Bad Deeds for 2-8-07

US Refuses to Sign Accord on Secret Detentions – Representatives from 57 countries on Tuesday signed a long-negotiated treaty prohibiting the arrest, detention or kidnapping of a person by state agents or affiliates and subsequent denials about the detention or location of the individual. The United States refused to endorse the document, saying its text did not meet U.S. expectations.

The 25 Most Corrupt Officials of the Bush Administration

Bush administration Cuts AmeriCorps by $25 Million – AmeriCorps, which began in the early 1990s as a way to tap into and stimulate interest in community service, is attracting more people per year (roughly 75,000, nearly a fourth of whom are college students) than ever before. Yet the federal funding picture doesn’t appear as rosy. The Bush administration’s fiscal 2008 budget would allocate about $480 million to AmeriCorps programs — more than $25 million less than what’s called for in the 2007 spending plan that Democratic Congressional leaders have crafted and significantly less than the fiscal 2006 enacted total.

How the US sent $12 Billion in cash to Iraq and watched it vanish – The US flew nearly $12 billion in shrink-wrapped $100 bills into Iraq, then distributed the cash with no proper control over who was receiving it and how it was being spent. “One CPA official described an environment awash in $100 bills,” the memorandum says. “One contractor received a $2 million payment in a duffel bag stuffed with shrink-wrapped bundles of currency. Auditors discovered that the key to a vault was kept in an unsecured backpack. “They also found that $774,300 in cash had been stolen from one division’s vault. Cash payments were made from the back of a pickup truck, and cash was stored in unguarded sacks in Iraqi ministry offices.

George W. Bush is trying—yet again—to slash funding for NPR and PBS. This week, Bush proposed a new budget with devastating cuts to public broadcasting.1 “Sesame Street” and other ad-free kids’ shows are under the knife. So is the independent journalism our country needs.

Enough is enough. We’ve fought this fight before and won—but we can’t afford the risk anymore. With the new Congress, we can make sure this never happens again. We need Congress to insulate NPR and PBS from the political winds.

We can make it happen if enough of us sign this petition: “Congress must save NPR and PBS once and for all. Congress should guarantee permanent funding and independence from partisan meddling.” Clicking here will add your name to the petition:

Regards,

Jim