The WAWG Blog

US Provides Haven to War Criminals From Abroad – More than 1,000 people from 85 countries who are accused of such crimes as rape, killings, torture and genocide are living in the United States, according to Department of Homeland Security figures. “America has become a haven for the world’s war criminals because it lacks the laws needed to prosecute them, Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., said Wednesday. There’s been only one U.S. indictment of someone suspected of a serious human-rights abuse. Durbin said torture was the only serious human-rights violation that was a crime under American law when committed outside the United States by a non-American national.”

Tom Tancredo Says Irrational Fear Is More Important Than Healthcare, Education or Anything – Tancredo:

If you are going to ask people to actually vote for you for President of the United States of America, you’d better tell them what you are going to do about this problem, because I’m telling you it supercedes all other … It’s more important than healthcare. It’s more important than education policy. It’s more important than trade. It’s more important than anything, because what does all of that matter if you do not do what is necessary to protect this country?

Really? More important than healthcare? More important than anything?
Pardon me for even entertaining the specious link he makes between illegal immigration and terrorism, but let’s walk down that crooked path just a little, ok?

Not to say the threat of terrorism isn’t real or that we shouldn’t do anything about it, because of course we should, but we should have a rational, sensible policy based on the real threat, not an over-hyped perception of one. The fact is that even “if terrorists were able to pull off one attack per year on the scale of the 9/11 atrocity, … your risk of dying in a plausible terrorist attack is much lower than your risk of dying in a car accident, by walking across the street, by drowning, in a fire, by falling, or by being murdered.” Terrorists would have to pull off six 9/11s every year to equal the roughly 18,000 unnecessary deaths every year coming from the more than 40 million uninsured in this country, and if there is a terrorist with the will and the capability to pull that off, there will never be a border fence that will stop them, and nothing could be more dangerous to this country than a paranoid politician whose brain is so ate up with Lou Dobb’s Disease that he’s willing to sell every other issue down the river in search of a cure. Early Release of Estimates from the National Health Interview Survey, 2006

Wounded Troops Face Home-Front Battle With Veterans Administration – More than 28,500 troops have been wounded in Operation Iraqi Freedom, including about 8,500 that have needed air transport, according to the U.S. military. A recent Harvard study found that the cost of caring for those wounded over the course of their lifetime could ultimately cost more than $660 billion. In Ty Ziegel’s case, he spent nearly two years recovering at Brooke Army Medical Center in Texas. Once he got out of the hospital, he was unable to hold a job. He anticipated receiving a monthly VA disability check sufficient to cover his small-town lifestyle in Washington, Illinois. Instead, he got a check for far less than expected. After pressing for answers, Ziegel finally received a letter from the VA that rated his injuries: 80 percent for facial disfigurement, 60 percent for left arm amputation, a mere 10 percent for head trauma and nothing for his left lobe brain injury, right eye blindness and jaw fracture. “I don’t get too mad about too many things,” he said. “But once we’ve been getting into this, I’m ready to beat down the White House door if I need to.”

Red Cross Was Barred From Guantánamo – A confidential 2003 manual for operating the Guantánamo detention center shows that military officials had a policy of denying detainees access to independent monitors from the International Committee of the Red Cross. The manual said one goal was to “exploit the disorientation and disorganization felt by a newly arrived detainee,” by denying access to the Koran and by preventing visits with Red Cross representatives, who have a long history of monitoring the conditions under which prisoners in international conflicts are held. The document said that even after their initial weeks at Guantánamo, some detainees would not be permitted to see representatives of the International Red Cross.

Fox News Host is For Tasing Anyone Belonging to the Code Pink Anti-War Group – Brian Kilmead shared his ever-so-evolved views on crowd control Monday morning in a Fox & Friends discussion of a Code Pink-disrupted Hillary Clinton speech. His answer to annoying anti-war types? Tasers or Billy clubs. “They should Tase this guy,” Kilmead says. “At one point with security so high and tensions on edge, don’t you think they’re going to get at the very least Tased or beaten to a pulp by somebody? These people look threatening.” Kilmead’s Taser-lust came one day after a 20-year-old Maryland man died after being shocked by police. Fox re-played the famous “don’t Tase me bro” sound-bite from a University of Florida student. The student’s screams seemed to delight the hosts, and Kilmead clearly wanted to hear more of them. “I would be for Tasing anyone in Code Pink,” he says. “I’m pro-Pink Tasing.”

Louisiana Democratic Rep. Jefferson Accused of Two New Schemes – Prosecutors are accusing Rep. William J. Jefferson of Louisiana of soliciting bribes in two suspected schemes that are separate from the bribery charges he already faces, according to a published report. The government alleges that in 2002 Jefferson, a Democrat, asked a lobbyist for a U.S. oil services company for payments of $10,000 a month for a family member. In exchange, Jefferson said he would help the company promote business in Africa. The lobbyist turned down the request, according to the document. Jefferson later made a deal to urge NASA to do business with a U.S. rocket launch services and technology company, according to the filing. The company is accused of agreeing to pay Jefferson’s family business and a relative in exchange for his help.

Army’s New $2.6 Billion Helicopter Can’t Fly in Temperatures Over 80-Degrees – The Army is spending $2.6 billion on hundreds of European-designed helicopters for homeland security and disaster relief that turn out to have a crucial flaw: They aren’t safe to fly on hot days. During flight tests in Southern California in mild, 80-degree weather, cockpit temperatures in the UH-72A Lakota soared above 104, the point at which the Army says the communication, navigation and flight control systems can overheat and shut down. The Army is scrambling to fix the problem — adding millions to the taxpayer cost.

Seventy Percent of Iraqis Without Access to Decent Water – Despite the fact that Iraq and U.S. officials have made water projects among their top priorities, the percentage of Iraqis without access to decent water supplies has risen from 50 percent to 70 percent since the start of the U.S.-led war, according to an analysis by Oxfam International last summer. The portion of Iraqis lacking decent sanitation was even worse — 80 percent.

Rudy Giuliani Jets to Campaign Stops Using Casino Kingpin’s Plane – Rudy Giuliani is jetting around the country wooing Bible-thumping conservatives, but his plane is often provided by a king of Sin City. The Republican presidential hopeful anted up more than $122,000 last summer alone for jets traceable to casino kingpin Sheldon Adelson, whose Las Vegas Sands empire has made him the third-richest American

Chris Dodd Gets Priorities Wrong at Debate
The candidates at the Democratic debate in Las Vegas were asked, “What is more important, human rights or national security?” Chris Dodd replied, “Obviously, national security, keeping the country safe. When you take the oath of office on January 20, you promise to do two things, and that is to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States and protect our country against enemies both foreign and domestic. The security of the country is number one, obviously.” However, the president’s oath of office, as specified in Article II, Section 1, of the Constitution states, “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.” The job of the president is to defend the Constitution. The Constitution first, the Constitution last, the Constitution always. Nowhere is the president given one inch of leeway to consider setting aside that Constitution in exchange for an illusion of security. Every citizen, as well as every candidate, should understand this.

Regards,

Jim

In this twenty-fifth survey of the web, The WAWG Index monthly average was up by 3.9 percent from October 2007. Of the fourteen categories tracked, 7 were up and 7 were down. The largest decrease for November, 45 percent, was for using disdain for intellectuals and arts. The largest increase was for growth in corporate power at 53 percent.

Through November, the 12 month group moving average for all fourteen categories remained negative at -4.5 percent. It was -5.4 percent last month. Of the fourteen categories tracked, all but one, media control, are negative.

Cornyn was ranked by the National journal as the fourth-most Conservative United States Senator in their 2006 rankings. [1]

He is considered by the Dallas Morning News to be a reliable ally of President George W. Bush on most issues. [2]

Environment and energy
In 2005, Senator Cornyn voted against including oil and gas smokestacks in mercury regulations. He voted against factoring global warming into federal project planning, and against banning drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.  He voted against reducing oil usage by 40%, rather than by 5%. He also voted against removing oil and gas exploration subsidies. [3]

During his tenure in the Senate, Cornyn has scored 0% on the League of Conservation Voter’s environmental scorecard, a system of ranking politicians according to their voting record on environmental legislation. [4]

Cornyn has been described by Jim Jubak of MSN Money as one of “Big Oil’s” ten favorite members of Congress,” as he has received more money from the oil and gas industry than all but six other members of Congress. [5]

Civil rights and law enforcement
In September 2005, Cornyn sponsored a bill that would allow law enforcement to force anyone arrested or detained to provide samples of their DNA, which would be recorded in a central database. [6] He also voted for the reauthorization of the PATRIOT Act and extending its wiretap provision.

Stem cell research
John Cornyn voted against expanding research to more embryonic stem cell lines. [7]

War, peace, and homeland security
Senator Cornyn voted against redeploying troops out of Iraq by July 2007, and he later voted against redeploying them by March 2008.  He voted against implementing the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Report and restoring $565M for states’ and ports’ first responders.  He also voted against restricting businesses with ties to terrorism. He voted against preserving habeas corpus for Guantanamo detainees. [8]

Economy and taxes
On January 24, 2007, Cornyn was one of 28 Senators who voted to repeal the minimum wage. [9]

Response to Constituents
I have written to Senator Cornyn on over 20 issues.  Every time, I get back a form letter containing the sentence, “Your correspondence has been received, and we will respond to you as quickly as possible.”  Only once have I ever received a followup response.

Regards,

Jim

Mortgage Mess: Uh-oh. It’s Enron All Over Again – Just as Enron’s off-balance-sheet vehicles were propping up its stock price by camouflaging the company’s real financial results, so structured investment vehicles were inflating the credit market by providing demand for the complex securities created out of mortgages and loans used to finance buyouts. In both cases, part of the problem was that the rating agencies, which are supposed to serve as watchdogs, were blindly optimistic, either through sheer incompetence or because of conflicts of interest. Just as Enron’s investment-grade rating — which it kept until four days before its bankruptcy — turned out to be an illusion, so did the investment-grade ratings on many mortgage-backed securities. Structured finance,” as the Street calls the black art of making one thing look like something else, couldn’t transform Enron from a money-losing company into a moneymaking one, and it couldn’t make subprime mortgages into investment-grade debt. Now the rating agencies are scrambling to explain why it isn’t a problem that they are paid by the very people they’re supposed to rate, and Congress is holding hearings. That’s exactly what happened six years ago.

Republicans and Cost of War: Uh-oh. It’s Enron All Over Again – Senior Republicans on Congress’ Joint Economic Committee, Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KN) and Rep. James Saxon (R-NJ) are calling on Democrats to retract a staff report alleging the hidden costs of the Iraq war could total more than $1.5 trillion. They want to hide the real costs. Budgeted costs turned out to be an illusion. In both cases, part of the problem was that Congress, which is supposed to serve as a watchdog, was blindly optimistic, either through sheer incompetence or because of conflicts of interest. Republicans are scrambling to explain why it isn’t a problem.

CIA Erred in Saying It Did Not Have Tapes in September 11 Conspirator Case – The CIA erred in twice telling a court in the case of September 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui that it did not have any recordings of interrogations of “enemy combatants,” when in fact it had three video or audio tapes, according to a letter released on Tuesday. Prosecutors only recently learned of the tapes from the CIA, they said in the letter to the judge who presided over the case and to a U.S. appeals court that considered the Moussaoui case. Six years after 9/11, does the left-hand know what the right-hand is doing? This is more like the thumb not knowing what the index finger is doing.

Cheney and Bush Have Abused Their Powers – Source: The American People – A total of 70% of American voters say that Vice President Dick Cheney has abused his powers as vice president. Of the 70%, 13% (9% of all voters) say the abuses rise to the level of impeachable offenses, but he should not be impeached, and 61% (43% of all voters) say the abuses rise to the level of impeachable offenses and Mr. Cheney should be impeached and removed from office. A total of 64% of American voters say that President George W. Bush has abused his powers as president. Of the 64%, 33% (21% of all voters) say the abuses rise to the level of impeachable offenses, but he should not be impeached, and 53% (34% of all voters) say the abuses rise to the level of impeachable offenses and Mr. Bush should be impeached and removed from office.

Blackwater Iraq Shootings Unjustified According to FBI – According to military and civilians brief on the infamous September 16th shooting of 17 Iraqi civilians involving Blackwater employees, the F.B.I. has found that at least 14 of the shootings were unjustified and violated deadly-force rules in effect for security contractors in Iraq. Representative David E. Price, a North Carolina Democrat believes that the Justice Department must hold someone accountable for the shootings. “Just because there are deficiencies in the law, and there certainly are, that can’t serve as an excuse for criminal actions like this to be unpunished. I hope the new attorney general makes this case a top priority. He needs to announce to the American people and the world that we uphold the rule of law and we intend to pursue this,” Mr. Price said.

Bush Administration Didn’t Do Anything Right – Matthew Dowd, former Bush political strategist has decided to look back on his experience with the Bush White House and has become disillusioned with it. On the administration’s response to the Sept. 11 attacks: “I asked, ‘Why aren’t we doing bonds, war bonds? Why aren’t we asking the country to do something instead of just . . . go shopping and get back on airplanes?’ ” On the war in Iraq: “I guess somebody would make the argument, well, the Iraq war was about defending ourselves. But it seems an awfully huge stretch these days to say that.” Dowd is not the first Bush ally to part with the administration. Former Treasury Secretary Paul H. O’Neill contributed to a book that likened the president at Cabinet meetings to a “blind man in a roomful of deaf people.” John J. Dilulio Jr., who led the White House office of faith-based initiatives, left with a shot at “Mayberry Machiavellis”. Retired Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, who once led U.S. forces in Iraq, accused the administration of going to war with a “catastrophically flawed” plan.

State Department Inspector General Used Intimidation to Block the Investigation of Issues in Iraq, His Brother is on Board of Blackwater According to Letter From Blackwater President – The Oversight Committee is currently holding a hearing, “Assessing the State Department Inspector General.” Inspector General Howard J. Krongard will testify. On September 28th, Chairman Henry Waxman wrote to Krongard on allegations that he was using intimidation of employees to block the Committee’s investigation of issues in Iraq, and on October 12th Chairman Waxman was joined by several other Chairmen in a letter to Secretary Rice about endemic corruption in Iraq and the refusal of State Department officials to answer basic questions about the impact of corruption within the Maliki government on the chances of success in Iraq. Rep. Eilijah Cummings questioned Krongard on evidence that his brother is on the board of Blackwater.

Supporting the Troops, NOT! – U.S. troops return home today to find that their jobs and benefits are gone. In 1994, Congress and the White House successfully passed a law to protect veterans’ seniority, salary, and benefits when they return home, but today, the Bush administration is lax about forcing private businesses to follow the law. It’s not even adequately informing returning service members about their rights, and it’s not protecting them when their rights are violated. A study by the Government Accountability Office this year found that when the Department of Labor decided to refer federal cases for litigation, it took an average of 247 days.

Regards,

Jim

Senior Executive at News Corp. Encouraged Lying to Federal Investigators to Protect the Presidential Aspirations of Rudy Giuliani According to Judith Regan – Judith Regan, the former book publisher, says in a lawsuit filed today protesting her dismissal by the News Corporation, the media conglomerate, that a senior executive there encouraged her to lie to federal investigators about her past affair with Benard Kerik, after he had been nominated to become homeland security secretary in late 2004. The lawsuit asserts that the News Corporation executive wanted to protect the presidential aspirations of Rudy Giuliani, Mr. Kerik’s mentor, who had appointed him New York City police commissioner and had recommended him for the federal post.

Iraq and Afghan Wars Have Cost Every Average Family More than $20,000 – President Bush’s six-year invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq will end up costing Americans about $1.5 trillion, or nearly twice as much as the White House has actually spent to fight its wars, because of unseen costs like inflation, rising oil prices and expensive care for wounded veterans. The estimate was revealed in a Democratic staff report from Congress’s Joint Economic Committee. The staff report, titled “The Hidden Costs of the Iraq War,” estimates that the Iraq and Afghan wars have cost the average family more than $20,000. “The full economic costs of the war to the American taxpayers and the overall U.S. economy go well beyond even the immense federal budget costs already reported,” said the report.

White House and Pentagon Withholding Iraq Strategy Document from Democratic Lawmakers – The Pentagon has denied repeated requests from Democratic lawmakers to view a key document outlining the chief US strategy to achieve stability in Iraq. Created by General David Petraeus and US Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker, the Joint Campaign Plan details military and diplomatic steps intended to dramatically heighten security in Iraq by 2009. The exact nature of the plan, however, has been withheld from Congress thus far. “After persistent requests from House Armed Services Chairman Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), the issue has moved up the Congressional chain of command to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.),” Van Dongen writes. “According to an aide, Pelosi asked President Bush for the document several months ago in a White House meeting. Since then, Pelosi’s staff has ‘repeatedly’ requested a copy, her aide said, but has not yet received one.”

Microsoft Tries to Ram a Bad Specification Through the International Standards Organization – Microsoft tried to gain fast-track approval from the International Standards Organization for Office Open XML (OOXML), the proprietary file formats used by Office 2007. A standard should be clear and relatively unambiguous, serve the public interest by allowing different entities to create interoperable or compatible implementations, and provide an agreed-upon platform for future implementation. Microsoft’s OOXML is none of those. It’s a specification that’s so incredibly convoluted that nobody outside of Microsoft will ever be able to implement it fully. That’s what Microsoft wants, of course. If OOXML is approved by the ISO, the company can then sell its “standards-based” Office solutions to government entities. However, once those entities start creating documents in OOXML formats, they’ll be locked into Microsoft’s software to read and manipulate those documents. Also, businesses and the general public will also need to buy Microsoft’s software to read and manipulate those documents. Ka-ching!

Bush Vetoes Domestic Spending Bill But Approves $471 Billion for Military – President Bush on Tuesday signed a big increase in the Pentagon’s non-war budget, and vetoed a spending measure for health and education programs prized by congressional Democrats. The $471 billion defense budget gives the Pentagon a 9 percent increase, roughly $40 billion. House Appropriations Committee Chairman Dave Obey (D-WI) responded: “The same president who is asking us to spend another $200 billion on the misguided war in Iraq and is insisting on providing $60 billion in tax cuts next year to folks who make over a million bucks a year, is now pretending to protect the deficit by refusing to provide a $6 billion increase to crucial domestic investments in education, healthcare, medical research and worker protections that will make this country stronger.’’ The White House wanted cuts in healthcare access, education, medical research, job training and grants to alleviate poverty and promote economic development.

Bill O’Reilly Unleashes Fox Lawyers in Attempt to Get Liberal Blogger Booted From Law School – Blogger Mike Stark has a history of haranguing O’Reilly during his call-in radio show, and he once visited the Fox host’s house to mock him over sexual harassment allegations. Now, Stark, has become the target of a network executive working on behalf of the combative Fox News pundit. Fox VP Dianne Brandi has written to the dean of the University of Virginia’s law school, where Stark is in his second year, urging an investigation of his conduct. The letter accuses Stark of violating the university’s codes of conduct, and it warns that he would have trouble passing the fitness review required for admission to the bar.

Democratic Candidate Calls Black Campaign Worker “Buckwheat” – A white state lawmaker in a runoff election called a black civil-rights veteran who had helped her campaign “Buckwheat,” prompting the NAACP to urge voters to kick her out of office. Rep. Carla Blanchard Dartez, a Democrat, acknowledged that she ended a Thursday night conversation with Hazel Boykin by saying, “Talk to you later, Buckwheat.” Dartez had been thanking Boykin for driving voters to the polls. Buckwheat, a black child character in the “Little Rascals” comedies of the 1930s and ’40s, is viewed as a racial stereotype. Boykin, 75, helped desegregate restaurants and the parish school system in the 1960s. Her son, Jerome, is president of the Terrebonne Parish chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. “I’ve never had no one talk to me that way and I considered it a racial slur,” Hazel Boykin said. “I know the meaning of it, it’s just like the N-word.” Jerome Boykin said Monday he planned to ask voters to cast ballots against Dartez, who faces Republican Joe Harrison in Saturday’s runoff. “At this point, the NAACP is not concerned about the Democratic Party or the Republican Party. If a Republican is elected because of her racist remarks, that’s her responsibility,” he said of Dartez.

Republican Presidential Candidate’s Ad Equates Immigrants with Terrorists – A new television spot from Republican presidential candidate Tom Tancredo likening immigrants with terrorists airs in Iowa this morning, and the immigration-fixated Republican captured the attention of Fox & Friends today. The hosts of the morning gabfest took a few moments to air the spot, an alarming warning about the human costs of “open borders,” and discuss its message. “There are consequences to open borders beyond the 20 million aliens who’ve come to take our jobs,” an announcer says in voice-over in the ad. “Islamic terrorists now freely roam US soil, jihadists who froth with hate here to do what they have in London, Spain and Russia.” Graphic imagery from each terror attack flashes on the screen. Depicted are London’s double-decker bus ripped apart by a bomb in 2005, the commuter train that destroyed in Madrid’s 2004 attack and a badly injured child, blood dripping from his forehead, in the arms of a rescue worker, possibly from the 2002 theater attack in Russia by Chechen rebels or the Beslan school siege.

190,000 Guns and 135,000 Units of Body Armor Missing From Iraq – After six months of internal government investigation, the Department of Defense is accused of “loose record keeping,” and as a result, weapons transportation and distribution is “haphazard” and “rushed”. What’s more, 80,000 pistols, 110,000 AK47 rifles and 135,000 items of body armor are unaccounted for or simply, missing. It also cites “numerous mistakes and incorrect entries” in the records.

Conservative Radio Host Says Lesbians Stuffed Hitler’s Ovens With Human Beings – On the November 8 edition of Talk Radio Network’s The Savage Nation, a caller told host Michael Savage that while waiting at a stoplight in Midtown Manhattan, “I’m listening to you with the window open. This mean-faced, clipped-hair, liberal type — you know, the type you always talk about. … She comes up to my window and she goes, ‘You’re listening to hate speech. Why are you listening to that?’ ” Savage replied to the caller’s anecdote by saying, “Well, what does that tell you about the loving, kind lesbian who just assaulted you in your car?” He continued: “She’s a — the type that stuffed ovens in [Adolf] Hitler’s concentration camps. Whenever I hear anyone preaching to me about how compassionate they are, I reach for my Glock [his pistol]. That’s all I can tell you. They can all drop dead.” Savage later said: “They’re the ones that Hitler used to stuff ovens with human beings in the concentration camps, only now they pose as compassionate, wonderful human beings. They don’t fool me for one minute.”

Iraq Contracts Determined by Affair – Eric W. Barton, who worked for EOD Technology Inc., which won at least $2.5 million in Iraq contracts, is accused of having a six-month relationship with Air Force Capt. Sherrie Remington, who at the time was in charge of awarding some contracts for work in Iraq. From 2005 through spring 2006, when the affair was allegedly taking place, the company’s contracts increased from $3.8 million to $106 million.

Regards,

Jim

On this Veterans Day there’s an email floating around suggesting we all send a Christmas card or letter to a recovering soldier at Walter Reed. Nice idea, easy to do and, sadly, pointless. Because of security concerns Walter Reed cannot accept mail not addressed to a soldier by name. If you recall there was that incident with anthrax being sent to Congress and newspapers you know, the terrorist attack that happened after 9/11 that still hasn’t been solved.

Still, our veterans do need to be recognized. Many have done, seen, heard, smelled and felt things more horrific than can be described just because we asked them to.

Did you know that there are 1.8 million veterans who have no insurance and no access to VA care because of income restrictions put in place by the Bush administration in 2003? That veterans between the ages of 18 & 45 make up 11% of the general population but 26% of the homeless? That thirty percent of Iraq vets will suffer PTSD, up from 10% for Vietnam vets? That the suicide rate for returning vets is higher than it has ever been?

In 2006 the Veterans Health Administration requested $76 Billion in funding. Bush gave them $31. In 2007 the budget was cut an additional 3%. The budget for 2008-2010 is cut an additional 2% each year. The most conservative estimate is that Iraq War Vets’ care will cost $660 billion and that doesn’t count the other 20 million vets from previous wars.

All that and Mr. Bush couldn’t make it to Arlington Cemetery for the laying of the wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. He took a 5 day weekend at Crawford instead and sent Dick I-had-other-priorities Cheney in his place.

So instead of sending a card or letter that can’t possibly be delivered, how about picking up the phone and calling your Congressman and giving them an earful about how we treat our veterans.

Christmas Card Hoax
Bush Policy Restricts Veteran’s Care
Supporting the Troops Bush Style

US Intelligence Deputy Says It’s Time for America to Redefine Privacy – As Congress debates new rules for government eavesdropping, a top intelligence official says it is time that people in the United States change their definition of privacy. Privacy no longer can mean anonymity, says Donald Kerr, the principal deputy director of national intelligence. Kurt Opsahl, a senior staff lawyer with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an advocacy group that defends online free speech, privacy and intellectual property rights, said Kerr’s argument ignores both privacy laws and American history. “Anonymity has been important since the Federalist Papers were written under pseudonyms,” Opsahl said. “The government has tremendous power: the police power, the ability to arrest, to detain, to take away rights. Tying together that someone has spoken out on an issue with their identity is a far more dangerous thing if it is the government that is trying to tie it together.”

Insurance Company Paid Bonuses for Dropping Sick Patients – A health insurance company serving customers in a half-dozen states set out to drop hundreds of customers and paid lucrative bonuses to an executive in charge of eliminating coverage. More than 1,600 customers had their Health Net policies rescinded between 2000 and 2006 saving the company $35.5 million. Over the same period the senior Health Net analyst in charge of canceling policies received more than $20,000 in bonuses based in part on her meeting annual targets for revoking the coverage.

$611.5 Billion Could Have Done Some Good – If the Bush administration succeeds in its latest request for funding for the war in Iraq, the total cost would rise to $611.5 billion, according to the National Priorities Project, a nonprofit research group. What could $611 billion have bought?

• 4,000 new high schools
• 40 extremely-large public works projects
• Convert all cars in America to run on ethanol nine times over
• Nearly 14 million years’ worth of tuition, room, and board at Harvard
• Feed and educate the world’s poor for seven years

Democrats Drop the Renewable Energy Standard Out of the Energy Bill and Drop the Tax Title – Senator Reid and Speaker Pelosi have decided to drop the renewable energy standard out of the energy bill and drop the tax title. No tax title means no extension of the investment tax credit for wind nor solar, adding up to precisely zero for renewable energy in the energy bill. Pelosi’s offices number is 202- 225-4965
Reid’s office’s number is 202-224-3542. Then you should call your Congressman or woman and get all fired up on this too. News Alert: If You Love Renewable Energy, It’s Time to Freak Out

Conservative Magazine Editor Says, “Waterboarding is something of which every American should be proud.” – To highlight just how depraved some conservatives have become, consider the latest piece from Deroy Murdock, a contributing editor to the National Review. While some on the right have defended waterboarding as a necessary evil in a ticking-time-bomb scenario, Murdock went much further, arguing, “Waterboarding is something of which every American should be proud.” He also said, “In short, there is nothing “repugnant” about waterboarding.” Remember, this isn’t some random crazy person ranting on a street corner; this is a published column in one of the nation’s biggest conservative political magazines. Murdock also claims that waterboarding does not cause permanent physical injuries (and unlikely even temporary ones), but a little fact-checking shows that Murdock doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Congressional testimony from Allen S. Keller, M.D., director of the Bellevue Hospital Center/New York University Program for Survivors of Torture, shows that waterboarding can result in lasting harmful health consequences including death. Torture has also been shown to provide false information. Tortured “repugnant” arguments
“Waterboarding is something of which every American should be proud” This Week At War: Does Torture Work?

Republican Staffers Falsely Accuse Pelosi in Temporary Fox News Blackout – When Fox News programming mysteriously disappeared last week from televisions at the US Capitol, some Republicans on the Hill suggested a far-ranging plot reaching even the highest levels of majority leadership. “I sense Pelosi’s behind this,” said one finger-pointing GOP staffer. Another Republican aide described the horrors of being compelled to watch other networks’ news coverage during the work day. “I was just forced to watch an MSNBC segment on going green by shopping at farmers markets,” the withdrawal-afflicted staffer told the paper. “We need Fox back, stat.” Actually, a Fox engineer explained that there was a technical glitch as the network shifted its feeds from analog to digital.

Fox News Host Disappointed by Implausibility of Suitcase Nukes – The revelation that the suitcase nuke, a nuclear bomb small enough to be easily hidden, is unlikely to exist, left the anchors of the Fox News program Fox & Friends more than a little disappointed. “You mean ’24’ isn’t true,” Co-host Page Kelly inquired, referring to Fox’s national security-themed prime time hit, starring Kiefer Sutherland as CIA agent Jack Bauer. “’24’s my favorite show.”

Pentagon Wants to Create Space Vehicle to Fire Missiles to Anywhere on Earth – Buried in the 621-page House-Senate conference report on the Defense Department appropriations bill — and page A19 of Monday’s Washington Post, is a $100 million request to enhance space warfare. As if it didn’t already have enough work in Iraq, the Pentagon plans to divert funds from an appropriation to improve submarine-launched Trident missiles to develop a “global strike” program which would allow the US to target and dispatch a “precision-guided” warhead anywhere in the world within two hours.

Hillary Clinton’s Campaign Planted Questions in Audience During Campaign Stops – Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign admitted Friday that it planted a global warming question in Newton, Iowa, Tuesday during a town hall meeting to discuss clean energy. Clinton campaign spokesman Mo Elliethee admitted that the campaign had planted the question and said it would not happen again. One day later, another person has come forward with a similar story. Geoff Mitchell, a minister who recently moved to Hamilton, Ill., from Iowa, told ABC News that he was approached this spring by Clinton’s Iowa political director Chris Haylor to ask Clinton a question about war funding.

Condi And The Freedom Hating Fly
During Condoleezza Rice’s appearance on This Week, she encountered a pesky little fly who just wouldn’t take shoo! for an answer. (FOXNews’ Bill O’Reilly has opened his own investigation into the matter, stating he has proof this was a trained, far-left, liberal fly, most likely financed by George Soros, the Daily Kos/Media Matters smear sites, MSNBC, Rosie O’Donnell and the Clintons. Not to worry, Homeland Security says Secretary Rice was never in any danger and terrorism has been ruled out. The fly has also been added to the no-fly list. 😉 )

Regards,

Jim

Cheney Tried to Stifle Dissent in Iran National Intelligence Estimate in Order to Gain Support for His Militarily Aggressive Policy – A National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran has been held up for more than a year in an effort to force the intelligence community to remove dissenting judgments on the Iranian nuclear programme, and thus make the document more supportive of U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney’s militarily aggressive policy toward Iran, according to accounts of the process provided by participants to two former Central Intelligence Agency officers. But this pressure on intelligence analysts, obviously instigated by Cheney himself, has not produced a draft estimate without those dissenting views, these sources say. Is this Iraq #2? Is this a crime?

Republican Senate Leader Says Iraq War ‘Winding Down’ – Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell insisted Thursday that the Iraq war is “winding down,” one of the most positive (stupid) statements yet by a congressional leader. Gee, why didn’t he just say that the insurgency is in its last throes? And we’re all going to get a pony!

Pentagon blocks testimony of former Marine prosecutor who alleges torture – A former Marine Corps prosecutor was set to testify before Congress on Thursday that harsh interrogation techniques had tainted his case against an alleged Al Quaeda terrorist — until a last minute email from the Pentagon told him not to. Lt. Col. Stuart Crouch, a former lawyer with the Marines now working as a military judge, was prepared to tell a House Judiciary subcommittee about his refusal to prosecute suspected terrorist Mohamedou Slahi in 2004 after reportedly discovering that severe measures had been used to extract incriminating statements from the Guantanamo Bay detainee. Crouch considers the methods used by interrogators to be torture.

Fox News Plays Up Bogus Terrorist Threat – On the 11-9-2007 Fox and Friends program, the hosts were making a big deal about a purported terrorists threat to shopping malls during the holiday season. They were not at all deterred by the article in the Los Angeles Times that was from the previous day (11-8-2007) titled, “FBI says possible al-Qaida threat against LA malls not credible.”

Veterans Charities That Mostly Enrich Their Owners – Since the start of the Iraq War, the number of charity groups promising to help injured veterans has mushroomed, but not all of them actually fulfill those promises. Americans have so far donated $475 million to veterans charities that get a failing grade from the American Institute of Philanthropy. Institute President Daniel Borochoff told ABC, “Under 35% of your budget on actual bona fide charitable programs will get you an F grade.” Thirteen out of 27 military and veterans charities reviewed by the Institute did not meet that standard, and one was found to spend as little as 2% of its receipts on program services. Meanwhile, some of the people running the F-rated charities are getting rich. For example, Roger Chapin, founder of Help Hospitalized Veterans, pays himself and his wife more than $500,000 a year, while only 31% of the $70 million he took in last year actually went to help hospitalized veterans. That’s not all…

Citigroup gives ex-CEO $40 million package – Citigroup Inc., the largest bank in the United States, said on Thursday that its former Chairman and Chief Executive, Charles Prince, will take home roughly $40 million as he retires from the company. Citi said on Sunday that Prince was retiring amid billions of dollars of expected fourth-quarter writedowns for securities linked to subprime mortgages. Citi wrote down $6.8 billion in the third-quarter. The package is less than a quarter of what former Merrill Lynch Chief Executive Stan O’Neal was awarded when he was ousted from the investment bank last week.

Clinton, Dodd, Biden, Obama Skip Mukasey Confirmation Vote – Not voting were Democratic presidential candidates Joe Biden of Delaware, Hillary Clinton of New York, Chris Dodd of Connecticut and Barack Obama of Illinois. All four had said they opposed Mukasey’s nomination. Democrats voting to confirm Mukasey were: Sens. Chuck Schumer, Diane Feinstein, Evan Bayh of Indiana, Tom Carper of Delaware, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Ben Nelson of Nebraska. Of the Senate’s two independents, Joe Lieberman of Connecticut voted for confirmation. Republican presidential candidate John McCain of Arizona also was absent, as were Republican Sens. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and John Cornyn of Texas.

Ronald Reagan Presidential Library Cannot Account for 80,000 Items – Up to 80,000 items at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library are unaccounted for, probably because of haphazard record-keeping and inventory procedures. Library officials told auditors that “the collection contained approximately 100,000 items, yet the library systems only had information to locate and account for approximately 20,000 items.”

President Bush’s Brother Selling Worthless Software to Schools, According to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington – The Education Department’s inspector general says he will review whether federal money is inappropriately being spent on programs by a company founded by Neil Bush, the president’s brother. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington [CREW], a Washington-based watchdog group, called for the inquiry and released a letter this week from the department’s inspector general, John Higgins Jr. CREW contends that the educational programs distributed by Ignite!, Neil Bush’s company, are worthless, and that school districts who spend federal dollars on the programs are wasting taxpayers’ money. The program in question is “Curriculum on Wheels,” which includes software for teaching math, social studies and science. Each program costs $3,800 each, not including subscription fees

Regards,

Jim

The Price of War: Many Homeless are Veterans – More than 25 percent of the homeless population in the United States are military veterans, although they represent only 11 percent of the civilian adult population, according to a report to be released Thursday. “Veterans make up a disproportionate share of homeless people,” the report said. “This is true despite the fact that veterans are better educated, more likely to be employed and have a lower poverty rate than the general population.” Some veterans, like Jason Kelley find themselves in a catch-22, not able to find a job because of the lack of an apartment, and not being able to get an apartment because of not having a job. In addition, he has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, he said, according to AP. Kelley served in Iraq with the Wisconsin National Guard. More than 400 veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have turned up homeless, and the Veterans Affairs Department and aid groups say they are bracing for a new surge in homeless veterans in the years ahead.

State Department Gives Blackwater Shooting a Free Pass – After an investigation of a February 7th shooting of last year, involving Blackwater guards found Blackwater guards to be at fault, the US concluded differently. Based on information from the Blackwater guards, who said they were fired upon, the State Department determined that the security team’s actions “fell within approved rules governing the use of force,” according to an official from the department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security. Neither U.S. Embassy officials nor Blackwater representatives interviewed witnesses or returned to the network, less than a quarter-mile from Baghdad’s Green Zone, to investigate.

AT&T Has Secret Room That Sends Internet Data to Government – According to a former AT&T employee, the government has warrantless access to a great deal of Internet traffic should they care to take a peek. As information is traded between users it flows also into a locked, secret room on the sixth floor of AT&T’s San Francisco offices and other rooms around the country — where the U.S. government can sift through and find the information it wants, former AT&T employee Mark Klein alleged Wednesday at a press conference on Capitol Hill. “An exact copy of all Internet traffic that flowed through critical AT&T cables — e-mails, documents, pictures, Web browsing, voice-over-Internet phone conversations, everything — was being diverted to equipment inside the secret room,” he said. Documents he obtained form AT&T showed that highly sophisticated data mining equipment was kept there. Conversations he had with other technicians and the AT&T documents led Klein to believe there are 15 to 20 such sites nationwide, including in Seattle, Los Angeles, San Jose, San Diego and Atlanta, he said.

Fox News Preaches ‘Moral Values’ In Between Clips Of Soft Porn

Giuliani Repeats Claim About Prostate Cancer That Authorities Call “Very Misleading” and “Complete Nonsense.” – Rudy Giuliani insists he was “absolutely accurate” to say that men with prostate cancer have a 44 percent survival rate in England, despite being contradicted by FactCheck.org, major news organizations and several cancer experts. The conservative think tank which published the figure also is defending it. A professor of biostatistics at Johns Hopkins University calls Giuliani’s figure “very misleading,” and the chief of urology at a leading medical school calls it “complete nonsense.” No less an authority than Britain’s health secretary says Giuliani’s cancer statistic is wrong.

Pat Robertson Says Giuliani Presidency Appears in the Book of Revelation – One day after endorsing former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani for president, televangelist Pat Robertson explained his decision, saying that a Giuliani presidency features prominently in the Book of Revelation. The televangelist made it clear that “in order for the Second Coming to occur, the world needs to end, and Rudy Giuliani is just the man for that job.” Rev. Robertson said that he was “confident” that within weeks of his inauguration, Mr. Giuliani would usher in the “end days” that are a staple of Bible prophecy. In praising Mr. Giuliani, Mr. Robertson had critical words for the current resident of the White House, President George W. Bush: “President Bush got us on the road to Armageddon, but it’s taking too darn long — Rudy Giuliani will put us in the express lane.” When asked by a reporter in Iowa about Mr. Robertson’s comments today, Mr. Giuliani replied, “9/11.”

(I hope you could tell this is a joke, but taking into account some of Robertson’s other remarks, you begin to wonder.)
Remember, 11/9 is Ydur day. (9/11 and Rudy backwards!)

Regards,

Jim

Diebold Recommends ‘Rescheduling Elections’, Calling Voters to ‘Re-Vote’ as Part of Memory Card Failure Procedures – Diebold’s recommendations which “appear to border on the absurd,” that should voting machine memory cards be lost, “elections must be re-scheduled.” Or if they fail, as our recent story concerning Diebold’s admissions about memory card failures in Florida pointed towards, the company says “all voters will have to be called in to re-vote.” please sign VoterAction’s petition calling on Congress to “conduct a full investigation into the dangers associated with the privatization of our public elections and to determine whether certain US voting systems companies have committed crimes under federal and state anti-fraud laws. Take Action

Third Secret Torture Memo From Gonzales Justice Department – Legal papers filed in federal court Monday in a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union and other organizations disclose that the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) issued three secret memorandums relating to interrogation practices of detainees — one more than has been publicly revealed.

Republicans Claim Victory in Kentucky After State Elects a Democratic Governor – RNC Chairman Robert M. “Mike” Duncan today released the following statement on the Kentucky elections: “Democrats targeted Ernie Fletcher from day one, but even with the unique circumstances of the governor’s race, they could not stand in the way of the Republican Party’s fundamental strength in the state. Voters in Kentucky will continue to support lower taxes, limited government, strong national defense, and individual responsibility. Our success today, including the re-election of Secretary of State Trey Grayson and Agriculture Commissioner Richie Farmer, made it very clear that the Commonwealth is and will remain a Republican state.”

Chicago Police Taser 82-Year-Old Woman – Chicago’s Police Department is investigating an officer’s use of a Taser last month on an 82-year-old woman who police say was swinging a hammer when they arrived. Lillian Fletcher was rushed to the hospital after being jolted by the Taser last week but has been released, police said Tuesday. Officials with the city’s Department on Aging went to her home Oct. 29 to make a welfare check and called police when they saw Fletcher in a window swinging a hammer, police spokeswoman Monique Bond said Tuesday.

‘War on Terror’ Sinks US Image– “America’s reputation, standing and influence are at all-time lows, and possibly sinking further,” the report by a 20-member think-tank commissioned by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said, citing half a dozen opinion polls from around the world. The terrorist attacks on 9/11 caused America to become a frightened and angry nation,” it said. We reacted in ways that alarmed people the world over … we relied excessively on hard military power to fight the war against terrorists and violent extremists. Ultimately this is a battle that will be won by ideas, not bullets. Just like the Cold War, we will prevail when the world chooses the opportunities we defend over the despair offered by our enemies.”

Bush Political Appointees Contradicted Most Scientific Studies on Endangered Sea Bird – The Bush administration had abruptly proposed a reduction of some 94 percent of the acreage set aside as critical habitat for the marbled murrelet, a small sea bird that nests in old-growth forests in the Pacific Northwest. Julie MacDonald, in the Department of the Interior, questioned reliance on certain scientific documents, urged consideration of unpublished timber industry data, and ultimately rewrote the status review’s conclusion that the murrelets in Washington, Oregon, and California deserved protection. In other words, where agency scientists had determined that the murrelets in the Northwest are a “distinct population segment,” that finding was turned on its head at the last minute.

FBI Tracking Falafel Sales – Like Hansel and Gretel hoping to follow their bread crumbs out of the forest, the FBI sifted through customer data collected by San Francisco-area grocery stores in 2005 and 2006, hoping that sales records of Middle Eastern food would lead to Iranian terrorists. The idea was that a spike in, say, falafel sales, combined with other data, would lead to Iranian secret agents in the south San Francisco-San Jose area. Or maybe falafel sales go up because Bill O’Reilly is in town.

Regards,

Jim