tagged w/ News We Can Use
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Three times in recent years, the Arizona senator's lists of 'objectionable' pork spending have included earmarks requested by his new running mate.
By Tom Hamburger, Richard Simon and Janet Hook, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
September 3, 2008
WASILLA, ALASKA -- For much of his long career in Washington, John McCain has been throwing darts at the special spending system known as earmarking, through which powerful members of Congress can deliver federal cash for pet projects back home with little or no public scrutiny. He's even gone so far as to publish "pork lists" detailing these financial favors.
Three times in recent years, McCain's catalogs of "objectionable" spending have included earmarks for this small Alaska town, requested by its mayor at the time -- Sarah Palin.
Now, McCain, the likely Republican presidential nominee, has chosen Palin as his running mate, touting her as a reformer just like him.
McCain has made opposition to pork-barrel spending a central theme of his 2008 campaign. "Earmarking deprives federal agencies of scarce resources, at the whim of individual members of Congress," McCain has said.
But records show that Palin -- first as mayor of Wasilla and recently as governor of Alaska -- was far from shy about pursuing tens of millions in earmarks for her town, her region and her state.
This year, Palin, who has been governor for nearly 22 months, defended earmarking as a vital part of the legislative system. "The federal budget, in its various manifestations, is incredibly important to us, and congressional earmarks are one aspect of this relationship," she wrote in a newspaper column.
In 2001, McCain's list of spending that had been approved without the normal budget scrutiny included a $500,000 earmark for a public transportation project in Wasilla. The Arizona senator targeted $1 million in a 2002 spending bill for an emergency communications center in town -- one that local law enforcement has said is redundant and creates confusion.
McCain also criticized $450,000 set aside for an agricultural processing facility in Wasilla that was requested during Palin's tenure as mayor and cleared Congress soon after she left office in 2002. The funding was provided to help direct locally grown produce to schools, prisons and other government institutions, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan watchdog group.
Wasilla received $11.9 million in earmarks from 2000 to 2003. The results of this spending are very apparent today. (The town also benefited from $15 million in federal funds to promote regional rail transportation.)
The community transit center is a landmark: a one-story, tile-fronted building with a drive-through garage. Its fleet of 10 buses provides service throughout the region. Mat-Su Community Transit Agency officials say the building was made possible with a combination of federal money and matching gifts from a private foundation.
Palin, he said, was "disgusted" that small towns like hers were dependent on earmarks.
Public records paint a different picture:
Three times in recent years, the Arizona senator's lists of... more
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The Obama-Biden worldview with Eric Margolis, Phyllis Bennis and Paul Heinbecker. Part 3
Phyllis Bennis is a Senior Analyst at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington DC. She is the author of Before and After: US Foreign Policy and the September 11 Crisis and Challenging Empire: How People, Governments, and the UN Defy US Power. Her newest book Understanding the US-Iran Crisis: A Primer will be available in September 2008.
Eric Margolis is a journalist born in New York City and holding degrees from Georgetown the University of Geneva, and New York University. During the Vietnam War he served as a US Army infantryman. Margolis is the author of War at the Top of the World –- The Struggle for Afghanistan and Asia is a syndicated columnist and broadcaster whose articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The International Herald Tribune, Mainichi Shimbun and US Naval Institute Proceedings.
Paul Heinbecker joined the [[Department of External Affairs (Canada)|Department of External Affairs]] immediately after graduation, and received postings abroad in [[Ankara]], [[Stockholm]], and [[Paris]]. From 1989 to 1992, Heinbecker served as Chief Foreign Policy Advisor and speechwriter for [[Prime Minister of Canada|Prime Minister]] [[Brian Mulroney]], and as Assistant Secretary to the Cabinet for Foreign and Defence Policy. In 1992, he was appointed ambassador to [[Germany]]. In the late 1990s, he organized the task force on the Kosovo conflict, and served as head of the Canadian delegation to the Climate Change Convention in [[Kyoto]]. In 2000, Heinbecker was appointed as Ambassador to the United Nations. There he was a strong proponent of the [[International Criminal Court]] and argued for compromise in the lead-in to the [[2003 Invasion of Iraq|2003 attack on Iraq]].
See Part 1 at: http://current.com/items/89245887_the_obama_biden_worldview
See Part 2 at: http://current.com/items/89255141_will_obama_binden_question_military_dominance
See Part 4 at: http://current.com/items/89262719_obama_biden_and_iraqThe Obama-Biden worldview with Eric Margolis, Phyllis Bennis and Paul Heinbecker. Part... more
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Admiral Fallon has admitted that he was under pressure because of the public positions he had taken on Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
In an interview with the New York Times, Admiral William J. Fallon said that he had felt the pressure building for several months before his departure. He had, after all, taken public positions favoring diplomacy over force in Iran, troop withdrawals from Iraq that were greater than officially planned and more high-level attention to Afghanistan.
Former US Middle East commander Fallon announced his sudden resignation in March after an Esquire magazine article described him as the only man standing in US President George Bush's way, not allowing him to wage war against Iran.
“I wanted us to get focused on Iraq and Afghanistan at a high level, not just rubber-stamping every request, or whatever that was coming out of Baghdad,” he said during the interview.
He also said that he favored dialogue and patience, not war, with Iran, and that the US Navy could provide a way to begin the process.
“In the conduct of daily business, we routinely have excellent communications with the Iranian Navy,” he said.
“When the conditions are right, it might be a reasonable way of interaction, to build on existing maritime communications.”Admiral Fallon has admitted that he was under pressure because of the public positions... more
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If Karl Rove can spin on Fox News for cash, he can and should testify under oath for free. We didn't pay his salary while he worked for George W. to spin, we paid for honesty and all we got was spin. It's time he is required to testify 'under oath' and tell the truth!
A House Judiciary Committee deadline passed Monday with former White House adviser Karl Rove standing by his refusal to testify about allegations that he pushed the Justice Department to prosecute former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman.
In his latest offer to settle the matter, Rove sent the panel a letter offering to respond to questions in writing, according to his attorney. But he reiterated that he would not testify publicly and under oath.
Committee leaders did not immediately answer questions about how they will respond. Earlier this month, they threatened to subpoena Rove if he did not agree to appear voluntarily by Monday.
The dispute is the latest in a standoff between President Bush and Congress over testimony from current and former White House staffers on a variety of issues.
The White House has balked at requests for staff testimony, arguing that the administration has no obligation to respond to congressional demands for the details of internal deliberations.
Democrats say Bush is taking the most expansive view of executive privilege since Watergate and that the executive branch cannot ignore Congress' demands for information. The panel is suing to get documents and testimony from former White House counsel Harriet Miers and Bush's chief of staff, Josh Bolten.
Rove had previously offered to discuss the Siegelman matter with committee members privately, without a transcript and not under oath.
Judiciary Democrats balked, saying it would not create a clear record and would not be sworn.
Rove's attorney, Robert Luskin, said Monday the latest offer for written responses was intended to address concerns about establishing a clear record.
The committee is investigating whether Rove and Republican appointees at the Justice Department influenced Siegelman's prosecution to kill his chances for re-election. It is part of a broader inquiry into whether U.S. attorneys were fired for not aggressively pursuing cases against Democrats.
Siegelman, a Democrat who served one term as governor after being elected in 1998, was convicted in 2006 on bribery and other charges and sentenced to more than seven years in prison. He was recently released on bond pending appeal.
Monday was the last day for former Bush advisor Karl Rove to agree to voluntarily testify about the prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman. MSNBC's Dan Abrams talked with Don Siegelman to talk about a case that some say is politically motivated.
If Karl Rove can spin on Fox News for cash, he can and should testify under oath for... more
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by: David Adam
The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has reached a record high, according to new figures that renew fears that climate change could begin to slide out of control.
Scientists at the Mauna Loa observatory in Hawaii say that CO2 levels in the atmosphere now stand at 387 parts per million (ppm), up almost 40% since the industrial revolution and the highest for at least the last 650,000 years.
The figures, published by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on its website, also confirm that carbon dioxide, the chief greenhouse gas, is accumulating in the atmosphere faster than expected. The annual mean growth rate for 2007 was 2.14ppm – the fourth year in the past six to see an annual rise greater than 2ppm. From 1970 to 2000, the concentration rose by about 1.5ppm each year, but since 2000 the annual rise has leapt to an average 2.1ppm.
Scientists say the shift could indicate that the Earth is losing its natural ability to soak up billions of tons of carbon each year. Climate models assume that about half our future emissions will be re-absorbed by forests and oceans, but the new figures confirm this may be too optimistic. If more of our carbon pollution stays in the atmosphere, it means emissions will have to be cut by more than currently projected to prevent dangerous levels of global warming.
Martin Parry, co-chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's working group on impacts, said: "Despite all the talk, the situation is getting worse. Levels of greenhouse gases continue to rise in the atmosphere and the rate of that rise is accelerating. We are already seeing the impacts of climate change and the scale of those impacts will also accelerate, until we decide to do something about it."
Martin Parry will be speaking at the Guardian Planning for Climate Adaptation conference on May 19
by: David Adam
The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has reached a... more
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It's time for mainstream media to report these types of facts. If bribery is exposed and accountability brought back to the forefront in America, maybe others would be afraid to do it for fear of being prosecuted and shamed out of business. KBR is a former subsidiary of Halliburton because Halliburton doesn't want their name tainted. But, if the bribes happened while they were part of Halliburton, Halliburton should be held accountable for letting it happen.
US authorities say they have evidence that an agent used by Halliburton’s former subsidiary KBR did issue bribes to Nigerian officials in connection with a Shell project in that country, according to a filing made by Halliburton to the US Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) at the end of last month.
The SEC launched a formal investigation into the matter, which dates back to the 1980s, last year after a March 2007 Halliburton government filing disclosed it.
The more recent filing stated that Halliburton and KBR suspended their agent in Nigeria and another agent who had worked for KBR on “several current projects and on numerous older projects going back to the early 1980s”.
KBR has since spun off from Halliburton, but the investigations cover a period when KBR was still a Halliburton subsidiary, and Dick Cheney – now US Vice President – was at the helm.
The US investigation relating to the Shell project – the EA field – is part of a larger probe into the “TSKJ” consortium, consisting of KBR and its partners.
The investigation alleges the partners agreed to pay more than $170 million in bribes to win billions of dollars of construction work on a giant Nigerian gas liquefaction plant also operated by Shell, according to the Financial Times.
The latest Halliburton filing says investigators have confirmed they have evidence that TSKJ agents also bribed Nigerian officials.
It's time for mainstream media to report these types of facts. If bribery is... more
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Friday, May 02, 2008 by: Barbara L. Minton
(NaturalNews) The nation’s food supply may soon be under significant threat as the result of a Bush administration decision to move its research on one of the most contagious animal diseases from an isolated island laboratory to the U.S. mainland, placing it near herds of livestock.
According to an April 11th Associated Press article by Larry Margasak, concerns about a catastrophic outbreak of hoof and mouth disease have prompted Congressional Democrats to demand internal documents they believe highlight the risks and consequences of this decision. An epidemic of this dreaded disease could devastate the livestock industry.
Lawmakers have already received one such report from the Homeland Security Department, which combines commercial satellite images and federal farm data to reveal the proximity to livestock herds of the five locations under consideration for the new lab. The numbers of livestock in the counties and surrounding areas of the locations under consideration range from 132,900 at the site near Atlanta, Georgia, to 542,507 at the site near Manhattan, Kansas.
Research on diseases that can be transferred from animals to humans will be included at this new laboratory, the National Bio-and-Agro-Defense Facility. The rationale for the new laboratory is that the current facility, in Plum Island, does not have the security in place for this higher-level usage. The Department of Agriculture ran the Plum Island lab until 2003, when it was turned over to the Homeland Security Department because preventing an outbreak has become part of the nation’s biological defense program. Other locations being considered are Butner, N.C.; San Antonio, Tx; and Flora, Miss.
Although rarely a threat to humans, hoof-and-mouth virus is deadly to animals. It can be transported on workers breath, clothes, or vehicles when they leave the lab. It is so contagious that it has been confined to Plum, Island, New York for over 50 years where it is far from commercial livestock. The current location, 100 miles northeast of New York City in the Long Island Sound, is accessible only by ferry or helicopter.
Plum Island researchers work on detection of disease, epidemic control strategies, vaccines and drugs, tests of imported animals, and training of professionals. Researchers who work with the live virus are not permitted to own susceptible animals at their homes, and they are required to wait at least a week before attending outside events where such animals might be encountered, such as circuses or rodeos.
According to the article, a simulated outbreak of the disease was part of a 2002 government exercise called Crimson Sky. “It ended with fictional riots in the streets after the simulation’s National Guardsmen were ordered to kill tens of millions of farm animals, so many that troops ran out of bullets.” The government said it would have been forced to dig a ditch 25 miles long in Kansas to bury the carcasses.
Friday, May 02, 2008 by: Barbara L. Minton
(NaturalNews) The nation’s food... more
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Blackwater is the private security,and American government's mercenary group that was found guilty of humanitarian crimes that included the unprovoked murders of a countless number of unarmed Iraqi civilians.They had been kicked out of Iraq. Their stories were told on 60 Minutes and other mainstream media outlets in this country.What's not being told is that,not only have they been sent back to patrol the streets of Iraq, but that the right-wing,fundamental Christian sponsored, mercenary group is now being unleashed in the city streets of America.
It apparently didn't bother Americans that much when that were using Iraqi civilians as target practice to sharping their killing skills.What will Americans say when they find out that these,"found guilty" mercenaries are being sent our cities to patrol the streets,by this,"shadow government,that most Americans claim does not really exist.Our congressman or senators of this government say that ,they themselves, have no knowledge as to who does control and monitor Blackwater.So who does oversee these so-called private security groups like Blackwater,and since they have immunity from prosecution,who do they answer to.
Since2001,the Bush administration has funded Blackwater with than one billion dollars for private contracts throughout the world,while over one hundred billion dollars are awarded to in military defense contracts to private security companies every year,around the world.The average salary for a Blackwater secuity agent is around twelve hundred dollars a day.That's six times more than the salary that the American soldiers are being paid to fight the same war. In addition to this,the new Iraqi constituttion that the American government help the Iraqis write, no longer has the authority to expell Blackwater and other private security firms from their own country.
Must See Video
http://bravenewfilms.org/blog/12964-blackwater-banned-in-iraq
Blackwater is the private security,and American government's mercenary group... more
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Of course we won't hear about the Tax Policy Center's tax analysis, we will hear schoolyard politics, pundits spinning the message of the day. He said, she said? Mainstream media loves the crash and burn politics more than informational coverage of 'news we can use'.
by, Jared Bernstein - huffingtonpost.com
I hold in my hand one of the most important pieces of paper in America: Table T08-0071, an analysis of candidate John McCain's tax plan.
OK, it's not really in my hand because I'm typing, but I'm looking at it carefully, and you should too. It is a table constructed by the Tax Policy Center's steely-eyed tax analysts, and it reveals nothing less than McCain's secret plan to diminish the US government beyond recognition. If he gets his way, conservatives will finally be able to say they've achieved the goal set out by Grover Norquist: to get government "down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub."
The numbers in the table show the revenue loss to the Federal government from McCain's proposed tax cuts. In the far right corner is the 10-year total: -$5.7 trillion.
People deride the Republican candidate as "McSame," implying a continuation of Bushonomics as well as the president's foreign policy. But from the perspective of domestic policy, it's much worse. Sure, McCain extends the Bush tax cuts but that's the least of it. At $1.7 trillion they amount to less than a third of the damage.
Note also that the big ticket tax cuts-eliminating the alternative minimum tax and lowering the corporate tax-both follow on another Bush tradition of exacerbating market-driven (i.e., pre-tax) inequalities by cutting high-end taxes the most.
As I stresshere , McCain's plans to pay for these tax cuts amount to filling a crater with a teaspoon of sand. Earmarks won't get you there, so he'll have to go after discretionary spending. In fact, he's already suggesting a freeze in such spending, excluding defense, of course. Sound inoffensive until you consider that we're talking about kids' health care, education, child care, training for displaced workers, environmental and labor protections, and dozens more programs that lots of people actually need and care about.
Plus, he can't fill the hole he's dug with cuts in these programs either, which leads you to the inevitable punch line of all this: his target is the entitlements, Social Security and Medicare. Those programs have always been the big enchiladas for the Norquist shock troops and they've never recovered from their Social Security privatization defeat. Well, they're back, incognito.
Of course we won't hear about the Tax Policy Center's tax analysis, we will... more
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