Bad Deeds for 5-31-2007

We Aren’t Number One – The United States is among the least peaceful nations in the world, ranking 96th between Yemen and Iran, according to an index of 121 countries.

Economy Has Worst Growth Since 2002
The economy nearly stalled in the first quarter with growth slowing to a pace of just 0.6 percent. That was the worst three-month showing in over four years.

Bush Says US Army Should Remain In Iraq Like We Have In South Korea For 50 Years

US Attorney Fired for Protecting Voting Rights of Native Americans – For more than 15 years, clean-cut, square-jawed Tom Heffelfinger was the embodiment of a tough Republican prosecutor. Named U.S. attorney for Minnesota in 1991, he won a series of high-profile white-collar crime and gun and explosives cases. By the time Heffelfinger resigned last year, his office had collected a string of awards and commendations from the Justice Department. So it came as a surprise — and something of a mystery — when he turned up on a list of U.S. attorneys who had been targeted for firing. Part of the reason, government documents and other evidence suggest, is that he tried to protect voting rights for Native Americans. At a time when GOP activists wanted U.S. attorneys to concentrate on pursuing voter fraud cases, Heffelfinger’s office was expressing deep concern about the effect of a state directive that could have the effect of discouraging Indians in Minnesota from casting ballots.

Earmarking and Phonemarking in the Democratic Congress – When the new Democratic majority in the House of Representatives passed one of its first spending bills, funding the Energy Department for the rest of 2007, it proudly boasted that the legislation contained no money earmarked for lawmakers’ pet projects and stressed that any prior congressional requests for such spending “shall have no legal effect.” Within days, however, lawmakers including Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) began directly contacting the Energy Department. They sought to secure money for their favorite causes outside of the congressional appropriations process — a practice that lobbyists and appropriations insiders call “phonemarking.”

US Still Lacks a Disaster Response Plan – Even though the US is better prepared to deal with a disaster such as Katrina, officials said on Tuesday that the US still lacks a formal structure for coordinating a national response.

We Still Haven’t Learned That Harsh Methods Don’t Work in Interrogation – Psychologists and other specialists, commissioned by the Intelligence Science Board, are attempting to make the case that more than five years after the Sept. 11 attacks, the Bush administration has yet to create an elite corps of interrogators trained to glean secrets from terrorism suspects.

Supreme Court Makes Pay Discrimination Easier – The Supreme Court on Tuesday made it harder for many workers to sue their employers for discrimination in pay, insisting in a 5-to-4 decision on a tight time frame to file such cases. The dissenters said the ruling ignored workplace realities.

Neocon Hopes and Prays That Bush Will Bomb Iran – Yes, pray to Jesus. Spread his love destruction. What the world needs now is bombs, sweet bombs.

Republican Senator Says Defeatist Democratic War ‘Wimps’ Share Blame for Iraq War Deaths

U.S. Rejects European Union Emission Reductions
In the neocon world view, it’s not enough to bomb people, we need to kill the planet.

We’re Fighting Them There To Train Them To Fight Elsewhere – The Iraq war, which for years has drawn militants from around the world, is beginning to export fighters and the tactics they have honed in the insurgency to neighboring countries and beyond. Experts now say that the experience that Jihadists are currently gaining in Iraq will become far more problematic than the training Muslim radicals received in Afghanistan’s terrorist camps. A report written by former State Department intelligence analyst Dennis Pluchinsky in April stated “battle-hardened militants from Iraq posed a greater threat to the West than extremists who trained in Afghanistan because Iraq had become a laboratory for urban guerrilla tactics.

More on How We Are Producing More Terrorists – An article published in Monday’s Gulf News posits that members of a Palestinian militant group fighting the Lebanese military previously fought in Iraq and received training in Jordan.

Even More on How We Are Producing More Terrorists

God Speaks to Tom Delay, but Tom Doesn’t Listen – Former Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who resigned under indictment on campaign finance-related charges in Texas, also has grown dissatisfied with the president’s stewardship of the conservative movement. DeLay told Goldberg that in coming years, when he is not fighting the Texas indictment, he plans to build a conservative grass-roots movement to rival MoveOn.org, insisting that divine inspiration brought him to that quest. “God has spoken to me,” DeLay said. “I listen to God, and what I’ve heard is that I’m supposed to devote myself to rebuilding the conservative base of the Republican party, and I think we shouldn’t be underestimated.” DeLay also said, “The Schiavo case was one of my proudest moments in Congress,”

A jerking knee is no substitute for a thinking brain.

Regards,

Jim