All the news today, GM's demise; the selling of the Hummer line to the Chinese; the Chinese laughing out loud during a speech in Beijing by Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner that Chinese assets were secure in America; Obama's trip to Saudi Arabia; got me to thinking about this scene in Network.
Paddy Chayefsky wrote our epitaph 33 years, ago. We're just late for our own funeral, apparently.
Setup:
TV prophet and madman Howard Beale used his Bully Pulpit to get the American people up in arms about the take over of his Network by the Saudis; Network stands to lose lots of money; Network CEO convinces Beale to retract his opposition to the deal by convincing him there is no such thing as democracy.
Transcript:
Arthur Jensen: "You have meddled with the primal forces of nature, Mr. Beale, and I won't have it!! Is that clear?! You think you've merely stopped a business deal. That is not the case. The Arabs have taken billions of dollars out of this country, and now they must put it back! It is ebb and flow, tidal gravity! It is ecological balance! You are an old man who thinks in terms of nations and peoples. There are no nations. There are no peoples. There are no Russians.
There are no Arabs. There are no third worlds. There is no West. There is only one holistic system of systems, one vast and immane, interwoven, interacting, multivariate, multi-national dominion of dollars. Petro-dollars, electro-dollars, multi-dollars, Reichmarks, Yen, Rubles, Pounds, and Shekels. It is the international system of currency which determines the totality of life on this planet. That is the natural order of things today. That is the atomic and subatomic and galactic structure of things today! And YOU have meddled with the primal forces of nature, and YOU WILL ATONE!
Am I getting through to you, Mr. Beale?
You get up on your little twenty-one inch screen and howl about America and democracy. There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and ITT and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today. What do you think the Russians talk about in their councils of state — Karl Marx?
They get out their linear programming charts, statistical decision theories, minimax solutions, and compute the price-cost probabilities of their transactions and investments, just like we do. We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies, Mr. Beale. The world is a college of corporations, inexorably determined by the immutable bylaws of business. The world is a business, Mr. Beale. It has been since man crawled out of the slime. And our children will live, Mr. Beale, to see that perfect world in which there's no war or famine, oppression or brutality — one vast and ecumenical holding company, for whom all men will work to serve a common profit, in which all men will hold a share of stock, all necessities provided, all anxieties tranquilized, all boredom amused."
"Last week, a group of university professors petitioned the White House to end a longstanding practice of sending a wreath to a monument to Confederate soldiers on the cemetery grounds. Mr. Obama continued that tradition but started another, the White House said, by sending a second wreath across the Potomac River to the historically black neighborhood in Washington where the African-American Civil War Memorial commemorates more than 200,000 blacks who fought for the North in the Civil War."
I wrote this in honor of those those soldiers on Memorial Day 2006: Never thought I'd see this day come.
On this Memorial Day weekend I thought it might be appropriate to mention some of the brave soldiers that have served their country with distinction despite the shoddy treatment some of them have received over the years from their own government. In addition to the day to day travails of being a soldier on the battle line, long hours of monotony punctuated by a few seconds of sheer terror, there have been men who have had to endure discrimination and ill treatment by their superior officers in some cases and the complete abandonment of their leaders in Washington. The fact that such adversity never caused them to leave their post and to keep fighting is a testament to all American fighting men and women and should never be forgotten because this is what has made our fighting people the best in the world.
Such a case is the story of the 54th Massachusetts, the colored regiment made again famous a few years ago in the movie "Glory." The Boston regiment fought with bravery and distinction in the Deep South from 1863 to the end of the war in 1865. They are most remembered for their legendary failed storming of Battery Wagner on Morris Island, South Carolina, on July 18, 1863 that caused the death of their white commanding officer Col. Robert Gould Shaw along with eleven other officers, 135 men wounded and almost a hundred missing or captured.
What is even more amazing about this group of black American soldiers was their refusal to except any pay until they should be paid the same rate as white soldiers. When the government finally decided to allow blacks to fight in the US army in late 1862 the thinking was that these new volunteers weren't intelligent or brave enough to fight like their white counterparts. Initially they were only to be used as laborers (treated as "contraband") and thus they were to be paid $10 a month minus three dollars for supplies and one ration a day. White soldiers on the other hand made $13 minus $3 for supplies and one ration a day.
Col. Shaw wrote to Massachusetts Governor Andrew on July 2nd 1963 about this problem:
You have probably seen the order from Washington which cuts down the pay of colored troops from $13 to $10. Of course if this effects Massachusetts regiments, it will be a great piece of injustice to them, as they were enlisted on the express understanding that they were to be on precisely the same footing as all other Massachusetts troops. In my opinion they should be mustered out of service or receive full pay which was promised them. The paymaster here is inclined to class us as contraband regiments, and pay the men only $10. If he does not change his mind, I shall refuse to have the regiment paid until I hear from you on the subject...for every pay-day we shall the same trouble unless there is a special order to prevent it."
What became clear shortly after Shaw's death, 16 days later, was that blacks would be in combat and not only were they just as susceptible to death and injury as their white comrades, but if they were captured by Confederate soldiers, as happened after the failed attempt at Battery Wagner, they were either killed on the spot after surrendering or sold into slavery, something their the better paid white soldiers didn't have to worry about.
As the months went on this stubborn refusal to be paid was becoming an embarrassment to commanders higher up the chain of command in the army and came to a head later on in the year on September 30, 1963 when, Col. James Montgomery, an abolitionist from the Bloody Kansas days, came to force the troops to take their pay.
"The paymaster came again on the 30th to renew his offer. It was on this date that Colonel Montgomery appeared and made the men a remarkable and characteristic address, which Sergeant Stephens of Company B has given in substance as follows:
'Men: the paymaster is here to pay you. You must remember you have not proved yourselves soldiers. You must take notice that the Government has virtually paid you a thousand dollars a piece for setting you free. Nor should you expect to be placed on the same footing with white men. Anyone listening to your shouting and singing can see how grotesquely ignorant you are. I am you friend and the friend of the Negro. I was the first person in the country to employ Negro soldiers in the United States Army. I was out in Kansas. I was short of men. I had a lot of niggers and a lot of mules; and you know a nigger and a mule go very well together. I therefore enlisted niggers, and made teamsters of them. In refusing to take the pay offered you, and what you are only legally entitled to, you are guilty of insubordination and mutiny, and can be tried and shot by court-martial.'"
The fight for fair pay and the resistance to accepting the lower wage went on into November when Massachusetts governor John Andrew still being unable to convince the War Department to pay the soldiers of the 54th the same pay as whites had the Massachusetts legislature pass a bill to make up the difference. The commander of the 54th Colonel E. N. Hallowell wrote to the Governor that regardless of the generous action of the legislature the troops the 54th would serve without pay until mustered out rather than accept less than what they were owed.
On December 12, 1863 an extraordinary article appeared in the Boston Journal written by "a Massachusetts soldier in the 54th:"
"A strange misapprehension exists as to the matter of pay, and it pains us deeply. We came forward at the call of Governor Andrew, in which call he distinctly told us that we were to be subsisted, clothed, paid and treated in all respects the same as other Massachusetts soldiers. Again, on the presentation of flags to the regiment at Camp Miegs, the Governor reiterated this promise, on the strength of which we marched through Boston, holding our heads high as men and soldiers. Nor did we grumble because we were not paid the portion the United States bounty paid to other volunteer regiments in advance. Now that we have gained some reputation, we claim the right to be heard.
Three times have we been mustered in for pay. Twice have we swallowed the insult offered to us by the United States paymaster, contenting ourselves with a simple refusal to acknowledge ourselves different from other Massachusetts soldiers. Once in the face of insult and intimidation such as no body of men were ever subjected to before, we quietly refused and continued to do our duty. For four months we have been steadily working night and day under fire. And such work! Up to our knees in mud half the time, causing the tearing and wearing out of more than a yearly allowance of clothing, denied time to repair and wash (what we might have by means have saved ), denied time to drill and prefect ourselves in soldierly qualities, denied the privilege of burying our dead decently. All this we've borne patiently, waiting for justice.
Imagine our surprise and disappointment on the receipt by last mail of the Governor's address to the General Court, to find him making a proposition to them to pay this regiment the difference between what the United States Government offers us and what they are legally bound to pay us, which, in effect, advertises us to the world as holding out for money and not from principle, --- that we sink our manhood in consideration of a few more dollars. How has this come about? What false friend has been misrepresenting us to the Governor, to make him think that our necessities outweigh our self-respect? I am sure no representation of ours every impelled him to such action."
Finally on September 28 1865 the government finally gave the men their due and they were paid in full. The official history of the regiment says it was 'a red letter day for the 54th.'
"We had been eighteen months waiting, and a kaleidoscope was turned, --- nine hundred men received their money; nine hundred stories rested on the faces of those men, as they passed in one door and out the other. Two days have changed the face of things, and now a petty carnival prevails. The fiddle and other music long neglected enlivens the tents day and night. Songs burst out everywhere; dancing is incessant."
The 54th was paid $170,000 owed to them. Many donated liberally, over a thousand dollars, to the building of the famous monument in Boston to Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th. Such a fine example of American soldiery, principle and bravery should not be forgotten this memorial day. Not only were they fighting and dying to preserve the Union and end slavery, they were also fighting to be treated like men, a struggle that goes on sadly to this day.
From the annals of the greatest economic crisis since the great depression; Va. rep. takes the bull by the horns (or not, as the case may be).
CNN's amfix blog:
"A number of people,” (Moran) says, 'have come up, including colleagues, and said I’m fed up. I don’t want my three or four-year old grandkid asking me what erectile dysfunction is all about. And I don’t blame them.'
Enter H.R. 2175. That’s a bill that Rep. Moran introduced last month that would prohibit any ED ads from airing on broadcast radio and TV between 6AM and 10PM. The bill advises the Federal Communications Commission to treat these ads as 'indecent' and instruct stations to restrict their broadcast to late night and overnight hours."
"Including colleagues"? Which ones, I wonder? And why are they so concerned about having to explain droopy pee-pees? Hitting a little too close to home, congressman?
I say, sure, whatever. They're annoying anyway. But, if ED ads have to go, I want those tampon, pad and douche ads off the air, too. Now, they're indecent!
"A one-and-a-half-inch hole caused by corrosion allowed about 100,000 gallons of water to escape from the main system that keeps the reactor cool immediately after any shutdown, according to nuclear experts. The leak was discovered on Feb. 16, according to the plant’s owner, Entergy Nuclear Northeast, a subsidiary of the Entergy Corporation."
No one it seems has gotten around to actually digging up the 8-inch supply pipe in question, since it was buried in 1973, to see what kind of condition its condition is in. Not to worry, they have back up systems if the reactor should shut down, like it did on April 3.
But . . .
"Paul Blanch, an electrical engineer and nuclear safety expert who worked at Indian Point in 2001 and 2002, said that because neither pipe has been inspected, except for a short section that was replaced when the hole was located in February, 'they shouldn't’be operating right now.' He said the plant could be operating with a backup system that is ready to fail."
Oh, pooh, pooh. There's always the the local municipal water system in case of an emergency.
But . . .
"Plant operators dislike using such water because city tap water is not as clean as reactor water. And critics point out that the system is not safety-rated, meaning it is not certified to work in adverse conditions like blackouts and earthquakes and is not maintained as carefully."
That's nice to know. Our drinking water isn't up to the high standards of the nuclear industry.
There's a number of disturbing things about this story. One other is the fact that all these ancient nuke plants are rapidly aging in ways no one can anticipate. It's totally Terra incognita as the NRC decides on whether to reissue their operating licenses. And we want to build more of them?????
The NYT's C. J. Chivers, embedded with the Army's Company B of the First Battalion, 26th Infantry, in the Korangal Valley region of Afghanistan reports WP was issued in a recent ambush of Company B.
"Farther back, at Company B’s outpost, a pair of Air Force noncommissioned officers was directing aircraft into position, while two 120-millimeter mortars were firing high-explosive and white phosphorus rounds at targets the platoon had identified."
WP's use as an anti-personnel weapon is banned by the Geneva Conventions.
Further, the Army itself bans its use.
"The US Army Battle Book - Field Manual 100-3, published in 1999 by the US Army Command and General Staff College at Ft Leavenworth, KS <20>states in Section III (Fire Support) paragraph section 5-11 para b subpara iii that 'It is against the law of land warfare to employ WP against personnel targets.'"
"TEMECULA, Calif. – A gunman opened fire at a Korean Christian retreat center on Tuesday night, killing one and wounding three others, authorities said.
The gunman was believed to be among the injured at the Kkottongnae Retreat Camp, and investigators were unsure what prompted the attack, sheriff's spokesman Dennis Gutierrez said.
'We have some nuns that are very distraught,' Gutierrez said."
"Around the country, there is a shortage of ammunition used in many types of firearms. Some attribute the shortage to the election of President Obama, and fears his administration will usher in more restrictive gun laws. Johnny Dury, owner of Dury's Gun Shop in San Antonio, says the ammunition shortage began the day Obama got elected."
Dury says people at his store are buying a lifetime supply of ammo. This shortage brought on by the fear of a Obama crackdown on weapons, coupled with the military's demand for ammo for two wars, is depleting supplies of ammunition all over the country making it hard for the police to stay sufficiently supplied. Considering all the dead and wounded citizens and police officers piling up, I'd say this is a pretty scary development.
Dury says people feel that all this socialist talk of taking over the banks, taking over the oil companies, giving money to people who don't work hard, is making people feel they need to protect themselves. If criminals know people aren't armed that'll make it just that much easier for them.
Asked how business was today he replied, it's just a regular "post-Obama day."
You know that Hussein Obama, he's giving all our money away to the lazy people who don't want to work.
No need to worry about all those trigger happy right wing nuts with arsenals in their bedrooms waiting for the police to come knocking.
" . . . Military and private experts said Sunday after reviewing detailed tracking data that showed the missile and payload fell into the sea. Some said the failure undercut the North Korean campaign to come across as a fearsome adversary able hurl deadly warheads halfway around the globe . . . The United States Northern Command, based in Colorado Springs, issued a statement Sunday that portrayed the launching as a major failure. It based its information on a maze of federal radars, spy ships and satellites that monitor global missile firings."
Of course, it's a given that any news coming from the pentagon is just slightly more reliable than the BS that comes out of the DPRK, but I'd say the distinct lack of patriotic music coming from the heavens tends to back the report up.
I kind of had the feeling something like this might happen. The Dear Leader doesn't have a great track record with technical success. He seems to ascribe to the same faith-based approach to science that W & Co. did. I want it to work, therefore it will.
Experts quoted in the article say failure in the rocket business is almost just as useful as things going right. The early rockets Werner von Braun tested had a nasty habit of blowing on the pad and everywhere in between, as I recall. He certainly went on to great success bombing the daylights out of London and later showing the Russians we could land an ICBM right on top of the Kremlin (one small step for mankind, my ass!)Despite this natural crash and learn progression, I'm thinking the North Koreans won't have any more luck with future launches. They never learn and the ones who do learn are probably sent to re-education camps for all their trouble.
But who needs testing? The NYT says: "An influential 1998 report by Donald H. Rumsfeld before he became secretary of defense in the Bush administration argued that the North Korean rockets might be good enough to pose a threat to the United States even without flight testing."
Now, that's the kind of out of the box type of thinking the Dear Leader could use! Let's give Rummy a one way ticket to Pyongyang.
Gary Brecher writes for Alternet that aircraft carriers are sitting ducks. "The Chinese military has developed a ballistic missile, Dong Feng 21, specifically designed to kill U.S. aircraft carriers." He cites this sentence from a report by the U.S. Naval Institute:
"Because the missile employs a complex guidance system, low radar signature and a maneuverability that makes its flight path unpredictable, the odds that it can evade tracking systems to reach its target are increased. It is estimated that the missile can travel at Mach 10 and reach its maximum range of 2,000 kilometers in less than 12 minutes."
The article states also: "Ships currently have no defense against a ballistic missile attack"
Mark Gaffney wrote a few years back on the Russian version of a carrier killer the SS-N-22 Sunburn (which they've reportedly sold to the Iranians for possible use in the Persian Gulf against the 5th fleet).
Gaffney writes: "I was shocked when I learned the facts about these Russian-made cruise missiles . . . Although the Russian navy continues to rust in port, and the Russian army is in disarray, in certain key areas Russian technology is actually superior to our own. And nowhere is this truer than in the vital area of anti-ship cruise missile technology, where the Russians hold at least a ten-year lead over the US.
The Sunburn can deliver a 200-kiloton nuclear payload, or: a 750-pound conventional warhead, within a range of 100 miles, more than twice the range of the Exocet. The Sunburn combines a Mach 2.1 speed (two times the speed of sound) with a flight pattern that hugs the deck and includes 'violent end maneuvers' to elude enemy defenses. The missile was specifically designed to defeat the US Aegis radar defense system. Should a US Navy Phalanx point defense somehow manage to detect an incoming Sunburn missile, the system has only seconds to calculate a fire solution not enough time to take out the intruding missile. The US Phalanx defense employs a six-barreled gun that fires 3,000 depleted-uranium rounds a minute, but the gun must have precise coordinates to destroy an intruder 'just in time.'
The Sunburn's combined supersonic speed and payload size produce tremendous kinetic energy on impact, with devastating consequences for ship and crew. A single one of these missiles can sink a large warship, yet costs considerably less than a fighter jet. Although the Navy has been phasing out the older Phalanx defense system, its replacement, known as the Rolling Action Missile (RAM) has never been tested against the weapon it seems destined to one day face in combat.
So, I'm thinking that $11 billion the Navy is planning on spending for the USS Gerald Ford might be better spent elsewhere, like working on anti-ballistic missile system to defend all our surface ships, if that's even possible.
Brecher's analysis at Alternet, that the Navy's top brass is much like the financial whiz-kids at AIG and BOA, etc, is very apt. Despite Billy Mitchel's many warnings and practical examples of the fact that battleships had become obsolete in the face of air power, they chose to keep building them and focus instead on destroying Mitchel's career. Before Pearl Harbor, the Admirals always appropriated a big battleship from which to command the fleet. After Pearl Harbor, they decided taking their flag to an aircraft carrier was a better idea, and way more glamorous.
A modern, obtuse, case in point; Brecher interviewed Vice Admiral John Bird, commander of the 7th Fleet, who told him, "The purpose of the Navy is not to fight. The mere presence of the Navy should suffice," to keep everyone in line.
Yes, Vice-Admiral, and prices in the housing market can only go up!
Walter Pincus reports in the WaPo, alleged spy Steve Rosen led the charge against Freeman:
"Only a few Jewish organizations came out publicly against Freeman's appointment, but a handful of pro-Israeli bloggers and employees of other organizations worked behind the scenes to raise concerns with members of Congress, their staffs and the media . . .
Rosen's initial posting was the first of 17 he would write about Freeman over a 19-day period. Some of those added more original reporting, while some pointed to other blogs' finds about Freeman's record. In the process, Rosen traced increasing interest in the appointment elsewhere in the blogosphere, including coverage by Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic, Michael Goldfarb of the Weekly Standard, and Chait and Martin Peretz of the New Republic.
Steven Rosen is alleged to have spied on the US for Israel while working as the chief foreign policy lobbyist for AIPAC, yet here he is conducting a campaign against Freeman, the man the president himself wanted as his top adviser on national intelligence, through his blog.
What's wrong with this picture?
If any other person was accused of spying against the United States would they be free to sit at home to collude with the very organization that employed him to spy in an effort to influence the makeup of the leadership of the National Intelligence Council?
Whatever "dangerous" Arabist leanings Freeman might have brought to his job, they pail in comparison to the undo and destructive stranglehold the Israel lobby and the neocons have had over this country's foreign policy.
The Iraq war and the counterproductive "diplomacy" we employ against Iran are exhibits A and B of this.
My God, where's the outrage? And where are the politicians with the guts to call these traitors out?
As manufacturing jobs disappear, houses get foreclosed and union jobs go bye-bye, so goes the black middle class. Black union membership went from 31.7 percent in 1983 to 16 percent in 2006. (Blacks in unions make about $2 more than their non-unionized counterparts.)
The Buffalo News:
"The Buffalo metro area topped the list among 35 large American cities with a staggering black male jobless rate of 51.4 percent, according to figures cited by Professor Marc V. Levine of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Milwaukee finished a close second, at 51.1 percent, with Detroit third, St. Louis fourth and Chicago fifth . . .
Denver had the lowest black male jobless rate, 28.7 percent, followed by Washington with 29.5 percent and San Diego with 31.1.
In his study, Levine also compared the black and white jobless rates for each of the 35 metro areas. Milwaukee had a relatively low white jobless rate of 18.6 percent, meaning that the gap between its black and white jobless rates was 32.5 percentage points. (Yikes!)
Buffalo finished second in that category with a racial gap of 26.1 percentage points — the difference between its black jobless rate of 51.4 percent and its white jobless figure of 25.3."
(Gosh, DC only had an unemployment rate of 29.5 %, that's almost like full employment!)
The overall unemployment rate for blacks is 11.2.
These numbers are just staggering. Added to the loss of manufacturing jobs, which has been going on for a while now, the mortgage crisis really did a whammy on blacks, too.
The Bay State Banner:
"'This represents the greatest loss of wealth for people of color in modern U.S. history,' declared United for a Fair Economy, the Boston-based nonprofit organization that authored the report, 'Foreclosed: State of the Dream 2008.' As a result of defaults on subprime loans, black borrowers will lose between $71 billion and $92 billion, the report concluded, not including a ripple effect of consequences expected to exact an even higher toll.
(The Black depression of today may well foreshadow the depth and length of the recession the whole country entered in December 2007. A deep recession would see median family income decline by 4%. Thirty-three per cent of Blacks and 41% of Latinos would drop out of the middle class. The overall national rate would be 25%. http://www.faireconomy.org/files/pdf/state... )
'The spillover effect of the subprime crisis affects whole communities negatively, in terms of abandoned houses, increased crime, devaluation of neighboring houses and erosion of the tax base, causing revenue shortfalls that mandate service cuts,' according to the report . . .
(Jon Schmitt, senior economist at the Center for Economic Policy Research says) 'Next year, I don’t think there’s a single analyst who does not think we’ll go (to) 8 (percent) or 9 percent unemployment, and the pessimists even predict 10 percent,' he said. 'So given the fact that African American unemployment is usually twice that of whites, it could easily go to 16 percent or even up to 20 percent.'"
Just like in the Great Depression of the 1930's blacks suffer the brunt of the economic crisis. I don't see how we sustain any kind of livable society when 24% of Blacks and 21% of Latinos are living in poverty, versus 8% of whites. Talk about economic Apartheid!
And even if we get out of this recession, or depression, whatever it is, in a short time, the damage to the worst off will not be easily rectified. This is a long term problem that might be mitigated by the same sort massive bailouts the banks are getting right now, I'm thinking. Like that's going to happen, right?
(From what I've read he started calling himself "Bobby" at the age of four after watching a Brady Bunch episode.)
I woke up this morning to Juan Williams on NPR gushing about what a "rock star" Jindal was in Louisiana and how successful he's been etc. and how he's the GOP's answer to Obama because he's a person of color and I was, like, huh?
Who the hell is this guy? I mean, I've heard of him, but what's his deal?
What pricked up my ears was this quote from Meet The Press: "I think now is the time and it's a great opportunity for Republican governors and other leaders to offer conservative-based solutions to the problems."
And the one from the WH lawn: "Certainly, I think this could've been a very different stimulus bill written, truly targeted at infrastructure, focused on the kinds of tax credits that get investments moving in private sector." (I thought that's what the banks did.)
Yeah, because conservative-based solutions and the private sector have done such great jobs getting it right the past eight years.
Sounds like the same old crap to me, no? What's so new and interesting about this guy?
NPR reports:
"The first-term governor is a rising star in the national GOP who is increasingly popping up on talk shows and at events outside his state. That's leading to speculation that Jindal, 37, is being urged to run for the presidency."
Well, no shit! That's what he's been doing since he got elected as govenor. Six months into his term he was off meeting with John McCain to apply for the VEEP job and everyone in Louisiana has kind of noticed he's never around.
Get this: from Jeremy Alford of the Gambit:
"As an unprecedented $2 billion shortfall eats away at health care and higher education while state government braces for lockdown, Gov. Bobby Jindal has found a new way to address tough challenges: hitting the road. It's a sad day when, as Rome burns, the only thing you see of the emperor is his derriere as he hightails it out of town, but such is the case.
Consider his recent schedule:
Friday, Jan. 30 — Jindal spent the first part of his day at the Rapides Parish Courthouse discussing his legislative priorities for cracking down on sex offenders. While that's a worthy cause, the governor knows he doesn't need to beat this drum. Is anyone rising to the defense of sex offenders? Of course not. It's a PR move, a distraction.
Wednesday, Feb. 4 — In an effort to raise his national profile to help him not run for president, Jindal traveled to North Carolina for a campaign fundraiser 'in support of his gubernatorial re-election campaign.' The Shaw Group Inc., a Baton Rouge-based Fortune 500 company and frequent political player, served as host.
While Jindal was in another state, Louisiana officials unveiled plans to raid a special transportation fund to the tune of $750 million to help pay for a package of roads and bridges that voters approved more than 20 years ago.
Back on the trail of sex offenders, Jindal traveled to Monroe and Lafayette to tout his legislative priority."
And who is the Shaw group, BTW? Well, they gave him $18,000 the last time he ran for congress, for a start. They keep coming up every time Jindal is mentioned, some how.
Sourcewatch says:
"After Katrina hit, the Shaw group hired the former head of the Projects and Contracting Office in Baghdad, Charles Hess, who also had experience working at FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers.
As well, Shaw is one of several companies who won contracts from FEMA who are represented by former FEMA head, Joe Allbaugh. Other clients include Fluor Corporation and Kellogg Brown and Root.
Formed Shaw-Formiconi, CA (now known as Manufacturas Shaw South America, CA), a partnership with Formiconi CA to operate a fabrication facility in Venezuela. (they do business with Hugo Chavez! Ya Dios Mio!)
In 2004 Shaw created a joint venture, Shaw CENTCOM Services, LLC, with construction companies in Iraq, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia"
These guys are really well connected, I'd say. And they like Jindal!
Get this, too, the lowdown on one of their big shots:
"Jeffery S. Merrifield, vice-president of the company's power group, was on the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission two weeks before he joined the Shaw Group. In his last few months at the NRC, 'Merrifield vigorously championed several major policy initiatives that directly benefited his future employer,' including a change that reduced government and public oversight of new nuclear power plant construction, and changes to the approval process for new nuclear plant construction that scaled back public hearings and public comment periods."
I'd say if Jindal becomes president the nuclear power industry and KBR will get right back in the saddle.
Again, more of the same.
And he likes to rewrite history for the benefit of his energy friends:
Thingprogress pointed out this exchange on Faux Snooze regarding Katrina:
Jindal: "You know, that’s one of the great unwritten success stories, after Katrina and Rita, these awful storms, no major spills."
Jindal is clueless about the reality in his own state. As noted in the Wonk Room, the Hurricanes caused offshore oil spills so large that they could be seen from space. The Minerals Management Service reported that 113 oil platforms were 'totally destroyed' — a total of 124 offshore spills.
In fact, oil seeped onshore into southeast Louisiana, which saw 44 onshore and offshore oil spills. The EPA called the spills 'worse than the worst-case scenario.' Even oil industry representatives admitted: 'nature can always topple you.'
I'm sure there's a lot more dirt on this guy, but the intertubes are mainly full of stuff praising him. He's big into PR and he does a good job promoting himself and the media is kind of asleep at the wheel, so far, as usual.
Anyone got anything else on him (besides the excorism thing)? I'm thinking we should get the ball rolling before the media decides Obama is old news and Bobby is 'the new black' after tonight.
Seriously. How much do the Republicans hate our country?
The Mall has been a national disgrace for decades. As a percentage of the federal budget, $2 mil. is a drop in the bucket to make our National Mall look like something approaching the grandeur we supposedly ascribe to our nation's Capital (and, perhaps, giving some of the homeless vets living rough in DC some gainful employment, which they are always looking for)!
I understand the Republicans hate everything to do with the notion of federalism, therefore, the symbol of that federalism should be torn down at every turn, including making our cherished Mall look like an Appalachian trailer park, but the Democratic majority -- the Party the nation overwhelmingly elected into power -- shouldn't be squeamish about insisting on finally doing something about not making the show-piece of America look like a scene out of Logan's Run, for Christ's Sake!
The only thing missing at this point is a '49 Ford pickup sitting on cinder blocks in front of the Lincoln Monument!!!
The disconnect between the people we send to DC to do our business and the people that actually live in the city, is just stunning. Our glorious leaders never leave their limos (zipping back and forth around the federal district with motorcade protection) long enough to ever to go out and actually look at the crappy city that's crumbling around them.
Shame on them!
I guess, though, that initial House appropriation is off the table now, because it's so damn embarrassing. Condoms and grass, tax and spend liberals. Run and hide little liberals! Lush Bingbang has spoken!
"'We have 42 hunger strikers,' said Captain Pauline Storum, spokesperson for the facility, who said the figure includes 31 detainees being force-fed . . .
The feeding process is administered by registered nurses and is conducted in a humane manner focused on the care of the detainee, as well as protection of medical personnel and the guard force," she said.
'Practitioners use industry standard equipment and procedures -- the same that may be found in any civilian healthcare facility,' she said."
The NYT reported in 2006 the so-called "industry standard equipment" being employed is a restraint chair and the "procedures" include stuffing a hose down the hunger striker's nose. Fawzi al-Odeh, a Kuwaiti detainee, according to his lawyer "said he heard 'screams of pain' from a hunger striker in the next cell as a thick tube was inserted into his nose.
"Another lawyer, Joshua Colangelo-Bryan, said one of his three Bahraini clients, Jum'ah al-Dossari, told him about 10 days ago that more than half of a group of 34 long-term hunger strikers had abandoned their protest after being strapped in restraint chairs and having their feeding tubes inserted and removed so violently that some bled or fainted . . .
'He said that during these force feedings too much food was given deliberately, which caused diarrhea and in some cases caused detainees to defecate on themselves,' Mr. Colangelo-Bryan added."
In a telephone interview yesterday, the manufacturer of the so-called Emergency Restraint Chair, Tom Hogan, said his small Iowa company shipped five $1,150 chairs to Guantánamo on Dec. 5 and 20 additional chairs on Jan. 10, using a military postal address in Virginia. Mr. Hogan said the chairs were typically used in jails, prisons and psychiatric hospitals to deal with violent inmates or patients."
"'There is a moral question,' the assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, Dr. William Winkenwerder Jr., said in an interview. 'Do you allow a person to commit suicide? Or do you take steps to protect their health and preserve their life?'
Dr. Winkenwerder said that after a review of the policy on involuntary feeding last summer Pentagon officials came to the basic conclusion that it was ethical to stop the inmates from killing themselves. 'The objective in any circumstance is to protect and sustain a person's life," he said.'"
The good doctor ought to talk to a lawyer about that. The International Committee of the Red Cross says:
"The issue of force-feeding constitutes the link with situations of coercion and torture. As is well known, the World Medical Association (WMA) Declaration of Tokyo of 1975 prohibits any participation in torture, whether actively, passively or through use of medical knowledge, by a medical doctor. Article 5 of the Tokyo Declaration also stipulates that prisoners on hunger strikes shall not be force-fed, though few doctors know exactly why this clause is included. One common interpretation is that force-feeding is viewed as a form of torture . . .
In cases of real voluntary total fasting, usually by politically motivated prisoners or prisoners supporting a specific cause, be it ethnic, religious or otherwise, there may be a will to go all the way' and accept the physiological consequences of a prolonged fast.
In countries where prisoners’ rights are not fully respected or even completely disregarded, and where torture is practised; hunger strikes may be a last resort for prisoners wanting to protest against their situation."
I'd say for most of the detainees at Gitmo, after six years of detention without being charged with a crime, and having no hope of ever being released (never mind the penis slicing) they're pretty much out of options for protest beyond refusing to eat.
What I want to know is if the "Emergency Restraint Chair" is still in use, and if it is, what Obama is doing about stopping its use. If he condones this type of illegal brutal tactic for breaking a perfectly legitimate form of protest, then he's buying into BushCo's crimes and tarnishing his reputation just as badly.
"The Homeland Security Department is reversing itself, saying a new rule requiring high-level approval before federal agents nationwide could arrest fugitive immigrants was lifted weeks after the presidential election.
The unusual directive was originally imposed by the Bush administration days before the election of Barack Obama, whose aunt was living in the United States illegally. The rule expressed concerns about 'negative media or congressional interest.'"
So, BushCo was afraid deporting Obama's aunt before the election might have had a negative impact? Hmmm . . .
So, in theory, DHS can go after Luis Posada Carriles, the Cuban terrorist BushCo has been coddling in Miami since 2004? It seems Hugo Chavez thinks he might have a chance with Obama getting Posada back.
The Miami Herald:
"Foreign Minister Nicolás Maduro is preparing a document in a bid to awaken interest in Washington for the extradition request filed soon after Posada sneaked into the United States in 2005, said José Pertierra, an attorney who represents the Venezuelan government in the U.S. capital.
'The foreign minister in Venezuela is preparing something that we'll be submitting soon to the State Department,' Pertierra told The Miami Herald Thursday evening. 'Our request is still pending. We are going to be ratifying it and asking the Obama administration to follow up on the case. . .'
Posada, who turns 81 Feb. 15, had left his job in the Venezuelan intelligence agency known as DISIP when a bomb destroyed a Cubana de Aviación jetliner off Barbados in 1976, killing 73 passengers and crew members.
Posada was one of four key suspects arrested in the case. Vehemently denying the charges against him, Posada was tried in a military court and acquitted with the other suspects in 1980. Posada then escaped from prison while awaiting a new trial in a civilian court.
After figuring in the Iran-contra scandal in the mid-1980s, Posada settled in El Salvador and was implicated in the bombing of tourist sites in Cuba in the 1990s.
