted by: Victoria Ellen at September 24, 2007 04:19 PM
Excellent question.
If politicians want my vote, they're going to have to drop the excessive pandering and genuflecting to the monied and vocal 25% or fewer evangelicals with their myopically xenophobic agenda that they're trying to shove down the throats of the other 75% of us who don't agree with them or the legal precedents they're trying to get Congress Critters to put into law.
In a true democracy, the majority rules. The majority do not want the severely restrictive and prejudicial nonsense reichwingnuttia fundies are selling, in spite of the excessive free publicity they get in infotainment snooze.
Pandering to the fundie minority and their narrow agenda is not going to win elections - at least not without rigged e-voting machines.
Yes. My prejudices are showing. I ran out of patience with reichwingnuttia fundies years ago. Now I just wanna slap them upside the head with a hunk of wet lutefisk and knock some sense into their empty heads. If they want to keep their religious views in their homes and their places of worship, fine, but they need to keep their religious biases OUT of politics and our legal system. That's why the First Amendment mandating separation of church and state exists....
It seems political candidates need a reminder about the First Amendment.
Now, political candidates, how about addressing Georgie's and Dickie's illegal war, war crimes involving torture and detaining people not charged with any crimes, the number of lies they've told... and how about addressing H. Res. 333, Dennis Kucinich's impeachment bill against Dick Cheney, and then getting Conyers to dust off the impeachment papers against Georgie... et cetera and so on and so forth... which could lead to ridding us of the war criminals "leading" this nation to certain disaster...?
Hmmmm....?
Posted by: NonnyO at September 24, 2007 06:13 PM
Good t'see ya!
Posted by: Victoria Ellen at September 24, 2007 04:19 PM
Maybe they know that we have a rotten system, where we still have to vote for mediocre Democrats (like my own Senator Feinstein), if only to prevent someone even worse (i.e. a Republican) from being elected.
It's a shame.
Graft in U.S. Army Contracts Spread-75 Criminal Investigations, Suicides
Graft in U.S. Army Contracts Spread From Kuwait Base
By GINGER THOMPSON and ERIC SCHMITT
Published: September 24, 2007
CASTOR, La. — On the fourth Sunday in July, John Lee Cockerham was here in his hometown for the baptism of his twin sons.
People in this northwest corner of Louisiana think of him as an unlikely success story, a man who started with nothing to become a major in the Army. He and his 17 siblings grew up without electricity and running water. His parents earned barely enough to keep everyone fed.
Yet even after he made it out of Castor, his ties to these backwoods remained strong. The congregation at New Friendship Baptist Church celebrated his last promotion with a parade. At his sons’ baptism, he told fellow worshipers that he hoped to instill in his children the values he had wrested from hardship.
Less than 24 hours later Major Cockerham was behind bars, accused of orchestrating the largest single bribery scheme against the military since the start of the Iraq war. According to the authorities, the 41-year-old officer, with his wife and a sister, used an elaborate network of offshore bank accounts and safe deposit boxes to hide nearly $10 million in bribes from companies seeking military contracts.
The accusations against Major Cockerham are tied to a crisis of corruption inside the behemoth bureaucracy that sustains America’s troops. Pentagon officials are investigating some $6 billion in military contracts, most covering supplies as varied as bottled water, tents and latrines for troops in Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan.
The inquiries have resulted in charges against at least 29 civilians and soldiers, more than 75 other criminal investigations and the suicides of at least two officers. They have prompted the Pentagon, the largest purchasing agency in the world, to overhaul its war-zone procurement system. >>>cont
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/24/world/middleeast/24contractor.html?_r=2&ref=todayspaper&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
Amazing debate on DemocracyNow! - Naomi Klein v Alan Greenspan
On today's DemocracyNow!, Amy Goodman and Naomi Klein more or less gang up on Alan Greenspan, and leave Greenspan wobbling and gasping for breath. The entire discussion is 40 minutes long, & very far-ranging, ultimately (in the second half, after the break) becoming an implicit debate over the merits or lack thereof of capitalism itself, with Greenspan forced onto the defensive.
...NAOMI KLEIN: Well, Mr. Greenspan, I think it’s worth remembering that the word “populist” simply means popular. So, obviously, a lot of people disagree with your assessment of the benefits of --
ALAN GREENSPAN: A lot of people disagree with my assessment, a lot of people disagree with yours.
NAOMI KLEIN: And are interested in another economic model.
ALAN GREENSPAN: That’s what makes democracy work.
NAOMI KLEIN: There is something that I was quite interested in in your book, which was your definition of corruption and crony capitalism. You said, “When a government's leaders or businesses routinely seek out private sector individuals or businesses and, in exchange for political support, bestow favors on them, the society is said to be in the grip of crony capitalism.” You say, “The favors generally take the form of monopoly access to certain markets, preferred access to sales of government assets, and special access to those in power.” I kept thinking about Halliburton, Blackwater, Lockheed and Boeing. You were referring to Indonesia at the time, but I’m wondering, according to your definition -- and we’re seeing these extraordinary -- we’re seeing contracting emerging, as in the words of the New York Times, a fourth arm of government. Front page of the New York Times talks about $6 billion being investigated for criminal activity in contract allocation in Iraq. I’m wondering whether you think the United States is a crony capitalist economy, according to your definition?
ALAN GREENSPAN: Every economy exists, no matter what the level of democracy, has elements of crony capitalism. It’s -- given human nature and given the democratic structures, which we all, I assume, adhere to, that is an inevitable consequence. The major issue is, is it the dominant force within an economy? It was the dominant force under Suharto. It is not the dominant force in this country....
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/2...
A guy emailed me personally and said Amway is tied in with Blackwater. Who knows. I never trusted those pyramid schemes. I've heard Avon was tied in with this corrupt nursing home company called Novacare (Avon backwards, notice!)
I have never trusted any of those home sales companies.
Naomi Klein v Alan Greenspan
Now Rossi that is amazing!
In solidarity with the auto workers in US and with the monks and people in Myanmar.
Although I did hear that Bush wishes them well against the military junta but is concerned about the safety of the NGOs which offer humanitarian aid. I'm hoping they're not a bunch of missionaries. Buddhism is fine as it is.
Wow reading backwards and NonnyO is here - that makes my day!
Ally
It was my favorite writer Lawrence Osborne who was implying that National Geographic was pretty conservative now. I am wondering. I really don't trust them now. Not with the increase in NGOs - Clinton was talking about the huge increase in them when he was on John Stewart. They are supposed to be humanitarian but if we're paying for a bunch of fundie missionaries I don't want to hear about it. Not if they are on the right.
Guess where Castor Louisiana is Rossi?
Right up the road from me. In between here and Coushatta.
You know, the place where cops hide the crimes of killers and run dope out of the swamps.
I am telling you these son of a b*tches are MAFIA.
And they have taken over the United States of America.
The Age of Irresponsibility
How Bush has created a moral vacuum in Iraq in which Americans can kill for free.
by Michael Hirsh
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/09/21/3998/
I am telling you these son of a b*tches are MAFIA.
And they have taken over the United States of America.
Posted by: Christy at September 24, 2007 10:48 PM
Sure as hell sounds like it.
Tap Three Times (With Your Loafer If You Want Me)
video
http://www.thespeciousreport.com/audio.aspx?audionum=7070009
Toilet trollin' Senator Craig
Standing so tall outside my bathroom stall at the airport
Through the crack I see you peeking
I know what you’re really seeking
You tap a code from the next door commode
Playin' footsie
It’s Lusty Larry!
Tap three times with your loafer if you want me
Mmmm. Twice on the tank - if the answer is no
Tidy bowl man!
(Tap Tap Tap) Means you’ll meet me in the stall-way
Twice on the tank means you just gotta go
Being busted inside a john
It’s not a thing that a right-wing Republican should do
All your talk of family values
Flushed away in scandalous loo news
And all your denials are stinking like piles of political poo
(What a wide stance)
Tap three times with your loafer if you want me
Twice on the tank - if the answer is no. No?
Dirty Larry!
(Tap Tap Tap) He's unbuckling his beltway
White and far right means you’re from Idaho
Crapitol Hill is buzzin'
About Larry’s lavatorial lovin'
It seems so wrong wanting sex in a john
(Hey, rent a motel)
Tap three times with your loafer if you want me
Twice on the tank - if the answer is no
(Tap Tap Tap) Means you'll meet me in the stall-way
You’re in the tank, better say adios
Source: The Spokesman-Review
Tap Three Times (With Your Loafer If You Want Me)
ahahahahahaha
U.N. summit urges action on climate change
Many world leaders at unprecedented summit; Bush attends dinner instead
Updated: 6 minutes ago
UNITED NATIONS - With tales of rising seas and talk of human solidarity, world leaders at the first United Nations climate summit sought Monday to put new urgency into global talks to reduce global-warming emissions.
What’s needed is “action, action, action,” California’s environmentalist governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, told the assembled presidents and premiers.
The Bush administration showed no sign, however, that it would reverse its stand against mandatory emission cuts endorsed by 175 other nations. Some expressed fears the White House, with its own forum later this week, would launch talks rivaling the U.N. climate treaty negotiations.
President Bush didn’t take part in the day’s sessions, which drew more than 80 national leaders, but attended a small dinner Monday evening, a gathering of key climate players hosted by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Ban set the day’s theme in his opening address, declaring that “the time for doubt has passed” on the issue of global warming. At the day’s end, he said he believed the scores of speeches showed a “major political commitment” to success in the global talks.
more...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20951571/
Reading up and it all adds up to the culture of corruption we all agreed was the agenda in 2004.
I spent this afternoon preparing a movement choir that will be done in DC on Sunday afternoon to close the DC Improv Festival. The space is a weird space that bisects a parking lot on the site of the now-torn-down convention center. It is an elevated tunnel, with fake grass along the sides and white canopies over a broken colored glass pathway. It's kind of bizarre, but it's there and we will use it.
We decided to ask people sitting and walking there "Who owns this space?" Most said "the government" or "the District". Not one person said WE the PEOPLE own it. And yet, we do. So that is what we will dance about on Sunday.
(Y'all know me; any opportunity to teach democracy...)
Bon Voyage, DiAnne!! Send us postcards from Paris!!
Monkey
Bush not only did that (went to dinner instead of joining other world leaders to work toward reducing global warming) but he is all set the veto the Children's Health Bill.
Our Governor sternly warned our Congressional delegation to do that right thing and stand up for children. My job is on the line and so is the healthcare of a bunch of children. & my own kid doesn't have healthcare nor do my nieces and nephews. They're the "working poor" and are expected to buy their own, but that would mean cutting into rent and food.
Thanks Karen! I'll send a dispatch! Au revoir!
Not one person said WE the PEOPLE own it. And yet, we do. So that is what we will dance about on Sunday.
(Y'all know me; any opportunity to teach democracy...)
Posted by: karen at September 24, 2007 11:52 PM
Good for you Karen
Ditto from Down Under DiAnne Bon Voyage
Posted by: monkey at September 24, 2007 06:49 PM
Posted by: nmp at September 24, 2007 10:17 PM
Thanks! :-)
I've been around, but feeling futle since Congress Critters aren't concentrating on anything important - like impeachment, ending the illegal war, torture, and calling Georgie and Dickie to task for their lies and crimes... and what about the subpoenas that were ignored...? Nothing is getting done to get this country back on track.
A few days ago I thought the whole lot of 'em had lost the last shred of sanity they *may* have had by calling for a special session to tut-tut MoveOn.org for their ads. (Are they even sane nowadays? What are they smokin' or drinkin' to cause their minds to be so irrational?) Sheesh. If the only thing they can think of to do is infringe on the freedom of speech/press, then they're about as useful as hip pockets on a hog. Dolts and idiots and morons seem to people the halls of Congress.... There aren't even any profane words bad enough to express my disgust with them.
Most just seem jaw-droppingly stupid at this point, and Lamestream Media never changes; none even ask important questions, but accept and repeat the same ol' tired Bu$hCo/Bu$hSpeak propaganda. It makes my eyes hurt to read Dem candidates use their phrases, and my ears hurt to listen to them repeat old propaganda. Kucinich is the only exception when he talks about not-for-profit health care and impeachment.
I'll pop in now and then, but the only issue I really care about is impeachment, so I can't contribute much to any discussions (other than endlessly repeating myself). There have been some good thread headers, but since I can't add to them, it's best I not comment. The whole Blackwater & other corporate mercenary group things could have been predicted long ago, even before Abu Ghraib, and we all knew that. Why didn't Congress Critters figure that out years ago?
I think we should all surprise the current candidates and replace the lot of them with new people who haven't even declared their candidacy yet.... Too many Dems are DINOs and vote with the PubliCons. I want real choices come election day '08 (and no e-voting snafus). It's just painful to watch/listen to Dems who only embarrass themselves when they repeat neoCon crap.
:-) Thanks for your kind words! :-) I'll pop in from time to time.... Keep up the good work, all of you!!! :-)
Al Gore at the UN - hear the audio
http://www.divshare.com/download/2093789-a47
Scientists: Brain injuries from war worse than thought
By Gregg Zoroya, USA TODAY
Scientists trying to understand traumatic brain injury from bomb blasts are finding the wound more insidious than they once thought.
They find that even when there are no outward signs of injury from the blast, cells deep within the brain can be altered, their metabolism changed, causing them to die, says Geoff Ling, an advance-research scientist with the Pentagon.
The new findings are the result of blast experiments in recent years on animals, followed by microscopic examination of brain tissue. The findings could mean that the number of brain-injured soldiers and Marines — many of whom appear unhurt after exposure to a blast — may be far greater than reported, says Ibolja Cernak, a scientist with the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.
TROOPS AT RISK: USA TODAY'S full coverage on IEDs in Iraq
This cellular death leads to symptoms that may not surface for months or years, Cernak says. The symptoms can include memory deficit, headaches, vertigo, anxiety and apathy or lethargy. "These soldiers could have hidden injuries with long-term consequences," he says.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2007-09-23-traumatic-brain-injuries_N.htm?csp=1
CALL YOUR SENATORS RIGHT NOW AND DEMAND THEY VOTE DOWN THE LIEBERMAN-KYL AMENDMENT
In case you thought it was just an aberrant moment of lunacy last week when Lieberman pressed General Petraeus for an attack on Iran, just before the weekend he introduced an amendment to the defense bill to authorize exactly that.
No, we are not kidding. He has drafted language that any impartial observer would interpret as a DECLARATION OF WAR against Iran, and he is pressing for a vote as fast as possible.
ACTION PAGE: http://www.usalone.com/no_iran_war_declaration.php
Here is the language from the amendment:
(3) that it should be the policy of the United States to combat, contain, and roll back the violent activities and destabilizing influence inside Iraq of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, its foreign facilitators such as Lebanese Hezbollah, and its indigenous Iraqi proxies;
(4) to support the prudent and calibrated use of all instruments of United States national power in Iraq, including diplomatic, economic, intelligence, and military instruments, in support of the policy described in paragraph (3) with respect to the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran and its proxies.
The policy of the U.S should be to "combat" Iran with "all" "military instruments"?!? You can be absolutely certain that those are the ONLY words Dick Cheney and George Bush will see or care about.
India Is Outsourcing Outsourcing »
The New York Times | ANAND GIRIDHARADAS | September 24, 2007 11:23 PM
Thousands of Indians report to Infosys Technologies' campus here to learn the finer points of programming. Lately, though, packs of fair-skinned foreigners have been roaming the manicured lawns, too.
Many of them are recent American college graduates, and some have even turned down job offers from coveted employers like Google. Instead, they accepted a novel assignment from Infosys, the Indian technology giant: fly here for six months of training, then return home to work in the company's American back offices.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/25/business/worldbusiness/25outsource.html?ex=1348372800&en=370318472eb91eff&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
Rice’s Waning Influence: Networks Reject Secretary Of State As Sunday Show Guest
The secretary of state has always been considered a prize catch for the Sunday talk shows. But when the White House offered Condoleezza Rice for appearances eight days ago, after a week focused on Iraq, two programs took the unusual step of turning her down.
Executives at CBS and NBC say Rice no longer seems to be a key player on the war and that her cautious style makes her a frustrating guest.
“I expected we’d just get a repetition of the administration’s talking points, which had already been well circulated,” says Bob Schieffer, host of CBS’s “Face the Nation,” who questioned two senators instead. “We’d had a whole week of that with General Petraeus and President Bush.”
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/09/24/rice-influence/
You know, some days, when I am feeling rather pessimistic, I think...'How in Gods name did I wind up here?'
White supremacist backlash builds over Jena case
HOUSTON - No sooner did tens of thousands of African-American demonstrators depart the racially tense town of Jena, La., last week after protesting perceived injustices than white supremacists flooded in behind them.
First a neo-Nazi Web site posted the names, addresses and phone numbers of some of the six black teenagers and their families at the center of the Jena 6 case and urged followers to find them and "drag them out of the house," prompting an investigation by the FBI.
Then the leader of a white supremacist group in Mississippi published interviews that he conducted with the mayor of Jena and the white teenager who was attacked and beaten, allegedly by the six black youths. In those interviews, the mayor, Murphy McMillin, praised efforts by pro-white groups to organize counterdemonstrations; the teenager, Justin Barker, urged white readers to "realize what is going on, speak up and speak their mind."
Over the weekend, white extremist Web sites and blogs across the Internet filled with invective about the Jena 6 case, which has drawn scrutiny from civil rights leaders, three leading Democratic presidential candidates and hundreds of African-American Internet bloggers. They are concerned about allegations that blacks have been treated more harshly than whites in the criminal justice system of the town of 3,000, which is 85 percent white.
David Duke, the former Ku Klux Klan leader, last week announced his support for Jena's white residents, who voted overwhelmingly for him when he ran unsuccessfully for Louisiana governor in 1991.
"There is a major white supremacist backlash building," said Mark Potok, a hate-group expert at the Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights group in Montgomery, Ala. "I also think it's more widespread than may be obvious to most people. It's not only neo-nazis and Klansmen—you expect this kind of reaction from them."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-jena25_websep25,0,4477421.story?coll=chi_tab01_layout
On those days I really feel pessimistic I think 'This whole mother f*cker is going to burn.'
The sum of all fears I guess.
Remember me and that rebel flag loving chick from Florida, linda, and our little arguments going back to 2004...?
Remember how she tried to make me out as a liar every time I said something about the problems of the south?
Somehow, she just knew all about Louisiana without ever actually living here. Oh no we do not have those problems, cause this is the new south damnit!
"Why I just ate some beans and buttered cornbread with Jethro, so therefore there can not be a racial problem here at all!"
She tried so hard to make me out to be a liar, and every damn thing I said has literally came true.
Nah, don't worry, I don't expect an apology.
I am just pointing out how pretending there is no problem is not actually helpful.
Nor appreciated.
What defines a killing in Iraq as sectarian?
U.S. military teams analyze and tally each civilian death to determine if the Iraq war strategy is working.
By Karen DeYoung
washingtonpost.com
Sept 25, 2007
On Sept. 1, the bullet-riddled bodies of four Iraqi men were found on a Baghdad street. Two days later, a single dead man, with one bullet in his head, was found on a different street. According to the U.S. military in Iraq, the solitary man was a victim of sectarian violence. The first four were not.
Such determinations are the building blocks for what the Bush administration has declared a downward trend in sectarian deaths and a sign that its war strategy is working. They are made by a specialized team of soldiers who spend their nights at computer terminals, sifting through data on the day's civilian victims for clues to the motivations of killers.
The soldiers have a manual telling them what to look for. Signs of torture or a single shot to the head, corpses left in a "known body dump" -- as the body of the Sunni man found on Sept. 3 was -- spell sectarian violence, said Chief Warrant Officer 3 Dan Macomber, the team leader. Macomber, who has been at his job in Baghdad since February, rarely has to look it up anymore.
"If you were just a criminal and you just wanted to take somebody's money, just wanted to discipline them, you're not going to take the time to bind them up, burn their bodies, cut their arms off, cut their head off," he explained. "You're just going to shoot them in the body and get it over with." That, the team judged, is what happened to the four Shiite men, sprayed with gunfire and left where they dropped.
In the Iraq conflict, traditional military measures of achievement -- troops deployed, enemy dead, territory won -- are challenged by the chaos of counterinsurgency warfare. But Congress, the public and the military itself demand an accounting. Far from the battlefield, platoons of soldiers in Iraq and at the Pentagon are assigned to crunch numbers -- sectarian killings, roadside bombs, Iraqi forces trained, weapons caches discovered and others -- in a constant effort to gauge how the war is going.
Favorable direction
In recent months, most of the military's indicators have pointed in a favorable direction. As with all statistics, however, their meaning depends on how they are gathered and analyzed. "Everybody has their own way of doing it," Macomber said of his sectarian analyses. "If you and I . . . pulled from the same database, and I pulled one day and you pulled the next, we would have totally different numbers."
Apparent contradictions are relatively easy to find in the flood of bar charts and trend lines the military produces. Civilian casualty numbers in the Pentagon's latest quarterly report on Iraq last week, for example, differ significantly from those presented by the top commander in Iraq, Gen. David H. Petraeus, in his recent congressional testimony. Petraeus's chart was limited to numbers of dead, while the Pentagon combined the numbers of dead and wounded -- a figure that should be greater. Yet Petraeus's numbers were higher than the Pentagon's for the months preceding this year's increase of U.S. troops to Iraq, and lower since U.S. operations escalated this summer.
more...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20966123/
Hey Monkey,
Did you get an email from me yesterday with a pic attatched?
It hasn't bounced back yet so I am thinking it may have went through this time.
I have not been able to send attachments for months and months and months now. Nor can I watch videos from this comp anymore.
My man says my computer is not the problem.
C... I didnt get to check that email acct yet, but I will this moanin'... thx!
Bush to challenge U.N. to revisit roots, advance freedom
UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- President Bush wants the U.N. to uphold its pledge to fight for freedom in lands of poverty and terror and plans to punctuate his challenge by promising new sanctions against the military regime in Myanmar.
Bush was expected to mention Iran in his speech Tuesday to the General Assembly -- but only briefly, citing Iran in a list of countries where people lack freedoms and live in fear.
The White House wants to avoid giving any more attention to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose splash of speeches and interviews has dominated the days leading to the U.N. meeting.
Instead of Iran, the Southeast Asian nation of Myanmar, also known as Burma, was drawing Bush's ire. He was expected to announce new visa restrictions and financial sanctions against the regime and those who provide it financial aid.
The policies come as Myanmar's military government issued a threat Monday to the barefoot Buddhist monks who led 100,000 people marching through a major city. It was the strongest protest against the repressive regime in two decades.
Bush spent Monday trying to revive the Mideast peace process. He was reminded of the hurdles as Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas insisted that a U.S. peace conference deal with "issues of substance" -- a sign of old skepticism that accompanies new hope.
Late Tuesday morning, Bush was to meet with another friend under tense circumstances, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. The Iraqi leader is deeply frustrated over the killing of 11 Iraqi civilians by Blackwater USA security guards.
By calling on the United Nations to take up a "mission of liberation," Bush was posing a challenge to the U.N. to uphold its original goal of ensuring freedom in many forms -- from tyranny, disease, illiteracy and poverty. He was expected to lean heavily on the U.N.'s Declaration of Human Rights, approved more than 50 years ago. Watch memorable U.N. speeches of the past »
His aim is to remind the body that the expansion of freedom is not a Western goal, nor even just a Bush doctrine, but rather one that underpins the U.N. itself. The president heads to the forum, though, with his clout weakened by the plodding war in Iraq.
more...
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/09/25/bush.ap/index.html
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Hackers compromised dozens of Department of Homeland Security computers, moving sensitive information to Chinese-language Web sites, congressional investigators said Monday.
Investigators pointed a finger at a government contractor, saying the firm hired to protect DHS computers tried to hide the incidents from the department.
The FBI is investigating the incidents, a congressional staffer said, and two members of Congress have asked the department's inspector general to also launch an investigation.
"The results of our [committee] investigation suggest that the department is the victim not only of cyber attacks initiated by foreign entities, but of incompetent and possibly illegal activity by the contractor charged with maintaining security on its networks," Democratic Reps. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi and James Langevin of Rhode Island said in a written statement.
The lawmakers said committee investigators found dozens of DHS computers were compromised and the incidents "were not noticed until months after the initial attacks."
The extent of the damage is unclear, but a House Homeland Security Committee staff member said the hackers "took significant amounts of information."
more...
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/09/24/homelandsecurity.computers/index.html
Wow. It worked.
Monkey, do me a favor and withhold that pic from Rossi if you can. Only for a while though.
I am going to paint another similar version of it for her. Not a duplicate, just another version.
If you think the photo is striking, you should see the actual canvas. Everyone that comes into my shop all jerk around to get a full view of her as soon as they enter. I just grin at them.
I am so in love with her, I am almost reluctant to rival her.
But I can not think of anything else I want to paint for Rossi.
By the way, her name is... An American Princess.
Hehehe.
That is the only hint you get Rossi.
By the way, her name is... An American Princess.
Posted by: Christy at September 25, 2007 08:18 AM
http://tinyurl.com/2fnv4j
Record winter heating prices expected
Report: Average U.S. home likely to pay $992 more for heat
MSNBC News Services
Updated: 18 minutes ago
U.S. homeowners are expected to pay record high prices for heating their homes this winter, with an especially large jump expected in heating oil bills, according to a report from the National Energy Assistance Directors’ Association (NEADA).
Prices for home heating oil are expected to be almost 28 percent higher than last year’s level, according to NEADA. The average family is projected to pay about $402 more for heating oil than last year for a total of $1,834.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20968983/
Plunder for the "oil men" in the WH.
Yeah, the economy is great, people are makin more, blah blah FRICKIN blah.
Is there a Lee Harvey in the house?
Posted by: monkey at September 25, 2007 07:07 AM
I read last night that 2nd highest Homeland Security official quit, citing "personal financial reasons"
Posted by: nmp at September 25, 2007 09:40 AM
Gee, Tony Snow quit for the same reasons... Dubya n' Dick must not be sharing the ill gotten booty.
Ill Bootin Gotti
Posted by: rossiann at September 25, 2007 04:26 AM
On Outsourcing Outsourcing (Indian hiring people from here - some go to Indian, some work from here)
Yesterday I took a class from some people from North Carolina and they're from around the closing textile mills. They work with children in poverty (healthcare) and said there is a proliferation of meth labs there.
For a fascinating look at Blackwater's treatment of its own employees, see the October issue of Harper's Magazine, or check it out online:
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/10/0081741
Harpers Bizarre
Bush to U.N.: Offer a vision, Join in 'mission of liberation'
President Bush urged the U.N. General Assembly to "join in the mission of liberation" during his address today.
"The best way to defeat an extremist is to defeat their dark ideology with a more hopeful vision," he said, asking member nations to embrace a universal declaration of human rights.
That declaration involves "confronting long term threats" and "answering the immediate needs of today," Bush said.
moron...
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/09/25/bush.un/index.html
Gouliani is having a fundraiser. Costs $9.11 to get in. Tacky.
Posted by: nmp at September 25, 2007 11:04 AM
Open bar, everyone gets bombed.
Voter ID laws valid? Supreme Court to decide
Focus is on Indiana law, critics of which say hurts Democrat candidates
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to decide whether voter identification laws unfairly deter the poor and minorities from voting, stepping into a contentious partisan issue in advance of the 2008 elections.
The justices will hear arguments early next year in a challenge to an Indiana law that requires voters to present photo ID before casting their ballots. The state has defended the law as a way to combat voter fraud.
The state Democratic party and civil rights groups complained that the law unfairly targets poor and minority voters, without any evidence that in-person voter fraud exists in Indiana. The party argued that those voters tend to be Democrats.
more...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20972011/
Calls for student editor to resign after 'F**k Bush' column
FORT COLLINS, Colorado (CNN) -- The College Republicans, a student organization at Colorado State University, weren't planning anything special for the last week of September.
Then on September 21, David McSwane, the editor-in-chief of The Rocky Mountain Collegian, the daily student newspaper, printed the four-word column that sparked a national free speech debate and sent the College Republicans into action, writing a petition to force him to resign.
"Taser this: F**k Bush" was printed on the opinion page of the newspaper, causing CSU president Larry Penley to issue a formal statement and the Board of Student Communications to plan a meeting for Wednesday night. During the meeting they will decide on the fate of McSwane and his future involvement with the publication.
"We'll present our petition to the board at the meeting," said student Chelsey Penoyer, the chairman of the College Republicans.
"We're petitioning that he should resign on his own. The petition also urges students to think twice before going to businesses who continue advertising with The Collegian."
In a confidential memo mistakenly released to the local newspaper, The Coloradoan, Fort Collins businesses have already pulled out $30,000 in advertising with The Collegian, which relies completely on external revenue to operate, not student fees.
According to the memo, to make up for the loss, student employee wages were cut by 10 percent, the newspaper reported.
more...
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/09/25/bush.cnnu/index.html
He was expected to lean heavily on the U.N.'s Declaration of Human Rights, approved more than 50 years ago.
Posted by: monkey at September 25, 2007 06:50 AM
That's f'ing baloney - W's supporters think that the UN Declaration of Human Rights is a ploy by globalists to think we have rights, as they take our rights away in favor of an unaccountable World Government, for which the UN is the precursor.
And they refuse to believe that W is one of those evil globalists himself.
Yeah, and Dub has always treated the U.N. with SUUUUCH enormous respect.
Bush has tried to undermine the United Nations, a democratic institution mind you. Without even understanding what the UN does, Bush has called it "irrelevant" when it fails to fall in line with his dictates.
Cholera outbreak in Iraq spreading
WHO: Disease has caused 11 deaths; 30,000 have possible symptoms
GENEVA - An outbreak of cholera in Iraq has spread, with new cases confirmed in Baghdad, Basra and, for the first time, the northern districts of Tikrit, Mosul and Dahuk, the World Health Organization said Tuesday.
This takes to 2,116 the number of confirmed cases of cholera in Iraq, WHO said. Eleven people have died so far.
"It shows that people are moving, and when people are moving they are spreading cholera," said Claire-Lise Chaignat, a cholera expert at WHO.
The global health body also said it estimates that more than 30,000 people have fallen ill with acute watery diarrhea, which may later be confirmed as cholera.
More than two-thirds of the confirmed cases are in the northern province of Kirkuk, where cholera was first reported on Aug. 13, WHO said.
While the number of deaths from the disease has so far been low, "it continues to spread across Iraq and dissemination to as yet unaffected areas remains highly possible," WHO said.
more...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20974791/
That is the only hint you get Rossi.
Posted by: Christy at September 25, 2007 08:18 AM
Not fair, Not fair, Christy you know how impatient I am.
Posted by: Christy at September 25, 2007 08:18 AM
http://tinyurl.com/2fnv4j
Posted by: monkey at September 25, 2007 08:35 AM
ohhhhhhh shit that is disgusting monkey.
Report: Average U.S. home likely to pay $992 more for heat
Holy shit is that monthly?
While the number of deaths from the disease has so far been low, "it continues to spread across Iraq and dissemination to as yet unaffected areas remains highly possible," WHO said.
more...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20974791/
Posted by: monkey at September 25, 2007 02:42 PM
I am reading that the numbers are much higher, I thought I put a link up here yesterday, as well as on Rebelle, I was wondering as I put it up, what of the chances of our soldiers contracting it, and bringing it home to our countries.
I bet they will hide the numbers.
I bet they will hide the numbers.
Posted by: rossiann at September 25, 2007 03:17 PM
What, ya dont trust their data? ;-)
Shuck & Ah
Holy shit is that monthly?
Posted by: rossiann at September 25, 2007 02:56 PM
No, over the course of the year, but $992 is still a lot of money for most people.
~new thread~ wait until your food has cleared your stomach first