Bad Deeds for 3-26-2008

How the [Unregulated] Free-Market System Can Bankrupt the World – The free-market system is a great thing. But let it run unsupervised with greedy investors, and we all end up in a mess.

Halliburton Managers Told Workers That Carcinogen Was ‘Mild Irritant’ -Workers Say Halliburton subsidiary KBR told employees at a water injection plant in Iraq a sand-like substance scattered around the plant was just a “mild irritant,” workers recall. It turns out to be sodium dichromate — a highly toxic chemical which can lead to cancer even with limited exposure.

Cheney Says Bush’s Iraq Decision-making as Courageous as Pardoning Richard Nixon – Asked last week what he thought of the fact two thirds of Americans no longer supported the war in Iraq, Vice President Dick Cheney had a simple reply: “So?” But in a followup interview — which received little attention — Cheney went on to compare President Bush’s decision to invade the country with President Gerald Ford’s decision to pardon Richard Nixon.

Cheney on 4,000 American Dead in Iraq: They Volunteered – Wrapping up a nine-day overseas trip to Iraq, Vice President Dick Cheney was asked, in an exclusive interview with ABC News, about the effect on the nation of today’s grim milestone of at least 4,000 U.S. deaths over the five-year Iraq war. Noting the burden placed on military families, the Vice President said the biggest burden is carried by President Bush, and reminded ABC news that the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan volunteered for duty.

Supreme Court Allows Retiree Benefit Cuts – The Supreme Court on Monday gave employers a green light to reduce health benefits for millions of retirees who turn 65 and become eligible for Medicare.

Sean Hannity’s Relationship With a Neo-Nazi – Hannity is confronted on his show about his relationship with a neo-Nazi. Hannity denies there’s anything to it. But his neo-Nazi buddy says, “I was quite disappointed when Sean Hannity at first tried to say he didn’t know me and then went on to say that I ran some senate campaign in New Jersey. In fact, Sean Hannity does know me and we were quite friendly a number of years ago. When Hannity took over Bob Grant’s spot on 77 WABC in New York City, I was a well-known, regular and welcome caller to his show. Through those calls, Sean and I got to know each other a bit and at some point, I can’t remember exactly when, Sean gave me the secret “Guest call-in number” at WABC so that my calls could always get on the air.”

Why Does the Antarctic Ice Hate America’s Coasts? – A chunk of Antarctic ice about seven times the size of Manhattan suddenly collapsed, putting an even greater portion of glacial ice at risk, scientists said Tuesday. Satellite images show the runaway disintegration of a 160-square-mile chunk in western Antarctica, which started Feb. 28. It was the edge of the Wilkins ice shelf and has been there for hundreds, maybe 1,500 years. This is the result of global warming, said British Antarctic Survey scientist David Vaughan.

Conservative Bill Kristol Says Racism is Not a Problem in America – Kristol has embarrassed himself again this week by stating, in the wake of Obama’s speech on race, that racism is not really a problem in America. “The last thing we need now is a heated national conversation about race,” Kristol writes. “Racial progress has in fact continued in America. A new national conversation about race isn’t necessary to end what Obama calls the ‘racial stalemate we’ve been stuck in for years’ — because we’re not stuck in such a stalemate.”

Kristol provides no empirical evidence to back up such an ignorant claim. He fails to mention, for instance, that 50 percent of African-American men in New York City were unemployed as of 2004; or that 1 in 10 black men in their 20s are behind bars; or that more than half of all black men in inner cities do not finish high school; or that the subprime lending crisis is considered to be “the greatest loss of wealth for people of color in modern US history,” according to United for a Fair Economy.

Bush Crony Overseeing 2010 U.S. Census Creates a Statistical Katrina – Technology problems could add as much as $2 billion to the cost of the 2010 census and jeopardize the accuracy of the nation’s most important survey. Census officials are considering a return to using paper and pencil to count every man, woman and child in the nation. Carlos Gutierrez, who oversees the Census Bureau, said officials there were unaccustomed to working with an outside vendor on such a large contract. Census Director Steven Murdock, an appointee of President Bush, is the former state demographer of Texas. What we’re facing is a statistical Katrina on the part of the administration,” said Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-New York. Further insight to Gutierrez is provided by a 12-6-2007 Harper’s Magazine article that reported that Gutierrez has Adan Oktar’s Atlas of Creation — a book that offers an Islamic version of creationism and blames Charles Darwin for modern terrorism, including the 9/11 attacks — for display on a stand at the entrance to his US government office.

How the Neocons Killed Over 4,000 American – Watch the entire two-part PBS Frontline series, Bush’s War.

Hillary Says She Misspoke About Wrestling Bin Laden (parody – just for fun) – Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who has been accused in recent days of padding her foreign policy resume while First Lady, admitted today that she may have exaggerated about an encounter she said she had with al-Qaeda terror mastermind Osama bin Laden in 1998. In an appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, Sen. Clinton told host Tim Russert, “I wrestled bin Laden in his cave in 1998 and had him pinned to the ground before the bastard got away.” … “I may have misspoke about what went on that particular day,” Sen. Clinton said today. “But it was a very busy time for me, what with having that knife-fight with Kim Jong-Il and all.”

Regards,

Jim