The WAWG Blog

Anbar Sheik That McCain Said Was Protected by the Surge Was Assassinated Last Year – The major Sunni sheik who John McCain said was protected by the surge and subsequently helped lead the Anbar Awakening, was actually assassinated by an al-Qaeda led group in midst of the surge.

On Tuesday evening, McCain falsely claimed that the downturn in violence in Iraq’s Anbar province was a result of the surge, when in fact the surge began months afterward. Moreover, he said, if it weren’t for the work of U.S. forces, the major Sunni figure leading that awakening wouldn’t have had the protection he needed.

“Colonel MacFarland was contacted by one of the major Sunni sheiks,” said the Senator. “Because of the surge we were able to go out and protect that sheik and others. And it began the Anbar awakening.”

The Arizona Republican’s campaign went further the next day, claiming that the major figures that turned around Anbar province would have been killed had the surge policy not been in place. “If Barack Obama had had his way, the Sheiks who started the Awakening would have been murdered at the hands of al Qaeda,” said spokesman Tucker Bounds.

Sadly, that murder took place even with the surge underway. In September 2007, Abdul Sattar Abu Risha, the sheik widely credited with persuading Sunni leaders to turn against al Qaeda in Iraq, died in a bomb attack in Anbar.

McCain Cancels Trip to Oil Rig After Fuel Oil Spill, Blames Weather – Thursday, workers on an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico off the Louisiana coast will see clear skies, mild temperatures in the 80’s and 90’s, and feel only a slight breeze. However, John McCain’s campaign says inclement weather caused the cancellation of his appearance there, aimed at promoting offshore drilling. Perhaps a more likely cause is the 400,000 plus gallons of oil floating through the Mississippi, spilled yesterday after a barge collided with a tanker at New Orleans. No sooner than the announcement of the spill, McCain’s campaign announced the cancellation of the candidate’s visit to the rig. McCain was planning to helicopter from Louisiana, where the spill occurred, to an oil rig in the Gulf Coast to make the case for expanded off-shore drilling.

McCain Campaign Complains About Lack of Press Coverage, But McCain Cancels His Only Press Conference for This Week – The one scheduled McCain press conference of the week has just been canceled, we are told. No word as to why. Grumble, grumble.

CBS Spokesman Distorts Standard of Editing on Couric-McCain Interview – CBS edited an interview with John McCain that mixed answers to different questions. A CBS spokesman tried to defend their behavior and told TV Newser:

Of the 14-minute interview, a little less than three minutes was used on the Evening News. A CBS spokesperson tells TVNewser, “As all news organizations do with extended interviews, last night’s Obama and McCain interviews were edited to fit the available time and to give viewers a fair expression of the candidates’ major differences. The full transcript and video were and still are available at CBSNews.com.”

But here is what the CBS manual—CBS NEWS STANDARDS….SEC111-5….EDITING says:

If a question to an interview subject is used, the answer must be to that specific question. The question and the answer may be edited, but not in a way that would distort the meaning of either. Answers to different questions may not be combined to give the impression of one continuous response. In short, we cannot create an answer merely because we wish the subject had said it better.

Land Sold for Bush’s Presidential Library for Well Below Fair Market Value; Library Operation to be Without Academic Oversight – United Methodist Church’s South Central Jurisdiction Conference approved the sale of 23 acres of land-locked Southern Methodist University soil to the Bush Foundation for well below fair market value. Moreover, they agreed that the think tank for President George W. Bush would have no contractual academic oversight for the next 250 years. None of the other presidential policy centers are so rigidly structured like Bush, Jr.’s. Both his father’s and President Bill Clinton’s have academic oversight through their respective universities.

Political Appointees at the Department of Labor Are Trying to Make it Tougher to Regulate Workers’ On-the-Job Exposure to Chemicals and Toxins – Political appointees at the Department of Labor are moving with unusual speed to push through in the final months of the Bush administration a rule making it tougher to regulate workers’ on-the-job exposure to chemicals and toxins. The agency did not disclose the proposal, as required, in public notices of regulatory plans that it filed in December and May. Instead, Labor Secretary Elaine L. Chao’s intention to push for the rule first surfaced on July 7, when the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) posted on its Web site that it was reviewing the proposal, identified only by its nine-word title. The department’s speed in trying to make the regulatory change contrasts with its reluctance to alter workplace safety rules over the past 7 1/2 years. In that time, the department adopted only one major health rule for a chemical in the workplace, and it did so under a court order.

Regards,

Jim

Conservative Michael Savage Claims That Autism is Almost Always the Result of a Brat Who Hasn’t Been Told to Cut the Act Out (Updated With Petitions)

I pointed this one out yesterday, but it bears repeating, and there are now petitions to have Savage fired. Conservative radio host Michael Savage claimed that autism is almost always the result of “a brat who hasn’t been told to cut the act out.” Michael Savage has gone to far in his prejudice and discrimination of children with autism. Autism is a neuro-developmental medical condition that requires early identification and lifelong treatment. He has crossed the line by making children the object of his shock radio tactics and promoting mistreatment of children with disabilities. Here are a few other examples of Savage’s remarks:

• “We’re getting refugees now who have never used a telephone, a toothbrush, or toilet paper. … They never assimilate. And then their children become gang-bangers.”
• Savage accused former page of “gay-baiting” Foley and added: “Maybe he’s a Democrat.”
• Savage advocated “militarization of our children” to respond to terror threat.

Here’s the petition.

You can also use Media Matters’ form to find your local Savage station and make your voice heard.

Republican State Senator’s Blog Compares Barack Obama and Osama bin Laden – A Republican state senator put a graphic on his blog that shows Barack Obama and Osama bin Laden wearing similar clothing, along with a line that says the difference between them is “a little B.S.” The image was posted on Sen. Kevin Bryant’s blog on Friday. It appears to be a photo of a T-shirt with images of bin Laden and Obama wearing turbans and the words “OBAMA” AND “OSAMA,” with the “B” and “S” highlighted in red. The state Democratic Party chairwoman called the posting a “desperate and juvenile attempt” by Bryant to get attention for his re-election bid. “That kind of ignorance and hatred, I’m surprised to find it exists,” Carol Fowler said. “South Carolinians are not ignorant, hate-filled people.”

McCain Surrogate Says, “The Muslims” Are “Going To Kill Us” – On a conference call with reporters, John McCain surrogate Bud Day doesn’t do much to endear his candidate to Muslims: One of John McCain’s fellow POW’s in Vietnam, Colonel Bud Day, defended the war in Iraq, saying, “The Muslims have said either we kneel or they’re going to kill us.” Apparently, Day thinks that all Muslims are terrorists. A McCain campaign spokesman declined to disavow the comments. Bud Day is best known for his work with the Swift Boat Veterans For Truth, attacking John Kerry in the 2004 election. He’s now a member of McCain’s Truth Squad. Ah, great job of picking quality people, Mr. Straight-Talk.

McCain Makes False Claims On Iraq Timeline – In an interview with CBS News’ Katie Couric tonight, John McCain made the false assertion that the Surge brought about the so-called Anbar Awakening. One problem. The surge wasn’t even announced until a few months after the Anbar Awakening. Via Spencer Ackerman, here is Colonel MacFarland explaining the Anbar Awakening to Pam Hass of UPI, on September 29, 2006. That would be almost four months before the President even announced the surge. Petraeus wasn’t even in Iraq yet. This isn’t some gaffe. This shows that McCain has a real misunderstanding of what has happened in Iraq over the past year.

It is history that anyone trying out for Commander and Chief must understand when there are 150, 000 American troops stationed in Iraq. It is an absolutely essential element to the story of the past two years. YOU CANNOT GET THIS WRONG. Moreover, what is most disturbing is that according to McCain’s inaccurate version of history, military force came first and solved all of our problems. If that is the lesson he takes from the Anbar Awakening, I am afraid it is the lesson he will apply to every other crisis he faces including, for example, Iran.

Republican Front Group Skirts Election Law – In 2002, a shady Republican front group spent millions of dollars attacking Democratic Senate candidates across the country, including Paul Wellstone (D-MN). The group, Americans for Job Security (AJS), registered as an “issue advocacy” group, even though election laws prohibit such groups from electioneering for or against candidates. AJS’s ability to skirt election laws allowed the group to take corporate contributions and hide the identity of its donors. The group spent an estimated $8.5 million nationwide against Democratic candidates in the final weeks of the 2002 election.

AJS is up to its old tricks, calling itself an “issue advocacy” group to hide the identity of its donors. Just as the Wellstone campaign did in 2002, the New Hampshire Democratic Party has filed a complaint against AJS with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) laying out a solid case as to why the group is in clear violation of election law.

Please sign the petition to the Federal Election Commission to force AJS to abide by the law and reveal its donors..

Dick Cheney’s Staff Took Advantage of 9/11 to Enhance Presidential Power – Jane Mayer, author of The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals, told the hosts of MSNBC’s Morning Joe that Dick Cheney’s staff took advantage of 9/11 to enhance presidential power and that — in the words of Republican lawyer and former 9/11 Commission director Philip Zelikow — “fear and anxiety were exploited by fools and zealots.” Mayer added, however, that there were also opponents of torture and other extreme powers within the administration. “Almost from the start after 9/11,” she stated, “lawyers in the administration have said, ‘That’s not the American way, we can’t do that, it’s criminal, it may be a war crime.'”

This Is What “Respectful” Looks Like? – From John McCain campaign memo to reporters, March 12, 2008:

Throughout his life John McCain has held himself to the highest standards and he will continue to run a respectful campaign based on the issues.

John McCain today:

I had the courage and the judgment to say that I would rather lose a political campaign than lose a war. It seems to me that Senator Obama would rather lose a war in order to win a political campaign.

Yep, because nothing says “respectful campaign” like accusing your rival of hoping America loses a war in order to serve his personal ambition.

McCain’s Tank Full of Nonsense – McCain’s new ad accuses Obama of keeping gas prices high, all by himself. That’s absurd, and McCain knows it – he has said repeatedly that our current problems were “30 years in the making.” The ad also tells us that gas prices are high because “some in Washington are still saying no to drilling in America.” Not true. The federal government’s estimate is that if the moratorium on offshore drilling were lifted today, it would be 2030 before we’d see a noticeable effect on supply and prices. For the same reason, it’s simply not true that drilling more now will “rescue our family budgets.” Read the details from FactCheck.org.

McCain’s Small-Business Bunk – He claims 23 million small-business owners would pay higher tax rates under Obama. He’s wrong. The vast majority would see no change, and many would get a cut. McCain has repeatedly claimed that Obama would raise tax rates for 23 million small-business owners. It’s a false and preposterously inflated figure.

We find that the overwhelming majority of those small-business owners would see no increase, because they earn too little to be affected. Obama’s tax proposal would raise rates only on couples making more than $250,000 or singles earning more than $200,000.

McCain argues that Obama’s proposed increase is a job-killer. He has a point. It’s true that increasing taxes on those at the top would leave them less money for other purposes, including investment and hiring in the case of business owners. But the number of business owners who would see their rates go up would be only a small fraction of what McCain says. Many would see their taxes go down.

McCain Advisor Tied To Bush’s Pay-For-Play Influence Peddler – John McCain’s senior foreign policy adviser is a close business associate of Stephen Payne, the lobbyist caught on tape offering access to top administration officials in exchange for donations to the Bush Library. Payne’s company’s entire business model is international influence peddling in exchange for oil and gas leases from politically unstable and dictatorial regimes. McCain’s senior foreign policy and national security adviser, Randy Scheunemann, is listed as a member of Worldwide Strategic Energy’s executive team in a pre-prospectus obtained by Majikthise.

Census Bureau Plans War on Data – In taking the 2010 Census, the Census Bureau intends to “edit” the accurate responses of legally married same-sex couples to report them falsely as “unmarried partners.” Such “editing” would not only be highly offensive, it would lead to the reporting of inaccurate demographic data, completely contrary to the Bureau’s mission and goals. Politics should have no place in the Census. Accuracy should be the only criterion.

Regards,

Jim

Right Wing Radio Host Michael Savage Says 99 Percent Of Autistic Children Are Misdiagnosed Brats – Radio talk show host Michael Savage, who described 99 percent of children with autism as brats, said Monday he was trying to “boldly awaken” parents to his view that many people are being wrongly diagnosed. “In 99 percent of the cases, it’s a brat who hasn’t been told to cut the act out,” Savage said on his radio program last Wednesday. Savage offered no apology in a message posted Monday on his Web site. He said greedy doctors and drug companies were creating a “national panic” by overdiagnosing autism, a mental disorder that inhibits a person’s ability to communicate. Some parents of autistic children have called for Savage’s firing after he described autism as a racket last week.

John McCain Doesn’t Know Geography – How many more of these will it take before we finally dispense with the idea that John McCain is some sort of foreign policy genius who is uniquely qualified to be commander-in-chief? Today on “Good Morning America,” John McCain was asked whether he agreed with Barack Obama when he says the situation in Afghanistan is “precarious and urgent.” In predictable fashion, McCain downplays the significance of the deteriorating security situation there. McCain then says, “We have a lot of work to do. It’s a very hard struggle, particularly given the situation on the Iraq-Pakistan border.” But there is no Iraq-Pakistan border. They are separated by Iran. Just another gaffe to add to the pile.

USDA Considering Release of 24 Million Acres of Land From the Conservation Reserve Program – One of the most successful conservation programs in the U.S. is at risk. The USDA is considering the release of 24 million acres of land from the Conservation Reserve Program for commercial use. The penalty-free release of this land would deal a devastating blow to our water, soil, habitat and efforts to stop global warming. It would be the equivalent of having 11 million more cars on our roads…each year. If this CRP land is released, there will be billions of dollars of taxpayer investment lost in addition to millions of acres tagged for land and wildlife conservation.

Bush and McCain Keep Telling Us Our Problems Are All in Our Heads – Have you noticed that President Bush and John McCain keep telling Americans our problems are all in our heads and that we just need to feel better?

Regards,

Jim

Anti-Terror Money Sought for Luxury for Senior Officers and Civilian Leaders – The top Air Force leadership sought for three years to spend counter-terrorism money on “comfort capsules” for military planes to ease the travel of senior officers and civilian leaders — with at least four top generals involved in design details such as the color of the capsules’ carpet and leather chairs — according to internal e-mails and budget documents.

But for the rest of the troops…
Americans Die in Iraq From Electrocution Due to Shoddy Workmanship – Among the seemingly innumerable scandal-worthy stories which have so marked the war in Iraq is one growing tragedy which has been largely ignored: shoddy electrical work by U.S. contractors at military bases leading to numerous electrical fires, troops receiving painful shocks, and even death by electrocution. Army Times reports that the shoddy wiring and electrical risks have brought about the deaths of 11 service members and two U.S. civilians.

However, a follow-up report by James Risen in the New York Times on July 18 states that the problem is far worse than General Petraeus stated, and the military has known about the systemic problems since 2004. Since the invasion, over 283 electrical fires on US bases have been reported, along with two deaths in 2006 at a base in Tikrit, the death of Sgt. Maseth, and innumerable painful shocks dealt to Americans. A log of complaints compiled early in 2008 found soldiers living in just one Baghdad building complex were complaining of painful electrical shocks ‘on an almost daily basis.’

And as for the victims of natural disasters…
Katrina Trailer Contractor Failed to Act on Known Health Risks – Gulf Stream Coach — the politically connected company handed a $500 million federal contract to manufacture trailers for Hurricane Katrina victims — knew its product was contaminated with dangerous levels of cancer-causing formaldehyde in early 2006. But it failed to notify residents or take any action to protect them. Gulf Stream’s founding family and employees contributed at least $81,650 to political candidates and groups, with 94 percent of that going to Republicans.

McCain Attended ZERO Afghanistan Hearings Over Past 2 Years – John McCain., the top Republican on the Senate Armed Service Committee, has attended zero of his committee’s six hearings on Afghanistan over the last two years.

Karl Rove Tried to Fire Prosecutor During Plame Leak Investigation – In a supplement to his responses to the House Judiciary Committee, Patrick Fitzgerald confirms what we’ve always suspected: Karl Rove was trying to have Patrick Fitzgerald fired while Fitzgerald was still investigating Rove for his role in leaking Valerie Wilson’s identity–and the timing lines up perfectly with the Administration’s efforts to fire a bunch of US Attorneys.

Special Counsel Deputy Boss’ Political Agendas and Personal Vendettas – The second-in-command at the government’s top whistle-blower office has quit in a dispute with his boss, whom he accused of putting “political agendas and personal vendettas” ahead of the agency’s mission and independence. James Byrne’s resignation as deputy to U.S. Special Counsel Scott Bloch is effective Saturday. Bloch is under federal investigation, accused of destroying evidence potentially showing he retaliated against his own staff.

ABC News/Wash. Post Withheld Results of Poll Favorable to Obama – ABC News and The Washington Post issued staggered releases of the results of their latest poll, withholding from their first release results favorable to Sen. Barack Obama, including the finding that 50 percent of registered voters would vote for Obama for president versus 42 percent for Sen. John McCain. The next day, the Post ran an article headlined “Poll Finds Voters Split on Candidates’ Iraq-Pullout Positions,” which did not mention Obama’s 8-point lead over McCain.

Oil and Gas Drilling is Destroying Wildlife Habitats – Take a look at what oil and gas drilling does to the land. It’s not just a rig or a pump. It’s pipelines, sludge ponds and roads… lots of roads. Some of this activity is in wildlife migration routes. Is this what you think of when you hear, “America the beautiful?”

Regards,

Jim

Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Spent $200M To Buy Influence – If you want to know how Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have survived scandal and crisis, consider this: Over the past decade, they have spent nearly $200 million on lobbying and campaign contributions. But the political tentacles of the mortgage giants extend far beyond their checkbooks. The two government-chartered companies run a highly sophisticated lobbying operation, with deep-pocketed lobbyists in Washington and scores of local Fannie- and Freddie-sponsored homeowner groups ready to pressure lawmakers back home.

They’ve stacked their payrolls with top Washington power brokers of all political stripes, including Republican John McCain’s presidential campaign manager, Rick Davis; Democrat Barack Obama’s original vice presidential vetter, Jim Johnson; and scores of others now working for the two rivals for the White House.

Federal Court Says Bush Can Indefinitely Detain Civilians – A federal court has ruled that President Bush’s can indefinitely detain “enemy combatants.” “This decision,” countered Jonathan L. Hafetz, counsel for one detainee, means the president can pick up any person in the country–citizen or legal resident–and lock them up for years without the most basic safeguard in the Constitution, the right to a criminal trial.”

Employer Doesn’t Pay You? Under Bush Wage and Hour Dept., You’re Out of Luck – Two new reports by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) show the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division, especially under the Bush administration, is conducting fewer and less thorough investigations in allegations of employer wage theft.

Over the past decade, the number of investigations into employers’ refusal to pay minimum wage, overtime or even any wages at all, has dropped from 47,000 in 1997 to just 30,000 last year. And when investigations are launched, sometimes investigators drop their probes simply because an employer hangs up on them or asserts, without proof, they can’t afford to pay the workers what they are owed.

US Healthcare Costs More, Delivers Less – The United States lags behind other industrialized nations in the quality of its healthcare despite having the costliest system in the world, according to a report released on Thursday. The US healthcare system is plagued by inefficiency, inequality and an incoherent national policy, said the report from the private Commonwealth Fund foundation. “The US spends twice per capita what other major industrialized countries spend on health care, and costs continue to rise faster than income,” said the report.

The foundation used a 100-point scorecard to rate the system based on 37 categories, including access to health care, quality of care and efficiency. The US average came to 65, two points down from a previous measure in 2006. The score is compared to other countries and the best performing US states, counties or hospitals.

The measures showed “that the US is losing ground in providing access to care and has uneven health care quality” and also revealed “broad evidence of inefficient and inequitable care,” it said.

The United States ranked last among 19 industrialized states when it comes to preventing premature deaths from conditions such as heart attacks that can be treated with timely, effective care, the report said. Infant mortality rates also remain high in the United States compared to other industrialized nations.

Access to health care was on the decline, with more Americans without health insurance or without adequate insurance. In 2007, 75 million working-age adults were either uninsured or underinsured, up from 61 million in 2003.

Americans reported more delays in securing appointments with doctors. “In 2007, as in 2005, less than half of US adults with health problems were able to get a rapid appointment with a physician when they were sick,” it said.

The US scored poorly on efficiency, with patients subjected to duplicate tests, unnecessary hospital admissions, high administrative costs and outdated record keeping, it said. Only 28 percent of US doctors use electronic medical records, compared to nearly 100 percent in leading countries.

[Western Europes Health Care for All]

Interior Dept. Opens 2.6 Million Alaskan Acres for Oil Exploration – The Interior Department on Wednesday made 2.6 million acres of potentially oil-rich territory in northern Alaska available for energy exploration. The decision will open up for drilling much of the northeast section of the Northeast National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, holding an estimated 3.7 billion barrels of oil, Tom Lonnie, Alaska state director for the Bureau of Land Management, said in a conference call with reporters.

Republicans Accuse Others of What They Are – While Republicans accuse Barack Obama of being out of touch with the working man, the McCains, by contrast, dole out such homespun wisdom as “in Arizona, the only way to get around the state is by small private plane” and own eleven homes and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars per year on household staff. John also rides first class on the Acela train.

Regards,

Jim

Conservative confusion over oil spills and hurricanes – For a while, Republicans were defending their call for coastal drilling by claiming that the Chinese were drilling in Cuban waters. This proved to be false (though many on the right repeat the claim anyway).

So, conservatives have moved onto a new talking point: coastal drilling is safe for the environment, because recent hurricanes didn’t lead to oil spills. It leads to rhetoric like this from Nancy Pfotenhauer, John McCain’s senior energy adviser, who appeared on MSNBC the other day.

John McCain made the same claim a month ago: “As for offshore drilling, it’s safe enough these days that not even Hurricanes Katrina and Rita could cause significant spillage from the battered rigs off the coasts of New Orleans and Houston.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ken.) said the same thing over the weekend: “I think people are reassured that not a drop of oil was spilled during Katrina or Rita. Those rigs in the Gulf, there was not a single incident of spillage that anyone reported.”

Bill O’Reilly is sticking to the Republican script, telling his radio audience the other day, “Remember when Katrina hit, none of the oil rigs spilled in Louisiana.”

Even Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R), who presumably would know better, told Fox News a couple of weeks ago, “[T]hat’s one of the great unwritten success stories, after Katrina and Rita, these awful storms, no major spills.”

George Will, Dick Morris, Robert Samuelson, and the Wall Street Journal editorial page have all repeated the claim. And today, Former Republican Senator Trent Lott repeated the lie saying, “One point since we’re both from the gulf area. We didn’t have one drop of oil spilt when we had the biggest hurricane in recent history, Hurricane Katrina.” In the weeks following Katrina and Rita’s one-two strike in the summer of 2005, the Bush administration claimed there was “only minor sheening” from offshore oil spills.

Here’s a conservative blog repeating the same lies. Not only that lie, but they make the ridiculous argument that offshore drilling doesn’t always mean oil spills. That’s like saying that driving drunk doesn’t always result in an accident. It’s not a reason to do it.

Well, they’re all wrong.

In fact, clear satellite evidence of major spills was borne out by final reports. Here’s the satellite photo:

Click image for more detail.

In May 2006, the U.S. Minerals Management Service (MMS) published their offshore damage assessment: “113 platforms totally destroyed, and 457 pipelines damaged, 101 of those major lines with 10″ or larger diameter.”

Unsurprisingly, this devastation caused significant spillage, according to the official report prepared for the MMS by a Norwegian firm:

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita Caused 124 Offshore Spills For A Total Of 743,700 Gallons. 554,400 gallons were crude oil and condensate from platforms, rigs and pipelines, and 189,000 gallons were refined products from platforms and rigs. [MMS, 1/22/07]

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita Caused Six Offshore Spills Of 42,000 Gallons Or Greater. The largest of these was 152,250 gallons, well over the 100,000 gallon threshhold considered a “major spill.” [MMS, 5/1/06]

Consider this from: Accidents during the offshore oil and gas development

Accidents inevitably accompany offshore development. They are the sources of environmental pollution at all stages of oil and gas production. The causes, scale, and severity of the accidents’ consequences are extremely variable. They depend on a concrete combination of many natural, technical, and technological factors. To a certain extent, each accidental situation develops in accordance with its unique scenario.

That means offshore accidents are hard to predict and hard to prevent. When they happen, there is very little time to react before the oil makes shore contact, which is where the main damage occurs. Remember, offshore drilling means close-to-shore drilling.

Regards,

Jim

Government Response to CNN Investigation on Problems in Air Marshall Program is to Investigate Whistle Blowers – Federal officers charged with keeping terrorists off planes are now searching their own ranks for staff who told CNN about problems in the air marshal program. An e-mail discussing plans to expose corruption in the air marshal service was written by an air marshal who asked that his identity be concealed for fear of retribution by the Transportation Security Administration.

The marshal said he sent the e-mail because for six years, his colleagues have been trying to alert Congress about continuing problems in the air marshal service. Many have left, he said, because of low morale and complaints about management.

A May 2008 report from the Department of Homeland Security Office of the Inspector General said that the agency “currently experiences a 17% voluntary attrition rate and low employee morale.”

“Congress doesn’t want to hear it,” the marshal said. “They stick their heads in the sand. We tell them about the corruption. We give them examples and proof and I think they are scared of what they see. And they don’t want to deal with it.”

50 Percent of Sequoia Voting Machines Are Flawed – New York state is in the process of replacing its lever voting machines with new voting equipment, but the state revealed recently that it has found problems with 50 percent of the roughly 1,500 ImageCast optical-scan machines (shown in the video above) that Sequoia Voting Systems has delivered to the state so far — machines that are slated to be used by dozens of counties in the state’s September 9 primary and November 4 presidential election.

Republican Jewish Coalition Official Spends Day Lying To Reporters About Obama – Suzanne Kurtz, communications director for the Republican Jewish Coalition, spent her afternoon knowingly misleading — if not downright lying — to reporters. On Monday, the RJC blasted out a press release calling on Barack Obama to “disinvite” Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) from his upcoming trip to Israel.

The problem: Hagel isn’t going to Israel with Obama. He and Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI) are flying with the Illinois Senator to Iraq and Afghanistan, but not to Israel or Europe. The RJC should have known this, as it was already public knowledge as the UK Telegraph (among other outlets) reported.

And yet, throughout the afternoon, the RJC continued to propagate what was, at best, something they couldn’t confirm and, at worst, a lie. Contacted by the Huffington Post at 2PM ET, Kurtz stumbled and nervously laughed away questions about whether or not she knew her organization’s statement to be false. She would not answer whether the RJC would retract it, saying only, “if we retract it, it will be evident.”

Breaking the Law, Bush Administration Fails to Declassify 30-Year-Old Files – The State Department is again going to miss a mandatory three-decade legal deadline to publish an accounting of its foreign relations activities. Compliance with the 30 year deadline is not optional; it is a binding legal requirement.

Super-Rich Tax Cheaters – Hundreds of super-rich American tax cheats have, in effect, turned themselves in to the IRS after a bank computer technician in the tiny European country of Liechtenstein came forward with the names of US citizens who had set up secret accounts there, according to Washington lawyers investigating the scheme. The bank clerk, Heinrich Kieber, has been branded a thief by the government of Liechtenstein for violating the country’s bank secrecy laws.

Aides for committee chairman Carl Levin (D-MI) are scheduled to provide reporters with a background briefing later this morning in Washington on the committee’s investigation of tax haven banks in Liechtenstein and Switzerland. The names of the US citizens are now in the hands of the IRS and Senate investigators.

McCain Defends Czechoslovakia, A Non-Existent Country — Again – At a press availability today, John McCain expressed concern about relations between Russia and a country that hasn’t existed for quite some time. According to a rough pool report transcript, he said:

“I was concerned about a couple of steps that the Russian government took in the last several days. One was reducing the energy supplies to Czechoslovakia.”

Czechoslovakia, of course, split into two separate countries in 1993. McCain made the same mistake again today during a town hall meeting in New Mexico.

Regards,

Jim

Are you aware of the plans to bankrupt our nation?

A year ago, I wrote a long article about the goals of Karl Rove and his fellow authoritarian conspirators. The article reviewed Karl’s history, goals and underhanded planning expertise, and summarizes his plans for creating a single party state, weakening the federal government’s control over business and its assistance for disadvantaged Americans. To do this, Karl and others would bleed “the federal government of its money.” After the 2006 Bush tax cuts and years of borrowing for Bush’s occupation of Iraq, how’s the plan doing? Here’s an image to help.

Looks like Karl, Bush, et al., have been quite successful.

Compare their plan with the following quote, “So we are continuing this policy in bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy.” This statement was made in a video on October 30, 2004. The speaker in this video was Osama bin Laden.

What about plans to boost the price of oil?

Oil economist Dr Mamdouh Salameh reported back in May of this year that if Bush had not lied us into the invasion of Iraq, the cost of oil would be something less than $40.00. Instead, the price of oil in May was $135 a barrel. Think Progress summarized the oil price situation this way, “The Bush administration’s catastrophic decision to invade Iraq, sink the nation into debt to pay for that war, and consequently, weaken the dollar have all caused oil prices to soar astronomically.” (Do you suppose that the oil companies have more than made back their political contributions to both Bush campaigns?)

Back in 1998 a book by Jamal Abdul Latif Ismail was published. In a review of this book, Donna Abu-Nasr, of the Associated Press, provided this paraphrased segment from a 54 page interview documented in the book:

Bin Laden claimed the United States has carried out the “biggest theft in history” by buying oil from Persian Gulf countries at low prices. According to bin Laden, a barrel of oil today should cost $144.

The price of oil earlier this month reached $145. Bush and bin Laden are again on the same page of their respective plans. (Notice something? Bush has out done bin Ladin much as he has out done his father. Just what we need. Two global bullies trying to out do each other.)

What about where Bush and bin Ladin keep and protect their plans from public view?

On the one hand, we have bin Laden’s public plans. On the other, we have Cheney’s man-sized safe and “executive privilege.” Why do you suppose our leaders are hiding their plans? Do you suppose they realize they have something in common with our arch enemy and need to keep us from noticing?

Does it appear to you that bin Laden and our own authoritarian leaders are working toward the same end? Isn’t aiding the enemy treason? Isn’t treason a high crime? And Congress hasn’t yet initiated impeachment proceedings because …?

What’s Wrong With Offshore Drilling – The Bush administration’s latest plan to drive down skyrocketing oil prices by lifting the executive ban on domestic offshore drilling has revived an old question in American politics: is such drilling ecologically responsible? The Washington Post today recalls when this kind of offshore drilling lead to disaster. See photos of the oil spill at the link [above]. Remember that offshore drilling really means close-to-shore drilling.

The Press is Helping the Administration Control the News – In its investigation of the misleading accounts that initially surrounded Pat Tillman’s death and Jessica Lynch’s rescue the House Oversight Committee on Monday shed some light on the White House’s press-management apparatus and the chummy relationship between Karl Rove and AP scribe Ron Fournier.

The report details the Bush administration’s exploitation of Tillman’s death and suppression of evidence that the former football pro who joined the Army Rangers after 9/11 was killed by friendly fire. In the day’s after Tillman’s death, on April 22, 2004, the committee examined e-mails from the White House’s communications team, including some exchanges with reporters.

Commentators and reporters contacted the White House to offer advice. For example, Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan e-mailed the White House’s Director of Strategic Initiatives, Peter Wehner, recommending that he “find out what faith Tillman practiced and have the president go by that church and light a candle or say a prayer.” Karl Rove exchanged e-mails about Pat Tillman with Associated Press reporter Ron Fournier, under the subject line “H-E-R-O.” In response to Mr. Fournier’s e-mail, Mr. Rove asked, “How does our country continue to produce men and women like this,” to which Mr. Fournier replied, “The Lord creates men and women like this all over the world. But only the great and free countries allow them to flourish. Keep up the fight.”

Bush Aide Offering Access for Donations – A lobbyist with close ties to the White House is offering access to key figures in George W Bush’s administration in return for six-figure donations to the private library being set up to commemorate Bush’s presidency. Payne has close ties to the Bush administration and has accompanied Bush and Cheney on several foreign trips, according to the article, which confirms suspicions that the White House offers political favors in return for large donations.

Ad Misrepresents Who It’s From and What It’s About – An ad by the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) and Wal-Mart, masquerading as a pro-union, pro-worker group on behalf of Republican Sen. Norm Coleman exploits “a distorted stereotype of the Mafia, and of labor unions as tools of organized crime” to misrepresent legislation that, despite what the ad implies, would actually make it easier for workers to organize unions.

The Terrorist Watch List is a Mess – Why are there so many names on the U.S. government’s terrorist list? In September 2007, the Inspector General of the Justice Department reported that the Terrorist Screening Center (the FBI-administered organization that consolidates terrorist watch list information in the United States) had over 700,000 names in its database as of April 2007 – and that the list was growing by an average of over 20,000 records per month.1 (See also this new March 2008 report.2)

By those numbers, the list now has over one million names on it. [And how many individuals match those the names one the list?] Terrorist watch lists must be tightly focused on true terrorists who pose a genuine threat. Bloated lists are bad because:

• They ensnare many innocent travelers as suspected terrorists, and
• They waste screeners’ time and divert their energies from looking for true terrorists.

Many innocent individuals have already been caught up by our government’s bloated watch lists.

Regards,

Jim

Karl Rove’s Contempt for the Constitution and the Public’s Right to Know – Karl Rove defied the subpoena by the House Judiciary Committee to testify on his role in politicizing the Justice Department — and in using the Department to selectively prosecute Democratic officials and failed to show up for his scheduled testimony. By doing so, Rove is thumbing his nose at Congress, legal precedent, the public’s right to know the truth — about, among other things, the firing of nine U.S. attorneys and the blackballing of Justice Department hires — and the Constitution.

In 1776, Thomas Paine — America’s first blogger — wrote in Common Sense: “in America the law is King. For as in absolute governments the King is law, so in free countries the law ought to be King; and there ought to be no other.”

But throughout its seven-plus years, the Bush administration has demonstrated an unwavering belief that it is above the law and a deep-rooted disdain for checks and balances, and the Constitutional imperative of coequal branches of government

This is no petty partisan squabble; this is a fight about the foundations of our democracy.

Odds are the Committee will move to hold Rove in contempt. The matter will then be turned over to the Justice Department — the same Justice Department Rove is accused of politicizing — which will likely do the same thing it has done with Harriet Miers and Josh Bolton, i.e. nothing. The matter will then be tossed to the courts… and Rove will go on pontificating on Fox and advising John McCain. Pretty sweet set up.

Fox News Can’t Locate, Can’t Spell and Can’t Pronounce – Fox News desperately needs a fact checker in its graphics department. MSNBC’s David Shuster caught this gem from a Fox report on the Iranian missile tests. The graphic that Fox used to identify the Strait of Hormuz put the strait in the wrong location, and misspelled “strait.” For good measure, the Fox reporter also mispronounced “Hormuz.” [Is FOX News proof of the failing education system in the US?]

EPA Lowers the Value of a Human Life in Order to Allow More Pollution – The “value of a statistical life” is $6.9 million in today’s dollars, the Environmental Protection Agency reckoned in May _ a drop of nearly $1 million from just five years ago. Though it may seem like a harmless bureaucratic recalculation, the devaluation has real consequences. When drawing up regulations, government agencies put a value on human life and then weigh the costs versus the lifesaving benefits of a proposed rule. The less a life is worth to the government, the less the need for a regulation, such as tighter restrictions on pollution. Other, similar calculations by the Bush administration have proved politically explosive. In 2002, the EPA decided the value of elderly people was 38 percent less than that of people under 70. After the move became public, the agency reversed itself.

Bush Administration Tries to Play Down Costs of Global Warming – The Bush administration has decided not to take any new steps to regulate greenhouse gas emissions before the president leaves office, despite pressure from the Supreme Court and broad accord among senior federal officials that new regulation is appropriate now. Several EPA officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that throughout the process, White House officials instructed the agency to change their calculations with the aim of reducing the “social cost of carbon,” a regulatory term that reflects the economic burdens stemming from greenhouse gas emissions.

Career EPA officials argued that the global benefits of reducing carbon are worth at least $40 per ton, but Bush appointees changed the final document to say the figure is just an example, not an official estimate. They prohibited the agency from submitting a 21-page document titled “Technical Support Document on Benefits of Reducing GHG Emissions” as part of today’s announcement.

“The administration didn’t want to show a high-dollar value for reducing carbon,” said one EPA official, adding that the administration cut dozens of pages from a draft that outlined cost-effective ways to reduce greenhouse gases.

Some officials said the administration has also minimized the benefits of tighter fuel-economy standards by assuming that oil will cost $58 a barrel in the future, compared with its current price of $141.65. While the EPA calculated in a May 30 draft that stricter standards would save U.S. society $2 trillion by 2020, officials revised that figure last month — using the $58 estimate — to predict that they would save only between $340 billion and $830 billion.

Antarctic Ice Shelf is ‘Hanging by Thread’ According to European Scientists – New evidence has emerged that a large plate of floating ice shelf attached to Antarctica is breaking up, in a troubling sign of global warming, the European Space Agency (ESA) said on Thursday.

Images taken by its Envisat remote-sensing satellite show that Wilkins Ice Shelf is “hanging by its last thread” to Charcot Island, one of the plate’s key anchors to the Antarctic peninsula, ESA said in a press release.

“Since the connection to the island… helps stabilize the ice shelf, it is likely the breakup of the bridge will put the remainder of the ice shelf at risk,” it said.

“Current events are showing that we were being too conservative, when we made the prediction in the early 1990s that Wilkins Ice Shelf would be lost within 30 years. The truth is, it is going more quickly than we guessed.”

In the past three decades, six Antarctic ice shelves have collapsed completely — Prince Gustav Channel, Larsen Inlet, Larsen A, Larsen B, Wordie, Muller and the Jones Ice Shelf.

McCain Lied in His Book About His Divorce and Re-Marriage – John McCain has made several statements about how he divorced Carol and married Hensley that conflict with the public record.

In his 2002 memoir, “Worth the Fighting For,” McCain wrote that he had separated from Carol before he began dating [Cindy] Hensley.

“I spent as much time with Cindy in Washington and Arizona as our jobs would allow,” McCain wrote. “I was separated from Carol, but our divorce would not become final until February of 1980.”

An examination of court documents tells a different story. McCain did not sue his wife for divorce until Feb. 19, 1980, and he wrote in his court petition that he and his wife had “cohabited” until Jan. 7 of that year — or for the first nine months of his relationship with Hensley.

Although McCain suggested in his autobiography that months passed between his divorce and remarriage, the divorce was granted April 2, 1980, and he wed Hensley in a private ceremony five weeks later. McCain obtained an Arizona marriage license on March 6, 1980, while still legally married to his first wife.

Black Community Was Denied Water for Decades – Residents of a mostly black neighborhood in rural Ohio were awarded nearly $11 million Thursday by a federal jury that found local authorities denied them public water service for decades out of racial discrimination. Coal Run residents either paid to have wells dug, hauled water for cisterns or collected rain water so they could drink, cook and bathe. Plaintiff Frederick Martin said that he and his nine siblings shared two tubs of water between them on bath nights when he was growing up.

McCain Says: ‘Get Those Offshore Reserves Exploited’ – Republican presidential candidate John McCain let his tongue get the best of him at a town hall meeting Friday, revealing what critics would say is the true effect of opening US coastlines to drilling he now supports after years of opposing.

“I’ll do everything in my power to get those offshore reserves exploited … um, er, explored, discovered and um…” McCain said, drawing some knowing chuckles from the largely Republican audience.

He had to stop and collect his thoughts. Thoughts gathered, he continued. The oil reserves around coastal states like Florida would be “explored and exploited and we will send the message … all over the world that the United States is on the road to becoming independent from foreign oil.” (emphasis his)

McCain spoke during a town hall event in Hudson, Wisconsin — nearly 1,500 miles from the coastlines he wanted to hand over to the oil companies.

Military Fires Public Affairs Official for Refusing to Limit Press at Funerals – When Gina Gray, a media specialist with a long history of working with the military, became public affairs director at Arlington National Cemetery earlier this year, she found that officials there had started hampering media coverage even in cases where the families gave permission. When she tried to uphold the existing regulations, she was harassed by her supervisor, demoted, and then fired. “It’s up to the families to decide how close or far away they want the media to be,” Gray continued. “It is not up to Arlington Cemetery officials to do that.”

How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals – Red Cross investigators concluded last year in a secret report that the Central Intelligence Agency’s interrogation methods for high-level Qaeda prisoners constituted torture and could make the Bush administration officials who approved them guilty of war crimes, according to a new book on counterterrorism efforts since 2001.

The book says that the International Committee of the Red Cross declared in the report, given to the C.I.A. last year, that the methods used on Abu Zubaydah, the first major Qaeda figure the United States captured, were “categorically” torture, which is illegal under both American and international law. The book also says Abu Zubaydah was confined in a box “so small he said he had to double up his limbs in the fetal position” and was one of several prisoners to be “slammed against the walls,” according to the Red Cross report. The C.I.A. has admitted that Abu Zubaydah and two other prisoners were waterboarded, a practice in which water is poured on the nose and mouth to create the sensation of suffocation and drowning.

The book is “The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals,” by Jane Mayer.

Our Government is Doing the Terrorists’ Work for Them – President Bush has said that the terrorists attack us because they hate our freedoms. Well, not only does the FISA bill legalize the Bush administration’s secret NSA spying program, it also gives the government more power to listen to our phone calls and read our emails. Even more than the Bush administration illegally claimed for itself under its secret program. So who needs terrorists when we can dismantle our own freedoms?
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Regards,

Jim